Search results for "Parent material"
showing 10 items of 11 documents
Effects of parent material on soil erosion within Mediterranean new vineyard plantations
2018
[EN] Parent material can determine specific physical and chemical soil properties and, therefore, soil erosion rates. However, for new vine plantations, there is not enough research on soil erosion assessment on different parent materials which could be helpful for agricultural management plans. The main aim of this research was to quantify soil erosion rates of two recent vineyard plantations under similar climate and land use management conditions, but on different parent materials, namely colluvium (2 years old) and marls (8 years old), located within the Les Alcusses valley vineyards in Eastern Spain. To achieve this goal, the ISUM (improved stock unearthing method) was applied. ISUM in…
Transparent and sustainable materials
2013
The search for greater transparency in buildings characterizes the current architectural scenario: the use of glass is more and more common in both the design of new buildings and for renovation. However, the design of the transparent part of the building envelope is critical to the achievement of efficiency and sustainability. There are several research companies that aim to improve the energy performance especially of the glass. Today there is a wide range of products capable of providing different solutions, depending on the aesthetic and technical requirements of the structure in question. The aim of this article is to provide a clear overview of the possibilities of the transparent mat…
Plant Growth Along the Altitudinal Gradient — Role of Plant Nutritional Status, Fine Root Activity, and Soil Properties
2008
In tropical montane forests, aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP ) usually decreases with increasing altitude. Besides low photosynthesis (Kitayama and Aiba 2002) and direct impact of low temperatures on plant growth (Hoch and Korner 2003), low ANPP at high altitudes has often been attributed to nutrient limitation (Bruijnzeel et al. 1993; Bruijnzeel and Veneklaas 1998; Tanner et al. 1998). Plant growth is often correlated with nutrient availability in tropical montane forests. For example, the exceptionally high tree stature in a montane forest stand in Papua New Guinea was attributed to its nutrient rich soil parent material (Edwards and Grubb 1977). In montane forests of Jamaica (…
The use of transparent insulating materials in low energy consumption buildings, trough the study of thermal and optical behaviour
2006
This article discusses the use of innovative transparent materials in residential buildings with low energetic consumption and describes a simulation of their performance during winter. The behaviour of these materials was studied both from a thermic point of view and from the point of view of the quality of daylight illumination To simulate the behaviour of these materials, we used different forecasting software to measure and, at the same time, analyse their luminosity, their thermal characteristics and the resulting energy saving. The results show a considerable saving in energy even in terms of the greater economic investment needed for the installation of these innovative surfaces. Res…
Chemical weathering of volcanic rocks at the island of Pantelleria, Italy: Information from soil profile and soil solution investigations
2007
Abstract Concentrations of major, minor and trace elements were determined in soil profiles and soil solutions from the island of Pantelleria, Sicily Channel, to evaluate the weathering extent of soils evolved on trachytic and pantelleritic rocks and the aqueous transport of elements by their soil solutions. The chemical index of alteration (CIA) indicates a low-to-moderate degree of weathering; consistently, the mineralogical and geochemical imprints of the parent rocks are generally preserved. The chemical weathering appears to be incongruent, owing to primary minerals and glass dissolving to a variable degree while secondary minerals have formed. Based on the calculated saturation state …
Clay minerals, oxyhydroxide formation, element leaching and humus development in volcanic soils
2008
Aweathering sequence with soils developing on volcanic, trachy-basaltic parent materials with ages ranging from 100–115,000 years in the Etna region served as the basis to analyse and calculate the accumulation and stabilisation mechanisms of soil organic matter (SOM), the transformation of pedogenic Fe and Al, the formation and transformation of clay minerals, the weathering indices and, by means of mass-balance calculations, net losses of the main elements. Although the soils were influenced by ash depositions during their development and the soil on the oldest lava flow developed to a great extent under a different climate, leaching of elements and mineral formation and transformation co…
Influence of parent material and soil use on arsenic forms in soils A case study in the Amblés Valley (Castilla-León, Spain)
2014
Abstract The total, water soluble and extractable concentrations with EDTA of As from topsoils from the Ambles Valley (Avila, Spain) were determined. The geochemical baseline concentrations of total As were established, and the relationships between the concentration of the different As forms and soil properties were investigated. Total As content in soils was related with parent material, whereas anthropogenic activities affected its mobility. Iron, aluminium, clay content, soil organic matter and soil pH were the main controlling factors for As soil concentrations. The geochemical baseline concentrations obtained (mg kg − 1 ) were 7.3–35 in soils on granite parent material and 2.2–6.8 in …
Over-estimation of efficiency of weathering in tropical “Red Soils”: its importance for geoecological problems
2000
Abstract Weathering and soil formation rates are regarded as the main criteria of a tolerable soil loss. The efficiency of weathering in the seasonal semiarid tropics has often been greatly over-estimated especially in the geomorphologic literature in which weathering is assumed to be as fast or even faster than surface erosion. Six selected “Red Soils” in two intramontane basins of hyperthermic SW Nepal near the border with India, with 1500–1750 mm annual rainfall (5 humid months), and a “Black Soil” near Baroda, Gujarat, India (3–4 humid months) were studied mineralogically. Two of the “Red Soils” have TL ages between 10 and 30 ka, the “Black Soil” has one of about 10 ka. The yellowish si…
Soil Heavy Metals Patterns in the Torino Olympic Winter Games Venue (E.U.)
2008
International audience; The city of Torino (45°N, 7°E NW Italy) has a long history of heavy industry. Additional sources of potential pollutants originate from transport such as car emissions. We selected an area potentially at high risk of contamination: it is sandwiched between roads, the circular Turin highway and the motorway which connects to France, and a landfill where special and hazardous solid wastes from industry are disposed of. Our main aim was i) to discriminate between these sources of heavy metals (HM) and ii) to assess a simplified HM transfer scenario. We started with air diffusion models (inputs were meteo and chemistry of the particulate), then we described topsoils (12 …
Soil forming factors
2007
The Russian geologist Vasily Dokuchaev (1846–1903), considered the father of soil science, was the first to identify and discuss, at the end of 19th century, what we know today as the “factors of soil formation”. He introduced the idea that soil is not something inert and stable, but it develops and evolves under the influence of climatic agents and vegetation that operate over time on a given geological substrate