D. Álvarez, M. Antúnez, Silvia Porras, R. Rodríguez‐Ochoa, J. R. Olarieta, R. Poch
{"title":"Quantification of Gypsum in Soils: Methodological Proposal","authors":"D. Álvarez, M. Antúnez, Silvia Porras, R. Rodríguez‐Ochoa, J. R. Olarieta, R. Poch","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10669","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10669","url":null,"abstract":"Gypsum is widely found in soils under arid and semi-arid climates due to its semi-soluble nature. In spite of that, they are less known than other soils, and this has generated some misunderstandings in some initial pedological concepts and in soil classification systems. In addition, the quantification of gypsum, and in particular of its secondary accumulations is affected by the sampling procedures and sample handling in the lab; besides by the methods used for the determination of gypsum themselves, since they differ on the accuracy, cost, and expertise needed. The objective of our research is to improve some laboratory procedures in order to determine and quantify gypsum in the soil, especially secondary accumulations. We applied several methods of sample handling and gypsum analysis to a loess profile in the Ebro Valley (NE Iberia), consisting of 10 horizons containing gypsum in varying amounts (0 to about 50%); of different sizes and morphologies. We propose a protocol considering procedures (sieving or not), qualitative determinations and two methods (turbidimetry and dehydration of crystallization water) for an optimal determination of gypsum depending on the characteristics of the sample and compared them with the acetone method (US Salinity Laboratory Staff, Agric. Handb., 1954, 60, 175; Nelson, 1978, 181), as it is the reference method in the main Classification Systems. The results obtained after applying the different methods for the analysis of gypsum in bulk samples have allowed us to propose a decision tree procedure for the determination of gypsum in soil materials. This procedure includes, determination of gypsum in all fractions, coarse and fine, the estimated amount of gypsum in the field (as a major or minor component) and the presence of other components that may interfere with the results. The most accurate results are obtained with those methods based on the loss of gypsum water upon heating when gypsum content is >4%, and with the turbidimetric method in case of lower amounts of gypsum. Finally, we discuss the implications of these analyses when a soil is classified according to the main soil classification systems (WRB 2014; Soil Survey Staff, SSS- NRCS, 2014).","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44399905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Brief Analysis of the Contribution of Women to Soil Science","authors":"M. Díaz-Raviña, Cristina Caruncho","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10658","url":null,"abstract":"Soil science has traditionally been dominated by men, and women remain a minority in this field today. Despite soil science being more recent than other scientific disciplines, many women have made significant contributions to the field, although these are not generally recognized. Recent studies have shown a lack of gender balance and low levels of diversity and inclusion in soil science in several countries worldwide. Although partial and fragmentary, the information provided by the present study of the involvement of women in soil science research reinforces the idea that science should be looked at from a gender perspective in order to promote real equality between men and women. Science and soil science are both the result of historical and cultural events and social context. Science is not neutral: it is social and gendered and always will be, but we can try to make it more inclusive.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42725415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Changes in Soil Phosphorus Pools in Long-Term Wheat-Based Rotations in Saskatchewan, Canada With and Without Phosphorus Fertilization","authors":"B. Cade-Menun","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10737","url":null,"abstract":"Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for all organisms, and many crops require P fertilization for optimum yield. However, there are concerns about the P in agriculture, including the sustainability of phosphate sources for fertilizers and water quality problems from P loss in runoff from agricultural lands. Most crops do not use all of the P added each year as fertilizer, leaving residual soil P that could potentially be used by subsequent crops, minimizing the need for additional fertilization. However, more information is needed to understand soil residual P pools, and their availability to crops. In Swift Current, SK, Canada, a long-term study was initiated in 1967, with four wheat-based rotations [including continuous wheat (CW), fallow-wheat-wheat (FWW), fallow-wheat (FW) and lentil-wheat (WL), with P fertilization and with or without nitrogen (N) fertilization. In 1995, P fertilization ceased on subplots in the CW and FWW rotations, and in 2008 for the FW and WL rotations. This study examined changes in soil P pools (total P, organic P, and Olsen P) from 1995 to 2015 for CW and FWW rotations and from 2008 to 2016 for FW and WL rotations, plus crop yield and grain and straw N and P concentrations. Long-term P addition increased concentrations of soil total and Olsen P in FWW, CW and FW rotations, particularly in plots without N fertilization. However, calculated P depletions based on fertilizer addition and crop P removal were negative only for plots without N fertilization. Cessation of P fertilization reduced concentrations of soil total and Olsen P, especially in plots with N fertilization. Annual yields were affected more by N fertilization and precipitation than P fertilization. Grain and straw P concentrations were not significantly reduced with short-term P cessation in FW and WL rotations, but were reduced with longer-term P fertilizer cessation in FWW and CW rotations.