Michael Aide

By Michael Aide, Indi Braden and Sven Svenson

Tile drainage effluent from agriculture fields is beneficial to production agriculture; however, nitrate and phosphate transport from production fields to surface water resources is an environmental concern. The David M. Barton Agriculture Research Center (Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, USA) has a 40 ha controlled subsurface tile drainage/irrigation technology with associated denitrification bioreactor. Nitrate-bearing effluents from the controlled subsurface tile drainage/irrigation technology under a corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean (Glycine max L) rotation is sufficient to be an environmental concern. Nitrate-bearing effluent passage through the denitrification bioreactor typically promotes sufficient nitrate reduction (denitrification) that the bioreactor effluent water is less than 10 mg NO3-N/L. Phosphorus, ammonium-N, and sulfate-S concentrations are not appreciably influenced by denitrification bioreactor passage.

Part of the book: Soil Contamination

By Michael Thomas Aide

Uranium is present in the soil environment because of human activity, including the usage of U-bearing phosphorus fertilizers. In oxic and many suboxic soil environments, U(VI) is the dominant uranium valence species. With pH, pe (Eh), the partial pressure of CO2, the mineralogy of the adsorbing surfaces and the uranium concentration as the key master variables, U(VI) will predictably participate in hydrolysis, ion-pairing, complexation, ion-exchange, mineral precipitation and adsorption reactions. An extensive listing of thermochemical data is currently available for detailed simulations to assist with model setup, data interpretation and system understanding. In this chapter, simulations of U(VI) hydrolysis with variable pCO2 activities, U(IV) and U(VI) precipitation, U(VI) reduction and U(VI) complexation with carbonate and phosphate assemblages illustrate the usefulness and applicability of simulations in data analysis and experimental design.

Part of the book: Uranium

By Michael Aide

The lanthanide elements or rare earth elements (REEs) are an active soil science research area, given their usage as micro-fertilizers, documented cases of environmental impact attributed to industry/mining, and their ability to identify lithologic discontinuities and reveal active soil processes. To fully understand REEs requires an understanding of their chemical reactivity, both for the individual elements and their behavior as a group of elements. The elements of the lanthanide series, including La and Y, may have subtle to very perceptible chemical differences that when viewed collectively reveal information that gives emphasis to soil processes that clarify soil behavior or soil genesis. This chapter concentrates on lanthanide soil chemistry and shows how the soil chemistry of REEs may support soil science investigations.

Part of the book: Lanthanides

By Michael Thomas Aide, Byron McVay, Indi Braden and Christine Aide

Wetland conversion in southeastern Missouri initiated with the Little River Drainage Project (1914–1924) resulting in the permanent drainage and conversion of 5 million acres (2 million hectares) to productive agricultural land. Given that this ancestral wetland conversion has totally replaced the wetland ecosystem with prime agricultural land and with this conversion, the loss of wildlife habitat is nearly complete, the question remains what actions are now possible to restore key wetland soil pathways to support soil health and water quality. Key to any corrective practices involves agricultural producer involvement and commitment. The emerging concept of soil health supports the use of cover crops that promote soil structure development and soil carbon sequestration, each perceived as supporting farm profitability. Government programs supporting field flooding during the off-season supports migratory water fowl. Farming practices such as furrow irrigation and allied technologies for rice production limit aquifer overdraft. Edge of field technology involving riparian strips and denitrification bioreactors support down-stream water quality by limiting nitrate and phosphate off-field migration. The result is that emerging technologies (i) support farm profitability and environmental stewardship and (ii) which are designed specifically to provide farming practice compatibility with the soil and water resources re-establishes some wetland mechanisms appropriate for long-term land and water resource sustainability.

Part of the book: Wetlands Management

By Michael Aide

The lanthanide elements, or rare earth elements (REEs), are an active research area, with increasing attention directed toward soil and water evaluation and protection. Rare earth element concentrations in surface and groundwaters may be appropriately evaluated by partitioning the REEs into (i) a dissolved fraction (REE3+, hydrolysis, and simple anion complexation products) and (ii) REEs associated with inorganic and organic colloidal fractions. Given the total REE concentration and the organic, inorganic, and clastic composition, each fraction of REE concentration and the speciation within the fraction may be thermodynamically simulated to estimate (i) transport potential, (ii) biological availability, and (iii) system reactivity toward changes in pH, oxidation-reduction, chemical composition, mineralogy (facies) changes, or anthropogenic alteration. Chemical thermodynamic simulations using freely available USEPA software are presented to illustrate REE alterations attributed to pH changes, inorganic and organic adsorption, mineral precipitation, and oxidation-reduction. The purpose is to position researchers to better anticipate REE reactivity and transport potential in aquatic and soil resources.

