نشریه پژوهش های حفاظت آب و خاک
سال بیست و ششم شماره 6 (بهمن و اسفند 1398)

To characterize and to assess all the complexities and to develop river ecosystem management plans, it is needed that all components at different spatial and temporal scales to be considered. In this regard, a hierarchical multi scale framework has been applied as a flexible, open ended approach to conduct hydro-morphological assessment and also to support river basin managers through exploring the causes of hydro-morphological management problems and devising sustainable solutions. The framework has been suggested by REFORM Project (REstoringrivers FOR effective catchment Management). Generally, the hydro-morphological assessment framework and management plan cycle in river basins consists of four main steps as: 1) Delineation and characterization of spatial units; (2) Hydro-morphological assessment of past, current and future trends; 3) Identification and prioritization of pressures and 4) Developing management plan and implementing measures for restoration and rehabilitation. Based on the interim results of an ongoing PhD research program, this paper focuses on the first step in the framework for the Til-abad Watershed in Golestan Province, North of Iran.

Remote sensing techniques and the GIS environment complemented by a series of field surveys, and some data and information on hydrology, climate, topography, geology and land cover, valley characteristics, and channel and floodplain morphology were utilized to divide the river system into internally consistent spatial units including bio-geographical regions, catchments, landscapes, river segments, river reaches and geomorphic units.

Based on the above-mentioned methodological framework, the hierarchy of spatial units in the study area contains two units of bio-geographical region, one unit of catchment, four units of landscape, eight segments units and 26 Reach units.

The results of this research has important contributions to systemic hydro-morphological assessment and development of management plans in the Til-abad Watershed by increasing process understanding and by providing descriptions on the characteristics and the relationship between different spatial units. This hierarchical multi-scale framework has the applicability and generalizability to other river basins in Iran formulating the integrated assessment and management practices. Based on the above-mentioned methodological framework, the hierarchy of spatial units in the study area contains two units of bio-geographical region, one unit of catchment, four units of landscape, eight segments units and 26 Reach units. The results of this research has important contributions to systemic hydro-morphological assessment and development of management plans in the Til-abad Watershed by increasing process understanding and by providing descriptions on the characteristics and the relationship between different spatial units. This hierarchical multi-scale framework has the applicability and generalizability to other river basins in Iran formulating the integrated assessment and management practices.

One of the most important natural hazards that is affecting a large number of people, due to extensive damage, is drought. Drought is also a phenomenon directly related to the issue of water scarcity and because of its reversibility, it can affect the various aspects of human life and the environment. The drought affects almost all the determinants of the hydrological cycle from the onset of precipitation and then the surface water flow and eventually storage in groundwater. Therefore, in this research, due to the results of the stable process of precipitation and temperature in the Ardabil DareRood basin, SPI Index which relies on precipitation, with the RDI index which combines the parameters of potential evapotranspiration and precipitation, were compared and evaluated in different time intervals.

In this study, in order to identify drought and wet periods, it was used from monthly precipitation data, Minimum and maximum monthly temperature for seven synoptic stations, for a 30 years (1985-2014) in the Ardabil DareRood basin in the northwest of Iran. In order to identify the trend in the precipitation and temperature series in this research was used Man-Kendall (MK) and Sen's slope (Sen) models. Also, to assess the long-term stability of the trend in the time series was used the LOWESS curve (at a significant level of 5%). Also using Aridity index, four stations in the arid area and three stations in the semi-arid region were established. In order to calculate the RDI index, the values of potential evapotranspiration were use. The amount of PET in the RDI index using monthly temperature values, and was obtained by the Hargreaves method. Finally, SPI and RDI indices were compared in 3, 6, 9, and 12-month scales.

The results of the LOWESS curve showed that the annual temperature at all stations follows an incremental scenario. While the precipitation behaves differently and often is decreasing. The results also showed that SPI and RDI indices are very similar in different time scales, and R2 is in most cases greater than 0.90. The extreme drought the observed in SPI and RDI models is related to the Ardabil station in 2010-2011 on a 3-month scale, whose values were respectively -3/11 and -3/09. Also, the results showed that the RDI index that Extreme and severe wet values it’s larger than SPI. Eventually, both indices are many similarities with each other but because of RDI's use of PET, It can be used more widely for arid and semi-arid regions of Iran

this research, two SPI and RDI indices were used to compare the drought events in the DarehRood Ardabil basin of the northwest of Iran.Due to the dry and semi-arid climate of most regions of Iran, It is very probable that the amount of precipitation is zero in some seasons. Therefore precipitation-based indices such as SPI may have less efficiency than RDI index, which, in addition to rainfall, uses potential evapotranspiration (PET) in their formulation. Considering the importance of PET parameter in agriculture and water resources management in Iran, It is necessary to examine the RDI index in other regions of Iran, such as the northwest and mountainous regions of Iran and its results can be compared with other indicators such as the important and highly applicable SPI indicator.

