Article
Soil Science
Rudiyanto, Budiman Minasny, Nathaniel W. Chaney, Federico Maggi, Sunny Goh Eng Giap, Ramisah M. Shah, Dian Fiantis, Budi Setiawan
Summary: This study introduces neuroFX, a suite of PTFs developed for estimating soil hydraulic curves based on the FXW model. It offers an uncertainty estimate of hydraulic parameters and outperformed existing PTFs such as ROSETTA and BW in predicting soil water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity curves.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Hans W. Klopp, Francisco A. Arriaga, A. L. M. Daigh, W. F. Bleam
Summary: This study improved the prediction accuracy of soil hydraulic properties on salt affected soils by developing new pedotransfer functions that take into account the influence of soil clay mineralogy and solution composition. The newly developed functions outperformed previous models and can easily predict the response of soils to changes in irrigation water quality.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yunquan Wang, Jieliang Zhou, Rui Ma, Gaofeng Zhu, Yongyong Zhang
Summary: This paper presents a simple method for predicting soil hydraulic properties in dry conditions, which overcomes the limitations of existing methods. By applying this method to a new soil hydraulic model, more accurate predictions of soil water content and hydraulic conductivity can be achieved.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Shawkat B. M. Hassan, Giovanna Dragonetti, Alessandro Comegna, Asma Sengouga, Nicola Lamaddalena, Antonio Coppola
Summary: The main purpose of this paper is to develop a bimodal pedotransfer function to obtain soil water retention curves and hydraulic conductivity curves. By incorporating aggregate-size distribution, the proposed function improves the prediction accuracy of soil hydraulic properties compared to the traditional unimodal approach.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Soil Science
Eisa Ebrahimi, Hossein Bayat, Mahboobeh Fallah
Summary: This research investigated the relationship between soil moisture characteristic curve (SMCC) and confined compression curve (CCC), and successfully used artificial neural networks to estimate soil moisture, improving the accuracy of water content estimation and reducing errors.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Miguel David Fuentes-Guevara, Robson Andre Armindo, Luis Carlos Timm, Attila Nemes
Summary: Soil hydraulic properties are crucial for modeling and evaluating soil-water processes. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are useful in estimating these properties when direct measurement is difficult or costly. This study examined the performance of a physically-based PTF and a collection of empirical PTFs from different climates in estimating soil water retention under a subtropical climate. Correlation analysis was also conducted to understand the factors influencing the success of PTFs. The results showed mixed performance of PTFs from different climate zones, and similarity in data correlation structure between the development and application datasets was found to be a good predictor of predictive power.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Soil Science
Wei Shi, Yan-xia Pan, Ya-feng Zhang, Rui Hu, Xin-ping Wang
Summary: Water redistribution has a profound impact on the function of dryland ecosystems. Biological soil crusts (BSCs or biocrusts), which cover a large portion of arid land soil surface, have conflicting effects on water redistribution at a regional scale. This study clarified the effects of different biocrusts on soil hydraulic properties in the Tengger Desert. The results showed that biocrusts significantly altered soil hydraulic properties, including water holding capacity, soil hydrophobicity, water sorptivity, and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. Understanding the role of biocrusts in hydraulic properties can help improve our understanding of soil water distribution, movement, and retention in the area.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Wei Shao, Sijie Chen, Ye Su, Jianzhi Dong, Junjun Ni, Zongji Yang, Yonggen Zhang
Summary: This study investigates the effectiveness of reducing parameter uncertainty using the Rosetta 3 pedotransfer function. The results show that Rosetta 3 significantly improves the accuracy of inversely-estimated soil hydraulic parameters compared to conventional random generation methods.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jennifer Mills, Gregory E. Maurer, Laura N. Lammers, Ronald Amundson
Summary: The Mojave Desert has experienced significant warming and aridification in the past 50 years, leading to accelerated cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the soil and their subsequent loss. This indicates chemical impacts on the coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in response to climate change.
GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Edzard Hangen, Friedhelm Vieten, Uwe Geuss
Summary: This study utilized field data to estimate the field-saturated hydraulic conductivity of alluvial soils, developing a pedotransfer function to predict K-fs values for 11 different alluvial soils. While individual realizations showed deviation to measured values, the averaged linear regression provided acceptable accuracy.
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Peter A. Scott, Linda J. Allison, Kimberleigh J. Field, Roy C. Averill-Murray, H. Bradley Shaffer
Summary: Hedrick raises potential concerns that he believes challenge or limit the main finding, focusing on unknown ecological aspects of the translocated tortoises. However, we believe these concerns do not bias the results or interpretation as presented in our original paper.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Vedran Krevh, Jannis Groh, Lutz Weihermueller, Lana Filipovic, Jasmina Defterdarovic, Zoran Kovac, Ivan Magdic, Boris Lazarevic, Thomas Baumgartl, Vilim Filipovic
Summary: Soil heterogeneity can significantly impact hillslope hydropedological processes, highlighting the importance of understanding water dynamics and redistribution. This study utilized field investigations, numerical modeling, and sensor network data to explore water dynamics in a hillslope vineyard. The results showed that incorporating field data improved model performance, and when laboratory data were not available, using a PTF model ensemble was a viable option.
Article
Environmental Studies
Agnieszka Petryk, Edyta Kruk, Marek Ryczek, Lenka Lackoova
Summary: Saturated hydraulic conductivity is a crucial soil parameter that affects surface runoff and water erosion formation. Field and laboratory methods for measuring this parameter are time-consuming and expensive, while empirical methods are simple, quick, and costless. This study compared 15 pedotransfer models to assess their usefulness in determining saturated hydraulic conductivity for highly eroded loess soil. The average values obtained from the analyzed functions ranged greatly between 2.00 center dot 10(-3) and 4.05 center dot 10(0) m center dot day(-1). The results were compared with each other and with values obtained from the field method. The Kazeny-Carman and Zauuerbrej methods showed the best comparability with the field method, while the Seelheim and Furnival-Wilson methods differed significantly.
Article
Environmental Studies
Lukasz Borek, Andrzej Bogdal, Tomasz Kowalik
Summary: This study analyzed the values of saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) obtained from in situ measurements, laboratory measurements, and models of pedotransfer functions (PTFs). The results showed that in situ measurements were significantly correlated with laboratory tests, while the best match was found between laboratory measurements and the PTF-2 model.
Review
Environmental Sciences
Ahsan Maqbool, Maria-Auxiliadora Soriano, Jose Alfonso Gomez
Summary: Plastic pollution has adverse effects on soil health, but assessing the impact and trends of plastic-induced changes in soil properties is complicated due to the heterogeneity of plastic and soil characteristics. This study quantified the effects of different plastic characteristics on soil physical properties and found that different types, shapes, and concentrations of plastics significantly modified the analyzed soil properties.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Simone Fatichi, Dani Or, Robert Walko, Harry Vereecken, Michael H. Young, Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, Tomislav Hengl, Stefan Kollet, Nurit Agam, Roni Avissar
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2020)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Charles J. Abolt, Michael H. Young
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jon Paul Pierre, John R. Andrews, Michael H. Young, Alexander Y. Sun, Brad D. Wolaver
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2020)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Michael H. Cosh, Todd G. Caldwell, C. Bruce Baker, John D. Bolten, Nathan Edwards, Peter Goble, Heather Hofman, Tyson E. Ochsner, Steven Quiring, Charles Schalk, Marina Skumanich, Mark Svoboda, Mary E. Woloszyn
Summary: Soil moisture is a critical land surface variable that affects various processes. Despite the development of different methods to determine soil moisture status, there is a lack of cohesive strategy to integrate diverse information sources for national soil moisture products. A national strategy for network coordination with NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System is in review for implementation.
