Land use change resulting from anthropogenic pressure on land has led to degraded soil quality, especially in the hilly tropical regions where ecosystems are generally fragile and susceptible degradation cultivation. Hence, sustainable uses management practices crucial for agricultural production ecological balance, particularly these regions. The present study investigates impact of various hi...

The impacts of agro-pastoral activities on soil properties, plus nutritive value and residual standing biomass herbaceous plants in areas different land uses western Serengeti, were evaluated. Vegetation sampled along 4,000 m transects laid across fallow land, grazed only by livestock, mixed grazing (livestock wildlife) wildlife only. A total number 123 plant species encountered during sampling...

Fire is becoming a pervasive driver of environmental change in Amazonia and is expected to intensify, given projected reductions in precipitation and forest cover. Understanding of the influence of post-deforestation land cover change on fires in Amazonia is limited, even though fires in cleared lands constitute a threat for ecosystems, agriculture, and human health. We used MODIS satellite dat...

According to the fundamental goal of remote sensing technology, the image classification of desired sensors can be introduced as the most important part of satellite image interpretation. There exist various algorithms in relation to the supervised land use classification that the most pertinent one should be determined. Therefore, this study has been conducted to determine the best and most su...

In the Great Plains of North America potential evaporation exceeds precipitation during most months of the year. About 75% of the annual precipitation is received from April through September, and is accompanied by high temperatures and low relative humidity. Dryland agriculture in the Great Plains has depended on wheat production in a wheat-fallow agroecosystem (one crop year followed by a fal...

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) monoculture is conventionally cultivated followed by two to three months of summer fallow in the Loess Plateau. To develop a sustainable cropping system, we conducted a six-year field experiment to investigate the effect of leguminous green manure (LGM) instead of bare fallow on the yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of winter wheat and the soil water balan...

There is increasing archaeological evidence that deer were being systematically cropped or “ranched” much earlier than has been previously supposed. In the Mediterranean region, fallow deer (Dama danm dama), made a sudden appearance on several islands at the same time as sheep, goats and pigs, and subsequently their bones make up 70 percent of those found at Neolithic sites between 6000 and 200...

Blowing dust from excessively tilled fallow fields is a major soil loss and air quality concern in the low precipitation (<300 mm annual) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production region of the Inland Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States. A 2-year tillage-based winter wheat-summer fallow (WW-SF) rotation is practiced on >90% of rainfed cropland in the region. Earlier research proved the u...

European honey bees Apis mellifera are important commercial pollinators that have suffered greater than normal overwintering losses since 2007 in North America and Europe. Contributing factors likely include a combination of parasites, pesticides, and poor nutrition. We examined diet diversity, diet nutritional quality, and pesticides in honey bee-collected pollen from commercial colonies in th...

CT crop–fallow system in the central Great Plains (Shanahan et al., 1988; Halvorson, 1990; Peterson et al., Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–fallow (WF) using conven1993; Halvorson and Reule, 1994; Farahani et al., 1998). tional stubble mulch tillage (CT) is the predominant production practice in the central Great Plains and has resulted in high erosion potential Winter wheat yields in a WCF...