Research Article
s. nazaryan; Ali Najafi nejad; N. Nura
Abstract
Introduction : Given its low and sparse precipitation both in spatial and temporal scales, Iran is nestled in an arid and semiarid part of the world. On the other hand, because of population growth, urbanization and the development of agriculture and industry sector is frequently encountered with increasing ...
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Introduction : Given its low and sparse precipitation both in spatial and temporal scales, Iran is nestled in an arid and semiarid part of the world. On the other hand, because of population growth, urbanization and the development of agriculture and industry sector is frequently encountered with increasing water demand. The increasing trend of water demand will widen the gap between water supply and demand in the future. This, in turn, necessitates urgent attention to the fundamentals of economic planning and allocation of water resources. Considering the limited resources and the declining water table and salinization of groundwater, especially in semi-arid areas forces us to exploit surface waters. When we evaluate the various methods of collecting rainwater, surface water that is the outcome of rainfall-runoff responses in a basin, is found to be a potential source of water and it can be useful to meet some of our water demand if managed properly. Water shortages in arid areas are critical, serious and persistent. Thus, water harvesting is an effective and economic goal. The most important step in the implementation of rain water harvesting systems is proper site selection that could cause significant savings in time and cost. In this study the potential of surface waters in the Aq Emam catchment in the east Golestan province was evaluated. The purpose of this study is to provide a framework for locating areas with water harvesting potential.
Materials and Methods: For spatial evaluation of potential runoff, first, the amount of runoff is calculated using curve number and runoff potential maps were prepared with three classes: namely, the potential for low, medium and high levels. Finally, to identify suitable areas for rain water harvesting, rainfall maps, soil texture, slope and land use were weighted and multiplied based on their importance in order to determine the appropriate areas to collect runoff
Results and Discussion : The results of runoff production potential indicated that May and June accounted for the highest runoff and it can be inferred from these results that both of these months are characterized with storms which was confirmed by interviewing local residents and as range-land covers the largest land use in the basin as well as low vegetation density in the spring and summer due to overgrazing, much more runoff has been produced which is in line with the studies conducted by the Department of Natural Resources of the Golestan province in Aq Emam watershed (2003) as well as findings of Eftekhari et al. The results showed that the highest areas of the sub watershed 8, and 3 were suitable for rain water harvesting. Thus, the appropriate areas for rain water harvesting in the sub watersheds do not have a uniform spatial distribution according to the results. It can be argued that these sub basins are characterized by 4 criteria to be appropriate for rain water harvesting, which is in confirmation with Miliniai et al. Also according to the results, the areas suitable for rainwater harvesting in each sub-basin have heterogeneous spatial distribution as confirmed by the results of Eftekhari and Jin et al. Given the final map from integrating data layers, it was found that the central part of the study area has a good potential for rainwater harvesting and as results show, suitable area for water harvesting in the watershed coincides with range-lands that have a moderate crown cover as confirmed by the results reported by Tabatabaii et al.
Conclusion: Finally it can be said that spatial evaluation and identification of proper areas for rain water harvesting is an important and necessary step in the application of rain water harvesting systems.
Keywords: Surface water harvesting, Spatial evaluation, Sub watersheds priority, GIS, SCS
Research Article
payam najafi; S.H. Tabatabaei; H. Taheri-Sodejani
Abstract
Introduction: Reuse of wastewater for agricultural irrigation is increasing due to an increased demand for water resources in different parts of the world. Almost 70% of deviated water from rivers and pumped groundwater is used for agriculture. If wastewater is used for irrigation in agriculture, then ...
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Introduction: Reuse of wastewater for agricultural irrigation is increasing due to an increased demand for water resources in different parts of the world. Almost 70% of deviated water from rivers and pumped groundwater is used for agriculture. If wastewater is used for irrigation in agriculture, then the amount of discharged water from natural sources will be decreased and the flow of wastewater to the environment and its ensuing pollution will be prevented. Using wastewater in applications such as irrigation of agricultural lands has caused an increase of some exchangeable ions, salts and suspended solids (organic and mineral) in the soil and has significantly affected physical, chemical and biological features. Therefore, paying attention to the soil health is important during use of wastewater when it is the source of irrigation water. In such cases, there will be some worries about pollution of harvested products, contact of farm workers with pathogenes and environmental issues in the farm. In these conditions, attention to irrigation methods along with consideration of environmental protection standards is important.
Materials and Methods: In this study, the effects of treated wastewater (TW) irrigation were tested on some chemical properties of soil for three years under five different irrigation treatments. The treatments were as follows: surface furrow irrigation (FI), surface drip irrigation (SDI), subsurface drip irrigation in 30 cm depth (SDI30), subsurface drip irrigation in 60 cm depth (SDI60) and bubbler irrigation (BI). At the end of the experiment, soil samples were collected from a depth of 0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 cm in order to measure the electrical conductivity (EC), pH, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), organic matter (OM) and calcium carbonate equivalent (CaCO3).
Results and Discussion: According to the results of soil analysis, the soil became more saline than the beginning by applying the treatments. Generally, in two plots of urban and industrial wastewater, the least salinity was observed in SDI (19.0% increase in salinity) and the maximum value of these parameters was observed in BI (99.7% increase in salinity). The results showed that average SAR in soil saturation extract of three layers were 5.5 and 6.6 dS m-1, respectively for urban and industrial plots. Considering these values along with EC, the soil will be categoraized as normal soil in terms of salinity and alkalinity. An increase of 14.3 % in BI and 8.2% in SID30 were observed in comparison with the initial values of the period. These were the extremums for SAR. The results also showed that the application of TW caused a 38.75 % reduction in SAR for the 30-60 cm. Soil pH of the plots under study was decreased significantly and reached its acceptable limit in the soil during the experiment. On the average, the pH of soil layer has been 7.4 and 7.3 for urban and industrial plots, respectively. The results showed that soil organic matter was influenced by the irrigation method and this was more pronounced in the location of wastewater injection. In the soil surface, the highest amount of organic matter was observed in treatment FI and SDI. However, in a depth of 30-60 and 60-90, SDI30 and SDI60 revealed the highest amount of organic matter content. The average concentration of chloride (Cl-) ions in industrial wastewater (12.3 meq L-1) was more than that of urban wastewater (7.3 meq L-1). Therefore, the effect of industrial wastewater on increasing soil Cl- has been more pronounced than that of urban wastewater. Soil Cl- was increased at the location of wastewater injection and the highest amount of Cl- in the irrigation treatments was observed in BI. The results also showed that the application of TW caused a 23.4% reduction in soil CaCO3 content at a depth of 60-90 cm. The lowest amount of CaCO3 was recorded in treatment SDI60. There was no significant difference between the average of irrigation treatments in the urban plots. But in the last layer, it showed that SDI30 had a significant difference with both SDI and SDI60, in the industrial plots.
Conclusion: Generally, SDI irrigation in the root zone depth (in this study was up to 60 cm) is recommended for protecting safe environmental conditions, supplying water demand in the root zone and improving soil quality.
Keywords: Industrial wastewater, Irrigation methods, Soil chemical properties, Urban wastewater
Research Article
S. Riahi; A.R. Vatankhah
Abstract
Introduction: Side weir structures are extensively used in hydraulic engineering, irrigation and environmental engineering, and it usually consists of a main weir and a lateral channel. Side weirs are also used as an emergency structure. This structure is installed on one side or both sides of the main ...
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Introduction: Side weir structures are extensively used in hydraulic engineering, irrigation and environmental engineering, and it usually consists of a main weir and a lateral channel. Side weirs are also used as an emergency structure. This structure is installed on one side or both sides of the main channel to divert the flow from the main channel to the side channel. Lateral outflow takes place when the water surface in the main channel rises above the weir sill. Flow over a side weir is a typical case of spatially varied flow with decreasing discharge. There have been extensive studies on side weir overflows. Most of the previous theoretical analysis and experimental research works are related to the flow over rectangular side weirs in rectangular main channels. In the current study, the flow conditions over a trapezoidal side weir located in a rectangular main channel in subcritical flow regime is considered.
Materials and Methods: The experiments were performed in a rectangular open channel having provisions for a side weir at one side of the channel. The main channel was horizontal with 12 m length, 0.25 m width, and 0.5 m height, and it was installed on a frame; lateral channel that has a length of 6 m, width of 0.25 m, and height of 1 m. It was set up parallel to the main channel; walls and its bed were made up of Plexiglas plates. The side weir was positioned at a distance of 6 m from the channel’s entrance. A total of 121 experiments on trapezoidal side weirs were carried out.
Results and Discussion: For trapezoidal side weir, effective non-dimensionnal parameters were identified using dimensional analysis and Buckingham's Pi-Theorem. Finally, the following non-dimensional parameters were considered as the most effective ones on the discharge coefficient of the trapezoidal side weir flow.
in which Fr1= upstream Froude number, P= hight of the trapezoidal side weir, y1= upstream water depth, z=side slope of the trapezoidal side weir and T=top flow width of the trapezoidal side weir. Water surface profiles were measured along the weir crest, the main channel centerline, and far from the weir section. Different elevations in water surface profile depend on the upstream Froude number in the main channel; depth differences in low Froude numbers are at minimum values, and in high Froude numbers are at maximum amounts. The water surface level along the crest drops at the entrance of the side weir to the first half of the side weir; and it has been attributed to the side weir entrance effect at the upstream. Afterwards, the water level rises towards the downstream of the weir. According to the experimental results, measurements of the water in the centerline of the main channel are reliable and water surface drop is negligible. According to the parameters affecting the discharge coefficient for each value of z, discharge coefficient equations were developed with acceptable accuracy such that the effects of this parameter were shown separately. Finally, the general equation was proposed. The general functional form for discharge coefficient is presented as follows where the effect of the side slope parameter, z, is also considered.
The mean and maximum percentage errors of the discharge coefficient computed using the proposed equation are as 2.6% and 11.5% , respectively.
Conclusion: In this study, the characteristics of trapezoidal side weir overflows in subcritical flow regime were discussed. For this purpose, experimental data related to the water surface profile of the side weir and discharge coefficient were collected and analyzed. The results showed that the most efficient section for measuring water surface profile is located at the center line of the main channel. It was found that for trapezoidal side weir, the discharge coefficient depends on the Froude number, the ratio of crest height to initial depth, the overflow length to initial depth, and the side slope of the weir. In this study, conventional trapezoidal weir theory has been used in order to evaluate the discharge coefficient and provide side weir discharge equation. For this purpose, three reference depths were considered for conventional weir, and for each depth an equation was developed for the discharge coefficient. Comparison between predicted values and experimental data showed that average flow depth results in accurate outcomes for assessing the discharge coefficient. The average value of error for discharge coefficient estimation by the proposed equation is 2.6%. Thus this equation is proposed for use in practice by water engineers.
