*T. C. Caesar-TonThat and V.L. Cochran, USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, 1500 North Central, Sidney, MT 59270 *Corresponding author: [email protected]. ABSTRACT Loss of water stable aggregates due to excessive tillage has increased the potential for soil erosion in semiarid farming-systems. Fungi can be responsible for the resistance of soil aggregates to brea...

Plant species affect soil bacterial diversity and compositions. However, little is known about the role of dominant plant species in shaping the soil bacterial community during the restoration of sandy grasslands in Horqin Sandy Land, northern China. We established a mesocosm pots experiment to investigate short-term responses of soil bacterial diversity and composition, and the related soil pr...

[1] Groundwater uptake can play a major role in the survival of vegetation in semiarid areas, but this has not yet been included in an earlier developed ecohydrological stochastic framework. In this paper we provide a piecewise linear equation which includes capillary fluxes from shallow groundwater in the loss function of the ecohydrological stochastic model. The results indicate that this mod...

Agricultural chemical transport to surface water and the linkage to other hydrological compartments, principally ground water, was investigated at five watersheds in semiarid to humid climatic settings. Chemical transport was affected by storm water runoff, soil drainage, irrigation, and how streams were linked to shallow ground water systems. Irrigation practices and timing of chemical use gre...

Objective: Soil salinity is one of the major worldwide environmental constraints affecting agricultural production in arid and semiarid regions. Lack of proper management of water and soil resources lead to increase soil salinity and reduce soil fertility. On the other hand, it seems simple and cheap method of measuring soil salinity is necessary. The aim of this study was to determine the rela...

In many arid and semiarid regions, saline playas represent a significant source of unconsolidated sediments available for aeolian transport, and severe saline dust storms occur frequently due to human disturbance. In this study, saline dust storms are reviewed systematically from the aspects of concept, general characteristics, conditions of occurrence, distribution and ecological impact. Our r...

Water availability is the main limiting factor in arid soils; however, few studies have examined the effects of drying and rewetting on nitrifiers from these environments. The effect of water availability on the diversity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) from a semiarid soil of the Chilean sclerophyllous matorral was determined by microcosm assays. The addition of water eve...

The Moringa is a fast-growing evergreen or deciduous, multipurpose tree species comprised of 13 species. They are thought to be native to India from where they have been introduced in many different tropical and subtropical countries and are now growing throughout the world including Saudi Arabia (Moringa peregrina a native species). Moringa tree is regarded as an excellent source of nutrition ...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a key role in soil fertility, hydrology, contaminants control and acts as a sink or source of terrestrial carbon content that can affect the concentration of atmospheric CO2. SOC supports the sustainability and quality of ecosystems, especially in semi-arid region. This study was conducted to determine relative importance of 13 different exploratory climatic, soi...

[1] Riparian ecosystems are characterized by spatial and temporal heterogeneity in physical and biological attributes, with consequences for nutrient cycling. We investigated the responses of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling processes to the hydrogeomorphic template in the riparian zone of the San Pedro River, Arizona, a large (catchment area !11,500 km), free-flowing, semiarid river. Over a...