Irrigated croplands in Central Asia are highly prone to land degradation due to their environmentally fragile physical settings and intensive agricultural practices. This study: (i) assesses the state of croplands in irrigated areas in northern Uzbekistan, based on the time series of MODIS-NDVI imagery; (ii) analyzes relationships between the identified trend of cropland degradation and soil qu...

Biochar application to agricultural soils is an interesting emerging technology with promising potential for long-term carbon storage, sustainable waste disposal, and soil fertility enhancement. Extensive information exists in the literature on the highly beneficial properties of biochar. Nevertheless, systematic application of biochar on European agricultural soils may have wide ranging policy...

The objective of this article was to develop a deeper understanding of the interdependences between smallholder farming and the state of environmental management in rural Malawi. We examined the agricultural local governance framework in Malingunde Extension Planning Area (EPA), its contribution to food security and how it conflicts with overall land and forest resources management. The charcoa...

Repeated application of manures to agricultural soils could cause the accumulation of phosphorus (P) in soils. However, it is unclear if manure P can behave similar to P in soluble fertilizers in accumulation Olsen-P (0.5 mol L-1 NaHCO3 at pH 8.5) in soils. A long-term wheat-maize rotation experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of repeated application of manures on P accumulation i...

Pectinases have multiple nature and various forms which are necessary for the hydrolysis of pectin in several conventional industrial and natural processes. In this investigation fourteen fungal strains which isolated from agricultural soils ,were screened for pectinase activity. Pectinase activity were measured in vitro by assaying released reducing sugar from pectin as sole carbon source. Asp...

Four heavy metals were measured in forty-nine topsoil samples collected fromagricultural areas in Siakh-Darengoun, Iran. The goals were to investigate soil spatialdistribution patterns of metals; their potential ecological risk; and sources. The Hakansonpotential ecological risk index and index of geo-accumulation (Igeo) were used forevaluating t...

movement of pesticides through soils to groundwater and surface water has long been considered a potentially serious environmental problem in different parts of the world. remediation of such problems requires monitoring of site specific data. considering these facts a laboratory based investigation was carried out to determine the sorption and leaching parameters of two contrasting and widely ...

Bioremediation is an important technology for the removal of persistent organic pollutants from the environment. Bioaugmentation with the encapsulated Pseudomonas sp. strain MHP41 of agricultural soils contaminated with the herbicide simazine was studied. The experiments were performed in microcosm trials using two soils: soil that had never been previously exposed to s-triazines (NS) and soil ...