Study Of Soil Properties Research Articles

STUDIES OF OILCONTAMINATED SOILS AND FORWARDLOOKING APPROACHES TO THEIR REMEDIATION

Milestones in the study of oilcontaminated soils at the Faculty of Soil Science for 50 years of its foundation are discussed from the prospects for the development of environmental regulation and new technologies of soil reclamation. The development of a methodological framework for the determination of oil and petroleum hydrocarbons in soils, studies of soil properties, the chemistry of oil and its components in soil and adjacent media are shown. The development of legislation on the rationing of petroleum hydrocarbons in soils is given, including the important role of the staff of Faculty of Soil Science of Moscow State University in the work out of a number of regional standards for the permissible residual content of petroleum hydrocarbons in soils is noted. The approaches to ecological rationing of oil and petroleum hydrocarbons in soils are proposed, in the aspects of natural climatic zones and the type of landuse. The importance of improving the regulatory and methodological framework and continuing work in this direction is emphasized. The necessity of research at developing technologies for reclamation of oilcontaminated lands and special use of oilcontaminated waste is indicated.

Color indicators as parameters for predicting the content of organic carbon in soils

The study of chemical, physical and biological properties of soil is important for theoretical and practical soil science. The study of soil properties, in particular the determination of organic carbon content, requires a lot of time and money. Effective measurement of soil organic carbon is necessary to manage the functioning of ecosystems. Organic carbon has an important effect on soil properties and also plays a key role in mitigating the effects of climate change, as carbon dioxide (CO2) can be removed from the atmosphere and stored in the soil, thereby reducing the warming effect. Soil color is one of the key soil characteristics that can be quickly analyzed and is closely related to a number of other physical and chemical soil parameters. According to the researches of domestic and foreign scientists, soils are the main storage place for soil carbon, which plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. With technological progress and the development of imaging systems, image-based soil characterization methods have attracted considerable attention from the global soil science community. Unlike soil spectroscopy, imaging devices such as digital cameras or phone cameras are readily available. Traditionally, soil color is quantified using Munsell’s color system, which requires subjective visual comparison, but recently foreign scientists have begun to use RGB, CMYK, HSB color schemes, the definition of which is available in almost all computer graphics editors. With the increase in the use of smartphones and the gradual improvement of the quality of photo images, the use of smartphone photos to predict organic carbon content shows great potential for development. Unlike face recognition and other recognition methods that mainly rely on object profiles, color is one of the most important factors in determining the accuracy of organic carbon prediction. Different hardware configurations and hardware software settings may cause differences in photo colors.

Insights into the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Soil Attributes in Irrigated Farm Fields and Correlations with Management Practices: A Multivariate Statistical Approach

The evaluation of the spatial and temporal variability of soil properties can be valuable to improve crop productivity and soil health. A study of soil properties was carried out in southern Portugal, in three farm fields with irrigated annual crops (layers 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm), over three years. Factor Analysis (FA) and Discriminant Analysis (DA) were used to analyze the data. With FA, the observed variables were grouped into a smaller number of latent variables related to soil attributes. Discriminant Analysis was used to classify and identify the most dominant attributes and indicators for the time and space variability of soil parameters. The FA performed for the surface layer included factors related to texture, water and nutrient retention capacity, chemical composition, and soil fertility. In the sub-surface layer, the factor structure was similar, with four factors related to texture, chemical composition, nutrient availability, and soil fertility. The most influential factors and variables in temporal discrimination (sampling dates) in both layers were those related to chemical composition, with electric conductivity as the preponderant indicator. As for the spatial differentiation (fields), the dominant factor in the surface layer was texture, and in the sub-surface layer, nutrient availability. The most important discriminant indicators of spatial variability were fine sand proportion and available potassium, respectively, for the surface and sub-surface layers. The results obtained showed potential for the multidimensional and integrated assessment of patterns of temporal and spatial variation of soil functions from agricultural practices or soil degradation processes.

Sulfur Contamination and Environmental Effects: A Case Study of Current SO2 Industrial Emission by Biomonitoring and Regional Post-mining hot-spots

The presence of sulfur in the environment is an important macroelement for plant growth but becomes harmful in excessive amounts. The previous century saw rising levels of high SO2 concentrations (stemming from fossil fuel combustion) and wet deposition from acid rain, causing the intensification of forest die-back. Air pollution can be controlled or measured by biomonitoring. Despite recent reductions in SO2 emissions, urban and industrial areas are still at risk from high sulfur contamination. Open-cast lignite and sulfur borehole mining play a pivotal role in the regional scale of ecosystem contamination and acid mine drainage. Consequently, these aspects are unique for assessing the impact of extreme S contamination on soil properties changes, the vegetation effect, and biogeochemical cycles. We presented i) current SO2 pollution based on S concentration in pine needles, and ii) a comprehensive study of soil properties, as well as plant reactions to excessive sulfur concentration in the restored forest ecosystem of a former sulfur mine.

