Soil Resources

First food: business of taste

Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …

Hydrological behaviour and rooting patterns of some grass species planted in sodic Vertisols under rainfed conditions

In a field study five grass species, viz. Marvel grass, Para grass, Vetiver grass, Karnal grass and Napier grass were evaluated to assess their suitability as biological reclaiming agent and vegetative barriers for reclaiming as well as reducing soil erosion and enhancing in situ water conservation in a moderate sodic …

Soil conservation knowledge management initiative

Knowledge and innovation plays an important role in the development of the society. Knowledge Management is in fact a process of value addition to previous knowledge through innovation. The paper highlights the current status of knowledge management work done by several national organizations including major professional society working in this …

Waste dumping to improve soil quality: UP Jal Nigam

LUCKNOW: The proposed land fill site near the famous mango belt in Malihabad-Kakori region for the solid waste management project in Lucknow is facing an intense scrutiny by the environment and the horticultural department. But there appears to be an all out support for the site from the top administrative …

Shifting carbon flow from roots into associated microbial communities in response to elevated atmospheric CO2

Rising atmospheric CO2 levels are predicted to have major consequences on carbon cycling and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Increased photosynthetic activity is expected, especially for C-3 plants, thereby influencing vegetation dynamics; however, little is known about the path of fixed carbon into soil-borne communities and resulting feedbacks on ecosystem …

Restoring soil fertility in Punjab

WITH the introduction of short-term, high-yielding varieties of cereal and oil-seed crops, the cropping intensity has now reached almost 300 per cent in Punjab. Moreover, the intensive use of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides involve greater use of scarce groundwater resources. The water table has gone down alarmingly resulting in …

Soils are breathing faster

THE soil-to-air cycle of carbon dioxide or, more precisely, soil respiration is a major source of carbon dioxide emission. The soil is likely to respire even faster in future as temperatures rise due to global warming. Plants photosynthesize during the day and produce oxygen from carbon dioxide. At night a …

Coal slow poison for soil - Research links pride of Jharia to host of illnesses

Dhanbad, May 6: Though residents in the coal belt of Jharia and Raniganj take pride in the presence of vast coal reserves under their land little do they know about the health hazards connected with the same. After three years of research, a group of scientists of Central Institute of …

Locals take on MMRDA over Metro-II

Mumbai: Even before the city gets its metro, a controversy has already arisen over the second route of metro. Residents of H (west) ward have objected to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) starting digging work for soil testing from Bandra junction to Santa Cruz (West) for Metro-II. The …

Does carbon addition to soil counteract disturbance promoted alien plant invasions?

Addition of carbon to the soil promotes microbial immobilization of plant-available nutrients, and is being considered as a method to counter alien plant invasions, particularly in disturbed habitats. In the present study the response of three confamilial alien invasive species, Anthemis cotula, Conyza canadensis, and Galinsoga parviflora, to independent and …

Fertilizers acidify soils

SOILS, too, must endure acidity. Each plant and soil life form has a particular soil pH it is used to. Any change can lead to complications in the organism’s metabolism. For example, decrease in pH modifies the top soils—a major source of crop nutrients. J H Guo from the China …

Indore’s soil is malnourished

Indore’s soil is malnourished Vital nutrients missing: study liberal doses of synthetic fertilizers may increase farm productivity for sometime but they are bad for the soil’s health. Studies conducted in the four tehsils of Indore district in Madhya Pradesh revealed injudicious use of fertilizer is causing nutrition deficiency in the …

Database creation using high resolution IRS PAN + LISS III satellite data for ecological modelling of Himalayas under GIS

This work reports an attempt to make use of the indigenously developed high resolution IRS-1C satellite imagery to generate a database, including expertize from different organizations involved in floral, soil, microbial, hydro, socio-economic and geological fields. In the absence of large scale topographic maps, high resolution precision geocoded PAN + …

Temperature-associated increases in the global soil respiration record

Soil respiration (RS) is the flux of microbial- and plant-respired carbon dioxide from the soil surface to the atmosphere, and constitutes the second-largest terrestrial carbon flux. It has been suggested that RS should change with climate, but this has been difficult to confirm observationally. It is shown here, however, that …

A warm response by soils

The carbon dioxide generated underground by plants and microbes and released into the atmosphere

Magnetic susceptibility distribution in the soils of Pune Metropolitan Region: implications to soil magnetometry of anthropogeni

Based on established linkages between ferrimagnetism and heavy metal concentration of anthropogenic particulates, we attempt here to delineate pollutant residing domains and study the role of surface runoff and wind circulations over its redistribution in the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) in Maharashtra.

Trees spit out gas from soil microbes

A study suggests that trees can act like chimneys, moving methane gas produced by soil microbes up through roots, stems and leaves before releasing it into the atmosphere. This effect could account for as much as 10% of methane emissions globally2. It could also help to explain why methane fluxes …

Watershed characterization and soil resource mapping for land use planning of Moolbari Watershed, Shimla District, Himachal

Precise characterization and inventorization of soil resource of Moolbari watershed was undertaken using satellite imagery and Survey of India toposheets to generate several layers of maps such as watershed boundary, drainage, soils, land use and land cover, physiography, slope and soil erosion using Geographic Information System technique.

Flooding out arsenic

For the last two decades the world has been trying to explain how arsenic leaches into groundwater in the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra floodplain. Solutions, however, are very few. An estimated 100 million people are still at risk from contamination. The latest research says floodwaters can remove arsenic. A team headed by Linda …

Alterations in soil physico-chemical properties as a consequence of raising teak plantation on barren land

Barren soil undergoes several changes in its physical and chemical properties when brought under tree cover. Trees influence the soil by providing shade and litter at the surface and through their roots in the sub-surface layers. The changes undergone by the barren soil after raising Tectona grandis plantation in Chiryapur …

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