One of the pressing problems that the world faces in the era of climate change is how to grow enough healthy food to meet the increasing global population, even as soil contamination rises. Research recently published in ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 15, 2024
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58
A team of Earth scientists at Lanzhou University, working with a group of organic chemists from Nanjing Agricultural University and another colleague from Tsinghua University, all in China, has found that asymmetric climate ...
Soil is essential for life and plays a crucial role in the Earth's ecosystem, providing support for plant roots and hosting countless microorganisms. In a warming world, it is important to understand how soil hydrothermal ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 14, 2024
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105
Since time immemorial, crop yields have been influenced by such extreme weather phenomena as heat waves, persisting droughts, downpours and lasting rainfall. Many studies have already demonstrated that due to climate change, ...
Agriculture
Oct 10, 2024
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55
Research by ecologist Tom Heuts of Radboud University shows that several experimental measures taken at Frisian farms to restore biodiversity in former peatlands were unsuccessful. Three methods in which the water levels ...
Ecology
Oct 10, 2024
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1
Extreme temperatures and humidity levels (excessive rain or drought) projected for the Amazon in the context of climate change may increase the volume of methane-producing microorganisms in flooded areas and reduce potential ...
Environment
Oct 10, 2024
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31
A study carried out at the University of Helsinki demonstrates that boosting plant diversity in agriculture can increase plant biomass and improve plant–microbe interactions, both of which promote the storage of carbon ...
Ecology
Oct 10, 2024
0
120
Soil water resources are crucial for hydrological processes and ecosystem functions on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. However, accurately measuring soil moisture distribution in this region is challenging due to diverse ecosystems, ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 10, 2024
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3
Plants can extract even the smallest traces of the important nutrient potassium from the soil. A team led by Würzburg biophysicist Rainer Hedrich describes how they achieve this in Nature Communications.
Molecular & Computational biology
Oct 9, 2024
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3
An article published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences has provided new insights into how wood density in trees and shrubs adapts to different climate and soil conditions. Led by Dr. Song Xiang from the Institute of Atmospheric ...
Ecology
Oct 3, 2024
0
20
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers (soil horizons) of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics. It is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes that include weathering and erosion. Soil differs from its parent rock due to interactions between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the biosphere. It is a mixture of mineral and organic constituents that are in solid, gaseous and aqueous states. Soil particles pack loosely, forming a soil structure filled with pore spaces. These pores contain sol solution (liquid) and air (gas). Accordingly, soils are often treated as a three state system. Most soils have a density between 1 and 2 g/cm³. Soil is also known as earth: it is the substance from which our planet takes its name. Little of the soil composition of planet Earth is older than Tertiary and most no older than Pleistocene. In engineering, soil is referred to as regolith, or loose rock material.
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