potassium (k) is an element essential for plant growth, playing a significant role in physiological and biochemical processes in plant. the relationship between a soil testing extractant vs. plant nutrient uptake should be a determining parameter in the selection of a soil testing method. the objective of this study was to evaluate different extractants employed for extracting available k in 10...

We review various recent approaches to making digital soil maps based on geographic information systems (GIS) data layers, note some commonalities and propose a generic framework for the future. We discuss the various methods that have been, or could be, used for fitting quantitative relationships between soil properties or classes and their ‘environment’. These include generalised linear model...

Closed mines pose significant risks to the environment and human health. Uranium mine contamination of surface water, groundwater and soil have received moderate attention, but few studies have investigated dust transport of uranium. The latter has immediate implications for remediation efforts and environmental/human health regulators. Frequent dust storms intensify aeolian transport of uraniu...

In the present paper a geospatial analysis is performed to understand the meandering behaviour of Barak River in southern Assam between 1988 and 2010. Landsat images (with Thematic mapper and Enhanced thematic mapper-plus sensors) for years 1988, 1999, and 2010 are considered for the study. River Barak within the study area is digitized as polygons for three years and sinuosity index (SI) are c...

The US Forest Service adopted the National Hierarchical Framework of Ecological Units in 1993 with the ecological landtype (ELT) and ecological landtype phase (ELTP) forming the lowest levels of the hierarchy. This study examines the potential of computer mapping ELTPs for the Hoosier National Forest (HNF) located in southern Indiana. ELTPs were sampled in 2001–2003 within four units of the HNF...

The sugar-flotation-sieving (SFS) and Baermann-funnel (BF) methods were compared for nematode extraction efficiency. The SFS method recovered nematodes from more trophic groups whereas greater total numbers of individuals were recovered by BF. In a test to validate the efficiency of SFS, virtually 100% of the nematodes added to desert soil prior to extraction were recovered by four consecutive ...

Many subterranean, limbless reptiles and amphibians are predators of invertebrate soil ecosystem engineers. The potential importance of these predators in soil ecology partly rests on whether they occur in high densities, but their abundance has rarely been measured, and there are no standard methods. The mostly tropical and fossorial caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) are often considered rare...