نشریه آب و خاک
سال بیست و نهم شماره 6 (پیاپی 44، بهمن و اسفند 1394)

Cracking of earth dams is a one of the main threat causes of stability of embankment dams. In this research by modeling of the behavior of an embankment dam and employing conditions of the earthquake, the reasons of cracking were inspected using by modeling of earth dam behavior. Based on the literature, one of the main causes of dam failures is sliding and cracking of the dam structure during earthquake. Localized liquefaction of foundation soils was one of the causes of the observed post-earthquake distress within these dams.
Material and In order to study the causes and the results of crack on earth dams, Mahmoodabad earthen dam with a height of 19 m, is located in Zanjan province, northwest of Iran, which suffered a longitudinal crack on the crest and slight sliding of the upstream slope due to 2001 Avaj earthquake was studied. This dam has faced earthquake two times with an interval of two years. During the first earthquake with the magnitude about 6.6 in Richter scale small longitudinal cracks had created on the crest. The developed cracks had been repaired by injecting the cement and then has been hidden by passing the time. After the second earthquake with the magnitude about 6.5 in Richter scale the hidden cracks had been appeared again and the slight movement of the upper slopes of dam reported. Based on the site investigation and documented information about dam, including maps and parameter data, the behavior of the dam has modeled by using Plaxis as a finite element model. In order to check the accuracy of the design of dam, the stability analysis has been conducted using by Xslope as a limit equilibrium model. The foundation conditions and the Geotechnical properties of the layer beneath the dam has been inspected by open excavation.
Underground investigation about Geotechnical properties of dam foundation has showed that there is a thin sandy layer confined in alluvium material of the river base beneath the dam structure. In fact , this layer has not been considered in the analysis as well in design. Because of fully saturated condition of this layer in an operation period of dam it might subjected to liquefaction during the happening of the earthquake. Evaluation of liquefaction potential of this layer based on Seed and Idriss (1971) diagram showed probability of this phenomenon. To prove this hypothesis, the stability analysis had been conducted in two different conditions by including the thin sandy layer and without considering the mentioned layer. The analysis showed in the case of absence of sandy layer the required safety factor was satisfied, but including the sandy layer leads cause the safety factor dropped to 0.84 that means accruing of liquefaction in the thin layer would lead to structural instability of the studied dam. The simulation of the behavior of dam by employing the accrued earthquake acceleration confirmed the liquefaction has been accrued in the thin sandy layer. The results of finite element simulation showed the depth of the cracks on the crest is about 2 meters and also the upstream slope has slipped about 81 mm to the reservoir of the dam. These results was consistent with the observed values. To overcome the next risks, also to repair the damaged parts of the dam, 3 different methods had been proposed. The curing technics was deploying of the reservoir and removing of the damage part of the dam and as well the thin sandy layer and reconstructed that part of dam, Deploying of reservoir of the dam and adjusting the slope of the upper shoulder to stable condition and at least repairing the developed cracks by injecting cement slurry and tolerate the current condition without imposition any additional costs to the project. The third method has been selected, but for any probable risky condition monitoring of the dam has been advised.
Based on the overall results of the investigations, it was concluded that cracking and sliding of upstream shell is mainly due to the presence of a loose, fine sandy layer under the base of the dam which was liquefied during the earthquakes. In order to overcome the problem, one of the three offered solutions, including modification of cracks by injecting cement slurry, was applied and after roughly 9 years, the provided reports confirmed the adequacy of the applied solution.

Exact prediction of transported sediment rate by rivers in water resources projects is of utmost importance. Basically erosion and sediment transport process is one of the most complexes hydrodynamic. Although different studies have been developed on the application of intelligent models based on neural, they are not widely used because of lacking explicitness and complexity governing on choosing and architecting of proper network. In this study, a Genetic expression programming model (as an important branches of evolutionary algorithems) for predicting of sediment load is selected and investigated as an intelligent approach along with other known classical and imperical methods such as Larsen´s equation, Engelund-Hansen´s equation and Bagnold´s equation.
In this study, in order to improve explicit prediction of sediment load of Gotoorchay, located in Aras catchment, Northwestern Iran latitude: 38°24´33.3˝ and longitude: 44°46´13.2˝), genetic programming (GP) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) were applied. Moreover, the semi-empirical models for predicting of total sediment load and rating curve have been used. Finally all the methods were compared and the best ones were introduced. Two statistical measures were used to compare the performance of the different models, namely root mean square error (RMSE) and determination coefficient (DC). RMSE and DC indicate the discrepancy between the observed and computed values.
The statistical characteristics results obtained from the analysis of genetic programming method for both selected model groups indicated that the model 4 including the only discharge of the river, relative to other studied models had the highest DC and the least RMSE in the testing stage (DC= 0.907, RMSE= 0.067). Although there were several parameters applied in other models, these models were complicated and had weak results of prediction. Our results showed that the model 9, with the most DC and the least RMSE (DC=0.694, RMSE= 0.081), had the relative advantage to the other none dimensional models. Finally it is clear that the model 6 had more predicting capability rather than the model 9, so among all the models, model 6 was the best referring model for estimation of sediment load of the Ghotoorchay river.
It was observed that the model including only the discharge of the Ghotoorchay river the best model for estimation of sediment load and it was applied for comparing all the other sediment predicting models such as some classic methods that includes Larsen´s equation, Engelund-Hansen´s equation and Bagnold´s equation and optimized rating curve. Among all methods, it was concluded that the genetic programming was superior to other methods in predicting sediment load of the mentioned river. Therefore, genetic programming that is a branch of evolutionary algorithms, with high prediction capability was offered as a powerful tool for optimizing and explicit predicting of total sediment load of the Ghotoorchay River.

Unsteady flow in irrigation systems is the result of operations in response to changes in water demand that affect the hydraulic performance networks. The increased hydraulic performance needed to recognize unsteady flow and quantify the factors affecting it. Unsteady flow in open channels is governed by the fully dynamic Saint Venant equation, which express the principles of conservation of mass and momentum. Unsteady flow in open channels can be classified into two types: routing and operation-type problems. In the routing problems, The Saint Venant equations are solved to get the discharge and water level in the time series. Also, they are used in the operation problem to compute the inflow at the upstream section of the channel according to the prescribed downstream flow hydrographs. The Saint Venant equation has no analytical solution and in the majority cases of such methods use numerical integration of continuity and momentum equations, and are characterized by complicated numerical procedures that are not always convenient for carrying out practical engineering calculations. Therefore, approximate methods deserve attention since they would allow the solution of dynamic problems in analytical form with enough exactness. There are effective methods for automatic controller synthesis in control theory that provide the required performance optimization. It is therefore important to get simplified models of irrigation canals for control design. It would be even more interesting to have linear models that explicitly depend on physical parameters. Such models would allow one to, handle the dynamics of the system with fewer parameters, understand the impact of physical parameters on the dynamics, and facilitate the development a systematic design method. Many analytical models have been proposed in the literature, Most of them have been obtained in the frequency domain by applying Laplace transform to linearized Saint-Venant equations. The got transcendental function can then be simplified using various methods to get a model expressed as a rational function of s (the Laplace variable), possibly including a time delay. It is therefore important to develop simple analytical models able to accurately reproduce the dynamic behavior of the system in realistic conditions.
Changes in water demand can create transient flow in irrigation networks. The Saint Venant equations are the equations governing open channel flow when unsteady flow propagates. In this research, the finite volume method using the time splitting scheme was employed to develop a computer code for solving the one dimensional unsteady flow equations. Considering stationary regime and small variations around it, the Saint-Venant equations around initial condition was linearized.
The Laplace transform is applied to the linearized saint venant equations, leading to an ordinary differential equation in the space variable x and parameterized by the Laplace variable s. The integration of this equation lead to a transfer matrix, and gives the discharge Q*(x, s) at any location with respect for the upstream discharge. This matrix is coupled with the downstream boundary condition and developed an equation that solved using Simpson integration algorithm. It should be noted numerical solution of developed equation is easier than solving fully dynamic saint venant and is less sensitive to the spatial step and the researcher simply writing code.
Froud Number (F), variation of inflow discharge (ΔQ/Q), and dimensionless parameter of KF2 in which K is the kinematic flow number, are effective factors on accuracy of developed equation. In order to determine the effect of the factors on accuracy of presenting formula, several simulations were performed using numerical model. The presented formula and numerical model were compared for 10, 20 and 30 percent discharge variation and error calculated, the maximum error increases with increasing ΔQ/Q.
To assess the importance of Froud Number and KF2, also several simulations were carried out, the results showed that the maximum error in the development equation for various Froud Number and KF2>1, is less than 3.8 percent.
Using Laplace transform to the saint venant equations and with respect to upstream and downstream boundary a formula for routing discharge presented. Investigation of the applicability range of presenting formula and cognitive effective factors on accuracy is necessary. So, the finite volume method using the time splitting scheme was employed to develop a computer code for solving the one dimensional unsteady flow equation. Then some tests of unsteady flow were simulated and verified the equations. The results showed that the maximum error increases with decreasing KF2 and increasing the rate of sudden changes of discharge. The maximum error in the presented formula for all tests with KF2>1, less than 3.8 percent.

Labyrinth weirs compare with straight weirs had required less freeboard in upstream so they are more appropriate for the irrigation networks. So they could maked more space to sotrage water and restrained foold with higher discharge. Labyrinths weirs have three generally form triangles, trapezoidal and rectangular that Tullis et al. (15) presented formula (3) for discharge coefficient of labyrinth weirs (triangles and rectangular) and a few studiescarried out on rectangular shape and its hydraulic characteristics are not specified.Therefore main aim of this paper study and characterized hydraulic characteristics of rectangular labyrinth weirs by using laboratory data.
In this study rectangular labyrinth weir discharge and coefficient discharge relationships used dimensional analysis and experiment on hydraulic modeling, constant coefficient was defined. Laboratory flume is shown in Figure 2 (0.5 m wide x 12 m long x 0.8 m deep). Models was made from clear plexiglass plate with 10 cm thickness thatcuted using leaserdevice and the crest manualy shaped quadrant with radius 10 cm, all models using silicon glue install in the flume. The upstream depth readership by point gauge that installed in upstream of models. Discharge calcutaed byupsterm depth of triangular weir that installed in down stream of flume.Data were analyzed by SPSS software and to compare relationships with each other used two parameter root mean square error and correlation coefficient and charts darw in Excel
discharge coefficient formula (11) carried out by using SPSS software that compared with formula (3). Results showed (Tables 2 and 3) that the correlation coefficient of formula (11) was more than a formula (3) and formula (11) RSME was less than formula (3) RSME except in first and fifth hydraulic model (rectengular1 and 5) that they were almost equal. So the formula (11) was more accurate than a formula (3) to peredict discharge of flow in flume. In previous step we used all data, we saw flourmloa (11) had more accurate then we diceded data divided in to three groups: high change, length change and all that calculated correlation coefficient and RSME for formula (11) to figure out which group have more accurate, results was brought in table 4. The result showed that constant coefficient of formula (11) yields from all data was useful for the design proposed. Plotted discharge changes against H/P for rectangular labyrinth and straight weirs in Figs. 3 and 4. In constant discharge and high with raising length weir, decreased depth of flow over the weir because the effective weir length was raised and the ratio of distributed length to apex length (b) was decreased. As well as in constant H/P and high weir with raising apex length, discharge was increased that similarity of the results of Tullis et al. (15) and Khode et al. (8). In length, and the ratio H / P constant with increasing height in the discharge coefficient due to submergence reduce local side Jt Hay reduce interference, but increases with increasing height from 0.20 to 0.25m m discharge coefficient decreases as flow rate and Weber number decreased as a result of the effect of surface tension and increased resistance to flow. In length, and the ratio H / P fixed amount of overflow discharge increases with increasing height as the ratio H / P value of the denominator increases and therefore increases the total height of the water upstream.For designoverflow rectangular labyrinth weirs recommends0.20 ≤H/P≤0.40that maximum aeration and discharge coefficient in this range is the result of Hay and Taylor (7) and Darvas (4) is consistent. In discharge and fixed weir height and maximum height of the water upstream directly at least equal to 1.8 of the overflow stright weirs. So for the areas where there is a height restriction of water upstream, the water level upstream of rectangular labyrinth weirs less direct overflow weirs requires the use of this is recommended.
The results showed the relationship (11) that uses most of effective parameters has more accurate results and proposed for design aim. In constant water head upstream discharge of labyrinth weir maximum 2.6 times more than straight weir discharge and in constant discharge water head upstream of straight weir 1.8 times more than upstream labyrinth weir water head so use a labyrinth weir appropriate for areas that have head and discharge restrictions. Best range of ratio H/P for of design was 0.20 to 0.40 and maxim coefficient discharge happened in this range.