Keywords: Control structure, Conventional weir, Discharge coefficient, Spatially varied flow, Trapezoidal side weir, Water surface profile
Research Article
S.S. Nurbakhsh; M. Ghobadinia; A. Danesh-Shahraki; mohammad reza Nori Emamzadeie; R. Fatahi
Abstract
Introduction: Nowadays, due to lack of water resources and increasing demand for water, agricultural water planning issues need further consideration. With proper planning and determination of irrigation depth and time, the effects of stress and yield loss on the plants are reduced. Irrigation scheduling ...
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Introduction: Nowadays, due to lack of water resources and increasing demand for water, agricultural water planning issues need further consideration. With proper planning and determination of irrigation depth and time, the effects of stress and yield loss on the plants are reduced. Irrigation scheduling is one of the most important factors in crop’s quality and quantity. The main objective of irrigation scheduling is to control crop’s water conditions in order to achieve its optimum yield level. So irrigation timing is the vital factor on which crop water stress and eventually yield's level are dependent upon. Moreover, irrigation timing is used in irrigation scheduling. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of irrigation time on water consumption, water use efficiency and yield of beans.
Materials and Methods: In order to observe the effect of the amount and the time of the irrigation on water consumption, yields rate and water use efficiency, the current research was carried out at the University of Shahrekord during the summer of 2012. The experiment was done as a completely randomized design with 4 repetitions consisting of irrigation time and the amount of irrigation in 4 and 2 levels (at 6, 8, 14 and 18) and (deficit irrigation, full irrigation), respectively. Beans seeds were planted in 32 similar vases with a diameter of 45 cm and height of 60 cm, in each experiment. Treatments were begun after 37 days from planting. Treatments were irrigated when the average moisture in the root zone was equal to the lower border of readily available water of full irrigation. At the end of the experiments, plants were completely harvested. Then the plant’s height, number of branches, numbers of pods per plant, pod and seed weight were measured.
Results and Discussion: Results showed that irrigating at different times during the day influenced water use efficiency, water consumption, seeds yield and number of pods in the bush. The water consumption was affected by irrigation time. Among full irrigation treatments, irrigation at 2 p.m. and 6 a.m. had the highest and lowest water consumption, respectively. The total amount of water used in irrigation at 8 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6 p.m. compared to 6:00 a.m. was increased by1.6, 9.5 and 4.1 percent, respectively. The results showed that irrigation at 2:00 p.m., caused a significant reduction in yield. Moreover, water use efficiency in 6 a.m. treatments had increased 18.5 percent more than that of the 2:00 p.m. irrigation treatment. The time of irrigation did not have a meaningful effect on bush height, the number of minor branches, the pod's length. The effect of the amount of irrigation water was meaningful on bush height, number of minor branches, seeds yield, the number of pods in the bush, pods length and seed weight. Seed yield at 8:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. treatments has shown 0.29, 17.1 and 7.6 percent decrease in comparison with 6:00 a.m. irrigation treatment, respectively. Moreover, 100-seed weights were significantly affected by the irrigation time. The maximum and minimum weights of 100-seed weights were obtained at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. irrigation, respectively. Analysis of variance showed that the number of pods per plant was affected by irrigation time. The maximum number of pods per plant was 101 which belong to the 6:00 a.m. treatment. In this experiment in the case of irrigation at 2:00 p.m., the number of pods per plant was significantly decreased in full and deficit irrigation. The results showed that although the irrigation frequency was the same, irrigation at maximum evapo-transpiration caused the plant to be under stress and the yield was reduced. In other word, it can be said that time of irrigation had no meaningful effect on the appearance and shape of the plant while it was effective in terms of the yield. Overall assessments showed that maximum of the measured features were obtained in the case of 6:00 a.m. treatment.
Conclusion: The results showed that irrigation at different times of the day and the applied water stress, reduced water use efficiency. These caused traits such as plant height; number of branches; number of pods per plant; pod and seed weight to be affected by the irrigation depth. Based on the results of this experiment it can be stated that, when there is no limit of water supply, it is recommended to irrigate in the early morning, before the steep slope of the temperature rise. However, in the situations with water shortage problems, is better to manage the water and the product.
Keywords: Bean, Deficit irrigation, Irrigation time, Water use efficiency
Research Article
A. Kiani; A. Hezarjaribi; T. Dehghan; M. Khoshravesh
Abstract
Introduction: Water scarcity is one of the major problems for crop production. Using drip irrigation as an effective method in the efficient use of water is expanding in arid and semi-arid regions. One of the problems in under pressure irrigation during use of saline, unconventional and waste is emitters ...
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Introduction: Water scarcity is one of the major problems for crop production. Using drip irrigation as an effective method in the efficient use of water is expanding in arid and semi-arid regions. One of the problems in under pressure irrigation during use of saline, unconventional and waste is emitters clogging. There are several ways to prevent particle deposits in pipes and clogging of emitters. Generally, conventional methods are divided into two categories: physical and chemical methods. In physical method, suspended solids and inorganic materials are removed using particles sediment sand and disc filters. In the chemical method the pH drops by adding acid to water resulting in the dissolution of carbonate sediments. With chlorine handling, organisms (i.e. algae, fungi and bacteria) that are the main causes of biological clogging are destroyed. However, the application of these methods is not successful in all cases. It has been observed that the emitters have gradually become obstructed. Magnetic water is obtained by passing water through permanent magnets or through the electromagnets installed in or on a feed pipeline. When a fluid passes through the magnetized field, its structure and some physical characteristic such as density, salt solution capacity, and deposition ratio of solid particles will be changed. An experimental study showed that a relatively weak magnetic influence increases the viscosity of water and consequently causes stronger hydrogen bonds under the magnetic field.There exist very few documented research projects related to the magnetization of water technology and its application to agricultural issues in general and emitter clogging in drip irrigation method, in particular. This technology is already used in some countries, especially in the Persian Gulf states. This research was designed and implemented aimed at increasing knowledge about the application of magnetic technology and its effects on emitters clogging in the drip irrigation system.
Materials and Methods: A field experiment was carried out in 2011 in Gorgan Agricultural Research Station to study emitter clogging in drip irrigation using magnetic, non-magnetic and acidic water under salinity condition. The geographical location of the farm was 36° 55′ N, 54° 25′ E and 13.3 m above mean sea level with annual rainfall 400-450 mm. The experiment was laid out with a split plot in a complete randomized block design with three replications. The treatments included three treatments of the management of emitters clogging including, magnetized water (M), non-magnetized water (N) and acidic water (A) plus using three water quality levels namely, well water (S1), saline waters 7 (S2) and 14 (S3) dS m-1. Two methods were simultaneously used to magnetize water. In the first method, an electromagnet was installed around the sub-main pipe before the flow of water to the laterals. The amount of power required to magnetize the irrigation water was 0.03 kW-h of electricity per m3 of water. In the second method, the permanent magnets (ceramic magnets) were installed around the sub-main pipe before the laterals. In the second method the power requirement was 0.3 Tesla. To assess the emitter clogging, discharge and its variations as a function of time, emission uniformity, uniformity coefficient, and coefficient of variation were estimated and analyzed.
Results and Discussion: The results of variance analysis showed that the effect of different irrigation management in irrigation system (N, M and A treatments) and different levels of water quality on all parameters were significant. Statistical comparison showed that in all cases there were no significant differences between magnetized water and non-magnetized water treatments. However, acidic water was statistically different from the two types of water mentioned. Both magnetic and conventional indices were examined in this study. However, no significant difference was observed. But in all cases, using magnetic water is advantageous compared with using non-magnetized water. The overall results have shown that the use of magnetized water in this study, in the non-saline water condition, does not offer a relatively higher advantage compared to the use of non-magnetized water.
Conclusion: For saline water, insignificant differences were observed between magnetic and non-magnetic water treatments, however magnetic water was slightly preferable. Most of the indicators that were assessed showed that acid water treatment was significantly different from magnetic and non-magnetic water treatments. Thus, acid water treatment is not preferable. Emitter clogging with increase of time and the salinity level of irrigation water increased; the greatest difference between the treatments occurred in S3 and the last irrigation treatments. Magnetic water up to salinity level of 7 dS m-1, had no effect on the flow rate and thus on the emitter clogging. However, when using saline irrigation water and also with the increase of time, emitter clogging in magnetic water treatment was lower compared with non-magnetic treatment.
Keywords: Emitters clogging, Magnetized water, Saline water
Research Article
hojjat ghorbani vaghei; Hosseinali Bahrami; R. Mazhari; A. Heshmatpour
Abstract
Introduction: Maintaining soil moisture content at about field capacity and reducing water loss in near root zone plays a key role for developing soil and water management programs. Clay pot or porous pipe is a traditional sub-irrigation method and is ideal for many farms in the world’s dry land with ...
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Introduction: Maintaining soil moisture content at about field capacity and reducing water loss in near root zone plays a key role for developing soil and water management programs. Clay pot or porous pipe is a traditional sub-irrigation method and is ideal for many farms in the world’s dry land with small and medium sized farms and gardens and is still used limitedly in dry lands of India, Iran, Pakistan, the Middle East, and Latin-America. Clay capsule is one of porous pipes in sub irrigation that is able to release water in near root zone with self- regulative capacity. Watering occurs only in amounts that the plants actually need (this amount is equal to field capacity) and released water in near root zone without electricity or use of an automatic dispenser.
Materials and Methods: A study was carried out in 2013 on the experimental field of agriculture faculty of Tarbiat Modares University, to study the effect of two irrigation types on qualitative and quantitative characters in grape production (Vitis vinifera L.). In order to provide the water requirement of grape plant were used porous clay capsules for sub irrigation with height and diameter of 12 cm and 3.5 cm and dripper with Neta film type for drip irrigation, respectively. Porous clay capsules provided from soil science group at Tarbiat Modares University. In this research, the volume of water delivered to grape plants during entire growth period in two different irrigation methods was measured separately with water-meters installed at all laterals. The water consumption, yield production and water use efficiency were evaluated and compared in two drip and porous clay irrigation systems at veraison phonological stages. In the veraison stages, cluster weight, cluster length, solid solution and pH content were measured in grape fruits. Leaf chlorophyll content and leaf water content were also measured in two irrigation systems.
