degraded soils in northwest china are mostly nonproductive due to imbalanced nutrient and inadequate water supply. the effects of manure application at three different rates (7.5, 15.0, and 22.5 t ha–1) combined with chemical fertilizers on soil water and water-use efficiency in maize [compared with chemical fertilizers (control)], under semi-arid conditions in dark loessial soil and over a per...

converting rangelands to arable land such as dry farming is widely practiced in many places in iran. this activity could possibly contribute to the increase in downstream sedimentation. the effects of this activity on downstream watersheds are not well documented for many strategic areas in the country. one such area which is proposed for this study is the kardeh drainage basin, located in the ...

northern khorasan province is located in north-east iran. according to demarton coefficient, it is a semiarid region. arid and semi-arid or subhumid zones are characterized by temperature variations, low and erratic rainfall, periodic droughts and different associations of vegetative cover and soils. this article looks at current dry lands and general guidelines for finding the best area for dr...

Sanjiang Plain has undergone dramatic land degradation since the 1950s, which has caused negative effects on ecosystems services and sustainability. In this study, we used trajectory analysis as well as the Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient and relative land use suitability index (R) to analyze spatiotemporal changes of land degradation from 1954 to 2013 and to make a preliminary estimation of the...

Land is becoming a scarce natural resource due to the burgeoning population growth and urbanization. Essentially, detecting changes in land surface is significant for understanding and assessing human impacts on the environment. Nowadays, land use change detection using remote sensing data provides quantitative and timely information for management and evaluation of natural resources. This stud...

Understanding the relationship between land use and surface water quality is necessary for effective water management. We estimated the impacts of catchment-wide land use on water quality during the dry and rainy seasons in the Dongjiang River basin, using remote sensing, geographic information systems and multivariate statistical techniques. The results showed that the 83 sites can be divided ...

Subtropical dry forests are among the most vulnerable biomes to land transformation at a global scale. Among them, the Dry Chaco suffers an accelerated change due to agriculture expansion and intensification. The Dry Chaco ecoregion is characterized by high levels of endemisms and species diversity, which are the result of a variety of climates and reliefs, allowing a wide variety of environmen...

It can be observed that the environmental focus on the climate change debate has ignored contribution of political factors in preventing famines. The question arises why famines occur much more frequently in some dry land areas than in others need to be answered satisfactorily. Can democracy contribute to prevent famines in dry land areas with adversely affected by climate change? As famine is ...