Soil science
Sh. Shahmansouri; M.R. Mosaddeghi; H. Shariatmadari
Abstract
IntroductionMonitoring the changes in physical and hydraulic properties and stability of growth media due to root growth effects and wetting and drying cycles is important. Wetting and drying cycles can probably change physical characteristics, availability of water, air and nutrients for the plant and, ...
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IntroductionMonitoring the changes in physical and hydraulic properties and stability of growth media due to root growth effects and wetting and drying cycles is important. Wetting and drying cycles can probably change physical characteristics, availability of water, air and nutrients for the plant and, as a result, might affect the growth and yield of the greenhouse plants. The growth period greatly affects the physical characteristics of the growth substrates; therefore, the watering of growth substrates should be managed according to these changes to avoid improper irrigation.Materials and MethodsIn this study, 14 growth media were prepared from individual substrates with different volumetric ratios. In order to evaluate the changes of growth media over the time (i.e., during consecutive irrigation events) in the greenhouse, 10 wetting and drying cycles were applied on the growth media in the lab. Several physical indicators including easily available water (EAW), air after irrigation (AIR), water buffering capacity (WBC) and water holding capacity (WHC) of the growth media were determined before and after the wetting and drying cycles. Besides, the subsidence, decrease of mass and decomposition of the growth media were determined over the time. Total porosity (TP), bulk density (BD), particle density (PD), pH and electrical conductivity of the mixtures were measured as well.Results and DiscussionThe pH values in the growth media varied from 5.72 to 6.94. The maximum pH value was related to sawdust- sugarcane bagasse biochar produced at 300◦C vermiculite-zeolite, and wheat straw-vermiculite substrates, and the minimum value was related to the cocopeat-perlite substrate. The values of EC in the growth media varied from 0.21 to 1.43 dS m-1. The highest and lowest EC values among the growth substrates were related to date palm bunches-vermiculite-rockwool and rockwool (0.2)-perlite substrates, respectively. The bulk density (BD) values of the growth media varied in the range of 0.163-0.401 Mg m-3. The values of total porosity (TP) of the growth media varied in the range of 64.8-82.8%v/v. The highest TP was related to the cocopeat-perlite substrate. The TP values of most of the substrates were greater than 70%v/v. The average values of EAW in the growth substrates ranged from 0.123 to 0.272 cm3 cm-3. The highest EAW was related to the sawdust-sawdust biochar produced at 500 ◦C vermiculite-zeolite substrate. The application of wetting and drying cycles increased EAW in most of the growth media. Therefore, it can be stated that the time had a positive effect on the EAW in most of the growth media. The average values of AIR before and after the application of wetting and drying cycles for the growth media varied in the range of 0.063-0.240 cm-3 cm3. The highest value of this indicator was observed in the sawdust-date palm bunches biochar produced at 300◦C vermiculite substrate. In all substrates (with the exception of the sawdust-sawdust biochar produced at 500◦C vermiculite-zeolite), the AIR increased after wetting and drying cycles. The range of WHC values before and after applying wetting and drying cycles was 0.453-0.699 cm3 cm-3. The highest WHC belonged to the wheat straw-vermiculite substrate. The WHC values of five growth media, including cocopeat-perlite, decreased due to the application of wetting and drying cycles, and the WHC values of nine growth media decreased. The most stable substrate after the wetting and drying cycles was rockwool-sawdust-vermiculite. The effect of time on the quantity of WBC was positive, so that with the application of wetting and drying cycles, the WBC values of most of the substrates increased. In all substrates, subsidence and dry weight reduction were observed after the wetting and drying cycles. These changes were low for the substrates with a high volumetric ratio of inorganic materials. The least change among the growth substrates in terms of decomposition (dry weight reduction) was related to the completely inorganic substrate rockwool (0.1)-perlite (%0.17). The most stable substrate in terms of subsidence after wetting and drying cycles was the rockwool-sawdust-vermiculite, which has a large volumetric ratio of individual inorganic substrates. The highest subsidence was observed in the substrates containing wheat straw (wheat straw-vermiculite and date palm bunches biochar produced at 300◦C wheat straw-vermiculite). The organic matter content in all the growth substrates decreased over time (after wetting and drying cycles). The decrease of organic matter in the substrates can be related to the decomposition of organic materials as a result of wetting and drying cycles.ConclusionThe BD, TP, EAW and WHC of the majority of growth media were in the optimal ranges and for some mixtures even better than cocopeat-perlite. Wetting and drying cycles could affect the growth media through several processes such as decomposition of organic compounds, displacement and rearrangement of particles, fragmentation of particles, shrinkage, hardening and subsidence. The growth media with a high percent of organic substrates were unstable as compared with those containing a high proportion of inorganic substrates. In general, the wetting and drying cycles increased the frequency of micropores in the growth media. The wetting and drying cycles positively affected EAW, WHC, AIR and WBC of most growth media. These findings imply that wetting and drying cycles may improve the growth media according to the studied extensive variables. However, it is necessary to study the intensive variables such as hydraulic conductivity, oxygen diffusion and pore tortuosity in the growth media for better evaluation of the impact of wetting and drying cycles as well.
