Fresh water supply and its security encounter a high level of fluctuating variability under global climate changes. To address these concerns in catchment water management, a good understanding of land use/cover impacts on the hydrological cycle affecting water supply is crucial. The objective of this study is to define a model to investigate the impact of existing land use/cover on water yield...

For the first few days after heavy rain or irrigations, water drains from the soil profile until its water content approaches a relatively stable value called the drained upper limit or field capacity. When plants have extracted all of the water available to them, the root zone water content approaches a lower limit of available water, or permanent wilting water content. The water held by the s...

soil quality is a necessary indicator of land management. different indices are applied to evaluate farming systems, soil types and land uses based on soil quality. the slope of retention curve at its inflection point has been defined as soil physical quality index (si) but the relationships between si and penetration resistance (pr), the least limiting water range (llwr), and available water c...

abstract different definitions have been proposed for soil quality. various soil properties have been suggetsted as soil quality indices by researchers. this research was conducted to study the relationship between slope of retention curve at its inflection point (s index) and other soil physical quality indices, because the reserches between s index and soil physical properties are little. thi...

in order to study the effects of water deficit stress and foliar application of chitosan in safflower (carthamus tinctorius l.), a pot experiment was conducted in 2009. experimental design was a randomized complete block in factorial arrangement with three replications. experimental factors were water deficit levels (unstressed (control) and 70% available water depletion from soil (water defici...

biological soil crusts (bscs) result from an intimate association between soil particles and cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens and mosses in different proportions which live on the surface, or immediately in the uppermost millimeters of soil. therefore bscs cover the ground surface as a coherent layer, and influence primary processes such as carbon and nitrogen fixation and hydrologic status...

Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus L. is a herbaceous perennial plant that could be drought tolerant once established after the first year. To evaluate the effects of water stress on growth parametersand forage quality of this plant, a field experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design with three replications in Isfahan, Iran during 2013-2015. Treatments wer...

Mollisols of Santa Fe have different tilth and load support capacity. Despite the importance of these attributes to achieve a sustainable crop production, few information is available. The objectives of this study are i) to assess soil physical indicators related to plant growth and to soil mechanical behavior; and ii) to establish relationships to estimate the impact of soil loading on the soi...

Water deficit and phosphate (Pi) deficiency adversely affect growth and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) of legume crops. In this study, we examined the impact of interaction between soil water conditions and available soil-Pi levels on growth, nodule development and BNF potential of nine cowpea varieties grown on dry savanna soils. In our experimental design, soils with different available s...