Sample records for agricultural field sites

  1. Mechanical site preparation and oust XP effects on stem biomass in three-year-old nuttall oak seedlings planted on a former agricultural field

    Treesearch

    Andrew B. Self; Andrew W. Ezell; Dennis Rowe; Emily B. Schultz; John D. Hodges

    2015-01-01

    Mechanical site preparation is frequently proposed to alleviate problematic soil conditions when afforesting retired agricultural fields. Without management of soil problems, any seedlings planted in these areas may exhibit poor growth and survival. Seeding height and groundline diameter are often used to evaluate effects of site preparation methods, but stem biomass...

  2. Understanding the ecological background of rice agriculture on the Ningshao Plain during the Neolithic Age: pollen evidence from a buried paddy field at the Tianluoshan cultural site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Chunhai; Zheng, Yunfei; Yu, Shiyong; Li, Yongxiang; Shen, Huadong

    2012-03-01

    The progressive rise of atmospheric CH4 level since 5 ka has been hypothesized to result from human agricultural activities that turned forested lands, which would otherwise be a carbon sink, into paddy fields. Increasing numbers of Neolithic cultural sites unearthed in coastal eastern China, providing unique opportunities to test this hypothesis. Here, we present detailed pollen data from a buried paddy field at Tianluoshan cultural site on the Ningshao Plain, eastern China, to reconstruct the ecological conditions associated with the establishment of paddy fields. Stratigraphic data, radiocarbon ages, and pollen analyses show that vegetation underwent six phases of evolution and paddy fields were developed from 7000 to 4200 cal. yr BP. We found no evidence of slash-and-burn agriculture at the study site. Together with no presence of the irrigation system, our pollen data suggest the paddy fields at this site originated from wetlands. Hence, our findings do not support the hypothesis that anthropogenic-induced deforestation play ed a significant role in the rise of the atmospheric CH4 rise since the middle Holocene.

  3. AmeriFlux US-Br1 Brooks Field Site 10- Ames

    DOE Data Explorer

    Parkin, Tim [USDA; Prueger, John [National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment

    2016-01-01

    This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Br1 Brooks Field Site 10- Ames. Site Description - The Brooks Field Site 10 - Ames Site is one of three sites (Brooks Field Site 11 and Brooks Field Site 1011) located in a corn/soybean agricultural landscape of central Iowa. The farming systems, associated tillage, and nutrient management practices for soybean/corn production are typical of those throughout Upper Midwest Corn Belt. All three sites are members of the AmeriFlux network. Information for all three can be found in synchronous pages of this website.

  4. AmeriFlux US-Br3 Brooks Field Site 11- Ames

    DOE Data Explorer

    Parkin, Tim [USDA; Prueger, John [National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment

    2016-01-01

    This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Br3 Brooks Field Site 11- Ames. Site Description - The Brooks Field Site 11 - Ames Site is one of three sites (Brooks Field Site 10 and Brooks Field Site 1011) located in a corn/soybean agricultural landscape of central Iowa. The farming systems, associated tillage, and nutrient management practices for soybean/corn production are typical of those throughout Upper Midwest Corn Belt. All three sites are members of the AmeriFlux network. Information for all three can be found in synchronous pages of this website.

  5. Site Description for the University of Nebraska's Sandhills Agricultural Laboratory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gardner, B. R.; Blad, B. L.

    1985-01-01

    The Sandhills Agricultural Laboratory is operated by the University of Nebraska. The laboratory is located in the south-central part of the Nebraska Sandhills near Tryon, Nebraska (41 deg. 37' N; 100 deg. 50' W). The laboratory is surrounded on the west and south by native rangeland vegetation, on the south by a large field of corn irrigated by a center pivot, and on the east by wheat stubble. This site is appropriate for moisture stress studies since rainfall is almost always inadequate to meet evaporative demands of agricultural crops during most of the growing season and the sandy soils (Valentine fine sand) at the site do not store large quantities of water. Various levels of water stress are achieved through irrigation from solid set sprinklers.

  6. Natural succession impeded by smooth brome (Bromus inermis) and intermediate wheatgrass (Agropyron intermedium) in an abandoned agricultural field

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nelson, J.K.

    1997-11-01

    In 1975, an abandoned agricultural field at Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Site) that had been cultivated for more than 38 years, was seeded with smooth brome (Bromus inermis) and intermediate wheatgrass (Agropyron intermedium). Although these species are commonly planted in reclamation and roadside seed mixtures, few studies have documented their impact on the re-establishment of native plant communities. In 1994, species richness, cover, and biomass were sampled in the agricultural field and compared to the surrounding mixed-grass prairie at the Site. The agricultural field contained only 61 plant species (62% native), compared to 143 species (81% native) in themore » surrounding mixed-grass prairie. Community similarity based on species presence/absence was 0.47 (Sorensen coefficient of similarity). Basal vegetative cover was 11.2% in the agricultural field and 29.1% in the mixed-grass prairie. Smooth brome and intermediate wheatgrass accounted for 93% of the relative foliar cover and 96% of the biomass in the agricultural field. The aggressive nature of these two planted species has impeded the natural succession of the agricultural field to a more native prairie community. Studies of natural succession on abandoned fields and roads in northeastern Colorado have indicated that if left alone, fields would return to their native climax state in approximately 50 years and would be approaching their native state after 20--25 years. Based on the results of this study, this agricultural field may take more than 100 years to return to a native mixed-grass prairie state and it may never achieve a native state without human intervention.« less

  7. Effects of agricultural practices of three crops on the soil communities under Mediterranean conditions: field evaluation.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leitão, Sara; José Cerejeira, Maria; Abreu, Manuela; Sousa, José Paulo

    2014-05-01

    Sustainable agricultural production relies on soil communities as the main actors in key soil processes necessary to maintain sustainable soil functioning. Soil biodiversity influences soil physical and chemical characteristics and thus the sustainability of crop and agro-ecosystems functioning. Agricultural practices (e.g.: soil tillage, pesticides and fertilizer applications, irrigation) may affects negatively or positively soil biodiversity and abundances by modifying the relationships between organisms in the soil ecosystem. The present study aimed to study the influence of agricultural practices of three crops (potato, onion and maize) under Mediterranean climate conditions on soil macro- and mesofauna during their entire crop cycles. Effects on soil communities were assessed at a higher tier of environmental risk assessment comprising field testing of indigenous edaphic communities in a selected study-site located in a major agriculture region of Central Portugal, Ribatejo e Oeste, neighbouring protected wetlands. A reference site near the agricultural field site was selected as a Control site to compare the terrestrial communities' composition and variation along the crop cycle. The field soil and Control site soil are sandy loam soils. Crops irrigation was performed by center-pivot (automated sprinkler that rotates in a half a circle area) and by sprinklers. Soil macro- and mesofauna were collected at both sites (field and Control) using two methodologies through pitfall trapping and soil sampling. The community of soil macro- and mesofauna of the three crops field varied versus control site along the crops cycles. Main differences were due to arachnids, coleopterans, ants and adult Diptera presence and abundance. The feeding activity of soil fauna between control site and crop areas varied only for potato and onion crops vs. control site but not among crops. Concentration of pesticides residues in soil did not cause apparent negative effects on the soil

  8. 7 CFR 3434.5 - Agriculture-related fields.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Agriculture-related fields. 3434.5 Section 3434.5 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE HISPANIC-SERVING AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES CERTIFICATION PROCESS § 3434.5 Agriculture...

  9. 7 CFR 3434.5 - Agriculture-related fields.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Agriculture-related fields. 3434.5 Section 3434.5 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE HISPANIC-SERVING AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES CERTIFICATION PROCESS § 3434.5 Agriculture...

  10. Assessing the mitigation potential of agricultural systems by optimization of the agricultural management: A modeling study on 8 agricultural observation sites across Europe with the process based model LandscapeDNDC

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Molina Herrera, Saul; Haas, Edwin; Klatt, Steffen; Kraus, David; Kiese, Ralf; Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus

    2014-05-01

    The use of mineral nitrogen (N) fertilizers increase crop yields but cause the biggest anthropogenic source of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and strongly contribute to surface water eutrophication (e.g. nitrate leaching). The necessity to identify affordable strategies that improve crop production while improving ecosystem services are in continuous debate between policy decision makers and farmers. In this line, a lack commitment from farmers to enforce laws might result in the reduction of benefits. For this reason, farmers should aim to increase crop production and to reduce environmental harm by the adoption of precision climate smart agriculture tools applied to management practices for instance. In this study we present optimized strategies for 8 sites (agricultural and grassland ecosystems) with long term field observation across Europe to show the mitigation potential to reduce reactive nitrogen losses under the constrain of keeping yields at observed levels. LandscapeDNDC simulations of crop yields and associated nitrogen losses (N2O emissions and NO3 leaching) were evaluated against long term field measurements. The sites presented different management regimes including the main commodity crops (maize, wheat, barley, rape seeds, etc) and fertilization amendments (synthetic and organic fertilizers) in Europe. The simulations reproduced the observed yields, captured N2O emissions and NO3 leaching losses with high statistical presicion (r2), acurrency (ME) and agreement (RMSPEn). The mitigation potentials to reduce N losses while keeping yields at observed levels for all 8 sites were assesed by Monte Carlo optimizations of the individual underlying multi year agricultural management options (timings of planting and harvest, fertilization & manure applications and rates, residues management). In this study we present for all 8 agricultural observations sites their individual mitigation potentials to reduce N losses for multi year rotations. The conclusions

  11. Characterizing phosphorus dynamics in tile-drained agricultural fields of eastern Wisconsin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Madison, Allison M.; Ruark, Matthew D.; Stuntebeck, Todd D.; Komiskey, Matthew J.; Good, Lara W.; Drummy, Nancy; Cooley, Eric T.

    2014-11-01

    Artificial subsurface drainage provides an avenue for the rapid transfer of phosphorus (P) from agricultural fields to surface waters. This is of particular interest in eastern Wisconsin, where there is a concentrated population of dairy farms and high clay content soils prone to macropore development. Through collaboration with private landowners, surface and tile drainage was measured and analyzed for dissolved reactive P (DRP) and total P (TP) losses at four field sites in eastern Wisconsin between 2005 and 2009. These sites, which received frequent manure applications, represent a range of crop management practices which include: two chisel plowed corn fields (CP1, CP2), a no-till corn-soybean field (NT), and a grazed pasture (GP). Subsurface drainage was the dominant pathway of water loss at each site accounting for 66-96% of total water discharge. Average annual flow-weighted (FW) TP concentrations were 0.88, 0.57, 0.21, and 1.32 mg L-1 for sites CP1, CP2, NT, and GP, respectively. Low TP concentrations at the NT site were due to tile drain interception of groundwater flow where large volumes of tile drainage water diluted the FW-TP concentrations. Subsurface pathways contributed between 17% and 41% of the TP loss across sites. On a drainage event basis, total drainage explained between 36% and 72% of the event DRP loads across CP1, CP2, and GP; there was no relationship between event drainflow and event DRP load at the NT site. Manure applications did not consistently increase P concentrations in drainflow, but annual FW-P concentrations were greater in years receiving manure applications compared to years without manure application. Based on these field measures, P losses from tile drainage must be integrated into field level P budgets and P loss calculations on heavily manured soils, while also acknowledging the unique drainage patterns observed in eastern Wisconsin.

  12. Leaching of azoxystrobin and its degradation product R234886 from Danish agricultural field sites.

    PubMed

    Jørgensen, Lisbeth Flindt; Kjær, Jeanne; Olsen, Preben; Rosenbom, Annette Elisabeth

    2012-07-01

    The objective was to estimate leaching of the fungicide azoxystrobin (methyl (αE)-2-[[6-(2-cyanophenoxy)-4-pyrimidinyl]oxy]-α-(methoxymethylene)benzene-acetate) and one of its primary degradation products R234886 ([(E)-2-(2-[6-cyanophenoxy)-pyrimidin-4-yloxyl]-phenyl-3-methoxyacrylic acid], major fraction) at four agricultural research fields (one sandy and three loamy) in Denmark. Water was sampled from tile drains, suction cups and groundwater wells for a minimum period of two years after application of azoxystrobin. Neither azoxystrobin nor R234886 were detected at the sandy site, but did leach through loamy soils. While azoxystrobin was generally only detected during the first couple of months following application, R234886 leached for a longer period of time and at higher concentrations (up to 2.1μgL(-1)). Azoxystrobin is classified as very toxic to aquatic organisms and R234886 as very harmful. Our study shows that azoxystrobin and R234886 can leach through loamy soils for a long period of time following application of the pesticide and thereby pose a potential threat to vulnerable aquatic environments and drinking water resources. We thus recommend the inclusion of azoxystrobin and R234886 in pesticide monitoring programmes and further investigation of their long-term ecotoxicological effects. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Diversity of mitochondrial large subunit rDNA haplotypes of Glomus intraradices in two agricultural field experiments and two semi-natural grasslands.

    PubMed

    Börstler, Boris; Thiéry, Odile; Sýkorová, Zuzana; Berner, Alfred; Redecker, Dirk

    2010-04-01

    Glomus intraradices, an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF), is frequently found in a surprisingly wide range of ecosystems all over the world. It is used as model organism for AMF and its genome is being sequenced. Despite the ecological importance of AMF, little has been known about their population structure, because no adequate molecular markers have been available. In the present study we analyse for the first time the intraspecific genetic structure of an AMF directly from colonized roots in the field. A recently developed PCR-RFLP approach for the mitochondrial rRNA large subunit gene (mtLSU) of these obligate symbionts was used and complemented by sequencing and primers specific for a particularly frequent mtLSU haplotype. We analysed root samples from two agricultural field experiments in Switzerland and two semi-natural grasslands in France and Switzerland. RFLP type composition of G. intraradices (phylogroup GLOM A-1) differed strongly between agricultural and semi-natural sites and the G. intraradices populations of the two agricultural sites were significantly differentiated. RFLP type richness was higher in the agricultural sites compared with the grasslands. Detailed sequence analyses which resolved multiple sequence haplotypes within some RFLP types even revealed that there was no overlap of haplotypes among any of the study sites except between the two grasslands. Our results demonstrate a surprisingly high differentiation among semi-natural and agricultural field sites for G. intraradices. These findings will have major implications on our views of processes of adaptation and specialization in these plant/fungus associations.

  14. Comparing erosion rates in burnt forests and agricultural fields for a mountain catchment in NW Iberia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nunes, João Pedro; Marisa Santos, Juliana; Bernard-Jannin, Léonard; Keizer, Jan Jacob

    2013-04-01

    A large part of northwestern Iberia is nowadays covered by commercial forest plantations of eucalypts and maritime pines, which have partly replaced traditional agricultural land-uses. The humid Mediterranean climate, with mild wet winters and warm dry summers, creates favorable conditions for the occurrence of frequent and recurrent forest fires. Erosion rates in recently burnt areas have been the subject of numerous studies; however, there is still a lack of information on their relevance when compared with agricultural erosion rates, impairing a comprehensive assessment of the role of forests for soil protection. This study focuses on Macieira de Alcoba, head-water catchment in the Caramulo Mountain Range, north-central Portugal, with a mixture of agricultural fields (mostly a rotation between winter pastures and summer cereals) on the lower slopes and forest plantations (mostly eucalypts) on the upper slopes. Agricultural erosion in this catchment has been monitored since 2010; a forest fire in 2011 presented an opportunity to compare post-fire and agricultural erosion rates at nearby sites with comparable soil and climatic conditions. Erosion rates were monitored between 2010 and 2013 by repeated surveys of visible erosion features and, in particular, by mapping and measuring rills and gullies after important rainfall events. During the 2011/2012 hydrological year, erosion rates in the burnt forest were two orders of magnitude above those in agricultural fields, amounting to 17.6 and. 0.1 Mg ha-1, respectively. Rills were widespread in the burnt area, while in the agricultural area they were limited to a small number of fields with higher slope; these particular fields experienced an erosion rate of 2.3 Mg ha-1, still one order of magnitude lower than at the burnt forest site. The timing of the erosion features was also quite distinct for the burnt area and the agricultural fields. During the first nine months after the fire, rill formation was not observed in

  15. Agricultural fields, Khartoum, Sudan, Africa

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1992-01-01

    This herringbone pattern of irrigated agricultural fields near Khartoum, Sudan (14.5N, 33.5E) is very distinctive in both size and shape. The region contains thousands of these rectangular fields bounded by canals which carry water from both the White and Blue Nile Rivers. A crop rotation system is used so that some fields are in cotton, millit, sorghum or fallow to conserve moisture and control weeds and insects. See also STS049-96-003.

  16. Agricultural field reclamation utilizing native grass crop production

    Treesearch

    J. Cure

    2013-01-01

    Developing a method of agricultural field reclamation to native grasses in the Lower San Pedro Watershed could prove to be a valuable tool for educational and practical purposes. Agricultural field reclamation utilizing native grass crop production will address water table depletion, soil degradation and the economic viability of the communities within the watershed....

  17. Tension on the Farm Fields: The Death of Traditional Agriculture?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oguamanam, Chidi

    2007-01-01

    Taking into account the historic transitions and progressions in agricultural science, this article examines the emergence of the phenomenon of agricultural biotechnology. It identifies pivotal sites of tension between agricultural biotechnology and alternative approaches to agriculture. The article identifies two distinct sources of contemporary…

  18. Classification and soil moisture determination of agricultural fields

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Vandenbroek, A. C.; Groot, J. S.

    1993-01-01

    During the Mac-Europe campaign of 1991 several SAR (Synthetic Aperature Radar) experiments were carried out in the Flevoland test area in the Netherlands. The test site consists of a forested and an agricultural area with more than 15 different crop types. The experiments took place in June and July (mid to late growing season). The area was monitored by the spaceborne C-band VV polarized ERS-1, the Dutch airborne PHARS with similar frequency and polarization and the three-frequency PP-, L-, and C-band) polarimetric AIRSAR system of NASA/JPL. The last system passed over on June 15, 3, 12, and 28. The last two dates coincided with the overpasses of the PHARS and the ERS-1. Comparison of the results showed that backscattering coefficients from the three systems agree quite well. In this paper we present the results of a study of crop type classification (section 2) and soil moisture determination in the agricultural area (section 3). For these studies we used field averaged Stokes matrices extracted from the AIRSAR data (processor version 3.55 or 3.56).

  19. Use of agricultural land evaluation and site assessment in Linn County, Oregon, USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huddleston, J. Herbert; Pease, James R.; Forrest, William G.; Hickerson, Hugh J.; Langridge, Russell W.

    1987-07-01

    Oregon state law requires each county in the state to identify agricultural land and enact policies and regulations to protect agricultural land use. State guidelines encourage the preservation of large parcels of agricultural land and discourage partitioning of agricultural land and construction of nonfarm dwellings in agricultural areas. A land evaluation and site assessment (LESA) system was developed in Linn County to aid in the identification of agricultural land and provide assistance to decision makers concerning the relative merits of requests to partition existing parcels of ricultural land and introduce nonagricultural uses. Land evaluation was determined by calculating soil potential ratings for each agricultural soil in the county based on the soil potentials for winter wheat, annual ryegrass, permanent pasture, and irrigated sweet corn. Soil potential ratings were expressed on a scale of 0 to 150 points. The land evaluation score for a parcel consists of the weighted average soil potential rating for all of the soils in the parcel, weighted by the percentage of each soil present in the parcel. Site assessment was based on the size of a parcel and on the amount of existing conflict between agricultural and nonagricultural uses, particularly rural residential uses, both adjacent to and in the vicinity of a parcel. Parcel size refers to both size in relation to a typical field and size in relation to a typical farm unit. Conflict takes into account the number of nonfarm dwellings within 1/4 mile (0.4 km) of a parcel, the amount of the perimeter that adjoins conflicting land uses, and the residential density adjacent to the parcel. Empirical scales were derived for assigning points to each of the site assessment factors. Both parcel size and conflict were worth 75 points in the model. For parcel size, 45 points were allocated to field size and 30 points to farm-unit size. For conflict, 30 points were allocated to nonfarm dwellings within 1/4 mile and 45

  20. Comparison of N2O Emissions from Soils at Three Temperate Agricultural Sites

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Frolking, S. E.; Moiser, A. R.; Ojima, D. S.; Li, C.; Parton, W. J.; Potter, C. S.; Priesack, E.; Stenger, R.; Haberbosch, C.; Dorsch, P.; hide

    1997-01-01

    Nitrous oxide (N2O) flux simulations by four models were compared with year-round field measurements from five temperate agricultural sites in three countries. The field sites included an unfertilized, semi-arid rangeland with low N2O fluxes in eastern Colorado, USA; two fertilizer treatments (urea and nitrate) on a fertilized grass ley cut for silage in Scotland; and two fertilized, cultivated crop fields in Germany where N2O loss during the winter was quite high. The models used were daily trace gas versions of the CENTURY model, DNDC, ExpertN, and the NASA-Ames version of the CASA model. These models included similar components (soil physics, decomposition, plant growth, and nitrogen transformations), but in some cases used very different algorithms for these processes. All models generated similar results for the general cycling of nitrogen through the agro-ecosystems, but simulated nitrogen trace gas fluxes were quite different. In most cases the simulated N20 fluxes were within a factor of about 2 of the observed annual fluxes, but even when models produced similar N2O fluxes they often produced very different estimates of gaseous N loss as nitric oxide (NO), dinitrogen (N2), and ammonia (NH3). Accurate simulation of soil moisture appears to be a key requirement for reliable simulation of N2O emissions. All models simulated the general pattern of low background fluxes with high fluxes following fertilization at the Scottish sites, but they could not (or were not designed to) accurately capture the observed effects of different fertilizer types on N2O flux. None of the models were able to reliably generate large pulses of N2O during brief winter thaws that were observed at the two German sites. All models except DNDC simulated very low N2O fluxes for the dry site in Colorado. The US Trace Gas Network (TRAGNET) has provided a mechanism for this model and site intercomparison. Additional intercomparisons are needed with these and other models and additional data

  1. Zoning of agricultural field using a fuzzy indicators model

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Zoning of agricultural fields is an important task for utilization of precision farming technology. One method for deciding how to subdivide a field into a few relatively homogenous zones is using applications of fuzzy sets theory. Data collected from a precision agriculture study in central Texas...

  2. Application of Unmanned Aerial Systems in Spatial Downscaling of Landsat VIR imageries of Agricultural Fields

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Torres, A.; Hassan Esfahani, L.; Ebtehaj, A.; McKee, M.

    2016-12-01

    While coarse space-time resolution of satellite observations in visible to near infrared (VIR) is a serious limiting factor for applications in precision agriculture, high resolution remotes sensing observation by the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) systems are also site-specific and still practically restrictive for widespread applications in precision agriculture. We present a modern spatial downscaling approach that relies on new sparse approximation techniques. The downscaling approach learns from a large set of coincident low- and high-resolution satellite and UAS observations to effectively downscale the satellite imageries in VIR bands. We focus on field experiments using the AggieAirTM platform and Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI observations obtained in an intensive field campaign in 2013 over an agriculture field in Scipio, Utah. The results show that the downscaling methods can effectively increase the resolution of Landsat VIR imageries by the order of 2 to 4 from 30 m to 15 and 7.5 m, respectively. Specifically, on average, the downscaling method reduces the root mean squared errors up to 26%, considering bias corrected AggieAir imageries as the reference.

  3. A contemporary decennial global Landsat sample of changing agricultural field sizes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    White, Emma; Roy, David

    2014-05-01

    Agriculture has caused significant human induced Land Cover Land Use (LCLU) change, with dramatic cropland expansion in the last century and significant increases in productivity over the past few decades. Satellite data have been used for agricultural applications including cropland distribution mapping, crop condition monitoring, crop production assessment and yield prediction. Satellite based agricultural applications are less reliable when the sensor spatial resolution is small relative to the field size. However, to date, studies of agricultural field size distributions and their change have been limited, even though this information is needed to inform the design of agricultural satellite monitoring systems. Moreover, the size of agricultural fields is a fundamental description of rural landscapes and provides an insight into the drivers of rural LCLU change. In many parts of the world field sizes may have increased. Increasing field sizes cause a subsequent decrease in the number of fields and therefore decreased landscape spatial complexity with impacts on biodiversity, habitat, soil erosion, plant-pollinator interactions, and impacts on the diffusion of herbicides, pesticides, disease pathogens, and pests. The Landsat series of satellites provide the longest record of global land observations, with 30m observations available since 1982. Landsat data are used to examine contemporary field size changes in a period (1980 to 2010) when significant global agricultural changes have occurred. A multi-scale sampling approach is used to locate global hotspots of field size change by examination of a recent global agricultural yield map and literature review. Nine hotspots are selected where significant field size change is apparent and where change has been driven by technological advancements (Argentina and U.S.), abrupt societal changes (Albania and Zimbabwe), government land use and agricultural policy changes (China, Malaysia, Brazil), and/or constrained by

  4. Field site selection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schwarz, D. E.; Ellefsen, R. E.

    1981-01-01

    Several general guidelines should be kept in mind when considering the selection of field sites for teaching remote sensing fundamentals. Proximity and vantage point are two very practical considerations. Only through viewing a broad enough area to place the site in context can one make efficient use of a site. The effects of inclement weather when selecting sites should be considered. If field work is to be an effective tool to illustrate remote sensing principles, the following criteria are critical: (1) the site must represent the range of class interest; (2) the site must have a theme or add something no other site offers; (3) there should be intrasite variation within the theme; (4) ground resolution and spectral signature distinction should be illustrated; and (5) the sites should not be ordered sequentially.

  5. Leaching of glyphosate and amino-methylphosphonic acid from Danish agricultural field sites.

    PubMed

    Kjaer, Jeanne; Olsen, Preben; Ullum, Marlene; Grant, Ruth

    2005-01-01

    Pesticide leaching is an important process with respect to contamination risk to the aquatic environment. The risk of leaching was thus evaluated for glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl-glycine) and its degradation product AMPA (amino-methylphosphonic acid) under field conditions at one sandy and two loamy sites. Over a 2-yr period, tile-drainage water, ground water, and soil water were sampled and analyzed for pesticides. At a sandy site, the strong soil sorption capacity and lack of macropores seemed to prevent leaching of both glyphosate and AMPA. At one loamy site, which received low precipitation with little intensity, the residence time within the root zone seemed sufficient to prevent leaching of glyphosate, probably due to degradation and sorption. Minor leaching of AMPA was observed at this site, although the concentration was generally low, being on the order of 0.05 microg L(-1) or less. At another loamy site, however, glyphosate and AMPA leached from the root zone into the tile drains (1 m below ground surface [BGS]) in average concentrations exceeding 0.1 microg L(-1), which is the EU threshold value for drinking water. The leaching of glyphosate was mainly governed by pronounced macropore flow occurring within the first months after application. AMPA was frequently detected more than 1.5 yr after application, thus indicating a minor release and limited degradation capacity within the soil. Leaching has so far been confined to the depth of the tile drains, and the pesticides have rarely been detected in monitoring screens located at lower depths. This study suggests that as both glyphosate and AMPA can leach through structured soils, they thereby pose a potential risk to the aquatic environment.

  6. Field experiments to evaluate nitrate-leaching from drained agriculturally used areas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bednorz, Denise; Tauchnitz, Nadine; Christen, Olaf; Rupp, Holger; Meissner, Ralph

    2016-04-01

    Agricultural land use is one of the main sources for diffuse nitrogen (N) inputs into surface- and groundwater. To fulfill the objectives of the European water protection policy it is mandatory to optimize agricultural management and to adopt it to site specific conditions. N present in soil is dominated by organic N, and after mineralization inorganic plant available N, obtaining the components ammonia and nitrate (NO3-N). In the environment, NO3-N occurs as the negatively charged ion NO3- which is generally solved. Thus, NO3-N is the major N-species in waters, whereas its transport is directly influenced by the flow regime. In dependence of soil type and meteorological conditions, subsurface drainage was often installed to prevent water logged zones as a requirement for agricultural use. But drainage systems were often discussed as one of the main sources for NO3-N inputs into surface water due to temporary high discharge rates and short residence time of soil water resulting in limited conditions for NO3-N degradation via denitrification. In the study presented herein, two adjacent tile-drained agriculturally used areas with adjusted agronomic conditions but different soil properties were investigated regarding their flow regime and their N-kinetic from 11/1/2013 until 10/31/2015. Both fields obtained the same size and drainage network (drain depth 0.8 m, gab distance 10 m). Field I was influenced by confined groundwater conditions due to an alternating strata of sandy and loamy layers. Field II was impermeable from a depth of one meter, showing a backwater influenced flow regime. The temporal course of soil moisture (35, 60 and 85 cm depth), drain rate as well as ground- and backwater head was registered continuously at both sites. Furthermore NH4-N- and NO3-N-concentrations (cNO3-N) in each compartment were measured. The experimental results showed that field I revealed significantly lower discharged drain rates and NO3-N-loads (17.1 mm and 2.5 kg N

  7. A contemporary decennial global sample of changing agricultural field sizes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    White, E.; Roy, D. P.

    2011-12-01

    In the last several hundred years agriculture has caused significant human induced Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) with dramatic cropland expansion and a marked increase in agricultural productivity. The size of agricultural fields is a fundamental description of rural landscapes and provides an insight into the drivers of rural LCLUC. Increasing field sizes cause a subsequent decrease in the number of fields and therefore decreased landscape spatial complexity with impacts on biodiversity, habitat, soil erosion, plant-pollinator interactions, diffusion of disease pathogens and pests, and loss or degradation in buffers to nutrient, herbicide and pesticide flows. In this study, globally distributed locations with significant contemporary field size change were selected guided by a global map of agricultural yield and literature review and were selected to be representative of different driving forces of field size change (associated with technological innovation, socio-economic conditions, government policy, historic patterns of land cover land use, and environmental setting). Seasonal Landsat data acquired on a decadal basis (for 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010) were used to extract field boundaries and the temporal changes in field size quantified and their causes discussed.

  8. Open-field test site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gyoda, Koichi; Shinozuka, Takashi

    1995-06-01

    An open-field test site with measurement equipment, a turn table, antenna positioners, and measurement auxiliary equipment was remodelled at the CRL north-site. This paper introduces the configuration, specifications and characteristics of this new open-field test site. Measured 3-m and 10-m site attenuations are in good agreement with theoretical values, and this means that this site is suitable for using 3-m and 10-m method EMI/EMC measurements. The site is expected to be effective for antenna measurement, antenna calibration, and studies on EMI/EMC measurement methods.

  9. Nitrate concentration-drainage flow (C-Q) relationship for a drained agricultural field in Eastern North Carolina Plain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, W.; Youssef, M.; Birgand, F.; Chescheir, G. M.; Maxwell, B.; Tian, S.

    2017-12-01

    Agricultural drainage is a practice used to artificially enhance drainage characteristics of naturally poorly drained soils via subsurface drain tubing or open-ditch systems. Approximately 25% of the U.S. agricultural land requires improved drainage for economic crop production. However, drainage increases the transport of dissolved agricultural chemicals, particularly nitrates to downstream surface waters. Nutrient export from artificially drained agricultural landscapes has been identified as the leading source of elevated nutrient levels in major surface water bodies in the U.S. Controlled drainage has long been practiced to reduce nitrogen export from agricultural fields to downstream receiving waters. It has been hypothesized that controlled drainage reduces nitrogen losses by promoting denitrification, reducing drainage outflow from the field, and increasing plant uptake. The documented performance of the practice was widely variable as it depends on several site-specific factors. The goal of this research was to utilize high frequency measurements to investigate the effect of agricultural drainage and related management practices on nitrate fate and transport for an artificially drained agricultural field in eastern North Carolina. We deployed a field spectrophotometer to measure nitrate concentration every 45 minutes and measured drainage flow rate using a V-notch weir every 15 minutes. Furthermore, we measured groundwater level, precipitation, irrigation amount, temperature to characterize antecedent conditions for each event. Nitrate concentration-drainage flow (C-Q) relationships generated from the high frequency measurements illustrated anti-clockwise hysteresis loops and nitrate flushing mechanism in response to most precipitation and irrigation events. Statistical evaluation will be carried out for the C-Q relationships. The results of our analysis, combined with numerical modeling, will provide a better understanding of hydrological and

  10. Planted and natural tree seedling survival and density in three floodplain restorations on abandoned agricultural fields

    Treesearch

    Allen E. Plocher

    2003-01-01

    In three floodplain forest restorations, established in abandoned agricultural fields in Illinois, permanent plots were sampled for 3 years to determine survivorship and density of planted tree seedlings, and species composition and density of natural regeneration. Planted tree survivorship decreased over time at all sites and after 3 years ranged from 32 to 61 percent...

  11. Agricultural areas in potentially contaminated sites: characterization, risk, management.

    PubMed

    Vanni, Fabiana; Scaini, Federica; Beccaloni, Eleonora

    2016-01-01

    In Italy, the current legislation for contaminants in soils provides two land uses: residential/public or private gardens and commercial/industrial; there are not specific reference values for agricultural soils, even if a special decree has been developed and is currently going through the legislative approval process. The topic of agricultural areas is relevant, also in consideration of their presence near potentially contaminated sites. Aim and results. In this paper, contamination sources and transport modes of contaminants from sources to the target in agricultural areas are examined and a suitable "conceptual model" to define appropriate characterization methods and risk assessment procedures is proposed. These procedures have already been used by the National Institute of Health in various Italian areas characterized by different agricultural settings. Finally, specific remediation techniques are suggested to preserve soil resources and, if possible, its particular land use.

  12. An application to model traffic intensity of agricultural machinery at field scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Augustin, Katja; Kuhwald, Michael; Duttmann, Rainer

    2017-04-01

    Several soil-pressure-models deal with the impact of agricultural machines on soils. In many cases, these models were used for single spots and consider a static machine configuration. Therefore, a statement about the spatial distribution of soil compaction risk for entire working processes is limited. The aim of the study is the development of an application for the spatial modelling of traffic lanes from agricultural vehicles including wheel load, ground pressure and wheel passages at the field scale. The application is based on Open Source software, application and data formats, using python programming language. Minimum input parameters are GPS-positions, vehicles and tires (producer and model) and the tire inflation pressure. Five working processes were distinguished: soil tillage, manuring, plant protection, sowing and harvest. Currently, two different models (Diserens 2009, Rücknagel et al. 2015) were implemented to calculate the soil pressure. The application was tested at a study site in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 2015, field traffic were recorded by RTK-GPS and used machine set ups were noted. Using these input information the traffic lanes, wheel load and soil pressure were calculated for all working processes. For instance, the maize harvest in 2016 with a crop chopper and one transport vehicle crossed about 55 % of the total field area. At some places the machines rolled over up to 46 times. Approximately 35 % of the total area was affected by wheel loads over 7 tons and soil pressures between 163 and 193 kPa. With the information about the spatial distribution of wheel passages, wheel load and soil pressure it is possible to identify hot spots of intensive field traffic. Additionally, the use of the application enables the analysis of soil compaction risk induced by agricultural machines for long- and short-term periods.

  13. Mapping Agricultural Fields in Sub-Saharan Africa with a Computer Vision Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Debats, S. R.; Luo, D.; Estes, L. D.; Fuchs, T.; Caylor, K. K.

    2014-12-01

    Sub-Saharan Africa is an important focus for food security research, because it is experiencing unprecedented population growth, agricultural activities are largely dominated by smallholder production, and the region is already home to 25% of the world's undernourished. One of the greatest challenges to monitoring and improving food security in this region is obtaining an accurate accounting of the spatial distribution of agriculture. Households are the primary units of agricultural production in smallholder communities and typically rely on small fields of less than 2 hectares. Field sizes are directly related to household crop productivity, management choices, and adoption of new technologies. As population and agriculture expand, it becomes increasingly important to understand both the distribution of field sizes as well as how agricultural communities are spatially embedded in the landscape. In addition, household surveys, a common tool for tracking agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa, would greatly benefit from spatially explicit accounting of fields. Current gridded land cover data sets do not provide information on individual agricultural fields or the distribution of field sizes. Therefore, we employ cutting edge approaches from the field of computer vision to map fields across Sub-Saharan Africa, including semantic segmentation, discriminative classifiers, and automatic feature selection. Our approach aims to not only improve the binary classification accuracy of cropland, but also to isolate distinct fields, thereby capturing crucial information on size and geometry. Our research focuses on the development of descriptive features across scales to increase the accuracy and geographic range of our computer vision algorithm. Relevant data sets include high-resolution remote sensing imagery and Landsat (30-m) multi-spectral imagery. Training data for field boundaries is derived from hand-digitized data sets as well as crowdsourcing.

  14. Effect of mechanical site preparation treatments on oak survival in a retired field afforestation effort -- first-year results

    Treesearch

    Andrew B. Self; Andrew W. Ezell; Damon B. Hollis; Derek. Alkire

    2011-01-01

    Mechanical site preparation is frequently proposed to alleviate poor soil conditions when afforesting retired agricultural fields. Without management of soil problems, oak seedlings planted in these areas may exhibit poor survival. While mechanical site preparation methods currently employed in hardwood afforestation are proven, there is a substantial void in research...

  15. 7 CFR Appendix A to Part 3434 - List of Agriculture-Related Fields

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false List of Agriculture-Related Fields A Appendix A to Part 3434 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE HISPANIC-SERVING AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES CERTIFICATION PROCESS...

  16. Rainfall-runoff of anthropogenic waste indicators from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids.

    PubMed

    Gray, James L; Borch, Thomas; Furlong, Edward T; Davis, Jessica G; Yager, Tracy J; Yang, Yun-Ya; Kolpin, Dana W

    2017-02-15

    The presence of anthropogenic contaminants such as antimicrobials, flame-retardants, and plasticizers in runoff from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids may pose a potential threat to the environment. This study assesses the potential for rainfall-induced runoff of 69 anthropogenic waste indicators (AWIs), widely found in household and industrial products, from biosolids amended field plots. The agricultural field containing the test plots was treated with biosolids for the first time immediately prior to this study. AWIs present in soil and biosolids were isolated by continuous liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed by full-scan gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results for 18 AWIs were not evaluated due to their presence in field blank QC samples, and another 34 did not have sufficient detection frequency in samples to analyze trends in data. A total of 17 AWIs, including 4-nonylphenol, triclosan, and tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate, were present in runoff with acceptable data quality and frequency for subsequent interpretation. Runoff samples were collected 5days prior to and 1, 9, and 35days after biosolids application. Of the 17 AWIs considered, 14 were not detected in pre-application samples, or their concentrations were much smaller than in the sample collected one day after application. A range of trends was observed for individual AWI concentrations (typically from 0.1 to 10μg/L) over the course of the study, depending on the combination of partitioning and degradation mechanisms affecting each compound most strongly. Overall, these results indicate that rainfall can mobilize anthropogenic contaminants from biosolids-amended agricultural fields, directly to surface waters and redistribute them to terrestrial sites away from the point of application via runoff. For 14 of 17 compounds examined, the potential for runoff remobilization during rainstorms persists even after three 100-year rainstorm-equivalent simulations and the passage of a

  17. Rainfall-runoff of anthropogenic waste indicators from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gray, James L.; Borch, Thomas; Furlong, Edward T.; Davis, Jessica; Yager, Tracy; Yang, Yun-Ya; Kolpin, Dana W.

    2017-01-01

    The presence of anthropogenic contaminants such as antimicrobials, flame-retardants, and plasticizers in runoff from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids may pose a potential threat to the environment. This study assesses the potential for rainfall-induced runoff of 69 anthropogenic waste indicators (AWIs), widely found in household and industrial products, from biosolids amended field plots. The agricultural field containing the test plots was treated with biosolids for the first time immediately prior to this study. AWIs present in soil and biosolids were isolated by continuous liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed by full-scan gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results for 18 AWIs were not evaluated due to their presence in field blank QC samples, and another 34 did not have sufficient detection frequency in samples to analyze trends in data. A total of 17 AWIs, including 4-nonylphenol, triclosan, and tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate, were present in runoff with acceptable data quality and frequency for subsequent interpretation. Runoff samples were collected 5 days prior to and 1, 9, and 35 days after biosolids application. Of the 17 AWIs considered, 14 were not detected in pre-application samples, or their concentrations were much smaller than in the sample collected one day after application. A range of trends was observed for individual AWI concentrations (typically from 0.1 to 10 μg/L) over the course of the study, depending on the combination of partitioning and degradation mechanisms affecting each compound most strongly. Overall, these results indicate that rainfall can mobilize anthropogenic contaminants from biosolids-amended agricultural fields, directly to surface waters and redistribute them to terrestrial sites away from the point of application via runoff. For 14 of 17 compounds examined, the potential for runoff remobilization during rainstorms persists even after three 100-year rainstorm-equivalent simulations and the

  18. 7 CFR Appendix A to Part 3434 - List of Agriculture-Related Fields

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false List of Agriculture-Related Fields A Appendix A to Part 3434 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE HISPANIC-SERVING AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES CERTIFICATION PROCESS Pt...

  19. Tremont Field Site

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Tremont Field Site is a 41.5-acre public park located northeast of the intersection of West 11th Street and Clark Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Through two deed transfers in 1948 and 1949, the City acquired the site from the United States Government.

  20. Use of Magnetic Parameters to Asses Soil Erosion Rates on Agricultural Site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrovsky, E.; Kapicka, A.; Dlouha, S.; Jaksik, O.; Grison, H.; Kodesova, R.

    2014-12-01

    A detailed field study on a small test site of agricultural land situated in loess region in Southern Moravia (Czech Republic) and laboratory analyses were carried out in order to test the applicability of magnetic methods in assessing soil erosion. Haplic Chernozem, the original dominant soil unit in the area, is nowadays progressively transformed into different soil units along with intense soil erosion. As a result, an extremely diversified soil cover structure has developed due to the erosion. The site was characterized by a flat upper part while the middle part, formed by a substantive side valley, is steeper. We carried out field measurements of magnetic susceptibility on a regular grid, resulting in 101 data points. The bulk soil material for laboratory investigation was gathered from all the grid points. Values of the magnetic susceptibility are spatially distributed depending on the terrain. Higher values were measured in the flat upper part (where the original top horizon remained). The lowest values of were obtained on the steep valley sides. Here the original topsoil was eroded and mixed by tillage with the soil substrate (loess). A soil profile unaffected by erosion was investigated in detail. The vertical distribution of magnetic susceptibility along this "virgin" profile was measured in laboratory on the samples collected with 2-cm spacing. The undisturbed profile shows several soil horizons. Horizons Ac and A show a slight increase in magnetic susceptibility up to a depth of about 70 cm. Horizon A/Ck is characterized by a decrease in susceptibility, and the underlying C horizon (h > 103 cm) has a very low value of magnetic susceptibility. The differences between the values of susceptibility in the undisturbed soil profile and the magnetic signal after uniform mixing the soil material as a result of tillage and erosion are fundamental for the estimation of soil loss in the studied test field. Using the uneroded profile from the studied locality as a

  1. Establishing Longleaf Pine Seedlings on Agricultural Fields and Pastures

    Treesearch

    Mark J. Hainds

    2004-01-01

    Acres planted to longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) increased annually through the 1990s until 2000 with peak plantings exceeding 110 million seedlings annually. Many of these longleaf seedlings were planted on agricultural crop fields and pastures. Agricultural areas have unique characteristics that can make them more challenging to successfully plant...

  2. Development of the ClearSky smoke dispersion forecast system for agricultural field burning in the Pacific Northwest

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jain, Rahul; Vaughan, Joseph; Heitkamp, Kyle; Ramos, Charleston; Claiborn, Candis; Schreuder, Maarten; Schaaf, Mark; Lamb, Brian

    The post-harvest burning of agricultural fields is commonly used to dispose of crop residue and provide other desired services such as pest control. Despite careful regulation of burning, smoke plumes from field burning in the Pacific Northwest commonly degrade air quality, particularly for rural populations. In this paper, ClearSky, a numerical smoke dispersion forecast system for agricultural field burning that was developed to support smoke management in the Inland Pacific Northwest, is described. ClearSky began operation during the summer through fall burn season of 2002 and continues to the present. ClearSky utilizes Mesoscale Meteorological Model version 5 (MM5v3) forecasts from the University of Washington, data on agricultural fields, a web-based user interface for defining burn scenarios, the Lagrangian CALPUFF dispersion model and web-served animations of plume forecasts. The ClearSky system employs a unique hybrid source configuration, which treats the flaming portion of a field as a buoyant line source and the smoldering portion of the field as a buoyant area source. Limited field observations show that this hybrid approach yields reasonable plume rise estimates using source parameters derived from recent field burning emission field studies. The performance of this modeling system was evaluated for 2003 by comparing forecast meteorology against meteorological observations, and comparing model-predicted hourly averaged PM 2.5 concentrations against observations. Examples from this evaluation illustrate that while the ClearSky system can accurately predict PM 2.5 surface concentrations due to field burning, the overall model performance depends strongly on meteorological forecast error. Statistical evaluation of the meteorological forecast at seven surface stations indicates a strong relationship between topographical complexity near the station and absolute wind direction error with wind direction errors increasing from approximately 20° for sites in

  3. Automated Agricultural Field Extraction from Multi-temporal Web Enabled Landsat Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, L.; Roy, D. P.

    2012-12-01

    Agriculture has caused significant anthropogenic surface change. In many regions agricultural field sizes may be increasing to maximize yields and reduce costs resulting in decreased landscape spatial complexity and increased homogenization of land uses with potential for significant biogeochemical and ecological effects. To date, studies of the incidence, drivers and impacts of changing field sizes have not been undertaken over large areas because of computational constraints and because consistently processed appropriate resolution data have not been available or affordable. The Landsat series of satellites provides near-global coverage, long term, and appropriate spatial resolution (30m) satellite data to document changing field sizes. The recent free availability of all the Landsat data in the U.S. Landsat archive now provides the opportunity to study field size changes in a global and consistent way. Commercial software can be used to extract fields from Landsat data but are inappropriate for large area application because they require considerable human interaction. This paper presents research to develop and validate an automated computational Geographic Object Based Image Analysis methodology to extract agricultural fields and derive field sizes from Web Enabled Landsat Data (WELD) (http://weld.cr.usgs.gov/). WELD weekly products (30m reflectance and brightness temperature) are classified into Satellite Image Automatic Mapper™ (SIAM™) spectral categories and an edge intensity map and a map of the probability of each pixel being agricultural are derived from five years of 52 weeks of WELD and corresponding SIAM™ data. These data are fused to derive candidate agriculture field segments using a variational region-based geometric active contour model. Geometry-based algorithms are used to decompose connected segments belonging to multiple fields into coherent isolated field objects with a divide and conquer strategy to detect and merge partial circle

  4. Nest-site selection and success of mottled ducks on agricultural lands in southwest Louisiana

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Durham, R.S.; Afton, A.D.

    2003-01-01

    Listing of the mottled duck (Anas fulvigula maculosa) as a priority species in the Gulf Coast Joint Venture of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, coupled with recent declines of rice (Oryza sativa) acreage, led us to investigate the nesting ecology of this species on agricultural lands in southwest Louisiana. We examined nest-site selection at macro- and microhabitat levels, nest success, causes of nest failures, and habitat features influencing nest success. We found that female mottled ducks preferred to nest in permanent pastures with knolls (53% of nests) and idle fields (22% of nests). Vegetation height was greater at nests than at random points within the same macrohabitat patch. Successful nests were associated with greater numbers of plant species, located farther from water, and associated with higher vegetation density values than were unsuccessful nests. We determined that mammalian predators caused most nest failures (77% of 52 unsuccessful nests). Our results suggest that nest success of mottled ducks on agricultural lands in southwest Louisiana could be improved by 1) locating large permanent pastures and idle fields near rice fields and other available wetlands, 2) managing plant communities in these upland areas to favor dense stands of perennial bunch grasses, tall composites, dewberry (Rubus trivialis), and other native grasses and forbs, and 3) managing cattle-stocking rates and the duration and timing of grazing to promote tall, dense stands of these plant taxa during the nesting season (March-June).

  5. Engineering and agronomy aspects of a long-term precision agriculture field experiment

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Much research has been conducted on specific precision agriculture tools and implementation strategies, but little has been reported on long-term evaluation of integrated precision agriculture field experiments. In 2004 our research team developed and initiated a multi-faceted “precision agriculture...

  6. Assessing variable rate nitrogen fertilizer strategies within an extensively instrument field site using the MicroBasin model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ward, N. K.; Maureira, F.; Yourek, M. A.; Brooks, E. S.; Stockle, C. O.

    2014-12-01

    The current use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture has many negative environmental and economic costs, necessitating improved nitrogen management. In the highly heterogeneous landscape of the Palouse region in eastern Washington and northern Idaho, crop nitrogen needs vary widely within a field. Site-specific nitrogen management is a promising strategy to reduce excess nitrogen lost to the environment while maintaining current yields by matching crop needs with inputs. This study used in-situ hydrologic, nutrient, and crop yield data from a heavily instrumented field site in the high precipitation zone of the wheat-producing Palouse region to assess the performance of the MicroBasin model. MicroBasin is a high-resolution watershed-scale ecohydrologic model with nutrient cycling and cropping algorithms based on the CropSyst model. Detailed soil mapping conducted at the site was used to parameterize the model and the model outputs were evaluated with observed measurements. The calibrated MicroBasin model was then used to evaluate the impact of various nitrogen management strategies on crop yield and nitrate losses. The strategies include uniform application as well as delineating the field into multiple zones of varying nitrogen fertilizer rates to optimize nitrogen use efficiency. We present how coupled modeling and in-situ data sets can inform agricultural management and policy to encourage improved nitrogen management.

  7. In pursuit of a science of agriculture: the role of statistics in field experiments.

    PubMed

    Parolini, Giuditta

    2015-09-01

    Since the beginning of the twentieth century statistics has reshaped the experimental cultures of agricultural research taking part in the subtle dialectic between the epistemic and the material that is proper to experimental systems. This transformation has become especially relevant in field trials and the paper will examine the British agricultural institution, Rothamsted Experimental Station, where statistical methods nowadays popular in the planning and analysis of field experiments were developed in the 1920s. At Rothamsted statistics promoted randomisation over systematic arrangements, factorisation over one-question trials, and emphasised the importance of the experimental error in assessing field trials. These changes in methodology transformed also the material culture of agricultural science, and a new body, the Field Plots Committee, was created to manage the field research of the agricultural institution. Although successful, the vision of field experimentation proposed by the Rothamsted statisticians was not unproblematic. Experimental scientists closely linked to the farming community questioned it in favour of a field research that could be more easily understood by farmers. The clash between the two agendas reveals how the role attributed to statistics in field experimentation defined different pursuits of agricultural research, alternately conceived of as a scientists' science or as a farmers' science.

  8. Successional trends in Sonoran Desert abandoned agricultural fields in northern Mexico

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Castellanos, A.E.; Martinez, M.J.; Llano, J.M.; Halvorson, W.L.; Espiricueta, M.; Espejel, I.

    2005-01-01

    Excessive ground-water use and saline intrusion to the aquifer led, in less than three decades, to an increase in abandoned agricultural fields at La Costa de Hermosillo, within the Sonoran Desert. Using a chronosequence from years since abandonment, patterns of field succession were developed. Contrary to most desert literature, species replacement was found, both in fields with and without saline intrusion. Seasonal photosynthetic capacity as well as water and nitrogen use efficiencies were different in dominant early and late successional plant species. These ecological findings provided a framework for a general explanation of species dominance and replacement within abandoned agricultural fields in the Sonoran Desert. ?? 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Field testing a soil site field guide for Allegheny hardwoods

    Treesearch

    S.B. Jones

    1991-01-01

    A site quality evaluation decision model, developed for Allegheny hardwoods on the non-glaciated Allegheny Plateau of Pennsylvania and New York, was field tested by International Paper (IP) foresters and the author, on sites within the region of derivation and on glaciated sites north and west of the Wisconsin drift line. Results from the field testing are presented...

  10. Field variability and vulnerability index to identify precision agriculture opportunity

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Innovations in precision agriculture (PA) have created opportunities to achieve a greater understanding of within-field variability. However, PA adoption has been hindered due to uncertainty about field-specific performance and return on investment. Uncertainty could be better addressed by analyzing...

  11. Rapid Assessment of Ecosystem Services Provided by Two Mineral Extraction Sites Restored for Nature Conservation in an Agricultural Landscape in Eastern England

    PubMed Central

    Blaen, Phillip J.; Jia, Li; Peh, Kelvin S.-H.; Field, Rob H.; Balmford, Andrew; MacDonald, Michael A.; Bradbury, Richard B.

    2015-01-01

    Despite growing recognition that mineral sites restored for nature conservation can enhance local biodiversity, the wider societal benefits provided by this type of restoration relative to alternative options are not well understood. This study addresses this research gap by quantifying differences in ecosystem services provision under two common mineral site after-uses: nature conservation and agriculture. Using a combination of site-specific primary field data, benefits transfer and modelling, we show that for our sites restoration for nature conservation provides a more diverse array of ecosystem services than would be delivered under an agricultural restoration scenario. We also explore the effects of addressing different conservation targets, which we find alter the provision of ecosystem services on a service-specific basis. Highly species-focused intervention areas are associated with increased carbon storage and livestock grazing provision, whereas non-intervention areas are important for carbon sequestration, fishing, recreation and flood risk mitigation. The results of this study highlight the wider societal importance of restored mineral sites and may help conservation managers and planners to develop future restoration strategies that provide benefits for both biodiversity and human well-being. PMID:25894293

  12. Rapid assessment of ecosystem services provided by two mineral extraction sites restored for nature conservation in an agricultural landscape in eastern England.

    PubMed

    Blaen, Phillip J; Jia, Li; Peh, Kelvin S-H; Field, Rob H; Balmford, Andrew; MacDonald, Michael A; Bradbury, Richard B

    2015-01-01

    Despite growing recognition that mineral sites restored for nature conservation can enhance local biodiversity, the wider societal benefits provided by this type of restoration relative to alternative options are not well understood. This study addresses this research gap by quantifying differences in ecosystem services provision under two common mineral site after-uses: nature conservation and agriculture. Using a combination of site-specific primary field data, benefits transfer and modelling, we show that for our sites restoration for nature conservation provides a more diverse array of ecosystem services than would be delivered under an agricultural restoration scenario. We also explore the effects of addressing different conservation targets, which we find alter the provision of ecosystem services on a service-specific basis. Highly species-focused intervention areas are associated with increased carbon storage and livestock grazing provision, whereas non-intervention areas are important for carbon sequestration, fishing, recreation and flood risk mitigation. The results of this study highlight the wider societal importance of restored mineral sites and may help conservation managers and planners to develop future restoration strategies that provide benefits for both biodiversity and human well-being.

  13. Atmospheric effect on classification of finite fields. [satellite-imaged agricultural areas

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kaufman, Y. J.; Fraser, R. S.

    1984-01-01

    The atmospheric effect on the upward radiance of sunlight scattered from the earth-atmosphere system is strongly influenced by the contrasts between fields and their sizes. In this paper, the radiances above finite fields are computed to simulate radiances measured by a satellite. A simulation case including 11 agricultural fields and four natural fields (water, soil, savanah, and forest) is used to test the effect of field size, background reflectance, and optical thickness of the atmosphere on the classification accuracy. For a given atmospheric turbidity, the atmospheric effect on classification of surface features may be much stronger for nonuniform surfaces than for uniform surfaces. Therefore, the classification accuracy of agricultural fields and urban areas is dependent not only on the optical characteristics of the atmosphere, but also on the size of the surface elements to be classified and their contrasts. It is concluded that new atmospheric correction methods, which take into account the finite size of the fields, are needed.

  14. Root-collar diameter and third-year survival of three bottomland hardwoods planted on former agricultural fields in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley

    Treesearch

    Emile S. Gardiner; Douglass F. Jacobs; Ronald P. Overton; George Hernandez

    2009-01-01

    Athough the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) has experienced substantial afforestation of former agricultural fields during the past 2 decades, seedling standards that support satisfactory outplanting performance of bottomland hardwood tree species are not available. A series of experimental plantations, established on three afforestation sites in the LMAV,...

  15. Carbon dynamics within agricultural and native sites in the loess region of Western lowa

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Manies, K.L.; Harden, J.W.; Kramer, L.; Parton, W.J.

    2001-01-01

    In order to quantify the historical changes in carbon storage that result from agricultural conversion, this study compared the carbon dynamics of two sites in the loess region of Iowa: a native prairie and a cropland. Field data were obtained to determine present-day carbon storage and its variability within a landscape (a stable ridgetop vs. eroding upper-midslope vs. depositional lower slope). Models were used to recreate the historical carbon budget of these sites and determine the cropland's potential to be a net CO2 source or sink, relative to the atmosphere. Regardless of slope position, the cropland site contains approximately half the amount of carbon as prairie. Variability in soil carbon storage within a site as a consequence of slope position is as large or larger (variations of 200-300%) than temporal variation (???200% at all slope positions). The most extreme difference in soil carbon storage between the cropland and prairie sites is found in the soil at the upper-midslope, which is the area of greatest erosion. The models estimate that 93-172% of the carbon in the original topsoil has been lost from the cropland's eroding midslope. Much of this carbon is derived from deeper soil horizons. Either a small sink or strong source of carbon to the atmosphere is created, depending on the fate of the eroded sediment and its associated carbon.

  16. Polyoxyethylene Tallow Amine, a Glyphosate Formulation Adjuvant: Soil Adsorption Characteristics, Degradation Profile, and Occurrence on Selected Soils from Agricultural Fields in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, and Missouri.

    PubMed

    Tush, Daniel; Meyer, Michael T

    2016-06-07

    Polyoxyethylene tallow amine (POEA) is an inert ingredient added to formulations of glyphosate, the most widely applied agricultural herbicide. POEA has been shown to have toxic effects to some aquatic organisms making the potential transport of POEA from the application site into the environment an important concern. This study characterized the adsorption of POEA to soils and assessed its occurrence and homologue distribution in agricultural soils from six states. Adsorption experiments of POEA to selected soils showed that POEA adsorbed much stronger than glyphosate; calcium chloride increased the binding of POEA; and the binding of POEA was stronger in low pH conditions. POEA was detected on a soil sample from an agricultural field near Lawrence, Kansas, but with a loss of homologues that contain alkenes. POEA was also detected on soil samples collected between February and early March from corn and soybean fields from ten different sites in five other states (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi). This is the first study to characterize the adsorption of POEA to soil, the potential widespread occurrence of POEA on agricultural soils, and the persistence of the POEA homologues on agricultural soils into the following growing season.

  17. Polyoxyethylene tallow amine, a glyphosate formulation adjuvant: Soil adsorption characteristics, degradation profile, and occurrence on selected soils from agricultural fields in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, and Missouri

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Tush, Daniel L.; Meyer, Michael T.

    2016-01-01

    Polyoxyethylene tallow amine (POEA) is an inert ingredient added to formulations of glyphosate, the most widely applied agricultural herbicide. POEA has been shown to have toxic effects to some aquatic organisms making the potential transport of POEA from the application site into the environment an important concern. This study characterized the adsorption of POEA to soils and assessed its occurrence and homologue distribution in agricultural soils from six states. Adsorption experiments of POEA to selected soils showed that POEA adsorbed much stronger than glyphosate; calcium chloride increased the binding of POEA; and the binding of POEA was stronger in low pH conditions. POEA was detected on a soil sample from an agricultural field near Lawrence, Kansas, but with a loss of homologues that contain alkenes. POEA was also detected on soil samples collected between February and early March from corn and soybean fields from ten different sites in five other states (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi). This is the first study to characterize the adsorption of POEA to soil, the potential widespread occurrence of POEA on agricultural soils, and the persistence of the POEA homologues on agricultural soils into the following growing season.

  18. Assessment of Nitrate-N Load in Subsurface Drainage Water from the Agricultural Fields in the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kenjabaev, S.; Forkutsa, I.; Dukhovny, V.; Frede, H. G.

    2012-04-01

    Leaching of nitrate-N (NO3-) from irrigated agricultural land and water contamination have become a worldwide concern. This study was conducted to investigate amount of nitrate-N leached to groundwater and surface water from irrigated cotton, winter wheat and maize fields in the Fergana Valley (Uzbekistan). Therefore at two sites ("Akbarabad" and "Azizbek") equipped with closed horizontal drainage system during 2010-2011 vegetation seasons we monitored water flow, nutrient concentrations and salinity at surface and subsurface drains, at irrigation canals and groundwater. We also applied stable isotopes (δ2H and δ18O) method in order to investigate the source of drainage water runoff. Discussed are results of 2010. Farmers fertilized cotton fields with ammonium nitrate of 350-450 kg ha-1 in "Akbarabad" and 700 kg ha-1 in "Azizbek" sites. In winter wheat and maize fields (in "Akbarabad") about 500 kg ha-1 of ammonium nitrate were applied. Cotton fields were irrigated with 2700 m3 ha-1 ("Akbarabad") and 3500 m3 ha-1 ("Azizbek"). In winter wheat and maize fields applied irrigation water amounted to 3900 m3 ha-1 and 723 m3 ha-1, respectively. Frequent groundwater and subsurface drainage water sampling revealed that nitrate leaching occurred mostly during and right after the irrigation events. The estimated average nitrate-N concentration in subsurface drainage water in "Akbarabad" was slightly higher (9 mg l-1) than in "Azizbek" (8 mg l-1). During July-November (2010), in average, nitrate-N losses through subsurface drainage amounted to 24 kg ha-1 in "Akbarabad" and 18 kg ha-1 in "Azizbek". The salinity of drainage water at both sites was similar and varied between 2.3-2.7 dS m-1. Preliminary results of isotope signals of studied water (precipitation, drainage, irrigation and ground water) indicate that the source of drainage water runoff comes from the irrigation water, while the contribution of rainfall is negligible. It is planned to run simulations with DRAINMOD

  19. Rural Housing Site Planning in North Carolina. Agricultural Extension Publication 105.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hester, Randolph T., Jr.; And Others

    Addressing the problems of rural housing site selection and development in North Carolina, this guide is designed for cooperative and coordinated use by: technical assistance personnel employed by the Farmers Home Administration; local lending institutions; Health Departments; the Agricultural Extension Service; the Soil Conservation Service; and…

  20. MAC Europe 1991 campaign: AIRSAR/AVIRIS data integration for agricultural test site classification

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sangiovanni, S.; Buongiorno, M. F.; Ferrarini, M.; Fiumara, A.

    1993-01-01

    During summer 1991, multi-sensor data were acquired over the Italian test site 'Otrepo Pavese', an agricultural flat area in Northern Italy. This area has been the Telespazio pilot test site for experimental activities related to agriculture applications. The aim of the investigation described in the following paper is to assess the amount of information contained in the AIRSAR (Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar) and AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) data, and to evaluate classification results obtained from each sensor data separately and from the combined dataset. All classifications are examined by means of the resulting confusion matrices and Khat coefficients. Improvements of the classification results obtained by using the integrated dataset are finally evaluated.

  1. About soil cover heterogeneity of agricultural research stations' experimental fields

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rannik, Kaire; Kõlli, Raimo; Kukk, Liia

    2013-04-01

    Depending on local pedo-ecological conditions (topography, (geo) diversity of soil parent material, meteorological conditions) the patterns of soil cover and plant cover determined by soils are very diverse. Formed in the course of soil-plant mutual relationship, the natural ecosystems are always influenced to certain extent by the other local soil forming conditions or they are site specific. The agricultural land use or the formation of agro-ecosystems depends foremost on the suitability of soils for the cultivation of feed and food crops. As a rule, the most fertile or the best soils of the area, which do not present any or present as little as possible constraints for agricultural land use, are selected for this purpose. Compared with conventional field soils, the requirements for the experimental fields' soil cover quality are much higher. Experimental area soils and soil cover composition should correspond to local pedo-ecological conditions and, in addition to that, represent the soil types dominating in the region, whereas the fields should be as homogeneous as possible. The soil cover heterogeneity of seven arable land blocks of three research stations (Jõgeva, Kuusiku and Olustvere) was studied 1) by examining the large scale (1:10 000) digital soil map (available via the internet), and 2) by field researches using the transect method. The stages of soils litho-genetic and moisture heterogeneities were estimated by using the Estonian normal soils matrix, however, the heterogeneity of top- and subsoil texture by using the soil texture matrix. The quality and variability of experimental fields' soils humus status, was studied more thoroughly from the aspect of humus concentration (g kg-1), humus cover thickness (cm) and humus stocks (Mg ha-1). The soil cover of Jõgeva experimental area, which presents an accumulative drumlin landscape (formed during the last glacial period), consist from loamy Luvisols and associated to this Cambisols. In Kuusiku area

  2. Experimental Evaluation of Field Trips on Instruction in Vocational Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCaslin, Norval L.

    To determine the effect of field trips on student achievement in each of four subject matter areas in vocational agriculture, 12 schools offering approved programs were randomly selected and divided into a treatment group and a control group. Uniform teaching outlines and reference materials were provided to each group. While no field trips were…

  3. Californian demonstration and validation of automated agricultural field extraction from multi-temporal Landsat data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, L.; Roy, D. P.

    2013-12-01

    The spatial distribution of agricultural fields is a fundamental description of rural landscapes and the location and extent of fields is important to establish the area of land utilized for agricultural yield prediction, resource allocation, and for economic planning. To date, field objects have not been extracted from satellite data over large areas because of computational constraints and because consistently processed appropriate resolution data have not been available or affordable. We present a fully automated computational methodology to extract agricultural fields from 30m Web Enabled Landsat data (WELD) time series and results for approximately 250,000 square kilometers (eleven 150 x 150 km WELD tiles) encompassing all the major agricultural areas of California. The extracted fields, including rectangular, circular, and irregularly shaped fields, are evaluated by comparison with manually interpreted Landsat field objects. Validation results are presented in terms of standard confusion matrix accuracy measures and also the degree of field object over-segmentation, under-segmentation, fragmentation and shape distortion. The apparent success of the presented field extraction methodology is due to several factors. First, the use of multi-temporal Landsat data, as opposed to single Landsat acquisitions, that enables crop rotations and inter-annual variability in the state of the vegetation to be accommodated for and provides more opportunities for cloud-free, non-missing and atmospherically uncontaminated surface observations. Second, the adoption of an object based approach, namely the variational region-based geometric active contour method that enables robust segmentation with only a small number of parameters and that requires no training data collection. Third, the use of a watershed algorithm to decompose connected segments belonging to multiple fields into coherent isolated field segments and a geometry based algorithm to detect and associate parts of

  4. Application of ERTS-1 imagery in the fields of geology, agriculture, forestry, and hydrology to selected test sites in Iran

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ebtehadj, K.

    1973-01-01

    The preliminary study of the ERTS-1 imagery coverage of Iran, commenced on October 26, 1972. All of the images were carefully examined, and a photomosaic covering approximately ninety-five per cent of the country was prepared. A number of images of selected areas were studied in detail. In the field of geology, a number of large scale faults were identified, which do not figure on geological maps. Furthermore, a preliminary study was carried out on the recent sediments, their possible sources, and origin. A limited number of geological work maps were prepared as well. In the fields of agriculture and forestry, studies based on color composite prints of certain areas were undertaken, with a purpose of identifying potential arable areas. Investigations in the field of water resources resulted in the discovery of a number of small lakes, and streams. Furthermore, fluctuations of the water level in some lakes were observed.

  5. SITE EVALUATION OF FIELD PORTABLE PENTACHLOROPHENOL IMMUNOASSAYS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Four pentachlorophenol (PCP) enzyme immunoassays for environmental analysis have been evaluated through the U.S. EPA Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) program. Three assays were formatted for on-site field use and one assay could be used in a field laboratory sett...

  6. Emergent insect production in post-harvest flooded agricultural fields used by waterbirds

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Moss, Richard C.; Blumenshine, Steven C.; Yee, Julie; Fleskes, Joseph P.

    2009-01-01

    California’s Tulare Lake Basin (TLB) is one of the most important waterbird areas in North America even though most wetlands there have been converted to cropland. To guide management programs promoting waterbird beneficial agriculture, which includes flooding fields between growing periods, we measured emergence rates of insects, an important waterbird food, in three crop types (tomato, wheat, alfalfa) in the TLB relative to water depth and days flooded during August–October, 2003 and 2004. We used corrected Akaike’s Information Criterion values to compare a set of models that accounted for our repeated measured data. The best model included crop type and crop type interacting with days flooded and depth flooded. Emergence rates (mg m−2 day−1) were greater in tomato than wheat or alfalfa fields, increased with days flooded in alfalfa and tomato but not wheat fields, and increased with water depth in alfalfa and wheat but not tomato fields. To investigate the relationship between the range of diel water temperatures and insect emergence rates, we rearedChironomus dilutus larvae in environmental chambers under high (15–32°C) and low fluctuation (20–26°C) temperature regimes that were associated with shallow and deep (respectively) sampling sites in our fields. Larval survival (4×) and biomass (2×) were greater in the low thermal fluctuation treatment suggesting that deeply flooded areas would support greater insect production.

  7. Ca. Nitrososphaera and Bradyrhizobium are inversely correlated and related to agricultural practices in long-term field experiments

    PubMed Central

    Zhalnina, Kateryna; de Quadros, Patricia D.; Gano, Kelsey A.; Davis-Richardson, Austin; Fagen, Jennie R.; Brown, Christopher T.; Giongo, Adriana; Drew, Jennifer C.; Sayavedra-Soto, Luis A.; Arp, Dan J.; Camargo, Flavio A. O.; Daroub, Samira H.; Clark, Ian M.; McGrath, Steve P.; Hirsch, Penny R.; Triplett, Eric W.

