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Secondary treated wastewater, a commonly used water resource in agriculture in (semi-)arid areas, often contains salts, sodium, and organic matter which may affect soil structure and hydraulic properties. The main objective of this study was to jointly analyse the effects of long-term irrigation with treated wastewater on physicochemical soil characteristics, soil structure, and soil water dynamics...
Land-use change is widespread throughout the tropics where large areas of natural forests being converted to secondary forests and tree plantations. In order to search for appropriate forest management, it is necessary to evaluate litter production, its temporal variation, and nutrient return of these ecosystems. In this study therefore, we investigated litterfall production, standing litter and litter...
The recognition of treated wastewater (TWW) as an alternative water resource is expanding in areas with a shortage of freshwater (FW). While many studies have been devoted to the effects of long-term irrigation with TWW on soil wettability and spatial flow variations in the soil profile, much less attention has been given to the spatial distribution of soil water repellency in the soil surface layer...
Microcosm experiments were conducted to examine the effects of micro-molar hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on soil nitrification in three scenarios: (a) without added fresh biomass and magnetite, (b) with added fresh biomass, and (c) with added magnetite. The results show that nitrification of the added ammonium was impeded in the presence of H2O2 at a concentration range of 20–50 μM probably as a result...
The thermal regime of permafrost in the rugged topography on parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) remains ambiguous, due to general inaccessibility and inconvenient investigations with geophysical prospecting. While the relatively easy implementations of monitoring ground surface temperature (GST) may facilitate the investigations of permafrost thermal state. Here, surface freezing and thawing...
The capacity of soils to store organic carbon represents a key function of soils that is not only decisive for climate regulation but also affects other soil functions. Recent efforts to assess the impact of land management on soil functionality proposed that an indicator- or proxy-based approach is a promising alternative to quantify soil functions compared to time- and cost-intensive measurements,...
Imperata grassland soils are widely perceived as having poor physical and chemical properties that render them unproductive and prone to erosion. They are therefore increasingly targeted for reforestation across the tropics. To better understand how reforestation and forest growth affect soil hydrological processes we compared the soil physical characteristics for an Imperata grassland and a 23-year-old...
Mediterranean forests will experience more frequent and intense drought periods and extreme rainfall events in the coming decades. Concomitantly, drought-induced forest die-off is likely to increase. Changes in rainfall patterns and forest die-off directly influence soil microbial communities and activity and, consequently, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) turnover, but their interactive effects have not...
Pedogenic processes imprint their signature on soils over the course of thousands to millions of years in most soil systems. Variation in soil forming processes – such as parent material weathering, organic material additions, hydrologic processes, and atmospheric additions – account for the distribution and sourcing of cations in ecosystems, and hence exert a strong influence on ecosystem productivity...
Soil erosion controlled by the wind effect on the surface, has been largely studied by field in-situ measurements as well as laboratory or numerical simulations. Nevertheless, more in-situ measurements and observations are needed to document this phenomenon for various desert areas. In the present study, we focus on the documentation of different properties of a wide range of semi-arid and arid soils...
Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and nitrogen deposition are predicted to increase fresh carbon (C) inputs in soils because of higher net primary productivity. However, relationship between soil C cycling and increased inputs of fresh C in soils is not clear. Moreover, most of the studies on soil organic carbon (SOC) focus on upper 20 cm although >50% SOC is present below this depth. We...
Carbon (C) storage in soils contributes to the strength and stability of total ecosystem C sinks, but both aboveground and belowground C is vulnerable to loss during fire. The distribution of soil C and nitrogen (N) among various defined pools – e.g., active, slow and resistant C, and ammonium and nitrate as forms of inorganic N – determines the C storage capacity of forests and the nutrient availability...
Nondestructive and rapid estimation of soil total nitrogen (TN) content by using near-infrared spectroscopy plays a crucial role in agriculture. The obtained original spectrum, however, presents several disadvantages, such as high redundancy, large computation, and complex model, because it generally processes a large amount of data. This study aimed to determine soil TN content-sensitive wavebands...
Sorption can limit biodegradation of low-molecular-weight organic acids (LMWOAs), while this validity needs to be accessed in volcanic soils rich in short range order (SRO) Al/Fe minerals and organic matter. We tested whether both sorption and microbial mineralization of LMWOAs are controlled by the amounts of SRO minerals and organo-Al/Fe complex in volcanic soils. We analyzed the soil solution concentrations,...
Use of natural tracers (in particular, δ13C and δ15N, total carbon and nitrogen) for discriminating and apportioning soil sources of eroded sediment has increased. Some critical issues, however, including the variability of such tracers over time and space, merit further investigation. This study used a 25 m grid in a 1.78 ha hydrologically-isolated permanent pasture field in SW England to assess...
To investigate how soil properties affect throughfall and stemflow, we conducted a study in a forest of central Italy over a full hydrologic year to compare the chemical composition and the water fluxes of the throughfall and stemflow generated by Turkey oaks (Quercus cerris L.). The study was achieved on two adjacent areas that showed the same topography, supported Turkey oaks of the same height...
Understanding of the fate of phytolith in soils is important because of its role as an agronomical nutrient resource and for carbon sequestration. Accumulation of phytolith derived silica occurs in paddy soils when phytolith input, here through straw incorporation, is higher than silica removal through crop offtake, dissolution and leaching. Phytolith dissolution is thought to be the main reason for...
Introduced here is a newly discovered, hard, high‑carbon, macroscopically homogenous, solid lignomor that is part of the natural decomposition product of mature, rainforest hardwood trees of the species myrtle beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii (Hook. f.) Øerst.). The substance, named cunnite, exhibits conchoidal fracture (indicating isotropic bonding), whereas all other tree decomposition products noted...
Biochar has been considered a stable additive for long-term soil carbon (C) storage and climate change mitigation. However, our understanding of the long-term interactions between aged biochar, soil organic C (SOC), and fresh low molecular weight C compounds (LMW-C) is still limited. In addition to the changes in the chemical properties of biochar and the SOC after aging, biochar stability and C sequestration...
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