JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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A karyotypic study was performed on seven species of Hordeum Genus including, H. vulgare, H. spontaneum, H. glaucum, H. distichon, H. geniculatum , H. bulbosum and H. violaceum. According to the cytological studies in the laboratory, chromosome numbers and ploidy levels of species were identified. Chromosome analysese including the length of each chromosome, long and short arms length and long - short arm ratio were also done. For each species, the karyotype as an ideogram was drawn. The results showed that H. geniculatum, H. bulbosum, and H. violaceum were tetraploid (2n=4x=28) and the other species were diploid (2n=2x=14). Chromosomal study of H. geniculatum and H. distichon is reported for the first time from Iran. Karyotypic formula showed that the diploid species were 7m and tetraploid were 12m +2sm. According to the karyotypic symmetry, all species were in the 1A class. Using the S%, TF%, D.R.L., T.V. and X parameters, karyotypic symmetry of species was analyzed and determined.

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Drought stress is one of the major limiting factors of crop yield. A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of drought stress on yield and yield components of nine bread wheat and one durum wheat genotypes during 2003-2004 growing season. The experiment was designed as two separate randomized complete blocks design with three replicates under well-watered and unwatered conditions during the post-anthesis period. Post-anthesis drought stress reduced the grain yield and yield components in all genotypes. Mean of each trait significantly(p≤%5) decreased under drought stress conditions, except for spikeletes number per spike and ear number per square meter. The highest yield loss was caused by the grain number per ear and 1000- grain weight reduction under drought stress conditions.“Gahar” genotype had the highest grain yield (4149 kg/ha) under drought stress conditions, whereas the highest grain yield (6674 kg/ha) was obtained for “Nikenejad” genotype under optimum conditions. Based on stress susceptibility index, “Koohdasht” and “Boholh-15” genotypes showed the lowest and the highest yield loss in response to drought stress, respectively. Correlation analysis of yield and yield components indicated that, under drought stress conditions, ear number per square meter (r=0.751) and biological yield (r=0.707) had the highest correlation with the grain yield(p≤%5), whereas these traits were grains number per ear(r=0.864) and biological yield (r=0.848) for the well-watered conditions. Therefore, it might be possible to select genotypes for greater grain yield with the means of the traits which have the highest correlation coeficient with the grain yield under each moisture regime. Generally, it appeared that “Gahar”and “Nikenejad” genotypes with greater yield potential might be recommended for agronomic conditions similar to the present investigation.

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A total of 25 advanced rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) varieties were evaluated under cold weather conditions using Randomized Complete Block design (RCBD) with four replications in Dr. Nakhjavani Agricultural Research Station, 35 km North-East of Urmia the capital of West Azerbaijan province in 2000-2001. The results showed significant differences among the varieties (P ≥ 0.01) for all the phenological stages including days to germination, days to rosette completion, days to initiation of stem elongation, days to flowering initiation, pod formation stage and days to maturity. The spring varieties Sarigol (PF7045/91), Hyola 42 and SYN1 and autumnal varieties Alice, Eurol, Fornax, VDH 8003-98, Consul, Licord and Zarfam (Regent× Cobra), showed early maturity. On the other hand, Mohican, Olara, Colvert, L-1 and Akamar were late mature varieties. In fact, the most prolific varieties, DP.94.8, Zarfam (Regent ×Cobra) Cocktail, Consul and SLM046 (control variety) had the highest ability survive in the cold conditions and they completed their rosette stage sooner than the other varieties. There was positive and significant correlation between duration of pod formation stage and seed yield. Maturity date of varieties was positively and significantly correlated with harvest index, number of seed per pod, days to germination, days to rosette completion, days to stem elongation, days to flowering, and days to pod formation. Negative and significant correlations were found between days to maturity and duration of flowering and pod formation stages. It can be concluded that delay in initiation or completion of each growth stages could delay maturity of the rapeseed varieties.

