Recent  

Achieving global restoration targets requires scaling of context-specific restoration options on the ground. We implemented the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework in Rwanda to assess indicators of soil and land health, including soil organic carbon (SOC), erosion prevalence, infiltration capacity, and tree biodiversity. Maps of soil erosion and SOC were produced at 30 m resolution with high accuracy. These data provide a rigorous biophysical baseline for tracking changes over time.

Plant organs, such as leaves, contain a variety of chemicals that are eventually deposited into soil and can be useful for studying organic carbon cycling. We performed a systematic review of available data of one type of plant-derived chemical, n-alkanes, to determine patterns of degradation or preservation from the source plant to the soil. We found that while there was degradation in the amount of n-alkanes from plant to soil, some aspects of the chemical signature were preserved.

Open-cast mining increases soil erosion and transfer of sediment in river systems. Providing a methodology to better understand the sediment dynamic of these catchments is essential to manage this pollution. In this study, different tracers such as elemental geochemistry or colour properties were tested to trace and quantify the mining source contributions to the sediment inputs in the Thio River catchment, one of the first areas exploited for nickel mining in New Caledonia (i.e. since 1880).

Since the 20th century, human beings have released a large amount of reactive nitrogen by excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer, which resulted in enhanced greenhouse effect. It is not clear how the ecosystem nitrogen cycle evolves during global warming. In this study, we collected global data and used meta-analysis to reveal the response of nitrogen cycle to climate warming. The results show that the future climate warming can accelerate the process of ecosystem nitrogen cycle.

This work delivers openly accessible and validated calibrations for diagnosing 26 soil properties based on mid-infrared spectroscopy. These were developed for four regions in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, including 80 fields of smallholder farmers. The models can help to site-specifically and cost-efficiently monitor soil quality and fertility constraints to ameliorate soils and yields of yam or other staple crops in the four regions between the humid forest and the northern Guinean savanna.

We present a soil mid-infrared library with over 1800 samples from central Africa in order to facilitate soil analyses of this highly understudied yet critical area. Together with an existing continental library, we demonstrate a regional analysis and geographical extrapolation to predict total carbon and nitrogen. Our results show accurate predictions and highlight the value that the data contribute to existing libraries. Our library is openly available for public use and for expansion.

As urban populations grow, soil sealing with impermeable surfaces will increase. At present there is limited knowledge on the effect of sealing on soil carbon and nutrients. We found that, in general, sealing reduced soil carbon and nutrients; however, where there were additions due to human activity, soil carbon and nutrients were increased. This suggests that there is a legacy soil carbon store in areas with an industrial past and highlights the influence of artefacts in urban soil.

Studies on soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) in the Sudano-Sahelian part of Cameroon are very rare. Organic C storage decreases with increasing latitude and more than 60 % of the SOCS is stored below the first 25 cm depth. In addition, a good correlation is noted between precipitation which decreases with increasing latitude and the total SOCS, indicating the importance of climate in the distribution of the total SOCS in the study area, which directly influence the productivity of the vegetation.