Soil organic carbon (SOC), as a great constitute of soil organic matter (SOM), has an important role in chemical, physical and biological processes of soil. SOM or SOC is a key parameter of soil quality and a soil fertility indicator. SOM has an essential role in formation of soil aggregate and its stability, water and nutrients adsorption, water holding capacity, infiltration of air and water, hydraulic conductivity, soil water repellency and carbon sequestration. Various studies have shown that the quantity and quality of SOM can be affected by anthropogenic activities such as farming practices and other economic development activities. It has also been reported a high rate of SOM loss on eroded lands. Hence, monitoring temporal and spatial variation of SOM is essential for evaluating long-term soil productivity management. However, conventional soil sampling and chemical measurement of SOC, especially in large geographic scale, is tedious, time consuming and expensive. Therefore, rapid and precise assessment of SOC content can be useful in long-term management of soil. The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of soil visible-near infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy for estimating SOC in Zrebar lake watershed of Marivan, Kurdistan province, Iran.

A total of 100 soil samples were collected from the studied region, with an area about 10718 hectares. The spectral reflectance and physicochemical properties of all soil samples were measured under laboratory controlled conditions. After recording of the spectra, different pre-processing methods were applied and compared. Then, pedo-transfer functions (PTFs) and specto-transfer functions (STFs) were developed to estimate SOC content using stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR). The accuracy and reliability of the derived PTFs and STFs were evaluated using coefficient of determination (R2), normalized root mean square error (NRMSE), mean error (ME), index of agreement (d), and ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) statistics.

Based on the results, soil organic carbon showed high and significant (significance level of 1%) correlations with spectral reflectance values at wavelengths 858 and 1916 nm. The results indicated that the derived PTFs had the higher accuracy (R2avg=0.83, NRMSEavg = 24.55%) to estimate SOC in comparison with the STFs (R2avg=0.44, NRMSEavg= 44.31%). However, SOC could be also fairly estimated by the derived specto-transfer functions (Ravg2=0.52, RPDavg= 1.44).The results also revealed that the Savitzki–Golay smoothing filter with 1st order derivative was the best spectral pre-processing method to reduce the effect of random noise and improve the calibration models.

Overall, the results indicated that although the performance of STFs was not superior to the corresponding PTFs for estimating SOC, but this approach can be used as a reasonable indirect method in case of unavailability of PTFs.

In earth dams, due to different properties of materials core and shell, heterogeneous settlement occurs between different sections of the dam. This action leads to a phenomenon of arching which creates some transverse cracks in the impermeable section of the dam, especially near the dam connection to the lateral walls, which can be expanded during the first period of dewatering and with the sudden application of reservoir water pressure to core. Ultimately, in more critical situations, it leads to hydraulic failure and causes the scouring phenomenon and jeopardizes the safety of the dam. In this research, the results of instrumental analysis of main stresses and arching coefficients of the Eyvashan earth Dam core during the first dewatering period were compared with the results of Geostudio and Plaxis software. The results show that the highest arching rate after dewatering has been applied at the upper levels, but the highest percentage of arching from the beginning of construction to the end of the dewatering stage was equal to 46% and at 1/3 of the height of the core from the floor. In addition, due to the ratio of arching coefficient in the range of 0.55-0.66, the dam in terms of arching in the first dewatering period is normal and there is no problem in terms of hydraulic deflection.

The Eyvashan earth Dam is located 1.5 km from the upstream of the village of Eyvashan and about 57 km from Khorramabad city on the Horoud River. The dam is rock fill type with a Vertical core, with a height of 62 m, a crest height of 1868 m and a normal elevation of 1864 m above sea level. The strain-strain analysis of the Eyvashan dam was performed based on Mohr-Columb behavioral models in terms of strain condition using Geostudio and Plaxis software. For analysis of stress-strain and consolidation settlement, the modeling has been done in eight layers.

