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Soil aggregate stability is essential for moderating the soil quality and preventing soil erosion. Vegetation restoration may effectively increase the stability of soil aggregates via soil organic matter. This study was designed to investigate the effects of vegetation types with long-term revegetation on the soil aggregate characteristics. Three vegetation type zones (grass land, forest-grass land and forest land) were selected in the Yanhe Watershed (northwest China) as the subjects. Soil aggregate stability was determined by the method of Le Bissonnais, including three disruptive tests: fast wetting (FW), slow wetting (SW) and mechanical breakdown (WS). The results showed that the mean weighted diameter (MWD) significantly differed from the tests and vegetation types. In the 0-10cm soil layer, MWD ranged from 2.65 to 3.26 mm for the SW test, which corresponded to very stable soil aggregate; they ranged from 0.53 to 1.08 mm for the WS test, and from 0.57 to 1.96 mm for the FW test, both of which corresponded to very unstable soil aggregates. In the 10-20 cm soil layer, MWD ranged from 2.75 to 3.33 mm for the SW test, 0.39 to 0.83 mm for the WS test, and 0.44 to 1.37 mm for the FW test. The MWDs under the three tests were the lowest for the grass land at both soil layers, and the MWDs for the WS and FW tests were significantly lower than the MWD for the SW test. In all three tests, MWDs showed the same order: forest land > forest-grass land > grass land. MWD indicated that forest land had much stronger ability to resist soil erosion no matter the rain conditions. The correlations between soil organic matter content and MWD for the FW and WS tests were significant (P < 0.05). These results demonstrated that vegetation types had significant effects on the soil aggregates under the different rain conditions, and the soil organic matter and clay contents were significantly related to the soil aggregate stability. These results will guide the practice of reducing soil erosion for the different conditions and different vegetation types.

The response of bacterial communities to environmental change may affect local to global nutrient cycles. However the dynamics of these communities following disturbance are poorly understood, given that they are often evaluated over macro-ecological time scales and end-point measurements. In order to understand the successional trajectory of soil bacterial communities following disturbances and the mechanisms controlling these dynamics at a scale relevant for these organisms, we subjected soil microcosms to a heat disturbance and followed the community composition of active bacteria over 50 days. The disturbance imposed a strong selective pressure that persisted for up to 10 days, after which the importance of stochastic processes increased. Three successional stages were detected: a primary response in which surviving taxa increased in abundance; a secondary response phase during which community dynamics slowed down, and a stability phase (after 29 days), during which the community tended towards its original composition. Phylogenetic turnover patterns indicated that the community experienced stronger deterministic selection during recovery. Thus, soil bacterial communities, despite their extreme diversity and functional redundancy, respond to disturbances like many macro-ecological systems and exhibit path-dependent, autogenic dynamics during secondary succession. These results highlight the role of autogenic factors and successional dynamics in microbial recovery.

Shallow landslides can pose a major threat to human lives and infrastructure over significant portions of the global land surface and occur primarily from weakened soil shear resistance due to water infiltration. Although there is growing interest in using vegetation to stabilize hillslopes against landslides, we noted the scarcity of studies examining temporal variations in slope stability, particularly with regard to different land uses. In three tropical and temperate landslide-prone regions (Laos, Costa Rica and France), we combined soil moisture monitoring to 1.2-1.8 m depths in the field, soil shear resistance measurements and numerical modeling to compare slope stability under competing land uses for 2-3 years. Slope stability tracked temporal changes in soil moisture, with smaller contributions from root mechanical reinforcement. Land uses with denser vegetation had greater stabilizing impacts than those with sparser vegetation, which lasted for six to twelve months per year and coincided temporally with growing or rainy/dry seasons. Greater stability under denser land use persisted into wet seasons in one of the sites and were minimized or reversed in the other two sites. Site-specific factors such as climate, soil and species may explain these differences in the vegetational control on slope stability. A review of the data in the literature found that woody vegetation increased slope stability and decreased temporal variation in stability compared to herbaceous vegetation. However, while variations in slope stability decreased in increasingly humid climates, indicating that the largest fluctuations in stability, and hence potential to improve slope integrity with land-use changes, will be found in arid to sub-humid regions. Our results show that dense vegetation provides greater stability and protection against landslides from rainfall. Land managers need to take into account this biological control on hydrology when managing vegetated slopes. Incorporating the vegetation-driven deep soil moisture dynamics will also improve predictive utility of models of specific events.

