Soil Science Journal Club : news

Astonishing reasoning on Greenland from U.S. scientists

Andrew.Rate — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:47:00 GMT

The good news (for some of the approximately 57,600 Greenlanders, at least): Greenland now has much more control over its destiny, following the decision from Denmark to allow self-rule for Greenlanders (see the article at the Sydney Morning Herald).

The not-so-good news: the following excerpt from this, and other, articles on this event is a real jaw-dropper:

"US scientists believe Greenland's northern tip is especially rich in oil and gas and they say global warming could help unlock the untapped wealth under the ice-cap and provide a solid foundation for an independent economy."

Let's just hope that these are the same ubiquitous and apocryphal "U.S. scientists" who seem to crop up occasionally in news articles to justify not-to-be-disputed points of view. Let's also hope they have sufficient integrity to be greenhouse sceptics.

It's hard to imagine a more cynical and blithely pragmatic approach to the issue of global warming, whether or not one has doubts about the anthropogenic hypothesis (which would be too large a can of worms ever to be opened on this blog).

Image from cartophilia.com

Renewable energy

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:48:00 GMT

It may be that we see a bit more activity on this blog, following Talitha's suggestion to crank up the old-style journal club. That is, a club with more than one person in it, who actually read and discuss journal articles, and post their musings on this site (formerly created for that very purpose).

I'd be very keen on this sort of development, particulary as I thought I heard an offer for participants to take charge of at least some of the selection of articles and the blogging. As Talitha put it, a bit like a book club, but with less reading. Less work for me? - sounds very worthwhile.

Partly, this springs from my newly acquired role as one of the Graduate Research Coordinators in the School of Earth and Environment. Lots of this role is administrative, to be sure, but the opportuntity to interact with many of the School's motivated and scarily smart graduate research students is inspiring (and a lot of fun).

(Image from www.hardbacker.com)

Urban Soils

Andrew.Rate — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:20:00 GMT

The journal Urban Ecosystems has just published a Special Issue on Soils. As our planet and its human populations become increasingly urbanised, this would seem to be a growth area for the earth and ecological sciences.

Some of the articles from this issue of the journal:

A comparison of soil organic carbon stocks between residential turf grass and native soil
Richard V. Pouyat, Ian D. Yesilonis and Nancy E. Golubiewski
Altered resources, disturbance, and heterogeneity: A framework for comparing urban and non-urban soils
S. T. A. Pickett and M. L. Cadenasso
Scratching the surface and digging deeper: exploring ecological theories in urban soils
Mitchell A. Pavao-Zuckerman and Loren B. Byrne
Urban soil ecology as a focal point for environmental education
E. A. Johnson and K. M. Catley

I'm definitely looking forward to reading some of these.

Science and sustainability

Andrew.Rate — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:18:00 GMT

A recent article in Environmental Science and Technology identifies scientific facilities as high energy users.

Mills, Evan. 2009. Sustainable scientists.Environ. Sci. Technol., 43:979-985.

University sustainability, as rightly pointed out by Sky elsewhere in myResearchSpace ("A Sustainable Campus"), commonly focuses on 'green' or ecological issues . Dr Mills makes the point that "much can be done to enhance sustainability within the scientific enterprise itself". The diagram at left, from Mills' article, suggests that the practice of science can result in comparatively high energy usage.

The main contributors to high energy use are identified as laboratories, computing, and clean environments.

Mills goes so fas as to suggest that sustainability, or at least energy usage, issues should be amongst the criteria against which research grants are assessed (pity the poor folks in space research).

It would definitely be interesting to analyse the energy use of earth science projects. Many (especially involving remote area or ocean travel, drilling or remote sensing) could come in fairly high.

Image from pubs.acs.org

A good excuse for not posting

Andrew.Rate — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:01:00 GMT

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

Andrew.Rate — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:32:00 GMT

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

Submission!

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:12:00 GMT

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!

Year of Planet Earth

Andrew.Rate — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:49:00 GMT

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

Andrew.Rate — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:52:00 GMT

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."

Soils in the News axed

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:38:00 GMT

I apologize for lazy blogging, with a promise to not just do listings of news articles about soils. If something REALLY interesting comes up I'll let people know, but really that's not what this blog is all about.

Unfortunately that means that I have to get motivated about writing up articles I've read recently. At least I have done the reading ... but getting the thoughts and margin notes into readable blog posts is a limiting factor.

So the posts may be less frequent than weekly - but at least they'll be interesting. To me anyway.

Soils in the news

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:49:00 GMT

Week ending 5 October 2007...

1. Arctic heat wave worries scientists
Melting permafrost creates threateningly unstable soils... - 4 Oct 2007

2. Biodiesel facility plans interest canegrowers
A change of land use for sugar cane growers may, incidentally, improve soil fertility... - 3 Oct 2007

3. Authorities predict severe fire season
Very dry soils exacerbate the risk of wildfire... - 1 Oct 2007

Sea ice image from www.abc.net.au

Soil in the news - week ending 2007.09.28

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:08:00 GMT

from abc.net.au ...ignoring the usual stuff about "home soil", "US soil", "Iraqi soil", etc. ...

Green group opposes northern irrigated crops plan
The Mayor of Richmond Shire (North Queensland) is ... a bit sick of this salinity issue ... soil tests around Richmond ...[show]... perfectly good soils... - 27 Sep 2007
Experts warn of Three Gorges Dam 'catastrophe'
..landslides, soil erosion threaten the sustainability of China's giant Three Gorges Dam project... - 26 Sep 2007

Image of Three Gorges Dam from news.xinhuanet.com

Soils in the news - week ending 21 Sep 2007

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:22:00 GMT

from abc.net.au ...ignoring the usual stuff about "home soil", "US soil", "Iraqi soil", etc. ...

New soil samples prove the Arctic is ours: Russia - 20 Sep 2007
Soil analysis used for political gain - geochemical similarities between Russian soils and the ocean floor under the North Pole
Lower winter crop yields predicted - 19 Sep 2007
... the winter crop in the Riverina is particularly bad because there is no soil moisture.
Afghanistan's de-miners surrounded by danger - 18 Sep 2007
Soil erosion exposes deadly weapons...
Museum dig reveals treasures - 17 Sep 2007
Archaeologists have uncovered significant sandstone landmarks beneath the car park of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart...
UN desertification plan fails after funding dispute - 16 Sep 2007
... annual economic losses stemming from soil degradation estimated at 47.6 billion euros - but the UN can't agree on what to do

Image from abc.net.au

More SOIL art

Andrew.Rate — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 02:16:00 GMT

A website just begging to be blogged on this site - a gallery in Seattle, USA called SOIL (the link is to their March 2007 exhibition, "More Dirt". See also August 2006, How Does Grass Grow, and probably others).

I haven't worked out why it's called SOIL. But not to blog this would be negligent.

Soil art

Andrew.Rate — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:38:00 GMT

Some artists use the colours and textures in soil to create startlingly beautiful artwork. There are a few examples of this around (in no particular order)...

Taufik Hidayat in Indonesia
Jan Lang from Nebraska USA
Teresa Murak, Poland
Yüksel Arslan, Turkey
...and see this compilation by, of all people, NASA [added 2007.09.19]

The image at right does not seem to have been created using soil, but it's a beautiful example of soil art by Karla Rudolph from Canada.