Journal of Water and Soil Science

Kinetic Properties of Urease Enzyme in the Presence of Sepiolite and Vermiculite Clays

H. Rahmani

Urea is one of the most commonly used nitrogen fertilizers in agricultural lands. The fate of this fertilizer in soils is greatly related to the soil urease enzyme activity, while this enzyme commonly exists in the adsorbed state on the surface of soil colloids, and especially clay minerals. In order to examine the kinetic properties of free and adsorbed Urease on the surface of sepiolite and vermiculite, an experiment was carried out with eight levels of urea concentration (5, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 mM). This experiment was done with enzyme concentration of 1 unit in temperature of 25˚C and pH=7. Adsorption of urease on the clay surfaces affected its kinetic properties compared to the free state. The results showed that urease enzyme obeyed Michaelis-Menten kinetic in both free and adsorbed states on the clay surfaces. Except free urease, the highest and lowest values of V_maxand K_m were observed in urease-sepiolite and urease-vermiculite complexes, respectively. Also, the results showed that except free urease, the highest levels of Catalytic Efficiency were related to urease in the presence of vermiculite and sepiolite, respectively. The Effectiveness Factor was more for adsorbed urease on the sepiolite surface than adsorbed urease on the vermiculite surface, and the fact somehow suggests more complete diffusion in the presence of sepiolite.

Analytical Study of Land Use Changes (Irrigated Agriculture) in the Watershed of Lake Urmia using Landsat Imagery

M. Kamali

Integrated management of watershed basins depends on deep knowledge of basic concepts such as the arrangement of lands and their uses. Location and distribution of agricultural land use help to balance water resources in the watershed basins. In this research with the help of satellite images of Landsat 5 and 8, and the method of maximum likelihood classification algorithm, land use types of water, barren areas and salt lands, and irrigated agriculture were studied in the Urmia watershed in the years 2010 and 2013.Then applications of modis images and product Urmia watershed land cover for years 2010 and 2012 were compared and finally modis and Landsat land covers in 2010 were compared. Results showed that the area of irrigated farmlands of Urmia basin has increased in the years between 2010 and 2013; while, the water zone has declined. Comparison between modis and landsat in 2010 showed that modis can estimate irrigated lands and water zone better than barren areas. The kappa coefficient for years 2010 and 2013 in Landsat images are 0/77 and 0/87, respectively.

Study of the Effect of the Angle of Submerged Vanes on Sediment Control in Lateral Intake at a 180 Degree River Arc

A. Masjedi

One of the methods for sediment control in lateral intake can be application of submerged vanes in front of the inlet. The establishment of submerged vanes in flow path causes a flow diversion toward the inner arc. In this research, the performance of submerged vanes on sediment transport to the inlet at 180 degree of intake has been investigated. Several experiments were carried out in a laboratory channel made of Plexiglas at a 180-degree arc, under clear water condition. In this research a series of experiments were done by inserting several vanes made of Plexiglas in front of lateral intake. Experiments were done by using two rows of parallel vanes with variable angles at four different discharges under two conditions of with and without vanes. In each experiment, the main channel discharge and diversion channel discharge, sediment discharge through the diversion and transmission were measured. The results of research showed that the performance of the parallel submerged vanes in diverting the path of sediments depends on contacted vanes angle by water flow. Also, entering water rate is directly proportional with entering sediment rate and entering sediment rate are increased with the increase of entering water rate at all angles. Suitable performance in reducing the sediment transport to the inlet was observed at an angle of 15 degrees of vanes relative to the axis of water flow. In other words, by increasing the angle relative to the axis of flow, sediment transport to the inlet will be increased.

