Soil and Water Research - Latest articles

Strategies and methods for predicting soil organic matter at the field scale based on the provincial near infrared spectral database

Shengyao Jia, Chunbo Hong, Hongyang Li, Yuchan Li, Siyuan Hu

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(3):158-168 | DOI: 10.17221/133/2022-SWR  

The development and provision of soil spectral library (SSL) could facilitate the application of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for economical, accurate, and efficient determination of soil organic matter (SOM). In this work, the performances of partial least squares regression (PLSR) and convolutional neural network (CNN) combined with the datasets of Zhejiang provincial SSL (ZSSL) and the feature subset (FS) were compared for the prediction of SOM at the target field. The FS dataset was chosen from ZSSL based on similarity to the spectral characteristics of the target samples. The results showed that compared with modelling using ZSSL, modelling...

Psychoactive substances in soils, plants, freshwater and fish: A mini review

Kateřina Vejvodová, Radka Kodešová, Pavel Horký, Luboš Borůvka, Pavel Tlustoš

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(3):139-157 | DOI: 10.17221/58/2023-SWR  

This review focuses on the behaviour of four psychoactive compounds (carbamazepine, tramadol, sertraline and citalopram) in the environment. The review presents how they may directly affect freshwater systems, soils and living organisms and to which extent. The transformation of these very stable compounds in soils were controlled by oxidation, demethylation, decarboxylation and hydroxylation. Sorption to organic matter and clay particles controlled their mobility. Despite their expected sorption in soils, sediments and sludge, all compounds can be taken up by plants and by fish. In plants, all compounds and several of their metabolites were found...

Measuring of infiltration rate in different types of soil in the Czech Republic using a rainfall simulator

David Kabelka, David Kincl, Jan Vopravil, Jiří Brychta, Jan Bačovský

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(2):128-137 | DOI: 10.17221/132/2022-SWR  

Knowledge of the issue of water movement in the soil is the basis for agricultural activity, but also for many other sectors. One of the basic indicators that is evaluated in soil science is the rate of water infiltration into the soil. The article specifically states how soil texture and soil moisture affect the rate of water infiltration. The results show that changes in water infiltration can be significant and certain trends can be traced. The rate of water infiltration into the soil is most affected by the sand fraction (soil particles 0.05–2 mm). The higher the percentage of these soil particles in the soil, the lower the changes in infiltration...

Soil resistance to flowing water erosion as affected by tea planting age in Three Gorges Reservoir Area of China

Guanhua Zhang, Wenjun Yang, Jiajun Hu, Jigen Liu, Wenfeng Ding, Hai Xiao

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(2):116-127 | DOI: 10.17221/157/2022-SWR  

Soil erosion resistance is influenced by intrinsic soil properties and multiple external factors. This study investigated the effect of tea planting age on soil resistance to flowing water erosion (reflected by rill erodibility (K_r) and critical shear stress (τ_c)) in Three Gorges Reservoir Area. One slope farmland (as the control) and five tea plantations cultivated for 3 to 34 years were selected for sampling sites. The results indicated that bulk density (BD), soil cohesion (Coh), water stable aggregate (WSA), mean weight diameter (MWD), soil organic carbon (SOC), litter density (LD), and root mass density (RMD)...

Detection of high erosion risk areas and their incorporation into environmental impact assessment

Efrén Tarancón-Andrés, Jacinto Santamaria-Peña, David Arancón-Pérez, Eduardo Martínez-Cámara, Julio Blanco-Fernández

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(2):102-115 | DOI: 10.17221/91/2022-SWR  

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is normally used independently of the physical and temporal location of the product, process or service under analysis. This makes LCA results more easily comparable and globally accepted. At the same time, it has drawbacks though, e.g. land use will have the same impact regardless of location. However, the use of certain terrains in high erosion risk areas as compared to others in low erosion risk areas will have a different impact on the ecosystem. The availability of airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data (ALS) allows a quick and accurate morphogeometric analysis of any terrain. For this reason, this article...

Influence of Paulownia fortunei (Seem.) Hemsl. roots on preferential flow in the red soil hilly region

Zhuo Tian, Shuaipu Zhang, Qinxue Xu, Mingfeng Bi, Jianhua He

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(2):89-101 | DOI: 10.17221/140/2022-SWR  

Preferential water flow in soil significantly affects runoff, water infiltration, storage, groundwater environment, and soil stability. Plant roots positively affect preferential flow development. This study explored the relationship between the root system of Paulownia fortunei (Seem.) Hemsl. and preferential flow using dyeing tracer test and image analysis techniques. A typical red soil hilly region on the outskirts of Guilin City (Guangxi, China) was selected as the study area. A Bright Blue solution was used to visualize the pathways followed by the infiltrated water in simulated rainfall experiments, and Image Analyzer of Plants was used...

δ¹³C as a tool to determine the origin of soil organic carbon: Case study of a restored sloping orchard

Mateja Muršec, Jean Leveque

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(2):81-88 | DOI: 10.17221/101/2022-SWR  

The effect of drip irrigation on the origin and size fraction of soil organic carbon was studied in the soils of an apple orchard (Malus domestica Borkh.) on hilly (20%) terrain in northeastern Slovenia in three slope positions (upslope, midslope and downslope), comparing irrigated with non-irrigated soils. Physical fractionation of soil organic carbon was performed on three soil layers (0–0.05, 0.05–0.15 and 0.15–0.30 m) in three size fractions: fraction A (> 0.0002 m), fraction B (0.0002‒0.00005 m) and fraction C (< 0.00005 m). Fraction A was the richest in soil organic carbon (7.7%), but fraction C was the dominant...

