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From 1996 to 1999, an European project called WELSONS was led to better understand the impacts of changes in climate and land-use on soil degradation by wind erosion for agricultural soils in a semiarid region of north-east Spain (Central Aragon). This paper presents the main results obtained from the measurement activities of the WELSONS project aimed to generate an original data base to study wind erosion processes. The first objective was to evaluate the effects of climate and anthropogenic processes on surface characteristics of agricultural soils. During the whole WELSONS experiment, a physical dynamics characterization of the soil surface and of the atmosphere near the ground were determined for each field plot studied. Results from the characterisation of soil surface shows that reduced tillage (RT) lower soil erodibility by wind compared to conventional tillage (CT).Soil crusting, which is a common feature of soils in the area, can also be considered as a protecting element against wind erosion. The second objective was to study the mobilisation processes of soil-particles into the saltation layer. Strong and erosive Cierzo winds occurred frequently in the area of the experimental field, but because a soil surface crust was present, only a limited supply of material was available for wind erosion. However, a measured saltation transport flux could be obtained for each sampled period from the measurement of the mass of saltating particles transported during each erosion event. The third objective was to assess the atmospheric emission of fine dust into the suspension layer. Significant vertical dust flux of PM20 was observed only in the CT plot because, as the erosion events are supply-limited, a lower amount of material lying on the crust was transported by the wind and sandblasted to provide suspended dust. Finally, the sandblasting efficiency calculated in the present experiment could be interpreted as the result of a higher binding energy for silt loam soil particles compared to sandy loam, loamy sand and sandy textured soils.

Under semiarid conditions, soil quality and productivity can be improved by enhancing soil organic matter (SOM) content by means of alternative management practices. In this study we evaluated the feasibility of no-tillage (NT) and cropping intensification as alternative soil practices to increase soil organic carbon (SOC). At the same time, we studied the influence of these management practices on two SOC fractions (particulate organic matter carbon, POM-C, and the mineral associated carbon, Min-C), in semiarid agroecosystems of the Ebro river valley. Soil samples were collected at five soil layers (0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40 cm depth) during July 2005 at three long-term tillage experiments located at different sites of the Ebro valley river (NE Spain). Soil bulk density, SOC concentration and content, SOC stratification ration, POM-C and Min-C were measured. Higher soil bulk density was observed under NT than under reduced tillage (RT), subsoil tillage (ST) and conventional tillage (CT). At soil surface (0-5 cm depth), the highest total SOC concentration, POM-C and Min-C was measured under NT, followed by RT, ST and CT, respectively. However, in the whole soil profile (0-40 cm) similar o slightly greater SOC content was measured under NT than under CT with the exception of the SV site where deep subsoil tillage compared with moldboard plowing accumulated more SOC than NT. In semiarid Mediterranean agroecosystems where CT consisted in moldboard plowing, NT is a viable management practices to increase SOC.

In semi-arid Mediterranean areas, studies of the performance of conservation tillage systems have largely demonstrated advantages in crop yield, soil water storage and soil protection against wind and water erosion. However, little attention has been given to interactions between soil biochemical properties under different tillage practices. Biochemical properties are useful tools to assess changes caused by different soil tillage systems in long-term field experiments.This study deals with the effect of long-term tillage practices (reduced tillage and no tillage vs. Conservation tillage has proven to be an effective strategy to improve soil quality and fertility in Mediterranean areas of Spain.

Despite promising results in the use of anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) Abs for cancer therapy, several issues remain to be addressed. An increasing emphasis is being placed on immune effector mechanisms. It has become clear for other Abs directed to tumor targets that their effects involve the adaptive immunity, mainly by the contribution of Fc region-mediated mechanisms. Given the relevance of EGFR signaling for tumor biology, we wonder whether the oncogene inhibition could contribute to Ab-induced vaccine effect. In a mouse model in which 7A7 (an anti-murine EGFR Ab) and AG1478 (an EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor) displayed potent antimetastatic activities, depletion experiments revealed that only in the case of the Ab, the effect was dependent on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Correspondingly, 7A7 administration elicited a remarkable tumor-specific CTL response in hosts. Importantly, experiments using 7A7 F(ab′)2 suggested that in vivo Ab-mediated EGFR blockade may play an important role in the linkage with adaptive immunity. Addressing the possible mechanism involved in this effect, we found quantitative and qualitative differences between 7A7 and AG1478-induced apoptosis. EGFR blocking by 7A7 not only prompted a higher proapoptotic effect on tumor metastases compared with AG1478, but also was able to induce apoptosis with immunogenic potential in an Fc-independent manner. As expected, 7A7 but not AG1478 stimulated exposure of danger signals on tumor cells. Subcutaneous injection of 7A7-treated tumor cells induced an antitumor immune response. This is the first report, to our knowledge, of a tumor-specific CTL response generated by Ab-mediated EGFR inhibition, suggesting an important contribution of immunogenic apoptosis to this effect.

