Adaptation to climate change in desertified lands of the marginal regions in Egypt through sustainable crop and livestock diversification systems

Environmental degradation resulting from current climate changes, including prolonged drought, land degradation, desertification, and loss of biodiversity, is presenting enormous challenges to achieve ...     

Estimation of groundwater use by crop production simulated by DSSAT‐wheat and DSSAT‐maize models in the piedmont region of the North China Plain

Sustainable water use is in serious crisis in the piedmont region of the Taihang Mountains in the North China Plain, owing to rapid groundwater drawdown. Estimating the water requirement for agriculture, the biggest user of groundwater, will be helpful in understanding groundwater decline. Through the use of DSSAT‐3·5 wheat and maize models, we assessed water use in winter wheat and maize, two staple crops in the region, in 1987–2001. Trends between groundwater change and simulated agricultural water use were compared. The results showed that groundwater decline was sensitive to simulated crop water requirement and irrigation requirement. According to regression analysis, 100 mm of water requirement by cultivated land (mainly wheat and maize) resulted in about 0·64 m of groundwater decline. This relationship might be useful in understanding the regional water balance and to help decision‐makers control groundwater decline through controlling crop water use or through long‐distance water transfer. The study demonstrated the usefulness of using the DSSAT model for estimating crop water use and the effectiveness of clarifying the reason for groundwater decline using the simulation results of water use. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Boundary Control and Legal Priniciples . Curtis M. Brown , Walter G. Robillard and Donald A. Wilson . Lost Initiatives: Canada's Forest Industries, Forest Policy, and Forest Conservation . R. Peter Gillis and Thomas R. Roach . The Navajo Atlas: Resources, People, and History of the Dine Bikeyah . James M. Goodman . The City and the Sign . M. Gottdiener AND Alexandros Ph . Lagopoulos , EDS. The Comfortable House: North American Suburban Architecture 1890–1930 . Alan Gowans . Arabic-Islamic Cities. Building and Planning Principles . Besim Salim Hakim . Contemporary Climatology . Ann Henderson -Sellers and Peter J. Robinson . A Trace of Desert Waters . Samuel G. Houghton . Geography, Resources and Environment. Vol. 1: Selected Writings of Gilbert F. White. Vol. 2: Themes from the Work of Gilbert F. White . Robert W. Kates AND Ian Burton , ED. Spatial Dimensions of Unemployment and Underemployment (A Case Study of Rural Punjab) . Gopal Krishan . Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475–1900 . Compiled by Eran Laor , assisted by Shoshana Klein . The Geography of Third World Cities . Stella Lowder . A Perspective on U.S. Farm Problems and Agricultural Policy . Lance Mc Kinzie , Timothy G. Baker AND Wallace E. Tyner . Soil Erosion and Its Control. R.P.C . Morgan , ED Geopolitics . Patrick O'Sullivan . Landscape, Meanings and Values . Edmund C. Penning -Rowsell AND David Lowenthal , EDS.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Marine Resources of Kuwait: Their Role in the Development of Non-oil Resources . Fatimah H. Y. al -Abdul -Razzak Recollections of a Revolution: Geography as Spatial Science . Mark Billinge , Derek Gregory and Ron Martin Entre l'Eden et l'Utopie . Luc Bureau Developments in Political Geography . M. A. Busteed The Elements of Graphing Data . William S. Cleveland Rural Resource Management . Paul J. Cloke and Chris C. Park Third World Atlas . Ben Crow and Alan Thomas Exploitation, Conservation, Preservation: A Geographic Perspective on Natural Resource Use . Susan L. Cutter , Hilary Lambert Renwick, and William H. Renwick . Wine Regions of the Southern Hemisphere . Harm Jan de Blij Regional Development: Problems and Policies in Eastern and Western Europe . George Demko The Geographer at Work . Peter R. Gould Change in the Amazon Basin . John Hemming Geography Since the Second World War . R. J. Johnston and P. Claval Urbanization in China: Town and Countryside in a Developing Economy 1949–2000 A.D. , R. J. R. Kirkby Transport and Communications for Pacific Microstates: Issues in Organisation and Management . Christopher C. Kissling Fluvial Forms and Processes . David Knighton The Urban Millennium . Josef W. Konvitz Technological Transition in Cartography . Mark Stephen Monmonier Field Guide to Soils and the Environment: Applications of Soil Surveys . Gerald W. Olson Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Half a Continent . Don Parkes A Killing Rain: The Global Threat of Acid Rain . Thomas Pawlick From the Family Farm to Agribusiness: The Irrigation Crusade in California and the West, 1850–1931 . Donald J. Pisani Hybrid Maize Diffusion in Kenya . Franz -Michael Rundquist Warning and Response to the Mount St. Helens Eruption . Thomas F. Saarinen and James L. Sell Coastal Geomorphology in Australia . B. G. Thom Tropical Rain Forests of the Far East , 2nd ed . T. C. Whitmore The Dark Side of the Earth . Robert Muir Wood Categorical Data Analysis for Geographers and Environmental Scientists , Neil Wrigley     

