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By the example of arable horizon samples taken from three soil types (sod-podzolic, gray forest, and leached chernozem) the peculiarities of electromagnetic waves reflection from their different particle size fractions were studied. The extraction of fractions by dry sieving was carried out using Retsch AS 200 BASIC equipment. As a result, 14 fractions ranging in size from less than 20 microns to more than 5,000 microns were isolated. Spectral reflectance was determined for each fraction and for the soil sample before sieving in the electromagnetic wave range from 350 to 2,500 nm using a SR-6500 field spectroradiometer (Spectral Evolution, USA). Analysis of similarities and differences in the obtained spectral reflectance curves of individual fractions was carried out using their visual analysis, the method of similarity dendrogram construction, as well as regression analysis between light reflectance and fraction particle size. It was confirmed that at a more detailed level of analysis compared to the one carried out by other researchers earlier, the general patterns of light reflectance of the samples do not change. A higher reflection of waves by thinner fractions and a lower reflection by more coarse fractions are observed. At the same time, spectral reflection curves for individual fractions are out of the general pattern, the level of intensity of local extremes of the curves’ changes. This confirms the difference of the material composition, which forms the color of soils, of these fractions from others. The color of the mixed sample is a spectral mixture of colors of its separate fractions. Presumably, this is the main reason for such a phenomenon as change of spectral reflectivity of open surface of soils under the influence of atmospheric precipitation.

Keshan Disease (KD) is still a serious endemic public health problem in Northeast China. Previous studies have mainly focused on soil selenium content, staple food selenium content, and human selenium level, but there are few systematic studies on soil selenium existing forms and their migration from soil to crops and human body. In order to provide visualization of the spatial distribution characteristics and migration status of soil selenium content, and to provide a reference basis for the etiological analysis, prevention, control and elimination of KD, the 121183 topsoil soil (0-20 cm) geochemical data and 30295 soil parent material data which were collected and analysed by two-layer gridding method were used to infer the barrier factors in the migration and transformation of selenium from soil to crop and human body. The total selenium average of soil, staple food and human body be counted, the soil selenium existing forms and the correlation analysis between soil aluminum trioxide, iron trioxide were analysed.The average content of topsoil selenium in Northeast China was 0.20 mg/kg, which was significantly lower than the world soil selenium content average (0.4 mg/kg) and slightly lower than the Chinese soil selenium content average (0.239 mg/kg).The average selenium content of human hair is only 0.16mg/kg in Baiquan, Heilongjiang Province. Soil-forming parent material has some influence on soil selenium content, however, epigenetic enrichment is a more significant enrichment factor on soil selenium content. Soil selenium existing in humic acid state selenium, strongly organic bound state selenium, and the contents of selenite, selenate and methyl selenocysteine which are easily used by plants are all relatively high, correlation analysis between soil selenium content and organic matter, iron and aluminium oxides shows that soil organic matter and iron and aluminium oxides were the main barrier factors for selenium migration and transformation. Lower soil selenium content may be the basic factor for the biogeochemical deficiency of selenium, the sequestration of selenium by clay chemical constituents such as iron and aluminium oxides and soil organic matter is the direct factor for the biogeochemical low selenium in the Northeastern China, which increasing the risk of KD in the population. These research findings can provide more evidence to assess the elimination of biogeochemical aetiology of diseases from a selenium nutrient perspective.

it is necessary to apply a remote sensing-based system for rice cultivation assessment parallel with the field measurements of the crop biophysical parameters. This study aims to map the rice cultivated areas and give an estimate for the expected yield (ton/ha) using Sentinel-2 satellite data. The study was carried out in an experimental site in the Kafr El-Sheikh governorate with a total area of 3240 ha. The multi-temporal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) extracted from nine Sentinel-2 imagery cover the whole summer season. The supervised nearest neighborhood object-based classification method was employed, resulting in a classification map with an overall accuracy of 95% and a kappa coefficient of 0.93. Yield prediction was carried out by using an empirical yield prediction model using the NDVI and the Leaf Area Index (LAI). The LAI was calculated using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model and then validated against the measured LAI. the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MPAE) was calculated to estimate the error between the measured and predicted LAI and yield. The MPAE was found to be ±6.76% (i.e. ±0.28 m2/m2) with a high correlation between the measured and the calculated LAI with a coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.94). While for the yield, the MPAE was found to be ±6.53% (i.e. ±0.66 ton/ha) and R2 of 0.95. This method is applicable to estimate area and yield of rice in the northern Nile delta in adequate time before harvest.

