much has been learned in recent years about the factors affecting reflection of sunlight by soils, the influence Knowledge of how surface roughness influences the reflectance of of w on albedo of rough soil surfaces is still poorly sunlight from cultivated soils is useful in various applications, such as estimating albedo values used as inputs to soil temperature models understood (Cresswell et...

To evaluate the sensitivity of high-throughput DNA sequencing for monitoring biowarfare agents in the environment, we analysed soil samples inoculated with different amounts of Bacillus atrophaeus, a surrogate organism for Bacillus anthracis. The soil samples considered were a poorly carbonated soil of the silty sand class, and a highly carbonated soil of the silt class. Control soil samples an...

An experimental study of the effect of silt and influence of cell confinement on the bearing capacity of circular footings on silty sand was carried out. Laboratory experiments on clean sand and sand containing silt up to 25 % were performed. Cells with different heights and diameters were used to confine the silty sand. The effect of proportion of silt in sand, cell diameter, cell height and t...

a r t i c l e i n f o Fragipans are dense subsurface soil layers that severely restrict water flow and root penetration. They are considered a pedogenic horizon, but their exact genesis is not well understood. In Soil Taxonomy (2010) a fragipan is defined as a layer that is at least 15 cm thick, contains a coarse structure, and is reversibly cemented. We examined 362 pedons with fragipans in th...

Leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) containing gasoline represent a significant public health hazard. Virtually undetectable to the UST owner, gasoline leaks can contaminate groundwater supplies. In order to develop remediation plans one must know the extent of gasoline contamination. Centrifugal simulations showed that in silty and sandy soils gasoline moved due to the physical process of...