Inference of soil hydrologic parameters from electronic soil moisture records

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Soil moisture is an important control on hydrologic function, as it governs vertical fluxes from and to the atmosphere, groundwater recharge, and lateral fluxes through the soil. Historically, the traditional model parameters of saturation, field capacity, and permanent wilting point have been deter...

Petrophysical Effects during karstification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mai, Franziska; Kirsch, Reinhard; Rücker, Carsten; Börner, Frank

2017-04-01

Sinkholes are depression or collapse structures caused by dissolution in the subsurface or subrosion processes and occur in a vast variety of geological settings. They pose a considerable threat to people's safety and can cause severe economic loss, especially in highly populated areas. Commonly, sinkholes are linked to anomalies in groundwater flow and to the heterogeneities in the soluble sediment. To develop an early recognition system of sinkhole instability, unrest and collapse it is necessary to obtain a better understanding of sinkhole generation. With this intent the joint project "SIMULTAN" studies sinkholes applying a combination of structural, geophysical, petrophysical, and hydrological mapping methods, accompanied by sensor development, and multi-scale monitoring. Studying the solution process of gypsum and limestone as well as the accompanying processes and their relation to hydrologic mechanisms from a petrophysical point of view is essential to understand geophysically detected anomalies related to sinkholes. The focus lies on measurements of the complex, frequency dependent electrical conductivity, the self potential and the travel time of elastic waves. First, systematic laboratory measurements of the complex electrical conductivity were conducted on samples consisting of unconsolidated sand. The fully saturated samples differed in the ionic composition of their pore water (e.g. calcium sulfate and/or sodium chloride). The results indicate that it is possible to detect effects of higher gypsum concentration in the ground- or pore-water using electrical conductivity. This includes both the karstificable sediments as well as the adjacent, non-soluble sediments like e.g. clean sand or shaly sand. To monitor karstification and subrosion processes on a field scale, a stationary measuring system was installed in Münsterdorf, Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, an area highly at risk of sinkhole development. The complex electrical conductivity is

Soil transport parameters of potassium under a tropical saline soil condition using STANMOD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzanye da Silva Santos, Rafaelly; Honorio de Miranda, Jarbas; Previatello da Silva, Livia

2015-04-01

Environmental responsibility and concerning about the final destination of solutes in soil, so more studies allow a better understanding about the solutes behaviour in soil. Potassium is a macronutrient that is required in high concentrations, been an extremely important nutrient for all agricultural crops. It plays essential roles in physiological processes vital for plant growth, from protein synthesis to maintenance of plant water balance, and is available to plants dissolved in soil water while exchangeable K is loosely held on the exchange sites on the surface of clay particles. K will tend to be adsorbed onto the surface of negatively charged soil particles. Potassium uptake is vital for plant growth but in saline soils sodium competes with potassium for uptake across the plasma membrane of plant cells. This can result in high Na+:K+ ratios that reduce plant growth and eventually become toxic. This study aimed to obtain soil transport parameters of potassium in saline soil, such as: pore water velocity in soil (v), retardation factor (R), dispersivity (λ) and dispersion coefficient (D), in a disturbed sandy soil with different concentrations of potassium chlorate solution (KCl), which is one of the most common form of potassium fertilizer. The experiment was carried out using soil samples collected in a depth of 0 to 20 cm, applying potassium chlorate solution containing 28.6, 100, 200 and 500 mg L-1 of K. To obtain transport parameters, the data were adjusted with the software STANMOD. At low concentrations, interaction between potassium and soil occur more efficiently. It was observed that only the breakthrough curve prepared with solution of 500 mg L-1 reached the applied concentration, and the solution of 28.6 mg L-1 overestimated the parameters values. The STANMOD proved to be efficient in obtaining potassium transport parameters; KCl solution to be applied should be greater than 500 mg L-1; solutions with low concentrations tend to overestimate

Identification of optimal soil hydraulic functions and parameters for predicting soil moisture

EPA Science Inventory

We examined the accuracy of several commonly used soil hydraulic functions and associated parameters for predicting observed soil moisture data. We used six combined methods formed by three commonly used soil hydraulic functions – i.e., Brooks and Corey (1964) (BC), Campbell (19...

Use of petrophysical data for siting of deep geological repository of radioactive waste

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrenko, Liliana; Shestopalov, Vyacheslav

2017-11-01

The paper is devoted to analyzing the petrophysical properties and petrographical characteristics of Volyn region with the view to choosing the least permeable and so the most suitable geological formation for the radioactive waste disposal. On a basis of the petrophysical estimations of the granitoids properties the argumentation of permeability has been developed for the petrotypes of Volyn region. Also method of classification of the petrotypes with their relative rate of suitability for radioactive waste disposal was developed. As a result of studying the perspectives were shown of the zhytomyr and korosten types of the granitoids as host rock for the radioactive waste disposal. According to the results of investigations performed by Swedish researchers a comparative analysis of rocks based on the age of formation, composition, structural features and some petrophysical properties of granitoids as host rocks for repository of radioactive waste was performed. Detail comparison the data of the granitoids of the Forsmark site in Sweden and the data of the granitoids of the Volyn megablock can be one of the next steps in researching the host rocks for the development of the RW disposal system in Ukraine.

Micro- and macro-scale petrophysical characterization of potential reservoir units from the Northern Israel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haruzi, Peleg; Halisch, Matthias; Katsman, Regina; Waldmann, Nicolas

2016-04-01

Lower Cretaceous sandstone serves as hydrocarbon reservoir in some places over the world, and potentially in Hatira formation in the Golan Heights, northern Israel. The purpose of the current research is to characterize the petrophysical properties of these sandstone units. The study is carried out by two alternative methods: using conventional macroscopic lab measurements, and using CT-scanning, image processing and subsequent fluid mechanics simulations at a microscale, followed by upscaling to the conventional macroscopic rock parameters (porosity and permeability). Comparison between the upscaled and measured in the lab properties will be conducted. The best way to upscale the microscopic rock characteristics will be analyzed based the models suggested in the literature. Proper characterization of the potential reservoir will provide necessary analytical parameters for the future experimenting and modeling of the macroscopic fluid flow behavior in the Lower Cretaceous sandstone.

Studying Petrophysical and Geomechanical Properties of Utica Point-Pleasant Shale and its Variations Across the Northern Appalachian Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raziperchikolaee, S.; Kelley, M. E.; Burchwell, A.

2017-12-01

Understanding petrophysical and geomechanical parameters of shale formations and their variations across the basin are necessary to optimize the design of a hydraulic fracturing program aimed at enhancing long term oil/gas production from unconventional wells. Dipole sonic logging data (compressional-wave and shear-wave slowness) from multiple wells across the study area, coupled with formation bulk density log data, were used to calculate dynamic elastic parameters, including shear modulus, bulk modulus, Poisson's ratio, and Young's modulus for the shale formations. The individual-well data were aggregated into a single histogram for each parameter to gain an understanding of the variation in the properties (including brittleness) of the Utica Point-Pleasant formations across the entire study area. A crossplot of the compressional velocity and bulk density and a crossplot between the compressional velocity, the shear velocity, and depth of the measurement were used for a high level petrophysical characterization of the Utica Point-Pleasant. Detailed interpretation of drilling induced fractures recorded in image logs, and an analysis of shear wave anisotropy using multi-receiver sonic logs were also performed. Orientation of drilling induced fractures was measured to determine the maximum horizontal stress azimuth. Also, an analysis of shear wave anisotropy to predict stress anisotropy around the wellbore was performed to determine the direction of maximum horizontal stress. Our study shows how the detailed interpretation of borehole breakouts, drilling induced fractures, and sonic wave data can be used to reduce uncertainty and produce a better hydraulic fracturing design in the Utica Point Pleasant formations across the northern Appalachian Basin region of Ohio.

Applying a probabilistic seismic-petrophysical inversion and two different rock-physics models for reservoir characterization in offshore Nile Delta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aleardi, Mattia

2018-01-01

We apply a two-step probabilistic seismic-petrophysical inversion for the characterization of a clastic, gas-saturated, reservoir located in offshore Nile Delta. In particular, we discuss and compare the results obtained when two different rock-physics models (RPMs) are employed in the inversion. The first RPM is an empirical, linear model directly derived from the available well log data by means of an optimization procedure. The second RPM is a theoretical, non-linear model based on the Hertz-Mindlin contact theory. The first step of the inversion procedure is a Bayesian linearized amplitude versus angle (AVA) inversion in which the elastic properties, and the associated uncertainties, are inferred from pre-stack seismic data. The estimated elastic properties constitute the input to the second step that is a probabilistic petrophysical inversion in which we account for the noise contaminating the recorded seismic data and the uncertainties affecting both the derived rock-physics models and the estimated elastic parameters. In particular, a Gaussian mixture a-priori distribution is used to properly take into account the facies-dependent behavior of petrophysical properties, related to the different fluid and rock properties of the different litho-fluid classes. In the synthetic and in the field data tests, the very minor differences between the results obtained by employing the two RPMs, and the good match between the estimated properties and well log information, confirm the applicability of the inversion approach and the suitability of the two different RPMs for reservoir characterization in the investigated area.

Petrophysical evaluation of the hydrocarbon potential of the Lower Cretaceous Kharita clastics, North Qarun oil field, Western Desert, Egypt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teama, Mostafa A.; Nabawy, Bassem S.

2016-09-01

Based on the available well log data of six wells chosen in the North Qarun oil field in the Western Desert of Egypt, the petrophysical evaluation for the Lower Cretaceous Kharita Formation was accomplished. The lithology of Kharita Formation was analyzed using the neutron porosity-density and the neutron porosity-gamma ray crossplots as well as the litho-saturation plot. The petrophysical parameters, include shale volume, effective porosity, water saturation and hydrocarbon pore volume, were determined and traced laterally in the studied field through the iso-parametric maps. The lithology crossplots of the studied wells show that the sandstone is the main lithology of the Kharita Formation intercalated with some calcareous shale. The cutoff values of shale volume, porosity and water saturation for the productive hydrocarbon pay zones are defined to be 40%, 10% and 50%, respectively, which were determined, based on the applied crossplots approach and their limits. The iso-parametric contour maps for the average reservoir parameters; such as net-pay thickness, average porosity, shale volume, water saturation and the hydrocarbon pore volume were illustrated. From the present study, it is found that the Kharita Formation in the North Qarun oil field has promising reservoir characteristics, particularly in the northwestern part of the study area, which is considered as a prospective area for oil accumulation.

Integrated petrophysical and reservoir characterization workflow to enhance permeability and water saturation prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Amri, Meshal; Mahmoud, Mohamed; Elkatatny, Salaheldin; Al-Yousef, Hasan; Al-Ghamdi, Tariq

2017-07-01

Accurate estimation of permeability is essential in reservoir characterization and in determining fluid flow in porous media which greatly assists optimize the production of a field. Some of the permeability prediction techniques such as Porosity-Permeability transforms and recently artificial intelligence and neural networks are encouraging but still show moderate to good match to core data. This could be due to limitation to homogenous media while the knowledge about geology and heterogeneity is indirectly related or absent. The use of geological information from core description as in Lithofacies which includes digenetic information show a link to permeability when categorized into rock types exposed to similar depositional environment. The objective of this paper is to develop a robust combined workflow integrating geology and petrophysics and wireline logs in an extremely heterogeneous carbonate reservoir to accurately predict permeability. Permeability prediction is carried out using pattern recognition algorithm called multi-resolution graph-based clustering (MRGC). We will bench mark the prediction results with hard data from core and well test analysis. As a result, we showed how much better improvements are achieved in the permeability prediction when geology is integrated within the analysis. Finally, we use the predicted permeability as an input parameter in J-function and correct for uncertainties in saturation calculation produced by wireline logs using the classical Archie equation. Eventually, high level of confidence in hydrocarbon volumes estimation is reached when robust permeability and saturation height functions are estimated in presence of important geological details that are petrophysically meaningful.

Uncertainty in dual permeability model parameters for structured soils.

PubMed

Arora, B; Mohanty, B P; McGuire, J T

2012-01-01

Successful application of dual permeability models (DPM) to predict contaminant transport is contingent upon measured or inversely estimated soil hydraulic and solute transport parameters. The difficulty in unique identification of parameters for the additional macropore- and matrix-macropore interface regions, and knowledge about requisite experimental data for DPM has not been resolved to date. Therefore, this study quantifies uncertainty in dual permeability model parameters of experimental soil columns with different macropore distributions (single macropore, and low- and high-density multiple macropores). Uncertainty evaluation is conducted using adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (AMCMC) and conventional Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithms while assuming 10 out of 17 parameters to be uncertain or random. Results indicate that AMCMC resolves parameter correlations and exhibits fast convergence for all DPM parameters while MH displays large posterior correlations for various parameters. This study demonstrates that the choice of parameter sampling algorithms is paramount in obtaining unique DPM parameters when information on covariance structure is lacking, or else additional information on parameter correlations must be supplied to resolve the problem of equifinality of DPM parameters. This study also highlights the placement and significance of matrix-macropore interface in flow experiments of soil columns with different macropore densities. Histograms for certain soil hydraulic parameters display tri-modal characteristics implying that macropores are drained first followed by the interface region and then by pores of the matrix domain in drainage experiments. Results indicate that hydraulic properties and behavior of the matrix-macropore interface is not only a function of saturated hydraulic conductivity of the macroporematrix interface ( K sa ) and macropore tortuosity ( l f ) but also of other parameters of the matrix and macropore domains.

Uncertainty in dual permeability model parameters for structured soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arora, B.; Mohanty, B. P.; McGuire, J. T.

2012-01-01

Successful application of dual permeability models (DPM) to predict contaminant transport is contingent upon measured or inversely estimated soil hydraulic and solute transport parameters. The difficulty in unique identification of parameters for the additional macropore- and matrix-macropore interface regions, and knowledge about requisite experimental data for DPM has not been resolved to date. Therefore, this study quantifies uncertainty in dual permeability model parameters of experimental soil columns with different macropore distributions (single macropore, and low- and high-density multiple macropores). Uncertainty evaluation is conducted using adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (AMCMC) and conventional Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithms while assuming 10 out of 17 parameters to be uncertain or random. Results indicate that AMCMC resolves parameter correlations and exhibits fast convergence for all DPM parameters while MH displays large posterior correlations for various parameters. This study demonstrates that the choice of parameter sampling algorithms is paramount in obtaining unique DPM parameters when information on covariance structure is lacking, or else additional information on parameter correlations must be supplied to resolve the problem of equifinality of DPM parameters. This study also highlights the placement and significance of matrix-macropore interface in flow experiments of soil columns with different macropore densities. Histograms for certain soil hydraulic parameters display tri-modal characteristics implying that macropores are drained first followed by the interface region and then by pores of the matrix domain in drainage experiments. Results indicate that hydraulic properties and behavior of the matrix-macropore interface is not only a function of saturated hydraulic conductivity of the macroporematrix interface (Ksa) and macropore tortuosity (lf) but also of other parameters of the matrix and macropore domains.

[Development of an analyzing system for soil parameters based on NIR spectroscopy].

PubMed

Zheng, Li-Hua; Li, Min-Zan; Sun, Hong

2009-10-01

A rapid estimation system for soil parameters based on spectral analysis was developed by using object-oriented (OO) technology. A class of SOIL was designed. The instance of the SOIL class is the object of the soil samples with the particular type, specific physical properties and spectral characteristics. Through extracting the effective information from the modeling spectral data of soil object, a map model was established between the soil parameters and its spectral data, while it was possible to save the mapping model parameters in the database of the model. When forecasting the content of any soil parameter, the corresponding prediction model of this parameter can be selected with the same soil type and the similar soil physical properties of objects. And after the object of target soil samples was carried into the prediction model and processed by the system, the accurate forecasting content of the target soil samples could be obtained. The system includes modules such as file operations, spectra pretreatment, sample analysis, calibrating and validating, and samples content forecasting. The system was designed to run out of equipment. The parameters and spectral data files (*.xls) of the known soil samples can be input into the system. Due to various data pretreatment being selected according to the concrete conditions, the results of predicting content will appear in the terminal and the forecasting model can be stored in the model database. The system reads the predicting models and their parameters are saved in the model database from the module interface, and then the data of the tested samples are transferred into the selected model. Finally the content of soil parameters can be predicted by the developed system. The system was programmed with Visual C++6.0 and Matlab 7.0. And the Access XP was used to create and manage the model database.

Estimating soil hydraulic parameters from transient flow experiments in a centrifuge using parameter optimization technique

USGS Publications Warehouse

Šimůnek, Jirka; Nimmo, John R.

2005-01-01

A modified version of the Hydrus software package that can directly or inversely simulate water flow in a transient centrifugal field is presented. The inverse solver for parameter estimation of the soil hydraulic parameters is then applied to multirotation transient flow experiments in a centrifuge. Using time‐variable water contents measured at a sequence of several rotation speeds, soil hydraulic properties were successfully estimated by numerical inversion of transient experiments. The inverse method was then evaluated by comparing estimated soil hydraulic properties with those determined independently using an equilibrium analysis. The optimized soil hydraulic properties compared well with those determined using equilibrium analysis and steady state experiment. Multirotation experiments in a centrifuge not only offer significant time savings by accelerating time but also provide significantly more information for the parameter estimation procedure compared to multistep outflow experiments in a gravitational field.

Improving the relationship between soil characteristics and metal bioavailability by using reactive fractions of soil parameters in calcareous soils.

PubMed

de Santiago-Martín, Ana; van Oort, Folkert; González, Concepción; Quintana, José R; Lafuente, Antonio L; Lamy, Isabelle

2015-01-01

The contribution of the nature instead of the total content of soil parameters relevant to metal bioavailability in lettuce was tested using a series of low-polluted Mediterranean agricultural calcareous soils offering natural gradients in the content and composition of carbonate, organic, and oxide fractions. Two datasets were compared by canonical ordination based on redundancy analysis: total concentrations (TC dataset) of main soil parameters (constituents, phases, or elements) involved in metal retention and bioavailability; and chemically defined reactive fractions of these parameters (RF dataset). The metal bioavailability patterns were satisfactorily explained only when the RF dataset was used, and the results showed that the proportion of crystalline Fe oxides, dissolved organic C, diethylene-triamine-pentaacetic acid (DTPA)-extractable Cu and Zn, and a labile organic pool accounted for 76% of the variance. In addition, 2 multipollution scenarios by metal spiking were tested that showed better relationships with the RF dataset than with the TC dataset (up to 17% more) and new reactive fractions involved. For Mediterranean calcareous soils, the use of reactive pools of soil parameters rather than their total contents improved the relationships between soil constituents and metal bioavailability. Such pool determinations should be systematically included in studies dealing with bioavailability or risk assessment. © 2014 SETAC.

Optical Methods for Identifying Hard Clay Core Samples During Petrophysical Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morev, A. V.; Solovyeva, A. V.; Morev, V. A.

2018-01-01

X-ray phase analysis of the general mineralogical composition of core samples from one of the West Siberian fields was performed. Electronic absorption spectra of the clay core samples with an added indicator were studied. The speed and availability of applying the two methods in petrophysical laboratories during sample preparation for standard and special studies were estimated.

Petrophysical rock properties of the Bazhenov Formation of the South-Eastern part of Kaymysovsky Vault (Tomsk Region)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gorshkov, A. M.; Kudryashova, L. K.; Lee-Van-Khe, O. S.

2016-09-01

The article presents the results of studying petrophysical rock properties of the Bazhenov Formation of the South-Eastern part of Kaymysovsky Vault with the Gas Research Institute (GRI) method. The authors have constructed dependence charts for bulk and grain density, open porosity and matrix permeability vs. depth. The results of studying petrophysical properties with the GRI method and core description have allowed dividing the entire section into three intervals each of which characterized by different conditions of Bazhenov Formation rock formation. The authors have determined a correlation between the compensated neutron log and the rock density vs. depth chart on the basis of complex well logging and petrophysical section analysis. They have determined a promising interval for producing hydrocarbons from the Bazhenov Formation in the well under study. Besides, they have determined the typical behavior of compensated neutron logs and SP logs on well logs for this interval. These studies will allow re-interpreting available well logs in order to determine the most promising interval to be involved in Bazhenov Formation development in Tomsk Region.

Spatiotemporal sedimentological and petrophysical characterization of El Gueria reservoir (Ypresian) in sFAX and Gulf of Gabes Basins (SE-Tunisia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nadhem, Kassabi; Zahra, Njahi; Ménendez, Béatriz; Salwa, Jeddi; Jamel, Touir

2017-06-01

El Gueria carbonate Formation (Ypresian) in Tunisia is a proven hydrocarbon reservoir. In the Gulf of Gabes, El Gueria reservoir consists mainly of a nummulitic limestone which is developed in an inner shelf environment. In order to characterize the depositional facies evolution and the petrophysical parameters, and to understand the origin of heterogeneity of El Gueria reservoir, we firstly conducted a sedimentological and a sequence stratigraphy study of this Formation in more than 10 wells especially in P1, then we established a detailed petrophysical study of El Gueria reservoir in P1, P3c and P7d cores. Based on lithostratigraphic and gamma ray correlations of an important number of wells in the study area, a detailed sedimentological study has been established. This latter shows that: (i): The Ypresien deposits are deposited in an inner shelf (El Gueria Formation) in the south and in an outer shelf (Boudabbous Formation) in the north of the study area with the form of horsts and grabens, (ii): 3 distinct members and 7 principal facies within El Gueria Formation have been distinguished. The coupling of data logging and data of the P1 core shows that the El Gueria deposits include 10 transgressive-regressive depositional sequences, while showing from bottom to top a broad regressive tendancy from a subtidal domain during the early Ypresian to an intertidal domain during the middle Ypresian reaching the supratidal environnement during the late Ypresian-early Lutetian. The petrophysical parameters (porosity and permeability) of El Gueria reservoir vary in time and space (laterally and vertically variation) following the deposit environment variation. Particularly, the porosity variation is controlled by eustatic cycles so that high porosities are linked with transgressive phases and low porosities with regressive phases. In addition, the vertical evolution of porosity through the El Gueria reservoir varies following the (i) deposit environments, (ii) type and

Hysteresis and uncertainty in soil water-retention curve parameters

USGS Publications Warehouse

Likos, William J.; Lu, Ning; Godt, Jonathan W.

2014-01-01

Accurate estimates of soil hydraulic parameters representing wetting and drying paths are required for predicting hydraulic and mechanical responses in a large number of applications. A comprehensive suite of laboratory experiments was conducted to measure hysteretic soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) representing a wide range of soil types. Results were used to quantitatively assess differences and uncertainty in three simplifications frequently adopted to estimate wetting-path SWCC parameters from more easily measured drying curves. They are the following: (1) αw=2αd, (2) nw=nd, and (3) θws=θds, where α, n, and θs are fitting parameters entering van Genuchten’s commonly adopted SWCC model, and the superscripts w and d indicate wetting and drying paths, respectively. The average ratio αw/αd for the data set was 2.24±1.25. Nominally cohesive soils had a lower αw/αd ratio (1.73±0.94) than nominally cohesionless soils (3.14±1.27). The average nw/nd ratio was 1.01±0.11 with no significant dependency on soil type, thus confirming the nw=nd simplification for a wider range of soil types than previously available. Water content at zero suction during wetting (θws) was consistently less than during drying (θds) owing to air entrapment. The θws/θds ratio averaged 0.85±0.10 and was comparable for nominally cohesive (0.87±0.11) and cohesionless (0.81±0.08) soils. Regression statistics are provided to quantitatively account for uncertainty in estimating hysteretic retention curves. Practical consequences are demonstrated for two case studies.

Multivariate Formation Pressure Prediction with Seismic-derived Petrophysical Properties from Prestack AVO inversion and Poststack Seismic Motion Inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, H.; Gu, H.

2017-12-01

A novel multivariate seismic formation pressure prediction methodology is presented, which incorporates high-resolution seismic velocity data from prestack AVO inversion, and petrophysical data (porosity and shale volume) derived from poststack seismic motion inversion. In contrast to traditional seismic formation prediction methods, the proposed methodology is based on a multivariate pressure prediction model and utilizes a trace-by-trace multivariate regression analysis on seismic-derived petrophysical properties to calibrate model parameters in order to make accurate predictions with higher resolution in both vertical and lateral directions. With prestack time migration velocity as initial velocity model, an AVO inversion was first applied to prestack dataset to obtain high-resolution seismic velocity with higher frequency that is to be used as the velocity input for seismic pressure prediction, and the density dataset to calculate accurate Overburden Pressure (OBP). Seismic Motion Inversion (SMI) is an inversion technique based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. Both structural variability and similarity of seismic waveform are used to incorporate well log data to characterize the variability of the property to be obtained. In this research, porosity and shale volume are first interpreted on well logs, and then combined with poststack seismic data using SMI to build porosity and shale volume datasets for seismic pressure prediction. A multivariate effective stress model is used to convert velocity, porosity and shale volume datasets to effective stress. After a thorough study of the regional stratigraphic and sedimentary characteristics, a regional normally compacted interval model is built, and then the coefficients in the multivariate prediction model are determined in a trace-by-trace multivariate regression analysis on the petrophysical data. The coefficients are used to convert velocity, porosity and shale volume datasets to effective stress and then

Assessment of SMOS Soil Moisture Retrieval Parameters Using Tau-Omega Algorithms for Soil Moisture Deficit Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srivastava, Prashant K.; Han, Dawei; Rico-Ramirez, Miguel A.; O'Neill, Peggy; Islam, Tanvir; Gupta, Manika

2014-01-01

Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) is the latest mission which provides flow of coarse resolution soil moisture data for land applications. However, the efficient retrieval of soil moisture for hydrological applications depends on optimally choosing the soil and vegetation parameters. The first stage of this work involves the evaluation of SMOS Level 2 products and then several approaches for soil moisture retrieval from SMOS brightness temperature are performed to estimate Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD). The most widely applied algorithm i.e. Single channel algorithm (SCA), based on tau-omega is used in this study for the soil moisture retrieval. In tau-omega, the soil moisture is retrieved using the Horizontal (H) polarisation following Hallikainen dielectric model, roughness parameters, Fresnel's equation and estimated Vegetation Optical Depth (tau). The roughness parameters are empirically calibrated using the numerical optimization techniques. Further to explore the improvement in retrieval models, modifications have been incorporated in the algorithms with respect to the sources of the parameters, which include effective temperatures derived from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) downscaled using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-NOAH Land Surface Model and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST) while the s is derived from MODIS Leaf Area Index (LAI). All the evaluations are performed against SMD, which is estimated using the Probability Distributed Model following a careful calibration and validation integrated with sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. The performance obtained after all those changes indicate that SCA-H using WRF-NOAH LSM downscaled ECMWF LST produces an improved performance for SMD estimation at a catchment scale.

Geotechnical Parameters of Alluvial Soils from in-situ Tests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Młynarek, Zbigniew; Stefaniak, Katarzyna; Wierzbicki, Jędrzej

2012-10-01

The article concentrates on the identification of geotechnical parameters of alluvial soil represented by silts found near Poznan and Elblag. Strength and deformation parameters of the subsoil tested were identified by the CPTU (static penetration) and SDMT (dilatometric) methods, as well as by the vane test (VT). Geotechnical parameters of the subsoil were analysed with a view to using the soil as an earth construction material and as a foundation for buildings constructed on the grounds tested. The article includes an analysis of the overconsolidation process of the soil tested and a formula for the identification of the overconsolidation ratio OCR. Equation 9 reflects the relation between the undrained shear strength and plasticity of the silts analyzed and the OCR value. The analysis resulted in the determination of the Nkt coefficient, which might be used to identify the undrained shear strength of both sediments tested. On the basis of a detailed analysis of changes in terms of the constrained oedometric modulus M0, the relations between the said modulus, the liquidity index and the OCR value were identified. Mayne's formula (1995) was used to determine the M0 modulus from the CPTU test. The usefullness of the sediments found near Poznan as an earth construction material was analysed after their structure had been destroyed and compacted with a Proctor apparatus. In cases of samples characterised by different water content and soil particle density, the analysis of changes in terms of cohesion and the internal friction angle proved that these parameters are influenced by the soil phase composition (Fig. 18 and 19). On the basis of the tests, it was concluded that the most desirable shear strength parameters are achieved when the silt is compacted below the optimum water content.

Geotechnical Parameters of Alluvial Soils from in-situ Tests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Młynarek, Zbigniew; Stefaniak, Katarzyna; Wierzbicki, Jedrzej

2012-10-01

The article concentrates on the identification of geotechnical parameters of alluvial soil represented by silts found near Poznan and Elblag. Strength and deformation parameters of the subsoil tested were identified by the CPTU (static penetration) and SDMT (dilatometric) methods, as well as by the vane test (VT). Geotechnical parameters of the subsoil were analysed with a view to using the soil as an earth construction material and as a foundation for buildings constructed on the grounds tested. The article includes an analysis of the overconsolidation process of the soil tested and a formula for the identification of the overconsolidation ratio OCR. Equation 9 reflects the relation between the undrained shear strength and plasticity of the silts analyzed and the OCR value. The analysis resulted in the determination of the Nkt coefficient, which might be used to identify the undrained shear strength of both sediments tested. On the basis of a detailed analysis of changes in terms of the constrained oedometric modulus M0, the relations between the said modulus, the liquidity index and the OCR value were identified. Mayne's formula (1995) was used to determine the M0 modulus from the CPTU test. The usefullness of the sediments found near Poznan as an earth construction material was analysed after their structure had been destroyed and compacted with a Proctor apparatus. In cases of samples characterised by different water content and soil particle density, the analysis of changes in terms of cohesion and the internal friction angle proved that these parameters are influenced by the soil phase composition (Fig. 18 and 19). On the basis of the tests, it was concluded that the most desirable shear strength parameters are achieved when the silt is compacted below the optimum water content.

Integrating microbial diversity in soil carbon dynamic models parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Louis, Benjamin; Menasseri-Aubry, Safya; Leterme, Philippe; Maron, Pierre-Alain; Viaud, Valérie

2015-04-01

Faced with the numerous concerns about soil carbon dynamic, a large quantity of carbon dynamic models has been developed during the last century. These models are mainly in the form of deterministic compartment models with carbon fluxes between compartments represented by ordinary differential equations. Nowadays, lots of them consider the microbial biomass as a compartment of the soil organic matter (carbon quantity). But the amount of microbial carbon is rarely used in the differential equations of the models as a limiting factor. Additionally, microbial diversity and community composition are mostly missing, although last advances in soil microbial analytical methods during the two past decades have shown that these characteristics play also a significant role in soil carbon dynamic. As soil microorganisms are essential drivers of soil carbon dynamic, the question about explicitly integrating their role have become a key issue in soil carbon dynamic models development. Some interesting attempts can be found and are dominated by the incorporation of several compartments of different groups of microbial biomass in terms of functional traits and/or biogeochemical compositions to integrate microbial diversity. However, these models are basically heuristic models in the sense that they are used to test hypotheses through simulations. They have rarely been confronted to real data and thus cannot be used to predict realistic situations. The objective of this work was to empirically integrate microbial diversity in a simple model of carbon dynamic through statistical modelling of the model parameters. This work is based on available experimental results coming from a French National Research Agency program called DIMIMOS. Briefly, 13C-labelled wheat residue has been incorporated into soils with different pedological characteristics and land use history. Then, the soils have been incubated during 104 days and labelled and non-labelled CO2 fluxes have been measured at ten

Reservoir and Source Rock Identification Based on Geologycal, Geophysics and Petrophysics Analysis Study Case: South Sumatra Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anggit Maulana, Hiska; Haris, Abdul

2018-05-01

Reservoir and source rock Identification has been performed to deliniate the reservoir distribution of Talangakar Formation South Sumatra Basin. This study is based on integrated geophysical, geological and petrophysical data. The aims of study to determine the characteristics of the reservoir and source rock, to differentiate reservoir and source rock in same Talangakar formation, to find out the distribution of net pay reservoir and source rock layers. The method of geophysical included seismic data interpretation using time and depth structures map, post-stack inversion, interval velocity, geological interpretations included the analysis of structures and faults, and petrophysical processing is interpret data log wells that penetrating Talangakar formation containing hydrocarbons (oil and gas). Based on seismic interpretation perform subsurface mapping on Layer A and Layer I to determine the development of structures in the Regional Research. Based on the geological interpretation, trapping in the form of regional research is anticline structure on southwest-northeast trending and bounded by normal faults on the southwest-southeast regional research structure. Based on petrophysical analysis, the main reservoir in the field of research, is a layer 1,375 m of depth and a thickness 2 to 8.3 meters.

Research progress of on-the-go soil parameter sensors based on NIRS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

An, Xiaofei; Meng, Zhijun; Wu, Guangwei; Guo, Jianhua

2014-11-01

Both the ever-increasing prices of fertilizer and growing ecological concern over chemical run-off into sources of drinking water have brought the issues of precision agriculture and site-specific management to the forefront of present technological development within agriculture and ecology. Soil is an important and basic element in agriculture production. Acquisition of soil information plays an important role in precision agriculture. The soil parameters include soil total nitrogen, phosporus, potassium, soil organic matter, soil moisture, electrical conductivity and pH value and so on. Field rapid acquisition to all the kinds of soil physical and chemical parameters is one of the most important research directions. And soil parameter real-time monitoring is also the trend of future development in precision agriculture. While developments in precision agriculture and site-specific management procedures have made significant in-roads on these issues and many researchers have developed effective means to determine soil properties, routinely obtaining robust on-the-go measurements of soil properties which are reliable enough to drive effective fertilizer application remains a challenge. NIRS technology provides a new method to obtain soil parameter with low cost and rapid advantage. In this paper, research progresses of soil on-the-go spectral sensors at domestic and abroad was combed and analyzed. There is a need for the sensing system to perform at least six key indexes for any on-the-go soil spectral sensor to be successful. The six indexes are detection limit, specificity, robustness, accuracy, cost and easy-to-use. Both the research status and problems were discussed. Finally, combining the national conditions of china, development tendency of on-the-go soil spectral sensors was proposed. In the future, on-the-go soil spectral sensors with reliable enough, sensitive enough and continuous detection would become popular in precision agriculture.

Prediction of compressibility parameters of the soils using artificial neural network.

PubMed

Kurnaz, T Fikret; Dagdeviren, Ugur; Yildiz, Murat; Ozkan, Ozhan

2016-01-01

The compression index and recompression index are one of the important compressibility parameters to determine the settlement calculation for fine-grained soil layers. These parameters can be determined by carrying out laboratory oedometer test on undisturbed samples; however, the test is quite time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, many empirical formulas based on regression analysis have been presented to estimate the compressibility parameters using soil index properties. In this paper, an artificial neural network (ANN) model is suggested for prediction of compressibility parameters from basic soil properties. For this purpose, the input parameters are selected as the natural water content, initial void ratio, liquid limit and plasticity index. In this model, two output parameters, including compression index and recompression index, are predicted in a combined network structure. As the result of the study, proposed ANN model is successful for the prediction of the compression index, however the predicted recompression index values are not satisfying compared to the compression index.

Geopressure modeling from petrophysical data: An example from East Kalimantan

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Herkommer, M.A.

1994-07-01

Localized models of abnormal formation pressure (geopressure) are important economic and safety tools frequently used for well planning and drilling operations. Simplified computer-based procedures have been developed that permit these models to be developed more rapidly and with greater accuracy. These techniques are broadly applicable to basins throughout the world where abnormal formation pressures occur. An example from the Attaka field of East Kalimantan, southeast Asia, shows how geopressure models are developed. Using petrophysical and engineering data, empirical correlations between observed pressure and petrophysical logs can be created by computer-assisted data-fitting techniques. These correlations serve as the basis for modelsmore » of the geopressure. By performing repeated analyses on wells at various locations, contour maps on the top of abnormal geopressure can be created. Methods that are simple in their development and application make the task of geopressure estimation less formidable to the geologist and petroleum engineer. Further, more accurate estimates can significantly improve drilling speeds while reducing the incidence of stuck pipe, kicks, and blowouts. In general, geopressure estimates are used in all phases of drilling operations: To develop mud plans and specify equipment ratings, to assist in the recognition of geopressured formations and determination of mud weights, and to improve predictions at offset locations and geologically comparable areas.« less

Hyperspectral Technique for Detecting Soil Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garfagnoli, F.; Ciampalini, A.; Moretti, S.; Chiarantini, L.

2011-12-01

In satellite and airborne remote sensing, hyperspectral technique has become a very powerful tool, due to the possibility of rapidly realizing chemical/mineralogical maps of the studied areas. Many studies are trying to customize the algorithms to identify several geo-physical soil properties. The specific objective of this study is to investigate those soil characteristics, such as clay mineral content, influencing degradation processes (soil erosion and shallow landslides), by means of correlation analysis, in order to examine the possibility of predicting the selected property using high-resolution reflectance spectra and images. The study area is located in the Mugello basin, about 30 km north of Firenze (Tuscany, Italy). Agriculturally suitable terrains are assigned mainly to annual crops, marginally to olive groves, vineyards and orchards. Soils mostly belong to Regosols and Cambisols orders. An ASD FieldSpec spectroradiometer was used to obtain reflectance spectra from about 80 dried, crushed and sieved samples under controlled laboratory conditions. Samples were collected simultaneously with the flight of SIM.GA hyperspectral camera from Selex Galileo, over an area of about 5 km2 and their positions were recorded with a differential GPS. The quantitative determination of clay minerals content was performed by means of XRD and Rietveld refinement. Different chemometric techniques were preliminarily tested to correlate mineralogical records with reflectance data. A one component partial least squares regression model yielded a preliminary R2 value of 0.65. A slightly better result was achieved by plotting the absorption peak depth at 2210 versus total clay content (band-depth analysis). The complete SIM.GA hyperspectral geocoded row dataset, with an approximate pixel resolution of 0.6 m (VNIR) and 1.2 m (SWIR), was firstly transformed into at sensor radiance values, by applying calibration coefficients and parameters from laboratory measurements to non

Recycled grains in lunar soils as an additional, necessary, regolith evolution parameter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basu, A.

1990-01-01

Recycled lunar soil grains are defined as those soil grains that have been a part of either regolith breccias or agglutinates; thus, mineral grains, rock fragments, older agglutinates, and volcanic glass spherules, if dislodged from an agglutinate or a regolith breccia, would all qualify as recycled grains. This paper shows that it is possible to estimate the proportion of recycled material in lunar soils. Optical data from 12 soils in the Apollo 16 core 64001/2 were collected to estimate the proportion (W) of recycled crystalline grains in each of these soils. The W values show a correspondence with other independently derived parameters and the history of the core soils, indicating that W can be used as a valid soil-evolution parameter.

Borehole petrophysical chemostratigraphy of Pennsylvanian black shales in the Kansas subsurface

USGS Publications Warehouse

Doveton, J.H.; Merriam, D.F.

2004-01-01

Pennsylvanian black shales in Kansas have been studied on outcrop for decades as the core unit of the classic Midcontinent cyclothem. These shales appear to be highstand condensed sections in the sequence stratigraphic paradigm. Nuclear log suites provide several petrophysical measurements of rock chemistry that are a useful data source for chemostratigraphic studies of Pennsylvanian black shales in the subsurface. Spectral gamma-ray logs partition natural radioactivity between contributions by U, Th, and K sources. Elevated U contents in black shales can be related to reducing depositional environments, whereas the K and Th contents are indicators of clay-mineral abundance and composition. The photoelectric factor log measurement is a direct function of aggregate atomic number and so is affected by clay-mineral volume, clay-mineral iron content, and other black shale compositional elements. Neutron porosity curves are primarily a response to hydrogen content. Although good quality logs are available for many black shales, borehole washout features invalidate readings from the nuclear contact devices, whereas black shales thinner than tool resolution will be averaged with adjacent beds. Statistical analysis of nuclear log data between black shales in successive cyclothems allows systematic patterns of their chemical and petrophysical properties to be discriminated in both space and time. ?? 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Estimating Soil Hydraulic Parameters using Gradient Based Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rai, P. K.; Tripathi, S.

2017-12-01

The conventional way of estimating parameters of a differential equation is to minimize the error between the observations and their estimates. The estimates are produced from forward solution (numerical or analytical) of differential equation assuming a set of parameters. Parameter estimation using the conventional approach requires high computational cost, setting-up of initial and boundary conditions, and formation of difference equations in case the forward solution is obtained numerically. Gaussian process based approaches like Gaussian Process Ordinary Differential Equation (GPODE) and Adaptive Gradient Matching (AGM) have been developed to estimate the parameters of Ordinary Differential Equations without explicitly solving them. Claims have been made that these approaches can straightforwardly be extended to Partial Differential Equations; however, it has been never demonstrated. This study extends AGM approach to PDEs and applies it for estimating parameters of Richards equation. Unlike the conventional approach, the AGM approach does not require setting-up of initial and boundary conditions explicitly, which is often difficult in real world application of Richards equation. The developed methodology was applied to synthetic soil moisture data. It was seen that the proposed methodology can estimate the soil hydraulic parameters correctly and can be a potential alternative to the conventional method.

Microstructural characterization, petrophysics and upscaling - from porous media to fractural media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, J.; Liu, K.; Regenauer-Lieb, K.

2017-12-01

We present an integrated study for the characterization of complex geometry, fluid transport features and mechanical deformation at micro-scale and the upscaling of properties using microtomographic data: We show how to integrate microstructural characterization by the volume fraction, specific surface area, connectivity (percolation), shape and orientation of microstructures with identification of individual fractures from a 3D fractural network. In a first step we use stochastic analyses of microstructures to determine the geometric RVE (representative volume element) of samples. We proceed by determining the size of a thermodynamic RVE by computing upper/lower bounds of entropy production through Finite Element (FE) analyses on a series of models with increasing sizes. The minimum size for thermodynamic RVE's is identified on the basis of the convergence criteria of the FE simulations. Petrophysical properties (permeability and mechanical parameters, including plastic strength) are then computed numerically if thermodynamic convergence criteria are fulfilled. Upscaling of properties is performed by means of percolation theory. The percolation threshold is detected by using a shrinking/expanding algorithm on static micro-CT images of rocks. Parameters of the scaling laws can be extracted from quantitative analyses and/or numerical simulations on a series of models with similar structures but different porosities close to the percolation threshold. Different rock samples are analyzed. Characterizing parameters of porous/fractural rocks are obtained. Synthetic derivative models of the microstructure are used to estimate the relationships between porosity and mechanical properties. Results obtained from synthetic sandstones show that yield stress, cohesion and the angle of friction are linearly proportional to porosity. Our integrated study shows that digital rock technology can provide meaningful parameters for effective upscaling if thermodynamic volume averaging

Field-Scale Evaluation of Infiltration Parameters From Soil Texture for Hydrologic Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Springer, Everett P.; Cundy, Terrance W.

1987-02-01

Recent interest in predicting soil hydraulic properties from simple physical properties such as texture has major implications in the parameterization of physically based models of surface runoff. This study was undertaken to (1) compare, on a field scale, soil hydraulic parameters predicted from texture to those derived from field measurements and (2) compare simulated overland flow response using these two parameter sets. The parameters for the Green-Ampt infiltration equation were obtained from field measurements and using texture-based predictors for two agricultural fields, which were mapped as single soil units. Results of the analyses were that (1) the mean and variance of the field-based parameters were not preserved by the texture-based estimates, (2) spatial and cross correlations between parameters were induced by the texture-based estimation procedures, (3) the overland flow simulations using texture-based parameters were significantly different than those from field-based parameters, and (4) simulations using field-measured hydraulic conductivities and texture-based storage parameters were very close to simulations using only field-based parameters.

Estimation of Compaction Parameters Based on Soil Classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubis, A. S.; Muis, Z. A.; Hastuty, I. P.; Siregar, I. M.

2018-02-01

Factors that must be considered in compaction of the soil works were the type of soil material, field control, maintenance and availability of funds. Those problems then raised the idea of how to estimate the density of the soil with a proper implementation system, fast, and economical. This study aims to estimate the compaction parameter i.e. the maximum dry unit weight (γ dmax) and optimum water content (Wopt) based on soil classification. Each of 30 samples were being tested for its properties index and compaction test. All of the data’s from the laboratory test results, were used to estimate the compaction parameter values by using linear regression and Goswami Model. From the research result, the soil types were A4, A-6, and A-7 according to AASHTO and SC, SC-SM, and CL based on USCS. By linear regression, the equation for estimation of the maximum dry unit weight (γdmax *)=1,862-0,005*FINES- 0,003*LL and estimation of the optimum water content (wopt *)=- 0,607+0,362*FINES+0,161*LL. By Goswami Model (with equation Y=mLogG+k), for estimation of the maximum dry unit weight (γdmax *) with m=-0,376 and k=2,482, for estimation of the optimum water content (wopt *) with m=21,265 and k=-32,421. For both of these equations a 95% confidence interval was obtained.

Shale Gas Petrophysical Models: an evaluation of contrasting approaches and assumptions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Inwood, Jennifer; Lovell, Mike; Davies, Sarah; Fishwick, Stewart; Taylor, Kevin

2015-04-01

Shale gas refers to fine-grained formations, or mudstones, where organic matter has matured sufficiently to produce predominantly gas, but that gas has not migrated any significant distance and hence the source rock is effectively the reservoir. Due to the success of shale gas extraction in the USA, many European countries are assessing their potential resources. A key uncertainty in evaluating the resource is the estimation of gas in place and most models are based on North American plays. However, it would seem that no single model to date can confidently predict the gas in place for a 'new' shale formation. Shale gas is frequently characterized by two distinct gas components: free gas is able to move and occupies the pores, while adsorbed gas is fixed onto organic surfaces and held in place by pressure. There are a number of different published methodologies that attempt to take account for this complicated distribution of gas within the rock ranging from models where the importance of the adsorbed gas is assumed to be negligible to those where all gas is assumed to exist within the organic pores and none within the mineral pore spaces. Models that assume both components are important and occupy adjacent volumes need to consider how to separate out the two to avoid double counting. Due to the heterogeneity of mudstones the most appropriate model may vary downhole as well as across adjacent wells. In this pilot study we consider the underlying assumptions and categorize models dependent on the deterministic or probabilistic approach used. We use an initial dataset from North America to test and compare a number of different approaches before expanding the analysis to further formations that span a range of geological and petrophysical characteristics. We then review and evaluate the models, identifying key variables and, where possible, determining their importance through sensitivity analysis. This work aims to establish guidelines for selecting the most

Application of uniaxial confining-core clamp with hydrous pyrolysis in petrophysical and geochemical studies of source rocks at various thermal maturities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lewan, Michael D.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Baez, Luis; Beeney, Ken; Sonnenberg, Steve

2013-01-01

Understanding changes in petrophysical and geochemical parameters during source rock thermal maturation is a critical component in evaluating source-rock petroleum accumulations. Natural core data are preferred, but obtaining cores that represent the same facies of a source rock at different thermal maturities is seldom possible. An alternative approach is to induce thermal maturity changes by laboratory pyrolysis on aliquots of a source-rock sample of a given facies of interest. Hydrous pyrolysis is an effective way to induce thermal maturity on source-rock cores and provide expelled oils that are similar in composition to natural crude oils. However, net-volume increases during bitumen and oil generation result in expanded cores due to opening of bedding-plane partings. Although meaningful geochemical measurements on expanded, recovered cores are possible, the utility of the core for measuring petrophysical properties relevant to natural subsurface cores is not suitable. This problem created during hydrous pyrolysis is alleviated by using a stainless steel uniaxial confinement clamp on rock cores cut perpendicular to bedding fabric. The clamp prevents expansion just as overburden does during natural petroleum formation in the subsurface. As a result, intact cores can be recovered at various thermal maturities for the measurement of petrophysical properties as well as for geochemical analyses. This approach has been applied to 1.7-inch diameter cores taken perpendicular to the bedding fabric of a 2.3- to 2.4-inch thick slab of Mahogany oil shale from the Eocene Green River Formation. Cores were subjected to hydrous pyrolysis at 360 °C for 72 h, which represents near maximum oil generation. One core was heated unconfined and the other was heated in the uniaxial confinement clamp. The unconfined core developed open tensile fractures parallel to the bedding fabric that result in a 38 % vertical expansion of the core. These open fractures did not occur in the

Handling the unknown soil hydraulic parameters in data assimilation for unsaturated flow problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lange, Natascha; Erdal, Daniel; Neuweiler, Insa

2017-04-01

Model predictions of flow in the unsaturated zone require the soil hydraulic parameters. However, these parameters cannot be determined easily in applications, in particular if observations are indirect and cover only a small range of possible states. Correlation of parameters or their correlation in the range of states that are observed is a problem, as different parameter combinations may reproduce approximately the same measured water content. In field campaigns this problem can be helped by adding more measurement devices. Often, observation networks are designed to feed models for long term prediction purposes (i.e. for weather forecasting). A popular way of making predictions with such kind of observations are data assimilation methods, like the ensemble Kalman filter (Evensen, 1994). These methods can be used for parameter estimation if the unknown parameters are included in the state vector and updated along with the model states. Given the difficulties related to estimation of the soil hydraulic parameters in general, it is questionable, though, whether these methods can really be used for parameter estimation under natural conditions. Therefore, we investigate the ability of the ensemble Kalman filter to estimate the soil hydraulic parameters. We use synthetic identical twin-experiments to guarantee full knowledge of the model and the true parameters. We use the van Genuchten model to describe the soil water retention and relative permeability functions. This model is unfortunately prone to the above mentioned pseudo-correlations of parameters. Therefore, we also test the simpler Russo Gardner model, which is less affected by that problem, in our experiments. The total number of unknown parameters is varied by considering different layers of soil. Besides, we study the influence of the parameter updates on the water content predictions. We test different iterative filter approaches and compare different observation strategies for parameter identification

Rock formation characterization for carbon dioxide geosequestration: 3D seismic amplitude and coherency anomalies, and seismic petrophysical facies classification, Wellington and Anson-Bates Fields, Kansas, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohl, Derek; Raef, Abdelmoneam

2014-04-01

Higher resolution rock formation characterization is of paramount priority, amid growing interest in injecting carbon dioxide, CO2, into subsurface rock formations of depeleting/depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs or saline aquifers in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. In this paper, we present a case study for a Mississippian carbonate characterization integrating post-stack seismic attributes, well log porosities, and seismic petrophysical facies classification. We evaluated changes in petrophysical lithofacies and reveal structural facies-controls in the study area. Three cross-plot clusters in a plot of well log porosity and acoustic impedance corroborated a Neural Network petrophysical facies classification, which was based on training and validation utilizing three petrophysically-different wells and three volume seismic attributes, extracted from a time window including the wavelet of the reservoir-top reflection. Reworked lithofacies along small-throw faults has been revealed based on comparing coherency and seismic petrophysical facies. The main objective of this study is to put an emphasis on reservoir characterization that is both optimized for and subsequently benefiting from pilot tertiary CO2 carbon geosequestration in a depleting reservoir and also in the deeper saline aquifer of the Arbuckle Group, south central Kansas. The 3D seismic coherency attribute, we calculated from a window embracing the Mississippian top reflection event, indicated anomalous features that can be interpreted as a change in lithofacies or faulting effect. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) lithofacies modeling has been used to better understand these subtle features, and also provide petrophysical classes, which will benefit flow-simulation modeling and/or time-lapse seismic monitoring feasibility analysis. This paper emphasizes the need of paying greater attention to small-scale features when embarking upon characterization of a reservoir or saline-aquifer for CO2

Soil water content and evaporation determined by thermal parameters obtained from ground-based and remote measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reginato, R. J.; Idso, S. B.; Jackson, R. D.; Vedder, J. F.; Blanchard, M. B.; Goettelman, R.

1976-01-01

Soil water contents from both smooth and rough bare soil were estimated from remotely sensed surface soil and air temperatures. An inverse relationship between two thermal parameters and gravimetric soil water content was found for Avondale loam when its water content was between air-dry and field capacity. These parameters, daily maximum minus minimum surface soil temperature and daily maximum soil minus air temperature, appear to describe the relationship reasonably well. These two parameters also describe relative soil water evaporation (actual/potential). Surface soil temperatures showed good agreement among three measurement techniques: in situ thermocouples, a ground-based infrared radiation thermometer, and the thermal infrared band of an airborne multispectral scanner.

Petrophysics and hydrocarbon potential of Paleozoic rocks in Kuwait

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullah, Fowzia; Shaaban, Fouad; Khalaf, Fikry; Bahaman, Fatma; Akbar, Bibi; Al-Khamiss, Awatif

2017-10-01

Well logs from nine deep exploratory and development wells in Kuwaiti oil fields have been used to study petrophysical characteristics and their effect on the reservoir quality of the subsurface Paleozoic Khuff and Unayzah formations. Petrophysical log data have been calibrated with core analysis available at some intervals. The study indicates a complex lithological facies of the Khuff Formation that is composed mainly of dolomite and anhydrite interbeds with dispersed argillaceous materials and few limestone intercalations. This facies greatly lowered the formation matrix porosity and permeability index. The porosity is fully saturated with water, which is reflected by the low resistivity logs responses, except at some intervals where few hydrocarbon shows are recorded. The impermeable anhydrites, massive (low-permeability) carbonate rock and shale at the lower part of the formation combine to form intraformational seals for the clastic reservoirs of the underlying Unayzah Formation. By contrast, the log interpretation revealed clastic lithological nature of the Unayzah Formation with cycles of conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and shales. The recorded argillaceous materials are mainly of disseminated habit, which control, for some extent, the matrix porosity, that ranges from 2% to 15% with water saturation ranges from 65% to 100%. Cementation, dissolution, compaction and clay mineral authigenesis are the most significant diagenetic processes affecting the reservoir quality. Calibration with the available core analysis at some intervals of the formation indicates that the siliciclastic sequence is a fluvial with more than one climatic cycle changes from humid, semi-arid to arid condition and displays the impact of both physical and chemical diagenesis. In general, the study revealed that the Unyazah Formation has a better reservoir quality than the Khuff Formation and possible gas bearing zones.

Comparison of model microbial allocation parameters in soils of varying texture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hagerty, S. B.; Slessarev, E.; Schimel, J.

2017-12-01

The soil microbial community decomposes the majority of carbon (C) inputs to the soil. However, not all of this C is respired—rather, a substantial portion of the carbon processed by microbes may remain stored in the soil. The balance between C storage and respiration is controlled by microbial turnover rates and C allocation strategies. These microbial community properties may depend on soil texture, which has the potential to influence both the nature and the fate of microbial necromass and extracellular products. To evaluate the role of texture on microbial turnover and C allocation, we sampled four soils from the University of California's Hastings Reserve that varied in texture (one silt loam, two sandy loam, and on clay soil), but support similar grassland plant communities. We added 14C- glucose to the soil and measured the concentration of the label in the carbon dioxide (CO2), microbial biomass, and extractable C pools over 7 weeks. The labeled biomass turned over the slowest in the clay soil; the concentration of labeled biomass was more than 1.5 times the concentration of the other soils after 8 weeks. The clay soil also had the lowest mineralization rate of the label, and mineralization slowed after two weeks. In contrast, in the sandier soils mineralization rates were higher and did not plateau until 5 weeks into the incubation period. We fit the 14C data to a microbial allocation model and estimated microbial parameters; assimilation efficiency, exudation, and biomass specific respiration and turnover for each soil. We compare these parameters across the soil texture gradient to assess the extent to which models may need to account for variability in microbial C allocation across soils of different texture. Our results suggest that microbial C turns over more slowly in high-clay soils than in sandy soils, and that C lost from microbial biomass is retained at higher rates in high-clay soils. Accounting for these differences in microbial allocation

Petrophysical characterization of first ever drilled core samples from an active CO2 storage site, the German Ketzin Pilot Site - Comparison with long term experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zemke, Kornelia; Liebscher, Axel

2014-05-01

Petrophysical properties like porosity and permeability are key parameters for a safe long-term storage of CO2 but also for the injection operation itself. These parameters may change during and/or after the CO2 injection due to geochemical reactions in the reservoir system that are triggered by the injected CO2. Here we present petrophysical data of first ever drilled cores from a newly drilled well at the active CO2 storage site - the Ketzin pilot site in the Federal State of Brandenburg, Germany. By comparison with pre-injection baseline data from core samples recovered prior to injection, the new samples provide the unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of CO2 on pore size related properties of reservoir and cap rocks at a real injection site under in-situ reservoir conditions. After injection of 61 000 tons CO2, an additional well was drilled and new rock cores were recovered. In total 100 core samples from the reservoir and the overlaying caprock were investigated by NMR relaxation. Permeability of 20 core samples was estimated by nitrogen and porosity by helium pycnometry. The determined data are comparable between pre-injection and post-injection core samples. The lower part of the reservoir sandstone is unaffected by the injected CO2. The upper part of the reservoir sandstone shows consistently slightly lower NMR porosity and permeability values in the post-injection samples when compared to the pre-injection data. This upper sandstone part is above the fluid level and CO2 present as a free gas phase and a possible residual gas saturation of the cores distorted the NMR results. The potash-containing drilling fluid can also influence these results: NMR investigation of twin samples from inner and outer parts of the cores show a reduced fraction of larger pores for the outer core samples together with lower porosities and T2 times. The drill mud penetration depth can be controlled by the added fluorescent tracer. Due to the heterogeneous character of the

The integration of elastic wave properties and machine learning for the distribution of petrophysical properties in reservoir modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ratnam, T. C.; Ghosh, D. P.; Negash, B. M.

2018-05-01

Conventional reservoir modeling employs variograms to predict the spatial distribution of petrophysical properties. This study aims to improve property distribution by incorporating elastic wave properties. In this study, elastic wave properties obtained from seismic inversion are used as input for an artificial neural network to predict neutron porosity in between well locations. The method employed in this study is supervised learning based on available well logs. This method converts every seismic trace into a pseudo-well log, hence reducing the uncertainty between well locations. By incorporating the seismic response, the reliance on geostatistical methods such as variograms for the distribution of petrophysical properties is reduced drastically. The results of the artificial neural network show good correlation with the neutron porosity log which gives confidence for spatial prediction in areas where well logs are not available.

