• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.181-188
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• 2005

Methods used to study carbon sequestration by soil aggregates have often excluded the concentric spatial variability and other dynamic processes that contribute to resource accessibility and solute transport within aggregates. We investigated the spatial gradients of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) from the exterior to interior layers within macroaggregates, $6.3\sim9.5$ mm, sampled from conventional tillage (CT) and no tillage (NT) sites of a Hoytville silt clay loam. Spatial gradients in C accumulation within macroaggregates were related to the differences in C dynamics by determining the sizes and the turnover rates of fast C and slow C pools in the concentric layers of aggregates. Aggregate exteriors contained more labile C and were characterized by greater C mineralization rates than their interiors in both management systems. In contrast, C in the interior layers of aggregates was more resistant in both systems. These results indicated the spatial differentiation of C dynamics within macroaggregates, i.e., exterior layers as a reactive site and interior layers as a protective site. Greater total C distribution in the exterior layers of NT aggregates indicated more influx of C from the macropores in interaggregate space than C. mineralization (net gain of C), whereas lower C distribution within the exterior layers of CT aggregates indicated net loss of C by greater C mineralization than C influx. We found total C increased approximately 1.6-fold by the conversion of CT soils to NT management systems for a period of 36 years. Differences in total accumulation and the spatial distribution of C within aggregates affected by management were attributed to the differences in aggregate stability and pore networks controlling the spatial heterogeneities of resource availability and microbial activity within aggregates.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.133-146
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• 1986

Primary uraninite and secondary uranium minerals such as torbernite, metatorbernite, tyuyamunite, metatyuyamunite, autunite and metaautunite have been identified from various types of uranium ores. Uranium minerals occur as accessory minerals in both the primary and secondary ores. Low·grade uranium ores consist of various kinds of primary and secondary minerals. Major constituent minerals of primary uranium ores are graphite. quartz. Ba-feldspar and sericite/muscovite, and accessories are calcite, chlorite, fluorapatite, barite, diopside, sphene, rutile, biotite, laumontite, heulandite, pyrite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite, and secondary minerals consist of kaolinite, gypsum and goethite. Uraninite grains occur as microscopic very fine-grained anhedral to euhedral disseminated particles in the graphitic matrix, showing well·stratified or zonal distribution of uranium on auto-radiographs of low-grade uranium ores. Some uraninite grains are closely associated with very fine-grained pyrite aggregates, showing an elliptical form parallel to the schistosity. Some uraninite grains include extremely fine-grained pyrite particle. Sphalerite and pyrite are often associated with uraninite in graphite-fluorapatite nodule. The size of uraninite is $2{\mu}m$ to $20{\mu}m$ in diameter. Low-grade uranium ores are classified into 5 types on the basis of geometrical pattern of mineralization. They are massive, banded, nodular, quartz or sulfide veinlet-rich and cavity filling types. Well-developed alternation of uranium-rich and uranium-poor layers, concentric distribution of uranium in graphite-fluorapatite nodule and geopetal fabrics due to the load cast of the nodule suggest that the uranium was originally deposited syngenetically. Uraninite crystals might have been formed from organo-uranium complex during diagenesis and recrystallized by metamorphism. Secondary uranium minerals such as torbernite, tyuyamunite and autunite have been formed by supergene leaching of primary ores and subsequent crystallization in cavities.