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Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) can have an important role in vegetable oil production. Also, appropriate soil fertility is necessary to obtaine higher seed yield and quality of the crop. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of fertilizer treatments of macro and micronutrients on seed yield and other agronomic traits in sunflower. The effects of thirteen fertilizer treatemts (as main factor) were investigated on agronomoic traits of two hybrid cultivars, "HiSun33" and "Euroflor" (as sub factor) in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that there was significant interaction between fertilizer treatments and cultivars for most of the traits and the effects of fertilizer treatments were dependent on the cultivar. Almost all of the fertilizer treatments of N, P, K, Fe, Zn and Mn either significantly or non-significantly decreased the means of head diameter, 1000-seed weight, seed yield/plant, seed yield and oil yield in Euroflor cultivar however, in HiSun33 cultivar, each of N, P, and K fertilizers had no significant effect on seed yield. Application of Zn and Mn fertilizer in soil or spraying them on plants had no significant effect on seed yield and yield components in HiSun33 cultivar however, application of Fe feritilizer (Sequestrene) significantly increased the seed yield of this cultivar and had no significant effect on its seed oil. In HiSun33, seed yield and oil content for treatments of control, NPK and NPK+Fe were 4946, 5155 and 7090 kg/ha and 40.72, 43.10 and 43.07 %, respectively. The effects of fertilizer treatments on oil concentration of seed were not significant, thus the variation of oil yield was due to the seed yield. The correlation coefficients and regression analysis showed that seed weight and head diameter were most important seed yield components,. In general, it seems that in a soil conditions like that of this experiment, Fe fertilizer can increase seed and oil yield in HiSun33 cultivar.

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Isolating and cloning of plant protease inhibitor (PIs) genes and transforming them to the genome of other plants have paved the way for producing resistant transgenic plants against pests. Knowing that cystatins act as inhibitor factor against cysteine protease, short and long cystatin genes were isolated from maize mRNA. By using specific primers, cDNA of these genes were constructed and cloned in pUC19 and pGEX 2T plasmid vectors. The recombinant plasmid vectors were then transformed to E. coli (strain DH5 α) competent cells using electroporation. The competent cells harboring the clones were grown in suitable medium and cystatin proteins fused to Glutation-S-transferase (GST) were purified by glutation agarose bead filter. In each step of the procedure the presence of cystatin genes were confirmed through electrophoresis. Further evaluation proved the inhibitory effect and a mild stability of at least one of the corn cystatin (CC II) when incubated with cysteine protease.

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Cucumber cultivars, grown in greenhouse in the Jiroft region, were surveyed for the relative incidence of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), Watermelon mosaic virus-2 (WMV-2), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) from 2001 to 2004. Samples from 1294 plants representing different cultivars were analysed by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Dot immunobinding assay (DIBA). The data showed that green-house cucumbers are infected by CMV, ZYMV, TSWV and WMV-2. However, ZYMV was the most prevalent virus. Mixed infection including double and triple infection was identified in some samples. Transmission of aphid-borne viruses (CMV, ZYMV and WMV-2) by Aphis gossypii, A. fabae, A. craccivora and Myzus persicae revealed that ZYMV is most efficiently vectored by these aphids and, A. craccivora transmitted these viruses with more than 60% efficiency. In addition, WMV-2 was not transmitted by A. gossypii. In RT-PCR, ZYMV infection was confirmed by amplifying a PCR product of the predicated size 458 bp, using total RNA extracted from infected plants. All ZYMV infected samples reacted with monoclonal antibodies (705-1, 705-2 and 705-4) in TAS-ELISA test. These results showed that ZYMV isolate collected from Jiroft belongs to group A, cluster 1 or 2. In electron microscopy study, normal length of ZYMV flexuous particles in partial purified preparation was calculated as 790 nm. The molecular weight of coat protein of ZYMV was estimated at 36 KDa., using SDS-PAGE and western blotting. This is the first report of these viruses in greenhouse grown cucumber in the Jiroft region.

