Migration of the Pachycondyla marginata ant is significantly oriented at 13 degrees with respect to the geomagnetic north-south axis. On the basis of previous magnetic measurements of individual parts of the body (antennae, head, thorax and abdomen), the antennae were suggested to host a magnetoreceptor. In order to identify Fe(3+)/Fe(2+) sites in antennae tissue, we used light microscopy on Pr...

water resources and enhancing soil quality (Wallace, 1994). An essential first step to the successful implemenTraditional sampling methods are inadequate for assessing the tation of site-specific management is the evaluation of interrelated physical, chemical, and biological soil properties responsible for variations in agronomic yield and ecological potentials across new technologies at the fi...

The aim of this work is to investigate how the spatial variability of soil properties and soil erodibility (K factor) were affected by the changes in land use allowed by irrigation with water from a reservoir in a semiarid area. To this end, three areas representative of different land uses (agroforestry grassland, lucerne crop and olive orchard) were studied within a 900 ha farm. The interrela...

Irrigation land suitability assessment and mapping play an imperative role for sustainable utilization of scarce physical land resources. The objectives of this study were to prepare spatial data base of physical land resources for irrigated agriculture and to assess land suitability for irrigation and developing suitable area map for the study area. The study was conducted at Fogera catchment,...

Various methods were utilized for assessment of soil consumption patterns and trends in the cities of Central Europe within Urban Soil Management Strategy (URBAN-SMS) project. They included ex-post assessment of soil loss based on land use change data, modeling of future soil loss and participatory impact assessment. The major data inputs for ex-post and ex-ante assessments were satellite image...

The objective of this research was to assess vulnerable soil erosion risk with qualitative approach using GIS in Ankara-Guvenc Basin. The study area is located about 44 km north of Ankara and covers 17.5 km2. The selected theme layers of this model include topographic factor, soil factors (depth, texture, impermeable horizon) and land use. Slope layer and land use-land cover data were prepared ...

Surface soil moisture data from different sources (satellite retrievals, ground measurements, and land model integrations of observed meteorological forcing data) have been shown to contain consistent and useful information in their seasonal cycle and anomaly signals even though they typically exhibit very different mean values and variability. At the global scale, in particular, it is currentl...

Spatial predictions of soil moisture content in arid lands are necessary for soil survey, land evaluation, hydrological modeling, land use planning and sustainable land use. Multiple-linear regression models with land use and terrain indices were developed to spatially predict soil moisture using six methods. The performance of six models was evaluated using 13 indices based on biweekly-measure...

Analyzing the dynamics of soil particle-size distributions (PSDs), soil nutrients, and erodibility are very important for understanding the changes of soil structure and quality after long-term land-use conversion. We applied multifractal Rényi spectra (Dq) and singularity spectra (f(α)) to characterize PSDs 35 years after conversions from cropland to shrubland with Caragana microphylla (shrubl...

Numerous studies have investigated the direct retrieval of soil properties, including soil texture, using remotely sensed images. However, few have considered how soil properties influence dynamic changes in remote images or how soil processes affect the characteristics of the spectrum. This study investigated a new method for mapping regional soil texture based on the hypothesis that the rate ...