Statistical analyses of the physiochemical properties of derived savanna, rainforest landscapes of Delta State Nigeria

The derived savanna landscape of Delta state situated within the rainforest region are always considered with apathy as they are viewed as idle, marginalized or abandoned landscapes. The study therefore focused on statistical analysis of the physiochemical properties of the derived savanna, rainforest and fallow landscapes of Delta state. The statistical analysis gave impetus for the derivation of Soil Fertility Index (SFI). The hypothesis formulated to guide the study was tested using the one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). This was used to test the variation between soil physiochemical parameters of the various landscapes at 0.05 significance level. Specifically, the study found out that the physiochemical parameters of the landscapes studied are significantly correlated. Thus, implying basic similarities in soil fertility and soil constituent tendencies between the landscapes.

PENGUKURAN RESISTIVITAS LAPISAN TANAH DI KELURAHAN TUAH KARYA MENGGUNAKAN KONFIGURASI SCHLUMBERGER

Geoelectric is one of the geophysical exploration methods that uses the earth's electrical properties to study subsurface conditions, the geoelectric method has several rules, one of which is Schlumberger's rule. This study aims to determine the composition of the soil layer, so that it can be known that the cause of difficult surface water seeps into the ground based on resistivity values at the HSB Indah Residence. Schlumberger configuration research uses a 300 meter stretch. Resistivity of soil constituent lithology in the study area was generated by processing geoelectric data using one-dimensional progress software. The cross section of the rock structure consists of five layers, namely the first layer is a clay layer with a resistivity value of 13.49 Ωm, the second layer is silt layer with a resistance value of 42.88 Ωm, the third layer is a clay layer with a value of 1.87 Ωm, the fourth layer is a layer of sandstone with a resistivity value of 59.17 Ωm and the fifth layer is a layer of gravel sand with a resistivity value of 443.40 Ωm. This shows that the cause of surface water is always flooded around the housing area, the soil layer is dominated by clay and silt material with a depth of more than 25 meters.

Surface-Subface Geochemical and Mineralogical Study of Gypcrete in Alexandria Area Central Iraq

Gypsiferous soil deposits (Gypcrete) are weakly consolidate earthy mixture of secondary gypsum, sand and clay. It is formed in arid and semi- arid area with annual precipitation rainfall less than 400mm. These sediments occur in surface and subsurface in region of little rainfall and rapid evaporation. This research deals with the study of gypcrete in Alexandria to improve the mineralogical and geochemical properties of the gypcrete. The gypcrete soil is used as raw material to produce the plaster for building purposes. Three samples of gypcrete were chemically and geochemically analyzed. The common mineral is howed in 0-0.5m Gypsum followed by Calcite in 0-1m and Quartz in 1-1.5m due to leaching and infiltration by rainfall as well as it full the clay Matrix and the voids between soil constituent, therefore soil properties changes with depth and the clay materials increases such as (Al, Na and K oxides) and Gypsum compound decreases (Ca, S and Sr oxides), yet the change in element concentration, takes the same path. This indicate that annual season rainfall is the only factor affecting mineralogy in this arid area and this means that the Gypsum concentration cannot be affected by ground water either increasing or decreasing. This research concerns about mineralogy and element occurrence variation in this material with accordance to their concentration from surface to depth of 1.5 meter.