VADOSE ZONE JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Julian Chaubell, Simon Yueh, R. Scott Dunbar, Andreas Colliander, Dara Entekhabi, Steven K. Chan, Fan Chen, Xiaolan Xu, Rajat Bindlish, Peggy OaNeill, Jun Asanuma, Aaron A. Berg, David D. Bosch, Todd Caldwell, Michael H. Cosh, Chandra Holifield Collins, Karsten H. Jensen, Jose Martinez-Fernandez, Mark Seyfried, Patrick J. Starks, Zhongbo Su, Marc Thibeault, Jeffrey P. Walker
Summary: In this article, the new version of soil moisture and vegetation optical depth (VOD) retrieval products by SMAP is reviewed. The implementation of the new algorithm is shown to generate retrievals that meet the accuracy requirements and perform comparably to the single-channel algorithm. The relationship between SMAP VOD and two vegetation parameters (tree height and biomass) is also studied.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Andreas Colliander, Rolf Reichle, Wade Crow, Michael Cosh, Fan Chen, Steven Chan, Narendra Narayan Das, Rajat Bindlish, J. Chaubell, Seungbum Kim, Qing Liu, Peggy OaNeill, Scott Dunbar, Land Dang, John S. Kimball, Thomas Jackson, Hala Al-Jassar, Jun Asanuma, Bimal Bhattacharya, Aaron Berg, David Bosch, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Todd Caldwell, Jean-Christophe Calvet, Chandra Collins, Karsten Jensen, Stan Livingston, Ernesto Lopez-Baeza, Jose Martinez-Fernandez, Heather McNairn, Mahta Moghaddam, Carsten Montzka, Claudia Notarnicola, Thierry Pellarin, Isabella Greimeister-Pfeil, Jouni Pulliainen, Judith Ramos, Judith Gpe. Ramos Hernandez, Mark Seyfried, Patrick Starks, Bob Su, R. van der Velde, Yijian Zeng, Marc Thibeault, Mariette Vreugdenhil, Jeffrey Walker, Mehrez Zribi, Dara Entekhabi, Simon Yueh
Summary: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission has been validating its soil moisture products since 2015. The results show that the SMAP products meet the mission requirements and are generally consistent with other satellite products. The validation program will continue and plans to expand to forested and high-latitude regions.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Soil Science
Raquel H. Flinker, M. Bayani Cardenas, Todd G. Caldwell, Gerald N. Flerchinger, Roy Rich, Peter B. Reich
Summary: This study assessed whether a US model could accurately describe the effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on soil moisture dynamics in temperate grasslands. The model was found to adequately represent the impacts of vegetation and atmospheric CO2 concentration on soil moisture dynamics. The results showed that increasing atmospheric CO2 resulted in reduced soil moisture, and while the model performed well in broadly explaining soil moisture dynamics, further scrutiny is needed for point-specific simulations.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Todd G. Caldwell, Sarah Tabatabai, Jena M. Huntington, Gwendolyn E. Davies, Mark Fuhrmann
Summary: Waste isolation is a key strategy for mitigating risk from municipal solid waste and hazardous waste streams. Evapotranspiration covers have shown beneficial use for minimizing percolation into buried waste. These covers may also have beneficial use for long-term waste issues.
VADOSE ZONE JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Y. Gao, A. Colliander, M. S. Burgin, J. P. Walker, E. Dinnat, C. Chae, M. H. Cosh, T. G. Caldwell, A. Berg, J. Martinez-Fernandez, M. Seyfried, P. J. Starks, D. D. Bosch, H. McNairn, Z. Su, R. van der Velde
Summary: This study focuses on the parameterization of soil moisture retrieval algorithms at L-, C- and X-bands using TB observations from the SMAP mission and GCOM-W satellite. The results show that L-band observations have higher sensitivity to soil moisture compared to C- and X-bands, highlighting the challenges of retrieving soil moisture from C- and X-band data.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
John C. Hammond, Caelan Simeone, Jory S. Hecht, Glenn A. Hodgkins, Melissa Lombard, Greg McCabe, Dave Wolock, Michael Wieczorek, Carolyn Olson, Todd Caldwell, Rob Dudley, Adam N. Price
Summary: Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of streamflow droughts is crucial for managing future water resources. The study found that drought duration and deficit have increased in the southern and western regions of the US, which may intensify the impact on water availability.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2022)
Letter
Environmental Sciences
Jan W. W. Hopmans, Timothy R. R. Green, Michael H. H. Young
Summary: In order to prioritize agricultural research in the United States and enhance its competitiveness globally, Multistate Research Funds (MRFs) were designated under the Research and Marketing Act of 1946. To execute this act, Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) Directors in the western US met regularly to evaluate, fund, and review multistate research projects (MRPs), with membership of AES scientists appointed by the Technical Committee.