The full exploitation of the resource potential of arable lands was analyzed in the research. The problem of completeness of the use in different farming systems was considered. It was found that at the current stage of development of farming systems, the diversity of soils and lands and, accordingly, their resource potential were most successfully incorporated in adaptive-landscape farming systems and precision farming systems. Undoubtedly, the cost of precision farming systems will decrease in the future due to the cheapening of technical means. But without introducing scientific and methodological justification for accounting of diversity of soils and land plots (as in adaptive-landscape farming systems) and heterogeneity of crops into precision farming systems, increasing the completeness of land resource potential cannot be achieved. Another important direction to improve the full use of the land resource potential is the development of a new scientific direction - Econics, and the development of technologies for leveling the heterogeneity of fields. But these directions are at the very beginning of their development.

In arid and semi-arid regions, the water-use efficiency (WUE) is highly important for water administration and management. The water losses increased, when water application records low efficiency. The water losses maybe amplified, when the irrigation system ignores soil variability and water applied uniformly. Which means more water application, more energy demand, and more money expenses. The current investigation aims at using remotely sensed data and GIS Techniques for monitoring irrigation water consumption and its correlation with crop yield under the pivot irrigation system. El-Salhia region contains a big agricultural farm located at the South Eastern of Nile delta. The investigated field was irrigated under the pivot central sprinkler irrigation system which cultivated with the wheat crop. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) were calculated based on landsat data. The crop water stress index (CWSI) depends on the variance between the LST of the targets and their air temperature (Tair) to detect the relative moisture condition. The soil texture, organic matter, time-domain reflectometer (TDR), thermal infrared, leaf area index (LAI), and actual yield measurements were taken for 47 systematic samples during the wheat growing season of the year 2012/2013. Accordingly, the available water (AW) displayed relatively lower accuracy than the rest of the other parameters. The canopy temperature (Tc), CWSI, field capacity (Fc), and LAI showed high accuracy to predict the wheat yield as shown from the statistical analysis. The WUE recorded 1.07 (kg/m3) in the southeast boundary and gradient toward the northwest boundary with a rate of 2.2 (kg/m3). The WUE distribution is comparable to soil parameters and measured yield circulation, which indicates high applicability with significant improvement in yield response.

Bitter almond rootstock is considered one of the most vital rootstocks for stone fruit species but it is classified as a plant sensitive to salinity. This experiment was carried out to study the effect of salt stress on vegetative growth and photosynthetic pigments of bitter almond rootstock as an attempt to sustain growth and increase its tolerance to high salt concentrations. However, the seeds were soaked in salt solution of NaCl as 1, 3, and 5 dsm-1 for 48 hours before stratification. After that, nuts were sown in perlite and treated with different saline solutions subsequently stratified at 6 ℃ for eight weeks. Sprouted seeds were cultivated in pots with a mixture of peat and perlite and treated only with the highest salt concentration 5 dsm-1. The treatments were arranged in a complete randomized block design with three replications. Vegetative traits and photosynthetic pigments content were estimated. The results revealed that soaking and pre-treating seed of bitter almond rootstock by means of high salt concentration 5dsm-1 during the germination period and subsequently after planting produced stronger transplants that had hardening, adaptation and could avoid the hyperosmotic shock of salt stress after planting. It is obvious throughout; increment of stem diameter, plant height, total number of leaves\plant, fresh and dry weight of leaves, photosynthetic pigments and total carbohydrate content of such transplants. While other coming seedlings from low salt concentrations were exposed to hyperosmotic shock and salt injury therefore inhibit growth rate of such plants, increased falling of leaves and finally reduced photosynthetic pigments content in the resulting seedlings.

