JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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Elm leaf beetle were reared under controlled conditions (25± 2 ^oC, 70± 5%R.H. and 16L: 8D) to determine relationship between biological traits and the number of eggs per female on different hosts and to evaluate correlation between traits. U. carpinifolia, U .c. var. umbraculifera, U. glabra var. pendula and Celtis caucasica were examined as hosts. The biological traits consisted of 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd larval developmental times first, second, and third larval percent mortality rates prepupal and pupal developmental times male and female longevity and pre-ovipositional period recorded during experiments. The relationships between traits and the number of eggs per female were determined by multiple regression (Foreward selection and stepwise). The correlation between traits was evaluated, too. The results showed that the number of eggs per female were mostly affected by certain special traits such as 2^nd and 3^rd larval developmental time, pre-ovipositional period and male longevity which are distinct in different hosts and seasons.

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One of the main criteria for salt tolerance is cell membrane stability under stress. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), activity of lipoxygenase (Lox) and lipid peroxidation are considered to be destructive to cell membrane under salt stress. In this study, the effects of 0, 75 and 150 mM NaCI, over a period of 14 days on the activity of lipoxygenease, the amount of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malon dialdehyde (MDA. as a lipid peroxidation) in the leaves of Pistacia vera L. (cv. 'Qazvini' and wild 'Sarakhs' pistachio) and 'Mastic' (P. mutica F. & M.) were studied. The results indicated that by increasing salinity Lox activity increased in the leaves of all the three rootstocks. This activity reached a climax on the 7^th day and then decreased on the 14^th day. Among the three species, Mastic reached the highest amount of the Lox activity on the 14^th day with the lowest amount of Lox reduction. The amounts of H₂O₂ in the leaves of all the three rootstocks increased, on the 14^th day the highest amount of hydrogen peroxide was found in 'Mastic' and 'Sarakhs' after treating them with 150 mM NaCl. The amounts of MDA were also reached the highest level in all three rootstocks on the 7^th and 14^th days. The results also indicated the possibility of the use of lipid peroxidation index and Lox activity for selecting salt tolerant Pistacia rootstocks. More studies are needed for understanding the biochemical changes and enzyme activities in Pistacia rootstocks under salt stress.

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To compare the relative value of the fish meal and the cottonseed meal in highly fermentable diets (40% forage and 60% concentrate with), eight cows were assigned randomly to diets with 0, 1.5, 3 and 4.5 percent of the fish meal. In the first experiment, the degradability of dry matter and crude protein of the fish meal, the cottonseed meal and concentrate in diets was estimated with different incubation times (0, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h) with fistulated Ghezel sheep fed at maintenance level. The effective degradability of dry matter and the crude protein of fish meal was significantly lower than cottonseed meal (p<0.05). In different concentrates, there was no significant difference in effective degradability of dry matter but with the increase of fish meal the effective degradability of crude protein decreased significantly. In the second experiment, the eight multiparous Holstein cows with the similar milk production (25.37 ± 0.85) were examined in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with the 21-day period. There were no significant differences between the treatments in digestibility of OM, OM and CP, the dry matter intake, 3.2 % FCM, milk fat (%), milk lactose (%), milk total solid (%), and the yield of the milk fat, feed efficiency and body weights. Diets containing fish meal, compared to the control group, significantly higher milk production, milk protein (%), the yield of milk protein and lactose (p < 0.1), but the different levels of fish meal had no significant effect on these factors. The urea pH decreased significantly with the increase of the fish meal but rumen pH and fecal pH were unaffected. The results of the experiment indicated that diets with the 1.5 or 3% fish meal in cows with less than 30 kg milk is recommended.

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Diallel analysis was used to estimate the combining ability, gene action, gene number, heritabilties and other genetic parameters of a set of wheat genotypes. For this purpose, nine parents and their 36 crosses were evaluated for 9 traits in a randomized complete block design with three replications in 1996. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among all genotypes for all traits. Estimates of general and specific combining ability mean squares based on Griffing’s Method 2 indicated the importance of additive and non additive effects in the expression of all traits. Alvand and Roshan cultivars for grain yield per plant, Alvand for grain number per main spike and main spike weight, and Alvand and Alamoot for 1000 grain weight were the best combiners, thus use of them is beneficial for these traits. Based on the estimates of average degree of dominance and results of graphical analysis, the gene action for grain number and spikeletes per main spike were partial dominance, while for grain yield per plant, biological yield, plant height, harvest index and 1000 grain weight, overdominance gene actions were observed. Moreover, genotypic correlation coefficients of grain yield per plant with grain number per main spike, 1000 grain weight, grain weight per main spike and main spike weight were positive and significant.

