To investigate long-term relationships between climate, vegetation, landscape geochemistry and fires in the boreal forest zone of Western Siberia, a sediment core of 345 cm was collected from Shchuchye Lake (located in south taiga zone of southeast part of West Siberian plain) and investigated by spore-pollen, radiocarbon, LOI and charcoal analyses. Quantitative palaeoclimate was reconstructed based on pollen data. Investigation revealed 13.2 cal ka history of vegetation, climate, landscapes and fires. In the dry climate of Late Glacial, the landscape was treeless. Continuous permafrost existed in the soil. In the middle of the YD cooling 12.4–12.2 cal ka BP, our data showed warming that caused degradation of permafrost in soils and settlement of spruce in moist places. Later, thawing and accumulation of moisture in a local lowering in relief increased and a lake was formed. With the beginning of the Holocene, the climate sharply changed to warmer and wetter. Intensified surface flow caused accumulation of mineral and carbonate fraction in the lake. Dense birch forests spread on drylands. As a result, the leaching regime initiated the formation of podzols in the soil. At about 10.0 cal ka BP, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) quickly spread in the area of investigation. Fires became more frequent and more intense during the dry Late Glacial time, sharply decreasing with increased precipitation in the Early Holocene, and again moderately increasing with spread of pine forests in the mid Holocene. With the transition to Late Holocene (after 6.0 cal ka BP), the intensity of regional background fires and number of local fires decreased.

Cystic and alveolar echinococcosis are considered the second and third most significant foodborne parasitic diseases worldwide. The microscopic eggs excreted in the feces of the definitive host are the only source of contamination for intermediate and dead-end hosts, including humans. However, estimating the respective contribution of the environment, fomites, animals or food in the transmission of Echinococcus eggs is still challenging. Echinococcus granulosus and E. multilocularis seem to have a similar survival capacity regarding temperature under laboratory conditions. In addition, field experiments have reported that the eggs can survive several weeks to years outdoors, with confirmation of the relative susceptibility of Echinococcus eggs to desiccation. Bad weather (such as rain and wind), invertebrates and birds help scatter Echinococcus eggs in the environment and may thus impact human exposure. Contamination of food and the environment by taeniid eggs has been the subject of renewed interest in the past decade. Various matrices from endemic regions have been found to be contaminated by Echinococcus eggs. These include water, soil, vegetables and berries, with heterogeneous rates highlighting the need to acquire more robust data so as to obtain an accurate assessment of the risk of human infection. In this context, it is essential to use efficient methods of detection and to develop methods for evaluating the viability of eggs in the environment and food.

Writing in the first century ce, Columella delineates farming practice based on personal experience and observation. Roman attitudes towards slavery, truth, and torture are highlighted in a particularly graphic description of preparing the soil for sowing.

This study examines the effects of the chemical composition of the clay fraction of various soil horizons on radiation shielding parameters. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis did not reveal significant differences in the concentration of the most abundant oxides (Al2O3, SiO2, Fe2O3) among the various horizons. Consequently, the mass attenuation coefficient did not vary among the horizons in terms of the photon energies studied (15 keV–10 MeV). The mean free path (MFP), half-value layer (HVL) and tenth-value layer (TVL) did not differ for energies up to 100 keV. However, at higher energies, these parameters were mainly influenced by the differences in the densities of the soil horizons. The effective atomic number did not differ across the horizons for the various photon energies, nor did the mass attenuation coefficient. It is shown that slight differences in the chemical composition of the clay fraction of soil horizons do not affect radiation shielding parameters (MFL, HVL, TVL) for low photon energies (<500 keV). Density is more important for radiation shielding than the chemical composition of the various horizons of the same soil type for higher energies (>100 keV); hence, compacting the clay fraction might be more efficient for radiation shielding purposes at higher energies.

In order to gain a better understanding of clay and Fe (oxyhydr)oxide minerals formed during pedogenesis of basalts in tropical monsoonal Hainan (southern China), a basalt-derived lateritic soil at Nanyang, Hainan, was investigated comprehensively. The results show that the lateritic regolith consists uniformly of kaolinite and Fe (oxyhydr)oxide minerals, with trace gibbsite only in the AE horizon. Abundant dioctahedral smectite in the basalt bedrock formed due to primary hydrothermal alteration, and transformed to kaolinite rapidly in the highly weathering saprolite horizon. The ‘crystallinity’ of kaolinite is notably low and its Hinckley index fluctuates along the soil profile, resulting from intense ferrolysis due to fluctuations between wet/dry climate conditions. From the base to the top of the profile, maghemite shows a decreasing trend, whereas magnetite, hematite, and goethite exhibit a slightly increasing trend, indicating that maghemite formed as an initial product of basalt weathering. Formation of Fe (oxyhydr)oxide species in basalt-derived soil is mainly controlled by local environmental conditions such as soil moisture, redox, and acidic conditions; thus, iron mineral-based paleoclimatic proxies could not be used for subtropical to tropical soils. The highly weathered saprolite has a similar δ56Fe value (+0.06‰) to that (+0.07‰) of the parent rock, while the AE to middle E horizons have greater δ56Fe values of +0.12‰ to +0.19‰. Fe isotopic signatures correlate positively with the Fe mass transfer coefficient (R2=0.77, n=6, ρ<0.05), indicating repetitive weathering and relative accumulation of isotopically heavier Fe in the upper soil horizons, which occurred by reductive dissolution of organic matter under oxic conditions, as reflected by the greater U/Th.

