نشریه تحقیقات کاربردی خاک
سال دهم شماره 4 (زمستان 1401)

The excessive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers causes environmental problems. Organic and biological fertilizers in management programs can be considered as a way to reduce utilization of chemical materials. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different levels of Vermi-Compost (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 gr/pot), Nano biological Fertilizer (0, 1, 2, and 3 gr/pot), and Biochar (0, 1.25, 2.5, 5 and 10 gr/pot) as well as a combination of VermiCompost-Nano-compost (10 gr vermicompost-2 gr Nano-biologic fertilizer) and vermicompost-biochar (10 gr vermicompost-2.5 gr of Biochar and 10 gr vermiCompost and 5 gr of Biochar) was conducted on some morphological traits and the amount of phenolic compounds of Echinacea purpurea L. The results showed that plants grown in VermiCompost-Biochar combination treatment had the highest amount of root length factors (29.97 cm), dry shoot weight (10.54 gr/2 kg pot) and leaf area (14745.07 mm) compared to other fertilizer treatments. In addition, the use of vermicompost-compost-nano-bio fertilizer for other treatments caused the highest fresh root weight (34.84 gr) and root dry weight (6.54 gr). The highest fresh stem weight was observed in Biochar 5 gr treatment at 35.37 gr/2 kg pot compared to other fertilizer treatments. In addition, the cultivation of Echinacea under the combined treatment of Vermicompost and Biochar had the highest amount of phenolic compounds (0.123 mg /l).

Recognition of effective Parameters in sediment Production has an important role in understanding the phenomenon of erosion and its consequences and is one of the important principles of optimal management of a watershed. In the study of the relationship between watershed environmental and hydro geomorphological parameters with erosion and sediment, the quantity and amount of sediment has been considered so far, while in this research, has been studied the relationship between important climatic parameters including average annual rainfall, average annual temperature, altitude, slope, aspect and geological factor (formation) with sediment organic carbon as an important parameter and qualitative indicator in some of the Ardabil province watersheds. 98 samples of sediment after collecting from the study area, were analyzed in the laboratory by Walkley - Black method to extract the amount of organic carbon, then performed statistical analyze on samples using stepwise regression and partial least squares regression (PLSR) models. Findings showed that among the hydrogeomorphological parameters, slope and formation with regression coefficients of - 0.293 and -0.078, respectively, were identified as factors affecting the sediment organic carbon, so that both parameters have an inverse correlation with the sediment organic carbon and aspect parameter is more effective than the formation and output of both regression models is almost the same. Therefore, sediment organic carbon, in addition to the quantity and amount of sediments, can be considered as an important indicator for studying the degradation processes, watershed erosion and loss of soil organic carbon.

The Climate Change is a complex atmospheric-oceanic phenomenon on a global scale. This phenomenon leads to improper distribution of climatic factors, reducing the quality of water and soil resources, and ultimately erosion and land degradation. The aim of this study was to predict the effects of climate change on land degradation and the development of dust in the dust center of southeastern Khuzestan. Therefore, one of the three-dimensional paired oceanic-atmospheric models of AOGCM called HadCM3, to simulate climatic variables of temperature, wind, precipitation and evaporation and transpiration; Used under diffusion scenarios B2 and A2. In order to downscalling daily climatic data, the SDSM model was used and also to simulate the land degradation process, the Modified MEDALUS model was used. The results of studying different climate change scenarios showed that the amount of precipitation in the next period compared to the base period under scenario A2 will increase by 6.4% and under scenario B2 will increase by 4.8%. Both scenarios jointly predicted an upward trend in regional temperature for both periods. But the slope of this increase under scenario A2 was greater than B2. The results showed that due to changes in precipitation and temperature, the amount of evapotranspiration in the next period compared to the base period under scenario A2 will increase by 14.3 % and under scenario B2 will increase by 9.1%. The highest correlation between the modeled and observed values was obtained in precipitation and temperature parameters (between 86% to 98% in all models). Finally, the research showed that in the land units of the southeastern dust center of Ahvaz, the average land degradation in the future period compared to the base period under scenario B2 will increase by 1.6-2.63% and under scenario A2 will also increase by 2.34-2.94. Therefore, the rate of land degradation in this region is partly affected by changing climate change scenarios. Therefore, despite the confirmation of the existence of climate change in the southeastern part of Ahvaz, it seems that other factors such as managerial and human factors such as land use change, intensification of human activities in the study area have played a more prominent role than climate change.

