Category: Articles in English
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Mapping the world’s largest terrestrial carbon store
We wanted to know how much peatland there is in the world. Why? Because peatlands can store carbon (C) and help regulate the climate. But, peatland degradation is releasing C into the atmosphere. To conserve peatlands and halt their contribution to atmospheric carbon, we need to understand their extent, status, and C stocks. What we did…
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Soil carbon 4p1000: Opportunities outweigh limitations
Here is my presentation at the 4p1000 conference in Poitiers, France, 17-20 June 2019 https://videotheque.univ-poitiers.fr/embed.php?id=94jd2m8i5k22qw725w6s&link=tlidhscpu71qgu5soqdmg1jzl5h8zj Slide: https://symposium.inra.fr/4p1000/content/download/4305/54269/version/1/file/Soil+C+4+per+1000+Poitier+F.pdf
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Responding to critiques on 4 per mille
Some readers pointed out there are critiques to the Soil Carbon 4 per mille initiative, and especially our paper published in Geoderma (2017). We have responded to those critiques with a rejoinder, especially the tabloid-style writing by Baveye et al. There’s also a headline “Soil cannot halt climate change” which is a rhetoric, in fact…
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How to dry a wet mobile phone? A soil science’s perspective
Put in a bag of rice. That’s the most common answer. You can also bury your phone in the soil. But why rice can be used to suck out moisture from inside of your mobile phone. Some said rice is dry (so are other materials such as paper), and some said it has a high…
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Proximal Soil Sensing from a long way away, and a long time ago
Lunokhod 1 (Луноход, moon walker in Russian) was the first astro-remote-controlled rovers landed on the Moon by the USSR. It was carried to the moon by the Luna 17 spacecraft, landed on November 17, 1970 in the northwestern part of Mare Imbrium, and operated until September 29, 1971. Lunokhod 1 is an eight-wheel rover with…
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Soil temperature increase in Australia for the past 50 years
Can historical soil temperature data tell us about climate change? Of course Yes, it all began when we visited the Cowra Agricultural Research station and Brian Murphy showed us the soil temperature data from a depth of 1.8 m which was collected daily since 1942. The data show a gradual increase in soil temperature over…
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More Data or a Better Model?
A new paper published in Soil Science Society of America Journal by Sanjeewani Nimalka Somarathna Pallegedara Dewage as part of her PhD tried to answer this question by figuring out what matters most for DSM of soil carbon. In this study, Sanjee studied how diverse spatial modelling techniques perform under varying training sample sizes, in…
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Mount Agung: Light will shine out of darkness
By: Dian Fiantis and Budiman Minasny Bali’s Mount Agung is likely to erupt soon. This eruption will be a catastrophic event, lava and ashes with high temperatures will be ejected causing severe risk to humans and their livelihoods. Ashes from the volcano will cause damages to farmers, destructing their crops and burying their farms. The…