myResearchSpace

This one's from 21 May 2007: Davidson EA, Janssens IA (2006) Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature, 440:165-173. A useful article on the face of it, especially in light of Article 3.4 of Kyoto which allows for carbon credits on the basis of increased soil carbon storage. It provides a ...

Just rode my bike back from what will be my last lecture of the Semester. Just over half the class of Introduction to Geochemistry students gained (hopefully!) some benefit from working through past exam questions. I reminded myself, inadvertently, that there is not really that much to be said about a topic in three weeks of lectures. ...

Article for 30 July 2007:Humphreys GS, Wilkinson MT. 2007. The soil production function: A brief history and its rediscovery. Geoderma, 139:73-78. Humphreys and Wilkinson are Australian physical geographers who, in this paper, review the history of an idea which should be central to soil science - what are the controls on soil production? In the ...

Article for 23 April 2007:Kelleher BP, Simpson AJ, 2006. Humic substances in soils: are they really chemically distinct? Environ. Sci. Technol. 40, 4605-4611. For a long time it has been assumed that the humic substances are a distinct class of organic materials in soils and other natural systems, many workers believing them to be poorly ordered ...

Article for 12 March:Dietrich WE & Perron JT 2006. The search for a topographic signature of life. Nature 439:411-419. Dietrich and Perron's article is based on a fascinating thesis - that the existence of life on Earth may imprint a characteristic signature on its landscapes which would not be the same as those seen in life's absence. The ...

Article for 26 March 2007:  Meir P, Cox P, Grace J. 2006.The influence of terrestrial ecosystems on climate. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21:254-260. This is a review article that promised a stimulating discussion of the global function of soils and their response to one of the most significant (or at least newsworthy) ...

Article for 7 May 2007: Kennedy M, Droser M, Mayer LM, Pevear D, Mrofka D. 2006. Late Precambrian oxygenation: inception of the clay mineral factory. Science 311, 1446-1449. Quote: ''...the advent of soils sufficiently biotic for clay formation likely predated complex terrestrial ecosystems.''  Many articles emphasise the ...

Today (4 June) I'm attacking the backlog, starting from the most recent article. Thakali S, Allen HE, Di Toro DM, Ponizovsky AA, Rooney CP, Zhao FJ, McGrath SP. 2006. A Terrestrial Biotic Ligand Model. 1. Development and application to Cu and Ni toxicities to barley root elongation in soils. Environmental Science & Technology ...

So here's two more that I haven't gotten around to blogging yet . . . 7 May - Kennedy M, Droser M, Mayer LM, Pevear D, Mrofka D. 2006. Late Precambrian oxygenation: inception of the clay mineral factory. Science 311, 1446-1449. 21 May - Davidson EA, Janssens IA (2006) Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to ...

For the rare individuals who may be hoping for more activity on this blog - all I can say is that ''it's coming''. We've certainly met and discussed some research articles, and I'll post them here as soon as I recover from my teaching responsibilities this Semester. For a sneak preview, the articles we've discussed are: 26 March - Meir P, Cox ...