soil research News
-
Where have all the soil and groundwater students gone? - SSSA
Why are the number of students studying soil science as a major declining across the United States? Mary Collins, University of Florida, Gainesville, writes about this in an article published in the 2008 Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education. Collins notes that the faculties who work closely with undergraduate students have seen this steady decline for several years. And there ...
-
Management of rice paddy fields affects greenhouse gas emissions
How rice paddy fields are managed significantly influences the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs), a recent study concludes. Permanently flooded soils release more methane than soils that are flooded and then dried between production periods, for example. In general, the researchers recommend growing other crops in dried soil between production cycles, as well as limiting nitrogen fertilisers, to ...
-
Fewer indicators may be sufficient to assess soil quality
Although soil quality is best assessed using a wide range of indicators, a smaller set may be more practical and still provide the necessary information needed to choose between land management systems. This is the conclusion of a new study in Brazil that evaluated three different indexes of soil quality based on three sets of indicators. In order to ensure farming is sustainable, there is a ...
-
Forest soils recovering from effects of acid rain
Before the United States 1970 Clean Air Act, rainfall all over the country was acidic. As precipitation would fall from the sky, it would mix with gases from industrial plants, emissions from cars, and especially coal and fossil fuel consumption. That caused the water to become acidic – also called “acid rain.” Besides the air pollution hurting plants and humans, this acid rain ...
-
Manure runoff depends on soil texture
Research 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 reducing ...
Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you