Soil science
A. Nosrati Miandoab; H. Emami; A. Astaraei; M.R. Mosadeghi; H. Asgarzadeh
Abstract
IntroductionSoil salinity has a negative effect on physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. Salinity also affects the relationships between soil and plants, which in turn has a significant effect on plant growth. One of the solutions used to reduce the effects of salinity and improve the ...
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IntroductionSoil salinity has a negative effect on physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. Salinity also affects the relationships between soil and plants, which in turn has a significant effect on plant growth. One of the solutions used to reduce the effects of salinity and improve the physical properties of the soil is application of organic and chemical conditioners. Organic matter as well as calcium improve the structure and physical condition of the soil. Conditioners in saline soils include soluble calcium salts such as gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O), calcium chloride (CaCl2.2H2O) and phosphogypsum (phosphorous gypsum), and acids such as sulfuric acid, sulfur, pyrite, Aluminum sulfate and sulfur lime (calcium polysulfide). Strategies aimed at evaluating and ameliorating the structural quality of soils should be developed to ensure the sustainable use of lands. The least limiting water range (LLWR) attempts to incorporate crop-limiting values of soil strength, aeration, and water supply to plant roots into one effective parameter (on the basis of soil water content). The LLWR can be a useful indicator of soil quality and soil physical constraints on crop production. Therefore, the objective of this research was to study the effects of organic and inorganic conditioners on some structural and hydraulic indices of saline sodic soils.Material and MethodsIn this study, the effect of two types of organic and chemical conditioners and the simultaneous application of them on modifying the physical properties of 5 saline soils around the lake of Urmia were investigated. Treatments included algae, salfit and algae+salfit. The soil samples were transferred to culture boxes (40 × 40 × 40) according to the bulk density of the sampling site. The soil samples were wetted and dried several times. Conditioners treatments including application of calcium and organic compounds. After reaching the field capacity, wheat seeds were sown and irrigated with water (electrical conductivity 0.28 dS/m and pH= 7.78). It should be noted that irrigation was done at intervals of 8 days. Two months after the beginning the experiment, irrigation was stopped and soil moisture was allowed to reach a permanent wilting point. At this stage, undisturbed soil samples were prepared from the treated soil of each box and the mean weight‐diameter of dry (MWDdry) and wet (MWDwet) aggregates were measured. Then the values of least limiting water range in two suctions of 330 and 100 cm and water integral capacity of samples were measured.Results and DiscussionAccording to the initial analysis, all soils used were saline and the amount of calcium carbonate was high in two soils (number 3 and 5). Soil organic carbon content was also low. The results of salfit analysis also showed that the dissolved calcium and sulfur content were 8 and 3.9%, respectively. The results showed that soil 1 had the highest amount of MWDwet and soil 5 had the lowest amount of MWDwet. The highest and lowest aggregate stability values were obtained in soils 3 and 5, respectively, where soil 5 was very saline soil. The studied soils differed in terms of soil water relations. The highest amount of LLWR330 was found in soil 5, while the lowest amount of LLWR100 and IWC parameters was also obtained in same soil. The results of this study showed that salfit treatment caused the highest increase in aggregate stability (74.9%) LLWR330 (14.5%) and integral water capacity (26.2%) compared to the control and the highest mean weight‐diameter of aggregates in both wet and dry conditions was obtained in salfit-algae treatment (52.4% and 40.4% increase, respectively). The results of correlation analysis among the measured parameters showed that the highest correlation was found between aggregate stability and MWDwet. Among the measured parameters, aggregate stability had the highest correlation with other parameters and the correlation of this parameter with LLWR330, LLWR100, IWC and MWDwet were 0.36, 55, 75 and 88 %, respectively. Soil water integral capacity also had a significant correlation (p < 0.01) with LLWR330 (0.84) and MWDwet (0.7).ConclusionThe effect of initial soil properties on studied parameters was significant and the use of conditioners improved studied parameters, and use of conditioners increased indices structural and hydraulic of saline soils. In general, the results of this study showed the positive effect of conditioners on physical properties of the studied soils, in which salfit and salfit-algae have a better effect on studied parameter, and they could be useful to improve soil physical condition. It seems that the application of different rates of conditioners as well as their interaction with each other should be considered according to the basic properties of the soil.