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45086392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Barreiro, R. Cela-Dablanca, C. Nebot, Lucía Rodríguez-López, V. Santás-Miguel, M. Arias-Estévez, M. Fernández‐Sanjurjo, Avelino Núñez-Delgado, E. Álvarez-Rodríguez
{"title":"Occurrence of Nine Antibiotics in Different Kinds of Sewage Sludge, Soils, Corn and Grapes After Sludge Spreading","authors":"A. Barreiro, R. Cela-Dablanca, C. Nebot, Lucía Rodríguez-López, V. Santás-Miguel, M. Arias-Estévez, M. Fernández‐Sanjurjo, Avelino Núñez-Delgado, E. Álvarez-Rodríguez","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10741","url":null,"abstract":"The huge worldwide use of antibiotics triggers the accumulation of these substances in sludge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and the possible contamination of soils amended with it, as well as of crops growing in these soils. In this work we analyzed the presence of the antibiotics amoxicillin (AMO), cefuroxime (CEF), ciprofloxacin (CIP), clarithromycin (CLA), levofloxacin (LEV), lincomycin (LIN), norfloxacin (NOR), sulfadiazine (SUL), and trimethoprim (TRI), in sludge from different WWTPs in Galicia (NW Spain), as well as in sludge technically treated by waste-managers, in soils where treated sludge was applied, and in crops (corn and vineyard) growing in the amended areas. The antibiotics were quantified by means of high resolution HPLC-mass-chromatography. The results indicate that almost all the sludge samples contained antibiotics, being ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin the most abundant reaching maximum values of 623 and 893 ng/g, respectively. The sludge treatment significantly reduced the number and the concentrations of antibiotics. In 12% of the soil samples where sludge was applied, some antibiotics were detected, but always in small concentrations. Regarding the crops, no antibiotic was detected in the roots, stalk, leaves and grain of corn, neither in grapes sampled in vineyards. It can be concluded that the treatments currently applied in the WWTPs under study are not totally effective in removing antibiotics from the sludge, although the findings of this research suggest that the additional specific treatment of the sludge derived from these WWTPs is effective in reducing the risk of environmental pollution due to a variety of antibiotics, and specifically in the case of soils amended with these organic materials and crops growing on it.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41418600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Adamo, A. Benedetti, E. Bonifacio, C. Calzolari, L. Celi, S. Cocco, S. Marinari, S. Vingiani
{"title":"Gender Equality in Soil Science in Italy: Wishful Thinking or Reality?","authors":"P. Adamo, A. Benedetti, E. Bonifacio, C. Calzolari, L. Celi, S. Cocco, S. Marinari, S. Vingiani","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10560","url":null,"abstract":"Gender equality in Italian soil science is still far from being a reality although an in-depth investigation has never been carried out. In this work we analyse data on women soil scientists working in public research institutions and universities as well as on those affiliated with soil science societies, considering the changes in gender balance with time. We also recall three female pioneers in Italian soil science who played a key role in both research and scientific societies. An analysis of the impact of papers authored by Italian women is finally provided to gauge the contribution of Italian women to soil science in the last 20 years. The results show that the National Research Institutions reached a more equal balance between genders compared to universities. With regard to scientific societies, we observed a strong lack of female inclusion in the first years of the Italian Soil Science Society, founded in 1952, and the Italian Society of Pedology, even if it was founded much later in 1998. The Italian Society of Agricultural Chemistry was less discriminant, likely due to the presence of different sub-disciplines traditionally more open to women, although always far from real equality. With time, in all societies and research institutions we registered a positive trend with a better balance and a pro-active participation of women. However, we observed a persistent loss of highly qualified women resources from the training phase to the beginning of the career as well as under-representation of women in top roles and in the research centre leaderships. However, when we evaluated the scientific production, no statistical differences appear between women and men at all career levels, confirming the key contribution of women to soil science, despite facing major professional difficulties and disparities. These results show that, notwithstanding the marked progress in the number of women entering and working in Italian soil science, beyond the hard numbers, gender equality still remains a challenge and requires greater investments in resources and research toward structural and systemic interventions that may successfully lead to a more gender-balanced society.