Information on soil erosion and sediment production, meteorological features, hydrological features of rivers such as discharge, as well as human factors, are often very complex, indefinite, and nonlinear. Therefore, the use of machine intelligence algorithms (such as machine learning algorithms) is a good option in simulating and predicting river water quality variables such as suspended load. The aim of the present study is to present a proposed method based on Multilayer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network (MLP-ANN) and Non-Dominant Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA) for predicting suspended river load. In the proposed method, the NSGA was used to train the MLP using the error propagation method and determining the optimal weight for the neurons. In this study, the suspended load of Tilabad station located in Gorganrood river during the 1982-2015 years was used as a case study. The results showed that the proposed method has a higher correlation coefficient compared to MLP and the value of R2 was 0.6728 and 0.4372, respectively. The value of Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE) in the proposed method and MLP based on back-propagation (BP) algorithm is 4.7225 and 8.548, respectively. Therefore, in the proposed method, the NSGA has caused a good improvement of the MLP. The NSE value in the proposed method and MLP based on BP algorithm is 0.4321 and 0.2941, respectively. The results showed that the proposed method had good accuracy in predicting the suspended load. The proposed method with BP training algorithm has a better performance compared to the descending and Bayesian gradient training algorithm.

In order to investigate the effect of application of different levels of nitrogen on yield and yield components of quinoa under different planting densities, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the crop year 2019-2020 in Gonabad. Planting density treatments were at four levels (30, 50, 70 and 90 plants per square meter) and nitrogen levels were at four levels (zero, 50, 100 and 150 kg ha-1). The results of mean comparison showed that increasing the density from 30 to 90 plants per square meter increased plant height, Cluster dry weight and seed nitrogen percentage, and increasing nitrogen to 150 kg ha-1 increased plant height, number of clusters per plant, Cluster dry weight, number of sub-clusters per major cluster and seed nitrogen percentage. Also, the interaction effect of planting density and nitrogen application on leaf area index, number of seeds per plant, 1000-seed weight, Field efficiency of nitrogen consumption, seed yield, seed yield to leaf area index per plant, biological yield and harvest index were significant. Based on the results of interactions, the highest number of seeds per plant, 1000-seed weight, and seed yield, seed yield to leaf area index per plant and harvest index were obtained under the density of 50 plants per square meter and application of 100 kg ha-1 nitrogen. Due to the superiority of the level of 100 kg ha-1 nitrogen and the density of 50 plants per square meter in terms of seed yield, it seems that this level of density and nitrogen is recommended to achieve proper yield in the test area and similar areas.

Imbalanced fertilization is one of the most important problems of wheat production in Iran. This project aimed to assess the effects of soil fertility management based on plant nutrition principles and compare it with farmer's conventional methods in wheat fertilization. The experiment was carried out in three wheat fields (Faghi-Bigloo, Talebabad, and Hassan-Ahabad) located in West Azerbaijan province, during the 2014-2015 growing season. Experimental treatments included farmer's conventional (FCA) and optimum fertilization (OFA) approaches. Management of wheat nutrition for FCA treatment was based on the experiences of wheat growers and for OFA treatment based on the assessment of the field's soil fertility status, using soil test and the latest scientific achievements. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in grain yield characteristics between FCA and OFA treatments (p<0.05). The average grain yield for FCA and OFA was 5601 and 6667 kg ha-1, respectively. With OFA, grain yield improved by 18.96%. The current approach also increased straw weight by 17.58, 12.30, and 7.67% in Faghi-Bigloo, Talebabad, and Hassan-Ahabad, respectively. These values were significant (p<0.05). Moreover, OFA improved the harvest index in experimented fields, except for Faghi-Bigloo. These values were equal to 9.21% and 4.06% for Talebabad and Hassan-Ahabad, respectively. The grain protein content for FCA obtained 11.79%. OFA enhanced it by 15.58% (p<0.05). Additionally, for FCA, the molar ratio of phytic acid to zinc in the grains was in the range of 45-75. With OFA, this ratio was significantly reduced to less than 25 (optimum limit). Generally, it is concluded that soil fertility management based on the principles of plant nutrition is the most accessible solution to achieve optimum crop yields and improve the quality of wheat grains.

