RESUMEN
Spatially explicit, quantitative information on soil hydraulic properties is required in various modelling schemes. At European scale, EU-SoilHydroGrids proved its applicability in a number of studies, in ecological predictions, geological and hydrological hazard assessment, agri-environmental models, among others. Inspired by its continental antecedent, an analogous, but larger scale, national, 3D soil hydraulic database was elaborated for the territory of Hungary (HU-SoilHydroGrids) supported by various improvements (i-iv) in the computation process. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) were built in the form of i) advanced machine learning methods and ensemble models, and trained on the ii) national soil hydrophysical dataset. The set of predictors used in PTFs was supplemented by iii) additional environmental auxiliary variables. Spatial layers of the soil hydraulic parameters were generated using iv) 100 m resolution information on primary soil properties, namely DOSoReMI.hu. HU-SoilHydroGrids provides information on the most frequently required soil hydraulic properties (water content at saturation, field capacity and wilting point, saturated hydraulic conductivity and van Genuchten parameters for the description of the moisture retention curve) with national coverage at 100 m spatial resolution down to 2 m depth for six GSM standard depth layers. The HU-SoilHydroGrids has significantly lower squared error in the case of describing the moisture retention curve and hydraulic conductivity than the EU-SoilHydroGrids. The derived 3D soil hydraulic database (ver1.0) is presently available in National Laboratory for Water Science and Water Safety for project partners in order to test its functional performance in describing hydrological and ecological processes.
RESUMEN
Freshwater lakes in most inhabited areas of the world are threatened by water quality issues. Standard water conservation measures have shown efficiency in the past; however, polluted lakes have only partially recovered from eutrophication. Our knowledge is still incomplete about the sensitivity of these lakes to different anthropogenic sources and to the changes in their internal processes due to global warming. In this article, we present a database comprising sediment data from Lake Balaton (Hungary), which can facilitate further analysis helping to better understand the internal processes and changes occurring in the lake. The published dataset includes the following parameters measured in 4211 lake bed sediment samples: pHKCl, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), organic carbon (Corg), total nitrogen (Ntotal), soluble phosphorus (AL-P2O5) and soluble potassium (AL-K2O), magnesium (Mg2+), zinc (Zn2+), copper (Cu2+) and manganese (Mn2+). We are confident that our database serves as a strong basis for further research relating to freshwater lakes influenced by human activities.
RESUMEN
The most important environmental source of boron (B) contamination is irrigation water. The data on the effect of B on the elemental composition in the edible parts of vegetables are scarce. A greenhouse pot experiment investigated the effect of irrigation water containing 0.1 and 0.5 mg/L B on the biomass, elemental (e.g., B, Mg, K, Fe, Cu, and Zn) composition, and photosynthetic parameters of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), green bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), potato (Solanum tuberosum), and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) plants grown on 10 kg of sand, silty sand, or silty soil. The biomass of the edible part was unaffected by B treatment. The soil type determined the effect of B irrigation on the elemental composition of vegetables. The B content increased by 19% in tomatoes grown on silty soil. The 0.1 mg/L B treatment facilitated tomato fruit ripening on all soils, and the 0.5 mg/L B treatment doubled its chlorophyll content index (CCI) on silty soil. The 0.5 mg/L B treatment negatively affected the nutritional value of green beans on all soils, decreasing the Fe and K contents by an average of 83 and 34%, respectively. The elemental composition of potato was unaffected by the treatments, but the CCI of potato leaves increased in the 0.5 mg/L B treatment by 26%. The B content was increased by 39% in cabbages grown on light-textured soils. In conclusion, B concentration of up to 0.5 mg/L in irrigation water had no significant beneficial or adverse effect on the investigated vegetables, but 0.1 mg/L B treatment could shorten tomato fruit maturation time on B-poor soils. The B levels in vegetables remained suitable for human consumption.