Jeehwan Bae : Paper of the week & Book of the month

Author  :  Eleanor Hobley, Markus Steffens, Sara L. Bauke & Ingrid Kögel-Knabner Year  : 2018 Title  :  Hotspots of soil organic carbon  storage revealed by laboratory  hyperspectral imaging Journal  :  Scientific Reports Comment   :   They tested the application  of laboratory hyperspectral imaging with a variety of machine learning approaches to predict OC  distribution in undisturbed soil cores.  Despite a  large increase in variance and reduction in OC content with increasing depth, the high resolution of the  images enabled statistically powerful analysis in spatial distribution of OC in the soil cores.  Laboratory hyperspectral imaging enables  powerful, fine-scale investigations of the vertical distribution of soil OC as well as hotspots of OC  storage in undisturbed samples, overcoming limitations of traditional soil sampling campaigns.

Author  :  Shengyao Jia, Hongyang Li, Yanjie Wang, Renyuan Tong and Qing Li Year  : 2017 Title  :  Hyperspectral Imaging Analysis for the Classification  of Soil Types and the Determination of Soil  Total Nitrogen Journal  :  Sensors Comment   :   In this work, hyperspectral  imaging (HSI) technology was applied for the classification of soil types and the measurement of soil  total nitrogen (TN) content.  A total of 183 soil samples collected from Shangyu City (People’s Republic  of China), were scanned by a near-infrared hyperspectral imaging system with a wavelength range of  874–1734 nm.   The successive projections algorithm (SPA) method was utilized  to select effective wavelengths from the full spectrum. Pattern texture features (energy, contrast,  homogeneity and entropy) were extracted from the gray-scale images at the effective wavelengths.  The supp...

Author  :  Qingjun Guo, Guangxu Zhu, Harald Strauss, Marc Peters, Tongbin Chen, Junxing Yang, Rongfei Wei,  Liyan Tian, Xiaokun Han Year  : 2016 Title  :  Tracing the sources of sulfur in Beijing soils with stable sulfur isotopes Journal  :  Journal of Geochemical Exploration Comment   :   Stable sulfur isotope analyses were applied in order to trace local sulfur sources and to identify sulfur turnover  rates in Beijing soil. Anthropogenic sources and atmospheric deposition are the main processes responsible for  the occurrence of sulfide, organic and sulfate sulfur in three soil profiles located in the vicinity of a steel company  in Beijing, China. This input results in an atypical invariable sulfur isotopic composition along the vertical profiles.  The δ34S values of soil sulfate from the industrial area revealed that both the topsoil and deep soil have been  affected by industrial ...

Author  :  Stevenson, Bryan A Parfitt, RL Schipper, Louis A Baisden, W Troy Mudge, P Year  : 2010 Title  :  Relationship between soil δ15N, C/N and N losses across land uses in New Zealand Journal  :  Agriculture, ecosystems & environment Comment   :  Several of the major processes that result in N loss from soil (nitrification, ammonia volatilization, and  denitrification) discriminate against 15N and fractionate the stable N isotopes, thus  δ 15N of ecosystem  components has been suggested as an indicator of ecosystem N leakiness. Mean soil δ 15N differed  between land uses with intensively managed cropping having the highest mean soil  δ 15N (6.2‰) followed  by dairy (5.4‰), drystock (3.8‰), forestry (2.8‰) and indigenous forests (2.1‰).  Over all land uses  there was a negative correlation between  δ 15N and the soil C/N ratio (p =−0.73) and regression analysis...

Author  :  Vasenev, V.  Kuzyakov, Y. Year  : 2018 Title  :  Urban soils as hot spots of anthropogenic carbon accumulation:  Review of stocks, mechanisms and driving factors Journal  :  Land Degradation & Development Comment   :  Urban soils and cultural layers may accumulate C over centuries and consequently  large C stocks may be sequestered beneath cities.  Substantial amounts of SOC, SIC,  and N are sequestered in the subsoils, cultural layers, and sealed soils, underlining  the importance of these hidden stocks for C assessments. Long‐term С input from  outside the cities and associated C accumulation coincided with upward soil growth  of ~50 cm per century, and continuous accumulation of 15–30 kg C/m2 per century  in urban soils and cultural layers. They conclude that, despite the relatively small area  of cities, urban soils are hot spots of long‐term soil C sequestr...

