Topsoil is required to be stripped and reused to maintain land productivity in mining and construction activities. However, as a great threat to unprotected soil, wind erosion on topsoil replacement sites has not received enough research attention, w...
The forest litter and underlying mineral topsoil are typically sampled and analyzed separately although they are in a dynamic balance, which ensures macro- and microelement cycling in the forest ecosystem, including the flux and accumulation of xenob...
Topsoil degradation poses a significant threat to agricultural production worldwide. However, whether degraded topsoil is a net nitrogen source or sink depends on crop uptake and nutrient loss, and how it affects the sustainability of agricultural pr...
Decomposing crop residues contribute to soil organic matter (SOM) accrual; however, the factors driving the fate of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in soil fractions are still largely unknown, especially the influence of soil mineralogy and autochthonous...
24 April 2020
The chemical features of atmospheric dustfall and topsoil in the same region could reflect the processes of the migration, transport, and diffusion of pollutants in the atmospheric-soil system. Samples of atmospheric dustfall and topsoil were collect...
Dry topsoil and relatively moist subsoil can occur in specific areas and times, limiting plant growth but creating conditions for hydraulic lift (HL). There is a lack of a rational water and nitrogen (N) strategy to improve cotton growth and maintain...
Soil degradation limits maize grain yield, but the mechanisms by which leaf functions respond to topsoil depth and their contributions to yield are unclear. We quantified the response mechanisms of leaf functions to topsoil depth with topsoil depths...
Forest topsoil supports vegetation growth and contains the majority of soil nutrients that are important indices of soil fertility and quality. Therefore, estimating forest topsoil properties, such as soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (Total...
The topsoil seed bank was studied in four types of agricultural bird habitats: fields with cereals, maize, clover and tilled fields of a Mediterranean plain to determine the potentially richest habitat based on food supply for the wintering farmland...
Accurate understanding of spatial distribution and variability of soil total nitrogen (TN) is critical for the site-specific nitrogen management. Based on 4337 newly obtained soil observations and 33 covariates, this study applied the random forest (...
Fertilizer application to arable soils could be effective for soil nutrients. However, there are many negative effects in croplands with long-term chemical fertilizer application. Whether eco-friendly fertilizer addition could enhance soil quality an...
Dry topsoil restricts root growth and nutrient uptake in arid regions, thereby significantly reducing crop yield. Hydraulic lift occurs due to the dry topsoil and wet deep soil. This study investigates the effects of topsoil drought intensity (three...
Reflectance of light across the visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared (VIS-NIR-SWIR, 0.4–2.5 µm) spectral region is very useful for investigating mineralogical, physical and chemical properties of soils, which can reduce the need...
Mining activities are often severely disruptive to the landscape, and a major barrier to reclamation after mining is lack of quality topsoil. This research addresses knowledge gaps in the industry by exploring the compositional nature of topsoil stoc...
The Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) and the Hyperion satellite hyperspectral sensors were evaluated for their ability to predict topsoil organic carbon (C) in burned mountain areas of northwestern Spain slightly covered by heather vegetation. Pr...
Humans can potentially be exposed to Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon spp. from topsoils when playing or spending time in recreational areas. Two hundred and seventy-seven topsoil samples were collected across Alcalá de Henares (Spa...
Geochemical indices used to identify the emerging anomalies of potentially harmful elements in topsoil depend on background values (BVs). For urban sites, it is reasonable to estimate native BVs through the targeted selection of peri-urban sampling s...
The aims were: (a) to biomonitor vanadium (V) in wild edible mushrooms collected from urban/rural areas across Leicestershire (England); (b) to characterise the risk to humans caused by its content in topsoils. Thirty-four mushrooms were collected: t...
The migration and spatial distribution characteristics of topsoil rare earth elements (REEs) are significant for the risk assessment of the external environment. However, the spatial distribution of REEs in the topsoil of ion-adsorption type rare ear...
The purpose of our study was to determine the distribution of copper (Cu) in topsoils from urban public parks across Leicester and its rural surroundings (Leicestershire, England) [...]
The main objective of the presented preliminary study was the identification of iron-containing phases. Iron-containing phases had accumulated in organic topsoil horizons collected from an area that has long been affected by the steel industry and em...
Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) are labile components in forest litter that can be released quickly at the early stage of litter decomposition and accelerate the metabolic turnover of soil microorganisms, which is essential for the formation of f...
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key component of terrestrial carbon stocks, yet its spatial variability, recovery potential, and dominant controls across tropical forest succession remain insufficiently quantified. We combined field measurements from...
The purpose of this study was to reveal that reconstructed soil composed of different types and proportions of materials has different effects on the growth of Melilotus officinalis, and to determine the most suitable formula of reconstructed soil ma...
Soil has multiple functions, including the provision of habitat to organisms, and most biological activities occur in the surface soil. Due to the negative effects of soil erosion, efforts for soil conservation are being made, including the developme...