Sensitivity Analysis of the USLE Soil Erodibility Factor to Its Determining Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitova, Milena; Rousseva, Svetla

2014-05-01

Soil erosion is recognized as one of the most serious soil threats worldwide. Soil erosion prediction is the first step in soil conservation planning. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is one of the most widely used models for soil erosion predictions. One of the five USLE predictors is the soil erodibility factor (K-factor), which evaluates the impact of soil characteristics on soil erosion rates. Soil erodibility nomograph defines K-factor depending on soil characteristics, such as: particle size distribution (fractions finer that 0.002 mm and from 0.1 to 0.002 mm), organic matter content, soil structure and soil profile water permeability. Identifying the soil characteristics, which mostly influence the K-factor would give an opportunity to control the soil loss through erosion by controlling the parameters, which reduce the K-factor value. The aim of the report is to present the results of analysis of the relative weight of these soil characteristics in the K-factor values. The relative impact of the soil characteristics on K-factor was studied through a series of statistical analyses of data from the geographic database for soil erosion risk assessments in Bulgaria. Degree of correlation between K-factor values and the parameters that determine it was studied by correlation analysis. The sensitivity of the K-factor was determined by studying the variance of each parameter within the range between minimum and maximum possible values considering average value of the other factors. Normalizing transformation of data sets was applied because of the different dimensions and the orders of variation of the values of the various parameters. The results show that the content of particles finer than 0.002 mm has the most significant relative impact on the soil erodibility, followed by the content of particles with size from 0.1 mm to 0.002 mm, the class of the water permeability of the soil profile, the content of organic matter and the aggregation class. The

Nonlinear soil parameter effects on dynamic embedment of offshore pipeline on soft clay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Su Young; Choi, Han Suk; Lee, Seung Keon; Park, Kyu-Sik; Kim, Do Kyun

2015-06-01

In this paper, the effects of nonlinear soft clay on dynamic embedment of offshore pipeline were investigated. Seabed embedment by pipe-soil interactions has impacts on the structural boundary conditions for various subsea structures such as pipeline, riser, pile, and many other systems. A number of studies have been performed to estimate real soil behavior, but their estimation of seabed embedment has not been fully identified and there are still many uncertainties. In this regards, comparison of embedment between field survey and existing empirical models has been performed to identify uncertainties and investigate the effect of nonlinear soil parameter on dynamic embedment. From the comparison, it is found that the dynamic embedment with installation effects based on nonlinear soil model have an influence on seabed embedment. Therefore, the pipe embedment under dynamic condition by nonlinear parameters of soil models was investigated by Dynamic Embedment Factor (DEF) concept, which is defined as the ratio of the dynamic and static embedment of pipeline, in order to overcome the gap between field embedment and currently used empirical and numerical formula. Although DEF through various researches is suggested, its range is too wide and it does not consider dynamic laying effect. It is difficult to find critical parameters that are affecting to the embedment result. Therefore, the study on dynamic embedment factor by soft clay parameters of nonlinear soil model was conducted and the sensitivity analyses about parameters of nonlinear soil model were performed as well. The tendency on dynamic embedment factor was found by conducting numerical analyses using OrcaFlex software. It is found that DEF was influenced by shear strength gradient than other factors. The obtained results will be useful to understand the pipe embedment on soft clay seabed for applying offshore pipeline designs such as on-bottom stability and free span analyses.

An investigation of the key parameters for predicting PV soiling losses

DOE PAGES

Micheli, Leonardo; Muller, Matthew

2017-01-25

One hundred and two environmental and meteorological parameters have been investigated and compared with the performance of 20 soiling stations installed in the USA, in order to determine their ability to predict the soiling losses occurring on PV systems. The results of this investigation showed that the annual average of the daily mean particulate matter values recorded by monitoring stations deployed near the PV systems are the best soiling predictors, with coefficients of determination ( R 2) as high as 0.82. The precipitation pattern was also found to be relevant: among the different meteorological parameters, the average length of drymore » periods had the best correlation with the soiling ratio. Lastly, a preliminary investigation of two-variable regressions was attempted and resulted in an adjusted R 2 of 0.90 when a combination of PM 2.5 and a binary classification for the average length of the dry period was introduced.« less

Hardrock Elastic Physical Properties: Birch's Seismic Parameter Revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, M.; Milkereit, B.

2014-12-01

Identifying rock composition and properties is imperative in a variety of fields including geotechnical engineering, mining, and petroleum exploration, in order to accurately make any petrophysical calculations. Density is, in particular, an important parameter that allows us to differentiate between lithologies and estimate or calculate other petrophysical properties. It is well established that compressional and shear wave velocities of common crystalline rocks increase with increasing densities (i.e. the Birch and Nafe-Drake relationships). Conventional empirical relations do not take into account S-wave velocity. Physical properties of Fe-oxides and massive sulfides, however, differ significantly from the empirical velocity-density relationships. Currently, acquiring in-situ density data is challenging and problematic, and therefore, developing an approximation for density based on seismic wave velocity and elastic moduli would be beneficial. With the goal of finding other possible or better relationships between density and the elastic moduli, a database of density, P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young's modulus, and Poisson's ratio was compiled based on a multitude of lab samples. The database is comprised of isotropic, non-porous metamorphic rock. Multi-parameter cross plots of the various elastic parameters have been analyzed in order to find a suitable parameter combination that reduces high density outliers. As expected, the P-wave velocity to S-wave velocity ratios show no correlation with density. However, Birch's seismic parameter, along with the bulk modulus, shows promise in providing a link between observed compressional and shear wave velocities and rock densities, including massive sulfides and Fe-oxides.

An adaptive coupling strategy for joint inversions that use petrophysical information as constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heincke, Björn; Jegen, Marion; Moorkamp, Max; Hobbs, Richard W.; Chen, Jin

2017-01-01

Joint inversion strategies for geophysical data have become increasingly popular as they allow for the efficient combination of complementary information from different data sets. The algorithm used for the joint inversion needs to be flexible in its description of the subsurface so as to be able to handle the diverse nature of the data. Hence, joint inversion schemes are needed that 1) adequately balance data from the different methods, 2) have stable convergence behavior, 3) consider the different resolution power of the methods used and 4) link the parameter models in a way that they are suited for a wide range of applications. Here, we combine active source seismic P-wave tomography, gravity and magnetotelluric (MT) data in a petrophysical joint inversion that accounts for these issues. Data from the different methods are inverted separately but are linked through constraints accounting for parameter relationships. An advantage of performing the inversions separately is that no relative weighting between the data sets is required. To avoid perturbing the convergence behavior of the inversions by the coupling, the strengths of the constraints are readjusted at each iteration. The criterion we use to control the adaption of the coupling strengths is based on variations in the objective functions of the individual inversions from one to the next iteration. Adaption of the coupling strengths makes the joint inversion scheme also applicable to subsurface conditions, where assumed relationships are not valid everywhere, because the individual inversions decouple if it is not possible to reach adequately low data misfits for the made assumptions. In addition, the coupling constraints depend on the relative resolutions of the methods, which leads to an improved convergence behavior of the joint inversion. Another benefit of the proposed scheme is that structural information can easily be incorporated in the petrophysical joint inversion (no additional terms are added

How far are rheological parameters from amplitude sweep tests predictable using common physicochemical soil properties?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoppe, N.; Horn, R.

2017-01-01

A basic understanding of soil behavior on the mesoscale resp. macroscale (i.e. soil aggregates resp. bulk soil) requires knowledge of the processes at the microscale (i.e. particle scale), therefore rheological investigations of natural soils receive growing attention. In the present research homogenized and sieved (< 2 mm) samples from Marshland soils of the riparian zone of the River Elbe (North Germany) were analyzed with a modular compact rheometer MCR 300 (Anton Paar, Ostfildern, Germany) with a profiled parallel-plate measuring system. Amplitude sweep tests (AST) with controlled shear deformation were conducted to investigate the viscoelastic properties of the studied soils under oszillatory stress. The gradual depletion of microstructural stiffness during AST cannot only be characterized by the well-known rheological parameters G, G″ and tan δ but also by the dimensionless area parameter integral z, which quantifies the elasticity of microstructure. To discover the physicochemical parameters, which influences the microstructural stiffness, statistical tests were used taking the combined effects of these parameters into account. Although the influence of the individual factors varies depending on soil texture, the physicochemical features significantly affecting soil micro structure were identified. Based on the determined statistical relationships between rheological and physicochemical parameters, pedotransfer functions (PTF) have been developed, which allow a mathematical estimation of the rheological target value integral z. Thus, stabilizing factors are: soil organic matter, concentration of Ca2+, content of CaCO3 and pedogenic iron oxides; whereas the concentration of Na+ and water content represent structurally unfavorable factors.

Influence of tunnel and soil parameters on vibrations from underground railways

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, S.; Stanus, Y.; Lombaert, G.; Degrande, G.

2009-10-01

A parametric study is performed to identify the key parameters which have an important influence on the generation and propagation of vibrations from underground railways. In this paper, the parameters related to the tunnel and the soil are considered and their influence on the free field response is studied. The coupled periodic finite element-boundary element model and the pipe-in-pipe model have been used for this study. Both models account for the dynamic interaction between the train, the track, the tunnel and the soil. A general analytical formulation is used to compute the response of three-dimensional invariant or periodic media that are excited by moving loads. The response to moving loads is written in terms of the axle loads and the transfer functions. The parametric study can be carried out by separately analyzing the variations in the axle loads and the transfer functions. The axle loads are mainly influenced by the parameters related to the vehicle and the track, while the transfer functions are influenced by the properties of the track, the tunnel and the soil. In the present paper, the parameters related to the tunnel and soil are investigated. It is observed that the material damping and the shear modulus of the soil have an important influence on the propagation of vibrations. The influence of structural changes to the tunnel as well as geometrical properties such as the size and shape of the tunnel is investigated. It is observed that a larger tunnel results in a smaller response above the tunnel as more energy is radiated downwards. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the tunnel geometry has a considerable influence on the response closer to the tunnel.

Computational Challenges in the Analysis of Petrophysics Using Microtomography and Upscaling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, J.; Pereira, G.; Freij-Ayoub, R.; Regenauer-Lieb, K.

2014-12-01

Microtomography provides detailed 3D internal structures of rocks in micro- to tens of nano-meter resolution and is quickly turning into a new technology for studying petrophysical properties of materials. An important step is the upscaling of these properties as micron or sub-micron resolution can only be done on the sample-scale of millimeters or even less than a millimeter. We present here a recently developed computational workflow for the analysis of microstructures including the upscaling of material properties. Computations of properties are first performed using conventional material science simulations at micro to nano-scale. The subsequent upscaling of these properties is done by a novel renormalization procedure based on percolation theory. We have tested the workflow using different rock samples, biological and food science materials. We have also applied the technique on high-resolution time-lapse synchrotron CT scans. In this contribution we focus on the computational challenges that arise from the big data problem of analyzing petrophysical properties and its subsequent upscaling. We discuss the following challenges: 1) Characterization of microtomography for extremely large data sets - our current capability. 2) Computational fluid dynamics simulations at pore-scale for permeability estimation - methods, computing cost and accuracy. 3) Solid mechanical computations at pore-scale for estimating elasto-plastic properties - computational stability, cost, and efficiency. 4) Extracting critical exponents from derivative models for scaling laws - models, finite element meshing, and accuracy. Significant progress in each of these challenges is necessary to transform microtomography from the current research problem into a robust computational big data tool for multi-scale scientific and engineering problems.

Deforestation effects on soil quality and water retention curve parameters in eastern Ardabil, Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asghari, Sh.; Ahmadnejad, S.; Keivan Behjou, F.

2016-03-01

The land use change from natural to managed ecosystems causes serious soil degradation. The main objective of this research was to assess deforestation effects on soil physical quality attributes and soil water retention curve (SWRC) parameters in the Fandoghlou region of Ardabil province, Iran. Totally 36 surface and subsurface soil samples were taken and soil water contents measured at 13 suctions. Alfa (α) and n parameters in van Genuchten (1980) model were estimated by fitting SWRC data by using RETC software. The slope of SWRC at inflection point (SP) was calculated by Dexter (2004) equation. The results indicated that with changing land use from forest (F) to range land (R) and cultivated land (C), and also with increasing soil depth from 0-25 to 75-100 cm in each land use, organic carbon, micropores, saturated and available water contents decreased and macropores and bulk density increased significantly ( P < 0.05). The position of SWRC shape in F was higher than R and C lands at all soil depths. Changing F to R and C lands and also increasing soil depth in each land use significantly ( P < 0.05) increased α and decreased n and SP. The average values of SP were obtained 0.093, 0.051 and 0.031 for F, R and C, respectively. As a result, deforestation reduced soil physical quality by affecting SWRC parameters.

Low-field NMR logging sensor for measuring hydraulic parameters of model soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sucre, Oscar; Pohlmeier, Andreas; Minière, Adrien; Blümich, Bernhard

2011-08-01

SummaryKnowing the exact hydraulic parameters of soils is very important for improving water management in agriculture and for the refinement of climate models. Up to now, however, the investigation of such parameters has required applying two techniques simultaneously which is time-consuming and invasive. Thus, the objective of this current study is to present only one technique, i.e., a new non-invasive method to measure hydraulic parameters of model soils by using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Hereby, two model clay or sandy soils were respectively filled in a 2 m-long acetate column having an integrated PVC tube. After the soils were completely saturated with water, a low-field NMR sensor was moved up and down in the PVC tube to quantitatively measure along the whole column the initial water content of each soil sample. Thereafter, both columns were allowed to drain. Meanwhile, the NMR sensor was set at a certain depth to measure the water content of that soil slice. Once the hydraulic equilibrium was reached in each of the two columns, a final moisture profile was taken along the whole column. Three curves were subsequently generated accordingly: (1) the initial moisture profile, (2) the evolution curve of the moisture depletion at that particular depth, and (3) the final moisture profile. All three curves were then inverse analyzed using a MATLAB code over numerical data produced with the van Genuchten-Mualem model. Hereby, a set of values ( α, n, θr and θs) was found for the hydraulic parameters for the soils under research. Additionally, the complete decaying NMR signal could be analyzed through Inverse Laplace Transformation and averaged on the 1/ T2 space. Through measurement of the decay in pure water, the effect on the relaxation caused by the sample could be estimated from the obtained spectra. The migration of the sample-related average <1/ T2, Sample> with decreasing saturation speaks for a enhancement of the surface relaxation as

Changes in soil parameters under continuous plastic mulching in strawberry cultivation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muñoz, Katherine; Diehl, Dörte; Scopchanova, Sirma; Schaumann, Gabriele E.

2016-04-01

Plastic mulching (PM) is a widely used practice in modern agriculture because they generate conditions for optimal yield rates and quality. However, information about long-term effects of PC on soil quality parameters is scarce. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of three different mulching managements on soil quality parameters. Sampling and methodology: Three different managements were studied: Organic mulching (OM), 2-years PM and 4-years PM. Soil samples were collected from irrigated fields in 0-5, 5-10 and 10-30 cm depths and analyzed for water content (WC), pH, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total soil carbon (Ctot) and cation exchange capacity (CECeff). Results and discussion: Mulching management has an influence on soil parameters. The magnitude of the effects is influenced by the type (organic agriculture practice vs. plastic mulching practice) and duration of the mulching. PM modified the water distribution through the soil column. WC values at the root zone were in average 10% higher compared to those measured at the topsoil. Under OM, the WC was lower than under PM. The pH was mainly influenced by the duration of the managements with slightly higher values after 4 than after 2-years PM. Under PM, aqueous extracts of the topsoil (0-5 cm depth) contained in average with 8.5±1.8 mg/L higher DOC than in 10-30 cm depth with 5.6±0.5 mg/L, which may indicate a mobilization of organic components in the upper layers. After 4-years PM, Ctot values were slightly higher than after 2-years PM and after OM. Surprisingly, after 4-years PM, CECeff values were with 138 - 157 mmolc/kg almost 2-fold higher than after 2-years PM and OM which had with 74 - 102 mmolc/kg comparable CECeff values. Long-term PM resulted in changes of soil pH and slightly increased Ctot which probably enhanced the CECeff of the soil. However, further investigations of the effect of PM on stability of soil organic matter and microbial community structure are needed.

Characterizing scale- and location-dependent correlation of water retention parameters with soil physical properties using wavelet techniques.

PubMed

Shu, Qiaosheng; Liu, Zuoxin; Si, Bingcheng

2008-01-01

Understanding the correlation between soil hydraulic parameters and soil physical properties is a prerequisite for the prediction of soil hydraulic properties from soil physical properties. The objective of this study was to examine the scale- and location-dependent correlation between two water retention parameters (alpha and n) in the van Genuchten (1980) function and soil physical properties (sand content, bulk density [Bd], and organic carbon content) using wavelet techniques. Soil samples were collected from a transect from Fuxin, China. Soil water retention curves were measured, and the van Genuchten parameters were obtained through curve fitting. Wavelet coherency analysis was used to elucidate the location- and scale-dependent relationships between these parameters and soil physical properties. Results showed that the wavelet coherence between alpha and sand content was significantly different from red noise at small scales (8-20 m) and from a distance of 30 to 470 m. Their wavelet phase spectrum was predominantly out of phase, indicating negative correlation between these two variables. The strong negative correlation between alpha and Bd existed mainly at medium scales (30-80 m). However, parameter n had a strong positive correlation only with Bd at scales between 20 and 80 m. Neither of the two retention parameters had significant wavelet coherency with organic carbon content. These results suggested that location-dependent scale analyses are necessary to improve the performance for soil water retention characteristic predictions.

Petrofacies Analysis - A Petrophysical Tool for Geologic/Engineering Reservoir Characterization

USGS Publications Warehouse

Watney, W.L.; Guy, W.J.; Doveton, J.H.; Bhattacharya, S.; Gerlach, P.M.; Bohling, Geoffrey C.; Carr, T.R.

1998-01-01

Petrofacies analysis is defined as the characterization and classification of pore types and fluid saturations as revealed by petrophysical measurements of a reservoir. The word "petrofacies" makes an explicit link between petroleum engineers' concerns with pore characteristics as arbiters of production performance and the facies paradigm of geologists as a methodology for genetic understanding and prediction. In petrofacies analysis, the porosity and resistivity axes of the classical Pickett plot are used to map water saturation, bulk volume water, and estimated permeability, as well as capillary pressure information where it is available. When data points are connected in order of depth within a reservoir, the characteristic patterns reflect reservoir rock character and its interplay with the hydrocarbon column. A third variable can be presented at each point on the crossplot by assigning a color scale that is based on other well logs, often gamma ray or photoelectric effect, or other derived variables. Contrasts between reservoir pore types and fluid saturations are reflected in changing patterns on the crossplot and can help discriminate and characterize reservoir heterogeneity. Many hundreds of analyses of well logs facilitated by spreadsheet and object-oriented programming have provided the means to distinguish patterns typical of certain complex pore types (size and connectedness) for sandstones and carbonate reservoirs, occurrences of irreducible water saturation, and presence of transition zones. The result has been an improved means to evaluate potential production, such as bypassed pay behind pipe and in old exploration wells, or to assess zonation and continuity of the reservoir. Petrofacies analysis in this study was applied to distinguishing flow units and including discriminating pore type as an assessment of reservoir conformance and continuity. The analysis is facilitated through the use of colorimage cross sections depicting depositional sequences

Applicability of Different Hydraulic Parameters to Describe Soil Detachment in Eroding Rills

PubMed Central

Wirtz, Stefan; Seeger, Manuel; Zell, Andreas; Wagner, Christian; Wagner, Jean-Frank; Ries, Johannes B.

2013-01-01

This study presents the comparison of experimental results with assumptions used in numerical models. The aim of the field experiments is to test the linear relationship between different hydraulic parameters and soil detachment. For example correlations between shear stress, unit length shear force, stream power, unit stream power and effective stream power and the detachment rate does not reveal a single parameter which consistently displays the best correlation. More importantly, the best fit does not only vary from one experiment to another, but even between distinct measurement points. Different processes in rill erosion are responsible for the changing correlations. However, not all these procedures are considered in soil erosion models. Hence, hydraulic parameters alone are not sufficient to predict detachment rates. They predict the fluvial incising in the rill's bottom, but the main sediment sources are not considered sufficiently in its equations. The results of this study show that there is still a lack of understanding of the physical processes underlying soil erosion. Exerted forces, soil stability and its expression, the abstraction of the detachment and transport processes in shallow flowing water remain still subject of unclear description and dependence. PMID:23717669

Soil Parameters Drive the Structure, Diversity and Metabolic Potentials of the Bacterial Communities Across Temperate Beech Forest Soil Sequences.

PubMed

Jeanbille, M; Buée, M; Bach, C; Cébron, A; Frey-Klett, P; Turpault, M P; Uroz, S

2016-02-01

Soil and climatic conditions as well as land cover and land management have been shown to strongly impact the structure and diversity of the soil bacterial communities. Here, we addressed under a same land cover the potential effect of the edaphic parameters on the soil bacterial communities, excluding potential confounding factors as climate. To do this, we characterized two natural soil sequences occurring in the Montiers experimental site. Spatially distant soil samples were collected below Fagus sylvatica tree stands to assess the effect of soil sequences on the edaphic parameters, as well as the structure and diversity of the bacterial communities. Soil analyses revealed that the two soil sequences were characterized by higher pH and calcium and magnesium contents in the lower plots. Metabolic assays based on Biolog Ecoplates highlighted higher intensity and richness in usable carbon substrates in the lower plots than in the middle and upper plots, although no significant differences occurred in the abundance of bacterial and fungal communities along the soil sequences as assessed using quantitative PCR. Pyrosequencing analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene amplicons revealed that Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the most abundantly represented phyla. Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria and Chlamydiae were significantly enriched in the most acidic and nutrient-poor soils compared to the Bacteroidetes, which were significantly enriched in the soils presenting the higher pH and nutrient contents. Interestingly, aluminium, nitrogen, calcium, nutrient availability and pH appeared to be the best predictors of the bacterial community structures along the soil sequences.

Investigating the relationship between a soils classification and the spatial parameters of a conceptual catchment-scale hydrological model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunn, S. M.; Lilly, A.

2001-10-01

There are now many examples of hydrological models that utilise the capabilities of Geographic Information Systems to generate spatially distributed predictions of behaviour. However, the spatial variability of hydrological parameters relating to distributions of soils and vegetation can be hard to establish. In this paper, the relationship between a soil hydrological classification Hydrology of Soil Types (HOST) and the spatial parameters of a conceptual catchment-scale model is investigated. A procedure involving inverse modelling using Monte-Carlo simulations on two catchments is developed to identify relative values for soil related parameters of the DIY model. The relative values determine the internal variability of hydrological processes as a function of the soil type. For three out of the four soil parameters studied, the variability between HOST classes was found to be consistent across two catchments when tested independently. Problems in identifying values for the fourth 'fast response distance' parameter have highlighted a potential limitation with the present structure of the model. The present assumption that this parameter can be related simply to soil type rather than topography appears to be inadequate. With the exclusion of this parameter, calibrated parameter sets from one catchment can be converted into equivalent parameter sets for the alternate catchment on the basis of their HOST distributions, to give a reasonable simulation of flow. Following further testing on different catchments, and modifications to the definition of the fast response distance parameter, the technique provides a methodology whereby it is possible to directly derive spatial soil parameters for new catchments.

Using data to inform soil microbial carbon model structure and parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hagerty, S. B.; Schimel, J.

2016-12-01

There is increasing consensus that explicitly representing microbial mechanisms in soil carbon models can improve model predictions of future soil carbon stocks. However, which microbial mechanisms must be represented in these new models and how remains under debate. One of the major challenges in developing microbially explicit soil carbon models is that there is little data available to validate model structure. Empirical studies of microbial mechanisms often fail to capture the full range of microbial processes; from the cellular processes that occur within minutes to hours of substrate consumption to community turnover which may occur over weeks or longer. We added isotopically labeled 14C-glucose to soil incubated in the lab and traced its movement into the microbial biomass, carbon dioxide, and K2SO4 extractable carbon pool. We measured the concentration of 14C in each of these pools at 1, 3, 6, 24, and 72 hours and at 7, 14, and 21 days. We used this data to compare data fits among models that match our conceptual understanding of microbial carbon transformations and to estimate microbial parameters that control the fate of soil carbon. Over 90% of the added glucose was consumed within the first hour after it was added and concentration of the label was highest in biomass at this time. After the first hour, the label in biomass declined, with the rate that the label moved from the biomass slowing after 24hours, because of this models representing the microbial biomass as two pools fit best. Recovery of the label decreased with incubation time, from nearly 80% in the first hour to 67% after three weeks, indicating that carbon is moving into unextractable pools in the soil likely as microbial products and necromass sorb to soil particles and that these mechanisms must be represented in microbial models. This data fitting exercise demonstrates how isotopic data can be useful in validating model structure and estimating microbial model parameters. Future studies

Identification of sensitive parameters in the modeling of SVOC reemission processes from soil to atmosphere.

PubMed

Loizeau, Vincent; Ciffroy, Philippe; Roustan, Yelva; Musson-Genon, Luc

2014-09-15

Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are subject to Long-Range Atmospheric Transport because of transport-deposition-reemission successive processes. Several experimental data available in the literature suggest that soil is a non-negligible contributor of SVOCs to atmosphere. Then coupling soil and atmosphere in integrated coupled models and simulating reemission processes can be essential for estimating atmospheric concentration of several pollutants. However, the sources of uncertainty and variability are multiple (soil properties, meteorological conditions, chemical-specific parameters) and can significantly influence the determination of reemissions. In order to identify the key parameters in reemission modeling and their effect on global modeling uncertainty, we conducted a sensitivity analysis targeted on the 'reemission' output variable. Different parameters were tested, including soil properties, partition coefficients and meteorological conditions. We performed EFAST sensitivity analysis for four chemicals (benzo-a-pyrene, hexachlorobenzene, PCB-28 and lindane) and different spatial scenari (regional and continental scales). Partition coefficients between air, solid and water phases are influent, depending on the precision of data and global behavior of the chemical. Reemissions showed a lower variability to soil parameters (soil organic matter and water contents at field capacity and wilting point). A mapping of these parameters at a regional scale is sufficient to correctly estimate reemissions when compared to other sources of uncertainty. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biological parameters in technogenic soils of a former sulphur mine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siwik-Ziomek, Anetta; Brzezińska, Małgorzata; Lemanowicz, Joanna; Koper, Jan; Szarlip, Paweł

2018-04-01

This study was conducted on the soils originating from a reclamation area of the former sulphur mine in Tarnobrzeg, Poland. Soil was sampled 16 years after the completion of mining works with the open-pit method at Machów, as well as 7 years after sulphur mining via the `smelting' method in the Jeziórko mine was abandoned. Several biological parameters were examined: soil respiration, soil microbial biomass and the activity of rhodanese and arylsulphatase enzymes taking part in sulphur transformation within the site's soils. The soils showed a high total sulphur and sulphates content. The SO42- constituted a large fraction of total sulphur, in some cases, exceeding 80% or even 95% of total sulphur. The soil pH decreased due to the degrading effects of sulphur mining. In the soils studied from the locations with the lowest soil pH value, no activity of arylsulphatase was reported and the activity of rhodanese was lowest. The highest soil respiration values were recorded from the 0-5 cm layer in the areas covered with forest vegetation. A high soil respiration value at the waste heap at Machów wherein a very high concentration of Stot and SO42- was observed can be due to the ability of fungi to produce hyphal strands and to survive unfavourable conditions.

Distributed Soil Moisture Estimation in a Mountainous Semiarid Basin: Constraining Soil Parameter Uncertainty through Field Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yatheendradas, S.; Vivoni, E.

2007-12-01

A common practice in distributed hydrological modeling is to assign soil hydraulic properties based on coarse textural datasets. For semiarid regions with poor soil information, the performance of a model can be severely constrained due to the high model sensitivity to near-surface soil characteristics. Neglecting the uncertainty in soil hydraulic properties, their spatial variation and their naturally-occurring horizonation can potentially affect the modeled hydrological response. In this study, we investigate such effects using the TIN-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS) applied to the mid-sized (100 km2) Sierra Los Locos watershed in northern Sonora, Mexico. The Sierra Los Locos basin is characterized by complex mountainous terrain leading to topographic organization of soil characteristics and ecosystem distributions. We focus on simulations during the 2004 North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) when intensive soil moisture measurements and aircraft- based soil moisture retrievals are available in the basin. Our experiments focus on soil moisture comparisons at the point, topographic transect and basin scales using a range of different soil characterizations. We compare the distributed soil moisture estimates obtained using (1) a deterministic simulation based on soil texture from coarse soil maps, (2) a set of ensemble simulations that capture soil parameter uncertainty and their spatial distribution, and (3) a set of simulations that conditions the ensemble on recent soil profile measurements. Uncertainties considered in near-surface soil characterization provide insights into their influence on the modeled uncertainty, into the value of soil profile observations, and into effective use of on-going field observations for constraining the soil moisture response uncertainty.

Acoustic and Petrophysical Evolution of Organic-Rich Chalk Following Maturation Induced by Unconfined Pyrolysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shitrit, Omri; Hatzor, Yossef H.; Feinstein, Shimon; Vinegar, Harold J.

2017-12-01

Thermal maturation is known to influence the rock physics of organic-rich rocks. While most studies were performed on low-porosity organic-rich shales, here we examine the effect of thermal maturation on a high-porosity organic-rich chalk. We compare the physical properties of native state immature rock with the properties at two pyrolysis-simulated maturity levels: early-mature and over-mature. We further evaluate the applicability of results from unconfined pyrolysis experiments to naturally matured rock properties. Special attention is dedicated to the elastic properties of the organic phase and the influence of bitumen and kerogen contents. Rock physics is studied based on confined petrophysical measurements of porosity, density and permeability, and measurements of bedding-normal acoustic velocities at estimated field stresses. Geochemical parameters like total organic carbon (TOC), bitumen content and thermal maturation indicators are used to monitor variations in density and volume fraction of each phase. We find that porosity increases significantly upon pyrolysis and that P wave velocity decreases in accordance. Solids density versus TOC relationships indicate that the kerogen increases its density from 1.43 to 1.49 g/cc at the immature and early-mature stages to 2.98 g/cc at the over-mature stage. This density value is unusually high, although increase in S wave velocity and backscatter SEM images of the over-mature samples verify that the over-mature kerogen is significantly denser and stiffer. Using the petrophysical and acoustic properties, the elastic moduli of the rock are estimated by two Hashin-Shtrikman (HS)-based models: "HS + BAM" and "HS kerogen." The "HS + BAM" model is calibrated to the post-pyrolysis measurements to describe the mechanical effect of the unconfined pyrolysis on the rock. The absence of compaction in the pyrolysis process causes the post-pyrolysis samples to be extremely porous. The "HS kerogen" model, which simulates a

Correlation between soil physicochemical properties and vegetation parameters in secondary tropical forest in Sabal, Sarawak, Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karyati, K.; Ipor, I. B.; Jusoh, I.; Wasli, M. E.

2018-04-01

The tree growth is influenced by soil morphological and physicochemical properties in the site. The purpose of this study was to describe correlation between soil properties under various stage secondary forests and vegetation parameters, such as floristic structure parameters and floristic diversity indices. The vegetation surveys were conducted in 5, 10, and 20 years old at secondary tropical forests in Sarawak, Malaysia. Nine sub plots sized 20 m × 20 m were established within each study site. The Pearson analysis showed that soil physicochemical properties were significantly correlated to floristic structure parameters and floristic diversity indices. The result of PCA clarified the correlation among most important soil properties, floristic structure parameters, and floristic diversity indices. The PC1 represented cation retention capacity and soil texture which were little affected by the fallow age and its also were correlated by floristic structure and diversity. The PC2 was linked to the levels of soil acidity. This property reflected the remnant effects of ash addition and fallow duration, and the significant correlation were showed among pH (H2O), floristic structure and diversity. The PC3 represented the soil compactness. The soil hardness could be influenced by fallow period and it was also correlated by floristic structure.

Soil and vegetation parameter uncertainty on future terrestrial carbon sinks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kothavala, Z.; Felzer, B. S.

2013-12-01

We examine the role of the terrestrial carbon cycle in a changing climate at the centennial scale using an intermediate complexity Earth system climate model that includes the effects of dynamic vegetation and the global carbon cycle. We present a series of ensemble simulations to evaluate the sensitivity of simulated terrestrial carbon sinks to three key model parameters: (a) The temperature dependence of soil carbon decomposition, (b) the upper temperature limits on the rate of photosynthesis, and (c) the nitrogen limitation of the maximum rate of carboxylation of Rubisco. We integrated the model in fully coupled mode for a 1200-year spin-up period, followed by a 300-year transient simulation starting at year 1800. Ensemble simulations were conducted varying each parameter individually and in combination with other variables. The results of the transient simulations show that terrestrial carbon uptake is very sensitive to the choice of model parameters. Changes in net primary productivity were most sensitive to the upper temperature limit on the rate of photosynthesis, which also had a dominant effect on overall land carbon trends; this is consistent with previous research that has shown the importance of climatic suppression of photosynthesis as a driver of carbon-climate feedbacks. Soil carbon generally decreased with increasing temperature, though the magnitude of this trend depends on both the net primary productivity changes and the temperature dependence of soil carbon decomposition. Vegetation carbon increased in some simulations, but this was not consistent across all configurations of model parameters. Comparing to global carbon budget observations, we identify the subset of model parameters which are consistent with observed carbon sinks; this serves to narrow considerably the future model projections of terrestrial carbon sink changes in comparison with the full model ensemble.

Predicted Infiltration for Sodic/Saline Soils from Reclaimed Coastal Areas: Sensitivity to Model Parameters

PubMed Central

She, Dongli; Yu, Shuang'en; Shao, Guangcheng

2014-01-01

This study was conducted to assess the influences of soil surface conditions and initial soil water content on water movement in unsaturated sodic soils of reclaimed coastal areas. Data was collected from column experiments in which two soils from a Chinese coastal area reclaimed in 2007 (Soil A, saline) and 1960 (Soil B, nonsaline) were used, with bulk densities of 1.4 or 1.5 g/cm3. A 1D-infiltration model was created using a finite difference method and its sensitivity to hydraulic related parameters was tested. The model well simulated the measured data. The results revealed that soil compaction notably affected the water retention of both soils. Model simulations showed that increasing the ponded water depth had little effect on the infiltration process, since the increases in cumulative infiltration and wetting front advancement rate were small. However, the wetting front advancement rate increased and the cumulative infiltration decreased to a greater extent when θ 0 was increased. Soil physical quality was described better by the S parameter than by the saturated hydraulic conductivity since the latter was also affected by the physical chemical effects on clay swelling occurring in the presence of different levels of electrolytes in the soil solutions of the two soils. PMID:25197699

Predicted infiltration for sodic/saline soils from reclaimed coastal areas: sensitivity to model parameters.

PubMed

Liu, Dongdong; She, Dongli; Yu, Shuang'en; Shao, Guangcheng; Chen, Dan

2014-01-01

This study was conducted to assess the influences of soil surface conditions and initial soil water content on water movement in unsaturated sodic soils of reclaimed coastal areas. Data was collected from column experiments in which two soils from a Chinese coastal area reclaimed in 2007 (Soil A, saline) and 1960 (Soil B, nonsaline) were used, with bulk densities of 1.4 or 1.5 g/cm(3). A 1D-infiltration model was created using a finite difference method and its sensitivity to hydraulic related parameters was tested. The model well simulated the measured data. The results revealed that soil compaction notably affected the water retention of both soils. Model simulations showed that increasing the ponded water depth had little effect on the infiltration process, since the increases in cumulative infiltration and wetting front advancement rate were small. However, the wetting front advancement rate increased and the cumulative infiltration decreased to a greater extent when θ₀ was increased. Soil physical quality was described better by the S parameter than by the saturated hydraulic conductivity since the latter was also affected by the physical chemical effects on clay swelling occurring in the presence of different levels of electrolytes in the soil solutions of the two soils.

Coupled Land Surface-Subsurface Hydrogeophysical Inverse Modeling to Estimate Soil Organic Carbon Content in an Arctic Tundra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, A. P.; Dafflon, B.; Hubbard, S.

2017-12-01

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is crucial for predicting carbon climate feedbacks in the vulnerable organic-rich Arctic region. However, it is challenging to achieve this property due to the general limitations of conventional core sampling and analysis methods. In this study, we develop an inversion scheme that uses single or multiple datasets, including soil liquid water content, temperature and ERT data, to estimate the vertical profile of SOC content. Our approach relies on the fact that SOC content strongly influences soil hydrological-thermal parameters, and therefore, indirectly controls the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil liquid water content, temperature and their correlated electrical resistivity. The scheme includes several advantages. First, this is the first time SOC content is estimated by using a coupled hydrogeophysical inversion. Second, by using the Community Land Model, we can account for the land surface dynamics (evapotranspiration, snow accumulation and melting) and ice/liquid phase transition. Third, we combine a deterministic and an adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo optimization algorithm to better estimate the posterior distributions of desired model parameters. Finally, the simulated subsurface variables are explicitly linked to soil electrical resistivity via petrophysical and geophysical models. We validate the developed scheme using synthetic experiments. The results show that compared to inversion of single dataset, joint inversion of these datasets significantly reduces parameter uncertainty. The joint inversion approach is able to estimate SOC content within the shallow active layer with high reliability. Next, we apply the scheme to estimate OC content along an intensive ERT transect in Barrow, Alaska using multiple datasets acquired in the 2013-2015 period. The preliminary results show a good agreement between modeled and measured soil temperature, thaw layer thickness and electrical resistivity. The accuracy of estimated SOC content

Mapping of bare soil surface parameters from TerraSAR-X radar images over a semi-arid region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gorrab, A.; Zribi, M.; Baghdadi, N.; Lili Chabaane, Z.

2015-10-01

The goal of this paper is to analyze the sensitivity of X-band SAR (TerraSAR-X) signals as a function of different physical bare soil parameters (soil moisture, soil roughness), and to demonstrate that it is possible to estimate of both soil moisture and texture from the same experimental campaign, using a single radar signal configuration (one incidence angle, one polarization). Firstly, we analyzed statistically the relationships between X-band SAR (TerraSAR-X) backscattering signals function of soil moisture and different roughness parameters (the root mean square height Hrms, the Zs parameter and the Zg parameter) at HH polarization and for an incidence angle about 36°, over a semi-arid site in Tunisia (North Africa). Results have shown a high sensitivity of real radar data to the two soil parameters: roughness and moisture. A linear relationship is obtained between volumetric soil moisture and radar signal. A logarithmic correlation is observed between backscattering coefficient and all roughness parameters. The highest dynamic sensitivity is obtained with Zg parameter. Then, we proposed to retrieve of both soil moisture and texture using these multi-temporal X-band SAR images. Our approach is based on the change detection method and combines the seven radar images with different continuous thetaprobe measurements. To estimate soil moisture from X-band SAR data, we analyzed statistically the sensitivity between radar measurements and ground soil moisture derived from permanent thetaprobe stations. Our approaches are applied over bare soil class identified from an optical image SPOT / HRV acquired in the same period of measurements. Results have shown linear relationship for the radar signals as a function of volumetric soil moisture with high sensitivity about 0.21 dB/vol%. For estimation of change in soil moisture, we considered two options: (1) roughness variations during the three-month radar acquisition campaigns were not accounted for; (2) a simple

Relationship between genetic parameters in maize (Zea mays) with seedling growth parameters under 40-100% soil moisture conditions.

PubMed

Muhammad, R W; Qayyum, A

2013-10-18

We estimated the association of genetic parameters with production characters in 64 maize (Zea mays) genotypes in a green house in soil with 40-100% moisture levels (percent of soil moisture capacity). To identify the major parameters that account for variation among the genotypes, we used single linkage cluster analysis and principle component analysis. Ten plant characters were measured. The first two, four, three, and again three components, with eigen values > 1 contributed 75.05, 80.11, 68.67, and 75.87% of the variability among the genotypes under the different moisture levels, i.e., 40, 60, 80, and 100%, respectively. Other principal components (3-10, 5-10, and 4-10) had eigen values less than 1. The highest estimates of heritability were found for root fresh weight, root volume (0.99), and shoot fresh weight (0.995) in 40% soil moisture. Values of genetic advance ranged from 23.4024 for SR at 40% soil moisture to 0.2538 for shoot dry weight in 60% soil moisture. The high magnitude of broad sense heritability provides evidence that these plant characters are under the control of additive genetic effects. This indicates that selection should lead to fast genetic improvement of the material. The superior agronomic types that we identified may be exploited for genetic potential to improve yield potential of the maize crop.

Microbial models with data-driven parameters predict stronger soil carbon responses to climate change.

PubMed

Hararuk, Oleksandra; Smith, Matthew J; Luo, Yiqi

2015-06-01

Long-term carbon (C) cycle feedbacks to climate depend on the future dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC). Current models show low predictive accuracy at simulating contemporary SOC pools, which can be improved through parameter estimation. However, major uncertainty remains in global soil responses to climate change, particularly uncertainty in how the activity of soil microbial communities will respond. To date, the role of microbes in SOC dynamics has been implicitly described by decay rate constants in most conventional global carbon cycle models. Explicitly including microbial biomass dynamics into C cycle model formulations has shown potential to improve model predictive performance when assessed against global SOC databases. This study aimed to data-constrained parameters of two soil microbial models, evaluate the improvements in performance of those calibrated models in predicting contemporary carbon stocks, and compare the SOC responses to climate change and their uncertainties between microbial and conventional models. Microbial models with calibrated parameters explained 51% of variability in the observed total SOC, whereas a calibrated conventional model explained 41%. The microbial models, when forced with climate and soil carbon input predictions from the 5th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), produced stronger soil C responses to 95 years of climate change than any of the 11 CMIP5 models. The calibrated microbial models predicted between 8% (2-pool model) and 11% (4-pool model) soil C losses compared with CMIP5 model projections which ranged from a 7% loss to a 22.6% gain. Lastly, we observed unrealistic oscillatory SOC dynamics in the 2-pool microbial model. The 4-pool model also produced oscillations, but they were less prominent and could be avoided, depending on the parameter values. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Topsoil structure stability in a restored floodplain: Impacts of fluctuating water levels, soil parameters and ecosystem engineers.

PubMed

Schomburg, A; Schilling, O S; Guenat, C; Schirmer, M; Le Bayon, R C; Brunner, P

2018-10-15

Ecosystem services provided by floodplains are strongly controlled by the structural stability of soils. The development of a stable structure in floodplain soils is affected by a complex and poorly understood interplay of hydrological, physico-chemical and biological processes. This paper aims at analysing relations between fluctuating groundwater levels, soil physico-chemical and biological parameters on soil structure stability in a restored floodplain. Water level fluctuations in the soil are modelled using a numerical surface-water-groundwater flow model and correlated to soil physico-chemical parameters and abundances of plants and earthworms. Causal relations and multiple interactions between the investigated parameters are tested through structural equation modelling (SEM). Fluctuating water levels in the soil did not directly affect the topsoil structure stability, but indirectly through affecting plant roots and soil parameters that in turn determine topsoil structure stability. These relations remain significant for mean annual days of complete and partial (>25%) water saturation. Ecosystem functioning of a restored floodplain might already be affected by the fluctuation of groundwater levels alone, and not only through complete flooding by surface water during a flood period. Surprisingly, abundances of earthworms did not show any relation to other variables in the SEM. These findings emphasise that earthworms have efficiently adapted to periodic stress and harsh environmental conditions. Variability of the topsoil structure stability is thus stronger driven by the influence of fluctuating water levels on plants than by the abundance of earthworms. This knowledge about the functional network of soil engineering organisms, soil parameters and fluctuating water levels and how they affect soil structural stability is of fundamental importance to define management strategies of near-natural or restored floodplains in the future. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B

The benefits of using remotely sensed soil moisture in parameter identification of large-scale hydrological models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wanders, N.; Bierkens, M. F. P.; de Jong, S. M.; de Roo, A.; Karssenberg, D.

2014-08-01

Large-scale hydrological models are nowadays mostly calibrated using observed discharge. As a result, a large part of the hydrological system, in particular the unsaturated zone, remains uncalibrated. Soil moisture observations from satellites have the potential to fill this gap. Here we evaluate the added value of remotely sensed soil moisture in calibration of large-scale hydrological models by addressing two research questions: (1) Which parameters of hydrological models can be identified by calibration with remotely sensed soil moisture? (2) Does calibration with remotely sensed soil moisture lead to an improved calibration of hydrological models compared to calibration based only on discharge observations, such that this leads to improved simulations of soil moisture content and discharge? A dual state and parameter Ensemble Kalman Filter is used to calibrate the hydrological model LISFLOOD for the Upper Danube. Calibration is done using discharge and remotely sensed soil moisture acquired by AMSR-E, SMOS, and ASCAT. Calibration with discharge data improves the estimation of groundwater and routing parameters. Calibration with only remotely sensed soil moisture results in an accurate identification of parameters related to land-surface processes. For the Upper Danube upstream area up to 40,000 km2, calibration on both discharge and soil moisture results in a reduction by 10-30% in the RMSE for discharge simulations, compared to calibration on discharge alone. The conclusion is that remotely sensed soil moisture holds potential for calibration of hydrological models, leading to a better simulation of soil moisture content throughout the catchment and a better simulation of discharge in upstream areas. This article was corrected on 15 SEP 2014. See the end of the full text for details.

Predicting Soil Salinity with Vis–NIR Spectra after Removing the Effects of Soil Moisture Using External Parameter Orthogonalization

PubMed Central

Liu, Ya; Pan, Xianzhang; Wang, Changkun; Li, Yanli; Shi, Rongjie

2015-01-01

Robust models for predicting soil salinity that use visible and near-infrared (vis–NIR) reflectance spectroscopy are needed to better quantify soil salinity in agricultural fields. Currently available models are not sufficiently robust for variable soil moisture contents. Thus, we used external parameter orthogonalization (EPO), which effectively projects spectra onto the subspace orthogonal to unwanted variation, to remove the variations caused by an external factor, e.g., the influences of soil moisture on spectral reflectance. In this study, 570 spectra between 380 and 2400 nm were obtained from soils with various soil moisture contents and salt concentrations in the laboratory; 3 soil types × 10 salt concentrations × 19 soil moisture levels were used. To examine the effectiveness of EPO, we compared the partial least squares regression (PLSR) results established from spectra with and without EPO correction. The EPO method effectively removed the effects of moisture, and the accuracy and robustness of the soil salt contents (SSCs) prediction model, which was built using the EPO-corrected spectra under various soil moisture conditions, were significantly improved relative to the spectra without EPO correction. This study contributes to the removal of soil moisture effects from soil salinity estimations when using vis–NIR reflectance spectroscopy and can assist others in quantifying soil salinity in the future. PMID:26468645

Spatial Prediction of Soil Classes by Using Soil Weathering Parameters Derived from vis-NIR Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramirez-Lopez, Leonardo; Alexandre Dematte, Jose

2010-05-01

There is consensus in the scientific community about the great need of spatial soil information. Conventional mapping methods are time consuming and involve high costs. Digital soil mapping has emerged as an area in which the soil mapping is optimized by the application of mathematical and statistical approaches, as well as the application of expert knowledge in pedology. In this sense, the objective of the study was to develop a methodology for the spatial prediction of soil classes by using soil spectroscopy methodologies related with fieldwork, spectral data from satellite image and terrain attributes in simultaneous. The studied area is located in São Paulo State, and comprised an area of 473 ha, which was covered by a regular grid (100 x 100 m). In each grid node was collected soil samples at two depths (layers A and B). There were extracted 206 samples from transect sections and submitted to soil analysis (clay, Al2O3, Fe2O3, SiO2 TiO2, and weathering index). The first analog soil class map (ASC-N) contains only soil information regarding from orders to subgroups of the USDA Soil Taxonomy System. The second (ASC-H) map contains some additional information related to some soil attributes like color, ferric levels and base sum. For the elaboration of the digital soil maps the data was divided into three groups: i) Predicted soil attributes of the layer B (related to the soil weathering) which were obtained by using a local soil spectral library; ii) Spectral bands data extracted from a Landsat image; and iii) Terrain parameters. This information was summarized by a principal component analysis (PCA) in each group. Digital soil maps were generated by supervised classification using a maximum likelihood method. The trainee information for this classification was extracted from five toposequences based on the analog soil class maps. The spectral models of weathering soil attributes shown a high predictive performance with low error (R2 0.71 to 0.90). The spatial

Influence of xenobiotics on the microbiological and agrochemical parameters of soddy-podzolic soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vakkerov-Kouzova, N. D.

2010-08-01

We studied the influence of various chemical compounds, i.e., azobenzene (an insecticide and acaricide), nitrification inhibitors (DCD, dicyandiamide and DMPP, and 3,4-dimetylpyrazolphosphate), and inhibitors of urease activity (HQ-hydroquinone), on the agrochemical and microbiological parameters of a soddy-podzolic soil. It is proved that these xenobiotics are able to influence the agrochemical parameters (the pH and the content of NO{3/-} and NH{4/+}, the microbial activity (the basal respiration, the microbial mass carbon, and the microbial quotient), and the number of bacteria of different physiological groups in soddypodzolic soil. The influence of the xenobiotics was preserved for some time, which testified to their persistence in the soil. Upon cultivating the soil microorganisms in different media, the growth of the heterotrophic bacteria was inhibited, the radial growth velocity was slowed down, and the sporogenesis of the micromycetes was retarded. The toxic effect of the xenobiotics was higher with their increasing concentrations.

The benefits of using remotely sensed soil moisture in parameter identification of large-scale hydrological models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karssenberg, D.; Wanders, N.; de Roo, A.; de Jong, S.; Bierkens, M. F.

2013-12-01

Large-scale hydrological models are nowadays mostly calibrated using observed discharge. As a result, a large part of the hydrological system that is not directly linked to discharge, in particular the unsaturated zone, remains uncalibrated, or might be modified unrealistically. Soil moisture observations from satellites have the potential to fill this gap, as these provide the closest thing to a direct measurement of the state of the unsaturated zone, and thus are potentially useful in calibrating unsaturated zone model parameters. This is expected to result in a better identification of the complete hydrological system, potentially leading to improved forecasts of the hydrograph as well. Here we evaluate this added value of remotely sensed soil moisture in calibration of large-scale hydrological models by addressing two research questions: 1) Which parameters of hydrological models can be identified by calibration with remotely sensed soil moisture? 2) Does calibration with remotely sensed soil moisture lead to an improved calibration of hydrological models compared to approaches that calibrate only with discharge, such that this leads to improved forecasts of soil moisture content and discharge as well? To answer these questions we use a dual state and parameter ensemble Kalman filter to calibrate the hydrological model LISFLOOD for the Upper Danube area. Calibration is done with discharge and remotely sensed soil moisture acquired by AMSR-E, SMOS and ASCAT. Four scenarios are studied: no calibration (expert knowledge), calibration on discharge, calibration on remote sensing data (three satellites) and calibration on both discharge and remote sensing data. Using a split-sample approach, the model is calibrated for a period of 2 years and validated for the calibrated model parameters on a validation period of 10 years. Results show that calibration with discharge data improves the estimation of groundwater parameters (e.g., groundwater reservoir constant) and

Potential of Sentinel-1 Radar Data for the Assessment of Soil and Cereal Cover Parameters.

PubMed

Bousbih, Safa; Zribi, Mehrez; Lili-Chabaane, Zohra; Baghdadi, Nicolas; El Hajj, Mohammad; Gao, Qi; Mougenot, Bernard

2017-11-14

The main objective of this study is to analyze the potential use of Sentinel-1 (S1) radar data for the estimation of soil characteristics (roughness and water content) and cereal vegetation parameters (leaf area index (LAI), and vegetation height (H)) in agricultural areas. Simultaneously to several radar acquisitions made between 2015 and 2017, using S1 sensors over the Kairouan Plain (Tunisia, North Africa), ground measurements of soil roughness, soil water content, LAI and H were recorded. The NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) index computed from Landsat optical images revealed a strong correlation with in situ measurements of LAI. The sensitivity of the S1 measurements to variations in soil moisture, which has been reported in several scientific publications, is confirmed in this study. This sensitivity decreases with increasing vegetation cover growth (NDVI), and is stronger in the VV (vertical) polarization than in the VH cross-polarization. The results also reveal a similar increase in the dynamic range of radar signals observed in the VV and VH polarizations as a function of soil roughness. The sensitivity of S1 measurements to vegetation parameters (LAI and H) in the VV polarization is also determined, showing that the radar signal strength decreases when the vegetation parameters increase. No vegetation parameter sensitivity is observed in the VH polarization, probably as a consequence of volume scattering effects.

Potential of Sentinel-1 Radar Data for the Assessment of Soil and Cereal Cover Parameters

PubMed Central

Bousbih, Safa; Lili-Chabaane, Zohra; El Hajj, Mohammad; Gao, Qi

2017-01-01

The main objective of this study is to analyze the potential use of Sentinel-1 (S1) radar data for the estimation of soil characteristics (roughness and water content) and cereal vegetation parameters (leaf area index (LAI), and vegetation height (H)) in agricultural areas. Simultaneously to several radar acquisitions made between 2015 and 2017, using S1 sensors over the Kairouan Plain (Tunisia, North Africa), ground measurements of soil roughness, soil water content, LAI and H were recorded. The NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) index computed from Landsat optical images revealed a strong correlation with in situ measurements of LAI. The sensitivity of the S1 measurements to variations in soil moisture, which has been reported in several scientific publications, is confirmed in this study. This sensitivity decreases with increasing vegetation cover growth (NDVI), and is stronger in the VV (vertical) polarization than in the VH cross-polarization. The results also reveal a similar increase in the dynamic range of radar signals observed in the VV and VH polarizations as a function of soil roughness. The sensitivity of S1 measurements to vegetation parameters (LAI and H) in the VV polarization is also determined, showing that the radar signal strength decreases when the vegetation parameters increase. No vegetation parameter sensitivity is observed in the VH polarization, probably as a consequence of volume scattering effects. PMID:29135929

Integration of seismic and petrophysics to characterize reservoirs in "ALA" oil field, Niger Delta.

PubMed

Alao, P A; Olabode, S O; Opeloye, S A

2013-01-01

In the exploration and production business, by far the largest component of geophysical spending is driven by the need to characterize (potential) reservoirs. The simple reason is that better reservoir characterization means higher success rates and fewer wells for reservoir exploitation. In this research work, seismic and well log data were integrated in characterizing the reservoirs on "ALA" field in Niger Delta. Three-dimensional seismic data was used to identify the faults and map the horizons. Petrophysical parameters and time-depth structure maps were obtained. Seismic attributes was also employed in characterizing the reservoirs. Seven hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs with thickness ranging from 9.9 to 71.6 m were delineated. Structural maps of horizons in six wells containing hydrocarbon-bearing zones with tops and bottoms at range of -2,453 to -3,950 m were generated; this portrayed the trapping mechanism to be mainly fault-assisted anticlinal closures. The identified prospective zones have good porosity, permeability, and hydrocarbon saturation. The environments of deposition were identified from log shapes which indicate a transitional-to-deltaic depositional environment. In this research work, new prospects have been recommended for drilling and further research work. Geochemical and biostratigraphic studies should be done to better characterize the reservoirs and reliably interpret the depositional environments.

A genetic meta-algorithm-assisted inversion approach: hydrogeological study for the determination of volumetric rock properties and matrix and fluid parameters in unsaturated formations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szabó, Norbert Péter

2018-03-01

An evolutionary inversion approach is suggested for the interpretation of nuclear and resistivity logs measured by direct-push tools in shallow unsaturated sediments. The efficiency of formation evaluation is improved by estimating simultaneously (1) the petrophysical properties that vary rapidly along a drill hole with depth and (2) the zone parameters that can be treated as constant, in one inversion procedure. In the workflow, the fractional volumes of water, air, matrix and clay are estimated in adjacent depths by linearized inversion, whereas the clay and matrix properties are updated using a float-encoded genetic meta-algorithm. The proposed inversion method provides an objective estimate of the zone parameters that appear in the tool response equations applied to solve the forward problem, which can significantly increase the reliability of the petrophysical model as opposed to setting these parameters arbitrarily. The global optimization meta-algorithm not only assures the best fit between the measured and calculated data but also gives a reliable solution, practically independent of the initial model, as laboratory data are unnecessary in the inversion procedure. The feasibility test uses engineering geophysical sounding logs observed in an unsaturated loessy-sandy formation in Hungary. The multi-borehole extension of the inversion technique is developed to determine the petrophysical properties and their estimation errors along a profile of drill holes. The genetic meta-algorithmic inversion method is recommended for hydrogeophysical logging applications of various kinds to automatically extract the volumetric ratios of rock and fluid constituents as well as the most important zone parameters in a reliable inversion procedure.

[Parameters optimization and cleaning efficiency evaluation of attrition scrubbing remediation of Pb-contaminated soil].

PubMed

Yang, Wen; Huang, Jin-lou; Peng, Hui-qing; Li, Si-tuo

2013-09-01

Attrition scrubbing was used to remediate lead contaminated-site soil, and the main purpose was to remove fine particles and lead contaminants from the surface of sand. The optimal parameters of attrition scrubbing were determined by orthogonal experiment, and three soil samples with different lead concentration were subjected to attrition scrubbing experiments. The results showed that the optimal scrubbing parameters were: a solid ratio of 70% dry matter, a temperature of 25 degrees C, an attrition time of 30 min, and an attrition speed of 1200 r x min(-1). Before attrition scrubbing, the screening and analysis of soil showed that in all three soil samples, lead was mainly enriched on sand and fine particles, and the distribution of lead was highly correlated to the organic matter. After attrition scrubbing, the washing efficiency of the original state lead contaminated sand soil in triplicates was 67.61%, 31.71% and 41.01%, respectively, which indicates that attrition scrubbing can remove part of the fine soil and lead contaminants from the surface of sand, to accomplish the purpose of pollutants enrichment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the sand surface became smooth after attrition scrubbing. The results above show that attrition scrubbing has a good washing effect for the remediation of lead contaminated sand soil.

[Optimization of application parameters of soil seed bank in vegetation recovery via response surface methodology].

