- the soil on Mars
-
...musings on Amundson R, Ewing S, Dietrich W, Sutter B, Owen J, Chadwick OA, Nishiizumi K, Walvoord M, McKay C. 2008. On the in situ aqueous alteration of soils on Mars. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72:3845-3864.
It's great when an article related to one's own discipline is about something exotic, and it would be hard to imagine a more exotic environment than the surface of Mars. I enjoy highlighting interesting developments to students, so this year's Introduction to Geochemistry students had the data from this article as an example when we learned about mass balance during weathering. And this was my first crack at teaching this geochemical topic to students as well, so I learned a lot too. We used the subject matter, if not the Martian data, in a prac class, using an excellent dataset published by Oh & Richter (2005).
Amundson et al.'s hypothesis is that liquid water must have existed on Mars at some stage in that planet's history, based on the mineralogical record (minerals which need water to form, such as smectites and jarosite, have been identified on the Martian surface). Amundson et al. further tested this hypothesis by using elemental analysis data from conveniently exposed "soil profiles" on Mars, within the Gusev and Endurance craters investigated by the Mars Exploration Rover (Opportunity) mission. They were looking for evidence of absolute loss or gain of elements which might reflect transport by liquid water - and they found exactly that. Soils were depleted in major rock-forming elements (Si, Al, Mg, Ca, Fe, etc.) relative to the likely parent materials (Gusev basalt, or aeolian dust), probably representing earlier weathering mediated by water. A key result was the enrichment in the soil profiles of sulfur, chlorine and bromine, consistent with the aqueous transport of sulfate, chloride and bromide salts followed by drying.
The point is also made that comparable environments (very dry and cold; e.g., some of Antarctica) exist on Earth, and similar soil-forming processes have occurred here (on Earth, that is!) as well. The authors refer to such terrestrial soils as being "abiotic"; a bit of a misnomer, I thought, where perhaps they meant the absence of higher organisms (surely some microorganisms were present in all the Earth examples - were they there on Mars?). Plus there is the usual issue with mass-balance approaches (fully acknowledged) of matching the weathered/altered material to its assumed parent material.
This was a fun article to read. It's not often that I get to read and use a publication that contains so much language usually reserved (in my reading experience) for science fiction - Mars landers, differences in gravity - all wonderful stuff.
Image from www.nasa.gov
- A good excuse for not posting
-
I've been doing a lot of marking lately, and not much else, it seems. Certainly no blogging for weeks, sadly.
The reason is my experience of one of the less salubrious hazards of cycling to work; about a month ago I came off second-best in a bingle with a car at a roundabout. I like cycling; it keeps me fit, reduces my carbon footprint and saves me money. But a split second of bad timing, and I end up with an AC joint dislocation (see image at right, with my cyborg implant at bottom so the ligaments can grow back together), and four broken ribs. Could have been worse, probably; in a perverse sense, I'm lucky.
The ability to work from home has been a godsend. My indispensable colleagues have had to pick up what lectures remained in the last weeks of semester, and I've been churning away when I can at marking assignments, lab reports and so on. Next stop exam papers, a PhD thesis to examine, and several ARC proposal assessments - all classifiable under 'marking'. It's surprising to think how much time academics spend on assessing others' work. It could go on all year...
- News - Double-blind article reviews help female authors
-
How's this for an eye-opener?
Budden AE, Tregenza T, Aarssen LW, Koricheva J, Leimu R, Lortie CJ. 2008. Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 23:4-6.
Abstract
Double-blind peer review, in which neither author nor reviewer identity are revealed, is rarely practised in ecology or evolution journals. However, in 2001, double-blind review was introduced by the journal Behavioral Ecology. Following this policy change, there was a significant increase in female first-authored papers, a pattern not observed in a very similar journal that provides reviewers with author information. No negative effects could be identified, suggesting that double-blind review should be considered by other journals.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2007.07.008
- Les Murray on geology and soils
-
I heard Les Murray read some of his poetry and speak at the end of March, in the wonderful venue that is the chapel at Christ Church Grammar School, looking out onto Fresahwater Bay as the sun set. Like Arthur Boyd, Les Murray has a highly aware view of Australia's landscape, expressed in language rather than paint.
He didn't read any of his "earth science" poetry at Christ Church chapel, but I had been dipping into my copy of "Collected Poems" for a few weeks earlier and it occured to me that Les Murray also has a keen sense of the poetry in rocks, soils, water and the land in general; inspiring stuff for earth scientists who may be occasionally dissatisfied with simple rationality.
