Grass mulching effect on infiltration, surface runoff and soil loss of three agricultural soils in Nigeria.

PubMed

Adekalu, K O; Olorunfemi, I A; Osunbitan, J A

2007-03-01

Mulching the soil surface with a layer of plant residue is an effective method of conserving water and soil because it reduces surface runoff, increases infiltration of water into the soil and retard soil erosion. The effectiveness of using elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) as mulching material was evaluated in the laboratory using a rainfall simulator set at rainfall intensities typical of the tropics. Six soil samples, two from each of the three major soil series representing the main agricultural soils in South Western Nigeria were collected, placed on three different slopes, and mulched with different rates of the grass. The surface runoff, soil loss, and apparent cumulative infiltration were then measured under each condition. The results with elephant grass compared favorably with results from previous experiments using rice straw. Runoff and soil loss decreased with the amount of mulch used and increased with slope. Surface runoff, infiltration and soil loss had high correlations (R = 0.90, 0.89, and 0.86, respectively) with slope and mulch cover using surface response analysis. The mean surface runoff was correlated negatively with sand content, while mean soil loss was correlated positively with colloidal content (clay and organic matter) of the soil. Infiltration was increased and soil loss was reduced greatly with the highest cover. Mulching the soils with elephant grass residue may benefit late cropping (second cropping) by increasing stored soil water for use during dry weather and help to reduce erosion on sloping land.

[Effect of trampling disturbance on soil infiltration of biological soil crusts].

PubMed

Shi, Ya Fang; Zhao, Yun Ge; Li, Chen Hui; Wang, Shan Shan; Yang, Qiao Yun; Xie, Shen Qi

2017-10-01

The effect of trampling disturbance on soil infiltration of biological soil crusts was investigated by using simulated rainfall. The results showed that the trampling disturbance significantly increased soil surface roughness. The increasing extent depended on the disturbance intensity. Soil surface roughness values at 50% disturbance increased by 91% compared with the undisturbed treatment. The runoff was delayed by trampling disturbance. A linear increase in the time of runoff yield was observed along with the increasing disturbance intensity within 20%-50%. The time of runoff yield at 50% disturbance increased by 169.7% compared with the undisturbed treatment. Trampling disturbance increased soil infiltration and consequently decreased the runoff coefficient. The cumulative infiltration amount at 50% disturbance increased by 12.6% compared with the undisturbed treatment. Soil infiltration significant decreased when biocrusts were removed. The cumulative infiltration of the treatment of biocrusts removal decreased by 30.2% compared with the undisturbed treatment. Trampling disturbance did not significantly increase the soil loss when the distur bance intensity was lower than 50%, while the biocrusts removal resulted in 10 times higher in soil erosion modulus. The trampling disturbance of lower than 50% on biocrusts might improve soil infiltration and reduce the risk of runoff, thus might improve the soil moisture without obviously increa sing the soil loss.

Wind erodibility response of physical and biological crusts to rain and flooding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aubault, H.; Bullard, J. E.; Strong, C. L.; Ghadiri, H.; McTainsh, G. H.

2015-12-01

Soil surface crusts are important controllers of the small-scale wind entrainment processes that occur across all dust source regions globally. The crust type influences water and wind erosion by impacting infiltration, runoff, threshold wind velocity and surface storage capacity of both water and loose erodible material. The spatial and temporal patterning of both physical and biological crusts is known to change with rainfall and flooding. However, little is known about the impact of differing water quantity (from light rainfall through to flooding) on soil crusting characteristics (strength, roughness, sediment loss). This study compares the response of two soil types (loamy sand - LS, sandy loam - SL) with and without BSCs to three different rainfall events (2mm, 8mm, 15mm). Two BSC treatments were used one that simulated a young cyanobacteria dominated crust and an older flood induced multi species biological crust. For both soil types, soil surface strength increased with increasing rainfall amount with LS having consistently higher resistance to rupture than SL. Regardless of texture, soils with BSCs were more resistant and strength did not change in response to rainfall impact. Soil loss due to wind erosion was substantially higher on bare LS (4 times higher) and SL (3 times higher) soils compared with those with BSCs. Our results also show that young biological crust (formed by the rainfall event) have reduced soil erodibility with notably greater strength, roughness and reduced sediment losses when compared to soils with physical crust. Interestingly though, the erodibility of the old BSC did not differ greatly from that of the young BSC with respect to strength, roughness and sediment loss. This raises questions regarding the rapid soil surface protection offered by young colonising cyanobacteria crusts. Further analyses exploring the role of biological soil crusts on surface response to rainfall and wind saltation impact are ongoing.

Comparison of evaporative fluxes from porous surfaces resolved by remotely sensed and in-situ temperature and soil moisture data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallen, B.; Trautz, A.; Smits, K. M.

2014-12-01

The estimation of evaporation has important implications in modeling climate at the regional and global scale, the hydrological cycle and estimating environmental stress on agricultural systems. In field and laboratory studies, remote sensing and in-situ techniques are used to collect thermal and soil moisture data of the soil surface and subsurface which is then used to estimate evaporative fluxes, oftentimes using the sensible heat balance method. Nonetheless, few studies exist that compare the methods due to limited data availability and the complexity of many of the techniques, making it difficult to understand flux estimates. This work compares different methods used to quantify evaporative flux based on remotely sensed and in-situ temperature and soil moisture data. A series of four laboratory experiments were performed under ambient and elevated air temperature conditions with homogeneous and heterogeneous soil configurations in a small two-dimensional soil tank interfaced with a small wind tunnel apparatus. The soil tank and wind tunnel were outfitted with a suite of sensors that measured soil temperature (surface and subsurface), air temperature, soil moisture, and tank weight. Air and soil temperature measurements were obtained using infrared thermography, heat pulse sensors and thermistors. Spatial and temporal thermal data were numerically inverted to obtain the evaporative flux. These values were then compared with rates of mass loss from direct weighing of the samples. Results demonstrate the applicability of different methods under different surface boundary conditions; no one method was deemed most applicable under every condition. Infrared thermography combined with the sensible heat balance method was best able to determine evaporative fluxes under stage 1 conditions while distributed temperature sensing combined with the sensible heat balance method best determined stage 2 evaporation. The approaches that appear most promising for determining the surface energy balance incorporates soil moisture rate of change over time and atmospheric conditions immediately above the soil surface. An understanding of the fidelity regarding predicted evaporation rates based upon stages of evaporation enables a more deliberate selection of the suite of sensors required for data collection.

Light Structures Phototroph, Bacterial and Fungal Communities at the Soil Surface

PubMed Central

Davies, Lawrence O.; Schäfer, Hendrik; Marshall, Samantha; Bramke, Irene; Oliver, Robin G.; Bending, Gary D.

2013-01-01

The upper few millimeters of soil harbour photosynthetic microbial communities that are structurally distinct from those of underlying bulk soil due to the presence of light. Previous studies in arid zones have demonstrated functional importance of these communities in reducing soil erosion, and enhancing carbon and nitrogen fixation. Despite being widely distributed, comparative understanding of the biodiversity of the soil surface and underlying soil is lacking, particularly in temperate zones. We investigated the establishment of soil surface communities on pasture soil in microcosms exposed to light or dark conditions, focusing on changes in phototroph, bacterial and fungal communities at the soil surface (0–3 mm) and bulk soil (3–12 mm) using ribosomal marker gene analyses. Microbial community structure changed with time and structurally similar phototrophic communities were found at the soil surface and in bulk soil in the light exposed microcosms suggesting that light can influence phototroph community structure even in the underlying bulk soil. 454 pyrosequencing showed a significant selection for diazotrophic cyanobacteria such as Nostoc punctiforme and Anabaena spp., in addition to the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus. The soil surface also harboured distinct heterotrophic bacterial and fungal communities in the presence of light, in particular, the selection for the phylum Firmicutes. However, these light driven changes in bacterial community structure did not extend to the underlying soil suggesting a discrete zone of influence, analogous to the rhizosphere. PMID:23894406

On the remote measurement of evaporation rates from bare wet soil under variable cloud cover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Auer, S.

1976-01-01

Evaporation rates from a natural wet soil surface are calculated from an energy balance equation at 0.1-hour intervals. A procedure is developed for calculating the heat flux through the soil surface from a harmonic analysis of the surface temperature curve. The evaporation integrated over an entire 24-hour period is compared with daily evaporation rates obtained from published models.

Modelling ammonia volatilization from animal slurry applied with trail hoses to cereals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sommer, S. G.; Olesen, J. E.

In Europe ammonia (NH 3), volatilization from animal manure is the major source of NH 3 in the atmosphere. From March to July 1997, NH 3 volatilization from trail hose applied slurry was measured for seven days after application in six experiments. A statistical analysis of data showed that NH 3 volatilization rate during the first 4-5 h after slurry application increased significantly ( P<5%) with wind speed and soil slurry surface water content. NH 3 volatilization in the six measuring periods during the experiments increased significantly ( P<5%) with relative water content of the soil slurry surface, global radiation, pH, and decreased with increasing rainfall during each measuring period and rainfall accumulated from onset of each experiment. A mechanistic model of NH 3 volatilization was developed. Model inputs are climate variables, soil characteristics and total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN=ammonium+ammonia) in the soil surface layer. A pH submodel for predicting pH at the surface of the soil slurry liquid was developed. The measured NH 3 volatilization was compared with model simulations. The simulated results explained 27% of the variation in measured NH 3 volatilization rates during all seven days, but 48% of measured volatilization rates during the first 24 h. Calculations with the model showed that applying slurry in the morning or in the afternoon reduced volatilization by 50% compared with a noon application. Spreading the slurry with trail hoses to a 60 cm high crop reduced losses by 75% compared with a spreading onto bare soil. Ammonia volatilization was 50% lower when the soil had dried out after slurry application compared with a wet slurry surface.

Solubility and leaching risks of organic carbon in paddy soils as affected by irrigation managements.

PubMed

Xu, Junzeng; Yang, Shihong; Peng, Shizhang; Wei, Qi; Gao, Xiaoli

2013-01-01

Influence of nonflooding controlled irrigation (NFI) on solubility and leaching risk of soil organic carbon (SOC) were investigated. Compared with flooding irrigation (FI) paddies, soil water extractable organic carbon (WEOC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in NFI paddies increased in surface soil but decreased in deep soil. The DOC leaching loss in NFI field was 63.3 kg C ha⁻¹, reduced by 46.4% than in the FI fields. It indicated that multi-wet-dry cycles in NFI paddies enhanced the decomposition of SOC in surface soils, and less carbon moved downward to deep soils due to less percolation. That also led to lower SOC in surface soils in NFI paddies than in FI paddies, which implied that more carbon was released into the atmosphere from the surface soil in NFI paddies. Change of solubility of SOC in NFI paddies might lead to potential change in soil fertility and sustainability, greenhouse gas emission, and bioavailability of trace metals or organic pollutants.

Passive microwave sensing of soil moisture content: Soil bulk density and surface roughness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, J. R.

1982-01-01

Microwave radiometric measurements over bare fields of different surface roughnesses were made at the frequencies of 1.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 10.7 GHz to study the frequency dependence as well as the possible time variation of surface roughness. The presence of surface roughness was found to increase the brightness temperature of soils and reduce the slope of regression between brightness temperature and soil moisture content. The frequency dependence of the surface roughness effect was relatively weak when compared with that of the vegetation effect. Radiometric time series observation over a given field indicated that field surface roughness might gradually diminish with time, especially after a rainfall or irrigation. This time variation of surface roughness served to enhance the uncertainty in remote soil moisture estimate by microwave radiometry. Three years of radiometric measurements over a test site revealed a possible inconsistency in the soil bulk density determination, which turned out to be an important factor in the interpretation of radiometric data.

Passive microwave sensing of soil moisture content - The effects of soil bulk density and surface roughness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, J. R.

1983-01-01

Microwave radiometric measurements over bare fields of different surface roughness were made at frequencies of 1.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 10.7 GHz to study the frequency dependence, as well as the possible time variation, of surface roughness. An increase in surface roughness was found to increase the brightness temperature of soils and reduce the slope of regression between brightness temperature and soil moisture content. The frequency dependence of the surface roughness effect was relatively weak when compared with that of the vegetation effect. Radiometric time-series observations over a given field indicate that field surface roughness might gradually diminish with time, especially after a rainfall or irrigation. The variation of surface roughness increases the uncertainty of remote soil moisture estimates by microwave radiometry. Three years of radiometric measurements over a test site revealed a possible inconsistency in the soil bulk density determination, which is an important factor in the interpretation of radiometric data.

Assimilation of Spatially Sparse In Situ Soil Moisture Networks into a Continuous Model Domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gruber, A.; Crow, W. T.; Dorigo, W. A.

2018-02-01

Growth in the availability of near-real-time soil moisture observations from ground-based networks has spurred interest in the assimilation of these observations into land surface models via a two-dimensional data assimilation system. However, the design of such systems is currently hampered by our ignorance concerning the spatial structure of error afflicting ground and model-based soil moisture estimates. Here we apply newly developed triple collocation techniques to provide the spatial error information required to fully parameterize a two-dimensional (2-D) data assimilation system designed to assimilate spatially sparse observations acquired from existing ground-based soil moisture networks into a spatially continuous Antecedent Precipitation Index (API) model for operational agricultural drought monitoring. Over the contiguous United States (CONUS), the posterior uncertainty of surface soil moisture estimates associated with this 2-D system is compared to that obtained from the 1-D assimilation of remote sensing retrievals to assess the value of ground-based observations to constrain a surface soil moisture analysis. Results demonstrate that a fourfold increase in existing CONUS ground station density is needed for ground network observations to provide a level of skill comparable to that provided by existing satellite-based surface soil moisture retrievals.

Assessing soil quality indicator under different land use and soil erosion using multivariate statistical techniques.

PubMed

Nosrati, Kazem

2013-04-01

Soil degradation associated with soil erosion and land use is a critical problem in Iran and there is little or insufficient scientific information in assessing soil quality indicator. In this study, factor analysis (FA) and discriminant analysis (DA) were used to identify the most sensitive indicators of soil quality for evaluating land use and soil erosion within the Hiv catchment in Iran and subsequently compare soil quality assessment using expert opinion based on soil surface factors (SSF) form of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) method. Therefore, 19 soil physical, chemical, and biochemical properties were measured from 56 different sampling sites covering three land use/soil erosion categories (rangeland/surface erosion, orchard/surface erosion, and rangeland/stream bank erosion). FA identified four factors that explained for 82 % of the variation in soil properties. Three factors showed significant differences among the three land use/soil erosion categories. The results indicated that based upon backward-mode DA, dehydrogenase, silt, and manganese allowed more than 80 % of the samples to be correctly assigned to their land use and erosional status. Canonical scores of discriminant functions were significantly correlated to the six soil surface indices derived of BLM method. Stepwise linear regression revealed that soil surface indices: soil movement, surface litter, pedestalling, and sum of SSF were also positively related to the dehydrogenase and silt. This suggests that dehydrogenase and silt are most sensitive to land use and soil erosion.

Area G Perimeter Surface-Soil Sampling Environmental Surveillance for Fiscal Year 1998 Hazardous and Solid Waste Group (ESH-19)

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

Marquis Childs

1999-09-01

Material Disposal Area G (Area G) is at Technical Area 54 at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Area G has been the principal facility for the disposal of low-level, solid-mixed, and transuranic waste since 1957. It is currently LANL's primary facility for radioactive solid waste burial and storage. As part of the annual environmental surveillance effort at Area G, surface soil samples are collected around the facility's perimeter to characterize possible radionuclide movement off the site through surface water runoff During 1998, 39 soil samples were collected and analyzed for percent moisture, tritium, plutonium-238 and 239, cesium-137 and americium-241. Tomore » assess radionuclide concentrations, the results from these samples are compared with baseline or background soil samples collected in an undisturbed area west of the active portion Area G. The 1998 results are also compared to the results from analogous samples collected during 1996 and 1997 to assess changes over this time in radionuclide activity concentrations in surface soils around the perimeter of Area G. The results indicate elevated levels of all the radionuclides assessed (except cesium-137) exist in Area G perimeter surface soils vs the baseline soils. The comparison of 1998 soil data to previous years (1996 and 1997) indicates no significant increase or decrease in radionuclide concentrations; an upward or downward trend in concentrations is not detectable at this time. These results are consistent with data comparisons done in previous years. Continued annual soil sampling will be necessary to realize a trend if one exists. The radionuclide levels found in the perimeter surface soils are above background but still considered relatively low. This perimeter surface soil data will be used for planning purposes at Area G, techniques to prevent sediment tm.nsport off-site are implemented in the areas where the highest radionuclide concentrations are indicated.« less

Area G perimeter surface-soil and single-stage water sampling: Environmental surveillance for fiscal year 95. Progress report

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

Childs, M.; Conrad, R.

1997-09-01

ESH-19 personnel collected soil and single-stage water samples around the perimeter of Area G at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) during FY 95 to characterize possible radionuclide movement out of Area G through surface water and entrained sediment runoff. Soil samples were analyzed for tritium, total uranium, isotopic plutonium, americium-241, and cesium-137. The single-stage water samples were analyzed for tritium and plutonium isotopes. All radiochemical data was compared with analogous samples collected during FY 93 and 94 and reported in LA-12986 and LA-13165-PR. Six surface soils were also submitted for metal analyses. These data were included with similar data generatedmore » for soil samples collected during FY 94 and compared with metals in background samples collected at the Area G expansion area.« less

Prediction of Root Zone Soil Moisture using Remote Sensing Products and In-Situ Observation under Climate Change Scenario

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, G.; Panda, R. K.; Mohanty, B.

2015-12-01

Prediction of root zone soil moisture status at field level is vital for developing efficient agricultural water management schemes. In this study, root zone soil moisture was estimated across the Rana watershed in Eastern India, by assimilation of near-surface soil moisture estimate from SMOS satellite into a physically-based Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant (SWAP) model. An ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) technique coupled with SWAP model was used for assimilating the satellite soil moisture observation at different spatial scales. The universal triangle concept and artificial intelligence techniques were applied to disaggregate the SMOS satellite monitored near-surface soil moisture at a 40 km resolution to finer scale (1 km resolution), using higher spatial resolution of MODIS derived vegetation indices (NDVI) and land surface temperature (Ts). The disaggregated surface soil moisture were compared to ground-based measurements in diverse landscape using portable impedance probe and gravimetric samples. Simulated root zone soil moisture were compared with continuous soil moisture profile measurements at three monitoring stations. In addition, the impact of projected climate change on root zone soil moisture were also evaluated. The climate change projections of rainfall were analyzed for the Rana watershed from statistically downscaled Global Circulation Models (GCMs). The long-term root zone soil moisture dynamics were estimated by including a rainfall generator of likely scenarios. The predicted long term root zone soil moisture status at finer scale can help in developing efficient agricultural water management schemes to increase crop production, which lead to enhance the water use efficiency.

Phytoremediation in the tropics--influence of heavy crude oil on root morphological characteristics of graminoids.

PubMed

Merkl, Nicole; Schultze-Kraft, Rainer; Infante, Carmen

2005-11-01

When studying species for phytoremediation of petroleum-contaminated soils, one of the main traits is the root zone where enhanced petroleum degradation takes place. Root morphological characteristics of three tropical graminoids were studied. Specific root length (SRL), surface area, volume and average root diameter (ARD) of plants grown in crude oil-contaminated and uncontaminated soil were compared. Brachiaria brizantha and Cyperus aggregatus showed coarser roots in polluted soil compared to the control as expressed in an increased ARD. B. brizantha had a significantly larger specific root surface area in contaminated soil. Additionally, a shift of SRL and surface area per diameter class towards higher diameters was found. Oil contamination also caused a significantly smaller SRL and surface area in the finest diameter class of C. aggregatus. The root structure of Eleusine indica was not significantly affected by crude oil. Higher specific root surface area was related to higher degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons found in previous studies.

Soil Moisture and Vegetation Effects on GPS Reflectivity From Land

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torres, O.; Grant, M. S.; Bosch, D.

2004-12-01

While originally designed as a navigation system, the GPS signal has been used to achieve a number of useful scientific measurements. One of these measurements utilizes the reflection of the GPS signal from land to determine soil moisture. The study of GPS reflections is based on a bistatic configuration that utilizes forward reflection from the surface. The strength of the GPS signal varies in proportion to surface parameters such as soil moisture, soil type, vegetation cover, and topography. This paper focuses on the effects of soil water content and vegetation cover on the surface based around a reflectivity. A two-part method for calibrating the GPS reflectivity was developed that permits the comparison of the data with surface parameters. The first part of the method relieves the direct signal from any multipath effects, the second part is an over-water calibration that yields a reflectivity independent of the transmitting satellite. The sensitivity of the GPS signal to water in the soil is shown by presenting the increase in reflectivity after rain as compared to before rain. The effect of vegetation on the reflected signal is also presented by the inclusion of leaf area index as a fading parameter in the reflected signal from corn and soy bean fields. The results are compared to extensive surface measurements made as part of the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX 2002) in Iowa and SMEX 2003 in Georgia.

Modeling Water Redistribution in a Near-Surface Arid Soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Y.; Ghezzehei, T. A.; Berli, M.; Dijkema, J.; Koonce, J.

2017-12-01

Desert soils cover about one third of the Earth's land surface and play an important role in the ecology and hydrology of arid environments. Despite their large extend, relatively little is known about their near-surface (top centimeters to meter) water dynamics. Recent studies by Koonce (2016) and Dijkema et al. (2017) shed light on the water dynamics of near-surface arid soil but also revealed some of the challenges to simulate the water redistribution in arid soils. The goal of this study was to improve water redistribution simulations in near-surface arid soils by employing more advanced hydraulic conductivity functions. Expanding on the work by Dijkema et al. (2017), we used a HYDRUS-1D model with different hydraulic conductivity functions to simulate water redistribution within the soil as a function of precipitation, evaporation and drainage. Model calculations were compared with measured data from the SEPHAS weighing lysimeters in Boulder City, NV. Preliminary results indicate that water redistribution simulations of near-surface arid soils can be improved by using hydraulic conductivity functions that can capture capillary, film and vapor flow, like for example the Peter-Durner-Iden (PDI) model.

Hydrologically transported dissolved organic carbon influences soil respiration in a tropical rainforest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Wen-Jun; Lu, Hua-Zheng; Zhang, Yi-Ping; Sha, Li-Qing; Schaefer, Douglas Allen; Song, Qing-Hai; Deng, Yun; Deng, Xiao-Bao

2016-10-01

To better understand the effect of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) transported by hydrological processes (rainfall, throughfall, litter leachate, and surface soil water; 0-20 cm) on soil respiration in tropical rainforests, we detected the DOC flux in rainfall, throughfall, litter leachate, and surface soil water (0-20 cm), compared the seasonality of δ13CDOC in each hydrological process, and δ13C in leaves, litter, and surface soil, and analysed the throughfall, litter leachate, and surface soil water (0-20 cm) effect on soil respiration in a tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna, south-west China. Results showed that the surface soil intercepted 94.4 ± 1.2 % of the annual litter leachate DOC flux and is a sink for DOC. The throughfall and litter leachate DOC fluxes amounted to 6.81 and 7.23 % of the net ecosystem exchange respectively, indicating that the DOC flux through hydrological processes is an important component of the carbon budget, and may be an important link between hydrological processes and soil respiration in a tropical rainforest. Even the variability in soil respiration is more dependent on the hydrologically transported water than DOC flux insignificantly, soil temperature, and soil-water content (at 0-20 cm). The difference in δ13C between the soil, soil water (at 0-20 cm), throughfall, and litter leachate indicated that DOC is transformed in the surface soil and decreased the sensitivity indices of soil respiration of DOC flux to water flux, which suggests that soil respiration is more sensitive to the DOC flux in hydrological processes, especially the soil-water DOC flux, than to soil temperature or soil moisture.

Retrieval of aerosol optical depth over bare soil surfaces using time series of MODIS imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Zhengwu; Yuan, Ranyin; Zhong, Bo

2014-11-01

Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) is one of the key parameters which can not only reflect the characterization of atmospheric turbidity, but also identify the climate effects of aerosol. The current MODIS aerosol estimation algorithm over land is based on the "dark-target" approach which works only over densely vegetated surfaces. For non-densely vegetated surfaces (such as snow/ice, desert, and bare soil surfaces), this method will be failed. In this study, we develop an algorithm to derive AOD over the bare soil surfaces. Firstly, this method uses the time series of MODIS imagery to detect the " clearest" observations during the non-growing season in multiple years for each pixel. Secondly, the "clearest" observations after suitable atmospheric correction are used to fit the bare soil's bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) using Kernel model. As long as the bare soil's BRDF is established, the surface reflectance of "hazy" observations can be simulated. Eventually, the AOD over the bare soil surfaces are derived. Preliminary validation results by comparing with the ground measurements from AERONET at Xianghe sites show a good agreement.

Soil surface temperatures reveal moderation of the urban heat island effect by trees and shrubs

PubMed Central

Edmondson, J. L.; Stott, I.; Davies, Z. G.; Gaston, K. J.; Leake, J. R.

2016-01-01

Urban areas are major contributors to air pollution and climate change, causing impacts on human health that are amplified by the microclimatological effects of buildings and grey infrastructure through the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Urban greenspaces may be important in reducing surface temperature extremes, but their effects have not been investigated at a city-wide scale. Across a mid-sized UK city we buried temperature loggers at the surface of greenspace soils at 100 sites, stratified by proximity to city centre, vegetation cover and land-use. Mean daily soil surface temperature over 11 months increased by 0.6 °C over the 5 km from the city outskirts to the centre. Trees and shrubs in non-domestic greenspace reduced mean maximum daily soil surface temperatures in the summer by 5.7 °C compared to herbaceous vegetation, but tended to maintain slightly higher temperatures in winter. Trees in domestic gardens, which tend to be smaller, were less effective at reducing summer soil surface temperatures. Our findings reveal that the UHI effects soil temperatures at a city-wide scale, and that in their moderating urban soil surface temperature extremes, trees and shrubs may help to reduce the adverse impacts of urbanization on microclimate, soil processes and human health. PMID:27641002

Soil surface temperatures reveal moderation of the urban heat island effect by trees and shrubs.

PubMed

Edmondson, J L; Stott, I; Davies, Z G; Gaston, K J; Leake, J R

2016-09-19

Urban areas are major contributors to air pollution and climate change, causing impacts on human health that are amplified by the microclimatological effects of buildings and grey infrastructure through the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Urban greenspaces may be important in reducing surface temperature extremes, but their effects have not been investigated at a city-wide scale. Across a mid-sized UK city we buried temperature loggers at the surface of greenspace soils at 100 sites, stratified by proximity to city centre, vegetation cover and land-use. Mean daily soil surface temperature over 11 months increased by 0.6 °C over the 5 km from the city outskirts to the centre. Trees and shrubs in non-domestic greenspace reduced mean maximum daily soil surface temperatures in the summer by 5.7 °C compared to herbaceous vegetation, but tended to maintain slightly higher temperatures in winter. Trees in domestic gardens, which tend to be smaller, were less effective at reducing summer soil surface temperatures. Our findings reveal that the UHI effects soil temperatures at a city-wide scale, and that in their moderating urban soil surface temperature extremes, trees and shrubs may help to reduce the adverse impacts of urbanization on microclimate, soil processes and human health.

Soil surface temperatures reveal moderation of the urban heat island effect by trees and shrubs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edmondson, J. L.; Stott, I.; Davies, Z. G.; Gaston, K. J.; Leake, J. R.

2016-09-01

Urban areas are major contributors to air pollution and climate change, causing impacts on human health that are amplified by the microclimatological effects of buildings and grey infrastructure through the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Urban greenspaces may be important in reducing surface temperature extremes, but their effects have not been investigated at a city-wide scale. Across a mid-sized UK city we buried temperature loggers at the surface of greenspace soils at 100 sites, stratified by proximity to city centre, vegetation cover and land-use. Mean daily soil surface temperature over 11 months increased by 0.6 °C over the 5 km from the city outskirts to the centre. Trees and shrubs in non-domestic greenspace reduced mean maximum daily soil surface temperatures in the summer by 5.7 °C compared to herbaceous vegetation, but tended to maintain slightly higher temperatures in winter. Trees in domestic gardens, which tend to be smaller, were less effective at reducing summer soil surface temperatures. Our findings reveal that the UHI effects soil temperatures at a city-wide scale, and that in their moderating urban soil surface temperature extremes, trees and shrubs may help to reduce the adverse impacts of urbanization on microclimate, soil processes and human health.

Raindrop Impact, Disaggregation & CO2 emissions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Xin; Wang, Rui; Hu, Yaxian; Guo, Shengli

2017-04-01

On the Chinese Loess Plateau, heave storms often occur from July to September, which happens to be fallow season. Without protections from crop coverage, soil surface is completely exposed to rainfalls, receives much more enhanced raindrop impact, thus potentially experience advanced disaggregation. After breaking into smaller fragments, and exposing those previously encapsulated soil organic carbon (SOC), soil surface is very likely to release additional CO2 emissions. However, the possible addition of CO2 emissions from fallow season on the Chinese Loess Plateau, and its potential contribution to local carbon balances, have not yet been systematically investigated. In order to compare the effects of raindrop impacts to CO2 emissions on bare soil during fallow season, two erosion plots (100 cm * 40 cm *35 cm) were set up. Both plots were filled with the loess soil. One plot was covered with two meshes (1 mm * 1mm)overlapping each other, to simulate crop coverage; the other plot was directly exposed to raindrops. Both plots were placed underneath simulated rainfalls (intensity of 90 mm h-1), for 5 min and 10 min. After 24 hours post rainfalls, soil moisture and CO2 emissions from both plots were measured every day for one week. Soil particle size distributions from surface soil were also determined to compare the changes of soil composition. Our results show that raindrop impacted soil in general released more CO2 emissions than the covered soil, and this pattern was more pronounced after experiencing longer period of rainfall events (20.6% more after 5 min; 48.3% more after 10 min). This agreed well with the increase of soil particles < 0.01 mm observed on the raindrop impacted soil surface.

Surface Soil Moisture Estimates Across China Based on Multi-satellite Observations and A Soil Moisture Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ke; Yang, Tao; Ye, Jinyin; Li, Zhijia; Yu, Zhongbo

2017-04-01

Soil moisture is a key variable that regulates exchanges of water and energy between land surface and atmosphere. Soil moisture retrievals based on microwave satellite remote sensing have made it possible to estimate global surface (up to about 10 cm in depth) soil moisture routinely. Although there are many satellites operating, including NASA's Soil Moisture Acitive Passive mission (SMAP), ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission (SMOS), JAXA's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 mission (AMSR2), and China's Fengyun (FY) missions, key differences exist between different satellite-based soil moisture products. In this study, we applied a single-channel soil moisture retrieval model forced by multiple sources of satellite brightness temperature observations to estimate consistent daily surface soil moisture across China at a spatial resolution of 25 km. By utilizing observations from multiple satellites, we are able to estimate daily soil moisture across the whole domain of China. We further developed a daily soil moisture accounting model and applied it to downscale the 25-km satellite-based soil moisture to 5 km. By comparing our estimated soil moisture with observations from a dense observation network implemented in Anhui Province, China, our estimated soil moisture results show a reasonably good agreement with the observations (RMSE < 0.1 and r > 0.8).

Evaluating Remotely-Sensed Surface Soil Moisture Estimates Using Triple Collocation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Recent work has demonstrated the potential of enhancing remotely-sensed surface soil moisture validation activities through the application of triple collocation techniques which compare time series of three mutually independent geophysical variable estimates in order to acquire the root-mean-square...

Utilization of data and modeling at multiple scales to compare varying formulations of the soil resistance term affecting evaporative flux from the soil surface.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smits, K. M.; Forsythe, L.; Riley, W. J.; Bisht, G.

2016-12-01

Land Surface Models (LSMs) are used to predict heat, energy, and momentum fluxesoccurring at the land surface and the resulting effects in the soil and atmosphere at various scales.Evaporation from bare soil is an integral component of the water balance that is very difficult toaccurately predict since it is complexly affected by the coupled effects of atmospheric conditions andsoil properties. Inaccurate or simplifying assumptions can have drastic effects on regional and globalLSM predictions and cause available LSMs to predict conflicting values for the soil moistureconditions and surface fluxes (e.g. evapotranspiration, infiltration, run off). The goal of this work isto see how heterogeneities in soil properties can be properly represented with a soil resistance termthat accounts for physically based parameters of the soil system at the land-atmosphere interface.Utilizing a comprehensive, experimental dataset generated from a soil with known, heterogeneousproperties under highly controlled atmospheric conditions, we are able to compare the effectivenessof various parameterizations in two different models. The first being a multiphase, non-equilibrium,and non-isothermal model that minimizes the dependence on fitting parameters. The effects ofcertain mechanisms are better understood at this fine scale and incorporated into the land surfacecomponent of the Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy project (ALM), which is focused oncapturing the interactions between the surface and the atmosphere at larger scales. The formulationsof the resistance parameter, soil water retention curve (SWRC), and diffusivity through partiallysaturated porous media are of particular interest. The fine scale model was used in conjunction withthe experimental data to test formulations before implementing them into the ACME Land Model(ALM). Effects of these alterations were compared to the existing mechanisms in ALM and thentested against lab and field scale data sets. Initial findings suggest the Tang and Riley (2013a) soilresistance more accurately reproduces results lab and field results on multiple scales whereheterogeneity is present. Further understanding of soil resistance will lead to more robust landsurface models which decrease the reliance on such empirical relationships.

The Surface Chemical Composition of Lunar Samples and Its Significance for Optical Properties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gold, T.; Bilson, E.; Baron, R. L.

1976-01-01

The surface iron, titanium, calcium, and silicon concentration in numerous lunar soil and rock samples was determined by Auger electron spectroscopy. All soil samples show a large increase in the iron to oxygen ratio compared with samples of pulverized rock or with results of the bulk chemical analysis. A solar wind simulation experiment using 2 keV energy alpha -particles showed that an ion dose corresponding to approximately 30,000 years of solar wind increased the iron concentration on the surface of the pulverized Apollo 14 rock sample 14310 to the concentration measured in the Apollo 14 soil sample 14163, and the albedo of the pulverized rock decreased from 0.36 to 0.07. The low albedo of the lunar soil is related to the iron + titanium concentration on its surface. A solar wind sputter reduction mechanism is discussed as a possible cause for both the surface chemical and optical properties of the soil.

Visualization of soil structure and pore structure modifications by pioneering ground beetles (Cicindelidae) in surface sediments of an artificial catchment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Badorreck, Annika; Gerke, Horst H.; Weller, Ulrich; Vontobel, Peter

2010-05-01

An artificial catchment was constructed to study initial soil and ecosystem development. As a key process, the pore structure dynamics in the soil at the surface strongly influences erosion, infiltration, matter dynamics, and vegetation establishment. Little is known, however, about the first macropore formation in the very early stage. This presentation focuses on observations of soil pore geometry and its effect on water flow at the surface comparing samples from three sites in the catchment and in an adjacent "younger" site composed of comparable sediments. The surface soil was sampled in cylindrical plastic rings (10 cm³) down to 2 cm depth in three replicates each site and six where caves from pioneering ground-dwelling beetles Cicindelidae were found. The samples were scanned with micro-X-ray computed tomography (at UFZ-Halle, Germany) with a resolution of 0.084 mm. The infiltration dynamics were visualized with neutronradiography (at Paul-Scherer-Institute, Switzerland) on slab-type soil samples in 2D. The micro-tomographies exhibit formation of surface sealing whose thickness and intensity vary with silt and clay content. The CT images show several coarser- and finer-textured micro-layers at the sample surfaces that were formed as a consequence of repeated washing in of finer particles in underlying coarser sediment. In micro-depressions, the uppermost layers consist of sorted fine sand and silt due to wind erosion. Similar as for desert pavements, a vesicular pore structure developed in these sediments on top, but also scattered in fine sand- and silt-enriched micro-layers. The ground-dwelling activity of Cicindelidae beetles greatly modifies the soil structure through forming caves in the first centimetres of the soil. Older collapsed caves, which form isolated pores within mixed zones, were also found. The infiltration rates were severely affected both, by surface crusts and activity of ground-dwelling beetles. The observations demonstrate relatively high abiotic and biotic dynamics of soil pore structure in the soil surface even during the very early development stages. The structure formation has potentially great effects on changing runoff and infiltration by forming sealing layers or preferential flow paths.

Lunar soil and surface processes studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Glass, B. P.

1975-01-01

Glass particles in lunar soil were characterized and compared to terrestrial analogues. In addition, useful information was obtained concerning the nature of lunar surface processes (e.g. volcanism and impact), maturity of soils and chemistry and heterogeneity of lunar surface material. It is felt, however, that the most important result of the study was that it demonstrated that the investigation of glass particles from the regolith of planetary bodies with little or no atmospheres can be a powerful method for learning about the surface processes and chemistry of planetary surfaces. Thus, the return of samples from other planetary bodies (especially the terrestrial planets and asteroids) using unmanned spacecraft is urged.

[Runoff loss of soil mineral nitrogen and its relationship with grass coverage on Loess slope land].

PubMed

Zhang, Yali; Li, Huai'en; Zhang, Xingchang; Xiao, Bo

2006-12-01

In a simulated rainfall experiment on Loess slope land, this paper determined the rainfall, surface runoff and the effective depth of interaction (EDI) between rainfall and soil mineral nitrogen, and studied the effects of grass coverage on the EDI and the runoff loss of soil mineral nitrogen. The results showed that with the increase of EDI, soil nitrogen in deeper layers could be released into surface runoff through dissolution and desorption. The higher the grass coverage, the deeper the EDI was. Grass coverage promoted the interaction between surface runoff and surface soil. On the slope land with 60%, 80% and 100% of grass coverage, the mean content of runoff mineral nitrogen increased by 34.52%, 32.67% and 6.00%, while surface runoff decreased by 4.72%, 9.84% and 12.89%, and eroded sediment decreased by 83.55%, 87.11% and 89.01%, respectively, compared with bare slope land. The total runoff loss of soil mineral nitrogen on the lands with 60%, 80%, and 100% of grass coverage was 95.73%, 109.04%, and 84.05% of that on bare land, respectively. Grass cover had dual effects on the surface runoff of soil mineral nitrogen. On one hand, it enhanced the influx of soil mineral nitrogen to surface runoff, and on the other hand, it markedly decreased the runoff, resulting in the decrease of soil mineral nitrogen loss through runoff and sediment. These two distinct factors codetermined the total runoff loss of soil mineral nitrogen.

The Role of Vegetation and Mulch in Mitigating the Impact of Raindrops on Soils in Urban Vegetated Green Infrastructure Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alizadehtazi, B.; Montalto, F. A.; Sjoblom, K.

2014-12-01

Raindrop impulses applied to soils can break up larger soil aggregates into smaller particles, dispersing them from their original position. The displaced particles can self-stratify, with finer particles at the top forming a crust. Occurrence of this phenomenon reduces the infiltration rate and increases runoff, contributing to downstream flooding, soil erosion, and non point source pollutant loads. Unprotected soil surfaces (e.g. without vegetation canopies, mulch, or other materials), are more susceptible to crust formation due to the higher kinetic energy associated with raindrop impact. By contrast, soil that is protected by vegetation canopies and mulch layers is less susceptible to crust formation, since these surfaces intercept raindrops, dissipating some of their kinetic energy prior to their impact with the soil. Within this context, this presentation presents preliminary laboratory work conducted using a rainfall simulator to determine the ability of new urban vegetation and mulch to minimize soil crust formation. Three different scenarios are compared: a) bare soil, b) soil with mulch cover, and c) soil protected by vegetation canopies. Soil moisture, surface penetration resistance, and physical measurements of the volume of infiltrate and runoff are made on all three surface treatments after simulated rainfall events. The results are used to develop recommendations regarding surface treatment in green infrastructure (GI) system designs, namely whether heavily vegetated GI facilities require mulching to maintain infiltration capacity.

Surface features of soil particles of three types of soils under different land use strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matveeva, Nataliy; Kotelnikova, Anna; Rogova, Olga; Proskurnin, Mikhail

2017-04-01

Nowadays, there is a clear need in a deep investigation of molecular composition of soils and of its influence on surface characteristics of soil particles. The aim of this study is to evaluate the composition and properties of physical fractions in different soil types in determining functional specificity of soil solid-phase surface. The experiments were carried out with three different types of Russian soils—Sod-Podzolic, Chestnut, and Chernozem soils—under various treatments (fallow, different doses of mineral fertilizers and their aftereffects). The samples were separated into three fractions: silt (SF) with a particle size of <2 μm, light fraction (LF) with a density of <2 g/cm3, and residual fraction (RF) with a size >2 μm and the density >2 g/cm3. We measured specific surface area, surface hydrophobicity (contact angle, CA), ζ-potential, and the point of zero charge (PZC). For Chernozem and Chestnut soils and their fractions of we observed an increase in hydrophobicity for SF and RF under fertilizer treatment. At the sites not treated with fertilizers and aftereffect sites, the hydrophobicity of fractions was lower compared to the sites under treatment. The CA of the original soils and fractions were different: in 35% of cases CA was higher for SF and RF by 12-16%. The rest of samples demonstrated CA of all three physical fractions lower than CA of the original soil. The variability of the mean CA indicates considerable differences in ζ-potential and PZC between different types of soils and soil fractions. The results of potentiometric titration of PZC for Sod-Podzolic soil showed that all values are in acidic range, which suggests predominance of acidic functional groups at the surface of soil particles. Specific surface area determines soil sorption processes, bioavailability of nutrients, water etc. Here, specific surface area of Sod-Podzolic soil was low and SF-dependent. We calculated specific surface charge from obtained data on specific surface area and PZC. The results suggested considerable differences between sorption features of both soils and fractions under different land use strategies.

Interactions between soil texture and placement of dairy slurry application: II. Leaching of phosphorus forms.

PubMed

Glaesner, Nadia; Kjaergaard, Charlotte; Rubaek, Gitte H; Magid, Jakob

2011-01-01

Managing phosphorus (P) losses in soil leachate folllowing land application of manure is key to curbing eutrophication in many regions. We compared P leaching from columns of variably textured, intact soils (20 cm diam., 20 cm high) subjected to surface application or injection of dairy cattle (Bos taurus L.) manure slurry. Surface application of slurry increased P leaching losses relative to baseline losses, but losses declined with increasing active flow volume. After elution of one pore volume, leaching averaged 0.54 kg P ha(-1) from the loam, 0.38 kg P ha(-1) from the sandy loam, and 0.22 kg P ha(-1) from the loamy sand following surface application. Injection decreased leaching of all P forms compared with surface application by an average of 0.26 kg P ha(-1) in loam and 0.23 kg P ha(-1) in sandy loam, but only by 0.03 kg P ha(-1) in loamy sand. Lower leaching losses were attributed to physical retention of particulate P and dissolved organic P, caused by placing slurry away from active flow paths in the fine-textured soil columns, as well as to chemical retention of dissolved inorganic P, caused by better contact between slurry P and soil adsorption sites. Dissolved organic P was less retained in soil after slurry application than other P forms. On these soils with low to intermediate P status, slurry injection lowered P leaching losses from clay-rich soil, but not from the sandy soils, highlighting the importance of soil texture in manageing P losses following slurry application.

SMAP soil moisture drying more rapid than observed in situ following rainfall events

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

We examine soil drying rates by comparing observations from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to surface soil moisture from in situ probes during drydown periods at SMAP validation sites. SMAP and in situ probes record different soil drying dynamics after rainfall. We modeled this...

Controls on surface soil drying rates observed by SMAP and simulated by the Noah land surface model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shellito, Peter J.; Small, Eric E.; Livneh, Ben

2018-03-01

Drydown periods that follow precipitation events provide an opportunity to assess controls on soil evaporation on a continental scale. We use SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) observations and Noah simulations from drydown periods to quantify the role of soil moisture, potential evaporation, vegetation cover, and soil texture on soil drying rates. Rates are determined using finite differences over intervals of 1 to 3 days. In the Noah model, the drying rates are a good approximation of direct soil evaporation rates, and our work suggests that SMAP-observed drying is also predominantly affected by direct soil evaporation. Data cover the domain of the North American Land Data Assimilation System Phase 2 and span the first 1.8 years of SMAP's operation. Drying of surface soil moisture observed by SMAP is faster than that simulated by Noah. SMAP drying is fastest when surface soil moisture levels are high, potential evaporation is high, and when vegetation cover is low. Soil texture plays a minor role in SMAP drying rates. Noah simulations show similar responses to soil moisture and potential evaporation, but vegetation has a minimal effect and soil texture has a much larger effect compared to SMAP. When drying rates are normalized by potential evaporation, SMAP observations and Noah simulations both show that increases in vegetation cover lead to decreases in evaporative efficiency from the surface soil. However, the magnitude of this effect simulated by Noah is much weaker than that determined from SMAP observations.

A Comparison of Land Surface Model Soil Hydraulic Properties Estimated by Inverse Modeling and Pedotransfer Functions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gutmann, Ethan D.; Small, Eric E.

2007-01-01

Soil hydraulic properties (SHPs) regulate the movement of water in the soil. This in turn plays an important role in the water and energy cycles at the land surface. At present, SHPS are commonly defined by a simple pedotransfer function from soil texture class, but SHPs vary more within a texture class than between classes. To examine the impact of using soil texture class to predict SHPS, we run the Noah land surface model for a wide variety of measured SHPs. We find that across a range of vegetation cover (5 - 80% cover) and climates (250 - 900 mm mean annual precipitation), soil texture class only explains 5% of the variance expected from the real distribution of SHPs. We then show that modifying SHPs can drastically improve model performance. We compare two methods of estimating SHPs: (1) inverse method, and (2) soil texture class. Compared to texture class, inverse modeling reduces errors between measured and modeled latent heat flux from 88 to 28 w/m(exp 2). Additionally we find that with increasing vegetation cover the importance of SHPs decreases and that the van Genuchten m parameter becomes less important, while the saturated conductivity becomes more important.

Soil water content spatial pattern estimated by thermal inertia from air-borne sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coppola, Antonio; Basile, Angelo; Esposito, Marco; Menenti, Massimo; Buonanno, Maurizio

2010-05-01

Remote sensing of soil water content from air- or space-borne platforms offer the possibility to provide large spatial coverage and temporal continuity. The water content can be actually monitored in a thin soil layer, usually up to a depth of 0.05m below the soil surface. To the contrary, difficulties arise in the estimation of the water content storage along the soil profile and its spatial (horizontal) distribution, which are closely connected to soil hydraulic properties and their spatial distribution. A promising approach for estimating soil water contents profiles is the integration of remote sensing of surface water content and hydrological modeling. A major goal of the scientific group is to develop a practical and robust procedure for estimating water contents throughout the soil profile from surface water content. As a first step, in this work, we will show some preliminary results from aircraft images analysis and their validation by field campaigns data. The data extracted from the airborne sensors provided the opportunity of retrieving land surface temperatures with a very high spatial resolution. The surface water content pattern, as deduced by the thermal inertia estimations, was compared to the surface water contents maps measured in situ by time domain reflectometry-based probes.

Heavy Metals in Soil and Salad in the Proximity of Historical Ferroalloy Emission

PubMed Central

Ferri, Roberta; Donna, Filippo; Smith, Donald R.; Guazzetti, Stefano; Zacco, Annalisa; Rizzo, Luigi; Bontempi, Elza; Zimmerman, Neil J.; Lucchini, Roberto G.

2016-01-01

Emissions of manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) from ferro-alloy operations has taken place in Valcamonica, a pre-Alp valley in the province of Brescia, Italy, for about a century until 2001. Metal concentrations were measured in the soil of local home gardens and in the cultivated vegetables. Soil analysis was carried out using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer in both surface soil and at 10 cm depth. A subset of soil samples (n = 23) additionally was analysed using the modified BCR sequential extraction method and ICP-OES for intercalibration with XRF (XRF Mn = 1.33 * total OES Mn – 71.8; R = 0.830, p < 0.0001). Samples of salads (Lactuca sativa and Chichorium spp.) were analyzed with a Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence (TXRF) technique. Vegetable and soil metal measurements were performed in 59 home gardens of Valcamonica, and compared with 23 gardens from the Garda Lake reference area. Results indicate significantly higher levels of soil Mn (median 986 ppm vs 416 ppm), Pb (median 46.1 ppm vs 30.2 ppm), Fe (median 19,800 ppm vs 13,100 ppm) in the Valcamonica compared to the reference area. Surface soil levels of all metals were significantly higher in surface soil compared to deeper soil, consistent with atmospheric deposition. Significantly higher levels of metals were shown also in lettuce from Valcamonica for Mn (median 53.6 ppm vs 30.2) and Fe (median 153 vs 118). Metals in Chichorium spp. did not differ between the two areas. Surface soil metal levels declined with increasing distance from the closest ferroalloy plant, consistent with plant emissions as the source of elevated soil metal levels. A correlation between Mn concentrations in soil and lettuce was also observed. These data show that historic ferroalloy plant activity, which ended nearly a decade before this study, has contributed to the persistence of increased Mn levels in locally grown vegetables. Further research is needed to assess whether this increase can lead to adverse effects in humans and plants especially for Mn, an essential element that can be toxic in humans when exceeding the homeostatic ranges. PMID:27818841

Retention of potentially mobile radiocesium in forest surface soils affected by the Fukushima nuclear accident

PubMed Central

Koarashi, Jun; Moriya, Koichi; Atarashi-Andoh, Mariko; Matsunaga, Takeshi; Fujita, Hiroki; Nagaoka, Mika

2012-01-01

The fate of 137Cs derived from the Fukushima nuclear accident fallout and associated radiological hazards are largely dependent on its mobility in the surface soils of forest ecosystems. Thus, we quantified microbial and adsorptive retentions of 137Cs in forest surface (0–3 cm) soils. The K2SO4 extraction process liberated 2.1%–12.8% of the total 137Cs from the soils. Two soils with a higher content of clay- and silt-sized particles, organic carbon content, and cation exchange capacity showed higher 137Cs extractability. Microbial biomass was observed in all of the soils. However, the 137Cs extractability did not increase after destruction of the microbial biomass by chloroform fumigation, providing no evidence for microbial retention of the Fukushima-fallout 137Cs. The results indicate that uptake of 137Cs by soil microorganisms is less important for retention of potentially mobile 137Cs in the forest surface soils compared to ion-exchange adsorption on non-specific sites provided by abiotic components. PMID:23256039

The sensitivity of numerically simulated climates to land-surface boundary conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mintz, Y.

1982-01-01

Eleven sensitivity experiments that were made with general circulation models to see how land-surface boundary conditions can influence the rainfall, temperature, and motion fields of the atmosphere are discussed. In one group of experiments, different soil moistures or albedos are prescribed as time-invariant boundary conditions. In a second group, different soil moistures or different albedos are initially prescribed, and the soil moisture (but not the albedo) is allowed to change with time according to the governing equations for soil moisture. In a third group, the results of constant versus time-dependent soil moistures are compared.

The Implement of a Multi-layer Frozen Soil Scheme into SSiB3 and its Evaluation over Cold Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Q.

2016-12-01

The SSiB3 is a biophysics-based model of land-atmosphere interactions and is designed for global and regional studies. It has three soil layers, three snow layers, as well as one vegetation layer. Soil moisture of the three soil layers, interception water store for the canopy, subsurface soil temperature, ground temperature, canopy temperature and snow water equivalent are all predicted based on the water and energy balance at canopy, soil and snow. SSiB3 substantially enhances the model's capability for cold season studies and produces reasonable results compared with observations. However, frozen soil processes are ignored in the SSiB3 and may have effects on the interannual variability of soil temperature and deep soil memory. A multi-layer comprehensive frozen soil scheme (FSM), which is developed for climate study has been implemented into the SSiB3 to describe soil heat transfer and water flow affected by frozen processed in soil. In the coupled SSiB3-FSM, both liquid water and ice content have been taken into account in the frozen soil hydrologic and thermal property parameterization. The maximum soil layer depth could reach 10 meters thick depending on land conditions. To better evaluate the models' performance, the coupled offline SSiB3-FSM and SSiB3 have been driven from 1948 to 1958 by the Princeton global meteorological data set, respectively. For the 10yrs run, the coupled SSiB3-FSM almost captures the features over different regions, especially cold regions. In order to analysis and compare the differences of SSIB3-FSM and SSIB3 in detail, monthly mean surface temperature for different regions are compared with CAMS data. The statistical results of surface skin temperature show that high latitude regions, Africa, Eastern Australia, and North American monsoon regions have been greatly improved in SSIB3-FSM. For the global statistics, the RMSE of the surface temperature simulated by SSiB3-FSM can be improved about 0.6K compared to SSiB3. In this study, the improvements in the coupled SSiB3-FSM have also been analyzed.

Planting Depth of Hybrid Poplar Cuttings Influences Number of Shoots

Treesearch

Edward Hansen; David Tolsted; Matthew Tower

1991-01-01

Reports that planting unrooted hybrid poplar cuttings flush with the soil surface resulted in significantly fewer multiple-stem shoots compared to letting the cutting protrude 2.5 or 5.0 cm above the soil surface. There were no significant effects on shoot height growth or cutting mortality.

Bacterial and enchytraeid abundance accelerate soil carbon turnover along a lowland vegetation gradient in interior Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Waldrop, M.P.; Harden, Jennifer W.; Turetsky, M.R.; Petersen, D.G.; McGuire, A.D.; Briones, M.J.I.; Churchill, A.C.; Doctor, D.H.; Pruett, L.E.

2012-01-01

Boreal wetlands are characterized by a mosaic of plant communities, including forests, shrublands, grasslands, and fens, which are structured largely by changes in topography and water table position. The soil associated with these plant communities contain quantitatively and qualitatively different forms of soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrient availability that drive changes in biogeochemical cycling rates. Therefore different boreal plant communities likely contain different soil biotic communities which in turn affect rates of organic matter decomposition. We examined relationships between plant communities, microbial communities, enchytraeids, and soil C turnover in near-surface soils along a shallow topographic soil moisture and vegetation gradient in interior Alaska. We tested the hypothesis that as soil moisture increases along the gradient, surface soils would become increasingly dominated by bacteria and mesofauna and have more rapid rates of C turnover. We utilized bomb radiocarbon techniques to infer rates of C turnover and the 13C isotopic composition of SOM and respired CO2 to infer the degree of soil humification. Soil phenol oxidase and peroxidase enzyme activities were generally higher in the rich fen compared with the forest and bog birch sites. Results indicated greater C fluxes and more rapid C turnover in the surface soils of the fen sites compared to the wetland forest and shrub sites. Quantitative PCR analyses of soil bacteria and archaea, combined with enchytraeid counts, indicated that surface soils from the lowland fen ecosystems had higher abundances of these microbial and mesofaunal groups. Fungal abundance was highly variable and not significantly different among sites. Microbial data was utilized in a food web model that confirmed that rapidly cycling systems are dominated by bacterial activity and enchytraeid grazing. However, our results also suggest that oxidative enzymes play an important role in the C mineralization process in saturated systems, which has been often ignored.

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 moisture range of 16 to 60 percent for the C-band case. The next case investigated is to vary both soil moisture and rms height while keeping the correlation length fixed. For this case, C-band backscattering coefficients are not sufficient for retrieving two parameters because the Kirchhoff approximation gives the same HH and VV backscattering coefficients. Therefore, the backscattering coefficients at two different frequency bands are necessary to find both the soil moisture and rms height. Finally, the neural nets are also applied to simultaneously invert soil moisture, rms height, and correlation length. Overall, the soil moisture retrieved from the neural network agrees very well with the desired soil moisture. This suggests that the neural network shows potential for retrieval of soil parameters from remote sensing data.

Surface runoff and soil erosion by difference of surface cover characteristics using by an oscillating rainfall simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, J. K.; Kim, M. S.; Yang, D. Y.

2017-12-01

Sediment transfer within hill slope can be changed by the hydrologic characteristics of surface material on hill slope. To better understand sediment transfer of the past and future related to climate changes, studies for the changes of soil erosion due to hydrological characteristics changes by surface materials on hill slope are needed. To do so, on-situ rainfall simulating test was conducted on three different surface conditions, i.e. well covered with litter layer condition (a), undisturbed bare condition (b), and disturbed bare condition (c) and these results from rainfall simulating test were compared with that estimated using the Limburg Soil Erosion Model (LISEM). The result from the rainfall simulating tests showed differences in the infiltration rate (a > b > c) and the highest soil erosion rate was occurred on c condition. The result from model also was similar to those from rainfall simulating tests, however, the difference from the value of soil erosion rate between two results was quite large on b and c conditions. These results implied that the difference of surface conditions could change the surface runoff and soil erosion and the result from the erosion model might significantly underestimate on bare surface conditions rather than that from rainfall simulating test.

Assimilation of Remotely Sensed Soil Moisture Profiles into a Crop Modeling Framework for Reliable Yield Estimations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mishra, V.; Cruise, J.; Mecikalski, J. R.

2017-12-01

Much effort has been expended recently on the assimilation of remotely sensed soil moisture into operational land surface models (LSM). These efforts have normally been focused on the use of data derived from the microwave bands and results have often shown that improvements to model simulations have been limited due to the fact that microwave signals only penetrate the top 2-5 cm of the soil surface. It is possible that model simulations could be further improved through the introduction of geostationary satellite thermal infrared (TIR) based root zone soil moisture in addition to the microwave deduced surface estimates. In this study, root zone soil moisture estimates from the TIR based Atmospheric Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model were merged with NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) based surface estimates through the application of informational entropy. Entropy can be used to characterize the movement of moisture within the vadose zone and accounts for both advection and diffusion processes. The Principle of Maximum Entropy (POME) can be used to derive complete soil moisture profiles and, fortuitously, only requires a surface boundary condition as well as the overall mean moisture content of the soil column. A lower boundary can be considered a soil parameter or obtained from the LSM itself. In this study, SMAP provided the surface boundary while ALEXI supplied the mean and the entropy integral was used to tie the two together and produce the vertical profile. However, prior to the merging, the coarse resolution (9 km) SMAP data were downscaled to the finer resolution (4.7 km) ALEXI grid. The disaggregation scheme followed the Soil Evaporative Efficiency approach and again, all necessary inputs were available from the TIR model. The profiles were then assimilated into a standard agricultural crop model (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology, DSSAT) via the ensemble Kalman Filter. The study was conducted over the Southeastern United States for the growing seasons from 2015-2017. Soil moisture profiles compared favorably to in situ data and simulated crop yields compared well with observed yields.

Influence of water table fluctuations on subsurface methane dynamics and surface fluxes in seasonally flooded subtropical pastures.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chamberlain, S.; Gomez-Casanovas, N.; Boughton, E.; Keel, E.; Walter, M. T.; Groffman, P. M.; Sparks, J. P.

2015-12-01

Seasonally flooded subtropical pastures are major sources of methane (CH4), and periodic flooding drives complex emission dynamics from these ecosystems. Understanding the mechanisms of belowground CH4 dynamics driving soil surface fluxes is needed to better understand emissions from these systems and their response to environmental change. We investigated subsurface CH4 dynamics in relation to net surface fluxes using laboratory water table manipulations and compared these results to eddy covariance-measured fluxes to link within-soil CH4 dynamics to observed ecosystem fluxes. Pronounced hysteresis was observed in ecosystem CH4 fluxes during precipitation driven flooding events. This dynamic was replicated in mesocosm experiments, with maximum CH4 fluxes observed during periods of water table recession. Hysteresis dynamics were best explained by oxygen dynamics during precipitation recharge events and the oxidation of CH4 produced in organic soil horizons during water table recession. We observed distinct CH4 dynamics between surface organic and deeper mineral soil horizons. In surface organic soil horizons, high levels of CH4 production were temporally linked to observed surface emissions. In contrast, high concentrations of CH4 observed in deeper mineral soils did not contribute to surface fluxes. Methane production potentials in surface organic soils were orders of magnitude higher than in mineral soils, suggesting that over longer flooding regimes CH4 produced in mineral horizons is unlikely to be a significant component of net surface emissions. Our results demonstrate that distinct CH4 dynamics may be stratified by depth, and flooding of the near-surface organic soils drives the high magnitude CH4 fluxes observed from subtropical pastures. These results suggest that relatively small changes in pasture water table dynamics can drive large changes in net CH4 emissions if surface organic soils remain saturated over longer time scales.

Calculation of Excavation Force for ISRU on Lunar Surface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zeng, Xiangwu (David); Burnoski, Louis; Agui, Juan H.; Wilkinson, Allen

2007-01-01

Accurately predicting the excavation force that will be encountered by digging tools on the lunar surface is a crucial element of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Based on principles of soil mechanics, this paper develops an analytical model that is relatively simple to apply and uses soil parameters that can be determined by traditional soil strength tests. The influence of important parameters on the excavation force is investigated. The results are compared with that predicted by other available theories. Results of preliminary soil tests on lunar stimulant are also reported.

A Methodology for Surface Soil Moisture and Vegetation Optical Depth Retrieval Using the Microwave Polarization Difference Index

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Owe, Manfred; deJeu, Richard; Walker, Jeffrey; Zukor, Dorothy J. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

A methodology for retrieving surface soil moisture and vegetation optical depth from satellite microwave radiometer data is presented. The procedure is tested with historical 6.6 GHz brightness temperature observations from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer over several test sites in Illinois. Results using only nighttime data are presented at this time, due to the greater stability of nighttime surface temperature estimation. The methodology uses a radiative transfer model to solve for surface soil moisture and vegetation optical depth simultaneously using a non-linear iterative optimization procedure. It assumes known constant values for the scattering albedo and roughness. Surface temperature is derived by a procedure using high frequency vertically polarized brightness temperatures. The methodology does not require any field observations of soil moisture or canopy biophysical properties for calibration purposes and is totally independent of wavelength. Results compare well with field observations of soil moisture and satellite-derived vegetation index data from optical sensors.

A Comparison of Relative Abundance and Biomass of Ground-Dwelling Arthropods Under Different Forest Management Practices

Treesearch

Cathryn H. Greenberg; Arlene McGrane

1996-01-01

Habitat structural characteristics and relative abundance and biomass of ground-dwelling arthropods were compared among four replicated stand treatments: intense burning and salvage logging; clearcutting followed by roller-chopping (100% soil surface disturbance): clearcutting followed by bracke seeding (30% soil surface disturbance); and naturally regenerated mature...

Distribution of 137Cs in surface soil of Fraser's Hill, Pahang, Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bakar, Ahmad Sanadi Abu; Hamzah, Zaini; Saat, Ahmad

2017-01-01

Caesium-137 (137Cs) in an anthropogenic radionuclide originated from the fission of fissile materials. Nuclear weapons testing during the 1960s and the Chernobyl disaster introduced substantial amount of 137Cs into the atmosphere that are then eventually deposited back to earth's surface. Caesium-137 can be used as tracer to study soil movements since it adsorbs to soil particles. This paper aims to describe the distribution of 137Cs in surface soil of Fraser's Hill, Pahang, determine the levels of 137Cs here compared to other areas, and to check correlation of 137Cs levels to physical data. A series of sampling were carried out between February 2014 and August 2015. Soil samples were taken from 31 locations using soil scraper. The samples were then taken to the laboratory to be dried, homogenized, grinded and sieved. The activity concentration of 137Cs in the samples was determined using gamma spectroscopy. The activity concentration was found to be between 0.26 Bq/kg and 5.14 Bq/kg. Although this paper only studies surface soil, 137Cs is expected to be present within the soil body. Further study of 137Cs in the soil body can be used to predictive model for soil erosion.

Soil Texture Often Exerts a Stronger Influence Than Precipitation on Mesoscale Soil Moisture Patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Jingnuo; Ochsner, Tyson E.

2018-03-01

Soil moisture patterns are commonly thought to be dominated by land surface characteristics, such as soil texture, at small scales and by atmospheric processes, such as precipitation, at larger scales. However, a growing body of evidence challenges this conceptual model. We investigated the structural similarity and spatial correlations between mesoscale (˜1-100 km) soil moisture patterns and land surface and atmospheric factors along a 150 km transect using 4 km multisensor precipitation data and a cosmic-ray neutron rover, with a 400 m diameter footprint. The rover was used to measure soil moisture along the transect 18 times over 13 months. Spatial structures of soil moisture, soil texture (sand content), and antecedent precipitation index (API) were characterized using autocorrelation functions and fitted with exponential models. Relative importance of land surface characteristics and atmospheric processes were compared using correlation coefficients (r) between soil moisture and sand content or API. The correlation lengths of soil moisture, sand content, and API ranged from 12-32 km, 13-20 km, and 14-45 km, respectively. Soil moisture was more strongly correlated with sand content (r = -0.536 to -0.704) than with API for all but one date. Thus, land surface characteristics exhibit coherent spatial patterns at scales up to 20 km, and those patterns often exert a stronger influence than do precipitation patterns on mesoscale spatial patterns of soil moisture.

Surface wind accuracy for modeling mineral dust emissions: Comparing two regional models in a Bodélé case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laurent, B.; Heinold, B.; Tegen, I.; Bouet, C.; Cautenet, G.

2008-05-01

After a decade of research on improving the description of surface and soil features in desert regions to accurately model mineral dust emissions, we now emphasize the need for deeper evaluating the accuracy of modeled 10-m surface wind speeds U 10 . Two mesoscale models, the Lokal-Modell (LM) and the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), coupled with an explicit dust emission model have previously been used to simulate mineral dust events in the Bodélé region. We compare LM and RAMS U 10 , together with measurements at the Chicha site (BoDEx campaign) and Faya-Largeau meteorological station. Surface features and soil schemes are investigated to correctly simulate U 10 intensity and diurnal variability. The uncertainties in dust emissions computed with LM and RAMS U 10 and different soil databases are estimated. This sensitivity study shows the importance of accurate computation of surface winds to improve the quantification of regional dust emissions from the Bodélé

Case analyses and numerical simulation of soil thermal impacts on land surface energy budget based on an off-line land surface model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, W. D.; Sun, S. F.; Qian, Y. F.

2002-05-01

The statistical relationship between soil thermal anomaly and short-term climate change is presented based on a typical case study. Furthermore, possible physical mechanisms behind the relationship are revealed through using an off-line land surface model with a reasonable soil thermal forcing at the bottom of the soil layer. In the first experiment, the given heat flux is 5 W m(-2) at the bottom of the soil layer (in depth of 6.3 m) for 3 months, while only a positive ground temperature anomaly of 0.06degreesC can be found compared to the control run. The anomaly, however, could reach 0.65degreesC if the soil thermal conductivity was one order of magnitude larger. It could be even as large as 0.81degreesC assuming the heat flux at bottom is 10 W m(-2). Meanwhile, an increase of about 10 W m(-2) was detected both for heat flux in soil and sensible heat on land surface, which is not neglectable to the short-term climate change. The results show that considerable response in land surface energy budget could be expected when the soil thermal forcing reaches a certain spatial-temporal scale. Therefore, land surface models should not ignore the upward heat flux from the bottom of the soil layer, Moreover, integration for a longer period of time and coupled land-atmosphere model are also necessary for the better understanding of this issues.

High-resolution, real-time mapping of surface soil moisture at the field scale using ground penetrating radar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lambot, S.; Minet, J.; Slob, E.; Vereecken, H.; Vanclooster, M.

2008-12-01

Measuring soil surface water content is essential in hydrology and agriculture as this variable controls important key processes of the hydrological cycle such as infiltration, runoff, evaporation, and energy exchanges between the earth and the atmosphere. We present a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) method for automated, high-resolution, real-time mapping of soil surface dielectric permittivity and correlated water content at the field scale. Field scale characterization and monitoring is not only necessary for field scale management applications, but also for unravelling upscaling issues in hydrology and bridging the scale gap between local measurements and remote sensing. In particular, such methods are necessary to validate and improve remote sensing data products. The radar system consists of a vector network analyzer combined with an off-ground, ultra-wideband monostatic horn antenna, thereby setting up a continuous-wave steeped-frequency GPR. Radar signal analysis is based on three-dimensional electromagnetic inverse modelling. The forward model accounts for all antenna effects, antenna-soil interactions, and wave propagation in three-dimensional multilayered media. A fast procedure was developed to evaluate the involved Green's function, resulting from a singular, complex integral. Radar data inversion is focused on the surface reflection in the time domain. The method presents considerable advantages compared to the current surface characterization methods using GPR, namely, the ground wave and common reflection methods. Theoretical analyses were performed, dealing with the effects of electric conductivity on the surface reflection when non-negligible, and on near-surface layering, which may lead to unrealistic values for the surface dielectric permittivity if not properly accounted for. Inversion strategies are proposed. In particular the combination of GPR with electromagnetic induction data appears to be promising to deal with highly conductive soils. Finally, we present laboratory and field results where the GPR measurements are compared to ground-truth gravimetric and time domain reflectometry data. An example of high resolution surface soil moisture map is presented and discussed. The proposed method appears to be an appropriate solution in any applications where soil surface water content must be known at the field scale.

Load dissipation by corn residue on tilled soil in laboratory and field-wheeling conditions.

PubMed

Reichert, José M; Brandt, André A; Rodrigues, Miriam F; Reinert, Dalvan J; Braida, João A

2016-06-01

Crop residues may partially dissipate applied loads and reduce soil compaction. We evaluated the effect of corn residue on energy-applied dissipation during wheeling. The experiment consisted of a preliminary laboratory test and a confirmatory field test on a Paleaudalf soil. In the laboratory, an adapted Proctor test was performed with three energy levels, with and without corn residue. Field treatments consisted of three 5.1 Mg tractor wheeling intensities (0, 2, and 6), with and without 12 Mg ha(-1) corn residue on the soil surface. Corn residue on the soil surface reduced soil bulk density in the adapted Proctor test. By applying energy of 52.6 kN m m(-3) , soil dissipated 2.98% of applied energy, whereas with 175.4 kN m m(-3) a dissipation of 8.60% was obtained. This result confirms the hypothesis that surface mulch absorbs part of the compaction effort. Residue effects on soil compaction observed in the adapted Proctor test was not replicated under subsoiled soil field conditions, because of differences in applied pressure and soil conditions (structure, moisture and volume confinement). Nevertheless, this negative result does not mean that straw has no effect in the field. Such effects should be measured via stress transmission and compared to soil load-bearing capacity, rather than on bulk deformations. Wheeling by heavy tractor on subsoiled soil increased compaction, independently of surface residue. Two wheelings produced a significantly increase, but six wheelings did not further increase compaction. Reduced traffic intensity on recently tilled soil is necessary to minimize soil compaction, since traffic intensity show a greater effect than surface mulch on soil protection from excessive compaction. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

Surface Runoff and Snowmelt Infiltration into the Soil on Plowlands in the Forest-Steppe and Steppe Zones of the East European Plain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barabanov, A. T.; Dolgov, S. V.; Koronkevich, N. I.; Panov, V. I.; Petel'ko, A. I.

2018-01-01

Long-term series of observations over the spring water balance elements on fields with hydrologically contrasting agricultural backgrounds―a loose soil after fall moldboard plowing and a plowland compacted by 12-16% compared to the former soil (perennial grasses, winter crops, stubble)―have been analyzed. The values of surface runoff and water infiltration into the soil in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of European Russia have been calculated for the spring (flooding) period and the entire cold season. The hydrological role of fall plowing has been shown, and water balance elements for the current (1981-2016) and preceding (1957-1980) periods have been compared. A significant decrease in runoff and an increase of water reserve in the soil have been revealed on all plowland types. Consequences of changes in the spring water balance on plowland have been analyzed.

Calculations of microwave brightness temperature of rough soil surfaces: Bare field

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mo, T.; Schmugge, T. J.; Wang, J. R.

1985-01-01

A model for simulating the brightness temperatures of soils with rough surfaces is developed. The surface emissivity of the soil media is obtained by the integration of the bistatic scattering coefficients for rough surfaces. The roughness of a soil surface is characterized by two parameters, the surface height standard deviation sigma and its horizontal correlation length l. The model calculations are compared to the measured angular variations of the polarized brightness temperatures at both 1.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequences. A nonlinear least-squares fitting method is used to obtain the values of delta and l that best characterize the surface roughness. The effect of shadowing is incorporated by introducing a function S(theta), which represents the probability that a point on a rough surface is not shadowed by other parts of the surface. The model results for the horizontal polarization are in excellent agreement with the data. However, for the vertical polarization, some discrepancies exist between the calculations and data, particularly at the 1.4 GHz frequency. Possible causes of the discrepancy are discussed.

[Characteristics of soil pH and exchangeable acidity in red soil profile under different vegetation types].

PubMed

Ji, Gang; Xu, Ming-gang; Wen, Shi-lin; Wang, Bo-ren; Zhang, Lu; Liu, Li-sheng

2015-09-01

The characteristics of soil pH and exchangeable acidity in soil profile under different vegetation types were studied in hilly red soil regions of southern Hunan Province, China. The soil samples from red soil profiles within 0-100 cm depth at fertilized plots and unfertilized plots were collected and analyzed to understand the profile distribution of soil pH and exchangeable acidity. The results showed that, pH in 0-60 cm soil from the fertilized plots decreased as the following sequence: citrus orchard > Arachis hypogaea field > tea garden. As for exchangeable acidity content, the sequence was A. hypogaea field ≤ citrus orchard < tea garden. After tea tree and A. hypogaea were planted for long time, acidification occurred in surface soil (0-40 cm), compared with the deep soil (60-100 cm), and soil pH decreased by 0.55 and 0.17 respectively, but such changes did not occur in citrus orchard. Soil pH in 0-40 cm soil from the natural recovery vegetation unfertilized plots decreased as the following sequence: Imperata cylindrica land > Castanea mollissima garden > Pinus elliottii forest ≥ Loropetalum chinensis forest. As for exchangeable acidity content, the sequence was L cylindrica land < C. mollissima garden < L. chinensis forest ≤ P. elliottii forest. Soil pH in surface soil (0-20 cm) from natural forest plots, secondary forest and Camellia oleifera forest were significantly lower than that from P. massoniana forest, decreased by 0.34 and 0.20 respectively. For exchangeable acidity content in 0-20 cm soil from natural forest plot, P. massoniana forest and secondary forest were significantly lower than C. oleifera forest. Compared with bare land, surface soil acidification in unfertilized plots except I. cylindrica land had been accelerated, and the natural secondary forest was the most serious among them, with surface soil pH decreasing by 0.52. However, the pH increased in deep soils from unfertilized plots except natural secondary forest, and I. cylindrica land was the most obvious among them, with soil pH increasing by 0.43. The effects of fertilization and vegetation type on pH and exchangeable acidity decreased with the increasing soil depth from all plots.

Generating a global soil evaporation dataset using SMAP soil moisture data to estimate components of the surface water balance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carbone, E.; Small, E. E.; Badger, A.; Livneh, B.

2016-12-01

Evapotranspiration (ET) is fundamental to the water, energy and carbon cycles. However, our ability to measure ET and partition the total flux into transpiration and evaporation from soil is limited. This project aims to generate a global, observationally-based soil evaporation dataset (E-SMAP): using SMAP surface soil moisture data in conjunction with models and auxiliary observations to observe or estimate each component of the surface water balance. E-SMAP will enable a better understanding of water balance processes and contribute to forecasts of water resource availability. Here we focus on the flux between the soil surface and root zone layers (qbot), which dictates the proportion of water that is available for soil evaporation. Any water that moves from the surface layer to the root zone contributes to transpiration or groundwater recharge. The magnitude and direction of qbot are driven by gravity and the gradient in matric potential. We use a highly discretized Richards Equation-type model (e.g. Hydrus 1D software) with meteorological forcing from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) to estimate qbot. We verify the simulations using SMAP L4 surface and root zone soil moisture data. These data are well suited for evaluating qbot because they represent the most advanced estimate of the surface to root zone soil moisture gradient at the global scale. Results are compared with similar calculations using NLDAS and in situ soil moisture data. Preliminary calculations show that the greatest amount of variability between qbot determined from NLDAS, in situ and SMAP occurs directly after precipitation events. At these times, uncertainties in qbot calculations significantly affect E-SMAP estimates.

Relation between L-band soil emittance and soil water content

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stroosnijder, L.; Lascano, R. J.; Van Bavel, C. H. M.; Newton, R. W.

1986-01-01

An experimental relation between soil emittance (E) at L-band and soil surface moisture content (M) is compared with a theoretical one. The latter depends on the soil dielectric constant, which is a function of both soil moisture content and of soil texture. It appears that a difference of 10 percent in the surface clay content causes a change in the estimate of M on the order of 0.02 cu m/cu m. This is based on calculations with a model that simulates the flow of water and energy, in combination with a radiative transfer model. It is concluded that an experimental determination of the E-M relation for each soil type is not required, and that a rough estimate of the soil texture will lead to a sufficiently accurate estimate of soil moisture from a general, theoretical relationship obtained by numerical simulation.

On the relationship between land surface infrared emissivity and soil moisture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Daniel K.; Larar, Allen M.; Liu, Xu

2018-01-01

The relationship between surface infrared (IR) emissivity and soil moisture content has been investigated based on satellite measurements. Surface soil moisture content can be estimated by IR remote sensing, namely using the surface parameters of IR emissivity, temperature, vegetation coverage, and soil texture. It is possible to separate IR emissivity from other parameters affecting surface soil moisture estimation. The main objective of this paper is to examine the correlation between land surface IR emissivity and soil moisture. To this end, we have developed a simple yet effective scheme to estimate volumetric soil moisture (VSM) using IR land surface emissivity retrieved from satellite IR spectral radiance measurements, assuming those other parameters impacting the radiative transfer (e.g., temperature, vegetation coverage, and surface roughness) are known for an acceptable time and space reference location. This scheme is applied to a decade of global IR emissivity data retrieved from MetOp-A infrared atmospheric sounding interferometer measurements. The VSM estimated from these IR emissivity data (denoted as IR-VSM) is used to demonstrate its measurement-to-measurement variations. Representative 0.25-deg spatially-gridded monthly-mean IR-VSM global datasets are then assembled to compare with those routinely provided from satellite microwave (MW) multisensor measurements (denoted as MW-VSM), demonstrating VSM spatial variations as well as seasonal-cycles and interannual variability. Initial positive agreement is shown to exist between IR- and MW-VSM (i.e., R2 = 0.85). IR land surface emissivity contains surface water content information. So, when IR measurements are used to estimate soil moisture, this correlation produces results that correspond with those customarily achievable from MW measurements. A decade-long monthly-gridded emissivity atlas is used to estimate IR-VSM, to demonstrate its seasonal-cycle and interannual variation, which is spatially coherent and consistent with that from MW measurements, and, moreover, to achieve our objective of investigating the relationship between land surface IR emissivity and soil moisture.

Increases in soil water content after the mortality of non-native trees in oceanic island forest ecosystems are due to reduced water loss during dry periods.

PubMed

Hata, Kenji; Kawakami, Kazuto; Kachi, Naoki

2016-03-01

The control of dominant, non-native trees can alter the water balance of soils in forest ecosystems via hydrological processes, which results in changes in soil water environments. To test this idea, we evaluated the effects of the mortality of an invasive tree, Casuarina equisetifolia Forst., on the water content of surface soils on the Ogasawara Islands, subtropical islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, using a manipulative herbicide experiment. Temporal changes in volumetric water content of surface soils at 6 cm depth at sites where all trees of C. equisetifolia were killed by herbicide were compared with those of adjacent control sites before and after their mortality with consideration of the amount of precipitation. In addition, the rate of decrease in the soil water content during dry periods and the rate of increase in the soil water content during rainfall periods were compared between herbicide and control sites. Soil water content at sites treated with herbicide was significantly higher after treatment than soil water content at control sites during the same period. Differences between initial and minimum values of soil water content at the herbicide sites during the drying events were significantly lower than the corresponding differences in the control quadrats. During rainfall periods, both initial and maximum values of soil water contents in the herbicided quadrats were higher, and differences between the maximum and initial values did not differ between the herbicided and control quadrats. Our results indicated that the mortality of non-native trees from forest ecosystems increased water content of surface soils, due primarily to a slower rate of decrease in soil water content during dry periods. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Arsenic in Soils and Forages from Poultry Litter-Amended Pastures

PubMed Central

Ashjaei, Shadi; Miller, William P.; Cabrera, Miguel L.; Hassan, Sayed M.

2011-01-01

In regions of concentrated poultry production, poultry litter (PL) that contains significant quantities of trace elements is commonly surface-applied to pastures at high levels over multiple years. This study examined the effect of long-term applications of PL on soil concentrations of arsenic (As), copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), and the uptake of these elements by bermuda grass grown on Cecil (well-drained) and Sedgefield (somewhat poorly-drained) soils. The results showed that concentrations of As, Cu, and Zn in soils that had received surface-applied PL over a 14-year period were significantly greater than untreated soil at 0–2.5 and 2.5–7.5 cm depths. However, the levels were well below the USEPA loading limits established for municipal biosolids. Arsenic fractionation showed that concentrations of all As fractions were significantly greater in PL-amended soils compared to untreated soils at 0–2.5 and 2.5–7.5 cm depths. The residual fraction was the predominant form of As in all soils. The water-soluble and NaHCO3-associated As were only 2% of the total As. Significant differences were found in concentrations of these trace elements and phosphorus (P) in forage from PL-amended soils compared to that in untreated plots. The concentrations of Cu, Zn, As, and P were significantly greater in forage from Sedgefield amended soil compared to Cecil soil, but were in all cases below levels of environmental concern. PMID:21655135

Quantifying the Spatial Distribution of Hill Slope Erosion Using a 3-D Laser Scanner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scholl, B. N.; Bogonko, M.; He, Y.; Beighley, R. E.; Milberg, C. T.

2007-12-01

Soil erosion is a complicated process involving many interdependent variables including rainfall intensity and duration, drop size, soil characteristics, ground cover, and surface slope. The interplay of these variables produces differing spatial patterns of rill versus inter-rill erosion by changing the effective energy from rain drop impacts and the quantities and timing of sheet and shallow, concentrated flow. The objective of this research is to characterize the spatial patterns of rill and inter-rill erosion produced from simulated rainfall on different soil densities and surface slopes using a 3-D laser scanner. The soil used in this study is a sandy loam with bulk density due to compaction ranging from 1.25-1.65 g/cm3. The surface slopes selected for this study are 25, 33, and 50 percent and represent common slopes used for grading on construction sites. The spatial patterns of soil erosion are measured using a Trimble GX DR 200+ 3D Laser Scanner which employs a time of flight calculation averaged over 4 points using a class 2, pulsed, 532 nm, green laser at a distance of 2 to 11 m from the surface. The scanner measures point locations on an approximately 5 mm grid. The pre- and post-erosion scan surfaces are compared to calculate the change in volume and the dimensions of rills and inter-rill areas. The erosion experiments were performed in the Soil Erosion Research Laboratory (SERL), part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at San Diego State University. SERL experiments utilize a 3-m by 10-m tilting soil bed with a soil depth of 0.5 meters. Rainfall is applied to the soil surface using two overhead Norton ladder rainfall simulators, which produce realistic rain drop diameters (median = 2.25 mm) and impact velocities. Simulated storm events used in this study consist of rainfall intensities ranging from 5, 10 to 15 cm/hr for durations of 20 to 30 minutes. Preliminary results are presented that illustrate a change in runoff processes and erosion patterns as soil density increases and reduces infiltration characteristics. Total soil loss measured from the bottom of the erosion bed is compared to the volume of soil loss determined using the laser scanner. Due to soil consolidation during the experiment, the accuracy of measured soil loss from the laser scanner increases with increasing soil density. Ratios of rill and inter-rill erosions for each experiment are also presented. URL: http://spatialhydro.sdsu.edu

Soil nutrient concentration and distribution at riverbanks undergoing different land management practices: Implications for riverbank management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xue, X. H.; Chang, S.; Yuan, L. Y.

2017-08-01

Riverbanks are important boundaries for the nutrient cycling between lands and freshwaters. This research aimed to explore effects of different land management methods on the soil nutrient concentration and distribution at riverbanks. Soils from the reed-covered riverbanks of middle Yangtze River were studied, including the soils respectively undergoing systematic agriculture (gathering young tender shoots, reaping reed straws, and burning residual straws), fires and no disturbances. Results showed that the agricultural activities sharply decreased the contents of soil organic matter (SOM), N, P and K in subsurface soils but less decreased the surface SOM, N and K contents, whereas phosphorus were evidently decreased at both surface and subsurface layers. In contrast, the single application of fires caused a marked increase of SOM, N, P and K contents in both surface and subsurface soils but had little impacts on soil nutrient distributions. Soils under all the three conditions showed a relative increase of soil nutrients at riverbank foot. This comparative study indicated that the different or even contrary effects of riverbank management practices on soil nutrient statuses should be carefully taken into account when assessing the ecological effects of management practices.

Impacts of Soil-aquifer Heat and Water Fluxes on Simulated Global Climate

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krakauer, N.Y.; Puma, Michael J.; Cook, B. I.

2013-01-01

Climate models have traditionally only represented heat and water fluxes within relatively shallow soil layers, but there is increasing interest in the possible role of heat and water exchanges with the deeper subsurface. Here, we integrate an idealized 50m deep aquifer into the land surface module of the GISS ModelE general circulation model to test the influence of aquifer-soil moisture and heat exchanges on climate variables. We evaluate the impact on the modeled climate of aquifer-soil heat and water fluxes separately, as well as in combination. The addition of the aquifer to ModelE has limited impact on annual-mean climate, with little change in global mean land temperature, precipitation, or evaporation. The seasonal amplitude of deep soil temperature is strongly damped by the soil-aquifer heat flux. This not only improves the model representation of permafrost area but propagates to the surface, resulting in an increase in the seasonal amplitude of surface air temperature of >1K in the Arctic. The soil-aquifer water and heat fluxes both slightly decrease interannual variability in soil moisture and in landsurface temperature, and decrease the soil moisture memory of the land surface on seasonal to annual timescales. The results of this experiment suggest that deepening the modeled land surface, compared to modeling only a shallower soil column with a no-flux bottom boundary condition, has limited impact on mean climate but does affect seasonality and interannual persistence.

Snowmelt and Infiltration Deficiencies of SSiB and Their Resolution with a New Snow-Physics Scheme

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sud, Y. C.; Mocko, David M.

1999-01-01

A two-year 1987-1988 integration of SSiB forced with ISLSCP Initiative I surface data (as part of the Global Soil Wetness Project, GSWP, evaluation and intercomparison) produced generally realistic land surface fluxes and hydrology. Nevertheless, the evaluation also helped to identify some of the deficiencies of the current version of the Simplified Simple Biosphere (SSiB) model. The simulated snowmelt was delayed in most regions, along with excessive runoff and lack of an spring soil moisture recharge. The SSIB model had previously been noted to have a problem producing accurate soil moisture as compared to observations in the Russian snowmelt region. Similarly, various GSWP implementations of SSIB found deficiencies in this region of the simulated soil moisture and runoff as compared to other non-SSiB land-surface models (LSMs). The origin of these deficiencies was: 1) excessive cooling of the snow and ground, and 2) deep frozen soil disallowing snowmelt infiltration. The problem was most severe in regions that experience very cold winters. In SSiB, snow was treated as a unified layer with the first soil layer, causing soil and snow to cool together in the winter months, as opposed to snow cover acting as an insulator. In the spring season, a large amount of heat was required to thaw a hard frozen snow plus deep soil layers, delaying snowmelt and causing meltwater to become runoff over the frozen soil rather than infiltrate into it.

Is soil dressing a way once and for all in remediation of arsenic contaminated soils? A case study of arsenic re-accumulation in soils remediated by soil dressing in Hunan Province, China.

PubMed

Su, Shiming; Bai, Lingyu; Wei, Caibing; Gao, Xiang; Zhang, Tuo; Wang, Yanan; Li, Lianfang; Wang, Jinjin; Wu, Cuixia; Zeng, Xibai

2015-07-01

The investigation of arsenic (As) re-accumulation in an area previously remediated by soil dressing will help in sustainable controlling the risks of As to local ecosystems and should influence management decisions about remediation strategies. In this study, As content in an area remediated by soil dressing and the possible As accumulation risk in agricultural products were investigated. The results indicated that after 7 years of agricultural activities, the average As content (24.6 mg kg(-1)) in surface soil of the investigated area increased by 83.6% compared with that (13.4 mg kg(-1)) in clean soil. Of the surface soil samples (n = 88), 21.6% had As levels that exceeded the limits of the Environmental Quality Standard for Soils of China (GB 15618-1995) and 98.9% of the surface soil samples with As contents exceeding that in clean soil was observed. Soil dressing might be not a remediation method once and for all in some contaminated areas, even though no significant difference in available As content was found between clean (0.18 mg kg(-1)) and surface (0.22 mg kg(-1)) soils. The foreign As in surface soil of the investigated area mainly specifically sorbed with soil colloid or associated with hydrous oxides of Fe and Al, or existed in residual fraction. The upward movement of contaminated soil from the deeper layers and the atmospheric deposition of slag particles might be responsible for the re-accumulation of As in the investigated area. Decreases in soil pH in the investigated soils and the fact that no plant samples had As levels exceeding the limits of the National Food Safety Standards for Contaminants of China (GB 2762-2012) were also observed.

