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Title: BIBLIOGRAPHY ON APPLICATIONS OF FRACTALS IN SOIL SCIENCE

Author
item Pachepsky, Yakov
item GIMENEZ, DANIEL - RUTGERS UNIV, NJ
item RAWLS, WALTER

Submitted to: Fractals In Soil Science
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2000
Publication Date: 5/1/2000
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Soil structure is irregular and rugged. Therefore, traditional geometry of straight lines and arcs is not well suited in measurements in soils. Recently, mathematics came up with a new, fractal geometry tailored to measure rugged objects. The application of fractal geometry in soil science is a fast developing field as demonstrated by the exponential growth in the enumber of publications. A single reliable source of bibliographic information on these publications is currently absent. Our objective was to provide such a bibliography as a special chapter in the book on fractals in soils science. The unique bibliography is compiled from references to 355 papers in peer-review journals and book chapters in five languages, and covers 20 years of successful applications of fractal geometry in soil science. It will serve as an indispensable source of bibliographic information for research scientists and students working on applications of ffractal geometry to natural resources, and, first of all, soils.

Technical Abstract: Fractal geometry appeared not more than 30 years ago and gained enormous popularity and attention in science. The application of fractal models in soil science is a new fast developing field as demonstrated by the exponential growth in the number of publications. A single reliable source of bibliographic information on these publications is currently absent. Our robjective was to provide such a bibliography as a special chapter in the book on fractals in soils science. The unique bibliography is compiled from references to 355 papers in peer-review journals and book chapters in five languages, and covers 20 years of successful applications of fractal geometry in soil science. Research papers are referenced that demonstrate fractal scaling in soil properties and parameters, such as aggregate bulk density, number-size distributions for pores, aggregates, macropores, and cracks, pore surface area, water flow patterns, architecture of plant roots, mycelium patterns, soil fauna pathways, distribution of the biomass of soil fauna, soil surface roughness, particle size distributions, surfaces of clay minerals, surface and mass of humic substances, volume of solid particles, pore connectivity, and pathways of solute particles. Publications are presented on using fractal geometry to model soil properties, such as hydraulic properties, mechanical properties, erodibility, spatial variability, soil-landscape-vegetation relations. Articles are referenced on employing fractal geometry to simulate modeling soil processes, such as fragmentation, aggregation, preferential flow, solute transport, water transport, microbial transport, gas transport, dissolution of soil minerals, adsorption, movement of soil organisms, and root growth.