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Inadequacy of spatial soil information is one of the limiting factors to making evidence-based decisions to improve food security and land management in the developing countries. Various digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques have been applied in many parts of the world to improve availability and usability of soil data, but less has been done in Africa, particularly in Tanzania and at the scale necessary...
Existing sample data are important for digital soil mapping. Different sample points possess different representativeness. The representativeness of samples influences the soil mapping result greatly. However, few study focus on assessing the representativeness of single sample. In this paper, we proposed a method to identify representative samples from existing samples collected from multiple resources...
We have imaged the particles of Brazilian soils at multiple length scales, from a few microns to millimeters, and soil particle size distributions were calculated with unmatched precision. The analysis included the Amazonian soil “Terra Mulata de Índio” (TMI), an anthropogenic soil (Anthrosol) with sustained fertility and a large amount of stabilized organic matter. Firstly, the soils were imaged...
The knowledge of the soil variability is essential for its hydrologic characterization, for irrigation management and planning and especially for water movement modeling. Nevertheless, the scarcity of soil information in Spain precludes its use in irrigation management and, particularly, in the on-going irrigation modernization process. The Violada Irrigation District (VID) comprises 5234ha and is...
The recent modernization of 1.1Mha of irrigated land in Spain calls for the evaluation of these transformations in terms of environmental impact and resource use efficiency. The available data for this evaluation has increased with the transformation (better, digital and spatially distributed data) allowing for the use of distributed soil water and solute movement models. But most hydrological models...
Economic incentives to offset carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with deforestation and other human activities affecting forest ecosystems depend on robust estimates of changes in forest carbon (C) stocks. Such stocks are difficult to assess in heterogeneous landscapes where the soil properties and the forest structure and functionality vary in space and time. Here we show that geopedological...
Knowledge on pore functionality is important for the management of soils in the environment. The present study considered the hypothesis that Bt horizons with cohesive character have a different porous network regarding its functionality because, among other aspects, their pores are preferentially oriented in the horizontal direction. This study aimed to evaluate pore functionality in cohesive and...
Traditionally, soil temperatures at various depths were measured daily at agricultural research stations around the world. Short-term fluctuations are damped at depth, acting as a natural low pass filter on soil surface temperature time series. In the last 20years, a number of northern hemisphere soil temperature data sets have been analysed for long term trends, but our analysis at four sites in...
Measuring soil surface changes at field scale can be an important tool to analyse sediment connectivity and may contribute to a better understanding of processes causing soil detachment and transport. Recent technological and algorithmic developments in high resolution topography measurement techniques enable to capture field plots with high spatial resolution and at varying temporal frequencies using...
Soil hydraulic properties of drained and cultivated fen soils vary considerably due to structural and physical alteration in the long-term. Although hydrological modelling is a key method to determine soil water conditions for a large number of aims, for instance the utilization of fen soils, general estimators of water retention that reflect the progressive nature of fen soil alteration are rare...
A number of studies have been conducted on the genesis of soils from volcanic deposits in semi- humid and humid climates. However, there has been little study of the mineralogical properties and genesis of soils from volcanic rocks in arid and semi-arid climates. This study was conducted to understand the genesis of soils from different volcanic parent materials, such as andesite, dacite, volcanic...
The aim of this study was to determine the in-situ strength and microscopic characteristics of bio-physical micro-horizons in the top 40mm of oversanded sand soils detected by depth dependent penetration resistance (PR). These micro-horizons result from the burial of biological soils crust (BSC) surfaces and contribute to soil stability. They are also important as the biotic source for seeding new...
Continuous rice-wheat (RW) rotation with conventional agronomic practices has resulted in declining factor productivity and degrading soil resources. A farmer's participatory research trial was conducted in Karnal, India to evaluate 8 combinations of cropping systems, tillage, crop establishment method and residue management effects on key soil physico-chemical and biological properties. Treatments...
Laboratory studies have shown that priming effects, caused by inputs of carbon into the rhizosphere, can change the rate of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition and could have significant impacts on soil carbon cycling. However, there have been few studies in field conditions because of experimental constraints but field data are needed to improve models that forecast the effects of climate change...
Grass pasture rundown results from a depleted store of soil mineral nitrogen (N) over time. In these systems, mineral N is retained in the standing plant biomass, and /or immobilized in the soil organic matter. Leucaena leucocephala spp. glabrata is a leguminous shrub which is incorporated into grazing systems to provide a high protein fodder for beef cattle production. Leucaena can also enhance the...
Digital soil mapping (DSM) can predict the spatial distribution of soil classes. In the present study, DSM was investigated to predicted soil classes in a flood plain. Taxonomic classes including soil great groups, subgroups, and families were modeled using Random forest (RF) technique and covariate sets for an area of ~60,000ha in Sistan Region, eastern Iran. 108 soil profiles were excavated in the...
Little is known about how Fe-Mn nodules vary in relation to pedogenetic horizons in soils derived from loess. In this investigation nodules were collected according to soil genetic horizons from a Fragiudalf in loess at Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center (SEPAC) in Indiana and physical, chemical, micro- and macromorphological features of nodules and their soil matrix were determined as a function...
Soils deliver the regulating ecosystem services of water infiltration and distribution, which can be controlled by macropores. Parameterizing macropore hydraulic properties is challenging due to the lack of direct measurement methods. With tension-disc infiltrometry hydraulic properties near saturation can be measured. Differentiating between hydrologically active and non-active pores, at a given...
Grassland soils have been highlighted as a global soil carbon (C) sink, and have the potential to sequester additional C. Sequestration of C can occur through incorporation of soil organic carbon (SOC) within microaggregates and the silt and clay fractions. The distribution of SOC within macroaggregate fractions gives an insight into both SOC dynamics and its incorporation into the soil. Research...
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