PubMed

He, Meng-Xuan; Li, Hong-Yuan; Mo, Xun-Qiang; Meng, Wei-Qing; Yang, Jia-Nan

2014-08-01

The thickness of surface soil, the covering thickness and the number of adding arbor seeds are all important factors to be considered in the application of soil seed bank (SSB) for vegetation recovery. To determine the optimal conditions, the Box-Behnken central composite design with three parameters and three levels was conducted and Design-Expert was used for response surface optimization. Finally, the optimal model and optimal level of each parameter were selected. The quadratic model was more suitable for response surface optimization (P < 0.0001), indicating the model had good statistical significance which could express ideal relations between all the independent variable and dependent variable. For the optimum condition, the thickness of surface soil was 4.3 cm, the covering thickness was 2 cm, and the number of adding arbor seeds was 224 ind x m(-2), under which the number of germinated seedlings could be reached up to 6222 plants x m(-2). During the process of seed germination, significant interactions between the thickness of surface soil and the covering thickness, as well as the thickness of surface soil and the number of adding arbor seeds were found, but the relationship between the covering thickness and the number of adding arbor seeds was relatively unremarkable. Among all the parameters, the thickness of surface soil was the most important one, which had the steepest curve and the largest standardized coefficient.

Relevant magnetic and soil parameters as potential indicators of soil conservation status of Mediterranean agroecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quijano, Laura; Chaparro, Marcos A. E.; Marié, Débora C.; Gaspar, Leticia; Navas, Ana

2014-09-01

The main sources of magnetic minerals in soils unaffected by anthropogenic pollution are iron oxides and hydroxides derived from parent materials through soil formation processes. Soil magnetic minerals can be used as indicators of environmental factors including soil forming processes, degree of pedogenesis, weathering processes and biological activities. In this study measurements of magnetic susceptibility are used to detect the presence and the concentration of soil magnetic minerals in topsoil and bulk samples in a small cultivated field, which forms a hydrological unit that can be considered to be representative of the rainfed agroecosystems of Mediterranean mountain environments. Additional magnetic studies such as isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) and thermomagnetic measurements are used to identify and characterize the magnetic mineralogy of soil minerals. The objectives were to analyse the spatial variability of the magnetic parameters to assess whether topographic factors, soil redistribution processes, and soil properties such as soil texture, organic matter and carbonate contents analysed in this study, are related to the spatial distribution pattern of magnetic properties. The medians of mass specific magnetic susceptibility at low frequency (χlf) were 36.0 and 31.1 × 10-8 m3 kg-1 in bulk and topsoil samples respectively. High correlation coefficients were found between the χlf in topsoil and bulk core samples (r = 0.951, p < 0.01). In addition, volumetric magnetic susceptibility was measured in situ in the field (κis) and values varied from 13.3 to 64.0 × 10-5 SI. High correlation coefficients were found between χlf in topsoil measured in the laboratory and volumetric magnetic susceptibility field measurements (r = 0.894, p < 0.01). The results obtained from magnetic studies such as IRM, ARM and thermomagnetic measurements show the presence of magnetite, which is the predominant magnetic carrier

Small scale variability of soil parameters in different land uses on the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bogner, Christina; Kühnel, Anna; Hepp, Johannes; Huwe, Bernd

2016-04-01

The Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania constitutes a particularity compared to other areas in the country. Because enough water is available the population grows rapidly and large areas are converted from natural ecosystems to agricultural areas. Therefore, the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro encompass a complex mosaic of different land uses like coffee plantations, maize, agroforestry or natural savannah. Coffee is an important cash crop in the region and is owned mostly by large companies. In contrast, the agroforestry is a traditional way of agriculture and has been sustained by the Chagga tribe for centuries. These so called homegardens are organised as multi-level systems and contain a mixture of different crops. Correlations in soil and vegetation data may serve as indicators for crop and management impacts associated to different types of land use. We hypothesize that Chagga homegardens, for example, show a more pronounced spatial autocorrelation compared to coffee plantations due to manifold above and belowground crop structures, whereas the degree of anisotropy is assumed to be higher in the coffee sites due to linear elements in management. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the overall diversity of soil parameters in homegardens on a larger scale is higher, as individual owners manage their field differently, whereas coffee plantation management often follows general rules. From these general hypotheses we derive two specific research questions: a) Are there characteristic differences in the spatial organisation of soil physical parameters of different land uses? b) Is there a recognizable relationship between vegetation structure and soil physical parameters of topsoils? We measured soil physical parameters in the topsoil (bulk density, stone content, texture, soil moisture and penetration resistance). Additionally, we took spectra of soil samples with a portable VIS-NIR spectrometer to determine C and N and measured leaf area index and troughfall as an

Identifying mechanical property parameters of planetary soil using in-situ data obtained from exploration rovers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Liang; Gao, Haibo; Liu, Zhen; Deng, Zongquan; Liu, Guangjun

2015-12-01

Identifying the mechanical property parameters of planetary soil based on terramechanics models using in-situ data obtained from autonomous planetary exploration rovers is both an important scientific goal and essential for control strategy optimization and high-fidelity simulations of rovers. However, identifying all the terrain parameters is a challenging task because of the nonlinear and coupling nature of the involved functions. Three parameter identification methods are presented in this paper to serve different purposes based on an improved terramechanics model that takes into account the effects of slip, wheel lugs, etc. Parameter sensitivity and coupling of the equations are analyzed, and the parameters are grouped according to their sensitivity to the normal force, resistance moment and drawbar pull. An iterative identification method using the original integral model is developed first. In order to realize real-time identification, the model is then simplified by linearizing the normal and shearing stresses to derive decoupled closed-form analytical equations. Each equation contains one or two groups of soil parameters, making step-by-step identification of all the unknowns feasible. Experiments were performed using six different types of single-wheels as well as a four-wheeled rover moving on planetary soil simulant. All the unknown model parameters were identified using the measured data and compared with the values obtained by conventional experiments. It is verified that the proposed iterative identification method provides improved accuracy, making it suitable for scientific studies of soil properties, whereas the step-by-step identification methods based on simplified models require less calculation time, making them more suitable for real-time applications. The models have less than 10% margin of error comparing with the measured results when predicting the interaction forces and moments using the corresponding identified parameters.

Linear Regression between CIE-Lab Color Parameters and Organic Matter in Soils of Tea Plantations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yonggen; Zhang, Min; Fan, Dongmei; Fan, Kai; Wang, Xiaochang

2018-02-01

To quantify the relationship between the soil organic matter and color parameters using the CIE-Lab system, 62 soil samples (0-10 cm, Ferralic Acrisols) from tea plantations were collected from southern China. After air-drying and sieving, numerical color information and reflectance spectra of soil samples were measured under laboratory conditions using an UltraScan VIS (HunterLab) spectrophotometer equipped with CIE-Lab color models. We found that soil total organic carbon (TOC) and nitrogen (TN) contents were negatively correlated with the L* value (lightness) ( r = -0.84 and -0.80, respectively), a* value (correlation coefficient r = -0.51 and -0.46, respectively) and b* value ( r = -0.76 and -0.70, respectively). There were also linear regressions between TOC and TN contents with the L* value and b* value. Results showed that color parameters from a spectrophotometer equipped with CIE-Lab color models can predict TOC contents well for soils in tea plantations. The linear regression model between color values and soil organic carbon contents showed it can be used as a rapid, cost-effective method to evaluate content of soil organic matter in Chinese tea plantations.

Likelihood parameter estimation for calibrating a soil moisture using radar backscatter

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Assimilating soil moisture information contained in synthetic aperture radar imagery into land surface model predictions can be done using a calibration, or parameter estimation, approach. The presence of speckle, however, necessitates aggregating backscatter measurements over large land areas in or...

Effect of tillage system and cumulative rainfall on multifractal parameters of soil surface microrelief

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vidal Vázquez, E.; Miranda, J. G. V.; Mirás-Avalos, J. M.; Díaz, M. C.; Paz-Ferreiro, J.

2009-04-01

Mathematical description of the spatial characteristics of soil surface microrelief still remains a challenge. Soil surface roughness parameters are required for modelling overland flow and erosion. The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of multifractal for analyzing the decay of initial surface roughness induced by natural rainfall under different soil tillage systems. Field experiments were performed on an Oxisol at Campinas, São Paulo State (Brazil). Six tillage treatments, namely, disc harrow, disc plow, chisel plow, disc harrow + disc level, disc plow + disc level and chisel plow + disc level were tested. In each plot soil surface microrelief was measured for times, with increasing amounts of natural rainfall using a pinmeter. The sampling scheme was a square grid with 25 x 25 mm point spacing and the plot size was 1350 x 1350 mm, so that each data set consisted of 3025 individual elevation points. Duplicated measurements were taken per treatment and date, yielding a total of 48 experimental data sets. All the investigated microrelief data sets exhibited, in general, scale properties, and the degree of multifractality showed wide differences between them. Multifractal analysis distinguishes two different patterns of soil surface microrelief, the first one has features close to monofractal spectra and the second clearly indicates multifractal behavior. Both, singularity spectra and generalized dimension spectra allow differentiating between soil tillage systems. In general, changes in values of multifractal parameters under simulated rainfall showed no or little correspondence with the evolution of the vertical microrelief component described by indices such as the standard deviation of the point height measurements. Multifractal parameters provided valuable information for chararacterizing the spatial features of soil surface microrelief as they were able to discriminate data sets with similar values for the vertical component of roughness.

Thermodynamic parameters of U (VI) sorption onto soils in aquatic systems.

PubMed

Kumar, Ajay; Rout, Sabyasachi; Ghosh, Malay; Singhal, Rakesh Kumar; Ravi, Pazhayath Mana

2013-01-01

The thermodynamic parameters viz. the standard free energy (∆Gº), Standard enthalpy change (∆Hº) and standard entropy change (∆Sº) were determined using the obtained values of distribution coefficient (kd) of U (VI) in two different types of soils (agricultural and undisturbed) by conducting a batch equilibrium experiment with aqueous media (groundwater and deionised water) at two different temperatures 25°C and 50°C. The obtained distribution coefficients (kd) values of U for undisturbed soil in groundwater showed about 75% higher than in agricultural soil at 25°C while in deionised water, these values were highly insignificant for both soils indicating that groundwater was observed to be more favorable for high surface sorption. At 50°C, the increased kd values in both soils revealed that solubility of U decreased with increasing temperature. Batch adsorption results indicated that U sorption onto soils was promoted at higher temperature and an endothermic and spontaneous interfacial process. The high positive values of ∆Sº for agricultural soil suggested a decrease in sorption capacity of U in that soil due to increased randomness at solid-solution interface. The low sorption onto agricultural soil may be due to presence of high amount of coarse particles in the form of sand (56%). Geochemical modeling predicted that mixed hydroxo-carbonato complexes of uranium were the most stable and abundant complexes in equilibrium solution during experimental.

Relations among soil radon, environmental parameters, volcanic and seismic events at Mt. Etna (Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giammanco, S.; Ferrera, E.; Cannata, A.; Montalto, P.; Neri, M.

2013-12-01

From November 2009 to April 2011 soil radon activity was continuously monitored using a Barasol probe located on the upper NE flank of Mt. Etna volcano (Italy), close both to the Piano Provenzana fault and to the NE-Rift. Seismic, volcanological and radon data were analysed together with data on environmental parameters, such as air and soil temperature, barometric pressure, snow and rain fall. In order to find possible correlations among the above parameters, and hence to reveal possible anomalous trends in the radon time-series, we used different statistical methods: i) multivariate linear regression; ii) cross-correlation; iii) coherence analysis through wavelet transform. Multivariate regression indicated a modest influence on soil radon from environmental parameters (R2 = 0.31). When using 100-day time windows, the R2 values showed wide variations in time, reaching their maxima (~0.63-0.66) during summer. Cross-correlation analysis over 100-day moving averages showed that, similar to multivariate linear regression analysis, the summer period was characterised by the best correlation between radon data and environmental parameters. Lastly, the wavelet coherence analysis allowed a multi-resolution coherence analysis of the time series acquired. This approach allowed to study the relations among different signals either in the time or in the frequency domain. It confirmed the results of the previous methods, but also allowed to recognize correlations between radon and environmental parameters at different observation scales (e.g., radon activity changed during strong precipitations, but also during anomalous variations of soil temperature uncorrelated with seasonal fluctuations). Using the above analysis, two periods were recognized when radon variations were significantly correlated with marked soil temperature changes and also with local seismic or volcanic activity. This allowed to produce two different physical models of soil gas transport that explain the

Comparison of two methods for calculating the P sorption capacity parameter in soils

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Phosphorus (P) cycling in soils is an important process affecting P movement through the landscape. The P cycling routines in many computer models are based on the relationships developed for the EPIC model. An important parameter required for this model is the P sorption capacity parameter (PSP). I...

Within-field variability of plant and soil parameters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ulaby, F. T. (Principal Investigator); Brisco, B.; Dobson, C.

1981-01-01

The variability of ground truth data collected for vegetation experiments was investigated. Two fields of wheat and one field of corn were sampled on two different dates. The variability of crop and soil parameters within a field, between two fields of the same type, and within a field over time were compared statistically. The number of samples from each test site required in order to be able to determine with confidence the mean and standard deviations for a given variable was determined. Eight samples were found to be adequate for plant height determinations, while twenty samples were required for plant moisture and soil moisture characterization. Eighteen samples were necessary for detecting within field variability over time and for between field variability for the same crop. The necessary sample sites vary according to the physiological growth stage of the crop and recent weather events that affect the moisture and/or height characteristics of the field in question.

The effect on performance and biochemical parameters when soil was added to aflatoxin-contaminated poultry rations.

PubMed

Madden, U A; Stahr, H M; Stino, F K

1999-08-01

The effects of silty clay loam soil on the performance and biochemical parameters of chicks were investigated when the soil was added to aflatoxin B1 (AFB1)-contaminated diets. One hundred 14-d-old White Leghorn chicks were fed a control ration (clean corn), a low aflatoxin-contaminated ration (120 ng AFB1/g), a high aflatoxin-contaminated ration (700 ng AFB1/g), or high aflatoxin-contaminated rations (700 ng AFB1/g) +10% or 25% soil. Body weight, feed consumption and blood samples were monitored weekly. Decreased feed consumption, body weight gain and efficiency of feed utilization, increased SGOT and LDH activities, and cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, and decreased uric acid concentrations and ALP activity were observed in the chicks fed the high aflatoxin-contaminated ration without soil. Hepatomegaly was prominent in chicks fed the high aflatoxin-contaminated ration without soil, and some livers had extensive hepatocyte vacuolation, hepatocellular swelling, fatty change and hydropic degeneration, and stained positive for fat accumulation. Addition of soil reduced the detrimental effects of AFB1 for some parameters, although the reduction was less when 10% soil was fed compared with the 25% soil feeding.

Estimating Soil and Root Parameters of Biofuel Crops using a Hydrogeophysical Inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuhl, A.; Kendall, A. D.; Van Dam, R. L.; Hyndman, D. W.

2017-12-01

Transpiration is the dominant pathway for continental water exchange to the atmosphere, and therefore a crucial aspect of modeling water balances at many scales. The root water uptake dynamics that control transpiration are dependent on soil water availability, as well as the root distribution. However, the root distribution is determined by many factors beyond the plant species alone, including climate conditions and soil texture. Despite the significant contribution of transpiration to global water fluxes, modelling the complex critical zone processes that drive root water uptake remains a challenge. Geophysical tools such as electrical resistivity (ER), have been shown to be highly sensitive to water dynamics in the unsaturated zone. ER data can be temporally and spatially robust, covering large areas or long time periods non-invasively, which is an advantage over in-situ methods. Previous studies have shown the value of using hydrogeophysical inversions to estimate soil properties. Others have used hydrological inversions to estimate both soil properties and root distribution parameters. In this study, we combine these two approaches to create a coupled hydrogeophysical inversion that estimates root and retention curve parameters for a HYDRUS model. To test the feasibility of this new approach, we estimated daily water fluxes and root growth for several biofuel crops at a long-term ecological research site in Southwest Michigan, using monthly ER data from 2009 through 2011. Time domain reflectometry data at seven depths was used to validate modeled soil moisture estimates throughout the model period. This hydrogeophysical inversion method shows promise for improving root distribution and transpiration estimates across a wide variety of settings.

Modeling soil parameters using hyperspectral image reflectance in subtropical coastal wetlands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anne, Naveen J. P.; Abd-Elrahman, Amr H.; Lewis, David B.; Hewitt, Nicole A.

2014-12-01

Developing spectral models of soil properties is an important frontier in remote sensing and soil science. Several studies have focused on modeling soil properties such as total pools of soil organic matter and carbon in bare soils. We extended this effort to model soil parameters in areas densely covered with coastal vegetation. Moreover, we investigated soil properties indicative of soil functions such as nutrient and organic matter turnover and storage. These properties include the partitioning of mineral and organic soil between particulate (>53 μm) and fine size classes, and the partitioning of soil carbon and nitrogen pools between stable and labile fractions. Soil samples were obtained from Avicennia germinans mangrove forest and Juncus roemerianus salt marsh plots on the west coast of central Florida. Spectra corresponding to field plot locations from Hyperion hyperspectral image were extracted and analyzed. The spectral information was regressed against the soil variables to determine the best single bands and optimal band combinations for the simple ratio (SR) and normalized difference index (NDI) indices. The regression analysis yielded levels of correlation for soil variables with R2 values ranging from 0.21 to 0.47 for best individual bands, 0.28 to 0.81 for two-band indices, and 0.53 to 0.96 for partial least-squares (PLS) regressions for the Hyperion image data. Spectral models using Hyperion data adequately (RPD > 1.4) predicted particulate organic matter (POM), silt + clay, labile carbon (C), and labile nitrogen (N) (where RPD = ratio of standard deviation to root mean square error of cross-validation [RMSECV]). The SR (0.53 μm, 2.11 μm) model of labile N with R2 = 0.81, RMSECV= 0.28, and RPD = 1.94 produced the best results in this study. Our results provide optimism that remote-sensing spectral models can successfully predict soil properties indicative of ecosystem nutrient and organic matter turnover and storage, and do so in areas with dense

Can we predict uranium bioavailability based on soil parameters? Part 2: soil solution uranium concentration is not a good bioavailability index.

PubMed

Vandenhove, H; Van Hees, M; Wannijn, J; Wouters, K; Wang, L

2007-01-01

The present study aimed to quantify the influence of soil parameters on uranium uptake by ryegrass. Ryegrass was established on eighteen distinct soils, spiked with (238)U. Uranium soil-to-plant transfer factors (TF) ranged from 0.0003 to 0.0340kgkg(-1). There was no significant relation between the U soil-to-plant transfer (or total U uptake or flux) and the uranium concentration in the soil solution or any other soil factor measured, nor with the U recovered following selective soil extractions. Multiple linear regression analysis resulted in a significant though complex model explaining up to 99% of variation in TF. The influence of uranium speciation on uranium uptake observed was featured: UO(2)(+2), uranyl carbonate complexes and UO(2)PO(4)(-) seem the U species being preferentially taken up by the roots and transferred to the shoots. Improved correlations were obtained when relating the uranium TF with the summed soil solution concentrations of mentioned uranium species.

Visible and near infrared spectroscopy coupled to random forest to quantify some soil quality parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Santana, Felipe Bachion; de Souza, André Marcelo; Poppi, Ronei Jesus

2018-02-01

This study evaluates the use of visible and near infrared spectroscopy (Vis-NIRS) combined with multivariate regression based on random forest to quantify some quality soil parameters. The parameters analyzed were soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), sum of exchange bases (SB), organic matter (OM), clay and sand present in the soils of several regions of Brazil. Current methods for evaluating these parameters are laborious, timely and require various wet analytical methods that are not adequate for use in precision agriculture, where faster and automatic responses are required. The random forest regression models were statistically better than PLS regression models for CEC, OM, clay and sand, demonstrating resistance to overfitting, attenuating the effect of outlier samples and indicating the most important variables for the model. The methodology demonstrates the potential of the Vis-NIR as an alternative for determination of CEC, SB, OM, sand and clay, making possible to develop a fast and automatic analytical procedure.

Detecting seasonal variations of soil parameters via field measurements and stochastic simulations in the hillslope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noh, Seong Jin; An, Hyunuk; Kim, Sanghyun

2015-04-01

Soil moisture, a critical factor in hydrologic systems, plays a key role in synthesizing interactions among soil, climate, hydrological response, solute transport and ecosystem dynamics. The spatial and temporal distribution of soil moisture at a hillslope scale is essential for understanding hillslope runoff generation processes. In this study, we implement Monte Carlo simulations in the hillslope scale using a three-dimensional surface-subsurface integrated model (3D model). Numerical simulations are compared with multiple soil moistures which had been measured using TDR(Mini_TRASE) for 22 locations in 2 or 3 depths during a whole year at a hillslope (area: 2100 square meters) located in Bongsunsa Watershed, South Korea. In stochastic simulations via Monte Carlo, uncertainty of the soil parameters and input forcing are considered and model ensembles showing good performance are selected separately for several seasonal periods. The presentation will be focused on the characterization of seasonal variations of model parameters based on simulations with field measurements. In addition, structural limitations of the contemporary modeling method will be discussed.

Stochastic analysis of uncertain thermal parameters for random thermal regime of frozen soil around a single freezing pipe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Tao; Zhou, Guoqing; Wang, Jianzhou; Zhou, Lei

2018-03-01

The artificial ground freezing method (AGF) is widely used in civil and mining engineering, and the thermal regime of frozen soil around the freezing pipe affects the safety of design and construction. The thermal parameters can be truly random due to heterogeneity of the soil properties, which lead to the randomness of thermal regime of frozen soil around the freezing pipe. The purpose of this paper is to study the one-dimensional (1D) random thermal regime problem on the basis of a stochastic analysis model and the Monte Carlo (MC) method. Considering the uncertain thermal parameters of frozen soil as random variables, stochastic processes and random fields, the corresponding stochastic thermal regime of frozen soil around a single freezing pipe are obtained and analyzed. Taking the variability of each stochastic parameter into account individually, the influences of each stochastic thermal parameter on stochastic thermal regime are investigated. The results show that the mean temperatures of frozen soil around the single freezing pipe with three analogy method are the same while the standard deviations are different. The distributions of standard deviation have a great difference at different radial coordinate location and the larger standard deviations are mainly at the phase change area. The computed data with random variable method and stochastic process method have a great difference from the measured data while the computed data with random field method well agree with the measured data. Each uncertain thermal parameter has a different effect on the standard deviation of frozen soil temperature around the single freezing pipe. These results can provide a theoretical basis for the design and construction of AGF.

Quantification of soil water retention parameters using multi-section TDR-waveform analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baviskar, S. M.; Heimovaara, T. J.

2017-06-01

Soil water retention parameters are important for describing flow in variably saturated soils. TDR is one of the standard methods used for determining water content in soil samples. In this study, we present an approach to estimate water retention parameters of a sample which is initially saturated and subjected to an incremental decrease in boundary head causing it to drain in a multi-step fashion. TDR waveforms are measured along the height of the sample at assumed different hydrostatic conditions at daily interval. The cumulative discharge outflow drained from the sample is also recorded. The saturated water content is obtained using volumetric analysis after the final step involved in multi-step drainage. The equation obtained by coupling the unsaturated parametric function and the apparent dielectric permittivity is fitted to a TDR wave propagation forward model. The unsaturated parametric function is used to spatially interpolate the water contents along TDR probe. The cumulative discharge outflow data is fitted with cumulative discharge estimated using the unsaturated parametric function. The weight of water inside the sample estimated at the first and final boundary head in multi-step drainage is fitted with the corresponding weights calculated using unsaturated parametric function. A Bayesian optimization scheme is used to obtain optimized water retention parameters for these different objective functions. This approach can be used for samples with long heights and is especially suitable for characterizing sands with a uniform particle size distribution at low capillary heads.

Advancement of a soil parameters geodatabase for the modeling assessment of conservation practice outcomes in the United States

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

US-ModSoilParms-TEMPLE is a database composed of a set of geographic databases functionally storing soil-spatial units and soil hydraulic, physical, and chemical parameters for three agriculture management simulation models, SWAT, APEX, and ALMANAC. This paper introduces the updated US-ModSoilParms-...

Moisture can be the dominant environmental parameter governing cadaver decomposition in soil.

PubMed

Carter, David O; Yellowlees, David; Tibbett, Mark

2010-07-15

Forensic taphonomy involves the use of decomposition to estimate postmortem interval (PMI) or locate clandestine graves. Yet, cadaver decomposition remains poorly understood, particularly following burial in soil. Presently, we do not know how most edaphic and environmental parameters, including soil moisture, influence the breakdown of cadavers following burial and alter the processes that are used to estimate PMI and locate clandestine graves. To address this, we buried juvenile rat (Rattus rattus) cadavers (approximately 18 g wet weight) in three contrasting soils from tropical savanna ecosystems located in Pallarenda (sand), Wambiana (medium clay), or Yabulu (loamy sand), Queensland, Australia. These soils were sieved (2mm), weighed (500 g dry weight), calibrated to a matric potential of -0.01 megapascals (MPa), -0.05 MPa, or -0.3 MPa (wettest to driest) and incubated at 22 degrees C. Measurements of cadaver decomposition included cadaver mass loss, carbon dioxide-carbon (CO(2)-C) evolution, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), protease activity, phosphodiesterase activity, ninhydrin-reactive nitrogen (NRN) and soil pH. Cadaver burial resulted in a significant increase in CO(2)-C evolution, MBC, enzyme activities, NRN and soil pH. Cadaver decomposition in loamy sand and sandy soil was greater at lower matric potentials (wetter soil). However, optimal matric potential for cadaver decomposition in medium clay was exceeded, which resulted in a slower rate of cadaver decomposition in the wettest soil. Slower cadaver decomposition was also observed at high matric potential (-0.3 MPa). Furthermore, wet sandy soil was associated with greater cadaver decomposition than wet fine-textured soil. We conclude that gravesoil moisture content can modify the relationship between temperature and cadaver decomposition and that soil microorganisms can play a significant role in cadaver breakdown. We also conclude that soil NRN is a more reliable indicator of gravesoil than soil pH. (c

Spatial variability of soil hydraulics and remotely sensed soil parameters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lascano, R. J.; Van Bavel, C. H. M.

1982-01-01

The development of methods to correctly interpret remotely sensed information about soil moisture and soil temperature requires an understanding of water and energy flow in soil, because the signals originate from the surface, or from a shallow surface layer, but reflect processes in the entire profile. One formidable difficulty in this application of soil physics is the spatial heterogeneity of natural soils. Earlier work has suggested that the heterogeneity of soil hydraulic properties may be described by the frequency distribution of a single scale factor. The sensitivity of hydraulic and energetic processes to the variation of this scale factor is explored with a suitable numerical model. It is believed that such an analysis can help in deciding how accurately and extensively basic physical properties of field soils need to be known in order to interpret thermal or radar waveband signals. It appears that the saturated hydraulic conductivity needs to be known only to its order of magnitude, and that the required accuracy of the soil water retention function is about 0.02 volume fraction. Furthermore, the results may be helpful in deciding how the total scene or view field, as perceived through a sensor, is composed from the actual mosaic of transient soil properties, such as surface temperature or surface soil moisture. However, the latter proposition presupposes a random distribution of permanent properties, a condition that may not be met in many instances, and no solution of the problem is apparent.

Simultaneous state-parameter estimation supports the evaluation of data assimilation performance and measurement design for soil-water-atmosphere-plant system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Shun; Shi, Liangsheng; Zha, Yuanyuan; Williams, Mathew; Lin, Lin

2017-12-01

Improvements to agricultural water and crop managements require detailed information on crop and soil states, and their evolution. Data assimilation provides an attractive way of obtaining these information by integrating measurements with model in a sequential manner. However, data assimilation for soil-water-atmosphere-plant (SWAP) system is still lack of comprehensive exploration due to a large number of variables and parameters in the system. In this study, simultaneous state-parameter estimation using ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) was employed to evaluate the data assimilation performance and provide advice on measurement design for SWAP system. The results demonstrated that a proper selection of state vector is critical to effective data assimilation. Especially, updating the development stage was able to avoid the negative effect of ;phenological shift;, which was caused by the contrasted phenological stage in different ensemble members. Simultaneous state-parameter estimation (SSPE) assimilation strategy outperformed updating-state-only (USO) assimilation strategy because of its ability to alleviate the inconsistency between model variables and parameters. However, the performance of SSPE assimilation strategy could deteriorate with an increasing number of uncertain parameters as a result of soil stratification and limited knowledge on crop parameters. In addition to the most easily available surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area index (LAI) measurements, deep soil moisture, grain yield or other auxiliary data were required to provide sufficient constraints on parameter estimation and to assure the data assimilation performance. This study provides an insight into the response of soil moisture and grain yield to data assimilation in SWAP system and is helpful for soil moisture movement and crop growth modeling and measurement design in practice.

A large scale GIS geodatabase of soil parameters supporting the modeling of conservation practice alternatives in the United States

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Water quality modeling requires across-scale support of combined digital soil elements and simulation parameters. This paper presents the unprecedented development of a large spatial scale (1:250,000) ArcGIS geodatabase coverage designed as a functional repository of soil-parameters for modeling an...

Integrated geomechanical, petrographical and petrophysical study of the sandstones of the Wajid Group, SW Saudi Arabia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benaafi, Mohammed; Hariri, Mustafa; Al-Shaibani, Abdulaziz; Abdullatif, Osman; Makkawi, Mohammed

2018-07-01

The Cambro-Permian siliciclastic succession in southwestern Saudi Arabia is represented by the Wajid Group, which consists mainly of fluvial, shallow marine, aeolian, and glacial sandstones. The Wajid Group comprises the Dibsiyah, Sanamah, Qalibah, Khusayyayn, and Juwayl Formations. It is exposed in the Wadi Al-Dawasir area and extends to Najran City. The sandstones of the Wajid Group serve as groundwater aquifers in the Wadi Al-Dawasir and Najran areas and host hydrocarbon (mainly gas) reservoirs in the Rub' Al-Khali Basin. This study aims to characterize the geomechanical properties (rock strength and Young's modulus) of the sandstones of the Wajid Group using field and experimental techniques. A further objective is to investigate the relationships between the geomechanical properties and the petrographical and petrophysical properties of the studied sandstones. The geomechanical properties of the studied sandstones vary from glacial to non-glacial sandstones, as the glacial sandstones display high values of the geomechanical properties with high variability indices. Four geological factors including grain size, cement content, porosity and permeability were observed as the main controls on the geomechanical behaviour of the studied sandstones except for the Khusayyayn sandstone, where the mineral composition was also important. Significant correlations were observed between the petrographical and petrophysical properties and the geomechanical properties of the glacial sandstones. Predictive models of the geomechanical properties (RN, UCS, and E) were generated using regression analysis to account for the glacial sandstones.

The modelling influence of water content to mechanical parameter of soil in analysis of slope stability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gusman, M.; Nazki, A.; Putra, R. R.

2018-04-01

One of the parameters in slope stability analysis is the shear strength of the soil. Changes in soil shear strength characteristics lead to a decrease in safety factors on the slopes. This study aims to see the effect of increased moisture content on soil mechanical parameters. The case study study was conducted on the slopes of Sitinjau Lauik Kota Padang. The research method was done by laboratory analysis and simple liniear regression analysis and multiple. Based on the test soil results show that the increase in soil water content causes a decrease in cohesion values and internal shear angle. The relationship of moisture content to cohesion is described in equation Y = 55.713-0,6X with R2 = 0.842. While the relationship of water content to shear angle in soil is described in the equation Y = 38.878-0.258X with R2 = 0.915. From several simulations of soil water level improvement, calculation of safety factor (SF) of slope. The calculation results show that the increase of groundwater content is very significant affect the safety factor (SF) slope. SF slope values are in safe condition when moisture content is 50% and when it reaches maximum water content 73.74% slope safety factor value potentially for landslide.

Inferring Land Surface Model Parameters for the Assimilation of Satellite-Based L-Band Brightness Temperature Observations into a Soil Moisture Analysis System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reichle, Rolf H.; De Lannoy, Gabrielle J. M.

2012-01-01

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite mission provides global measurements of L-band brightness temperatures at horizontal and vertical polarization and a variety of incidence angles that are sensitive to moisture and temperature conditions in the top few centimeters of the soil. These L-band observations can therefore be assimilated into a land surface model to obtain surface and root zone soil moisture estimates. As part of the observation operator, such an assimilation system requires a radiative transfer model (RTM) that converts geophysical fields (including soil moisture and soil temperature) into modeled L-band brightness temperatures. At the global scale, the RTM parameters and the climatological soil moisture conditions are still poorly known. Using look-up tables from the literature to estimate the RTM parameters usually results in modeled L-band brightness temperatures that are strongly biased against the SMOS observations, with biases varying regionally and seasonally. Such biases must be addressed within the land data assimilation system. In this presentation, the estimation of the RTM parameters is discussed for the NASA GEOS-5 land data assimilation system, which is based on the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and the Catchment land surface model. In the GEOS-5 land data assimilation system, soil moisture and brightness temperature biases are addressed in three stages. First, the global soil properties and soil hydraulic parameters that are used in the Catchment model were revised to minimize the bias in the modeled soil moisture, as verified against available in situ soil moisture measurements. Second, key parameters of the "tau-omega" RTM were calibrated prior to data assimilation using an objective function that minimizes the climatological differences between the modeled L-band brightness temperatures and the corresponding SMOS observations. Calibrated parameters include soil roughness parameters, vegetation structure parameters

Probability density of spatially distributed soil moisture inferred from crosshole georadar traveltime measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linde, N.; Vrugt, J. A.

2009-04-01

Geophysical models are increasingly used in hydrological simulations and inversions, where they are typically treated as an artificial data source with known uncorrelated "data errors". The model appraisal problem in classical deterministic linear and non-linear inversion approaches based on linearization is often addressed by calculating model resolution and model covariance matrices. These measures offer only a limited potential to assign a more appropriate "data covariance matrix" for future hydrological applications, simply because the regularization operators used to construct a stable inverse solution bear a strong imprint on such estimates and because the non-linearity of the geophysical inverse problem is not explored. We present a parallelized Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme to efficiently derive the posterior spatially distributed radar slowness and water content between boreholes given first-arrival traveltimes. This method is called DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM_ZS) with snooker updater and sampling from past states. Our inverse scheme does not impose any smoothness on the final solution, and uses uniform prior ranges of the parameters. The posterior distribution of radar slowness is converted into spatially distributed soil moisture values using a petrophysical relationship. To benchmark the performance of DREAM_ZS, we first apply our inverse method to a synthetic two-dimensional infiltration experiment using 9421 traveltimes contaminated with Gaussian errors and 80 different model parameters, corresponding to a model discretization of 0.3 m × 0.3 m. After this, the method is applied to field data acquired in the vadose zone during snowmelt. This work demonstrates that fully non-linear stochastic inversion can be applied with few limiting assumptions to a range of common two-dimensional tomographic geophysical problems. The main advantage of DREAM_ZS is that it provides a full view of the posterior distribution of spatially

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with vegetation and soil parameters under rest grazing management in a desert steppe ecosystem.

PubMed

Bai, Gegenbaoleer; Bao, Yuying; Du, Guoxin; Qi, Yunlong

2013-05-01

The impact of rest grazing on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and the interactions of AMF with vegetation and soil parameters under rest grazing condition were investigated between spring and late summer in a desert steppe ecosystem with different grazing managements (rest grazing with different lengths of resting period, banned or continuous grazing) in Inner Mongolia, China. AMF diversity and colonization, vegetation biomass, soil properties and soil phosphatase activity were examined. In rest grazing areas of 60 days, AMF spore number and diversity index at a 0-10 cm soil depth as well as vesicular and hyphal colonization rates were higher compared with other grazing treatments. In addition, soil organic matter and total N contents were highest and soil alkaline phosphatase was most active under 60-day rest grazing. In August and September, these areas also had the highest amount of aboveground vegetation. The results indicated that resting grazing for an appropriate period of time in spring has a positive effect on AMF sporulation, colonization and diversity, and that under rest grazing conditions, AMF parameters are positively correlated with some soil characteristics.

Evaluating the environmental parameters that determine aerobic biodegradation half-lives of pesticides in soil with a multivariable approach.

PubMed

Wang, Yuxin; Lai, Adelene; Latino, Diogo; Fenner, Kathrin; Helbling, Damian E

2018-06-14

Aerobic biodegradation half-lives (half-lives) are key parameters used to evaluate pesticide persistence in soil. However, half-life estimates for individual pesticides often span several orders of magnitude, reflecting the impact that various environmental or experimental parameters have on half-lives in soil. In this work, we collected literature-reported half-lives for eleven pesticides along with associated metadata describing the environmental or experimental conditions under which they were derived. We then developed a multivariable framework to discover relationships between the half-lives and associated metadata. We first compared data for the herbicide atrazine collected from 95 laboratory and 65 field studies. We discovered that atrazine application history and soil texture were the parameters that have the largest influence on the observed half-lives in both types of studies. We then extended the analysis to include ten additional pesticides with data collected exclusively from laboratory studies. We found that, when data were available, pesticide application history and biomass concentrations were always positively associated with half-lives. The relevance of other parameters varied among the pesticides, but in some cases the variability could be explained by the physicochemical properties of the pesticides. For example, we found that the relative significance of the organic carbon content of soil for determining half-lives depends on the relative solubility of the pesticide. Altogether, our analyses highlight the reciprocal influence of both environmental parameters and intrinsic physicochemical properties for determining half-lives in soil. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of Temperature on Solute Transport Parameters in Differently-Textured Soils at Saturated Condition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamamoto, S.; Arihara, M.; Kawamoto, K.; Nishimura, T.; Komatsu, T.; Moldrup, P.

2014-12-01

Subsurface warming driven by global warming, urban heat islands, and increasing use of shallow geothermal heating and cooling systems such as the ground source heat pump, potentially causes changes in subsurface mass transport. Therefore, understanding temperature dependency of the solute transport characteristics is essential to accurately assess environmental risks due to increased subsurface temperature. In this study, one-dimensional solute transport experiments were conducted in soil columns under temperature control to investigate effects of temperature on solute transport parameters, such as solute dispersion and diffusion coefficients, hydraulic conductivity, and retardation factor. Toyoura sand, Kaolin clay, and intact loamy soils were used in the experiments. Intact loamy soils were taken during a deep well boring at the Arakawa Lowland in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. In the transport experiments, the core sample with 5-cm diameter and 4-cm height was first isotropically consolidated, whereafter 0.01M KCl solution was injected to the sample from the bottom. The concentrations of K+ and Cl- in the effluents were analyzed by an ion chromatograph to obtain solute breakthrough curves. The solute transport parameters were calculated from the breakthrough curves. The experiments were conducted under different temperature conditions (15, 25, and 40 oC). The retardation factor for the intact loamy soils decreased with increasing temperature, while water permeability increased due to reduced viscosity of water at higher temperature. Opposite, the effect of temperature on solute dispersivity for the intact loamy soils was insignificant. The effects of soil texture on the temperature dependency of the solute transport characteristics will be further investigated from comparison of results from differently-textured samples.

Temperature and volumetric water content petrophysical relationships in municipal solid waste for the interpretation of bulk electrical resistivity data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilawski, Tamara; Dumont, Gaël; Nguyen, Frédéric

2015-04-01

Landfills pose major environmental issues including long-term methane emissions, and local pollution of soil and aquifers but can also be seen as potential energy resources and mining opportunities. Water content in landfills determine whether solid fractions can be separated and recycled, and controls the existence and efficiency of natural or enhanced biodegradation. Geophysical techniques, such as electrical and electromagnetic methods have proven successful in the detection and qualitative investigation of sanitary landfills. However, their interpretation in terms of quantitative water content estimates makes it more challenging due to the influence of parameters such as temperature, compaction, waste composition or pore fluid. To improve the confidence given to bulk electrical resistivity data and to their interpretation, we established temperature and volumetric water content petrophysical relationships that we tested on field and laboratory electrical resistivity measurements. We carried out two laboratory experiments on leachates and waste samples from a landfill located in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium. We determined a first relationship between temperature and electrical resistivity with pure and diluted leachates by progressively increasing the temperature from 5°C to 65°C, and then cooling down to 5°C. The second relationship was obtained by measuring electrical resistivity on waste samples of different volumetric water contents. First, we used the correlations obtained from the experiments to compare electrical resistivity measurements performed in a landfill borehole and on reworked waste samples excavated at different depths. Electrical resistivities were measured every 20cm with an electromagnetic logging device (EM39) while a temperature profile was acquired with optic fibres. Waste samples were excavated every 2m in the same borehole. We filled experimental columns with these samples and measured electrical resistivities at laboratory temperature

Transfer of the nationwide Czech soil survey data to a foreign soil classification - generating input parameters for a process-based soil erosion modelling approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beitlerová, Hana; Hieke, Falk; Žížala, Daniel; Kapička, Jiří; Keiser, Andreas; Schmidt, Jürgen; Schindewolf, Marcus

2017-04-01

Process-based erosion modelling is a developing and adequate tool to assess, simulate and understand the complex mechanisms of soil loss due to surface runoff. While the current state of available models includes powerful approaches, a major drawback is given by complex parametrization. A major input parameter for the physically based soil loss and deposition model EROSION 3D is represented by soil texture. However, as the model has been developed in Germany it is dependent on the German soil classification. To exploit data generated during a massive nationwide soil survey campaign taking place in the 1960s across the entire Czech Republic, a transfer from the Czech to the German or at least international (e.g. WRB) system is mandatory. During the survey the internal differentiation of grain sizes was realized in a two fractions approach, separating texture into solely above and below 0.01 mm rather than into clayey, silty and sandy textures. Consequently, the Czech system applies a classification of seven different textures based on the respective percentage of large and small particles, while in Germany 31 groups are essential. The followed approach of matching Czech soil survey data to the German system focusses on semi-logarithmic interpolation of the cumulative soil texture curve additionally on a regression equation based on a recent database of 128 soil pits. Furthermore, for each of the seven Czech texture classes a group of typically suitable classes of the German system was derived. A GIS-based spatial analysis to test approaches of interpolation the soil texture was carried out. First results show promising matches and pave the way to a Czech model application of EROSION 3D.

Influence of spatial variability of hydraulic characteristics of soils on surface parameters obtained from remote sensing data in infrared and microwaves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brunet, Y.; Vauclin, M.

1985-01-01

The correct interpretation of thermal and hydraulic soil parameters infrared from remotely sensed data (thermal infrared, microwaves) implies a good understanding of the causes of their temporal and spatial variability. Given this necessity, the sensitivity of the surface variables (temperature, moisture) to the spatial variability of hydraulic soil properties is tested with a numerical model of heat and mass transfer between bare soil and atmosphere. The spatial variability of hydraulic soil properties is taken into account in terms of the scaling factor. For a given soil, the knowledge of its frequency distribution allows a stochastic use of the model. The results are treated statistically, and the part of the variability of soil surface parameters due to that of soil hydraulic properties is evaluated quantitatively.

Impact of watering with UV-LED-treated wastewater on microbial and physico-chemical parameters of soil.

PubMed

Chevremont, A-C; Boudenne, J-L; Coulomb, B; Farnet, A-M

2013-04-15

Advanced oxidation processes based on UV radiations have been shown to be a promising wastewater disinfection technology. The UV-LED system involves innovative materials and could be an advantageous alternative to mercury-vapor lamps. The use of the UV-LED system results in good water quality meeting the legislative requirements relating to wastewater reuse for irrigation. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of watering with UV-LED treated wastewaters (UV-LED WW) on soil parameters. Solid-state ¹³C NMR shows that watering with UV-LED WW do not change the chemical composition of soil organic matter compared to soil watered with potable water. Regarding microbiological parameters, laccase, cellulase, protease and urease activities increase in soils watered with UV-LED WW which means that organic matter brought by the effluent is actively degraded by soil microorganisms. The functional diversity of soil microorganisms is not affected by watering with UV-LED WW when it is altered by 4 and 8 months of watering with wastewater (WW). After 12 months, functional diversity is similar regardless of the water used for watering. The persistence of faecal indicator bacteria (coliform and enterococci) was also determined and watering with UV-LED WW does not increase their number nor their diversity unlike soils irrigated with activated sludge wastewater. The study of watering-soil microcosms with UV-LED WW indicates that this system seems to be a promising alternative to the UV-lamp-treated wastewaters. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of solid-liquid separation method parameters employed in soil leaching tests on apparent metal concentration.

PubMed

Imoto, Yukari; Yasutaka, Tetsuo; Someya, Masayuki; Higashino, Kazuo

2018-05-15

Soil leaching tests are commonly used to evaluate the leachability of hazardous materials, such as heavy metals, from the soil. Batch leaching tests often enhance soil colloidal mobility and may require solid-liquid separation procedures to remove excess soil particles. However, batch leaching test results depend on particles that can pass through a 0.45μm membrane filter and are influenced by test parameters such as centrifugal intensity and filtration volume per filter. To evaluate these parameters, we conducted batch leaching experiments using metal-contaminated soils and focused on the centrifugal intensity and filtration volume per filter used in solid-liquid separation methods currently employed in standard leaching tests. Our experiments showed that both centrifugal intensity and filtration volume per filter affected the reproducibility of batch leaching tests for some soil types. The results demonstrated that metal concentrations in the filtrates significantly differed according to the centrifugal intensity when it was 3000 g for 2h or less. Increased filtration volume per filter led to significant decreases in filtrate metal concentrations when filter cakes formed during filtration. Comparison of the filtration tests using 0.10 and 0.45μm membrane filters showed statistically significant differences in turbidity and metal concentration. These findings suggest that colloidal particles were not adequately removed from the extract and contributed substantially to the apparent metal concentrations in the leaching test of soil containing colloidal metals. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of bioavailable heavy metals and microbial parameters of soil on the metal accumulation in rice grain.

PubMed

Xiao, Ling; Guan, Dongsheng; Peart, M R; Chen, Yujuan; Li, Qiqi; Dai, Jun

2017-10-01

A field-based study was undertaken to analyze the effects of soil bioavailable heavy metals determined by a sequential extraction procedure, and soil microbial parameters on the heavy metal accumulation in rice grain. The results showed that Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrations in rice grain decreases by 65.9%, 78.9%, 32.6%, 80.5%, 61.0% and 15.7%, respectively in the sites 3 (far-away), compared with those in sites 1 (close-to). Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that soil catalase activity, the MBC/MBN ratio, along with bioavailable Cd, Cr and Ni could explain 68.9% of the total eigenvalue, indicating that these parameters have a great impact on the heavy metal accumulation in rice grain. The soil bioavailable heavy metals have a dominant impact on their accumulation in rice grain, with a variance contribution of 60.1%, while the MBC/MBN has a regulatory effect, with a variance contribution of 4.1%. Stepwise regression analysis showed that the MBC/MBN, urease and catalase activities are the key microbial parameters that affect the heavy metal accumulation in rice by influencing the soil bioavailable heavy metals or the translocation of heavy metals in rice. RDA showed an interactive effect between Cu, Pb and Zn in rice grain and the soil bioavailable Cd, Cr and Ni. The heavy metals in rice grain, with the exception of Pb, could be predicted by their respective soil bioavailable heavy metals. The results suggested that Pb accumulation in rice grain was mainly influenced by the multi-metal interactive effects, and less affected by soil bioavailable Pb. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Application of microwave-pretreated cephalosporin mycelial dreg (CMD) as soil amendment: Temporal changes in chemical and fluorescent parameters of soil organic matter.

PubMed

Cai, Chen; Liu, Huiling

2018-04-15

Land application of treated cephalosporin mycelial dreg (CMD) as a soil amendment is an alternative to its disposal in landfills and incineration because it has environmental and agronomic benefits. This study validated the efficacy of using the dewatered, microwave-pretreated CMD as a soil amendment. Pot experiments were conducted to assess the temporal changes in soil organic matter (SOM) profiles via chemical and fluorescent parameters. During the ageing period, the CMD-treated soil experienced a sudden rise in soil pH and soil electrical conductivity, along with a rapid decline in soil organic carbon and soil organic nitrogen content. The specific Ex/Em peak related to protein-like substances gradually disappeared, while those related to humic acid-like substances continued to increase thereafter. Fluorescence regional integration (FRI) results showed an ascended P V,n /P III,n index (1.94) and significant correlations with chemical data (M 2 =0.2875, r=0.8441, P<0.001, 999 permutations for Procrustes analysis). Taken together, despite the temporal changes in chemical and fluorescent data after soil conditioning, the increased content of SOM containing humic acid-like substances was observed at the end of the incubation period compared with control soil samples, indicating that the microwave-pretreated CMD might be applied as a soil amendment. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Obtaining soil hydraulic parameters from data assimilation under different climatic/soil conditions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Obtaining reliable soil hydraulic properties is essential to correctly simulating soil water content (SWC), which is a key component of countless applications such as agricultural management, soil remediation, aquifer protection, etc. Soil hydraulic properties can be measured in the laboratory; howe...

Parameters of microbial respiration in soils of the impact zone of a mineral fertilizer factory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhukova, A. D.; Khomyakov, D. M.

2015-08-01

The carbon content in the microbial biomass and the microbial production of CO2 (the biological component of soil respiration) were determined in the upper layer (0-10 cm) of soils in the impact zone of the OJSC Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers, one of the largest factories manufacturing mineral fertilizers in Russia. Statistical characteristics and schematic distribution of the biological parameters in the soil cover of the impact zone were analyzed. The degree of disturbance of microbial communities in the studied objects varied from weak to medium. The maximum value (0.44) was observed on the sampling plot 4 km away from the factory and 0.5 km away from the place of waste (phosphogypsum) storage. Significantly lower carbon content in the microbial biomass and its specific respiration were recorded in the agrosoddy-podzolic soil as compared with the alluvial soil sampled at the same distance from the plant. The effects of potential soil pollutants (fluorine, sulfur, cadmium, and stable strontium) on the characteristics of soil microbial communities were described with reliable regression equations.

Soil Parameters for Representing a Karst Geologic Terrain in the Noah Land-Surface Model over Tennessee and Kentucky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sullivan, Z.; Fan, X.

2015-12-01

Currently, the Noah Land-Surface Model (Noah-LSM) coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model does not have a representation of the physical behavior of a karst terrain found in a large area of Tennessee and Kentucky and 25% of land area worldwide. The soluble nature of the bedrock within a karst geologic terrains allows for the formation of caverns, joints, fissures, sinkholes, and underground streams which affect the hydrological behavior of the region. The Highland Rim of Tennessee and the Pennyroyal Plateau and Bluegrass region of Kentucky make up a larger karst area known as the Interior Low Plateau. The highly weathered upper portion of the karst terrain, known as the epikarst, allows for more rapid transport of water through the system. For this study, hydrological aspects, such as bedrock porosity and the hydraulic conductivity, were chosen within this region in order to determine the most representative subsurface parameters for the Noah-LSM. These values along with the use of similar proxy values were chosen to calculate and represent the remaining eight parameters within the SOILPARM.TBL for the WRF model. Hydraulic conductivity values show a variation ranging from around 10-7 and 10-5 ms-1 for the karst bedrock within this region. A sand and clay soil type was used along with bedrock parameters to determine an average soil parameter type for the epikarst bedrock located within this region. Results from this study show parameters for an epikarst bedrock type displaying higher water transport through the system, similar to that of a sandy soil type with a water retention similar to that of a loam type soil. The physical nature of epikarst may lead to a decrease in latent heat values over this region and increase sensible heat values. This, in turn, may effect boundary layer growth which could lead to convective development. Future modeling work can be conducted using these values by way of coupling the soil parameters with the karst

Spatial variability of isoproturon mineralizing activity within an agricultural field: geostatistical analysis of simple physicochemical and microbiological soil parameters.

PubMed

El Sebai, T; Lagacherie, B; Soulas, G; Martin-Laurent, F

2007-02-01

We assessed the spatial variability of isoproturon mineralization in relation to that of physicochemical and biological parameters in fifty soil samples regularly collected along a sampling grid delimited across a 0.36 ha field plot (40 x 90 m). Only faint relationships were observed between isoproturon mineralization and the soil pH, microbial C biomass, and organic nitrogen. Considerable spatial variability was observed for six of the nine parameters tested (isoproturon mineralization rates, organic nitrogen, genetic structure of the microbial communities, soil pH, microbial biomass and equivalent humidity). The map of isoproturon mineralization rates distribution was similar to that of soil pH, microbial biomass, and organic nitrogen but different from those of structure of the microbial communities and equivalent humidity. Geostatistics revealed that the spatial heterogeneity in the rate of degradation of isoproturon corresponded to that of soil pH and microbial biomass.

Calculation of thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat capacity of sedimentary rocks using petrophysical well logs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fuchs, Sven; Balling, Niels; Förster, Andrea

2015-12-01

In this study, equations are developed that predict for synthetic sedimentary rocks (clastics, carbonates and evapourates) thermal properties comprising thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and thermal diffusivity. The rock groups are composed of mineral assemblages with variable contents of 15 major rock-forming minerals and porosities of 0-30 per cent. Petrophysical properties and their well-logging-tool-characteristic readings were assigned to these rock-forming minerals and to pore-filling fluids. Relationships are explored between each thermal property and other petrophysical properties (density, sonic interval transit time, hydrogen index, volume fraction of shale and photoelectric absorption index) using multivariate statistics. The application of these relations allows computing continuous borehole profiles for each rock thermal property. The uncertainties in the prediction of each property vary depending on the selected well-log combination. Best prediction is in the range of 2-8 per cent for the specific heat capacity, of 5-10 per cent for the thermal conductivity, and of 8-15 for the thermal diffusivity, respectively. Well-log derived thermal conductivity is validated by laboratory data measured on cores from deep boreholes of the Danish Basin, the North German Basin, and the Molasse Basin. Additional validation of thermal conductivity was performed by comparing predicted and measured temperature logs. The maximum deviation between these logs is <3 °C. The thermal-conductivity calculation allowed an evaluation of the depth range in which the palaeoclimatic effect on the subsurface temperature field can be observed in the North German Basin. This effect reduces the surface heat-flow density by 25 mW m-2.

Fine and coarse root parameters from mature black spruce displaying genetic x soil moisture interaction in growth

Treesearch

John E. Major; Kurt H. Johnsen; Debby C. Barsi; Moira Campbell

2012-01-01

Fine and coarse root biomass, C, and N mass parameters were assessed by root size and soil depths from soil cores in plots of 32-year-old black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.) from four full-sib families studied previously for drought tolerance and differential productivity on a dry and wet...

Relationships among bulk soil physicochemical, biochemical, and microbiological parameters in an organic alfalfa-rice rotation system.

PubMed

Lopes, Ana R; Bello, Diana; Prieto-Fernández, Ángeles; Trasar-Cepeda, Carmen; Manaia, Célia M; Nunes, Olga C

2015-08-01

The microbial communities of bulk soil of rice paddy fields under an ancient organic agriculture regimen, consisting on an alfalfa-rice rotation system, were characterized. The drained soil of two adjacent paddies at different stages of the rotation was compared before rice seeding and after harvesting. The relationships among the soil microbial, physicochemical, and biochemical parameters were investigated using multivariate analyses. In the first year of rice cropping, aerobic cultivable heterotrophic populations correlated with lineages of presumably aerobic bacteria (e.g., Sphingobacteriales, Sphingomonadales). In the second year of rice cropping, the total C content correlated with presumable anaerobic bacteria (e.g., Anaerolineae). Independently of the year of rice cropping, before rice seeding, proteolytic activity correlated positively with the cultivable aerobic heterotrophic and ammonifier populations, the soil catabolic profile and with presumable aerobes (e.g., Sphingobacteriales, Rhizobiales) and anaerobes (e.g., Bacteroidales, Anaerolineae). After harvesting, strongest correlations were observed between cultivable diazotrophic populations and bacterial groups described as comprising N2 fixing members (e.g., Chloroflexi-Ellin6529, Betaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria). It was demonstrated that chemical parameters and microbial functions were correlated with variations on the total bacterial community composition and structure occurring during rice cropping. A better understanding of these correlations and of their implications on soil productivity may be valid contributors for sustainable agriculture practices, based on ancient processes.

Quantifying the Effect of Soil Water Repellency on Infiltration Parameters Using a Dry Sand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shillito, R.; Berli, M.; Ghezzehei, T. A.; Kaminski, E.

2017-12-01

Water infiltration into less than perfectly wettable soils has usually been considered an exceptional case—in fact, it may be the rule. Infiltration into soils exhibiting some degree of water repellency has important implications in agricultural irrigation, post-fire runoff, golf course and landscape management, and spill and contaminant mitigation. Beginning from fundamental principles, we developed a physically-based model to quantify the effect of water repellency on infiltration parameters. Experimentally, we used a dry silica sand and treated it to achieve various known degrees of water repellency. The model was verified using data gathered from multiple upward infiltration (wicking) experiments using the treated sand. The model also allowed us to explore the effect of initial soil moisture conditions on infiltration into water-repellent soils, and the physical interpretation of the simple water drop penetration time test. These results provide a fundamental step in the physically-based understanding of how water infiltrates into a less than perfectly wettable porous media.

Spatial effects of aboveground biomass on soil ecological parameters and trace gas fluxes in a savannah ecosystem of Mount Kilimanjaro

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, Joscha; Gütlein, Adrian; Sierra Cornejo, Natalia; Kiese, Ralf; Hertel, Dietrich; Kuzyakov, Yakov

2015-04-01

The savannah biome is a hotspot for biodiversity and wildlife conservation in Africa and recently got in the focus of research on carbon sequestration. Savannah ecosystems are under strong pressure from climate and land-use change, especially around populous areas like the Mt. Kilimanjaro region. Savannah vegetation in this area consists of grassland with isolated trees and is therefore characterized by high spatial variation of canopy cover, aboveground biomass and root structure. Canopy structure is known to affect microclimate, throughfall and evapotranspiration and thereby controls soil moisture conditions. Consequently, the canopy structure is a major regulator for soil ecological parameters and soil-atmospheric trace gas exchange (CO2, N2O, CH4) in water limited environments. The spatial distribution of these parameters and the connection between above and belowground processes are important to understand and predict ecosystem changes and estimate its vulnerability. Our objective was to determine trends and changes of soil parameters and relate their spatial variability to the vegetation structure. We chose three trees from each of the two most dominant species (Acacia nilotica and Balanites aegyptiaca) in our research area. For each tree, we selected transects with nine sampling points of the same relative distances to the stem. Distances were calculated in relation to the crown radius. At these each sampling point a soil core was taken and separated in 0-10 cm and 10-30 cm depth. We measured soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) storage, microbial biomass carbon C and N, soil respiration as well as root biomass and -density, soil temperature and soil water content. Each tree was characterized by crown spread, leaf area index and basal area. Preliminary results show that C and N stocks decreased about 50% with depth independently of distance to the tree. Soil water content under the tree crown increased with depth while it decreased under grass cover. Microbial

Soil erosion modelled with USLE and PESERA using QuickBird derived vegetation parameters in an alpine catchment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meusburger, K.; Konz, N.; Schaub, M.; Alewell, C.