In semiarid agroecosystems of the Ebro valley (NE Spain) soils are characterized by low soil organic matter (SOM) and a weak structure. In this study we investigated the individual and combined effect of tillage system (no‐tillage, NT; reduced tillage, RT; conventional tillage, CT) and cropping system (barley–fallow rotation at the Peñaflor site, PN‐BF and continuous barley at the Peñaflor site, PN‐BB) on soil organic carbon (SOC) storage as well as the physical protection of SOM fractions by soil aggregates in three long‐term experimental sites. In both cropping systems, total SOC content was more than 30% higher in NT compared with CT in the 0‐ to 5‐cm depth. The suppression of fallowing in the PN‐BB cropping system led to a greater SOC stabilization only in NT. In all the three sites, greater proportion of water‐stable macroaggregates (>250 μm) was found under NT than under CT in the 0‐ to 5‐cm depth. Macroaggregate organic C concentration (250–2000 μm) was greater in NT compared with CT in the BB cropping system, but did not differ with tillage treatment in the PN‐BF rotation. Greater proportion of microaggregates within macroaggregates in NT compared with CT was only found in the Agramunt site (AG). However, greater C stabilized inside these microaggregates was observed in AG, Selvanera site (SV), and PN‐BB in the 0‐ to 5‐cm depth. The results of this study demonstrate that in the semiarid Mediterranean agroecosystems of the Ebro valley, the adoption of NT together with the suppression of long‐fallowing period can significantly increase the amount of SOC stabilized in the soil surface and improve soil structure and aggregation.

Abstract. In this paper, we present and analyze a novel global database of soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG) database. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and the USA. In addition to its extensive geographical coverage, the collected infiltration curves cover research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use was gathered along with the infiltration data, making the database valuable for the development of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil hydraulic properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information (clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration measurements (∼ 76%) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on land use is available for 76 % of the experimental sites with agricultural land use as the dominant type (∼ 40%). We are convinced that the SWIG database will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and related soil characteristics are provided online in *.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the database is for public domain use only and can be copied freely by referencing it. Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885492 (Rahmati et al., 2018). Data quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database. Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend and update the SWIG database by uploading new data to it.

The wind-erodible fraction of the soil (EF) (percentage of aggregates b 0.84 mm in diameter) is a key parameter to estimate the soil susceptibility to wind erosion. The standard method for EF determination is the dry sieving by means of a rotary sieve. Flat sieving with a set of sieves and the use of the equation EF = (29.09 + 0.31 sand + 0.17 silt + 0.33 sand/clay -2.59 organic matter -0.95 CaCO 3 ) / 100, R 2 = 0.67, [Fryrear, D.W., Krammes, C.A., Williamson, D.L., Zobeck, T.M., 1994. Computing the wind erodible fraction of soils. J. Soil Water Conserv. 49: 183-188] are two alternative ways of determining EF. As the flat sieving has still not been contrasted against the standard rotary sieve method nor the Fryrear et al. equation tested for soils other than US soils, we estimated EF with both dry sieving methods and tested the equation for soils of semiarid regions of Central Aragon (NE Spain) and the Semiarid Pampas (centre of Argentina), two regions prone to wind erosion. Results showed that EF values obtained with the flat sieve were comparable with those obtained using the standard rotary sieve, indicating that the flat sieving technique is suitable for EF determinations. The estimation of EF with the model proposed by Fryrear et al. [Fryrear, D.W., Krammes, C.A., Williamson, D.L., Zobeck, T.M., 1994. Computing the wind erodible fraction of soils. J. did not fit with the measured EF values, indicating that this model is not useful for predicting EF in Spanish and Argentinian soils. This was attributed to the high CaCO 3 contents of Spanish soils and the low sand/clay ratios and high organic matter contents of some Argentinean soils. The equation EF = 9.98 + 6.91 sand/clay + 14.1/organic matter (r = 0.933; P b 0.001) was proposed to predict EF in the studied soils.