Leaching behaviour and environmental risk assessment of heavy metals from electronic solder in acidified soil.

PubMed

Lao, Xiaodong; Cheng, Congqian; Min, Xiaohua; Zhao, Jie; Zhou, Dayu; Li, Xiaogang

2015-11-01

The leaching behaviour of Sn and Pb elements from eutectic SnPb solder of electronic waste in acidic soil was investigated through acidification with HCl-H2SO4 solution and compared with saline solution. The amounts of Sn and Pb elements leached, when subjected to acidic soil, are higher than those with saline soil. Evidence for the significantly preferential release of Sn into the leachate is provided; the galvanic couple accelerated such preferential release. Surface product analysis reveals the slight damage of SnPb in saline soil. Serious dissolution due to electrochemical reaction and a thick, porous PbSO4 surface layer are observed in acidified soil, suggesting more severe toxicity potential of Pb in soil rather than in water.

Role of Vegetation and Mulch in Mitigating the Effects of Raindrop Impact on Runoff and Infiltration from Urban Vegetated Green Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alizadehtazi, B.; Montalto, F. A.

2013-12-01

Rain drop impact causes soil crust formation which, in turn, reduces infiltration rates and increases runoff, contributing to soil erosion, downstream flooding and non point source pollutant loads. Unprotected soil surfaces (e.g. without vegetation canopies, mulch, or other materials), are more susceptible to crust formation due to the higher kinetic energy associated with raindrop impact. This impulse breaks larger soil aggregates into smaller particles and disperses soil from its original position. The displaced soil particles self-stratify, with finer particles at the top forming the crust. By contrast, soil that is protected by vegetation canopies and mulch layers is less susceptible to crust formation, since these surfaces intercept raindrops, dissipating some of their kinetic energy prior to their impact with the soil. Very little research has sought to quantify the effect that canopies and mulch can have on this phenomenon. This presentation presents preliminary findings from ongoing study conducted using rainfall simulator to determine the ability of new urban vegetation and mulch to minimize soil crust formation. Three different scenarios are compared: a) bare soil, b) soil with mulch cover, and c) soil protected by vegetation canopies. Soil moisture, surface penetration resistance, and physical measurements of the volume of infiltrate and runoff are made on all three surface treatments after simulated rainfall events. The results are used to discuss green infrastructure facility maintenance and design strategies, namely whether heavily vegetated GI facilities require mulching to maintain infiltration capacity.

MORPHOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL COMPARISON OF MICROORGANISMS IN SURFACE SOIL AND SUBSURFACE SEDIMENTS AT A PRISTINE STUDY SITE IN OKLAHOMA (JOURNAL VERSION)

EPA Science Inventory

Surface-soil and subsurface microfloras at the site of a shallow aquifer in Oklahoma were examined and compared with respect to (1) total and viable cell numbers, (2) colony and cell types that grew on various plating media, (3) cell morphologies seen in flotation films stripped ...

Method for Implementing Subsurface Solid Derived Concentration Guideline Levels (DCGL) - 12331

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

Lively, J.W.

2012-07-01

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and other federal agencies currently approve the Multi-Agency Radiation Site Survey and Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) as guidance for licensees who are conducting final radiological status surveys in support of decommissioning. MARSSIM provides a method to demonstrate compliance with the applicable regulation by comparing residual radioactivity in surface soils with derived concentration guideline levels (DCGLs), but specifically discounts its applicability to subsurface soils. Many sites and facilities undergoing decommissioning contain subsurface soils that are potentially impacted by radiological constituents. In the absence of specific guidance designed to address the derivation of subsurface soil DCGLs andmore » compliance demonstration, decommissioning facilities have attempted to apply DCGLs and final status survey techniques designed specifically for surface soils to subsurface soils. The decision to apply surface soil limits and surface soil compliance metrics to subsurface soils typically results in significant over-excavation with associated cost escalation. MACTEC, Inc. has developed the overarching concepts and principles found in recent NRC decommissioning guidance in NUREG 1757 to establish a functional method to derive dose-based subsurface soil DCGLs. The subsurface soil method developed by MACTEC also establishes a rigorous set of criterion-based data evaluation metrics (with analogs to the MARSSIM methodology) that can be used to demonstrate compliance with the developed subsurface soil DCGLs. The method establishes a continuum of volume factors that relate the size and depth of a volume of subsurface soil having elevated concentrations of residual radioactivity with its ability to produce dose. The method integrates the subsurface soil sampling regime with the derivation of the subsurface soil DCGL such that a self-regulating optimization is naturally sought by both the responsible party and regulator. This paper describes the concepts and basis used by MACTEC to develop the dose-based subsurface soil DCGL method. The paper will show how MACTEC's method can be used to demonstrate that higher concentrations of residual radioactivity in subsurface soils (as compared with surface soils) can meet the NRC's dose-based regulations. MACTEC's method has been used successfully to obtain the NRC's radiological release at a site with known radiological impacts to subsurface soils exceeding the surface soil DCGL, saving both time and cost. Having considered the current NRC guidance for consideration of residual radioactivity in subsurface soils during decommissioning, MACTEC has developed a technically based approach to the derivation of and demonstration of compliance with subsurface soil DCGLs for radionuclides. In fact, the process uses the already accepted concepts and metrics approved for surface soils as the foundation for deriving scaling factors used to calculate subsurface soil DCGLs that are at least equally protective of the decommissioning annual dose standard. Each of the elements identified for consideration in the current NRC guidance is addressed in this proposed method. Additionally, there is considerable conservatism built into the assumptions and techniques used to arrive at subsurface soil scaling factors and DCGLs. The degree of conservatism embodied in the approach used is such that risk managers and decision makers approving and using subsurface soil DCGLs derived in accordance with this method can be confident that the future exposures will be well below permissible and safe levels. The technical basis for the method can be applied to a broad variety of sites with residual radioactivity in subsurface soils. Given the costly nature of soil surveys, excavation, and disposal of soils as low-level radioactive waste, MACTEC's method for deriving and demonstrating compliance with subsurface soil DCGLs offers the possibility of significant cost savings over the traditional approach of applying surface soil DCGLs to subsurface soils. Furthermore, while yet untested, MACTEC believes that the concepts and methods embodied in this approach could readily be applied to other types of contamination found in subsurface soils. (author)« less

40 CFR 265.280 - Closure and post-closure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

..., including amount, frequency, and pH of precipitation; (5) Geological and soil profiles and surface and subsurface hydrology of the site, and soil characteristics, including cation exchange capacity, total organic..., concentration, and depth of migration of hazardous waste constituents in the soil as compared to their...

40 CFR 265.280 - Closure and post-closure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

..., including amount, frequency, and pH of precipitation; (5) Geological and soil profiles and surface and subsurface hydrology of the site, and soil characteristics, including cation exchange capacity, total organic..., concentration, and depth of migration of hazardous waste constituents in the soil as compared to their...

40 CFR 265.280 - Closure and post-closure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

..., including amount, frequency, and pH of precipitation; (5) Geological and soil profiles and surface and subsurface hydrology of the site, and soil characteristics, including cation exchange capacity, total organic..., concentration, and depth of migration of hazardous waste constituents in the soil as compared to their...

40 CFR 265.280 - Closure and post-closure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., including amount, frequency, and pH of precipitation; (5) Geological and soil profiles and surface and subsurface hydrology of the site, and soil characteristics, including cation exchange capacity, total organic..., concentration, and depth of migration of hazardous waste constituents in the soil as compared to their...

40 CFR 265.280 - Closure and post-closure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

..., including amount, frequency, and pH of precipitation; (5) Geological and soil profiles and surface and subsurface hydrology of the site, and soil characteristics, including cation exchange capacity, total organic..., concentration, and depth of migration of hazardous waste constituents in the soil as compared to their...

Land cover effects on thresholds for surface runoff generation in Eastern Madagascar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Meerveld, Ilja H. J.; Prasad Ghimire, Chandra; Zwartendijk, Bob W.; Ravelona, Maafaka; Lahitiana, Jaona; Bruijnzeel, L. Adrian

2016-04-01

Reforestation and natural regrowth in the tropics are promoted for a wide range of benefits, including carbon sequestration, land rehabilitation and streamflow regulation. However, their effects on runoff generation mechanisms and streamflow are still poorly understood. Evaporative losses (transpiration and interception) likely increase with forest regrowth, while infiltration rates are expected to increase and surface runoff occurrence is, therefore, expected to decrease. As part of a larger project investigating the effects of land use on hydrological processes in upland Eastern Madagascar, this presentation reports on a comparison of the thresholds for surface runoff generation at a degraded grassland site, a young secondary forest site (5-7 years; LAI 1.83) and a mature secondary forest site (ca. 20 years; LAI 3.39). Surface runoff was measured on two (young and mature secondary forest) or three (degraded site) 3 m by 10 m plots over a one-year period (October 2014-September 2015). Soil moisture was measured at four (degraded site) to six depths (both forests), while perched groundwater levels were measured in piezometers installed at 30 cm below the soil surface. Soil hydraulic conductivity was measured in situ at the surface and at 10-20 and 20-30 cm depths at three locations in each plot. Porosity, moisture content at field capacity and bulk density were determined from soil cores taken at 2.5-7.5, 12.5-17.5 and 22.5-27.5 cm depth. The porosity and texture of the different plots were comparable. The hydraulic conductivity of the soil differed between the different land uses and declined sharply at 20-30 cm below the soil surface. Total surface runoff during the study period was 11% of incident rainfall at the degraded site vs. 2% for the two secondary forest sites. Maximum monthly runoff coefficients were 22%, 3.5% and 2.7% for the degraded site, the young forest site and the mature forest site, respectively, but individual event runoff coefficients could be as high as 45%, 12%, and 10%, respectively. Initial analyses indicate that a threshold rainfall amount was required before surface runoff occurs. Comparison of surface runoff occurrence with perched groundwater levels and soil moisture data showed that surface runoff was generated once the top-soil (0-20 cm) became saturated because of impeded drainage to the low hydraulic conductivity deeper layers. Thresholds for saturation overland flow generation were higher at the two forested sites compared to the degraded grassland due to their greater percolation to deeper layers, faster shallow lateral flow, and larger available storage in the top layers. The detailed analyses of the soil moisture and rainfall thresholds for surface runoff generation and their temporal variation will be used to develop a bucket-based conceptual model for runoff generation at these upland tropical sites. Key words: Runoff plot, rainfall threshold, soil moisture, saturation overland flow, secondary forest, soil hydraulic conductivity, Madagascar, p4ges project

Land surface dynamics monitoring using microwave passive satellite sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guijarro, Lizbeth Noemi

Soil moisture, surface temperature and vegetation are variables that play an important role in our environment. There is growing demand for accurate estimation of these geophysical parameters for the research of global climate models (GCMs), weather, hydrological and flooding models, and for the application to agricultural assessment, land cover change, and a wide variety of other uses that meet the needs for the study of our environment. The different studies covered in this dissertation evaluate the capabilities and limitations of microwave passive sensors to monitor land surface dynamics. The first study evaluates the 19 GHz channel of the SSM/I instrument with a radiative transfer model and in situ datasets from the Illinois stations and the Oklahoma Mesonet to retrieve land surface temperature and surface soil moisture. The surface temperatures were retrieved with an average error of 5 K and the soil moisture with an average error of 6%. The results show that the 19 GHz channel can be used to qualitatively predict the spatial and temporal variability of surface soil moisture and surface temperature at regional scales. In the second study, in situ observations were compared with sensor observations to evaluate aspects of low and high spatial resolution at multiple frequencies with data collected from the Southern Great Plains Experiment (SGP99). The results showed that the sensitivity to soil moisture at each frequency is a function of wavelength and amount of vegetation. The results confirmed that L-band is more optimal for soil moisture, but each sensor can provide soil moisture information if the vegetation water content is low. The spatial variability of the emissivities reveals that resolution suffers considerably at higher frequencies. The third study evaluates C- and X-bands of the AMSR-E instrument. In situ datasets from the Soil Moisture Experiments (SMEX03) in South Central Georgia were utilized to validate the AMSR-E soil moisture product and to derive surface soil moisture with a radiative transfer model. The soil moisture was retrieved with an average error of 2.7% at X-band and 6.7% at C-band. The AMSR-E demonstrated its ability to successfully infer soil moisture during the SMEX03 experiment.

Comparing soil moisture memory in satellite observations and models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stacke, Tobias; Hagemann, Stefan; Loew, Alexander

2013-04-01

A major obstacle to a correct parametrization of soil processes in large scale global land surface models is the lack of long term soil moisture observations for large parts of the globe. Currently, a compilation of soil moisture data derived from a range of satellites is released by the ESA Climate Change Initiative (ECV_SM). Comprising the period from 1978 until 2010, it provides the opportunity to compute climatological relevant statistics on a quasi-global scale and to compare these to the output of climate models. Our study is focused on the investigation of soil moisture memory in satellite observations and models. As a proxy for memory we compute the autocorrelation length (ACL) of the available satellite data and the uppermost soil layer of the models. Additional to the ECV_SM data, AMSR-E soil moisture is used as observational estimate. Simulated soil moisture fields are taken from ERA-Interim reanalysis and generated with the land surface model JSBACH, which was driven with quasi-observational meteorological forcing data. The satellite data show ACLs between one week and one month for the greater part of the land surface while the models simulate a longer memory of up to two months. Some pattern are similar in models and observations, e.g. a longer memory in the Sahel Zone and the Arabian Peninsula, but the models are not able to reproduce regions with a very short ACL of just a few days. If the long term seasonality is subtracted from the data the memory is strongly shortened, indicating the importance of seasonal variations for the memory in most regions. Furthermore, we analyze the change of soil moisture memory in the different soil layers of the models to investigate to which extent the surface soil moisture includes information about the whole soil column. A first analysis reveals that the ACL is increasing for deeper layers. However, its increase is stronger in the soil moisture anomaly than in its absolute values and the first even exceeds the latter in the deepest layer. From this we conclude that the seasonal soil moisture variations dominate the memory close to the surface but these are dampened in lower layers where the memory is mainly affected by longer term variations.

Study on the response of unsaturated soil slope based on the effects of rainfall intensity and slope angle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ismail, Mohd Ashraf Mohamad; Hamzah, Nur Hasliza

2017-07-01

Rainfall has been considered as the major cause of the slope failure. The mechanism leading to slope failures included the infiltration process, surface runoff, volumetric water content and pore-water pressure of the soil. This paper describes a study in which simulated rainfall events were used with 2-dimensional soil column to study the response of unsaturated soil behavior based on different slope angle. The 2-dimensional soil column is used in order to demonstrate the mechanism of the slope failure. These unsaturated soil were tested with four different slope (15°, 25°, 35° and 45°) and subjected to three different rainfall intensities (maximum, mean and minimum). The following key results were obtained: (1) the stability of unsaturated soil decrease as the rainwater infiltrates into the soil. Soil that initially in unsaturated state will start to reach saturated state when rainwater seeps into the soil. Infiltration of rainwater will reduce the matric suction in the soil. Matric suction acts in controlling soil shear strength. Reduction in matric suction affects the decrease in effective normal stress, which in turn diminishes the available shear strength to a point where equilibrium can no longer be sustained in the slope. (2) The infiltration rate of rainwater decreases while surface runoff increase when the soil nearly achieve saturated state. These situations cause the soil erosion and lead to slope failure. (3) The steepness of the soil is not a major factor but also contribute to slope failures. For steep slopes, rainwater that fall on the soil surface will become surface runoff within a short time compare to the water that infiltrate into the soil. While for gentle slopes, water that becomes surface runoff will move slowly and these increase the water that infiltrate into the soil.

New Mexico Tech landmine, UXO, IED detection sensor test facility: measurements in real field soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendrickx, Jan M. H.; Alkov, Nicole; Hong, Sung-ho; Van Dam, Remke L.; Kleissl, Jan; Shannon, Heather; Meason, John; Borchers, Brian; Harmon, Russell S.

2006-05-01

Modeling studies and experimental work have demonstrated that the dynamic behavior of soil physical properties has a significant effect on most sensors for the detection of buried land mines. An outdoor test site has been constructed allowing full control over soil water content and continuous monitoring of important soil properties and environmental conditions. Time domain reflectometry sensors and thermistors measure soil water1 content and temperature, respectively, at different depths above and below the land mines as well as in homogeneous soil away from the land mines. During the two-year operation of the test-site, the soils have evolved to reflect real field soil conditions. This paper compares visual observations as well as ground-penetrating radar and thermal infrared measurements at this site taken immediately after construction in early 2004 with measurements from early 2006. The visual observations reveal that the 2006 soil surfaces exhibit a much higher spatial variability due to the development of mini-reliefs, "loose" and "connected" soil crusts, cracks in clay soils, and vegetation. Evidence is presented that the increased variability of soil surface characteristics leads to a higher natural spatial variability of soil surface temperatures and, thus, to a lower probability to detect landmines using thermal imagery. No evidence was found that the soil surface changes affect the GPR signatures of landmines under the soil conditions encountered in this study. The New Mexico Tech outdoor Landmine Detection Sensor Test Facility is easily accessible and anyone interested is welcome to use it for sensor testing.

Land surface energy budget during dry spells: global CMIP5 AMIP simulations vs. satellite observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallego-Elvira, Belen; Taylor, Christopher M.; Harris, Phil P.; Ghent, Darren; Folwell, Sonja S.

2015-04-01

During extended periods without rain (dry spells), the soil can dry out due to vegetation transpiration and soil evaporation. At some point in this drying cycle, land surface conditions change from energy-limited to water-limited evapotranspiration, and this is accompanied by an increase of the ground and overlying air temperatures. Regionally, the characteristics of this transition determine the influence of soil moisture on air temperature and rainfall. Global Climate Models (GCMs) disagree on where and how strongly the surface energy budget is limited by soil moisture. Flux tower observations are improving our understanding of these dry down processes, but typical heterogeneous landscapes are too sparsely sampled to ascertain a representative regional response. Alternatively, satellite observations of land surface temperature (LST) provide indirect information about the surface energy partition at 1km resolution globally. In our study, we analyse how well the dry spell dynamics of LST are represented by GCMs across the globe. We use a spatially and temporally aggregated diagnostic to describe the composite response of LST during surface dry down in rain-free periods in distinct climatic regions. The diagnostic is derived from daytime MODIS-Terra LST observations and bias-corrected meteorological re-analyses, and compared against the outputs of historical climate simulations of seven models running the CMIP5 AMIP experiment. Dry spell events are stratified by antecedent precipitation, land cover type and geographic regions to assess the sensitivity of surface warming rates to soil moisture levels at the onset of a dry spell for different surface and climatic zones. In a number of drought-prone hot spot regions, we find important differences in simulated dry spell behaviour, both between models, and compared to observations. These model biases are likely to compromise seasonal forecasts and future climate projections.

Partitioning of metals in a degraded acid sulfate soil landscape: influence of tidal re-inundation.

PubMed

Claff, Salirian R; Sullivan, Leigh A; Burton, Edward D; Bush, Richard T; Johnston, Scott G

2011-11-01

The oxidation and acidification of sulfidic soil materials results in the re-partitioning of metals, generally to more mobile forms. In this study, we examine the partitioning of Fe, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn in the acidified surface soil (0-0.1 m) and the unoxidised sub-soil materials (1.3-1.5 m) of an acid sulfate soil landscape. Metal partitioning at this acidic site was then compared to an adjacent site that was previously acidified, but has since been remediated by tidal re-inundation. Differences in metal partitioning were determined using an optimised six-step sequential extraction procedure which targets the "labile", "acid-soluble", "organic", "crystalline oxide", "pyritic" and "residual" fractions. The surficial soil materials of the acidic site had experienced considerable losses of Cr, Cu, Mn and Ni compared to the underlying parent material due to oxidation and acidification, yet only minor losses of Fe and Zn. In general, the metals most depleted from the acidified surface soil materials exhibited the greatest sequestration in the surface soil materials of the tidally remediated site. An exception to this was iron, which accumulated to highly elevated concentrations in the surficial soil materials of the tidally remediated site. The "acid-soluble", "organic" and "pyritic" fractions displayed the greatest increase in metals following tidal remediation. This study demonstrates that prolonged tidal re-inundation of severely acidified acid sulfate soil landscapes leads to the immobilisation of trace metals through the surficial accumulation of iron oxides, organic material and pyrite. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phosphorus runoff losses from subsurface-applied poultry litter on coastal plain soils.

PubMed

Kibet, Leonard C; Allen, Arthur L; Kleinman, Peter J A; Feyereisen, Gary W; Church, Clinton; Saporito, Lou S; Way, Thomas R

2011-01-01

The application of poultry litter to soils is a water quality concern on the Delmarva Peninsula, as runoff contributes P to the eutrophic Chesapeake Bay. This study compared a new subsurface applicator for poultry litter with conventional surface application and tillage incorporation of litter on a Coastal Plain soil under no-till management. Monolith lysimeters (61 cm by 61 cm by 61 cm) were collected immediately after litter application and subjected to rainfall simulation (61 mm h(-1) 1 h) 15 and 42 d later. In the first rainfall event, subsurface application of litter significantly lowered total P losses in runoff (1.90 kg ha(-1)) compared with surface application (4.78 kg ha(-1)). Losses of P with subsurface application were not significantly different from disked litter or an unamended control. By the second event, total P losses did not differ significantly between surface and subsurface litter treatments but were at least twofold greater than losses from the disked and control treatments. A rising water table in the second event likely mobilized dissolved forms of P in subsurface-applied litter to the soil surface, enriching runoff water with P. Across both events, subsurface application of litter did not significantly decrease cumulative losses of P relative to surface-applied litter, whereas disking the litter into the soil did. Results confirm the short-term reduction of runoff P losses with subsurface litter application observed elsewhere but highlight the modifying effect of soil hydrology on this technology's ability to minimize P loss in runoff.

Using dry spell dynamics of land surface temperature to evaluate large-scale model representation of soil moisture control on evapotranspiration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, Christopher M.; Harris, Philip P.; Gallego-Elvira, Belen; Folwell, Sonja S.

2017-04-01

The soil moisture control on the partition of land surface fluxes between sensible and latent heat is a key aspect of land surface models used within numerical weather prediction and climate models. As soils dry out, evapotranspiration (ET) decreases, and the excess energy is used to warm the atmosphere. Poor simulations of this dynamic process can affect predictions of mean, and in particular, extreme air temperatures, and can introduce substantial biases into projections of climate change at regional scales. The lack of reliable observations of fluxes and root zone soil moisture at spatial scales that atmospheric models use (typically from 1 to several hundred kilometres), coupled with spatial variability in vegetation and soil properties, makes it difficult to evaluate the flux partitioning at the model grid box scale. To overcome this problem, we have developed techniques to use Land Surface Temperature (LST) to evaluate models. As soils dry out, LST rises, so it can be used under certain circumstances as a proxy for the partition between sensible and latent heat. Moreover, long time series of reliable LST observations under clear skies are available globally at resolutions of the order of 1km. Models can exhibit large biases in seasonal mean LST for various reasons, including poor description of aerodynamic coupling, uncertainties in vegetation mapping, and errors in down-welling radiation. Rather than compare long-term average LST values with models, we focus on the dynamics of LST during dry spells, when negligible rain falls, and the soil moisture store is drying out. The rate of warming of the land surface, or, more precisely, its warming rate relative to the atmosphere, emphasises the impact of changes in soil moisture control on the surface energy balance. Here we show the application of this approach to model evaluation, with examples at continental and global scales. We can compare the behaviour of both fully-coupled land-atmosphere models, and land surface models forced by observed meteorology. This approach provides insight into a fundamental process that affects predictions on multiple time scales, and which has an important impact for society.

Americium-241 in surface soil associated with the Hanford site and vicinity

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

Price, K.R.; Gilbert, R.O.; Gano, K.A.

1981-05-01

Various kinds of surface soil samples were collected and analyzed for Americium-241 (/sup 241/Am) to examine the feasibility of improving soil sample data for the Hanford Surface Environmental Surveillance Program. Results do not indicate that a major improvement would occur if procedures were changed from the current practices. Conclusions from this study are somewhat tempered by the very low levels of /sup 241/Am (< 0.10 pCi/g dry weight) detected in surface soil samples and by the fact that statistical significance depended on the type of statistical tests used. In general, the average concentration of /sup 241/Am in soil crust (0more » to 1.0 cm deep) was greater than the corresponding subsurface layer (1.0 to 2.5 cm deep), and the average concentration of /sup 241/Am in some onsite samples collected near the PUREX facility was greater than comparable samples collected 60 km upwind at an offsite location.« less

Spatial variability of specific surface area of arable soils in Poland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokolowski, S.; Sokolowska, Z.; Usowicz, B.

2012-04-01

Evaluation of soil spatial variability is an important issue in agrophysics and in environmental research. Knowledge of spatial variability of physico-chemical properties enables a better understanding of several processes that take place in soils. In particular, it is well known that mineralogical, organic, as well as particle-size compositions of soils vary in a wide range. Specific surface area of soils is one of the most significant characteristics of soils. It can be not only related to the type of soil, mainly to the content of clay, but also largely determines several physical and chemical properties of soils and is often used as a controlling factor in numerous biological processes. Knowledge of the specific surface area is necessary in calculating certain basic soil characteristics, such as the dielectric permeability of soil, water retention curve, water transport in the soil, cation exchange capacity and pesticide adsorption. The aim of the present study is two-fold. First, we carry out recognition of soil total specific surface area patterns in the territory of Poland and perform the investigation of features of its spatial variability. Next, semivariograms and fractal analysis are used to characterize and compare the spatial variability of soil specific surface area in two soil horizons (A and B). Specific surface area of about 1000 samples was determined by analyzing water vapor adsorption isotherms via the BET method. The collected data of the values of specific surface area of mineral soil representatives for the territory of Poland were then used to describe its spatial variability by employing geostatistical techniques and fractal theory. Using the data calculated for some selected points within the entire territory and along selected directions, the values of semivariance were determined. The slope of the regression line of the log-log plot of semi-variance versus the distance was used to estimate the fractal dimension, D. Specific surface area in A and B horizons was space-dependent, with the range of spatial dependence of about 2.5°. Variogram surfaces showed anisotropy of the specific surface area in both horizons with a trend toward the W to E directions. The smallest fractal dimensions were obtained for W to E directions and the highest values - for S to N directions. * The work was financially supported in part by the ESA Programme for European Cooperating States (PECS), No.98084 "SWEX-R, Soil Water and Energy Exchange/Research", AO3275.

Potential fate of SOC eroded from natural crusted soil surface under simulated wind driven storm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Liangang; Fister, Wolfgang; Greenwood, Philip; Hu, Yaxian; Kuhn, Nikolaus J.

2016-04-01

Improving the assessment of the impact of soil erosion on carbon (C) cycling requires a better understanding of the redistribution of eroded sediment and associated soil organic carbon (SOC) across agricultural landscapes. Recent studies conducted on dry-sieved aggregates in the laboratory demonstrated that aggregation can profoundly skew SOC redistribution and its subsequent fate by accelerating settling velocities of aggregated sediment compared to mineral grains, which in turn can increase SOC mineralization into greenhouse gases. However, the erodibility of the soil in the field is more variable than in the laboratory due to tillage, crus formation, drying-wetting and freeze-thaw cycles, and biological effects. This study aimed to investigate the potential fate of the SOC eroded from naturally developed soil surface and to compare the observations with those made in the laboratory. Simulated, short, high intensity wind driven storms were conducted on a crusted loam in the field. The sediments were fractionated with a settling tube according to their potential transport distances. The soil mass, SOC concentration and cumulative 80-day CO2 emission of each fraction were identified. The results show: 1) 53% of eroded sediment and 62% of eroded SOC from the natural surface in the field would be deposited across landscapes, which is six times and three times higher compared to that implied by mineral grains, respectively; 2) the preferential deposition of SOC-rich fast-settling sediment potentially releases approximately 50% more CO2 than the same layer of the non-eroded soil; 3) the respiration of the slow-settling fraction that is potentially transported to the aquatic systems was much more active compared to the other fractions and the bulk soil. Our results confirm in general the conclusions drawn from laboratory and thus demonstrate that aggregation can affect the redistribution of sediment associated SOC under field conditions, including an increase in emissions compared to bulk soil. Overall, this confirms that terrestrial SOC redistribution and the mineralization play an important role in erosion induced C cycling, with major uncertainties to be addressed.

The SIR-B observations of microwave backscatter dependence on soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation covers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, J. R.; Shiue, J. C.; Engman, E. T.; Rusek, M.; Steinmeier, C.

1986-01-01

An experiment was conducted from an L-band SAR aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in October 1984 to study the microwave backscatter dependence on soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation cover. The results based on the analyses of an image obtained at 21-deg incidence angle show a positive correlatlion between scattering coefficient and soil moisture content, with a sensitivity comparable to that derived from the ground radar measurements reported by Ulaby et al. (1978). The surface roughness strongly affects the microwave backscatter. A factor of two change in the standard deviation of surface roughness height gives a corresponding change of about 8 dB in the scattering coefficient. The microwave backscatter also depends on the vegetation types. Under the dry soil conditions, the scattering coefficient is observed to change from about -24 dB for an alfalfa or lettuce field to about -17 dB for a mature corn field. These results suggest that observations with a SAR system of multiple frequencies and polarizations are required to unravel the effects of soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation cover.

Soil Organic Matter Stabilization via Mineral Interactions in Forest Soils with Varying Saturation Frequency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Possinger, A. R.; Inagaki, T.; Bailey, S. W.; Kogel-Knabner, I.; Lehmann, J.

2017-12-01

Soil carbon (C) interaction with minerals and metals through surface adsorption and co-precipitation processes is important for soil organic C (SOC) stabilization. Co-precipitation (i.e., the incorporation of C as an "impurity" in metal precipitates as they form) may increase the potential quantity of mineral-associated C per unit mineral surface compared to surface adsorption: a potentially important and as yet unaccounted for mechanism of C stabilization in soil. However, chemical, physical, and biological characterization of co-precipitated SOM as such in natural soils is limited, and the relative persistence of co-precipitated C is unknown, particularly under dynamic environmental conditions. To better understand the relationships between SOM stabilization via organometallic co-precipitation and environmental variables, this study compares mineral-SOM characteristics across a forest soil (Spodosol) hydrological gradient with expected differences in co-precipitation of SOM with iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) due to variable saturation frequency. Soils were collected from a steep, well-drained forest soil transect with low, medium, and high frequency of water table intrusion into surface soils (Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Woodstock, NH). Lower saturation frequency soils generally had higher C content, C/Fe, C/Al, and other indicators of co-precipitation interactions resulting from SOM complexation, transport, and precipitation, an important process of Spodosol formation. Preliminary Fe X-ray Absorption Spectroscopic (XAS) characterization of SOM and metal chemistry in low frequency profiles suggest co-precipitation of SOM in the fine fraction (<20 µm). Short-term (10d) aerobic incubation of high and low saturation frequency soils showed greater SOC mineralization per unit soil C for low saturation frequency (i.e., higher co-precipitation) soils; however, increased mineralization may be attributed to non-mineral associated fractions of SOM. Further work to identify the component of SOM contributing to rapid mineralization using 13C-labeled substrates will link the observed chemical characteristics (13C-NMR, C K-edge XANES, and Fe XAS) of mineral-organic associations resulting from varying saturation frequency with mechanisms driving mineralization processes.

Culturable fungi in potting soils and compost.

PubMed

Haas, Doris; Lesch, Susanne; Buzina, Walter; Galler, Herbert; Gutschi, Anna Maria; Habib, Juliana; Pfeifer, Bettina; Luxner, Josefa; Reinthaler, Franz F

2016-11-01

In the present study the spectrum and the incidence of fungi in potting soils and compost was investigated. Since soil is one of the most important biotopes for fungi, relatively high concentrations of fungal propagules are to be expected. For detection of fungi, samples of commercial soils, compost and soils from potted plants (both surface and sub-surface) were suspended and plated onto several mycological media. The resulting colonies were evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. The results from the different sampling series vary, but concentrations on the surface of potted plants and in commercial soils are increased tenfold compared to compost and sub-surface soils. Median values range from 9.5 × 10(4) colony forming units (CFU)/g to 5.5 × 10(5) CFU/g. The spectrum of fungi also varies in the soils. However, all sampling series show high proportion of Aspergillus and Penicillium species, including potentially pathogenic species such as Aspergillus fumigatus. Cladosporium, a genus dominant in the ambient air, was found preferably in samples which were in contact with the air. The results show that potentially pathogenic fungi are present in soils. Immunocompromised individuals should avoid handling soils or potted plants in their immediate vicinity. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The International Society for Human and Animal Mycology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Simulating root-induced rhizosphere deformation and its effect on water flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aravena, J. E.; Ruiz, S.; Mandava, A.; Regentova, E. E.; Ghezzehei, T.; Berli, M.; Tyler, S. W.

2011-12-01

Soil structure in the rhizosphere is influenced by root activities, such as mucilage production, microbial activity and root growth. Root growth alters soil structure by moving and deforming soil aggregates, affecting water and nutrient flow from the bulk soil to the root surface. In this study, we utilized synchrotron X-ray micro-tomography (XMT) and finite element analysis to quantify the effect of root-induced compaction on water flow through the rhizosphere to the root surface. In a first step, finite element meshes of structured soil around the root were created by processing rhizosphere XMT images. Then, soil deformation by root expansion was simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics° (Version 4.2) considering the soil an elasto-plastic porous material. Finally, fluid flow simulations were carried out on the deformed mesh to quantify the effect of root-induced compaction on water flow to the root surface. We found a 31% increase in water flow from the bulk soil to the root due to a 56% increase in root diameter. Simulations also show that the increase of root-soil contact area was the dominating factor with respect to the calculated increase in water flow. Increase of inter-aggregate contacts in size and number were observed within a couple of root diameters away from the root surface. But their influence on water flow was, in this case, rather limited compared to the immediate soil-root contact.

Impact of SMOS soil moisture data assimilation on NCEP-GFS forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhan, X.; Zheng, W.; Meng, J.; Dong, J.; Ek, M.

2012-04-01

Soil moisture is one of the few critical land surface state variables that have long memory to impact the exchanges of water, energy and carbon between the land surface and atmosphere. Accurate information about soil moisture status is thus required for numerical weather, seasonal climate and hydrological forecast as well as for agricultural production forecasts, water management and many other water related economic or social activities. Since the successful launch of ESA's soil moisture ocean salinity (SMOS) mission in November 2009, about 2 years of soil moisture retrievals has been collected. SMOS is believed to be the currently best satellite sensors for soil moisture remote sensing. Therefore, it becomes interesting to examine how the collected SMOS soil moisture data are compared with other satellite-sensed soil moisture retrievals (such as NASA's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer -AMSR-E and EUMETSAT's Advanced Scatterometer - ASCAT)), in situ soil moisture measurements, and how these data sets impact numerical weather prediction models such as the Global Forecast System of NOAA-NCEP. This study implements the Ensemble Kalman filter in GFS to assimilate the AMSR-E, ASCAT and SMOS soil moisture observations after a quantitative assessment of their error rate based on in situ measurements from ground networks around contiguous United States. in situ soil moisture measurements from ground networks (such as USDA Soil Climate Analysis network - SCAN and NOAA's U.S. Climate Reference Network -USCRN) are used to evaluate the GFS soil moisture simulations (analysis). The benefits and uncertainties of assimilating the satellite data products in GFS are examined by comparing the GFS forecasts of surface temperature and rainfall with and without the assimilations. From these examinations, the advantages of SMOS soil moisture data products over other satellite soil moisture data sets will be evaluated. The next step toward operationally assimilating soil moisture and other land observations into GFS will also be discussed.

Response surface method in geotechnical/structural analysis, phase 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, F. S.

1981-02-01

In the response surface approach, an approximating function is fit to a long running computer code based on a limited number of code calculations. The approximating function, called the response surface, is then used to replace the code in subsequent repetitive computations required in a statistical analysis. The procedure of the response surface development and feasibility of the method are shown using a sample problem in slop stability which is based on data from centrifuge experiments of model soil slopes and involves five random soil parameters. It is shown that a response surface can be constructed based on as few as four code calculations and that the response surface is computationally extremely efficient compared to the code calculation. Potential applications of this research include probabilistic analysis of dynamic, complex, nonlinear soil/structure systems such as slope stability, liquefaction, and nuclear reactor safety.

Advances in Land Data Assimilation at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reichle, Rolf

2009-01-01

Research in land surface data assimilation has grown rapidly over the last decade. In this presentation we provide a brief overview of key research contributions by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The GSFC contributions to land assimilation primarily include the continued development and application of the Land Information System (US) and the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). In particular, we have developed a method to generate perturbation fields that are correlated in space, time, and across variables and that permit the flexible modeling of errors in land surface models and observations, along with an adaptive filtering approach that estimates observation and model error input parameters. A percentile-based scaling method that addresses soil moisture biases in model and observational estimates opened the path to the successful application of land data assimilation to satellite retrievals of surface soil moisture. Assimilation of AMSR-E surface soil moisture retrievals into the NASA Catchment model provided superior surface and root zone assimilation products (when validated against in situ measurements and compared to the model estimates or satellite observations alone). The multi-model capabilities of US were used to investigate the role of subsurface physics in the assimilation of surface soil moisture observations. Results indicate that the potential of surface soil moisture assimilation to improve root zone information is higher when the surface to root zone coupling is stronger. Building on this experience, GSFC leads the development of the Level 4 Surface and Root-Zone Soil Moisture (L4_SM) product for the planned NASA Soil-Moisture-Active-Passive (SMAP) mission. A key milestone was the design and execution of an Observing System Simulation Experiment that quantified the contribution of soil moisture retrievals to land data assimilation products as a function of retrieval and land model skill and yielded an estimate of the error budget for the SMAP L4_SM product. Terrestrial water storage observations from GRACE satellite system were also successfully assimilated into the NASA Catchment model and provided improved estimates of groundwater variability when compared to the model estimates alone. Moreover, satellite-based land surface temperature (LST) observations from the ISCCP archive were assimilated using a bias estimation module that was specifically designed for LST assimilation. As with soil moisture, LST assimilation provides modest yet statistically significant improvements when compared to the model or satellite observations alone. To achieve the improvement, however, the LST assimilation algorithm must be adapted to the specific formulation of LST in the land model. An improved method for the assimilation of snow cover observations was also developed. Finally, the coupling of LIS to the mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model enabled investigations into how the sensitivity of land-atmosphere interactions to the specific choice of planetary boundary layer scheme and land surface model varies across surface moisture regimes, and how it can be quantified and evaluated against observations. The on-going development and integration of land assimilation modules into the Land Information System will enable the use of GSFC software with a variety of land models and make it accessible to the research community.

Towards the Wetness Characterization of Soil Subsurface Using Fibre Optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciocca, F.; Bodet, L.; Simon, N.; Karaulanov, R.; Clarke, A.; Abesser, C.; Krause, S.; Chalari, A.; Mondanos, M.

2017-12-01

Active seismic methods combined with detectors deployed at the soil surface, such as vertical collinear geophones, have revealed great potential for hydrogeophysical characterization of the soil vadose zone. In particular, recent findings have highlighted a clear dependence of both P-waves arrival times and surface-wave dispersion on the local degree of soil saturation, visible at laboratory as well as at field scale. In this study, we investigate the sensitivity of a fibre optic Distributed Acoustic Sensor (DAS) to different soil saturation. In vertical seismic applications, DAS have proven to offer equal and often better performance compared to the geophones, with the advantage that a fibre optic cable, whose length can reach 40 km, replaces the array of geophones as sensing element. We present the response to active seismic tests of 20 m of fibre optic cable buried in a poorly permeable bare soil. Tests were conducted in different moments of the year, with saturation monitored by means of independent dielectric probes. Body-wave travel times as well as surface-wave dispersion are compared. Finally, we discuss the possibility to determine a site-specific relation between the Poisson ratio and the soil saturation. This research has been performed in the framework of the British National Environmental Research Council (NERC) funded Distributed intelligent Heat Pulse System (DiHPS) project and of the Marie Curie H2020 Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) consortium Hi-Freq.

Impact of groundwater capillary rises as lower boundary conditions for soil moisture in a land surface model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vergnes, Jean-Pierre; Decharme, Bertrand; Habets, Florence

2014-05-01

Groundwater is a key component of the global hydrological cycle. It sustains base flow in humid climate while it receives seepage in arid region. Moreover, groundwater influences soil moisture through water capillary rise into the soil and potentially affects the energy and water budget between the land surface and the atmosphere. Despite its importance, most global climate models do not account for groundwater and their possible interaction with both the surface hydrology and the overlying atmosphere. This study assesses the impact of capillary rise from shallow groundwater on the simulated water budget over France. The groundwater scheme implemented in the Total Runoff Integrated Pathways (TRIP) river routing model in a previous study is coupled with the Interaction between Soil Biosphere Atmosphere (ISBA) land surface model. In this coupling, the simulated water table depth acts as the lower boundary condition for the soil moisture diffusivity equation. An original parameterization accounting for the subgrid elevation inside each grid cell is proposed in order to compute this fully-coupled soil lower boundary condition. Simulations are performed at high (1/12°) and low (0.5°) resolutions and evaluated over the 1989-2009 period. Compared to a free-drain experiment, upward capillary fluxes at the bottom of soil increase the mean annual evapotranspiration simulated over the aquifer domain by 3.12 % and 1.54 % at fine and low resolutions respectively. This process logically induces a decrease of the simulated recharge from ISBA to the aquifers and contributes to enhance the soil moisture memory. The simulated water table depths are then lowered, which induces a slight decrease of the simulated mean annual river discharges. However, the fully-coupled simulations compare well with river discharge and water table depth observations which confirms the relevance of the coupling formalism.

Resolving terrestrial ecosystem processes along a subgrid topographic gradient for an earth-system model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Subin, Z M; Milly, Paul C.D.; Sulman, B N; Malyshev, Sergey; Shevliakova, E

2014-01-01

Soil moisture is a crucial control on surface water and energy fluxes, vegetation, and soil carbon cycling. Earth-system models (ESMs) generally represent an areal-average soil-moisture state in gridcells at scales of 50–200 km and as a result are not able to capture the nonlinear effects of topographically-controlled subgrid heterogeneity in soil moisture, in particular where wetlands are present. We addressed this deficiency by building a subgrid representation of hillslope-scale topographic gradients, TiHy (Tiled-hillslope Hydrology), into the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) land model (LM3). LM3-TiHy models one or more representative hillslope geometries for each gridcell by discretizing them into land model tiles hydrologically coupled along an upland-to-lowland gradient. Each tile has its own surface fluxes, vegetation, and vertically-resolved state variables for soil physics and biogeochemistry. LM3-TiHy simulates a gradient in soil moisture and water-table depth between uplands and lowlands in each gridcell. Three hillslope hydrological regimes appear in non-permafrost regions in the model: wet and poorly-drained, wet and well-drained, and dry; with large, small, and zero wetland area predicted, respectively. Compared to the untiled LM3 in stand-alone experiments, LM3-TiHy simulates similar surface energy and water fluxes in the gridcell-mean. However, in marginally wet regions around the globe, LM3-TiHy simulates shallow groundwater in lowlands, leading to higher evapotranspiration, lower surface temperature, and higher leaf area compared to uplands in the same gridcells. Moreover, more than four-fold larger soil carbon concentrations are simulated globally in lowlands as compared with uplands. We compared water-table depths to those simulated by a recent global model-observational synthesis, and we compared wetland and inundated areas diagnosed from the model to observational datasets. The comparisons demonstrate that LM3-TiHy has the capability to represent some of the controls of these hydrological variables, but also that improvement in parameterization and input datasets are needed for more realistic simulations. We found large sensitivity in model-diagnosed wetland and inundated area to the depth of conductive soil and the parameterization of macroporosity. With improved parameterization and inclusion of peatland biogeochemical processes, the model could provide a new approach to investigating the vulnerability of Boreal peatland carbon to climate change in ESMs.

Bacterial polyextremotolerant bioemulsifiers from arid soils improve water retention capacity and humidity uptake in sandy soil.

PubMed

Raddadi, Noura; Giacomucci, Lucia; Marasco, Ramona; Daffonchio, Daniele; Cherif, Ameur; Fava, Fabio

2018-05-31

Water stress is a critical issue for plant growth in arid sandy soils. Here, we aimed to select bacteria producing polyextremotolerant surface-active compounds capable of improving water retention and humidity uptake in sandy soils. From Tunisian desert and saline systems, we selected eleven isolates able to highly emulsify different organic solvents. The bioemulsifying activities were stable with 30% NaCl, at 4 and 120 °C and in a pH range 4-12. Applications to a sandy soil of the partially purified surface-active compounds improved soil water retention up to 314.3% compared to untreated soil. Similarly, after 36 h of incubation, the humidity uptake rate of treated sandy soil was up to 607.7% higher than untreated controls. Overall, results revealed that polyextremotolerant bioemulsifiers of bacteria from arid and desert soils represent potential sources to develop new natural soil-wetting agents for improving water retention in arid soils.

Stabilization of ancient organic matter in deep buried paleosols

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marin-Spiotta, E.; Chaopricha, N. T.; Mueller, C.; Diefendorf, A. F.; Plante, A. F.; Grandy, S.; Mason, J. A.

2012-12-01

Buried soils representing ancient surface horizons can contain large organic carbon reservoirs that may interact with the atmosphere if exposed by erosion, road construction, or strip mining. Paleosols in long-term depositional sites provide a unique opportunity for studying the importance of different mechanisms on the persistence of organic matter (OM) over millennial time-scales. We report on the chemistry and bioavailability of OM stored in the Brady soil, a deeply buried (7 m) paleosol in loess deposits of southwestern Nebraska, USA. The Brady Soil developed 9,000-13,500 years ago during a time of warming and drying. The Brady soil represents a dark brown horizon enriched in C relative to loess immediately above and below. Spanning much of the central Great Plains, this buried soil contains large C stocks due to the thickness of its A horizon (0.5 to 1 m) and wide geographic extent. Our research provides a unique perspective on long-term OM stabilization in deep soils using multiple analytical approaches. Soils were collected from the Brady soil A horizon (at 7 m depth) and modern surface A horizons (0-15 cm) at two sites for comparison. Soils were separated by density fractionation using 1.85 g ml-1 sodium polytungstate into: free particulate organic matter (fPOM) and aggregate-occluded (oPOM) of two size classes (large: >20 μm, and small: < 20 μm). The remaining dense fraction was separated into sand, silt, and clay size fractions. The distribution and age of C among density and particle-size fractions differed between surface and Brady soils. We isolated the source of the characteristic dark coloring of the Brady soil to the oPOM-small fraction, which also contained 20% of the total organic C pool in the Brady soil. The oPOM-small fraction and the bulk soil in the middle of the Brady A horizon had 14C ages of 10,500-12,400 cal yr BP, within the time that the soil was actively forming at the land surface. Surface soils showed modern ages. Lipid analyses of the Brady soil indicate a predominance of terrestrial vegetation biomarkers. The strong presence of vascular plant-derived terpenoids and long-chain n-alkyl lipids suggest a grassland origin. Respiration rates of the buried soil in a laboratory incubation were negligible compared to modern surface A and B horizons, and responded little to wetting. These results suggest that moisture alone does not limit decomposition in the buried soil, at least over the 120-day incubation. Solid-state 13C-NMR spectroscopy reveals that the Brady soil is enriched in aromatic C, with high contributions of char, especially in the oPOM-small fraction. Thermal analysis showed high thermal stability of oPOM-small and bulk soils in the Brady soil compared to modern surface horizons. Radiocarbon ages and chemical composition of OM isolated from a deep paleosol suggest little modification since burial and may indicate rapid stabilization of plant-derived organic C by burial. The accumulation of char in the aggregate-protected fraction of the Brady soil provides additional evidence for warming and drying conditions during the time of loess deposition at this site. Developing a better understanding of the mechanisms that control long-term SOM stabilization is important for understanding how soil C is sequestered over millennia and for predicting how future disturbances may affect deep soil C.

Retention and loss of water extractable carbon in soils: effect of clay properties.

PubMed

Nguyen, Trung-Ta; Marschner, Petra

2014-02-01

Clay sorption is important for organic carbon (C) sequestration in soils, but little is known about the effect of different clay properties on organic C sorption and release. To investigate the effect of clay content and properties on sorption, desorption and loss of water extractable organic C (WEOC), two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, a loamy sand alone (native) or mixed with clay isolated from a surface or subsoil (78 and 96% clay) resulting in 90, 158 and 175 g clay kg(-1) soil. These soil treatments were leached with different WEOC concentrations, and then CO2 release was measured for 28 days followed by leaching with reverse osmosis water at the end of experiment. The second experiment was conducted to determine WEOC sorption and desorption of clays isolated from the loamy sand (native), surface soil and subsoil. Addition of clays isolated from surface and subsoil to sandy loam increased WEOC sorption and reduced C leaching and cumulative respiration in percentage of total organic C and WEOC added when expressed per g soil and per g clay. Compared to clays isolated from the surface and subsoil, the native clay had higher concentrations of illite and exchangeable Ca(2+), total organic C and a higher CEC but a lower extractable Fe/Al concentration. This indicates that compared to the clay isolated from the surface and the subsoil, the native clay had fewer potential WEOC binding sites because it had lower Fe/Al content thus lower number of binding sites and the existing binding sites are already occupied native organic matter. The results of this study suggest that in the soils used here, the impact of clay on WEOC sorption and loss is dependent on its indigenous organic carbon and Fe and/or Al concentrations whereas clay mineralogy, CEC, exchangeable Ca(2+) and surface area are less important. © 2013.

Factors influencing soil-surface bulk density on oak savanna rangeland in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills

Treesearch

Dennis M. Dudley; Kenneth W. Tate; Neil K. McDougald; Melvin R. George

2002-01-01

The objectives of this study were to compare soil-surface bulk density between rangeland pastures not grazed since 1935, 1975, and 1995 to grazed areas with a 15-year record of light (>1,000 lbs ac-1 RDM), moderate (600-800 lbs ac-1 RDM), and heavy (-1 RDM) grazing by beef cattle; and...

Application of the Nimbus 5 ESMR to rainfall detection over land surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meneely, J. M.

1975-01-01

The ability of the Nimbus 5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) to detect rainfall over land surfaces was evaluated. The ESMR brightness temperatures (Tb sub B) were compared with rainfall reports from climatological stations for a limited number of rain events over portions of the U.S. The greatly varying emissivity of land surfaces precludes detection of actively raining areas. Theoretical calculations using a ten-layer atmospheric model showed this to be an expected result. Detection of rain which had fallen was deemed feasible over certain types of land surfaces by comparing the Tb sub B fields before and after the rain fell. This procedure is reliable only over relatively smooth terrain having a substantial fraction of bare soil, such as exists in major agricultural regions during the dormant or early growing seasons. Soil moisture budgets were computed at selected sites to show how the observed emissivity responded to changes in the moisture content of the upper soil zone.

Evaluation of groundwater and soil pollution in a landfill area using electrical resistivity imaging survey.

PubMed

Ahmed, A M; Sulaiman, W N

2001-11-01

Landfills are sources of groundwater and soil pollution due to the production of leachate and its migration through refuse. This study was conducted in order to determine the extent of groundwater and soil pollution within and around the landfill of Seri Petaling located in the State of Selangor, Malaysia. The condition of nearby surface water was also determined. An electrical resistivity imaging survey was used to investigate the leachate production within the landfill. Groundwater geochemistry was carried out and chemical analysis of water samples was conducted upstream and downstream of the landfill. Surface water was also analyzed in order to determine its quality. Soil chemical analysis was performed on soil samples taken from different locations within and around the landfill in the vadose zone (unsaturated zone) and below the water table (in the soil saturated zone). The resistivity image along line L-L1 indicated the presence of large zones of decomposed waste bodies saturated with highly conducting leachate. Analysis of trace elements indicated their presence in very low concentrations and did not reflect any sign of heavy metal pollution of ground and surface water or of soil. Major ions represented by Na, K, and Cl were found in anomalous concentrations in the groundwater of the downstream bore hole, where they are 99.1%, 99.2%, and 99.4%, respectively, higher compared to the upstream bore hole. Electrical conductivity (EC) was also found in anomalous concentration downstream. Ca and Mg ions represent the water hardness (which is comparatively high downstream). There is a general trend of pollution towards the downstream area. Sulfates (SO4) and nitrates (NO3) are found in the area in low concentrations, even below the WHO standards for drinking water, but are significantly higher in the surface water compared to the groundwater. Phosphate (PO4) and nitrite (NO2), although present in low levels, are significantly higher at the downstream. There is no significant difference in the amount of fluoride (F) in the different locations. In the soil vadose zone, heavy metals were found to be in their typical normal ranges and within the background concentrations. Soil exchangeable bases were significantly higher in the soil saturated zone compared to the vadose zone, and no significant difference was obtained in the levels of inorganic pollutants. With the exception of Cd, the concentration ranges of all trace elements (Cu, Zn, Cr, Pb, and Ni) of Seri Petaling landfill soils were below the upper limits of baseline concentrations published from different sources.

Response of seasonal soil freeze depth to climate change across China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Xiaoqing; Zhang, Tingjun; Frauenfeld, Oliver W.; Wang, Kang; Cao, Bin; Zhong, Xinyue; Su, Hang; Mu, Cuicui

2017-05-01

The response of seasonal soil freeze depth to climate change has repercussions for the surface energy and water balance, ecosystems, the carbon cycle, and soil nutrient exchange. Despite its importance, the response of soil freeze depth to climate change is largely unknown. This study employs the Stefan solution and observations from 845 meteorological stations to investigate the response of variations in soil freeze depth to climate change across China. Observations include daily air temperatures, daily soil temperatures at various depths, mean monthly gridded air temperatures, and the normalized difference vegetation index. Results show that soil freeze depth decreased significantly at a rate of -0.18 ± 0.03 cm yr-1, resulting in a net decrease of 8.05 ± 1.5 cm over 1967-2012 across China. On the regional scale, soil freeze depth decreases varied between 0.0 and 0.4 cm yr-1 in most parts of China during 1950-2009. By investigating potential climatic and environmental driving factors of soil freeze depth variability, we find that mean annual air temperature and ground surface temperature, air thawing index, ground surface thawing index, and vegetation growth are all negatively associated with soil freeze depth. Changes in snow depth are not correlated with soil freeze depth. Air and ground surface freezing indices are positively correlated with soil freeze depth. Comparing these potential driving factors of soil freeze depth, we find that freezing index and vegetation growth are more strongly correlated with soil freeze depth, while snow depth is not significant. We conclude that air temperature increases are responsible for the decrease in seasonal freeze depth. These results are important for understanding the soil freeze-thaw dynamics and the impacts of soil freeze depth on ecosystem and hydrological process.

Adapting HYDRUS-1D to Simulate Overland Flow and Reactive Transport During Sheet Flow Deviations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, J.; Bradford, S. A.; Simunek, J.; Hartmann, A.

2017-12-01

The HYDRUS-1D code is a popular numerical model for solving the Richards equation for variably-saturated water flow and solute transport in porous media. This code was adapted to solve rather than the Richards equation for subsurface flow the diffusion wave equation for overland flow at the soil surface. The numerical results obtained by the new model produced an excellent agreement with the analytical solution of the kinematic wave equation. Model tests demonstrated its applicability to simulate the transport and fate of many different solutes, such as non-adsorbing tracers, nutrients, pesticides, and microbes. However, the diffusion wave or kinematic wave equations describe surface runoff as sheet flow with a uniform depth and velocity across the slope. In reality, overland water flow and transport processes are rarely uniform. Local soil topography, vegetation, and spatial soil heterogeneity control directions and magnitudes of water fluxes, and strongly influence runoff characteristics. There is increasing evidence that variations in soil surface characteristics influence the distribution of overland flow and transport of pollutants. These spatially varying surface characteristics are likely to generate non-equilibrium flow and transport processes. HYDRUS-1D includes a hierarchical series of models of increasing complexity to account for both physical equilibrium and non-equilibrium, e.g., dual-porosity and dual-permeability models, up to a dual-permeability model with immobile water. The same conceptualization as used for the subsurface was implemented to simulate non-equilibrium overland flow and transport at the soil surface. The developed model improves our ability to describe non-equilibrium overland flow and transport processes and to improves our understanding of factors that cause this behavior. The HYDRUS-1D overland flow and transport model was additionally also extended to simulate soil erosion. The HYDRUS-1D Soil Erosion Model has been verified by comparing with other soil erosion models. The model performed well when the average soil particle size is relatively large. The performance of the soil erosion model has been further validated by comparing with selected experimental datasets from the literature.

A quantitative comparison of soil moisture inversion algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zyl, J. J. van; Kim, Y.

2001-01-01

This paper compares the performance of four bare surface radar soil moisture inversion algorithms in the presence of measurement errors. The particular errors considered include calibration errors, system thermal noise, local topography and vegetation cover.

Remote Sensing Soil Moisture Analysis by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Digital Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeh, C. Y.; Lin, H. R.; Chen, Y. L.; Huang, S. Y.; Wen, J. C.

2017-12-01

In recent years, remote sensing analysis has been able to apply to the research of climate change, environment monitoring, geology, hydro-meteorological, and so on. However, the traditional methods for analyzing wide ranges of surface soil moisture of spatial distribution surveys may require plenty resources besides the high cost. In the past, remote sensing analysis performed soil moisture estimates through shortwave, thermal infrared ray, or infrared satellite, which requires lots of resources, labor, and money. Therefore, the digital image color was used to establish the multiple linear regression model. Finally, we can find out the relationship between surface soil color and soil moisture. In this study, we use the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to take an aerial photo of the fallow farmland. Simultaneously, we take the surface soil sample from 0-5 cm of the surface. The soil will be baking by 110° C and 24 hr. And the software ImageJ 1.48 is applied for the analysis of the digital images and the hue analysis into Red, Green, and Blue (R, G, B) hue values. The correlation analysis is the result from the data obtained from the image hue and the surface soil moisture at each sampling point. After image and soil moisture analysis, we use the R, G, B and soil moisture to establish the multiple regression to estimate the spatial distributions of surface soil moisture. In the result, we compare the real soil moisture and the estimated soil moisture. The coefficient of determination (R2) can achieve 0.5-0.7. The uncertainties in the field test, such as the sun illumination, the sun exposure angle, even the shadow, will affect the result; therefore, R2 can achieve 0.5-0.7 reflects good effect for the in-suit test by using the digital image to estimate the soil moisture. Based on the outcomes of the research, using digital images from UAV to estimate the surface soil moisture is acceptable. However, further investigations need to be collected more than ten days (four times a day) data to verify the relation between the image hue and the soil moisture for reliable moisture estimated model. And it is better to use the digital single lens reflex camera to prevent the deformation of the image and to have a better auto exposure. Keywords: soil, moisture, remote sensing

Soil seal development under simulated rainfall: Structural, physical and hydrological dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Armenise, Elena; Simmons, Robert W.; Ahn, Sujung; Garbout, Amin; Doerr, Stefan H.; Mooney, Sacha J.; Sturrock, Craig J.; Ritz, Karl

2018-01-01

This study delivers new insights into rainfall-induced seal formation through a novel approach in the use of X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). Up to now seal and crust thickness have been directly quantified mainly through visual examination of sealed/crusted surfaces, and there has been no quantitative method to estimate this important property. X-ray CT images were quantitatively analysed to derive formal measures of seal and crust thickness. A factorial experiment was established in the laboratory using open-topped microcosms packed with soil. The factors investigated were soil type (three soils: silty clay loam - ZCL, sandy silt loam - SZL, sandy loam - SL) and rainfall duration (2-14 min). Surface seal formation was induced by applying artificial rainfall events, characterised by variable duration, but constant kinetic energy, intensity, and raindrop size distribution. Soil porosities derived from CT scans were used to quantify the thickness of the rainfall-induced surface seals and reveal temporal seal micro-morphological variations with increasing rainfall duration. In addition, the water repellency and infiltration dynamics of the developing seals were investigated by measuring water drop penetration time (WDPT) and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (Kun). The range of seal thicknesses detected varied from 0.6 to 5.4 mm. Soil textural characteristics and OM content played a central role in the development of rainfall-induced seals, with coarser soil particles and lower OM content resulting in thicker seals. Two different trends in soil porosity vs. depth were identified: i) for SL soil porosity was lowest at the immediate soil surface, it then increased constantly with depth till the median porosity of undisturbed soil was equalled; ii) for ZCL and SL the highest reduction in porosity, as compared to the median porosity of undisturbed soil, was observed in a well-defined zone of maximum porosity reduction c. 0.24-0.48 mm below the soil surface. This contrasting behaviour was related to different dynamics and processes of seal formation which depended on the soil properties. The impact of rainfall-induced surface sealing on the hydrological behaviour of soil (as represented by WDTP and Kun) was rapid and substantial: an average 60% reduction in Kun occurred for all soils between 2 and 9 min rainfall, and water repellent surfaces were identified for SZL and ZCL. This highlights that the condition of the immediate surface of agricultural soils involving rainfall-induced structural seals has a strong impact in the overall ability of soil to function as water reservoir.

Evaluation of a Soil Moisture Data Assimilation System Over West Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolten, J. D.; Crow, W.; Zhan, X.; Jackson, T.; Reynolds, C.

2009-05-01

A crucial requirement of global crop yield forecasts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) is the regional characterization of surface and sub-surface soil moisture. However, due to the spatial heterogeneity and dynamic nature of precipitation events and resulting soil moisture, accurate estimation of regional land surface-atmosphere interactions based sparse ground measurements is difficult. IPAD estimates global soil moisture using daily estimates of minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation applied to a modified Palmer two-layer soil moisture model which calculates the daily amount of soil moisture withdrawn by evapotranspiration and replenished by precipitation. We attempt to improve upon the existing system by applying an Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation system to integrate surface soil moisture retrievals from the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) into the USDA soil moisture model. This work aims at evaluating the utility of merging satellite-retrieved soil moisture estimates with the IPAD two-layer soil moisture model used within the DBMS. We present a quantitative analysis of the assimilated soil moisture product over West Africa (9°N- 20°N; 20°W-20°E). This region contains many key agricultural areas and has a high agro- meteorological gradient from desert and semi-arid vegetation in the North, to grassland, trees and crops in the South, thus providing an ideal location for evaluating the assimilated soil moisture product over multiple land cover types and conditions. A data denial experimental approach is utilized to isolate the added utility of integrating remotely-sensed soil moisture by comparing assimilated soil moisture results obtained using (relatively) low-quality precipitation products obtained from real-time satellite imagery to baseline model runs forced with higher quality rainfall. An analysis of root-zone anomalies for each model simulation suggests that the assimilation of AMSR-E surface soil moisture retrievals can add significant value to USDA root-zone predictions derived from real-time satellite precipitation products.

Evaporative losses from soils covered by physical and different types of biological soil crusts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chamizo, S.; Cantón, Y.; Domingo, F.; Belnap, J.

2013-01-01

Evaporation of soil moisture is one of the most important processes affecting water availability in semiarid ecosystems. Biological soil crusts, which are widely distributed ground cover in these ecosystems, play a recognized role on water processes. Where they roughen surfaces, water residence time and thus infiltration can be greatly enhanced, whereas their ability to clog soil pores or cap the soil surface when wetted can greatly decrease infiltration rate, thus affecting evaporative losses. In this work, we compared evaporation in soils covered by physical crusts, biological crusts in different developmental stages and in the soils underlying the different biological crust types. Our results show that during the time of the highest evaporation (Day 1), there was no difference among any of the crust types or the soils underlying them. On Day 2, when soil moisture was moderately low (11%), evaporation was slightly higher in well-developed biological soil crusts than in physical or poorly developed biological soil crusts. However, crust removal did not cause significant changes in evaporation compared with the respective soil crust type. These results suggest that the small differences we observed in evaporation among crust types could be caused by differences in the properties of the soil underneath the biological crusts. At low soil moisture (<6%), there was no difference in evaporation among crust types or the underlying soils. Water loss for the complete evaporative cycle (from saturation to dry soil) was similar in both crusted and scraped soils. Therefore, we conclude that for the specific crust and soil types tested, the presence or the type of biological soil crust did not greatly modify evaporation with respect to physical crusts or scraped soils.

The L-band PBMR measurements of surface soil moisture in FIFE. [First International satellite land surface climatology project Field Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, James R.; Shiue, James C.; Schmugge, Thomas J.; Engman, Edwin T.

1990-01-01

The NASA Langley Research Center's L-band pushbroom microwave radiometer (PBMR) aboard the NASA C-130 aircraft was used to map surface soil moisture at and around the Konza Prairie Natural Research Area in Kansas during the four intensive field campaigns of FIFE in May-October 1987. There was a total of 11 measurements was made when soils were known to be saturated. This measurement was used for the calibration of the vegetation effect on the microwave absorption. Based on this calibration, the data from other measurements on other days were inverted to generate the soil moisture maps. Good agreement was found when the estimated soil moisture values were compared to those independently measured on the ground at a number of widely separated locations. There was a slight bias between the estimated and measured values, the estimated soil moisture on the average being lower by about 1.8 percent. This small bias, however, was accounted for by the difference in time of the radiometric measurements and the soil moisture ground sampling.

Efficiency of urease and nitrification inhibitors in reducing ammonia volatilization from diverse nitrogen fertilizers applied to different soil types and wheat straw mulching.

PubMed

San Francisco, Sara; Urrutia, Oscar; Martin, Vincent; Peristeropoulos, Angelos; Garcia-Mina, Jose Maria

2011-07-01

Some authors suggest that the absence of tillage in agricultural soils might have an influence on the efficiency of nitrogen applied in the soil surface. In this study we investigate the influence of no-tillage and soil characteristics on the efficiency of a urease inhibitor (N-(n-butyl)thiophosphoric triamide, NBPT) and a nitrification inhibitor (diciandiamide, DCD) in decreasing ammonia volatilization from urea and ammonium nitrate (AN), respectively. The results indicate that ammonia volatilization in soils amended with urea was significantly higher than in those fertilized with AN. Likewise, the main soil factors affecting ammonia volatilization from urea are clay and sand soil contents. While clay impedes ammonia volatilization, sand favours it. The presence of organic residues on soil surface (no-tillage) tends to increase ammonia volatilization from urea, although this fact depended on soil type. The presence of NBPT in urea fertilizer significantly reduced soil ammonia volatilization. This action of NBPT was negatively affected by acid soil pH and favoured by soil clay content. The presence of organic residues on soil surface amended with urea increased ammonia volatilization, and was particularly high in sandy compared with clay soils. Application of NBPT reduced ammonia volatilization although its efficiency is reduced in acid soils. Concerning AN fertilization, there were no differences in ammonia volatilization with or without DCD in no-tillage soils. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

The effects of treading by two breeds of dairy cow with different live weights on soil physical properties, poaching damage and herbage production on a poorly drained clay-loam soil.

PubMed

Tuohy, P; Fenton, O; Holden, N M; Humphreys, J

2015-11-01

There is little empirical evidence to indicate that dairy cow live weight affects the extent of soil damage at the hoof-soil interface during grazing on poorly drained permanent grassland. In the present study the impact of Holstein-Friesian (HF) dairy cows with a mean (±standard deviation) live weight of 570 (±61) kg were compared with Jersey × Holstein-Friesian (JX) with a mean live weight of 499 (±52) kg each at two stocking densities: mean 2·42 ± (0·062) and 2·66 (±0·079) cows/ha. Soil physical properties (bulk density, macroporosity, gravimetric water content, air-filled porosity, penetration resistance and shear strength), poaching damage (post-grazing soil surface deformation and hoof-print depth), herbage yield and milk production were measured throughout 2011 and 2012. Soil physical properties, post-grazing soil surface deformation and herbage production were not affected by dairy cow breed or by interactions between breed and stocking density. Hoof-print depth was higher in the HF treatments (39 v. 37 mm, s.e. 0·5 mm). Loading pressure imposed at the soil surface was the same for both breeds due to a direct correlation between live weight and hoof size. Poaching damage was greater at higher stocking density. Using the lighter JX cow offered little advantage in terms of lowering the negative impact of treading on soil physical properties or reducing poaching damage and no advantage in terms of herbage or milk production compared with the heavier HF cow.

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Soil Heterogeneity around Landmines in Natural Soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallen, B.; Smits, K. M.; Howington, S. E.

2015-12-01

The environment in which landmines are placed is oftentimes highly heterogeneous. These heterogeneities such as differences in soil type, packing and moisture, combined with changes in surface and climate conditions can oftentimes mask the presence of the mine. Understanding the impact of heterogeneity on heat and mass transfer behavior in the vicinity of landmines is paramount to properly identifying landmine locations for demining operations. This study investigates the impact of soil heterogeneity on soil moisture and temperature distributions around buried objects with the goal of increasing our ability to model and predict the environmental conditions that are most dynamic to mine detection performance. A ten-day field experiment was conducted in which two anti-personnel landmines at different depths and a limestone block of comparable size were buried. The site was instrumented with a series of sensors, monitoring atmospheric, surface and subsurface conditions to include measurements of soil moisture, soil and air temperature, relative humidity, vapor concentration, and meteorological conditions such as wind speed and net radiation. Infrared thermal imaging was used to provide continuous profiles of surface temperature conditions. The soil was well characterized in the laboratory to provide good understanding of field conditions for numerical modeling efforts. Experimental results demonstrate the strongest thermal contrast between shallow landmine emplacement and the surrounding soil occurring as the sun approaches its zenith and two hours after sunset until the sun directly impacts the soil above the landmine. A finite-element model of fluid flow and heat transport through porous media is compared against experimental observations, capturing the diurnal variation. A validated model, like this one, offers the opportunity to improve landmine detection probabilities and reduce false alarms caused by environmental variability.

A Model for Formation of Dust, Soil and Rock Coatings on Mars: Physical and Chemical Processes on the Martian Surface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bishop, Janice; Murchie, Scott L.; Pieters, Carle M.; Zent, Aaron P.

2001-01-01

This model is one of many possible scenarios to explain the generation of the current surface material on Mars using chemical, magnetic and spectroscopic data From Mars and geologic analogs from terrestrial sites. One basic premise of this model is that the dust/soil units are not derived exclusively from local rocks, but are rather a product of global, and possibly remote, weathering processes. Another assumption in this model is that there are physical and chemical interactions of the atmospheric dust particles and that these two processes create distinctly different results on the surface. Physical processes distribute dust particles on rocks and drift units, forming physically-aggregated layers; these are reversible processes. Chemical reactions of the dust/soil particles create alteration rinds on rock surfaces and cohesive, crusted surface units between rocks, both of which are relatively permanent materials. According to this model the dominant components of the dust/soil particles are derived from alteration of volcanic ash and tephra, and contain primarily nanophase and poorly crystalline ferric oxides/oxyhydroxide phases as well as silicates. These phases are the alteration products that formed in a low moisture environment. These dust/soil particles also contain a smaller amount of material that was exposed to more water and contains crystalline ferric oxides/oxyhydroxides, sulfates and clay silicates. These components could have formed through hydrothermal alteration at steam vents or fumeroles, thermal fluids, or through evaporite deposits. Wet/dry cycling experiments are presented here on mixtures containing poorly crystalline and crystalline ferric oxides/oxyhydroxides, sulfates and silicates that range in size from nanophase to 1-2 pm diameter particles. Cemented products of these soil mixtures are formed in these experiments and variation in the surface texture was observed for samples containing smectites, non-hydrated silicates or sulfates. Reflectance spectra were measured of the initial particulate mixtures, the cemented products and ground versions of the cemented material. The spectral contrast in the visible/near-infrared and mid-infrared regions is significantly reduced for the cemented material compared to the initial soil, and somewhat reduced for the ground, cemented soil compared to the initial soil. The results of this study suggest that diurnal and seasonal cycling on Mars will have a profound effect on the texture and spectral properties of the dust/soil particles on the surface. The model developed in this study provides an explanation for the generation of cemented or crusted soil units and rock coatings on Mars and may explain albedo variations on the surface observed near large rocks or crater rims.

Patterns produced when soil is transferred to bras by placing and dragging actions: The application of digital photography and image processing to support visible observations.

PubMed

Murray, Kathleen R; Fitzpatrick, Robert W; Bottrill, Ralph; Kobus, Hilton

2017-07-01

A series of soil transference experiments (STEs) were undertaken to determine whether patterns identified in laboratory experiments could also be recognised at a simulated crime scene in the field. A clothed 55kg human rescue dummy dressed in a padded bra was either dragged or merely placed on a soil surface at sites with natural and anthropogenic soil types under both wet and dry soil conditions. Transfer patterns produced by dragging compared favourably with those of laboratory experiments. Twelve patterns were identified when a clothed human rescue dummy was dragged across the two soil types in the field. This expanded the original set of eight soil transfer patterns identified from dragging weighted fabric across soil samples in the laboratory. Soil transferred by placing the human rescue dummy resulted in a set of six transfer patterns that were different to those produced by dragging. By comparing trace soil patterns transferred to bras using each transfer method, it was revealed that certain transfer patterns on bras could indicate how the fabric had made contact with a soil surface. A photographic method was developed for crime scene examiners to capture this often subtle soil evidence before a body is transported or the clothing removed. This improved understanding of the dynamics of soil transference to bras and related clothing fabric may assist forensic investigators reconstruct the circumstances of a variety of forensic events. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Plot-scale soil loss estimation with laser scanning and photogrammetry methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szabó, Boglárka; Szabó, Judit; Jakab, Gergely; Centeri, Csaba; Szalai, Zoltán; Somogyi, Árpád; Barsi, Árpád

2017-04-01

Structure from Motion (SfM) is an automatic feature-matching algorithm, which nowadays is widely used tool in photogrammetry for geoscience applications. SfM method and parallel terrestrial laser scanning measurements are widespread and they can be well accomplished for quantitative soil erosion measurements as well. Therefore, our main scope was soil erosion characterization quantitatively and qualitatively, 3D visualization and morphological characterization of soil-erosion-dynamics. During the rainfall simulation, the surface had been measured and compared before and after the rainfall event by photogrammetry (SfM - Structure from Motion) and laser scanning (TLS - Terrestrial Laser Scanning) methods. The validation of the given results had been done by the caught runoff and the measured soil-loss value. During the laboratory experiment, the applied rainfall had 40 mm/h rainfall intensity. The size of the plot was 0.5 m2. The laser scanning had been implemented with Faro Focus 3D 120 S type equipment, while the SfM shooting had been carried out by 2 piece SJCAM SJ4000+ type, 12 MP resolution and 4K action cams. The photo-reconstruction had been made with Agisoft Photoscan software, while evaluation of the resulted point-cloud from laser scanning and photogrammetry had been implemented partly in CloudCompare and partly in ArcGIS. The resulted models and the calculated surface changes didn't prove to be suitable for estimating soil-loss, only for the detection of changes in the vertical surface. The laser scanning resulted a quite precise surface model, while the SfM method is affected by errors at the surface model due to other factors. The method needs more adequate technical laboratory preparation.

Surface Soil Moisture Memory Estimated from Models and SMAP Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Q.; Mccoll, K. A.; Li, C.; Lu, H.; Akbar, R.; Pan, M.; Entekhabi, D.

2017-12-01

Soil moisture memory(SMM), which is loosely defined as the time taken by soil to forget an anomaly, has been proved to be important in land-atmosphere interaction. There are many metrics to calculate the SMM timescale, for example, the timescale based on the time-series autocorrelation, the timescale ignoring the soil moisture time series and the timescale which only considers soil moisture increment. Recently, a new timescale based on `Water Cycle Fraction' (Kaighin et al., 2017), in which the impact of precipitation on soil moisture memory is considered, has been put up but not been fully evaluated in global. In this study, we compared the surface SMM derived from SMAP observations with that from land surface model simulations (i.e., the SMAP Nature Run (NR) provided by the Goddard Earth Observing System, version 5) (Rolf et al., 2014). Three timescale metrics were used to quantify the surface SMM as: T0 based on the soil moisture time series autocorrelation, deT0 based on the detrending soil moisture time series autocorrelation, and tHalf based on the Water Cycle Fraction. The comparisons indicate that: (1) there are big gaps between the T0 derived from SMAP and that from NR (2) the gaps get small for deT0 case, in which the seasonality of surface soil moisture was removed with a moving average filter; (3) the tHalf estimated from SMAP is much closer to that from NR. The results demonstrate that surface SMM can vary dramatically among different metrics, while the memory derived from land surface model differs from the one from SMAP observation. tHalf, with considering the impact of precipitation, may be a good choice to quantify surface SMM and have high potential in studies related to land atmosphere interactions. References McColl. K.A., S.H. Alemohammad, R. Akbar, A.G. Konings, S. Yueh, D. Entekhabi. The Global Distribution and Dynamics of Surface Soil Moisture, Nature Geoscience, 2017 Reichle. R., L. Qing, D.L. Gabrielle, A. Joe. The "SMAP_Nature_v03" Data Product, 2014

Profiling the decomposition odour at the grave surface before and after probing.

PubMed

Forbes, S L; Troobnikoff, A N; Ueland, M; Nizio, K D; Perrault, K A

2016-02-01

Human remains detection (HRD) dogs are recognised as a valuable and non-invasive search method for remains concealed in many different environments, including clandestine graves. However, the search for buried remains can be a challenging task as minimal odour may be available at the grave surface for detection by the dogs. Handlers often use a soil probe during these searches in an attempt to increase the amount of odour available for detection, but soil probing is considered an invasive search technique. The aim of this study was to determine whether the soil probe assists with increasing the abundance of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) available at the grave surface. A proof-of-concept method was developed using porcine remains to collect VOCs within the grave without disturbing the burial environment, and to compare their abundance at the grave surface before and after probing. Detection and identification of the VOC profiles required the use of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) due to its superior sensitivity and selectivity for decomposition odour profiling. The abundance of decomposition VOCs was consistently higher within the grave environment compared to the grave surface, except when the grave surface had been disturbed, confirming the reduced availability of odour at the grave surface. Although probing appeared to increase the abundance of VOCs at the grave surface on many of the sampling days, there were no clear trends identified across the study and no direct relationships with the environmental variables measured. Typically, the decomposition VOCs that were most prevalent in the grave soil were the same VOCs detected at the grave surface, whereas the trace VOCs detected in these environments varied throughout the post-burial period. This study highlighted that probing the soil can assist with releasing decomposition VOCs but is likely correlated to environmental and burial variables which require further study. The use of a soil probe to assist HRD dogs should not be disregarded but should only follow the use of non-invasive methods if deemed appropriate. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Climate-driven reduction in soil loss due to the dynamic role of vegetation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Constantine, J. A.; Ciampalini, R.; Walker-Springett, K.; Hales, T. C.; Ormerod, S.; Gabet, E. J.; Hall, I. R.

2016-12-01

Simulations of 21st century climate change predict increases in seasonal precipitation that may lead to widespread soil loss and reduced soil carbon stores by increasing the likelihood of surface runoff. Vegetation may counteract this increase through its dynamic response to climate change, possibly mitigating any impact on soil erosion. Here, we document for the first time the potential for vegetation to prevent widespread soil loss by surface-runoff mechanisms (i.e., rill and inter-rill erosion) by implementing a process-based soil erosion model across catchments of Great Britain with varying land-cover, topographic, and soil characteristics. Our model results reveal that, even under a significantly wetter climate, warmer air temperatures can limit soil erosion across areas with permanent vegetation cover because of its role in enhancing primary productivity, which improves leaf interception, soil infiltration-capacity, and the erosive resistance of soil. Consequently, any increase in air temperature associated with climate change will increase the threshold change in rainfall required to accelerate soil loss, and rates of soil erosion could therefore decline by up to 50% from 2070-2099 compared to baseline values under the IPCC-defined medium-emissions scenario SRES A1B. We conclude that enhanced primary productivity due to climate change can introduce a negative-feedback mechanism that limits soil loss by surface runoff as vegetation-induced impacts on soil hydrology and erodibility offset precipitation increases, highlighting the need to expand areas of permanent vegetation cover to reduce the potential for climate-driven soil loss.

Petrologic variations in Apollo 16 surface soils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houck, K. J.

1982-01-01

Source rock, maturation history and intrasite variation data are derived for the Apollo 16 regolith by comparing modal analyses of 15 surface soils with rake and rock sample data. Triangular source rock component plots show that Apollo 16 soils have similar source rocks that are well homogenized throughout the site. The site can be divided into three soil petrographic provinces. Central site soils are mature, well homogenized, and enriched in glass. They are probably the most typical Cayley Plains materials present. North Ray soils are immature to submature, containing North Ray ejecta. South Ray soils are mature, but contain small amounts of fresh impact melts and plagioclase, due perhaps to the breakdown of blocky South Ray ejecta. The different compositions and physical properties of North and South Ray ejecta support the hypothesis that the latter event excavated Cayley material, while the former excavated Descartes materials.

Effects of vegetation types on soil moisture estimation from the normalized land surface temperature versus vegetation index space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Dianjun; Zhou, Guoqing

2015-12-01

Soil moisture (SM) is a key variable that has been widely used in many environmental studies. Land surface temperature versus vegetation index (LST-VI) space becomes a common way to estimate SM in optical remote sensing applications. Normalized LST-VI space is established by the normalized LST and VI to obtain the comparable SM in Zhang et al. (Validation of a practical normalized soil moisture model with in situ measurements in humid and semiarid regions [J]. International Journal of Remote Sensing, DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2015.1055610). The boundary conditions in the study were set to limit the point A (the driest bare soil) and B (the wettest bare soil) for surface energy closure. However, no limitation was installed for point D (the full vegetation cover). In this paper, many vegetation types are simulated by the land surface model - Noah LSM 3.2 to analyze the effects on soil moisture estimation, such as crop, grass and mixed forest. The locations of point D are changed with vegetation types. The normalized LST of point D for forest is much lower than crop and grass. The location of point D is basically unchanged for crop and grass.

Insecticide dissipation from soil and plant surfaces in tropical horticulture of southern Benin, West Africa.

PubMed

Rosendahl, Ingrid; Laabs, Volker; Atcha-Ahowé, Cyrien; James, Braima; Amelung, Wulf

2009-06-01

In Sub-Saharan Africa, horticulture provides livelihood opportunities for millions of people, especially in urban and peri-urban areas. Although the vegetable agroecosystems are often characterized by intensive pesticide use, risks resulting therefrom are largely unknown under tropical horticultural conditions. The objective of this study therefore was to study the fate of pesticides in two representative horticultural soils (Acrisol and Arenosol) and plants (Solanum macrocarpon L.) after field application and thus to gain first insight on environmental persistence and dispersion of typical insecticides used in vegetable horticulture in Benin, West Africa. On plant surfaces, dissipation was rapid with half lives ranging from 2 to 87 h (alpha-endosulfan < beta-endosulfan < deltamethrin). Soil dissipation was considerably slower than dissipation from plant surfaces with half-lives ranging from 3 (diazinon) to 74 d (total endosulfan), but persistence of pesticides in soil was still reduced compared to temperate climates. Nevertheless, for deltamethrin and endosulfan, a tendency for mid-term accumulation in soil upon repeated applications was observed. The soil and plant surface concentrations of the metabolite endosulfan sulfate increased during the entire trial period, indicating that this compound is a potential long-term pollutant even in tropical environments.

Biochar applied at an appropriate rate can avoid increasing NH3 volatilization dramatically in rice paddy soil.

PubMed

Feng, Yanfang; Sun, Haijun; Xue, Lihong; Liu, Yang; Gao, Qian; Lu, Kouping; Yang, Linzhang

2017-02-01

Biochar application can increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gases emissions in paddy soils. However, its influence on ammonia (NH 3 ) volatilization is neglected. This soil column study was conducted using two biochars (wheat straw pyrolyzed at 500 °C and 700 °C) with two application rates (0.5 wt% and 3 wt%) to evaluate their impact on NH 3 volatilization from rice paddy. Results showed that biochar application did not change NH 3 volatilization fluxes pattern after N fertilization. Four biochar treatments recorded higher NH 3 volatilization (20.50-31.88 kg N ha -1 ) compared with the control (18.65 kg N ha -1 ). Especially, two 3 wt% biochar treatments had significantly 40.8-70.9% higher NH 3 volatilization than control. After the basal and first supplementary fertilization, the floodwater pH values were 7.61-7.79 and 7.51-7.76 under biochar treatments, higher than control (7.37 and 7.16, respectively). Meanwhile, after three split N fertilizations, the pH of surface soil received biochar increased by 0.19-0.45, 0.19-0.39, and 0.01-0.21 units, in comparison with the control soil. Furthermore, 3 wt% biochar treatments had higher floodwater and surface soil pH values than 0.5 wt% biochar treatments. Higher NH 4 + -N and lower NO 3 - -N concentrations of surface soil under biochar application were observed compared with control at tillering stage, whereas they were at similar level at jointing stage. The increased NH 3 volatilization at 3 wt% biochar treatments is attributed to increased pH of surface floodwater and soil, and reduced nitrification processes induced by biochar application. Biochar should be applied at lower rate to rice paddy soil, considering the NH 3 volatilization. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a surface/vegetation parameterization using satellite measurements of surface temperature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taconet, O.; Carlson, T.; Bernard, R.; Vidal-Madjar, D.

1986-01-01

Ground measurements of surface-sensible heat flux and soil moisture for a wheat-growing area of Beauce in France were compared with the values derived by inverting two boundary layer models with a surface/vegetation formulation using surface temperature measurements made from NOAA-AVHRR. The results indicated that the trends in the surface heat fluxes and soil moisture observed during the 5 days of the field experiment were effectively captured by the inversion method using the remotely measured radiative temperatures and either of the two boundary layer methods, both of which contain nearly identical vegetation parameterizations described by Taconet et al. (1986). The sensitivity of the results to errors in the initial sounding values or measured surface temperature was tested by varying the initial sounding temperature, dewpoint, and wind speed and the measured surface temperature by amounts corresponding to typical measurement error. In general, the vegetation component was more sensitive to error than the bare soil model.

Element concentrations in surface soils of the Coconino Plateau, Grand Canyon region, Coconino County, Arizona

USGS Publications Warehouse

Van Gosen, Bradley S.

2016-09-15

This report provides the geochemical analyses of a large set of background soils collected from the surface of the Coconino Plateau in northern Arizona. More than 700 soil samples were collected at 46 widespread areas, sampled from sites that appear unaffected by mineralization and (or) anthropogenic contamination. The soils were analyzed for 47 elements, thereby providing data on metal concentrations in soils representative of the plateau. These background concentrations can be used, for instance, for comparison to metal concentrations found in soils potentially affected by natural and anthropogenic influences on the Coconino Plateau in the Grand Canyon region of Arizona.The soil sampling survey revealed low concentrations for the metals most commonly of environmental concern, such as arsenic, cobalt, chromium, copper, mercury, manganese, molybdenum, lead, uranium, vanadium, and zinc. For example, the median concentrations of the metals in soils of the Coconino Plateau were found to be comparable to the mean values previously reported for soils of the western United States.

Rhamnolipid surface thermodynamic properties and transport in agricultural soil.

PubMed

Renfro, Tyler Dillard; Xie, Weijie; Yang, Guang; Chen, Gang

2014-03-01

Rhamnolipid is a biosurfactant produced by several Pseudomonas species, which can wet hydrophobic soils by lowering the cohesive and/or adhesive surface tension. Because of its biodegradability, rhamnolipid applications bring minimal adverse impact on the soil and groundwater as compared with that of chemical wetting agents. Subsequently, rhamnolipid applications have more advantages when used to improve irrigation in the agricultural soil, especially under draught conditions. In the presence of rhamnolipid, water surface tension dropped linearly with the increase of rhamnolipid concentration until the rhamnolipid critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 30 mg/L was reached. Below the CMC, rhamnolipid had linear adsorption isotherms on the soil with a partition coefficient of 0.126 L/kg. Rhamnolipid transport breakthrough curves had a broad and diffuse infiltration front, indicating retention of rhamnolipid on the soil increased with time. Rhamnolipid transport was found to be well represented by the advection-dispersion equation based on a local equilibrium assumption. When applied at concentrations above the CMC, the formed rhamnolipid micelles prevented rhamnolipid adsorption (both equilibrium adsorption and kinetic adsorption) in the soil. It was discovered in this research that rhamnolipid surface thermodynamic properties played the key role in controlling rhamnolipid transport. The attractive forces between rhamnolipid molecules contributed to micelle formation and facilitated rhamnolipid transport. Published by Elsevier B.V.

