Browse

European Nitrate Directive relates to water protection against nitrates pollution from agricultural sources. The Directive was transposed in Romanian legislation by the Government Decision no. 964/2000 with its subsequent amendments which approve the Action Plan for water protection against nitrates pollution from agricultural sources. Its objectives are to reduce water pollution with nitrates from agricultural sources and to prevent this type of pollution. According to the Action Plan in each vulnerable zone, an ...

Approaching the issue of fertilizers with organic substances of the bio stimulants class is a difficult task as the concept is far from complete elucidation and the legislation, research and experimental activities are still incipient as this products category with agricultural use is concerned. Any substance or micro organism applied to plants with the purpose to enhance nutrition efficiency, non biotic stress bearing, and/or crops quality features regardless of their nutrient content can be generally defined as ...

Major efforts are directed worldwide in order to establish proper strategies for the preservation of soil quality, its protection and sustainable use by precision farming techniques. Since the in-depth distribution of soil moisture represent valuable information for farmers, electric and electromagnetic techniques were employed for its investigation. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) with small electrode space interval was utilized for illustrating sectors of vertical water penetration and horizontal sectors...

A fundamental research question related to the impact of thawing permafrost on global change is, how fast organic matter in the thawing permafrost can be converted to CO2 and CH4 and released into the atmosphere. Current estimates on the degradability of thawing organic matter in permafrost are based on incubation studies which are highly artificial and probably overestimate the greenhouse gas production under in situ conditions. We aimed at identifying the microbial response and associated release of CO2 and CH4 ...

The industrial activity of the last century has led to the severe environment pollution, especially in the areas where mining and smelting processes were involved. The impact of atmospheric emissions from the metallurgical plants was detected at great distances from the emission source. The main units for the processing of non-ferrous ores (in Romania) were located in Baia Mare (Maramures county ? MM), Copsa Mica (Sibiu county ? SB) and Zlatna (Alba county ? AB). In the Alba and Maramures counties there was and st...

Use of fertilizers and plant protection products for yield increases led to environment pollution. There is intense concern for new materials development with controlled immobilization/ holdup/release role of compounds that get involved in plant nutrition and protection. Multiple beneficial effects of humic substances upon soil ecosystem is the reason that their control and conservation take priority. Part of the research results carried out regarding humic substances (HS) holdup on biodegradable, bio polymeric st...

Great cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo are frequent nesting in colonies in trees next to water bodies or on islands of Latvia?s lakes. The present study was done to evaluate the effect of great cormorant colonies on the soil chemical composition and vegetation on two islands of Lake Kanieris in a long term, 2010-2017. While great cormorants were distributed unevenly, two different sites on each island were set up, one representing a site without vegetation, the other ? a site with vegetation. To characterize the back...

The researches carried out aimed at assessing foliar fertilization bio stimulating effect by increasing fertilizers nutrient use efficiency and their absorption into plants. Foliar fertilizing variants NPK were formulated during the research activities on a PK type matrix base with secondary nutrients and trace elements. The nitrogen source consisted of urea and ammonium nitrate in which 6% of the total nitrogen content was added as 15N isotope to the basic PK type matrix. Agrochemical testing were carried out on ...

A comparative study of the influence of the multiyear application of the No-Till technology on enzymatic activity of different chernozems of two districts in the Rostov region was carried out. These soils are widespread in the vast territories of southern Russia and are the most productive arable soils. As a result, in different climatic conditions and on different subtypes of chernozems it has been established that long-term application of No-Till of direct sowing with the accumulation of plant residues on the so...

In this paper a theoretical and experimental study is performed, regarding the optimal seeds separation solution, by size and shape, in the air stream, given by a centrifugal fan, on the sieves of an experimental stand. The stand is also equipped with two blocks, each with two sieves whose slopes have been adjusted to four values. The determinations were made on winter wheat (Triticum Vulgare), winter barley (Hordeum Vulgare) and millet (Panicum Miliaceum), for several values of the inlet flow. Experiments were ma...

