دکتر سید حمید متین خواه

Desertification is currently a problem in many countries of the world, including developing countries. The result of this phenomenon is the loss of renewable resources in each of these countries. One of the most important renewable sources is water, which is polluted in various ways today. Nitrate and phosphate are two important pollutants that are created by chemical fertilizers and pollute the environment, including water sources, and have harmful effects on human health. Sulfates are also another major ion found in natural waters and wastewater. There are common physical, chemical and biological methods in removing these pollutants from water sources. Due to the high cost and limited efficiency of physical and chemical methods, in recent years, suitable and inexpensive natural treatment methods such as Phytoremediation has been studied. The phytoremediation process is a natural way to purify contaminants that is very effective and inexpensive and can be performed for a long time. Due to the limited quantity and quality of water and soil resources and the need to provide food for the growing population of the country, today special attention has been paid to the production of agricultural products in soilless cultivation systems. Therefore, due to the fact that plants have different abilities in monitoring pollution, suitable plants should be used to clean polluted environments. Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. and Elaeagnus angustifolia L. plants are among the common and well-known species in Iran for planting along waterways with the aim of purifying crop water to prevent them from entering surface flows.However, as far as the comprehensive studies of the researcher in internal and international sources show, no study has been done on the removal of nitrate, phosphate and sulfate by Elm and Eucalyptus., this research can be the first research in this field to purify polluted resources in Iran. The present study was conducted in the greenhouse of Isfahan University of Technology at a temperature of 40 degrees. In First, to study and compare phytoremediation of nitrate, phosphate and water sulfate using Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. and Elaeagnus angustifolia L. tree species. seedlings of these trees were planted in plastic pots with a cover of washed pebbles. Overall, The pots were 54 and had a volume of about 10 liters and a diameter of 12 cm. Thus, in 27 pots of Eucalyptus and 27 other species of Elaeagnus were planted. At the beginning of planting, the seedlings were impregnated with hydroponic solution (with a volume of 2 liters) and about 2 times a week, hydroponic solution was added to each pot. after establishment of plants, solutions containing nitrate, phosphate and sulfate prepared in the laboratory was added to the culture in three replications with concentrations (0,30,60 mg /l) for phosphate and sulfate and concentrations (0,50, 100 mg /l) for nitrate. Three chemicals, potassium nitrate KNO3, monosodium phosphate NaH2PO and sodium sulfate Na2SO4 , were used to prepare nitrate, phosphate and sulfate contaminants, respectively. This experiment was performed for four months in the natural resources greenhouse of Isfahan University of Technology in March 2017. The experiment was performed factorially and in the form of a completely randomized design. In order to measure the nitrate, phosphate and sulfate of the samples and evaluate the effect of phytoremediation on the uptake of these contaminants, samples of the culture medium were transferred to the laboratory every month with contaminated water. Data were collected and recorded for at least 3 months and the uptake of nitrate and phosphate in the leaves of the plant was examined by sampling and analysis in the laboratory during each month. Plant parameters were harvested every week. In this regard, the effect of different concentrations of nitrate and phosphate contaminants on some physiological factors of the plant (stem diameter, plant height, stomatal exchange and chlorophyll content) were measured. also all data were measured by statistical analysis using SAS statistical software with version 25. Finally, analysis of variance was performed by ANOVA test and mean data were compared by LSD test. The results of the analysis of variance, for nitrate, phosphate and sulfate removal showed a significant difference at 99% level. The results of analysis of variance showed the highest percentage of removal was to Eucalyptus species with 86.26% nitrate, 95.34% phosphate and 86.8% sulfate and to Elaeagnus species with 83.72% nitrate, 88.55% phosphate and 90.73% sulfate. As a result, Eucalyptus specimens showed a higher ability to remove nitrate and phosphate pollutants and Elaeagnus species a higher ability to remove sulfate. The results also showed that the correlation and interaction of species on physiological traits (stem diameter, plant height, Chlorophyll content and stomatal exchange) was very significant due to differences in species and different concentrations of pollutants. Also, the results of mean comparison showed that no significant differences were observed between the traits of Eucalyptus and Elaeagnus species.

