DesertPub Date : 2019-12-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76360
M. Gharibzadeh, Khan Alam
{"title":"Study of aerosol optical properties in the Middle East during 2013.","authors":"M. Gharibzadeh, Khan Alam","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76360","url":null,"abstract":"Aerosols affect the earth's atmospheric radiative fluxes via direct, semi-direct, and indirect mechanisms. Aerosols also are one of the main sources of uncertainty in climate models. In the Middle East, in addition to climate effects, various problems such as reduced visibility, human health hazards, and air pollution are caused by aerosols. Studying the optical and physical properties of aerosols on local and global scales helps reduce the uncertainties in climate forcing. In this study, aerosol optical properties, including Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Angstrom Exponent (AE), ASYmmetry parameter (ASY), Single Scattering Albedo (SSA), and phase function were analyzed. These properties were investigated over five sites in the Middle East during 2013 using the Aerosol Robotic NETwork (AERONET) data. The results revealed an inverse relationship between AOD and AE in all sites. A high AOD value and a low AE value were detected in spring and summer in all studied sites, suggestive of coarse mode dust particles. ASY initially decreased due to the dominance of absorbing type aerosols in the visible spectrum with the increase in wavelength. Afterwards, ASY increased with the increase in wavelength in the infrared region due to the dominance of the coarse mode particles. In most sites, SSA increased, particularly in spring and summer, with the increase in the wavelength because of the dominance of desert dust. In spring and summer, the phase function was high over all sites. High phase functions associated with small scattering angles were caused by the coarse mode particles.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"12379 1","pages":"197-206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68523456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-12-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76385
M. Savari, Hamed Eskandari Damaneh, Hadi Eskandari Damaneh
{"title":"Analysis of Effective Factors in Sustainable Management of Forest Resources among Local Communities of Kerman Province","authors":"M. Savari, Hamed Eskandari Damaneh, Hadi Eskandari Damaneh","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76385","url":null,"abstract":"The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effective factors in sustainable management of forest resources (SMFR) among local communities. Given that forested areas form a major part of Faryab county, the focus of the present study was on natural resources which forested lands of the is located in rural district of Mehruyeh. Statistical population included all the exploiters in Mehruyeh village utilizing forest resources (N=7000). The sample size (173 individuals) was obtained using Cochran formula sampling technique based on simple randomized sampling method. The research instrument was a questionnaire which validity and reliability were confirmed by an expert panel and Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α>0.7). Data analysis was conducted using SPSSwin18 and Lisrel8.54 whose results showed that the most important destructive causes in the village were overgrazing and deforestation to create arable lands; furthermore, most of the studied exploiters followed sustainable management of forest resources at a low level. Also, there was a significant difference between sustainable management of forest resources and variables age, forest working record, education level, and the kind of forest exploitation system. The correlation analysis results showed a significantly positive relationship between political-supporting factors, psychological-training factors, cultural-social factors, economic-supporting factors, and sustainable management. Moreover, regression results indicated that the foregoing factors accounted for 78.9% of variance changes associated with sustainable management of forest resources.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"277-292"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42729097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-12-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76361
H. Moghadam, M. Taghvaei, H. Sadeghi, M. Zarei
{"title":"Effect of organic coats with superabsorbent polymers on improving the germination and early vigor Milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) seeds under salinity stress","authors":"H. Moghadam, M. Taghvaei, H. Sadeghi, M. Zarei","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.76361","url":null,"abstract":"Salinity is a major environmental stress negatively influencing germination and seedling establishment in a wide variety of crops. The objective of this study was to use the organic materials with superabsorbents to improve the emergence rate and seedling traits of Milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) under salinity stress. A factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications was conducted in outdoor pots. Treatments included: organic coats at two levels (C1= peat moss and C2= vermicompost), superabsorbent polymers at seven levels (A1= without superabsorbent, A2-A4= coats with 2, 4, and 6 g superabsorbent of A200 per kg organic material, and A5-A7= coats with 2, 4, and 6 g superabsorbent of F1 per kg organic material), and salinity (S) stress at five levels (0, -2, -4, -6, and -8 bar). Results showed that organic material and the type and amount of superabsorbent significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected emergence, emergence rate, plant vigor index, shoot dry weight, leaf area, specific leaf area, relative water content, and total chlorophyll. Application of superabsorbent polymers with organic material reduced salinity stress in the primary growth stage of Milk thistle. Generally superabsorbent A200 is more effective than superabsorbent F1 and vermicompost coats better are than peat moss coats.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"207-215"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43908369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72444
S. Jalali, F. Sarmadian, Z. Esmaiel, M. Navidi