An evaluation of models of bare soil evaporation formulated with different land surface boundary conditions and assumptions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smits, Kathleen M.; Ngo, Viet V.; Cihan, Abdullah; Sakaki, Toshihiro; Illangasekare, Tissa H.

2012-12-01

Bare soil evaporation is a key process for water exchange between the land and the atmosphere and an important component of the water balance. However, there is no agreement on the best modeling methodology to determine evaporation under different atmospheric boundary conditions. Also, there is a lack of directly measured soil evaporation data for model validation to compare these methods to establish the validity of their mathematical formulations. Thus, a need exists to systematically compare evaporation estimates using existing methods to experimental observations. The goal of this work is to test different conceptual and mathematical formulations that are used to estimate evaporation from bare soils to critically investigate various formulations and surface boundary conditions. Such a comparison required the development of a numerical model that has the ability to incorporate these boundary conditions. For this model, we modified a previously developed theory that allows nonequilibrium liquid/gas phase change with gas phase vapor diffusion to better account for dry soil conditions. Precision data under well-controlled transient heat and wind boundary conditions were generated, and results from numerical simulations were compared with experimental data. Results demonstrate that the approaches based on different boundary conditions varied in their ability to capture different stages of evaporation. All approaches have benefits and limitations, and no one approach can be deemed most appropriate for every scenario. Comparisons of different formulations of the surface boundary condition validate the need for further research on heat and vapor transport processes in soil for better modeling accuracy.

High resolution change estimation of soil moisture and its assimilation into a land surface model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narayan, Ujjwal

Near surface soil moisture plays an important role in hydrological processes including infiltration, evapotranspiration and runoff. These processes depend non-linearly on soil moisture and hence sub-pixel scale soil moisture variability characterization is important for accurate modeling of water and energy fluxes at the pixel scale. Microwave remote sensing has evolved as an attractive technique for global monitoring of near surface soil moisture. A radiative transfer model has been tested and validated for soil moisture retrieval from passive microwave remote sensing data under a full range of vegetation water content conditions. It was demonstrated that soil moisture retrieval errors of approximately 0.04 g/g gravimetric soil moisture are attainable with vegetation water content as high as 5 kg/m2. Recognizing the limitation of low spatial resolution associated with passive sensors, an algorithm that uses low resolution passive microwave (radiometer) and high resolution active microwave (radar) data to estimate soil moisture change at the spatial resolution of radar operation has been developed and applied to coincident Passive and Active L and S band (PALS) and Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) datasets acquired during the Soil Moisture Experiments in 2002 (SMEX02) campaign with root mean square error of 10% and a 4 times enhancement in spatial resolution. The change estimation algorithm has also been used to estimate soil moisture change at 5 km resolution using AMSR-E soil moisture product (50 km) in conjunction with the TRMM-PR data (5 km) for a 3 month period demonstrating the possibility of high resolution soil moisture change estimation using satellite based data. Soil moisture change is closely related to precipitation and soil hydraulic properties. A simple assimilation framework has been implemented to investigate whether assimilation of surface layer soil moisture change observations into a hydrologic model will potentially improve it performance. Results indicate an improvement in model prediction of near surface and deep layer soil moisture content when the update is performed to the model state as compared to free model runs. It is also seen that soil moisture change assimilation is able to mitigate the effect of erroneous precipitation input data.

Nutrient loss in leachate and surface runoff from surface-broadcast and subsurface-banded broiler litter.

PubMed

Lamba, Jasmeet; Srivastava, Puneet; Way, Thomas R; Sen, Sumit; Wood, C Wesley; Yoo, Kyung H

2013-09-01

Subsurface band application of poultry litter has been shown to reduce the transport of nutrients from fields in surface runoff compared with conventional surface broadcast application. Little research has been conducted to determine the effects of surface broadcast application and subsurface banding of litter on nutrients in leachate. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to determine the effects of subsurface band application and surface broadcast application of poultry litter on nutrient losses in leachate. Zero-tension pan and passive capillary fiberglass wick lysimeters were installed in situ 50 cm beneath the soil surface of an established tall fescue ( Schreb.) pasture on a sandy loam soil. The treatments were surface broadcast and subsurface-banded poultry litter at 5 Mg ha and an unfertilized control. Results of the rainfall simulations showed that the concentrations of PO-P and total phosphorus (TP) in leachate were reduced by 96 and 37%, respectively, in subsurface-banded litter treatment compared with the surface-applied litter treatment. There was no significant difference in PO-P concentration between control and subsurface-banded litter treatment in leachate. The trend in the loading of nutrients in leachate was similar to the trend in concentration. Concentration and loading of the nutrients (TP, PO-P, NH-N, and NO-N) in runoff from the subsurface-banded treatment were significantly less than for the surface-applied treatment and were similar to those from control plots. These results show that, compared with conventional surface broadcast application of litter, subsurface band application of litter can greatly reduce loss of P in surface runoff and leachate. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Organic matter controls of soil water retention in an alpine grassland and its significance for hydrological processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Fei; Zhang, Gan-Lin; Yang, Jin-Ling; Li, De-Cheng; Zhao, Yu-Guo; Liu, Feng; Yang, Ren-Min; Yang, Fan

2014-11-01

Soil water retention influences many soil properties and soil hydrological processes. The alpine meadows and steppes of the Qilian Mountains on the northeast border of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau form the source area of the Heihe River, the second largest inland river in China. The soils of this area therefore have a large effect on water movement and storage of the entire watershed. In order to understand the controlling factors of soil water retention and how they affect regional eco-hydrological processes in an alpine grassland, thirty-five pedogenic horizons in fourteen soil profiles along two facing hillslopes in typical watersheds of this area were selected for study. Results show that the extensively-accumulated soil organic matter plays a dominant role in controlling soil water retention in this alpine environment. We distinguished two mechanisms of this control. First, at high matric potentials soil organic matter affected soil water retention mainly through altering soil structural parameters and thereby soil bulk density. Second, at low matric potentials the water adsorbing capacity of soil organic matter directly affected water retention. To investigate the hydrological functions of soils at larger scales, soil water retention was compared by three generalized pedogenic horizons. Among these soil horizons, the mattic A horizon, a diagnostic surface horizon of Chinese Soil Taxonomy defined specially for alpine meadow soils, had the greatest soil water retention over the entire range of measured matric potentials. Hillslopes with soils having these horizons are expected to have low surface runoff. This study promotes the understanding of the critical role of alpine soils, especially the vegetated surface soils in controlling the eco-hydrological processes in source regions of the Heihe River watershed.

Chemical weathering rates of a soil chronosequence on granitic alluvium: I. Quantification of mineralogical and surface area changes and calculation of primary silicate reaction rates

USGS Publications Warehouse

White, A.F.; Blum, A.E.; Schulz, M.S.; Bullen, T.D.; Harden, J.W.; Peterson, M.L.

1996-01-01

Mineral weathering rates are determined for a series of soils ranging in age from 0.2-3000 Ky developed on alluvial terraces near Merced in the Central Valley of California. Mineralogical and elemental abundances exhibit time-dependent trends documenting the chemical evolution of granitic sand to residual kaolinite and quartz. Mineral losses with time occur in the order: hornblende > plagioclase > K-feldspar. Maximum volume decreases of >50% occur in the older soils. BET surface areas of the bulk soils increase with age, as do specific surface areas of aluminosilicate mineral fractions such as plagioclase, which increases from 0.4-1.5 m2 g-1 over 600 Ky. Quartz surface areas are lower and change less with time (0.11-0.23 m2 g-1). BET surface areas correspond to increasing external surface roughness (?? = 10-600) and relatively constant internal surface area (??? 1.3 m2 g-1). SEM observations confirm both surface pitting and development of internal porosity. A numerical model describes aluminosilicate dissolution rates as a function of changes in residual mineral abundance, grain size distributions, and mineral surface areas with time. A simple geometric treatment, assuming spherical grains and no surface roughness, predicts average dissolution rates (plagioclase, 10-17.4; K-feldspar, 10-17.8; and hornblende, 10-17.5 mol cm-1 s-1) that are constant with time and comparable to previous estimates of soil weathering. Average rates, based on BET surface area measurements and variable surface roughnesses, are much slower (plagioclase, 10-19.9; K-feldspar, 10-20.5; and hornblende 10-20.1 mol cm-2 s-1). Rates for individual soil horizons decrease by a factor of 101.5 over 3000 Ky indicating that the surface reactivities of minerals decrease as the physical surface areas increase. Rate constants based on BET estimates for the Merced soils are factors of 103-104 slower than reported experimental dissolution rates determined from freshly prepared silicates with low surface roughness (?? <10). This study demonstrates that the utility of experimental rate constants to predict weathering in soils is limited without consideration of variable surface areas and processes that control the evolution of surface reactivity with time.

Effects of straw and plastic film mulching on greenhouse gas emissions in Loess Plateau, China: A field study of 2 consecutive wheat-maize rotation cycles.

PubMed

Chen, Haixin; Liu, Jingjing; Zhang, Afeng; Chen, Jing; Cheng, Gong; Sun, Benhua; Pi, Xiaomin; Dyck, Miles; Si, Bingcheng; Zhao, Ying; Feng, Hao

2017-02-01

Mulching practices have long been used to modify the soil temperature and moisture conditions and thus potentially improve crop production in dryland agriculture, but few studies have focused on mulching effects on soil gaseous emissions. We monitored annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the regime of straw and plastic film mulching using a closed chamber method on a typical winter-wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv Xiaoyan 22) and summer-maize (Zea mays L. cv Qinlong 11) rotation field over two-year period in the Loess Plateau, northwestern China. The following four field treatments were included: T1 (control, no mulching), T2 (4000kgha -1 wheat straw mulching, covering 100% of soil surface), T3 (half plastic film mulching, covering 50% of soil surface), and T4 (complete plastic film mulching, covering 100% of soil surface). Compared with the control, straw mulching decreased soil temperature and increased soil moisture, whereas plastic film mulching increased both soil temperature and moisture. Accordingly, straw mulching increased annual crop yields over both cycles, while plastic film mulching significantly enhanced annual crop yield over cycle 2. Compared to the no-mulching treatment, all mulching treatments increased soil CO 2 emission over both cycles, and straw mulching increased soil CH 4 absorption over both cycles, but patterns of soil N 2 O emissions under straw or film mulching are not consistent. Overall, compared to T1, annual GHG intensity was significantly decreased by 106%, 24% and 26% under T2, T3 and T4 over cycle 1, respectively; and by 20%, 51% and 29% under T2, T3 and T4 over cycle 2, respectively. Considering the additional cost and environmental issues associated with plastic film mulching, the application of straw mulching might achieve a balance between food security and GHG emissions in the Chinese Loess Plateau. However, further research is required to investigate the perennial influence of different mulching applications. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fate of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in soil and lettuce roots as affected by potential home gardening practices.

PubMed

Erickson, Marilyn C; Liao, Jean; Payton, Alison S; Webb, Cathy C; Ma, Li; Zhang, Guodong; Flitcroft, Ian; Doyle, Michael P; Beuchat, Larry R

2013-12-01

The survival and distribution of enteric pathogens in soil and lettuce systems were investigated in response to several practices (soil amendment supplementation and reduced watering) that could be applied by home gardeners. Leaf lettuce was grown in manure compost/top soil (0:5, 1:5 or 2:5 w/w) mixtures. Escherichia coli O157:H7 or Salmonella was applied at a low or high dose (10(3) or 10(6) colony-forming units (CFU) mL(-1) ) to the soil of seedlings and mid-age plants. Supplementation of top soil with compost did not affect pathogen survival in the soil or on root surfaces, suggesting that nutrients were not a limiting factor. Salmonella populations on root surfaces were 0.7-0.8 log CFU g(-1) lower for mid-age plants compared with seedlings. E. coli O157:H7 populations on root surfaces were 0.8 log CFU g(-1) lower for mid-age plants receiving 40 mL of water compared with plants receiving 75 mL of water on alternate days. Preharvest internalization of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella into lettuce roots was not observed at any time. Based on the environmental conditions and high pathogen populations in soil used in this study, internalization of Salmonella or E. coli O157:H7 into lettuce roots did not occur under practices that could be encountered by inexperienced home gardeners. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.

Impacts of fire on sources of soil CO2 efflux in a dry Amazon rain forest.

PubMed

Metcalfe, Daniel B; Rocha, Wanderley; Balch, Jennifer K; Brando, Paulo M; Doughty, Christopher E; Malhi, Yadvinder

2018-05-10

Fire at the dry southern margin of the Amazon rainforest could have major consequences for regional soil carbon (C) storage and ecosystem carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, but relatively little information exists about impacts of fire on soil C cycling within this sensitive ecotone. We measured CO 2 effluxes from different soil components (ground surface litter, roots, mycorrhizae, soil organic matter) at a large-scale burn experiment designed to simulate a severe but realistic potential future scenario for the region (Fire plot) in Mato Grosso, Brazil, over one year, and compared these measurements to replicated data from a nearby, unmodified Control plot. After four burns over five years, soil CO 2 efflux (R s ) was ~ 5.5 t C ha -1 yr -1 lower on the Fire plot compared to the Control. Most of the Fire plot R s reduction was specifically due to lower ground surface litter and root respiration. Mycorrhizal respiration on both plots was around ~ 20% of R s . Soil surface temperature appeared to be more important than moisture as a driver of seasonal patterns in R s at the site. Regular fire events decreased the seasonality of R s at the study site, due to apparent differences in environmental sensitivities among biotic and abiotic soil components. These findings may contribute towards improved predictions of the amount and temporal pattern of C emissions across the large areas of tropical forest facing increasing fire disturbances associated with climate change and human activities. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the spatial distribution of water balance in a small watershed, Pennsylvania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Zhongbo; Gburek, W. J.; Schwartz, F. W.

2000-04-01

A conceptual water-balance model was modified from a point application to be distributed for evaluating the spatial distribution of watershed water balance based on daily precipitation, temperature and other hydrological parameters. The model was calibrated by comparing simulated daily variation in soil moisture with field observed data and results of another model that simulates the vertical soil moisture flow by numerically solving Richards' equation. The impacts of soil and land use on the hydrological components of the water balance, such as evapotranspiration, soil moisture deficit, runoff and subsurface drainage, were evaluated with the calibrated model in this study. Given the same meteorological conditions and land use, the soil moisture deficit, evapotranspiration and surface runoff increase, and subsurface drainage decreases, as the available water capacity of soil increases. Among various land uses, alfalfa produced high soil moisture deficit and evapotranspiration and lower surface runoff and subsurface drainage, whereas soybeans produced an opposite trend. The simulated distribution of various hydrological components shows the combined effect of soil and land use. Simulated hydrological components compare well with observed data. The study demonstrated that the distributed water balance approach is efficient and has advantages over the use of single average value of hydrological variables and the application at a single point in the traditional practice.

Measuring soil moisture with imaging radars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dubois, Pascale C.; Vanzyl, Jakob; Engman, Ted

1995-01-01

An empirical model was developed to infer soil moisture and surface roughness from radar data. The accuracy of the inversion technique is assessed by comparing soil moisture obtained with the inversion technique to in situ measurements. The effect of vegetation on the inversion is studied and a method to eliminate the areas where vegetation impairs the algorithm is described.

Land management effects on near-surface soil properties of southern U.S. coastal plain kandiudults.

Treesearch

M. Levi; J. Shaw; C. Wood; S. Herman; E. Carter; Y. Feng

2010-01-01

A comparative assessment of land management systems and relatively undisturbed ecosystems is useful for evaluating anthropogenic impacts on soil properties (Larson and Pierce, 1994). Such information is useful for the restoration and evaluation of C sequestration potential. Comparison of disturbed with natural ecosystems allows the measurement of soil properties...

Enhancing the soil organic matter pool through biomass incorporation

Treesearch

Felipe G. Sanchez; Emily A. Carter; John F. Klepac

2003-01-01

A study was installed in the Upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina, USA that sought to examine the impact of incorporating downed slash materials into subsoil layers on soil chemical and physical properties as compared with the effect of slash materials left on the soil surface. Baseline levels of slash were estimated by establishing transects within harvested stands...

The soiling of materials in the ambient atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamilton, R. S.; Mansfield, T. A.

Models describing the rate of soiling of exposed surfaces due to the deposition and accumulation of particulate matter from the atmosphere are reviewed. Samples of white painted wood were exposed for 110 days in the ambient atmosphere. Separate samples were sheltered and unsheltered from rainfall. Reflectance was measured daily. Results are compared with recently published studies in the U.S.A. (samples in the ambient atmosphere) and the U.K. (samples in a road tunnel). Experimental soiling rates were compared with predicted values. Existing models were satisfactory for predicting soiling in a tunnel but underestimated soiling in an ambient situation; a revised formulation is proposed for this situation. Rainfall generally produced a cleaning effect but redistribution of washed-off material could produce enhanced soiling.

Unsaturated flow processes in structurally-variable pathways in wildfire-affected soils and ash

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ebel, B. A.

2016-12-01

Prediction of flash flood and debris flow generation in wildfire-affected soils and ash hinges on understanding unsaturated flow processes. Water resources issues, such as groundwater recharge, also rely on our ability to quantify subsurface flow. Soil-hydraulic property data provide insight into unsaturated flow processes and timescales. A literature review and synthesis of existing data from the literature for wildfire-affected soils, including ash and unburned soils, facilitated calculating metrics and timescales of hydrologic response related to infiltration and surface runoff generation. Sorptivity (S) and the Green-Ampt wetting front parameter (Ψf) were significantly lower in burned soils compared to unburned soils, while field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs) was not significantly different. The magnitude and duration of the influence of capillarity was substantially reduced in burned soils, leading to faster ponding times in response to rainfall. Ash had large values of S and Kfs compared to unburned and burned soils but intermediate values of Ψf, suggesting that ash has long ponding times in response to rainfall. The ratio of S2/Kfs was nearly constant ( 100 mm) for unburned soils, but was more variable in burned soils. Post-wildfire changes in this ratio suggested that unburned soils had a balance between gravity and capillarity contributions to infiltration, which may depend on soil organic matter, while burning shifted infiltration more towards gravity contributions by reducing S. Taken together, the changes in post-wildfire soil-hydraulic properties increased the propensity for surface runoff generation and may have enhanced subsurface preferential flow through pathways altered by wildfire.

Improving Numerical Weather Predictions of Summertime Precipitation Over the Southeastern U.S. Through a High-Resolution Initialization of the Surface State

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Case, Jonathan L.; Kumar, Sujay V.; Krikishen, Jayanthi; Jedlovec, Gary J.

2011-01-01

It is hypothesized that high-resolution, accurate representations of surface properties such as soil moisture and sea surface temperature are necessary to improve simulations of summertime pulse-type convective precipitation in high resolution models. This paper presents model verification results of a case study period from June-August 2008 over the Southeastern U.S. using the Weather Research and Forecasting numerical weather prediction model. Experimental simulations initialized with high-resolution land surface fields from the NASA Land Information System (LIS) and sea surface temperature (SST) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are compared to a set of control simulations initialized with interpolated fields from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction 12-km North American Mesoscale model. The LIS land surface and MODIS SSTs provide a more detailed surface initialization at a resolution comparable to the 4-km model grid spacing. Soil moisture from the LIS spin-up run is shown to respond better to the extreme rainfall of Tropical Storm Fay in August 2008 over the Florida peninsula. The LIS has slightly lower errors and higher anomaly correlations in the top soil layer, but exhibits a stronger dry bias in the root zone. The model sensitivity to the alternative surface initial conditions is examined for a sample case, showing that the LIS/MODIS data substantially impact surface and boundary layer properties.

Assessment of multi-frequency electromagnetic induction for determining soil moisture patterns at the hillslope scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tromp-van Meerveld, H. J.; McDonnell, J. J.

2009-04-01

SummaryHillslopes are fundamental landscape units, yet represent a difficult scale for measurements as they are well-beyond our traditional point-scale techniques. Here we present an assessment of electromagnetic induction (EM) as a potential rapid and non-invasive method to map soil moisture patterns at the hillslope scale. We test the new multi-frequency GEM-300 for spatially distributed soil moisture measurements at the well-instrumented Panola hillslope. EM-based apparent conductivity measurements were linearly related to soil moisture measured with the Aqua-pro capacitance sensor below a threshold conductivity and represented the temporal patterns in soil moisture well. During spring rainfall events that wetted only the surface soil layers the apparent conductivity measurements explained the soil moisture dynamics at depth better than the surface soil moisture dynamics. All four EM frequencies (7.290, 9.090, 11.250, and 14.010 kHz) were highly correlated and linearly related to each other and could be used to predict soil moisture. This limited our ability to use the four different EM frequencies to obtain a soil moisture profile with depth. The apparent conductivity patterns represented the observed spatial soil moisture patterns well when the individually fitted relationships between measured soil moisture and apparent conductivity were used for each measurement point. However, when the same (master) relationship was used for all measurement locations, the soil moisture patterns were smoothed and did not resemble the observed soil moisture patterns very well. In addition the range in calculated soil moisture values was reduced compared to observed soil moisture. Part of the smoothing was likely due to the much larger measurement area of the GEM-300 compared to the soil moisture measurements.

Developing Soil Moisture Profiles Utilizing Remotely Sensed MW and TIR Based SM Estimates Through Principle of Maximum Entropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mishra, V.; Cruise, J. F.; Mecikalski, J. R.

2015-12-01

Developing accurate vertical soil moisture profiles with minimum input requirements is important to agricultural as well as land surface modeling. Earlier studies show that the principle of maximum entropy (POME) can be utilized to develop vertical soil moisture profiles with accuracy (MAE of about 1% for a monotonically dry profile; nearly 2% for monotonically wet profiles and 3.8% for mixed profiles) with minimum constraints (surface, mean and bottom soil moisture contents). In this study, the constraints for the vertical soil moisture profiles were obtained from remotely sensed data. Low resolution (25 km) MW soil moisture estimates (AMSR-E) were downscaled to 4 km using a soil evaporation efficiency index based disaggregation approach. The downscaled MW soil moisture estimates served as a surface boundary condition, while 4 km resolution TIR based Atmospheric Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) estimates provided the required mean root-zone soil moisture content. Bottom soil moisture content is assumed to be a soil dependent constant. Mulit-year (2002-2011) gridded profiles were developed for the southeastern United States using the POME method. The soil moisture profiles were compared to those generated in land surface models (Land Information System (LIS) and an agricultural model DSSAT) along with available NRCS SCAN sites in the study region. The end product, spatial soil moisture profiles, can be assimilated into agricultural and hydrologic models in lieu of precipitation for data scarce regions.Developing accurate vertical soil moisture profiles with minimum input requirements is important to agricultural as well as land surface modeling. Previous studies have shown that the principle of maximum entropy (POME) can be utilized with minimal constraints to develop vertical soil moisture profiles with accuracy (MAE = 1% for monotonically dry profiles; MAE = 2% for monotonically wet profiles and MAE = 3.8% for mixed profiles) when compared to laboratory and field data. In this study, vertical soil moisture profiles were developed using the POME model to evaluate an irrigation schedule over a maze field in north central Alabama (USA). The model was validated using both field data and a physically based mathematical model. The results demonstrate that a simple two-constraint entropy model under the assumption of a uniform initial soil moisture distribution can simulate most soil moisture profiles within the field area for 6 different soil types. The results of the irrigation simulation demonstrated that the POME model produced a very efficient irrigation strategy with loss of about 1.9% of the total applied irrigation water. However, areas of fine-textured soil (i.e. silty clay) resulted in plant stress of nearly 30% of the available moisture content due to insufficient water supply on the last day of the drying phase of the irrigation cycle. Overall, the POME approach showed promise as a general strategy to guide irrigation in humid environments, with minimum input requirements.

Simulation of Soil Frost and Thaw Fronts Dynamics with Community Land Model 4.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, J.; Xie, Z.

2016-12-01

Freeze-thaw processes in soils, including changes in frost and thaw fronts (FTFs) , are important physical processes. The movement of FTFs affects soil water and thermal characteristics, as well as energy and water exchanges between land surface and the atmosphere, and then the land surface hydrothermal process. In this study, a two-directional freeze and thaw algorithm for simulating FTFs is incorporated into the community land surface model CLM4.5, which is called CLM4.5-FTF. The simulated FTFs depth and soil temperature of CLM4.5-FTF compared well with the observed data both in D66 station (permafrost) and Hulugou station (seasonally frozen soil). Because the soil temperature profile within a soil layer can be estimated according to the position of FTFs, CLM4.5 performed better in soil temperature simulation. Permafrost and seasonally frozen ground conditions in China from 1980 to 2010 were simulated using the CLM4.5-FTF. Numerical experiments show that the spatial distribution of simulated maximum frost depth by CLM4.5-FTF has seasonal variation obviously. Significant positive active-layer depth trends for permafrost regions and negative maximum freezing depth trends for seasonal frozen soil regions are simulated in response to positive air temperature trends except west of Black Sea.

Soil nitrate nitrogen dynamics after biosolids application in a tobosagrass desert grassland.

PubMed

Jurado-Guerra, Pedro; Wester, David B; Fish, Ernest B

2006-01-01

Dormant-season application of biosolids increases desert grass production more than growing season application in the first growing season after application. Differential patterns of NO3-N (plant available N) release following seasonal biosolids application may explain this response. Experiments were conducted to determine soil nitrate nitrogen dynamics following application of biosolids during two seasons in a tobosagrass [Hilaria mutica (Buckl.) Benth.] Chihuahuan Desert grassland. Biosolids were applied either in the dormant (early April) or growing (early July) season at 0, 18, or 34 dry Mg ha(-1). A polyester-nylon mulch was also applied to serve as a control that approximated the same physical effects on the soil surface as the biosolids but without any chemical effects. Supplemental irrigation was applied to half of the plots. Soil NO3-N was measured at two depths (0-5 and 5-15 cm) underneath biosolids (or mulch) and in interspace positions relative to surface location of biosolids (or mulch). Dormant-season biosolids application significantly increased soil NO3-N during the first growing season, and also increased soil NO3-N throughout the first growing season compared to growing-season biosolids application in a year of higher-than-average spring precipitation. In a year of lower-than-average spring precipitation, season of application did not affect soil NO3-N. Soil NO3-N was higher at both biosolids rates for both seasons of application than in the control treatment. Biosolids increased soil NO3-N compared to the inert mulch. Irrigation did not significantly affect soil NO3-N. Soil NO3-N was not significantly different underneath biosolids and in interspace positions. Surface soil NO3-N was higher during the first year of biosolids application, and subsurface soil NO3-N increased during the second year. Results showed that biosolids rate and season of application affected soil NO3-N measured during the growing season. Under dry spring-normal summer precipitation conditions, season of application did not affect soil NO3-N; in contrast, dormant season application increased soil NO3-N more than growing season application under wet spring-dry summer conditions.

The effect of vegetation and soil texture on the nature of organics in runoff from a catchment supplying water for domestic consumption.

PubMed

Awad, John; van Leeuwen, John; Abate, Dawit; Pichler, Markus; Bestland, Erick; Chittleborough, David J; Fleming, Nigel; Cohen, Jonathan; Liffner, Joel; Drikas, Mary

2015-10-01

The influence of vegetation and soil texture on the concentration and character of dissolved organic matter (DOM) present in runoff from the surface and sub-surface of zero order catchments of the Myponga Reservoir-catchment (South Australia) was investigated to determine the impacts of catchment characteristics and land management practices on the quality of waters used for domestic supply. Catchments selected have distinct vegetative cover (grass, native vegetation or pine) and contrasting texture of the surface soil horizon (sand or clay loam/clay). Water samples were collected from three slope positions (upper, middle, and lower) at soil depths of ~30 cm and ~60 cm in addition to overland flows. Filtered (0.45 μm) water samples were analyzed for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and UV-visible absorbance and by F-EEM and HPSEC with UV and fluorescence detection to characterize the DOM. Surface and sub-surface runoff from catchments with clay soils and native vegetation or grass had lower DOC concentrations and lower relative abundances of aromatic, humic-like and high molecular weight organics than runoff from sandy soils with these vegetative types. Sub-surface flows from two catchments with Pinus radiata had similar DOC concentrations and DOM character, regardless of marked variation in surface soil texture. Runoff from catchments under native vegetation and grass on clay soils resulted in lower DOC concentrations and hence would be expected to have lower coagulant demand in conventional treatment for potable water supply than runoff from corresponding sandy soil catchments. However, organics in runoff from clay catchments would be more difficult to remove by coagulation. Surface waters from the native vegetation and grass catchments were generally found to have higher relative abundance of organic compounds amenable to removal by coagulation compared with sub-surface waters. Biophysical and land management practices combine to have a marked influence on the quality of source water used for domestic supply. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Validation of SMAP Radar Vegetation Data Cubes from Agricultural Field Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsang, L.; Xu, X.; Liao, T.; Kim, S.; Njoku, E. G.

2012-12-01

The NASA Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) Mission will be launched in October 2014. The objective of the SMAP mission is to provide global measurements of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. These measurements will be used to enhance understanding of processes that link the water, energy and carbon cycles, and to extend the capabilities of weather and climate prediction models. In the active algorithm, the retrieval is performed based on the backscattering data cube, which are characterized by two surface parameters, which are soil moisture and soil surface rms height, and one vegetation parameter, the vegetation water content. We have developed a physical-based forward scattering model to generate the data cube for agricultural fields. To represent the agricultural crops, we include a layer of cylinders and disks on top of the rough surface. The scattering cross section of the vegetation layer and its interaction with the underground soil surface were calculated by the distorted Born approximation, which give explicitly three scattering mechanisms. A) The direct volume scattering B) The double bounce effect as, and C) The double bouncing effects. The direct volume scattering is calculated by using the Body of Revolution code. The double bounce effects, exhibited by the interaction of rough surface with the vegetation layer is considered by modifying the rough surface reflectivity using the coherent wave as computed by Numerical solution of Maxwell equations of 3 Dimensional simulations (NMM3D) of bare soil scattering. The rough surface scattering of the soil was calculated by NMM3D. We have compared the physical scattering models with field measurements. In the field campaign, the measurements were made on soil moisture, rough surface rms heights and vegetation water content as well as geometric parameters of vegetation. The three main crops lands are grassland, cornfield and soybean fields. The corresponding data cubes are validated using SGP99, SMEX02 and SMEX 08 field experiments.

Pollution distribution of heavy metals in surface soil at an informal electronic-waste recycling site.

PubMed

Fujimori, Takashi; Takigami, Hidetaka

2014-02-01

We studied distribution of heavy metals [lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn)] in surface soil at an electronic-waste (e-waste) recycling workshop near Metro Manila in the Philippines to evaluate the pollution size (spot size, small area or the entire workshop), as well as to assess heavy metal transport into the surrounding soil environment. On-site length-of-stride-scale (~70 cm) measurements were performed at each surface soil point using field-portable X-ray fluorescence (FP-XRF). The surface soil at the e-waste recycling workshop was polluted with Cu, Zn and Pb, which were distributed discretely in surface soil. The site was divided into five areas based on the distance from an entrance gate (y-axis) of the e-waste recycling workshop. The three heavy metals showed similar concentration gradients in the y-axis direction. Zn, Pb and Cu concentrations were estimated to decrease to half of their maximum concentrations at ~3, 7 and 7 m from the pollution spot, respectively, inside the informal e-waste recycling workshop. Distance from an entrance may play an important role in heavy metal transport at the soil surface. Using on-site FP-XRF, we evaluated the metal ratio to characterise pollution features of the solid surface. Variability analysis of heavy metals revealed vanishing surficial autocorrelation over metre ranges. Also, the possibility of concentration prediction at unmeasured points using geostatistical kriging was evaluated, and heavy metals had a relative "small" pollution scales and remained inside the original workshop compared with toxic organohalogen compounds. Thus, exposure to heavy metals may directly influence the health of e-waste workers at the original site rather than the surrounding habitat and environmental media.

Mucilage from seeds of chia (Salvia hispanica L.) used as soil conditioner; effects on the sorption-desorption of four herbicides in three different soils.

PubMed

Di Marsico, A; Scrano, L; Amato, M; Gàmiz, B; Real, M; Cox, L

2018-06-01

The objective of this work was to determine the effect of the mucilage extracted from Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) as soil amendment on soil physical properties and on the sorption-desorption behaviour of four herbicides (MCPA, Diuron, Clomazone and Terbuthylazine) used in cereal crops. Three soils of different texture (sandy-loam, loam and clay-loam) were selected, and mercury intrusion porosimetry and surface area analysis were used to examine changes in the microstructural characteristics caused by the reactions that occur between the mucilage and soil particles. Laboratory studies were conducted to characterise the selected herbicides with regard their sorption on tested soils added or not with the mucilage. Mucilage amendment resulted in a reduction in soil porosity, basically due to a reduction in larger pores (radius>10μm) and an important increase in finer pores (radius<10μm) and in partcles' surface. A higher herbicide sorption in the amended soils was ascertained when compared to unamended soils. The sorption percentage of herbicides in soils treated with mucilage increased in the order; sandy-loam

Physical and chemical properties of the Martian soil: Review of resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoker, C. R.; Gooding, James L.; Banin, A.; Clark, Benton C.; Roush, Ted

1991-01-01

The chemical and physical properties of Martian surface materials are reviewed from the perspective of using these resources to support human settlement. The resource potential of Martian sediments and soils can only be inferred from limited analyses performed by the Viking Landers (VL), from information derived from remote sensing, and from analysis of the SNC meteorites thought to be from Mars. Bulk elemental compositions by the VL inorganic chemical (x ray fluorescence) analysis experiments have been interpreted as evidence for clay minerals (possibly smectites) or mineraloids (palagonite) admixed with sulfate and chloride salts. The materials contained minerals bearing Fe, Ti, Al, Mg and Si. Martian surface materials may be used in many ways. Martian soil, with appropriate preconditioning, can probably be used as a plant growth medium, supplying mechanical support, nutrient elements, and water at optimal conditions to the plants. Loose Martian soils could be used to cover structures and provide radiation shielding for surface habitats. Martian soil could be wetted and formed into abode bricks used for construction. Duricrete bricks, with strength comparable to concrete, can probably be formed using compressed muds made from martian soil.

Spice In Martian Soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seiferlin, K.; Spohn, T.; Spice Team

The Netlander mission offers a unique opportunity to study the surface and the inte- rior of Mars at four different locations at the same time. In addition to real "network"- science, where the presence of four stations is a 'must' to address global science as- pects, local, landing site-related instruments can more than double our knowledge of the surface of Mars, compared to the three landing sites (Viking 1 and 2, Pathfinder) we are currently familiar with. The SPICE instrument will characterize the soil at the landing sites. Force sensors integrated into the seismometer legs (three per station) will determine the mechanical strength of the soil. Thermal sensors will measure the local soil temperature, the thermal inertia and the thermal diffusivity independently, thus allowing us to determine the thermal conductivity and the volumetric heat capac- ity of the soil. These properties will tell us about (1) soil cementation ("duricrust"), (2) volatile exchange with the atmosphere, (3) grain size, (4) near-surface stratigra- phy, and (5) will finally provide ground truth for remote sensing data such as that from Mars Global Surveyor's thermal emission spectrometer.

Evaporation from soils subjected to natural boundary conditions at the land-atmospheric interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smits, K.; Illngasekare, T.; Ngo, V.; Cihan, A.

2012-04-01

Bare soil evaporation is a key process for water exchange between the land and the atmosphere and an important component of the water balance in semiarid and arid regions. However, there is no agreement on the best methodology to determine evaporation under different boundary conditions at the land surface. This becomes critical in developing models that couples land to the atmosphere. Because it is difficult to measure evaporation from soil, with the exception of using lysimeters, numerous formulations have been proposed to establish a relationship between the rate of evaporation and soil moisture and/or soil temperature and thermal properties. Different formulations vary in how they partition available energy. A need exists to systematically compare existing methods to experimental data under highly controlled conditions not achievable in the field. The goal of this work is to perform controlled experiments under transient conditions of soil moisture, temperature and wind at the land/atmospheric interface to test different conceptual and mathematical formulations for the soil surface boundary conditions to develop appropriate numerical models to be used in simulations. In this study, to better understand the coupled water-vapor-heat flow processes in the shallow subsurface near the land surface, we modified a previously developed theory by Smits et al. [2011] that allows non-equilibrium liquid/gas phase change with gas phase vapor diffusion to better account for dry soil conditions. The model did not implement fitting parameters such as a vapor enhancement factor that is commonly introduced into the vapor diffusion coefficient as an arbitrary multiplication factor. In order to experimentally test the numerical formulations/code, we performed a two-dimensional physical model experiment under varying boundary conditions using test sand for which the hydraulic and thermal properties were well characterized. Precision data under well-controlled transient heat and wind boundary conditions was generated and results from numerical simulations were compared with experimental data. Results demonstrate that the boundary condition approaches varied in their ability to capture stage 1- and stage 2- evaporation. Results also demonstrated the importance of properly characterizing soil thermal properties and accounting for dry soil conditions. The contribution of film flow to hydraulic conductivity for the layer above the drying front is dominant compared to that of capillary flow, demonstrating the importance of including film flow in modeling efforts for dry soils, especially for fine grained soils. Comparisons of different formulations of the surface boundary condition validate the need for joint evaluation of heat and mass transfer for better modeling accuracy. This knowledge is applicable to many current hydrologic and environmental problems to include climate modeling and the simulation of contaminant transport and volatilization in the shallow subsurface. Smits, K. M., A. Cihan, T. Sakaki, and T. H. Illangasekare (2011). Evaporation from soils under thermal boundary conditions: Experimental and modeling investigation to compare equilibrium- and nonequilibrium-based approaches, Water Resour. Res., 47, W05540, doi:10.1029/2010WR009533.

Distributions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in surface waters, sediments and soils of Hangzhou City, China.

PubMed

Chen, Baoliang; Xuan, Xiaodong; Zhu, Lizhong; Wang, Jing; Gao, Yanzheng; Yang, Kun; Shen, Xueyou; Lou, Baofeng

2004-09-01

Ten polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were simultaneously measured in 17 surface water samples and 11 sediments of four water bodies, and 3 soils near the water-body bank in Hangzhou, China in December 2002. It was observed that the sum of PAHs concentrations ranged from 0.989 to 9.663 microg/L in surface waters, from 132.7 to 7343 ng/g dry weight in sediments, and from 59.71 to 615.8 ng/g dry weight in soils. The composition pattern of PAHs by ring size in water, sediment and soil were surveyed. Three-ring PAHs were dominated in surface waters and soils, meanwhile sediments were mostly dominated by four-ring PAHs. Furthermore, PAHs apparent distribution coefficients (K(d)) and solid f(oc)-normalized K(d) (e.g. K(oc)= K(d) / f(oc)) were calculated. The relationship between logK(oc) and logK(ow) of PAHs for field data on sediments and predicted values were compared. The sources of PAHs in different water bodies were evaluated by comparison of K (oc) values in sediments of the river downstream with that in soils. Hangzhou section of the Great Canal was heavily polluted by PAHs released from industrial wastewater in the past and now PAHs in sediment may serve as sources of PAHs in surface water. PAHs in Qiantang River were contributed from soil runoff. Municipal road runoff was mostly contributed to West Lake PAHs.

Initializing numerical weather prediction models with satellite-derived surface soil moisture: Data assimilation experiments with ECMWF's Integrated Forecast System and the TMI soil moisture data set

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drusch, M.

2007-02-01

Satellite-derived surface soil moisture data sets are readily available and have been used successfully in hydrological applications. In many operational numerical weather prediction systems the initial soil moisture conditions are analyzed from the modeled background and 2 m temperature and relative humidity. This approach has proven its efficiency to improve surface latent and sensible heat fluxes and consequently the forecast on large geographical domains. However, since soil moisture is not always related to screen level variables, model errors and uncertainties in the forcing data can accumulate in root zone soil moisture. Remotely sensed surface soil moisture is directly linked to the model's uppermost soil layer and therefore is a stronger constraint for the soil moisture analysis. For this study, three data assimilation experiments with the Integrated Forecast System (IFS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) have been performed for the 2-month period of June and July 2002: a control run based on the operational soil moisture analysis, an open loop run with freely evolving soil moisture, and an experimental run incorporating TMI (TRMM Microwave Imager) derived soil moisture over the southern United States. In this experimental run the satellite-derived soil moisture product is introduced through a nudging scheme using 6-hourly increments. Apart from the soil moisture analysis, the system setup reflects the operational forecast configuration including the atmospheric 4D-Var analysis. Soil moisture analyzed in the nudging experiment is the most accurate estimate when compared against in situ observations from the Oklahoma Mesonet. The corresponding forecast for 2 m temperature and relative humidity is almost as accurate as in the control experiment. Furthermore, it is shown that the soil moisture analysis influences local weather parameters including the planetary boundary layer height and cloud coverage.

Influence of agricultural management on chemical quality of a clay soil of semi-arid Morocco

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibno Namr, Khalid; Mrabet, Rachid

2004-06-01

Morocco's semi-arid lands are characterized by unique challenges. The most important obstacles to the development of durable agriculture are (1) limited and unpredictable supply of soil moisture and (2) low soil quality. Intensive use of soil throughout history has led to depletion in soil quality, leading in return to reduced yields because of the consequent reduced organic matter. Recognizing the need to recover soil quality and production decline, INRA scientists began, in the early 1980s, research on the effects of crop rotations, tillage and residue management on the productivity and quality of cropped soils. The present study concerns the short-term effect of rotation, tillage and residue management on selected quality indices of a calcixeroll (organic matter, nitrogen, particulate organic carbon (Cpom), particulate organic nitrogen (Npom) and pH). Hence, three rotations (wheat-wheat, WW; fallow-wheat, FW; and fallow-wheat-barley, FWB), two tillage systems (conventional offset disking, CT and no-tillage, NT), and three levels of residue in the NT system (NT 0 = no-residue cover, NT 50 = half surface residue cover, NT 100 = full surface residue cover) were selected. Three surface horizons were sampled (0-2.5, 2.5-7 and 7-20 cm). The study results showed an improvement of measured soil chemical properties under NT compared to CT, at the surface layer. No-tillage system helped sequestration of carbon and nitrogen, build-up of particulate organic carbon and nitrogen and sensible reduction of pH only at the surface layer. Continuous wheat permitted a slight improvement of soil quality, mainly at the 0-2.5 cm depth. Effects of rotation, tillage and residue level were reduced with depth of measurements.

Multi-decadal impacts of grazing on soil physical and biogeochemical properties in southeast Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Neff, J.C.; Reynolds, R.L.; Belnap, J.; Lamothe, P.

2005-01-01

Many soils in southeastern Utah are protected from surface disturbance by biological soil crusts that stabilize soils and reduce erosion by wind and water. When these crusts are disturbed by land use, soils become susceptible to erosion. In this study, we compare a never-grazed grassland in Canyonlands National Park with two historically grazed sites with similar geologic, geomorphic, and geochemical characteristics that were grazed from the late 1800s until 1974. We show that, despite almost 30 years without livestock grazing, surface soils in the historically grazed sites have 38-43% less silt, as well as 14-51% less total elemental soil Mg, Na, P, and Mn content relative to soils never exposed to livestock disturbances. Using magnetic measurement of soil magnetite content (a proxy for the stabilization of far-traveled eolian dust) we suggest that the differences in Mg, Na, P, and Mn are related to wind erosion of soil fine particles after the historical disturbance by livestock grazing. Historical grazing may also lead to changes in soil organic matter content including declines of 60-70% in surface soil C and N relative to the never-grazed sites. Collectively, the differences in soil C and N content and the evidence for substantial rock-derived nutrient loss to wind erosion implies that livestock grazing could have long-lasting effects on the soil fertility of native grasslands in this part of southeastern Utah. This study suggests that nutrient loss due to wind erosion of soils should be a consideration for management decisions related to the long-term sustainability of grazing operations in arid environments.

Modeling interface shear behavior of granular materials using micro-polar continuum approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ebrahimian, Babak; Noorzad, Ali; Alsaleh, Mustafa I.

2018-01-01

Recently, the authors have focused on the shear behavior of interface between granular soil body and very rough surface of moving bounding structure. For this purpose, they have used finite element method and a micro-polar elasto-plastic continuum model. They have shown that the boundary conditions assumed along the interface have strong influences on the soil behavior. While in the previous studies, only very rough bounding interfaces have been taken into account, the present investigation focuses on the rough, medium rough and relatively smooth interfaces. In this regard, plane monotonic shearing of an infinite extended narrow granular soil layer is simulated under constant vertical pressure and free dilatancy. The soil layer is located between two parallel rigid boundaries of different surface roughness values. Particular attention is paid to the effect of surface roughness of top and bottom boundaries on the shear behavior of granular soil layer. It is shown that the interaction between roughness of bounding structure surface and the rotation resistance of bounding grains can be modeled in a reasonable manner through considered Cosserat boundary conditions. The influence of surface roughness is investigated on the soil shear strength mobilized along the interface as well as on the location and evolution of shear localization formed within the layer. The obtained numerical results have been qualitatively compared with experimental observations as well as DEM simulations, and acceptable agreement is shown.

Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval Using SSM/I and Its Comparison with ESTAR: A Case Study Over a Grassland Region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, T.; Hsu, A. Y.; ONeill, P. E.

1999-01-01

This study extends a previous investigation on estimating surface soil moisture using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) over a grassland region. Although SSM/I is not optimal for soil moisture retrieval, it can under some conditions provide information. Rigorous analyses over land have been difficult due to the lack of good validation data sets. A scientific objective of the Southern Great Plains 1997 (SGP97) Hydrology Experiment was to investigate whether the retrieval algorithms for surface soil moisture developed at higher spatial resolution using truck-and aircraft-based passive microwave sensors can be extended to the coarser resolutions expected from satellite platform. With the data collected for the SGP97, the objective of this study is to compare the surface soil moisture estimated from the SSM/I data with those retrieved from the L-band Electronically Scanned Thinned Array Radiometer (ESTAR) data, the core sensor for the experiment, using the same retrieval algorithm. The results indicated that an error of estimate of 7.81% could be achieved with SSM/I data as contrasted to 2.82% with ESTAR data over three intensive sampling areas of different vegetation regimes. It confirms the results of previous study that SSM/I data can be used to retrieve surface soil moisture information at a regional scale under certain conditions.

The effects of soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation on L-band emission and backscatter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, James R.; Shiue, J. C.; Engman, Edwin T.; Schmugge, Thomas J.; Mo, Tsan

1987-01-01

Measurements performed with SIR-B at 1.28 GHz and an airborne multiple-beam push-broom radiometer at 1.4 GHz over agricultural fields near Fresno, California are examined. A theoretical model (Kirchhoff approximation) was used to assess the effects of surface roughness and vegetation (alfalfa and lettuce) with respect to the responses of microwave emission and backscatter to soil-moisture variations. It is found that the surface roughness plays a dominant role compared to the vegetation cover in the microwave backscatter.

Effects of different mechanized soil fertilization methods on corn soil fertility under continuous cropping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Qingwen; Wang, Huixin; Bai, Chunming; Wu, Di; Song, Qiaobo; Gao, Depeng; Dong, Zengqi; Cheng, Xin; Dong, Qiping; Zhang, Yahao; Mu, Jiahui; Chen, Qinghong; Liao, Wenqing; Qu, Tianru; Zhang, Chunling; Zhang, Xinyu; Liu, Yifei; Han, Xiaori

2017-05-01

Experiments for mechanized soil fertilization for corns were conducted in Faku demonstration zone. On this basis, we studied effects on corn soil fertility under continuous cropping due to different mechanized soil fertilization methods. Our study would serve as a theoretical basis further for mechanized soil fertilization improvement and soil quality improvement in brown soil area. Based on the survey of soil physical characteristics during different corn growth periods, we collected soil samples from different corn growth periods to determine and make statistical analysis accordingly. Stalk returning to field with deep tillage proved to be the most effective on available nutrient improvement for arable soil in the demonstration zone. Different mechanized soil fertilization methods were remarkably effective on total phosphorus improvement for arable soil in the demonstration zone, while less effective on total nitrogen or total potassium, and not so effective on C/N ratio in soil. Stalk returning with deep tillage was more favorable to improve content of organic matter in soil, when compared with surface application, and organic granular fertilizer more favorable when compared with decomposed cow dung for such a purpose, too.

Theoretical and experimental analysis of an equivalent circuit model for the investigation of shallow landmines with acoustic methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borgioli, G.; Bulletti, A.; Calzolai, M.; Capineri, L.; Falorni, P.; Masotti, L.; Valentini, S.; Windsor, C.

2007-10-01

Acoustic methods have been recently investigated for the detection of shallow landmines. Some plastic landmines have a flexible case which can made to vibrate by an airborne excitation like a loudspeaker. The soil-mine system shows a resonant behavior which is used as a signature to discriminate from other rigid objects. The mechanical resonance can be detected at the soil surface by a remote sensing systems like a laser interferometer. An equivalent physical model of the mine-soil system has been investigated having the known physical characteristics of mine simulants. The authors designed and built a test-object with known mechanical characteristics (mass, elasticity, damping factor). The model has been characterized in laboratory and the results compared with the classic mass-spring loss oscillator described by Voigt. The vibrations at the soil surface have been measured in various positions with a micro machined accelerometer. The results of the simulations for the acceleration of the soil-mine system agree well with the experiment. The calibrated mine model is useful to investigate the variation of the resonance frequency for various buried depths and to compare the results for different soils in different environmental conditions.

Stabilization of enzymatically polymerized phenolic chemicals in a model soil organic matter-free geomaterial.

PubMed

Palomo, Mónica; Bhandari, Alok

2012-01-01

A variety of remediation methods, including contaminant transformation by peroxidase-mediated oxidative polymerization, have been proposed to manage soils and groundwater contaminated with chlorinated phenols. Phenol stabilization has been successfully observed during cross polymerization between phenolic polymers and soil organic matter (SOM) for soils with SOM >3%. This study evaluates peroxidase-mediated transformation and removal of 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP) from an aqueous phase in contact with a natural geomaterial modified to contain negligible (<0.3%) SOM. The results are compared with those for soils with higher SOM. The SOM-free sorbent was generated by removing SOM using a NaOCl oxidation. When horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was used to induce polymerization of DCP, the soil-water phase distribution relationship (PDR) of DCP polymerization products (DPP) was complete within 1 d and PDRs did not significantly change over the 28 d of study. The conversion of DCP to DPP was close to 95% efficient. Extractable solute consisted entirely of DPP with 5% or less of unreacted DCP. The aqueous extractability of DPP from SOM-free geomaterial decreased at longer contact times and at smaller residual aqueous concentrations of DPP. DCP stabilization appeared to have resulted from a combination of sorption, precipitation, and ligand exchange between oligomeric products and the exposed mineral surfaces. Modification of the mineral surface through coverage with DPP enhanced the time-dependent retention of the oligomers. DPP stabilization in SOM-free geomaterial was comparable with that reported in the literature with soil containing SOM contents >1%. Results from this study suggest that the effectiveness of HRP-mediated stabilization of phenolic compounds not only depends on the cross-coupling with SOM, but also on the modification of the surface of the sorbent that can augment affinity with oligomers and enhance stabilization. Coverage of the mineral surface by phenolic oligomers may be analogous to SOM that can potentially sorb other xenobiotics. HRP- mediated reactions can be used to stabilize DCP associated with low SOM mineral soils or aquifer media, thereby restricting the transport of phenolic contaminants in the soil environment. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Biophysical response of dryland soils to rainfall: implications for wind erosion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bullard, J. E.; Strong, C. L.; Aubault, H.

2016-12-01

Dryland soils can be highly susceptible to wind erosion due to low vegetation cover. The formation of physical and biological soil crusts between vascular plants can exert some control on the soil surface erodibility. The development of these crusts is highly dependent on rainfall which causes sediment compaction and aggregate breakdown, and triggers photosynthetic activity and an increase soil organic matter within biological soil crusts. Using controlled field experiments, this study tests how biological soil crusts in different dryland geomorphic settings respond to various rainfall amounts (0, 5 or 10 mm) and how this in turn affects the resistance of soils to wind erosion. Results show that 10 mm of rainfall triggers more intense photosynthetic activity (high fluorescence) and a greater increase in extracellular polysaccharide content in biological crusts than 5 mm of rainfall but that the duration of photosynthetic activity is comparable for both quantities of rain. These biological responses have little impact on surface resistance, but results show that soils are more susceptible to wind erosion after rainfall events than in their initial dry state. This unexpected result could be explained by the detachment of surface sediments by raindrop impact and overland flow. The study highlights the complexity of soil erodibility at small scale which is driven by rain, wind and crust, and a necessity to understand how the spatial heterogeneity of crust and their ecophysiology alters small scale processes.

Vertical profile measurements of soil air suggest immobilization of gaseous elemental mercury in mineral soil.

PubMed

Obrist, Daniel; Pokharel, Ashok K; Moore, Christopher

2014-02-18

Evasion of gaseous elemental Hg (Hg(0)g) from soil surfaces is an important source of atmospheric Hg, but the volatility and solid-gas phase partitioning of Hg(0) within soils is poorly understood. We developed a novel system to continuously measure Hg(0)g concentrations in soil pores at multiple depths and locations, and present a total of 297 days of measurements spanning 14 months in two forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains, California, U.S. Temporal patterns showed consistent pore Hg(0)g concentrations below levels measured in the atmosphere (termed Hg(0)g immobilization), ranging from 66 to 94% below atmospheric concentrations throughout multiple seasons. The lowest pore Hg(0)g concentrations were observed in the deepest soil layers (40 cm), but significant immobilization was already present in the top 7 cm. In the absence of sinks or sources, pore Hg(0)g levels would be in equilibrium with atmospheric concentrations due to the porous nature of the soil matrix and gas diffusion. Therefore, we explain decreases in pore Hg(0)g in mineral soils below atmospheric concentrations--or below levels found in upper soils as observed in previous studies--with the presence of an Hg(0)g sink in mineral soils possibly related to Hg(0)g oxidation or other processes such as sorption or dissolution in soil water. Surface chamber measurements showing daytime Hg(0)g emissions and nighttime Hg(0)g deposition indicate that near-surface layers likely dominate net atmospheric Hg(0)g exchange resulting in typical diurnal cycles due to photochemcial reduction at the surface and possibly Hg(0)g evasion from litter layers. In contrast, mineral soils seem to be decoupled from this surface exchange, showing consistent Hg(0)g uptake and downward redistribution--although our calculations indicate these fluxes to be minor compared to other mass fluxes. A major implication is that once Hg is incorporated into mineral soils, it may be unlikely subjected to renewed Hg(0)g re-emission from undisturbed, background soils emphasizing the important role of soils in sequestering past and current Hg pollution loads.

The SWEX at the area of Eastern Poland: Comparison of soil moisture obtained from ground measurements and SMOS satellite data*

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Usowicz, J. B.; Marczewski, W.; Usowicz, B.; Lukowski, M. I.; Lipiec, J.; Slominski, J.

2012-04-01

Soil moisture, together with soil and vegetation characteristics, plays an important role in exchange of water and energy between the land surface and the atmospheric boundary layer. Accurate knowledge of current and future spatial and temporal variation in soil moisture is not well known, nor easy to measure or predict. Knowledge of soil moisture in surface and root zone soil moisture is critical for achieving sustainable land and water management. The importance of SM is so high that this ECV is recommended by GCOS (Global Climate Observing System) to any attempts of evaluating of effects the climate change, and therefore it is one of the goals for observing the Earth by the ESA SMOS Mission (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity), globally. SMOS provides its observations by means of the interferometric radiometry method (1.4 GHz) from the orbit. In parallel, ten ground based stations are kept by IA PAN, in area of the Eastern Wall in Poland, in order to validate SMOS data and for other ground based agrophysical purposes. Soil moisture measurements obtained from ground and satellite measurements from SMOS were compared using Bland-Altman method of agreement, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and total deviation index (TDI). Observed similar changes in soil moisture, but the values obtained from satellite measurements were lower. Minor differences between the compared data are at higher moisture contents of soil and they grow with decreasing soil moisture. Soil moisture trends are maintained in the individual stations. Such distributions of soil moisture were mainly related to soil type. * The work was financially supported in part by the ESA Programme for European Cooperating States (PECS), No.98084 "SWEX-R, Soil Water and Energy Exchange/Research", AO3275.

Soil methane and CO2 fluxes in rainforest and rubber plantations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lang, Rong; Blagodatsky, Sergey; Goldberg, Stefanie; Xu, Jianchu

2017-04-01

Expansion of rubber plantations in South-East Asia has been a land use transformation trend leading to losses of natural forest cover in the region. Besides impact on ecosystem carbon stocks, this conversion influences the dynamics of greenhouse gas fluxes from soil driven by microbial activity, which has been insufficiently studied. Aimed to understand how land use change affects the soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes, we measured surface gas fluxes, gas concentration gradient, and 13C signature in CH4 and soil organic matter in profiles in a transect in Xishuangbanna, including a rainforest site and three rubber plantation sites with age gradient. Gas fluxes were measured by static chamber method and open chamber respiration system. Soil gases were sampled from installed gas samplers at 5, 10, 30, and 75cm depth at representative time in dry and rainy season. The soil CO2 flux was comparable in rainforest and old rubber plantations, while young rubber plantation had the lowest rate. Total carbon content in the surface soil well explained the difference of soil CO2 flux between sites. All sites were CH4 sinks in dry season and uptake decreased in the order of rainforest, old rubber plantations and young rubber plantation. From dry season to rainy season, CH4 consumption decreased with increasing CH4 concentration in the soil profile at all depths. The enrichment of methane by 13CH4 shifted towards to lowerδ13C, being the evidence of enhanced CH4 production process while net surface methane flux reflected the consumption in wet condition. Increment of CH4 concentration in the profile from dry to rainy season was higher in old rubber plantation compared to rainforest, while the shifting of δ13CH4 was larger in rainforest than rubber sites. Turnover rates of soil CO2 and CH4 suggested that the 0-5 cm surface soil was the most active layer for gaseous carbon exchange. δ13C in soil organic matter and soil moisture increased from rainforest, young rubber plantation to old rubber plantations. Conversion the forest into rubber plantation decreased soil respiration in young plantation and it recovered during rubber development. However, the CH4consumption by tropical upland forest soil decreased in converted rubber plantations of all ages, with more decrement in old plantation. Change forest into rubber plantations weakened the soil function as CH4 sink.

[Cd Runoff Load and Soil Profile Movement After Implementation of Some Typical Contaminated Agricultural Soil Remediation Strategies].

PubMed

Liu, Xiao-li; Zeng, Zhao-xia; Tie, Bai-qing; Chen, Qiu-wen; Wei, Xiang-dong

2016-02-15

Owing to the strong ability to immobilize and hyperaccumulate some toxic heavy metals in contaminated soils, the biochar, lime and such as hyperaccumulator ramie received increasing interests from crops and environment safety in recent years. Outdoor pot experiment was conducted to compare the impacts of lime and biochar addition in paddy rice treatment, hyperaccumulator ramie and ramie combined with EDTA of plant Phytoremediation methods on soil available Cd dynamics in rainfall runoff and the mobility along soil profile, under both natural acid precipitation and acid soil conditions. The results showed that, biochar addition at a 2% mass ratio application amount significantly increased soil pH, while ramie with EDTA application obviously decreased soil pH compared to ramie monoculture. Within the same rainfall events, water soluble Cd concentration in surface runoff of ramie treatments was significantly higher than those of waterlogged rice treatments, and Cd concentration in runoff was obviously increased after EDTA addition, whereas lime at a 0.3% mass ratio application amount as additive had no obvious impact on soil pH and Cd speciation change, which may be due to the low application amount. During the whole experimental period , water soluble Cd concentration of rainfall runoff in spring was higher than that in summer, showing the same seasonal characteristics in all treatments. Biochar addition could significantly decrease available Cd content in 0-20 cm soil layer and with certain preferable persistency effects, whereas EDTA addition treatment obviously increased available Cd of 0-20 cm soil layer compared to other treatments, and obvious Cd element activation phenomenon in 20-40 cm soil layer was observed after EDTA addition. In conclusion, lime and biochar as environmental and friendly alkaline Cd immobilization materials showed lower environment risk to surface and ground receiving water, but attention should be paid to phytoremediation enhanced with EDTA or other organic acid before promotion and field application for heavy metals removal from contaminated soils.

Effect of pond ash on pen surface properties

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Maintaining adequate feedlot pen surfaces is expensive. Pond ash (PA), a coal-fired electrical generation by-product, has good support qualities. A study was conducted comparing the performance of pond ash (PA) surfaced pens with soil surface (SS) pens. Four pens of an eight pen series with dimensio...

Soil hydrological and soil property changes resulting from termite activity on agricultural fields in Burkina Faso

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mettrop, I.; Cammeraat, L. H.; Verbeeten, E.

2009-04-01

Termites are important ecosystem-engineers in subtropical and tropical regions. The effect of termite activity affecting soil infiltration is well documented in the Sahelian region. Most studies find increased infiltration rates on surfaces that are affected by termite activity in comparison to crusted areas showing non-termite presence. Crusted agricultural fields in the Sanmatenga region in Burkina Faso with clear termite activity were compared to control fields without visual ground dwelling termite activity. Fine scale rainfall simulations were carried out on crusted termite affected and control sites. Furthermore soil moisture change, bulk density, soil organic matter as well as general soil characteristics were studied. The top soils in the study area were strongly crusted (structural crust) after the summer rainfall and harvest of millet. They have a loamy sand texture underlain by a shallow sandy loam Bt horizon. The initial soil moisture conditions were significantly higher on the termite plots when compared to control sites. It was found that the amount of runoff produced on the termite plots was significantly higher, and also the volumetric soil moisture content after the experiments was significantly lower if compared to the control plots. Bulk density showed no difference whereas soil organic matter was significantly higher under termite affected areas, in comparison to the control plots. Lab tests showed no significant difference in hydrophobic behavior of the topsoil and crust material. Micro and macro-structural properties of the topsoil did not differ significantly between the termite sites and the control sites. The texture of the top 5 cm of the soil was also found to be not significantly different. The infiltration results are contradictory to the general literature, which reports increased infiltration rates after prolonged termite activity although mostly under different initial conditions. The number of nest entrances was clearly higher in the termite areas, but apparently did not significantly affect infiltration. The increased soil organic matter contents in the termite affected areas however, are as expected from literature, but did not improve soil aggregation which would be expected given the importance of organic matter in soil aggregation in this type of soils. One of the explanations for the reduced infiltration rates might be that termites bring clay from the finer textured subsoil to the surface to build casts over the organic material on the surface (mainly millet stems). It is speculated that the excavated clay material could be involved in crust formation, only present is in the upper 0.5 cm of the soil crust, which is enough to block pores in the crust surface, hampering infiltration. The topsoil aggregates are slaking under the summer rainfall and the increase in fine textured material, excavated by the termites, could be incorporated into the crust and reduce infiltration. Furthermore this specific effect might also be related to the type of termite involved, as impacts from ecosystem engineers on their environment is highly dependent on the specific species involved.

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in wetland soils under different land uses along a 100-year chronosequence of reclamation in a Chinese estuary

PubMed Central

Bai, Junhong; Lu, Qiongqiong; Zhao, Qingqing; Wang, Junjing; Gao, Zhaoqin; Zhang, Guangliang

2015-01-01

Soil profiles were collected at a depth of 30 cm in ditch wetlands (DWs), riverine wetlands (RiWs) and reclaimed wetlands (ReWs) along a 100-year chronosequence of reclamation in the Pearl River Delta. In total, 16 OCPs were measured to investigate the effects of wetland reclamation and reclamation history on OCP levels. Our results showed that average ∑DDTs, HCB, MXC, and ∑OCPs were higher in surface soils of DWs compared to RiWs and ReWs. Both D30 and D20 soils contained the highest ∑OCP levels, followed by D40 and D100 soils; lower ∑OCP levels occurred in D10 soils. Higher ∑OCP levels were observed in the younger RiWs than in the older ones, and surface soils exhibited higher ∑OCP concentrations in the older ReWs compared with younger ReWs. The predominant percentages of γ-HCH in ∑HCHs (>42%) and aldrin in ∑DRINs (>46%) in most samples reflected the recent use of lindane and aldrin. The presence of dominant DDT isomers (p,p’-DDE and p,p’-DDD) indicated the historical input of DDT and significant aerobic degradation of the compound. Generally, DW soils had a higher ecotoxicological risk of OCPs than RiW and ReW soils, and the top 30 cm soils had higher ecotoxicological risks of HCHs than of DDTs. PMID:26633149

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in wetland soils under different land uses along a 100-year chronosequence of reclamation in a Chinese estuary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bai, Junhong; Lu, Qiongqiong; Zhao, Qingqing; Wang, Junjing; Gao, Zhaoqin; Zhang, Guangliang

2015-12-01

Soil profiles were collected at a depth of 30 cm in ditch wetlands (DWs), riverine wetlands (RiWs) and reclaimed wetlands (ReWs) along a 100-year chronosequence of reclamation in the Pearl River Delta. In total, 16 OCPs were measured to investigate the effects of wetland reclamation and reclamation history on OCP levels. Our results showed that average ∑DDTs, HCB, MXC, and ∑OCPs were higher in surface soils of DWs compared to RiWs and ReWs. Both D30 and D20 soils contained the highest ∑OCP levels, followed by D40 and D100 soils; lower ∑OCP levels occurred in D10 soils. Higher ∑OCP levels were observed in the younger RiWs than in the older ones, and surface soils exhibited higher ∑OCP concentrations in the older ReWs compared with younger ReWs. The predominant percentages of γ-HCH in ∑HCHs (>42%) and aldrin in ∑DRINs (>46%) in most samples reflected the recent use of lindane and aldrin. The presence of dominant DDT isomers (p,p’-DDE and p,p’-DDD) indicated the historical input of DDT and significant aerobic degradation of the compound. Generally, DW soils had a higher ecotoxicological risk of OCPs than RiW and ReW soils, and the top 30 cm soils had higher ecotoxicological risks of HCHs than of DDTs.

Differences in the Activities of Eight Enzymes from Ten Soil Fungi and Their Possible Influences on the Surface Structure, Functional Groups, and Element Composition of Soil Colloids

PubMed Central

Wang, Wenjie; Li, Yanhong; Wang, Huimei; Zu, Yuangang

2014-01-01

How soil fungi function in soil carbon and nutrient cycling is not well understood by using fungal enzymatic differences and their interactions with soil colloids. Eight extracellular enzymes, EEAs (chitinase, carboxymethyl cellulase, β-glucosidase, protease, acid phosphatase, polyphenol oxidase, laccase, and guaiacol oxidase) secreted by ten fungi were compared, and then the fungi that showed low and high enzymatic activity were co-cultured with soil colloids for the purpose of finding fungi-soil interactions. Some fungi (Gomphidius rutilus, Russula integra, Pholiota adiposa, and Geastrum mammosum) secreted 3–4 enzymes with weak activities, while others (Cyathus striatus, Suillus granulate, Phallus impudicus, Collybia dryophila, Agaricus sylvicola, and Lactarius deliciosus) could secret over 5 enzymes with high activities. The differences in these fungi contributed to the alterations of functional groups (stretching bands of O-H, N-H, C-H, C = O, COO- decreased by 11–60%, while P = O, C-O stretching, O-H bending and Si-O-Si stretching increased 9–22%), surface appearance (disappearance of adhesive organic materials), and elemental compositions (11–49% decreases in C1s) in soil colloids. Moreover, more evident changes were generally in high enzymatic fungi (C. striatus) compared with low enzymatic fungi (G. rutilus). Our findings indicate that inter-fungi differences in EEA types and activities might be responsible for physical and chemical changes in soil colloids (the most active component of soil matrix), highlighting the important roles of soil fungi in soil nutrient cycling and functional maintenance. PMID:25398013

Differences in the activities of eight enzymes from ten soil fungi and their possible influences on the surface structure, functional groups, and element composition of soil colloids.

PubMed

Wang, Wenjie; Li, Yanhong; Wang, Huimei; Zu, Yuangang

2014-01-01

How soil fungi function in soil carbon and nutrient cycling is not well understood by using fungal enzymatic differences and their interactions with soil colloids. Eight extracellular enzymes, EEAs (chitinase, carboxymethyl cellulase, β-glucosidase, protease, acid phosphatase, polyphenol oxidase, laccase, and guaiacol oxidase) secreted by ten fungi were compared, and then the fungi that showed low and high enzymatic activity were co-cultured with soil colloids for the purpose of finding fungi-soil interactions. Some fungi (Gomphidius rutilus, Russula integra, Pholiota adiposa, and Geastrum mammosum) secreted 3-4 enzymes with weak activities, while others (Cyathus striatus, Suillus granulate, Phallus impudicus, Collybia dryophila, Agaricus sylvicola, and Lactarius deliciosus) could secret over 5 enzymes with high activities. The differences in these fungi contributed to the alterations of functional groups (stretching bands of O-H, N-H, C-H, C = O, COO- decreased by 11-60%, while P = O, C-O stretching, O-H bending and Si-O-Si stretching increased 9-22%), surface appearance (disappearance of adhesive organic materials), and elemental compositions (11-49% decreases in C1s) in soil colloids. Moreover, more evident changes were generally in high enzymatic fungi (C. striatus) compared with low enzymatic fungi (G. rutilus). Our findings indicate that inter-fungi differences in EEA types and activities might be responsible for physical and chemical changes in soil colloids (the most active component of soil matrix), highlighting the important roles of soil fungi in soil nutrient cycling and functional maintenance.

Best management practices for nutrient and sediment retention in urban stormwater runoff.

PubMed

Hogan, Dianna M; Walbridge, Mark R

2007-01-01

Stormwater management infrastructure is utilized in urban areas to alleviate flooding caused by decreased landscape permeability from increased impervious surface cover (ISC) construction. In this study, we examined two types of stormwater detention basins, SDB-BMPs (stormwater detention basin-best management practice), and SDB-FCs (stormwater detention basin-flood control). Both are constructed to retain peak stormwater flows for flood mitigation. However, the SDB-BMPs are also designed using basin topography and wetland vegetation to provide water quality improvement (nutrient and sediment removal and retention). The objective of this study was to compare SDB (both SDB-BMP and SDB-FC) surface soil P concentrations, P saturation, and Fe chemistry with natural riparian wetlands (RWs), using sites in Fairfax County, Virginia as a model system. The SDB-BMPs had significantly greater surface soil total P (P(t)) concentrations than the RWs and SDB-FCs (831.9 +/- 32.5 kg ha(-1), 643.3 +/- 19.1 kg ha(-1), and 652.1 +/- 18.8 kg ha(-1), respectively). The soil P sorption capacities of SDB-BMPs were similar to the RWs, and were greater than those of SDB-FCs, appearing to result in greater soil P removal and retention in SDB-BMPs compared with SDB-FCs. Increased Fe concentrations and relatively greater amounts of more crystalline forms of Fe in SDB-BMP soils suggested increased sediment deposition compared with RW and SDB-FC soils. Data suggest that SDB nutrient and sediment retention is facilitated in SDB-BMPs. When stormwater management is necessary, use of SDB-BMPs instead of SDB-FCs could foster more responsible urban development and be an appropriate mitigation action for receiving aquatic ecosystems.

Best management practices for nutrient and sediment retention in urban stormwater runoff

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hogan, D.M.; Walbridge, M.R.

2007-01-01

Stormwater management infrastructure is utilized in urban areas to alleviate flooding caused by decreased landscape permeability from increased impervious surface cover (ISC) construction. In this study, we examined two types of stormwater detention basins, SDB-BMPs (stormwater detention basin-best management practice), and SDB-FCs (stormwater detention basin-flood control). Both are constructed to retain peak stormwater flows for flood mitigation. However, the SDB-BMPs are also designed using basin topography and wetland vegetation to provide water quality improvement (nutrient and sediment removal and retention). The objective of this study was to compare SDB (both SDB-BMP and SDB-FC) surface soil P concentrations, P saturation, and Fe chemistry with natural riparian wetlands (RWs), using sites in Fairfax County, Virginia as a model system. The SDB-BMPs had significantly greater surface soil total P (Pt) concentrations than the RWs and SDB-FCs (831.9 ?? 32.5 kg ha-1, 643.3 ?? 19.1 kg ha-1, and 652.1 ?? 18.8 kg ha-1, respectively). The soil P sorption capacities of SDB-BMPs were similar to the RWs, and were greater than those of SDB-FCs, appearing to result in greater soil P removal and retention in SDB-BMPs compared with SDB-FCs. Increased Fe concentrations and relatively greater amounts of more crystalline forms of Fe in SDB-BMP soils suggested increased sediment deposition compared with RW and SDB-FC soils. Data suggest that SDB nutrient and sediment retention is facilitated in SDB-BMPs. When stormwater management is necessary, use of SDB-BMPs instead of SDB-FCs could foster more responsible urban development and be an appropriate mitigation action for receiving aquatic ecosystems. ?? ASA, CSSA, SSSA.

Determination of Matric Suction and Saturation Degree for Unsaturated Soils, Comparative Study - Numerical Method versus Analytical Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiorean, Vasile-Florin

2017-10-01

Matric suction is a soil parameter which influences the behaviour of unsaturated soils in both terms of shear strength and permeability. It is a necessary aspect to know the variation of matric suction in unsaturated soil zone for solving geotechnical issues like unsaturated soil slopes stability or bearing capacity for unsaturated foundation ground. Mathematical expression of the dependency between soil moisture content and it’s matric suction (soil water characteristic curve) has a powerful character of nonlinearity. This paper presents two methods to determine the variation of matric suction along the depth included between groundwater level and soil level. First method is an analytical approach to emphasize one direction steady state unsaturated infiltration phenomenon that occurs between the groundwater level and the soil level. There were simulated three different situations in terms of border conditions: precipitations (inflow conditions on ground surface), evaporation (outflow conditions on ground surface), and perfect equilibrium (no flow on ground surface). Numerical method is finite element method used for steady state, two-dimensional, unsaturated infiltration calculus. Regarding boundary conditions there were simulated identical situations as in analytical approach. For both methods, was adopted the equation proposed by van Genuchten-Mualen (1980) for mathematical expression of soil water characteristic curve. Also for the unsaturated soil permeability prediction model was adopted the equation proposed by van Genuchten-Mualen. The fitting parameters of these models were adopted according to RETC 6.02 software in function of soil type. The analyses were performed in both methods for three major soil types: clay, silt and sand. For each soil type were concluded analyses for three situations in terms of border conditions applied on soil surface: inflow, outflow, and no flow. The obtained results are presented in order to highlight the differences/similarities between the methods and the advantages / disadvantages of each one.

Laboratory-scale evaluation of a combined soil amendment for the enhanced biodegradation of propylene glycol-based aircraft de-icing fluids.

PubMed

Libisch, Balázs; French, Helen K; Hartnik, Thomas; Anton, Attila; Biró, Borbála

2012-01-01

A combined soil amendment was tested in microcosm experiments with an aim to enhance the aerobic biodegradation of propylene glycol (PG)-based aircraft de-icing fluids during and following the infiltration of contaminated snowmelt. A key objective under field conditions is to increase degradation of organic pollutants in the surface soil where higher microbial activity and plant rhizosphere effects may contribute to a more efficient biodegradation of PG, compared to subsoil ground layers, where electron acceptors and nutrients are often depleted. Microcosm experiments were set up in Petri dishes using 50 g of soil mixed with appropriate additives. The samples contained an initial de-icing fluid concentration of 10,000 mg/kg soil. A combined amendment using calcium peroxide, activated carbon and 1 x Hoagland solution resulted in significantly higher degradation rates for PG both at 4 and 22 degrees C. Most probable numbers of bacteria capable of utilizing 10,000 mg/kg de-icing fluid as a sole carbon source were about two orders of magnitude higher in the amended soil samples compared to unamended controls at both temperatures. The elevated numbers of such bacteria in surface soil may be a source of cells transported to the subsoil by snowmelt infiltration. The near-surface application of amendments tested here may enhance the growth of plants and plant roots in the contaminated area, as well as microbes to be found at greater depth, and hence increase the degradation of a contaminant plume present in the ground.

Soil moisture from ground-based networks and the North American Land Data Assimilation System Phase 2 Model: Are the right values somewhere in between?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caldwell, T. G.; Scanlon, B. R.; Long, D.; Young, M.

2013-12-01

Soil moisture is the most enigmatic component of the water balance; nonetheless, it is inherently tied to every component of the hydrologic cycle, affecting the partitioning of both water and energy at the land surface. However, our ability to assess soil water storage capacity and status through measurement or modeling is challenged by error and scale. Soil moisture is as difficult to measure as it is to model, yet land surface models and remote sensing products require some means of validation. Here we compare the three major soil moisture monitoring networks across the US, including the USDA Soil Climate Assessment Network (SCAN), NOAA Climate Reference Network (USCRN), and Cosmic Ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS) to the soil moisture simulated using the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) Phase 2. NLDAS runs in near real-time on a 0.125° (12 km) grid over the US, producing ensemble model outputs of surface fluxes and storage. We focus primarily on soil water storage (SWS) in the upper 0-0.1 m zone from the Noah Land Surface Model and secondarily on the effects of error propagation from atmospheric forcing and soil parameterization. No scaling of the observational data was attempted. We simply compared the extracted time series at the nearest grid center from NLDAS and assessed the results by standard model statistics including root mean square error (RMSE) and mean bias estimate (MBE) of the collocated ground station. Observed and modeled data were compared at both hourly and daily mean coordinated universal time steps. In all, ~300 stations were used for 2012. SCAN sites were found to be particularly troublesome at 5- and 10-cm depths. SWS at 163 SCAN sites departed significantly from Noah with a mean R2 of 0.38 × 0.0.23, a mean RMSE of 14.9 mm with a MBE of -13.5 mm. SWS at 111 USCRN sites has a mean R2 of 0.53 × 0.20, a mean RMSE of 8.2 mm with a MBE of -3.7 mm relative to Noah. Finally, 62 COSMOS sites, the instrument with the largest measurement footprint (0.03 km2), we calculated a mean R2 of 0.53 × 0.21, a mean RMSE of 9.7 mm with a MBE of -0.3 mm. Forcing errors and textural misclassifications correlate well with model biases, indicating that scale and structural errors are equally present in NLDAS. Scaling issues aside, these confounding errors make cal/val missions, such as NASA's upcoming Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, problematic without significant quality control and maintenance of for our monitoring networks. Land surface models, such as NLDAS-2, may provide valuable insight into our soil moisture data and somewhere in between the real values likely exist.

Nitrogen-rich microbial products provide new organo-mineral associations for the stabilization of soil organic matter.

PubMed

Kopittke, Peter M; Hernandez-Soriano, Maria C; Dalal, Ram C; Finn, Damien; Menzies, Neal W; Hoeschen, Carmen; Mueller, Carsten W

2018-04-01

Understanding the cycling of C and N in soils is important for maintaining soil fertility while also decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, but much remains unknown about how organic matter (OM) is stabilized in soils. We used nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) to investigate the changes in C and N in a Vertisol and an Alfisol incubated for 365 days with 13 C and 15 N pulse labeled lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) to discriminate new inputs of OM from the existing soil OM. We found that almost all OM within the free stable microaggregates of the soil was associated with mineral particles, emphasizing the importance of organo-mineral interactions for the stabilization of C. Of particular importance, it was also found that 15 N-rich microbial products originating from decomposition often sorbed directly to mineral surfaces not previously associated with OM. Thus, we have shown that N-rich microbial products preferentially attach to distinct areas of mineral surfaces compared to C-dominated moieties, demonstrating the ability of soils to store additional OM in newly formed organo-mineral associations on previously OM-free mineral surfaces. Furthermore, differences in 15 N enrichment were observed between the Vertisol and Alfisol presumably due to differences in mineralogy (smectite-dominated compared to kaolinite-dominated), demonstrating the importance of mineralogy in regulating the sorption of microbial products. Overall, our findings have important implications for the fundamental understanding of OM cycling in soils, including the immobilization and storage of N-rich compounds derived from microbial decomposition and subsequent N mineralization to sustain plant growth. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Estimating surface soil moisture from SMAP observations using a Neural Network technique.

PubMed

Kolassa, J; Reichle, R H; Liu, Q; Alemohammad, S H; Gentine, P; Aida, K; Asanuma, J; Bircher, S; Caldwell, T; Colliander, A; Cosh, M; Collins, C Holifield; Jackson, T J; Martínez-Fernández, J; McNairn, H; Pacheco, A; Thibeault, M; Walker, J P

2018-01-01

A Neural Network (NN) algorithm was developed to estimate global surface soil moisture for April 2015 to March 2017 with a 2-3 day repeat frequency using passive microwave observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, surface soil temperatures from the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model version 5 (GEOS-5) land modeling system, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-based vegetation water content. The NN was trained on GEOS-5 soil moisture target data, making the NN estimates consistent with the GEOS-5 climatology, such that they may ultimately be assimilated into this model without further bias correction. Evaluated against in situ soil moisture measurements, the average unbiased root mean square error (ubRMSE), correlation and anomaly correlation of the NN retrievals were 0.037 m 3 m -3 , 0.70 and 0.66, respectively, against SMAP core validation site measurements and 0.026 m 3 m -3 , 0.58 and 0.48, respectively, against International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) measurements. At the core validation sites, the NN retrievals have a significantly higher skill than the GEOS-5 model estimates and a slightly lower correlation skill than the SMAP Level-2 Passive (L2P) product. The feasibility of the NN method was reflected by a lower ubRMSE compared to the L2P retrievals as well as a higher skill when ancillary parameters in physically-based retrievals were uncertain. Against ISMN measurements, the skill of the two retrieval products was more comparable. A triple collocation analysis against Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) soil moisture retrievals showed that the NN and L2P retrieval errors have a similar spatial distribution, but the NN retrieval errors are generally lower in densely vegetated regions and transition zones.

Rainfall simulation experiments in ecological and conventional vineyards.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adrian, Alexander; Brings, Christine; Rodrigo Comino, Jesús; Iserloh, Thomas; Ries, Johannes B.

2015-04-01

In October 2014, the Trier University started a measurement series, which defines, compares and evaluates the behavior of runoff and soil erosion with different farming productions in vineyards. The research area is located in Kanzem, a traditional wine village in the Saar Valley (Rheinland-Palatinate, Germany). The test fields show different cultivation methods: ecological (with natural vegetation cover under and around the vines) and conventional cultivated rows of wine. By using the small portable rainfall simulator of Trier University it shall be proved if the assumption that there is more runoff and soil erosion in the conventional part than in the ecological part of the tillage system. Rainfall simulations assess the generation of overland flow, soil erosion and infiltration. So, a trend of soil erosion and runoff of the different cultivation techniques are noted. The objective of this work is to compare the geomorphological dynamics of two different tillage systems. Therefore, 30 rainfall simulations plots were evenly distributed on a west exposition hillside with different slope angels (8-25°), vegetation- and stone-covers. In concrete, the plot surface reaches from strongly covered soil across lithoidal surfaces to bare soil often with compacted lanes of typical using machines. In addition, by using the collected substrate, an estimation and distribution of the grain size of the eroded material shall be given. The eroded substrate is compared to soil samples of the test plots. The first results have shown that there is slightly more runoff and soil erosion in the ecological area than on the conventional part of the vineyard.

Assimilating soil moisture into an Earth System Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stacke, Tobias; Hagemann, Stefan

2017-04-01

Several modelling studies reported potential impacts of soil moisture anomalies on regional climate. In particular for short prediction periods, perturbations of the soil moisture state may result in significant alteration of surface temperature in the following season. However, it is not clear yet whether or not soil moisture anomalies affect climate also on larger temporal and spatial scales. In an earlier study, we showed that soil moisture anomalies can persist for several seasons in the deeper soil layers of a land surface model. Additionally, those anomalies can influence root zone moisture, in particular during explicitly dry or wet periods. Thus, one prerequisite for predictability, namely the existence of long term memory, is evident for simulated soil moisture and might be exploited to improve climate predictions. The second prerequisite is the sensitivity of the climate system to soil moisture. In order to investigate this sensitivity for decadal simulations, we implemented a soil moisture assimilation scheme into the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology's Earth System Model (MPI-ESM). The assimilation scheme is based on a simple nudging algorithm and updates the surface soil moisture state once per day. In our experiments, the MPI-ESM is used which includes model components for the interactive simulation of atmosphere, land and ocean. Artificial assimilation data is created from a control simulation to nudge the MPI-ESM towards predominantly dry and wet states. First analyses are focused on the impact of the assimilation on land surface variables and reveal distinct differences in the long-term mean values between wet and dry state simulations. Precipitation, evapotranspiration and runoff are larger in the wet state compared to the dry state, resulting in an increased moisture transport from the land to atmosphere and ocean. Consequently, surface temperatures are lower in the wet state simulations by more than one Kelvin. In terms of spatial pattern, the largest differences between both simulations are seen for continental areas, while regions with a maritime climate are least sensitive to soil moisture assimilation.

Carbon nitrogen ratio, δ13C, δ15N distribution in eroded and buried soil profiles along a small catena

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jakab, Gergely; Hegyi, István; Fullen, Michael; Szalai, Zoltán

2017-04-01

In addition to the serious environmental hazard soil erosion forms and reforms the soil surface. The intensity of these degrading and burial processes is highly variable, it fluctuates in time. One can only get a single view of the current status by the spatial analysis of soil depth and properties. Present study aims to estimate the dynamics of the former driving processes in detail those resulted the recent form of the landscape. Soil samples were taken along two intensively cultivated catenas from the surface to the parent material in vertical and from the ridge to the toe in horizontal direction. A non disturbed soil profile under continuous forest was also sampled as the initial, control status. Soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), carbon nitrogen ratio (C/N), 13C and 15N stable isotope ratios were measured. Soil redistribution was supposed to be started right after the forest clearance 300 years before. Results indicated that the whole amount of solum (1 m) was taken by erosion in some local spots. Most of the soil loss was deposited at the toe, while vertical SOC and δ13C distributions (peaks) in the deposited profiles indicated the original soil surface at various depth. SOC peak in the profile indicated deeper in situ solum compared to the vertical peaks of the C/N and δ13C values. Presumably the layer of the highest SOC values in the sedimentation profiles is also formed by the deposition of initial soil loss from the upper parts of the catena. At this initial phase the selectivity of erosion was supposed to be quite effective for SOC that resulted the highest value. Therefore C/N and δ13C peaks fingerprint the original, in situ soil surface more adequately. The most effective erosion and deposition period was immediately after forest clearance. This emphasized that continuous tillage erosion had subordinate role compared to that of relief. Moreover, SOC erosion and burial in the present case was a sink in terms of mitigation of the atmospheric carbon content. G. Jakab was supported by the János Bolyai scholarship of the HAS, which is kindly acknowledged.

Nighttime water absorption by a bare loess soil in a coastal desert

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ninari, N.; Berliner, P. R.

2003-04-01

The role of dew in arid and semi-arid ecosystems is considered to be of great importance. It can serve as a water source for the bacteria of biological crust, for plants and for small insects. The Negev Desert is a semiarid region characterized by winter rainfall with a very large inter-annual variability. Reports on measurements carried out in this area mention that up to 180 nights a year with dew were registered by a conventional Hiltner Dew Balance, with intensities that ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 mm per night (yielding a total of 15 mm per year, which is more than 10% of the total rainfall). The Hiltner dew balance is based on the continuous weighing of an artificial condensation plate that has a completely different energy balance from that of the soil surface above which it is installed. The Hiltner dew balance could, therefore, be considered as a ``potential dew" gauge, whose results are probably mainly correlated to atmospheric conditions. The prime objective of this work was, therefore, to quantify the amounts of dew deposition on the soil surface, and to compare these amounts to those measured by the Hiltner balance. Measurements were carried out at the Wadi Mashash Experimental Farm in the Negev. To estimate deposition and evaporation of dew, a micro-lysimeter (diameter: 20 cm; soil depth: 50 cm) with an undisturbed soil sample was installed flush with the soil surface. The following were continuously monitored: micro-lysimeter weight, incoming and reflected short wave radiation, net radiation, dry and wet bulb temperatures, wind speed, and soil heat flux. A Hiltner Dew Balance was placed close by as a reference to compare with previous measurements. Throughout the ``dew period" (spring, summer and fall), and at random intervals, soil samples were taken hourly during the whole night. The uppermost 10 cm of the soil was divided into 1 cm intervals, and the soil moisture content was measured (oven dry). During the above-mentioned night campaigns, no dew deposition could be visually detected on the soil surface. A mass gain was however registered with the ML and an increase in moisture content was observed. The Hiltner balance clearly underestimated dew deposition amounts. These results indicate that although no visual signs of dew deposition could be detected, moisture did penetrate into the soil.