in addition to pasture grazing, animals are fed on such sources as manual forage, farm straw, etc. Therefore, due to various socio-economic reasons, overgrazing and forage shortage exert adverse effects on rangelands, leading to their degradation. On the other hand, excessive exploitation of rangelands and changes in their use has led to the expansion of invasive species, altering the rangelands’ species composition and influencing the relevant ecosystem’s functions and services, which, consequently, ends in the destruction of ecosystems worldwide. In this regard, in cases where the invaluable and important species are overgrazed, the improvement of the rangelands containing perennial, high-yielding, and palatable species is recommended to restore the rangeland’s production capacity, reduce the competitiveness of invasive species, and increase the vegetation both quantitatively and qualitatively. Thus, it could be argued that identifying the factors involved in the germination and growth of invaluable species in rangeland ecosystems is required for the management, improvement, and restoration of rangelands.

This study sought to investigate the effect of irrigation interval, water salinity, and the soil’s clay content on the seed germination and the height of germinated seedling of Hedyasrum criniferum which is an endangered, palatable species indigenous to Iran’s rangelands, under greenhouse and natural habitat conditions. To this end, a factorial experiment was performed in terms of irrigation interval at three levels of 7, 10, and 14 days, water salinity at three levels of <1 (0.4), 2, and 4 dS m-1, and added clay contents at three levels of 0, 10, and 20% under greenhouse conditions with three replications, using a random sampling method. Moreover, the GLM method was applied to examine the factors affecting the herbal parameters of the Hedyasrum criniferum species.

The study’s results revealed that out of the three treatments mentioned above, only the irrigation interval had a significant effect on the H. criniferum species’ germinated seedling height and its germination percentage (α = 5%), with the greatest amount of germination (77.77%) and the highest germinated seedling’s height (4.93 cm) being observed in the seven-day irrigation interval based on the comparison of means. According to the species’ response curves, while the species’ height showed an ascending trend in proportionate to the precipitation rate, it had a reverse trend in proportionate to salinity. As for the clay content, it was found that the species’ height decreased up to 25% with an increase in the clay content. However, the trend was increasing for over 25% clay content.On the other hand, the analysis of the species’ response curve in terms of the amount of germination density indicated that while the number of germinated seeds increased with an increase in the precipitation rate, it decreased with an increase in salinity. Moreover, the number of germinated seeds responded to clay content the same as it reacted to the species’ height, getting decreased with up to a 25% increase in the clay content.

as found in this study, irrigation interval is a more important factor than the other two treatments. The tolerance level of germination and seedling growth was found to be at a 14-day irrigation interval, 4 dS m-1 salinity level, and 20% added clay content. Therefore, it could be argued that lowering the irrigation intervals may help the root growth. Furthermore, maintaining the moisture at 40-0 cm away from the soil profile can facilitate root growth and thereby increase photosynthesis. However, increasing the irrigation intervals may disrupt photosynthesis by creating a shortage in the soil’s moisture and decreasing the production of photosynthate materials to be transformed into the plant’s growing parts, checking the growth of the plant’s height. Considering the fact that Hedyasrum criniferum is regarded as a very high-quality forage in Iranian rangelands based on the rangeland classification indices in terms of forage quality, and that the species contains more protein and metabolic energy and higher nutritional value than alfalfa, and also its desirable ability to stabilize the soil’s nitrogen, the species can be used to convert the abandoned rain-fed lands in semi-arid areas to forage-planted lands and restore the destroyed rangelands in natural habitats. On the other hand, it was revealed that in natural habitats, the chances for the growth of the aforementioned species increased with an increase in precipitation rate, reaching its highest points in areas with average annual 650 mm precipitation. It should be noted that the precipitation range of the species’ habitats indicates the possibility of  H. criniferum growth in different climatic regions, including arid, semi-arid, and semi-humid regions. Therefore, it was found that the chances for the species' growth increased with an increase in precipitation rate from arid to semi-arid and finally, to semi-humid regions. Moreover, the study found that based on its optimal precipitation rate, the species prefers semi-humid climates.

