Search results for "soil"
showing 10 items of 3493 documents
Impact of reforestations with exotic and native species on water repellency of forest soils
2017
Forest duff layer is usually water repellent due to the hydrophobic organic compounds resulting from degradation of tree tissues. Transition from hydrophobic to wettable conditions, or vice versa, is largely controlled by water content. The objective of this investigation was to assess the influence of soil moisture on the degree of soil water repellency (WR) in exotic and native tree forests. Occurrence of WR was investigated by the water drop penetration time (WDPT) and the ethanol percentage (EP) tests. Sampling was conducted in the forest soils of two exotic species (Pinus pinaster, P, and Eucaliptus camaldulensis, E), used in the past for reforestation, and two native species (Quercus …
Water erosion prediction by stochastic and empirical models in the Mediterranean: A case study in Northern Sicily (Italy)
2012
The present thesis aimed to explore the methodological advantages as well as limitations in applying different modelling approaches to predict water soil erosion in Mediterranean environments. The research was accomplished in the central northern part of Sicily (Italy), considering this region to be representative of Mediterranean environmental conditions. In this region soil degradation problems, due to water erosion are becoming more and more serious. Consequently, defining models being able to predict erosion susceptibility and to discriminate environmental factors causing erosion is important to protect soil resources. The prediction of the spatial distribution of soil erosion processes…
Transcriptome analysis of Pseudomonas mediterranea and P. corrugata plant pathogens during accumulation of medium-chain-length PHAs by glycerol bioco…
2017
Pseudomonas corrugata and P. mediterranea are soil inhabitant bacteria, generally living as endophytes on symptomless plants and bare soil, but also capable of causing plant diseases. They share a similar genome size and a high proteome similarity. P. corrugata produces many biomolecules which play an important role in bacterial cell survival and fitness. Both species produce different medium-chain-length PHAs (mcl-PHAs) from the bioconversion of glycerol to a transparent film in P. mediterranea and a sticky elastomer in P. corrugata. In this work, using RNA-seq we investigated the transcriptional profiles of both bacteria at the early stationary growth phase with glycerol as the carbon sou…
Post-fire practices benefits on vegetation recovery and soil conservation in a Mediterranean area
2021
Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG. [Abstract] Post-fire practices (PFP) aim to reduce soil erosion and favour vegetation recovery, but their effectiveness is spatially heterogeneous and under debate because of the economic and environmental costs. This study evaluates the different changes (Δ) of canopy cover (CC), sediment connectivity (SC) and local topography in four areas affected by the Pinet fire in eastern Spain (August 8th, 2018) and managed with: totally burnt with tree removal and long log erosion barriers (LEBs) (Pinet-1), partially burnt without PFP (Pinet-2), totally burnt with tree removal and short LEBs (Pinet-3), and totally burnt wit…
Soil Water Content Assessment: Critical Issues Concerning the Operational Application of the Triangle Method
2015
Knowledge of soil water content plays a key role in water management efforts to improve irrigation efficiency. Among the indirect estimation methods of soil water content via Earth Observation data is the triangle method, used to analyze optical and thermal features because these are primarily controlled by water content within the near-surface evaporation layer and root zone in bare and vegetated soils. Although the soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer theory describes the ongoing processes, theoretical models reveal limits for operational use. When applying simplified empirical formulations, meteorological forcing could be replaced with alternative variables when the above-canopy temperatu…
Surface soil humidity retrieval by means of a semi-empirical coupled SAR model
2010
In the last years, the availability of new technologies of Earth Observation encouraged researches to use integrated approaches for environmental monitoring. Even for agro-hydrological applications, remotely sensed data are available on wide areas allowing the retrieval of cost-effective and representative estimation of high spatial and temporal variability of the soil-vegetation system variables. In particular, soil water content plays an important role determining the partition of precipitation between surface runoff and infiltration and, moreover, influences the distribution of the incoming radiation between latent and sensible heat flux. As a consequence, distributed soil water content …
Surface soil humidity retrieval using remote sensing techniques: a triangle method validation
2010
Soil humidity plays a key-role in hydrological and agricultural processes. In the rainfall-runoff processes the knowledge of its spatial distribution is fundamental to accurately model these phenomena. Furthermore in agronomy and agricultural sciences, assessing the water content of the root zone is required in order to optimize the plant productivity and to improve the irrigation systems management. Despite the importance of this variable the in situ measurements techniques based on Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) or on the standard thermo-gravimetric methods, are neither cost-effective nor representative of its spatial and temporal variability. Indirect estimations via Earth Observation (…
A carbon sink-driven approach to estimate gross primary production from microwave satellite observations
2019
Abstract Global estimation of Gross Primary Production (GPP) - the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide by plants through photosynthesis - is commonly based on optical satellite remote sensing data. This presents a source-driven approach since it uses the amount of absorbed light, the main driver of photosynthesis, as a proxy for GPP. Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) estimates obtained from microwave sensors provide an alternative and independent data source to estimate GPP on a global scale, which may complement existing GPP products. Recent studies have shown that VOD is related to aboveground biomass, and that both VOD and temporal changes in VOD relate to GPP. In this study, we build upon…
Carbon dioxide diffuse emission and thermal energy release from hydrothermal systems at Copahue-Caviahue Volcanic Complex (Argentina)
2015
Fil: Chiodini, Giovanni. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Bologna. Bologna, Italia. Fil: Cardellini, Carlo. Università degli Studi di Perugia, Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia. Perugia, Italy. Fil: Lamberti, María C. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Estudios Andinos. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fil: Agusto, Mariano. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Estudios Andinos. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fil: Caselli, Alberto Tomás Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología. Río Negro. Argentina. Fil: Liccioli, Caterina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Estudios Andinos. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fil: Tambure…
Do soils exist outside Earth?
2010
Abstract On Earth, soils form thanks to the combined action of at least five factors: parent rock, climate, topography, biota, and time. However, the necessity of biota as unavoidable soil forming factor is debated, as important parts of our planet experiencing extreme climates host virtually life-free soils with advanced horizonation. Now that space exploration has greatly expanded our understanding of the Solar System, providing consistent evidences that the loose, unconsolidated "skin" of some nearby rocky bodies is lifeless, it is time to establish if the latter can be considered to be soil in a pedological sense. Our feeling is that, since the concept of soil chiefly bases on the occur…