Earthen mounds in the Głubczyce Forest (SW Poland) – are they prehistoric long-barrows? Geoarchaeology of the Silesian soil record and human-environment interplay in the Holocene

Abstract Two earthen mounds, trapezoid in shape, oriented along the W-E/NW-SE axis and located in prominent landscape positions, were recently discovered in the Głubczyce Forest in the loess area of the Głubczyce Plateau (SW Poland). Their resemblance to long-barrows of the Funnel Beaker culture, as yet unknown in this part of Silesia prompted low-invasive research, involving ALS data analysis, magnetic prospection and a study of soil properties. The objective was to determine if these are indeed anthropogenic structures and if so, how and when were they built. The results indicate: 1) a transformation from chernozemic (Phaeozem) to clay-illuvial soil (Luvisol/Retisol) in the Głubczyce Forest area. Similar processes were identified in neighbouring Central European loess regions and linked with prehistoric climate/vegetation changes (the spread of dense, beech-dominant forests). Human management of the landscape (involving sustained deforestation), enabled the patchy preservation of chernozemic soils until the present-day, 2) both mounds are anthropogenic features, built on a Phaeozem using chernozemic soil. Their construction occurred before the soil transformation, i.e. most likely in prehistory. The development of the Głubczyce Forest may have taken place during the Migration period – a time of settlement decline in Silesia, and 3) the Głubczyce Forest bears further traces of anthropogenic activity: ancient agriculture (field systems), funerary practices, forest management and WWII combat.

Rational use of floodplain ecosystems of the North

The purpose of the study is the spatial analysis of the factors of floodplain ecosystems and the calculation of rational use, through the calculation of technical and economic indicators and the calculation of the economic efficiency of haymaking. The assessment of the economic efficiency of the forage base was obtained based on the study of the grass stand and productivity of hayfields in five key areas of the Ob River floodplain, the study of soil properties, their qualitative characteristics necessary for understanding the soil fertility of floodplain ecosystems, on which land productivity depends. The spatial analysis of the rational use of the floodplain ecosystems of the Ob River was made in a semi-automatic way by decoding the Bing satellite image (the SAS Planet mapping and navigation program) in the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin module in the QGIS geographic information system, the cartographic material was edited in the MapInfo Professional geographic information system.

Properties and genesis of soils in the Balagansk forest-steppe of Central Siberia and their ecological and resource potential

The aim of the study. To study the properties and genesis of natural soils of forest-steppe areas of Balagansk steppe. Location and time. The environs of Balagansk settlement in the Balagansky district of Irkutsk region, 2013-2018. Methodology. Combined field and laboratory studies of soil cover and soil properties using soil-morphological, pedo-lithological, climatostratigraphic, botanical, geological-geomorphological and comparative geographical methods, as well as various physical and chemical analyses. Main results. The study of soil properties of the Balagansk’ forest-steppe and assessment of their classification position revealed the basic regularities of geographical distribution of soils. In steppe areas of the studied region clay-illuvial and textural-carbonate chernozems were formed. The forest vegetation favoured the developed of residual-carbonate gray, dark gray, gray and dark gray metamorphic and burozemic soils; the floodplain areas are predominantly occupied by gley soils and dark-humus gleic soils. Conclusion. The study of soil and vegetation cover of the Balagansk’ forest-steppe showed that soils were developed on the eluvium-deluvium of carbonate Cambrian red-colored siltstones and loess cover and have sufficiently high natural fertility and ecological and resource potential. The soils of the investigated area are characterized by a large variety and complex polygenetic structure of the soil profile, which reflects the change of soil formation’ conditions during Holocene-Pleistocene.