    2013-01-01

    Agricultural land management, such as fertilization, liming, and tillage affects soil properties, including pH, organic matter content, nitrification rates, and the microbial community. Three different study sites were used to identify microorganisms that correlate with agricultural land use and to determine which factors regulate the relative abundance of the microbial signatures of the agricultural land-use. The three sites included in this study are the Broadbalk Experiment at Rothamsted Research, UK, the Everglades Agricultural Area, Florida, USA, and the Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan, USA. The effects of agricultural management on the abundance and diversity of bacteria and archaea were determined using high throughput, barcoded 16S rRNA sequencing. In addition, the relative abundance of these organisms was correlated with soil features. Two groups of microorganisms involved in nitrogen cycle were highly correlated with land use at all three sites. The ammonia oxidizing-archaea, dominated by Ca. Nitrososphaera, were positively correlated with agriculture while a ubiquitous group of soil bacteria closely related to the diazotrophic symbiont, Bradyrhizobium, was negatively correlated with agricultural management. Analysis of successional plots showed that the abundance of ammonia oxidizing-archaea declined and the abundance of bradyrhizobia increased with time away from agriculture. This observation suggests that the effect of agriculture on the relative abundance of these genera is reversible. Soil pH and NH3 concentrations were positively correlated with archaeal abundance but negatively correlated with the abundance of Bradyrhizobium. The high correlations of Ca. Nitrososphaera and Bradyrhizobium abundances with agricultural management at three long-term experiments with different edaphoclimatic conditions allowed us to suggest these two genera as signature microorganisms for agricultural land use. PMID:23641242

  8. Sustainable corn stover harvest strategies for Midwest agricultural landscapes

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    To support emerging U.S. cellulosic bioenergy industries, 239 site-years of data from field studies at 36 sites in seven states were recently summarized in BioEnergy Research by the ARS Resilient Economic Agricultural Practices (REAP) team [formerly the Renewable Energy Assessment Project (REAP) tea...

  9. Field potential soil variability index to identify precision agriculture opportunity

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Precision agriculture (PA) technologies used for identifying and managing within-field variability are not widely used despite decades of advancement. Technological innovations in agronomic tools, such as canopy reflectance or electrical conductivity sensors, have created opportunities to achieve a ...

  10. Simple, Low-Cost Data Collection Methods for Agricultural Field Studies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koenig, Richard T.; Winger, Marlon; Kitchen, Boyd

    2000-01-01

    Summarizes relatively simple and inexpensive methods for collecting data from agricultural field studies. Describes methods involving on-farm testing, crop yield measurement, quality evaluations, weed control effectiveness, plant nutrient status, and other measures. Contains 29 references illustrating how these methods were used to conduct…

  11. Keeping agricultural soil out of rivers: evidence of sediment and nutrient accumulation within field wetlands in the UK.

    PubMed

    Ockenden, Mary C; Deasy, Clare; Quinton, John N; Surridge, Ben; Stoate, Chris

    2014-03-15

    Intensification of agriculture has resulted in increased soil degradation and erosion, with associated pollution of surface waters. Small field wetlands, constructed along runoff pathways, offer one option for slowing down and storing runoff in order to allow more time for sedimentation and for nutrients to be taken up by plants or micro-organisms. This paper describes research to provide quantitative evidence for the effectiveness of small field wetlands in the UK landscape. Ten wetlands were built on four farms in Cumbria and Leicestershire, UK. Annual surveys of sediment and nutrient accumulation in 2010, 2011 and 2012 indicated that most sediment was trapped at a sandy site (70 tonnes over 3 years), compared to a silty site (40 tonnes over 3 years) and a clay site (2 tonnes over 3 years). The timing of rainfall was more important than total annual rainfall for sediment accumulation, with most sediment transported in a few intense rainfall events, especially when these coincided with bare soil or poor crop cover. Nutrient concentration within sediments was inversely related to median particle size, but the total mass of nutrients trapped was dependent on the total mass of sediment trapped. Ratios of nutrient elements in the wetland sediments were consistent between sites, despite different catchment characteristics across the individual wetlands. The nutrient value of sediment collected from the wetlands was similar to that of soil in the surrounding fields; dredged sediment was considered to have value as soil replacement but not as fertiliser. Overall, small field wetlands can make a valuable contribution to keeping soil out of rivers. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  12. Agricultural land use mapping. [Pennsylvania, Montana, and Texas

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mcmurtry, G. J.; Petersen, G. W. (Principal Investigator); Wilson, A. D.

    1973-01-01

    The author has identified the following significant results. Agricultural areas were selected or analysis in southeastern Pennsylvania, north central Montana, and southern Texas. These three sites represent a broad range of soils, soil parent materials, climate, modes of agricultural operation, crops, and field sizes. In each of these three sites, ERTS-1 digital data were processed to determine the feasibility of automatically mapping agricultural land use. In Pennsylvania, forest land, cultivated land, and water were separable within a 25,000 acre area. Four classes of water were also classified and identified, using ground truth. A less complex land use pattern was analyzed in Hill County, Montana. A land use map was prepared shown alternating patterns of summer fallow and stubble fields. The location of farmsteads could be inferred, along with that of a railroad line. A river and a creek flowing into the river were discernible. Six categories of water, related to sediment content and depth, were defined in the reservoir held by the Fresno dam. These classifications were completed on a 150 square mile area. Analysis of the data from Texas is in its formative stages. A test site has been selected and a brightness map has been produced.

  13. Effects of fertilizers used in agricultural fields on algal blooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chakraborty, Subhendu; Tiwari, P. K.; Sasmal, S. K.; Misra, A. K.; Chattopadhyay, Joydev

    2017-06-01

    The increasing occurrence of algal blooms and their negative ecological impacts have led to intensified monitoring activities. This needs the proper identification of the most responsible factor/factors for the bloom formation. However, in natural systems, algal blooms result from a combination of factors and from observation it is difficult to identify the most important one. In the present paper, using a mathematical model we compare the effects of three human induced factors (fertilizer input in agricultural field, eutrophication due to other sources than fertilizers, and overfishing) on the bloom dynamics and DO level. By applying a sophisticated sensitivity analysis technique, we found that the increasing use of fertilizers in agricultural field causes more rapid algal growth and decreases DO level much faster than eutrophication from other sources and overfishing. We also look at the mechanisms how fertilizer input rate affects the algal bloom dynamics and DO level. The model can be helpful for the policy makers in determining the influential factors responsible for the bloom formation.

  14. Experimental monitoring and numerical study of pesticide (carbofuran) transfer in an agricultural soil at a field site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hmimou, Abderrahim; Maslouhi, Abdellatif; Tamoh, Karim; Candela, Lucila

    2014-09-01

    We studied the transport of a pesticide at field scale, namely carbofuran molecule, which is known for its high mobility, especially in sandy soils with high hydraulic conductivity and low organic matter. To add to our knowledge of the future of this high-mobility molecule in this type of soils, we developed a mechanistic numerical model allowing the simulation of hydric and solute transfers (bromide and carbofuran) in the soil. We carried out this study in an agricultural plot in the region of Mnasra in Morocco. Confrontation of the measured and simulated values allowed the calibration of the parameters of hydric transfer and carbofuran. The developed model accurately reproduces the measured values. Despite a weak irrigation and precipitation regime, carbofuran was practically leached beyond the root zone. Prospective simulations show that under a more important irrigation regime, carbofuran reaches a 100-cm depth, whereas it does not exceed 60 cm under a deficit regime.

  15. Biodiversity in Organic Farmland - How Does Landscape Context Influence Species Diversity in Organic Vs. Conventional Agricultural Fields?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seufert, V.; Wood, S.; Reid, A.; Gonzalez, A.; Rhemtulla, J.; Ramankutty, N.

    2014-12-01

    The most important current driver of biodiversity loss is the conversion of natural habitats for human land uses, mostly for the purpose of food production. However, by causing this biodiversity loss, food production is eroding the very same ecosystem services (e.g. pollination and soil fertility) that it depends on. We therefore need to adopt more wildlife-friendly agricultural practices that can contribute to preserving biodiversity. Organic farming has been shown to typically host higher biodiversity than conventional farming. But how is the biodiversity benefit of organic management dependent on the landscape context farms are situated in? To implement organic farming as an effective means for protecting biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem services we need to understand better under what conditions organic management is most beneficial for species. We conducted a meta-analysis of the literature to answer this question, compiling the most comprehensive database to date of studies that monitored biodiversity in organic vs. conventional fields. We also collected information about the landscape surrounding these fields from remote sensing products. Our database consists of 348 study sites across North America and Europe. Our analysis shows that organic management can improve biodiversity in agricultural fields substantially. It is especially effective at preserving biodiversity in homogeneous landscapes that are structurally simplified and dominated by either cropland or pasture. In heterogeneous landscapes conventional agriculture might instead already hold high biodiversity, and organic management does not appear to provide as much of a benefit for species richness as in simplified landscapes. Our results suggest that strategies to maintain biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services should include a combination of pristine natural habitats, wildlife-friendly farming systems like organic farming, and high-yielding conventional systems, interspersed in structurally

  16. Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework: 3. Land Use and Field Boundary Database Development and Structure.

    PubMed

    Tomer, Mark D; James, David E; Sandoval-Green, Claudette M J

    2017-05-01

    Conservation planning information is important for identifying options for watershed water quality improvement and can be developed for use at field, farm, and watershed scales. Translation across scales is a key issue impeding progress at watershed scales because watershed improvement goals must be connected with implementation of farm- and field-level conservation practices to demonstrate success. This is particularly true when examining alternatives for "trap and treat" practices implemented at agricultural-field edges to control (or influence) water flows through fields, landscapes, and riparian corridors within agricultural watersheds. We propose that database structures used in developing conservation planning information can achieve translation across conservation-planning scales, and we developed the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) to enable practical planning applications. The ACPF comprises a planning concept, a database to facilitate field-level and watershed-scale analyses, and an ArcGIS toolbox with Python scripts to identify specific options for placement of conservation practices. This paper appends two prior publications and describes the structure of the ACPF database, which contains land use, crop history, and soils information and is available for download for 6091 HUC12 watersheds located across Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and parts of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin and comprises information on 2.74 × 10 agricultural fields (available through /). Sample results examining land use trends across Iowa and Illinois are presented here to demonstrate potential uses of the database. While designed for use with the ACPF toolbox, users are welcome to use the ACPF watershed data in a variety of planning and modeling approaches. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  17. A mobile app for delivering in-field soil data for precision agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Isaacs, John P.; Stojanovic, Vladeta; Falconer, Ruth E.

    2015-04-01

    In the last decade precision agriculture has grown from a concept to an emerging technology, largely due to the maturing of GPS and mobile mapping. We investigated methods for reliable delivery and display of appropriate and context aware in-field farm data on mobile devices by developing a prototype android mobile app. The 3D app was developed using OpenGL ES 2.0 and written in Java, using the Android Development Tools (ADT) SDK. The app is able to obtain GPS coordinates and automatically synchronise the view and load relevant data based on the user's location. The intended audience of the mobile app is farmers and agronomists. Apps are becoming an essential tool in an agricultural professional's arsenal however most existing apps are limited to 2D display of data even though the modern chips in mobile devices can support the display of 3D graphics at interactive rates using technologies such as webGL. This project investigated the use of games techniques in the delivery and 3D display of field data, recognising that this may be a departure from the way the field data is currently delivered and displayed to farmers and agronomists. Different interactive 3D visualisation methods presenting spatial and temporal variation in yield values were developed and tested. It is expected that this app can be used by farmers and agronomists to support decision making in the field of precision agriculture and this is a growing market in UK and Europe.

  18. Illinois Occupational Skill Standards: Agricultural Laboratory and Field Technician Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois Occupational Skill Standards and Credentialing Council, Carbondale.

    These Illinois skill standards for the agricultural laboratory and field technician cluster are intended to serve as a guide to workforce preparation program providers as they define content for their programs and to employers as they establish the skills and standards necessary for job acquisition. They could also serve as a mechanism for…

  19. Parkinson's Disease Prevalence and Proximity to Agricultural Cultivated Fields

    PubMed Central

    Yitshak Sade, Maayan; Zlotnik, Yair; Kloog, Itai; Novack, Victor; Peretz, Chava; Ifergane, Gal

    2015-01-01

    The risk for developing Parkinson's disease (PD) is a combination of multiple environmental and genetic factors. The Negev (Southern Israel) contains approximately 252.5 km2 of agricultural cultivated fields (ACF). We aimed to estimate the prevalence and incidence of PD and to examine possible geographical clustering and associations with agricultural exposures. We screened all “Clalit” Health Services members in the Negev (70% of the population) between the years 2000 and 2012. Individual demographic, clinical, and medication prescription data were available. We used a refined medication tracer algorithm to identify PD patients. We used mixed Poisson models to calculate the smoothed standardized incidence rates (SIRs) for each locality. We identified ACF and calculate the size and distance of the fields from each locality. We identified 3,792 cases of PD. SIRs were higher than expected in Jewish rural localities (median SIR [95% CI]: 1.41 [1.28; 1.53] in 2001–2004, 1.62 [1.48; 1.76] in 2005–2008, and 1.57 [1.44; 1.80] in 2009–2012). Highest SIR was observed in localities located in proximity to large ACF (SIR 1.54, 95% CI 1.32; 1.79). In conclusion, in this population based study we found that PD SIRs were higher than expected in rural localities. Furthermore, it appears that proximity to ACF and the field size contribute to PD risk. PMID:26357584

  20. Effect of Agricultural Practices on Hydrology and Water Chemistry in a Small Irrigated Catchment, Yakima River Basin, Washington

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    McCarthy, Kathleen A.; Johnson, Henry M.

    2009-01-01

    The role of irrigation and artificial drainage in the hydrologic cycle and the transport of solutes in a small agricultural catchment in central Washington's Yakima Valley were explored using hydrologic, chemical, isotopic, age-dating, and mineralogical data from several environmental compartments, including stream water, ground water, overland flow, and streambed pore water. A conceptual understanding of catchment hydrology and solute transport was developed and an inverse end-member mixing analysis was used to further explore the effects of agriculture in this small catchment. The median concentrations of major solutes and nitrates were similar for the single field site and for the catchment outflow site, indicating that the net effects of transport processes for these constituents were similar at both scales. However, concentrations of nutrients were different at the two sites, suggesting that field-scale variations in agricultural practices as well as nearstream and instream biochemical processes are important components of agricultural chemical transformation and transport in this catchment. This work indicates that irrigation coupled with artificial drainage networks may exacerbate the ecological effects of agricultural runoff by increasing direct connectivity between fields and streams and minimizing potentially mitigating effects (denitrification and dilution, for example) of longer subsurface pathways.

  1. Could Crop Height Impact the Wind Resource at Agriculturally Productive Wind Farm Sites?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vanderwende, B. J.; Lundquist, J. K.

    2013-12-01

    The agriculture-intensive United States Midwest and Great Plains regions feature some of the best wind resources in the nation. Collocation of cropland and wind turbines introduces complex meteorological interactions that could affect both agriculture and wind power production. Crop management practices may modify the wind resource through alterations of land-surface properties. In this study, we used the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to estimate the impact of crop height variations on the wind resource in the presence of a large turbine array. We parameterized a hypothetical array of 121 1.8 MW turbines at the site of the 2011 Crop/Wind-energy Experiment field campaign using the WRF wind farm parameterization. We estimated the impact of crop choices on power production by altering the aerodynamic roughness length in a region approximately 65 times larger than that occupied by the turbine array. Roughness lengths of 10 cm and 25 cm represent a mature soy crop and a mature corn crop respectively. Results suggest that the presence of the mature corn crop reduces hub-height wind speeds and increases rotor-layer wind shear, even in the presence of a large wind farm which itself modifies the flow. During the night, the influence of the surface was dependent on the boundary layer stability, with strong stability inhibiting the surface drag from modifying the wind resource aloft. Further investigation is required to determine the optimal size, shape, and crop height of the roughness modification to maximize the economic benefit and minimize the cost of such crop management practices.

  2. On-site cell field test support program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Staniunas, J. W.; Merten, G. P.

    1982-09-01

    Utility sites for data monitoring were reviewed and selected. Each of these sites will be instrumented and its energy requirements monitored and analyzed for one year prior to the selection of 40 Kilowatt fuel cell field test sites. Analyses in support of the selection of sites for instrumentation shows that many building sectors offered considerable market potential. These sectors include nursing home, health club, restaurant, industrial, hotel/motel and apartment.

  3. Bird use of agricultural fields under reduced and conventional tillage in the Texas Panhandle

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Flickinger, Edward L.; Pendleton, G.W.

    1994-01-01

    We conducted bird surveys in reduced-tillage and conventional tillage fields in spring, summer, fall, and winter from 1987 to 1991 in the Texas Panhandle. Eastern meadowlarks, longspurs, and savannah sparrows were more common in reduced-tillage (sorghum and wheat stubble) fields than in conventionally tilled (plowed) fields in at least 1 season. Other species also had patterns suggestive of greater abundance in reduced-tillage fields. Hornedlarks, which prefer habitat with sparse vegetation, were more abundant in plowed fields in all seasons except summer. Bird diversity was greater in reduced-tillage fields than in conventionally tilled fields in summer. Cover density and height were greater in reduced tillage fields in all seasons except spring. Cover density and height rather than cover composition (e.g.,grain stubble or live plants) seemed to be the important factors affecting bird distribution. Patterns of bird abundance between sorghum and wheat stubble fields also were dependent on cover. Herbicide use was not greater in reduced-tillage fields than in conventionally tilled fields. Reduced-tillage agriculture for sorghum and wheat farming should be encouraged in the southern Great Plains as a means of improving the attractiveness of agricultural land to many bird species.

  4. Evaluation of the APEX Model to Simulate Runoff Quality from Agricultural Fields in the Southern Region of the United States.

    PubMed

    Ramirez-Avila, John J; Radcliffe, David E; Osmond, Deanna; Bolster, Carl; Sharpley, Andrew; Ortega-Achury, Sandra L; Forsberg, Adam; Oldham, J Larry

    2017-11-01

    The Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model has been widely applied to assess phosphorus (P) loss in runoff water and has been proposed as a model to support practical decisions regarding agricultural P management, as well as a model to evaluate tools such as the P Index. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of APEX to simulate P losses from agricultural systems to determine its potential use for refinement or replacement of the P Index in the southern region of the United States. Uncalibrated and calibrated APEX model predictions were compared against measured water quality data from row crop fields in North Carolina and Mississippi and pasture fields in Arkansas and Georgia. Calibrated models satisfactorily predicted event-based surface runoff volumes at all sites (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency [NSE] > 0.47, |percent bias [PBIAS]| < 34) except Arkansas (NSE < 0.11, |PBIAS| < 50) but did not satisfactory simulate sediment, dissolved P, or total P losses in runoff water. The APEX model tended to underestimate dissolved and total P losses from fields where manure was surface applied. The model also overestimated sediments and total P loads during irrigation events. We conclude that the capability of APEX to predict sediment and P losses is limited, and consequently so is the potential for using APEX to make P management recommendations to improve P Indices in the southern United States. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  5. Assessment of soil erosion and deposition rates in a Moroccan agricultural field using fallout 137Cs and 210Pbex.

    PubMed

    Benmansour, M; Mabit, L; Nouira, A; Moussadek, R; Bouksirate, H; Duchemin, M; Benkdad, A

    2013-01-01

    In Morocco land degradation - mainly caused by soil erosion - is one of the most serious agroenvironmental threats encountered. However, only limited data are available on the actual magnitude of soil erosion. The study site investigated was an agricultural field located in Marchouch (6°42' W, 33° 47' N) at 68 km south east from Rabat. This work demonstrates the potential of the combined use of (137)Cs, (210)Pb(ex) as radioisotopic soil tracers to estimate mid and long term erosion and deposition rates under Mediterranean agricultural areas. The net soil erosion rates obtained were comparable, 14.3 t ha(-1) yr(-1) and 12.1 ha(-1) yr(-1) for (137)Cs and (210)Pb(ex) respectively, resulting in a similar sediment delivery ratio of about 92%. Soil redistribution patterns of the study field were established using a simple spatialisation approach. The resulting maps generated by the use of both radionuclides were similar, indicating that the soil erosion processes has not changed significantly over the last 100 years. Over the previous 10 year period, the additional results provided by the test of the prediction model RUSLE 2 provided results of the same order of magnitude. Based on the (137)Cs dataset established, the contribution of the tillage erosion impact has been evaluated with the Mass Balance Model 3 and compared to the result obtained with the Mass Balance Model 2. The findings highlighted that water erosion is the leading process in this Moroccan cultivated field, tillage erosion under the experimental condition being the main translocation process within the site without a significant and major impact on the net erosion. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Agricultural implications of the Fukushima nuclear accident

    PubMed Central

    Nakanishi, Tomoko M.

    2016-01-01

    More than 4 years has passed since the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Immediately after the accident, 40 to 50 academic staff of the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo created an independent team to monitor the behavior of the radioactive materials in the field and their effects on agricultural farm lands, forests, rivers, animals, etc. When the radioactive nuclides from the nuclear power plant fell, they were instantly adsorbed at the site where they first touched; consequently, the fallout was found as scattered spots on the surface of anything that was exposed to the air at the time of the accident. The adsorption has become stronger over time, so the radioactive nuclides are now difficult to remove. The findings of our study regarding the wide range of effects on agricultural fields are summarized in this report. PMID:27538845

  7. Multi-frequency and polarimetric radar backscatter signatures for discrimination between agricultural crops at the Flevoland experimental test site

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Freeman, A.; Villasenor, J.; Klein, J. D.

    1991-01-01

    We describe the calibration and analysis of multi-frequency, multi-polarization radar backscatter signatures over an agriculture test site in the Netherlands. The calibration procedure involved two stages: in the first stage, polarimetric and radiometric calibrations (ignoring noise) were carried out using square-base trihedral corner reflector signatures and some properties of the clutter background. In the second stage, a novel algorithm was used to estimate the noise level in the polarimetric data channels by using the measured signature of an idealized rough surface with Bragg scattering (the ocean in this case). This estimated noise level was then used to correct the measured backscatter signatures from the agriculture fields. We examine the significance of several key parameters extracted from the calibrated and noise-corrected backscatter signatures. The significance is assessed in terms of the ability to uniquely separate among classes from 13 different backscatter types selected from the test site data, including eleven different crops, one forest and one ocean area. Using the parameters with the highest separation for a given class, we use a hierarchical algorithm to classify the entire image. We find that many classes, including ocean, forest, potato, and beet, can be identified with high reliability, while the classes for which no single parameter exhibits sufficient separation have higher rates of misclassification. We expect that modified decision criteria involving simultaneous consideration of several parameters increase performance for these classes.

  8. Gypsum as a best management practice for reducing P loss from agricultural fields

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Phosphorus loss from agricultural fields fertilized with poultry litter (PL) may contribute to eutrophication of nearby rivers, lakes, and streams. It has been suggested that gypsum can be used as a soil amendment to reduce P loss from these fields. Also, a new USDA-NRCS National Conservation Practi...

  9. Multi-configuration electromagnetic induction measurements at long term agricultural test sites in Germany with different fertilizer and irrigation managements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kaufmann, Manuela Sarah; von Hebel, Christian; Brogi, Cosimo; Baumecker, Michael; Döring, Thomas; Amelung, Wulf; Vereecken, Harry; van der Kruk, Jan

    2017-04-01

    Electromagnetic induction (EMI) data are often being used to investigate large scale soil properties including clay content, soil water content, and salinity changes for a wide range of applications. For agricultural sites, different management practices such as organic/mineral fertilization, tillage, and/or irrigation are important when interpreting the measured apparent electrical conductivity (ECa). Here, we present EMI data recorded at two long term field experiment (LTFE) agricultural test sites in Thyrow near Berlin (Germany), where different long term fertilizer and irrigation management practices were applied. We used two fixed-boom multi-coil EMI instruments that simultaneously measure over nine different depths of investigation (DOI), recording information ranging between the very shallow (0-0.25 m) ploughing zone including the organic matter and the surface soil (A-Horizon) down to the relatively deep (0-2.7 m) subsoil (B-Horizon) or even substratum (C-Horizon). At both test sites, the prevailing sandy to silty sand in the A- and B-Horizon is underlain by a glacial till C-Horizon resulting in generally low ECa values between 0.5 and 5 mS/m. At one test site, a "static nutrient deficiency experiment" is performed since 1937, where organic fertilizer (farm yard manure) and mineral fertilizers (nitrogen-phosphate-potassium (NPK) and liming) are applied at specific grids. Comparing the fertilizer application grid to the measured EMI data, the lowest ECa values coincide to unfertilized grids whereas the ECa values increase with liming, farm yard manure, and NPK. The visually observed correlation between ECa and the liming treatment was possibly due to the increased pH of the soil, because the fertilizer application increases ion contents that increase the soil electrical conductivity. At the second test site, a "Static Irrigation and Fertilizer Experiment" is conducted, where next to the fertilizer treatment (farm yard manure and nitrogen) part of the field

  10. Characteristics of Ambient Black Carbon Mass and Size-Resolved Particle Number Concentrations during Corn Straw Open-Field Burning Episode Observations at a Rural Site in Southern Taiwan.

    PubMed

    Cheng, Yu-Hsiang; Yang, Li-Sing

    2016-07-08

    Information on the effect of open-field burning of agricultural residues on ambient black carbon (BC) mass and size-resolved particle number concentrations is scarce. In this study, to understand the effect of such open-field burning on short-term air quality, real-time variations of the BC mass and size-resolved particle number concentrations were monitored before and during a corn straw open-field burning episode at a rural site. Correlations between the BC mass and size-resolved particle number concentrations during the episode were investigated. Moreover, the particle number size distribution and absorption Ångström exponent were determined for obtaining the characteristics of aerosol emissions from the corn straw open-field burning. The results can be used to address public health concerns and as a reference for managing similar episodes of open-field burning of agricultural residues.

  11. Identifying the Tunneling Site in Strong-Field Ionization of H_{2}^{+}.

    PubMed

    Liu, Kunlong; Barth, Ingo

    2017-12-15

    The tunneling site of the electron in a molecule exposed to a strong laser field determines the initial position of the ionizing electron and, as a result, has a large impact on the subsequent ultrafast electron dynamics on the polyatomic Coulomb potential. Here, the tunneling site of the electron of H_{2}^{+} ionized by a strong circularly polarized (CP) laser pulse is studied by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. We show that the electron removed from the down-field site is directly driven away by the CP field and the lateral photoelectron momentum distribution (LPMD) exhibits a Gaussian-like distribution, whereas the corresponding LPMD of the electron removed from the up-field site differs from the Gaussian shape due to the Coulomb focusing and scattering by the down-field core. Our current study presents the direct evidence clarifying a long-standing controversy over the tunneling site in H_{2}^{+} and raises the important role of the tunneling site in strong-field molecular ionization.

  12. Use of FGD gypsum to reduce p loss from agricultural fields

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Controlling P loss from agricultural fields has become a major issue in recent years, especially in areas where manure is used as nutrient sources. It is believed that FGD gypsum can be used as a management practice to reduce soluble P loss. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine FGD gy...

  13. Rapid mineralisation of the herbicide isoproturon in soil from a previously treated Danish agricultural field.

    PubMed

    Sørensen, Sebastian R; Aamand, Jens

    2003-10-01

    Mineralisation of the phenylurea herbicide isoproturon (3-(4-isopropylphenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea) and two of its known metabolites, 3-(4-isopropylphenyl)-1-methylurea (monodesmethyl-isoproturon) and 4-isopropylaniline, was studied in Danish agricultural soils with or without previous exposure to isoproturon. A potential for rapid mineralisation of isoproturon and the two metabolites was present in soils sampled from three plots within an agricultural field previously treated regularly with the herbicide, with 34-45%, 51-58% and 33-36% of the added [phenyl-U-14C]isoproturon, [phenyl-U-14C]monodesmethyl-isoproturon and [phenyl-U-14C]4-isopropylaniline metabolised to [14C]carbon dioxide within 30 days at 20 degrees C. In contrast, such extensive mineralisation of these three compounds was not observed within this period in soils sampled from two other agricultural fields without previous treatment with isoproturon. The mineralisation patterns indicated growth-linked metabolism of the three compounds in the previously exposed soils, and doubling times for [14C]carbon dioxide production ranged from 1.6 to 3.2, 1.0 to 2.1 and 1.3 to 1.7 days for isoproturon, monodesmethyl-isoproturon and 4-isopropylaniline, respectively. The ability to mineralise [phenyl-U-14C]isoproturon to [14C]carbon dioxide was successfully sub-cultured to a fresh mineral medium which provided isoproturon as sole source of carbon and nitrogen. One of the soils sampled from an agricultural field not previously treated with isoproturon showed accelerated mineralisation of [phenyl-U-14C]4-isopropylaniline toward the end of the experiment, with a doubling time for [14C]carbon dioxide production of 7.4days. This study indicates that the occurrence of rapid mineralisation of the phenyl ring of isoproturon to carbon dioxide is related to previous exposure to the herbicide, which suggests that microbial adaptation upon repeated isoproturon use may occur within agricultural fields.

  14. Statistical and Economic Techniques for Site-specific Nematode Management.

    PubMed

    Liu, Zheng; Griffin, Terry; Kirkpatrick, Terrence L

    2014-03-01

    Recent advances in precision agriculture technologies and spatial statistics allow realistic, site-specific estimation of nematode damage to field crops and provide a platform for the site-specific delivery of nematicides within individual fields. This paper reviews the spatial statistical techniques that model correlations among neighboring observations and develop a spatial economic analysis to determine the potential of site-specific nematicide application. The spatial econometric methodology applied in the context of site-specific crop yield response contributes to closing the gap between data analysis and realistic site-specific nematicide recommendations and helps to provide a practical method of site-specifically controlling nematodes.

  15. Assessment and Monitoring of Nutrient Management in Irrigated Agriculture for Groundwater Quality Protection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Harter, T.; Davis, R.; Smart, D. R.; Brown, P. H.; Dzurella, K.; Bell, A.; Kourakos, G.

    2017-12-01

    Nutrient fluxes to groundwater have been subject to regulatory assessment and control only in a limited number of countries, including those in the European Union, where the Water Framework Directive requires member countries to manage groundwater basis toward achieving "good status", and California, where irrigated lands will be subject to permitting, stringent nutrient monitoring requirements, and development of practices that are protective of groundwater. However, research activities to rigorously assess agricultural practices for their impact on groundwater have been limited and instead focused on surface water protection. For groundwater-related assessment of agricultural practices, a wide range of modeling tools has been employed: vulnerability studies, nitrogen mass balance assessments, crop-soil-system models, and various statistical tools. These tools are predominantly used to identify high risk regions, practices, or crops. Here we present the development of a field site for rigorous in-situ evaluation of water and nutrient management practices in an irrigated agricultural setting. Integrating groundwater monitoring into agricultural practice assessment requires large research plots (on the order of 10s to 100s of hectares) and multi-year research time-frames - much larger than typical agricultural field research plots. Almonds are among the most common crops in California with intensive use of nitrogen fertilizer and were selected for their high water quality improvement potential. Availability of an orchard site with relatively vulnerable groundwater conditions (sandy soils, water table depth less than 10 m) was also important in site selection. Initial results show that shallow groundwater concentrations are commensurate with nitrogen leaching estimates obtained by considering historical, long-term field nitrogen mass balance and groundwater dynamics.

  16. Edge-of-field research to quantify the impacts of agricultural practices on water quality in Ohio

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Drainage is needed to sustain agricultural production to meet the demands of a growing global population, but it also transports nutrients from fields to surface water bodies. The State of Ohio is facing the tremendous challenge of maintaining agricultural production while protecting the environment...

  17. Optical modeling of agricultural fields and rough-textured rock and mineral surfaces

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Suits, G. H.; Vincent, R. K.; Horwitz, H. M.; Erickson, J. D.

    1973-01-01

    Review was made of past models for describing the reflectance and/or emittance properties of agricultural/forestry and geological targets in an effort to select the best theoretical models. An extension of the six parameter Allen-Gayle-Richardson model was chosen as the agricultural plant canopy model. The model is used to predict the bidirectional reflectance of a field crop from known laboratory spectra of crop components and approximate plant geometry. The selected geological model is based on Mie theory and radiative transfer equations, and will assess the effect of textural variations of the spectral emittance of natural rock surfaces.

  18. Pedoarchaeology of Early Agricultural Period Irrigation Systems in the Tucson Basin of the American Southwest

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Homburg, Jeffrey; Nials, Fred

    2017-04-01

    Pedoarchaeological studies were conducted at the Las Capas and Sunset Road sites in the Tucson Basin of Arizona in order to document and evaluate soil productivity and hydraulic soil properties of ancient agricultural irrigation systems. These ancient irrigated fields are on the margin of the Santa Cruz River floodplain, between two alluvial fans where high water tables and stable to aggrading geomorphic conditions facilitated diverting water from drainages and directing it to fields by gravity-fed canal irrigation. Archaeological investigations at these sites recently provided opportunities for documenting the configuration and evolution of the oldest irrigation systems yet identified in the United States, the earliest dating to more than three millennia in age. This research is significant archaeologically because of: (1) the antiquity ( 575-1225 B.C.) of the Early Agricultural period irrigation systems at these sites, (2) the fact that irrigation systems dated to different times are separated stratigraphically within the sites, and (3) the fact that extensive, well-preserved gridded irrigation features were identified using mechanical stripping, with nearly 100 ancient footprints preserved on a buried agricultural surface at Sunset Road. The stratigraphic separation of buried surfaces that were irrigated and the abundant cultivated irrigation plots facilitated soil sampling so that field, border, and uncultivated control samples could be compared in order to measure the anthropogenic effects of agriculture on soil quality in the irragric soils. Long-term indicators of agricultural soil quality such as organic carbon, nutrient content, and hydraulic soil water properties such as available water capacity and saturated hydraulic conductivity, indicate that soil changes were generally favorable for agricultural production and that these ancient irrigation systems were sustainable. Canals regularly supplied water to the fields, but they also supplied nutrient

  19. Preparing students for higher education and careers in agriculture and related fields: An ethnography of an urban charter school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Henry, Kesha Atasha

    This study explored the preparation of students for higher education and careers in agriculturally-related fields at an urban charter high school. The data were collected through interviews, observations, and field notes. The data were analyzed by qualitative methodology with phenomenology as the theoretical framework. Findings indicated that administrators thought it was important to incorporate agricultural science courses into urban school curricula. They stated that agricultural science courses gave urban students a different way of looking at science and helped to enhance the science and technology focus of the school. Further, agricultural science courses helped to break urban students' stereotypes about agriculture and helped to bring in more state funding for educational programs. However they thought that it was more challenging to teach agricultural science in urban versus rural schools and they focused more on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related careers. The students had mixed views about higher education and careers in agriculture. This was based on their limited knowledge and stereotypes about agricultural majors and career options. The students highlighted several key reasons why they chose to enroll in agricultural science courses. This included the benefits of dual science credits and the ability to earn an associate degree upon successful completion of their program. Students also loved science and appreciated the science intensive nature of the agricultural courses. Additionally, they thought that the agricultural science courses were better than the other optional courses. The results also showed that electronic media such as radio and TV had a negative impact on students' perceptions about higher education and careers in agriculturally-related fields. Conclusions and recommendations are presented.

  20. Zoning of an agricultural field using a fuzzy indicator model in combination with tool for multi-attributed decision-making

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Zoning of agricultural fields is an important task for utilization of precision farming technology. This paper extends previously published work entitled “Zoning of an agricultural field using a fuzzy indicator model” to a general case where there is disagreement between groups of managers or expert...

  1. Combining optical remote sensing, agricultural statistics and field observations for culture recognition over a peri-urban region

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Delbart, Nicolas; Emmanuelle, Vaudour; Fabienne, Maignan; Catherine, Ottlé; Jean-Marc, Gilliot

    2017-04-01

    This study explores the potential of multi-temporal optical remote sensing, with high revisit frequency, to derive missing information on agricultural calendar and crop types over the agricultural lands in the Versailles plain in the western Paris suburbs. This study comes besides past and ongoing studies on the use of radar and high spatial resolution optical remote sensing to monitor agricultural practices in this study area (e.g. Vaudour et al. 2014). Agricultural statistics, such as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) for France, permit to know the nature of annual crops for each digitized declared field of this land parcel registry. However, within each declared field several cropped plots and a diversity of practices may exist, being marked by agricultural rotations which vary both spatially and temporally within it and differ from one year to the other. Even though the new LPIS to be released in 2016 is expected to describe individual plots within declared fields, its attributes may not enable to discriminate between winter and spring crops. Here we evaluate the potential of high observation frequency remote sensing to differentiate seasonal crops based essentially on the seasonality of the spectral properties. In particular, we use the Landsat data to spatially disaggregate the LPIS statistical data, on the basis of the analysis of the remote sensing spectral seasonality measured on a number of selected ground-observed fields. This work is carried out in the framework of the CNES TOSCA-PLEIADES-CO of the French Space Agency.

  2. Vegetation Water Content Mapping in a Diverse Agricultural Landscape: National Airborne Field Experiment 2006

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cosh, Michael H.; Jing Tao; Jackson, Thomas J.; McKee, Lynn; O'Neill, Peggy

    2011-01-01

    Mapping land cover and vegetation characteristics on a regional scale is critical to soil moisture retrieval using microwave remote sensing. In aircraft-based experiments such as the National Airborne Field Experiment 2006 (NAFE 06), it is challenging to provide accurate high resolution vegetation information, especially on a daily basis. A technique proposed in previous studies was adapted here to the heterogenous conditions encountered in NAFE 06, which included a hydrologically complex landscape consisting of both irrigated and dryland agriculture. Using field vegetation sampling and ground-based reflectance measurements, the knowledge base for relating the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and the vegetation water content was extended to a greater diversity of agricultural crops, which included dryland and irrigated wheat, alfalfa, and canola. Critical to the generation of vegetation water content maps, the land cover for this region was determined from satellite visible/infrared imagery and ground surveys with an accuracy of 95.5% and a kappa coefficient of 0.95. The vegetation water content was estimated with a root mean square error of 0.33 kg/sq m. The results of this investigation contribute to a more robust database of global vegetation water content observations and demonstrate that the approach can be applied with high accuracy. Keywords: Vegetation, field experimentation, thematic mapper, NDWI, agriculture.

  3. Three Dimensional Modeling of Agricultural Contamination of Groundwater: a Case Study in the Nebraska Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) Site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akbariyeh, S.; Snow, D. D.; Bartelt-Hunt, S.; Li, X.; Li, Y.

    2015-12-01

    Contamination of groundwater from nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural lands is an important environmental and water quality management issue. It is well recognized that in agriculturally intensive areas, fertilizers and pesticides may leach through the vadose zone and eventually reach groundwater, impacting future uses of this limited resource. While numerical models are commonly used to simulate fate and transport of agricultural contaminants, few models have been validated based on realistic three dimensional soil lithology, hydrological conditions, and historical changes in groundwater quality. In this work, contamination of groundwater in the Nebraska Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) site was simulated based on extensive field data including (1) lithology from 69 wells and 11 test holes; (2) surface soil type, land use, and surface elevations; (3) 5-year groundwater level and flow velocity; (4) daily meteorological monitoring; (5) 5-year seasonal irrigation records; (6) 5-years of spatially intensive contaminant concentration in 40 multilevel monitoring wells; and (7) detailed cultivation records. Using this data, a three-dimensional vadose zone lithological framework was developed using a commercial software tool (RockworksTM). Based on the interpolated lithology, a hydrological model was developed using HYDRUS-3D to simulate water flow and contaminant transport. The model was validated through comparison of simulated atrazine and nitrate concentration with historical data from 40 wells and multilevel samplers. The validated model will be used to predict potential changes in ground water quality due to agricultural contamination under future climate scenarios in the High Plain Aquifer system.

  4. Evaluation of a model framework to estimate soil and soil organic carbon redistribution by water and tillage using 137Cs in two U.S. Midwest agricultural fields

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Young, Claudia J.; Liu, Shuguang; Schumacher, Joseph A.; Schumacher, Thomas E.; Kaspar, Thomas C.; McCarty, Gregory W.; Napton, Darrell; Jaynes, Dan B.

    2014-01-01

    Cultivated lands in the U.S. Midwest have been affected by soil erosion, causing soil organic carbon (SOC) redistribution in the landscape and other environmental and agricultural problems. The importance of SOC redistribution on soil productivity and crop yield, however, is still uncertain. In this study, we used a model framework, which includes the Unit Stream Power-based Erosion Deposition (USPED) and the Tillage Erosion Prediction (TEP) models, to understand the soil and SOC redistribution caused by water and tillage erosion in two agricultural fields in the U.S. Midwest. This model framework was evaluated for different digital elevation model (DEM) spatial resolutions (10-m, 24-m, 30-m, and 56-m) and topographic exponents (m = 1.0–1.6 and n = 1.0–1.3) using soil redistribution rates from 137Cs measurements. The results showed that the aggregated 24-m DEM, m = 1.4 and n = 1.0 for rill erosion, and m = 1.0 and n = 1.0 for sheet erosion, provided the best fit with the observation data at both sites. Moreover, estimated average SOC redistributions were 1.3 ± 9.8 g C m− 2 yr− 1 in field site 1 and 3.6 ± 14.3 g C m− 2 yr− 1 in field site 2. Spatial distribution patterns showed SOC loss (negative values) in the eroded areas and SOC gain (positive value) in the deposition areas. This study demonstrated the importance of the spatial resolution and the topographic exponents to estimate and map soil redistribution and the SOC dynamics throughout the landscape, helping to identify places where erosion and deposition from water and tillage are occurring at high rates. Additional research is needed to improve the application of the model framework for use in local and regional studies where rainfall erosivity and cover management factors vary. Therefore, using this model framework can help to improve the information about the spatial distribution of soil erosion across agricultural landscapes and to gain a better understanding of SOC

  5. Division of Agriculture

    Science.gov Websites

    Department of Natural Resources logo, color scheme Department of Natural Resources Division of Agriculture Search Search DNR's site DNR State of Alaska Toggle main menu visibility Agriculture Home Programs Asset Disposals Alaska Caps Progam Board of Agriculture & Conservation Farm To School Program Grants

  6. Using a Decision Support System to Optimize Production of Agricultural Crop Residue Biofeedstock

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Reed L. Hoskinson; Ronald C. Rope; Raymond K. Fink

    2007-04-01

    For several years the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been developing a Decision Support System for Agriculture (DSS4Ag) which determines the economically optimum recipe of various fertilizers to apply at each site in a field to produce a crop, based on the existing soil fertility at each site, as well as historic production information and current prices of fertilizers and the forecast market price of the crop at harvest, for growing a crop such as wheat, potatoes, corn, or cotton. In support of the growing interest in agricultural crop residues as a bioenergy feedstock, we have extended the capability ofmore » the DSS4Ag to develop a variable-rate fertilizer recipe for the simultaneous economically optimum production of both grain and straw, and have been conducting field research to test this new DSS4Ag. In this paper we report the results of two years of field research testing and enhancing the DSS4Ag’s ability to economically optimize the fertilization for the simultaneous production of both grain and its straw, where the straw is an agricultural crop residue that can be used as a biofeedstock.« less

  7. Designing and Testing a UAV Mapping System for Agricultural Field Surveying

    PubMed Central

    Skovsen, Søren

    2017-01-01

    A Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor mounted on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can map the overflown environment in point clouds. Mapped canopy heights allow for the estimation of crop biomass in agriculture. The work presented in this paper contributes to sensory UAV setup design for mapping and textual analysis of agricultural fields. LiDAR data are combined with data from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors to conduct environment mapping for point clouds. The proposed method facilitates LiDAR recordings in an experimental winter wheat field. Crop height estimates ranging from 0.35–0.58 m are correlated to the applied nitrogen treatments of 0–300 kgNha. The LiDAR point clouds are recorded, mapped, and analysed using the functionalities of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and the Point Cloud Library (PCL). Crop volume estimation is based on a voxel grid with a spatial resolution of 0.04 × 0.04 × 0.001 m. Two different flight patterns are evaluated at an altitude of 6 m to determine the impacts of the mapped LiDAR measurements on crop volume estimations. PMID:29168783

  8. Designing and Testing a UAV Mapping System for Agricultural Field Surveying.

    PubMed

    Christiansen, Martin Peter; Laursen, Morten Stigaard; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm; Skovsen, Søren; Gislum, René

    2017-11-23

    A Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor mounted on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can map the overflown environment in point clouds. Mapped canopy heights allow for the estimation of crop biomass in agriculture. The work presented in this paper contributes to sensory UAV setup design for mapping and textual analysis of agricultural fields. LiDAR data are combined with data from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors to conduct environment mapping for point clouds. The proposed method facilitates LiDAR recordings in an experimental winter wheat field. Crop height estimates ranging from 0.35-0.58 m are correlated to the applied nitrogen treatments of 0-300 kg N ha . The LiDAR point clouds are recorded, mapped, and analysed using the functionalities of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and the Point Cloud Library (PCL). Crop volume estimation is based on a voxel grid with a spatial resolution of 0.04 × 0.04 × 0.001 m. Two different flight patterns are evaluated at an altitude of 6 m to determine the impacts of the mapped LiDAR measurements on crop volume estimations.

  9. Field trip to Nevada test site

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    1976-01-01

    Two road logs guide the reader through the geologic scene from Las Vegas to Mercury and from Mercury through eight stops on the Nevada Test Site. Maps and cross sections depict the geology and hydrology of the area. Included among the tables is one showing the stratigraphic units in the southwestern Nevada volcanic field and another that lists the geologic maps covering the Nevada Test Site and vicinity. The relation of the geologic environment to nuclear-explosion effects is alluded to in brief discussions of collapse, surface subsidence, and cratering resulting from underground nuclear explosions.

  10. Agricultural wetlands as potential hotspots for mercury bioaccumulation: Experimental evidence using caged fish

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ackerman, Joshua T.; Eagles-Smith, Collin A.

    2010-01-01

    Wetlands provide numerous ecosystem services, but also can be sources of methylmercury (MeHg) production and export. Rice agricultural wetlands in particular may be important sites for MeHg bioaccumulation due to their worldwide ubiquity, periodic flooding schedules, and high use by wildlife. We assessed MeHg bioaccumulation within agricultural and perennial wetlands common to California's Central Valley during summer, when the majority of wetland habitats are shallowly flooded rice fields. We introduced caged western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) within white rice (Oryza sativa), wild rice (Zizania palustris), and permanent wetlands at water inlets, centers, and outlets. Total mercury (THg) concentrations and body burdens in caged mosquitofish increased rapidly, exceeding baseline values at introduction by 135% to 1197% and 29% to 1566% among sites, respectively, after only 60 days. Mercury bioaccumulation in caged mosquitofish was greater in rice fields than in permanent wetlands, with THg concentrations at wetland outlets increasing by 12.1, 5.8, and 2.9 times over initial concentrations in white rice, wild rice, and permanent wetlands, respectively. In fact, mosquitofish caged at white rice outlets accumulated 721 ng Hg/fish in just 60 days. Mercury in wild mosquito fish and Mississippi silversides (Menidia audens) concurrently sampled at wetland outlets also were greater in white rice and wild rice than permanent wetlands. Within wetlands, THg concentrations and body burdens of both caged and wild fish increased from water inlets to outlets in white rice fields, and tended to not vary among sites in permanent wetlands. Fish THg concentrations in agricultural wetlands were high, exceeding 0.2 ??g/g ww in 82% of caged fish and 59% of wild fish. Our results indicate that shallowly flooded rice fields are potential hotspots for MeHg bioaccumulation and, due to their global prevalence, suggest that agricultural wetlands may be important contributors to Me

  11. Development and prospect of unmanned aerial vehicles for agricultural production management

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Unmanned aerial vehicles have been developed and applied to support agricultural production management. Compared to piloted aircrafts, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can focus on small crop fields in lower flight altitude than regular airplanes to perform site-specific management with high precisi...

  12. Agricultural chemicals: life changer for mosquito vectors in agricultural landscapes?

    PubMed

    Kibuthu, Tabitha W; Njenga, Sammy M; Mbugua, Amos K; Muturi, Ephantus J

    2016-09-13

    Although many mosquito species develop within agricultural landscapes where they are potentially exposed to agricultural chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides), the effects of these chemicals on mosquito biology remain poorly understood. This study investigated the effects of sublethal concentrations of four agricultural chemicals on the life history traits of Anopheles arabiensis and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes. Field and laboratory experiments were conducted to examine how sublethal concentrations of four agricultural chemicals: an insecticide (cypermethrin), a herbicide (glyphosate), and two nitrogenous fertilizers (ammonium sulfate and diammonium phosphate) alter oviposition site selection, emergence rates, development time, adult body size, and longevity of An. arabiensis and Cx. quinquefasciatus. Both mosquito species had preference to oviposit in fertilizer treatments relative to pesticide treatments. Emergence rates for An. arabiensis were significantly higher in the control and ammonium sulfate treatments compared to cypermethrin treatment, while emergence rates for Cx. quinquefasciatus were significantly higher in the diammonium phosphate treatment compared to glyphosate and cypermethrin treatments. For both mosquito species, individuals from the ammonium sulfate and diammonium phosphate treatments took significantly longer time to develop compared to those from cypermethrin and glyphosate treatments. Although not always significant, males and females of both mosquito species tended to be smaller in the ammonium sulfate and diammonium phosphate treatments compared to cypermethrin and glyphosate treatments. There was no significant effect of the agrochemical treatments on the longevity of either mosquito species. These results demonstrate that the widespread use of agricultural chemicals to enhance crop production can have unexpected effects on the spatial distribution and abundance of mosquito vectors of malaria and lymphatic filariasis.

  13. Showing and Telling Farming: Agricultural Shows and Re-Imaging British Agriculture

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holloway, Lewis

    2004-01-01

    Some actors in the ''mainstream'' agricultural sector are beginning to engage in strategies of influencing public perceptions of farming, responding to public anxieties over industrialised agriculture and to a supposed separation of non-farming publics from food production. This paper focuses on agricultural shows as sites and events central to…

  14. Mechanisation of large-scale agricultural fields in developing countries - a review.

    PubMed

    Onwude, Daniel I; Abdulstter, Rafia; Gomes, Chandima; Hashim, Norhashila

    2016-09-01

    Mechanisation of large-scale agricultural fields often requires the application of modern technologies such as mechanical power, automation, control and robotics. These technologies are generally associated with relatively well developed economies. The application of these technologies in some developing countries in Africa and Asia is limited by factors such as technology compatibility with the environment, availability of resources to facilitate the technology adoption, cost of technology purchase, government policies, adequacy of technology and appropriateness in addressing the needs of the population. As a result, many of the available resources have been used inadequately by farmers, who continue to rely mostly on conventional means of agricultural production, using traditional tools and equipment in most cases. This has led to low productivity and high cost of production among others. Therefore this paper attempts to evaluate the application of present day technology and its limitations to the advancement of large-scale mechanisation in developing countries of Africa and Asia. Particular emphasis is given to a general understanding of the various levels of mechanisation, present day technology, its management and application to large-scale agricultural fields. This review also focuses on/gives emphasis to future outlook that will enable a gradual, evolutionary and sustainable technological change. The study concludes that large-scale-agricultural farm mechanisation for sustainable food production in Africa and Asia must be anchored on a coherent strategy based on the actual needs and priorities of the large-scale farmers. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

  15. Status of Job Motivation and Job Performance of Field Level Extension Agents in Ogun State: Implications for Agricultural Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fabusoro, E.; Awotunde, J. A.; Sodiya, C. I.; Alarima, C. I.

    2008-01-01

    The field level extension agents (FLEAs) are the lifeline of the agricultural extension system in Nigeria. Their motivation and job performance are therefore important to achieving faster agricultural development in Nigeria. The study identified the factors motivating the FLEAs working with Ogun State Agricultural development programme (OGADEP)…

  16. Anthropogenic effects on soil quality in ancient terraced agricultural fields of Chihuahua, Mexico

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Agricultural soil quality was investigated in ancient field systems near Casas Grandes (also known as Paquimé), one of the largest and most complex prehistoric settlements in the North American Southwest. This research was completed as part of an interdisciplinary study of the anthropogenic ecology...

  17. Profiling Nematode Communities in Unmanaged Flowerbed and Agricultural Field Soils in Japan by DNA Barcode Sequencing

    PubMed Central

    Morise, Hisashi; Miyazaki, Erika; Yoshimitsu, Shoko; Eki, Toshihiko

    2012-01-01

    Soil nematodes play crucial roles in the soil food web and are a suitable indicator for assessing soil environments and ecosystems. Previous nematode community analyses based on nematode morphology classification have been shown to be useful for assessing various soil environments. Here we have conducted DNA barcode analysis for soil nematode community analyses in Japanese soils. We isolated nematodes from two different environmental soils of an unmanaged flowerbed and an agricultural field using the improved flotation-sieving method. Small subunit (SSU) rDNA fragments were directly amplified from each of 68 (flowerbed samples) and 48 (field samples) isolated nematodes to determine the nucleotide sequence. Sixteen and thirteen operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained by multiple sequence alignment from the flowerbed and agricultural field nematodes, respectively. All 29 SSU rDNA-derived OTUs (rOTUs) were further mapped onto a phylogenetic tree with 107 known nematode species. Interestingly, the two nematode communities examined were clearly distinct from each other in terms of trophic groups: Animal predators and plant feeders were markedly abundant in the flowerbed soils, in contrast, bacterial feeders were dominantly observed in the agricultural field soils. The data from the flowerbed nematodes suggests a possible food web among two different trophic nematode groups and plants (weeds) in the closed soil environment. Finally, DNA sequences derived from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 (COI) gene were determined as a DNA barcode from 43 agricultural field soil nematodes. These nematodes were assigned to 13 rDNA-derived OTUs, but in the COI gene analysis were assigned to 23 COI gene-derived OTUs (cOTUs), indicating that COI gene-based barcoding may provide higher taxonomic resolution than conventional SSU rDNA-barcoding in soil nematode community analysis. PMID:23284767

  18. Identification of vulnerable sites in salts affected agricultural soils from South-Eastern Spain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Acosta, Jose A.; Faz, Angel; Kalbitz, Karsten; Jansen, Boris; Silvia, Martinez-Martinez

    2010-05-01

    Soil salinization is one of the main problems in many soils under intensive agricultural practices, especially in arid and semiarid zones. Two important reasons for the occurrence of salinization are i) the use of low quality irrigation water and ii) climatic conditions reducing soil quality. The results of salinization can be quite serious. It limits the growing of crops, constrains agricultural productivity, and in severe cases, leads to the abandonment of agricultural soils. There are mainly two kinds of soil salinity: naturally occurring dry-land salinity and human-induced salinity caused by the low quality of irrigation water, excessive water and fertilizer applications. In both cases the development of plants and soil organisms is limited. Natural occurrence of salts in soils is very difficult to handle and requires higher investments than the reduction of human-induced salinity. For these reasons, identification of vulnerable sites is essential for sustainable agricultural management, especially in these semiarid and arid environments. The main aim of this study was to examine spatial and vertical distribution pattern of salts in a semi-arid study site in South-Eastern Spain in order to identify vulnerable sites. In order to achieve this objective, surface soil samples were collected in January and July 2009 at 48 sites located in a representative lemon production area close to City of Murcia, covering a surface area of 44 km2. The area was divided using a square grid of 1000 m and the samples were taken from these squares. The ionic concentrations were used as the input data for distribution maps. The software used for the spatial analysis was Arcview 3.1. An interpolation method called the Inverse Distanced Weighted (IDW) method was adopted for the interpolation of the data. The results indicated that the concentrations of most anions are higher in summer. The difference was particularly large for chloride, most likely because of its high mobility and

  19. Observed and modeled carbon and energy fluxes for agricultural sites under North American Carbon Program site-level interim synthesis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lokupitiya, E. Y.; Denning, A.

    2010-12-01

    Croplands are unique, man-made ecosystems with dynamics mostly dependent on human decisions. Crops uptake a significant amount of Carbon dioxide (CO2) during their short growing seasons. Reliability of the available models to predict the carbon exchanges by croplands is important in estimating the cropland contribution towards overall land-atmosphere carbon exchange and global carbon cycle. The energy exchanges from croplands include both sensible and latent heat fluxes. This study focuses on analyzing the performance of 19 land surface models across five agricultural sites under the site-level interim synthesis of North American Carbon Program (NACP). Model simulations were performed using a common simulation protocol and input data, including gap-filled meteorological data corresponding to each site. The net carbon fluxes (i.e. net ecosystem exchange; NEE) and energy fluxes (sensible and latent heat) predicted by 12 models with sub-hourly/hourly temporal resolution and 7 models with daily temporal resolution were compared against the site-specific gap-filled observed flux tower data. Comparisons were made by site and crop type (i.e. maize, soybean, and wheat), mainly focusing on the coefficient of determination, correlation, root mean square error, and standard deviation. Analyses also compared the diurnal, seasonal, and inter-annual variability of the modeled fluxes against the observed data and the mean modeled data.

  20. Field Guide for Evaluating Cottonwood Sites

    Treesearch

    W.M. Broadfoot

    1960-01-01

    Two field methods have been developed at the Stoneville Research Center for estimating the capability of Midsouth soils to grow eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr.). Data for establishing the procedures were collected from 155 plots* at the locations indicated in Figure 1.The methods give site index-that is, tree-growing...

  1. Designing a Marketing Course with Field Site Visits

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Van Doren, Doris; Corrigan, Hope Bober

    2008-01-01

    A key goal of including field site visits in marketing courses is to give business students increased interaction with industry professionals and community leaders. Site visits give students a concrete idea of how different marketing disciplines work in the business world. Business students gain greater insight into a career in marketing from this…

  2. Effects of topography on the transport of agricultural chemicals to groundwater in a sand-plain setting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Delin, Geoffrey N.; Landon, Matthew K.

    2002-08-01

    Geochemical data were collected to investigate the effects of topography and focused recharge on the transport of agricultural chemicals to groundwater through sandy soils. The research was done at a topographically high (upland) site and a depressional (lowland) site within a corn field. Agricultural chemicals that move readily with water were most directly affected by focused recharge to the lowland site. Surface runoff of water to the lowland site was the primary cause for the generally greater flux of chloride, nitrate nitrogen, and sulfate compared with the upland site. Based on data from the unsaturated zone, for example, the average annual fluxes of these chemicals in 1992-1993 were 5.1, 3.4, and 1.7 times greater, respectively, at the lowland site. Study results indicate that consideration should be given to modifying site-specific management farming technology to account for varying recharge rates in different topographic settings. By reducing chemical application rates in topographic depressions, where focused recharge of chemicals occurs because of surface runoff, farmers could improve ground-water quality as well as reduce expenditures for agricultural chemicals.

  3. Effects of topography on the transport of agricultural chemicals to groundwater in a sand-plain setting

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Delin, G.N.; Landon, M.K.

    2002-01-01

    Geochemical data were collected to investigate the effects of topography and focused recharge on the transport of agricultural chemicals to groundwater through sandy soils. The research was done at a topographically high (upland) site and a depressional (lowland) site within a corn field. Agricultural chemicals that move readily with water were most directly affected by focused recharge to the lowland site. Surface runoff of water to the lowland site was the primary cause for the generally greater flux of chloride, nitrate nitrogen, and sulfate compared with the upland site. Based on data from the unsaturated zone, for example, the average annual fluxes of these chemicals in 1992–1993 were 5.1, 3.4, and 1.7 times greater, respectively, at the lowland site. Study results indicate that consideration should be given to modifying site-specific management farming technology to account for varying recharge rates in different topographic settings. By reducing chemical application rates in topographic depressions, where focused recharge of chemicals occurs because of surface runoff, farmers could improve ground-water quality as well as reduce expenditures for agricultural chemicals.

  4. Instantaneous and daily values of the surface energy balance over agricultural fields using remote sensing and a reference field in an arid environment

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kustas, William P.; Moran, M.S.; Jackson, R. D.; Gay, L.W.; Duell, L.F.W.; Kunkel, K.E.; Matthias, A.D.

    1990-01-01

    Remotely sensed surface temperature and reflectance in the visible and near infrared wavebands along with ancilliary meteorological data provide the capability of computing three of the four surface energy balance components (i.e., net radiation, soil heat flux, and sensible heat flux) at different spatial and temporal scales. As a result, under nonadvective conditions, this enables the estimation of the remaining term (i.e., the latent heat flux). One of the practical applications with this approach is to produce evapotranspiration (ET) maps for agricultural regions which consist of an array of fields containing different crops at varying stages of growth and soil moisture conditions. Such a situation exists in the semiarid southwest at the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center, south of Phoenix. For one day (14 June 1987), surface temperature and reflectance measurements from an aircraft 150 m above ground level (agl) were acquired over fields from zero to nearly full cover at four times between 1000 MST and 1130 MST. The diurnal pattern of the surface energy balance was measured over four fields, which included alfalfa at 60% cover, furrowed cotton at 20% and 30% cover, and partially plowed what stubble. Instantaneous and daily values of ET were estimated for a representative area around each flux site with an energy balance model that relies on a reference ET. This reference value was determined with remotely sensed data and several meteorological inputs. The reference ET was adjusted to account for the different surface conditions in the other fields using only remotely sensed variables. A comparison with the flux measurements suggests the model has difficulties with partial canopy conditions, especially related to the estimation of the sensible heat flux. The resulting errors for instantaneous ET were on the order of 100 W m-2 and for daily values of order 2 mm day-1. These findings suggest future research should involve development of methods to

  5. Soil health: an emergent set of soil properties that result from synergy among agricultural management practices

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The responses of a selected soil microbial property to a single agricultural management practice are often inconsistent among field studies, possibly reflecting the site-specific nature of field studies. An equally compelling explanation is that in complex systems where outcomes are the result of n...

  6. A Site-sPecific Agricultural water Requirement and footprint Estimator (SPARE:WATER 1.0)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Multsch, S.; Al-Rumaikhani, Y. A.; Frede, H.-G.; Breuer, L.

    2013-07-01

    The agricultural water footprint addresses the quantification of water consumption in agriculture, whereby three types of water to grow crops are considered, namely green water (consumed rainfall), blue water (irrigation from surface or groundwater) and grey water (water needed to dilute pollutants). By considering site-specific properties when calculating the crop water footprint, this methodology can be used to support decision making in the agricultural sector on local to regional scale. We therefore developed the spatial decision support system SPARE:WATER that allows us to quantify green, blue and grey water footprints on regional scale. SPARE:WATER is programmed in VB.NET, with geographic information system functionality implemented by the MapWinGIS library. Water requirements and water footprints are assessed on a grid basis and can then be aggregated for spatial entities such as political boundaries, catchments or irrigation districts. We assume inefficient irrigation methods rather than optimal conditions to account for irrigation methods with efficiencies other than 100%. Furthermore, grey water is defined as the water needed to leach out salt from the rooting zone in order to maintain soil quality, an important management task in irrigation agriculture. Apart from a thorough representation of the modelling concept, we provide a proof of concept where we assess the agricultural water footprint of Saudi Arabia. The entire water footprint is 17.0 km3 yr-1 for 2008, with a blue water dominance of 86%. Using SPARE:WATER we are able to delineate regional hot spots as well as crop types with large water footprints, e.g. sesame or dates. Results differ from previous studies of national-scale resolution, underlining the need for regional estimation of crop water footprints.

  7. Genotoxicity in native fish associated with agricultural runoff events

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Whitehead, Andrew; Kuivila, Kathryn; Orlando, James L.; Kotelevtsev, S.; Anderson, Susan L.

    2004-01-01

    The primary objective of the present study was to test whether agricultural chemical runoff was associated with in-stream genotoxicity in native fish. Using Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis), we combined field-caging experiments in an agriculturally dominated watershed with controlled laboratory exposures to field-collected water samples, and we coupled genotoxicity biomarker measurements in fish with bacterial mutagenicity analysis of water samples. We selected DNA strand breakage as a genotoxicity biomarker and Ames Salmonella mutagenicity tests as a second, supporting indicator of genotoxicity. Data from experiments conducted during rainfall runoff events following winter application of pesticides in 2000 and 2001 indicated that DNA strand breaks were significantly elevated in fish exposed to San Joaquin River (CA, USA) water (38.8, 28.4, and 53.6% DNA strand breakage in year 2000 field, year 2000 lab, and year 2001 field exposures, respectively) compared with a nearby reference site (15.4, 8.7, and 12.6% DNA strand breakage in year 2000 field, year 2000 lab, and year 2001 field exposures, respectively). Time-course measurements in field experiments supported a linkage between induction of DNA strand breakage and the timing of agricultural runoff. San Joaquin River water also caused significant reversion mutation in two Ames Salmonella tester strains. Salmonella mutagenicity corroborated in-stream effects, further strengthening a causal relationship between runoff events and genotoxicity. Potentially responsible agents are discussed in the context of timing of runoff events in the field, concordance between laboratory and field exposures, pesticide application patterns in the drainage, and analytical chemistry data.

  8. AmeriFlux US-KFS Kansas Field Station

    DOE Data Explorer

    Brunsell, Nathaniel [Kansas University

    2016-01-01

    This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-KFS Kansas Field Station. Site Description - The study is an abandoned grassland at the Kansas Field Station and Ecological Reserves. The site is located within the tallgrass prairie-deciduous forest ecotonal area. The site was subjected to intensive agriculture from the 1940s through the late 1960s. In the mid-1970s, the site was planted with the cool-season grass Bromus inermis and used as a hay meadow until 1987. Then, mowing and burning approximately every five years maintained it as a grassland until 2007, when the eddy flux tower was installed.

  9. Validation of SMAP Radar Vegetation Data Cubes from Agricultural Field Measurements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tsang, L.; Xu, X.; Liao, T.; Kim, S.; Njoku, E. G.

    2012-12-01

    The NASA Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) Mission will be launched in October 2014. The objective of the SMAP mission is to provide global measurements of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. These measurements will be used to enhance understanding of processes that link the water, energy and carbon cycles, and to extend the capabilities of weather and climate prediction models. In the active algorithm, the retrieval is performed based on the backscattering data cube, which are characterized by two surface parameters, which are soil moisture and soil surface rms height, and one vegetation parameter, the vegetation water content. We have developed a physical-based forward scattering model to generate the data cube for agricultural fields. To represent the agricultural crops, we include a layer of cylinders and disks on top of the rough surface. The scattering cross section of the vegetation layer and its interaction with the underground soil surface were calculated by the distorted Born approximation, which give explicitly three scattering mechanisms. A) The direct volume scattering B) The double bounce effect as, and C) The double bouncing effects. The direct volume scattering is calculated by using the Body of Revolution code. The double bounce effects, exhibited by the interaction of rough surface with the vegetation layer is considered by modifying the rough surface reflectivity using the coherent wave as computed by Numerical solution of Maxwell equations of 3 Dimensional simulations (NMM3D) of bare soil scattering. The rough surface scattering of the soil was calculated by NMM3D. We have compared the physical scattering models with field measurements. In the field campaign, the measurements were made on soil moisture, rough surface rms heights and vegetation water content as well as geometric parameters of vegetation. The three main crops lands are grassland, cornfield and soybean fields. The corresponding data cubes are validated using SGP99, SMEX02

  10. Evaluating toxicity of atrazine and lambda-cyhalothrin amendments in agricultural ditch mesocosms

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Ditches running throughout and adjacent to agricultural lands serve primarily to remove and store excess water associated with storm events. More recently, these edge of field delivery systems have been investigated for their ability to mitigate potential contaminants. Six sites along a 50-m segme...

  11. Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Improving Farm Scale Agricultural Water Management in Agriculture at a Farm Scale. A case study for field crops in the California's Central Valley

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Medellin-Azuara, J.; Morande, J. A.; Jin, Y.; Chen, Y.; Paw U, K. T.; Viers, J. H.