Here's a few brief excerpts (any more words from each poem and I'll be outside fair copying limits, I think):
"...pleated water shaking out its bedding soil, increasing its scale, beginning the headlong...
...a squeeze-play through a cracked basalt bar, maintaining a foam roofed two-sided overhang of breakneck riesling..."
(from Bent Water in the Tasmanian Highlands, originally published in 'The People's Otherworld', 1983)
"...men dial Barrier Reefs long enfolded beneath the geology... There are many wrong numbers on the geophone, but it's brought us some distance..."
(from Machine Portraits With Pendant Spaceman, originally published in 'The People's Otherworld', 1983)
"He knows the map of Earth's fertile soils, and can draw it freehand...
...His favourite country was the Ukraine: it is nearly all deep fertile soil."
(from It Allows A Portrait in Line Scan at Fifteen, originally published in 'Subhuman Redneck Poems', 1996)
I'll keep reading. Finding beauty like this keeps me, for one, interested in my discipline and its value to humans.
Les Murray photograph from http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/226
- Arthur Boyd's soil
-
I'm part-way through reading Darlene Bungey's excellent biography of the celebrated Australian artist Arthur Boyd "Arthur Boyd: A Life".
Despite initially being drawn to his art through hie darker, expressionistic works such as the "Nebuchadnezzar" series, Arthur Boyd's landscapes are, I think, wonderful.
For the soils enthusiast, there is more to see than just Boyd's considerable artistic merit. His 'Wimmera' series of landscape from the 1950s (e.g. the top picture in this post), and the later Shoalhaven series (lower right), are characterised (at least for soil geeks like me) by earthy colours, and the landscape clearly show exposed soil.
Contrast this with the English landscape (bottom left). In this painting, all soil is covered by vegetation; the harshness of the Australian landscape is not visible in the civilised greens of England..
Maybe someone else can point me to other examples of soil as a feature in Australian art? Or other regions of the world - it would be interesting to find a correlation between the emphasis on soils in landscapes and climatic zone, for example.
Check out three paintings by Arthur Boyd, and many other stunning Australian landscape paintings, the the National Gallery of Australia's travelling exhibition 'OCEAN to OUTBACK: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950' at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western Australia.
(added 2008.05.07)
- Mood-changing students
-
Yesterday I could have had a very bad day. Things felt busier than usual, I felt less than well-prepared for a class, and to top it all off I forgot my USB thumb drive on which I had some material prepared the previous evening for a class.
[USB drives seem essential small items these days, along with mobile 'phones. I have a gonzo theory about both technologies; 'phones, fairly obviously, fulfil our need to connect with other humans; on the other hand, our USB drives help us remember important things in our lives (unless, of course, we forget the drive itself). It does seem risky to delegate two of our most important characteristics, communication and memory, to devices... ]
So I turned up to my 9 am 'Earth Surface Processes and Soils' lecture feeling somewhat frazzled and grumpy. Usually in that frame of mind the message doesn't get across so well; that may well have been the case, because (unusually) there were a number of good questions about the material which turned into a useful class discussion. My mood improved markedly. The next class, the one which could have done with more preparation, went smoothly as well.
My afternoon practical class was the last mood changing experience; the students were wrestling with a computer-based problem in Land & Water Management and my interactions with them helpful for both parties, and (certainly from my point-of view) pleasant.
I learned something about being an academic yesterday. Maybe the lesson was just for me; it certainly reinforced an idea that relationships are central to the teaching and learning experience. My anxiety was about the mechanics of teaching; what made the difference was how a group of humans, having a common focus, interacted with one another.
But I'm still lost without my USB...
- Irreverent and, as a result, funny
-
The Wordpress blog "Stuff White People Like" has a recent entry "Graduate School" related to PhD study - an entertaining read.
Not PC, but fun.