Plant communities’ life and their distribution in a stand is affected by soil, climate and other environmental factrors. The purpose of this research was to investigate the soil condition and vegetation in three dominant stands of Tamarix ramosissima called Abyaneh, Chadegan watershed and Tang-e Bibi Zeinab in Isfahan province. After selecting the stands, sampling of plant was carried out as stratified random 400 m2 plots. According to the area of the studied areas and using the minimum area method, and the canopy cover of T.ramosissima was measured in each plot. 30 and 60 plots of 4m2 was used to calculate the vegetation cover percentage of companion species. Some physical and chemical soil factors including Ca+Mg، Na ،P ،K، SP ،OM ،CaCO3، CaSO4 ، BD، SAR، ESP، gravel and texture were measured. The simple correlation, regression and ordination were used to investigate the correlation between environmental factors and plant parameters. Results of the dendrogram showed that there is at least 60% similarity between the two habitats of Chadegan watershed and Tang-e Bibi Zeinab. Results of Pearson and Spearman correlation analysis showed that the total canopy area of the studied species is positively related with soil salinity factors and the total concentration of dissolved Ca+Mg with correlation coefficients of 0.76 and 0.75, respectively and is negatively related with clay percentage factors and organic matter with the correlation coefficients of 0.9 and 0.91, respectively. The results of ordination analysis diagram between plant parameters and environmental factors also showed that the habitat conditions of Artemisia aucheri are closely related to the habitat conditions of the T. ramosissima.

The ecological, economic, and social benefits of agroforestry operations over the integrated agriculture are well-recognized, but failure to use the fertilizers and low profitability of the agroforestry systems may be a reason for the low acceptance of these systems by farmers. In this study, a factorial split-split plot experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications to investigate the effects of bio-, organic, and chemical fertilizers on the improvement of yield, qualitative traits, and the greater profitability of this system. The medicinal species at two levels, fertilizer at five levels, and tree species at two levels were considered as the main-, sub-, and sub-sub plots, respectively. The tree species including cherry (Prunus avium L.) and walnut (Juglans regia L.) were selected for the agroforestry system and the medicinal species including coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) and flixweed (Descurainia sophia (L.) Schur) were cultivated understorey of this system. Four fertilizer treatments including the organic manure (3 kg.m-2)+humic acid organic fertilizer (AgriPlus) (0.5 kg.100 l-1 of water.100 m-2), Mycomix endomycorrhizal biofertilizer (100 g.m-2), Bioazospir bacterial fertilizer (200 g.100 kg of seed), and chemical fertilizer based on the soil analysis (75 kg of urea, 150 kg of triple superphosphate, and 150 kg of potassium sulfate at the beginning of sowing+100 kg of potassium sulfate 30 days after sowing and another 100 kg two months after sowing per hectare) were examined with the control (without fertilizer). The results showed that the plant height and 1000-seed weight at the 5% probability level and the plant fresh and dry weight, number of seeds per spike, seed yield per plant and hectare, and percentage of protein, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium per seeds at the 1% probability level were significantly affected by the fertilizer treatments in flixweed. In coriander, the plant height, leaves and stems fresh yield, number of seeds per umbel and plant, biological and economic yield, and percentage and essential oil yield were significantly affected by the fertilizer treatments at the 1% probability level, too. In flixweed, the organic fertilizer, bioazospir, mycorrhiza, and chemical fertilizer caused the highest amount of studied traits, respectively and the control treatment caused the lowest one. In coriander, the mycorrhizal fertilizer, organic fertilizer, bioazospir, and chemical fertilizer resulted in the highest amount of studied traits, respectively and the control treatment caused the lowest one. Also, both medicinal plants showed much better performance in the combined cultivation with the cherry tree. Among the various combinations in the cultivation, the combined cultivation of coriander with cherry tree was selected as the best one.

