Hydro-Physical Properties of Soils under Different Land Uses in Northeastern Nigeria

Evaluation of soil hydro-physical properties is very important in agriculture and for sustainable management of the land resources. This investigation was conducted to assess some hydro-physical properties of soils in different land use types (LUT) selected (i.e., dry upper land (UD), lowland (LL) and residential area (RA)) at 0-15cm and 15-30cm depths in Bade Local Government Area of Northeastern, Nigeria. Soils were randomly sampled at four points in each LUT and analyzed according to standard soil analysis procedures. Results of the analyses of variance showed that LL had recorded significantly higher clay content, larger soil porosities and high-water retention properties than the other LUT. Soil structural stability index (SSI) and organic carbon (OC) were below optimal range and statistically not different across the land uses. The results also indicated non-significant differences in the hydro-physical properties within the sampling depths. The coefficient of variation (CV) revealed that, slight variation (CV

The use of pectin to synthesis and characterize hydrogel (composite, grafting and blending) and study of some water retention properties

This research was conducted to purpose preparing and characterization various types of hydrogels such as blending, composite and grafting. This was done by reacting monomers such as acrylamide (A.M), methyl acrylate (M.A) and polymers. Polyvinyl Pyrrolidine (PVP) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with pectin was prepared from citrus peels. Hydrogel polymers (graft, blend and composite) were characterized using different techniques such as Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results of the reactions were identical to the theoretical expectations. The study was conducted to find out some properties such as swelling in water and absorption at different temperatures 25 °C and 20 °C, and the results were shown as a (559.9%, 429.2%) and (515.2%, 363.2%) respectively.

Determination of Water Retention Properties of Silty Sands by Means of Combined Commercial Techniques

A recent increase in frequency and severity of exceptional climatic events is of concern for the stability of natural and artificial slopes. These undergo continuous evaporation and infiltration cycles, which change the suction distribution and trigger shrinkage, swelling, cracking, and surficial erosion, overall decreasing the soil strength. To assess the impact of these climatic stresses, the determination of water retention properties is a priority. Although advanced techniques have been proposed in the last few decades to this end, simpler commercially available techniques allow collecting data for a larger number of samples in a shorter time, thus enabling a basic description of the water retention properties for a larger database of soils. Data on two silty sands, coming from very different climatic environments in Europe, were collected with a combination of two simple commercial devices, and the results were modelled with a van Genuchten’s law. The fitted parameters were found to correlate well with the amount of fines, irrespective of the different origin and composition of the two soils. Eventually, the limitation of the approach is discussed based on the results of cyclic drying–wetting tests.