{"title":"Assessment of spatial variability of cation exchange capacity with kriging and cokriging","authors":"S. Jalali, F. Sarmadian, Z. Esmaiel, M. Navidi","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72444","url":null,"abstract":"Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is one of the most important soil attributes which control some basic properties of soil such as acidity, water and nutrient retaining capacity. However, the measurement of cation exchange capacity in large areas is time consuming and requires high expenses. One way to save time and expenses is to use simple soil covariates and geostatistical methods in mapping CEC. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to investigate the role of soil covariates in the improvement of spatial variability of CEC. The study area is located in southwest Iran on the Aghili plain, Gotvand, Khuzestan province. In this study, ordinary kriging and cokriging methods were used to predict CEC. 107 soil samples were gathered on a random grid of 200-700 m. 74 samples were used for training and 33 samples for testing the results. A principle component analysis was performed for covariate selection. Clay was selected as a covariate in cokriging due to high correlation between clay and CEC[FE1] in the first principle component analysis. Based on the cross validation result of predicted dataset, RMSE and ME for cokriging were 2.16 and 0.03 cmol (+)/kg respectively, and 3.36 and 0.09 cmol (+)/kg for kriging, respectively. Based on these results, cokriging performed better than kriging for predition of cation exchange capacity since it used a covariate such as clay, for the improvement of CEC spatial prediction.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"99-108"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48574628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72433
Marzieh Mirhasani, N. Rostami, Masoud Bazgir, M. Tavakoli
{"title":"Living windbreak design for wind erosion control in arid regions: A case study in Dehloran, Iran","authors":"Marzieh Mirhasani, N. Rostami, Masoud Bazgir, M. Tavakoli","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72433","url":null,"abstract":"Wind erosion is considered as one of the main processes of land degradation in different parts of the world. Among the most effective ways to control wind erosion is to cover land surface with natural vegetation area. In this study, 3 replica soil samples were collected, at a depth of 0-3 cm, from various land uses in Dehloran, Ilam Province, Iran. Physical and chemical characteristics of soil samples were determined in the laboratory to allow the application of the ENVI_met Headquarter model commonly used to design biological windbreak. The threshold friction velocity (TFV) is the basic parameter for effective construction of a windbreak. To determine its values, a wind tunnel test was conducted. Based on simulation results with the pattern designed with Prosopis juliflora species, it was observed that the wind speed decreased in front of the windbreak but returned to the initial speed at a larger distance behind the windbreak. Therefore, the designed windbreak for this species is able to reduce the wind speed to a far distance while in the designed windbreak with Haloxylon aphyllumspecies the wind returns to the initial speed within a shorter distance. According to the results, the wind speed reduction is directly related to the height of windbreak. Moreover, the designed windbreak with P. juliflora species, more effectively reduce the wind speed and protect longer distances behind the windbreak; thus it can be proposed as a suitable windbreak for the study area.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"33-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46833516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72449
M. Shamsabadi, I. Esfandiarpour-Borujeni, H. Shirani, M. Salehi
{"title":"Application of soil properties, auxiliary parameters, and their combination for prediction of soil classes using decision tree model","authors":"M. Shamsabadi, I. Esfandiarpour-Borujeni, H. Shirani, M. Salehi","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72449","url":null,"abstract":"Soil classification systems are very useful for a simple and fast summarization of soil properties. These systems indicate the method for data summarization and facilitate connections among researchers, engineers, and other users. One of the practical systems for soil classification is Soil Taxonomy (ST). As determining soil classes for an entire area is expensive, time-consuming, and almost impossible, this research has tried to predict the soil classes in each level of the ST system (up to family level) by using the data of 120 excavated pedons and some auxiliary parameters (such as derivatives of digital elevation model, i.e., DEM) in Shahrekord plain, central Iran. For this reason, the decision tree model was encoded and implemented in the MATLAB software for three conditions: use of soil properties, auxiliary parameters, and its combination. According to the results, soil class prediction error by using soil properties, auxiliary parameters, and its combination was estimated to be 0, 3.33 and 0% for order and suborder levels; 0.83, 15 and 0.83% for great group level; 3.33, 22.5 and 3.33% for subgroup level and 30, 52.5 and 30% for family level, respectively. In addition, the use of kriging maps of soil properties (instead of 120 observational points) decreased the prediction error of the modeling in all levels of the ST system. It seems that the effect of auxiliary parameters (in comparison to soil properties) is not very significant for predicting soil classes in low-relief areas.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"153-169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41791461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72430
M. Ansari, F. Shekari, Mohammad Reza Mohammadi, G. Végváric, B. Biró
{"title":"Effect of irrigation with saline water on ion homeostasis and forage dry yield in Alfalfa ecotypes application of high salty water for Alfalfa plants irrigation","authors":"M. Ansari, F. Shekari, Mohammad Reza Mohammadi, G. Végváric, B. Biró","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72430","url":null,"abstract":"Salinity stress is a brutal environmental stress which decreases the yield production of plants. Questions rise on which of the ionic stress or lack of water has deleterious effects on plants forage dry yield. Also, questions remain on whether the K+ reduction or Na+ accumulation is more important in forage dry yield reduction under salinity stress. The present experiment was conducted to answer the above questions in four alfalfa ecotypes. To do so, 6-7 weeks seedlings were irrigated with high salty water (EC=20dS m-1) and RWC, MSI, height, forage dry yield, Na+ and K+ were measured 1, 3, 6, 10, and 16 days after the salt shock. The results showed that one day after irrigation with saline water, all measured traits changed adversely. Salinity stress by decreasing K+ and increasing Na+ content reduced the growth of alfalfa plants. RWC reduction was less than K+ reduction or Na+ accumulation, so ionic stress had more deleterious effects on forage dry yield of alfalfa plants. Root cells had a higher content of K+ and Na+ ions compared with leaves, hence, they had a major defensive role against salinity stress. The K+/Na+ ratio reduction in saline condition was the main element for decreasing plant forage dry yield. The application of high salty water for irrigation of alfalfa plants is possible if there is a good subsoil drainage system to remove the leached saline water regularly from the soil. It is also suggested that foliar application of potassium may be ameliorate harmful effects of salinity stress in plant growth.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47290994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72447
