News tagged with soil erosion

New insights: How soil production processes respond to erosion

In many ways, soil is fundamental to life. Flora and fauna depend on its presence for their survival as much as they depend on water and air. In order to sustain its soil content, an ecosystem needs to maintain ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A novel strategy to reduce farm runoff will be tested starting in Minnesota

Minnesota will be the nation's first test site for a novel federal program designed to stem the flow of agricultural pollution that is strangling some of the country's great waterways, including the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Alaskan lake bed cores show expanding Arctic shrubs may slow erosion

The relationship between permafrost, Arctic vegetation, soil erosion, and changing air temperatures is complicated at best. For instance, rising temperatures melt surface permafrost layers and increase shrub growth. These ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 31, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Reclaiming the land after a forest fire

Wildfires cause tragic losses to life, property, and the environment. But even after the fire rages, the damage is far from done. Without vegetation, bare, burnt soil lies vulnerable to erosion, which can impede efforts towards ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 22, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Improved rainwater harvesting system promising

Ridge and furrow rainwater-harvesting (RFRH) systems with mulches were first researched in the flat, lowland, semiarid conditions of northwest China to improve water availability and to increase crop production. ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Research improves cold-hardy wheat

(PhysOrg.com) -- With global demand for wheat exceeding 20 billion bushels a year, producers need more high-yielding crops that can survive in the extreme climate of the Canadian Prairies.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 06, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

UN warns 25 pct of world land highly degraded

(AP) -- The United Nations has completed the first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet's land resources, finding in a report Monday that a quarter of all land is highly degraded and warning the trend must be ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Long-Term carbon storage in Ganges basin may portend global warming worsening

(PhysOrg.com) -- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists have found that carbon is stored in the soils and sediments of the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin for a surprisingly long time, making it likely ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 09, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (6) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Patented method transforms digital cameras for aerial color infrared photography

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and David Linden, a technical consultant currently serving as a chief scientist at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in McLean, Va., have jointly ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Forests under threat from exotic earthworm invasion

It is widely acknowledged that human beings are largely responsible for the widespread alteration of ecosystems on the planet. A recent study by Dara Seidl and Peter Klepeis of Colgate University in New York traces the ways ...

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 01, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 4

Corn yields with perennial cover crop are equal to traditional farming

Soil quality, water quality, and possibly even farm profits will all benefit by using a perennial cover crop on corn fields that allows for similar yields to traditional farming methods, according to Iowa ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1

Fingerprinting fugitive dust

Each community of soil microbes has a unique fingerprint that can potentially be used to track soil back to its source, right down to whether it came from dust from a rural road or from a farm field, according to a U.S. Department ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers examine way to undercut dust emissions

There is literally a way to undercut dust emissions in the very driest parts of the Pacific Northwest's Columbia Plateau region, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 14, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The future of cover crops

Winter cover crops are an important component of nutrient cycling, soil cover and organic matter content. Although its benefits are well documented, cover crop use in farming systems is relatively low. Research has shown ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jul 13, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Producing cold-tolerant oats for autumn sowing in Sweden

Oat is the sixth most important cereal in the world. Traditionally it has been used for feed, but it's importance as a food crop is steadily growing due to it's unique health beneficial properties. Unfortunately, ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jun 28, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0