By study and comparing the arching coefficient obtained from the Electrical Pressure Cell installed in the Eyvashan earth dam and Numerical analysis results, it was determined that the arching coefficient in the different levels of the core is in the conventional range and the risk of arching do not notice the dam. Αccording to the graphs from the results of the observational data, the highest percentage of arc in the near-filter elements occurred. In addition, the comparison of instrumental results with the results of the numerical analysis of matching is about 90%.

By comparing the results of measured and predicted total stresses with Geostudio and Plaxis software, it was found that the total stresses obtained from numerical analysis in the Total Pressure Cell installed at one level are approximately the same and are not significantly different, and the function of the software is appropriate. In addition, the difference in the total pressure values obtained from the instrumentation and the numerical analysis can be due to differences in the specific gravity of the materials in the design and the reality or due to errors and inappropriate performance of the tool.

Optimal operation of dams' reservoirs, as one of the most important water resource systems, has a high complexity. This complexity is due to the stochastic nature of the river discharge, the high dimensionality, and conflicting objectives of reservoir operation problems. Increasing the number of dams, placing dams relative to each other and having different objectives will significantly increase the dimensions of the problem, which can complicate and non-linearize the structure of these problems. In this research, with respect to the unique nature of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) in the evaluation of objective functions and the probability of low localization in the local optimum solutions, a hybrid of differential evolution (DE) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) with multi-strategy (DEPSO) is used to optimize operation of a system with three reservoirs of Karoon1, Godar, and Dez with the purpose of hydropower generation.

In this research, by modifying the parameters and factors affecting both algorithms of DE and PSO, a new hybrid algorithm is presented. The proposed algorithm (DEPSO) promotes the local and global search capability of the basic DE algorithm to obtain optimal operating policies. Firstly, the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed algorithm are evaluated using the Ackley and Griewank mathematical functions. After that, the results of the DEPSO were compared to the DE, PSO, and ABC algorithms. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to optimally solve a three-reservoir system in Iran to generate hydropower energy. It is worth mentioning that the results are presented in ten different runs for all problems to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of the contestant algorithms.

The obtained results by the proposed hybrid algorithm (DEPSO) indicated that the average of objective function value for 10 runs and during 15-year operation period was 14.33, 10.00, and 38.50 percent better than those form the DE, ABC, and PSO algorithms, respectively. And also, by increasing the number of operation period from 180 to 240 monthly periods, the average of objective function value calculated by the DEPSO for 10 runs was 14, 22, and 35 percent better than those from the DE, ABC, and PSO, respectively.

Regarding the calculated results using the DEPSO, it can be clearly seen a significant improvement in the objective function value compared to the DE and PSO algorithms, and especially with the increase of decision variables from 180 to 240 the performance of the method was more suitable than the other algorithms. This indicates the superior performance of this method compared to the other algorithm for optimizing the hydropower energy generated from multi-reservoir systems.

The floodplains are relatively flat lands in the vicinity of the rivers with the residential, industrial or agricultural usage. The sudden breakdown of large dams leads to the formation and propagation of devastating flood waves over the downstream. The flood propagation occurs over the floodplains due to the topographic variations and in-stream obstacles such as bridges. These waves are developed one and two dimensional over a small reach of the river and floodplains, respectively. In the hydrodynamic simulations, two-dimensional characteristics of the dam-break flow over the floodplains have been studied scarcely. Therefore, the combined effects of the floodplains obstacles, constriction and the bottom barriers are calculated over the dam-break flow characteristics.

In the present study, the moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method was used to the numerical study of the dam-break flow characteristics over the floodplain. From advantages of this method are including the incompressibility, the particle-based and using of powerful models of gradients and Laplacian in velocity-pressure corrections without any complex smoothing functions. Hence, the effects of the reservoir initial water level, the shapes of the obstacles - lateral transitions as well as the bottom barriers on the hydraulic parameters were studied in 15 various cases. The floodplain obstacles are cylindrical, cubic, rhomboidal and asymmetric, and the bottom barriers are cubic. At first, the sensitivity analysis was carried out on three particles diameters including the 0.01, 0.015 and 0.20 m. Finally, the diameter of the particles equal to 0.015m was adopted as the water particles size in the model. The simulations carried out through more than 280000 spherical particles, with the second order spatial and temporal accuracy.