- Value in scarcity
-
A recent serendipitous find:
"A single file of women and children was walking through the village, their faces drawn and tired. They had walked a very long way. In their hands they carried small satchels, filled with earth and manure, clasping the precious burden tightly, like a golden treasure. They had collected it in far-away villages, giving in exchange sheep, silver coins and handwoven lengths of material. Now they were going to spread the dearly bought earth on the bleak rocks, so the poor acres could bear corn to feed the people. The fields hung on a slant over the abyss. Strapped on a chain, men slid down on to the little platforms, and carefully crumbled the new earth over the rocky ground. A rough wall was put up over the future field, to protect it from wind and landslides. These acres, three paces long, four paces wide, were the mountain people's most treasured possession. Early in the morning the men went out to the fields. They said a long prayer, and only then bent over the good earth. When the wind was strong the women brought their blankets to cover the dear land. They caressed the seeds with slender brown fingers and later cut the few blades with little scythes. They ground the grains and baked long flat loaves. Into the first loaf a coin was put, the people's thanksgiving for the miracle of the seed."
From "Ali and Nino", by Kurban Said, translated by Jenia Graman. First published in 1937, translated into English in 1970; Vintage/Random House, 2000.
Image from http://www.gateway.az/
- Occasional poetry No. 2
-
Hiking the Summit
by Simmons B. Buntin
_______________________________________________________________________
Hiking the Summit
Thirteen miles have passed beneath
these
broken boots, though I
have been lost since the first step.
I cannot see
snow-crowned
peaks or a canyon gone crazy
upon itself, but only my breath,
thick
as frost on the evening ridge. As
the trail grows twisted, I lose
level
ground and fall into a rushing spring,
the water drowning my
call
with the taste of panic,
sweetness. I work the current
like a
cutter through ice, reach
the bank to dream of sleep,
and fall upon the
hardened earth.
As the moon slides across the frozen
sky, distant wolves
hurl their calls
against my camp. Waking, I spur
simmering coals and
return
the howls, watching as my fire
grows. When the flames
form a
ladder, a straight line
of smoke opens the night.
I climb in, and the trail is gone.
______________________________________________________________________
About the poet
_______________________________________________________________________
Simmons B. Buntin is the founding editor of
Terrain.org: A Journal
of the Built & Natural Environments. With a master's degree in urban and
regional planning, he is-logically-a web program manager for the University of
Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. He has published in Canadian Bulletin of Medical
History, Sou'wester, Southern Humanities Review, The Manhattan Review, and
elsewhere and is a recipient of the Colorado Artist's Fellowship for Poetry.
- Submission!
-
Yamin Ma submitted her PhD thesis today. She doesn't run a blog, so I'm making sure that recognition for her achievement reaches as many in the UWA community as possible.
Yamin's thesis ended up with the title "Vegetation as a biotic driver for the
formation of soil geochemical anomalies for mineral exploration of covered
terrains"
Long live the holders of the red mugs!
P.S. If you read this early enough, Yamin and a few friends will be down at the Captain Stirling for celebratory drinks (today, 4:00pm on) - come and join us!
- Urban soil habitats
-
Musings on:
Byrne LB, 2007. Habitat structure: A fundamental concept and framework for urban soil ecology. Urban Ecosystems, 10:255-274.
The title's claim of a "fundamental concept and framework" are ambitious, and this paper has a few shortcomings that leave it falling somewhat short of such lofty goals. Despite this, the stated overall objective to ". . .stimulate interdisciplinary interest in, and research about . . . urbanized ecosystems" does seem to be achieved by a paper that, refreshingly, emphasises ideas over activity. And there's nothing wrong with an article having shortcomings, especially if it encourages further thought and debate.
|
Quotable
quote: |
|
"In general, very little is known about the effects of
urbanization on the ecology of soils" |
The article itself is an odd hybrid of original empirical data and review-based analysis and conceptualisation (but perhaps it is only an odd hybrid for soil science, a discipline whose journals seldom publish conceptual articles). The original data are used to support the concept of habitat structure in urban soil systems, by measuring various soil parameters under four treatments, which are all (lawn, old field, bark mulch, gravel mulch) manipulations of the soil surface. This is all very well . . . IF these four treatments are really types of urban habitat structure. The challenge is then to describe and preferably quantify the "habitat structure" sufficiently to be able to relate it to habitat conditions, such as soil physical and chemical properties, or to biological responses, such as species abundances or biotic fluxes such as soil respiration. Later in the article it is suggested that surface are to volume ratio is ". . .can be an appropriate description of habitat complexity", but this seems simplistic; the assumption appears to be that "complexity" is a key component of "structure". I wonder if fractal geometry might have a role in more quantitatively describing habitat complexity?
