Mineralogical Transformations and Soil Development in Shale Across a Latitudinal Climosequence

To investigate factors controlling soil formation, we established a climosequence as part of the Susquehanna-Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHCZO) in central Pennsylvania, USA. Sites were located on organic matter-poor, iron-rich Silurian-aged shale in Wales, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Puerto Rico, although this last site is underlain by a younger shale. Across the climosequence, mean annual temperature (MAT) increases from 7 to 24°C and mean annual precipitation (MAP) ranges from 100 to 250 cm. Variations in soil characteristics along the climosequence, including depth, morphology, particle-size distribution, geochemistry, and bulk and clay mineralogy, were characterized to investigate the role of climate in controlling mineral transformations and soil formation. Overall, soil horizonation, depth, clay content, and chemical depletion increase with increasing temperature and precipitation, consistent with enhanced soil development and weathering processes in warmer and wetter locations. Secondary minerals are present at higher concentrations at the warmest sites of the climosequence; kaolinite increases from \u3c5% at northern sites in Wales and Pennsylvania to 30% in Puerto Rico. The deepest observed weathering reaction is plagioclase feldspar dissolution followed by the transformation of chlorite and illite to vermiculite and hydroxy-interlayered vermiculite. Plagioclase, although constituting \u3c12% of the initial shale mineralogy, may be the profile initiating reaction that begins shale bedrock transformation to weathered regolith. Weathering of the more abundant chlorite and illite minerals (∼70% of initial mineralogy), however, are more likely controlling regolith thickness. Climate appears to play a central role in driving soil formation and mineral weathering reactions across the climosequence

Generation and mobility of radon in soil

This study has confirmed large seasonal and daily variations of Rn in soil gas, developed models for the effects of temperature and moisture on air-water Rn partition, inhibited Rn diffusion from wet soil into sparse large air-filled pores and effects of diffusion into bedrock, demonstrated that organic matter is a major host for 226Ra in soils and that organic-bound Ra largely determines the proportion of 222Rn emanated to pore space, shown that in contrast 220Rn is emanated mainly from 224Ra in Fe-oxides, detected significant disequilibrium between 226Ra and 238U in organic matter and in some recent glacial soils, demonstrated by computer models that air convection driven by temperature differences is expected in moderately permeable soils on hillsides

Predicting the Spatial Variation of the Soil Organic Carbon Pool at a Regional Scale

Estimates of soil organic C (SOC) storage and their variability at various spatial scales are essential to better understand the global C cycle, estimate C sink capacity, identify effective C sequestration strategies, and quantify the amount of SOC sequestered during a specific period of time. This study used a geographically weighted regression (GWR) approach to predict the SOC pool at a regional scale. The GWR considers varying relationships between the SOC pool and environmental variables across the study area. The range of the variogram of SOC observations was used to define a search radius in the GWR. Terrain attributes, climate data, land use data, bedrock geology, and normalized difference vegetation index data were used to predict the SOC pool for seven states in the midwestern United States. The prediction accuracy of this SOC pool map was compared with the multiple linear regression (MLR) and regression kriging (RK) approaches. Higher contrast and wider variability (1.73-39.3 kg m(-2)) of the SOC pool were predicted with lower global prediction errors (mean estimation error = -0.11 kg m(-2), RMSE = 6.40 kg m(-2)) in GWR compared with the other approaches. A relative improvement of 22% over MLR and 2% over RK was observed in SOC prediction. The total SOC pool to the 0.5-m depth was estimated to be 6.22 Pg. The results suggest that the GWR approach is a promising tool for regional-scale SOC prediction

Repercussion of anthropogenic landscape changes on pedodiversity and preservation of the pedological heritage

Over a period of time people have lived in and with their surrounding landscapes and for several thousand years transformed the soilscapes and the vegetation into cultural landscape types important for their economy and to meet their needs (Richter 2007, Ellis 2011, Hjelle 2012). The sustainable provision of goods and services depends critically on managing soils without damaging the natural soilscapes and the related natural resources. To support the transition towards sustainable development, science needs to understand how land-use change affects the environment and how this, in turn, feeds back into human livelihood strategies or infl uences the vulnerability of the environment (Rounsevell et al. 2012a). Interactions between decision-making, governance structures, production and consumption, technology, ecosystem services and global environmental change infl uence human activities at the local and regional scale, and are infl uenced by and feed back to the global scale, thereby shaping trajectories of human–environment interaction in land systems (Lambin and Meyfroidt 2011)