Towards a New Agriculture for the Climate Change Era in West Asia, Iran

28 páginas. El libro tiene 486 páginas.Climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. It will potentially lead to such eventualities as drought and famine, which some of the CWANA countries have already experienced. The capacity of national governments and communities to mitigate disasters will be limited in the short to medium term, rendering them still vulnerable to the adversities of climate change. Climate change is a global issue with regional implications. Many multilateral environmental agreements address these issues, and some countries of the region have ratified some such agreements (CWANA, 2009). Effects of climate change on land use refers to both how land use might be altered by climate change and what land management strategies would mitigate the negative effects of climate change (Dale, 1997). Asia is the most populous continent, population in 2002 was reported to be about 3,902 million, of which almost 61% is rural and 38.5% lives within 100 km of the coast (Duedall & Maul, 2005). Asia is divided into seven subregions, namely North Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Tibetan Plateau, East Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia.Peer reviewe

Assessing Leaching of Saline-sodic Soils Affected by Kaveh-Soda Factory Effluent using Georeferenced Maps in Maragheh-Bonab Plain

Relativity of soil maps may limit their utility at many aspects such as agriculture development, farming, civil engineering, urban and regional planning and forestry. Paying attention to the scale is one of the most common procedures in assessing the maps usability. The average size delineation (ASD), effective scale number (ESN), index of maximum reduction (IMR) and shape complexity index (SCI) are the maps quality criteria that can be examined. The purposes of this study were: a) to evaluate the EC and SAR maps of the farm lands affected by the Kaveh-Soda factory effluent on the basis of the above quality criteria and b) to evaluate the efficiency of continuous and intermittent methods of leaching in three Saline-Sodic soils with loam and sandy loam textures. EC maps of the area were selected and ASD, ESN, IMR and SCI were determined as 0.95 cm2, 1:26000, 1.54 and 3.33, respectively. For the SAR maps the above criteria were 1.33 cm2, 1:31000, 1.84 and 3.51, respectively. According to the above criteria there should be no limitation in their uses for developing of agricultural and civil engineering projects. It is known that optimum IMR is equal to 2, so that raising IMR of EC and SAR maps from 1.54 and 1.84 to 2 led their scale to increase from 1:34000 to 1:26000 and 1:31000, respectively and increase maps contrast as well. At the subsequent stage, efficiency of two leaching methods of saline-sodic soils was examined after knowing the usability of the maps and separating their units, as affected by Kaveh-Soda factory (Maragheh). For this purpose, PVC tubes (Lengths= 70 cm; Diameter= 10 cm) were prepared and filled with soil (5200 g sieved by 4.76 mm). The flow rate during both leaching methods was selected to be 1.25 KS of the columns. Soil columns were grouped according their EC as 1) EC= 10.38 dSm-1, with Na+= 49.64 meqL-1; 2) EC= 20.6 dSm-1, with Na+= 94.57 meqL-1; and 3) EC= 36.6 dSm-1, with Na+ = 166.11 meqL-1. Leaching water was saturated with gypsum because of it's high SAR to disperse the soil and effectively reduce the leaching efficiency. The EC of leaching water was 2.34 dSm-1. Leaching was stopped when EC of the effluent from the columns became relatively constant. The results revealed that intermittent leaching method efficiency was 8% greater than that of continuous method. The depth water need for the reclamation of the affected soils was also calculated

Effect of Slope Position on Soil Properties and Types Along an Elevation Gradient of Arasbaran Forest, Iran

Sustainable development by forest managing need to identify forest ecosystem elements. Forest soil is the most important element of forest ecosystem that has key roles in forest managing. Therefore, studying of soil properties and evolution under different environmental conditions is necessary for sustainable management of forest ecosystems. Spatial variation of soil properties is significantly influenced by some environmental factors that slope position is one of them. The aim of this study was evaluating effects of slope position on forest soil change which was carried out in Arasbaran forest, North-West of Iran. Nine soil profiles were dug, described and sampled in three different parts of an altitudinal transect with same environmental conditions and different slope positions. Then soil samples were analysed physicaly and chemicaly and so classified based on Soil Taxonomy 2014. Also according to obtained results One-way analysis of variance was used to test relations of soil properties and slope positions. This results revealed significant effect of slope positions on thickness of the soil profile and solum, clay, organic carbon and total nitrogen percentages and cation exchange capacity at 5% level of confidence which lead to change of type, depth and sequence of soil horizons along altitudinal transect. Finally, it has found that slope position not only has important role in soil properties changes and soil evolution but also it can't be refused the various role and influence of same forest stand in different slope positions. Therefore various soils such as Inceptisols, Alfisols and Molisols were observed under different slope positions. Then it can be achieved that, because of special forest vegetation, soil evolution along altitudinal transect of forest ecosystems are differing from other ecosystems. Thus, for forest soil management program it is necessary to consider both of topography and vegetation effect over the area, even if one of them is constant

