Soil最新文献

{"title":"Mineral dust and pedogenesis in the alpine critical zone","authors":"Jeffrey S. Munroe, Abigail A. Santis, Elsa J. Soderstrom, Michael J. Tappa, Ann M. Bauer","doi":"10.5194/soil-10-167-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-167-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The influence of mineral dust deposition on soil formation in the mountain critical zone was evaluated at six sites in southwestern North America. Passive samplers collected dust for 2 years, and representative soil and rock were gathered in the vicinity of each dust sampler. All materials (dust, soil, and rock) were analyzed to determine their mineralogy (with X-ray diffraction), geochemistry (with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)), and radiogenic isotope fingerprint (87Sr/86Sr and εNd). In addition, the grain size distribution of dust and soil samples was determined with laser scattering, and standard soil fertility analysis was conducted on the soil samples. Results reveal that minerals present in the dust but absent in the local bedrock are detectable in the soil. Similarly, the geochemistry and isotopic fingerprint of soil samples are more similar to dust than to local bedrock. End-member mixing models evaluating soil as a mixture of dust and rock suggest that the fine fractions of the sampled soils are dominated by dust deposition, with dust contents approaching 100 %. Dust content is somewhat higher in soils compared to bedrock types more resistant to weathering. These results emphasize the dominant control that mineral dust deposition can exert on pedogenesis in the mountain critical zone.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139917401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Insights into the prediction uncertainty of machine-learning-based digital soil mapping through a local attribution approach","authors":"Jeremy Rohmer, Stephane Belbeze, Dominique Guyonnet","doi":"10.5194/egusphere-2024-323","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-323","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Abstract.</strong> Machine learning (ML) models have become key ingredients for digital soil mapping. To improve the interpretability of their prediction, diagnostic tools have been developed like the widely used local attribution approach known as ‘SHAP’ (SHapley Additive exPlanation). However, the analysis of the prediction is only one part of the problem and there is an interest in getting deeper insights into the drivers of the prediction uncertainty as well, i.e. to explain why the ML model is confident, given the set of chosen covariates’ values (in addition to why the ML model delivered some particular results). We show in this study how to apply SHAP to the local prediction uncertainty estimates for a case of urban soil pollution, namely the presence of petroleum hydrocarbon in soil at Toulouse (France), which poses a health risk via vapour intrusion into buildings, direct soil ingestion or groundwater contamination. To alleviate the computational burden posed by the multiple covariates (typically &gt;10) and by the large number of grid points on the map (typically over several 10,000s), we propose to rely on an approach that combines screening analysis (to filter out non-influential covariates) and grouping of dependent covariates by means of generic kernel-based dependence measures. Our results show evidence that the drivers of the prediction best estimate are not necessarily the ones that drive the confidence in these predictions, hence justifying that decisions regarding data collection and covariates’ characterisation as well as communication of the results should be made accordingly.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139915822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mulch application as the overarching factor explaining increase in soil organic carbon stocks under conservation agriculture in two 8-year-old experiments in Zimbabwe","authors":"Armwell Shumba, Regis Chikowo, Christian Thierfelder, Marc Corbeels, Johan Six, Rémi Cardinael","doi":"10.5194/soil-10-151-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-151-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Conservation agriculture (CA), combining reduced or no tillage, permanent soil cover, and improved rotations, is often promoted as a climate-smart practice. However, our understanding of the impact of CA and its respective three principles on top- and subsoil organic carbon stocks in the low-input cropping systems of sub-Saharan Africa is rather limited. This study was conducted at two long-term experimental sites established in Zimbabwe in 2013. The soil types were abruptic Lixisols at Domboshava Training Centre (DTC) and xanthic Ferralsol at the University of Zimbabwe farm (UZF). The following six treatments, which were replicated four times, were investigated: conventional tillage (CT), conventional tillage with rotation (CTR), no tillage (NT), no tillage with mulch (NTM), no tillage with rotation (NTR), and no tillage with mulch and rotation (NTMR). Maize (Zea mays L.) was