Pedometrics

A practical guide to geostatistical mapping

A practical guide to geostatistical mapping is a FREE book by Tom Hengl. It uses R+gstat/geoR, SAGA GIS and Google Earth combo of software packages. Includes seven diverse data analysis exercises. Materials presented in this book have been used for the five-day advanced training course “GEOSTAT: spatio-temporal data analysis with R+SAGA+Google Earth”, that is periodically organized by the author and collaborators.

Visit http://spatial-analyst.net/book/ to obtain a digital copy of the book and R scripts / data sets used. This is an Open Access Publication.

Facts about Global Warming

New Book Facts about Global Warming: Rational or Emotional issue?

Miroslav Kutilek & Don Nielsen

CONTENTS
1. SOIL SCIENTIST AND CLIMATOLOGY
2. GLOBAL WARMING
REPORTS ON GLOBAL WARMING; HOW TEMPERATURE IS MEASURED WITH AND WITHOUT THERMOMETERS; STRANGE COMPARISONS; MEDIEVAL WARM PERIOD, OR CRADLE REPLACING THE HOCKEY STICK
3. GREENHOUSE EFFECT AND THE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE
HYPOTHESIS AS A TOOL OF SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENTS; THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT; WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? GLOBAL WARMING HYPOTHESIS; HOW IT STARTED; IPCC QUOTES KARL POPPER AND THOMAS S. KUHN
4. CHANGE OF THE CLIMATE
FACTORS INVOLVED IN CLIMATIC CHANGE; EARTH CLIMATE HISTORY;
HOLOCENE, OUR INTERGLACIAL; FRUIT GROVER’S POSTULATE
5 THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE UPON THE RISE AND FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS
THE PART PLAYED BY CLIMATE IN THE TRANSITION FROM APE TO MAN; THE RISE AND DECLINE OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
6. WILL THE CATASTROPHIC SCENARIOS EVER END?
DISASTROUS HURRICANES AND FLOODS ARE DUE TO MAN-MADE-WARMING; HOW THE GLACIERS RECEDE AND ICEBERGS MELT ; THE SEA WILL SWALLOW US; DESTRUCTION OF CORAL REEFS; FAMINES ARE JUST AROUND THE CORNER; END OF LIFE, DEATH OF EARTH; ALL THOSE “CATASTROPHIC” SCENARIOS
7. SKEPTICS OF GLOBAL WARMING
8. WHAT IS REAL?
THE PROVEN FACTS; THE INVALIDATED HYPOTHESIS ON DOMINANT CO2 GLOBAL WARMING ROLE

Pedometron No. 29 - August 2010

The latest edition of our newsletter, Pedometron No. 29, August 2010 now can be downloaded from http://www.pedometrics.org/pedometron/pedometron29.pdf

It has lots of interesting articles:

Best Paper 2009 Nomination, The Richard Webster medal, Obituary: Geoff Lasslett, Smoothing pycnophlactic quadratic splines , DSM 2010, The effect of cultivation on soil carbon, Getting lost in the soil texture triangles, Dirt! The Movie Review, Pedometrics 2011, A short history of ordination, Copulas, Soil and culture, Soil profile description, Profiles, and Pedomathemagica.

This is the last edition of Pedometron from Murray & Budi, and the future issue will be edited by A-Xing Zhu.

The Richard Webster Medal Recipient: Jaap De Gruijter

The Richard Webster Medal is awarded for the best body of work that has advanced pedometrics. Jaap De Gruijter has been selected by the Pedometrics Committee on Prizes and Awards to receive the Webster Medal at the 19th World Congress on Soil Science.

Jaap is a very worthy winner as he has made a substantive contribution to the development of pedometrics over a period of more than 40 years. Jaap’s contribution has been one of consistent innovation and extremely high quality. His approach to pedometrics has been one of finding elegant solutions to substantive problems in soil science rather than simply the application of statistical methods to soil problems. As examples of this we highlight Jaap’s contribution to the development of an efficient formal method of estimating soil map quality, and his contribution to sampling theory and practice. Jaap was instrumental in setting up the Pedometrics Working Group, and throughout his career he has been a leader in pedometrics and has contributed to the development of the discipline, and particularly the mentoring of younger colleagues.

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Post-Doctoral Research Associate
University of Nebraska - Lincoln

This is a non-tenure leading post-doctoral research associate position established for a period of two to three years. Continuation of this Soil Scientist position beyond one year is contingent upon the availability of grant funding and satisfactory accomplishment of assigned duties, up to a maximum of five years.
Responsibilities: Develop VNIR models, including statistical evaluation of organic and inorganic carbon distribution, evaluation of soil property and landscape effects on carbon dynamics, and evaluation of ecosystem properties and agricultural management effects on carbon dynamics. Analyze data and prepare written reports and scientific articles for publication. Work with faculty members, technicians, and students to accomplish research objectives. Publish research results in refereed journals and other scholarly literature, communicate scholarly outputs at national and international scientific meetings, and supervise students and technicians.
Assist with general project oversight, database design, troubleshooting, quality assurance, quality control, and data management. Provide training, reporting, communication, and publicity associated with the Rapid Assessment of U.S. Soil Carbon for Climate Change and Conservation Planning Project. The primary objective of this cooperative project, led by the NRCS Soil Survey Division, is to produce a nationwide inventory of soil carbon stocks in the U.S. as affected by soil properties, agricultural management, and ecosystem state. The project relies on dispersed data collection by a cadre of NRCS Soil Scientists and relies on evaluation of soil organic and inorganic carbon concentrations by diffuse reflected visible and near infra-red spectroscopy (VNIR).