Estimativa da composição elementar de solos do Azerbaijão oeste, Irã, utilizando-se modelos espectrais de infravermelho

[Abstract] Characterizing the elemental composition provides useful information about the weathering degree of soils. In Miandoab County, Northern Iran, this characterization was missing, and thus the objectives of this work were to evaluate the weathering degrees for the most typical soils in the area from their elemental compositions, and to estimate this elemental composition using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Random Forest models. Five soil profiles, including Aridisols and Inceptisols, were selected as the most representative of the area. Major elemental oxides were determined in each genetic horizon by X-ray fluorescence, showing that these soils were at early developmental stages. Only Al2O3 and CaO were accurately estimated, with R2 values of 0.8, and out-of-bag mean square errors of 0.2 and 1.1, respectively. The other oxides were not predicted satisfactorily, probably due to small differences in their elemental compositions. Random Forest provided the important spectral bands related to the content of each element. For Al2O3, these bands were between 500 and 650 cm-1, which represent out-of-plane OH bending vibrations and Al-O gibbsite and alumino-silicate vibrations. For CaO, the most important bands are related to carbonate content. A combination of Fourier transform infrared spectra and Random Forest models can be used as a rapid and low-cost technique to estimate the elemental composition of arid and semi-arid soils of Northern Iran.[Resumo] A caracterização da composição elementar fornece informações úteis para caracterizar o grau de alteração dos solos. Em Miandoab, norte do Irã, esta caracterização não existe. Os objetivos deste trabalho foram avaliar o grau de intemperismo dos solos típicos da região usando a sua composição elementar e estimar esta composição usando espectroscopia infravermelha com transformada de Fourier (FTIR) e modelos Random Forest (RF). Foram selecionados cinco perfis de solo, incluindo Aridisolos e Inceptisolos, como os mais representativos da área. Os principais óxidos elementares foram determinados por fluorescência de raios-X em cada horizonte genético, mostrando que estes solos estavam em um estágio de baixo grau de desenvolvimento. Apenas o Al2O3 e o CaO foram estimados com precisão, com valores de R2 de 0,8 e erro quadrático médio nos dados utilizados para validação de 0,2 e 1,1, respectivamente, enquanto os outros óxidos não foram preditos satisfatoriamente, provavelmente devido às pequenas diferenças na sua composição. O modelo Random Forest forneceu importantes bandas espectrais relacionadas com o conteúdo de cada elemento. Para o Al2O3, estes atingiram a região 500 a 650 cm-1, o que foi atribuído a vibrações de flexão de OH e vibrações de Al-O de gibbsita e alumino-silicatos. Para o CaO, as bandas mais importantes estavam relacionadas ao teor de carbonatos. Os resultados indicam que uma combinação de espectros infravermelha de transformada de Fourier e modelos Random Forest pode ser usada como uma técnica rápida e de baixo custo para estimar a composição elementar de solos do norte do Irã

Climate change impact on bioclimatic deficiency, using microLEIS DSS in Ahar soils, Iran

Regional impact studies of the future climate change effects are necessary because projected changes in meteorological variables differ from one region to another, and different climate systems can react in varied ways to the same changes. In this study, the effects of climate change on bioclimatic deficiency were compared in two cultivation methods (irrigated and rainfed) in a semi-arid region, Ahar (East Azarbaijan, IRAN). The agricultural land uses selected for evaluation were wheat (Triticum aestivum), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris), potato (Solanum tuberosum), and maize (Zea mays). In this way, Terraza model included in the land evaluation decision support system, called MicroLEIS DSS, was used. Terraza gives a quantitative prediction of a site bioclimatic deficiency. Soil morphological and analytical data were obtained from 44 sampling points based on a grid survey. Agro-climatic data, referred to temperature and precipitation, were collected from weather stations located in Ahar region, which benefits from more than 20 consecutive years of weather data. A future scenario of climate change was calculated according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on regions of Asia under scenario A1FI (highest future emission) for 2080s. Although, increasing of precipitation being available by climate change in the future scenario, humidity index will be reduced because of high temperature. The results showed that climate change is likely to cause severe water stress in irrigated cultivation of alfalfa, sugar beet, potato, and maize, the use of irrigation methods being essential to maintain agricultural productivity. Although irrigation is indicated as very important in this regime of semi-arid agriculture, cultivation of rainfed wheat can be possible instead of the irrigated one. Also, it is revealed that climate perturbation effects on rainfed conditions are more serious than those on the irrigated conditions in the area.The authors wish to thank Tabriz University for funding this research work, a dissertation of Ph. D. program undertaken by Farzin Shahbazi. They also thank Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), Sevilla, Spain for their sincere cooperation during the candidate’ s sabbatical studies.Peer Reviewe

