mortiz085

Dr. Nicolas L. Galvez (1903-1991) laid down the groundwork for the different fields of soil science in the Philippines and he trained many Filipino soil scientists as a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA) for 42 years. He was the head of the Soils Department at UPCA from 1948 to 1961, a difficult but crucial post-war period that had long-term impact on the development of soil science as an academic field in the country. Upon his retirement in 1970, Dr. N.L. Galvez was honored by being appointed as a University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) Emeritus Professor.  Dr. N.L. Galvez (Source: SAED, UPLB-CA) Dr. N.L. Galvez was an internationally recognized scientist having published numerous relevant scientific papers on soil chemistry, soil mineralogy, and other aspects of soil science. For his pioneering and great contributions to the development of soil science in the Philippines, Dr. Galvez is widely considered, and deserves to be called, ...

Students of soil science are taught that to determine the amount of soil organic matter, soil organic carbon is measured usually by wet oxidation using potassium dichromate (called Walkley-Black method) or in well-equipped laboratories, using CN analyser and then multiplied by a conversion factor of 1.72 or 1.724. Most textbooks and laboratory manuals do not explain how this factor was obtained, so students generally accept the value without any question just like they do with other constants used in natural sciences.  Origin of the conversion factor The conversion factor has a very long history and has practically survived the test of time and modern analytical methods. It is about 150 years old. It was based on studies in the 1820s by the famous agricultural chemist, Carl Sprengel of Goettingen University, that organic matter contains 58 percent carbon. But it was another leading agricultural chemistry pioneer, Emil Wolff from Hohenheim, who introduced the value of 1.724 in 1864....

Contributed by Dr. Ian A. Navarrete Humboldt Fellow Soil Science of Tropical and Subtropical Ecosystems Buesgen Institute University of Göttingen, Germany Geoecology, a term coined some 41 years ago by the geomorphologist Carl Troll who was at the time professor at the University of Bonn, Germany, is a broad integrative term to the study of forms and functions of terrestrial geoecosystem (Huggett, 1995). It emphasizes the interdependency and/or inter-relationships of the ecological biosphere with landscape and hence sometimes equated with landscape ecology. For example, the movement and distribution of solutes across soil landscapes are influenced by the geomorphic position in the soil within the landscape thus influencing soil genesis (Sommer and Schlichting, 1997) and vegetation development (Huggett, 1975).  Fig 1. Relation of primary forest and grasslands of Samar During our fieldwork at the Samar Island Natural Park (along the Paranas-Taft road at about 300 m above sea level) i...

“There is a need to integrate science and local knowledge. Both are vital and can be brought together only by participation” emphasized Prof. Dr. Franz Heidhues in his concluding remarks during the International Scientific Conference on Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountain Areas held at the University of Hohenheim, Germany on 16-18 April 2012. As can be seen from the figure below, scientific knowledge becomes more relevant when it is combined with local knowledge (Barrios and Trejo, 2003). Precision & relevance of scientific and local knowledge   Ethnopedology is the study of the local knowledge on soil and land systems of rural populations, from the most traditional to the modern. Ethnopedological research covers a wide diversity of topics centered around four main issues: (1) the formalization of local soil and land knowledge into classification schemes; (2) the comparison of local and technical soil classifications; (3) the analysis of local land evaluation...

Brno's city center If you have the chance to travel to the Czech Republic, you should not forget to include in your itinerary a visit to the city of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Located south of Prague (about 2 hours by train), Brno is the historical capital city of Moravia of the South Moravian Region, one of 14 regions of the country. Brno is among the most beautiful European cities that I have visited. According to Wikipedia, the city has hundreds of historical sights, including one designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and the second largest historic preservation zone in the Czech Republic next to Prague. It is a university city and boasts of several top universities (total student population of about 90,000) one of which is Masaryk University. Masaryk University Masaryk University, named in honor of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk the first president of Czechoslovakia, is the second-largest public university in the Czech Republic and the leading university...

Contributed by Dr. Ian A. Navarrete Humboldt Fellow Soil Science of Tropical and Subtropical Ecosystems Georg-August Univesity Göttingen Gottingen, Germany Soil degradation, a process that lowers the capacity of the soil to produce goods or services, is a prevalent agricultural and environmental problem in the Philippines (Asio et al. 2009). However, to date, the nature and characteristics of degraded soils in the Philippines have been poorly understood, in that there have been few studies on this subject (Asio et al. 2009; Navarrete et al. 2009). Altho ugh various crop production technologies have been developed for marginal areas these technologies have not been successfully adapted by farmers or have failed to alleviate crop production (Cramb 2001). Cramb further stated that the introduction of unsuitable soil management technologies to farmers has intensified the soil degradation processes occurring in these areas. Thus, knowledge on the characteristics and fertility status of degr...

The major impact of mining on the environment is mainly due to the physical damage of the landscape and the production of large volume of harmful wastes. In general, only a small fraction of the ore is valuable, the remaining large part is waste (tailings). For example, in the Cu mining industry, only about a kilogram of the metal is extracted from one-half ton rock. (Ore is an economic term for a rock from which a mineral can be extracted profitably). The figure above summarizes the environmental impact of mining and smelting. It shows that mining and smel ting produce solid, liquid and gaseous wastes/contaminants. These cause serious environmental damage once they are discharged to the land (terrestrial ecosystem) and bodies of water (aquatic ecosystems) or when they are emitted into ambient air. In particular, they cause soil and water acidification, air, water, soil and plant contamination by trace elements, deterioration of soil biology and fertility, and soil erosion. Studies hav...