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48251082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Maria Glazovskaya—A Pioneer Soil Scientist and Geochemist Ahead of her Time (1912–2016)","authors":"M. Gerasimova","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10377","url":null,"abstract":"In the USSR and in Russia, women predominated among soil scientists despite the problems related to field research in tundra, taiga, mountains and other severe environments. One such woman was Maria Glazovskaya, who worked in highlands and semi-deserts studying little known soils, both recent and relict, primary pedogenesis, and geochemical features of hard rock weathering. Her scientific interests were diverse, and corresponded well with the social and scientific trends of the moment. She put forward new ideas and applied existing ones in several spheres of soil geography and landscape geochemistry. She proposed new approaches for compiling soil and landscape-geochemical maps, including using soil properties to predict the risks of soil pollution with heavy metals, and using landscape-geochemical methods to prospect for economic minerals. In the interdisciplinary conceptual sphere, Glazovskaya tried to bring together soil science and landscape geochemistry, and included these two subjects in the name of the department in Moscow University that she headed for more than 30 years. She was a scientist always looking for her own way in the interdisciplinary world of earth science.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45756556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M.A.M. Marques, L. Anjos, Angel Ramon Sanchez Delgado
{"title":"Land Recovery and Soil Management with Agroforestry Systems","authors":"M.A.M. Marques, L. Anjos, Angel Ramon Sanchez Delgado","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10457","url":null,"abstract":"Soils have many ecological functions and provide various ecosystem services including support for global food and fuel production. However, FAO reports indicate that approximately one-third of the planet’s arable lands show levels of degradation from processes including soil erosion, low levels of nutrients, acidification, salinization, compaction, sealing, and contamination. These conditions are also found in Brazil where soil degradation is largely caused by inadequate land management. Worldwide, strategic policies have been presented to mitigate this problem, with emphasis on sustainable agriculture. Among them, agroforestry has been identified as a viable system for mitigating and recovering degraded areas. Agroforestry techniques have been developed and tested but are still not understood by farmers, due to their complexity. This study aimed to analyze experiences and studies with agroforestry reported from Australia, some countries in Africa, and Brazil to search for similarities in these complex systems and identify possible correlations to support the hypothesis that land recovery can be enhanced through soil management using agroforestry. A Sankey diagram was developed to illustrate relationships among problems, the adoption of agroforestry and improvements, and the most important contributions. Data analysis shows that the main problems related to soil degradation are soil erosion and decreased soil fertility, while the adoption of agroforestry systems proved to improve different aspects of soil quality and to be a safe path to sustainable agricultural production. To obtain more information on the adoption of these systems in different locations, soils, and climates, it is important to implement policies for reducing land degradation. Furthermore, the assessment of the economic, environmental and social benefits of improving soil fertility and decreasing erosion in agroforestry systems is necessary to validate the use of agroforestry as a sustainable agricultural practice.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44064343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reevaluating Diversity and the History of Women in Soil Science: A Necessary Step for a Real Change","authors":"L. Reyes-Sánchez, Alejandra Irazoque","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10401","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last decades, diversity in science has focused on the inclusion of individuals from formerly under-represented backgrounds. While this is important, it can result in reducing the topic to a game of numbers and quotas, but individuals are not numbers. Science today must include all that a human can be, and this means both to include the under-represented and the represented. As a group endeavor, science can only be as good and innovative as the sum of its individuals’ brilliance, because of this, science needs to ensure it has the largest pool of individuals to choose from. In the same sense, now more than ever, soil science faces problems that come from complex causes and require interdisciplinary equally complex solutions, meaning that it requires minds with different perspectives, different