Dr. Schroeder has a new publication in the Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science.

Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science publication: The “extra pinch” of pseudosand to enhance tropical biogeochemical processes understanding.

Authors:

Simone Kilian Salas¹, Katharina H. E. Meurer², Diana Boy³, Elisa Díaz García⁴, Susanne K. Woche⁴, Jens Boy⁴, Georg Guggenberger⁴, Stephan Peth⁴, Paul. A. Schroeder⁵, and Hermann F. Jungkunst¹ 

_{1 - iES Landau, Institute for Environmental Science, RPTU Kaiserslautern, Landau, Germany
2 - Department of Soil & Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
3 - Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institute of Microbiology, Hannover, German
4 - Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institute of Earth System Sciences, Section Soil Science, Hannover, Germany
5 - Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA}

Abstract:

Despite knowing better, water-stable aggregates like pseudosands are still disintegrated into their clay- and silt-sized bits and pieces to serve standardization in texture determination. Lacking yet a viable alternative, this deliberately committed mistake seems the contemporary best practice for modeling purposes, which is far from being ideal. Here, we propose this misconception to be a major cause for flawed process understanding of tropical soils, leading to substantial uncertainties in model development. There is enough evidence as to why pseudosands are neither sand nor the plain sum of their clay- and siltsized units and should therefore better be defined as an additional soil texture class for which properties have yet to be examined across the tropics.

Keywords: sand, texture, tropical soils, water-stable aggregates