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In the current implementation process for dredging projects, due to the lack of an accurate understanding of underwater soil characteristics, construction teams often find it difficult to accurately understand the soil condition. Not only does this lead to a reduced dredger operation efficiency, but it may also cause delays to the project's progress, as well as increasing its cost. Therefore, there is an urgent need to closely integrate soil analysis technology with dredging construction to ensure that projects can be completed efficiently and to a high standard. Therefore, this paper proposes a soil modeling and prediction method based on a three-dimensional point cloud model. The research objective is to propose a new method of soil mass identification with a strong generalization ability and function, which can not only be applied to dredging engineering but can also identify and analyze statistics of land soil and its mass. The accuracy of this method, based on a convergent grid, can reach 95%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field trials were conducted at the experimental farm of Hill Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Bajaura, Kullu, during kharif (summer crop) and rabi (winter crop) seasons from 2014–2015 to 2015–2016 to investigate the impact of zinc (Zn) on yield, nutrient uptake and soil nutrient status in rainfed pea-maize sequence under high phosphorus regime soils of Northwestern Himalaya. The various priming levels of Zn (water soaking- without zinc, 1%, 2% and 3% of ZnSO4) with three priming durations (4, 8 and 12 hours) were compared with basal dose of recommended NPK + ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha−1 and farmers' practice (absolute control). The yield of pea crop was maximum with 1% ZnSO4 priming duration of 12 hours, whereas maize crop yield was highest with 2% ZnSO4 priming duration of 12 hours. The nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) uptake of pea pods and stover was highest with 1% ZnSO4 priming for 12 hours duration, whereas the N, P and K uptake of maize grains and stover was registered highest with 2% ZnSO4 priming for a period of 12 hours. The results showed a positive impact on the crop yield and uptake, while no significant improvement was noticed in soil nutrients status after harvest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mulberry fruits have greater potential of dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates. It should be free from heavy metals which are dangerous for human health. Therefore, current study was carried out to limit the use of wastewater impact on mulberry plants and also evaluate permissible wastewater limits for better plant growth and development. Different soil nutrients were maximum in 40 wastewater irrigations (T7). The significantly higher plant height increment and leaf area was recorded from 16 wastewater irrigations and 24 tubewell irrigations (T4). The highest fresh and dry leaf weights and Leaf nitrate content were calculated from 16 wastewater irrigations and 24 tubewell irrigations (T4). The significantly higher leaf ash was recorded from 24 wastewater irrigations and 16 tubewell irrigations (T5). Leaf chlorophyll content was significantly higher recorded from 24 wastewater irrigations and 16 tubewell irrigations (T5). Leaf iron content was significantly greater from 16 wastewater irrigations and 24 tubewell irrigations (T4). Leaf zinc and cadmium contents were significantly higher from 16 wastewater irrigations and 24 tubewell irrigations (T4) and 12 wastewater irrigations and 28 tubewell water irrigations (T3). Leaf copper content was significantly greater from 12 wastewater irrigations and 28 tubewell water irrigations (T3) and leaf lead content was significantly greater from 32 waste water irrigations and 8 tubewell irrigations (T6). Plant height increment has significant correlation with all studied traits except total leaf chlorophyll content, leaf proline content and leaf lead content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scarcity of water resources in India is limiting the production of flooded rice crop. A field experiment was conducted in factorial RBD with sixteen treatment combinations including four rice varieties viz. V1: PR-115, V2: DRRH-3, V3: PAC-837 and V3: PR-121 and four fertility levels viz. F1: control (N0P0K0), F2: N, P2O5, K2O at 90: 45: 22.5 kg ha-1, F3: N, P2O5, K2O at 120:60:30 kg ha-1 and F4: N, P2O5, K2O at 150: 75: 37.5 kg ha-1 replicated thrice. The results revealed that among the different varieties, PAC-837 recorded highest plant height and number of tillers m-2 at all the growth stages. All yield attributes viz. number of effective tillers m-2, number of seeds per panicle, 1000-grain weight, spikelet sterility and grain yield, straw yield and harvest index significantly differed in different varieties and were recorded highest in PAC-837 which were however, statistically at par with DRRH-3 except grain yield and effective tillers m-2. Rice variety PAC-837 recorded highest grain yield of 45.65 q ha-1 and straw yield of 59.98 q ha-1. Among the fertility levels, number of effective tillers m-2 significantly increased up to 120: 60: 30 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha-1 thereafter nonsignificant differences were noticed. The grain and straw yield increased up to 150: 75: 37.5 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha-1 and recoded grain yield of 52.78 q ha-1 and straw yield of 73.85 q ha-1 with application of 150:75:37.5 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha-1. Nutrient application of 150: 75: 37.5 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha-1 recorded highest available N (238.16 kg ha-1), P (16.18 kg ha-1) and K (163.25 kg ha-1) in soil after harvest of the crop. Higher available nitrogen (235.28 kg ha-1), phosphorus (16.38 kg ha-1) and potassium (154.24 kg ha-1) n soil were recorded with PR-121 and lowest available major nutrients were recorded with variety PAC-837. This study would help to introduction and adaptation of new rice variety PAC-837 with application of 150: 75: 37.5 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha-1 under aerobic conditions in Shiwalik foothills region of North-Western Himalayas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The northern Ethiopian landscape is dotted with small patches of church forests that are religious centers for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC). These sacred groves are what remain of the once vast tropical Afromontane dry forest. Herein we review the landscape pattern of sacred groves in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, and their local scale nutrient status at two sites, Zahara and Debresena. A total of 1,488 sacred groves were inventoried within the study area, yielding an overall density of one sacred grove for every twenty square kilometers. Sacred groves averaged a little over five hectares and were separated from one another by more than two kilometers. At the local scale we found that soil carbon and nitrogen stocks have decreased significantly between the forest interior and the clearing indicating decreased soil fertility. Together our data indicate that these sacred groves are vulnerable to loss because of their small average size, isolation from seed sources, and decreasing soil status.

