DNA is a valuable resource as a unique identifier of an individual’s dietary habits, sex, ancestry, and a variety of other characteristics. Due to a variety of factors that contribute to genetic decay, forensic and bioarchaeological investigators have limited outlets in which to extract viable DNA after most of the organic materials have fully decomposed. This preliminary research focused on ex...

To determine habitat attributes and processes suitable for the growth of Coccidioides, soils were collected from sites in Arizona, California, and Utah where Coccidioides is known to have been present. Humans or animals or both have been infected by Coccidioides at all of the sites. Soil variables considered in the upper 20 cm of the soil profile included pH, electrical conductivity, salinity, ...

Boreal peatlands play a crucial role in global carbon cycling, acting as an important carbon reservoir. However, little information is available on how peatland microbial communities are influenced by natural variability or human-induced disturbances. In this study, we have investigated the fungal diversity and community structure of both the organic soil layer and buried wood in boreal forest ...

The potential contamination of ancient residues from both modern plant sources and sediments adjacent to archaeological contexts can complicate interpretation in the field of starch grain analysis, thus affecting the sustainable use of the method in archaeobotany. In this study, we examined two potential sources of contamination at a wheat field in Shandong Province and a maize field in Beijing...

The buried China-Russia Crude Oil Pipeline (CRCOP) across the permafrost-associated cold ecosystem in northeastern China carries a risk of contamination to the deep active layers and upper permafrost in case of accidental rupture of the embedded pipeline or migration of oil spills. As many soil microbes are capable of degrading petroleum, knowledge about the intrinsic degraders and the microbia...

Plastic is exceedingly abundant in soils, but little known about its ecological consequences for soil microbiome functioning. Here we report the impacts of polyethylene and biodegradable Ecovio BI-OPL plastic films buried alpine soils 5 months on genetic potential using shotgun metagenomics. The was more affected by than polyethylene. Fungi, ?- ?-Proteobacteria dominated films. showed signs deg...

Buried landmines and unexploded remnants of war are a constant threat for the population many countries that have been hit by wars in past years. The huge amount casualties has strong motivation research community toward development safe robust techniques designed landmine clearance. Nonetheless, being able to detect localize buried with high precision an automatic fashion is still considered c...

The objectives of our study were to assess the feasibility of using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to study roots over a broad range of soil conditions in the southeastern United States. Study sites were located in the Southern Piedmont, Carolina Sandhills and Atlantic Coast Flatwoods. At each site, we tested for selection of the appropriate antenna (400 MHz versus 1.5 GHz), determined the abil...

The safety of lifelines, as the most important urban facilities, under different conditions highly depends on the safe design and performance of these buried structures. This cannot be achieved unless their actual behaviors are well understood and considered at the designing stage. A new physical model was developed in Amirkabir University of Technology to study the behavior of buried pipes und...