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A total of 25,471 Iranian Holstein heifers distributed in 523 herds of 20 provinces were used to estimate heritability, genetic and phenotypic associations between a number of traits related to the production and reproduction performance. The Animal Breeding Centre of Iran collected the records studied in this research between 1991 and 2001. The traits associated with production were 305-day, 2x adjusted milk, fat yields and fat percentage and the traits associated with reproduction were age at first calving, number of services per conception, gestation period, calving interval as well as dry days as a separate trait. The heritability estimates were 0.31, 0.23, 0.31, 0.14, 0.03, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.01 for 305-day, 2x milk, fat yields, fat percentage, age at first calving, dry days, calving interval, gestation period and the number of services per conception, respectively. Milk yield was genetically correlated with age at the first calving (-0.14), dry days (-0.31), calving interval (0.54), gestation period (0.01) and the number of insemination per conception (0.38). Fat yield had negative genetic correlations with age at first calving (-0.16), dry days (-0.23) while it was positively correlated with calving interval (0.44), gestation period (0.11) and the number of insemination per conception (0.20). Age at the first calving, dry days and gestation period had a positive genetic correlation with fat percenateg (0.03, 0.15 and 0.09 respectively) while calving interval and the number of insemination per conception were negatively correlated with fat percentage (-0.21 and -0.25 respectively).

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A feeding trail was conducted to evaluate the effects of diets contaminated with Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) on the performance and blood enzymes of broiler chickens. In a randomized complete-block design with 4 blocks and 4 treatments, 112 day-old male broiler chicks were divided into 16 groups, 7 chicks per. Treatments consisted of three levels of AFB1 in starter diet (0.4, 0.8, and 1.2 ppm) along with a control group (no AFB1). Feed intake and body weight gain were recorded on a weekly basis. On days 7, 14, 21, and 28, one bird from each replicate was weighed, and killed to collect the blood samples, and to weigh its proventriculus, gizzard, duodenum and pancreas, heart, liver, spleen, bursa of fabricius, and brain. Feeding AFB1 significantly decreased feed intake and body weight gain and increased relative weight of liver (p<0.05). Relative weight of brain decreased on day 7 and then showed a significant increase by day 28 (p<0.05). AFB1 significantly (P<0.05) increased serum activity of aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alanine amino transferase (ALT) and decreased serum activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzymes. Generally, this study demonstrated that, alongside other negative effects, AFB1 could also have adverse effect on the brain of broilers.

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The effect of dietary protein level and feed restriction on performance, body temperature and hematological values was evaluated, using Ross 308 broiler chicks under heat stress. For this purpose, three dietary treatments were fed to broilers during 21 to 42 days of age. Two treatments consisted of diets with protein levels recommended by NRC, 1994 and 85% of NRC recommendation and were fed ad-lib during the experiment. The third treatment was a feed restriction group that was fed diet with protein level recommended by NRC, but chicks were deprived of feed for 6 hours during heat stress challenge. Birds had free access to water. Results indicated that lowering protein content or feed restriction had no significant effect on body weight gain (P>0.05). Feed restriction resulted in significantly decreased feed intake, improved feed conversion and energy efficiency ratio, and decreased body temperature after heat stress challenge at 24 and 32 days (P<0.05). Lowering protein of diet and feed restriction resulted in significantly decreased protein intake, improved protein efficiency ratio and increased hematocrit and blood uric acid (P<0.05). Sex had no significant effect on body temperature and hematological values (P>0.05). Heat stress significantly increased body temperature, hematocrit and glucose and uric acid values.