2010-06-01

The focus of soil erosion research in the Alps has been in two categories: (i) on-site measurements, which are rather small scale point measurements on selected plots often constrained to irrigation experiments or (ii) off-site quantification of sediment delivery at the outlet of the catchment. Results of both categories pointed towards the importance of an intact vegetation cover to prevent soil loss. With the recent availability of high-resolution satellites such as IKONOS and QuickBird options for detecting and monitoring vegetation parameters in heterogeneous terrain have increased. The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of QuickBird derived vegetation parameters in soil erosion models for alpine sites by comparison to Cesium-137 (Cs-137) derived soil erosion estimates. The study site (67 km 2) is located in the Central Swiss Alps (Urseren Valley) and is characterised by scarce forest cover and strong anthropogenic influences due to grassland farming for centuries. A fractional vegetation cover (FVC) map for grassland and detailed land-cover maps are available from linear spectral unmixing and supervised classification of QuickBird imagery. The maps were introduced to the Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment (PESERA) model as well as to the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Regarding the latter model, the FVC was indirectly incorporated by adapting the C factor. Both models show an increase in absolute soil erosion values when FVC is considered. In contrast to USLE and the Cs-137 soil erosion rates, PESERA estimates are low. For the USLE model also the spatial patterns improved and showed "hotspots" of high erosion of up to 16 t ha -1 a -1. In conclusion field measurements of Cs-137 confirmed the improvement of soil erosion estimates using the satellite-derived vegetation data.

Analysis of physical parameters related with water infiltration in tropical soils located in edges forest in urban areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Márcia Longo, Regina; Cunha, Jessica C. M.; Lammoglia, Rafaella; Mendes, Deborah R.; Mungilioli, Sarah S.; Damame, Desiree B.; Demamboro, Antônio C.; Bettine, Sueli C.; Ribeiro, Admilson I.; Fengler, Felipe H.

2015-04-01

A very important factor for water infiltration into the soil in urban forest systems and suffering constant anthropogenic pressures is the analysis of soil compaction where these forests are or will be established. In this context, this work aimed to promote studies on physical parameters related to distribution of pores, compaction and soil biological activity in forest remnants border areas located in urban watersheds in Campinas / SP - Brazil. The Forest of Santa Genebra (22°49'45 "S and 47°06'33" W) has an average altitude of 680m and tropical climate of altitude, has an area of 251 ha and a nine kilometer perimeter. It constitutes 85% of Semideciduos forests and 15% swamp forest. Due to its location close to urban centers, roads and agricultural areas under direct influence of the anthropic means. For the present study analyzes were performed: particle size, soil density, porosity, matters organic, of biopores, and root distribution (primary, secondary and tertiary) and seedlings in 40 points on the perimeter of the forest equidistant 200m remaining edge. The analysis of the results allowed us to observe that areas suffer direct influence of human activities surrounding. With the results set correlations between the different parameters in order to allow a better understanding of the dynamics of water infiltration into the soil under these conditions and the quantity of tertiary roots, biopores and soil density were the best indicator of environmental quality as suffer direct influence of the surrounding areas, especially those near the most urbanized regions. In general, it can be observed that human activities such as deforestation and vehicle traffic, animals and people, promoted soil compaction and consequent changes in water infiltration into the soil in areas of edges of this remnant of these consequences affect direct numerous parameters that directly influence the dynamics of an ecosystem restoration that is now significantly affected by the

Petrophysics of Lower Silurian sandstones and integration with the tectonic-stratigraphic framework, Appalachian basin, United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Castle, J.W.; Byrnes, A.P.

2005-01-01

Petrophysical properties were determined for six facies in Lower Silurian sandstones of the Appalachian basin: fluvial, estuarine, upper shoreface, lower shoreface, tidal channel, and tidal flat. Fluvial sandstones have the highest permeability for a given porosity and exhibit a wide range of porosity (2-18%) and permeability (0.002-450 md). With a transition-zone thickness of only 1-6 m (3-20 ft), fluvial sandstones with permeability greater than 5 md have irreducible water saturation (Siw) less than 20%, typical of many gas reservoirs. Upper shoreface sandstones exhibit good reservoir properties with high porosity (10-21%), high permeability (3-250 md), and low S iw (<20%). Lower shoreface sandstones, which are finer grained, have lower porosity (4-12%), lower permeability (0.0007-4 md), thicker transition zones (6-180 m [20-600 ft]), and higher S iw. In the tidal-channel, tidal-flat, and estuarine facies, low porosity (average < 6%), low permeability (average < 0.02 md), and small pore throats result in large transition zones (30-200 m; 100-650 ft) and high water saturations. The most favorable reservoir petrophysical properties and the best estimated production from the Lower Silurian sandstones are associated with fluvial and upper shoreface facies of incised-valley fills, which we interpret to have formed predominantly in areas of structural recesses that evolved from promontories along a collisional margin during the Taconic orogeny. Although the total thickness of the sandstone may not be as great in these areas, reservoir quality is better than in adjacent structural salients, which is attributed to higher energy depositional processes and shallower maximum burial depth in the recesses than in the salients. Copyright ??2005. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Laboratory measurements of the seismic velocities and other petrophysical properties of the Outokumpu deep drill core samples, eastern Finland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elbra, Tiiu; Karlqvist, Ronnie; Lassila, Ilkka; Høgström, Edward; Pesonen, Lauri J.

2011-01-01

Petrophysical, in particular seismic velocity, measurements of the Outokumpu deep drill core (depth 2.5 km) have been carried out to characterize the geophysical nature of the Paleoproterozoic crustal section of eastern Finland and to find lithological and geophysical interpretations to the distinct crustal reflectors as observed in seismic surveys. The results show that different lithological units can be identified based on the petrophysical data. The density of the samples remained nearly constant throughout the drilled section. Only diopside-tremolite skarns and black schists exhibit higher densities. The samples are dominated by the paramagnetic behaviour with occasional ferromagnetic signature caused by serpentinitic rocks. Large variations in seismic velocities, both at ambient pressure and under in situ crustal conditions are observed. The porosity of the samples, which is extremely low, is either intrinsic by nature or caused by decompaction related to fracturing during the core retrieval. It is noteworthy that these microfractures have dramatically lowered the VP and VS values. From the measured velocities and density data we have calculated the seismic impedances, Young's modulus and Poisson's ratios for the lithological units of the Outokumpu section and from these data the reflection coefficients for the major lithological boundaries, evident in the surveyed section, were determined. The data show that the strong and distinct reflections visible in wide-angle seismic surveys are caused by interfaces between diopside-tremolite skarn and either serpentinites, mica schist or black schist.

Influence of operational parameters on electro-Fenton degradation of organic pollutants from soil.

PubMed

Rosales, E; Pazos, M; Longo, M A; Sanroman, M A

2009-09-01

The combination of the Fenton's reagent with electrochemistry (the electro-Fenton process) represents an efficient method for wastewater treatment. This study describes the use of this process to clean soil or clay contaminated by organic compounds. Model soil of kaolinite clay polluted with the dye Lissamine Green B (LGB) was used to evaluate the capability of the electro-Fenton process. The effects of operating parameters such as electrode material and dye concentration were investigated. Operating in an electrochemical cell under optimized conditions while using electrodes of graphite, a constant potential difference of 5 V, pH 3, 0.2 mM FeSO(4). 7H(2)O, and electrolyte 0.1 M Na(2)SO(4), around 80% of the LGB dye on kaolinite clay was decolorized after 3 hours with an electric power consumption around 0.15 W h g(-1). Furthermore, the efficiency of this process for the remediation of a real soil polluted with phenanthrene, a typical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, has been demonstrated.

Soil erosion model predictions using parent material/soil texture-based parameters compared to using site-specific parameters

Treesearch

R. B. Foltz; W. J. Elliot; N. S. Wagenbrenner

2011-01-01

Forested areas disturbed by access roads produce large amounts of sediment. One method to predict erosion and, hence, manage forest roads is the use of physically based soil erosion models. A perceived advantage of a physically based model is that it can be parameterized at one location and applied at another location with similar soil texture or geological parent...

Determining fate and transport parameters for nitroglycerine, 2,4-dinitrotoluine, and nitroguanidine in soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gosch, D. L.; Dontsova, K.; Chorover, J.; Ferré, T.; Taylor, S.

2010-12-01

During military operations, a small fraction of propellant mass is not consumed during firing and is deposited onto the ground surface (Jenkins et al., 2006). Soluble propellant constituents can be released from particulate residues into the environment. Propellant constituents of interest for this study are nitroglycerine (NG), 2,4-dinitrotoluine (2,4-DNT), 2,6-dinitrotoluine (2,6-DNT), and nitroguanidine (NQ). The goal of this work is to determine fate and transport parameters for these constituents in three soils that represent a range of geographic locations and soil properties. This supports a companion study that looks at dissolution of NG, 2,4-DNT, 2,6-DNT, and NQ from fired and unfired solid propellant formulations and their transport in soils. The three soils selected for the study are Catlin silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, mesic, superactive Oxyaquic Argiudoll), Plymouth sandy loam (mesic, coated Typic Quartzipsamment), and Sassafras loam (fine loamy, siliceous, mesic Typic Hapudult). Two of these soils, Plymouth sandy loam and Sassafras loam, were collected on military installations. Linear adsorption coefficients and transformation rates of propellant constituents were determined in batch kinetic experiments. Soils were mixed with propellant constituent solutions (2 mg L-1) at 4:1 solution/soil mass ratio and equilibrated for 0, 1, 2, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 120 hr at which time samples were centrifuged and supernatant solutions were analyzed for target compounds by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using U.S. EPA Method 8330b for NG, 2,4-DNT, and 2,6-DNT, and Walsh (1989) method for NQ. Adsorption and transformation of propellant constituents were determined from the decrease in solution concentration of these compounds. It was determined that all studied compounds were subjected to sorption by the solid phase and degradation. Catlin soil, with finer texture and high organic matter content, influenced solution concentration of NG, 2,4-DNT, 2,6-DNT

Detailed petrophysical characterization enhances geological mapping of a buried substratum using aeromagnetic and gravity data; application to the southwestern Paris basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baptiste, Julien; Martelet, Guillaume; Faure, Michel; Beccaletto, Laurent; Chen, Yan; Reninger, Pierre-Alexandre

2016-04-01

Mapping the geometries (structure and lithology) of a buried basement is a key for targeting resources and for improving the regional geological knowledge. The Paris basin is a Mesozoic to Cenozoic intraplate basin set up on a Variscan substratum, which crops out in the surrounding massifs. We focus our study on the southwestern part of the Paris basin at its junction with the Aquitaine basin. This Mezo-Cenozoic cover separates the Armorican Massif and the Massif Central which compose of several litho-tectonic units bounded by crustal-scale shear zones. In spite of several lithological and structural correlations between various domains of the two massifs, their geological connection, hidden below the Paris basin sedimentary cover, is still largely debated. Potential field geophysics have proven effective for mapping buried basin/basement interfaces. In order to enhance the cartographic interpretation of these data, we have set up a detailed petrophysical library (field magnetic susceptibility data and density measurements on rock samples) of the Paleozoic rocks outcropping in the Variscan massifs. The combination of aeromagnetic and gravity data supported by the petrophysical signatures and field/borehole geological information, is carried out to propose a new map of the architecture of the Variscan substratum. The new synthetic map of geophysical signature of the Paris basin basement combines: i) the magnetic anomaly reduced to the pole, ii) the vertical gradient of the Bouguer anomaly and iii) the tilt derivative of the magnetic anomaly reduced to the pole. Based on this information, the Eastern extension of the major shear zones below the sedimentary cover is assessed. The petrophysical signatures were classified in three classes of magnetic susceptibility and density: low, intermediate and high. Basic rocks have high magnetization and density values whereas granite, migmatite and orthogneiss show low magnetization and density values, Proterozoic and Paleozoic

A Particle Smoother with Sequential Importance Resampling for soil hydraulic parameter estimation: A lysimeter experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montzka, Carsten; Hendricks Franssen, Harrie-Jan; Moradkhani, Hamid; Pütz, Thomas; Han, Xujun; Vereecken, Harry

2013-04-01

An adequate description of soil hydraulic properties is essential for a good performance of hydrological forecasts. So far, several studies showed that data assimilation could reduce the parameter uncertainty by considering soil moisture observations. However, these observations and also the model forcings were recorded with a specific measurement error. It seems a logical step to base state updating and parameter estimation on observations made at multiple time steps, in order to reduce the influence of outliers at single time steps given measurement errors and unknown model forcings. Such outliers could result in erroneous state estimation as well as inadequate parameters. This has been one of the reasons to use a smoothing technique as implemented for Bayesian data assimilation methods such as the Ensemble Kalman Filter (i.e. Ensemble Kalman Smoother). Recently, an ensemble-based smoother has been developed for state update with a SIR particle filter. However, this method has not been used for dual state-parameter estimation. In this contribution we present a Particle Smoother with sequentially smoothing of particle weights for state and parameter resampling within a time window as opposed to the single time step data assimilation used in filtering techniques. This can be seen as an intermediate variant between a parameter estimation technique using global optimization with estimation of single parameter sets valid for the whole period, and sequential Monte Carlo techniques with estimation of parameter sets evolving from one time step to another. The aims are i) to improve the forecast of evaporation and groundwater recharge by estimating hydraulic parameters, and ii) to reduce the impact of single erroneous model inputs/observations by a smoothing method. In order to validate the performance of the proposed method in a real world application, the experiment is conducted in a lysimeter environment.

Environmental parameters altered by climate change affect the activity of soil microorganisms involved in bioremediation.

PubMed

Alkorta, Itziar; Epelde, Lur; Garbisu, Carlos

2017-10-16

Bioremediation, based on the use of microorganisms to break down pollutants, can be very effective at reducing soil pollution. But the climate change we are now experiencing is bound to have an impact on bioremediation performance, since the activity and degrading abilities of soil microorganisms are dependent on a series of environmental parameters that are themselves being altered by climate change, such as soil temperature, moisture, amount of root exudates, etc. Many climate-induced effects on soil microorganisms occur indirectly through changes in plant growth and physiology derived from increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations and temperatures, the alteration of precipitation patterns, etc., with a concomitant effect on rhizoremediation performance (i.e. the plant-assisted microbial degradation of pollutants in the rhizosphere). But these effects are extremely complex and mediated by processes such as acclimation and adaptation. Besides, soil microorganisms form complex networks of interactions with a myriad of organisms from many taxonomic groups that will also be affected by climate change, further complicating data interpretation. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Relationships between nuclear magnetic resonance parameters used to characterize weathering spilled oil and soil toxicity in central Patagonia.

PubMed

Ríos, Stella Maris; Barquin, Mercedes; Katusich, Ofelia; Nudelman, Norma

2014-01-01

Oil spill in the Central Patagonian zone was studied to evaluate if any relationship exists between the parameters used to characterize weathering spilled oil and soil toxicity for two plant species and to evaluate if the phytotoxicity to local species would be a good index for the soil contamination. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structural indexes and column chromatography compositional indexes were determined to characterize the oil spill in the soil samples. Bioassays were also carried out using Lactuca sativa L (reference) and Atriplex lampa (native species) as test organisms. Measurements of the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) and the electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil were carried out to evaluate the effect on the bioassays. The principal components analysis of the parameters determined by NMR, compositional indexes, EC, TPH, and toxicology data shows that the first three principal components accounted for the 78% of the total variance (40%, 25%, and 13% for the first, second, and third PC, respectively). A good agreement was found between information obtained by compositional indexes and NMR structural indexes. Soil toxicity increases with the increase of EC and TPH. Other factors, such as, the presence of branched and aromatic hydrocarbons is also significant. The statistical evaluation showed that the Euclidean distances (3D) between the background and each one of the samples might be a better indicator of the soil contamination, compared with chemical criterion of TPH.

Main Parameters of Soil Quality and it's Management Under Changing Climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

László Phd, M., ,, Dr.

2009-04-01

byproducts and atmospheric deposition; 4. storing and cycling nutrients and other elements within the earth's biosphere; and 5. providing support of socioeconomic structures and protection for archeological treasures associated with human habitation. No soil is likely to successfully provide all of these functions, some of which occur in natural ecosystems and some of which are the result of human modification. We can summarize by saying that soil quality depends on the extent to which soil functions to benefit humans. Thus, for food production or mediation of contamination, soil quality means the extent to which a soil fulfills the role we have defined for it. Within agriculture, high quality equates to maintenance of high productivity without significant soil or environmental degradation. The Glossary of Soil Science terms produced by the Soil Science Society of America (1996) states that soil quality is an inherent attribute of a soil that is inferred from soil characteristics or indirect observations. To proceed from a dictionary definition to a measure of soil quality, a minimum dataset (MDS) of soil characteristics that represents soil quality must be selected and quantified (Papendick et al., 1995). The MDS may include biological, chemical or physical soil characteristics [Organic matter (OM), Aggregation (A), Bulk density (BD), Depth to hardpan (DH), Electrical conductivity (EC), Fertility (F), Respiration (R), pH, Soil test (ST), Yield (Y), Infiltration (I), Mineralizable nitrogen potential (MNP), Water holding capacity (WHC)]. For agriculture, the measurement of properties should lead to a relatively simple and accurate way to rank soils based on potential plant production without soil degradation. Unfortunately, commonly identified soil quality parameters may not correlate well with yield (Reganold, 1988). In the next section, we consider these four points concerning the selection and quantification of soil characteristics: 1. soil characteristics may be desirable

Coupled land surface–subsurface hydrogeophysical inverse modeling to estimate soil organic carbon content and explore associated hydrological and thermal dynamics in the Arctic tundra

DOE PAGES

Tran, Anh Phuong; Dafflon, Baptiste; Hubbard, Susan S.

2017-09-06

Quantitative characterization of soil organic carbon (OC) content is essential due to its significant impacts on surface–subsurface hydrological–thermal processes and microbial decomposition of OC, which both in turn are important for predicting carbon–climate feedbacks. While such quantification is particularly important in the vulnerable organic-rich Arctic region, it is challenging to achieve due to the general limitations of conventional core sampling and analysis methods, and to the extremely dynamic nature of hydrological–thermal processes associated with annual freeze–thaw events. In this study, we develop and test an inversion scheme that can flexibly use single or multiple datasets – including soil liquid watermore » content, temperature and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data – to estimate the vertical distribution of OC content. Our approach relies on the fact that OC content strongly influences soil hydrological–thermal parameters and, therefore, indirectly controls the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil liquid water content, temperature and their correlated electrical resistivity. We employ the Community Land Model to simulate nonisothermal surface–subsurface hydrological dynamics from the bedrock to the top of canopy, with consideration of land surface processes (e.g., solar radiation balance, evapotranspiration, snow accumulation and melting) and ice–liquid water phase transitions. For inversion, we combine a deterministic and an adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) optimization algorithm to estimate a posteriori distributions of desired model parameters. For hydrological–thermal-to-geophysical variable transformation, the simulated subsurface temperature, liquid water content and ice content are explicitly linked to soil electrical resistivity via petrophysical and geophysical models. We validate the developed scheme using different numerical experiments and evaluate the influence of measurement errors and benefit

Coupled land surface–subsurface hydrogeophysical inverse modeling to estimate soil organic carbon content and explore associated hydrological and thermal dynamics in the Arctic tundra

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tran, Anh Phuong; Dafflon, Baptiste; Hubbard, Susan S.

Quantitative characterization of soil organic carbon (OC) content is essential due to its significant impacts on surface–subsurface hydrological–thermal processes and microbial decomposition of OC, which both in turn are important for predicting carbon–climate feedbacks. While such quantification is particularly important in the vulnerable organic-rich Arctic region, it is challenging to achieve due to the general limitations of conventional core sampling and analysis methods, and to the extremely dynamic nature of hydrological–thermal processes associated with annual freeze–thaw events. In this study, we develop and test an inversion scheme that can flexibly use single or multiple datasets – including soil liquid watermore » content, temperature and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data – to estimate the vertical distribution of OC content. Our approach relies on the fact that OC content strongly influences soil hydrological–thermal parameters and, therefore, indirectly controls the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil liquid water content, temperature and their correlated electrical resistivity. We employ the Community Land Model to simulate nonisothermal surface–subsurface hydrological dynamics from the bedrock to the top of canopy, with consideration of land surface processes (e.g., solar radiation balance, evapotranspiration, snow accumulation and melting) and ice–liquid water phase transitions. For inversion, we combine a deterministic and an adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) optimization algorithm to estimate a posteriori distributions of desired model parameters. For hydrological–thermal-to-geophysical variable transformation, the simulated subsurface temperature, liquid water content and ice content are explicitly linked to soil electrical resistivity via petrophysical and geophysical models. We validate the developed scheme using different numerical experiments and evaluate the influence of measurement errors and benefit

Coupled land surface-subsurface hydrogeophysical inverse modeling to estimate soil organic carbon content and explore associated hydrological and thermal dynamics in the Arctic tundra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phuong Tran, Anh; Dafflon, Baptiste; Hubbard, Susan S.

2017-09-01

Quantitative characterization of soil organic carbon (OC) content is essential due to its significant impacts on surface-subsurface hydrological-thermal processes and microbial decomposition of OC, which both in turn are important for predicting carbon-climate feedbacks. While such quantification is particularly important in the vulnerable organic-rich Arctic region, it is challenging to achieve due to the general limitations of conventional core sampling and analysis methods, and to the extremely dynamic nature of hydrological-thermal processes associated with annual freeze-thaw events. In this study, we develop and test an inversion scheme that can flexibly use single or multiple datasets - including soil liquid water content, temperature and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data - to estimate the vertical distribution of OC content. Our approach relies on the fact that OC content strongly influences soil hydrological-thermal parameters and, therefore, indirectly controls the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil liquid water content, temperature and their correlated electrical resistivity. We employ the Community Land Model to simulate nonisothermal surface-subsurface hydrological dynamics from the bedrock to the top of canopy, with consideration of land surface processes (e.g., solar radiation balance, evapotranspiration, snow accumulation and melting) and ice-liquid water phase transitions. For inversion, we combine a deterministic and an adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) optimization algorithm to estimate a posteriori distributions of desired model parameters. For hydrological-thermal-to-geophysical variable transformation, the simulated subsurface temperature, liquid water content and ice content are explicitly linked to soil electrical resistivity via petrophysical and geophysical models. We validate the developed scheme using different numerical experiments and evaluate the influence of measurement errors and benefit of joint inversion on the

Responses of Water and Salt Parameters to Groundwater Levels for Soil Columns Planted with Tamarix chinensis

PubMed Central

Xia, Jiangbao; Zhao, Ximei; Chen, Yinping; Fang, Ying; Zhao, Ziguo

2016-01-01

Groundwater is the main water resource for plant growth and development in the saline soil of the Yellow River Delta in China. To investigate the variabilities and distributions of soil water and salt contents at various groundwater level (GL), soil columns with planting Tamarix chinensis Lour were established at six different GL. The results demonstrated the following: With increasing GL, the relative soil water content (RWC) declined significantly, whereas the salt content (SC) and absolute soil solution concentration (CS) decreased after the initial increase in the different soil profiles. A GL of 1.2 m was the turning point for variations in the soil water and salt contents, and it represented the highest GL that could maintain the soil surface moist within the soil columns. Both the SC and CS reached the maximum levels in these different soil profiles at a GL of 1.2 m. With the raise of soil depth, the RWC increased significantly, whereas the SC increased after an initial decrease. The mean SC values reached 0.96% in the top soil layer; however, the rates at which the CS and RWC decreased with the GL were significantly reduced. The RWC and SC presented the greatest variations at the medium (0.9–1.2 m) and shallow water levels (0.6 m) respectively, whereas the CS presented the greatest variation at the deep water level (1.5–1.8 m).The RWC, SC and CS in the soil columns were all closely related to the GL. However, the correlations among the parameters varied greatly within different soil profiles, and the most accurate predictions of the GL were derived from the RWC in the shallow soil layer or the SC in the top soil layer. A GL at 1.5–1.8 m was moderate for planting T. chinensis seedlings under saline groundwater conditions. PMID:26730602

Soil experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hutcheson, Linton; Butler, Todd; Smith, Mike; Cline, Charles; Scruggs, Steve; Zakhia, Nadim

1987-01-01

An experimental procedure was devised to investigate the effects of the lunar environment on the physical properties of simulated lunar soil. The test equipment and materials used consisted of a vacuum chamber, direct shear tester, static penetrometer, and fine grained basalt as the simulant. The vacuum chamber provides a medium for applying the environmental conditions to the soil experiment with the exception of gravity. The shear strength parameters are determined by the direct shear test. Strength parameters and the resistance of soil penetration by static loading will be investigated by the use of a static cone penetrometer. In order to conduct a soil experiment without going to the moon, a suitable lunar simulant must be selected. This simulant must resemble lunar soil in both composition and particle size. The soil that most resembles actual lunar soil is basalt. The soil parameters, as determined by the testing apparatus, will be used as design criteria for lunar soil engagement equipment.

Comparative analysis of tree classification models for detecting fusarium oxysporum f. sp cubense (TR4) based on multi soil sensor parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Estuar, Maria Regina Justina; Victorino, John Noel; Coronel, Andrei; Co, Jerelyn; Tiausas, Francis; Señires, Chiara Veronica

2017-09-01

Use of wireless sensor networks and smartphone integration design to monitor environmental parameters surrounding plantations is made possible because of readily available and affordable sensors. Providing low cost monitoring devices would be beneficial, especially to small farm owners, in a developing country like the Philippines, where agriculture covers a significant amount of the labor market. This study discusses the integration of wireless soil sensor devices and smartphones to create an application that will use multidimensional analysis to detect the presence or absence of plant disease. Specifically, soil sensors are designed to collect soil quality parameters in a sink node from which the smartphone collects data from via Bluetooth. Given these, there is a need to develop a classification model on the mobile phone that will report infection status of a soil. Though tree classification is the most appropriate approach for continuous parameter-based datasets, there is a need to determine whether tree models will result to coherent results or not. Soil sensor data that resides on the phone is modeled using several variations of decision tree, namely: decision tree (DT), best-fit (BF) decision tree, functional tree (FT), Naive Bayes (NB) decision tree, J48, J48graft and LAD tree, where decision tree approaches the problem by considering all sensor nodes as one. Results show that there are significant differences among soil sensor parameters indicating that there are variances in scores between the infected and uninfected sites. Furthermore, analysis of variance in accuracy, recall, precision and F1 measure scores from tree classification models homogeneity among NBTree, J48graft and J48 tree classification models.

Characterization of Unconventional Reservoirs: CO2 Induced Petrophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verba, C.; Goral, J.; Washburn, A.; Crandall, D.; Moore, J.

2017-12-01

As concerns about human-driven CO2 emissions grow, it is critical to develop economically and environmentally effective strategies to mitigate impacts associated with fossil energy. Geologic carbon storage (GCS) is a potentially promising technique which involves the injection of captured CO2 into subsurface formations. Unconventional shale formations are attractive targets for GCS while concurrently improving gas recovery. However, shales are inherently heterogeneous, and minor differences can impact the ability of the shale to effectively adsorb and store CO2. Understanding GCS capacity from such endemic heterogeneities is further complicated by the complex geochemical processes which can dynamically alter shale petrophysics. We investigated the size distribution, connectivity, and type (intraparticle, interparticle, and organic) of pores in shale; the mineralogy of cores from unconventional shale (e.g. Bakken); and the changes to these properties under simulated GCS conditions. Electron microscopy and dual beam focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy were used to reconstruct 2D/3D digital matrix and pore structures. Comparison of pre and post-reacted samples gives insights into CO2-shale interactions - such as the mechanism of CO2 sorption in shales- intended for enhanced oil recovery and GCS initiatives. These comparisons also show how geochemical processes proceed differently across shales based on their initial diagenesis. Results show that most shale pore sizes fall within meso-macro pore classification (> 2 nm), but have variable porosity and organic content. The formation of secondary minerals (calcite, gypsum, and halite) may play a role in the infilling of fractures and pore spaces in the shale, which may reduce permeability and inhibit the flow of fluids.

Simulation of future groundwater recharge using a climate model ensemble and SAR-image based soil parameter distributions - A case study in an intensively-used Mediterranean catchment.

PubMed

Herrmann, Frank; Baghdadi, Nicolas; Blaschek, Michael; Deidda, Roberto; Duttmann, Rainer; La Jeunesse, Isabelle; Sellami, Haykel; Vereecken, Harry; Wendland, Frank

2016-02-01

We used observed climate data, an ensemble of four GCM-RCM combinations (global and regional climate models) and the water balance model mGROWA to estimate present and future groundwater recharge for the intensively-used Thau lagoon catchment in southern France. In addition to a highly resolved soil map, soil moisture distributions obtained from SAR-images (Synthetic Aperture Radar) were used to derive the spatial distribution of soil parameters covering the full simulation domain. Doing so helped us to assess the impact of different soil parameter sources on the modelled groundwater recharge levels. Groundwater recharge was simulated in monthly time steps using the ensemble approach and analysed in its spatial and temporal variability. The soil parameters originating from both sources led to very similar groundwater recharge rates, proving that soil parameters derived from SAR images may replace traditionally used soil maps in regions where soil maps are sparse or missing. Additionally, we showed that the variance in different GCM-RCMs influences the projected magnitude of future groundwater recharge change significantly more than the variance in the soil parameter distributions derived from the two different sources. For the period between 1950 and 2100, climate change impacts based on the climate model ensemble indicated that overall groundwater recharge will possibly show a low to moderate decrease in the Thau catchment. However, as no clear trend resulted from the ensemble simulations, reliable recommendations for adapting the regional groundwater management to changed available groundwater volumes could not be derived. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of biochars produced from solid organic municipal waste on soil quality parameters.

PubMed

Randolph, P; Bansode, R R; Hassan, O A; Rehrah, Dj; Ravella, R; Reddy, M R; Watts, D W; Novak, J M; Ahmedna, M

2017-05-01

New value-added uses for solid municipal waste are needed for environmental and economic sustainability. Fortunately, value-added biochars can be produced from mixed solid waste, thereby addressing solid waste management issues, and enabling long-term carbon sequestration. We hypothesize that soil deficiencies can be remedied by the application of municipal waste-based biochars. Select municipal organic wastes (newspaper, cardboard, woodchips and landscaping residues) individually or in a 25% blend of all four waste streams were used as feedstocks of biochars. Three sets of pyrolysis temperatures (350, 500, and 750 °C) and 3 sets of pyrolysis residence time (2, 4 and 6 h) were used for biochar preparation. The biochar yield was in the range of 21-62% across all feedstocks and pyrolysis conditions. We observed variations in key biochar properties such as pH, electrical conductivity, bulk density and surface area depending on the feedstocks and production conditions. Biochar increased soil pH and improved its electrical conductivity, aggregate stability, water retention and micronutrient contents. Similarly, leachate from the soil amended with biochar showed increased pH and electrical conductivity. Some elements such as Ca and Mg decreased while NO 3 -N increased in the leachates of soils incubated with biochars. Overall, solid waste-based biochar produced significant improvements to soil fertility parameters indicating that solid municipal wastes hold promising potential as feedstocks for manufacturing value-added biochars with varied physicochemical characteristics, allowing them to not only serve the needs for solid waste management and greenhouse gas mitigation, but also as a resource for improving the quality of depleted soils. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sorption and desorption of carbamazepine, naproxen and triclosan in a soil irrigated with raw wastewater: estimation of the sorption parameters by considering the initial mass of the compounds in the soil.

PubMed

Durán-Álvarez, Juan C; Prado-Pano, Blanca; Jiménez-Cisneros, Blanca

2012-06-01

In conventional sorption studies, the prior presence of contaminants in the soil is not considered when estimating the sorption parameters because this is only a transient state. However, this parameter should be considered in order to avoid the under/overestimation of the soil sorption capacity. In this study, the sorption of naproxen, carbamazepine and triclosan was determined in a wastewater irrigated soil, considering the initial mass of the compounds. Batch sorption-desorption tests were carried out at two soil depths (0-10 cm and 30-40 cm), using either 10 mM CaCl(2) solution or untreated wastewater as the liquid phase. Data were satisfactorily fitted to the initial mass model. For the two soils, release of naproxen and carbamazepine was observed when the CaCl(2) solution was used, but not in the soil/wastewater system. The compounds' release was higher in the topsoil than in the 30-40 cm soil. Sorption coefficients (K(d)) for CaCl(2) solution tests showed that in the topsoil, triclosan (64.9 L kg(-1)) is sorbed to a higher extent than carbamazepine and naproxen (5.81 and 2.39 L kg(-1), respectively). In the 30-40 cm soil, carbamazepine and naproxen K(d) values (11.4 and 4.41 L kg(-1), respectively) were higher than those obtained for the topsoil, while the triclosan K(d) value was significantly lower than in the topsoil (19.2 L kg(-1)). Differences in K(d) values were found when comparing the results obtained for the two liquid phases. Sorption of naproxen and carbamazepine was reversible for both soils, while sorption of triclosan was found to be irreversible. This study shows the sorption behavior of three pharmaceuticals in a wastewater irrigated soil, as well as the importance of considering the initial mass of target pollutants in the estimation of their sorption parameters. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Soil Erodibility Parameters Under Various Cropping Systems of Maize

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Dijk, P. M.; van der Zijp, M.; Kwaad, F. J. P. M.

1996-08-01

For four years, runoff and soil loss from seven cropping systems of fodder maize have been measured on experimental plots under natural and simulated rainfall. Besides runoff and soil loss, several variables have also been measured, including rainfall kinetic energy, degree of slaking, surface roughness, aggregate stability, soil moisture content, crop cover, shear strength and topsoil porosity. These variables explain a large part of the variance in measured runoff, soil loss and splash erosion under the various cropping systems. The following conclusions were drawn from the erosion measurements on the experimental plots (these conclusions apply to the spatial level at which the measurements were carried out). (1) Soil tillage after maize harvest strongly reduced surface runoff and soil loss during the winter; sowing of winter rye further reduced winter erosion, though the difference with a merely tilled soil is small. (2) During spring and the growing season, soil loss is reduced strongly if the soil surface is partly covered by plant residues; the presence of plant residue on the surface appeared to be essential in achieving erosion reduction in summer. (3) Soil loss reductions were much higher than runoff reductions; significant runoff reduction is only achieved by the straw system having flat-lying, non-fixed plant residue on the soil surface; the other systems, though effective in reducing soil loss, were not effective in reducing runoff.

Estimation of the ICBM/2 Organic Matter Simulation Model parameters for biogas digestate mineralisaion in soil using Near Infrared Data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cabassi, Giovanni; Cavalli, Daniele; Borrelli, Lamberto; Degano, Luigi; Marino Gallina, Pietro

2014-05-01

The use of simulation models to study the turnover of soil organic matter (SOM) can support experimental data interpretation and the optimization of manure management. Icbm/2 (Katter, 2001) is a SOM simulation model that describes the turnover of SOM with three pools : one for old humified SOM (CO) and two for added manure, CL ( labile "young" C) and CS (stable "young" C). C outflows from CL and CR to be humified (h) and lost as CO2-C (1-h). All pools decay with firs-order kinetics with parameter kYL, kYR and kO (fig. 1).With this model of SOM turnover, during manure decomposition into the soil, only the evolved CO2 can be easily measured. Near infrared spectroscopy has been proved to be a useful technique for soil C evaluation. Since different soil C pools are expected to have different chemical composition, it was proven that NIR can be used as a cheap technique to develop calibration models to estimate the amount of C belonging to different pools). The aim of this work was compare the calibration of ICBM/2 using C respiration data or optimal NIR prediction of CO and CL pools. A total of six laboratory treatments were established using the same soil corresponding to the application of five fertilisers and a control treatment: 1) control without N fertilisation; 2) ammonium sulphate; 3) anaerobically digested dairy cow slurry (Digested slurry); 4-5) the liquid (Liquid fraction) and solid (Solid fraction) fractions after mechanical separation of Digested slurry; and 6) anaerobically stored dairy cow slurry (Stored slurry). The "nursery" method was used with 12 sampling dates. NIR analysis were performed on the air dried grounded soils. Spectra were collected using an FT-NIR Spectrometer. Parameters calibration was done separately for each soil using the downhill simplex method. For each manure, a C partitioning factor (Fi) was optimised. In each optimization step respiration measured data or NIR estimates CL and CO were used as imput for minimisation objective

Still searching for the Holy Grail: on the use of effective soil parameters for Parflow-CLM.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baroni, Gabriele; Schalge, Bernd; Rihani, Jehan; Attinger, Sabine

2015-04-01

In the last decades the advances in computer science have led to a growing number of coupled and distributed hydrological models based on Richards' equation. Several studies were conducted for understanding hydrological processes at different spatial and temporal scales and they showed promising uses of these types of models also in practical applications. However, these models are generally applied to scales different from that at which the equation is deduced and validated. For this reason, the models are implemented with effective soil parameters that, in principle, should preserve the water fluxes that would have been estimated assuming the finer resolution scale. In this context, the reduction in spatial discretization becomes a trade-off between complexity and performance of the model. The aim of the present contribution is to assess the performance of Parflow-CLM implemented at different spatial scales. A virtual experiment based on data available for the Neckar catchment (Germany) is used as reference at 100x100m resolution. Different upscaling rules for the soil hydraulic parameters are used for coarsening the model up to 1x1km. The analysis is carried out based on different model output e.g., river discharge, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and groundwater recharge. The effects of soil variability, correlation length and spatial distribution over the water flow direction on the simulation results are discussed. Further researches aim to quantify the related uncertainty in model output and the possibility to fill in the model structure inadequacy with data assimilation techniques.

Impact of potato cultivation and cattle farming on physicochemical parameters and enzymatic activities of Neotropical high Andean Páramo ecosystem soils.

PubMed

Avellaneda-Torres, Lizeth Manuela; León Sicard, Tomás Enrique; Torres Rojas, Esperanza

2018-08-01

The Andean Páramos are high mountain ecosystems whose soils are essential for the management of South American water resources, but research on anthropic impacts to these soils is currently minimal and insufficient. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivation and livestock on the physicochemical parameters and enzymatic activities that determine the soil quality of the Neotropical high Andean Páramo ecosystem in the Nevados National Natural Park (Nevados NNP) in Colombia. It was hypothesised that sites with potato crops and livestock farming would exhibit significant changes in soil physicochemical parameters and enzymatic activities compared with Páramo sites that have been conserved without agriculture. Samples were collected from soils under potato cultivation, livestock and Páramo (subject to the lowest degree of human intervention possible), on three farms in the El Bosque District at three different altitudes (Buenos Aires, El Edén and La Secreta) during two seasons (dry and rainy). The results showed that none of the physical parameters under study presented statistically significant differences due to the type of use (livestock, potato crop or Páramo), season of sampling (dry or rainy season) or altitude (different farms). The chemical parameters that statistically significantly differed due to land use were organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, calcium, potassium, and ammonium and those that showed statistically significant differences associated with the sampling timing were organic carbon, nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, total carbon, C/N and nitrate. Additionally, there were differences in organic carbon due to the altitude of the farms. With respect to enzymatic activities, those of β-glucosidase, phosphodiesterase and urease significantly decreased in soils under potato cultivation and livestock relative to those of Páramo, but those of acid phosphatase and protease increased

Soil degradation effect on biological activity in Mediterranean calcareous soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roca-Pérez, L.; Alcover-Sáez, S.; Mormeneo, S.; Boluda, R.

2009-04-01

Soil degradation processes include erosion, organic matter decline, compaction, salinization, landslides, contamination, sealing and biodiversity decline. In the Mediterranean region the climatological and lithological conditions, together with relief on the landscape and anthropological activity are responsible for increasing desertification process. It is therefore considered to be extreme importance to be able to measure soil degradation quantitatively. We studied soil characteristics, microbiological and biochemical parameters in different calcareous soil sequences from Valencia Community (Easter Spain), in an attempt to assess the suitability of the parameters measured to reflect the state of soil degradation and the possibility of using the parameters to assess microbiological decline and soil quality. For this purpose, forest, scrubland and agricultural soil in three soil sequences were sampled in different areas. Several sensors of the soil biochemistry and microbiology related with total organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, soil respiration, microorganism number and enzyme activities were determined. The results show that, except microorganism number, these parameters are good indicators of a soil biological activity and soil quality. The best enzymatic activities to use like indicators were phosphatases, esterases, amino-peptidases. Thus, the enzymes test can be used as indicators of soil degradation when this degradation is related with organic matter losses. There was a statistically significant difference in cumulative O2 uptake and extracellular enzymes among the soils with different degree of degradation. We would like to thank Spanish government-MICINN for funding and support (MICINN, project CGL2006-09776).

Non-target effects on soil microbial parameters of the synthetic pesticide carbendazim with the biopesticides cantharidin and norcantharidin.

PubMed

Shao, Hainan; Zhang, Yalin

2017-07-17

Considering the fact that biopesticides are increasingly used to replace synthetic pesticides in pest control, it is necessary to assess their ecotoxicity and especially their non-target effects on soil microorganisms, which is largely unknown. In this study, the effects of the synthetic pesticide carbendazim and the biopesticides (cantharidin and norcantharidin) on soil microbial parameters in a silt loam soil were evaluated. By using commercial formulations at the recommended and higher rates, both cantharidin and norcantharidin induced adverse effects on soil invertase, phosphatase activities and fungal gene structure, but these changes were transient. After about two weeks, the harmful effects owing to the application of pesticides phased out and eventually became comparable with non-treated samples. The degradation of cantharidin and norcantharidin was rapid and can be completed within a few days in the soil. None of the three pesticides caused significant shifts in urease activity. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the soil microbial toxicity of these biopesticides for reasonable and efficient usage.

Soil Water Retention as Indicator for Soil Physical Quality - Examples from Two SoilTrEC European Critical Zone Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rousseva, Svetla; Kercheva, Milena; Shishkov, Toma; Dimitrov, Emil; Nenov, Martin; Lair, Georg J.; Moraetis, Daniel

2014-05-01

Soil water retention is of primary importance for majority of soil functions. The characteristics derived from Soil Water Retention Curve (SWRC) are directly related to soil structure and soil water regime and can be used as indicators for soil physical quality. The aim of this study is to present some parameters and relationships based on the SWRC data from the soil profiles characterising the European SoilTrEC Critical Zone Observatories Fuchsenbigl and Koiliaris. The studied soils are representative for highly productive soils managed as arable land in the frame of soil formation chronosequence at "Marchfeld" (Fuchsenbigl CZO), Austria and heavily impacted soils during centuries through intensive grazing and farming, under severe risk of desertification in context of climatic and lithological gradient at Koiliaris, Crete, Greece. Soil water retention at pF ≤ 2.52 was determined using the undisturbed soil cores (100 cm3 and 50 cm3) by a suction plate method. Water retention at pF = 4.2 was determined by a membrane press method and at pF ≥ 5.6 - by adsorption of water vapour at controlled relative humidity, both using ground soil samples. The soil physical quality parameter (S-parameter) was defined as the slope of the water retention curve at its inflection point (Dexter, 2006), determined with the obtained parameters of van Genuhten (1980) water retention equation. The S-parameter values were categorised to assess soil physical quality as follows: S < 0.020 very poor, 0.020 ≤ S < 0.035 poor, 0.035 ≤ S < 0.050 good, S ≥ 0.050 very good (Dexter, 2004). The results showed that most of the studied topsoil horizons have good physical quality according to both the S-parameter and the Plant-Available Water content (PAW), with the exception of the soils from croplands at CZO Fuxenbigl (F4, F5) which are with poor soil structure. The link between the S-parameter and the indicator of soil structure stability (water stable soil aggregates with size 1-3 mm) is not

Indirect estimation of the Convective Lognormal Transfer function model parameters for describing solute transport in unsaturated and undisturbed soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammadi, Mohammad Hossein; Vanclooster, Marnik

2012-05-01

Solute transport in partially saturated soils is largely affected by fluid velocity distribution and pore size distribution within the solute transport domain. Hence, it is possible to describe the solute transport process in terms of the pore size distribution of the soil, and indirectly in terms of the soil hydraulic properties. In this paper, we present a conceptual approach that allows predicting the parameters of the Convective Lognormal Transfer model from knowledge of soil moisture and the Soil Moisture Characteristic (SMC), parameterized by means of the closed-form model of Kosugi (1996). It is assumed that in partially saturated conditions, the air filled pore volume act as an inert solid phase, allowing the use of the Arya et al. (1999) pragmatic approach to estimate solute travel time statistics from the saturation degree and SMC parameters. The approach is evaluated using a set of partially saturated transport experiments as presented by Mohammadi and Vanclooster (2011). Experimental results showed that the mean solute travel time, μt, increases proportionally with the depth (travel distance) and decreases with flow rate. The variance of solute travel time σ2t first decreases with flow rate up to 0.4-0.6 Ks and subsequently increases. For all tested BTCs predicted solute transport with μt estimated from the conceptual model performed much better as compared to predictions with μt and σ2t estimated from calibration of solute transport at shallow soil depths. The use of μt estimated from the conceptual model therefore increases the robustness of the CLT model in predicting solute transport in heterogeneous soils at larger depths. In view of the fact that reasonable indirect estimates of the SMC can be made from basic soil properties using pedotransfer functions, the presented approach may be useful for predicting solute transport at field or watershed scales.

Use of a flux-based field capacity criterion to identify effective hydraulic parameters of layered soil profiles subjected to synthetic drainage experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasta, Paolo; Romano, Nunzio

2016-01-01

This study explores the feasibility of identifying the effective soil hydraulic parameterization of a layered soil profile by using a conventional unsteady drainage experiment leading to field capacity. The flux-based field capacity criterion is attained by subjecting the soil profile to a synthetic drainage process implemented numerically in the Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant (SWAP) model. The effective hydraulic parameterization is associated to either aggregated or equivalent parameters, the former being determined by the geometrical scaling theory while the latter is obtained through the inverse modeling approach. Outcomes from both these methods depend on information that is sometimes difficult to retrieve at local scale and rather challenging or virtually impossible at larger scales. The only knowledge of topsoil hydraulic properties, for example, as retrieved by a near-surface field campaign or a data assimilation technique, is often exploited as a proxy to determine effective soil hydraulic parameterization at the largest spatial scales. Comparisons of the effective soil hydraulic characterization provided by these three methods are conducted by discussing the implications for their use and accounting for the trade-offs between required input information and model output reliability. To better highlight the epistemic errors associated to the different effective soil hydraulic properties and to provide some more practical guidance, the layered soil profiles are then grouped by using the FAO textural classes. For the moderately heterogeneous soil profiles available, all three approaches guarantee a general good predictability of the actual field capacity values and provide adequate identification of the effective hydraulic parameters. Conversely, worse performances are encountered for the highly variable vertical heterogeneity, especially when resorting to the "topsoil-only" information. In general, the best performances are guaranteed by the equivalent

Five parameters for the evaluation of the soil nonlinearity during the Ms8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake using the HVSR method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Yefei; Wen, Ruizhi; Yao, Xinxin; Ji, Kun

2017-08-01

The consideration of soil nonlinearity is important for the accurate estimation of the site response. To evaluate the soil nonlinearity during the 2008 Ms8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake, 33 strong-motion records obtained from the main shock and 890 records from 157 aftershocks were collected for this study. The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method was used to calculate five parameters: the ratio of predominant frequency (RFp), degree of nonlinearity (DNL), absolute degree of nonlinearity (ADNL), frequency of nonlinearity (fNL), and percentage of nonlinearity (PNL). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the soil nonlinearity level of 33 strong-motion stations and to investigate the characteristics, performance, and effective usage of these five parameters. Their correlations with the peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), average uppermost 30-m shear-wave velocity ( V S30), and maximum amplitude of HVSR ( A max) were investigated. The results showed that all five parameters correlate well with PGA and PGV. The DNL, ADNL, and PNL also show a good correlation with A max, which means that the degree of soil nonlinearity not only depends on the ground-motion amplitude (e.g., PGA and PGV) but also on the site condition. The fNL correlates with PGA and PGV but shows no correlation with either A max or V S30, implying that the frequency width affected by the soil nonlinearity predominantly depends on the ground-motion amplitude rather than the site condition. At 16 of the 33 stations analyzed in this study, the site response showed evident (i.e., strong and medium) nonlinearity during the main shock of the Wenchuan Earthquake, where the ground-motion level was almost beyond the threshold of PGA > 200 cm/s2 or PGV > 15 cm/s. The site response showed weak and no nonlinearity at the other 14 and 3 stations. These results also confirm that RFp, DNL, ADNL, and PNL are effective in identifying the soil nonlinearity behavior. The identification

Petrophysics of low-permeability medina sandstone, northwestern Pennsylvania, Appalachian Basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Castle, J.W.; Byrnes, A.P.

1998-01-01

Petrophysical core testing combined with geophysical log analysis of low-permeability, Lower Silurian sandstones of the Appalachian basin provides guidelines and equations for predicting gas producibility. Permeability values are predictable from the borehole logs by applying empirically derived equations based on correlation between in-situ porosity and in-situ effective gas permeability. An Archie-form equation provides reasonable accuracy of log-derived water saturations because of saturated brine salinities and low clay content in the sands. Although measured porosity and permeability average less than 6% and 0.1 mD, infrequent values as high as 18% and 1,048 mD occur. Values of effective gas permeability at irreducible water saturation (Swi) range from 60% to 99% of routine values for the highest permeability rocks to several orders of magnitude less for the lowest permeability rocks. Sandstones having porosity greater than 6% and effective gas permeability greater than 0.01 mD exhibit Swi less than 20%. With decreasing porosity, Swi sharply increases to values near 40% at 3 porosity%. Analysis of cumulative storage and flow capacity indicates zones with porosity greater than 6% generally contain over 90% of flow capacity and hold a major portion of storage capacity. For rocks with Swi < 20%, gas relative permeabilities exceed 45%. Gas relative permeability and hydrocarbon volume decrease rapidly with increasing Swi as porosity drops below 6%. At Swi above 40%, gas relative permeabilities are less than approximately 10%.

[Heavy metals: soil characteristics and methods of evaluating parameters for defining "contaminated soils"].

PubMed

Gagliano-Candela, R; Cammarota, R

2000-01-01

The excessive content of toxic elements in the human environment is associated with the etiology of a number of diseases. Soils' pollutants decontamination regards the main industrialised countries. Heavy metals represent the main problem for soil pollution characterisation. The first approach for pollution evaluation is the determination of total metal concentration; the evaluation of their bioavailability is required for a correct knowledge of the environmental risk. In the present work is shown the procedure to evaluate the sites, which require decontamination and which need the following data: knowledge of the threshold for each metal in the soil and its range, chemical analysis of the components, determination of bioavailability and soil destination. The bioavailability is easily calculated by the procedure of aimed extractions.

Ensemble-based flash-flood modelling: Taking into account hydrodynamic parameters and initial soil moisture uncertainties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edouard, Simon; Vincendon, Béatrice; Ducrocq, Véronique

2018-05-01

Intense precipitation events in the Mediterranean often lead to devastating flash floods (FF). FF modelling is affected by several kinds of uncertainties and Hydrological Ensemble Prediction Systems (HEPS) are designed to take those uncertainties into account. The major source of uncertainty comes from rainfall forcing and convective-scale meteorological ensemble prediction systems can manage it for forecasting purpose. But other sources are related to the hydrological modelling part of the HEPS. This study focuses on the uncertainties arising from the hydrological model parameters and initial soil moisture with aim to design an ensemble-based version of an hydrological model dedicated to Mediterranean fast responding rivers simulations, the ISBA-TOP coupled system. The first step consists in identifying the parameters that have the strongest influence on FF simulations by assuming perfect precipitation. A sensitivity study is carried out first using a synthetic framework and then for several real events and several catchments. Perturbation methods varying the most sensitive parameters as well as initial soil moisture allow designing an ensemble-based version of ISBA-TOP. The first results of this system on some real events are presented. The direct perspective of this work will be to drive this ensemble-based version with the members of a convective-scale meteorological ensemble prediction system to design a complete HEPS for FF forecasting.

Facies Distribution and Petrophysical Properties of Shoreface-Offshore Transition Environment in Sandakan Formation, NE Sabah Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Majid, M. Firdaus A.; Suhaili Ismail, M.; Rahman, A. Hadi A.; Azfar Mohamed, M.

2017-10-01

Newly exposed outcrop of Miocene shallow marine sandstone in Sandakan Formation, allows characterization of the facies distribution and petrophysical properties of shoreface to offshore transition environment. Six facies are defined: (1) Poorly bioturbated Hummocky Cross Stratified (HCS) sandstone (F1), (2) Moderately bioturbated HCS sandstone (F2), (3) Well bioturbated HCS sandstone (F3), (4) Poorly bioturbated Swaley Cross Stratified (SCS) sandstone (F4), (5) Interbedded HCS sandstone with sand-silt mudstone, (6) Heterolithic mudstone. The sedimentary successions were deposited in upper to lower shoreface, and offshore transition environment. Facies F3, F4 and F5 shows good reservoir quality with good porosity and fair permeability values from 20% to 21% and 14 mD to 33 mD respectively. While Facies F1 exhibits poor reservoir quality with low permeability values 3.13 mD.

Estimation of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity by artificial neural networks ensemble in smectitic soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sedaghat, A.; Bayat, H.; Safari Sinegani, A. A.

2016-03-01

The saturated hydraulic conductivity ( K s ) of the soil is one of the main soil physical properties. Indirect estimation of this parameter using pedo-transfer functions (PTFs) has received considerable attention. The Purpose of this study was to improve the estimation of K s using fractal parameters of particle and micro-aggregate size distributions in smectitic soils. In this study 260 disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were collected from Guilan province, the north of Iran. The fractal model of Bird and Perrier was used to compute the fractal parameters of particle and micro-aggregate size distributions. The PTFs were developed by artificial neural networks (ANNs) ensemble to estimate K s by using available soil data and fractal parameters. There were found significant correlations between K s and fractal parameters of particles and microaggregates. Estimation of K s was improved significantly by using fractal parameters of soil micro-aggregates as predictors. But using geometric mean and geometric standard deviation of particles diameter did not improve K s estimations significantly. Using fractal parameters of particles and micro-aggregates simultaneously, had the most effect in the estimation of K s . Generally, fractal parameters can be successfully used as input parameters to improve the estimation of K s in the PTFs in smectitic soils. As a result, ANNs ensemble successfully correlated the fractal parameters of particles and micro-aggregates to K s .

Integrated petrophysical and sedimentological study of the Middle Miocene Nullipore Formation (Ras Fanar Field, Gulf of Suez, Egypt): An approach to volumetric analysis of reservoirs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afife, Mohamed M.; Sallam, Emad S.; Faris, Mohamed

2017-10-01

the total recoverable oil is 148.5 MMSTB at P50. The volumetric calculations for the Nullipore zones match the production data indicating a good simulation for the reservoir productivity through the petrophysical parameters. Comparison of the volumetric calculations of the oil and the cumulative production of the Ras Fanar Oil Field indicates remaining reserves of less than 30% of the total recoverable oil. Therefore, the search for unconventional and/or deeper reservoirs at other water contacts is recommended.

Estimate of the soil water retention curve from the sorptivity and β parameter calculated from an upward infiltration experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moret-Fernández, D.; Latorre, B.

2017-01-01

The water retention curve (θ(h)), which defines the relationship between the volumetric water content (θ) and the matric potential (h), is of paramount importance to characterize the hydraulic behaviour of soils. Because current methods to estimate θ(h) are, in general, tedious and time consuming, alternative procedures to determine θ(h) are needed. Using an upward infiltration curve, the main objective of this work is to present a method to determine the parameters of the van Genuchten (1980) water retention curve (α and n) from the sorptivity (S) and the β parameter defined in the 1D infiltration equation proposed by Haverkamp et al. (1994). The first specific objective is to present an equation, based on the Haverkamp et al. (1994) analysis, which allows describing an upward infiltration process. Secondary, assuming a known saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks, calculated on a finite soil column by the Darcy's law, a numerical procedure to calculate S and β by the inverse analysis of an exfiltration curve is presented. Finally, the α and n values are numerically calculated from Ks, S and β. To accomplish the first specific objective, cumulative upward infiltration curves simulated with HYDRUS-1D for sand, loam, silt and clay soils were compared to those calculated with the proposed equation, after applying the corresponding β and S calculated from the theoretical Ks, α and n. The same curves were used to: (i) study the influence of the exfiltration time on S and β estimations, (ii) evaluate the limits of the inverse analysis, and (iii) validate the feasibility of the method to estimate α and n. Next, the θ(h) parameters estimated with the numerical method on experimental soils were compared to those obtained with pressure cells. The results showed that the upward infiltration curve could be correctly described by the modified Haverkamp et al. (1994) equation. While S was only affected by early-time exfiltration data, the β parameter had a

Determining photon energy absorption parameters for different soil samples

PubMed Central

Kucuk, Nil; Tumsavas, Zeynal; Cakir, Merve

2013-01-01

The mass attenuation coefficients (μs) for five different soil samples were measured at 661.6, 1173.2 and 1332.5 keV photon energies. The soil samples were separately irradiated with 137Cs and 60Co (370 kBq) radioactive point gamma sources. The measurements were made by performing transmission experiments with a 2″ × 2″ NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, which had an energy resolution of 7% at 0.662 MeV for the gamma-rays from the decay of 137Cs. The effective atomic numbers (Zeff) and the effective electron densities (Neff) were determined experimentally and theoretically using the obtained μs values for the soil samples. Furthermore, the Zeff and Neff values of the soil samples were computed for the total photon interaction cross-sections using theoretical data over a wide energy region ranging from 1 keV to 15 MeV. The experimental values of the soils were found to be in good agreement with the theoretical values. Sandy loam and sandy clay loam soils demonstrated poor photon energy absorption characteristics. However, clay loam and clay soils had good photon energy absorption characteristics. PMID:23179375

The early diagenetic and PETROphysical behaviour of recent cold-water CARbonate mounds in Deep Environments (PETROCARDE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foubert, Anneleen; Pirlet, Hans; Thierens, Mieke; de Mol, Ben; Henriet, Jean-Pierre; Swennen, Rudy

2010-05-01

Sub-recent cold-water carbonate mounds localized in deeper slope settings on the Atlantic continental margins cannot be any longer neglected in the study of carbonate systems. They clearly play a major role in the dynamics of mixed siliciclastic-carbonate and/or carbonate-dominated continental slopes. Carbonate accumulation rates of cold-water carbonate mounds are about 4 to 12 % of the carbonate accumulation rates of tropical shallow-water reefs but exceed the carbonate accumulation rates of their slope settings by a factor of 4 to 12 (Titschack et al., 2009). These findings emphasize the importance of these carbonate factories as carbonate niches on the continental margins. The primary environmental architecture of such carbonate bodies is well-characterized. However, despite proven evidences of early diagenesis overprinting the primary environmental record (e.g. aragonite dissolution) (Foubert & Henriet, 2009), the extent of early diagenetic and biogeochemical processes shaping the petrophysical nature of mounds is until now not yet fully understood. Understanding (1) the functioning of a carbonate mound as biogeochemical reactor triggering early diagenetic processes and (2) the impact of early diagenesis on the petrophysical behaviour of a carbonate mound in space and through time are necessary (vital) for the reliable prediction of potential late diagenetic processes. Approaching the fossil carbonate mound record, through a profound study of recent carbonate bodies is innovative and will help to better understand processes observed in the fossil mound world (such as cementation, brecciation, fracturing, etc…). In this study, the 155-m high Challenger mound (Porcupine Seabight, SW of Ireland), drilled during IODP Expedition 307 aboard the R/V Joides Resolution (Foubert & Henriet, 2009), and mounds from the Gulf of Cadiz (Moroccan margin) will be discussed in terms of early diagenetic processes and petrophysical behaviour. Early differential diagenesis

Hyperspectral Data Processing and Mapping of Soil Parameters: Preliminary Data from Tuscany (Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garfagnoli, F.; Moretti, S.; Catani, F.; Innocenti, L.; Chiarantini, L.

