Soil, environmental impacts

In natural soils, environmental impacts are variously combined and assessed in each individual case resulting in a great variety of material properties. However, hydrological conditions may vary during the exposure time of the artefact in an archaeological site. 

Exploration activities are potentially damaging to the environment. The cutting down of trees in preparation for an onshore seismic survey may result in severe soil erosion in years to come. Offshore, fragile ecological systems such as reefs can be permanently damaged by spills of crude or mud chemicals. Responsible companies will therefore carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prior to activity planning and draw up contingency plans should an accident occur. In Section 4.0 a more detailed description of health, safety and environmental considerations will be provided. 

Degradation or Transformation. Degradation or transformation of a herbicide by soil microbes or by abiotic means has a significant influence not only on the herbicide s fate in the environment but also on the compound s efficacy. Herbicides that are readily degraded by soil microbes or other means may have a reduced environmental impact but may not be efficacious. Consider the phenomenon of herbicide-resistant soils. In these cases, repeated application of a given herbicide has led to a microbial population with an enhanced ability to degrade that herbicide (252,253). This results in a decrease or total loss of the ability of the herbicide to control the weed species in question in a cost-effective manner. 

Many factors affect the mechanisms and kinetics of sorption and transport processes. For instance, differences in the chemical stmcture and properties, ie, ionizahility, solubiUty in water, vapor pressure, and polarity, between pesticides affect their behavior in the environment through effects on sorption and transport processes. Differences in soil properties, ie, pH and percentage of organic carbon and clay contents, and soil conditions, ie, moisture content and landscape position climatic conditions, ie, temperature, precipitation, and radiation and cultural practices, ie, crop and tillage, can all modify the behavior of the pesticide in soils. Persistence of a pesticide in soil is a consequence of a complex interaction of processes. Because the persistence of a pesticide can govern its availabiUty and efficacy for pest control, as weU as its potential for adverse environmental impacts, knowledge of the basic processes is necessary if the benefits of the pesticide ate to be maximized. 

Introduction. Disintegration and erosion of surface layers of the world s soils may be the most severe of the environmental impacts caused by human... 

Through numerous research efforts since the 1980s, several factors have been determined to affect CH4 emissions from rice cultivation. Due to the complex balance of methanogenesis and methanotrophy that determines how much CH4 escapes the rice system to the atmosphere along with the large variety of cultural and environmental conditions around the globe, there is large variability in the impact of different factors across time and space. There are a few soil, environmental, and plant factors, however, that seem to have somewhat consistent impacts on CH4 emissions from rice. 

It is well known that crop management systems, the quality of the soil and the weathering conditions are just some of the factors used in order to assess production of GHG. Therefore, an understanding of the future environmental impacts of crop production is essential in order to achieve greater crop yields without decreasing the quality of the environment and social welfare. Additionally, Tilman [2] reported that the recent intensification of agriculture, coupled with the prospect of even further intensification in the future, will have major detrimental impacts on the world s ecosystems. 

To address media-specific problems, single-media models for air, surface water, groundwater and soil pollution have been developed and used by different disciplines. Although these models generally provide detailed description of the pollutant distribution in space and time and incorporate mass transfer from other media as boundary conditions, they are not capable of characterizing the total environmental impact of a pollutant release. Multimedia models have been, therefore, developed to predict the concentration of chemicals in multiple environmental media simultaneously with consideration of chemical transport and transformation within and among media [1],... 

Robinson BH (2009) E-Waste An assessment of global production and environmental impacts. Elsevier, Science of the total environment 408 (2009) (Department of Soil and Physical Sciences, Lincoln Univeristy, New Zealand)... 

Barman, S.C. and S.K. Bhargava. 1997. Accumulation of heavy metals in soil and plants in industrially polluted fields. Pages 289-314 in P.N. Cheremisinoff (ed.). Ecological Issues and Environmental Impact Assessment. Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, TX. 

As informed Dr. A.I. Korableva from Institute for Environmental Management and Ecology under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the report "Environmental impact of automobile transport by example of Dnepropetrovsk", Dnepropetrovsk with its annual discharge of air pollutants of 177,000 t (as of 1996) is among the worst affected cities in Ukraine. In these, the automobile transport was found to be responsible for at least 30 % of the total emissions which are 15 times the maximum permissible level. Aside from the dust, chemical, photochemical and noise pollution, there is the aspect of street washout of automobile-related pollutants into the River Dnieper. The measured annual receipts of lead, particulates and petroleum derivatives via rainwater and thaw water to the river are 0.45, 80,000+ and 1.8+ t respectively. The actual levels of petroleum derivatives in storm water sometimes were 206 times the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) for the fishery basins. At 34 km downstream from the city, the estimated levels of petroleum derivatives and particulates are 61 and 10.8 times the respective MPCs. The airborne lead is mainly accumulated in the soil of housing areas. 

Payraudeau S, Vanderwerf HMG (2005) Environmental impact assessment for a farming region a review of methods. Agric Ecosyst Environ 107 1-19 Peacock AD, Mullen MD, Ringelberg DB, Tyler DD, Hedrick DB, Gale PM, White DC (2001) Soil microbial community responses to dairy manure or ammonium nitrate applications. Soil Biol Biochem 33 1011-1019... 

Hansen B, Alroe HF, Kristensen ES (2001) Approaches to assess the environmental impact of organic farming with particular regard to Denmark. Agric Ecosyst Environ 83 11-26 Harinikumar KM, Bagyaraj DJ (1989) Effect of cropping sequence, fertilizers and farmyard manure on vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in different crops over three consecutive seasons. Biol Fertil Soils 7 173-175... 

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