The experiments were carried out to study the characteristics of biochar made from rice husk and its potential as a soil amendment in acid soils. Biochar was produced by pyrolysis; after which it was applied as a soil amendment. The soil was incubated for 30 days, and then it was planted with rice. For comparison, soil was applied with: rice straw, rice husk, rice husk ash, Chromolaena odorata biomass, and no soil amendment. The characteristics of biochar were: water content 4.96%, pH 8.70, C 18.72%, P 0.12%, CEC 17.57cmol kg -1 , K 0.20%, Ca 0.41%, Mg 0.62%, and Na 1.40%. Application of biochar decreased soil bulk density, soil strength, exchangeable Al, and soluble Fe and increased porosity, available soil water content, C-organic, soil pH, available P, CEC, exchangeable K, and Ca. Out of these improvements, only soil carbon, phosphorus, exchangeable Al, soluble Fe, and soil strength significantly influenced rice biomass.

Summary Soil friability is defined and a method for its measurement is developed from the theory of brittle fracture of soil aggregates. The variation in friability with soil water content is in good agreement with the results of tillage experiments done by earlier workers. It is found that Urrbrae and Strathalbyn sandy loams are most friable at water contents approximately equal to their Casagrande Plastic Limits. The method is applied to study the effects of wetting and drying cycles, freezing and thawing cycles, and phosphoric acid treatment on the friability of the Urrbrae soil. It is found that all of these treatments increase soil friability as defined.

Indonesian artisanal and small-scale gold mining activities (ASGM) have been described for the islands of Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sulawesi. But the increased gold price over recent years has seen operations extend to the islands of Lombok and Sumbawa. For the current research, an environmental assessment was conducted across three new ASGM locations. Gold is recovered by miners through a two-stage process of whole-ore amalgamation and cyanidation. Waste (tailings) is discharged to land or sea with no concern for contaminants in the tailings. The gold grade of ore is up to 5000 mg kg(-1). The mean gold grade of the amalgamation tailings is 7 mg kg(-1), dropping to 1.2 mg kg(-1) for the cyanidation tailings. The mean mercury concentration of the amalgamation tailings is about 3000 mg kg(-1) and greater than 1600 mg kg(-1) for the cyanidation tailings. Samples of paddy rice grain collected adjacent to cyanidation tailings ponds showed methyl mercury concentrations greater than 100 ng g(-1). This is five times above the Chinese permissible level for total mercury in food crops. The mean total mercury concentration in hair of Lombok ASGM workers was greater than that in a non-exposed population; however there was no difference in methyl mercury concentration. This indicates the primary pathway of mercury exposure is inhalation of volatile mercury in the atmosphere. Future exposure may come from ingestion of methyl mercury contaminated rice where discharge of cyanide tailings to paddies continues. To protect the environment and to enhance the sustainability of ASGM, appropriate tailings management must be implemented. The gold grade of the tailings indicates that the residual value might be recoverable with appropriate technology. Ongoing research is investigating systems such as phytoextraction that might assist ASGM operators in Lombok and Sumbawa to improve their environmental performance.

Wetting and drying of remoulded soil resulted in water stable aggregation. The greatest proportions of water stable aggregates arose from wetting and drying in the -1 to -100 kPa range of matric water potential. The effect occurred with sterile and non-sterile soil. but the proportion ofwater stable aggregates was less with sterile soil.The application of wetting and drying cycles in the laboratory to non-tilled soil resulted in a steady decrease in the proportion of water stable aggregates. With tilled soil, the proportion of water stable aggregates first increased to a maximum and then decreased steadily with further wetting and drying cycles. However. with sterilized, tilled soil, only a steady decrease in the proportion of water stable aggregates was observed.Natural water content fluctuations in the field after tillage gave an increase in water stability to a maximum after a few days followed by a steady decrease. The similarity of this result to that obtained in the laboratory for tilled. non-sterilized soil indicates that micro-organisms were probably contributing to the observed shortterm changes in the water stability ofaggregates in the field.