Philip Thornley St Weonards Hereford Argentina, which once possessed one of the richest agricultural soils in the world, is facing soil depletion, soil structure degradation and initial desertification from growing GM crops.
In order to better understand the development of nitic horizons, characterized by a blocky structure and shiny ped faces, soil profiles in a major Nitisol region in Ethiopia were analysed, using physico-chemical, mineralogical and micromorphological methods, as well as Mössbauer spectroscopy.
It's time for ecologists and conservation biologists to dig deeper into dirt in order to better understand the threats facing soil creatures that are key to healthy ecosystems and our food supply, and that might offer a rich source of potential antibiotics.
I was taken aback by my appearance -- unkempt hair, soiled face, and my favorite flannel shirt (that old one that is frayed around the collar and at the cuffs and that my wife has been after me for a long time to throw away).
At the time of relay sowing, excess soil moisture and puddles are common features in puddled soil and such crops face transient soil waterlogging from an early developmental stage.
At one moment we process past a hanged figure, its face crudely wrapped in soiled cotton.
It took me a while to locate Jean-Michel Lefèvre, of the Belgian Consulate, who was lying face down atop a soiled mattress, both hands grasping the edges, as if he were Jonah just spat out of the whale.
Bernhardt, ES; Barber, JJ; Pippen, JS; Taneva, L; Andrews, JA; Schlesinger, WH, Long-term Effects of Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) on Soil Respiration, Biogeochemistry, vol. 77 no. 1 (January, 2006), pp. 91-116 [abs] [abs].
Sweaty, soil-faced machinists shape beach-ball-size pistons with manual lathes.
(Even without cities at sea, though, ocean harvesting may be our best hope, as land-based agriculture faces salinated soils and a critical phosphorus shortage).