2010-12-01

-sensor radiance values, where calibration coefficients and parameters from laboratory measurements are applied to non-georeferred VNIR/SWIR DN values. Then, geocoded products are retrieved for each flight line by using a procedure developed in IDL Language and PARGE (PARametric Geocoding) software. When all compensation parameters are applied to hyperspectral data or to the final thematic map, orthorectified, georeferred and coregistered VNIR to SWIR images or maps are available for GIS application and 3D view. Airborne imagery has to be corrected for the influence of the atmosphere, solar illumination, sensor viewing geometry and terrain geometry information, for the retrieval of inherent surface reflectance properties. Then, different geophysical parameters can be investigated and retrieved by means of inversion algorithms. The experimental fitting of laboratory data on mineral content is used for airborne data inversion, whose results are in agreement with laboratory records, demonstrating the possibility to use this methodology for digital mapping of soil properties.

Soil biochar amendment as a climate change mitigation tool: Key parameters and mechanisms involved.

PubMed

Brassard, Patrick; Godbout, Stéphane; Raghavan, Vijaya

2016-10-01

Biochar, a solid porous material obtained from the carbonization of biomass under low or no oxygen conditions, has been proposed as a climate change mitigation tool because it is expected to sequester carbon (C) for centuries and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soils. This review aimed to identify key biochar properties and production parameters that have an effect on these specific applications of the biochar. Moreover, mechanisms involved in interactions between biochar and soils were highlighted. Following a compilation and comparison of the characteristics of 76 biochars from 40 research studies, biochars with a lower N content, and consequently a higher C/N ratio (>30), were found to be more suitable for mitigation of N2O emissions from soils. Moreover, biochars produced at a higher pyrolysis temperature, and with O/C ratio <0.2, H/Corg ratio <0.4 and volatile matter below 80% may have high C sequestration potential. Based on these observations, biochar production and application to the field can be used as a tool to mitigate climate change. However, it is important to determine the pyrolysis conditions and feedstock needed to produce a biochar with the desired properties for a specific application. More research studies are needed to identify the exact mechanisms involved following biochar amendment to soil. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transformation of ecofunctional parameters of soil microbial cenoses in clearings for power transmission lines in Central Siberia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bogorodskaya, A. V.; Ponomareva, T. V.; Efimov, D. Yu.; Shishikin, A. S.

2017-06-01

Changes in soil microbial processes and phytocenotic parameters were studied in clearings made for power transmission lines in the subtaiga and southern taiga of Central Siberia. In these clearings, secondary meadow communities play the main environmental role. The substitution of meadow vegetation for forest vegetation, the increase in the phytomass by 40-120%, and the transformation of the hydrothermic regime in the clearings led to the intensification of the humus-accumulative process, growth of the humus content, reduction in acidity and oligotrophy of the upper horizons in the gray soils of the meadow communities, and more active microbial mineralization of organic matter. In the humus horizon of the soils under meadows, the microbial biomass (Cmicr) increased by 20-90%, and the intensity of basal respiration became higher by 60-90%. The values of the microbial metabolic quotient were also higher in these soils than in the soils under the native forests. In the 0- to 50-cm layer of the gray soils under the meadows, the total Cmicr reserves were 35-45% greater and amounted to 230-320 g/m3; the total microbial production of CO2 was 1.5-2 times higher than that in the soil of the adjacent forest and reached 770-840 mg CO2-C/m3 h. The predominance of mineralization processes in the soils under meadows in the clearings reflected changes in edaphic and trophic conditions of the soils and testified to an active inclusion of the herb falloff into the biological cycle.

A combined microstructural and petrophysical study to analyse the mechanical behaviour of shales in the Flysch units, Glarus Alps, Switzerland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akker, Vénice; Kaufmann, Josef; Berger, Alfons; Herwegh, Marco

2017-04-01

Crustal scale deformation is strongly controlled by the rheological behaviour of sheet-silicate-rich rock types. As these rocks have low rock strength, facilitated by the strong crystallographically controlled mechanical anisotropy and interstitial pore fluid in the aggregate, they are able to accommodate considerable amounts of strain. A close relationship is expected between microstructure, porosity and permeability as function of metamorphic conditions and strain gradients. Thereby, fluids set free by compaction, mineral reactions or deformation play an important role. Rising industries in underground storage such as nuclear waste disposal, shale gas exploration or geological carbon sequestration make use of the advantageous properties of such rock types. Therefore, there is a great demand for research on the interaction of these processes. This study uses samples from Flysch-units of the Glarus Alps (Switzerland) collected along a metamorphic gradient (150-400°C) to unravel the link between the mechanical behaviour of these sheet-silicate-rich rocks at geological conditions and their present-day physical parameters. Investigations include two topics: (1) characterization of such rock types in terms of mineralogy, microstructure and petrophysical properties; and (2) possible reconstruction of deformation processes from microstructures. Quantitative information on the porosity, i.e. the pore sizes, distribution and their interconnectivity is crucial for both topics. Porosity is therefore estimated by: (1) image analysis of high resolution SEM images, (2) He-pycnometry, and (3) Hg-porosimetry. In a first step, differences in their present day physical parameters between low and high temperature sampling sites are shown. The variations inside and between the investigated samples is partly due to initial sedimentological heterogeneity and partly to the changes along the metamorphic gradient. This study will demonstrate how the characterized present day porosity

Soil CO₂ dynamics in a tree island soil of the Pantanal: the role of soil water potential.

PubMed

Johnson, Mark S; Couto, Eduardo Guimarães; Pinto, Osvaldo B; Milesi, Juliana; Santos Amorim, Ricardo S; Messias, Indira A M; Biudes, Marcelo Sacardi

2013-01-01

The Pantanal is a biodiversity hotspot comprised of a mosaic of landforms that differ in vegetative assemblages and flooding dynamics. Tree islands provide refuge for terrestrial fauna during the flooding period and are particularly important to the regional ecosystem structure. Little soil CO₂ research has been conducted in this region. We evaluated soil CO₂ dynamics in relation to primary controlling environmental parameters (soil temperature and soil water). Soil respiration was computed using the gradient method using in situ infrared gas analyzers to directly measure CO₂ concentration within the soil profile. Due to the cost of the sensors and associated equipment, this study was unreplicated. Rather, we focus on the temporal relationships between soil CO₂ efflux and related environmental parameters. Soil CO₂ efflux during the study averaged 3.53 µmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹, and was equivalent to an annual soil respiration of 1220 g C m⁻² y⁻¹. This efflux value, integrated over a year, is comparable to soil C stocks for 0-20 cm. Soil water potential was the measured parameter most strongly associated with soil CO₂ concentrations, with high CO₂ values observed only once soil water potential at the 10 cm depth approached zero. This relationship was exhibited across a spectrum of timescales and was found to be significant at a daily timescale across all seasons using conditional nonparametric spectral Granger causality analysis. Hydrology plays a significant role in controlling CO₂ efflux from the tree island soil, with soil CO₂ dynamics differing by wetting mechanism. During the wet-up period, direct precipitation infiltrates soil from above and results in pulses of CO₂ efflux from soil. The annual flood arrives later, and saturates soil from below. While CO₂ concentrations in soil grew very high under both wetting mechanisms, the change in soil CO₂ efflux was only significant when soils were wet from above.

Correlating Petrophysical Well Logs Using Fractal-based Analysis to Identify Changes in the Signal Complexity Across Neutron, Density, Dipole Sonic, and Gamma Ray Tool Types

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matthews, L.; Gurrola, H.

2015-12-01

Typical petrophysical well log correlation is accomplished by manual pattern recognition leading to subjective correlations. The change in character in a well log is dependent upon the change in the response of the tool to lithology. The petrophysical interpreter looks for a change in one log type that would correspond to the way a different tool responds to the same lithology. To develop an objective way to pick changes in well log characteristics, we adapt a method of first arrival picking used in seismic data to analyze changes in the character of well logs. We chose to use the fractal method developed by Boschetti et al[1] (1996). This method worked better than we expected and we found similar changes in the fractal dimension across very different tool types (sonic vs density vs gamma ray). We reason the fractal response of the log is not dependent on the physics of the tool response but rather the change in the complexity of the log data. When a formation changes physical character in time or space the recorded magnitude in tool data changes complexity at the same time even if the original tool response is very different. The relative complexity of the data regardless of the tool used is dependent upon the complexity of the medium relative to tool measurement. The relative complexity of the recorded magnitude data changes as a tool transitions from one character type to another. The character we are measuring is the roughness or complexity of the petrophysical curve. Our method provides a way to directly compare different log types based on a quantitative change in signal complexity. For example, using changes in data complexity allow us to correlate gamma ray suites with sonic logs within a well and then across to an adjacent well with similar signatures. Our method creates reliable and automatic correlations to be made in data sets beyond the reasonable cognitive limits of geoscientists in both speed and consistent pattern recognition. [1] Fabio Boschetti

The Estimation of Compaction Parameter Values Based on Soil Properties Values Stabilized with Portland Cement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubis, A. S.; Muis, Z. A.; Pasaribu, M. I.

2017-03-01

The strength and durability of pavement construction is highly dependent on the properties and subgrade bearing capacity. This then led to the idea of the selection methods to estimate the density of the soil with the proper implementation of the system, fast and economical. This study aims to estimate the compaction parameter value namely the maximum dry unit weight (γd max) and optimum moisture content (wopt) of the soil properties value that stabilized with Portland Cement. Tests conducted in the laboratory of soil mechanics to determine the index properties (fines and liquid limit) and Standard Compaction Test. Soil samples that have Plasticity Index (PI) between 0-15% then mixed with Portland Cement (PC) with variations of 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10%, each 10 samples. The results showed that the maximum dry unit weight (γd max) and wopt has a significant relationship with percent fines, liquid limit and the percentation of cement. Equation for the estimated maximum dry unit weight (γd max) = 1.782 - 0.011*LL + 0,000*F + 0.006*PS with R2 = 0.915 and the estimated optimum moisture content (wopt) = 3.441 + 0.594*LL + 0,025*F + 0,024*PS with R2 = 0.726.

Indirect estimation of the Convective Lognormal Transfer function model parameters for describing solute transport in unsaturated and undisturbed soil.

PubMed

Mohammadi, Mohammad Hossein; Vanclooster, Marnik

2012-05-01

Solute transport in partially saturated soils is largely affected by fluid velocity distribution and pore size distribution within the solute transport domain. Hence, it is possible to describe the solute transport process in terms of the pore size distribution of the soil, and indirectly in terms of the soil hydraulic properties. In this paper, we present a conceptual approach that allows predicting the parameters of the Convective Lognormal Transfer model from knowledge of soil moisture and the Soil Moisture Characteristic (SMC), parameterized by means of the closed-form model of Kosugi (1996). It is assumed that in partially saturated conditions, the air filled pore volume act as an inert solid phase, allowing the use of the Arya et al. (1999) pragmatic approach to estimate solute travel time statistics from the saturation degree and SMC parameters. The approach is evaluated using a set of partially saturated transport experiments as presented by Mohammadi and Vanclooster (2011). Experimental results showed that the mean solute travel time, μ(t), increases proportionally with the depth (travel distance) and decreases with flow rate. The variance of solute travel time σ²(t) first decreases with flow rate up to 0.4-0.6 Ks and subsequently increases. For all tested BTCs predicted solute transport with μ(t) estimated from the conceptual model performed much better as compared to predictions with μ(t) and σ²(t) estimated from calibration of solute transport at shallow soil depths. The use of μ(t) estimated from the conceptual model therefore increases the robustness of the CLT model in predicting solute transport in heterogeneous soils at larger depths. In view of the fact that reasonable indirect estimates of the SMC can be made from basic soil properties using pedotransfer functions, the presented approach may be useful for predicting solute transport at field or watershed scales. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of Reservoir Fluid Saturation on Seismic Parameters: Endrod Gas Field, Hungary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El Sayed, Abdel Moktader A.; El Sayed, Nahla A.

2017-12-01

Outlining the reservoir fluid types and saturation is the main object of the present research work. 37 core samples were collected from three different gas bearing zones in the Endrod gas field in Hungary. These samples are belonging to the Miocene and the Upper - Lower Pliocene. These samples were prepared and laboratory measurements were conducted. Compression and shear wave velocity were measured using the Sonic Viewer-170-OYO. The sonic velocities were measured at the frequencies of 63 and 33 kHz for compressional and shear wave respectively. All samples were subjected to complete petrophysical investigations. Sonic velocities and mechanical parameters such as young’s modulus, rigidity, and bulk modulus were measured when samples were saturated by 100%-75%-0% brine water. Several plots have been performed to show the relationship between seismic parameters and saturation percentages. Robust relationships were obtained, showing the impact of fluid saturation on seismic parameters. Seismic velocity, Poisson’s ratio, bulk modulus and rigidity prove to be applicable during hydrocarbon exploration or production stages. Relationships among the measured seismic parameters in gas/water fully and partially saturated samples are useful to outline the fluid type and saturation percentage especially in gas/water transitional zones.

Hydraulic and thermal soil Parameter combined with TEM data at quaternary coastal regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grabowski, Ima; Kirsch, Reinhard; Scheer, Wolfgang

2014-05-01

In order to generate a more efficient method of planning and dimensioning small- and medium sized geothermal power plants at quaternary subsurface a basic approach has been attempted. Within the EU-project CLIWAT, the coastal region of Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium has been investigated and air borne electro magnetic data was collected. In this work the regional focus was put on the isle of Föhr. To describe the subsurface with relevant parameters one need the information from drillings and geophysical well logging data. The approach to minimize costs and use existing data from state agencies led the investigation to the combination of specific electrical resistivity data and hydraulic and thermal conductivity. We worked out a basic soil/hydraulic conductivity statistic for the isle of Föhr by gathering all well logging data from the island and sorted the existing soil materials to associated kf -values. We combined specific electrical resistivity with hydraulic soil properties to generate thermal conductivity values by extracting porosity. Until now we generated a set of rough data for kf - values and thermal conductivity. The air borne TEM data sets are reliable up to 150 m below surface, depending on the conductivity of the layers. So we can suppose the same for the differentiated parameters. Since this is a very rough statistic of kf -values, further more investigation has to be made. Although the close connection to each area of investigation either over existing logging data or laboratory soil property values will remain necessary. Literature: Ahmed S, de Marsily G, Talbot A (1988): Combined Use of Hydraulic and Electrical Properties of an Aquifer in a Geostatistical Estimation of Transmissivity. - Groundwater, vol. 26 (1) Burschil T, Scheer W, Wiederhold H, Kirsch R (2012): Groundwater situation on a glacially affected barrier island. Submitted to Hydrology and Earth System Sciences - an Interactive Open Access Journal of the European

Enzymatic activities in a semiarid soil amended with different soil treatment: Soil quality improvement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hueso González, Paloma; Elbl, Jakub; Dvořáčková, Helena; Francisco Martinez Murillo, Juan; Damian Ruiz Sinoga, Jose

2017-04-01

The use of soil quality indicators may be an effective approach to assess the positive effect of the organic amendment as good restoration methods. Relying on the natural fertility of the soil, the most commonly chemical and physical parameters used to evaluate soil quality are depend to the soil biological parameters. The measurement of soil basal respiration and the mineralization of organic matter are commonly accepted as a key indicator for measuring changes to soil quality. Thus, the simultaneous measurement of various enzymes seems to be useful to evaluate soil biochemical activity and related processes. In this line, Dehydrogenase activity is widely used in evaluating the metabolic activity of soil microorganisms and to evaluate the effects caused by the addition of organic amendments. Variations in phosphatase activity, apart from indicating changes in the quantity and quality of soil phosphorated substrates, are also good indicators of soil biological status. This study assesses the effect of five soil amendments as restoration techniques for semiarid Mediterrenean ecosystems. The goal is to interpret the status of biological and chemical parameters in each treatment as soil quality indicators in degraded forests. The main objectives were to: i) analyze the effect of various organic amendments on the enzimatic activity of soil; ii) analyze the effect of the amendments on soil respiration; iii) assess the effect of these parameters on the soil chemical properties which are indicative of soil healthy; and iv) evaluated form the land management point of view which amendment could result a effective method to restore Mediterranean degraded areas. An experimental paired-plot layout was established in southern of Spain (homogeneous slope gradient: 7.5%; aspect: N170). Five amendments were applied in an experimental set of plots: straw mulching; mulch with chipped branches of Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.); TerraCotten hydroabsobent polymers; sewage

Soil and geomorphological parameters to characterize natural environmental and human induced changes within the Guadarrama Range (Central Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmid, Thomas; Inclán-Cuartas, Rosa M.; Santolaria-Canales, Edmundo; Saa, Antonio; Rodríguez-Rastrero, Manuel; Tanarro-Garcia, Luis M.; Luque, Esperanza; Pelayo, Marta; Ubeda, Jose; Tarquis, Ana; Diaz-Puente, Javier; De Marcos, Javier; Rodriguez-Alonso, Javier; Hernandez, Carlos; Palacios, David; Gallardo-Díaz, Juan; Fidel González-Rouco, J.

2016-04-01

Mediterranean mountain ecosystems are often complex and remarkably diverse and are seen as important sources of biological diversity. They play a key role in the water and sediment cycle for lowland regions as well as preventing and mitigating natural hazards especially those related to drought such as fire risk. However, these ecosystems are fragile and vulnerable to changes due to their particular and extreme climatic and biogeographic conditions. Some of the main pressures on mountain biodiversity are caused by changes in land use practices, infrastructure and urban development, unsustainable tourism, overexploitation of natural resources, fragmentation of habitats, particularly when located close to large population centers, as well as by pressures related toclimate change. The objective of this work is to select soil and geomorphological parameters in order to characterize natural environmental and human induced changes within the newly created National Park of the Sierra de Guadarrama in Central Spain, where the presence of the Madrid metropolitan area is the main factor of impact. This is carried out within the framework of the Guadarrama Monitoring Network (GuMNet) of the Campus de ExcelenciaInternacionalMoncloa, where long-term monitoring of the atmosphere, soil and bedrock are priority. This network has a total of ten stations located to the NW of Madrid and in this case, three stations have been selected to represent different ecosystems that include: 1) an alluvial plain in a lowland pasture area (La Herreria at 920 m a.s.l.), 2) mid mountain pine-forested and pasture area (Raso del Pino at 1801 m a.s.l.) and 3) high mountain grassland and rock area (Dos Hermanas at 2225 m a.s.l.). At each station a site geomorphological description, soil profile description and sampling was carried out. In the high mountain area information was obtained for monitoring frost heave activity and downslope soil movement. Basic soil laboratory analyses have been carried out

Influence of soil environmental parameters on thoron exhalation rate.

PubMed

Hosoda, M; Tokonami, S; Sorimachi, A; Ishikawa, T; Sahoo, S K; Furukawa, M; Shiroma, Y; Yasuoka, Y; Janik, M; Kavasi, N; Uchida, S; Shimo, M

2010-10-01

Field measurements of thoron exhalation rates have been carried out using a ZnS(Ag) scintillation detector with an accumulation chamber. The influence of soil surface temperature and moisture saturation on the thoron exhalation rate was observed. When the variation of moisture saturation was small, the soil surface temperature appeared to induce a strong effect on the thoron exhalation rate. On the other hand, when the variation of moisture saturation was large, the influence of moisture saturation appeared to be larger than the soil surface temperature. The number of data ranged over 405, and the median was estimated to be 0.79 Bq m(-2) s(-1). Dependence of geology on the thoron exhalation rate from the soil surface was obviously found, and a nationwide distribution map of the thoron exhalation rate from the soil surface was drawn by using these data. It was generally high in the southwest region than in the northeast region.

A new calibration of the effective scattering albedo and soil roughness parameters in the SMOS SM retrieval algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez-Moran, R.; Wigneron, J.-P.; De Lannoy, G.; Lopez-Baeza, E.; Parrens, M.; Mialon, A.; Mahmoodi, A.; Al-Yaari, A.; Bircher, S.; Al Bitar, A.; Richaume, P.; Kerr, Y.

2017-10-01

This study focuses on the calibration of the effective vegetation scattering albedo (ω) and surface soil roughness parameters (HR, and NRp, p = H,V) in the Soil Moisture (SM) retrieval from L-band passive microwave observations using the L-band Microwave Emission of the Biosphere (L-MEB) model. In the current Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Level 2 (L2), v620, and Level 3 (L3), v300, SM retrieval algorithms, low vegetated areas are parameterized by ω = 0 and HR = 0.1, whereas values of ω = 0.06 - 0.08 and HR = 0.3 are used for forests. Several parameterizations of the vegetation and soil roughness parameters (ω, HR and NRp, p = H,V) were tested in this study, treating SMOS SM retrievals as homogeneous over each pixel instead of retrieving SM over a representative fraction of the pixel, as implemented in the operational SMOS L2 and L3 algorithms. Globally-constant values of ω = 0.10, HR = 0.4 and NRp = -1 (p = H,V) were found to yield SM retrievals that compared best with in situ SM data measured at many sites worldwide from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN). The calibration was repeated for collections of in situ sites classified in different land cover categories based on the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) scheme. Depending on the IGBP land cover class, values of ω and HR varied, respectively, in the range 0.08-0.12 and 0.1-0.5. A validation exercise based on in situ measurements confirmed that using either a global or an IGBP-based calibration, there was an improvement in the accuracy of the SM retrievals compared to the SMOS L3 SM product considering all statistical metrics (R = 0.61, bias = -0.019 m3 m-3, ubRMSE = 0.062 m3 m-3 for the IGBP-based calibration; against R = 0.54, bias = -0.034 m3 m-3 and ubRMSE = 0.070 m3 m-3 for the SMOS L3 SM product). This result is a key step in the calibration of the roughness and vegetation parameters in the operational SMOS retrieval algorithm. The approach presented here is the

An interpretation of core and wireline logs for the Petrophysical evaluation of Upper Shallow Marine sandstone reservoirs of the Bredasdorp Basin, offshore South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magoba, Moses; Opuwari, Mimonitu

2017-04-01

This paper embodies a study carried out to assess the Petrophysical evaluation of upper shallow marine sandstone reservoir of 10 selected wells in the Bredasdorp basin, offshore, South Africa. The studied wells were selected randomly across the upper shallow marine formation with the purpose of conducting a regional study to assess the difference in reservoir properties across the formation. The data sets used in this study were geophysical wireline logs, Conventional core analysis and geological well completion report. The physical rock properties, for example, lithology, fluid type, and hydrocarbon bearing zone were qualitatively characterized while different parameters such as volume of clay, porosity, permeability, water saturation ,hydrocarbon saturation, storage and flow capacity were quantitatively estimated. The quantitative results were calibrated with the core data. The upper shallow marine reservoirs were penetrated at different depth ranging from shallow depth of about 2442m to 3715m. The average volume of clay, average effective porosity, average water saturation, hydrocarbon saturation and permeability range from 8.6%- 43%, 9%- 16%, 12%- 68% , 32%- 87.8% and 0.093mD -151.8mD respectively. The estimated rock properties indicate a good reservoir quality. Storage and flow capacity results presented a fair to good distribution of hydrocarbon flow.

Evolution of petrophysical properties of across natural faults: a study on cores from the Tournemire underground research laboratory (France)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonnelye, Audrey; David, Christian; Schubnel, Alexandre; Wassermann, Jérôme; Lefèvre, Mélody; Henry, Pierre; Guglielmi, Yves; Castilla, Raymi; Dick, Pierre

2017-04-01

Faults in general, and in clay materials in particular, have complex structures that can be linked to both a polyphased tectonic history and the anisotropic nature of the material. Drilling through faults in shaly materials allows one to measure properties such as the structure, the mineralogical composition, the stress orientation or physical properties. These relations can be investigated in the laboratory in order to have a better understanding on in-situ mechanisms. In this study we used shales of Toarcian age from the Tournemire underground research laboratory (France). We decided to couple different petrophysical measurements on core samples retrieved from a borehole drilled perpendicularly to a fault plane, and the fault size is of the order of tens of meters. This 25m long borehole was sampled in order to perform several types of measurements: density, porosity, saturation directly in the field, and velocity of elastic waves and magnetic susceptibility anisotropy in the laboratory. For all these measurements, special protocols were developed in order to preserve as much as possible the saturation state of the samples. All these measurements were carried out in three zones that intersects the borehole: the intact zone , the damaged zone and the fault core zone. From our measurements, we were able to associate specific properties to each zone of the fault. We then calculated Thomsen's parameters in order to quantify the elastic anisotropy across the fault. Our results show strong variations of the elastic anisotropy with the distance to the fault core as well as the occurrence of anisotropy reversal.

Soil CO2 Dynamics in a Tree Island Soil of the Pantanal: The Role of Soil Water Potential

PubMed Central

Johnson, Mark S.; Couto, Eduardo Guimarães; Pinto Jr, Osvaldo B.; Milesi, Juliana; Santos Amorim, Ricardo S.; Messias, Indira A. M.; Biudes, Marcelo Sacardi

2013-01-01

The Pantanal is a biodiversity hotspot comprised of a mosaic of landforms that differ in vegetative assemblages and flooding dynamics. Tree islands provide refuge for terrestrial fauna during the flooding period and are particularly important to the regional ecosystem structure. Little soil CO2 research has been conducted in this region. We evaluated soil CO2 dynamics in relation to primary controlling environmental parameters (soil temperature and soil water). Soil respiration was computed using the gradient method using in situ infrared gas analyzers to directly measure CO2 concentration within the soil profile. Due to the cost of the sensors and associated equipment, this study was unreplicated. Rather, we focus on the temporal relationships between soil CO2 efflux and related environmental parameters. Soil CO2 efflux during the study averaged 3.53 µmol CO2 m−2 s−1, and was equivalent to an annual soil respiration of 1220 g C m−2 y−1. This efflux value, integrated over a year, is comparable to soil C stocks for 0–20 cm. Soil water potential was the measured parameter most strongly associated with soil CO2 concentrations, with high CO2 values observed only once soil water potential at the 10 cm depth approached zero. This relationship was exhibited across a spectrum of timescales and was found to be significant at a daily timescale across all seasons using conditional nonparametric spectral Granger causality analysis. Hydrology plays a significant role in controlling CO2 efflux from the tree island soil, with soil CO2 dynamics differing by wetting mechanism. During the wet-up period, direct precipitation infiltrates soil from above and results in pulses of CO2 efflux from soil. The annual flood arrives later, and saturates soil from below. While CO2 concentrations in soil grew very high under both wetting mechanisms, the change in soil CO2 efflux was only significant when soils were wet from above. PMID:23762259

Integrating retention soil filters into urban hydrologic models - Relevant processes and important parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bachmann-Machnik, Anna; Meyer, Daniel; Waldhoff, Axel; Fuchs, Stephan; Dittmer, Ulrich

2018-04-01

Retention Soil Filters (RSFs), a form of vertical flow constructed wetlands specifically designed for combined sewer overflow (CSO) treatment, have proven to be an effective tool to mitigate negative impacts of CSOs on receiving water bodies. Long-term hydrologic simulations are used to predict the emissions from urban drainage systems during planning of stormwater management measures. So far no universally accepted model for RSF simulation exists. When simulating hydraulics and water quality in RSFs, an appropriate level of detail must be chosen for reasonable balancing between model complexity and model handling, considering the model input's level of uncertainty. The most crucial parameters determining the resultant uncertainties of the integrated sewer system and filter bed model were identified by evaluating a virtual drainage system with a Retention Soil Filter for CSO treatment. To determine reasonable parameter ranges for RSF simulations, data of 207 events from six full-scale RSF plants in Germany were analyzed. Data evaluation shows that even though different plants with varying loading and operation modes were examined, a simple model is sufficient to assess relevant suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH4 emissions from RSFs. Two conceptual RSF models with different degrees of complexity were assessed. These models were developed based on evaluation of data from full scale RSF plants and column experiments. Incorporated model processes are ammonium adsorption in the filter layer and degradation during subsequent dry weather period, filtration of SS and particulate COD (XCOD) to a constant background concentration and removal of solute COD (SCOD) by a constant removal rate during filter passage as well as sedimentation of SS and XCOD in the filter overflow. XCOD, SS and ammonium loads as well as ammonium concentration peaks are discharged primarily via RSF overflow not passing through the filter bed. Uncertainties of the integrated

Methane oxidation in a landfill cover soil reactor: Changing of kinetic parameters and microorganism community structure.

PubMed

Xing, Zhi L; Zhao, Tian T; Gao, Yan H; Yang, Xu; Liu, Shuai; Peng, Xu Y

2017-02-23

Changing of CH 4 oxidation potential and biological characteristics with CH 4 concentration was studied in a landfill cover soil reactor (LCSR). The maximum rate of CH 4 oxidation reached 32.40 mol d -1 m -2 by providing sufficient O 2 in the LCSR. The kinetic parameters of methane oxidation in landfill cover soil were obtained by fitting substrate diffusion and consumption model based on the concentration profile of CH 4 and O 2 . The values of [Formula: see text] (0.93-2.29%) and [Formula: see text] (140-524 nmol kg soil-DW -1 ·s -1 ) increased with CH 4 concentration (9.25-20.30%), while the values of [Formula: see text] (312.9-2.6%) and [Formula: see text] (1.3 × 10 -5 to 9.0 × 10 -3 nmol mL -1 h -1 ) were just the opposite. MiSeq pyrosequencing data revealed that Methylobacter (the relative abundance was decreased with height of LCSR) and Methylococcales_unclassified (the relative abundance was increased expect in H 80) became the key players after incubation with increasing CH 4 concentration. These findings provide information for assessing CH 4 oxidation potential and changing of biological characteristics in landfill cover soil.

Petrophysical Properties of the Yeso, Abo and Cisco Formations in the Permian Basin in New Mexico, U.S.A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mann, Griffin

The area that comprises the Northwest Shelf in Lea Co., New Mexico has been heavily drilled over the past half century. The main target being shallow reservoirs within the Permian section (San Andres and Grayburg Formations). With a focus shifting towards deeper horizons, there is a need for more petrophysical data pertaining to these formations, which is the focus of this study through a variety of techniques. This study involves the use of contact angle measurements, fluid imbibition tests, Mercury Injection Capillary Pressure (MICP) and log analysis to evaluate the nano-petrophysical properties of the Yeso, Abo and Cisco Formation within the Northwest Shelf area of southeast New Mexico. From contact angle measurements, all of the samples studied were found to be oil-wetting as n-decane spreads on to the rock surface much quicker than the other fluids (deionized water and API brine) tested. Imbibition tests resulted in a well-connected pore network being observed for all of the samples with the highest values of imbibition slopes being recorded for the Abo samples. MICP provided a variety of pore structure data which include porosity, pore-throat size distributions, permeability and tortuosity. The Abo samples saw the highest porosity percentages, which were above 15%, with all the other samples ranging from 4 - 7%. The majority of the pore-throat sizes for most of the samples fell within the 1 - 10 mum range. The only exceptions to this being the Paddock Member within the Yeso Formation, which saw a higher percentage of larger pores (10 - 1000mum) and one of the Cisco Formation samples, which had the majority of its pore sizes fall in the 0.1 - 1 mum range. The log analysis created log calculations and curves for cross-plot porosity and water saturation that were then used to derive a value for permeability. The porosity and permeability values were comparable with those measured from our MICP and literature values.

Soil-plant-microbial relations in hydrothermally altered soils of Northern California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Blecker, S.W.; Stillings, L.L.; DeCrappeo, N.M.; Ippolito, J.A.

2014-01-01

Soils developed on relict hydrothermally altered soils throughout the Western USA present unique opportunities to study the role of geology on above and belowground biotic activity and composition. Soil and vegetation samples were taken at three unaltered andesite and three hydrothermally altered (acid-sulfate) sites located in and around Lassen VolcanicNational Park in northeastern California. In addition, three different types of disturbed areas (clearcut, thinned, and pipeline) were sampled in acid-sulfate altered sites. Soils were sampled (0–15 cm) in mid-summer 2010 from both under-canopy and between-canopy areas within each of the sites. Soils were analyzed for numerous physical and chemical properties along with soil enzyme assays, C and N mineralization potential, microbial biomass-C and C-substrate utilization. Field vegetation measurements consisted of canopy cover by life form (tree, shrub, forb, and grass), tree and shrub density, and above-ground net primary productivity of the understory. Overall, parameters at the clearcut sites were more similar to the unaltered sites, while parameters at the thinned and pipeline sites were more similar to the altered sites. We employed principal components analysis (PCA) to develop two soil quality indices (SQI) to help quantify the differences among the sites: one based on the correlation between soil parameters and canopy cover, and the second based on six sub-indices. Soil quality indices developed in these systems could provide a means for monitoring and identifying key relations between the vegetation, soils, and microorganisms.

Key parameters in testing biodegradation of bio-based materials in soil.

PubMed

Briassoulis, D; Mistriotis, A

2018-09-01

Biodegradation of plastics in soil is currently tested by international standard testing methods (e.g. ISO 17556-12 or ASTM D5988-12). Although these testing methods have been developed for plastics, it has been shown in project KBBPPS that they can be extended also to lubricants with small modifications. Reproducibility is a critical issue regarding biodegradation tests in the laboratory. Among the main testing variables are the soil types and nutrients available (mainly nitrogen). For this reason, the effect of the soil type on the biodegradation rates of various bio-based materials (cellulose and lubricants) was tested for five different natural soil types (loam, loamy sand, clay, clay-loam, and silt-loam organic). It was shown that use of samples containing 1 g of C in a substrate of 300 g of soil with the addition of 0.1 g of N as nutrient strongly improves the reproducibility of the test making the results practically independent of the soil type with the exception of the organic soil. The sandy soil was found to need addition of higher amount of nutrients to exhibit similar biodegradation rates as those achieved with the other soil types. Therefore, natural soils can be used for Standard biodegradation tests of bio-based materials yielding reproducible results with the addition of appropriate nutrients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gap assessment in current soil monitoring networks across Europe for measuring soil functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Leeuwen, J. P.; Saby, N. P. A.; Jones, A.; Louwagie, G.; Micheli, E.; Rutgers, M.; Schulte, R. P. O.; Spiegel, H.; Toth, G.; Creamer, R. E.

2017-12-01

Soil is the most important natural resource for life on Earth after water. Given its fundamental role in sustaining the human population, both the availability and quality of soil must be managed sustainably and protected. To ensure sustainable management we need to understand the intrinsic functional capacity of different soils across Europe and how it changes over time. Soil monitoring is needed to support evidence-based policies to incentivise sustainable soil management. To this aim, we assessed which soil attributes can be used as potential indicators of five soil functions; (1) primary production, (2) water purification and regulation, (3) carbon sequestration and climate regulation, (4) soil biodiversity and habitat provisioning and (5) recycling of nutrients. We compared this list of attributes to existing national (regional) and EU-wide soil monitoring networks. The overall picture highlighted a clearly unbalanced dataset, in which predominantly chemical soil parameters were included, and soil biological and physical attributes were severely under represented. Methods applied across countries for indicators also varied. At a European scale, the LUCAS-soil survey was evaluated and again confirmed a lack of important soil biological parameters, such as C mineralisation rate, microbial biomass and earthworm community, and soil physical measures such as bulk density. In summary, no current national or European monitoring system exists which has the capacity to quantify the five soil functions and therefore evaluate multi-functional capacity of a soil and in many countries no data exists at all. This paper calls for the addition of soil biological and some physical parameters within the LUCAS-soil survey at European scale and for further development of national soil monitoring schemes.

The Soil Model Development and Intercomparison Panel (SoilMIP) of the International Soil Modeling Consortium (ISMC)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanderborght, Jan; Priesack, Eckart

2017-04-01

The Soil Model Development and Intercomparison Panel (SoilMIP) is an initiative of the International Soil Modeling Consortium. Its mission is to foster the further development of soil models that can predict soil functions and their changes (i) due to soil use and land management and (ii) due to external impacts of climate change and pollution. Since soil functions and soil threats are diverse but linked with each other, the overall aim is to develop holistic models that represent the key functions of the soil system and the links between them. These models should be scaled up and integrated in terrestrial system models that describe the feedbacks between processes in the soil and the other terrestrial compartments. We propose and illustrate a few steps that could be taken to achieve these goals. A first step is the development of scenarios that compare simulations by models that predict the same or different soil services. Scenarios can be considered at three different levels of comparisons: scenarios that compare the numerics (accuracy but also speed) of models, scenarios that compare the effect of differences in process descriptions, and scenarios that compare simulations with experimental data. A second step involves the derivation of metrics or summary statistics that effectively compare model simulations and disentangle parameterization from model concept differences. These metrics can be used to evaluate how more complex model simulations can be represented by simpler models using an appropriate parameterization. A third step relates to the parameterization of models. Application of simulation models implies that appropriate model parameters have to be defined for a range of environmental conditions and locations. Spatial modelling approaches are used to derive parameter distributions. Considering that soils and their properties emerge from the interaction between physical, chemical and biological processes, the combination of spatial models with process

A comparison of petrophysical data inputs for establishing time-depth relationships: a guide for future drilling expeditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boaga, J.; Sauermilch, I.; Mateo, Z. R. P.

2017-12-01

Time-depth relationships (TDR) are crucial in correlating drillhole and core information to seismic reflection profiles, for accurate resource estimation, scientific interpretation and to guide drilling operations. Conventional seismic time-depth domain conversion utilizes downhole sonic logs (DSI), calibrated using available checkshot data, which are local travel times from the surface to a particular depth. Scientific drilling programs (ODP and IODP) also measure P-wave velocity (PWL or C) on recovered core samples. Only three percent of all ODP and IODP sites record all three velocity measurements, however this information can be instructive as sometimes these data input show dissimilar TDR. These representative sites provide us with an opportunity to perform a comparative analysis highlighting the differences and similarities of TDRs derived from checkshot, downhole, and laboratory measurements. We then discuss the impact of lithology, stratigraphy, water column and other petrophysical properties in the predictive accuracy of TDR calculations, in an effort to provide guidance for future drilling and coring expeditions.

Blocky inversion of multichannel elastic impedance for elastic parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mozayan, Davoud Karami; Gholami, Ali; Siahkoohi, Hamid Reza

2018-04-01

Petrophysical description of reservoirs requires proper knowledge of elastic parameters like P- and S-wave velocities (Vp and Vs) and density (ρ), which can be retrieved from pre-stack seismic data using the concept of elastic impedance (EI). We propose an inversion algorithm which recovers elastic parameters from pre-stack seismic data in two sequential steps. In the first step, using the multichannel blind seismic inversion method (exploited recently for recovering acoustic impedance from post-stack seismic data), high-resolution blocky EI models are obtained directly from partial angle-stacks. Using an efficient total-variation (TV) regularization, each angle-stack is inverted independently in a multichannel form without prior knowledge of the corresponding wavelet. The second step involves inversion of the resulting EI models for elastic parameters. Mathematically, under some assumptions, the EI's are linearly described by the elastic parameters in the logarithm domain. Thus a linear weighted least squares inversion is employed to perform this step. Accuracy of the concept of elastic impedance in predicting reflection coefficients at low and high angles of incidence is compared with that of exact Zoeppritz elastic impedance and the role of low frequency content in the problem is discussed. The performance of the proposed inversion method is tested using synthetic 2D data sets obtained from the Marmousi model and also 2D field data sets. The results confirm the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method for inversion of pre-stack seismic data.

Impacts of Different Types of Measurements on Estimating Unsaturatedflow Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, L.

2015-12-01

This study evaluates the value of different types of measurements for estimating soil hydraulic parameters. A numerical method based on ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is presented to solely or jointly assimilate point-scale soil water head data, point-scale soil water content data, surface soil water content data and groundwater level data. This study investigates the performance of EnKF under different types of data, the potential worth contained in these data, and the factors that may affect estimation accuracy. Results show that for all types of data, smaller measurements errors lead to faster convergence to the true values. Higher accuracy measurements are required to improve the parameter estimation if a large number of unknown parameters need to be identified simultaneously. The data worth implied by the surface soil water content data and groundwater level data is prone to corruption by a deviated initial guess. Surface soil moisture data are capable of identifying soil hydraulic parameters for the top layers, but exert less or no influence on deeper layers especially when estimating multiple parameters simultaneously. Groundwater level is one type of valuable information to infer the soil hydraulic parameters. However, based on the approach used in this study, the estimates from groundwater level data may suffer severe degradation if a large number of parameters must be identified. Combined use of two or more types of data is helpful to improve the parameter estimation.

Global Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Agricultural Soils: Magnitude and Uncertainties Associated with Input Data and Model Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, R.; Tian, H.; Pan, S.; Yang, J.; Lu, C.; Zhang, B.

2016-12-01

Human activities have caused significant perturbations of the nitrogen (N) cycle, resulting in about 21% increase of atmospheric N2O concentration since the pre-industrial era. This large increase is mainly caused by intensive agricultural activities including the application of nitrogen fertilizer and the expansion of leguminous crops. Substantial efforts have been made to quantify the global and regional N2O emission from agricultural soils in the last several decades using a wide variety of approaches, such as ground-based observation, atmospheric inversion, and process-based model. However, large uncertainties exist in those estimates as well as methods themselves. In this study, we used a coupled biogeochemical model (DLEM) to estimate magnitude, spatial, and temporal patterns of N2O emissions from global croplands in the past five decades (1961-2012). To estimate uncertainties associated with input data and model parameters, we have implemented a number of simulation experiments with DLEM, accounting for key parameter values that affect calculation of N2O fluxes (i.e., maximum nitrification and denitrification rates, N fixation rate, and the adsorption coefficient for soil ammonium and nitrate), different sets of input data including climate, land management practices (i.e., nitrogen fertilizer types, application rates and timings, with/without irrigation), N deposition, and land use and land cover change. This work provides a robust estimate of global N2O emissions from agricultural soils as well as identifies key gaps and limitations in the existing model and data that need to be investigated in the future.

Soil structural quality assessment for soil protection regulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johannes, Alice; Boivin, Pascal

2017-04-01

Soil quality assessment is rapidly developing worldwide, though mostly focused on the monitoring of arable land and soil fertility. Soil protection regulations assess soil quality differently, focusing on priority pollutants and threshold values. The soil physical properties are weakly considered, due to lack of consensus and experimental difficulties faced with characterization. Non-disputable, easy to perform and inexpensive methods should be available for environmental regulation to be applied, which is unfortunately not the case. As a consequence, quantitative soil physical protection regulation is not applied, and inexpensive soil physical quality indicators for arable soil management are not available. Overcoming these limitations was the objective of a research project funded by the Swiss federal office for environment (FOEN). The main results and the perspectives of application are given in this presentation. A first step of the research was to characterize soils in a good structural state (reference soils) under different land use. The structural quality was assessed with field expertise and Visual Evaluation of the Soil Structure (VESS), and the physical properties were assessed with Shrinkage analysis. The relationships between the physical properties and the soil constituents were linear and highly determined. They represent the reference properties of the corresponding soils. In a second step, the properties of physically degraded soils were analysed and compared to the reference properties. This allowed defining the most discriminant parameters departing the different structure qualities and their threshold limits. Equivalent properties corresponding to these parameters but inexpensive and easy to determine were defined and tested. More than 90% of the samples were correctly classed with this method, which meets, therefore, the requirements for practical application in regulation. Moreover, result-oriented agri-environmental schemes for soil quality

Probabilistic inference of ecohydrological parameters using observations from point to satellite scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bassiouni, Maoya; Higgins, Chad W.; Still, Christopher J.; Good, Stephen P.

2018-06-01

Vegetation controls on soil moisture dynamics are challenging to measure and translate into scale- and site-specific ecohydrological parameters for simple soil water balance models. We hypothesize that empirical probability density functions (pdfs) of relative soil moisture or soil saturation encode sufficient information to determine these ecohydrological parameters. Further, these parameters can be estimated through inverse modeling of the analytical equation for soil saturation pdfs, derived from the commonly used stochastic soil water balance framework. We developed a generalizable Bayesian inference framework to estimate ecohydrological parameters consistent with empirical soil saturation pdfs derived from observations at point, footprint, and satellite scales. We applied the inference method to four sites with different land cover and climate assuming (i) an annual rainfall pattern and (ii) a wet season rainfall pattern with a dry season of negligible rainfall. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies of the analytical model's fit to soil observations ranged from 0.89 to 0.99. The coefficient of variation of posterior parameter distributions ranged from < 1 to 15 %. The parameter identifiability was not significantly improved in the more complex seasonal model; however, small differences in parameter values indicate that the annual model may have absorbed dry season dynamics. Parameter estimates were most constrained for scales and locations at which soil water dynamics are more sensitive to the fitted ecohydrological parameters of interest. In these cases, model inversion converged more slowly but ultimately provided better goodness of fit and lower uncertainty. Results were robust using as few as 100 daily observations randomly sampled from the full records, demonstrating the advantage of analyzing soil saturation pdfs instead of time series to estimate ecohydrological parameters from sparse records. Our work combines modeling and empirical approaches in

Effect of Remediation Parameters on in-Air Ambient Dose Equivalent Rates When Remediating Open Sites with Radiocesium-contaminated Soil.

PubMed

Malins, Alex; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Akihiro; Machida, Masahiko

2016-10-01

Calculations are reported for ambient dose equivalent rates [H˙*(10)] at 1 m height above the ground surface before and after remediating radiocesium-contaminated soil at wide and open sites. The results establish how the change in H˙*(10) upon remediation depends on the initial depth distribution of radiocesium within the ground, on the size of the remediated area, and on the mass per unit area of remediated soil. The remediation strategies considered were topsoil removal (with and without recovering with a clean soil layer), interchanging a topsoil layer with a subsoil layer, and in situ mixing of the topsoil. The results show the ratio of the radiocesium components of H˙*(10) post-remediation relative to their initial values (residual dose factors). It is possible to use the residual dose factors to gauge absolute changes in H˙*(10) upon remediation. The dependency of the residual dose factors on the number of years elapsed after fallout deposition is analyzed when remediation parameters remain fixed and radiocesium undergoes typical downward migration within the soil column.

Evolution of Fractal Parameters through Development Stage of Soil Crust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ospina, Abelardo; Florentino, Adriana; Tarquis, Ana Maria

2016-04-01

Soil surface characteristics are subjected to changes driven by several interactions between water, air, biotic and abiotic components. One of the examples of such interactions is provided through biological soil crusts (BSC) in arid and semi-arid environments. BSC are communities composed of cyanobacteria, fungi, mosses, lichens, algae and liverworts covering the soil surface and play an important role in ecosystem functioning. The characteristics and formation of these BSC influence the soil hydrological balance, control the mass of eroded sediment, increase stability of soil surface, and influence plant productivity through the modification of nitrogen and carbon cycle. The site of this work is located at Quibor and Ojo de Agua (Lara state, Venezuela). The Quibor Depression in Venezuela is a major agricultural area being at semi-arid conditions and limited drainage favor the natural process of salinization. Additionally, the extension and intensification of agriculture has led to over-exploitation of groundwater in the past 30 years (Méndoza et al., 2013). The soil microbial crust develops initially on physical crusts which are mainly generated since wetting and drying, being a recurrent feature in the Quíbor arid zone. The microbiotic crust is organic, composed of macro organisms (bryophytes and lichens) and microorganisms (cyanobacteria, fungi algae, etc.); growing on the ground, forming a thickness no greater than 3 mm. For further details see Toledo and Florentino (2009). This study focus on characterize the development stage of the BSC based on image analysis. To this end, grayscale images of different types of biological soil crust at different stages where taken, each image corresponding to an area of 12.96 cm2 with a resolution of 1024x1024 pixels (Ospina et al., 2015). For each image lacunarity and fractal dimension through the differential box counting method were calculated. These were made with the software ImageJ/Fraclac (Karperien, 2013

Reliability and Validity of Kinetic and Kinematic Parameters Determined With Force Plates Embedded Under a Soil-Filled Baseball Mound.

PubMed

Yanai, Toshimasa; Matsuo, Akifumi; Maeda, Akira; Nakamoto, Hiroki; Mizutani, Mirai; Kanehisa, Hiroaki; Fukunaga, Tetsuo

2017-08-01

We developed a force measurement system in a soil-filled mound for measuring ground reaction forces (GRFs) acting on baseball pitchers and examined the reliability and validity of kinetic and kinematic parameters determined from the GRFs. Three soil-filled trays of dimensions that satisfied the official baseball rules were fixed onto 3 force platforms. Eight collegiate pitchers wearing baseball shoes with metal cleats were asked to throw 5 fastballs with maximum effort from the mound toward a catcher. The reliability of each parameter was determined for each subject as the coefficient of variation across the 5 pitches. The validity of the measurements was tested by comparing the outcomes either with the true values or the corresponding values computed from a motion capture system. The coefficients of variation in the repeated measurements of the peak forces ranged from 0.00 to 0.17, and were smaller for the pivot foot than the stride foot. The mean absolute errors in the impulses determined over the entire duration of pitching motion were 5.3 N˙s, 1.9 N˙s, and 8.2 N˙s for the X-, Y-, and Z-directions, respectively. These results suggest that the present method is reliable and valid for determining selected kinetic and kinematic parameters for analyzing pitching performance.

Reflectance of vegetation, soil, and water. [effects of measurable plant parameters on multispectral signal variations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wiegand, C. L. (Principal Investigator)

1974-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Reflectance of crop residues, that are important in reducing wind and water erosion, was more often different from bare soil in band 4 than in bands 5, 6, or 7. The plant parameters leaf area index, plant population, plant cover, and plant height explained 95.9 percent of the variation in band 7 (reflective infrared) digital counts for cotton and 78.2 percent of the variation in digital counts for the combined crops sorghum and corn; hence, measurable plant parameters explain most of the signal variation recorded for corpland. Leaf area index and plant population are both highly correlated with crop yields; since plant population can be readily measured (or possibly inferred from seeding rates), it is useful measurement for calibrating ERTS-type MSS digital data in terms of yield.

Experimental parameters optimization of instrumental neutron activation analysis in order to determine selected elements in some industrial soils in Turkey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haciyakupoglu, Sevilay; Nur Esen, Ayse; Erenturk, Sema

2014-08-01

The purpose of this study is optimization of the experimental parameters for analysis of soil matrix by instrumental neutron activation analysis and quantitative determination of barium, cerium, lanthanum, rubidium, scandium and thorium in soil samples collected from industrialized urban areas near Istanbul. Samples were irradiated in TRIGA MARK II Research Reactor of Istanbul Technical University. Two types of reference materials were used to check the accuracy of the applied method. The achieved results were found to be in compliance with certified values of the reference materials. The calculated En numbers for mentioned elements were found to be less than 1. The presented data of element concentrations in soil samples will help to trace the pollution as an impact of urbanization and industrialization, as well as providing database for future studies.

Evolution of Pedostructure Parameters Under Tillage Practices

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The pedostructure (PS) concept is a physically-based method of soil characterization that defines a soil based on its structure and the relationship between structure and soil water behavior. There are 15 unique pedostructure parameters that define the macropore and micropore soil water behavior fo...

Using rainfall simulations to understand the relationship between precipitation, soil crust and infiltration in four agricultural soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Angulo-Martinez, Marta; Alastrué, Juan; Moret-Fernández, David; Beguería, Santiago; López, Mariví; Navas, Ana

2017-04-01

Rainfall simulation experiments were carried out in order to study soil crust formation and its relation with soil infiltration parameters—sorptivity (S) and hydraulic conductivity (K)—on four common agricultural soils with contrasted properties; namely, Cambisol, Gypsisol, Solonchak, and Solonetz. Three different rainfall simulations, replicated three times each of them, were performed over the soils. Prior to rainfall simulations all soils were mechanically tilled with a rototiller to create similar soil surface conditions and homogeneous soils. Rainfall simulation parameters were monitored in real time by a Thies Laser Precipitation Monitor, allowing a complete characterization of simulated rainfall microphysics (drop size and velocity distributions) and integrated variables (accumulated rainfall, intensity and kinetic energy). Once soils dried after the simulations, soil penetration resistance was measured and soil hydraulic parameters, S and K, were estimated using the disc infiltrometry technique. There was little variation in rainfall parameters among simulations. Mean intensity and mean median diameter (D50) varied in simulations 1 ( 0.5 bar), 2 ( 0.8 bar) and 3 ( 1.2 bar) from 26.5 mm h-1 and 0.43 mm (s1) to 40.5 mm h-1 and 0.54 mm (s2) and 41.1 mm h-1 and 0.56 mm for (s3), respectively. Crust formation by soil was explained by D50 and subsequently by the total precipitation amount and the percentage of silt and clay in soil, being Cambisol and Gypsisol the soils that showed more increase in penetration resistance by simulation. All soils showed similar S values by simulations which were explained by rainfall intensity. Different patterns of K were shown by the four soils, which were explained by the combined effect of D50 and intensity, together with soil physico-chemical properties. This study highlights the importance of monitoring all precipitation parameters to determine their effect on different soil processes.

Composition of macrobenthos in the Bakkhali channel system, Cox's Bazar with notes on soil parameter.

PubMed

Abu Hena, M K; Kohinoor, S M S; Siddique, M A M; Ismail, J; Idris, M H; Amin, S M N

2012-07-01

Macrobenthos in coastal environment that play a significant role in the food web. It could also use as a good indicator of aquatic ecosystem health. The abundance and composition of macrobenthos in Bakkhali channel system, Cox's Bazar were conducted in relation to the soil parameters. Samples were collected using Ekman Berge bottom grab from five different stations of Bakkhali channel. Macrobenthos were comprised of five major groups namely Polychaeta (9.96-30.31%), Oligochaeta (3.68-59.707%), Crustacea (0.02-58.40%), Bivalvia (1.40-82.09%) and Gastropoda (0.08-4.25%). Total number of macrobenthos was higher at station I (9000 individuals m(-2)) and station II (8517 individuals m(-2)) compared to other stations. Shannon diversity index among the stations ranged from 0.65-1.04. Soil pH and soil moisture ranged from 6.1-6.4 and 23.44-31.29%, respectively. The highest organic carbon concentration was observed at station I (2.11%) and lowest at station III (1.40%). Maximum fraction of sand by weight was found at stations II (81.88%) and III (87.88) while the highest fraction of clay (21.52%) and silt (8.0%) were recorded in station I. It was observed that benthic bivalves were positively correlated (r = 0.891, p > 0.05) with silt fraction of the sediments.

Calibrated Hydrothermal Parameters, Barrow, Alaska, 2013

DOE Data Explorer

Atchley, Adam; Painter, Scott; Harp, Dylan; Coon, Ethan; Wilson, Cathy; Liljedahl, Anna; Romanovsky, Vladimir

2015-01-29

A model-observation-experiment process (ModEx) is used to generate three 1D models of characteristic micro-topographical land-formations, which are capable of simulating present active thaw layer (ALT) from current climate conditions. Each column was used in a coupled calibration to identify moss, peat and mineral soil hydrothermal properties to be used in up-scaled simulations. Observational soil temperature data from a tundra site located near Barrow, AK (Area C) is used to calibrate thermal properties of moss, peat, and sandy loam soil to be used in the multiphysics Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS) models. Simulation results are a list of calibrated hydrothermal parameters for moss, peat, and mineral soil hydrothermal parameters.

Impacts of different types of measurements on estimating unsaturated flow parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Liangsheng; Song, Xuehang; Tong, Juxiu; Zhu, Yan; Zhang, Qiuru

2015-05-01

This paper assesses the value of different types of measurements for estimating soil hydraulic parameters. A numerical method based on ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is presented to solely or jointly assimilate point-scale soil water head data, point-scale soil water content data, surface soil water content data and groundwater level data. This study investigates the performance of EnKF under different types of data, the potential worth contained in these data, and the factors that may affect estimation accuracy. Results show that for all types of data, smaller measurements errors lead to faster convergence to the true values. Higher accuracy measurements are required to improve the parameter estimation if a large number of unknown parameters need to be identified simultaneously. The data worth implied by the surface soil water content data and groundwater level data is prone to corruption by a deviated initial guess. Surface soil moisture data are capable of identifying soil hydraulic parameters for the top layers, but exert less or no influence on deeper layers especially when estimating multiple parameters simultaneously. Groundwater level is one type of valuable information to infer the soil hydraulic parameters. However, based on the approach used in this study, the estimates from groundwater level data may suffer severe degradation if a large number of parameters must be identified. Combined use of two or more types of data is helpful to improve the parameter estimation.

Soil spectral characterization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoner, E. R.; Baumgardner, M. F.

