Steep slopes consisting of disturbed soil are very often found in construction, landfill, and surface mining situations. Although legislation and economics dictate that vegetative cover be established on these slopes as rapidly as possible, the occurrence of large rainfall events during critical periods of vegetation establishment can frequently cause extensive soil loss. Sediment generated fro...

Introduction: Sulfate species were verified by Pathfinder in 1997 and more recently by the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). The best evidence for sulfates on Mars came from the Opportunity rover in Meridiani Planum, where data supporting the existence of Ca and Mg-sulfates were collected from alpha-proton X-ray spectroscopy and thermal emission spectroscopy [1,2]. Hyperspectral VNIR OMEGA images ...

The objective of the study was to provide a model to predict the uptake of arsenic and mercury by plants in response to coal combustion byproducts (CCB) application rates to soil, based on CCB/soil characteristics as determined by sequential extraction of the amended soil. Two greenhouse studies were conducted. The first study consisted of sorghum sudan grass, sunflower, and brake fern, an arse...

Sinkhole Flat, as the name suggests, is a region of relatively few features in southeastern New Mexico (Figure 1). There are a few arroyos and sinkholes. This study area is in the northern Chihuahuan Desert and plants are typical for this desert region which lies at about 1,000 meters elevation. The vegetation consists predominately of grasses, Opuntia, Yucca, Larrea, and Acacia. The caves at S...

White and black deposits have been frequently observed on the surface of Korean stone cultural heritages, and they are considered as damage factors in both conservation and esthetic points of view. In order to set up the appropriate conservation remedy, it is important to know their origins, characteristics, and compositions. In this study, optical and scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) equip...

The effect of gypsum on the physical and chemical characteristics of sodic soils is nonlinear and controlled by multiple factors. The support vector machine (SVM) is able to solve practical problems such as small samples, nonlinearity, high dimensions, and local minima points. This paper reports the use of the SVM regression method to predict changes in the chemical properties of sodic soils un...

The effects of particulate matter (PM) from diesel and leaded gasoline motor vehicles exhaust emissions on sulfation of granites, syenite and gabbro stones have been experimentally studied. Abundant gypsum crystals and corrosion features developed on stones covered with diesel PM (DPM) following 72 h exposure to 100 ppm SO2 at a relative humidity of 100%. In contrast, very small amounts of gyps...

Exotic species can threaten native ecosystems and reduce services that ecosystems provide to humans. Early detection of incipient populations of exotic species is a key step in containing exotics before explosive population growth and corresponding impacts occur. We report the results of the first three years of an exotic plant early detection and treatment program conducted along more than 3,0...