Because of the fairly simple equations for accurate flow measurement and controlling the water level, weir and gate method is more useful than the separate weir, gate and partial flume methods. Since the flowing water in the channel always contains sediment particles and floating debris, they are deposited at the gate inlets and behind the weirs which reduces the size of the channel in the structure range and which reduces some problems such as neighboring land flooding due to overflow of water from the channel banks, threatening the structure stability and reducing the measurement accuracy. Using a combination of weir- gate model, in comparison with other conventional devices, will make it possible to get the actual conditions closer two main hypotheses derived from the relations and accurately measure the discharge coefficient. In this model, the deposited materials are easily passed through the gates and the suspended debris are easily passed over the weirs. One of the combined weir- gate structures is semi cylindrical weir- gate structure. Regarding about the form of the combined weir- gate structures, it has some advantages , including simple design, sediments and floating material flow, high flow discharge coefficient compared with other replaceable structures and its being economic. Semi Cylindrical gate turning around center Axis, for reason of rotation the center becomes Conversion to wire, wire gate with opening with different height.
The experiments were conducted in a rectangular flume with the length of 8 m, width of 0.282 m and height of 0.3 m in Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute. In this research, PVC pipes were used as semi cylindrical gate structures. The experiments were conducted for three diameters 70, 120 and 160 mm with height of the opening between zeros until radius, angles zero, 30, 45, 60 and 90 degree and differently discharging. Experiments were performed at a discharge limit of 2-27 l/s. In order to decrease turbulence of the flow, the gate was installed at the end 4 m of the flume. The ratio of cylindrical structure diameter to channel width (D/B) was in the range of 0.25 to 0.57 and the Froude number was in the range of 0.08 to 0.55.
Coefficient discharge of semi cylindrical structure and then dimensionless parameters of [H/P], [a/H], [ /H] and [Fr] against the discharge coefficient in the studied gate opening between zero until radius were investigated. According to result with decrease dimensionless parameter of a/H, discharge coefficient increased, So that the maximum Coefficient discharge rate of angle 90 degrees and minimum angle 0 degrees. Also in a constant of a/H for the curvature of the downstream and upstream, with increasing the diameter of semi cylinder, discharge coefficient remains and has no change, shows that changes in diameter of semi cylinder have no significant impact on discharge coefficient. With increasing H/P for both curves upstream and the downstream, discharge coefficient increased. Also in a constant of H/P for the curvature of the downstream and upstream, with increasing the diameter of semi cylinder, discharge coefficient remains. With constant of angles with increasing Freud for all angles, both the curvature of the downstream and upstream, /H decreased. Also in a constant of Freud and angles, with increasing the diameter of semi cylinder, /H remains. According to the result, discharge coefficient of semi cylindrical gates varies, in Experimental limit, from 0.45 to 1.45 which is more than that of sluice gates reported by the USBR. One of the reasons, this is ascribed to this is the difference between the amount of entrance, head loss in this structure, because when the flow approaches cylindrical gate, due to curvedness of the wall upstream, a gradual gathering of flow lines gives the aerodynamic method to entrance section, thus decreasing resistance against the flow and entrance head loss and increasing discharge coefficient. However, in sluice gates the vertical wall in entrance section is conducive to fast gathering of flow line, thereby increasing resistance against flow, increasing entrance head loss, and decreasing discharge coefficient relative to a semi cylindrical method.
The results showed that increasing Froude coefficient and decreasing the a/H (ratio of gate opening to upstream water depth) dimensionless parameter decrease, respectively increase the discharge coefficient and decrease head loss in all aspects of structural alignment. Within addition by increasing the H/P dimensionless parameter (ratio of upstream water depth to structure diameter) discharge coefficient increased. Results showed that the maximum and minimum values of discharge coefficient are related respectively to 90 degree and 0 degree angle.

Water use and pollution have raised to a critical level in many parts of the world. If humankind is to meet the challenges over the coming fifty years, the agricultural share of water use has to be substantially reduced. In this study, a modern yet simple approach has been proposed through the introduction concept ‘Water Footprint’ (WF). This concept can be used to study the connection between each product and the water allocation to produce that product. This research estimates the green, blue and gray WF of wheat in Iran. Also a new WF part (white) is used that is related about irrigation water loss.
The national green (Effective precipitation), blue (Net irrigation requirement), gray (For diluting chemical fertilizers) and white (Irrigation water losses) water footprints (WF) of wheat production were estimated for fifteen major wheat producing provinces of Iran. Evapotranspiration, irrigation requirement, gross irrigation requirement and effective rainfall were got using the AGWAT model. Yields of irrigated and rain-fed lands of each province were got from Iran Agricultural-Jihad Ministry. Another part of the wheat production WF is related about the volume of water required to assimilate the fertilizers leached in runoff (gray WF). Moreover, a new concept of white water footprint was proposed here and represents irrigation water losses, which was neglected in the original calculation framework. Finally, the national WF parts of wheat production were estimated by taking the average of each part over all the provinces weighted by the share of each province in total wheat production of the selected provinces.
In 2006-2012, more than 67% of the national wheat production was irrigated and 32.3% were rain-fed, on average, while 37.9% of the total wheat-cultivated lands were irrigated and 62.1% was rain-fed from more than 6,568 -ha. The total national WF of wheat production for this period was estimated as 42,143 MCM/year, on average. Different parts of wheat WF were estimated for 236 plains in fifteen selected provinces. For irrigated areas, the green WFs ranged from 499 to 1,023 m3/ton, the blue WFs from 521 to 1,402 m3/ton, the gray WFs from 337 to 822 m3/ton, and the white WFs from 701 to 2,301 m3/ton. The average total WF for irrigated areas among all the selected provinces is about 3,188 m3/ton, with almost equal shares of blue and green water. For rain-fed areas, the green WFs ranged from 1,282 to 4,166 m3/ton and the gray WFs from 100 to 740 m3/ton. The average total WF for rainfed areas is about 3,071 m3/ton with the share of green WF being nine times the gray WF. In irrigated areas, the percentages of green, blue, gray and white WFs are 23, 25, 17 and 35% of total WF, respectively in each province. The average total WF for irrigated areas is about 3,188 m3/ton with comparable shares of blue and green water. In irrigated areas, Fars, Khorasan and Khuzestan provinces have the largest of the total WF with 5,575, 5,028 and 4,123 MCM/year, respectively. In addition to large cultivated areas and high rates of potential evapotranspiration, high values of gray and white water is another reason for the high volume of total WF in these provinces.
The results showed that the green WF related about wheat production in our country is about 2.3 times the blue WF. It confirmed the importance of green water in wheat production. Also the gray water footprint was assessed which is related about nitrogen application. Besides, the white water footprint was proposed here, which represents irrigation water losses. Results showed that the total water footprint in wheat production for the whole country is about 42,143 MCM/year on average over the period of 2006-2012. The ratios of green, blue, gray and white water were 41, 18, 16 and 25%, respectively. Different parts of wheat WF were estimated for 236 plains over fifteen selected provinces. Total shares of gray and white water footprint were 41% of total wheat production water footprint. The average total WF for irrigated areas among all selected provinces is about 3,188 m3/ton, with almost equal shares of blue and green water. The authors admit that the accuracy of these results is subject to the quality of the input data.

Pistachio is one of the most important crops in many regions of Iran with respect of production and export. There are more than 470000 ha of nonbearing and bearing pistachio trees mainly in Kerman province. Despite the economic importance of this crop, very little information is available on its nutritional requirements. Pistachio trees like other crops need to macro and micro nutrients. one of these elements is manganese (Mn). Manganese is an essential mineral nutrient, playing a key role in several physiological processes, particularly photosynthesis, respiration and nitrogen assimilation. This element is normally supplied to the plants by soil. Therefore, soil conditions affect its availability to plants. Soils with high pH, calcareous soils, especially those with poor drainage and high organic matter, are among the soils which produce Mn-deficient plants. Calcium carbonate is the major inactivation factor of Mn in calcareous soils. The soils of Iran are predominantly calcareous in which micronutrients deficiency, including Mn, is observed due to the high pH and nutrient fixation. The objective of this research was to examine the effect of manganese application on growth and chemical composition of pistachio seedlings in some calcareous soils with different chemical and physical properties.
For this purpose a greenhouse experiment was carried out as factorial (two factors including soil type and Mn levels) experiment in completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments were consisted of three levels of Mn (0, 10 and 20 mg Mn Kg-1 soil as Manganese sulfate) and 12 different soils from Rafsanjan region in Southern Iran. Soil samples were air dried and crushed to pass through a 2-mm sieve, and some physical and chemical properties of soils such as texture, electrical conductivity, pH, organic matter content, calcium carbonate equivalent, cation exchange capacity and iron, manganese, copper and zinc availability were determined. Then plastic pots were filled with 5 kg of these soils. Pistachio seeds (cv Badami Zarand) were placed in muslin sacks and pretreated for 24 h with Benomyl solution. The germinated seeds were planted in each pot, and each pot was irrigated with distilled water. Nitrogen and phosphorous were applied uniformly to all pots at the rate of 50 mg kg−1 soil as ammonium nitrate and potassium dihydrogen phosphate forms, respectively. Zinc, iron and copper also were added to treatments at level of 5 mg kg−1 soil as zinc sulfate, iron sequestrine138 and copper sulfate. After 24 weeks, the seedlings were cut at the soil surface, and the roots were washed free of soil. Leaves, stems and roots were dried at 70 oC for 48 h in an oven. The total leaf, stem, and root dry weights were recorded. The ground plant samples were dry- ashed at 550oC, dissolved in 2 N HCl, and made to volume with hot distilled water. Plant Mn, Cu, Zn and Fe concentrations determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. All data were statistically analyzed according to the technique of analysis variance (ANOVA) by MSTATC.
Results indicated that the application of manganese increased leaf, stem and root dry weight of pistachio seedlings so that the maximum amount of the dry weight of roots stems and leaves of pistachio seedlings were observed at 10 mg Mn kg-1soil. Application of 10 mg Mn kg-1 soil increased leaf, stem and root dry weight by 19.2%, 25.2% and 23.9% in comparison to control, respectively. Chemical composition (concentration and uptake) of shoot of pistachio seedlings was also affected by Mn application. Mn application decreased the concentration and uptake of iron, concentrations of copper and zinc in Pistachio seedling shoots so that the highest concentrations of these elements were observed in control treatment. Reductions in concentrations of zinc and copper elements in 10 mg Mn kg-1 treatment were not statistically significant but in 20 mg Mn kg-1 treatment they were significant.
The results of this research showed that the application of 10 mg Mn kg-1soilto highly calcareous soils significantly increased most of growth parameters of pistachio seedlings in comparison to control. Although higher amounts of manganese (20 mg Mn kg-1 soil) reduced the growth parameters than the previous level. In overall, the results of this study indicated that for optimum growth and chemical composition of pistachio seedlings in calcareous soils, application of 10 mg Mn kg-1 sol is necessary.

