Latest Soil Stories
Danish Study Examines Relationship between Soil Texture, Nutrient Leaching, and Waterway ContaminationResearch has documented the rise of nutrient runoff from flat agricultural fields with high rates of precipitation that adds nitrates and phosphates to waterways.These nutrients increase the amount of phytoplankton in the water, which depletes oxygen and kills fish and other aquatic creatures. While injecting animal manure slurry into the soil has been proven to be an effective way of...
KUCHING, Sarawak, Malaysia, March 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The State Government of Sarawak's Agricultural Policy prioritises sustainable management of biodiversity as part of its strategy for the growth of palm oil plantation. Sarawak has a total land mass of 12.4 million hectares, of which 70% is under forest cover and 14% is secondary forest. 13% of the land is used for agriculture and the remaining 3% compromise settlements and water bodies. Currently the state has allocated 700,000...
Garbage mounds left by prehistoric humans might have driven the formation of many of the Florida Everglades' tree islands, distinctive havens of exceptional ecological richness in the sprawling marsh that are today threatened by human development.Tree islands are patches of relatively high and dry ground that dot the marshes of the Everglades. Typically a meter (3.3 feet) or so high, many of them are elevated enough to allow trees to grow. They provide a nesting site for alligators and a...
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists trying to help Florida growers find a replacement for methyl bromide are studying an alternative soil treatment that uses molasses as one of its ingredients.Researchers with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are examining whether a cropping system that uses molasses to stimulate microbial activity could be used to replace the popular fumigant. They also are studying recently developed fumigants. The work, presented at the recent Annual...
Irrigation is one of the most controversial aspects in the sustainable management of golf courses. Researchers from the Canary Islands have spent 25 years analysing the practices relating to reclaimed water at one of the oldest golf courses in Spain. The results show that plants on the course receive 83% more water than they need."Excessive amounts of water are used, and this cannot be justified from any perspective", MarÃa del Pino Palacios DÃaz, lead author of the study and...
DENVER, March 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Going organic doesn't just apply to the food we eat anymore. Organic is becoming a lifestyle, and for many people, that lifestyle starts at the beginning of their children's lives. More and more parents are making this change, and this trend toward all things organic and natural continues to grow -- especially for babies. Organic baby products do have a higher price tag, but there are some very compelling factors behind parents' decisions to buy...
Turning back the climatic clock in AustraliaImproving land management and farming practices in Australia could have an effect on global climate change, according to a study published in the International Journal of Water.Natural Sequence Farming is a descriptor used when sustainable agriculture mimics the once highly efficient functions of the Australian landscape. NSF pioneer Peter Andrews of Denman in New South Wales and coordinator of the NSF movement, Duane Norris of Hardy's Bay, New...
A team of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists has given growers in the Piedmont guidance on how to restore degraded soils and make the land productive. Researchers with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that if cattle are managed so that they graze moderately, soil quality can be restored and emissions of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) can be reduced.ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. The research, published in the Soil Science...
Researchers have come closer to understanding how a common fungus "makes its living in the soil," which could lead to its possible "career change" as a therapeutic agent for plant and human health.That's according to Dr. Charles Kenerley, Texas AgriLife Research plant pathologist, and a team of scientists from the U.S., India and France, whose study on Trichoderma virens is in February's Journal of Biological Chemistry.T. virens already enjoy a good reputation in the plant...
Not all the terrain of the same vineyard has the same properties. Research undertaken by Neiker-Tecnalia (the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development) confirmed that, over the same zone of cultivated land, there are plots with soils of different characteristics, a fact which gives rise to significant differences in the production of the grape and in the quality of the must. Knowing these differences enables the winegrowers to carry out zoning on their vineyards with the...
Latest Soil Reference Libraries
Desertification is a form of land degradation in which a comparatively dry land area becomes more and more arid, normally losing its bodies of water along with its wildlife and vegetation. This is a result of a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. Desertification is an important global, ecological, and environmental issue. There is substantial controversy over the proper definition of the term “desertification”. The most broadly accepted of these is that of...
Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by one or more combination of human-induced processes acting on the land. It is also the gradual destruction or reduction of the quality and quantity of human activities, animal activities or natural means. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious or unwanted. Natural hazards are not included in the causes; however, human activities can indirectly affect...
Erosion is the process by which rock and soil are taken from the surface of the Earth by exogenetic processes like wind or the flow of water, and then transported and deposited in another location. While erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10 to 40 times the rate at which erosion is happening globally. Excessive erosion results in problems such as desertification, decreases in agricultural productivity because of land degradation, sedimentation of waterways,...
Soil salinity is the salt content within the soil; the process of increasing the content of salt is known as salination. Salt is a natural element of water and soils. Salination can be a result of natural processes such as the gradual withdrawal of an ocean or mineral weathering. It can be caused by artificial processes such as irrigation as well. Soils that are affected by salt are a result of excess accumulation of salts, normally most obvious at the surface of the soil. Salts can be...
Vermicompost is composting with the use of special earthworms. Red wigglers and white worms are the more common worms used, although European night crawlers can be used as well. Red wigglers can be found living in manure piles and in rotting vegetation and adapt the best in covered worm bins. Common earthworms burrow deeply and are not recommended for use in compost bins. Blue worms are commonly used in the tropics. Worms are used to decompose vegetable and food waste along with bedding...