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The endogenous selection and determination of return reference level is important in specifying risk efficient set. Thus, using multi-objective programming, Target–MOTAD in the framework of Mean-PAD and maximin parametric analysis models was established to obtained reference level of return endogenously. To determine non–inferior set for the farmers understudy, at first, the pay-off matrix was obtained through maximizing objectives under consideration. Then, upper and lower bounds of non-inferior set were determined using non- inferior set estimation (NISE) technique. The results obtained from maximin model indicated that Min and Max of maximin model were 270252 and 217753 thousands Rials, respectively. Furthermore, a subset of non-inferior set was obtained using different return reference levels. Comparing the results of model and the current farmers' plan showed that the current acreage of crops, except for sugar beet was approximately placed in the range determined by the model. In addition, the results also indicated that farmers' plan could be a non- inferior set. Considering the importance and also scarcity of water in the study area, average water return in the farmers' plan was compared to non-inferior set which included all the upper and lower non-inferior set. The results showed that farmers obtained 18150 Rials per hours of used water. However, average water return changed the range of 19100 to 30200 Rials for non-inferior set, indicating that farmers are able to use water more efficiently. The results also showed that changing farmers' cropping pattern is a complicated task and that it is necessary to have a systematic view in ordere to achieve desirable change.

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the strategies for groundwater resources management, including competition groundwater pumping, optimal control in groundwater pumping, groundwater use and tax policy, water users' participation in groundwater pumping control, and cooperation among government and water user associations in Narimany plain located in Khorasan Province. Irrigation water demand of sugar beet growers was estimated for empirical assessment of the strategies. The results indicated that among the strategies, groundwater use and tax policy may lead growers to sustainable use of groundwater resources. Furthermore, the results showed a desirable strategy is affected by cultural, social, and economic characteristics of growers and general prevalent conditions of society. Moreover, each strategy calls for its obligations, for instance, it is necessary to have an efficient taxation system for the proposed strategy. Hence, by internalizing the external cost of groundwater overdraft (that is taxing water users) government can force them to consider the adverse effects of their decisions on other producers.

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In this study wholesale prices of selected crops, namely, tomato, onion and potatoes in Fars province were predicted for various time horizons by using common methods of forecasting and artificial neural networks (ANN). Monthly data from September 1998 to June 2005 period were obtained from Ministry of Jihad-e Agriculture. For comparing different methods data selected from September 1998 to December 2004 were utilized, and latest six - month data were mainly used to monitor the power of prediction. The MAE, MSE and MAPE criteria were used for comparing the ability of different forecasting methods. Results of this study showed that ANN had the lowest error in prediction of prices for one - to three - month periods, but for six - month prediction, all forecasting methods were not statistically different.

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Improper use of natural resources, especially soil, causes its degradation and severe soil erosion. Water erosion is an important factor causing soil degradation. Land use change of pasture would result in severe soil erosion mainly due to the reduction of vegetation cover and also surface soil disturbance. The objectives of this study were to estimate the amount of sediment, runoff and nutrient loss in four different land uses including a pasture with good vegetation cover (> 20%), a pasture with poor vegetation cover (< 10%), a currently being used dryland farm and a degraded dryland farm which is not used. Soil samples were taken from the depth of 0–10 cm in a completely randomized design with four replications. A rainfall simulator was run for two hours to estimate the amount of sediment, runoff and nutrient loss. Organic matter, total N, available P and distribution of particles size in soil and sediment were measured. The results showed that a very high degradation has occurred in the area mostly due to water erosion created as a result of overgrazing in pasture, susceptibility of geological formations and more importantly, the change of land use pasture to inefficient dryland farming. Maximum and minimum runoff was observed in the abandoned dry landfarm and pasture with good vegetation cover, respectively. Maximum sediment content was observed in dryland farm. Sediment content in dryland farm, abandoned dry landfarm and pasture with poor vegetation cover were 54.5, 21 and 10.4 times more than that in the pasture with good vegetation cover, respectively. Enrichment ratio (ER) of soil particles in sediment was highest for fine silt (2-5µm), followed by clay. A minimum of ER was obtained for sand fraction. Percentages of organic matter, total N and available P in sediment were higher in the first hour as compared to the second one. This is mainly due to the fact that fine particles are removed at the beginnings of the rainfall event. Total removal of these chemical factors was highest in dryland, intermediate in pasture with poor vegetation cover and abandoned dryland and lowest in pasture with good vegetation cover. In general, cultivation and disturbance of the pasture in the area land have caused a great decrease in soil quality and made the surface very sensitive to erosion.