Phosphorus (P) is regarded as the most important soil nutrient after nitrogen (N) for plant growth and development as it plays key roles in plant metabolism, structure and energy transformation. Also, although soil P is often abundant in both organic and inorganic forms, it is frequently a major or even the prime limiting factor for plant growth. Low phosphorus (P) availability is a major global global constraint to crop production. In most soils, soil and fertilizer P are easily bound by either soil organic matter or chemicals, and thus are unavailable to plants unless hydrolyzed to release inorganic phosphate. Phosphorus efficient plants play a major role in increasing crop yields due to shortage of inorganic P fertilizer resources, limited land and water resources, and increasing environmental concerns. Therefore, the development of P-efficient crop varieties that can grow and yield better with low P supply is a key for improving crop production. Enhancing P efficiency in plants can be achieved through enhancing P acquisition, utilization, or both.
In order to investigate the effect of microbial inoculation on phosphorus efficiency of different genotypes of barley, a glasshouse factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with 10 barley genotypes and different phosphorus (P) treatments including control (P0), phosphate rock (RP), RP inoculated with phosphate solubilizing fungi (RP), RP inoculated with phosphate solubilizing bacteria (RP), RP inoculated with both fungi and bacteria inoculums (RPߡ), and soluble phosphate (PS) in three replications. After sieving (2 mm sieve), and, air - drying of soil samples, basal nutrients mixed thoroughly at the following soil test results. Then, soils placed in plastic pots (3 kg). The P treatments as (KH2PO4 and Rock Phosphate) 80 mg kg-1 soil added at the depth of 5-cm of soil. After 9 weeks the plants were harvested, grain dry weight (GDW) and grain P concentration measured and then content P (TP), P efficiency (PE), P acquisition efficiency (PACE) and P utilization efficiency (PUTE) were calculated.
The results indicated that microbial inoculation had significant effect (P

Mining and smelting activities have contributed to increasing levels of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in soils around of Sarcheshmeh copper mine (Kerman, Iran). Soil chemical analysis showed that the available of Cu and Zn (extracted with DTPA-TEA) were 260.1 and 9.2 mg kg-1 soil, respectively. Phytoextraction is one of the most popular and useful phytoremediation techniques for removal of heavy metals from polluted soils. For chemically-assisted phytoextraction, different chelating agents such as EDTA and citric acid are applied to soil to increase the availability of heavy metals in soil for uptake by plants. A pot experiment was conducted to elucidate the performance of chelating agents addition in improving phytoextraction of Cu and zinc Zn from a naturally contaminated soil by maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars.
A factorial experiment in a completely randomized design was carried out bythree factors of chelate type, chelate concentrations and maize cultivars with three replications in 2012 at ShahreKord University. Chelating agents were Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid (EDTA) and citric acid (CA). They were applied in concentration levels of 0, 0.75 and 1.5 mmole kg-1 soil with irrigation water. The three maize cultivars used were single cross 704 (SC-704), three v cross 647 (TVC-647), and single cross 677 (SC-677). The pots were 23 cm in diameter and 23 cm deep, and were filled with 4 kg of a silty loam, calcareous soil taken from the surface layer of Sarcheshmeh copper mine area. Maize plant s was grown under greenhouse conditions over 90 days. After the harvest, soil available Cu and Zn contents (extracted with DTPA-TEA) were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). Plant samples (shoot and root) were dried for 48 h at 70ºC to determine their dry matter content (yield). Total Cu and Zn concentrations in root and shoot of maize were measured after digestion plant samples by AAS method. The shoot and root uptakes were calculated by multiplying Cu and Zn concentrations by dry mass. The effects of chelating agents and maize cultivars over the measured properties were evaluated using the two-ways ANOVA. The least significant difference (LSD) was used to compare means of treatments using SAS 8.02.
The results revealed that applying both chelates caused an increase of soil available Cu and Zn contents. The maximum of soil Cu (401.9 mg kg-1 soil) and Zn (17.1 mg kg-1 soil) were obtained by using EDTA with 1.5 mmole kg-1 soil in TVC-647 and SC-704 cultivars, respectively. This was due to formation of water-soluble complexes between EDTA with Cu and Zn in soil and help in their desorption from soil particles. EDTA was more effective than CA at increasing Cu and Zn available in the soil. The results indicated that EDTA-addition in 1.5 mmole kg-1 soil significantly reduced root and shoot fresh weight in all maize cultivars compared with the control (except root fresh weight in SC-677). This reduction was due to increasing soil available Cu and Zn contents and their toxic effects on plant growth as well as toxic impacts of EDTA on soil microorganisms and growth of plant.on the other hand0.75 mmole kg-1 soil CA addition induced significant increases in root fresh weight as compared to the control (except root fresh weight in TVC-647). Application of CA in concentration level of 0.75 mmole kg-1 soil led to the greatest quantity of shoot (12.85 g pot-1) and root (21.38 g pot-1) fresh weight in TVC-647 and SC-704 cultivars, respectively. Citric acid has a natural origin and is easily biodegraded in soil. It is not toxic to plants; therefore plant growth is not limited. The highest Cu concentration in root and shoot of maize (2506.1 and 335.6 mg kg-1 dry weight, respectively) were obtained in TVC-647 cultivar using 1.5 mmole kg-1 soil of EDTA – 62.2% and 422.9% greater than those obtained with control. The highest shoot Cu (871.1 μg pot-1) and Zn (76.7 μg pot-1) accumulations were recorded in TVC-647 cultivar using 1.5 mmole kg-1 soil of EDTA and CA, respectively.
Due to importance of Cu contamination in studying soil, it is suggested that EDTA-addition at 1.5 mmole kg-1 soil can be an appropriate chelator candidate for TVC-647 maize cultivar for environmentally safe phytoextraction of Cu in soil. It is noticed that application of EDTA in soil for long time has not recommended for phytoextraction of heavy metals. Because EDTA is non biodegradable substance and can leach into ground-water and causes other environmental hazardous risks.

Desertification, is a complex phenomenon, which as environmental, socio-economical, and cultural impacts on natural resources. According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification defination, desertification is land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions, resulting from climate change and human activities. Because of limiting access to qualified water resources in arid lands, it is necessary to use, all forms of acceptable water resources such as wastewater. Since irrigation with sewages has most effects on soil, in this research, desertification intensity of lands irrigated with sewages and natural lands of the area, where located near Yazd city, has been analyzed considering soil criterion of the Iranian Model for Desertification Potential Assessment (IMDPA). Several studies have done in Iran and in the world in order to provide national, regional or global desertification assessment models. A significant feature of the IMDPA is easily defining and measuring criteria, indicators, and ability of the model to use geometric means for the criteria and indicators.
In first step, In first step, in a random method, soil samples were taken in each of the defined land units with considering of the size of area. Next, all indices related to the soil criterion such as soil texture index, soil deep gravel percentage, soil depth, and soil electrical conductivity were evaluated in each land use (both irrigated lands and natural lands) and weighted considering the present conditions of the lands. Each index was scored according to the standard table of soil that categorized desertification. Then, geometry average of all indices were calculated and map of the desertification intensity of the study area were prepared. Thus, four maps were prepared according to each index. These maps were used to study both quality and effect of each index on desertification. Finally, these maps were integrated to prepare the final map that shows current status of desertification in the region by calculating geometric mean of all indices based on following formula: QS = [EC * STI * SDI* SGI]1/4
Where: QS: Soil criteria score; EC: Electrical Conductivity index; STI: Soil texture index; SDI: Soil depth index and SGI: Soil deep gravel percentage index.
Integrating of thematic databases and spatial analyst and mapping were done using ESRI Arc GIS v.10 software. Statistical analyses such as Mann-Whitney and t-statistic were done using SPSS v.21 software for comparing land irrigated with wastewater and natural land area.
Results show that in the land irrigated with wastewater, soil texture index with weighted average of 3.74 classified in severe desertification intensity class, and soil depth gravel percent, soil depth, and soil electrical conductivity indices with weighted average of 1.23, 1, and 1, respectively were classified in low desertification class. In general, soil criteria with weighted average of 1.21 classified in low desertification class. In natural lands of the area, soil depth gravel percent index (1) classified in low intensity class, soil depth index (3.06) grouped in severe class, and soil electrical conductivity (4) and soil texture (3.93) indices with were classified in very high desertification intensity classes.
In natural lands, soil criteria with weighted average of 2.89 classified in severe desertification class. General results show that in the lands irrigated with sewages, soils tissue index and in the natural lands, soil electrical conductivity index are the most effective indices in increasing of desertification intensity. Totally, soil criteria with the weighted average of 2.8, which are grouped in the very high desertification intensity class, are the main factors affecting desertification in total study area. Totally, soils tissue index is the most effective index of increasing in intensity of desertification in the total study area. However, the intensity of desertifcation in the land irrigated with wastewater is lower than the desrtification intensity in the natural lands of the study area, but this issue caused by losing of large amounts of good quality purified wastewater and converting of a large part of the area to wetland which can craates numerous environmental problems in the region in future. Finally, it can be concluded that the natural land of the study area, are not suitable for afforestation and agriculture in present condition, and if the land is irrigatted, salinity of the soil depths transferred up to the surface and can be cause some environmental problems in thi region.

Redox potential is one of the most important factors affecting on the solubility of iron minerals in soil. Decreasing redox potential in soil reduces Fe3 to Fe2, thereby affecting on solubility of Fe minerals. Application of organic matter to soil under waterlogging condition, decrease redox potential and as a consequence, accelerate the transformation of Fe minerals. The objectives of this study were: 1- The effect of waterlogging on the soluble total Fe concentration and transformation of Fe minerals in different soil pH values. 2- The indirect effects of organic matter on solubility of Fe minerals by changing the redox potential of the soils.
A study was conducted to determine the effects of redox potential on solubility of Fe and transformation of Fe minerals during the time. Four agricultural soils were selected from different regions of Iran. The soil samples were treated with 0 (C)and 2% (O) alfalfa powder and then incubated for 12 weeks under 60% Field capacity (F) and waterlogged conditions (S). Subsamples were taken after 1and 12 weeks of incubation and the redox potential, pH value, electrical conductivity (EC), soluble cations (such as Ca2, Mg2, K and Na) and anions (such as Cl-, SO42-, PO43- and NO3- ) and soluble Fe concentrations in the subsamples were measured. Concentrations of Fe2 and Fe3 species in soil solution were also predicted using Visual MINTEQ speciation program. Mineralogical transformation of Fe minerals was also determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique.
The results in 60% Field capacity condition showed that pH value by organic matter (alfalfa powder) application (OF) increased significantly (p≤ 0.05) in acid and neutral soils and decreased in calcareous soils when compared to the control (CF). Organic matter is usually capable of lowering pH of alkaline soils by releasing hydrogen ions associated with organic anions or by nitrification in an open system. On the other hand, it may cause pH to increase in the acid soils either by mineralization of organic acids to carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (thereby removing H) or by the alkaline nature of the organic residues. This treatment increased soluble total Fe concentration in all soils. It is clear that decomposition of organic matter cause to produce soluble organic compounds and form soluble complexes with Fe, thereby increasing soluble total Fe concentration. Waterlogging (CS) decreased redox potential of the soils gradually with the incubation time, especially in the neutral soil and alfalfa powder application (OS) accelerated this decreasing redox potential. The decrease rates by waterlogging in acid, neutral and two calcareous soils were 2, 3.6, 1.5 and 1.7folds, respectively compared to the control. The soluble total Fe concentration in CS compared to CF treatment increased significantly (p≤ 0.05) in all soils except in acid soil. This increasing was continued with time in all soils except in neutral soil. An important point that OS compared to CS treatment enhanced the soluble total Fe in acid and neutral soils, whereas decreased it in both calcareous soils. However, soluble total Fe increased during the incubation time in all soils except in neutral soil. The increase rates in week 12 relative to week 1were 3.4, 2.2 and 1.8 folds in acid and two calcareous soils, respectively. The decrease of soluble total Fe in the neutral soil is probably attributed to more severe decrease of redox potential in the soil when compared to the other soils. The solubility diagrams and X-ray diffraction results confirmed the formation of pyrite in the acid and neutral soils and the formation of siderite in one of the calcareous soils.
In aerobic condition, organic matter application increased the concentration of soluble total Fe and changed Fe-controlling mineral from soil-Fe to amorphous Fe. Waterlogging decreased redox potential and Fe-controlling mineral changed to pyrite and/or siderite, depending on CO2 pressure and pH value of the soils. It might be pointed out that severe reduction of the redox potential decreases soluble Fe through the formation of insoluble Fe minerals such as Fe sulfides. It is concluded that waterlogging soils can provide available Fe to the plant, though severe decrease of redox potential, by application of organic mater, may decrease Fe availability.