Results and Discussion: The results of fruit quality characteristics showed that cluster weight, cluster length, solid solution and pH content has not significant different at 5% level in two system irrigation. Also, the foliar analysis showed that chlorophyll content and relative humidity of leaf has not been affected in two irrigation systems. Meanwhile, irrigation types were significantly effect on water consumption and water use efficiency. The average water consumption and yield production with buried clay capsules and drip irrigation methods on grapevine plant were 4050 and 6668 M3.ha-1 and 14.2 and 14.8 Ton.ha-1 respectively. The reducing water consumption with buried clay capsules irrigation method in related to drip irrigation was 39% on grapevine plants. Meanwhile, the average yield production with buried clay capsules and drip irrigation methods on grapevine plant was 14.2 and 14.8 Ton.ha-1 respectively. Also, the statistics analysis show that the yield and component yield have not significant different at 5% level in the surface and subsurface irrigation. According to the water consumption and yield production, using buried porous clay capsules created a better water use efficiency than drip irrigation method. In other words, Iran has been localized at arid and semi arid and have huge water consumption in agriculture, and therefore it is necessary to optimize water consumption especially in agriculture using new technology. According to the results of this research, using buried porous clay capsules is recommended in order to optimize water consumption for grape plants in different place in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran.
Conclusion: The purpose of an efficient irrigation system is to apply the water in such a way that the largest fraction thereof is available for beneficial use by the plant. According to the experimental results reported here, it could be concluded that the reducing water consumption with buried clay capsules irrigation method in related to drip irrigation was 39% on grapevine plants. Meanwhile, the average yield production with buried clay capsules and drip irrigation methods on grapevine plant was 14.2 and 14.8 Ton.ha-1 respectively. Also, the statistics analysis show that the yield and component yield have not significant different at 5% level in the surface and subsurface irrigation. The final result, it could be concluded that the porous clay capsules have a good ability to providing water requirement of grape plant. The grape irrigation in huge area of Iran is doing with a traditional method and the authors of this work believe that porous clay capsules have a high water saving potential and good capability for irrigation of various types of crops.
Keywords: Grape plant, Porous pipe, Soil moisture, Water use efficiency, Yield
Research Article
M. Mohammadi; B. Ghahraman; K. Davary; H. Ansari; A. Shahidi
Abstract
Introduction: FAO AquaCrop model (Raes et al., 2009a; Steduto et al., 2009) is a user-friendly and practitioner oriented type of model, because it maintains an optimal balance between accuracy, robustness, and simplicity; and it requires a relatively small number of model input parameters. The FAO AquaCrop ...
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Introduction: FAO AquaCrop model (Raes et al., 2009a; Steduto et al., 2009) is a user-friendly and practitioner oriented type of model, because it maintains an optimal balance between accuracy, robustness, and simplicity; and it requires a relatively small number of model input parameters. The FAO AquaCrop model predicts crop productivity, water requirement, and water use efficiency under water-limiting and saline water conditions. This model has been tested and validated for different crops such as maize, sunflower and wheat (T. aestivum L.) under diverse environments. In most of arid and semi-arid regions water shortage is associated with reduction in water quality (i.e. increasing salinity). Plants in these regions in terms of water quality and quantity may be affected by simultaneous salinity and water stress. Therefore, in this study, the AquaCrop model was evaluated under simultaneous salinity and water stress. In this study, AquaCrop Model (v4.0) was used. This version was developed in 2012 to quantify the effects of salinity. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: i) evaluation of AquaCrop model (v4.0) to simulate wheat yield and water use efficiency under simultaneous salinity and water stress conditions in an arid region of Birjand, Iran and ii) Using different treatments for nested calibration and validation of AquaCrop model.
Materials and Methods: This study was carried out as split plot design (factorial form) in Birjand, east of Iran, in order to evaluate the AquaCrop model.Treatments consisted of three levels of irrigation water salinity (S1, S2, S3 corresponding to 1.4, 4.5, 9.6 dS m-1) as main plot, two wheat varieties (Ghods and Roshan), and four levels of irrigation water amount (I1, I2, I3, I4 corresponding to 125, 100, 75, 50% water requirement) as sub plot. First, AquaCrop model was run with the corresponding data of S1 treatments (for all I1, I2, I3, and I4) and the results (wheat grain yield, average of soil water content, and ECe) were considered as the “basic outputs”. After that and in the next runs of the model, in each step, one of the inputs was changed while the other inputs were kept constant. The interval of variation of the inputs was chosen from -25 to +25% of its median value. After changing the values of input parameters, the model outputs were compared with the “basic outputs” using the sensitivity coefficient (Sc) of McCuen, (1973). Since there are four irrigation treatments for each salinity treatment, the model was calibrated using two irrigation treatments for each salinity treatment and validated using the other two irrigation treatments. In fact, six different cases of calibration and validation for each salinity treatment were [(I3 and I4), (I2 and I4), (I1 and I4), (I2 and I3), (I1 and I3), and (I1 and I2) for calibration and (I1 and I2), (I1 and I3), (I2 and I3), (I1 and I4), (I2 and I4), and (I3 and I4) for validation, respectively]. The model was calibrated by changing the coefficients of water stress (i.e. stomata conductance threshold (p-upper) stomata stress coefficient curve shape, senescence stress coefficient (p-upper), and senescence stress coefficient curve shape) for six different cases. Therefore, the average relative error of the measured and simulated grain yield was minimized for each case of calibration. After calibrating the model for each salinity treatment, the model was simultaneously calibrated using six different cases for three salinity treatments as a whole.
Results and Discussion: Results showed that the sensitivity of the model to crop coefficient for transpiration (KcTr), normalized water productivity (WP*), reference harvest index (HIo), θFC, θsat, and maximum temperature was moderate. The average value of NRMSE, CRM, d, and R2 for soil water content were 11.76, 0.055, 0.79, and 0.61, respectively and for soil salinity were 24.4, 0.195, 0.72, and 0.57, respectively. The model accuracy for simulation of soil water content was more than for simulation of soil salinity. In general, the model accuracy for simulation yield and WP was better than simulation of biomass. The d (index of agreement) values were very close to one for both varieties, which means that simulated reduction in grain yield and biomass was similar to those of measured ones. In most cases the R2 values were about one, confirming a good correlation between simulated and measured values. The NRMSE values in most cases were lower than 10% which seems to be good. The CRM values were close to zero (under- and over-estimation were negligible). Based on higher WP under deficit irrigation treatments (e.g. I3) compared to full irrigation treatments (e.g. I1 and I2), it seems logical to adopt I3 treatment, especially in Birjand as a water-short region, assigning the remaining 25% to another piece of land. By such strategy, WP would be optimized at the regional scale.
Conclusion: The AquaCrop was separately and simultaneously nested calibrated and validated for all salinity treatments. The model accuracy under simultaneous case was slightly lower than that for separate case. According to the results, if the model is well calibrated for minimum and maximum irrigation treatments (full irrigation and maximum deficit irrigation), it could simulate grain yield for any other irrigation treatment in between these two limits. Adopting this approach may reduce the cost of field studies for calibrating the model, since only two irrigation treatments should be conducted in the field. AquaCrop model can be a valuable tool for modelling winter wheat grain yield, WP and biomass. The simplicity of AquaCrop, as it is less data dependent, made it to be user-friendly. Nevertheless, the performance of the model has to be evaluated, validated and fine-tuned under a wider range of conditions and crops.
Keywords: Biomass, Plant modeling, Sensitivity analysis
Research Article
M. Moravej; K. Khalili; J. Behmanesh
Abstract
Introduction: Studying the hydrological cycle, especially in large scales such as water catchments, is difficult and complicated despite the fact that the numbers of hydrological components are limited. This complexity rises from complex interactions between hydrological components and environment. Recognition, ...
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Introduction: Studying the hydrological cycle, especially in large scales such as water catchments, is difficult and complicated despite the fact that the numbers of hydrological components are limited. This complexity rises from complex interactions between hydrological components and environment. Recognition, determination and modeling of all interactive processes are needed to address this issue, but it's not feasible for dealing with practical engineering problems. So, it is more convenient to consider hydrological components as stochastic phenomenon, and use stochastic models for modeling them. Stochastic simulation of time series models related to water resources, particularly hydrologic time series, have been widely used in recent decades in order to solve issues pertaining planning and management of water resource systems. In this study time series models fitted to the precipitation, evaporation and stream flow series separately and the relationships between stream flow and precipitation processes are investigated. In fact, the three mentioned processes should be modeled in parallel to each other in order to acquire a comprehensive vision of hydrological conditions in the region. Moreover, the relationship between the hydrologic processes has been mostly studied with respect to their trends. It is desirable to investigate the relationship between trends of hydrological processes and climate change, while the relationship of the models has not been taken into consideration. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between hydrological processes and their effects on each other and the selected models.
Material and Method: In the current study, the four sub-basins of Lake Urmia Basin namely Zolachay (A), Nazloochay (B), Shahrchay (C) and Barandoozchay (D) were considered. Precipitation, evaporation and stream flow time series were modeled by linear time series. Fundamental assumptions of time series analysis namely normalization and stationarity were considered. Skewness test applied to evaluate normalization of evaporation, precipitation and stream flow time series and logarithmic transformation function executed for in order to improve normalization. Stationarity of studied time series were evaluated by well-known powerful ADF and KPSS stationarity tests. Time series model's order was determined using modified AICC test and the portmanteau goodness of fit test was used to evaluate the adequacy of developed linear time series models. Man-Kendall trend analysis was also conducted for the precipitation amount, the number of rainy days, the maximum precipitation with 24 hours duration, the evaporation and stream flow in monthly and annual time scales.
Results and Discussion: Inferring to the physical base of ARMA models provided by Salas et al (1998), the precipitation has been considered independently and stochastically. If this assumption is not true in a given basin, it is expected that the MA component of stream flow discharge model be eliminated or washed out. This case occurred in basins A, B and C. In these basins, the behavior of precipitation and evaporation was autoregressive. It was observed that the stream flow discharge behavior also follows autoregressive models that had greater lags than precipitation and evaporation lags. This result proved that the precipitation, evaporation, and stream flow processes in the basin were regular processes. In basin D, the behavior of precipitation was stochastic and followed the MA model, which was related to the stochastic processes. In this basin, the stochastic behavior of precipitation affected the stream flow behavior, and it was observed that the stochastic term of MA also appeared in the stream flow. Thus, this leads to decrease the memory of stream flow discharge. The fact that the MA component in the stream flow discharge was greater than the MA component in precipitation indicated that during the process of producing stream flow discharge from precipitation, the stochastic factors performed an important role.
