Gamma spectrometric measurements were obtained for the agricultural soils aiming at characterizing the spatial distribution of radionuclide concentrations (K, eU and eTh), as well for the samples of phosphatic fertilizers and agricultural gypsum. In the study areas, three types of soils occured: Eutrophic Red Nitosol (Alfisoil), Eutroferric Red Latosol of clayey texture (Oxisoil) and Dystrophic...

Title of Thesis: ENVIRONMENTAL FATE OF POLYBROMINATED DIPHENYL ETHERS IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS WHICH HAVE RECEIVED BIOSOLIDS APPLICATION Natasha Almeida Andrade, Master of Science, 2008 Directed By: Professor Alba Torrents Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Dr. Laura McConnell U.S. Department of Agriculture Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are used as additives in consumer...

19 Phosphorus (P) losses from agricultural soils constitute a main driver for eutrophication of the 20 Baltic Sea. There is limited knowledge about sorption and release processes of P in these soils, 21 especially concerning the effects of fertilization. In this study, P speciation of the clay fractions 22 from six different soils in long-term fertility experiments in Sweden was investigated by...

Intensive crop production involves a high consumption of pesticides. This is a cause of major environmental concern because the presence of pesticides in water is becoming increasingly common. Physicochemical methods based on soil modification with organic residues have been developed to enhance the immobilization and/or degradation of pesticides in agricultural soils, which may control both th...

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent of cadmium (Cd) contamination in agricultural soil and its potential risk for people. Soils, rice, and vegetables from Chenzhou City, Southern China were sampled and analyzed. In the surface soils, the 95% confidence interval for the mean concentration of Cd varied between 2.72 and 4.83 mg/kg (P < 0.05) in the survey, with a geometric mean conc...

The aim of the studies was to compare the composition of soil bacterial metabiomes originating from urbanized areas and areas con¬taminated with hydrocarbons with those from agricultural soil and forest soil obtained from a protected wild-life park area. It should be noted that hydrocarbons are everywhere therefore bacteria capable of their utilization are present in every soil type. In the hyd...

Agriculture is facing a major challenge nowadays: to increase crop production for food and energy while preserving ecosystem functioning and soil quality. Argentine Pampas is one of the main world producers of crops and one of the main adopters of conservation agriculture. Changes in soil chemical and physical properties of Pampas soils due to different tillage systems have been deeply studied....

the mobility and bioavailability of trace elements in the agricultural soils are extremely important in assessing the risk of toxicity to the growing plants. a five step sequential extraction procedure (sep) has been employed to study the speciation of as, sb, cr, cu, cd, pb, zn, ni, fe and mn in 18 soil samples neighboring an industrial complex in isfahan, central iran. enrichment factor (ef) ...

In the year 2000 the occurrence of Azotobacter spp. in 31 Polish soils was examined and results of this study were compared with those published by Ziemięcka for 28 soils analysed in 1917-18. Almost 52% of the soils tested in 2000 were colonised by Azotobacter spp. indicating that intensification of agricultural practices that took place during the past century has not significantly changed (50...

There have been no published performance evaluations of nongovernmental, voluntary habitat stewardship programs. The Operation Burrowing Owl (OBO) stewardship program, initiated in 1987, was evaluated for its effectiveness in conservation of grassland habitat during 1986-1993. The 108 OBO sites from 1987 to 88 and 98 randomly selected non-OBO sites that were grassland in 1986 in the Regina-Weyb...