Global deserts occupy one-third of the Earth's surface and contribute significantly to organic carbon storage, a process at risk in dryland ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to climate-driven ecosystem degradation. The forces controlling desert ecosystem degradation rates are poorly understood, particularly with respect to the relevance of the arid-soil microbiome. Here we document correlat...

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a greenhouse gas produced during microbial transformation of soil N that has been implicated in global climate warming. Nitrous oxide efflux from N fertilized soils has been modeled using NO3 K content with a limited success, but predicting N2O production in non-fertilized soils has proven to be much more complex. The present study investigates the contribution of soil am...

This paper reviews the main methodologies and techniques that have been used to characterize gypsum in soils, especially in gypsiferous soils of semiarid and arid regions and range from the identification of gypsum in soil surveys in the field to the study of gypsum in the laboratory. Many methods of gypsum identification and determination have been developed, each one with its own limitations....

[1] Understanding climate, vegetation, and soil controls on recharge is essential for estimating potential impacts of climate variability and land use/land cover change on recharge. Recharge controls were evaluated by simulating drainage in 5-m-thick profiles using a one-dimensional (1-D) unsaturated flow code (UNSAT-H), climate data, and vegetation and soil coverages from online sources. Soil ...

Methanogenesis is traditionally thought to occur only in highly reduced, anoxic environments. Wetland and rice field soils are well known sources for atmospheric methane, while aerated soils are considered sinks. Although methanogens have been detected in low numbers in some aerated, and even in desert soils, it remains unclear whether they are active under natural oxic conditions, such as in b...

the need to understand the nature of organic P in these soils. The organic P composition of semi-arid arable soils is largely unSoil organic P determination has traditionally been known, but such information is fundamental to understanding P dynamics in irrigated agriculture. We used solution 31P nuclear magnetic hampered by difficulties with the extraction, separation resonance (NMR) spectrosc...

Salinization is the accumulation of water-soluble salts in the soil solum or regolith to a level that impacts on agricultural production, environmental health, and economic welfare. Salt-affected soils occur in more than 100 countries of the world with a variety of extents, nature, and properties. No climatic zone in the world is free from salinization, although the general perception is focuse...

Soils of the Solonetzic Order account for about 7% of the agricultural land in Western Canada. They are most common in semi-arid regions (the Brown and Dark Brown soil zones) but occur as well in the Aspen Parkland and even under forest. They occur on parent materials containing sodium salts, or in lowland areas influenced by ground water discharge. Solonetzic soils are often referred to as cla...