Soil productivity

Much attention has been given in recent years to the environmental aspects of both the drilling operation and the drilling fluid components. Well-deserved concern with the possibility of polluting underground water supplies and of damaging marine organisms, as well as with the more readily observed effects on soil productivity and surface water quality, has stimulated widespread studies on this subject. 

The soil may represent a thin film on the surface of the Earth, but the importance of soils in global biogeochemical cycles arises from their role as the interface between the Earth, its atmosphere, and the biosphere. All terrestrial biological activity is founded upon soil productivity, and the weathering of rocks that helps to maintain atmospheric equilibrium occurs within soils. Soils provide the foundation for key aspects of global biogeochemical cycles. 

By sharply decreasing biodiversity in the soil ecosystem, pesticides negatively affect all soil organisms on which soil productivity depends. Pesticides affect the biological activity in soil, especially through long-term use and accumulation (or accumulation of their residues). 

The objective of this chapter is to discuss how the soil production rate of GHG is affected by treatment type, soil properties, and cultivar. This review will also discuss which processes are involved in the production of CO2, N20, and CH4 when crops are grown under in vitro or greenhouse conditions, and will discuss how these processes work. 

Several researchers emphasized that compost is also an excellent material to use to prevent the acidification and the deterioration of soil productivity [8, 51-54]. Several factors including moisture content, temperature, aeration rate, and carbon to nitrogen ratio have direct influence on composting process, which has been reviewed in detail in the past. 

Doi R, Sakurai K (2004) Principal components derived from soil physicochemical data explained a land degradation gradient, and suggested the applicability of new indexes for estimation of soil productivity in the Sakaerat Environmental Research Station, Thailand. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol... 

Declining amounts of arable land, increasing world populations, and increasing costs of fertilizer and food and energy needs will make it increasingly difficult to maintain our soil resources. A key component for sustaining soil productivity is the maintenance of soil organic carbon (SOC). SOC maintenance requires the amount of carbon added to the system to equal the amount of relic carbon mineralized... 

Gilkes RY (1990) Mineralogical insights into soil productivity An anatomical perspective. Proc 14th Congress of Soil Science, Kyoto, Japan. Transaction Plenary Papers pp 63-75 Grahamme DC (1947) The electrical double layer and the theory of electrocapillarity. Chem Rev 41 441-501n... 

Conservation agroecosystems developed in the Great Plains of the U.S. to control soil erosion are characterized by the presence of varying quantities of plant residues on the soil surface. This residue mulch protects the soil from the erosive forces of wind and water, resulting in improved stream water quality and soil conservation. Conservation tillage systems also help maintain soil productivity and reduce energy requirements of crop production (15). However, crop yield reduction has been observed with conservation wheat production in some areas of the U.S. (16-18) and with rice culture in the Far East (, 20). 

Stockpiling, transporting, and depositing clean, washed soil product fraction temporarily Dirty washwater treatment process (usually a treatment train including clarifiers, chemical reactors, filter, carbon contractors, dewatering presses, tanks, etc.)... 

Desertification is caused by overcultivation, overgrazing, and deforestation. This may result in soil exhaustion and erosion. This will in turn decrease the soil productivity, reduce food production, deprive the land of its vegetative cover, and negatively impact areas not directly affected by its symptoms, by causing floods, soil salinisation, deterioration of water quality, and silting of rivers, streams, and reservoirs (http //www.fao.org). 

Clean in place (CIP) is a system which involves circulating or once-through water rinses and chemical or sanitizing solutions which are discharged through plant and equipment while kept in an assembled state. The rinses and solutions are used such that all contaminated or soiled product contact surfaces are cleaned to an acceptably high and consistently reproducible state. 

Edmeades, D.C. 2003. The long-term effects of manures and fertilisers on soil productivity and quality, a review. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 66(2) 165-180. 

The complexity of interactions between species and ecosystem functions are not yet fully explored so that simple biological indicators of soil productivity are yet to be identified. In particular, more research is needed on the interactions between the diversity and density of habitats in the agricultural landscape, and the performance of production systems. Both the positive and negative interactions between cultivated and uncultivated areas in organic farming systems need to be covered. Reliable indicators of a supposed functional integrity need to be developed. 

The flow of water through soil is called percolation. The more porous the soil, the greater the rate of percolation. With excessive percolation, flowing water removes many water-soluble nutrients needed to make the soil productive. This process is known as leaching. With too little percolation, topsoil becomes waterlogged, choking off a plants supply of oxygen. Soils with optimal percolation drain water from all but the smallest air pockets. 

These observations later stimulated the general belief that prevailed through the earlier decades of the 19th century—namely, that humus is the only or the major soil product supplying nutrients to plants. The direct utilization of humus by plants was fully developed by Thaer (1808,1846), who stated that humus comprises a more or less considerable portion of soil fertility of the soil depends largely upon it since, besides water, humus is the only material that supplies nutrients to plants. This concept was referred to as the humus theory. 

Miller GC, Herbert VR, Miille MJ, et al. 1989a. Photolysis of octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin on soils Production of 2,3,7,8-TCDD. Chemosphere 18 1265-1274. 

Highland temperate mixed cereals, e.g. wheat and barley, and legumes, e.g. pea and lentil, are the main staples. Farm size is 1-2 ha. Soil productivity suffers from soil erosion and lack of inputs. Cattle are kept as draught animals, for milk, manure, savings and emergency sale. Off-farm activities are limited. 

Inspection methodology Interview with the responsible person Checking the records and documentation Soil/product sampling Physically inspecting the farm or the factory... 

The conceptual model for diffusive soil transport down a hillslope is shown in Eigure 24 (Heimsath et al., 1997, 1999). In any given section of the landscape, the mass of soil present is the balance of transport in, transport out, and soil production (the conversion of rock or sediment to soil). If it is assumed that the processes have been operating for a sufficiently long period of time, then the soil thickness is at steady state. The model describing this condition is... 

Soil production is a function of sod depth (Heimsath et al., 1997), parent material, and environmental conditions (Heimsath et al.,1999). As soil thickens, the rate of the conversion of the underlying rock or sediment to sod decreases. This has been shown using field observations of the relation between soil thickness and the abundance of cosmogenic nuclides ( °Be and A1) in the quartz grains at the rock-soil interface (Figure 24). From this work, soil production can be described by... 

---