A smoothed particle hydrodynamics model for electrostatic transport of charged lunar dust on the moon surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mao, Zirui; Liu, G. R.

2018-02-01

The behavior of lunar dust on the Moon surface is quite complicated compared to that on the Earth surface due to the small lunar gravity and the significant influence of the complicated electrostatic filed in the Universe. Understanding such behavior is critical for the exploration of the Moon. This work develops a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model with the elastic-perfectly plastic constitutive equation and Drucker-Prager yield criterion to simulate the electrostatic transporting of multiple charged lunar dust particles. The initial electric field is generated based on the particle-in-cell method and then is superposed with the additional electric field from the charged dust particles to obtain the resultant electric field in the following process. Simulations of cohesive soil's natural failure and electrostatic transport of charged soil under the given electric force and gravity were carried out using the SPH model. Results obtained in this paper show that the negatively charged dust particles levitate and transport to the shadow area with a higher potential from the light area with a lower potential. The motion of soil particles finally comes to a stable state. The numerical result for final distribution of soil particles and potential profile above planar surface by the SPH method matches well with the experimental result, and the SPH solution looks sound in the maximum levitation height prediction of lunar dust under an uniform electric field compared to theoretical solution, which prove that SPH is a reliable method in describing the behavior of soil particles under a complicated electric field and small gravity field with the consideration of interactions among soil particles.

Surface Hydrology in Global River Basins in the Off-Line Land-Surface GEOS Assimilation (OLGA) System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bosilovich, Michael G.; Yang, Runhua; Houser, Paul R.

1998-01-01

Land surface hydrology for the Off-line Land-surface GEOS Analysis (OLGA) system and Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-1) Data Assimilation System (DAS) has been examined using a river routing model. The GEOS-1 DAS land-surface parameterization is very simple, using an energy balance prediction of surface temperature and prescribed soil water. OLGA uses near-surface atmospheric data from the GEOS-1 DAS to drive a more comprehensive parameterization of the land-surface physics. The two global systems are evaluated using a global river routing model. The river routing model uses climatologic surface runoff from each system to simulate the river discharge from global river basins, which can be compared to climatologic river discharge. Due to the soil hydrology, the OLGA system shows a general improvement in the simulation of river discharge compared to the GEOS-1 DAS. Snowmelt processes included in OLGA also have a positive effect on the annual cycle of river discharge and source runoff. Preliminary tests of a coupled land-atmosphere model indicate improvements to the hydrologic cycle compared to the uncoupled system. The river routing model has provided a useful tool in the evaluation of the GCM hydrologic cycle, and has helped quantify the influence of the more advanced land surface model.

[Effects of soil crusts on surface hydrology in the semiarid Loess hilly area].

PubMed

Wei, Wei; Wen, Zhi; Chen, Li-Ding; Chen, Jin; Wu, Dong-Ping

2012-11-01

Soil crusts are distributed extensively in the Chinese Loess Plateau and play key roles in surface hydrological processes. In this study, a typical loess hilly region in Anjiagou catchment, Dingxi city, Gansu province was selected as the study region, and soil crusts in the catchment were investigated. Then, the hydrological effect of soil crusts was studied by using multi-sampling and hydrological monitoring experiments. Several key results were shown as follows. Firstly, compared with bared soil without crust cover, soil crusts can greatly reduce the bulk density, improve the porosity of soil, and raise the holding capacity of soil moisture which ranges from 1.4 to 1.9 times of that of bared soil. Secondly, the role of soil crust on rainfall interception was very significant. Moss crust was found to be strongest on rainfall interception, followed by synantectic crusts and lichen crusts. Bared soil without covering crusts was poorest in resisting rainfall splash. Thirdly, hydrological simulation experiments indicate that soil crusts play a certain positive role in promoting the water infiltration capacity, and the mean infiltration rate of the crusted soil was 2 times higher than that of the no-crust covered soils. While the accumulated infiltrated water amounts was also far higher than that of the bared soil.

Physically Accurate Soil Freeze-Thaw Processes in a Global Land Surface Scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuntz, Matthias; Haverd, Vanessa

2018-01-01

The model Soil-Litter-Iso (SLI) calculates coupled heat and water transport in soil. It was recently implemented into the Australian land surface model CABLE, which is the land component of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS). Here we extended SLI to include accurate freeze-thaw processes in the soil and snow. SLI provides thence an implicit solution of the energy and water balances of soil and snow as a standalone model and within CABLE. The enhanced SLI was tested extensively against theoretical formulations, laboratory experiments, field data, and satellite retrievals. The model performed well for all experiments at wide-ranging temporal and spatial scales. SLI melts snow faster at the end of the cold season compared to observations though because there is no subgrid variability within SLI given by the implicit, coupled solution of energy and water. Combined CABLE-SLI shows very realistic dynamics and extent of permafrost on the Northern hemisphere. It illustrated, however, also the limits of possible comparisons between large-scale land surface models and local permafrost observations. CABLE-SLI exhibits the same patterns of snow depth and snow water equivalent on the Northern hemisphere compared to satellite-derived observations but quantitative comparisons depend largely on the given meteorological input fields. Further extension of CABLE-SLI with depth-dependence of soil carbon will allow realistic projections of the development of permafrost and frozen carbon stocks in a changing climate.

Testing a full‐range soil‐water retention function in modeling water potential and temperature

USGS Publications Warehouse

Andraski, Brian J.; Jacobson, Elizabeth A.

2000-01-01

Recent work has emphasized development of full‐range water‐retention functions that are applicable under both wet and dry soil conditions, but evaluation of such functions in numerical modeling has been limited. Here we show that simulations using the Rossi‐Nimmo (RN) full‐range function compared favorably with those using the common Brooks‐Corey function and that the RN function can improve prediction of water potentials in near‐surface soil, particularly under dry conditions. Simulations using the RN function also improved prediction of temperatures throughout the soil profile. Such improvements could be important for calculations of liquid and vapor flow in near‐surface soils and in deep unsaturated zones of arid and semiarid regions.

Results of soil moisture flights during April 1974

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmugge, T. J.; Blanchard, B. J.; Burke, W. J.; Paris, J. F.; Swang, J. R.

1976-01-01

The results presented here are derived from measurements made during the April 5 and 6, 1974 flights of the NASA P-3A aircraft over the Phoenix, Arizona agricultural test site. The purpose of the mission was to study the use of microwave techniques for the remote sensing of soil moisture. These results include infrared (10-to 12 micrometers) 2.8-cm and 21-cm brightness temperatures for approximately 90 bare fields. These brightness temperatures are compared with surface measurements of the soil moisture made at the time of the overflights. These data indicate that the combination of the sum and difference of the vertically and the horizontally polarized brightness temperatures yield information on both the soil moisture and surface roughness conditions.

Use of thermal inertia determined by HCMM to predict nocturnal cold prone areas in Florida. [Everglades agricultural area and the west north central peninsula

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, L. H., Jr. (Principal Investigator); Chen, E.; Martsolf, J. D.; Jones, P. H.

1981-01-01

Surface temperatures derived from HCMM data were compared with to those obtained by GOES satellite and the apparent thermal inertia (ATI) calculated. For two dates, the HCMM temperatures appear to be about 5 C lower than the GOES temperatures. The ATI for excessively-drained to well-drained mineral soils was greater than for drained organic soils possibly because of long periods of low rainfall during late 1980 and early 1981. Organic soils cropped to sugar cane showed lower ATI after a severe killing freeze. With dead leaves, there was less transpiration and more solar radiation probably reached the dark soil surface. This would explain the larger diurnal temperature amplitude observed.

Natural and man-made radioactivity in soils and plants around the research reactor of Inshass.

PubMed

Higgy, R H; Pimpl, M

1998-12-01

The specific radioactivities of the U-series, 232Th, 137Cs and 40K were measured in soil samples around the Inshass reactor in Cairo, using a gamma-ray spectrometer with a HpGe detector. The alpha activity of 238U, 234U and 235U was measured in the same soil samples by surface barrier detectors after radiochemical separation and the obtained results were compared with the specific activities determined by gamma-measurements. The alpha-activity of 238Pu, 239+240Pu, 241Am, 242Cm and 244Cm was measured after radiochemical separation by surface barrier detectors for both soil and plant samples. Then beta-activity of 241Pu was measured using liquid scintillation spectrometry.

Estimating the spatial distribution of soil moisture based on Bayesian maximum entropy method with auxiliary data from remote sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Shengguo; Zhu, Zhongli; Liu, Shaomin; Jin, Rui; Yang, Guangchao; Tan, Lei

2014-10-01

Soil moisture (SM) plays a fundamental role in the land-atmosphere exchange process. Spatial estimation based on multi in situ (network) data is a critical way to understand the spatial structure and variation of land surface soil moisture. Theoretically, integrating densely sampled auxiliary data spatially correlated with soil moisture into the procedure of spatial estimation can improve its accuracy. In this study, we present a novel approach to estimate the spatial pattern of soil moisture by using the BME method based on wireless sensor network data and auxiliary information from ASTER (Terra) land surface temperature measurements. For comparison, three traditional geostatistic methods were also applied: ordinary kriging (OK), which used the wireless sensor network data only, regression kriging (RK) and ordinary co-kriging (Co-OK) which both integrated the ASTER land surface temperature as a covariate. In Co-OK, LST was linearly contained in the estimator, in RK, estimator is expressed as the sum of the regression estimate and the kriged estimate of the spatially correlated residual, but in BME, the ASTER land surface temperature was first retrieved as soil moisture based on the linear regression, then, the t-distributed prediction interval (PI) of soil moisture was estimated and used as soft data in probability form. The results indicate that all three methods provide reasonable estimations. Co-OK, RK and BME can provide a more accurate spatial estimation by integrating the auxiliary information Compared to OK. RK and BME shows more obvious improvement compared to Co-OK, and even BME can perform slightly better than RK. The inherent issue of spatial estimation (overestimation in the range of low values and underestimation in the range of high values) can also be further improved in both RK and BME. We can conclude that integrating auxiliary data into spatial estimation can indeed improve the accuracy, BME and RK take better advantage of the auxiliary information compared to Co-OK, and BME outperforms RK by integrating the auxiliary data in a probability form.

Accomplishments of the NASA Johnson Space Center portion of the soil moisture project in fiscal year 1981

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paris, J. F.; Arya, L. M.; Davidson, S. A.; Hildreth, W. W.; Richter, J. C.; Rosenkranz, W. A.

1982-01-01

The NASA/JSC ground scatterometer system was used in a row structure and row direction effects experiment to understand these effects on radar remote sensing of soil moisture. Also, a modification of the scatterometer system was begun and is continuing, to allow cross-polarization experiments to be conducted in fiscal years 1982 and 1983. Preprocessing of the 1978 agricultural soil moisture experiment (ASME) data was completed. Preparations for analysis of the ASME data is fiscal year 1982 were completed. A radar image simulation procedure developed by the University of Kansas is being improved. Profile soil moisture model outputs were compared quantitatively for the same soil and climate conditions. A new model was developed and tested to predict the soil moisture characteristic (water tension versus volumetric soil moisture content) from particle-size distribution and bulk density data. Relationships between surface-zone soil moisture, surface flux, and subsurface moisture conditions are being studied as well as the ways in which measured soil moisture (as obtained from remote sensing) can be used for agricultural applications.

Bromus tectorum invasion alters nitrogen dynamics in an undisturbed arid grassland ecosystem

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sperry, L.J.; Belnap, J.; Evans, R.D.

2006-01-01

The nonnative annual grass Bromus tectorum has successfully replaced native vegetation in many arid and semiarid ecosystems. Initial introductions accompanied grazing and agriculture, making it difficult to separate the effects of invasion from physical disturbance. This study examined N dynamics in two recently invaded, undisturbed vegetation associations (C3 and C4). The response of these communities was compared to an invaded/disturbed grassland. The invaded/disturbed communities had higher surface NH4+ input in spring, whereas there were no differences for surface input of NO3-. Soil inorganic N was dominated by NH4+, but invaded sites had greater subsurface soil NO3-. Invaded sites had greater total soil N at the surface four years post-invasion in undisturbed communities, but total N was lower in the invaded/disturbed communities. Soil ??15N increased with depth in the noninvaded and recently invaded communities, whereas the invaded/disturbed communities exhibited the opposite pattern. Enriched foliar ??15N values suggest that Bromus assimilated subsurface NO3-, whereas the native grasses were restricted to surface N. A Rayleigh distillation model accurately described decomposition patterns in the noninvaded communities where soil N loss is accompanied by increasing soil ??15N; however, the invaded/disturbed communities exhibited the opposite pattern, suggesting redistribution of N within the soil profile. This study suggests that invasion has altered the mechanisms driving nitrogen dynamics. Bromus litter decomposition and soil NO3- concentrations were greater in the invaded communities during periods of ample precipitation, and NO3- leached from the surface litter, where it was assimilated by Bromus. The primary source of N input in these communities is a biological soil crust that is removed with disturbance, and the lack of N input by the biological soil crust did not balance N loss, resulting in reduced total N in the invaded/disturbed communities. Bromus produced a positive feedback loop by leaching NO3- from decomposing Bromus litter to subsurface soil layers, accessing that deep-soil N pool with deep roots and returning that N to the surface as biomass and subsequent litter. Lack of new inputs combined with continued loss will result in lower total soil N, evidenced by the lower total soil N in the invaded/disturbed communities. ?? 2006 by the Ecological Society of America.

Numerical Analysis of Helical Pile-Soil Interaction under Compressive Loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polishchuk, A. I.; Maksimov, F. A.

2017-11-01

The results of the field tests of full-scale steel helical piles in clay soils intended for prefabricated temporary buildings foundations are presented in this article. The finite element modeling was used for the evaluation of stress distribution of the clay soil around helical piles. An approach of modeling of the screw-pile geometry has been proposed through the Finite Element Analysis. Steel helical piles with a length of 2.0 m, shaft diameter of 0.108 m and a blade diameter of 0.3 m were used in the experiments. The experiments have shown the efficiency of double-bladed helical piles in the clay soils compared to single-bladed piles. It has been experimentally established that the introduction of the second blade into the pile shaft provides an increase of the bearing capacity in clay soil up to 30% compared to a single-bladed helical pile with similar geometrical dimensions. The numerical results are compared with the measurements obtained by a large scale test and the bearing capacity has been estimated. It has been found that the model results fit the field results. For a double-bladed helical pile it was revealed that shear stresses upon pile loading are formed along the lateral surface forming a cylindrical failure surface.

Assessment of Multi-frequency Electromagnetic Induction for Determining Soil Moisture Patterns at the Hillslope Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tromp-van Meerveld, I.; McDonnell, J.

2009-05-01

We present an assessment of electromagnetic induction (EM) as a potential rapid and non-invasive method to map soil moisture patterns at the Panola (GA, USA) hillslope. We address the following questions regarding the applicability of EM measurements for hillslope hydrological investigations: (1) Can EM be used for soil moisture measurements in areas with shallow soils?; (2) Can EM represent the temporal and spatial patterns of soil moisture throughout the year?; and (3) can multiple frequencies be used to extract additional information content from the EM approach and explain the depth profile of soil moisture? We found that the apparent conductivity measured with the multi-frequency GEM-300 was linearly related to soil moisture measured with an Aqua-pro capacitance sensor below a threshold conductivity and represented the temporal patterns in soil moisture well. During spring rainfall events that wetted only the surface soil layers the apparent conductivity measurements explained the soil moisture dynamics at depth better than the surface soil moisture dynamics. All four EM frequencies (7290, 9090, 11250, and 14010 Hz) were highly correlated and linearly related to each other and could be used to predict soil moisture. This limited our ability to use the four different EM frequencies to obtain a soil moisture profile with depth. The apparent conductivity patterns represented the observed spatial soil moisture patterns well when the individually fitted relationships between measured soil moisture and apparent conductivity were used for each measurement point. However, when the same (master) relationship was used for all measurement locations, the soil moisture patterns were smoothed and did not resemble the observed soil moisture patterns very well. In addition, the range in calculated soil moisture values was reduced compared to observed soil moisture. Part of the smoothing was likely due to the much larger measurement area of the GEM-300 compared to the Aqua-pro soil moisture measurements.

Investigating the fate of nitroaromatic (TNT) and nitramine (RDX and HMX) explosives in fractured and pristine soils.

PubMed

Douglas, Thomas A; Walsh, Marianne E; McGrath, Christian J; Weiss, Charles A

2009-01-01

Explosives compounds, known toxins, are loaded to soils on military training ranges predominantly during explosives detonation events that likely fracture soil particles. This study was conducted to investigate the fate of explosives compounds in aqueous slurries containing fractured and pristine soil particles. Three soils were crushed with a piston to emulate detonation-induced fracturing. X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, gas adsorption surface area measurements, and scanning electron microscopy were used to quantify and image pristine and fractured soil particles. Aqueous batches were prepared by spiking soils with solutions containing 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), octahydro 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX), and 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT). Samples were collected over 92 d and the concentrations of the spiked explosives compounds and TNT transformation products 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene (2ADNT) and 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoluene (4ADNT) were measured. Our results suggest soil mineralogical and geochemical compositions were not changed during piston-induced fracturing but morphological differences were evident with fractured soils exhibiting more angular surfaces, more fine grained particles, and some microfracturing that is not visible in the pristine samples. TNT, 2,4-DNT, RDX, and HMX exhibited greater analyte loss over time in batch solutions containing fractured soil particles compared to their pristine counterparts. 2ADNT and 4ADNT exhibited greater concentrations in slurries containing pristine soils than in slurries containing fractured soils. Explosives compound transformation is greater in the presence of fractured soil particles than in the presence of pristine soil particles. Our results imply fractured soil particles promote explosive compound transformation and/or explosives compounds have a greater affinity for adsorption to fractured soil particle surfaces.

Microclimatic modeling of the desert in the United Arab Emirates

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

Khalil, A.K.; Abdrabboh, M.A.; Kamel, K.A.

1996-10-01

The present study is concerned with the prediction of the weather parameters in the microclimate layer (less than 2 m above the ground surface) in the desert and sparsely vegetated areas in the United Arab Emirates. A survey was made of the weather data in these regions including solar radiation, wind speed, screen temperatures and relative humidity. Additionally, wind speed data were obtained at heights below two meters and surface albedo was recorded for various soil and vegetation conditions. A survey was also carried out for the different plant species in various areas of the U.A.E. Data on soil andmore » surface temperature were then analyzed. An energy balance model was formulated including incident short- and long-wave length radiation between earth and sky, convective heat transfer to/from earth surface, surface reflection of solar radiation and soil/plant evapotranspiration. An explicit one dimensional finite difference scheme was adapted to solve the resulting algebraic finite difference equations. The equation for surface nodes included thermal radiation as well as convection effects. The heat transfer coefficient was evaluated on the basis of wind speed and surface roughness at the site where the energy balance was set. Theoretical predictions of air and soil temperatures were accordingly compared to experimental measurements in selected sites, where reasonable agreements were observed.« less

Estimating Surface Soil Moisture in Simulated AVIRIS Spectra

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whiting, Michael L.; Li, Lin; Ustin, Susan L.

2004-01-01

Soil albedo is influenced by many physical and chemical constituents, with moisture being the most influential on the spectra general shape and albedo (Stoner and Baumgardner, 1981). Without moisture, the intrinsic or matrix reflectance of dissimilar soils varies widely due to differences in surface roughness, particle and aggregate sizes, mineral types, including salts, and organic matter contents. The influence of moisture on soil reflectance can be isolated by comparing similar soils in a study of the effects that small differences in moisture content have on reflectance. However, without prior knowledge of the soil physical and chemical constituents within every pixel, it is nearly impossible to accurately attribute the reflectance variability in an image to moisture or to differences in the physical and chemical constituents in the soil. The effect of moisture on the spectra must be eliminated to use hyperspectral imagery for determining minerals and organic matter abundances of bare agricultural soils. Accurate soil mineral and organic matter abundance maps from air- and space-borne imagery can improve GIS models for precision farming prescription, and managing irrigation and salinity. Better models of soil moisture and reflectance will also improve the selection of soil endmembers for spectral mixture analysis.

The Impact of Wet Soil and Canopy Temperatures on Daytime Boundary-Layer Growth.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Segal, M.; Garratt, J. R.; Kallos, G.; Pielke, R. A.

1989-12-01

The impact of very wet soil and canopy temperatures on the surface sensible heat flux, and on related daytime boundary-layer properties is evaluated. For very wet soils, two winter situations are considered, related to significant changes in soil surface temperature: (1) due to weather perturbations at a given location, and (2) due to the climatological north-south temperature gradient. Analyses and scaling of the various boundary-layer properties, and soil surface fluxes affecting the sensible beat flux, have been made; related evaluations show that changes in the sensible heat flux at a given location by a factor of 2 to 3 due to temperature changes related to weather perturbations is not uncommon. These changes result in significant alterations in the boundary-layer depth; in the atmospheric boundary-layer warming; and in the break-up time of the nocturnal surface temperature inversion. Investigation of the impact of the winter latitudinal temperature gradient on the above characteristics indicated that the relative increase in very wet soil sensible heat flux, due to the climatological reduction in the surface temperature in northern latitudes, moderates to some extent its reduction due to the corresponding decrease in solar radiation. Numerical model simulations confirmed these analytical evaluations.In addition, the impact of synoptic temperature perturbations during the transition seasons (fall and spring) on canopy sensible heal fluxes, and the related boundary-layer characteristics mentioned above, was evaluated. Analogous features to those found for very wet soil surfaces occurred also for the canopy situations. Likewise, evaluations were also carried out to explore the impact of high midlatitude foreste areas on the boundary-layer characteristics during the winter as compared to those during the summer. Similar impacts were found in both seasons, regardless of the substantial difference in the daily total solar radiation.

Comparing Background and Recent Erosion Rates in Degraded Areas of Southeastern Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandes, N.; Bierman, P. R.; Sosa-Gonzalez, V.; Rood, D. H.; Fontes, R. L.; Santos, A. C.; Godoy, J. M.; Bhering, S.

2014-12-01

Soil erosion is a major problem in northwestern Rio de Janeiro State where, during the last three centuries, major land-use changes took place, associated with the replacement of the original rainforest by agriculture and grazing. The combination of steep hillslopes, erodible soils, sparse vegetation, natural and human-induced fires, as well as downslope ploughing, led to an increase in surface runoff and surface erosion on soil-mantled hillslopes; together, these actions and responses caused a decline in soil productivity. In order to estimate changes in erosion rates over time, we compared erosion rates measured at different spatial and temporal scales, both background (natural) and short-term (human-induced during last few decades). Background long-term erosion rates were measured using in-situ produced cosmogenic 10Be in the sand fraction quartz of active river channel sediment in four basins in the northwestern portion of Rio de Janeiro State. In these basins, average annual precipitation varies from 1,200 to 1,300 mm, while drainage areas vary from 15 to 7,200 km2. Short-term erosion rates were measured in one of these basins from fallout 210Pb in soil samples collected along a hillslope transect located in an abandoned agriculture field. In this transect, 190 undisturbed soil samples (three replicates) were collected from the surface to 0.50 m depth (5 cm vertical intervals) in six soil pits. 10Be average background, basin-wide, erosion rates in the area are ~ 13 m/My; over the last decades, time-integrated (210Pb) average hillslope erosion rates are around 1450 m/Myr, with maximum values at the steepest portion of convex hillslopes of about 2000 m/Myr. These results suggest that recent hillslope erosion rates are about 2 orders of magnitude above background rates of sediment generation integrated over many millennia. This unsustainable rate of soil loss has severely decreased soil productivity eventually leading to the abandonment of farming activities in areas where soil loss is severe.

Percolation behavior of tritiated water into a soil packed bed

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

Honda, T.; Katayama, K.; Uehara, K.

2015-03-15

A large amount of cooling water is used in a D-T fusion reactor. The cooling water will contain tritium with high concentration because tritium can permeate metal walls at high temperature easily. A development of tritium handling technology for confining tritiated water in the fusion facility is an important issue. In addition, it is also important to understand tritium behavior in environment assuming severe accidents. In this study, percolation experiments of tritiated water in soil packed bed were carried out and tritium behavior in soil was discussed. Six soil samples were collected in Hakozaki campus of Kyushu University. These particlemore » densities were of the same degree as that of general soils and moisture contents were related to BET surface area. For two soil samples used in the percolation experiment of tritiated water, saturated hydraulic conductivity agreed well with the estimating value by Creager. Tritium retention ratio in the soil packed bed was larger than water retention. This is considered to be due to an effect of tritium sorption on the surface of soil particles. The isotope exchange capacity estimated by assuming that H/T ratio of supplied tritiated water and H/T ratio of surface water of soil particle was equal was comparable to that on cement paste and mortar which were obtained by exposure of tritiated water vapor. (authors)« less

Wind erodibility of soils at Fort Irwin, California (Mojave Desert), USA, before and after trampling disturbance: Implications for land management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Belnap, J.; Phillips, S.L.; Herrick, J.E.; Johansen, J.R.

2007-01-01

Recently disturbed and 'control' (i.e. less recently disturbed) soils in the Mojave Desert were compared for their vulnerability to wind erosion, using a wind tunnel, before and after being experimentally trampled. Before trampling, control sites had greater cyanobacterial biomass, soil surface stability, threshold friction velocities (TFV, i.e. the wind speed required to move soil particles), and sediment yield than sites that had been more recently disturbed by military manoeuvres. After trampling, all sites showed a large drop in TFVs and a concomitant increase in sediment yield. Simple correlation analyses showed that the decline in TFVs and the rise in sediment yield were significantly related to cyanobacterial biomass (as indicated by soil chlorophyll a). However, chlorophyll a amounts were very low compared to chlorophyll a amounts found at cooler desert sites, where chlorophyll a is often the most important factor in determining TFV and sediment yield. Multiple regression analyses showed that other factors at Fort Irwin were more important than cyanobacterial biomass in determining the overall site susceptibility to wind erosion. These factors included soil texture (especially the fine, medium and coarse sand fractions), rock cover, and the inherent stability of the soil (as indicated by subsurface soil stability tests). Thus, our results indicate that there is a threshold of biomass below which cyanobacterial crusts are not the dominant factor in soil vulnerability to wind erosion. Most undisturbed soil surfaces in the Mojave Desert region produce very little sediment, but even moderate disturbance increases soil loss from these sites. Because current weathering rates and dust inputs are very low, soil formation rates are low as well. Therefore, soil loss in this region is likely to have long-term effects.

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 development of better techniques for numerically simulating infiltration in burned areas.

A surface complexation and ion exchange model of Pb and Cd competitive sorption on natural soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serrano, Susana; O'Day, Peggy A.; Vlassopoulos, Dimitri; García-González, Maria Teresa; Garrido, Fernando

2009-02-01

The bioavailability and fate of heavy metals in the environment are often controlled by sorption reactions on the reactive surfaces of soil minerals. We have developed a non-electrostatic equilibrium model (NEM) with both surface complexation and ion exchange reactions to describe the sorption of Pb and Cd in single- and binary-metal systems over a range of pH and metal concentration. Mineralogical and exchange properties of three different acidic soils were used to constrain surface reactions in the model and to estimate surface densities for sorption sites, rather than treating them as adjustable parameters. Soil heterogeneity was modeled with >FeOH and >SOH functional groups, representing Fe- and Al-oxyhydroxide minerals and phyllosilicate clay mineral edge sites, and two ion exchange sites (X - and Y -), representing clay mineral exchange. An optimization process was carried out using the entire experimental sorption data set to determine the binding constants for Pb and Cd surface complexation and ion exchange reactions. Modeling results showed that the adsorption of Pb and Cd was distributed between ion exchange sites at low pH values and specific adsorption sites at higher pH values, mainly associated with >FeOH sites. Modeling results confirmed the greater tendency of Cd to be retained on exchange sites compared to Pb, which had a higher affinity than Cd for specific adsorption on >FeOH sites. Lead retention on >FeOH occurred at lower pH than for Cd, suggesting that Pb sorbs to surface hydroxyl groups at pH values at which Cd interacts only with exchange sites. The results from the binary system (both Pb and Cd present) showed that Cd retained in >FeOH sites decreased significantly in the presence of Pb, while the occupancy of Pb in these sites did not change in the presence of Cd. As a consequence of this competition, Cd was shifted to ion exchange sites, where it competes with Pb and possibly Ca (from the background electrolyte). Sorption on >SOH functional groups increased with increasing pH but was small compared to >FeOH sites, with little difference between single- and binary-metal systems. Model reactions and conditional sorption constants for Pb and Cd sorption were tested on a fourth soil that was not used for model optimization. The same reactions and constants were used successfully without adjustment by estimating surface site concentrations from soil mineralogy. The model formulation developed in this study is applicable to acidic mineral soils with low organic matter content. Extension of the model to soils of different composition may require selection of surface reactions that account for differences in clay and oxide mineral composition and organic matter content.

Soil-water content characterisation in a modified Jarvis-Stewart model: A case study of a conifer forest on a shallow unconfined aquifer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guyot, Adrien; Fan, Junliang; Oestergaard, Kasper T.; Whitley, Rhys; Gibbes, Badin; Arsac, Margaux; Lockington, David A.

2017-01-01

Groundwater-vegetation-atmosphere fluxes were monitored for a subtropical coastal conifer forest in South-East Queensland, Australia. Observations were used to quantify seasonal changes in transpiration rates with respect to temporal fluctuations of the local water table depth. The applicability of a Modified Jarvis-Stewart transpiration model (MJS), which requires soil-water content data, was assessed for this system. The influence of single depth values compared to use of vertically averaged soil-water content data on MJS-modelled transpiration was assessed over both a wet and a dry season, where the water table depth varied from the surface to a depth of 1.4 m below the surface. Data for tree transpiration rates relative to water table depth showed that trees transpire when the water table was above a threshold depth of 0.8 m below the ground surface (water availability is non-limiting). When the water table reached the ground surface (i.e., surface flooding) transpiration was found to be limited. When the water table is below this threshold depth, a linear relationship between water table depth and the transpiration rate was observed. MJS modelling results show that the influence of different choices for soil-water content on transpiration predictions was insignificant in the wet season. However, during the dry season, inclusion of deeper soil-water content data improved the model performance (except for days after isolated rainfall events, here a shallower soil-water representation was better). This study demonstrated that, to improve MJS simulation results, appropriate selection of soil water measurement depths based on the dynamic behaviour of soil water profiles through the root zone was required in a shallow unconfined aquifer system.

Incorporation of microplastics from litter into burrows of Lumbricus terrestris.

PubMed

Huerta Lwanga, Esperanza; Gertsen, Hennie; Gooren, Harm; Peters, Piet; Salánki, Tamás; van der Ploeg, Martine; Besseling, Ellen; Koelmans, Albert A; Geissen, Violette

2017-01-01

Pollution caused by plastic debris is an urgent environmental problem. Here, we assessed the effects of microplastics in the soil surface litter on the formation and characterization of burrows built by the anecic earthworm Lumbricus terrestris in soil and quantified the amount of microplastics that was transported and deposited in L. terrestris burrows. Worms were exposed to soil surface litter treatments containing microplastics (Low Density Polyethylene) for 2 weeks at concentrations of 0%, 7%, 28%, 45% and 60%. The latter representing environmentally realistic concentrations found in hot spot soil locations. There were significantly more burrows found when soil was exposed to the surface treatment composed of 7% microplastics than in all other treatments. The highest amount of organic matter in the walls of the burrows was observed after using the treatments containing 28 and 45% microplastics. The highest microplastic bioturbation efficiency ratio (total microplastics (mg) in burrow walls/initial total surface litter microplastics (mg)) was found using the concentration of 7% microplastics, where L. terrestris introduced 73.5% of the surface microplastics into the burrow walls. The highest burrow wall microplastic content per unit weight of soil (11.8 ± 4.8 g kg- 1 ) was found using a concentration of 60% microplastics. L. terrestris was responsible for size-selective downward transport when exposed to concentrations of 7, 28 and 45% microplastics in the surface litter, as the fraction ≤50 μm microplastics in burrow walls increased by 65% compared to this fraction in the original surface litter plastic. We conclude that the high biogenic incorporation rate of the small-fraction microplastics from surface litter into burrow walls causes a risk of leaching through preferential flow into groundwater bodies. Furthermore, this leaching may have implications for the subsequent availability of microplastics to terrestrial organisms or for the transport of plastic-associated organic contaminants in soil. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Erosivity, surface runoff, and soil erosion estimation using GIS-coupled runoff-erosion model in the Mamuaba catchment, Brazil.

PubMed

Marques da Silva, Richarde; Guimarães Santos, Celso Augusto; Carneiro de Lima Silva, Valeriano; Pereira e Silva, Leonardo

2013-11-01

This study evaluates erosivity, surface runoff generation, and soil erosion rates for Mamuaba catchment, sub-catchment of Gramame River basin (Brazil) by using the ArcView Soil and Water Assessment Tool (AvSWAT) model. Calibration and validation of the model was performed on monthly basis, and it could simulate surface runoff and soil erosion to a good level of accuracy. Daily rainfall data between 1969 and 1989 from six rain gauges were used, and the monthly rainfall erosivity of each station was computed for all the studied years. In order to evaluate the calibration and validation of the model, monthly runoff data between January 1978 and April 1982 from one runoff gauge were used as well. The estimated soil loss rates were also realistic when compared to what can be observed in the field and to results from previous studies around of catchment. The long-term average soil loss was estimated at 9.4 t ha(-1) year(-1); most of the area of the catchment (60%) was predicted to suffer from a low- to moderate-erosion risk (<6 t ha(-1) year(-1)) and, in 20% of the catchment, the soil erosion was estimated to exceed > 12 t ha(-1) year(-1). Expectedly, estimated soil loss was significantly correlated with measured rainfall and simulated surface runoff. Based on the estimated soil loss rates, the catchment was divided into four priority categories (low, moderate, high and very high) for conservation intervention. The study demonstrates that the AvSWAT model provides a useful tool for soil erosion assessment from catchments and facilitates the planning for a sustainable land management in northeastern Brazil.

Comparison of soil heavy metal pollution caused by e-waste recycling activities and traditional industrial operations.

PubMed

He, Kailing; Sun, Zehang; Hu, Yuanan; Zeng, Xiangying; Yu, Zhiqiang; Cheng, Hefa

2017-04-01

The traditional industrial operations are well recognized as an important source of heavy metal pollution, while that caused by the e-waste recycling activities, which have sprouted in some developing countries, is often overlooked. This study was carried out to compare the status of soil heavy metal pollution caused by the traditional industrial operations and the e-waste recycling activities in the Pearl River Delta, and assess whether greater attention should be paid to control the pollution arising from e-waste recycling activities. Both the total contents and the chemical fractionation of major heavy metals (As, Cr, Cd, Ni, Pb, Cu, and Zn) in 50 surface soil samples collected from the e-waste recycling areas and 20 soil samples from the traditional industrial zones were determined. The results show that the soils in the e-waste recycling areas were mainly polluted by Cu, Zn, As, and Cd, while Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb were the major heavy metals in the soils from the traditional industrial zones. Statistical analyses consistently show that Cu, Cd, Pb, and Zn in the surface soils from both types of sites were contributed mostly by human activities, while As, Cr, and Ni in the soils were dominated by natural background. No clear distinction was found on the pollution characteristic of heavy metals in the surface soils between the e-waste recycling areas and traditional industrial zones. The potential ecological risk posed by heavy metals in the surface soils from both types of sites, which was dominated by that from Cd, ranged from low to moderate. Given the much shorter development history of e-waste recycling and its largely unregulated nature, significant efforts should be made to crack down on illegal e-waste recycling and strengthen pollution control for related activities.

Spatial distributions and seasonal variations of organochlorine pesticides in water and soil samples in Bolu, Turkey.

PubMed

Karadeniz, Hatice; Yenisoy-Karakaş, Serpil

2015-03-01

In this study, a total of 75 water samples (38 groundwater and 37 surface water samples) and 54 surface soil samples were collected from the five districts of Bolu, which is located in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey in the summer season of 2009. In the autumn season, 17 water samples (surface water and groundwater samples) and 17 soil samples were collected within the city center to observe the seasonal changes of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). Groundwater and surface water samples were extracted using solid phase extraction. Soil samples were extracted ultrasonically. Sixteen OCP compounds in the standard solution were detected by a gas chromatography-electron capture detector (GC-ECD). Therefore, the method validation was performed for those 16 OCP compounds. However, 13 OCP compounds could be observed in the samples. The concentrations of most OCPs were higher in samples collected in the summer than those in the autumn. The most frequently observed pesticides were endosulfan sulfate and 4,4'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in groundwater samples, α-HCH in surface water samples, and endosulfan sulfate in soil samples. The average concentration of endosulfan sulfate was the highest in water and soil samples. Compared to the literature values, the average concentrations in this study were lower values. Spatial distribution of OCPs was evaluated with the aid of contour maps for the five districts of Bolu. Generally, agricultural processes affected the water and soil quality in the region. However, non-agricultural areas were also affected by pesticides. The concentrations of pesticides were below the legal limits of European directives for each pesticide.

Evolution of Indian land surface biases in the seasonal hindcasts from the Met Office Global Seasonal Forecasting System GloSea5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chevuturi, Amulya; Turner, Andrew G.; Woolnoug, Steve J.; Martin, Gill

2017-04-01

In this study we investigate the development of biases over the Indian region in summer hindcasts of the UK Met Office coupled initialised global seasonal forecasting system, GloSea5-GC2. Previous work has demonstrated the rapid evolution of strong monsoon circulation biases over India from seasonal forecasts initialised in early May, together with coupled strong easterly wind biases on the equator. These mean state biases lead to strong precipitation errors during the monsoon over the subcontinent. We analyse a set of three springtime start dates for the 20-year hindcast period (1992-2011) and fifteen total ensemble members for each year. We use comparisons with variety of observations to assess the evolution of the mean state biases over the Indian land surface. All biases within the model develop rapidly, particularly surface heat and radiation flux biases. Strong biases are present within the model climatology from pre-monsoon (May) in the surface heat fluxes over India (higher sensible / lower latent heat fluxes) when compared to observed estimates. The early evolution of such biases prior to onset rains suggests possible problems with the land surface scheme or soil moisture errors. Further analysis of soil moisture over the Indian land surface shows a dry bias present from the beginning of the hindcasts during the pre-monsoon. This lasts until the after the monsoon develops (July) after which there is a wet bias over the region. Soil moisture used for initialization of the model also shows a dry bias when compared against the observed estimates, which may lead to the same in the model. The early dry bias in the model may reduce local moisture availability through surface evaporation and thus may possibly limit precipitation recycling. On this premise, we identify and test the sensitivity of the monsoon in the model against higher soil moisture forcing. We run sensitivity experiments initiated using gridpoint-wise annual soil moisture maxima over the Indian land surface as input for experiments in the atmosphere-only version of the model. We plan to analyse the response of the sensitivity experiments on seasonal forecasting of surface heat fluxes and subsequently monsoon precipitation.

On the assimilation of satellite derived soil moisture in numerical weather prediction models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drusch, M.

2006-12-01

Satellite derived surface soil moisture data sets are readily available and have been used successfully in hydrological applications. In many operational numerical weather prediction systems the initial soil moisture conditions are analysed from the modelled background and 2 m temperature and relative humidity. This approach has proven its efficiency to improve surface latent and sensible heat fluxes and consequently the forecast on large geographical domains. However, since soil moisture is not always related to screen level variables, model errors and uncertainties in the forcing data can accumulate in root zone soil moisture. Remotely sensed surface soil moisture is directly linked to the model's uppermost soil layer and therefore is a stronger constraint for the soil moisture analysis. Three data assimilation experiments with the Integrated Forecast System (IFS) of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) have been performed for the two months period of June and July 2002: A control run based on the operational soil moisture analysis, an open loop run with freely evolving soil moisture, and an experimental run incorporating bias corrected TMI (TRMM Microwave Imager) derived soil moisture over the southern United States through a nudging scheme using 6-hourly departures. Apart from the soil moisture analysis, the system setup reflects the operational forecast configuration including the atmospheric 4D-Var analysis. Soil moisture analysed in the nudging experiment is the most accurate estimate when compared against in-situ observations from the Oklahoma Mesonet. The corresponding forecast for 2 m temperature and relative humidity is almost as accurate as in the control experiment. Furthermore, it is shown that the soil moisture analysis influences local weather parameters including the planetary boundary layer height and cloud coverage. The transferability of the results to other satellite derived soil moisture data sets will be discussed.

Magnetic mapping of distribution of wood ash used for fertilization of forest soil.

PubMed

Petrovský, Eduard; Remeš, Jiří; Kapička, Aleš; Podrázský, Vilém; Grison, Hana; Borůvka, Luboš

2018-06-01

The effect of wood-ash fertilization on forest soils has been assessed mainly through geochemical methods (e.g., content of soil organic matter or nutrients). However, a simple and fast method of determining the distribution of the ash and the extent of affected soil is missing. In this study we present the use of magnetic susceptibility, which is controlled by Fe-oxides, in comparing the fertilized soil in the forest plantation of pine and oak with intact forest soil. Spatial and vertical distribution of magnetic susceptibility was measured in an oak and pine plantation next to stems of young plants, where wood ash was applied as fertilizer. Pattern of the susceptibility distribution was compared with that in non-fertilized part of the plantation as well as with a spot of intact natural forest soil nearby. Our results show that the wood-ash samples contain significant amount of ferrimagnetic magnetite with susceptibility higher than that of typical forest soil. Clear differences were observed between magnetic susceptibility of furrows and ridges. Moreover, the dispersed ash remains practically on the surface, does not penetrate to deeper layers. Finally, our data suggest significant differences in surface values between the pine and oak plants. Based on this study we may conclude that magnetic susceptibility may represent a simple and approximate method of assessing the extent of soil affected by wood-ash. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improving nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency in surface- and overhead sprinkler-irrigated cotton in the desert southwest

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency (NUE) is low in surface-irrigated cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), especially when adding N to irrigation water. A NO3 soil-test algorithm was compared with canopy reflectance-based N management with surface- overhead sprinkler-irrigation in Central AZ. The surfac...

Nutrient and dust enrichment in Danish wind erosion sediments for different tillage directions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammadian Behbahani, Ali; Fister, Wolfgang; Heckrath, Goswin; Kuhn, Nikolaus J.

2015-04-01

More than 80% of the soil types in Denmark have a sandy texture. Denmark is also subject to strong offshore and onshore winds, therefore, Danish soils are considered especially vulnerable to wind erosion. Where conventional tillage operations are applied on poorly aggregated soils, tillage ridges are more or less the only roughness element that can be used to protect soils against wind erosion until crop plants are large enough to provide sufficient breaks. Since wind erosion is a selective process, it can be assumed that increasing erosion rates are associated with increasing loss of dust sized particles and nutrients. However, selective erosion is strongly affected by the orientation and respective trapping efficiency of tillage ridges and furrows. The main objective of this study, therefore, was to determine the effect of tillage direction on nutrient mobilization by wind erosion from agricultural land in Denmark. In order to assess the relationship between the enrichment ratio of specific particle sizes and the amount of eroded nutrients, three soils with loamy sand texture, but varying amounts of sand-sized particles, were selected. In addition, a soil with slightly less sand, but much higher organic matter content was chosen. The soils were tested with three different soil surface scenarios (flat surface, parallel tillage, perpendicular tillage) in a wind tunnel simulation. The parallel tillage operation experienced the greatest erosion rates, independent of soil type. Particles with D50 between 100-155 µm showed the greatest risk of erosion. However, due to a greater loss of dust sized particles from perpendicularly tilled surfaces, this wind-surface arrangement showed a significant increase in nutrient enrichment ratio compared to parallel tillage and flat surfaces. The main reason for this phenomenon is most probably the trapping of larger particles in the perpendicular furrows. This indicates that the highest rate of soil protection does not necessarily coincide with lowest soil nutrient losses and dust emissions. For the evaluation of protection measures on these soil types in Denmark it is, therefore, important to differentiate between their effectivity to reduce total soil erosion amount, dust emission, and nutrient loss.

Role of the Soil Thermal Inertia in the short term variability of the surface temperature and consequences for the soil-moisture temperature feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheruy, Frederique; Dufresne, Jean-Louis; Ait Mesbah, Sonia; Grandpeix, Jean-Yves; Wang, Fuxing

2017-04-01

A simple model based on the surface energy budget at equilibrium is developed to compute the sensitivity of the climatological mean daily temperature and diurnal amplitude to the soil thermal inertia. It gives a conceptual framework to quantity the role of the atmospheric and land surface processes in the surface temperature variability and relies on the diurnal amplitude of the net surface radiation, the sensitivity of the turbulent fluxes to the surface temperature and the thermal inertia. The performances of the model are first evaluated with 3D numerical simulations performed with the atmospheric (LMDZ) and land surface (ORCHIDEE) modules of the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) climate model. A nudging approach is adopted, it prevents from using time-consuming long-term simulations required to account for the natural variability of the climate and allow to draw conclusion based on short-term (several years) simulations. In the moist regions the diurnal amplitude and the mean surface temperature are controlled by the latent heat flux. In the dry areas, the relevant role of the stability of the boundary layer and of the soil thermal inertia is demonstrated. In these regions, the sensitivity of the surface temperature to the thermal inertia is high, due to the high contribution of the thermal flux to the energy budget. At high latitudes, when the sensitivity of turbulent fluxes is dominated by the day-time sensitivity of the sensible heat flux to the surface temperature and when this later is comparable to the thermal inertia term of the sensitivity equation, the surface temperature is also partially controlled by the thermal inertia which can rely on the snow properties; In the regions where the latent heat flux exhibits a high day-to-day variability, such as transition regions, the thermal inertia has also significant impact on the surface temperature variability . In these not too wet (energy limited) and not too dry (moisture-limited) soil moisture (SM) ''hot spots'', it is generally admitted that the variability of the surface temperature is explained by the soil moisture trough its control on the evaporation. This work suggests that the impact of the soil moisture on the temperature through its impact on the thermal inertia can be as important as its direct impact on the evaporation. Contrarily to the evaporation related soil-moisture temperature negative feedback, the thermal inertia soil-moisture related feedback newly identified by this work is a positive feedback which limits the cooling when the soil moisture increases. These results suggest that uncertainties in the representation of the soil and snow thermal properties can be responsible of significant biases in numerical simulations and emphasize the need to carefully document and evaluate these quantities in the Land Surface Modules implemented in the climate models.

Comparing Noah-MP simulations of energy and water fluxes in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum with plot scale measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gayler, Sebastian; Wöhling, Thomas; Högy, Petra; Ingwersen, Joachim; Wizemann, Hans-Dieter; Wulfmeyer, Volker; Streck, Thilo

2013-04-01

During the last years, land-surface models have proven to perform well in several studies that compared simulated fluxes of water and energy from the land surface to the atmosphere against measured fluxes at the plot-scale. In contrast, considerable deficits of land-surface models have been identified to simulate soil water fluxes and vertical soil moisture distribution. For example, Gayler et al. (2013) showed that simplifications in the representation of root water uptake can result in insufficient simulations of the vertical distribution of soil moisture and its dynamics. However, in coupled simulations of the terrestrial water cycle, both sub-systems, the atmosphere and the subsurface hydrogeo-system, must fit together and models are needed, which are able to adequately simulate soil moisture, latent heat flux, and their interrelationship. Consequently, land-surface models must be further improved, e.g. by incorporation of advanced biogeophysics models. To improve the conceptual realism in biophysical and hydrological processes in the community land surface model Noah, this model was recently enhanced to Noah-MP by a multi-options framework to parameterize individual processes (Niu et al., 2011). Thus, in Noah-MP the user can choose from several alternative models for vegetation and hydrology processes that can be applied in different combinations. In this study, we evaluate the performance of different Noah-MP model settings to simulate water and energy fluxes across the land surface at two contrasting field sites in South-West Germany. The evaluation is done in 1D offline-mode, i.e. without coupling to an atmospheric model. The atmospheric forcing is provided by measured time series of the relevant variables. Simulation results are compared with eddy covariance measurements of turbulent fluxes and measured time series of soil moisture at different depths. The aims of the study are i) to carve out the most appropriate combination of process parameterizations in Noah-MP to simultaneously match the different components of the water and energy cycle at the field sites under consideration, and ii) to estimate the uncertainty in model structure. We further investigate the potential to improve simulation results by incorporating concepts of more advanced root water uptake models from agricultural field scale models into the land-surface-scheme. Gayler S, Ingwersen J, Priesack E, Wöhling T, Wulfmeyer V, Streck T (2013): Assessing the relevance of sub surface processes for the simulation of evapotranspiration and soil moisture dynamics with CLM3.5: Comparison with field data and crop model simulations. Environ. Earth Sci., 69(2), under revision. Niu G-Y, Yang Z-L, Mitchell KE, Chen F, Ek MB, Barlage M, Kumar A, Manning K, Niyogi D, Rosero E, Tewari M and Xia Y (2011): The community Noah land surface model with multiparameterization options (Noah-MP): 1. Model description and evaluation with local-scale measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research 116(D12109).

Analysis of the sorption properties of different soils using water vapour adsorption and potentiometric titration methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skic, Kamil; Boguta, Patrycja; Sokołowska, Zofia

2016-07-01

Parameters of specific surface area as well as surface charge were used to determine and compare sorption properties of soils with different physicochemical characteristics. The gravimetric method was used to obtain water vapour isotherms and then specific surface areas, whereas surface charge was estimated from potentiometric titration curves. The specific surface area varied from 12.55 to 132.69 m2 g-1 for Haplic Cambisol and Mollic Gleysol soil, respectively, and generally decreased with pH (R=0.835; α = 0.05) and when bulk density (R=-0.736; α = 0.05) as well as ash content (R=-0.751; α = 0.05) increased. In the case of surface charge, the values ranged from 63.00 to 844.67 μmol g-1 Haplic Fluvisol and Mollic Gleysol, respecively. Organic matter gave significant contributions to the specific surface area and cation exchange capacity due to the large surface area and numerous surface functional groups, containing adsorption sites for water vapour molecules and for ions. The values of cation exchange capacity and specific surface area correlated linearly at the level of R=0.985; α = 0.05.

Analysis of factors controlling soil phosphorus loss with surface runoff in Huihe National Nature Reserve by principal component and path analysis methods.

PubMed

He, Jing; Su, Derong; Lv, Shihai; Diao, Zhaoyan; Bu, He; Wo, Qiang

2018-01-01

Phosphorus (P) loss with surface runoff accounts for the P input to and acceleration of eutrophication of the freshwater. Many studies have focused on factors affecting P loss with surface runoff from soils, but rarely on the relationship among these factors. In the present study, rainfall simulation on P loss with surface runoff was conducted in Huihe National Nature Reserve, in Hulunbeier grassland, China, and the relationships between P loss with surface runoff, soil properties, and rainfall conditions were examined. Principal component analysis and path analysis were used to analyze the direct and indirect effects on P loss with surface runoff. The results showed that P loss with surface runoff was closely correlated with soil electrical conductivity, soil pH, soil Olsen P, soil total nitrogen (TN), soil total phosphorus (TP), and soil organic carbon (SOC). The main driving factors which influenced P loss with surface runoff were soil TN, soil pH, soil Olsen P, and soil water content. Path analysis and determination coefficient analysis indicated that the standard multiple regression equation for P loss with surface runoff and each main factor was Y = 7.429 - 0.439 soil TN - 6.834 soil pH + 1.721 soil Olsen-P + 0.183 soil water content (r = 0.487, p < 0.01, n = 180). Soil TN, soil pH, soil Olsen P, and soil water content and the interactions between them were the main factors affecting P loss with surface runoff. The effect of physical and chemical properties of undisturbed soils on P loss with surface runoff was discussed, and the soil water content and soil Olsen P were strongly positive influences on the P loss with surface runoff.

Towards an improved soil moisture retrieval for organic-rich soils from SMOS passive microwave L-band observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bircher, Simone; Richaume, Philippe; Mahmoodi, Ali; Mialon, Arnaud; Fernandez-Moran, Roberto; Wigneron, Jean-Pierre; Demontoux, François; Jonard, François; Weihermüller, Lutz; Andreasen, Mie; Rautiainen, Kimmo; Ikonen, Jaakko; Schwank, Mike; Drusch, Mattias; Kerr, Yann H.

2017-04-01

From the passive L-band microwave radiometer onboard the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) space mission global surface soil moisture data is retrieved every 2 - 3 days. Thus far, the empirical L-band Microwave Emission of the Biosphere (L-MEB) radiative transfer model applied in the SMOS soil moisture retrieval algorithm is exclusively calibrated over test sites in dry and temperate climate zones. Furthermore, the included dielectric mixing model relating soil moisture to relative permittivity accounts only for mineral soils. However, soil moisture monitoring over the higher Northern latitudes is crucial since these regions are especially sensitive to climate change. A considerable positive feedback is expected if thawing of these extremely organic soils supports carbon decomposition and release to the atmosphere. Due to differing structural characteristics and thus varying bound water fractions, the relative permittivity of organic material is lower than that of the most mineral soils at a given water content. This assumption was verified by means of L-band relative permittivity laboratory measurements of organic and mineral substrates from various sites in Denmark, Finland, Scotland and Siberia using a resonant cavity. Based on these data, a simple empirical dielectric model for organic soils was derived and implemented in the SMOS Soil Moisture Level 2 Prototype Processor (SML2PP). Unfortunately, the current SMOS retrieved soil moisture product seems to show unrealistically low values compared to in situ soil moisture data collected from organic surface layers in North America, Europe and the Tibetan Plateau so that the impact of the dielectric model for organic soils cannot really be tested. A simplified SMOS processing scheme yielding higher soil moisture levels has recently been proposed and is presently under investigation. Furthermore, recalibration of the model parameters accounting for vegetation and roughness effects that were thus far only evaluated using the default dielectric model for mineral soils is ongoing for the "organic" L-MEB version. Additionally, in order to decide where a soil moisture retrieval using the "organic" dielectric model should be triggered, information on soil organic matter content in the soil surface layer has to be considered in the retrieval algorithm. For this purpose, SoilGrids (www.soilgrids.org) providing soil organic carbon content (SOCC) in g/kg is under study. A SOCC threshold based on the relation between the SoilGrids' SOCC and the presence of organic soil surface layers (relevant to alter the microwave L-band emissions from the land surface) in the SoilGrids' source soil profile information has to be established. In this communication, we present the current status of the above outlined studies with the objective to advance towards an improved soil moisture retrieval for organic-rich soils from SMOS passive microwave L-band observations.

Evaluation of soil carbon pools after the addition of prunings in subtropical orchards placed in terraces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Márquez San Emeterio, Layla; Martín Reyes, Marino Pedro; Ortiz Bernad, Irene; Fernández Ondoño, Emilia; Sierra Aragón, Manuel

2017-04-01

The amount of carbon that can be stored in a soil depends on many factors, such as the type of soil, the chemical composition of plant rests and the climate, and is also highly affected by land use and soil management. Agricultural ecosystems are proved to absorb a large amount of CO2 from the atmosphere through several sustainable management practices. In addition, organic materials such as leaves, grass, prunings, etc., comprise a significant type of agricultural practices as a result of waste recycling. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of the addition of different organic prunings on the potential for carbon sequestration in agricultural soils placed in terraces. Three subtropical orchards were sampled in Almuñécar (Granada, S Spain): mango (Mangifera indica L.), avocado (Persea americana Mill.) and cherimoya (Annonacherimola Mill.). The predominant climate is Subtropical Mediterranean and the soil is an Eutric Anthrosol. The experimental design consisted in the application of prunings from avocado, cherimoya and mango trees, placed on the surface soil underneath their correspondent trees, as well as garden prunings from the green areas surrounding the town center on the surface soils under the three orchard trees. Control experiences without the addition of prunings were also evaluated. These experiences were followed for three years. Soil samples were taken at4 cm depth. They were dried for 3-4 days and then sieved (<2 mm).Total soil organic C, water-soluble soil organic C, mineral-associated organic C and non-oxidable C were analyzed and expressed as carbon pools (Mg C ha-1for total soil organic C, or Kg C ha-1for the others). The results showed an increase of all organic carbon pools in all pruning treatments compared to the control experiences. Differences in total organic carbon pool were statistically significant between soils under avocado prunings and their control soil, and between soils under garden prunings with cherimoya and their control soil. Regarding the water-soluble soil organic carbon, low differences were shown. Differences in mineral-associated and non-oxidable organic carbon fractions were also statistically significant between soils under avocado prunings and their control soil, and between soils under garden prunings with cherimoya and their control soil. No significant differences in any organic carbon pool were founded for the soils under mango. The climate in this area enhances mineralization processes of organic matter. Thus, both in mango soils under mango and garden prunings the organic carbon does not significantly increase compared to the control soil. In avocado soils under avocado prunings humification of organic matter predominates, probably due to differences in the biochemical structure of the prunings. Finally, organic carbon contents in soils under garden prunings compared to their respective control soils only increase in cherimoya orchard. Our findings suggest that the addition of prunings and other organic debris may be a very useful practice for increasing the content of organic matter within the surface soil layer. Acknowledgements Authors thank the financial support of this work to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CGL-2013-46665-R) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Hydrologic flow path development varies by aspect during spring snowmelt in complex subalpine terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Webb, Ryan W.; Fassnacht, Steven R.; Gooseff, Michael N.

2018-01-01

In many mountainous regions around the world, snow and soil moisture are key components of the hydrologic cycle. Preferential flow paths of snowmelt water through snow have been known to occur for years with few studies observing the effect on soil moisture. In this study, statistical analysis of the topographical and hydrological controls on the spatiotemporal variability of snow water equivalent (SWE) and soil moisture during snowmelt was undertaken at a subalpine forested setting with north, south, and flat aspects as a seasonally persistent snowpack melts. We investigated if evidence of preferential flow paths in snow can be observed and the effect on soil moisture through measurements of snow water equivalent and near-surface soil moisture, observing how SWE and near-surface soil moisture vary on hillslopes relative to the toes of hillslopes and flat areas. We then compared snowmelt infiltration beyond the near-surface soil between flat and sloping terrain during the entire snowmelt season using soil moisture sensor profiles. This study was conducted during varying snowmelt seasons representing above-normal, relatively normal, and below-normal snow seasons in northern Colorado. Evidence is presented of preferential meltwater flow paths at the snow-soil interface on the north-facing slope causing increases in SWE downslope and less infiltration into the soil at 20 cm depth; less association is observed in the near-surface soil moisture (top 7 cm). We present a conceptualization of the meltwater flow paths that develop based on slope aspect and soil properties. The resulting flow paths are shown to divert at least 4 % of snowmelt laterally, accumulating along the length of the slope, to increase the snow water equivalent by as much as 170 % at the base of a north-facing hillslope. Results from this study show that snow acts as an extension of the vadose zone during spring snowmelt and future hydrologic investigations will benefit from studying the snow and soil together.

Observed and simulated hydrologic response for a first-order catchment during extreme rainfall 3 years after wildfire disturbance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ebel, Brian A.; Rengers, Francis K.; Tucker, Gregory E.

2016-01-01

Hydrologic response to extreme rainfall in disturbed landscapes is poorly understood because of the paucity of measurements. A unique opportunity presented itself when extreme rainfall in September 2013 fell on a headwater catchment (i.e., <1 ha) in Colorado, USA that had previously been burned by a wildfire in 2010. We compared measurements of soil-hydraulic properties, soil saturation from subsurface sensors, and estimated peak runoff during the extreme rainfall with numerical simulations of runoff generation and subsurface hydrologic response during this event. The simulations were used to explore differences in runoff generation between the wildfire-affected headwater catchment, a simulated unburned case, and for uniform versus spatially variable parameterizations of soil-hydraulic properties that affect infiltration and runoff generation in burned landscapes. Despite 3 years of elapsed time since the 2010 wildfire, observations and simulations pointed to substantial surface runoff generation in the wildfire-affected headwater catchment by the infiltration-excess mechanism while no surface runoff was generated in the unburned case. The surface runoff generation was the result of incomplete recovery of soil-hydraulic properties in the burned area, suggesting recovery takes longer than 3 years. Moreover, spatially variable soil-hydraulic property parameterizations produced longer duration but lower peak-flow infiltration-excess runoff, compared to uniform parameterization, which may have important hillslope sediment export and geomorphologic implications during long duration, extreme rainfall. The majority of the simulated surface runoff in the spatially variable cases came from connected near-channel contributing areas, which was a substantially smaller contributing area than the uniform simulations.

Physical erosion modelling of complex morphodynamics in the upper Val d'Orcia: a combination of EROSION 3D, UAV, SFM and CANUPO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buchholz, Arno; Kaiser, Andreas; Neugirg, Fabian; Schindewolf, Marcus; Schmidt, Jürgen

2017-04-01

Throughout the Mediterranean Basin soil erosion is both a widely spread and a landscape shaping process. In order to increase the understanding of morphodynamics inside large Italian badland areas, so called Calanchi, the process based erosion model EROSION 3D was parameterized by artificial rainfall simulations, soil sampling and an UAV based high resolution digital elevation model. Vegetation structures were removed with the CANUPO-classifier in CloudCompare. The rainfall experiments proved to be a convenient but costly tool for deriving the model input parameters. While building up the model, different composition of the inhomogeneous soil surface was considered. A diverse behavior against erosion by water was observed. The results showed that the deposition surfaces of rotational or translational slides, besides calanco depth contour, tend to degrade. Although these deposits present a comparatively low bulk density, they reduce the infiltration due to soil surface clogging and cause less erosion resistances. The differential consideration of erosion sub-processes turns out as particularly challenging. The simulation of a reference year showed an annual soil export from the catchment of 43 t/ha, which corresponds to an average surface lowering of 3 mm. Sheet erosion represents an amount of about 5% of the total erosion of badlands. Furthermore, infiltration depth, amount of runoff, sediment concentration, and grain size composition of the deposits were calculated. This study makes a contribution to the understanding of denudation processes in Calanchi badlands. The presented process-based modeling of badlands is contributing a new aspect to erosion research.

Conservation agriculture among small scale farmers in semi-arid region of Kenya does improve soil biological quality and soil organic carbon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waweru, Geofrey; Okoba, Barrack; Cornelis, Wim

2016-04-01

The low food production in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been attributed to declining soil quality. This is due to soil degradation and fertility depletion resulting from unsustainable conventional farming practices such as continuous tillage, crop residue burning and mono cropping. To overcome these challenges, conservation agriculture (CA) is actively promoted. However, little has been done in evaluating the effect of each of the three principles of CA namely: minimum soil disturbance, maximum surface cover and diversified/crop rotation on soil quality in SSA. A study was conducted for three years from 2012 to 2015 in Laikipia East sub county in Kenya to evaluate the effect of tillage, surface cover and intercropping on a wide variety of physical, chemical and biological soil quality indicators, crop parameters and the field-water balance. This abstract reports on soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) and soil organic carbon (SOC). The experimental set up was a split plot design with tillage as main treatment (conventional till (CT), no-till (NT) and no-till with herbicide (NTH)), and intercropping and surface cover as sub treatment (intercropping maize with: beans, MB; beans and leucaena, MBL; beans and maize residues at 1.5 Mg ha-1 MBMu, and dolichos, MD). NT had significantly higher SMBC by 66 and 31% compared with CT and NTH respectively. SOC was significantly higher in NTH than CT and NT by 15 and 4%, respectively. Intercropping and mulching had significant effect on SMBC and SOC. MBMu resulted in higher SMBC by 31, 38 and 43%, and SOC by 9, 20 and 22% as compared with MBL, MD and MB, respectively. SMBC and SOC were significantly affected by the interaction between tillage, intercropping and soil cover with NTMBMu and NTHMBMu having the highest SMBC and SOC, respectively. We conclude that indeed tillage, intercropping and mulching substantially affect SMBC and SOC. On the individual components of CA, tillage and surface cover had the highest effect on SMBC and SOC, respectively, but the highest positive effect was realized when all the three principles were applied consecutively. Therefore, CA has the potential to improve biological soil quality among small scale rainfed farmers and thus promote sustainable production.

Upper-soil moisture inter-comparison from SMOS's products and land surface models over the Iberian Peninsula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polcher, Jan; Barella-Ortiz, Anaïs; Aires, Filipe; Balsamo, Gianpaolo; Gelati, Emiliano; Rodríguez-Fernández, Nemesio

2015-04-01

Soil moisture is a key state variable of the hydrological cycle. It conditions runoff, infiltration and evaporation over continental surfaces, and is key for forecasting droughts and floods. It plays thus an important role in surface-atmosphere interactions. Surface Soil Moisture (SSM) can be measured by in situ measurements, by satellite observations or modelled using land surface models. As a complementary tool, data assimilation can be used to combine both modelling and satellite observations. The work presented here is an inter-comparison of retrieved and modelled SSM data, for the 2010 - 2012 period, over the Iberian Peninsula. The region has been chosen because its vegetation cover is not very dense and includes strong contrasts in the rainfall regimes and thus a diversity of behaviours for SSM. Furthermore this semi-arid region is strongly dependent on a good management of its water resources. Satellite observations correspond to the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) retrievals: the L2 product from an optimal interpolation retrieval, and 3 other products using Neural Network retrievals with different input information: SMOS time indexes, purely SMOS data, or addition of the European Advanced Scaterometer (ASCAT) backscattering, and the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) surface temperature information. The modelled soil moistures have been taken from the ORCHIDEE (ORganising Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic EcosystEms) and the HTESSEL (Hydrology-Tiled ECMWF Scheme for Surface Exchanges over Land) land surface models. Both models are forced with the same atmospheric conditions (as part of the Earth2Observe FP7 project) over the period but they represent the surface soil moisture with very different degrees of complexity. ORCHIDEE has 5 levels in the top 5 centimetres of soil while in HTESSEL this variable is part of the top soil moisture level. The two types of SMOS retrievals are compared to the model outputs in their spatial and temporal characteristics. The comparison with the model helps to identify which retrieval configuration is most consistent with our understanding of surface soil moisture in this region. In particular we have determined how each of the soil moisture products is related to the spatio-temporal variations of rainfall. In large parts of the Iberian Peninsula the co-variance of remote sensed SSM and rainfall is consistent with that of the models. But for some regions questions are raised. The variability of SSM observed by SMOS in the North West of the Iberian Peninsula is similar to that of rainfall, at least this relation of SSM and rainfall is closer than suggested by the two models.

Using Flux Site Observations to Calibrate Root System Architecture Stencils for Water Uptake of Plant Functional Types in Land Surface Models.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouda, M.

2017-12-01

Root system architecture (RSA) can significantly affect plant access to water, total transpiration, as well as its partitioning by soil depth, with implications for surface heat, water, and carbon budgets. Despite recent advances in land surface model (LSM) descriptions of plant hydraulics, RSA has not been included because of its three-dimensional complexity, which makes RSA modelling generally too computationally costly. This work builds upon the recently introduced "RSA stencil," a process-based 1D layered model that captures the dynamic shifts in water potential gradients of 3D RSA in response to heterogeneous soil moisture profiles. In validations using root systems calibrated to the rooting profiles of four plant functional types (PFT) of the Community Land Model, the RSA stencil predicts plant water potentials within 2% of the outputs of full 3D models, despite its trivial computational cost. In transient simulations, the RSA stencil yields improved predictions of water uptake and soil moisture profiles compared to a 1D model based on root fraction alone. Here I show how the RSA stencil can be calibrated to time-series observations of soil moisture and transpiration to yield a water uptake PFT definition for use in terrestrial models. This model-data integration exercise aims to improve LSM predictions of soil moisture dynamics and, under water-limiting conditions, surface fluxes. These improvements can be expected to significantly impact predictions of downstream variables, including surface fluxes, climate-vegetation feedbacks and soil nutrient cycling.

Assimilation of Satellite-Derived Precipitation into the Regional Atmospheric Model System (RAMS): Its Impacts on the Weather and Hydrology in the Southwest United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, H.; Gao, X.; Sorooshian, S.

2002-05-01

As one aspect of the study of interactions between the atmosphere, vegetation, soil, and hydrology, there has been on going efforts to assimilate soil moisture data using coupled and uncoupled land surface-atmosphere hydrology models. The assimilation of soil moisture is expected to have influence due to its vital function in regulating runoff, partitioning latent and sensible heat, and through determining groundwater recharge. Soil moisture can provides long-term memory or persistence of the surface boundary condition, influencing large-scale atmospheric circulation over subsequent intervals. Now that the application of satellite remote sensing has become obvious to provide input parameters associated with land surface processes to the numerical models, this study utilizes remotely sensed precipitation data, PERSIANN (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks) to assimilate soil moisture and other soil surface characteristics. Compared to the other earlier modeling experiments of seasonal or interannual temporal scale in continental or global spatial scale, this study investigates short term predictability in regional scale with the southwest United States as a study area, which has unique metrological and geographical features that provide special difficulties for mesoscale modeling. Research objectives are to assimilate the PERSIANN precipitation data into the mesoscale model for model initialization, examine the influence and memory of model precipitation errors on the land surface and atmospheric processes, and thereby study the short term predictability of meteorology and hydrology in the Southwest United States.

The Hydrologic Implications Of Unique Urban Soil Horizon Sequencing On The Functions Of Passive Green Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuster, W.; Schifman, L. A.; Herrmann, D.

2017-12-01

Green infrastructure represents a broad set of site- to landscape-scale practices that can be flexibly implemented to increase sewershed retention capacity, and can thereby improve on the management of water quantity and quality. Although much green infrastructure presents as formal engineered designs, urbanized landscapes with highly-interspersed pervious surfaces (e.g., right-of-way, parks, lawns, vacant land) may offer ecosystem services as passive, infiltrative green infrastructure. Yet, infiltration and drainage processes are regulated by soil surface conditions, and then the layering of subsoil horizons, respectively. Drawing on a unique urban soil taxonomic and hydrologic dataset collected in 12 cities (each city representing a major soil order), we determined how urbanization processes altered the sequence of soil horizons (compared to pre-urbanized reference soil pedons) and modeled the hydrologic implications of these shifts in layering with an unsaturated zone code (HYDRUS2D). We found that the different layering sequences in urbanized soils render different types and extents of supporting (plant-available soil water), provisioning (productive vegetation), and regulating (runoff mitigation) ecosystem services.

Evaluating the Capabilities of Soil Enthalpy, Soil Moisture and Soil Temperature in Predicting Seasonal Precipitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Changyu; Chen, Haishan; Sun, Shanlei

2018-04-01

Soil enthalpy ( H) contains the combined effects of both soil moisture ( w) and soil temperature ( T) in the land surface hydrothermal process. In this study, the sensitivities of H to w and T are investigated using the multi-linear regression method. Results indicate that T generally makes positive contributions to H, while w exhibits different (positive or negative) impacts due to soil ice effects. For example, w negatively contributes to H if soil contains more ice; however, after soil ice melts, w exerts positive contributions. In particular, due to lower w interannual variabilities in the deep soil layer (i.e., the fifth layer), H is more sensitive to T than to w. Moreover, to compare the potential capabilities of H, w and T in precipitation ( P) prediction, the Huanghe-Huaihe Basin (HHB) and Southeast China (SEC), with similar sensitivities of H to w and T, are selected. Analyses show that, despite similar spatial distributions of H-P and T-P correlation coefficients, the former values are always higher than the latter ones. Furthermore, H provides the most effective signals for P prediction over HHB and SEC, i.e., a significant leading correlation between May H and early summer (June) P. In summary, H, which integrates the effects of T and w as an independent variable, has greater capabilities in monitoring land surface heating and improving seasonal P prediction relative to individual land surface factors (e.g., T and w).

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with total suspended particles and surface soils in Kunming, China: distribution, possible sources, and cancer risks.

PubMed

Yang, Xiaoxia; Ren, Dong; Sun, Wenwen; Li, Xiaoman; Huang, Bin; Chen, Rong; Lin, Chan; Pan, Xuejun

2015-05-01

The concentrations, distribution, possible sources, and cancer risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in total suspended particles (TSPs) and surface soils collected from the same sampling spots were compared in Kunming, China. The total PAH concentrations were 9.35-75.01 ng/m(3) and 101.64-693.30 ng/g dry weight (d.w.), respectively, in TSPs and surface soils. Fluoranthene (FLA), pyrene (PYR), chrysene (CHR), and phenanthrene (PHE) were the abundant compounds in TSP samples, and phenanthrene (PHE), fluorene (FLO), fluoranthene (FLA), benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF), and benzo[g,h,i]perylene (BghiP) were the abundant compounds in surface soil samples. The spatial distribution of PAHs in TSPs is closely related to the surrounding environment, which varied significantly as a result of variations in source emission and changes in meteorology. However, the spatial distribution of PAHs in surface soils is supposed to correlate with a city's urbanization history, and high levels of PAHs were always observed in industry district, or central or old district of city. Based on the diagnostic ratios and principal component analysis (PCA), vehicle emissions (especially diesel-powered vehicles) and coal and wood combustion were the main sources of PAHs in TSPs, and the combustion of wood and coal, and spills of unburnt petroleum were the main sources of PAHs in the surface soils. The benzo[a]pyrene equivalent concentration (BaPeq) for the TSPs and surface soil samples were 0.16-2.57 ng/m(3) and 11.44-116.03 ng/g d.w., respectively. The incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) exposed to particulate PAHs ranged from 10(-4) to 10(-3) indicating high potential of carcinogenic risk, and the ILCR exposed to soil PAHs was from 10(-7) to 10(-6) indicating virtual safety. These presented results showed that particle-bound PAHs had higher potential carcinogenic ability for human than soil PAHs. And, the values of cancer risk for children were always higher than for adults, which demonstrated that children were sensitive to carcinogenic effects of PAHs.

Deforestation and cultivation mobilize mercury from topsoil.

PubMed

Gamby, Rebecca L; Hammerschmidt, Chad R; Costello, David M; Lamborg, Carl H; Runkle, James R

2015-11-01

Terrestrial biomass and soils are a primary global reservoir of mercury (Hg) derived from natural and anthropogenic sources; however, relatively little is known about the fate and stability of Hg in the surface soil reservoir and its susceptibility to change as a result of deforestation and cultivation. In southwest Ohio, we measured Hg concentrations in soils of deciduous old- and new-growth forests, as well as fallow grassland and agricultural soils that had once been forested to examine how, over decadal to century time scales, man-made deforestation and cultivation influence Hg mobility from temperate surface soils. Mercury concentrations in surficial soils were significantly greater in the old-growth than new-growth forest, and both forest soils had greater Hg concentrations than cultivated and fallow fields. Differences in Hg:lead ratios between old-growth forest and agricultural topsoils suggest that about half of the Hg lost from deforested and cultivated Ohio soils may have been volatilized and the other half eroded. The estimated mobilization potential of Hg as a result of deforestation was 4.1 mg m(-2), which was proportional to mobilization potentials measured at multiple locations in the Amazon relative to concentrations in forested surface soils. Based on this relationship and an estimate of the global average of Hg concentrations in forested soils, we approximate that about 550 M mol of Hg has been mobilized globally from soil as a result of deforestation during the past two centuries. This estimate is comparable to, if not greater than, the amount of anthropogenic Hg hypothesized by others to have been sequestered by the soil reservoir since Industrialization. Our results suggest that deforestation and soil cultivation are significant anthropogenic processes that exacerbate Hg mobilization from soil and its cycling in the environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Estimating the soil moisture profile by assimilating near-surface observations with the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Shuwen; Li, Haorui; Zhang, Weidong; Qiu, Chongjian; Li, Xin

2005-11-01

The paper investigates the ability to retrieve the true soil moisture profile by assimilating near-surface soil moisture into a soil moisture model with an ensemble Kaiman filter (EnKF) assimilation scheme, including the effect of ensemble size, update interval and nonlinearities in the profile retrieval, the required time for full retrieval of the soil moisture profiles, and the possible influence of the depth of the soil moisture observation. These questions are addressed by a desktop study using synthetic data. The “true” soil moisture profiles are generated from the soil moisture model under the boundary condition of 0.5 cm d-1 evaporation. To test the assimilation schemes, the model is initialized with a poor initial guess of the soil moisture profile, and different ensemble sizes are tested showing that an ensemble of 40 members is enough to represent the covariance of the model forecasts. Also compared are the results with those from the direct insertion assimilation scheme, showing that the EnKF is superior to the direct insertion assimilation scheme, for hourly observations, with retrieval of the soil moisture profile being achieved in 16 h as compared to 12 days or more. For daily observations, the true soil moisture profile is achieved in about 15 days with the EnKF, but it is impossible to approximate the true moisture within 18 days by using direct insertion. It is also found that observation depth does not have a significant effect on profile retrieval time for the EnKF. The nonlinearities have some negative influence on the optimal estimates of soil moisture profile but not very seriously.

Assessment of heavy metals contamination in surface layers of Roztocze National Park forest soils (SE Poland) by indices of pollution.

PubMed

Mazurek, Ryszard; Kowalska, Joanna; Gąsiorek, Michał; Zadrożny, Paweł; Józefowska, Agnieszka; Zaleski, Tomasz; Kępka, Wojciech; Tymczuk, Maryla; Orłowska, Kalina

2017-02-01

In most cases, in soils exposed to heavy metals accumulation, the highest content of heavy metals was noted in the surface layers of the soil profile. Accumulation of heavy metals may occur both as a result of natural processes as well as anthropogenic activities. The quality of the soil exposed to heavy metal contamination can be evaluated by indices of pollution. On the basis of determined heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, Mn, Ni and Cr) in the soils of Roztocze National Park the following indices of pollution were calculated: Enrichment Factor (EF), Geoaccumulation Index (I geo ), Nemerow Pollution Index (PI Nemerow ) and Potential Ecological Risk (RI). Additionally, we introduced and calculated the Biogeochemical Index (BGI), which supports determination of the ability of the organic horizon to accumulate heavy metals. A tens of times higher content of Pb, Zn, Cu and Mn was found in the surface layers compared to their content in the parent material. This distribution of heavy metals in the studied soils was related to the influence of anthropogenic pollution (both local and distant sources of emission), as well as soil properties such as pH, organic carbon and total nitrogen content. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimating Surface Soil Moisture in a Mixed-Landscape using SMAP and MODIS/VIIRS Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, J.; Di, L.; Xiao, J.

2017-12-01

Soil moisture, a critical parameter of earth ecosystem linking land surface and atmosphere, has been widely applied in many application (Di, 1991; Njoku et al. 2003; Western 2002; Zhao et al. 2014; McColl et al. 2017) from regional to continental or even global scale. The advent of satellite-based remote sensing, particular in the last two decades, has proven successful for mapping the surface soil moisture (SSM) from space (Petropoulos et al. 2015; Kim et al. 2015; Molero et al. 2016). The current soil moisture products, however, is not able to fully characterize the spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture at mixed landscape types (Albergel et al. 2013; Zeng et al. 2015). In this research, we derived the SSM at 1-km spatial resolution by using sensor observation and high-level products from SMAP and MODIS/VIIRS as well as metrorological, landcover, and soil data. Specifically, we proposed a practicable method to produce the originally planned SMAP L3_SM_A with comparable quality by downscaling the SMAP L3_SM_P product through a proved method, the geographically weighted regression method at mixed landscape in southern New Hampshire. This estimated SSM was validated using the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) from Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Biological soil crust and disturbance controls on surface hydrology in a semi-arid ecosystem

USGS Publications Warehouse

Faist, Akasha M; Herrick, Jeffrey E.; Belnap, Jayne; Van Zee, Justin W; Barger, Nichole N

2017-01-01

Biological soil crust communities (biocrusts) play an important role in surface hydrologic processes in dryland ecosystems, and these processes may then be dramatically altered with soil surface disturbance. In this study, we examined biocrust hydrologic responses to disturbance at different developmental stages on sandy soils on the Colorado Plateau. Our results showed that all disturbance (trampling, scalping and trampling+scalping) of the early successional light cyanobacterial biocrusts generally reduced runoff. In contrast, trampling well-developed dark-cyano-lichen biocrusts increased runoff and sediment loss relative to intact controls. Scalping did not increase runoff, implying that soil aggregate structure was important to the infiltration process. Well-developed, intact dark biocrusts generally had lower runoff, low sediment loss, and highest aggregate stability whereas the less-developed light biocrusts were highest in runoff and sediment loss when compared to the controls. These results suggest the importance of maintaining the well-developed dark biocrusts, as they are beneficial for lowering runoff and reducing soil loss and redistribution on the landscape. These data also suggest that upslope patches of light biocrust may either support water transport to downslope vegetation patches or alternatively this runoff may place dark biocrust patches at risk of disruption and loss, given that light patches increase runoff and thus soil erosion potential.

[Effects of tillage practices on root spatial distribution and yield of spring wheat and pea in the dry land farming areas of central Gansu, China].

PubMed

Zhang, Ming Jun; Li, Ling Ling; Xie, Jun Hong; Peng, Zheng Kai; Ren, Jin Hu

2017-12-01

A field experiment was conducted to explore the mechanism of cultivation measures in affecting crop yield by investigating root distribution in spring wheat-pea rotation based on a long-term conservation tillage practices in a farming region of Gansu. The results showed that with the develo-pment of growth period, the total root length, root surface area of spring wheat and pea showed a consistent trend of increase after initial decrease and reached the maximum at flowering stage. Higher root distribution was found in the 0-10 cm soil layer at seedling and 10-30 cm soil layer at flowering and maturity stages in spring wheat, while in the field pea, higher root distribution was found in the 0-10 cm soil layer at seedling and maturity, and in the 10-30 cm soil layer at flowering stages. No tillage with straw mulching and plastic mulching increased the root length and root surface area. Compared with conventional tillage in spring wheat and field pea, root length increased by 35.9% to 92.6%, and root surface area increased by 43.2% to 162.4%, respectively. No tillage with straw mulching and plastic mulching optimized spring wheat and pea root system distribution, compared with conventional tillage, increased spring wheat and field pea root length and root surface area ratio at 0-10 cm depths at the seedling stage, the root distribution at deeper depths increased significantly at flowering and maturity stages, and no tillage with straw mulching increased root length and root surface area ratio by 3.3% and 9.7% respectively, in 30-80 cm soil layer at the flowering stage. The total root length, root surface area and yield had significantly positive correlation for spring wheat in each growth period, and the total root length and pea yield also had significant positive correlation. No tillage with straw mulching and plastic mulching boosted yield of spring wheat and pea by 23.4%-38.7% compared with the conventional tillage, and the water use efficiency was increased by 13.7%-28.5%. It was concluded that no-till farming and straw mulching (plastic) could increase crop root length and root surface area, optimize the spatial distribution of roots in the soil, enhance crop root layer absorption ability, so as to improve crop yield and water utilization.

Role of soil health in maintaining environmental sustainability of surface coal mining.

PubMed

Acton, Peter M; Fox, James F; Campbell, J Elliott; Jones, Alice L; Rowe, Harold; Martin, Darren; Bryson, Sebastian

2011-12-01

Mountaintop coal mining (MCM) in the Southern Appalachian forest region greatly impacts both soil and aquatic ecosystems. Policy and practice currently in place emphasize water quality and soil stability but do not consider upland soil health. Here we report soil organic carbon (SOC) measurements and other soil quality indicators for reclaimed soils in the Southern Appalachian forest region to quantify the health of the soil ecosystem. The SOC sequestration rate of the MCM soils was 1.3 MgC ha(-1) yr(-1) and stocks ranged from 1.3 ± 0.9 to 20.9 ± 5.9 Mg ha(-1) and contained only 11% of the SOC of surrounding forest soils. Comparable reclaimed mining soils reported in the literature that are supportive of soil ecosystem health had SOC stocks 2.5-5 times greater than the MCM soils and sequestration rates were also 1.6-3 times greater. The high compaction associated with reclamation in this region greatly reduces both the vegetative rooting depth and infiltration of the soil and increases surface runoff, thus bypassing the ability of soil to naturally filter groundwater. In the context of environmental sustainability of MCM, it is proposed that the entire watershed ecosystem be assessed and that a revision of current policy be conducted to reflect the health of both water and soil.

Experimental study on soluble chemical transfer to surface runoff from soil.

PubMed

Tong, Juxiu; Yang, Jinzhong; Hu, Bill X; Sun, Huaiwei

2016-10-01

Prevention of chemical transfer from soil to surface runoff, under condition of irrigation and subsurface drainage, would improve surface water quality. In this paper, a series of laboratory experiments were conducted to assess the effects of various soil and hydraulic factors on chemical transfer from soil to surface runoff. The factors include maximum depth of ponding water on soil surface, initial volumetric water content of soil, depth of soil with low porosity, type or texture of soil and condition of drainage. In the experiments, two soils, sand and loam, mixed with different quantities of soluble KCl were filled in the sandboxes and prepared under different initial saturated conditions. Simulated rainfall induced surface runoff are operated in the soils, and various ponding water depths on soil surface are simulated. Flow rates and KCl concentration of surface runoff are measured during the experiments. The following conclusions are made from the study results: (1) KCl concentration in surface runoff water would decrease with the increase of the maximum depth of ponding water on soil surface; (2) KCl concentration in surface runoff water would increase with the increase of initial volumetric water content in the soil; (3) smaller depth of soil with less porosity or deeper depth of soil with larger porosity leads to less KCl transfer to surface runoff; (4) the soil with finer texture, such as loam, could keep more fertilizer in soil, which will result in more KCl concentration in surface runoff; and (5) good subsurface drainage condition will increase the infiltration and drainage rates during rainfall event and will decrease KCl concentration in surface runoff. Therefore, it is necessary to reuse drained fertile water effectively during rainfall, without polluting groundwater. These study results should be considered in agriculture management to reduce soluble chemical transfer from soil to surface runoff for reducing non-point sources pollution.

The Effect on Soil Erosion of Different Tillage Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gür, Kazım

2016-04-01

The Effects on Soil Erosion of Different Tillage Applications Kazım Gür1, Kazim Çarman2 and Wim M.Cornelis3 1Bahri Daǧdaş International Agricultural Research Instıtute, 42020 Konya, Turkey 2Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Machinery, University of Selçuk, 42031 Konya, Turkey 3Department of Soil Management, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, 653 Coupure Links, 9000 Gent, Belgium Traditional soil cultivation systems, with excessive and inappropriate soil tillage, will generally lead to soil degradation and loss of soil by wind erosion. Continuous reduced tillage and no-till maintaining soil cover with plant residues called Conservation Agriculture that is considered as effective in reducing erosion. There exist a wide variety of practices using different tools that comply with reduced tillage principles. However, few studies have compared the effect of several of such tools in reducing wind erosion and related soil and surface properties. We therefore measured sediment transport rates over bare soil surfaces (but with under stubbles of wheat, Triticum aestivum L.) subjected to three tillage practices using two pulling type machines and one type of power takeoff movable machines and generated with a portable field wind tunnel. At 10 ms-1, sediment transport rates varied from 107 to 573 gm-1h-1, and from 176 to 768 gm-1h-1 at 13 ms-1. The lowest transport rates were observed for N(no-tillage) and the highest for Rr(L-type rototiller). After tillage, surface roughness, mean weighted diameter, wind erodible fraction, mechanical stability and soil water content were measured as well and varied from 5.0 to 15.9%, 6.9 to 13.8 mm, 14.3 to 29.7%, 79.5 to 93.4% and 8.6 to 15.1%, respectively, with again N is being the most successful practice. In terms of conservation soil tillage technique, it can be said that the applications compared with each other; direct sowing machine is more appropriate and cause to the less erosion.

