Matter turnover in soil is tightly linked to soil structure which governs the heterogeneous distribution of habitats, reaction sites and pathways in soil. Thereby, the temporal dynamics of soil structure alteration is deemed to be important for essential ecosystem functions of soil but very little is known about it. A major reason for this knowledge gap is the lack of methods to study soil stru...

Assessing the behaviour of organic chemicals in soil is a complex task as it is governed by the physical chemical properties of the chemicals, the characteristics of the soil as well as the ambient conditions of the environment. The chemical partitioning space, defined by the air-water partition coefficient (K(AW)) and the soil organic carbon-water partition coefficient (K(OC)), was employed to...

Pore-network models are attractive to relate pore geometry and transport processes in soil. In this contribution a `morphological path' is presented to generate a network model based on quantitative morphological investigations of the 3D pore geometry in order to predict soil hydraulic properties. The 3D-geometry of pores larger than 0.04 mm in diameter is obtained using serial sections through...

As part of a process to improve confidence in the results of regulatory modeling, predictions of the pesticide root zone model (PRZM) 3.12 were compared with measured data collected in nine different field leaching studies. Reasonable estimates of leaching were obtained with PRZM 3.12 in homogeneous soils where preferential flow is not significant. The PRZM 3.12 usually did a good job of predic...

A new simple shear apparatus is fabricated which is capable of applying monotonic and cyclic load on soil specimens. A series of tests was conducted to study the pore pressures (or suction), volume change, and shear behavior of the soil samples with anisotropic consolidation pressure. The simple shear apparatus is capable of controlling as well as measuring pore-air and pore-water pressure in t...

Several contrasting uses of the terms macro(large) and micro(small) pore can be identified in soil science literature. In some cases macropores are (i) considered to be pores > 15 (Marshall, 1959) or 100 /im in diam (Bouma et al., 1977) or (ii) implied to be even larger when described in terms of wormholes (Ehlers, 1975), root channels (Aubertin, 1971). and shrinkage cracks (Lewis, 1977). The s...

The objective of this study was to develop a method for measuring the mobility of persistent organic pollutants in the solid phase of soils within the context of environmental pollution risk assessment. A new diffusive probe, purposely designed by adapting the diffusive gradient technique method, measures labile organic species by immobilizing them after diffusion through a thin deionized water...

Self-similar fractals are useful models of the soil solid and pore sets along lines, across areas and inside volumes. The scaling properties of these sets, analysed by the divider method within the known scale range over which the fractal extends, were described by three parameters, the solid (Ds) and pore (Dp) linear box or capacity empirical fractal dimensions, and the total number of rulers ...

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are widely used for their antimicrobial activity and consequently the particles will become environmental contaminants. This study evaluated in sand and soil matrices the toxicity of 10nm spherical Ag NPs (1 and 3 mg Ag/L) toward a beneficial soil bacterium, Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6. In sand, both NP doses resulted in loss in bacterial culturability whereas in a...