The precision of the numerical results was calculated using the NRMSE normal error through the comparison with the previous experimental one. The results demonstrated that evacuation of the reservoir occurs in numerical solutions faster than the experimental. Therefore, the MPS model under and overestimates the values of the free-surface profile height and the flow propagation velocity, respectively. The impact of flow to the floodplain obstacles leads to the rising up and the formation of a three-dimensional flow at the obstacles place, the lateral constrictions and the bottom obstacles. Further, the shape of the obstacles represents a crucial factor in the free surface profile deformations, the horizontal component of the surface velocity, and the drag resistance forces applied to the flow.

Normal error values showed that the accuracy of the MPS method in the calculation of the free surface longitudinal profile deformations are variable between 88 and 91 percent.

The study of changes in the behavior of rivers is of particular importance in the protection of aquifers and the determination of the boundaries of the river bed, as well as the reduction of possible damages. Dams are among the structures that have the greatest impact on river morphology. Therefore, it is very important to study the morphology of rivers leading to large dams in planning and ease of strategic decision making on the construction of engineering structures along the river. In recent years, due to the unique characteristics of remote sensing and satellite images, many studies have been done to investigate the morphological changes of rivers. In this research, the study uses 26 Landsat satellite images to investigate the morphological changes of the Bazoft River in a long time period between 1985 and 2015.

In order to evaluate the morphology of a river, determination of the morphological parameters such as river boundary displacement, changes in the area caused by erosion and accretion of the banks in the long and short periods is essential. It should be noted that the short and long term periods were 1 and 10 years, respectively. To determine the required satellite image data, 26 frames of Landsat satellite images were selected and analyzed using ENVI and GIS softwares. Finally, the map of the studied river boundary was prepared and difference between the main channel of the river on the left and right bank on the cross section in two different years was considered as the main channel movement in that time interval. The negative and positive values of the main channel movement show accretion(land development) and erosion (land degradation), respectively.

The results showed that the most changes occurred in the 62 to 84 km range of Bazoft River, which is due to the presence(existence) of riffles near the Mavarz hydrometric station and numerous lateral branches in these two intervals. Investigation the area of erosion and accretion in long-term periods showed that in the years 1985-1994, 1994-2005 and 2005-2015, the river was associated with coastal accretion. For the 30-year period of 1985-2015, the average accretion and erosion of the river was estimated to be about 69.43 and 42.34 hectare, respectively. Due to accretion about 27.09 hectare of new land has been created in the studied period time. In the short run, the results showed that there is no significant difference between the mean accretion and erosion of the left bank, and on this bank the accretion area is about 2% more than erosion, whereas on the right bank of accretion, there were about 8 % of the erosion that this difference is meaningful at 95 %.

Investigation of the morphological changes of Bazoft River using satellite images in a thirty-year period showed that the most changes are in the range of 62 to 84 kilometers of the river, which it can be considered for the river management planing such as river protecting. The most accretion area was observed near the Mavarz hydrometric station and adjacent to Khuzestan-Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari road so it can be proposed as a suitable place for sand and gravel harvesting as a nonstructural method for river protection. Generally, the left bank was more prone to erosion, while the amount of accretion in the right bank is greater than the erosion.

Scouring is one of the main reasons for the failure of bridges in the United States and the world. The flow characteristics, the base shape and the angle of its deposition relative to the flow and characteristics of the sediments are all factors that interfere with the complexity of the scouring problem of bridge bridges. It should be noted that the final scour depth created near the bridge base is equal to the total erosion depth due to local, general, and narrowing of the flow width. Determining the depth of erosion within the range of bases requires knowledge of the displacement of sedimentary materials in the river bed. The bases disrupt the normal flow of the river, and the turbulence and disturbances resulting from it erode sedimentary materials around the base. Since the propagation of the scour hole threatens the stability of bridge structure, a common engineering practice in the field of river engineering involves the prediction of scour depth to take necessary controlling measures. Accordingly, this study aimed at investigating the effect of air foil lattice collars on airfoil bridge piers. According to the results, scouring decreased further with increasing collar length. By installing lattice collars with a length (L/D) of 6, 8, and 10 at a relative depth (Z/D) of 0.1, scouring reduced by 16.6, 22.3 and 24.7%, respectively, compared with a collarless bridge pier. By installing lattice collars with a length (L/D) of 6, 8, and 10 at a relative depth (Z/D) of 0.5, scouring reduced by 35.2, 37.4 and 38.4%, respectively, compared with a collarless bridge pier. By installing lattice collars with a length (L/D) of 6, 8, and 10 at a relative depth (Z/D) of 1, scouring reduced by 27.7, 31.6 and 31.4%, respectively, compared with a collarless bridge pier. Scouring increased by 113.8% on average by increasing the relative velocity (V/Vc) from 0.54 to 0.95. By installing the collar at a relative depth (Z / D) of 0.1, 0.5 and 1, we see 16.6, 35.2 and 27.7 percent lower scouring than the collar less base. Also, by increasing the depth of the lattice aerodynamic collars (Z / D) from 0.1 to 0.5, the scour reduction decreased by 22.3% and also with increasing the depth of the lattice aerodynamic collars (Z / D) from 0.5 to 1, increasing the scour 11.6 percent. In this way, it can be seen that the best depth of the collar is about half the diameter of the base of the bridge. Also, simulation with the Flow-3D math model is close to the physical model, with an average of only 5.4% error, which is acceptable.

