The ever increasing use of mobile phones constantly connected to the internet is bring on a new era in scientific research called crowdsourcing. On Wikipedia crowdsourcing is the defined as the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community. In recent years social media is being used as a re ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Monday paper: Interplay of riparian forest and groundwater in the hillslope hydrology of Sudanian West Africa (northern Benin)
Richard, A., Galle, S., Descloitres, M., Cohard, J.-M., Vandervaere, J.-P., Séguis, L., and Peugeot, C. 2013. Interplay of riparian forest and groundwater in the hillslope hydrology of Sudanian West Africa (northern Benin), Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 17, 5079-5096. DOI: 10.5194/hess-17-5079-2013. Abstract Forests are thought to play an important role in the regional dynamics of the West A ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Soil color never lies
Often, soil color is described using general terms such as “brown”, “red”, “dark”, etc. When I talk about this issue for the first time with my students of Soil Science, I use to ask them how to describe the color of a soil sample. Normally, in a few seconds, I get a list of color names ranging from dark brown to bright red, including “chocolate”, “coffee” and “ ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
The Fire Research Institute, more than three decades of Fire Science
Jason Greenlee jasongreenlee@hotmail.com The Fire Research Institute (FRI) was founded in 1983 as a non-profit organization with the lofty goal of promoting world peace through fire science. The concept was stolen from Richard Nixon, who, you will remember, opened up relations between the US and China by sending a ping-pong team to visit China. I thought that more scientific interaction between na ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Monday paper: A dual isotope approach to isolate soil carbon pools of different turnover times
Torn, M. S., Kleber, M., Zavaleta, E. S., Zhu, B., Field, C. B., and Trumbore, S. E. 2013. A dual isotope approach to isolate soil carbon pools of different turnover times. Biogeosciences, 10, 8067-8081. DOI: 10.5194/bg-10-8067-2013. Abstract Soils are globally significant sources and sinks of atmospheric CO2. Increasing the resolution of soil carbon turnover estimates is important for predicting ...[Read More]
Seismology
Job opportunity with EGU
The EGU is seeking to appoint a Communications Officer to work with the EGU Media and Communications Manager in maintaining and further developing media- and science-related communications between the EGU and its membership, the working media, and the public at large. The Communications Officer will also work under the direction of the EGU Executive Secretary on activities related to the promotion ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Seminar series: Applied Earth Observation Techniques for Archaeology and the Environment
These seminars aim to explore and promote the use of Earth Observation (EO) techniques for different aspects of archaeological and paleoenvironmental research, including prospection/detection, classification, mapping and modeling. The variety of EO-related topics that will be presented in these seminars reflects some of the current trends in remote sensing applications in archaeological contexts. ...[Read More]
Seismology
Have you been drinking Guinness for St Patrick’s?
Yesterday was St Patrick’s day, celebrated world wide, probably with a pint of Guinness. Perhaps while sipping down a pint you may have wondered why do bubbles in Guinness sink? Here is one-of-a kind paper that discusses just this! They concluded that the flow in a glass of stout depends on the shape of the glass. If it narrows downwards (as the traditional stout glass, the pint, does), the ...[Read More]
Seismology
Join Google Earth Engine at EGU 2014
This year, in addition to having an exhibit booth at European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU GA), Google Inc will be hosting a side event on Google technologies for working with geophysical data. A special workshop themed Google Geo for Research and Higher Education Workshop, will be held in Vienna during the week of the annual EGU GA. This free workshop is intended for scientists, resear ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Monday paper: Biological and physical influences on soil 14CO2 seasonal dynamics in a temperate hardwood forest
Phillips, C. L., McFarlane, K. J., Risk, D., and Desai, A. R. 2013. Biological and physical influences on soil 14CO2 seasonal dynamics in a temperate hardwood forest. Biogeosciences, 10, 7999-8012. DOI: 10.5194/bg-10-7999-2013. Abstract While radiocarbon (14C) abundances in standing stocks of soil carbon have been used to evaluate rates of soil carbon turnover on timescales of several years to cen ...[Read More]