THE SOIL AS A NATURAL BODY AND THE ENVIRONMENT FOR PLANTS HABITAT

The necessity of the doctrine for the soil as a plants habitat environment revival, which appeared in the early stages of the agriculture development, is substanti-ated. The conditions which ensure sustainable growth and high productivity of various crops were determined. First of all, we studied the specificities which determine the ability of soil to provide plants with nutrients and moisture, largely due to the composition and structure (topography) of the soil-forming rocks, their texture (due to the different mineral composition of different size particles) and therefore largely determines soil fertility. The main credo of this scientific approach is the study of soil properties in relation to plant life (P. A. Kostychev). V.V. Dokuchaev determined soils as a special natural body, which requires corresponding approach to their study, regardless of the vegetation, which cover the soil surface. Emerging on these principles, a new direction of soil science, which later obtained the name of genetic, concentrating on the study of the soil itself, moved away from the demands of agricultural produc-tion, entering into the category of academic sciences. The principles and achievements of the ecological school of forest typology, which studies soils from the position of the unity of both directions, are characterized on the basis of N.М. Sibirtsev suggestions which were described in his classification of 1895. This allowed researchers to bring into a strict system the whole diversity of forests from different natural zones, and made it possible to predict their composition and productivity. At the same time, the number and ratio of three limiting ecological resources: heat, moisture, and food — which determine the composition and productivity of vegetation and the productivity of soils — prevail in the classification. This made it possible to characterize the main regulations of the relationship between living and inorganic nature, which V.V. Dokuchaev called the essence, the core of natural science. The soil science otains the opportunity to enter on the position of the basic theoretical base of agriculture. These principles exist in the community of US soil scientists for a long time. Developing global classification constructions (approximations), American soil scientists distinguish the main taxa (soil series) at the local agricultural level by primary rocks, taking into account their availability of food, moisture, and sometimes heat.

Soil types, soil properties and spatial distribution in management unit “Doroslovacke forests”

This paper analyzes the spatial distribution of different soil types and soil systematic units in MU ?Doroslovacke sume?. The most common soil type is chernozem, primarily of calcalourus type. Research has shown that the soil types secondary in prevalance are calcalourus gleyed and brownized, which is a finding that significantly differs from the previously available data. Calcalourus variety of chernozem, which is characterized by its automorphic genesis and high content of CaCO3, is a drier site type and therefore offers less favourable conditions for cultivation of tree species. The analysys of spacial distribution was followed by study of soil properties.

METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN SIMULATION OF THE AGRO-ECOSYSTEMS

Simulation models describe the functioning of agro-ecosystems and the flow of processes in them using computer programs. With their help can be made computer experiments and to predict the behavior of agro-ecosystems. One of the main problems in the creation of simulation models is imitation of uncontrollable soil and weather factors. A number of studies of soil properties and meteorological characteristics indicate that these stochastic variables do not follow the normal (Gaussian) distribution. In the selection of statistical models that approximate the distribution of such stochastic variables, the most appropriate is a family of Johnson distributions. The article examines ways to generate pseudorandom numbers from Johnson and Burr distributions families for simulating soil and weather factors determining agro-ecosystems.

Session report: physical modelling studies of soil properties and soil behaviour

This paper reviews the application of physical modelling to problems related to soil properties and soil behaviours. The problems discussed included soil characterisation techniques, spatial variability, soil arching, soil ageing, dynamic soil behaviour and unsaturated soils.

Small variations of soil properties control fire-induced water repellency .

Fire induced soil water repellency (WR) is controlled by many different factors (temperature reached, amount and type of fuel, etc.). Soil properties may determine the occurrence and intensity of this property in burned soils. The objectives of this paper are to make advances in the study of soil properties as key factors controlling the behaviour of fire-induced WR, and to study the impact of pre-fire SOM content and SOM quality in fire-induced soil WR. In this research, experimental laboratory burnings were carried out using soil samples from different sites with different lithologies, soil types and plant species. Soil samples taken from the same site differ only in quantity and quality of soil organic matter, as they were collected from under different plant species. All soil samples were heated in a muffle furnace at 200, 250, 300 and 350 ºC without the addition of any fuel load. WR was measured using the water drop penetration time test (WDPT). The results showed significant differences between soil types and plant species, indicating that small differences in soil properties may act as key factors controlling the development and persistence of WR reached, with burned soil samples ranging from wettable to extremely water repellent. The main soil property controlling the response was texture, specifically sand content. The quality of organic matter was also observed to have an effect, since soil samples from the same site with similar organic matter contents, but taken from beneath different plant species, showed different WR values after burning.