Conclusion: A comprehensive investigation on hydrological time series models of precipitation, evaporation and stream flow were investigated in this study. The framework of the study consists of trend analysis using Mann-Kendall test and time series. Trend analysis results indicate the significant changes of water resources in the studied area. It means that sustainable development in studied area is greatly threatened. The results of parallel modeling of precipitation, evaporation and stream flow time series showed that the behavior of stream flow models are greatly affected by precipitation models. In other words, this study evaluate the physical concept of ARMA models in real-world monthly time scale for three main hydrologic cycle components and suggest that considering parallel hydrological time series modeling could increase the accuracy to select a model for simulation and prediction of stream flow time series. In addition, it suggested that there is a relation between climate pattern and hydrological time series models.
Keywords: ARMA models, Stationarity, Trend analysis, Water cycle components
Research Article
M. Jiriaie; E. Fateh; A. Aynehband; E. Sepehr
Abstract
Introduction: Providing the nutritional requirements of agricultural crops by non-chemical resources is a new approach in the organic farming that has attracted the attention of both the researchers and the consumers in recent years. Therefore, it is highly important to find new fertilizer resources ...
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Introduction: Providing the nutritional requirements of agricultural crops by non-chemical resources is a new approach in the organic farming that has attracted the attention of both the researchers and the consumers in recent years. Therefore, it is highly important to find new fertilizer resources that are both economically able to provide the nutritional needs of the crop plants and have no adverse effects on the consumers and the environment.
Materials and Methods: With this approach, an experiment was conducted in the research station of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran in 2012-13. The experimental design was factorial based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications. The treatments including Mycorrhizal fungi in three levels (i.e. no use of strain; use of Glomus intraradices strain; and use of Glomus mosseae strain), bacteria Azospirillum lipoferum in two-levels (i.e. non-inoculated and inoculated) and wheat cultivars in three levels (i.e. Chamran; Dena; and Behrang). The measured parameters include the concentration of macronutrients (i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and some micronutrients (i.e. zinc, iron and manganese) in two part seed and the root of wheat.
Results and Discussion: Surveying the elements content in the root and the grain indicated a significant and positive effect of the use the Azospirillum and Mycorrhiza to improve the concentration of the elements in wheat cultivars. However, the simultaneous use of these microorganisms led to an increase of the effects of their application on their assessed traits.Finally the highest concentration of N (2.21 present), P (0.50 present) and Fe (33.88 mg.kg-1) were observed in the grain; the highest concentration of K (0.93 present and 0.54 present) and Mn (43.11 and 23.63 mg.kg-1) were observed in the grain and root, respectively. Moreover, the highest concentration of Zn in the root (19.70 mg.kg-1) was obtained from inoculation of C.V Dena seeds with Azospirillum and the use of G. mosseae. Also, in the general case of Mycorrhiza fungi use (between 6 to 20 present) and seed inoculation with Azospirillum lipoferum (between 8 to 25 present), the improved nutrient content in the seeds as well as greatest impact of Mycorrhiza use is in increasing the content of the grain Zn (20 present) and the lowest effect of Mycorrhiza using is in increasing the nitrogen content in seed (6 percent). Considering the elements content in the grain, the use of bacteria also showed that the greatest impact on increasing the use of bacteria Azospirillum lipoferum is in increasing the iron content in seeds (25 present) and the least impact of the use of Azospirillum lipoferum is in increasing the seed’s manganese (8 present). Moreover, the use of Mycorrhiza fungi (between 7 and 23 present) and seed inoculation with Azospirillum lipoferum (4 to 16 present) improved the contents of nutrients in wheat roots compared with the control group. Here, too, the greatest impact for Mycorrhiza application was in increasing the content of the Zn in the root (23 present) and the lowest effect of Mycorrhiza application was in increasing the potassium content in the root (7 percent). Moreover, considering the elements content in the roots in the case of being treated with Azospirillum lipoferum, the results showed that upon increasing the use of bacteria, the greatest impact of Azospirillum lipoferum in increasing elements content in the roots was an increased iron content in the root (16 present) and the minimum effect of the bactericidal application was in increasing the potassium root (4 present). Comparing the two species of Mycorrhizal fungi that have been used in the experiment, although application Glomus intraradices showed satisfactory results, the use of the species Glomus mosseae to increase the content of the element in seeds and roots has had a greater role. Moreover, the combined effects of these microorganisms have not only had an antagonistic effect of reducing the amount of content, they have also been more effective than being applied separately (between 7 and 12 present).
Conclusion: Generally associated with most of the measured elements, the treatment of seed inoculation with Azospirillum lipoferum and usage of Glomus mosseae in Dena cultivar that was a durum wheat, showed the highest concentration of the mentioned elements in the roots and seeds. Probably this has been due to the smaller grains in Dena than the other cultivars, which led to an increase in the ratio of the elements in the grain. Therefore, it seems that the use of the biofertilizers can be the perfect solution to eliminate the nutritional requirements of wheat. Moreover, it has the very important effect of the enrichment of this crucial product in the people’s dietary patterns in this country with the required elements.
Keywords: Azospirillum, Nutrition, Wheat, Root, Elements concentration, Mycorrhiza
Research Article
N. Namazi; M.H. Salehi; jahangard mohammadi
Abstract
Introduction: Heavy metals released from stationaryand mobile origins can be transported in water, air and soil and can be even absorbed by plants, animals and human bodies. Trace elements are currently of great environmental concern. Nowadays, one of the most important environmental problems is pollution ...
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Introduction: Heavy metals released from stationaryand mobile origins can be transported in water, air and soil and can be even absorbed by plants, animals and human bodies. Trace elements are currently of great environmental concern. Nowadays, one of the most important environmental problems is pollution of agricultural soils occurs by heavy metals due to human activities. Atmospheric subsidence is one of the main sources of these elements which can result from industrial activities, fertilizers, sewage sludge, compost and pesticides. Heavy metals mapping of the atmosphere dusts indicates the status of pollution and its intensity in industrial regions. This information can also be used as a guideline for better management and pollution control. This study was performed to investigate the spatial and temporal availability of heavy metals in atmospheric dusts of Lenjanat region, Isfahan where agricultural land is extensively surrounded by industrial activities like steel making factory (Esfahan), cement making factory (Sepahan and Esfahan) and Bamalead mine.
Materials and Methods: Sampling was done from 60 points with the same altitude(three to six meters from the ground)and their location was recorded by GPS. Glass traps (1×1 m2) covered by plastic mesh (2 × 2 cmvents) were used to trap the dusts for four seasons of the year. Collected dust samples were passed through a 200 mm mesh screen size and the total weight of the dusts and the heavy metals content of Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni and Pbwere determined(with HNO3 60%). Data analysis was performed using Statistical 6.0 software. Analysis of spatial data via variogram was calculated and performed using Variowin, 2.2 software packages. After determination of the best fitting model, kriged maps of the total concentration of heavy metals were prepared by Surfer 8 software.
Results and Discussion: The average concentrations of Zn, Pb and Cd in dust in most parts of the study area were much higher than the soil standard values and the maximum value was around the Zn and Pb mines. However, the concentrations of Cu and Ni were higher than the standard values only in some parts of the area. Comparison of the averages for different seasons showed that in most cases there were significant differences between the concentrations of the various elements. A significant correlation was observed among Pb, Zn and Cd concentrations in all seasons indicating similar origin of these elements. The average dust deposition rate in the summer was more than the other seasons. Moreover, in all seasons except the spring and fall, there was a significant difference between the average dust deposition rates. Kriged maps of Zn, Cd, and Pb showed that the maximum concentrations of these elements occurred near the Pb and Zn Bama mine and the concentrations of these elements decreased with increasingthe distance from the mine. The contamination was lower in the spring and higher in the summer. Based on the kriged maps, samplingfrom one seasononly can be used to assess the trend of element contamination but if the objective focuses on absolute heavy metals values, season strongly influences the results and interpretation from one season can be misleading. The determination of the amounts of dust and their heavy metal contents in different wind directions is recommended to identify the source of dusts and heavy metals.
Conclusion: Results showed a significant difference among the mean values of dusts for the different seasons except for the spring and fall. The mean values of Pb and Cd in all seasons and Zn except for the spring were higher than the threshold values reported for the soils. A significant correlation was observed among the concentrations of some elements which may suggest their same origin. Interpretation of kriged maps showed that zinc and lead Bamamine in the region could be the main source of the contamination of Zn, Pb and Cd. According to quantitative calculations, a low accordance was observed for the pattern and the values of each element in different seasons. This can be related to the wind velocity and its direction, intensity of industrial and mining activities and also the amount of humidity of soil and air during the year. Interpretation of atmospheric data based on one season may be considerably misleading.
Keywords: Atmosphericdusts, Heavy metals, Season
Research Article
A. Jafari; Norair Toomanian; R. Taghizadeh Mehrjerdi
Abstract
Introduction: Methods of soil survey are generally empirical and based on the mental development of the surveyor, correlating soil with underlying geology, landforms, vegetation and air-photo interpretation. Since there are no statistical criteria for traditional soil sampling; this may lead to bias ...
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Introduction: Methods of soil survey are generally empirical and based on the mental development of the surveyor, correlating soil with underlying geology, landforms, vegetation and air-photo interpretation. Since there are no statistical criteria for traditional soil sampling; this may lead to bias in the areas being sampled. In digital soil mapping, soil samples may be used to elaborate quantitative relationships or models between soil attributes and soil covariates. Because the relationships are based on the soil observations, the quality of the resulting soil map depends also on the soil observation quality. An appropriate sampling design for digital soil mapping depends on how much data is available and where the data is located. Some statistical methods have been developed for optimizing data sampling for soil surveys. Some of these methods deal with the use of ancillary information. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of sampling of existing data.