Salinity is one of the most extensive processes of soil degradation, which limits the increase in the production of food products for more demand. Inoculation of plants with salt tolerant growth promoting bacteria with the ability to produce ACC-deaminase and indole acetic acid often decreases the negative effects of high salt concentration and improves plant growth parameters. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of rhizosphere and endophytic salt tolerant bacteria on salinity isolated from rhizosphere and Salicornia roots on wheat growth parameters in different salinity concentrations.

This experiment was conducted in greenhouse conditions in a completely randomized design with four levels of salinity: 0, 44, 77 and 110 mM NaCl and four levels of bacteria: no bacterial treatments (control) rhizosphere, endophytic and combined treatment (rhizosphere and endophytic) were designed and implemented in 3 replications. After harvest, the morphological and physiological characteristics of the wheat were measured. Data analysis was performed using SAS software.

The results showed that plant yield was significantly affected by salinity. Increasing the concentration of NaCl from 0 to 44 mM did not have any effect on all growth parameters, and in some cases, it improved them. But with increasing from 44 to 77 and 110 mM, salinity had a negative effect on all growth parameters and had the highest negative effect in the concentration of 110 mM. . In the absence of salt stress, the presence of bacteria increased plant yield. In salt stress conditions, inoculation of bacterial isolates had a significant effect on plant growth and increased the dry weight of shoot (9.49-26.68%), root length (3.94 -27.47%), dry weight of Root (10-47.36%), dry weight of root ratio dry weight of shoot (19.41-20.69%) and reduction of leaf relative water content (1.2-11.71%), superoxide dismutase (7.63-15.8%) and Proline (12.5-33.33%) than control.

In general, inoculation of bacteria, in 7 of 13 growth parameters resulted in improvement. The reason for not having effect in the other 6 parameters can be attributed to the halotolerant bacterial and the relative resistance of the cultivar used by wheat. According to the results obtained in this study for use of growth promoting bacteria, salt tolerant plant isolated from Salicornia as a bio-fertilizer, to improve growth parameters, reduce the effects of salinity stress and increase the yield of wheat plant requires more studies (using high salinity levels and different wheat cultivars) is at the greenhouse level.

One of the major topics in river engineering, is design and construction of the bridges with sustainability considerations; estimating the maximum depth of scour in the vicinity of the pier also has a lot of importance. Scour is one of the most important reasons for instability and ultimately the defeat of the bridges. While most of previous researches on Bridge Piers scour are mainly focused on steady flows; in rivers and especially during flood, the flow is unsteady and the changes in flow rate based on the time, could be really fast and rapid. On the other hand and based on the author’s literature reviews, considering unsteady flow would cause more economic and realistic prediction about the maximum depth of scour around the piers. Many different methods have been used till now to protect piers of the bridges. In this research, a non-structural and environmental friendly solution has been used to reduce the depth of the scour of bridge piers in unsteady condition.

Based on author’s knowledge, so far Nano materials just used to correct the behavior of concrete resistance and also used in dusty rural roads. For this reason, this experimental study attempts to test a new method to reduce the scouring around the bridge pier in river in unsteady flow condition. To achieve this, in flume bed around the piers, the combination of nanostructured materials, called Nano-clay had been used. Experiments for both steady and unsteady conditions, were conducted on cylindrical pier with a diameter of 35 mm, in a channel with a 9.5 m length and the equal height and width of 40 cm, and a slope of 0.001. In this study, experiments have been done in two different cases, with and without the existence of Nano clay materials in the bed of the channel. For simulating unsteady flow, stepped triangular hydrographs with a peak time of 7.5 minutes and flow peak of 8, 12, 16 and 20 liters per second were used in two different modes of Nanostructure mixture with and without materials.

