Reviews and syntheses: The promise of big soil data, moving current practices towards future potential

In the age of big data, soil data are more available than ever, but -outside of a few large soil survey resources- remain largely unusable for informing soil management and understanding Earth system processes outside of the original study. Data science has promised a fully reusable research pipeline where data from past studies are used to contextualize new findings and reanalyzed for global relevance. Yet synthesis projects encounter challenges at all steps of the data reuse pipeline, including unavailable data, labor-intensive transcription of datasets, incomplete metadata, and a lack of communication between collaborators. Here, using insights from a diversity of soil, data and climate scientists, we summarize current practices in soil data synthesis across all stages of database creation: data discovery, input, harmonization, curation, and publication. We then suggest new soil-focused semantic tools to improve existing data pipelines, such as ontologies, vocabulary lists, and community practices. Our goal is to provide the soil data community with an overview of current practices in soil data and where we need to go to fully leverage big data to solve soil problems in the next century.

Influence of durative drainage melioration on the soil macrofauna (The Leningrad region)

The soil-zoological research took place in 2018 on the territory of the soil-hydromeliorative station “Malinovsky” of Lisinsky educational-experimental forest farm (Tosnensky district, Leningrad region, Russia) which was drained in 1973-1974. The purpose of this research is a comparative evaluation of the density of the population and taxonometric variety of eco-functional groups of macrofauna on the Gleysols Histic Drainic after 45 year draining period and the similar biotop without drainage. The constitution of group and species and the trophic structure of soil macrofauna have been researched. 118 individuals of geobionts out of 3 types and 6 classes have been collected. It’s been stated that zoophages are the trophic dominating group. After 45 year draining period a poor groups and species constitution, a low number of large soil invertebrates and a small share of saprophages have survived which corresponds to the fauna of the soil in oligotrophic bogs.

Comparison of foraging tool use in two species of myrmicine ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Many ant species are known to exhibit foraging tool use, during which ants place various debris items (e.g., pieces of soil, leaves, pine needles, etc.) into liquid food, and then they carry the food-soaked tools back to the nest. In the present study, we compared the tool-using behavior in captive colonies of two closely related myrmicine ants with different feeding preferences: Aphaenogaster subterranea, an omnivorous species, and Messor structor, a mainly granivorous seed-harvester species. We supplied foraging ants with honey-water baits and six types of objects they could use as tools: sand grains, small soil grains, large soil grains, pine needles, leaves, and sponges. We found that the workers of A. subterranea both dropped more tools into honey-water baits and retrieved more of these tools than the workers of M. structor. While A. subterranea preferred smaller tools over larger ones, tool preferences for M. structor did not differ significantly from random. In addition, tool dropping was significantly faster in A. subterranea, and both the dropping and retrieving of tools began significantly earlier than in M. structor. For Aphaenogaster species that regularly utilize and compete for liquid food sources, the ability to efficiently transport liquid food via tools may be more important than it is for seed-harvester ants. Dropping tools into liquids, however, may still be useful for seed-harvester species as a means to supplement diet with liquid food during periods of seed shortage and also to serve as a means of getting rid of unwanted liquids close to the nest.

Soil and Climate Characterization to Define Environments for Summer Crops in Senegal

Investigating soil and climate variability is critical to defining environments for field crops, understanding yield-limiting factors, and contributing to the sustainability and resilience of agro-ecosystems. Following this rationale, the aim of this study was to develop a soil–climate characterization to describe environmental constraints in the Senegal summer-crops region. For the soil database, 825 soil samples were collected characterizing pH, electrical conductivity (EC), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), cation exchange capacity (CEC), and total carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). For the climate, monthly temperature, precipitation, and evapotranspiration layers were retrieved from WorldClim 2.1, CHIRPS and TERRACLIMATE. The same analysis was applied individually to both databases. Briefly, a principal component analysis (PCA) was executed to summarize the spatial variability. The outcomes from the PCA were subjected to a spatial fuzzy c-means algorithm, delineating five soil and three climate homogeneous areas, accounting for 73% of the soil and 88% of the climate variation. To our knowledge, no previous studies were done with large soil databases since availability field data is often limited. The use of soil and climate data allowed the characterization of different areas and their main drivers. The use of this classification will assist in developing strategic planning for future land use and capability classifications.

Evaluation of the Influence of Lightning Overvoltage Propagation on Wind Turbine and “Mix” Overhead-Cable Lines

Due to the growing demand for new and renewable energies and a favorable geographical position, Vietnam is constructing many wind farms. Besides the advantages of being environmentally friendly and the primary endless source of materials, wind farms have disadvantages, for example, high-structured wind towers are usually built in high, empty places and the resistivity of large soil is vulnerable to lightning damage. In this research, we investigate the effects of overvoltage due to lightning strikes on the wings of wind turbines and propagation causing overvoltage on the insulation of cable in the control cable and mixed-lines. The paper also considers the overvoltage protection measures propagated into the insulation equipment and cable insulation using EMTP-RV simulation software

SPATIAL EVALUATION OF LAND AND SOIL PROPERTIES IN THE EXAMPLE OF NEVŞEHİR PROVINCE, TURKEY

In this study, some land and soil properties were spatially evaluated with the help of 1/25.000 scaled digital soil maps belonging to Center of province in the Central Anatolia Region, Turkey. Land use capability, large soil groups, soil depths, erosion, slope and spatial distributions of current land uses were carried out in the research. Arc GIS 10.3.1 software, which is one of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, was used for spatial analysis. With a maximum of 262518 in the study area, VI. class lands. Class I cover an area of ​​247 . In terms of large soil groups, and soils are dominant and the area covered by these soils is 450187 . The least area was found to be reddish brown soils with 124 . It has been determined that the least area in the depth classes is A class (greater than 150 cm) soils. In the study area, it is the soil with the maximum C class (50-90 cm) depth. When the land was examined in terms of slope, it was determined that the land with the highest 3rd degree slope (12-20%) was formed. The research area consists of soil structure that can be exposed to the 2nd degree erosion class at most. When the current land uses are examined, it is the garden area with the least usage area in the region and the area it covers is 3400 . It has been observed that the most dry farming areas are located in the study area. It is thought that the results obtained as a result of the study will be the basis for the agricultural studies to be carried out in Center of province.