New approach to soil management focusing on soil health and air quality: one earth one life (critical review)

Soil plays a key role in ecosphere and air quality regulation. Obsolete environmental technologies lead to soil quality loss, air, water, and land systems pollution. Pedosphere and plants are intertwined with the air quality. Ionized O2 is capable to intensify atmosphere turbulence, providing particulate matter (PM2.5) coalescence and dry deposition. Addressing environmental quality, a Biogeosystem Technique (BGT*) heuristic transcendental (nonstandard and not direct imitation of nature) methodology has been developed. A BGT* main focus is an enrichment of Earth's biogeochemical cycles through land use and air cleaning. An intra-soil processing, which provides the soil multilevel architecture, is one of the BGT* ingredients. A next BGT* implementation is intra-soil pulse continuously discrete watering for optimal soil water regime and freshwater saving up to 10-20 times. The BGT* comprises intra-soil dispersed environmentally safe recycling of the PM sediments, heavy metals (HMs) and other pollutants, controlling biofilm-mediated microbial community interactions in the soil. This provides abundant biogeochemical cycle formation and better functioning of the humic substances, biological preparation, and microbial biofilms as a soil-biological starter, ensuring priority plants and trees nutrition, growth and resistance to phytopathogens. A higher underground and aboveground soil biological product increases a reversible C biological sequestration from the atmosphere. An additional light O2 ions photosynthetic production ensures a PM2.5 and PM0.1 coalescence and strengthens an intra-soil transformation of PM sediments into nutrients and improves atmosphere quality. The BGT* provides PM and HMs intra-soil passivation, increases soil biological productivity, stabilizes a climate system of the earth and promotes a green circular economy.

Recovery of hydrogel from baby diaper wastes and its application for enhancing soil irrigation management

Improving irrigation management by using hydrogels is an advanced approach for maximizing agricultural land productivity. This experimental study demonstrated the technical feasibility of utilizing superabsorbent polymer recovered from waste baby diapers for increasing water retention in soil and improving irrigation management. After separation, recovery and cleaning of the recycled hydrogel, experimental parametric study was performed. It investigated the swelling capacity and kinetics, de-swelling behavior, and the effects of temperature, salt concentration, and pH on the performance of recycled hydrogel. Red clay soil modified with the recovered hydrogel was used to investigate water retention ability in soil. The swelling capacity increases with time, until it approaches an equilibrium state within about 100 min. At normal conditions, the equilibrium swelling capacity achieves an equilibrium value of 235 g water/g hydrogel. The swelling capacity increases with temperature, while it decreases with increasing pH or salt concentration. The addition of the recycled hydrogel to soil decreases water loss by infiltration and enhances irrigation management and plant growth.