You've probably heard that oil spills are bad news. But did you know that cleaning up these spills can also have hidden environmental impacts? A study in Iran's Khuzestan province looked at different ways to clean up old oil in super salty soil. They found that some methods might do more harm than g
Imagine tiny plastic particles, invisible to the naked eye, lurking in our soil. These micro- and nanoplastics are becoming a significant concern. Scientists are diving deep into understanding their impact on the environment. It's a new frontier in research, filled with knowledge gaps and challenges
Imagine burying your underwear in the garden to check if the soil is healthy. That's exactly what one bright student from Banning Unified School District did! Caleb Clay, a fifth-grader from Starlight Elementary School, came up with a fun and effective way to test soil health by using underwear. His
Imagine a city trying to figure out what's making its soil dirty. That's what happened in Jiaozuo, China. Scientists looked at 53 different types of land to find out where the heavy metals were coming from. They used a special tool called a Random Forest model, made better with a Genetic Algorithm,
Did you know that some plants and fungi can team up to clean up heavy metals like cadmium in soil? Recently, scientists discovered that a fungus called Beauveria bassiana FE14 and a type of grass called Miscanthus floridulus can work together to make soil less toxic. Heavy metals in soil are a big p
Ever thought about the tiny critters in soil that help plants grow? We're talking about microbes, and they love nitrogen (N)! Scientists have a nifty tool called qSIP to see which microbes are using N. Usually, this is done in a lab. But what about in the real world? Two sites were picked to compare
Ever wondered how pharmaceuticals disappear from soils over time? Scientists have created a new mathematical model to figure out the answer. This clever tool treats soil particles like tiny balls, considering how tightly pollutants stick to them (called sorption) and how they break down (or dissipat
Soils near an industrial park in Shandong Province, China, were found to contain 81 different perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This was done using a new approach that helps scientists find unknown compounds without needing to know their structure beforehand. Among these PFAS, 12
Phosphorus (P) is essential for plants, but in acidic soils, it's often tightly bound and unavailable. To make P easier for plants to use, farmers sometimes mix it with organic matter. This study explored how loamy and clayey soils in a tropical region handled P differently, when pH was changed, and
Farmers rely heavily on weather and soil moisture to decide when to water their crops. A group in Spain hit a snag while setting up a vineyard. They needed a budget-friendly way to monitor soil and air conditions. Commercial options were either too pricey or didn't fit their needs. So, they rolled u