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Studies show that excessive rotation of rice, when the grains revolve inside the milling chamber, increase the breakage. Ease of grain movement in the milling chamber could minimize this problem by utilizing screw conveyor at the first part of rotor. In this study the rotor of a conventional milling was equipped with a screw conveyor. The effects of two rotor types (modified and conventional rotors), three output rates (412, 654 and 915 kg/h) and three blade distances from the agitator (11, 12 and 13mm) were examined on indices of rice quality using a split-split plot design. In this experiment, the percentage of whole white rice and breakage, degree of milling and milling performance index were either measured or calculated. Results showed that only the effect of blade distance on percentage of breakage was significant whereas the effect of feed rate on all measured parameters was significant. In addition, the interaction effects of rotor type and blade distance, rotor type and feed rate on percentage of whole white rice and breakage were significant, respectively. The milling performance index showed that the best conditions for both rotors can be obtained at output rate of 412kg/hr and 11or 12mm blade distance from the agitator. For this adjustment, the average of percentage of breakage in the modified and conventional rotors were 20.5 and 23, respectively.

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The influence of Nitrogen (N) rates on mineral nutrient uptake in stem and seeds, proline and carbohydrate in flag leaves of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L . Var Chamran) under saline conditions was studied in a field experiment in 2003 and 2004. The experiment was conducted using a split plot design with three replications. The treatments comprised five levels of salinity: 1.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 ds/m in main plot and three nitrogen levels: 50 , 100 and 150 kg N/ha in sub plot. Salinity treatments were applied in a clay–loam soil by water with NaCl and CaCl₂ (5:1 by wt ). The results showed, the nutrient uptake was influenced by both salinity and N treatments. With the Exception of magnesium in seed, salinity increased nitrogen, calcium and magnesium concentrations in seed and stem in both years. By increasing salinity levels, the concentration of potassium in stem and seed decreased and Sodium concentration increased. In the stem the concentration of Sodium in the 20 ds/m was about 17 and 22 times more in the first and second year, respectively. In these experiments, by increasing salinity and nitrogen treatments, proline concentration in flag leaves increased in the two stages (flowering and milky stages) in both years. Salinity had similar effect on carbohydrate accumulation in both stages, but nitrogen treatment had two different effects on carohydrate concentration. In flowering stage, by increasing nitrogen application, carohydrate concentration increased but in milky stage decreased.

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Rice whitening is an important stage in rice milling process and improvement of the whitener machines has a remarkable effect on rice loss. To decrease the amounts of broken rice and losses, the rotor of the blade whitener was equipped with screw conveyor. To investigate the effects of rotor speed (in four levels: 600, 700, 800 and 900 rpm) and output rate (in three levels: 400, 500 and 600 kg/h) on quality of milled rice, a factorial design with randomized complete block experiments with three replications were conducted. In this study, Sorkheh variety (a medium rice variety), which is one of the prevailing varieties in Esfahan, was used. The results showed that the lowest breakage percentage (20.92%) occurred at rotor speed of 700 rpm with an output rate of 600 kg/h and the best degree of milling (6.33%) took place at rotor speed of 600 rpm with an output rate of 400 kg/h. The best rice quality (low broken rice and high degree of milling) was observed at rotor speed of 600 rpm with 500 kg/h output rate.

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In order to examine the effects of plant density on the morohological traits, yield and essential oil of peppermint, an experiment was conduced in Agricultural College of Tabriz University during 2005 and 2006. The treatments included four plant density levels ( 8,12 ,16,20 plants.m-2) with three replications. The treatments were based on a split plot design in time and result analysis of compound variance was done during two years. The two years’ results of the compound variance showed that the plant density affected the fresh yield, dry yield, the bush essential oil percentage and the essential oil yield, but it had no effect on the bush height and the leaf’s essential oil percentage. In the second year, the maximum fresh yield, dry yield, bush height, the bush essential oil percentage, and the essential oil yield were obtained. In the second year, the maximum essential oil yield in the density of 20 plant/m² was 21.15 li.ha-1.