In the process of growing organic products farms face many problems including the need to treat phytopathogens without fungicides or to increase yields without mineral fertilizers. In organic farming, agents of biological control as well as nonconventional organic fertilizers can be used to achieve these goals. One of the main problems with biocontrol agents is that their survival after introduction into soil may be very different since it depends on many biotic and abiotic factors in soil ecosystems. The problems...

Economic activities in Jiu Valley, as integrated components of major geographical entities, are constantly degrading the area?s natural heritage by depositing large quantities of waste products resulted from coal extraction and preparation, abandoned buildings and poorly refurbished sites. In this respect, the current paper addresses these areas by identifying and classifying the potentially contaminated/contaminating industrial sites in Eastern Jiu Valley, depending on the type of activity carried out on site. Th...

The aim of this paper is to study the physical properties of soils as key factors in favoring pluvial denudation and the spatial distribution of degraded areas through hydric erosion. The soil types from the degraded areas and the soils physical properties that influence the erodibility were analised in the south-western part of the Seca?e Plateau (Romania). Field geomorphologic and pedological observations and laboratory physical analyzes of soil samples (texture, permeability, porosity and degree of compaction) ...

The paper aims on obtaining dependences linking peatland and forest soil cone indices and the soils? deformation moduli. The research obtains results basing on experimental data on the mechanical properties of peatland and forest soils and theoretical dependences of contact mechanics. The paper uses methods of calculated numeric data fitting. The study obtains dependences of mechanical properties (inner cohesion, angle of internal friction, the shear modulus) of forest and peatland soil on the deformation moduli. ...

The first establishment of commercial highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) plantings in Latvia were at the end of the 1990th on a few hectares. Since then, a remarkable growth has noticed and today the total cultivated area reaches 280 hectares. An increasing market demand for fresh and processed berries provides a future upward trend in the development of blueberry crop in Latvia. In general, blueberry is a highly specialized crop that has definite soil agrochemical and climatic requirements. There are tw...

Cultivation of maize for silage production presents significant source of biomass for feed and energy. Unfortunately, convectional ways of maize cultivation bring a range of negative phenomena, such as soil erosion, decrease in soil fertility, etc. The present work deals with the possibility of maize cultivation in intercropping system together with legumes to prove its effect on soil properties (Cmic, Ctot and Ntot content in soil, dehydrogenase activity of soil microorganisms ? DHA). Three experimental variants ...

Mixed intercropping of cereal-leguminose presents important tool to increase efficiency of using nitrogen from soil and fixing it from air while current recovery of soil fertility. The paper presents first results of a field experiment after its start in 2012. The main goals of a presented study were as follows: (a) to describe setting and assessing the results of the experiment in the system of mixed cereal-legume culture, (b) to investigate the utilization of N in the mixed culture of winter wheat and winter pea...

Nowadays, landscape specific agriculture development, along with precision farming, is one of the most promising areas for improving crop production worldwide. At the same time, further farming systems improvement should be based not only on the latest achievements of traditional fields of agronomical science, but on some of the interdisciplinary researches, that make good use of the results of modern scientific research. The study addresses the results of the scientific study on the development of the normative-r...

The purpose of this work was to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions for the time interval of the construction of a large kurgan in the Krasnodar Oblast, Russia. The investigated kurgan 1 in the Beysuzhek-9 kurgan group was located on the high floodplain of the Levyi Beysuzhek River among the agricultural fields. In the kurgan, three different mounds were singled out. According to archaeological data, the first and second mounds in the kurgan was built by representatives of the Novotitor culture at the en...

The aim of our proposals for soil sampling regarding mesofauna study in soils from greenhouses or polytunnels is motivated by the high soil heterogeneity and large variability of easy exchangeable soil properties such as water content, soluble salts distribution especially under drip irrigation and local fertilization. The intensive technology for growing vegetables or flowers, high irrigation requirements and the high soil moisture favors, in short time the degradation of morphological, physical, chemical propert...

For reasoned reconstruction of initial presence of various organic substrates in the soil-ground material of archaeological sites, a model experiment was performed, where the dynamics of decomposition of organic substrates of protein, lipid and polysaccharide composition by soil microbial communities was studied. The experiment was carried out on gray forest soil under optimal conditions (60% WHC, 25oC). Soil samples were enriched by one of the substrates of protein (gelatin, casein, and sheep wool), lipid (sheep ...

