News

Ben Chandler, the congressman from Kentucky’s Sixth District, has received an “Excellence in Soil Stewardship Award” from the Soil Science Society of America for his support of agriculture and conservation.

 ...but species diversity declined.

Climate change gets the blame for a rising tide of house foundation problems.

New Zealand soil scientist Dr Carol Smith, Academic Programme Manager in Lincoln University's Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is establishing a new specialization in science and entrepreneurship at Lincoln University. The specialization will give students a practically-focussed introduction to technology-based business by introducing them to the main elements of the commercialisation of science and technology.

Issue 50 of the National Cooperative Soil Survey Newsletter (February, 2010) is now available online.

EPA’s rule on controlling stormwater runoff on construction sites went into effect this month. The rule marks the first time the EPA has imposed national monitoring requirements and enforceable numeric limitations on stormwater discharge from jobsites.

Soil types tend to attract lawyers and consultants when local governments classify them as unfit for development. 

Most livestock producers, soil scientists favor index that considers phosphorus likelihood that it would leave the land.

A ubiquitous issue with irrigation in arid areas is the inevitable build-up of salts in the soil. Applying water in excess of crop use is needed to move salts down into the profile, but that becomes impractical under drought conditions. 

The 11th edition of Keys to Soil Taxonomy, as well as a summary of all changes for this new version of the Keys is available at: http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/tax_keys/

Danny Day tells us: Updated 11/18/2009 with new date

If you happened to be in San Diego at the 2004 NSCSS meeting, you might remember our lunchtime speaker discussing the resurrection of wetlands in Iraq. Azzam Al-Wash could not attend but sent his research team over to present the talk. A segment on this week's 60 Minutes featured his work and shows a good amount of background and visuals of conditions from the 70s to now. The effort appears to be successful and I encourage you to watch the video.

After rising steadily until May, 2009, private sector job opportunities for soil scientists drifted lower until the end of August, but not really that low. Since August soil science job listings have increased strongly, reaching a new high of 34 on October 27, 2009. Previously weak, the agricultural sector is gaining strength. Environmental sector listings are now as strong as anything we have seen in the past.

Soil changes over time. Anticipating the effects of management and environmental change is increasingly important. How best to capture that dynamic, and communicate it, is one of the more stimulating subjects being addressed by our soil scientist peers in academia and the public sector.

Soil Change Working Group: Soil Change within the Human Time Scale