A computational study of the potential energy surface of peroxyformic acid dimers

MP2 and M05-2x calculations with aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets were used to analyze intermolecular interactions in peroxyformic acid dimers. A total of 18 and 16 minima were located on the potential energy surface of HOOCHO dimer complexes at M05-2x and MP2 computational levels, respectively. The BSSE corrected interaction energies are in a range between 9 and 34 kJ mol 1 at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ computational level. The atoms-in-molecules (AIM) theory was also applied to explain the nature of the complexes. The interaction energies have been partitioned with the natural energy decomposition analysis (NEDA) showing that the most important attractive term corresponds to the charge transfer. © 2010 American Chemical Society.Peer Reviewe

Soil erosion assessment and monitoring by using ImpelERO model in east Azerbaijan province, Iran.

4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, 10 references. Este trabajo está incluido en el capítulo Symposium 3.2.1.: Highland agriculture and conservation of soil and water. el congreso tuvo lugar en Brisbane, Australia, 1-6 Agosto, 2010.Soil erosion continues to be a major concern for the development of sustainable agricultural management systems. Neural networks, as an artificial intelligence technology, have grown rapidly over the past few years and have an ability to deal with nonlinear multivariate systems. An integrated Model to Predict European Land use named ImpelERO is a decision trees/neural network hybrid model. This paper focuses on the possibility of model application in an area of west Asia by recalibration and generalization. The overall approach of ImpelERO model was applied in 14 natural regions from the east Azerbaijan province, Iran. Results showed that vulnerability indexes vary from 0.03 to 1.32 while risk classes will be very small (V1), small (V2), moderate (V3), large (V4), and very large (V5) in an area extension of 1080, 1860, 1184, 2981, and 1772 hectares, respectively. Lands belong to Zargar and Dizanlou natural regions because of topographical limitation factors are established with a very large risk class. Long term productivity reduction for time horizons 2020, 2050 and 2100 indicutes that management planning is necessary to minimize soil loss rate.Peer reviewe

Land use planning in Ahar area (Iran) using MicroLEIS DSS

10 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables, 26 references.The decision support system, MicroLEIS DSS, was applied to evaluate the land use planning in Ahar area, East Azarbaijan. In this way 6 agro-ecological land evaluation models constituents of this DSS software were selected in order to make strategies related to land evaluation at a regional level, such as segregation of agricultural lands, restoration of marginal areas, diversification of crop rotation, and identification of vulnerability areas. Results obtained from each evaluation models are presented and discussed in this research work. Soil morphological and analytical data were collected from 44 soil profiles representative of the study area and stored in SDBm plus database. Three control sections: 0-50, 25-50, and 0-100 cm were calculated by ‘soil layer generator’ to apply and run the models. Results show that in Ahar area, 45% of the total extension was classified as good capability land for agricultural uses. However, almost 12% of total area must be reforested by suitable shrub species, and not dedicated to agriculture, to minimize the land degradation. Additionally, soils with vertic properties used to present an excellent capability for most of the traditional crops. Wheat-alfalfa-soybean was selected as the best crop rotation. In summary, MicroLEIS DSS tool appears to be useful in semi-arid regions, such as East Azarbaijan (Iran), to formulate sustaining agro-ecological systems.Peer reviewe

Alcor and Aljarafe models application for exploring the agro-ecological limits of sustainability in Ahar area (Iran)

Comunicación oral y póster presentados en la citada conferencia, sesión 3, celebrada del 21-24, septiembre, 2009, en Bratislava, Slovakia.Peer reviewe