Multi-channel analysis of surface waves (MASW) and micrometer array measurements (MAM) have been carried out in the flood-prone areas of Selimpaşa, Kavakli, Ortakoy and Kadikoy in Turkey to understand several soil problems, especially soil amplification during earthquakes.

Wetlands are among the most productive and economically valuable ecosystems in the world. However, because of human activities, over half of the wetland ecosystems existing in North America, Europe, Australia, and China in the early 20th century have been lost. Ecological restoration to recover critical ecosystem services has been widely attempted, but the degree of actual recovery of ecosystem functioning and structure from these efforts remains uncertain.

We show in climate model experiments that large-scale afforestation in northern mid-latitudes warms the Northern Hemisphere and alters global circulation patterns. An expansion of dark forests increases the absorption of solar energy and increases surface temperature, particularly in regions where the land surface is unable to compensate with latent heat flux due to water limitation.

How is the biodiversity within an ecosystem related to the ecosystem's function? Quantifying and understanding this relationship—the biodiversity-ecosystem function (BEF) —is important because socio-economic development is almost always accompanied by the loss of natural habitat and species. Short-term economic gains may thus trump longer-term benefits for human society, creating vulnerabilities that could be avoided or corrected with enough knowledge about the role of biodiversity.

Experiments suggest that biodiversity enhances the ability of ecosystems to maintain multiple functions, such as carbon storage, productivity, and the buildup of nutrient pools (multifunctionality). However, the relationship between biodiversity and multifunctionality has never been assessed globally in natural ecosystems. We report here on a global empirical study relating plant species richness and abiotic factors to multifunctionality in drylands, which collectively cover 41% of Earth’s land surface and support over 38% of the human population.

Global food demand is increasing rapidly, as are the environmental impacts of agricultural expansion. Here, we project global
demand for crop production in 2050 and evaluate the environmental impacts of alternative ways that this demand might be
met. We find that per capita demand for crops, when measured as caloric or protein content of all crops combined, has been a
similarly increasing function of per capita real income since 1960. This relationship forecasts a 100–110% increase in global crop demand from 2005 to 2050.

China possesses large areas of plantation forests which take up great quantities of carbon. However, studies on soil respiration in these plantation forests are rather scarce and their soil carbon flux remains an uncertainty. In this study, we used an automatic chamber system to measure soil surface flux of a 50-year-old mature plantation of Platycladus orientalis at Jiufeng Mountain, Beijing, China.

A study was carried out in village Mohamadabad, Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh to demonstrate the potential of high-resolution remote sensing data in generating soil resource database at village level that would facilitate natural resource developmental planning. For this study, detail soil resource database was generated by interpreting IRS Resourcesat-1 LISS-IV + Cartosat-1 merged data and by undertaking soil survey and soil analysis.

The field investigations were carried out on sandy loam soil at the research farm, Department of Agricultural Meteorology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during rabi 2006-07 and 2007-08. Wheat is the premier cereal crop during rabi season in Punjab. In 2008-09, it was grown on 35.26 lac tonnes and per hectare yield of 44.62 quintals. Wheat needs cool climate during early part of its growth and warm temperature at this stage is unfavourable for tillering and promotes several diseases.

An experiment was conducted to study the phosphate adsorption-desorption behaviour of some paddy growing soils of Anantnag district of Kashmir. Representative soil samples (0-15 cm) were collected from thirteen locations of district under paddy.