Physical and biological soil crusts are the principal types of soil crusts. Physical and biological soil crusts are distributed in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid regions which constitute over 40% of the earth terrestrial surface. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) result from an intimate association between soil particles and cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens and mosses in different proportions which live on the surface, or in the immediately uppermost millimeters of soil. Some of the functions that BSCs influences include: water absorption and retention, nutrient retention, Carbon and nitrogen fixation, biological activate and hydrologic Status. BSCs are important from the ecological view point and their effects on the environment, especially in rangeland, and desert ecosystems and this caused which researchers have a special attention to this component of the ecosystems more than before.
This study carried out in the Qara Qir rangelands of Golestan province, northeast of Iran (37º15′ - 37º23′ N &54º33′ -54º39′ E), to investigate the effects of BSCs on some of soil biological properties. Four sites including with and without BSCs cover were selected. Soil biological properties such as microbial populations, soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, as well as, other effective properties such asorganic carbon percent, total nitrogen, electrical conductivity, and available water content were measured in depths of 0-5 and 5-15 cm of soil with four replications. The gathered data were analyzed by nested plot, and the mean values were compared by Duncan test.
The results showed that organic carbon and water content were higher at the surface under BSCs, followed by 5-15 cm soils under BSCs. Both soil depths of uncrusted soils showed substantially lower organic carbon and water content than the BSC-covered soils. Total nitrogen was far higher in BSC-encrusted surface soils than uncrusted surface soils or BSC sub-surface soils. All Electrical conductivities were lower in surface soils covered with BSCs than sub-surface soils. The values for non-BSC covered soils were far higher than values for soils covered with BSCs. The values of soil biological properties such as microbial populations, soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were higher at the surface under BSCs, followed by 5-15 cm soils under BSCs. The values for non-BSC covered soils were far lower than values for soils covered with BSCs at 0-5 cm depth but these properties in the uncrusted soils did not differ with BSCs covered surface at 5-15 cm depth. The amount of organic carbon was higher in BSC-covered surface soils at both measured depths, likely due to the ability of BSCs to fix atmospheric carbon. This leads to enhanced BSCs biomass and thus organic carbon especially in the soil surface layer (0-5 cm). An extensive cover of even a thin layer of photosynthetically active organisms can be an important basis for carbon input into the soil. BSCs also produce and secrete extracellular polysaccharides into surrounding soils, increasing the soil carbon and nitrogen pool. In general, there is a positive correlation between C and N fixation by BSCs. Also distribution of soil microbial population is positively correlated with the distribution of organic carbon and nitrogen. Microbial population is reduced following increase at depth, which is proportional to reduce of the concentration of nutrient and suitable conditions such as water content for growing them. Therefore proportionate to Microbial population, the properties such as soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were reduced following increase at depth, because it did not provide the conditions for living organisms. These conditions were more inappropriate for non-BSC covered soils due to lower water content, organic carbon, total nitrogen and much higher electrical conductivity at both depths especially at 5-15 cm depth.
Biological soil crusts can play a key role in the biological properties of soil. Our data showed that organic carbon percent, total nitrogen, and available water content and biological properties such as microbial populations, soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were increased significantly in two mentioned depths especially in 0-5 cm depth on sites covered with BSCs, relative to without BSCs. Electrical Conductivity had a reverse trend. In general, it can be concluded that BSCs improve soil conditions and provide suitable habitats for heterotrophic microorganisms and increase soil microbial activity. As the presence of BSCs generally increased the positive qualities of the soil, it is suggested that they can be used as a qualitative indicator of soil quality in rangelands.

Among the collection of natural resources in the world, soil is considered as one of the most important components of the environment. Protect and improve the properties of this precious resource, requires a comprehensive and coordinated action that only through a deep understanding of quantitative (not only recognition of the quality) the origin, distribution and functionality in a natural ecosystem is possible. Many researchers believe that due to the quick reactions of soil organisms to environmental changes, soil biological survey to estimate soil quality is more important than the chemical and physical properties. For this reason, in many studies the nitrogen mineralization and microbial respiration indices are regarded. The aim of the present study were to study the direct and indirect effects of soil physicochemical characteristics on the most important biological indicators (nitrogen mineralization and microbial respiration), which has not been carefully considered up to now. This research is the first study to provide evidence to the future planning and management of soil sciences.
For this, a limitation of 20 ha area of Experimental Forest Station of Tarbiat Modares University was considered. Fifty five soil samples, from the top 15 cm of soil, were taken, from which bulk density, texture, organic C, total N, cation exchange capacity (CEC), nitrogen mineralization and microbial respiration were determined at the laboratory. The data stored in Excel as a database. To determine the relationship between biological indices and soil physicochemical characteristics, correlation analysis and factor analysis using principal component analysis (PCA) were employed. To investigate all direct and indirect relationships between biological indices and different soil characteristics, path analysis (path analysis) was used.
Results showed significant positive relations between biological indices and clay, organic carbon and total nitrogen, whereas the correlations of the other soil properties (bulk density, silt, sand and CEC) were insignificant. Factor analysis using of principle component analysis showed that the behavior of these two biological indices in the same territory and controlled by the same factors. Path analysis was employed to study the relationship among soil biological indices and the other soil properties. According to results, soil nitrogen mineralization is more imposed by nitrogen (0.98) and organic carbon (0.91) properties as direct and indirect effects respectively. Whereas the values of soil microbial respiration were affected by organic carbon (0.89) and total nitrogen (0.81). It can be claimed that total nitrogen and organic carbon are the most important soil properties in relation to nitrogen mineralization and microbial respiration, respectively. Regarding to the strong relationship between soil organic carbon and nitrogen and also similarly strong relationship between nitrogen and organic carbon mineralization, enhancing nitrogen mineralization is expected by the increase in organic carbon. In this regard, Nourbakhsh, et al. (2002) claimed that nitrogen mineralization is depended to soil organic nitrogen and derived from total nitrogen. In addition, there is a strong relationship between total nitrogen and soil organic carbon. So, the greater amounts of nitrogen mineralization can be related to more accumulation of organic carbon and nitrogen in topsoil (23). This result is in accordance with Wood, et al. (1990) and Norton, et al. (2003) findings (21, 30). Ebrahimi, et al. (2005) stated that if the C/N ratio is more than 30, the process immobility or nitrogen mineralization stopwill be occurred. The ratios between 20 and 30 usually settle and release of mineral nitrogen does not take place, and the balance remains. If the C/N ratio is less than 20 net release of nitrogen in the soil will increase (9).In the present study, the values of soil C/N ratio were less than 20 (mean 15.80), so the process of nitrogen mineralization occurred in the study area. Suitable conditions for microbial activity of soil microorganism's especially adequate supply of organic carbon increased the microbial respiration in the study area. High correlation between the amount of organic carbon and microbial respiration confirmed this claim. However; it seems that the soil organic carbon is driver of microbial respiration rate. This finding is reported by different researchers (6, 7, 15, and 20).
Path analysis as a complementary method of regression analysis and factor analysis using principal component analysis showed that the biological activity of the soil characteristics are directly affected by soil nitrogen (for nitrogen mineralization index) and organic carbon (for microbial respiration index) and other useful features influence them indirectly through strong correlation with the characteristics of nitrogen and organic carbon in soil.

Soil compaction has become a widespread problem in the world and it is considered as one of the main factors affecting land degradation in arid and semi-arid agricultural land. Compaction in arable soils, is a gradual phenomenon that appearing over time and most important factors that influence it include: soil properties, high clay content, low organic matter, frequency of wet-dry in the soil, impervious layer of soil, load heavy agricultural implements and soil and water mismanagement. Compaction induced soil degradation affects about 68 million hectares of land globally. The vast majority of compaction in modern agriculture is caused by vehicular traffic. Carbon sequestration by long-term management operation of the plant and soil, not only increase the soil carbon storage but also lead to reduce the carbon exchange and greenhouse gases emissions like CO2 from the soil profile. The aim of this study was evaluating the effect of soil compaction on carbon and nitrogen sequestration of wheat and soil and some soil physical properties such as: aggregate stability, saturated soil moisture content, bulk density and soil porosity.
This experiment was accomplished in which is located near Aq Qala in a randomized completely block design (with 4 treatments and 3 replication). Soil compaction was artificially created by using a 5/7 ton heavy tractor. The treatments arrangements were: 1) T1: control, 2) T2: twice passing of tractor, 3) T3: four time of passing tractor, and 4) T4: six time of passing heavy tractor. Utilize of all agricultural inputs (fertilizers, herbicides, etc.) has been identical for all treatments. Since rain-fed farming is the common method to cultivation of cereals in the study area, so no complementary irrigation was carried out in this period. In this study, after the measurement of the parameters, the data were analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 Software. LSD test was used for comparison of means.
The results showed that the different levels of soil compaction significantly increased soil bulk density. All the soil compaction treatments have caused a significant reduction on carbon and nitrogen sequestration in soil and wheat, soil aggregates stability and saturated soil moisture values. In the other hand the amount of soil pH and EC has increased significantly by increasing soil compaction levels that Indicates the negative effect of compaction on salinization of arable land.
The results of this study showed that the negative effects of soil compaction on soil physiochemical attributes are dependent on escalation of compaction. In total, even low levels of soil compaction (the treatment of two passes of a heavy tractor) is able to remarkably alter soil physiochemical attributes and thus carbon and nitrogen sequestration in soil and wheat. Induced changes in nitrogen and carbon sequestration levels are important for who concerned of global warming and climate change. Regarding the inability of deactivating soil compaction adverse effects in the deep soil layers of agricultural fields is the best way of handling and preventing soil compaction. Using these sluggish renewable resources should be consistence with land capability and its physical nature. This type of land use will result in sustainable development. From the remarks given here, it might be concluded that revising agricultural regimes and production methods is inevitable. On this ground, revisiting current agricultural systems should be considered and an urgent demand for state-of-the-art methods consistent with environmental objectives is being felt. To prevent soil compaction as much as possible, tractors and machinery traffic must be avoided to an acceptable level and this is of high priority during the time which soil is wet. It is more preferable to perform the operations with lighter machineries. As much as possible in a sophisticated agricultural plan these recommendations must be considered: Increasing soil organic matter, leaving crop residue from the previous crop at the soil surface, using crops with deep-and-vertical-penetrating roots during crop rotation, tillage depth variation in different years, using super absorbent for better ventilation and reduces soil compaction, implementing no-tillage system to reduce traffic of farming machineries, maintaining plant residues at the soil surface, applying lacking nutrients to the soil, and subsoil operations to reduce the detrimental effects. As a field-based study, the results could be transferred to the local farmers. Authorities have to remove the obstacles to deliver the message to the farmers in order to enhance production and reach nation self-sufficiency.

Soil moisture regime refers to the presence or absence either of ground water or of water held at a tension of less than 1500 kPa in the soil or in specific horizons during periods of the year. It is the most important factor in soil formation, soil evolution and fertility affecting on crop production and management. Also, it widely is practical in soil classification and soil mapping. The soil moisture regime depends on the soil properties, climatic and weather conditions, characteristics of natural plant formations and, in cultivated soils, is affected by the characteristics of crops grown, as well as the cultivation practices. Determination of soil moisture regime within a landscape scale requires high information and data about moisture balance of soil profile during some years according to Soil Survey Manual (2010). This approach is very expensive, labor, time and cost consuming. Therefore, achievement to an alternative approach is seems essential to overcome these problems. The main hypothesis of this study was to use capability of magnetic susceptibility as a cheap and rapid technique could determine the soil moisture regimes. Magnetic properties of soils reflect the impacts of soil mineral composition, particularly the quantity of ferrimagnetic minerals such as maghemite and magnetite. Magnetic susceptibility measurements can serve a variety of applications including the changes in soil forming processes and ecological services, understanding of lithological effects, insight of sedimentation processes and soil drainage.
This study was conducted in an area located between 36°46ó 10˝ and 37° 2’ 28˝ N latitudes, and 54° 29’ 31˝ and 55° 12’ 47˝ E longitudes in Golestan province, northern Iran. In the study region mean annual temperature varies from 12.4 to 19.4 °C. The average annual rainfall and evapotranspiration varies from 230 mm and 2335 mm in Inchebrun district (Aridic regime), to 732 mm and 846 mm in Touskstan uplands (Udic regime), respectively. this study was conducted in four soil moisture regimes (Aridic, Xeric, Udic and Aquic), for exploring the relationships between soil properties and magnetic measures. In each regimes, 25 soil profiles were drug, described and soil samples were collected from each of soil horizons. Soil samples were air-dried and sieved using a 2 mm sieve. The dithionite-citrate bicarbonate (DCB) method was used to measure Fed and acid ammonium oxalate for Feo. In this study, a set of environmental magnetic parameters including magnetic susceptibility at low frequency (χlf), saturation isothermal remnant magnetization (SIRM), isothermal remnant magnetization (IRM100 mT) were measured. Magnetic susceptibility (χ) was measured at low frequency (0.47 kHz; χlf) and high frequency (4.7 kHz; χhf) using a Bartington MS2 dual frequency sensor using approximately 20 g of soil held in a four-dram clear plastic vial (2.3 cm diameter). Frequency dependent susceptibility (χfd) was determined by the difference between the high and low frequency measurements as a percentage of χ at low frequency. IRM was measured at the field of 100 mT generated in a Molspin pulse magnetizer (IRM100mT) and at the back field of 100mT (IRM−100mT). The IRM acquired in the maximum field of 1000 mT was measured and defined as the saturation isothermal remnant magnetization (SIRM) of the soil sample.
The results showed that moisture regime induced significant differences for soil physical and chemical properties. Diversities in genetic soil horizons and soil development degree have been increased from Aridic to Udic soil moisture regime. The results also indicated that selected properties including magnetic measures and physical and chemical properties were significantly different in four soil moisture regimes. With increasing rainfall and reducing temperature from aridic to udic soil moisture regime, soil organic matter was increased. Otherwise, in arid environment Gypsic, Calcic and Salic horizons were observed in the near of soil surface. Fed and Fed-Feo were the highest in udic and the lowest in udic soil moisture regime, respectively. Moreover, higher soil development because of climate effect leaded to higher amount of pedogenic ferromagnetic minerals, as well as the highest were observed in the Udic regime. Otherwise, in Aquic moisture regime, the lowest value of magnetic susceptibility was obtained because of dissolution of ferromagnetic minerals (magnetite and maghemite) under supersaturating condition. In overall, close relationships were observed between soil physical and chemical properties and magnetic measures in various soil moisture regimes.

