Is It Possible to Classify Topsoil Texture Using a Sensor Located 800 km Away from the Surface?

ABSTRACT It is often difficult for pedologists to “see” topsoils indicating differences in properties such as soil particle size. Satellite images are important for obtaining quick information for large areas. However, mapping extensive areas of bare soil using a single image is difficult since most areas are usually covered by vegetation. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a strategy to determine bare soil areas by fusing multi-temporal satellite images and classifying them according to soil textures. Three different areas located in two states in Brazil, with a total of 65,000 ha, were evaluated. Landsat images of a specific dry month (September) over five consecutive years were collected, processed, and subjected to atmospheric correction (values in surface reflectance). Non-vegetated areas were discriminated from vegetated ones using the Linear Spectral Mixture Model (LSMM) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Thus, we were able to fuse images with only bare soil. Field samples were taken from bare soil pixel areas. Pixels of soils with different textures (soil texture classifications) were used for supervised classification in which all areas with exposed soil were classified. Single images reached an average of 36 % bare soil, where the mapper could only “see” these points. After using the proposed methodology, we reached a maximum of 85 % in bare areas; therefore, a pedologist would have proper conditions for generating a continuous map of spatial variations in soil properties. In addition, we mapped soil textural classes with accuracy up to 86.7 % for clayey soils. Overall accuracy was 63.8 %. The method was tested in an unknown area to validate the accuracy of our classification method. Our strategy allowed us to discriminate and categorize different soil textures in the field with 90 % accuracy using images. This method can assist several professionals in soil science, from pedologists to mappers of soil properties, in soil management activities

Diagnóstico Meteorológico dos Desastres Naturais Ocorridos nos Últimos 20 Anos na Cidade de Duque de Caxias

Resumo Este trabalho buscou auxiliar o planejamento de ações, medidas preventivas e mitigadoras, a desastres naturais para a Defesa Civil da cidade de Duque de Caxias, e utilizou a Classificação e Codificação Brasileira de Desastres (COBRADE) para identificação de 35 desastres naturais ocorridos entre os anos de 1996 a 2015, onde 74% desses eventos ocorreram entre os meses de novembro e fevereiro, sendo 20% ocorridos no ano de 2009. Para diagnosticar os sistemas meteorológicos, foram utilizados o Boletim de Climanálise do Centro de Previsão do Tempo de Estudos Climáticos – CPTEC, onde 57% dos desastres foram associados à Zona de Convergência do Atlântico Sul (ZCAS), 29% a passagem de frentes frias e 14% a áreas de instabilidade local. Objetivando subsidiar a confecção dos protocolos de acionamento de sirenes, foram analisadas a espacialização da precipitação ocorrida em 116 pluviômetros. Os resultados mostram que, para eventos de ZCAS, a faixa de maior frequência de acumulados diários de chuva variou entre 10 e 50 mm nas 24 h antecedentes, e entre 60 e 110 mm no dia do desastre. Para frentes frias, os acumulados variaram entre 40 e 110 mm, e para áreas de instabilidade entre 30 e 95 mm

Soil animals and pedogenesis: The role of earthworms in anthropogenic soils

The role of earthworms as one of the most important groups of ecosystem engineers in human-modified and natural environments has been increasingly recognized only during the last 30 years, yet earthworms and humans have been acting together in building landscapes for millennia. This relationship is well represented in the pre-Columbian raised fields, in flood-prone savannas around the rim of Amazonia, but also by the potentially significant role of earthworms in the formation and resilience of Amazonian Dark Earths. Through the bioturbating action of earthworms, soil is biologically, chemically, and physically altered; nutrients are translocated; organic matter is decomposed and transformed; and the surrounding biota interacts as a large orchestra where the soil musicians play together on the various instruments but where earthworms take a leading role, enhancing microbial activity and generally stimulating plant growth. In this article, we assess the remarkable role of earthworms at the center of soil pedogenetic processes within anthropogenic landscapes, dissecting their functions with a special focus on Amazonian Dark Earths

Common combinatorial histone modification expression patterns around the <i>WRB</i> CGI-2 DMRs.

<p>Graphical representation of the confluence of activating and repressive epigenetics histone modification marks for the known imprinted <i>MEST</i> gene (<b>A</b>) and the candidate imprinted <i>WRB</i> gene (<b>B</b>). Shown are the 17-histone modification activation backbone module and the 5-histone modification repressive module found in human CD4+ T cells [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0154108#pone.0154108.ref054" target="_blank">54</a>]. Highlighted in light blue is the DMR in each gene. Composite of screenshots of the dataset viewed at the UCSC Genome Browser hg18 (<a href="http://genome.ucsc.edu/" target="_blank">http://genome.ucsc.edu</a>).</p

The maternally derived, imprinted 5^mCpG marks at the <i>WRB</i> CGI-2 DMR do not dictate a paternal monoallelic expression in a human embryonic stem cell line.

<p>Allele-specific transcriptional profiling of the <i>WRB</i> 3´-UTR rs1060180 SNP in the informative hESC HUES 1 sample (DNA; upper panel) reveals a pattern consistent with biallelic expression (cDNA; lower panel). In contrast, for the known paternally imprinted <i>H19</i> and <i>ATP10A</i> genes, the expression profiles for the informative rs2839702 and rs2076743 SNPs, respectively, are monoallelic.</p