Search results for "SOIL"
showing 10 items of 3493 documents
Unraveling biotic interactions determining soil microbial community assembly and functioning
2019
National audience; Microbial communities are at the heart of all ecosystems and yet, a sound understanding of the ecological processes governing the assembly of these communities in the environment is missing. To address the role of biotic interactions in assembly and functioning of the soil microbiota, we used a top down manipulation approach based on the removal of various populations in a natural microbial community. Suspensions of the soil microbiota were subjected to various biocidal and filtration treatments before being inoculated into the same sterilized soil. We hypothesized that if biotic interactions are an important shaping force of the microbiota assembly, removal of microbial …
Effects of stump removal on soil decomposer communities in undisturbed patches of the forest floor
2011
Soil preparation after clear-cutting leads to fragmentation of forest floor and, consequently, changes the habitat of decomposers. Stump removal for bioenergy is further increasing the disturbance in the soil. We studied responses of decomposers to stump removal in boreal spruce forests during the first 4 years after clear felling in relation to mounding. Samples for each decomposer organism group were taken from undisturbed forest floor patches that are the main habitat for decomposers after forest regeneration and whose amount and size obviously differ between the treatments. Microbial biomasses and community structure, and the abundance of enchytraeids, were not found to be affected by t…
Impact Assessment of Skidding Extraction: Effects on Physical and Chemical Properties of Forest Soils and on Maple Seedling Growing along the Skid Tr…
2019
Several studies investigated soil disturbances caused on skid trails by forest logging. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about the severity and the distance of disturbances along both sides from the trails. The aims of this study were: i) to investigate the changes in physical and chemical properties of soil along the sides of skidding trails
A New Wireless Device for Real-Time Mechanical Impact Evaluation in a Citrus Packing Line
2020
Abstract. Postharvest handling of fresh fruit is a potential source of bruising and damage, with significant consequences for fruit quality and marketability. In the last 30 years, different types of impact-recording devices (also called electronic fruits or pseudo-fruits) have been developed with the aim of measuring the impacts experienced by fruits during postharvest operations. The aim of this study was to develop and test a novel wireless instrumented sphere to study the critical points in a citrus packing line by measuring the impacts experienced by fruits in real-time. The non-commercial device was based on a MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) sensor node with a sensing range fro…
The history of human-induced soil erosion: Geomorphic legacies, early descriptions and research, and the development of soil conservation—A global sy…
2013
Abstract This paper presents a global synopsis about the geomorphic evidence of soil erosion in humid and semihumid areas since the beginning of agriculture. Historical documents, starting from ancient records to data from the mid-twentieth century and numerous literature reviews form an extensive assortment of examples that show how soil erosion has been perceived previously by scholars, land surveyors, farmers, land owners, researchers, and policy makers. Examples have been selected from ancient Greek and Roman Times and from central Europe, southern Africa, North America, the Chinese Loess Plateau, Australia, New Zealand, and Easter Island. Furthermore, a comprehensive collection on the …
Vineyard design supported by GPS application
2021
The innovative technologies of precision agriculture offer nowadays new applications in line with the needs of the wine sector. In hillside viticulture, within the same plot there are areas with different physical and chemical characteristics (lying, pH, active limestone, nutrients, etc.). This variability consequently influences the vigor of the vine which translates into a different production per single plant in terms of both yield and quality of the grapes. The aim of this study was to realize geo-referenced thematic maps by GPS application on a hilly plot covering about 6 hectares to be planted in a hedgerow trained vineyard for the production of quality grapes. The experimental tests …
Perfluorinated Compounds Distribution and Source Identification in Sediments of Lake Victoria Gulf Basin
2011
Perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate were determined in the sediments from Winam Gulf, which is in the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria and in its source rivers. The sources of perfluorinated compounds within the Gulf of Lake Victoria have been identified and their levels determined for the first time, in this study, using SPE and HPLC-MS-MS analytical methodology. Variability in the concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate ranged from 1.4–99.1 and <1–57.5 ng/g in river sediments, respectively, which was higher than concentrations obtained from lake sediments (range perfluorooctanoic acid <1–24.1 ng/g and perfluorooctane sulfonate <1–4.0 ng/g). The …
Spatial homogeneity from temporal stability: Exploiting the combined hyper-frequent revisit of Terra and Aqua to guide Earth System Science
2021
Abstract The terrestrial component of the Earth system has witnessed considerable changes in the past decades due to anthropogenic action. Throughout this period, the NASA Terra mission has been constantly monitoring the surface with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. When combined with the MODIS instrument on-board of the Aqua platform, we obtain a hyper-frequent revisit capability providing sub-daily observations globally at a moderate resolution of ~250 m, but with a strong multi-angular variation of the observation footprint. Here we propose to exploit this particular configuration provided by the combined Terra + Aqua constellation to infer spatial ho…
Effects of passive and active modified atmosphere packaging conditions on quality parameters of minimally processed table grapes during cold storage
2015
BACKGROUND: Table grape is a non-climacteric berry, sensitive to water loss and gray mold during postharvest storage. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of passive and active modified atmosphere packaging on quality parameters of minimally processed table grapes. METHODS: 'Red Globe' minimally processed table grapes were dipped in a sodium hypochlorite solution and irradiated with ultraviolet-C, before being packaged in a rigid polypropylene boxes, sealed with a micro perforated polypropylene film (PP) or a continuous polyethylene film, with: a) 5% O2 + 15% CO2 + 80% N (PET1); b) 20% CO2 + air (PET2). Samples were stored at 5°C for 21 days plus and additional 6-day period at 20°C to simulate s…
The effect of Shallow Tillage on soil erosion in a semi-arid vineyard
2019
Soil erosion has been considered a threat for semi-arid lands due to the removal of solid materials by water and wind. Although water erosion is currently considered the most important process of soil degradation, a growing interest has been drawn to the impact of soil tillage. Although numerous studies on tillage erosion have been carried out on arable land using a moldboard plow, a chisel, and a tandem disc for different crops, there are no studies on the effect of shallow tillage on soil redistribution in vineyards. The aim of this work was to evaluate the soil tillage erosion rate in a vineyard using a 13C natural abundance tracer. A strip of soil (C3-C soil) was removed, mixed with C4-…