JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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A number of halophytic species as Salicornia europea, Halocnemum strobilaceum, Aeluropus lagopoides, and Aeluropus littoralis were found to occupy a significant portion of the total vegetation of the surrounding area at the Zayande-Roud inlet to Gavkhoony wetland. However, their ecological demands and bioenvironmental factors by which vegetation community composition has been affected is not undestood. A compehensive knowledge of the establishment is essential for future improvements in using the above species on salanized regions. In this paper, using the ordination method. The establishment pattern of  these four species in a range of varied habitats is evaluated based on the recongition of the relative  significance of habitat soil chemical properties and vegetion crown cover to the establishment of the four species. For this purpose, 48 plants meansurements were taken along a transect, having more species variation in term of vegetation cover percentage. Furthermore, 48 soil samples were taken from the plot along the same transect in a one-year period in 1999. The soil samples were analysed for PH, EC, available Na, K, Ca and Mg as well as clay, and silt contents. The ground and field vegetation data were analysed using the Principlas Components Analysis (PCA), and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) to produce summary vectors (PCA axes) of both the soil chemistry and habitat vegetation structure datasets. The summary of ordination method quantified the degree to which soil variables and species cover were related to variability in ground vegetation composition. variation in community composition (type and percentage) was significantly related to gradient of the aforementioned soil factors. Generally, the vegatation community composition in this experiment could be considered as a key component to expand the growth and development patterns of these species to similar salinised regions. 

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In this study, the potential use of halophyte grasses, Aleuropus littoralis and A. lagopoides, on soil desalinization and lowering soil salinity was investigated under glasshouse conditions. The seeds of two species were collected from Rodasht area in Isfahan and grown with four salinity treatments obtained from different types of collected soils and replicated three times. Electrical conductivities of the four soil treatments were 12.4, 29.5, 43, and 69 dS/m. The results of mean comparison showed that shoot and root dry weight, sodium contents of dry weight and Na/K ratio were significantly different in both salinized species. Both species effectively reduced soil electrical conductivity by 23 to 42.5%. This was mainly due to ion absorbtion, and consequently, from Na⁺, Cl^-, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺ ionic reduction. In general, considerable amounts of ionic absorbtion and total soluble salt secretion through their salt glands appeared to have the most pronounced effects on decreasing soil salinity. Regarding 50% salt excretion by these species, growing these grasses could be a possible way to decrease soil salinity by grazing or harvesting salt crusted foliage from the site.

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Satellite data use is finding global applications because they provide repeated cover, broad information, high electromagnetic spectral resolution, and software-hardware compatibilities. This study aims to evaluate of the Landsat TM data capabilities in land-use mapping of Bazoft River basin (Chahar Mahale Bakhtiary Province). Six spectral bands of the Landsate TM were employed to produce land-use map of the Region. The date of image acquisition was May 5^th, 1998. Performance of the geometric correction completed with RMSE= 1.008 pixels. Various image enhacement methods (e.g. FCC, filtering and Vegetation Indices) were used to study the different land-covers. Field investigations were carried out using a GPS, 1:50000 scale topographic map and false color composites images. Heterogeneous land-use units were studied in 62 sample sites estimating percentage of vegetation cover. A regression analysis was performed between percentage vegetation covers and vegetation indices values of NDVI, RVI, SAVI, DVI, TSAVI₁, NRVI and MSAVI₂. Results show that NDVI, SAVI, TSAVI1, NRVI and MSAVI₂ have high correlation coefficients. But RVI, DVI and PVI have low correlation coefficients. The resulting values of vegetation cover were density sliced to produce the land-cover map. After supervised classifications and density slicing of Vegetation Indices, classifacation accuracy was assessed and, finally, land-use map of the study area was produced with Hybrid classification method. Supervised classification with maximum likelihood method was the best technique for land-use mapping in the study area the total Kappa index was %87. In general, detection of some land-use classes through single date TM data is not feasible, these include: scattered forest trees with cultivated understory, annual grasses, and fallow lands. Also TM digital data are incapable of distinguishing small and separated rural constructions or soil-covered routes.