Microwave remote sensing and radar polarization signatures of natural fields

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mo, Tsan

1989-01-01

Theoretical models developed for simulation of microwave remote sensing of the Earth surface from airborne/spaceborne sensors are described. Theoretical model calculations were performed and the results were compared with data of field measurements. Data studied included polarimetric images at the frequencies of P band, L band, and C band, acquired with airborne polarimeters over a agricultural field test site. Radar polarization signatures from bare soil surfaces and from tree covered fields were obtained from the data. The models developed in this report include: (1) Small perturbation model of wave scatterings from randomly rough surfaces, (2) Physical optics model, (3) Geometrical optics model, and (4) Electromagnetic wave scattering from dielectric cylinders of finite lengths, which replace the trees and branches in the modeling of tree covered field. Additionally, a three-layer emissivity model for passive sensing of a vegetation covered soil surface is also developed. The effects of surface roughness, soil moisture contents, and tree parameters on the polarization signatures were investigated.

Sulfates on Mars: TES Observations and Thermal Inertia Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooper, C. D.; Mustard, J. F.

2001-05-01

The high resolution thermal emission spectra returned by the TES spectrometer on the MGS spacecraft have allowed the mapping of a variety of minerals and rock types by different sets of researchers. Recently, we have used a linear deconvolution approach to compare sulfate-palagonite soil mixtures created in the laboratory with Martian surface spectra. This approach showed that a number of areas on Mars have spectral properties that match those of sulfate-cemented soils (but neither loose powder mixtures of sulfates and soils nor sand-sized grains of disaggregated crusted soils). These features do not appear to be caused by atmospheric or instrumental effects and are thus believed to be related to surface composition and texture. The distribution and physical state of sulfate are important pieces of information for interpreting surface processes on Mars. A number of different mechanisms could have deposited sulfate in surface layers. Some of these include evaporation of standing bodies of water, aerosol deposition of volcanic gases, hydrothermal alteration from groundwater, and in situ interaction between the atmosphere and soil. The areas on Mars with cemented sulfate signatures are spread across a wide range of elevations and are generally large in spatial scale. Some of the areas are associated with volcanic regions, but many are in dark red plains that have previously been interpreted as duricrust deposits. Our current work compares the distribution of sulfate-cemented soils as mapped by the spectral deconvolution approach with thermal inertia maps produced from both Viking and MGS-TES. Duricrust regions, interpreted from intermediate thermal inertia values, are large regions thought to be sulfate-cemented soils similar to coherent, sulfate-rich materials seen at the Viking lander sites. Our observations of apparent regions of cemented sulfate are also large in spatial extent. This scale information is important for evaluating formation mechanisms for the sulfate material, although we currently lack the data to analyze sulfates on the outcrop scale. Analyzing our sulfate maps from spectral deconvolution together with thermal inertia data gives more information on the distribution of possible duricrusts, which provides insight into possible surface processes on Mars.

Sub-slab vs. Near-slab Soil Vapor Profiles at a Chlorinated Solvent Site

EPA Science Inventory

A critical issue in assessing the vapor intrusion pathway is the distribution and migration of VOCs from the subsurface source to the near surface environment. Therefore, EPA/ORD funded a research project with the primary goal of comparing vertical profiles of soil gas concentrat...

Mercury contamination in agricultural soils from abandoned metal mines classified by geology and mineralization.

PubMed

Kim, Han Sik; Jung, Myung Chae

2012-01-01

This survey aimed to compare mercury concentrations in soils related to geology and mineralization types of mines. A total of 16,386 surface soils (0~15 cm in depth) were taken from agricultural lands near 343 abandoned mines (within 2 km from each mine) and analyzed for Hg by AAS with a hydride-generation device. To meaningfully compare mercury levels in soils with geology and mineralization types, three subclassification criteria were adapted: (1) five mineralization types, (2) four valuable ore mineral types, and (3) four parent rock types. The average concentration of Hg in all soils was 0.204 mg kg(-1) with a range of 0.002-24.07 mg kg(-1). Based on the mineralization types, average Hg concentrations (mg kg(-1)) in the soils decreased in the order of pegmatite (0.250) > hydrothermal vein (0.208) > hydrothermal replacement (0.166) > skarn (0.121) > sedimentary deposits (0.045). In terms of the valuable ore mineral types, the concentrations decreased in the order of Au-Ag-base metal mines ≈ base metal mines > Au-Ag mines > Sn-W-Mo-Fe-Mn mines. For parent rock types, similar concentrations were found in the soils derived from sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks followed by heterogeneous rocks with igneous and metamorphic processes. Furthermore, farmland soils contained relatively higher Hg levels than paddy soils. Therefore, it can be concluded that soils in Au, Ag, and base metal mines derived from a hydrothermal vein type of metamorphic rocks and pegmatite deposits contained relatively higher concentrations of mercury in the surface environment.

[Distribution characteristics of organochlorine pesticides in soil from Daiyun Mountain Range in Fujian, China].

PubMed

Qu, Cheng-Kai; Qi, Shi-Hua; Zhang, Li; Huang, Huan-Fang; Zhang, Jia-Quan; Zhang, Yuan; Yang, Dan; Liu, Hong-Xia; Chen, Wei

2013-11-01

Totally 101 typical surface soil samples were collected from Daiyun Mountain Range, and 20 compounds of OCPs were analyzed by a Ni electron capture detector (GC-ECD) to investigate the horizontal distribution and composition of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the surface soil of Daiyun Mountain Range. The results showed that all OCPs were detected in the soil samples. The detection ratios of OCPs were all over 90%, except for Endrin and beta-HCH. The sum concentration of HCHs, DDTs, Endosulfan and Endosulfan sulfate, accounted for 79.51% of the total OCPs, which were considered to be the dominant OCPs in the Daiyun Mountain Range. The OCPs concentrations in the surface soils ranged from 2.56 to 465.99 ng x g(-1) with a mean value of 38.00 ng x g)(-1). Compared with other regions, the concentrations of HCHs and DDTs in this study stayed in a low pollution level. Endosulfan and Endosulfan sulfate showed a certain degree of risk in the surface soil of the study area. Source analysis showed that new input of lindane and dicofol might occur in the survey region. The historical application was the prime source of Endosulfan. The residue level of OCPs in different lands was in the following order: paddy land > vegetable land > orchard. The OCPs pollution of orchard soil was primarily due to the new input of lindane and dicofol, while the pollution of paddy land was mainly from the usage of Endosulfan.

Soil carbon and nitrogen changes in forests of Walker Branch Watershed, 1972 to 2004

Treesearch

D.W. Johnson; D.E. Todd; C.E. Trettin; J.S. Sedlinger

2007-01-01

Changes in soil C and N concentrations and contents in four samplings during a 32-yr period on Walker Branch watershed in Tennessee were determined and compared with previously measured C and N fluxes and with changes in ecosystem C and N pools during this period. Soils showed significant increases in C and N concentrations in surface horizons from 1972 to 2004, and...

Modeling Stand-Scale Patterns in Evapotranspiration and Soil Moisture in a Heterogeneous Plant Canopy: A Coupled Subsurface-Land Surface Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, G. R.; Gou, S.; Ferguson, I. M.; Maxwell, R. M.

2011-12-01

Savanna ecosystems present a well-known modeling challenge; understory grasses and overstory woody vegetation combine to form an open, heterogeneous canopy that creates strong spatial differences in soil moisture and evapotranspiration rates. In this analysis, we used ParFlow.CLM to create a stand-scale model of the Tonzi Ranch oak savanna, based on extensive topography, vegetation, soil, and hydrogeology data collected at the site. Measurements included canopy distribution and ground surface elevation from airborne Lidar, depth to groundwater from deep piezometers, soil and rock hydraulic conductivity, and leaf area index. We then compared the results to the site's long-term data records of radiative flux partitioning, obtained using the eddy-covariance method, and soil moisture, collected via a distributed network of capacitance probes. In order to obtain good agreement between the measured and modeled values, we identified several necessary modifications to the current CLM parameterization. These changes included the addition of a "winter grass" type and the alteration of the root structure and water stress functions to accommodate uptake of groundwater by deep roots. Finally, we compared variograms of site parameters and response variables and performed a scaling analysis relating ET and soil moisture variance to sampling size.

Characterizing potential water quality impacts from soils treated with dust suppressants.

PubMed

Beighley, R Edward; He, Yiping; Valdes, Julio R

2009-01-01

Two separate laboratory experiment series, surface runoff and steady-state seepage, were performed to determine if dust suppressant products can be applied to soils with an expected minimal to no negative impact on water quality. The experiments were designed to mimic arid field conditions and used two soils (clayey and sandy) and six different dust suppressants. The two experiments consisted of: (i) simulated rainfall (intensities of 18, 33, or 61 mm h(-1)) and associated runoff from soil trays at a surface slope of 33%; and (ii) steady-state, constant head seepage through soil columns. Both experiment series involved two product application scenarios and three application ages (i.e., to account for degradation effects) for a total of 126 surface runoff and 80 column experiments. One composite effluent sample was collected from each experiment and analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, total organic carbon, nitrate, nitrite, and phosphate. Paired t tests at 1 and 5% levels of significance and project specific data quality objectives are used to compare water quality parameters from treated and untreated soils. Overall, the results from this laboratory scale study suggest that the studied dust suppressants have minimal potential for adverse impacts to selected water quality parameters. The primary impacts were increased TSS for two synthetic products from the surface runoff experiments on both soils. The increase in TSS was not expected based on previous studies and may be attributed to this study's focus on simulating real-world soil agitation/movement at an active construction site subjected to rough grading.

Banding of urea increased ammonia volatilization in a dry acidic soil.

PubMed

Rochette, Philippe; Macdonald, J Douglas; Angers, Denis A; Chantigny, Martin H; Gasser, Marc-Olivier; Bertrand, Normand

2009-01-01

Volatilization of ammonia following application of urea contributes to smog formation and degradation of natural ecosystems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of (i) incorporation and banding of urea and (ii) surface broadcast of slow-release urea types on NH(3) volatilization in a dry acidic soil. Volatilization was measured using wind tunnels for 25 d after standard urea (140 kg N ha(-1)) was broadcast, broadcast and incorporated (0-5 cm), or incorporated in shallow bands (3-5 cm) to a conventionally tilled silty loam soil. Urea supplemented with a urease inhibitor or coated with a polymer was also broadcast at the soil surface. Little N diffused out of the polymer-coated granules and ammonia losses were low (4% of applied N). Use of a urease inhibitor also resulted in a low NH(3) loss (5% of applied N) while maintaining soil mineral N at levels similar to plots where untreated urea was broadcast. The rate of hydrolysis of urea broadcast at the soil surface was slowed by the lack of moisture and NH(3) loss (9% applied N) was the lowest of all treatments with standard urea. Incorporation of broadcast urea increased emissions (16% applied N) by increasing urea hydrolysis relative to surface application. Furthermore, incorporation in band also increased emissions (27% applied N) due to a localized increase in soil pH from 6.0 to 8.7. We conclude that incorporating urea in bands in a dry acidic soil can increase NH(3) volatilization compared to broadcast application followed by incorporation.

Assimilation of SMOS Brightness Temperatures or Soil Moisture Retrievals into a Land Surface Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

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

2016-01-01

Three different data products from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission are assimilated separately into the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, version 5 (GEOS-5) to improve estimates of surface and root-zone soil moisture. The first product consists of multi-angle, dual-polarization brightness temperature (Tb) observations at the bottom of the atmosphere extracted from Level 1 data. The second product is a derived SMOS Tb product that mimics the data at a 40 degree incidence angle from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. The third product is the operational SMOS Level 2 surface soil moisture (SM) retrieval product. The assimilation system uses a spatially distributed ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with seasonally varying climatological bias mitigation for Tb assimilation, whereas a time-invariant cumulative density function matching is used for SM retrieval assimilation. All assimilation experiments improve the soil moisture estimates compared to model-only simulations in terms of unbiased root-mean-square differences and anomaly correlations during the period from 1 July 2010 to 1 May 2015 and for 187 sites across the US. Especially in areas where the satellite data are most sensitive to surface soil moisture, large skill improvements (e.g., an increase in the anomaly correlation by 0.1) are found in the surface soil moisture. The domain-average surface and root-zone skill metrics are similar among the various assimilation experiments, but large differences in skill are found locally. The observation-minus-forecast residuals and analysis increments reveal large differences in how the observations add value in the Tb and SM retrieval assimilation systems. The distinct patterns of these diagnostics in the two systems reflect observation and model errors patterns that are not well captured in the assigned EnKF error parameters. Consequently, a localized optimization of the EnKF error parameters is needed to further improve Tb or SM retrieval assimilation.

Phosphorus mitigation during springtime runoff by amendments applied to grassed soil.

PubMed

Uusi-Kämppä, J; Turtola, E; Närvänen, A; Jauhiainen, L; Uusitalo, R

2012-01-01

Permanent grass vegetation on sloping soils is an option to protect fields from erosion, but decaying grass may liberate considerable amounts of dissolved reactive P (DRP) in springtime runoff. We studied the effects of freezing and thawing of grassed soil on surface runoff P concentrations by indoor rainfall simulations and tested whether the peak P concentrations could be reduced by amending the soil with P-binding materials containing Ca or Fe. Forty grass-vegetated soil blocks (surface area 0.045 m, depth 0.07 m) were retrieved from two permanent buffer zones on a clay and loam soil in southwest Finland. Four replicates were amended with either: (i) gypsum from phosphoric acid processing (CaSO × 2HO, 6 t ha), (ii) chalk powder (CaCO, 3.3 t ha), (iii) Fe-gypsum (6 t ha) from TiO processing, or (iv) granulated ferric sulfate (Fe[SO], 0.7 t ha), with four replicates serving as untreated controls. Rainfall (3.3 h × 5 mm h) was applied on presaturated samples set at a slope of 5% and the surface runoff was analyzed for DRP, total dissolved P (TDP), total P (TP), and suspended solids. Rainfall simulation was repeated twice after the samples were frozen. Freezing and thawing of the samples increased the surface runoff DRP concentration of the control treatment from 0.19 to 0.46 mg L, up to 2.6-3.7 mg L, with DRP being the main P form in surface runoff. Compared with the controls, surface runoff from soils amended with Fe compounds had 57 to 80% and 47 to 72% lower concentrations of DRP and TP, respectively, but the gypsum and chalk powder did not affect the P concentrations. Thus, amendments containing Fe might be an option to improve DRP retention in, e.g., buffer zones. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Carbon cycling in the mantled karst of the Ozark Plateaus, central United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Knierim, Katherine J.; Pollock, Erik D.; Covington, Matthew D.; Hays, Phillip D.; Brye, Kristofor R.

2017-01-01

The nature of carbon (C) cycling in the unsaturated zone where groundwater is in contact with abundant gas-filled voids is poorly understood. The objective of this study was to trace inorganic-C cycling in a karst landscape using stable-C isotopes, with emphasis on a shallow groundwater flow path through the soil, to an underlying cave, and to the spring outlet of a cave stream in the Ozark Plateaus of northwestern Arkansas. Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and isotopic composition (δ13C-CO2) in gas and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) concentration and isotopic composition (δ13C-DIC) in water were measured in samples collected from two suction-cup soil samplers above the cave, three sites in the cave, and at the spring outlet of the cave stream. Soil-gas CO2 concentration (median 2,578 ppm) and δ13C-CO2 (median − 21.5‰) were seasonally variable, reflecting the effects of surface temperature changes on soil-CO2 production via respiration and organic-matter decomposition. Cave-air CO2 (median 1,026 ppm) was sourced from the soil zone and the surface atmosphere, with seasonally changing proportions of each source controlled by surface temperature-driven air density gradients. Soil-DIC concentration (median 1.7 mg L− 1) was lower and soil-δ13C-DIC (median − 19.5‰) was lighter compared to the cave (median 23.3 mg L− 1 and − 14.3‰, respectively) because carbonate-bedrock dissolution provided an inorganic source of C to the cave. Carbon species in the soil had a unique, light stable-C isotopic signature compared to the cave. Discrimination of soil-C sources to karst groundwater was achieved, which is critical for developing hydrologic budgets using environmental tracers such as C.

Satellite Mapping of Rain-Induced Nitric Oxide Emissions from Soils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jaegle, L.; Martin, R. V.; Chance, K.; Steinberger, L.; Kurosu, T. P.; Jacob, D. J.; Modi, A. I.; Yoboue, V.; Sigha-Nkamdjou, L.; Galy-Lacaux, C.

2004-01-01

We use space-based observations of NO2 columns from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) to map the spatial and seasonal variations of NOx emissions over Africa during 2000. The GOME observations show not only enhanced tropospheric NO2 columns from biomass burning during the dry season but also comparable enhancements from soil emissions during the rainy season over the Sahel. These soil emissions occur in strong pulses lasting 1-3 weeks following the onset of rain, and affect 3 million sq km of semiarid sub-Saharan savanna. Surface observations of NO2 from the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC)/Deposition of Biochemically Important Trace Species (DEBITS)/Africa (IDAF) network over West Africa provide further evidence for a strong role for microbial soil sources. By combining inverse modeling of GOME NO2 columns with space-based observations of fires, we estimate that soils contribute 3.3+/-1.8 TgN/year, similar to the biomass burning source (3.8+/-2.1 TgN/year), and thus account for 40% of surface NO(x) emissions over Africa. Extrapolating to all the tropics, we estimate a 7.3 TgN/year biogenic soil source, which is a factor of 2 larger compared to model-based inventories but agrees with observation-based inventories. These large soil NO(x) emissions are likely to significantly contribute to the ozone enhancement originating from tropical Africa.

Evaluation of the North American Land Data Assimilation System over the southern Great Plains during the warm season

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robock, Alan; Luo, Lifeng; Wood, Eric F.; Wen, Fenghua; Mitchell, Kenneth E.; Houser, Paul R.; Schaake, John C.; Lohmann, Dag; Cosgrove, Brian; Sheffield, Justin; Duan, Qingyun; Higgins, R. Wayne; Pinker, Rachel T.; Tarpley, J. Dan; Basara, Jeffery B.; Crawford, Kenneth C.

2003-11-01

North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) land surface models have been run for a retrospective period forced by atmospheric observations from the Eta analysis and actual precipitation and downward solar radiation to calculate land hydrology. We evaluated these simulations using in situ observations over the southern Great Plains for the periods of May-September of 1998 and 1999 by comparing the model outputs with surface latent, sensible, and ground heat fluxes at 24 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement/Cloud and Radiation Testbed stations and with soil temperature and soil moisture observations at 72 Oklahoma Mesonet stations. The standard NLDAS models do a fairly good job but with differences in the surface energy partition and in soil moisture between models and observations and among models during the summer, while they agree quite well on the soil temperature simulations. To investigate why, we performed a series of experiments accounting for differences between model-specified soil types and vegetation and those observed at the stations, and differences in model treatment of different soil types, vegetation properties, canopy resistance, soil column depth, rooting depth, root density, snow-free albedo, infiltration, aerodynamic resistance, and soil thermal diffusivity. The diagnosis and model enhancements demonstrate how the models can be improved so that they can be used in actual data assimilation mode.

Response of Surface Soil Hydrology to the Micro-Pattern of Bio-Crust in a Dry-Land Loess Environment, China

PubMed Central

Wei, Wei; Yu, Yun; Chen, Liding

2015-01-01

The specific bio-species and their spatial patterns play crucial roles in regulating eco-hydrologic process, which is significant for large-scale habitat promotion and vegetation restoration in many dry-land ecosystems. Such effects, however, are not yet fully studied. In this study, 12 micro-plots, each with size of 0.5 m in depth and 1 m in length, were constructed on a gentle grassy hill-slope with a mean gradient of 8° in a semiarid loess hilly area of China. Two major bio-crusts, including mosses and lichens, had been cultivated for two years prior to the field simulation experiments, while physical crusts and non-crusted bare soils were used for comparison. By using rainfall simulation method, four designed micro-patterns (i.e., upper bio-crust and lower bare soil, scattered bio-crust, upper bare soil and lower bio-crust, fully-covered bio-crust) to the soil hydrological response were analyzed. We found that soil surface bio-crusts were more efficient in improving soil structure, water holding capacity and runoff retention particularly at surface 10 cm layers, compared with physical soil crusts and non-crusted bare soils. We re-confirmed that mosses functioned better than lichens, partly due to their higher successional stage and deeper biomass accumulation. Physical crusts were least efficient in water conservation and erosion control, followed by non-crusted bare soils. More importantly, there were marked differences in the efficiency of the different spatial arrangements of bio-crusts in controlling runoff and sediment generation. Fully-covered bio-crust pattern provides the best option for soil loss reduction and runoff retention, while a combination of upper bio-crust and lower bare soil pattern is the least one. These findings are suggested to be significant for surface-cover protection, rainwater infiltration, runoff retention, and erosion control in water-restricted and degraded natural slopes. PMID:26207757

Response of Surface Soil Hydrology to the Micro-Pattern of Bio-Crust in a Dry-Land Loess Environment, China.

PubMed

Wei, Wei; Yu, Yun; Chen, Liding

2015-01-01

The specific bio-species and their spatial patterns play crucial roles in regulating eco-hydrologic process, which is significant for large-scale habitat promotion and vegetation restoration in many dry-land ecosystems. Such effects, however, are not yet fully studied. In this study, 12 micro-plots, each with size of 0.5 m in depth and 1 m in length, were constructed on a gentle grassy hill-slope with a mean gradient of 8° in a semiarid loess hilly area of China. Two major bio-crusts, including mosses and lichens, had been cultivated for two years prior to the field simulation experiments, while physical crusts and non-crusted bare soils were used for comparison. By using rainfall simulation method, four designed micro-patterns (i.e., upper bio-crust and lower bare soil, scattered bio-crust, upper bare soil and lower bio-crust, fully-covered bio-crust) to the soil hydrological response were analyzed. We found that soil surface bio-crusts were more efficient in improving soil structure, water holding capacity and runoff retention particularly at surface 10 cm layers, compared with physical soil crusts and non-crusted bare soils. We re-confirmed that mosses functioned better than lichens, partly due to their higher successional stage and deeper biomass accumulation. Physical crusts were least efficient in water conservation and erosion control, followed by non-crusted bare soils. More importantly, there were marked differences in the efficiency of the different spatial arrangements of bio-crusts in controlling runoff and sediment generation. Fully-covered bio-crust pattern provides the best option for soil loss reduction and runoff retention, while a combination of upper bio-crust and lower bare soil pattern is the least one. These findings are suggested to be significant for surface-cover protection, rainwater infiltration, runoff retention, and erosion control in water-restricted and degraded natural slopes.

Characterizing Martian Soils: Correlating Orbital Observations with Chemistry and Mineralogy from Landed Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bishop, J. L.

2010-12-01

Great advances have been achieved recently in our understanding of the surface of Mars at global scales from orbital missions and at local scales from landed missions. This presentation seeks to provide links between the chemistry and mineralogy observed by landed missions with remote detections of minerals from orbit. Spectral data from CRISM, OMEGA and TES characterize a mostly basaltic planet with some outcrops of hematite, clays, sulfates and carbonates at the surface. Recent alteration of these rocks to form soils has likely been dominated by physical processes; however, martian soils probably also contain relicts of early alteration involving aqueous processes. Clays, hydroxides, sulfates, carbonates and perchlorates are examples of surface components that may have formed early in the planet’s history in the presence of liquid water. Some of these minerals have not been detected in the soil, but all have likely contributed to the current soil composition. The grain size, shape, chemistry, mineralogy, and magnetic properties of Martian soils are similar to altered volcanic ash found at many analog sites on Earth. Reflectance and emission spectra of some of these analog soils are consistent with the basic soil spectral properties observed from orbit. The cemented soil units observed by rovers may have formed through interaction of the soil grains with salts, clays, and hydroxides. Lab experiments have shown that cementing of analog grains darkens the VN reflectance, which could explain the low reflectance of Martian soils compared to analog sites. Reflectance spectra of an analog soil mixture containing altered ash and sulfate are shown in Figure 1. A pellet was made by adding water and allowing the sample to dry in air. Finally, the pellet was crushed and ground again to <125 µm. Both the dried pellet spectrum and the crushed pellet spectrum are darker than the original spectrum of the same composition. Erosion and weathering are likely the dominant processes forming the soils on Mars. However, reaction of surface grains with sulfates and perchlorates probably also influenced the soil grains. The perchlorates found by Phoenix are a strong oxidant. Consideration is being given to the interactions of perchlorates with minerals identified in surface rocks (pyroxene, olivine, feldspar, phyllosilicate, iron oxides, sulfate, silica, carbonate) and how perchlorates might be contributing to soil formation from these minerals and what their spectral properties might be.

Effect of surface incorporation of broiler litter applied to no-till cotton on runoff quality.

PubMed

Adeli, A; Shankle, M W; Tewolde, H; Brooks, J P; Sistani, K R; McLaughlin, M R; Rowe, D E

2011-01-01

Surface application of broiler litter to no-till cotton could lead to degradation of water quality. Incorporation of broiler litter into the top surface soil (0.05 m) could alleviate this risk. A 2-yr field study was conducted on a silt loam upland soil to determine the effect of incorporation of broiler litter into the soil surface on nutrient and bacterial transport in runoff. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four treatments and three replications. Treatments were (i) unfertilized control; (ii) surface-appliedbroiler litter at 7.8 Mg ha(-1) without incorporation; (iii) surface-applied broiler litter at 7.8 Mg ha(-1) with immediate incorporation; and (iv) inorganic fertilizer N (urea ammonium nitrate, 32% N) and inorganic fertilizer P (triple superphosphate) at the recommended rate. Phosphorus was surface appliedat 25 kg ha(-1) and N was injected at 101 kg ha(-1) into the soil using a commercial liquid fertilizer applicator. Runoff was collected from small runoff plots (2.4 m by 1.6 m) established at the bottom side of main plots (13.7 m by 6.0 m). Incorporation of broiler litter reduced total N (TN), NO3-N, water soluble P (WSP), and total P (TP) concentrations in runoffby 35, 25, 61, and 64%, respectively, and litter-associated bacteria by two to three orders of magnitude compared with unincorporated treatment. No significant difference in total suspended solids (TSS) in runoffwas obtained between incorporated and unincorporated treatments. Incorporation of broiler litter into the surface soil in the no-till system immediately after application minimized the potential risk for surface nutrient losses and bacteria transport in runoff.

Influence of long-term land use (arable and forest) and soil mineralogy on organic carbon stocks as well as composition and stability of soil organic matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaiser, M.; Ellerbrock, R. H.; Wulf, M.; Dultz, S.; Hierath, C.; Sommer, M.

2009-04-01

The function of soils to sequester organic carbon (OC) and their related potential to mitigate the greenhouse effect is strongly affected by land use and soil mineralogy. This study is aimed to clarify long-term impacts of arable and forest land use as well as soil mineralogy on topsoil soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks as well as soil organic matter (SOM) composition and stability. Topsoil samples were taken from deciduous forest and adjacent arable sites (within Germany) that are continuously used for more than 100 years. The soils are different in genesis (Albic and Haplic Luvisol (AL, HL), Colluvic and Haplic Regosol (CR, HR), Haplic and Vertic Cambisol (HC, VC), Haplic Stagnosol (HSt)). First, particulate and water soluble organic matter were separated from the topsoil samples (Ap and Ah horizons). From the remaining solid extraction residues the Na-pyrophosphate soluble organic matter fractions (OM(PY)) were extracted, analysed for its OC content (OC(PY)) and characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and 14C analyses. The SOC stocks calculated for 0-40 cm depth are in general larger for the forest as compared to the adjacent arable soils (except VC). The largest difference between forest and arable topsoils was detected for the HR site (5.9 kg m-2) and seemed to be caused by a two times larger stock of exchangeable Ca of the forest topsoil. For the arable topsoils multiple regression analyses indicate a strong influence of clay, oxalate soluble Al and pyrophosphate soluble Mg on the content of OC(PY) weighted with its C=O content. Such relation is not found for the forest topsoils. Further, a positive relation between Δ14C values of OM(PY) and the following independent variables: (i) specific mineral surface area, (ii) relative C=O group content in OM(PY) and (iii) soil pH is found for the arable topsoils (pH 6.7 - 7.5) suggesting an increase in OM(PY) stability with increasing interactions between OM(PY) and soil mineral surfaces via cation bridging. A similar relation is found for the forest topsoils (pH < 5) if the specific mineral surface area is excluded from the multiple regression. This finding and the higher OC(PY) content of the forest topsoils suggest that in these soils the OM(PY) components are mainly cross-linked by cations and did not interact with mineral surfaces. We assume cross-linking to be less effective for OM stabilization as compared to cation bridging with mineral surfaces since Δ14C data indicate the OM(PY) from the forest topsoils to be less stable than that from arable topsoils.

Spatial Estimation of Soil Moisture Using Synthetic Aperture Radar in Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meade, N. G.; Hinzman, L. D.; Kane, D. L.

1999-01-01

A spatially distributed Model of Arctic Thermal and Hydrologic processes (MATH) has been developed. One of the attributes of this model is the spatial and temporal prediction of soil moisture in the active layer. The spatially distributed output from this model required verification data obtained through remote sensing to assess performance at the watershed scale independently. Therefore, a neural network was trained to predict soil moisture contents near the ground surface. The input to train the neural network is synthetic aperture radar (SAR) pixel value, and field measurements of soil moisture, and vegetation, which were used as a surrogate for surface roughness. Once the network was trained, soil moisture predictions were made based on SAR pixel value and vegetation. These results were then used for comparison with results from the hydrologic model. The quality of neural network input was less than anticipated. Our digital elevation model (DEM) was not of high enough resolution to allow exact co-registration with soil moisture measurements; therefore, the statistical correlations were not as good as hoped. However, the spatial pattern of the SAR derived soil moisture contents compares favorably with the hydrologic MATH model results. Primary surface parameters that effect SAR include topography, surface roughness, vegetation cover and soil texture. Single parameters that are considered to influence SAR include incident angle of the radar, polarization of the radiation, signal strength and returning signal integration, to name a few. These factors influence the reflectance, but if one adequately quantifies the influences of terrain and roughness, it is considered possible to extract information on soil moisture from SAR imagery analysis and in turn use SAR imagery to validate hydrologic models

Assessment of heavy metals (Cd and Pb) and micronutrients (Cu, Mn, and Zn) of paddy (Oryza sativa L.) field surface soil and water in a predominantly paddy-cultivated area at Puducherry (Pondicherry, India), and effects of the agricultural runoff on the elemental concentrations of a receiving rivulet.

PubMed

Reddy, M Vikram; Satpathy, Deepmala; Dhiviya, K Shyamala

2013-08-01

The concentrations of toxic heavy metals-Cd and Pb and micronutrients-Cu, Mn, and Zn were assessed in the surface soil and water of three different stages of paddy (Oryza sativa L.) fields, the stage I-the first stage in the field soon after transplantation of the paddy seedlings, holding adequate amount of water on soil surface, stage II-the middle stage with paddy plants of stem of about 40 cm length, with sufficient amount of water on the soil surface, and stage III-the final stage with fully grown rice plants and very little amount of water in the field at Bahour, a predominantly paddy cultivating area in Puducherry located on the southeast Coast of India. Comparison of the heavy metal and micronutrient concentrations of the soil and water across the three stages of paddy field showed their concentrations were significantly higher in soil compared with that of water (p < 0.05) of the fields probably because of accumulation and adsorption in soil. The elemental concentrations in paddy soil as well as water was in the ranking order of Cd > Mn > Zn > Cu > Pb indicating concentration of Cd was maximum and Pb was minimum. The elemental concentrations in both soil and water across the three stages showed a ranking order of stage II > stage III > stage I. The runoff from the paddy fields has affected the elemental concentrations of the water and sediment of an adjacent receiving rivulet.

Impact of the assimilation of satellite soil moisture and LST on the hydrological cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laiolo, Paola; Gabellani, Simone; Delogu, Fabio; Silvestro, Francesco; Rudari, Roberto; Campo, Lorenzo; Boni, Giorgio

2014-05-01

The reliable estimation of hydrological variables (e.g. soil moisture, evapotranspiration, surface temperature) in space and time is of fundamental importance in operational hydrology to improve the forecast of the rainfall-runoff response of catchments and, consequently, flood predictions. Nowadays remote sensing can offer a chance to provide good space-time estimates of several hydrological variables and then improve hydrological model performances especially in environments with scarce ground based data. The aim of this work is to investigate the impacts on the performances of a distributed hydrological model (Continuum) of the assimilation of satellite-derived soil moisture products and Land Surface (LST). In this work three different soil moisture (SM) products, derived by ASCAT sensor, are used. These data are provided by the EUMETSAT's H-SAF (Satellite Application Facility on Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management) program. The considered soil moisture products are: large scale surface soil moisture (SM OBS 1 - H07), small scale surface soil moisture (SM OBS 2 - H08) and profile index in the roots region (SM DAS 2 - H14). These data are compared with soil moisture estimated by Continuum model on the Orba catchment (800 km2), in the northern part of Italy, for the period July 2012-June 2013. Different assimilation experiments have been performed. The first experiment consists in the assimilation of the SM products by using a simple Nudging technique; the second one is the assimilation of only LST data, derived from MSG satellite, and the third is the assimilation of both SM products and LST. The benefits on the model predictions of discharge, LST and soil moisture dynamics were tested.

Drought monitoring with soil moisture active passive (SMAP) measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mishra, Ashok; Vu, Tue; Veettil, Anoop Valiya; Entekhabi, Dara

2017-09-01

Recent launch of space-borne systems to estimate surface soil moisture may expand the capability to map soil moisture deficit and drought with global coverage. In this study, we use Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) soil moisture geophysical retrieval products from passive L-band radiometer to evaluate its applicability to forming agricultural drought indices. Agricultural drought is quantified using the Soil Water Deficit Index (SWDI) based on SMAP and soil properties (field capacity and available water content) information. The soil properties are computed using pedo-transfer function with soil characteristics derived from Harmonized World Soil Database. The SMAP soil moisture product needs to be rescaled to be compatible with the soil parameters derived from the in situ stations. In most locations, the rescaled SMAP information captured the dynamics of in situ soil moisture well and shows the expected lag between accumulations of precipitation and delayed increased in surface soil moisture. However, the SMAP soil moisture itself does not reveal the drought information. Therefore, the SMAP based SWDI (SMAP_SWDI) was computed to improve agriculture drought monitoring by using the latest soil moisture retrieval satellite technology. The formulation of SWDI does not depend on longer data and it will overcome the limited (short) length of SMAP data for agricultural drought studies. The SMAP_SWDI is further compared with in situ Atmospheric Water Deficit (AWD) Index. The comparison shows close agreement between SMAP_SWDI and AWD in drought monitoring over Contiguous United States (CONUS), especially in terms of drought characteristics. The SMAP_SWDI was used to construct drought maps for CONUS and compared with well-known drought indices, such as, AWD, Palmer Z-Index, sc-PDSI and SPEI. Overall the SMAP_SWDI is an effective agricultural drought indicator and it provides continuity and introduces new spatial mapping capability for drought monitoring. As an agricultural drought index, SMAP_SWDI has potential to capture short term moisture information similar to AWD and related drought indices.

Effects of biochar and other amendments on the physical properties and greenhouse gas emissions of an artificially degraded soil.

PubMed

Mukherjee, A; Lal, R; Zimmerman, A R

2014-07-15

Short and long-term impacts of biochar on soil properties under field conditions are poorly understood. In addition, there is a lack of field reports of the impacts of biochar on soil physical properties, gaseous emissions and C stability, particularly in comparison with other amendments. Thus, three amendments - biochar produced from oak at 650°C, humic acid (HA) and water treatment residual - (WTR) were added to a scalped silty-loam soil @ 0.5% (w/w) in triplicated plots under soybean. Over the 4-month active growing season, all amendments significantly increased soil pH, but the effect of biochar was the greatest. Biochar significantly increased soil-C by 7%, increased sub-nanopore surface area by 15% and reduced soil bulk density by 13% compared to control. However, only WTR amendment significantly increased soil nanopore surface area by 23% relative to the control. While total cumulative CH4 and CO2 emissions were not significantly affected by any amendment, cumulative N2O emission was significantly decreased in the biochar-amended soil (by 92%) compared to control over the growing period. Considering both the total gas emissions and the C removed from the atmosphere as crop growth and C added to the soil, WTR and HA resulted in net soil C losses and biochar as a soil C gain. However, all amendments reduced the global warming potential (GWP) of the soil and biochar addition even produced a net negative GWP effect. The short observation period, low application rate and high intra-treatment variation resulted in fewer significant effects of the amendments on the physicochemical properties of the soils than one might expect indicating further possible experimentation altering these variables. However, there was clear evidence of amendment-soil interaction processes affecting both soil properties and gaseous emissions, particularly for biochar, that might lead to greater changes with additional field emplacement time. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assimilation of ASCAT near-surface soil moisture into the SIM hydrological model over France

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Draper, C.; Mahfouf, J.-F.; Calvet, J.-C.; Martin, E.; Wagner, W.

2011-12-01

This study examines whether the assimilation of remotely sensed near-surface soil moisture observations might benefit an operational hydrological model, specifically Météo-France's SAFRAN-ISBA-MODCOU (SIM) model. Soil moisture data derived from ASCAT backscatter observations are assimilated into SIM using a Simplified Extended Kalman Filter (SEKF) over 3.5 years. The benefit of the assimilation is tested by comparison to a delayed cut-off version of SIM, in which the land surface is forced with more accurate atmospheric analyses, due to the availability of additional atmospheric observations after the near-real time data cut-off. However, comparing the near-real time and delayed cut-off SIM models revealed that the main difference between them is a dry bias in the near-real time precipitation forcing, which resulted in a dry bias in the root-zone soil moisture and associated surface moisture flux forecasts. While assimilating the ASCAT data did reduce the root-zone soil moisture dry bias (by nearly 50%), this was more likely due to a bias within the SEKF, than due to the assimilation having accurately responded to the precipitation errors. Several improvements to the assimilation are identified to address this, and a bias-aware strategy is suggested for explicitly correcting the model bias. However, in this experiment the moisture added by the SEKF was quickly lost from the model surface due to the enhanced surface fluxes (particularly drainage) induced by the wetter soil moisture states. Consequently, by the end of each winter, during which frozen conditions prevent the ASCAT data from being assimilated, the model land surface had returned to its original (dry-biased) climate. This highlights that it would be more effective to address the precipitation bias directly, than to correct it by constraining the model soil moisture through data assimilation.

An assessment of gas emanation hazard using a geographic information system and geostatistics.

PubMed

Astorri, F; Beaubien, S E; Ciotoli, G; Lombardi, S

2002-03-01

This paper describes the use of geostatistical analysis and GIS techniques to assess gas emanation hazards. The Mt. Vulsini volcanic district was selected for this study because of the wide range of natural phenomena locally present that affect gas migration in the near surface. In addition, soil gas samples that were collected in this area should allow for a calibration between the generated risk/hazard models and the measured distribution of toxic gas species at surface. The approach used during this study consisted of three general stages. First data were digitally organized into thematic layers, then software functions in the GIS program "ArcView" were used to compare and correlate these various layers, and then finally the produced "potential-risk" map was compared with radon soil gas data in order to validate the model and/or to select zones for further, more-detailed soil gas investigations.

Liquid bridges at the root-soil interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carminati, Andrea; Benard, Pascal; Ahmed, Mutez; Zarebanadkouki, Mohsen

2017-04-01

The role of the root-soil interface on soil-plant water relations is unclear. Despite many experimental studies proved that the soil close to the root surface, the rhizosphere, has different properties compared to the adjacent bulk soil, the mechanisms underlying such differences are poorly understood and the implications for plant-water relations remain largely speculative. The objective of this contribution is to discuss the key elements affecting water dynamics in the rhizosphere. Special attention is dedicated to the role of mucilage exuded by roots in shaping the hydraulic properties of the rhizosphere. We identified three key properties: 1) mucilage adsorbs water decreasing its water potential; 2) mucilage decreases the surface tension of the soil solution; 3) mucilage increases the viscosity of the soil solution. These three properties determine the retention and spatial configuration of the liquid phase in porous media. The increase in viscosity and the decrease in surface tension (quantified by the Ohnesorge number) allow the persistence of long liquid filaments even at very negative water potentials. At high mucilage concentrations these filaments form a network that creates an additional matric potential and maintains the continuity of the liquid phase during drying. The biophysical interactions between mucilage and the pore space determine the physical properties of the rhizosphere. Mucilage forms a network that provides mechanical stability to soils upon drying and that maintains the continuity of the liquid phase across the soil-root interface. Such biophysical properties are functional to create an interconnected matrix that maintains the roots in contact with the soil, which is of particular importance when the soil is drying and the transpiration rate is high.

Organic and inorganic nitrogen pools in talus fields and subtalus water, Green Lakes Valley, Colorado front range

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, M.W.; Davinroy, T.; Brooks, P.D.

1997-01-01

Organic and inorganic pools of nitrogen (N) were measured in talus fines or 'soils' and subtalus water during the summer of 1995 in the alpine Green Lakes Valley catchment of the Colorado Front Range. Nineteen talus soil samples were divided into four classes: subtalus dry, subtalus wet, surface vegetated and surface bare. The size of the individual talus soil patches ranged from 0.5 to 12.0 m2 in area, with bulk density ranging from 0-98 to 1-71 kg m-3 and soil texture ranging from sandy gravel in the subsurface talus to a loam in the vegetated surface. All samples contained KCl-extractable NH4+ and NO3-, organic N and carbon (C), and 17 of 19 samples contained microbial biomass. The mean subtalus values for KCl-extractable NH4-, of 3.2 mg N kg-1, and NO3-, of 1.0 mg N kg-1, were comparable with developed alpine soils on Niwot Ridge. Average microbial biomass in subtalus soils of 5.4 mg N kg-1 and total N of 1000 mg N kg-1 were about an order of magnitude lower than alpine tundra soils, reflecting the reduced amount of vegetation in talus areas. However, these measurements in surface-vegetated patches of talus were comparable with the well-developed soils on Niwot Ridge. These measurements in talus of microbial biomass, total N and KCl-extractable NH4+ and NO3-, show that there is sufficient biotically conditioned 'soil' within talus fields to influence the solute content of interstitial waters. Mean NO3- concentrations of 20 ??eq 1-1 from 29 samples of subtalus water were significantly higher than the 6-7 ??eq 1-1 in snow, while NH4+ concentrations in subtalus water of 0??7 ??eq 1-1 was significantly lower than in snow at 5??2 ??eq 1-1 (p = 0??001). Nitrate concentrations in subtalus water were significantly (p < 0??0001) correlated with concentrations of geochemica??l weathering products such as Ca2+ (r2 = 0??84) and silica (r2 = 0??49). The correlation of NO3- in subtalus water with geochemical weathering products suggests that NO3- concentrations in subtalus water increased with increased residence time, consistent with a biological source for this subtalus water NO3-. The high NO3- concentrations in subtalus water compared with atmospheric deposition of NO3- suggests that NO3- in talus fields may contribute to NO3- in stream waters of high-elevation catchments. ?? 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Laboratory Measured Emission Losses of Methyl Isothiocyanate at Pacific Northwest Soil Surface Fumigation Temperatures.

PubMed

Lu, Zhou; Hebert, Vincent R; Miller, Glenn C

2017-02-01

Temperature is a major environmental factor influencing land surface volatilization at the time of agricultural field fumigation. Cooler fumigation soil temperatures relevant to Pacific Northwest (PNW) application practices with metam sodium/potassium should result in appreciably reduced methyl isothiocyanate (MITC) emission rates, thus minimizing off target movement and bystander inhalation exposure. Herein, a series of laboratory controlled flow-through soil column assessments were performed evaluating MITC emissions over the range of cooler temperatures (2-13°C). Assessments were also conducted at the maximum allowed label application temperature of 32°C. All assessments were conducted at registration label-specified field moisture capacity, and no more than 50% cumulative MITC loss was observed over the 2-day post-fumigation timeframe. Three-fold reductions in MITC peak fluxes at cooler PNW application temperatures were observed compared to the label maximum temperature. This study supports current EPA metam sodium/potassium label language that indicates surface fumigations during warmer soil conditions should be discouraged.

Use of geostatistics for remediation planning to transcend urban political boundaries.

PubMed

Milillo, Tammy M; Sinha, Gaurav; Gardella, Joseph A

2012-11-01

Soil remediation plans are often dictated by areas of jurisdiction or property lines instead of scientific information. This study exemplifies how geostatistically interpolated surfaces can substantially improve remediation planning. Ordinary kriging, ordinary co-kriging, and inverse distance weighting spatial interpolation methods were compared for analyzing surface and sub-surface soil sample data originally collected by the US EPA and researchers at the University at Buffalo in Hickory Woods, an industrial-residential neighborhood in Buffalo, NY, where both lead and arsenic contamination is present. Past clean-up efforts estimated contamination levels from point samples, but parcel and agency jurisdiction boundaries were used to define remediation sites, rather than geostatistical models estimating the spatial behavior of the contaminants in the soil. Residents were understandably dissatisfied with the arbitrariness of the remediation plan. In this study we show how geostatistical mapping and participatory assessment can make soil remediation scientifically defensible, socially acceptable, and economically feasible. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface disturbance of cryptobiotic soil crusts: nitrogenase activity, chlorophyll content, and chlorophyll degradation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Belnap, Jayne; Harper, Kimball T.; Warren, Steven D.

1994-01-01

Cryptobiotic soil crusts are an important component of semiarid and arid ecosystems. An important role of these crusts is the contribution of fixed nitrogen to cold‐desert ecosystems. This study examines the residual effects of various intensities and combinations of different surface disturbances (raking, scalping, and tracked vehicles) on nitrogenase activity, chlorophyll content, and chlorophyll degradation in these soil crusts. Nine months after disturbance chlorophyll content of disturbed soils was not statistically different from undisturbed controls, except in the scalped treatments, indicating recovery of this characteristic is fairly quick unless surface material is removed. Differences in chlorophyll degradation among treatments were not statistically significant. However, nitrogenase activity in all treatments showed tremendous reductions, ranging from 77–97%, when compared to the control, indicating this characteristic is slow to recover. Consequently, assessment of crustal recovery from disturbance must include not only visual and biomass characteristics but other physiological measurements as well. Areas dominated by these crusts should be managed conservatively until the implications of crustal disturbance is better understood.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil and surface marine sediment near Jubany Station (Antarctica). Role of permafrost as a low-permeability barrier.

PubMed

Curtosi, Antonio; Pelletier, Emilien; Vodopivez, Cristian L; Mac Cormack, Walter P

2007-09-20

Although Antarctica is still considered as one of the most pristine areas of the world, the growing tourist and fisheries activities as well as scientific operations and their related logistic support are responsible for an increasing level of pollutants in this fragile environment. Soils and coastal sediments are significantly affected near scientific stations particularly by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this work sediment and soil were sampled in two consecutive summer Antarctic expeditions at Potter Cove and peninsula, in the vicinity of Jubany Station (South Shetland Islands). Two- and 3-ring PAHs (methylnaphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene and anthracene) were the main compounds found in most sites, although total PAH concentrations showed relatively low levels compared with other human-impacted areas in Antarctica. Pattern distribution of PAHs observed in samples suggested that low-temperature combustion processes such as diesel motor combustion and open-field garbage burning are the main sources of these compounds. An increase in PAH concentrations was observed from surface to depth into the active soil layer except for a unique sampling site where a fuel spill had been recently reported and where an inverted PAH concentration gradient was observed. The highest level was detected in the upper layer of permafrost followed by a sharp decrease in depth, showing this layer is acting as a barrier for downward PAH migration. When PAH levels in soil from both sampling programs were compared a significant decrease (p<0.01) was observed in summer 2005 (range at 75-cm depth: 12+/-1-153+/-22 ng/g) compared to summer 2004 (range at 75-cm depth: 162+/-15-1182+/-113 ng/g) whereas concentrations in surface sediment collected nearby the station PAHs increased drastically in 2005 (range: 36+/-3-1908+/-114 ng/g) compared to 2004 (range: 28+/-3-312+/-24 ng/g). Precipitation regime and water run off suggest that an important wash out of soil-PAHs occurred during the interval time between samplings. Results showed that the present PAH contamination level of Jubany Station is relatively low compared to other reported cases in Antarctica but also suggests that an increase in rain and in thawing processes caused by the global warming could result in an important soil-associated PAH mobilization with unpredictable consequences for the biota of Potter Cove.

Using semi-variogram analysis for providing spatially distributed information on soil surface condition for land surface modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croft, Holly; Anderson, Karen; Kuhn, Nikolaus J.

2010-05-01

The ability to quantitatively and spatially assess soil surface roughness is important in geomorphology and land degradation studies. Soils can experience rapid structural degradation in response to land cover changes, resulting in increased susceptibility to erosion and a loss of Soil Organic Matter (SOM). Changes in soil surface condition can also alter sediment detachment, transport and deposition processes, infiltration rates and surface runoff characteristics. Deriving spatially distributed quantitative information on soil surface condition for inclusion in hydrological and soil erosion models is therefore paramount. However, due to the time and resources involved in using traditional field sampling techniques, there is a lack of spatially distributed information on soil surface condition. Laser techniques can provide data for a rapid three dimensional representation of the soil surface at a fine spatial resolution. This provides the ability to capture changes at the soil surface associated with aggregate breakdown, flow routing, erosion and sediment re-distribution. Semi-variogram analysis of the laser data can be used to represent spatial dependence within the dataset; providing information about the spatial character of soil surface structure. This experiment details the ability of semi-variogram analysis to spatially describe changes in soil surface condition. Soil for three soil types (silt, silt loam and silty clay) was sieved to produce aggregates between 1 mm and 16 mm in size and placed evenly in sample trays (25 x 20 x 2 cm). Soil samples for each soil type were exposed to five different durations of artificial rainfall, to produce progressively structurally degraded soil states. A calibrated laser profiling instrument was used to measure surface roughness over a central 10 x 10 cm plot of each soil state, at 2 mm sample spacing. The laser data were analysed within a geostatistical framework, where semi-variogram analysis quantitatively represented the change in soil surface structure during crusting. The laser data were also used to create digital surface models (DSM) of the soil states for visual comparison. This research has shown that aggregate breakdown and soil crusting can be shown quantitatively by a decrease in sill variance (silt soil: 11.67 (control) to 1.08 (after 90 mins rainfall)). Features present within semi-variograms were spatially linked to features at the soil surface, such as soil cracks, tillage lines and areas of deposition. Directional semi-variograms were used to provide a spatially orientated component, where the directional sill variance associated with a soil crack was shown to increase from 7.95 to 19.33. Periodicity within semi-variogram was also shown to quantify the spatial scale of soil cracking networks and potentially surface flowpaths; an average distance between soil cracks of 37 mm closely corresponded to the distance of 38 mm shown in the semi-variogram. The results provide a strong basis for the future retrieval of spatio-temporal variations in soil surface condition. Furthermore, the presence of process-based information on hydrological pathways within semi-variograms may work towards an inclusion of geostatisically-derived information in land surface models and the understanding of complex surface processes at different spatial scales.

Spatial prediction of near surface soil water retention functions using hydrogeophysics and empirical orthogonal functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gibson, Justin; Franz, Trenton E.

2018-06-01

The hydrological community often turns to widely available spatial datasets such as the NRCS Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO) to characterize the spatial variability of soil properties. When used to spatially characterize and parameterize watershed models, this has served as a reasonable first approximation when lacking localized or incomplete soil data. Within agriculture, soil data has been left relatively coarse when compared to numerous other data sources measured. This is because localized soil sampling is both expensive and time intense, thus a need exists in better connecting spatial datasets with ground observations. Given that hydrogeophysics is data-dense, rapid, non-invasive, and relatively easy to adopt, it is a promising technique to help dovetail localized soil sampling with spatially exhaustive datasets. In this work, we utilize two common near surface geophysical methods, cosmic-ray neutron probe and electromagnetic induction, to identify temporally stable spatial patterns of measured geophysical properties in three 65 ha agricultural fields in western Nebraska. This is achieved by repeat geophysical observations of the same study area across a range of wet to dry field conditions in order to evaluate with an empirical orthogonal function. Shallow cores were then extracted within each identified zone and water retention functions were generated in the laboratory. Using EOF patterns as a covariate, we quantify the predictive skill of estimating soil hydraulic properties in areas without measurement using a bootstrap validation analysis. Results indicate that sampling locations informed via repeat hydrogeophysical surveys, required only five cores to reduce the cross-validation root mean squared error by an average of 64% as compared to soil parameters predicted by a commonly used benchmark, SSURGO and ROSETTA. The reduction to five strategically located samples within the 65 ha fields reduces sampling efforts by up to ∼90% as compared to the common practice of soil grid sampling every 1 ha.

[Spatial variability of surface soil nutrients in the landslide area of Beichuan County, South- west China, after 5 · 12 Wenchuan Earthquake].

PubMed

Mai, Ji-shan; Zhao, Ting-ning; Zheng, Jiang-kun; Shi, Chang-qing

2015-12-01

Based on grid sampling and laboratory analysis, spatial variability of surface soil nutrients was analyzed with GS⁺ and other statistics methods on the landslide area of Fenghuang Mountain, Leigu Town, Beichuan County. The results showed that except for high variability of available phosphorus, other soil nutrients exhibited moderate variability. The ratios of nugget to sill of the soil available phosphorus and soil organic carbon were 27.9% and 28.8%, respectively, showing moderate spatial correlation, while the ratios of nugget to sill of the total nitrogen (20.0%), total phosphorus (24.3%), total potassium (11.1%), available nitrogen (11.2%), and available potassium (22.7%) suggested strong spatial correlation. The total phosphorus had the maximum range (1232.7 m), followed by available nitrogen (541.27 m), total nitrogen (468.35 m), total potassium (136.0 m), available potassium (128.7 m), available phosphorus (116.6 m), and soil organic carbon (93.5 m). Soil nutrients had no significant variation with the increase of altitude, but gradually increased from the landslide area, the transition area, to the little-impacted area. The total and available phosphorus contents of the landslide area decreased by 10.3% and 79.7% compared to that of the little-impacted area, respectively. The soil nutrient contents in the transition area accounted for 31.1%-87.2% of that of the little-impacted area, with the nant reason for the spatial variability of surface soil nutrients.

Mechanics of wheel-soil interaction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houland, H. J.

1973-01-01

An approximate theory for wheel-soil interaction is presented which forms the basis for a practical solution to the problem. It is shown that two fundamental observations render the problem determinate: (1) The line of action of the resultant of radial stresses acting at the wheel soil interface approximately bisects the wheel-soil contact angle for all values of slip. (2) A shear stress surface can be hypothesized. The influence of soil inertia forces is also evaluated. A concept of equivalent cohesion is introduced which allows a convenient experimental comparison for both cohesive and frictional soils. This theory compares favorably with previous analyses and experimental data, and shows that soil inertia forces influencing the motion of a rolling wheel can be significant.

Synergistic method for boreal soil moisture and soil freeze retrievals using active and passive microwave instruments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smolander, Tuomo; Lemmetyinen, Juha; Rautiainen, Kimmo; Schwank, Mike; Pulliainen, Jouni

2017-04-01

Soil moisture and soil freezing are important for diverse hydrological, biogeochemical, and climatological applications. They affect surface energy balance, surface and subsurface water flow, and exchange rates of carbon with the atmosphere. Soil freezing controls important biogeochemical processes, like photosynthetic activity of plants and microbial activity within soils. Permafrost covers approximately 24% of the land surface in the Northern Hemisphere and seasonal freezing occurs on approximately 51% of the area. The retrieval method presented is based on an inversion technique and applies a semiempirical backscattering model that describes the dependence of radar backscattering of forest as a function of stem volume, soil permittivity, the extinction coefficient of forest canopy, surface roughness, incidence angle, and radar frequency. It gives an estimate of soil permittivity using active microwave measurements. Applying a Bayesian assimilation scheme, it is also possible to use other soil permittivity retrievals to regulate this estimate to combine for example low resolution passive observations with high resolution active observations for a synergistic retrieval. This way the higher variance in the active retrieval can be constricted with the passive retrieval when at the same time the spatial resolution of the product is improved compared to the passive-only retrieval. The retrieved soil permittivity estimate can be used to detect soil freeze/thaw state by considering the soil to be frozen when the estimate is below a threshold value. The permittivity retrieval can also be used to estimate the relative moisture of the soil. The method was tested using SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) measurements from ENVISAT ASAR instrument for the years 2010-2012 and from Sentinel-1 satellite for the years 2015-2016 in Sodankylä area in Northern Finland. The synergistic method was tested combining the SAR measurements with a SMOS (Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity) radiometer based retrieval. The results were validated using in situ measurements from automatic soil state observation stations in Sodankylä calibration and validation (CAL-VAL) site, which is a reference site for several EO (Earth Observation) data products.

Soil Aggregates and Associated Organic Matter under Conventional Tillage, No-Tillage, and Forest Succession after Three Decades

PubMed Central

Devine, Scott; Markewitz, Daniel; Hendrix, Paul; Coleman, David

2014-01-01

Impacts of land use on soil organic C (SOC) are of interest relative to SOC sequestration and soil sustainability. The role of aggregate stability in SOC storage under contrasting land uses has been of particular interest relative to conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) agriculture. This study compares soil structure and SOC fractions at the 30-yr-old Horseshoe Bend Agroecosystem Experiment (HSB). This research is unique in comparing NT and CT with adjacent land concurrently undergoing forest succession (FS) and in sampling to depths (15–28 cm) previously not studied at HSB. A soil moving experiment (SME) was also undertaken to monitor 1-yr changes in SOC and aggregation. After 30 years, enhanced aggregate stability under NT compared to CT was limited to a depth of 5 cm, while enhanced aggregate stability under FS compared to CT occurred to a depth of 28 cm and FS exceeded NT from 5–28 cm. Increases in SOC concentrations generally followed the increases in stability, except that no differences in SOC concentration were observed from 15–28 cm despite greater aggregate stability. Land use differences in SOC were explained equally by differences in particulate organic carbon (POC) and in silt-clay associated fine C. Enhanced structural stability of the SME soil was observed under FS and was linked to an increase of 1 Mg SOC ha−1 in 0–5 cm, of which 90% could be attributed to a POC increase. The crushing of macroaggregates in the SME soil also induced a 10% reduction in SOC over 1 yr that occurred under all three land uses from 5–15 cm. The majority of this loss was in the fine C fraction. NT and FS ecosystems had greater aggregation and carbon storage at the soil surface but only FS increased aggregation below the surface, although in the absence of increased carbon storage. PMID:24465460

Using machine learning to produce near surface soil moisture estimates from deeper in situ records at U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) locations: Analysis and applications to AMSR-E satellite validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coopersmith, Evan J.; Cosh, Michael H.; Bell, Jesse E.; Boyles, Ryan

2016-12-01

Surface soil moisture is a critical parameter for understanding the energy flux at the land atmosphere boundary. Weather modeling, climate prediction, and remote sensing validation are some of the applications for surface soil moisture information. The most common in situ measurement for these purposes are sensors that are installed at depths of approximately 5 cm. There are however, sensor technologies and network designs that do not provide an estimate at this depth. If soil moisture estimates at deeper depths could be extrapolated to the near surface, in situ networks providing estimates at other depths would see their values enhanced. Soil moisture sensors from the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) were used to generate models of 5 cm soil moisture, with 10 cm soil moisture measurements and antecedent precipitation as inputs, via machine learning techniques. Validation was conducted with the available, in situ, 5 cm resources. It was shown that a 5 cm estimate, which was extrapolated from a 10 cm sensor and antecedent local precipitation, produced a root-mean-squared-error (RMSE) of 0.0215 m3/m3. Next, these machine-learning-generated 5 cm estimates were also compared to AMSR-E estimates at these locations. These results were then compared with the performance of the actual in situ readings against the AMSR-E data. The machine learning estimates at 5 cm produced an RMSE of approximately 0.03 m3/m3 when an optimized gain and offset were applied. This is necessary considering the performance of AMSR-E in locations characterized by high vegetation water contents, which are present across North Carolina. Lastly, the application of this extrapolation technique is applied to the ECONet in North Carolina, which provides a 10 cm depth measurement as its shallowest soil moisture estimate. A raw RMSE of 0.028 m3/m3 was achieved, and with a linear gain and offset applied at each ECONet site, an RMSE of 0.013 m3/m3 was possible.

Inhibition experiments on nitrous oxide emission from paddy soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Xingkai; Boeckx, Pascal; Zhou, Likai; Van Cleemput, Oswald

2002-08-01

Rice fields using nitrogen-based fertilizers play an important role in the global N2O budget. However, our knowledge is still limited with regard to the mechanisms affecting the N2O emission and to the measures that can reduce the emission. This paper reports a study of N2O emission from paddy soils. The effects of urea, hydroquinone (HQ, a urease inhibitor), and dicyandiamide (DCD, a nitrification inhibitor) have been studied in pot experiments with and without rice plants and with and without addition of wheat straw. With no wheat straw amendment, all treatments with inhibitors, especially with HQ + DCD, had a much smaller N2O emission during the rice growing period than the urea treatment, whereas a substantially increased N2O emission was observed from a rice-free soil with inhibitors. The N2O emission from the rice-planted soil was exponentially positive correlated with the NO3--N concentration in the rice aboveground biomass. By comparing the total N2O emission from the rice-free soil and from the rice-planted soil, we found that urea application alone might induce an apparent plant-mediated N2O emission, being 0.39 +/- 0.08% of the applied urea N. Wheat straw incorporated into the flooded surface layer soil could increase the plant-mediated N2O emission significantly. However, application of HQ + DCD could reduce this emission (0.27 +/- 0.08% of the applied urea N, compared with 0.89 +/- 0.18% in the urea treatment). It also reduced the N2O emission from the rice-free soil and from the rice-planted soil. Stepwise regression analysis indicates that denitrification in the flooded surface layer soil was the main source of N2O emission from this wetland rice cultivation, particularly when wheat straw was added. A significantly nonlinear negative relation was found between the N2O emission and the CH4 emission when no wheat straw was added, but it was hard to quantify this trade-off relation when wheat straw was incorporated into the flooded surface layer soil.

Deriving surface soil moisture from reflected GNSS signal observations from a grassland site in southwestern France

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Sibo; Calvet, Jean-Christophe; Darrozes, José; Roussel, Nicolas; Frappart, Frédéric; Bouhours, Gilles

2018-03-01

This work assesses the estimation of surface volumetric soil moisture (VSM) using the global navigation satellite system interferometric reflectometry (GNSS-IR) technique. Year-round observations were acquired from a grassland site in southwestern France using an antenna consecutively placed at two contrasting heights above the ground surface (3.3 and 29.4 m). The VSM retrievals are compared with two independent reference datasets: in situ observations of soil moisture, and numerical simulations of soil moisture and vegetation biomass from the ISBA (Interactions between Soil, Biosphere and Atmosphere) land surface model. Scaled VSM estimates can be retrieved throughout the year removing vegetation effects by the separation of growth and senescence periods and by the filtering of the GNSS-IR observations that are most affected by vegetation. Antenna height has no significant impact on the quality of VSM estimates. Comparisons between the VSM GNSS-IR retrievals and the in situ VSM observations at a depth of 5 cm show good agreement (R2 = 0.86 and RMSE = 0.04 m3 m-3). It is shown that the signal is sensitive to the grass litter water content and that this effect triggers differences between VSM retrievals and in situ VSM observations at depths of 1 and 5 cm, especially during light rainfall events.

Runoff losses of excreted chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine, and tylosin from surface-applied and soil-incorporated beef cattle feedlot manure.

PubMed

Amarakoon, Inoka D; Zvomuya, Francis; Cessna, Allan J; Degenhardt, Dani; Larney, Francis J; McAllister, Tim A

2014-03-01

Veterinary antimicrobials in land-applied manure can move to surface waters via rain or snowmelt runoff, thus increasing their dispersion in agro-environments. This study quantified losses of excreted chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine, and tylosin in simulated rain runoff from surface-applied and soil-incorporated beef cattle ( L.) feedlot manure (60 Mg ha, wet wt.). Antimicrobial concentrations in runoff generally reflected the corresponding concentrations in the manure. Soil incorporation of manure reduced the concentrations of chlortetracycline (from 75 to 12 μg L for a 1:1 mixture of chlortetracycline and sulfamethazine and from 43 to 17 μg L for chlortetracycline alone) and sulfamethazine (from 3.9 to 2.6 μg L) in runoff compared with surface application. However, there was no significant effect of manure application method on tylosin concentration (range, 0.02-0.06 μg L) in runoff. Mass losses, as a percent of the amount applied, for chlortetracycline and sulfamethazine appeared to be independent of their respective soil sorption coefficients. Mass losses of chlortetracycline were significantly reduced with soil incorporation of manure (from 6.5 to 1.7% when applied with sulfamethazine and from 6.5 to 3.5% when applied alone). Mass losses of sulfamethazine (4.8%) and tylosin (0.24%) in runoff were not affected by manure incorporation. Although our results confirm that cattle-excreted veterinary antimicrobials can be removed via surface runoff after field application, the magnitudes of chlortetracycline and sulfamethazine losses were reduced by soil incorporation of manure immediately after application. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Utilizing Calibrated GPS Reflected Signals to Estimate Soil Reflectivity and Dielectric Constant: Results from SMEX02

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Katzberg, Stephen J.; Torres, Omar; Grant, Michael S.; Masters, Dallas

2006-01-01

Extensive reflected GPS data was collected using a GPS reflectometer installed on an HC130 aircraft during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX02) near Ames, Iowa. At the same time, widespread surface truth data was acquired in the form of point soil moisture profiles, areal sampling of near-surface soil moisture, total green biomass and precipitation history, among others. Previously, there have been no reported efforts to calibrate reflected GPS data sets acquired over land. This paper reports the results of two approaches to calibration of the data that yield consistent results. It is shown that estimating the strength of the reflected signals by either (1) assuming an approximately specular surface reflection or (2) inferring the surface slope probability density and associated normalization constants give essentially the same results for the conditions encountered in SMEX02. The corrected data is converted to surface reflectivity and then to dielectric constant as a test of the calibration approaches. Utilizing the extensive in-situ soil moisture related data this paper also presents the results of comparing the GPS-inferred relative dielectric constant with the Wang-Schmugge model frequently used to relate volume moisture content to dielectric constant. It is shown that the calibrated GPS reflectivity estimates follow the expected dependence of permittivity with volume moisture, but with the following qualification: The soil moisture value governing the reflectivity appears to come from only the top 1-2 centimeters of soil, a result consistent with results found for other microwave techniques operating at L-band. Nevertheless, the experimentally derived dielectric constant is generally lower than predicted. Possible explanations are presented to explain this result.

Global observation-based diagnosis of soil moisture control on land surface flux partition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallego-Elvira, Belen; Taylor, Christopher M.; Harris, Phil P.; Ghent, Darren; Veal, Karen L.; Folwell, Sonja S.

2016-04-01

Soil moisture plays a central role in the partition of available energy at the land surface between sensible and latent heat flux to the atmosphere. As soils dry out, evapotranspiration becomes water-limited ("stressed"), and both land surface temperature (LST) and sensible heat flux rise as a result. This change in surface behaviour during dry spells directly affects critical processes in both the land and the atmosphere. Soil water deficits are often a precursor in heat waves, and they control where feedbacks on precipitation become significant. State-of-the-art global climate model (GCM) simulations for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) disagree on where and how strongly the surface energy budget is limited by soil moisture. Evaluation of GCM simulations at global scale is still a major challenge owing to the scarcity and uncertainty of observational datasets of land surface fluxes and soil moisture at the appropriate scale. Earth observation offers the potential to test how well GCM land schemes simulate hydrological controls on surface fluxes. In particular, satellite observations of LST provide indirect information about the surface energy partition at 1km resolution globally. Here, we present a potentially powerful methodology to evaluate soil moisture stress on surface fluxes within GCMs. Our diagnostic, Relative Warming Rate (RWR), is a measure of how rapidly the land warms relative to the overlying atmosphere during dry spells lasting at least 10 days. Under clear skies, this is a proxy for the change in sensible heat flux as soil dries out. We derived RWR from MODIS Terra and Aqua LST observations, meteorological re-analyses and satellite rainfall datasets. Globally we found that on average, the land warmed up during dry spells for 97% of the observed surface between 60S and 60N. For 73% of the area, the land warmed faster than the atmosphere (positive RWR), indicating water stressed conditions and increases in sensible heat flux. Higher RWRs were observed for shorter vegetation and bare soil compared to tall, deep-rooted vegetation due to differences in both aerodynamic and hydrological properties. The variation of RWR with antecedent rainfall provides information on which evaporation regime a particular region lies in climatologically. Different drying stages for a given antecedent rainfall can thus be observed depending on land cover type. For instance, our results suggest that forests in a continental climate remain unstressed during a 10 day dry spell provided the previous month saw at least 95 mm of rain. Conversely, RWR values indicate that under similar conditions regions of grass/crop cover are water-stressed.

Advances in Assimilation of Satellite-Based Passive Microwave Observations for Soil-Moisture Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

De Lannoy, Gabrielle J. M.; Pauwels, Valentijn; Reichle, Rolf H.; Draper, Clara; Koster, Randy; Liu, Qing

2012-01-01

Satellite-based microwave measurements have long shown potential to provide global information about soil moisture. The European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS, [1]) mission as well as the future National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP, [2]) mission measure passive microwave emission at L-band frequencies, at a relatively coarse (40 km) spatial resolution. In addition, SMAP will measure active microwave signals at a higher spatial resolution (3 km). These new L-band missions have a greater sensing depth (of -5cm) compared with past and present C- and X-band microwave sensors. ESA currently also disseminates retrievals of SMOS surface soil moisture that are derived from SMOS brightness temperature observations and ancillary data. In this research, we address two major challenges with the assimilation of recent/future satellite-based microwave measurements: (i) assimilation of soil moisture retrievals versus brightness temperatures for surface and root-zone soil moisture estimation and (ii) scale-mismatches between satellite observations, models and in situ validation data.

The methods of geomorphometry and digital soil mapping for assessing spatial variability in the properties of agrogray soils on a slope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gopp, N. V.; Nechaeva, T. V.; Savenkov, O. A.; Smirnova, N. V.; Smirnov, V. V.

2017-01-01

The relationships between the morphometric parameters (MPs) of topography calculated on the basis of digital elevation model (ASTER GDEM, 30 m) and the properties of the plow layer of agrogray soils on a slope were analyzed. The contribution of MPs to the spatial variability of the soil moisture reached 42%; to the content of physical clay (<0.01 mm particles), 59%; to the humus content, 46%; to the total nitrogen content, 31%; to the content of nitrate nitrogen, 28%; to the content of mobile phosphorus, 40%; to the content of exchangeable potassium, 45%; to the content of exchangeable calcium, 67%; to the content of exchangeable magnesium, 40%; and to the soil pH, 42%. A comparative analysis of the plow layer within the eluvial and transitional parts of the slope was performed with the use of geomorphometric methods and digital soil mapping. The regression analysis showed statistically significant correlations between the properties of the plow layer and the MPs describing surface runoff, geometric forms of surface, and the soil temperature regime.

Dust and nutrient enrichment by wind erosion from Danish soils in dependence of tillage direction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammadian Behbahani, Ali; Fister, Wolfgang; Heckrath, Goswin; Kuhn, Nikolaus J.

2016-04-01

Wind erosion is a selective process, which promotes erosion of fine particles. Therefore, it can be assumed that increasing erosion rates are generally associated with increasing loss of dust sized particles and nutrients. However, this selective process is strongly affected by the orientation and respective trapping efficiency of tillage ridges and furrows. Since tillage ridges are often the only protection measure available on poorly aggregated soils in absence of a protective vegetation cover, it is very important to know which orientation respective to the dominant wind direction provides best protection. This knowledge could be very helpful for planning erosion protection measures on fields with high wind erosion susceptibility. The main objective of this study, therefore, was to determine the effect of tillage direction on dust and nutrient mobilization by wind, using wind tunnel simulations. In order to assess the relationship between the enrichment ratio of specific particle sizes and the amount of eroded nutrients, three soils with loamy sand texture, but varying amounts of sand-sized particles, were selected. In addition, a soil with slightly less sand, but much higher organic matter content was chosen. The soils were tested with three different soil surface scenarios - flat surface, parallel tillage, perpendicular tillage. The parallel tillage operation experienced the greatest erosion rates, independent of soil type. Particles with D50 between 100-155 μm showed the greatest risk of erosion. However, due to a greater loss of dust sized particles from perpendicularly tilled surfaces, this wind-surface arrangement showed a significant increase in nutrient enrichment ratio compared to parallel tillage and flat surfaces. The main reason for this phenomenon is most probably the trapping of larger particles in the perpendicular furrows. This indicates that the highest rate of soil protection does not necessarily coincide with lowest soil nutrient losses and dust emissions. For the evaluation of protection measures on these soil types in Denmark it is, therefore, important to differentiate between their effectivity to reduce total soil erosion amount, dust emission, and nutrient loss.

Assimilation of SMOS Retrievals in the Land Information System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blankenship, Clay B.; Case, Jonathan L.; Zavodsky, Bradley T.; Crosson, William L.

2016-01-01

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite provides retrievals of soil moisture in the upper 5 cm with a 30-50 km resolution and a mission accuracy requirement of 0.04 cm(sub 3 cm(sub -3). These observations can be used to improve land surface model soil moisture states through data assimilation. In this paper, SMOS soil moisture retrievals are assimilated into the Noah land surface model via an Ensemble Kalman Filter within the NASA Land Information System. Bias correction is implemented using Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) matching, with points aggregated by either land cover or soil type to reduce sampling error in generating the CDFs. An experiment was run for the warm season of 2011 to test SMOS data assimilation and to compare assimilation methods. Verification of soil moisture analyses in the 0-10 cm upper layer and root zone (0-1 m) was conducted using in situ measurements from several observing networks in the central and southeastern United States. This experiment showed that SMOS data assimilation significantly increased the anomaly correlation of Noah soil moisture with station measurements from 0.45 to 0.57 in the 0-10 cm layer. Time series at specific stations demonstrate the ability of SMOS DA to increase the dynamic range of soil moisture in a manner consistent with station measurements. Among the bias correction methods, the correction based on soil type performed best at bias reduction but also reduced correlations. The vegetation-based correction did not produce any significant differences compared to using a simple uniform correction curve.

Assimilation of SMOS Retrievals in the Land Information System

PubMed Central

Blankenship, Clay B.; Case, Jonathan L.; Zavodsky, Bradley T.; Crosson, William L.

2018-01-01

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite provides retrievals of soil moisture in the upper 5 cm with a 30-50 km resolution and a mission accuracy requirement of 0.04 cm3 cm−3. These observations can be used to improve land surface model soil moisture states through data assimilation. In this paper, SMOS soil moisture retrievals are assimilated into the Noah land surface model via an Ensemble Kalman Filter within the NASA Land Information System. Bias correction is implemented using Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) matching, with points aggregated by either land cover or soil type to reduce sampling error in generating the CDFs. An experiment was run for the warm season of 2011 to test SMOS data assimilation and to compare assimilation methods. Verification of soil moisture analyses in the 0-10 cm upper layer and root zone (0-1 m) was conducted using in situ measurements from several observing networks in the central and southeastern United States. This experiment showed that SMOS data assimilation significantly increased the anomaly correlation of Noah soil moisture with station measurements from 0.45 to 0.57 in the 0-10 cm layer. Time series at specific stations demonstrate the ability of SMOS DA to increase the dynamic range of soil moisture in a manner consistent with station measurements. Among the bias correction methods, the correction based on soil type performed best at bias reduction but also reduced correlations. The vegetation-based correction did not produce any significant differences compared to using a simple uniform correction curve. PMID:29367795

Concentrations of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and inorganic constituents in ambient surface soils, Chicago, Illinois, 2001-02

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kay, Robert T.; Arnold, Terri L.; Cannon, William F.; Graham, David; Morton, Eric; Bienert, Raymond

2003-01-01

Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds are ubiquitous in ambient surface soils in the city of Chicago, Illinois. PAH concentrations in samples collected in June 2001 and January 2002 were typically in the following order from highest to lowest: fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, phenanthrene, benzo(a)pyrene, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, and anthracene. Naphthalene, acenaphthene, acenaphthylene, and fluorene were consistently at the lowest concentrations in each sample. Concentrations of the PAH compounds showed variable correlation. Concentrations of PAH compounds with higher molecular weights typically show a higher degree of correlation with other PAH compounds of higher molecular weight, whereas PAH compounds with lower molecular weights tended to show a lower degree of correlation with all other PAH compounds. These differences indicate that high and low molecular-weight PAHs behave differentl y once released into the environment. Concentrations of individual PAH compounds in soils typically varied by at least three orders of magnitude across the city and varied by more than an order of magnitude over a distance of about 1,000 feet. Concentrations of a given PAH in ambient surface soils are affected by a variety of site-specific factors, and may be affected by proximity to industrial areas. Concentrations of a given PAH in ambient surface soils did not appear to be affected the organic carbon content of the soil, proximity to non-industrial land use, or proximity to a roadway. The concentration of the different PAH compounds in ambient surface soils appears to be affected by the propensity for the PAH compound to be in the vapor or particulate phase in the atmosphere. Lower molecular-weight PAH compounds, which are primarily in the vapor phase in the atmosphere, were detected in lower concentrations in the surface soils. Higher molecular-weight PAH compounds, which are present primarily in the particulate phase in the atmosphere, tended to be in higher concentrations in the surface soils. The apparent effect of the PAH phase in the atmosphere on the concentration of a PAH in ambient surface soils indicates that atmospheric settling of particulate matter is an important source of the PAH compounds in ambient surface soils in Chicago. The distribution of PAH compounds within the city was complex. Comparatively high concentrations were detected near Lake Michigan in the northern part of the city, in much of the western part of the city, and in isolated areas in the southern part of the city. Concentrations were lower in much of the northwestern, south-central, southwestern, and far southern parts of the city. The arithmetic mean concentration of arsenic, mercury, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, molybdenum, zinc, and selenium was from 2 to 6 times higher in ambient surface soils in the city of Chicago than in soils from surrounding agricultural areas. The arithmetic mean concentration of lead in Chicago soils was about 20 times higher. Concentrations of calcium and magnesium above those of surrounding agricultural areas appear to be related to the effects of dolomite bedrock on the chemical composition of the soil. Elevated concentrations of the remaining elements listed above indicate a potential anthropogenic source(s) of these elements in Chicago soils.

Seasonal patterns in soil surface CO2 flux under snow cover in 50 and 300 year old subalpine forests

Treesearch

Robert M. Hubbard; Michael G. Ryan; Kelly Elder; Charles C. Rhoades

2005-01-01

Soil CO2 flux can contribute as much as 60-80% of total ecosystem respiration in forests. Although considerable research has focused on quantifying this flux during the growing season, comparatively little effort has focused on non-growing season fluxes. We measured soil CO2 efflux through snow in 50 and 300 year old subalpine forest stands near Fraser CO. Our...

Soil carbon changes: comparing flux monitoring and mass balance in a box lysimeter experiment.

Treesearch

S.M. Nay; B.T. Bormann

2000-01-01

Direct measures of soil-surface respiration are needed to evaluate belowground biological processes, forest productivity, and ecosystem responses to global change. Although infra-red gas analyzer {IRGA) methods track reference CO2 flows in lab studies, questions remain for extrapolating IRGA methods to field conditions. We constructed 10 box...

Global-scale assessment and combination of SMAP with ASCAT (Active) and AMSR2 (Passive) soil moisture products

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Global-scale surface soil moisture (SSM) products retrieved from active and passive microwave remote sensing provide an effective method for monitoring near-real-time SSM content with nearly daily temporal resolution. In the present study, we first inter-compared global-scale error patterns and comb...

Effect of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Cropping Systems on Soil and Nutrient Losses Through Runoff in a Humic Nitisol, Kenya

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nyawade, Shadrack; Charles, Gachene; Karanja, Nancy; Elmar, Schulte-Geldermann

2016-04-01

Soil erosion has been identified as one of the major causes of soil productivity decline in the potato growing areas of East African Highlands. Potato establishes a protective soil cover only at about 45-60 days after planting and does not yield sufficient surface mulch upon harvest which leaves the soil bare at the critical times when rainfall intensities are usually high thus exposes soil to erosion. A field study was carried out using runoff plots during the short and long rainy seasons of 2014/15 respectively at the University of Nairobi Upper Kabete Farm, Kenya. The objectives were to assess the effect of soil surface roughness and potato cropping systems on soil loss and runoff, to determine the effect of erosion on nutrient enrichment ratio and to evaluate the soil organic matter fraction most susceptible to soil erosion. The treatments comprised of Bare Soil (T1); Potato + Garden Pea (Pisum sativa) (T2); Potato + Climbing Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (T3); Potato + Dolichos (Lablab purpureus) (T4) and Sole Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) (T5). The amount of soil loss and runoff recorded in each event differed significantly between treatments (p<0.05) and were consistently highest in T1 and lowest in T4. Mean cumulative soil loss reduced by 6.4, 13.3 and 24.4 t ha-1from T2, T3 and T4 respectively compared to sole potato plots (T5), while mean cumulative runoff reduced by 8.5, 17.1 and 28.3 mm from T2, T3 and T4 respectively when compared with the sole potato plots (T5) indicating that T4 plots provided the most effective cover in reducing soil loss and runoff. Regression analyses revealed that both runoff and soil loss related significantly with surface roughness and percent cover (R2=0.83 and 0.73 respectively, p<0.05). Statistically significant linear dependence of runoff and soil loss on surface roughness and crop cover was found in T4 (p<0.05) indicating that this system was highly effective in minimizing soil loss and runoff. Enrichment ratio was on average greater than unity for all soil elements analyzed indicating that erosion process was selective. Concentrations of soil organic matter in the eroded sediment were higher in the stable fraction; mineral organic carbon (18.43-19.30 g kg-1), mineral nitrogen (1.67-1.93 g kg-1) than in the labile fraction; particulate organic carbon (7.72-9.39 g kg-1), particulate nitrogen (0.62-0.84 g kg-1) indicating that much of the eroded soil organic matter was in stable form. The study shows that there is need to incorporate suitable indeterminate legume cover crops such as Dolichos lablab in potato cropping systems so as to minimize soil and nutrient losses due to erosion. Acknowledgement This study was part of the CIP-Sub Saharan Africa managed project-"Improved Soil Fertility Management for Sustainable Intensification in Potato Based Systems in Ethiopia and Kenya"-funded by the BMZ/GIZ International Agricultural Research for Development Fund.

Evaluating the Utility of Remotely-Sensed Soil Moisture Retrievals for Operational Agricultural Drought Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolten, John D.; Crow, Wade T.; Zhan, Xiwu; Jackson, Thomas J.; Reynolds,Curt

2010-01-01

Soil moisture is a fundamental data source used by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) to monitor crop growth stage and condition and subsequently, globally forecast agricultural yields. Currently, the USDA IPAD estimates surface and root-zone soil moisture using a two-layer modified Palmer soil moisture model forced by global precipitation and temperature measurements. However, this approach suffers from well-known errors arising from uncertainty in model forcing data and highly simplified model physics. Here we attempt to correct for these errors by designing and applying an Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation system to integrate surface soil moisture retrievals from the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) into the USDA modified Palmer soil moisture model. An assessment of soil moisture analysis products produced from this assimilation has been completed for a five-year (2002 to 2007) period over the North American continent between 23degN - 50degN and 128degW - 65degW. In particular, a data denial experimental approach is utilized to isolate the added utility of integrating remotely-sensed soil moisture by comparing EnKF soil moisture results obtained using (relatively) low-quality precipitation products obtained from real-time satellite imagery to baseline Palmer model runs forced with higher quality rainfall. An analysis of root-zone anomalies for each model simulation suggests that the assimilation of AMSR-E surface soil moisture retrievals can add significant value to USDA root-zone predictions derived from real-time satellite precipitation products.

Inclusion of Solar Elevation Angle in Land Surface Albedo Parameterization Over Bare Soil Surface.

PubMed

Zheng, Zhiyuan; Wei, Zhigang; Wen, Zhiping; Dong, Wenjie; Li, Zhenchao; Wen, Xiaohang; Zhu, Xian; Ji, Dong; Chen, Chen; Yan, Dongdong

2017-12-01

Land surface albedo is a significant parameter for maintaining a balance in surface energy. It is also an important parameter of bare soil surface albedo for developing land surface process models that accurately reflect diurnal variation characteristics and the mechanism behind the solar spectral radiation albedo on bare soil surfaces and for understanding the relationships between climate factors and spectral radiation albedo. Using a data set of field observations, we conducted experiments to analyze the variation characteristics of land surface solar spectral radiation and the corresponding albedo over a typical Gobi bare soil underlying surface and to investigate the relationships between the land surface solar spectral radiation albedo, solar elevation angle, and soil moisture. Based on both solar elevation angle and soil moisture measurements simultaneously, we propose a new two-factor parameterization scheme for spectral radiation albedo over bare soil underlying surfaces. The results of numerical simulation experiments show that the new parameterization scheme can more accurately depict the diurnal variation characteristics of bare soil surface albedo than the previous schemes. Solar elevation angle is one of the most important factors for parameterizing bare soil surface albedo and must be considered in the parameterization scheme, especially in arid and semiarid areas with low soil moisture content. This study reveals the characteristics and mechanism of the diurnal variation of bare soil surface solar spectral radiation albedo and is helpful in developing land surface process models, weather models, and climate models.

Evaluating soil moisture constraints on surface fluxes in land surface models globally

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harris, Phil; Gallego-Elvira, Belen; Taylor, Christopher; Folwell, Sonja; Ghent, Darren; Veal, Karen; Hagemann, Stefan

2016-04-01

Soil moisture availability exerts a strong control over land evaporation in many regions. However, global climate models (GCMs) disagree on when and where evaporation is limited by soil moisture. Evaluation of the relevant modelled processes has suffered from a lack of reliable, global observations of land evaporation at the GCM grid box scale. Satellite observations of land surface temperature (LST) offer spatially extensive but indirect information about the surface energy partition and, under certain conditions, about soil moisture availability on evaporation. Specifically, as soil moisture decreases during rain-free dry spells, evaporation may become limited leading to increases in LST and sensible heat flux. We use MODIS Terra and Aqua observations of LST at 1 km from 2000 to 2012 to assess changes in the surface energy partition during dry spells lasting 10 days or longer. The clear-sky LST data are aggregated to a global 0.5° grid before being composited as a function dry spell day across many events in a particular region and season. These composites are then used to calculate a Relative Warming Rate (RWR) between the land surface and near-surface air. This RWR can diagnose the typical strength of short term changes in surface heat fluxes and, by extension, changes in soil moisture limitation on evaporation. Offline land surface model (LSM) simulations offer a relatively inexpensive way to evaluate the surface processes of GCMs. They have the benefits that multiple models, and versions of models, can be compared on a common grid and using unbiased forcing. Here, we use the RWR diagnostic to assess global, offline simulations of several LSMs (e.g., JULES and JSBACH) driven by the WATCH Forcing Data-ERA Interim. Both the observed RWR and the LSMs use the same 0.5° grid, which allows the observed clear-sky sampling inherent in the underlying MODIS LST to be applied to the model outputs directly. This approach avoids some of the difficulties in analysing free-running simulations in which land and atmosphere are coupled and, as such, it provides a flexible intermediate step in the assessment of surface processes in GCMs.

Surface reactions of iron - enriched smectites: adsorption and transformation of hydroxy fatty acids and phenolic acids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polubesova, Tamara; Olshansky, Yaniv; Eldad, Shay; Chefetz, Benny

2014-05-01

Iron-enriched smectites play an important role in adsorption and transformation of soil organic components. Soil organo-clay complexes, and in particular humin contain hydroxy fatty acids, which are derived from plant biopolymer cutin. Phenolic acids belong to another major group of organic acids detected in soil. They participate in various soil processes, and are of concern due to their allelopathic activity. We studied the reactivity of iron-enriched smectites (Fe(III)-montmorillonite and nontronite) toward both groups of acids. We used fatty acids- 9(10),16-dihydroxypalmitic acid (diHPA), isolated from curtin, and 9,10,16-trihydroxypalmitic acid (triHPA); the following phenolic acids were used: ferulic, p-coumaric, syringic, and vanillic. Adsorption of both groups of acids was measured. The FTIR spectra of fatty acid-mineral complexes indicated inner-sphere complexation of fatty acids with iron-enriched smectites (versus outer-sphere complexation with Ca(II)-montmorillonite). The LC-MS results demonstrated enhanced esterification of fatty acids on the iron-enriched smectite surfaces (as compared to Ca(II)-montmorillonite). This study suggests that fatty acids can be esterified on the iron-enriched smectite surfaces, which results in the formation of stable organo-mineral complexes. These complexes may serve as a model for the study of natural soil organo-clay complexes and humin. The reaction of phenolic acids with Fe(III)-montmorillonite demonstrated their oxidative transformation by the mineral surfaces, which was affected by molecular structure of acids. The following order of their transformation was obtained: ferulic >syringic >p-coumaric >vanillic. The LC-MS analysis demonstrated the presence of dimers, trimers, and tetramers of ferulic acid on the surface of Fe(III)-montmorillonite. Oxidation and transformation of ferulic acid were more intense on the surface of Fe(III)-montmorillonite as compared to Fe(III) in solution due to stronger complexation on the Fe(III)-motnomrillonite surface. Our study demonstrate the importance of iron-enriched minerals for the abiotic formation of humic materials and for the transformation of aromatic (phenolic) pollutants.

