Nature And Properties Of Soils

The contamination of soils and water with metals has created a major environmental problem, leading to considerable losses in plant productivity and hazardous health effects. Exposure to toxic metals can intensify the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are continuously produced in both unstressed and stressed plants cells. Some of the ROS species are highly toxic and must be detoxified by cellular stress responses, if the plant is to survive and grow. The aim of this review is to assess the mode of action and role of antioxidants in protecting plants from stress caused by the presence of heavy metals in the environment.

Making the life of heavy metal-stressed plants a little easier

At the watershed scale, soil moisture is the major control for rainfall–runoff response, especially where saturation excess runoff processes dominate. From the ecological point of view, the pools of soil moisture are fundamental ecosystem resources providing the transpirable water for plants. In drylands particularly, soil moisture is one of the major controls on the structure, function, and diversity in ecosystems. In terms of the global hydrological cycle, the overall quantity of soil moisture is small, ∼0.05%; however, its importance to the global energy balance and the distribution of precipitation far outweighs its physical amount. In soils it governs microbial activity that affects important biogeochemical processes such as nitrification and CO2 production via respiration. During the past 20 years, technology has advanced considerably, with the development of different electrical sensors for determining soil moisture at a point. However, modeling of watersheds requires areal averages. As a result, point measurements and modeling grid cell data requirements are generally incommensurate. We review advances in sensor technology, particularly emerging geophysical methods and distributed sensors, aimed at bridging this gap. We consider some of the data analysis methods for upscaling from a point to give an areal average. Finally, we conclude by offering a vision for future research, listing many of the current scientific and technical challenges.

/pdf/soil-moisture-measurement-for-ecological-and-hydrological-1jak2uhu52.pdf

Soil Moisture Measurement for Ecological and Hydrological Watershed-Scale Observatories: A Review

Cadmium in plants on polluted soils: effects of soil factors, hyperaccumulation and amendments

Spatial distribution of heavy metals in urban soils of Naples city (Italy).

Sorption and Release of Heavy Metals in Soils: Nonlinear Kinetics, H.M. Selim and M.C. Amacher Anion and Cation Transport in Zeolitized Tuffs from the Nevada Test Site: Effects of Ion Type, pH, and Ionic Strength, C. Papelis and W. Um Modeling Competitive Sorption and Release of Heavy Metals in Soils, R. Kretzschmar and A. Voegelin Heavy Metal Solubility and Transport in Soil Contaminated by Mining and Smelting, S.L. McGowen and NT. Basta Phase Plane Analysis and Dynamical System Approaches to the Study of Metal Sorption in Soils, S.F. Oppenheimer, W.L. Kingery, and F.X. Han Kinetic Study of Trace Metal EDTA-Desorption from Contaminated Soils, A. Bermond and J.P. Ghestem Soil Properties Controlling Metal Partitioning, C.A. Impellitteri, H.E. Allen, Y. Yin, S-J You, and J.K. Saxe Understanding Sulfate Adsorption Mechanisms on Iron (III) Oxides and Hydroxides: Results from ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy, D. Peak, E.J. Elzinga, and D.L. Sparks Selenium Contamination in Soil: Sorption and Desorption Processes, B. Pezzarossa and G. Petruzzelli Arsenic Behavior in Contaminated Soils: Mobility and Speciation, V. Matera and I. Le Hecho Chemical Structures of Soil Organic Matter and Their Interactions with Heavy Metals, W.L. Kingery, A.J. Simpson, and M.H. B. Hayes Index

Heavy Metals Release in Soils

The PSF Model of Soil Structure: A Multiscale Approach, E.M.A. Perrier and N.R.A. Bird Scaling and Multiscaling of Soil Pore Systems Determined by Image Analysis, A.M. Tarquis, D. Gimenez, A. Saa, M.C. Diaz, and J.M. Gasco Scaling and Estimating the Soil Water Characteristic Using a One-Parameter Model, R.D. Williams and L.R. Ahuja Diffusion Scaling in Low Connectivity Porous Media, R.P. Ewing and R. Horton Solute Transport in Porous Media: Scale Effects, L. Zhou and H.M. Selim A Pedotransfer Function for Predicting Solute Dispersivity: Model Testing and Upscaling, E. Perfect Upscaling of Hydraulic Properties of Heterogeneous Soils, J. Zhu and B.P. Mohanty Spatial Variability of Soil Moisture and Its Implications for Scaling, A.W. Western, R.B. Grayson, G. Bloeschl, and D.J. Wilson An Evaluation of Interpolation Methods for Local Estimation of Solute Concentration, T.R. Ellsworth, P.M. Reed, and R.J.M. Hudson Scale- and Location-Dependent Soil Hydraulic Properties in a Hummocky Landscape: A Wavelet Approach, B.C. Si Multiple Scale Conditional Simulation, P. Kumar Effects of Topography, Soil Properties and Mean Soil Moisture on the Spatial Distribution of Soil Moisture: A Stochastic Analysis, D.-H. Chang and S. Islam A Mix of Scales: Topography, Point Samples and Yield Maps, D.J. Timlin, Y.A. Pachepsky, and C.L. Walthall Evaluating Soil Data from Several Sources Using a Landscape Model, C.L.S. Morgan, J.M. Norman, C.C. Molling, K. McSweeney, and B. Lowery Application of a Neural Network-Based Spatial Disaggregation Scheme for Addressing Scaling of Soil Moisture, T.D. Tsegaye, W.L. Crosson, C.A. Laymon, M.P. Schamschula, and A.B. Johnson Scaling Soil Mechanical Properties to Predict Plant Responses, D.K. Cassel and E.C. Edwards Estimating Nitrate-N Losses at Different Spatial Scales in Agricultural Watersheds , D.J. Mulla, P.H. Gowda, A.S. Birr, and B.J. Dalzell Incorporation of Remote Sensing Data in an Upscaled Soil Water Model, M.S. Seyfried Hierarchical Frameworks for Multiscale Bridging in Hydropedology, H. Lin and S. Rathbun Scaling and Hierarchy of Models for Flow Processes in Unsaturated Fractured Rock, B. Faybishenko, G.S. Bodvarsson, J. Hinds, and P.A. Witherspoon Index

Scaling Methods in Soil Physics

Freundlich sorption parameters for cadmium, copper, nickel, lead, and zinc for different soils: Influence of kinetics

The hydrological and geochemical interactions between clay minerals and organic matter in soils directly influence the reaction, behavior, and mobility of heavy metals in soils. Geochemical and Hydrological Reactivity of Heavy Metals in Soils is one of only a few books that comprehensively illustrates this cause-and-effect relationship. It highlights analytical techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and environmental electron microscopy and reveals how molecular-level modeling is used to remove metal contaminants from the environment. It is thus a practical guide for soil and groundwater scientists, ecologists, and government regulators.

H. Magdi Selim

Papers

Heavy Metals Release in Soils

Scaling Methods in Soil Physics

Freundlich sorption parameters for cadmium, copper, nickel, lead, and zinc for different soils: Influence of kinetics

Geochemical and Hydrological Reactivity of Heavy Metals in Soils

Use of portable XRF: Effect of thickness and antecedent moisture of soils on measured concentration of trace elements