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Bartlett in his laboratory at the University of Vermont

Richmond Jay Bartlett (September 23, 1927 – December 20, 2005) was an American soil scientist and professor. He received his BS degree (Biology) in 1949 and his PhD in 1958 (Soil Chemistry), both from the Ohio State University, in Columbus. He spent the next 40 years at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Upon his retirement in 1997 he was named professor emeritus, a rank he retained until his death in 2005.[1] Bartlett was known for his creative approach to the study of soils and how they function in ecological systems, especially at the molecular and colloidal levels.  He was able to apply scientific concepts to farming and ecology in ways that allowed the practical and theoretical to inform each other.  The focus of his research with his graduate students was on oxidation-reduction chemistry,[2] soil acidity,[3] and soil testing.[4] He became known for this thoughtful summary of the nature of soils:

SOIL, perfect home  for the actual and figurative roots of all life, including green plants, source of oxygen and food; synthesizer of  itself, buffer of pH, pe, and temperature; supplier and recycler of water and carbon, manganese and iron, and all life-essential chemical elements; scavenger of  free radicals, toxicity, and disease, cleanser of ecosystems; and lastly, essence of beauty and comfort from Mother Earth. Walk lightly.[5]

Life

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Early life and education

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Richmond Bartlett was born in 1927 in Columbus, Ohio.  His mother, Cecil Richmond Bartlett was a writer and journalist; his father, Claude Jay Bartlett, was a lawyer. Upon the death of his father at age 50 in 1941, when Rich was 14 and his brother, Jack, was 10, their widowed mother moved the family out of the city to a farm she and Claude had purchased as an investment. They raised cows, pigs, and a variety of crops. He interrupted his university education toward the end of World War II to volunteer for the Army. He spent a year in Japan in the Army of Occupation as a surgical technician and medic.

With his tour of duty in Japan and his university degree completed, he spent several years as a newspaper reporter and technical writer. In 1952 he married Martha Harry of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Bartlett returned to Ohio State to begin his studies in soil chemistry with Professor E.O. McLean.[6] His graduate education with McLean introduced him to emerging ideas surrounding soil pH, acidity, and aluminum in soils as they influence plant growth, and these concepts shaped his later research on soil testing, oxidation-reduction processes, and how soil chemistry is linked to natural waters, agriculture, and environmental quality.[7][8][9]

Professional life

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Upon the completion of his PhD in 1958, Bartlett became an assistant professor in the Department of Agronomy (later Plant and Soil Science) at the University of Vermont. He was promoted to full professor in 1967.[1] His research was in the laboratory and the field, working with his graduate students. During his four-decade career at the University of Vermont, he received numerous awards, including Fellow of three prestigious professional societies: the American Society of Agronomy, the Soil Science Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was named University Scholar by the University of Vermont in 1983–84, an honor bestowed on only a few distinguished professors.

He carried on with research and writing in his post-retirement years, often synthesizing and refining concepts related to his earlier discoveries in soil chemistry.[10][11][12] He died after a long illness in 2005. Following his death, a memorial bench was placed on the University of Vermont campus with a quote from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself.[13]

I bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love; If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.

Research

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Bartlett is best known for research and publications on manganese (Mn),[14] chromium (Cr),[15] and fundamental oxidation-reduction (redox) chemistry in soils.[16]  He was also responsible for the refined character of the Vermont Soil Test using measures of exchangeable aluminum (Al) to predict amounts of lime needed to raise soil pH to desired levels for crop production.[17] This modification of the Vermont Soil Test exemplifies how Bartlett used fundamental soil chemical knowledge of Al and soil pH[18] in a practical application to agriculture.

One of his aphorisms was “We all should fall upon our knees and sing out praise for manganese.” [19] His passion for Mn developed from research with his graduate students that showed its redox reactions were cycles.[5][20][21][22] and that a Mn cycle could oxidize, non-toxic, relatively insoluble Cr(III) to the toxic, soluble Cr(VI).  Coupled to the Cr(III) oxidation reaction by Mn(III,IV) (hydr)oxides is the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) by electron-rich forms of organic matter, iron [Fe(II)], and sulfur (e.g., sulfide, H2S). Bartlett's new thinking and research results on the soil chemistry of Mn significantly refined our understanding of the thermodynamics and reactions of this metal, and his ideas were cited and widely influential in diverse fields of environmental geochemistry, clay mineralogy, soil and water chemistry, and environmental science.[23][24][25]