Observational Evidence of Changes in Soil Temperatures across Eurasian Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, T.

2015-12-01

Soil temperature is one of the key climate change indicators and plays an important role in plant growth, agriculture, carbon cycle and ecosystems as a whole. In this study, variability and changes in ground surface and soil temperatures up to 3.20 m were investigated based on data and information obtained from hydrometeorological stations across Eurasian continent since the early 1950s. Ground surface and soil temperatures were measured daily by using the same standard method and by the trained professionals across Eurasian continent, which makes the dataset unique and comparable over a large study region. Using the daily soil temperature profiles, soil seasonal freeze depth was also obtained through linear interpolation. Preliminary results show that soil temperatures at various depths have increased dramatically, almost twice as much as air temperature increase over the same period. Regionally, soil temperature increase was more dramatically in high northern latitudes than mid/lower latitude regions. Air temperature changes alone may not be able to fully explain the magnitude of changes in soil temperatures. Further study indicates that snow cover establishment started later in autumn and snow cover disappearance occurred earlier in spring, while winter snow depth became thicker with a decreasing trend of snow density. Changes in snow cover conditions may play an important role in changes of soil temperatures over the Eurasian continent.

Hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDDs) in surface soils from coastal cities in North China: Correlation between diastereoisomer profiles and industrial activities.

PubMed

Zhang, Yueqing; Li, Qifeng; Lu, Yonglong; Jones, Kevin; Sweetman, Andrew J

2016-04-01

Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) is a brominated flame retardant with a wide range of industrial applications, although little is known about its patterns of spatial distribution in soils in relation to industrial emissions. This study has undertaken a large-scale investigation around an industrialized coastal area of China, exploring the concentrations, spatial distribution and diastereoisomer profiles of HBCDD in 188 surface soils from 21 coastal cities in North China. The detection frequency was 100% and concentrations of total HBCDD in the surface soils ranged from 0.123 to 363 ng g(-1) and averaged 7.20 ng g(-1), showing its ubiquitous existence at low levels. The spatial distribution of HBCDD exhibited a correlation with the location of known manufacturing facilities in Weifang, suggesting the production of HBCDD as major emission source. Diastereoisomer profiles varied in different cities. Diastereoisomer compositions in soils were compared with emissions from HBCDD industrial activities, and correlations were found between them, which has the potential for source identification. Although the contemporary concentrations of HBCDD in soils from the study were relatively low, HBCDD-containing products (expanded/extruded polystyrene insulation boards) would be a potential source after its service life, and attention needs to be paid to prioritizing large-scale waste management efforts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface Runoff Estimation Using SMOS Observations, Rain-gauge Measurements and Satellite Precipitation Estimations. Comparison with Model Predictions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia Leal, Julio A.; Lopez-Baeza, Ernesto; Khodayar, Samiro; Estrela, Teodoro; Fidalgo, Arancha; Gabaldo, Onofre; Kuligowski, Robert; Herrera, Eddy

Surface runoff is defined as the amount of water that originates from precipitation, does not infiltrates due to soil saturation and therefore circulates over the surface. A good estimation of runoff is useful for the design of draining systems, structures for flood control and soil utilisation. For runoff estimation there exist different methods such as (i) rational method, (ii) isochrone method, (iii) triangular hydrograph, (iv) non-dimensional SCS hydrograph, (v) Temez hydrograph, (vi) kinematic wave model, represented by the dynamics and kinematics equations for a uniforme precipitation regime, and (vii) SCS-CN (Soil Conservation Service Curve Number) model. This work presents a way of estimating precipitation runoff through the SCS-CN model, using SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission soil moisture observations and rain-gauge measurements, as well as satellite precipitation estimations. The area of application is the Jucar River Basin Authority area where one of the objectives is to develop the SCS-CN model in a spatial way. The results were compared to simulations performed with the 7-km COSMO-CLM (COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling, COSMO model in CLimate Mode) model. The use of SMOS soil moisture as input to the COSMO-CLM model will certainly improve model simulations.

Nano-scale investigation of the association of microbial nitrogen residues with iron (hydr)oxides in a forest soil O-horizon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keiluweit, Marco; Bougoure, Jeremy J.; Zeglin, Lydia H.; Myrold, David D.; Weber, Peter K.; Pett-Ridge, Jennifer; Kleber, Markus; Nico, Peter S.

2012-10-01

Amino sugars in fungal cell walls (such as chitin) represent an important source of nitrogen (N) in many forest soil ecosystems. Despite the importance of this material in soil nitrogen cycling, comparatively little is known about abiotic and biotic controls on and the timescale of its turnover. Part of the reason for this lack of information is the inaccessibility of these materials to classic bulk extraction methods. To address this issue, we used advanced visualization tools to examine transformation pathways of chitin-rich fungal cell wall residues as they interact with microorganisms, soil organic matter and mineral surfaces. Our goal was to document initial micro-scale dynamics of the incorporation of 13C- and 15N-labeled chitin into fungi-dominated microenvironments in O-horizons of old-growth forest soils. At the end of a 3-week incubation experiment, high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging of hyphae-associated soil microstructures revealed a preferential association of 15N with Fe-rich particles. Synchrotron-based scanning transmission X-ray spectromicroscopy (STXM/NEXAFS) of the same samples showed that thin organic coatings on these soil microstructures are enriched in aliphatic C and amide N on Fe (hydr)oxides, suggesting a concentration of microbial lipids and proteins on these surfaces. A possible explanation for the results of our micro-scale investigation of chemical and spatial patterns is that amide N from chitinous fungal cell walls was assimilated by hyphae-associated bacteria, resynthesized into proteinaceous amide N, and subsequently concentrated onto Fe (hydr)oxide surfaces. If confirmed in other soil ecosystems, such rapid association of microbial N with hydroxylated Fe oxide surfaces may have important implications for mechanistic models of microbial cycling of C and N.

Soil Minerals Affect Extracellular Enzyme Activities in Cold and Warm Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Z.; Morin, M. M.; Graham, D. E.; Wullschleger, S. D.; Gu, B.

2017-12-01

Extracellular enzymes are mainly responsible for degrading and cycling soil organic matter (SOM) in both cold and warm terrestrial ecosystems. Minerals can play important roles in affecting soil enzyme activities, however, the interactions between enzyme and soil minerals remain poorly understood. In this study, we developed a model soil-enzyme system to examine the mineral effects on a hydrolytic enzyme (i.e., β-glucosidase) under both cold (4°C) and relatively warm (20 and 30°C) conditions. Minerals including iron oxides and clays (e.g., kaolinite and montmorillonite) were used to mimic different types of soils, and enzyme adsorption experiments were conducted to determine the enzyme interactions with different mineral surfaces. Time-series experiments were also carried out to measure enzymatic degradation of the organic substrates, such as cellobiose and indican. We observed that fractions of adsorbed enzyme and the hydrolytic activity were higher on iron oxides (e.g., hematite) compared to kaolinite and montmorillonite at given experimental conditions. The degradation of cellobiose was significantly faster than that of indican in the presence of minerals. We also found that the adsorption of enzyme was not dependent on the mineral surface areas, but was controlled by the mineral surface charge. In addition, temperature increase from 4 to 30°C enhanced mineral-assisted glucosidase hydrolysis by 2 to 4 fold, suggesting greater degradation under warmer environments. The present work demonstrates that the enzyme activity is influenced not only by the soil temperature but also by the surface chemistry of soil minerals. Our results highlight the need to consider the physical and chemical properties of minerals in biogeochemical models, which could provide a better prediction for enzyme-facilitated SOM transformations in terrestrial ecosystems.

Physicochemical studies on Uburu Salt Lake Ebonyi State-Nigeria.

PubMed

Akubugwo, I E; Ofoegbu, C J; Ukwuoma, C U

2007-09-15

Physicochemical properties of soil (sediment) and water from Uburu salt lake were evaluated and compared with control soil and surface water from the same community. Results showed significant (p < 0.05) higher values for the heavy metals cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc in the lake water relative to the control. The values of these metals in the lake soil (sediments) however, were significantly (p < 0.05) lower than the control soil. Similar significant (p < 0.05) elevations were observed in the lake water temperature, salinity, pH, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, nitrate, carbonate, sulphate and phosphate levels compared to the control. Significant (p < 0.05) changes were also noted in the lake soil's pH, exchangeable acidity, nitrogen, organic carbon, calcium and magnesium levels. Also the soil texture was affected relative to the control. In a number of cases, the values of the studied parameters were higher than the permissible WHO standards. In view of these findings, cautious use of the salt lake soil and water is advocated.

A Comparison of Methods for a Priori Bias Correction in Soil Moisture Data Assimilation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kumar, Sujay V.; Reichle, Rolf H.; Harrison, Kenneth W.; Peters-Lidard, Christa D.; Yatheendradas, Soni; Santanello, Joseph A.

2011-01-01

Data assimilation is being increasingly used to merge remotely sensed land surface variables such as soil moisture, snow and skin temperature with estimates from land models. Its success, however, depends on unbiased model predictions and unbiased observations. Here, a suite of continental-scale, synthetic soil moisture assimilation experiments is used to compare two approaches that address typical biases in soil moisture prior to data assimilation: (i) parameter estimation to calibrate the land model to the climatology of the soil moisture observations, and (ii) scaling of the observations to the model s soil moisture climatology. To enable this research, an optimization infrastructure was added to the NASA Land Information System (LIS) that includes gradient-based optimization methods and global, heuristic search algorithms. The land model calibration eliminates the bias but does not necessarily result in more realistic model parameters. Nevertheless, the experiments confirm that model calibration yields assimilation estimates of surface and root zone soil moisture that are as skillful as those obtained through scaling of the observations to the model s climatology. Analysis of innovation diagnostics underlines the importance of addressing bias in soil moisture assimilation and confirms that both approaches adequately address the issue.

Molecular investigations into a globally important carbon pool: Permafrost-protected carbon in Alaskan soils

USGS Publications Warehouse

Waldrop, M.P.; Wickland, K.P.; White, Rickie; Berhe, A.A.; Harden, J.W.; Romanovsky, V.E.

2010-01-01

The fate of carbon (C) contained within permafrost in boreal forest environments is an important consideration for the current and future carbon cycle as soils warm in northern latitudes. Currently, little is known about the microbiology or chemistry of permafrost soils that may affect its decomposition once soils thaw. We tested the hypothesis that low microbial abundances and activities in permafrost soils limit decomposition rates compared with active layer soils. We examined active layer and permafrost soils near Fairbanks, AK, the Yukon River, and the Arctic Circle. Soils were incubated in the lab under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Gas fluxes at -5 and 5 ??C were measured to calculate temperature response quotients (Q10). The Q10 was lower in permafrost soils (average 2.7) compared with active layer soils (average 7.5). Soil nutrients, leachable dissolved organic C (DOC) quality and quantity, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the soils revealed that the organic matter within permafrost soils is as labile, or even more so, than surface soils. Microbial abundances (fungi, bacteria, and subgroups: methanogens and Basidiomycetes) and exoenzyme activities involved in decomposition were lower in permafrost soils compared with active layer soils, which, together with the chemical data, supports the reduced Q10 values. CH4 fluxes were correlated with methanogen abundance and the highest CH4 production came from active layer soils. These results suggest that permafrost soils have high inherent decomposability, but low microbial abundances and activities reduce the temperature sensitivity of C fluxes. Despite these inherent limitations, however, respiration per unit soil C was higher in permafrost soils compared with active layer soils, suggesting that decomposition and heterotrophic respiration may contribute to a positive feedback to warming of this eco region. Published 2010. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Sampling Soil CO2 for Isotopic Flux Partitioning: Non Steady State Effects and Methodological Biases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snell, H. S. K.; Robinson, D.; Midwood, A. J.

2014-12-01

Measurements of δ13C of soil CO2 are used to partition the surface flux into autotrophic and heterotrophic components. Models predict that the δ13CO2 of the soil efflux is perturbed by non-steady state (NSS) diffusive conditions. These could be large enough to render δ13CO2 unsuitable for accurate flux partitioning. Field studies sometimes find correlations between efflux δ13CO2 and flux or temperature, or that efflux δ13CO2 is not correlated as expected with biological drivers. We tested whether NSS effects in semi-natural soil were comparable with those predicted. We compared chamber designs and their sensitivity to changes in efflux δ13CO2. In a natural soil mesocosm, we controlled temperature to generate NSS conditions of CO2 production. We measured the δ13C of soil CO2 using in situ probes to sample the subsurface, and dynamic and forced-diffusion chambers to sample the surface efflux. Over eight hours we raised soil temperature by 4.5 OC to increase microbial respiration. Subsurface CO2 concentration doubled, surface efflux became 13C-depleted by 1 ‰ and subsurface CO2 became 13C-enriched by around 2 ‰. Opposite changes occurred when temperature was lowered and CO2 production was decreasing. Different chamber designs had inherent biases but all detected similar changes in efflux δ13CO2, which were comparable to those predicted. Measurements using dynamic chambers were more 13C-enriched than expected, probably due to advection of CO2 into the chamber. In the mesocosm soil, δ13CO2 of both efflux and subsurface was determined by physical processes of CO2 production and diffusion. Steady state conditions are unlikely to prevail in the field, so spot measurements of δ13CO2 and assumptions based on the theoretical 4.4 ‰ diffusive fractionation will not be accurate for estimating source δ13CO2. Continuous measurements could be integrated over a period suitable to reduce the influence of transient NSS conditions. It will be difficult to disentangle biologically driven changes in soil δ13CO2 from physical controls, particularly as they occur on similar timescales and are driven by the same environmental variables, such as temperature, moisture and daylight.

Soil surface roughness: comparing old and new measuring methods and application in a soil erosion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomsen, L. M.; Baartman, J. E. M.; Barneveld, R. J.; Starkloff, T.; Stolte, J.

2015-04-01

Quantification of soil roughness, i.e. the irregularities of the soil surface due to soil texture, aggregates, rock fragments and land management, is important as it affects surface storage, infiltration, overland flow, and ultimately sediment detachment and erosion. Roughness has been measured in the field using both contact methods (such as roller chain and pinboard) and sensor methods (such as stereophotogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)). A novel depth-sensing technique, originating in the gaming industry, has recently become available for earth sciences: the Xtion Pro method. Roughness data obtained using various methods are assumed to be similar; this assumption is tested in this study by comparing five different methods to measure roughness in the field on 1 m2 agricultural plots with different management (ploughing, harrowing, forest and direct seeding on stubble) in southern Norway. Subsequently, the values were used as input for the LISEM soil erosion model to test their effect on the simulated hydrograph at catchment scale. Results show that statistically significant differences between the methods were obtained only for the fields with direct seeding on stubble; for the other land management types the methods were in agreement. The spatial resolution of the contact methods was much lower than for the sensor methods (10 000 versus at least 57 000 points per square metre). In terms of costs and ease of use in the field, the Xtion Pro method is promising. Results from the LISEM model indicate that especially the roller chain overestimated the random roughness (RR) values and the model subsequently calculated less surface runoff than measured. In conclusion, the choice of measurement method for roughness data matters and depends on the required accuracy, resolution, mobility in the field and available budget. It is recommended to use only one method within one study.

Soil surface roughness: comparing old and new measuring methods and application in a soil erosion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomsen, L. M.; Baartman, J. E. M.; Barneveld, R. J.; Starkloff, T.; Stolte, J.

2014-11-01

Quantification of soil roughness, i.e. the irregularities of the soil surface due to soil texture, aggregates, rock fragments and land management, is important as it affects surface storage, infiltration, overland flow and ultimately sediment detachment and erosion. Roughness has been measured in the field using both contact methods, such as roller chain and pinboard, and sensor methods, such as stereophotogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). A novel depth sensing technique, originating in the gaming industry, has recently become available for earth sciences; the Xtion Pro method. Roughness data obtained using various methods are assumed to be similar; this assumption is tested in this study by comparing five different methods to measure roughness in the field on 1 m2 agricultural plots with different management (ploughing, harrowing, forest and direct seeding on stubble) in southern Norway. Subsequently, the values were used as input for the LISEM soil erosion model to test their effect on the simulated hydrograph on catchment scale. Results show that statistically significant differences between the methods were obtained only for the fields with direct drilling on stubble; for the other land management types the methods were in agreement. The spatial resolution of the contact methods was much lower than for the sensor methods (10 000 versus at least 57 000 points per m2 respectively). In terms of costs and ease of handling in the field, the Xtion Pro method is promising. Results from the LISEM model indicate that especially the roller chain underestimated the RR values and the model thereby calculated less surface runoff than measured. In conclusion: the choice of measurement method for roughness data matters and depends on the required accuracy, resolution, mobility in the field and available budget. It is recommended to use only one method within one study.

Estimates of Soil Moisture Using the Land Information System for Land Surface Water Storage: Case Study for the Western States Water Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, P. W.; Famiglietti, J. S.; Levoe, S.; Reager, J. T., II; David, C. H.; Kumar, S.; Li, B.; Peters-Lidard, C. D.

2017-12-01

Soil moisture is one of the critical factors in terrestrial hydrology. Accurate soil moisture information improves estimation of terrestrial water storage and fluxes, that is essential for water resource management including sustainable groundwater pumping and agricultural irrigation practices. It is particularly important during dry periods when water stress is high. The Western States Water Mission (WSWM), a multiyear mission project of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is operated to understand and estimate quantities of the water availability in the western United States by integrating observations and measurements from in-situ and remote sensing sensors, and hydrological models. WSWM data products have been used to assess and explore the adverse impacts of the California drought (2011-2016) and provide decision-makers information for water use planning. Although the observations are often more accurate, simulations using land surface models can provide water availability estimates at desired spatio-temporal scales. The Land Information System (LIS), developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, integrates developed land surface models and data processing and management tools, that enables to utilize the measurements and observations from various platforms as forcings in the high performance computing environment to forecast the hydrologic conditions. The goal of this study is to implement the LIS in the western United States for estimates of soil moisture. We will implement the NOAH-MP model at the 12km North America Land Data Assimilation System grid and compare to other land surface models included in the LIS. Findings will provide insight into the differences between model estimates and model physics. Outputs from a multi-model ensemble from LIS can also be used to enhance estimated reliability and provide quantification of uncertainty. We will compare the LIS-based soil moisture estimates to the SMAP enhanced 9 km soil moisture product to understand the mechanistic differences between the model and observation. These outcomes will contribute to the WSWM for providing robust products.

Vegetation classification and soil moisture calculation using land surface temperature (LST) and vegetation index (VI)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Liangyun; Zhang, Bing; Xu, Genxing; Zheng, Lanfen; Tong, Qingxi

2002-03-01

In this paper, the temperature-missivity separating (TES) method and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) are introduced, and the hyperspectral image data are analyzed using land surface temperature (LST) and NDVI channels which are acquired by Operative Module Imaging Spectral (OMIS) in Beijing Precision Agriculture Demonstration Base in Xiaotangshan town, Beijing in 26 Apr, 2001. Firstly, the 6 kinds of ground targets, which are winter wheat in booting stage and jointing stage, bare soil, water in ponds, sullage in dry ponds, aquatic grass, are well classified using LST and NDVI channels. Secondly, the triangle-like scatter-plot is built and analyzed using LST and NDVI channels, which is convenient to extract the information of vegetation growth and soil's moisture. Compared with the scatter-plot built by red and near-infrared bands, the spectral distance between different classes are larger, and the samples in the same class are more convergent. Finally, we design a logarithm VIT model to extract the surface soil water content (SWC) using LST and NDVI channel, which works well, and the coefficient of determination, R2, between the measured surface SWC and the estimated is 0.634. The mapping of surface SWC in the wheat area are calculated and illustrated, which is important for scientific irrigation and precise agriculture.

Potential ecological and human health risks of heavy metals in surface soils associated with iron ore mining in Pahang, Malaysia.

PubMed

Diami, Siti Merryan; Kusin, Faradiella Mohd; Madzin, Zafira

2016-10-01

The composition of heavy metals (and metalloid) in surface soils of iron ore mine-impacted areas has been evaluated of their potential ecological and human health risks. The mining areas included seven selected locations in the vicinity of active and abandoned iron ore-mining sites in Pahang, Malaysia. Heavy metals such as Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Co, Pb, Cr, Ni, and Cd and metalloid As were present in the mining soils of the studied area, while Cu was found exceeding the soil guideline value at all sampling locations. However, the assessment of the potential ecological risk index (RI) indicated low ecological risk (RI between 44 and 128) with respect to Cd, Pb, Cu, As, Zn, Co, and Ni in the surface soils. Contributions of potential ecological risk [Formula: see text]by metal elements to the total potential ecological RI were evident for Cd, As, Pb, and Cu. Contribution of Cu appears to be consistently greater in the abandoned mining area compared to active iron ore-mining site. For non-carcinogenic risk, no significant potential health risk was found to both children and adults as the hazard indices (HIs) were all below than 1. The lifetime cancer risk (LCR) indicated that As has greater potential carcinogenic risk compared to other metals that may induce carcinogenic effects such as Pb, Cr, and Cd, while the LCR of As for children fell within tolerable range for regulatory purposes. Irrespective of carcinogenic or non-carcinogenic risk, greater potential health risk was found among children (by an order of magnitude higher for most metals) compared to adults. The hazard quotient (HQ) and cancer risk indicated that the pathways for the risk to occur were found to be in the order of ingestion > dermal > inhalation. Overall, findings showed that some metals and metalloid were still present at comparable concentrations even long after cessation of the iron ore-mining activities.

[Effects of land cover change on soil organic carbon and light fraction organic carbon at river banks of Fuzhou urban area].

PubMed

Zeng, Hong-Da; Du, Zi-Xian; Yang, Yu-Sheng; Li, Xi-Bo; Zhang, Ya-Chun; Yang, Zhi-Feng

2010-03-01

By using Vario EL III element analyzer, the vertical distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and light-fraction organic carbon (LFOC) in the lawn, patch plantation, and reed wetland at river banks of Fuzhou urban area were studied in July 2007. For all the three land cover types, the SOC and LFOC contents were the highest in surface soil layer, and declined gradually with soil depth. Compared with reed wetland, the lawn and patch plantation had higher SOC and LFOC contents in each layer of the soil profile (0-60 cm), and the lawn had significantly higher contents of SOC and LFOC in 0-20 cm soil layer, compared with the patch plantation. After the reed wetland was converted into lawn and patch plantation, the SOC stock in the soil profile was increased by 94.8% and 72.0%, and the LFOC stock was increased by 225% and 93%, respectively. Due to the changes of plant species, plant density, and management measure, the conversion from natural wetland into human-manipulated green spaces increased the SOC and LFOC stocks in the soil profile, and improved the soil quality. Compared with the SOC, soil LFOC was more sensitive to land use/cover change, especially for those in 0-20 cm soil layer.

Predicting soil formation on the basis of transport-limited chemical weathering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Fang; Hunt, Allen Gerhard

2018-01-01

Soil production is closely related to chemical weathering. It has been shown that, under the assumption that chemical weathering is limited by solute transport, the process of soil production is predictable. However, solute transport in soil cannot be described by Gaussian transport. In this paper, we propose an approach based on percolation theory describing non-Gaussian transport of solute to predict soil formation (the net production of soil) by considering both soil production from chemical weathering and removal of soil from erosion. Our prediction shows agreement with observed soil depths in the field. Theoretical soil formation rates are also compared with published rates predicted using soil age-profile thickness (SAST) method. Our formulation can be incorporated directly into landscape evolution models on a point-to-point basis as long as such models account for surface water routing associated with overland flow. Further, our treatment can be scaled-up to address complications associated with continental-scale applications, including those from climate change, such as changes in vegetation, or surface flow organization. The ability to predict soil formation rates has implications for understanding Earth's climate system on account of the relationship to chemical weathering of silicate minerals with the associated drawdown of atmospheric carbon, but it is also important in geomorphology for understanding landscape evolution, including for example, the shapes of hillslopes, and the net transport of sediments to sedimentary basins.

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.

Vegetation effects on soil water erosion rates and nutrient losses at Santa Catarina highlands, south Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertol, I.; Barbosa, F. T.; Vidal Vázquez, E.; Paz Ferreiro, J.

2009-04-01

Water erosion involves three main processes: detachment, transport and deposition of soil particles. The main factors affecting water erosion are rainfall, soil, topography, soil management and land cover and use. Soil erosion potential is increased if the soil has no or very little vegetative cover of plants and/or crop residues, whereas plant and residue cover substantially decrease rates of soil erosion. Plant and residue cover protects the soil from raindrop impact and splash, tends to slow down the movement of surface runoff and allows excess surface water to infiltrate. Moreover, plant and residue cover improve soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Soils with improved structure have a greater resistance to erosion. By contrast, accelerated soil erosion is accentuated by deforestation, biomass burning, plowing and disking, cultivation of open-row crops, etc. The erosion-reducing effectiveness of plant and/or residue covers depends on the type, extent and quantity of cover. Vegetation and residue combinations that completely cover the soil are the most efficient in controlling soil. Partially incorporated residues and residual roots are also important, as these provide channels that allow surface water to move into the soil. The effectiveness of any crop, management system or protective cover also depends on how much protection is available at various periods during the year, relative to the amount of erosive rainfall that falls during these periods. Most of the erosion on annual row crop land can be reduced by leaving a residue cover greater after harvest and over the winter months, or by inter-seeding a forage crop. Soil erosion potential is also affected by tillage operations and tillage system. Conservation tillage reduces water erosion in relation to conventional tillage by increasing soil cover and soil surface roughness. Here, we review the effect of vegetation on soil erosion in the Santa Catarina highlands, south of Brazil, under subtropical climatic conditions. The area cropped under no tillage in Brazil has increased rapidly since 1990, especially in the southern region. This practice was first introduced in the 1970s as a strategy to control soil erosion and continuous declines in land productivity under conventional tillage systems. No tillage almost entirely keeps the previous crop residue on the surface. In the last 15 years soil and water losses by water erosion have been quantified for different soil tillage systems, diverse crop rotations and successive crop stages under simulated and natural rain conditions. Plot experiments showed that soil losses under no tillage systems with a vegetative cover were 98% lower when compared with conventionally tilled bare soil. Moreover water losses were 60% lower for these conditions. Conventional tillage (plowing + harrowing) in the presence of vegetative cover reduced soil losses and water losses by 80% and 50%, respectively, taken the uncultivated bare soil as a reference. The review includes the effect of vegetative cover on nutrient losses at the studied sites in the Santa Catarina highlands.

Environmental and physical controls on northern terrestrial methane emissions across permafrost zones

USGS Publications Warehouse

Olefeldt, David; Turetsky, Merritt R.; Crill, Patrick M.; McGuire, A. David

2013-01-01

Methane (CH4) emissions from the northern high-latitude region represent potentially significant biogeochemical feedbacks to the climate system. We compiled a database of growing-season CH4 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems located across permafrost zones, including 303 sites described in 65 studies. Data on environmental and physical variables, including permafrost conditions, were used to assess controls on CH4 emissions. Water table position, soil temperature, and vegetation composition strongly influenced emissions and had interacting effects. Sites with a dense sedge cover had higher emissions than other sites at comparable water table positions, and this was an effect that was more pronounced at low soil temperatures. Sensitivity analysis suggested that CH4 emissions from ecosystems where the water table on average is at or above the soil surface (wet tundra, fen underlain by permafrost, and littoral ecosystems) are more sensitive to variability in soil temperature than drier ecosystems (palsa dry tundra, bog, and fen), whereas the latter ecosystems conversely are relatively more sensitive to changes of the water table position. Sites with near-surface permafrost had lower CH4 fluxes than sites without permafrost at comparable water table positions, a difference that was explained by lower soil temperatures. Neither the active layer depth nor the organic soil layer depth was related to CH4 emissions. Permafrost thaw in lowland regions is often associated with increased soil moisture, higher soil temperatures, and increased sedge cover. In our database, lowland thermokarst sites generally had higher emissions than adjacent sites with intact permafrost, but emissions from thermokarst sites were not statistically higher than emissions from permafrost-free sites with comparable environmental conditions. Overall, these results suggest that future changes to terrestrial high-latitude CH4 emissions will be more proximately related to changes in moisture, soil temperature, and vegetation composition than to increased availability of organic matter following permafrost thaw.

Uptake and Accumulation of Pharmaceuticals in Overhead- and Surface-Irrigated Greenhouse Lettuce.

PubMed

Bhalsod, Gemini D; Chuang, Ya-Hui; Jeon, Sangho; Gui, Wenjun; Li, Hui; Ryser, Elliot T; Guber, Andrey K; Zhang, Wei

2018-01-31

Understanding the uptake and accumulation of pharmaceuticals in vegetables under typical irrigation practices is critical to risk assessment of crop irrigation with reclaimed water. This study investigated the pharmaceutical residues in greenhouse lettuce under overhead and soil-surface irrigations using pharmaceutical-contaminated water. Compared to soil-surface irrigation, overhead irrigation substantially increased the pharmaceutical residues in lettuce shoots. The increased residue levels persisted even after washing for trimethoprim, monensin sodium, and tylosin, indicating their strong sorption to the shoots. The postwashing concentrations in fresh shoots varied from 0.05 ± 0.04 μg/kg for sulfadiazine to 345 ± 139 μg/kg for carbamazepine. Root concentration factors ranged from 0.04 ± 0.14 for tylosin to 19.2 ± 15.7 for sulfamethoxazole. Translocation factors in surface-irrigated lettuce were low for sulfamethoxalzole, trimethoprim, monensin sodium, and tylosin (0.07-0.15), but high for caffeine (4.28 ± 3.01) and carbamazepine (8.15 ± 2.87). Carbamazepine was persistent in soil and hyperaccumulated in shoots.

Evaluation of ferrolysis in arsenate adsorption on the paddy soil derived from an Oxisol.

PubMed

Jiang, Jun; Dai, Zhaoxia; Sun, Rui; Zhao, Zhenjie; Dong, Ying; Hong, Zhineng; Xu, Renkou

2017-07-01

Iron oxides are dominant effective adsorbents for arsenate in iron oxide-rich variable charge soils. Oxisol-derived paddy soils undergo intensive ferrolysis, which results in high leaching and transformation of iron oxides. However, little information is available concerning the effect of ferrolysis on arsenate adsorption by paddy soil and parent Oxisol. In the present study, we examined the arsenate affinity of soils using arsenate adsorption/desorption isotherms, zeta potential, adsorption kinetics, pH effect and phosphate competition experiments. Results showed that ferrolysis in an alternating flooding-drying Oxisol-derived paddy soil resulted in a significant decrease of free iron oxides and increase of amorphous iron oxides in the surface and subsurface layers. There were more reactive sites exposed on amorphous than on crystalline iron oxides. Therefore, disproportionate ratios of arsenate adsorption capacities and contents of free iron oxides were observed in the studied Oxisols compared with paddy soils. The Gibbs free energy values corroborated that both electrostatic and non-electrostatic adsorption mechanisms contributed to the arsenate adsorption by bulk soils, and the kinetic adsorption data further suggested that the rate-limiting step was chemisorption. The zeta potential of soil colloids decreased after arsenate was adsorbed on the surfaces, forming inner-sphere complexes and thus transferring their negative charges to the soil particle surfaces. The adsorption/desorption isotherms showed that non-electrostatic adsorption was the main mechanism responsible for arsenate binding to the Oxisol and derived paddy soils, representing 91.42-94.65% of the adsorption capacities. Further studies revealed that arsenate adsorption was greatly inhibited by increasing suspension pH and incorporation of phosphate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Theoretical considerations of soil retention. [dirtying of solar energy devices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuddihy, E. F.

1980-01-01

The performance of solar energy devices is adversely affected by surface soiling, and generally, the loss of performance increases with increases in the quantity of soil retained on their surfaces. To minimize performance losses caused by soiling, solar devices should not only be deployed in low soiling geographical areas, but employ surfaces or surfacing materials having low affinity for soil retention, maximum susceptibility to be naturally cleaned by wind, rain and snow, and to be readily cleanable by simple and inexpensive maintenance cleaning techniques. This article describes known and postulated mechanisms of soil retention on surfaces, and infers from these mechanisms that low soiling and easily cleanable surfaces should have low surface energy, and be hard, smooth, hydrophobic and chemically clean of sticky materials and water soluble salts.

Evaluation of Assimilated SMOS Soil Moisture Data for US Cropland Soil Moisture Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yang, Zhengwei; Sherstha, Ranjay; Crow, Wade; Bolten, John; Mladenova, Iva; Yu, Genong; Di, Liping

2016-01-01

Remotely sensed soil moisture data can provide timely, objective and quantitative crop soil moisture information with broad geospatial coverage and sufficiently high resolution observations collected throughout the growing season. This paper evaluates the feasibility of using the assimilated ESA Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS)Mission L-band passive microwave data for operational US cropland soil surface moisture monitoring. The assimilated SMOS soil moisture data are first categorized to match with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) survey based weekly soil moisture observation data, which are ordinal. The categorized assimilated SMOS soil moisture data are compared with NASSs survey-based weekly soil moisture data for consistency and robustness using visual assessment and rank correlation. Preliminary results indicate that the assimilated SMOS soil moisture data highly co-vary with NASS field observations across a large geographic area. Therefore, SMOS data have great potential for US operational cropland soil moisture monitoring.

An improved model for soil surface temperature from air temperature in permafrost regions of Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau of China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Guojie; Wu, Xiaodong; Zhao, Lin; Li, Ren; Wu, Tonghua; Xie, Changwei; Pang, Qiangqiang; Cheng, Guodong

2017-08-01

Soil temperature plays a key role in hydro-thermal processes in environments and is a critical variable linking surface structure to soil processes. There is a need for more accurate temperature simulation models, particularly in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau (QXP). In this study, a model was developed for the simulation of hourly soil surface temperatures with air temperatures. The model incorporated the thermal properties of the soil, vegetation cover, solar radiation, and water flux density and utilized field data collected from Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau (QXP). The model was used to simulate the thermal regime at soil depths of 5 cm, 10 cm and 20 cm and results were compared with those from previous models and with experimental measurements of ground temperature at two different locations. The analysis showed that the newly developed model provided better estimates of observed field temperatures, with an average mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and the normalized standard error (NSEE) of 1.17 °C, 1.30 °C and 13.84 %, 0.41 °C, 0.49 °C and 5.45 %, 0.13 °C, 0.18 °C and 2.23 % at 5 cm, 10 cm and 20 cm depths, respectively. These findings provide a useful reference for simulating soil temperature and may be incorporated into other ecosystem models requiring soil temperature as an input variable for modeling permafrost changes under global warming.

Nonlinear acoustic techniques for landmine detection.

PubMed

Korman, Murray S; Sabatier, James M

2004-12-01

Measurements of the top surface vibration of a buried (inert) VS 2.2 anti-tank plastic landmine reveal significant resonances in the frequency range between 80 and 650 Hz. Resonances from measurements of the normal component of the acoustically induced soil surface particle velocity (due to sufficient acoustic-to-seismic coupling) have been used in detection schemes. Since the interface between the top plate and the soil responds nonlinearly to pressure fluctuations, characteristics of landmines, the soil, and the interface are rich in nonlinear physics and allow for a method of buried landmine detection not previously exploited. Tuning curve experiments (revealing "softening" and a back-bone curve linear in particle velocity amplitude versus frequency) help characterize the nonlinear resonant behavior of the soil-landmine oscillator. The results appear to exhibit the characteristics of nonlinear mesoscopic elastic behavior, which is explored. When two primary waves f1 and f2 drive the soil over the mine near resonance, a rich spectrum of nonlinearly generated tones is measured with a geophone on the surface over the buried landmine in agreement with Donskoy [SPIE Proc. 3392, 221-217 (1998); 3710, 239-246 (1999)]. In profiling, particular nonlinear tonals can improve the contrast ratio compared to using either primary tone in the spectrum.

Using SMOS brightness temperature and derived surface-soil moisture to characterize surface conditions and validate land surface models.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polcher, Jan; Barella-Ortiz, Anaïs; Piles, Maria; Gelati, Emiliano; de Rosnay, Patricia

2017-04-01

The SMOS satellite, operated by ESA, observes the surface in the L-band. On continental surface these observations are sensitive to moisture and in particular surface-soil moisture (SSM). In this presentation we will explore how the observations of this satellite can be exploited over the Iberian Peninsula by comparing its results with two land surface models : ORCHIDEE and HTESSEL. Measured and modelled brightness temperatures show a good agreement in their temporal evolution, but their spatial structures are not consistent. An empirical orthogonal function analysis of the brightness temperature's error identifies a dominant structure over the south-west of the Iberian Peninsula which evolves during the year and is maximum in autumn and winter. Hypotheses concerning forcing-induced biases and assumptions made in the radiative transfer model are analysed to explain this inconsistency, but no candidate is found to be responsible for the weak spatial correlations. The analysis of spatial inconsistencies between modelled and measured TBs is important, as these can affect the estimation of geophysical variables and TB assimilation in operational models, as well as result in misleading validation studies. When comparing the surface-soil moisture of the models with the product derived operationally by ESA from SMOS observations similar results are found. The spatial correlation over the IP between SMOS and ORCHIDEE SSM estimates is poor (ρ 0.3). A single value decomposition (SVD) analysis of rainfall and SSM shows that the co-varying patterns of these variables are in reasonable agreement between both products. Moreover the first three SVD soil moisture patterns explain over 80% of the SSM variance simulated by the model while the explained fraction is only 52% of the remotely sensed values. These results suggest that the rainfall-driven soil moisture variability may not account for the poor spatial correlation between SMOS and ORCHIDEE products. Other reasons have to be sought to explain the poor agreement in spatial patterns between satellite derived and modelled SSM. This presentation will hopefully contribute to the discussion of how SMOS and other observations can be used to prepare, carry-out and exploit a field campaign over the Iberian Peninsula which aims at improving our understanding of semi-arid land surface processes.

Improving Representations of Near-Surface Permafrost and Soil Temperature Profiles in the Regional Arctic System Model (RASM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gergel, D. R.; Hamman, J.; Nijssen, B.

2017-12-01

Permafrost and seasonally frozen soils are a key characteristic of the terrestrial Arctic, and the fate of near-surface permafrost as a result of climate change is projected to have strong impacts on terrestrial biogeochemistry. The active layer thickness (ALT) is the layer of soil that freezes and thaws annually, and shifts in the depth of the ALT are projected to occur over large areas of the Arctic that are characterized by discontinuous permafrost. Faithful representation of permafrost in land models in climate models is a product of both soil dynamics and the coupling of air and soil temperatures. A common problem is a large bias in simulated ALT due to a model depth that is too shallow. Similarly, soil temperatures often show systematic biases, which lead to biases in air temperature due to poorly modeled air-soil temperature feedbacks in a coupled environment. In this study, we use the Regional Arctic System Model (RASM), a fully-coupled regional earth system model that is run at a 50-km land/atmosphere resolution over a pan-Arctic domain and uses the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model as its land model. To understand what modeling decisions are necessary to accurately represent near-surface permafrost and soil temperature profiles, we perform a large number of RASM simulations with prescribed atmospheric forcings (e.g. VIC in standalone mode in RASM) while varying the model soil depth, thickness of soil moisture layers, number of soil layers and the distribution of soil nodes. We compare modeled soil temperatures and ALT to observations from the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) network. CALM observations include annual ALT observations as well as daily soil temperature measurements at three soil depths for three sites in Alaska. In the future, we will use our results to inform our modeling of permafrost dynamics in fully-coupled RASM simulations.

Relationships between soil microbial communities and soil carbon turnover along a vegetation and moisture gradient in interior Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waldrop, M. P.; Harden, J. W.; Turetsky, M. R.; Petersen, D. G.; McGuire, A. D.; Briones, M. J.; Churchill, A. C.; Doctor, D. H.; Pruett, L. E.

2010-12-01

Boreal landscapes are characterized by a mosaic of uplands and lowlands, which differ in plant species composition, litter biochemistry, and biogeochemical cycling rates. Boreal ecosystems, from upland black spruce stands to lowland fens, are structured largely by water table position and contain quantitatively and qualitatively different forms of soil organic matter. Differences in carbon (C) availability among ecosystems likely translate to differences in the structure of soil microbial communities, which in turn could affect rates of organic matter decomposition and turnover. We examined relationships between microbial communities and soil C turnover in near-surface soils along a topographic soil moisture and vegetation gradient in interior Alaska. We tested the hypothesis that upland black spruce sites would be dominated by soil fungi and have slow rates of C turnover, whereas lowland ecosystems would be dominated by bacteria and mesofauna (enchytraeids) and have more rapid rates of C turnover. We utilized several isotopic measures of soil C turnover including bomb radiocarbon techniques, the δ15N of SOM, and the difference between δ13C of SOM, DOC, and respired CO2. All three measures indicated greater C turnover rates in the surface soils of the lowland fen sites compared to the more upland locations. Quantitative PCR analyses of soil bacteria and archaea, combined with enchytraed counts, confirmed that surface soils from the lowland fen ecosystems had the highest abundances of these functional groups. Fungal biomass was highly variable and tended to be more abundant in the upland forest sites. Soil enzymatic results were mixed: potential cellulase activities were higher in the more upland soils even though rates of microbial activity were generally lower. Oxidative enzyme activities were higher in fens, even though these ecosystems are saturated and partly anaerobic. Overall our data support soil food web theory which argues that rapidly cycling systems are bacterial dominated with mesofaunal grazing, whereas slowly cycling systems have characteristic higher fungal:bacterial ratios.

Land surface-precipitation feedback and ramifications on storm dynamics.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baisya, H.; PV, R.; Pattnaik, S.

2017-12-01

A series of numerical experiments are carried out to investigate the sensitivity of a landfalling monsoon depression to land surface conditions using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Results suggest that precipitation is largely modulated by moisture influx and precipitation efficiency. Three cloud microphysical schemes (WSM6, WDM6, and Morrison) are examined, and Morrison is chosen for assessing the land surface-precipitation feedback analysis, owing to better precipitation forecast skills. It is found that increased soil moisture facilitates Moisture Flux Convergence (MFC) with reduced moisture influx, whereas a reduced soil moisture condition facilitates moisture influx but not MFC. A higher Moist Static Energy (MSE) is noted due to increased evapotranspiration in an elevated moisture scenario which enhances moist convection. As opposed to moist surface, sensible heat dominates in a reduced moisture scenario, ensued by an overall reduction in MSE throughout the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). Stability analysis shows that Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) is comparable in magnitude for both increased and decreased moisture scenarios, whereas Convective Inhibition (CIN) shows increased values for the reduced moisture scenario as a consequence of drier atmosphere leading to suppression of convection. Simulations carried out with various fixed soil moisture levels indicate that the overall precipitation features of the storm are characterized by initial soil moisture condition, but precipitation intensity at any instant is modulated by soil moisture availability. Overall results based on this case study suggest that antecedent soil moisture plays a crucial role in modulating precipitation distribution and intensity of a monsoon depression.

Two-Dimensional Synthetic Aperture Radiometry over Land Surface During Soil Moisture Experiment in 2003 (SMEX03)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ryu, Dongryeol; Jackson, Thomas J.; Bindlish, Rajat; Le Vine, David M.; Haken, Michael

2007-01-01

Microwave radiometry at low frequencies (L-band, approx. 1.4 GHz) has been known as an optimal solution for remote sensing of soil moisture. However, the antenna size required to achieve an appropriate resolution from space has limited the development of spaceborne L-band radiometers. This problem can be addressed by interferometric technology called aperture synthesis. The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission will apply this technique to monitor global-scale surface parameters in the near future. The first airborne experiment using an aircraft prototype of this approach, the Two-Dimensional Synthetic Aperture Radiometer (2D-STAR), was performed in the Soil Moisture Experiment in 2003 (SMEX03). The L-band brightness temperature data acquired in Alabama by the 2DSTAR was compared with ground-based measurements of soil moisture and with C-band data collected by the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR). Our results demonstrate a good response of the 2D-STAR brightness temperature to changes in surface wetness, both in agricultural and forest lands. The behavior of the horizontally polarized brightness temperature data with increasing view-angle over the forest area was noticeably different than over bare soil. The results from the comparison of 2D-STAR and PSR indicate a better response of the 2D-STAR to the surface wetness under both wet and dry conditions. Our results have important implications for the performance of the future SMOS mission.

Direct green waste land application: How to reduce its impacts on greenhouse gas and volatile organic compound emissions?

PubMed

Zhu-Barker, Xia; Burger, Martin; Horwath, William R; Green, Peter G

2016-06-01

Direct land application as an alternative to green waste (GW) disposal in landfills or composting requires an understanding of its impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. We investigated the effects of two approaches of GW direct land application, surface application and soil incorporation, on carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), and VOC emissions for a 12month period. Five treatments were applied in fall 2013 on fallow land under a Mediterranean climate in California: 30cm height GW on surface; 15cm height GW on surface; 15cm height GW tilled into soil; control+till; control+no till. In addition, a laboratory experiment was conducted to develop a mechanistic understanding of the influence of GW application on soil O2 consumption and GHG emission. The annual cumulative N2O, CO2 and VOC emissions ranged from 1.6 to 5.5kgN2O-Nha(-1), 5.3 to 40.6MgCO2-Cha(-1) and 0.6 to 9.9kgVOCha(-1), respectively, and were greatly reduced by GW soil incorporation compared to surface application. Application of GW quickly consumed soil O2 within one day in the lab incubation. These results indicate that to reduce GHG and VOC emissions of GW direct land application, GW incorporation into soil is recommended. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling surface energy fluxes from a patchwork of fields with different soils and crops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klein, Christian; Thieme, Christoph; Heinlein, Florian; Priesack, Eckart

2017-04-01

Agroecosystems are a dominant terrestrial land-use on planet earth and cover about 36% of the ice-free surface (12% pasture, 26% agriculture) [Foley2011]. Within this land use type, management practices vary strongly due to climate, cultural preferences, degree of industrialization, soil properties, crop rotations, field sizes, degree of land use sustainability, water availability, sowing and harvest dates, tillage, etc. These management practices influence abiotic environmental factors like water flow and heat transport within the ecosystem leading to changes of land surface fluxes. The relevance of vegetation (e.g. crops), ground cover, and soil properties to the moisture and energy exchanges between the land surface and the atmosphere is well known [McPherson 2007], but the impact of vegetation growth dynamics on energy fluxes is only partly understood [Gayler et al. 2014]. Thus, the structure of turbulence and the albedo evolve during the cropping period and large variations of heat can be measured on the field scale [Aubinet2012]. One issue of local distributed mixture of different land use is the measurement process which makes it challenging to evaluate simulations. Unfortunately, for meteorological flux-measurements like the Flux-Gradient or the Eddy Covariance (EC) method, comparability with simulations only exists in the ideal case, where fields have to be completely uniform in land use and flat within the reach of the footprint. Then a model with one specific land use would have the same underlying source area as the measurement. An elegant method to avoid the shortcoming of grid cell resolution is the so called mixed approach, which was recently implemented into the ecosystem model framework Expert-N [Biernath et al. 2013]. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of the characteristics of five managed field plots, planted with winter wheat, potato and maize on the near surface soil moistures and on the near surface energy flux exchanges of the soil-plant-atmosphere interface. The simulated energy fluxes were compared with eddy flux tower measurements between the respective fields at the research farm Scheyern, North-West of Munich, Germany. These simulations were done by coupling the ecosystem model Expert-N to an analytical footprint model [Mauder & Foken 2011] . The coupled model system has the ability to calculate the mixing ratio of the surface energy fluxes at the flux tower position. The approach accounts for the temporarily and spatially changing contributions of the patchwork of environmental land surface conditions (land use, management, soil properties) which influence the energy flux tower measurements due to the footprint dynamics. The statistical evaluation between simulation and measurements showed that the mixed approach improved the comparability in most cases. Furthermore, the management impact on single patches can be clearly detected, both in the measurements and the simulation. We conclude that reasonable simulations of energy and matter fluxes can be obtained if the heterogeneity of the land surfaces is taken into account.

Photodegradation of dioxin in contaminated soil in the presence of solvents and nanoscale TiO2 particles.

PubMed

Binh, Nguyen Duy; Oanh, Nguyen Thi Kim; Parkpian, Preeda

2014-01-01

Decomposition of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) present in soil under ultraviolet (UV) illumination (350-400nm) was investigated using a combination of nontoxic solvents mixed in soil and nanoscale anatase TiO2 (nTiO2) distributed on 2mm top soil surface. Three types of UV-exposure experiments were conducted: intermittent exposure (8 h/day) for 90 days and 120 days, sequential intermittent (120 days) and continuous (24 h/day) for the next 55 days, and continuous exposure for 55 days. The influence of several factors on dioxin photodegradation efficiency was investigated, including the UV absorption by the targeted dioxin, presence of catalytic nTiO2 on soil surface, solvent evaporation rate, as well as vertical gradients of solvents added into the soil columns. Results of dioxin analysis for the soil samples collected at the end of every experiment condition show that the photodegradation enhanced by the nTiO2 presence on the soil surface considerably increased the dioxin removal. Higher removal efficiencies were found for treatments with 15%wt of nTiO2 mixed in the 2-mm surface soil as compared to the 5%wt nTiO2 treatments. The highest removal efficiency (79.6%) was for the sequential intermittent-continuous UV-exposure experiment with nTiO2. Dechlorinated products of 2,3,7,8-TCDD were generally not detected which suggests degradation of targeted dioxin by C-Cl cleavage was negligible. Further modifications to improve removal efficiencies were proposed. Large-scale engineered systems may employ this integrated treatment approach which can also incorporate the reuse of the top soil containing nTiO2 and solvent vapours. With the utilization of natural sunlight such systems would be promisingly suitable for tropical conditions.

The fate of silver nanoparticles in soil solution--Sorption of solutes and aggregation.

PubMed

Klitzke, Sondra; Metreveli, George; Peters, Andre; Schaumann, Gabriele E; Lang, Friederike

2015-12-01

Nanoparticles enter soils through various pathways. In the soil, they undergo various interactions with the solution and the solid phase. We tested the following hypotheses using batch experiments: i) the colloidal stability of Ag NP increases through sorption of soil-borne dissolved organic matter (DOM) and thus inhibits aggregation; ii) the presence of DOM suppresses Ag oxidation; iii) the surface charge of Ag NP governs sorption onto soil particles. Citrate-stabilized and bare Ag NPs were equilibrated with (colloid-free) soil solution extracted from a floodplain soil for 24h. Nanoparticles were removed through centrifugation. Concentrations of free Ag ions and DOC, the specific UV absorbance at a wavelength of 254 nm, and the absorption ratio α254/α410 were determined in the supernatant. Nanoparticle aggregation was studied using time-resolved dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement following the addition of soil solution and 1.5mM Ca(2+) solution. To study the effect of surface charge on the adsorption of Ag NP onto soil particles, bare and citrate-stabilized Ag NP, differing in the zeta potential, were equilibrated with silt at a solid-to-solution ratio of 1:10 and an initial Ag concentration range of 30 to 320 μg/L. Results showed that bare Ag NPs sorb organic matter, with short-chained organic matter being preferentially adsorbed over long-chained, aromatic organic matter. Stabilizing effects of organic matter only come into play at higher Ag NP concentrations. Soil solution inhibits the release of Ag(+) ions, presumably due to organic matter coatings. Sorption to silt particles was very similar for the two particle types, suggesting that the surface charge does not control Ag NP sorption. Besides, sorption was much lower than in comparable studies with sand and glass surfaces. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Validation and Sensitivity Analysis of a New Atmosphere-Soil-Vegetation Model.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagai, Haruyasu

2002-02-01

This paper describes details, validation, and sensitivity analysis of a new atmosphere-soil-vegetation model. The model consists of one-dimensional multilayer submodels for atmosphere, soil, and vegetation and radiation schemes for the transmission of solar and longwave radiations in canopy. The atmosphere submodel solves prognostic equations for horizontal wind components, potential temperature, specific humidity, fog water, and turbulence statistics by using a second-order closure model. The soil submodel calculates the transport of heat, liquid water, and water vapor. The vegetation submodel evaluates the heat and water budget on leaf surface and the downward liquid water flux. The model performance was tested by using measured data of the Cooperative Atmosphere-Surface Exchange Study (CASES). Calculated ground surface fluxes were mainly compared with observations at a winter wheat field, concerning the diurnal variation and change in 32 days of the first CASES field program in 1997, CASES-97. The measured surface fluxes did not satisfy the energy balance, so sensible and latent heat fluxes obtained by the eddy correlation method were corrected. By using options of the solar radiation scheme, which addresses the effect of the direct solar radiation component, calculated albedo agreed well with the observations. Some sensitivity analyses were also done for model settings. Model calculations of surface fluxes and surface temperature were in good agreement with measurements as a whole.

A mathematical model for the transfer of soil solutes to runoff under water scouring.

PubMed

Yang, Ting; Wang, Quanjiu; Wu, Laosheng; Zhang, Pengyu; Zhao, Guangxu; Liu, Yanli

2016-11-01

The transfer of nutrients from soil to runoff often causes unexpected pollution in water bodies. In this study, a mathematical model that relates to the detachment of soil particles by water flow and the degree of mixing between overland flow and soil nutrients was proposed. The model assumes that the mixing depth is an integral of average water flow depth, and it was evaluated by experiments with three water inflow rates to bare soil surfaces and to surfaces with eight treatments of different stone coverages. The model predicted outflow rates were compared with the experimentally observed data to test the accuracy of the infiltration parameters obtained by curve fitting the models to the data. Further analysis showed that the comprehensive mixing coefficient (ke) was linearly correlated with Reynolds' number Re (R(2)>0.9), and this relationship was verified by comparing the simulated potassium concentration and cumulative mass with observed data, respectively. The best performance with the bias error analysis (Nash Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency (NS), relative error (RE) and the coefficient of determination (R(2))) showed that the predicted data by the proposed model was in good agreement with the measured data. Thus the model can be used to guide soil-water and fertilization management to minimize nutrient runoff from cropland. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Estimating persistence of brominated and chlorinated organic pollutants in air, water, soil, and sediments with the QSPR-based classification scheme.

PubMed

Puzyn, T; Haranczyk, M; Suzuki, N; Sakurai, T

2011-02-01

We have estimated degradation half-lives of both brominated and chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PBDDs and PCDDs), furans (PBDFs and PCDFs), biphenyls (PBBs and PCBs), naphthalenes (PBNs and PCNs), diphenyl ethers (PBDEs and PCDEs) as well as selected unsubstituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air, surface water, surface soil, and sediments (in total of 1,431 compounds in four compartments). Next, we compared the persistence between chloro- (relatively well-studied) and bromo- (less studied) analogs. The predictions have been performed based on the quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) scheme with use of k-nearest neighbors (kNN) classifier and the semi-quantitative system of persistence classes. The classification models utilized principal components derived from the principal component analysis of a set of 24 constitutional and quantum mechanical descriptors as input variables. Accuracies of classification (based on an external validation) were 86, 85, 87, and 75% for air, surface water, surface soil, and sediments, respectively. The persistence of all chlorinated species increased with increasing halogenation degree. In the case of brominated organic pollutants (Br-OPs), the trend was the same for air and sediments. However, we noticed that the opposite trend for persistence in surface water and soil. The results suggest that, due to high photoreactivity of C-Br chemical bonds, photolytic processes occurring in surface water and soil are able to play significant role in transforming and removing Br-OPs from these compartments. This contribution is the first attempt of classifying together Br-OPs and Cl-OPs according to their persistence, in particular, environmental compartments.

Multiscale responses of soil stability and invasive plants to removal of non-native grazers from an arid conservation reserve

USGS Publications Warehouse

Beever, E.A.; Huso, M.; Pyke, D.A.

2006-01-01

Disturbances and ecosystem recovery from disturbance both involve numerous processes that operate on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Few studies have investigated how gradients of disturbance intensity and ecosystem responses are distributed across multiple spatial resolutions and also how this relationship changes through time during recovery. We investigated how cover of non-native species and soil-aggregate stability (a measure of vulnerability to erosion by water) in surface and subsurface soils varied spatially during grazing by burros and cattle and whether patterns in these variables changed after grazer removal from Mojave National Preserve, California, USA. We compared distance from water and number of ungulate defecations - metrics of longer-term and recent grazing intensity, respectively, - as predictors of our response variables. We used information-theoretic analyses to compare hierarchical linear models that accounted for important covariates and allowed for interannual variation in the disturbance-response relationship at local and landscape scales. Soil stability was greater under perennial vegetation than in bare interspaces, and surface soil stability decreased with increasing numbers of ungulate defecations. Stability of surface samples was more affected by time since removal of grazers than was stability of subsurface samples, and subsurface soil stability in bare spaces was not related to grazing intensity, time since removal, or any of our other predictors. In the high rainfall year (2003) after cattle had been removed for 1-2 years, cover of all non-native plants averaged nine times higher than in the low-rainfall year (2002). Given the heterogeneity in distribution of large-herbivore impacts that we observed at several resolutions, hierarchical analyses provided a more complete understanding of the spatial and temporal complexities of disturbance and recovery processes in arid ecosystems. ?? 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Multi-scale responses of soil stability and invasive plants to removal of non-native grazers from an arid conservation reserve

USGS Publications Warehouse

Beever, Erik A.; Huso, Manuela M. P.; Pyke, David A.

2006-01-01

Disturbances and ecosystem recovery from disturbance both involve numerous processes that operate on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Few studies have investigated how gradients of disturbance intensity and ecosystem responses are distributed across multiple spatial resolutions and also how this relationship changes through time during recovery. We investigated how cover of non-native species and soil-aggregate stability (a measure of vulnerability to erosion by water) in surface and subsurface soils varied spatially during grazing by burros and cattle and whether patterns in these variables changed after grazer removal from Mojave National Preserve, California, USA. We compared distance from water and number of ungulate defecations — metrics of longer-term and recent grazing intensity, respectively, — as predictors of our response variables. We used information-theoretic analyses to compare hierarchical linear models that accounted for important covariates and allowed for interannual variation in the disturbance–response relationship at local and landscape scales. Soil stability was greater under perennial vegetation than in bare interspaces, and surface soil stability decreased with increasing numbers of ungulate defecations. Stability of surface samples was more affected by time since removal of grazers than was stability of subsurface samples, and subsurface soil stability in bare spaces was not related to grazing intensity, time since removal, or any of our other predictors. In the high rainfall year (2003) after cattle had been removed for 1–2 years, cover of all non-native plants averaged nine times higher than in the low-rainfall year (2002). Given the heterogeneity in distribution of large-herbivore impacts that we observed at several resolutions, hierarchical analyses provided a more complete understanding of the spatial and temporal complexities of disturbance and recovery processes in arid ecosystems.

Chemical changes to nonaggregated particulate soil organic matter following grassland-to-woodland transition in a subtropical savanna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filley, Timothy R.; Boutton, Thomas W.; Liao, Julia D.; Jastrow, Julie D.; Gamblin, David E.

2008-09-01

Encroachment of thorn woodlands into grasslands of southern Texas has resulted in greater aboveground and belowground biomass and greater soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Our previous studies showed that a large percentage of the SOC accrued under invading woody clusters was not stabilized within protective soil aggregates or on mineral-surfaces. Here we evaluated lignin and cutin- and suberin-derived substituted fatty acid (SFA) chemistry to determine if the accrual of nonaggregated particulate organic matter (POM) in woodlands was promoted by inherently greater recalcitrance of tissues from woody versus grass species, and if there was selective input of aboveground versus belowground plant carbon to POM. Woody clusters exhibited reduced concentrations of cutin-derived SFA and cinnamyl phenols within surface litter compared to fresh aboveground plant material. However, root litter exhibited relatively minor changes in biopolymer chemistry compared to fresh root tissue, suggesting it was either more stable or was refreshed at a greater rate. Between 14 and 105 years of woody plant encroachment, SFA in free POM fractions appeared to be consistently derived from root material while SFA within intraaggregate POM were increasingly derived from cutin sources. In addition, the shift from herbaceous to woody input was accompanied by enrichment in the amount of cutin and suberin-derived aliphatics with respect to lignin in both root and surface litter as well as nonaggregated POM. Woody plant encroachment at this site results in the rapid accrual of POM pools that are biochemically recalcitrant, providing a mechanism by which soil organic carbon can accumulate in this sandy soil system. Our results also lend further credence to the hypothesis that aliphatic biopolymers, particularly root-derived suberin, are important components of long-term soil organic carbon stabilization.

Temporal variation in community composition, pigmentation, and Fv/Fm of desert cyanobacterial soil crusts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bowker, M.A.; Reed, S.C.; Belnap, J.; Phillips, S.L.

2002-01-01

Summers on the Colorado Plateau (USA) are typified by harsh conditions such as high temperatures, brief soil hydration periods, and high UV and visible radiation. We investigated whether community composition, physiological status, and pigmentation might vary in biological soil crusts as a result of such conditions. Representative surface cores were sampled at the ENE, WSW, and top microaspects of 20 individual soil crust pedicels at a single site in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, in spring and fall of 1999. Frequency of cyanobacterial taxa, pigment concentrations, and dark adapted quantum yield (Fv/Fm) were measured for each core. The frequency of major cyanobacterial taxa was lower in the fall compared to spring. The less-pigmented cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus showed significant mortality when not in the presence of Nostoc spp. and Scytonema myochrous (Dillw.) Agardh. (both synthesizers of UV radiation-linked pigments) but had little or no mortality when these species were abundant. We hypothesize that the sunscreen pigments produced by Nostoc and Scytonema in the surface of crusts protect other, less-pigmented taxa. When fall and spring samples were compared, overall cyanobacterial frequency was lower in fall, while sunscreen pigment concentrations, chlorophyll a concentration, and Fv/Fm were higher in fall. The ratio of cyanobacterial frequency/chlorophyll a concentrations was 2-3 times lower in fall than spring. Because chlorophyll a is commonly used as a surrogate measure of soil cyanobacterial biomass, these results indicate that seasonality needs to be taken into consideration. In the fall sample, most pigments associated with UV radiation protection or repair were at their highest concentrations on pedicel tops and WSW microaspects, and at their lowest concentrations on ENE microaspects. We suggest that differential pigment concentrations between microaspects are induced by varying UV radiation dosage at the soil surface on these different microaspects.

The implementation and validation of improved land-surface hydrology in an atmospheric general circulation model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Kevin D.; Entekhabi, Dara; Eagleson, Peter S.

1993-01-01

New land-surface hydrologic parameterizations are implemented into the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) General Circulation Model (GCM). These parameterizations are: 1) runoff and evapotranspiration functions that include the effects of subgrid-scale spatial variability and use physically based equations of hydrologic flux at the soil surface and 2) a realistic soil moisture diffusion scheme for the movement of water and root sink in the soil column. A one-dimensional climate model with a complete hydrologic cycle is used to screen the basic sensitivities of the hydrological parameterizations before implementation into the full three-dimensional GCM. Results of the final simulation with the GISS GCM and the new land-surface hydrology indicate that the runoff rate, especially in the tropics, is significantly improved. As a result, the remaining components of the heat and moisture balance show similar improvements when compared to observations. The validation of model results is carried from the large global (ocean and land-surface) scale to the zonal, continental, and finally the regional river basin scales.

Soil fertility in deserts: a review on the influence of biological soil crusts and the effect of soil surface disturbance on nutrient inputs and losses

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reynolds, R.; Phillips, S.; Duniway, M.; Belnap, J.

2003-01-01

Sources of desert soil fertility include parent material weathering, aeolian deposition, and on-site C and N biotic fixation. While parent materials provide many soil nutrients, aeolian deposition can provide up to 75% of plant-essential nutrients including N, P, K, Mg, Na, Mn, Cu, and Fe. Soil surface biota are often sticky, and help retain wind-deposited nutrients, as well as providing much of the N inputs. Carbon inputs are from both plants and soil surface biota. Most desert soils are protected by cyanobacterial-lichen-moss soil crusts, chemical crusts and/or desert pavement. Experimental disturbances applied in US deserts show disruption of soil surfaces result in decreased N and C inputs from soil biota by up to 100%. The ability to glue aeolian deposits in place is compromised, and underlying soils are exposed to erosion. The ability to withstand wind increases with biological and physical soil crust development. While most undisturbed sites show little sediment production, disturbance by vehicles or livestock produce up to 36 times more sediment production, with soil movement initiated at wind velocities well below commonly-occurring wind speeds. Soil fines and flora are often concentrated in the top 3 mm of the soil surface. Winds across disturbed areas can quickly remove this material from the soil surface, thereby potentially removing much of current and future soil fertility. Thus, disturbances of desert soil surfaces can both reduce fertility inputs and accelerate fertility losses.

Using Remote Sensing Platforms to Estimate Near-Surface Soil Properties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, D. G.; Shaw, J. N.; Rickman, D.; Mask, P. L.; Wersinger, J. M.; Luvall, J.

2003-01-01

Evaluation of near-surface soil properties via remote sensing (RS) could facilitate soil survey mapping, erosion prediction, fertilization regimes, and allocation of agrochemicals. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between soil spectral signature and near surface soil properties in conventionally managed row crop systems. High resolution RS data were acquired over bare fields in the Coastal Plain, Appalachian Plateau, and Ridge and Valley provinces of Alabama using the Airborne Terrestrial Applications Sensor (ATLAS) multispectral scanner. Soils ranged from sandy Kandiudults to fine textured Rhodudults. Surface soil samples (0-1 cm) were collected from 163 sampling points for soil water content, soil organic carbon (SOC), particle size distribution (PSD), and citrate dithionite extractable iron (Fed) content. Surface roughness, soil water content, and crusting were also measured at sampling. Results showed RS data acquired from lands with less than 4 % surface soil water content best approximated near-surface soil properties at the Coastal Plain site where loamy sand textured surfaces were predominant. Utilizing a combination of band ratios in stepwise regression, Fed (r2 = 0.61), SOC (r2 = 0.36), sand (r2 = 0.52), and clay (r2 = 0.76) were related to RS data at the Coastal Plain site. In contrast, the more clayey Ridge and Valley soils had r-squares of 0.50, 0.36, 0.17, and 0.57. for Fed, SOC, sand and clay, respectively. Use of estimated eEmissivity did not generally improve estimates of near-surface soil attributes.

Intensity and duration of chemical weathering: An example from soil clays of the southeastern Koolau Mountains, Oahu, Hawaii

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnsson, Mark J.; Ellen, Stephen D.; McKittrick, Mary Anne

1993-01-01

Orographic precipitation on the southern flank of the southeastern Koolau Mountains produces a pronounced precipitation gradient. The corresponding gradient in the intensity of the chemical weathering environment provides an opportunity to address the effects of varying chemical weathering intensity on the composition of clay-size weathering products in soils developed on basalt. In addition, little-modified remnants of the constructional surface of the Koolau Volcano, isolated by stream dissection, remain as facets on the southern ends of the parallel ridges of the study area. By comparing clay mineralogy of soils developed on these older geomorphic surfaces with those developed on the younger sharp-crested ridges and steep side slopes, the effects of weathering duration on clay mineralogy can also be addressed.Soil clays in this part of the Koolau Mountains are mineralogically complex; principal phases include smectite, kaolinite, and halloysite, but pure end member phases are uncommon. Rather, most phases contain some amount of mixed layering. Smectite may contain small (<5%) amounts of randomly interstratified halloysite. Similarly, kaolinite commonly contains a small proportion of halloysite interlayers. A complex halloysitic phase shows evidence of interstratification with both smectite and kaolinite. Nonphyllosilicates found in the clay fraction include gibbsite, goethite, rare quartz, and perhaps cristobalite.The gradient in precipitation is reflected in soil clay mineralogy by varying proportions of dominantly smectitic, kaolinitic, and halloysitic phases. In regions of relatively low precipitation (<2,000 mm/yr), soils are dominated by the smectitic and halloysitic phases. With increased precipitation (as much as ∼4,000 mm/yr), kaolinitic and halloysitic phases become the dominant clay minerals, and goethite and gibbsite become increasingly abundant.Older soils developed on geomorphic surfaces representing the original constructional surface of Koolau Volcano are markedly more leached than those from younger landscapes in the same precipitation regime. Although smectite may be present, kaolinite is the dominant phase, and accumulations of Fe and Ti occur in the uppermost soil levels. Enrichment of Zr and Ti in these soils, as compared to concentrations in the original basaltic parent material, indicates that as much as 75% of the parent material has been lost. Thus weathering duration may affect soil clay composition in the same way as weathering intensity.Because smectite and halloysite are expandable clay minerals, their presence in soils may decrease slope stability and influence the nature of slope processes. Soil avalanches occur on steep slopes throughout the study area, whereas slow-moving landslides appear to be restricted to gentler slopes in drier parts of the study area where smectite is abundant. The clay mineralogy of soils thus appears to influence the nature of slope processes in the southeastern Koolau Mountains.

Soil physical conditions as livestock treading effect in tropical Agroecosystem of dryland and strategies to mitigate desertification risk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Florentino, A.; Torres, D.; Ospina, A.; Contreras, J.; Palma, Z.; Silvera, J.

2012-04-01

Soil degradation in natural ecosystem of arid and semi-arid zones of Venezuela due to livestock treading (goats) it is an important problem that affect their environment functions; increase soil erodibility, bulk density, water losses and reduce porosity, water infiltration rate and soil structural stability. The presence of biological crust (BSC) in this type of soil it is very common. The objective of this study was to evaluate the soil surface physical quality through the use of selected indicators, mainly some of that related to structural stability, infiltrability and the prediction of soil erosion risk in two zones of Lara state: 1) Quíbor (QUI) and 2) Humocaro Bajo (HB). The study was conducted on two selected plots (30 m x 20 m) in each zone, with natural vegetation and BSC cover, with areas affected by different degree of compaction due to treading in the paths where the goats are moving. Five sites per plot (50 cm x 50 cm) under vegetation cover and five sites over the path with bare soil were sampled (0-7,5 and 7,5-15 cm depth). The results showed that soil macroaggregate stability (equivalent diameter of aggregates >0,25 mm) was significantly higher (p<0,05 %) in soil with vegetation cover and BSC compared with bare soil. Sealing index, as a measure of aggregate stability, determined in laboratory under simulated rain and expressed as hydraulic conductivity of soil surface sealing (Kse), decreased with decreasing soil vegetation cover and the presence of BSC. However, Ksei (i: inicial) and Ksef (f: final) were significantly greater in soil with more than 75 % of BSC in comparison to bare soils. The sealing index it is used to for to estimate changes in soil water losses. As the sealing index increases, the susceptibility of the soil to undergo surface sealing or slaking decrease. These results suggested that soil physical properties are potential indicators of soil quality with regard to soil erodibility and showed that soils under vegetation cover had higher quality level than bare soils. Some predictive regression equation had a high R2 value and was a useful tool for to evaluate the risk of extreme climatic changes and to mitigate their detrimental effects. We conclude that the global climatic change (CCG) will have a negative effect on these agroecosystems functions, mainly in soil and water conservation, carbon sequestration, and productivity. Natural recovery of soil physical properties from treading damage of pastoral soils will be possible in the future with the implementation of soil management strategies, mainly through re-vegetation and recuperation of the BSC. Key word: Soil structure; aggregate stability; soil sealing index; hydraulic conductivity of surface sealing.

Soil erosion and nutrient runoff in corn silage production with kura clover living mulch and winter rye

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Corn (Zea mays L.) harvested for silage is a productive forage crop, but one that can exacerbate soil loss, surface water runoff, and nonpoint source nutrient pollution from agricultural fields. The objective of this research was to compare the effects of using Kura clover (Trifolium ambiguum M. Bie...

An Assessment of Soil Disturbance from Five Harvesting Intensities

Treesearch

John Klepac; Stephen E. Reutebuch; Robert B. Rummer

1999-01-01

Surface soil disturbance was compared among a commercial thinning, group selection, patch cut, 2-age, and clearcut. The thinning, group selection and patch cut units had significantly higher percentages of undisturbed area. The 2-age unit had a significantly higher percentage of area disturbed with litter in place. The clearcut unit had a significantly higher...

Selection harvests in Amazonian rainforests: long-term impacts on soil properties

Treesearch

K.L. McNabb; M.S. Miller; B.G. Lockaby; B.J. Stokes; R.G. Clawson; John A. Stanturf; J.N.M. Silva

1997-01-01

Surface soil properties were compared among disturbance classes associated with a single-tree selection harvest study installed in 1979 in the Brazilian Amazon. Response variables included pH, total N, total organic C, extractable P, exchangeable K, Ca, Mg, and bulk density. In general, concentrations of all elements displayed residual effects 16 years after harvests...

Predicting surface vibration from underground railways through inhomogeneous soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Simon; Hunt, Hugh

2012-04-01

Noise and vibration from underground railways is a major source of disturbance to inhabitants near subways. To help designers meet noise and vibration limits, numerical models are used to understand vibration propagation from these underground railways. However, the models commonly assume the ground is homogeneous and neglect to include local variability in the soil properties. Such simplifying assumptions add a level of uncertainty to the predictions which is not well understood. The goal of the current paper is to quantify the effect of soil inhomogeneity on surface vibration. The thin-layer method (TLM) is suggested as an efficient and accurate means of simulating vibration from underground railways in arbitrarily layered half-spaces. Stochastic variability of the soil's elastic modulus is introduced using a K-L expansion; the modulus is assumed to have a log-normal distribution and a modified exponential covariance kernel. The effect of horizontal soil variability is investigated by comparing the stochastic results for soils varied only in the vertical direction to soils with 2D variability. Results suggest that local soil inhomogeneity can significantly affect surface velocity predictions; 90 percent confidence intervals showing 8 dB averages and peak values up to 12 dB are computed. This is a significant source of uncertainty and should be considered when using predictions from models assuming homogeneous soil properties. Furthermore, the effect of horizontal variability of the elastic modulus on the confidence interval appears to be negligible. This suggests that only vertical variation needs to be taken into account when modelling ground vibration from underground railways.

Soil Moisture Estimate under Forest using a Semi-empirical Model at P-Band

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Truong-Loi, M.; Saatchi, S.; Jaruwatanadilok, S.

2013-12-01

In this paper we show the potential of a semi-empirical algorithm to retrieve soil moisture under forests using P-band polarimetric SAR data. In past decades, several remote sensing techniques have been developed to estimate the surface soil moisture. In most studies associated with radar sensing of soil moisture, the proposed algorithms are focused on bare or sparsely vegetated surfaces where the effect of vegetation can be ignored. At long wavelengths such as L-band, empirical or physical models such as the Small Perturbation Model (SPM) provide reasonable estimates of surface soil moisture at depths of 0-5cm. However for densely covered vegetated surfaces such as forests, the problem becomes more challenging because the vegetation canopy is a complex scattering environment. For this reason there have been only few studies focusing on retrieving soil moisture under vegetation canopy in the literature. Moghaddam et al. developed an algorithm to estimate soil moisture under a boreal forest using L- and P-band SAR data. For their studied area, double-bounce between trunks and ground appear to be the most important scattering mechanism. Thereby, they implemented parametric models of radar backscatter for double-bounce using simulations of a numerical forest scattering model. Hajnsek et al. showed the potential of estimating the soil moisture under agricultural vegetation using L-band polarimetric SAR data and using polarimetric-decomposition techniques to remove the vegetation layer. Here we use an approach based on physical formulation of dominant scattering mechanisms and three parameters that integrates the vegetation and soil effects at long wavelengths. The algorithm is a simplification of a 3-D coherent model of forest canopy based on the Distorted Born Approximation (DBA). The simplified model has three equations and three unknowns, preserving the three dominant scattering mechanisms of volume, double-bounce and surface for three polarized backscattering coefficients: σHH, σVV and σHV. The inversion process, which is not an ill-posed problem, uses the non-linear optimization method of Levenberg-Marquardt and estimates the three model parameters: vegetation aboveground biomass, average soil moisture and surface roughness. The model analytical formulation will be first recalled and sensitivity analyses will be shown. Then some results obtained with real SAR data will be presented and compared to ground estimates.

Variation in microbial activity in histosols and its relationship to soil moisture.

PubMed

Tate, R L; Terry, R E

1980-08-01

Microbial biomass, dehydrogenase activity, carbon metabolism, and aerobic bacterial populations were examined in cropped and fallow Pahokee muck (a lithic medisaprist) of the Florida Everglades. Dehydrogenase activity was two- to sevenfold greater in soil cropped to St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt) Kuntz) compared with uncropped soil, whereas biomass ranged from equivalence in the two soils to a threefold stimulation in the cropped soil. Biomass in soil cropped to sugarcane (Saccharum spp. L) approximated that from the grass field, whereas dehydrogenase activities of the cane soil were nearly equivalent to those of the fallow soil. Microbial biomass, dehydrogenase activity, aerobic bacterial populations, and salicylate oxidation rates all correlated with soil moisture levels. These data indicate that within the moisture ranges detected in the surface soils, increased moisture stimulated microbial activity, whereas within the soil profile where moisture ranges reached saturation, increased moisture inhibited aerobic activities and stimulated anaerobic processes.

Variation in Microbial Activity in Histosols and Its Relationship to Soil Moisture †

PubMed Central

Tate, Robert L.; Terry, Richard E.

1980-01-01

Microbial biomass, dehydrogenase activity, carbon metabolism, and aerobic bacterial populations were examined in cropped and fallow Pahokee muck (a lithic medisaprist) of the Florida Everglades. Dehydrogenase activity was two- to sevenfold greater in soil cropped to St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt) Kuntz) compared with uncropped soil, whereas biomass ranged from equivalence in the two soils to a threefold stimulation in the cropped soil. Biomass in soil cropped to sugarcane (Saccharum spp. L) approximated that from the grass field, whereas dehydrogenase activities of the cane soil were nearly equivalent to those of the fallow soil. Microbial biomass, dehydrogenase activity, aerobic bacterial populations, and salicylate oxidation rates all correlated with soil moisture levels. These data indicate that within the moisture ranges detected in the surface soils, increased moisture stimulated microbial activity, whereas within the soil profile where moisture ranges reached saturation, increased moisture inhibited aerobic activities and stimulated anaerobic processes. PMID:16345610

Moment Analysis Characterizing Water Flow in Repellent Soils from On- and Sub-Surface Point Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiong, Yunwu; Furman, Alex; Wallach, Rony

2010-05-01

Water repellency has a significant impact on water flow patterns in the soil profile. Flow tends to become unstable in such soils, which affects the water availability to plants and subsurface hydrology. In this paper, water flow in repellent soils was experimentally studied using the light reflection method. The transient 2D moisture profiles were monitored by CCD camera for tested soils packed in a transparent flow chamber. Water infiltration experiments and subsequent redistribution from on-surface and subsurface point sources with different flow rates were conducted for two soils of different repellency degrees as well as for wettable soil. We used spatio-statistical analysis (moments) to characterize the flow patterns. The zeroth moment is related to the total volume of water inside the moisture plume, and the first and second moments are affinitive to the center of mass and spatial variances of the moisture plume, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that both the general shape and size of the wetting plume and the moisture distribution within the plume for the repellent soils are significantly different from that for the wettable soil. The wetting plume of the repellent soils is smaller, narrower, and longer (finger-like) than that of the wettable soil compared with that for the wettable soil that tended to roundness. Compared to the wettable soil, where the soil water content decreases radially from the source, moisture content for the water-repellent soils is higher, relatively uniform horizontally and gradually increases with depth (saturation overshoot), indicating that flow tends to become unstable. Ellipses, defined around the mass center and whose semi-axes represented a particular number of spatial variances, were successfully used to simulate the spatial and temporal variation of the moisture distribution in the soil profiles. Cumulative probability functions were defined for the water enclosed in these ellipses. Practically identical cumulative probability functions (beta distribution) were obtained for all soils, all source types, and flow rates. Further, same distributions were obtained for the infiltration and redistribution processes. This attractive result demonstrates the competence and advantage of the moment analysis method.

[Variation of soil organic carbon under different vegetation types in Karst Mountain areas of Guizhou Province, southwest China].

PubMed

Liao, Hong-kai; Long, Jian

2011-09-01

This paper studied the variation characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and different particle sizes soil particulate organic carbon (POC) in normal soil and in micro-habitats under different vegetation types in typical Karst mountain areas of southwest Guizhou. Under different vegetation types, the SOC content in normal soil and in micro-habitats was all in the order of bare land < grass < shrub < forest, with the variation range being 7.18-43.42 g x kg(-1) in normal soil and being 6.62-46.47 g x kg(-1) and 9.01-52.07 g x kg(-1) in earth surface and stone pit, respectively. The POC/MOC (mineral-associated organic carbon) ratio under different vegetation types was in the order of bare land < grass < forest < shrub. Under the same vegetation types, the POC/MOC in stone pit was the highest, as compared to that in normal soil and in earth surface. In the process of bare land-grass-shrub-forest, the contents of different particle sizes soil POC increased, while the SOC mainly existed in the forms of sand- and silt organic carbon, indicating that in Karst region, soil carbon sequestration and SOC stability were weak, soil was easily subjected to outside interference and led to organic carbon running off, and thus, soil quality had the risk of decline or degradation.

Leaching of Salmonella Senftenberg and Cryptosporidium Parvum in Intact Clay Columns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bech, T. B.; Forslund, A.; Dalsgaard, A.; Jacobsen, O.; Jacobsen, C. S.

2008-12-01

Manure application on land has been associated with both environmental and public health problems, even when management is within the current guidelines. Outbreaks of infection have been associated with water or food, including processed fruits and vegetables, contaminated with animal manure. A wide range of pathogenic microorganisms can be found in animal waste, including bacteria, protozoan, and viruses. When animal waste is disposed on agricultural land different factors will influence the risk for contaminating the groundwater. 1) Animal waste application method, rate, volume and frequency will have an effect on contamination. 2) Survival of the pathogens in the soil will e.g. depend on soil water content, temperature and pH. Salmonella species can survive up to 332 days and Cryptosporidium species can remain viable for several years in the soil environment. In the present study we compared the transport between the pathogenic bacteria S. senftenberg and the pathogenic protozoan C. parvum in intact clay columns. Furthermore, we compared the effect from surface and sub-surface manure application on the transport potential. 15 intact clay columns were placed in an outdoor multi-column lysimeter for 36 days. Manure inoculated with S. senftenberg, C. parvum and chloride was added to the soil surface or injected 8 cm into the columns. Drainage water was collected from the soil columns and DNA was extracted to quantify S. senftenberg and C. parvum by quantitative PCR. In addition S. senftenberg was enumerated by plate counting. Acid yellow was applied to selected columns to visualize the pathway down through the soil column. The highest concentration of S. senftenberg was in the first drainage sample ranging from 100-10000 CFU/ml. Breakthrough curves for chloride and S. senftenberg indicates the importance of preferential flow as well as a faster transport for the bacteria compared to chloride. C. parvum is retained to a higher degree in the soil but is still found in concentrations up to 800 oocysts/ml. Differences between C. parvum and S. senftenberg can be explained by size differences. When comparing the two application methods there was a tendency that more S. senftenberg was leached when manure was injected. Due to large variation in the columns this difference is not significant. For C. parvum approximately 10 fold more was leached when manure was injected.

Assimilation of gridded terrestrial water storage observations from GRACE into a land surface model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Girotto, Manuela; De Lannoy, Gabriëlle J. M.; Reichle, Rolf H.; Rodell, Matthew

2016-05-01

Observations of terrestrial water storage (TWS) from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission have a coarse resolution in time (monthly) and space (roughly 150,000 km2 at midlatitudes) and vertically integrate all water storage components over land, including soil moisture and groundwater. Data assimilation can be used to horizontally downscale and vertically partition GRACE-TWS observations. This work proposes a variant of existing ensemble-based GRACE-TWS data assimilation schemes. The new algorithm differs in how the analysis increments are computed and applied. Existing schemes correlate the uncertainty in the modeled monthly TWS estimates with errors in the soil moisture profile state variables at a single instant in the month and then apply the increment either at the end of the month or gradually throughout the month. The proposed new scheme first computes increments for each day of the month and then applies the average of those increments at the beginning of the month. The new scheme therefore better reflects submonthly variations in TWS errors. The new and existing schemes are investigated here using gridded GRACE-TWS observations. The assimilation results are validated at the monthly time scale, using in situ measurements of groundwater depth and soil moisture across the U.S. The new assimilation scheme yields improved (although not in a statistically significant sense) skill metrics for groundwater compared to the open-loop (no assimilation) simulations and compared to the existing assimilation schemes. A smaller impact is seen for surface and root-zone soil moisture, which have a shorter memory and receive smaller increments from TWS assimilation than groundwater. These results motivate future efforts to combine GRACE-TWS observations with observations that are more sensitive to surface soil moisture, such as L-band brightness temperature observations from Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) or Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP). Finally, we demonstrate that the scaling parameters that are applied to the GRACE observations prior to assimilation should be consistent with the land surface model that is used within the assimilation system.

On the use of L-band microwave and multi-mission EO data for high resolution soil moisture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bitar, Ahmad Al; Merlin, Olivier; Malbeteau, Yoann; Molero-Rodenas, Beatriz; Zribi, Mehrez; Sekhar, Muddu; Tomer, Sat Kumar; José Escorihuela, Maria; Stefan, Vivien; Suere, Christophe; Mialon, Arnaud; Kerr, Yann

2017-04-01

Sub-kilometric soil moisture maps have been increasingly mentioned as a need in the scientific community for many applications ranging from agronomical and hydrological (Wood et al. 2011). For example, this type of dataset will become essential to support the current evolution of the land surface and hydrologic modelling communities towards high resolution global modelling. But the ability of the different sensors to monitor soil moisture is different. The L-Band microwave EO provides, at a coarse resolution, the most sensitive information to surface soil moisture when compared to C-Band microwave, optical or C-band SAR. On the other hand the optical and radar sensors provide the spatial distribution of associated variables like surface soil moisture,surface temperature or vegetation leaf area index. This paper describes two complementary fusion approaches to obtain such data from optical or SAR in combination to microwave EO, and more precisely L-Band microwave from the SMOS mission. The first approach, called MAPSM, is based on the use of high resolution soil moisture from SAR and microwave. The two types of sensors have all weather capabilities. The approach uses the new concept of water change capacity (Tomer et al. 2015, 2016). It has been applied to the Berambadi watershed in South-India which is characterised by high cloud coverage. The second approach, called Dispatch, is based on the use of optical sensors in a physical disaggregation approach. It is a well-established approach (Merlin et al. 2012, Malbeteau et al. 2015) that has been implemented operationally in the CATDS (Centre Aval de Traitement des Données SMOS) processing centre (Molero et al. 2016). An analysis on the complementarity of the approaches is discussed. The results show the performances of the methods when compared to existing soil moisture monitoring networks in arid, sub-tropical and humid environments. They emphasis on the need for large inter-comparison studied for the qualification of such products on different climatic zones and on the need of an adaptative multisensor approach. The availability of the recent Sentinel-1 2 and 3 missions from ESA provides an exceptional environment to apply such algorithms at larger scales.

Assimilation of Gridded Terrestrial Water Storage Observations from GRACE into a Land Surface Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Girotto, Manuela; De Lannoy, Gabrielle J. M.; Reichle, Rolf H.; Rodell, Matthew

2016-01-01

Observations of terrestrial water storage (TWS) from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission have a coarse resolution in time (monthly) and space (roughly 150,000 km(sup 2) at midlatitudes) and vertically integrate all water storage components over land, including soil moisture and groundwater. Data assimilation can be used to horizontally downscale and vertically partition GRACE-TWS observations. This work proposes a variant of existing ensemble-based GRACE-TWS data assimilation schemes. The new algorithm differs in how the analysis increments are computed and applied. Existing schemes correlate the uncertainty in the modeled monthly TWS estimates with errors in the soil moisture profile state variables at a single instant in the month and then apply the increment either at the end of the month or gradually throughout the month. The proposed new scheme first computes increments for each day of the month and then applies the average of those increments at the beginning of the month. The new scheme therefore better reflects submonthly variations in TWS errors. The new and existing schemes are investigated here using gridded GRACE-TWS observations. The assimilation results are validated at the monthly time scale, using in situ measurements of groundwater depth and soil moisture across the U.S. The new assimilation scheme yields improved (although not in a statistically significant sense) skill metrics for groundwater compared to the open-loop (no assimilation) simulations and compared to the existing assimilation schemes. A smaller impact is seen for surface and root-zone soil moisture, which have a shorter memory and receive smaller increments from TWS assimilation than groundwater. These results motivate future efforts to combine GRACE-TWS observations with observations that are more sensitive to surface soil moisture, such as L-band brightness temperature observations from Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) or Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP). Finally, we demonstrate that the scaling parameters that are applied to the GRACE observations prior to assimilation should be consistent with the land surface model that is used within the assimilation system.

