New Findings from Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Soil Science and Hydrology Provides New Insights (In-situ multi-sensor characterization of soil cores along an erosion-deposition gradient)

2019 NOV 04 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Science - Soil Science and Hydrology. According to news originating from Muncheberg, Germany, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Soil landscape research is faced with wide-ranging questions of soil erosion, precision farming, and agricultural risk management. Digital Soil Morphometrics is a powerful tool to provide respective answers or recommendations but requires soil data from the pedon-to-field scale with high horizontal and vertical resolutions, including the subsoil.”

Funders for this research include Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), “We present an efficient sampling and measurement method for easily obtainable soil driving cores with low-destructive preparation. Elemental contents and soil organic and mineral matter composition were measured rapidly and in large numbers using a multi-sensor approach, i.e., visible and near infrared (Vis-NIR), diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy. The suitability of the approach with respect to three-dimensional soil landscape models was tested using soils along a slope representing different stages of erosion and deposition in a hummocky landscape under arable land use (Calcaric Regosols, Calcic Luvisols, Luvic Stagnosols, Gleyic-Colluvic Regosols). The combination of soil core sampling, pedological description, and three spectroscopic techniques enabled rapid determination and interpretation of horizontal and vertical spatial distributions of soil organic carbon (SOC), soil organic and mineral matter composition, as well as CaCO3, Fe, and Mn contents. Depth profiles for SOC, CaCO3, and Fe contents were suitable indicators for site-specific degrees of erosion and matter transport processes at the pedon-to-field scale. Fe and Mn profiles helped identifying zones of reductive and oxic domains in subsoils (gleyzation).”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Further methodical developments should implement plant-availability of nutrients, characterization of Fe oxides, and calibration of the spectroscopic techniques to field-moist samples.”

For more information on this research see: In-situ multi-sensor characterization of soil cores along an erosion-deposition gradient. CATENA, 2019;182():104140. CATENA can be contacted at: Elsevier, Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; CATENA - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/catena/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from M. Leue, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Eberswalder Str 84, D-15374 Muncheberg, Germany. Additional authors for this research include C. Hoffmann, W. Hierold and M. Sommer.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2019.104140. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)