Past, present and future of the applications of machine learning in soil science and hydrology

Xiangwei Wang, Yizhe Yang, Jianglong Lv, Hailong He

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(2):67-80 | DOI: 10.17221/94/2022-SWR  

Machine learning can handle an ever-increasing amount of data with the ability to learn models from the data. It has been widely used in a variety of disciplines and is gaining increasingly more attention nowadays. As it is challenging to map soil and hydrological information that are characterised with high spatial and temporal variability, applications of machine learning in soil science and hydrology (AMLSH) have become popularised. To better understand the current state of AMLSH research, a scientific and quantitative approach was performed to statistically analyse publication information from 1973 to 2021 archived in the Scopus database using...

Developing a decision-making model for improving the groundwater balance to control land subsidence

Mojtaba Zangeneh, Mahdi Sarai Tabrizi^*, Amir Khosrojerdi, Ali Saremi

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(1):55-65 | DOI: 10.17221/57/2022-SWR  

This study aimed to control land subsidence by improving the groundwater balance in the Varamin plain using the Groundwater Modelling System software and a multi-criteria decision model. For this purpose, aquifer level quantification and subsidence rate simulation were performed with the MODFLOW model and SUB package, respectively. The results showed a 6 m decrease in the aquifer level over a 5-year period and the subsidence rate in the central parts was 37 cm. Accordingly, the aquifer was evaluated by considering eight different restoration strategies based on reduced exploitation and artificial feeding. The results showed that the environmental criterion...

Prediction of the soil organic carbon in the LUCAS soil database based on spectral clustering

Baoyang Liu, Baofeng Guo, Renxiong Zhuo, Fan Dai, Haoyu Chi

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(1):43-54 | DOI: 10.17221/97/2022-SWR  

The estimation of the level of the soil organic carbon (SOC) content plays an important role in assessing the soil health state. Visible and Near Infrared Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (Vis-NIR DRS) is a fast and cheap tool for measuring the SOC. However, when this technology is applied on a larger area, the soil prediction accuracy decreases due to the heterogeneity of the samples. In this paper, we first investigate the global model performance in the LUCAS EU-wide topsoil database. Then, different clustering strategies were tested, including the k-means clustering based on the principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering, combined...

Ambient background and quality reference values for trace metals in soils from Algeria

Abdelkader Laribi, Charles Shand, Renate Wendler, Brahim Mouhouche, Stephen Hillier, Gilles Colinet

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(1):33-42 | DOI: 10.17221/143/2021-SWR  

The establishment of the reference ambient background concentrations (ABCs) and quality reference values (QRVs) for trace metal (TM) concentrations in soils are required for the environmental assessment and any implementation of a protective action. This information is lacking for soils of the eastern Mitidja plain, which is an important agricultural production area in Algeria. Data for the aqua regia extractable Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrations from 180 composite topsoil samples taken across the Mitidja plain in a stratified random pattern were statistically analysed. Descriptive statistical methods and linear regression equations...

Prediction of saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks of agricultural soil using pedotransfer functions

Kamila Báťková, Svatopluk Matula, Markéta Miháliková, Eva Hrúzová, David Kwesi Abebrese, Recep Serdar Kara, Cansu Almaz

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(1):25-32 | DOI: 10.17221/130/2022-SWR  

The determination of the saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks on a field scale presents a challenge in which several variables have to be considered. As there is no benchmark or reference method for the Ks determination, the suitability of each available method has to be evaluated. This study is aimed at the functional evaluation of three publicly available types of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) with different levels of utilised predictors. In total, ten PTF models were applied to the 56 data sets including the measured Ks value and the required predictors (% sand, silt and clay particles, dry bulk density, and organic matter/organic carbon content)....

Reducing greenhouse gas emission by alternation of the upland crop rotation in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Van Dung Tran, Kim Thu Nguyen, Nguyen Hoang Phuc Ho, Nguyen Thanh Lich Duong, Ngoc Minh Tam Vu, Thi Phong Lan Nguyen, Long Vu Van, Ben MacDonald

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(1):16-24 | DOI: 10.17221/44/2022-SWR  

Agricultural production is one of the main sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing 50% and 60% of CH₄ and N₂O emissions, respectively. This study evaluated the rice yield and components, the CH₄ and N₂O emissions and the global warming potential between the triple rice (R-R-R) and sesame-rice rotation (S-R-R) systems in Can Tho city, Vietnam. The experiments were conducted in 3 cropping seasons: Spring-Summer 2016, Summer-Autumn 2016, and Winter-Spring 2016-2017. The results showed that there was no significant difference in yield components and grain yield between triple rice...

Soil quality assessment using SAS (Soil Assessment System)

Daniel Toth, Jaroslava Janků, Adéla Marie Marhoul, Josef Kozák, Mansoor Maitah, Jan Jehlička, Lukáš Řeháček, Richard Přikryl, Tomáš Herza, Jan Vopravil, David Kincl, Tomáš Khel

Soil & Water Res., 2023, 18(1):1-15 | DOI: 10.17221/141/2022-SWR  

The paper proposes a new soil evaluation system using the principle of the Saaty method. The Saaty method has been modified and named Soil Assessment System (SAS). Significance weights are assigned to individual soil characteristics (indicators). This provides a more detailed differentiation of the significance of the indicator on soil quality and a more accurate assessment, especially in marginal cases where the assessment by the methods used so far has not been fully conclusive. In addition to physico-chemical properties, other criteria are taken into account to assess not only productional but also non-productional functions. The possibility of...

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