Paddy rice fields occupy broad agricultural area in China and cover diverse soil types. Microbial community in paddy soils is of great interest since many microorganisms are involved in soil functional processes. In the present study, Illumina Mi-Seq sequencing and functional gene array (GeoChip 4.2) techniques were combined to investigate soil microbial communities and functional gene patterns...

Precipitation, evapotranspiration (ET), and soil moisture are the key controls for the productivity and functioning of temperate grassland ecosystems in Inner Mongolia, northern China. Quantifying the soil moisture dynamics and water balances in the grasslands is essential to sustainable grassland management under global climate change. We conducted a case study on the variability and character...

Characterization of decomposition dynamics of fine roots is essential for understanding vegetation–soil feedbacks and predicting ecosystem responses to future climate scenarios, given their more rapid turnover rates. Using a branch-order classification, we separated the fine root systems of Larix gmelinii into two classes: firstand second-order roots combined into one (lower-order); thirdand fo...

Arid soils in Egypt display large variability in solute transport properties, causing problems in soil management. To characterize this variability, dye infiltration experiments were conducted on four plots representing three main soil types in northeastern Egypt. The plots represented both cultivated and uncultivated land use. The observed dye patterns displayed a large variability and especia...

A classical transport experiment was performed in a field plot of 2.5 m2 using the dye tracer brilliant blue. The measured tracer distribution demonstrates the dominant role of the heterogeneous soil structure for solute transport. As with many other published experiments, this evidences the need of considering the macroscopic structure of soil to predict flow and transport. We combine three di...

In temperate European climates, soil water removal due to vegetation transpiration peaks in summer and soil rewetting from higher levels of precipitation occurs in winter. In clays of high plasticity, the seasonal cycles of drying and wetting cause the soil to experience a volumetric change, resulting in seasonal shrinking and swelling. For a clay slope exhibiting volume change, such behaviour ...

Pinus nigra and Robinia pseudoacacia are exotic trees used for afforestation in Hungary. Pinus nigrawas non-invasive, however R. pseudoacacia escaped from cultivation and invaded several vegetation types including pine plantations. It has recently been planned to cut P. nigra plantations and replace them by native tree stands, especially in nature reserves. The scattered presence of R. pseudoac...

In this paper, numerical analysis of a pile-soil interaction problem is presented considering the parameters influencing the axial load-deformation behavior of the pile embedded in a layered soil medium. The analysis is demonstrated with parametric solutions of a pile with underlain model soil strata under the axial force. An attempt is made to ascertain the extent of influence of elastic prope...