the main crop, and treatments with rotation included cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.). The soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration and soil bulk density were determined for samples taken from depths of 0–5, 5–10, 10–15, 15–20, 20–30, 30–40, 40–50, 50–75 and 75–100 cm. Cumulative organic inputs to the soil were also estimated for all treatments. SOC stocks at equivalent soil mass were significantly (p<0.05) higher in the NTM, NTR and NTMR treatments compared with the NT and CT treatments in the top 5 cm and top 10 cm layers at UZF, while SOC stocks were only significantly higher in the NTM and NTMR treatments compared with the NT and CT treatments in the top 5 cm at DTC. NT alone had a slightly negative impact on the top SOC stocks. Cumulative SOC stocks were not significantly different between treatments when considering the whole 100 cm soil profile. Our results show the overarching role of crop residue mulching in CA cropping systems with respect to enhancing SOC stocks but also that this effect is limited to the topsoil. The highest cumulative organic carbon inputs to the soil were observed in NTM treatments at the two sites, and this could probably explain the positive effect on SOC stocks. Moreover, our results show that the combination of at least two CA principles including mulch is required to increase SOC stocks in these low-nitrogen-input cropping systems.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139915906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cover crops improve soil structure and change organic carbon distribution in macroaggregate fractions","authors":"Norman Gentsch, Florin Laura Riechers, Jens Boy, Dörte Schweneker, Ulf Feuerstein, Diana Heuermann, Georg Guggenberger","doi":"10.5194/soil-10-139-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-139-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Soil structure is sensitive to intensive soil management. It can be ameliorated by a reduction in soil cultivation and stimulation of plant and microbial mediators for aggregate formation, with the latter being a prerequisite and measure for soil quality. Cover crops (CCs) are part of an integrated approach to stabilize or improve soil quality. Thereby, the incorporation of diverse CC mixtures is hypothesized to increase the positive effects of CC applications. This study entailed an investigation of the legacy effect of CCs on soil aggregates after three crop rotations in the second main crop (winter wheat) after the last CC treatment. Four CCs (mustard, phacelia, clover, and oat) cultivated in pure stands and with a fallow treatment were compared to a mixture of the four CC species (Mix4) and a highly diverse 12-plant-species mixture (Mix12) in a long-term field experiment in Germany. The organic carbon (OC) distribution within macroaggregate fractions (16–8, 8–4, 4–2, 2–1, and <1 mm) and their aggregate stability were measured by dry- and wet-sieving methods, and the mean weight diameter (MWD) was calculated from water-stable aggregates. The results showed that, compared to the fallow, all CCs increased the MWD between 10 % and 19 % in soil under the following main crop. The average MWD increase over the fallow was slightly higher for CC mixtures (16 %) than for single CCs (12 %). Most of the OC (67.9 % on average) was stored in the <1 mm aggregate fraction, highest in the topsoil and decreasing with soil depth. The intermediate fractions (8–4 mm, 4–2 mm, 2–1 mm) stored 8.5 %, 10.5 %, and 11.0 % of the total OC, while 2.1 % was stored in the 16–8 mm fraction. Higher MWD improvement at the 20–30 cm depth also indicates additional benefits from a reduction in the cultivation depth. Structural equation modelling (SEM) suggests that single CCs were more likely to increase OC storage in small macroaggregates <1 mm, while CC mixtures were more likely to increase OC in the largest fraction (8–16 mm). Different individual CC species or mixtures exhibited varying involvement in the formation of different aggregate fractions. We provide evidence that litter quality, root morphology, and rhizosphere input, which affect microbial mediators of aggregate formation, might be the main reasons for the observed differences between CC treatments. Cover crops are valuable multifunctional tools for sustainable soil management. Here, we showed that they contribute to structure amelioration in arable soils. Increasing the functional diversity of plant species in CC mixtures could be a strategy to further enhance the positive effects of CCs in agroecosystems.