Part of the book: Rare Earth Elements and Their Minerals

By Michael T. Aide, Christine Aide and Indi Braden

Based on the U.S. Soil Taxonomy Histosols are soils that have a histic epipedon, which is a surface horizon that exhibits a sufficient abundance of soil organic matter to be distinctively different than other soil orders predominantly composed of clastic materials. Gelisols are soils that have permafrost, with histels being a suborder that is dominated by organic materials. Collectively, these soil orders are abundant in peatland ecosystems. The abundance of soil organic material is primarily a consequence of climate, topography, hydrology, vegetation. Peatland ecosystems have been a major research arena; however, added research attention is being directed to the potential release of carbon because of accelerated climate change. This review focuses of the structure and dynamics of organic soils and an understanding of their creation, evolution and ultimate fate. Attention is focused on degraded peatland net primary productivity because of potential forthcoming differences attributed to rainfall, temperature, vegetation, hydrology and permafrost disappearance.

Part of the book: Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development

By Michael Aide, Indi Braden and Christine Aide

Academics and University Extension personnel have experience with soil mapping and providing soil suitability interpretations; however, a more efficient information conveyance to land custodians is desired to support informative land management applications. In the USA each state, in concert with the United States Department of Agriculture, has embarked on developing an online format linking soil survey with ecological site descriptions to provide information for forest and rangeland management to encourage soil protection - health and optimizing ecological services on individual land parcels. In this Missouri-based manuscript, we discuss three cases where soils and their associated ecological site descriptions provide land custodians information concerning their logical reference state vegetation community and detail land management decisions that transform the reference vegetation community to a different vegetation community. With each case, landscapes and their associated vegetations communities are potentially partitioned by soil, physiography, hydrology, and other attributes.

Part of the book: Environmental Management

By Michael Aide and Indi Braden

Arsenic uptake in rice (Oryza sativa) is recognized as a global health emergency, requiring the development of agronomic protocols to reduce human exposure to rice having elevated arsenic concentrations. Recent rice-arsenic investigations have centered around numerous agronomic approaches, including: (i) rice breeding and cultivar selection, (ii) altering irrigation water applications to reduce arsenic soil availability, (iii) application of soil amendments which either support arsenic adsorption on iron-plaque or provide antagonistic competition for root uptake, and (iv) phytoremediation. Given that rice cultivars vary in their arsenic accumulation capacity, this manuscript review concentrates on the influences of water management, soil amendments, and phytoremediation approaches on arsenic accumulation. Water management, whether alternating wetting and drying or furrow irrigation, provides the greatest potential to alleviate arsenic uptake in rice. Phytoremediation has great promise in the extraction of soil arsenic; however, the likelihood of multiple years of cultivating hyperaccumulating plants and their proper disposal is a serious limitation. Soil amendments have been soil applied to alter the soil chemistry to sequester arsenic or provide competitive antagonism towards arsenic root uptake; however, existing research efforts must be further field-evaluated and documented as producer-friendly protocols. The usage of soil amendments will require the development of agribusiness supply chains and educated extension personnel before farm-gate acceptance.

Part of the book: Soil Science

By Michael T. Aide

Rare earth elements are critical elements in the modern economy. Mining of rare earth elements has significantly intensified in the last several decades and studies of the environmental impact are in their infancy. In trace amounts, rare earth elements may support plant growth and development. At greater concentrations, rare earth elements are increasingly recognized as having a degree of mammalian toxicity; however, the mammalian toxicity potential may not be as acute as that for some heavy metals. The toxicity of rare earth elements requires detailed research to showcase toxicity thresholds for a wide range of ecosystem health. This study reveals case studies demonstrating that investigators rely on pollution indices, which do indicate that mining and ore processing possess environmental challenges. Further research has been identified to evaluate pollution indices for rare earth elements, especially concentrating on their biological availability.

Part of the book: Rare Earth Elements

By Michael Aide and Indi Braden

Floodplain ecosystems have been substantially altered because of land management decisions. Land management decisions have been made primarily for economic development, increased food demand, and reducing flood risks. Recently, increased attention has been devoted to restoring selected floodplain ecosystem services that have important benefits for habitat and wildlife, water purification, forest restoration, and carbon sequestration. Considering the Mississippi River floodplain as a portion of the state of Missouri, we summarize the key soil and soil features and elaborate on ecosystem site descriptions to support assessment of land management’s influence on ecosystem services. Given the significant government investment in detailed soil mapping and development of the ecosystem site descriptions, the fusion of these two advancements is critical for evaluating ecosystem service restoration.

Part of the book: Sustainable Management of Natural Resources