1981-01-01

The spectral characterization of soils is discussed with particular reference to the bidirectional reflectance factor as a quantitative measure of soil spectral properties, the role of soil color, soil parameters affecting soil reflectance, and field characteristics of soil reflectance. Comparisons between laboratory-measured soil spectra and Landsat MSS data have shown good agreement, especially in discriminating relative drainage conditions and organic matter levels in unvegetated soils. The capacity to measure both visible and infrared soil reflectance provides information on other soil characteristics and makes it possible to predict soil response to different management conditions. Field and laboratory soil spectral characterization helps define the extent to which intrinsic spectral information is available from soils as a consequence of their composition and field characteristics.

Effects of poultry manure on soil biochemical properties in phthalic acid esters contaminated soil.

PubMed

Gao, Jun; Qin, Xiaojian; Ren, Xuqin; Zhou, Haifeng

2015-12-01

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of poultry manure (PM) on soil biological properties in DBP- and DEHP-contaminated soils. An indoor incubation experiment was conducted. Soil microbial biomass C (Cmic), soil enzymatic activities, and microbial phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) concentrations were measured during incubation period. The results indicated that except alkaline phosphatase activity, DBP and DEHP had negative effects on Cmic, dehydrogenase, urease, protease activities, and contents of total PLFA. However, 5 % PM treatment alleviated the negative effects of PAEs on the above biochemical parameters. In DBP-contaminated soil, 5 % PM amendment even resulted in dehydroenase activity and Cmic content increasing by 17.8 and 11.8 % on the day 15 of incubation, respectively. During the incubation periods, the total PLFA contents decreased maximumly by 17.2 and 11.6 % in DBP- and DEHP-contaminated soils without PM amendments, respectively. Compared with those in uncontaminated soil, the total PLFA contents increased slightly and the value of bacPLFA/fugalPLFA increased significantly in PAE-contaminated soils with 5 % PM amendment. Nevertheless, in both contaminated soils, the effects of 5 % PM amendment on the biochemical parameters were not observed with 10 % PM amendment. In 10 % PM-amended soils, DBP and DEHP had little effect on Cmic, soil enzymatic activities, and microbial community composition. At the end of incubation, the effects of PAEs on these parameters disappeared, irrespective of PM amendment. The application of PM ameliorated the negative effect of PAEs on soil biological environment. However, further work is needed to study the effect of PM on soil microbial gene expression in order to explain the change mechanisms of soil biological properties.

Effects of the soil pore network architecture on the soil's physical functionalities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smet, Sarah; Beckers, Eléonore; Léonard, Angélique; Degré, Aurore

2017-04-01

The soil fluid movement's prediction is of major interest within an agricultural or environmental scope because many processes depend ultimately on the soil fluids dynamic. It is common knowledge that the soil microscopic pore network structure governs the inner-soil convective fluids flow. There isn't, however, a general methodthat consider the pore network structure as a variable in the prediction of thecore scale soil's physical functionalities. There are various possible representations of the microscopic pore network: sample scale averaged structural parameters, extrapolation of theoretic pore network, or use of all the information available by modeling within the observed pore network. Different representations implydifferent analyzing methodologies. To our knowledge, few studies have compared the micro-and macroscopic soil's characteristics for the same soil core sample. The objective of our study is to explore the relationship between macroscopic physical properties and microscopic pore network structure. The saturated hydraulic conductivity, the air permeability, the retention curve, and others classical physical parameters were measured for ten soil samples from an agricultural field. The pore network characteristics were quantified through the analyses of X-ray micro-computed tomographic images(micro-CT system Skyscan-1172) with a voxel size of 22 µm3. Some of the first results confirmed what others studies had reported. Then, the comparison between macroscopic properties and microscopic parameters suggested that the air movements depended mostly on the pore connectivity and tortuosity than on the total porosity volume. We have also found that the fractal dimension calculated from the X-ray images and the fractal dimension calculated from the retention curve were significantly different. Our communication will detailthose results and discuss the methodology: would the results be similar with a different voxel size? What are the calculated and measured

Relationships between soil parameters and vegetation in abandoned terrace fields vs. non-terraced fields in arid lands (Lanzarote, Spain): An opportunity for restoration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arévalo, José Ramón; Fernández-Lugo, Silvia; Reyes-Betancort, J. Alfredo; Tejedor, Marisa; Jiménez, Concepción; Díaz, Francisco J.

2017-11-01

Over 90% of terraced fields have been abandoned on the island of Lanzarote in the last 40 years. The present work analyses the effects of abandonment on the soil and vegetation recovery of terraced field agroecosystems by comparing them with adjacent non-terraced fields in Lanzarote, Canary Islands (Spain). This information is necessary to take the appropriate management actions to achieve goals such as soil protection and biodiversity conservation. Results indicate that terraced fields display better soil quality than non-terraced ones, as shown by the significant differences found in parameters such as SAR, exchangeable Na, CaCO3, B content, moisture content or soil depth. Moreover, the terraced fields' plant community has more species similarities with the native plant community when compared with non-terraced areas. Owing to characteristics such as deeper soils, more water capacity, lower salinity and less sodic soils, terraced soils provide better conditions for passive restoration of both soil and vegetation. Therefore, the recovery and maintenance of wall structures and revegetation with native/endemic species are proposed to promote the restoration of native systems and preserve a landscape with cultural and aesthetic value.

Effect of soil parameters on the kinetics of the displacement of Fe from FeEDDHA chelates by Cu.

PubMed

Schenkeveld, Walter D C; Reichwein, Arjen M; Temminghoff, Erwin J M; van Riemsdijk, Willem H

2012-06-28

In soil application, o,o-FeEDDHA (iron (3+) ethylene diamine-N,N'-bis(2-hydroxy phenyl acetic acid) complex) is the active ingredient of FeEDDHA chelate-based Fe fertilizers. The effectiveness of o,o-FeEDDHA is potentially compromised by the displacement of Fe from FeEDDHA by Cu. The actual impact of Cu competition is codetermined by the kinetics of the displacement reaction. In this study, the influence of soil parameters on the displacement kinetics has been examined in goethite suspensions. The displacement reaction predominantly takes place on the reactive surface rather than in solution. The rate at which the o,o-FeEDDHA concentration declined depended on the available reactive surface area, the Cu loading, and the FeEDDHA loading. Soil factors reducing FeEDDHA adsorption (high ionic strength, humic acid adsorption onto the goethite surface, and monovalent instead of divalent cations in the electrolyte) decreased the displacement rate. For meso o,o-FeEDDHA, the displacement rate equation was derived, which is first order in FeEDDHA loading and half order in Cu loading. For soil conditions, the equation can be simplified to an exponential decay function in meso o,o-FeEDDHA solution concentration.

Use of Magnetic Parameters to Asses Soil Erosion Rates on Agricultural Site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrovsky, E.; Kapicka, A.; Dlouha, S.; Jaksik, O.; Grison, H.; Kodesova, R.

2014-12-01

A detailed field study on a small test site of agricultural land situated in loess region in Southern Moravia (Czech Republic) and laboratory analyses were carried out in order to test the applicability of magnetic methods in assessing soil erosion. Haplic Chernozem, the original dominant soil unit in the area, is nowadays progressively transformed into different soil units along with intense soil erosion. As a result, an extremely diversified soil cover structure has developed due to the erosion. The site was characterized by a flat upper part while the middle part, formed by a substantive side valley, is steeper. We carried out field measurements of magnetic susceptibility on a regular grid, resulting in 101 data points. The bulk soil material for laboratory investigation was gathered from all the grid points. Values of the magnetic susceptibility are spatially distributed depending on the terrain. Higher values were measured in the flat upper part (where the original top horizon remained). The lowest values of were obtained on the steep valley sides. Here the original topsoil was eroded and mixed by tillage with the soil substrate (loess). A soil profile unaffected by erosion was investigated in detail. The vertical distribution of magnetic susceptibility along this "virgin" profile was measured in laboratory on the samples collected with 2-cm spacing. The undisturbed profile shows several soil horizons. Horizons Ac and A show a slight increase in magnetic susceptibility up to a depth of about 70 cm. Horizon A/Ck is characterized by a decrease in susceptibility, and the underlying C horizon (h > 103 cm) has a very low value of magnetic susceptibility. The differences between the values of susceptibility in the undisturbed soil profile and the magnetic signal after uniform mixing the soil material as a result of tillage and erosion are fundamental for the estimation of soil loss in the studied test field. Using the uneroded profile from the studied locality as a

Modeling precipitation use efficiency of winter wheat using climatic parameters, soil properties and topographic indices in a semiarid region, Khodabandeh County, Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babaei, Fatemeh; Vaezi, AliReza; Taheri, Mehdi; Zarrinabadi, Ehsan

2017-04-01

Improved understanding of the impact of crucial factors affecting on rainfed wheat precipitation use efficiency (PUE), is needed to cope with increasing demands for sustainable agriculture in semiarid regions. The present research has assessed the effects of climatic parameters, soil physiochemical characteristics and topographic indices on wheat gain yield (WGY), PUE and effective precipitation use efficiency (PUEe) of rainfed winter wheat in a research over rainfed wheat croplands of Khodabandeh County. Therefore, 289 soil samples were collected from rainfed winter wheat croplands in two replicates, totally 578 soil samples, within the county of Khodanbandeh, in (2013-2014). Also, the WGY was measured in each cropland that year. Environmental variables including some soil physiochemical characteristics, topographic indices derived from digital terrain analysis and climatic parameters including growth season precipitation and air temperature were analyzed to develop a proper model to represent WGY, PUE and PUEe. Similar to the first study, the data was divided into two dataset: model (n=238) and test dataset (n=60) and the decision tree was used to develop the best suitable model to describe WGY, PUE and PUEe. The results indicated that CK using slope as auxiliary variable played as the best model to describe the spatial variation of WGY (n=60, R2=0.92, RMSE= 77.78 kg ha-1). Although, MLR combining principal component analysis (PCA) was able to describe PUE significantly (n=238, R2=0.28, P<0.01), however all the applied methods appeared poor in spatially modeling of PUE (n=60, R2<0.05, RMSE> 1.34 kg ha-1 mm-1). Similarly, PUEe was modeled significantly (n=238, R2=0.25, P<0.01) using MLR combining PCA but the model goodness was really poor over Khodabandeh county (n=60, R2=0.11, RMSE= 1.23 kg ha-1 mm-1). In general, it can be concluded that slope was the most crucial affecting parameter on WGY. In addition to, organic matter is the most important soil properties in

Predicting root zone soil moisture with soil properties and satellite near-surface moisture data across the conterminous United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baldwin, D.; Manfreda, S.; Keller, K.; Smithwick, E. A. H.

2017-03-01

Satellite-based near-surface (0-2 cm) soil moisture estimates have global coverage, but do not capture variations of soil moisture in the root zone (up to 100 cm depth) and may be biased with respect to ground-based soil moisture measurements. Here, we present an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) hydrologic data assimilation system that predicts bias in satellite soil moisture data to support the physically based Soil Moisture Analytical Relationship (SMAR) infiltration model, which estimates root zone soil moisture with satellite soil moisture data. The SMAR-EnKF model estimates a regional-scale bias parameter using available in situ data. The regional bias parameter is added to satellite soil moisture retrievals before their use in the SMAR model, and the bias parameter is updated continuously over time with the EnKF algorithm. In this study, the SMAR-EnKF assimilates in situ soil moisture at 43 Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) monitoring locations across the conterminous U.S. Multivariate regression models are developed to estimate SMAR parameters using soil physical properties and the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) evapotranspiration data product as covariates. SMAR-EnKF root zone soil moisture predictions are in relatively close agreement with in situ observations when using optimal model parameters, with root mean square errors averaging 0.051 [cm3 cm-3] (standard error, s.e. = 0.005). The average root mean square error associated with a 20-fold cross-validation analysis with permuted SMAR parameter regression models increases moderately (0.082 [cm3 cm-3], s.e. = 0.004). The expected regional-scale satellite correction bias is negative in four out of six ecoregions studied (mean = -0.12 [-], s.e. = 0.002), excluding the Great Plains and Eastern Temperate Forests (0.053 [-], s.e. = 0.001). With its capability of estimating regional-scale satellite bias, the SMAR-EnKF system can predict root zone soil moisture over broad extents and has

Identification and determination of trapping parameters as key site parameters for CO2 storage for the active CO2 storage site in Ketzin (Germany) - Comparison of different experimental approaches and analysis of field data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zemke, Kornelia; Liebscher, Axel

2015-04-01

Petrophysical properties like porosity and permeability are key parameters for a safe long-term storage of CO2 but also for the injection operation itself. The accurate quantification of residual trapping is difficult, but very important for both storage containment security and storage capacity; it is also an important parameter for dynamic simulation. The German CO2 pilot storage in Ketzin is a Triassic saline aquifer with initial conditions of the target sandstone horizon of 33.5 ° C/6.1 MPa at 630 m. One injection and two observation wells were drilled in 2007 and nearly 200 m of core material was recovered for site characterization. From June 2008 to September 2013, slightly more than 67 kt food-grade CO2 has been injected and continuously monitored. A fourth observation well has been drilled after 61 kt injected CO2 in summer 2012 at only 25 m distance to the injection well and new core material was recovered that allow study CO2 induced changes in petrophysical properties. The observed only minor differences between pre-injection and post-injection petrophysical parameters of the heterogeneous formation have no severe consequences on reservoir and cap rock integrity or on the injection behavior. Residual brine saturation for the Ketzin reservoir core material was estimated by different methods. Brine-CO2 flooding experiments for two reservoir samples resulted in 36% and 55% residual brine saturation (Kiessling, 2011). Centrifuge capillary pressure measurements (pc = 0.22 MPa) yielded the smallest residual brine saturation values with ~20% for the lower part of the reservoir sandstone and ~28% for the upper part (Fleury, 2010). The method by Cerepi (2002), which calculates the residual mercury saturation after pressure release on the imbibition path as trapped porosity and the retracted mercury volume as free porosity, yielded unrealistic low free porosity values of only a few percent, because over 80% of the penetrated mercury remained in the samples after

DISTRIBUTION OF PARAMETERS DETERMINING BIOAVAILABILITY OF METALS IN EUROPEAN SOILS

EPA Science Inventory

As part of a program to develop a predictive model of bioavailability and toxicity of copper in soils to terrestrial organisms, 19 soils from 9 countries of the EU were collected and analyzed for use in bioavailability tests. However, it is desired that the model be of use on a ...

Atlas of soil reflectance properties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoner, E. R.; Baumgardner, M. F.; Biehl, L. L.; Robinson, B. F.

1979-01-01

A compendium of soil spectral reflectance curves together with soil test results and site information is presented in an abbreviated manner listing those soil properties most important in influencing soil reflectance. Results are presented for 251 soils from 39 states and Brazil. A narrative key describes relationships between soil parameters and reflectance curves. All soils are classified according to the U.S. soil taxonomy and soil series name for ease of identification.

Assessment of derelict soil quality: Abiotic, biotic and functional approaches.

PubMed

Vincent, Quentin; Auclerc, Apolline; Beguiristain, Thierry; Leyval, Corinne

2018-02-01

The intensification and subsequent closing down of industrial activities during the last century has left behind large surfaces of derelict lands. Derelict soils have low fertility, can be contaminated, and many of them remain unused. However, with the increasing demand of soil surfaces, they might be considered as a resource, for example for non-food biomass production. The study of their physico-chemical properties and of their biodiversity and biological activity may provide indications for their potential re-use. The objective of our study was to investigate the quality of six derelict soils, considering abiotic, biotic, and functional parameters. We studied (i) the soil bacteria, fungi, meso- and macro-fauna and plant communities of six different derelict soils (two from coking plants, one from a settling pond, two constructed ones made from different substrates and remediated soil, and an inert waste storage one), and (ii) their decomposition function based on the decomposer trophic network, enzyme activities, mineralization activity, and organic pollutant degradation. Biodiversity levels in these soils were high, but all biotic parameters, except the mycorrhizal colonization level, discriminated them. Multivariate analysis showed that biotic parameters co-varied more with fertility proxies than with soil contamination parameters. Similarly, functional parameters significantly co-varied with abiotic parameters. Among functional parameters, macro-decomposer proportion, enzyme activity, average mineralization capacity, and microbial polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degraders were useful to discriminate the soils. We assessed their quality by combining abiotic, biotic, and functional parameters: the compost-amended constructed soil displayed the highest quality, while the settling pond soil and the contaminated constructed soil displayed the lowest. Although differences among the soils were highlighted, this study shows that derelict soils may provide a

Assessing the Importance of Incorporating Spatial and Temporal Variability of Soil and Plant Parameters into Local Water Balance Models for Precision Agriculture: Investigations within a California Vineyard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hubbard, S.; Pierce, L.; Grote, K.; Rubin, Y.

2003-12-01

Due Due to the high cash crop nature of premium winegrapes, recent research has focused on developing a better understanding of the factors that influence winegrape spatial and temporal variability. Precision grapevine irrigation schemes require consideration of the factors that regulate vineyard water use such as (1) plant parameters, (2) climatic conditions, and (3) water availability in the soil as a function of soil texture. The inability to sample soil and plant parameters accurately, at a dense enough resolution, and over large enough areas has limited previous investigations focused on understanding the influences of soil water and vegetation on water balance at the local field scale. We have acquired several novel field data sets to describe the small scale (decimeters to a hundred meters) spatial variability of soil and plant parameters within a 4 acre field study site at the Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa County, California. At this site, we investigated the potential of ground penetrating radar data (GPR) for providing estimates of near surface water content. Calibration of grids of 900 MHz GPR groundwave data with conventional soil moisture measurements revealed that the GPR volumetric water content estimation approach was valid to within 1 percent accuracy, and that the data grids provided unparalleled density of soil water content over the field site as a function of season. High-resolution airborne multispectral remote sensing data was also collected at the study site, which was converted to normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and correlated to leaf area index (LAI) using plant-based measurements within a parallel study. Meteorological information was available from a weather station of the California Irrigation management Information System, located less than a mile from our study area. The measurements were used within a 2-D Vineyard Soil Irrigation Model (VSIM), which can incorporate the spatially variable, high-resolution soil and plant

Critical state of sand matrix soils.

PubMed

Marto, Aminaton; Tan, Choy Soon; Makhtar, Ahmad Mahir; Kung Leong, Tiong

2014-01-01

The Critical State Soil Mechanic (CSSM) is a globally recognised framework while the critical states for sand and clay are both well established. Nevertheless, the development of the critical state of sand matrix soils is lacking. This paper discusses the development of critical state lines and corresponding critical state parameters for the investigated material, sand matrix soils using sand-kaolin mixtures. The output of this paper can be used as an interpretation framework for the research on liquefaction susceptibility of sand matrix soils in the future. The strain controlled triaxial test apparatus was used to provide the monotonic loading onto the reconstituted soil specimens. All tested soils were subjected to isotropic consolidation and sheared under undrained condition until critical state was ascertain. Based on the results of 32 test specimens, the critical state lines for eight different sand matrix soils were developed together with the corresponding values of critical state parameters, M, λ, and Γ. The range of the value of M, λ, and Γ is 0.803-0.998, 0.144-0.248, and 1.727-2.279, respectively. These values are comparable to the critical state parameters of river sand and kaolin clay. However, the relationship between fines percentages and these critical state parameters is too scattered to be correlated.

Spatiotemporal monitoring of soil water content profiles in an irrigated field using probabilistic inversion of time-lapse EMI data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moghadas, Davood; Jadoon, Khan Zaib; McCabe, Matthew F.

2017-12-01

Monitoring spatiotemporal variations of soil water content (θ) is important across a range of research fields, including agricultural engineering, hydrology, meteorology and climatology. Low frequency electromagnetic induction (EMI) systems have proven to be useful tools in mapping soil apparent electrical conductivity (σa) and soil moisture. However, obtaining depth profile water content is an area that has not been fully explored using EMI. To examine this, we performed time-lapse EMI measurements using a CMD mini-Explorer sensor along a 10 m transect of a maize field over a 6 day period. Reference data were measured at the end of the profile via an excavated pit using 5TE capacitance sensors. In order to derive a time-lapse, depth-specific subsurface image of electrical conductivity (σ), we applied a probabilistic sampling approach, DREAM(ZS) , on the measured EMI data. The inversely estimated σ values were subsequently converted to θ using the Rhoades et al. (1976) petrophysical relationship. The uncertainties in measured σa, as well as inaccuracies in the inverted data, introduced some discrepancies between estimated σ and reference values in time and space. Moreover, the disparity between the measurement footprints of the 5TE and CMD Mini-Explorer sensors also led to differences. The obtained θ permitted an accurate monitoring of the spatiotemporal distribution and variation of soil water content due to root water uptake and evaporation. The proposed EMI measurement and modeling technique also allowed for detecting temporal root zone soil moisture variations. The time-lapse θ monitoring approach developed using DREAM(ZS) thus appears to be a useful technique to understand spatiotemporal patterns of soil water content and provide insights into linked soil moisture vegetation processes and the dynamics of soil moisture/infiltration processes.

Soil Parameter Mapping and Ad Hoc Power Analysis to Increase Blocking Efficiency Prior to Establishing a Long-Term Field Experiment

PubMed Central

Collins, Doug; Benedict, Chris; Bary, Andy; Cogger, Craig

2015-01-01

The spatial heterogeneity of soil and weed populations poses a challenge to researchers. Unlike aboveground variability, below-ground variability is more difficult to discern without a strategic soil sampling pattern. While blocking is commonly used to control environmental variation, this strategy is rarely informed by data about current soil conditions. Fifty georeferenced sites were located in a 0.65 ha area prior to establishing a long-term field experiment. Soil organic matter (OM) and weed seed bank populations were analyzed at each site and the spatial structure was modeled with semivariograms and interpolated with kriging to map the surface. These maps were used to formulate three strategic blocking patterns and the efficiency of each pattern was compared to a completely randomized design and a west to east model not informed by soil variability. Compared to OM, weeds were more variable across the landscape and had a shorter range of autocorrelation, and models to increase blocking efficiency resulted in less increase in power. Weeds and OM were not correlated, so no model examined improved power equally for both parameters. Compared to the west to east blocking pattern, the final blocking pattern chosen resulted in a 7-fold increase in power for OM and a 36% increase in power for weeds. PMID:26247056

Soil Parameter Mapping and Ad Hoc Power Analysis to Increase Blocking Efficiency Prior to Establishing a Long-Term Field Experiment.

PubMed

Collins, Doug; Benedict, Chris; Bary, Andy; Cogger, Craig

2015-01-01

The spatial heterogeneity of soil and weed populations poses a challenge to researchers. Unlike aboveground variability, below-ground variability is more difficult to discern without a strategic soil sampling pattern. While blocking is commonly used to control environmental variation, this strategy is rarely informed by data about current soil conditions. Fifty georeferenced sites were located in a 0.65 ha area prior to establishing a long-term field experiment. Soil organic matter (OM) and weed seed bank populations were analyzed at each site and the spatial structure was modeled with semivariograms and interpolated with kriging to map the surface. These maps were used to formulate three strategic blocking patterns and the efficiency of each pattern was compared to a completely randomized design and a west to east model not informed by soil variability. Compared to OM, weeds were more variable across the landscape and had a shorter range of autocorrelation, and models to increase blocking efficiency resulted in less increase in power. Weeds and OM were not correlated, so no model examined improved power equally for both parameters. Compared to the west to east blocking pattern, the final blocking pattern chosen resulted in a 7-fold increase in power for OM and a 36% increase in power for weeds.

Machine Learning for Mapping Groundwater Salinity with Oil Well Log Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, W. H.; Shimabukuro, D.; Gillespie, J. M.; Stephens, M.

2016-12-01

An oil field may have thousands of wells with detailed petrophysical logs, and far fewer direct measurements of groundwater salinity. Can the former be used to extrapolate the latter into a detailed map of groundwater salinity? California Senate Bill 4, with its requirement to identify Underground Sources of Drinking Water, makes this a question worth answering. A well-known obstacle is that the basic petrophysical equations describe ideal scenarios ("clean wet sand") and even these equations contain many parameters that may vary with location and depth. Accounting for other common scenarios such as high-conductivity shaly sands or low-permeability diatomite (both characteristic of California's Central Valley) causes parameters to proliferate to the point where the model is underdetermined by the data. When parameters outnumber data points, however, is when machine learning methods are most advantageous. We present a method for modeling a generic oil field, where groundwater salinity and lithology are depth series parameters, and the constants in petrophysical equations are scalar parameters. The data are well log measurements (resistivity, porosity, spontaneous potential, and gamma ray) and a small number of direct groundwater salinity measurements. Embedded in the model are petrophysical equations that account for shaly sand and diatomite formations. As a proof of concept, we feed in well logs and salinity measurements from the Lost Hills Oil Field in Kern County, California, and show that with proper regularization and validation the model makes reasonable predictions of groundwater salinity despite the large number of parameters. The model is implemented using Tensorflow, which is an open-source software released by Google in November, 2015 that has been rapidly and widely adopted by machine learning researchers. The code will be made available on Github, and we encourage scrutiny and modification by machine learning researchers and hydrogeologists alike.

SOIL Geo-Wiki: A tool for improving soil information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skalský, Rastislav; Balkovic, Juraj; Fritz, Steffen; See, Linda; van der Velde, Marijn; Obersteiner, Michael

2014-05-01

Crowdsourcing is increasingly being used as a way of collecting data for scientific research, e.g. species identification, classification of galaxies and unravelling of protein structures. The WorldSoilProfiles.org database at ISRIC is a global collection of soil profiles, which have been 'crowdsourced' from experts. This system, however, requires contributors to have a priori knowledge about soils. Yet many soil parameters can be observed in the field without specific knowledge or equipment such as stone content, soil depth or color. By crowdsourcing this information over thousands of locations, the uncertainty in current soil datasets could be radically reduced, particularly in areas currently without information or where multiple interpretations are possible from different existing soil maps. Improved information on soils could benefit many research fields and applications. Better soil data could enhance assessments of soil ecosystem services (e.g. soil carbon storage) and facilitate improved process-based ecosystem modeling from local to global scales. Geo-Wiki is a crowdsourcing tool that was developed at IIASA for land cover validation using satellite imagery. Several branches are now available focused on specific aspects of land cover validation, e.g. validating cropland extent or urbanized areas. Geo-Wiki Pictures is a smart phone application for collecting land cover related information on the ground. The extension of Geo-Wiki to a mobile environment provides a tool for experts in land cover validation but is also a way of reaching the general public in the validation of land cover. Here we propose a Soil Geo-Wiki tool that builds on the existing functionality of the Geo-Wiki application, which will be largely designed for the collection and sharing of soil information. Two distinct applications are envisaged: an expert-oriented application mainly for scientific purposes, which will use soil science related language (e.g. WRB or any other global reference

Estimation and upscaling of dual-permeability model parameters for the transport of E.coli D21g in soils with preferential flow

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Dual-permeability models are increasingly used to quantify the transport of solutes and microorganisms in soils with preferential flow. An ability to accurately determine the model parameters and their variation with preferential pathway characteristics is crucial for predicting the transport of mi...

Evaluation of biochemical and redox parameters in rats fed with corn grown in soil amended with urban sewage sludge.

PubMed

Grotto, Denise; Carneiro, Maria Fernanda Hornos; Sauer, Elisa; Garcia, Solange Cristina; de Melo, Wanderley José; Barbosa, Fernando

2013-09-01

The increased production of urban sewage sludge requires alternative methods for final disposal. A very promising choice is the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer in agriculture, since it is rich in organic matter, macro and micronutrients. However, urban sewage sludge may contain toxic substances that may cause deleterious effects on the biota, water and soil, and consequently on humans. There is a lack of studies evaluating how safe the consumption of food cultivated in soils containing urban sewage sludge is. Thus, the aim of this paper was to evaluate biochemical and redox parameters in rats fed with corn produced in a soil treated with urban sewage sludge for a long term. For these experiments, maize plants were grown in soil amended with sewage sludge (rates of 5, 10 and 20 t/ha) or not (control). Four different diets were prepared with the corn grains produced in the field experiment, and rats were fed with these diets for 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Biochemical parameters (glucose, total cholesterol and fractions, triglycerides, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase) as well the redox state biomarkers such as reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase, glutathione peroxidase and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) were assessed. Our results show no differences in the biomarkers over 1 or 2 weeks. However, at 4 weeks BuChE activity was inhibited in rats fed with corn grown in soil amended with sewage sludge (5, 10 and 20 t/ha), while MDA levels increased. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to corn cultivated in the highest amount per hectare of sewage sludge (8 and 12 weeks) was associated with an increase in MDA levels and a decrease in GSH levels, respectively. Our findings add new evidence of the risks of consuming food grown with urban sewage sludge. However, considering that the amount and type of toxic substances present in urban sewage sludge varies considerably among different sampling areas, further studies are needed to

Soil quality parameters for row-crop and grazed pasture systems with agroforestry buffers

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Incorporation of trees and establishment of buffers are practices that can improve soil quality. Soil enzyme activities and water stable aggregates are sensitive indices for assessing soil quality by detecting early changes in soil management. However, studies comparing grazed pasture and row crop...

Estimation of soil hydraulic properties with microwave techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oneill, P. E.; Gurney, R. J.; Camillo, P. J.

1985-01-01

Useful quantitative information about soil properties may be obtained by calibrating energy and moisture balance models with remotely sensed data. A soil physics model solves heat and moisture flux equations in the soil profile and is driven by the surface energy balance. Model generated surface temperature and soil moisture and temperature profiles are then used in a microwave emission model to predict the soil brightness temperature. The model hydraulic parameters are varied until the predicted temperatures agree with the remotely sensed values. This method is used to estimate values for saturated hydraulic conductivity, saturated matrix potential, and a soil texture parameter. The conductivity agreed well with a value measured with an infiltration ring and the other parameters agreed with values in the literature.

Effects of cover crops on soil quality: Selected chemical and biological parameters

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Cover crops may improve soil physical, chemical, and biological properties and thus help improve land productivity. The objective of this study was to evaluate short-term changes (6, 9, and 12 weeks) in soil chemical and biological properties as influenced by cover crops for two different soils and...

Critical State of Sand Matrix Soils

PubMed Central

Marto, Aminaton; Tan, Choy Soon; Makhtar, Ahmad Mahir; Kung Leong, Tiong

2014-01-01

The Critical State Soil Mechanic (CSSM) is a globally recognised framework while the critical states for sand and clay are both well established. Nevertheless, the development of the critical state of sand matrix soils is lacking. This paper discusses the development of critical state lines and corresponding critical state parameters for the investigated material, sand matrix soils using sand-kaolin mixtures. The output of this paper can be used as an interpretation framework for the research on liquefaction susceptibility of sand matrix soils in the future. The strain controlled triaxial test apparatus was used to provide the monotonic loading onto the reconstituted soil specimens. All tested soils were subjected to isotropic consolidation and sheared under undrained condition until critical state was ascertain. Based on the results of 32 test specimens, the critical state lines for eight different sand matrix soils were developed together with the corresponding values of critical state parameters, M, λ, and Γ. The range of the value of M, λ, and Γ is 0.803–0.998, 0.144–0.248, and 1.727–2.279, respectively. These values are comparable to the critical state parameters of river sand and kaolin clay. However, the relationship between fines percentages and these critical state parameters is too scattered to be correlated. PMID:24757417

Optimizing the Hydrological and Biogeochemical Simulations on a Hillslope with Stony Soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Q.

2017-12-01

Stony soils are widely distributed in the hilly area. However, traditional pedotransfer functions are not reliable in predicting the soil hydraulic parameters for these soils due to the impacts of rock fragments. Therefore, large uncertainties and errors may exist in the hillslope hydrological and biogeochemical simulations in stony soils due to poor estimations of soil hydraulic parameters. In addition, homogenous soil hydraulic parameters are usually used in traditional hillslope simulations. However, soil hydraulic parameters are spatially heterogeneous on the hillslope. This may also cause the unreliable simulations. In this study, we obtained soil hydraulic parameters using five different approaches on a tea hillslope in Taihu Lake basin, China. These five approaches included (1) Rossetta predicted and spatially homogenous, (2) Rossetta predicted and spatially heterogeneous), (3) Rossetta predicted, rock fragment corrected and spatially homogenous, (4) Rossetta predicted, rock fragment corrected and spatially heterogeneous, and (5) extracted from observed soil-water retention curves fitted by dual-pore function and spatially heterogeneous (observed). These five sets of soil hydraulic properties were then input into Hydrus-3D and DNDC to simulate the soil hydrological and biogeochemical processes. The aim of this study is testing two hypotheses. First, considering the spatial heterogeneity of soil hydraulic parameters will improve the simulations. Second, considering the impact of rock fragment on soil hydraulic parameters will improve the simulations.

Spatial delineation, fluid-lithology characterization, and petrophysical modeling of deepwater Gulf of Mexico reservoirs though joint AVA deterministic and stochastic inversion of three-dimensional partially-stacked seismic amplitude data and well logs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Contreras, Arturo Javier

This dissertation describes a novel Amplitude-versus-Angle (AVA) inversion methodology to quantitatively integrate pre-stack seismic data, well logs, geologic data, and geostatistical information. Deterministic and stochastic inversion algorithms are used to characterize flow units of deepwater reservoirs located in the central Gulf of Mexico. A detailed fluid/lithology sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the nature of AVA effects in the study area. Standard AVA analysis indicates that the shale/sand interface represented by the top of the hydrocarbon-bearing turbidite deposits generate typical Class III AVA responses. Layer-dependent Biot-Gassmann analysis shows significant sensitivity of the P-wave velocity and density to fluid substitution, indicating that presence of light saturating fluids clearly affects the elastic response of sands. Accordingly, AVA deterministic and stochastic inversions, which combine the advantages of AVA analysis with those of inversion, have provided quantitative information about the lateral continuity of the turbidite reservoirs based on the interpretation of inverted acoustic properties and fluid-sensitive modulus attributes (P-Impedance, S-Impedance, density, and LambdaRho, in the case of deterministic inversion; and P-velocity, S-velocity, density, and lithotype (sand-shale) distributions, in the case of stochastic inversion). The quantitative use of rock/fluid information through AVA seismic data, coupled with the implementation of co-simulation via lithotype-dependent multidimensional joint probability distributions of acoustic/petrophysical properties, provides accurate 3D models of petrophysical properties such as porosity, permeability, and water saturation. Pre-stack stochastic inversion provides more realistic and higher-resolution results than those obtained from analogous deterministic techniques. Furthermore, 3D petrophysical models can be more accurately co-simulated from AVA stochastic inversion results. By

Synthesis of soil-hydraulic properties and infiltration timescales in wildfire-affected soils

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ebel, Brian A.; Moody, John A.

2017-01-01

We collected soil-hydraulic property data from the literature for wildfire-affected soils, ash, and unburned soils. These data were used to calculate metrics and timescales of hydrologic response related to infiltration and surface runoff generation. Sorptivity (S) and wetting front potential (Ψf) were significantly different (lower) in burned soils compared with unburned soils, whereas field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs) was not significantly different. The magnitude and duration of the influence of capillarity during infiltration was greatly reduced in burned soils, causing faster ponding times in response to rainfall. Ash had large values of S and Kfs but moderate values of Ψf, compared with unburned and burned soils, indicating ash has long ponding times in response to rainfall. The ratio of S2/Kfs was nearly constant (~100 mm) for unburned soils but more variable in burned soils, suggesting that unburned soils have a balance between gravity and capillarity contributions to infiltration that may depend on soil organic matter, whereas in burned soils the gravity contribution to infiltration is greater. Changes in S and Kfs in burned soils act synergistically to reduce infiltration and accelerate and amplify surface runoff generation. Synthesis of these findings identifies three key areas for future research. First, short timescales of capillary influences on infiltration indicate the need for better measurements of infiltration at times less than 1 min to accurately characterize S in burned soils. Second, using parameter values, such as Ψf, from unburned areas could produce substantial errors in hydrologic modeling when used without adjustment for wildfire effects, causing parameter compensation and resulting underestimation of Kfs. Third, more thorough measurement campaigns that capture soil-structural changes, organic matter impacts, quantitative water repellency trends, and soil-water content along with soil-hydraulic properties could drive the

Projecting the release of carbon from permafrost soils using a perturbed parameter ensemble modelling approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacDougall, Andrew H.; Knutti, Reto

2016-04-01

The soils of the northern hemispheric permafrost region are estimated to contain 1100 to 1500 Pg of carbon. A substantial fraction of this carbon has been frozen and therefore protected from microbial decay for millennia. As anthropogenic climate warming progresses much of this permafrost is expected to thaw. Here we conduct perturbed model experiments on a climate model of intermediate complexity, with an improved permafrost carbon module, to estimate with formal uncertainty bounds the release of carbon from permafrost soils by the year 2100 and 2300 CE. We estimate that by year 2100 the permafrost region may release between 56 (13 to 118) Pg C under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6 and 102 (27 to 199) Pg C under RCP 8.5, with substantially more to be released under each scenario by the year 2300. Our analysis suggests that the two parameters that contribute most to the uncertainty in the release of carbon from permafrost soils are the size of the non-passive fraction of the permafrost carbon pool and the equilibrium climate sensitivity. A subset of 25 model variants are integrated 8000 years into the future under continued RCP forcing. Under the moderate RCP 4.5 forcing a remnant near-surface permafrost region persists in the high Arctic, eventually developing a new permafrost carbon pool. Overall our simulations suggest that the permafrost carbon cycle feedback to climate change will make a significant contribution to climate change over the next centuries and millennia, releasing a quantity of carbon 3 to 54 % of the cumulative anthropogenic total.

Optimal land use management for soil erosion control by using an interval-parameter fuzzy two-stage stochastic programming approach.

PubMed

Han, Jing-Cheng; Huang, Guo-He; Zhang, Hua; Li, Zhong

2013-09-01

Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental and public health problems, and such land degradation can be effectively mitigated through performing land use transitions across a watershed. Optimal land use management can thus provide a way to reduce soil erosion while achieving the maximum net benefit. However, optimized land use allocation schemes are not always successful since uncertainties pertaining to soil erosion control are not well presented. This study applied an interval-parameter fuzzy two-stage stochastic programming approach to generate optimal land use planning strategies for soil erosion control based on an inexact optimization framework, in which various uncertainties were reflected. The modeling approach can incorporate predefined soil erosion control policies, and address inherent system uncertainties expressed as discrete intervals, fuzzy sets, and probability distributions. The developed model was demonstrated through a case study in the Xiangxi River watershed, China's Three Gorges Reservoir region. Land use transformations were employed as decision variables, and based on these, the land use change dynamics were yielded for a 15-year planning horizon. Finally, the maximum net economic benefit with an interval value of [1.197, 6.311] × 10(9) $ was obtained as well as corresponding land use allocations in the three planning periods. Also, the resulting soil erosion amount was found to be decreased and controlled at a tolerable level over the watershed. Thus, results confirm that the developed model is a useful tool for implementing land use management as not only does it allow local decision makers to optimize land use allocation, but can also help to answer how to accomplish land use changes.

Optimal Land Use Management for Soil Erosion Control by Using an Interval-Parameter Fuzzy Two-Stage Stochastic Programming Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Jing-Cheng; Huang, Guo-He; Zhang, Hua; Li, Zhong

2013-09-01

Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental and public health problems, and such land degradation can be effectively mitigated through performing land use transitions across a watershed. Optimal land use management can thus provide a way to reduce soil erosion while achieving the maximum net benefit. However, optimized land use allocation schemes are not always successful since uncertainties pertaining to soil erosion control are not well presented. This study applied an interval-parameter fuzzy two-stage stochastic programming approach to generate optimal land use planning strategies for soil erosion control based on an inexact optimization framework, in which various uncertainties were reflected. The modeling approach can incorporate predefined soil erosion control policies, and address inherent system uncertainties expressed as discrete intervals, fuzzy sets, and probability distributions. The developed model was demonstrated through a case study in the Xiangxi River watershed, China's Three Gorges Reservoir region. Land use transformations were employed as decision variables, and based on these, the land use change dynamics were yielded for a 15-year planning horizon. Finally, the maximum net economic benefit with an interval value of [1.197, 6.311] × 109 was obtained as well as corresponding land use allocations in the three planning periods. Also, the resulting soil erosion amount was found to be decreased and controlled at a tolerable level over the watershed. Thus, results confirm that the developed model is a useful tool for implementing land use management as not only does it allow local decision makers to optimize land use allocation, but can also help to answer how to accomplish land use changes.

Prediction of soil organic carbon partition coefficients by soil column liquid chromatography.

PubMed

Guo, Rongbo; Liang, Xinmiao; Chen, Jiping; Wu, Wenzhong; Zhang, Qing; Martens, Dieter; Kettrup, Antonius

2004-04-30

To avoid the limitation of the widely used prediction methods of soil organic carbon partition coefficients (KOC) from hydrophobic parameters, e.g., the n-octanol/water partition coefficients (KOW) and the reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) retention factors, the soil column liquid chromatographic (SCLC) method was developed for KOC prediction. The real soils were used as the packing materials of RP-HPLC columns, and the correlations between the retention factors of organic compounds on soil columns (ksoil) and KOC measured by batch equilibrium method were studied. Good correlations were achieved between ksoil and KOC for three types of soils with different properties. All the square of the correlation coefficients (R2) of the linear regression between log ksoil and log KOC were higher than 0.89 with standard deviations of less than 0.21. In addition, the prediction of KOC from KOW and the RP-HPLC retention factors on cyanopropyl (CN) stationary phase (kCN) was comparatively evaluated for the three types of soils. The results show that the prediction of KOC from kCN and KOW is only applicable to some specific types of soils. The results obtained in the present study proved that the SCLC method is appropriate for the KOC prediction for different types of soils, however the applicability of using hydrophobic parameters to predict KOC largely depends on the properties of soil concerned.

Soil amendments improve microbial ecology parameters of "topsoil inoculum" used in post-mining restoration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumaresan, Deepak; Munoz-Rojas, Miriam; Moreira-Grez, Benjamin; Kariman, Khalil; Whiteley, Andrew

2017-04-01

Mine operations generate substantial volumes of waste substrates, which are crushed and/or chemically treated waste rock from which ores are extracted. Establishment of rehabilitated landforms using post-mining substrates (i.e. waste rocks, tailings) that typically exhibit extreme conditions (such as high pH, nutrient deficiency, excessive salinity and metal toxicity) can be a major environmental problem and a critical issue during mine closure operations. More importantly, mine sites are located predominantly in arid or semi-arid lands where our understanding of basic ecosystem processes and microbial interactions with native plants (e.g. Eucalyptus spp., Acacia spp., Grevillea spp. in Western Australia) are limited. Despite the wide acknowledgement on the impact of microbial functional diversity on overall soil and plant health, no detailed attention has been paid to understand the role of belowground microbial functional diversity in the context of mine rehabilitation strategies. In this research, we investigated the role of nitrogen-based and microbial consortia amendments on improving the microbial ecology parameters of "topsoil inoculum" and subsequently its cascading effect on seedling establishment and plant morphology of Acacia ancistrocarpa, a legume native to the Pilbara and other regions of Western Australia and commonly used in arid zone restoration. The study was conducted under controlled environmental conditions in potted plants using topsoil retrieved from previously stockpiled material as growth media. A morphological assessment was undertaken to measure shoot length, shoot weight, root length, root area and root weight. Soil chemical properties, e.g. carbon, nitrogen and trace metals concentrations were determined Microbial activity was measured with the 1-day CO2 test, which determines soil microbial respiration rate based on the measurement of the CO2 burst produced after moistening dry soil (Muñoz-Rojas et al., 2016). Bacterial and archaeal

Calibration of Noah soil hydraulic property parameters using surface soil moisture from SMOS and basin-wide in situ observations

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Soil hydraulic properties can be retrieved from physical sampling of soil, via surveys, but this is time consuming and only as accurate as the scale of the sample. Remote sensing provides an opportunity to get pertinent soil properties at large scales, which is very useful for large scale modeling....

Alaskan Arctic Soils: Relationship between Microbial Carbon Usage and Soil Composition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, H.; Ziolkowski, L. A.

2015-12-01

Carbon stored in Arctic permafrost carbon is sensitive to climate change. Microbes are known to degrade Arctic soil organic carbon (OC) and potentially release vast quantitates of CO2 and CH4. Previously, it has been shown that warming of Arctic soils leads to microbes respiring older carbon. To examine this process, we studied the microbial carbon usage and its relationship to the soil OC composition in active layer soils at five locations along a latitudinal transect on the North Slope of Alaska using the compound specific radiocarbon signatures of the viable microbial community using phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA). Additional geochemical parameters (C/N, 13C, 15N and 14C) of bulk soils were measured. Overall there was a greater change with depth than location. Organic rich surface soils are rich in vegetation and have high PLFA based cell densities, while deeper in the active layer geochemical parameters indicated soil OC was degraded and cell densities decreased. As expected, PLFA indicative of Fungi and Protozoa species dominated in surface soils, methyl-branched PLFAs, indicative of bacterial origin, increased in deeper in the active layer. A group of previously unreported PLFAs, believed to correlate to anaerobic microbes, increased at the transition between the surface and deep microbial communities. Cluster analysis based on individual PLFAs of samples confirmed compositional differences as a function of depth dominated with no site to site differences. Radiocarbon data of soil OC and PLFA show the preferential consumption of younger soil OC by microbes at all sites and older OC being eaten in deep soils. However, in deeper soil, where the C/N ratio suggests lower bioavailability, less soil OC was incorporated into the microbes as indicating by greater differences between bulk and PLFA radiocarbon ages.

Estimating soil hydraulic properties from soil moisture time series by inversion of a dual-permeability model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalla Valle, Nicolas; Wutzler, Thomas; Meyer, Stefanie; Potthast, Karin; Michalzik, Beate

2017-04-01

Dual-permeability type models are widely used to simulate water fluxes and solute transport in structured soils. These models contain two spatially overlapping flow domains with different parameterizations or even entirely different conceptual descriptions of flow processes. They are usually able to capture preferential flow phenomena, but a large set of parameters is needed, which are very laborious to obtain or cannot be measured at all. Therefore, model inversions are often used to derive the necessary parameters. Although these require sufficient input data themselves, they can use measurements of state variables instead, which are often easier to obtain and can be monitored by automated measurement systems. In this work we show a method to estimate soil hydraulic parameters from high frequency soil moisture time series data gathered at two different measurement depths by inversion of a simple one dimensional dual-permeability model. The model uses an advection equation based on the kinematic wave theory to describe the flow in the fracture domain and a Richards equation for the flow in the matrix domain. The soil moisture time series data were measured in mesocosms during sprinkling experiments. The inversion consists of three consecutive steps: First, the parameters of the water retention function were assessed using vertical soil moisture profiles in hydraulic equilibrium. This was done using two different exponential retention functions and the Campbell function. Second, the soil sorptivity and diffusivity functions were estimated from Boltzmann-transformed soil moisture data, which allowed the calculation of the hydraulic conductivity function. Third, the parameters governing flow in the fracture domain were determined using the whole soil moisture time series. The resulting retention functions were within the range of values predicted by pedotransfer functions apart from very dry conditions, where all retention functions predicted lower matrix potentials

Variations of the petrophysical properties of rocks with increasing hydrocarbons content and their implications at larger scale: insights from the Majella reservoir (Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trippetta, Fabio; Ruggieri, Roberta; Lipparini, Lorenzo

2016-04-01

Crustal processes such as deformations or faulting are strictly related to the petrophysical properties of involved rocks. These properties depend on mineral composition, fabric, pores and any secondary features such as cracks or infilling material that may have been introduced during the whole diagenetic and tectonic history of the rock. In this work we investigate the role of hydrocarbons (HC) in changing the petrophysical properties of rock by merging laboratory experiments, well data and static models focusing on the carbonate-bearing Majella reservoir. This reservoir represent an interesting analogue for the several oil fields discovered in the subsurface in the region, allowing a comparison of a wide range of geological and geophysical data at different scale. The investigated lithology is made of high porosity ramp calcarenites, structurally slightly affected by a superimposed fracture system and displaced by few major normal faults, with some minor strike-slip movements. Sets of rock specimens were selected in the field and in particular two groups were investigated: 1. clean rocks (without oil) and 2. HC bearing rocks (with different saturations). For both groups, density, porosity, P and S wave velocity, permeability and elastic moduli measurements at increasing confining pressure were conducted on cylindrical specimens at the HP-HT Laboratory of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in Rome, Italy. For clean samples at ambient pressure, laboratory porosity varies from 10 % up to 26 % and P wave velocity (Vp) spans from 4,1 km/s to 4,9 km/s and a very good correlation between Vp, Vs and porosity is observed. The P wave velocity at 100 MPa of confining pressure, ranges between 4,5 km/s and 5,2 km/s with a pressure independent Vp/Vs ratio of about 1,9. The presence of HC within the samples affects both Vp and Vs. In particular velocities increase with the presence of hydrocarbons proportionally respect to the amount of the filled

Soil properties influence kinetics of soil acid phosphatase in response to arsenic toxicity.

PubMed

Wang, Ziquan; Tan, Xiangping; Lu, Guannan; Liu, Yanju; Naidu, Ravi; He, Wenxiang

2018-01-01

Soil phosphatase, which plays an important role in phosphorus cycling, is strongly inhibited by Arsenic (As). However, the inhibition mechanism in kinetics is not adequately investigated. In this study, we investigated the kinetic characteristics of soil acid phosphatase (ACP) in 14 soils with varied properties, and also explored how kinetic properties of soil ACP changed with different spiked As concentrations. The results showed that the Michaelis constant (K m ) and maximum reaction velocity (V max ) values of soil ACP ranged from 1.18 to 3.77mM and 0.025-0.133mMh -1 in uncontaminated soils. The kinetic parameters of soil ACP in different soils changed differently with As contamination. The K m remained unchanged and V max decreased with increase of As concentration in most acid and neutral soils, indicating a noncompetitive inhibition mechanism. However, in alkaline soils, the K m increased linearly and V max decreased with increase of As concentration, indicating a mixed inhibition mechanism that include competitive and noncompetitive. The competitive inhibition constant (K ic ) and noncompetitive inhibition constant (K iu ) varied among soils and ranged from 0.38 to 3.65mM and 0.84-7.43mM respectively. The inhibitory effect of As on soil ACP was mostly affected by soil organic matter and cation exchange capacity. Those factors influenced the combination of As with enzyme, which resulted in a difference of As toxicity to soil ACP. Catalytic efficiency (V max /K m ) of soil ACP was a sensitive kinetic parameter to assess the ecological risks of soil As contamination. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Drought monitoring over the Horn of Africa using remotely sensed evapotranspiration, soil moisture and vegetation parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Timmermans, J.; Gokmen, M.; Eden, U.; Abou Ali, M.; Vekerdy, Z.; Su, Z.

2012-04-01

The need to good drought monitoring and management for the Horn of Africa has never been greater. This ongoing drought is the largest in the past sixty years and is effecting the life of around 10 million people, according to the United Nations. The impact of drought is most apparent in food security and health. In addition secondary problems arise related to the drought such as large migration; more than 15000 Somalia have fled to neighboring countries to escape the problems caused by the drought. These problems will only grow in the future to larger areas due to increase in extreme weather patterns due to global climate change. Monitoring drought impact and managing the drought effects are therefore of critical importance. The impact of a drought is hard to characterize as drought depends on several parameters, like precipitation, land use, irrigation. Consequently the effects of the drought vary spatially and range from short-term to long-term. For this reason a drought event can be characterized into four categories: meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socio-economical. In terms of food production the agricultural drought, or short term dryness near the surface layer, is most important. This drought is usually characterized by low soil moisture content in the root zone, decreased evapotranspiration, and changes in vegetation vigor. All of these parameters can be detected with good accuracy from space. The advantage of remote sensing in Drought monitoring is evident. Drought monitoring is usually performed using drought indices, like the Palmer Index (PDSI), Crop Moisture Index (CMI), Standard Precipitation Index (SPI). With the introduction of remote sensing several indices of these have shown great potential for large scale application. These indices however all incorporate precipitation as the main surface parameter neglecting the response of the surface to the dryness. More recently two agricultural drought indices, the EvapoTranspiration Deficit

Do agricultural terraces and forest fires recurrence in Mediterranean afforested micro-catchments alter soil quality and soil nutrient content?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

E Lucas-Borja, Manuel; Calsamiglia, Aleix; Fortesa, Josep; García-Comendador, Julián; Gago, Jorge; Estrany, Joan

2017-04-01

Bioclimatic characteristics and intense human pressure promote Mediterranean ecosystems to be fire-prone. Afforestation processes resulting from the progressive land abandonment during the last decades led to greater biomass availability increasing the risk of large forest fires. Likewise, the abandonment and lack of maintenance in the terraced lands constitute a risk of land degradation in terms of soil quantity and quality. Despite the effects of fire and the abandonment of terraced lands on soil loss and physico-chemical properties are identified, it is not clearly understood how wildfires and abandonment of terraces affect soil quality and nutrients content. Microbiological soil parameters and soil enzymes activities are biomarkers of the soil microbial communitýs functional ability, which potentially enables them as indicators of change, disturbance or stress within the soil community. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of terracing (abandoned and non-abandoned) on the soil enzyme activities, microbiological soil parameters and soil nutrients dynamics in three Mediterranean afforested micro-catchments (i.e., < 2 ha) under different forest fire recurrence in the last 20 years; i.e., unburned areas, burned once and burned twice. The combination of the presence of terraces and the recurrence of forest fire, thirty-six plots of 25 m2 were sampled along the these three micro-catchments collecting four replicas at the corners of each plot. The results elucidated how non-terraced and unburned plots presented the highest values of soil respiration rate and extracellular soil enzymes. Differences between experimental plots with different forest fire recurrence or comparing terraced and unburned plots with burned plots were weaker in relation to biochemical and microbiological parameters. Soil nutrient content showed an opposite trend with higher values in terraced plots, although differences were weaker. We conclude that terraced landscapes

Soil Moisture Project Evaluation Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilbert, R. H. (Editor)

1980-01-01

Approaches planned or being developed for measuring and modeling soil moisture parameters are discussed. Topics cover analysis of spatial variability of soil moisture as a function of terrain; the value of soil moisture information in developing stream flow data; energy/scene interactions; applications of satellite data; verifying soil water budget models; soil water profile/soil temperature profile models; soil moisture sensitivity analysis; combinations of the thermal model and microwave; determing planetary roughness and field roughness; how crust or a soil layer effects microwave return; truck radar; and truck/aircraft radar comparison.

Soil fertility and plant diversity enhance microbial performance in metal-polluted soils.

PubMed

Stefanowicz, Anna M; Kapusta, Paweł; Szarek-Łukaszewska, Grażyna; Grodzińska, Krystyna; Niklińska, Maria; Vogt, Rolf D

2012-11-15

This study examined the effects of soil physicochemical properties (including heavy metal pollution) and vegetation parameters on soil basal respiration, microbial biomass, and the activity and functional richness of culturable soil bacteria and fungi. In a zinc and lead mining area (S Poland), 49 sites were selected to represent all common plant communities and comprise the area's diverse soil types. Numerous variables describing habitat properties were reduced by PCA to 7 independent factors, mainly representing subsoil type (metal-rich mining waste vs. sand), soil fertility (exchangeable Ca, Mg and K, total C and N, organic C), plant species richness, phosphorus content, water-soluble heavy metals (Zn, Cd and Pb), clay content and plant functional diversity (based on graminoids, legumes and non-leguminous forbs). Multiple regression analysis including these factors explained much of the variation in most microbial parameters; in the case of microbial respiration and biomass, it was 86% and 71%, respectively. The activity of soil microbes was positively affected mainly by soil fertility and, apparently, by the presence of mining waste in the subsoil. The mining waste contained vast amounts of trace metals (total Zn, Cd and Pb), but it promoted microbial performance due to its inherently high content of macronutrients (total Ca, Mg, K and C). Plant species richness had a relatively strong positive effect on all microbial parameters, except for the fungal component. In contrast, plant functional diversity was practically negligible in its effect on microbes. Other explanatory variables had only a minor positive effect (clay content) or no significant influence (phosphorus content) on microbial communities. The main conclusion from this study is that high nutrient availability and plant species richness positively affected the soil microbes and that this apparently counteracted the toxic effects of metal contamination. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights

The Bacterial and Fungal Diversity of an Aged PAH- and Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soil is Affected by Plant Cover and Edaphic Parameters.

PubMed

Bourceret, Amélia; Cébron, Aurélie; Tisserant, Emilie; Poupin, Pascal; Bauda, Pascale; Beguiristain, Thierry; Leyval, Corinne

2016-04-01

Industrial wasteland soils with aged PAH and heavy metal contaminations are environments where pollutant toxicity has been maintained for decades. Although the communities may be well adapted to the presence of stressors, knowledge about microbial diversity in such soils is scarce. Soil microbial community dynamics can be driven by the presence of plants, but the impact of plant development on selection or diversification of microorganisms in these soils has not been established yet. To test these hypotheses, aged-contaminated soil samples from a field trial were collected. Plots planted with alfalfa were compared to bare soil plots, and bacterial and fungal diversity and abundance were assessed after 2 and 6 years. Using pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene and ITS amplicons, we showed that the bacterial community was dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes and was characterized by low Acidobacteria abundance, while the fungal community was mainly represented by members of the Ascomycota. The short-term toxic impact of pollutants usually reduces the microbial diversity, yet in our samples bacterial and fungal species richness and diversity was high suggesting that the community structure and diversity adapted to the contaminated soil over decades. The presence of plants induced higher bacterial and fungal diversity than in bare soil. It also increased the relative abundance of bacterial members of the Actinomycetales, Rhizobiales, and Xanthomonadales orders and of most fungal orders. Multivariate analysis showed correlations between microbial community structure and heavy metal and PAH concentrations over time, but also with edaphic parameters (C/N, pH, phosphorus, and nitrogen concentrations).

Using Remotely-Sensed Estimates of Soil Moisture to Infer Soil Texture and Hydraulic Properties across a Semi-arid Watershed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Santanello, Joseph A.; Peters-Lidard, Christa D.; Garcia, Matthew E.; Mocko, David M.; Tischler, Michael A.; Moran, M. Susan; Thoma, D. P.

