A series of 10 aircraft flights was conducted over agricultural fields to evaluate relationships between observed surface soil moisture and soft moisture predicted using passive microwave sensor observations. An a pr/or/ approach was used to predict values of surface soil moisture for three types of fields: tilled corn, no-till corn with soybean stubble, and idle fields with corn stubble. Accep...

In this report we describe how the tactile smoothness of shaven beards depends on the distribution of the stubble lengths remaining after shaving and on various skin parameters like coarseness and scaliness. To this end, we set up two experiments on perceived smoothness with blinded human judges. In the first experiment we used artificial beards with various stubble length distributions and stu...

Browse and cereal stubble represent the two most important resources for grazing small ruminants in dry Mediterranean areas. The purpose of the present review is to provide updated information regarding their nutritional value. In a mixed Mediterranean environment, browse represents at least 40% of goat’s diet. Most browse species in the Mediterranean are rich in tanniferous phenolic substances...

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...

Irrigated crops are produced on 645,000 ha in east-central Washington and northcentral Oregon (1). Approximately 70% of this cropland is irrigated with water diverted from rivers, while water for the remaining hectares is pumped from deep wells. Much of the irrigated cropland is found in areas of less than 200 mm annual precipitation, where dryland farming is difficult or impossible. Wind erosi...

Maintaining winter stubble for the conservation of steppe passerines is widely implemented under the regional agrienvironmental program in Spanish dry lands. The adequacy of such measures was assessed in terms of bird density on different soil cover types in central Spain. Highest bird densities were found in ploughed, sown and fallow plots. Stubble plots were poorly used by wintering passerine...

Standards for the height of herbaceous vegetation remaining in meadows at the end of the growing season have been, and continue to be, implemented on public grazing lands throughout the Sierra Nevada. Although supporting research is limited, stubble height standards are intended to benefit riparian resources by limiting grazing pressure. This study illustrates how the timing and intensity of de...

Soil organic matter (SOM) is considered as a key indicator of sustainability, therefore measurements of SOM changes under various forms of management are needed for the development of sustainable systems. Because the measurement of total SOM is not sensitive enough to monitor short and medium term changes, techniques that measure meaningful fractions of SOM should be used. In this study both to...

Dynamics of cropland soil organic carbon (SOC) in response to different management practices and environmental conditions across North China Plain (NCP) were studied using a modeling approach. We identified the key variables driving SOC changes at a high spatial resolution (10 km × 10 km) and long time scale (90 years). The model used future climatic data from the FGOALS model based on four fut...