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Rainer Schulin | |
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| Born | Hübenthal (Witzenhausen), Germany |
| Known for | Trace elements in soils |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Soil protection |
| Institutions | ETH Zurich |
Rainer Schulin (born 22 July 1952) is a German zoologist, forest scientist and emeritus professor of soil protection at the ETH Zurich. [1]
Rainer Schulin studied biology at the University of Göttingen and graduated at the University of Zurich in 1976 in zoology. He there completed his PhD thesis in 1981 in zoology and then graduated as a forest engineer at ETH Zurich in 1982.[ citation needed ] After seven years of research in soil physics he was elected as professor on the newly established ETH Chair of Soil Protection 1990. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and is co-author of a German textbook on soil ecology. Rainer Schulin is married and has a daughter.[ citation needed ]
In a model ecosystem experiment Schulin and coworkers showed that soil can play a key role in the growth and evapotranspiration responses of young forest vegetation on elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide. [2] Up to then soil had been neglected as a factor in the response of vegetation to elevated carbon dioxide.
In another model ecosystem experiment Schulin's team found that moderate topsoil pollution by heavy metals significantly reduced evapotranspiration of a young forest vegetation due to reduced root growth, in particular during periods of drought stress, and that roots compensated for metal toxicity in the topsoil by increasing water extraction from the subsoil. [3] It could also be demonstrated that the biodegradable chelant EDDS can be used to enhance phytoextraction of polluting metals by mobilizing the metals in the soil, although metal-EDDS complexes are less available for uptake by roots through the symplastic pathway than free metal ions. [4] [5]
Schulin et al. also showed how much care has to be taken in attributing soil pollution to specific sources. Detailed analyses of soil profiles revealed that – in contrast to the conclusions of previous investigations based on spatial distributions of topsoil metal concentrations – the majority of metals in the vicinity of a ferrous metal smelter were of geogenic origin. [6]
Also in contrast to previous belief that macropores invariably are the most compaction-sensitive types of soil pores Schulin and teamworkers showed that this only holds for packing voids between soil aggregates, whereas cylindrical macropores are in fact much more robust than bulk soil against deformation by compaction. [7] Neutron radiography was proved as a powerful tool to simultaneously determine soil water content and root development in soil. [8]
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A carbon sink is a natural or artificial carbon sequestration process that "removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere". These sinks form an important part of the natural carbon cycle. An overarching term is carbon pool, which is all the places where carbon on Earth can be, i.e. the atmosphere, oceans, soil, florae, fossil fuel reservoirs and so forth. A carbon sink is a type of carbon pool that has the capability to take up more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Latin word for "earth" or "ground".
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from soil by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil.
Phytoremediation technologies use living plants to clean up soil, air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants. It is defined as "the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with proper soil amendments and agronomic techniques to either contain, remove or render toxic environmental contaminants harmless". The term is an amalgam of the Greek phyto (plant) and Latin remedium. Although attractive for its cost, phytoremediation has not been demonstrated to redress any significant environmental challenge to the extent that contaminated space has been reclaimed.
In soil science, podzols, also known as podosols, spodosols, or espodossolos, are the typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests and also the typical soils of eucalypt forests and heathlands in southern Australia. In Western Europe, podzols develop on heathland, which is often a construct of human interference through grazing and burning. In some British moorlands with podzolic soils, cambisols are preserved under Bronze Age barrows.
Soil moisture is the water content of the soil. It can be expressed in terms of volume or weight. Soil moisture measurement can be based on in situ probes or remote sensing methods.
Soil acidification is the buildup of hydrogen cations, which reduces the soil pH. Chemically, this happens when a proton donor gets added to the soil. The donor can be an acid, such as nitric acid, sulfuric acid, or carbonic acid. It can also be a compound such as aluminium sulfate, which reacts in the soil to release protons. Acidification also occurs when base cations such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium are leached from the soil.