2007-01-01

Near-surface soil moisture is a critical component of land surface energy and water balance studies encompassing a wide range of disciplines. However, the processes of infiltration, runoff, and evapotranspiration in the vadose zone of the soil are not easy to quantify or predict because of the difficulty in accurately representing soil texture and hydraulic properties in land surface models. This study approaches the problem of parameterizing soils from a unique perspective based on components originally developed for operational estimation of soil moisture for mobility assessments. Estimates of near-surface soil moisture derived from passive (L-band) microwave remote sensing were acquired on six dates during the Monsoon '90 experiment in southeastern Arizona, and used to calibrate hydraulic properties in an offline land surface model and infer information on the soil conditions of the region. Specifically, a robust parameter estimation tool (PEST) was used to calibrate the Noah land surface model and run at very high spatial resolution across the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed. Errors in simulated versus observed soil moisture were minimized by adjusting the soil texture, which in turn controls the hydraulic properties through the use of pedotransfer functions. By estimating a continuous range of widely applicable soil properties such as sand, silt, and clay percentages rather than applying rigid soil texture classes, lookup tables, or large parameter sets as in previous studies, the physical accuracy and consistency of the resulting soils could then be assessed. In addition, the sensitivity of this calibration method to the number and timing of microwave retrievals is determined in relation to the temporal patterns in precipitation and soil drying. The resultant soil properties were applied to an extended time period demonstrating the improvement in simulated soil moisture over that using default or county-level soil parameters. The methodology is also

Functional Diversity of Microbial Communities in Sludge-Amended Soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Y. H.; Yang, Z. H.; Zhao, J. J.; Li, Q.

The BIOLOG method was applied to exploration of functional diversity of soil microbial communities in sludge-amended soils sampled from the Yangtze River Delta. Results indicated that metabolic profile, functional diversity indexes and Kinetic parameters of the soil microbial communities changed following soil amendment with sewage sludge, suggesting that the changes occurred in population of the microbes capable of exploiting carbon substrates and in this capability as well. The kinetic study of the functional diversity revealed that the metabolic profile of the soil microbial communities exhibited non-linear correlation with the incubation time, showing a curse of sigmoid that fits the dynamic model of growth of the soil microbial communities. In all the treatments, except for treatments of coastal fluvo-aquic soil amended with fresh sludge and dried sludge from Hangzhou, kinetic parameters K and r of the functional diversity of the soil microbial communities decreased significantly and parameter S increased. Changes in characteristics of the functional diversity well reflected differences in C utilizing capacity and model of the soil microbial communities in the sludge-amended soils, and changes in functional diversity of the soil microbial communities in a particular eco-environment, like soil amended with sewage sludge.

Synergy between optical and microwave remote sensing to derive soil and vegetation parameters from MAC Europe 1991 Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taconet, O.; Benallegue, M.; Vidal, A.; Vidal-Madjar, D.; Prevot, L.; Normand, M.

1993-01-01

The ability of remote sensing for monitoring vegetation density and soil moisture for agricultural applications is extensively studied. In optical bands, vegetation indices (NDVI, WDVI) in visible and near infrared reflectances are related to biophysical quantities as the leaf area index, the biomass. In active microwave bands, the quantitative assessment of crop parameters and soil moisture over agricultural areas by radar multiconfiguration algorithms remains prospective. Furthermore the main results are mostly validated on small test sites, but have still to be demonstrated in an operational way at a regional scale. In this study, a large data set of radar backscattering has been achieved at a regional scale on a French pilot watershed, the Orgeval, along two growing seasons in 1988 and 1989 (mainly wheat and corn). The radar backscattering was provided by the airborne scatterometer ERASME, designed at CRPE, (C and X bands and HH and VV polarizations). Empirical relationships to estimate water crop and soil moisture over wheat in CHH band under actual field conditions and at a watershed scale are investigated. Therefore, the algorithms developed in CHH band are applied for mapping the surface conditions over wheat fields using the AIRSAR and TMS images collected during the MAC EUROPE 1991 experiment. The synergy between optical and microwave bands is analyzed.

Effects and risk assessment of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates in agricultural soil. 1. Short-term effects on soil microbiology.

PubMed

Elsgaard, L; Petersen, S O; Debosz, K

2001-08-01

Linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) may occur in sewage sludge that is applied to agricultural soil, in which LAS can be inhibitory to biological activity. As a part of a broader risk assessment of LAS in the terrestrial environment, we tested the short-term effects of aqueous LAS on microbial parameters in a sandy agricultural soil that was incubated for up to 11 d. The assays included 10 microbial soil parameters; ethylene degradation; potential ammonium oxidation; potential dehydrogenase activity; beta-glucosidase activity; iron reduction; the populations of cellulolytic bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes; the basal soil respiration; and the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) content. Except for beta-glucosidase activity, basal respiration, and total PLFA content, all soil parameters were sensitive to LAS, with EC10 values in the range of less than 8 to 22 mg/kg dry weight. This probably reflected a similar mode of LAS toxicity, ascribed to cell membrane interactions, and showed that sensitivity to LAS was common for various soil microorganisms. The extracellular beta-glucosidase activity was rather insensitive to LAS (ECI10, 47 mg/kg dry wt), whereas the basal soil respiration was not inhibited even at 793 mg/kg dry weight. This was interpreted as a combined response of inhibited and stimulated compartments of the microbial community. The PLFA content, surprisingly, showed no decrease even at 488 mg/kg. In conclusion, LAS inhibited specific microbial activities, although this could not be deduced from the basal respiration or the total PLFA content. The lowest EC10 values for microbial soil parameters were slightly higher than the predicted no-effect concentrations recently derived for plants and soil fauna (approximately 5 mg/kg dry wt).

Thermal properties of degraded lowland peat-moorsh soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gnatowski, Tomasz

2016-04-01

Soil thermal properties, i.e.: specific heat capacity (c), thermal conductivity (K), volumetric heat capacity (C) govern the thermal environment and heat transport through the soil. Hence the precise knowledge and accurate predictions of these properties for peaty soils with high amount of organic matter are especially important for the proper forecasting of soil temperature and thus it may lead to a better assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions created by microbiological activity of the peatlands. The objective of the study was to develop the predictive models of the selected thermal parameters of peat-moorsh soils in terms of their potential applicability for forecasting changes of soil temperature in degraded ecosystems of the Middle Biebrza River Valley area. Evaluation of the soil thermal properties was conducted for the parameters: specific heat capacity (c), volumetric heat capacities of the dry and saturated soil (Cdry, Csat) and thermal conductivities of the dry and saturated soil (Kdry, Ksat). The thermal parameters were measured using the dual-needle probe (KD2-Pro) on soil samples collected from seven peaty soils, representing total 24 horizons. The surface layers were characterized by different degrees of advancement of soil degradation dependent on intensiveness of the cultivation practises (peaty and humic moorsh). The underlying soil layers contain peat deposits of different botanical composition (peat-moss, sedge-reed, reed and alder) and varying degrees of decomposition of the organic matter, from H1 to H7 (von Post scale). Based on the research results it has been shown that the specific heat capacity of the soils differs depending on the type of soil (type of moorsh and type of peat). The range of changes varied from 1276 J.kg-1.K-1 in the humic moorsh soil to 1944 J.kg-1.K-1 in the low decomposed sedge-moss peat. It has also been stated that in degraded peat soils with the increasing of the ash content in the soil the value of specific heat

Petrophysical laboratory invertigations of carbon dioxide storage in a subsurface saline aquifer in Ketzin/Germany within the scope of CO2SINK

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zemke, K.; Kummmerow, J.; Wandrey, M.; Co2SINK Group

2009-04-01

conditions over a period of several months. Before and after the CO2 exposure experiment cyclic measurements of physical properties were carried out on these cores in a mechanical testing system. After experimental runs of up to 3 months no significant changes in flow and petrophysical data were observed. [For the microbilogical studies see Wandrey et al., this volume.] To study the impact of fluid-rock interactions on petrophysical parameters, porosity and pore radii distribution have been investigated before and after the experiment by NMR relaxation and mercury-injection. NMR measurements on rock core plugs saturated with brine may return valuable information on the porous structure of the rock core. The distribution of NMR-T2 values (CPMG) reflects the pore sizes within the rock core. NMR pore size is a derivative of the ratio pore surface/volume. The mercury injection pore size is an area-equivalent diameter of the throats connecting the pore system. Most of the tested samples show in the NMR measurements a slightly increasing porosity and a higher part of large pores. The mercury measurements and thin- section for microstructural characterisation after the CO2 exposure will be done at a later date.

Geometric parameters determination of the installation for oil-contaminated soils decontamination in Russia, the Siberian region and the Arctic zones climatic conditions with reagent encapsulating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shtripling, L. O.; Kholkin, E. G.

2018-01-01

The article presents the procedure for determining the basic geometrical setting parameters for the oil-contaminated soils decontamination with reagent encapsulation method. An installation is considered for the operational elimination of the emergency consequences accompanied with oil spills, and the installation is adapted to winter conditions. In the installations exothermic process thermal energy of chemical neutralization of oil-contaminated soils released during the decontamination is used to thaw frozen subsequent portions of oil-contaminated soil. Installation for oil-contaminated soil decontamination as compared with other units has an important advantage, and it is, if necessary (e.g., in winter) in using the heat energy released at each decontamination process stage of oil-contaminated soil, in normal conditions the heat is dispersed into the environment. In addition, the short-term forced carbon dioxide delivery at the decontamination process final stage to a high concentration directly into the installation allows replacing the long process of microcapsule shells formation and hardening that occur in natural conditions in the open air.

Data assimilation with soil water content sensors and pedotransfer functions in soil water flow modeling

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Soil water flow models are based on a set of simplified assumptions about the mechanisms, processes, and parameters of water retention and flow. That causes errors in soil water flow model predictions. Soil water content monitoring data can be used to reduce the errors in models. Data assimilation (...

Paleomagnetism and petrophysics of the Jänisjärvi impact structure, Russian Karelia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salminen, J.; Donadini, F.; Pesonen, L. J.; Masaitis, V. L.; Naumov, M. V.

Paleomagnetic, rock magnetic, and petrophysical results are presented for impactites and target rocks from the Lake Jänisjärvi impact structure, Russian Karelia. The impactites (tagamites, suevites, and lithic breccias) are characterized by increased porosity and magnetization, which is in agreement with observations performed at other impact structures. Thermomagnetic, hysteresis, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis document the presence of primary multidomain titanomagnetite with additional secondary titanomaghemite and ilmenohematite. The characteristic impact-related remanent magnetization (ChRM) direction (D = 101.5°, I = 73.1°, α95 = 6.2°) yields a pole (Lat. = 45.0°N, Long. = 76.9°E, dp = 9.9°, dm = 11.0°). Additionally, the same component is observed as an overprint on some rocks located in the vicinity of the structure, which provides proofs of its primary origin.An attempt was made to determine the ancient geomagnetic field intensity. Seven reliable results were obtained, yielding an ancient intensity of 68.7 ± 7.6 μT (corresponding to VDM of 10.3 ± 1.1 × 1022 Am2). The intensity, however, appears to be biased toward high values mainly because of the concave shape of the Arai diagrams.The new paleomagnetic data and published isotopic ages for the structure are in disagreement. According to well-defined paleomagnetic data, two possible ages for magnetization of Jänisjärvi rocks exist: 1) Late Sveconorwegian age (900-850 Myr) or 2) Late Cambrian age (˜500 Myr). However, published isotopic ages are 718 ± 5 Myr (K-Ar) and 698 ± 22 Myr (39Ar-40Ar), but such isotopic dating methods are often ambiguous for the impactites.

Petrophysical Properties of Twenty Drill Cores from the Los Azufres, Mexico, Geothermal Field

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Iglesias, E.R.; Contreras L., E.; Garcia G., A.

1987-01-20

For this study we selected 20 drill cores covering a wide range of depths (400-3000 m), from 15 wells, that provide a reasonable coverage of the field. Only andesite, the largely predominant rock type in the field, was included in this sample. We measured bulk density, grain (solids) density, effective porosity and (matrix) permeability on a considerable number of specimens taken from the cores; and inferred the corresponding total porosity and fraction of interconnected total porosity. We characterized the statistical distributions of the measured and inferred variables. The distributions of bulk density and grain density resulted approximately normal; the distributionsmore » of effective porosity, total porosity and fraction of total porosity turned out to be bimodal; the permeability distribution resulted highly skewed towards very small (1 mdarcy) values, though values as high as 400 mdarcies were measured. We also characterized the internal inhomogeneity of the cores by means of the ratio (standard deviation/mean) corresponding to the bulk density in each core (in average there are 9 specimens per core). The cores were found to present clearly discernible inhomogeneity; this quantitative characterization will help design new experimental work and interpret currently available and forthcoming results. We also found statistically significant linear correlations between total density and density of solids, effective porosity and total density, total porosity and total density, fraction of interconnected total porosity and the inverse of the effective porosity, total porosity and effective porosity; bulk density and total porosity also correlate with elevation. These results provide the first sizable and statistically detailed database available on petrophysical properties of the Los Azufres andesites. 1 tab., 16 figs., 4 refs.« less

Application of the soil-ecological multiplicative index to assess suitability of Cis-Ural chernozems for cultivation with due account for economic parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levykin, S. V.; Chibilev, A. A.; Kazachkov, G. V.; Petrishchev, V. P.

2017-02-01

The evolution of Russian concepts concerning the assessment of soil suitability for cultivation in relation to several campaigns on large-scale plowing of virgin steppe soils is examined. The major problems of agricultural land use in steppe areas—preservation of rainfed farming in the regions with increasing climatic risks, underestimation of the potential of arable lands in land cadaster assessments, and much lower factual yields in comparison with potential yields—are considered. It is suggested that the assessments of arable lands should be performed on the basis of the soil-ecological index (SEI) developed by I. Karmanov with further conversion of SEI values into nominal monetary values. Under conditions of land reforms and economic reforms, it is important to determine suitability of steppe chernozems for plowing and economic feasibility of their use for crop growing in dependence on macroeconomic parameters. This should support decisions on optimization of land use in the steppe zone on the basis of the principles suggested by V. Dokuchaev. The developed approach for assessing soil suitability for cultivation was tested in the subzone of herbaceous-fescue-feather grass steppes in the Cis-Ural part of Orenburg oblast and used for the assessment of soil suitability for cultivation in the southern and southeastern regions of Orenburg oblast.

Soil cover of gas-bearing areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mozharova, N. V.

2010-08-01

Natural soils with disturbed functioning parameters compared to the background soils with conservative technogenic-pedogenic features were distinguished on vast areas above the artificial underground gas storages in the zones of spreading and predominant impact of hydrocarbon gases. The disturbance of the functioning parameters is related to the increase in the methane concentration, the bacterial oxidation intensity and destruction, and the complex microbiological and physicochemical synthesis of iron oxides. The technogenic-pedogenic features include neoformations of bacteriomorphic microdispersed iron oxides. The impurity components consist of elements typical for biogenic structures. New soil layers, horizons, specific anthropogenically modified soils, and soil-like structures were formed on small areas in the industrial zones of underground gas storages due to the mechanical disturbance, the deposition of drilling sludge, and the chemical contamination. Among the soils, postlithogenic formations were identified—chemotechnosols (soddy-podzolic soils and chernozems), as well as synlithogenic ones: strato-chemotechnosols and stratochemoembryozems. The soil-like bodies included postlithogenic soil-like structures (chemotechnozems) and synlithogenic ones (strato-chemotechnozems). A substantive approach was used for the soil diagnostics. The morphological and magnetic profiles and the physical, chemical, and physicochemical properties of the soils were analyzed. The micromorphological composition of the soil magnetic fraction was used as a magnetic label.

In-situ petrophysical properties of hotspot volcanoes. Results from ODP Leg 197, Detroit Seamount and HSDP II borehole, Hawaii

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kock, I.; Pechnig, R.; Buysch, A.; Clauser, C.

2003-04-01

During ODP Leg 197 an extensive logging program was run on Site 1203, Detroit Seamount. This seamount is part of the Emperor seamount chain, a continuation of the Hawaiian volcanic chain. Standard ODP/LDEO logging tool strings were used to measure porosity, density, resistivity, p- and s-wave velocities and gamma ray activity. The FMS-tool yielded detailed high resolution resistivity images of the borehole wall. By interpretation and statistical analysis of the logging parameters a petrophysical classification of the drilled rock content could be derived. The pillow lava recovered in the cores exhibits low porosity, low resistivity and high density. This indicates no or very little vesicles in the non-fractured rock unit. Compared to the pillow basalts, subaerial basalts show increasing porosity, gamma ray and potassium content and decreasing density, resistivity and velocity. A basalt with no or little vesicles and a basalt with average or many vesicles can clearly be distinguished. The volcaniclastics show lower resistivity, lower sonic velocities, higher porosities and lower densities than the basalts. Three different rock types can be distinguished within the volcaniclastics: Tuffs, resedimented tephra and breccia. The tuff shows medium porosity and density, low gamma ray and potassium content. The log responses from the resedimented tephra suggest that the tephra is more easily altered than the tuff. The log responses from the breccia lie between the tuff and tephra log responses, but the breccia can clearly be identified in the FMS borehole images. A similar rock content was found in the Hawaiian Scientific Drilling Project borehole. Gamma ray activity, electrical resistivity and sonic velocity were measured down to 2700 mbsl.. Compared to the 72-76 Ma old Detroit seamount basalts, the HSDP subaerial and submarine lava flows show a significant lower gamma ray activity, while sonic velocity and electrical resistivity are comparable. Deviations between the

Temporal changes of soil physic-chemical properties at different soil depths during larch afforestation by multivariate analysis of covariance.

PubMed

Wang, Hui-Mei; Wang, Wen-Jie; Chen, Huanfeng; Zhang, Zhonghua; Mao, Zijun; Zu, Yuan-Gang

2014-04-01

Soil physic-chemical properties differ at different depths; however, differences in afforestation-induced temporal changes at different soil depths are seldom reported. By examining 19 parameters, the temporal changes and their interactions with soil depth in a large chronosequence dataset (159 plots; 636 profiles; 2544 samples) of larch plantations were checked by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). No linear temporal changes were found in 9 parameters (N, K, N:P, available forms of N, P, K and ratios of N: available N, P: available P and K: available K), while marked linear changes were found in the rest 10 parameters. Four of them showed divergent temporal changes between surface and deep soils. At surface soils, changing rates were 262.1 g·kg(-1)·year(-1) for SOM, 438.9 mg·g(-1)·year(-1) for C:P, 5.3 mg·g(-1)·year(-1) for C:K, and -3.23 mg·cm(-3)·year(-1) for bulk density, while contrary tendencies were found in deeper soils. These divergences resulted in much moderated or no changes in the overall 80-cm soil profile. The other six parameters showed significant temporal changes for overall 0-80-cm soil profile (P: -4.10 mg·kg(-1)·year(-1); pH: -0.0061 unit·year(-1); C:N: 167.1 mg·g(-1)·year(-1); K:P: 371.5 mg·g(-1) year(-1); N:K: -0.242 mg·g(-1)·year(-1); EC: 0.169 μS·cm(-1)·year(-1)), but without significant differences at different soil depths (P > 0.05). Our findings highlight the importance of deep soils in studying physic-chemical changes of soil properties, and the temporal changes occurred in both surface and deep soils should be fully considered for forest management and soil nutrient balance.

Testing the Visual Soil Assessment tool on Estonian farm fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reintam, Endla; Are, Mihkel; Selge, Are

2017-04-01

Soil quality estimation plays important role in decision making on farm as well on policy level. Sustaining the production ability and good health of the soil the chemical, physical and biological indicators should be taken into account. The system to use soil chemical parameters is usually quite well established in most European counties, including Estonia. However, measuring soil physical properties, such bulk density, porosity, penetration resistance, structural stability ect is time consuming, needs special tools and is highly weather dependent. In that reason these parameters are excluded from controllable quality parameters in policy in Estonia. Within the project "Interactive Soil Quality Assessment in Europe and China for Agricultural Productivity and Environmental Resilience" (iSQAPER) the visual soil assessment (VSA) tool was developed for easy detection of soil quality as well the different soil friendly agricultural management practices (AMP) were detected. The aim of current study was to test the VSA tool on Estonian farm fields under different management practices and compare the results with laboratory measurements. The main focus was set on soil physical parameters. Next to the VSA, the undisturbed soil samples were collected from the depth of 5-10 cm and 25-30 cm. The study revealed that results of a visually assessed soil physical parameters, such a soil structure, soil structural stability, soil porosity, presence of tillage pan, were confirmed by laboratory measurements in most cases. Soil water stable structure measurement on field (on 1 cm2 net in one 1 l box with 4-6 cm air dry clods for 5-10 min) underestimated very well structured soil on grassland and overestimated the structure aggregates stability of compacted soil. The slightly better soil quality was detected under no-tillage compared to ploughed soils. However, the ploughed soil got higher quality points compared with minimum tillage. The slurry application (organic manuring) had

On the Soil Roughness Parameterization Problem in Soil Moisture Retrieval of Bare Surfaces from Synthetic Aperture Radar

PubMed Central

Verhoest, Niko E.C; Lievens, Hans; Wagner, Wolfgang; Álvarez-Mozos, Jesús; Moran, M. Susan; Mattia, Francesco

2008-01-01

Synthetic Aperture Radar has shown its large potential for retrieving soil moisture maps at regional scales. However, since the backscattered signal is determined by several surface characteristics, the retrieval of soil moisture is an ill-posed problem when using single configuration imagery. Unless accurate surface roughness parameter values are available, retrieving soil moisture from radar backscatter usually provides inaccurate estimates. The characterization of soil roughness is not fully understood, and a large range of roughness parameter values can be obtained for the same surface when different measurement methodologies are used. In this paper, a literature review is made that summarizes the problems encountered when parameterizing soil roughness as well as the reported impact of the errors made on the retrieved soil moisture. A number of suggestions were made for resolving issues in roughness parameterization and studying the impact of these roughness problems on the soil moisture retrieval accuracy and scale. PMID:27879932

Controlling parameters of fluorescent tracer sorption on soils and sediments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bork, Marcus; Graf-Rosenfellner, Markus; Lange, Jens; Lang, Friederike

2017-04-01

Fluorescent dyes like uranine (UR) and sulforhodamine B (SRB) have been widely used, especially for tracing hydrological processes. In the recent past, efforts have intensified to use fluorescent tracers also in soils, for example as proxies for organic pollutants. However, the sorption properties of both organic pollutants and fluorescent tracers have to be exactly known to succeed. Yet existing knowledge for soils is still incomplete and poorly standardized. For this reason, we carried out laboratory batch experiments to determine sorption isotherms of UR and SRB with varying pH, soil texture and organic carbon content (OC). As sorbents we used a sandy sediment with low OC, a silty loamy topsoil with 2.8 %-OC and a similar textured subsoil containing 0.6 %-OC. For both tracers six concentration steps each were prepared and shaken with the suspended sorbent for 42 h using a sorbent:solution ratio of 1:5. During the equilibration, the pH was repeatedly adjusted to 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5 by adding hydrochloric acid (HCl) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Subsequently, the tracer-sorbent-suspension was centrifuged and the fluorescence of the tracer in the supernatant was measured. In order to examine the influence of OC and the clay fraction on the tracer sorption, batch-experiments at pH 7.5 were also conducted with manipulated sorbents: top- and subsoil samples were treated with H2O2 to remove organic matter and the clay mineral montmorillonite was added to the sandy sediment to achieve final clay contents of 0.1 %, 0.5 %, 1 %, 2 %, 2.5 %, 5 % and 10 % clay. We observed a negative relationship between the linear sorption coefficient Kd and pH, which was stronger for UR than for SRB. Increasing numbers of negative sorption sites and functional groups of both tracers and sorbents with increasing pH might be the reason for this observation. Besides the pH-value, quantity and quality of clay and OC had a crucial influence on the sorption of UR and SRB in soils and sediment. As

Soil mechanics: breaking ground.

PubMed

Einav, Itai

2007-12-15

In soil mechanics, student's models are classified as simple models that teach us unexplained elements of behaviour; an example is the Cam clay constitutive models of critical state soil mechanics (CSSM). 'Engineer's models' are models that elaborate the theory to fit more behavioural trends; this is usually done by adding fitting parameters to the student's models. Can currently unexplained behavioural trends of soil be explained without adding fitting parameters to CSSM models, by developing alternative student's models based on modern theories?Here I apply an alternative theory to CSSM, called 'breakage mechanics', and develop a simple student's model for sand. Its unique and distinctive feature is the use of an energy balance equation that connects grain size reduction to consumption of energy, which enables us to predict how grain size distribution (gsd) evolves-an unprecedented capability in constitutive modelling. With only four parameters, the model is physically clarifying what CSSM cannot for sand: the dependency of yielding and critical state on the initial gsd and void ratio.

Parameter-induced uncertainty quantification of crop yields, soil N2O and CO2 emission for 8 arable sites across Europe using the LandscapeDNDC model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santabarbara, Ignacio; Haas, Edwin; Kraus, David; Herrera, Saul; Klatt, Steffen; Kiese, Ralf

2014-05-01

When using biogeochemical models to estimate greenhouse gas emissions at site to regional/national levels, the assessment and quantification of the uncertainties of simulation results are of significant importance. The uncertainties in simulation results of process-based ecosystem models may result from uncertainties of the process parameters that describe the processes of the model, model structure inadequacy as well as uncertainties in the observations. Data for development and testing of uncertainty analisys were corp yield observations, measurements of soil fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from 8 arable sites across Europe. Using the process-based biogeochemical model LandscapeDNDC for simulating crop yields, N2O and CO2 emissions, our aim is to assess the simulation uncertainty by setting up a Bayesian framework based on Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. Using Gelman statistics convergence criteria and parallel computing techniques, enable multi Markov Chains to run independently in parallel and create a random walk to estimate the joint model parameter distribution. Through means distribution we limit the parameter space, get probabilities of parameter values and find the complex dependencies among them. With this parameter distribution that determines soil-atmosphere C and N exchange, we are able to obtain the parameter-induced uncertainty of simulation results and compare them with the measurements data.

A global data set of soil hydraulic properties and sub-grid variability of soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity curves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montzka, Carsten; Herbst, Michael; Weihermüller, Lutz; Verhoef, Anne; Vereecken, Harry

2017-07-01

Agroecosystem models, regional and global climate models, and numerical weather prediction models require adequate parameterization of soil hydraulic properties. These properties are fundamental for describing and predicting water and energy exchange processes at the transition zone between solid earth and atmosphere, and regulate evapotranspiration, infiltration and runoff generation. Hydraulic parameters describing the soil water retention (WRC) and hydraulic conductivity (HCC) curves are typically derived from soil texture via pedotransfer functions (PTFs). Resampling of those parameters for specific model grids is typically performed by different aggregation approaches such a spatial averaging and the use of dominant textural properties or soil classes. These aggregation approaches introduce uncertainty, bias and parameter inconsistencies throughout spatial scales due to nonlinear relationships between hydraulic parameters and soil texture. Therefore, we present a method to scale hydraulic parameters to individual model grids and provide a global data set that overcomes the mentioned problems. The approach is based on Miller-Miller scaling in the relaxed form by Warrick, that fits the parameters of the WRC through all sub-grid WRCs to provide an effective parameterization for the grid cell at model resolution; at the same time it preserves the information of sub-grid variability of the water retention curve by deriving local scaling parameters. Based on the Mualem-van Genuchten approach we also derive the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity from the water retention functions, thereby assuming that the local parameters are also valid for this function. In addition, via the Warrick scaling parameter λ, information on global sub-grid scaling variance is given that enables modellers to improve dynamical downscaling of (regional) climate models or to perturb hydraulic parameters for model ensemble output generation. The present analysis is based on the ROSETTA PTF

Real-time soil sensing based on fiber optics and spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Minzan

2005-08-01

Using NIR spectroscopic techniques, correlation analysis and regression analysis for soil parameter estimation was conducted with raw soil samples collected in a cornfield and a forage field. Soil parameters analyzed were soil moisture, soil organic matter, nitrate nitrogen, soil electrical conductivity and pH. Results showed that all soil parameters could be evaluated by NIR spectral reflectance. For soil moisture, a linear regression model was available at low moisture contents below 30 % db, while an exponential model can be used in a wide range of moisture content up to 100 % db. Nitrate nitrogen estimation required a multi-spectral exponential model and electrical conductivity could be evaluated by a single spectral regression. According to the result above mentioned, a real time soil sensor system based on fiber optics and spectroscopy was developed. The sensor system was composed of a soil subsoiler with four optical fiber probes, a spectrometer, and a control unit. Two optical fiber probes were used for illumination and the other two optical fiber probes for collecting soil reflectance from visible to NIR wavebands at depths around 30 cm. The spectrometer was used to obtain the spectra of reflected lights. The control unit consisted of a data logging device, a personal computer, and a pulse generator. The experiment showed that clear photo-spectral reflectance was obtained from the underground soil. The soil reflectance was equal to that obtained by the desktop spectrophotometer in laboratory tests. Using the spectral reflectance, the soil parameters, such as soil moisture, pH, EC and SOM, were evaluated.

Using satellite image data to estimate soil moisture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chuang, Chi-Hung; Yu, Hwa-Lung

2017-04-01

Soil moisture is considered as an important parameter in various study fields, such as hydrology, phenology, and agriculture. In hydrology, soil moisture is an significant parameter to decide how much rainfall that will infiltrate into permeable layer and become groundwater resource. Although soil moisture is a critical role in many environmental studies, so far the measurement of soil moisture is using ground instrument such as electromagnetic soil moisture sensor. Use of ground instrumentation can directly obtain the information, but the instrument needs maintenance and consume manpower to operation. If we need wide range region information, ground instrumentation probably is not suitable. To measure wide region soil moisture information, we need other method to achieve this purpose. Satellite remote sensing techniques can obtain satellite image on Earth, this can be a way to solve the spatial restriction on instrument measurement. In this study, we used MODIS data to retrieve daily soil moisture pattern estimation, i.e., crop water stress index (cwsi), over the year of 2015. The estimations are compared with the observations at the soil moisture stations from Taiwan Bureau of soil and water conservation. Results show that the satellite remote sensing data can be helpful to the soil moisture estimation. Further analysis can be required to obtain the optimal parameters for soil moisture estimation in Taiwan.

Influence of soil moisture on soil respiration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fer, Miroslav; Kodesova, Radka; Nikodem, Antonin; Klement, Ales; Jelenova, Klara

2015-04-01

The aim of this work was to describe an impact of soil moisture on soil respiration. Study was performed on soil samples from morphologically diverse study site in loess region of Southern Moravia, Czech Republic. The original soil type is Haplic Chernozem, which was due to erosion changed into Regosol (steep parts) and Colluvial soil (base slope and the tributary valley). Soil samples were collected from topsoils at 5 points of the selected elevation transect and also from the parent material (loess). Grab soil samples, undisturbed soil samples (small - 100 cm3, and large - 713 cm3) and undisturbed soil blocks were taken. Basic soil properties were determined on grab soil samples. Small undisturbed soil samples were used to determine the soil water retention curves and the hydraulic conductivity functions using the multiple outflow tests in Tempe cells and a numerical inversion with HYDRUS 1-D. During experiments performed in greenhouse dry large undisturbed soil samples were wetted from below using a kaolin tank and cumulative water inflow due to capillary rise was measured. Simultaneously net CO2 exchange rate and net H2O exchange rate were measured using LCi-SD portable photosynthesis system with Soil Respiration Chamber. Numerical inversion of the measured cumulative capillary rise data using the HYDRUS-1D program was applied to modify selected soil hydraulic parameters for particular conditions and to simulate actual soil water distribution within each soil column in selected times. Undisturbed soil blocks were used to prepare thin soil sections to study soil-pore structure. Results for all soil samples showed that at the beginning of soil samples wetting the CO2 emission increased because of improving condition for microbes' activity. The maximum values were reached for soil column average soil water content between 0.10 and 0.15 cm3/cm3. Next CO2 emission decreased since the pore system starts filling by water (i.e. aggravated conditions for microbes

Assessing and monitoring soil quality at agricultural waste disposal areas-Soil Indicators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doula, Maria; Kavvadias, Victor; Sarris, Apostolos; Lolos, Polykarpos; Liakopoulou, Nektaria; Hliaoutakis, Aggelos; Kydonakis, Aris

2014-05-01

The necessity of elaborating indicators is one of the priorities identified by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The establishment of an indicator monitoring system for environmental purposes is dependent on the geographical scale. Some indicators such as rain seasonality or drainage density are useful over large areas, but others such as soil depth, vegetation cover type, and land ownership are only applicable locally. In order to practically enhance the sustainability of land management, research on using indicators for assessing land degradation risk must initially focus at local level because management decisions by individual land users are taken at this level. Soils that accept wastes disposal, apart from progressive degradation, may cause serious problems to the surrounding environment (humans, animals, plants, water systems, etc.), and thus, soil quality should be necessarily monitored. Therefore, quality indicators, representative of the specific waste type, should be established and monitored periodically. Since waste composition is dependent on their origin, specific indicators for each waste type should be established. Considering agricultural wastes, such a specification, however, could be difficult, since almost all agricultural wastes are characterized by increased concentrations of the same elements, namely, phosphorous, nitrogen, potassium, sulfur, etc.; contain large amounts of organic matter; and have very high values of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and electrical conductivity. Two LIFE projects, namely AgroStrat and PROSODOL are focused on the identification of soil indicators for the assessment of soil quality at areas where pistachio wastes and olive mill wastes are disposed, respectively. Many soil samples were collected periodically for 2 years during PROSODOL and one year during AgroStrat (this project is in progress) from waste disposal areas and analyzed for 23 parameters

To Identify the Important Soil Properties Affecting Dinoseb Adsorption with Statistical Analysis

PubMed Central

Guan, Yiqing; Wei, Jianhui; Zhang, Danrong; Zu, Mingjuan; Zhang, Liru

2013-01-01

Investigating the influences of soil characteristic factors on dinoseb adsorption parameter with different statistical methods would be valuable to explicitly figure out the extent of these influences. The correlation coefficients and the direct, indirect effects of soil characteristic factors on dinoseb adsorption parameter were analyzed through bivariate correlation analysis, and path analysis. With stepwise regression analysis the factors which had little influence on the adsorption parameter were excluded. Results indicate that pH and CEC had moderate relationship and lower direct effect on dinoseb adsorption parameter due to the multicollinearity with other soil factors, and organic carbon and clay contents were found to be the most significant soil factors which affect the dinoseb adsorption process. A regression is thereby set up to explore the relationship between the dinoseb adsorption parameter and the two soil factors: the soil organic carbon and clay contents. A 92% of the variation of dinoseb sorption coefficient could be attributed to the variation of the soil organic carbon and clay contents. PMID:23737715

Effects of imidacloprid on soil microbial communities in different saline soils.

PubMed

Zhang, Qingming; Xue, Changhui; Wang, Caixia

2015-12-01

The effects of imidacloprid in the soil environment are a worldwide concern. However, the impact of imidacloprid on soil microorganisms under salt stress is almost unknown. Therefore, an indoor incubation test was performed, and the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) approach was used to determine the response of different saline soil bacterial and fungal community structures to the presence of imidacloprid (0.4, 2, 10 mg kg(-1)). The results showed that the soil bacterial diversity slightly declined with increasing imidacloprid concentration in soils with low salinity. In moderately saline soils, a new band in the DGGE profile suggested that imidacloprid could improve the soil bacterial diversity to some degree. An analysis of variance indicated that the measured soil bacterial diversity parameters were significantly affected by dose and incubation time. Compared with the control, the soil fungal community structure showed no obvious changes in low and moderately saline soils treated with imidacloprid. The results of these observations provide a basic understanding of the potential ecological effects of imidacloprid on different microorganisms in saline soils.

The Application of EM38: Determination of Soil Parameters, Selection of Soil Sampling Points and Use in Agriculture and Archaeology

PubMed Central

Heil, Kurt

2017-01-01

Fast and accurate assessment of within-field variation is essential for detecting field-wide heterogeneity and contributing to improvements in the management of agricultural lands. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of field scale characterization by electromagnetic induction, firstly with a focus on the applications of EM38 to salinity, soil texture, water content and soil water turnover, soil types and boundaries, nutrients and N-turnover and soil sampling designs. Furthermore, results concerning special applications in agriculture, horticulture and archaeology are included. In addition to these investigations, this survey also presents a wide range of practical methods for use. Secondly, the effectiveness of conductivity readings for a specific target in a specific locality is determined by the intensity at which soil factors influence these values in relationship to the desired information. The interpretation and utility of apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) readings are highly location- and soil-specific, so soil properties influencing the measurement of ECa must be clearly understood. From the various calibration results, it appears that regression constants for the relationships between ECa, electrical conductivity of aqueous soil extracts (ECe), texture, yield, etc., are not necessarily transferable from one region to another. The modelling of ECa, soil properties, climate and yield are important for identifying the location to which specific utilizations of ECa technology (e.g., ECa−texture relationships) can be appropriately applied. In general, the determination of absolute levels of ECa is frequently not possible, but it appears to be quite a robust method to detect relative differences, both spatially and temporally. Often, the use of ECa is restricted to its application as a covariate or the use of the readings in a relative sense rather than as absolute terms. PMID:29113048

Response of soil biota to vineyard interrow soil cultivation can be altered by the surrounding landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaller, Johann; Buchholz, Jacob; Querner, Pascal; Paredes, Daniel; Kratschmer, Sophie; Schwantzer, Martina; Winter, Silvia; Strauss, Peter; Bauer, Thomas; Burel, Françoise; Guernion, Muriel; Scimia, Jennifer; Nicolai, Annegret; Cluzeau, Daniel

2017-04-01

Ecosystem services provided by viticultural landscapes result from interactions between management intensity, soil properties, organisms inhabiting these landscapes, and the diversity and structure of the surrounding landscape. However, there is actually very little known to what extent these different factors influence the abundance and diversity of various soil biota. In this study we examined (i) to what extent different soil management intensities of interrows affect the activity and diversity of soil biota (earthworms, Collembola, litter decomposition), (ii) the role of soil properties in influencing these effects and (iii) whether the surrounding landscape structure is altering these interactions. We collected data in 16 vineyards in Austria embedded in landscapes with varying structure (i.e. from structurally simple to complex) and assessed earthworms (hand sorting), Collembola (pitfall trapping and soil coring), litter decomposition (tea bag method). Additionally, soil physical (water infiltration, aggregate stability, porosity, bulk density, soil texture) and chemical (pH, soil carbon content, cation exchange capacity, potassium, phosphorus) parameters were assessed. The landscape surrounding our vineyards within a radius of 750 m was assessed by field mapping using a geographical information system. Results showed that different soil biota/processes are differently affected by soil cultivation intensity and soil properties. Parameters describing the surrounding landscape interacted more with the responses of Collembola to soil cultivation than with earthworms or litter decomposition. These investigations are part of the transdisciplinary BiodivERsA project VineDivers (www.vinedivers.eu) and will ultimately lead into management recommendations for various stakeholders.

Development of an Engineering Soil Database

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-12-27

systems such as agricultural and geological soil classifications and soil parameters. Tier 3 Data were converted into equivalent USCS classification...14 2.7 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) textural soil classification ............................ 16 2.7.1 Properties of USDA textural...Defense ERDC U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center ESDB European Soil Database FAO Food and Agriculture Organization (of the United

Concerning the relationship between evapotranspiration and soil moisture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wetzel, Peter J.; Chang, Jy-Tai

1987-01-01

The relationship between the evapotranspiration and soil moisture during the drying, supply-limited phase is studied. A second scaling parameter, based on the evapotranspirational supply and demand concept of Federer (1982), is defined; the parameter, referred to as the threshold evapotranspiration, occurs in vegetation-covered surfaces just before leaf stomata close and when surface tension restricts moisture release from bare soil pores. A simple model for evapotranspiration is proposed. The effects of natural soil heterogeneities on evapotranspiration computed from the model are investigated. It is observed that the natural variability in soil moisture, caused by the heterogeneities, alters the relationship between regional evapotranspiration and the area average soil moisture.

Use of airborne hyperspectral imagery to map soil parameters in tilled agricultural fields

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hively, W. Dean; McCarty, Gregory W.; Reeves, James B.; Lang, Megan W.; Oesterling, Robert A.; Delwiche, Stephen R.

2011-01-01

Soil hyperspectral reflectance imagery was obtained for six tilled (soil) agricultural fields using an airborne imaging spectrometer (400–2450 nm, ~10 nm resolution, 2.5 m spatial resolution). Surface soil samples (n = 315) were analyzed for carbon content, particle size distribution, and 15 agronomically important elements (Mehlich-III extraction). When partial least squares (PLS) regression of imagery-derived reflectance spectra was used to predict analyte concentrations, 13 of the 19 analytes were predicted with R2 > 0.50, including carbon (0.65), aluminum (0.76), iron (0.75), and silt content (0.79). Comparison of 15 spectral math preprocessing treatments showed that a simple first derivative worked well for nearly all analytes. The resulting PLS factors were exported as a vector of coefficients and used to calculate predicted maps of soil properties for each field. Image smoothing with a 3 × 3 low-pass filter prior to spectral data extraction improved prediction accuracy. The resulting raster maps showed variation associated with topographic factors, indicating the effect of soil redistribution and moisture regime on in-field spatial variability. High-resolution maps of soil analyte concentrations can be used to improve precision environmental management of farmlands.

Stochastic Modeling of Soil Salinity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suweis, Samir; Rinaldo, Andrea; van der Zee, Sjoerd E. A. T. M.; Maritan, Amos; Porporato, Amilcare

2010-05-01

Large areas of cultivated land worldwide are affected by soil salinity. Estimates report that 10% of arable land in over 100 countries, and nine million km2 are salt affected, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. High salinity causes both ion specific and osmotic stress effects, with important consequences for plant production and quality. Salt accumulation in the root zone may be due to natural factors (primary salinization) or due to irrigation (secondary salinization). Simple (e.g., vertically averaged over the soil depth) coupled soil moisture and salt balance equations have been used in the past. Despite their approximations, these models have the advantage of parsimony, thus allowing a direct analysis of the interplay of the main processes. They also provide the ideal starting point to include external, random hydro-climatic fluctuations in the analysis of long-term salinization trends. We propose a minimalist stochastic model of primary soil salinity, in which the rate of soil salinization is determined by the balance between dry and wet salt deposition and the intermittent leaching events caused by rainfall events. The long term probability density functions of salt mass and concentration are found by reducing the coupled soil moisture and salt mass balance equation to a stochastic differential equation driven by multiplicative Poisson noise. The novel analytical solutions provide insight on the interplay of the main soil, plant and climate parameters responsible for long-term soil salinization. In fact, soil salinity statistics are obtained as a function of climate, soil and vegetation parameters. These, in turn, can be combined with soil moisture statistics to obtain a full characterization of soil salt concentrations and the ensuing risk of primary salinization. In particular, the solutions show the existence of two quite distinct regimes, the first one where the mean salt mass remains nearly constant with increasing rainfall frequency, and the

Modeling the soil water retention curves of soil-gravel mixtures with regression method on the Loess Plateau of China.

PubMed

Wang, Huifang; Xiao, Bo; Wang, Mingyu; Shao, Ming'an

2013-01-01

Soil water retention parameters are critical to quantify flow and solute transport in vadose zone, while the presence of rock fragments remarkably increases their variability. Therefore a novel method for determining water retention parameters of soil-gravel mixtures is required. The procedure to generate such a model is based firstly on the determination of the quantitative relationship between the content of rock fragments and the effective saturation of soil-gravel mixtures, and then on the integration of this relationship with former analytical equations of water retention curves (WRCs). In order to find such relationships, laboratory experiments were conducted to determine WRCs of soil-gravel mixtures obtained with a clay loam soil mixed with shale clasts or pebbles in three size groups with various gravel contents. Data showed that the effective saturation of the soil-gravel mixtures with the same kind of gravels within one size group had a linear relation with gravel contents, and had a power relation with the bulk density of samples at any pressure head. Revised formulas for water retention properties of the soil-gravel mixtures are proposed to establish the water retention curved surface models of the power-linear functions and power functions. The analysis of the parameters obtained by regression and validation of the empirical models showed that they were acceptable by using either the measured data of separate gravel size group or those of all the three gravel size groups having a large size range. Furthermore, the regression parameters of the curved surfaces for the soil-gravel mixtures with a large range of gravel content could be determined from the water retention data of the soil-gravel mixtures with two representative gravel contents or bulk densities. Such revised water retention models are potentially applicable in regional or large scale field investigations of significantly heterogeneous media, where various gravel sizes and different gravel

Response of Partially Saturated Non-cohesive Soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Świdziński, Waldemar; Mierczyński, Jacek; Mikos, Agata

2017-12-01

This paper analyses and discusses experimental results of undrained triaxial tests. The tests were performed on non-cohesive partially saturated soil samples subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading. The tests were aimed at determining the influence of saturation degree on soil's undrained response (shear strength, excess pore pressure generation). The saturation of samples was monitored by checking Skempton's parameter B. Additionally, seismic P-wave velocity measurements were carried out on samples characterized by various degrees of saturation. The tests clearly showed that liquefaction may also take place in non-cohesive soils that are not fully saturated and that the liquefaction potential of such soils strongly depends on the B parameter.

EVALUATING SOIL EROSION PARAMETER ESTIMATES FROM DIFFERENT DATA SOURCES

EPA Science Inventory

Topographic factors and soil loss estimates that were derived from thee data sources (STATSGO, 30-m DEM, and 3-arc second DEM) were compared. Slope magnitudes derived from the three data sources were consistently different. Slopes from the DEMs tended to provide a flattened sur...

Facies distribution, depositional environment, and petrophysical features of the Sharawra Formation, Old Qusaiba Village, Central Saudi Arabia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbas, Muhammad Asif; Kaminski, Michael; Umran Dogan, A.

2016-04-01

The Silurian Sharawra Formation has great importance as it rests over the richest source rock of the Qusaiba Formation in central Saudi Arabia. The Sharawra Formation has four members including Jarish, Khanafriyah, Nayyal, and Zubliyat. The formation mainly consists of sandstone and siltstone with subordinate shale sequences. The lack of published research on this formation requires fundamental studies that can lay the foundation for future research. Three outcrops were selected from the Old Qusaiba Village in Central Saudi Arabia for field observations, petrographical and petrophysical study. Thin section study has been aided by quantitative mineralogical characterization using scanning electron microscopy - energy dispersive spectroscopy and powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) for both minerals, cements, and clay minerals (detrital and authigenic). The outcrops were logged in detail and nine different lithofacies have been identified. The thin section study has revealed the Sharawra Formation to be mainly subarkosic, while the mica content increases near to its contact with the Qusaiba Formation. The XRD data has also revealed a prominent change in mineralogy with inclusion of minerals like phlogopite and microcline with depths. Field observations delineated a prominent thinning of strata as lithofacies correlation clearly shows the thinning of strata in the southwestern direction. The absence of outcrop exposures further supports the idea of southwestern thinning of strata. This is mainly attributed to local erosion and the presence of thicker shale interbeds in the southeastern section, which was probably subjected to more intense erosion than the northwestern one. The Sharawra Formation rests conformably over the thick transgressive shale sequence, deposited during the post glacial depositional cycle. The lowermost massive sandstone bed of the Sharawra Formation represents the beginning of the regressive period. The shale interbeds in the lower part are evidence of

Natural recovery of biological soil crusts after disturbance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Weber, Bettina; Bowker, Matthew A.; Zhang, Yuanming; Belnap, Jayne

2016-01-01

Natural recovery of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) is influenced by a number of different parameters, such as climate, soil conditions, the severity of disturbance, and the timing of disturbance relative to the climatic conditions. In recent studies, it has been shown that recovery is often not linear, but a highly dynamic process directly influenced by non-linear external parameters as extraordinary climatic conditions (e.g., particularly dry or wet year). Natural recovery often follows a general succession pattern, starting out with cyanobacteria and algae, which is then followed by lichens and bryophytes at a later stage. However, this general sequence can be altered by parameters like dust deposition, fire effects, and special climatic conditions as in fog deserts and under mesic climates. Recent studies have proposed that under favorable, stable soil conditions, the initial soil-stabilizing cyanobacteria-dominated succession stages may be omitted and moss-dominated biocrusts can develop in the initial phases of biocrust development. During natural recovery of biocrusts, soil properties change, e.g., soil nutrient and organic matter contents increase. Also, silt and clay contents of encrusted soils increase with biocrust maturity, which may be caused by two mechanisms, i.e. entrapment of fine soil particles by biocrusts and the new formation of smaller particles by weathering of the existing substrate.

Associations between soil bacterial community structure and nutrient cycling functions in long-term organic farm soils following cover crop and organic fertilizer amendment.

PubMed

Fernandez, Adria L; Sheaffer, Craig C; Wyse, Donald L; Staley, Christopher; Gould, Trevor J; Sadowsky, Michael J

2016-10-01

Agricultural management practices can produce changes in soil microbial populations whose functions are crucial to crop production and may be detectable using high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA. To apply sequencing-derived bacterial community structure data to on-farm decision-making will require a better understanding of the complex associations between soil microbial community structure and soil function. Here 16S rRNA sequencing was used to profile soil bacterial communities following application of cover crops and organic fertilizer treatments in certified organic field cropping systems. Amendment treatments were hairy vetch (Vicia villosa), winter rye (Secale cereale), oilseed radish (Raphanus sativus), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), beef manure, pelleted poultry manure, Sustane(®) 8-2-4, and a no-amendment control. Enzyme activities, net N mineralization, soil respiration, and soil physicochemical properties including nutrient levels, organic matter (OM) and pH were measured. Relationships between these functional and physicochemical parameters and soil bacterial community structure were assessed using multivariate methods including redundancy analysis, discriminant analysis, and Bayesian inference. Several cover crops and fertilizers affected soil functions including N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase and β-glucosidase activity. Effects, however, were not consistent across locations and sampling timepoints. Correlations were observed among functional parameters and relative abundances of individual bacterial families and phyla. Bayesian analysis inferred no directional relationships between functional activities, bacterial families, and physicochemical parameters. Soil functional profiles were more strongly predicted by location than by treatment, and differences were largely explained by soil physicochemical parameters. Composition of soil bacterial communities was predictive of soil functional profiles. Differences in soil function were

Soil Erosion as a stochastic process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casper, Markus C.

2015-04-01

The main tools to provide estimations concerning risk and amount of erosion are different types of soil erosion models: on the one hand, there are empirically based model concepts on the other hand there are more physically based or process based models. However, both types of models have substantial weak points. All empirical model concepts are only capable of providing rough estimates over larger temporal and spatial scales, they do not account for many driving factors that are in the scope of scenario related analysis. In addition, the physically based models contain important empirical parts and hence, the demand for universality and transferability is not given. As a common feature, we find, that all models rely on parameters and input variables, which are to certain, extend spatially and temporally averaged. A central question is whether the apparent heterogeneity of soil properties or the random nature of driving forces needs to be better considered in our modelling concepts. Traditionally, researchers have attempted to remove spatial and temporal variability through homogenization. However, homogenization has been achieved through physical manipulation of the system, or by statistical averaging procedures. The price for obtaining this homogenized (average) model concepts of soils and soil related processes has often been a failure to recognize the profound importance of heterogeneity in many of the properties and processes that we study. Especially soil infiltrability and the resistance (also called "critical shear stress" or "critical stream power") are the most important empirical factors of physically based erosion models. The erosion resistance is theoretically a substrate specific parameter, but in reality, the threshold where soil erosion begins is determined experimentally. The soil infiltrability is often calculated with empirical relationships (e.g. based on grain size distribution). Consequently, to better fit reality, this value needs to be

Enzyme activities by indicator of quality in organic soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raigon Jiménez, Mo; Fita, Ana Delores; Rodriguez Burruezo, Adrián

2016-04-01

The analytical determination of biochemical parameters, as soil enzyme activities and those related to the microbial biomass is growing importance by biological indicator in soil science studies. The metabolic activity in soil is responsible of important processes such as mineralization and humification of organic matter. These biological reactions will affect other key processes involved with elements like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus , and all transformations related in soil microbial biomass. The determination of biochemical parameters is useful in studies carried out on organic soil where microbial processes that are key to their conservation can be analyzed through parameters of the metabolic activity of these soils. The main objective of this work is to apply analytical methodologies of enzyme activities in soil collections of different physicochemical characteristics. There have been selective sampling of natural soils, organic farming soils, conventional farming soils and urban soils. The soils have been properly identified conserved at 4 ° C until analysis. The enzyme activities determinations have been: catalase, urease, cellulase, dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase, which bring together a representative group of biological transformations that occur in the soil environment. The results indicate that for natural and agronomic soil collections, the values of the enzymatic activities are within the ranges established for forestry and agricultural soils. Organic soils are generally higher level of enzymatic, regardless activity of the enzyme involved. Soil near an urban area, levels of activities have been significantly reduced. The vegetation cover applied to organic soils, results in greater enzymatic activity. So the quality of these soils, defined as the ability to maintain their biological productivity is increased with the use of cover crops, whether or spontaneous species. The practice of cover based on legumes could be used as an ideal choice

Influence of farmyard manure on some morphological and biochemical parameters of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) seedling grown in cadmium-treated soil.

PubMed

Asagba, Samuel Ogheneovo; Ezedom, Theresa; Kadiri, Helen

2017-10-01

The present study aims to assess the effects of the two kinds of farmyard manure (poultry and pig manures) as amendments for soil on cadmium (Cd) toxicity in plants using cowpea seedlings as plant model. Cd toxicity was evaluated by assessing the effect of the metal on the growth rate and antioxidant status as well as the ability of the plant to metabolise xenobiotic. There was a significantly (p < 0.05) increased concentration of Cd in the root, stem and leaves of cowpea seedlings grown in all the treated soils relative to control. Addition of poultry manure to the soil significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the level of Cd in these component parts of the seedlings and their corresponding bioaccumulation factor in a dose-dependent manner as compared with treatments with Cd pollution without manure addition and Cd pollution with pig manure addition. There was restoration of Cd-induced effect on growth rate parameters to levels comparable to controls in cowpea seedlings grown in Cd-treated soil augmented with poultry manure but not in cowpea seedlings in cadmium-treated soil with pig manure amendments. Similarly, augmentation of Cd-treated soil with pig manure did not alter the Cd-induced effect on the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) in leaf, stem and roots, as SOD remained significantly (p < 0.05) decreased and LPO increased relative to control. On the other hand, the levels of SOD and LPO in these parts of cowpea seedlings grown in Cd-treated soils amended with poultry manure were restored to a level not significantly (p > 0.05) different from control. Like in the case of SOD, the Cd-induced inhibition of the activity of xenobiotic metabolising enzymes, aldehyde oxidase and sulphite oxidase remained significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in the organs of seedling grown in Cd-treated soil amended with pig manure. Conversely, the Cd-induced effect on the activities of these enzymes was reversed in the organs of seedlings exposed

Concepts of soil mapping as a basis for the assessment of soil functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baumgarten, Andreas

2014-05-01

Soil mapping systems in Europe have been designed mainly as a tool for the description of soil characteristics from a morphogenetic viewpoint. Contrasting to the American or FAO system, the soil development has been in the main focus of European systems. Nevertheless , recent developments in soil science stress the importance of the functions of soils with respect to the ecosystems. As soil mapping systems usually offer a sound and extensive database, the deduction of soil functions from "classic" mapping parameters can be used for local and regional assessments. According to the used pedo-transfer functions and mapping systems, tailored approaches can be chosen for different applications. In Austria, a system mainly for spatial planning purposes has been developed that will be presented and illustrated by means of best practice examples.

Practical issues relating to soil column chromatography for sorption parameter determination.

PubMed

Bi, Erping; Schmidt, Torsten C; Haderlein, Stefan B

2010-08-01

Determination of sorption distribution coefficients (K(d)) of organic compounds by a dynamic soil column chromatography (SCC) method was developed and validated. Eurosoil 4, quartz, and alumina were chosen as exemplary packing materials. Heterocyclic aromatic compounds were selected in the validation of SCC. The prerequisites of SCC with regard to column dimension, packing procedure, and sample injection volume are discussed. Reproducible soil column packing was achieved by addition of a pre-column and an HPLC pump for subsequent compression of the packed material. Various methods to determine retention times from breakthrough curves are discussed and the use of the half mass method is recommended. To dilute soil with inert material can prevent column-clogging and help to complete experiments in a reasonable period of time. For the chosen probe compounds, quartz rather than alumina proved a suitable dilution material. Non-equilibrium issue can be overcome by conducting the experiments under different flowrates and/or performing numerical simulation. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mapping specific soil functions based on digital soil property maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pásztor, László; Fodor, Nándor; Farkas-Iványi, Kinga; Szabó, József; Bakacsi, Zsófia; Koós, Sándor

2016-04-01

Quantification of soil functions and services is a great challenge in itself even if the spatial relevance is supposed to be identified and regionalized. Proxies and indicators are widely used in ecosystem service mapping. Soil services could also be approximated by elementary soil features. One solution is the association of soil types with services as basic principle. Soil property maps however provide quantified spatial information, which could be utilized more versatilely for the spatial inference of soil functions and services. In the frame of the activities referred as "Digital, Optimized, Soil Related Maps and Information in Hungary" (DOSoReMI.hu) numerous soil property maps have been compiled so far with proper DSM techniques partly according to GSM.net specifications, partly by slightly or more strictly changing some of its predefined parameters (depth intervals, pixel size, property etc.). The elaborated maps have been further utilized, since even DOSoReMI.hu was intended to take steps toward the regionalization of higher level soil information (secondary properties, functions, services). In the meantime the recently started AGRAGIS project requested spatial soil related information in order to estimate agri-environmental related impacts of climate change and support the associated vulnerability assessment. One of the most vulnerable services of soils in the context of climate change is their provisioning service. In our work it was approximated by productivity, which was estimated by a sequential scenario based crop modelling. It took into consideration long term (50 years) time series of both measured and predicted climatic parameters as well as accounted for the potential differences in agricultural practice and crop production. The flexible parametrization and multiple results of modelling was then applied for the spatial assessment of sensitivity, vulnerability, exposure and adaptive capacity of soils in the context of the forecasted changes in

Observed effects of soil organic matter content on the microwave emissivity of soils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

O'Neill, P. E.; Jackson, T. J.

1990-01-01

In order to determine the significance of organic matter content on the microwave emissivity of soils when estimating soil moisture, field experiments were conducted in which 1.4 GHz microwave emissivity data were collected over test plots of sandy loam soil with different organic matter levels (1.8, 4.0, and 6.1 percent) for a range of soil moisture values. Analyses of the observed data show only minor variation in microwave emissivity due to a change in organic matter content at a given moisture level for soils with similar texture and structure. Predictions of microwave emissivity made using a dielectric model for aggregated soils exhibit the same trends and type of response as the measured data when appropriate values for the input parameters were utilized.