Potassium is an essential element for plant growth and its importance in agriculture is well known. Total soil potassium reserves are generally large; although the distribution of K forms differs from soil to soil as a function of the dominant soil clay minerals present. The objectives of the present study were: (i) the content, forms, and distribution of K as a function of clay mineralogy in different physiographic units; (ii) to investigate the relationship between K fractions and their physiographic units.
The study area is located in south of eastern Azarbaijan province, north of Iran. The region stands between 37° 45' and 38° 00' N latitudes and 46° 00' and 46° 15' E longitudes. The present climate of the region has dry and hot summers, cold and wet winters; with an average rainfall of 334 mm. soil moisture and temperature regimes of study area are xeric and mesic, respectively. Site selection for studied pedons was based on a reconnaissance survey from different physiographic units, namely, pedons 1, 2 and 3 located on Piedmont Plain (PP), pedons 4, 5 and 6 on Rivera Alluvial Plain (RAP) and pedons 7, 8 and 9 on Low Lands (LL). Soils were described and classified based on soil survey manual and keys to soil taxonomy. Samples were air dried, crushed and passed through a 2mm sieve. Particle size distribution, organic matter, Calcium Carbonate Equivalent (CCE), pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and different forms of K (total, soluble, exchangeable and nonexchangeable) were determined. X-ray diffractograms were obtained through a Shimadzu XRD 6000 defractometer employing a Ni-filtered CuKa radiation source from oriented clay (40 kV, 30 mA). The content of clay minerals was estimated according to Biscaye method.
All soil samples were calcareous, calcium carbonate content was between 10 and 17%, with relatively high clay content, ranging from 18 to 36%. Soil organic carbon contents were between 0.3 to 1.9%. Land use affected the amount of organic matter so the pedons located on piedmont plain showed more organic matter than other units. Variation in soil characteristics were considerable, which was most affected by physiography. The variation was also especially noticeable in clay minerals and K pools. Soluble K, ranging from 6 to 14 mg/kg, had higher content in piedmont plain than other units. Nonexchangeable k was between 345 to 545 mg/kg and piedmont plain had higher amount because of existing more illite. Exchangeable K, ranging between 278-416 mg/kg had highest content in piedmont plain and lowest content in river alluvial plain. The release rate of non-exchangeable K is the result of the type and particle size of K bearing minerals and soil conditions. The XRD data for the less than 2 μm fractions of the studied soils indicated that the soils were similar in their clay mineralogy, mainly consisted of illite, smectite, kaolinite and chlorite, but were different in content. Illite and smectite were higher in Piedmont Plain (PP) and Low Lands (LL) had higher content of smectite in comparison with River Alluvial Plain (RAP) due to low drainage condition. Several factors such as differences in geomorphological conditions and clay mineralogy between physiographic units caused the differences in K forms. The statistically significant relationship between clay content and most forms of k was because of high specific surface of clays. A highly significant positive relationship between non exchangeable K and illite content (r2 = 0.81, P

Soil erosion by water is the most serious form of land degradation throughout the world, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. In these areas, soils are weakly structured and are easily disrupted by raindrop impacts. Soil erosion is strongly affected by different factors such as rainfall characteristics, slope properties, vegetation cover, conservation practices, and soil erodibility. Different physicochemical soil properties such texture, structure, infiltration rate, organic matter, lime and exchangeable sodium percentage can affect the soil erodibility as well as soil erosion. Soil structure is one of the most important properties influencing runoff and soil loss because it determines the susceptibility of the aggregates to detach by either raindrop impacts or runoff shear stress. Many soil properties such as particle size distribution, organic matter, lime, gypsum, and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) can affect the soil aggregation and the stability. Aggregates size distribution and their stability can be changed considerably because of agricultural practices. Information about variations of runoff and sediment in the rainfall events can be effective in modeling runoff as well as sediment. Thus, the study was conducted to determine runoff and sediment production of different aggregate sizes in the rainfall event scales.
Toward the objective of the study, five aggregate classes consist of 0.25-2, 2-4.75, 4.75-5.6, 5.6-9.75, and 9.75-12.7 mm were collected from an agricultural sandy clay loam (0-30 cm) using the related sieves in the field. Physicochemical soil analyses were performed in the aggregate samples using conventional methods in the lab. The aggregate samples were separately filed into fifteen flumes with a dimension of 50 cm × 100 cm and 15-cm in depth. The aggregate flumes were fixed on a steel plate with 9% slope and were exposed to the simulated rainfalls for investigating runoff and soil loss (sediment). Ten same rainfall events with 60 mm h-1 in intensity for 30 min were applied using a designed rainfall simulator in the lab. The rainfall simulator had a rainfall plate with a dimension of 100 cm × 120 cm which has been fixed on a metal frame with 3m height from the ground surface. Runoff and sediment samples were collected using a plastic container placed the out-let of the flumes. Runoff generation of each flume was determined based on multiplying total content volume of the tank by volume proportion of water in the sample. Soil loss for each event was determined using multiply the container volume and sediment concentration of the uniform sample. Initial soil moisture was measured in the aggregate samples before each rainfall event in order to investigate its effect on the runoff and sediment variations in the event scales. Runoff, soil loss and initial soil moisture data were evaluated for normality before any statistical analysis using SPSS version 18 software. Differences of runoff and soil loss among different rainfall events were analyzed using the Duncan's test.
Based on the results, the soil was calcareous having 16% equivalent calcium carbonate. Low amount of organic matter (0.6%). The measured aggregate stability showed to be very low, indicating high susceptibility of the aggregates to water erosion processes. Significant differences were found among the rainfall events in runoff (p

The capability of a soil to resist erosion depends on soil-particle size and distribution, soil structure and structural stability, soil permeability, water content, organic matter content, and mineral and chemical constituents. Among many affecting factors on aforesaid characteristics, the freezing-thawing processes may considerably affects. Freeze–thaw fluctuation is a natural phenomenon that is frequently encountered by soils in the higher latitude and altitude regions in late autumn and early spring. Effects of freezing and freezing-thawing phenomena on soil erosion and sediment yield are important. Nevertheless, soil conservation under these phenomena by using different methods as well as soil amendments has not been yet considered. Surface application of anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) in solution has been found to be very effective in decreasing seal formation, runoff, and erosion.PAM stabilizes soil structure due to the ability of the polymer chains to adsorb onto clay particles and bridge them together forming stable domains. This adsorption can be a result of interactions between the negatively-charged functional groups of the PAM molecules and the positively-charged edges of clay minerals, orexchangeable polycations (mainly Ca2) acting as ‘bridges’ between the negative charges of the PAM's functional groups and the negatively- charged planar surfaces of the clay. The PAM is adsorbed on the external surfaces of the aggregates and binds soil particles far apart together, thereby were shorter and evidently less effective in enhancing increasing their resistance to splash by raindrop impact and detachment by runoff. A lot of research work focused on freezing effects in soils on aggregation or increase aggregate stability and emphasis corresponding effects. But the effects of application of soil amendments on soil induced freeze and thaw cycle have not been studied yet.
The present study evaluated the performance of PAM in controlling freeze-thaw cycle effects on splash erosion from a silty loam soil. A freeze-thaw cycle was simulated in Soil Erosion and Rainfall Simulation Laboratory of TarbiatModares University. The present study was conducted under controlled laboratory conditions with a simulated rainfall. The maximum efforts were made to mimic natural conditions to get access to results with high level of fidelity. Towards this attempt, air and different soil depth temperatures were analyzed in natural condition and 10 cm soil depth was targeted for the soil laboratory experiments. The rainfall storm with 72 mm h-1 and 30 min duration was simulated and conducted for the study treatments. The soil was poured in small erosion box with 0.25 m2 surface area in three replicates. A thick filter, draining the lower 20 cm of the soil profile was generated using mineral pumices.The prepared soil sample was evenly packed into the soil plots at a bulk density of 1.3 Mg m−3 similar to that measured under natural conditions. The plots were then placed in saturated pool for 24 h and then left to be drained to achieve an average moisture content of 35% similar to that recorded for the realities in the study area. So, splash erosion rates were measured using splash cups in two control treatments without PAM subjected to freezing and freezing-thawing processes, and two other plots treated by freezing and freezing-thawing processesplus application of 20 kg ha-1 of PAM. After securing thenormality ofdata, the average net splash erosionand the average upward and downward rates of splash erosion in allexperimental treatmentswere comparedby paired sampled T-test.
According to the results of statistical analyses, the PAM application had a significant effect (p

Arid and semi-arid areas are confronting increasing water shortages. In these regions of the world, planners are being forced to consider other water sources that could be used economically and effectively to promote further development. Wastewater is the only potential water source, which will increase as the population grows and the demand on freshwater increases. Composting municipal solid wastes (MSW) and sewage sludge is a good way to reduce the amount of wastes generated in densely populated areas. Municipal solid waste production in Asia in 1998 was 0.76 million tons per day, with an annual growth rate of 2- 3% in developing countries and 3.2- 4.5% in developed countries. (MSW) compost is increasingly used in agriculture not only as a soil conditioner but also as a fertilizer. Despite the growing interest in wastewater and compost usage, excessive application of them may have some harmful effects such as human health problems, runoff and leaching of nutrients to surface and groundwater, undesirable chemical constituents, pathogens, accumulations of heavy metals in plants and soils, negative environmental and health impacts. So, using of wastewater and compost application should be under controlled conditions that minimize health risks of agricultural products.
This study was conducted in greenhouse of Bu-Ali Sina as a factorial completely randomized design to evaluate the effects of wastewater and compost on physical and chemical properties of soil. The factors included four types of watering: raw wastewater (W1), treated wastewater (W2) combined 50% of raw wastewater and fresh water (W3) and tap water (W4) and also four compost levels: 0 (C1), 40 (C2), 80 (C3) and 120 tha-1 (C4). Therefore, 16 treatments (W1C1 to W4C4) were considered for investigation. It is noted that Compost added and mixed just with top layer of the soil. 48 volumetric lysimeters were applied as Cultivation beds (26 × 30 × 30 cm). The soil had three layers: the upper layer (Clay texture), the middle layer (clay loam) and the bottom layer (sandy clay loam). After beds preparation, basil (Ocimum Basilicum) was planted in them. Due to the lack of an active wastewater treatment plant in the region, raw and treated wastewaters were transported from Kermanshah, the nearest city to Hamedan. Also, municipal compost was prepared from Kermanshah Compost Company.At the end of cultivation period, the soil samples (from 0-15 cm) were collected and the amount of physical (hydraulic conductivity, bulk and particle density and porosity)and chemical (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) properties were measured.
The results showed that the water quality has a significant effect on all parameters and the amount of compost has significant effect on all parameters except bulk density. But, the amount of all parameters (except hydraulic conductivity) was not influenced by interaction between water quality and compost levels. In all treatments, the range of hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, particle density and total porosity were varied between 23.82 to 35.61 mmh-1, 1.41 to 1.43 grcm-3, 2.51 to 2.57 grcm-3 and 42.88 to 45.19 %, respectively. Also the range of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium were varied between 0.06 to0.08 %, 14.64 to232.28mgkg-1,and 393.22 to519.84mgkg-1,respectively.Overall, the results indicated that using compost and wastewater increased hydraulic conductivity, porosity, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium of the soil in comparison to the control. Whereasbulk and particle density of soil decresed by using compost and wastewater (as a mixed material).
In this study, we investigated the effect of wastewater and compost on some of soil physical properties (hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, particle density and total porosity) and also some of chemical properties of soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium).The results showed that the use of wastewater and compost on soil physical condition has a positive effect.Wastewater and compost by improving the soil pore size distribution, decreased the bulk and particle density and increased porosity and hydraulic conductivity of the soil. The impact of wastewater and compost to improve the physical properties, commensurate with the level of wastewater treatment and composting rate in the soil. Also using the wastewater (raw wastewater, treated wastewater and combined 50% of raw wastewater and fresh water) and compost (40, 80 and 120 tha-1), compared to the control (fresh water and soil without compost), increased total of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium of soil. But, due to the risks of soil salinity and nitrogen leaching, it is suggested that longterm exposure to wastewater and compost needs a careful practical management.

