In this paper, the results of an experiment carried out for exploiting the capabilities of X-band Cosmo-SkyMed data in the monitoring of soil and vegetation characteristics are summarized. SAR data have been collected in two agricultural areas in Italy and compared with ground truth measurements of soil and vegetation parameters. A rather good sensitivity to vegetation features, biomass and the...

We studied controls on nitrification in an undisturbed water-limited ecosystem by inhibiting autotrophic nitrifying bacteria in soils with varying levels of vegetative cover. The activity of nitrifying bacteria was disrupted using nitrapyrin, 2-chloro-6-(trichloromethyl)-pyridine, under field conditions in three microenvironments (underneath shrubs, next to grasses and in bare soil). Ammonia-ox...

Maintaining ground cover of forages may reduce the export of nitrogen (N) from pastures. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of ground cover on N export from pastured riparian areas receiving simulated rainfall. Plots were established on two adjacent sites in the North Carolina Piedmont: one of 10% slope with Appling sandy loam soils and a second of 20% slope with Wedowee san...

The purpose of this paper is the capacity of spectral reflectance, in the full optical domain 0.4 – 12.0 m, to retrieve the Soil Moisture Content (SMC) of bare soils. Indeed, the knowledge of surface soil moisture is a key point for many applications like trafficability after flood, ground – atmosphere exchanges and plant good health. Hyperspectral image acquisitions (narrow spectral bands and ...

Plant soil specialists contribute greatly to global diversity; however, the ecoevolutionary forces responsible for generating this diversity are poorly understood. We integrate molecular phylogenies with descriptive and experimental ecological data, creating a powerful framework with which to elucidate forces driving soil specialization. Hypotheses explaining edaphic specialization have histori...

This chapter presents an environmental application of DSmT for the land cover prediction. The spatial prediction of land cover at the field scale in winter is useful to reduce the bare soils in agricultural intensive regions. Fusion process with the Dempster-Shafer theory (DST) proved to have limitations with the increase of conflict between the sources of evidence that support land cover hypot...

Dr. Daniel G. Aldrich, Jr.— first Chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, since January 19, 1962. Responsible for developing the campus from bare ground to a fully operating institution. Dr. Aldrich joined the University of California as a junior chemist in the Citrus Experiment Station at Riverside in 1943. Following three years of service in the armed forces during World War II, h...

shrublands (Elkins et al., 1986; Lyford and Qashu, 1969; Wainwright et al., 2000), mesquite rangelands (Wood In semiarid environments, vegetation affects surface runoff either and Blackburn, 1981), and piñon-juniper rangelands in by altering surface characteristics (e.g., surface roughness, litter absorption) or subsurface characteristics (e.g., hydraulic conductivity). the USA (Roundy et al., ...