soil science News
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IAgrE Fellow & CEnv Jane Rickson Honoured
Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) Fellow and Chartered Environmentalist Professor Jane Rickson wins a 2021 Top 50 Women in Engineering Award. IAgrE Fellow Jane Rickson, Professor of Soil Erosion and Conservation at Cranfield Soil and Agrifood Institute, Cranfield University, has been honoured with a Top 50 Women in Engineering Award from the Women’s Engineering Society. The ...
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Microbes play important role in soil’s nitrogen cycle
Under our feet, in the soil, is a wealth of microbial activity. Just like humans have different metabolisms and food choices, so do those microbes. In fact, microbes play an important role in making nutrients available to plants. A recent review paper from Xinda Lu and his team looks at different roles that various soil microbes have in soil’s nitrogen cycle. Lu is a researcher at ...
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Star fruit could be the new “star” of Florida agriculture
It’s not just oranges that grow in Florida. Carambola, or star fruit as most in the United States call it, is gaining popularity. One researcher from Florida International University is researching how cover crops can help the sustainability of star fruit farms.“Tropical fruit production has become a prominent practice in Miami-Dade County,” says Ariel Freidenreich. “For ...
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New PED Talks Video Series Digs into Soil Health
A series of 10-to-15-minute, science-centered “PED Talks” on soil health has been posted on YouTube. Soil peds are aggregated particles of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. Like their namesake, PED Talks combine soil-related topics including explanations of soil health, how we can improve it, and the progress that’s being made to ensure we have the healthy soils necessary to ...
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Carbon cycling in forest soils research presented
Just as individual humans have different microbial communities in their guts, the microbial communities living in soils vary from site to site as well. Recent research compared the decomposition rates of wood stakes over eight sites to gain an understanding of soil microbes in forests. The activity of soil microbes can also tell a story of the value of carbon storage in soil. The ...
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Cranfield collaboration with business recognised at Knowledge Transfer Partnership awards
Cranfield has been shortlisted in three categories for two of its business projects at this year’s prestigious Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Awards, which celebrate the achievements of outstanding individuals and organisations. The University’s work with Produce World, one of the UK’s largest vegetable growers and suppliers, has been nominated for the RCUK Research Base ...
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NASA launches groundbreaking soil moisture mapping satellite
NASA successfully launched its first Earth satellite designed to collect global observations of the vital soil moisture hidden just beneath our feet. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, a mission with broad applications for science and society, lifted off at 6:22 a.m. PST (9:22 a.m. EST) Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a United Launch Alliance Delta II ...
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‘Science of Soil Health’ Videos Feature OSU Extension Experts
Soil researchers across the Midwest, including agronomists and scientists from Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, want to help growers unlock the secrets of soil health to improve yields, lower input costs and increase farm income. A new series of YouTube videos, called “The Science of Soil Health,” is designed to provide new ...
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Tillage and reduced-input rotations affect runoff from agricultural fields
A new study from researchers at the USDA Agricultural Research Service provides information about runoff under different management practices and can help farmers choose the practice that is best for them. No-till management practices can reduce soil erosion, but evidence suggests they can also lead to increased runoff of dissolved phosphorus from soil surfaces. Meanwhile, farmers looking to ...
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Rediscovering sound soil management
At the same time that demand for food is soaring along with the world’s population, the soil’s ability to sustain and enhance agricultural productivity is becoming increasingly diminished and unreliable. Fortunately, it’s not too late to restore our soil resources. What it will take, say the editors and contributors to a new book, Soil Management: Building a Stable Base for ...
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Critical Issues in Global Soil Health
Soil health is rarely equated into discussions of climate change, environmental protection, and sustainable development. However, soils play such a vital role in the planet’s survival that life cannot exist without them. They provide the basis for food and fiber production; support a diversity of plant, animal, and microbial life; and regulate nutrient cycles and gas exchange with the ...
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Identifying factors in Atrazine’s reduced weed control
Invasive broadleaf weeds can destroy corn crops and fallow fields. Farmers use the chemical atrazine in herbicides to protect their plants. Despite atrazine’s controversial environmental impacts, it can provide long term residual control of many weed species. However, the loss of atrazine’s effectiveness has been a challenge for farmers in northeastern Colorado. In a collaborative ...
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Past, present and future of soil sciences
The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is reporting the results of a recent survey of trends related to the soil science profession. The results suggest that employment opportunities in soil and related sciences are increasing, and students, academics, and employers have a positive outlook for the future of soil science. Despite these positive findings, the survey identified areas to be ...
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International soil conference opens in Brisbane
“It’s underfoot but often forgotten yet our soil resources are crucial to our very existence,” says the Chief of CSIRO Land and Water, Dr Neil McKenzie. “Any gardener or farmer knows that soil is an astonishing material. It’s the natural reactor in the landscape that forms the basis for our supply of food, clean water and biodiversity.” Australia is a net ...
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Method developed to measure solute movement in soils
Scientists from Aarhus University and Aalborg University in Denmark have developed a new method for measuring the movement of solutes in intact soil. Improving on the existing method, the new procedure can be used on intact, undisturbed soil and provides more confident estimates. Movement, or diffusion, of solutes in soils is involved in many processes of agronomical, environmental and technical ...
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Can one-time tillage improve no-till?
A one-time tillage has no adverse effects on yield or soil properties on no-till land, according to field research conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Although tillage is another expense for farmers and generally increases the risk of soil erosion, a one-time tillage may be performed to correct some problem, such as a perennial weed problem. The feasibility study was conducted for ...
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Increasing potato production
Despite sophisticated nutrient management of potato crops, quality and yield still see wide variability. Although nutrients are already well understood, the influence of other environmental factors remains understudied. A research team from Michigan State University conducted a study to determine how the chemical and physical properties of soil, along with the light waves the plant absorbs and ...
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Energy crops and their environmental implications
Interest in producing cellulosic ethanol from renewable energy sources is growing. Potential energy crops include row crops such as corn, perennial warm-season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops. However, impacts of growing dedicated energy crops as biofuel on soil and environment have not been well documented. This review article looks at the impacts of growing warm-season grasses and ...
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No-till improves near-surface soil properties
Near-surface soil aggregate structural properties such as aggregate size distribution, stability, strength, and wettability determine the extent to which a soil will erode under water or wind erosive forces. Knowledge of aggregate structural properties is especially important in semiarid regions, such as the Great Plains, where low precipitation, high evaporation, and variable biomass production ...
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Soil carbon storage is not always influenced by tillage practices
The practice of no-till has increased considerably during the past 20 yr. Soils under no-till usually host a more abundant and diverse biota and are less prone to erosion, water loss, and structural breakdown than tilled soils. Their organic matter content is also often increased and consequently, no-till is proposed as a measure to mitigate the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide ...
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