In order to investigate the effect of the type drip of irrigation methods, subsurface irrigation and furrow irrigation on the domestication of Hedysarum criniferum Boiss., an experiment with a  randomized complete block design with three replications was implemented  at Isfahan University of Technology for two years (2016 to 2018) . For this purpose, clay pipes were made and the plant was cultivated on the sides of clay pipes and types. Also, furrow irrigation treatment was applied as the control. During the experiment, all treatments received the same water and finally, some growth parameters were measured. The results of the study showed improvement in height (0.43 and 0.34), canopy cover (0.66 and 0.52), stem number (0.44 and 0.85), chlorophyll index (0.45 and 0.45), seed emergence (0.75 and 0.30), plant survival (0.78 and 0.55), yield (0.23 and 0.35), and water use efficiency (0.25 and 0.25) under type drip irrigation treatment, as compared to subsurface and furrow irrigation, respectively (P<0.05). In general, the type drip treatment is recommended in the early years of planting; however, since the maximum production potential of this plant is in the third year onwards, it is necessary to examine the results in the following years to recommend the proper irrigation method, especially the use of subsurface irrigation.

As Iran faces limited water resources, it should take the use of unconventional waters into account in its drought management. In many countries, including Iran, conventional water is relatively scarce. However, should water, soil, and plants be appropriately managed, there would be significant saline water sources for irrigation purposes. Together with reducing salinity and refining polluted waters, subsurface irrigation is now considered as an increasingly important tool in improving the quality of unconventional waters. In this system, besides the application of subsurface irrigation, water is used at lower volumes and pressures, and soil and plant contamination are minimized, and thus, concerns regarding the use of wastewater in specific plant irrigation are reduced to some extent. This study, therefore, sought to investigate the efficiency of clay reservoirs in subsurface irrigation as a way to manage unconventional waters properly. It should be noted that such reservoirs are formed when saline and polluted waters with different concentrations are used

having been conducted at the lands of Isfahan University of Technology, Iran, this study investigated the possibility of making use of unconventional waters for subsurface irrigation through clay reservoirs. To this end, an experiment was performed with three replications, using random sampling. Some 50 cm×50 cm (width and depth) planting pits were drilled with a 2 m distance from each other. The clay reservoirs were made in 4.7-liter size, and solutions were prepared with their salinity concentrations being 4, 8, and 32 ds/m, and nitrate and phosphate concentrations being 5, 50, and 100 mg/L and 5, 30, 60 mg/L, respectively. The output of nitrate and phosphate was measured by UV spectrophotometry, and the electrical conductivity output was measured by an electrical conductivity meter. The depletion percentage of conventional water, saline water with different concentrations, and water with varying nitrate and phosphate concentrations were also measured over time. Moreover, the data analysis was performed in SPSS 22.0 Software.

The results of the study showed that the difference between nitrate and phosphate concentration of clay reservoirs before and after the irrigation was 1.1, 0.8, and 2 mg/l and 1, 0.8, and 1.1 mg/l at concentrations of 5, 10, and 50 mg/l, respectively. The difference in sodium chloride concentration before and after the irrigation was 0.7, 0.7, and 1.4 ds/m at concentrations of 4, 8, and 32 dS/m, respectively, so the difference was not significant statistically (P>0.05). The depletion percentage in the control reservoir was higher than water polluted with nitrate and phosphate and the reservoirs filled with saline water.

The advancement of the wetting front increased with decreasing salinity levels of the pitcherschr('39') water. Salt concentration in the soil with pitcher irrigated by saline water was found to be minimum near the pitcher and maximum at the periphery of the wetted zone around the pitcher. One reason for a decrease in the flow rate with an increase in salt concentration could be the increase in the aqueous viscosity with concentration. It could, thus, be concluded that the rate of depletion partly decreases with increasing salinity and the amount of nitrate and phosphate in irrigation water over time, which was not noticeable and was attributed to the higher viscosity of saline water and the water contaminated with nitrate and phosphate. Should those responsible for developing water resources in Iran do not seek logical solutions for using other water resources, such as using low-quality water, the country would face serious problems. As water resources are limited, using unconventional waters would be very useful in drought management. Therefore, it seems that changing the policies regarding water management and arranging for the application of this irrigation method could help relevant Iranian officials manage the countrychr('39')s water crisis efficiently. In the last two decades, subsurface clay irrigation has been implemented in parts of the country. The use of saltwater and wastewater in this method would open new windows for the use of unconventional waters. As a result, pottery depletion is a suitable way to meet the plantschr('39') water needs, provided that proper filtration and acceptable irrigation water quality are used