    2016-12-01

    Traditional methods for estimating consumptive water use as evapotranspiration (ET) for agriculture in areas with water limitations such as California have always been a challenge for farmers, water managers, researchers and government agencies. Direct measurement of evapotranspiration (ET) and crop water stress in agriculture can be a cumbersome and costly task. Furthermore, spatial variability of applied water and irrigation and stress level in crops, due to inherent heterogeneity in soil conditions, topography, management practices, and lack of uniformity in water applications may affect estimates water use efficiency and water balances. This situation difficult long-term management of agroecosystems. This paper presents a case study for various areas in California's Central Valley using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for a late portion of the 2016 irrigation season These estimates are compared those obtained by direct measurement (from previously deployed stations), and energy balance approaches with remotely sensed data in a selection of field crop parcels. This research improves information on water use and site conditions in agriculture by enhancing remote sensing-based estimations through the use of higher resolution multi-spectral and thermal imagery captured by UAV. We assess whether more frequent information at higher spatial resolution from UAVs can improve estimations of overall ET through energy balance and imagery. Stress levels and ET are characterized spatially to examine irrigation practices and their performance to improve water use in the agroecosystem. Ground based data such as air and crop temperature and stem water potential is collected to validate UAV aerial measurements. Preliminary results show the potential of UAV technology to improve timing, resolution and accuracy in the ET estimation and assessment of crop stress at a farm scales. Side to side comparison with ground level stations employing surface renewal, eddy covariance and

  12. Steroid hormone runoff from agricultural test plots applied with municipal biosolids

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Yang, Yun-Ya; Gray, James L.; Furlong, Edward T.; Davis, Jessica G.; ReVollo, Rhiannon C.; Borch, Thomas

    2012-01-01

    The potential presence of steroid hormones in runoff from sites where biosolids have been used as agricultural fertilizers is an environmental concern. A study was conducted to assess the potential for runoff of seventeen different hormones and two sterols, including androgens, estrogens, and progestogens from agricultural test plots. The field containing the test plots had been applied with biosolids for the first time immediately prior to this study. Target compounds were isolated by solid-phase extraction (water samples) and pressurized solvent extraction (solid samples), derivatized, and analyzed by gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Runoff samples collected prior to biosolids application had low concentrations of two hormones (estrone -1 and androstenedione -1) and cholesterol (22.5 ± 3.8 μg L-1). In contrast, significantly higher concentrations of multiple estrogens (-1), androgens (-1), and progesterone (-1) were observed in runoff samples taken 1, 8, and 35 days after biosolids application. A significant positive correlation was observed between antecedent rainfall amount and hormone mass loads (runoff). Hormones in runoff were primarily present in the dissolved phase (<0.7-μm GF filter), and, to a lesser extent bound to the suspended-particle phase. Overall, these results indicate that rainfall can mobilize hormones from biosolids-amended agricultural fields, directly to surface waters or redistributed to terrestrial sites away from the point of application via runoff. Although concentrations decrease over time, 35 days is insufficient for complete degradation of hormones in soil at this site.

  13. Influence of Agricultural Practice on Surface Temperature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Czajkowski, K.; Ault, T.; Hayase, R.; Benko, T.

    2006-12-01

    Changes in land uses/covers can have a significant effect on the temperature of the Earth's surface. Agricultural fields exhibit a significant change in land cover within a single year and from year to year as different crops are planted. These changes in agricultural practices including tillage practice and crop type influence the energy budget as reflected in differences in surface temperature. In this project, Landsat 5 and 7 imagery were used to investigate the influence of crop type and tillage practice on surface temperature in Iowa and NW Ohio. In particular, the three crop rotation of corn, soybeans and wheat, as well as no-till, conservation tillage and tradition tillage methods, were investigated. Crop type and conservation tillage practices were identified using supervised classification. Student surface temperature observations from the GLOBE program were used to correct for the effects of the atmosphere for some of the satellite thermal observations. Students took surface temperature observations in field sites near there schools using hand- held infrared thermometers.

  14. Use of portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry for environmental quality assessment of peri-urban agriculture.

    PubMed

    Weindorf, David C; Zhu, Yuanda; Chakraborty, Somsubhra; Bakr, Noura; Huang, Biao

    2012-01-01

    Urban expansion into traditional agricultural lands has augmented the potential for heavy metal contamination of soils. This study examined the utility of field portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometry for evaluating the environmental quality of sugarcane fields near two industrial complexes in Louisiana, USA. Results indicated that PXRF provided quality results of heavy metal levels comparable to traditional laboratory analysis. When coupled with global positioning system technology, the use of PXRF allows for on-site interpolation of heavy metal levels in a matter of minutes. Field portable XRF was shown to be an effective tool for rapid assessment of heavy metals in soils of peri-urban agricultural areas.

  15. Site preparation for red oak plantation establishment on old field sites in southern Indiana

    Treesearch

    Ron A. Rathfon; Don J. Kaczmarek; Phil E. Pope

    1995-01-01

    Little research has been conducted on the use of mechanical site preparation or fertilization in the Central Hardwood Region. Many hardwood plantings, particularly oak plantings, on old field sites in the region have resulted in high rates of mortality, stem die-back, and slow early-growth rates. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mechanical...

  16. Agricultural land-use change in a Mexican oligotrophic desert depletes ecosystem stability

    PubMed Central

    Hernández-Becerra, Natali; Tapia-Torres, Yunuen; Beltrán-Paz, Ofelia; Blaz, Jazmín; Souza, Valeria

    2016-01-01

    Background Global demand for food has led to increased land-use change, particularly in dry land ecosystems, which has caused several environmental problems due to the soil degradation. In the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB), alfalfa production irrigated by flooding impacts strongly on the soil. Methods In order to analyze the effect of such agricultural land-use change on soil nutrient dynamics and soil bacterial community composition, this work examined an agricultural gradient within the CCB which was comprised of a native desert grassland, a plot currently cultivated with alfalfa and a former agricultural field that had been abandoned for over 30 years. For each site, we analyzed C, N and P dynamic fractions, the activity of the enzyme phosphatase and the bacterial composition obtained using 16S rRNA clone libraries. Results The results showed that the cultivated site presented a greater availability of water and dissolved organic carbon, these conditions promoted mineralization processes mediated by heterotrophic microorganisms, while the abandoned land was limited by water and dissolved organic nitrogen. The low amount of dissolved organic matter promoted nitrification, which is mediated by autotrophic microorganisms. The microbial N immobilization process and specific phosphatase activity were both favored in the native grassland. As expected, differences in bacterial taxonomical composition were observed among sites. The abandoned site exhibited similar compositions than native grassland, while the cultivated site differed. Discussion The results suggest that the transformation of native grassland into agricultural land induces drastic changes in soil nutrient dynamics as well as in the bacterial community. However, with the absence of agricultural practices, some of the soil characteristics analyzed slowly recovers their natural state. PMID:27602304

  17. Agricultural land-use change in a Mexican oligotrophic desert depletes ecosystem stability.

    PubMed

    Hernández-Becerra, Natali; Tapia-Torres, Yunuen; Beltrán-Paz, Ofelia; Blaz, Jazmín; Souza, Valeria; García-Oliva, Felipe

    2016-01-01

    Global demand for food has led to increased land-use change, particularly in dry land ecosystems, which has caused several environmental problems due to the soil degradation. In the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB), alfalfa production irrigated by flooding impacts strongly on the soil. In order to analyze the effect of such agricultural land-use change on soil nutrient dynamics and soil bacterial community composition, this work examined an agricultural gradient within the CCB which was comprised of a native desert grassland, a plot currently cultivated with alfalfa and a former agricultural field that had been abandoned for over 30 years. For each site, we analyzed C, N and P dynamic fractions, the activity of the enzyme phosphatase and the bacterial composition obtained using 16S rRNA clone libraries. The results showed that the cultivated site presented a greater availability of water and dissolved organic carbon, these conditions promoted mineralization processes mediated by heterotrophic microorganisms, while the abandoned land was limited by water and dissolved organic nitrogen. The low amount of dissolved organic matter promoted nitrification, which is mediated by autotrophic microorganisms. The microbial N immobilization process and specific phosphatase activity were both favored in the native grassland. As expected, differences in bacterial taxonomical composition were observed among sites. The abandoned site exhibited similar compositions than native grassland, while the cultivated site differed. The results suggest that the transformation of native grassland into agricultural land induces drastic changes in soil nutrient dynamics as well as in the bacterial community. However, with the absence of agricultural practices, some of the soil characteristics analyzed slowly recovers their natural state.

  18. Celtic field agriculture and Early Anthropogenic Environmental change in the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region, NW Europe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Van der Sanden, Germaine; Kluiving, Sjoerd; Roymans, Nico

    2016-04-01

    The field of Archaeology remains focused on historical issues while underexploring its potential contribution on currently existing societal problems, e.g. climate change. The aim of this paper is to show the relevance of archeological studies for the research of the 'human species as a significant moving agent' in terms of the changing natural environment during a much earlier time frame. This research is based on the study area of the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region in the Netherlands and Belgium and exhibits the period from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman period. This period is characterized by the widespread introduction and use of an agricultural system, often referred to as the Celtic Field system that served as one of the most modifying systems in terms of anthropogenic-environmental change during this period. Emphasis in this research is given to results generated by the use of the remote sensing technology, LiDAR. New information is reported considering a correlation between singular field size and the overall surface of the agricultural complexes and secondly, the presentation of newly identified Celtic field systems in the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region are presented. The study of the dynamics of the Celtic Field agricultural system provides evidence for a significant anthropogenic footprint on the natural environment due to land cover dominance, soil degeneration, increased soil acidification and forest clearance. Soil exhaustion forced the inhabitants to re-establish their relationship with the landscape in terms of fundamental changes in the habitation pattern and the agrarian exploitations of the land.

  19. Changes in water budgets and sediment yields from a hypothetical agricultural field as a function of landscape and management characteristics--A unit field modeling approach

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Roth, Jason L.; Capel, Paul D.

    2012-01-01

    Crop agriculture occupies 13 percent of the conterminous United States. Agricultural management practices, such as crop and tillage types, affect the hydrologic flow paths through the landscape. Some agricultural practices, such as drainage and irrigation, create entirely new hydrologic flow paths upon the landscapes where they are implemented. These hydrologic changes can affect the magnitude and partitioning of water budgets and sediment erosion. Given the wide degree of variability amongst agricultural settings, changes in the magnitudes of hydrologic flow paths and sediment erosion induced by agricultural management practices commonly are difficult to characterize, quantify, and compare using only field observations. The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model was used to simulate two landscape characteristics (slope and soil texture) and three agricultural management practices (land cover/crop type, tillage type, and selected agricultural land management practices) to evaluate their effects on the water budgets of and sediment yield from agricultural lands. An array of sixty-eight 60-year simulations were run, each representing a distinct natural or agricultural scenario with various slopes, soil textures, crop or land cover types, tillage types, and select agricultural management practices on an isolated 16.2-hectare field. Simulations were made to represent two common agricultural climate regimes: arid with sprinkler irrigation and humid. These climate regimes were constructed with actual climate and irrigation data. The results of these simulations demonstrate the magnitudes of potential changes in water budgets and sediment yields from lands as a result of landscape characteristics and agricultural practices adopted on them. These simulations showed that variations in landscape characteristics, such as slope and soil type, had appreciable effects on water budgets and sediment yields. As slopes increased, sediment yields increased in both the arid and

  20. Evaluation of Nuttall oak and cherrybark oak survival by planting stock and site preparation treatment type in a WRP planting on a retired agricultural site

    Treesearch

    Andrew B. Self; Andrew W. Ezell; Andrew J. Londo; John D. Hodges

    2010-01-01

    Oaks are an ecologically and economically important component of the southern landscape, and many landowners are opting to regenerate their lands with these species. Federal cost share programs, such as the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), have increased public interest in afforestation of retired agricultural sites in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV). Acorns...

  1. Stable isotopes in nitrous oxide emitted from tropical rain forest soils and agricultural fields: Implications for the global atmospheric nitrous oxide budget

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Perez, Tibisay Josefina

    Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas and is the primary source of NOx in the stratosphere. Large uncertainties exist in the global N2O budget, mainly due to the high uncertainty associated with source estimates. Recently, stable isotopes of 15N and 18O have been proposed as a tool to better constrain the N2O global budget. This thesis develops analytical methods for constraining and measuring stable isotopes in N2O emitted from soils and reports initial investigations of N2O isotopes from the largest sources in the global N2O budget: tropical rain forest soils and agricultural fields. We found significant differences in the isotopic composition of N 2O emitted from tropical rain forest soils and fertilized agricultural fields. Differences were largest for 15N. Emission-weighted δ 15N-N2O were -26 +/- 2.5‰ s.d., n = 3 (Costa Rican forest), -6.6 +/- 11.3‰ s.d. n = 14 (Brazilian forest) and -36.7 +/- 9.2‰ s.d. n = 19 (Mexican agricultural field and Costa Rican Papaya plantation). We attribute the large range in δ 15N from tropical rain forests, where denitrification is the main source of N2O, to differences in the degree of N2O to N2 reduction. We attribute the very light δ15N values in fertilized agricultural fields to the enhanced nitrogen availability in the soils which facilitates higher fractionation between substrates and products. Similarly, in the Brazilian tropical forest lighter δ 15N-N2O from a local area of enhanced emission is attributed to locally more abundant N- substrate in that particular soil site. If the increase of N2O in the troposphere over the past 100 years is attributable to increased use of N fertilizer, and assuming that light δ 15N- N2O isotopic values are associated with agricultural practices, we expect the δ15N-N2O in the troposphere to have decreased since pre-industrial times. Theoretically, comparison of 15N and 18O signature of emitted N2O with precursors species (NO3 -, NH4+, H2O and O 2) should uniquely

  2. Pre-Columbian Agriculture: Construction history of raised fields in Bermeo, in the Bolivian Lowlands

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rodrigues, Leonor; Fehr, Seraina; Lombardo, Umberto; Veit, Heinz

    2013-04-01

    Since the beginning of the 1960s, research in the Amazon has revealed that in Pre-Columbian times, landscapes that were viewed as challenging living environments were nevertheless altered in several ways. Raised fields agriculture is one of the most impressive phenomena that can be found in South-eastern Amazonia. Pre-Columbian raised fields are earth platforms of differing shape and dimension that are elevated above the landscape's natural surface. The Llanos de Moxos, situated in the Bolivian Lowlands is one of the areas with the highest density of raised fields. In spite of the high interest in raised field agriculture, very few field-based investigations have been performed. As a result, there remains little explanation as to how they were constructed, managed or for what time frame they were in use. Recently, more detailed investigations have been performed on raised fields located in the indigenous community of Bermeo, in the vicinity of San Ignacio de Moxos. Combined data from fieldwork and laboratory analysis including particle size distribution, thin section micromorphology and radiocarbon analyses as well as optically stimulated luminescence analysis has given an insight into the history of their construction. Applied to the Bolivian Lowlands, the current study provides for the first time data showing aspects of the Pre-Columbian management of the raised fields, and a chronological sequence of utilization and abandonment of these fields. Radiocarbon dating has shown that the raised fields had been in use since as early as 900 AD. Two distinct paleosols identified in the field sequence point to the existence of two separate prolonged soil formation periods. The paleosols are characterized by initial stages of Bt-horizons. Each soil sequence indicates therefore a particular stable period of the field during which no new earth was heaped up. This suggests that contrary to the well supported theory that raised fields were managed through continuous

  3. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) detects fine roots of agricultural crops in the field

    Treesearch

    Xiuwei Liu; Xuejun Dong; Qingwu Xue; Daniel I. Leskovar; John Jifon; John R. Butnor; Thomas Marek

    2018-01-01

    Aim Ground penetrating radar (GPR) as a non-invasive technique is widely used in coarse root detection. However, the applicability of the technique to detect fine roots of agricultural crops is unknown. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of utilizing GPR to detect fine roots in the field.

  4. Seed deterioration in flooded agricultural fields during winter

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nelms, C.O.; Twedt, D.J.

    1996-01-01

    We determined rate of seed deterioration for 3 crops (corn, rice, and soybean) and 8 weeds commonly found in agricultural fields and moist-soil management units in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV). The weeds were broadleaf signalgrass (Brachiaria platyphylla), junglerice barnyardgrass (Echinochloa colonum), morningglory (Ipomoea sp.), panic grass (Panicum sp.), bull paspalum (Paspalum boscianum), red rice (Oryza sativa), hemp sesbania (Sesbania exaltata), and bristlegrass (Setaria sp.). Weed seeds, except morningglory, deteriorated slower than corn and soybean, whereas rice decomposed slower than all weed seeds except red rice and bull paspalum. For land managers desiring to provide plant food for wintering waterfowl, rice is clearly the most persistent small grain crop in the MAV. Persistence of weed seeds under flooded conditions throughout winter makes them a cost-effective alternative to traditional crops on land managed for waterfowl.

  5. Field and laboratory tests for assessing the feasibility on the use of municipal treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gallardo, Helena; Lovera, Raúl; Himi, Mahjoub; Sendrós, Alexandre; Marguí, Eva; Tapias, Josefina C.; Queralt, Ignasi; Casas, Albert

    2014-05-01

    he scarcity of water resources in many regions of the planet in the XXIst century is a challenge which concerns the current societies. Water use has been growing during the last decades. Therefore, different strategies of water management in many water-deficient regions are being carried out, especially in densely populated areas, in coastal zones or in regions under arid or semi-arid climate. During the last years, there has been a growing interest in the use of the subsurface for water storage though shallow percolating ponds. Moreover, on a best-practices basis, the use of reclaimed wastewater for different purposes is becoming more usual. The irrigation with municipal treated wastewater (MTWW) is an interesting strategy especially in the agricultural sector, which represents the main water user in contrast with other socioeconomic activities. The study area is located near Castellbisbal, on the lower stretches of the Llobregat River close to the Metropolitan area of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). The site consists on a percolating pond and agricultural fields around. In order to assess the feasibility of using reclaimed wastewater for different uses in this site, several experiments both on field and at the laboratory were carried out. First of all, a detailed non-destructive geophysical survey was conducted using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technique. Geophysical data were constrained by geological and hydrogeological properties from boreholes and water wells. On the other hand, laboratory experiments were carried out through batch and column assays, focused on the detailed water-mineral particles interrelationships that can occur at the vadose zone. Soil samples from the crop fields around and water samples from the nearest well, as from the municipal wastewater treatment plant were used. Chemical and mineralogical composition of the soils were determined by using non-destructive spectroscopic techniques as x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and x-ray powder

  6. Overview of the Bushland Evapotranspiration and Agricultural Remote sensing EXperiment 2008 (BEAREX08): A field experiment evaluating methods for quantifying ET at multiple scales

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evett, Steven R.; Kustas, William P.; Gowda, Prasanna H.; Anderson, Martha C.; Prueger, John H.; Howell, Terry A.

    2012-12-01

    In 2008, scientists from seven federal and state institutions worked together to investigate temporal and spatial variations of evapotranspiration (ET) and surface energy balance in a semi-arid irrigated and dryland agricultural region of the Southern High Plains in the Texas Panhandle. This Bushland Evapotranspiration and Agricultural Remote sensing EXperiment 2008 (BEAREX08) involved determination of micrometeorological fluxes (surface energy balance) in four weighing lysimeter fields (each 4.7 ha) containing irrigated and dryland cotton and in nearby bare soil, wheat stubble and rangeland fields using nine eddy covariance stations, three large aperture scintillometers, and three Bowen ratio systems. In coordination with satellite overpasses, flux and remote sensing aircraft flew transects over the surrounding fields and region encompassing an area contributing fluxes from 10 to 30 km upwind of the USDA-ARS lysimeter site. Tethered balloon soundings were conducted over the irrigated fields to investigate the effect of advection on local boundary layer development. Local ET was measured using four large weighing lysimeters, while field scale estimates were made by soil water balance with a network of neutron probe profile water sites and from the stationary flux systems. Aircraft and satellite imagery were obtained at different spatial and temporal resolutions. Plot-scale experiments dealt with row orientation and crop height effects on spatial and temporal patterns of soil surface temperature, soil water content, soil heat flux, evaporation from soil in the interrow, plant transpiration and canopy and soil radiation fluxes. The BEAREX08 field experiment was unique in its assessment of ET fluxes over a broad range in spatial scales; comparing direct and indirect methods at local scales with remote sensing based methods and models using aircraft and satellite imagery at local to regional scales, and comparing mass balance-based ET ground truth with eddy covariance

  7. Incorporating dynamic root growth enhances the performance of Noah-MP at two contrasting winter wheat field sites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gayler, Sebastian; Wöhling, Thomas; Ingwersen, Joachim; Wizemann, Hans-Dieter; Warrach-Sagi, Kirsten; Attinger, Sabine; Streck, Thilo; Wulmeyer, Volker

    2014-05-01

    Interactions between the soil, the vegetation, and the atmospheric boundary layer require close attention when predicting water fluxes in the hydrogeosystem, agricultural systems, weather and climate. However, land-surface schemes used in large scale models continue to show deficits in consistently simulating fluxes of water and energy from the subsurface through vegetation layers to the atmosphere. In this study, the multi-physics version of the Noah land-surface model (Noah-MP) was used to identify the processes, which are most crucial for a simultaneous simulation of water and heat fluxes between land-surface and the lower atmosphere. Comprehensive field data sets of latent and sensible heat fluxes, ground heat flux, soil moisture, and leaf area index from two contrasting field sites in South-West Germany are used to assess the accuracy of simulations. It is shown that an adequate representation of vegetation-related processes is the most important control for a consistent simulation of energy and water fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. In particular, using a newly implemented sub-module to simulate root growth dynamics has enhanced the performance of Noah-MP at both field sites. We conclude that further advances in the representation of leaf area dynamics and root/soil moisture interactions are the most promising starting points for improving the simulation of feedbacks between the sub-soil, land-surface and atmosphere in fully-coupled hydrological and atmospheric models.

  8. A novel application for concentrator photovoltaic in the field of agriculture photovoltaics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Luqing; Guan, Chenggang; Zhang, Fangxin; Li, Ming; Lv, Hui; Liu, Yang; Yao, Peijun; Ingenhoff, Jan; Liu, Wen

    2017-09-01

    Agriculture photovoltaics is a trend setting area which has already led to a new industrial revolution. Shortage of land in some countries and desertification of land where regular solar panels are deployed are some of the major problems in the photovoltaic industry. Concentrator photovoltaics experienced a decline in applicability after the cost erosion of regular solar panels at the end of the last decade. We demonstrate a novel and unique application for concentrator photovoltaics tackling at a same time the issue of conventional photovoltaics preventing the land being used for agricultural purpose where ever solar panels are installed. We leverage the principle of diffractive and interference technology to split the sun light into transmitted wavelengths necessary for plant growth and reflected wavelengths useful for solar energy generation. The technology has been successfully implemented in field trials and sophisticated scientific studies have been undertaken to evaluate the suitability of this technology for competitive solar power generation and simultaneous high-quality plant growth. The average efficiency of the agriculture photovoltaic system has reached more than 8% and the average efficiency of the CPV system is 6.80%.

  9. Prevalence of a potentially lethal parasite of wading birds in natural and agricultural wetlands in south Louisiana

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Luent, Margaret C.; Collins, Melissa; Jeske, Clinton; Leberg, Paul

    2012-01-01

    Gambusia affinis (Western Mosquitofish) were sampled from 18 sites representing marsh, forested wetlands, and agricultural wetlands in south Louisiana to determine distribution and infection parameters of Eustrongylides ignotus, a potentially lethal nematode parasite of wading birds, (n = 400 per site). Overall, prevalence of infection was 0.3%, with significantly higher prevalence in agricultural wetlands than in marshes or swamps. Our findings are similar to work in Florida suggesting parasite prevalence is higher in disturbed wetlands, and suggest that birds foraging in crayfish ponds and rice fields may be at increased risk of exposure.

  10. Methylmercury cycling, bioaccumulation, and export from agricultural and non-agricultural wetlands in the Yolo Bypass

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark; Fleck, Jacob; Alpers, Charles N.; Ackerman, Joshua T.; Eagles-Smith, Collin A.; Stricker, Craig; Stephenson, Mark; Feliz, David; Gill, Gary; Bachand, Philip; Brice, Ann; Kulakow, Robin

    2010-01-01

    d) Identification and testing of potential management approaches for reducing MeHg contamination. In addition, the quantitative results reported here assess the effect of current land use practices in the Yolo Bypass MeHg production, bioaccumulation and export, and provide process-based advice towards achieving current goals of the RWQCB-CVR's Sacramento -- San Joaquin Delta Estuary TMDL for Methyl & Total Mercury (Wood et al., 2010b). Further work is necessary to evaluate biotic exposure in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area at higher trophic levels (e.g. birds), to quantify winter hydrologic flux of MeHg to the larger Delta ecosystem, and to evaluate rice straw management options to limit labile carbon supplies to surface sediment during winter months. In summary, agricultural management of rice fields -- specifically the periodic flooding and production of easily degraded organic matter -- promotes the production of MeHg beyond rates seen in naturally vegetated wetlands, whether seasonally or permanently flooded., The exported load from MeHg from these agricultural wetlands may be controlled by limiting hydrologic export from fields to enhance on-site MeHg removal processes, but the tradeoff is that this impoundement increases Me Hg exposure to resident organisms.

  11. Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks for Precision Agriculture: A Review.

    PubMed

    Jawad, Haider Mahmood; Nordin, Rosdiadee; Gharghan, Sadik Kamel; Jawad, Aqeel Mahmood; Ismail, Mahamod

    2017-08-03

    Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used in agriculture to provide farmers with a large amount of information. Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that employs information technology to improve quality and production. Utilizing wireless sensor technologies and management tools can lead to a highly effective, green agriculture. Based on PA management, the same routine to a crop regardless of site environments can be avoided. From several perspectives, field management can improve PA, including the provision of adequate nutrients for crops and the wastage of pesticides for the effective control of weeds, pests, and diseases. This review outlines the recent applications of WSNs in agriculture research as well as classifies and compares various wireless communication protocols, the taxonomy of energy-efficient and energy harvesting techniques for WSNs that can be used in agricultural monitoring systems, and comparison between early research works on agriculture-based WSNs. The challenges and limitations of WSNs in the agricultural domain are explored, and several power reduction and agricultural management techniques for long-term monitoring are highlighted. These approaches may also increase the number of opportunities for processing Internet of Things (IoT) data.

  12. Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks for Precision Agriculture: A Review

    PubMed Central

    Jawad, Haider Mahmood; Nordin, Rosdiadee; Gharghan, Sadik Kamel; Jawad, Aqeel Mahmood

    2017-01-01

    Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used in agriculture to provide farmers with a large amount of information. Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that employs information technology to improve quality and production. Utilizing wireless sensor technologies and management tools can lead to a highly effective, green agriculture. Based on PA management, the same routine to a crop regardless of site environments can be avoided. From several perspectives, field management can improve PA, including the provision of adequate nutrients for crops and the wastage of pesticides for the effective control of weeds, pests, and diseases. This review outlines the recent applications of WSNs in agriculture research as well as classifies and compares various wireless communication protocols, the taxonomy of energy-efficient and energy harvesting techniques for WSNs that can be used in agricultural monitoring systems, and comparison between early research works on agriculture-based WSNs. The challenges and limitations of WSNs in the agricultural domain are explored, and several power reduction and agricultural management techniques for long-term monitoring are highlighted. These approaches may also increase the number of opportunities for processing Internet of Things (IoT) data. PMID:28771214

  13. Evaluation of agricultural best-management practices in the Conestoga River headwaters, Pennsylvania; hydrology of a small carbonate site near Ephrata, Pennsylvania, prior to implementation of nutrient management

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Koerkle, E.H.; Hall, D.W.; Risser, D.W.; Lietman, P.L.; Chichester, D.C.

    1997-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, investigated the effects of agricultural best-management practices on water quality in the Conestoga River headwaters watershed. This report describes environmental factors and the surface-water and ground-water quality of one 47.5-acre field site, Field-Site 2, from October 1984 through September 1986, prior to implementation of nutrient management. The site is partially terraced agricultural cropland underlain by carbonate rock. Twenty-seven acres are terraced, pipe-drained, and are under no-till cultivation. The remaining acreage is under minimum-till cultivation. Corn is the primary crop. The average annual rate of fertilization at the site was 480 pounds per acre of nitrogen and 110 pounds per acre of phosphorus. An unconfined limestone and dolomitic aquifer underlies the site, Depth to bedrock ranges from 5 to 30 feet below land surface. Estimated specific yields range from 0.05 to 0.10, specific capacities of wells range from less than 1 to about 20 gallons per minute per foot of drawdown, and estimates of transmissivities range from 10 to 10,000 square feet per day. Average ground-water recharge was estimated to be about 23 inches per year. The specific capacity and transmissivity data indicate that two aquifer regimes are present at the site. Wells drilled into dolomites in the eastern part of the site have larger specific capacities (averaging 20 gallons per minute per foot of drawdown) relative to specific capacities (averaging less than 1 gallon per minute per foot of drawdown) of wells drilled into limestones in the western part of the site. Median concentrations of soil-soluble nitrate and soluble phosphorus in the top 4 feet of silt- or silty-clay-loam soil ranged from 177 to 329 and 8.5 to 35 pounds per acre, respectively. Measured runoff from the pipe-drained terraces ranged from 10 to 48,000 cubic feet and was

  14. Demonstration and validation of automated agricultural field extraction from multi-temporal Landsat data for the majority of United States harvested cropland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, L.; Roy, D. P.

    2014-12-01

    The spatial distribution of agricultural fields is a fundamental description of rural landscapes and the location and extent of fields is important to establish the area of land utilized for agricultural yield prediction, resource allocation, and for economic planning, and may be indicative of the degree of agricultural capital investment, mechanization, and labor intensity. To date, field objects have not been extracted from satellite data over large areas because of computational constraints, the complexity of the extraction task, and because consistently processed appropriate resolution data have not been available or affordable. A recently published automated methodology to extract agricultural crop fields from weekly 30 m Web Enabled Landsat data (WELD) time series was refined and applied to 14 states that cover 70% of harvested U.S. cropland (USDA 2012 Census). The methodology was applied to 2010 combined weekly Landsat 5 and 7 WELD data. The field extraction and quantitative validation results are presented for the following 14 states: Iowa, North Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, South Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Michigan (sorted by area of harvested cropland). These states include the top 11 U.S states by harvested cropland area. Implications and recommendations for systematic application to global coverage Landsat data are discussed.

  15. Nanotechnologies in agriculture and food - an overview of different fields of application, risk assessment and public perception.

    PubMed

    Grobe, Antje; Rissanen, Mikko E

    2012-12-01

    Nanomaterials in agriculture and food are key issues of public and regulatory interest. Over the past ten years, patents for nanotechnological applications in the field of food and agriculture have become abundant. Uncertainty prevails however regarding their current development status and presence in the consumer market. Thus, the discussion on nanotechnologies in the food sector with its specific public perception of benefits and risks and the patterns of communication are becoming similar to the debate on genetically modified organisms. The food industry's silence in communication increased mistrust of consumer organisations and policy makers. The article discusses the background of the current regulatory debates, starting with the EU recommendation for defining nanomaterials, provides an overview of possible fields of application in agriculture and food industries and discusses risk assessment and the public debate on benefits and risks. Communicative recommendations are directed at researchers, the food industry and regulators in order to increase trust both in stakeholders, risk management and regulatory processes.

  16. Forest to agriculture conversion in southern Belize: Implications for migrant land birds

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Spruce, J.P.; Dowell, B.A.; Robbins, C.S.; Sader, S.A.; Doyle, Jamie K.; Schelhas, John

    1993-01-01

    Central America offers a suite of neotropical habitats vital to overwintering migrant land birds. The recent decline of many forest dwelling avian migrants is believed to be related in part to neotropical deforestation and land use change. However, spatio-temporal trends in neotropical habitat availability and avian migrant habitat use are largely unknown. Such information is needed to assess the impact of agriculture conversion on migrant land birds. In response, the USDI Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Maine began a cooperative study in 1988 which applies remote sensing and field surveys to determine current habitat availability and avian migrant habitat use. Study sites include areas in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala and southern Mexico. Visual assessment of Landsat TM imagery indicates southern Belize forests are fragmented by various agricultural systems. Shifting agriculture is predominant in some areas, while permanent agriculture (citrus and mixed animal crops) is the primary system in others. This poster focuses on efforts to monitor forest to agriculture conversion in southern Belize using remote sensing, field surveys and GIS techniques. Procedures and avian migrant use of habitat are summarized.

  17. Study on the quantitative relationship between Agricultural water and fertilization process and non-point source pollution based on field experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, H.; Chen, K.; Wu, Z.; Guan, X.

    2017-12-01

    In recent years, with the prominent of water environment problem and the relative increase of point source pollution governance, especially the agricultural non-point source pollution problem caused by the extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides has become increasingly aroused people's concern and attention. In order to reveal the quantitative relationship between agriculture water and fertilizer and non-point source pollution, on the basis of elm field experiment and combined with agricultural drainage irrigation model, the agricultural irrigation water and the relationship between fertilizer and fertilization scheme and non-point source pollution were analyzed and calculated by field emission intensity index. The results show that the variation of displacement varies greatly under different irrigation conditions. When the irrigation water increased from 22cm to 42cm, the irrigation water increased by 20 cm while the field displacement increased by 11.92 cm, about 66.22% of the added value of irrigation water. Then the irrigation water increased from 42 to 68, irrigation water increased 26 cm, and the field displacement increased by 22.48 cm, accounting for 86.46% of irrigation water. So there is an "inflection point" between the irrigation water amount and field displacement amount. The load intensity increases with the increase of irrigation water and shows a significant power correlation. Under the different irrigation condition, the increase amplitude of load intensity with the increase of irrigation water is different. When the irrigation water is smaller, the load intensity increase relatively less, and when the irrigation water increased to about 42 cm, the load intensity will increase considerably. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the fertilization and load intensity. The load intensity had obvious difference in different fertilization modes even with same fertilization level, in which the fertilizer field unit load intensity

  18. Operation of agricultural test fields for study of stressed crops by remote sensing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Toler, R. W.

    1974-01-01

    A test site for the study of winter wheat development and collection of ERTS data was established in September of 1973. The test site is a 10 mile square area located 12.5 miles west of Amarillo, Texas on Interstate Hwy. 40, in Randall and Potter counties. The center of the area is the Southwestern Great Plains Research Center at Bushland, Texas. Within the test area all wheat fields were identified by ground truth and designated irrigated or dryland. The fields in the test area other than wheat were identified as to pasture or the crop that was grown. A ground truth area of hard red winter wheat was established west of Hale Center, Texas. Maps showing the location of winter wheat fields in excess of 40 acres in size within a 10 mile radius were supplied NASA. Satellite data was collected for this test site (ERTS-1).

  19. Occurrence and movement of antibiotic resistant bacxteria, in tile-drained agricultural fields receiving swine manure

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The use of tylosin at subtherapeutic levels by the swine industry provides selective pressure for the development of antibiotic resistance in gastrointestinal bacteria. The land application of swine manure to drained agricultural fields might accelerate the transport of pathogen indicators such as e...

  20. Herbicide sorption to fine particulate matter suspended downwind of agricultural operations: field and laboratory investigations.

    PubMed

    Clymo, Amelia S; Shin, Jin Young; Holmen, Britt A

    2005-01-15

    Tillage-induced erosion of herbicides bound to airborne soil particles has not been quantified as a mechanism for offsite herbicide transport. This study quantifies the release of two preemergent herbicides, metolachlor and pendimethalin, to the atmosphere as gas- and particle-phase species during soil incorporation operations. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and gas-phase samples were collected at three sampling heights during herbicide disking into the soil in Davis, CA, in May 2000 and May 2001 using filter/PUF sampling. Quartz fiber filters (QFFs) were used in May 2000, and Teflon membrane filters (TMFs) were used in May 2001. The field data were combined with laboratory filter/PUF partitioning experiments to account for adsorption to the filter surfaces and quantify the mass of PM2.5-bound herbicides in the field samples. Laboratory results indicate a significant adsorption of metolachlor, but not pendimethalin, to the quartz filter surfaces. Metolachlor partitioning to PM2.5 collected on TMF filters resulted in corrected PM2.5 field partition coefficient values, Kp,corr = Cp/Cg, of approximately 10(-3.5) m3/microg, indicating its preference for the gas phase. Pendimethalin exhibited more semivolatile behavior,with Kp,corr values that ranged from 10(-3) to 10(-1) m3/ microg and increased with sampling height and distance downwind of the operation. An increase in pendimethalin enrichment at a height of 5 m suggests winnowing of finer, more sorptive soil components with corresponding higher transport potential. Pendimethalin was enriched in the PM2.5 samples by up to a factor of 250 compared to the field soil, indicating thatfurther research on the processes controlling the generation of PM-bound herbicides during agricultural operations is warranted to enable prediction of off-site mass fluxes by this mechanism.

  1. Field investigation to assess nutrient emission from paddy field to surface water in river catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kogure, Kanami; Aichi, Masaatsu; Zessner, Matthias

    2015-04-01

    In order to maintain good river environment, it is remarkably important to understand and to control nutrient behavior such as Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Our former research dealing with nutrient emission analysis in the Tone River basin area in Japan, in addition to urban and industrial waste water, nutrient emission from agricultural activity is dominant pollution source into the river system. Japanese style agriculture produces large amount of rice and paddy field occupies large areas in Japanese river basin areas. While paddy field can deteriorate river water quality by outflow of fertilizer, it is also suggested that paddy field has water purification function. As we carried out investigation in the Tone River Basin area, data were obtained which dissolved nitrogen concentration is lower in discharging water from paddy field than inflowing water into the field. Regarding to nutrient emission impact from paddy field, sufficient data are required to discuss quantitatively seasonal change of material behavior including flooding season and dry season, difference of climate condition, soil type, and rice species, to evaluate year round comprehensive impact from paddy field to the river system. In this research, field survey in paddy field and data collection relating rice production were carried out as a preliminary investigation to assess how Japanese style paddy field contributes year round on surface water quality. Study sites are three paddy fields located in upper reach of the Tone River basin area. The fields are flooded from June to September. In 2014, field investigations were carried out three times in flooding period and twice in dry period. To understand characteristics of each paddy field and seasonal tendency accompanying weather of agricultural event, short term investigations were conducted and we prepare for further long term investigation. Each study site has irrigation water inflow and outflow. Two sites have tile drainage system under the field and

  2. Limited occurrence of denitrification in four shallow aquifers in agricultural areas of the United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Green, C.T.; Puckett, L.J.; Böhlke, J.K.; Bekins, B.A.; Phillips, S.P.; Kauffman, L.J.; Denver, J.M.; Johnson, H.M.

    2008-01-01

    The ability of natural attenuation to mitigate agricultural nitrate contamination in recharging aquifers was investigated in four important agricultural settings in the United States. The study used laboratory analyses, field measurements, and flow and transport modeling for monitoring well transects (0.5 to 2.5 km in length) in the San Joaquin watershed, California, the Elkhorn watershed, Nebraska, the Yakima watershed, Washington, and the Chester watershed, Maryland. Ground water analyses included major ion chemistry, dissolved gases, nitrogen and oxygen stable isotopes, and estimates of recharge date. Sediment analyses included potential electron donors and stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes. Within each site and among aquifer-based medians, dissolved oxygen decreases with ground water age, and excess N2 from denitrification increases with age. Stable isotopes and excess N2 imply minimal denitrifying activity at the Maryland and Washington sites, partial denitrification at the California site, and total denitrification across portions of the Nebraska site. At all sites, recharging electron donor concentrations are not sufficient to account for the losses of dissolved oxygen and nitrate, implying that relict, solid phase electron donors drive redox reactions. Zero-order rates of denitrification range from 0 to 0.14 μmol N L−1d−1, comparable to observations of other studies using the same methods. Many values reported in the literature are, however, orders of magnitude higher, which is attributed to a combination of method limitations and bias for selection of sites with rapid denitrification. In the shallow aquifers below these agricultural fields, denitrification is limited in extent and will require residence times of decades or longer to mitigate modern nitrate contamination.

  3. Definition of zones with different levels of productivity within an agricultural field using fuzzy modeling

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Zoning of agricultural fields is an important task for utilization of precision farming technology. One method for the definition of zones with different levels of productivity is based on fuzzy indicator model. Fuzzy indicator model for identification of zones with different levels of productivit...

  4. The fate and transport of the Cry1Ab protein in an agricultural field and laboratory aquatic microcosms.

    PubMed

    Strain, Katherine E; Lydy, Michael J

    2015-08-01

    Genetically engineered crops expressing insecticidal crystalline proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), were commercialized almost two decades ago as a means to manage agricultural pests. The Bt proteins are highly specific and only lethal upon ingestion, limiting the scope of toxicity to target insects. However, concern of exposure to non-target organisms and negative public perceptions regarding Bt crops has caused controversy surrounding their use. The objective of this research was to monitor the fate and transport of a Bt protein, Cry1Ab, in a large-scale agricultural field containing maize expressing the Cry1Ab protein and a non-Bt near isoline, and in aquatic microcosms. The highest environmental concentrations of the Cry1Ab protein were found in runoff water and sediment, up to 130ngL(-1) and 143ngg(-1) dry weight, respectively, with the Cry1Ab protein detected in both Bt and non-Bt maize fields. As surface runoff and residual crop debris can transport Bt proteins to waterways adjacent to agricultural fields, a series of laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the potential fate of the Cry1Ab protein under different conditions. The results showed that sediment type and temperature can influence the degradation of the Cry1Ab protein in an aquatic system and that the Cry1Ab protein can persist for up to two months. Although Cry1Ab protein concentrations measured in the field soil indicate little exposure to terrestrial organisms, the consistent input of Bt-contaminated runoff and crop debris into agricultural waterways is relevant to understanding potential consequences to aquatic species. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Field site selection: getting it right first time around

    PubMed Central

    Malcolm, Colin A; El Sayed, Badria; Babiker, Ahmed; Girod, Romain; Fontenille, Didier; Knols, Bart GJ; Nugud, Abdel Hameed; Benedict, Mark Q

    2009-01-01

    The selection of suitable field sites for integrated control of Anopheles mosquitoes using the sterile insect technique (SIT) requires consideration of the full gamut of factors facing most proposed control strategies, but four criteria identify an ideal site: 1) a single malaria vector, 2) an unstructured, relatively low density target population, 3) isolation of the target population and 4) actual or potential malaria incidence. Such a site can exist in a diverse range of situations or can be created. Two contrasting SIT field sites are examined here: the desert-flanked Dongola Reach of the Nile River in Northern State, Sudan, where malaria is endemic, and the island of La Reunion, where autochthonous malaria is rare but risk is persistent. The single malaria-transmitting vector at both sites is Anopheles arabiensis. In Sudan, the target area is a narrow 500 km corridor stretching from the rocky terrain at the Fourth Cataract - just above the new Merowe Dam, to the northernmost edge of the species range, close to Egypt. Vector distribution and temporal changes in density depend on the Nile level, ambient temperature and human activities. On La Reunion, the An. arabiensis population is coastal, limited and divided into three areas by altitude and exposure to the trade winds on the east coast. Mosquito vectors for other diseases are an issue at both sites, but of primary importance on La Reunion due to the recent chikungunya epidemic. The similarities and differences between these two sites in terms of suitability are discussed in the context of area-wide integrated vector management incorporating the SIT. PMID:19917079

  6. Effect of Land Cover Type and Structure on Water Cycling Dynamics for Agricultural and Wetland Sites in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eichelmann, E.; Hemes, K. S.; Baldocchi, D. D.

    2016-12-01

    The Sacramento/San Joaquin river delta is an important source of fresh water for California. To reverse soil subsidence, which is linked to draining the natural wetlands for agriculture, parts of the Sacramento/San Joaquin river delta have been restored to managed wetlands. While these restored wetlands provide greenhouse gas benefits compared to agricultural use of the land, implications for the water balance of these ecosystems, specifically evapotranspiration, are not well known. Based on multiple years of eddy covariance measurements of water, CO2, and sensible energy fluxes we explored the water cycling dynamics for several sites under different land use covers in the Sacramento/San Joaquin river delta. We investigated four sites under agricultural use (rice, corn, and alfalfa crops and cow pasture) and three restored wetland sites of varying ages and structures to examine the influence of land cover type and structure on evapotranspiration, sensible energy flux, and water use efficiency. While the wetland and the rice sites are usually flooded for the majority of the year, the alfalfa, corn, and pasture sites have a water table that is maintained to be below ground level throughout the year. The three wetland sites also have different fractions of open water to vegetation, covering a gradient from very dense vegetation with no open water to a fairly open structure with large pools of open water. These differences in land cover (dry vs flooded and fraction of open water to vegetation) have an effect on the patterns of evapotranspiration on diurnal to annual timescales. Although the flooded sites (wetland sites and rice) tend to have larger annual evapotranspiration than the drained sites (cow pasture, alfalfa, and corn), the fraction of open water to vegetation affects the extend to which the flooded sites' evapotranspiration exceeds that of drained sites. On diurnal timescales, we found that flooded sites with a larger fraction of open water to vegetation

  7. 7 CFR 1924.119 - Site Loans.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Site Loans. 1924.119 Section 1924.119 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE... CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR Planning and Performing Site Development Work § 1924.119 Site Loans. Subdivisions...

  8. The Role Of Management Of The Field-Forest Boundary In Poland's Process Of Agricultural Restructuring

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woch, Franciszek; Borek, Robert

    2015-01-01

    The aim of the work described here has been to point to the relationships between the field-forest boundary and crop productivity as regards the present agrarian land-use structure in Poland, and to provide new opportunities for arranging the agrarian process and the spatial planning of the rural landscape in the context of the sustainable shaping of the field-forest boundary. Impacts of forests and woodlands on crop productivity have been assessed using available data from relevant Polish literature. An assessment of the plot-distribution pattern characterising farms in Poland was made on the basis of reference data from the Agency for the Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture. Finally, the possibility of afforestation of agricultural land has been evaluated within the existing legal framework, and on the basis of available data, with attention paid to the need to include organization of the field-forest boundary within the comprehensive management and planning of rural areas, and to preserve woody elements in patchy landscapes. This all creates an opportunity to test innovative approaches to integrated land use which combines the creation of public goods and local products based on participatory learning processes that bring in local stakeholders and decision-makers.

  9. Nutrient uptake by agricultural crops from biochar-amended soils: results from two field experiments in Austria

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karer, Jasmin; Zehetner, Franz; Kloss, Stefanie; Wimmer, Bernhard; Soja, Gerhard

    2013-04-01

    The use of biochar as soil amendment is considered as a promising agricultural soil management technique, combining carbon sequestration and soil fertility improvements. These expectations are largely founded on positive experiences with biochar applications to impoverished or degraded tropical soils. The validity of these results for soils in temperate climates needs confirmation from field experiments with typical soils representative for intensive agricultural production areas. Frequently biochar is mixed with other organic additives like compost. As these two materials interact with each other and each one may vary considerably in its basic characteristics, it is difficult to attribute the effects of the combined additive to one of its components and to a specific physico-chemical parameter. Therefore investigations of the amendment efficacy require the study of the pure components to characterize their specific behavior in soil. This is especially important for adsorption behavior of biochar for macro- and micronutrients because in soil there are multiple nutrient sinks that compete with plant roots for vital elements. Therefore this contribution presents results from a field amendment study with pure biochar that had the objective to characterize the macro- and microelement uptake of crops from different soils in two typical Austrian areas of agricultural production. At two locations in North and South-East Austria, two identical field experiments on different soils (Chernozem and Cambisol) were installed in 2011 with varying biochar additions (0, 30 and 90 t/ha) and two nitrogen levels. The biochar was a product from slow pyrolysis of wood (SC Romchar SRL). During the installation of the experiments, the biochar fraction of <2 mm was mixed with surface soil to a depth of 15 cm in plots of 33 m2 each (n=4). Barley (at the Chernozem soil) and maize (at the Cambisol) were cultivated according to standard agricultural practices. The highest crop yields at both

  10. A site-specific slurry application technique on grassland and on arable crops.

    PubMed

    Schellberg, Jürgen; Lock, Reiner

    2009-01-01

    There is evidence that unequal slurry application on agricultural land contributes to N losses to the environment. Heterogeneity within fields demands adequate response by means of variable rate application. A technique is presented which allows site-specific application of slurry on grassland and arable land based on pre-defined application maps. The system contains a valve controlling flow rate by an on-board PC. During operation, flow rate is measured and scaled against set point values given in the application map together with the geographic position of the site. The systems worked sufficiently precise at a flow rate between 0 and 25 l s(-1) and an offset of actual slurry flow from set point values between 0.33 and 0.67 l s(-1). Long-term experimentation is required to test if site-specific application de facto reduces N surplus within fields and so significantly contributes to the unloading of N in agricultural areas.

  11. Assessing the Groundwater Quality at a Saudi Arabian Agricultural Site and the Occurrence of Opportunistic Pathogens on Irrigated Food Produce.

    PubMed

    Alsalah, Dhafer; Al-Jassim, Nada; Timraz, Kenda; Hong, Pei-Ying

    2015-10-05

    This study examines the groundwater quality in wells situated near agricultural fields in Saudi Arabia. Fruits (e.g., tomato and green pepper) irrigated with groundwater were also assessed for the occurrence of opportunistic pathogens to determine if food safety was compromised by the groundwater. The amount of total nitrogen in most of the groundwater samples exceeded the 15 mg/L permissible limit for agricultural irrigation. Fecal coliforms in densities > 12 MPN/100 mL were detected in three of the groundwater wells that were in close proximity to a chicken farm. These findings, coupled with qPCR-based fecal source tracking, show that groundwater in wells D and E, which were nearest to the chicken farm, had compromised quality. Anthropogenic contamination resulted in a shift in the predominant bacterial phyla within the groundwater microbial communities. For example, there was an elevated presence of Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria in wells D and E but a lower overall microbial richness in the groundwater perturbed by anthropogenic contamination. In the remaining wells, the genus Acinetobacter was detected at high relative abundance ranging from 1.5% to 48% of the total groundwater microbial community. However, culture-based analysis did not recover any antibiotic-resistant bacteria or opportunistic pathogens from these groundwater samples. In contrast, opportunistic pathogenic Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from the fruits irrigated with the groundwater from wells B and F. Although the groundwater was compromised, quantitative microbial risk assessment suggests that the annual risk incurred from accidental consumption of E. faecalis on these fruits was within the acceptable limit of 10(-4). However, the annual risk arising from P. aeruginosa was 9.55 × 10(-4), slightly above the acceptable limit. Our findings highlight that the groundwater quality at this agricultural site in western Saudi Arabia is not pristine and that better

  12. Assessing the Groundwater Quality at a Saudi Arabian Agricultural Site and the Occurrence of Opportunistic Pathogens on Irrigated Food Produce

    PubMed Central

    Alsalah, Dhafer; Al-Jassim, Nada; Timraz, Kenda; Hong, Pei-Ying

    2015-01-01

    This study examines the groundwater quality in wells situated near agricultural fields in Saudi Arabia. Fruits (e.g., tomato and green pepper) irrigated with groundwater were also assessed for the occurrence of opportunistic pathogens to determine if food safety was compromised by the groundwater. The amount of total nitrogen in most of the groundwater samples exceeded the 15 mg/L permissible limit for agricultural irrigation. Fecal coliforms in densities > 12 MPN/100 mL were detected in three of the groundwater wells that were in close proximity to a chicken farm. These findings, coupled with qPCR-based fecal source tracking, show that groundwater in wells D and E, which were nearest to the chicken farm, had compromised quality. Anthropogenic contamination resulted in a shift in the predominant bacterial phyla within the groundwater microbial communities. For example, there was an elevated presence of Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria in wells D and E but a lower overall microbial richness in the groundwater perturbed by anthropogenic contamination. In the remaining wells, the genus Acinetobacter was detected at high relative abundance ranging from 1.5% to 48% of the total groundwater microbial community. However, culture-based analysis did not recover any antibiotic-resistant bacteria or opportunistic pathogens from these groundwater samples. In contrast, opportunistic pathogenic Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from the fruits irrigated with the groundwater from wells B and F. Although the groundwater was compromised, quantitative microbial risk assessment suggests that the annual risk incurred from accidental consumption of E. faecalis on these fruits was within the acceptable limit of 10−4. However, the annual risk arising from P. aeruginosa was 9.55 × 10−4, slightly above the acceptable limit. Our findings highlight that the groundwater quality at this agricultural site in western Saudi Arabia is not pristine and that better

  13. Field test of on-site drug detection devices

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-10-01

    This NHTSA-sponsored study reports the findings of a field evaluation of five on-site drug screening devices used by law enforcement to screen for illicit drugs among drivers suspected of driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or other drugs. I...

  14. Wetlands and Agriculture in Africa: Major Sources of N2O?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gettel, G. M.

    2015-12-01

    Papyrus wetlands in East Africa are rapidly being converted to agricultural production in an effort to increase food security. This conversion is often seasonal, with wetlands being used for grazing and crop production of maize, sugarcane, and rice during dry seasons, and flooding occurring during wet seasons. An important question with respect to greenhouse gas production is whether wetland conversion to agriculture increases N2O fluxes. This trend has been shown in temperate regions where increased N2O fluxes are positively related to low soil C:N ratios, especially when soil moisture content remains high. In order to examine whether denitrification contributes to N2O flux, we measured potential denitrification rates (PDR by acetylene block method) in intact papyrus wetlands and agricultural converted wetlands in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda, and also performed multivariate analysis to relate soil characteristics to PDR. Agricultural land-cover types included maize, sugarcane, rice, and grazing. Results showed that intact wetlands are potentially important sources of N2O, as PDR in papyrus vegetation were consistently the highest (p<0.05; 128 - 601 μg N2O g DW-1 hour-1) while grazing sites showed the lowest (0.1 - 0.5 μg N2O g DW-1 hour-1). Rates were second highest in rice fields (2.3 - 303 μg N2O g DW-1 hour-1), and intermediate in maize and sugarcane (6.5 - 75 μmg N2O g DW-1 hour-1 and 5 - 30 μg N2O g DW-1 hour-1 respectively). PDR across all sites was inversely related to soil C:N ratio, with nitrate consistently limiting PDR in the wetland sites while soil carbon limited PDR in agricultural sites. This is seemingly in contrast with other findings that show that lower C:N ratios result in high N2O fluxes from drained wetland sites. However, flux measurements along with more realistic process-based measurements of denitrification are urgently needed to more fully understand the effect of agricultural conversion of wetlands in East Africa.

  15. Soil health research in the Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed Long-Term Agroecosystem Research site

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed (GCEW) is located in the Central Claypan Region in NE Missouri. Within GCEW, a field and plot research site has been operated by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit since 1991. The GCEW site joined t...

  16. Selection of flooded agricultural fields and other landscapes by female northern pintails wintering in Tulare Basin, California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fleskes, Joseph P.; Jarvis, Robert L.; Gilmer, David S.

    2003-01-01

    Habitat selection and use are measures of relative importance of habitats to wildlife and necessary information for effective wildlife conservation. To measure the relative importance of flooded agricultural fields and other landscapes to northern pintails (Anas acuta) wintering in Tulare Basin (TB), California, we radiotagged female pintails during late August-early October, 1991-1993 in TB and other San Joaquin Valley areas and determined use and selection of these TB landscapes through March each year. Availability of landscape and field types in TB changed within and among years. Pintail use and selection (based upon use-to-availability log ratios) of landscape and field types differed among seasons, years, and diel periods. Fields flooded after harvest and before planting (i.e., pre-irrigated) were the most available, used, and selected landscape type before the hunting season (Prehunt). Safflower was the most available, used, and-except in 1993, when pre-irrigated fallow was available-selected pre-irrigated field type during Prehunt. Pre-irrigated barley-wheat received 19-22% of use before hunting season, but selection varied greatly among years and diel periods. During and after hunting season, managed marsh was the most available, used, and, along with floodwater areas, selected landscape type; pre-irrigated cotton and alfalfa were the least selected field types and accounted for <13% of pintail use. Agricultural drainwater evaporation ponds, sewage treatment ponds, and reservoirs accounted for 42-48% of flooded landscape available but were little used and least selected. Exodus of pintails from TB coincided with drying of pre-irrigated fallow, safflower, and barley-wheat fields early in winter, indicating that preferred habitats were lacking in TB during late winter. Agriculture conservation programs could improve TB for pintails by increasing flooding of fallow and harvested safflower and grain fields. Conservation of remaining wetlands should concentrate

  17. 7 CFR 3015.94 - Site visits.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Site visits. 3015.94 Section 3015.94 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE UNIFORM FEDERAL ASSISTANCE REGULATIONS Monitoring and Reporting Program Performance § 3015.94 Site...

  18. Capturing field-scale variability in crop performance across a regional-scale climosequence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brooks, E. S.; Poggio, M.; Anderson, T. R.; Gasch, C.; Yourek, M. A.; Ward, N. K.; Magney, T. S.; Brown, D. J.; Huggins, D. R.

    2014-12-01

    With the increasing availability of variable rate technology for applying fertilizers and other agrichemicals in dryland agricultural production systems there is a growing need to better capture and understand the processes driving field scale variability in crop yield and soil water. This need for a better understanding of field scale variability has led to the recent designation of the R. J. Cook Agronomy Farm (CAF) (Pullman, WA, USA) as a United States Department of Agriculture Long-Term Agro-Ecosystem Research (LTAR) site. Field scale variability at the CAF is closely monitored using extensive environmental sensor networks and intensive hand sampling. As investigating land-soil-water dynamics at CAF is essential for improving precision agriculture, transferring this knowledge across the regional-scale climosequence is challenging. In this study we describe the hydropedologic functioning of the CAF in relation to five extensively instrumented field sites located within 50 km in the same climatic region. The formation of restrictive argillic soil horizons in the wetter, cooler eastern edge of the region results in the development of extensive perched water tables, surface saturation, and surface runoff, whereas excess water is not an issue in the warmer, drier, western edge of the region. Similarly, crop and tillage management varies across the region as well. We discuss the implications of these regional differences on field scale management decisions and demonstrate how we are using proximal soil sensing and remote sensing imagery to better understand and capture field scale variability at a particular field site.

  19. Superfund record of decision (EPA Region 4): T. H. Agriculture and Nutrition Site, operable unit 1, Montgomery, AL, April 17, 1995

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    NONE

    1995-04-01

    This decision document presents the selected interim remedial action for the T H Agriculture and Nutrition (THAN) Site, Montgomery, Alabama. This interim remedial action employs the use of extraction wells combined with a pump and treat system to prevent further migration of contaminated groundwater from the Site and to initiate groundwater restoration pending completion of the RI/FS and implementation of the final remedial action.

  20. Geological characterization of remote field sites using visible and infrared spectroscopy: Results from the 1999 Marsokhod field test

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Johnson, J. R.; Ruff, S.W.; Moersch, J.; Roush, T.; Horton, K.; Bishop, J.; Cabrol, N.A.; Cockell, C.; Gazis, P.; Newsom, Horton E.; Stoker, C.

    2001-01-01

    Upcoming Mars Surveyor lander missions will include extensive spectroscopic capabilities designed to improve interpretations of the mineralogy and geology of landing sites on Mars. The 1999 Marsokhod Field Experiment (MFE) was a Mars rover simulation designed in part to investigate the utility of visible/near-infrared and thermal infrared field spectrometers to contribute to the remote geological exploration of a Mars analog field site in the California Mojave Desert. The experiment simultaneously investigated the abilities of an off-site science team to effectively analyze and acquire useful imaging and spectroscopic data and to communicate efficiently with rover engineers and an on-site field team to provide meaningful input to rover operations and traverse planning. Experiences gained during the MFE regarding effective communication between different mission operation teams will be useful to upcoming Mars mission teams. Field spectra acquired during the MFE mission exhibited features interpreted at the time as indicative of carbonates (both dolomitic and calcitic), mafic rocks and associated weathering products, and silicic rocks with desert varnish-like coatings. The visible/near-infrared spectra also suggested the presence of organic compounds, including chlorophyll in one rock. Postmission laboratory petrologic and spectral analyses of returned samples confirmed that all rocks identified as carbonates using field measurements alone were calc-silicates and that chlorophyll associated with endolithic organisms was present in the one rock for which it was predicted. Rocks classified from field spectra as silicics and weathered mafics were recognized in the laboratory as metamorphosed monzonites and diorite schists. This discrepancy was likely due to rock coatings sampled by the field spectrometers compared to fresh rock interiors analyzed petrographically, in addition to somewhat different surfaces analyzed by laboratory thermal spectroscopy compared to field

  1. Dynamics of soil carbon, nitrogen and soil respiration in farmer’s field with conservation agriculture Siem Reap, Cambodia

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The years of intensive tillage in many countries, including Cambodia, have caused significant decline in agriculture’s natural resources that could threaten the future of agricultural production and sustainability worldwide. Long-term tillage system and site-specific crop management can affect chang...

  2. Estimation of decay rates for fecal indicator bacteria and bacterial pathogens in agricultural field-applied manure

    EPA Science Inventory

    Field-applied manure is an important source of pathogenic exposure in surface water bodies for humans and ecological receptors. We analyzed the persistence and decay of fecal indicator bacteria and bacterial pathogens from three sources (cattle, poultry, swine) for agricultural f...

  3. Anaerobic co-digestion plants for the revaluation of agricultural waste: Sustainable location sites from a GIS analysis.

    PubMed

    Villamar, Cristina Alejandra; Rivera, Diego; Aguayo, Mauricio

    2016-04-01

    The aim of this study was to establish sustainably feasible areas for the implementation of anaerobic co-digestion plants for agricultural wastes (cattle/swine slurries and cereal crop wastes). The methodology was based on the use of geographic information systems (GIS), the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and map algebra generated from hedges related to environmental, social and economic constraints. The GIS model obtained was applied to a region of Chile (Bío Bío Region) as a case study showing the energy potential (205 MW-h) of agricultural wastes (swine/cattle manures and cereal crop wastes) and thereby assessing its energy contribution (3.5%) at country level (Chile). From this model, it was possible to spatially identify the influence of each factor (environmental, economic and social) when defining suitable areas for the siting of anaerobic co-digestion plants. In conclusion, GIS-based models establish appropriate areas for the location of anaerobic co-digestion plants in the revaluation of agricultural waste from the production of energy through biogas production. © The Author(s) 2016.

  4. Spectroscopy of disordered low-field sites in Cr3+: Mullite glass ceramic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knutson, Robert; Liu, Huimin; Yen, W. M.; Morgan, T. V.

    1989-09-01

    In this article we present results of optical and ESR studies that have allowed us to study the behavior of Cr3+ at disordered low-field sites within a mullite ceramic host. The results indicate that the existence of these low-field ions, which are likely at sites in regions of disorder, accounts for most of the spectroscopic anomalies previously noted in these materials. Furthermore, energy transfer from ordered high-field to disordered low-field ions is observed. The resulting complex spectra are deconvoluted by means of the recently developed technique of saturation-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.

  5. Influence of agricultural land-use and pesticides on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in an agricultural river basin in southeast Brazil.

    PubMed

    Egler, M; Buss, D F; Moreira, J C; Baptista, D F

    2012-08-01

    Land-use alterations and pesticide run-offs are among the main causes for impairment in agricultural areas. We evaluated the influence of different land-uses (forest, pasture and intensive agriculture) on the water quality and on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages on three occasions: in the dry season, wet season and at the end of the wet season. Macroinvertebrates responded to this gradient of impairment: agricultural sites had significantly lower richness numbers than forested and pasture sites, and all major invertebrate groups were significantly affected. Most taxa found in forested sites were found in pasture sites, but often with lower densities. In this case, the loss of habitats due to sedimentation and the lower complexity of substrates seem to be the disruptive force for the macroinvertebrate fauna.

  6. Site recycling: From Brownfield to football field

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lee, C.; Haas, W.L.

    The Carolina Panther`s new home, Carolinas Stadium, will be impressive. It will include a 75,000-seat stadium, about 2,000 parking spaces, and a practice facility equipped with three full-sized football fields, all located on 30 acres bordering the central business district of Charlotte, NC. Fans of the NFL expansion team may never know that, until recently, 13 of those 30 acres were a former state Superfund site contaminated by a commercial scrapyard that had operated from the early 1930s to 1983. The salvage of nonferrous metals from lead-acid batteries, copper from transformers and other electrical equipment, and ferrous metal scrap frommore » junk automobiles at the Smith Metal and Iron (SMI) site had left a complex contamination legacy. The soil contained lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lesser amounts of semivolatiles (polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs), and volatile organic compounds and petroleum hydrocarbons. The site had remained dormant, like many former industrial sites that have come be called {open_quotes}brownfields,{close_quotes} for nearly a decade when in 1993, Charlotte was selected as the future home of the Carolina Panthers, a National Football League expansion team. The city was able to attract the team in part by offering to redevelop the site, a prime location adjacent to the downtown area. An eight-month-long site remediation effort by HDR Engineering Inc. was completed March 31, on schedule for a June 1996 unveiling of the team`s new facility.« less

  7. Geological Characterization of Remote Field Sites Using Visible and Infrared Spectroscopy: Results from the 1999 Marsokhod Field Test

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnson, J. R.; Ruff, S. W.; Moersch, J.; Roush, T.; Horton, K.; Bishop, J.; Cabrol, N. A.; Cockell, C.; Gazis, P.; Newsom, H. E.

    2000-01-01

    The 1999 Marsokhod Field Experiment (MFE) provided an opportunity to test the suitability of rover-borne visible/near-infrared and thermal infrared field spectrometers to contribute to the remote geological exploration of a Mars analog field site.

  8. Modelling site-specific N2O emission factors from Austrian agricultural soils for targeted mitigation measures (NitroAustria)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Amon, Barbara; Zechmeister-Boltenstern, Sophie; Kasper, Martina; Foldal, Cecilie; Schiefer, Jasmin; Kitzler, Barbara; Schwarzl, Bettina; Zethner, Gerhard; Anderl, Michael; Sedy, Katrin; Gaugitsch, Helmut; Dersch, Georg; Baumgarten, Andreas; Haas, Edwin; Kiese, Ralf

    2016-04-01

    Results from a previous project "FarmClim" highlight that the IPCC default emission factor is not able to reflect region specific N2O emissions from Austrian arable soils. The methodology is limited in identifying hot spots and hot moments of N2O emissions. When estimations are based on default emission factors no recommendations can be given on optimisation measures that would lead to a reduction of soil N2O emissions. The better the knowledge is about Nitrogen and Carbon budgets in Austrian agricultural managed soils the better the situation can be reflected in the Austrian GHG emission inventory calculations. Therefore national and regionally modelled emission factors should improve the evidence for national deviation from the IPCC default emission factors and reduce the uncertainties. The overall aim of NitroAustria is to identify the drivers for N2O emissions on a regional basis taking different soil types, climate, and agricultural management into account. We use the LandscapeDNDC model to update the N2O emission factors for N fertilizer and animal manure applied to soils. Key regions in Austria were selected and region specific N2O emissions calculated. The model runs at sub-daily time steps and uses data such as maximum and minimum air temperature, precipitation, radiation, and wind speed as meteorological drivers. Further input data are used to reflect agricultural management practices, e.g., planting/harvesting, tillage, fertilizer application, irrigation and information on soil and vegetation properties for site characterization and model initialization. While at site scale, arable management data (crop cultivation, rotations, timings etc.) is obtained by experimental data from field trials or observations, at regional scale such data need to be generated using region specific proxy data such as land use and management statistics, crop cultivations and yields, crop rotations, fertilizer sales, manure resulting from livestock units etc. The farming

  9. Leaf Area Index Estimation Using Chinese GF-1 Wide Field View Data in an Agriculture Region.

    PubMed

    Wei, Xiangqin; Gu, Xingfa; Meng, Qingyan; Yu, Tao; Zhou, Xiang; Wei, Zheng; Jia, Kun; Wang, Chunmei

    2017-07-08

    Leaf area index (LAI) is an important vegetation parameter that characterizes leaf density and canopy structure, and plays an important role in global change study, land surface process simulation and agriculture monitoring. The wide field view (WFV) sensor on board the Chinese GF-1 satellite can acquire multi-spectral data with decametric spatial resolution, high temporal resolution and wide coverage, which are valuable data sources for dynamic monitoring of LAI. Therefore, an automatic LAI estimation algorithm for GF-1 WFV data was developed based on the radiative transfer model and LAI estimation accuracy of the developed algorithm was assessed in an agriculture region with maize as the dominated crop type. The radiative transfer model was firstly used to simulate the physical relationship between canopy reflectance and LAI under different soil and vegetation conditions, and then the training sample dataset was formed. Then, neural networks (NNs) were used to develop the LAI estimation algorithm using the training sample dataset. Green, red and near-infrared band reflectances of GF-1 WFV data were used as the input variables of the NNs, as well as the corresponding LAI was the output variable. The validation results using field LAI measurements in the agriculture region indicated that the LAI estimation algorithm could achieve satisfactory results (such as R² = 0.818, RMSE = 0.50). In addition, the developed LAI estimation algorithm had potential to operationally generate LAI datasets using GF-1 WFV land surface reflectance data, which could provide high spatial and temporal resolution LAI data for agriculture, ecosystem and environmental management researches.

  10. From Okra to Oak: Reforestation of Abandoned Agricultural Fields in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley

    Treesearch

    Callie Jo Schweitzer; John A. Stanturf

    1997-01-01

    There has been a tremendous upsurge in interest in reforestation of bottomland hardwoods. In the lower Mississippi alluvial valley, reforestation projects are occurringon a large scale on abandoned agricultural fields, often in conjunction with state or federal cost-share programs. This paper describes some of the cost share programs used to establish bottomland...

  11. Earthworm tolerance to residual agricultural pesticide contamination: field and experimental assessment of detoxification capabilities.

    PubMed

    Givaudan, Nicolas; Binet, Françoise; Le Bot, Barbara; Wiegand, Claudia

    2014-09-01

    This study investigates if acclimatization to residual pesticide contamination in agricultural soils is reflected in detoxification, antioxidant enzyme activities and energy budget of earthworms. Five fields within a joint agricultural area exhibited different chemical and farming histories from conventional cultivation to organic pasture. Soil multiresidual pesticide analysis revealed up to 9 molecules including atrazine up to 2.4 ng g(-1) dry soil. Exposure history of endogeic Aporrectodea caliginosa and Allolobophora chlorotica modified their responses to pesticides. In the field, activities of soluble glutathione-S-transferases (sGST) and catalase increased with soil pesticide contamination in A. caliginosa. Pesticide stress was reflected in depletion of energy reserves in A. chlorotica. Acute exposure of pre-adapted and naïve A. caliginosa to pesticides (fungicide Opus(®), 0.1 μg active ingredient epoxiconazole g(-1) dry soil, RoundUp Flash(®), 2.5 μg active ingredient glyphosate g(-1) dry soil, and their mixture), revealed that environmental pre-exposure accelerated activation of the detoxification enzyme sGST towards epoxiconazole. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Optimization of agricultural field workability predictions for improved risk management

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Risks introduced by weather variability are key considerations in agricultural production. The sensitivity of agriculture to weather variability is of special concern in the face of climate change. In particular, the availability of workable days is an important consideration in agricultural practic...