F. AmiriMijan, H. Shirani, I. Esfandiarpour, A. Besalatpour, H. Shekofteh
{"title":"Modelling of some soil physical quality indicators using hybrid algorithm principal component analysis - artificial neural network","authors":"F. AmiriMijan, H. Shirani, I. Esfandiarpour, A. Besalatpour, H. Shekofteh","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72447","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72447","url":null,"abstract":"One of the important issues in the analysis of soils is to evaluate their features. In estimation of the hardly available properties, it seems the using of Data mining is appropriate. Therefore, the modelling of some soil quality indicators, using some of the early features of soil which have been proved by some researchers, have been considered. For this purpose, 140 disturbed and 140 undisturbed soil samples were collected from Jiroft, southern Kerman, Iran. Some physical and chemical properties of soil, for example, sand, silt and clay percentage, organic matter (OM), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), electrical conductivity at saturation (ECe), porosity (F), and bulk density (BD) were measured using standard methods. Some soil physical property indicators, including plant available water (PAW), relative field capacity (RFC), air capacity (AC) and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) were also calculated. Using the hybrid algorithm of principle component analysis-artificial neural network (PCA-ANN), the calculated indicators were predicted by the easily available properties. The results showed that PCA-ANN had an acceptable accuracy in the modelling of soilphysical quality. The coefficient of determination (R2) of training and testing data for PAW, RFC and AC were 0.82 and 0.81, 0.90 and 0.79, 0.99 and 0.99, respectively. The optimization of Ks did not have the desired results. In other words, the R2 values of the training and testing data for this indicator were equal to 0.25 and 0.13, respectively.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"133-141"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45611238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72435
H. Naji, M. Taherpour
{"title":"The effect of simulated dust storm on wood development and leaf stomata in Quercus brantii L","authors":"H. Naji, M. Taherpour","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72435","url":null,"abstract":"Dust storms are increasingly threatening the forest ecosystem in Western Iran. Due to its coverage of vast area of Zagros forest, the Quercus brantii is at the front line of the attack. Most tree deaths in this forest are from this species. This study aims to investigate the effect of simulated dust on wood development and leaf stomata from seedlings of Persian oak. The oak seedlings were put in a chamber and dusted from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. at three different days with an interval of 12 days. They were under three increasing concentrations of dust (5000, 7000, and 9000 mg/m3). Leaf and wood samples of about 10 seedlings were collected, and the leaf stomatal features, growth ring and vessel features of both treated and untreated seedlings were examined. The results showed no variations in stomatal features except for pore aperture. As for wood features, growth ring, vessel number and diameter considerably changed. In treated seedlings, the growth ring and vessel diameter were smaller and the number of vessels was higher than in the untreated seedlings. No detection of differences in stomatal features could be tracked due to the short-period of treatment. The usual seedlings’ annual growth could be altered by treatment affecting on both annual growth ring and vessel features. To sum up, it can be concluded that dust storm has strong effect on seedling’s growth as can limit wood formation","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"43-49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47561785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DesertPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72440
F. Kazemi, F. Salahshoor, H. Farhadi
{"title":"Effect of humic acid and mulches on characteristics of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.)","authors":"F. Kazemi, F. Salahshoor, H. Farhadi","doi":"10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72440","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22059/JDESERT.2019.72440","url":null,"abstract":"Application[Editor 321] of biotic growth regulators (e.g. humic components) and appropriate mulches is recommended to improve turfgrass quality especially in arid andsemi-arid climate zones. However, limited number of studies have investigated their effect on lawn establishment. To investigate the effect of humic acid (HA) and selected mulches on characteristics of Festuca arundinacea in its planting stage, a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized block design with three replications was performed. The first factor was mulch types including vermicompost, leaf compost, cow manure,[Editor 322] and sand (control) which were used to cover the seeds. The second factor was a HA solution (100 ml l-1) sprayed monthly over the period of the experiment. Plant height, fresh and dry weight of lawn clippings, photosynthetic index, leaf texture, and overall turfgrass quality were measured. Spraying HA significantly improved the measured factors except the dry weight and photosynthetic index of the plants. Among the mulches, vermicompost provided better impressions on improving the characteristics of this turfgrass species including 48% increase in fresh weight, 18% increase in height, 48% increase in total quality, and 10% reduction in leaf width of the turfgrass. This research can assist in developing knowledge for having high quality lawns in urban landscapes of arid and semi-arid environments.","PeriodicalId":11118,"journal":{"name":"Desert","volume":"24 1","pages":"51-59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48042028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}