Soil–vegetation interaction on slopes with bush encroachment in the central Alps – adapting slope stability measurements to shifting process domains

AbstractIn the European Alps many high mountain grasslands which were traditionally used for summer pasturing and haying have been abandoned during recent decades. Abandonment of mown or grazed grasslands causes a shift in vegetation composition and thus a change in landscape ecology and geomorphology. Alpine areas are very fragile ecosystems and are highly sensitive to changing environmental conditions, which can affect the geomorphic regime of these high energy environments. The effect of land use intensification on erosion rates is well documented, whereas the effect of land abandonment on erosion rates is still discussed controversially, particularly in relation to its short‐term and long‐term consequences. Generally, an established perennial vegetation cover improves the mechanical anchoring of the soil and the regulation of the soil water budget, including run‐off generation and erosion. However, changing vegetation composition affects many other above‐ and below‐ground properties like root density, diversity and geometry, soil structure, pore volume and acidity. Each combination of these properties can lead to a distinct scenario of dominating surface processes. The study of soil properties along a chronosequence of green alder (alnus viridis) encroachment on the Unteralptal in central Switzerland revealed that shrub encroachment changes soil and vegetation properties towards an increase of resistance to run‐off related erosion processes, but a decrease of slope stability against shallow landslides. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Developing Pedotransfer Functions for Estimating Field Capacity and Permanent Wilting Point Using Fuzzy Table Look-up Scheme

Study of soil properties like field capacity (F.C) and permanent wilting point (P.W.P) plays important roles in study of soil moisture retention curve. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) provide an alternative by estimating soil parameters from more readily available soil data. In this study, a new approach is proposed as a modification to a standard fuzzy modeling method based on the table look-up scheme. 70 soil samples were collected from different horizons of 15 soil profiles located in the Ziaran region, Qazvin province, Iran. Then, fuzzy table look-up scheme was employed to develop pedotransfer functions for predicting F.C and P.W.P using easily measurable characteristics of clay, silt, O.C, S.P, B.D and CaCO3. In order to evaluate the models, root mean square error (RMSE) and R2 were used. The value of RMSE and R2 derived by fuzzy table look-up scheme for F.C and P.W.P were (1.65, 0.87) and (1.03, 0.83), respectively.

Caracterização do solo de cobertura de aterros encerrados com ferramentas (geo)estatísticas

Inúmeros trabalhos abordam a elaboração de estratégias amostrais e a aplicação de ferramentas (geo)estatísticas no estudo de atributos do solo. Entretanto, são escassos os trabalhos envolvendo a aplicação desta abordagem no monitoramento de solos construídos sobre aterros encerrados de resíduos sólidos urbanos. Este estudo mostra que a densidade amostral necessária para tornar possível o uso da geoestatística em tais casos, elevaria os custos operacionais. A melhor alternativa é a utilização dos métodos de estatística multivariada (análise de componentes principais e de agrupamento) para definição de zonas homogêneas de manejo. Os atributos que melhor explicam a estrutura da variabilidade do solo construído são o teor de areia (ou argila), a saturação por bases e o pH, todos relacionados com a contaminação do solo com chorume e o adequado desenvolvimento da vegetação.

Comparative study of soil properties under various cultivation regimes of different crops

Establishment of cover crops is an effective way to reverse the soil fertility decline, which can be caused by a range of inappropriate traditional agriculture practices, particularly tillage and inorganic fertiliser application. In this study, soil properties were assessed under various cultivation regimes of different crops, including legumes, grass, and nursery natural rubber (NR) trees (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.), in southern Vietnam. The crops studied had all been growing for 7 years commencing in 1999, on light-textured Acrisols. Soils under the cultivation regime of creeping legumes including Calopogonium caeruleum, Pueraria phaseoloides, and Stylosanthes gracilis had significantly higher carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations and porosity than soils under the other management types studied. Soils under Brachiaria ruziziensis and P. phaseoloides had the highest aggregate stability. Cultivation regimes with tillage, field traffic, and inorganic fertilisers applied to nursery NR trees increased phosphorus (P) availability, but this was accompanied by increased soil compaction and reductions in most of the other soil properties analysed. Relative to the nursery NR cultivation, creeping-legume cultivation increased soil C concentration (by 95%), soil pHH2O (by 19%), macro-aggregates (by 29%), and porosity (by 8%). From principal component analysis, three soil properties—soil organic carbon (SOC), porosity, and P availability—were selected as key indicators suitable for the evaluation of the effects of cultivation on soils. Establishment of C. caeruleum and B. ruziziensis was most effective in improving soil C content, and soil porosity was significantly higher under C. caeruleum and P. phaseoloides. These findings suggest that each cover crop had its own dominant agro-characteristics and that selection of a cover crop to either improve soil fertility or reduce compaction should be considered by farmers in this region.