Studying the phenological stages and determining their occurrence in different biological conditions is useful instrumental in restoring and selecting the bases in forestry. Therefore, descriptive method and quantitative analysis were used to study the phenology of Black Locust (Robinia pesudoacacia L.). In descriptive method, the phenomenological observations were recorded during the specified intervals and of the plant components were photographed during the growth season using color channels for the quantitative method. The color of the components of the plant was uniform using the Photoshop software, color channel digit and then the percentage of each color channel was determined. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation between temperature and precipitation with 2G-RB index in SPSS 22.0 software. The climatic characteristics were used to study the growing day-degree (GDD). The results showed that the vegetative growth of the plant begins early April and continues until early August. The leaves of the tree shed in late December, and goes to dormancy in three months of winter. The emergence of the bud was observed in late June and the flowering in mid- July. The fruits of the tree were formed at the end of August, and arrived mid-September until early November. The seeds of this tree were scattered from early September to early May. The significant correlation was only observed between the mean monthly temperature and color change of the plant stem and the tree required 3180, 5569.5, 629.7, 1153.7, 569.60, 1474.40, 5951.90, 653.30, 282.70 and 830.90 GDD for vegetative growth, leaf emergence, bud appearance, flowering, fruit formation, fruit ripening, seed loss, leaf fall, leaf loss and dormancy, respectively. Since the R. pesudoacacia is a suitable tree for cultivation in temperate cold and semi-arid regions, understanding its phenology will assist in biological restoration and green space development.

Habitat degradation is one the important reasons of plant species extinction. Modeling techniques are widely used for identifying the potential habitats of different plant species. Thus, the purpose of current study was to determine potential habitats of Zalzalak in Lorestan Province. Species presence data and 23 environmental variables were collected in Lorestan Province. Correlation analysis was then applied to reduce the environmental variables into nine effective ones and potential habitat of the species was determined using five models including Maximum Entropy (MAXENT),Generalized Linear Models (GLM), Generalized Additive Models (GAM), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) and Generalized Boosting Model (GBM). Models were evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plots, true skill statistic (TSS) and Kappa coefficients. Results showed that ROC and Kappa coefficients were excellent for all models and TSS values were excellent for GBM and MAXENT, good for MARS and GAM and medium for GLM model. According to the combined model, 40% of the province was classified as suitable and 60% as unsuitable. The precipitation of the three coldest months of the year, annual rainfall and elevation were the most effective environmental variables in Zalzalak habitat mapping. The maximum presence of the species occurred at the rainfall and elevation range of 160–220 mm and 1300–1850 m, respectively. Due to the high accuracy of the Zalzalak suitable habitat map, it can be used by related organizations, as an appropriate tool for reclamation of degraded regions and conservation of current habitats.

With respect to water shortage during the recent decades, subsurface irrigation method has been considered in arid and semiarid zones. Therefore, experimental design was performed as completely randomized blocks with four repetitions in Isfahan University of Technology. Then, the effects of different irrigation intervals of every day, every other day and once a week under the surface and subsurface irrigation on height, collar diameter, chlorophyll content and stomata conductivity of Zygophyllum fabago L. were investigated. The percentage of plant survival was also recorded six months after planting. The results showed that irrigation interval had a significant effect on height, chlorophyll content and stomata conductivity of the tested plant (P<0.05) and the height, diameter of the collar and stomata conductivity decreased by increasing the irrigation interval. While, the irrigation interval didn’t have a significant effect on the collar diameter (P>0.05). The highest percentage of survival (100%) was observed in subsurface irrigation treatment and control treatment had the lowest percentage of viability (70%). It could be concluded that the improvement of growth parameters and survived of Zygophyllum fabago were better with the subsurface irrigation than the surface irrigation.