Improving water use efficiency and soil properties are two major factors for sustainable development in desert areas. Therefore, this research aims to study the effectiveness of a biological hydrogel, plant vegetation layer, sand and barley straw with rain harvesting techniques through micro-catchment operation on some soil properties including pH, Nitrogen, Electrical conductivity, Sodium Abso...

Introduction Regardless of how horrible and devastating wildland fires are portrayed by the media, they are a natural disturbance that many native ecosystems depend on for regeneration. As the population of the United States increases, more individuals are building their homes in wildlands rather than urban landscapes. Homes built in undeveloped wildland vegetation create areas often referred t...

pepino (solanum muricatum), a new vegetable crops, is from solanaceae family and cultivated as annual crops. in order to investigate the effects of mulch on weed dry weight in pepino and soil humidity and temperature, an experiment was conducted based on randomized completely design with three replication at the ferdowsi university of mashhad green house, during 2009. treatments included rice s...

the most usual type of petroleum mulch, which has been successfully used to combat desertification in large areain iran for more than thirty years, is produced by heavy residue petroleum cuts. the petroleum mulch consists of awide range of different heavy hydrocarbons such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs). pahs are present atlow level in petroleum mulch, where there is contact with wa...

The use of leaf mulch as a soil cover is effective in improving yield and soil fertility. The field experiment was conducted during 2010 and 2011 to study the effect of plant spacing (30 cm × 30 cm and 45 cm × 30 cm) and four mulches {pine needles (Pinus roxburghii), poplar leaf (Populus deltoides), silver oak (Grevillea robusta) tree leaf mulch and unmulched control} on growth, yield, qual...

today, due to the problems caused by herbicide application, there is a strong interest in developing alternative methods of weed control. to study the effects of soil solarization, barley straw mulch on weed flora, a field experiment was conducted at research station of faculty of agriculture, ferdowsi university of mashhad during the growing season of 2007-2008. this experiment was based on a ...

Halosulfuron is a proposed alternative to methyl bromide for managing nutsedges (Cyperus spp.) in several vegetable crops, including cucurbits. Field studies were conducted to evaluate the crop sensitivity to halosulfuron in a spring squash (Cucurbita pepo L.)—fall cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) rotation from 2000 to 2002. Treatments included application of halosulfuron to the soil surface after...

Nematode communities were monitored for three years in a citrus soil ecosystem in Central Florida under various agricultural regimes comparing standard vs. reduced-input practices. Differences in agricultural regimes consisted of two fertilization levels, two irrigation levels, and two types of ground cover under the tree (herbicide vs. mulch). While some nematodes were affected sporadically by...

Soil erosion is a growing challenge for agricultural production in Northern China. To explore the effect of variation in stubble height and mulching biomass on soil erosion caused by wind, we conducted a field experiment using a quadratic rotation combination design. Results showed that the quantity of straw mulch was the dominant factor affecting soil erosion, and stubble height was of seconda...