The paper emphasizes the deep influence of soil biota on pedobioplasma illuviation and on the evolution of illuvial coatings formed in soils with Fe-humic-clayey pedobioplasma. In the studied soils, two main types of pedofeatures were noticed, which pointed out that soil biota initiated and controlled the important pedogenetic processes: coprolites (pedofeatures generated by biological activity), as well as illuvial coating (textural pedofeatures generated by illuviation). Two types of coprolites were dominant: a)...

The aim of the work is to study the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a 20-cm layer of soils in the Novocherkassk energy plant (NEP) emission zone, based on the results of monitoring studies conducted in 2017. In order to study the PAHs levels in the soils of the anthropogenic emission zone an annual sampling of soil samples of 10 monitoring sites located at a distance of 1-20 km from the NEP was carried out. Samples of soils were selected from a depth of 0-5 and 5-20 cm. In the selected soil sa...

Monitoring soil contamination with heavy metals is challenging because of the large areas of contaminated soil and the high cost of laboratory tests. For these reasons new measurement methods of metal concentration in soil based on the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were tested. These methods include measurements made mainly in the near infrared region (NIR). Moreover the field implementation of these methods is considered. Previous results presented in the literature are not consistent and do not ...

Maize is a major energy crop for the production of silage, processing in a biogas plant, or livestock feed. However, its cultivation is associated with the possibility of soil erosion and other soil degradation processes. This paper deals with the comparison of the development of the root system of maize and selected leguminoses ? Broad bean (Vicia faba L.), Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.), White lupin (Lupinus albus) which can be grown in mixed culture system (MC). Four variants of the experiment were prepared in ...

Large areas of oil contaminated soil are an urgent problem in oil producing regions, such as the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia). One of important factors of soil self-restoration is the presence of members able to decompose hydrocarbons in the microbial community. Different groups of genes are responsible for decomposing different hydrocarbon groups: for example, alkane monooxygenase gene and naphthalene dioxygenase gene are the predominant genes corresponding to first-step hydroxylases involved in the metabolism ...

The Arctic coastal zone is very sensitive to environmental changes and anthropogenic impacts. The western part of the Russian Arctic is well studied because there is a lot of petroleum-gas deposit mines, especially on the Yamal peninsula, however data about the soil properties of the coastal zone does not appear much in the published literature. This is because people who investigated in the coastal dynamics do not study the soil properties, and vice versa, those working in the geoengineering survey do not publish...

Soil animals by their size are usually subdivided into 5 groups: nano-, micro-, meso-, macrofauna and megafauna. Mesofauna is the most numerous part of soil animals. The mesofauna is represented by mokritsa, enchytraeids, insects, centipedes, spiders, mollusks, etc. Soil animals occupy, basically, the upper horizons (up to 20-40 cm deep), in dry areas only certain species penetrate to a depth of several meters. Mesofauna, along with other soil organisms, can be used as a bioindicator. In addition to the high abund...

The paper presents the results of the experiments on a sterile dump resulted from surface mining of lignite in Rovinari, Gorj County, where, was been tested the effect of a variety of fertilizer as: liquid fertilizers based on humates extracted from lignite, complex mineral fertilizer (N105 P105 K105 and N150 P150 K150), farmyard manure (20, 40 and 60 t/ha), compost (20, 40 and 60 t/ha), and the mixture of the two types of organic fertilizers with mineral fertilizer. Two test plants, corn, and sunflowers have been...

The researches have emphasized that on the improved sandy soils the maize yields (the average of fertilizer rates) is higher when the corn is cropped within a crop rotation than in monoculture (table 1, figure 1). The applying of nitrogen fertilizers on improved sandy soil, along with phosphorus ones is an endorsed measure for increasing maize yield (table 2, figure 2). The influence of crop rotation and fertilizer applying has recorded high yield outputs with all experimented crop rotations as compared with the m...

