Clay content (fraction < 2 μm) is one of the most important soil properties. It controls soil hydraulic properties like wilting point, field capacity and saturated hydraulic conductivity, which in turn control the various fluxes of water in the unsaturated zone. In our study site, the Kairouan plain in central Tunisia, existing soil maps are neither exhaustive nor sufficiently precise for water...

Newly reclaimed areas cover several patches over different regions of Egypt, which have different specific characteristics related to climate, soils, hydrology, etc... . The mechanical farm, which extends over 10,000 feddans fares from south of Alexandria by 62 Km, could be considered one of the most important reclaimed areas at West of Nubaria affected by degradation due to water logging. The ...

Tracking the presence, distribution and disappearance of biological soil crusts is important for ecosystem management of desert regions and provides highly valuable information on desertification and climate change studies in arid environments. Based on the analysis of the spectral features of biological soil crusts, we propose a new biological soil crust index (BSCI) for biological soil crusts...

Soil science is a relatively new discipline which has mainly developed since the 1880s. It uses terms, methods and processes borrowed from other basic disciplines like climatology, geology, chemistry, physics and biology, but with a direct application to soils. At present, it is difficult to speak about one single science but as soil sciences, as they cover several fields including: pedology (o...

Tropical peatlands store a significant portion of the global soil carbon (C) pool. However, tropical mountain peatlands contain extensive peat soils that have yet to be mapped or included in global C estimates. This lack of data hinders our ability to inform policy and apply sustainable management practices to these peatlands that are experiencing unprecedented high rates of land use and land c...

SSSAJ: Volume 75: Number 3 • May–June 2011 Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 75:1044–1053 Published online 26 Apr. 2011 doi:10.2136/sssaj2010.0002 Received 1 Jan. 2010. *Corresponding author ([email protected]). © Soil Science Society of America, 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison WI 53711 USA All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic o...

Liquefaction is one of the most determinant factors in the collapse of transportation infrastructures. This is especially true for roads and railroads located on saturated, fine-sand substrates under seismic conditions. The damage and human casualties resulting from liquefaction highlight the importance of understanding and mapping this phenomenon. Soil liquefaction occurs as a natural hazard i...

Desertification refers to land degradation phenomenon in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting from various factors including climate variation and human activities. For evaluation and mapping of desertification many research have been conducted leading to regional and local models. In this research, among different existing methods IMDPA‌ was selected and desertification intensity...

fying landscape attributes which are believed to contain similar soils (Hudson, 1992). “Landscape position” can The key Soil Taxonomy is based upon the idea that certain properbe considered to be a geographic approach to classificaties can be used to define populations of soils from the soil continuum. tion, in which combinations of surficial and stratigraphic The soil mapping paradigm is that ...

mapping based on total concentrations of micronutrients may be useful in fertility management including fertilizer and/or wastewater application. the aims of this work were to (1) investigate the spatial distribution of total concentrations of copper (cu), zinc (zn), manganese (mn) and iron (fe); (2) to select the suitable spatial estimator; and (3) to understand the effect of wastewater irriga...