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Geology · Studypool

project overview

Post ID: 2936794

Overview

Start thinking about that your research topic will be. Use the Hillel textbook and the web to help you identify a general area. Then start digging into the peer-reviewed literature in this general area to help you narrow down a more specific research topic.

PICK A PROJECT TOPIC. You must pick a research topic related to soils, which you will develop throughout the semester, and which you will both present to the entire class, and write a paper on for me to read. Selecting your soil-related research topic is perhaps the most important part of the semester, because you should select a topic that meets two criteria: (1) you are interested in and/or passionate about, and (2) there is sufficient information on in the peer-reviewed literature. To help you select a soil-related research topic, you should read and consult both the Hillel textbook, and the peer-reviewed literature.

  • Step 1 of your Research Project:
    • First let yourself ENGAGE. Begin to explore and start researching. Use your textbook and web searches to start honing in on a project that interests you. Note, I don’t expect you to understand everything in a peer-reviewed article right now. Particularly, some of the methods and/or equipment used to measure certain parameters. But read the article at least three times, and make a list of things you do not understand! The goal here is to determine whether or not you want to pursue one or more of the questions, topics, and/or technologies discussed in this paper.
    • In Sub-Module 0.B (Peer-Reviewed Journals on Soils), I have provided a list of journals that publish peer-reviewed articles on soils.
    • This is a process of Trial-and-Error. This is the most critical step, and it involves a lot of reading and reflecting. To establish which soil-related topic you want to research you need to read a lot (from the textbook and from the literature). By the end of week 4 (September 22) you must have chosen a general research topic, although your topic will probably become more specific over time.
    • Examples of Criteria that have motivated previous students, or steered them towards their soil-related research topic include:

1) Places that interest you, or that you are from (e.g., volcanic soils in Mexico, Soils in the Nile Valley, soils from arid regions in Australia, forest soils, tundra soils, wetlands).

2) Foods you like that are grown from certain crops (e.g., broccoli, beans, potatoes) that grow best in certain areas with certain soils or climates.

3) Technologies & Measuring Devices (e.g., new technological developments for measuring properties of soils & sediments, groundwater, surface waters, remote sensing, etc.).

4) News stories and historical events (e.g., soil erosion, the “Dust Bowl”, Arsenic contamination in groundwater in Bangladesh, radon contamination in houses in Michigan, negative impacts of road salts on soils, landslides and how to prevent them).

5) Environmental & Contamination issues (e.g., fuel releases, soil contaminated from the “DEW line”, behavior of dioxins, mercury, PCBs, chlorinated solvents in soils, remediation techniques for soil and groundwater, impacts of exploiting the Oil Sands in Alberta for fuel).

6) Geology & Hydrogeology issues (how bedrock controls soil formation, capillary fringe thickness, wilting point of soils, impact of soil profiles on hydraulic conductivity).

  • Common Missteps. Regardless of how much interest you have in a topic, if you cannot find sufficient information in the peer-reviewed literature then you need to revise your approach and/or choose a different topic. Examples include (e.g., “soils on Jupiter”, or “BIOremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils in the Sahara desert”). Remember that you can only use data and information that you gather from the peer-reviewed literature (primary sources). So make sure that you like your topic, but also that there is sufficient information in the literature. You use and reference a minimum of 20 peer-reviewed journal articles in your research area, and a simple literature search should tell you whether there are sufficient sources available in the peer-reviewed literature to support your project. Note, popular sources of information (e.g., “Wikipedia” and other sources on the web that are not primary sources) cannot be used are references in your paper, but are very useful in this Step 1 to help you choose your research topic, because you will get a feel for how much information is out there in your area of interest.
  • Your topic will necessarily become more specific as you read more and become more familiar with the peer-reviewed literature. If your topic is too broad, your conclusions will be banal. For example, the topic that first takes your fancy might be “Volcanic soils”. But you will easily find thousands of articles on this, so you must narrow your focus. If your interest drives you towards the crops best grown on volcanic soils, you will need to focus on why volcanic soils are fertile, and what crops are best grown on them. If your interest tends towards changes in soils over time, you may focus on how the chemistry of volcanic soils change and soil profiles form, over what time frame, and how this affects crop yields. You could end up discussing soil erosion in volcanic soils, because many volcanic soils are in mountainous areas that have high slopes and are therefore quite susceptible to erosion. So possible paper titles could be “nutrients in volcanic soils that form from recent volcanic eruptions”…..or….. “Erosion of volcanic soils in the Paisa region of Columbia”…..or……. “the effect of ph changes in volcanic soils over time on the yield of grapes”.
  • Read abstracts first!! Although secondary (not peer-reviewed) sources cannot be used as references in your reports, the internet gives you get access to abstracts of peer-reviewed articles. Abstracts summarize the work done and the conclusions made. Like the expression that goes “you cannot judge a book by the cover” it is also true that you cannot always judge the relevance of a peer-reviewed article to your research solely from its title. BUT, you can access and read the abstracts for all peer-reviewed journals online. Reading the abstract (normally less than 300 words) allows you to evaluate the relevance and applicability of a peer-reviewed source before you go to the trouble of downloading/procuring and reading the entire article. Looking at abstracts first will help you winnow out articles that may appear to be relevant from the title, but in fact do not help you much with your research. To get a free PDF of most of these abstracts you will need to go through the WMU Library services.