Recent advances in chemical sensors for soil analysis: a review

The continuously rising interest in chemical sensors' applications in environmental monitoring, for soil analysis in particular, is owed to the sufficient sensitivity and selectivity of these analytical devices, their low costs, their simple measurement setups, and the possibility to perform online and in-field analyses with them. In this review the recent advances in chemical sensors for soil analysis are summarized. The working principles of chemical sensors involved in soil analysis; their benefits and drawbacks; and select applications of both the single selective sensors and multisensor systems for assessments of main plant nutrition components, pollutants, and other important soil parameters (pH, moisture content, salinity, exhaled gases, etc.) of the past two decades with a focus on the last 5 years (from 2017 to 2021) are overviewed

EDAPHOLOGY IN THE STRUCTURE OF SOIL SCIENCE AND ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY

Edaphology (Edaphologia, from Greek εδάφοξ – soil for planting) is a science of soil as a habitat for living beings. On the contrary, pedopogy (Pedologia from Greek πεδον – leg as a thing for walking) is a science of soil properties and formation, namely genetic soil science. Soil science is a relatively young discipline studying the complex «bio-abiogenic» systems. Even the history of soil science is not simple, as the main term was duplicated: pedology and edaphology. Later, Edaphology was driven out from soil science into agricultural chemistry to solve edaphic problems for agricultural plants only. The genetic soil science had been mainly developing that time. However the edaphic problems remained and they were solved both within basic soil science and adjoined sciences. The edaphic component is clearly seen in ecological soil science (soil ecology) that appeared in the middle of the 20th century, but without a return to the initial terminology. In forest soil science, the concept of humus forms is directly related to edaphology because humus forms represent a classification of topsoil organic and organo-mineral horizons that determine the vegetation productivity and they are developed under the impact of the biological cycle in forest ecosystems. The European and North American soil-landscape classifications of forest sites also belong to edaphology. The plant ordination according to the scales of soil moisture and «richness» in ecological botany (geobotany) and lower layers of landscape classifications are of clearly edaphic origin as well. The restoration of the edaphic branch in soil science is necessary for addressing theoretical and especially practical problems in sustainable forest and environmental management under the rapidly changing environment and developing economy

Humusica 2, article 13: Para humus systems and forms

Planet Earth is covered by very common Terrestrial (not submersed), Histic (peats) and Aqueous (tidal) humipedons. Beside these typical topsoils there are other more discrete humipedons, generated by the interaction of mineral matter with microorganisms, fungi and small plants (algae, lichens and mosses). In some cases roots and their symbionts can be a driving force of litter biotransformation, in other cases a large amount of decaying wood accommodates particular organisms which interfere and change the normal process of litter decomposition. Particular microorganisms inhabit submerged sediments or extreme environments and can generate specialised humipedons with grey-black or even astonishingly flashing colours. We describe all these common but still unknown humipedons, defining diagnostic horizons and proposing a first morpho-functional classification, which still has to be improved. At the end of the article, the hypothesis of evolving and interconnected Cosmo, Aero, Hydro, Humi, Co, Litho and Geopedons (related to the microbiota) is formulated as a speculative curiosity