Publications by authors named "Henry Chau"

Article Synopsis
  • This study focuses on maintaining soil health (SH) for sustainable agriculture, especially in light of climate change, by evaluating appropriate soil indicators and methodologies for no-till crop rotations.
  • Researchers assessed soil health in six different crop rotations across three sites in the Canadian prairies, identifying key soil indicators such as soil organic carbon and bulk density that were consistently important.
  • The non-linear weighted additive scoring method was determined to be the most effective for distinguishing between crop rotations' impacts on soil health, with diversified and high-risk rotations showing the best soil functionality in specific locations.
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No tillage (NT) has been proposed as a practice to reduce the adverse effects of tillage on contaminant (e.g., sediment and nutrient) losses to waterways.

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The recent discovery of comammox , a complete ammonia oxidizer, capable of completing the nitrification on their own has presented tremendous challenges to our understanding of the nitrification process. There are two divergent clades of comammox , Clade A and B. However, their population abundance, community structure and role in ammonia and nitrite oxidation are poorly understood.

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Nitrate is among the most widespread contaminants that threaten water bodies and waterways. Under favourable environmental conditions, high nitrate concentrations in water can contribute to eutrophication, thus presenting a high potential for risk to ecosystems and human health. Low-cost allophanic soil material and carbon-based bio-wastes have great potential to reduce nutrient concentrations from contaminated waters.

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Compared to discharge into waterways, land application of treated municipal effluent (TME) can reduce the need for both inorganic fertilizers and irrigation. However, TME irrigation may result in the accumulation of phosphorus (P) or trace elements in soil, and increased salinity and sodicity, which could damage soil structure and reduce infiltration. TME irrigation can also result in groundwater contamination through nitrate leaching or surface water contamination through runoff.

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Mega-sized deep tunnel sewer systems are indispensable infrastructures to convey the sewage and/or stormwater to the centralized sewage treatment works in large cities with dense populations and limited land. The rapid urbanization in China and other countries is boosting the construction of the deep tunnel sewer systems. However, the formation of sulfide, which induces serious odor nuisance and sewer corrosion, has not been investigated in such sewer systems.

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The aim of this study was to develop a cost-effective method for As removal from aqueous systems. To this end, pristine biochar (BC) was impregnated with Fe-Mn oxides and a comparative analysis was conducted on the adsorption capacities of BC, Fe-Mn binary oxide (FMO), and Fe/Mn modified biochar (FMBC). The ferromanganese oxides increased the specific surface areas of BC.

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Reference crop evapotranspiration (ET) is a key parameter in field irrigation scheduling, drought assessment and climate change research. ET uses key prescribed (or fixed or reference) land surface parameters for crops. The linear and nonlinear trends in different climatic variables (CVs) affect ET change.

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Soil water repellency (SWR) has a drastic impact on soil quality resulting in reduced infiltration, increased runoff, increased leaching, reduced plant growth, and increased soil erosion. One of the causes of SWR is hydrophobic fungal structures and exudates that change the soil-water relationship. The objective of this study was to determine whether SWR and infiltration could be manipulated through inoculation with fungi.

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Fungal surface hydrophobicity has many ecological functions and water contact angles measurement is a direct and simple approach for its characterization. The objective of this study was to evaluate if in-vitro growth conditions coupled with versatile image analysis allows for more accurate fungal contact angle measurements. Fungal cultures were grown on agar slide media and contact angles were measured utilizing a modified microscope and digital camera setup.

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