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Greater numbers of women are in the workplace and represented in science. While roles have expanded, personal and institutional biases still exist. The “Breaking the Bias Habit to Promote Gender Equity” mini-workshop planned at the Synergy in Science ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN, will address this important topic.

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Microbes respond differently to their environment; the entire system influences plant and soil and health

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Soils in cities have great potential for taking and holding atmospheric carbon dioxide

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After blending the labs and lectures into a studio style soil course with mini-lectures, activities, and hands-on interaction, researchers saw significant increases in different types of student performance.

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Moisture content, organic matter, color of soil varies across the US

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New sustainability certification to be announced.

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Paul Porter, a professor in the College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota, rode a bicycle across Africa and South America while teaching students about issues like using plants for food and fuel, managing water, and the changing climate.

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Impact of climate change, need for genetic diversity, important to $25 billion US industry

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Watershed health and water quality issues are a growing concern. Researchers examined the sediments traveling downstream toward Lake Winnipeg. In order to better understand where sediments are coming from, they used a technique called color fingerprinting to identify the specific origin of the erosion.

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No matter where you live, soils protect the natural environment around you

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Grenada, Spain's climate and layout is like that of many cities in the Mediterranean area, which has the highest occurrence of pollen allergies in the world. The researchers hope their efforts will lead to fantastic urban green spaces that don’t cause allergic reactions for 30% of the city’s population.

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Changing climate conditions have caused dramatic changes in groundwater levels. This study aimed at understanding the changes in soil wetting and drying that occur as snow melts in mountainous, snow-packed regions. The study examined subsurface water content levels in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. In these regions, soils do not freeze during the winter and remain wet beneath the snowpack.

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Antimicrobials, antidepressants, anticancer medicines have their roots in soils.

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In South Africa, sweet potatoes are a traditional crop for rural families. “We realized it would be great if we could develop a local variety [of sweet potato] which has good yield, high dry mass, and desirable taste attributes, and promote it to combat vitamin A deficiency,” says researcher.

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Soils provide nutrients, biodiversity and physical support, all crucial to healthy living

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One teenager is tackling serious water quality issues that threaten the health of rivers, streams and groundwater. When she was just 14 years old, Maria Elena Grimmett was the youngest person published in the Journal of Environmental Quality. Now at 16, she has just put the final touches on her research of a plastic adsorbent that removes pharmaceutical drugs from water sources.

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Healthy soils mean healthy food, protects human health

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Researchers find improved soil properties in strip-till compared to no-till method A major result was that after just five years, soil organic matter content was 8.6% greater in the strip-till plots when compared to the no-till plots. Furthermore, bulk density was reduced by 4% and penetration resistance, the force a root must exert to move in the soil, decreased by 18%.

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A new variety of peanut, called OLé, has recently been released by a team of researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and their colleagues at Oklahoma State University. OLé peanuts have longer shelf lives and increased disease resistance compared to other peanut varieties, and pack high amounts of a heart-healthy fatty acid called oleic acid.

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Diversity of life in soil keeps “bad” bacteria in check.

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Helpful bacteria promote growth, less fertilizer on crops.

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Recent work showed that long-term differences in soil use and management influence not only the sizes and numbers of soil aggregates, but also what the pores inside them will look like.

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Soil animals degrade organic matter, maintain soil structure

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Soil Science Society leads effort to get soil recognition on World Soil Day

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Soils home to more creatures than there are humans on the earth!

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Plants need water. People need water. Unfortunately, there’s only so much clean water to go around — and so the effort begins to find a solution. One strategy is to use treated wastewater, containing salt leftover from the cleaning process, to water large areas of turf grass. Researchers have found ways to breed salt-tolerant turf that can withstand this irrigation.

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Using switchgrass to produce biofuel is one way to decrease the United States’ dependence on oil, but growing it and making it profitable can be complicated. It lacks qualities, such as high biomass yield, needed to maximize biofuel production. To combat this issue, and breed switchgrass that has the optimal combination of these traits, the researchers tried evaluating plants using the Smith-Hazel Selection Index. This index allowed the researchers to estimate and combine information on multiple traits. It also looked at the economic value of each trait, which further maximizes the rating.

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Soil compaction harms soil microbes, health of the forest ecosystem.

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Most of us don’t consider forests a source of pollution. As natural bodies, they should be good for the environment. But a recent study in Japan shows that older cedar and cypress plantations are causing as much pollution as a poorly managed agricultural field or urban setting.

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Soil texture important to sports performance, safety and durability of fields

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In the United States, federal mandates to produce more renewable fuels, especially biofuels, have led to a growing debate: Should fuel or food grow on arable land? Recent research found encouraging, sustainable results when growing Camelina sativa with soybean in the Midwest.

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Walks in forests, soccer games and horse races all depend on soil.

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In celebration of the International Year of Soil 2015 (IYS), the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is coordinating a series of activities throughout the year to educate the public about the importance of soil. May’s theme is “Soils Support Buildings and Infrastructure”. In SSSA’s May 15 Soils Matter blog post, experts why mudslides occur.

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Researchers at Kansas State University have looked into how vegetables take up different soil contaminants. They also considered how different gardening practices could reduce this uptake. They found that, in the majority of examples, eating vegetables grown in the contaminated soils studied was safe.

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A study in the Journal of Environmental Quality examined methods for recovering phosphorus from wastewater using mathematical modeling. . The study showed that a typical wastewater treatment plant could reclaim approximately 490 tons of phosphorus in the form of struvite each year.

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Strength, stability, water drainage and other factors important.

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Houses, schools, and more depend on soils.

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In celebration of the International Year of Soil 2015 (IYS), the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is coordinating a series of activities throughout to educate the public about the importance of soil. April’s theme is “Soils Clean and Capture Water”. In SSSA’s April 15 Soils Matter blog post, experts explain how scientists are looking to tap a different water source for agriculture: “green water”.

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Soil scientists have struggled with accurately measuring water flow through soil for years. Even the smallest soil details can sway water’s path from the straight, sequential line gravity alone might demand. These minute differences contribute to water’s “preferential flow.” For farmers’ crops dependent on moisture, or chemical spills needing containment, preferential flow can be a matter of life or death.

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Managing nitrogen levels in soils has created debate over the decades. Recently, a group of scientists, industry representatives, farmers, and government and non-government organization members met to discuss managing nitrogen on farms with the goal of “Mo Fo Lo Po:” more food, low pollution.

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Lead researcher Atsushi Nakao’s study is the first to investigate the soil’s physical and chemical properties in rice fields around the Fukushima site. The study, published in the Journal of Environmental Quality, examined factors affecting soil-to-plant transfer of radioactive cesium (radiocesium) in the Fukushima area.

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Soil performs physical, biological and chemical cleaning of water.

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Soil is the ultimate source of the nutrients our bodies need.

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Green based technologies help cities manage storm water

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There are many ways urban residents can help their soil get healthy and work well

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Society will focus on educating the public about this precious natural resource

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Researchers are now trying to identify upstream factors that could explain the increase

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A common vision to define, measure, and communicate about sustainability in U.S. agriculture

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Trained professionals in the area of agronomy needed to help close the food security gap

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The microbial community’s reaction to climate stress is important to determine best management practices.