The timing development of scour phenomenon at the piers of the bridge has been studied and compared in both cases, with and without presence of nano-materials. In the presence of nano-materials and at all maximum discharges, it has been seen that the scouring process at initial time steps is almost as same as the condition without nano-materials with sharper trend. The trend in later time steps has experienced lighter changes and finally has reached to a constant value.

The results of experiments in unsteady flows indicated that with the presence of Nano materials in the bed sediment, the maximum scouring depth at the adjacent of the bridge piers has been deducted while discharge rate increased. It has also been shown that the maximum reduction of scour depth, 62.86%, happened at maximum discharge of 20 lit/sec. In this discharge, the maximum scour depth has been reduced from 47.4 millimeter to 18 millimeter. The minimum reduction of scour depth with 56.15% happened at the discrge of 8 lit/sec.

Cotton is a plant that responds to the amount of irrigation water and irrigation time, and due to lack of water in Golestan province, the need for optimal use of water unit is more than ever before. This will not be achieved except through modern methods of surface irrigation or irrigation under pressure and appropriate management of irrigation and increasing water use efficiency.

This experiment was conducted as a split plot design in a factorial design with three replications at Hashem Abad Cotton Research Station. Physical and chemical parameters of soil such as soil texture, bulk density, moisture content of crop capacity and wilting point, soil salinity and soil acidity before cultivation were measured by sampling from two depths of 0.25 to 25 cm and 25 to 50 cm. Farm fertilizer requirement was calculated according to the results of the experiments. The distance of cotton cultivation during the studied surface was considered the same. Before irrigation was done due to soil moisture content. Planting two cotton cultivars was done randomly. During the growing season and before the first irrigation, a single-hinged rainwater system was implemented. During irrigation period, irrigation was carried out based on the water requirement of Plot i5 and irrigation continued on the basis of the water requirement of this plot to reach the farm capacity. During the growth period, the symptoms and the indicators of yield components included plant growth measurements, first flowering time, time of the first product, etc., and finally the yield was recorded. Different amounts of irrigation water treatments including rain irrigation, irrigation over water requirement as main plots and treatments of different amounts of nitrogen fertilizer including 0, 33, 66 and 100 percent fertilizer recommendation as well as cotton cultivars were considered as subplots.

The results showed that the highest yield (4362 kg / ha) was related to 4I treatment and the lowest yield was obtained from rain fed (without irrigation) with 3379 kg / ha. The yield of I2, I3, I4, I5 and I6 treatments was 2,2, 16,7, 29,1, 8,1 and 15/7 percent, respectively, than rain fed (I1). Among fertilizer treatments, the highest yield was related to unfermented fertilizer application, which was significantly different with treatments of 66% and 100% fertilizer requirement. The lowest yield was 66% fertilizer requirement. In a research year (2012) due to suitable rainfall in the growing season, cotton plants were well-grown, and any excess water or nitrogen fertilizer accelerated vegetative growth which ultimately led to a decrease in reproductive growth and Subsequently, performance declined. In terms of precocious percentage, rain and I4 treatments were the earliest and the shortest treatments. Different amounts of nitrogen fertilizer had no effect on premature percentage. The highest number of bolls per plant was related to I5 and I6 treatments, which difference was significant with I1 and I2 treatments, but not significant with I3 and I4 treatments. The amount of nitrogen fertilizer application from 0% to 100% of fertilizer requirement did not have a significant effect on the number of bolls per plant.

The yield of Golestan cultivar was 17.9% higher than that of B-557. Water use efficiency in rainfed and irrigation treatments was 1.51 and 0.81 kg / m 3 / ha, respectively. B was 557 earlier than Golestan cultivar. Two cotton cultivars called Golestan and 557 B were identical in number of bolls per plant. It is recommended to select Golestan cultivar as a basic cultivar pattern. In rainfed overwrought years, an irrigation can be done or watering is done in supplementary form.

