In this paper, an approach to assessing ecological suitability of crop growth was developed using GIS, through a case study of maize planting in Jilin Province, in the northeast China, in order to improve the accuracy and objectivity of the evaluation, promote the rationality of crop distribution, and increase the efficiency of the agro-resource utility. Climate and soil conditions in the regio...

It is uncertain whether the same ecological forces that structure plant and animal communities also shape microbial communities, especially those residing in soil. We sought to uncover the relative importance of present-day environmental characteristics, climatic variation, and historical contingencies in shaping soil actinobacterial communities in a long-term chronosequence. Actinobacteria com...

1. A considerable advance has been made in the study of the fulvic extract of soil organic matter. A new method has been introduced whereby the fulvic extract is separated by a selective adsorption technique into four distinct fractions. 2. These fractions have been obtained from the fulvic extracts from four widely diverse types of soil. 3. A preliminary examination of the chemical properties ...

BACKGROUND Global climatic change is generally expected to stimulate net primary production, and consequently increase soil carbon (C) input. The enhanced C input together with potentially increased precipitation may affect soil microbial processes and plant growth. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To examine the effects of C and water additions on soil microbial properties and plant growth, we...

Large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides applied annually to agricultural soils improve the physical and chemical properties of soil but, when they are applied without control they can cause serious environmental problems. The farms of Tizayuca in Hidalgo State produce about 30000 tons of manure per day, which are applied indiscriminately in the same region for agricultural use. The aim of t...

The influence of environmental factors on forage quality of temperate and tropical grasses has been reviewed by several authors, who summarized how light, temperature, drought and soil nutrients influence chemical composition, and digestibility of forages grown in contrasting areas of the world. The effects of season of the year on forage growth, grazing behavior and animal performance have als...

Soil genesis, physico-chemical properties and tea yield were investigated along different hillslope positions in the major tea cultivation area of Iran, i.e. Lahijan, Gilan Province. Land suitability was also determined for the tea production in this hilly region. Four different slope positions i.e., summit, shoulder, backslope and toeslope were sampled on three slope aspects following the prof...

The knowledge about microorganisms-activity and diversity under hop production is still limited. We assumed that, different systems of hop production (within the same soil and climatic conditions) significantly influence on the composition of soil microbial populations and its functional activity (metabolic potential). Therefore, we compared a set of soil microbial properties in the field exper...

A new index for agricultural drought monitoring is presented based on the integration of different soil/vegetation remote sensing observations. The synergistic fusion of the surface soil moisture (SSM) from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived land surface temperature (LST), and water/vegetation indices for a...

zygophyllum atriplicoides is one of the important species of iran rangelands that has special importance owing to some properties like high distribution rate, coverage percentage, density, and plant biomass that make it possible to supply a part of forage needed by livestock during spring and winter as well as to avoid soil degradation against water and wind erosions. this research tries to stu...