  13. Sustainability of natural attenuation of nitrate in agricultural aquifers

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Green, Christopher T.; Bekins, Barbara A.

    2010-01-01

    Increased concentrations of nitrate in groundwater in agricultural areas, coinciding with increased use of chemical and organic fertilizers, have raised concern because of risks to environmental and human health. At some sites, these problems are mitigated by natural attenuation of nitrate as a result of microbially mediated reactions. Results from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research under the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program show that reactions of dissolved nitrate with solid aquifer minerals and organic carbon help lower nitrate concentrations in groundwater beneath agricultural fields. However, increased fluxes of nitrate cause ongoing depletion of the finite pool of solid reactants. Consumption of the solid reactants diminishes the capacity of the aquifer to remove nitrate, calling into question the long-term sustainability of these natural attenuation processes.

  14. Emerging Agricultural Biotechnologies for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.

    PubMed

    Anderson, Jennifer A; Gipmans, Martijn; Hurst, Susan; Layton, Raymond; Nehra, Narender; Pickett, John; Shah, Dilip M; Souza, Thiago Lívio P O; Tripathi, Leena

    2016-01-20

    As global populations continue to increase, agricultural productivity will be challenged to keep pace without overtaxing important environmental resources. A dynamic and integrated approach will be required to solve global food insecurity and position agriculture on a trajectory toward sustainability. Genetically modified (GM) crops enhanced through modern biotechnology represent an important set of tools that can promote sustainable agriculture and improve food security. Several emerging biotechnology approaches were discussed in a recent symposium organized at the 13th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA. This paper summarizes the innovative research and several of the new and emerging technologies within the field of agricultural biotechnology that were presented during the symposium. This discussion highlights how agricultural biotechnology fits within the context of sustainable agriculture and improved food security and can be used in support of further development and adoption of beneficial GM crops.

  15. Methods of Collecting and Analyzing Rearward Visibility Data for Agricultural Machinery: Hazard and/or Object Detectability.

    PubMed

    Ehlers, Shawn G; Field, William E; Ess, Daniel R

    2017-01-26

    Recent interest in rearward visibility for private, construction, and commercial vehicles and documentation of rearward runovers involving bystanders outside the field of vision of the vehicle operator led to an investigation into the need for enhanced methods of rearward visibility for large, off-highway, agricultural equipment. A review of the literature found limited relevant research and minimal data on incidents involving rearward runovers of bystanders and co-workers. This article reviews the findings regarding the methods identified and tested to collect and analyze rearward visibility data, from the operator's perspective, for large self-propelled agricultural equipment, including the four-wheel drive tractors, combines, agricultural sprayers, and skid-steer loaders that are increasingly found on agricultural production sites. The methods identified, largely drawn from research conducted on private and commercial vehicles, were tested to determine their application in identifying rearward blind spots. These methods are described, and the findings from field-testing of specific machines are provided. Recommendations include establishing an appropriate engineering standard regarding rearward visibility of agricultural equipment with limited rearward vision and the use of rearward alarm systems for warning bystanders of rearward movement. Copyright© by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

  16. Evaluation of site preparation and planting stock on nuttall oak and cherrybark oak growth on a former agriculture area

    Treesearch

    Andrew B. Self; Andrew W. Ezell; Andrew J. Londo; John D. Hodges; Derek K. Alkire

    2012-01-01

    Oaks are an important component of the southern landscape, and are planted on thousands of acres across the region annually. Federal cost share programs, such as the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), have increased public interest in afforestation of retired agricultural sites in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Acorns, bare root, containerized, and potted seedlings...

  17. Enhancing soil moisture monitoring via cosmic-ray neutron sensing in farmlands by combining field site tests with an uncertainty analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oswald, S. E.; Scheiffele, L. M.; Baroni, G.; Ingwersen, J.; Schrön, M.

    2017-12-01

    One application of Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing (CRNS) is to investigate soil moisture on agricultural fields during the crop season. This fully employs the non-invasive character of CRNS without interference with agricultural practices of the farmland. The changing influence of vegetation on CRNS has to be dealt with as well as spatio-temporal influences, e.g. by irrigation or harvest. Previous work revealed that the CRNS signal on farmland shows complex and non-unique response because of the hydrogen pools in different depths and distances. This creates a challenge for soil moisture estimation and subsequent use for irrigation management or hydrological modelling. Thus, a special aim of our study was to assess the uncertainty of CRNS in cropped fields and to identify underlying causes of uncertainty. We have applied CRNS at two field sites during the growing season that were accompanied by intensive measurements of soil moisture, vegetation parameters, and irrigation events. Sources of uncertainty were identified from the experimental data. A Monte Carlo approach was used to propagate these uncertainties to CRNS soil moisture estimations. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the most important factors explaining this uncertainty. Results showed that CRNS soil moisture compares well to the soil moisture network when the point values were converted to weighted water content with all hydrogen pools included. However, when considered as a stand-alone method to retrieve volumetric soil moisture, the performance decreased. The support volume including its penetration depth showed also a considerable uncertainty, especially in relatively dry soil moisture conditions. Of seven factors analyzed, actual soil moisture profile, bulk density, incoming neutron correction and calibrated parameter N0 were found to play an important role. One possible improvement could be a simple correction factor based on independent data of soil moisture profiles to

  18. Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Site-Specific Crop Production Management

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have been developed and applied to support the practice of precision agriculture. Compared to piloted aircrafts, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can focus on much smaller crop fields with much lower flight altitude than regular airplanes to perform site-specific management ...

  19. Habitat use and movement patterns of Northern Pintails during spring in northern Japan: the importance of agricultural lands

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Yamaguchi, Noriyuki M.; Hupp, Jerry W.; Flint, Paul L.; Pearce, John M.; Shigeta, Yusuke; Shimada, Tetsuo; Hiraoka, Emiko N.; Higuchi, Hiroyoshi

    2012-01-01

    From 2006 to 2009, we marked 198 Northern Pintails (Anas acuta) with satellite transmitters on their wintering areas in Japan to study their migration routes and habitat use in spring staging areas. We hypothesized that the distribution of pintails during spring staging was influenced by patterns of land use and expected that the most frequently used areas would have more agricultural habitat than lesser-used areas. We obtained 3031 daily locations from 163 migrant pintails marked with satellite transmitters and identified 524 stopover sites. Based on a fixed kernel home range analysis of stopover utilization distribution (UD), core staging areas (areas within the 50% UD) were identified in northern Honshu and western Hokkaido, and were used by 71% of marked pintails. Core staging areas had a greater proportion of rice fields than peripheral (51–95% UD) and rarely used (outside the 95% UD) staging areas. Stopover sites also contained more rice fields and other agricultural land than were available at regional scales, indicating that pintails selected rice and other agricultural habitats at regional and local scales. Pintails remained at spring staging areas an average of 51 d. Prolonged staging in agricultural habitats of northern Japan was likely necessary for pintails to prepare for transoceanic migration to Arctic nesting areas in eastern Russia.

  20. Preferential transport of isoproturon at a plot scale and a field scale tile-drained site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zehe, Erwin; Flühler, Hannes

    2001-06-01

    Irrigation experiments using the tracers Brilliant Blue (BB) and Bromide (Br) were conducted on three plots of 1.4×1.4 m 2 (plot scale) and a field scale subsurface drained test site (900 m 2) to clarify mechanisms causing rapid transport of surface applied Isoproturon (IPU) during preferential flow events. One of the small plots (site 10) and the field scale test site are located on the same field. One day after irrigation of the plot scale sites the Br and IPU concentration in two vertical soil profiles as well as the macroporousity on separate profiles and hydraulic properties of single macropores were determined. During irrigation of the field scale test site discharge, soil moisture as well as the concentration of IPU and Br in the drainage outlet were measured. Preferential flow in deep penetrating earthworm burrows caused a fast breakthrough of IPU and Br into the tile drain (1.2 m depth) at the field scale site as well as leaching of IPU into the subsoil (>0.8 m) at site 10. The results suggest a hierarchy of preconditions for the occurrence of preferential flow events of which a sufficient number of deep penetrating macropores interconnected to the soil surface seems to be the most important one. Moreover there is evidence that facilitated transport of IPU attached to mobile soil particles occurred during the preferential flow events at the field scale site and site 10. The susceptibility for preferential flow as well as the susceptibility for facilitated transport appear to be intrinsic properties of the investigated soil.

  1. Herbicide Transport and Transformations in the Unsaturated Zone of Three Small Agricultural Basins with Corn and Soybean Row Crops

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hancock, T. C.; Vogel, J. R.; Sandstrom, M. W.; Capel, P. D.; Bayless, R. E.; Webb, R. M.

    2006-05-01

    In the United States, herbicides are among the most significant nonpoint-source pollutants and were applied to 95% of all fields in corn production and 97% of all fields in soybean production in 2003 and 2004. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has conducted a study on select herbicides in the unsaturated zone under corn and soybean fields in three predominantly agricultural basins: Morgan Creek (Maryland), Leary Weber Ditch within Sugar Creek (Indiana), and Maple Creek (Nebraska). In 2004, the Morgan Creek and Leary Weber Ditch fields were in soybeans and the Maple Creek fields were in corn. The Maple Creek fields were irrigated, whereas those in Morgan Creek and Leary Weber Ditch were not. Similarities and differences in agricultural management practices, climatic conditions, and natural features, such as soil types and geology, were evaluated as part of the study. In general, the amounts of herbicides entering the unsaturated zone from rain in these basins were minor (1%) compared to amounts commonly applied to the land surface during agricultural practices. Few herbicides were detected on solid core samples from the unsaturated zones of these basins. An exception was found at a Morgan Creek site in an upland recharge area with sandier soils. Here, atrazine concentrations were highest in the near surface solids and decreased with depth. In the unsaturated-zone porewater of the Morgan Creek Basin, parent triazine and acetanilide herbicides were detected and only at the site in the upland recharge area at relatively low concentrations at depths greater than 4 meters, probably because these compounds had not been applied for several years. At the Morgan Creek and Leary Weber Ditch sites, acetanilide metabolites were frequently detected in the unsaturated-zone porewater. In general, the fraction of metolachlor ethane sulfonic acid (ESA) relative to the total mass of parent and metabolites increased with depth overall and at several individual sampling

  2. Standardization of doctoral study in agricultural and extension education: is the field of study mature enough for achievement of the optimum degree of order?

    PubMed

    Briers, G E; Lindner, J R; Shinn, G C; Wingenbach, G W; Baker, M T

    2010-01-01

    Agricultural and extension education--or some derivative name--is a field of study leading to the doctoral degree in universities around the world. Is there are body of knowledge or a taxonomy of the knowledge--e.g., a knowledge domain--that one should possess with a doctorate in agricultural and extension education? The purpose of this paper was to synthesize the work of researchers who attempted to define the field of study, with a taxonomy comprising the knowledge domains (standards) and knowledge objects--structured interrelated sets of data, knowledge, and wisdom--of the field of study. Doctoral study in agricultural and extension education needs a document that provides for rules and guidelines--rules and guidelines that in turn provide for common and repeated use--all leading to achievement of an optimum degree of order in the context of academic, scholarly, and professional practice in agricultural and extension education. Thus, one would know in broad categories the knowledge, skills, and abilities possessed by one who holds a doctoral degree in agricultural and extension education. That is, there would exist a standard for doctoral degrees in agricultural and extension education. A content analysis of three previous attempts to categorize knowledge in agricultural and extension education served as the primary technique to create a new taxonomy--or to confirm an existing taxonomy--for doctoral study in agricultural and extension education. The following coalesced as nine essential knowledge domains for a doctorate in agricultural and extension education: (1) history, philosophy, ethics, and policy; (2) agricultural/rural development; (3) organizational development and change management; (4) planning, needs assessment, and evaluation; (5) learning theory; (6) curriculum development and instructional design; (7) teaching methods and delivery strategies; (8) research methods and tools; and, (9) scholarship and communications.

  3. Monitoring and Analysis of Nonpoint Source Pollution - Case study on terraced paddy fields in an agricultural watershed

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Shih-Kai; Jang, Cheng-Shin; Yeh, Chun-Lin

    2013-04-01

    The intensive use of chemical fertilizer has negatively impacted environments in recent decades, mainly through water pollution by nitrogen (N) and phosphate (P) originating from agricultural activities. As a main crop with the largest cultivation area about 0.25 million ha per year in Taiwan, rice paddies account for a significant share of fertilizer consumption among agriculture crops. This study evaluated the fertilization of paddy fields impacting return flow water quality in an agricultural watershed located at Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan. Water quality monitoring continued for two crop-periods in 2012, around subject to different water bodies, including the irrigation water, drainage water, and shallow groundwater. The results indicated that obviously increasing of ammonium-N, nitrate-N and TP concentrations in the surface drainage water were observed immediately following three times of fertilizer applications (including basal, tillering, and panicle fertilizer application), but reduced to relatively low concentrations after 7-10 days after each fertilizer application. Groundwater quality monitoring showed that the observation wells with the more shallow water depth, the more significant variation of concentrations of ammonium-N, nitrate-N and TP could be observed, which means that the contamination potential of nutrient of groundwater is related not only to the impermeable plow sole layer but also to the length of percolation route in this area. The study also showed that the potential pollution load of nutrient could be further reduced by well drainage water control and rational fertilizer management, such as deep-water irrigation, reuse of return flow, the rational application of fertilizers, and the SRI (The System of Rice Intensification) method. The results of this study can provide as an evaluation basis to formulate effective measures for agricultural non-point source pollution control and the reuse of agricultural return flow. Keywords

  4. Remaining Sites Verification Package for the 331 Life Sciences Laboratory Drain Field Septic System, Waste Site Reclassification Form 2008-020

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    J. M. Capron

    2008-10-16

    The 331 Life Sciences Laboratory Drain Field (LSLDF) septic system waste site consists of a diversion chamber, two septic tanks, a distribution box, and a drain field. This septic system was designed to receive sanitary waste water, from animal studies conducted in the 331-A and 331-B Buildings, for discharge into the soil column. However, field observations and testing suggest the 331 LSLDF septic system did not receive any discharges. In accordance with this evaluation, the confirmatory sampling results support a reclassification of the 331 LSLDF waste site to No Action. This site does not have a deep zone or othermore » condition that would warrant an institutional control in accordance with the 300-FF-2 ROD under the industrial land use scenario.« less

  5. Design of a soil cutting resistance sensor for application in site-specific tillage.

    PubMed

    Agüera, Juan; Carballido, Jacob; Gil, Jesús; Gliever, Chris J; Perez-Ruiz, Manuel

    2013-05-10

    One objective of precision agriculture is to provide accurate information about soil and crop properties to optimize the management of agricultural inputs to meet site-specific needs. This paper describes the development of a sensor equipped with RTK-GPS technology that continuously and efficiently measures soil cutting resistance at various depths while traversing the field. Laboratory and preliminary field tests verified the accuracy of this prototype soil strength sensor. The data obtained using a hand-operated soil cone penetrometer was used to evaluate this field soil compaction depth profile sensor. To date, this sensor has only been tested in one field under one gravimetric water content condition. This field test revealed that the relationships between the soil strength profile sensor (SSPS) cutting force and soil cone index values are assumed to be quadratic for the various depths considered: 0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm (r2 = 0.58, 0.45 and 0.54, respectively). Soil resistance contour maps illustrated its practical value. The developed sensor provides accurate, timely and affordable information on soil properties to optimize resources and improve agricultural economy.

  6. Comparison of on-site field measured inorganic arsenic in rice with laboratory measurements using a field deployable method: Method validation.

    PubMed

    Mlangeni, Angstone Thembachako; Vecchi, Valeria; Norton, Gareth J; Raab, Andrea; Krupp, Eva M; Feldmann, Joerg

    2018-10-15

    A commercial arsenic field kit designed to measure inorganic arsenic (iAs) in water was modified into a field deployable method (FDM) to measure iAs in rice. While the method has been validated to give precise and accurate results in the laboratory, its on-site field performance has not been evaluated. This study was designed to test the method on-site in Malawi in order to evaluate its accuracy and precision in determination of iAs on-site by comparing with a validated reference method and giving original data on inorganic arsenic in Malawian rice and rice-based products. The method was validated by using the established laboratory-based HPLC-ICPMS. Statistical tests indicated there were no significant differences between on-site and laboratory iAs measurements determined using the FDM (p = 0.263, ά = 0.05) and between on-site measurements and measurements determined using HPLC-ICP-MS (p = 0.299, ά = 0.05). This method allows quick (within 1 h) and efficient screening of rice containing iAs concentrations on-site. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Field-Effect Biosensors for On-Site Detection: Recent Advances and Promising Targets.

    PubMed

    Choi, Jaebin; Seong, Tae Wha; Jeun, Minhong; Lee, Kwan Hyi

    2017-10-01

    There is an explosive interest in the immediate and cost-effective analysis of field-collected biological samples, as many advanced biodetection tools are highly sensitive, yet immobile. On-site biosensors are portable and convenient sensors that provide detection results at the point of care. They are designed to secure precision in highly ionic and heterogeneous solutions with minimal hardware. Among various methods that are capable of such analysis, field-effect biosensors are promising candidates due to their unique sensitivity, manufacturing scalability, and integrability with computational circuitry. Recent developments in nanotechnological surface modification show promising results in sensing from blood, serum, and urine. This report gives a particular emphasis on the on-site efficacy of recently published field-effect biosensors, specifically, detection limits in physiological solutions, response times, and scalability. The survey of the properties and existing detection methods of four promising biotargets, exosomes, bacteria, viruses, and metabolites, aims at providing a roadmap for future field-effect and other on-site biosensors. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  8. Distribution of selenium in soils of agricultural fields, western San Joaquin Valley, California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fujii, Roger; Deverel, S.J.; Hatfield, D.B.

    1988-01-01

    Soils from three agricultural fields in the Panoche Creek alluvial fan area in the western San Joaquin Valley, California, were analyzed for soluble, adsorbed, and total concentrations of selenium (Se) to assess the distribution and forms of Se in relation to the leaching of Se from soils. This assessment is needed to evaluate the importance of soil Se in affecting ground water concentrations. Soil samples were collected from three fields with drainage systems of different ages (6, 15, 1.5 yr) and different Se concentrations in drain water (58, 430, 3700 µg L−1, respectively). Concentrations of soluble Se and salinity were highest in soils from the field drained for 1.5 yr and lowest in the field drained for 6 yr. Of the total concentration of soil Se from all three fields, the proportion of adsorbed and soluble Se ranged from 1 to 11% and 2 > 0.68) in saturation extracts of soils sampled from below the water table. In contrast, most soluble salts and Se apparently have been leached from the unsaturated soils in the fields drained for 6 and 15 yr. For the leached soils, dissolution and precipitation of evaporite minerals containing Se may no longer control concentrations of soluble Se.

  9. 7 CFR 1924.115 - Single Family Housing site evaluation.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Single Family Housing site evaluation. 1924.115 Section 1924.115 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING... Work § 1924.115 Single Family Housing site evaluation. (a) Site review. The site approval official will...

  10. Characterizing phosphorus dynamics in tile-drained agricultural fieldsof eastern Wisconsin

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Madison, Allison; Ruark, Matthew; Stuntebeck, Todd D.; Komiskey, Matthew J.; Good, Laura W.; Drummy, Nancy; Cooley, Eric

    2014-01-01

    Artificial subsurface drainage provides an avenue for the rapid transfer of phosphorus (P) from agricultural fields to surface waters. This is of particular interest in eastern Wisconsin, where there is a concentrated population of dairy farms and high clay content soils prone to macropore development. Through collaboration with private landowners, surface and tile drainage was measured and analyzed for dissolved reactive P (DRP) and total P (TP) losses at four field sites in eastern Wisconsin between 2005 and 2009. These sites, which received frequent manure applications, represent a range of crop management practices which include: two chisel plowed corn fields (CP1, CP2), a no-till corn–soybean field (NT), and a grazed pasture (GP). Subsurface drainage was the dominant pathway of water loss at each site accounting for 66–96% of total water discharge. Average annual flow-weighted (FW) TP concentrations were 0.88, 0.57, 0.21, and 1.32 mg L−1 for sites CP1, CP2, NT, and GP, respectively. Low TP concentrations at the NT site were due to tile drain interception of groundwater flow where large volumes of tile drainage water diluted the FW-TP concentrations. Subsurface pathways contributed between 17% and 41% of the TP loss across sites. On a drainage event basis, total drainage explained between 36% and 72% of the event DRP loads across CP1, CP2, and GP; there was no relationship between event drainflow and event DRP load at the NT site. Manure applications did not consistently increase P concentrations in drainflow, but annual FW-P concentrations were greater in years receiving manure applications compared to years without manure application. Based on these field measures, P losses from tile drainage must be integrated into field level P budgets and P loss calculations on heavily manured soils, while also acknowledging the unique drainage patterns observed in eastern Wisconsin.

  11. Application of the WEPS and SWEEP models to non-agricultural disturbed lands.

    PubMed

    Tatarko, J; van Donk, S J; Ascough, J C; Walker, D G

    2016-12-01

    Wind erosion not only affects agricultural productivity but also soil, air, and water quality. Dust and specifically particulate matter ≤10 μm (PM-10) has adverse effects on respiratory health and also reduces visibility along roadways, resulting in auto accidents. The Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS) was developed by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service to simulate wind erosion and provide for conservation planning on cultivated agricultural lands. A companion product, known as the Single-Event Wind Erosion Evaluation Program (SWEEP), has also been developed which consists of the stand-alone WEPS erosion submodel combined with a graphical interface to simulate soil loss from single (i.e., daily) wind storm events. In addition to agricultural lands, wind driven dust emissions also occur from other anthropogenic sources such as construction sites, mined and reclaimed areas, landfills, and other disturbed lands. Although developed for agricultural fields, WEPS and SWEEP are useful tools for simulating erosion by wind for non-agricultural lands where typical agricultural practices are not employed. On disturbed lands, WEPS can be applied for simulating long-term (i.e., multi-year) erosion control strategies. SWEEP on the other hand was developed specifically for disturbed lands and can simulate potential soil loss for site- and date-specific planned surface conditions and control practices. This paper presents novel applications of WEPS and SWEEP for developing erosion control strategies on non-agricultural disturbed lands. Erosion control planning with WEPS and SWEEP using water and other dust suppressants, wind barriers, straw mulch, re-vegetation, and other management practices is demonstrated herein through the use of comparative simulation scenarios. The scenarios confirm the efficacy of the WEPS and SWEEP models as valuable tools for supporting the design of erosion control plans for disturbed lands that are not only cost-effective but also incorporate

  12. Potential for remote sensing of agriculture from the international space station

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgenthaler, George W.; Khatib, Nader

    1999-01-01

    , and aerosols), ground water contamination via drain-tile catch from the fields, and Leaf Area Index (LAI). Also, a tethered balloon flight sampled the site's vertical air column and both aerial infrared photography and satellite imagery were acquired. This paper summarizes the 1998 activities in establishing and operating the ``truth'' site. The goal of such a ``truth'' site is to develop and validate precision agriculture predictive models to improve farming practices. ISS sensor testing can greatly accelerate development of such systems.

  13. MODELING OF MACROSCALE AGRICULTURAL ELEMENTS IN PESTICIDE EXPOSURE

    EPA Science Inventory

    Yuma County, Arizona, is the site of year around agriculture. To understand the role of agricultural pesticide exposures experienced by children, urinary metabolite concentrations were compared with agricultural use of pesticides. The urinary metabolite and household data wer...

  14. AmeriFlux US-IB2 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory- Batavia (Prairie site)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Matamala, Roser

    2016-01-01

    This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-IB2 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory- Batavia (Prairie site). Site Description - Two eddy correlation systems are installed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: one on a restored prairie (established October 2004) and one on a corn/soybean rotation agricultural field (established in July 2005). The prairie site had been farmed for more than 100 years, but was converted to prairie in 1989. April annual to bi-annual prescribed burns have taken place from 1994 - 2007.

  15. Emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from fields fertilized with digestate from an agricultural biogas plant

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Czubaszek, Robert; Wysocka-Czubaszek, Agnieszka

    2018-01-01

    Digestate from biogas plants can play important role in agriculture by providing nutrients, improving soil structure and reducing the use of mineral fertilizers. Still, less is known about greenhouse gas emissions from soil during and after digestate application. The aim of the study was to estimate the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from a field which was fertilized with digestate. The gas fluxes were measured with the eddy covariance system. Each day, the eddy covariance system was installed in various places of the field, depending on the dominant wind direction, so that each time the results were obtained from an area where the digestate was distributed. The results showed the relatively low impact of the studied gases emissions on total greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Maximum values of the CO2 and CH4 fluxes, 79.62 and 3.049 µmol s-1 m-2, respectively, were observed during digestate spreading on the surface of the field. On the same day, the digestate was mixed with the topsoil layer using a disc harrow. This resulted in increased CO2 emissions the following day. Intense mineralization of digestate, observed after fertilization may not give the expected effects in terms of protection and enrichment of soil organic matter.

  16. Subsurface soil carbon losses offset surface carbon accumulation in abandoned agricultural fields

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Y.; Knops, J. M. H.

    2017-12-01

    Soil carbon is widely understood to accumulate after agricultural abandonment. However, most of the studies have been focused on shallow depths (10 to 30 cm), and there is a lack of deeper soil carbon data. It was reported that in temperate grasslands, 58% of the soil organic carbon in the first meter was stored between 20 and 100 cm, and organic matter in deeper soil might also be susceptible to agricultural disturbance. We used repeated sampling in 2001 and 2014 to directly measure rates of soil carbon change in both surface and subsurface soil in 21 abandoned agricultural fields at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, MN. Congruent with many other studies, we found carbon accumulated 384.2 C g/m2 in surface soil (0 - 20 cm) over the 13 years. However, we also found carbon pool declined 688.1 C g/m2 in the subsurface soil (40-100 cm), which resulted in a net total loss of soil carbon. We investigated the ecosystem carbon pools and fluxes to explore the mechanisms of the observed soil carbon changes. We found root carbon was not significantly correlated with soil carbon in any of the depth. In situ soil incubation showed nitrogen mineralization rates in subsurface soil are lower than that of surface soil. However, the estimated nitrogen and carbon output through decomposition is higher than inputs from roots, therefore leading to carbon loss in subsurface soil. These results suggest that the decomposition of soil organic matter by microorganisms in subsurface soil is significant, and should be incorporated in ecosystem carbon budget models.

  17. Trichoderma Biodiversity of Agricultural Fields in East China Reveals a Gradient Distribution of Species

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Jing; Mao, Li-Juan; Feng, Xiao-Xiao; Zhang, Chu-Long; Lin, Fu-Cheng

    2016-01-01

    We surveyed the Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) biodiversity in agricultural fields in four major agricultural provinces of East China. Trichoderma strains were identified based on molecular approaches and morphological characteristics. In three sampled seasons (spring, summer and autumn), 2078 strains were isolated and identified to 17 known species: T. harzianum (429 isolates), T. asperellum (425), T. hamatum (397), T. virens (340), T. koningiopsis (248), T. brevicompactum (73), T. atroviride (73), T. fertile (26), T. longibrachiatum (22), T. pleuroticola (16), T. erinaceum (16), T. oblongisporum (2), T. polysporum (2), T. spirale (2), T. capillare (2), T. velutinum (2), and T. saturnisporum (1). T. harzianum, T. asperellum, T. hamatum, and T. virens were identified as the dominant species with dominance (Y) values of 0.057, 0.052, 0.048, and 0.039, respectively. The species amount, isolate numbers and the dominant species of Trichoderma varied between provinces. Zhejiang Province has shown the highest diversity, which was reflected in the highest species amount (14) and the highest Shannon–Wiener diversity index of Trichoderma haplotypes (1.46). We observed that relative frequencies of T. hamatum and T. koningiopsis under rice soil were higher than those under wheat and maize soil, indicating the preference of Trichoderma to different crops. Remarkable seasonal variation was shown, with summer exhibiting the highest biodiversity of the studied seasons. These results show that Trichoderma biodiversity in agricultural fields varies by region, crop, and season. Zhejiang Province (the southernmost province in the investigated area) had more T. hamatum than Shandong Province (the northernmost province), not only in isolate amounts but also in haplotype amounts. Furthermore, at haplotype level, only T. hamatum showed a gradient distribution from south to north in correspondence analysis among the four dominant species. The above results would contribute to the

  18. Trichoderma Biodiversity of Agricultural Fields in East China Reveals a Gradient Distribution of Species.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Yuan; Wang, Jin-Liang; Chen, Jing; Mao, Li-Juan; Feng, Xiao-Xiao; Zhang, Chu-Long; Lin, Fu-Cheng

    2016-01-01

    We surveyed the Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) biodiversity in agricultural fields in four major agricultural provinces of East China. Trichoderma strains were identified based on molecular approaches and morphological characteristics. In three sampled seasons (spring, summer and autumn), 2078 strains were isolated and identified to 17 known species: T. harzianum (429 isolates), T. asperellum (425), T. hamatum (397), T. virens (340), T. koningiopsis (248), T. brevicompactum (73), T. atroviride (73), T. fertile (26), T. longibrachiatum (22), T. pleuroticola (16), T. erinaceum (16), T. oblongisporum (2), T. polysporum (2), T. spirale (2), T. capillare (2), T. velutinum (2), and T. saturnisporum (1). T. harzianum, T. asperellum, T. hamatum, and T. virens were identified as the dominant species with dominance (Y) values of 0.057, 0.052, 0.048, and 0.039, respectively. The species amount, isolate numbers and the dominant species of Trichoderma varied between provinces. Zhejiang Province has shown the highest diversity, which was reflected in the highest species amount (14) and the highest Shannon-Wiener diversity index of Trichoderma haplotypes (1.46). We observed that relative frequencies of T. hamatum and T. koningiopsis under rice soil were higher than those under wheat and maize soil, indicating the preference of Trichoderma to different crops. Remarkable seasonal variation was shown, with summer exhibiting the highest biodiversity of the studied seasons. These results show that Trichoderma biodiversity in agricultural fields varies by region, crop, and season. Zhejiang Province (the southernmost province in the investigated area) had more T. hamatum than Shandong Province (the northernmost province), not only in isolate amounts but also in haplotype amounts. Furthermore, at haplotype level, only T. hamatum showed a gradient distribution from south to north in correspondence analysis among the four dominant species. The above results would contribute to the

  19. National Site for the Regional IPM Centers

    Science.gov Websites

    Click on a state to see IPM site(s) available US Map United States Department of Agriculture - National Institute of Food and Agriculture Website managed by the Southern IPM Center. Design adapted from work by and Agriculture.

  20. The Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) Initiative: Developing methods and best practices for global agricultural monitoring

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Champagne, C.; Jarvis, I.; Defourny, P.; Davidson, A.

    2014-12-01

    Agricultural systems differ significantly throughout the world, making a 'one size fits all' approach to remote sensing and monitoring of agricultural landscapes problematic. The Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) was established in 2009 to bring together the global scientific community to work towards a set of best practices and recommendations for using earth observation data to map, monitor and report on agricultural productivity globally across an array of diverse agricultural systems. These methods form the research and development component of the Group on Earth Observation Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative to harmonize global monitoring efforts and increase market transparency. The JECAM initiative brings together researchers from a large number of globally distributed, well monitored agricultural test sites that cover a range of crop types, cropping systems and climate regimes. Each test site works independently as well as together across multiple sites to test methods, sensors and field data collection techniques to derive key agricultural parameters, including crop type, crop condition, crop yield and soil moisture. The outcome of this project will be a set of best practices that cover the range of remote sensing monitoring and reporting needs, including satellite data acquisition, pre-processing techniques, information retrieval and ground data validation. These outcomes provide the research and development foundation for GEOGLAM and will help to inform the development of the GEOGLAM "system of systems" for global agricultural monitoring. The outcomes of the 2014 JECAM science meeting will be discussed as well as examples of methods being developed by JECAM scientists.

  1. AmeriFlux US-Ne3 Mead - rainfed maize-soybean rotation site

    DOE Data Explorer

    Suyker, Andy [University of Nebraska - Lincoln

    2016-01-01

    This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Ne3 Mead - rainfed maize-soybean rotation site. Site Description - The study site is one of three fields (all located within 1.6 km of each other) at the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research and Development Center near Mead, Nebraska. While the other two sites are equipped with irrigation systems, this site relies on rainfall. A tillage operation (disking) was done just prior to the 2001 planting to homogenize the top 0.1 m of soil, incorporate P and K fertilizers, as well as previously accumulated surface residues. Since initiation of the study in 2001, this site has been under no-till management.

  2. Occupancy and abundance of wintering birds in a dynamic agricultural landscape

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Miller, Mark W.; Pearlstine, Elise V.; Dorazio, Robert M.; Mazzotti, Frank J.

    2011-01-01

    Assessing wildlife management action requires monitoring populations, and abundance often is the parameter monitored. Recent methodological advances have enabled estimation of mean abundance within a habitat using presence–absence or count data obtained via repeated visits to a sample of sites. These methods assume populations are closed and intuitively assume habitats within sites change little during a field season. However, many habitats are highly variable over short periods. We developed a variation of existing occupancy and abundance models that allows for extreme spatio-temporal differences in habitat, and resulting changes in wildlife abundance, among sites and among visits to a site within a field season. We conducted our study in sugarcane habitat within the Everglades Agricultural Area southeast of Lake Okeechobee in south Florida. We counted wintering birds, primarily passerines, within 245 sites usually 5 times at each site during December 2006–March 2007. We estimated occupancy and mean abundance of birds in 6 vegetation states during the sugarcane harvest and allowed these parameters to vary temporally or spatially within a vegetation state. Occupancy and mean abundance of the common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) was affected by structure of sugarcane and uncultivated edge vegetation (occupancy=1.00 [95%CĪ=0.96–1.00] and mean abundance=7.9 [95%CĪ=3.2–19.5] in tall sugarcane with tall edge vegetation versus 0.20 [95%CĪ=0.04–0.71] and 0.22 [95%CĪ=0.04–1.2], respectively, in short sugarcane with short edge vegetation in one half of the study area). Occupancy and mean abundance of palm warblers (Dendroica palmarum) were constant (occupancy=1.00, 95%CĪ=0.69–1.00; mean abundance=18, 95%CĪ=1–270). Our model may enable wildlife managers to assess rigorously effects of future edge habitat management on avian distribution and abundance within agricultural landscapes during winter or the breeding season. The model may also help

  3. Occupancy and abundance of wintering birds in a dynamic agricultural landscape

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Miller, M.W.; Pearlstine, E.V.; Dorazio, R.M.; Mazzotti, F.J.

    2011-01-01

    Assessing wildlife management action requires monitoring populations, and abundance often is the parameter monitored. Recent methodological advances have enabled estimation of mean abundance within a habitat using presence-absence or count data obtained via repeated visits to a sample of sites. These methods assume populations are closed and intuitively assume habitats within sites change little during a field season. However, many habitats are highly variable over short periods. We developed a variation of existing occupancy and abundance models that allows for extreme spatio-temporal differences in habitat, and resulting changes in wildlife abundance, among sites and among visits to a site within a field season. We conducted our study in sugarcane habitat within the Everglades Agricultural Area southeast of Lake Okeechobee in south Florida. We counted wintering birds, primarily passerines, within 245 sites usually 5 times at each site during December 2006-March 2007. We estimated occupancy and mean abundance of birds in 6 vegetation states during the sugarcane harvest and allowed these parameters to vary temporally or spatially within a vegetation state. Occupancy and mean abundance of the common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) was affected by structure of sugarcane and uncultivated edge vegetation (occupancy = 1.00 [95%C?? = 0.96-1.00] and mean abundance = 7.9 [95%C?? = 3.2-19.5] in tall sugarcane with tall edge vegetation versus 0.20 [95%C?? = 0.04-0.71] and 0.22 [95%C?? = 0.04-1.2], respectively, in short sugarcane with short edge vegetation in one half of the study area). Occupancy and mean abundance of palm warblers (Dendroica palmarum) were constant (occupancy = 1.00, 95%C?? = 0.69-1.00; mean abundance = 18, 95%C?? = 1-270). Our model may enable wildlife managers to assess rigorously effects of future edge habitat management on avian distribution and abundance within agricultural landscapes during winter or the breeding season. The model may also help

  4. The Western Arabian intracontinental volcanic fields as a potential UNESCO World Heritage site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Németh, Károly; Moufti, Mohammed R.

    2017-04-01

    UNESCO promotes conservation of the geological and geomoprhological heritage through promotion of protection of these sites and development of educational programs under the umbrella of geoparks among the most globally significant ones labelled as UNESCO Global Geoparks. UNESCO also maintains a call to list those natural sites that provide universal outstanding values to demonstrate geological features or their relevance to our understanding the evolution of Earth. Volcanoes currently got a surge in nomination to be UNESCO World Heritage sites. Volcanic fields in the contrary fell in a grey area of nominations as they represents the most common manifestation of volcanism on Earth hence they are difficult to view as having outstanding universal values. A nearly 2500-km long 300-km wide region of dispersed volcanoes located in the Western Arabian Penninsula mostly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia form a near-continuous location that carries universal outstanding value as one of the most representative manifestation of dispersed intracontinental volcanism on Earth to be nominated as an UNESCO World Heritage site. The volcanic fields formed in the last 20 Ma along the Red Sea as group of simple basaltic to more mature and long-lived basalt to trachyte-to-rhyolite volcanic fields each carries high geoheritage values. While these volcanic fields are dominated by scoria and spatter cones and transitional lava fields, there are phreatomagmatic volcanoes among them such as maars and tuff rings. Phreatomagmatism is more evident in association with small volcanic edifices that were fed by primitive magmas, while phreatomagmatic influences during the course of a larger volume eruption are also known in association with the silicic eruptive centres in the harrats of Rahat, Kishb and Khaybar. Three of the volcanic fields are clearly bimodal and host small-volume relatively short-lived lava domes and associated block-and-ash fans providing a unique volcanic landscape commonly not

  5. Evaluation of Three Models for Simulating Pesticide Runoff from Irrigated Agricultural Fields.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Xuyang; Goh, Kean S

    2015-11-01

    Three models were evaluated for their accuracy in simulating pesticide runoff at the edge of agricultural fields: Pesticide Root Zone Model (PRZM), Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM), and OpusCZ. Modeling results on runoff volume, sediment erosion, and pesticide loss were compared with measurements taken from field studies. Models were also compared on their theoretical foundations and ease of use. For runoff events generated by sprinkler irrigation and rainfall, all models performed equally well with small errors in simulating water, sediment, and pesticide runoff. The mean absolute percentage errors (MAPEs) were between 3 and 161%. For flood irrigation, OpusCZ simulated runoff and pesticide mass with the highest accuracy, followed by RZWQM and PRZM, likely owning to its unique hydrological algorithm for runoff simulations during flood irrigation. Simulation results from cold model runs by OpusCZ and RZWQM using measured values for model inputs matched closely to the observed values. The MAPE ranged from 28 to 384 and 42 to 168% for OpusCZ and RZWQM, respectively. These satisfactory model outputs showed the models' abilities in mimicking reality. Theoretical evaluations indicated that OpusCZ and RZWQM use mechanistic approaches for hydrology simulation, output data on a subdaily time-step, and were able to simulate management practices and subsurface flow via tile drainage. In contrast, PRZM operates at daily time-step and simulates surface runoff using the USDA Soil Conservation Service's curve number method. Among the three models, OpusCZ and RZWQM were suitable for simulating pesticide runoff in semiarid areas where agriculture is heavily dependent on irrigation. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  6. Pretreatment of agriculture field water for improving membrane flux during pesticide removal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mehta, Romil; Saha, N. K.; Bhattacharya, A.

    2017-10-01

    Pretreatment of feed water to improve membrane flux during filtration of agriculture field water containing substituted phenyl urea pesticide diuron has been reported. Laboratory-made reverse osmosis membrane was used for filtration. Preliminary experiments were conducted with model solution containing natural organic matter extracted from commercial humic acids, divalent ions Ca2+, Mg2+. Membrane fouling was characterized by pure water flux decline, change in membrane hydrophilicity and infrared spectroscopy. Natural organic matter present in field water causes severe membrane fouling. The presence of divalent cations further aggravated fouling. Use of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and polyacrylic acids (PAA) in feed resulted in the decrease in membrane fouling. Pretreatment of field water is a must if it is contaminated with micro-organism having membrane fouling potential. Feed water pretreatment and use of PAA restricted membrane fouling to 16 % after 60 h of filtration. Membrane permeate flux decline was maximum at the first 12 h and thereafter remained steady at around 45-46 lm-2h-1 till the end of 60 h. Diuron rejection remained consistently greater than 93 % throughout the experiment. Diuron rejection was found to be unaffected by membrane fouling.

  7. Agricultural management affects below ground carbon input estimations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hirte, Juliane; Leifeld, Jens; Abiven, Samuel; Oberholzer, Hans-Rudolf; Mayer, Jochen

    2017-04-01

    Root biomass and rhizodeposition carbon (C release by living roots) are among the most relevant root parameters for studies of plant response to environmental change, soil C modelling or estimations of soil C sequestration. Below ground C inputs of agricultural crops are typically estimated from above ground biomass or yield, thereby implying constant below to above ground C ratios. Agricultural management practices affect above ground biomass considerably; however, their effects on below ground C inputs are only poorly understood. Our aims were therefore to (i) quantify root biomass C and rhizodeposition C of maize and wheat grown in agricultural management systems with different fertilization intensities and (ii) determine management effects on below/above ground C ratios and vertical distribution of below ground C inputs into soil. We conducted a comprehensive field study on two Swiss long-term field trials, DOK (Basel) and ZOFE (Zurich), with silage (DOK) and grain (ZOFE) maize in 2013 and winter wheat in 2014 (ZOFE) and 2015 (DOK). Three treatments in DOK (2 bio-organic, 1 mixed conventional) and 4 treatments in ZOFE (1 without, 1 manure, 2 mineral fertilization) reflected increasing fertilization intensities. In each of 4 replicated field plots per treatment, one microplot (steel tube of 0.5m depth) was inserted into soil, covering an area of 0.1m2. The microplot plants were pulse-labelled with 13C-CO2 in weekly intervals throughout the respective growing season. After harvest, the microplot soil was sampled in three soil depths (0 - 0.25, 0.25 - 0.5, 0.5 - 0.75m), roots were separated from soil by picking and wet sieving, and root and soil samples were analysed for their δ13C values by IRMS. Carbon rhizodeposition was calculated from 13C-excess values in bulk soil and roots. (i) Average root biomasses of maize and wheat were 1.9 and 1.4 tha 1, respectively, in DOK and 0.9 and 1.1 tha 1, respectively, in ZOFE. Average amounts of C rhizodeposition of maize

  8. Assessment of Various Remote Sensing Technologies in Biomass and Nitrogen Content Estimation Using AN Agricultural Test Field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Näsi, R.; Viljanen, N.; Kaivosoja, J.; Hakala, T.; Pandžić, M.; Markelin, L.; Honkavaara, E.

    2017-10-01

    Multispectral and hyperspectral imaging is usually acquired by satellite and aircraft platforms. Recently, miniaturized hyperspectral 2D frame cameras have showed great potential to precise agriculture estimations and they are feasible to combine with lightweight platforms, such as drones. Drone platform is a flexible tool for remote sensing applications with environment and agriculture. The assessment and comparison of different platforms such as satellite, aircraft and drones with different sensors, such as hyperspectral and RGB cameras is an important task in order to understand the potential of the data provided by these equipment and to select the most appropriate according to the user applications and requirements. In this context, open and permanent test fields are very significant and helpful experimental environment, since they provide a comparative data for different platforms, sensors and users, allowing multi-temporal analyses as well. Objective of this work was to investigate the feasibility of an open permanent test field in context of precision agriculture. Satellite (Sentinel-2), aircraft and drones with hyperspectral and RGB cameras were assessed in this study to estimate biomass, using linear regression models and in-situ samples. Spectral data and 3D information were used and compared in different combinations to investigate the quality of the models. The biomass estimation accuracies using linear regression models were better than 90 % for the drone based datasets. The results showed that the use of spectral and 3D features together improved the estimation model. However, estimation of nitrogen content was less accurate with the evaluated remote sensing sensors. The open and permanent test field showed to be suitable to provide an accurate and reliable reference data for the commercial users and farmers.

  9. FIELD MEASUREMENT OF VAPOR INTRUSION RATES AT A PCE SITE (ABSTRACT ONLY)

    EPA Science Inventory

    A field study was performed to evaluate vapor intrusion (VI) of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and other chlorinated solvents at a commercial retail site in Dallas, TX. The building is approximately 40 years old and once housed a dry cleaning operation. Results from an initial site ch...

  10. 7 CFR 1948.83 - Performance of site development work.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Performance of site development work. 1948.83 Section 1948.83 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE... Development Assistance Program § 1948.83 Performance of site development work. Site development work will be...

  11. Agricultural Meteorology in China.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rosenberg, Norman J.

    1982-03-01

    During nearly five weeks in China (May-June 1981), the author visited scientific institutions and experiment stations engaged in agricultural meterology and climatology research and teaching. The facilities, studies, and research programs at each institution are described and the scientific work in these fields is evaluated. Agricultural meteorology and climatology are faced with some unique problems and opportunities in China and progress in these fields may be of critical importance to that nation in coming years. The author includes culinary notes and comments on protocol in China.

  12. Accidental Strangulation Due to Entrapment of Saree in Crop Thrasher Machine in an Elderly Women Working at Agricultural Field.

    PubMed

    Parchake, Manoj Bhausaheb; Kumre, Vikas; Kachare, Rajesh V

    2016-09-01

    Strangulation is generally considered as homicidal death and in accidental strangulation circumstantial evidence alone can point toward the accidental nature of incidence. In present case, a 71-year-old woman, wearing a saree (garment worn by traditional women in India) working in agricultural field, got entangled in the crop thrasher machine and got strangled. Immediately, she was taken to the nearest hospital, where she survived for 6 to 8 hours and then died. The autopsy reveals cross ribbon-shaped ligature mark on neck and anterior chest along with 1 puncture wound at the right lateral aspect of the neck. A lack of proper precaution and safety measures at agricultural field are other contributing factors. Accidental strangulation by saree is extremely rare, hence, this case is presented for its rarity and pattern of injury.

  13. Electric Fields at the Active Site of an Enzyme: Direct Comparison of Experiment with Theory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suydam, Ian T.; Snow, Christopher D.; Pande, Vijay S.; Boxer, Steven G.

    2006-07-01

    The electric fields produced in folded proteins influence nearly every aspect of protein function. We present a vibrational spectroscopy technique that measures changes in electric field at a specific site of a protein as shifts in frequency (Stark shifts) of a calibrated nitrile vibration. A nitrile-containing inhibitor is used to deliver a unique probe vibration to the active site of human aldose reductase, and the response of the nitrile stretch frequency is measured for a series of mutations in the enzyme active site. These shifts yield quantitative information on electric fields that can be directly compared with electrostatics calculations. We show that extensive molecular dynamics simulations and ensemble averaging are required to reproduce the observed changes in field.

  14. Pesticides in soils and ground water in selected irrigated agricultural areas near Havre, Ronan, and Huntley, Montana

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Clark, D.W.

    1990-01-01

    Three areas in Montana representing a range of agricultural practices and applied pesticides, were studied to document whether agricultural pesticides are being transported into the soil and shallow groundwater in irrigated areas. Analytical scans for triazine herbicides, organic-acid herbicides, and carbamate insecticides were performed on soil and shallow groundwater samples. The results indicate pesticide residue in both types of samples. The concentrations of pesticides in the groundwater were less than Federal health-advisory limits. At the Havre Agricultural Experiment Station, eight wells were installed at two sites. All four soil samples and two of four water samples collected after application of pesticides contained detectable concentrations of atrazine or dicamba. In an area where seed potatoes are grown near Ronan, eight wells were installed at two sites. Pesticides were not detected after initial application of pesticides and irrigation water. The site was resampled after irrigation water was reapplied, and aldicarb metabolities were detected in four of five soil samples and one of five water samples. At the Huntley Agricultural Experiment Station, five wells were installed in a no-tillage corn field where atrazine was applied in 1987. Soil and water samples were collected in June and July 1988; pesticides were not detected in any samples. Results indicate residue of two pesticides in soil samples and three soluble pesticides in groundwater samples. Therefore, irrigated agricultural areas in Montana might be susceptible to transport of soluble pesticides through permeable soil to the shallow groundwater system. (USGS)

  15. N-C isotopic investigation of a zeolite-amended agricultural field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ferretti, Giacomo; Natali, Claudio; Faccini, Barbara; Di Giuseppe, Dario; Bianchini, Gianluca; Coltorti, Massimo

    2016-04-01

    In this study, a C and N isotopic investigation in the soil-plant system of the ZeoLIFE project experimental field have been carried out. Since many years, natural and NH4-enriched zeolites have been used as soil amendant in agricultural context in order to reduce N losses, increase NUE (Nitrogen Use Efficiency) and crop yield. Nevertheless up to now there are no studies that, using the stable isotopes approach, highlighted the interaction between zeolites and plants in agricultural systems. The main aims of this study is to verify if natural zeolites amendment can enhance chemical fertilization efficiency and if N transfer from NH4-enriched zeolites to plants really occurs. Plants grown following traditional cultivation methods (with no zeolite addition) and plants grown on soils amended with natural and NH4-enriched zeolites (the latter obtained after mixing with pig-slurry with a very high 15N) were compared for two cultivation cycles (maize and wheat). As widely known, plants grown under conventional farming systems (use of chemical fertilizers as urea) and plants grown under organic farming can be discriminated by the isotopic signatures of plant tissues. For both years the main results of the study reveals that plants grown on plots amended with natural zeolites generally have their nitrogen isotopic signature more similar to that of the chemical fertilizers employed during the cultivation with respect to the plants cultivated in the non-amended plot. This suggests an enhanced N uptake by the plant from this specific N source with respect to the non-amended plot. On the other hand, plants grown on NH4-enriched zeolites registered a higher 15N, approaching the pig-slurry isotopic signature, confirming that this material can constitute an N pool for plants at least for two cultivation cycles. The distinct agricultural practices seem to be reflected in the plant physiology as recorded by the carbon discrimination factor (13C) which generally increases

  16. Design of a Soil Cutting Resistance Sensor for Application in Site-Specific Tillage

    PubMed Central

    Agüera, Juan; Carballido, Jacob; Gil, Jesús; Gliever, Chris J.; Perez-Ruiz, Manuel

    2013-01-01

    One objective of precision agriculture is to provide accurate information about soil and crop properties to optimize the management of agricultural inputs to meet site-specific needs. This paper describes the development of a sensor equipped with RTK-GPS technology that continuously and efficiently measures soil cutting resistance at various depths while traversing the field. Laboratory and preliminary field tests verified the accuracy of this prototype soil strength sensor. The data obtained using a hand-operated soil cone penetrometer was used to evaluate this field soil compaction depth profile sensor. To date, this sensor has only been tested in one field under one gravimetric water content condition. This field test revealed that the relationships between the soil strength profile sensor (SSPS) cutting force and soil cone index values are assumed to be quadratic for the various depths considered: 0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm (r2 = 0.58, 0.45 and 0.54, respectively). Soil resistance contour maps illustrated its practical value. The developed sensor provides accurate, timely and affordable information on soil properties to optimize resources and improve agricultural economy. PMID:23666127

  17. [Spatio-temporal distribution of carabids and spiders between semi-natural field margin and the adjacent crop fields in agricultural landscape].

    PubMed

    Zhang, Xu Zhu; Han, Yin; Yu, Zhen Rong; Liu, Yun Hui

    2017-06-18

    This study was conducted before and after harvesting of wheat and maize in a typical agricultural landscape of the North China Plain. We investigated the diversity of two important natural enemy groups, carabids and spiders, using pitfall traps at crop field margin with different vegetation structures and their neighboring crop field. Throughout the comparison of the spatial and temporal distribution of the diversity of carabids and spiders in field margin and neighboring field, and the investigation of the relationship between arthropod communities and vegetation structure, this study aimed to understand the role of semi-natural field margin in biodiversity conservation of different natural enemy taxa. Results showed that the abundance of spiders was significantly higher in field margin than in neighboring fields over the entire period. No significant difference of the diversity of carabids in field margin and crop field was observed, but the community composition was different. Number of spider families increased in field margin but deceased in crop field after harvesting, indicating a migration activity between field and field margin. Vegetation structure in the field margin had different association with carabids than with spiders, with diversity of dominant carabid species positively associated with herb coverage and negatively with wood coverage, while the diversity of spider family Linyphiidae was positively associated with herb coverage only. Semi-natural habitat benefited the conservation of the diversity of arthropod natural enemies in crop field via promoting their dispersal to crop field, while such impacts differed from different vegetation structures and varied from target beneficial natural enemy communities. Future studies should focus on in-depth understanding of the food and habitat source requirement of different natural enemy taxa, and hence to design suitable semi-natural habitats to maintain a high diversity of natural enemy communities.

  18. Ground-water flow, geochemistry, and effects of agricultural practices on nitrogen transport at study sites in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain physiographic provinces, Patuxent River basin, Maryland

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    McFarland, Randolph E.

    1997-01-01

    In an effort to improve water quality in Chesapeake Bay, agricultural practices are being promoted that are intended to reduce contaminant transport to the Bay. The effects of agricultural practices on nitrogen transport were assessed at two 10-acre study sites in the Patuxent River basin, Maryland, during 1986-92. Nitrogen load was larger in ground water than in surface runoff at both sites. At the study site in the Piedmont Province, nitrogen load in ground water decreased from 12 to 6 (lb/acre)/yr (pound per acre per year) as corn under no-till cultivation was replaced by no-till soybeans, continuous alfalfa, and contoured strip crops alternated among corn, alfalfa, and soybeans. At the study site in the Coastal Plain Province, no-till soybeans resulted in a nitrogen load in ground water of 12.55 (lb/acre)/yr, whereas conventional-till soybeans resulted in a nitrogen load in ground water of 11.51 (lb/acre)/yr.

  19. Rain-fed agriculture thrived despite climate degradation in the pre-Hispanic arid Andes

    PubMed Central

    Cruz, Pablo; Winkel, Thierry; Ledru, Marie-Pierre; Bernard, Cyril; Egan, Nancy; Swingedouw, Didier; Joffre, Richard

    2017-01-01

    Archaeological research suggests significant human occupation in the arid Andean highlands during the 13th to 15th centuries, whereas paleoclimatic studies reveal prolonged drier and colder conditions during that period. Which subsistence strategy supported local societies in this harsh environment? Our field and aerial surveys of archaeological dwelling sites, granaries, and croplands provide the first evidence of extended pre-Hispanic agriculture supporting dense human populations in the arid Andes of Bolivia. This unique agricultural system associated with quinoa cultivation was unirrigated, consisting of simple yet extensive landscape modifications. It relied on highly specific environmental knowledge and a set of water-saving practices, including microterracing and biennial fallowing. This intense agricultural activity developed during a period of unfavorable climatic change on a regional and global scale, illustrative of efficient adaptive strategies to cope with this climatic change. PMID:29279865

  20. Multi-site Study of Diffusion Metric Variability: Characterizing the Effects of Site, Vendor, Field Strength, and Echo Time using the Histogram Distance.

    PubMed

    Helmer, K G; Chou, M-C; Preciado, R I; Gimi, B; Rollins, N K; Song, A; Turner, J; Mori, S

    2016-02-27

    MRI-based multi-site trials now routinely include some form of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in their protocol. These studies can include data originating from scanners built by different vendors, each with their own set of unique protocol restrictions, including restrictions on the number of available gradient directions, whether an externally-generated list of gradient directions can be used, and restrictions on the echo time (TE). One challenge of multi-site studies is to create a common imaging protocol that will result in a reliable and accurate set of diffusion metrics. The present study describes the effect of site, scanner vendor, field strength, and TE on two common metrics: the first moment of the diffusion tensor field (mean diffusivity, MD), and the fractional anisotropy (FA). We have shown in earlier work that ROI metrics and the mean of MD and FA histograms are not sufficiently sensitive for use in site characterization. Here we use the distance between whole brain histograms of FA and MD to investigate within- and between-site effects. We concluded that the variability of DTI metrics due to site, vendor, field strength, and echo time could influence the results in multi-center trials and that histogram distance is sensitive metrics for each of these variables.

  1. Multi-site Study of Diffusion Metric Variability: Characterizing the Effects of Site, Vendor, Field Strength, and Echo Time using the Histogram Distance

    PubMed Central

    Helmer, K. G.; Chou, M-C.; Preciado, R. I.; Gimi, B.; Rollins, N. K.; Song, A.; Turner, J.; Mori, S.

    2016-01-01

    MRI-based multi-site trials now routinely include some form of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in their protocol. These studies can include data originating from scanners built by different vendors, each with their own set of unique protocol restrictions, including restrictions on the number of available gradient directions, whether an externally-generated list of gradient directions can be used, and restrictions on the echo time (TE). One challenge of multi-site studies is to create a common imaging protocol that will result in a reliable and accurate set of diffusion metrics. The present study describes the effect of site, scanner vendor, field strength, and TE on two common metrics: the first moment of the diffusion tensor field (mean diffusivity, MD), and the fractional anisotropy (FA). We have shown in earlier work that ROI metrics and the mean of MD and FA histograms are not sufficiently sensitive for use in site characterization. Here we use the distance between whole brain histograms of FA and MD to investigate within- and between-site effects. We concluded that the variability of DTI metrics due to site, vendor, field strength, and echo time could influence the results in multi-center trials and that histogram distance is sensitive metrics for each of these variables. PMID:27350723

  2. Multi-Sited Ethnography and the Field of Educational Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pierides, Dean

    2010-01-01

    This paper responds to the challenge of how educational research might be practised in a contemporary world that is no longer necessarily organised by nearness and unity. Focusing on ethnography, it argues for what a multi-sited imaginary contributes to research in the field of education. By giving prominence to the notion of multi-sited…

  3. Distribution of selenium in soils of agricultural fields, western San Joaquin Valley, California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fujii, Roger; Deverel, S.J.; Hatfield, D.B.

    1987-01-01

    Soils from three agricultural fields in the western San Joaquin Valley were analyzed for soluble, adsorbed, and total concentrations of selenium (Se) to assess the distribution and forms of Se, and the relation of the distribution and forms of Se to the leaching of Se from soils. Soil samples were collected in three fields with drainage systems of different ages (6, 15, 1.5 yr) and different Se concentrations in drain water (58, 430, 3700 micrograms/L respectively). Preliminary methods to determine total Se and estimate adsorbed Se were developed. Of the three fields, concentrations of soluble Se and salinity were highest in soils from the field drained for 1.5 yr and lowest in the field drained for 6 yr. The field drained for 1.5 yr also had the highest concentration of total Se in soil; a median of 1.2 microgram/gm. Of the total concentration of Se in soil from all three fields, the proportion of adsorbed Se and soluble Se ranged from 1 to 11% and < 1 to 63%, respectively. Most of the variance in soluble Se is explained by salinity ( r sq > 0.68) in saturation extracts of soils sampled from below the water table, reflecting evaporative concentration of Se and salinity. In contrast, most soluble salts and Se apparently have been leached from the unsaturated soils in the fields drained for 6 and 15 yr; therefore, the correlation was lower between Se and salinity in saturation extracts of those soils (r sq < 0.33). Among soils from all three fields, the ratio of Se to salinity in saturation extracts increased with increasing salinity. (Author 's abstract)

  4. Increased spring flooding of agricultural fields will exhibit altered production of greenhouse gases

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paul, R. F.; Smith, C. M.; Smyth, E. M.; Kantola, I. B.; DeLucia, E. H.

    2013-12-01

    The U.S. Corn Belt currently is a net source of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide to the atmosphere, but is also a sink of methane. Among the proposed effects of climate change in the North American Midwest region is an increase in the frequency and duration of spring flooding events. This would cause ponding in fields which may change the greenhouse gas balance of the region, especially by providing a suitable anoxic environment for the proliferation of methanogens, increasing methane emissions. To determine whether methanogenesis occurs in flooded agricultural soils of the Midwest and how other gas fluxes are affected, we installed collars into the ground of a research field located in central Illinois. The control group was maintained at the same conditions as the surrounding field. Two groups of collars were sustained with water flooding the headspaces via a drip irrigation system; one treatment was analyzed for gas fluxes of CH4, N2O, and CO2 evolving from the collars, and a separate treatment of flooded collars was used for soil sampling. Comparing flooded soils versus control we measured reduced N2O fluxes (-3.12 x 10-6 × 6.8 x 10-7 g N m-2 min-1), reduced CO2 fluxes (-6.13 x 10-3 × 9.3 x 10-4 g CO2 m-2 min-1), and increased methane fluxes (+2.72 x 10-6 × 5.8 x 10-7 g CH4 m-2 min-1). After only one week of treatment the flooded soils switched from being sinks to sources of methane, which continued across the duration of the experiment. These preliminary results indicate that methanogenesis occurs in flooded agricultural fields, and suggest including regional modeling into further study. Although the global warming potential of methane is 25 times greater than CO2, our measured rates of methane production were compensated by reductions in nitrous oxide and CO2 fluxes, reducing the total 100-year horizon global warming potential of the flooded soils we studied by 64.8%. This indicates that accounting for more frequent seasonal ponding would significantly

  5. Exposure of farm workers to electromagnetic radiation from cellular network radio base stations situated on rural agricultural land.

    PubMed

    Pascuzzi, Simone; Santoro, Francesco

    2015-01-01

    The electromagnetic field (EMF) levels generated by mobile telephone radio base stations (RBS) situated on rural-agricultural lands were assessed in order to evaluate the exposure of farm workers in the surrounding area. The expected EMF at various distances from a mobile telephone RBS was calculated using an ad hoc numerical forecast model. Subsequently, the electric fields around some RBS on agricultural lands were measured, in order to obtain a good approximation of the effective conditions at the investigated sites. The viability of this study was tested according to the Italian Regulations concerning general and occupational public exposure to time-varying EMFs. The calculated E-field values were obtained with the RBS working constantly at full power, but during the in situ measurements the actual power emitted by RBS antennas was lower than the maximum level, and the E-field values actually registered were much lower than the calculated values.

  6. The seasonal role of field characteristics on seed-eating bird abundances in agricultural landscapes

    PubMed Central

    Codesido, Mariano; Abba, Agustín M.; Bilenca, David

    2017-01-01

    Abstract In temperate agroecosystems, avian responses in abundance and distribution to landscape attributes may be exacerbated by the coupling of natural seasons and farming practices. We assessed the seasonal roles of field type, field use in the surroundings, and distance from a field to the nearest woodlot on the abundance of seed-eating birds in a 225,000 km2 study area in the Pampas of central Argentina. During spring-summer and autumn of 2011–2013, we randomly selected 392 fields and used transect samples to collect data on abundance and presence of seed-eating bird species. We recorded a total of 11,579 individuals belonging to 15 seed-eating bird species. We used generalized lineal mixed models to relate bird abundance to field type, field use in the surroundings, and distance to the nearest woodlot. In spring-summer (breeding season) most bird responses were associated with their nesting requirements. Species that build their nests in trees, such as eared doves Zenaida auriculata, picazuro pigeons Patagioenas picazuro, and monk parakeets Myiopsitta monachus, were more abundant in fields closer to woodlots, whereas grassland yellow-finches Sicalis luteola, which nest at areas with tall grasses, were more abundant in fields with livestock use patches in the field surroundings. In autumn (non-breeding season), most bird responses were associated with foraging and refuge needs. The high abundance of eared doves in crop stubbles and the association of pigeons at field surroundings dominated by croplands or at crop stubbles surrounded by livestock use fields revealed the intimate association of these species to sites with high availability of food resources. In addition, both picazuro pigeons and spot-winged pigeons Patagioenas maculosa were associated with woodlots, which provide suitable roosting sites. Our results show that in temperate agroecosystems, the relationships between field characteristics and seed-eating bird abundances vary with season. PMID

  7. The role of precision agriculture for improved nutrient management on farms.

    PubMed

    Hedley, Carolyn

    2015-01-01

    Precision agriculture uses proximal and remote sensor surveys to delineate and monitor within-field variations in soil and crop attributes, guiding variable rate control of inputs, so that in-season management can be responsive, e.g. matching strategic nitrogen fertiliser application to site-specific field conditions. It has the potential to improve production and nutrient use efficiency, ensuring that nutrients do not leach from or accumulate in excessive concentrations in parts of the field, which creates environmental problems. The discipline emerged in the 1980s with the advent of affordable geographic positioning systems (GPS), and has further developed with access to an array of affordable soil and crop sensors, improved computer power and software, and equipment with precision application control, e.g. variable rate fertiliser and irrigation systems. Precision agriculture focusses on improving nutrient use efficiency at the appropriate scale requiring (1) appropriate decision support systems (e.g. digital prescription maps), and (2) equipment capable of varying application at these different scales, e.g. the footprint of a one-irrigation sprinkler or a fertiliser top-dressing aircraft. This article reviews the rapid development of this discipline, and uses New Zealand as a case study example, as it is a country where agriculture drives economic growth. Here, the high yield potentials on often young, variable soils provide opportunities for effective financial return from investment in these new technologies. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

  8. FIELD APPLICATIONS OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS IN HAZARDOUS WASTE SITE OPERATIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The cleanup of hazardous waste sites is a challenging and complex field that offers numerous opportunities for the application of robotic technology. he contamination problem, long in the making, will take decades to resolve. ur ingenuity in developing robotic tools to assist in ...

  9. Ground-water quality beneath irrigated agriculture in the central High Plains aquifer, 1999-2000

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Bruce, Breton W.; Becker, Mark F.; Pope, Larry M.; Gurdak, Jason J.

    2003-01-01

    In 1999 and 2000, 30 water-quality monitoring wells were installed in the central High Plains aquifer to evaluate the quality of recently recharged ground water in areas of irrigated agriculture and to identify the factors affecting ground-water quality. Wells were installed adjacent to irrigated agricultural fields with 10- or 20-foot screened intervals placed near the water table. Each well was sampled once for about 100 waterquality constituents associated with agricultural practices. Water samples from 70 percent of the wells (21 of 30 sites) contained nitrate concentrations larger than expected background concentrations (about 3 mg/L as N) and detectable pesticides. Atrazine or its metabolite, deethylatrazine, were detected with greater frequency than other pesticides and were present in all 21 samples where pesticides were detected. The 21 samples with detectable pesticides also contained tritium concentrations large enough to indicate that at least some part of the water sample had been recharged within about the last 50 years. These 21 ground-water samples are considered to show water-quality effects related to irrigated agriculture. The remaining 9 groundwater samples contained no pesticides, small tritium concentrations, and nitrate concentrations less than 3.45 milligrams per liter as nitrogen. These samples are considered unaffected by the irrigated agricultural land-use setting. Nitrogen isotope ratios indicate that commercial fertilizer was the dominant source of nitrate in 13 of the 21 samples affected by irrigated agriculture. Nitrogen isotope ratios for 4 of these 21 samples were indicative of an animal waste source. Dissolved-solids concentrations were larger in samples affected by irrigated agriculture, with large sulfate concentrations having strong correlation with large dissolved solids concentrations in these samples. A strong statistical correlation is shown between samples affected by irrigated agriculture and sites with large rates of

  10. Applied Agricultural Science and Mechanics 1 and 2. A Curriculum Guide for Agricultural Grades 9 and 10.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    New York State Education Dept., Albany. Bureau of Occupational Education Curriculum Development.

    This curriculum guide is designed to provide students with opportunities to explore different careers related to agriculture, to develop basic skills and knowledge related to the agriculture industry, and to make an intelligent selection of the speciality fields in agriculture that they will pursue in the eleventh and twelvth grades. An…

  11. Reflections on Museums as Effective Field Sites for Teacher Candidates

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clark, Megan; Ensminger, David; Incandela, Colleen; Moisan, Heidi

    2016-01-01

    A unique partnership among six museums and Loyola University Chicago's "Teaching Learning and Leading with Schools and Communities" teacher preparation program provided cross-disciplinary field sites for understanding and witnessing developmental and learning theories. Pre-service teacher candidates were able to identify constructs and…

  12. Environmental setting of fixed sites in the western Lake Michigan drainages, Michigan and Wisconsin

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sullivan, D.J.; Peterson, E.M.; Richards, K.D.