Clay minerals were used as indicators for determining the source of sediment in recently dredged harbors along the north shore of Long Island Sound. Amount and characteristics of clay minerals in sediments from the dredged channels were compared to their amount and characteristics in the surrounding soils and in sediments from Long Island Sound. Clay minerals in sediments from the channels were similar in amount and characteristics to clay minerals in sediments from Long Island Sound but differed from those in the surrounding soils in the watershed. Thus, the main source of deposits in the channels is the bottom sediment of Long Island Sound which is transported to the channels by tidal action. These conclusions are supported by recent studies of the bottom currents in the Sound.

The sand and silt fractions of soils derived from Tertiary basalt in northeastern Ireland exhibit unusually high cation-exchange capacities. Smectite was identified by X-ray powder diffraction in all size fractions and was selectively dissolved by treatment with 1 N HCl and 0.5 N NaOH. Structural formulae, based on chemical analysis of the dissolved material, suggest that the smectite is intermediate in composition between a di- and a trioctahedral mineral and that the octahedral cation occupancy, together with the numbers of Mg and Fe atoms per unit cell, decreases with decrease in particle size of the soil fraction examined. The mean formula for the smectite in the clay separates is:

M+0.40(Si3.33Al0.67)(Al1.07Fe2+0.09 Fe3+0.41Mg0.82)O10(OH)2.

Similar analysis of smectite present in clay-size material separated from weathered basalt rock taken from the bases of the soil profiles showed that it had close to the full trioctahedral occupancy. It is suggested that the soil smectite is a weathering product of the trioctahedral smectite inherited from the weathered basalt.

A procedure based on loss of weight after selective dissolution analysis (SDA) and washing with (NH4)2CO3 was developed for estimating the noncrystalline material content of soils derived from widely different parent materials. After extracting with 0.2 N ammonium-oxalate or boiling 0.5 N NaOH solutions, samples were washed with 1 N (NH4)2CO3 to remove excess dissolution agents and to prevent sample dispersion. The amount of noncrystalline material removed from the sample by the extracting solution was estimated by weighing the leached products dried to constant weight at 110°C. The results match closely with those obtained by chemical analyses of the dissolution product and assignment of the appropriate water. The proposed weight-loss method is less time-consuming than the chemical method, and no assumptions need be made concerning sample homogeneity or water content of the noncrystalline material.

Extractions of whole soil and dispersed clay fractions indicated that noncrystalline material determinations on the clay fractions underestimated the noncrystalline material content for whole soils from 0 to 34%. Acid ammonium oxalate was found to be a much more selective extractant for noncrystalline materials than NaOH.

Lepidocrocite was identified associated with mica particles and in the clay fraction of two well-drained Ontario soils developed on a granite and a granite-gneiss. The occurrence of lepidocrocite is rare outside the tropics and there are no reports on its existence in well-drained soils.

The effects of Na-citrate-dithionite (NaCD), ammonium oxalate in the dark (NH4Ox-D), and photolytic reaction under ultraviolet radiation (NH4Ox-P) on the mineralogy of <2-µm fractions of selected soils from Virginia were investigated. The NH4Ox-D treatment removed the smallest amounts of Al (<0.22%) and Fe (<0.50%) from all soils, indicating low levels of noncrystalline material in these materials. From the six soils examined, NH4Ox-P treatment extracted 5–62% more Fe and 12–300% more Al than the NaCD treatment. The NH4Ox-D and NaCD treatments revealed no X-ray diffraction detectable alterations to mineral phases present in <2-µm fractions of these soils. The NH4Ox-P treatment, on the other hand, produced considerable degradation of hydroxy-interlayered vermiculites in these soils, as evidenced by a shift of the 14-Å X-ray diffraction maxima to lower spacings with heat treatment of the sample. The NH4Ox-P treatment removed variable amounts of hydroxy-Al material from the interlayers of 2:1 layer silicates, depending on their stability and degree of development.

The possible role of geothermal areas, such as volcanoes, in fostering biodiversity in Antarctica has received considerable recent attention. Under a geothermal refugia hypothesis, diverse life could be supported near or at geothermal sites, and we should see decreasing diversity and/or patterns of nestedness moving away from ‘hotspots’. Although there is evidence that geothermal areas have played a role in the persistence of some terrestrial species through glacial periods in Antarctica, the spatial scales at which such refugia operate is not clear. We sampled sediment from a range of locations across volcanic Deception Island in the Maritime Antarctic and used eDNA metabarcoding approaches (targeting a region of the 28S marker) to assess patterns of diversity in relation to thermal gradients. We found that although colder sites harboured significantly greater taxonomic richness than warmer sites, phylogenetic diversity was lower at colder sites (i.e. taxa at colder sites tend to be more evolutionary close to each other). We infer that increased selective processes in low-temperature environments have reduced phylogenetic diversity, supporting a hypothesis of geothermal locations acting as refugia for diverse taxa, even on fine spatial scales, in cold-climate regions such as Antarctica.

