Soil aggregate stability is an important indicator for controlling soil losses and can improve soil quality, particularly in an area such as the Loess Plateau. The objective of this study was to estimate the differences in soil aggregates across six different land-use systems (grassland, apple orchard, abandoned apple orchard, cropland maize, cropland wheat, and shrub-grassland). For this purpo...

Atrazine is a widely used herbicide and is often a contaminant in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. It is uncertain, however, how the activity of soil macrofauna affects atrazine fate and transport. Therefore, we investigated whether earthworms enhance atrazine biodegradation by stimulating herbicide degrading soil microflora, or if they increase atrazine persistence by facilitating herbic...

The kinetics of mixed Ni-Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) precipitate formation on a soil clay fraction was monitored using X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. The kinetic behavior was monitored at pH 6.0, 6.8, and 7.5 in order to determine the effect of reaction pH on precipitate formation. XAFS analyses were performed on a Ni-reacted whole soil at pH 7.5 to determine the eff...

I N T R O D U C T I O N T h e s t u d y o f c lay f o r m a t i o n i n soils m a y b e d i v i d e d i n t o t h r e e p a r t s : (1) a q u a n t i t a t i v e e v a l u a t i o n o f t h e a m o u n t o f c lay f o r m e d f r o m a g i v e n a m o u n t o f p a r e n t m a t e r i a l , (2) a q u a l i t a t i v e e v a l u a t i o n of t h e k i n d o f m i n e r a l s a n d o t h e r s u ...

In 2002, the Biscuit Wildfire burned a portion of the previously established, replicated conifer unthinned and thinned experimental units of the Siskiyou Long-Term Ecosystem Productivity (LTEP) experiment, southwest Oregon. Charcoal C in pre and post-fire O horizon and mineral soil was quantified by physical separation and a peroxide-acid digestion method. The abrupt, short-term fire event caus...

We investigated the effect of leaf litter on below ground carbon export and soil carbon formation in order to understand how litter diversity affects carbon cycling in forest ecosystems. 13C labeled and unlabeled leaf litter of beech (Fagus sylvatica) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior), characterized by low and high decomposability, were used in a litter exchange experiment in the Hainich National Pa...

Soil organic C content, a major source of system stability in agroecosystems, is controlled by many factors that have complex interactions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the major controls over soil organic carbon content, and to predict regional patterns of carbon in range and cultivated soils. We obtained pedon and climate data for 500 rangeland and 300 cultivated soils in the U.S...