JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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To investigate spatial variability of soil characteristics in the most valuble forest stands in the northern Iran using geostatistical approach, a twenty hectare area in Experimental Forest Station of Tarbiat Modares University was considered. Soil samples were taken from pits, mounds, canopy gaps, under single trees and closed canopy positions at 0 - 15, 15 - 30 and 30 - 45 cm depths using core soil sampler (81cm2 cross section). pH and organic matter were measured in the laboratory, and then carbons to nitrogen ratio and carbon sequestration were calculated. Spatial variability for soil characteristics revealed anisotropic variogram due to the same variability of surface variogram in different depths. pH in all the depths and carbon sequestration in 30 - 45cm depth showed exponential model whereas the other soil characteristics resulted in a linear model in different layers. The results of spatial structure showed pH with medium structure in all the depths, organic matter and carbon to nitrogen ratio with pure nugget effect (non structure), carbon sequestration in 0 - 30cm depth with weak structure and 30 - 45cm depth with medium spatial structure.

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Knowing about the way water is distributed in the soil is essential for designing and managing the Subsurface Drip Irrigation systems (SDI). Since carrying out experiments to recognize the form of moisture distribution in the soil is too complicated and time-consuming, using numerical simulations can be an efficient, effective substitute method to design these systems. One of these models is HYDRUS-2D, which is able to simulate the movement of water, heat and solute in saturated and unsaturated conditions in soil. This research aims to figure out the extent to which the HYDRUS-2D model is able to estimate wetting pattern in soil around a dripper. The simulations’ findings were compared to the data gathered from the field, including SDI system in different irrigation times, and 72 hours after irrigation. Moreover, the rates of error were measured for all points and distances from the dripper in all times of irrigation and also beyond that. The results indicated that the model can simulate the changes, trend similar to what happened in the soil profile. However, it estimated the rate of soil moisture with higher errors in those points in which the wetting took place, with the maximum error rate being RMSE= 0.05 per every 1.5 hours after irrigation starting point in the depth of 30 centimeters where dripper is placed. Also, with an increase in the irrigation time, and soil moisture evening which resulted from redistribution of moisture, the model resulted in better estimations. 72 hours after finishing the irrigation, the estimates were closer to real figures with an average error estimate of RMSE= 0.002.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate cadmium adsorption through Freundlich and Langmuir equations in sediments of Karun River in three hydrometric stations (5th Ahvaz Bridge, Darkhovin and Khorramshahr) in the low-water and high-water seasons. Fitting of data from experiments on cadmium absorption to Freundlich and Langmuir equation showed they are compatible. According to the conducted experiments, there was a significant difference at 0.01 levels between b coefficient of Langmuir equation with the organic matter percentage and the clay content in both Low and high water seasons, while there was no significant difference between k coefficient of Langmuir equation with the organic matter percentage and the clay content for the two seasons. The results also suggested that there is a significant relationship between Kf of Freundlich equation with the organic matter percentage and clay content, at significant levels of 0.05 and 0.01 for the organic matter percentage and the clay content, respectively. Comparison of the means of low and high water seasons revealed that there is no significant relationship between Langmuir coefficients, whereas in Freundlich equation, a significant difference at 0.01 level was observed between kf coefficients. Generally, the obtained results indicated that cadmium adsorption by sediments in low-water season is higher than high-water season. Also, cadmium adsorption by the 5th Ahvaz Bridge sediments due to the sandy texture was less than those adsorbed by both Darkhovin and Khorramshahr sediments.

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Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is one of the important indices in soil fertility. Direct measurement of CEC is time consuming and expensive, especially in aridisols containing high amounts of carbonates and gypsum. Alternatively, CEC could be indirectly predicted through pedotransfer functions (PTF). The objective of this study was to predict CEC using class and continuous PTFs.A data set (n = 977) was classified according to the soil textural class and was used to derive the PTFs. Another independent set (n = 173) was used to test the reliability of the PTFs. The root mean of square error (RMSE), mean error (ME) and index of agreement (d) were applied to evaluate the PTFs. Within every textural class, we furthermore evaluated the relative improvement (RI) of the continuous PTFs over the corresponding class PTF. The continuous PTFs were more accurate than class PTFs for finer textural classes while the former showed higher reliability in coarser textural classes. With an increase in relative particle size, prediction bias of class PTFs decreased RMSE was 8.55 and 3.88 in clay and sandy loam textural classes, respectively. Consequently, according to the results obtained in this study, for the prediction of soil CEC, continuous PTFs are suggested to be used for silty loam and finer textural classes while for loam and coarser classes application of class PTFs is preferred.

