Soil classification systems organize soil variability into useful groupings that can be identified by field investigation and documented in soil survey, and form the basis for the exchange and extension of soil science research and soil resources management. Fuzzy clustering analysis may be used whenever a composite classification of soil incorporates multiple parameters. In this paper, seventy...

Management systems influence soil quality over time. A randomized block design in 2 (tillage system) 3 (crop rotation) factorial arrangement was laid-out to evaluate the impact of tillage and crop rotation (2002–2007) on soil quality. Conventional tillage and No-till were factored into continuous corn, corn–soybean, and corn–soybean–wheat–Cowpea systems. Ten soil cores were collected at 0–7.5, ...

Any release of anthrax spores in the U.S. would require action to decontaminate the site and restore its use and operations as rapidly as possible. The remediation activity would require environmental sampling, both initially to determine the extent of contamination (hazard mapping) and post-decon to determine that the site is free of contamination (clearance sampling). Whether the spore contam...

Models estimating surface energy fluxes over partial canopy cover with thermal remote sensing must account for significant differences between the radiometric temperatures and turbulent exchange rates associated with the soil and canopy components of the thermal pixel scene. Recent progress in separating soil and canopy temperatures from dual angle composite radiometric temperature measurements...

A cellulose-degrading composite microbial system containing a mixture of microbes was previously shown to demonstrate a high straw-degrading capacity. To estimate its potential utilization as an inoculant to accelerate straw biodegradation after returning straw to the field, two cellulose-degrading composite microbial systems named ADS3 and WSD5 were inoculated into wheat straw-amended soil in ...

Trenholm for their supportive efforts throughout this learning experience. I give special thanks to Dr. Shober, my committee chair, for her encouragement, direction and commitment. I am also appreciative to Gitta Shurberg for her assistance in the field as well as laboratory. Abstract. Urban soils have highly variable chemical, physical, and biological properties compared to undisturbed natural...

A synthesis of several approaches to quantifying land–atmosphere interactions is presented. These approaches use data from observations or atmospheric reanalyses applied to atmospheric tracer models and stand-alone land surface schemes. None of these approaches relies on the results of general circulation model simulations. A high degree of correlation is found among these independent approache...

Pilot studies have demonstrated the potential of remote sensing for soil organic carbon (SOC) mapping in exposed croplands. However, use SOC prediction is often hindered by disturbing factors at surface, such as photosynthetic active and non-photosynthetic vegetation, variation moisture or surface roughness. With increasing amount freely available satellite data, recent focused on stabilizing r...