Writing Assignments

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Writing Assignments

• 1. Short Science/Nature style news/commentary of
  role of soils in a current environemntal issue
• 1000 words
• Agricultural soils as a sink for C and a means of
  complying with Kyoto protocol
• Can soils withstand or control the human-induced
  increases in global N deposition?
• The fate of soils and ecosystems in absence of
  landscape rejuvination
• Unexpected positive aspects of soil erosion as a
  global C sink
• Issues and ethics of reducing deforestation as a
  atmospheric CO2 source
• 2. NSF/NASA grant application or Grad School
  Essay Centering on Soils
• Grad students should focus on a 3-4 page,
  concise, NSF-style research proposal centering on
  soil-related problem of your choice
• Undergrads may choose to either write an NSF
  proposal or write a 3 page essay on their
  interest in soils and what they wish to pursue in
  grad school and beyond related to that topic.

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Pedology

• Coined in mid 19th Century by French scientist
• Derived from Greek pedonground, logia
  discourse
• The study, in situ, of the biogeochemical
  processes that form and distribute soils
• An observatioinal, vs. an experimental, science -
  nature is the laboratory
• Origins attributed to two centers Russia
  (Dokuchaev) and Berkeley (Hilgard)

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Definition of Soils

• Many definitions
• Soil is part of a continuum of materials at
  earth surface
• Soil vs. non-soil at bottom and top
• Different soils laterally
• Need to divide continuum into systems, or
  discrete segments, for study
• Hans Jenny (1930s) conceptualized soils as
  physical systems amenable and susceptible to
  physical variables (STATE FACTORS)

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Soils as a Physical System

• System is open to surroundings (exchange energy
  and matter)
• System Properties f (intial state, external
  surrounding, time)
• Soil is those portions of the earths crust
  whose properties vary with soil forming factors

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BIOTA
CLIMATE
TOPOGRAPHY
PARENT MATERIAL
TIME
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Additional Comments on Pedology

• No clear line of demarcation between Pedology and
  other sciences (e.g. geology, ecology, etc.)

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Role of Pedology in Scientific and Societal
Problems

• Carbon and nitrogen cycles
• Are soils part of an unidentified sink for CO2?
• What is the effect of agricultural on soil C (and
  atm CO2)?
• Will soils store excess N from human activity?
• Chemistry of natural waters
• How do soils release elements with time and
  space?
• Earth history
• Paleosols and evolution of land plants,
  atmospheric CO2 records, human evolution
• Soils and archaeology
• Biodiversity
• Is soil diversity analogous to, and complementary
  to, biodiversity
• Microorganisms in soil represent unknown
  biodiversity resources

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