Humates are substances possessing high physiological activity, contributing to the photosynthetic yield in plants and having no carcinogenicity or mutagenicity. It is the combination of these unique properties that makes humates promising plant growth and development stimulators. Within the framework of the present investigation the efficiency of application of two humate products has been assessed, and a comparative analysis of their influence on the growth and development of agricultural crops has been carried o...

A retrospective monitoring of the land use change in the bottoms of mesodepressions in the Azov District of the Rostov Region in the period from 2014 to 1968 was performed. A cartographic analysis of the changes in soil overmoistening in closed mesodepressions by its indication based on changes in the land use reflected on remote sensing materials was made. The research was carried out within the framework of the problem-oriented system of retrospective soil and land cover monitoring. They revealed that the curren...

Earthworms of species Eisenia fetida (Savigny 1826) (red wiggler worm), are known as eaters of a large range of organic matter, being considered from this point of view real solvers of several issues regarding the wastes management. This study intended to show that paper wastes (copy paper) can be eaten by earthworms Eisenia fetida and thus this type of waste can be managed by introducing it into the diet of this earthworm species. The objectives of the study were two: 1) to determine the relationship existing bet...

The erosion of the soil, through the changes it brought to the soil cover and by the direct and indirect damage it produced, amplified and diversified the research in the field. In the soil erosion study, a particular importance is given to the slopes, showing, apart from their inclination, the exhibition, the uniform or varied appearance, the degree of fragmentation, the degree of erosion. The slope is expressed in percents and it is determinate the length of this slope (declivity), because these characteristics ...

The importance of this topic is derived from the fact that the agricultural production takes place under the influence of a complex of environmental factors and conditions modified in time and space by human intervention, which requires the knowledge of all ecological determinants in terms of their productive capacity in order to choose those more appropriate crops and technological measures for their sustainable management. The purpose of the researches is based on current scientific and practical preoccupations ...

The soil carbon pool plays a major role in the global carbon cycle, in the context of climate change. Small changes in the soil carbon pool can increase or decrease greenhouse gas. One of the ways to mitigate to rise in atmospheric CO2 is sequestration of C by soils. In the SW of Romania, in Timis county, there are 32 industrial zootechnical piggery complexes, with a daily number of 449904 per capita. From these complexes results about 5.7 mill m3/year sewage water, which produced by biochemically transformation 2...

Soil pollution with heavy metals is a major global environmental problem for many ecosystems. The exploitation and processing of non-ferrous ores are one of the most important anthropogenic sources of soils contamination with heavy metals. Romania is a rich country in mineral resources, therefore it has a long history of their exploitation. In this regard, there are several areas for the non-ferrous ores extraction, and one of them is located in the Metaliferi Mountains, where the tradition in gold, silver and oth...

Archaeological objects, such as fortification ramparts and burial mounds are widely spread on the Russian Plain and commonly buried soils have well preserved beneath. For Late Holocene, especially after 2500 BP, the climatic trends for the Russian Plain are still uncertain. Chronosequences of surface soils and soils buried under defensive ramparts of ancient settlements Mukhino, Ksizovo and Degtevoe in the Central Forest-Steppe zone, Lipetsk region was studied. Five defensive earthworks differ in age from 2500 to ...

This study is aimed at evaluation of organic carbon dynamic after compost application. Object of study was heavily degraded Calcaric Chernozem (Vele?ovice) localized in the south region of Moravia in the Czech Republic, during the field experiment 2012?2016. The experiment was established in a sugar-beet growing region, the altitude of this locality was 298 m a.s.l. and the local climate was classified as warm and slightly arid. Values of long-term average annual precipitations and annual temperatures were 490 mm ...

The paper presents results of research on the soil tillage in conservative agriculture systems conducted on different soil types, under different eco-pedological conditions in Romania, in order to substantiate their scientific suitability and the assessment of implementation possibilities in relation to the entire agricultural area. Of the total arable land of Romania, the land suitable to the conservative farming systems are 4984 thousand ha (49.6%), of which, 1567 thousand hectares (15.61%) are plane and slightl...