Assessment the Impacts of Climate Change on Surface Runoff in Bazoft Watershed

P. Almasi

With regard to the confirmation of climate change in most regions of the world and its effects on different parts of the water cycle, knowledge of the status of water resources is necessary for proper management of resources and planning for the future. Hence many studies have been done in different areas with the aim of analyzing the impact of climate change on hydrological processes in the upcoming periods. In present research, the effect of climate change on surface runoff in Bazoft watershed has been studied. Bazoft watershed, located in North-West of Chahar Mahal & Bakhtiari province, has significant contribution in the production of water resources of the region due to its special topographical and geographical status. In this study, climatic model – HadCM3- and A2 and B2 emission scenarios have been used to assess uncertainty in forecasting climate change. For this purpose, a statistical model –SDSM- has been applied to downscale large- scale precipitation and temperature data and hydrological model –WetSpa- has been used to simulate runoff. After calibration of the hydrological model, downscaled precipitation and temperature data in near future (2020-2050) and far future (2070-2100) periods were introduced to WetSpa model and runoff was simulated for mentioned periods. Results of this study represent suitable performance of SDSM model in downscaling climatic data, especially minimum and maximum temperature. Also, performance evaluation of Wetspa model shows proper performance of this model for runoff simulation in Bazoft watershed, so that Nash- Sutcliffe efficiency during calibration and validation was 0.63 and 0.65, respectively. Moreover, assessing the amount of predicted runoff for future periods indicates an increase in annual runoff in the Bazoft watershed under both A2 and B2 scenarios.

Simulating Water Resources within Biomass Structure of Trees Storey in the Natural and Mixed-Beech Forests in North of Iran using Artificial Neural Network

Due to water shortage in country, more accurate estimate of water reserve can be one of the most important guidelines on the optimal management of water resource and cycle for development of water productivity efficiency. Therefore, using artificial neural network techniques the water supply of 174 fallen trees from different species was simulated. From any part of each bole, components of constant volume were extracted and placed in 105ºC to be oven-dried to measure specific drought index and wood density. Three input layers of diameter at breast height, height and specific wood density were used to simulate the response variable. The method of trial and test were used for neural network topology architecture. The results showed that the use of only diameter as input layer based on the validation indices explained 65% of variance of test of data. Using the three layers in the neural network, optimized output including function of Tan-sigmoid in the designed architecture with the number of 15 neurons demonstrated the highest accuracy (R²=0/92, MSE= 0/001, RMSE=81/08). In order to save the costs and manpower and to avoid a destructive method, the optimized output in the form of black box has the wide applicability to predict the water reserve in the mixed-beech forests to manage water cycle in the studied ecosystem.

The Effect of Distance from River on Soil Physiochemical Properties, Root Colonization and Spore density of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Associated with Salt Cedar

M. Moradi

Salt cedar is widely spread out in most part of the country but there is lack of information about its symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Then, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the symbiosis of AMF with salt cedar and its affectability by distance from river and soil physiochemical properties. For this purpose, riparian Maroon forest width was divided to three locations including riverside area, intermediate area and the area far from river with 200-hundred-meter interval. In each site 10 salt cedars were randomly selected and soil plus hair root samples were gathered from the salt cedar rhizosphere. Our result indicated that root colonization and spore density in the intermediate distance had the lowest and highest values, respectively. These values were significantly different compared to the other two sites. The average root colonization percent in the riverside area, intermediate area and the area far from river sites were 82.37, 73.77 and 80.17, respectively. While the average spore density in the riverside area, intermediate area and the area far from river were 189, 245.5 and 188.8 in five gram soils, respectively. Root colonization had significant positive correlation with soil potassium while spore density had significant correlation with studied soil physiochemical properties. Also, soil nitrogen, organic carbon, potassium and clay showed 52.6, 51.19, 50 and 23.4% decreasing trend from the riverside area to the area far from river. Regarding this research results, salt cedar showed high level of symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi but this symbiosis could be affected by distance from river in riparian forest.