Aspects of the physical, chemical and biological are considered. Land degradation for soil quality, or improve soil quality assessment is important.This study was conducted to evaluate soil quality indicators using quantitative models in some lands of Khuzestan province (Iran).Such studies, which are carried out to create a balance between the biological production and the maintenance and improvement of land resource quality, provide a framework for land degradation control and also for identification of sustainable management. Such studies, which are carried out to create a balance between the biological production and the maintenance and improvement of land resource quality, provide a framework for land degradation control and also for identification of sustainable management.
In order to evaluate the effect of crop management and cultivation on soil quality, Select several Khuzestan region and Samples were taken from the surrounding cultivated land. Physiochemical characteristics of soil samples from a depth of0-30 cm such as soil texture, bulk density (Db), mean weight diameter of wet aggregates (MWD), relative field capacity (RFC), air capacity (FA),plant available water capacity (AWC), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), organic carbon (OC),electrical conductivity (EC), pH, soluble cations (Mg, Ca, Na),sodium absorption ratio (SAR), exchange sodium percent (ESP) and cation exchange capacity were determined (CEC). The soil quality was evaluated by integrated quality index (IQI) and Nemero quality index (NQI) in two data sets of soil properties including MDS and TDS. In these models, a set of characteristics that affect the quality of the soil in the form of a mathematical model incorporating and to propose a numerical quantity this number serve as general indicator of soil quality, Reflect the characteristics of the target.
The results showed that there was significant correlation between IQITDS - IQIMDS and between NQITDS -NQIMDS. The results show that the NQITDS model can be saved in compire with IQI models. This can decrease the time and costs in this method. But in some regions due to low correlation with Using a set of MDS, which comprise more limited number of soil characteristics You cannot reliably determine soil quality indicators are acceptable and should use the same set of TDS. Also, the results show that the soil was compacted due to heavy traffic, and this has reduced soil quality. The most important limiting factor of quality soil was reduced soil organic matter and porosity and increased bulk density. None of the subjects in the study area are not very stable and unstable. According to the research, increased of cultivation in most soils were clay and silt and decreased sand content. The burning of sugarcane after harvesting, can be to cause reduce organic matter, Finally, reduced the cation exchange capacity related of the soil organic matter and thus increased the bulk density of soil and reduced the soil structural stability. decreased the electrical conductivity of the saturation extract and sodium adsorption ratio under cultivation and showed increasing trend pH of soil in all the samples. Finally reduced under cultivation soil quality. Nevertheless, we can better manage the effects can be even more improved soil quality grade. Therefore, a special management operations, such as changing the way farming, plowing, residue management, fertilizer use and the presence of organic matter the optimum, Reduce negative environmental effects such as the effect of insecticides and heavy metals... By creating a suitable building could be Prevent the destruction of the building and therefore the distribution of pores.
This investigation showed the efficiency of soil quality studies for the evaluation of present conditions of soil in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Therefore, these soils need to special management, such as minimum tillage or no tillage, addition of residues, and improve of aggregate stability can be applied for soil improvement quality. These strategies can improve soil prosity and, therefore, it can reduce bulk density under monocroping system. Therefore, special management practices seems essential in arid and semi-arid regions. Given the importance of soil quality in balancing the environment and the sustainability of agricultural systems, in addition to the chemical and physical factors, biological factors to take appropriate management programs and improve soil quality checked.

Growing irrigation demand for corn production, along side with draws of ground water from stressed water sources, should be limited due to scarce resources and environmental protection aspects. Nitrogen fertilizer applied at rates higher than the optimum requirement for crop production may cause an increase in nitrate accumulation below the root zone and pose a risk of nitrate leaching. Improving nitrogen management for corn production has a close relation with soil water content. In this study, we investigated the effects of source and rate of nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation on silage corn production and nitrogen concentration, nitrogen uptake and residual soil nitrate in two depths.
This experiment carried out as split spli- plot in a Randomized Complete Block design (RCBD) with three replications, in Arak station (Agricultural research center of markazi province, 34.12 N, 49.7 E; 1715 m above mean sea level) during three years. The soil on the site was classified as a Calcaric Regosols (loamy skeletal over fragmental, carbonatic, thermic, calcixerollic xerochrepts). Main plots were irrigation treatments based on 70, 100 and 130 mm cumulative evaporation from A class Pan. Sub plots were two kinds of nitrogen fertilizers (Urea and Ammonium nitrate) and sub sub-plots were five levels of nitrogen rates (0, 100, 200, 300 and 400 kgN.ha-1). Nitrogen fertilizer rates were split into three applications: 1/3 was applied at planting, 1/3 at 7-9 leaf stage and 1/3 remainder was applied before tasseling as a banding method. Phosphorus was applied at a rate of 150 kg.ha-1in each season and potassium at a rate of 30kg.ha-1 (only in first growth season) based on soil testing as triple super phosphate and potassium sulfate, respectively. The corn variety of single cross 704 was planted at 20 m2 plots. The plants were sampled at dough stage from the two rows and weighted in each plot. Plant samples were dried in a forced air oven at 70ºC for at least 3 days before weighting. Total N concentration in the plant samples were determined using kjeldahl method. Nitrogen uptake by plants was calculated based on the total N concentration in plants multiplied by dry matter. Residual nitrate concentrations were determined in soil samples (0-30 and 30-60 cm depths) by diazo method. Combined analysis of variance was accomplished using the MSTAT-C software. Mean comparisons were done using Duncan multiple rang test (DMRT).
The results showed that the main effect of water stress on dry matter yield was negative and significant (P

Land suitability evaluation and land production potential estimation are considered as prerequisites for land use planning. In quantitative land suitability evaluation, land suitability is evaluated based on production per surface area unit. In this kind of evaluation, first, radiation thermal production potential is calculated, using different models such as FAO model. This potential is a genetical one which is not under influence of water, soil and management limitations. If soil limitations are exerted in the radiation thermal production potential, land production potential is resulted. The difference between the land production potential and the farmer yield is that the first one is not under influence of management limitation but the second one is under influence of management. Management level is determined based on management index. Canola (Brassica napus) is one of the oil crops which is cultivated in Iran and provides more than 90% of the required oil of the country. This crop is effective in the control of pests, diseases and weeds. Oil of the edible varieties of canola has good quality. After extraction of the oil, the remained meal is full of protein and is appropriate for animal nutrition. The aims of this research have been land production potential prediction and quantitative land suitability evaluation for irrigated canola in the north of Shahrekord. In the present research, for the first time, canola growth requirements were rated for different suitability classes.
The studied land with a total surface area of 25 hectares is located north of Shahrekord, in the vicinity of the previous Saman industrial district. The average annual precipitation in the studied area is 370 mm and the mean annual temperature is 13.1 OC. 19 soil profiles were dug and described. Leaf area index, harvest index and canola grain moisture percentage were measured. Farmer yield was also measured for each profile and economic data were collected. Physical and chemical analyses of the soils were done according to the standard laboratory methods. For the first time, canola growth requirements were rated for different suitability classes. In a next step, the measured land characteristics were matched with the canola growth requirements (except climatic requirements) and depending on the limitation level of the land characteristics for canola, a suitability rating was considered for each land property. By using these ratings in the second root and story formulas, soil index was calculated. Radiation-thermal production potential was calculated, using FAO model, considering temperature, solar radiation, leaf area index and harvest index limitations. Land production potential was determined by multiplication of the radiation-thermal production potential and the soil index. Margin yield was calculated by dividing total costs to the price of one kilogram of canola in the market. The limits between quantitative land suitability classes of S1 and S2, S2 and S3 and S3 and N were considered to be 75% of the radiation-thermal production potential, 140% and 90% of the marginal yield, respectively. Management index was calculated by dividing the farmer yield to the land production potential. Management index of 0.75 and 0.50 was considered respectively to be the limits between management levels of high and intermediate and intermediate and low. To evaluate the accuracy of the used methods, the correlation between the land production potential and the farmer yield was investigated.
Canola radiation-thermal production potential was calculated as 7603 kg. ha.-1; mean land production potentials, using second root and story formulas were predicted respectively, as 3214 and 2291 kg. ha.-1 and mean farmer yield was measured as 1943 kg. ha.-1. Management level was determined as high to intermediate. The marginal yield was calculated as 2025 kg. ha.-1 The results of this study showed that 59 and 6 percent of the land is marginal (S3) and moderated (S2) suitable respectively. 35 percent of them are not suitable (N). Use of the second root formula is more appropriate than story formula as far as land production potential calculation is concerned.
Moderate limitation of slope and carbonate content and moderate to severe limitation of gravels in the soils are the origin of a difference of 4400 to 5300 kg. ha.-1 between the radiation-thermal production potential and the land production potential. A difference of 348 to 1271 kg. ha.-1 between the land production potential and the average farmer yield is due to the high to intermediate management level. Land physical limitations and management level have caused more than 50% of the lands to have marginal suitability and 35% of them become non-suitable.

Phosphorous is one of the essential macronutrients for plant growth and development but its mobility in soil is very low. The utilization of the soil biological potential, in particular phosphate solubilizing bacteria, is an efficient way which can be used for exploiting available sources of phosphorous in the soil. The principal mechanism for mineral phosphate solubilization is the production of organic acid, and acid and alkaline phosphatases play a major role in the mineralization of organic phosphorous in the soil. Presence and distribution of phosphate solubilizing bacteria in the soil and soil phosphatase activities is influenced by soil conditions such as climate, soil type, vegetation and land uses. In order to understand the relationships and considering the importance of the subject, the soil samples were chosen from two different climates; semi-moist (Fandoghlou-Ardabil) and semi-arid (Namin- Ardabil) under culture of legumes, cereals and uncultivated areas, in this experiment.
In order to study the effects of different land uses, climate conditions and soil physicochemical properties on phosphate solubilizing microorganism (PSM) distribiution and soil acid and alkaline phosphatase activity, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design was performed with considering three different land uses (including legumes, cereals and wasteland) and two climate conditions (semi-moist: Fandoghlu- Ardabil and semi-arid: Namin-Ardabil). Four composite soil samples (0-25 cm) were taken from each land uses. Finally, a total number of 24 soil samples were used to enumerate phosphate solubilizng bacteria and evaluate soil phosphatase activities. The enumeration and selection of bacteria in the mineral Sperber medium was done by attention to the clear zone production in the presence of tri-calcium phosphate and in organic sperber (IHPТ) due to blue phenotype of grown colonies. Also, phosphatase activity of soil samples was assessed based on the usual methods for phosphatase assessment. Moreover, after the evaluation of the physicochemical properties of the soil samples and soil enzyme activities and PSB distribution, all data were analyzed by SPSS and MSTAT-C softwares.
The Sperber mediums containing mineral and organic phosphates were used in counting the number of PSB. According to the results, the highest total number of bacteria (>6 log cfu/g) was gained in legume land uses in both climate conditions. Furthermore, the highest numbers of organic and mineral phosphate solubilizing bacteria (5.3 log cfu/g) were counted in samples taken from pastures, in other word in soil samples which were collected from uncultured land in semi-moist climate conditions. Enzyme assay showed that acid phosphatase activity (430 µg pNP/g.h) in semi-moist climate conditions were increased three times in comparison to semi-arid climate conditions. Perhaps, this increase can be explained by parameters such as high moisture content and organic matter which can cause an increase in the number of bacteria and soil enzyme content. Our results showed that, alkaline phosphatase activities (APAs) were affectd by interaction effects of land uses and climate, wherein the highest APA (810 µg pNP/g.h) was measured in legume samples in semi-arid climate conditions. The pH of these soil samples and supporting legume rhizospheres from AP producing microorganisms may be the reasons of this increment.
The highest activity of the soil acid phosphatase was observed in soil samples which were taken from uncultivated area under semi-moist climate conditions (namely pastures) (866.59 µgPNP/g.h) while the soil alkaline phosphatase activity had high mean in legume land use soil samples under semi-arid climate conditions (795.15 µPNP/g.h). The total number of bacteria was the highest in semi-arid leguminous land use (14.13×106 cfu/g) but the total numbers of solubilizing bacteria in both mineral and organic media were the highest in semi-moist uncultivated area (respectively 1.9 ×106 and 1.48 × 106cfu/g).

