How Healthy Soils Could Reverse Climate Change
4 September
Image credit: haglundc via Flickr From an article by 'The Allegheny Front' Kristen Ohlson is the author of The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet. She says up to 80...[Read More]
Bolus Over! Look at the effect of Organic Matter
4 September
This is the top 2 soil horizons from a Red Chromosol at Jamestown in the Mid North of South Australia. A clay bolus was formed from the top 8cm (on right of photo) and then from the next 12cm of soil (on left of photo). The soil friability is...[Read More]
How Come Earthworms Can Digest Plants That Would Kill Most Other Animals?
4 September
Image Credit: Dr. Manuel Liebeke, Max Planck Institute British scientist have finally cracked the mystery of the earthworm; how can the earthworm digest and breakdown plants full of defence poisons that would kill most other animals?....[Read More]
Texture Contrast At Its Absolute Finest
4 September
A soil profile from Booleroo Centre in South Australia. One of the best texture contrasts ever seen. A magnificent red high potassium clay over an ancient sea bed. No wonder the crops are known to dry off so quickly in Spring. Plenty of rain...[Read More]
Fingerprinting Erosion
4 September
You may have noticed that after a heavy rainstorm, creeks and rivers often turn the color of chocolate milk. That cloudy brown color is caused by sediments—weathered rock material ranging in size from tiny granules of mud to stones. As it...[Read More]
Protein from Firefly Causing Roots to Glow
28 August
Image credit: Rubén Réllan-Álvarez Plants form a vast network of below-ground roots that search soil for needed resources. Excavation of root systems reveals special resource-finding environmental adaptations is laborious,...[Read More]
Sampson Flat bushfire Impact Being Closely Followed
28 August
Image credit: ABC News A team from the University of Adelaide is closely following the impact the Sampson Flat bushfire has had on the soil beneath it. The team is collecting hundreds of soil samples from the burnt and unaffected forest areas...[Read More]
Breathing Bugs Breaking Down Bedrock
28 May
This video from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service explains that when microbes respire they release carbon dioxide, just like us, however when they release it, it is dissolved into the soil solution forming carbonic acid. Carbonic...[Read More]
Work On Barren Soil May Bear Fruit
21 August
James Cook University's Associate Professor Paul Nelson said the Chinese Academy of Sciences sought out the Australian researchers because of work they had done in Australia and Papua New Guinea on the relationship between soil pH levels and the...[Read More]
Farmers use drones and data to boost crop yields
21 August
Drones have long been used for military purposes, but Nova Scotia-based start-up Sky Squirrel Technologies Inc. has found a more peaceful use for the technology. Sky Squirrel deploys small drones equipped with infrared cameras to cruise the skies...[Read More]
‘A quiet crisis’: The rise of acidic soil in Washington
21 August
Gary Wegner first noticed the problem in 1991, when a field on his family’s farm west of Spokane produced one-fourth the usual amount of wheat. His father and grandfather attributed the problem to farming on shallow soils, but Wegner decided...[Read More]
Soil C
14 October
Image credit: Graham Turner Sourced from Future Farmers: http://www.futurefarmers.com.au/young-carbon-farmers/carbon-farming/importance-of-carbon-in-the-soil The carbon cycle is a fundamental part of life on earth. ‘Soil organic...[Read More]
Earthworms An Indicator of Soil Quality
14 May
Sourced from: http://soilquality.org/indicators/earthworms.html What it is: Earthworms are classified into three groups based on their habitat. Litter-dwellers live in the litter, ingest plant residues, and may be absent in plowed,...[Read More]
Scientists Brimming with Enthusiasm About Aussie Soils
7 August
AS scientists around the globe take a doomsday perspective on global soils, Australian soil scientists are enthusiastic about the future of our soils. Through the input of soil carbon, soils are able to improve soil structure, which in turn...[Read More]