Macrobenthic polychaetes play a significant role in marine benthic food chain. A study was carried out to observe the abundance and diversity of soft bottom macrobenthic polychaetes along the South Indian coast, along with observations on sediment characteristics. The present study indicated an increase in the polychaete diversity as compared to earlier reports. Sixty-three different forms of p...

In this study, we examined the influence of different nitrogen (N) application rates (0, 168, 240, 270 and 312 kg N ha(-1)) on soil properties, maize (Zea mays L.) yields and microbial communities of three types of soils (clay, alluvial and sandy soils). Phospholipid fatty acid analysis was used to characterize soil microbial communities. Results indicated that N fertilization significantly dec...

Fluctuations in numbers of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii and its bacteriophages in two fields with different soil types were followed during a 17-month period in 1981 and 1982. Mean levels of both phage and rhizobia varied significantly (P < 0.05) on different occasions, with rhizobial levels varying from 1.6 x 10 to 2.0 x 10 cell per g of soil and phage from 0 to 1.7 x 10 PFU/g of so...

Two anomalous, gray, silty clay beds are present in ODP cores collected from Saanich Inlet, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The beds, which date to about 10,500 C yr BP (11,000 calendar years BP), contain Tertiary pollen derived from sedimentary rocks found only in the Fraser Lowland, on the mainland of British Columbia and Washington just east of the Strait of Georgia. Abundant ill...

This study investigates the effect of conventional tillage and application of the monoculture of sugar cane on soil health. Variables like density, moisture, texture, consistency limits, and preconsolidation stress were taken as indicators of soil quality. The measurements were made at a 120 × 120 m field cropped with sugar cane under conventional tillage. The objective of this work was to char...

State regulatory agencies set standards for minimum lot size for homes on onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) based on the expected nitrogen (N) load to groundwater. However, the data to support these standards are sparse. In a recent field study on a clay soil, we developed a two-dimensional model for N treatment. Our objective was to use this model to predict the N treatment for 12 soi...

Sodic soil is one of the most common problems of limiting agricultural production that related on irrigation. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is one of hydrodynamic characteristics in evaluating transmission flow through underground levels. To investigate the role of increment of exchangeable sodium in hydraulic conductivity changes (as characterized by the mobility of water in soil) an experi...

The mass attenuation coefficients (μs) for five different soil samples were measured at 661.6, 1173.2 and 1332.5 keV photon energies. The soil samples were separately irradiated with (137)Cs and (60)Co (370 kBq) radioactive point gamma sources. The measurements were made by performing transmission experiments with a 2″ × 2″ NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, which had an energy resolution of 7% at...