The study was performed using continuous measurement of temporal variations in soil saturation and of the concentration of pesticides along the vadose zone profile and underlying alluvial aquifers at sugarcane fields in the Wet Tropics of Australia. A vadose zone monitoring system was set up to enable the characterization of pesticide (non-PS II herbicides) migration with respect to pesticide application, sugarcane growing period, and, finally, rainwater infiltration.

Quantifying soil redistribution rates is a global challenge. Radiogenic tracers such as plutonium, namely ^239+240Pu, released to the atmosphere by atmospheric bomb testing in the 1960s are promising tools to quantify soil redistribution. Direct validation of ^239+240Pu as soil redistribution is, however, still missing. Here, we used a unique sediment yield time series in southern Italy, reaching back to the initial fallout of ^239+240Pu to verify ^239+240Pu as a soil redistribution tracer.

The present study used several different datasets, conducted a field survey, and paired the data with three different machine learning algorithms to construct spatial maps for areas at risk of land degradation for the Lut watershed in Iran. According to the land degradation map, almost the entire study region is at risk. A large fraction of 43 % of the area is prone to both high wind-driven and water-driven soil erosion.

We analyzed intensification of Uruguayan grasslands in a country-wide survey on fertility proxies, pH and trace metals in topsoils. We observed a loss of nutrients, trace metals and organic matter in grasslands, croplands and timber plantations and accumulation in riverine forests. This raises questions about the carrying capacity of Uruguayan soils with regard to currently implemented intensification strategies and supports more conservative forms of extensive grassland management.

This study investigated how land use, through its impact on soil geochemistry, might indirectly control soil organic carbon (SOC) content in tropical volcanic soils in Indonesia. We analyzed SOC fractions, substrate-specific mineralization, and net priming of SOC. Our results indicated that the enhanced formation of aluminum (hydr)oxides promoted aggregation and physical occlusion of OC, which is consistent with the lesser degradability of SOC in agricultural soils.

Earthworm invasion in North American forests can alter soil functioning. We investigated how the presence of invasive earthworms affected microbial communities, key drivers of soil biogeochemistry, across the major soil types of the Canadian boreal forest, which is a region largely understudied. Although total microbial biomass did not change, community composition shifted in earthworm-invaded mineral soils, where we also found higher fungal biomass and greater microbial species diversity.

Twelve years after the nuclear accident that occurred in Fukushima in March 2011, radioactive contamination remains a major concern in north-eastern Japan. The Japanese authorities completed an unprecedented decontamination programme. The central objective was to not expose local inhabitants to excessive radioactive doses. At the onset of the full reopening of the Difficult-to-Return Zone in 2023, the current review provides an update of a previous synthesis published in 2019.

We added organic and inorganic nitrogen amendments to two soil types in a laboratory incubation study in order to understand how that would impact biodegradable plastic mulch (BDM) decomposition. We found that nitrogen amendments, particularly urea and inorganic nitrogen, suppressed BDM degradation in both soil types. However, we found limited impact of BDM addition on soil nitrification, suggesting that overall microbial processes were not compromised due to the addition of BDMs.

Forest soil is potentially an important source or sink of greenhouse gases (CO₂, N₂O, and CH₄), but this is affected by soil conditions. We studied how land inclination and soil/litter properties influence the flux of these gases. CO₂ and N₂O were more affected by inclination than CH₄; all were affected by soil/litter properties. This study underlines the importance of inclination and soil/litter properties in predicting greenhouse gas fluxes from forest soil and potential source–sink balance.