    1995-01-01

    This report describes selected environmental- setting features for 11 fixed surface-water sites in the Western Lake Michigan Drainages study unit of the National Water-Quality Assessment Pro- gram. The study unit, which includes 10 major river systems draining to Lake Michigan, is bounded on the south by the Illinois State line and extends north to about 31 miles north of Escanaba, Mich. The fixed sites are on the following streams: Peshekee River, Popple River, Menominee River, Pensaukee River, Duck Creek, Tomorrow River, East River, Fox River, North Branch Milwaukee River, Lincoln Creek, and Milwaukee River. Drainage basins above these sites receive runoff from land uses and land covers, bedrock types, and surficial deposits representative of the main types of each of these characteristics in the study unit. Data types collected at the fixed sites include water chemistry; organic compounds and trace elements in streambed sediment and biological tissues; algal, benthic-invertebrate, and fish communities; and aquatic habitat. Field measurements include water temperature, pH, specific conductance, alkalinity, and dissolved oxygen. Results of water- quality field measurements indicate little variation in temperature among the fixed sites. Specific conductance and alkalinity were generally higher at sites underlain by carbonate bedrock than at sites underlain by igneous/metamorphic bedrock. Differences in pH among the fixed sites were less than those for specific conductance and alkalinity, but pH seemed to increase slightly from north to south. Dissolved-oxygen concentration varied more at agricultural sites than at forested and urban sites, perhaps because of higher nutrient inputs at agricultural sites. The information included in this report has been assembled as reference material for ongoing studies at the fixed sites.

  13. Mercury Cycling in Agricultural and Non-agricultural Wetlands of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, California: Sediment Biogeochemistry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marvin-Dipasquale, M. C.; Windham-Myers, L.; Alpers, C. N.; Agee, J. L.; Cox, M. H.; Kakouros, E.; Wren, S. L.

    2007-12-01

    The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area (YBWA) is part of the larger Yolo Bypass floodwater protection zone associated with the Sacramento River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California. Land use in the YBWA consists of white and wild rice fields, seasonally flooded fallow agricultural fields, and permanently and seasonally flooded non-agricultural wetlands used for resident and migratory waterfowl. A recent assessment of mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) loads indicates that the Yolo Bypass is responsible for a high proportion of the aqueous MeHg entering the Delta, and that biota from the Yolo Bypass are considerably elevated in MeHg. The current study examines benthic MeHg production and biogeochemical controls on this process, as a function of YBWA land use, wetland management, and agricultural practices during the 2007 rice growing season (June to October). Preliminary results indicate that in the week following initial flooding of agricultural fields, prior to the establishment of rice plants, the microbial community in the 0-2 cm surface sediment zone exhibited very little potential Hg(II)-methylation activity compared to the permanent wetland habitat (as assessed via the 203Hg(II)- methylation assay). Approximately 1 month after flooding, rice plants were established and the activity of the resident Hg(II)-methylating microbial community had increased substantially in all agricultural fields, although the observed rates of MeHg production were still much lower than those observed in the permanent wetland setting. Ongoing field sampling includes analysis of reactive Hg(II) in sediments and of iron and sulfur redox species in sediments and pore waters.

  14. Fungal biology and agriculture: revisiting the field

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Yarden, O.; Ebbole, D.J.; Freeman, S.; Rodriguez, R.J.; Dickman, M. B.

    2003-01-01

    Plant pathology has made significant progress over the years, a process that involved overcoming a variety of conceptual and technological hurdles. Descriptive mycology and the advent of chemical plant-disease management have been followed by biochemical and physiological studies of fungi and their hosts. The later establishment of biochemical genetics along with the introduction of DNA-mediated transformation have set the stage for dissection of gene function and advances in our understanding of fungal cell biology and plant-fungus interactions. Currently, with the advent of high-throughput technologies, we have the capacity to acquire vast data sets that have direct relevance to the numerous subdisciplines within fungal biology and pathology. These data provide unique opportunities for basic research and for engineering solutions to important agricultural problems. However, we also are faced with the challenge of data organization and mining to analyze the relationships between fungal and plant genomes and to elucidate the physiological function of pertinent DNA sequences. We present our perspective of fungal biology and agriculture, including administrative and political challenges to plant protection research.

  15. Use of airborne hyperspectral imagery to map soil parameters in tilled agricultural fields

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Hively, W. Dean; McCarty, Gregory W.; Reeves, James B.; Lang, Megan W.; Oesterling, Robert A.; Delwiche, Stephen R.

    2011-01-01

    Soil hyperspectral reflectance imagery was obtained for six tilled (soil) agricultural fields using an airborne imaging spectrometer (400–2450 nm, ~10 nm resolution, 2.5 m spatial resolution). Surface soil samples (n = 315) were analyzed for carbon content, particle size distribution, and 15 agronomically important elements (Mehlich-III extraction). When partial least squares (PLS) regression of imagery-derived reflectance spectra was used to predict analyte concentrations, 13 of the 19 analytes were predicted with R2 > 0.50, including carbon (0.65), aluminum (0.76), iron (0.75), and silt content (0.79). Comparison of 15 spectral math preprocessing treatments showed that a simple first derivative worked well for nearly all analytes. The resulting PLS factors were exported as a vector of coefficients and used to calculate predicted maps of soil properties for each field. Image smoothing with a 3 × 3 low-pass filter prior to spectral data extraction improved prediction accuracy. The resulting raster maps showed variation associated with topographic factors, indicating the effect of soil redistribution and moisture regime on in-field spatial variability. High-resolution maps of soil analyte concentrations can be used to improve precision environmental management of farmlands.

  16. Habitat restoration promotes pollinator persistence and colonization in intensively managed agriculture.

    PubMed

    M'Gonigle, Leithen K; Ponisio, Lauren C; Cutler, Kerry; Kremen, Claire

    2015-09-01

    Widespread evidence of pollinator declines has led to policies supporting habitat restoration including in agricultural landscapes. Yet, little is yet known about the effectiveness of these restoration techniques for promoting stable populations and communities of pollinators, especially in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. Introducing floral resources, such as flowering hedgerows, to enhance intensively cultivated agricultural landscapes is known to increase the abundances of native insect pollinators in and around restored areas. Whether this is a result of local short-term concentration at flowers or indicative of true increases in the persistence and species richness of these communities remains unclear. It is also unknown whether this practice supports species of conservation concern (e.g., those with more specialized dietary requirements). Analyzing occupancies of native bees and syrphid flies from 330 surveys across 15 sites over eight years, we found that hedgerow restoration promotes rates of between-season persistence and colonization as compared with unrestored field edges. Enhanced persistence and colonization, in turn, led to the formation of more species-rich communities. We also find that hedgerows benefit floral resource specialists more than generalists, emphasizing the value of this restoration technique for conservation in agricultural landscapes.

  17. Impact of urban agriculture on malaria vectors in Accra, Ghana

    PubMed Central

    Klinkenberg, Eveline; McCall, PJ; Wilson, Michael D; Amerasinghe, Felix P; Donnelly, Martin J

    2008-01-01

    To investigate the impact of urban agriculture on malaria transmission risk in urban Accra larval and adult stage mosquito surveys, were performed. Local transmission was implicated as Anopheles spp. were found breeding and infected Anopheles mosquitoes were found resting in houses in the study sites. The predominant Anopheles species was Anopheles gambiae s.s.. The relative proportion of molecular forms within a subset of specimens was 86% S-form and 14% M-form. Anopheles spp. and Culex quinquefasciatus outdoor biting rates were respectively three and four times higher in areas around agricultural sites (UA) than in areas far from agriculture (U). The annual Entomological Inoculation Rate (EIR), the number of infectious bites received per individual per year, was 19.2 and 6.6 in UA and U sites, respectively. Breeding sites were highly transitory in nature, which poses a challenge for larval control in this setting. The data also suggest that the epidemiological importance of urban agricultural areas may be the provision of resting sites for adults rather than an increased number of larval habitats. Host-seeking activity peaked between 2–3 am, indicating that insecticide-treated bednets should be an effective control method. PMID:18680565

  18. Impact of urban agriculture on malaria vectors in Accra, Ghana.

    PubMed

    Klinkenberg, Eveline; McCall, Pj; Wilson, Michael D; Amerasinghe, Felix P; Donnelly, Martin J

    2008-08-04

    To investigate the impact of urban agriculture on malaria transmission risk in urban Accra larval and adult stage mosquito surveys, were performed. Local transmission was implicated as Anopheles spp. were found breeding and infected Anopheles mosquitoes were found resting in houses in the study sites. The predominant Anopheles species was Anopheles gambiae s.s.. The relative proportion of molecular forms within a subset of specimens was 86% S-form and 14% M-form. Anopheles spp. and Culex quinquefasciatus outdoor biting rates were respectively three and four times higher in areas around agricultural sites (UA) than in areas far from agriculture (U). The annual Entomological Inoculation Rate (EIR), the number of infectious bites received per individual per year, was 19.2 and 6.6 in UA and U sites, respectively. Breeding sites were highly transitory in nature, which poses a challenge for larval control in this setting. The data also suggest that the epidemiological importance of urban agricultural areas may be the provision of resting sites for adults rather than an increased number of larval habitats. Host-seeking activity peaked between 2-3 am, indicating that insecticide-treated bednets should be an effective control method.

  19. AmeriFlux US-Ne2 Mead - irrigated maize-soybean rotation site

    DOE Data Explorer

    Suyker, Andy [University of Nebraska - Lincoln

    2016-01-01

    This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Ne2 Mead - irrigated maize-soybean rotation site. Site Description - The study site is one of three fields (all located within 1.6 km of each other) at the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research and Development Center near Mead, Nebraska. This site is irrigated with a center pivot system. Prior to the initiation of the study, the irrigated site had a 10-yr history of maize-soybean rotation under no-till. A tillage operation (disking) was done just prior to the 2001 planting to homogenize the top 0.1 m of soil, incorporate P and K fertilizers, as well as previously accumulated surface residues. Since this tillage operation, the site has been under no-till management.

  20. Site Characterization for a Deep Borehole Field Test

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kuhlman, K. L.; Hardin, E. L.; Freeze, G. A.; Sassani, D.; Brady, P. V.

    2015-12-01

    The US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy is at the beginning of 5-year Deep Borehole Field Test (DBFT) to investigate the feasibility of constructing and characterizing two boreholes in crystalline basement rock to a depth of 5 km (16,400 ft). The concept of deep borehole disposal for radioactive waste has some advantages over mined repositories, including incremental construction and loading, the enhanced natural barriers provided by deep continental crystalline basement, and reduced site characterization. Site characterization efforts need to determine an eligible site that does not have the following disqualifying characteristics: greater than 2 km to crystalline basement, upward vertical fluid potential gradients, presence of economically exploitable natural resources, presence of high permeability connection to the shallow subsurface, and significant probability of future seismic or volcanic activity. Site characterization activities for the DBFT will include geomechanical (i.e., rock in situ stress state, and fluid pressure), geological (i.e., rock and fracture infill lithology), hydrological (i.e., quantity of fluid, fluid convection properties, and solute transport mechanisms), and geochemical (i.e., rock-water interaction and natural tracers) aspects. Both direct (i.e., sampling and in situ testing) and indirect (i.e., borehole geophysical) methods are planned for efficient and effective characterization of these site aspects and physical processes. Borehole-based characterization will be used to determine the variability of system state (i.e., stress, pressure, temperature, and chemistry) with depth, and interpretation of material and system parameters relevant to numerical site simulation. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE

  1. Agriculture shapes the trophic niche of a bat preying on multiple pest arthropods across Europe: Evidence from DNA metabarcoding.

    PubMed

    Aizpurua, Ostaizka; Budinski, Ivana; Georgiakakis, Panagiotis; Gopalakrishnan, Shyam; Ibañez, Carlos; Mata, Vanessa; Rebelo, Hugo; Russo, Danilo; Szodoray-Parádi, Farkas; Zhelyazkova, Violeta; Zrncic, Vida; Gilbert, M Thomas P; Alberdi, Antton

    2018-02-01

    The interaction between agricultural production and wildlife can shape, and even condition, the functioning of both systems. In this study, we i) explored the degree to which a widespread European bat, namely the common bent-wing bat Miniopterus schreibersii, consumes crop-damaging insects at a continental scale, and ii) tested whether its dietary niche is shaped by the extension and type of agricultural fields. We employed a dual-primer DNA metabarcoding approach to characterize arthropod 16S and COI DNA sequences within bat faecal pellets collected across 16 Southern European localities, to first characterize the bat species' dietary niche, second measure the incidence of agricultural pests across their ranges and third assess whether geographical dietary variation responds to climatic, landscape diversity, agriculture type and vegetation productivity factors. We detected 12 arthropod orders, among which lepidopterans were predominant. We identified >200 species, 44 of which are known to cause agricultural damage. Pest species were detected at all but one sampling site and in 94% of the analysed samples. Furthermore, the dietary diversity of M. schreibersii exhibited a negative linear relation with the area of intensive agricultural fields, thus suggesting crops restrict the dietary niche of bats to prey taxa associated with agricultural production within their foraging range. Overall, our results imply that M. schreibersii might be a valuable asset for biological pest suppression in a variety of agricultural productions and highlight the dynamic interplay between wildlife and agricultural systems. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  2. Contribution of waste water treatment plants to pesticide toxicity in agriculture catchments.

    PubMed

    Le, Trong Dieu Hien; Scharmüller, Andreas; Kattwinkel, Mira; Kühne, Ralph; Schüürmann, Gerrit; Schäfer, Ralf B

    2017-11-01

    Pesticide residues are frequently found in water bodies and may threaten freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. In addition to runoff or leaching from treated agricultural fields, pesticides may enter streams via effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). We compared the pesticide toxicity in terms of log maximum Toxic Unit (log mTU) of sampling sites in small agricultural streams of Germany with and without WWTPs in the upstream catchments. We found an approximately half log unit higher pesticide toxicity for sampling sites with WWTPs (p < 0.001). Compared to fungicides and insecticides, herbicides contributed most to the total pesticide toxicity in streams with WWTPs. A few compounds (diuron, terbuthylazin, isoproturon, terbutryn and Metazachlor) dominated the herbicide toxicity. Pesticide toxicity was not correlated with upstream distance to WWTP (Spearman's rank correlation, rho = - 0.11, p > 0.05) suggesting that other context variables are more important to explain WWTP-driven pesticide toxicity. Our results suggest that WWTPs contribute to pesticide toxicity in German streams. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Sources of fine sediment stored in agricultural lowland streams, Midwest, USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lamba, Jasmeet; Thompson, A. M.; Karthikeyan, K. G.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.

    2015-05-01

    Agricultural activities can accelerate the offsite transport of productive soil from fields leading to stream water quality degradation. Identification of the nature and relative contribution of different sources to fine-grained sediment (e.g., silts, clays) in streams is important to effectively focus agricultural best management practices in watersheds. Sediment fingerprinting techniques through the use of geochemical tracers are commonly used to differentiate relative contribution from various sources. Research was conducted in lowland streams in the Pleasant Valley watershed in South Central Wisconsin (USA) to identify provenance of fine-grained sediment deposits and evaluate the impact of land use on relative contributions from the following potential sources: cropland, pasture, woodland, and eroding stream banks. Results show that both agriculture (croplands and pastures) and eroding stream banks are primary sources to fine sediment deposits on the stream bed with contributions ranging from 19 to 100% and 0 to 81%, respectively. The increase in area under agricultural land use within a subwatershed results in greater contribution from agriculture (R2 = 0.846, p = 0.0034). Relative contributions from eroding stream banks increased with increasing area under grasslands and woodlands within a subwatershed (R2 = 0.814, p = 0.0055). Subwatersheds with greater mass of fine sediment deposited on the stream bed per unit area should be prioritized for best management practices. The conservation practices should be targeted to stream banks or croplands depending on the dominant source of fine sediment within a subwatershed. Site specific changes in relative contributions from different sources to fine-grained sediment in this watershed highlights the complexities involved in sediment transport dynamics. The nested sampling sites helped determine that sediment dynamics at the subwatershed scale need to be considered for application of targeted conservation techniques.

  4. Sources of fine sediment stored in agricultural lowland streams, Midwest, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lamba, Jasmeet; Thompson, Anita M.; Karthikeyan, K.G.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.

    2015-01-01

    Agricultural activities can accelerate the offsite transport of productive soil from fields leading to stream water quality degradation. Identification of the nature and relative contribution of different sources to fine-grained sediment (e.g., silts, clays) in streams is important to effectively focus agricultural best management practices in watersheds. Sediment fingerprinting techniques through the use of geochemical tracers are commonly used to differentiate relative contribution from various sources. Research was conducted in lowland streams in the Pleasant Valley watershed in South Central Wisconsin (USA) to identify provenance of fine-grained sediment deposits and evaluate the impact of land use on relative contributions from the following potential sources: cropland, pasture, woodland, and eroding stream banks. Results show that both agriculture (croplands and pastures) and eroding stream banks are primary sources to fine sediment deposits on the stream bed with contributions ranging from 19 to 100% and 0 to 81%, respectively. The increase in area under agricultural land use within a subwatershed results in greater contribution from agriculture (R2 = 0.846, p = 0.0034). Relative contributions from eroding stream banks increased with increasing area under grasslands and woodlands within a subwatershed (R2 = 0.814, p = 0.0055). Subwatersheds with greater mass of fine sediment deposited on the stream bed per unit area should be prioritized for best management practices. The conservation practices should be targeted to stream banks or croplands depending on the dominant source of fine sediment within a subwatershed. Site specific changes in relative contributions from different sources to fine-grained sediment in this watershed highlights the complexities involved in sediment transport dynamics. The nested sampling sites helped determine that sediment dynamics at the subwatershed scale need to be considered for application of targeted conservation

  5. Preliminary assessment of DOC and THM precursor loads from a freshwater restored wetland, an agricultural field, and a tidal wetland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fujii, R.; Bergamaschi, B.A.; Ganju, N.K.; Fleck, J.A.; Burow-Fogg, K.R.; Schoellhamer, D.; Deverel, S.J.

    2003-01-01

    Water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta supplies drinking water to more than 22 million people in California. At certain times of the year, Delta waters contain relatively high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and bromide. During these times, chlorination of Delta water for drinking water disinfection will form disinfection byproducts, such as trihalomethanes (THMs), that can exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level for THMs of 80 mg/L. Important sources of DOC and THM precursors (types of DOC that form THMs when chlorinated) to the Delta include rivers, drainage water from peat islands, water from wetlands and areas with extensive riparian vegetation, and in-channel growth of algae and macrophytes. Due to proposed ecosystem restoration and creation of wetlands in the Delta, there is an urgent need for information on the relative loads of DOC and THM precursors produced from three different land uses: restored wetlands constructed for subsidence mitigation, tidal wetlands, and agricultural operations. We have been conducting research in the Delta to provide this information. A restored wetland and agricultural field located on Twitchell Island, and a tidal wetland on Browns Island have been monitored for flow, DOC, and THM precursors. Initial results indicate that the loads of DOC and THM precursors are similar for the restored wetland (surface water only) and the agricultural field. These land uses produce DOC loads of about 14 and 11 g C/m2/yr, respectively, and THM precursor loads of about 1.7 and 1.0 g THM/m2/yr, respectively. Estimates of DOC and THM precursor loads for the tidal wetland site on Browns Island and seepage associated with the restored wetland are being developed.

  6. Multiple-scale Proximal Sensor and Remote Imagery Technology for Sustaining Agricultural Productivity During Climate Change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Corwin, D. L.; Scudiero, E.

    2016-12-01

    Changes in climatic patterns have had dramatic influence on agricultural areas worldwide, particularly in irrigated arid-zone agricultural areas subjected to recurring drought, such as California's San Joaquin Valley. Climate change has impacted water availability, which subsequently has impacted soil salinity levels in the root zone, especially on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley (WSJV). Inventorying and monitoring the extent of climate change on soil salinity is crucial to evaluate the extent of the problem, to recognize trends, and to formulate state-wide and field-scale irrigation management strategies that will sustain the agricultural productivity of the WSJV. Over the past 3 decades, Corwin and colleagues at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory have developed proximal sensor (i.e., electrical resistivity and electromagnetic induction) and remote imagery (i.e., MODIS and Landsat 7) methodologies for assessing soil salinity at multiple scales: field (0.5 ha to 3 km2), landscape (3 to 10 km2), and regional (10 to 105 km2) scales. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of these scale-dependent salinity assessment technologies. Case studies for the WSJV are presented to demonstrate at multiple scales the utility of these approaches in assessing soil salinity changes due to management-induced changes and to changes in climate patterns, and in providing site-specific irrigation management information for salinity control. Land resource managers, producers, agriculture consultants, extension specialists, and Natural Resource Conservation Service field staff are the beneficiaries of this information.

  7. Enhanced levels of atmospheric low-molecular weight monocarboxylic acids in gas and particulates over Mt. Tai, North China, during field burning of agricultural wastes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mochizuki, Tomoki; Kawamura, Kimitaka; Nakamura, Shinnosuke; Kanaya, Yugo; Wang, Zifa

    2017-12-01

    To understand the source and atmospheric behaviour of low molecular weight monocarboxylic acids (monoacids), gaseous (G) and particulate (P) organic acids were collected at the summit of Mt. Tai in the North China Plain (NCP) during field burning of agricultural waste (wheat straw). Particulate organic acids were collected with neutral quartz filter whereas gaseous organic acids were collected with KOH-impregnated quartz filter. Normal (C1-C10), branched (iC4-iC6), hydroxy (lactic and glycolic), and aromatic (benzoic) monoacids were determined with a capillary gas chromatography employing p-bromophenacyl esters. We found acetic acid as the most abundant gas-phase species whereas formic acid is the dominant particle-phase species. Concentrations of formic (G/P 1 570/1 410 ng m-3) and acetic (3 960/1 120 ng m-3) acids significantly increased during the enhanced field burning of agricultural wastes. Concentrations of formic and acetic acids in daytime were found to increase in both G and P phases with those of K+, a field-burning tracer (r = 0.32-0.64). Primary emission and secondary formation of acetic acid is linked with field burning of agricultural wastes. In addition, we found that particle-phase fractions (Fp = P/(G + P)) of formic (0.50) and acetic (0.31) acids are significantly high, indicating that semi-volatile organic acids largely exist as particles. Field burning of agricultural wastes may play an important role in the formation of particulate monoacids in the NCP. High levels (917 ng m-3) of particle-phase lactic acid, which is characteristic of microorganisms, suggest that microbial activity associated with terrestrial ecosystem significantly contributes to the formation of organic aerosols.

  8. Investigating the Sustainability of Perennial Agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sutherlin, C. E.; Brunsell, N. A.; De Oliveira, G.; Crews, T.; Vico, G.

    2017-12-01

    The changing climate leads to uncertainties concerning the sustainability of certain agricultural resources, and with the additional stresses of an increasing global population, uncertainty in food security will greatly increase. To adhere to future food demands in the face of this changing climate, perennial agriculture has been a proposed solution. However, it is equally important to assure that perennial agriculture is not negatively affecting the climate in exchange for this proposed more robust food source. We chose to examine the interactions between perennial and annual agricultural crops by focusing on the efficiency of exchanges with the atmosphere. This is done using the omega decoupling factor for 4 different sites as a way of quantifying the contributions of radiation and stomatal conductance over the resulting water and carbon cycles. This gives us an indication of how the plant canopy is interacting with, and influencing the local microclimate. Ultimately, this should give us an indication of the ability of perennial crops to aid in the climate mitigation process. We hypothesized that the perennial site chosen would have omega values more similar to the omega values of a natural grassland rather than an annual crop site. Using AmeriFlux towers to determine the canopy values needed to calculate the omega decoupling factor, we focused on the Kernza perennial crops being grown at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas (KLS), in comparison to a natural grassland in Manhattan, Kansas (KON), a typical land cover model in Lawrence, Kansas (KFS), and an annual crop site in Lamont, Oklahoma (ARM). These results will allow us to move forward in the investigation of perennial crops as a sustainable food source.

  9. Nitrate concentrations under irrigated agriculture

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Zaporozec, A.

    1983-01-01

    In recent years, considerable interest has been expressed in the nitrate content of water supplies. The most notable toxic effect of nitrate is infant methemoglobinemia. The risk of this disease increases significantly at nitrate-nitrogen levels exceeding 10 mg/l. For this reason, this concentration has been established as a limit for drinking water in many countries. In natural waters, nitrate is a minor ionic constituent and seldom accounts for more than a few percent of the total anions. However, nitrate in a significant concentration may occur in the vicinity of some point sources such as septic tanks, manure pits, and waste-disposal sites. Non-point sources contributing to groundwater pollution are numerous and a majority of them are related to agricultural activities. The largest single anthropogenic input of nitrate into the groundwater is fertilizer. Even though it has not been proven that nitrogen fertilizers are responsible for much of nitrate pollution, they are generally recognized as the main threat to groundwater quality, especially when inefficiently applied to irrigated fields on sandy soils. The biggest challenge facing today's agriculture is to maintain the balance between the enhancement of crop productivity and the risk of groundwater pollution. ?? 1982 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

  10. Not just a rural occurrence: differences in agricultural equipment crash characteristics by rural-urban crash site and proximity to town.

    PubMed

    Harland, Karisa K; Greenan, Mitchell; Ramirez, Marizen

    2014-09-01

    Although approximately one-third of agricultural equipment-related crashes occur near town, these crashes are thought to be a rural problem. This analysis examines differences between agricultural equipment-related crashes by their urban-rural distribution and distance from a town. Agricultural equipment crashes were collected from nine Midwest Departments of Transportation (2005-2008). Crash zip code was assigned as urban or rural (large, small and isolated) using Rural-Urban Commuting Areas. Crash proximity to a town was estimated with ArcGIS. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of crashing in an urban versus rural zip codes and across rural gradients. ANOVA analysis estimated mean distance (miles) from a crash site to a town. Over four years, 4444 crashes involved agricultural equipment. About 30% of crashes occurred in urban zip codes. Urban crashes were more likely to be non-collisions (aOR=1.69[1.24-2.30]), involve ≥2 vehicles (2 vehicles: aOR=1.58[1.14-2.20], 3+ vehicles: aOR=1.68[0.98-2.88]), occur in a town (aOR=2.06[1.73-2.45]) and within one mile of a town (aOR=1.65[1.40-1.95]) than rural crashes. The proportion of crashes within a town differed significantly across rural gradients (P<0.0001). Small rural crashes, compared to isolated rural crashes, were 1.98 (95%CI[1.28-3.06]) times more likely to be non-collisions. The distance from the crash to town differed significantly by the urban-rural distribution (P<0.0001). Crashes with agricultural equipment are unexpectedly common in urban areas and near towns and cities. Education among all roadway users, increased visibility of agricultural equipment and the development of complete rural roads are needed to increase road safety and prevent agricultural equipment-related crashes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Multi-site study of diffusion metric variability: effects of site, vendor, field strength, and echo time on regions-of-interest and histogram-bin analyses.

    PubMed

    Helmer, K G; Chou, M-C; Preciado, R I; Gimi, B; Rollins, N K; Song, A; Turner, J; Mori, S

    2016-02-27

    It is now common for magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI) based multi-site trials to include diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) as part of the protocol. It is also common for these sites to possess MR scanners of different manufacturers, different software and hardware, and different software licenses. These differences mean that scanners may not be able to acquire data with the same number of gradient amplitude values and number of available gradient directions. Variability can also occur in achievable b-values and minimum echo times. The challenge of a multi-site study then, is to create a common protocol by understanding and then minimizing the effects of scanner variability and identifying reliable and accurate diffusion metrics. This study describes the effect of site, scanner vendor, field strength, and TE on two diffusion metrics: the first moment of the diffusion tensor field (mean diffusivity, MD), and the fractional anisotropy (FA) using two common analyses (region-of-interest and mean-bin value of whole brain histograms). The goal of the study was to identify sources of variability in diffusion-sensitized imaging and their influence on commonly reported metrics. The results demonstrate that the site, vendor, field strength, and echo time all contribute to variability in FA and MD, though to different extent. We conclude that characterization of the variability of DTI metrics due to site, vendor, field strength, and echo time is a worthwhile step in the construction of multi-center trials.

  12. Validation of Global EO Biophysical Products at JECAM Test Site in Ukraine

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Skakun, Sergii; Kussul, Nataliia; Kravchenko, Oleksiy; Basarab, Ruslan; Ostapenko, Vadym; Yailymov, Bohdan; Shelestov, Andrii; Kolotii, Andrii; Mironov, Andrii

    Efficient global agriculture monitoring requires appropriate validation of Earth observation (EO) products for different regions and cropping system. This problem is addressed within the Joint Experiment of Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) initiative which aims to develop monitoring and reporting protocols and best practices for a variety of global agricultural systems. Ukraine is actively involved into JECAM, and a JECAM Ukraine test site was officially established in 2011. The following problems are being solved within JECAM Ukraine: (i) crop identification and crop area estimation [1]; (ii) crop yield forecasting [2]; (iii) EO products validation. The following case study regions were selected for these purposes: (i) the whole Kyiv oblast (28,000 sq. km) indented for crop mapping and acreage estimation; (ii) intensive observation sub-site in Pshenichne which is a research farm from the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine and indented for crop biophysical parameters estimation; (iii) Lviv region for rape-seed identification and crop rotation control; (iv) Crimea region for crop damage assessment due to droughts, and illegial field detection. In 2013, Ukrainian JECAM test site was selected as one of the “Champion User” for the ESA Sentinel-2 for Agriculture project. The test site was observed with SPOT-4 and RapidEye satellites every 5 days. The collected images are then used to simulate Sentinel-2 images for agriculture purposes. JECAM Ukraine is responsible for collecting ground observation data for validation purposes, and is involved in providing user requirements for Sentinel-2 agriculture related products. In particular, three field campaigns to characterize the vegetation biophysical parameters at the Pshenichne test site were carried out: First campaign - 14th to 17th of May 2013; second campaign - 12th to 15th of June 2013; third campaign - 14th to 17th of July 2013. Digital Hemispheric Photographs (DHP) images were

  13. Assessment of soil redistribution rates by (137)Cs and (210)Pbex in a typical Malagasy agricultural field.

    PubMed

    Rabesiranana, N; Rasolonirina, M; Solonjara, A F; Ravoson, H N; Raoelina Andriambololona; Mabit, L

    2016-02-01

    Soil degradation processes affect more than one-third of the Malagasy territory and are considered as the major environmental threat impacting the natural resources of the island. This innovative study reports about a pioneer test and use of radio-isotopic techniques (i.e. Cs-137 and Pb-210ex) under Madagascar agroclimatic condition to evaluate soil erosion magnitude. This preliminary investigation has been conducted in a small agricultural field situated in the eastern central highland of Madagascar, 40 km East from Antananarivo. Both anthropogenic Cs-137 and geogenic Pb-210 soil tracers provided similar results highlighting soil erosion rates reaching locally 18 t ha(-1) yr(-1,) a level almost two times higher than the sustainable soil loss rate under Madagascar agroclimatic condition. The sediment delivery ratio established with both radiotracers was above 80% indicating that most of the mobilized sediment exits the field. Assessing soil erosion rate through fallout radionuclides in Madagascar is a first step towards an efficient land and water resource management policy to optimise the effectiveness of future agricultural soil conservation practices. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Distribution and speciation of metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb) in agricultural and non-agricultural soils near a stream upriver from the Pearl River, China.

    PubMed

    Yang, Silin; Zhou, Dequn; Yu, Huayong; Wei, Rong; Pan, Bo

    2013-06-01

    The distribution and chemical speciation of typical metals (Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) in agricultural and non-agricultural soils were investigated in the area of Nanpan River, upstream of the Pearl River. The investigated four metals showed higher concentrations in agricultural soils than in non-agricultural soils, and the site located in factory district contained metals much higher than the other sampling sites. These observations suggested that human activities, such as water irrigation, fertilizer and pesticide applications might have a major impact on the distribution of metals. Metal speciation analysis presented that Cu, Zn and Cd were dominated by the residual fraction, while Pb was dominated by the reducible fraction. Because of the low mobility of the metals in the investigated area, no remarkable difference could be observed between upstream and downstream separated by the factory site. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Assessing elements of an extended evolutionary synthesis for plant domestication and agricultural origin research

    PubMed Central

    Piperno, Dolores R.

    2017-01-01

    The development of agricultural societies, one of the most transformative events in human and ecological history, was made possible by plant and animal domestication. Plant domestication began 12,000–10,000 y ago in a number of major world areas, including the New World tropics, Southwest Asia, and China, during a period of profound global environmental perturbations as the Pleistocene epoch ended and transitioned into the Holocene. Domestication is at its heart an evolutionary process, and for many prehistorians evolutionary theory has been foundational in investigating agricultural origins. Similarly, geneticists working largely with modern crops and their living wild progenitors have documented some of the mechanisms that underwrote phenotypic transformations from wild to domesticated species. Ever-improving analytic methods for retrieval of empirical data from archaeological sites, together with advances in genetic, genomic, epigenetic, and experimental research on living crop plants and wild progenitors, suggest that three fields of study currently little applied to plant domestication processes may be necessary to understand these transformations across a range of species important in early prehistoric agriculture. These fields are phenotypic (developmental) plasticity, niche construction theory, and epigenetics with transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. All are central in a controversy about whether an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is needed to reconceptualize how evolutionary change occurs. An exploration of their present and potential utility in domestication study shows that all three fields have considerable promise in elucidating important issues in plant domestication and in agricultural origin and dispersal research and should be increasingly applied to these issues. PMID:28576881

  16. Soil Moisture Retrieval with Airborne PALS Instrument over Agricultural Areas in SMAPVEX16

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Colliander, Andreas; Jackson, Thomas J.; Cosh, Mike; Misra, Sidharth; Bindlish, Rajat; Powers, Jarrett; McNairn, Heather; Bullock, P.; Berg, A.; Magagi, A.; hide

    2017-01-01

    NASA's SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) calibration and validation program revealed that the soil moisture products are experiencing difficulties in meeting the mission requirements in certain agricultural areas. Therefore, the mission organized airborne field experiments at two core validation sites to investigate these anomalies. The SMAP Validation Experiment 2016 included airborne observations with the PALS (Passive Active L-band Sensor) instrument and intensive ground sampling. The goal of the PALS measurements are to investigate the soil moisture retrieval algorithm formulation and parameterization under the varying (spatially and temporally) conditions of the agricultural domains and to obtain high resolution soil moisture maps within the SMAP pixels. In this paper the soil moisture retrieval using the PALS brightness temperature observations in SMAPVEX16 is presented.

  17. Soil hydrological and soil property changes resulting from termite activity on agricultural fields in Burkina Faso

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mettrop, I.; Cammeraat, L. H.; Verbeeten, E.

    2009-04-01

    Termites are important ecosystem-engineers in subtropical and tropical regions. The effect of termite activity affecting soil infiltration is well documented in the Sahelian region. Most studies find increased infiltration rates on surfaces that are affected by termite activity in comparison to crusted areas showing non-termite presence. Crusted agricultural fields in the Sanmatenga region in Burkina Faso with clear termite activity were compared to control fields without visual ground dwelling termite activity. Fine scale rainfall simulations were carried out on crusted termite affected and control sites. Furthermore soil moisture change, bulk density, soil organic matter as well as general soil characteristics were studied. The top soils in the study area were strongly crusted (structural crust) after the summer rainfall and harvest of millet. They have a loamy sand texture underlain by a shallow sandy loam Bt horizon. The initial soil moisture conditions were significantly higher on the termite plots when compared to control sites. It was found that the amount of runoff produced on the termite plots was significantly higher, and also the volumetric soil moisture content after the experiments was significantly lower if compared to the control plots. Bulk density showed no difference whereas soil organic matter was significantly higher under termite affected areas, in comparison to the control plots. Lab tests showed no significant difference in hydrophobic behavior of the topsoil and crust material. Micro and macro-structural properties of the topsoil did not differ significantly between the termite sites and the control sites. The texture of the top 5 cm of the soil was also found to be not significantly different. The infiltration results are contradictory to the general literature, which reports increased infiltration rates after prolonged termite activity although mostly under different initial conditions. The number of nest entrances was clearly higher in

  18. [Information and communication on the electromagnetic fields: analysis of the Italian Internet sites].

    PubMed

    Bedini, A; Giliberti, C; Salerno, S

    2008-01-01

    The aim of this study is to evaluate the presence of contents related to communication and information on the exposure to the electromagnetic fields (emf) in the first 100 Italian Internet sites, carried out using the search engine Google with the key words "emf" and "emf and health". Each Internet site has been evaluated using 10 selected indicators: (1) Definition of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields; (2) Description of the physical effects of the emf; (3) Description of biological and health effects of the emf; (4) Description of the environmental sources; (5) Description of the environmental levels produced by the different sources; (6) Main legislation; (7) Risk perception; (8) Frequently asked questions (FAQ); (9) Links; (10) Forum for discussion. The sites, obtained for each search, have been classified into 6 main categories: (1) Public Research Institutes; (2) Health and Environmental Authorities; (3) Local Authorities; (4) Associations; (5) Commercial sites; (6) Other. The results show lack of information and communication on the emf in the analysed Italian Internet sites. A need for a design of any scientific Internet information and communication on this topic is shown.

  19. Semiochemical lures reduce emigration and enhance pest control services in open-field predator augmentation

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Augmentation biocontrol is a commercially viable pest management tactic in enclosed glasshouse environments, but is far less effective in open-field agriculture where newly released enemies rapidly disperse from release sites. We tested the potential for behavior-modifying semiochemicals to increase...

  20. Optimal mapping of site-specific multivariate soil properties.

    PubMed

    Burrough, P A; Swindell, J

    1997-01-01

    This paper demonstrates how geostatistics and fuzzy k-means classification can be used together to improve our practical understanding of crop yield-site response. Two aspects of soil are important for precision farming: (a) sensible classes for a given crop, and (b) their spatial variation. Local site classifications are more sensitive than general taxonomies and can be provided by the method of fuzzy k-means to transform a multivariate data set with i attributes measured at n sites into k overlapping classes; each site has a membership value mk for each class in the range 0-1. Soil variation is of interest when conditions vary over patches manageable by agricultural machinery. The spatial variation of each of the k classes can be analysed by computing the variograms of mk over the n sites. Memberships for each of the k classes can be mapped by ordinary kriging. Areas of class dominance and the transition zones between them can be identified by an inter-class confusion index; reducing the zones to boundaries gives crisp maps of dominant soil groups that can be used to guide precision farming equipment. Automation of the procedure is straightforward given sufficient data. Time variations in soil properties can be automatically incorporated in the computation of membership values. The procedures are illustrated with multi-year crop yield data collected from a 5 ha demonstration field at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, UK.

  1. 27. AERIAL VIEW OF ARVFS FIELD TEST SITE AS IT ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    27. AERIAL VIEW OF ARVFS FIELD TEST SITE AS IT LOOKED IN 1983. OBLIQUE VIEW FACING EAST. BUNKER IS IN FOREGROUND, PROTECTIVE SHED FOR WFRP AT TOP OF IMAGE. INEL PHOTO NUMBER 83-574-12-1, TAKEN IN 1983. PHOTOGRAPHER: ROMERO. - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Advanced Reentry Vehicle Fusing System, Scoville, Butte County, ID

  2. Determination for regional differences of agriculture using satellite data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saito, G.

    2006-12-01

    Remote Sensing Laboratory, Field Science Center, Graduate School of Agriculture Science, Tohoku University starts at April 2004. For studies and education at the laboratory we are now developing the system of remote sensing and GIS. Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC) made the Home Pages of Terra/ASTER Image Web Library 3 "The Major Airport of the World." http://www.Ersdac.or.jp/ASTERimage3/library_E.html. First, we check the Airport Data to use agricultural understanding for the world. Almost major airport is located in rural area and surrounded with agriculture field. To survey the agriculture field adjacent to the major airport has almost the same condition of human activities. The images are same size and display about 18km X 14km. We can easily understand field size and surrounding conditions. We study seven airports as follows, 1. Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT), Japan, 2. Taipei Chiang kai Shek International Airport (TPE), Taiwan, 3. Bangkok International Airport (BKK), Thailand, 4. Riyadh King Khalid International Airport (RUH), Saudi Arabia, 5. Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), Paris, France, 6. Vienna International Airport (VIE), Austria, 7. Denver International Airport (DEN), CO, USA. At the area of Tokyo Narita Airport, there are many golf courses, big urban area and small size of agricultural fields. At Taipei Airport area are almost same as Tokyo Narita Airport area and there are many ponds for irrigations. Bangkok Airport area also has golf courses and many ponds for irrigation water. Riyadh Airport area is quite different from others, and there are large bare soils and small agriculture fields with irrigation and circle shape. Paris Airport area and Vienna Airport area are almost agricultural fields and there are vegetated field and bare soil fields because of crop rotation. Denver Airport area consists of almost agriculture fields and each field size is very large. The advantages of ASTER data are as follows, 1. High-resolution and large

  3. Long-term impact of precision agriculture on a farmer’s field

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Targeting management practices and inputs with precision agriculture has high potential to meet some of the grand challenges of sustainability in the coming century. Although potential is high, few studies have documented long-term effects of precision agriculture on crop production and environmenta...

  4. Spatial distribution of an ancient agricultural oasis in Juyan, northwestern China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Ningke; Li, Xin

    2014-09-01

    Activities related to agricultural cultivation are some of the major human drivers of landscape change on the Earth's surface. Archaeological remains can provide qualitative evidence for studies of past agricultural development and environmental conditions. The ancient Juyan Oasis, which once flourished along the historic Silk Road, was a typical oasis of downstream inland river basins in the arid zone of northwestern China. Historical records and archaeological discoveries have qualitatively shown that the oasis supported extensive agricultural activities in this historical period from the Han Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty (B.C. 202-A.D. 1375), which can be traced back to 2,000 years ago. In this study, different types of archaeological remains (including archaeological sites, ground surface artifacts, ancient cultivation ruins, and agricultural irrigation canals) that were obtained and identified from previous archaeological reports, field inspections, and remote sensing imagery were used to determine the spatial extent of the agricultural oasis in the historical period of interest. Our approach used multiple data sources in order to increase the accuracy and reliability of the results compared to previous studies. Our results distinctly suggested that much of the oasis was cultivated during the historical periods considered. Additionally, the arable land area in the historical period considered was roughly estimated to be approximately (3.39-4.75) × 104 ha. These findings regarding the spatial distribution of this ancient agricultural oasis and its arable land were reasonably determined to represent the ancient agricultural development that occurred in the Juyan Oasis better than results obtained from single sources of data.

  5. Green house gas emissions from open field burning of agricultural residues in India.

    PubMed

    Murali, S; Shrivastava, Rajnish; Saxena, Mohini

    2010-10-01

    In India, about 435.98 MMT of agro-residues are produced every year, out of which 313.62 MMT are surplus. These residues are either partially utilized or un-utilised due to various constraints. To pave the way for subsequent season for agriculture activity, the excess crop residues are burnt openly in the fields, unmindful of their ill effects on the environment. The present study has been undertaken to evaluate the severity of air pollution through emission of green house gases (GHGs) due to open field burning of agro-residues in India. Open field burning of surplus agro-residues in India results in the emission of GHG. Emissions of CH4 and N2O in 1997-98 and 2006-07 have been 3.73 and 4.06 MMT CO2 equivalent, which is an increase of 8.88% over a decade. About three-fourths of GHG emissions from agro-residues burning were CH4 and the remaining one-fourth were N2O. Burning of wheat and paddy straws alone contributes to about 42% of GHGs. These GHG emissions can be avoided once the agro-residues are employed for sustainable, cost-effective and environment- friendly options like power generation.

  6. Field Sampling and Selecting On-Site Analytical Methods for Explosives in Soil

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The purpose of this issue paper is to provide guidance to Remedial Project Managers regarding field sampling and on-site analytical methods fordetecting and quantifying secondary explosive compounds in soils.

  7. On-farm bioremediation of dimethazone and trifluralin residues in runoff water from an agricultural field.

    PubMed

    Antonious, George F

    2012-01-01

    Bioremediation is the use of living organisms, primarily microorganisms, to degrade environmental contaminants into less toxic forms. Nine biobeds (ground cavity filled with a mixture of composted organic matter, topsoil, and a surface grass) were established at Kentucky State University research farm (Franklin County, KY) to study the impact of this practice on reducing surface runoff water contamination by residues of dimethazone and trifluralin herbicides arising from an agricultural field. Biobed (biofilter) systems were installed at the bottom of the slope of specially designed runoff plots to examine herbicides retention and degradation before entering streams and rivers. In addition to biobed systems, three soil management practices: municipal sewage sludge (SS), SS mixed with yard waste compost (SS + YW), and no-mulch rototilled bare soil (NM used for comparison purposes) were used to monitor the impact of soil amendments on herbicide residues in soil following natural rainfall events. Organic amendments increased soil organic matter content and herbicide residues retained in soil following rainfall events. Biobeds installed in NM soil reduced dimethazone and trifluralin by 84 and 82%, respectively in runoff water that would have been transported down the land slope of agricultural fields and contaminated natural water resources. Biobeds installed in SS and SS+YW treatments reduced dimethazone by 65 and 46% and trifluralin by 52 and 79%, respectively. These findings indicated that biobeds are effective for treating dimethazone and trifluralin residues in runoff water.

  8. Health system reform and the role of field sites based upon demographic and health surveillance.

    PubMed Central

    Tollman, S. M.; Zwi, A. B.

    2000-01-01

    Field sites for demographic and health surveillance have made well-recognized contributions to the evaluation of new or untested interventions, largely through efficacy trials involving new technologies or the delivery of selected services, e.g. vaccines, oral rehydration therapy and alternative contraceptive methods. Their role in health system reform, whether national or international, has, however, proved considerably more limited. The present article explores the characteristics and defining features of such field sites in low-income and middle-income countries and argues that many currently active sites have a largely untapped potential for contributing substantially to national and subnational health development. Since the populations covered by these sites often correspond with the boundaries of districts or subdistricts, the strategic use of information generated by demographic surveillance can inform the decentralization efforts of national and provincial health authorities. Among the areas of particular importance are the following: making population-based information available and providing an information resource; evaluating programmes and interventions; and developing applications to policy and practice. The question is posed as to whether their potential contribution to health system reform justifies arguing for adaptations to these field sites and expanded investment in them. PMID:10686747

  9. Health hazards to children in agriculture.

    PubMed

    Wilk, V A

    1993-09-01

    Children comprise a significant portion of the agricultural workforce and are exposed to many workplace hazards, including farm machinery, pesticides, poor field sanitation, unsafe transportation, and fatigue from doing physically demanding work for long periods. Migrant farmworker children face the additional hazard of substandard or nonexistent housing in the fields. Children account for a disproportionate share of agricultural workplace fatalities and disabling injuries, with more than 300 deaths and 27,000 injuries per year. The most common cause of fatal and nonfatal injury among children in agriculture is farm machinery, with tractors accounting for the greatest number. Remedies to the problems of child labor must take into account family economics and the need for child care. Labor law reform and rigorous enforcement of existing laws and of workplace health and safety requirements are vital to better protect the children and adults working in agriculture.

  10. 7 CFR 600.6 - Field offices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Field offices. 600.6 Section 600.6 Agriculture... AGRICULTURE GENERAL ORGANIZATION § 600.6 Field offices. Each field office is under the direction and... served by the field office. Usually the geographical area of a field office includes one or more...

  11. Vadose Zone Nitrate Transport Dynamics Resulting from Agricultural Groundwater Banking

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Murphy, N. P.; McLaughlin, S.; Dahlke, H. E.

    2017-12-01

    In recent years, California's increased reliance on groundwater resources to meet agricultural and municipal demands has resulted in significant overdraft and water quality issues. Agricultural groundwater banking (AGB) has emerged as a promising groundwater replenishment opportunity in California; AGB is a form of managed aquifer recharge where farmland is flooded during the winter using excess surface water in order to recharge the underlying groundwater. Suitable farmland that is connected to water delivery systems is available for AGB throughout the Central Valley. However, questions remain how AGB could be implemented on fertilized agricultural fields such that nitrate leaching from the root zone is minimized. Here, we present results from field and soil column studies that investigate the transport dynamics of nitrogen in the root and deeper vadose zone during flooding events. We are specifically interested in estimating how timing and duration of flooding events affect percolation rates, leaching and nitrification/denitrification processes in three soil types within the Central Valley. Laboratory and field measurements include nitrogen (NO3-, NH4+, NO2-, N2O), redox potentials, total organic carbon, dissolved oxygen, moisture content and EC. Soil cores are collected in the field before and after recharge events up to a depth of 4m, while other sensors monitor field conditions continuously. Preliminary results from the three field sites show that significant portions of the applied floodwater (12-62 cm) infiltrated below the root zone: 96.1% (Delhi), 88.6% (Modesto) and 76.8% (Orland). Analysis of the soil cores indicate that 70% of the residual nitrate was flushed from the sandy soil, while the fine sandy loam showed only a 5% loss and in some cores even an increase in soil nitrate (in the upper 20cm). Column experiments support these trends and indicate that increases in soil nitrate in the upper root zone might be due to organic nitrogen mineralization and

  12. Conducting an agricultural life cycle assessment: challenges and perspectives.

    PubMed

    Caffrey, Kevin R; Veal, Matthew W

    2013-12-10

    Agriculture is a diverse field that produces a wide array of products vital to society. As global populations continue to grow the competition for natural resources will increase pressure on agricultural production of food, fiber, energy, and various high value by-products. With elevated concerns related to environmental impacts associated with the needs of a growing population, a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework can be used to determine areas of greatest impact and compare reduction strategies for agricultural production systems. The LCA methodology was originally developed for industrial operations but has been expanded to a wider range of fields including agriculture. There are various factors that increase the complexity of determining impacts associated with agricultural production including multiple products from a single system, regional and crop specific management techniques, temporal variations (seasonally and annually), spatial variations (multilocation production of end products), and the large quantity of nonpoint emission sources. The lack of consistent methodology of some impacts that are of major concern to agriculture (e.g., land use and water usage) increases the complexity of this analysis. This paper strives to review some of these issues and give perspective to the LCA practitioner in the field of agriculture.

  13. Carbon dynamics of contrasting agricultural practices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghee, Claire; Hallett, Paul; Neilson, Roy; Robinson, David; Paterson, Eric

    2013-04-01

    Application of organic amendments can improve soil quality and provide crop nutrients. To optimise these agricultural benefits from organic applications, the capacity of microbe-driven nutrient and carbon cycling must be understood and exploited. Consideration is therefore required of the complex interactions between the rhizosphere, microbial biomass and organic amendment. We hypothesise that the labile C present in root exudates of plants increases the mineralisation of organic matter in soil, constituting a mechanism to promote nutrient acquisition. This mechanism is known as the 'priming effect', but is poorly understood in the context of agricultural carbon and nutrient management. Field data from the Centre of Sustainable Cropping (CSC) research platform (Dundee, Scotland, UK) are utilised to build an understanding of soil C and N fluxes between contrasting agricultural practices. The field site uses a split-plot design to compare (i) compost amended soils with reduced tillage and chemical inputs and (ii) conventionally managed soils, reflective of current UK commercial arable practice. Significant differences (p= <0.001) were identified between compost amended and conventionally managed soils at field-scale with respect to soil microbial biomass (SMB), total organic carbon (TOC) and mineral nitrogen. Investigation into the priming effect within compost amended soils was subsequently undertaken under laboratory conditions. Stable isotope analysis and measurements of soil biotic parameters were used to quantify priming resulting from Spring Barley (Hordeum vulgare cv. Optic) cultivation for (i) unamended and (ii) municipal compost incorporated soils. Compost treatments comprised amendments of 25, 50 and 150 t/Ha and planted soils were compared with unplanted controls. Soil mesocosms were maintained under controlled environmental conditions within labelling chambers supplied continuously with 13C-depleted CO2. Throughout a 41-day incubation period, soil CO2

  14. Multi-site evaluation of APEX for crop and grazing land in the Heartland region of the US

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The Agricultural and Policy Environmental Extender (APEX) is capable of estimating edge-of-field water, nutrient, and sediment transport and is used to assess the environmental impacts of management practices. Current practice is to fully calibrate the model for each site simulation, which requires ...

  15. Evaluation of the leucine incorporation technique for detection of pollution-induced community tolerance to copper in a long-term agricultural field trial with urban waste fertilizers.

    PubMed

    Lekfeldt, Jonas Duus Stevens; Magid, Jakob; Holm, Peter E; Nybroe, Ole; Brandt, Kristian Koefoed

    2014-11-01

    Copper (Cu) is known to accumulate in agricultural soils receiving urban waste products as fertilizers. We here report the use of the leucine incorporation technique to determine pollution-induced community tolerance (Leu-PICT) to Cu in a long-term agricultural field trial. A significantly increased bacterial community tolerance to Cu was observed for soils amended with organic waste fertilizers and was positively correlated with total soil Cu. However, metal speciation and whole-cell bacterial biosensor analysis demonstrated that the observed PICT responses could be explained entirely by Cu speciation and bioavailability artifacts during Leu-PICT detection. Hence, the agricultural application of urban wastes (sewage sludge or composted municipal waste) simulating more than 100 years of use did not result in sufficient accumulation of Cu to select for Cu resistance. Our findings also have implications for previously published PICT field studies and demonstrate that stringent PICT detection criteria are needed for field identification of specific toxicants. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Meteorological and associated data collected over agricultural fields in Pinal County, Arizona, 1989 and 1990

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Owen-Joyce, Sandra J.; Brown, Paul W.

    1995-01-01

    Data were collected at temporary meteorological stations installed in agricultural fields in Pinal County, Arizona, to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability of point data and to examine how station location affects ground-based meteorological data and the resulting values of evapotranspiration calculated using remotely sensed multispectral data from satellites. Time-specific data were collected to correspond with satellite overpasses from April to October 1989, and June 27-28, 1990. Meteorological data consisting of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and net radiation were collected at each station during all periods of the project. Supplementary measurements of soil temperature, soil heat flux density, and surface or canopy temperature were obtained at some locations during certain periods of the project. Additional data include information on data-collection periods, station positions, instrumentation, sensor heights, and field dimensions. Other data, which correspond to the extensive field measurements made in con- junction with satellite overpasses in 1989 and 1990, include crop type, canopy cover, canopy height, irrigation, cultivation, and orientation of rows. Field boundaries and crop types were mapped in a 2- to 3-square-kilometer area surrounding each meteorological station. Field data are presented in tabular and graphic form. Meteorological and supplementary data are available, upon request, in digital form.

  17. Quantum mechanical calculation of electric fields and vibrational Stark shifts at active site of human aldose reductase

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Xianwei; State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, Institute of Theoretical and Computational Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062; Zhang, John Z. H.

    2015-11-14

    Recent advance in biophysics has made it possible to directly measure site-specific electric field at internal sites of proteins using molecular probes with C = O or C≡N groups in the context of vibrational Stark effect. These measurements directly probe changes of electric field at specific protein sites due to, e.g., mutation and are very useful in protein design. Computational simulation of the Stark effect based on force fields such as AMBER and OPLS, while providing good insight, shows large errors in comparison to experimental measurement due to inherent difficulties associated with point charge based representation of force fields. Inmore » this study, quantum mechanical calculation of protein’s internal electrostatic properties and vibrational Stark shifts was carried out by using electrostatically embedded generalized molecular fractionation with conjugate caps method. Quantum calculated change of mutation-induced electric field and vibrational Stark shift is reported at the internal probing site of enzyme human aldose reductase. The quantum result is in much better agreement with experimental data than those predicted by force fields, underscoring the deficiency of traditional point charge models describing intra-protein electrostatic properties.« less

  18. Determination of antenna factors using a three-antenna method at open-field test site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masuzawa, Hiroshi; Tejima, Teruo; Harima, Katsushige; Morikawa, Takao

    1992-09-01

    Recently NIST has used the three-antenna method for calibration of the antenna factor of an antenna used for EMI measurements. This method does not require the specially designed standard antennas which are necessary in the standard field method or the standard antenna method, and can be used at an open-field test site. This paper theoretically and experimentally examines the measurement errors of this method and evaluates the precision of the antenna-factor calibration. It is found that the main source of the error is the non-ideal propagation characteristics of the test site, which should therefore be measured before the calibration. The precision of the antenna-factor calibration at the test site used in these experiments, is estimated to be 0.5 dB.

  19. Semi-automated Approach to Mapping Sub-hectare Agricultural Fields using Very High Resolution Data in a High-Performance Computing Environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wooten, M.; Neigh, C. S. R.; Carroll, M.; McCarty, J. L.

    2017-12-01

    In areas susceptible to drought such as sub-Saharan Africa, Crop Area (CA) and agricultural mapping have become increasingly important as strain on natural ecosystems increases. In Ethiopia alone, the population has grown four-fold in the last 70 years, and rapidly growing human populations bring added stress to ecosystems as more wildlands are converted to pastures and subsistence agriculture. Monitoring change in agriculture is one of the more essential goals of famine early warning systems. However, due to the sub-hectare size of rainfed agricultural fields in regions such as Tigray, Ethiopia, moderate resolution satellite imagery is insufficient at capturing these smallholder farms. Thanks to the increasing density of observations and ease of access to very high resolution (VHR) data, we have developed a generalized method for mapping CA with VHR data and have used this to generate wall-to-wall CA map for the entire Tigray region and samples in Myanmar, Senegal, and Vietnam. Here we present the methodology and early results as well as potential future applications.

  20. A site-specific agricultural water requirement and footprint estimator (SPARE:WATER 1.0) for irrigation agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Multsch, S.; Al-Rumaikhani, Y. A.; Frede, H.-G.; Breuer, L.

    2013-01-01

    The water footprint accounting method addresses the quantification of water consumption in agriculture, whereby three types of water to grow crops are considered, namely green water (consumed rainfall), blue water (irrigation from surface or groundwater) and grey water (water needed to dilute pollutants). Most of current water footprint assessments focus on global to continental scale. We therefore developed the spatial decision support system SPARE:WATER that allows to quantify green, blue and grey water footprints on regional scale. SPARE:WATER is programmed in VB.NET, with geographic information system functionality implemented by the MapWinGIS library. Water requirement and water footprints are assessed on a grid-basis and can then be aggregated for spatial entities such as political boundaries, catchments or irrigation districts. We assume in-efficient irrigation methods rather than optimal conditions to account for irrigation methods with efficiencies other than 100%. Furthermore, grey water can be defined as the water to leach out salt from the rooting zone in order to maintain soil quality, an important management task in irrigation agriculture. Apart from a thorough representation of the modelling concept we provide a proof of concept where we assess the agricultural water footprint of Saudi Arabia. The entire water footprint is 17.0 km3 yr-1 for 2008 with a blue water dominance of 86%. Using SPARE:WATER we are able to delineate regional hot spots as well as crop types with large water footprints, e.g. sesame or dates. Results differ from previous studies of national-scale resolution, underlining the need for regional water footprint assessments.

  1. Kd Values for Agricultural and Surface Soils for Use in Hanford Site Farm, Residential, and River Shoreline Scenarios

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Serne, R. Jeffrey

    This report provides best estimate Kd values and a minimum and maximum range of Kd values to be used for agricultural soils and Columbia River bank sediments that exist today or would exist in the future when portions of the Hanford Site are released for farming, residential, and recreational use after the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) completes clean up of defense waste on the site. The Kd values should be used to determine the fate and transport rates of contaminants and their availability for plant and animal uptake in selected non-groundwater scenarios included in Hanford Site environmental impactmore » statements, risk assessments and specific facility performance assessments. This report describes scenarios such as a small farm where drilling of a well inadvertently goes through buried waste and brings waste to the surface, allowing the tailings to become available for direct human exposure or incorporation into garden crops and farm animals used for food by the farm family. The Kd values recommended in this report can also be used to calculate sediment-water partitioning factors used to predict plant and animal uptake from interaction with the contaminated soil.« less

  2. Soil microbial community response to land use change in an agricultural landscape of western Kenya.

    PubMed

    Bossio, D A; Girvan, M S; Verchot, L; Bullimore, J; Borelli, T; Albrecht, A; Scow, K M; Ball, A S; Pretty, J N; Osborn, A M

    2005-01-01

    Tropical agroecosystems are subject to degradation processes such as losses in soil carbon, nutrient depletion, and reduced water holding capacity that occur rapidly resulting in a reduction in soil fertility that can be difficult to reverse. In this research, a polyphasic methodology has been used to investigate changes in microbial community structure and function in a series of tropical soils in western Kenya. These soils have different land usage with both wooded and agricultural soils at Kakamega and Ochinga, whereas at Ochinga, Leuro, Teso, and Ugunja a replicated field experiment compared traditional continuous maize cropping against an improved N-fixing fallow system. For all sites, principal component analysis of 16S rRNA gene denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles revealed that soil type was the key determinant of total bacterial community structure, with secondary variation found between wooded and agricultural soils. Similarly, phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis also separated wooded from agricultural soils, primarily on the basis of higher abundance of monounsaturated fatty acids, anteiso- and iso-branched fatty acids, and methyl-branched fatty acids in the wooded soils. At Kakamega and Ochinga wooded soils had between five 5 and 10-fold higher levels of soil carbon and microbial biomass carbon than agricultural soils from the same location, whereas total enzyme activities were also lower in the agricultural sites. Soils with woody vegetation had a lower percentage of phosphatase activity and higher cellulase and chitinase activities than the agricultural soils. BIOLOG analysis showed woodland soils to have the greatest substrate diversity. Throughout the study the two functional indicators (enzyme activity and BIOLOG), however, showed lower specificity with respect to soil type and land usage than did the compositional indicators (DGGE and PLFA). In the field experiment comparing two types of maize cropping, both the maize yields

  3. Savannah River Site Experiences in In Situ Field Measurements of Radioactive Materials

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Moore, F.S.

    1999-10-07

    This paper discusses some of the field gamma-ray measurements made at the Savannah River Site, the equipment used for the measurements, and lessons learned during in situ identification and characterization of radioactive materials.

  4. Occurrence of maize detritus and a transgenic insecticidal protein (Cry1Ab) within the stream network of an agricultural landscape

    PubMed Central

    Tank, Jennifer L.; Rosi-Marshall, Emma J.; Royer, Todd V.; Whiles, Matt R.; Griffiths, Natalie A.; Frauendorf, Therese C.; Treering, David J.

    2010-01-01

    Widespread planting of maize throughout the agricultural Midwest may result in detritus entering adjacent stream ecosystems, and 63% of the 2009 US maize crop was genetically modified to express insecticidal Cry proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis. Six months after harvest, we conducted a synoptic survey of 217 stream sites in Indiana to determine the extent of maize detritus and presence of Cry1Ab protein in the stream network. We found that 86% of stream sites contained maize leaves, cobs, husks, and/or stalks in the active stream channel. We also detected Cry1Ab protein in stream-channel maize at 13% of sites and in the water column at 23% of sites. We found that 82% of stream sites were adjacent to maize fields, and Geographical Information Systems analyses indicated that 100% of sites containing Cry1Ab-positive detritus in the active stream channel had maize planted within 500 m during the previous crop year. Maize detritus likely enters streams throughout the Corn Belt; using US Department of Agriculture land cover data, we estimate that 91% of the 256,446 km of streams/rivers in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana are located within 500 m of a maize field. Maize detritus is common in low-gradient stream channels in northwestern Indiana, and Cry1Ab proteins persist in maize leaves and can be measured in the water column even 6 mo after harvest. Hence, maize detritus, and associated Cry1Ab proteins, are widely distributed and persistent in the headwater streams of a Corn Belt landscape. PMID:20876106

  5. Occurrence of maize detritus and a transgenic insecticidal protein (Cry1Ab) within the stream network of an agricultural landscape.

    PubMed

    Tank, Jennifer L; Rosi-Marshall, Emma J; Royer, Todd V; Whiles, Matt R; Griffiths, Natalie A; Frauendorf, Therese C; Treering, David J

    2010-10-12

    Widespread planting of maize throughout the agricultural Midwest may result in detritus entering adjacent stream ecosystems, and 63% of the 2009 US maize crop was genetically modified to express insecticidal Cry proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis. Six months after harvest, we conducted a synoptic survey of 217 stream sites in Indiana to determine the extent of maize detritus and presence of Cry1Ab protein in the stream network. We found that 86% of stream sites contained maize leaves, cobs, husks, and/or stalks in the active stream channel. We also detected Cry1Ab protein in stream-channel maize at 13% of sites and in the water column at 23% of sites. We found that 82% of stream sites were adjacent to maize fields, and Geographical Information Systems analyses indicated that 100% of sites containing Cry1Ab-positive detritus in the active stream channel had maize planted within 500 m during the previous crop year. Maize detritus likely enters streams throughout the Corn Belt; using US Department of Agriculture land cover data, we estimate that 91% of the 256,446 km of streams/rivers in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana are located within 500 m of a maize field. Maize detritus is common in low-gradient stream channels in northwestern Indiana, and Cry1Ab proteins persist in maize leaves and can be measured in the water column even 6 mo after harvest. Hence, maize detritus, and associated Cry1Ab proteins, are widely distributed and persistent in the headwater streams of a Corn Belt landscape.

  6. Analysis of copper tolerant rhizobacteria from the industrial belt of Gujarat, western India for plant growth promotion in metal polluted agriculture soils.

    PubMed

    Sharaff, Murali; Kamat, Shalmali; Archana, G

    2017-04-01

    Agricultural sites irrigated for long term with water polluted by industrial effluents containing heavy metals might adversely affect the soil microbial communities and crop yield. Hence it is important to study rhizobacterial communities and their metal tolerance in such affected agricultural fields to restore soil fertility and ecosystem. Present work deals with the study of rhizobacterial communities from plants grown in copper (Cu) contaminated agricultural fields along the industrial zone of Gujarat, India and are compared with communities from a Cu mine site. Microbial communities from rhizosphere soil samples varied in the magnitude of their Cu tolerance index indicating differences in long term pollution effects. Culture dependent denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (CD-DGGE) of bacterial communities revealed the diverse composition at the sampling sites and a reduced total diversity due to Cu toxicity. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene diversity of Cu tolerant rhizobacteria revealed the predominance of Enterobacter spp. and Pseudomonas spp. under Cu stress conditions. Cu tolerant bacterial isolates that were able to promote growth of mung bean plants in vitro under Cu stress were obtained from these samples. Cu tolerant rhizobacterium P36 identified as Enterobacter sp. exhibited multiple plant growth promoting traits and significantly alleviated Cu toxicity to mung bean plants by reducing the accumulation of Cu in plant roots and promoted the plant growth in CuSO 4 amended soils. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Mitigation of dimethazone residues in soil and runoff water from agricultural field.

    PubMed

    Antonious, George F

    2011-01-01

    Dimethazone, also known as clomazone [2-[(2-chlorophenyl) methyl]- 4,4-dimethyl-3-isoxaolidinone] is a pre-emergent nonionic herbicide commonly used in agriculture. A field study was conducted on a silty-loam soil of 10 % slope to monitor off-site movement and persistence of dimethazone in soil under three management practices. Eighteen plots of 22 x 3.7 m each were separated using stainless steel metal borders and the soil in six plots was mixed with municipal sewage sludge (MSS) and yard waste (YW) compost (MSS+YW) at 15 t acre⁻¹ on dry weight basis, six plots were mixed with MSS at 15 t acre⁻¹, and six unamended plots (NM) were used for comparison purposes. The objectives of this investigation were to: (i) monitor the dissipation and half-life (T₁/₂) of dimethazone in soil under three management practices; (ii) determine the concentration of dimethazone residues in runoff and infiltration water following natural rainfall events; and (iii) assess the impact of soil amendments on the transport of NO₃, NH₄, and P into surface and subsurface water. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometery (GC/MS) analyses of soil extracts indicated the presence of ion fragments at m/z 125 and 204 that can be used for identification of dimethazone residues. Intitial deposits of dimethazone varied from 1.3 μg g⁻¹ dry native soil to 3.2 and 11.8 μg g⁻¹ dry soil in MSS and MSS+YW amended soil, respectively. Decline of dimethazone residues in the top 15 cm native soil and soil incorporated with amendments revealed half-life (T₁/₂) values of 18.8, 25.1, and 43.0 days in MSS+YW, MSS, and NM treatments, respectively. Addition of MSS+YW mix and MSS alone to native soil increased water infiltration, lowering surface runoff water volume and dimethazone residues in runoff following natural rainfall events.

  8. Changes in soil oribatid communities associated with conversion from conventional to organic agriculture.

    PubMed

    Khalil, Mohamed A; Al-Assiuty, Abdel-Naieem I M; van Straalen, Nico M; Al-Assiuty, Basma A

    2016-02-01

    We investigated the effects of switching from conventional management to organic management on the abundance and community composition of soil-living oribatid mites in clover fields in an experimental agricultural station at Al-Fayoum, Egypt. The site had two adjacent fields with identical vegetation cover but different management. Fifteen random soil samples were collected monthly from each of three plots per field, from October to March. We characterized the soils with respect to various physicochemical variables as well as fungal community composition, and estimated mite densities through core sampling. Organic fields had a significantly more abundant oribatid community than did conventional fields. Also the abundance of soil fungi was greater in the organically managed field. Organic management promoted common oribatid mite species with a wide ecological amplitude that already had a high abundance where such common species are more responsive to changes in agricultural management. However, some species of mite responded indifferent or negative to the switch from conventional to organic management. Overall, the differences between the two ecological systems were mainly quantitative. Species diversities of both mite and fungal communities did not differ much between the two management systems. Diversity (H0) and equitability (E) of soil oribatid communities were higher in conventional plots than in the organic plots during the first 2 months but indistinguishable thereafter. Our study confirmed that organic management stimulates soilorganic matter build-up, with positive effects on both fungal and oribatid mite abundance and possible long-term effects on soil function.