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"174 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139750177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sensitivity of source sediment fingerprinting to tracer selection methods","authors":"Thomas Chalaux-Clergue, Rémi Bizeul, Pedro V. G. Batista, Núria Martínez-Carreras, J. Patrick Laceby, Olivier Evrard","doi":"10.5194/soil-10-109-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-109-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. In a context of accelerated soil erosion and sediment supply to water bodies, sediment fingerprinting techniques have received an increasing interest in the last 2 decades. The selection of tracers is a particularly critical step for the subsequent accurate prediction of sediment source contributions. To select tracers, the most conventional approach is the three-step method, although, more recently, the consensus method has also been proposed as an alternative. The outputs of these two approaches were compared in terms of identification of conservative properties, tracer selection, modelled contributions and performance on a single dataset. As for the three-step method, several range test criteria were compared, along with the impact of the discriminant function analysis (DFA). The dataset was composed of tracer properties analysed in soil (three potential sources; n = 56) and sediment core samples (n = 32). Soil and sediment samples were sieved to 63 µm and analysed for organic matter, elemental geochemistry and diffuse visible spectrometry. Virtual mixtures (n = 138) with known source proportions were generated to assess model accuracy of each tracer selection method. The Bayesian un-mixing model MixSIAR was then used to predict source contributions on both virtual mixtures and actual sediments. The different methods tested in the current research can be distributed into three groups according to their sensitivity to the conservative behaviour of properties, which was found to be associated with different predicted source contribution tendencies along the sediment core. The methods selecting the largest number of tracers were associated with a dominant and constant contribution of forests to sediment. In contrast, the methods selecting the lowest number of tracers were associated with a dominant and constant contribution of cropland to sediment. Furthermore, the intermediate selection of tracers led to more balanced contributions of both cropland and forest to sediments. The prediction of the virtual mixtures allowed us to compute several evaluation metrics, which are generally used to support the evaluation of model accuracy for each tracer selection method. However, strong differences or the absence of correspondence were observed between the range of predicted contributions obtained for virtual mixtures and those values obtained for actual sediments. These divergences highlight the fact that evaluation metrics obtained for virtual mixtures may not be directly transferable to models run for actual samples and must be interpreted with caution to avoid over-interpretation or misinterpretation. These divergences may likely be attributed to the occurrence of a not (fully) conservative behaviour of potential tracer properties during erosion, transport and deposition processes, which could not be fully reproduced when generating the virtual mixtures with currently available methods. Future research should develop novel metrics to quantif","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139728180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Trapnell's Upper Valley Soils of Zambia: the production of an integrated understanding of geomorphology, pedology, ecology and land use","authors":"Nalumino L. Namwanyi, Maurice J. Hutton, Ikabongo Mukumbuta, Lydia M. Chabala, Clarence Chongo, Stalin Sichinga, R. Murray Lark","doi":"10.5194/egusphere-2024-315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-315","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Abstract.</strong> The Ecological Survey of Northern Rhodesia, undertaken in the 1930s under the leadership of Colin Trapnell, was a seminal exercise to relate soil, vegetation and agricultural practices through intensive field observation. In this article we examine early activities of the survey in the Upper Valley region around the Kafue Flats and the neighbouring plateau where Trapnell recognized how geomorphological processes of normal erosion gave rise to distinctive soils with associated vegetation communities and considerable potential for crop production. We consider how Trapnell's approach to field work gave him a particular insight into how soil conditions constrained agriculture in the Zambian environment, the adaptive value of traditional practices, and how these were developed as communities moved and responded to social, economic and environmental change. We argue that Trapnell's work was innovative, and that distinctions must be drawn between his understanding and what has been called the ecological theory of development. Close attention to Trapnell's experience could inform modern efforts to understand indigenous knowledge of African soils and their agricultural potential.