Author  :  Dustin L. Herrmann, Laura A. Schifman, and William D. Shuster Year  : 2018 Title  :  Widespread loss of intermediate soil horizons in  urban landscapes Journal  :  PNAS Comment   :  Urbanization processes modify ecosystem function by changing the layers of soils identified as soil horizons. Soil horizons are integrative proxies for suites of soil properties and as such can be used as an observable unit to track modifications within soil profiles.  Here, in an analysis of 11 cities representing 10 of the 12 soil orders, they show that urban soils have ∼50% fewer soil horizons than preurban soils. Specifically, B horizons were much less common in urban soils and were replaced by a deepening of A horizons and a shallowing of C horizons. This shift is likely due to two processes: (i) local management, i.e., soil removal, mixing, and fill additions, and (ii) soil development timelines, i.e., urbanized soils ...

Author  :  Josep G. Canadell & E. Detlef Schulze Year  : 2014 Title  :  Global potential of biospheric carbon  management for climate mitigation Journal  :   Nature Communications Comment   :  Land-based biological carbon mitigation  strategies are considered an important and viable pathway towards climate stabilization.  However, to satisfy the growing demands for food, wood products, energy, climate mitigation  and biodiversity conservation—all of which compete for increasingly limited quantities of  biomass and land—the deployment of mitigation strategies must be driven by sustainable and  integrated land management. If executed accordingly, through avoided emissions and carbon  sequestration, biological carbon and bioenergy mitigation could save up to 38 billion tonnes of carbon and 3–8% of estimated energy consumption, respectively, by 2050.

Author  :  S Fuss, CDJones, F Kraxner, GP Peters, P Smith, MTavoni, DP van Vuuren, JG Canadell, RB Jackson, J Milne, JR Moreira, NNakicenovic, A Sharifi and Y Yamagata Year  : 2016 Title  : Research priorities for negative emissions Journal  :   Environmental Research Letters Comment   :   Activities commonly considered to create negative  emissions include large-scale afforestation, bioenergy  combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS),  direct removal of CO2 from the ambient air by means  of chemical reaction, enhanced weathering, biochar  formation, and soil carbon sequestration. Research on  NETs has been conducted for almost two decades , but the topic has received more attention since the  IPCC’s AR5 and beyond. (1) Bio-energy and CCS (BECCS)—the generation of  energy from burning biomass coupled to the  capture and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in...

Author  :  G. Venkatesh, Arthur Chan, Helge Brattebo Year  : 2014 Title  : Understanding the water-energy-carbon nexus in urban water utilities: Comparison of four city case studies and the relevant influencing factors Journal  :  Energy Comment   : How does the urban environment influence the water-energy-carbon nexus? The authors have tried to answer this question by referring to four case studies e based on the cities of Nantes (France), Oslo (Norway), Turin (Italy) and Toronto (Canada). The authors have attempted to provide directions for process, program and policy interventions. For instance, Nantes needs to make an effort to restrict the use of herbicides and pesticides in order to improve the quality of water in the river Loire and thereby reduce the energy demand for treating raw water. Turin is a part, would do well to invest in more efficient wastewater treatment facilities, thus reducing the energy burden significantly o...

Author  :  Walker, Tom W. N. Kaiser, Christina Strasser, Florian Herbold, Craig W. Leblans, Niki I. W. Woebken, Dagmar Janssens, Ivan A. Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. Richter, Andreas Year  : 2018 Title  : Microbial temperature sensitivity and biomass change explain soil carbon loss with warming Journal  :   Nature Climate Change Comment   :

Author  :  Mia M. Bennett , Laurence C. Smith Year  : 2017 Title  :  Advances in using multitemporal night-time lights satellite imagery to  detect, estimate, and monitor socioeconomic dynamics Journal  :   Remote Sensing of Environment Comment   :

Author  :  Raphael K. Didham and John H. Lawton Year  : 1999 Title  :  Edge Structure Determines the Magnitude of Changes in Microclimate and Vegetation Structure in Tropical Forest Fragments Journal  :   BIOTROPICA Comment   :

Author  : Leena Hamberg, Susanna  Lehva¨virta, D. Johan Kotze Year  : 2009 Title  :    Forest edge structure as a shaping factor of understorey vegetation in urban forests in Finland Journal  :  Forest Ecology and Management Comment   :

Author  :  Chao Wang & Haiwei Wei & Dongwei Liu & Wentao Luo & Jianfeng Hou & Weixin Cheng & Xingguo Han & Edith Bai Year  : 2018 Title  :    Depth profiles of soil carbon isotopes along a semi-arid grassland transect in northern China Journal  :   Plant Soil Comment   :

Author  :  Leo Rothacker, Anthony Dosseto, Alexander Francke, Allan R. Chivas, Nathalie Vigier, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley & Davide Menozzi Year  : 2018 Title  :    Impact of climate change and human activity on soil landscapes over the past 12,300 years Journal  :  Scientific Reports Comment   :