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Effects of five various tillage systems on soil porosity, volumetric water content, diurnal and nocturnal soil temperatures, plant water uptake and dry matter yield was investigated using a completely randomized design with five treatments and four replications in Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources research farm located in Seyed-Miran during 2009-2010 growing season. Tillage systems were: moldboard plough followed by one discing (20-25 cm) rototiller (12-17 cm) double disc (8-10 cm) Chisel plow (25-30 cm) No-tillage. Results show that during all stages of wheat growth, the highest and the lowest soil porosities at 0-8 cm depth were obtained by moldboard plough and No-tillage treatments respectively. For all stages except before tillering and harvest, the highest soil porosity obtained by moldboard treatment at 8-16 cm depth. Increasing tillage intensity increased those porosity that keep water in potentials greater than -5 and those in potentials less than -15 bar. No-tillage and moldboard induced the highest and the lowest soil temperatures respectively before earring stage. Tillage intensification, increased soil porosity and root density. More roots reduced soil water content in response to increased water uptake by wheat, resulting greater dry matter accumulation.

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The combined system of gate and weir is used for flow measurement in open channels. But in case the passing water has floating material and sediment it damages their performance and hence error of measurement will increase. In order to solve this problem, weir and gate can be combined and a concentrated hydraulic system known as weir-gate can be developed, thus allowing sediments transportation from under the gate and floating particles on weir. The principal goal of this study was to investigate the passing flow characteristics by trapezoidal weir and sharp-edge rectangular sluice gate in rectangular channel, and also suggest a discharge coefficient for combinational flow in different flow conditions. The experiments were carried out in laboratory channel on models with different geometric dimensions under various hydraulic conditions. Discharge coefficient was presented for various condition of passing flow of trapezoidal sharp-edge weir and below rectangular sluice gate using statistical analysis conducted on dimensionless geometric parameters affecting the flow. Resulting discharge coefficients were in agreement with laboratory results.

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In order to investigate the effect of pest and water stresses on different growing stages of cowpea (Vigna sinensis) and pest occurrence, an experiment was conducted in Khazaneh Research station of Isfahan University of Technology. The experiment was carried out in a factorial complete randomized block design, in two different farms, with and without insecticide application. The treatments included severe water stress (50% water requirement), moderate water stress (75% water requirement) in four stages of cowpea growth, the first stage (from seed germination until flower in, second stage (from flowering until pod-filling), third stage (from pod-filling until harvesting) and the whole period of cowpea growth, in three replications. There was a control treatment in each farm with no stress in the whole period of cowpea growth, in three replications. The results showed that water stress had no significant effect on percentage of protein and mineral material. Result also showed that water stress had a significant effect (P≤ 0.01) on population of insects. Water stress significantly (P≤ 0.01) reduced the population of nymphs and adults of Empoasca decipiens Paoli and leaf minor damages, but water stress increased population of Thrips tabaci Lind. Considering the duration of first stage of growth (63 days), it is concluded that this stage had less sensitivity to water stress than the other stages. In regions, where farmers encounter water shortage for cowpea planting, the best performance can be obtained when moderate water stress (75% water requirement) is applied at the first stage of growth.

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Cohesive sediments have large specific surfaces which enable them to absorb other cohesive sediments and polar particles such as mud and sodium. Floccules form by joining these particles. The behavior of cohesive sediments in aquatic environments is completely different from that of granular sediments. Under certain value of shear stress, the structure formed from cohesive sediments is divided into smaller particles, which can be eroded easily. Up to now, researchers have proposed empirical formulas which correlate the rate of erosion to the bed shear stress and the rheological characteristics of cohesive sediments. In this study, the calibration and verification tests are performed on Mike21 software to attain the results more adjusted with the experimental data. Afterwards, the data are developed by the model and converted to the dimensionless form. Finally, an exponential function is proposed for the erosion rate in cohesive sediments. It is found that the coefficient of determination is 0.99

