This study was conducted to investigate surface characteristics of sand particles. Surface topography of sand particles was determined in 3-D using a commercially available optical profiler. Measurements were made on areas that had side dimensions on the order of 0.1 mm at a lateral resolution of 0.3 Ilm and height resolution of less than 6 nm. The 3-D representation of a surface obtained using...

[1] Dust production models (DPM) used to estimate vertical fluxes of mineral dust aerosols over arid regions need accurate data on soil and surface properties. The Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systemes Atmospheriques (LISA) data set was developed for Northern Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. This regional data set was built through dedicated field campaigns and include, among othe...

the purpose of the present research was to study the properties of natural habitats and growth status of the genus tamarix in miankangi, sistan province, south-eastern iran. selective sampling was used to examine the natural stands structure. then, the one ha-rectangular sample plots were stablished in the stands and surrounding bare lands as control plots. quantitative variables of stands viz....

Understanding the fates of soil hydrological processes and nitrogen (N) is essential for optimizing the water and N in a dryland crop system with the goal of obtaining a maximum yield. Few investigations have addressed the dynamics of dryland N and its association with the soil hydrological process in a freeze-thawing agricultural area. With the daily monitoring of soil water content and acquis...

Substrate type is a key-factor in nest-site selection and nest architecture of burrowing birds. However, little is known about which factors drive nest-site selection for these species, especially in the tropics. We studied the influence of soil attributes on nest-site selection by the campo miner Geositta poeciloptera, an open grassland bird that builds its nests within soil cavities. For all ...

Abstract: In this paper, the way topographic spatial information changes with resolution was investigated using semi-variograms and an Independent Structures Model (ISM) to identify the mechanisms involved in changes of topographic parameters as resolution becomes coarser or finer. A typical Loess Hilly area in the Loess Plateau of China was taken as the study area. DEMs with resolutions of 2.5...

Aerial photography acquired with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has great potential for incorporation into rangeland health monitoring protocols, and object-based image analysis is well suited for this hyperspatial imagery. A major drawback, however, is the low spectral resolution of the imagery, because most lightweight cameras suitable for UAVs only acquire imagery in the red, green, and blu...

Numerous soil water repellency (SWR) studies have investigated the possible causes of this temporal phenomenon, yet there remains a lack knowledge on order importance main driving forces SWR in context changing environmental conditions under grassland ecosystems. To study separate and combined effects texture, climate, cover type inducing or altering SWR, four sites from different climatic regi...