Determination of Sub-Basins Flow Contribution to Total Flood in Khersan River Basin

N. Tavanpour

This research is aimed to determine the contribution of sub-basins flow to total watershed flood in Khersan river basin located in Kohkilooyeh and Boyer Ahmad province. To do this, the rainfall-runoff model HEC-HMS was used to simulate peak runoff values for 11 sub-basins. HEC-HMS input was constructed using GIS. The results suggest that the change in different return periods is accompanied by small change in prioritization of flood-potential of the sub-basins; so that for return periods of 2, 50 and 100 years, the most contributions came from sub-basins 1 through 11, respectively. With respect to area and flow rate, contribution of sub-basins to watershed total flow was different. The effect of area was between 0.31 to 1.03 percent; namely, sub-basin 6 showed the highest rank and basin 7 showed the lowest one. With respect to peak flow rate, the effect of individual exclusion of sub-basins, resulted in contribution between 51.2 to 1004.2 m³/s, that is, sub-basin 6 showed the lowest effect and the sub basin 11 showed the highest contribution.

The Effect of Silicate Solubilizing Bacteria on Potassium Release from Mica Minerals and its Uptake by Corn Plants

MH. Rasouli Sadaghiani

Potassium is the most abundant nutrition element in the surface soil but most of the potassium is unavailable to the plants. The present study was conducted with the aim of isolation of potassium solubilizing bacteria from rhizosphere soil and evaluation of quantitative ability of released potassium from different sources of silicate by strains. For this propose, laboratory and greenhouse evaluations were carried out on corn (Zea mays L. Cv. single cross 640 (as a factorial in a completely randomized design with three replications. Laboratory factors were potassium sources (four levels), incubation time (seven levels) and microbial inoculation (six strains) and greenhouse factors were potassium sources (five levels) and microbial inoculation (four strains). The results showed that among the bacterial strains KSB₁₃had maximum dissolution diameter (25 mm) and solubilisation index (SI=3). The highest potassium content (3/32 µg/mL) was released from biotite by strains of KSB₁₀ after ten days incubation. The microbial inoculation increased root dry weight and plant height for 30 and 25 percent, respectively, compared to control treatments. Also the mean shoot dry weight and K content in microbial treatments of silicate minerals were respectively increased 3/75 and 1/57 times higher than control treatment. It can be concluded that microbial inoculation causes potassium release from silicate minerals and improved plant growth.

The Effect of Different Tillage Methods and Fertilizer Application on Soil Physical Properties and Corn Yield

A Heidari

Traditionally, most corn field in Hamedan Province is prepared for planting by moldboard plowing followed by a number of secondary tillage operations. In recent years conservation tillage systems have become more popular. This research was conducted in the form of a split plot experimental design with six tillage treatments and three replications. Main tillage methods including: (T1) conventional tillage (moldboard plow + cyclotiller equipped with roller), (T2) combination tiller (chisel plow equipped with roller) (T3) bandary tillage with chisel blades were considered as main plots and two P fertilizer application including: (F1) fertilize broadcasting and (F2) fertilizer bandary placement were considered as sub plots. During growing seasons, soil mechanical resistance (cone index), soil bulk density and water infiltration in soil were measured. At the end of the growing season (harvesting time), corn yield and its components were measured. Results indicated that tillage methods and soil depth had a significant effect on the soil bulk density and cone index. The effect of tillage on water infiltration in soil was significant. The effect of P fertilizer application on corn yield was significant (P≤0/01) and P fertilizer bandary placement with mean corn yield of 10862 kg/ha had higher yield value than the fertilizer broadcasting with mean corn yield of 9965 kg/ha. Although the difference between tillage methods for corn yield was not statistically different, T2 treatment with mean corn yield of 10913 kg/ha had higher yield value than the other two tillage treatments (T1 with mean corn yield of 10106 kg/ha and T3 with mean corn yield of 10222 kg/ha).

