Soil Systems, Volume 3, Issue 1

The Tri-State Mining District (TSMD) of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma was a world class zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) producer. Mining ceased in the 1950s, leaving behind a large amount of mine wastes. Although much of the affected areas have been remedia...

Plastic is an anthropogenic, ubiquitous and persistent contaminant accumulating in our environment. The consequences of the presence of plastics for soils, including soil biota and the processes they drive, are largely unknown. This is particularly t...

Aluminum (Al) oxides are important adsorbents for phosphate in soils and sediments, and significantly limit Phosphate (P) mobility and bioavailability, but the speciation of surface-adsorbed phosphate on Al oxides remains poorly understood. Here, pho...

The spatial structure of the habitat for plant communities based on soil functions in virgin forest-steppe of the Central Russian Upland is the focus of this study. The objectives include the identification of the leading factors of soil function var...

The phototransformation of carbaryl was investigated upon solar light exposure on three surfaces, silica, kaolin and sand, as soil models. By excitation with a Suntest set up at the surface of the three solid supports, the degradation of carbaryl fol...

Soil function assessments (SFA) are becoming increasingly important as a tool to integrate soil-related issues in decision-making processes in order to maintain soil quality. We present the SEPP (Soil Evaluation for Planning Procedures) tool, which c...

Aglime (agricultural lime), commonly applied to acid soils to increase the soil pH and productivity, may lead to the release of CO₂ into the atmosphere or to carbon (C) sequestration, although the processes involved are not fully understood. As large...

It has become common practice in soil applications of biochar to use ground and/or sieved material to reduce particle size and so enhance mixing and surface contact between soils and char particles. Smaller particle sizes of biochars have been sugges...

Understanding the NH₃ exchange between forest ecosystems and the atmosphere is important due to its role in the nitrogen cycle. However, NH₃ exchange is dynamic and difficult to measure. The goal of this study was to characterize this exchange by mea...

Land degradation, particularly soil erosion, is currently a major challenge for Nepal. With a high rate of population growth, subsistence-based rural economy, and increasingly intense rainfall events in the monsoon season, Nepal is prone to several f...

Abandoned mine lands continue to serve as non-point sources of acid and metal contamination to water bodies long after mining operations have ended. Although soils formed from abandoned mine spoil can support forest vegetation, as observed throughout...

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is emerging as a rapid and cost-effective alternative to routine laboratory analysis for many soil properties. However, it has primarily been applied in project-specific contexts. Here, we provide an assessment...

Soil fluxes of CO₂ (F_s) have long been considered unidirectional, reflecting the predominant roles of metabolic activity by microbes and roots in ecosystem carbon cycling. Nonetheless, there is a growing body of evidence that non-biological processes...

Biochar application to soil has been proposed as a means for reducing soil greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. The effects, however, of interactions between biochar, moisture and temperature on soil CO₂ and N₂O emissions, remain p...

Rigorous peer-review is the corner-stone of high-quality academic publishing [...]

Terrestrial consumption of the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH₄) is a critical aspect of the future climate, as CH₄ concentrations in the atmosphere are projected to play an increasingly important role in global climate forcing. Anaerobic oxidation...

The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an excellent channel to demonstrate the significance of soils when considering e.g., food production, water availability, climate mitigation and biodiversity preservation. For envir...

Soil CO₂ efflux (F_soil) is a major component of the ecosystem carbon balance. Globally expansive semiarid ecosystems have been shown to influence the trend and interannual variability of the terrestrial carbon sink. Modeling F_soil in water-limited ec...

Methane (CH₄) oxidation is an important process for regulating CH₄ emissions from peatlands as it oxidizes CH₄ to carbon dioxide (CO₂). Our current knowledge about its temporal dynamics and contribution to ecosystem CO₂ fluxes is, however, limited du...

A novel patented method (PCT/IB2012/001157: Squartini, Concheri, Tiozzo, University of Padova) and the corresponding application devices, suitable to measure soil fertility, are presented. The availability or deficiency of specific nutrients for crop...

Wet organic-rich mineral and peat soils in the tropical Andes represent a potentially significant, but little studied, source of methane to the atmosphere. Here we report the results of field and laboratory measurements of soil–atmosphere metha...

Hydroxyl radical (•OH) is produced in soils from oxidation of reduced iron (Fe(II)) by dissolved oxygen (O₂) and can oxidize dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to carbon dioxide (CO₂). Understanding the role of •OH on CO₂ production in soils re...