The chapter explores the present role and the future of the Russian language in Kazakhstan. It contrasts state language policies with the views of ordinary Kazakhstani citizens, recorded mainly in interviews and round-table discussions with students of national universities conducted between 2016 and 2019. Suggesting that the Russian linguistic-cultural space in Central Asia is largely a historically rooted phenomenon and has not been primarily dependent on Russia, the authors suggest that the Russian Federation should readjust its external language and culture promotion, which has so far been geared almost exclusively to the so-called ‘compatriots’, and should take the needs of non-Russian Russian-speakers into serious consideration.

The aim of article is to represent activities carried out within the project on local integration between diverse (including migrant) communities as stages of an anthropological experiment. In the focus of the analysis are not only the criteria to compare applied activity and anthropological experiment but also practical recommendations on how to improve intercommunity interactions in the local context of one particular yard in Moscow. Among these recommendations there are: to combine the goals of intercommunity integration with the day-to-day needs of local people, to try to avoid integration for the sake of integration itself and not for realization of life strategies of community members. For successful integration of migrants it is also essential to exploit practices and institutes of self-government that already exist among the old residents.

Soils on riverine floodplains in temperate climate may be characterized by a mollic epipedon, i.e. by dark colour, enhanced content of soil organic matter (SOM), high ‘base’ saturation and developed structure in the topsoil. We studied 124 soil samples from ten central/east European countries to investigate whether SOM in mollic horizons has similar chemical features. We determined carbon contents with a thermal-gradient method to differentiate SOM with varying thermal stability, and carbonates. We characterized SOM by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. According to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, 102 of the samples fulfilled all criteria of a mollic horizon. Mollic features were not restricted to the uppermost horizon but also detected in buried former surface horizons. Soil colour was mostly the criterion to exclude non-mollic samples. Mollic and adjacent non-mollic horizons contained thermostable SOM, indicating SOM stabilized by interaction with minerals or as black carbon (BC), to very similar extent, up to 20.4% of total soil organic carbon (SOC). However, the correlation between the contents of thermostable SOC and total SOC, the SOC:N ratios of the thermostable fraction, and the smaller extent of metal complexation of carboxyl groups, pointed to a larger contribution of BC to SOM of mollic samples than to SOM in non-mollic samples. Thus, like in mollic horizons in Chernozems and Phaeozems not affected by fluviatile dynamics, SOM in mollic horizons of floodplain soils seemed to consist of SOM affected by natural or anthropogenic fires, constituting a common chemical feature of SOM. Thus, BC may contribute to soil colour and SOM stability in mollic horizons of floodplain soils. However, apart from BC contribution, SOM in mollic horizons of floodplain soils may have further pathways of formation and development, as SOM may be inherited from deposited material or form/transform by degradative or constructive processes. Supplemenatry material: [http://aspace.agrif.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/5999]

The purpose of this article is to analyze the changes in salinity of arable soils in the north of Crimea peninsula from 2013 to 2019 using Landsat 8 OLI satellite data in order to obtain additional and objective information about the modern state of soil secondary salinization processes. Comparison of the satellite data of 2013 and 2019 showed that in the area of the North-Crimean Canal there is both a slight expansion of the areas of saline soils and their reduction. The expansion of areas is observed mainly in the coastal zones of lakes and estuaries, and the reduction of areas in the fields, irrigation of which in the analyzed period did not stop. Both expansion and reduction of areas with saline soils did not exceed 10% of the study area. There is no evidence that the expansion of areas of saline soils during the analyzed period was due to the cessation of water supply to the North-Crimean canal.

The soil science community needs to communicate about soils and the use of soil information to various audiences, especially to the general public and public authorities. In this global review article, we synthesis information pertaining to museums solely dedicated to soils or which contain a permanent exhibition on soils. We identified 38 soil museums specifically dedicated to soils, 34 permanent soil exhibitions, and 32 collections about soils that are accessible by appointment. We evaluate the growth of the number of museums since the early 1900s, their geographical distribution, their contents, and their attendance. The number of museums has been continuously growing since the early 1900s. A noticeable increase was observed from 2015 to 2019. Europe (in a geographical sense), Eastern and South-East Asia have the highest concentration of soil museums and permanent exhibitions related to soils. Most of the museums' attendance ranged from 1000 to 10,000 visitors per year. Russia has the largest number of soil monoliths exhibited across the world's museums, whereas the ISRIC-World Soil Museum has the richest and the most diverse collection of soil monoliths. Museums, collections, and exhibitions of soil play an important role in educating the population about this finite natural resource that maintains life on the planet, and for this reason, they must be increasingly supported, extended, and protected.

