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...

Annually, a large amount of effluents is discharged from an industrial zone dedicated to leather industries into a dried seasonal waterway bed in Mashhad plain, Northeast of Iran. These soils are high in pH, CaCO contents and have no naturally occurring chromium detectable in mg/kg range. Considering high 3 concentration of chromium in the discharged leather industries effluents and their direc...

Sequence data from four gene regions (nrDNA, petN-psbM, trnD-trnT, trnS-trnG, 3,705 bp) revealed that junipers from the southern mountain ranges of Iran are very diverse. The combined NJ tree (3,705 bp) showed strong support for the distinct nature of J. excelsa, J. polycarpos, J. p. var. turcomanica, and J. p. var. seravschanica. The samples from NW Iran are J. polycarpos and samples from NE I...

Introduction Natural and artificial radionuclides are the main sources of human radiation exposure. These radionuclides, which are present in the environment, can enter the food chain. Rice is one of the most important food components in Iran. Radionuclides by transferring from soil to rice and entering the human body can affect human health. Materials and Methods Fourteen samples of different ...

The stability of the ice nucleation activity (INA) and viability of INA Pseudomonas syringae 31a, used as an ice nucleator in the manufacture of synthetic snow, was determined in snow. The viability of P. syringae 1-2b, a rifampin-resistant mutant selected from strain 31a to improve recovery from test samples, was determined in laboratory tests of three alpine soil and water samples from three ...

Soil compactibility which basically depends on soil texture, organic matter and soil water content during farm machinery traf®cking are major factors affecting soil conservation. In a ®eld experiment, cattle farmyard manure was applied to a silty clay loam soil (®ne-loamy, mixed, thermic Typic Haplargids, USDA; Calcaric Cambisols, FAO) in Isfahan, Iran. Three rates, 0, 50, 100 Mg haÿ1 (on oven ...

The study was aimed to examine total concentrations and pools of Hg in surface layers of soils in the Karkonosze Mountains, dependent on soil properties and site locality. Soil samples were collected from a litter layer and the layers 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm, at 68 sites belonging to the net of a monitoring system, in two separate areas, and in three altitudinal zones: below 900 m, 900-1100 m, and...

presence of toxic metals in agricultural soils can impose adverse health impact on consumers. the main purpose of this study was to determine spatial distribution of elements fe, sb, mn in agriculture soils and crops of hamedan province in iran. soil samples (0-20 cm depth) were collected from an area of 2831 km2.  iron, antimony and manganese in samples of soil and agricultural crops were extr...

Evaluation of the soil rhizosphere has been limited by the lack of robust assessments that can explore the vast complex structure and diversity of soil microbial communities. Our objective was to combine fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and pyrosequencing techniques to evaluate soil microbial community structure and diversity. In addition, we evaluated biogeochemical functionality of the microbia...

Concentrations of heavy metals (As, Co, Cu, Ni, Mo, Pb and Zn) are studied in the soil of Shiraz industrial complex zone, south Shiraz, Iran to asses metal contamination due to industrialization, urbanization and agricultural activity. Soil samples were collected from three different depths. The A and C depths are enriched with metals such as Ni, As, Mo, Cu, Pb and Zn, compared with the B depth...