Wastewater sludges are used in agriculture as soil amendment and fertilizer, with regard to their organic matter and nutrient content. However, availability of nitrogen and phosphorus from sludge-amended soils and their transfer in runoff may lead to eutrophication of downstream surface water. The aim of this study is to establish and compare the effect of two different sludges on these transfe...

The sedimentation behavior of fine grained soil is largely dependent on its pore fluid chemistry. Physicochemical properties of the pore fluid, such as ionic strength and pH, could greatly influence the micro structure of kaolinite which in turn influences the sedimentation behavior. Other than ionic effect, adding fly ash can also cause different sedimentation behaviors due to the change of gr...

Soil is the sink and source of heavy metals (both geogenic and anthropogenic) and plants are the ecosystem regulators, balancing the chemistry of life on earth. However, roots are the only connection between soil and plants, which are the real engineers of ecosystem dynamics responsible for environmental balance and stability. The plant-soil interface termed as ‘rhizosphere’ is a typical zone o...

A precise, dual porous model of the void space of soil is presented, and used for the modelling of nitrification and denitrification. The model comprises a single critical percolation channel through a 5 cm stack of four unit cells of a previous dual-porous void structure model. The previous model closely reproduced the full water retention curve and macroand micro-porosities of an experimental...

BACKGROUND The determination of micro-, macroelements and heavy metals in the soil-grapevine-wine system is extremely important for the wine industry, the grape and wine quality, and also for consumer health. The quantitative analysis of 10 elements: Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ni, Co were made in soil at different depths and also in grapevines (leaves and canes). For grape juice and wine t...

AIMS A microcosm-enrichment approach was used to investigate bacterial populations that may represent 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D)-degrading micro-organisms in compost-amended soil. METHODS AND RESULTS After 8 weeks of incubation, with repeated application of 1,3-D, volatilization fluxes were much lower for compost-amended soil (CM) than with the unamended soils, indicating accelerated degrada...

Two types of Soil Vegetation Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) modeling approaches can be applied to monitor root-zone soil moisture in agricultural landscapes. Water and Energy Balance (WEB) SVAT modeling is based on forcing a prognostic root-zone water balance model with observed rainfall and predicted evapotranspiration. In contrast, thermal Remote Sensing (RS) observations of surface radiometric t...

An international inter-laboratory research program investigated the effectiveness of in situ remediation of soils contaminated by cadmium, lead and zinc, measuring changes in soil and soil solution chemistry, plants and soil microbiota. A common soil, from mine wastes in Jasper County MO, was used. The soil was pH 5.9, had low organic matter (1.2 g kg(-1) C) and total Cd, Pb, and Zn concentrati...

Streptomycetes and aerobic bacteria able to utilize cysteic acid and taurine as sole sources of energy, nitrogen and sulphur were isolated from soil materials. None of the isolated fungi did this. The bacterium which was used in most experiments grew on both compounds. The sulphur of the compounds was recovered as sulphate and most of the nitrogen as ammonia after breakdown by growing or pregro...