This article presents a Dielectric database of organic Arctic soils (DDOAS). The DDOAS was created based on dielectric measurements of seven samples of organic-rich soils collected in various parts of the Arctic tundra: Yamal and Taimyr Peninsula, Samoilovsky Island (the Russian Federation), and Northern Slope of Alaska (U.S.). The organic matter content (by weight) of the soil samples presented varied from 35 % to 90 %. The refractive index (RI) and normalized attenuation coefficient (NAC) were measured under laboratory conditions by the coaxial waveguide method in the frequency range from ~ 10 MHz to ~ 16 GHz, while the moisture content changed from air-dry to field capacity and the temperature from −40 °C to +25 °C. The total number of measured values of the RI and NAC contained in the database is more than 1.5 million values. The created database can serve not only as a source of experimental data for the development of new soil dielectric models for the Arctic tundra but also as a source of training data for artificial intelligence satellite algorithms of soil moisture retrievals based on neural networks. DDOAS is presented as Excel files. The files of DDOAS are available on http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3819912.

Today, the global food security is one of the most pressing issues for humanity, and, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the increasing demand for food is likely to grow by 70% until 2050. In this current condition and future scenario, the agricultural production is a critical factor for global food security and for facing the food security challenge, with specific reference to many African countries, where a large quantities of rice are imported from other continents. According to FAO, to face the Africa’s inability to reach self-sufficiency in rice, it is urgent “to redress to stem the trend of over-reliance on imports and to satisfy the increasing demand for rice in areas where the potential of local production resources is exploited at very low levels” The present study was undertaken to design a new method for land evaluation based on soil quality indicators and remote sensing data, to assess and map soil suitability for rice crop. Results from the investigations, performed in some areas in the northern part of the Nile Delta, were compared with the most common approaches, two parametric (the square root, Storie methods) and two qualitative (ALES and MicrioLEIS) methods. From the qualitative point of view, the results showed that: (i) all the models provided partly similar outputs related to the soil quality assessments, so that the distinction using the crop productivity played an important role, and (ii) outputs from the soil suitability models were consistent with both the satellite Sentinel-2 Normalize Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI) during the crop growth and the yield production. From the quantitative point of view, the comparison of the results from the diverse approaches well fit each other, and the model, herein proposed, provided the highest performance. As a whole, a significant increasing in R2 values was provided by the model herein proposed, with R2 equal to 0.92, followed by MicroLES, Storie, ALES and Root as R2 with value equal to 0.87, 0.86, 0.84 and 0.84, respectively, with increasing percentage in R2 equal to 5%, 6% and 8%, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed model illustrated that around (i) 44.44% of the total soils of the study area are highly suitable, (ii) 44% are moderately suitable, and (iii) approximately 11.56% are unsuitable for rice due to their adverse physical and chemical soil properties. The approach herein presented can be promptly re-applied in arid region and the quantitative results obtained can be used by decision makers and regional governments.

Rice is an essential crop for national food security in Egypt. Increasing the population calls for regular increases in rice production. At the same time, cultivated rice crop areas should be decreased because of the gradual scarcity of irrigation water. This means more rice production should be gained from less rice area. This situation calls for the annual accurate system for rice monitoring and yield estimation. Therefore, it is necessary to apply a remotely sensed based system for rice cultivation assessment using satellite imagery parallel with field measurements of some biophysical parameters. Multi-temporal normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) extracted from twelve sentinel-2 imagery cover the whole summer season with variance and maximum value assessed by ground control points (GCPs), were used to isolate uncultivated areas, then to isolate rice areas and other vegetation covers. object-based classification methods with kappa co-efficient 0.9261 and overall accuracy 94.92% was generated to discriminate rice crop area and other summer crops on the study area. Leaf area index (LAI) for the experiment the l site was calculated using the surface energy balance algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model and then tested versus measured (LAI). NDVI and LAI were used to generate an empirical ran rice yield prediction model. Then, this model was used to produce rice to yield a map. The study was carried out in an experimental site in Kafr Elsheikh governorate with a total area of 5040 Hectare. Produced cultivated land use map showed 95% overall accuracy. High similarity was observed between measured and calculated (LAI) with high accuracy of R2 = 0.94. of Rice, yield map showed expected to yield more to than a month before harvest. The generated yield map was tested using a correlation coefficient between actual yield and estimated yield with high accuracy R2 = 0.9. This method is applicable to estimate the acreage and productivity of rice in the northern Nile delta in adequate time before harvest.

