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Soil erosion is one of the crucial forms of land degradation; a menace caused by soil degradation and prevailing lithological feature in southern Nigeria. Several hectares of land area and properties worth about 2.5 million USD are lost annually due to soil erosion. Besides arable lands, the vegetation which serves as habitat to several species is rapidly disappearing leading to the extinction of the native plant species. The objective of the study was to evaluate the impacts of soil-gully erosion from 1986-2016 b...

Human activities as land use and management impact soil functioning. These are amplified also by stress factors as extreme climate events (drought, flood, heat waves) and meteorological anomalies, consequence of climate change. Although there are clues on how these challenging factors affect quality and functioning at its top surface (between 0 пїЅ 15 cm), there are minor information on how these impact soil in its depth profile. This study present obtained data from assessment studies performed on agricultural la...

Regarding to the situation in Romania, the country's total agricultural surface of 14.946 million ha, an area of 6.367 million ha (42.6%), with slopes greater than 5%, is prone to water erosion and other processes associated. Of these, over 900,000 ha are affected by very strong and excessive erosion. The study aims to quantify the soil loss by erosion process and to specify the main factor affecting the erosion development in the study area using geoprocessing techniques and the erosion predictive model Revised U...

The purpose of this work was to study specific features of the accumulation and distribution of the total content and mobile forms of heavy metals (HM) in soils and plants of the estuarine ecosystems of the Don river and the Taganrog bay coast (Russian Federation). The soil cover is represented by following soils types: Fluvisols, Haplic Chernozem, Arenosol, Solonchak. The following higher plants were sampled: Phragmites australis Cav., Typha angustifolia L., Carex riparia Curtis, Cichorium intybus L., Bolboschoen...

In recent years, the input of antibiotics into soils has sharply increased. The environmental behavior of antibiotics is not well known and the precise environmental risk assessment is not practical. Long-term studies have shown the efficiency of the diagnostics and monitoring of soils with biochemical methods, particularly with the help of the indices of soil enzymatic activity. We studied the impact antibiotics (benzylpenicillin, tilosin and nystatin) at different concentrations (100, 500 mg/kg) on hydrolase (ph...

Feedbacks of soil ecosystems to climate change depend on its dynamics, thus soil ecosystems can directly and indirectly respond to climate change. Literature proved that warming directly alters microbial communities by increasing their activity. Also, climate change may also alter plant community, which consequently will impact indirectly, thus altering the soil communities that depend on their inputs. Thus, soil microbial community is responsible for a variety of soil provided ecosystem services, given their role...

The soil tillage system through the intensity of soil mobility influences its physical state, the capitalization of the fertilization system applied, and together they condition the water conservation in the soil, respectively the development of maize crop. The arable lands damaged by intensive conventional pratices are a cause of the loss of carbon and water in the soil, to a larger or smaller scale, according to soil, season and especially the stage of damage of soils. The purpose of the paper is the research of...

Evolution and development of landslides is influenced by a number of natural factors (soil, geological substrate, relief, climate, vegetation etc.) and anthropogenic factors (deforestation, overloading of land with constructions, inadequate meteoric waters drain, artificial undermining of slopes-embankments for roads etc.). In this paper we propose to analyze the causes of landslides that affected the county road DJ 585 located in Visag area, Caras-Severin county limit, and also to issuing technical solutions for ...

The determination of the geochemical fractions of heavy metals in soils of technogenic landscapes is a key issue in the study of their mobility. The current study aims to investigate of the accumulation and mobility of Cu in soils adjacent to the Karabash copper smelter at South Urals, Russia. Studies were performed in the plume zone of the Karabash smelter and in the floodplains of Ryzhii Brook and Sak-Egla River for the surface layer of soil (0-5 cm). The level of Cu pollution by soil located at a distance from ...

Petroleum and its derivatives are the main source of energy for industry and domestic consumption. Petroleum hydrocarbons are based on multiple carbon bonds that develop intense and raised complex structures when they bound with other characteristic molecules, hence the latest hydrocarbons have variety of forms and consist of short, medium and long aliphatics, aromatics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of different proportions. The accidental release of these hydrocarbons into the environment represents a majo...