Detecting surface runoff location in a small catchment using distributed and simple observation method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dehotin, Judicaël; Breil, Pascal; Braud, Isabelle; de Lavenne, Alban; Lagouy, Mickaël; Sarrazin, Benoît

2015-06-01

Surface runoff is one of the hydrological processes involved in floods, pollution transfer, soil erosion and mudslide. Many models allow the simulation and the mapping of surface runoff and erosion hazards. Field observations of this hydrological process are not common although they are crucial to evaluate surface runoff models and to investigate or assess different kinds of hazards linked to this process. In this study, a simple field monitoring network is implemented to assess the relevance of a surface runoff susceptibility mapping method. The network is based on spatially distributed observations (nine different locations in the catchment) of soil water content and rainfall events. These data are analyzed to determine if surface runoff occurs. Two surface runoff mechanisms are considered: surface runoff by saturation of the soil surface horizon and surface runoff by infiltration excess (also called hortonian runoff). The monitoring strategy includes continuous records of soil surface water content and rainfall with a 5 min time step. Soil infiltration capacity time series are calculated using field soil water content and in situ measurements of soil hydraulic conductivity. Comparison of soil infiltration capacity and rainfall intensity time series allows detecting the occurrence of surface runoff by infiltration-excess. Comparison of surface soil water content with saturated water content values allows detecting the occurrence of surface runoff by saturation of the soil surface horizon. Automatic records were complemented with direct field observations of surface runoff in the experimental catchment after each significant rainfall event. The presented observation method allows the identification of fast and short-lived surface runoff processes at a small spatial and temporal resolution in natural conditions. The results also highlight the relationship between surface runoff and factors usually integrated in surface runoff mapping such as topography, rainfall parameters, soil or land cover. This study opens interesting prospects for the use of spatially distributed measurement for surface runoff detection, spatially distributed hydrological models implementation and validation at a reasonable cost.

Protection of Buried Pipe under Repeated Loading by Geocell Reinforcement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khalaj, Omid; Joz Darabi, N.; Moghaddas Tafreshi, S. N.; Mašek, Bohuslav

2017-12-01

With increase in cities’ population and development of urbane life, passing buried pipelines near ground’s surface is inevitable in urban areas, roads, subways and highways. This paper presents the results of three-dimensional full scale model tests on high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe with diameter of 250 mm in geocell reinforced soil, subjected to repeated loading to simulate the vehicle loads. The effect of geocell’s pocket size (55*55 mm and 110*110 mm) and embedment depth of buried pipe (1.5 and 2 times pipe diameter) in improving the behaviour of buried pipes was investigated. The geocell’s height of 100 mm was used in all tests. The repeated load of 800 kPa was applied on circular loading plate with diameter of 250 mm. The results show that the pipe displacement, soil surface settlement and transferred pressure on the pipe’s crown has been influenced significantly upon the use of geocells. For example, the vertical diametric strain (VDS) and soil surface settlement (SSS), in a way that using a geocell with pocket size of 110*110 mm reduces by 27% and 43%, respectively, compared with the unreinforced one. Meanwhile, by increasing buried depth of pipe from 1.5D to 2D, the use of geocell of 110*110 mm delivers about 50% reduction in SSS and VDS, compared with the unreinforced soil.

Decoding Environmental Processes Using Radioactive Isotopes for the Post-Radioactive Contamination Recovery Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasumiishi, Misa; Nishimura, Taku; Osawa, Kazutoshi; Renschler, Chris

2017-04-01

The continual monitoring of environmental radioactive levels in Fukushima, Japan following the nuclear plant accident in March 2011 provides our society with valuable information in two ways. First, the collected data can be used as an indicator to assess the progress of decontamination efforts. Secondly, the collected data also can be used to understand the behavior of radioactive isotopes in the environment which leads to further understanding of the landform processes. These two aspects are inseparable for us to understand the effects of radioactive contamination in a dynamic environmental system. During the summer of 2016, 27 soil core samples were collected on a farmer's land (rice paddies and forest) in Fukushima, about 20 km northwest of the nuclear plant. Each core was divided into 2.0 - 3.0 cm slices for the Cs-134, Cs-137, and I-131 level measurement. The collected data is being analyzed from multiple perspectives: temporal, spatial, and geophysical. In the forest area, even on the same hillslope, multiple soil types and horizon depths were observed which indicates the challenges in assessing the subsurface radioactive isotope movements. It appears that although highly humic soils show higher or about the same level of radioactivity in the surface layers, as the depth increased, the radioactivity decreased more in those samples compared with more sandy soils. With regard to the direction a slope faces and the sampling altitudes, the correlation between those attributes and radioactivity levels is inconclusive at this moment. The altitude might have affected the fallout level on a single hillslope-basis. However, to determine the correlation, further sampling and the detailed analysis of vegetation and topography might be necessary. Where the surface soil was scraped and new soil was brought in, former rice paddy surface layers did show three-magnitude levels lower of radioactivity in the top layer when compared with forest soils. At the foot of forest slopes where the surface soil was scraped and litter was cleared, the scraping showed mixed results in radioactivity reduction. It is estimated that by the completion of soil decontamination in 2020, up to 22 million cubic meters of so-called 'contaminated soils' will have been scraped off in the affected areas and transferred to an underground storage. Understanding the radioactive isotope behaviors is crucial to assessing the financial and environmental consequences of such measures. As an example, a 30-year simulation of a 5-13 % hillslope under thick vegetation with GeoWEPP (the Geospatial interface for the Water Erosion Prediction Project) resulted in a very small soil loss on the hillslope. However, the results showed about five tons of soil loss through channels and as sediment discharge annually. On the hillslope, the radioactivity level in about the top 4.0 cm of the soil exceeded the 8,000 Bq/kg threshold which the Japanese government has set for surface soil removal. Referring to the case study data in Fukushima, this presentation will discuss how environmental decontamination measures (e.g. forest clearing) and monitoring methods should be considered and planned against dynamic environmental processes.

Root hairs increase root exudation and rhizosphere extension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holz, Maire; Zarebandanadkouki, Mohsen; Kuzyakov, Yakov; Carmintati, Andrea

2017-04-01

Plant roots employ various mechanisms to increase their access to limited soil resources. An example of such strategies is the production of root hairs. Root hairs extend the root surface and therefore increase the access to nutrients. Additionally, carbon release from root hairs might facilitate nutrient uptake by spreading of carbon in the rhizosphere and enhancing microbial activity. The aim of this study was to test: i) how root hairs change the allocation of carbon in the soil-plant system; ii) whether root hairs exude carbon into the soil and iii) how differences in C release between plants with and without root hairs affect rhizosphere extension. We grew barley plants with and without root hairs (wild type: WT, bald root barley: brb) in rhizoboxes filled with a sandy soil. Root elongation was monitored over time. After 4 weeks of growth, plants were labelled with 14CO2. A filter paper was placed on the soil surface before labelling and was removed after 36 h. 14C imaging of the soil surface and of the filter paper was used to quantify the allocation of 14C into the roots and the exudation of 14C, respectively. Plants were sampled destructively one day after labeling to quantify 14C in the plant-soil system. 14CO2 release from soil over time (17 d) was quantified by trapping CO2 in NaOH with an additional subset of plants. WT and brb plants had a similar aboveground biomass and allocated similar amounts of 14C into shoots (170 KBq for WT; 152 KBq for brb) and roots one day after labelling. Biomass of root, rhizosphere soil as well as root elongation were lower for brb compared to the wild type. WT plants transported more C from the shoots to the roots (22.8% for WT; 13.8% for brb) and from the root into the rhizosphere (8.8% for WT 3.5% for brb). Yet lower amounts of 14CO2 were released from soil over time for WT. Radial and longitudinal rhizosphere extension was increased for WT compared to brb (4.7 vs. 2.6 mm; 5.6 vs. 3.1 cm). The total exudation which was estimated based on the grey values of the filter paper images was 1.6 times higher for WT compared to brb. After one month, brb plants performed as good as WT plants, presumably because nutrients and water were not limiting for young plants. Under nutrient limiting conditions higher C release as well as increased longitudinal and radial rhizosphere extension for WT may maintain higher nutrient accessibility compared to root hair free plants.

Mercury in soil near a long-term air emission source in southeastern Idaho

USGS Publications Warehouse

Abbott, M.L.; Susong, D.D.; Olson, M.; Krabbenhoft, D.P.

2003-01-01

At the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in southeastern Idaho, a 500??C fluidized bed calciner was intermittently operated for 37 years, with measured Hg emission rates of 9-11 g/h. Surface soil was sampled at 57 locations around the facility to determine the spatial distribution of Hg fallout and surface Hg variability, and to predict the total residual Hg mass in the soil from historical emissions. Measured soil concentrations were slightly higher (p<0.05) within 5 km of the source but were overall very low (15-20 ng/g) compared to background Hg levels published for similar soils in the USA (50-70 ng/g). Concentrations decreased 4%/cm with depth and were found to be twice as high under shrubs and in depressions. Mass balance calculations accounted for only 2.5-20% of the estimated total Hg emitted over the 37-year calciner operating history. These results suggest that much of the Hg deposited from calciner operations may have been reduced in the soil and re-emitted as Hg(0) to the global atmospheric pool.

Enzyme Sorption onto Soil and Biocarbon Amendments Alters Catalytic Capacity and Depends on the Specific Protein and pH

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster, E.; Fogle, E. J.; Cotrufo, M. F.

2017-12-01

Enzymes catalyze biogeochemical reactions in soils and play a key role in nutrient cycling in agricultural systems. Often, to increase soil nutrients, agricultural managers add organic amendments and have recently experimented with charcoal-like biocarbon products. These amendments can enhance soil water and nutrient holding capacity through increasing porosity. However, the large surface area of the biocarbon has the potential to sorb nutrients and other organic molecules. Does the biocarbon decrease nutrient cycling through sorption of enzymes? In a laboratory setting, we compared the interaction of two purified enzymes β-glucosidase and acid phosphatase with a sandy clay loam and two biocarbons. We quantified the sorbed enzymes at three different pHs using a Bradford protein assay and then measured the activity of the sorbed enzyme via high-throughput fluorometric analysis. Both sorption and activity depended upon the solid phase, pH, and specific enzyme. Overall the high surface area biocarbon impacted the catalytic capacity of the enzymes more than the loam soil, which may have implications for soil nutrient management with these organic amendments.

Inversion algorithms for the microwave remote sensing of soil moisture. Experiments with swept frequency microwaves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hancock, G. D.; Waite, W. P.

1984-01-01

Two experiments were performed employing swept frequency microwaves for the purpose of investigating the reflectivity from soil volumes containing both discontinuous and continuous changes in subsurface soil moisture content. Discontinuous moisture profiles were artificially created in the laboratory while continuous moisture profiles were induced into the soil of test plots by the environment of an agricultural field. The reflectivity for both the laboratory and field experiments was measured using bi-static reflectometers operated over the frequency ranges of 1.0 to 2.0 GHz and 4.0 to 8.0 GHz. Reflectivity models that considered the discontinuous and continuous moisture profiles within the soil volume were developed and compared with the results of the experiments. This comparison shows good agreement between the smooth surface models and the measurements. In particular the comparison of the smooth surface multi-layer model for continuous moisture profiles and the yield experiment measurements points out the sensitivity of the specular component of the scattered electromagnetic energy to the movement of moisture in the soil.

Soil moisture profile variability in land-vegetation- atmosphere continuum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Wanru

Soil moisture is of critical importance to the physical processes governing energy and water exchanges at the land-air boundary. With respect to the exchange of water mass, soil moisture controls the response of the land surface to atmospheric forcing and determines the partitioning of precipitation into infiltration and runoff. Meanwhile, the soil acts as a reservoir for the storage of liquid water and slow release of water vapor into the atmosphere. The major motivation of the study is that the soil moisture profile is thought to make a substantial contribution to the climate variability through two-way interactions between the land-surface and the atmosphere in the coupled ocean-atmosphere-land climate system. The characteristics of soil moisture variability with soil depth may be important in affecting the atmosphere. The natural variability of soil moisture profile is demonstrated using observations. The 16-year field observational data of soil moisture with 11-layer (top 2.0 meters) measured soil depths over Illinois are analyzed and used to identify and quantify the soil moisture profile variability, where the atmospheric forcing (precipitation) anomaly propagates down through the land-branch of the hydrological cycle with amplitude damping, phase shift, and increasing persistence. Detailed statistical data analyses, which include application of the periodogram method, the wavelet method and the band-pass filter, are made of the variations of soil moisture profile and concurrently measured precipitation for comparison. Cross-spectral analysis is performed to obtain the coherence pattern and phase correlation of two time series for phase shift and amplitude damping calculation. A composite of the drought events during this time period is analyzed and compared with the normal (non-drought) case. A multi-layer land surface model is applied for modeling the soil moisture profile variability characteristics and investigating the underlying mechanisms. Numerical experiments are conducted to examine the impacts of some potential controlling factors, which include atmospheric forcing (periodic and pulse) at the upper boundary, the initial soil moisture profile, the relative root abundance and the soil texture, on the variability of soil moisture profile and the corresponding evapotranspiration. Similar statistical data analyses are performed for the experimental data. Observations from the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatological Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE) are analyzed and used for the testing of model. The integration of the observational and modeling approaches makes it possible to better understand the mechanisms by which the soil moisture profile variability is generated with phase shift, fluctuation amplitude damping and low-pass frequency filtering with soil depth, to improve the strategies of parameterizations in land surface schemes, and furthermore, to assess its contribution to climate variability.

Biological soil crusts in deserts: A short review of their role in soil fertility, stabilization, and water relations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Belnap, Jayne

2003-01-01

Cyanobacteria and cyanolichens dominate most desert soil surfaces as the major component of biological soil crusts (BSC). BSCs contribute to soil fertility in many ways. BSC can increase weathering of parent materials by up to 100 times. Soil surface biota are often sticky, and help retain dust falling on the soil surface; this dust provides many plant-essential nutrients including N, P, K, Mg, Na, Mn, Cu, and Fe. BSCs also provide roughened soil surfaces that slow water runoff and aid in retaining seeds and organic matter. They provide inputs of newly-fixed carbon and nitrogen to soils. They are essential in stabilizing soil surfaces by linking soil particles together with filamentous sheaths, enabling soils to resist both water and wind erosion. These same sheaths are important in keeping soil nutrients from becoming bound into plant-unavailable forms. Experimental disturbances applied in US deserts show soil surface impacts decrease N and C inputs from soil biota by up to 100%. The ability to hold aeolian deposits in place is compromised, and underlying soils are exposed to erosion. While most undisturbed sites show little sediment production, disturbance by vehicles or livestock produces up to 36 times more sediment production, with soil movement initiated at wind velocities well below commonly-occurring wind speeds. Winds across disturbed areas can quickly remove this material from the soil surface, thereby potentially removing much of current and future soil fertility. Thus, reduction in the cover of cyanophytes in desert soils can both reduce fertility inputs and accelerate fertility losses.

Evaluating the performance of coupled snow-soil models in SURFEXv8 to simulate the permafrost thermal regime at a high Arctic site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barrere, Mathieu; Domine, Florent; Decharme, Bertrand; Morin, Samuel; Vionnet, Vincent; Lafaysse, Matthieu

2017-09-01

Climate change projections still suffer from a limited representation of the permafrost-carbon feedback. Predicting the response of permafrost temperature to climate change requires accurate simulations of Arctic snow and soil properties. This study assesses the capacity of the coupled land surface and snow models ISBA-Crocus and ISBA-ES to simulate snow and soil properties at Bylot Island, a high Arctic site. Field measurements complemented with ERA-Interim reanalyses were used to drive the models and to evaluate simulation outputs. Snow height, density, temperature, thermal conductivity and thermal insulance are examined to determine the critical variables involved in the soil and snow thermal regime. Simulated soil properties are compared to measurements of thermal conductivity, temperature and water content. The simulated snow density profiles are unrealistic, which is most likely caused by the lack of representation in snow models of the upward water vapor fluxes generated by the strong temperature gradients within the snowpack. The resulting vertical profiles of thermal conductivity are inverted compared to observations, with high simulated values at the bottom of the snowpack. Still, ISBA-Crocus manages to successfully simulate the soil temperature in winter. Results are satisfactory in summer, but the temperature of the top soil could be better reproduced by adequately representing surface organic layers, i.e., mosses and litter, and in particular their water retention capacity. Transition periods (soil freezing and thawing) are the least well reproduced because the high basal snow thermal conductivity induces an excessively rapid heat transfer between the soil and the snow in simulations. Hence, global climate models should carefully consider Arctic snow thermal properties, and especially the thermal conductivity of the basal snow layer, to perform accurate predictions of the permafrost evolution under climate change.

A mechanistic, globally-applicable model of plant nitrogen uptake, retranslocation and fixation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, J. B.; Tan, S.; Malhi, Y.; Fisher, R. A.; Sitch, S.; Huntingford, C.

2008-12-01

Nitrogen is one of the nutrients that can most limit plant growth, and nitrogen availability may be a controlling factor on biosphere responses to climate change. We developed a plant nitrogen assimilation model based on a) advective transport through the transpiration stream, b) retranslocation whereby carbon is expended to resorb nitrogen from leaves, c) active uptake whereby carbon is expended to acquire soil nitrogen, and d) biological nitrogen fixation whereby carbon is expended for symbiotic nitrogen fixers. The model relies on 9 inputs: 1) net primary productivity (NPP), 2) plant C:N ratio, 3) available soil nitrogen, 4) root biomass, 5) transpiration rate, 6) saturated soil depth,7) leaf nitrogen before senescence, 8) soil temperature, and 9) ability to fix nitrogen. A carbon cost of retranslocation is estimated based on leaf nitrogen and compared to an active uptake carbon cost based on root biomass and available soil nitrogen; for nitrogen fixers both costs are compared to a carbon cost of fixation dependent on soil temperature. The NPP is then allocated to optimize growth while maintaining the C:N ratio. The model outputs are total plant nitrogen uptake, remaining NPP available for growth, carbon respired to the soil and updated available soil nitrogen content. We test and validate the model (called FUN: Fixation and Uptake of Nitrogen) against data from the UK, Germany and Peru, and run the model under simplified scenarios of primary succession and climate change. FUN is suitable for incorporation into a land surface scheme of a General Circulation Model and will be coupled with a soil model and dynamic global vegetation model as part of a land surface model (JULES).

Carbon mineralization in surface and subsurface soils in a subtropical mixed forest in central China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, F.; Tian, Q.

2014-12-01

About a half of soil carbon is stored in subsurface soil horizons, their dynamics have the potential to significantly affect carbon balancing in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the main factors regulating subsurface soil carbon mineralization are poorly understood. As affected by mountain humid monsoon, the subtropical mountains in central China has an annual precipitation of about 2000 mm, which causes strong leaching of ions and nutrition. The objectives of this study were to monitor subsurface soil carbon mineralization and to determine if it is affected by nutrient limitation. We collected soil samples (up to 1 m deep) at three locations in a small watershed with three soil layers (0-10 cm, 10-30 cm, below 30 cm). For the three layers, soil organic carbon (SOC) ranged from 35.8 to 94.4 mg g-1, total nitrogen ranged from 3.51 to 8.03 mg g-1, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) ranged from 170.6 to 718.4 μg g-1 soil. We measured carbon mineralization with the addition of N (100 μg N/g soil), P (50 μg P/g soil), and liable carbon (glucose labeled by 5 atom% 13C, at five levels: control, 10% MBC, 50% MBC, 100% MBC, 200% MBC). The addition of N and P had negligible effects on CO2 production in surface soil layers; in the deepest soil layer, the addition of N and P decreased CO2 production from 4.32 to 3.20 μg C g-1 soil carbon h-1. Glucose addition stimulated both surface and subsurface microbial mineralization of SOC, causing priming effects. With the increase of glucose addition rate from 10% to 200% MBC, the primed mineralization rate increased from 0.19 to 3.20 μg C g-1 soil carbon h-1 (fifth day of glucose addition). The magnitude of priming effect increased from 28% to 120% as soil layers go deep compare to the basal CO2 production (fifth day of 200% MBC glucose addition, basal CO2 production rate for the surface and the deepest soil was 11.17 and 2.88 μg C g-1 soil carbon h-1). These results suggested that the mineralization of subsurface carbon is more sensitive to nutrient addition, and carbon mineralization in this layer is likely limited by carbon availability. Thus, any changes in environment conditions (global warming, nitrogen deposition, precipitation pattern change etc.) that affect the distribution of fresh carbon in soil profiles could then stimulate the release of deep soil carbon.

Soil Moisture and Snow Cover: Active or Passive Elements of Climate?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oglesby, Robert J.; Marshall, Susan; Erickson, David J., III; Robertson, Franklin R.; Roads, John O.; Arnold, James E. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

A key question in the study of the hydrologic cycle is the extent to which surface effects such as soil moisture and snow cover are simply passive elements or whether they can affect the evolution of climate on seasonal and longer time scales. We have constructed ensembles of predictability studies using the NCAR CCM3 in which we compared the relative roles of initial surface and atmospheric conditions over the central and western U.S. in determining the subsequent evolution of soil moisture and of snow cover. We have also made sensitivity studies with exaggerated soil moisture and snow cover anomalies in order to determine the physical processes that may be important. Results from simulations with realistic soil moisture anomalies indicate that internal climate variability may be the strongest factor, with some indication that the initial atmospheric state is also important. The initial state of soil moisture does not appear important, a result that held whether simulations were started in late winter or late spring. Model runs with exaggerated soil moisture reductions (near-desert conditions) showed a much larger effect, with warmer surface temperatures, reduced precipitation, and lower surface pressures; the latter indicating a response of the atmospheric circulation. These results suggest the possibility of a threshold effect in soil moisture, whereby an anomaly must be of a sufficient size before it can have a significant impact on the atmospheric circulation and hence climate. Results from simulations with realistic snow cover anomalies indicate that the time of year can be crucial. When introduced in late winter, these anomalies strongly affected the subsequent evolution of snow cover. When introduced in early winter, however, little or no effect is seen on the subsequent snow cover. Runs with greatly exaggerated initial snow cover indicate that the high reflectively of snow is the most important process by which snow cover cart impact climate, through lower surface temperatures and increased surface pressures. In early winter, the amount of solar radiation is very small and so this albedo effect is inconsequential while in late winter, with the sun higher in the sky and period of daylight longer, the effect is much stronger.

The COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Interaction Code (COSMIC) for use in data assimilation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuttleworth, J.; Rosolem, R.; Zreda, M.; Franz, T.

2013-08-01

Soil moisture status in land surface models (LSMs) can be updated by assimilating cosmic-ray neutron intensity measured in air above the surface. This requires a fast and accurate model to calculate the neutron intensity from the profiles of soil moisture modeled by the LSM. The existing Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) model is sufficiently accurate but too slow to be practical in the context of data assimilation. Consequently an alternative and efficient model is needed which can be calibrated accurately to reproduce the calculations made by MCNPX and used to substitute for MCNPX during data assimilation. This paper describes the construction and calibration of such a model, COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Interaction Code (COSMIC), which is simple, physically based and analytic, and which, because it runs at least 50 000 times faster than MCNPX, is appropriate in data assimilation applications. The model includes simple descriptions of (a) degradation of the incoming high-energy neutron flux with soil depth, (b) creation of fast neutrons at each depth in the soil, and (c) scattering of the resulting fast neutrons before they reach the soil surface, all of which processes may have parameterized dependency on the chemistry and moisture content of the soil. The site-to-site variability in the parameters used in COSMIC is explored for 42 sample sites in the COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS), and the comparative performance of COSMIC relative to MCNPX when applied to represent interactions between cosmic-ray neutrons and moist soil is explored. At an example site in Arizona, fast-neutron counts calculated by COSMIC from the average soil moisture profile given by an independent network of point measurements in the COSMOS probe footprint are similar to the fast-neutron intensity measured by the COSMOS probe. It was demonstrated that, when used within a data assimilation framework to assimilate COSMOS probe counts into the Noah land surface model at the Santa Rita Experimental Range field site, the calibrated COSMIC model provided an effective mechanism for translating model-calculated soil moisture profiles into aboveground fast-neutron count when applied with two radically different approaches used to remove the bias between data and model.

Modification of Soil Temperature and Moisture Budgets by Snow Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, X.; Houser, P.

2006-12-01

Snow cover significantly influences the land surface energy and surface moisture budgets. Snow thermally insulates the soil column from large and rapid temperature fluctuations, and snow melting provides an important source for surface runoff and soil moisture. Therefore, it is important to accurately understand and predict the energy and moisture exchange between surface and subsurface associated with snow accumulation and ablation. The objective of this study is to understand the impact of land surface model soil layering treatment on the realistic simulation of soil temperature and soil moisture. We seek to understand how many soil layers are required to fully take into account soil thermodynamic properties and hydrological process while also honoring efficient calculation and inexpensive computation? This work attempts to address this question using field measurements from the Cold Land Processes Field Experiment (CLPX). In addition, to gain a better understanding of surface heat and surface moisture transfer process between land surface and deep soil involved in snow processes, numerical simulations were performed at several Meso-Cell Study Areas (MSAs) of CLPX using the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere (COLA) Simplified Version of the Simple Biosphere Model (SSiB). Measurements of soil temperature and soil moisture were analyzed at several CLPX sites with different vegetation and soil features. The monthly mean vertical profile of soil temperature during October 2002 to July 2003 at North Park Illinois River exhibits a large near surface variation (<5 cm), reveals a significant transition zone from 5 cm to 25 cm, and becomes uniform beyond 25cm. This result shows us that three soil layers are reasonable in solving the vertical variation of soil temperature at these study sites. With 6 soil layers, SSiB also captures the vertical variation of soil temperature during entire winter season, featuring with six soil layers, but the bare soil temperature is underestimated and root-zone soil temperature is overestimated during snow melting; which leads to overestimated temperature variations down to 20 cm. This is caused by extra heat loss from upper soil level and insufficient heat transport from the deep soil. Further work will need to verify if soil temperature displays similar vertical thermal structure for different vegetation and soil types during snow season. This study provides insight to the surface and subsurface thermodynamic and hydrological processes involved in snow modeling which is important for accurate snow simulation.

Stratification and Storage of Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen as Affected by Tillage Practices in the North China Plain

PubMed Central

Zhang, Xiang-Qian; Kong, Fan-Lei; Chen, Fu; Lal, Rattan; Zhang, Hai-Lin

2015-01-01

Tillage practices can redistribute the soil profiles, and thus affects soil organic carbon (SOC), and its storage. The stratification ratio (SR) can be an indicator of soil quality. This study was conducted to determine tillage effects on the profile distribution of certain soil properties in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and summer maize (Zea mays L.) systems in the North China Plain (NCP). Three tillage treatments, including no till (NT), rotary tillage (RT), and plow tillage (PT), were established in 2001 in Luancheng County, Hebei Province. The concentration, storage, and SR of SOC and soil total nitrogen (TN) were assessed in both the wheat and maize seasons. Compared with RT and PT, the mean SRs for all depth ratios of SOC under NT increased by 7.85% and 30.61% during the maize season, and by 14.67% and 30.91% during the wheat season, respectively. The SR of TN for 0–5:30–50 cm increased by 140%, 161%, and 161% in the maize season, and 266%, 154%, and 122% in the wheat season compared to the SR for 0–5:5–10 cm under NT, RT and PT, respectively. The data indicated that SOC and TN were both concentrated in the surface-soil layers (0–10 cm) under NT but were distributed relatively evenly through the soil profile under PT. Meanwhile, the storage of SOC and TN was higher under NT for the surface soil (0–10 cm) but was higher under PT for the deeper soil (30–50 cm). Furthermore, the storage of SOC and TN was significantly related to SR of SOC and TN along the whole soil profile (P<0.0001). Therefore, SR could be used to explain and indicate the changes in the storage of SOC and TN. Further, NT stratifies SOC and TN, enhances the topsoil SOC storage, and helps to improve SOC sequestration and soil quality. PMID:26075391

Radionuclide transport from soil to air, native vegetation, kangaroo rats and grazing cattle on the Nevada test site

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

Gilbert, R.O.; Shinn, J.H.; Essington, E.H.

Between 1970 and 1986 the Nevada Applied Ecology Group (NAEG), U.S. Department of Energy, conducted environmental radionuclide studies at weapons-testing sites on or adjacent to the Nevada Test Site. In this paper, NAEG studies conducted at two nuclear (fission) sites (NS201, NS219) and two nonnuclear (nonfission) sites (Area 13 (Project 57) and Clean Slate 2) are reviewed, synthesized and compared regarding (1) soil particle-size distribution and physical-chemical characteristics of 239 + 240Pu-bearing radioactive particles, (2) 239 + 240Pu resuspension rates and (3) transuranic and fission-product radionuclide transfers from soil to native vegetation, kangaroo rats and grazing cattle. The data indicatemore » that transuranic radionuclides were transferred more readily on the average from soil to air, the external surfaces of native vegetation and to tissues of kangaroo rats at Area 13 than at NS201 or NS219. The 239 + 240Pu resuspension factor for undisturbed soil at Area 13 was three to four orders-of-magnitude larger than at NS201 and NS219, the geometric mean (GM) vegetation-over-soil 239 + 240Pu concentration ratio was from ten to 100 times larger than at NS201, and the GM GI-over-soil, carcass-over-soil and pelt-over-soil 239 + 240Pu ratios for kangaroo rats were about ten times larger than at NS201. These results are consistent with the finding that Area 13, compared with NS201 or NS219, has a higher percentage of radioactivity associated with smaller soil particles and a larger percentage of resuspendable and respirable soil. However, the resuspension factor increased by a factor of 27 at NS201 when the surface soil was disturbed, and by a factor of 12 at NS219 following a wildfire.« less

Dispersion and Transport of Cryptosporidium Oocysts from Fecal Pats under Simulated Rainfall Events

PubMed Central

Davies, Cheryl M.; Ferguson, Christobel M.; Kaucner, Christine; Krogh, Martin; Altavilla, Nanda; Deere, Daniel A.; Ashbolt, Nicholas J.

2004-01-01

The dispersion and initial transport of Cryptosporidium oocysts from fecal pats were investigated during artificial rainfall events on intact soil blocks (1,500 by 900 by 300 mm). Rainfall events of 55 mm h−1 for 30 min and 25 mm h−1 for 180 min were applied to soil plots with artificial fecal pats seeded with approximately 107 oocysts. The soil plots were divided in two, with one side devoid of vegetation and the other left with natural vegetation cover. Each combination of event intensity and duration, vegetation status, and degree of slope (5° and 10°) was evaluated twice. Generally, a fivefold increase (P < 0.05) in runoff volume was generated on bare soil compared to vegetated soil, and significantly more infiltration, although highly variable, occurred through the vegetated soil blocks (P < 0.05). Runoff volume, event conditions (intensity and duration), vegetation status, degree of slope, and their interactions significantly affected the load of oocysts in the runoff. Surface runoff transported from 100.2 oocysts from vegetated loam soil (25-mm h−1, 180-min event on 10° slope) to up to 104.5 oocysts from unvegetated soil (55-mm h−1, 30-min event on 10° slope) over a 1-m distance. Surface soil samples downhill of the fecal pat contained significantly higher concentrations of oocysts on devegetated blocks than on vegetated blocks. Based on these results, there is a need to account for surface soil vegetation coverage as well as slope and rainfall runoff in future assessments of Cryptosporidium transport and when managing pathogen loads from stock grazing near streams within drinking water watersheds. PMID:14766600

Conservation of soil, water and nutrients in surface runoff using riparian plant species.

PubMed

Srivastava, Prabodh; Singh, Shipra

2012-01-01

Three riparian plant species viz. Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers., Saccharum bengalensis Retz. and Parthenium hysterophorus L. were selected from the riparian zone of Kali river at Aligarh to conduct the surface runoff experiment to compare their conservation efficiencies for soil, water and nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen). Experimental plots were prepared on artificial slopes in botanical garden and on natural slopes on study site. Selected riparian plant species showed the range of conservation values for soil and water from 47.11 to 95.22% and 44.06 to 72.50%, respectively on artificial slope and from 44.53 to 95.33% and 48.36 to 73.15%, respectively on natural slope. Conservation values for phosphorus and nitrogen ranged from 40.83 to 88.89% and 59.78 to 82.22%, respectively on artificial slope and from 50.01 to 90.16% and 68.07 to 85.62%, respectively on natural slope. It was observed that Cynodon dactylon was the most efficient riparian species in conservation of soil, water and nutrients in surface runoff.

Greater soil carbon accumulation in deeper soils in native- than in exotic-dominated grassland plantings in the southern Plains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilsey, B. J.; Xu, X.; Polley, H. W.; Hofmockel, K. S.

2017-12-01

Global change includes invasion by non-native plant species, and invasion may affect carbon cycling and storage. We tested predictions in central Texas in an experiment that compares mixtures of all exotic or all native species under two summer irrigation treatments (128 or 0 mm) that varies the amount of summer drought stress. At the end of the eighth growing season after establishment, soils were sampled in 10 cm increments to 100 cm depth to determine if soil C differed among treatments, and if treatments differentially affected soil C in deeper soils. Soil C content was significantly (5%) higher under native plantings than under exotic species plantings (P < 0.001). The difference between native and exotic plantings increased with depth, and native plantings had higher soil C in deeper soil layers than in surface layers (native-exotic x depth, P < 0.001). Exotic plantings had decreasing soil C with depth. Soil C:N ratio and δ13C/12C were also significantly affected by native-exotic status, with soils in exotic plots having a significantly greater C4 contribution than native soils. Soil C was unaffected by summer irrigation treatments. Our results suggest that a significant amount of carbon could be sequestered by replacing exotic plant species with native species in the southern Plains, and that more work should be conducted at deeper soil depths. If we had restricted our analyses to surface soil layers (e.g. top 30 cm), we would have failed to detect depth differences between natives and exotics.

Runoff initiation, soil detachment and connectivity are enhanced as a consequence of vineyards plantations.

PubMed

Cerdà, A; Keesstra, S D; Rodrigo-Comino, J; Novara, A; Pereira, P; Brevik, E; Giménez-Morera, A; Fernández-Raga, M; Pulido, M; di Prima, S; Jordán, A

2017-11-01

Rainfall-induced soil erosion is a major threat, especially in agricultural soils. In the Mediterranean belt, vineyards are affected by high soil loss rates, leading to land degradation. Plantation of new vines is carried out after deep ploughing, use of heavy machinery, wheel traffic, and trampling. Those works result in soil physical properties changes and contribute to enhanced runoff rates and increased soil erosion rates. The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of the plantation of vineyards on soil hydrological and erosional response under low frequency - high magnitude rainfall events, the ones that under the Mediterranean climatic conditions trigger extreme soil erosion rates. We determined time to ponding, Tp; time to runoff, Tr; time to runoff outlet, Tro; runoff rate, and soil loss under simulated rainfall (55 mm h -1 , 1 h) at plot scale (0.25 m 2 ) to characterize the runoff initiation and sediment detachment. In recent vine plantations (<1 year since plantation; R) compared to old ones (>50 years; O). Slope gradient, rock fragment cover, soil surface roughness, bulk density, soil organic matter content, soil water content and plant cover were determined. Plantation of new vineyards largely impacted runoff rates and soil erosion risk at plot scale in the short term. Tp, Tr and Tro were much shorter in R plots. Tr-Tp and Tro-Tr periods were used as connectivity indexes of water flow, and decreased to 77.5 and 33.2% in R plots compared to O plots. Runoff coefficients increased significantly from O (42.94%) to R plots (71.92%) and soil losses were approximately one order of magnitude lower (1.8 and 12.6 Mg ha -1 h -1 for O and R plots respectively). Soil surface roughness and bulk density are two key factors that determine the increase in connectivity of flows and sediments in recently planted vineyards. Our results confirm that plantation of new vineyards strongly contributes to runoff initiation and sediment detachment, and those findings confirms that soil erosion control strategies should be applied immediately after or during the plantation of vines. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of meteorological models on the solution of the surface energy balance and soil temperature variations in bare soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saito, Hirotaka; Šimůnek, Jiri

2009-07-01

SummaryA complete evaluation of the soil thermal regime can be obtained by evaluating the movement of liquid water, water vapor, and thermal energy in the subsurface. Such an evaluation requires the simultaneous solution of the system of equations for the surface water and energy balance, and subsurface heat transport and water flow. When only daily climatic data is available, one needs not only to estimate diurnal cycles of climatic data, but to calculate the continuous values of various components in the energy balance equation, using different parameterization methods. The objective of this study is to quantify the impact of the choice of different estimation and parameterization methods, referred together to as meteorological models in this paper, on soil temperature predictions in bare soils. A variety of widely accepted meteorological models were tested on the dataset collected at a proposed low-level radioactive-waste disposal site in the Chihuahua Desert in West Texas. As the soil surface was kept bare during the study, no vegetation effects were evaluated. A coupled liquid water, water vapor, and heat transport model, implemented in the HYDRUS-1D program, was used to simulate diurnal and seasonal soil temperature changes in the engineered cover installed at the site. The modified version of HYDRUS provides a flexible means for using various types of information and different models to evaluate surface mass and energy balance. Different meteorological models were compared in terms of their prediction errors for soil temperatures at seven observation depths. The results obtained indicate that although many available meteorological models can be used to solve the energy balance equation at the soil-atmosphere interface in coupled water, vapor, and heat transport models, their impact on overall simulation results varies. For example, using daily average climatic data led to greater prediction errors, while relatively simple meteorological models may significantly improve soil temperature predictions. On the other hand, while models for the albedo and soil emissivity had little impact on soil temperature predictions, the choice of the atmospheric emissivity models had a greater impact. A comparison of all the different models indicates that the error introduced at the soil atmosphere interface propagates to deeper layers. Therefore, attention needs to be paid not only to the precise determination of the soil hydraulic and thermal properties, but also to the selection of proper meteorological models for the components involved in the surface energy balance calculations.

Estimation of Land Surface Fluxes and Their Uncertainty via Variational Data Assimilation Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdolghafoorian, A.; Farhadi, L.

2016-12-01

Accurate estimation of land surface heat and moisture fluxes as well as root zone soil moisture is crucial in various hydrological, meteorological, and agricultural applications. "In situ" measurements of these fluxes are costly and cannot be readily scaled to large areas relevant to weather and climate studies. Therefore, there is a need for techniques to make quantitative estimates of heat and moisture fluxes using land surface state variables. In this work, we applied a novel approach based on the variational data assimilation (VDA) methodology to estimate land surface fluxes and soil moisture profile from the land surface states. This study accounts for the strong linkage between terrestrial water and energy cycles by coupling the dual source energy balance equation with the water balance equation through the mass flux of evapotranspiration (ET). Heat diffusion and moisture diffusion into the column of soil are adjoined to the cost function as constraints. This coupling results in more accurate prediction of land surface heat and moisture fluxes and consequently soil moisture at multiple depths with high temporal frequency as required in many hydrological, environmental and agricultural applications. One of the key limitations of VDA technique is its tendency to be ill-posed, meaning that a continuum of possibilities exists for different parameters that produce essentially identical measurement-model misfit errors. On the other hand, the value of heat and moisture flux estimation to decision-making processes is limited if reasonable estimates of the corresponding uncertainty are not provided. In order to address these issues, in this research uncertainty analysis will be performed to estimate the uncertainty of retrieved fluxes and root zone soil moisture. The assimilation algorithm is tested with a series of experiments using a synthetic data set generated by the simultaneous heat and water (SHAW) model. We demonstrate the VDA performance by comparing the (synthetic) true measurements (including profile of soil moisture and temperature, land surface water and heat fluxes, and root water uptake) with VDA estimates. In addition, the feasibility of extending the proposed approach to use remote sensing observations is tested by limiting the number of LST observations and soil moisture observations.

Characteristics of Nitrogen Balances of Large-scale Stock Farms and Reduction of Environmental Nitrogen Loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hattori, Toshihiro; Takamatsu, Rieko

We calculated nitrogen balances on farm gate and soil surface on large-scale stock farms and discussed methods for reducing environmental nitrogen loads. Four different types of public stock farms (organic beef, calf supply and daily cows) were surveyed in Aomori Prefecture. (1) Farm gate and soil surface nitrogen inflows were both larger than the respective outflows on all types of farms. Farm gate nitrogen balance for beef farms were worse than that for dairy farms. (2) Soil surface nitrogen outflows and soil nitrogen retention were in proportion to soil surface nitrogen inflows. (3) Reductions in soil surface nitrogen retention were influenced by soil surface nitrogen inflows. (4) In order to reduce farm gate nitrogen retention, inflows of formula feed and chemical fertilizer need to be reduced. (5) In order to reduce soil surface nitrogen retention, inflows of fertilizer need to be reduced and nitrogen balance needs to be controlled.

Normalized Rotational Multiple Yield Surface Framework (NRMYSF) stress-strain curve prediction method based on small strain triaxial test data on undisturbed Auckland residual clay soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noor, M. J. Md; Ibrahim, A.; Rahman, A. S. A.

2018-04-01

Small strain triaxial test measurement is considered to be significantly accurate compared to the external strain measurement using conventional method due to systematic errors normally associated with the test. Three submersible miniature linear variable differential transducer (LVDT) mounted on yokes which clamped directly onto the soil sample at equally 120° from the others. The device setup using 0.4 N resolution load cell and 16 bit AD converter was capable of consistently resolving displacement of less than 1µm and measuring axial strains ranging from less than 0.001% to 2.5%. Further analysis of small strain local measurement data was performed using new Normalized Multiple Yield Surface Framework (NRMYSF) method and compared with existing Rotational Multiple Yield Surface Framework (RMYSF) prediction method. The prediction of shear strength based on combined intrinsic curvilinear shear strength envelope using small strain triaxial test data confirmed the significant improvement and reliability of the measurement and analysis methods. Moreover, the NRMYSF method shows an excellent data prediction and significant improvement toward more reliable prediction of soil strength that can reduce the cost and time of experimental laboratory test.

Location of Bare Soil Surface and Soil Line on the RED-NIR Spectral Plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koroleva, P. V.; Rukhovich, D. I.; Rukhovich, A. D.; Rukhovich, D. D.; Kulyanitsa, A. L.; Trubnikov, A. V.; Kalinina, N. V.; Simakova, M. S.

2017-12-01

Soil as a separate natural body occupies certain area with its own set of spectral characteristics within the RED-NIR spectral space. This is an ellipse-shaped area, and its semi-major axis is the soil line for a satellite image. The spectral area for a bare soil surface is neighboring to the areas of black carbon, straw, vegetating plants, and missing RED-NIR values. A reliable separation of the bare soil surface within the spectral space is possible with the technology of spectral neighborhood of soil line. The accuracy of this method is 90%. The determination of the bare soil surface using vegetation indices, both relative (NDVI), and perpendicular (PVI), is incorrect; the accuracy of these methods does not exceed 65%, and for most of the survey seasons it may be lower than 50%. The flat part of the "tasseled cap" described as the soil line, is not a synonym for the area of the bare soil surface. The bare soil surface on the RED-NIR plots occupies significantly smaller areas than the area of soil line according to Kauth and Thomas.

Investigation of wear resistance of polyurethanes in abrasive soil mass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Napiórkowski, Jerzy; Ligier, Krzysztof

2018-04-01

This paper presents a comparative study of polyurethane wear in different abrasive soil masses. Two types of polyurethanes of various chemical compositions and untreated 38GSA steel were tested, the latter being used as a reference standard. The study was conducted in natural soil mass at a "rotating bowl" stand. Relative wear resistance was determined from measurements of mass wear for the materials under study. The condition of the surface of the materials under wear test was analysed.

Micromorphological characteristics of sandy forest soils recently impacted by wildfires in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maksimova, Ekaterina; Abakumov, Evgeny

2017-04-01

Two fire-affected soils were studied using micromorphological methods. The objective of the paper is to assess and compare fire effects on the micropedological organisation of soils in a forest-steppe zone of central Russia (Volga Basin, Togliatti city). Samples were collected in the green zone of Togliatti city. The results showed that both soils were rich in quartz and feldspar. Mica was highly present in soils affected by surface fires, while calcium carbonates were identified in the soils affected by crown fires. The type of plasma is humus-clay, but the soil assemblage is plasma-silt with a prevalence of silt. Angular and subangular grains are the most dominant soil particulates. No evidence of intensive weathering was detected. There was a decrease in the porosity of soils affected by fires as a consequence of soil pores filled with ash and charcoal.

Evaluation of Long-term Soil Moisture Proxies in the U.S. Great Plains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, S.; Quiring, S. M.

2016-12-01

Soil moisture plays an important role in land-atmosphere interactions through both surface energy and water balances. However, despite its importance, there are few long-term records of observed soil moisture for investigating long-term spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture. Hence, it is necessary to find suitable approximations of soil moisture observations. 5 drought indices will be compared with simulated and observed soil moisture over the U.S. Great Plains during two time periods (1980 - 2012 and 2003 - 2012). Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Palmer Z Index (zindex) and Crop Moisture Index (CMI) will be calculated by PRISM data. The soil moisture simulations will be derived from NLDAS. In situ soil moisture will be obtained from North American Soil Moisture Database. The evaluation will focus on three main aspects: trends, variations and persistence. The results will support further research investigating long-term variations in soil moisture-climate interactions.

A radiative transfer model for microwave emissions from bare agricultural soils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burke, W. J.; Paris, J. F.

1975-01-01

A radiative transfer model for microwave emissions from bare, stratified agricultural soils was developed to assist in the analysis of data gathered in the joint soil moisture experiment. The predictions of the model were compared with preliminary X band (2.8 cm) microwave and ground based observations. Measured brightness temperatures at vertical and horizontal polarizations can be used to estimate the moisture content of the top centimeter of soil with + or - 1 percent accuracy. It is also shown that the Stokes parameters can be used to distinguish between moisture and surface roughness effects.

A Numerical Simulation of Scattering from One-Dimensional Inhomogeneous Dielectric Random Surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarabandi, Kamal; Oh, Yisok; Ulaby, Fawwaz T.

1996-01-01

In this paper, an efficient numerical solution for the scattering problem of inhomogeneous dielectric rough surfaces is presented. The inhomogeneous dielectric random surface represents a bare soil surface and is considered to be comprised of a large number of randomly positioned dielectric humps of different sizes, shapes, and dielectric constants above an impedance surface. Clods with nonuniform moisture content and rocks are modeled by inhomogeneous dielectric humps and the underlying smooth wet soil surface is modeled by an impedance surface. In this technique, an efficient numerical solution for the constituent dielectric humps over an impedance surface is obtained using Green's function derived by the exact image theory in conjunction with the method of moments. The scattered field from a sample of the rough surface is obtained by summing the scattered fields from all the individual humps of the surface coherently ignoring the effect of multiple scattering between the humps. The statistical behavior of the scattering coefficient sigma(sup 0) is obtained from the calculation of scattered fields of many different realizations of the surface. Numerical results are presented for several different roughnesses and dielectric constants of the random surfaces. The numerical technique is verified by comparing the numerical solution with the solution based on the small perturbation method and the physical optics model for homogeneous rough surfaces. This technique can be used to study the behavior of scattering coefficient and phase difference statistics of rough soil surfaces for which no analytical solution exists.

Heterogeneity of soil surface temperature induced by xerophytic shrub in a revegetated desert ecosystem, northwestern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ya-Feng; Wang, Xin-Ping; Pan, Yan-Xia; Hu, Rui; Zhang, Hao

2013-06-01

Variation characteristics of the soil surface temperature induced by shrub canopy greatly affects the near-surface biological and biochemical processes in desert ecosystems. However, information regarding the effects of shrub upon the heterogeneity of soil surface temperature is scarce. Here we aimed to characterize the effects of shrub ( Caragana korshinskii) canopy on the soil surface temperature heterogeneity at areas under shrub canopy and the neighbouring bare ground. Diurnal variations of soil surface temperature were measured at areas adjacent to the shrub base (ASB), beneath the midcanopy (BMC), and in the bare intershrub spaces (BIS) at the eastern, southern, western and northern aspects of shrub, respectively. Results indicated that diurnal mean soil surface temperature under the C. korshinskii canopy (ASB and BMC) was significantly lower than in the BIS, with the highest in the BIS, followed by the BMC and ASB. The diurnal maximum and diurnal variations of soil surface temperatures under canopy vary strongly with different aspects of shrub with the diurnal variation in solar altitude, which could be used as cues to detect safe sites for under-canopy biota. A significant empirical linear relationship was found between soil surface temperature and solar altitude, suggesting an empirical predicator that solar altitude can serve for soil surface temperature. Lower soil surface temperatures under the canopy than in the bare intershrub spaces imply that shrubs canopy play a role of `cool islands' in the daytime in terms of soil surface temperature during hot summer months in the desert ecosystems characterized by a mosaic of sparse vegetation and bare ground.

Optimizing available water capacity using microwave satellite data for improving irrigation management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, Manika; Bolten, John; Lakshmi, Venkat

2015-04-01

This work addresses the improvement of available water capacity by developing a technique for estimating soil hydraulic parameters through the utilization of satellite-retrieved near surface soil moisture. The prototype involves the usage of Monte Carlo analysis to assimilate historical remote sensing soil moisture data available from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) within the hydrological model. The main hypothesis used in this study is that near-surface soil moisture data contain useful information that can describe the effective hydrological conditions of the basin such that when appropriately In the method followed in this study the hydraulic parameters are derived directly from information on the soil moisture state at the AMSR-E footprint scale and the available water capacity is derived for the root zone by coupling of AMSR-E soil moisture with the physically-based hydrological model. The available capacity water, which refers to difference between the field capacity and wilting point of the soil and represent the soil moisture content at 0.33 bar and 15 bar respectively is estimated from the soil hydraulic parameters using the van Genuchten equation. The initial ranges of soil hydraulic parameters are taken in correspondence with the values available from the literature based on Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database within the particular AMSR-E footprint. Using the Monte Carlo simulation, the ranges are narrowed in the region where simulation shows a good match between predicted and near-surface soil moisture from AMSR-E. In this study, the uncertainties in accurately determining the parameters of the nonlinear soil water retention function for large-scale hydrological modeling is the focus of the development of the Bayesian framework. Thus, the model forecasting has been combined with the observational information to optimize the model state and the soil hydraulic parameters simultaneously. The optimization process is divided into two steps during one time interval: the state variable is optimized through the state filter and the optimal parameter values are then transferred for retrieving soil moisture. However, soil moisture from sensors such as AMSR-E can only be retrieved for the top few centimeters of soil. So, for the present study, a homogeneous soil system has been considered. By assimilating this information into the model, the accuracy of model structure in relating surface moisture dynamics to deeper soil profiles can be ascertained. To evaluate the performance of the system in helping improve simulation accuracy and whether they can be used to obtain soil moisture profiles at poorly gauged catchments alongwith the available water capacity, the root mean square error (RMSE) and Mean Bias error (MBE) are used to measure the performance of the soil moisture simulations. The optimized parameters as compared to the pedo-transfer based parameters were found to reduce the RMSE from 0.14 to 0.04 and 0.15 to 0.07 in surface layer and root zone respectively.

Ecological controls on N2O emission in surface litter and near-surface soil of a managed grassland: modelling and measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grant, Robert F.; Neftel, Albrecht; Calanca, Pierluigi

2016-06-01

Large variability in N2O emissions from managed grasslands may occur because most emissions originate in surface litter or near-surface soil where variability in soil water content (θ) and temperature (Ts) is greatest. To determine whether temporal variability in θ and Ts of surface litter and near-surface soil could explain this in N2O emissions, a simulation experiment was conducted with ecosys, a comprehensive mathematical model of terrestrial ecosystems in which processes governing N2O emissions were represented at high temporal and spatial resolution. Model performance was verified by comparing N2O emissions, CO2 and energy exchange, and θ and Ts modelled by ecosys with those measured by automated chambers, eddy covariance (EC) and soil sensors on an hourly timescale during several emission events from 2004 to 2009 in an intensively managed pasture at Oensingen, Switzerland. Both modelled and measured events were induced by precipitation following harvesting and subsequent fertilizing or manuring. These events were brief (2-5 days) with maximum N2O effluxes that varied from < 1 mgNm-2h-1 in early spring and autumn to > 3 mgNm-2h-1 in summer. Only very small emissions were modelled or measured outside these events. In the model, emissions were generated almost entirely in surface litter or near-surface (0-2 cm) soil, at rates driven by N availability with fertilization vs. N uptake with grassland regrowth and by O2 supply controlled by litter and soil wetting relative to O2 demand from microbial respiration. In the model, NOx availability relative to O2 limitation governed both the reduction of more oxidized electron acceptors to N2O and the reduction of N2O to N2, so that the magnitude of N2O emissions was not simply related to surface and near-surface θ and Ts. Modelled N2O emissions were found to be sensitive to defoliation intensity and timing which controlled plant N uptake and soil θ and Ts prior to and during emission events. Reducing leaf area index (LAI) remaining after defoliation to half that under current practice and delaying harvesting by 5 days raised modelled N2O emissions by as much as 80 % during subsequent events and by an average of 43 % annually. Modelled N2O emissions were also found to be sensitive to surface soil properties. Increasing near-surface bulk density by 10 % raised N2O emissions by as much as 100 % during emission events and by an average of 23 % annually. Relatively small spatial variation in management practices and soil surface properties could therefore cause the large spatial variation in N2O emissions commonly found in field studies. The global warming potential from annual N2O emissions in this intensively managed grassland largely offset those from net C uptake in both modelled and field experiments. However, model results indicated that this offset could be adversely affected by suboptimal land management and soil properties.

Thermodynamic limits set relevant constraints to the soil-plant-atmosphere system and to optimality in terrestrial vegetation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kleidon, Axel; Renner, Maik

2016-04-01

The soil-plant-atmosphere system is a complex system that is strongly shaped by interactions between the physical environment and vegetation. This complexity appears to demand equally as complex models to fully capture the dynamics of the coupled system. What we describe here is an alternative approach that is based on thermodynamics and which allows for comparatively simple formulations free of empirical parameters by assuming that the system is so complex that its emergent dynamics are only constrained by the thermodynamics of the system. This approach specifically makes use of the second law of thermodynamics, a fundamental physical law that is typically not being considered in Earth system science. Its relevance to land surface processes is that it fundamentally sets a direction as well as limits to energy conversions and associated rates of mass exchange, but it requires us to formulate land surface processes as thermodynamic processes that are driven by energy conversions. We describe an application of this approach to the surface energy balance partitioning at the diurnal scale. In this application the turbulent heat fluxes of sensible and latent heat are described as the result of a convective heat engine that is driven by solar radiative heating of the surface and that operates at its thermodynamic limit. The predicted fluxes from this approach compare very well to observations at several sites. This suggests that the turbulent exchange fluxes between the surface and the atmosphere operate at their thermodynamic limit, so that thermodynamics imposes a relevant constraint to the land surface-atmosphere system. Yet, thermodynamic limits do not entirely determine the soil-plant-atmosphere system because vegetation affects these limits, for instance by affecting the magnitude of surface heating by absorption of solar radiation in the canopy layer. These effects are likely to make the conditions at the land surface more favorable for photosynthetic activity, which then links this thermodynamic approach to optimality in vegetation. We also contrast this approach to common, semi-empirical approaches of surface-atmosphere exchange and discuss how thermodynamics may set a broader range of transport limitations and optimality in the soil-plant-atmosphere system.

Dairy heifer manure management, dietary phosphorus, and soil test P effects on runoff phosphorus.

PubMed

Jokela, William E; Coblentz, Wayne K; Hoffman, Patrick C

2012-01-01

Manure application to cropland can contribute to runoff losses of P and eutrophication of surface waters. We conducted a series of three rainfall simulation experiments to assess the effects of dairy heifer dietary P, manure application method, application rate, and soil test P on runoff P losses from two successive simulated rainfall events. Bedded manure (18-21% solids) from dairy heifers fed diets with or without supplemental P was applied on a silt loam soil packed into 1- by 0.2-m sheet metal pans. Manure was either surface-applied or incorporated (Experiment 1) or surface-applied at two rates (Experiment 2) to supply 26 to 63 kg P ha. Experiment 3 evaluated runoff P from four similar nonmanured soils with average Bray P1-extractable P levels of 11, 29, 51, and 75 mg kg. We measured runoff quantity, total P (TP), dissolved reactive P (DRP), and total and volatile solids in runoff collected for 30 min after runoff initiation from two simulated rain events (70 mm h) 3 or 4 d apart. Manure incorporation reduced TP and DRP concentrations and load by 85 to 90% compared with surface application. Doubling the manure rate increased runoff DRP and TP concentrations an average of 36%. In the same experiment, P diet supplementation increased water-extractable P in manure by 100% and increased runoff DRP concentration threefold. Concentrations of solids, TP, and DRP in runoff from Rain 2 were 25 to 75% lower than from Rain 1 in Experiments 1 and 2. Runoff DRP from nonmanured soils increased quadratically with increasing soil test P. These results show that large reductions in P runoff losses can be achieved by incorporation of manure, avoiding unnecessary diet P supplementation, limiting manure application rate, and managing soils to prevent excessive soil test P levels. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Evaluation of hydrologic components of community land model 4 and bias identification

DOE PAGES

Du, Enhao; Vittorio, Alan Di; Collins, William D.

2015-04-01

Runoff and soil moisture are two key components of the global hydrologic cycle that should be validated at local to global scales in Earth System Models (ESMs) used for climate projection. Here, we have evaluated the runoff and surface soil moisture output by the Community Climate System Model (CCSM) along with 8 other models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) repository using satellite soil moisture observations and stream gauge corrected runoff products. A series of Community Land Model (CLM) runs forced by reanalysis and coupled model outputs was also performed to identify atmospheric drivers of biases and uncertainties inmore » the CCSM. Results indicate that surface soil moisture simulations tend to be positively biased in high latitude areas by most selected CMIP5 models except CCSM, FGOALS, and BCC, which share similar land surface model code. With the exception of GISS, runoff simulations by all selected CMIP5 models were overestimated in mountain ranges and in most of the Arctic region. In general, positive biases in CCSM soil moisture and runoff due to precipitation input error were offset by negative biases induced by temperature input error. Excluding the impact from atmosphere modeling, the global mean of seasonal surface moisture oscillation was out of phase compared to observations in many years during 1985–2004. The CLM also underestimated runoff in the Amazon, central Africa, and south Asia, where soils all have high clay content. We hypothesize that lack of a macropore flow mechanism is partially responsible for this underestimation. However, runoff was overestimated in the areas covered by volcanic ash soils (i.e., Andisols), which might be associated with poor soil porosity representation in CLM. Finally, our results indicate that CCSM predictability of hydrology could be improved by addressing the compensating errors associated with precipitation and temperature and updating the CLM soil representation.« less

Modelling of the long-term fate of pesticide residues in agricultural soils and their surface exchange with the atmosphere: Part II. Projected long-term fate of pesticide residues.

PubMed

Scholtz, M T; Bidleman, T F

2007-05-01

In the first part of this paper, a simple coupled dynamic soil-atmosphere model for studying the gaseous exchange of pesticide soil residues with the atmosphere is described and evaluated by comparing model results with published measurements of pesticide concentrations in air and soil. In Part II, the model is used to study the concentration profiles of pesticide residues in both undisturbed and annually tilled agricultural soils. Future trends are estimated for the measured air and soil concentrations of lindane and six highly persistent pesticides (toxaphene, p,p'-DDE, dieldrin, cis- and trans-chlordane and trans-nonachlor) over a twenty-year period due to volatilization and leaching into the deeper soil. Wet deposition and particle associated pesticide deposition (that increase soil residue concentrations) and soil erosion, degradation in the soil (other than for lindane) and run-off in precipitation are not considered in this study. Estimates of the rain deposition fluxes are reported that show that, other than for lindane, net volatilization fluxes greatly exceed rain deposition fluxes. The model shows that the persistent pesticides studied are highly immobile in soil and that loss of these highly persistent residues from the soil is by volatilization rather than leaching into the deeper soil. The soil residue levels of these six pesticides are currently sources of net volatilization to the atmosphere and will remain so for many years. The maximum rate of volatilization from the soil was simulated by setting the atmospheric background concentration to zero; these simulations show that the rates of volatilization will not be significantly increased since soil resistance rather than the atmospheric concentration controls the volatilization rates. Annual tilling of the soils increases the volatilization loss to the atmosphere. Nonetheless, the model predicts that, if only air-soil exchange is considered, more than 76% of current persistent pesticide residues will remain after 20 years in the top 7 cm of annually tilled soils. In contrast, lindane is relatively mobile in soil due to weaker binding to soil carbon and leaching of lindane into soil is the main removal route for current lindane residues near the soil surface. The model predicts that the soil is a sink for lindane in the atmosphere and that soil residue levels of lindane in the surface soil are determined by a balance between dry gaseous deposition to the soil from the atmosphere and leaching from the surface soil into the deeper soil where degradation is the dominant loss route. The model suggests that deposition of lindane from the atmosphere will sustain residues in the soil and, in the absence of fresh applications of lindane to the soil, eliminating lindane from the atmosphere would lead to a rapid decline of lindane residues in agricultural soils of the southern U.S.

Redistribution of soil nitrogen, carbon and organic matter by mechanical disturbance during whole-tree harvesting in northern hardwoods

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ryan, D.F.; Huntington, T.G.; Wayne, Martin C.

1992-01-01

To investigate whether mechanical mixing during harvesting could account for losses observed from forest floor, we measured surface disturbance on a 22 ha watershed that was whole-tree harvested. Surface soil on each 10 cm interval along 81, randomly placed transects was classified immediately after harvesting as mineral or organic, and as undisturbed, depressed, rutted, mounded, scarified, or scalped (forest floor scraped away). We quantitatively sampled these surface categories to collect soil in which preharvest forest floor might reside after harvest. Mechanically mixed mineral and organic soil horizons were readily identified. Buried forest floor under mixed mineral soil occurred in 57% of mounds with mineral surface soil. Harvesting disturbed 65% of the watershed surface and removed forest floor from 25% of the area. Mechanically mixed soil under ruts with organic or mineral surface soil, and mounds with mineral surface soil contained organic carbon and nitrogen pools significantly greater than undisturbed forest floor. Mechanical mixing into underlying mineral soil could account for the loss of forest floor observed between the preharvest condition and the second growing season after whole-tree harvesting. ?? 1992.

Rainfall simulation and Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry for the analysis of soil water erosion in Mediterranean vineyards.

PubMed

Prosdocimi, Massimo; Burguet, Maria; Di Prima, Simone; Sofia, Giulia; Terol, Enric; Rodrigo Comino, Jesús; Cerdà, Artemi; Tarolli, Paolo

2017-01-01

Soil water erosion is a serious problem, especially in agricultural lands. Among these, vineyards deserve attention, because they constitute for the Mediterranean areas a type of land use affected by high soil losses. A significant problem related to the study of soil water erosion in these areas consists in the lack of a standardized procedure of collecting data and reporting results, mainly due to a variability among the measurement methods applied. Given this issue and the seriousness of soil water erosion in Mediterranean vineyards, this works aims to quantify the soil losses caused by simulated rainstorms, and compare them with each other depending on two different methodologies: (i) rainfall simulation and (ii) surface elevation change-based, relying on high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) derived from a photogrammetric technique (Structure-from-Motion or SfM). The experiments were carried out in a typical Mediterranean vineyard, located in eastern Spain, at very fine scales. SfM data were obtained from one reflex camera and a smartphone built-in camera. An index of sediment connectivity was also applied to evaluate the potential effect of connectivity within the plots. DEMs derived from the smartphone and the reflex camera were comparable with each other in terms of accuracy and capability of estimating soil loss. Furthermore, soil loss estimated with the surface elevation change-based method resulted to be of the same order of magnitude of that one obtained with rainfall simulation, as long as the sediment connectivity within the plot was considered. High-resolution topography derived from SfM revealed to be essential in the sediment connectivity analysis and, therefore, in the estimation of eroded materials, when comparing them to those derived from the rainfall simulation methodology. The fact that smartphones built-in cameras could produce as much satisfying results as those derived from reflex cameras is a high value added for using SfM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Validating HYLARSMET: a Hydrologically Consistent Land Surface Model for Soil Moisture and Evapotranspiration Modelling over Southern Africa using Remote Sensing and Meteorological Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sinclair, Scott; Pegram, Geoff; Mengitsu, Michael; Everson, Colin

2015-04-01

Timeous knowledge of the spatial distribution of soil moisture and evapotranspiration over a large region in fine detail has great value for coping with two weather extremes: flash floods and droughts, since the state of the wetness of the land surface has a major impact on runoff response. Also, the ability to monitor the wetness of the soil and the actual evapotranspiration over large regions, without having to laboriously take expensive samples, is a bonus for agricultural managers who need to predict crop yields. We present samples of the daily national Soil Moisture and Evapotranspiration estimates on a grid of 7300 locations centred in 12 km squares, then move on to the results of a validation study for soil moisture and evapotranspiration estimated using the PyTOPKAPI hydrological model in Land Surface Modelling mode, a system called HYLARSMET. The HYLARSMET estimates are compared with detailed evapotranspiration and soil moisture measurements made at the Baynesfield experimental farm in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, run by the University of KZN. The HYLARSMET evapotranspiration estimates compared very well with the measured estimates for the two chosen crop types, in spite of the fact that the HYLARSMET estimates were not designed to explicitly account for the crop types at each site. The same seasonality effects were evident in all 3 estimates, and there was a stronger ET relationship between HYLARSMET and the Soybean site (Pearson r = 0.81) than for Maize, (r = 0.59). The soil moisture relationship was stronger between the two in situ measured estimates (r = 0.98 at 0.5 m depth) than it was between HYLARSMET and the field estimates (r about 0.52 in both cases). Overall there was a reasonably good relationship between HYLARSMET and the in situ measurements of ET and SM at each site, indicating the value of the modelling procedure.

Sensitivity of Climate Simulations to Land-Surface and Atmospheric Boundary-Layer Treatments-A Review.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garratt, J. R.

1993-03-01

Aspects of the land-surface and boundary-layer treatments in some 20 or so atmospheric general circulation models (GCMS) are summarized. In only a small fraction of these have significant sensitivity studies been carried out and published. Predominantly, the sensitivity studies focus upon the parameterization of land-surface processes and specification of land-surface properties-the most important of these include albedo, roughness length, soil moisture status, and vegetation density. The impacts of surface albedo and soil moisture upon the climate simulated in GCMs with bare-soil land surfaces are well known. Continental evaporation and precipitation tend to decrease with increased albedo and decreased soil moisture availability. For example, results from numerous studies give an average decrease in continental precipitation of 1 mm day1 in response to an average albedo increase of 0.13. Few conclusive studies have been carried out on the impact of a gross roughness-length change-the primary study included an important statistical assessment of the impact upon the mean July climate around the globe of a decreased continental roughness (by three orders of magnitude). For example, such a decrease reduced the precipitation over Amazonia by 1 to 2 mm day1.The inclusion of a canopy scheme in a GCM ensures the combined impacts of roughness (canopies tend to be rougher than bare soil), albedo (canopies tend to be less reflective than bare soil), and soil-moisture availability (canopies prevent the near-surface soil region from drying out and can access the deep soil moisture) upon the simulated climate. The most revealing studies to date involve the regional impact of Amazonian deforestation. The results of four such studies show that replacing tropical forest with a degraded pasture results in decreased evaporation ( 1 mm day1) and precipitation (1-2 mm day1), and increased near-surface air temperatures (2 K).Sensitivity studies as a whole suggest the need for a realistic surface representation in general circulation models of the atmosphere. It is not yet clear how detailed this representation needs to be, but even allowing for the importance of surface processes, the parameterization of boundary-layer and convective clouds probably represents a greater challenge to improved climate simulations. This is illustrated in the case of surface net radiation for Aniazonia, which is not well simulated and tends to be overestimated, leading to evaporation rates that are too large. Underestimates in cloudiness, cloud albedo, and clear-sky shortwave absorption, rather than in surface albedo, appear to be the main culprits.There are three major tasks that confront the researcher so far as the development and validation of atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) and surface schemes in GCMs are concerned:(i) There is a need to as' critically the impact of `improved' parameterization schemes on WM simulations, taking into account the problem of natural variability and hence the statistical significance of the induced changes.(ii) There is a need to compare GCM simulations of surface and ABL behavior (particularly regarding the diurnal cycle of surface fluxes, air temperature, and ABL depth) with observations over a range of surface types (vegetation, desert, ocean). In this context, area-average values of surface fluxes will be required to calibrate directly the ABL/land-surface scheme in the GCM.(iii) There is a need for intercomparisons of ABL and land-surface schemes used in GCMS, both for one- dimensional stand-alone models and for GCMs that incorporate the respective schemes.

Engineered polymeric nanoparticles for soil remediation.

PubMed

Tungittiplakorn, Warapong; Lion, Leonard W; Cohen, Claude; Kim, Ju-Young

2004-03-01

Hydrophobic organic groundwater contaminants, such as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), sorb strongly to soils and are difficult to remove. We report here on the synthesis of amphiphilic polyurethane (APU) nanoparticles for use in remediation of soil contaminated with PAHs. The particles are made of polyurethane acrylate anionomer (UAA) or poly(ethylene glycol)-modified urethane acrylate (PMUA) precursor chains that can be emulsified and cross-linked in water. The resulting particles are of colloidal size (17-97 nm as measured by dynamic light scattering). APU particles have the ability to enhance PAH desorption and transport in a manner comparable to that of surfactant micelles, but unlike the surface-active components of micelles, the individual cross-linked precursor chains in APU particles are not free to sorb to the soil surface. Thus, the APU particles are stable independent of their concentration in the aqueous phase. In this paper we show that APU particles can be engineered to achieve desired properties. Our experimental results show that the APU particles can be designed to have hydrophobic interior regions that confer a high affinity for phenanthrene (PHEN) and hydrophilic surfaces that promote particle mobility in soil. The affinity of APU particles for contaminants such as PHEN can be controlled by changing the size of the hydrophobic segment used in the chain synthesis. The mobility of colloidal APU suspensions in soil is controlled by the charge density or the size of the pendent water-soluble chains that reside on the particle surface. Exemplary results are provided illustrating the influence of alternative APU particle formulations with respect to their efficacy for contaminant removal. The ability to control particle properties offers the potential to produce different nanoparticles optimized for varying contaminant types and soil conditions.

Modelling Soil Heat and Water Flow as a Coupled Process in Land Surface Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García González, Raquel; Verhoef, Anne; Vidale, Pier Luigi; Braud, Isabelle

2010-05-01

To improve model estimates of soil water and heat flow by land surface models (LSMs), in particular in the first few centimetres of the near-surface soil profile, we have to consider in detail all the relevant physical processes involved (see e.g. Milly, 1982). Often, thermal and iso-thermal vapour fluxes in LSMs are neglected and the simplified Richard's equation is used as a result. Vapour transfer may affect the water fluxes and heat transfer in LSMs used for hydrometeorological and climate simulations. Processes occurring in the top 50 cm soil may be relevant for water and heat flux dynamics in the deeper layers, as well as for estimates of evapotranspiration and heterotrophic respiration, or even for climate and weather predictions. Water vapour transfer, which was not incorporated in previous versions of the MOSES/JULES model (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator; Cox et al., 1999), has now been implemented. Furthermore, we also assessed the effect of the soil vertical resolution on the simulated soil moisture and temperature profiles and the effect of the processes occurring at the upper boundary, mainly in terms of infiltration rates and evapotranspiration. SiSPAT (Simple Soil Plant Atmosphere Transfer Model; Braud et al., 1995) was initially used to quantify the changes that we expect to find when we introduce vapour transfer in JULES, involving parameters such as thermal vapour conductivity and diffusivity. Also, this approach allows us to compare JULES to a more complete and complex numerical model. Water vapour flux varied with soil texture, depth and soil moisture content, but overall our results suggested that water vapour fluxes change temperature gradients in the entire soil profile and introduce an overall surface cooling effect. Increasing the resolution smoothed and reduced temperature differences between liquid (L) and liquid/vapour (LV) simulations at all depths, and introduced a temperature increase over the entire soil profile. Thermal gradients rather than soil water potential gradients seem to cause temporal and spatial (vertical) soil temperature variability. We conclude that a multi-soil layer configuration may improve soil water dynamics, heat transfer and coupling of these processes, as well as evapotranspiration estimates and land surface-atmosphere coupling. However, a compromise should be reached between numerical and process-simulation aspects. References: Braud I., A.C. Dantas-Antonino, M. Vauclin, J.L. Thony and P. Ruelle, 1995b: A Simple Soil Plant Atmo- sphere Transfer model (SiSPAT), Development and field verification, J. Hydrol, 166: 213-250 Cox, P.M., R.A. Betts, C.B. Bunton, R.L.H. Essery, P.R. Rowntree, and J. Smith (1999), The impact of new land surface physics on the GCM simulation of climate and climate sensitivity. Clim. Dyn., 15, 183-203. Milly, P.C.D., 1982. Moisture and heat transport in hysteric inhomogeneous porous media: a matric head- based formulation and a numerical model, Water Resour. Res., 18:489-498

Use of reflected GNSS SNR data to retrieve either soil moisture or vegetation height from a wheat crop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Sibo; Roussel, Nicolas; Boniface, Karen; Ha, Minh Cuong; Frappart, Frédéric; Darrozes, José; Baup, Frédéric; Calvet, Jean-Christophe

2017-09-01

This work aims to estimate soil moisture and vegetation height from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) data using direct and reflected signals by the land surface surrounding a ground-based antenna. Observations are collected from a rainfed wheat field in southwestern France. Surface soil moisture is retrieved based on SNR phases estimated by the Least Square Estimation method, assuming the relative antenna height is constant. It is found that vegetation growth breaks up the constant relative antenna height assumption. A vegetation-height retrieval algorithm is proposed using the SNR-dominant period (the peak period in the average power spectrum derived from a wavelet analysis of SNR). Soil moisture and vegetation height are retrieved at different time periods (before and after vegetation's significant growth in March). The retrievals are compared with two independent reference data sets: in situ observations of soil moisture and vegetation height, and numerical simulations of soil moisture, vegetation height and above-ground dry biomass from the ISBA (interactions between soil, biosphere and atmosphere) land surface model. Results show that changes in soil moisture mainly affect the multipath phase of the SNR data (assuming the relative antenna height is constant) with little change in the dominant period of the SNR data, whereas changes in vegetation height are more likely to modulate the SNR-dominant period. Surface volumetric soil moisture can be estimated (R2 = 0.74, RMSE = 0.009 m3 m-3) when the wheat is smaller than one wavelength (˜ 19 cm). The quality of the estimates markedly decreases when the vegetation height increases. This is because the reflected GNSS signal is less affected by the soil. When vegetation replaces soil as the dominant reflecting surface, a wavelet analysis provides an accurate estimation of the wheat crop height (R2 = 0.98, RMSE = 6.2 cm). The latter correlates with modeled above-ground dry biomass of the wheat from stem elongation to ripening. It is found that the vegetation height retrievals are sensitive to changes in plant height of at least one wavelength. A simple smoothing of the retrieved plant height allows an excellent matching to in situ observations, and to modeled above-ground dry biomass.

Documentation for Program SOILSIM: A computer program for the simulation of heat and moisture flow in soils and between soils, canopy and atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Field, Richard T.

1990-01-01

SOILSIM, a digital model of energy and moisture fluxes in the soil and above the soil surface, is presented. It simulates the time evolution of soil temperature and moisture, temperature of the soil surface and plant canopy the above surface, and the fluxes of sensible and latent heat into the atmosphere in response to surface weather conditions. The model is driven by simple weather observations including wind speed, air temperature, air humidity, and incident radiation. The model intended to be useful in conjunction with remotely sensed information of the land surface state, such as surface brightness temperature and soil moisture, for computing wide area evapotranspiration.

Heavy metal contamination characteristic of soil in WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) dismantling community: a case study of Bangkok, Thailand.

PubMed

Damrongsiri, Seelawut; Vassanadumrongdee, Sujitra; Tanwattana, Puntita

2016-09-01

Sue Yai Utit is an old community located in Bangkok, Thailand which dismantles waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The surface soil samples at the dismantling site were contaminated with copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and nickel (Ni) higher than Dutch Standards, especially around the WEEE dumps. Residual fractions of Cu, Pb, Zn, and Ni in coarse soil particles were greater than in finer soil. However, those metals bonded to Fe-Mn oxides were considerably greater in fine soil particles. The distribution of Zn in the mobile fraction and a higher concentration in finer soil particles indicated its readily leachable character. The concentration of Cu, Pb, and Ni in both fine and coarse soil particles was mostly not significantly different. The fractionation of heavy metals at this dismantling site was comparable to the background. The contamination characteristics differed from pollution by other sources, which generally demonstrated the magnification of the non-residual fraction. A distribution pathway was proposed whereby contamination began by the deposition of WEEE scrap directly onto the soil surface as a source of heavy metal. This then accumulated, corroded, and was released via natural processes, becoming redistributed among the soil material. Therefore, the concentrations of both the residual and non-residual fractions of heavy metals in WEEE-contaminated soil increased.

Can the soil fauna of boreal forests recover from lead-derived stress in a shooting range area?

PubMed

Selonen, Salla; Liiri, Mira; Setälä, Heikki

2014-04-01

The responses of soil faunal communities to lead (Pb) contamination in a shooting range area and the recovery of these fauna after range abandonment were studied by comparing the communities at an active shotgun shooting range, an abandoned shooting range, and a control site, locating in the same forest. Despite the similar overall Pb pellet load at the shooting ranges, reaching up to 4 kg m(-2), Pb concentrations in the top soil of the abandoned range has decreased due to the accumulation of detritus on the soil surface. As a consequence, soil animal communities were shown to recover from Pb-related disturbances by utilizing the less contaminated soil layer. Microarthropods showed the clearest signs of recovery, their numbers and community composition being close to those detected at the control site. However, in the deepest organic soil layer, the negative effects of Pb were more pronounced at the abandoned than at the active shooting range, which was detected as altered microarthropod and nematode community structures, reduced abundances of several microarthropod taxa, and the total absence of enchytraeid worms. Thus, although the accumulation of fresh litter on soil surface can promote the recovery of decomposer communities in the top soil, the gradual release of Pb from corroding pellets may pose a long-lasting risk for decomposer taxa deeper in the soil.

Maize and prairie root contributions to soil CO2 emissions in the field

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Background and aims: A major hurdle in closing carbon budgets is partitioning soil-surface CO2 fluxes by source. This study aims to estimate CO2 resulting from root growth (RG) in the field. Methods: We used periodic 48-hour shading over two seasons to estimate and compare RG-derived CO2 in one annu...

Soil Carbon Changes in Transitional Grain Crop Production Systems in South Dakota

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woodard, H. J.

2004-12-01

Corn-C (Zea Mays L.), soybean-S (Glycine max L.) and spring wheat-W (Triticum aestivum L.) crops were seeded as a component of either a C-S, S-W, or C-S-W crop rotation on silt-loam textured soils ranging from 3.0-5.0% organic matter. Conservation tillage(chisel plow-field cultivator) was applied to half of the plots. The other plots were direct seeded as a no-till (zero-tillage) treatment. Grain yield and surface crop residues were weighed from each treatment plot. Crop residue (stover and straw) was removed from half of the plots. After four years, soil samples were removed at various increments of depth and soil organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) was measured. The ranking of crop residue weights occurred by the order corn>>soybean>wheat. Surface residue accumulation was also greatest with residue treatments that were returned to the plots, those rotations in which maize was a component, and those without tillage. Mean soil organic carbon levels in the 0-7.5cm depth decreased from 3.41% to 3.19% (- 0.22%) with conventional tillage (chisel plow/field cultivator) as compared to a decrease from 3.19% to 3.05% (-0.14%) in plots without tillage over a four year period. Organic carbon in the 0-7.5cm depth decreased from 3.21% to 3.01% (- 0.20%) after residue removed as compared to a decrease from 3.39% to 3.23% (-0.17%) in plots without tillage applied after four years. The soil C:N ratio (0-7.5cm) decreased from 10.63 to 10.37 (-0.26 (unitless)) in the tilled plots over a four-year period. Soil C:N ratio at the 0-7.5cm depth decreased from 10.72 to 10.04 (-0.68) in the no-till plots over a four year period. Differences in the soil C:N ratio comparing residue removed and residue returned were similar (-0.51 vs. -0.43 respectively). These soils are highly buffered for organic carbon changes. Many cropping cycles are required to determine how soil carbon storage is significantly impacted by production systems.

STIR Proposal For Research Area 2.1.2 Surface Energy Balance: Transient Soil Density Impacts Land Surface Characteristics and Characterization

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-22

not shown). The relatively small differences were likely associated with differences in surface albedo and longwave radiation from soil surface. Ground...SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: Soil density is commonly treated as static in studies on land surface property dynamics. Magnitudes of errors associated...with this assumption are largely unknown. Objectives of this preliminary investigation were to: i) quantify effects of soil density variation on soil

The utility of surface temperature measurements for the remote sensing of surface soil water status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Idso, S. B.; Jackson, R. D.; Reginato, R. J.; Schmugge, T. J.

1975-01-01

Experiments carried out on an Avondale loam soil indicated that the thermal inertia concept of soil water content detection is reasonably sound. The volumetric water contents of surface soil layers between 2 and 4 cm thick were found to be linear functions of the amplitude of the diurnal surface soil temperature wave for clear day-night periods. They were also found to be linear functions of the daily maximum value of the surface soil-air-temperature differential. Tests on three additional soils ranging from sandy loam to clay indicated that the relations determined for Avondale loam could not be accurately applied to these other soil types. When the moisture characteristic curves of each soil were used to transform water contents into pressure potentials, however, it was found that soil water pressure potential could be determined without prior knowledge of soil type, and thus its value as a potential soil water status survey tool was significantly enhanced.

Effects of modified biochar on rhizosphere microecology of rice (Oryza sativa L.) grown in As-contaminated soil.

PubMed

Liu, Shusi; Lu, Yixin; Yang, Chen; Liu, Chuanping; Ma, Lin; Dang, Zhi

2017-10-01

Biochar was carbon-rich and generated by high-temperature pyrolysis of biomass under oxygen-limited conditions. Due to the limitations of surface functional groups and the weakness of surface activity in the field of environmental remediation, the raw biochar frequently was chemically modified to improve its properties with a new performance. In this study, a kind of high-efficiency and low-cost amino biochar modified by nano zero-valent iron (ABC/NZVI) was synthesized and applied to paddy soil contaminated with arsenic (As). Dynamic changes of soil properties, arsenic speciations and rhizosphere microbial communities have been investigated over the whole growth period of rice plants. Pot experiments revealed that the ABC/NZVI could decrease the arsenic concentration in rice straw by 47.9% and increase the content of nitrogen in rice straw by 47.2%. Proportion of Geobacter in soil with ABC/NZVI treatment increased by 175% in tillering period; while Nitrososphaera decreased by 61 and 20% in tillering and maturity, respectively, compared to that of control. ABC/NZVI promotes arsenic immobilization in rhizosphere soil and precipitation on root surface and reduces arsenic accumulation in rice. At the same time, ABC/NZVI would inhibit Nitrososphaera which is related to ammonia oxidation process, and it would have a promising potential as soil amendment to reduce nitrogen loss probably.

Influence of Robinia pseudoacacia short rotation coppice on soil physical properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xavier, Morvan; Isabelle, Bertrand; Gwenaelle, Gibaud

2015-04-01

Human activities can lead to the degradation of soil physical properties. For instance, machinery traffic across the land can induce the development of compacted areas at the wheel tracks. It leads to a decrease in porosity which results in a decrease of the hydraulic conductivity, and therefore, prevents water infiltration and promotes surface runoff. Land use, soil management and soil cover also have a significant influence on soil physical properties (Kodesova et al., 2011). In the arable land, surface runoff and soil erosion are enhanced by the absence of soil cover for part of the year and by the decrease of aggregate stability due to a decline of soil organic matter. In that context, few studies focused on the effects of a Robinia pseudoacacia short rotation coppice (SRC) on soil physical properties. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of the conversion of a grassland in a SRC on soil physical properties. These properties have also been compared to those of arable land and natural forest. For that, in several plots of the experimental farm of Grignon (30 km west of Paris, France), different measurements were performed: i) soil water retention on a pressure plate apparatus for 7 water potential between 0 and 1500 kPa, ii) bulk density using the method for gravelly and rocky soil recommended by the USDA, iii) aggregate stability using the method described in Le Bissonnais (1996), and iv) soil hydraulic conductivity using a Guelph permeameter. All these measurements were performed on the same soil type and on different land uses: arable land (AL), grassland (GL), natural forest (NF) and short rotation coppice (SRC) of Robinia pseudoacacia planted 5 years ago. Soil water retention measurements are still under progress and will be presented in congress. Bulk density measurements of the AL, GL and SRC are not significantly different. They ranged from 1.32 to 1.42. Only the NF measurements are significantly lower than the other (0.97). Aggregate stability measurements showed that the SRC soil had the most stable aggregates compared to the other land uses. SRC also had the highest infiltration rates (656 mm.h-1) compared to NF (54 mm.h-1), GL (23 mm.h-1) and AL (8 mm.h-1). Analyses and explanation of these results are still under progress and will be presented in congress. Kodesova, R., Jirku, V., Kodes, V., Muhlhanselova, M., Nikodem, A., Žigová, A., 2011. Soil structure and soil hydraulic properties of Haplic Luvisol used as arable land and grassland. Soil and Tillage Research 111 (2), pp. 154-161. Le Bissonnais Y., 1996. Aggregate stability and assessment of soil crustability and erodibility: I theory and methodology. European Journal of Soil Science 47, 425-437.

Uranium partition coefficients (Kd) in forest surface soil reveal long equilibrium times and vary by site and soil size fraction.

PubMed

Whicker, Jeffrey J; Pinder, John E; Ibrahim, Shawki A; Stone, James M; Breshears, David D; Baker, Kristine N

2007-07-01

The environmental mobility of newly deposited radionuclides in surface soil is driven by complex biogeochemical relationships, which have significant impacts on transport pathways. The partition coefficient (Kd) is useful for characterizing the soil-solution exchange kinetics and is an important factor for predicting relative amounts of a radionuclide transported to groundwater compared to that remaining on soil surfaces and thus available for transport through erosion processes. Measurements of Kd for 238U are particularly useful because of the extensive use of 238U in military applications and associated testing, such as done at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Site-specific measurements of Kd for 238U are needed because Kd is highly dependent on local soil conditions and also on the fine soil fraction because 238U concentrates onto smaller soil particles, such as clays and soil organic material, which are most susceptible to wind erosion and contribute to inhalation exposure in off-site populations. We measured Kd for uranium in soils from two neighboring semiarid forest sites at LANL using a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-based protocol for both whole soil and the fine soil fraction (diameters<45 microm). The 7-d Kd values, which are those specified in the EPA protocol, ranged from 276-508 mL g-1 for whole soil and from 615-2249 mL g-1 for the fine soil fraction. Unexpectedly, the 30-d Kd values, measured to test for soil-solution exchange equilibrium, were more than two times the 7-d values. Rates of adsorption of 238U to soil from solution were derived using a 2-component (FAST and SLOW) exponential model. We found significant differences in Kd values among LANL sampling sites, between whole and fine soils, and between 7-d and 30-d Kd measurements. The significant variation in soil-solution exchange kinetics among the soils and soil sizes promotes the use of site-specific data for estimates of environmental transport rates and suggests possible differences in desorption rates from soil to solution (e.g., into groundwater or lung fluid). We also explore potential relationships between wind erosion, soil characteristics, and Kd values. Combined, our results highlight the need for a better mechanistic understanding of soil-solution partitioning kinetics for accurate risk assessment.