Loren Byrne makes some useful observations in this article. Like Tim Low, the point is made that ". . .human-designed plant communities may have unique and perhaps unexpected effects on urban soil biodiversity." It would certainly be interesting to test this hypothesis across a range of contrasting soils. On the other hand, there are some less-than-useful implications; the paragraph at the bottom of page 264 implies that soils are separate from "habitat structure", being ". . .beneath the different types of habitat structure. . .". A more useful approach might have been to consider soils as part of the habitat structure continuum, as soils contain spatially arranged entities of their own.
The definition of habitat structure itself, although given quite comprehensively in Table 1, may also need some work. The phrase "patterns of habitat structure", seemingly containing another level of abstraction, appears to be used synonymously with "habitat structure" in the paragraph at the bottom of p.265.
Reading back through this, I seem too critical. There is great value in this article's presentation and application of the habitat structure concept to urban soil ecosystems. There is also considerable benefit to readers, particularly postgraduate students in soil science, in examining the way the author develops and justifies arguments to present a coherent concept. As I have maintained before, the discipline of soil science and its practitioners have much to gain from a true dialogue with disciplines such as ecology and geography.
Image from "Jack and The Beanstalk" by Richard Walker and Niamh Sharkey; Barefoot Paperbacks
- Year of Planet Earth
-
The journal Nature is marking The Year of Planet Earth in 2008 with free access to their Year of Planet Earth feature - find it at http://www.nature.com/nature/supplements/collections/yearofplanetearth/.
Many of the articles in the feature have relevance to soil science
:
From landscapes into geological history - Philip A. Allen Nature 451, 274–276 (17 January 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06586
Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks - Martin Heimann & Markus Reichstein Nature 451, 289–292 (17 January 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06591
An Earth-system perspective of the global nitrogen cycle - Nicolas Gruber & James N. Galloway
Nature 451, 293–296 (17 January 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06592
Earth science and society - Frank Press Nature 451, 301–303 (17 January 2008)
doi:10.1038/nature06595
Image from http://www.nature.com/nature/supplements/collections/yearofplanetearth/images/cover.jpg
- Briefs
-
Trevors, J.T. and Saier, M.H., Jr. (2007). Academics and their knowledge are underutilized. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 186:1-2.
"Scientists and other academics are generally underutilized in numerous ways. For example, many scientists who also serve as instructors are not provided with the best infrastructure for use in teaching courses."
"While some academicians are utilized for governmental decision-making purposes, too often political allies are used, and almost never is a major segment of the scientific community consulted."
Schnoor, J.L. (2007). World water woes. Environmental Science & Technology, 41:7953.
"Everyone wants to live “on the edge” where seawater beckons, but it doesn’t quench our thirst. Eighty percent of Australians and more than half of all people worldwide live along the coast."
"...global warming will produce greater worldwide precipitation. But if rainfall patterns shift and floods increase, we will not benefit. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in countries with absolute water scarcity, according to UN estimates. Rich countries can adapt. But the future of developing countries is at stake."
- Journal club Christmas
-
Two quotes from Bruce Cockburn appropriate to the Christmas season (and the mood it gets me in):
"This bluegreen ball in black space
Filled with beauty even now
battered and abused and lovely"
from the song "Planet of the Clowns" on the album The Trouble With Normal (1983)
This was written in the early 1980s, and there seems little doubt that the "bluegreen ball" has suffered more battery and abuse since then.
In an article "US consumerism poses global recession threat" on the ABC news website, Richard Vietor (Professor of Environmental Management at the Harvard Business School) warns that unbridled (American) consumerism may lead to "catastrophic recession". Easy to point the finger at the USA; there are lots of Americans, but other western countries should not feel too righteous either. I have pessimistic moments when I worry a lot about humanity's impact on our planet. I had one cycling to work this morning in fact, dodging traffic until the sanctuary of the cycle path through the King's Park bushland, prompting me to include Cockburn's bittersweet lyrics above. What will become of Earth? -- the weary Terra may shrug her scarred but resilient skin yet, and rid herself of parasites...
...but Christmas is still a time for hope, as an older Cockburn observes:
"Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe"
from the song "Cry of a Tiny Babe" on the album Nothing But A Burning Light (1991)
Images from www.cockburnproject.net
- A soil scientist's lament
-
Musings on:
Baveye, P. C. & Jacobson A. R. (2008). Soil science education and the "age
of money": reflections and concerns for the near future. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 187:1-4.