Phosphorus is important as an essential element in the production of agricultural products. On the other hand, its ability to induce essential micronutrient deficiency and its negative effects on the environment, have attracted more attention to this element. The knowledge of phosphorus availability conditions in the soil and consequently the accurate management of fertilizer consumption has a key role in the environmental protection. The degree of phosphorus absorption in the soil depends on the environmental factors, soil characteristics and compositions, and phosphorus fertilizer which have been used. The amount of available phosphorus in the soil has relationship with some of the physical and chemical properties of the soil. Since, the soil characteristics are important factors in the reaction of phosphorus in the soil, the present study aimed to investigate and determine the most important soil characteristics affecting the availability of phosphorus using regression and artificial neural network techniques, in the soils of Sistan plain.
Soil sampling was done in 1.5×1.5 km intervals, from 0-30 cm depth, and 200 soil samples were taken. The amounts of available phosphorus and the soil properties including the percentages of clay , organic matter, calcium carbonate and the amount of pH were measured. Then, stepwise multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to determine linear relation between available phosphorus and the soil properties. In order to model and validate the regression model, respectively 80 and 20% of data were selected and entered into SPSS software. To train the neural network, multilayer perceptron (MLP) network was used by MATLAB 7.6 package. In this type of network, 70% of data is selected for training, 15% for validation and 15% for testing the model. Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and hyperbolic tangent (as a transfer function) were used to train the network. The numbers of neurons in the hidden layer were calculated based on the trial and error method and finally the best structure was selected according to the highest R2 and the lowest RMSE value. Moreover, quantifying the importance of variables in the neural network was done through employing connection weight approach. In this method, the connection weights of input-hidden and hidden-output neurons were used to indicate the significance of variables.
The values of the coefficient of variation for the soil properties were in the range of 5.66 for pH (the lowest) and 69.90 for available phosphorus (the highest). The high variation of the available phosphorus could be due to the different amounts of phosphorus fertilizers consumption and their diverse rate of conversion to less soluble forms. The validation results of regression and neural network methods showed that the latter technique was more accurate compared with the multivariate linear regression method, in the estimation of available phosphorus, as multi-layer perceptron neural network with 4-6-1 layout predicts nearly 90% of available phosphorus variability using soil properties (percentage of clay, organic matter, calcium carbonate and the amount of pH); however, the obtained regression equation could explain only 43% of phosphorus variances. The reasons for this could be: 1) considering nonlinear relations between the variables in the artificial neural network method, and 2) less sensitivity of this method to the existence of error in input data, comparing with the regression method. The values of R2 and RMSE were 0.43 and 11.23, respectively for training the multivariate linear regression method and 0.91 and 4.28, respectively for training the artificial neural network method. From the investigated soil properties in the current study, the percentage of organic matter and clay were entered in the regression model, and the values of standardized regression coefficient (beta) showed that the first variable is more important to explain the available phosphorus variability. The results of quantifying the importance of variables by the connection weight method showed that pH had the greatest contribution in the variability of phosphorus in the study area. In the other words, the high values of pH were the most important limiting factor for the availability of phosphorus in Sistan soils.
Considering nonlinear and complicated relations between variables, the artificial neural network model is an effective tool to assess the effect of soil properties on the availability of phosphorus in the study area. The results of quantifying the importance of variables by using the connection weight method showed that pH had the greatest contribution in the variability of phosphorus in the study area. In fact, the existence of lime in the soils of the study area, arid climate and lack of precipitation have resulted in the accumulation of basic cations in the soil and consequently increased pH values. Furthermore, the observed average values of pH that are more than 8.5 demonstrated the risk of soil sodicity in the study area. Thus, the management of this area by cultivating tolerant plants could be resulted in increasing organic matter content, which along with using chemical amendments such as sulfur will decrease pH values and increase the availability of phosphorus in Sistan plain. Applying such practices and through it modifying soil characteristics, decreasing the consumption of phosphate fertilizers and preventing their hazardous environmental effects would be expected in long run.

After soybean and palm oil, canola is third important oil seed in the world which belongs to the genus Brassicaceae, that its seeds contain about 40% oil. The per capita consumption of oil in Iran is about 14 kg, so approximately 900 thousand tons of oil will be required for each year. However, only less than 10% of this oil is produced in the country. In recent years, special attention has been paid to canola cultivation in order to increase oil production, so during recent years an apparent increase in canola cultivated lands is significant. In most of these canola cultivated lands, the soil is calcareous therefore; some available nutrients such as phosphorus, iron and zinc are less than the amounts required by plants. Increasing qualitative and quantitative yield of canola in calcareous soils is a priority to canola cultivation improvement. Sulfur plays an important role in oil content of oily seed crops. On the other hands sulfur oxidation in calcareous soils can improve some nutrients availability. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of sulfur on yield, oil content and nutrients uptake and also its impact on soil chemical properties with 8 treatments, in 3 replications.
This study was conducted in Ekbatan research station in Hamedan province for 2 years as completely randomized block design with 8 treatments and 3 repetitions. The treatments were: T1: Control (Without sulfur and Thiobacillus), T2: Application of 150 kg sulfur per ha, T3: T2 Thiobacillus inoculums (2% of applied sulfur), T4: Application of 300 kg sulfur per ha, T5: T4 Thiobacillus inoculums (2% of applied sulfur), T6: Application of 600 kg sulfur per ha, T7: T6 Thiobacillus inoculums (2% of applied sulfur) T8: Fertilizing based on soil test without sulfur and Thiobacillus. Thiobacillus inoculant containing about 107 cells of Thiobacillus bacteria which belonged to neutrophile Thiobacilli were prepared at soil biology Dep. of Soil and Water Research Institute. In this research treatments were applied in two separate sites (each site contains 24 plots which their dimensions were 2.4×10 meter). For evaluating the residual effect of treatments, the experiment was carried out in constant plots in second year. Phosphorus, iron, zinc, manganese and sulfate, were not applied to any of the treatments except for T8, and the above mentioned treatments were just received 250 kg urea. These all treatments were applied only in the first year and on the second year of experiment their Residual effects on canola were evaluated. During the growing season agricultural practices such as irrigation, weed and pest control in all units were managed uniformly. Soil chemical data were obtained by analyzing of Ec, pH and bicarbonate each year in May. The leaf and seed samples were taken for essential analysis. When plants growth completed, each plot was harvested separately then canola yield and also the phosphorus, iron and zinc content of shoots and grain were measured.
The results of two years indicated that the treatments had no significant effects on pH and bicarbonate of soil while increasing sulfur application rate, caused a decrease in soil bicarbonate content. In addition to that, the treatments did not affect the yield of canola significantly. In the first year of experiment, treatments had shown significant effects (P=0.01) on glucosinolates, seed sulfur and Cu of leaf, whereas no effect determination was occurred about indices of leaf and seed of canola. the results also suggested an increase of 800 kg in the sixth treatment (600 kg sulfur consumption without Thiobacillus) and canola seed yield of treatment T6 enhancedfrom 3446 kg to 4531 kg per ha. Fertilization treatment (T8) could not increase canola yield, so it confirms that the nutrient concentration in experiment sites were near the critical level for canola.
In total results revealed that different sulfur treatments have no significant and considerable impacts on canola yield and soil chemical properties, and the effects was not observed in the second year of experiment, too. Probably the sulfur consumed or sulfur oxidation in the experiments was not enough to cope with high lime (14%) and buffering capacity of the soil. Also probably the nutrient concentration in test sites were more than critical level for canola and plants absorbed enough nutrients from the soil. No increase in canola yield in fertilization treatments (T8) can confirm this opinion, though. It also seems that there were no favorable conditions (soil moisture) for the oxidation of sulfur in the soil.

Topography is an important and effective property affecting the soil quality. Some researchers demonstrated that degree and aspect of land slope may influence the particle size distribution and gravel. Slope degree affects the surface and subsurface run-off, drainage, soil temperature, stability of soil aggregates and soil erosion. This research was carried out to determine the spatial variation of soil properties in different slope degrees of northern and southern slopes in Khorasan Razavei province, Iran.
Material and This study was performed in Sanganeh research station (longitude 60o 15ʹ60ʺ and latitude 36o 41ʹ 36ʺ), of north-eastern, Khorasan Razavi province of Iran. In order to study the effects of topography on some soil physical and chemical properties, a topo-sequence with the same slope length, parent materials and cover crops was selected. 30 soil samples (0-30 cm depth) were collected from different slopes of less than 5, 5-15, 15-30, 30-50 and more than 50 percent of both southern and northern aspects. In this study, the soil particle size distribution (texture) was measured by hydrometer method, organic carbon and calcium carbonate were determined by wet oxidation and titration with HCl 6 M, respectively and soil structural stability index, aggregates mean weight diameter and particles fractal dimension were calculated by related equations. Finally, the studied soil properties of 5 slopes (less than 5, 5-15, 15-30, 30-50, and more than 50%) and 2 aspects (north and south) with 3 replicates were compared by nested experimental design and Tuky test in JMP statistical software. The maximum and minimum clay contents as well as fractal dimension and organic carbon contents were found in less than 5% and more than 50% of south slopes, respectively. Clay content and fractal dimension in north aspect were also significantly (P

World cereal demand is growing at the present in accordance with the global expansion of human populations.Bread wheat is the most widely grown cereal grain with 65% (6.5 million hectares) of the total crop cultivated area in Iran. Deficiency of micronutrients in cereal cropping is one of the major worldwide problems. Zinc (Zn) is an essential micronutrient for plants. It plays a key role as a structural constituent or regulatory co-factor of a wide range of different enzymes and proteins in many important biochemical pathways. Nearly half of the world’s cereal-growing areas are affected by soil zinc deficiency, particularly in calcareous soils of arid and semiarid regions. High pH levels and bicarbonate anion concentration in these soils are the major factors resulting in low availability of Zn. About 40% of the soils, used for wheat production in Iran are Zn-deficient, which results in a decrease in growth and wheat grain yield under field conditions. Although application of zinc fertilizers is a common practice to correct Zn deficiency, growing varieties with high Zn efficiency has been reported to be a more sustainable approach. There is significant genetic variation both within and between plant species in their ability to maintain significant growth and yield under Zn deficiency conditions. Plant response to Zn deficiency and Zn fertilization are two distinct concepts. Knowing about these variations, can be very essential and useful for making correct fertilizer recommendation.
In order to investigate Zn efficiency in various wheat genotypes, a factorial experiment as a randomized complete block design was carried out with three replications in agricultural research center of Khorasan razavi (Torough Station), during 2009-2011. Treatments consisted of two levels of Zn fertilizer (0 and 40 kg/h as ZnSO4) and six genotyps of wheat including: three cultivars and one line of bread wheat (Alvand, Falat, Toos, and C75-5 respectively), two species of wheat known as Thriticosecale and Durum. The plot size was 9*3.6 (32.4 m2). Soil fertility status showed 0.05% nitrogen, 7.2 mgkg-1 phosphorus, 180 mgkg-1 potassium and 0.52 mgkg-1 DTPA extractable zinc. At defined phonological stage (SG6 based on Fix’s Index) Zn concentration in shrub was measured. Also grain yield and Zn uptake by grain were determined at the end of ripening stage. Zinc use efficiency, agronomic efficiency and apparent recovery efficiency were calculated according to “Graham, et al.”, “Craswell and Godwin” and “Raun and Johnson” respectively. Zinc use efficiency can be defined as the ratio of grain yield or shoot dry matter yield produced under Zn deficiency to that produced under Zn fertilization.
Grain yield is the most integrative trait of a particular genotype. The results showed that Zn application increased significantly grain yield by 12.61% in comparison with control. This result is supported by Ziayeian and Malakouti (1999). Who reported that Zn application significantly increased the wheat yield (17%). In our research the highest grain yield increase due to Zn application was found in durum wheat (23.5%), and the lowest grain yield increase, were found in Toos cultivar (1.3% yield increase). Cakmak and et al (1997) also obtained more yield with the application of zinc in durum wheat. Application of Zn increased Zn concentration and uptake in grain, 8.6% and 21.5% respectively. Also, application of Zn significantly increased Zn concentration in shoot (36.5%) over the control. Similarly, Moshiri et al (2010) reported increase of Zn concentration in shoot with application of Zn fertilizer. Zn use efficiency in bread wheat genotype, Durum and Thriticosecale wheat was ranked as: Durum wheat genotypes were different in their response to Zn deficiency and Zn supply. Thriticosecale and Toos were the most Zn efficient genotypes, whereas Durum and C75-5 were the most responding to Zn supply. So, without considering these differences, accurate fertilizer recommendation cannot be achieved. For organic farming and low input agriculture systems in regions similar to this experiment location (Torough Station), Thriticosecale and Toos could be suggested. However, for improvement of wheat grain yield and achieve desired quality in calcareous soil, most of the time, it is necessary to use the Zinc fertilizers.