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of nano-fertilizer on seed germination and the first stages of bitter almond growth compared to other chemical fertilizers under saline conditions. In this regard, nuts were soaked in salt solutions of NaCl as 1, 3, and 5 ds m−1 for 48 h prior to stratification. Subsequently, the seeds were sown in perlite and treated by different concentrations of urea, ammonium sulfate, and nano-fertilizer at 0, 25, 50, and 100% for each fertilizer under different saline concentrations then stratified at 6 °C for 8 weeks. The treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design in factorial experiment with three replicates and 25 seeds for each. Germination and first stages of growth measurements were estimated. Our results revealed that pre-treating seeds of bitter almond rootstock with 50% of nano-fertilizer under saline conditions markedly increased germination measurements, stem length and diameter, elongation of secondary and primary roots/plant, and number of secondary roots/plant relative to urea and ammonium sulfate fertilizers, thus throughout its vital role in increasing the moisture content of seed which in turn increased germination percentage and rate. Additionally, all the amount of nano-fertilizer was covered by plants via slow and continuous release of fertilizer, therefore producing stronger seedlings. Hence, we can conclude to use the nano-fertilizer nanourea modified with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles as a source for N, P, and Ca nutrients under saline conditions.

From 2011 to 2013 the MOCCCASIN project (MOnitoring Crops in Continental Climates through Asimillation of Satellite INformation) was carried out financed by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme. During the project, two field campaigns (2011 and 2012) were carried out at two sites (Odoyev and Plavsk) in the Tula region of Russia. During these two campaigns, observations were made at selected winter-wheat fields consisting of phenological stage, biomass samples, hemispherical photographs, spectral properties of the canopy and the soil as well as ancillary information about the field. Meteorological observations from synoptic and agrometeorological stations were collected from the stations in and surrounding the Tula region. Finally, a large trajectory throughout the whole Tula region was surveyed in order to collect fields with different crop types. Data access via doi 10.7910/DVN/CG0UQB.

We thank the authors for their thought-provoking comments on our paper. Most of the commentators agree that soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration is important for improving the quality of soil, however they argue that we have overstated the potential of soil carbon sequestration. We welcome the comments and appreciate that the issue of SOC sequestration has always been somewhat factious (Schlesinger, 2000). We shall address the significance of the quantity “4 per mille”, reported sequestration rates, the limitation of carbon sequestration with time, and nutrient requirements. We clarify that our paper (Minasny et al., 2017) mainly deals with potentials for the 20 countries and regions, where SOC sequestration can also be seen as a way to improving the resilience of the soil to future climate change, that is, improving adaptation rather than mitigation. We believe that in some parts of the world where food security is threatened, the benefit of soil carbon management for adaptation should be stressed more than for mitigation. This is the reason why the 4 per mille initiative explicitly includes food security (Chabbi et al., 2017; Soussana et al., 2015). We need to add that the “4 per mille Soils for Food Security and Climate” initiative is just one of many national and global initiatives on SOC sequestration for mitigating climate change. The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) discussed incorporating the topic of SOC in the IPCC Assessment Report (ARs), from AR6 onwards. The IPCC has also put a focus on soil in their upcoming special report “Climate Change and Land” (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr2/). The recent FAO Global Symposium (GSOC17) assembled experts engaged in FAO, GSP and its ITPS, IPCC, UNCCD-SPI and WMO activities to work together for the common goal of appropriate SOC management as part of overall sustainable soil management within the climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable development, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and food security agendas (http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/soil-organic-carbon-symposium/en/). The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) focused on opportunities to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration while still helping to meet food security objectives (http://globalresearchalliance.org/about/). The Common Agriculture Policy in the EU is currently being revised to include the potential use of SOC as an indicator. The 4 per mille initiative was launched at COP21, where the Paris Agreement was adopted, and one of the main aims of the Paris Agreement is to stop the planet from warming an additional two Celsius degrees. The two-degree target, although suggested by scientists through modelling work, was chosen more for political and pragmatic reasons whereby countries could agree on a target that they could work towards (Tollefson, 2015). And of course, there are many scientific critiques of this target (Knutti et al., 2016). Similarly, the 4 per mille initiative comes from a politically-driven aspiration, and our paper (Minasny et al., 2017) is a response to such an aspiration, to seek and outline possibilities based on current knowledge. The important concept is that soil and agriculture are part of the solution, and it is an interim and evidence-based solution that we can implement. Now we shall respond to each of the commentaries.