This was a
guest editorial in Water, Air and Soil
Pollution, and I decided it to be worth reading; there's much to be
said for a catchy title. The topic summarised in the title seems to be a
consistent point of angst for the first author; this editorial self-cites two
other articles (Baveye, 2006; Baveye et al., 2006) with similar themes.
Baveye &
Jacobson start off by emphasising the importance of soils. Ironically, given
the title, this is framed in terms of climate change and the role of soils in
carbon cycling. (The irony I perceive is that while the authors decry the
inevitable money chasing activity by researchers, any mention of climate change
- "big money" science, in anyone's terms - implies a fair amount of
money-chasing pragmatism itself. Maybe I'm wrong.) Next, the question is asked
about who will be around to conduct the soil science research humanity will
need given the pervasive background of climate change. The answer: not many
scientists, if the authors' concerns about declining graduates in soil science
(and indeed declining numbers of soil science departments themselves) are
founded.
There is an
assumption in these concerns that only soil science (post)graduates are
adequately trained to conduct soil science research, a point made more
insistently in another paper (Baveye, 2006). This may be true, but my
observation is that in soil science academia, not many soil scientists actually
have a first degree (or in some cases, a postgraduate degree) in soil science.
Certainly at my University, I can not think of any academic within the soil
science discipline who has a first degree in soil science, and only two who
have soil science-related PhDs. So Baveye & Jacobson's contention, that only
"pure" soil scientists will do, seems unsupported by hard evidence
(or, at least, will be subject to many
exceptions).
The decline in
soil science is attributed to a few factors. One seems reasonable; an
insistence on teaching soil science in the context of crop production (where
soil science has many of its traditional roots)
is probably outdated, especially with " ...the open intention of a
majority of students to pursue careers dealing predominantly with environmental
issues.". It's hard to argue with that - but not the second point, that
"... the fact that soil science faculty do not seem to find that their
craft is really exciting any more..." (a point also made in Baveye,
2006). Baveye & Jacobson's evidence
for this seems to be the re-naming of many former soil science departments as
"earth" or "environmental" something-or-other; we've seen
that trend over this way as well, but still soil science research (and teaching!)
gets done. The authors are also worried about soil science departments being
subsumed into physical geography (or whatever); again, my own discipline may be
heading that way, and my interactions with the new discipline have only served
to increase my interest in my
discipline. Opening up new ideas, and developing new relationships
(interpersonal, and between ideas), is exciting too!
The "age
of money" referred to by Baveye & Jacobson is linked to their premise
that the success of an academic discipline depends on its adherence to the
following criteria (reproduced unchanged here):
- "A
Promise of Money. The field is popularly linked
(even if erroneously) to improved chances of securing an occupation or
profession that promises above-average lifetime earnings.
- A
Knowledge of Money. The field itself studies money,
whether practically or more theoretically, i.e., fiscal, business, financial,
or economic matters and markets.
- A
Source of Money. The field receives significant
external money, i.e., research contracts, federal grants or funding support, or
corporate underwriting."
In Baveye
& Jacobson's view, soil science
departments only do reasonably well at 3.; it's possible that the Australian
resources boom may see some success in 1. in this part of the world.
Admittedly, the constant focus on money is tiresome for many academics. In the
current milieu, it may not be something we can address, so we all (somewhat
reluctantly) have to live with it, or so my Head of School tells me from time
to time.
Another
intriguing issue raised, not in this editorial but in Baveye (2006) , is that
scholarly journals (and conferences, apparently) in many cases suppress
vigorous academic debate. In addition, many academics (and I can heartily
relate to this) are simply too busy to have stimulating discussions about their
science any more. It certainly would make for more interesting reading if
journal editors took some risks and published more "edgy" material.
One journal I sit on the editorial board of is concerned about its low impact
factor. My view of the problem for that journal: in most cases, the articles
are simply boring. Scientifically sound, they may be, but I think it is
true, especially for many of the applied sciences, that much our science gets
bogged down in activity and loses the passion for ideas. Perhaps making
space for risky thinking and learning from disciplines, such as [some of]
geography, which still seem to favour truly creative thinking, will inject some
life into soil science. If we get the time.
Baveye, P. (2006). A future for soil science.
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation,
61:148A-151A.
Baveye, P., Jacobson, A. R., Allaire, S. E.,
Tandarich, J., & Bryant, R. (2006). Whither goes soil science in the US and
Canada? Survey results and analysis. Soil
Science, 171:501-518.
The image is not related to any of the papers discussed!