Drainage of agricultural land is a critical water management tool for the sustainability of cropping productivity systems considering the links between this sustainability and the control of water logging and salinization processes from root zone. Land drainage also provides environmental benefits when it is sustainable designed securing the conservation and improvement of soil resources quality. A key aspect of this problem is the correct determination of distance between drains based on a series of environmental...

Urban sprawl and land abandonment are the major threats to agricultural areas, as highlighted the European Environment Agency. Bucharest metropolitan area is a proposed metropolitan area project, aiming to reach 2700 km2 in an intermediate stage. This area would include Bucharest City and other 62 surrounding LAUs from Ilfov, C?l?ra?i and Giurgiu Counties. The paper aims to assess the dynamics of soil sealing and soil landscape patterns and to evaluate soil productivity lost due to the urban sprawl within the Buch...

The purpose of this study is to provide information about technical and fertility characteristics of soils for orchards conversion. Based on satellite images, there were calculate a series of normalized differential indexes resulting from some operations with the spectral bands, meaning they are obtained based on multispectral images (with several spectral bands). Through specific operations, it is aimed to amplify spectral signatures in the band where one particular object has the highest reflectance and diminish...

One of the important factors affecting nutrient uptake by the root system of the plants includes soil reaction. Increased soil acidity may adversely affect the use of biogenic nutrients, such as phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur and molybdenum. In soil, nutrients are immobilized to insoluble forms. Although their amount in soil may be sufficient, the plants cannot obtain the optimal quantities, causing a decrease in the yield or production quality. On the other hand, in the metabolism of plants, a...

Substrate, organic matter content, land use and cover may strongly affect soil properties having effect on soil water regulation services in ecosystems. Soil water holding capacity is function of specific physical, chemical, and biological soil parameters. The aim of this research was to understand the risks posed to soils and their water-holding capacities, in the face of changes in land use, land management and vegetation cover. This study was conducted in 2015, at two study sites, Tajov (TA on Haplic Cambisol) ...

Up to 50% of arable land is threatened by water erosion in the Czech Republic. Annually, water erosion causes billions of dollars of damage. It is especially reflected in the reduction in value of agricultural land and yield of the erosion damaged soil. In erosion affected areas, the soil is washed off and depleted of the finest particles binding nutrients and contributing to the formation of humus. In our study, we include five effects of water erosion on the content and quality of humus in chernozem, in topsoil,...

The influence of seven years of using the direct seeding technology on the eco-biological properties of black soils in the Rostov region has been comparatively studied. These soils are found in vast areas of the South of Russia, and are the most productive arable soils. Seasonal comprehensive studies have shown that, if compared to the traditional ways of tillage, direct seeding results in changes in the soils' physical and biological properties. The studied parameters of soils considerably depend on the cultivate...

Ensuring the stability of liquid rate represents a major requirement imposed for sprinkling machinery. This important objective can be materialized only by equipping sprayers with advanced automatic adjustment systems, in order to correlate the two work parameters: displacement velocity and liquid flow. An effective correlation of these parameters can be achieved using adjustment systems of the electronic type. A such adjustment system can not operate efficiently without an adequate comparator circuit. It is also ...

Widespread use of electronic regulators, in order to correlate the working parameters at sprinkling machines imposes making a study to assess the performances of the regulation process in working conditions. To achieve this objective were pursued the following aspects: adequate choice of system components; the achievement in own conception of a electronic regulator for automatic correlation of liquid flow with displacement velocity; choosing and preparing a sprinkling machine on which will be installed the achieve...

Due to intensive use of pesticides in vegetable farming, especially in pepper crop, residues may be accumulated at levels higher than those permitted by their respective international maximum residue levels (MRLs). The objective of this study was to evaluate residue level of three insecticides belonging to different chemical groups: 1. Actara (a.i. Thiametoksam) which was used at the rate of 1gr and 2gr/10 L water respectively; 2. Dimetogal (a.i. Dimetoate) which was used at the dose of 10ml and 20ml/10L water res...