rouhollaah vafaeezadeh; shamsollah Ayoubi; mohamamdreza mosaddeghi; maryam yousefifard
Abstract
Introduction: Land use changes are the most reasons which affect natural ecosystem protection. Forest soils have high organic matter and suitable structure, but their land use management change usually affects soil properties and decreases soil quality. There are several outcomes of such land use changes ...
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Introduction: Land use changes are the most reasons which affect natural ecosystem protection. Forest soils have high organic matter and suitable structure, but their land use management change usually affects soil properties and decreases soil quality. There are several outcomes of such land use changes and intensification: accelerated soil erosion and decline of soil nutrient conditions, change of hydrological regimes and sedimentation and loss of primary forests and their biodiversity. Establishing effects of land use and land cover changes on soil properties have implications for devising management strategies for sustainable use. Forest land use change in Yasouj caused soil losses and decreased soil quality. The objectives of this study were to assess some soil physical and chemical properties and soil magnetic susceptibility changes in different land uses and slope position.
Materials and Methods: Soil samples were taken from natural forest, degraded forest and dryland farm from different slops (0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 percent) in sout east of Yasouj. They were from 0–10 cm depth in a completely randomized design with five replications. Soil moisture and temperature regimes in the study area are xeric and mesic, respectively. Particle size distribution was determined by the hydrometer method and soil organic matter, CaCO3 equivalent and bulk density was determined using standard procedures described in Methods of Soil Analysis book. Magnetic susceptibility was measured at low and high frequency of 0.46 kHz (χlf) and 4.6 kHz (χHf) respectively with a Bartington MS2D meter using approximately 20 g of soil held in a four-dram clear plastic vial. Frequency dependent susceptibility (χfd) is expressed as the difference between the high and the low frequency measurements as a percentage of χ at low frequency.
Results and Discussion: Soil texture was affected by land use change from silty clay loam in forest to silty loam in dry land farm. Declining of organic matter and aggregate stability caused soil surface loss by erosion. The bulk density increased from 1.12 to 1.54 gcm-3 when forest changed to dry land farms. Soil compaction by tillage and lower amount of organic matter in farm lands are some of the reasons for increasing bulk density. Another possible reason could be decreasing of biological activity and parent material with greater calcite mixed with soil surface layer during land use change. Thus, the maximum and minimum amount of calcite was observed in dry land farm in 20-30 % slopes (57.46 %) and forest in 0-10 % slopes (13.37 %), respectively. In addition during soil formation calcite was translocated to lower horizons in natural forest. The greatest organic matter was 7.45 % and related to natural forest in 0-10 % slopes. Overall, the organic matter content was greater in all forest slopes than all other land use. In mineral soil, total organic carbon is not a proper factor in soil physical behavior. Complex and noncomplex organic carbon influence the soil physical behavior. Organic carbon in degraded forest and dry land farming was in complex form but in forest land use it was observed in two complex and noncomplex forms. Noncomplex organic matter was 53% and complex organic matter was 47%. It means that forest soil have better quality than degraded forest and dry land farm, respectively. Sedimentary rocks have rather low concentration of magnetic minerals with magnetic susceptibility from 0.1 (10-8 m3 kg-1) in the limestone to approximately 20 (10-8 m3 kg-1) in the siltstone. Low magnetite susceptibility in natural forest was more than degraded forest and dry land farm. Mean magnetite susceptibility values were 61.8, 48.6 and 42.4 10-8 m-3 kg-1, respectively which probably related to magnetic minerals formation during pedogenesis. Frequency magnetite susceptibility (χfd) was more than 3% in the most soils, significantly in forest soil (from 4.63-5 percent). Greater frequency magnetite susceptibility (χfd) values are suggested to be indicative of the dominance of super-paramagnetic grains and fiug single domain particles. χfd in soils reflects significant pedogenic magnetic minerals which formed during soil formation from calcitic parent materials.