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139733539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus storage in juniper–oak savanna: role of vegetation and geology","authors":"Che-Jen Hsiao, Pedro A. M. Leite, Ayumi Hyodo, Thomas W. Boutton","doi":"10.5194/soil-10-93-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-93-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Woody-plant encroachment into grasslands and savannas has been globally widespread during the past century, likely driven by interactions between grazing, fire suppression, rising atmospheric CO2, and climate change. In the southernmost US Great Plains, Ashe juniper and live oak have increased in abundance. To evaluate potential interactions between this vegetation change and the underlying soil parent material on ecosystem biogeochemistry, we quantified soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and δ13C of SOC in soils obtained from trenches passing through grassland, juniper, and oak patches on soils lying atop the respective Edwards and Buda limestone formations in central Texas. Soils on the Edwards formation are more shallow and have more rock outcropping than those on Buda. The δ13C values of SOC under grasslands was −19 ‰, whereas those under woody patches were −21 ‰ to −24 ‰, indicating that wooded areas were relatively recent components of the landscape. Compared with grasslands, areas now dominated by juniper or oak had elevated SOC, TN, and TP storage in soils lying atop Edwards limestone. In Buda soils, only oak patches had increased SOC, TN, and TP storage compared with grasslands. Woody encroachment effects on soil nutrients were higher in soils on the Edwards formation, perhaps because root and litter inputs were more concentrated in the relatively shallow layer of soil atop the Edwards bedrock. Our findings suggest that geological factors should be considered when predicting nutrient store responses in savannas following vegetation change. Given that woody encroachment is occurring globally, our results have important implications for the management and conservation of these ecosystems. The potential interactive effects between vegetation change and soil parent material on C, N, and P storage warrant attention in future studies aimed at understanding and modeling the global consequences of woody encroachment.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139695760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ectomycorrhizal fungal network complexity determines soil multi-enzymatic activity","authors":"Jorge Prieto-Rubio, José Luis Garrido, Julio M. Alcántara, Concepción Azcón-Aguilar, Ana Rincón, Álvaro López-García","doi":"10.5194/egusphere-2024-119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-119","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Abstract.</strong> Soil functioning is intrinsically related to the structure of associated biological communities. This link is barely understood under the multi-species context of soil microbial communities, which often requires complex analytical approaches to discern into structural and functional roles of microbial taxa inhabiting the soil. To investigate these ecological properties, we characterized the assembly and soil functioning contribution of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal communities through co-occurrence network analysis. Co-occurrence networks were inferred from ECM root-tips of <em>Quercus</em> spp. and <em>Cistus albidus</em> on a regional scale, in Mediterranean mixed forests. Soil enzymatic activities related to carbon and nutrient cycling were measured, and soil functionality outcomes related to ECM fungal network structure were evaluated from community-to-taxon level. Network complexity relied on habitat characteristics and seasonality, and it was linked to different dominant ECM fungal linages across habitats. Soil enzymatic activities were habitat-dependent, driven by host plant identity and fungi with reduced structuring roles in the co-occurrence network (mainly within Thelephorales, Sebacinales, Pezizales). ECM fungal co-occurrence network structure and functioning were highly context-dependent pointing to divergent regional fungal species pools according to their niche preferences. As increased network complexity was not related to greater soil functionality, functional redundancy might be operating in Mediterranean forest soils. The revealed differentiation between structural and functional roles of ECM fungi adds new insights into the understanding of soil fungal community assembly and its functionality in ecosystems.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139660725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating the complementarity of thermal and physical soil organic carbon fractions","authors":"Amicie A. Delahaie, Lauric Cécillon, Marija Stojanova, Samuel Abiven, Pierre Arbelet, Dominique Arrouays, François Baudin, Antonio Bispo, Line Boulonne, Claire Chenu, Jussi Heinonsalo, Claudy Jolivet, Kristiina Karhu, Manuel P. Martin, Lorenza Pacini, Christopher Poeplau, Céline Ratié, Pierre Roudier, Nicolas P. A. Saby, Florence Savignac, Pierre Barré","doi":"10.5194/egusphere-2024-197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-197","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Abstract.</strong> Partitioning soil organic carbon (SOC) in fractions with different biogeochemical stability is useful to better understand and predict SOC dynamics, and provide information related to soil health. Multiple SOC partition schemes exist but few of them can be implemented on large sample sets and therefore be considered as relevant options for soil monitoring. The well-established particulate- (POC) <em>vs.