Materials and Methods: The study area is located in the central basin of the Iranian plateau (Figure 1). The geologic infrastructure of the area is mainly Cretaceous limestone, Mesozoic shale and sandstone. Air photo interpretation (API) was used to differentiate geomorphic patterns based on their formation processes, general structure and morphometry. The patterns were differentiated through a nested geomorphic hierarchy (Fig. 2). A four-level geomorphic hierarchy is used to breakdown the complexity of different landscapes of the study area. In the lower level of the hierarchy, the geomorphic surfaces, which were formed by a unique process during a specific geologic time, were defined. A stratified sampling scheme was designed based on geomorphic mapping. In the stratified simple random sampling, the area was divided into sub-areas referred to as strata based on geomorphic surfaces, and within each stratum, sampling locations were randomly selected (Figure 2). This resulted in 191 profiles, which were then described, sampled, analyzed and classified according to the USDA soil classification system (16). The basic rationale is to set up a hypercube, the axes of which are the quantiles of rasters of environmental covariates, e.g., digital elevation model. Sampling evaluation was made using the HELS algorithm. This algorithm was written based on the study of Carre et al., 2007 (3) and run in R.
Results and Discussion: The covariate dataset is represented by elevation, slope and wetness index (Table 2). All data layers were interpolated to a common grid of 30 m resolution. The size of the raster layer is 421 by 711 grid cells. Each of the three covariates is divided into four quantiles (Table 2). The hypercube character space has 43, i.e. 64 strata (Figure 5). The average number of grid cells within each stratum is therefore 4677 grid cells. The map of the covariate index (Figure 6) shows some patterns representative of the covariate variability. The values of the covariate index range between 0.0045 and 5.95. This means that some strata are very dense compared to others. This index allows us to explain if high or low relative weight of the sampling units (see below) is due to soil sampling or covariate density. The strata with the highest density are in the areas with high geomorphology diversity. It means that geomorphology processes can cause the diversity and variability and it is in line with the geomorphology map (Figure 2). Of the 64 strata, 30.4% represent under-sampling, 60.2% represent adequate sampling and 9.4% represent over-sampling. Regarding the covariate index, most of the under-sampling appears in the high covariate index, where soil covariates are then highly variable. Actually, it is difficult to collect field samples in these highly variable areas (Figure 7). Also, most of the over-sampling was observed in areas with alow covariate index (Figure 7). We calculated the weights of all the sampling units and showed the results in Figure 8. One 64 strata out of 16 were empty of legacy sample units. Therefore, if we are going to increase the number of samples, it is better to take samples from the empty strata.
Conclusion: Since, we assume that soil attributes to be mapped can be predicted by the environmental covariates, our estimation of the sample units is based on the covariates. Then, the results are very dependent on the covariates (number and spatial resolution of the covariates and the quality of their measurement or description). Hypercube sampling provides the means to evaluate adequacy of sampling units according to the soil covariates. The main advantage of such a method is that all the sample units can be estimated according to their density in the feature space that represents soil variability. From the results, it is possible to add new sampling units in order to cover the whole feature space. Thus, in case some parts are missing, we can enhance some parts of the feature space that appear to be under-sampled.
Keywords: Environmental variables, Latin hypercube, Soil sampling, Soil survey
Research Article
S. Poormand; Ahmad Gholamalizadeh Ahangar; A. Dehvari
Abstract
Introduction: Wind erosion is one of the most important factors in desert environments. Prevailing winds can shift sand dunes and affect their accumulation and morphology. Also, wind regime determines the direction of sand dune mobility in different ways. Therefore, the wind regime, frequency, direction ...
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Introduction: Wind erosion is one of the most important factors in desert environments. Prevailing winds can shift sand dunes and affect their accumulation and morphology. Also, wind regime determines the direction of sand dune mobility in different ways. Therefore, the wind regime, frequency, direction and velocity are supposed to be the most important factors to form the morphology of sand dunes. Wind energy and changes in different directions (wind regime) have large impacts on the morphology, maintenance and transformation of wind features. Having a global knowledge of the magnitude of aeolian processes, we can assess the powerful impact of sand dune mobility on residential areas and infrastructures. The most important factors including the frequency, magnitude and directional mobility of aeolian processes have a very important effect on the entrainment and form of sand dunes.
Materials and Methods: To understand and identify the wind erosion regions, wind regime is a useful way since there is a strong correlation between wind regimes and sand dune morphology and structure. Sand rose and wind rose are assumed to be easy, fast and most accurate methods for the identification of wind erosion. Wind regimes processes have been studied by many researchers who believed that investigating wind regimes and sand dune mobility gives a measure of drift potential. Drift potential is a measure of the sand-moving capability by wind; derived from reduction of surface-wind data through a weighting equation. To predict drift potential, wind velocity and direction data from meteorological synoptic stations were used. Regarding the estimation of sand transport rate by wind, many formulas exist such as Bagnold, Kawamura, and Lattau. Also, many software applications have been suggested. However, among these formulas, Fryberger’s is the best and has been widely used since 1979.
Results and Discussion: The aim of this study was to analyze wind velocities and directions from 1992 to 2003 in order to predict the volume of sand transportation and its direction using sand-rose and wind-rose softwares. As described earlier, in this research, the drift potential (DP) is estimated for all possible wind speed categories, summed up for all categories of each direction sector using Fryberger’s Equation. The sand drift potential in Shileh was estimated about 3439 vector units with a resultant drift direction along the Southeast, which places it in the high class of wind erosive power based on the Fryberger and Dean (1979) classification method. The sand drift potential values show that the resultant drift direction is from the Northwest towards the Southeast. It was also found that the most powerful winds (the prevailing winds) blow in the summer and the spring seasons, respectively. In contrast, the percentage of calm winds increases during autumn and winter times. The sand transport discharge was predicted to be 20.422 t m-1 year-1 using Lattau and Lattau Equation. With regard to the monthly sand rose, it was seen that the resultant drift potential was low in December and January and high in June and July. The prevailing wind direction ranged from North to Northwest in all seasons. The winds with the highest velocities were observed in the summer, while the winds with lower velocities were observed during the winter. Wind velocities higher than 11 m s-1 had the largest frequencies in the summer and the lowest frequencies in the winter. Wind unidirectional index (UDI) is estimated to be 0.95, implying that the index provides a suitable condition for the creation of transverse (barchanoid) dunes.
Conclusion: The Sistan plain is one of the windiest places in the world that is exposed to wind erosion and dust storms. The result of this study is very important due to the construction of an international roadway that connects Chabahar port to Sistan plain and continues towards the Afghanistan border. Therefore, the practical result of this research could be used to protect this highway from sand dune migration. The residential areas and the infrastructure can be damaged by the migration of sand dunes since the sand dunes can move both spatially and temporally. For example, we can even notify the highway passengers about the rate of monthly and seasonal migration of sand dunes so that they avoid travelling during high-storm seasons. The results of this study are also important regarding wind-break design to protect the infrastructure such as highways and agricultural fields. Therefore, sand encroachment hazards affect man-made infrastructures due to wind speed and direction. Sand drift potential is a serious hazard to settlements and other lands as well. This problem is accelerated by the extreme arid conditions (such as the case of Shileh) that may occur in different months of summer.
Keywords: Resultant Drift Direction, Sand Drift Potential, Sand Dune, Wind Erosion, Wind Regime
Research Article
A. Afshari; H. Khademi; shamsollah Ayoubi
Abstract
Introduction: Heavy metals are types of elements naturally present in soil or enter into soil as a result of human activities. The most important route of exposure to heavy metals is daily intake of food. Crops grown in contaminated soil (due to mining activities, industrial operations and agriculture) ...
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Introduction: Heavy metals are types of elements naturally present in soil or enter into soil as a result of human activities. The most important route of exposure to heavy metals is daily intake of food. Crops grown in contaminated soil (due to mining activities, industrial operations and agriculture) may contain high concentrations of heavy metals. Also closeness to cities and industrial centers can have a great influence on the accumulation of heavy metals to agricultural products grown in the region. The study aimed to determine the concentration of heavy metals in soil and agricultural products around urban and industrial areas of Zanjan province (North West of Iran) and consumption hazard probability.
Materials and Methods: Soil (75 samples of soil from a depth of 0 to 10 cm) and plant (101 samples) samples, in the summer 2011, were randomly taken from industrial areas as follow: tomatoes (Lycopersicum esculentum M), wheat seed (Triticum vulgare), barley seeds (Hordeum vulgare), alfalfa shoots (Medicago sativa L.), potato tubers (Solanumtuberosum L.), apple fruit, vegetables and fruits such as Dill (Aniethum graveolens L.), leek (Allium porrum L.), Gardencress (Barbara verna L.) and basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). Plant samples were then washed with distilled water, oven dried for48 hours at a temperature of 70 ´C until constant weight was attained and then they digested using 2 M hydrochloric acid (HCl) and nitric acid digestion in 5 M. Concentrations of heavy metals in the soil and crops were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. DTPA extraction of metals by Lindsay and Norvell (1978) method and sequential extraction method by Tessier et al. (1979) were performed. Statistical analysis was accomplished using the software SPSS 16.0 and the comparison of mean values was done using the Duncan test at the 5% level of significance.
Results and Discussion: The magnitude of variations for total copper was from 11.5 to 352.5 (average 52.4), zinc was from 96.3 to 1353.8 (average 264.8), lead was between 40.0 and 470.0 (average 105.7), nickel ranged from 12.8 to 77.0 (average 46.7) and chromium varied from 10.0 to 49.5 (average 21.7) mg kg-1. DTPA extracted heavy metals for copper varied from 1.50 to 21.23, averaging 4.47, zinc from 0.57 to 76.50 averaging 23.15, lead from 2.43 to 63.38 averaging 16.81 and nickel from 0.28 to 2.32 averaging 1.20 mg kg-1. Chemical changes in the different fractions were as follows: Cu (residual > bounded to organic matter > bounded to Fe-Mn oxides > bounded to carbonate > exchangeable fraction), Zn and Ni (residual > bounded to Fe-Mn oxides > bounded to carbonate > bounded to organic matter > exchangeable fraction,) and Pb (residual > bounded to Fe-Mn oxides > bounded to organic matter > bounded to carbonate > exchangeable fraction). The concentration of heavy metals in plant parts were high with respect to studied location. The highest amounts of Zn (Gardencress), Pb (Dill), Cu (Leek), Ni (Basil) and Cr (Basil), respectively were found to be 150.25, 41.25, 23.13, 6.46 and 3.47 mg kg-1 and the minimum amounts of the metals studied were found in fruits, wheat and barley grains. The total amount of metals in plants were as follow (Zn >> Pb > Cu > Ni > Cr). Bioaccumulation factor (BAF) of metals in plants were as Zn=Cu > Pb >> Cr > Ni. Hazard probability (HQ) in cancerous diseases for each element (except Pb) in both children and adults was less than unit. HQ content of Pb was much higher than the unit and for children and adults 9.07 and 6.94, respectively showing high contribution of Pb contamination of crops that threatens the consumer health in that location. The total amount of risk (THQ) in children was higher than that in adults.