VADOSE ZONE JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Vianey Rueda, Michael H. Young, Kasey Faust, Ashraf Rateb, Benjamin D. Leibowicz
Summary: As pressure on water sources increases, hydrologic systems may change unpredictably. This study examined the water supply-demand balance in Boerne, Texas, using causal loop diagrams and system dynamics modeling. Through stakeholder engagement, interventions such as xeriscaping, rainwater harvesting, and smart meters were selected. The results showed that different combinations of adoptions can achieve the same goal, providing the city with flexibility in choosing strategies that best suit its needs and constraints.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Todd G. Caldwell, Michael H. Cosh, Steven R. Evett, Nathan Edwards, Heather Hofman, Bradley G. Illston, Tilden Meyers, Marina Skumanich, Kent Sutcliffe
Summary: Soil moisture has a direct impact on operational hydrology, food security, ecosystem services, and the climate system. However, its adoption has been slow due to inconsistent data collection and poor standardization. This paper attempts to establish a community-based standard of practice for in situ soil moisture sensors to provide consistent guidance for future research and applications.
JOVE-JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Saul Arciniega-Esparza, Antonio Hernandez-Espriu, Michael H. Young
Summary: An increase in water usage per well for hydraulic fracturing has been observed in various regions of the U.S. in the past 20 years. Water-scarce areas undergoing intense unconventional reservoir development also face challenges in water and wastewater management for hydraulic fracturing activities. Recent concerns regarding water management in hydraulic fracturing highlight the significance of wastewater treatment and reuse to reduce reliance on freshwater sources and minimize the hazards of wastewater disposal.
CURRENT OPINION IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Ecology
James H. Gearon, Michael H. Young
Summary: The study aims to determine the influence of geomorphology on shrub canopy structure, revealing that landscape position and surface age have significant effects on the canopy volume and shrub spacing of Larrea tridentata.
Article
Ecology
Narendra Nelli, Diana Francis, Ricardo Fonseca, Olivier Masson, Mamadou Sow, Emmanuel Bosc
Summary: This study investigates the changes in the atmospheric electric field (Ez) during foggy conditions in the hyperarid region of the United Arab Emirates. The results show that as fog persists, Ez becomes more variable due to the absorption and redistribution of charges by the fog, which alters the ion balance and affects electrical conductivity in the atmosphere.
JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS
(2024)
Article
Ecology
Ezra Hadad, Amir Balaban, Jakub Z. Kosicki, Reuven Yosef
Summary: This study investigated whether the prey of striped hyenas has adapted to the change in the natural environment caused by human activities, particularly artificial light at night (ALAN). The results showed that ALAN had no impact on the diet or den distribution of the hyenas in central Israel. The study also found that domestic animals were the most common prey, and there were also some vegetative species in their diet. Overall, the feeding behavior of striped hyenas is influenced by geographical region, habitat, and human activities.
JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS
(2024)
Article
Ecology
Rahim Najafi Tireh Shabankareh, Pardis Ziaee, Mohammad Javad Abedini
Summary: This study evaluated the IMERG satellite-based precipitation product in the Fars province of Iran using daily rain gauges as reference data. The results showed that the product tends to overestimate light rainfall and underestimate heavy rainfall, with the best performance in the 40-80 mm/day range. The accuracy of the product varies by month and is less biased in months with milder temperatures. Additionally, there was a higher correlation in mid-elevated areas, positive bias in low-elevated areas, and negative bias in high-elevated areas. Longer time scales showed considerable improvement in the IMERG estimates.
JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS
(2024)
