The thermal conductivity of dry soils is related closely to air pressure and the contact areas between solid particles. In this study, the thermal conductivity of two-phase soil systems was determined under reduced and increased air pressures. The thermal separation of soil particles, i.e., the characteristic dimension of the pore space (d), was then estimated based on the relationship between ...

Anthropogenic changes are altering the environmental conditions and the biota of ecosystems worldwide. In many temperate grasslands, such as North American tallgrass prairie, these changes include alteration in historically important disturbance regimes (e.g., frequency of fires) and enhanced availability of potentially limiting nutrients, particularly nitrogen. Such anthropogenically-driven ch...

considerable information exists in the literature showing that expansive layer silicates are not the only clay minerals present in vertisols. however, the presence of a very high clay content dominated by fine clay, regardless of the clay type, together with the wetting and drying cycle in the soil can also produce a high shrink-swell potential. we studied some vertisols with diverse parent mat...

We developed a soil temperature model to predict hourly temperatures at the litter-soil interface and at soil depths of 0.10 m, 0.20 m, and 1.25 m in hardwood forest stands with closed canopies. The model, which was written in BASIC on a microcomputer, uses a numerical solution for the partial differential heat-flow equation. Litter-soil interface temperature was predicted from air temperature ...

Soil temperature controls plant growth and many related processes in the soil. A mulch or crop residue covering the soil may alter soil temperatures significantly. Available simulation models often lack experimental data for the mulch thermal conductivity and its dependence on air velocity. The apparent thermal conductivity (k) of wheat straw, pine straw, tire chips, dry sandy soil, and the the...

To assess a species' vulnerability to climate change, we commonly use mapped environmental data that are coarsely resolved in time and space. Coarsely resolved temperature data are typically inaccurate at predicting temperatures in microhabitats used by an organism and may also exhibit spatial bias in topographically complex areas. One consequence of these inaccuracies is that coarsely resolved...

The aquatic ecotoxic profile of the fungicide pyrimethanil and its acute and chronic thermal dependence in two aquatic invertebrates Chironomus riparius and Daphnia magna were investigated. The ecotoxicity of pyrimethanil at optimal thermal conditions did not depend on the trophic level, but was species-specific. The acute pyrimethanil-toxicity on C. riparius increased with higher temperature. ...

This paper reviews existing studies and investigates thermal operational regimes of diamond bit during drilling operations. The operating temperature of the diamond core drill is studied under bench condition and an optimal thermal range are presented. Based on this study, it was noted that glazing of diamond tools is observed at temperatures less than 327°C, and normal wear of diamond tools is...