Glauconite from the oxidized and reduced zones of soil-geologic columns at two Coastal Plain sites, one in Maryland and one in New Jersey, was examined by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The data indicate that glauconite in the reduced zones had a higher proportion of its structural iron in the ferrous, as opposed to the ferric state. The Fe2+/Fe3+ ratio ranged from 0 to 0.2 for the glauconite from the oxidized zone and was about 0.35 for the glauconite in the reduced zones. Despite the presence of pyrite in the reduced zone, which might be expected to make ferric iron unstable because of the presence of sulfide S, about 75% of the Fe in the glauconite in the reduced zone was in the ferric state. Thin section analysis showed some glauconite in the reduced zones to be intimately associated with pyrite and some aggregates of fine pyrite crystals were locally present in cracks in glauconite pellets. In the oxidized zones, pyrite was absent and the glauconite was more yellow under plane-polarized light, as opposed to more green for the glauconite in the reduced zones. These data indicate that reports of studies of glauconite should stipulate whether samples are from the oxidized or reduced zone of soil-geologic columns.

Mineralogical weathering sequences in sediments overlying lignite beds were investigated in a core (27 m deep) from Calvert, Robertson County, northeast Texas. Weathering trends were evaluated based on the properties and relative distributions of both the expandable and non-expandable minerals. The sulfide minerals in these sediments are the most susceptible to weathering and were only observed in the unaltered (reduced) zone below 7 m. Oxidation of the sulfides has resulted in the formation of jarosite and gypsum in the upper 7 m of the core (oxidized zone). The oxidized zone is further characterized by reddish brown colors (high chroma), a greater quantity of dithionite-extractable iron, and absence of chlorite. Although the major clay minerals in these sediments (smectite, kaolinite, mica) are largely detrital, weathering has resulted in an increase in the content of kaolinite and a decrease in the content of mica towards the surface. The mica appears to have altered to a high-charge smectite characterized by basal spacings of 32 Â after intercalation with octadecylammonium cations. The high-charge smectite is most abundant in the soil horizons at the top of the core and gradually decreases with depth. A low-charge smectite is the most abundant species in the un weathered parent sediments and increases with depth. Key Words—Lignite, Oxidation, Reclamation, Smectite, Soil, Weathering.

Alteration products of andesite cobbles from wet soils formed in volcanic colluvial material were studied using petrographic, electron microscope, X-ray powder diffraction, and thermal techniques. Augite phenocrysts altered by congruent dissolution leaving voids which were subsequently filled with smectite. Plagioclase also altered to produce micrometer-size spheroidal aggregates of smectite. Halloysite was not observed within the altered cobbles, although it was abundant in the soil matrix. The formation of smectite in the altered cobbles was probably favored by the restrictive drainage of the microenvironment in combination with wet soil conditions.

The particle size distribution, total and exchangeable Mg, and mineralogical compositions were determined on eight well-drained, noncultivated subsoils from Pennsylvania. No correlation was found between the clay content and total Mg (r =.29), or between the clay content and exchangeable Mg (r =.35). Serpentine, talc, and hypersthene were found in the very fine sand and silt fractions of soils having relatively high exchangeable Mg. Mica and 14-Å clay minerals were the only Mg-bearing minerals noted in the same fractions of soils having relatively low exchangeable Mg. Of the Mg-bearing clay minerals found in the clay fractions (smectite, vermiculite, chlorite, illite, and interstratified chlorite/vermiculite), only smectite decreased as the exchangeable Mg in the soils decreased. Two distinctly different distribution patterns of Mg were found for soils having relatively high and low exchangeable Mg. The former soils showed a decreasing Mg content as the particle size decreased, and the latter soils showed the opposite. Exchangeable Mg correlated significantly with the amount of Mg in whole soil, sand, and silt, but not with the amount of Mg in the clay, an indication that sand and silt but not clay were the important sources of exchangeable Mg in these soils.

As part of the characterization of a Tunisian red soil profile, six samples, taken at different depths, were investigated by Mössbauer spectroscopy at room temperature and at 80 K to obtain information about the various types of Fe oxides present. By considering magnetic hyperfine field distributions, the spectra of goethite and hematite were well resolved. Chemical analyses of the samples revealed a partial substitution of Fe by Al and Mn. The spectral behavior of the goethite was predominantly influenced by crystallinity and amount of Al substitution which resulted in a reduction of the magnetic hyperfine field. The effect of Mn substitution was much more pronounced in the hematite spectrum as a consequence of a stronger suppression of the Morin transition by Mn than by Al.