THE COMPARISON OF THE STRUCTURE OF HUMIC ACIDS FROM SOIL AMENDED WITH DIFFERENT SOURCES OF ORGANIC MATTER

<p>Soil organic matter (SOM) is an essential soil constituent. The deficiency of SOM is an essential problem in many regions in Poland. Diversity of organic matter and the environment create varying structures and compositions, and thus differences in properties of humic substances (HS) especially humic acids (HAs). It was found that soil amendment with organic matter resulted in improving of soil and HAs properties compared with non-treatment ones. The results obtained provided the following evidences. With respect to HAs: an increasing content of carboxylic groups in HAs from amended soils; a major content of aromatic ring systems; higher carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulphur and lower oxygen contents comparing to the control; the addition of straw caused an increase of carbon content in HAs particles and, consequently a decrease of the C:H ratio; higher content of oxygen functional groups compared with non-treated ones. Organic matter from straw is more resistant to fast decomposition as compared to compost and it shows higher long-term sorption capacity. Therefore, straw may be an equivalent to natural sources of SOM in terms of agriculture and ecosystems protection.</p><p> </p><p>W zależności od rodzaju egzogennej materii organicznej (obornik, kompost, słoma) wprowadzonej do gleb wyekstrahowane kwasy huminowe charakteryzowały się różnymi właściwościami. Stwierdzono, że w kwasach huminowych wystąpił wzrost zawartości grup karboksylowych i fenolowych, większy udział struktur aromatycznych. W kwasach huminowych z gleb nawożonych stwierdzono większą zawartość węgla, wodoru, azotu i siarki oraz niższą zawartość tlenu w porównaniu do kwasów huminowych z gleb bez dodatku egzogennej materii organicznej. Dodatek słomy spowodował wzrost zawartości węgla w składzie pierwiastkowym kwasów huminowych a w konsekwencji zmniejszenie stosunku C:H. Materia organiczna ze słomy jest bardziej odporna na szybki rozkład w porównaniu z kompostem.</p>

The role of humic substances in detoxification process of the environment / Rola substancji humusowych w procesach detoksykacji środowiska

Chemical pollution of anthropogenic origin such as heavy metals, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls are some of serious threats to the environment. Their main sources are industry, transport, and agriculture. Chemical substances pollute the air, water and soil, where ultimately most of them reach and accumulate. Soil constituent involved in the adsorption of impurities is organic matter (OM), the structure of which can be divided into three fractions: humic acids (HA), fulvic acids (FA) and humin (H). The impact of pollution with OM allows the presence of active functional groups, among others, -OH, -COOH, -NH3, -OCH3. Strongly adsorbed contaminants are not available for soil microorganisms.

Discovery of Discrete Structured Bubbles within Lunar Regolith Impact Glasses

The unusual morphology and internal structure of bubbles within lunar regolith impact glasses have been studied using traditional scanning electron microscopy and the novel technique transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM), with 3D tomography reconstruction. Here, we show the previously unknown phenomenon of building a highly porous cellular structure within bubbles in glassy particles of the dust fraction of lunar regolith. Vesicles within studied lunar glasses are filled in with submicron-sized particles as shown in the presented micrograph. These particles consist of glass nano in size elements. What is shown in the TXM tomography reconstruction anaglyph demonstrates cellular-like, 3D structure where oblique probably glassy fine particles down to 100 nm in diameter build chains of sophisticated network. It also may be suggested that submicron and nano-sized grains present in lunar regolith are the result of particle liberation from broken glassy vesicles. This liberation takes place when regolith is exposed to constant impact pulverisation. Liberated particles are permanently enriching lunar soil in the finest soil constituent. This constituent presence in lunar regolith may be responsible for the unusual behaviour of lunar material. This unusual constituent of lunar regolith and its properties have to be better understood before our permanent lunar exploration begins.

A Comparison of Feature-Based MLR and PLS Regression Techniques for the Prediction of Three Soil Constituents in a Degraded South African Ecosystem

The accurate assessment of selected soil constituents can provide valuable indicators to identify and monitor land changes coupled with degradation which are frequent phenomena in semiarid regions. Two approaches for the quantification of soil organic carbon, iron oxides, and clay content based on field and laboratory spectroscopy of natural surfaces are tested. (1) A physical approach which is based on spectral absorption feature analysis is applied. For every soil constituent, a set of diagnostic spectral features is selected and linked with chemical reference data by multiple linear regression (MLR) techniques. (2) Partial least squares regression (PLS) as an exclusively statistical multivariate method is applied for comparison. Regression models are developed based on extensive ground reference data of 163 sampled sites collected in the Thicket Biome, South Africa, where land changes are observed due to intensive overgrazing. The approaches are assessed upon their prediction performance and significance in regard to a future quantification of soil constituents over large areas using imaging spectroscopy.