Conclusions: The results obtained in this study indicate that an urgent attention is required for consumer products related to public health, especially vegetables grown in the studied regions. Toxic effects of heavy metals have many deleterious effects which are more pronounced over time. With conventional monitoring of food quality produced in farms and presented in markets, excessive accumulation of heavy metals entering in to the human food chain can be prevented. Also, we can change the risk potential of heavy metals in the region by growing vegetables which accumulate heavy metals.
Keywords: Agriculture products, Biological risk, Heavy metals, Soil, Zanjan province
Research Article
S. Mirzaee; S. Ghorbani Dashtaki; H. Khodaverdiloo
Abstract
Introduction: The infiltration process is one of the most important components of the hydrologic cycle. Quantifying the infiltration water into soil is of great importance in watershed management. Prediction of flooding, erosion and pollutant transport all depends on the rate of runoff which is directly ...
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Introduction: The infiltration process is one of the most important components of the hydrologic cycle. Quantifying the infiltration water into soil is of great importance in watershed management. Prediction of flooding, erosion and pollutant transport all depends on the rate of runoff which is directly affected by the rate of infiltration. Quantification of infiltration water into soil is also necessary to determine the availability of water for crop growth and to estimate the amount of additional water needed for irrigation. Thus, an accurate model is required to estimate infiltration of water into soil. The ability of physical and empirical models in simulation of soil processes is commonly measured through comparisons of simulated and observed values. For these reasons, a large variety of indices have been proposed and used over the years in comparison of infiltration water into soil models. Among the proposed indices, some are absolute criteria such as the widely used root mean square error (RMSE), while others are relative criteria (i.e. normalized) such as the Nash and Sutcliffe (1970) efficiency criterion (NSE). Selecting and using appropriate statistical criteria to evaluate and interpretation of the results for infiltration water into soil models is essential because each of the used criteria focus on specific types of errors. Also, descriptions of various goodness of fit indices or indicators including their advantages and shortcomings, and rigorous discussions on the suitability of each index are very important. The objective of this study is to compare the goodness of different statistical criteria to evaluate infiltration of water into soil models. Comparison techniques were considered to define the best models: coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), efficiency criteria (NSEI) and modified forms (such as NSEjI, NSESQRTI, NSElnI and NSEiI). Comparatively little work has been carried out on the meaning and interpretation of efficiency criteria (NSEI) and its modified forms used to evaluate the models.
Materials and Methods: The collection data of 145 point-data of measured infiltration of water into soil were used. The infiltration data were obtained by the Double Rings method in different soils of Iran having a wide range of soil characteristics. The study areas were located in Zanjan, Fars, Ardebil, Bushehr and Isfahan provinces. The soils of these regions are classified as Mollisols, Aridisols, Inceptisols and Entisols soil taxonomy orders. The land use of the study area consisted of wheat, barley, pasture and fallow land.The parameters of the models (i.e. Philip (18), Green and Ampt (3), SCS (23), Kostiakov (6), Horton (5), and Kostiakov and Lewis (11) models) were determined, using the least square optimization method. All models were fitted to experimental infiltration data using an iterative nonlinear regression procedure, which finds the values of the fitting parameters that give the best fit between the model and the data. The fitting process was performed using the MatLab 7.7.0 (R2008b) Software Package. Then, the ability of infiltration of water into soil models with the mean of coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), efficiency criteria(NSEI) and modified forms (such as NSEjI, NSESQRTI,NSElnI and NSEiI) were determined and goodness of criteria was compared for the selection of the best model.
Results and Discussion: The results showed the mean of RMSE for all soils cannot always be a suitable index for the evaluation of infiltration of water into soil models. A more valid comparison withNSEI, NSEjI, NSESQRTI, NSElnI indices indicated that these indices also cannot apparently distinguish among the infiltration models for the estimation of cumulative infiltration. These indices are sensitive to the large amount of data. The NSEiI index with giving more weight to infiltration data in shorter times was selected as the most appropriate index for comparing models. According to the NSEiI index, Kostiakov and Lewis, Kostiakov, SCS, Philip, Horton, and Green and Ampt models were the best models in approximately 72.42, 44.83, 26.9, 53.11, 11.73 and 1.0 percent of soils, respectively.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the ability of modified forms of NSE indices in evaluation of infiltration of water into soil models depend on the influence of models from infiltration data values in different time series. This encourages us to be cautious on the application and interpretation of statistical criteria when evaluating the models.
Keywords: Error, Statistical criteria, Infiltration water into soil
Research Article
M. Mohammadi; Mohammad Jafar Malakouti; K. Khavazi; F. Rejali; Mohammad Hossein Davoodi
Abstract
Introduction: Use of unbalanced chemical fertilizers especially P, having low absorption efficiency and low solubility compounds with soil components, has resulted in the production and use of bio-fertilizers (17, 23 and 29). Bio-fertilizer is a preservative material consisting of one or several specific ...
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Introduction: Use of unbalanced chemical fertilizers especially P, having low absorption efficiency and low solubility compounds with soil components, has resulted in the production and use of bio-fertilizers (17, 23 and 29). Bio-fertilizer is a preservative material consisting of one or several specific beneficial micro-organisms or their metabolic products used to supply plant nutrients and development of root systems (29). There are a lot of micro-organisms in soil capabling help to plant nutrition and uptake of nutrient elements in different ways that can be mentioned by the dual symbiotic relation between micro-organism and plant. Mycorrhizal fungus and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) such as Azotobacter and Pseudomonas are able to increase uptake of nutrient elements particularly when they are applied with others and hence they increase the yield of different crops (12, 14; 24 and 30). P solubilizing fungus and bacteria facilitate uptake of slowly diffusing nutrient ions such as P, Zn and Cu and increase their availabilities usually by increasing volume of soil exploited by plants, spreading external mycelium, secreting organic acids, production of dehydrogenase and phosphates enzymes and reducing rhizosphere acidity (9, 15, 19, 23 and 26). The main beneficial use of micro-organism is increasing of host plant growth. It can be done with increase of nutrient elements uptake. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of P and Zn bio-fertilizers on yield, yield components and shoot nutrient elements in two cultivars of bean for the first time in the Chaharmahal-va- Bakhtiari province.
Material and Methods: This field experiment was carried out as a factorial in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The treatments of this research consisted of two cultivars of Chiti bean (Talash and Sadri), four levels of P (P0: Control, P1: Chemical fertilizer on the basis of soil test, P2: 50 percent of recommended P + bio-fertilizer (P), and P3: bio-fertilizer (P)), three levels of Zn (Zn0: Control, Zn1: 50 kg ha-1 Zinc sulphate, and Zn3: bio-fertilizer (Zn)). Bio-fertilizer (P) treatment consisted of mycorrhizal and five strains of Azotobacter chroococcum. Bio-fertilizer (Zn) treatment consisted of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain MPFM and Pseudomonas fluorescent strain 187. Grain inoculation (5%) was done in shadow and after drying, inoculated grains were immediately cultivated. Two g of mycorrhizal fungus was applied at the base of the grain hole just prior to sowing. Chemical fertilizers were applied from TSP at a rate of 100 and 50 kg ha-1 in P1 and P2 respectively, 50 kg ha-1 ZnSO4.7H2O in Zn1 and 50 kg ha-1 urea as a starter before planting. The size of each plot was 3 × 4 meters. Statistical analysis was done with SAS) statistical software. Duncan’s multiple range test was used to separate means.
Results and Discussion: The results revealed that there were significant differences between the two cultivars on seed yield, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight and concentrations of nitrogen (N), potassium (K), and Zn, but there was no significant difference between the other parameters. P treatment showed a significant effect on the examined parameters except the number of seeds per pod. The highest content of yield (3446 kg ha-1) was observed in P2 treatment (18.5% seed yield increase). Zinc treatment also had a significant effect on the parameters being studied except the number of seed per pod and manganese (Mn) concentration. The maximum seed yield (3339 kg ha-1) was monitored in Zn1 and Zn2 treatments. The effect of interactions between P and Zn was significant on the number of pods per shrub, 100 seed weight and K concentration, but it was not significant on the other parameters. However the highest content of seed yield (3520 kg ha-1) was obtained from P2Zn1 (32.5% seed yield increase) treatment. Our results were similar to findings of other researchers (1, 3, 12, 15, 17, 26 and 30). They reported that dual inoculation increases plant productivity. In this study, phosphate and Zn bio-fertilizers caused an increase in yield, yield component and shoot nutrient by increasing nutrient uptake, photosynthesis, growth hormones and creating favorable growth conditions. Also results showed that the consume of P fertilizers were decreased (50 percent) with proper integration of chemical and bio-fertilizers. These results correspond with the results of other researchers (17, 22, 23, 24 and 27).
Conclusion: In this research proper integration of bio- and chemical fertilizers was shown to increase yield and yield components with increasing and improving P and other nutrients’ uptake in both bean cultivars. The result also indicated that combining bio and chemical phosphate fertilizers increased the efficiency of phosphate fertilizers by 50 percent. Sadri cultivar is a suitable cultivar for Chaharmahal-va- Bakhtiari province and regions with a similar climate.
Keywords: Phosphorus, Zinc, Mycorrhizal fungi, Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), Insoluble phosphorus and zinc solubilizers
Research Article
F. Zareapour Rafsanjani; M. Hamidpour; Hossein Shirani; M. Heshmati; seyed javad hosseinifard
Abstract
Introduction: Boron is one of the eight essential micronutrients required for plant growth and development. The optimal concentration range (between deficiency and phytotoxicity) for boron is narrower than for other plant essential nutrients. Generally, irrigating water containing concentrations of B ...