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Tractive efficiency and fuel consumption of Massey Ferguson (MF399) and John Deere (JD 4230) tractors during plowing with moldboard plow were evaluated and compared. The tests were conducted at the Experimental Station, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, in a field with sandy clay soil at average moisture content of 18% d. b. from zero to 30 cm depth. A randomized complete block design with a 4 3 factorial was used in three replications. The treatments consisted of two types of tractors, MF399 and JD 4230, each at two levels of axle load (standard and liquid ballasted) and three levels of plowing depth, shallow (15-20 cm), medium (20-25 cm) and deep (25-30 cm) using a semi-mounted 4-bottom moldboard plow. In all treatments, the tractor engine speed was set at rated rpm (2000 and 2200 for MF399 and JD 4230, respectively) and forward speed was kept constant at about 4.5±5 km/hr. The measured and calculated parameters included: drawbar pull, rolling resistance, wheel slip, tractive efficiency and fuel consumption. The results indicated that tractive efficiency of MF 399 in deep plowing increased from 36.5% to 53% with ballasting the drive wheels, even though the improved traction was not comparable to that of JD 4230 (64%) at the same plowing depth. However, at ballasted condition it is comparable to JD 4230 at shallow and medium depth plowing due to its lower fuel consumption. Using ballasted JD 4230 for shallow depth plowing is not economically justified due to the excessive fuel consumption and may cause soil compaction due to the lower than optimum wheel slippage. Generally, using MF399 is recommended for lower draft and JD 4230 for higher draft tillage operations. Otherwise, MF399 will encounter severe reduction in tractive efficiency and excessive increase in fuel consumption and JD 4230 will cause soil compaction.

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Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata Schott cv. Bostoniensis) is an ornamental foliage plant considered today as one of the most marketable indoor pot plants. Due to the restriction of conventional propagation methods, mass propagation of this plant has increased through in vitro culture techniques. In the present study an attempt has been made to achieve the best medium for runner tip culture of Nephrolepis. At first, runner tips were disinfected by using 15% commercial bleach (5.25 % sodium hypochlorite) for 15 minutes. After that, explants were inoculated on 12 different initiation media using two concentrations of Murashige and Skoog (MS) mineral salts (1/2 MS and 1/4 MS), two concentrations of sucrose (20 or 30 g/l) and three concentrations of benzyladenine (BA), (2, 1 and 0.5 mg/l). The experiments were conducted in factorial arrangements in a completely randomized design with 4 replications. The number and height of shoots were measured after 6 weeks. During the experiment period, quality characters and time of leaf perimordia emergence and green globular body (GGB) formation were measured. The highest number of shoots with low height was achieved in media consisting half concentrations of MS mineral salts, 30 or 20 g/l sucrose and 1 or 2 mg/l BA. GGB formation also occured on media consisting 1 and 2 mg/l BA at all treatments. Microscopic investigations of GGB showed that they contain adventitious buds. Medium, containing ½ MS, 20 g/l sucrose and 1 mg/l BA was found to be the best.

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Understanding the nitrogen remobilization by plant, in order to obtain cultivars with higher quality, has specific importance in plant physiology. In this experiment, a bread and a durum wheat cultivar, were treated with different rates and times of nitrogen application, by using split factorial on the basis of randomized complete block design with three replications at Shiraz region during 2001-2002. Main plots consisted of two levels of cultivars ( Falat and Yavaros) and sub plots included nitrogen (40, 80 and 160 (kg ha^-1) and times of nitrogen application (T1= all N fertilizer at planting , T2= 1/2 at planting + 1/2 during stem elongation and T3= 1/3 at planting + 1/3 during stem elongation + 1/3 at heading stage). The results showed that there was a significant difference between cultivars in flag leaf nitrogen content at maturity stage, N remobilization and its efficiency from flag leaf to grains and also grain protein percentage. Durum wheat was more efficient in nitrogen remobilization and therefore, had a higher grain protein percentage. Increase in rates and times of nitrogen application had significant effect on most of the measured traits. There were significant interactions between cultivars, rates and times of N application, indicating that durum wheat was more efficient in N remobilization from flag leaf to the grain. It appeared that N remobilization efficiency was the important factor affecting the grain protein percentage. Also increases in yield are associated with corresponding decreases in wheat protein.