Assessment of Health Risk Index in Soil and Grain of Wheat Irrigated by Subsurface Drip Irrigation and Treated Wastewater in Semi-Arid Region

K. Asgari

Constant use of treated wastewater (TWW) for irrigation over long periods may cause buildup of heavy metals up to toxic levels for plants, animals, and entails environmental hazards in different aspects. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of using a deep emitter installation on lowering the potential heavy metal accumulation in soil and wheat grain, and health risk under drip irrigation with treated municipal wastewater. A field experiment was conducted according to a split block design with two treatments (fresh and wastewater) and three sub treatments (0, 15 and 30 cm depth of emitters) in four replicates in Esfahan, Iran. Soil samples were collected before planting (initial value) and after harvesting (final value) in each year. Elemental concentrations (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, Cr, and Ni) in soil and grain were determined using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. A pollution load index (PLI) showed that there was not substantial buildup of heavy metals in the wastewater-irrigated soils compared to the freshwater-irrigated soils. Cu, Pb, Cr and Zn concentrations in wheat grain were within permissible EPA limits, but concentrations of Cr was above the safe limits of EPA. In addition, concentrations of Ni in wheat grain were several folds higher than EPA standards. A health risk index (HRI) which is usually adopted to assess the health risk to hazard materials in foods showed values higher than 1 for Cd and Cu, whereas children might also be exposed to health risk of Cd, Cu and Cr. Based on aforementioned results, it can be concluded that the depth of emitter in drip irrigation does not play a significant role in the accumulation of heavy metals from TWW in our sandy loam soil.

Dynamic Changes of Sediment Concentration in Rill Erosion at Field Experiments

H. Asadi

This study aimed to investigate the dynamic changes of rill erosion and evaluate the ability of Hairsine-Rose model in estimation of sediment concentration. The experiments were carried out at the Soil and Water Conservation Research Station of Tehran University in Kuhin, Qazvin. Four flow rates were tested at three slopes in trapezoidal hand-made rills of 3 m long and 5 cm base width. Outflows were sampled periodically to determine changes in sediment concentration. The experiments were repeated in early autumn and mid spring. Sediment concentration showed a dynamic change with time which was affected by flow rate, slope and season. The sediment concentration was high in the first few minutes of the experiment but over time, dropped and finally reached a more or less stable state. The effects of flow rate and slope were more detectable on sediment concentration at the early unsteady conditions than at the final steady conditions. Though the temporal trends were similar, the sediment concentration was generally higher in autumn than in spring. Hairsine-rose model showed a better performance at lower flow stream powers but generally over predicted sediment concentration showing a systematic error probably due to model formulation.

Determination of Sub-Basin Contribution in Sediment Yield using Magnetic Susceptibility Properties and Uncertainty Mixing Model (Case Study: Ashan Drainage Basin, Maragheh County)

K. , and M. R. Nosrati

Accelerated soil erosion in Iran causes on-site and off-site effects and identifying of sediment sources and determination of their contribution in sediment yield is necessary for effective sediment control strategies in river basin. In spite of increasing sediment fingerprinting studies uncertainty associated with magnetic susceptibility properties has not been fully incorporated in models yet. The objective of this study is determination of the relative contribution of sediment sources using magnetic susceptibility properties (High frequency, Low frequency and Frequency dependence) incorporated in uncertainty mixing model. For this purpose, 25 bed sediment samples were collected from the outlet of drainage basin and outlet of sub-basins and their magnetic susceptibility was measured and calculated. The results of Kruskal–Wallis test and discriminant function analysis showed that magnetic susceptibility properties can be used as optimum set of tracers in the uncertainty mixing model. The results of Bayesian mixing model indicated that mean (uncertainty range) relative contribution of Sparan, Joyband and Boyoukchay are 92 (83.9-94.8), 2.8 (0.2-10.7), 5.7 (0.2- 10.5) percent, respectively. According to these results, the highest amount of sediment yield is related to Sparan sub-basin and these results could be used in soil conservation and management planning.

