Stochastic modeling of soil water fluxes in the absence of measured hydraulic parameters requires a knowledge of the expected istribution of the hydraulic parameters in different soil types. Predictive relationships describing the hydraulic parameter distributions must be developed based on the common descriptors of the physical properties of soils (e.g., texture, structure, particle size distr...

This article examines the impact of rice–wheat, maize–wheat and cotton–wheat cropping systems on total (TOC), labile stable organic carbon (C) pools, aggregate stability distribution C in different size aggregates mineral fraction (silt + clay) soil. The rice–wheat soils had significantly (p < .05) lower TOC concentration (4.46 ± 0.15 g kg−1) compared with other two systems. Similarly, water-ex...

There is ample evidence about the impact of land-use and climatic variables such as temperature and precipitation on the biogeochemical cycling of organic carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) in terrestrial ecosystems. However, although sulfur (S) is one of the essential nutrients for plant growth, the impact of these factors on soil organic S (SOS) forms has received little attention. The ...

Soil microcosms were inoculated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 to test persistence in fallow soil, on roots of cover crops and in presence of manure. In fallow soils, E. coli O157:H7 persisted for 25-41 days, on rye roots for 47-96 days and on alfalfa roots, in a silt loam soil, for 92 days whereas on other legumes persistence ranged from 25-40 days, similar to fallow soil. Manure did not seem t...

Batch experiments were conducted to study the sorption of uranium (U) onto soil in deionised water as a function of its dosage, temperature and humic acid (HA). Furthermore, soils were characterized for particle sizes in the form of sand (>63 µm), silt (>2-<63 µm) and clay (<2 µm). The textural analysis revealed that soils were admixture of mainly sand and silt along with a small abundance of c...