Scholars of International Relations have called for the creation of a post-Western IR that reflects the global and local contexts of the declining power and legitimacy of the West. Recognising this discourse as indicative of the postcolonial condition, we deploy Homi Bhabha’s concept of mimicry and James C. Scott’s notion of mētis to assess whether international political dynamics of a hybrid kind are emerging. Based on interviews with Central Asian political, economic, and cultural elites, we explore the emergence of a new global politics of a post-Western type. We find that Russia substantively mimics the West as a post-Western power and that there are some suggestive examples of the role of mētis in its foreign policy. Among Central Asian states, the picture is more equivocal. Formal mimicry and mētis of a basic kind are observable, but these nascent forms suggest that the dialectical struggle between colonial clientelism and anti-colonial nationalism remains in its early stages. In this context, a post-Western international politics is emerging with a postcolonial aspect but without the emergence of the substantive mimicry and hybrid spaces characteristic of established postcolonial relations.

The digital elevation model based on SRTM is very convenient for a wide range of studies but requires correction due to the influence of forest vegetation. The present study was conducted to analyse the effect of boreal forests on altitudes, aspects and slopes calculated from the SRTM. A DEM based on topographic maps at 1:100 000 scale was used as a reference. The linear regression analysis showed low data correlation in forested areas. The presence of different types of forests and felling in the woods leads to a complex distribution of deviations from the SRTM. A simple correction method was proposed, using a forest mask, built according to Landsat, and forest heights indicated on the topographic maps. After correction, the correlation coefficient between the altitudes increased by 0.05–0.14, the share of matching aspects by 1–4% and the share of matching slopes by 2–8%.

Pollution of the urban environment by human disturbances and activities is a negative externality of urbanization, therefore becoming a great concern due to the serious problems associated with human health. The mobilization of heavy metals into the biosphere by human activities has become an important process in the geochemical recycling of these metals. Though the risks of exposure to road dust have been reported to be higher for individuals than those in soil, little attention has been paid to the occurrence characteristics of heavy metals in dust and its associated health risks to the population. In the present studies, the physical, chemical and spectral signatures gained from dust and soil constituents would be differentiated based on their reflectance in specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is expected that the analysis of road dust and soil samples will indicate spectral signatures exhibiting differences in specific wavelengths of the spectrum, hence, indicating their spectral discrimination, as well as the presence of heavy metals showing its reflectance based on its concentration. The expected outcome of this study can be used to provide a theoretical basis for controlling the risk of heavy metals exposure to population.

There was studied impact of the bitter almond seeds preliminary steeping on the development of plants at the first stages of development in conditions of saline waters irrigation in the greenhouse experiment ambient in phytotron. It was established that steeping the seeds in excessive salt solution results in enhanced plants tolerance to the soil salinization and saline waters irrigation. This is evidenced by the obtained regularities of influence on the development of plants of biochemical character (content of proline, chlorophyll and carotinoids, total carbon); chemical (content of basic chemical elements); morphological (rate of the plants height and stalk diameter growth, leaf-area duration). The introduction of developed technology into nursery science will permit to improve the tolerance of seedlings to salinization of soils and irrigation waters.