</em> mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) physical fractionation scheme is one of them. Introduced more recently, Rock-Eval® thermal analysis coupled with the PARTY_SOC machine-learning model can also fractionate SOC into active (C_a) and stable SOC (C_s). A debate is emerging as to which of these methods should be recommended for soil monitoring. To investigate the complementarity or redundancy of these two fractionation schemes, we compared the quantity and environmental drivers of SOC fractions obtained on an unprecedented dataset from mainland France. About 2,000 topsoil samples were recovered all over the country, presenting contrasting land covers and pedoclimatic characteristics, and analysed. We found that the environmental drivers of the fractions were clearly different, the more stable MAOC and C_s fractions being mainly driven by soil characteristics, whereas land cover and climate had a greater influence on more labile POC and C_a fractions. The stable and labile SOC fractions provided by the two methods strongly differed in quantity (MAOC/C_s = 1.88 ± 0.46 and POC/C_a = 0.36 ± 0.17; n = 843) and drivers, suggesting that they correspond to fractions with different biogeochemical stability. We argue that, at this stage, both methods can be seen as complementary and potentially relevant for soil monitoring. As future developments, we recommend comparing how they relate to indicators of soil health such as nutrient availability or soil structural stability, and how their measurements can improve the accuracy of SOC dynamics models.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139660740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Organic matters, but inorganic matters too: column examination of elevated mercury sorption on low organic matter aquifer material using concentrations and stable isotope ratios","authors":"David S. McLagan, Carina Esser, Lorenz Schwab, Jan G. Wiederhold, Jan-Helge Richard, Harald Biester","doi":"10.5194/soil-10-77-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-77-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Sorption of mercury (Hg) in soils is suggested to be predominantly associated with organic matter (OM). However, there is a growing collection of research that suggests that clay minerals and Fe/Mn oxides are also important solid phases for the sorption of soluble Hg in soil–groundwater systems. We use a series of (60 mL syringe based) column experiments to examine sorption and subsequent desorption of HgCl2 solutions (experiment 1 (EXP1): 46.1 ± 1.1 mg L−1; experiment 2 (EXP2): 144 ± 6 mg L−1) in low-OM (0.16 ± 0.02 %) solid-phase aquifer materials. Analyses of total Hg concentrations, Hg speciation (i.e. pyrolytic thermal desorption (PTD)), and Hg stable isotopes are performed on both solid- and liquid-phase samples across sorption and desorption phases of the experiments. The sorption breakthrough curve best fitted a Freundlich model. Despite the very low-OM content, the Hg equilibrium sorptive capacity in these columns is very high: 1510 ± 100 and 2320 ± 60 mg kg−1 for EXP1 and EXP2, respectively, and it is similar to those determined for high-OM soils. Data from the experiments on mass-dependent Hg stable isotope fractionation data from these experiments (described by δ202Hg) support preferential sorption of lighter isotopes to the solid-phase materials with results indicating an isotopically heavier liquid phase and an isotopically lighter solid phase. Desorption fits exponential decay models, and 46 ± 6 % and 58 ± 10 % of the sorbed Hg is removed from the solid-phase materials at the termination of desorption in EXP1 and EXP2, respectively. The divergence of δ202Hg values between liquid and solid phases also continues into desorption. This desorption profile is linked to the initial release of easily exchangeable Hg(II) species physically sorbed to Fe/Mn oxides and clay mineral surfaces (liquid phase enriched in heavy isotopes) and then slower release of Hg(II) species that have undergone secondary reaction to more stable/less-soluble Hg(II) species and/or diffusion/transport into the mineral matrices (processes favouring lighter isotopes; solid phase enriched in lighter isotopes). The secondary production of Hg(0) within the columns is confirmed by PTD analyses that indicate distinct Hg(0) release peaks in solid-phase samples at <175 ∘C, which again agrees with field observations. Retardation (RD) and distribution (KD) coefficients are 77.9 ± 5.5 and 26.1 ± 3.0 mL g−1 in EXP1, respectively, and 38.4 ± 2.7 and 12.4 ± 0.6 mL g−1 in EXP2, respectively. These values are similar to values derived from column experiments on high-OM soil and provide the basis for future Hg fate and transport modelling in soil–groundwater systems.","PeriodicalId":48610,"journal":{"name":"Soil","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139660971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}