Subdaily estimates of reference evapotranspiration (ET o) are needed in many applications such as dynamic agro-hydrological modeling. However, in many regions, the lack of subdaily weather data availability has hampered the efforts to quantify the subdaily ET o. In the first presented paper, a physically based framework was developed to desegregate daily weather data needed for estimation of subdaily reference ET o, including air temperature, wind speed, dew point, actual vapour pressure, relative humidity, and solar radiation. The main purpose of this study was to estimate the subdaily ETo using disaggregated daily data derived from developed disaggregation framework in the first presented paper.
Subdaily ET o estimates were made, using ASCE and FAO-56 Penman–Monteith models (ASCE-PM and FAO56-PM, respectively) and subdaily weather data derived from the developed daily-to-subdaily weather data disaggregation framework. To this end, long-term daily weather data got from Abadan (59 years) and Ahvaz (50 years) synoptic weather stations were collected. Sensitivity analysis of Penman–Monteith model to the different meteorological variables (including, daily air temperature, wind speed at 2 m height, actual vapor pressure, and solar radiation) was carried out, using partial derivatives of Penman–Monteith equation. The capability of the two models for retrieving the daily ETo was evaluated, using root mean square error RMSE (mm), the mean error ME (mm), the mean absolute error ME (mm), Pearson correlation coefficient r (-), and Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient EF (-). Different contributions to the overall error were decomposed using a regression-based method.
The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that the daily air temperature and the actual vapor pressure are the most significant meteorological variables, which affect the ETo estimates. In contrast, low sensitivity coefficients got for wind speed and the solar radiation. The similar patterns of ETo sensitivity coefficient to the air temperature ( ) and the air temperature (TA) showed that the extent of the seasonal variation of was mainly determined by the TA. Results showed a good agreement between daily and 24h sum of subdaily ETo derived from ASCE-PM (with an EF of 0.990 to 0.994) and FAO56-PM (with an EF of 0.992 to 0.995) models. The results showed a good generalization capability of the disaggregation models to estimate the subdaily ETo for the validation data set (Ahvaz). The 24h sum of subdaily ETo derived from both models underestimated and overestimated the daily ETo in calibration (Abadan) and validation (Ahvaz) data sets, respectively. In case of both models, the daily values of aerodynamic component of ETo were reproduced more efficiently, compared to radiation part. In case of the FAO56-PM model, the goodness of agreement between 24h sum of subdaily and daily values of aerodynamic part of the ETo showed a low sensitivity to variation of the time scale of weather data. With the increase of the time scale of the subdaily weather data, the ability of both models in retrieving the radiation component of the daily ETo was improved. Generally, there was no apparent relationship between the efficiency of the ASCE-PM and FAO56-PM models for retrieving the daily ETo and the time scale of weather data. Results showed that adoption of a smaller time step does not always leads to an improvement in the agreement between 24h sum of subdaily and daily values of ETo. For most of the studied subdaily time scales (1 to 360 min), the FAO56-PM model had better performance in retrieving the daily ETo, compared to the ASCE-PM model.
The results of this study showed that the developed disagregation framework was able to estimate the subdaily ET o. In this study, the promising results got in retrieving the daily ETo can be attributed mainly to the high sensitivity of ETo to the air temperature and actual vapor pressure (which were desegregated with a reasonable accuracy) and low sensitivity to the wind speed (which were desegregated with a low accuracy) and the solar radiation (which were disaggregated with a reasonable accuracy). The main reason for the absence of an apparent relationship apparent relationship between the efficiency of the ASCE-PM and FAO56-PM models for retrieving the daily ETo and the time scale of weather data can be attributed to adopted nighttime and daytime criteria in both models which is highly affected by time-scale of weather data and the estimated net long wave radiation.

Numerous studies have been undertaken based on satellite imagery in order to estimate soil moisture using vegetation indices such as NDVI. Previous studies suffer from a restriction; these indices are not able to estimate where the vegetative coverage is low or where no vegetation exists. Hence, it is essential to develop a model which can overcome this restriction. Focus of this research is on estimation of soil moisture for low or scattered vegetative land covers. Trapezoidal temperature-vegetation (Ts~VI) model is able to consider the status of soil moisture and vegetation condition. It can estimate plant water deficit for weak or no vegetation land cover.
Moran proposed Water Deficit Index (WDI) for evaluating field evapotranspiration rates and relative field water deficit for both full-cover and partially vegetated sites. The theoretical basis of this method is based on the energy balance equation. Penman-Monteith equation of energy balance was used to calculate the coordinates of the four vertices of the temperature-vegetation trapezoid also for four different extreme combinations of temperature and vegetation. For the (Ts−Ta)~Vc trapezoid, four vertices correspond to 1) well-watered full-cover vegetation, 2) water-stressed full-cover vegetation, 3) saturated bare soil, and 4) dry bare soil. WDI is equal to 0 for well-watered conditions and equals to 1 for maximum stress conditions. As suggested by Moran et al. to draw a trapezoidal shape, some field measurements are required such as wind speed at the height of 2 meters, air pressure, mean daily temperature, vapor pressure-temperature curve slope, Psychrometrics constant, vapor pressure at mean temperature, vapor pressure deficit, external radiation, solar radiation of short wavelength, longwave radiation, net radiation, soil heat flux and air aerodynamic resistance is included. Crop vegetation and canopy resistance should be measured or estimated. The study area is selected in the Mashhad plain in Khorasan Razavi province of I.R. Iran. Study area is about 1,200 square kilometers and is located around the Golmakan center of agricultural research. In this study, water deficit index (WDI) was zoning by MODIS images in subset of Mashhad plain during water year of 2011-2012. Then, based on the close relationship between WDI and soil moisture parameter, a linear relationship between these two parameters were fitted. Soil moisture is measured by the TDR and every 7 days at 5 depths of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 cm from the surface. Remote Sensing (RS) technology used as a tool for providing some of the data that is required. The moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument is popular for monitoring soil moisture because of its high spectral (36 bands) resolution, moderate spatial (250–1000 m) resolution and various products for land surface properties. MODIS products used in the present study include: MOD09A1 land surface albedo data, MOD11A1 land surface temperature data, and MOD13A1 vegetation data. Using ArcMap 9.2 and ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 softwares, WDI was calculated pixel by pixel for 18 days (non-cloudy days and simultaneous with measurement of soil moisture at the station).
The results showed that the northeastern region is predominantly rainfed and irrigated farmlands are under water stress. Conversely, the southwestern part of the area is mountainous with less water stress. Based on NDVI, there is also less crop cover in the southwestern part of the region during the year. The results showed that about 44% of the index values are in the range of 0.2-0.3. Then about 22% of the index values are in the range of 0.3-0.4. Thus it can be concluded that over 66% of the index values are in the range of 0.2-0.4. According to the maximum index value (WDI=0.59 on the 201th day of year) and the minimum values (WDI=0.0004 on the 129th day of year) during the time period of study, it seems that water stress in the study area in the six-month period of observation is moderate. To validate the results, changes in precipitation, relative humidity and WDI values were compared. As expected, after the occurrence of any significant rainfall, water stress is decreased and decreasing in relative humidity, coincided with increase in water stress. In the next step, the linear relationship between measured values of soil moisture and WDI values were fitted in 2 depth of 5 and 10 cm. It should be noted that the average values of WDI of four pixels surrounding the Golmakan station was used in calculation of the regression coefficients Similar research has shown that Ts~VI trapezoid based WDI can accurately capture temporal variation in surface soil moisture, but the capability of detecting spatial variation is poor for such a semi-arid region like Mashhad. The high correlation coefficient (93%) obtained from soil moisture (5 cm) and WDI regression showed the good mutual impacts of these two parameters on each other. The correlation coefficient between WDI index and soil moisture at a depth of 10 cm was equal to 83%. Reducing the value of the correlation coefficient was probably due to the delay in transferring the soil moisture changes to underlying depth.
The similarity of the mean values of rainfall and relative humidity of the air showed good compliance with the WDI. Good correlation coefficient (93%) between WDI and soil moisture (measured at depth of 5cm in the station) certifies the accuracy of the results obtained from WDI. The results showed that Ts~VI trapezoid based WDI can well capture temporal variation in surface soil moisture, while in this study, spatial zoning was avoided because of the lack of soil moisture data within the study area.

Consistency and transparency in climate data and methods facilitate comparisons across regions or between models in each of these assessments, particularly when market linkages between regions are emphasized (14 and 15). However, the density and quality of stationary climate data varies widely through space and time, with the best coverage in developed countries and less reliable coverage in the Tropics and Southern Hemisphere (15). So, several groups have collected these data and constructed harmonized, global gridded datasets at monthly resolution. However, these require weather generators synthesize daily resolution before they may be applied to crop models and are therefore likely to miss events that are important for the calibration and validation of agricultural models. Regional gridded observational networks have also been created (e.g., E-Obs in Europe, (8); APHRODITEin Asia, (21)), however many regions and variables are not covered by any such network and inter comparing sites between regions with different methodologies introduces inconsistencies (). Recently, AgMERRA climate forcing dataset provide daily, high-resolution, continuous, meteorological series over the 1980–2010 period designed for applications examining the agricultural impacts of climate variability and climate change. These datasets combine daily resolution data from retrospective analyses (the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, MERRA) with in situ and remotelysensed observational datasets fortemperature, precipitation, and solar radiation, leading to substantial reductions in bias in comparisonto a network of 2324 agriculturalregion stations from the Hadley Integrated Surface Dataset (HadISD) (5).Therfore, this research was done in order to investigate the possibility of using AgMERRA climate forcing dataset to estimate missing data in in-situ daily temperature and precipitation observations in Mashhad plain.
The study area was Mashhad plain in KhorasanRazavi province, located in the northeast of Iran. Climate data corresponding to Mashhad plain extracted by means of geographical characteristics of Mashhad (for the 1980-2010 periods) and Golmakan (1987-2010 period) stations from AgMERRA dataset. The goodness of fit of AgMERRA climate forcing dataset was done by means of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Mean Bias Error (MBE) tests and R2. The root mean-squared error (RMSE) is computed to measure the coincidence between measured and modelled values and Mean Bias Error (MBE) is simply to examine the overall model error.Furthermore, probability distribution function of observed daily data and AgMERRA data for both Golmakan and Mashhad stations calculated. Eventually, mean and variance of AgMERRA and in-situ data were calculated to have a more accurate comparison of simulated and observed data.
Results indicated that AgMERRA dataset has a good performance in estimating daily maximum and minimum temperature in Mashhad Plain. RMSE, MAE and MBE for daily precipitation illustrated a good performance of AgMERRA data. However, R2 value was 0.43 and 0.25 for Mashhad and Golmakan stations, respectively. Although the probability distribution function of daily maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation indicated the same trend for both studied stations, comparison of mean and variance of observed daily maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation and AgMERRA data for Mashhad and Golmakan stations showed different results. The difference between mean of AgMERRA and observed daily maximum temperature for Mashhadand Golmakan stations was 3.42 and 2.10 C°, respectively. It was 4.68 and 3.05 C° for minimum daily temperature for Mashhad and Golmakan, respectively, and the difference between mean of AgMERRA and observed daily precipitation was 0.06 and 0.28 mm.day-1 for Mashhad and Golmakan, respectively.
Discussion and This research showed that using AgMERRA climate forcing dataset could be a reliable tool to estimate missing data of in-situtemperature observations. Although the performance of AgMERRA dataset was good for daily precipitation, distribution of simulated precipitation compare with observed precipitation was different. Concerning AgMERRA precipitation data some points have to keep in mind that precipitation in arid and semi-arid regions tends to be more variable in time than in humid regions. In fact, the distinctive features of arid and semiarid regions affect precipitation modeling on a discrete event basis and a continuous basis (7, 10, 13).Results of this research illustrated the same trend and it revealed that AgMERRAdataset could not simulate the precipitation distribution in Mashhad plain. It seems that comparing AgMERRAprecipitation data with OPHRODITE dataset and other dataset can give us more accurate vision about AgMERRA dataset. Furthermore, it seems that it is needed to do more researches regarding investigation of performances of crop model results by using AgMERRA dataset as climate data input, because this dataset was released for agricultural application.