The Rebound Effect or Jevons Paradox: A Concept for More Proper Understanding of the Consequences of Improvements in Water Productivity

M. H. Zibaei

Water scarcity is a major and structural problem in arid and semi-arid regions across the world that greatly concerns environmental policy-makers. The problem of adjusting the demand exceeding the sustainable supply has been mainly tackled with demand policies, particularly through investment in water saving technology and promotion of irrigation efficiency programs. However, there have been very few evaluations of these programs and many of those that exist raise serious doubt about the programs’ effectiveness in reducing the consumptive use of water, due to the occurrence of the rebound effect. In this study, a sample of 243 farmers in Fars province who have the sprinkler irrigation system installed in their farms was interviewed to collect needed data for investigating the rebound effect using AHP and ordered logit regression model. The results indicated that 74.5 percent of sampled farmers have experienced medium to large rebound effect. It was also found that the amount of dry and fallow land during installation of sprinkler irrigation system have a positive relationship with the probability of occurrence of the rebound effect. Finally, the results of this study can be used to determine the probability of the rebound effect occurrence after installment of the sprinkler system for farms where data is available. For example, in the farms with farm features 24, probability of the rebound effect as a result of water saving measures at the low, medium and high levels are 0.4, 32 and 67.4 percent, respectively. Therefore, we must apply specific water conservation and efficiency practices in such farms based on a combined use of technical, economic, social and political tools to reduce pressure on scarce water supplies.

Experimental investigation of the effect of number and angle of anti-vortex piers in morning glory spillway with square inlet

A. A. Kamanbedast

Morning glory spillway is one of the spillways and used when it is not possible to use any other spillways. With the onset of submergence and flow loss, and intensification of circulation and vortexes, spillway performance decreases severely. With decreasing discharge coefficient, the height of water in the reservoir increases and the risk of dam damage, caused by the lack of spillway ability of great flow discharge, increases. Anti-vortex piers are used to solve this problem. The increase of the submergence threshold can provide ability of greater flow discharging, without spillway submergence and its negative consequences. Anti-vortex piers, in addition to correcting circulation and vortexes, may also be effective in increasing the submergence threshold. To investigate this possibility, 110 experiments were performed with the physical model on spillways with square and circular inlet section in different modes and number of anti-vortex piers. Results show that increasing number of Anti-vortex piers increases the submergence threshold and spillway can discharge greater inflow and height of water without being submerged. The effect of the overflow of the circle shape, because currents and vortexes spinning in a circle overflow is higher than square spillway. Also the maximum discharge coefficient was observed when 4 vortex breakers were installed at the angle of 90 degrees.

Estimation of Water Balance in watersheds led to west-south frontiers and Persian Gulf by Semi Distributed SWAT Model

M. Hosseini

In the last decades, climate change and fluctuation of water balance have been the main reason to apply hydrologic models for estimating quality and quantity of water components as efficient tools in water planning of critical conditions. In addition, these hydrologic models with potential to study the effects of watershed management practices on the runoff components are suitable tools for optimization of watershed operations at present and future. In this research Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT) model has been applied to estimate groundwater runoff for 6 provinces such as Eilam (Golgol Catchment), Boushehr (Baghan Catchment), Khozestan (Morghab Catchment), Fars (Shekastian Catchment), Kohkiloyeh & Boyer Ahmad(Tange Birim Catchment) and Hormozgan (Daragah Catchment) which are located in south and south west of Iran. In order to evaluate the performance of the model, hydrological data, soil, land use and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) entered for each catchment to run the SWAT model. SWAT-CUP with SUFI2 program was used for simulation, uncertainty and validation with 95ppu. P-factor and R-factor are two internal evaluation factors in SUFI2 program and indicators such as the coefficient of determination (R²) and Nash- Sutcliffe (NS) were used for evaluation of the model. The Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients in six mentioned catchments for calibration period are 0.66, 0.73, 0.40, 0.32, 0.53 and 0.78. They are 0.49, 0.48, 0.42, 0.45, 0.46 and 0.62 for validation period, respectively. Model calibration and validation results showed good performance in estimating the water balance of the basins studied. Except for Shecastian catchment, the evaluation results showed acceptable and favorable results for water balance in the study area.