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. …[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
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 dioxide in the atmosphere and used to …[Read More]
Lightening the clay (II)
According to the previous post, tetrahedral and octahedral sheets combine to form layers, and we can find two main types of clay structures: structure 1:1 (one tetrahedron sheet and one octahedral sheet) and 2:1 (two tetrahedral sheets and one octahedral sheet). The basic structure of clays is this: Substitutions between cations may occur in the tetrahedral and octahedral …[Read More]
Connecting European connectivity research (COST Action ES1306)
Saskia Keesstra E-mail: saskia.keesstra@wur.nl Deputy President of the Soil System Sciences Division of the European Geosciences Union Why connecting connectivity research? Successful prediction of pathways of storm runoff generation and associated soil erosion is of considerable societal importance, including off-site impacts such as water quality and the provision of related ecosystem services. Recently, the role of connectivity …[Read More]
Lightening the clay (I)
“The more any indivisible exceeds, the heavier it is”. Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BC). What is clay? Clays are particles. Very, very small mineral particles. You cannot see them, you cannot handle them… but unity makes strength. Clays are one of the major mineral components of the soil, whose chemical and physical properties …[Read More]
Monday paper: Use of phytoremediation and biochar to remediate heavy metal polluted soils: a review
Paz-Ferreiro, J., Lu, H., Fu, S., Méndez, A., and Gascó, G.: Use of phytoremediation and biochar to remediate heavy metal polluted soils: a review, Solid Earth, 5, 65-75, doi:10.5194/se-5-65-2014, 2014. Soil heavy metal pollution Due to increased extraction and use by various industries, heavy metals come easily to the environment in various ways. Unlike organic substances, heavy metals can not …[Read More]
Mediterranean Environmental Research Group (GRAM)
By Marc Oliva The Mediterranean Environmental Research Group, (GRAM) from the University of Barcelona has over 20 years of working experience in the field of the effects of forest fires on soil properties. In 1998 the doctoral thesis entitled “Fire effects on soil properties, the role of fire intensity” carried out by Xavier Úbeda …[Read More]
Google Scholar metrics for soil science journals
The 2014 version of Google Scholar Metrics has been just published. The ranking is arranged according to each journal’s h5-index and h-median metrics. The 2014 edition is based on citations of all articles indexed in Google Scholar until mid-June 2014 and covers articles published between 2009-2013, both inclusive. The ranking also includes lists for publications in …[Read More]
Notes on the Short Course on Forest Fire Effects on Soil Properties (EGU2014)
SSS10.11/SC21 Convener: Paulo Pereira | Co-Conveners: Guillermo Rein , Antonio Jordán , Claudio Zaccone , Lorena M. Zavala In this edition of European Geoscience (EGU) 2014 Assembly we organized a short course on Forest Fire Effects on Soil Properties. As in the previous course organized in EGU 2013, we think that the objectives were largely …[Read More]