Nowadays, the use of zinc (Zn) fertilizers has been expanded to satisfy the deficiency of this element and improve the yield and quality of agricultural products. The knowledge about the availability and release of adsorbed Zn after application in soil is necessary to achieve the best fertilization management and soil and water conservation against Zn accumulation in soil. On the other hand, presence of anions in irrigation water, agricultural fertilizers, and sewage sludge can affect adsorption, desorption, and availability of nutrients such as Zn. Zinc adsorption characteristics was usually studied using isotherm coefficients; while availability of adsorbed Zn in soil is important in soil fertility. In this study, the effects of orthophosphate, nitrate, and chloride anions on adsorption and desorption capacity were investigated in five calcareous soil of Chaharmahal - Va - Bakhtiari province.

In this study, a solution containing concentrations of 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, and 200 mg l-1 of Zn as ZnSO4 source in the presence of KH2PO4, KNO3 and KCl electrolytes (50 mM) was used. After Zn adsorption in soils, availability and desorbed of Zn was measured by DTPA-TEA and 0.01 M CaCl2, respectively. The amount of Zn desorbed in 0.01M CaCl2 is adsorbed Zn as non-specific. The adsorbed Zn as specific was calculated from the difference between the amounts of adsorbed Zn and desorbed Zn by 0.01 M CaCl2.

According to the results, the highest amount of Zn adsorbed as specific in the presence of all anions. Percentage of adsorbed Zn in all soils as specific ranged from 99.65 to 99.80 in the chloride solution (more than other anions p<0.05), 99.84 to 99.99 in the nitrate solution, and 99.55 to 99.72 in the orthophosphate solution. Availability of adsorbed Zn ranged from 41 to 43% in orthophosphate solution, 49 to 54% in nitrate solution, and 58 to 61% in chloride solution.

The results showed that the amount of adsorbed Zn as specific was more than amount of adsorbed Zn as non-specific in the presence of all the anions in all studied soils. The result showed that highest amount of available adsorbed Zn was extracted in the presence of chloride, nitrate, and orthophosphate (P<0.05). About 50% of the Zn adsorbed extracted by DTPA-TEA. In the presence of all studied anions, more than 99% Zn adsorbed as specific. Therefore, Zn adsorbed at specific sites and 0.01 M CaCl2 cannot extracted it. The results of this study showed the application of P and Zn as fertilizers in calcareous soils can lead to a reduction in extracted Zn by DTPA-TEA in treated soils with these nutrients.

Knowing the factors affecting the movement of water and salts in the soil profile and the use of new modifiers such as biodegradable can help to manage the proper management of nitrate leaching from the root zone and prevent the pollution of groundwater. Biochar is produced from pyrolysis of various biomasses under anaerobic conditions (or low oxygen conditions). The adsorption capacity depends on its physical and chemical properties, which is influenced by various factors such as raw material, particle size, pyrolysis temperature, temperature variation rate and temperature keeping time.

In this research, the straw of the wheat and brassica napus have grinded and after its drying, by using a furnace for 4 hours at 600 ° C, wheat and napus biochar have prepared. The treatments test included the control (soil), soil +wheat biochar 2% , soil +wheat biochar 4%, soil + Brassica napus biochar 2% , soil + Brassica napus biochar 4%. Columns with the height of 10 and 20 cm and a diameter of 160 mm have prepared, and a mixture of biochars (2% ,4%) and soil have poured into the soils columns. In order to leaching, before experiments, 10 pore volume of distilled water has poured into each of the columns. In the first day, one pore volume of water, distilled water has poured into each of the columns. The second and third days one pore volume of nitrate solution at concentrations of 20, 50 and 100 mg/L, and on days 4, 5, 6, and 7 a distilled water pore volume have added to each columns. Then the solution was filtered using paper and the concentration of nitrate was measured with a spectrophotometer to determine the amount of leached and absorbed nitrate.

The results showed that the addition of biochar to soil on both levels, especially the combinational biochar, caused a significant decrease in nitrate leaching relative to the control in all days. In general, nitrate leaching in biochar 4% less than control and biochar 2%. Also, at a height of 20 cm, the nitrate leaching rate decreased from the soil column.

Regarding the results, the use of untreated combination of brassica napus and wheat biochar resulted in lower nitrate leaching from the soil.

One of the major concerns in the use of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) in the areas under sever soil erosion rate is the lack of precise data on the cover crop factor (C) for various agricultural crops. Despite in some countries especially the United state, quantitative information are available on the C-factor, there are substantial difference in climatic and pedological conditions with other areas especially semi-arid regions. Rainfed wheat is the major agricultural crops in these areas which would be planted with different density and row spacing in slope farms. There is no information on the effect of seed density and row spacing on the C-factor in rainfed wheat in semi-arid regions.