Qualifications: A Ph.D. in Soil Science or related field is required. Additional requirements include demonstrated expertise in pedology, soil property analysis, multivariate statistics, geographic information systems, and database management, as well as effective written and verbal communication skills. Experience with SQL Server, Access, or any ESRI software is highly desirable
To be considered for this position, go to http://employment.unl.edu, requisition 100426 and complete the Faculty/Academic Administrative form. Applicants must attach a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and names and complete contact information for at least three references. Review of applications will begin September 1, 2010, and continue until the position is filled. Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States. All hires are subject to final budgetary approval.
The University of Nebraska has an active National Science Foundation ADVANCE general equity program, and is committed to a pluralistic campus community through affirmative action, equal opportunity, work-life balance, and dual careers.

Best Paper in Pedometrics 2009

Alex McBratney, Budiman Minasny, and Dick Brus have, this year, undertaken the considerable task of preparing the nominations for best paper in Pedometrics 2009. All members of the IUSS are invited to vote for the best paper, and to send their votes to Axing Zhu, azhu@wisc.edu.

List the papers by number (as below) in order of preference, with the paper you regard as the most worthy winner listed first. The vote will end at midnight (Wisconsin time) on 30th November 2010., and the result will be announced in Pedometron. Certificates will be presented at Pedometrics 2011 in Třešť.

The nominations are:

1. Carré, F., M. Jacobson. 2009. Numerical classification of soil profile data using distance metrics. Geoderma 148, 336–345. [Download Paper here]

2. Goidts, E., B. van Wesemael and M. Crucifix.2009. Magnitude and sources of uncertainties in soil organic carbon (SOC) stock assessments at various scales. European Journal of Soil Science 60, 723–739.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122519466/abstract

3. Kaufmann, M., S. Tobias, R. Schulin. 2009. Quality evaluation of restored soils with a fuzzy logic expert system. Geoderma 151, 290–302. [Download Paper here]

4. Marchant, B. P. , S. Newman, R. Corstanje, K. R. Reddy, T. Z. Osborne & R. M. Lark. 2009. Spatial monitoring of a non-stationary soil property: phosphorus in a Florida water conservation area. European Journal of Soil Science 60, 757– 769.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122519469/abstract

5. Yeluripati, J.B., van Oijen, M., Wattenbach, M., Neftel, A., Ammann, A., Parton, W.J., Smith, P. 2009 Bayesian calibration as a tool for initialising the carbon pools of dynamic soil models. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 41, 2579–2583. [Download Paper here]

Global soil moisture map

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100630/full/news.2010.325.html

The first satellite-derived map of global soil moisture has been unveiled today at the Living Planet Symposium, an Earth-observation conference being held this week in Bergen, Norway.

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission — part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) extended ‘living planet’ programme on Earth observation — was launched in November 2009. After a six-month commissioning and calibration period, the instrument became operational on 21 May.

Data from SMOS have now enabled researchers to assemble a comprehensive map of global soil moisture that covers all land areas of the world, except for frozen soils at high latitudes and in some mountain regions.

The map, generated on 24 June, depicts features such as the unusual current soil dryness in the southern United Kingdom, and the relative soil wetness in parts of western Africa caused by recent abundant convective rainfall.

The most surprising features on the map, however, are the relatively high soil-moisture values throughout the central United States, where scientists would have expected much drier soil at this time of year.

The SMOS satellite carries an interferometric radiometer that captures images of ‘brightness temperature’, a measure of the microwave radiation emitted from Earth’s surface. Complex algorithms are used to process the raw data and turn them into global soil-moisture maps every three days. Maps of ocean salinity, not yet released, will be produced every 30 days.

This comprehensive satellite map of soil moisture covers most land areas of the world, and was produced from data gathered by the European Space Agency’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. Its most surprising finding is the unusual wetness in western African and central US soils. (Dryness is indicated by blue, wetness by red.)

Best Paper in Pedometrics 2009

Alex McBratney, Budiman Minasny, and Dick Brus have, this year, undertaken the considerable task of preparing the nominations for best paper in Pedometrics 2009. All members of the IUSS are invited to vote for the best paper, and to send their votes to Axing Zhu, azhu@wisc.edu.

