Matthew J. Helmers, associate professor, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University; Xiaobo Zhou, assistant scientist, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University; Heidi Asbjornsen, associate professor, Natural Resource and the Environment, University of New Hampshire; Randy Kolka, soil scientist, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station; Mark D. Tom...

Contributions in the field of soil chemistry have immensely benefited humankind, including enhanced agricultural production and the quality of our environment. This review focuses on research breakthroughs since the mid-1970s and delineates frontiers in soil chemistry for the upcoming decade. However, early contributions in ion exchange, sorption phenomena, and soil acidity are highlighted. Beg...

Determining how an organism responds to its environment by altering gene expression is key to understanding its ecology. Here, we used RNA-seq to comprehensively and quantitatively assess the transcriptional response of the bacterial opportunistic cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogen and endemic soil dweller, Burkholderia cenocepacia, in conditions mimicking these 2 environments. By sequencing 762 mil...

The role of plant intraspecific variation in plant-soil linkages is poorly understood, especially in the context of natural environmental variation, but has important implications in evolutionary ecology. We utilized three 18- to 21-year-old common gardens across an elevational gradient, planted with replicates of five Populus angustifolia genotypes each, to address the hypothesis that tree gen...

Microbes are the key components of the soil environment, playing important roles during soil development. Soil parent material provides the foundation elements that comprise the basic nutritional environment for the development of microbial community. After 30 years artificial maturation of cultivation, the soil developments of three different parental materials were evaluated and bacterial com...

With development of modern geoscience, particularly of environmental sciences, the contemporary soil science is undergoing great changes in both research contents and scope. Soil is not only a certain substance or a certain independent natural historical body, but also a spheric layer with peculiar structure and functions in the earth system. From the viewpoint of the geo-biosphere system of th...

Many aspects of plant water use -- particularly in response to soil drought -- may have as their basis the alteration of hydraulic conductance from soil to canopy. The regulation of plant water potential (Psi) by stomatal control and leaf area adjustment may be necessary to maximize water uptake on the one hand, while avoiding loss of hydraulic contact with the soil water on the other. Modellin...

residues on the soil surface to retard soil erosion, insulate the soil, and conserve soil moisture. This residue consists of leaves, leaf sheaths, ear husks, and stalks of corn that decompose very slowly on the soil surface. The relationship of surface residue to corn diseases can be divided into two categories: (1) a source of inoculum of disease-causing organisms, and (2) environment modifica...

Soil contamination is a worldwide problem. Soil remediation is often carried out to reduce the risks posed by contaminants in the soil to human health and environment. Contaminant concentration is typically the only soil quality aspect maintained in remediation projects. However, emerging regulatory requirements on soil protection has introduced the soil function concept and demand that other c...