The influence of pH on the sorption of pentachlorophenol (PCP) onto three organic amendments, char, humic acid (HA) and peat, and the effect of organic amendments on PCP sorption to three kinds of soils were evaluated. The sorption of PCP on these sorbents fitted the Freundlich model well, suggesting that PCP sorption isotherms were nonlinear with exponential coefficient (N) value lower than 1....

Chlor-alkali plants are known to be an important source of Hg emissions to the atmosphere and related contamination of soils in their vicinity. In the present study, the results of Hg speciation and mobility of Hg in soils affected by Hg emissions from three chlor-alkali plants are compared. Solid phase mercury speciation analyses was carried out using a mercury-thermo-desorption technique with...

Histosols (also known as organic soils, mucks, or peats) are soils that are dominated by organic matter (OM > 20%) in half or more of the upper 80 cm. Forty two states have a total of 21 million ha of Histosols in the United States. These soils, when intensively cropped, are subject to wind erosion resulting in loss of crop productivity and degradation of soil, air, and water quality. Estimatin...

Dense hyphal mats formed by ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi are prominent features in Douglas-fir forest ecosystems, and have been estimated to cover up to 40% of the soil surface in some forest stands. Two morphotypes of EcM mats have been previously described: rhizomorphic mats, which have thick hyphal rhizomorphs and are found primarily in the organic horizon, and hydrophobic mats, which occur i...

Although soils are considered as major carbon stores, rapid oxidation of soil organic carbon can contribute to CO2 evolution and global warming on a large scale. Generally, microbial and climatic factors are thought to be mainly responsible for such oxidative losses. Another probable factor is photodegradation by sunlight. Cultivated soils of the tropics are left barren for a greater part of th...

Phosphorus (P) speciation in 21 basaltic and four non-basaltic Irish grassland soils was determined by NaOH–EDTA extraction and P NMR spectroscopy. Organic P in basaltic soils ranged between 30 and 697 mg P kg 1 and consisted of phosphate monoesters (84–100%), DNA (0–16%) and phosphonates (0–5%). Inorganic P was mainly phosphate (83–100%) with small concentrations of pyrophosphate (0–17%). Phos...

In order to determine the impact of forest conversions on labile organic carbon fractions, soils at depths of 0 10, 10 30 and 30 50 cm were collected from three types of forest: secondary monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest (BF), mixed pine and broadleaved forest (MF) and Masson pine forest (PF) in subtropical China. The light fraction organic carbon (LFOC), particulate organic carbon (POC) an...

High-organic (mucky) mineral soils make a small proportion of the Canadian agricultural land but are highly productive, especially for organic farming. Although these high-quality soils may release large amounts of nitrate and phosphate to the environment, there is yet no reliable agro-environmental indicator for managing N and P compared to the adjacent mineral and organic soils. Our objective...

Herbicides are the main type of pesticides causing water contamination. The chloroacetanilide herbicide Smetolachlor is frequently detected in ground and surface waters, and represents a potential source of water pollution. The addition of organic residues to soils to reduce losses of organic pollutants constitutes sometimes an efficient method to control contamination. One of the recent techno...