In the Columbia Basin, pre-plant soil fumigation is commonly used in potato production for pest control, but fumigation can kill non-target organisms within the soil, result in unintended shifts in the microbial community, and disrupt long-term soil health. Cover crops have been shown to strongly influence the numbers and communities...
Previous studies indicated that fertigating with nitrogen (N) was more effective than using granular N fertilizers in production of northern highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.). To build on these findings, four studies were conducted in western Oregon to determine whether fertigation was also an effective method for applying other nutrients,...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are anthropogenic surfactants that have recently been identified as persistent organic pollutants. These so called “Forever Chemicals” have been detected in drinking waters, ground waters, soils, and consumer and industrial products globally; with environmental impacts stretching into the artic, far from known PFAS sources. The...
For tuberizing crops like potato (Solanum tuberosum), the geocaulosphere, or the zone of soil in contact with and influenced by the tuber, is a distinct sphere of microbial life and represents an important interface between the potato crop and the soil environment. Upon potato harvest, specific geocaulosphere soil called tare...
Porphyry Cu-(Au-Mo) deposits are critical sources of several economically important metals. The processes governing the total metal endowment and relative proportions of ore metals at these large magmatic-hydrothermal deposits remain uncertain. The Sulphurets porphyry district, in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, contains four porphyry Au-Cu-Mo deposits that each feature distinct Cu/Au...
Soils, with their potential to store and stabilize carbon (C), are an essential resource for sustaining forest productivity, as well as for efforts to reduce atmospheric C concentrations. Protecting existing soil C and harnessing the sequestration potential of our soils require an improved understanding of the processes through which soil...
This study evaluates ore transport and other mining activities on metal levels in the remote Arctic ecosystem of Cape Krusenstern National Monument (CAKR) in northwestern Alaska. This monument is 50 km SW of Red Dog Mine, one of the world’s largest Pb–Zn mines. The Delong Mountain Transportation System (DMTS) haul...
Temperate coniferous forests, such as those that cover vast areas of the western US and Canada, have evolved to depend on cycles of disturbance for succession of species and overall ecosystem maintenance. Many of these forest systems are managed, often for timber production, where disturbances are of anthropogenic origin and...
Coastal blue carbon ecosystems offer a variety of important ecosystem services, including exceptional rates of carbon sequestration and long-term carbon storage. Because these ecosystems disproportionately influence global carbon cycling, understanding their soil characteristics may help guide long-term climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Recently, Kauffman et al. (2020) observed the...
The archaeological record of the First Americans is known almost exclusively from interior sites located away from coastal margins. While archaeologists hypothesize that early peoples initially migrated into the Americas along the Pacific coast, environmental changes associated with postglacial sea level rise may have destroyed or obscured such early sites....