Geostatistical methods to identify and map spatial variations of soil salinity

The problem of estimating and predicting spatial distribution of a spatial stochastic process, observed at irregular locations in space, is considered in this paper. Environmental variables usually show spatial dependencies among observations, with lead one to use geostatistical methods to model the spatial distributions of those observations. This is particularly important in the study of soil properties and their spatial variability. In this study geostatistical techniques were used to describe the spatial dependence and to quantify the scale and intensity of spatial variations of soil properties, which provide the essential spatial information for local estimation. In this contribution, we propose a spatial Gaussian linear mixed model that involves (a) a non-parametric term for accounting deterministic trend due to exogenous variables and (b) a parametric component for defining the purely spatial random variation due possibly to latent spatial processes. We focus here on the analysis of the relationship between soil electrical conductivity and Na content to identify spatial variations of soil salinity. This analysis can be useful for agricultural and environmental land management.

Introduction of James K. Mitchell, Recipient of the 2004 H. Bolton Seed Medal

The H. Bolton Seed Medal recognizes outstanding contributions to teaching, research, and/or practice in geotechnical engineering. The award was established in 1993 by the Geotechnical Engineering Division now the Geo-Institute of the Society in memory of Professor H. Bolton Seed, Hon.M.ASCE. The 2004 H. Bolton Seed Medal was awarded to Dr. James K. Mitchell, P.E., of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr. Mitchell is a University Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at Virginia Tech. Dr. Mitchell was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on April 19, 1930. He went on to receive his Bachelor’s of Civil Engineering degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1951, his Master’s of Science degree at MIT in 1953, and his Ph.D. degree at MIT in 1956. He worked as a soils engineer for the Waterways Experiment Station in 1955 and then spent 1956–1958 as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1958 he joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley, rising through the ranks to eventually become the Cahill Professor of Civil Engineering and finally Cahill Professor Emeritus in 1993. He then left Berkeley and joined the faculty at Virginia Tech in 1994. He retired from Virginia Tech in 1999 as University Distinguished Professor, Emeritus. Dr. Mitchell’s research activities have focused on experimental and analytical studies of soil properties and behavior, admixture stabilization of soils, soil improvement and ground reinforcement, in-situ measurement of soil properties, and mitigation of ground failure risk during earthquakes. He has supervised the Ph.D. dissertation research of 74 students, and has authored more than 350 publications, including the book Fundamentals of Soil Behavior, which has been published in its third edition. During the 1960s and early 1970s Dr. Mitchell served as the principal investigator for the Soil Mechanics Experiment that was

The Use of Sequential Extraction Procedures for the Characterization and Management of Contaminated Soils

Metal mobility and availability in solid samples, such as soils, sediments and sludges, is frequently studied with sequential extraction procedures, which allow to partition the total metal content into classes of different reactivity. From the experimental point of view, each extraction step requires many practical operations, which can represent sources of error if they are not properly executed. The first part of the paper gives indication on how to perform sequential extractions, from sample pretreatment to extract analysis, in order to reduce experimental errors. The second part describes the main applications of sequential extraction schemes for the characterization and management of contaminated soils: the assessment of the risks associated to metal pollution, the evaluation of the feasibility and efficiency of remediation techniques, the study of soil properties and of metal behaviour and plant availability.

Spatial variability of wheat yield, soil properties and erosion in hummocky terrain

The spatial distribution of soil properties, erosion and crop yield was studied along a cultivated transect and an adjacent transect in virgin grassland. The mapping unit was in hummocky moraine in the Dark Brown soil zone of central Saskatchewan. Erosion was affected by an interaction between elevation and surface curvature which affected the spatial and statistical distribution of soil properties and yield in the landscape. For the cultivated transect, percent sand was higher on knolls than in depressions, furthermore several soil properties were nonlinearly related to elevation. Decreases in grain yield on convex or planar lower slopes were correlated with erosion and high carbonate contents. Carbonate concentrations were high in lower slope positions in the cultivated transect, particularly at a relative elevation of 1 m, and appeared to be an important soil property influencing yield. Future studies of soil properties and yield on hillslopes may require careful evaluation of both elevation and microtopography in order to elucidate the effects of erosion. Key words: Erosion, yield, spatial variability, topography