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In this study the effects of irrigation with raw or diluted municipal effluents along with foliar micro-nutrients fertilizer spray were examined on the growth, yield and mineral nutrient in foxtail millet plants. The experimental design was a split-plot with three irrigation sources (namely raw sewage, 50% diluted sewage and well water) as main-treatment and four combinations of Mn and Zn foliar spraying as sub-treatments, which were applied with three replications. The experiment was conducted at the Zabol University research farm during 2009. The applied municipal effluents contained higher levels of macro and micro-nutrients than the well water. The experimental results indicated that irrigation of plants by raw or diluted sewage improved the measured growth parameters and productivity of foxtail millet plants. In addition macro and micro-nutrients concentrations were improved. These improvements were attributed to the presence of high levels of essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matters in wastewater. Manganese and Zn supplied through sewage water alone were not able to raise the productivity of millet to the level obtained through fertilizers at the recommended level, which indicated that additional nutrients through fertilizers are required to obtain higher productivity of millet under sewage farming. Despite the differences in nutrients concentration among different irrigation water sources, the micro-nutrients foliar spray did not affect concentration of macro and micro-nutrients in foxtail millet plant. Overall, the results suggest that municipal sewage could be efficiently utilized as an important source of water and nutrients in growing foxtail millet Sewage water irrigation did not have any appreciable harmful effect on crop productivity.

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In order to describe soils polluted with hydrocarbons, the amount and distribution pattern of soil heavy metals (Ni, Cd) in soils were studied. Soil samples were taken from one of the western oil field of Iran. The field was naturally exposed to crude oil spillage into soil and consequently was environmentally polluted during the development, production, transportation and storage of crude oil. Sampling was started near the oil wells with maximum relative contamination and continued to the remote places based on grid sampling pattern. Samples were characterized by physicochemical analysis. The results revealed different levels of total hydrocarbons (from 0.12 to 2.99 mg/kg of dry soil), Ni (from 32 to 136 mg/kg. of dry soil) and Cd (from 0 to 4mg/kg of dry soil). In addition, the role of soil agents such as pH and EC and sedimentary indexes was considerable in controlling the pollution trend in the studied area. Finally, by interpolation module and prediction of unknown values via Kriging techniques, the expansion plans were created. The extracted plans obviously illustrated the decrease in the levels of pollution indexes with the increase in distance from the given centers of pollution

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In order to monitor the changing water table in the field, determination of the main sampling points is very important to reduce sites and save time and cost. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is one of the data reduction techniques used to extract the important components that explain the variance of a system. In this paper, the PCA was used to identify the effective wells of Qheidar Aqufer, Zanjan, to determine the groundwater level and remove the less important ones. From the study region which an area of about 920 km2, 48 wells (sites) were investigated. Using PCA, the relative importance of each well was calculated between 0 (for completely ineffective well) to 1 (for the very effective wells). The study showed the elimination of wells whose relative importance was less than 0.5 (i.e. half the total number of wells), coefficient of variation of groundwater level relative to the use of all wells did not greatly increase, and the error to determine the level of groundwater was less than 13 percent.

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efficiency was investigated during a 2-year period (2009-2010) in a silty clay loam soil in Tajarak Research Station (Kaboudarahang Township), Hamedan. The experimental design was a strip-plot within a randomized complete blocks design. The horizontal band, the irrigation water rate after flowering, included full and deficit irrigation (100% and 75% potato water requirement) and the vertical band, kind of inter-planting row tillage including 1- subsoiling to 30-35 cm soil depth, 2- chiseling to 20-25 cm soil depth, 3- sweeping to 5 cm soil depth and 4- no-till. During the growing season, soil mechanical resistance (cone index) in two stages and water infiltration into the soil were measured. At the end of the growth season (harvesting time), potato yield quantity and quality were measured. Result showed that the effect of inter-row tillage on soil mechanical resistance was significant. Subsoiling and chiseling had lower soil mechanical resistance and higher water permeability between treatments, respectively. The effect of inter-row tillage on potato yield was significant so subsoiling and chiseling had a higher potato yield between treatments, respectively. The effect of irrigation water rate on potato yield was not significant. The effect of inter-row tillage on water use efficiency wasn’t significant.

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Technosols are modified soils affected by human activities. This study investigated genesis, classification and physicochemical properties of four pedons of Technosols developed on refused oil refinery materials and compared them with two unpolluted pedons. Mineralogical studies showed smectite as a dominant clay mineral with other clay minerals. These clay minerals adsorb oil compounds in their interlayer spaces and reduce their mobility and decomposition. Different micromorphological features resulting from oil compounds in soils, including depletion zones, types of coatings (quasi and hypocoating) and features due to horizontal and vertical movement of oil compound in soil showed dynamics of oil compounds and their effects on soil forming process. The refused petroleum compounds decrease pH and increase organic carbon, amorphous form of Iron in soils. Taking into account the presence of high amounts of gypsum and carbonate in polluted soil, the studied soils were classified as Typic Calcigypsids in Soil Taxonomy but in WRB system, due to the presence of impermeable geomembrane within 100 cm of soil surface, they were classified as Linic Technosols, showing the more precision of WRB system in their classification. 

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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).

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