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To detect the rice paddis areas in Isfahan region, the IRS-1D data from PAN, LISS III and WiFS time series were used. Geometric, atmospheric, radiometric and topographic corrections were applied to various images from 2003 to 2004. Necessary preprocessing and various analyses as well as time series composite image analyses were applied and field sampling was done for appropriate times in 2003 and 2004. Image classification was applied using suitable training sites in various images. The SWIR band capabilities were useful for NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) to detect the rice paddies. On PAN and LISS III images, urban areas, roads, agricultural lands, non cultivated farms, rocks and brackish soils are detectable. The error matrix was calculated to assess the produced map accuracy using the ground truth data. The total classification accuracy was %91 and the Kappa index value was %89. The rice paddy areas was about 19500 ha in 2003, detected through LISS III data, and 20450 ha through WiFS data. The paddies were 21670 in 2004 through WiFS data. The results of this study confirmed that one can use the LISS III data to detect and determine the rice paddys areas with high accuracy, and WiFS data to estimate the paddies areas with acceptable accuracy.

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Northern watershed of Kouhrang River with the area of 68437 hectares is located in northwestern Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiary province within 49ْ 54ً to 50ْ 9ً E longitude and 32ْ 83ً to 32ْ 36ً N latitude.Making a balance and equilibrium between the number of ranchers, the rangeland production potential and appropriate flock size in each utilization unit is a necessary task. It is a matter of importance to determine suitable ranch size based on pastoral household but suitable household livelihood as well. The main goal of this study is to determine utilization unit size based on ecologic and socioeconomic factors for each household. Along with detecting the ranch allotments, the range capacity and its productivity potential were studied. Then, based on expenses and the revenues resulting from herdship,(on ranges), the suitable flock size for fulfillment of the household expenses regarding the range utilization periods, the suitable range size per household was determined. 10 vegetation types with 0.91 AUM per hectares grazing capacity were detected in studied area. There are 46 range allotments and some parts of other 6 range allotments in studied area with average area at 1510 hectares. Average pastoral household is 36.8 per unit range allotments. Pastoral households share at rangelands is 41 hectares now. The minimum and suitable ranch area for each pastoral household which can provide annual needs and costs is 520 hectares and 142 animal unit at a mix flock at 3 to 2 ratio of sheep to goat for a 100 – dayes grazing season. The result of this study showed that production potential at each range unit is influenced by flock size, household share on farming lands, and the household numbers on each ranch unit. Ranch unit and the livelihood level, have significant influence at 5% level on suitable ranch size per household.

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LISS IV sensor's data from IRS-P6 satellite was used to produce land use map of eastern region of Isfahan, the studied part of which has an area of 22121 hectares. Its three band data, namely band 2 (Green), band 3 (Red) and band 4 (Near infra red) of LISS-IV sensor images with 5.8 m ground resolution were georeferenced by nearest neighbor method and first-order polynomial model to the DEM map of 1:25000, where the RMSE was equal to 0.3 pixel. To analyze the satellite data, various image processing methods such as supervised and unsupervised classification methods, principal component analysis, NDVI vegetation index and filtering were applied to the satellite data. Finally, the land use map was produced with hybrid method. The final map detected 6 land uses very clearly, which are: Agricultural lands, barren lands, disturbed lands, cultivated Haloxylon amodendron, roads, residential areas and industrial locations. The kappa of land use map is 0.89 and the overall precision is 0.92. The barren lands have a very poor natural vegetation and are considered as natural deserts. Disturbed lands have been formed because of brick kiln activities, and the vegetation cover of these areas has disappeared completely The LISS IV data has a high ability to detect the various studied land-uses especially to digitize the roads. They can be used to update the 1:25000 topographic maps, as well.