In order to assess the presence of different raspberry diseases experiments were established during the years of 2015 and 2016, at two locations (LlapashticпїЅ and Peran) in the municipality of Podujevo and two (Mramor and Barilevo) in the municipality of Prishtina. In the experiment were involved four raspberry cultivars (Polka, Autumn Bliss, Willamette and Meeker), which represents the most prevalent cultivars cultivated in our country, while the experiment was conducted according to the method of randomized blo...

We aimed at identifying the microbial response and associated release of CO2 and CH4 in/from thawing soil that has been permanently frozen. For that we performed an in situ field-based incubation experiment in a rim of ice-wedge polygon on Samoylov island, Lena Delta, Russia (72пїЅ22пїЅN, 126пїЅ28пїЅE). Frozen "buried' organic matter were taken from eroded Lena river bank and transferred to the soil surface in a rim of ice-wedge polygon. The principle includes that formerly frozen soil is moved to the active layer...

Evaluating geomorphologic conditions in the areas of gullies spreading represents an important step in the capitalization of land and spatial planning. The research was carried out in the Apold Depression (Southern Transylvania, Romania), a submontainous area of approximately 280 km2 characterized by homogeneous physical-geographical and anthropogenic conditions. Gullies (ravines) have been identified on an area of 33 km2 (11.79% of the depression). Morphometric assessment of the conditions of gullies spreading wa...

Humid and arid climatic cycles during Sub-Atlantic time in the forest-steppe area of the East European Plain were studied based on soils buried under archaeological sites of different time. The shift of the boundary between steppe and forest patches is recorded in the shift of the studied soils: Luvic Greyzemic Fhaeozems of the forest patches and Luvic Chernozems under steppe environment. The complex research is based on archaeological investigation, assemblages of morphological (marco-, meso- and micromorphologic...

The ecological situation of the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas has been given special attention due to their extremely vulnerable environment. In comparison with other areas, the Arctic remains a clean environment, but heavy metals occupy a special place among priority pollutants. There are a lot of studies of heavy metals in the soil, but not enough information on the joint content and physicochemical factors that affect the metals accumulation in the Arctic soils. Therefore, this paper presents identification of co...

Water erosion is not only agricultural but also environmental problem. Water erosion washes off the finest particles that bind nutrients and other substances. These nutrients are piled up in the accumulation part of the slope. In the worst case, they are completely washed off the farmland, i.e. into water reservoirs and water courses. Additionally, damage to soil and its depletion of nutrients is reflected in lower yields. The aim of our study is to determine the effect of water erosion on total nitrogen content a...

Depletion of soil fertility due to decrease in soil organic matter content represents a considerable problem in both developed and undeveloped countries. This paper deals with the comparison of compost (Cp) and mineral nitrogen fertilizer (NF) application on selected soil parameters which indicate state of soil environment, its health and quality. The main objectives of this study were (a) to investigate influence of Cp and NF application on total nitrogen (TN) and carbon (TC) content in soil (b), to determine pos...

Tons of pharmacologically active substances are used by human annually in medicine, agriculture, and for farm-animal production. The influence of pharmaceutical antibiotics (benzylpenicillin, pharmazin, and nystatin) in different doses (100, 300, 450, and 600 mg/kg) on a number of microorganisms of the chernozem region has been studied. All tested doses of pharmaceutical antibiotics had a significant inhibitory effect on the abundance of soil microorganisms. Bactericidal drugs (benzylpenicillin) are most effective...

The pea production is influenced both by the soil tillage system and climate conditions during the vegetation period of the crop and by the degree of infesting with disease and pests of the crop. The control of pests and pathogenic agents in the case of pea crop is important in order to avoid production and quality losses produced by them, as it is known as a sensitive crop. The paper presents the influence of the soil tillage system (conventional, minimum tillage and no-tillage) applied to a phaeosiom from the Tr...

Different species of plant aphids can be found in greenhouses worldwide, depending on the crop and climatic condition. Aphids may occur in large colonies on new growth, the base of buds, or the undersides of mature leaves. The aphids damage the plants directly by sucking plant sap from the plant tissues and indirectly as a vector of different plant viruses. The aim of this paper was to identify the most abundant aphid species causing damages to pepper cultivated in greenhouses. The two year experiment (2015 and 20...

