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...

Numerous field experiments were conducted at a wide range of sites in Arizona from 1988 through 1999 involving phosphate (P) fertilization of cotton (Gossypium spp.). A total of 21 site-years were used to study the effects of P on both Upland (G. hirsutum L.) and Pima (G. barbadense L.) varieties. The purpose of these experiments was to evaluate University of Arizona (UA) soil fertility guideli...

Secondary forests are important carbon sinks, but their biomass dynamics vary markedly within and across landscapes. The biotic and abiotic drivers of this variation are still not well understood. We tested the effects of soil resource availability and competition by lianas on the biomass dynamics of young secondary tropical forests in Panama and assessed the extent to which liana effects were ...

Prescribed fire was used in two semiarid grasslands to reduce shrub cover, promote grass production, and reduce erosional loss that represents a potential non–point-source of sediment to degrade water quality. This study measured transported soil sediment, dynamics in soil surface microtopography, cover of the woody shrub, grass, and bare ground cover classes, and soil fertility measured by nit...

Multistrata agroforestry systems with tree crops comprise a variety of land use systems ranging from plantations of coffee, cacao or tea with shade trees to highly diversified homegardens and multi-storey tree gardens. Research on plant-soil interactions has concentrated on the former. Tree crop-based land use systems are more efficient in maintaining soil fertility than annual cropping systems...

A number of tests to study the yield response of cotton and soybean to several fertility programs, under conventional, no-till, and stale-seedbed production systems were established at the Cotton Branch Station near Marianna, Ark. Soil samples (0 to 6 inches) were collected prior to planting and extracted using the Mehlich3 procedure (extraction ratio of 1:7), with nitrate-N measured with a sel...

The study was undertaken to find out how crop farmers in the Techiman municipality of Ghana determine and manage the fertility of their soils. Data were obtained through questionnaire and interview of one hundred and ten randomly selected farmers from the municipality between January and February, 2010. Frequency count, percentage and correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The f...