We performed an empirical investigation of forest growth for two types of forests in northern Eurasia (larches and spruces) in order to show that the sensitivity of trees to the variable climate and geomagnetic field can be seen even under the large-scale average. The main purpose of this research was to model a forest growth rate V for each forest type on the basis of several environmental parameters influencing the tree growth in a high degree and to find the differences and similarities of the larches and spruces’ response to changing environment. We showed that V, which is related to the annual tree-ring width, could be derived from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data. Averaged yearly by species for 1982-2006, it displayed a long-term decrease (most likely related to the global climate change) as well as short-term variations with periods of 2.2, 4 and 8 years. A composite function method was used for modeling. We selected several tree growth drivers (the temperature, precipitation, insolation and the geomagnetic field intensity) that were highly correlated with V, and a function was modeled that described the behavior of V. The correlation coefficients between the derived function and experimental time series were 0.8 for larches and 0.9 for spruces. Compared with spruces, larches demonstrated higher thermo-sensitivity. A loss of tree sensitivity to temperature changes is puzzling for dendroclimatology, as a similar process might have occurred during previous periods of sharp global climate changes (as observed currently). Sensitivity of trees to geomagnetic field changes is confirmed both at long- and short-timescales. Spruces are found to be more magnetosensitive than larches.

Night-lights obtained by the DMSP/OLS sensor offer a unique opportunity to measure urban expansion in the past two decades. We apply a method to project the existing night-lights time series in the future in order to forecast urban expansion. The rapidly expanding Moscow city in the Russian Federation is selected as the case study. Night-lights are projected up to the year 2025 by exponential smoothing. It is demonstrated by the results that the method can be used to obtain both spatially explicit, i.e. actual maps, as well as synoptic forecasts, e.g. by means of forecast variables such as the Sum of Lights (SoL). These forecasts are accompanied by estimation of confidence intervals, providing upper and lower bounds for future values. The method presented can be applied globally.

International audience; The ‘4 per mille Soils for Food Security and Climate’ was launched at the COP21 with an aspiration to increase global soil organic matter stocks by 4 per 1000 (or 0.4 %) per year as a compensation for the global emissions of greenhouse gases by anthropogenic sources. This paper surveyed the soil organic carbon (SOC) stock estimates and sequestration potentials from 20 regions in the world (New Zealand, Chile, South Africa, Australia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, India, China Taiwan, South Korea, China Mainland, United States of America, France, Canada, Belgium, England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Russia). We asked whether the 4 per mille initiative is feasible for the region. The outcomes highlight region specific efforts and scopes for soil carbon sequestration. Reported soil C sequestration rates globally show that under best management practices, 4 per mille or even higher sequestration rates can be accomplished. High C sequestration rates (up to 10 per mille) can be achieved for soils with low initial SOC stock (topsoil less than 30 t C ha−1), and at the first twenty years after implementation of best management practices. In addition, areas which have reached equilibrium will not be able to further increase their sequestration. We found that most studies on SOC sequestration only consider topsoil (up to 0.3 m depth), as it is considered to be most affected by management techniques. The 4 per mille number was based on a blanket calculation of the whole global soil profile C stock, however the potential to increase SOC is mostly on managed agricultural lands. If we consider 4 per mille in the top 1m of global agricultural soils, SOC sequestration is between 2-3 Gt C year−1, which effectively offset 20–35% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. As a strategy for climate change mitigation, soil carbon sequestration buys time over the next ten to twenty years while other effective sequestration and low carbon technologies become viable. The challenge for cropping farmers is to find disruptive technologies that will further improve soil condition and deliver increased soil carbon. Progress in 4 per mille requires collaboration and communication between scientists, farmers, policy makers, and marketeers.