Tomato late blight (Phythophthora infestans), is among the most dangerous diseases of tomatoes grown in greenhouse conditions, but also in the open field. In Kosovo, this disease appears every year and poses a serious threat to tomato production in greenhouses. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spread of the disease in five tomato hybrids (Izmir, Amati, Shahmat, Jabuqar and Arigato) grown in greenhouse conditions. For these investigations, during vegetation period of 2015-2016 in a private greenhous...

This paper presents macro- and micromorphological, mineralogical and physicochemical characteristics of solonetzic processes that developed within a 14-cm-thick plough (P) layer of non-ameliorated Solonetz over a 50-year-long period of its post-agrogenic evolution. These processes have resulted in the formation of a microporofile with micromorphological features of eluvial-illuvial differentiation within the former plough layer. The mineralogical analysis of particle-size fractions (?1, 1пїЅ5, 5пїЅ10, >10 ?m) of t...

Due to the global problem of desertification, the demand in the diagnostics of the soil forming in the desert conditions is increased. The desert varnish and the vesicular (porous) crust horizon are distinctive morphological features of desert landscapes and, at the same time, generally recognized features of desert soil formation, being commonly referred to as the yermic horizons in different sub-groups within reference groups of desert soils. The objects of the present study were the surface horizons of vesicula...

The erosion of the soil is characterized for the disaggregation and transport of the superficial material, promoted by the hydric or eolic action, leading to the impoverishment of the soil, and in extreme cases to the desertification. This process is complex and depends on a multiplicity of factors that differ in the time and space, whose universality and simultaneous particularities, becomes it difficult to equate and to quantify. Modeling can provide a quantitative and consistent approach to estimate soil erosio...

Research conducted on sterile dumps resulting from surface mining of lignite, have shown that in the waste dump restoration process, the main issues are raised by the non-uniformity of texture, extreme textures, lack of structure, low content of organic matter, the deficiency in macro (NPK) and micro (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn) nutrients and low biological activity. Most experiments with fertilizers revealed that the maximum yield was achieved in variants fertilized with high doses of organic fertilizers, in addition with mi...

The article presents the results of humic acid macromolecule study based on the instrumental approaches. Humic acids were extracted from various types of peat (0-20 cm) found within the Western Siberia. The obtained results provide insight into the structure and composition of peat humic acids. The obtained results definitely indicate that elemental composition, thermodynamic stability, and NMR13? spectrometry of humic acids are basically a consequence of their physico-chemical properties which, in its turn, depen...

Synthetic polymers play an important role in the agricultural use as structural materials for creating a favorable environment for plant growth. Over the last few years the science of synthetic polymers has received great interest as one of the most exciting areas of polymer chemistry for the production of improved materials. The creation of multifunctional materials with prognosticates properties is important. The main objective of the research was to develop methods for the preparation of transparent hydrogels f...

Formed under various natural conditions, soils are different from each other with respect to characteristics and fertility from region to region. That is why from ancient times it has existed and evoluated the preocupation for the appreciation, choosing and using the best lands for agriculture. Dolj County belongs to the temperate climatic area, but its position and the depression character of the field which it occupies in the neighbourhood of the bend of the Carpatho-balcanic mountainous chain, determines, on th...

The report is dealing with the categorization of the agricultural landscape. Present classificatory systems of the landscape were analysed as the source material hereby, in preference, were soil, geographic and production specifics of individual Slovak region considered. On the background of vector data on extension of the soil-ecological regions of Slovakia using geographic information systems, it was possible to detach five types of agricultural landscape on the base of real production parameters of the individu...

The solving of the project of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic dedicated to sustainable agricultural management in the North Western Bohemia is under way from 2015 to 2018. The Brown Coal Research Institute is the main participant of the project. This article briefly summarises new results of the research of the Most Basin localities restoration problems. The main attention is devoted to the research of experimental areas founded in different dump localities with different dump rocks and different...