skills, and different life histories. Minds that contribute diverse knowledge and visions to the soil’s preservation so that it maintains its properties and ecosystem benefits over time: minds capable of making soil’s sustainable use. While only two aspects of diversity (the recognition of Women and Traditional Knowledge in soil science) were analyzed in this document, is an attempt of broadening the understand of diversity and their fundamental importance to achieve soil sustainability and contribute to reach the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) as has been widely documented in FAO (2010), mentioned in Reyes-Sánchez (2018) and discussed in Dawson et al. (Eur J Soil Sci, 2021, 72, 1929–1939).","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42603720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Microbial Genes of Agricultural Importance in Maize Rhizosphere Unveiled Through Shotgun Metagenomics","authors":"Oluwadara Pelumi Omotayo, O. Igiehon, O. Babalola","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10427","url":null,"abstract":"Genes possessed by microbes in the rhizosphere influence the metabolic activities that occur in this zone. Although the maize rhizosphere has been reported to be a hotspot of genes, these genes remain under-investigated. Hence, this study aimed at identifying putative microbial genes with plant beneficial functions in the underexplored maize rhizosphere microbiome using a shotgun metagenomics approach. Sampling was done at the flowering stage of the maize plants and both the rhizosphere and bulk soils were collected in triplicates. The metagenomes of the examined rhizosphere and bulk soils revealed genes involved in carbon fixation, nitrogen fixation, iron acquisition, heat and cold shock, phosphorus solubilization and utilization, sulfur cycling, and siderophore production. The beta diversity analysis showed significant variations (p < 0.05) in these genes across the examined rhizosphere and bulk soils which was further confirmed by the distinct separations between the samples as seen on the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) plot. Contrarily, no significant difference was observed in diversity within the habitats (p = 0.99). The predominance of significant genes of agricultural importance such as the nifH, nifA, groES, and cspA in the rhizosphere metagenomes signifies that this region is endowed with beneficial organisms with potential for improving plant growth, mitigating stress, and reducing the effect of extreme temperatures, which can be optimized in developing biofertilizers. Therefore, the development of strategies that will help in cultivating these organisms, which are mostly unculturable, is encouraged. This would make them readily available for use as bio-inoculants and in other biotechnological applications.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49273044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lucía Rodríguez-López, V. Santás-Miguel, Avelino Núñez-Delgado, E. Álvarez-Rodríguez, P. Pérez-Rodríguez, M. Arias-Estévez
{"title":"Influence of pH, Humic Acids, and Salts on the Dissipation of Amoxicillin and Azithromycin Under Simulated Sunlight","authors":"Lucía Rodríguez-López, V. Santás-Miguel, Avelino Núñez-Delgado, E. Álvarez-Rodríguez, P. Pérez-Rodríguez, M. Arias-Estévez","doi":"10.3389/sjss.2022.10438","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2022.10438","url":null,"abstract":"This work is focused on the study of the dissipation of the antibiotics amoxicillin (AMX) (an amino penicillin) and azithromycin (AZT) (belonging to the macrolide group), performed at a laboratory scale, under simulated sunlight and in the dark, at pH values 4.0, 5.5, and 7.2, and in the presence of humic acids and different inorganic salts. The results indicate that AMX is more affected than AZT by simulated sunlight, with half-lives ranging 7.7–9.9 h for AMX and 250–456 h for AZT. The lowest half-life values were obtained at pH 7.2 for AMX (7.7 h) and at pH 4.0 for AZT (250 h). Regarding the effect of various salts, the presence of NaNO3 causes that C/C0 decreases from 0.6 to 0 under simulated sunlight, having no effect on the dissipation of AMX in the dark. However, in the presence of FeCl3 at concentrations of 500 mg L−1, AMX suffered total dissipation, both under simulated sunlight and in the dark. For AZT the influence was lower, and the salts that caused a higher increase in its dissipation were NaCl (with C/C0 decreasing from 0.5 to 0.2) and CaCl2 (C/C0 decreasing from 0.5 to 0.3). The presence of humic acids caused a slight increase in the dissipation of AMX, both under simulated sunlight and in the dark, a fact that was attributed to the adsorption of the antibiotic onto these organic substances, which, however, caused a more marked increase in the dissipation of AZT (reaching 68%) under simulated sunlight. The overall results of this research can be considered clearly relevant, mainly to determine the fate of AMX and AZT when these antibiotics reach the environment as pollutants, either as regards their exposure to natural sunlight, or in relation to the use of inactivation/photo-degradation systems in decontamination procedures focused on environmental compartments.","PeriodicalId":43464,"journal":{"name":"Spanish Journal of Soil Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48372433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}