In the late 1970s while investigating the redox reactions of Cr in soils, Bartlett and his students discovered that this Mn cycle and its links to the Cr cycle were much more active in field-moist soils than in the air-dried, stored soil materials that were routinely studied in soil chemistry laboratories around the world.[26] When he and Bruce James submitted their findings on the redox implications of air-drying soils—dubbed the “soil-dirt hypothesis” to distinguish field-moist from air-dry material used in laboratory research—they received intensely negative reviews. The published paper led to more attention being paid to the myriad soil chemical changes that result from air-drying and rewetting soils in the field and for laboratory research.[27][28][29][30] These publications on air-drying soils and those on electron transfer reactions illustrate how Bartlett as a quiet scientist working in the field and his laboratory had significant effects on future research by in soil chemistry and related fields based on oxidation-reduction processes in soils and natural waters.

References

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  1. ^ a b Magdoff, Fred (2006). "In Memoriam: Rich Bartlett". CSA News. 51 (5): 21. doi:10.1002/j.2325-3584.2006.tb02627.x.
  2. ^ Bartlett, R.J.; James, B.R. (1993). "Redox chemistry of soils". In Sparks, D.S. (ed.). Advances in Agronomy. New York: Academic Press. pp. 151–208.
  3. ^ Ross, D.S.; Bartlett, R.J. (1996). "Field-Extracted Spodosol Solutions and Soils: Aluminum, Organic Carbon, and pH Interrelationships". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 60 (2): 589–596. Bibcode:1996SSASJ..60..589R. doi:10.2136/sssaj1996.03615995006000020036x.
  4. ^ Ross, Donald S.; Bartlett, Richmond J. (1990). "Effects of Extraction Methods and Sample Storage on Properties of Solutions Obtained from Forested Spodosols". Journal of Environmental Quality. 19 (1): 108–113. Bibcode:1990JEnvQ..19..108R. doi:10.2134/jeq1990.00472425001900010015x.
  5. ^ a b Bartlett, R.J.; Ross, D.S. (2005). "Chemistry of redox processes in soils". In Al-Amoodi, L.; Dick, W.A. (eds.). Chemical Processes in Soils. no. 8. Madison, Wisconsin: Soil Science Society of America. pp. 461–487. LCCN 2005924447.
  6. ^ Bartlett, R.J.; McLean, E.O. (1959). "Effect of Potassium and Calcium Activities in Clay Suspensions and Solutions on Plant Uptake". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 23 (4): 285–289. Bibcode:1959SSASJ..23..285B. doi:10.2136/sssaj1959.03615995002300040017x.
  7. ^ McLean, E.O. (1965). "Aluminum". In Norman, A.G. (ed.). Methods of Soil Analysis, part 2, Chemical and Microbiological Properties. no. 9. Madison, Wisconsin: American Society of Agronomy. pp. 978–998. ISBN 9780891183747.
  8. ^ Russell, E.W. (1973). Soil Conditions and Plant Growth. London: Longman. pp. 121–128. ISBN 0582440483.
  9. ^ Stumm, Werner; Morgan, James J. (1996). Aquatic Chemistry: Chemical Equilibria and Rates in Natural Waters. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 425–515. ISBN 0471511846.
  10. ^ Zhang, Hong; Bartlett, Richmond J. (1999). "Light-Induced Oxidation of Aqueous Chromium(III) in the Presence of Iron(III)". Environmental Science and Technology. 33 (4): 588–594. Bibcode:1999EnST...33..588Z. doi:10.1021/es980608w. S2CID 95297345.
  11. ^ Ross, Donald S.; Bartlett, Richmond J. (1997). "Charge fingerprints of forest organic horizons from north-eastern USA". Australian Journal of Soil Research. 35 (3): 553–564. doi:10.1071/S96078.
  12. ^ Ross, Donald S.; Bartlett, Richmond J.; Zhang, Hong (2001). "Photochemically induced formation of the "Al13" tridecameric polycation in the presence of Fe(III) and organic acids". Chemosphere. 44 (4): 827–832. Bibcode:2001Chmsp..44..827R. doi:10.1016/S0045-6535(00)00341-6. PMID 11482675.
  13. ^ Whitman, Walt (1892). "Song of Myself". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  14. ^ Bartlett, R.J. (1988). "Manganese redox reactions and organic interactions in soils". In Graham, R.D.; Hannam, R.J.; Uren, N.C. (eds.). Manganese in Soils and Plants. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publ. pp. 59–73. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-2817-6. ISBN 978-94-010-7768-2. S2CID 32841814.