  9. Residual effects of metal contamination on the soil quality: a field survey in central Portugal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kikuchi, Ryunosuke; Gerardo, Romeu

    2017-04-01

    Agriculture is an important source of income and employment. But depletion and degradation of land challenge to producing safe food and other agricultural products to sustain livelihoods and meet the needs of urban populations. When developing or expanding an agricultural area, it becomes essential to access the soil quality. Even if the present source of contamination is not observed, it is a worth subject to evaluate whether or not any negative effects of the post contamination still last. For this purpose, a field survey (2 ha) was carried: a zinc and lead mining site that was abandoned about 50 years ago was researched at Sanguinheiro (40°18'N and 8°21'W) in Central Portugal. The area is characterized by very steep slopes that are confining with a small stream. The obtained results show that (i) the Pb content in the site (165 mg/kg) is higher than that in the background (67.7 mg/kg); (ii) the Zn content of local vegetation (Eucalyptus globulus) in the post-mining site is 2.1 times that in the control site, and (iii) dead bare ground is observed in some parts of the site. There is a possibility that great amounts of Zn and Pb accumulate in tissues of local vegetation. Although mining activity ended 50 years ago, the contents of Pb and Zn in the sampled soil were comparatively high in the site with about a 75% slope. It is concluded that not only the present contamination but also the post-environmental stress should be assessed to properly develop an agricultural area in terms of securing agricultural products.

  10. To and From the Field: Communications and Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Development Communication Report, 1978

    1978-01-01

    Information on current research and projects, as well as general suggestions and conceptual material, is presented in 11 articles related to communication in rural areas of developing nations. These articles deal with (1) how information flows to small Nepalese farms; (2) an overview of communication in agricultural development projects, with…

  11. Site preference of alloying elements in DO22-Ni3V phase: Phase-field and first-principles study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Ding-Ni; Shangguan, Qian-Qian; Liu, Fu; Zhang, Ming-Yi

    2015-07-01

    Site preference of alloying elements in DO22-Ni3V phase was investigated using phase-field and first-principles method. The concentrations of alloying elements on sublattices of DO22-Ni3V phase were quantitatively studied using phase-field model based on microscopic diffusion equations. The phase-field computation results demonstrate that the concentration differences of alloying elements on the NiI and NiII site are attributed to the coordination environment difference. Host atoms Ni and substitutional ternary additions Al prefer to occupy NiI site. Antisite atoms V show site preference on the NiII site. Further reason of site preference of alloying elements on the two different Ni sites were studied using first-principles method to calculate the electronic structure of DO22-Ni3V phase. Calculation of density of states, orbitals population and charge population of the optimized Ni3V structure found that the electronic structures of NiI and NiII sites are different. Electronic structure difference, which is caused by coordination environment difference, is the essential reason for site selectivity behaviors of alloying elements on NiI and NiII sites.

  12. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    MCCOLLUM, EARL

    RAPID CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE REQUIRES THAT TODAY'S AGRICULTURALIST BE A WELL-EDUCATED ARTICULATE TECHNICIAN. COMMUNITY COLLEGES CAN CONTRIBUTE THEIR GREATEST INFLUENCE ON THE FUTURE OF OUR SOCIETY AND NATION BY OFFERING SPECIALIZED AGRICULTURAL TECHNICIAN TRAINING FOR BOTH THOSE ENTERING THE FIELD AND THOSE WISHING TO UPDATE THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND…

  13. SAR Agriculture Rice Production Estimation (SARPE)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raimadoya, M.

    2013-12-01

    The study of SAR Agriculture Rice Production Estimation (SARPE) was held in Indonesia on 2012, as part of Asia-Rice Crop Estimation & Monitoring (Asia-RiCE), which is a component for the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative. The study was expected to give a breakthrough result, by using radar technology and paradigm shift of the standard production estimation system from list frame to area frame approach. This initial product estimation system is expected to be refined (fine tuning) in 2013, by participating as part of Technical Demonstration Site (Phase -1A) of Asia-RICE. The implementation period of this initial study was from the date of March 12 to December 10, 2012. The implementation of the study was done by following the approach of the BIMAS-21 framework, which has been developed since 2008. The results of this study can be briefly divided into two major components, namely: Rice-field Baseline Mapping (PESBAK - Peta Sawah Baku) and Crop Growth Monitoring. Rice-fields were derived from the mapping results of the Ministry of Agriculture (Kemtan), and validated through Student Extension Campaign of the Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB). While for the crop growth, it was derived from the results of image analysis process. The analysis was done, either on radar/Radarsat-2 (medium resolution) or optical/ MODIS (low resolution), based on the Planting Calendar (KATAM) of Kemtan. In this case, the planting season II/2012-2013 of rice production centers in West Java Province (Karawang, Subang and Indramayu counties). The selection of crop season and county were entirely dependent on the quality of the available PESBAK and procurement process of radar imagery. The PESBAK is still in the form of block instead of fields, so it can not be directly utilized in this study. Efforts to improve the PESBAK can not be optimal because the provided satellite image (ECW format) is not the original one. While the procurement process of

  14. [Landscape planning approaches for biodiversity conservation in agriculture].

    PubMed

    Liu, Yun-hui; Li, Liang-tao; Yu, Zhen-rong

    2008-11-01

    Biodiversity conservation in agriculture not only relates to the sustainable development of agriculture, but also is an essential part of species conservation. In recent years, the landscape planning approach for biodiversity was highlighted instead of species-focused approach. In this paper, the landscape factors affecting the biodiversity in agriculture were reviewed, and the possible landscape approaches at three different scales for more efficient conservation of biodiversity in agro-landscape were suggested, including: (1) the increase of the proportion of natural or semi-natural habitats in agriculture, diversification of land use or crop pattern, and protection or construction of corridor at landscape level; (2) the establishment of non-cropping elements such as field margin at between-field level; and (3) the application of reasonable crop density, crop distribution pattern and rotation, and intercrop etc. at within-field level. It was suggested that the relevant policies for natural conservation, land use planning, and ecological compensation should be made to apply the landscape approaches for biodiversity conservation at larger scale.

  15. Conducting an Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment: Challenges and Perspectives

    PubMed Central

    Caffrey, Kevin R.; Veal, Matthew W.

    2013-01-01

    Agriculture is a diverse field that produces a wide array of products vital to society. As global populations continue to grow the competition for natural resources will increase pressure on agricultural production of food, fiber, energy, and various high value by-products. With elevated concerns related to environmental impacts associated with the needs of a growing population, a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework can be used to determine areas of greatest impact and compare reduction strategies for agricultural production systems. The LCA methodology was originally developed for industrial operations but has been expanded to a wider range of fields including agriculture. There are various factors that increase the complexity of determining impacts associated with agricultural production including multiple products from a single system, regional and crop specific management techniques, temporal variations (seasonally and annually), spatial variations (multilocation production of end products), and the large quantity of nonpoint emission sources. The lack of consistent methodology of some impacts that are of major concern to agriculture (e.g., land use and water usage) increases the complexity of this analysis. This paper strives to review some of these issues and give perspective to the LCA practitioner in the field of agriculture. PMID:24391463

  16. Soil dioxins levels at agriculture sites and natural preserve areas of Taiwan.

    PubMed

    Jou, Jin-juh; Lin, Kae-Long; Chung, Jen-Chir; Liaw, Shu-Liang

    2007-08-17

    In this study, agriculture soil in Taiwan has been sampled and analyzed to determine the background level of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/DF) in the agricultural and nature preserve areas. Another objective is to investigate relationship between soil characteristics and air deposition in Taiwan. The results indicate that in nature preserve areas the topsoil shows an extraordinary profile of PCDD/DF compared to that in the air deposition. The PCDD/DF levels of the low-contaminated agricultural soils are compatible with those of the nature preserves soils. However, in the highly-contaminated agricultural soils, there is an abrupt jump in their concentrations, 10-100 times higher. The overall I-TEQ values of the background topsoils range from 0.101 to 15.2 ng I-TEQ/kg. Near industrial/urban areas in Taiwan the PCDD/DF are slightly higher compared to those in the low concentration group. Typically, the PCDD/DF background values found in this survey fall in the 90% confidence interval and can thus, be deemed the background levels in Taiwan. Ninety-five percent of these data are below the European and American soil standard of 10 ng I-TEQ/kg d.w. The PCDD/DF profile with one neighborhood soil sample was shown no significant difference.

  17. Effects of agricultural runoff on native amphibians in the Lower Fraser River Valley, British Columbia, Canada.

    PubMed

    de, SollaShaneR; Pettit, Karen E; Bishop, Christine A; Cheng, Kimberly M; Elliott, John E

    2002-02-01

    Hatching success, deformity rates, and survivorship of northern red-legged frogs (Rana aurora) and northwestern salamanders (Ambystoma gracile) were assessed at three agricultural and three reference sites in the Sumas Prairie, British Columbia, Canada. In 1997 and 1998, eggs of both species and eggs of R. aurora, respectively, were placed in Nytex mesh cages (Irwindale, CA, USA) in roadside ditches at each site. Concurrently in 1997, eggs of R. aurora were reared in the laboratory but were exposed to water samples from each of the study sites. Hatching success was significantly lower at all agricultural sites compared to the reference sites for both species. However, no differences were observed in hatching success among sites for eggs of R. aurora reared in the laboratory. Water chemistry differed among all sites, but the largest differences were between reference and agricultural sites. Ammonia (maximum of 1.27 mg/L), total phosphate (maximum of 8.14 mg/L), and biological oxygen demand (maximum of 79.00 mg/L) were high at some of the agricultural sites during the development period. Results suggest that agricultural runoff may contribute to lower reproductive success and ultimately to reduced population viability of amphibian populations in the Lower Fraser Valley (BC, Canada).

  18. The Swedish Research Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science - SITES

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lindroth, A.; Ahlström, M.; Augner, M.; Erefur, C.; Jansson, G.; Steen Jensen, E.; Klemedtsson, L.; Langenheder, S.; Rosqvist, G. N.; Viklund, J.

    2017-12-01

    The vision of SITES is to promote long-term field-based ecosystem research at a world class level by offering an infrastructure with excellent technical and scientific support and services attracting both national and international researchers. In addition, SITES will make data freely and easily available through an advanced data portal which will add value to the research. During the first funding period, three innovative joint integrating facilities were established through a researcher-driven procedure: SITES Water, SITES Spectral, and SITES AquaNet. These new facilities make it possible to study terrestrial and limnic ecosystem processes across a range of ecosystem types and climatic gradients, with common protocols and similar equipment. In addition, user-driven development at the nine individual stations has resulted in e.g. design of a long-term agricultural systems experiment, and installation of weather stations, flux systems, etc. at various stations. SITES, with its integrative approach and broad coverage of climate and ecosystem types across Sweden, constitutes an excellent platform for state-of-the-art research projects. SITES' support the development of: A better understanding of the way in which key ecosystems function and interact with each other at the landscape level and with the climate system in terms of mass and energy exchanges. A better understanding of the role of different organisms in controlling different processes and ultimately the functioning of ecosystems. New strategies for forest management to better meet the many and varied requirements from nature conservation, climate and wood, fibre, and energy supply points of view. Agricultural systems that better utilize resources and minimize adverse impacts on the environment. Collaboration with other similar infrastructures and networks is a high priority for SITES. This will enable us to make use of each others' experiences, harmonize metadata for easier exchange of data, and support each

  19. Field-Scale Soil Moisture Observations in Irrigated Agriculture Fields Using the Cosmic-ray Neutron Rover

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Franz, T. E.; Avery, W. A.; Finkenbiner, C. E.; Wang, T.; Brocca, L.

    2014-12-01

    Approximately 40% of global food production comes from irrigated agriculture. With the increasing demand for food even greater pressures will be placed on water resources within these systems. In this work we aimed to characterize the spatial and temporal patterns of soil moisture at the field-scale (~500 m) using the newly developed cosmic-ray neutron rover near Waco, NE. Here we mapped soil moisture of 144 quarter section fields (a mix of maize, soybean, and natural areas) each week during the 2014 growing season (May to September). The 11 x11 km study domain also contained 3 stationary cosmic-ray neutron probes for independent validation of the rover surveys. Basic statistical analysis of the domain indicated a strong inverted parabolic relationship between the mean and variance of soil moisture. The relationship between the mean and higher order moments were not as strong. Geostatistical analysis indicated the range of the soil moisture semi-variogram was significantly shorter during periods of heavy irrigation as compared to non-irrigated periods. Scaling analysis indicated strong power law behavior between the variance of soil moisture and averaging area with minimal dependence of mean soil moisture on the slope of the power law function. Statistical relationships derived from the rover dataset offer a novel set of observations that will be useful in: 1) calibrating and validating land surface models, 2) calibrating and validating crop models, 3) soil moisture covariance estimates for statistical downscaling of remote sensing products such as SMOS and SMAP, and 4) provide center-pivot scale mean soil moisture data for optimal irrigation timing and volume amounts.

  20. The Influence of Soil Displacement in Bavarian Agricultural Landscapes on the Land-Atmosphere Exchange of Greenhouse Gases.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smidt, J.; Schmid, H. P. E.

    2016-12-01

    The terrestrial biosphere represents the world's second-largest stock of carbon, after the oceans, estimated to be 2300 Gt carbon with 1500 Gt of organic carbon (Kirkels et al., 2014). In agricultural landscapes, erosion and deposition caused by tillage and subsequent heavy precipitation redistribute large amounts of soil and therefore carbon (Van Oost et al., 2007). Erosion rates in areas of agricultural production are 1-2 magnitudes larger than in areas covered with native vegetation (Montgomery, 2007). Landscapes in the German state of Bavaria have been used for agricultural production for thousands of years. Within the framework of the project "Bavarian Landscapes Under Climate Change," a multi-method approach is taken. At two distinct watersheds in Bavaria, we attempt to quantify the effect of soil displacement on the fluxes of CO2, N2O and CH4 using continuous eddy covariance (EC) data, small manual gas chamber measurements and a soil laboratory incubation experiment designed to simulate an erosion event. The pre-alpine site of Rottenbuch, part of the TERENO network, is located at 690 masl and characterized by molasses and carbonic/dolomitic fluvioglacial sediments. The Otterbach site, part of the Bavarian Forest, lies at 350 masl and is dominated by granite and gneiss rock. The sites have an annual precipitation of 1200 and 700 mm, respectively. In Rottenbuch, the downslope area is managed grassland and the upslope area is grazed part of the year. In Otterbach, the downslope field is organic grassland, and the upslope area is used for agricultural production. There is a standard EC station at each site, as well as automatic chambers (Rottenbuch) and manual chambers (Otterbach). The data collected will be used to calibrate, run and verify numerical models to ascertain the sensitivity of the fluxes to biological, biochemical and physical processes and ultimately bring light to the question of agricultural landscapes as sinks or sources of greenhouse gases.

  1. THE USE OF CHEMICALS IN THE FIELD OF FARM ANIMAL HEALTH (NUTRITION, ENTOMOLOGY, PATHOLOGY). AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS TECHNOLOGY, NUMBER 7.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center for Vocational and Technical Education.

    DEVELOPED BY A NATIONAL TASK FORCE ON THE BASIS OF STATE STUDIES, THIS MODULE IS ONE OF A SERIES DESIGNED TO ASSIST TEACHERS IN PREPARING POST-SECONDARY STUDENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL OCCUPATIONS. THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THIS MODULE IS TO PREPARE TECHNICIANS IN THE FIELD OF THE USE OF CHEMICALS FOR ANIMAL HEALTH. SECTIONS INCLUDE -- (1)…

  2. Rocky Mountain snowpack physical and chemical data for selected sites, 2009

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ingersoll, George P.; Mast, M. Alisa; Swank, James M.; Campbell, Chelsea D.

    2010-01-01

    The Rocky Mountain Snowpack program established a network of snowpack-sampling sites in the Rocky Mountain region from New Mexico to Montana to monitor the chemical content of snow and to understand the effects of regional atmospheric deposition. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service; the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service; the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Teton County, Wyoming; and others, collected and analyzed snowpack samples annually for 48 or more sites in the Rocky Mountain region during 1993-2009. Sixty-three snowpack-sampling sites were sampled once each in 2009 and data are presented in this report. Data include acid-neutralization capacity, specific conductance, pH, hydrogen ion concentrations, dissolved concentrations of major constituents (calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, ammonium, chloride, sulfate, and nitrate), dissolved organic carbon concentrations, snow-water equivalent, snow depth, total mercury concentrations, and ionic charge balance. Quality-assurance data for field and laboratory blanks and field replicates for 2009 also are included.

  3. Field tracer investigation of unsaturated zone flow paths and mechanisms in agricultural soils of northwestern Mississippi, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Perkins, K.S.; Nimmo, J.R.; Rose, C.E.; Coupe, R.H.

    2011-01-01

    In many farmed areas, intensive application of agricultural chemicals and withdrawal of groundwater for irrigation have led to water quality and supply issues. Unsaturated-zone processes, including preferential flow, play a major role in these effects but are not well understood. In the Bogue Phalia basin, an intensely agricultural area in the Delta region of northwestern Mississippi, the fine-textured soils often exhibit surface ponding and runoff after irrigation and rainfall as well as extensive surface cracking during prolonged dry periods. Fields are typically land-formed to promote surface flow into drainage ditches and streams that feed into larger river ecosystems. Downward flow of water below the root zone is considered minimal; regional groundwater models predict only 5% or less of precipitation recharges the heavily used alluvial aquifer. In this study transport mechanisms within and below the root zone of a fallow soybean field were assessed by performing a 2-m ring infiltration test with tracers and subsurface monitoring instruments. Seven months after tracer application, 48 continuous cores were collected for tracer extraction to define the extent of water movement and quantify preferential flow using a mass-balance approach. Vertical water movement was rapid below the pond indicating the importance of vertical preferential flow paths in the shallow unsaturated zone, especially to depths where agricultural disturbance occurs. Lateral flow of water at shallow depths was extensive and spatially non-uniform, reaching up to 10. m from the pond within 2. months. Within 1. month, the wetting front reached a textural boundary at 4-5. m between the fine-textured soil and sandy alluvium, now a potential capillary barrier which, prior to extensive irrigation withdrawals, was below the water table. Within 10. weeks, tracer was detectable at the water table which is presently about 12. m below land surface. Results indicate that 43% of percolation may be through

  4. Measurement of gas and aerosol agricultural emissions

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Studies of air quality indicate that agricultural emissions may impact particulate mass concentrations through both primary and secondary processes. Agriculture impacts can include primary dust emission, on-facility combustion from vehicles or seasonal field burning, and gaseous emissions from waste...

  5. Multi-site evaluation of APEX for crop and grazing land in the Heartland region of the US

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The Agricultural and Policy Environmental Extender (APEX) is powerful and useful to estimate the edge-of-field impacts of management practices. A drawback is that it needs to be calibrated for each site, which requires resources and data. The objective of this study was to compare annual model perfo...

  6. A Guide to Field Trip Sites in Coastal North Carolina. Project CAPE Teaching Module SC3a.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carroll, Walter B.; Carroll, Carolyn H.

    This guide provides information on preparing students in grades 4-10 for field trips and describes possible field trip sites in the northeastern, mid-eastern, and southeastern regions of North Carolina. Selected sites in the northeastern region (from Roanoke Island to Ocracoke) include the Dare Coastline and Cape Hatteras National Seashore.…

  7. Self-potential monitoring of water flux at the HOBE agricultural site, Voulund, Denmark

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jougnot, D.; Linde, N.; Looms, M. C.

    2013-12-01

    The self-potential (SP) method is of interest in hydrology and environmental sciences because of its non-invasive nature and its sensitivity to flow and transport processes in the subsurface. The contribution to the SP signal by water flux is referred to as the streaming potential and is due to the presence of an electrical double layer at the mineral-pore water interface. When water flows through the pore, it gives rise to a streaming current and a resulting measurable electrical voltage between non-polarizable electrodes placed at different locations. This electrokinetic behavior is well understood in water saturated porous media, but the best way to model streaming currents under partial saturation is still under discussion. To better understand SP data within the vadose zone, we conducted field-based monitoring of the vertical distribution of the SP signal following different hydrologic events. The investigations were carried out at the Voulund agricultural test site that is part of the Danish hydrological observatory, HOBE, located in the Skjern river catchment (Denmark) in the middle of a cultivated area. It has been instrumented since 2010 to monitor suction, water content and temperature down to a depth of 3 m, together with meteorological variables and repeated geophysical campaigns (cross borehole electrical resistivity tomography and ground penetrating radar). In July 2011, we installed 15 non-polarizable electrodes at 10 depths within the vadose zone (from 0.25 to 3.10 m) and a reference electrode below the water table (7.30 m). More than 2 years of data acquired at a measurement period of 5 minutes are now available with periods indicative of various hydrologic events, such as natural infiltration, water table rises and a high salinity tracer test. We performed wavelet-based signal analysis and investigated the wavelet coherency of the SP data with other measurement variables. The wavelet coherency analysis displays an anti-correlation between SP and

  8. Training for Agriculture: Annual Review of Selected Developments.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome (Italy).

    This review is a medium for dissemination of information and views on agricultural education and training, extension, and related subjects to the member governments and field workers of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The document consists of more than two dozen articles and comments on agricultural education,…

  9. Progress and needs in agricultural research, development, and applications programs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moore, D. G.; Myers, V. I.

    1977-01-01

    The dynamic nature of agriculture requires repetitive resource assessments such as those from remote sensing. Until recently, the use of remote sensing in agriculture has been limited primarily to site specific investigations without large-scale evaluations. Examples of successful applications at various user levels are provided. The stage of development for applying remote sensing to many agricultural problems is assessed, and goals for planning future data characteristics for increased use in agriculture are suggested.

  10. Field size, length, and width distributions based on LACIE ground truth data. [large area crop inventory experiment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pitts, D. E.; Badhwar, G.

    1980-01-01

    The development of agricultural remote sensing systems requires knowledge of agricultural field size distributions so that the sensors, sampling frames, image interpretation schemes, registration systems, and classification systems can be properly designed. Malila et al. (1976) studied the field size distribution for wheat and all other crops in two Kansas LACIE (Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment) intensive test sites using ground observations of the crops and measurements of their field areas based on current year rectified aerial photomaps. The field area and size distributions reported in the present investigation are derived from a representative subset of a stratified random sample of LACIE sample segments. In contrast to previous work, the obtained results indicate that most field-size distributions are not log-normally distributed. The most common field size observed in this study was 10 acres for most crops studied.

  11. Resilience at the Transition to Agriculture: The Long-Term Landscape and Resource Development at the Aceramic Neolithic Tell Site of Chogha Golan (Iran).

    PubMed

    Riehl, S; Asouti, E; Karakaya, D; Starkovich, B M; Zeidi, M; Conard, N J

    2015-01-01

    The evidence for the slow development from gathering and cultivation of wild species to the use of domesticates in the Near East, deriving from a number of Epipalaeolithic and aceramic Neolithic sites with short occupational stratigraphies, cannot explain the reasons for the protracted development of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. The botanical and faunal remains from the long stratigraphic sequence of Chogha Golan, indicate local changes in environmental conditions and subsistence practices that characterize a site-specific pathway into emerging agriculture. Our multidisciplinary approach demonstrates a long-term subsistence strategy of several hundred years on wild cereals and pulses as well as on hunting a variety of faunal species that were based on relatively favorable and stable environmental conditions. Fluctuations in the availability of resources after around 10.200 cal BP may have been caused by small-scale climatic fluctuations. The temporary depletion of resources was managed through a shift to other species which required minor technological changes to make these resources accessible and by intensification of barley cultivation which approached its domestication. After roughly 200 years, emmer domestication is apparent, accompanied by higher contribution of cattle in the diet, suggesting long-term intensification of resource management.

  12. Dental caries prevalence as a product of agriculture and subsistence pattern at the Yean-ri site, South Korea.

    PubMed

    Fujita, H; Hashimoto, H; Shoda, S; Suzuki, T

    2011-01-01

    Yean-ri human skeletal remains from South Korea have been dated to the fourth to seventh century AD. They have morphological similarities to immigrants of the Yayoi period excavated in northern Kyushu and Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan. The overall dental caries prevalence was 8.1% in the Yean-ri skeletal remains, indicating a much lower prevalence than that of most Yayoi immigrant skeletal remains from Japan, although similar to that of the Kofun people (8.3%) in Japan. There was no significant difference in the dental caries prevalence between the males and females of the same age group, but there were differences in the prevalence by age. The late middle age and elderly males and females had significantly higher dental caries prevalence than the early middle age males and females, indicating increased prevalence with age. Root caries prevalence tended to increase in old age. The percentage of root caries increased, accounting for 80% of all caries in Yean-ri human skeletal remains. Agriculture is believed to have arisen approximately 3,000 years ago in Korea. Therefore, agriculture was practiced during this period, but since the Yean-ri tumuli are from coastal areas, their diet may have retained a significant marine component. Additionally, caries prevalence was not very high in Nukdo human remains (ca. 2100-2000 BC) in Korea. We speculate that they maintained subsistence activities suitable for their environment despite their knowledge of agriculture. This hypothesis is supported by differences in the caries prevalence between excavation sites of the Yayoi and Kofun periods in Japan. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  13. Analysis of field size distributions, LACIE test sites 5029, 5033, and 5039, Anhwei Province, People's Republic of China

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Podwysocki, M. H.

    1976-01-01

    A study was made of the field size distributions for LACIE test sites 5029, 5033, and 5039, People's Republic of China. Field lengths and widths were measured from LANDSAT imagery, and field area was statistically modeled. Field size parameters have log-normal or Poisson frequency distributions. These were normalized to the Gaussian distribution and theoretical population curves were made. When compared to fields in other areas of the same country measured in the previous study, field lengths and widths in the three LACIE test sites were 2 to 3 times smaller and areas were smaller by an order of magnitude.

  14. Methylmercury production in sediment from agricultural and non-agricultural wetlands in the Yolo Bypass, California, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Agee, Jennifer L.; Kakouros, Evangelos; Kieu, Le H.; Fleck, Jacob A.; Alpers, Charles N.; Stricker, Craig A.

    2014-01-01

    As part of a larger study of mercury (Hg) biogeochemistry and bioaccumulation in agricultural (rice growing) and non-agricultural wetlands in California's Central Valley, USA, seasonal and spatial controls on methylmercury (MeHg) production were examined in surface sediment. Three types of shallowly-flooded agricultural wetlands (white rice, wild rice, and fallow fields) and two types of managed (non-agricultural) wetlands (permanently and seasonally flooded) were sampled monthly-to-seasonally. Dynamic seasonal changes in readily reducible ‘reactive’ mercury (Hg(II)R), Hg(II)-methylation rate constants (kmeth), and concentrations of electron acceptors (sulfate and ferric iron) and donors (acetate), were all observed in response to field management hydrology, whereas seasonal changes in these parameters were more muted in non-agricultural managed wetlands. Agricultural wetlands exhibited higher sediment MeHg concentrations than did non-agricultural wetlands, particularly during the fall through late-winter (post-harvest) period. Both sulfate- and iron-reducing bacteria have been implicated in MeHg production, and both were demonstrably active in all wetlands studied. Stoichiometric calculations suggest that iron-reducing bacteria dominated carbon flow in agricultural wetlands during the growing season. Sulfate-reducing bacteria were not stimulated by the addition of sulfate-based fertilizer to agricultural wetlands during the growing season, suggesting that labile organic matter, rather than sulfate, limited their activity in these wetlands. Along the continuum of sediment geochemical conditions observed, values of kmeth increased approximately 10,000-fold, whereas Hg(II)R decreased 100-fold. This suggests that, with respect to the often opposing trends of Hg(II)-methylating microbial activity and Hg(II) availability for methylation, microbial activity dominated the Hg(II)-methylation process, and that along this biogeochemical continuum, conditions that favored

  15. Methylmercury production in sediment from agricultural and non-agricultural wetlands in the Yolo Bypass, California, USA.

    PubMed

    Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Agee, Jennifer L; Kakouros, Evangelos; Kieu, Le H; Fleck, Jacob A; Alpers, Charles N; Stricker, Craig A

    2014-06-15

    As part of a larger study of mercury (Hg) biogeochemistry and bioaccumulation in agricultural (rice growing) and non-agricultural wetlands in California's Central Valley, USA, seasonal and spatial controls on methylmercury (MeHg) production were examined in surface sediment. Three types of shallowly-flooded agricultural wetlands (white rice, wild rice, and fallow fields) and two types of managed (non-agricultural) wetlands (permanently and seasonally flooded) were sampled monthly-to-seasonally. Dynamic seasonal changes in readily reducible 'reactive' mercury (Hg(II)R), Hg(II)-methylation rate constants (kmeth), and concentrations of electron acceptors (sulfate and ferric iron) and donors (acetate), were all observed in response to field management hydrology, whereas seasonal changes in these parameters were more muted in non-agricultural managed wetlands. Agricultural wetlands exhibited higher sediment MeHg concentrations than did non-agricultural wetlands, particularly during the fall through late-winter (post-harvest) period. Both sulfate- and iron-reducing bacteria have been implicated in MeHg production, and both were demonstrably active in all wetlands studied. Stoichiometric calculations suggest that iron-reducing bacteria dominated carbon flow in agricultural wetlands during the growing season. Sulfate-reducing bacteria were not stimulated by the addition of sulfate-based fertilizer to agricultural wetlands during the growing season, suggesting that labile organic matter, rather than sulfate, limited their activity in these wetlands. Along the continuum of sediment geochemical conditions observed, values of kmeth increased approximately 10,000-fold, whereas Hg(II)R decreased 100-fold. This suggests that, with respect to the often opposing trends of Hg(II)-methylating microbial activity and Hg(II) availability for methylation, microbial activity dominated the Hg(II)-methylation process, and that along this biogeochemical continuum, conditions that favored

  16. The effect of changes in agricultural practices on the density of Dermacentor reticulatus ticks.

    PubMed

    Mierzejewska, Ewa J; Alsarraf, Mohammed; Behnke, Jerzy M; Bajer, Anna

    2015-07-30

    The impact of agricultural practices/ activities on the environment has been falling in many areas of Europe due to the widespread exodus of inhabitants from rural areas. The associated abandonment of agricultural lands has enabled a wide range of wild animals to prosper in the countryside, including birds, ungulates and large carnivores. One consequence has been the increase in ticks and associated tick-borne diseases which now constitute a greater threat for public health than earlier. The aim of the present study was to compare tick densities in different habitats (pasture, meadow, fallow land, post-fire areas) to assess the impact of different agricultural practices on tick densities in vicinities close to human habitation. Between September 2011 and June 2014, 2985 Dermacentor reticulatus ticks were collected by conventional dragging, in the Mazowieckie (Mazovia) and Warmińsko-Mazurskie (Masuria) regions of Poland. In each region, 3 study sites were selected, each situated near surface water sources (i.e., ponds or canals). At each site, three neighboring habitats of surface area 150-600 m(2) were dragged: one on a cattle/horse pasture; the second on meadow; the third on fallow land (abandoned field or meadow), at least twice during each spring and autumn. Additionally, four post-fire areas (one in 2013 and three in 2014) were identified in the Mazowieckie region, and dragging was conducted there in spring and autumn, including in each case a 'control area' comprising intact unburned fallow land situated in close vicinity to the burned areas. Eight hundred D. reticulatus ticks were collected and the densities were compared by multifactorial ANOVA. The highest tick densities were recorded on the fallow lands, and the lowest - on the grazed pastures. Tick densities were up to 10 × times higher on the control sites compared to neighboring post-fire sites. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Agricultural and Management Practices and Bacterial Contamination in Greenhouse versus Open Field Lettuce Production

    PubMed Central

    Holvoet, Kevin; Sampers, Imca; Seynnaeve, Marleen; Jacxsens, Liesbeth; Uyttendaele, Mieke

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to gain insight into potential differences in risk factors for microbial contamination in greenhouse versus open field lettuce production. Information was collected on sources, testing, and monitoring and if applicable, treatment of irrigation and harvest rinsing water. These data were combined with results of analysis on the levels of Escherichia coli as a fecal indicator organism and the presence of enteric bacterial pathogens on both lettuce crops and environmental samples. Enterohemorragic Escherichia coli (EHEC) PCR signals (vt1 or vt2 positive and eae positive), Campylobacter spp., and Salmonella spp. isolates were more often obtained from irrigation water sampled from open field farms (21/45, 46.7%) versus from greenhouse production (9/75, 12.0%). The open field production was shown to be more prone to fecal contamination as the number of lettuce samples and irrigation water with elevated E. coli was significantly higher. Farmers comply with generic guidelines on good agricultural practices available at the national level, but monitoring of microbial quality, and if applicable appropriateness of water treatment, or water used for irrigation or at harvest is restricted. These results indicate the need for further elaboration of specific guidelines and control measures for leafy greens with regard to microbial hazards. PMID:25546272

  18. Agricultural and management practices and bacterial contamination in greenhouse versus open field lettuce production.

    PubMed

    Holvoet, Kevin; Sampers, Imca; Seynnaeve, Marleen; Jacxsens, Liesbeth; Uyttendaele, Mieke

    2014-12-23

    The aim of this study was to gain insight into potential differences in risk factors for microbial contamination in greenhouse versus open field lettuce production. Information was collected on sources, testing, and monitoring and if applicable, treatment of irrigation and harvest rinsing water. These data were combined with results of analysis on the levels of Escherichia coli as a fecal indicator organism and the presence of enteric bacterial pathogens on both lettuce crops and environmental samples. Enterohemorragic Escherichia coli (EHEC) PCR signals (vt1 or vt2 positive and eae positive), Campylobacter spp., and Salmonella spp. isolates were more often obtained from irrigation water sampled from open field farms (21/45, 46.7%) versus from greenhouse production (9/75, 12.0%). The open field production was shown to be more prone to fecal contamination as the number of lettuce samples and irrigation water with elevated E. coli was significantly higher. Farmers comply with generic guidelines on good agricultural practices available at the national level, but monitoring of microbial quality, and if applicable appropriateness of water treatment, or water used for irrigation or at harvest is restricted. These results indicate the need for further elaboration of specific guidelines and control measures for leafy greens with regard to microbial hazards.

  19. Farmers' perception of the role of some wild plants for the predatory coccinellidae (Adalia bipunctata L and Coccinella septempunctata L) in developing refugia in the agricultural field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yanuwiadi, Bagyo

    2017-11-01

    The decreases in plant and animal diversity in intensive agricultural practice have been caused by the application of new and very broad-spectrum pesticides. This situation motivated some researchers to observe the attractiveness of wild plants for some predatory Coccinellids. This was done with a view to improving the agricultural ecosystem. Previous research results showed that Blumea sp. (L), Tagetes erecta L. and Bidens pilosa L. could attract predatory Coccinellidae: Adalia bipunctata L. and Coccinella septempunctata L. But, unfortunately, there were no research results showing how farmers accepted those related new improved strategies for controlling pests. The research was conducted to analyze what they felt about introducing the function of wild plants for attracting beneficial arthropods. To this end, 60 farmers were selected purposively as respondents in the south of Malang and interviewed in depth with the main question focusing on their knowledge of the general function of wild plants in agriculture. Then, more specifically, they were asked about the role of wild plants in the agricultural field for attracting these beneficial arthropods. Their answers were grouped into the following categories: they don't know, they know a little, they know enough, they know a lot about the general function of wild plants in general and more specifically as attractants for some beneficial arthropods. The results showed that the majority of farmers know only a little about the function of wild plants in general. None of the farmers realized that wild plants can be used as ground-covering plants. Most of them knew only about the use of wild plants for cattle feed. The majority of them did not know that some of the wild plants that can be found in their agricultural fields can be used as attractants in looking for beneficial arthropods. Farmers, as the frontier in the agricultural field, must become knowledgeable about the specific use of the wild plants in their fields

  20. Comparing regeneration techniques for afforesting previously farmed bottomland hardwood sites in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA

    Treesearch

    Brian Roy Lockhart; Bob Keeland; John McCoy; Thomas J. Dean

    2003-01-01

    A study was implemented to test site preparation methods and artificial regeneration of three oak (Quercus spp.) species on four agricultural fields in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley in Louisiana, USA. Six years after establishment, few consistent differences were found in oak density between sowing acorn methods (seed drill versus broadcast...

  1. Estimation of Soil Erosion by Using Magnetic Method: A Case Study of an Agricultural Field in Southern Moravia (Czech Republic)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrovsky, E.; Grison, H.; Kapicka, A.; Dlouha, S.; Kodesova, R.; Jaksik, O.

    2013-05-01

    In this study we have applied magnetism of soils for estimation of erosion at an agricultural land. The testing site is situated in loess region in Southern Moravia (in Central Europe). The approach is based on well-established method of differentiation of magnetic parameters of the topsoil and the subsoil horizons as a result of in situ formation of strongly magnetic iron oxides. Our founding is established on a simple tillage homogenization model described by Royall (2001) using magnetic susceptibility and its frequency dependence to estimate soil loss caused by the tillage and subsequent erosion. The original dominant Soil Unit in the investigated area is Haplic Chernozem, which is due to intensive erosion progressively transformed into different Soil Units. The site is characterized by a flat upper part while the middle part, formed by a substantive side valley, is steeper (up to 15°). The side valley represents a major line of concentrated runoff emptying into a colluvial fan. Field measurements of the topsoil volume magnetic susceptibility were carried out by the Bartington MS2D probe. Data are resulting in regular grid of 101 data points, where the bulk soil material was gathered for further laboratory investigations. Moreover, vertical distribution of magnetic susceptibility (deep to 40 cm) was measured on selected transects using the SM400 kappameter. In the laboratory, after drying and sieving of collected soil samples, mass-specific magnetic susceptibility and its frequency-dependent susceptibility was measured. In order to identify magnetic minerals the thermomagnetic analyses were performed using the AGICO KLY-4S Kappabridge with CS-3 furnace. Hysteresis loops were carried out on vibrating magnetometer ADE EV9 to assess the grain-size distribution of ferrimagnetic particles. Hereafter, the isothermal remanent magnetization acqusition followed by D.C. demagnetization were done. All these laboratory magnetic measurements were performed in order to

  2. Superfund record of decision (EPA Region 4): T H Agriculture and Nutrition Site, Dougherty County, Albany, GA, April 26, 1996

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    NONE

    This decision document (Record of Decision), presents the selected Remedial Action for the Operable Unit Two for the T H Agriculture & Nutrition (THAN) Site, Albany, Georgia. The second operable unit addresses the source of the contamination on the eastern parcel of the Site. The major components of the selected remedy for operable unit two include: the excavation of all soil contaminated with organics necessary to meet performance standards; the staging and preconditioning of soil for low temperature thermal desorption treatment; the treatment of excavated soil by low temperature thermal desorption; the placement of treated, decontaminated soil back to themore » site; periodic sampling of treated soil during the treatment process to verify the effectiveness of the remedy; air monitoring to ensure safety of nearby residents and workers; groundwater monitoring to ensure that metals contaminated remaining in the subsurface soil will not result in contaminated groundwater migrating offsite in concentrations which exceed groundwater protection standards; and deed restrictions to prevent residential use of the property.« less

  3. Field Margins, Foraging Distances and Their Impacts on Nesting Pollinator Success

    PubMed Central

    Rands, Sean A.; Whitney, Heather M.

    2011-01-01

    The areas of wild land around the edges of agricultural fields are a vital resource for many species. These include insect pollinators, to whom field margins provide both nest sites and important resources (especially when adjacent crops are not in flower). Nesting pollinators travel relatively short distances from the nest to forage: most species of bee are known to travel less than two kilometres away. In order to ensure that these pollinators have sufficient areas of wild land within reach of their nests, agricultural landscapes need to be designed to accommodate the limited travelling distances of nesting pollinators. We used a spatially-explicit modelling approach to consider whether increasing the width of wild strips of land within the agricultural landscape will enhance the amount of wild resources available to a nesting pollinator, and if it would impact differently on pollinators with differing foraging strategies. This was done both by creating field structures with a randomised geography, and by using landscape data based upon the British agricultural landscape. These models demonstrate that enhancing field margins should lead to an increase in the availability of forage to pollinators that nest within the landscape. With the exception of species that only forage within a very short range of their nest (less than 125 m), a given amount of field margin manipulation should enhance the proportion of land available to a pollinator for foraging regardless of the distance over which it normally travels to find food. A fixed amount of field edge manipulation should therefore be equally beneficial for both longer-distance nesting foragers such as honeybees, and short-distance foragers such as solitary bees. PMID:21991390

  4. Integrating Sensory/Actuation Systems in Agricultural Vehicles

    PubMed Central

    Emmi, Luis; Gonzalez-de-Soto, Mariano; Pajares, Gonzalo; Gonzalez-de-Santos, Pablo

    2014-01-01

    In recent years, there have been major advances in the development of new and more powerful perception systems for agriculture, such as computer-vision and global positioning systems. Due to these advances, the automation of agricultural tasks has received an important stimulus, especially in the area of selective weed control where high precision is essential for the proper use of resources and the implementation of more efficient treatments. Such autonomous agricultural systems incorporate and integrate perception systems for acquiring information from the environment, decision-making systems for interpreting and analyzing such information, and actuation systems that are responsible for performing the agricultural operations. These systems consist of different sensors, actuators, and computers that work synchronously in a specific architecture for the intended purpose. The main contribution of this paper is the selection, arrangement, integration, and synchronization of these systems to form a whole autonomous vehicle for agricultural applications. This type of vehicle has attracted growing interest, not only for researchers but also for manufacturers and farmers. The experimental results demonstrate the success and performance of the integrated system in guidance and weed control tasks in a maize field, indicating its utility and efficiency. The whole system is sufficiently flexible for use in other agricultural tasks with little effort and is another important contribution in the field of autonomous agricultural vehicles. PMID:24577525

  5. Integrating sensory/actuation systems in agricultural vehicles.

    PubMed

    Emmi, Luis; Gonzalez-de-Soto, Mariano; Pajares, Gonzalo; Gonzalez-de-Santos, Pablo

    2014-02-26

    In recent years, there have been major advances in the development of new and more powerful perception systems for agriculture, such as computer-vision and global positioning systems. Due to these advances, the automation of agricultural tasks has received an important stimulus, especially in the area of selective weed control where high precision is essential for the proper use of resources and the implementation of more efficient treatments. Such autonomous agricultural systems incorporate and integrate perception systems for acquiring information from the environment, decision-making systems for interpreting and analyzing such information, and actuation systems that are responsible for performing the agricultural operations. These systems consist of different sensors, actuators, and computers that work synchronously in a specific architecture for the intended purpose. The main contribution of this paper is the selection, arrangement, integration, and synchronization of these systems to form a whole autonomous vehicle for agricultural applications. This type of vehicle has attracted growing interest, not only for researchers but also for manufacturers and farmers. The experimental results demonstrate the success and performance of the integrated system in guidance and weed control tasks in a maize field, indicating its utility and efficiency. The whole system is sufficiently flexible for use in other agricultural tasks with little effort and is another important contribution in the field of autonomous agricultural vehicles.

  6. Multi-year assessment of soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) modeling uncertainties over a Mediterranean agricultural site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garrigues, S.; Olioso, A.; Calvet, J.-C.; Lafont, S.; Martin, E.; Chanzy, A.; Marloie, O.; Bertrand, N.; Desfonds, V.; Renard, D.

    2012-04-01

    Vegetation productivity and water balance of Mediterranean regions will be particularly affected by climate and land-use changes. In order to analyze and predict these changes through land surface models, a critical step is to quantify the uncertainties associated with these models (processes, parameters) and their implementation over a long period of time. Besides, uncertainties attached to the data used to force these models (atmospheric forcing, vegetation and soil characteristics, crop management practices...) which are generally available at coarse spatial resolution (>1-10 km) and for a limited number of plant functional types, need to be evaluated. This paper aims at assessing the uncertainties in water (evapotranspiration) and energy fluxes estimated from a Soil Vegetation Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) model over a Mediterranean agricultural site. While similar past studies focused on particular crop types and limited period of time, the originality of this paper consists in implementing the SVAT model and assessing its uncertainties over a long period of time (10 years), encompassing several cycles of distinct crops (wheat, sorghum, sunflower, peas). The impacts on the SVAT simulations of the following sources of uncertainties are characterized: - Uncertainties in atmospheric forcing are assessed comparing simulations forced with local meteorological measurements and simulations forced with re-analysis atmospheric dataset (SAFRAN database). - Uncertainties in key surface characteristics (soil, vegetation, crop management practises) are tested comparing simulations feeded with standard values from global database (e.g. ECOCLIMAP) and simulations based on in situ or site-calibrated values. - Uncertainties dues to the implementation of the SVAT model over a long period of time are analyzed with regards to crop rotation. The SVAT model being analyzed in this paper is ISBA in its a-gs version which simulates the photosynthesis and its coupling with the stomata

  7. Analytical Results for Agricultural Soils Samples from a Monitoring Program Near Deer Trail, Colorado (USA)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Crock, J.G.; Smith, D.B.; Yager, T.J.B.

    2009-01-01

    Since late 1993, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District of Denver (Metro District, MWRD), a large wastewater treatment plant in Denver, Colorado, has applied Grade I, Class B biosolids to about 52,000 acres of nonirrigated farmland and rangeland near Deer Trail, Colorado, USA. In cooperation with the Metro District in 1993, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began monitoring groundwater at part of this site. In 1999, the USGS began a more comprehensive monitoring study of the entire site to address stakeholder concerns about the potential chemical effects of biosolids applications to water, soil, and vegetation. This more comprehensive monitoring program has recently been extended through 2010. Monitoring components of the more comprehensive study include biosolids collected at the wastewater treatment plant, soil, crops, dust, alluvial and bedrock groundwater, and stream bed sediment. Soils for this study were defined as the plow zone of the dry land agricultural fields - the top twelve inches of the soil column. This report presents analytical results for the soil samples collected at the Metro District farm land near Deer Trail, Colorado, during three separate sampling events during 1999, 2000, and 2002. Soil samples taken in 1999 were to be a representation of the original baseline of the agricultural soils prior to any biosolids application. The soil samples taken in 2000 represent the soils after one application of biosolids to the middle field at each site and those taken in 2002 represent the soils after two applications. There have been no biosolids applied to any of the four control fields. The next soil sampling is scheduled for the spring of 2010. Priority parameters for biosolids identified by the stakeholders and also regulated by Colorado when used as an agricultural soil amendment include the total concentrations of nine trace elements (arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, and zinc), plutonium isotopes, and gross

  8. Nanotechnology in Agriculture

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    An overview is given of the application of nanotechnology to agriculture. This is an active field of R&D, where a large number of findings and innovations have been reported. For example, in soil management, applications reported include nanofertilizers, soil binders, water retention aids, and nut...

  9. Secondary organic aerosol characterization at field sites across the United States during the spring-summer period

    EPA Science Inventory

    Sources of secondary organic carbon at 15 field sites across the United States (U.S.) during the years 2003-2010 have been examined. Filter samples have been taken for 24-h at a site in Research Triangle Park, NC; at SEARCH sites in southeastern U.S. during May and August 2005; ...

  10. Topography Mediates the Influence of Cover Crops on Soil Nitrate Levels in Row Crop Agricultural Systems

    PubMed Central

    Ladoni, Moslem; Kravchenko, Alexandra N.; Robertson, G. Phillip

    2015-01-01

    Supplying adequate amounts of soil N for plant growth during the growing season and across large agricultural fields is a challenge for conservational agricultural systems with cover crops. Knowledge about cover crop effects on N comes mostly from small, flat research plots and performance of cover crops across topographically diverse agricultural land is poorly understood. Our objective was to assess effects of both leguminous (red clover) and non-leguminous (winter rye) cover crops on potentially mineralizable N (PMN) and NO3--N levels across a topographically diverse landscape. We studied conventional, low-input, and organic managements in corn-soybean-wheat rotation. The rotations of low-input and organic managements included rye and red clover cover crops. The managements were implemented in twenty large undulating fields in Southwest Michigan starting from 2006. The data collection and analysis were conducted during three growing seasons of 2011, 2012 and 2013. Observational micro-plots with and without cover crops were laid within each field on three contrasting topographical positions of depression, slope and summit. Soil samples were collected 4–5 times during each growing season and analyzed for NO3--N and PMN. The results showed that all three managements were similar in their temporal and spatial distributions of NO3 —N. Red clover cover crop increased NO3--N by 35% on depression, 20% on slope and 32% on summit positions. Rye cover crop had a significant 15% negative effect on NO3--N in topographical depressions but not in slope and summit positions. The magnitude of the cover crop effects on soil mineral nitrogen across topographically diverse fields was associated with the amount of cover crop growth and residue production. The results emphasize the potential environmental and economic benefits that can be generated by implementing site-specific topography-driven cover crop management in row-crop agricultural systems. PMID:26600462

  11. Topography Mediates the Influence of Cover Crops on Soil Nitrate Levels in Row Crop Agricultural Systems.

    PubMed

    Ladoni, Moslem; Kravchenko, Alexandra N; Robertson, G Phillip

    2015-01-01

    Supplying adequate amounts of soil N for plant growth during the growing season and across large agricultural fields is a challenge for conservational agricultural systems with cover crops. Knowledge about cover crop effects on N comes mostly from small, flat research plots and performance of cover crops across topographically diverse agricultural land is poorly understood. Our objective was to assess effects of both leguminous (red clover) and non-leguminous (winter rye) cover crops on potentially mineralizable N (PMN) and [Formula: see text] levels across a topographically diverse landscape. We studied conventional, low-input, and organic managements in corn-soybean-wheat rotation. The rotations of low-input and organic managements included rye and red clover cover crops. The managements were implemented in twenty large undulating fields in Southwest Michigan starting from 2006. The data collection and analysis were conducted during three growing seasons of 2011, 2012 and 2013. Observational micro-plots with and without cover crops were laid within each field on three contrasting topographical positions of depression, slope and summit. Soil samples were collected 4-5 times during each growing season and analyzed for [Formula: see text] and PMN. The results showed that all three managements were similar in their temporal and spatial distributions of NO3-N. Red clover cover crop increased [Formula: see text] by 35% on depression, 20% on slope and 32% on summit positions. Rye cover crop had a significant 15% negative effect on [Formula: see text] in topographical depressions but not in slope and summit positions. The magnitude of the cover crop effects on soil mineral nitrogen across topographically diverse fields was associated with the amount of cover crop growth and residue production. The results emphasize the potential environmental and economic benefits that can be generated by implementing site-specific topography-driven cover crop management in row

  12. A measurement of the magnetic field direction at the site of major flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lundstedt, H.

    1982-01-01

    Lundstedt et al. (1981) showed that the direction of the photospheric magnetic field at the site of a flare is a good predictor of the solar wind velocity observed at earth four days later. It is described here how the field direction was obtained, and possible errors involved in the determination of the angle are discussed. The discussion also includes a characterization of the solar active regions.

  13. Wetlands and agriculture: Are we heading for confrontation or conservation

    Treesearch

    Brij Gopal

    2000-01-01

    Wetlands and agriculture are closely linked. Historically, agriculture had its beginning in riparian wetland habitats and expanded into other wetlands. Later, large areas of riverine, palustrine, and coastal wetlands were converted into paddy fields or drained for agriculture. Agriculture has grown most at the expense of natural wetlands. Today, the intensive...

  14. Evaluation of Crop-Water Consumption Simulation to Support Agricultural Water Resource Management using Satellite-based Water Cycle Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gupta, M.; Bolten, J. D.; Lakshmi, V.

    2016-12-01

    Water scarcity is one of the main factors limiting agricultural development. Numerical models integrated with remote sensing datasets are increasingly being used operationally as inputs for crop water balance models and agricultural forecasting due to increasing availability of high temporal and spatial resolution datasets. However, the model accuracy in simulating soil water content is affected by the accuracy of the soil hydraulic parameters used in the model, which are used in the governing equations. However, soil databases are known to have a high uncertainty across scales. Also, for agricultural sites, the in-situ measurements of soil moisture are currently limited to discrete measurements at specific locations, and such point-based measurements do not represent the spatial distribution at a larger scale accurately, as soil moisture is highly variable both spatially and temporally. The present study utilizes effective soil hydraulic parameters obtained using a 1-km downscaled microwave remote sensing soil moisture product based on the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) using the genetic algorithm inverse method within the Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM). Secondly, to provide realistic irrigation estimates for agricultural sites, an irrigation scheme within the land surface model is triggered when the root-zone soil moisture deficit reaches the threshold, 50% with respect to the maximum available water capacity obtained from the effective soil hydraulic parameters. An additional important criterion utilized is the estimation of crop water consumption based on dynamic root growth and uptake in root zone layer. Model performance is evaluated using MODIS land surface temperature (LST) product. The soil moisture estimates for the root zone are also validated with the in situ field data, for three sites (2- irrigated and 1- rainfed) located at the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research and Development Center near Mead, NE and monitored

  15. In situ bioventing at a natural gas dehydrator site: Field demonstration

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lawrence, A.W.; Miller, D.L.; Miller, J.A.

    1995-12-31

    This paper describes a bioventing/biosparging field demonstration that was conducted over a 10-month period at a former glycol dehydrator site located near Traverse City, Michigan. The goal of the project was to determine the feasibility of this technology for dehydrator site remediation and to develop engineering design concepts for applying bioventing/biosparging at similar sites. The chemicals of interest are benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) and alkanes. Soil sampling indicated that the capillary fringe and saturated zones were heavily contaminated, but that the unsaturated zone was relatively free of the contaminants. A pump-and-treat system has operated since 1991 to treatmore » the groundwater BTEX plume. Bioventing/biosparging was installed in September 1993 to treat the contaminant source area. Three different air sparging operating modes were tested to determine an optimal process configuration for site remediation. These operational modes were compared through in situ respirometry studies. Respirometry measurements were used to estimate biodegradation rates. Dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide were monitored in the groundwater.« less

  16. Ground-water flow, geochemistry, and effects of agricultural practices on nitrogen transport at study sites in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain physiographic provinces, Patuxent River Basin, Maryland

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    McFarland, Randolph E.

    1995-01-01

    The effects of agricultural practices on nitrogen transport were assessed at two 10-acre study sites in the Patuxent River Basin, Maryland, during 1986- 92. Nitrogen load was larger in ground water than in surface runoff at both sites. Denitrification and (or) long traveltimes of ground water at the study site in the Piedmont Province resulted in lower concentrations of nitrate than at the site in the Coastal Plain Province. The study period was brief compared to traveltimes of nitrogen in ground water of several decades. Therefore, the effects of agricultural practices were observed only in parts of both sites. At the Piedmont site, nitrate concentration in two springs was 7 mg/L (milligrams per liter) two years after corn was grown under no-till cultivation, and decreased to 3.5 mg/L during 4 years while cultivation practices and crops included no-till soybeans, continuous alfalfa, and contoured strips alternated among corn, alfalfa, and soybeans. Nitrogen load in ground water decreased from 12 to 6 (lb/acre)/yr (pounds per acre per year). At the Coastal Plain site, the concentration of nitrate in ground water decreased from 10 mg/L after soybeans were grown under no-till cultivation for 2 years, to 9 mg/L after soybeans were grown under conventional till cultivation for 3 years. No-till cultivation in 1988 resulted in a greater nitrogen load in ground water (12.55 (lbs/acre)/yr), as well as greater ground-water recharge and discharge, than conventional till cultivation in 1991 (11.51 (lbs/ acre)/yr), even though the amount and timing of precipitation for both years were similar.

  17. Recent advancement on chemical arsenal of Bt toxin and its application in pest management system in agricultural field.

    PubMed

    Chattopadhyay, Pritam; Banerjee, Goutam

    2018-04-01

    Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt ) is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, soil bacterium, which is very popular bio-control agent in agricultural and forestry. In general, B. thuringiensis secretes an array of insecticidal proteins including toxins produced during vegetative growth phase (such as secreted insecticidal protein, Sip; vegetative insecticidal proteins, Vip), parasporal crystalline δ-endotoxins produced during vegetative stationary phase (such as cytolytic toxin, Cyt; and crystal toxin, Cry), and β-exotoxins. Till date, a wide spectrum of Cry proteins has been reported and most of them belong to three-domain-Cry toxins, Bin-like toxin, and Etx_Mtx2-like toxins. To the best of our knowledge, neither Bt insecticidal toxins are exclusive to Bt nor all the strains of Bt are capable of producing insecticidal Bt toxins. The lacuna in their latest classification has also been discussed. In this review, the updated information regarding the insecticidal Bt toxins and their different mode of actions were summarized. Before applying the Bt toxins on agricultural field, the non-specific effects of toxins should be investigated. We also have summarized the problem of insect resistance and the strategies to combat with this problem. We strongly believe that this information will help a lot to the budding researchers in the field of modern pest control biotechnology.

  18. A regional field-based assessment of organic C sequestration and GHG balances in irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean semi-arid land

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Virto, Inigo; Antón, Rodrigo; Arias, Nerea; Orcaray, Luis; Enrique, Alberto; Bescansa, Paloma

    2016-04-01

    In a context of global change and increasing food demand, agriculture faces the challenge of ensuring food security making a sustainable use of resources, especially arable land and water. This implies in many areas a transition towards agricultural systems with increased and stable productivity and a more efficient use of inputs. The introduction of irrigation is, within this framework, a widespread strategy. However, the C cycle and the net GHG emissions can be significantly affected by irrigation. The net effect of this change needs to be quantified at a regional scale. In the region of Navarra (NE Spain) more than 22,300 ha of rainfed agricultural land have been converted to irrigation in the last years, adding to the previous existing irrigated area of 70,000 ha. In this framework the project Life+ Regadiox (LIFE12 ENV/ES/000426, http://life-regadiox.es/) has the objective of evaluating the net GHG balances and atmospheric CO2 fixation rates of different management strategies in irrigated agriculture in the region. The project involved the identification of areas representative of the different pedocllimatic conditions in the region. This required soil and climate characterizations, and the design of a network of agricultural fields representative of the most common dryland and irrigation managements in these areas. This was done from available public datasets on climate and soil, and from soil pits especially sampled for this study. Two areas were then delimited, mostly based on their degree of aridity. Within each of those areas, fields were selected to allow for comparisons at three levels: (i) dryland vs irrigation, (ii) soil and crop management systems for non-permanent crops, and (iii) soil management strategies for permanent crops (namely olive orchards and vineyards). In a second step, the objective of this work was to quantify net SOC variations and GHG balances corresponding to the different managements identified in the previous step. These

  19. Drought stress variability in ancient Near Eastern agricultural systems evidenced by δ13C in barley grain

    PubMed Central

    Riehl, Simone; Pustovoytov, Konstantin E.; Weippert, Heike; Klett, Stefan; Hole, Frank

    2014-01-01

    The collapse and resilience of political systems in the ancient Near East and their relationship with agricultural development have been of wide interest in archaeology and anthropology. Despite attempts to link the archaeological evidence to local paleoclimate data, the precise role of environmental conditions in ancient agricultural production remains poorly understood. Recently, stable isotope analysis has been used for reconstructing site-specific ancient growing conditions for crop species in semiarid and arid landscapes. To open the discussion of the role of regional diversity in past agricultural production as a factor in societal development, we present 1.037 new stable carbon isotope measurements from 33 archaeological sites and modern fields in the geographic area of the Fertile Crescent, spanning the Aceramic Neolithic [10,000 calibrated years (cal) B.C.] to the later Iron Age (500 cal B.C.), alongside modern data from 13 locations. Our data show that drought stress was an issue in many agricultural settlements in the ancient Near East, particularly in correlation with the major Holocene climatic fluctuations, but its regional impact was diverse and influenced by geographic factors. Although cereals growing in the coastal areas of the northern Levant were relatively unaffected by Holocene climatic fluctuations, farmers of regions further inland had to apply irrigation to cope with increased water stress. However, inland agricultural strategies showed a high degree of variability. Our findings suggest that regional differences in climatic effects led to diversified strategies in ancient subsistence and economy even within spatially limited cultural units. PMID:25114225

  20. Linking field observations, Landsat and MODIS data to estimate agricultural change in European Russia.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Beurs, K. M.; Ioffe, G.

    2011-12-01

    Agricultural reform has been one of the most important anthropogenic change processes in European Russia that has been unfolding since the formal collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. Widespread land abandonment is perhaps the most vivid side effect of the reform, even visible in synoptic imagery. Currently, Russia is transitioning into a country with an internal "archipelago" of islands of productive agriculture around cities embedded in a matrix of unproductive, abandoned lands. This heterogeneous spatial pattern is mainly driven by depopulation of the least favorable parts of the countryside, where "least favorable" is a function of fertility, remoteness, and their interaction. In this work we provide a satellite, GIS and field based overview of the current agricultural developments in Russia and look beyond the unstable period immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union. We apply Landsat images in one of Russia's oblasts to create a detailed land cover map. We then use a logistic model to link the Landsat land cover map with the inter-annual variability in key phenological parameters calculated from MODIS to derive the percent of cropland per 500m MODIS pixel. By evaluating the phenological characteristics of the MODIS curves for each year we determine whether a pixel was actually cropped or left fallow. A comparison of satellite-estimated cropped areas with regional statistics (by rayon) revealed that the satellite estimates are highly correlated with the regional statistics for both arable lands and successfully cropped areas. We use the crop maps to determine the number of times a particular area was cropped between 2002 and 2009 by summing all the years with crops per pixel. This variable provides a good indication about the intensification and de-intensification of the Russian croplands over the last decade. We have visited several rural areas in Russia and we link the satellite data with information acquired through field interviews

  1. Effect of Tillage and Non-tillage Agricultural Practice on Nitrogen Losses as NO and N2O in Tropical Corn Fields at Guarico State, Venezuela.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marquina, S.; Rojas, A.; Donoso, L.; Rasse, R.; Giuliante, A.; Corona, O.; Perez, T.

    2007-12-01

    We evaluated the effect of agricultural practices on NO and N2O emissions from corn fields at Northern Guárico, one of Venezuelan largest cereal production regions. Historically, the most common agricultural practice in these regions has been mono cropping. Tillage (T) and non-tillage (NT) of soils represent approximately 30 and 70% of the planted area, respectively. Comparative studies of the nitrogen losses associated with these agricultural practices are not available for these regions. This study was conducted at the farm "Tierra Nueva", Guárico State (9° 23' 33'' N, 66° 38' 30'' W) in two corn fields under tillage and non-tillage agricultural practice during the growing season (June-August 2006). A dry tropical forest, the primary ecosystem of the region, was evaluated for the same period of time. The corn and the forest fields were adjacent; therefore, they were exposed to the same meteorological conditions. The mean annual precipitation of the area is 622±97.3 mm (last 5 years). The soils are Vertisols (Typic Haplusterts). Nutrient soil concentrations (as nitrate and ammonium), water soil content and pH soil were measured in the fields for the same period of time. Soils were fertilized and planted simultaneously by a planting machine provided with a furrow opener where the fertilizer and seeds are incorporated between 0-10 cm depths. Tillage soils were fertilized on June 1st 2006 with 65 kgN/ha of NPK (13:18:16/3MgO, 3S; N as NH4Cl), whereas non-tillage soils were fertilized the next day with 56 kgN/ha of NPK (12:25:12/3MgO, 3S; N as NH4Cl). Second fertilization of both fields was done thirty-seven days later by broadcast adding 58 kgN/ha approximately, using nitrophosphate as fertilizer (NP 33-3: 33% N total; 16.7% N- NO3- and 16.6% N- NH4+). In general, NO and N2O soil emissions from both corn fields increased after fertilization events, and depend on water soil content and nutrient soil concentration. N2O soil emissions were 11 and 9 times larger in

  2. Preplanting Treatments and Natural Invasion of Tree Species Onto Former Agricultural Fields at the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana

    Treesearch

    John W. McCoy; Bobby D. Keeland; Brian Roy Lockhart; Thomas Dean

    2002-01-01

    As part of a study of oak planting techniques for bottomland hardwood afforestation we examined the natural invasion of woody species onto former agricultural fields at Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge. Three replications of 14 treatments were established as 0.4 hectare (1 acre) plots in a complete randomized block design. Combinations of these treatments were...

  3. Reactive transport studies at the Raymond Field Site

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Freifeld, B.; Karasaki, K.; Solbau, R.

    1995-12-01

    To ensure the safety of a nuclear waste repository, an understanding of the transport of radionuclides from the repository nearfield to the biosphere is necessary. At the Raymond Field Site, in Raymond, California, tracer tests are being conducted to test characterization methods for fractured media and to evaluate the equipment and tracers that will be used for Yucca Mountain`s fracture characterization. Recent tracer tests at Raymond have used reactive cations to demonstrate transport with sorption. A convective-dispersive model was used to simulate a two-well recirculating test with reasonable results. However, when the same model was used to simulate a radiallymore » convergent tracer test, the model poorly predicted the actual test data.« less

  4. Mercury cycling in agricultural and managed wetlands: a synthesis of methylmercury production, hydrologic export, and bioaccumulation from an integrated field study

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Fleck, Jacob A.; Ackerman, Joshua T.; Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark C.; Stricker, Craig A.; Heim, Wesley A.; Bachand, Philip A.M.; Eagles-Smith, Collin A.; Gill, Gary; Stephenson, Mark; Alpers, Charles N.

    2014-01-01

    With seasonal wetting and drying, and high biological productivity, agricultural wetlands (rice paddies) may enhance the conversion of inorganic mercury (Hg(II)) to methylmercury (MeHg), the more toxic, organic form that biomagnifies through food webs. Yet, the net balance of MeHg sources and sinks in seasonal wetland environments is poorly understood because it requires an annual, integrated assessment across biota, sediment, and water components. We examined a suite of wetlands managed for rice crops or wildlife during 2007–2008 in California's Central Valley, in an area affected by Hg contamination from historic mining practices. Hydrologic management of agricultural wetlands for rice, wild rice, or fallowed — drying for field preparation and harvest, and flooding for crop growth and post-harvest rice straw decay — led to pronounced seasonality in sediment and aqueous MeHg concentrations that were up to 95-fold higher than those measured concurrently in adjacent, non-agricultural permanently-flooded and seasonally-flooded wetlands. Flooding promoted microbial MeHg production in surface sediment of all wetlands, but extended water residence time appeared to preferentially enhance MeHg degradation and storage. When incoming MeHg loads were elevated, individual fields often served as a MeHg sink, rather than a source. Slow, horizontal flow of shallow water in the agricultural wetlands led to increased importance of vertical hydrologic fluxes, including evapoconcentration of surface water MeHg and transpiration-driven advection into the root zone, promoting temporary soil storage of MeHg. Although this hydrology limited MeHg export from wetlands, it also increased MeHg exposure to resident fish via greater in situ aqueous MeHg concentrations. Our results suggest that the combined traits of agricultural wetlands — slow-moving shallow water, manipulated flooding and drying, abundant labile plant matter, and management for wildlife — may enhance microbial

  5. Mercury cycling in agricultural and managed wetlands: a synthesis of methylmercury production, hydrologic export, and bioaccumulation from an integrated field study.

    PubMed

    Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Fleck, Jacob A; Ackerman, Joshua T; Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark; Stricker, Craig A; Heim, Wesley A; Bachand, Philip A M; Eagles-Smith, Collin A; Gill, Gary; Stephenson, Mark; Alpers, Charles N

    2014-06-15

    With seasonal wetting and drying, and high biological productivity, agricultural wetlands (rice paddies) may enhance the conversion of inorganic mercury (Hg(II)) to methylmercury (MeHg), the more toxic, organic form that biomagnifies through food webs. Yet, the net balance of MeHg sources and sinks in seasonal wetland environments is poorly understood because it requires an annual, integrated assessment across biota, sediment, and water components. We examined a suite of wetlands managed for rice crops or wildlife during 2007-2008 in California's Central Valley, in an area affected by Hg contamination from historic mining practices. Hydrologic management of agricultural wetlands for rice, wild rice, or fallowed - drying for field preparation and harvest, and flooding for crop growth and post-harvest rice straw decay - led to pronounced seasonality in sediment and aqueous MeHg concentrations that were up to 95-fold higher than those measured concurrently in adjacent, non-agricultural permanently-flooded and seasonally-flooded wetlands. Flooding promoted microbial MeHg production in surface sediment of all wetlands, but extended water residence time appeared to preferentially enhance MeHg degradation and storage. When incoming MeHg loads were elevated, individual fields often served as a MeHg sink, rather than a source. Slow, horizontal flow of shallow water in the agricultural wetlands led to increased importance of vertical hydrologic fluxes, including evapoconcentration of surface water MeHg and transpiration-driven advection into the root zone, promoting temporary soil storage of MeHg. Although this hydrology limited MeHg export from wetlands, it also increased MeHg exposure to resident fish via greater in situ aqueous MeHg concentrations. Our results suggest that the combined traits of agricultural wetlands - slow-moving shallow water, manipulated flooding and drying, abundant labile plant matter, and management for wildlife - may enhance microbial methylation

  6. Urban agriculture and Anopheles habitats in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

    PubMed

    Dongus, Stefan; Nyika, Dickson; Kannady, Khadija; Mtasiwa, Deo; Mshinda, Hassan; Gosoniu, Laura; Drescher, Axel W; Fillinger, Ulrike; Tanner, Marcel; Killeen, Gerry F; Castro, Marcia C

    2009-05-01

    A cross-sectional survey of agricultural areas, combined with routinely monitored mosquito larval information, was conducted in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to investigate how agricultural and geographical features may influence the presence of Anopheles larvae. Data were integrated into a geographical information systems framework, and predictors of the presence of Anopheles larvae in farming areas were assessed using multivariate logistic regression with independent random effects. It was found that more than 5% of the study area (total size 16.8 km2) was used for farming in backyard gardens and larger open spaces. The proportion of habitats containing Anopheles larvae was 1.7 times higher in agricultural areas compared to other areas (95% confidence interval = 1.56-1.92). Significant geographic predictors of the presence of Anopheles larvae in gardens included location in lowland areas, proximity to river, and relatively impermeable soils. Agriculture-related predictors comprised specific seedbed types, mid-sized gardens, irrigation by wells, as well as cultivation of sugar cane or leafy vegetables. Negative predictors included small garden size, irrigation by tap water, rainfed production and cultivation of leguminous crops or fruit trees. Although there was an increased chance of finding Anopheles larvae in agricultural sites, it was found that breeding sites originated by urban agriculture account for less than a fifth of all breeding sites of malaria vectors in Dar es Salaam. It is suggested that strategies comprising an integrated malaria control effort in malaria-endemic African cities include participatory involvement of farmers by planting shade trees near larval habitats.

  7. Field Validation of POCIS for Monitoring at Underwater Munitions Sites.

    PubMed

    Rosen, Gunther; Lotufo, Guilherme R; George, Robert D; Wild, Bill; Rabalais, Lauren K; Morrison, Shane; Belden, Jason B

    2018-04-24

    The present study evaluated Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Samplers (POCIS) for quantification of conventional munitions constituents (MC), including trinitrotoluene (TNT), aminodinitrotoluenes, diaminonitrotoluenes, dinitrotoluene, and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) in a field setting. POCIS were deployed at varying distances from the commonly used explosive formulation Composition B (39.5% TNT, 59.5% RDX, 1% wax) in an embayment of Santa Rosa Sound (Florida, USA). Time-weighted averaged (TWA) water concentrations from a 13-day deployment ranged from 9-103 ng/L for TNT and RDX approximately 0.3 to 2 m from the source. Concentrations decreased with increasing distance from the source to below quantitation limits (5-7 ng/L) at stations greater than 2 m away. Moderate biofouling of POCIS membranes after 13-d led to a subsequent effort to quantify potential effects of biofouling on sampling rate for MC. After biofouling was allowed to occur for periods of 0, 7, 14 or 28 days at the field site, POCIS were transferred to aquaria spiked with MC. No significant differences in uptake of TNT or RDX were observed across a gradient of biofouling presence, although mass of fouling organisms on the membranes was statistically greater for the 28-d field exposure. The present study verified the high sensitivity and integrative nature of POCIS for relevant MC potentially present in aquatic environments, indicating that application at underwater military munitions sites may be useful for ecological risk assessment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  8. Utilizing NASA Earth Observations to Monitor Land Management Practices and the Development of Marshlands to Rice Fields in Rwanda

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dusabimana, M. R.; Blach, D.; Mwiza, F.; Muzungu, E.; Swaminathan, R.; Tate, Z.

    2014-12-01

    Rwanda, a small country with the highest population density in Sub-Saharan Africa, is one of the world's poorest countries. Although agriculture is the backbone of Rwandan economy, agricultural productivity is extremely low. Over 90 % of the population is engaged in subsistence farming and only 52 % of the total land surface area is arable. Of this land, approximately 165,000 hectares are marshlands, of which only 57 % has been cultivated. Rwandan government has invested in the advancement of agriculture with activities such as irrigation, marshland reclamation, and crop regionalization. In 2001, Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) released the Rural Sector Support Program (RSSP), which aimed at converting marshlands into rice fields at various development sites across the country. The focus of this project was to monitor rice fields in Rwanda utilizing NASA Earth observations such as Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager. Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) was used to depict the progress of marshland to rice field conversion as it highlights the presence of irrigated rice fields from the surrounding area. Additionally, Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) was used to estimate rice yield at RSSP sites. Various simulations were run to find perfect conditions for cultivating the highest yield for a given farm. Furthermore, soil erosion susceptibility masks were created by combining factors derived from ASTER, MERRA, and ground truth data using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). The end results, maps, and tutorials were delivered to the partners and policy makers in Rwanda to help make informed decisions. It can be clearly seen that Earth observations can be successfully used to monitor agricultural and land management practices as a cost effective method that will enable farmers to improve crop yield production and food security.

  9. Soil Macronutrient Sensing for Precision Agriculture

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Accurate measurements of soil macronutrients (i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) are needed for efficient agricultural production, including site-specific crop management (SSCM), where fertilizer nutrient application rates are adjusted spatially based on local requirements. Rapid, non-destru...

  10. Agricultural "killing fields": the poisoning of Costa Rican banana workers.

    PubMed

    Sass, R

    2000-01-01

    The poisoning of Costa Rican banana workers by multinational corporations' excessive use of pesticides is not a local issue; it is embedded in a dominant ideology expressed by the phenomenon of globalization. This ideology seeps into every aspect of our social institutions--economic, political, and legal. The practice of this ideological perspective is evident in the industrialization of global agriculture and the shift from "developmentalism"--liberal welfarism, industrialization, and urbanization--to a dominant, undemocratic, global financial elite with "economism" and a neoliberal political agenda overriding the nation-state polis. A specific effect is to transform the agricultural workers of developing countries, such as Costa Rican banana workers, into politically superfluous flesh-and-blood human beings.

  11. Hot Spots and Hot Moments of Methylmercury Production Associated With Agricultural and Non-agricultural Wetlands of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, California

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marvin-Dipasquale, M.; Windham-Myers, L.; Agee, J. L.; Kakouros, E.; Cox, M. H.; Fleck, J.; Alpers, C. N.; Stephenson, M.

    2008-12-01

    The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area (YBWA) is part of the larger Yolo Bypass floodwater protection zone associated with the Sacramento River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, in California. While mercury contamination is widespread throughout the region due to historic mining practices, the Yolo Bypass is responsible for a high proportion of the aqueous methylmercury (MeHg) entering the Delta, and biota from the Yolo Bypass are particularly elevated in toxic MeHg. Land use in the YBWA includes seasonally flooded agricultural fields (white rice, wild rice, fallow fields), and permanently and seasonally flooded non-agricultural wetlands used for resident and migratory waterfowl. Mercury biogeochemistry was examined in 0-2 cm surface sediment, as a function of habitat type, wetland management, and agricultural practices during the 2007-08 crop year. In permanently flooded wetlands, MeHg concentrations varied within a narrow range (ca. 0.5-1.5 ng/g dry wt) throughout the study period. In contrast, the three types of agricultural fields had higher MeHg concentrations throughout the rice-growing season (June-Sept; ca. 1.5-3.5 ng/g), and exhibited the highest levels (ca. 3.3-6.3 ng/g) in the post-harvest winter period (Dec-Feb). Further, naturally dried sediment, sampled during July '08 from post-harvest drained fallow agricultural fields (prior to reflooding) had MeHg concentrations that were also quite elevated (3.1 +/- 1.5 ng/g). This suggests that the initial elevated concentrations of overlying water MeHg, sometimes measured soon after flooding previously dried fields, may be related to the release of MeHg formed during the previous wet season and trapped in dried sediment, as opposed to being MeHg newly produced by bacteria upon soil rewetting. These results indicate that the 'hot spots and hot moments' associated with MeHg production in this system are linked to hydrologic manipulations (wetting and drying) in the agricultural fields, and that the practice of post

  12. Sublethal Effects of Imidacloprid on Honey Bee Colony Growth and Activity at Three Sites in the U.S.

    PubMed

    Meikle, William G; Adamczyk, John J; Weiss, Milagra; Gregorc, Ales; Johnson, Don R; Stewart, Scott D; Zawislak, Jon; Carroll, Mark J; Lorenz, Gus M

    2016-01-01

    Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid pesticide heavily used by the agricultural industry and shown to have negative impacts on honey bees above certain concentrations. We evaluated the effects of different imidacloprid concentrations in sugar syrup using cage and field studies, and across different environments. Honey bee colonies fed sublethal concentrations of imidicloprid (0, 5, 20 and 100 ppb) over 6 weeks in field trials at a desert site (Arizona), a site near intensive agriculture (Arkansas) and a site with little nearby agriculture but abundant natural forage (Mississippi) were monitored with respect to colony metrics, such as adult bee and brood population sizes, as well as pesticide residues. Hive weight and internal hive temperature were monitored continuously over two trials in Arizona. Colonies fed 100 ppb imidacloprid in Arizona had significantly lower adult bee populations, brood surface areas and average frame weights, and reduced temperature control, compared to colonies in one or more of the other treatment groups, and consumption rates of those colonies were lower compared to other colonies in Arizona and Arkansas, although no differences in capped brood or average frame weight were observed among treatments in Arkansas. At the Mississippi site, also rich in alternative forage, colonies fed 5 ppb imidacloprid had less capped brood than control colonies, but contamination of control colonies was detected. In contrast, significantly higher daily hive weight variability among colonies fed 5 ppb imidacloprid in Arizona suggested greater foraging activity during a nectar flow post treatment, than any other treatment group. Imidacloprid concentrations in stored honey corresponded well with the respective syrup concentrations fed to the colonies and remained stable within the hive for at least 7 months after the end of treatment.

  13. National Site for the Regional IPM Centers

    Science.gov Websites

    Agriculture USDA Soybean Rust Web Site Latest News - Southern Plant Diagnostic Network Soybean Rust Pest Alert , contact: Kent Smith, (202) 720-3186, ksmith@ars.usda.gov United States Department of Agriculture - National Institute of Food and Agriculture Website managed by the Southern IPM Center. Design adapted from

  14. Addressing bystander exposure to agricultural pesticides in life cycle impact assessment.

    PubMed

    Ryberg, Morten Walbech; Rosenbaum, Ralph K; Mosqueron, Luc; Fantke, Peter

    2018-04-01

    Residents living near agricultural fields may be exposed to pesticides drifting from the fields after application to different field crops. To address this currently missing exposure pathway in life cycle assessment (LCA), we developed a modeling framework for quantifying exposure of bystanders to pesticide spray drift from agricultural fields. Our framework consists of three parts addressing: (1) loss of pesticides from an agricultural field via spray drift; (2) environmental fate of pesticide in air outside of the treated field; and (3) exposure of bystanders to pesticides via inhalation. A comparison with measured data in a case study on pesticides applied to potato fields shows that our model gives good predictions of pesticide air concentrations. We compared our bystander exposure estimates with pathways currently included in LCA, namely aggregated inhalation and ingestion exposure mediated via the environment for the general population, and general population exposure via ingestion of pesticide residues in consumed food crops. The results show that exposure of bystanders is limited relative to total population exposure from ingestion of pesticide residues in crops, but that the exposure magnitude of individual bystanders can be substantially larger than the exposure of populations not living in the proximity to agricultural fields. Our framework for assessing bystander exposure to pesticide applications closes a relevant gap in the exposure assessment included in LCA for agricultural pesticides. This inclusion aids decision-making based on LCA as previously restricted knowledge about exposure of bystanders can now be taken into account. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Vegetation Water Content Mapping for Agricultural Regions in SMAPVEX16

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    White, W. A.; Cosh, M. H.; McKee, L.; Berg, A. A.; McNairn, H.; Hornbuckle, B. K.; Colliander, A.; Jackson, T. J.

    2017-12-01

    Vegetation water content impacts the ability of L-band radiometers to measure surface soil moisture. Therefore it is necessary to quantify the amount of water held in surface vegetation for an accurate soil moisture remote sensing retrieval. A methodology is presented for generating agricultural vegetation water content maps using Landsat 8 scenes for agricultural fields of Iowa and Manitoba for the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiments in 2016 (SMAPVEX16). Manitoba has a variety of row crops across the region, and the study period encompasses the time frame from emergence to reproduction, as well as a forested region. The Iowa study site is dominated by corn and soybeans, presenting an easier challenge. Ground collection of vegetation biomass and water content were also collected to provide a ground truth data source. Errors for the resulting vegetation water content maps ranged depending upon crop type, but generally were less than 15% of the total plant water content per crop type. Interpolation is done between Landsat overpasses to produce daily vegetation water content maps for the summer of 2016 at a 30 meter resolution.

  16. Variation in agricultural CO2 fluxes during the growing season, collected from more than ten eddy covariance towers in the Mississippi Delta Region

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Runkle, B.; Suvocarev, K.; Reba, M. L.; Novick, K. A.; White, P.; Anapalli, S.; Locke, M. A.; Rigby, J.; Bhattacharjee, J.

    2016-12-01

    Agriculture is unique as an anthropogenic activity that plays both a large role in carbon and water cycling and whose management activities provide a key opportunity for responses to climate change. It is therefore especially crucial to bring field observations into the modeling community, test remote sensing products, encourage policy debate, and enable carbon offsets markets that generate revenue and fund climate-smart activities. The accurate measurement of agricultural CO2 exchange - both primary productivity and ecosystem respiration - in concert with evapotranspiration provides crucial information on agro-ecosystem functioning and improves our predictive capacity for estimating the impacts of climate change. In this study we report field measurements from more than 10 eddy covariance towers in the Lower Mississippi River Basin taken during the summer months of 2016. Many towers, some recently deployed, are being aggregated into a regional network known as Delta-Flux, which will ultimately include 15-20 towers by 2017. Set in and around the Mississippi Delta Region within Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, the network will collect flux, micrometeorological, and crop yield data in order to construct estimates of regional CO2 exchange. These time-series data are gap-filled using statistical and process-based models to generate estimates of summer CO2 flux. The tower network is comprised of sites representing widespread agriculture production, including rice, cotton, corn, soybean, and sugarcane; intensively managed pine forest; and bottomland hardwood forest. Unique experimental production practices are represented in the network and include restricted water use, bioenergy, and by-product utilization. Several towers compose multi-field sites testing innovative irrigation or management practices. Current mapping of agricultural carbon exchange - based on land cover layers and fixed crop emission factors - suggests an unconstrained carbon flux estimate in this

  17. Hand Planting Versus Machine Planting of Bottomland Red Oaks on Former Agricultural Fields in Louisiana's Mississippi Alluvial Plain: Sixth-Year Results

    Treesearch

    Alexander J. Michalek; Brian Roy Lockhart; Thomas J. Dean; Bobby D. Keeland; John W. McCoy

    2002-01-01

    Interest in restoring bottomland hardwoods on abandoned agricultural fields has gained considerably over the past 15 years, due primarily to federal cost-share programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program. While a variety of artificial regeneration techniques are available to afforest these lands, none have met with consistently...

  18. Evaluation of Aqua-Ammonia Chiller Technologies and Field Site Installation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zaltash, Abdolreza

    2007-09-01

    The Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC) has sponsored Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to review, select, and evaluate advanced, gas-fired, 5-ton, aqua-ammonia, chiller technologies. The selection criteria was that units have COP values of 0.67 or better at Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) 95 F outdoor rating conditions, an active refrigerant flow control, and a variable-speed condenser fan. These features are expected to allow these units to operate at higher ambient temperatures (up to the maximum operating temperature of 110 F) with minimal degradation in performance. ORNL evaluated three potential manufacturers of advanced, gas-fired, 5-ton, aqua-ammonia chillers-Robur, Ambian, andmore » Cooling Technologies. Unfortunately, Robur did not meet the COP requirements and Cooling Technologies could not deliver a unit to be tested at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-ORNL environmental chamber testing facility for thermally activated heat pumps. This eliminated these two technologies from further consideration, leaving only the Ambian chillers for evaluation. Two Ambian chillers were evaluated at the DOE-ORNL test facility. Overall these chillers operated well over a wide range of ambient conditions with minimal degradation in performance due to several control strategies used such as a variable speed condenser fan, a modulating burner, and active refrigerant flow control. These Ambian pre-commercial units were selected for installation and field testing at three federal facilities. NFESC worked with ORNL to assist with the site selection for installation and evaluation of these chillers. Two sites (ORNL and Naval Surface Warfare Center [NSWC] Corona) had a single chiller unit installed; and at one site (Naval Amphibious Base [NAB] Little Creek), two 5-ton chillers linked together were installed to provide 10 tons of cooling. A chiller link controller developed under this project was evaluated in the field test at Little

  19. Does consumption of leafy vegetables grown in peri-urban agriculture pose a risk to human health?

    PubMed

    Nabulo, G; Black, C R; Craigon, J; Young, S D

    2012-03-01

    Concentrations of potentially toxic elements were measured in soils and five contrasting tropical leafy vegetables grown in a replicated field trial at five contaminated urban agriculture sites in Kampala City, Uganda. Soil contamination at each site could be tentatively ascribed to known waste disposal practices. There was considerable variation in metal uptake between vegetable types. Washing leafy vegetables reduced chromium and lead concentrations but exogenous contamination of leaves also depended on vegetable type, with Gynandropsis gynandra L. showing a marked tendency to accumulate Pb and Cr. For the worst case scenario of children consuming unwashed vegetables, some metal 'hazard quotient' (HQ) limits (1.0) were violated at four of the five sites studied. For the 25 'site-vegetable' combinations assessed, the HQ for Pb exceeded 1.0 in 36% of cases. A vegetable-specific site screening tool based on soil extraction with 0.01 M CaCl(2) and extrapolation to provide HQ values was assessed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Natural organic matter properties in Swedish agricultural streams

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bieroza, Magdalena; Kyllmar, Katarina; Bergström, Lars; Köhler, Stephan

    2017-04-01

    The following paper shows natural organic matter (NOM) properties of stream water samples collected from 8 agricultural streams and 12 agricultural observational fields in Sweden. The catchments and observational fields cover a broad range of environmental (climate, soil type), land use and water quality (nutrient and concentrations, pH, alkalinity) characteristics. Stream water samples collected every two weeks within an ongoing Swedish Monitoring Programme for Agriculture have been analysed for total/dissolved organic carbon, absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy. A number of quantitative and qualitative spectroscopic parameters was calculated to help to distinguish between terrestrially-derived, refractory organic material and autochthonous, labile material indicative of biogeochemical transformations of terrestrial NOM and recent biological production. The study provides insights into organic matter properties and carbon budgets in agricultural streams and improves understanding of how agricultural catchments transform natural and anthropogenic fluxes of organic matter and nutrients. The insights from the grab sampling are supported by high-frequency turbidity, fulvic-like and tryptophan-like fluorescence measurements with in situ optical sensor.

  1. Formative pre-Hispanic agricultural soils in northwest Argentina

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sampietro Vattuone, María Marta; Roldán, Jimena; Neder, Liliana; Maldonado, Mario Gabriel; Vattuone, Marta Amelia

    2011-01-01

    Our study area is from an early agricultural archaeological site named "El Tolar" (1st to 9th century AD), located in Tafí Valley (Tucumán, northwest Argentina). The objective was to identify geochemical signatures generated by the sustained agrarian use of soils. Chemical and pedological studies were made in different archaeological contexts. Physical and chemical features, such as bulk density, pH, organic and inorganic phosphorus, and available copper, manganese and iron, were taken into account. The results suggested that a buried paleosol identified was contemporary with the occupation of the site. It also showed characteristics clearly related to pre-Hispanic agrarian production. The concentrations of organic phosphorus and iron in agricultural soils probably reflect the use of fertilizers. The application of geoscience techniques allowed us to obtain important information on their behaviour and socio-economic development. This paper constitutes the first pedogeochemical approach to the study of Argentinean pre-Hispanic agricultural soils.

  2. Fields of dreams: Agriculture, economy and nature in Midwest United States biofuel production

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gillon, Sean Thomas

    This work explores the social and ecological dimensions of recent biofuel production increases in the United States (US), focusing on the case of Iowa. Biofuels are proposed to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, improve US energy security, and support rural economies. Little research has examined how increased US Midwestern biofuels production will change social and ecological outcomes at farm and regional levels or interact with broader governance processes at the nexus of agriculture, energy and environment. These broad questions guide my research: (1) How does biofuel production reconfigure agricultural practice and landscapes in Iowa? (2) What are the costs, benefits and risks of increased biofuels production as seen by farmers and rural residents, and how do these factors influence farmer decisions about agriculture and conservation practice? (3) How and with what effects are biofuels initiatives constituted as a form of environmental governance through scientific knowledge and practice and political economic dynamics? To address these questions, this research integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods, drawing on a political ecological approach complemented by agroecological analysis and theoretical insights from geographical analyses of nature-society relations. Quantitative analysis focuses on changing land use patterns in agriculture and conservation practice in Iowa. Qualitative methods include extensive interviews, participant observation, and policy and document analyses. Fieldwork focused on Northeastern Iowa to understand regional changes in agricultural and conservation practice, the renegotiated position of farmers in agriculture and biofuel production, and biofuel industry development. I find that biofuel production presents significant social and ecological challenges for rural places of production. Longstanding, unequal political economic relations in industrialized agriculture limit rural economic benefits

  3. Longleaf pine wood and straw yields from two old-field planted sites in Georgia

    Treesearch

    E. David Dickens; David J. Moorhead; Bryan C. McElvany; Ray Hicks

    2012-01-01

    Little is known or published concerning longleaf pine’s growth rate, or wood and pine straw yields on old-field sites. Two study areas were installed in unthinned longleaf plantations established on former old-fields in Screven and Tift Counties, Georgia to address pine growth and straw yields. Soil series were delineated and replicated plots with three levels of...

  4. Rocky Mountain snowpack physical and chemical data for selected sites, 2010

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ingersoll, George P.; Mast, M. Alisa; Swank, James M.; Campbell, Chelsea D.

    2010-01-01

    The Rocky Mountain Snowpack program established a network of snowpack-sampling sites in the Rocky Mountain region, from New Mexico to Montana, to monitor the chemical content of snow and to understand the effects of regional atmospheric deposition on freshwater systems. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service; the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service; the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Teton County, Wyoming; and others, annually collected and analyzed snow-pack samples at 48 or more sites in the Rocky Mountain region during 1993-2010. Sixty-three snowpack-sampling sites were each sampled once in 2010, and those data are presented in this report. Data include acid-neutralization capacity, specific conductance, pH, hydrogen ion concentrations, dissolved concentrations of major constituents (calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, ammonium, chloride, sulfate, and nitrate), dissolved organic carbon concentrations, snow-water equivalent, snow depth, total mercury concentrations, and ionic charge balance. Quality-assurance data for field and laboratory blanks and field replicates for 2010 also are included.

  5. The pH-dependent Structures of the Manganese Binding Sites in Oxalate Decarboxylase as Revealed by High-Field Electron Paramagnetic Resonance

    PubMed Central

    Tabares, Leandro C.; Gätjens, Jessica; Hureau, Christelle; Burrell, Matthew R.; Bowater, Laura; Pecoraro, Vincent L.; Bornemann, Stephen; Un, Sun

    2009-01-01

    A high-field electron paramagnetic resonance (HFEPR) study of oxalate decarboxylase (OxdC) is reported. OxdC breaks down oxalate to carbon dioxide and formate and possesses two distinct manganese(II) binding sites, referred to as site-1 and -2. The Mn(II) zero-field interaction was used to probe the electronic state of the metal ion and to examine chemical/mechanistic roles of each of the Mn(II) centers. High magnetic-fields were exploited not only to resolve the two sites, but also to measure accurately the Mn(II) zero-field parameters of each of the sites. The spectra exhibited surprisingly complex behavior as a function of pH. Six different species were identified based on their zero-field interactions, two corresponding to site-1 and four states to site-2. The assignments were verified using a mutant that only affected site-1. The speciation data determined from the HFEPR spectra for site -2 was consistent with a simple triprotic equilibrium model, while the pH dependence of site-1 could be described by a single pKa. This pH dependence was independent of the presence of the His-tag and of whether the preparations contained 1.2 or 1.6 Mn per subunit. Possible structures of the six species are proposed based on spectroscopic data from model complexes and existing protein crystallographic structures obtained at pH 8 are discussed. Although site-1 has been identified as the active site and no role has been assigned to site-2, the pronounced changes in the electronic structure of the latter and its pH behavior, which also matches the pH-dependent activity of this enzyme, suggests that even if the conversion of oxalate to formate is carried out at site-1, site-2 likely plays a catalytically relevant role. PMID:19505123

  6. Field and wind tunnel comparison of four aerosol samplers using agricultural dusts.

    PubMed

    Reynolds, Stephen J; Nakatsu, Jason; Tillery, Marvin; Keefe, Thomas; Mehaffy, John; Thorne, Peter S; Donham, Kelley; Nonnenmann, Matthew; Golla, Vijay; O'shaughnessy, Patrick

    2009-08-01

    Occupational lung disease is a significant problem among agricultural workers exposed to organic dusts. Measurements of exposure in agricultural environments in the USA have traditionally been conducted using 37-mm closed-face cassettes (CFCs) and respirable Cyclones. Inhalable aerosol samplers offer significant improvement for dose estimation studies to reduce respiratory disease. The goals of this study were to determine correction factors between the inhalable samplers (IOM and Button) and the CFC and Cyclone for dusts sampled in livestock buildings and to determine whether these factors vary among livestock types. Determination of these correction factors will allow comparison between inhalable measurements and historical measurements. Ten sets of samples were collected in swine, chicken, turkey, and dairy facilities in both Colorado and Iowa. Pairs of each sampling device were attached to the front and back of a rotating mannequin. Laboratory studies using a still-air chamber and a wind tunnel provided information regarding the effect of wind speed on sampler performance. Overall, the IOM had the lowest coefficient of variation (best precision) and was least affected by changes in wind speed. The performance of the Button was negatively impacted in poultry environments where larger (feather) particulates clogged the holes in the initial screen. The CFC/IOM ratios are important for comparisons between newer and older studies. Wind speed and dust type were both important factors affecting ratios. Based on the field studies (Table 6), a ratio of 0.56 is suggested as a conversion factor for the CFC/IOM (average for all environments because of no statistical difference). Suggested conversion factors for the Button/IOM are swine (0.57), chicken (0.80), turkey (0.53), and dairy (0.67). Any attempt to apply a conversion factor between the Cyclone and inhalable samplers is not recommended.

  7. Use of carborne measured gamma-ray K/Th ratio for estimation of texture at different field sites across Europe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dierke, C.; Werban, U.; Dietrich, P.

    2011-12-01

    In the past gamma-ray measurements were used for geological survey from aircraft and in borehole logging for deposit exploration and geological survey. For these applications the relationships between the physical measured parameter - the concentration of natural gamma emitter 40K, 238U and 232Th - and geological origin or sedimentary developments are described well. Based on these applications and knowledge in combination with adjusted sensor systems, gamma-ray measurements seem to be also a useful and fast tool for soil characterization. The measured isotope concentration in soils depends on different soil parameters, which are the result of composition and properties of parent rock and processes during soil geneses under different climatic conditions. Grain size distribution, type of clay minerals and organic matter are soil parameters which influence the gamma-ray concentration directly. Many applications of gamma-ray measurements for soil characterisation and digital soil mapping (DSM) are known from e.g. Australia and during the last years there are attempts to use that method in Europe as well. One main influencing factor for nuclide concentration in soils is the grain size. Megumi (1977) found with decreasing particle size an increase in nuclide concentration, which can be explained by higher specific surface and resulting higher surface adsorption for smaller particles. We did systematic measurements at different field sites across Central Europe to investigate the relationship between concentration of gamma emitter and the grain size distribution of top soil. For the measurements we choose field sites with different pedogenesis and range in clay content. For survey we used a 4l NaI(Tl) detector, which is mounted on a sledge an can be towed by a four-wheel-vehicle across the agricultural used field sites. The measured nuclide concentrations were compared with grain size distribution data of fine soil (< 2 mm). For interpretation we used single nuclide

  8. Occurrence of pesticides in rain and air in urban and agricultural areas of Mississippi, April-September 1995.

    PubMed

    Coupe, R H; Manning, M A; Foreman, W T; Goolsby, D A; Majewski, M S

    2000-04-05

    In April 1995, the US Geological Survey began a study to determine the occurrence and temporal distribution of 49 pesticides and pesticide metabolites in air and rain samples from an urban and an agricultural sampling site in Mississippi. The study was a joint effort between the National Water-Quality Assessment and the Toxic Substances Programs and was part of a larger study examining the occurrence and temporal distribution of pesticides in air and rain in the Mississippi River basin. Concurrent high-volume air and wet-only deposition samples were collected weekly. The air samplers consisted of a glass-fiber filter to collect particles and tandem polyurethane foam plugs to collect gas-phase pesticides. Every rain and air sample collected from the urban and agricultural sites had detectable levels of multiple pesticides. The magnitude of the total concentration was 5-10 times higher at the agricultural site as compared to the urban site. The pesticide with the highest concentration in rain at both sites was methyl parathion. The pesticide with the highest concentration in the air samples from the agricultural site was also methyl parathion, but from the urban site the highest concentration was diazinon followed closely by chlorpyrifos. More than two decades since p,p'-DDT was banned from use in the United States, p,p'-DDE, a metabolite of p,p'-DDT, was detected in every air sample collected from the agricultural site and in more than half of the air samples from the urban site.

  9. A Combined Approach of Sensor Data Fusion and Multivariate Geostatistics for Delineation of Homogeneous Zones in an Agricultural Field

    PubMed Central

    Castrignanò, Annamaria; Quarto, Ruggiero; Vitti, Carolina; Langella, Giuliano; Terribile, Fabio

    2017-01-01

    To assess spatial variability at the very fine scale required by Precision Agriculture, different proximal and remote sensors have been used. They provide large amounts and different types of data which need to be combined. An integrated approach, using multivariate geostatistical data-fusion techniques and multi-source geophysical sensor data to determine simple summary scale-dependent indices, is described here. These indices can be used to delineate management zones to be submitted to differential management. Such a data fusion approach with geophysical sensors was applied in a soil of an agronomic field cropped with tomato. The synthetic regionalized factors determined, contributed to split the 3D edaphic environment into two main horizontal structures with different hydraulic properties and to disclose two main horizons in the 0–1.0-m depth with a discontinuity probably occurring between 0.40 m and 0.70 m. Comparing this partition with the soil properties measured with a shallow sampling, it was possible to verify the coherence in the topsoil between the dielectric properties and other properties more directly related to agronomic management. These results confirm the advantages of using proximal sensing as a preliminary step in the application of site-specific management. Combining disparate spatial data (data fusion) is not at all a naive problem and novel and powerful methods need to be developed. PMID:29207510

  10. A Combined Approach of Sensor Data Fusion and Multivariate Geostatistics for Delineation of Homogeneous Zones in an Agricultural Field.

    PubMed

    Castrignanò, Annamaria; Buttafuoco, Gabriele; Quarto, Ruggiero; Vitti, Carolina; Langella, Giuliano; Terribile, Fabio; Venezia, Accursio

    2017-12-03

    To assess spatial variability at the very fine scale required by Precision Agriculture, different proximal and remote sensors have been used. They provide large amounts and different types of data which need to be combined. An integrated approach, using multivariate geostatistical data-fusion techniques and multi-source geophysical sensor data to determine simple summary scale-dependent indices, is described here. These indices can be used to delineate management zones to be submitted to differential management. Such a data fusion approach with geophysical sensors was applied in a soil of an agronomic field cropped with tomato. The synthetic regionalized factors determined, contributed to split the 3D edaphic environment into two main horizontal structures with different hydraulic properties and to disclose two main horizons in the 0-1.0-m depth with a discontinuity probably occurring between 0.40 m and 0.70 m. Comparing this partition with the soil properties measured with a shallow sampling, it was possible to verify the coherence in the topsoil between the dielectric properties and other properties more directly related to agronomic management. These results confirm the advantages of using proximal sensing as a preliminary step in the application of site-specific management. Combining disparate spatial data (data fusion) is not at all a naive problem and novel and powerful methods need to be developed.

  11. Clearing the waters: Evaluating the need for site-specific field fluorescence corrections based on turbidity measurements

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Saraceno, John F.; Shanley, James B.; Downing, Bryan D.; Pellerin, Brian A.

    2017-01-01

    In situ fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) measurements have gained increasing popularity as a proxy for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in streams. One challenge to accurate fDOM measurements in many streams is light attenuation due to suspended particles. Downing et al. (2012) evaluated the need for corrections to compensate for particle interference on fDOM measurements using a single sediment standard in a laboratory study. The application of those results to a large river improved unfiltered field fDOM accuracy. We tested the same correction equation in a headwater tropical stream and found that it overcompensated fDOM when turbidity exceeded ∼300 formazin nephelometric units (FNU). Therefore, we developed a site-specific, field-based fDOM correction equation through paired in situ fDOM measurements of filtered and unfiltered streamwater. The site-specific correction increased fDOM accuracy up to a turbidity as high as 700 FNU, the maximum observed in this study. The difference in performance between the laboratory-based correction equation of Downing et al. (2012) and our site-specific, field-based correction equation likely arises from differences in particle size distribution between the sediment standard used in the lab (silt) and that observed in our study (fine to medium sand), particularly during high flows. Therefore, a particle interference correction equation based on a single sediment type may not be ideal when field sediment size is significantly different. Given that field fDOM corrections for particle interference under turbid conditions are a critical component in generating accurate DOC estimates, we describe a way to develop site-specific corrections.

  12. Field demonstration of on-site analytical methods for TNT and RDX in ground water

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Craig, H.; Ferguson, G.; Markos, A.

    1996-12-31

    A field demonstration was conducted to assess the performance of eight commercially-available and emerging colorimetric, immunoassay, and biosensor on-site analytical methods for explosives 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) in ground water and leachate at the Umatilla Army Depot Activity, Hermiston, Oregon and US Naval Submarine Base, Bangor, Washington, Superfund sites. Ground water samples were analyzed by each of the on-site methods and results compared to laboratory analysis using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with EPA SW-846 Method 8330. The commercial methods evaluated include the EnSys, Inc., TNT and RDX colorimetric test kits (EPA SW-846 Methods 8515 and 8510) with amore » solid phase extraction (SPE) step, the DTECH/EM Science TNT and RDX immunoassay test kits (EPA SW-846 Methods 4050 and 4051), and the Ohmicron TNT immunoassay test kit. The emerging methods tested include the antibody-based Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Continuous Flow Immunosensor (CFI) for TNT and RDX, and the Fiber Optic Biosensor (FOB) for TNT. Accuracy of the on-site methods were evaluated using linear regression analysis and relative percent difference (RPD) comparison criteria. Over the range of conditions tested, the colorimetric methods for TNT and RDX showed the highest accuracy of the emerging methods for TNT and RDX. The colorimetric method was selected for routine ground water monitoring at the Umatilla site, and further field testing on the NRL CFI and FOB biosensors will continue at both Superfund sites.« less

  13. Patterns of water infiltration and soil degradation over a 120-yr chronosequence from forest to agriculture in western Kenya

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nyberg, G.; Bargués Tobella, A.; Kinyangi, J.; Ilstedt, U.

    2011-07-01

    Soil degradation is commonly reported in the tropics where forest is converted to agriculture. Much of the native forest in the highlands of western Kenya has been converted to agricultural land in order to feed the growing population, and more land is being cleared. In tropical Africa, this land use change results in progressive soil degradation, as the period of cultivation increases. Sites that were converted to agriculture at different times can be evaluated as a chronosequence; this can aid in our understanding of the processes at work, particularly those in the soil. Both levels and variation of infiltration, soil carbon and other parameters are influenced by management within agricultural systems, but they have rarely been well documented in East Africa. We constructed a chronosequence for an area of western Kenya, using two native forest sites and six fields that had been converted to agriculture for varying lengths of time. We assessed changes in infiltrability (the steady-state infiltration rate), soil C and N, bulk density, δ13C, and the proportion of macro- and microaggregates in soil along a 119 yr chronosequence of conversion from natural forest to agriculture. Infiltration, soil C and N, decreased rapidly after conversion, while bulk density increased. Median infiltration rates fell to about 15 % of the initial values in the forest and C and N values dropped to around 60 %, whilst the bulk density increased by 50 %. Despite high spatial variability in infiltrability, these parameters correlated well with time since conversion and with each other. Our results indicate that landscape planners should include wooded elements in the landscape in sufficient quantity to ensure water infiltration at rates that prevent runoff and erosion. This should be the case for restoring degraded landscapes, as well as for the development of new agricultural areas.

  14. New technologies and worker safety in western agriculture.

    PubMed

    Fenske, Richard A

    2009-01-01

    The New Paths: Health and Safety in Western Agriculture conference, November 11-13, 2008, highlighted the role of technological innovation in agricultural production. The tree fruit industry in the Pacific Northwest has adopted a "technology road map" to reduce production costs and improve efficiency. An agricultural tour provided field demonstrations and discussions on such topics as mobile work platforms in orchards, traumatic and musculoskeletal injuries, and new pest control technologies. Occupational safety and health research will need to adapt to and keep pace with rapid changes in agricultural production processes.

  15. Automated ortho-rectification of UAV-based hyperspectral data over an agricultural field using frame RGB imagery

    DOE PAGES

    Habib, Ayman; Han, Youkyung; Xiong, Weifeng; ...

    2016-09-24

    mechanized agricultural field. Identified features are then used to improve the geometric fidelity of the previously ortho-rectified hyperspectral data. Lastly, experimental results from two real datasets show that the geometric rectification of the hyperspectral data was improved by almost one order of magnitude.« less

  16. Automated ortho-rectification of UAV-based hyperspectral data over an agricultural field using frame RGB imagery

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Habib, Ayman; Han, Youkyung; Xiong, Weifeng

    mechanized agricultural field. Identified features are then used to improve the geometric fidelity of the previously ortho-rectified hyperspectral data. Lastly, experimental results from two real datasets show that the geometric rectification of the hyperspectral data was improved by almost one order of magnitude.« less

  17. 9 CFR 149.7 - Recordkeeping at site.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Recordkeeping at site. 149.7 Section... AGRICULTURE LIVESTOCK IMPROVEMENT VOLUNTARY TRICHINAE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM § 149.7 Recordkeeping at site. (a) Stage I enrolled sites, Stage II or Stage III certified sites, and any site that has been suspended or...

  18. 9 CFR 149.7 - Recordkeeping at site.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Recordkeeping at site. 149.7 Section... AGRICULTURE LIVESTOCK IMPROVEMENT VOLUNTARY TRICHINAE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM § 149.7 Recordkeeping at site. (a) Stage I enrolled sites, Stage II or Stage III certified sites, and any site that has been suspended or...

  19. 9 CFR 149.7 - Recordkeeping at site.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Recordkeeping at site. 149.7 Section... AGRICULTURE LIVESTOCK IMPROVEMENT VOLUNTARY TRICHINAE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM § 149.7 Recordkeeping at site. (a) Stage I enrolled sites, Stage II or Stage III certified sites, and any site that has been suspended or...

  20. Feasibility of recycling excess agricultural nitrate with electrodialysis

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    One of the most serious environmental problems associated with agriculture is excessive nitrate-N in waters leaving fields. It is a local health hazard in drinking water and a primary cause of hypoxia in continental ocean waters receiving drainage from agricultural regions. Many of the recent miti...

  1. Ammonia emissions, transport, and deposition downwind of agricultural areas at local to regional scales

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zondlo, Mark; Pan, Da; Golston, Levi; Sun, Kang; Tao, Lei

    2016-04-01

    Ammonia (NH3) emissions from agricultural areas show extreme spatiotemporal variations, yet agricultural emissions dominate the global NH3 budget and ammoniated aerosols are a dominant component of unhealthy fine particulate matter. The emissions of NH3 and their deposition near and downwind of agricultural areas is complex. As part of a multi-year field intensive along the Colorado Front Range (including the NASA DISCOVER-AQ and NSF FRAPPE field experiments), we have examined temporal emissions of NH3 from feedlots, regional transport of ammonia and ammoniated aerosols from the plains to relatively pristine regions in Rocky Mountain National Park, and dry deposition and re-emission of grassland NH3 in the park. Eddy covariance measurements at feedlots and natural grasslands in the mountains were conducted with newly-developed open-path, eddy covariance laser-based sensors for NH3 (0.7 ng NH3/m2/s detection limit at 10 Hz). These measurements were coupled with other NH3/NHx measurements from mobile laboratories, aircraft, and satellite to examine the transport of NH3 from agricultural areas to cleaner regions downwind. At the farm level, eddy covariance NH3 fluxes showed a strong diurnal component correlated with temperature regardless of the season but with higher absolute emissions in summer than winter. While farm-to-farm variability (N=62 feedlots) was high, similar diurnal trends were observed at all sites regardless of individual farm type (dairy, beef, sheep, poultry, pig). Deposition at scales of several km showed relatively small deposition (10% loss) based upon NH3/CH4 tracer correlations, though the NH3 concentrations were so elevated (up to ppmv) that these losses should not be neglected when considering near-farm deposition. Ammonia was efficiently transported at least 150 km during upslope events to the Colorado Front Range (ele. 3000-4000 m) based upon aircraft, mobile laboratory, and model measurements. The gas phase lifetime of NH3 was estimated to

  2. Agriculture and stream water quality: A biological evaluation of erosion control practices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lenat, David R.

    1984-07-01

    Agricultural runoff affects many streams in North Carolina. However, there is is little information about either its effect on stream biota or any potential mitigation by erosion control practices. In this study, benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled in three different geographic areas of North Carolina, comparing control watersheds with well-managed and poorly managed watersheds. Agricultural streams were characterized by lower taxa richness (especially for intolerant groups) and low stability. These effects were most evident at the poorly managed sites. Sedimentation was the apparent major problem, but some changes at agricultural sites implied water quality problems. The groups most intolerant of agricultural runoff were Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera. Tolerant species were usually filter-feeders or algal grazers, suggesting a modification of the food web by addition of particulate organic matter and nutrients. This study clearly indicates that agricultural runoff can severely impact stream biota. However, this impact can be greatly mitigated by currently recommended erosion control practices.

  3. Effects of agricultural practices on organic matter degradation in ditches

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hunting, Ellard R.; Vonk, J. Arie; Musters, C. J. M.; Kraak, Michiel H. S.; Vijver, Martina G.

    2016-02-01

    Agricultural practices can result in differences in organic matter (OM) and agricultural chemical inputs in adjacent ditches, but its indirect effects on OM composition and its inherent consequences for ecosystem functioning remain uncertain. This study determined the effect of agricultural practices (dairy farm grasslands and hyacinth bulb fields) on OM degradation by microorganisms and invertebrates with a consumption and food preference experiment in the field and in the laboratory using natural OM collected from the field. Freshly cut grass and hyacinths were also offered to control for OM composition and large- and small mesh-sizes were used to distinguish microbial decomposition and invertebrate consumption. Results show that OM decomposition by microorganisms and consumption by invertebrates was similar throughout the study area, but that OM collected from ditches adjacent grasslands and freshly cut grass and hyacinths were preferred over OM collected from ditches adjacent to a hyacinth bulb field. In the case of OM collected from ditches adjacent hyacinth bulb fields, both microbial decomposition and invertebrate consumption were strongly retarded, likely resulting from sorption and accumulation of pesticides. This outcome illustrates that differences in agricultural practices can, in addition to direct detrimental effects on aquatic organisms, indirectly alter the functioning of adjacent aquatic ecosystems.

  4. Capability of Hyperspectral data in Spatial Variability Distribution of Chlorophyll and Water Stress in Rice Agriculture System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moharana, S.; Dutta, S.

    2016-12-01

    Abstract : The mapping and analysis of spatial variability within the field is a challenging task. However, field variability of a single vegetation cover does not give satisfactory results mainly due to low spectral resolution and non-availability of remote sensing data. From the NASA Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite data, spatial distribution of biophysical parameters like chlorophyll and relative water content in a rice agriculture system is carried out in the present study. Hyperion L1R product composed of 242 spectral bands with 30m spatial resolution was acquired for Assam, India. This high dimensional data is allowed for pre-processing to get an atmospherically corrected imagery. Moreover, ground based hyperspectral measurements are collected from experimental rice fields from the study site using hand held ASD spectroradiometer (350-1050 nm). Published indices specifically designed for chlorophyll (OASVI, mSR, and MTCI indices) and water content (WI and WBI indices) are selected based on stastical performance of the in-situ hyperspectral data. Index models are established for the respective biophysical parameters and observed that the aforementioned indices followed different linear and nonlinear relationships which are completely different from the published indices. By employing the presently developed relationships, spatial variation of total chlorophyll and water stress are mapped for a rice agriculture system from Hyperion imagery. The findings showed that, the variation of chlorophyll and water content ranged from 1.77-10.61mg/g and 40-90% respectively for the studied rice agriculture system. The spatial distribution of these parameters resulted from presently developed index models are well captured from Hyperion imagery and they have good agreement with observed field based chlorophyll (1.14-7.26 mg/g) and water content (60-95%) of paddy crop. This study can be useful in providing essential information to assess the paddy field heterogeneity in an

  5. [Wildlife damage mitigation in agricultural crops in a Bolivian montane forest].

    PubMed

    Perez, Eddy; Pacheco, Luis F

    2014-12-01

    Wildlife is often blamed for causing damage to human activities, including agricultural practices and the result may be a conflict between human interests and species conservation. A formal assessment of the magnitude of damage is necessary to adequately conduct management practices and an assessment of the efficiency of different management practices is necessary to enable managers to mitigate the conflict with rural people. This study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural management practices and controlled hunting in reducing damage to subsistence annual crops at the Cotapata National Park and Natural Area of Integrated Management. The design included seven fields with modified agricultural practices, four fields subjected to control hunting, and five fields held as controls. We registered cultivar type, density, frequency of visiting species to the field, crops lost to wildlife, species responsible for damage, and crop biomass. Most frequent species in the fields were Dasyprocta punctata and Dasypus novemcinctus. Hunted plots were visited 1.6 times more frequently than agriculturally managed plots. Crop lost to wildlife averaged 7.28% at agriculturally managed plots, 4.59% in plots subjected to hunting, and 27.61% in control plots. Species mainly responsible for damage were Pecari tajacu, D. punctata, and Sapajus apella. We concluded that both management strategies were effective to reduce damage by >50% as compared to unmanaged crop plots.

  6. Implementation of a DOD ELAP Conforming Quality System at a FUSRAP Site Field Temporary Radiological Screening Laboratory - 13500

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Winters, M.S.; McElheny, G.; Houston, L.M.

    2013-07-01

    A case study is presented on specific program elements that supported the transition of a temporary field radiological screening lab to an accredited operation capable of meeting client quality objectives for definitive results data. The temporary field lab is located at the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program Linde Site in Tonawanda, NY. The site is undergoing remediation under the direction of the United States Army Corps of Engineers - Buffalo District, with Cabrera Services Inc. as the remediation contractor and operator of the on-site lab. Analysis methods employed in the on-site lab include gross counting of alpha and betamore » particle activity on swipes and air filters and gamma spectroscopy of soils and other solid samples. A discussion of key program elements and lessons learned may help other organizations considering pursuit of accreditation for on-site screening laboratories. (authors)« less

  7. 49 CFR 173.5 - Agricultural operations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... transportation of an agricultural product over local roads between fields of the same farm is excepted from the requirements of this subchapter. A Class 2 material transported over local roads between fields of the same... must be painted white, aluminum, or other light-reflecting color. (8) Transportation of the filled...

  8. 49 CFR 173.5 - Agricultural operations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... transportation of an agricultural product over local roads between fields of the same farm is excepted from the requirements of this subchapter. A Class 2 material transported over local roads between fields of the same... must be painted white, aluminum, or other light-reflecting color. (8) Transportation of the filled...

  9. 49 CFR 173.5 - Agricultural operations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... transportation of an agricultural product over local roads between fields of the same farm is excepted from the requirements of this subchapter. A Class 2 material transported over local roads between fields of the same... must be painted white, aluminum, or other light-reflecting color. (8) Transportation of the filled...

  10. 49 CFR 173.5 - Agricultural operations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... transportation of an agricultural product over local roads between fields of the same farm is excepted from the requirements of this subchapter. A Class 2 material transported over local roads between fields of the same... must be painted white, aluminum, or other light-reflecting color. (8) Transportation of the filled...

  11. Intensive agriculture erodes β-diversity at large scales.

    PubMed

    Karp, Daniel S; Rominger, Andrew J; Zook, Jim; Ranganathan, Jai; Ehrlich, Paul R; Daily, Gretchen C

    2012-09-01

    Biodiversity is declining from unprecedented land conversions that replace diverse, low-intensity agriculture with vast expanses under homogeneous, intensive production. Despite documented losses of species richness, consequences for β-diversity, changes in community composition between sites, are largely unknown, especially in the tropics. Using a 10-year data set on Costa Rican birds, we find that low-intensity agriculture sustained β-diversity across large scales on a par with forest. In high-intensity agriculture, low local (α) diversity inflated β-diversity as a statistical artefact. Therefore, at small spatial scales, intensive agriculture appeared to retain β-diversity. Unlike in forest or low-intensity systems, however, high-intensity agriculture also homogenised vegetation structure over large distances, thereby decoupling the fundamental ecological pattern of bird communities changing with geographical distance. This ~40% decline in species turnover indicates a significant decline in β-diversity at large spatial scales. These findings point the way towards multi-functional agricultural systems that maintain agricultural productivity while simultaneously conserving biodiversity. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/CNRS.

  12. 7 CFR 3560.353 - Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. 3560.353... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DIRECT MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING LOANS AND GRANTS Agency Monitoring § 3560.353 Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. Generally, the Agency will provide the borrower prior...

  13. 7 CFR 3560.353 - Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. 3560.353... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DIRECT MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING LOANS AND GRANTS Agency Monitoring § 3560.353 Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. Generally, the Agency will provide the borrower prior...

  14. 7 CFR 3560.353 - Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. 3560.353... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DIRECT MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING LOANS AND GRANTS Agency Monitoring § 3560.353 Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. Generally, the Agency will provide the borrower prior...

  15. 7 CFR 3560.353 - Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. 3560.353... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DIRECT MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING LOANS AND GRANTS Agency Monitoring § 3560.353 Scheduling of on-site monitoring reviews. Generally, the Agency will provide the borrower prior...

  16. Genetic variability of spined soldier bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) sampled from distinct field sites and laboratory colonies in the United States

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The spined soldier bug, Podisus maculiventris (Say), is an important biological control agent for agricultural and forest pests that preys on eggs and larvae of lepidopteran and coleopteran species. Genetic variability among field collected samples from Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and Florida, ...

  17. Resource concentration dilutes a key pest in indigenous potato agriculture.

    PubMed

    Parsa, Soroush; Ccanto, Raul; Rosenheim, Jay A

    2011-03-01

    Modern restructuring of agricultural landscapes, due to the expansion of monocultures and the resulting elimination of non-crop habitat, is routinely blamed for rising populations of agricultural insect pests. However, landscape studies demonstrating a positive correlation between pest densities and the spatial extent of crop monocultures are rare. We test this hypothesis with a data set from 140 subsistence farms in the Andes and find the inverse correlation. Infestations by the Andean potato weevil (Premnotrypes spp.), the most important pest in Andean potato agriculture, decrease with increasing amounts of potato in the landscape. A statistical model predicts that aggregating potato fields may outperform the management of Andean potato weevils by IPM and chemical control. We speculate that the strong pest suppression generated by aggregating potato fields may partly explain why indigenous potato farmers cluster their potato fields under a traditional rotation system common in Andean agriculture (i.e., "sectoral fallow"). Our results suggest that some agricultural pests may also respond negatively to the expansion of monocultures, and that manipulating the spatial arrangement of host crops may offer an important tool for some IPM programs.

  18. What good are unmanned aircraft systems for agricultural remote sensing and precision agriculture?

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Civilian applications of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, also called drones) are rapidly expanding into crop production. UAS acquire high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery that can be used three different ways in agriculture. One is to assist crop scouts looking for problems in crop fields....

  19. A Food Systems Approach To Healthy Food And Agriculture Policy.

    PubMed

    Neff, Roni A; Merrigan, Kathleen; Wallinga, David

    2015-11-01

    Food has become a prominent focus of US public health policy. The emphasis has been almost exclusively on what Americans eat, not what is grown or how it is grown. A field of research, policy, and practice activities addresses the food-health-agriculture nexus, yet the work is still often considered "alternative" to the mainstream. This article outlines the diverse ways in which agriculture affects public health. It then describes three policy issues: farm-to-school programming, sustainability recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and antibiotic use in animal agriculture. These issues illustrate the progress, challenges, and public health benefits of taking a food systems approach that brings together the food, agriculture, and public health fields. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

  20. Agriculture's impact on microbial diversity and associated fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane

    PubMed Central

    Levine, Uri Y; Teal, Tracy K; Robertson, G Philip; Schmidt, Thomas M

    2011-01-01

    Agriculture has marked impacts on the production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and consumption of methane (CH4) by microbial communities in upland soils—Earth's largest biological sink for atmospheric CH4. To determine whether the diversity of microbes that catalyze the flux of these greenhouse gases is related to the magnitude and stability of these ecosystem-level processes, we conducted molecular surveys of CH4-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs) and total bacterial diversity across a range of land uses and measured the in situ flux of CH4 and CO2 at a site in the upper United States Midwest. Conversion of native lands to row-crop agriculture led to a sevenfold reduction in CH4 consumption and a proportionate decrease in methanotroph diversity. Sites with the greatest stability in CH4 consumption harbored the most methanotroph diversity. In fields abandoned from agriculture, the rate of CH4 consumption increased with time along with the diversity of methanotrophs. Conversely, estimates of total bacterial diversity in soil were not related to the rate or stability of CO2 emission. These combined results are consistent with the expectation that microbial diversity is a better predictor of the magnitude and stability of processes catalyzed by organisms with highly specialized metabolisms, like CH4 oxidation, as compared with processes driven by widely distributed metabolic processes, like CO2 production in heterotrophs. The data also suggest that managing lands to conserve or restore methanotroph diversity could mitigate the atmospheric concentrations of this potent greenhouse gas. PMID:21490688

  1. Clinical Experiences for Agricultural Teacher Education Programs in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dobbins, Thomas R.; Camp, William G.

    2003-01-01

    In a three-round Delphi, secondary agriculture teachers and administrators, field staff and agriculture teacher educators (n=31, 33, 29) compiled a list of 102 tasks for early field experiences and student teaching experiences in agricultural education. The list is comprehensive enough for the three states where it was developed and flexible…

  2. Net carbon balance of three full crop rotations at an agricultural site near Gebesee, Germany

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hurkuck, M.; Brümmer, C.; Kolle, O.; Kutsch, W. L.; Moffat, A. M.; Mukwashi, K.; Truckenbrodt, S. C.; Herbst, M.

    2015-12-01

    Continuous eddy-covariance (EC) measurements of biosphere-atmosphere CO2 and H2O exchange have been conducted since 2001 at an agricultural site near Gebesee, Germany, thus providing one of the longest EC time series of European croplands. During the experimental period, winter wheat and winter barley were alternately planted with potatoes, sugar beet, rape, and peppermint covering three full crop rotations (2001-2004, 2005-2009, and 2010-2014). In this study, data of 14 years of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) and evapotranspiration (E) were re-calculated. Based on these data, we present the net carbon (C) balance (net biome production, NBP) accounting for any additional C input by fertilization and C output by harvest. Further emphasis was placed on the sensitivity of water use efficiency (WUE) and E to climate and crop type. The main aim was to investigate the interannual variability in both NBP and WUE, thus disentangling the impacts of climatic conditions and land management on the net C balance as well as on WUE and E.

  3. Evaluating three trace metal contaminated sites: a field and laboratory investigation.

    PubMed

    Murray, P; Ge, Y; Hendershot, W H

    2000-01-01

    Selecting guidelines to evaluate elevated metals in urban brownfields is hindered by the lack of information for these sites on ecosystem structure and function. A study was performed to compare three trace metal-contaminated sites in the metropolitan Montreal area. The goal was to obtain an idea of the organisms that may be present on urban brownfields and to measure if elevated metals alter the presence and activity of the indigenous biota. Field and laboratory studies were conducted using simple methodologies to determine the extent to which microbial activity affected by trace metal content, to assess diversity of plant and soil invertebrate communities and to measure phytoaccumulation of trace metals. It was found that microbial activity, as measured by substrate-induced respiration (SIR) and nitrification, was not affected by the levels of soil Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn recorded on the sites. Seven of the 12 invertebrate groups collected were sampled on soils with similar Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrations. Diversity of plant species increased as a function of the length of time the sites had been inactive. Levels of metals in plant tissue were influenced by soil characteristics and not by total soil Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn.

  4. Response of benthic algae to environmental gradients in an agriculturally dominated landscape

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Munn, M.D.; Black, R.W.; Gruber, S.J.

    2002-01-01

    Benthic algal communities were assessed in an agriculturally dominated landscape in the Central Columbia Plateau, Washington, to determine which environmental variables best explained species distributions, and whether algae species optima models were useful in predicting specific water-quality parameters. Land uses in the study area included forest, range, urban, and agriculture. Most of the streams in this region can be characterized as open-channel systems influenced by intensive dryland (nonirrigated) and irrigated agriculture. Algal communities in forested streams were dominated by blue-green algae, with communities in urban and range streams dominated by diatoms. The predominance of either blue-greens or diatoms in agricultural streams varied greatly depending on the specific site. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicated a strong gradient effect of several key environmental variables on benthic algal community composition. Conductivity and % agriculture were the dominant explanatory variables when all sites (n = 24) were included in the CCA; water velocity replaced conductivity when the CCA included only agricultural and urban sites. Other significant explanatory variables included dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), orthophosphate (OP), discharge, and precipitation. Regression and calibration models accurately predicted conductivity based on benthic algal communities, with OP having slightly lower predictability. The model for DIN was poor, and therefore may be less useful in this system. Thirty-four algal taxa were identified as potential indicators of conductivity and nutrient conditions, with most indicators being diatoms except for the blue-greens Anabaenasp. and Lyngbya sp.

  5. Weather extremes could affect agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Balcerak, Ernie

    2012-05-01

    As Earth's climate warms, agricultural producers will need to adapt. Changes, especially increases in extreme events, are already having an impact on food production, according to speakers at a 1 May session on agriculture and food security at the AGU Science Policy Conference. Christopher Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science of Washington, D. C., pointed out the complex factors that come into play in understanding food security, including spatially varying controls and stresses, incomplete models, and the potential for threshold responses. Factors that are likely to cause problems include increasing population; increasing preference for meat, which needs more land and energy inputs to produce; climate change; and increasing use of agricultural lands for biomass energy.

  6. Do release-site biases reflect response to the Earth's magnetic field during position determination by homing pigeons?

    PubMed

    Mora, Cordula V; Walker, Michael M

    2009-09-22

    How homing pigeons (Columba livia) return to their loft from distant, unfamiliar sites has long been a mystery. At many release sites, untreated birds consistently vanish from view in a direction different from the home direction, a phenomenon called the release-site bias. These deviations in flight direction have been implicated in the position determination (or map) step of navigation because they may reflect local distortions in information about location that the birds obtain from the geophysical environment at the release site. Here, we performed a post hoc analysis of the relationship between vanishing bearings and local variations in magnetic intensity using previously published datasets for pigeons homing to lofts in Germany. Vanishing bearings of both experienced and naïve birds were strongly associated with magnetic intensity variations at release sites, with 90 per cent of bearings lying within +/-29 degrees of the magnetic intensity slope or contour direction. Our results (i) demonstrate that pigeons respond in an orderly manner to the local structure of the magnetic field at release sites, (ii) provide a mechanism for the occurrence of release-site biases and (iii) suggest that pigeons may derive spatial information from the magnetic field at the release site that could be used to estimate their current position relative to their loft.

  7. Occurrence of pesticides in rain and air in urban and agricultural areas of Mississippi, April-September 1995

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Coupe, R.H.; Manning, M.A.; Foreman, W.T.; Goolsby, D.A.; Majewski, M.S.

    2000-01-01

    In April 1995, the US Geological Survey began a study to determine the occurrence and temporal distribution of 49 pesticides and pesticide metabolites in air and rain samples from an urban and an agricultural sampling site in Mississippi. The study was a joint effort between the National Water-Quality Assessment and the Toxic Substances Programs and was part of a larger study examining the occurrence and temporal distribution of pesticides in air and rain in the Mississippi River basin. Concurrent high-volume air and wet-only deposition samples were collected weekly. The air samplers consisted of a glass-fiber filter to collect particles and tandem polyurethane foam plugs to collect gas-phase pesticides. Every rain and air sample collected from the urban and agricultural sites had detectable levels of multiple pesticides. The magnitude of the total concentration was 5-10 times higher at the agricultural site as compared to the urban site. The pesticide with the highest concentration in rain at both sites was methyl parathion. The pesticide with the highest concentration in the air samples from the agricultural site was also methyl parathion, but from the urban site the highest concentration was diazinon followed closely by chlorpyrifos. More than two decades since p,p'-DDT was banned from use in the United States, p,p'-DDE, a metabolite of p,p'-DDT, was detected in every air sample collected from the agricultural site and in more than half of the air samples from the urban site. Copyright (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.

  8. Multifunctional landscapes: Site characterization and field-scale design to incorporate biomass production into an agricultural system

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ssegane, Herbert; Negri, M. Cristina; Quinn, John

    Current and future demand for food, feed, fiber, and energy require novel approaches to land management, which demands that multifunctional landscapes are created to integrate various ecosystem functions into a sustainable land use. We developed an approach to design such landscapes at a field scale to minimize concerns of land use change, water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with production of food and bioenergy. This study leverages concepts of nutrient recovery and phytoremediation to place bioenergy crops on the landscape to recover nutrients released to watersheds by commodity crops. Crop placement is determined by evaluating spatial variability of: 1)more » soils, 2) surface flow pathways, 3) shallow groundwater flow gradients, 4) subsurface nitrate concentrations, and 5) primary crop yield. A 0.8 ha bioenergy buffer was designed within a 6.5 ha field to intercept concentrated surface flow, capture and use nitrate leachate, and minimize use of productive areas. Denitrification-Decomposition (DNDC) simulations show that on average, a switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.) or willow (Salix spp.) buffer within this catchment according to this design could reduce annual leached NO3 by 61 or 59% and N2O emission by 5.5 or 10.8%, respectively, produce 8.7 or 9.7 Mg ha-1 of biomass respectively, and displace 6.7 Mg ha-1 of corn (Zea mays L.) grain. Therefore, placement of bioenergy crops has the potential to increase environmental sustainability when the pairing of location and crop type result in minimal disruption of current food production systems and provides additional environmental benefits.« less

  9. Interactive effects of agricultural management and topography on soil carbon sequestration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ladoni, M.; Kravchenko, S.; Munoz, J.; Erickson, M.

    2012-12-01

    Proper agricultural management scenarios such as no-tillage, cover cropping, agroforestry, have demonstrated potential to increase the amount of carbon sequestered in soil and to mitigate atmospheric carbon levels. The knowledge about positive effects of cover cropping comes mostly from small uniform experimental plots, but whether these positive effects will exists in large scale fields with diverse topography and what would be the magnitude of these effects on a field scale remains to be seen. Our objective is to compare performance of different agricultural managements including those with cover crops in their influences on SOC across diverse topographical landscape in large agricultural fields. The three studied agricultural practices are Conventionally tilled and fertilized management without cover crops (T1), Low-input management with reduced chemical inputs (T3) and Organic (T4) management, the latter two have rye and red clover cover crops as part of their rotations. Within each field 1- 4 transects with three topographical positions of "depression", "slope" and "summit" were identified. The first soil sampling was done in spring 2010 and the second set of soil samples were collected from topographical positions during growing season of 2011. Samples were analyzed for total SOC and also particulate organic carbon (POC) content to show the changes in active pools of SOC. The results showed that topography has a significant influence in performance of cover crops. Agricultural managements with cover crops increased the POC in soil and the magnitude of this increase was different across space. Cover crops built the highest POC in depressions followed by summit and then slope. The conventional agricultural management increased POC in depression but decreased it on slopes. Low-input agricultural management when coupled with cover cropping has a potential to produce the highest increase in active pools of SOC across topographically diverse fields. The ratio of

  10. Foraging in maize field areas: A risky business?

    PubMed

    Boily, Monique; Aras, Philippe; Jumarie, Catherine

    2017-12-01

    In Quebec, Canada, the cultivation of maize dominates the agricultural territory. This crop requires a sustained supply of fertilizers from different sources: chemical, natural or from residual materials (sludge). These amendments contain metallic trace elements, which may lead to metal-contaminated maize pollen, a possible source of prooxidants for the foraging bees. Our objective was to determine whether maize fields environment influences the oxidation processes and the accumulation of metals in bees. A few days prior to pollen shedding, beehives were installed in maize fields: one organically grown (site A) and three conventionally grown (sites B, C and D). Soil, maize pollen and bees were analyzed for metal content. Every 15days, bees were collected and analyzed for peroxidation of lipids, metallothionein-like proteins (MTLPs), proteins, retinoids and lipophilic antioxidants (carotenoids and α-tocopherol). The compound β-carotene was the most abundant in bees from all sites, followed by α-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, α-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin and lutein. Retinaldehyde and retinol varied according to times and sites without demonstrating clear trends. However, significant differences between sites were noted in 13-cis-retinoic acid and two retinoic acid metabolites measured in bees, suggesting alteration in the reduction-oxidation processes. In line with these results, the level of lipid peroxidation was globally higher in sites B, C and D compared with the organic site. Higher concentrations of metals were observed in soil and pollen from the field A, but bees metal contents were equal or less than those measured in bees from other sites. Higher bee MTLP levels were measured in sites B, C and D. For most sampling times, the discriminant analysis revealed that the conditions were distinguished by the oxidation processes in bees. Our data suggest that bees foraging in conventionally grown maize fields are at risk of increased oxidative damages which can

  11. 7 CFR 205.403 - On-site inspections.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) ORGANIC FOODS PRODUCTION ACT PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Certification § 205.403 On-site inspections. (a) On-site inspections. (1... site that produces or handles organic products and that is included in an operation for which...

  12. 7 CFR 205.403 - On-site inspections.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) ORGANIC FOODS PRODUCTION ACT PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Certification § 205.403 On-site inspections. (a) On-site inspections. (1... site that produces or handles organic products and that is included in an operation for which...

  13. 7 CFR 205.403 - On-site inspections.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) ORGANIC FOODS PRODUCTION ACT PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Certification § 205.403 On-site inspections. (a) On-site inspections. (1... site that produces or handles organic products and that is included in an operation for which...

  14. 7 CFR 205.403 - On-site inspections.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) ORGANIC FOODS PRODUCTION ACT PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Certification § 205.403 On-site inspections. (a) On-site inspections. (1... site that produces or handles organic products and that is included in an operation for which...

  15. 7 CFR 205.403 - On-site inspections.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) ORGANIC FOODS PRODUCTION ACT PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Certification § 205.403 On-site inspections. (a) On-site inspections. (1... site that produces or handles organic products and that is included in an operation for which...

  16. Mycorrhizae and their potential use in the agricultural and forestry industries.

    PubMed

    Peterson, R L; Piché, Y; Plenchette, C

    1984-01-01

    Mycorrhizal fungi associated with plant roots increase the absorption of nutrients, particularly phosphorus, and thus enhance the growth of crop plants and trees. Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) occur in approximately 90% of all vascular plants including most of the important agricultural species, whereas ectomycorrhizae are found in most of the economically important tree species of the temperate regions of the world, and in some tropical trees. These symbiotic associations are, therefore, important in crop and biomass production. For this reason they are receiving considerable attention in agriculture and forestry. Currently, VAM are utilized in fumigated soils, greenhouse crops, and in the reclamation of disturbed sites. Ectomycorrhizae are employed in the establishment of trees in nurseries, in reforestation programs, and in the production of containerized seedlings. Production of VAM and ectomycorrhiza inoculum for large scale projects is now feasible but many basic questions related to persistence of these fungi in field situations, competition with other microorganisms, and particularly the most efficient fungi to use for particular hosts remain largely unanswered.

  17. Assessing and modelling ecohydrologic processes at the agricultural field scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Basso, Bruno

    2015-04-01

    One of the primary goals of agricultural management is to increase the amount of crop produced per unit of fertilizer and water used. World record corn yields demonstrated that water use efficiency can increase fourfold with improved agronomic management and cultivars able to tolerate high densities. Planting crops with higher plant density can lead to significant yield increases, and increase plant transpiration vs. soil water evaporation. Precision agriculture technologies have been adopted for the last twenty years but seldom have the data collected been converted to information that led farmers to different agronomic management. These methods are intuitively appealing, but yield maps and other spatial layers of data need to be properly analyzed and interpreted to truly become valuable. Current agro-mechanic and geospatial technologies allow us to implement a spatially variable plan for agronomic inputs including seeding rate, cultivars, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and water. Crop models are valuable tools to evaluate the impact of management strategies (e.g., cover crops, tile drains, and genetically-improved cultivars) on yield, soil carbon sequestration, leaching and greenhouse gas emissions. They can help farmers identify adaptation strategies to current and future climate conditions. In this paper I illustrate the key role that precision agriculture technologies (yield mapping technologies, within season soil and crop sensing), crop modeling and weather can play in dealing with the impact of climate variability on soil ecohydrologic processes. Case studies are presented to illustrate this concept.

  18. Sublethal Effects of Imidacloprid on Honey Bee Colony Growth and Activity at Three Sites in the U.S.

    PubMed Central

    Adamczyk, John J.; Weiss, Milagra; Gregorc, Ales; Johnson, Don R.; Stewart, Scott D.; Zawislak, Jon; Carroll, Mark J.; Lorenz, Gus M.

    2016-01-01

    Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid pesticide heavily used by the agricultural industry and shown to have negative impacts on honey bees above certain concentrations. We evaluated the effects of different imidacloprid concentrations in sugar syrup using cage and field studies, and across different environments. Honey bee colonies fed sublethal concentrations of imidicloprid (0, 5, 20 and 100 ppb) over 6 weeks in field trials at a desert site (Arizona), a site near intensive agriculture (Arkansas) and a site with little nearby agriculture but abundant natural forage (Mississippi) were monitored with respect to colony metrics, such as adult bee and brood population sizes, as well as pesticide residues. Hive weight and internal hive temperature were monitored continuously over two trials in Arizona. Colonies fed 100 ppb imidacloprid in Arizona had significantly lower adult bee populations, brood surface areas and average frame weights, and reduced temperature control, compared to colonies in one or more of the other treatment groups, and consumption rates of those colonies were lower compared to other colonies in Arizona and Arkansas, although no differences in capped brood or average frame weight were observed among treatments in Arkansas. At the Mississippi site, also rich in alternative forage, colonies fed 5 ppb imidacloprid had less capped brood than control colonies, but contamination of control colonies was detected. In contrast, significantly higher daily hive weight variability among colonies fed 5 ppb imidacloprid in Arizona suggested greater foraging activity during a nectar flow post treatment, than any other treatment group. Imidacloprid concentrations in stored honey corresponded well with the respective syrup concentrations fed to the colonies and remained stable within the hive for at least 7 months after the end of treatment. PMID:28030617

  19. Innovations in Site Characterization Case Study: Site Cleanup of the Wenatchee Tree Fruit Test Plot Site Using a Dynamic Work Plan

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center site contained soils contaminated with organochlorine pesticides, organophosphorus pesticides, and other pesticides due to agriculture-related research activities conducted from 1966 until...

  20. Building Rural Communities through School-Based Agriculture Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Michael J.; Henry, Anna

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to develop a substantive theory for community development by school-based agriculture programs through grounded theory methodology. Data for the study included in-depth interviews and field observations from three school-based agriculture programs in three non-metropolitan counties across a Midwestern state. The…

  1. An AgMIP framework for improved agricultural representation in integrated assessment models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ruane, Alex C.; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Asseng, Senthold; Boote, Kenneth J.; Elliott, Joshua; Ewert, Frank; Jones, James W.; Martre, Pierre; McDermid, Sonali P.; Müller, Christoph; Snyder, Abigail; Thorburn, Peter J.

    2017-12-01

    Integrated assessment models (IAMs) hold great potential to assess how future agricultural systems will be shaped by socioeconomic development, technological innovation, and changing climate conditions. By coupling with climate and crop model emulators, IAMs have the potential to resolve important agricultural feedback loops and identify unintended consequences of socioeconomic development for agricultural systems. Here we propose a framework to develop robust representation of agricultural system responses within IAMs, linking downstream applications with model development and the coordinated evaluation of key climate responses from local to global scales. We survey the strengths and weaknesses of protocol-based assessments linked to the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), each utilizing multiple sites and models to evaluate crop response to core climate changes including shifts in carbon dioxide concentration, temperature, and water availability, with some studies further exploring how climate responses are affected by nitrogen levels and adaptation in farm systems. Site-based studies with carefully calibrated models encompass the largest number of activities; however they are limited in their ability to capture the full range of global agricultural system diversity. Representative site networks provide more targeted response information than broadly-sampled networks, with limitations stemming from difficulties in covering the diversity of farming systems. Global gridded crop models provide comprehensive coverage, although with large challenges for calibration and quality control of inputs. Diversity in climate responses underscores that crop model emulators must distinguish between regions and farming system while recognizing model uncertainty. Finally, to bridge the gap between bottom-up and top-down approaches we recommend the deployment of a hybrid climate response system employing a representative network of sites to bias

  2. 7 CFR 2003.14 - Field Offices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Field Offices. 2003.14 Section 2003.14 Agriculture... Field Offices. Rural Development field offices report to their respective State Director and State Office Program Directors. State Directors may organizationally structure their offices based on the...

  3. Irrigated agriculture and future climate change effects on groundwater recharge, northern High Plains aquifer, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lauffenburger, Zachary H.; Gurdak, Jason J.; Hobza, Christopher M.; Woodward, Duane; Wolf, Cassandra

    2018-01-01

    Understanding the controls of agriculture and climate change on recharge rates is critically important to develop appropriate sustainable management plans for groundwater resources and coupled irrigated agricultural systems. In this study, several physical (total potential (ψT) time series) and chemical tracer and dating (3H, Cl−, Br−, CFCs, SF6, and 3H/3He) methods were used to quantify diffuse recharge rates beneath two rangeland sites and irrigation recharge rates beneath two irrigated corn sites along an east-west (wet-dry) transect of the northern High Plains aquifer, Platte River Basin, central Nebraska. The field-based recharge estimates and historical climate were used to calibrate site-specific Hydrus-1D models, and irrigation requirements were estimated using the Crops Simulation Model (CROPSIM). Future model simulations were driven by an ensemble of 16 global climate models and two global warming scenarios to project a 2050 climate relative to the historical baseline 1990 climate, and simulate changes in precipitation, irrigation, evapotranspiration, and diffuse and irrigation recharge rates. Although results indicate statistical differences between the historical variables at the eastern and western sites and rangeland and irrigated sites, the low warming scenario (+1.0 °C) simulations indicate no statistical differences between 2050 and 1990. However, the high warming scenarios (+2.4 °C) indicate a 25% and 15% increase in median annual evapotranspiration and irrigation demand, and decreases in future diffuse recharge by 53% and 98% and irrigation recharge by 47% and 29% at the eastern and western sites, respectively. These results indicate an important threshold between the low and high warming scenarios that if exceeded could trigger a significant bidirectional shift in 2050 hydroclimatology and recharge gradients. The bidirectional shift is that future northern High Plains temperatures will resemble present central High Plains

  4. AmeriFlux US-Ne1 Mead - irrigated continuous maize site

    DOE Data Explorer

    Suyker, Andy [University of Nebraska - Lincoln

    2016-01-01

    This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Ne1 Mead - irrigated continuous maize site. Site Description - The study site is one of three fields (all located within 1.6 km of each other) at the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research and Development Center near Mead, Nebraska. This site is irrigated with a center pivot system. Prior to the initiation of the study, the irrigated site had a 10-yr history of maize-soybean rotation under no-till. A tillage operation (disking) was done just prior to the 2001 planting to homogenize the top 0.1 m of soil, incorporate P and K fertilizers, as well as previously accumulated surface residues. Since the tillage operation, the site has been under no-till management until the harvest of 2005. Following harvest, a conservation-plow tillage operation was initiated where a small amount of N fertilizer is sprayed on the residue immediately prior to the plow operation. Approximately 1/3 of the crop residue is left on the surface. The post-harvest conservation-plow operation continues as the current practice.

  5. Biology: An Important Agricultural Engineering Mechanism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henderson, S. M.

    1974-01-01

    Describes the field of bioengineering with particular emphasis on agricultural engineering, and presents the results of a survey of schools that combine biology and engineering in their curricula. (JR)

  6. Evaluation of use of EM38-MK2 as a tool to understand field scale changes in soil properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gangrade, Sudershan

    Sustainable water resources management requires tools to help farmers identify variations in soil hydraulic characteristics so that precision irrigation schemes can be developed to optimize water use. In this study we use electromagnetic induction (EMI) to evaluate whether changes in the apparent electrical conductivity (sigmaalpha) of agricultural fields can be related to hydrologic processes. Field work for this study was completed at three different sites - 1) in different agricultural fields located in a watershed near Salri, Madhya Pradesh, India, 2) over an agricultural field located near Clemson University, SC, and 3) at a flood plain wetland restoration site near Madison, Wisconsin. The spatio-temporal study of sigmaalpha for fields in India revealed that sigmaalpha were related with the overall wetting and drying cycles at both seasonal and short term (daily) time scale. It was also found that there was a dependence of sigmaalpha patterns associated with the location of the field within the watershed. The short term EMI mappings revealed that sigmaalpha and changes in sigmaalpha both showed a similar spatial pattern for one of the fields. However, in contrast another field showed emergence of different patterns for both the sigmaalpha and changes in sigma alpha. Infiltrometer tests were performed to further investigate the field and a better relation, was observed with the measured hydraulic conductivity estimated using mini disk infiltrometer measurements and the changes in sigma alpha as against the absolute conductivity values.The cluster analysis performed for the fields in India showed that clustering performed using spatial data was able to capture the two different soil textures qualitatively observed in the field. A Monte Carlo analysis showed that the two clusters always had significantly different means showing that they belong to different clusters statistically as well. The purpose of the study performed in an agricultural field near Clemson

  7. Past agricultural land use and present-day fire regimes can interact to determine the nature of seed predation.

    PubMed

    Stuhler, John D; Orrock, John L

    2016-06-01

    Historical agriculture and present-day fire regimes can have significant effects on contemporary ecosystems. Although past agricultural land use can lead to long-term changes in plant communities, it remains unclear whether these persistent land-use legacies alter plant-consumer interactions, such as seed predation, and whether contemporary disturbance (e.g., fire) alters the effects of historical agriculture on these interactions. We conducted a study at 27 sites distributed across 80,300 ha in post-agricultural and non-agricultural longleaf pine woodlands with different degrees of fire frequency to test the hypothesis that past and present-day disturbances that alter plant communities can subsequently alter seed predation. We quantified seed removal by arthropods and rodents for Tephrosia virginiana and Vernonia angustifolia, species of conservation interest. We found that the effects of land-use history and fire frequency on seed removal were contingent on granivore guild and microhabitat characteristics. Tephrosia virginiana removal was greater in low fire frequency sites, due to greater seed removal by rodents. Although overall removal of V. angustifolia did not differ among habitats, rodents removed more seeds than arthropods at post-agricultural sites and non-agricultural sites with low fire frequencies, but not at non-agricultural sites with high fire frequencies. Land-use history and fire frequency also affected the relationship between microhabitat characteristics and removal of V. angustifolia. Our results suggest that historical agriculture and present-day fire regimes may alter seed predation by shifting the impact of rodent and arthropod seed predators among habitats, with potential consequences for the establishment of rare plant species consumed by one or both predators.

  8. Agricultural Education--Instructional Materials.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center for Vocational and Technical Education.

    This compilation presents over 950 resumes of instructional materials in agricultural education, which have appeared quarterly in "Abstracts of Instructional Materials in Vocational and Technical Education" (AIM), Fall 1967 through Fall 1971. Resumes cover a broad range of fields and occupations, such as agribusiness, agronomy, animal and plant…

  9. FieldSAFE: Dataset for Obstacle Detection in Agriculture.

    PubMed

    Kragh, Mikkel Fly; Christiansen, Peter; Laursen, Morten Stigaard; Larsen, Morten; Steen, Kim Arild; Green, Ole; Karstoft, Henrik; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm

    2017-11-09

    In this paper, we present a multi-modal dataset for obstacle detection in agriculture. The dataset comprises approximately 2 h of raw sensor data from a tractor-mounted sensor system in a grass mowing scenario in Denmark, October 2016. Sensing modalities include stereo camera, thermal camera, web camera, 360 ∘ camera, LiDAR and radar, while precise localization is available from fused IMU and GNSS. Both static and moving obstacles are present, including humans, mannequin dolls, rocks, barrels, buildings, vehicles and vegetation. All obstacles have ground truth object labels and geographic coordinates.

  10. FieldSAFE: Dataset for Obstacle Detection in Agriculture

    PubMed Central

    Christiansen, Peter; Larsen, Morten; Steen, Kim Arild; Green, Ole; Karstoft, Henrik

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we present a multi-modal dataset for obstacle detection in agriculture. The dataset comprises approximately 2 h of raw sensor data from a tractor-mounted sensor system in a grass mowing scenario in Denmark, October 2016. Sensing modalities include stereo camera, thermal camera, web camera, 360∘ camera, LiDAR and radar, while precise localization is available from fused IMU and GNSS. Both static and moving obstacles are present, including humans, mannequin dolls, rocks, barrels, buildings, vehicles and vegetation. All obstacles have ground truth object labels and geographic coordinates. PMID:29120383

  11. Occurrence of Agricultural Chemicals in Shallow Ground Water and the Unsaturated Zone, Northeast Nebraska Glacial Till, 2002-04

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stanton, Jennifer S.; Steele, Gregory V.; Vogel, Jason R.

    2007-01-01

    Agricultural chemicals applied at the land surface in northeast Nebraska can move downward, past the crop root zone, to ground water. Because agricultural chemicals applied at the land surface are more likely to be observed in the shallowest part of an aquifer, an assessment of shallow ground-water and unsaturated zone quality in the northeast Nebraska glacial till was completed between 2002 and 2004. Ground-water samples were collected at the first occurrence of ground water or just below the water table at 32 sites located in areas likely affected by agriculture. Four of the 32 sites were situated along a ground-water flow path with its downgradient end next to Maple Creek. Twenty-eight sites were installed immediately adjacent to agricultural fields throughout the glacial-till area. In addition to those 32 sites, two sites were installed in pastures to represent ground-water conditions in a non-cropland setting. Ground-water samples were analyzed for physical properties and concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, selected pesticides and pesticide degradates, dissolved solids, major ions, trace elements, and dissolved organic carbon. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) concentrations were analyzed at about 70 percent of the monitoring wells to estimate the residence time of ground water. Borehole-core samples were collected from 28 of the well boreholes. Sediment in the unsaturated zone was analyzed for nitrate, chloride, and ammonia concentrations. Analytical results indicated that the agricultural chemicals most often detected during this study were nitrates and herbicides. Nitrate as nitrogen (nitrate-N) concentrations (2003 median 9.53 milligrams per liter) indicated that human activity has affected the water quality of recently recharged ground water in approximately two-thirds of the wells near corn and soybean fields. The principal pesticide compounds that were detected reflect the most-used pesticides in the area and

  12. Fluxes of Nitrous Acid (HONO) above an Agricultural Field Side near Paris

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Laufs, S.; Cazaunau, M.; Stella, P.; Loubet, B.; Kurtenbach, R.; Cellier, P.; Mellouki, W.; Kleffmann, J.

    2012-04-01

    HONO is an important precursor of the OH radical, the detergent of the atmosphere. Field measurements show high diurnal HONO mixing ratios that cannot be explained by chemical models with known gas phase chemistry. Therefore, daytime sources of HONO are still under discussion. During the last decade many experimental investigation were performed to study heterogeneous production of HONO like the photo enhanced reduction of NO2 on humic acids or photolysis of HNO3 on surfaces. Recently, nitrite produced by bacteria, present in soil, was discussed as a source of HONO as well. In addition gas phase sources like the photolysis of nitrophenols, or the reaction of excited NO2 are discussed. Gradient measurements show high mixing ratios of HONO even above the boundary layer. However, beside intensive investigations on the sources of HONO, it is still an open question whether heterogeneous or gas phase sources are more important in the atmosphere. Flux measurements could represent a method to find the origin of missing sources of HONO. Until now instruments are not sensitive and fast enough to do Eddy correlation measurements for HONO. Alternatively, HONO fluxes are estimated by the Aerodynamic Gradient (AGM), or Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA) methods. Here we present HONO fluxes estimated by AGM and the LOPAP technique (Long Path Absorption Photometer) above an agricultural field in Grignon, Paris (48°51'N, 1°58'E). Fluxes during different seasons and different types of vegetations including bare soil will be presented and compared with chemical corrected fluxes of NO, NO2 and O3, or other parameters.

  13. Sweat bees on hot chillies: provision of pollination services by native bees in traditional slash-and-burn agriculture in the Yucatán Peninsula of tropical Mexico.

    PubMed

    Landaverde-González, Patricia; Quezada-Euán, José Javier G; Theodorou, Panagiotis; Murray, Tomás E; Husemann, Martin; Ayala, Ricardo; Moo-Valle, Humberto; Vandame, Rémy; Paxton, Robert J

    2017-12-01

    Traditional tropical agriculture often entails a form of slash-and-burn land management that may adversely affect ecosystem services such as pollination, which are required for successful crop yields. The Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico has a >4000 year history of traditional slash-and-burn agriculture, termed 'milpa'. Hot 'Habanero' chilli is a major pollinator-dependent crop that nowadays is often grown in monoculture within the milpa system.We studied 37 local farmers' chilli fields (sites) to evaluate the effects of landscape composition on bee communities. At 11 of these sites, we undertook experimental pollination treatments to quantify the pollination of chilli. We further explored the relationships between landscape composition, bee communities and pollination service provision to chilli.Bee species richness, particularly species of the family Apidae, was positively related to the amount of forest cover. Species diversity decreased with increasing proportion of crop land surrounding each sampling site. Sweat bees of the genus Lasioglossum were the most abundant bee taxon in chilli fields and, in contrast to other bee species, increased in abundance with the proportion of fallow land, gardens and pastures which are an integral part of the milpa system.There was an average pollination shortfall of 21% for chilli across all sites; yet the shortfall was unrelated to the proportion of land covered by crops. Rather, chilli pollination was positively related to the abundance of Lasioglossum bees, probably an important pollinator of chilli, as well indirectly to the proportion of fallow land, gardens and pastures that promote Lasioglossum abundance. Synthesis and applications . Current, low-intensity traditional slash-and-burn ( milpa ) agriculture provides Lasioglossum spp. pollinators for successful chilli production; fallow land, gardens and pasture therefore need to be valued as important habitats for these and related ground-nesting bee species. However, the

  14. Application of near-infrared image processing in agricultural engineering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Ming-hong; Zhang, Guo-ping; Xia, Hongxing

    2009-07-01

    Recently, with development of computer technology, the application field of near-infrared image processing becomes much wider. In this paper the technical characteristic and development of modern NIR imaging and NIR spectroscopy analysis were introduced. It is concluded application and studying of the NIR imaging processing technique in the agricultural engineering in recent years, base on the application principle and developing characteristic of near-infrared image. The NIR imaging would be very useful in the nondestructive external and internal quality inspecting of agricultural products. It is important to detect stored-grain insects by the application of near-infrared spectroscopy. Computer vision detection base on the NIR imaging would be help to manage food logistics. Application of NIR imaging promoted quality management of agricultural products. In the further application research fields of NIR image in the agricultural engineering, Some advices and prospect were put forward.

  15. Bioaccumulation of pharmaceuticals and other anthropogenic waste indicators in earthworms from agricultural soil amended with biosolid or swine manure

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kinney, C.A.; Furlong, E.T.; Kolpin, D.W.; Burkhardt, M.R.; Zaugg, S.D.; Werner, S.L.; Bossio, J.P.; Benotti, M.J.

    2008-01-01

    Analysis of earthworms offers potential for assessing the transfer of organic anthropogenic waste indicators (AWIs) derived from land-applied biosolid or manure to biota. Earthworms and soil samples were collected from three Midwest agricultural fields to measure the presence and potential for transfer of 77 AWIs from land-applied biosolids and livestock manure to earthworms. The sites consisted of a soybean field with no amendments of human or livestock waste (Site 1), a soybean field amended with biosolids from a municipal wastewater treatment plant (Site 2), and a cornfield amended with swine manure (Site 3). The biosolid applied to Site 2 contained a diverse composition of 28 AWIs, reflecting the presence of human-use compounds. The swine manure contained 12 AWIs, and was dominated by biogenic sterols. Soil and earthworm samples were collected in the spring (about 30 days after soil amendment) and fall (140-155 days after soil amendment) at all field sites. Soils from Site 1 contained 21 AWIs and soil from Sites 2 and 3 contained 19 AWIs. The AWI profiles at Sites 2 and 3 generally reflected the relative composition of AWIs present in waste material applied. There were 20 AWIs detected in earthworms from Site 1 (three compounds exceeding concentrations of 1000 ??g/kg), 25 AWIs in earthworms from Site 2 (seven compounds exceeding concentrations of 1000 ??g/kg), and 21 AWIs in earthworms from Site 3 (five compounds exceeding concentrations of 1000 ??g/kg). A number of compounds thatwere present in the earthworm tissue were at concentrations less than reporting levels in the corresponding soil samples. The AWIs detected in earthworm tissue from the three field sites included pharmaceuticals, synthetic fragrances, detergent metabolites, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), biogenic sterols, disinfectants, and pesticides, reflecting a wide range of physicochemical properties. For those contaminants detected in earthworm tissue and soil, bioaccumulation factors

  16. Nitrogen fluxes through unsaturated zones in five agricultural settings across the USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Green, C. T.; Fisher, L. H.; Bekins, B. A.

    2006-12-01

    The main controls on nitrogen (N) fluxes between the root zone and the water table were determined for agricultural sites in California, Washington, Nebraska, Indiana, and Maryland in 2004 and 2005. Sites included irrigated and non-irrigated fields; soil textures ranging from clay to sand; crops including corn, soybeans, almonds, and pasture; and unsaturated zone thicknesses ranging from 0.5 to 20 m. Chemical analyses of water from lysimeters, shallow wells, and sediment cores indicate that advective transport of nitrate is the dominant process affecting the rate of N transport below the root zone. Vertical profiles of (1) N species, (2) stable N and O isotopes, and (3) oxygen gas in unsaturated zone air and shallow ground water, and correlations between N and other agricultural chemicals indicate that reactions do not greatly affect N concentrations between the root zone and the capillary fringe. Relatively stable concentrations at depths greater than a few meters allow calculation of nitrogen fluxes to the saturated zone. These fluxes are equivalent to 14 - 64% of the N application rates. At the same locations, median vertical fluxes of N in ground water are generally lower, ranging from 4 - 37% of N application rates. The lower nitrate fluxes in ground water reflect processes including lateral flow to tile drains and denitrification in the capillary fringe, as well as historical changes in N inputs.

  17. Studying the spatial variability of Cr in agricultural field using both particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cruvinel, Paulo E.; Crestana, Sílvio; Artaxo, Paulo; Martins, JoséV.; Armelin, Maria JoséA.

    1996-04-01

    In the field of soil physics, a technique which permits a non-destructive, accurate and fast elemental analysis with a minimum of sample preparation effort is often desired. Although trace elements are minor components of the solid phase, they play an important role in soil fertility. Cr is of nutritional importance because it is a required element in human and animal nutrition. The immobility of Cr may be responsible for an inadequate Cr supply to plants. This work not only demonstrates the suitability of PIXE as a fast and non-destructive technique, useful to measure Cr content in soil samples, but also outlines a study of spatial variability of that element in agricultural field. To demonstrate the capability of the method soil samples were collected in a 5000 m 2 agricultural field. The soil samples were analyzed using both PIXE and INAA techniques. Besides, a Fourier interpolation technique was used to verify the distribution of Cr along of the sampled field. INAA was carried out by means of the γ-ray emitted by 51Cr(320 keV). Results show that there is a good linear relationship between the elemental concentration of Cr obtained using those techniques, i.e. a correlation coefficient of r2 = 0.82 was achieved.

  18. Myconanotechnology in agriculture: a perspective.

    PubMed

    Kashyap, Prem Lal; Kumar, Sudheer; Srivastava, Alok Kumar; Sharma, Arun Kumar

    2013-02-01

    Myconanotechnology is an emerging field, where fungi can be harnessed for the synthesis of nanomaterials or nanostructures with desirable shape and size. Though myconanotechnology is in its infancy, potential applications provide exciting waves of transformation in agriculture and fascinate microbiologists and other researchers to contribute in providing incremental solutions through green chemistry approaches for advancing food security. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the research efforts on the mycogenic synthesis of nanoparticles with particular emphasis on mechanisms and potential applications in agriculture and allied sectors.

  19. MPL-Net data products available at co-located AERONET sites and field experiment locations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Welton, E. J.; Campbell, J. R.; Berkoff, T. A.

    2002-05-01

    Micro-pulse lidar (MPL) systems are small, eye-safe lidars capable of profiling the vertical distribution of aerosol and cloud layers. There are now over 20 MPL systems around the world, and they have been used in numerous field experiments. A new project was started at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2000. The new project, MPL-Net, is a coordinated network of long-time MPL sites. The network also supports a limited number of field experiments each year. Most MPL-Net sites and field locations are co-located with AERONET sunphotometers. At these locations, the AERONET and MPL-Net data are combined together to provide both column and vertically resolved aerosol and cloud measurements. The MPL-Net project coordinates the maintenance and repair for all instruments in the network. In addition, data is archived and processed by the project using common, standardized algorithms that have been developed and utilized over the past 10 years. These procedures ensure that stable, calibrated MPL systems are operating at sites and that the data quality remains high. Rigorous uncertainty calculations are performed on all MPL-Net data products. Automated, real-time level 1.0 data processing algorithms have been developed and are operational. Level 1.0 algorithms are used to process the raw MPL data into the form of range corrected, uncalibrated lidar signals. Automated, real-time level 1.5 algorithms have also been developed and are now operational. Level 1.5 algorithms are used to calibrate the MPL systems, determine cloud and aerosol layer heights, and calculate the optical depth and extinction profile of the aerosol boundary layer. The co-located AERONET sunphotometer provides the aerosol optical depth, which is used as a constraint to solve for the extinction-to-backscatter ratio and the aerosol extinction profile. Browse images and data files are available on the MPL-Net web-site. An overview of the processing algorithms and initial results from selected sites and field

  20. Agricultural Products | National Agricultural Library

    Science.gov Websites

    Skip to main content Home National Agricultural Library United States Department of Agriculture Ag News Contact Us Search  Log inRegister Home Home Agricultural Products NEWT: National Extension Web , tables, graphs), Agricultural Products html National Animal Nutrition Program (NANP) Feed Composition

  1. Estimation of PCB content in agricultural soils associated with long-term fertilization with organic waste.

    PubMed

    Antolín-Rodríguez, Juan M; Sánchez-Báscones, Mercedes; Martín-Ramos, Pablo; Bravo-Sánchez, Carmen T; Martín-Gil, Jesús

    2016-06-01

    Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) pollution related to the use of organic waste as fertilizers in agricultural soils is a cause of major concern. In the study presented herein, PCB concentration was studied through a field trial conducted in two agricultural soils in the province of Palencia (Spain) over a 4-year period, assessing the impact of irrigation and of different types of organic waste materials. The amounts of organic waste added to the soil were calculated according to the nitrogen needs of the crop, and the concentration of PCBs was determined before and after the application of the organic waste. The resulting persistence of the total PCB content in the agricultural soils, compared with the PCB concentration in the original soils, ranged from 27% to 90%, with the lowest value corresponding to irrigated soils treated with municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) and the highest value to non-irrigated soils treated with composted sewage sludge (CSS). An estimate of the PCB content in agricultural soils after the application of organic waste materials until year 2050 was obtained, resulting in a value below 5 ng·g(-1), considered a background value for soils in sites far away from potential pollution sources.

  2. Metals in agricultural produce associated with acid-mine drainage in Mount Morgan (Queensland, Australia).

    PubMed

    Vicente-Beckett, Victoria A; McCauley, Gaylene J Taylor; Duivenvoorden, Leo J

    2016-01-01

    Acid-mine drainage (AMD) into the Dee River from the historic gold and copper mine in Mount Morgan, Queensland (Australia) has been of concern to farmers in the area since 1925. This study sought to determine the levels of AMD-related metals and sulfur in agricultural produce grown near the mine-impacted Dee River, compare these with similar produce grown in reference fields (which had no known AMD influence), and assess any potential health risk using relevant Australian or US guidelines. Analyses of lucerne (Medicago sativa; also known as alfalfa) from five Dee fields showed the following average concentrations (mg/kg dry basis): Cd < 1, Cu 11, Fe 106, Mn 52, Pb < 5, Zn 25 and S 3934; similar levels were found in lucerne hay (used as cattle feed) from two Dee fields. All lucerne and lucerne hay data were generally comparable with levels found in the lucerne reference fields, suggesting no AMD influence; the levels were within the US National Research Council (US NRC) guidelines for maximum tolerable cattle dietary intake. Pasture grass (also cattle feed) from two fields in the Dee River floodplains gave mean concentrations (mg/kg dry) of Cd 0.14, Cu 12, Fe 313, Mn 111, Pb 1.4, Zn 86 and S 2450. All metal levels from the Dee and from reference sites were below the US NRC guidelines for maximum tolerable cattle dietary intake; however, the average Cd, Cu and Fe levels in Dee samples were significantly greater than the corresponding levels in the pasture grass reference sites, suggesting AMD influence in the Dee samples. The average levels in the edible portions of mandarin oranges (Citrus reticulata) from Dee sites (mg/kg wet weight) were Cd 0.011, Cu 0.59, Fe 2.2, Mn 0.56, Pb 0.18, S 91 and Zn 0.96. Cd and Zn were less than or close to, average Fe and Mn levels were at most twice, Cd 1.8 or 6.5 times, and Pb 8.5 or 72 times the maximum levels in raw oranges reported in the US total diet study (TDS) or the Australian TDS, respectively. Average Cd, Fe, Mn, Pb and

  3. Long-term field-scale experiment on using lime filters in an agricultural catchment.

    PubMed

    Kirkkala, Teija; Ventelä, Anne-Mari; Tarvainen, Marjo

    2012-01-01

    The River Yläneenjoki catchment in southwest Finland is an area with a high agricultural nutrient load. We report here on the nutrient removal performance of three on-site lime-sand filters (F1, F2, and F3), established within or on the edge of the buffer zones. The filters contain burnt lime (CaO) or spent lime [CaO, Ca(OH), and CaCO]. Easily soluble lime results in a high pH level (>11) and leads to an efficient precipitation of soluble phosphorus (P) from the runoff. Water samples were taken from the inflow and outflow of each site in different hydrological situations. The length of the monitoring period was 4 yr for F1, 6 yr for F2, and 1.5 yr for F3. F1 and F2 significantly reduced the suspended solids (SS), total P (PTOT), and dissolved reactive P (DRP) in the treated water. The proportional reduction (%) varied but was usually clearly positive. Filter F3 was divided into two equal parts, one containing burnt lime and the other spent lime. Both filter parts removed PTOT and SS efficiently from the water; the burnt-lime part also removed DRP. The mixed-lime part removed DRP for a year, but then the efficiency decreased. The effect of filters on nitrogen compounds varied. We conclude that sand filters incorporating lime can be used together with buffer zones to reduce both P and SS load to watercourses. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  4. Thresholds of copper phytotoxicity in field-collected agricultural soils exposed to copper mining activities in Chile.

    PubMed

    Verdejo, José; Ginocchio, Rosanna; Sauvé, Sébastien; Salgado, Eduardo; Neaman, Alexander

    2015-12-01

    It has been argued that the identification of the phytotoxic metal thresholds in soil should be based on field-collected soil rather than on artificially-contaminated soils. However, the use of field-collected soils presents several difficulties for interpretation because of mixed contamination and unavoidable covariance of metal contamination with other soil properties that affect plant growth. The objective of this study was to estimate thresholds of copper phytotoxicity in topsoils of 27 agricultural areas historically contaminated by mining activities in Chile. We performed emergence and early growth (21 days) tests (OECD 208 and ISO 11269-2) with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). The total Cu content in soils was the best predictor of plant growth and shoot Cu concentrations, while soluble Cu and pCu(2+) did not well correlate with these biological responses. The effects of Pb, Zn, and As on plant responses were not significant, suggesting that Cu is a metal of prime concern for plant growth in soils exposed to copper mining activities in Chile. The effects of soil nutrient availability and shoot nutrient concentrations on ryegrass response were not significant. It was possible to determine EC10, EC25 and EC50 of total Cu in the soil of 327 mg kg(-1), 735 mg kg(-1) and 1144 mg kg(-1), respectively, using the shoot length as a response variable. However, the derived 95% confidence intervals for EC10, EC25 and EC50 values of total soil Cu were wide, and thus not allowing a robust assessment of metal toxicity for agricultural crops, based on total soil Cu concentrations. Thus, plant tests might need to be performed for metal toxicity assessment. This study suggests shoot length of ryegrass as a robust response variable for metal toxicity assessment in contaminated soils with different nutrient availability. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Examining shifts in Carabidae assemblages across a forest-agriculture ecotone.

    PubMed

    Leslie, T W; Biddinger, D J; Rohr, J R; Hulting, A G; Mortensen, D A; Fleischer, S J

    2014-02-01

    Northeastern U.S. farms are often situated adjacent to forestland due to the heterogeneous nature of the landscape. We investigated how forested areas influence Carabidae diversity within nearby crop fields by establishing transects of pitfall traps. Trapping extended across a forest-agriculture ecotone consisting of maize, an intermediate mowed grass margin, and a forest edge. Carabidae diversity was compared among the three habitats, and community and population dynamics were assessed along the transect. We used a principal response curve to examine and visualize community change across a spatial gradient. The highest levels of richness and evenness were observed in the forest community, and carabid assemblages shifted significantly across the ecotone, especially at the forest-grass interface. Despite strong ecotone effects, population distributions showed that some species were found in all three habitats and seemed to thrive at the ecotone. Based on similarity indices, carabid assemblages collected in maize adjacent to forest differed from carabid assemblages in maize not adjacent to forest. We conclude that forest carabid assemblages exhibit high degrees of dissimilarity with those found in agricultural fields and forested areas should thus be retained in agricultural landscapes to increase biodiversity at the landscape scale. However, ecotone species found at forest edges can still noticeably influence carabid community composition within neighboring agricultural fields. Further studies should determine how these shifts in carabid assemblages influence agroecosystem services in relation to ecosystem services observed in fields embedded in an agricultural matrix.

  6. Monitoring the Impact of Climate Change on Soil Salinity in Agricultural Areas Using Ground and Satellite Sensors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Corwin, D. L.; Scudiero, E.

    2017-12-01

    Changes in climatic patterns have had dramatic influence on agricultural areas worldwide, particularly in irrigated arid-zone agricultural areas subjected to recurring drought, such as California's San Joaquin Valley (SJV), or areas receiving above average rainfall for a decade or more, such as Minnesota's Red River Valley (RRV). Climate change has impacted water availability with an under or over abundance, which subsequently has impacted soil salinity levels in the root zone primarily from the upward movement of salts from shallow water tables. Inventorying and monitoring the impact of climate change on soil salinity is crucial to evaluate the extent of the problem, to recognize trends, and to formulate state-wide and field-scale irrigation, drainage, and crop management strategies that will sustain the agricultural productivity of the SJV and RRV. Over the past 3 decades, Corwin and colleagues at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory have developed proximal sensor (i.e., electrical resistivity and electromagnetic induction) and remote imagery (i.e., MODIS and Landsat 7) methodologies for assessing soil salinity at multiple scales: field (0.5 ha to 3 km2), landscape (3 to 10 km2), and regional (10 to 105 km2) scales. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of these scale-dependent salinity assessment technologies. Case studies for SJV and RRV are presented to demonstrate at multiple scales the utility of these approaches in assessing soil salinity changes due to management-induced changes and to changes in climate patterns, and in providing site-specific irrigation management information for salinity control. Decision makers in state and federal agencies, irrigation and drainage district managers, soil and water resource managers, producers, agriculture consultants, extension specialists, and Natural Resource Conservation Service field staff are the beneficiaries of this information.

  7. 7 CFR 600.7 - Specialized field offices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Specialized field offices. 600.7 Section 600.7..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GENERAL ORGANIZATION § 600.7 Specialized field offices. Other field offices serve... direction and supervision of these offices. ...

  8. Conservation of Pollinators in Traditional Agricultural Landscapes - New Challenges in Transylvania (Romania) Posed by EU Accession and Recommendations for Future Research.

    PubMed

    Kovács-Hostyánszki, Anikó; Földesi, Rita; Mózes, Edina; Szirák, Ádám; Fischer, Joern; Hanspach, Jan; Báldi, András

    2016-01-01

    Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES).

  9. Historical agriculture alters the effects of fire on understory plant beta diversity.

    PubMed

    Mattingly, W Brett; Orrock, John L; Collins, Cathy D; Brudvig, Lars A; Damschen, Ellen I; Veldman, Joseph W; Walker, Joan L

    2015-02-01

    Land-use legacies are known to shape the diversity and distribution of plant communities, but we lack an understanding of whether historical land use influences community responses to contemporary disturbances. Because human-modified landscapes often bear a history of multiple land-use activities, this contingency can challenge our understanding of land-use impacts on plant diversity. We address this contingency by evaluating how beta diversity (the spatial variability of species composition), an important component of regional biodiversity, is shaped by interactions between historical agriculture and prescribed fire, two prominent disturbances that are often coincident in terrestrial ecosystems. At three study locations spanning 450 km in the southeastern United States, we surveyed longleaf pine woodland understory plant communities across 232 remnant and post-agricultural sites with differing prescribed fire regimes. Our results demonstrate that agricultural legacies are a strong predictor of beta diversity, but the direction of this land-use effect differed among the three study locations. Further, although beta diversity increased with prescribed fire frequency at each study location, this effect was influenced by agricultural land-use history, such that positive fire effects were only documented among sites that lacked a history of agriculture at two of our three study locations. Our study not only highlights the role of historical agriculture in shaping beta diversity in a fire-maintained ecosystem but also illustrates how this effect can be contingent upon fire regime and geographic location. We suggest that interactions among historical and contemporary land-use activities may help to explain dissimilarities in plant communities among sites in human-dominated landscapes.

  10. Curriculum Guide for Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oregon State Board of Education, Salem. Div. of Community Colleges and Career Education.

    Developed through a cooperative effort by industry and education, this curriculum guide outlines the basic knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level competencies in the broad field of agriculture, or for entrance into a post-high school program. This guide is one of several developed for Oregon's new approach to secondary education called…

  11. Agriculture: Agriculture and Air Quality

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Information on air emissions from agricultural practices, types of agricultural burning, air programs that may apply to agriculture, reporting requirements, and links to state and other federal air-quality information.

  12. Nitrate removal and denitrification in headwater agricultural streams of the Pacific Northwest

    EPA Science Inventory

    Headwater streams can serve as important sites for nitrogen (N) removal in watersheds. Here we examine the influence of agricultural streams on watershed N export in the Willamette River Basin of western Oregon, USA, a region with mixed agricultural, urban and forestry land uses...

  13. Be a Professional - Be Licensed! - Take the agricultural engineering professional engineering exam

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Between October 2005 and October 2007, only 78 Agricultural Engineers took the professional engineering (PE) exam in the field of Agricultural Engineering, while the other 406 registered Agricultural Engineering Examinees took tests offer by other engineering disciplines. With the decline in partic...

  14. High-Resolution Source Parameter and Site Characteristics Using Near-Field Recordings - Decoding the Trade-off Problems Between Site and Source

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, X.; Abercrombie, R. E.; Pennington, C.

    2017-12-01

    Recorded seismic waveforms include contributions from earthquake source properties and propagation effects, leading to long-standing trade-off problems between site/path effects and source effects. With near-field recordings, the path effect is relatively small, so the trade-off problem can be simplified to between source and site effects (commonly referred as "kappa value"). This problem is especially significant for small earthquakes where the corner frequencies are within similar ranges of kappa values, so direct spectrum fitting often leads to systematic biases due to corner frequency and magnitude. In response to the significantly increased seismicity rate in Oklahoma, several local networks have been deployed following major earthquakes: the Prague, Pawnee and Fairview earthquakes. Each network provides dense observations within 20 km surrounding the fault zone, recording tens of thousands of aftershocks between M1 to M3. Using near-field recordings in the Prague area, we apply a stacking approach to separate path/site and source effects. The resulting source parameters are consistent with parameters derived from ground motion and spectral ratio methods from other studies; they exhibit spatial coherence within the fault zone for different fault patches. We apply these source parameter constraints in an analysis of kappa values for stations within 20 km of the fault zone. The resulting kappa values show significantly reduced variability compared to those from direct spectral fitting without constraints on the source spectrum; they are not biased by earthquake magnitudes. With these improvements, we plan to apply the stacking analysis to other local arrays to analyze source properties and site characteristics. For selected individual earthquakes, we will also use individual-pair empirical Green's function (EGF) analysis to validate the source parameter estimations.

  15. 77 FR 11584 - Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-02-27

    .... Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM, and Field Museum of Natural... of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest and the Field Museum of Natural History have... contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest. Repatriation of the...

  16. 76 FR 43718 - Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-07-21

    .... Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM and Field Museum of Natural... of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest and the Field Museum of Natural History have... may contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest. Repatriation of...

  17. Alignment-independent comparison of binding sites based on DrugScore potential fields encoded by 3D Zernike descriptors.

    PubMed

    Nisius, Britta; Gohlke, Holger

    2012-09-24

    Analyzing protein binding sites provides detailed insights into the biological processes proteins are involved in, e.g., into drug-target interactions, and so is of crucial importance in drug discovery. Herein, we present novel alignment-independent binding site descriptors based on DrugScore potential fields. The potential fields are transformed to a set of information-rich descriptors using a series expansion in 3D Zernike polynomials. The resulting Zernike descriptors show a promising performance in detecting similarities among proteins with low pairwise sequence identities that bind identical ligands, as well as within subfamilies of one target class. Furthermore, the Zernike descriptors are robust against structural variations among protein binding sites. Finally, the Zernike descriptors show a high data compression power, and computing similarities between binding sites based on these descriptors is highly efficient. Consequently, the Zernike descriptors are a useful tool for computational binding site analysis, e.g., to predict the function of novel proteins, off-targets for drug candidates, or novel targets for known drugs.

  18. Technology Enhanced Agricultural Education Learning Environments: An Assessment of Student Perceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alston, Antoine J.; English, Chastity Warren

    2007-01-01

    The purpose of this descriptive research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Web-enhanced agricultural education pedagogy as perceived by students in a collegiate agricultural education program. Overall, respondents agreed there were many benefits to Web-enhanced courses and perceived all Web site components under study to be very useful.…

  19. Nitrogen fluxes through unsaturated zones in five agricultural settings across the United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Green, C.T.; Fisher, L.H.; Bekins, B.A.

    2008-01-01

    The main physical and chemical controls on nitrogen (N) fluxes between the root zone and the water table were determined for agricultural sites in California, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, and Washington from 2004 to 2005. Sites included irrigated and nonirrigated fields; soil textures ranging from clay to sand; crops including corn, soybeans, almonds, and pasture; and unsaturated zone thicknesses ranging from 1 to 22 m. Chemical analyses of water from lysimeters and shallow wells indicate that advective transport of nitrate is the dominant process affecting the flux of N below the root zone. Vertical profiles of (i) nitrogen species, (ii) stable isotopes of nitrogen and oxygen, and (iii) oxygen, N, and argon in unsaturated zone air and correlations between N and other agricultural chemicals indicate that reactions do not greatly affect N concentrations between the root zone and the capillary fringe. As a result, physical factors, such as N application rate, water inputs, and evapotranspiration, control the differences in concentrations among the sites. Concentrations of N in shallow lysimeters exhibit seasonal variation, whereas concentrations in lysimeters deeper than a few meters are relatively stable. Based on concentration and recharge estimates, fluxes of N through the deep unsaturated zone range from 7 to 99 kg ha-1 yr-1. Vertical fluxes of N in ground water are lower due to spatial and historical changes in N inputs. High N fluxes are associated with coarse sediments and high N application rates. Copyright ?? 2008 by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. All rights reserved.

  20. Structure and Growth of the Leeward Kohala Field System: An Analysis with Directed Graphs

    PubMed Central

    Dye, Thomas S.

    2014-01-01

    This study illustrates how the theory of directed graphs can be used to investigate the structure and growth of the leeward Kohala field system, a traditional Hawaiian archaeological site that presents an unparalleled opportunity to investigate relative chronology. The relative chronological relationships of agricultural walls and trails in two detailed study areas are represented as directed graphs and then investigated using graph theoretic concepts including cycle, level, and connectedness. The structural properties of the directed graphs reveal structure in the field system at several spatial scales. A process of deduction yields a history of construction in each detailed study area that is different than the history produced by an earlier investigation. These results indicate that it is now possible to study the structure and growth of the entire field system remnant using computer software implementations of graph theoretic concepts applied to observations of agricultural wall and trail intersections made on aerial imagery and/or during fieldwork. A relative chronology of field system development with a resolution of one generation is a possible result. PMID:25058167

  1. Refinement of the nocturnal boundary layer budget method for quantifying agricultural greenhouse gas emissions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wittebol, Laura A.

    Measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions directly at the farm scale is most relevant to the agricultural sector and has the potential to eliminate some of the uncertainty arising from scaling up from plot or field studies or down from regional or national levels. The stable nighttime atmosphere acts as a chamber within which sequentially-measured GHG concentration profiles determine the flux of GHGs. With the overall goal of refining the nocturnal boundary layer (NBL) budget method to obtain reliable flux estimates at a scale representative of the typical eastern Canadian farm (approximately 1 km2), fluxes of CO2, N2O, and CH4 were measured at two agricultural farms in Eastern Canada. Field sites in 1998 and 2002 were located on an experimental farm adjacent to a suburb southwest of the city of Ottawa, ON, a relatively flat area with corn, hay, and soy as the dominant crops. The field site in 2003 was located in the rural community of Coteau-du-Lac, QC, about 20 km southwest of the island of Montreal, a fairly flat area bordered by the St. Lawrence River to the south, consisting mainly of corn and hay with a mixture of soy and vegetable crops. A good agreement was obtained between the overall mean NBL budget-measured CO2 flux at both sites, near-in-time windy night eddy covariance data and previously published results. The mean NBL-measured N2O flux from all wind directions and farming management was of the same order of magnitude as, but slightly higher than, previously published baseline N2O emissions from agroecosystems. Methane fluxes results were judged to be invalid as they were extremely sensitive to wind direction change. Spatial sampling of CO 2, N2O, and CH4 around the two sites confirmed that [CH4] distribution was particularly sensitive to the nature of the emission source, field conditions, and wind direction. Optimal NBL conditions for measuring GHG fluxes, present approximately 60% of the time in this study, consisted of a very stable boundary layer

  2. [The assessment of radionuclide contamination and toxicity of soils sampled from "experimental field" site of Semipalatinsk nuclear test site].

    PubMed

    Evseeva, T I; Maĭstrenko, T A; Belykh, E S; Geras'kin, S A; Kriazheva, E Iu

    2009-01-01

    Large-scale maps (1:25000) of soil contamination with radionuclides, lateral distribution of 137Cs, 90Sr, Fe and Mn water-soluble compounds and soil toxicity in "Experimental field" site of Semipalatinsk nuclear test site were charted. At present soils from studied site (4 km2) according to basic sanitary standards of radiation safety adopted in Russian Federation (OSPORB) do not attributed to radioactive wastes with respect to data on artificial radionuclide concentration, but they do in compliance with IAEA safety guide. The soils studied can not be released from regulatory control due to radioactive decay of 137Cs and 90Sr and accumulation-decay of 241Am up to 2106 year according to IAEA concept of exclusion, exemption and clearance. Data on bioassay "increase of Chlorella vulgaris Beijer biomass production in aqueous extract from soils" show that the largest part of soils from the studied site (74%) belongs to stimulating or insignificantly influencing on the algae reproduction due to water-soluble compounds effect. Toxic soils occupy 26% of the territory. The main factors effecting the algae reproduction in the aqueous extracts from soil are Fe concentration and 90Sr specific activity: 90Sr inhibits but Fe stimulates algae biomass production.

  3. 78 FR 46963 - Cooperative Agreement to Support the Food and Agriculture Organization

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-02

    ...] Cooperative Agreement to Support the Food and Agriculture Organization AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration... to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to support global strategies... agriculture issues. Bringing knowledge to the field: FAO provides the technical know- how and mobilizes and...

  4. SUPERFUND TREATABILITY CLEARINGHOUSE: SUMMARY REPORT ON THE FIELD INVESTIGATION OF THE SAPP BATTERY SITE JACKSON COUNTY, FLORIDA

    EPA Science Inventory

    This treatability study presents the results of field investigations at the Sapp Battery site in Florida, an abandoned battery recycling operation. The site is estimated to contain 14,300 cubic yards of soils with lead levels in excess of 1,000 ppm. The soils in the immediate v...

  5. Numerical modelling of GPR electromagnetic fields for locating burial sites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carcione, José M.; Karczewski, Jerzy; Mazurkiewicz, Ewelina; Tadeusiewicz, Ryszard; Tomecka-Suchoń, Sylwia

    2017-11-01

    Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is commonly used for locating burial sites. In this article, we acquired radargrams at a site where a domestic pig cadaver was buried. The measurements were conducted with the ProEx System GPR manufactured by the Swedish company Mala Geoscience with an antenna of 500MHz. The event corresponding to the pig can be clearly seen in the measurements. In order to improve the interpretation, the electromagnetic field is compared to numerical simulations computed with the pseudo-spectral Fourier method. A geological model has been defined on the basis of assumed electromagnetic properties (permittivity, conductivity and magnetic permeability). The results, when compared with the GPR measurements, show a dissimilar amplitude behaviour, with a stronger reflection event from the bottom of the pit. We have therefore performed another simulation by decreasing the electrical conductivity of the body very close to that of air. The comparison improved, showing more reflections, which could be an indication that the body contains air or has been degraded to a certain extent that the electrical resistivity has greatly increased.

  6. Agriculture and Nutrition in Bangladesh: Mapping Evidence to Pathways.

    PubMed

    Yosef, Sivan; Jones, Andrew D; Chakraborty, Barnali; Gillespie, Stuart

    2015-12-01

    Although much work has been done on the theoretical links between agriculture and nutrition, there is limited understanding of the evidence from observational and experimental research studies on the impacts of agriculture programs on nutrition outcomes. To assess the emphasis of the literature on different agriculture-nutrition pathways in Bangladesh. Twenty databases and Web sites were searched, yielding more than 2400 resources that were pared down through an iterative, eliminative process to 60 articles. These articles were then rated for quality and mapped to 1 of the 6 agriculture-nutrition pathways. The body of evidence reveals gaps in knowledge in all of the pathways, but especially in the areas of agriculture as a source of livelihoods, and women's role as intermediaries between agriculture and good nutrition and health within their household. More research is needed on the links between agriculture and nutrition in country-specific settings, particularly as regards the role of women. Nutrition-related outcomes, such as dietary diversity and women's empowerment, need to be measured more explicitly when evaluating the impact of agricultural production systems and development initiatives. © The Author(s) 2015.

  7. Cross-Site Soil Microbial Communities under Tillage Regimes: Fungistasis and Microbial Biomarkers

    PubMed Central

    Yrjälä, Kim; Alakukku, Laura; Palojärvi, Ansa

    2012-01-01

    The exploitation of soil ecosystem services by agricultural management strategies requires knowledge of microbial communities in different management regimes. Crop cover by no-till management protects the soil surface, reducing the risk of erosion and nutrient leaching, but might increase straw residue-borne and soilborne plant-pathogenic fungi. A cross-site study of soil microbial communities and Fusarium fungistasis was conducted on six long-term agricultural fields with no-till and moldboard-plowed treatments. Microbial communities were studied at the topsoil surface (0 to 5 cm) and bottom (10 to 20 cm) by general bacterial and actinobacterial terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analyses. Fusarium culmorum soil fungistasis describing soil receptivity to plant-pathogenic fungi was explored by using the surface layer method. Soil depth had a significant impact on general bacterial as well as actinobacterial communities and PLFA profiles in no-till treatment, with a clear spatial distinction of communities (P < 0.05), whereas the depth-related separation of microbial communities was not observed in plowed fields. The fungal biomass was higher in no-till surface soil than in plowed soil (P < 0.07). Soil total microbial biomass and fungal biomass correlated with fungistasis (P < 0.02 for the sum of PLFAs; P < 0.001 for PLFA 18:2ω6). Our cross-site study demonstrated that agricultural management strategies can have a major impact on soil microbial community structures, indicating that it is possible to influence the soil processes with management decisions. The interactions between plant-pathogenic fungi and soil microbial communities are multifaceted, and a high level of fungistasis could be linked to the high microbial biomass in soil but not to the specific management strategy. PMID:22983972

  8. Screening of pesticide residues in soil and water samples from agricultural settings

    PubMed Central

    Akogbéto, Martin C; Djouaka, Rousseau F; Kindé-Gazard, Dorothée A

    2006-01-01

    Background The role of agricultural practices in the selection of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors has so far been hypothesized without clear evidence. Many mosquito species, Anopheles gambiae in particular, lay their eggs in breeding sites located around agricultural settings. There is a probability that, as a result of farming activities, insecticide residues may be found in soil and water, where they exercise a selection pressure on the larval stage of various populations of mosquitoes. To confirm this hypothesis, a study was conducted in the Republic of Benin to assess the environmental hazards which can be generated from massive use of pesticides in agricultural settings. Methods Lacking an HPLC machine for direct quantification of insecticide residues in samples, this investigation was performed using indirect bioassays focussed on the study of factors inhibiting the normal growth of mosquito larvae in breeding sites. The speed of development was monitored as well as the yield of rearing An. gambiae larvae in breeding sites reconstituted with water and soil samples collected in agricultural areas known to be under pesticide pressure. Two strains of An. gambiae were used in this indirect bioassay: the pyrethroid-susceptible Kisumu strain and the resistant Ladji strain. The key approach in this methodology is based on comparison of the growth of larvae in test and in control breeding sites, the test samples having been collected from two vegetable farms. Results Results obtained clearly show the presence of inhibiting factors on test samples. A normal growth of larvae was observed in control samples. In breeding sites simulated by using a few grams of soil samples from the two vegetable farms under constant insecticide treatments (test samples), a poor hatching rate of Anopheles eggs coupled with a retarded growth of larvae and a low yield of adult mosquitoes from hatched eggs, was noticed. Conclusion Toxic factors inhibiting the hatching of anopheles

  9. Prehistoric Agriculture and Soil Fertility on Lava Flows in Northern Arizona, USA: Results from the San Francisco Volcanic Field REU

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Broadman, E.; Anderson, K. C.

    2013-12-01

    The San Francisco Volcanic Field in northern Arizona is home to ~600 cinder cones, the youngest of which is Sunset Crater (erupted ~AD 1100). This study documents trends in available phosphate and nitrate content with time, testing whether lowered soil pH from the addition of Sunset cinders increased soil fertility and became a factor in Anasazi agricultural success. Soil fertility is examined both before and after Sunset's eruption in soils of different ages that have developed from eolian deposition on top of lava flows. An increase in phosphate and nitrate levels following acidification would suggest that the presence of Sunset cinders brought the soils to the optimal pH for mobilization of these nutrients. The combined effects of the cinder layer retaining nutrients and water, wetter climates, and increases in phosphate and nitrate (both limiting nutrients for plant growth), would have contributed to Anasazi agricultural success after Sunset's eruption. Samples for this study were taken from eolian-derived soils of different ages atop lava flows in the San Francisco Volcanic Field. OSL data from these soils on Strawberry and SP Craters' lava flows yielded age estimates of ~12.3 ka (Strawberry) and ~32.7 ka (SP), on which a soil chronosequence was based. Results from the chronosequence supported these OSL ages, indicating that soils on the SP flow are older than those on the Strawberry flow. Field descriptions, Harden Development Indices, particle size analysis, and nutrient content analysis were used for this aspect of the project. An experimental acid wash method will be used to simulate the addition of Sunset's acidic cinders, and will yield data for phosphate and nitrate content after Sunset erupted. Preliminary results indicate that phosphate and nitrate accumulate in upper, eolian-derived horizons (Av, Bw) and in more deeply buried carbonate horizons (Bk). Higher concentrations of phosphate and nitrate were found in older (SP) soils than younger

  10. Are BVOC exchanges in agricultural ecosystems overestimated? Insights from fluxes measured in a maize field over a whole growing season

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bachy, Aurélie; Aubinet, Marc; Schoon, Niels; Amelynck, Crist; Bodson, Bernard; Moureaux, Christine; Heinesch, Bernard

    2016-04-01

    Maize is the most important C4 crop worldwide. It is also the second most important crop worldwide (C3 and C4 mixed), and is a dominant crop in some world regions. Therefore, it can potentially influence local climate and air quality through its exchanges of gases with the atmosphere. Among others, biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) are known to influence the atmospheric composition and thereby modify greenhouse gases lifetime and pollutant formation in the atmosphere. However, so far, only two studies have dealt with BVOC exchanges from maize. Moreover, these studies were conducted on a limited range of meteorological and phenological conditions, so that the knowledge of BVOC exchanges by this crop remains poor. Here, we present the first BVOC measurement campaign performed at ecosystem-scale on a maize field during a whole growing season. It was carried out in the Lonzée Terrestrial Observatory (LTO), an ICOS site. BVOC fluxes were measured by the disjunct by mass-scanning eddy covariance technique with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer for BVOC mixing ratios measurements. Outstanding results are (i) BVOC exchanges from soil were as important as BVOC exchanges from maize itself; (ii) BVOC exchanges observed on our site were much lower than exchanges observed by other maize studies, even under normalized temperature and light conditions, (iii) they were also lower than those observed on other crops grown in Europe. Lastly (iv), BVOC exchanges observed on our site under standard environmental conditions, i.e., standard emission factors SEF, were much lower than those currently considered by BVOC exchange up-scaling models. From those observations, we deduced that (i) soil BVOC exchanges should be better understood and should be incorporated in terrestrial BVOC exchanges models, and that (ii) SEF for the C4 crop plant functional type cannot be evaluated at global scale but should be determined for each important agronomic and pedo-climatic region

  11. Conservation of Pollinators in Traditional Agricultural Landscapes – New Challenges in Transylvania (Romania) Posed by EU Accession and Recommendations for Future Research

    PubMed Central

    Kovács-Hostyánszki, Anikó; Földesi, Rita; Mózes, Edina; Szirák, Ádám; Fischer, Joern; Hanspach, Jan; Báldi, András

    2016-01-01

    Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups—wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES). PMID:27285118

  12. Anthropology in Agricultural Health and Safety Research and Intervention.

    PubMed

    Arcury, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    Agriculture remains a dangerous industry, even as agricultural science and technology continue to advance. Research that goes beyond technological changes to address safety culture and policy are needed to improve health and safety in agriculture. In this commentary, I consider the potential for anthropology to contribute to agricultural health and safety research by addressing three aims: (1) I briefly consider what the articles in this issue of the Journal of Agromedicine say about anthropologists in agricultural health and safety; (2) I discuss what anthropologists can add to agricultural health and safety research; and (3) I examine ways in which anthropologists can participate in agricultural health and safety research. In using their traditions of rigorous field research to understand how those working in agriculture perceive and interpret factors affecting occupational health and safety (their "emic" perspective), and translating this perspective to improve the understanding of occupational health professionals and policy makers (an "etic" perspective), anthropologists can expose myths that limit improvements in agricultural health and safety. Addressing significant questions, working with the most vulnerable agricultural communities, and being outside establishment agriculture provide anthropologists with the opportunity to improve health and safety policy and regulation in agriculture.

  13. The big data processing platform for intelligent agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Jintao; Zhang, Lichen

    2017-08-01

    Big data technology is another popular technology after the Internet of Things and cloud computing. Big data is widely used in many fields such as social platform, e-commerce, and financial analysis and so on. Intelligent agriculture in the course of the operation will produce large amounts of data of complex structure, fully mining the value of these data for the development of agriculture will be very meaningful. This paper proposes an intelligent data processing platform based on Storm and Cassandra to realize the storage and management of big data of intelligent agriculture.

  14. Evaluation of impact of earthquake on agriculture in Nepal based on remote sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sekiyama, Ayako; Shimada, Sawahiko; Okazawa, Hiromu; Mihara, Machito; Kuo, Kuang Ting

    2016-07-01

    The big earthquake happening on April, 2015 killed over than 8000 people in Nepal. The effect of earthquake not only affected safety of local people but also agricultural field. Agricultural economy dominates income of local people. Therefore, restoration of agricultural areas are required for improving life of local people. However, lack of information about agricultural areas is main problem for local government to assess and restore damaged agricultural areas. Remote sensing was applied for accessing damaged agricultural field due to its advantages in observing responds of environment without temporal and spatial restriction. Accordingly, the objective of the study is to evaluate impact of earthquake on agriculture in Nepal based on remote sensing. The experimental procedure includes conducting the impact of earthquake on changes of total agricultural area, and analysis of response of greenness affected by earthquake in agricultural land. For conducting agricultural land changes, land use map was first created and classified into four categories: road, city, forest, and agricultural land. Changes before and after earthquake in total area of agricultural land were analyzed by GIS. Moreover, vegetation index was used as indicator for evaluating greenness responds in agricultural land and computed based on high-resolution satellite imagery such as World view-3. Finally, the conclusion of the study and suggestions will be made and provided for helping local government in Nepal restore agricultural areas.

  15. The synergistic use of models and observations: understanding the mechanisms behind observed biomass dynamics at 14 Amazonian field sites and the implications for future biomass change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Levine, N. M.; Galbraith, D.; Christoffersen, B. J.; Imbuzeiro, H. A.; Restrepo-Coupe, N.; Malhi, Y.; Saleska, S. R.; Costa, M. H.; Phillips, O.; Andrade, A.; Moorcroft, P. R.

    2011-12-01

    The Amazonian rainforests play a vital role in global water, energy and carbon cycling. The sensitivity of this system to natural and anthropogenic disturbances therefore has important implications for the global climate. Some global models have predicted large-scale forest dieback and the savannization of Amazonia over the next century [Meehl et al., 2007]. While several studies have demonstrated the sensitivity of dynamic global vegetation models to changes in temperature, precipitation, and dry season length [e.g. Galbraith et al., 2010; Good et al., 2011], the ability of these models to accurately reproduce ecosystem dynamics of present-day transitional or low biomass tropical forests has not been demonstrated. A model-data intercomparison was conducted with four state-of-the-art terrestrial ecosystem models to evaluate the ability of these models to accurately represent structure, function, and long-term biomass dynamics over a range of Amazonian ecosystems. Each modeling group conducted a series of simulations for 14 sites including mature forest, transitional forest, savannah, and agricultural/pasture sites. All models were run using standard physical parameters and the same initialization procedure. Model results were compared against forest inventory and dendrometer data in addition to flux tower measurements. While the models compared well against field observations for the mature forest sites, significant differences were observed between predicted and measured ecosystem structure and dynamics for the transitional forest and savannah sites. The length of the dry season and soil sand content were good predictors of model performance. In addition, for the big leaf models, model performance was highest for sites dominated by late successional trees and lowest for sites with predominantly early and mid-successional trees. This study provides insight into tropical forest function and sensitivity to environmental conditions that will aid in predictions of the

  16. Phthalate esters contamination in soil and plants on agricultural land near an electronic waste recycling site.

    PubMed

    Ma, Ting Ting; Christie, Peter; Luo, Yong Ming; Teng, Ying

    2013-08-01

    The accumulation of phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in soil and plants in agricultural land near an electronic waste recycling site in east China has become a great threat to the neighboring environmental quality and human health. Soil and plant samples collected from land under different utilization, including fallow plots, vegetable plots, plots with alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) as green manure, fallow plots under long-term flooding and fallow plots under alternating wet and dry periods, together with plant samples from relative plots were analyzed for six PAE compounds nominated as prior pollutants by USEPA. In the determined samples, the concentrations of six target PAE pollutants ranged from 0.31-2.39 mg/kg in soil to 1.81-5.77 mg/kg in various plants (dry weight/DW), and their bioconcentration factors (BCFs) ranged from 5.8 to 17.9. Health risk assessments were conducted on target PAEs, known as typical environmental estrogen analogs, based on their accumulation in the edible parts of vegetables. Preliminary risk assessment to human health from soil and daily vegetable intake indicated that DEHP may present a high-exposure risk on all ages of the population in the area by soil ingestion or vegetable consumption. The potential damage that the target PAE compounds may pose to human health should be taken into account in further comprehensive risk assessments in e-waste recycling sites areas. Moreover, alfalfa removed substantial amounts of PAEs from the soil, and its use can be considered a good strategy for in situ remediation of PAEs.

  17. Mauna Kea, Hawaii as an Analogue Site for Future Planetary Resource Exploration: Results from the 2010 ILSO-ISRU Field-Testing Campaign

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    ten Kate, I. L.; Armstrong, R.; Bernhardt, B.; Blummers, M.; Boucher, D.; Caillibot, E.; Captain, J.; Deleuterio, G.; Farmer, J. D.; Glavin, D. P.; hide

    2010-01-01

    Within the framework of the International Lunar Surface Operation - In-Situ Resource Utilization Analogue Test held on January 27 - February 11, 2010 on the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, a number of scientific instrument teams collaborated to characterize the field site and test instrument capabilities outside laboratory environments. In this paper, we provide a geological setting for this new field-test site, a description of the instruments that were tested during the 2010 ILSO-ISRU field campaign, and a short discussion for each instrument about the validity and use of the results obtained during the test. These results will form a catalogue that may serve as reference for future test campaigns. In this paper we provide a description and regional geological setting for a new field analogue test site for lunar resource exploration, and discuss results obtained from the 2010 ILSO-ISRU field campaign as a reference for future field-testing at this site. The following instruments were tested: a multispectral microscopic imager, MMI, a Mossbauer spectrometer, an evolved gas analyzer, VAPoR, and an oxygen and volatile extractor called RESOLVE. Preliminary results show that the sediments change from dry, organic-poor, poorly-sorted volcaniclastic sand on the surface, containing basalt, iron oxides and clays, to more water- and organic-rich, fine grained, well-sorted volcaniclastic sand, primarily consisting of iron oxides and depleted of basalt and clays. Furthermore, drilling experiments showed a very close correlation between drilling on the Moon and drilling at the test site. The ILSO-ISRU test site was an ideal location for testing strategies for in situ resource exploration at the lunar or martian surface.

  18. Utilizing of magnetic parameters for evaluation of soil erosion rates on two different agricultural sites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kapicka, A.; Grison, H.; Petrovsky, E.; Jaksik, O.; Kodesova, R.

    2015-12-01

    Field measurements of magnetic susceptibility were carried out on regular grid, resulting in 101 data points at Brumovice and 65 at Vidim locality. Mass specific magnetic susceptibility χ and its frequency dependence χFD was used to estimate the significance of SP ferrimagnetic particles of pedogenic origin in topsoil horizons. The lowest magnetic susceptibility was obtained on the steep valley sides. Here the original topsoil was eroded and mixed by tillage with the soil substrate (loess). Soil profiles unaffected by erosion were investigated in detail. The vertical distribution of magnetic susceptibility along these "virgin" profiles was measured in laboratory on samples collected with 2-cm spacing. The differences between the distribution of susceptibility in the undisturbed soil profiles and the magnetic signal after uniform mixing of the soil material as a result of erosion and tillage are fundamental for the estimation of soil loss in the studied test fields. Maximum cumulative soil erosion depth in Brumovice and Vidim is around 100 cm and 50 cm respectively. The magnetic method is suitable for mapping at the chernozem localities and measurement of soil magnetic susceptibility is in this case useful and fast technique for quantitative estimation of soil loss caused by erosion. However, it is less suitable (due to lower magnetic differentiation with depth) in areas with luvisol as dominant soil unit. Acknowledgement: This study was supported by NAZV Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic through grant No QJ1230319.

  19. Vocational Agriculture Education. Agricultural Mechanics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Eddie; And Others

    To assist teachers in agricultural mechanics in providing comprehensive instruction to their students, this curriculum guide treats both the mechanical skills and knowlege necessary for this specialized area. Six sections are included, as follow: orientation and safety; agricultural mechanics skills; agricultural power and machinery; agricultural…

  20. Mediterranean Agricultural Soil Conservation under global Change: The MASCC project.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raclot, Damien; Ciampalini, Rossano

    2017-04-01

    The MASCC project (2016-2019, http://mascc-project.org) aims to address mitigation and adaptation strategies to global change by assessing current and future development of Mediterranean agricultural soil vulnerability to erosion in relation to projected land use, agricultural practices and climate change. It targets to i) assess the similarities/dissimilarities in dominant factors affecting the current Mediterranean agricultural soil vulnerability by exploring a wide range of Mediterranean contexts; ii) improve the ability to evaluate the impact of extreme events on both the current and projected agricultural soil vulnerability and the sediment delivery at catchment outlet; iii) evaluate the vulnerability and resilience of agricultural production to a combination of potential changes in a wide range of Mediterranean contexts, iv) and provide guidelines on sustainable agricultural conservation strategies adapted to each specific agro-ecosystem and taking into consideration both on- and off-site erosion effects and socio-economics issues. To achieve these objectives, the MASCC project consortium gather researchers from six Mediterranean countries (France, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy, Spain and Portugal) which monitor mid- to long-term environmental catchments and benefit from mutual knowledge created from previous projects and network. The major assets for MASCC are: i) the availability of an unrivalled database on catchment soil erosion and innovative agricultural practices comprising a wide range of Mediterranean contexts, ii) the capacity to better evaluate the impact of extreme events on soil erosion, iii) the expert knowledge of the LANDSOIL model, a catchment-scale integrated approach of the soil-landscape system that enables to simulate both the sediment fluxes at the catchment outlet and the intra-catchment soil evolving properties and iv) the multi-disciplinarity of the involved researchers with an international reputation in the fields of soil science