In soil, macropores are defined as cavities that are larger than 75 μm. Functionally, pores of this size host preferential soil solution flow and rapid transport of solutes and colloids. Macropores increase the hydraulic conductivity of soil, allowing water to infiltrate and drain quickly, and shallow groundwater to move relatively rapidly via lateral flow. In soil, macropores are created by plant roots, soil cracks, soil fauna, and by aggregation of soil particles into peds. Macropores can also be found in soil between larger individual mineral particles such as sand or gravel.
In hydrology, stemflow is the flow of intercepted water down the trunk or stem of a plant. Stemflow, along with throughfall, is responsible for the transferral of precipitation and nutrients from the canopy to the soil. In tropical rainforests, where this kind of flow can be substantial, erosion gullies can form at the base of the trunk. However, in more temperate climates stemflow levels are low and have little erosional power.
The European Soil Database is the only harmonized soil database in Europe from which many other data information and services are derived. For instance, the European Soil Database v2 Raster Library contains raster (grid) data files with cell sizes of 1 km x 1 km for a large number of soil related parameters. Each grid is aligned with the INSPIRE reference grid. These rasters are in the public domain and allow expert users to use the data for instance to run soil-, water- and air related models. The European Soil Database may be downloaded from the European Soil Data Center.
Ethylenediamine-N,N'-disuccinic acid (EDDS) is an aminopolycarboxylic acid. It is a colourless solid that is used as chelating agent that may offer a biodegradable alternative to EDTA, which is currently used on a large scale in numerous applications.
The pore space of soil contains the liquid and gas phases of soil, i.e., everything but the solid phase that contains mainly minerals of varying sizes as well as organic compounds.
Soil biodiversity refers to the relationship of soil to biodiversity and to aspects of the soil that can be managed in relative to biodiversity. Soil biodiversity relates to some catchment management considerations.
Rhizofiltration is a form of phytoremediation that involves filtering contaminated groundwater, surface water and wastewater through a mass of roots to remove toxic substances or excess nutrients.
Environmental impact of mining can occur at local, regional, and global scales through direct and indirect mining practices. Mining can cause erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, or the contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water by chemicals emitted from mining processes. These processes also affect the atmosphere through carbon emissions which contributes to climate change.
Mycorrhizal amelioration of heavy metals or pollutants is a process by which mycorrhizal fungi in a mutualistic relationship with plants can sequester toxic compounds from the environment, as a form of bioremediation.
The physical properties of soil, in order of decreasing importance for ecosystem services such as crop production, are texture, structure, bulk density, porosity, consistency, temperature, colour and resistivity. Soil texture is determined by the relative proportion of the three kinds of soil mineral particles, called soil separates: sand, silt, and clay. At the next larger scale, soil structures called peds or more commonly soil aggregates are created from the soil separates when iron oxides, carbonates, clay, silica and humus, coat particles and cause them to adhere into larger, relatively stable secondary structures. Soil bulk density, when determined at standardized moisture conditions, is an estimate of soil compaction. Soil porosity consists of the void part of the soil volume and is occupied by gases or water. Soil consistency is the ability of soil materials to stick together. Soil temperature and colour are self-defining. Resistivity refers to the resistance to conduction of electric currents and affects the rate of corrosion of metal and concrete structures which are buried in soil. These properties vary through the depth of a soil profile, i.e. through soil horizons. Most of these properties determine the aeration of the soil and the ability of water to infiltrate and to be held within the soil.
Soil sealing or soil surface sealing is the loss of soil resources due to the covering of land for housing, roads or other construction work. Covering or replacing the topsoil with impervious materials like asphalt and cement as a result of urban development and infrastructure construction paired with compaction of the underlying soil layers results in the mostly irreversible loss of relevant soil ecosystem services. The global rise in population has heightened the need for soil sealing, which in turn leads to the degradation of land. Sealed land is a serious form of land take. Soil sealing and land take together leads to the complete loss of soil functions, including its biological, physical and chemical properties.
Nina Buchmann is a German ecologist known for her research on the physiology of plants and the impact of plants on biogeochemical cycling. She is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and an elected fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
Alyssum serpyllifolium, the thyme-leaved alison, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to the western Mediterranean region. It is adapted to serpentine soils. The Royal Horticultural Society recommends it for rock gardens.
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