Over the last decade, investigations on root water uptake have evolved toward a deeper integration of the soil and roots compartment properties, with the goal of improving our understanding of water acquisition from drying soils. This evolution parallels the increasing attention of agronomists to suboptimal crop production environments. Recent results have led to the description of root system ...

Acid deposition and its effects were studied by analysing the chemistry in precipitation, stream water, soil water and soils in two catchments in Hunan. One site, Linkesuo (denoted LKS), is on the outskirts of Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan, the other (Bailutang, denoted BLT) on the outskirts of Chenzhou in southern Hunan. Volume-weighted average pH values and sulphate concentrations...

Cultivation of sugarcane for bioethanol is increasing and the area under sugarcane is expanding. Much of the sugar for bioethanol comes from large plantations where it is grown with relatively high inputs. Sugarcane puts a high demands on the soil because of the use of heavy machinery and because large amounts of nutrients are removed with the harvest; biocides and inorganic fertilizers introdu...

Soil water, salinity and nitrogen content are three major factors affecting crop production in arid and semi-arid areas. This study was performed in two years of 2009 and 2010 in a semi-arid area in order to investigate the effects of irrigation water quantity (as main plot), quality (saline water, as sub-plot), nitrogen fertilizer (as sub-sub plot) and their interactions on growth and yiel...

The soils in Ebonyi State agro-ecological zones of southeastern Nigeria are plagued with characteristics that impede optimal crop production. Failures in agricultural development in this part of southeastern Nigeria may have been caused by the inability of the farmers to develop the abundant inland valleys for such crops like rice using appropriate water management systems. In order to arrest t...

long-term application of fertilizers containing p, especially organic fertilizers, usually increases the water soluble and available p of soil and at the same time may result in p accumulation in soil. organic fertilizers may also increase movement of p in the soil profile that could result in surface and ground water pollution. an experiment was conducted on field plots that received three app...