The root biomass study of karst (limestone and dolomite) vegetation in southwestern China and even in the word’s karst regions is rarely investigated. The mixed evergreen and deciduous broadleaved forest in karst terrain of SW China has higher root biomass, but very high ratio of root to aboveground biomass compared to non-karst subtropical evergreen broadleaved forests. Such findings have significant ecological meanings for vegetation restoration and carbon increment.

Impact of coal mining on soil was assessed through an integrated environmental soil quality index (ESQI). Biological activity was higher in underground mine (UGM) soil. As, Be, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Pb were higher in opencast mine (OCM) soil, whereas Cd was higher in UGM. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were higher in UGM soil. Calculated ESQI, based on total PAHs, loss on ignition, bulk density, Be, Co, Cr, Ni, Pb, and microbial quotient, was higher for UGM (+10.1%) than OCM soils.

This paper combines fieldwork, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and remote sensing in the jointed and faulted grabens area of Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA. GPR profiles show that graben floors are subject to faulting, although the surface shows no scarps. We enhance evidence for the effect of preexisting joints on the formation of dilatant faults and provide a conceptual model for graben evolution. Correlating paleosols from outcrops and GPR adds to estimates of the age of the grabens.

This paper presents a new methodology to treat statistically pyroclast density and porosity data sets introducing a weighting parameter. It also proposes a stability analysis to check if the sample set is large enough for statistical reliability. Finally we introduce graphical statistics to improve distinction between pyroclastic deposits and understanding of eruptive dynamics. An open source R code is supplied that includes all these features in order to facilitate data processing.

Here we aim to demonstrate that a dpatial decision support system based on geospatial cyberinfrastructure (GCI) can profitably address many contrasting demands on our landscape concerning agriculture and environment as well as many land degradation problems. In this paper, we discuss methods and results of a special kind of GCI architecture, highly focused on soil and land conservation, developed in the framework of the SOILCONSWEB LIFE+ project.

The amount of water available to plants in a closed landfill soil is analyzed by laboratory analyses, by using pedotransfer functions (PTFs) and by studying plant coverage. The laboratory analyses and PTFs highlighted the soil's inability to hold water. The closed landfill plant coverage consists of annual species (therophytes) typical of disturbed environments. The soil's low-water content, together with other degraded soil characters, justifies the plant coverage.

We observed with seismic data the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) in the western United States and the mid-lithospheric discontinuity (MLD) in the central United States. In the northern and southern United States, the western LAB (probably of the Farallon plate) is weakly east dipping. There are indications of a west-dipping MLD in between. We interpret this interfingering structure of the mantle lithosphere as a result of the collision of the Farallon and the Laurentia plates.

We observed with seismic data in the entire region of Turkey and surroundings the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB). It is located generally between 80 and 100km depth outside the subduction zone. No change of the LAB depth was observed across the North and East Anatolian faults. The LAB of the subducting African plate is observed down to about 150km depth from the Aegean to the east of Cyprus, with a tear at Cyprus.

A fuzzy intelligent system based on a fuzzy decision tree was established for land potential evaluation. We proposed one new model for feature selection based on the fuzzy measure using the L1-norm method, which can help to construct an index system for intelligent evaluation. The data comes from the “Three Old” project of Shunde, China. It is huge and heterogeneous and is therefore used first for research. The fuzzy intelligent system shows good performance for land potential evaluation.

We reproduced in an experiment the mixing of two different magmas by bubbles. Bubbles form filaments when dragging portions of one magma into another and thus mingle both magmas. Bubble mixing must be an accelerating process in nature, because formed filaments are channels of low resistance for subsequently rising bubbles. In natural gas-rich magmas, this may be an important mechanism for magma mixing. Natural samples from Axial Seamount show evidence for bubble mixing.

In addition to physical factors, socioeconomic factors have crucial effects on soil erosion, although the joint study of physical and socioeconomic factors has been limited to date. To address this, the present study aimed to determine the effect of socioeconomic factors on soil loss and, in turn, to modify the universal soil loss equation (USLE).

Similar to temperature and pressure, grain boundary greatly affects the electrical properties of rocks. However, the relation between the total conductivity, grain boundary and grain interior conductivity for andesite remains unclear till now. In this study, the grain boundary electrical conductivity of quartz andesite was measured, and the conduction mechanism was discussed.

We find pinch and swell structures from a mid-crustal zone in Fiordland, NZ are initiated by brittle failure of the strongest layer. Modelling this strain localisation and viscous flow shows material softening is important and structures develop in both Newtonian and non-Newtonian flow, with strain localisation impacting both bedding rotation and structure formation. We also find strain localising behaviour combined with viscous flow is a viable alternative representation of the middle crust.

This study showed that resource-poor smallholder farmers can ably rate fields for soil fertility as poor or good but had difficulties in identifying medium-fertility fields. Rating with SOC improved precision to rate medium-fertility fields. SOC and clay content explained the highest yield variances in heterogeneous smallholder farms. A combination of SOC and farmers' field experiences can be affordable approaches to guide fertility management and fertilizer application.

This is a story about the ever-changing surface of our planet and how and why that happens. The first author was thanked by Hess (1960 preprint), but he only watched the theory’s growth from the sidelines. The 10 years that followed brought forth a deluge of evidence. Now 55 years later, no net torque amongst the plates remains, but still without a mechanism. Bowin (2010) demonstrated plate tectonics conserves angular momentum, but few appear to note its existence. This clarifies the mechanism.