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Soil is one of the most important components in forests and distinguishing soil types and soil capability are first steps in forest management. The main aim of this study was to determine relationship between slope aspect and position, and chemical properties of the soil. Soil sampling was done in Tang-e-Dalab in Ilam province which is a part of southern Zagros. Samples were collected in both northern and southern slopes of oak stand (Quercus brantii). In each slope, three transects 50m apart were sampled. Overall number of samples was 60. After data normalization, the means were compared by Duncan test. Slope aspects influenced organic carbon and total nitrogen of soil. These parameters were higher in northern slope than southern one. Slope position showed a significant effect on C, N and P. Also, concentration of C, N and P were increased by moving down the position. Most amounts of C, N and P were 5.84%, 0.58% and 108.19 mg/kg in bottom, middle and bottom of northern aspect, respectively. The least amounts of C, N and P were 3.31%, 0.24% and 37.83 mg/kg in bottom, middle of southern aspect and top of northern aspect, respectively. The results of this study confirmed that nutrient concentration in northern slope was more than southern slope and nutrient concentration in soil was increased by moving downward.

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Non-linear Muskingum model is an efficient method for flood routing. However, the efficiency of this method is influenced by three applied parameters. Therefore, efficiency assessment of Imperialist Competition Algorithm (ICA) to evaluate optimum parameters of non-linear Muskingum model was addressed in this study. In addition to ICA, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) were also used to find an available criterion to verify ICA. In this regard, ICA was applied for Wilson flood routing then, routing of two flood events of DoAab Samsami River was investigated. In case of Wilson flood, the target function was considered as the sum of squared deviation (SSQ) of observed and calculated dischargem. Routing two other floods, in addition to SSQ, another target function was also considered as the sum of absolute deviations of observed and calculated discharge. For the first floodwater based on SSQ, GA indicated the best performance however, ICA was in the first place, based on SAD. For the second floodwater, based on both target functions, ICA indicated a better operation. According to the obtained results, it can be said that ICA could be recommended as an appropriate method to evaluate the parameters of Muskingum non-linear model.

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Assessing the root system and its tensile strength is necessary for determine the impact of roots in increasing the soil shear strength. The present study aims to investigate effects of slope and flow of riverbank on root system of riparian POPULOYS trees. In a relatively direct interval, 6 riparian POPULOYS trees were chosen on the slope of Simereh riverbank. To assess the root system, the circular profiles trenching method was utilized. The surface around each tree was divided into four quadrants: upper quadrant, lower quadrant, in slope direction and in flow direction. In every quadrant, number and diameter of roots were measured. The obtained results showed that the highest number of roots were in 90-100 cm depth. 59% of Roots, in the slop direction and 53% of roots in flow direction, were located in the top quadrant. Approximately, 97% of roots had up to 20 mm diameter. The greatest difference in the number of roots in upper, lower, in slop direction and in flow direction quadrants, were seen in diameters up to 5 mm. In slope direction, this difference was almost 2.7 times more than the difference seen in flow direction. The average ratio of root cross-section was 0.26%. The obtained results indicate that the root system of riparian POPULOYS trees on the riverbank is asymmetrical.

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Precipitation is an important element of the hydrologic cycle and lack of this data is one of the most serious problems facing research on hydrological and climatic analysis. On the other hand, using satellite images has been proposed by many researchers as one of practical strategies to estimate precipitation. The present paper aims to evaluate the accuracy of satellite precipitation data, provided by PERSIANN and TRMM-3B42 V7 in Gorganrood basin, Iran. To achieve this aim, two sets of daily precipitation ground-based data, 2003 to 2004 and 2006 to 2007, from six stations of Gorganrood basin, named; “Tamer”, “Ramian”, “Bahalkeh-ye Dashli”, “Gorgan Dam”, “Ghaffar Haji” and “Fazel Abad” have been used in this paper. The evaluation indices have been calculated and analyzed in different time scales, including daily, monthly and seasonal. The results indicated that the two above mentioned satellite models are not accurate in daily scale. However, they showed reasonable accuracy in monthly and seasonal scales. The highest correlations between satellites and recorded data in daily and monthly scales, for TRMM-3B42 V7 in “Gorgan Dam” and “Bahlke Dashlei” stations, are 0.397 and 0.404, respectively. The comparison of measured and satellite data of winter showed better agreement for PERSIANN model. However, TRMM-3B42 V7 shows better correlation in other seasons. The results also indicated that while TRMM-3B42 data displays higher correlation with measured data, PERSIANN provids better results in predicting the number of rainy days. 