Observed effects of soil organic matter content on the microwave intensity of soils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, T. J.; Oneill, P. E.

1988-01-01

In order to determine the significance of organic matter content on the microwave emissivity of soils when estimating soil moisture, field experiments were conducted in which 1.4 GHz microwave emissivity data were collected over test plots of sandy loam soil with different organic matter levels (1.8, 4.0, and 6.1 percent) for a range of soil moisture values. Analyses of the observed data show only minor variation in microwave emissivity due to a change in organic matter content at a given moisture level for soils with similar texture and structure. Predictions of microwave emissivity made using a dielectric model for aggregated soils exhibit the same trends and type of response as the measured data when appropriate values for the input parameters were utilized.

The estimation of parameter compaction values for pavement subgrade stabilized with lime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubis, A. S.; Muis, Z. A.; Simbolon, C. A.

2018-02-01

The type of soil material, field control, maintenance and availability of funds are several factors that must be considered in compaction of the pavement subgrade. In determining the compaction parameters in laboratory desperately requires considerable materials, time and funds, and reliable laboratory operators. If the result of soil classification values can be used to estimate the compaction parameters of a subgrade material, so it would save time, energy, materials and cost on the execution of this work. This is also a clarification (cross check) of the work that has been done by technicians in the laboratory. The study aims to estimate the compaction parameter values ie. maximum dry unit weight (γdmax) and optimum water content (Wopt) of the soil subgrade that stabilized with lime. The tests that conducted in the laboratory of soil mechanics were to determine the index properties (Fines and Liquid Limit/LL) and Standard Compaction Test. Soil samples that have Plasticity Index (PI) > 10% were made with additional 3% lime for 30 samples. By using the Goswami equation, the compaction parameter values can be estimated by equation γd max # = -0,1686 Log G + 1,8434 and Wopt # = 2,9178 log G + 17,086. From the validation calculation, there was a significant positive correlation between the compaction parameter values laboratory and the compaction parameter values estimated, with a 95% confidence interval as a strong relationship.

Soil organic matter as sole indicator of soil degradation.

PubMed

Obalum, S E; Chibuike, G U; Peth, S; Ouyang, Y

2017-04-01

Soil organic matter (SOM) is known to play vital roles in the maintenance and improvement of many soil properties and processes. These roles, which largely influence soil functions, are a pool of specific contributions of different components of SOM. The soil functions, in turn, normally define the level of soil degradation, viewed as quantifiable temporal changes in a soil that impairs its quality. This paper aims at providing a generalized assessment of the current state of knowledge on the usefulness of SOM in monitoring soil degradation, based on its influence on the physical, chemical and biological properties and processes of soils. Emphasis is placed particularly on the effect of SOM on soil structure and availability of plant nutrients. Although these properties are discussed separately, the soil system is of dynamic and interactive nature, and changes in one property will likely affect other soil properties as well. Thus, functions of SOM almost always affect various soil properties and processes and engage in multiple reactions. In view of its role in soil aggregation and erosion control, in availability of plant nutrients and in ameliorating other forms of soil degradation than erosion, SOM has proven to be an important indicator of soil degradation. It has been suggested, however, that rather than the absolute amount, temporal change and potential amount of SOM be considered in its use as indicator of soil degradation, and that SOM may not be an all-purpose indicator. Whilst SOM remains a candidate without substitute as long as a one-parameter indicator of soil degradation is needed, narrowing down to the use of its labile and microbial components could be more appropriate, since early detection is important in the control and management of soil degradation.

A multi-scale ''soil water structure'' model based on the pedostructure concept

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braudeau, E.; Mohtar, R. H.; El Ghezal, N.; Crayol, M.; Salahat, M.; Martin, P.

2009-02-01

Current soil water models do not take into account the internal organization of the soil medium and, a fortiori, the physical interaction between the water film surrounding the solid particles of the soil structure, and the surface charges of this structure. In that sense they empirically deal with the physical soil properties that are all generated from this soil water-structure interaction. As a result, the thermodynamic state of the soil water medium, which constitutes the local physical conditions, namely the pedo-climate, for biological and geo-chemical processes in soil, is not defined in these models. The omission of soil structure from soil characterization and modeling does not allow for coupling disciplinary models for these processes with soil water models. This article presents a soil water structure model, Kamel®, which was developed based on a new paradigm in soil physics where the hierarchical soil structure is taken into account allowing for defining its thermodynamic properties. After a review of soil physics principles which forms the basis of the paradigm, we describe the basic relationships and functionality of the model. Kamel® runs with a set of 15 soil input parameters, the pedohydral parameters, which are parameters of the physically-based equations of four soil characteristic curves that can be measured in the laboratory. For cases where some of these parameters are not available, we show how to estimate these parameters from commonly available soil information using published pedotransfer functions. A published field experimental study on the dynamics of the soil moisture profile following a pounded infiltration rainfall event was used as an example to demonstrate soil characterization and Kamel® simulations. The simulated soil moisture profile for a period of 60 days showed very good agreement with experimental field data. Simulations using input data calculated from soil texture and pedotransfer functions were also generated

On soil textural classifications and soil-texture-based estimations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ángel Martín, Miguel; Pachepsky, Yakov A.; García-Gutiérrez, Carlos; Reyes, Miguel

2018-02-01

The soil texture representation with the standard textural fraction triplet sand-silt-clay is commonly used to estimate soil properties. The objective of this work was to test the hypothesis that other fraction sizes in the triplets may provide a better representation of soil texture for estimating some soil parameters. We estimated the cumulative particle size distribution and bulk density from an entropy-based representation of the textural triplet with experimental data for 6240 soil samples. The results supported the hypothesis. For example, simulated distributions were not significantly different from the original ones in 25 and 85 % of cases when the sand-silt-clay and very coarse+coarse + medium sand - fine + very fine sand - silt+clay were used, respectively. When the same standard and modified triplets were used to estimate the average bulk density, the coefficients of determination were 0.001 and 0.967, respectively. Overall, the textural triplet selection appears to be application and data specific.

A novel low-cost open-hardware platform for monitoring soil water content and multiple soil-air-vegetation parameters.

PubMed

Bitella, Giovanni; Rossi, Roberta; Bochicchio, Rocco; Perniola, Michele; Amato, Mariana

2014-10-21

Monitoring soil water content at high spatio-temporal resolution and coupled to other sensor data is crucial for applications oriented towards water sustainability in agriculture, such as precision irrigation or phenotyping root traits for drought tolerance. The cost of instrumentation, however, limits measurement frequency and number of sensors. The objective of this work was to design a low cost "open hardware" platform for multi-sensor measurements including water content at different depths, air and soil temperatures. The system is based on an open-source ARDUINO microcontroller-board, programmed in a simple integrated development environment (IDE). Low cost high-frequency dielectric probes were used in the platform and lab tested on three non-saline soils (ECe1: 2.5 < 0.1 mS/cm). Empirical calibration curves were subjected to cross-validation (leave-one-out method), and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) were respectively 0.09 for the overall model, 0.09 for the sandy soil, 0.07 for the clay loam and 0.08 for the sandy loam. The overall model (pooled soil data) fitted the data very well (R2 = 0.89) showing a high stability, being able to generate very similar RMSEs during training and validation (RMSE(training) = 2.63; RMSE(validation) = 2.61). Data recorded on the card were automatically sent to a remote server allowing repeated field-data quality checks. This work provides a framework for the replication and upgrading of a customized low cost platform, consistent with the open source approach whereby sharing information on equipment design and software facilitates the adoption and continuous improvement of existing technologies.

A Novel Low-Cost Open-Hardware Platform for Monitoring Soil Water Content and Multiple Soil-Air-Vegetation Parameters

PubMed Central

Bitella, Giovanni; Rossi, Roberta; Bochicchio, Rocco; Perniola, Michele; Amato, Mariana

2014-01-01

Monitoring soil water content at high spatio-temporal resolution and coupled to other sensor data is crucial for applications oriented towards water sustainability in agriculture, such as precision irrigation or phenotyping root traits for drought tolerance. The cost of instrumentation, however, limits measurement frequency and number of sensors. The objective of this work was to design a low cost “open hardware” platform for multi-sensor measurements including water content at different depths, air and soil temperatures. The system is based on an open-source ARDUINO microcontroller-board, programmed in a simple integrated development environment (IDE). Low cost high-frequency dielectric probes were used in the platform and lab tested on three non-saline soils (ECe1: 2.5 < 0.1 mS/cm). Empirical calibration curves were subjected to cross-validation (leave-one-out method), and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) were respectively 0.09 for the overall model, 0.09 for the sandy soil, 0.07 for the clay loam and 0.08 for the sandy loam. The overall model (pooled soil data) fitted the data very well (R2 = 0.89) showing a high stability, being able to generate very similar RMSEs during training and validation (RMSEtraining = 2.63; RMSEvalidation = 2.61). Data recorded on the card were automatically sent to a remote server allowing repeated field-data quality checks. This work provides a framework for the replication and upgrading of a customized low cost platform, consistent with the open source approach whereby sharing information on equipment design and software facilitates the adoption and continuous improvement of existing technologies. PMID:25337742

Swelling soils in the road structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pruška, Jan; Šedivý, Miroslav

2017-09-01

There are frequent problems with the soil swelling in the road construction in the past time. This phenomenon is known for decades. This situation is notably given by insufficient knowledge of this problem and difficulties with input parameters describing the swelling process. The paper in the first part proposed regression relations to predict swelling pressure, time of swelling and swelling strain for different initial water contents for soils and improvement soils. The relations were developed by using artificial neural network and QCExpert Professional software (on the data from site investigations by GeoTec-GS, a.s. and experimental data from CTU in Prague). The advantage of the relations is based on using the results of the basic soil tests (plasticity index, consistency index and colloidal activity) as input parameters. The authors inform the technical public with their current knowledge of the problems with the soil swelling on the motorway in the second part of the paper.

Uncertainty in the fate of soil organic carbon: A comparison of three conceptually different soil decomposition models

USGS Publications Warehouse

He, Yujie; Yang, Jinyan; Zhuang, Qianlai; McGuire, A. David; Zhu, Qing; Liu, Yaling; Teskey, Robert O.

2014-01-01

Conventional Q10 soil organic matter decomposition models and more complex microbial models are available for making projections of future soil carbon dynamics. However, it is unclear (1) how well the conceptually different approaches can simulate observed decomposition and (2) to what extent the trajectories of long-term simulations differ when using the different approaches. In this study, we compared three structurally different soil carbon (C) decomposition models (one Q10 and two microbial models of different complexity), each with a one- and two-horizon version. The models were calibrated and validated using 4 years of measurements of heterotrophic soil CO2 efflux from trenched plots in a Dahurian larch (Larix gmelinii Rupr.) plantation. All models reproduced the observed heterotrophic component of soil CO2 efflux, but the trajectories of soil carbon dynamics differed substantially in 100 year simulations with and without warming and increased litterfall input, with microbial models that produced better agreement with observed changes in soil organic C in long-term warming experiments. Our results also suggest that both constant and varying carbon use efficiency are plausible when modeling future decomposition dynamics and that the use of a short-term (e.g., a few years) period of measurement is insufficient to adequately constrain model parameters that represent long-term responses of microbial thermal adaption. These results highlight the need to reframe the representation of decomposition models and to constrain parameters with long-term observations and multiple data streams. We urge caution in interpreting future soil carbon responses derived from existing decomposition models because both conceptual and parameter uncertainties are substantial.

Improved parameter inference in catchment models: 1. Evaluating parameter uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuczera, George

1983-10-01

A Bayesian methodology is developed to evaluate parameter uncertainty in catchment models fitted to a hydrologic response such as runoff, the goal being to improve the chance of successful regionalization. The catchment model is posed as a nonlinear regression model with stochastic errors possibly being both autocorrelated and heteroscedastic. The end result of this methodology, which may use Box-Cox power transformations and ARMA error models, is the posterior distribution, which summarizes what is known about the catchment model parameters. This can be simplified to a multivariate normal provided a linearization in parameter space is acceptable; means of checking and improving this assumption are discussed. The posterior standard deviations give a direct measure of parameter uncertainty, and study of the posterior correlation matrix can indicate what kinds of data are required to improve the precision of poorly determined parameters. Finally, a case study involving a nine-parameter catchment model fitted to monthly runoff and soil moisture data is presented. It is shown that use of ordinary least squares when its underlying error assumptions are violated gives an erroneous description of parameter uncertainty.

Estimating effective soil properties of heterogeneous areas for modeling infiltration and redistribution

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Field scale water infiltration and soil-water and solute transport models require spatially-averaged “effective” soil hydraulic parameters to represent the average flux and storage. The values of these effective parameters vary for different conditions, processes, and component soils in a field. For...

Static penetration resistance of soils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Durgunoglu, H. T.; Mitchell, J. K.

1973-01-01

Model test results were used to define the failure mechanism associated with the static penetration resistance of cohesionless and low-cohesion soils. Knowledge of this mechanism has permitted the development of a new analytical method for calculating the ultimate penetration resistance which explicitly accounts for penetrometer base apex angle and roughness, soil friction angle, and the ratio of penetration depth to base width. Curves relating the bearing capacity factors to the soil friction angle are presented for failure in general shear. Strength parameters and penetrometer interaction properties of a fine sand were determined and used as the basis for prediction of the penetration resistance encountered by wedge, cone, and flat-ended penetrometers of different surface roughness using the proposed analytical method. Because of the close agreement between predicted values and values measured in laboratory tests, it appears possible to deduce in-situ soil strength parameters and their variation with depth from the results of static penetration tests.

Assessing the fate of radioactive nickel in cultivated soil cores.

PubMed

Denys, Sébastien; Echevarria, Guillaume; Florentin, Louis; Leclerc, Elisabeth; Morel, Jean-Louis

2009-10-01

Parameters regarding fate of (63)Ni in the soil-plant system (soil: solution distribution coefficient, K(d) and soil plant concentration ratio, CR) are mostly determined in controlled pot experiments or from simple models involving a limited set of soil parameters. However, as migration of pollutants in soil is strongly linked to the water migration, variation of soil structure in the field and seasonal variation of evapotranspiration will affect these two parameters. The aim of this work was to explore to what extent the downward transfer of (63)Ni and its uptake by plants from surface-contaminated undisturbed soil cores under cultivation can be explained by isotopic dilution of this radionuclide in the pool of stable Ni of soils. Undisturbed soil cores (50 cm x 50 cm) were sampled from a brown rendzina (Rendzic Leptosol), a colluvial brown soil (Fluvic Cambisol) and an acidic brown soil (Dystric Cambisol) using PVC lysimeter tubes (three lysimeters sampled per soil type). Each core was equipped with a leachate collector. Cores were placed in a greenhouse and maize (DEA, Pioneer) was sown. After 44 days, an irrigation was simulated at the core surfaces to supply 10 000 Bq (63)NiCl(2). Maize was harvested 135 days after (63)Ni input and radioactivity determined in both vegetal and water samples. Effective uptake of (63)Ni by maize was calculated for leaves and kernels. Water drainage and leaching of (63)Ni were monitored over the course of the experiment. Values of K(d) in surface soil samples were calculated from measured parameters of isotopic exchange kinetics. Results confirmed that (63)Ni was strongly retained at the soil surface. Prediction of the (63)Ni downward transfer could not be reliably assessed using the K(d) values, since the soil structure, which controls local water fluxes, also affected both water and Ni transport. In terms of (63)Ni plant uptake, the effective uptake in undisturbed soil cores is controlled by isotope dilution as previously shown

Modeling the Soil Water Retention Curves of Soil-Gravel Mixtures with Regression Method on the Loess Plateau of China

PubMed Central

Wang, Huifang; Xiao, Bo; Wang, Mingyu; Shao, Ming'an

2013-01-01

Soil water retention parameters are critical to quantify flow and solute transport in vadose zone, while the presence of rock fragments remarkably increases their variability. Therefore a novel method for determining water retention parameters of soil-gravel mixtures is required. The procedure to generate such a model is based firstly on the determination of the quantitative relationship between the content of rock fragments and the effective saturation of soil-gravel mixtures, and then on the integration of this relationship with former analytical equations of water retention curves (WRCs). In order to find such relationships, laboratory experiments were conducted to determine WRCs of soil-gravel mixtures obtained with a clay loam soil mixed with shale clasts or pebbles in three size groups with various gravel contents. Data showed that the effective saturation of the soil-gravel mixtures with the same kind of gravels within one size group had a linear relation with gravel contents, and had a power relation with the bulk density of samples at any pressure head. Revised formulas for water retention properties of the soil-gravel mixtures are proposed to establish the water retention curved surface models of the power-linear functions and power functions. The analysis of the parameters obtained by regression and validation of the empirical models showed that they were acceptable by using either the measured data of separate gravel size group or those of all the three gravel size groups having a large size range. Furthermore, the regression parameters of the curved surfaces for the soil-gravel mixtures with a large range of gravel content could be determined from the water retention data of the soil-gravel mixtures with two representative gravel contents or bulk densities. Such revised water retention models are potentially applicable in regional or large scale field investigations of significantly heterogeneous media, where various gravel sizes and different gravel

Application of neural network to remote sensing of soil moisture using theoretical polarimetric backscattering coefficients

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, L.; Shin, R. T.; Kong, J. A.; Yueh, S. H.

1993-01-01

This paper investigates the potential application of neural network to inversion of soil moisture using polarimetric remote sensing data. The neural network used for the inversion of soil parameters is multi-layer perceptron trained with the back-propagation algorithm. The training data include the polarimetric backscattering coefficients obtained from theoretical surface scattering models together with an assumed nominal range of soil parameters which are comprised of the soil permittivity and surface roughness parameters. Soil permittivity is calculated from the soil moisture and the assumed soil texture based on an empirical formula at C-, L-, and P-bands. The rough surface parameters for the soil surface, which is described by the Gaussian random process, are the root-mean-square (rms) height and correlation length. For the rough surface scattering, small perturbation method is used for the L-band frequency, and Kirchhoff approximation is used for the C-band frequency to obtain the corresponding backscattering coefficients. During the training, the backscattering coefficients are the inputs to the neural net and the output from the net are compared with the desired soil parameters to adjust the interconnecting weights. The process is repeated for each input-output data entry and then for the entire training data until convergence is reached. After training, the backscattering coefficients are applied to the trained neural net to retrieve the soil parameters which are compared with the desired soil parameters to verify the effectiveness of this technique. Several cases are examined. First, for simplicity, the correlation length and rms height of the soil surface are fixed while soil moisture is varied. Soil moisture obtained using the neural networks with either L-band or C-band backscattering coefficients for the HH and VV polarizations as inputs is in good agreement with the desired soil moisture. The neural net output matches the desired output for the soil

Frozen soil parameterization in a distributed biosphere hydrological model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, L.; Koike, T.; Yang, K.; Jin, R.; Li, H.

2010-03-01

In this study, a frozen soil parameterization has been modified and incorporated into a distributed biosphere hydrological model (WEB-DHM). The WEB-DHM with the frozen scheme was then rigorously evaluated in a small cold area, the Binngou watershed, against the in-situ observations from the WATER (Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research). First, by using the original WEB-DHM without the frozen scheme, the land surface parameters and two van Genuchten parameters were optimized using the observed surface radiation fluxes and the soil moistures at upper layers (5, 10 and 20 cm depths) at the DY station in July. Second, by using the WEB-DHM with the frozen scheme, two frozen soil parameters were calibrated using the observed soil temperature at 5 cm depth at the DY station from 21 November 2007 to 20 April 2008; while the other soil hydraulic parameters were optimized by the calibration of the discharges at the basin outlet in July and August that covers the annual largest flood peak in 2008. With these calibrated parameters, the WEB-DHM with the frozen scheme was then used for a yearlong validation from 21 November 2007 to 20 November 2008. Results showed that the WEB-DHM with the frozen scheme has given much better performance than the WEB-DHM without the frozen scheme, in the simulations of soil moisture profile at the cold regions catchment and the discharges at the basin outlet in the yearlong simulation.

Development of remote sensing techniques capable of delineating soils as an aid to soil survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coleman, T. L.; Montgomery, O. L.

1988-01-01

Eighty-one benchmark soils from Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi were evaluated to determine the feasibility of spectrally differentiating among soil categories. Relationships among spectral properties that occur between soils and within soils were examined, using discriminant analysis. Soil spectral data were obtained from air-dried samples using an Exotech Model 20C field spectroradiometer (0.37 to 2.36 microns). Differentiating among the orders, suborders, great groups, and subgroups using reflectance spectra achieved varying percentages of accuracy. Six distinct reflectance curve forms were developed from the air-dried samples based on the shape and presence or absence of adsorption bands. Iron oxide and organic matter content were the dominant soil parameters affecting the spectral characteristics for differentiating among and between these soils.

Sustainability of an in situ aided phytostabilisation on highly contaminated soils using fly ashes: Effects on the vertical distribution of physicochemical parameters and trace elements.

PubMed

Bidar, Géraldine; Waterlot, Christophe; Verdin, Anthony; Proix, Nicolas; Courcot, Dominique; Détriché, Sébastien; Fourrier, Hervé; Richard, Antoine; Douay, Francis

2016-04-15

Aided phytostabilisation using trees and fly ashes is a promising technique which has shown its effectiveness in the management of highly metal-contaminated soils. However, this success is generally established based on topsoil physicochemical analysis and short-term experiments. This paper focuses on the long-term effects of the afforestation and two fly ashes (silico-aluminous and sulfo-calcic called FA1 and FA2, respectively) by assessing the integrity of fly ashes 10 years after their incorporation into the soil as well as the vertical distribution of the physicochemical parameters and trace elements (TEs) in the amended soils (F1 and F2) in comparison with a non-amended soil (R). Ten years after the soil treatment, the particle size distribution analysis between fly ashes and their corresponding masses (fly ash + soil particles) showed a loss or an agglomeration of finer particles. This evolution matches with the appearance of gypsum (CaSO4 2H2O) in FA2m instead of anhydrite (CaSO4), which is the major compound of FA2. This finding corresponds well with the dissolution and the lixiviation of Ca, S and P included in FA2 along the F2 soil profile, generating an accumulation of these elements at 30 cm depth. However, no variation of TE contamination was found between 0 and 25 cm depth in F2 soil except for Cd. Conversely, Cd, Pb, Zn and Hg enrichment was observed at 25 cm depth in the F1 soil, whereas no enrichment was observed for As. The fly ashes studied, and notably FA2, were able to reduce Cd, Pb and Zn availability in soil and this capacity persists over the time despite their structural and chemical changes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agricultural soil moisture experiment, Colby, Kansas 1978: Measured and predicted hydrological properties of the soil

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arya, L. M. (Principal Investigator)

1980-01-01

Predictive procedures for developing soil hydrologic properties (i.e., relationships of soil water pressure and hydraulic conductivity to soil water content) are presented. Three models of the soil water pressure-water content relationship and one model of the hydraulic conductivity-water content relationship are discussed. Input requirements for the models are indicated, and computational procedures are outlined. Computed hydrologic properties for Keith silt loam, a soil typer near Colby, Kansas, on which the 1978 Agricultural Soil Moisture Experiment was conducted, are presented. A comparison of computed results with experimental data in the dry range shows that analytical models utilizing a few basic hydrophysical parameters can produce satisfactory data for large-scale applications.

Anaerobic co-digestion of recalcitrant agricultural wastes: Characterizing of biochemical parameters of digestate and its impacts on soil ecosystem.

PubMed

Muscolo, Adele; Settineri, Giovanna; Papalia, Teresa; Attinà, Emilio; Basile, Carmelo; Panuccio, Maria Rosaria

2017-05-15

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic wastes is a promising alternative to landfilling for reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission (GHG) and it is encouraged by current regulation in Europe. Biogas-AD produced, represents a useful source of green energy, while its by-product (digestate) is a waste, that needs to be safely disposal. The sustainability of anaerobic digestion plants partly depends on the management of their digestion residues. This study has been focused on the environmental and economic benefits of co-digest recalcitrant agricultural wastes such olive wastes and citrus pulp, in combination with livestock wastes, straw and cheese whey for biogas production. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of two different bioenergy by-products on soil carbon stock, enzymes involved in nutrient cycling and microbial content. The two digestates were obtained from two plants differently fed: the first plant (Uliva) was powered with 60% of recalcitrant agricultural wastes, and 40% of livestock manure milk serum and maize silage. The second one (Fattoria) was fed with 40% of recalcitrant agricultural wastes and 60% of livestock manure, milk serum and maize silage. Each digestate, separated in liquid and solid fractions, was added to the soil at different concentrations. Our results evidenced that mixing and type of input feedstock affected the composition of digestates. Three months after treatments, our results showed that changes in soil chemical and biochemical characteristics depended on the source of digestate, the type of fraction and the concentration used. The mainly affected soil parameters were: Soil Organic Matter (SOM), Microbial Biomass Carbon (MBC), Fluorescein Diacetate Hydrolysis (FDA), Water Soluble Phenol (WSP) and Catalase (CAT) that can be used to assess the digestate agronomical feasibility. These results show that the agronomic quality of a digestate is strictly dependent on percentage and type of feedstocks that will be used to power the

Detection of terrain indices related to soil salinity and mapping salt-affected soils using remote sensing and geostatistical techniques.

PubMed

Triki Fourati, Hela; Bouaziz, Moncef; Benzina, Mourad; Bouaziz, Samir

2017-04-01

Traditional surveying methods of soil properties over landscapes are dramatically cost and time-consuming. Thus, remote sensing is a proper choice for monitoring environmental problem. This research aims to study the effect of environmental factors on soil salinity and to map the spatial distribution of this salinity over the southern east part of Tunisia by means of remote sensing and geostatistical techniques. For this purpose, we used Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer data to depict geomorphological parameters: elevation, slope, plan curvature (PLC), profile curvature (PRC), and aspect. Pearson correlation between these parameters and soil electrical conductivity (EC soil ) showed that mainly slope and elevation affect the concentration of salt in soil. Moreover, spectral analysis illustrated the high potential of short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands to identify saline soils. To map soil salinity in southern Tunisia, ordinary kriging (OK), minimum distance (MD) classification, and simple regression (SR) were used. The findings showed that ordinary kriging technique provides the most reliable performances to identify and classify saline soils over the study area with a root mean square error of 1.83 and mean error of 0.018.

Informing soil models using pedotransfer functions: challenges and perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pachepsky, Yakov; Romano, Nunzio

2015-04-01

Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are empirical relationships between parameters of soil models and more easily obtainable data on soil properties. PTFs have become an indispensable tool in modeling soil processes. As alternative methods to direct measurements, they bridge the data we have and data we need by using soil survey and monitoring data to enable modeling for real-world applications. Pedotransfer is extensively used in soil models addressing the most pressing environmental issues. The following is an attempt to provoke a discussion by listing current issues that are faced by PTF development. 1. As more intricate biogeochemical processes are being modeled, development of PTFs for parameters of those processes becomes essential. 2. Since the equations to express PTF relationships are essentially unknown, there has been a trend to employ highly nonlinear equations, e.g. neural networks, which in theory are flexible enough to simulate any dependence. This, however, comes with the penalty of large number of coefficients that are difficult to estimate reliably. A preliminary classification applied to PTF inputs and PTF development for each of the resulting groups may provide simple, transparent, and more reliable pedotransfer equations. 3. The multiplicity of models, i.e. presence of several models producing the same output variables, is commonly found in soil modeling, and is a typical feature in the PTF research field. However, PTF intercomparisons are lagging behind PTF development. This is aggravated by the fact that coefficients of PTF based on machine-learning methods are usually not reported. 4. The existence of PTFs is the result of some soil processes. Using models of those processes to generate PTFs, and more general, developing physics-based PTFs remains to be explored. 5. Estimating the variability of soil model parameters becomes increasingly important, as the newer modeling technologies such as data assimilation, ensemble modeling, and model

Estimation of improved resolution soil moisture in vegetated areas using passive AMSR-E data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moradizadeh, Mina; Saradjian, Mohammad R.

2018-03-01

Microwave remote sensing provides a unique capability for soil parameter retrievals. Therefore, various soil parameters estimation models have been developed using brightness temperature (BT) measured by passive microwave sensors. Due to the low resolution of satellite microwave radiometer data, the main goal of this study is to develop a downscaling approach to improve the spatial resolution of soil moisture estimates with the use of higher resolution visible/infrared sensor data. Accordingly, after the soil parameters have been obtained using Simultaneous Land Parameters Retrieval Model algorithm, the downscaling method has been applied to the soil moisture estimations that have been validated against in situ soil moisture data. Advance Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS BT data in Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 region in the south and north of Oklahoma have been used to this end. Results illustrated that the soil moisture variability is effectively captured at 5 km spatial scales without a significant degradation of the accuracy.

A Soil Temperature Model for Closed Canopied Forest Stands

Treesearch

James M. Vose; Wayne T. Swank

1991-01-01

A microcomputer-based soil temperature model was developed to predict temperature at the litter-soil interface and soil temperatures at three depths (0.10 m, 0.20 m, and 1.25 m) under closed forest canopies. Comparisons of predicted and measured soil temperatures indicated good model performance under most conditions. When generalized parameters describing soil...

Measurement of agricultural parameters using wireless sensor network (WSN)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guaña-Moya, Javier; Sánchez-Almeida, Tarquino; Salgado-Reyes, Nelson

2018-04-01

The technological advances have allowed to create new applications in telecommunications, applying low power and reduced costs in their equipment, thus achieving the evolution of new wireless networks or also denominated Wireless Sensor Network. These technologies allow the generation of measurements and analysis of environmental parameter data and soil. Precision agriculture requires parameters for the improvement of production, obtained through WSN technologies. This research analyzes the climatic requirements and soil parameters in a rose plantation in a greenhouse at an altitude of 3,100 meters above sea level. In the present investigation, maximum parameters were obtained in the production of roses, which are in the optimum range of production, whereas the minimum parameters of temperature, humidity and luminosity, evidenced that these parameters can damage the plants, since temperatures less than 10 °C slow down the growth of the plant and allow the proliferation of diseases and fungi.

Incorporating soil variability in continental soil water modelling: a trade-off between data availability and model complexity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peeters, L.; Crosbie, R. S.; Doble, R.; van Dijk, A. I. J. M.

2012-04-01

Developing a continental land surface model implies finding a balance between the complexity in representing the system processes and the availability of reliable data to drive, parameterise and calibrate the model. While a high level of process understanding at plot or catchment scales may warrant a complex model, such data is not available at the continental scale. This data sparsity is especially an issue for the Australian Water Resources Assessment system, AWRA-L, a land-surface model designed to estimate the components of the water balance for the Australian continent. This study focuses on the conceptualization and parametrization of the soil drainage process in AWRA-L. Traditionally soil drainage is simulated with Richards' equation, which is highly non-linear. As general analytic solutions are not available, this equation is usually solved numerically. In AWRA-L however, we introduce a simpler function based on simulation experiments that solve Richards' equation. In the simplified function soil drainage rate, the ratio of drainage (D) over storage (S), decreases exponentially with relative water content. This function is controlled by three parameters, the soil water storage at field capacity (SFC), the drainage fraction at field capacity (KFC) and a drainage function exponent (β). [ ] D- -S- S = KF C exp - β (1 - SFC ) To obtain spatially variable estimates of these three parameters, the Atlas of Australian Soils is used, which lists soil hydraulic properties for each soil profile type. For each soil profile type in the Atlas, 10 days of draining an initially fully saturated, freely draining soil is simulated using HYDRUS-1D. With field capacity defined as the volume of water in the soil after 1 day, the remaining parameters can be obtained by fitting the AWRA-L soil drainage function to the HYDRUS-1D results. This model conceptualisation fully exploits the data available in the Atlas of Australian Soils, without the need to solve the non

Assessing soil biodiversity potentials in Europe.

PubMed

Aksoy, Ece; Louwagie, Geertrui; Gardi, Ciro; Gregor, Mirko; Schröder, Christoph; Löhnertz, Manuel

2017-07-01

Soil is important as a critical component for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. The largest part of the terrestrial biodiversity relies, directly or indirectly, on soil. Furthermore, soil itself is habitat to a great diversity of organisms. The suitability of soil to host such a diversity is strongly related to its physico-chemical features and environmental properties. However, due to the complexity of both soil and biodiversity, it is difficult to identify a clear and unambiguous relationship between environmental parameters and soil biota. Nevertheless, the increasing diffusion of a more integrated view of ecosystems, and in particular the development of the concept of ecosystem services, highlights the need for a better comprehension of the role played by soils in offering these services, including the habitat provision. An assessment of the capability of soils to host biodiversity would contribute to evaluate the quality of soils in order to help policy makers with the development of appropriate and sustainable management actions. However, so far, the heterogeneity of soils has been a barrier to the production of a large-scale framework that directly links soil features to organisms living within it. The current knowledge on the effects of soil physico-chemical properties on biota and the available data at continental scale open the way towards such an evaluation. In this study, the soil habitat potential for biodiversity was assessed and mapped for the first time throughout Europe by combining several soil features (pH, soil texture and soil organic matter) with environmental parameters (potential evapotranspiration, average temperature, soil biomass productivity and land use type). Considering the increasingly recognized importance of soils and their biodiversity in providing ecosystem services, the proposed approach appears to be a promising tool that may contribute to open a forum on the need to include soils in future environmental policy making

Application of Terahertz Radiation to Soil Measurements: Initial Results

PubMed Central

Dworak, Volker; Augustin, Sven; Gebbers, Robin

2011-01-01

Developing soil sensors with the possibility of continuous online measurement is a major challenge in soil science. Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic radiation may provide the opportunity for the measurement of organic material density, water content and other soil parameters at different soil depths. Penetration depth and information content is important for a functional soil sensor. Therefore, we present initial research on the analysis of absorption coefficients of four different soil samples by means of THz transmission measurements. An optimized soil sample holder to determine absorption coefficients was used. This setup improves data acquisition because interface reflections can be neglected. Frequencies of 340 GHz to 360 GHz and 1.627 THz to 2.523 THz provided information about an existing frequency dependency. The results demonstrate the potential of this THz approach for both soil analysis and imaging of buried objects. Therefore, the THz approach allows different soil samples to be distinguished according to their different absorption properties so that relations among soil parameters may be established in future. PMID:22163737

Improvement of shallow landslide prediction accuracy using soil parameterisation for a granite area in South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, M. S.; Onda, Y.; Kim, J. K.

2015-01-01

SHALSTAB model applied to shallow landslides induced by rainfall to evaluate soil properties related with the effect of soil depth for a granite area in Jinbu region, Republic of Korea. Soil depth measured by a knocking pole test and two soil parameters from direct shear test (a and b) as well as one soil parameters from a triaxial compression test (c) were collected to determine the input parameters for the model. Experimental soil data were used for the first simulation (Case I) and, soil data represented the effect of measured soil depth and average soil depth from soil data of Case I were used in the second (Case II) and third simulations (Case III), respectively. All simulations were analysed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to determine the accuracy of prediction. ROC analysis results for first simulation showed the low ROC values under 0.75 may be due to the internal friction angle and particularly the cohesion value. Soil parameters calculated from a stochastic hydro-geomorphological model were applied to the SHALSTAB model. The accuracy of Case II and Case III using ROC analysis showed higher accuracy values rather than first simulation. Our results clearly demonstrate that the accuracy of shallow landslide prediction can be improved when soil parameters represented the effect of soil thickness.

Effects of soil tillage on the microwave emission of soils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, T. J.; Koopman, G. J.; Oneill, P. E.; Wang, J. R.

1985-01-01

In order to understand the interactions of soil properties and microwave emission better, a series of field experiments were conducted in 1984. Small plots were measured with a truck-mounted passive microwave radiometer operating at 1.4 GHz. These data were collected concurrent with ground observations of soil moisture and bulk density. Treatment effects studied included different soil moisture contents and bulk densities. Evaluations of the data have shown that commonly used models of the dielectric properties of wet soils do not explain the observations obtained in these experiments. This conclusion was based on the fact that the roughness parameters determined through optimization were significantly larger than those observed in similar investigations. These discrepancies are most likely due to the soil structure. Commonly used models assume a homogeneous three phase mixture of soil solids, air and water. Under tilled conditions the soil is actually a two phase mixture of aggregates and voids. Appropriate dielectric models for this tilled condition were evaluated and found to explain the observations. These results indicate that previous conclusions concerning the effects of surface roughness in tilled fields may be incorrect, and they may explain some of the inconsistencies encountered in roughness modeling.

Soil aggregation, erodibility, and erosion rates in mountain soils (NW Alps, Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanchi, S.; Falsone, G.; Bonifacio, E.

2015-04-01

Erosion is a relevant soil degradation factor in mountain agrosilvopastoral ecosystems that can be enhanced by the abandonment of agricultural land and pastures left to natural evolution. The on-site and off-site consequences of soil erosion at the catchment and landscape scale are particularly relevant and may affect settlements at the interface with mountain ecosystems. RUSLE (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation) estimates of soil erosion consider, among others, the soil erodibility factor (K), which depends on properties involved in structure and aggregation. A relationship between soil erodibility and aggregation should therefore be expected. However, erosion may limit the development of soil structure; hence aggregates should not only be related to erodibility but also partially mirror soil erosion rates. The aim of the research was to evaluate the agreement between aggregate stability and erosion-related variables and to discuss the possible reasons for discrepancies in the two kinds of land use considered (forest and pasture). Topsoil horizons were sampled in a mountain catchment under two vegetation covers (pasture vs. forest) and analyzed for total organic carbon, total extractable carbon, pH, and texture. Soil erodibility was computed, RUSLE erosion rate was estimated, and aggregate stability was determined by wet sieving. Aggregation and RUSLE-related parameters for the two vegetation covers were investigated through statistical tests such as ANOVA, correlation, and regression. Soil erodibility was in agreement with the aggregate stability parameters; i.e., the most erodible soils in terms of K values also displayed weaker aggregation. Despite this general observation, when estimating K from aggregate losses the ANOVA conducted on the regression residuals showed land-use-dependent trends (negative average residuals for forest soils, positive for pastures). Therefore, soil aggregation seemed to mirror the actual topsoil conditions better than soil

Attenuation and velocity dispersion in the exploration seismic frequency band

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Langqiu

In an anelastic medium, seismic waves are distorted by attenuation and velocity dispersion, which depend on petrophysical properties of reservoir rocks. The effective attenuation and velocity dispersion is a combination of intrinsic attenuation and apparent attenuation due to scattering, transmission response, and data acquisition system. Velocity dispersion is usually neglected in seismic data processing partly because of insufficient observations in the exploration seismic frequency band. This thesis investigates the methods of measuring velocity dispersion in the exploration seismic frequency band and interprets the velocity dispersion data in terms of petrophysical properties. Broadband, uncorrelated vibrator data are suitable for measuring velocity dispersion in the exploration seismic frequency band, and a broad bandwidth optimizes the observability of velocity dispersion. Four methods of measuring velocity dispersion in uncorrelated vibrator VSP data are investigated, which are the sliding window crosscorrelation (SWCC) method, the instantaneous phase method, the spectral decomposition method, and the cross spectrum method. Among them, the SWCC method is a new method and has satisfactory robustness, accuracy, and efficiency. Using the SWCC method, velocity dispersion is measured in the uncorrelated vibrator VSP data from three areas with different geological settings, i.e., Mallik gas hydrate zone, McArthur River uranium mines, and Outokumpu crystalline rocks. The observed velocity dispersion is fitted to a straight line with respect to log frequency for a constant (frequency-independent) Q value. This provides an alternative method for calculating Q. A constant Q value does not directly link to petrophysical properties. A modeling study is implemented for the Mallik and McArthur River data to interpret the velocity dispersion observations in terms of petrophysical properties. The detailed multi-parameter petrophysical reservoir models are built according to

Utilizing of magnetic parameters for evaluation of soil erosion rates on two different agricultural sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kapicka, A.; Grison, H.; Petrovsky, E.; Jaksik, O.; Kodesova, R.

2015-12-01

Field measurements of magnetic susceptibility were carried out on regular grid, resulting in 101 data points at Brumovice and 65 at Vidim locality. Mass specific magnetic susceptibility χ and its frequency dependence χFD was used to estimate the significance of SP ferrimagnetic particles of pedogenic origin in topsoil horizons. The lowest magnetic susceptibility was obtained on the steep valley sides. Here the original topsoil was eroded and mixed by tillage with the soil substrate (loess). Soil profiles unaffected by erosion were investigated in detail. The vertical distribution of magnetic susceptibility along these "virgin" profiles was measured in laboratory on samples collected with 2-cm spacing. The differences between the distribution of susceptibility in the undisturbed soil profiles and the magnetic signal after uniform mixing of the soil material as a result of erosion and tillage are fundamental for the estimation of soil loss in the studied test fields. Maximum cumulative soil erosion depth in Brumovice and Vidim is around 100 cm and 50 cm respectively. The magnetic method is suitable for mapping at the chernozem localities and measurement of soil magnetic susceptibility is in this case useful and fast technique for quantitative estimation of soil loss caused by erosion. However, it is less suitable (due to lower magnetic differentiation with depth) in areas with luvisol as dominant soil unit. Acknowledgement: This study was supported by NAZV Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic through grant No QJ1230319.

Effects of Pulp and Na-Bentonite Amendments on the Mobility of Trace Elements, Soil Enzymes Activity and Microbial Parameters under Ex Situ Aided Phytostabilization

PubMed Central

Wasilkowski, Daniel; Mrozik, Agnieszka

2017-01-01

The objective of this study was to explore the potential use of pulp (by-product) from coffee processing and Na-bentonite (commercial product) for minimizing the environmental risk of Zn, Pb and Cd in soil collected from a former mine and zinc-lead smelter. The effects of soil amendments on the physicochemical properties of soil, the structural and functional diversity of the soil microbiome as well as soil enzymes were investigated. Moreover, biomass of Festuca arundinacea Schreb. (cultivar Asterix) and the uptake of trace elements in plant tissues were studied. The outdoor pot set contained the following soils: control soil (initial), untreated soil (without additives) with grass cultivation and soils treated (with additives) with and without plant development. All of the selected parameters were measured at the beginning of the experiment (t0), after 2 months of chemical stabilization (t2) and at the end of the aided phytostabilization process (t14). The obtained results indicated that both amendments efficiently immobilized the bioavailable fractions of Zn (87–91%) and Cd (70–83%) at t14; however, they were characterized by a lower ability to bind Pb (33–50%). Pulp and Na-bentonite drastically increased the activity of dehydrogenase (70- and 12-fold, respectively) at t14, while the activities of urease, acid and alkaline phosphatases differed significantly depending on the type of material that was added into the soil. Generally, the activities of these enzymes increased; however, the increase was greater for pulp (3.5-6-fold) than for the Na-bentonite treatment (1.3–2.2-fold) as compared to the control. Soil additives significantly influenced the composition and dynamics of the soil microbial biomass over the experiment. At the end, the contribution of microbial groups could be ordered as follows: gram negative bacteria, fungi, gram positive bacteria, actinomycetes regardless of the type of soil enrichment. Conversely, the shift in the functional

Effects of long-term continuous cropping on soil nematode community and soil condition associated with replant problem in strawberry habitat.

PubMed

Li, Xingyue; Lewis, Edwin E; Liu, Qizhi; Li, Heqin; Bai, Chunqi; Wang, Yuzhu

2016-08-10

Continuous cropping changes soil physiochemical parameters, enzymes and microorganism communities, causing "replant problem" in strawberry cultivation. We hypothesized that soil nematode community would reflect the changes in soil conditions caused by long-term continuous cropping, in ways that are consistent and predictable. To test this hypothesis, we studied the soil nematode communities and several soil parameters, including the concentration of soil phenolic acids, organic matter and nitrogen levels, in strawberry greenhouse under continuous-cropping for five different durations. Soil pH significantly decreased, and four phenolic acids, i.e., p-hydroxybenzoic acid, ferulic acid, cinnamic acid and p-coumaric acid, accumulated with time under continuous cropping. The four phenolic acids were highly toxic to Acrobeloides spp., the eudominant genus in non-continuous cropping, causing it to reduce to a resident genus after seven-years of continuous cropping. Decreased nematode diversity indicated loss of ecosystem stability and sustainability because of continuous-cropping practice. Moreover, the dominant decomposition pathway was altered from bacterial to fungal under continuous cropping. Our results suggest that along with the continuous-cropping time in strawberry habitat, the soil food web is disturbed, and the available plant nutrition as well as the general health of the soil deteriorates; these changes can be indicated by soil nematode community.

Effects of long-term continuous cropping on soil nematode community and soil condition associated with replant problem in strawberry habitat

PubMed Central

Li, Xingyue; Lewis, Edwin E.; Liu, Qizhi; Li, Heqin; Bai, Chunqi; Wang, Yuzhu

2016-01-01

Continuous cropping changes soil physiochemical parameters, enzymes and microorganism communities, causing “replant problem” in strawberry cultivation. We hypothesized that soil nematode community would reflect the changes in soil conditions caused by long-term continuous cropping, in ways that are consistent and predictable. To test this hypothesis, we studied the soil nematode communities and several soil parameters, including the concentration of soil phenolic acids, organic matter and nitrogen levels, in strawberry greenhouse under continuous-cropping for five different durations. Soil pH significantly decreased, and four phenolic acids, i.e., p-hydroxybenzoic acid, ferulic acid, cinnamic acid and p-coumaric acid, accumulated with time under continuous cropping. The four phenolic acids were highly toxic to Acrobeloides spp., the eudominant genus in non-continuous cropping, causing it to reduce to a resident genus after seven-years of continuous cropping. Decreased nematode diversity indicated loss of ecosystem stability and sustainability because of continuous-cropping practice. Moreover, the dominant decomposition pathway was altered from bacterial to fungal under continuous cropping. Our results suggest that along with the continuous-cropping time in strawberry habitat, the soil food web is disturbed, and the available plant nutrition as well as the general health of the soil deteriorates; these changes can be indicated by soil nematode community. PMID:27506379

Effects of long-term continuous cropping on soil nematode community and soil condition associated with replant problem in strawberry habitat

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xingyue; Lewis, Edwin E.; Liu, Qizhi; Li, Heqin; Bai, Chunqi; Wang, Yuzhu

2016-08-01

Continuous cropping changes soil physiochemical parameters, enzymes and microorganism communities, causing “replant problem” in strawberry cultivation. We hypothesized that soil nematode community would reflect the changes in soil conditions caused by long-term continuous cropping, in ways that are consistent and predictable. To test this hypothesis, we studied the soil nematode communities and several soil parameters, including the concentration of soil phenolic acids, organic matter and nitrogen levels, in strawberry greenhouse under continuous-cropping for five different durations. Soil pH significantly decreased, and four phenolic acids, i.e., p-hydroxybenzoic acid, ferulic acid, cinnamic acid and p-coumaric acid, accumulated with time under continuous cropping. The four phenolic acids were highly toxic to Acrobeloides spp., the eudominant genus in non-continuous cropping, causing it to reduce to a resident genus after seven-years of continuous cropping. Decreased nematode diversity indicated loss of ecosystem stability and sustainability because of continuous-cropping practice. Moreover, the dominant decomposition pathway was altered from bacterial to fungal under continuous cropping. Our results suggest that along with the continuous-cropping time in strawberry habitat, the soil food web is disturbed, and the available plant nutrition as well as the general health of the soil deteriorates; these changes can be indicated by soil nematode community.

Predicting Soluble Nickel in Soils Using Soil Properties and Total Nickel.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiaoqing; Li, Jumei; Wei, Dongpu; Li, Bo; Ma, Yibing

2015-01-01

Soil soluble nickel (Ni) concentration is very important for determining soil Ni toxicity. In the present study, the relationships between soil properties, total and soluble Ni concentrations in soils were developed in a wide range of soils with different properties and climate characteristics. The multiple regressions showed that soil pH and total soil Ni concentrations were the most significant parameters in predicting soluble Ni concentrations with the adjusted determination coefficients (Radj2) values of 0.75 and 0.68 for soils spiked with soluble Ni salt and the spiked soils leached with artificial rainwater to mimic field conditions, respectively. However, when the soils were divided into three categories (pH < 7, 7-8 and > 8), they obtained better predictions with Radj2 values of 0.78-0.90 and 0.79-0.94 for leached and unleached soils, respectively. Meanwhile, the other soil properties, such as amorphous Fe and Al oxides and clay, were also found to be important for determining soluble Ni concentrations, indicating that they were also presented as active adsorbent surfaces. Additionally, the whole soil speciation including bulk soil properties and total soils Ni concentrations were analyzed by mechanistic speciation models WHAM VI and Visual MINTEQ3.0. It was found that WHAM VI provided the best predictions for the soils with pH < 7, was relatively reasonable for pH 7 to 8, and gave an overestimation for pH > 8. The Visual MINTEQ3.0 could provide better estimation for pH < 8 and meanwhile quite reasonable results for pH > 8. These results indicated the possibility and applicability of these models to predict soil soluble Ni concentration by soil properties.

Beyond clay - using selective extractions to improve predictions of soil carbon content

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rasmussen, C.; Berhe, A. A.; Blankinship, J. C.; Crow, S. E.; Druhan, J. L.; Heckman, K. A.; Keiluweit, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Marin-Spiotta, E.; Plante, A. F.; Schaedel, C.; Schimel, J.; Sierra, C. A.; Thompson, A.; Wagai, R.; Wieder, W. R.

2016-12-01

A central component of modern soil carbon (C) models is the use of clay content to scale the relative partitioning of decomposing plant material to respiration and mineral stabilized soil C. However, numerous pedon to plot scale studies indicate that other soil mineral parameters, such as Fe- or Al-oxyhydroxide content and specific surface area, may be more effective than clay alone for predicting soil C content and stabilization. Here we directly address the following question: Are there soil physicochemical parameters that represent mineral C association and soil C content that can replace or be used in conjunction with clay content as scalars in soil C models. We explored the relationship of soil C content to a number of soil physicochemical and physiographic parameters using the National Cooperative Soil Survey database that contains horizon level data for > 62,000 pedons spanning global ecoregions and geographic areas. The data indicated significant variation in the degree of correlation among soil C, clay and Fe-/Al-oxyhydroxides with increasing moisture variability. Specifically, dry, water-limited systems (PET/MAP > 1) presented strong positive correlations between clay and soil C, that decreased significantly to little or no correlation in wet, energy-limited systems (PET/MAP < 1). In contrast, the correlation of soil C to oxalate extractable Al+Fe increased significantly with increasing moisture availability. This pattern was particularly well expressed for subsurface B horizons. Multivariate analyses indicated similar patterns, with clear climate and ecosystem level variation in the degree of correlation among soil C and soil physicochemical properties. The results indicate a need to modify current soil C models to incorporate additional C partitioning parameters that better account for climate and ecoregion variability in C stabilization mechanisms.

Ethnopedology and soil quality of bamboo (Bambusa sp.) based agroforestry system.

PubMed

Arun Jyoti, Nath; Lal, Rattan; Das, Ashesh Kumar

2015-07-15

It is widely recognized that farmers' hold important knowledge of folk soil classification for agricultural land for its uses, yet little has been studied for traditional agroforestry systems. This article explores the ethnopedology of bamboo (Bambusa sp.) based agroforestry system in North East India, and establishes the relationship of soil quality index (SQI) with bamboo productivity. The study revealed four basic folk soil (mati) types: kalo (black soil), lal (red soil), pathal (stony soil) and balu (sandy soil). Of these, lal mati soil was the most predominant soil type (~ 40%) in bamboo-based agroforestry system. Soil physio-chemical parameters were studied to validate the farmers' soil hierarchal classification and also to correlate with productivity of the bamboo stand. Farmers' hierarchal folk soil classification was consistent with the laboratory scientific analysis. Culm production (i.e. measure of productivity of bamboo) was the highest (27culmsclump(-1)) in kalo mati (black soil) and the lowest (19culmsclump(-1)) in balu mati (sandy soil). Linear correlation of individual soil quality parameter with bamboo productivity explained 16 to 49% of the variability. A multiple correlation of the best fitted linear soil quality parameter (soil organic carbon or SOC, water holding capacity or WHC, total nitrogen) with productivity improved explanatory power to 53%. Development of SQI from ten relevant soil quality parameters and its correlation with bamboo productivity explained the 64% of the variation and therefore, suggest SQI as the best determinant of bamboo yield. Data presented indicate that the kalo mati (black soil) is sustainable or sustainable with high input. However, the other three folk soil types (red, stony and sandy soil) are also sustainable but for other land uses. Therefore, ethnopedological studies may move beyond routine laboratory analysis and incorporate SQI for assessing the sustainability of land uses managed by the farmers'. Additional

LTPP Computed Parameter: Moisture Content

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-01-01

A study was conducted to compute in situ soil parameters based on time domain reflectometry (TDR) traces obtained from Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) test sections instrumented for the seasonal monitoring program (SMP). Ten TDR sensors were in...

Phosphorus saturation and superficial fertilizer application as key parameters to assess the risk of diffuse phosphorus losses from agricultural soils in Brazil.

PubMed

Fischer, P; Pöthig, R; Gücker, B; Venohr, M

2018-07-15

In Brazil, a steady increase in phosphorus (P) fertilizer application and agricultural intensification has been reported for recent decades. The concomitant P accumulation in soils potentially threatens surface water bodies with eutrophication through diffuse P losses. Here, we demonstrated the applicability of a soil type-independent approach for estimating the degree of P saturation (DPS; a risk parameter of P loss) by a standard method of water-soluble phosphorus (WSP) for two major soil types (Oxisols, Entisols) of the São Francisco catchment in Brazil. Subsequently, soil Mehlich-1P (M1P) levels recommended by Brazilian agricultural institutions were transformed into DPS values. Recommended M1P values for optimal agronomic production corresponded to DPS values below critical thresholds of high risks of P losses (DPS=80%) for major crops of the catchment. Higher risks of reaching critical DPS values due to P accumulation were found for Entisols due to their total sorption capacities being only half those of Oxisols. For complementary information on soil mineralogy and its influence on P sorption and P binding forms, Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic analyses were executed. FTIR analyses suggested the occurrence of the clay minerals palygorskite and sepiolite in some of the analyzed Entisols and the formation of crandallite as the soil specific P binding form in the investigated Oxisols. Palygorskite and sepiolite can enhance P solubility and hence the risk of P losses. In contrast, the reshaping of superphosphate grains into crandallite may explain the chemical processes leading to previously observed low dissolved P concentrations in surface runoff from Oxisols. To prevent high risk of P losses, we recommend avoiding superficial fertilizer application and establishing environmental thresholds for soil M1P based on DPS. These measures could help to prevent eutrophication of naturally oligotrophic surface waters, and subsequent adverse effects

Retention of silver nano-particles and silver ions in calcareous soils: Influence of soil properties.

PubMed

Rahmatpour, Samaneh; Shirvani, Mehran; Mosaddeghi, Mohammad R; Bazarganipour, Mehdi

2017-05-15

The rapid production and application of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have led to significant release of AgNPs into the terrestrial environments. Once released into the soil, AgNPs could enter into different interactions with soil particles which play key roles in controlling the fate and transport of these nanoparticles. In spite of that, experimental studies on the retention of AgNPs in soils are very scarce. Hence, the key objective of this research was to find out the retention behavior of AgNPs and Ag(I) ions in a range of calcareous soils. A second objective was to determine the extent to which the physico-chemical properties of the soils influence the Ag retention parameters. To this end, isothermal batch experiments were used to determine the retention of Poly(vinylpyrrolidinone)-capped AgNPs (PVP-AgNPs) and Ag(I) ions by nine calcareous soils with a diversity of physico-chemical properties. The results revealed that the retention data for both PVP-AgNPs and Ag(I) ions were well described by the classical Freundlich and Langmuir isothermal equations. The retention of PVP-AgNPs and Ag(I) ions was positively correlated to clay and organic carbon (OC) contents as well as electrical conductivity (EC), pH, and cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soils. Due to multicolinearity among the soil properties, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to group the soil properties which affect the retention of PVP-AgNPs and Ag(I) ions. Accordingly, we identified two groups of soil properties controlling retention of PVP-AgNPs and Ag(I) ions in the calcareous soils. The first group comprised soil solid phase parameters like clay, OC, and CEC, which generally control hetero-aggregation and adsorption reactions and the second group included soil solution variables such as EC and pH as well as Cl - and Ca 2+ concentrations, which are supposed to mainly affect homo-aggregation and precipitation reactions. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Impact of raw pig slurry and pig farming practices on physicochemical parameters and on atmospheric N2O and CH 4 emissions of tropical soils, Uvéa Island (South Pacific).

PubMed

Roth, E; Gunkel-Grillon, P; Joly, L; Thomas, X; Decarpenterie, T; Mappe-Fogaing, I; Laporte-Magoni, C; Dumelié, N; Durry, G

2014-09-01

Emissions of CH4 and N2O related to private pig farming under a tropical climate in Uvéa Island were studied in this paper. Physicochemical soil parameters such as nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, Kjeldahl nitrogen, total organic carbon, pH and moisture were measured. Gaseous soil emissions as well as physicochemical parameters were compared in two private pig farming strategies encountered on this island on two different soils (calcareous and ferralitic) in order to determine the best pig farming management: in small concrete pens or in large land pens. Ammonium levels were higher in control areas while nitrate and nitrite levels were higher in soils with pig slurry inputs, indicating that nitrification was the predominant process related to N2O emissions. Nitrate contents in soils near concrete pens were important (≥ 55 μg N/g) and can thus be a threat for the groundwater. For both pig farming strategies, N2O and CH4 fluxes can reach high levels up to 1 mg N/m(2)/h and 1 mg C/m(2)/h, respectively. CH4 emissions near concrete pens were very high (≥ 10.4 mg C/m(2)/h). Former land pens converted into agricultural land recover low N2O emission rates (≤ 0.03 mg N/m(2)/h), and methane uptake dominates. N2O emissions were related to nitrate content whereas CH4 emissions were found to be moisture dependent. As a result relating to the physicochemical parameters as well as to the gaseous emissions, we demonstrate that pig farming in large land pens is the best strategy for sustainable family pig breeding in Uvéa Islands and therefore in similar small tropical islands.

Soil column leaching of pesticides.

PubMed

Katagi, Toshiyuki