Stabilization of organic matter in soil is important for natural ecosystem to sequestrate carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emission. It is largely unknown what factors govern the preservation of organic carbon in soil, casting shadow on predicting the response of soil to climate change. Iron oxide was suggested as an important mineral preserving soil organic carbon. However, ferric minerals a...

Despite baboons' widespread distribution across Africa, geophagy among all subspecies has been poorly documented. We used video camera traps and soil analyses to investigate geophagy in chacma baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) inhabiting the Western Cape of South Africa. During an 18-month study, from August 2009 to January 2011, we continually monitored the largest and most frequently visit...

Nontronites are the ferric members of dioctahedral smectites, most of which are structural counterparts of beidellite (Brindley, 1980). The existence of a cont inuous b e i d e l l i t e n o n t r o n i t e series was suggested on the basis of chemical analyses by Ross & Hendricks (1945). However, a nontronite with montmorillonitic structure has been described by KSster (1982). Minor amounts of...

Iron (Fe) minerals and ferrous iron (Fe(II)) play an important role in the several natural elemental cycles, including the carbon cycle, nutrient cycles, and the cycling of metals. In this work we have characterized the reactivity structural Fe(II) in several Fe minerals and in natural soil with uranium. We have studied the reactivity of Fe(II) in solution with the Fe oxide goethite conditions ...

Exact estimates of soil clay (<2 μm) and silt (2-20 μm) contents are crucial as these size fractions impact key soil functions, and as pedotransfer concepts based on clay and silt contents are becoming increasingly abundant. We examined the effect of removing soil organic matter (SOM) by H2O2 before soil dispersion and determination of clay and silt. Soil samples with gradients in SOM were retr...

understanding the plant species diversity could be used as an importantindicator applied for the natural areas management. the aim of this study was toinvestigate the relationships between soil characterizes with distribution and diversity ofplant in vegetation types in karvan district (located in west of isfahan province). for thispurpose, three vegetation types were selected as follows: scari...

In Asia, more than 2000 million people obtain their 60–70% calories from a wide variety of rice cultivars and its products (Lin et al. 2011). The chemical composition of rice grain varies widely, depending on variety, soil and environment. Brown rice is the name given to dehusked paddy which retains the embryo and bran layers of the grain. Brown rice is rich in fibres, minerals, vitamins and ph...

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a soil-dwelling bacterium and the cause of melioidosis, which kills an estimated 89,000 people per year worldwide. Agricultural workers are at high risk of infection due to repeated exposure to the bacterium. Little is known about the soil physicochemical properties associated with the presence or absence of the organism. Here, we evaluated the soil physicochemical ...