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Half diallel crosses of nine Iranian wheat cultivars were used to estimate the general and specific combining ability effects and other genetic parameters related to yield and its components. Parents with F2 generations were evaluated at Research Farm, College of Agriculture, University of Shahrekord, in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Partitioning of genotypes mean squares to GCA and SCA mean squares based on Griffing’s method 2 and mixed model indicated high significant differences among cultivars in their GCA values for all traits. There were significant differences among crosses in their SCA values for all traits except for flag leaf length, main spike length, plant height and grain yield per plant. The high ratio of GCA to SCA mean squares implied the importance of additive gene effects in the appearance of flag leaf length , main spike length, plant height and grain yield per plant. For flag leaf width, grain number per main spike and peduncle length , the contributions of additive gene effects and for peduncle weight, the contributions of non- additive gene effects were higher. According to the estimates of average degree of dominance, the gene actions for flag leaf length, flag leaf width, plant height, grain yield per plant, main spike length, peduncle length and peduncle weight were partial dominance. The GCA effects indicated that Sefid – Aliabad cultivar was the suitable general combiner for flag leaf length , flag leaf width, plant height , grain yield per plant , main spike length and peduncle length.

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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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Sesame is an annual self-pollinated plant with a high seed oil and protein content. It is considered as an oilseed plant for human consumption. For a breeding purpore, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of seed total protein of different sesame varieties (Oltan, Zoodras , Yekta , Hendi , Varamin , Chini , Karaj 1 , Moghan local,Nazok tak sakheh and Nazok chand shakheh) were evaluated. Protein extracts were analysed using Kejeldal and gel electrophoresis methods. Total average of 24.02% was observed for seed protein content of all varieties. Analysis of varieties revealed a significant variation at (p < 0.01) between varieties. The profile of seed storage proteins had a relative mobility from 0.20 to 0.94. The observed bands varied in intensity and scattered in three zones of the gel . All bands were monomorphic and no variation was observed between the varieties. It was concluded that this characteristic does not carry the necessary value for breeding purposes.

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Fire blight caused by Erwinia amylovora, is a serious disease of pome fruits in many areas in the world which causes evaluative necrosis. Indeed, E. amylovora can invade the whole tree solely by internal progression through the host tissues. In this research, symptoms of necrotic shoots and exudates production on infected pear trees in different areas of Guilan province (Astaneh Ashrafieh, Lahijan and Kiashahr) were surveyed. Samples were taken from infected tissues of diseased trees. For isolation of bacterial causal agent, the infected tissues were crushed in pepton water, then 100µl of the extracts were cultured on Sucrose Nutrient Agar (SNA) and Luria Berthani (LB) containing Cyclohexamid antibiotic (50 µg / ml). The isolated bacteria were rod-shaped , gram negative and facultatively an-aerobic. The bacteria produced Levan on media including sucrose , but could not produce fluorescent pigments on King’s B medium. All strains made hypersensitive reaction on tobacco leaves. All isolates were oxidase , nitrate, urease and indole negative and were not able to rot potato tuber slices, produce H₂S and grow in 36 °C. The isolates could use citrate, acetoin, sorbitol and trehalose and their gelatin test was positive. Based on morphological, biochemical, physiological characteristics and production of a 937 bp with specific primer Ea1 and Ea2 in PCR method, the strains were identified as E. amylovora. This is the first report of the existence of this bacterium on pear fruit trees in Guilan province.