List the papers by number (as below) in order of preference, with the paper you regard as the most worthy winner listed first. The vote will end at midnight (Wisconsin time) on 30th November 2010., and the result will be announced in Pedometron. Certificates will be presented at Pedometrics 2011 in Třešť.

The nominations are:

1. Carré, F., M. Jacobson. 2009. Numerical classification of soil profile data using distance metrics. Geoderma 148, 336–345. [Download Paper here]

2. Goidts, E., B. van Wesemael and M. Crucifix.2009. Magnitude and sources of uncertainties in soil organic carbon (SOC) stock assessments at various scales. European Journal of Soil Science 60, 723–739.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122519466/abstract

3. Kaufmann, M., S. Tobias, R. Schulin. 2009. Quality evaluation of restored soils with a fuzzy logic expert system. Geoderma 151, 290–302. [Download Paper here]

4. Marchant, B. P. , S. Newman, R. Corstanje, K. R. Reddy, T. Z. Osborne & R. M. Lark. 2009. Spatial monitoring of a non-stationary soil property: phosphorus in a Florida water conservation area. European Journal of Soil Science 60, 757– 769.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122519469/abstract

5. Yeluripati, J.B., van Oijen, M., Wattenbach, M., Neftel, A., Ammann, A., Parton, W.J., Smith, P. 2009 Bayesian calibration as a tool for initialising the carbon pools of dynamic soil models. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 41, 2579–2583. [Download Paper here]

Workshop on Modelling Soil & Water Conservation at different scales, Baeza, Spain, 27-29 Sep 2010

OPTIMIZING AND INTEGRATING PREDICTIONS OF AGRICULTURAL SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION MODELS AT DIFFERENT SCALES

This workshop is aimed to improve our understanding of the interrelated issues of land degradation, agricultural performance and the effects of soil and water conservation measures.

The workshop will bring together scientists that work with predictive models and scientists that are active in gathering field data and information on the spatial variability of environmental factors (soil, climate, etc.).
Special importance will go to: (i) optimization of models for soil and water conservation; (ii) integration of models with field data and (iii) scale issues

17 international leaders in this field are invited as speakers. Further contributions are invited in poster format.

Venue
Baeza, Spain, 27th-29th September 2010.

For more information, please see:
http://www.unia.es/content/view/798/537/
http://www.unia.es/images/stories/workshops/Medio_Ambiente/poster20101.jpg

Email: ag2vavat@uco.es

Informatics Specialist

The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BUNDESANSTALT FÜR GEOWIS-SENSCHAFTEN UND ROHSTOFFE, BGR) is searching for an Informatics Specialist to be hired as soon as possible, for the duration of the research project “GS Soil” until 31.05.2012.
The position is part of the BGR’s contributions to the project GS Soil (Assessment and Strategic De-velopment of INSPIRE-compliant Geodata-Services for European Soil Data www.gssoil.eu), financed under the EU eContentplus Programme.
Responsibilities and duties
− Concept development and implementation of interconnections between geoscientific (soil) data bases for web-based data communication in Germany and Europe
− Development of concepts to facilitate compatibility, interoperability and applicability of digital prod-ucts in soil and environmental information systems
− Analysis of existing web-portal and digital product designs as well as standards (such as OGC observation and measurements) for further development of soil information systems, data bases and geo-portals
− Contributions to the development of international and national standards for the encoding of soil data, including testing its applicability
− Development of interactive geoscientific web applications (e.g. transformation services for nomen-clature harmonization)
Employment conditions
Applicants must hold a University Diploma or MSc degree in informatics or comparable, with additional geoscientific qualification preferred. In order to further develop and manage the communication be-tween geoscientific/environmental information systems in the web, the position requires excellent knowledge of web-GIS standards (OGC, W3C, ISO, CEN). In particular, a thorough understanding of XML/UML/GML is needed for the modelling of data specifications (for soil data). In order to intercon-nect and retrieve data interactively, in-depth experience is needed in managing SQL-data bases e.g. using MS-SQL, MySQL or PostgreSQL, as well as knowledge of script languages PHP, JavaSript (AJAX), etc. The modification and adaptation of libraries and domain applications requires experience in programming, preferably C++. Fluency in English language is required, basic knowledge in German or willingness to learn German would be an asset.
The place of work is the Hannover headquarters, maybe by personal preference our office in Berlin. Payment is based on E13 or E 14 due to the TVöD and depends on the individual qualification of the applicant. BGR is an equal opportunities employer. A full-time position is planned, part-time would be considered.
We ask you to provide us with your detailed application referring to „GS Soil Informatics“ and applica-tion number B 23/10 including CV, brief statement of research interests and accomplishments, copies of relevant certificates as well as individual project results/publications/links to demonstrate your level of experience. Please send your application until the 16.04.2010 to
Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR)
- Staff -
Stilleweg 2, 30655 Hanover, Germany
Information about BGR can be found at www.bgr.bund.de.
For more information, you are welcome to contact rainer.baritz@bgr.de, or by phone +49/511/643-2409.