Soil is one of the most important natural resources covering a large area of the land surface. Soil plays a vital role in biosphere processes, such as energy balance, hydrology, biochemistry, and biological productivity. It supports plants that supply foods, fibers, drugs, and some other human needs. Conversely, desert regions include about one third of earth lands and these regions have increa...

Relatively little is known about the fixed NH4-N status of soils in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) but information is needed in view of its role in N cycling and the N economy of the soils. The distribution of fixed NI-L-N and C/N ratios of soil profiles from two benchmark Vertisols and one Alfisol in the Indian SAT were studied. From 15.9 to 58.6% of the total soil N was present as fixed NHa-N in...

counties (Torrent et al., 1980), and in soils formed in late The morphologic development of soils on marine terraces is a function of terrace age and geomorphic evolution. In this study, inter­ relationships between terrace landscape evolution and pedogenic sil­ ica cementation were investigated. Soil morphology, micromorphol­ ogy, selective dissolution, penetration resistance, and hydraulic co...

Soil degradation implies a decline in the capacity of the soil to perform environmental regulatory functions and yield agricultural goods. Soils are affected by regressive and/or degradative evolution processes as a result of natural causes as well as anthropogenic influences in semi-arid regions such as Central Spain. The main aim of this work is to evaluate the capacity of hyperspectral HyMap...

this study investigated the relationship between clay minerals and different soil moisture regimes in gypsiferous soils of fars province in southern iran. the overall climate of the province is arid and semi-arid and, under this condition, parent material is the most important factor affecting clay minerals distribution. beside this factor, climate conditions have determining role too. palygors...

In this study we tested the feasibility of the thermal infrared (TIR) wavelength region (within the atmospheric window between 8 and 11.5 μm) together with the traditional solar reflective wavelengths for quantifying soil properties for coarse-textured soils from the Australian wheat belt region. These soils have very narrow ranges of texture and organic carbon contents. Soil surface spectral s...

Ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) drive nitrification and their population dynamics impact directly on the global nitrogen cycle. AOA predominate in the majority of soils but an increasing number of studies have found that nitrification is largely attributed to AOB. The reasons for this remain poorly understood. Here, amoA gene abundance was used to study the distribution of AO...

Najafi-Ghiri M., Abtahi A. (2013): Potassium fixation in soil size fractions of arid soils. Soil & Water Res., 8: 49–55. Amounts of potassium (K) fixed in soil fractions of 10 calcareous soils of southern Iran were measured to evaluate the contributions of different soil size fractions to K fixation. Soil particles were fractionated after dispersion of the soils with an ultrasonic probe. Potass...

The taxonomic position of a group of mesophilic actinomycetes isolated from arid Australian soils was determined using a polyphasic approach. The organisms shared chemical and morphological markers typical of members of the genus Amycolatopsis. They had identical 16S rRNA gene sequences and formed a distinct phyletic line in the Amycolatopsis mediterranei clade, being most closely related to A....