Texte intégral accessible uniquement aux membres de l'Université de Lorraine; Not available; La rhizosphère est l'étroite zone volumique de sol soumise à l'influence des racines vivantes. C’est aussi une zone cruciale pour l'alimentation en eau et en éléments nutritifs de la plante. Les interactions biologiques et physiques entre le système racinaire et la rhizosphère sont maximales au niveau de l'interface sol:racines. La géométrie et la stabilité de cette interface sol:racines sont pourtant très peu étudiées. L’objectif de ce travail est d'étudier l'impact du type de sol et de sa teneur en eau sur (i) l'état d'adhésion sol:racines et (ii) les processus biophysiques, complexes, qui ont lieu dans la rhizosphère du maïs. L'étude des modes d'adhésion sol:racines a été réalisée a l'aide de deux approches complémentaires et à deux échelles d'observation : (1) à l'échelle de l'ensemble d'un système racinaire de 11 jours, à l'aide de cinétiques globale de rupture du sol adhérant aux racines, par agitation mécanique ou ultrasonication du système sol:racines ; (2) à l'échelle centimétrique d'une racine de 4 jours, à l'aide de mesures de forces de séparation sol:racine (approche rhéologique) : (1) à l'échelle du système racinaire, nous avons mis en évidence une différence de mode d'absorption de l'eau par la plante selon la texture du sol, sableuse ou limoneuse, ce qui a été attribué à deux facteurs interdépendants : le stock d'eau du sol et l'architecture du système racinaire. Par ailleurs, la caractérisation des propriétés mécaniques du sol adhèrent nous a permis de le subdiviser en deux classes d'agrégats, peu stables ou fermement adhérant aux racines. Nous avons aussi pu démontrer que la cohésion des agrégats adhérant aux racines était plus élevée que celle des agrégats de sol non soumis à l'influence du système racinaire, et que cela était du à l'exsudation racinaire, qui s'est révélée être d'autant plus intense que le sol était plus sec. (2) l'approche rhéologique de l'adhésion sol:racines nous a permis d'élaborer une théorie de l'adhésion sol:racines dont les deux paramètres principaux sont la surface spécifique du sol et la surface de contact sol:racines. Enfin, nos résultats ont permis d'établir que la plante jouait un rôle de régulateur à l'interface sol:racines. En effet, le mais produit d'autant plus de poils absorbants, s'ancrant dans le sol, que le sol est sec.

In June 1943 an earthflow involving more than one million cubic yards of varved clay occurred at the Beattie Mine. Subsequent remedial measures resulted in further large landslides. This paper describes the soil conditions, the sequence of events, and attempts to assess the stability of the clay slopes. It was found that the undrained analysis led to an unsafe assessment but that Terzaghi's rule for critical heights of slope gave a better indication of stability., 17th Canadian Soil Mechanics Conference, 12 September, 1963, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Si le sol est localement sujet à dilatation ou, plus particulièrement, à contraction due à une variation de sa teneur en humidité, de graves dommages peuvent en effet résulter de l'empiètement des racines sur l'environnement immédiat des fondations. Ce digeste a pour objet d'exposer les difficultés, de proposer des moyens de les éviter et d' indiquer des méthodes curatives permettant de réparer les dégâts causés par les arbres.

The problem of slope stability in the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers in eastern Canada is complicated by the unusual properties of the marine clay that occurs in the region. This ''extra-sensitive'' clay liquefies when it is disturbed from its natural state, and this characteristic complicates both the testing of the soil and soft sediments and the field analysis of its performance. It is necessary for design purposes, therefore, to rely on the study of case records until knowledge of the engineering properties of the material improves. The description of the Nicolet slide is presented as a case record together with suggestions of the geological factors that contributed to the instability. The actual failure is attributed to construction work proceeding at the time. (Author)

Serious damage can result from the encroachment of roots into the immediate environment of foundations if the local soil is one that is susceptible to swelling or, more particularly, to shrinking with change in moisture content. It is the purpose of this Digest to explain the problem, to suggest how it can be avoided, and to outline remedial methods to correct damage that trees may have caused.