The aim of this study was to investigate the origin and potential ecological risk of heavy metals (arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn) and Cu (copper) in different land uses in West of Arak, Markazi Province. A total of 235 Surface soil samples were taken from the depth of 0-5 cm including 160, 46 and 29 samples from agricultural, rangeland and industrial land uses, respectively. The ranges of As, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd and Cu in studied soils were 55.7–357.2, 6.8–256, 13.2–858, 26.7–172, 0.1–3.65 and 5.1–34.1 mg/kg, respectively. Comparison of the mean concentration of heavy metals in different land uses indicative of the same influence of land use to metal accumulations of As, Pb, Zn and Cu, but in the case of Ni and Cd showed that a differential influence of land use the distribution of these metals in the soil. When the average amount of crust was used as a reference background, the Cf values of As in all land uses were higher than other metals, indicating high level of pollution of soils in this region. The index of PLI in land uses comprised, industrial (3) > rangeland (2.4) > agriculture (2.39), indicating the pollution and gradual destruction of soil. The mean PER based on reference and local GB showed very high and low pollution level in all land uses, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that Pb and Zn originated from common anthropogenic sources related to industrialization and mining, whereas Cu and Ni are probably in associated with geological sources. Cd was mainly derived from the input of agricultural and industrial activities, and As should be attributed to natural resources, emissions from local industries, mining, herbicides and the use of poultry manure and atmospheric dust.

Groundwater as an important part of water resources in arid areas is under influence of human and climatic factors. By illustrating the trend and fluctuation of regional water quality temporarily and spatially, it can be managed more effectively. Traditional methods of point data analysis cannot be used alone with high reliability, therefore the use of GIS, Geostatistical methods, and clustering analysis are suitable ways to analyze regional hydro-climatological phenomena. Normal spatial variability and outlier points can be assessed using the analysis of spatial clusters that divide the data into homogeneous groups and hotspots. These analyses determine in what situations there are valuable high or low clustering effects. In this study, the hot spots of the groundwater salinity of Minadoab plain and the Zarrinehrood network have been investigated. For this purpose, the salinity(Ec) of 32 observation wells located in Zarrinehrood network in the period of 1381 to 1399 has been used. The G* and Moran tests were used to investigate the location of high-value points, hot spot clusters, and significant outlier values. Based on the results obtained from both analyzes, hotspots in the western and northwestern parts of the network have been located. The trend of salinity hot spot areas through time was surveyed by the Man-Kendal test and the results indicate that these areas are increasing in recent years which can be a warning about increasing pollutant levels, drought, and contractile policies for surface water management on the shores of Lake Urmia.

The aim of this study was to investigate the origin and potential ecological risk of heavy metals (arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn) and Cu (copper) in different land uses in West of Arak, Markazi Province. A total of 235 Surface soil samples were taken from the depth of 0-5 cm including 160, 46 and 29 samples from agricultural, rangeland and industrial land uses, respectively. The ranges of As, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd and Cu in studied soils were 55.7–357.2, 6.8–256, 13.2–858, 26.7–172, 0.1–3.65 and 5.1–34.1 mg/kg, respectively. Comparison of the mean concentration of heavy metals in different land uses indicative of the same influence of land use to metal accumulations of As, Pb, Zn and Cu, but in the case of Ni and Cd showed that a differential influence of land use the distribution of these metals in the soil. When the average amount of crust was used as a reference background, the Cf values of As in all land uses were higher than other metals, indicating high level of pollution of soils in this region. The index of PLI in land uses comprised, industrial (3) > rangeland (2.4) > agriculture (2.39), indicating the pollution and gradual destruction of soil. The mean PER based on reference and local GB showed very high and low pollution level in all land uses, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that Pb and Zn originated from common anthropogenic sources related to industrialization and mining, whereas Cu and Ni are probably in associated with geological sources. Cd was mainly derived from the input of agricultural and industrial activities, and As should be attributed to natural resources, emissions from local industries, mining, herbicides and the use of poultry manure and atmospheric dust.

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) one of the native plants and strategic crops in Iran. Increasing the performance of this product requires the use of modern methods instead of traditional methods. In this study, two separate greenhouse experiments were carried out in order to choose the suitable growth media with different perlite particle size and its mixing ratio with peat moss on corms yield of saffron in soilless conditions. The first experimental treatments included particle sizes of perlite with very fine (less than 0.5 mm), fine (0.5-1 mm), medium perlite (1-1.5 mm), coarse (1.5-2 mm) and very coarse (more than 2 mm), which were 100% volumetric and second experimental treatments, including a with peat moss of 50% perlite with each of the measured measures plus 50% peat moss. The experiments were designed in a completely randomized design with three replications. The results showed that the applied treatments had a significant effect on plant parameters including leaf length, leaf area, fresh leaf weight, dry leaf weight, fresh corms weight, dry corms weight, diameter of daughter corms, and content of daughter corms, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids. Based on the results, the maximum weight of corms (17.89 g) was obtained in a mixed growth media containing of 50% perlite (1-1.5 mm) and 50% peat moss. In general, it can be concluded that when the goal is to increase the yield of saffron through the production of coarse corms in the hydroponic system, the use of mixture of medium sized perlite (1-1.5 mm) with peat moss (at 50:50 v/v peat moss to perlite ratio) is introduced as an optimal growth media.