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Morphologic study of rivers is very important in stabilization and determination of river boundaries. Dams are structures which have the highest effects on river morphology. Studies of river changes are usually time-consuming and possible only in the long-term timescales. To detect these changes, using satellite images over specific time periods and cartographic methods are useful. In the present study, morphological changes of Zayandehrud River, at downstream of Zayandehrud dam, between hydrometric stations of Sad-e-Tanzimi and Pol-e-Zamankhan, were investigated through 7 series of Landsat satellite photos from 1980 to 2015 by applying ENVI 4.8 and Arc GIS10.2 software. Based on the results, the method of enhancing the contrast as saturated linear expansion, along with the edge enhancement filter, was found an appropriate method for determining the boundary between land and water. In the next step, the river path was entered into Arc GIS 10.2, and geometric parameters of the river such as wavelength, sinuosity ratio, central angle and radius of circle tangent to the curve were determined. Also, statistical analysis of geometric parameters was performed by applying SPSS software. Results showed that from 1986 up to now the sinuosity ratio has risen from 2.14 to 2.38, while the radius of river curvatures and wavelength of meanders have decreased by 5% and 11.4%, respectively. Overall, the river has decreased its arcs’ curvature and bends have been moved to downstream. The main cause of this phenomenon is constructions in the river borders (e.g. in Markadeh and Cham-Kaka), which have disturbed the natural situation of the river. In Cham-Jangal, Cham-Khalifeh and Cham-Ali regions, due to the increase in slope and improper vegetation cover, bank erosion has reached to its highest degree. In general, although flood events have been contained by Zayandehrud dam, yet the river has great potential for erosion in the meandering sections.

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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.

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Soil organic matter is the largest source of organic carbon in the soil surface which played an enormous role in restoring balance, environmental sustainability, soil elements and climatic conditions. Organic materials influence physical, chemical and biological properties of soil and thus soil fertility directly and indirectly. The amount, type and composition of organic matter are different in different soil and climatic conditions. Different soil components can hold different combination of soil organic matter. In this study soil samples were collected from virgin, Populus and Alnus forests from Guilan Province, Iran. The amount of organic matter in the original samples and sand, silt and clay fractions were measured and the quality of organic carbon (13C) and hydrogen (1H) were determined in fractions by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Based on the results the amount of organic carbon in the original samples of Alnus forest was highest. among fractions, clay had the highest amount of organic carbon. The result of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance showed presence of different aliphatic and aromatic carbons and hydrogen in different samples. Virgin forest had the highest proportion of alkyl to oxygenated alkyl carbon ratio and Alnus forest showed the highest ratio of aliphatic to aromatic carbon,. Both mentioned ratios was higher in clay fraction than other two fractions.

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Soil water repellency can affect several soil properties such as aggregate stability. Soil texture and organic matter are two main internal factors responsible for the variability of soil water repellency. Major sources of organic matter in soil include plant residues, and exudates of plant roots and soil microorganisms. Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) as an important cool-season perennial forage grass is usually infected by a fungal endophyte (Epichloë coenophiala) which often enhances resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses as well as altering the litter decomposition rate and soil properties. In this study, the effects of endophyte-infected (E+) and endophyte-free (E−) tall fescue residues (in three different levels of 0, 1 and 2%) on soil organic carbon, basal microbial respiration, water-dispersible clay and water repellency index (determined by intrinsic sorptivity method) were investigated in four texturally-different soils in the laboratory. E+ and E− tall fescue residues were completely mixed with moist soil samples and then were incubated at 25 °C. During two months of incubation period, the amended soil samples were subjected to 10 wetting and drying cycles and then, the above-mentioned soil properties were measured. The results indicated that soil organic carbon and water-dispersible clay were greater, while basal soil respiration and repellency index were lower in fine-textured soils. Water repellency index was increased by production of hydrophobic substances (for the rate of 1%) and was reduced by induced greater soil porosity (for the rate of 2%). Presence of endophyte in plant residues had no significant effect on water sorptivity, ethanol sorptivity and water repellency index; nevertheless, E+ residues increased soil organic carbon and decreased water-dispersible clay significantly. Overall, it is concluded that tall fescue residues, especially those with E+, can improve soil physical quality due to improving soil organic carbon storage and water repellency index and decreasing water-dispersible clay (as an index for aggregate instability). These E+ species and the residues have great potential to be used in sustainable soil conservational managements.
 

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