A field experiment was conducted whit two seed density (90 and 120 kg per hectare) and two row spacing (20 and 25 cm) along with their control plots (without planting seed). The experiment was performed with the blocky randomized design at three replications in a 10% slope land during 2015- 2016. Wheat seeds were sown by drilling set wheat nine and eleven rows for making 25 cm and 20 cm spacing between rows respectively. Eighteen plots with 5 m long and 1.5 width were installed in the farm to measure soil loss under natural rainfalls during from October 2015 to July 2016. The C-factor for each planted plots was determined using the proportion of soil loss in it plot to the same row spacing plot without wheat cultivation. An independent t-test was used to statistical analysis on the effect of seed density and row spacing on the C-factor in the rainfed wheat.

Results indicated that C-factor in 90 and 120 Kg per hectare seed density was 0.42 and 0.43, respectively. The C value between the two seed densities wasn’t statistically significant. Increasing seed density in the planting rows decreased wheat growth due to increasing repetition rate among plants. The C-factor in 9-row seeding with 25 cm row spacing was 0.34, while its value in 11-row seeding was 0.51, showing 33 percentage significant increase in the C value (p <0.05). Decreasing of soil loss as well as the C-factor in 9-row spacing plots was associated with increasing furrow cross section area on one hand, and a little plant repetition occurred between the rows, on the other hand. Thus, soil loss in the cultivated plots was less than the contour plots. Significant difference wasn’t found for interaction between seed density and row spacing. The lowest value of the vegetation cover factor (C) was observed in 9-row seeding (25-cm row spacing) with 120 kg per hectare.

The study indicated that the C-factor in rainfed wheat varies between 0.33 and 0.51. Seed density was not the major factor controlling the C-factor in rainfed wheat, while the row spacing significantly affected on the C-factor in the rainfed lands in the area. The C-factor of wheat can be considerably declined by changing row spacing from 11-row (20-cm row spacing) to 9-row (20-cm row spacing) with 120 kg per hectare seed density in rainfed lands.

Cover crops are a strategy for enhancing the soil health and quality in agricultural systems. The relationship between cover crops and soil biological activity is an important component of soil health. Cover crops affect many of the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil through soil organic carbon. Additionally, they prevent the loss of soil nutrients by quickly growth and creating a suitable plant canopy on the soil surface. The aim of this study was comparing the effect of mono and mixed cropping of cover crops on soil physical and biological properties improvement on short term condition.

In order to investigate the effect of cover crops on some physical and biological properties of the soil an experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replications at research farm of the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili in 2017. Experimental treatments were monoculture of rye (Secale cereal), chickling pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) (100%) and their dual and triple intercropping with 50% and 33.3% seed proportions, respectively. The base of seed rate on rye, chickling pea and hairy vetch monoculture were 100, 25 and 25 Kgha-1 respectively.

The results showed that the highest biomass of cover crops (530 gm-2) obtained from rye monoculture and the lowest biomass from hairy vetch monoculture and hairy vetch+ chickling pea (85.5 and 91.6 gm-2 respectively) intercropping at the terminating time of the cover crops. Also, the comparison of the means showed that the highest organic matter (0.53%) and soil microbial population (2600000 number per gram) were obtained from rye + chickling pea +hairy vetch intercropping. The soil organic matter (SOM) increased 11.3% by rye + chickling pea +hairy vetch intercropping relative to control (no cover crop). The highest number of earth worms belonged to rye monoculture treatments. On average, earthworms in all of cover crops treatments increased by 80.5% relative to control. Also, the intercropping of rye +hairy vetch caused the lowest bulk density (1.01 gcm-3). The soil bulk density reduced 6.17% by rye + chickling pea relative to control. Cover crops decreased the time of water infiltration in the soil. The minimum time required for water infiltration on growing (8.39 Sec.) and terminating time of cover crops (4.99 Sec.) obtained by hairy vetch monoculture and rye + chickling pea intercropping.

Cover crops either monoculture or intercropping even in one plant growth season improved soil physical and biological properties. Rye and hairy vetch had the highest effect on dual and triple intercropping system. Key words: Cover crops biomass, Earthworms count, Soil microbial population, Organic matter, Soil health.