  15. ^ Bartlett, R.J.; James, B.R. (1988). "Mobility and bioavailability of chromium in soils". In Nriagu, Jerome O.; Nieboer, Evert (eds.). Chromium in Natural and Human Environments. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 267–304. ISBN 0-471-85643-6.
  16. ^ James, B.R.; Bartlett, R.J. (2000). "Redox phenomena". In Sumner, M.E. (ed.). Handbook of Soil Science. Oxfordshire, UK: Taylor & Francis. pp. B169–B194. ISBN 9780849331367.
  17. ^ Bartlett, R.J. (1982). "Reactive aluminum in the Vermont Soil Test". Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. 13 (7): 497–506. Bibcode:1982CSSPA..13..497B. doi:10.1080/00103628209367289.
  18. ^ Russell, E. Walter (1976). Soil Conditions and Plant Growth (10th ed.). London: Longman. pp. 115–128. ISBN 0-582-44048-3.
  19. ^ Small, Philip. "Biochar as a redox dance floor for Mn". Science Forums. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  20. ^ Ross, D.S.; Bartlett, R.J. (1981). "Evidence for nonmicrobial oxidation of manganese in soil". Soil Science. 132 (2): 153–160. Bibcode:1981SoilS.132..153R. doi:10.1097/00010694-198108000-00005. S2CID 95070920.
  21. ^ Bartlett, R.J.; James, B.R. (1979). "Behavior of chromium in soils: III. Oxidation". Journal of Environmental Quality. 8 (1): 31–35. Bibcode:1979JEnvQ...8...31B. doi:10.2134/jeq1979.00472425000800010008x.
  22. ^ Bartlett, R.J. (1981). "Oxidation-reduction status of aerobic soils". In Ryan, J.A.; Volk, V.V.; Baker, D.E. (eds.). Chemistry in the Soil Environment. ASA Special Publications. Madison, Wisconsin: American Society of Agronomy. pp. 77–102. doi:10.2134/asaspecpub40.c5. ISBN 9780891183068.
  23. ^ Essington, Michael E. (2004). "Oxidation-reduction reactions in soils". Soil and Water Chemistry: An Integrative Approach. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC press. pp. 445–472. ISBN 0-8493-1258-2.
  24. ^ Dixon, Joe B.; White, Norman (2002). "Manganese oxides". In Dixon, Joe B.; Schulze, Darrell G. (eds.). Soil Mineralogy with Environmental Applications. Madison, Wisconsin: Soil Science Society of America. pp. 367–388. LCCN 2002100258.
  25. ^ James, Bruce R.; Brose, Dominic A. (2012). "Oxidation-reduction phenomena". In Huang, Pan M.; Li, Yuncong; Sumner, Malcolm E. (eds.). Handbook of Soil Sciences: Properties and Processes (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. pp. 14-1 -- 14-24. ISBN 978-1-4398-0305-9.
  26. ^ Bartlett, R.J.; James, B.R. (1981). "Studying air-dried, stored soil samples -- some pitfalls". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 44 (4): 721–724. doi:10.2136/sssaj1980.03615995004400040011x.
  27. ^ Grassi, Matthew J. (2012). "Field-Moist Soil Testing Makes A Comeback". CropLife. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  28. ^ Kaiser, Michael; Kleber, Markus; Berhe, Asmeret A. (2015). "How air-drying and rewetting modify soil organic matter characteristics: An assessment to improve data interpretation and inference". Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 80: 324–340. Bibcode:2015SBiBi..80..324K. doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.10.018.
  29. ^ Peltovuori, T.; Soinne, H. (2005). "Phosphorus solubility and sorption in frozen, air-dried and field-moist soil". European Journal of Soil Science. 56 (6): 821–826. Bibcode:2005EuJSS..56..821P. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2389.2005.00726.x. S2CID 96965136.
  30. ^ Jones, Andrew J.; Gupta, Vadakattu V.S.R.; Buckley, Scott; Brackin, Richard; Schmidt, Suzanne; Dalal, Ram C. (2019). "Drying and rewetting effects on organic matter mineralisation of contrasting soils after 36 years of storage". Geoderma. 342: 12–19. Bibcode:2019Geode.342...12J. doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.01.053. S2CID 134311446.
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