shamsollah Ayoubi; Mohammad Reza Mosaddeghi
Abstract
Soil surface shear strength is an important parameter for prediction of soil erosion, but its direct measurement is difficult, time-consuming and costly in the watershed scale. This study was done to predict soil surface shear strength using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and multiple linear regression ...
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Soil surface shear strength is an important parameter for prediction of soil erosion, but its direct measurement is difficult, time-consuming and costly in the watershed scale. This study was done to predict soil surface shear strength using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and multiple linear regression (MLR) and to rank the most important soil and environmental attributes affecting the shear strength. A direct shear box was designed and constructed to measure in situ soil surface shear strength. The device can determine two soil shear strength parameters i.e. cohesion (c) and angle of internal friction (φ). The study area (3500 km2) was located in Semirom region, Isfahan province. Soil surface shear strength was determined using the shear box at 100 locations. Soil samples were also collected from 0-5 cm layer of the same 100 locations at which the surface shear strength was measured using the shear box. Particle size distribution, fine clay content, organic matter content (OM), carbonate content, bulk density and gravel content were determined on the collected soil samples. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the type of land use and geology were also determined. The MLR and ANNs were used to model/predict soil surface shear strength (c and φ). In order to compare the modeling methods, coefficient of determination and root mean square errors were used as efficacy indices. The results showed that ANN models were more feasible in predicting soil shear strength parameters than MLR models due to capability of ANN models in deriving nonlinear and complex relations between the parameters. Results of sensitivity analysis for ANN models indicated that NDVI, bulk density and fine clay content are more effective parameters in predicting c in the studied region. Also it was found that sand content, bulk density and NDVI were more effective parameters and OM/clay ratio and organic matter content were less effective parameters in predicting φ in the region.
H.R. Samaei; A. Golchin; Mohammad Reza Mosaddeghi; Sh. Ahmadi
Abstract
Organic matter improves soil structure and any factor that decreases soil organic matter content causes soils structural instability. In soils with low organic matter content, soluble polymers can be used to increase the soil structural stability. In order to study the effects of polymer type and concentration ...
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Organic matter improves soil structure and any factor that decreases soil organic matter content causes soils structural instability. In soils with low organic matter content, soluble polymers can be used to increase the soil structural stability. In order to study the effects of polymer type and concentration on physical properties of soils with different texture, factorial experiment ..was ..conducted.. within ..completely ..randomized design ..with ..three replication. Three types of polymer (R790, TC108 and NC218) and three polymer concentration (1:1, 1:3 and 1:10 V/V polymer: water) were used in factorial combinations. Samples from soils with different texture were sprayed with different concentrations of the polymers and physical properties of polymer- treated soil samples were measured and compared with the control. Polymers application significantly enhanced the physical conditions of the soils. It increased the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity and dry and wet structural stabilities of the polymer-treated samples when compared with the control. The application of polymers decreased the dispersible clay and soil density of the polymer-treated soil samples. Increase of the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity and structural stability of the polymer-treated samples was greater for high polymer concentrations. The TC108 and R790 polymers were more effective than the NC218 polymer in improving the physical properties of the soils.