Extreme heat waves and droughts are common natural disasters in European Russia. The frequency and severity of heat waves have been on the rise in recent decades across Europe—a trend that is projected to continue into the 21st century. These disasters have complex social, economic, and environmental consequences reaching beyond their geographical boundaries. The extreme heat wave of 2010 had global-scale impacts on food security and regional-scale impacts on ecosystem functioning, air quality, and health. The outcomes were exacerbated by the forestry management and crop rotation practices employed in the region. The century-long economic preference for fast-growing conifers resulted in large uniform single-species even-aged pine stands, which are at least 2.5 times more likely to support fire ignition and to spread than dark-coniferous or mixed stands. Although extreme conditions result in fires that burn through all forest types indiscriminately, uniform pine stands encourage rapid fire growth and spread to uncontrollable levels. Similarly, a recent focus on more economically profitable late-spring crops resulted in the long-term depletion of soil moisture from expanded sunflower and corn cropping, which resulted in decreased soil moisture storage across cultivated lands, leaving them vulnerable to even minor droughts. The major drought of 2010 led to widespread crop yield declines and failure; however, only 2 % of the fields with late-spring crops that were cultivated in 5 of 10 years were impacted by drought, versus 63 % of comparable fields where late spring crops were planted in 8 of the 10 years.

ETFs are baskets of securities designed to track the performance of an index. They are designed to provide exposure to broad-based indexes at a lower cost. We first analyzed why ETF should be the choice for an investment. We provide a brief history of this segment, key attributes of ETFs, and investments strategies and implementations with ETFs. The article then presents data analysis and a series of forecasting methods with data analysis techniques to evaluate the performance of each method. The data analysis and the forecast evaluation is to determine the best forecasting model for a single ETF (SPY). The different techniques considered include single exponential smoothing, Holt’s exponential smoothing, simple linear regression, multiple regression and various versions of Box-Jenkins (ARIMA) models. Based on the evaluation of a decade of past historical data, we provide a guidance for the price of our ETF (SPY) using the multiple regression technique (with an R-square of 98.4%), which produced promising results (with low forecast errors of 1% across several forecast metrics), among the different techniques evaluated. Promising results were also obtained using the Multiple regression technique on several other popularly traded ETF’s.

Urban populations are expanding rapidly and so are cities. Remote sensing offers a convenient means of monitoring this expansion as it covers a period of 40 years in the case of the LANDSAT satellite. In some parts of the globe, this is probably the only viable means of monitoring due to the lack of other types of data. In order to monitor expansion, first, urban land has to be separated from other land-cover types. Although this can be done by standard classification processes, it is much more efficient to establish an urban index UI analogous to the widely used normalized difference vegetation index NDVI for vegetation. Existing efforts to establish such a UI are reviewed and compared in a common context. Following this, a novel, more efficient UI is introduced. The calculation of the new index is straightforward, based on combining the NDVI with the normalized difference built-up index. The results are promising as the index can efficiently segment urban areas, even in the presence of excessive bare land. The proposed method is evaluated on two test sites selected in different LANDSAT scenes. The new index is valid only for sensors with the same bands as those of LANDSAT.

Asymptotic approximation/truncation error of a numerical scheme commonly used in petroleum engineering is analyzed. It is shown that the scheme has a (small) non-removable asymptotic error. A modification that eliminates the error from the scheme is found. In this paper, we consider the problem of the steady systematic pressure fil- tration of a liquid towards a borehole. It is assumed that the filtration occurs through a homogeneous bounded strata with constant viscosity and diffusion coefficients. The problem reduces to finding the solution of the Laplace equa- tion in a doubly-connected domain whose outer boundary is the contour of the domain of filtration. In practice, the dimensions of the domain of filtration (∼ 10 3 m) are much greater than the dimensions of the borehole (∼ 10 −1 m). Therefore, in the solution of this problem by a grid method, it is not advis

Wheat yield estimation in this paper is based on the above ground biomass estimation. The model of above ground biomass estimation requires satellite data, which express the vegetation status. The model was applied in Russia where winter wheat is widely grown. The results showed a high accuracy in estimating winter wheat yield. The range of fractional differences between estimated and observed yields is between -0.40 and 0.50 in 2011, and 83% of the fractional differences are between -0.30 and 0.30. When this method is used in large areas, parameters calibration is crucial. We also summarize that in future study, high resolution images, meteorological factors retrieved by remote sensing data and more field observed data should be used to improve the method.