XIEG Holds 57th Salon for Scientific Exchange

The Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully held the 57th Salon for Scientific Exchange on May 8. This event invited Prof. D.A.L. Leelamanie, a visiting scientist at XIEG, as the keynote speaker.

Focusing on soil water repellency (SWR), Prof. D.A.L. Leelamanie elaborated on its origins, Impacts and environmental implications.

She explained the origin of SWR related to the presence of organic matter, highlighting how various forms of organic materials can induce different levels of SWR. She emphasized the effects of specific vegetation types, mainly conifers and other similar species such as eucalyptus and casuarina, with high amounts of waxes and oily substances in their tissues, generally induce high water-repellent conditions in underlying soils. She further explained the negative impacts of SWR such as reduced infiltration rates and increased surface runoff, causing intensified erosion. She also explained the possibilities of using hydrophobic impacts for the benefit of the environment using its positive effects such as improving aggregate stability and carbon retention in soils, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

During the discussion, the participants actively engaged with her on topics such as the relation of organic matter decomposition to SWR, impacts of different vegetation types on the water repellency of different soils, relation of compositional changes in soil organic matter to SWR,.

D. A.L. Leelamanie is a Professor in the Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. Her research is mainly focused on SWR, its behavior to impacts of shifts and extremes in environmental parameters, and soil hydrophysical dynamics in relation to modifications of SWR. She has authored 34 indexed (SCIE) journal papers, and received several meritorious awards.

D.A.L. Leelamanie gives her presentation.(Image by XIEG)

Contact

LONG Huaping

Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography

E-mail: longhp@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Web: http://english.egi.cas.cn