Modeling thermal dynamics of active layer soils and near-surface permafrost using a fully coupled water and heat transport model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jiang, Yueyang; Zhuang, Qianlai; O'Donnell, Jonathan A.

2012-01-01

Thawing and freezing processes are key components in permafrost dynamics, and these processes play an important role in regulating the hydrological and carbon cycles in the northern high latitudes. In the present study, we apply a well-developed soil thermal model that fully couples heat and water transport, to simulate the thawing and freezing processes at daily time steps across multiple sites that vary with vegetation cover, disturbance history, and climate. The model performance was evaluated by comparing modeled and measured soil temperatures at different depths. We use the model to explore the influence of climate, fire disturbance, and topography (north- and south-facing slopes) on soil thermal dynamics. Modeled soil temperatures agree well with measured values for both boreal forest and tundra ecosystems at the site level. Combustion of organic-soil horizons during wildfire alters the surface energy balance and increases the downward heat flux through the soil profile, resulting in the warming and thawing of near-surface permafrost. A projection of 21st century permafrost dynamics indicates that as the climate warms, active layer thickness will likely increase to more than 3 meters in the boreal forest site and deeper than one meter in the tundra site. Results from this coupled heat-water modeling approach represent faster thaw rates than previously simulated in other studies. We conclude that the discussed soil thermal model is able to well simulate the permafrost dynamics and could be used as a tool to analyze the influence of climate change and wildfire disturbance on permafrost thawing.

Interaction of Land Management Intensity and Micro-topography Controls on Geochemistry of Raindrop-Liberated/Mobilized Soil Particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, T.; Filley, T. R.; Berry, T.; Singh, S.; Hughes, M.; Tong, Y.; Papanicolaou, T.; Wacha, K.; Wilson, C. G.; Chaubey, I.

2017-12-01

The dynamics of raindrop-induced breakdown of soil aggregates, a critical factor in the initial process of surface erosion and lateral redistribution of soil, are strongly tied to land use intensity. What is unclear however is the relative control of rain and mechanical disturbance on the development of landscape-level heterogeneity in surface soil geochemistry. We used artificial rainfall simulated experiments including an aggregate stability test and time course rainfall-erosional test to evaluate the role of management intensity and micro-topography on the geochemistry of raindrop-liberated/mobilized particles from landscapes in southeastern Iowa. Comparing restored prairie, conservation tillage, and conventional tillage sites we found, and with a trend toward increasing tillage intensity, a decrease in aggregate stability and raindrop-liberated particles that were lower in organic carbon, nitrogen, and plant-derived biopolymers, while containing higher proportions of microbially-processed nitrogen than the raindrop stable aggregates. Time evolution of the geochemistry (e.g. elemental, stable isotope, and biopolymer composition) of transported soil particles exhibited distinct patterns based upon both position of the hillslope and oriented soil roughness. Additionally, in the restored prairie, raindrop liberated particles had identical geochemical composition to the raindrop stable aggregates. Our results demonstrate that agricultural sites under intensive tillage have not only a greater potential to liberate and mobilize soil particles during storms, but the mobilized particles will have a distinct chemical character based on tillage intensity, hillslope position and oriented roughness thus lead to a greater potential for landscape level heterogeneity in surface and buried soil chemistry upon mobilization and burial.

Hydrologic connectivity to streams increases nitrogen and phosphorus inputs and cycling in soils of created and natural floodplain wetlands

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wolf, Kristin L.; Noe, Gregory B.; Ahn, Changwoo

2013-01-01

Greater connectivity to stream surface water may result in greater inputs of allochthonous nutrients that could stimulate internal nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling in natural, restored, and created riparian wetlands. This study investigated the effects of hydrologic connectivity to stream water on soil nutrient fluxes in plots (n = 20) located among four created and two natural freshwater wetlands of varying hydrology in the Piedmont physiographic province of Virginia. Surface water was slightly deeper; hydrologic inputs of sediment, sediment-N, and ammonium were greater; and soil net ammonification, N mineralization, and N turnover were greater in plots with stream water classified as their primary water source compared with plots with precipitation or groundwater as their primary water source. Soil water-filled pore space, inputs of nitrate, and soil net nitrification, P mineralization, and denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) were similar among plots. Soil ammonification, N mineralization, and N turnover rates increased with the loading rate of ammonium to the soil surface. Phosphorus mineralization and ammonification also increased with sedimentation and sediment-N loading rate. Nitrification flux and DEA were positively associated in these wetlands. In conclusion, hydrologic connectivity to stream water increased allochthonous inputs that stimulated soil N and P cycling and that likely led to greater retention of sediment and nutrients in created and natural wetlands. Our findings suggest that wetland creation and restoration projects should be designed to allow connectivity with stream water if the goal is to optimize the function of water quality improvement in a watershed.

Impact of Residential Prairie Gardens on the Physical Properties of Urban Soil in Madison, Wisconsin.

PubMed

Johnston, Marie R; Balster, Nick J; Zhu, Jun

2016-01-01

Prairie gardens have become a common addition to residential communities in the midwestern United States because prairie vegetation is native to the region, requires fewer resources to maintain than turfgrass, and has been promoted to help remediate urban soil. Although prairie systems typically have deeper and more diverse root systems than traditional turfgrass, no one has tested the effect of this vegetation type on the physical properties of urban soil. We hypothesized that residential prairie gardens would yield lower soil bulk density (BD), lower penetration resistance (PR), greater soil organic matter (SOM), and greater saturated hydraulic conductivity () compared with turfgrass lawns. To test this hypothesis, we examined 12 residential properties in Madison, WI, where homeowners had established a prairie garden within their turfgrass lawn. Despite a consistent trend in the difference between vegetation types, no significant main effects were found (i.e., a difference between vegetation types when averaged over depth) for any of the four soil properties measured in this study. Differences were found with depth and depended on a significant interaction with vegetation type. At the surface depth (0-0.15 m), soil beneath prairie gardens had 10% lower mean BD, 15% lower mean PR, 25% greater level of SOM, and 33% greater compared with soil beneath the adjacent lawns. These differences were not detected at deeper sampling intervals of 0.15 to 0.30 m and 0.30 to 0.45 m. Although not statistically significant, the consistent trend and direction among soil variables suggest that residential prairie gardens had changed the surface soil at a rate that marginally outpaced turfgrass and calls for controlled experiments to identify the mechanisms that might enhance these trends. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

AccuCLASS - an Enhancement of the Canadian Land Surface Scheme for Climate Assessment Over the Prairies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loukili, Y.; Woodbury, A. D.; Snelgrove, K. R.

2006-12-01

The Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) is a numerical model developed at the Canadian Atmospheric Environment Service by Verseghy et al. [1991, 1993, 2000] and used to evaluate the vertical transfer of energy and water between the land surface and three soil layers. Among the features of CLASS its treatment of the land surface as a composite of four primary subareas: canopy and snow covered ground, snow-covered ground, canopy covered soil, and bare soil. The vegetation properties are also related via weighted averages to four types: needleaf trees, broadleaf trees, grass and crops. The incorporation of meteorological data as forcing inputs drives the model through advanced formulae describing the earth surface physics. These include canopy radiation and evapotranspiration, sensible and latent heat fluxes, rainfall interception, infiltration and ponding, snow melt and soil freezing. Such treatment allows for a realistic estimation of the surface energy balance. In this work, a major revision of CLASS, called AccuCLASS, is introduced, which permits a user specified depth and as many soil layers as needed. Almost all the physically based calculations of heat and moisture transfer in CLASS are kept and adequately extended to fit the desired refined mesh. In the resolution of soil temperature and heat flux terms, the GMRES iterative method replaced the explicit algebraic manipulation. Moreover, in the moisture regime, a water table lower boundary condition is added for the future coupling with groundwater models. The results of AccuCLASS are extensively validated for some synthetic runs under real-like seasonal weather conditions and different soil types, through inter-comparing to simulation outputs from SHAW [Flerchinger and Saxon, 1989], HYDRUS-1D [Simunek et al., 1998] and HELP [Schroeder et al., 1994] models. We find that AccuCLASS and SHAW accurately predict moisture and bottom drainage amounts; and that the original CLASS code does not have sufficient grid refinement to track precisely the unsaturated flow below the soil surface. On the other hand, when considering short time scale responses, HELP overestimates the recharge for sandy soils and underestimates it for clayey soils. An improvement of surface energy terms estimation is also carried out by AccuCLASS. Furthermore, some stand-alone tests forced by actual meteorological data over two land squares representative of the Assiniboine Delta Aquifer (ADA) show the importance of our contributions and the ability to provide a more accurate forecast of water mass balance terms. The coupling of this novel version of CLASS to other GCM components will help study objectively the cyclic drought phenomenon on the Canadian Prairies as well as its medium and long term ecological and socio-economic impacts in the region.

Antisoiling technology: Theories of surface soiling and performance of antisoiling surface coatings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuddihy, E. F.; Willis, P. B.

1984-01-01

Physical examination of surfaces undergoing natural outdoor soiling suggests that soil matter accumulates in up to three distinct layers. The first layer involves strong chemical attachment or strong chemisorption of soil matter on the primary surface. The second layer is physical, consisting of a highly organized arrangement of soil creating a gradation in surface energy from a high associated with the energetic first layer to the lowest possible state on the outer surfce of the second layer. The lowest possible energy state is dictated by the physical nature of the regional atmospheric soiling materials. These first two layers are resistant to removal by rain. The third layer constitutes a settling of loose soil matter, accumulating in dry periods and being removed during rainy periods. Theories and evidence suggest that surfaces that should be naturally resistant to the formation of the first two-resistant layers should be hard, smooth, hydrophobic, free of first-period elements, and have the lowest possible surface energy. These characteristics, evolving as requirements for low-soiling surfaces, suggest that surfaces or surface coatings should be of fluorocarbon chemistry. Evidence for the three-soil-layer concept, and data on the positive performance of candidate fluorocarbon coatings on glass and transparent plastic films after 28 months of outdoor exposure, are presented.

Scratching technique for the study and analysis of soil surface abrasion mechanism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ta, Wanquan

2007-11-01

Aeolian abrasion is the most fundamental and active surface process that takes place in arid and semi-arid environments. Its nature is a wear process for wind blown grains impinging on a soil or sediment surface, which causes particles and aggregates to fracture from the soil surface through a series of plastic and brittle cracking deformation such as cutting, ploughing and brittle fracturing. Using a Universal Micro-Tribometer (UMT), a scratching test was carried out on six soil surfaces (sandy soil, sand loam, silt loam, loam, silt clay loam, and silt clay). The results indicate that traces of normal and tangential force vs. time show a jagged curve, which can reflect the plastic deformation and brittle fracturing of aggregates and particles of various sizes fractured from the soil surfaces. The jagged curve peaks, and the area enclosed underneath, may represent the bonding forces and bonding energies of some aggregates and grains on the soil surface, respectively. Connecting the scratching test with an impact abrasion experiment furthermore demonstrates that soil surface abrasion rates are proportional to the square of speeds of impacting particles and to the 2.6 power of mean soil grain size, and inversely proportional to the 1.5 power of specific surface abrasive energy or to the 1.7 power of specific surface hardness.

Rice (Oryza sativa L) plantation affects the stability of biochar in paddy soil.

PubMed

Wu, Mengxiong; Feng, Qibo; Sun, Xue; Wang, Hailong; Gielen, Gerty; Wu, Weixiang

2015-05-05

Conversion of rice straw into biochar for soil amendment appears to be a promising method to increase long-term carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The stability of biochar in paddy soil, which is the major determining factor of carbon sequestration effect, depends mainly on soil properties and plant functions. However, the influence of plants on biochar stability in paddy soil remains unclear. In this study, bulk and surface characteristics of the biochars incubated without rice plants were compared with those incubated with rice plants using a suite of analytical techniques. Results showed that although rice plants had no significant influence on the bulk characteristics and decomposition rates of the biochar, the surface oxidation of biochar particles was enhanced by rice plants. Using (13)C labeling we observed that rice plants could significantly increase carbon incorporation from biochar into soil microbial biomass. About 0.047% of the carbon in biochar was incorporated into the rice plants during the whole rice growing cycle. These results inferred that root exudates and transportation of biochar particles into rice plants might decrease the stability of biochar in paddy soil. Impact of plants should be considered when predicting carbon sequestration potential of biochar in soil systems.

Rice (Oryza sativa L) plantation affects the stability of biochar in paddy soil

PubMed Central

Wu, Mengxiong; Feng, Qibo; Sun, Xue; Wang, Hailong; Gielen, Gerty; Wu, Weixiang

2015-01-01

Conversion of rice straw into biochar for soil amendment appears to be a promising method to increase long-term carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The stability of biochar in paddy soil, which is the major determining factor of carbon sequestration effect, depends mainly on soil properties and plant functions. However, the influence of plants on biochar stability in paddy soil remains unclear. In this study, bulk and surface characteristics of the biochars incubated without rice plants were compared with those incubated with rice plants using a suite of analytical techniques. Results showed that although rice plants had no significant influence on the bulk characteristics and decomposition rates of the biochar, the surface oxidation of biochar particles was enhanced by rice plants. Using 13C labeling we observed that rice plants could significantly increase carbon incorporation from biochar into soil microbial biomass. About 0.047% of the carbon in biochar was incorporated into the rice plants during the whole rice growing cycle. These results inferred that root exudates and transportation of biochar particles into rice plants might decrease the stability of biochar in paddy soil. Impact of plants should be considered when predicting carbon sequestration potential of biochar in soil systems. PMID:25944542

Land surface-precipitation feedback analysis for a landfalling monsoon depression in the Indian region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baisya, Himadri; Pattnaik, Sandeep; Rajesh, P. V.

2017-03-01

A series of numerical experiments are carried out to investigate the sensitivity of a landfalling monsoon depression to land surface conditions using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Results suggest that precipitation is largely modulated by moisture influx and precipitation efficiency. Three cloud microphysical schemes (WSM6, WDM6, and Morrison) are examined, and Morrison is chosen for assessing the land surface-precipitation feedback analysis, owing to better precipitation forecast skills. It is found that increased soil moisture facilitates Moisture Flux Convergence (MFC) with reduced moisture influx, whereas a reduced soil moisture condition facilitates moisture influx but not MFC. A higher Moist Static Energy (MSE) is noted due to increased evapotranspiration in an elevated moisture scenario which enhances moist convection. As opposed to moist surface, sensible heat dominates in a reduced moisture scenario, ensued by an overall reduction in MSE throughout the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). Stability analysis shows that Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) is comparable in magnitude for both increased and decreased moisture scenarios, whereas Convective Inhibition (CIN) shows increased values for the reduced moisture scenario as a consequence of drier atmosphere leading to suppression of convection. Simulations carried out with various fixed soil moisture levels indicate that the overall precipitation features of the storm are characterized by initial soil moisture condition, but precipitation intensity at any instant is modulated by soil moisture availability. Overall results based on this case study suggest that antecedent soil moisture plays a crucial role in modulating precipitation distribution and intensity of a monsoon depression.

Unexpectedly high soil organic carbon stocks under impervious surfaces contributed by urban deep cultural layers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bae, J.; Ryu, Y.

2017-12-01

The expansion of urban artificial structures has altered the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. The majority of the urban soil studies within the land-cover types, however, focused on top soils despite the potential of deep soils to store large amounts of SOC. Here, we investigate vertical distribution of SOC stocks in both impervious surfaces (n = 11) and adjacent green spaces (n = 8) to a depth of 4 m with in an apartment complex area, Seoul, Republic of Korea. We found that more than six times differences in SOC stocks were observed at 0-1 m depth between the impervious surfaces (1.90 kgC m-2) and the green spaces (12.03 kgC m-2), but no significant differences appeared when comparing them at the depth of 0-4 m. We found "cultural layers" with the largest SOC stocks at 1-2 m depth in the impervious surfaces (15.85 kgC m-2) and 2-3 m depths in urban green spaces (12.52 kgC m-2). Thus, the proportions of SOC stocks at the 0-1 m depth to the total of 0-4 m depth were 6.83% in impervious surfaces and 32.15% in urban green spaces, respectively. The 13C and 15N stable isotope data with historical aerial photographs revealed that the cropland which existed before 1978 formed the SOC in the cultural layers. Our results highlight that impervious surface could hold large amount of SOC stock which has been overlooked in urban carbon cycles. We believe this finding will help city planners and policy makers to develop carbon management programs better towards sustainable urban ecosystems.

Adsorption of water vapour and the specific surface area of arctic zone soils (Spitsbergen)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cieśla, Jolanta; Sokołowska, Zofia; Witkowska-Walczak, Barbara; Skic, Kamil

2018-01-01

Water vapour/nitrogen adsorption were investigated and calculated the specific surface areas of arctic-zone soil samples (Turbic Cryosols) originating from different micro-relief forms (mud boils, cell forms and sorted circles) and from different depths. For the characterisation of the isotherms obtained for arctic soils, the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller model was then compared with the two other models (Aranovich-Donohue and Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer) which were developed from Brunauer-Emmet-Teller. Specific surface area was calculated using the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller model at p p0-1 range of 0.05-0.35 for the water vapour desorption and nitrogen adsorption isotherms. The values of total specific surface area were the highest in Cryosols on mud boils, lower on cell forms, and the lowest on sorted circles. Such tendency was observed for the results obtained by both the water vapour and nitrogen adsorption. The differences in the values of specific surface area at two investigated layers were small. High determination coefficients were obtained for relationships between the specific surface areas and contents of clay and silt fraction in Cryosols. No statistically significant correlation between the total carbon amount and the values of specific surface area in Cryosols has been found.

[Dynamics of soil physical properties and biological soil crust during the vegetation restoration process of abandoned croplands in the Ordos Plateau, China].

PubMed

Cai, Wen Tao; Li, He Yi; Lai, Li Ming; Zhang, Xiao Long; Guan, Tian Yu; Zhou, Ji Hua; Jiang, Lian He; Zheng, Yuan Run

2017-03-18

A series of typical abandoned croplands in the regions of Ruanliang and Yingliang in the Ordos Plateau, China, were selected, and dynamics of the surface litter, biological soil crust and soil bulk density, soil texture, and soil moisture in different soil layers were investigated. The results showed that in the abandoned cropland in Ruanliang, the clay particle content and surface litter of the surface soil layer (0-10 cm) increased during the restoration process, while that of soil bulk density substantially decreased and soil water content slightly increased in the surface soil. In the medium soil layer (10-30 cm), the clay particle content increased and the soil water content slightly decreased. In the deep soil layer (30-50 cm), there was a relatively large variation in the physical properties. In the abandoned cropland in Yingliang, the coverage of litter and the coverage and thickness of the biological soil crust increased during the abandonment process. The surface soil bulk density, soil clay particle content and soil water content remained constant in 0-10 cm soil layer, while the physical properties varied substantially in 10-40 cm soil layer. The shallow distribution of the soil water content caused by the accumulation of the litter and clay particles on the soil surface might be the key reason of the replacement of the semi-shrub Artemisia ordosica community with a perennial grass community over the last 20 years of the abandoned cropland in Ruanliang. The relatively high soil water content in the shallow layer and the development of the biological soil crust might explain why the abandoned cropland in Yingliang was not invaded by the semi-shrub A. ordosica during the restoration process.

Assessment of lead, cadmium, and zinc contamination of roadside soils, surface films, and vegetables in Kampala City, Uganda.

PubMed

Nabulo, Grace; Oryem-Origa, Hannington; Diamond, Miriam

2006-05-01

The relationship between traffic density and trace metal concentrations in roadside soils, surface films, and a selected vegetable weed, Amaranthus dubius Mart. Ex Thell., was determined in 11 farming sites along major highways around Kampala City in Uganda. Surface soil, atmospherically deposited surface films on windows, and leaves of Amaranthus dubius were sampled at known distances from the roads and analyzed for lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and cadmium (Cd) using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Atmospherically deposited trace metal particulates were sampled using window glass as an inert, passive collector. Total trace metal concentrations in soils ranged from 30.0+/-2.3 to 64.6+/-11.7 mg/kg Pb, 78.4+/-18.4 to 265.6+/-63.2 mg/kg Zn, and 0.8+/-0.13 to 1.40+/-0.16 mg/kg Cd. Total trace metal levels in soil decreased rapidly with distance from the road. Total Pb decreased with distance up to 30 m from the road, where it reached a background soil concentration of 28 mg/kg dry weight. The study found background values of 50 and 1.4 mg/kg for Zn and Cd in roadside soils, respectively. Similarly, Pb concentration in Amaranthus dubius leaves decreased with increasing distance from the road edge. The dominant pathway for Pb contamination was from atmospheric deposition, which was consistent with Pb concentrations in surface films. The mean Pb concentrations in leaves of roadside crops were higher than those in their respective roots, with the highest leaf-to-root ratio observed in the Brassica oleraceae acephala group. The lowest Pb and Zn concentrations were found in the fruit compared to the leaves of the same crops. Leaves of roadside vegetables were therefore considered a potential source of heavy metal contamination to farmers and consumers in urban areas. It is recommended that leafy vegetables should be grown 30 m from roads in high-traffic, urban areas.

Assessment of lead, cadmium, and zinc contamination of roadside soils, surface films, and vegetables in Kampala City, Uganda

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

Nabulo, Grace; Oryem-Origa, Hannington; Diamond, Miriam

2006-05-15

The relationship between traffic density and trace metal concentrations in roadside soils, surface films, and a selected vegetable weed, Amaranthus dubius Mart. Ex Thell., was determined in 11 farming sites along major highways around Kampala City in Uganda. Surface soil, atmospherically deposited surface films on windows, and leaves of Amaranthus dubius were sampled at known distances from the roads and analyzed for lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and cadmium (Cd) using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Atmospherically deposited trace metal particulates were sampled using window glass as an inert, passive collector. Total trace metal concentrations in soils ranged from 30.0{+-}2.3 to 64.6{+-}11.7more » mg/kg Pb, 78.4{+-}18.4 to 265.6{+-}63.2 mg/kg Zn, and 0.8{+-}0.13 to 1.40{+-}0.16 mg/kg Cd. Total trace metal levels in soil decreased rapidly with distance from the road. Total Pb decreased with distance up to 30 m from the road, where it reached a background soil concentration of 28 mg/kg dry weight. The study found background values of 50 and 1.4 mg/kg for Zn and Cd in roadside soils, respectively. Similarly, Pb concentration in Amaranthus dubius leaves decreased with increasing distance from the road edge. The dominant pathway for Pb contamination was from atmospheric deposition, which was consistent with Pb concentrations in surface films. The mean Pb concentrations in leaves of roadside crops were higher than those in their respective roots, with the highest leaf-to-root ratio observed in the Brassica oleraceae acephala group. The lowest Pb and Zn concentrations were found in the fruit compared to the leaves of the same crops. Leaves of roadside vegetables were therefore considered a potential source of heavy metal contamination to farmers and consumers in urban areas. It is recommended that leafy vegetables should be grown 30 m from roads in high-traffic, urban areas.« less

Retrieval of Soil Moisture and Roughness from the Polarimetric Radar Response

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarabandi, Kamal; Ulaby, Fawwaz T.

1997-01-01

The main objective of this investigation was the characterization of soil moisture using imaging radars. In order to accomplish this task, a number of intermediate steps had to be undertaken. In this proposal, the theoretical, numerical, and experimental aspects of electromagnetic scattering from natural surfaces was considered with emphasis on remote sensing of soil moisture. In the general case, the microwave backscatter from natural surfaces is mainly influenced by three major factors: (1) the roughness statistics of the soil surface, (2) soil moisture content, and (3) soil surface cover. First the scattering problem from bare-soil surfaces was considered and a hybrid model that relates the radar backscattering coefficient to soil moisture and surface roughness was developed. This model is based on extensive experimental measurements of the radar polarimetric backscatter response of bare soil surfaces at microwave frequencies over a wide range of moisture conditions and roughness scales in conjunction with existing theoretical surface scattering models in limiting cases (small perturbation, physical optics, and geometrical optics models). Also a simple inversion algorithm capable of providing accurate estimates of soil moisture content and surface rms height from single-frequency multi-polarization radar observations was developed. The accuracy of the model and its inversion algorithm is demonstrated using independent data sets. Next the hybrid model for bare-soil surfaces is made fully polarimetric by incorporating the parameters of the co- and cross-polarized phase difference into the model. Experimental data in conjunction with numerical simulations are used to relate the soil moisture content and surface roughness to the phase difference statistics. For this purpose, a novel numerical scattering simulation for inhomogeneous dielectric random surfaces was developed. Finally the scattering problem of short vegetation cover above a rough soil surface was considered. A general scattering model for grass-blades of arbitrary cross section was developed and incorporated in a first order random media model. The vegetation model and the bare-soil model are combined and the accuracy of the combined model is evaluated against experimental observations from a wheat field over the entire growing season. A complete set of ground-truth data and polarimetric backscatter data were collected. Also an inversion algorithm for estimating soil moisture and surface roughness from multi-polarized multi-frequency observations of vegetation-covered ground is developed.

Trace elements in soil and biota in confined disposal facilities for dredged material

USGS Publications Warehouse

Beyer, W.N.; Miller, G.; Simmers, J.W.

1990-01-01

We studied the relation of trace element concentrations in soil to those in house mice (Mus musculus), common reed (Phragmites australis) and ladybugs (Coccinella septempunctata) at five disposal facilities for dredged material. The sites had a wide range of soil trace element concentrations, acid soils and a depauperate fauna. They were very poor wildlife habitat because they were dominated by the common reed. Bioassay earthworms exposed to surface soils from three of the five sites died, whereas those exposed to four of five soils collected a meter deep survived, presumably because the deeper, unoxidized soil, was not as acid. Concentrations of Ni and Cr in the biota from each of the sites did not seem to be related to the concentrations of the same elements in soil. Although Pb, Zn and Cu concentrations in biota were correlated with those in soil, the range of concentrations in the biota was quite small compared to that in soil. The concentrations of Pb detected in mice were about as high as the concentrations previously reported in control mice from other studies. Mice from the most contaminated site (530 ppm Pb in soil) contained only slightly more Pb (8 ppm dry wt) than did mice (2-6 ppm dry wt) from sites containing much less Pb (22-92 ppm in soil). Despite the acid soil conditions, very little Cd was incorporated into food chains. Rather, Cd was leaching from the surface soil. We concluded that even the relatively high concentrations of trace elements in the acid dredged material studied did not cause high, concentrations of trace elements in the biota.

Comparison of different assimilation methodologies of groundwater levels to improve predictions of root zone soil moisture with an integrated terrestrial system model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hongjuan; Kurtz, Wolfgang; Kollet, Stefan; Vereecken, Harry; Franssen, Harrie-Jan Hendricks

2018-01-01

The linkage between root zone soil moisture and groundwater is either neglected or simplified in most land surface models. The fully-coupled subsurface-land surface model TerrSysMP including variably saturated groundwater dynamics is used in this work. We test and compare five data assimilation methodologies for assimilating groundwater level data via the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) to improve root zone soil moisture estimation with TerrSysMP. Groundwater level data are assimilated in the form of pressure head or soil moisture (set equal to porosity in the saturated zone) to update state vectors. In the five assimilation methodologies, the state vector contains either (i) pressure head, or (ii) log-transformed pressure head, or (iii) soil moisture, or (iv) pressure head for the saturated zone only, or (v) a combination of pressure head and soil moisture, pressure head for the saturated zone and soil moisture for the unsaturated zone. These methodologies are evaluated in synthetic experiments which are performed for different climate conditions, soil types and plant functional types to simulate various root zone soil moisture distributions and groundwater levels. The results demonstrate that EnKF cannot properly handle strongly skewed pressure distributions which are caused by extreme negative pressure heads in the unsaturated zone during dry periods. This problem can only be alleviated by methodology (iii), (iv) and (v). The last approach gives the best results and avoids unphysical updates related to strongly skewed pressure heads in the unsaturated zone. If groundwater level data are assimilated by methodology (iii), EnKF fails to update the state vector containing the soil moisture values if for (almost) all the realizations the observation does not bring significant new information. Synthetic experiments for the joint assimilation of groundwater levels and surface soil moisture support methodology (v) and show great potential for improving the representation of root zone soil moisture.

Effects of drying-wetting and freezing-thawing cycle on leachability of metallic elements in mine soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bang, H.; Kim, J.; Hyun, S.

2016-12-01

Mine leachate derived from contaminated mine sites with metallic elements can pose serious risks on human society and environment. Only labile fraction of metallic elements in mine soils is subject to leaching and movement by rainfall. Lability of metallic element in soil is a function of bond strengths between metal and soil surfaces, which is influenced by environmental condition (e.g., rainfall intensity, duration, temperature, etc.) The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effects of various climate conditions on the leaching patterns and lability of metallic elements in mine soils. To do this, two mine soils were sampled from two abandoned mine sites located in Korea. Leaching test were conducted using batch decant-refill method. Various climatic conditions were employed in leaching test such as (1) oven drying (40oC) - wetting cycles, (2) air drying (20oC) - wetting cycle, and (3) freezing (-40oC) - thawing cycles. Duration of drying and freezing were varied from 4 days to 2 weeks. Concentration of metallic elements, pH, Eh and concentration of dissolved iron and sulfate in leachate from each leaching process was measured. To identify the changes of labile fraction in mine soils after each of drying or freezing period, sequential extraction procedure (five fraction) was used to compare labile fraction (i.e., F1 + F2) of metallic elements. The concentration of metallic elements in mine leachate was increased after drying and freezing procedure. The amounts of released metallic element from mine soils was changed depending on their drying or freezing period. In addition, labile fraction of metallic elements in soil was also changed after drying and freezing. The changes in labile fraction after drying and freezing might be due to the increased soil surface area by pore water volume expansion. Further study is therefore needed to evaluate the impact of altered physical properties of soils such as hydration of soil surface area and shrinking by drying and freezing cycles.

Effect of biostimulation and bioaugmentation on degradation of polyurethane buried in soil.

PubMed

Cosgrove, L; McGeechan, P L; Handley, P S; Robson, G D

2010-02-01

This work investigated biostimulation and bioaugmentation as strategies for removing polyurethane (PU) waste in soil. Soil microcosms were biostimulated with the PU dispersion agent "Impranil" and/or yeast extract or were bioaugmented with PU-degrading fungi, and the degradation of subsequently buried PU was determined. Fungal communities in the soil and colonizing buried PU were enumerated on solid media and were analyzed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Biostimulation with yeast extract alone or in conjunction with Impranil increased PU degradation 62% compared to the degradation in untreated control soil and was associated with a 45% increase in putative PU degraders colonizing PU. Specific fungi were enriched in soil following biostimulation; however, few of these fungi colonized the surface of buried PU. Fungi used for soil bioaugmentation were cultivated on the surface of sterile wheat to form a mycelium-rich inoculum. Wheat, when added alone to soil, increased PU degradation by 28%, suggesting that wheat biomass had a biostimulating effect. Addition of wheat colonized with Nectria haematococca, Penicillium viridicatum, Penicillium ochrochloron, or an unidentified Mucormycotina sp. increased PU degradation a further 30 to 70%, suggesting that biostimulation and bioaugmentation were operating in concert to enhance PU degradation. Interestingly, few of the inoculated fungi could be detected by DGGE in the soil or on the surface of the PU 4 weeks after inoculation. Bioaugmentation did, however, increase the numbers of indigenous PU-degrading fungi and caused an inoculum-dependent change in the composition of the native fungal populations, which may explain the increased degradation observed. These results demonstrate that both biostimulation and bioaugmentation may be viable tools for the remediation of environments contaminated with polyurethane waste.

Enhancement of chromate reduction in soils by surface modified biochar.

PubMed

Mandal, Sanchita; Sarkar, Binoy; Bolan, Nanthi; Ok, Yong Sik; Naidu, Ravi

2017-01-15

Chromium (Cr) is one of the common metals present in the soils and may have an extremely deleterious environmental impact depending on its redox state. Among two common forms, trivalent Cr(III) is less toxic than hexavalent Cr(VI) in soils. Carbon (C) based materials including biochar could be used to alleviate Cr toxicity through converting Cr(VI) to Cr(III). Incubation experiments were conducted to examine Cr(VI) reduction in different soils (Soil 1: pH 7.5 and Soil 2: pH 5.5) with three manures from poultry (PM), cow (CM) and sheep (SM), three respective manure-derived biochars (PM biochar (PM-BC), CM biochar (CM-BC) and SM biochar (SM-BC)) and two modified biochars (modified PM-BC (PM-BC-M) and modified SM-BC (SM-BC-M)). Modified biochar was synthesized by incorporating chitosan and zerovalent iron (ZVI) during pyrolysis. Among biochars, highest Cr(VI) reduction was observed with PM-BC application (5%; w/w) (up to 88.12 mg kg -1 ; 45% reduction) in Soil 2 (pH 5.5). The modified biochars enhanced Cr(VI) reduction by 55% (SM-BC-M) compared to manure (29%, SM) and manure-derived biochars (40% reduction, SM-BC). Among the modified biochars, SM-BC-M showed a higher Cr(VI) reduction rate (55%) than PM-BC-M (48%) in Soil 2. Various oxygen-containing surface functional groups such as phenolic, carboxyl, carbonyl, etc. on biochar surface might act as a proton donor for Cr(VI) reduction and subsequent Cr(III) adsorption. This study underpins the immense potential of modified biochar in remediation of Cr(VI) contaminated soils. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparative analysis of different underlying surfaces using a high-resolution assimilation dataset in semi-arid areas in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruan, Jinshuai; Wen, Xiaohang; Fan, Guangzhou; Li, Deqin; Hua, Wei; Wang, Bingyun; Zhang, Yi; Zhang, Mingjun; Wang, Chao; Wang, Lei

2017-11-01

To study the land surface and atmospheric meteorological characteristics of non-uniform underlying surfaces in the semi-arid area of Northeast China, we use a "High-Resolution Assimilation Dataset of the water-energy cycle in China (HRADC)". The grid points of three different underlying surfaces were selected, and their meteorological elements were averaged for each type (i.e., mixed forest, grassland, and cropland). For 2009, we compared and analyzed the different components of leaf area index (LAI), soil temperature and moisture, surface albedo, precipitation, and surface energy for various underlying surfaces in Northeast China. The results indicated that the LAI of mixed forest and cropland during the summer is greater than 5 m2 m-2 and below 2.5 m2 m-2 for grassland; in the winter and spring seasons, the Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF) is below 30%. The soil temperature and moisture both vary greatly. Throughout the year, the mixed forest is dominated by latent heat evaporation; in grasslands and croplands, the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux are approximately equal, and the GVF contributed more to latent heat flux than sensible heat flux in the summer. This study compares meteorological characteristics between three different underlying surfaces of the semi-arid area of Northeast China and makes up for the insufficiency of purely using observations for the study. This research is important for understanding the water-energy cycle and transport in the semi-arid area.

Comparisons of soil nitrogen mass balances for an ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

We compared the N budgets of an ombrotrophic bog and a minerotrophic fen to quantify the importance of denitrification in peatlands and their watersheds. We also compared the watershed upland mineral soils to bog/fen peat; lagg and transition zone peat to central bog/fen peat; and surface, mid-layer and deep soil and peat horizons. Bog and fen area were derived from a wetland boundary GIS data layer, and bog and fen volumes were calculated as the interpolated product of area and depth of peat. Atmospheric N deposition to the bog and fen were based on measurements from a station located 2km north of the bog watershed and 0.5km from the fen watershed. Precipitation was analyzed for nitrate (NO3-), ammonium (NH4+), and total N (TN), and aggregated to annual values. Outflow water samples from the bog and fen were collected as surface grab samples on each of the May-October sampling dates over the 2010-2013 study, and were analyzed and aggregated annually as for atmospheric N. Soil and peat samples were analyzed for N content, and for net ammonification (AM), nitrification (NT), and ambient (DN) and potential (DEA) denitrification rates. Nitrogen mass balances are based on mean annual atmospheric deposition and outflow; soil and peat standing stocks of N, and mean annual estimates of DN, weighted for contributions of the uplands, lagg or transition zone, and bog or fen hollows and hummocks, and accounting for soil depth effects. Annual deposition of N species was: N

Soil physical and hydrological properties under three biofuel crops in Ohio

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

Bonin, Catherine; Lal, Dr. Rattan; Schmitz, Matthias

While biofuel crops are widely studied and compared for their energy and carbon footprints, less is known about their effects on other soil properties, particularly hydrologic characteristics. Soils under three biofuel crops, corn (Zea mays), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and willow (Salix spp.), were analyzed seven years after establishment to assess the effects on soil bulk density ({rho}{sub b}), penetration resistance (PR), water-holding capacity, and infiltration characteristics. The PR was the highest under corn, along with the lowest associated water content, while PR was 50-60% lower under switchgrass. In accordance with PR data, surface (0-10 cm) bulk density also tended tomore » be lower under switchgrass. Both water infiltration rates and cumulative infiltration amounts varied widely among and within the three crops. Because the Philip model did not fit the data, results were analyzed using the Kostiakov model instead. Switchgrass plots had an average cumulative infiltration of 69 cm over 3 hours with a constant infiltration rate of 0.28 cm min{sup -1}, compared with 37 cm and 0.11 cm min{sup -1} for corn, and 26 cm and 0.06 cm min{sup -1} for willow, respectively. Results suggest that significant changes in soil physical and hydrologic properties may require more time to develop. Soils under switchgrass may have lower surface bulk density, higher field water capacity, and a more rapid water infiltration rate than those under corn or willow.« less

Soil Moisture and Snow Cover: Active or Passive Elements of Climate

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oglesby, Robert J.; Marshall, Susan; Erickson, David J., III; Robertson, Franklin R.; Roads, John O.; Arnold, James E. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

A key question is the extent to which surface effects such as soil moisture and snow cover are simply passive elements or whether they can affect the evolution of climate on seasonal and longer time scales. We have constructed ensembles of predictability studies using the NCAR CCM3 in which we compared the relative roles of initial surface and atmospheric conditions over the central and western U.S. in determining the subsequent evolution of soil moisture and of snow cover. Results from simulations with realistic soil moisture anomalies indicate that internal climate variability may be the strongest factor, with some indication that the initial atmospheric state is also important. Model runs with exaggerated soil moisture reductions (near-desert conditions) showed a much larger effect, with warmer surface temperatures, reduced precipitation, and lower surface pressures; the latter indicating a response of the atmospheric circulation. These results suggest the possibility of a threshold effect in soil moisture, whereby an anomaly must be of a sufficient size before it can have a significant impact on the atmospheric circulation and climate. Results from simulations with realistic snow cover anomalies indicate that the time of year can be crucial. When introduced in late winter, these anomalies strongly affected the subsequent evolution of snow cover. When introduced in early winter, however, little or no effect is seen on the subsequent snow cover. Runs with greatly exaggerated initial snow cover indicate that the high reflectivity of snow is the most important process by which snow cover can impact climate, through lower surface temperatures and increased surface pressures. The results to date were obtained for model runs with present-day conditions. We are currently analyzing runs made with projected forcings for the 21st century to see if these results are modified in any way under likely scenarios of future climate change. An intriguing new statistical technique involving 'clustering' is developed to assist in this analysis.

Snowmelt and Surface Freeze/Thaw Timings over Alaska derived from Passive Microwave Observations using a Wavelet Classifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steiner, N.; McDonald, K. C.; Dinardo, S. J.; Miller, C. E.

2015-12-01

Arctic permafrost soils contain a vast amount of organic carbon that will be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or methane when thawed. Surface to air greenhouse gas fluxes are largely dependent on such surface controls as the frozen/thawed state of the snow and soil. Satellite remote sensing is an important means to create continuous mapping of surface properties. Advances in the ability to determine soil and snow freeze/thaw timings from microwave frequency observations improves upon our ability to predict the response of carbon gas emission to warming through synthesis with in-situ observation, such as the 2012-2015 Carbon in Arctic Reservoir Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE). Surface freeze/thaw or snowmelt timings are often derived using a constant or spatially/temporally variable threshold applied to time-series observations. Alternately, time-series singularity classifiers aim to detect discontinuous changes, or "edges", in time-series data similar to those that occur from the large contrast in dielectric constant during the freezing or thaw of soil or snow. We use multi-scale analysis of continuous wavelet transform spectral gradient brightness temperatures from various channel combinations of passive microwave radiometers, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E, AMSR2) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I F17) gridded at a 10 km posting with resolution proportional to the observational footprint. Channel combinations presented here aim to illustrate and differentiate timings of "edges" from transitions in surface water related to various landscape components (e.g. snow-melt, soil-thaw). To support an understanding of the physical basis of observed "edges" we compare satellite measurements with simple radiative transfer microwave-emission modeling of the snow, soil and vegetation using in-situ observations from the SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL) automated weather stations. Results of freeze/thaw and snow-melt timings and trends are reported for Alaska and the North-West Canadian Arctic for the period 2002 to 2015.

Estimating the Limits of Infiltration in the Urban Appalachian Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lavin, S. M.; Bain, D.; Hopkins, K. G.; Pfeil-McCullough, E. K.; Copeland, E.

2014-12-01

Green infrastructure in urbanized areas commonly uses infiltration systems, such as rain gardens, swales and trenches, to convey surface runoff from impervious surfaces into surrounding soils. However, precipitation inputs can exceed soil infiltration rates, creating a limit to infiltration-based storm water management, particularly in urban areas covered by impervious surfaces. Given the limited availability and varied quality of soil infiltration rate data, we synthesized information from national databases, available field test data, and applicable literature to characterize soil infiltration rate distributions, focusing on Allegheny County, Pennsylvania as a case study. A range of impervious cover conditions was defined by sampling available GIS data (e.g., LiDAR and street edge lines) with analysis windows placed randomly across urbanization gradients. Changes in effective precipitation caused by impervious cover were calculated across these gradients and compared to infiltration rate distributions to identify thresholds in impervious coverage where these limits are exceeded. Many studies have demonstrated the effects of urbanization on infiltration, but the identification of these thresholds will clarify interactions between impervious cover and soil infiltration. These methods can help identify sections of urban areas that require augmentation of infiltration-based systems with additional infrastructural strategies, especially as green infrastructure moves beyond low impact development towards more frequent application during infilling of existing urban systems.

Wettability of natural root mucilage studied by atomic force microscopy and contact angle: Links between nanoscale and macroscale surface properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaltenbach, Robin; Diehl, Dörte; Schaumann, Gabriele E.

2017-04-01

Organic coatings are considered as main cause of soil water repellency (SWR). This phenomenon plays a crucial role in the rhizosphere, at the interface of plant water uptake and soil hydraulics. Still, there is little knowledge about the nanoscale properties of natural soil compounds such as root-mucilage and its mechanistic effect on wettability. In this study, dried films of natural root-mucilage from Sorghum (Sorghum sp., MOENCH) on glass substrates were studied in order to explore experimental and evaluation methods that allow to link between macroscopic wettability and nano-/microscopic surface properties in this model soil system. SWR was assessed by optical contact angle (CA) measurements. The nanostructure of topography and adhesion forces of the mucilage surfaces was revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements in ambient air, using PeakForce Quantitative Nanomechanical Mapping (PFQNM). Undiluted mucilage formed hydrophobic films on the substrate with CA > 90° and rather homogeneous nanostructure. Contact angles showed reduced water repellency of surfaces, when concentration of mucilage was decreased by dilution. AFM height and adhesion images displayed incomplete mucilage surface coverage for diluted samples. Hole-like structures in the film frequently exhibited increased adhesion forces. Spatial analysis of the AFM data via variograms enabled a numerical description of such 'adhesion holes'. The use of geostatistical approaches in AFM studies of the complex surface structure of soil compounds was considered meaningful in view of the need of comprehensive analysis of large AFM image data sets that exceed the capability of comparative visual inspection. Furthermore, force curves measured with the AFM showed increased break-free distances and pull-off forces inside the observed 'adhesion holes', indicating enhanced capillary forces due to adsorbed water films at hydrophilic domains for ambient RH (40 ± 2 %). This offers the possibility of mapping the nanostructure of water layers on soil surfaces and assessing the consequences for wettability. The collected information on macroscopic wetting properties, nanoscale roughness and adhesion structure of the investigated surfaces in this study are discussed in view of the applicability of the mechanistic wetting models given by Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter.

Mineral formation and organo-mineral controls on the bioavailability of carbon at the terrestrial-aquatic interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rod, K. A.; Smith, A. P.; Renslow, R.

2016-12-01

Recent evidence highlights the importance of organo-mineral interactions in regulating the source or sink capacity of soil. High surface area soils, such as allophane-rich or clay-rich soils, retain organic matter (OM) via sorption to mineral surfaces which can also contribute physical isolation in interlayer spaces. Despite the direct correlation between mineral surfaces and OM accumulation, the pedogenic processes controlling the abundance of reactive surface areas and their distribution in the mineral matrix remains unclear. As global soil temperatures rise, the dissolution of primary minerals and formation of new secondary minerals may be thermodynamically favored as part of soil weathering process. Newly formed minerals can supply surfaces for organo-metallic bonding and may, therefore, stabilize OM by surface bonding and physical exclusion. This is especially relevant in environments that intersect terrestrial and aquatic systems, such as the capillary fringe zone in riparian ecosystems. To test the mechanisms of mineral surface area protection of OM, we facilitated secondary precipitation of alumino-silicates in the presence of OM held at two different temperatures in natural Nisqually River sediments (Mt Rainier, WA). This was a three month reaction intended to simulate early pedogenesis. To tease out the influence of mineral surface area increase during pedogenesis, we incubated the sediments at two different soil moisture contents to induce biodegradation. We measured OM desorption, biodegradation, and the molecular composition of mineral-associated OM both prior to and following the temperature manipulation. To simulate the saturation of capillary fringe sediment and associated transport and reaction of OM, column experiments were conducted using the reacted sediments. More co-precipitation was observed in the 20°C solution compared to the 4°C reacted solution suggesting that warming trends alter mineral development and may remove more OM from solution. The results from the static experiments will be used to model and predict the impacts of mineral sorption and biological activity on OM persistence in the context of dynamic saturation conditions and heterogeneous material properties.

Microwave remote sensing and its application to soil moisture detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newton, R. W. (Principal Investigator)

1977-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Experimental measurements were utilized to demonstrate a procedure for estimating soil moisture, using a passive microwave sensor. The investigation showed that 1.4 GHz and 10.6 GHz can be used to estimate the average soil moisture within two depths; however, it appeared that a frequency less than 10.6 GHz would be preferable for the surface measurement. Average soil moisture within two depths would provide information on the slope of the soil moisture gradient near the surface. Measurements showed that a uniform surface roughness similar to flat tilled fields reduced the sensitivity of the microwave emission to soil moisture changes. Assuming that the surface roughness was known, the approximate soil moisture estimation accuracy at 1.4 GHz calculated for a 25% average soil moisture and an 80% degree of confidence, was +3% and -6% for a smooth bare surface, +4% and -5% for a medium rough surface, and +5.5% and -6% for a rough surface.

iSOIL: Interactions between soil related sciences - Linking geophysics, soil science and digital soil mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dietrich, Peter; Werban, Ulrike; Sauer, Uta

2010-05-01

High-resolution soil property maps are one major prerequisite for the specific protection of soil functions and restoration of degraded soils as well as sustainable land use, water and environmental management. To generate such maps the combination of digital soil mapping approaches and remote as well as proximal soil sensing techniques is most promising. However, a feasible and reliable combination of these technologies for the investigation of large areas (e.g. catchments and landscapes) and the assessment of soil degradation threats is missing. Furthermore, there is insufficient dissemination of knowledge on digital soil mapping and proximal soil sensing in the scientific community, to relevant authorities as well as prospective users. As one consequence there is inadequate standardization of techniques. At the poster we present the EU collaborative project iSOIL within the 7th framework program of the European Commission. iSOIL focuses on improving fast and reliable mapping methods of soil properties, soil functions and soil degradation risks. This requires the improvement and integration of advanced soil sampling approaches, geophysical and spectroscopic measuring techniques, as well as pedometric and pedophysical approaches. The focus of the iSOIL project is to develop new and to improve existing strategies and innovative methods for generating accurate, high resolution soil property maps. At the same time the developments will reduce costs compared to traditional soil mapping. ISOIL tackles the challenges by the integration of three major components: (i)high resolution, non-destructive geophysical (e.g. Electromagnetic Induction EMI; Ground Penetrating Radar, GPR; magnetics, seismics) and spectroscopic (e.g., Near Surface Infrared, NIR) methods, (ii)Concepts of Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) and pedometrics as well as (iii)optimized soil sampling with respect to profound soil scientific and (geo)statistical strategies. A special focus of iSOIL lies on the sustainable dissemination of technologies and concepts developed in the projects through workshops for stakeholders and the publication of a handbook "Methods and Technologies for Mapping of Soil Properties, Function and Threat Risks". Besides, the CEN Workshop offers a new mechanism and approach to standardization. During the project we decided that the topic of the CEN Workshop should focus on a voluntary standardization of electromagnetic induction measurement to ensure that results can be evaluated and processed under uniform circumstances and can be comparable. At the poster we will also present the idea and the objectives of our CEN Workshop "Best Practice Approach for electromagnetic induction measurements of the near surface"and invite every interested person to participate.

Divergent surface and total soil moisture projections under global warming

USGS Publications Warehouse

Berg, Alexis; Sheffield, Justin; Milly, Paul C.D.

2017-01-01

Land aridity has been projected to increase with global warming. Such projections are mostly based on off-line aridity and drought metrics applied to climate model outputs but also are supported by climate-model projections of decreased surface soil moisture. Here we comprehensively analyze soil moisture projections from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5, including surface, total, and layer-by-layer soil moisture. We identify a robust vertical gradient of projected mean soil moisture changes, with more negative changes near the surface. Some regions of the northern middle to high latitudes exhibit negative annual surface changes but positive total changes. We interpret this behavior in the context of seasonal changes in the surface water budget. This vertical pattern implies that the extensive drying predicted by off-line drought metrics, while consistent with the projected decline in surface soil moisture, will tend to overestimate (negatively) changes in total soil water availability.

Characteristics of Nitrogen Loss through Surface-Subsurface Flow on Red Soil Slopes of Southeast China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Haijin; Liu, Zhao; Zuo, Jichao; Wang, Lingyun; Nie, Xiaofei

2017-12-01

Soil nitrogen (N) loss related to surface flow and subsurface flow (including interflow and groundwater flow) from slope lands is a global issue. A lysimetric experiment with three types of land cover (grass cover, GC; litter cover, LC; and bare land, BL) were carried out on a red soil slope land in southeast China. Total Nitrogen (TN) loss through surface flow, interflow and groundwater flow was observed under 28 natural precipitation events from 2015 to 2016. TN concentrations from subsurface flow on BL and LC plots were, on average, 2.7-8.2 and 1.5-4.4 times greater than TN concentrations from surface flow, respectively; the average concentration of TN from subsurface flow on GC was about 36-56% of that recorded from surface flow. Surface flow, interflow and groundwater flow contributed 0-15, 2-9 and 76-96%, respectively, of loss load of TN. Compared with BL, GC and LC intercepted 83-86% of TN loss through surface runoff; GC intercepted 95% of TN loss through subsurface flow while TN loss through subsurface flow on LC is 2.3 times larger than that on BL. In conclusion, subsurface flow especially groundwater flow is the dominant hydrological rout for N loss that is usually underestimated. Grass cover has the high retention of N runoff loss while litter mulch will increase N leaching loss. These findings provide scientific support to control N runoff loss from the red soil slope lands by using suitable vegetation cover and mulching techniques.

Assimilation of Freeze - Thaw Observations into the NASA Catchment Land Surface Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farhadi, Leila; Reichle, Rolf H.; DeLannoy, Gabrielle J. M.; Kimball, John S.

2014-01-01

The land surface freeze-thaw (F-T) state plays a key role in the hydrological and carbon cycles and thus affects water and energy exchanges and vegetation productivity at the land surface. In this study, we developed an F-T assimilation algorithm for the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System, version 5 (GEOS-5) modeling and assimilation framework. The algorithm includes a newly developed observation operator that diagnoses the landscape F-T state in the GEOS-5 Catchment land surface model. The F-T analysis is a rule-based approach that adjusts Catchment model state variables in response to binary F-T observations, while also considering forecast and observation errors. A regional observing system simulation experiment was conducted using synthetically generated F-T observations. The assimilation of perfect (error-free) F-T observations reduced the root-mean-square errors (RMSE) of surface temperature and soil temperature by 0.206 C and 0.061 C, respectively, when compared to model estimates (equivalent to a relative RMSE reduction of 6.7 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively). For a maximum classification error (CEmax) of 10 percent in the synthetic F-T observations, the F-T assimilation reduced the RMSE of surface temperature and soil temperature by 0.178 C and 0.036 C, respectively. For CEmax=20 percent, the F-T assimilation still reduces the RMSE of model surface temperature estimates by 0.149 C but yields no improvement over the model soil temperature estimates. The F-T assimilation scheme is being developed to exploit planned operational F-T products from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission.

The global distribution and dynamics of surface soil moisture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McColl, Kaighin A.; Alemohammad, Seyed Hamed; Akbar, Ruzbeh; Konings, Alexandra G.; Yueh, Simon; Entekhabi, Dara

2017-01-01

Surface soil moisture has a direct impact on food security, human health and ecosystem function. It also plays a key role in the climate system, and the development and persistence of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and heatwaves. However, sparse and uneven observations have made it difficult to quantify the global distribution and dynamics of surface soil moisture. Here we introduce a metric of soil moisture memory and use a full year of global observations from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission to show that surface soil moisture--a storage believed to make up less than 0.001% of the global freshwater budget by volume, and equivalent to an, on average, 8-mm thin layer of water covering all land surfaces--plays a significant role in the water cycle. Specifically, we find that surface soil moisture retains a median 14% of precipitation falling on land after three days. Furthermore, the retained fraction of the surface soil moisture storage after three days is highest over arid regions, and in regions where drainage to groundwater storage is lowest. We conclude that lower groundwater storage in these regions is due not only to lower precipitation, but also to the complex partitioning of the water cycle by the surface soil moisture storage layer at the land surface.

Modeling the Impact of Soil and Water Conservation on Surface and Ground Water Based on the SCS and Visual Modflow

PubMed Central

Wang, Hong; Gao, Jian-en; Zhang, Shao-long; Zhang, Meng-jie; Li, Xing-hua

2013-01-01

Soil and water conservation measures can impact hydrological cycle, but quantitative analysis of this impact is still difficult in a watershed scale. To assess the effect quantitatively, a three-dimensional finite-difference groundwater flow model (MODFLOW) with a surface runoff model–the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) were calibrated and applied based on the artificial rainfall experiments. Then, three soil and water conservation scenarios were simulated on the sand-box model to assess the effect of bare slope changing to grass land and straw mulching on water volume, hydraulic head, runoff process of groundwater and surface water. Under the 120 mm rainfall, 60 mm/h rainfall intensity, 5 m2 area, 3° slope conditions, the comparative results indicated that the trend was decrease in surface runoff and increase in subsurface runoff coincided with the land-use converted from bare slope to grass land and straw mulching. The simulated mean surface runoff modulus was 3.64×10−2 m3/m2/h in the bare slope scenario, while the observed values were 1.54×10−2 m3/m2/h and 0.12×10−2 m3/m2/h in the lawn and straw mulching scenarios respectively. Compared to the bare slope, the benefits of surface water reduction were 57.8% and 92.4% correspondingly. At the end of simulation period (T = 396 min), the simulated mean groundwater runoff modulus was 2.82×10−2 m3/m2/h in the bare slope scenario, while the observed volumes were 3.46×10−2 m3/m2/h and 4.91×10−2 m3/m2/h in the lawn and straw mulching scenarios respectively. So the benefits of groundwater increase were 22.7% and 60.4% correspondingly. It was concluded that the soil and water conservation played an important role in weakening the surface runoff and strengthening the underground runoff. Meanwhile the quantitative analysis using a modeling approach could provide a thought for the study in a watershed scale to help decision-makers manage water resources. PMID:24244427

Soil Carbon Dioxide Production and Surface Fluxes: Subsurface Physical Controls

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Risk, D.; Kellman, L.; Beltrami, H.

Soil respiration is a critical determinant of landscape carbon balance. Variations in soil temperature and moisture patterns are important physical processes controlling soil respiration which need to be better understood. Relationships between soil respi- ration and physical controls are typically addressed using only surface flux data but other methods also exist which permit more rigorous interpretation of soil respira- tion processes. Here we use a combination of subsurface CO_{2} concentrations, surface CO_{2} fluxes and detailed physical monitoring of the subsurface envi- ronment to examine physical controls on soil CO_{2} production at four climate observatories in Eastern Canada. Results indicate that subsurface CO_{2} produc- tion is more strongly correlated to the subsurface thermal environment than the surface CO_{2} flux. Soil moisture was also found to have an important influence on sub- surface CO_{2} production, particularly in relation to the soil moisture - soil profile diffusivity relationship. Non-diffusive profile CO_{2} transport appears to be im- portant at these sites, resulting in a de-coupling of summertime surface fluxes from subsurface processes and violating assumptions that surface CO_{2} emissions are the result solely of diffusion. These results have implications for the study of soil respiration across a broad range of terrestrial environments.

The effect of row structure on soil moisture retrieval accuracy from passive microwave data.

PubMed

Xingming, Zheng; Kai, Zhao; Yangyang, Li; Jianhua, Ren; Yanling, Ding

2014-01-01

Row structure causes the anisotropy of microwave brightness temperature (TB) of soil surface, and it also can affect soil moisture retrieval accuracy when its influence is ignored in the inversion model. To study the effect of typical row structure on the retrieved soil moisture and evaluate if there is a need to introduce this effect into the inversion model, two ground-based experiments were carried out in 2011. Based on the observed C-band TB, field soil and vegetation parameters, row structure rough surface assumption (Q p model and discrete model), including the effect of row structure, and flat rough surface assumption (Q p model), ignoring the effect of row structure, are used to model microwave TB of soil surface. Then, soil moisture can be retrieved, respectively, by minimizing the difference of the measured and modeled TB. The results show that soil moisture retrieval accuracy based on the row structure rough surface assumption is approximately 0.02 cm(3)/cm(3) better than the flat rough surface assumption for vegetated soil, as well as 0.015 cm(3)/cm(3) better for bare and wet soil. This result indicates that the effect of row structure cannot be ignored for accurately retrieving soil moisture of farmland surface when C-band is used.

Visually assessing the level of development and soil surface stability of cyanobacterially dominated biological soil crusts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Belnap, J.; Phillips, S.L.; Witwicki, D.L.; Miller, M.E.

2008-01-01

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are an integral part of dryland ecosystems and often included in long-term ecological monitoring programs. Estimating moss and lichen cover is fairly easy and non-destructive, but documenting cyanobacterial level of development (LOD) is more difficult. It requires sample collection for laboratory analysis, which causes soil surface disturbance. Assessing soil surface stability also requires surface disturbance. Here we present a visual technique to assess cyanobacterial LOD and soil surface stability. We define six development levels of cyanobacterially dominated soils based on soil surface darkness. We sampled chlorophyll a concentrations (the most common way of assessing cyanobacterial biomass), exopolysaccharide concentrations, and soil surface aggregate stability from representative areas of each LOD class. We found that, in the laboratory and field, LOD classes were effective at predicting chlorophyll a soil concentrations (R2=68-81%), exopolysaccharide concentrations (R2=71%), and soil aggregate stability (R2=77%). We took representative photos of these classes to construct a field guide. We then tested the ability of field crews to distinguish these classes and found this technique was highly repeatable among observers. We also discuss how to adjust this index for the different types of BSCs found in various dryland regions.

Interactive effects of wildfire and permafrost on microbial communities and soil processes in an Alaskan black spruce forest

USGS Publications Warehouse

Waldrop, M.P.; Harden, J.W.

2008-01-01

Boreal forests contain significant quantities of soil carbon that may be oxidized to CO2 given future increases in climate warming and wildfire behavior. At the ecosystem scale, decomposition and heterotrophic respiration are strongly controlled by temperature and moisture, but we questioned whether changes in microbial biomass, activity, or community structure induced by fire might also affect these processes. We particularly wanted to understand whether postfire reductions in microbial biomass could affect rates of decomposition. Additionally, we compared the short-term effects of wildfire to the long-term effects of climate warming and permafrost decline. We compared soil microbial communities between control and recently burned soils that were located in areas with and without permafrost near Delta Junction, AK. In addition to soil physical variables, we quantified changes in microbial biomass, fungal biomass, fungal community composition, and C cycling processes (phenol oxidase enzyme activity, lignin decomposition, and microbial respiration). Five years following fire, organic surface horizons had lower microbial biomass, fungal biomass, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations compared with control soils. Reductions in soil fungi were associated with reductions in phenol oxidase activity and lignin decomposition. Effects of wildfire on microbial biomass and activity in the mineral soil were minor. Microbial community composition was affected by wildfire, but the effect was greater in nonpermafrost soils. Although the presence of permafrost increased soil moisture contents, effects on microbial biomass and activity were limited to mineral soils that showed lower fungal biomass but higher activity compared with soils without permafrost. Fungal abundance and moisture were strong predictors of phenol oxidase enzyme activity in soil. Phenol oxidase enzyme activity, in turn, was linearly related to both 13C lignin decomposition and microbial respiration in incubation studies. Taken together, these results indicate that reductions in fungal biomass in postfire soils and lower soil moisture in nonpermafrost soils reduced the potential of soil heterotrophs to decompose soil carbon. Although in the field increased rates of microbial respiration can be observed in postfire soils due to warmer soil conditions, reductions in fungal biomass and activity may limit rates of decomposition. ?? 2008 The Authors Journal compilation ?? 2008 Blackwell Publishing.

The role of soil drainage class in carbon dioxide exchange and decomposition in boreal black spruce (Picea mariana) forest stands

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wickland, K.P.; Neff, J.C.; Harden, J.W.

2010-01-01

Black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) forest stands range from well drained to poorly drained, typically contain large amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC), and are often underlain by permafrost. To better understand the role of soil drainage class in carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange and decomposition, we measured soil respiration and net CO2 fluxes, litter decomposition and litterfall rates, and SOC stocks above permafrost in three Alaska black spruce forest stands characterized as well drained (WD), moderately drained (MD), and poorly drained (PD). Soil respiration and net CO2 fluxes were not significantly different among sites, although the relation between soil respiration rate and temperature varied with site (Qw: WD > MD > PD). Annual estimated soil respiration, litter decomposition, and groundcover photosynthesis were greatest at PD. These results suggest that soil temperature and moisture conditions in shallow organic horizon soils at PD were more favorable for decomposition compared with the better drained sites. SOC stocks, however, increase from WD to MD to PD such that surface decomposition and C storage are diametric. Greater groundcover vegetation productivity, protection of deep SOC by permafrost and anoxic conditions, and differences in fire return interval and (or) severity at PD counteract the relatively high near-surface decomposition rates, resulting in high net C accumulation.

Inversion of Farmland Soil Moisture in Large Region Based on Modified Vegetation Index

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, J. X.; Yu, B. S.; Zhang, G. Z.; Zhao, G. C.; He, S. D.; Luo, W. R.; Zhang, C. C.

2018-04-01

Soil moisture is an important parameter for agricultural production. Efficient and accurate monitoring of soil moisture is an important link to ensure the safety of agricultural production. Remote sensing technology has been widely used in agricultural moisture monitoring because of its timeliness, cyclicality, dynamic tracking of changes in things, easy access to data, and extensive monitoring. Vegetation index and surface temperature are important parameters for moisture monitoring. Based on NDVI, this paper introduces land surface temperature and average temperature for optimization. This article takes the soil moisture in winter wheat growing area in Henan Province as the research object, dividing Henan Province into three main regions producing winter wheat and dividing the growth period of winter wheat into the early, middle and late stages on the basis of phenological characteristics and regional characteristics. Introducing appropriate correction factor during the corresponding growth period of winter wheat, correcting the vegetation index in the corresponding area, this paper establishes regression models of soil moisture on NDVI and soil moisture on modified NDVI based on correlation analysis and compare models. It shows that modified NDVI is more suitable as a indicator of soil moisture because of the better correlation between soil moisture and modified NDVI and the higher prediction accuracy of the regression model of soil moisture on modified NDVI. The research in this paper has certain reference value for winter wheat farmland management and decision-making.

Relationships between groundwater, surface water, and soil salinity in Polder 32, Southwest Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fry, D. C.; Ayers, J. C.

2014-12-01

In the coastal areas of Southwest Bangladesh polders are surrounded by tidal channels filled with brackish water. In the wet season, farmers create openings in the embankments to irrigate rice paddies. In the dry season, farmers do the same to create saline shrimp ponds. Residents on Polder 32, located within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta system, practice these seasonal farming techniques. Soils in the area are entisols, being sediment recently deposited, and contain mostly silt-sized particles. Brackish water in brine shrimp ponds may deposit salt in the soil, causing soil salinization. However, saline connate groundwater could also be contributing to soil salinization. Groundwater, surface water (fresh water pond, rice paddy and tidal channel water) and soil samples have been analyzed via inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy and ion chromatography in an attempt to correlate salinity measurements with each other in order to determine major sources of soil salinity. Multiple parameters, including distances of samples from tidal channels, inland streams, shrimp ponds and tube wells were measured to see if spatial correlations exist. Similarly, values from wet and dry seasons were compared to quantify temporal variations. Salt content in many soil samples were found to be high enough to significantly decrease rice yields. Continued soil salinization can decrease these yields even more, leading to farmers not producing enough food to sustain their families.

Use of urban composts for the regeneration of a burnt Mediterranean soil: a laboratory approach.

PubMed

Cellier, Antoine; Francou, Cédric; Houot, Sabine; Ballini, Christine; Gauquelin, Thierry; Baldy, Virginie

2012-03-01

In Mediterranean region, forest fires are a major problem leading to the desertification of the environment. Use of composts is considered as a solution for soil and vegetation rehabilitation. In this study, we determined under laboratory conditions the effects of three urban composts and their mode of application (laid on the soil surface or mixed into the soil) on soil restoration after fire: a municipal waste compost (MWC), a compost of sewage sludge mixed with green waste (SSC) and a green waste compost (GWC). Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) mineralisation, total microbial biomass, fungal biomass and soil characteristics were measured during 77-day incubations in microcosms. The impact of composts input on hydrological behaviour related to erodibility was estimated by measuring runoff, retention and percolation (i.e. infiltration) of water using a rainfall simulator under laboratory conditions. Input of composts increased organic matter and soil nutrient content, and enhanced C and N mineralisation and total microbial biomass throughout the incubations, whereas it increased sporadically fungal biomass. For all these parameters, the MWC induced the highest improvement while GWC input had no significant effect compared to the control. Composts mixed with soil weakly limited runoff and infiltration whereas composts laid at the soil surface significantly reduced runoff and increased percolation and retention, particularly with the MWC. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

30 CFR 715.16 - Topsoil handling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... as the surface soil layers. Where the A horizon is less than 6 inches, a 6-inch layer that includes... replaced as the surface soil layer. (3) Where necessary to obtain soil productivity consistent with... amounts and analyses as determined by soil tests shall be applied to the surface soil layer so that it...

30 CFR 715.16 - Topsoil handling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... as the surface soil layers. Where the A horizon is less than 6 inches, a 6-inch layer that includes... replaced as the surface soil layer. (3) Where necessary to obtain soil productivity consistent with... amounts and analyses as determined by soil tests shall be applied to the surface soil layer so that it...

30 CFR 715.16 - Topsoil handling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... as the surface soil layers. Where the A horizon is less than 6 inches, a 6-inch layer that includes... replaced as the surface soil layer. (3) Where necessary to obtain soil productivity consistent with... amounts and analyses as determined by soil tests shall be applied to the surface soil layer so that it...

30 CFR 715.16 - Topsoil handling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... as the surface soil layers. Where the A horizon is less than 6 inches, a 6-inch layer that includes... replaced as the surface soil layer. (3) Where necessary to obtain soil productivity consistent with... amounts and analyses as determined by soil tests shall be applied to the surface soil layer so that it...

30 CFR 715.16 - Topsoil handling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... as the surface soil layers. Where the A horizon is less than 6 inches, a 6-inch layer that includes... replaced as the surface soil layer. (3) Where necessary to obtain soil productivity consistent with... amounts and analyses as determined by soil tests shall be applied to the surface soil layer so that it...

Microbial contamination of vegetable crop and soil profile in arid regions under controlled application of domestic wastewater

PubMed Central

Balkhair, Khaled S.

2015-01-01

Increasing lack of potable water in arid countries leads to the use of treated wastewater for crop production. However, the use of inappropriate irrigation practices could result in a serious contamination risk to plants, soils, and groundwater with sewage water. This research was initiated in view to the increasing danger of vegetable crops and groundwater contamination with pathogenic bacteria due to wastewater land application. The research was designed to study: (1) the effect of treated wastewater irrigation on the yield and microbial contamination of the radish plant under field conditions; (2) contamination of the agricultural soil profile with fecal coliform bacteria. Effluent from a domestic wastewater treatment plant (100%) in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia, was diluted to 80% and 40% with the groundwater of the experimental site constituting three different water qualities plus groundwater as control. Radish plant was grown in two consecutive seasons under two drip irrigation systems and four irrigation water qualities. Upon harvesting, plant weight per ha, total bacterial, fecal coliform, fecal streptococci were detected per 100 g of dry matter and compared with the control. The soil profile was also sampled at an equal distance of 3 cm from soil surface for fecal coliform detection. The results indicated that the yield increased significantly under the subsurface irrigation system and the control water quality compared to surface irrigation system and other water qualities. There was a considerable drop in the count of all bacteria species under the subsurface irrigation system compared to surface irrigation. The bacterial count/g of the plant shoot system increased as the percentage of wastewater in the irrigation water increased. Most of the fecal coliform bacteria were deposited in the first few centimeters below the column inlet and the profile exponentially decreased with increasing depth. PMID:26858571

Granite Rock Outcrops: An Extreme Environment for Soil Nematodes?

PubMed Central

Austin, Erin; Semmens, Katharine; Parsons, Charles

2009-01-01

We studied soil nematode communities from the surface of granite flatrock outcrops in the eastern Piedmont region of the United States. The thin soils that develop here experience high light intensity and extreme fluctuations in temperature and moisture and host unique plant communities. We collected soils from outcrop microsites in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC) in various stages of succession (Primitive, Minimal, and Mature) and compared soil properties and nematode communities to those of adjacent forest soils. Nematodes were present in most outcrop soils, with densities comparable to forest soils (P > 0.05). Nematode communities in Mature and Minimal soils had lower species richness than forest soils (P < 0.05) and contained more bacterial-feeders and fewer fungal-feeders (P < 0.05). Primitive soils contained either no nematodes (NC) or only a single species (Mesodorylaimus sp., VA). Nematode communities were similar between Mature and Minimal soils, according to trophic group representation, MI, PPI, EI, SI, and CI (P > 0.05). Forest soils had a higher PPI value (P < 0.05), but otherwise community indices were similar to outcrop soils (P > 0.05). Outcrop nematode communities failed to group together in a Bray-Curtis cluster analysis, indicating higher variability in community structure than the Forest soils, which did cluster together. A high proportion of the nematodes were extracted from outcrop soils in coiled form (33-89%), indicating that they used anhydrobiosis to persist in this unique environment. PMID:22661780

Subsurface application of poultry litter and its influence on nutrient losses in runoff water from permanent pastures.

PubMed

Watts, D B; Way, T R; Torbert, H A

2011-01-01

Environmental pressure to reduce nutrient losses from agricultural fields has increased in recent years. To abate this nutrient loss to the environment, better management practices and new technologies need to be developed. Thus, research was conducted to evaluate if subsurface banding poultry litter (PL) would reduce nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loss in surface water runoff using a four-row prototype implement. Rainfall simulations were conducted to create a 40-min runoff event in an established bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) pasture on soil types common to the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions. The Coastal Plain soil type was a Marvyn loamy sand (fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults) and the Piedmont soil type was a Hard Labor loamy sand (fine, kaolinitic, thermic Oxyaquic Kanhapludults). Treatments consisted of surface- and subsurface-applied PL at a rate of 9 Mg ha(-1), surface broadcast-applied commercial fertilizer (CF; urea and triple superphosphate blend) at the equivalent N (330 kg N ha(-1)) and P (315 kg N ha(-1)) content of PL, and a nonfertilized control. The greatest loss for inorganic N, total N, dissolved reactive P (DRP), and total P occurred with the surface broadcast treatments, with CF contributing to the greatest loss. Nutrient losses from the subsurface banded treatment reduced N and P in surface water runoff to levels of the control. Subsurface banding of PL reduced concentrations of inorganic N 91%, total N 90%, DRP 86%, and total P 86% in runoff water compared with surface broadcasted PL. These results show that subsurface band-applied PL can greatly reduce the impact of N and P loss to the environment compared with conventional surface-applied PL and CF practices.

The Effect of Thermal Convection on Earth-Atmosphere CO2 Gas Exchange in Aggregated Soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ganot, Y.; Weisbrod, N.; Dragila, M. I.

2011-12-01

Gas transport in soils and surface-atmosphere gas exchange are important processes that affect different aspects of soil science such as soil aeration, nutrient bio-availability, sorption kinetics, soil and groundwater pollution and soil remediation. Diffusion and convection are the two main mechanisms that affect gas transport, fate and emissions in the soils and in the upper vadose zone. In this work we studied CO2 soil-atmosphere gas exchange under both day-time and night-time conditions, focusing on the impact of thermal convection (TCV) during the night. Experiments were performed in a climate-controlled laboratory. One meter long columns were packed with matrix of different grain size (sand, gravel and soil aggregates). Air with 2000 ppm CO2 was injected into the bottom of the columns and CO2 concentration within the columns was continuously monitored by an Infra Red Gas Analyzer. Two scenarios were compared for each soil: (1) isothermal conditions, representing day time conditions; and (2) thermal gradient conditions, i.e., atmosphere colder than the soil, representing night time conditions. Our results show that under isothermal conditions, diffusion is the major mechanism for surface-atmosphere gas exchange for all grain sizes; while under night time conditions the prevailing mechanism is dependent on the air permeability of the matrix: for sand and gravel it is diffusion, and for soil aggregates it is TCV. Calculated CO2 flux for the soil aggregates column shows that the TCV flux was three orders of magnitude higher than the diffusive flux.

Kinetically limited weathering at low denudation rates in semi-arid climates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanacker, V.; Schoonejans, J.; Opfergelt, S.; Ameijeiras-Marino, Y.; Christl, M.

2016-12-01

On Earth, the Critical Zone supports terrestrial life, being the near-surface environment where interactions between the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere take place Quantitative understanding of the interaction between mechanical rock breakdown, chemical weathering, and physical erosion is essential for unraveling Earth's biogeochemical cycles. In this study, we explore the role of soil water balance on regulating soil chemical weathering under water deficit regimes. Weathering rates and intensities were evaluated for nine soil profiles located on convex ridge crests of three mountain ranges in the Spanish Betic Cordillera. We present and compare quantitative information on soil weathering, chemical depletion and total denudation that were derived based on geochemical mass balance, 10Be cosmogenic nuclides and U-series disequilibria. Soil production rates determined based on U-series isotopes (238U, 234U, 230Th and 226Ra) are of the same order of magnitude as 10Be-derived denudation rates, suggesting steady state soil thickness, in two out of three sampling sites. The chemical weathering intensities are relatively low (˜5 to 30% of the total denudation of the soil) and negatively correlated with the magnitude of the water deficit in soils. Soil weathering extents increase (nonlinearly) with soil thickness and decrease with increasing surface denudation rates, consistent with kinetically limited or controlled weathering. Our study suggests that soil residence time and water availability limit weathering processes in semi-arid climates, which has not been validated previously with field data. An important implication of this finding is that climatic regimes may strongly regulate soil weathering by modulating soil solute fluxes.

Seasonal reversal of temperature-moisture response of net carbon exchange of biocrusted soils in a cool desert ecosystem.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tucker, C.; Reed, S.; Howell, A.

2017-12-01

Carbon cycling associated with biological soil crusts, which occur in interspaces between vascular plants in drylands globally, may be an important part of the coupled climate-carbon cycle of the Earth system. A major challenge to understanding CO2 fluxes in these systems is that much of the biotic and biogeochemical activity occurs in the upper few mm of the soil surface layer (i.e., the `mantle of fertility'), which exhibits highly dynamic and difficult to measure temperature and moisture fluctuations. Here, we report data collected in a cool desert ecosystem over one year using a multi-sensor approach to simultaneously measuring temperature and moisture of the biocrust surface layer (0-2 mm), and the deeper soil profile (5-20 cm), concurrent with automated measurement of surface soil CO2 effluxes. Our results illuminate robust relationships between microclimate and field CO2 pulses that have previously been difficult to detect and explain. The temperature of the biocrust surface layer was highly variable, ranging from minimum of -9 °C in winter to maximum of 77 °C in summer with a maximum diurnal range of 61 °C. Temperature cycles were muted deeper in the soil profile. During summer, biocrust and soils were usually hot and dry and CO2 fluxes were tightly coupled to pulse wetting events experienced at the biocrust surface, which consistently resulted in net CO2 efflux (i.e., respiration). In contrast, during the winter, biocrust and soils were usually cold and moist, and there was sustained net CO2 uptake via photosynthesis by biocrust organisms, although during cold dry periods CO2 fluxes were minimal. During the milder spring and fall seasons, short wetting events drove CO2 loss, while sustained wetting events resulted in net CO2 uptake. Thus, the upper and lower bounds of net CO2 exchange at a point in time were functions of the seasonal temperature regime, while the actual flux within those bounds was determined by the magnitude and duration of biocrust and soil wetting events. These patterns reflect both the low temperature sensitivity and slow initiation in response to wetting of photosynthesis compared to respiration by biocrust organisms. Our study highlights the importance of cool and cold periods for C uptake in biocrusted soils of the Colorado Plateau.

Influence of Sub-Surface Irrigation on Soil Conditions and Water Irrigation Efficiency in a Cherry Orchard in a Hilly Semi-Arid Area of Northern China

PubMed Central

Peng, Gao; Bing, Wang; Guangcan, Zhang

2013-01-01

Sub-surface irrigation (SUI) is a new water-saving irrigation technology. To explore the influence of SUI on soil conditions in a cherry orchard and its water-saving efficiency, experiments were conducted from 2009 to 2010 using both SUI and flood irrigation (FLI) and different SUI quotas in hilly semi-arid area of northern China. The results demonstrated the following: 1) The bulk density of the soil under SUI was 6.8% lower than that of soil under FLI (P<0.01). The total soil porosity, capillary porosity and non-capillary porosity of soils using SUI were 11.7% (P<0.01), 8.7% (P<0.01) and 43.8% (P<0.01) higher than for soils using FLI. 2) The average soil temperatures at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm of soil depth using SUI were 1.7, 1.1, 0.7, 0.4 and 0.3°C higher than those for FLI, specifically, the differences between the surface soil layers were more significant. 3) Compared with FLI, the average water-saving efficiency of SUI was 55.6%, and SUI increased the irrigation productivity by 7.9-12.3 kg m-3 ha-1. 4) The soil moisture of different soil layers using SUI increased with increases in the irrigation quotas, and the soil moisture contents under SUI were significantly higher in the 0-20 cm layer and in the 21-50 cm layer than those under FLI (P<0.01). 5) The average yields of cherries under SUI with irrigation quotas of 80-320 m3 ha-1 were 8.7%-34.9% higher than those in soil with no irrigation (CK2). The average yields of cherries from soils using SUI were 4.5%-12.2% higher than using FLI. It is appropriate to irrigate 2-3 times with 230 m3 ha-1 per application using SUI in a year with normal rainfall. Our findings indicated that SUI could maintain the physical properties, greatly improve irrigation water use efficiency, and significantly increase fruit yields in hilly semi-arid areas of northern China. PMID:24039986

Sensitivity of Land Surface Parameters on Thunderstorm Simulation through HRLDAS-WRF Coupling Mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Dinesh; Kumar, Krishan; Mohanty, U. C.; Kisore Osuri, Krishna

2016-07-01

Land surface characteristics play an important role in large scale, regional and mesoscale atmospheric process. Representation of land surface characteristics can be improved through coupling of mesoscale atmospheric models with land surface models. Mesoscale atmospheric models depend on Land Surface Models (LSM) to provide land surface variables such as fluxes of heat, moisture, and momentum for lower boundary layer evolution. Studies have shown that land surface properties such as soil moisture, soil temperature, soil roughness, vegetation cover, have considerable effect on lower boundary layer. Although, the necessity to initialize soil moisture accurately in NWP models is widely acknowledged, monitoring soil moisture at regional and global scale is a very tough task due to high spatial and temporal variability. As a result, the available observation network is unable to provide the required spatial and temporal data for the most part of the globe. Therefore, model for land surface initializations rely on updated land surface properties from LSM. The solution for NWP land-state initialization can be found by combining data assimilation techniques, satellite-derived soil data, and land surface models. Further, it requires an intermediate step to use observed rainfall, satellite derived surface insolation, and meteorological analyses to run an uncoupled (offline) integration of LSM, so that the evolution of modeled soil moisture can be forced by observed forcing conditions. Therefore, for accurate land-state initialization, high resolution land data assimilation system (HRLDAS) is used to provide the essential land surface parameters. Offline-coupling of HRLDAS-WRF has shown much improved results over Delhi, India for four thunder storm events. The evolution of land surface variables particularly soil moisture, soil temperature and surface fluxes have provided more realistic condition. Results have shown that most of domain part became wetter and warmer after assimilation of soil moisture and soil temperature at the initial condition which helped to improve the exchange fluxes at lower atmospheric level. Mixing ratio were increased along with elevated theta-e at lower level giving a signature of improvement in LDAS experiment leading to a suitable condition for convection. In the analysis, moisture convergence, mixing ratio and vertical velocities have improved significantly in terms of intensity and time lag. Surface variables like soil moisture, soil temperature, sensible heat flux and latent heat flux have progressed in a possible realistic pattern. Above discussion suggests that assimilation of soil moisture and soil temperature improves the overall simulations significantly.

Representing the effects of alpine grassland vegetation cover on the simulation of soil thermal dynamics by ecosystem models applied to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yi, S.; Li, N.; Xiang, B.; Wang, X.; Ye, B.; McGuire, A.D.

2013-01-01

Soil surface temperature is a critical boundary condition for the simulation of soil temperature by environmental models. It is influenced by atmospheric and soil conditions and by vegetation cover. In sophisticated land surface models, it is simulated iteratively by solving surface energy budget equations. In ecosystem, permafrost, and hydrology models, the consideration of soil surface temperature is generally simple. In this study, we developed a methodology for representing the effects of vegetation cover and atmospheric factors on the estimation of soil surface temperature for alpine grassland ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Our approach integrated measurements from meteorological stations with simulations from a sophisticated land surface model to develop an equation set for estimating soil surface temperature. After implementing this equation set into an ecosystem model and evaluating the performance of the ecosystem model in simulating soil temperature at different depths in the soil profile, we applied the model to simulate interactions among vegetation cover, freeze-thaw cycles, and soil erosion to demonstrate potential applications made possible through the implementation of the methodology developed in this study. Results showed that (1) to properly estimate daily soil surface temperature, algorithms should use air temperature, downward solar radiation, and vegetation cover as independent variables; (2) the equation set developed in this study performed better than soil surface temperature algorithms used in other models; and (3) the ecosystem model performed well in simulating soil temperature throughout the soil profile using the equation set developed in this study. Our application of the model indicates that the representation in ecosystem models of the effects of vegetation cover on the simulation of soil thermal dynamics has the potential to substantially improve our understanding of the vulnerability of alpine grassland ecosystems to changes in climate and grazing regimes.

[Effects of strip planting and fallow rotation on the soil and water loss and water use efficiency of slope farmland].

PubMed

Hou, Xian-Qing; Li, Rong; Han, Qing-Fang; Jia, Zhi-Kuan; Wang, Wei; Yan, Bo; Yang, Bao-Ping

2012-08-01

In order to enhance the soil water-retaining capacity of slope farmland and reduce its soil and water loss, a field study was conducted in 2007-2010 to examine the effects of strip planting and fallow rotation on the soil water regime, soil and water loss characteristics, and water use efficiency of a 10 degrees-15 degrees slope farmland in the arid area of southern Ningxia, Northwest China. Compared with the traditional no-strip planting, strip planting and fallow rotation increased the soil water content in 0-200 cm layer significantly, with an increment of 4.9% -7.0%. Strip planting and fallow rotation pattern could also effectively conserve the soil water in rain season, and obviously improve the soil water regime at crops early growth stages. As compared to no-strip planting, strip planting and fallow rotation increased the soil water content in 0-200 cm layer by 5.4%-8.5%, decreased the surface runoff by 0.7-3.2 m3 x hm(-2), sediment runoff by 0.2-1.9 t x hm(-2), and soil total N loss by 42.1% -73.3%, while improved the crop water use efficiency by 6.1% -24.9% and the precipitation use efficiency by 6.3% -15.3%.

Quantifying the effects of wildfire on changes in soil properties by surface burning of soils from the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wieting, Celeste; Ebel, Brian A.; Singha, Kamini

2017-01-01

Study regionThis study used intact soil cores collected at the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory near Boulder, Colorado, USA to explore fire impacts on soil properties.Study focusThree soil scenarios were considered: unburned control soils, and low- and high-temperature burned soils. We explored simulated fire impacts on field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, dry bulk density, total organic carbon, and infiltration processes during rainfall simulations.New hydrological insights for the regionSoils burned to high temperatures became more homogeneous with depth with respect to total organic carbon and bulk density, suggesting reductions in near-surface porosity. Organic matter decreased significantly with increasing soil temperature. Tension infiltration experiments suggested a decrease in infiltration rates from unburned to low-temperature burned soils, and an increase in infiltration rates in high-temperature burned soils. Non-parametric statistical tests showed that field-saturated hydraulic conductivity similarly decreased from unburned to low-temperature burned soils, and then increased with high-temperature burned soils. We interpret these changes result from the combustion of surface and near-surface organic materials, enabling water to infiltrate directly into soil instead of being stored in the litter and duff layer at the surface. Together, these results indicate that fire-induced changes in soil properties from low temperatures were not as drastic as high temperatures, but that reductions in surface soil water repellency in high temperatures may increase infiltration relative to low temperatures.

[Soil infiltration of snowmelt water in the southern Gurbantunggut Desert, Xinjiang, China].

PubMed

Hu, Shun-jun; Chen, Yong-bao; Zhu, Hai

2015-04-01

Soil infiltration of snow-melt water is an important income item of water balance in arid desert. The soil water content in west slope, east slope and interdune of sand dune in the southern Gurbantunggut Desert was monitored before snowfall and after snow melting during the winters of 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. According to the principle of water balance, soil infiltration of snow-melt in the west slope, east slope, interdune and landscape scale was calculated, and compared with the results measured by cylinder method. The results showed that the soil moisture recharge from unfrozen layer of unsaturated soil to surface frozen soil was negligible because the soil moisture content before snowfall was lower, soil infiltration of snow-melt water was the main source of soil water of shallow soil, phreatic water did not evaporate during freezing period, and did not get recharge after the snow melting. Snowmelt water in the west slope, east slope, interdune and landscape scale were 20-43, 27-43, 32-45, 26-45 mm, respectively.

Bioenergy cropping systems that incorporate native grasses stimulate growth of plant-associated soil microbes in the absence of nitrogen fertilization

DOE PAGES

Oates, Lawrence G.; Duncan, David S.; Sanford, Gregg R.; ...

2016-10-03

The choice of crops and their management can strongly influence soil microbial communities and their processes. Here, we used lipid biomarker profiling to characterize how soil microbial composition of five potential bioenergy cropping systems diverged from a common baseline five years after they were established. The cropping systems we studied included an annual system (continuous no-till corn) and four perennial crops (switchgrass, miscanthus, hybrid poplar, and restored prairie). Partial- and no-stover removal were compared for the corn system, while N-additions were compared to unfertilized plots for the perennial cropping systems. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Gram-negative biomass was higher inmore » unfertilized perennial grass systems, especially in switchgrass and prairie. Gram-positive bacterial biomass decreased in all systems relative to baseline values in surface soils (0–10 cm), but not subsurface soils (10–25 cm). Overall microbial composition was similar between the two soil depths. Our findings demonstrate the capacity of unfertilized perennial cropping systems to recreate microbial composition found in undisturbed soil environments and indicate how strongly agroecosystem management decisions such as N addition and plant community composition can influence soil microbial assemblages.« less