there are human and animal health concerns related to drainage systems because nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, can contaminate water supplies. a field study was conducted on consolidated paddy fields of sari agricultural sciences and natural resources university, northern iran (36.3°n, 53.04°e), to determine the effect of subsurface drain depth and spacing on nitrogen (n) and pho...

Our understanding of the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2, singly and in combination with other environmental changes,on plant-soil interactions is incomplete. Elevated CO2 effects on C4 plants, though smaller than on C3 species, are mediated mostly via decreased stomatal conductance and thus water loss. Therefore, we characterized the interactive effect of elevated CO2 and drought on soil m...

Soil health, along with water supply, is the most valuable resource for humans, as human life depends on the soil’s generosity. Soil degradation, therefore, poses a threat to food security, as it reduces yield, forces farmers to use more inputs, and may eventually lead to soil abandonment. Unfortunately, the importance of preserving soil health appears to be overlooked by policy makers. In this...

Ecologically based farming conserves and improves the soil resource and protects environmental quality by using organic or natural resources without the application of synthetic chemicals. Soil quality assessment indicates the ability of management systems to optimize soil productivity and to maintain its structural and biological integrity. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of ecologica...

This document proposes changes to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) to better acommodate soils dominated by technic material. It is the second draft, aiming at the revision of the WRB to be submitted at the 2006 International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) meetings. Three new definitions are proposed: – Artifacts are defined as solid or liquid material created by humans as part o...

Soil and landform information is needed for a wide range of applications but available data are often inaccessible, incomplete, or out of date. Within the European FP7 project ‘e-SOTER’, following recognised harmonisation principles, we developed an XML schema to serve as an exchange format for soil and terrain data derived from e-SOTER methodologies (SoTerML). It encompasses existing SOTER dat...

The last decade has seen a growing and renewed interest regarding anthropogenic soils which owe their dominant characteristics to past land management practices. These soils, besides being of particular pedological interest, are also of high archaeological significance given the high density of sites which frequently occurs on them. According to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, anth...

Managers reduce piñon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) trees that are encroaching on sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) communities to lower fuel loads and increase cover of desirable understory species. All plant species in these communities depend on soil water held at . 1.5 MPa matric potential in the upper 0.3 m of soil for nutrient diffusion to roots and major growth in spring (resource g...