Cd and Pb in farmland topsoil are controlled by many factors. To identify the source of potential toxic metals in the farmland topsoil around Mianyuan River, the chemical analysis and multivariate statistical analysis are performed in this study. The...
16 November 2022
Heavy metal(loid) (HM) pollution in urban topsoil seriously endangers the health of urban residents and urban sustainable development. Compared with large cities, the research on the HM pollution of topsoil in emerging medium-sized industrial cities...
Forests are the most important land ecosystems that can mitigate the earth’s ongoing climate change through their ability to sequester CO2 as C stock in forest biomass and soil. Short-rotation deciduous hardwoods or N2-fixing species are ideal candid...
Introduction: The Earth’s growing population is increasing resource consumption, heavily pressuring agriculture, which, currently, uses 70% of the world’s freshwater from rivers and lakes, which, themselves, comprise only 1% of the Earth&...
Shaft stability plays an important role in mine safety. Most of the previous studies focused on the stress analysis of shafts using monitoring data. Since the shaft wall state in the deep topsoil stratum is still not clear, the ultimate analysis meth...
The North China Plain (NCP) is the most populous plain in China and forms the core of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei economic circle. With urbanization, anthropogenic heavy metals have increasingly dispersed and accumulated in urban topsoil, especially in...
This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of the presence of heavy metals, specifically zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), and arsenic (As), in dust samples collected from 24 schools in Vilnius during the year 2022. It compares thes...
Soil, a crucial natural resource and the cornerstone of agriculture, profoundly impacts crop growth, quality, and yield. However, soil degradation affects over one-third of global land, with topsoil loss emerging as a significant form of this degrada...
Soil erosion is one of the major processes degrading the natural environment but also agricultural production areas. Soil erosion may lead to soil organic carbon (SOC) loss, especially from sloping agricultural terrain units. The use of phytomeliorat...
Although aboveground metrics remain the standard, restoring functional ecosystems should promote both aboveground and belowground biotic communities. Restoration using salvaged soil—removal and translocation of topsoil from areas planned for de...
31 October 2018
In this study, we identified the sources of trace metals, investigated their spatial distribution in topsoil and assessed their potential ecological risk in the area surrounding a typical manganese mining area in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, China. The...
This study pursues the mapping of the distribution of topsoils and surface substrates of the Lake Manyara area of northern Tanzania. The nine soil and lithological target classes were selected through fieldwork and laboratory analysis of soil samples...
It is supposed that the determination of the content and the mode of occurrence of ecotoxic elements (EE) in feed coal play the most significant role in forecasting distribution of EE in the soil and plants in the vicinity of power stations. Hence, t...
Kierlik et al. recently reported their study in this journal on the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy in identifying the iron-containing components in Upper Silesian topsoil as being under industrial anthropopressure. While the presented wor...
Heavy metals constitute a group of toxic environmental contaminants with complex and varied origins. This study provides a comprehensive framework for deciphering soil heavy metal pollution in rapidly developing regions. The geochemical baselines, po...
This study aimed to develop novel sustainable composites based on cross-linked gelatine and wood fibres for use as a topsoil cover in forestry and agricultural applications. Different compositions were prepared by varying the proportions of gelatine,...
Unconsolidated earthen surface materials can retain heavy metals originating from different sources. These metals are dangerous to humans as well as the immediate environment. This danger leads to the need to assess various geochemical conditions of...
Topsoil sand content (TSC) is a critical indicator of soil degradation in black soil regions, yet its long-term dynamics remain poorly quantified. To address this, we developed an automated Landsat-based framework on Google Earth Engine (GEE) for map...
Soil-gas diffusivity and its variation with soil moisture plays a fundamental role in diffusion-controlled migration of climate-impact gases from different terrestrial agroecosystems including cultivated soils and managed pasture systems. The wide co...
20 July 2016
In order to acquire the pollution feature and regularities of distribution of metals in the topsoil within the sixth ring road in Beijing, a total of 46 soil samples were collected, and the concentrations of twelve elements (Nickel, Ni, Lithium, Li,...
This study integrates environmental magnetism, geochemical analysis, and multivariate statistical methods to investigate heavy metal pollution in the urban topsoil of Xuzhou, China. A total of 142 samples were collected, and concentrations of Cr, Cu,...
This study focused on investigating the flammability and thermal degradation behavior of wood fiber-reinforced composites consisting of xanthan gum (XG) and gelatin (GEL). These materials could potentially be used as novel bio-based and biodegradable...
5 October 2022
Alkyl polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (APAHs) are more toxic and persistent than their parent compounds. Here, the concentrations, composition profiles, and spatial distribution of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in 127 topsoil samples from Hua...
Topsoil organic carbon (SOC, 0–20 cm) is crucial for terrestrial carbon stocks and the global carbon cycle. This study integrated field survey data, re-analysis climatic data, and remote sensing-derived environmental factors to examine SOC dist...
After corn mechanical harvest in autumn in the cold region of northeast China, straw mulching leads to high soil topsoil water content and slow ground temperature rise in the spring sowing season, which may result in a no-tillage planter being unable...
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