The northern Ethiopian landscape is dotted with small patches of church forests that are religious centers for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC). These sacred groves are what remain of the once vast tropical Afromontane dry forest. Herein we review the landscape pattern of sacred groves in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, and their local scale nutrient status at two sites, Zahara and Debresena. A total of 1,488 sacred groves were inventoried within the study area, yielding an overall density of one sacred grove for every twenty square kilometers. Sacred groves averaged a little over five hectares and were separated from one another by more than two kilometers. At the local scale we found that soil carbon and nitrogen stocks have decreased significantly between the forest interior and the clearing indicating decreased soil fertility. Together our data indicate that these sacred groves are vulnerable to loss because of their small average size, isolation from seed sources, and decreasing soil status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The law of microbial growth in soil following a bell-shaped experimental curve has, until now, had no widely accepted justification. An equation was deduced relating microbial growth dynamics in soils to the initial concentration of the leading component of substrate in the framework of a nonstationary nonequilibrium approach. This equation becomes identical with the equation published by the authors earlier when the initial concentration of the leading substrate component is invariable. This equation is helpful in the identification and discrimination of microbial growth phases and stages of response to chemical action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The model of macrokinetics of microbial populations in soil was deducted based on the assumption that the resulting indicator of productivity is the consequence of simultaneously occurring but oppositely directed processes of growth and death, which are proportional to biomass and inversely proportional to time (for growth to the time raised to the power whose indicator is greater than one). The adequacy of the model for the experiment has been confirmed by comparison with reliable data in the literature on the study of microbial growth in soil in laboratory conditions. The model's application indicated eight intervals on the curve of microbial growth, each of which characterizes the unique combination of the status of three kinetic characteristics: the biomass index, and the rate of its growth and acceleration. The intervals are strictly defined and conform to the notion of qualitatively different growth phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Saxony, a federal state in the east of Germany, includes regions with a history of high deposition rates of total acidity and conspicuous impairments of the health status of forests and forest soils. Both the reduction of SO2 immissions and extensive forest liming campaigns have led to a visible regeneration of forests, especially in the Saxon low mountain ranges. There is a strong need for maps with landscape-related information about the forest health status as a basis for an ecological underpinning of forest management practices. The aim of the analyses presented was to derive a zoning of forest health conditions in Saxony on the basis of soil, topographic and vegetation parameters. The upscaling approach of the present paper is based on multiple linear regression analyses coupled with geostatistics using a two-stage procedure with global and regional transfers. First, the forest soil monitoring data of Saxony were evaluated using variables derived from a digital terrain model, geological information and soil and stand related parameters available in high spatial resolution as independent variables. In a second step the influence of environmental factors on the medium-term crown defoliation was analysed using the modelling results from step 1 (regionalized soil chemical attributes) as additional auxiliary variables. Spatio-temporally limited damaging events were diminished by the plot-wise and temporal aggregation of defoliation values. Unlike soil chemical data, it was not possible to detect clear auto-correlative spatial structures for defoliation measurements due to the influence of stand age. About 70–80% of the total variance of defoliation could be explained by the multiple linear regression models. Methodological limitations and interpretations are discussed. Stand age, with 35–64% of the explained variance, showed by far the highest influence. This confirms the necessity to quantify the influence of the stand age as a systematic and intrinsic natural factor if the relationship between defoliation and stress factors is intended to be examined. The model performance of the regression algorithms was examined using both an independent validation procedure and cross-validation terms. Finally, the modelled “mean level of defoliation” was mapped using the mean stand age of forests in Saxony (60 years) by means of regression equations as scenario models. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]