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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-3473</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Loess Soil Structural Changes Induced by Bio- and Synthetic Polymer Stabilizers: Geoelectrical Insights</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Altzitser</surname>
<given-names>Sonya Sara</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mishael</surname>
<given-names>Yael Golda</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Schwartz</surname>
<given-names>Nimrod</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9350-2047</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Soil and Water Sciences, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>21</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>26</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Sonya Sara Altzitser et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3473/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3473/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3473/egusphere-2026-3473.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3473/egusphere-2026-3473.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>&lt;span&gt;Traditional assessments of soil aggregate stability rely on destructive, ex situ protocols that fail to capture the continuous evolution of soil architecture. This study evaluates the divergent stabilization trajectories induced by chia seed mucilage (CSM) and anionic polyacrylamide (A-PAM) in loess soil over a 20-day incubation. By integrating Spectral Induced Polarization (SIP) with microbial respiration and tracer breakthrough experiments, we track the transition from initial aggregation to long-term structural outcomes. Results demonstrate that CSM-induced stabilization is strictly transient; rapid microbial degradation of the biopolymer results in progressive reversal of the induced structural modifications and a reversion to baseline hydraulic behaviour. In contrast, A-PAM provides persistent physicochemical reinforcement, establishing a dual-porosity regime characterized by immobile water domains and preferential flow pathways. SIP signatures effectively resolved these dynamics: high-frequency shifts in quadrature conductivity (&lt;em&gt;&amp;sigma;&apos;&apos;&amp;thinsp;&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;provided geoelectrical evidence of micro-aggregate formation, while the development of a &apos;conductive reservoir&apos; in in-phase conductivity (&lt;em&gt;&amp;sigma;&apos;&amp;thinsp;&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;identified hydraulically isolated ion accumulation. These findings establish SIP as a high-resolution, non-invasive proxy for monitoring the interplay between biochemical persistence and the mechanical stabilization of soil structure.&lt;/span&gt;</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="26"/></counts>
</article-meta>
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