Microplastics in terrestrial ecosystem: Exploring the menace to the soil-plant-microbe interactions

Microplastics (MPs), miniscule plastic particles measuring less than 5 mm in size, have become a concern in terrestrial ecosystems, with primarily agricultural and wetland soils being the soils with highest plastic loadings. The adverse effect of MPs might lead to changes in physicochemical and biological characteristics of soil including...

Effects of fir-wood biochar on CH4 oxidation rates and methanotrophs in landfill cover soils packed at three different proctor compaction levels

Application of biochar to landfill cover soils can purportedly improve methane (CH4) oxidation rates, but understanding the combined effects of soil texture, compaction, and biochar on the activity and composition of the methanotrophs is limited. The amendment of wood biochar on two differently textured landfill cover soils at three compaction...

Review of Large-Scale Biochar Field-Trials for Soil Amendment and the Observed Influences on Crop Yield Variations

Increasing pressure on farming systems due to rapid urbanization and population growth has severely affected soil health and fertility. The need to meet the growing food demands has also led to unsustainable farming practices with the intensive application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in significant greenhouse gas...

Determining soil moisture and soil properties in vegetated areas by assimilating soil temperatures

This study addresses two critical barriers to the use of Passive Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) for large-scale, high-resolution monitoring of soil moisture. In recent research, a particle batch smoother (PBS) was developed to assimilate sequences of temperature data at two depths into Hydrus-1D to estimate soil moisture as well as...

A conceptual framework for shear flow–induced erosion of soft cohesive sediment beds

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for erosion of cohesive sediment beds. We focus on cohesive beds, distinguishing between floc erosion, surface erosion, and mass erosion. By (our) definition, surface erosion is a drained soil mechanical process, whereas mass erosion occurs under undrained conditions. The eroding shear stress is modeled...

Electromagnetic soil properties variability in a mine-field trial site in Cambodia

In this paper, the characterization of the electromagnetic soil properties of a blind lane used in a trial for a dual-sensor mine detector is presented. Several techniques are used and are compared here; Time Domain Reflectometry, gravimetric techniques and Frequency Domain Reflection and Transmission methods. The derived soil properties are...

The reliability of global estimation of dynamic properties