Some of the factors that influence the persistence of pesticides are common to both plants and soils. These are, firstly, the characteristics of the pesticide, including its over-all stability either as parent compound or metabolites, its volatility, solubility, formulation, and the method and site of application. A second group includes the environmental factors, particularly temperature, prec...

Decomposition of organic material by soil microbes generates an annual global release of 50-75 Pg carbon to the atmosphere, ∼7.5-9 times that of anthropogenic emissions worldwide. This process is sensitive to global change factors, which can drive carbon cycle-climate feedbacks with the potential to enhance atmospheric warming. Although the effects of interacting global change factors on soil m...

BACKGROUND Soils are widely recognized as a non-renewable natural resource and as biophysical carbon sinks. As such, there is a growing requirement for global soil information. Although several global soil information systems already exist, these tend to suffer from inconsistencies and limited spatial detail. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We present SoilGrids1km--a global 3D soil information...

Heavy metals that contaminate soils and water usually exist in various oxidation states and form a number of compounds with different physical and chemical characteristics. These differences are often reflected in dramatic variation in toxicokinetic and biologic properties. Such variation in properties, critical in determining intrinsic toxicity, often causes a great deal of uncertainty in anal...

In recent years, continuing environmental problems associated with the use of nematicides (47) have introduced a sense of urgency into the search for alternative methods of nematode management. For the past 90 years, research on the biological control of nematodes with microbial agents has been done by a few dedicated nematologists who have worked in small groups with little support. About 10 y...

Repeated application of diazinon granules to the soil Surface of rice fields affected the development of a biological factor that caused rapid degradation of diazinon. This factor was present in the paddy water, in rhizosphere soil of the rice plant, and in nonrhizosphere soils. Isotope studies showed that when incubated with water from diazinon-treated fields, diazinon was hydrolyzed to 2-isop...

An artificial neural network (ANN) model was employed to predict the soil cohesion and soil internal friction angle. The soil samples were collected from different cultivated sites in seven regions in Saudi Arabia. Direct shear box method was used to determine soil cohesion and soil internal friction angle. The input factors to ANN model were soil dry density, soil moisture content and soil tex...

The occurrence of microbial enteropathogens in the environment can represent a serious risk to human health. The fate of enteropathogens introduced into the soil environment is dependent on a wide range of complex interacting environmental factors. While the effect of abiotic factors on enteropathogen survival has been widely examined, the interaction of enteropathogens with the soil microbial ...

The objective of this study was to explore the spatial variation of soil fertility quality and the influence factors of human land use and soil management practices on soil fertility quality in North China cities' urban fringe of Beijing using data for 2007 and grey relational analysis (GRA) and geographic information systems (GIS). Soil total nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium...