نشریه مدیریت خاک و تولید پایدار
سال هفتم شماره 3 (پیاپی 21، پاییز 1396)

Application of organic materials, such as humic acid, prevent from environmental pollutionand also increases sustainability by decline the harmful impacts of industrial fertilizers in agroecosystems. Humic acid has quasi-hormonal activity and not only increases plant growth and absorption of nutrients, but also improves plant resistance to stress.
In order to determine the effect of application method and different levels of humic acid on vegetative growth parameters and yield components of rapeseed (variety Hayola 308), a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 10 treatments in 4 replications. Treatments included soil application of humic acid in 3 levels (1, 2 and 4 g/kg soil), spraying of humic acid in 3 levels (0.1, 0.2 and 0.4%) with irrigation water at 3 levels (1000, 2000 and 4000 mg/l) and control (acid humic-free). Soil application in the form of humic acid powder and in cropping time based on the soil weight of the pots and for spraying and consumption along with irrigation water, each of the spraying and together with irrigation water levels is divided into three equal parts and in three stages (establish of the plant, stem elongation and flowering) used. Spraying was performed at the end of the day and in order to make it more effective, several drops of moyan (foliar soap) were used to wet the leaves. The studied traits included leaf and stem fresh and dry weight, height bush, number of leaves and flowers, time to first flowering, silique length, seed per silique and silique per plant and 1000 grain weight, biological yield and harvest index.
The results of variance analysis of vegetative growth parameters, and yield components showed that all traits except leaf number per plant and leaf dry weight were significant at 1% level. The highest height, wet weight of leaf and stem and leaf and stem dry weight were related to treatment with 2000 mg/lit with irrigation water and the lowest was for control treatment. The highest number of flowers and amount of time to the first flowering was associated with 4000 mg/L treatment with irrigation water and control, whereas the lowest values for these traits respectively belonged to control and 4000 mg/L acid humic treatment with irrigation water. Also, the highest yield and yield components were related to treatment with 2000 mg/ L with irrigation water. The treatment of 2000 mg/L humic acid with irrigation water, due to the high dry weight of leaf and stem, seed per silique and silique per plant and 1000 grain weight, had the highest biological yield and harvest index, as well as the highest Biological yield and harvest index were 0.4% for spraying and 4 g/kg soil for soil application and its lowest for control treatment.
Application of humic acid can improve canola vegetative growth parameters and it could be used as a natural organic material to increase crop yield. The results showed that all three methods increased vegetative growth parameters, and yield components compared to control, but in general, 2000 mg/L acid humic with irrigation water was more effective than two methods of soil use and spray application.

Due to the intensified industrial activities and excessive application of pesticides and insecticides as well as fertilizers and industrial organic waste over the last few decades, there has been a great deal of concern about the accumulation of heavy metals in soils across the northern parts of Khuzestan Province as the agriculture hub of the province. This study attempted to examine the effect of land uses and soil parent materials on spatial variability of copper and lead elements and to specify the critical points (hotspots) contaminated with these metals across the northern parts of Khuzestan Province.
A total number of 300 composite soil samples (0-10 cm) were collected randomly at short, medium and long intervals across urban, agricultural and natural areas in north of Khuzestan, respectively; covering several cities including Shushtar, Shush, Izeh, Bagh Malek, Andika, Gotvand, Dezful, Masjed Soleiman, Lali and Andimeshk. Moreover, 26 samples were retrieved from the region in order to evaluate the effect of parent materials. Then, the physical and chemical properties of samples were specified after transporting them to the laboratory and preliminary arrangements under standard procedures. Furthermore, the total concentrations of lead and copper were measured using Varian A240 atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) equipped with a graphite furnace.
The results indicated that the maximum of total concentrations of lead, and copper were found in lands with industrial use, while the urban, agricultural, pasture and forest land uses accounted for the next values. When the total concentrations of these elements compared with the safe limits suggested by other countries, it was understood that the soils were not contaminated with lead and copper elements. However, the lands with industrial use were closer to critical levels. The greatest values of geoaccumulation index (Igeo) were found in industrial and urban land uses, whereas lands under agriculture, pasture and forest uses took up the lower ranks, respectively. Examination of the effect of parent materials on the distribution of lead, and copper across the study area demonstrated that the highest concentration of these elements could be arranged as shales > marl > indiscriminate sediment > sandstone > limestone. Besides, the comparison of total concentrations of heavy metals lead, and copper in soils and corresponding parent materials revealed that the concentrations of these elements were greater in soils as compared to those in the parent materials.
When concentrations of lead and copper in soils and parent materials, and in the land uses are compared, it could be concluded that both anthropogenic and geogenic sources have contributed to the distribution of lead and copper in the study area.

water deficiency is one of the most limiting factors of agricultural production in arid and semiarid areas. In recent years beneficial microorganisms were evaluated as one of the techniquesto reduce the effects of drought stress and increase sustainable agricultural production. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the effect of mycorrhizal fungi on growth and uptake of some elements on lentil under drought stress conditions.
Experiment was performed as factorial test in a completely randomized design including two factors, drought stress at four levels (20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% PAW) and mycorrhizal fungi at four levels (Rhizophagus intraradices and Funneliformis mosseae, a mixture of two fungal species, and control), in growth chambers at Department of Soil Science and Engineering, Tehran University, 2014. After growth period, the effect of different treatments on growth traits such as number of nodules, shoot and root dry weights, number of sheaths, chlorophyll index, root colonization, plant height and content of elements of N, P, K, Fe, and Zn in the shoot were measured and recorded. Analysis of variance and mean comparison of data were performed with SAS software and Duncan’s test (pFindings: The results showed that all measured plant traits due to the effect of water stress decreased, so that dry matter of shoot, root dry weight, number of sheaths, leaf chlorophyll index, root colonization and plant height at the highest level of stress S1 than the control NS, respectively 49.99, 41.12, 11.2, 24.4, 26.06, 28.09 and 22.15 percent reduced. The interaction of water stress and mycorrhizal fungi on all measured traits except for plant height, root dry weight, chlorophyll index, zinc, phosphorus and potassium was significant (p Water stress had a negative impact on all indicators of growth, but the greatest reduction in root and shoot dry weight was seen. The use of mycorrhizal fungi had a significant effect on growth traits and nutrient uptake. The use of mycorrhizal fungi R. intraradices and F. mosseae reduced the negative effects of water stress and led to the increase of growth and more absorption of elements.
nt.

Background and objectivesþ:þý Because of wide variety of soil properties (including physical, chemical ýand biological), the type and rate of change of these properties in relation to the cultivation of ýagricultural products is great importance. For optimal management of soil, it is need to know these ýproperties. Since it is very expensive to measure soil characteristics in the laboratory and for a broad ýarea, estimation of their spatial distribution is required. This study has estimated some soil physical and ýchemical properties in geoform map units of some parts of Sarduieh region using the conventional soil ýmapping method, kriging and their combination as single estimator and has compared the results with ýeach other.ý
150 observation points (with a mean distance of 200 m) as a random classified ýsampling pattern were taken from the topsoil (0-30 cm) of the area. Besides, undisturbed samples were ýtaken from each observation point by cylinder. After air drying the samples and passing them through ýthe 2 mm sieve, required laboratory analyses were done on the samples. After calculation of estimated ývalues and error variance of the studied variables using the mentioned estimators, their validation was ýconducted using coefficient of determination (R2) and relative root mean square error (RMSE%). ý
All the studied soil properties, except bulk density and soil reaction, had moderate variability. ýThe spatial structure of all variables (except volume percentage of coarse fragments, organic matter ýpercentage, and electrical conductivity, which had strong spatial structure) was moderate and spherical ýand exponential models were well able to model the spatial structure of soil properties. The range of ýmodels for various properties was variable between 450 m for field capacity and 1945 m for soil ýreaction. ý
A distance of approximately 880 meters, which represents an average range of studied properties, can be ýconsidered as an optimum sampling distance for future studies in this region. ý
Results showed when the spatial correlation class of a variable was strong, the kriging ýestimator and combined method had a more successful estimation of that property. Besides, in such ýsituation, using combined estimator leading to a significant reduction in amount of estimations’ bias. ýOn the other hand, using the combined method for estimating other soil properties in the study area ýthat had moderate spatial correlation classes did not have a significant preference than two other ýestimators, i.e, geoform and kriging maps.

Potassium is the most abundant macronutrient in 15-cm of soil layer. Micas, K-feldspars and vermiculites are three important groups of minerals containing potassium. Soil microorganism play an important role in the natural cycle of potassium, so potassium solubilizing microorganisms in the soil can be used as an alternative technology for increasing available K for plants. Glauconite micaceous minerals are considered as a source of natural origin non-chemical fertilizers, so they can be a good source of potassium. The aim of this research was to study the effects of inoculation of potassium solubilizing bacteria with indigenous shale containing glauconite on the yield and yield components of wheat in field conditions.
After isolation and identification of potassium solubilizing bacteria, and determination of growth indices, molecular identification of isolates was done. Based on the ability to solubilize potassium, the isolate was selected for field experiment and was identified with 16S rRNA test. Glauconite mineral was collected from near the village of Aq-Taqeh Maravetappe in Golestan Province, then transferred to Biology Laboratory of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (GAU). It was then powder by hammer and shale containing glauconite particles passing through 60 mesh sieve that the particle size was less than 250 microns were prepared for testing. XRD and XRF studies were conducted on glauconite mineral. This study was conducted as a randomized complete block design with nine treatments consisting: 1- control, 2- inoculation of bacteria glauconite, 3- inoculation of bacteria glauconite organic matter, 4- inoculation of bacteria organic matter, 5- glauconite organic matter, 6- glauconite, 7- sulphate fertilizer treatment, 8- bacteria treatment, 9- treatment of organic matter, replicated three times during 2015- 2016 in the research farm of GAU on Karim wheat cultivar in rainfed conditions. The measured traits were including yield and yield components of wheat.
Experiments showed that glauconite mineral is containing potassium oxide (3.2%), iron and other micronutrients that can be used by plants. Results showed that treatments had a significant effect (P Analysis of variance and means comparison showed that the incorporation treatment of glauconite-organic matter-bacteria compared with potassium sulfate fertilizer significantly increased the yield of wheat. This study showed the significant effect of potassium solubilizing bacteria on native shale containing glauconite in supplying potassium for plants and glauconite mineral alone or in combination with bacterial inoculation and organic matter can release potassium and can be used to provide part of the required potassium of plant as a potassium fertilizer.

Chemical fertilizers have important role in increasing crop production in unit square meter, but studies showed that using these fertilizers for long period with strong salts in them cause damage to soil physical and chemical properties like soil infiltration, bulk density and decrease in plant root penetration that ultimately decrease crop production. The aim of this research was to estimate desirable proportions of chemical fertilizers and organic manure with the aim of reduction in consumption of chemical fertilizers
Methods and materials. For the study of the combined effect of different chemical fertilizers and manure (sheep) to reach suitable fertilizers combination (Thompson novel orange) an experiment was conducted at 2013 in one of the orchard at Sari district with low organic C. This research carried out on five years old citrus threes. This experiment carried out as factorial experiment on the base of complete randomized block design with 9 treatments and three replications. Treatments included three manure levels (0, 6 and 12 kg per) and three levels of macro fertilizer including potassium sulphate, ammonium sulphate and super phosphate triple (0, 30 and 60 percent on the bases of soil test).
Result and discussion. The results of analysis of variance on orange leaf nitrogen showed that simple effect of chemical fertilizers and organic manure and their interactions were significant at 5% level. The interaction between factors under studies for this trait showed that chemical fertilizers are under influence of organic manure. The results of analysis of variance showed that simple effect of chemical fertilizers and interaction effects of chemical fertilizers and organic manure on orange leaf phosphorus were significant at 1% level. Mean comparisions showed that highest phosphorus absorption were related to 60% chemical fertilizers use and 6 and 12 kg manure which were statically in same group. The results of analysis of variance showed that the simple effect of different levels of chemical fertilizers and its interactions with manure on orange leaf potassium absorption were significant at 1% level. Mean comparison of interactions showed that the highest potassium absorption were with T8 treatment. The analysis of variance for sulphur absorption showed that simple effect of chemical fertilizer and manure were significant at 1% level and their interactions were significant at 5% level. The results from analysis of variance showed that simple effect of chemical fertilizer and its interaction with manure on orange leaf calcium absorption were significant at 5% level and simple effect of manure on orange leaf absorption were significant at 1% level.
The highest nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium of Thompson leaf were obtained with application of 60% chemical fertilizer and 6 kg manure. The highest absorption of calcium, magnesium, Iron, manganese and zinc in Thompson orange leaf were obtained with 30% chemical fertilizer application and 12 kg manure.

The management of adding fertilizer is one of the essential factors for success in the cultivation of medicinal plants. The precise application of nutrients, not only plays an important role on performance improvement, but also is effective on improving the quality of created products. Animal manure has ecological and agronomic benefits, but its surface broadcast of the manure in the field requires a large amount of such manure which is followed by economical and environmental cost consequences, thus the aim of present research is to evaluate the effect of application method and different levels of manure on performance and concentration of some garlic nutrients.
the experiment carried out factorially in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Station of Shahrekord University in 2014. Treatments consisted of three levels of cattle manure (27, 40 and 53 ton/ha) and two methods of manure application (surface broadcast and subsurface application). The traits such as photosynthesis pigments, plant height, clove number, clove weight, performance, nitrogen concentration, concentration phosphorus, concentration potassium, and sulfur concentration and nitrate concentration were measured.
The results showed the highest amount of chlorophyll b observed in surface broadcasting of 27 ton/ha of cattle manure with an average of 1.23 mg/g. The highest plant height observed in subsurface application of 53 ton/ha of cattle manure and surface broadcasting of 40 ton/ha of cattle manure with the averages of 52.8 and 53.3 cm, respectively. The maximum clove number with an average of 10.78 cloves per plant obtained in surface broadcasting of 40 ton/ha of cattle manure. The maximum clove weight was recorded in surface and subsurface application of 53 ton/ha cattle manure, 4.94 and 4.58 g, respectively. The highest concentration of nitrogen is belonged to surface application of 43 ton/ha of cattle manure with average of 1.9 g/kg, but the highest amount of phosphorous gained in subsurface application of 53 ton/ha of cattle manure with average of 1.8 g/kg. The subsurface application of 27 ton/ha of cattle manure showed more potassium concentration than other treatments. Sulfur concentration in subsurface method of cattle manure showed an increase of 6.6 percent than surface broadcasting. Subsurface application treatments of 27 and 40 ton/ha, and surface broadcasting treatment of 53 ton/ha had the maximum amount of performance. Low concentrations of nitrate observed in subsurface application of 40 ton/ha and surface broadcast of 27 and 53 ton/ha of cattle manure.
According to the results, among the applicable treatments, subsurface treatment of 40 ton/ha of cattle manure was the best, because it had the maximum performance and also reduced the nitrate concentration in garlic.

Introduction Production of pistachio is not often economical as located mainly in saline-sodic soils. Amendments such as gypsum and sulfur are cheap and convenient available. Gypsum can introduce calcium to the soil and replace exchangeable sodium and sulfur with production sulfuric acid and then pH reduction will increase the availability and absorption of plant nutrients from soil. Humic acid can also improve physical, chemical and biological soil properties and stimulate growth via its effects on plant metabolism. Therefore, the objective of this research was to study the influence of gypsum, sulfur and humic acid on some properties of pistachio leaves and some soil properties.
Materials and Methods A field experiment was accomplished as a randomized complete block design in two years (split plot) with three replications in Izadyaran Company (30 km south of Sirjan). Treatments were consisted of two chemical amendments (gypsum and sulfur, 10 Mg ha-1) as main plot factor and methods of HUMAX applications (control, soil application 40 L ha-1, and foliar application 2.5 L ha-1), as subplots. Analysis of variance was performed by multiplex analysis. Chemical matters were poured in to the pit of planting and mixed thoroughly with soil and an one-year-pistachio seedling was planted (February 2012) Then three months after planting, HUMAX was applied (June 2012). HUMAX application was repeated in the following year (June 2013). Leaf sampling and soil sampling for the measurement of some leaf and soil properties were performed in the middle of summer (August 2012 and 2013) and at the end of winter (February 2013 and 2014), respectively.
Results and Discussion Results showed that over a year, the amount of chlorophyll-a, carotenoids and leaf K declined (pConclusion The findings of this study showed that one of the best combinations for increasing the some physiologic properties of pistachio leaf were sulfur plus soil application of HUMAX especially with passing the time. Leaf K and P increased with gypsum and soil application of HUMAX. Sulfur application improved bulk density, mean weight diameter and water aggregate stability. Electrical conductivity can be reduced with time and soil N increased.

Potassium is one of the mostly needed essential nutrients and also abundant absorbed cation by the plants. Due to imbalanced fertilizer application, potassium deficiency is becoming one of the major constraints in crop production. Potassium deficiency resulted leaves dieback and grain yield reduction of wheat. Most of potassium in soil exists in the form of unavailable for plant. Plant growth promoting bacteria have the ability to increase the availability of nutrients for plant uptake. This study aimed to investigate the effect of potassium solubilizing bacteria to utilize soil potassium by wheat.
Material and The factorial experiment was conducted at greenhouse condition as a randomized complete design at three replications. Treatments consisted of four levels of bacteria (without inoculation (control), inoculation with Enterobacter cloacae R33, inoculation with Pseudomonas sp, inoculation with both Enterobacter cloacae R33 and Pseudomonas sp) and two levels of K2So4 (0 % and 50 % of potassium requirement). During the experiment, plant height and chlorophyll index were measured. At the end of cultivation period, dry weight of root and aerial part and also potassium concentration of root, shoot and grain was determined using flame photometer after dry digestion. Grain yield (5 shrubs per pot) and potassium uptake in grain was also determined. Exchangeable potassium of soil was measured using ammonium acetate.
Soil exchangeable potassium content using any of the bacterial treatments compared to control showed a significant increase (P The Maximum amounts of all measured properties in the treatment containing Enterobacter cloacae indicating possibility of its application as proper alternative of chemical fertilizer to reach optimal production and sustainable agriculture.