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Introduction: Boron is one of the eight essential micronutrients required for plant growth and development. The optimal concentration range (between deficiency and phytotoxicity) for boron is narrower than for other plant essential nutrients. Generally, irrigating water containing concentrations of B greater than 1 mg L-1 would be detrimental for most plants. Although, there are a large number of different studies on the removal of B ions from aqueous solutions using different adsorbents, every special adsorbent material requires individual research. Information about the chemical behavior of muscovite for boron is very limited. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate boron adsorption on muscovite as a function of solution pH, ionic strength of the background electrolyte, kinds of cation, and initial boron concentration.
Materials and Methods: The muscovite sample was obtained from a mine near Hamadan city in western Iran. It was powdered in a mortar and sieved before sorption experiment. Boron adsorption experiments were performed in batch systems using 15 mL polyethylene (PE) bottles in 0.01 M Ca(NO3)2 electrolyte solution at a adsorbent concentrations of 10 g L-1, and at room temperature (23±2 ◦C). All samples were prepared in duplicate. Blank samples (without adsorbent) were prepared for all experiments. For pH dependent B adsorption, aliquots of B stock solution (1000 mg L−1) were added to obtain initial B concentrations of 5 and 15 mg L-1. The pH of the solutions were adjusted to values of 6.8, 7.7 and 8.8 by adding negligible predetermined volumes of 0.03M NaOH or 0.03M HNO3 solution. To study the effects of kinds of cation on boron adsorption, samples of adsorbent (0.1 g) were mixed with 10 mL background electrolyte solutions (0.01M Ca(NO3)2, Mg(NO3)2 and NaNO3) in 15 mL centrifuge tubes. Then, predetermined amount of B were added to the centrifuge tubes to obtain final concentrations of 5 mg L-1 B. For determination of boron adsorption isotherm, after 10 ml 0.01 M of Ca(NO3)2 was transferred into 15 ml centrifuge tubes, 0.1 g sample of muscovite was added to obtain adsorbent concentration of 10 g L-1. Then a predetermined amount of boron from the stock solution was added to give final concentration range between 1 and 15 mg B per liter. Initial pH of the solution was adjusted to 8.2 ± 0.1 by predetermined amount of 0.03 M NaOH solution. Suspensions were then shaken for 24h. At the end of equilibrium time, final pH was measured in the suspensions and the tubes were then centrifuged for 10 min at 5000 g. Half of the supernatant volume (5 mL) was pipetted out from each tube and then B in the supernatants were measured using the colorimetric Azomethin-H method. The amount of B adsorbed on the adsorbent was calculated as the difference between the B concentration in the blanks and the concentration in the solution after equilibration. Chemical species in the solutions were also predicted using Visual MINTEQ, a chemical speciation program developed to simulate equilibrium processes in aqueous systems.
Results and Discussion: The effect of pH on the amount of B retained depended on the initial B concentration. The amount of boron adsorption increased with increasing equilibrium pH. Boron adsorption on muscovite increased with increasing ionic strength. Greater adsorption was observed in the presence of Mg2+ as compared with Ca2+ at the same ionic strength. Calculations using Vminteq showed that the concentration of Mg-borate ion pairs (MgH2BO3+) were higher than the concentration of Ca and Na-borate ion pairs (CaH2BO3+ and NaH2BO3°). It thus seems that the much greater loss of B from solution observed in the Mg system was caused by Mg-borate ion pair adsorption. Sorption isotherm of B were well described by the Freundlich, Langmuir and Sips models but the Sips sorption model describes the interaction between B and the mineral better than the Langmuir model. On the basis of n value of Freundlich model, adsorption isotherm of boron on muscovite was classified as L-type (n≤ 1). This kind of adsorption behavior could be explained by the high affinity of the adsorbent for the adsorptive at low concentrations, which then decreases as concentration increases. Maximum sorption capacity (qmax) was obtained to be 13.98 mmol kg-1 for muscovite.
Conclusion: The experimental data showed that less than 5% of initial boron concentration was adsorbed by muscovite, thus this mineral has not a reasonable adsorption capacity for B.
Keywords: Boron, Adsorption, Muscovite, Speciation.
Research Article
N. Ghasem Jokar; habib nadian; B. Khalili Moghaddam; m. heidari; M.H. Gharineh
Abstract
Introduction: Drought stress is one of the main problems in agricultural productions in arid and semiarid regions such as Iran. Lack of water influences on most of plant physiological processes such as photosynthes, cellular development and uptake and transmission of nutrients in plants. Some approaches ...
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Introduction: Drought stress is one of the main problems in agricultural productions in arid and semiarid regions such as Iran. Lack of water influences on most of plant physiological processes such as photosynthes, cellular development and uptake and transmission of nutrients in plants. Some approaches such as selection of resistance cultivars to drought stress, and selection of dripped irrigation have been applied in order to increase the irrigation efficiency. In recent years, biological approaches such as mycorrhizal symbiosis have been used to alleviate the detrimental effects of drought stress. Mycorrhizal symbioses increase the absorption of nutrients, especially phosphorus, and reduce the adverse effects of environmental stresses. It can also improve the host plant growth and yield. The percentage of mycorrhizal dependency of host plants depends on different environmental factors (such as light intensity, temperature, soil conditions), as well as morphological and physiological characteristics of plants. 1n 2010, a greenhouse pot experiment was conducted at University of Agriculture and Natural Resources Ramin. The effect of mycorrhizal inoculation on root morphology of three leek genotypes and uptake of phosphorous, calcium and potassium in shoot and root were studied.
Materials and Methods: The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design consisting of a 3×3×2 factorial combination. Experimental factors included three levels of soil moisture (40, 60 and 80% of available water in the soil), two mycorrhizal status (with and without fungus Glomus intraradices) and three leek genotypes including: Shadegan (with low root branching, short and thin root length), Esfahan (with abundant root branching and long root length) and Porrum (with low root branching, short and thick root length). The treatments were replicated four times. The soil was autoclaved at 121°C and15 PSI for 15 minutes and gently packed into PVC pots, 200 mm long and 150 mm in diameter. Leek seeds were sterilized with sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solution (10%) for 20 min. Two hundred grams of inoculum (spore, hyphae, mycorrhizal clover of root fragments and soil) were placed in deep of plant root. Each pot received 10 cm-3 nutrients solution, free of P weekly. Plants equally watered for one mounth then, drought stresses were applied. Leeks were harvested 12 weeks after planting. Sub-samples of roots were taken for determination of root length were cleared in 10% (w/v) KOH solution and then were stained with trypan blue and root colonization was studied using modified Phillips & Hayman. The colonized root length was determined by binocular and gridline intersect method of Tennant. Phosphorus concentrations were measured by the method of colorimetery with a spectrophotometer. Potassium and calcium concentrations were determined by flame photometer and titration with vercin (Ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid: EDTA), respectively. The statistical analysis was performed using MSTAT-C statistical software and means were compared by Duncan’s multiple range test at the significance level of P
Research Article
A. i Yadav; Z. Yuosepur
Abstract
Introduction: Soil fertility management is a key factor in achieving sustainable agriculture. Use of organic fertilizers is one of the methods that without environmental harmful effects with improvement of chemical and biological conditions increases soil fertility. Nitroxin contains a collection of ...
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Introduction: Soil fertility management is a key factor in achieving sustainable agriculture. Use of organic fertilizers is one of the methods that without environmental harmful effects with improvement of chemical and biological conditions increases soil fertility. Nitroxin contains a collection of the best strains of nitrogen fixation bacteria of the genus Azospirillum and Azotobacter. These bacteria through atmospheric nitrogen fixation and the balance of macro and microelements needed for plant uptake, stimulate the growth and development of roots and aerial parts of the plant. Phosphate Barvar2 is another bio-fertilizer which contains set of phosphate solubilizing bacteria of different genera Bacillus and Pseudomonas that can change soil insoluble phosphorus into available forms for plants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate some chemical properties of soil and nutrient concentrations in leaves and seeds of sunflower under the influence of chemical and biological form of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers to reduce the use of chemical inputs and to improve quality traits in sunflower.
Material and Methods :The experiment was carried out in a split factorial based on RCBD with three replications in a field in Eivanegharb (Ilam province) in summer of 2011. The main plot included four levels of phosphorus and nitrogen chemical fertilizer (0, 33, 66 and 100% of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer requirements) and subplot included factorial of Nitroxin bio-fertilizer application with two levels (inoculation and non inoculation) and Phosphate Barvare2 bio fertilizer with two levels (inoculation and non inoculation). Each plot consisted of 5 rows at a distance of 60 cm and a length of 6 m and 20 cm plant spacing. At the time of flowering, leaves were harvested for measurement of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and manganese. After harvesting, the amount of total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and pH of the soil and the concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and manganese seed were measured.
Results and Discussion: The residual soil nitrogen: Based on these results, the effect of any of the factors tested for the residual soil nitrogen was not significant.
The remaining soil phosphorus: With the increased use of chemical fertilizer, soil phosphorus increased so that the maximum (54.5 mg kg-1 soil) and minimum (40 mg kg-1 soil), available soil phosphorus levels were recorded in consumption of 100% of the required fertilizer and control treatments. Nitroxin and Phosphate Barvare2 applications increased percentage of soil phosphorus, i.e. 12.7 and 23.6 %, respectively, compared to no fertilizer application.
The remaining soil potassium: Comparison of mean values showed that the increase in use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer requirements reduced potassium levels in the soil, so that the maximum amount of soil potassium (624.9 mg kg-1 soil) belonged to control chemical fertilizer treatment and the minimum value of this attribute (514.4 mg per kg of soil) was related to the use of 100% chemical fertilizer consumption with no significant difference with use of 66% chemical fertilizers treatment.
Soil pH: Among the experimental factors studied only bio-fertilizer Phosphate Barvar2 had a significant effect on soil pH at 5% probability so that the use of bio-fertilizer Phosphate Barvar2 significantly decreased soil pH.
Leaf nitrogen: By increasing the amount of chemical fertilizer used, leaf nitrogen content increased, so that the maximum amount of leaf nitrogen (2.5%) was observed in the use of 100% chemical fertilizer consumption treatment. However, no significant difference was recorded in the use of 66% chemical fertilizers tratment. The lowest of this trait (2.2%) belonged to control chemical fertilizer treatment without significant difference with use of 33% chemical fertilizers consumption treatment.
Seed nitrogen: Chemical fertilizer and Phosphate Barvar2 had significant effects on the amount of seed nitrogen content. With the increasing use of chemical fertilizers seed nitrogen increased so that the maximum (2.9%) and minimum (2.6%) seed nitrogen content belonged to use 100% of the chemical fertilizer and non-application of fertilizer, respectively. Mean comparison effect of Phosphate Barvar2 inoculation revealed that seed nitrogen increased by 3.7%.
