Search results for " soil"
showing 10 items of 774 documents
From pedologic indications to archaeological reconstruction: deciphering land use in the Islamic period in the Baida district (north-western Sicily)
2013
Abstract The aim of this work was to detect imprints on soil properties from former Islamic land use (9th to 11th century) using a multi-method, soil-chemical approach. Four soil profiles (with buried horizons) found in the vicinities of former Islamic settlements in Sicily were analysed for phosphorus (total, organic and inorganic), nitrogen (total, NO 3 − and NH 4 + ), carbon compounds (δ 13 C, lipids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and functional groups), physical and chemical C-fractions and the state of soil weathering. Two soil profiles contained ceramic sherds from the Islamic period. Inorganic nitrogen forms, phosphorous and the PAH content indicated strong impacts from trad…
Relief and calcium from gypsum as key factors for net inorganic carbon accumulation in soils of a semiarid Mediterranean environment
2021
Abstract In semiarid environments, the total inorganic carbon (TIC) in soil may contribute to the total carbon (C) pool more than the total organic C pool (TOC), thus playing a key role in storing atmospheric CO2. However, due to the different origin pathways of soil carbonates, not all of the TIC pool can be accounted for CO2 sequestration. Indeed, the inorganic C can be accounted for a net sink of CO2 only when calcium (Ca2+) forming carbonates originate from non-carbonate minerals (atmogenic inorganic C, AIC). The aim of this study carried out in a gypsiferous area is to investigate the dissolution of Ca2+ that comes from gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) in the formation of soil atmogenic carbonates …
Assessment of Organic Carbon Sequestration from Romanian Degraded Soils: Livada Forest Plantation Case Study
2022
To analyse the capacity of a soil to sequester organic carbon and the impact that deforestation and reforestation can have on its physical and chemical properties, specific laboratory analyses are necessary. According to a standard methodology, a number of 16 samples were taken from two different depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm) and from two different areas (degraded area and forest area) to identify if the type of land use and sampling depth are the key factors in changing the obtained values and also to prove the hypothesis according to which forest lands may have a higher carbon sequestration capacity. The highest value of soil organic carbon was identified in the forest area at a …
The Added-Value of Remotely-Sensed Soil Moisture Data for Agricultural Drought Detection in Argentina
2021
In countries where the economy relies mostly on agricultural-livestock activities, such as Argentina, droughts cause significant economic losses. Currently, the most-used drought indices by the Argentinian National Meteorological and Hydrological Services are based on field precipitation data, such as the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). In this article, we explored the performance of the satellite-based soil moisture agricultural drought index (SMADI) for agricultural drought detection in Argentina during 2010-2015, and compared it with the one from the standardized soil moisture anomalies (SSMA), SPI and SPEI (at on…
Differenziazione e quantificazione dei carbonati litogenici e pedogenici di Gypsisuoli forestali attraverso l'analisi isotopica
2004
Gli autori riferiscono sui tipi e sui modelli di genesi dei carbonati dei suoli, attraverso l’uso degli isotopi del 13C. Lo studio è stato condotto in un’area dell’interno collinare argilloso siciliano, su suoli che evolvono sui depositi evaporitici della Serie Gessoso-Solfifera. Sono stati scelti cinque pedon su litotipi calcarei e non. I pedon sono stati descritti in campo e campionati secondo la sequenza degli orizzonti genetici; sui campioni di suolo sono state eseguite le seguenti analisi: tessitura, reazione, conducibilità elettrica, gesso, carbonio organico ed inorganico. Inoltre, parallelamente sono state eseguite le analisi isotopiche del carbonio organico ed inorganico. I risultat…
Autocorrelation Metrics to Estimate Soil Moisture Persistence From Satellite Time Series: Application to Semiarid Regions
2021
Satellite-derived soil moisture (SM) products have become an important information source for the study of land surface processes in hydrology and land monitoring. Characterizing and estimating soil memory and persistence from satellite observations is of paramount relevance, and has deep implications in ecology, water management, and climate modeling. In this work, we address the problem of SM persistence estimation from microwave sensors using several autocorrelation metrics that, unlike traditional approaches, build on accurate estimates of the autocorrelation function from nonuniformly sampled time series. We show how the choice of the autocorrelation estimator can have a dramatic impac…
A new automated single ring infiltrometer for Beerkan infiltration experiments
2014
A new automated compact device was developed to collect data from single ring infiltration experiment. The infiltrometer consists of a containment ring in which a small quasi-constant head of water (i.e. a few mm) is maintained by a Mariotte reservoir and a very inexpensive data acquisition system, based on the open source microcontroller platform Arduino, and a differential pressure transducer. The design can easily be reproduced and operated. The infiltrometer was tested in a citrus orchard on a sandy loam soil. A simple methodology was applied for an accurate data acquisition from the initial stage of the process and to minimize the disturbance of the soil surface. A new approach to proc…
Testing a Simplified Approach to Determine Field Saturated Soil Hydraulic Conductivity
2013
Abstract Interpreting and simulating hydrological processes need a large number of field saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Kfs , data that should be collected with simple and rapid field experiments. A Simplified method based on a Beerkan Infiltration run (SBI method) was recently developed and tested successfully on Burundian soils. With the SBI method, a cylinder is inserted to a short depth into the soil and the infiltration time of a few small volumes of water repeatedly applied at the surface of the confined soil is measured. Calculating Kfs needs the slope of the linearized cumulative infiltration vs. time relationship and an estimate of the so called α* parameter. In this invest…
Large Blooms of
2018
ABSTRACT Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) account for a substantial portion of primary production in dryland ecosystems. They successionally mature to deliver a suite of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, water retention and nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. Biocrust assemblages are extremely well adapted to survive desiccation and to rapidly take advantage of the periodic precipitation events typical of arid ecosystems. Here we focus on the wetting response of incipient cyanobacterial crusts as they mature from “light” to “dark.” We sampled a cyanobacterial biocrust chronosequence before (dry) and temporally following a controlled wetting event and used high-throug…
Assessing, measuring and modelling erosion in calanchi areas: A review
2016
Calanchi are erosion landforms characterised by a heavily dissected terrain with steep, unvegetated slopes and channels with a dendritic pattern, which rapidly incise and extend headwards. Recent literature focusing on badland systems highlights their similarity with other larger fluvial landforms, stating that these behave as a full size laboratory, due to their rapid development in space and time and to the diversity of geomorphic processes involved. In this paper, a brief review of the most important results on badland research is firstly presented. Then, the morphometric similarity between calanchi and other erosion landforms is discussed. Finally, models quantitatively relating the vol…