The FAO framework for land suitability evaluation is the most commonly used and is based on the biophysical properties and socioeconomic parameters of lands. The FAO framework for land suitability and soil mapping application a Boolean approach that has been criticized by some of authors. Because the Boolean representations ignore the continuous nature of soil and uncertainties in measurement .Also for overcoming problems related to vagueness in definition and other uncertainties, Fuzzy set methodologies have been proposed. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) calculates the needed weighting factors with the help of a preference matrix where all identified relevant criteria are compared against each other with reproducible preference factors. Finally the derivation of suitability using Fuzzy AHP method was not just based on the fuzzy membership function values, but also the weighting values allocated to any criterion. This article uses of Fuzzy–AHP methods to land suitability evaluation. The method were evaluated application a case study which model the opportunities for chickpea production under irrigation conditions in the Hashtrood region in East Azarbaijan province, IRAN.
Soil morphological and analytical data were obtained from 29 sampling profile on Chickpea farms. Then a number of relevant soil and landscape criteria were identified through the literature and their weights specified as a result of discussions with local experts. For land suitability evaluation by FAHP approach, First hierarchical structure employed, Second asymmetric and symmetric models were used for land characteristics, Third Weighting the model criteria provides relative measures of the interaction and importance of the criteria. The weights were obtained through a pairwise comparison analysis in an AHP approach in discussion with local experts, Fifth the weighted criterion layers are generated using the relative function, Finally The suitability is calculated by combining the weighted criterion layers. For assessing of accuracy of modeling, has been used matching of between suitability and actual production maps.
The results indicated that cation exchange capacity (0.179), available-water-holding capacity (0.161) and soil calcium carbonate (0.143) have higher weights than other criteria and therefore they are considered as the most significant criteria in the study area. The results of the Fuzzy AHP approaches showed that no locations in the study area were mapped with a degree of suitability equal to 1. In this model, a number of locations in specific criteria were given MFs of 1 due to the strength of support they offered in the overall assessment of chickpea suitability. However, the derivation of the overall suitability using the Fuzzy AHP approach was not only based on the fuzzy membership function values but also the weighting values allocated to each criterion. The results of the Fuzzy AHP showed that the majority of the study area has membership values to the set of suitability between 0.6 and 0.7. Agreement between land suitability and actual map is 76.7; also this model has been presented good result for land suitability of chickpea in study region. The results of this work provide information to decision-makers in their land planning decisions and further work should develop trial plots to ground truth the suitability measures.
Fuzzy AHP approaches accommodate the continuous nature of some soil properties and produce more intuitive distributions of land Suitability Indexes.

Nutritional diagnosis is an important tool for increasing quality and quantity of yield through efficient fertilization management. Diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (DRIS) can be used as an efficient method to interpret the results of plant analysis and the nutritional needs of agricultural and horticultural crops. Despite the importance of watermelon production in West-Azerbaijan (700 ha), there is no research paper about nutrition of watermelon, so this research carried out to evaluate nutritional status of this crop, to determine of DRIS norms and nutrient priority order for watermelon in this region.
Material and DRIS norms were established from a data bank of nutrient concentration of leaves (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and B) and fruit yield of 147 samples collected from watermelon fields in Poldasht, West-Azerbaijan. The fields were divided into high-yield (≥ 40.5 ton ha-1; 23% of fields) and low-yield ( Nutrient sufficiency ranges of watermelon obtained from DRIS method were: 2.5 - 3.4, 0.16 - 0.34, 1.8 - 2.25, 1.4 - 2.3, 0.3 - 0.65% for N, P, K, Ca, Mg, respectively and 59 - 164, 44 - 121, 33 - 57, 9.3 - 20.5, 11- 43 mg/kg of dry matter for Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, respectively. The optimum concentrations of N, P, K, Ca, Mg were 2.1, 0.2, 1.8, 1.55, 0.33% and for Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B were 83, 71, 34, 11, 17 mg/kg, respectively.
From 45 selected nutrient ratios as DRIS norms, 41 norms had variance ratio more than 2 indicating the importance of the constitutive nutrients of these ratio in yield. Nitrogen had the most negative DRIS index among all macro elements that thirty five percent of studied fields (42 fields) are nitrogen deficient and nitrogen was in the first or second deficiency order in the fields. There were potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, iron, copper, manganese, and boron deficiencies in the 22%, 20%, 12%, 7%, 31%, 21%, 16%, 11%, and 9% of watermelon fields, respectively. Among micro nutrients, zinc had the most negative DRIS index and the most deficiency in 73% of fields. Based on this study priority of nutrients were as N > K > Mg > Ca > P for macro nutrients and Zn > Fe > Cu > Mn > B for micro nutrients. Plants have high nutritional balance index (NBI) indicating relatively imbalance of absorbed nutrients by watermelon and imbalance fertilizer application in the studied fields