SSS
Soil System Sciences

Archives / 2014 / September

A dark future sprouting from sealed soil

Every year in Europe, soils covering an area larger than the city of Berlin are lost to urban sprawl and transport infrastructure. This unsustainable trend threatens the availability of fertile soils and groundwater reservoirs for future generations. A new report made public today by the European Commission recommends a three-tiered approach focused on limiting the progression of soil sealing, mit ...[Read More]

Soils at Imaggeo: fall into litter

Antonio Jordán University of Seville, Spain Description Wet forest soil surface after a rainfall simulation experiment in Los Alcornocales Natural Park, southern Spain. When pores are saturated with water, rainfall does not infiltrate, but a dense litter layer may inhibit runoff for some time. About Imaggeo Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (an ...[Read More]

Soils at Imaggeo: Soil erosion-desertfication, Iceland

Picture by Ragnar Sigurdsson / Artic Images.com. Soil banks show the former appearance of areas with dwindling vegetation and soil cover. Higher resolution images available from rth@arctic-images.com (there is a licensing fee depending on the use). Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union.

Monday paper: Modelling microbial exchanges between forms of soil nitrogen in contrasting ecosystems

Pansu, M., Machado, D., Bottner, P., and Sarmiento, L.: Modelling microbial exchanges between forms of soil nitrogen in contrasting ecosystems, Biogeosciences, 11, 915-927, doi:10.5194/bg-11-915-2014, 2014. The questions It is well known that N and C combine to form organic molecules due to biological processes, although they come together from different pathways. C is extracted from carbon dioxid ...[Read More]