The development of the agricultural industry and increasing demands for bio-based products adds pressure on natural resources, such as water and soil. Soil is non-renewable resource and provides many ecosystem services, namely food and biomass production, water purification, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and habitats for biodiversity. The simultaneous achievement of socio-economic and climate policy objectives is challenging and requires careful management of soils as a pivotal resource. In Latvia, the ke...

The Murmansk region is in the group of the old industrial regions of the Arctic zone. Mining, metallurgical, chemical and other industries have been intensively developing in the region since the 1930s. The main environmental problems of the region include pollution of the environment and waste generation. Staff of the Department of Geoecology and Nature Management of St. Petersburg State University has conducted monitoring studies in the impact area of the Severonickel since 2001. According to the wind rise monit...

The enterprises of the power industry worked by coal are one of the active sources of environmental pollution with heavy metals. The Novocherkassk State Power Station is the biggest power industry in the South of Russia. The atmospheric emissions contain heavy metals including Cu. Copper in soils exists in different chemical forms or types of binding. In environmental studies, the determination of these forms gives more information on trace metal mobility, as well as on their availability and toxicity, in comparis...

The objective of the paper is to emphasize the influence of the reclamation works of sloping land with medium-gradient hills on the field capacity and water distribution on the soil profiles located on the upper, medium and bottom ameliorated slope. The study of retaining water capacity of soils was carried out on a slope with eastern north-eastern exposure of the Ezareni farm. Soil samples were taken in spring of 2017 and 2018, immediately after the snow was melted, from 10 to 10 cm on 100 cm depth. Soil samples ...

The main aim of study is to propose a method to diminish the negative effects of the drip irrigation in dens soil layer (Also called: plowpan, plow sole or tillage pan) on the vegetables growing in high plastic tunnels established on the Cambic Chernozems with fine texture from north ? east of Romania. In gardening in almost all cases the water in soil provided from irrigation, especially by drip irrigation. In this condition, the soil horizon located immediately below the ploughed layer is compacted over time. Th...

According to the Aridity Index (R), at the level of the Eastern Romanian Plain have been identified certain areas of aridity intensity, differentiated from the West to the East as a result of the degree of continentalism increasing, which also led to a specific geobotanic zoning (the forest area, the interference between the forest-steppe, ante-steppe and steppe). The degree of vegetation coverage is an objective indicator of susceptibility of soil and/or land to degradation processes, which are manifested on larg...

Recently the ecosystem services (services) have been increasingly considered in ecology and soil along with ecological (biogeocenotic) soil functions. This approach is justified by the need for a comprehensive assessment of soils, including the economic one. In laboratory and field experiments, the pollution of ordinary chernozems with heavy metals and oil has resulted in oppression of biological properties of soil: activity of catalase and dehydrogenase, abundance of the Azotobacter bacteria, the germination and ...

Arid ecosystems occupy large areas in the world and perform important ecological functions to maintain the biodiversity and stability of natural ecosystems. In this article, we present the results of the research on the change in the activity of catalase and dehydrogenases when the soils of the arid ecosystems of the Southern Russia are polluted by zinc: dark chestnut, chestnut, light chestnut, brown semidesert and sandy soil. Zinc was added to the soil in the amount of 300, 3,000 and 30,000 mg/kg (1, 10 and 100 m...

In the years 2011-2016 the effect of different agronomy practices on changes in topsoil qualities of Chernozem was studied. Soil quality refers to the ability of soil aggregates to resist dispersion. Two soil tillage treatments were established ? disc tillage and fallow. The locality is situated in the Mikulov district in a maize-growing region at an altitude of 350 m. The average annual temperature and precipitation was 9.6 В°C and 524 mm, respectively. Local soils were characterized as medium-heavy Chernozem on ...

The high level of environmental ?ontamination is a stress factor for plants, which causes an integrated nonspecific response aimed at the survival of biosystems due to the formation of protecting mechanisms. The effect of long-term chemical contamination of soils on the growth and structure of reed (Phragmites australis Cav.) roots and stems has been investigated. Soils and plants on monitoring plots in the zone of sediment ponds of chemical plants were studied. The area under study is located in the Severskii Don...