The intensive use of Prince Edward Island (PEI) farmland for potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production draws concern because of soil physical degradation under the intense tillage and other heavy traffic associated with the mechanisation of this crop, and the resulting vulnerability of sloping fields to hydraulic erosion. Growing public consciousness and pressure in favour of sustainable agricul...

Erosion in the first year after a wildfire can be up to three orders of magnitude greater than the erosion from undisturbed forests. To mitigate potential postfire erosion, various erosion control treatments are applied on highly erodible areas with downstream resources in need of protection. Because postfire erosion rates generally decline by an order of magnitude for each year of recovery, ef...

Background: Traditional polyethylene film mulching is widely used in the Loess Plateau region of China to improve crop yields. However, whether long-term can continue ensure yield under future climate change conditions questionable. First, we conducted a four-year field experiment calibrate and validate biogeochemical DeNitrification–DeComposition (DNDC) model. Then, based on calibrated validat...

Using plastic mulching for farmland is booming around the world. Despite its benefit of protecting crops from unfavorable conditions and increasing crop yield, the massive use of the plastic-mulching technique causes many environmental problems. Therefore, timely and effective mapping of plastic-mulched farmland (PMF) is of great interest to policy-makers to leverage the trade-off between econo...

Nonflooded irrigation is an important water-saving rice cultivation technology, but little is known on its photosynthetic mechanism. The aims of this work were to investigate photosynthetic characteristics of rice during grain filling stage under three nonflooded irrigation treatments: furrow irrigation with plastic mulching (FIM), furrow irrigation with nonmulching (FIN), and drip irrigation w...

A quantitative understanding of yield response to water and nutrients is key to improving the productivity and sustainability of rainfed cropping systems. Here, we quantified the effects of rainfall, fertilization (NPK) and soil organic amendments (with straw and manure) on yields of a rainfed wheat-soybean system in the North China Plain (NCP), using 30-years' field experimental data (1982-201...

Soil erosion is a growing challenge for agricultural production in Northern China. To explore the effect of variation in stubble height and mulching biomass on soil erosion caused by wind, we conducted a field experiment using a quadratic rotation combination design. Results showed that the quantity of straw mulch was the dominant factor affecting soil erosion, and stubble height was of seconda...

McDonald, Philip M.; Fiddler, Gary O. 1997. Vegetation trends in a young ponderosa pine plantation treated by manual release and mulching. Res. Paper PSW-RP-234. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.s. Department of Agriculture; 15 p. On an above-average site in northern California, a complex plant community was treated by manual release in 2and 5-foot radii, one an...

Conservation Agriculture (CA) have a large potential for enhancing cereal yields in the semi-arid areas through better management of soil moisture. The objective of the current paper is to quantify, at national level, the impact of CA adoption in wheat-based agricultural systems in Syria. A country-level bio-economic approach was used for this purpose. Different CA technical packages (TPs) were...

In general, the quality of fruits depends on local conditions experienced by the fruit during its development. In cotton, fruit quality, and more specifically the quality of the fibre in the fruit, depends on interactions between fruit position in the plant architecture, temperature and agronomic practices, such as sowing time, mulching with plastic film and topping of the plant's main stem and...