Spills and leaks of petroleum products wreak havoc on the environment. They can contaminate soils and pose significant threats to humans, animals, plants, and soil microbes. Cleaning up petroleum ...

The diversity of vegetation configuration is the key to ecological restoration in open-pit coal mine dump. However, the recovery outcomes of different areas with the same vegetation assemblage pattern ...

Washington, D.C. - Soils influence water quality, and they are critical to plant growth. However, it has been difficult to predict how plant growth and water quality would change in the wake of ...

When plant and soil organic matter are partially burned during wildfires, pyrogenic organic matter—a stable form of carbon, sometimes known as black carbon or charcoal—is left behind. This marks the ...

A five-year field study reveals that biochar can do far more than improve soil chemistry. It can reorganize entire soil ecosystems, creating lasting benefits for agriculture and environmental ...

After an oil spill or leak, it’s important to act fast. If the oil has gotten into soil, scientists need to rapidly assess how much oil there is and how far it spread. It’s a process that has always ...

"If you put your finger to the earth, you are likely to be pointing at a seed." ...

Climate change is affecting the health of agricultural soils. Increased heat and drought make life easy for the pathogenic fungus Pythium ultimum. As an international team of researchers has shown, ...

A team of investigators devised a new methodology to enable predictions of how plant growth and water quality would change in the wake of wildfires. Soils influence water quality, and they are ...