The use of synthesis chemical substances in agriculture for increasing agricultural production and ensuring food across the globe is a process that has as a reverse negative effects on the environment and human health. According to the research conducted widely it has proved that, these synthesis substances that sometimes are toxic (pesticides, herbicides, etc.) have a negative influence on human health ultimately, also by polluting the environment, which represents the biggest challenge of the humanity today - cl...

The aim of this study was to determine the extent of heavy metal accumulation in soils and potential risks of metals distribution in fruits, leaf and shoots in apple trees with rootstock M9 grown near smelter and mining areas of the Drenas, Kosovo. Individual soil samples were collected from each plant to assess metal content in the immediate plant environment. Samples of soils, fruits, leaf and shoots have been analyzed for heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Ni, As, Zn, Cu, Cr and Fe) using atomic absorption spectrophotometry...

Along the whole history, the human civilizations were depended mainly on the soil fertility and further on the ecosystem well function and its appropriate characteristics. These functions (as natural processes occurring in ecosystems) depend on its structure (on biotic and abiotic constituents respectively) and provide ecosystem services. The paper emphasized the way that one of the ecosystem services, essential to our health and well being, as the пїЅregulation of the nutrients and their uptake? arises from the i...

The purpose of the study was to present detailed the stages in achieving the documentation necessary to upgrade the infrastructure of a road, after the landslides which led to the erosion of embankments. The chosen methodology consisted in designing and analyzing the topographical, geological, hydrographic, climatic studies and seismic classification of the area. Following the completion of basic works were proposed other works necessary to remedy the problem, conjunction with legislation to obtaining the Environm...

The solution of subsoil-structure interaction is affected by several factors as a choice of interaction model, influence of physical-nonlinear behaviour of structure and co-effects of the upper structure and the foundation structure. The subsoil-structure interaction can be solve by application of analytical methods or numerical methods - eg. Finite Element Method (FEM) or Boundary Element Method (BEM). FEM was used for numerical analysis performed in this article. Many different interaction models implemented in ...

Removal of potentially harmful As compounds by adsorption onto biosorbents is a cost-effective alternative to the conventional treatment methods. Peatlands can accumulate arsenic originating from both natural and anthropogenic sources [1-3]. Wetland soils and sediments are subject to frequent changes in redox conditions, driven by fluctuations in the water table and shifts in biological activity. Under oxic conditions, natural organic matter (NOM) promotes arsenic release from metal-(hydr)oxides, thereby enhancing...

The effect of a polycomposite compost consisting of three organic waste (farmyard manure, sewage sludge, and marine algae) on the nutrition and seed production of the sunflower cultivated in a field experience on a Chernozems in the southeastern part of Romania, was investigated for 2 years. Three types of compost were made from different mixtures of the three components added in proportions by 25% or 50% so that each compost was prevalent in one of them. Agro-chemical analyses of soil samples (pH and N-NO3, N-NH4...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important cereal after wheat and rice grown widely throughout the world, playing a major role in human diet or as livestock fodder. Water and nitrogen are the most limiting factors for maize grain yield and it is important to evaluate the response of maize crop to irrigation associated to N fertilization in order to obtain high yields and to prevent nitrate pollution. In this context, it was designed an experiment with the main purpose to analyze the variability of yield potential a...

The objective of the paper was to emphasize the influence of the biological activity on the structural improvement of the compacted clayey pedogenetic horizons of two Chromic Luvisols, by the organic matter bioturbation. The researches were performed on two Chromic Luvisols from Romanian Plain, where the mean annual temperature is 10.5oC and the mean annual precipitation is 548 mm. The analytical data showed that clay content increased from the top layer of both soil profiles (28.9% in P1, and 29.8% in P2), to Bt ...

The Dolj District is located on Oltenia Plain in the southern part of Getic Plateau. The studied territory which is the northern part of Dolj District is located on the central zone of Oltenia on the high plateau Leu-Rotunda. This area is characterized by varied natural conditions and so is the formation phenomenon of soil. As a result of soil formation factors, within the northern part of Dolj District there were formed soils that have as specific horizon the clayey one, the most encountered being preluvisoils. T...