Seed phosphorus: Analysis of variance showed that the amount of seed phosphorus significantly was affected by the treatments, i.e. Nitroxin and Phosphate Barvare2 as well as the interaction of chemical fertilizer and Nitroxin. Application of Phosphate Barvar2 increased the amount of seed phosphorus by 14.8%.
Seed potassium: Increasing application of chemical fertilizer requirement increased seed potassium. Among the 0, 33, 66 and 100% chemical fertilizer application treatments, Phosphate Barvare2 inoculation increased seed potassium by 23.3, 31.2, 31.3 and 11.4%, respectively.
Seed zinc: According to the analysis of variance, effect of bio-fertilizer Phosphate Barvar2 and interaction of Phosphate Barvar2 and chemical fertilizer on the amount of seed zinc were significant different. However, only in 100% chemical fertilizer requirement, Phosphate Barvare2 inoculation showed significant difference in this trait (63.4% increase).
Seed manganese: The results showed that factors of Nitroxin and Phosphate Barvar2 and also the interaction of Phosphate Barvar2 and chemical fertilizer had significant effects on seed manganese content. Sunflower seed inoculation with Nitroxin increased the amount of seed manganese by 37%.
Conclusion: According to the results, the maximum increase in the amount of nutrients studied in leaves and seeds of sunflower and soil was obtained in combined use of chemical and biological fertilizers.
Keywords: Biofertilizer, Chemical Fertilizer, Nitroxin, Phosphate Barvare2, Seed Elements, Sunflower
Research Article
N. Siabi; S.H. Sanaeinejad; B. Ghahraman
Abstract
Introduction temporal and spatial change of meteorological and environmental variables is very important. These changes can be predicted by numerical prediction models over time and in different locations and can be provided as spatial zoning maps with interpolation methods such as geostatistics (16, ...
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Introduction temporal and spatial change of meteorological and environmental variables is very important. These changes can be predicted by numerical prediction models over time and in different locations and can be provided as spatial zoning maps with interpolation methods such as geostatistics (16, 6). But these maps are comparable to each other as visual, qualitative and univariate for a limited number of maps (15). To resolve this problem the similarity algorithm is used. This algorithm is a simultaneous comparison method to a large number of data (18). Numerical prediction models such as MM5 were used in different studies (10, 22, and 23). But a little research is done to compare the spatio-temporal similarity of the models with real data quantitatively. The purpose of this paper is to integrate geostatistical techniques with similarity algorithm to study the spatial and temporal MM5 model predicted results with real data.
Materials and Methods The study area is north east of Iran. 55 to 61 degrees of longitude and latitude is 30 to 38 degrees. Monthly and annual temperature and precipitation actual data for the period of 1990-2010 was received from the Meteorological Agency and Department of Energy. MM5 Model Data, with a spatial resolution 0.5 × 0.5 degree were downloaded from the NASA website (5). GS+ and ArcGis software were used to produce each variable map. We used multivariate methods co-kriging and kriging with an external drift by applying topography and height as a secondary variable via implementing Digital Elevation Model. (6,12,14). Then the standardize and similarity algorithms (9,11) was applied by programming in MATLAB software to each map grid point. The spatial and temporal similarities between data collections and model results were obtained by F values. These values are between 0 and 0.5 where the value below 0.2 indicates good similarity and above 0.5 shows very poor similarity. The results were plotted on maps by MATLAB software.
Results Discussion In this study the similarity and geostatistical algorithm were combined to compare and evaluate spatio-temporal of predicted temperature and precipitation data by MM5 model with actual data. The analysis of the similarity map is based on the F values, the area and also the uniformity of distribution over the area. The similarity between predicted and actual data is higher when F values are low and distributed more uniform. The temperature similarity maps showed that F values are between 0.0 - 0.2 in cold seasons. It was shown that the values had spatial continuity and uniform distribution. A large part of area (almost 80%) is covered by lowest F value (F˂0.1), which shows very high similarity among temperature datasets. The highest values (0.15 < F < 0.2) occurred in the central of the study area. In the warm seasons F values were between 0.0 - 0.4. These values had spatial continuity and uniform distribution which is lower than cold season. The area of good similarity values (0.0˂F˂0.1) is almost 45% of the whole region. The highest values (F>0.3) in the central region indicate errors in the model predictions data. But generally prediction of model in both seasons for the temperature was good. In annual time scale, F values are between 0.0 - 0.25. The area of good similarity value (0.0˂F˂0.1) is almost 65% of the whole region with spatial continuity and uniform distribution. Accuracy of the model declined from temperature of the cold season to annual and then warm season respectively. The precipitation similarity maps showed that in cold season F values changes between 0.05 - 0.4. These values had less spatial continuity than temperature. In more than half of the area (60%) there was fairly good similarity where 0.05 < F < 0.15. The maximum values (0. 3 < F < 0.35) occur in mountainous regions of the study area. In warm seasons F values are between 0.1- 0.45. These values are not uniformly distributed and dispersed. The area of good similarity values (0.0˂F˂0.1) is zero percent. The highest values (F>0.3) in the central mountainous area and south part of region suggests the low similarity in the model predictions. Similarity between the cold seasons is much higher than the warm seasons, which is due to the variability of precipitation during the seasons. In the annual time scale, F values are between 0.05 - 0.3. F values (0.0˂F˂0.1) are almost 40% of the whole region with uniform distribution. Overall, the higher uniform distribution of annual similarity values showed that prediction of model for annual precipitation data is better than seasonal. The maximum F values identified the areas with modeling error for various reasons. In this study the central and the southern parts had maximum F values at different time steps. Plotted mean monthly values of similarity indicated minimum and maximum temperature F values were occurred in January and July while for precipitation was taken place in January and September respectively. This shows that MM5 model prediction was good in January.
Conclusion: In this paper, the similarity algorithm discovered spatial and temporal similarities between the predicted and actual data for temperature and precipitation variables. According to the obtained F values, the model predicts temperature was better than precipitation. Due to the upward movement of the convective zone and the effects of topography for both variables, the similarity between predicted and actual data is low in warm seasons. In small areas of the south and the central region of the study area, F values are between 2.0 and 4.0, respectively, which could be considered as a weak similarity. The area with high f values (F > 0.45) can be seen on every precipitation map, which suggests a large error values related to reporting of the station data.
Keywords: Algorithms, Numerical prediction models, Similarity comparison, Spatio- temporal
Research Article
A.R. Araghi; M. Mousavi Baygi; majid hashemi nia
Abstract
Introduction: Studying long-term trend changes of meteorological parameters is one of the routine methods in atmospheric studies, especially in the climate change subject. Among the meteorological parameters, temperature is always considered as one of the most atmospheric elements and studying it in ...
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Introduction: Studying long-term trend changes of meteorological parameters is one of the routine methods in atmospheric studies, especially in the climate change subject. Among the meteorological parameters, temperature is always considered as one of the most atmospheric elements and studying it in order to gain a better understanding of the climate change phenomenon, has been effective. In addition to identifying trends, extraction of oscillatory patterns in the atmospheric phenomena and parameters occurrence can be an applicable and reliable method to explore the complex relations between atmospheric-oceanic cycles and short term or long term consequences of meteorological parameters.
Materials and Methods: In this paper, monthly average temperature time series in Mashhad synoptic station in 55 years period (from 1956 to 2010) in monthly, seasonal, annual and seasons separately (winter, spring, summer and autumn) have been analyzed. Discrete wavelet transform and Mann-Kendall trend test were the main methods for performing this research. Wavelet transform is a powerful method in signal processing and it is an advanced version of short time Fourier transforms. Moreover, it has many improvements and more capabilities compared with Fourier transform. In the first step, temperature time series in various time scales (which was mentioned above) have been decomposed via discrete wavelet transforms into approximation (A) and detail (D) components. For the second step, Mann-Kendall trend test was applied to the various combinations of these decomposed components. For detecting the most dominant periodic component for each of the time scales datasets, results of Mann-Kendall test for the original time series and the decomposed components were compared to each other. The nearest value indicated the most dominant periodicity based on the D component’s level. To detect the similarity between results of the Mann-Kendall test, relative error method was employed. Additionally, it must be noted that before applying Mann-Kendall test, time series has to be assessed for its autocorrelation status. If there are seasonality patterns in the studied time series or lag-1 autocorrelation coefficient of data is significant, then some modified versions of the Mann-Kendall test have to be employed.
Results and Discussion: Results of this study showed that the temperature trend at every time scaled dataset (monthly, seasonal, annual and seasons separately) is positive and significant. Autocorrelation coefficients indicated that only seasonal time series and winter datasets did not have significant ACFs. On the other hand, monthly and seasonal datasets had seasonality pattern. Based on these results, Hirsch and Slack’s modified version of Mann-Kendall test was employed for monthly and seasonal time series and for the winter temperature data, the original version of the Mann-Kendall test was applied. For the remaining time series, the Hamed and Rao’s modified version of the Mann-Kendall trend test was employed. Dominant periodicities in monthly, seasonal and annual, confirmed the oscillatory behavior of each other. However, in the seasons, it seems that periodic patterns with the same temperature ranges are more similar. On the other hand, due to the greater similarity between the results of the Mann-Kendall test in the warmer seasons and the data with monthly, seasonal and annual time scale, it seems that yearly warm period has more noticeable impacts on the positive and significant trend of temperature in the study area. It must be noted that in any of the studied time series, results of the Mann-Kendall test for detail (D) component was not significant and after adding approximation (A) component, Mann-Kendall statistics turned to a significant value. This happens because the long term variations or trends appear in approximation components in most of the time series.
Conclusion: In this study, a powerful signal processing method called wavelet transform was employed to detect the most dominant periodic components in temperature time series in various time scales, in Mashhad synoptic station. Results showed that using frequency-time analysis methods has more benefits compared with the use of only classic statistical methods, since one can explore any time series with more accuracy. Because most of the meteorological variables have periodic structures, it seems that using advanced signal processing methods like wavelet for analysis of these variables can have many advantages compared with linear-based methods. It can be suggested for future studies to use and employ signal processing methods for exploring the large scaled phenomena (e.g. ENSO, NAO, etc.) and discovering the relationship between these phenomena and climate change in recent decades.
Keywords: Discrete wavelet transforms, Mann-Kendall test, Oscillatory pattern, Trend
