Soil Science Commons^™

Exploring Soil Microbial Dynamics In Southern Appalachian Forests: A Systems Biology Approach To Prescribed Fire Impacts, Saad Abd Ar Rafie

Doctoral Dissertations

Prescribed fires in Southern Appalachian forests are vital in ecosystem management and wildfire risk mitigation. However, understanding the intricate dynamics between these fires, soil microbial communities, and overall ecosystem health remains challenging. This dissertation addresses this knowledge gap by exploring selected aspects of this complex relationship across three interconnected chapters.

The first chapter investigates the immediate effects of prescribed fires on soil microbial communities. It reveals subtle shifts in porewater chemistry and significant increases in microbial species richness. These findings offer valuable insights into the interplay between soil properties and microbial responses during the early stages following a prescribed fire. …

Design Of Stormwater Bmps For Surface And Groundwater Protection Based On Site-Scale Soil Properties: Phase I, Kelly Kibler, Lisa Chambers, Melanie Beazley

Florida DOT

Much of Earth’s nutrient cycling takes place in soils. Characteristics of soils control physical, chemical, and biological processes that determine rates of nutrient fluxes, storage, or transformation. As remediation of excess nutrients in stormwater runoff is one function of stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs), the soil profile constitutes one of the most important factors of BMP design. Variation observed in BMP effectiveness (e.g., why one BMP design works effectively in one place and not another) can often be explained by variations in the soil profile, either through direct means or by a soil’s influence on hydraulics of stormwater flow through …

Verification Of Astm Centrifugation Equations For Soil Suction Determination, Esteban Maclein Miranda Pinzon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The unit correction constant (B) in the ASTM D6836 standard needs to be evaluated. The B-value was proposed to be 0.00548 instead of 0.00553. This apparent discrepancy led to an investigation comparing the predicted and measured suction values for high air entry (HAE) ceramic disks. A Beckman-Coulter Model J6-MI six-bay centrifuge and a WP4C Dewpoint Potentiameter were used in the testing program. HAE ceramic disks rated with bubbling pressures of 3-bar and 5-bar were used as analogue soil specimens. The HAE ceramic disks were spun in the small-scale centrifuge to apply prescribed suction amounts and then placed in the WP4C …

A Hybrid Lateral Flow Sand Filter Wastewater Treatment System: An Evaluation On The Treatment And Disposal Capabilities Of A Modified Sand Filter, Harry Mccaskill Iv

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

Decentralized wastewater treatment exists primarily in suburban and rural areas where centralized treatment is not an option. Traditional on-site treatment systems usually include the use of a septic tank and a drain field. This orthodox method works well when implemented into environments that are accommodating for the infiltration of effluents, and thus allowing for soil treatment. Unfortunately, there are some circumstances that prevent traditional systems from working such as impermeable soil conditions. The Wastewater Treatment System analyzed in this thesis was created to overcome such inhospitable environments. More specifically, this system is catered towards the rural residences of The Alabama …

Impacts Of Preferential Flow On Tc-99and Np-237 Vadose Transport In Soils At The Savannah River Site, Josh Parris

All Theses

Since the 1950s, the United States has produced approximately 90,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) (Office of Nuclear Energy, 2022); however, no long-term storage solutions are available. Technecium-99 and neptunium-237, two fission products found in SNF, readily form highly mobile species in oxidizing conditions (Hu, 2008; Bondietti, 1979) and have respective half-lives of 2.13 x 10⁵ and 2.14 x10⁶ years (Hu, 2010). Considering these characteristics, ⁹⁹Tc and ²³⁷Np are two risk-driving isotopes found in SNF storage. The process of macropore-facilitated preferential flow, transport through cracks within a soil matrix, has been recognized to increase …

Cyclic Behavior Of Transitional Fine-Grained Soils In Northern Willamette Valley, Frank Jarman

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

As discussed within studies from Idriss and Boulanger (2008) and Bray and Sancio (2006), the undrained cyclic shear behavior of low-plasticity fine-grained soils will transition between liquefaction (sand-like behavior) to cyclic softening (clay-like behavior) over a narrow range of plasticity index (PI). Despite not being sufficiently understood, the cyclic behavior of low plasticity silts has become an increasingly important field of study due to the significant impact it has on ground deformations and infrastructure failure in areas that are seismically active. Laboratory tests were performed on soils by third party consultants on a site located in the northern Willamette Valley, …

Towards Sweetness Classification Of Orange Cultivars Using Short‑Wave Nir Spectroscopy, Ayesha Zeb, Waqar Shahid Qureshi, Abdul Ghafoor, Amanullah Malik, Muhammad Imran, Alina Mirza, Mohsin Islam Tiwana, Eisa Alanazi

Articles

The global orange industry constantly faces new technical challenges to meet consumer demands for quality fruits. Instead of traditional subjective fruit quality assessment methods, the interest in the horticulture industry has increased in objective, quantitative, and non-destructive assessment methods. Oranges have a thick peel which makes their non-destructive quality assessment challenging. This paper evaluates the potential of short-wave NIR spectroscopy and direct sweetness classification approach for Pakistani cultivars of orange, i.e., Red-Blood, Mosambi, and Succari. The correlation between quality indices, i.e., Brix, titratable acidity (TA), Brix: TA and BrimA (Brix minus acids), sensory assessment of the fruit, and short-wave NIR …