Groundwater quality and its suitability for drinking and agricultural use in Chithar River Basin, Tamil Nadu, India

Hydrochemistry of groundwater in Chithar Basin, Tamil Nadu, India was used to assess the quality of groundwater for determining its suitability for drinking and agricultural purposes. Physical and chemical parameters of groundwater such as electrical conductivity, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl^–, HCO₃^–, CO₃^2–, SO₄^2–, NO^–₃, F^–, B^– and SiO₂ were determined. Concentrations of the chemical constituents in groundwater vary spatially and temporarily. Interpretation of analytical data shows that mixed Ca–Mg–Cl, Ca–Cl and Na–Cl are the dominant hydrochemical facies in the study area. Alkali earths (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺) and strong acids (Cl^–, SO₄^2–) are slightly dominating over alkalis (Na⁺, K⁺) and weak acids (HCO₃^–, CO₃^2–). The abundance of the major ions is as follows: Na⁺ Ca²⁺ Mg²⁺ > K⁺ = Cl^– > HCO₃^–> SO₄^2– > NO₃^– > CO₃^2– . Groundwater in the area is generally hard, fresh to brackish, high to very high saline and low alkaline in nature. High total hardness and TDS in a few places identify the unsuitability of groundwater for drinking and irrigation. Such areas require special care to provide adequate drainage and introduce alternative salt tolerance cropping. Fluoride and boron are within the permissible limits for human consumption and crops as per the international standards.     

Bioaccumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls in mullet fish in a former ship dismantling harbour, a contaminated estuary, and nearby coastal fish farms

This study investigated the bioaccumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) toward mullet fish (Liza macrolepis) living in former PCB contaminated areas, the Ann-Ping harbour and the Er-Jen estuary, and fish farms located near the above two areas in 2003. The PCB body burdens of collected fish samples are proportional to the contamination level of their locations with the following rank order (greatest to least) from the Er-Jen estuary, the Ann-Ping harbour to the fish farms. Concentration of PCBs of the estuarine mullet has been approximately decreased to one-half of the peak concentration of the 1990s. Although the concentration of PCBs in farmed fish inhabiting near the two contaminated areas was greater than the average of those of fish from local fish markets in Taiwan, no particularly great contamination level was observed in their bodies. Using the less chlorinated PCB fraction (triCB + tetraCB)/total PCBs as the indicator of the origins of PCBs, fish near former contaminated areas had greater body burdens of the more chlorinated PCB congeners, while the farmed fish exhibited a PCB pattern more like that known to originate from air–water exchange with less chlorinated PCBs predominating. Although the PCB contamination has been stopped for a decade, the residual contaminants, supposedly existing in soil and sediments, still contribute to the body burden of fish residing in the estuary and the harbour.     

澜沧江流域农业灌溉需水的时空变化(英文)

Based on the data of eight meteorological stations from the 1950s to 2007, current cropping patterns, field water moisture management, we use the Mann-Kendall and the Re-scaled Range Analysis methods to research the changes of humidity and crop irrigation water requirements in the Lancang River Basin. The results show that the annual and dry season average temperatures significantly increased, and the dry season rainfall increased while wet season rainfall decreased. Evaportranspiration (ET0) increased during both dry and wet seasons at all stations except Dali, Jianchuan and Gengma, and the aridity-humidity index decreased at most of the stations. The turning points of weather factors, ET0, the arid-ity-humidity index, paddy irrigation requirements and total agricultural water requirements occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s. The spatial changing tendency of paddy irrigation quota increased with the increase of altitude and latitude, and the correlation coefficients are 0.513 and 0.610, respectively. The maximum value is observed in Weixi, while the minimum in Mengla.     

北京市再生水灌溉对地下水的重金属污染风险

通过野外取样分析再生水灌溉、长期污水灌溉条件下土壤剖面和地下水中重金属含量, 预测再生水灌溉对地下水的重金属污染风险。结果表明:污染严重的Cr、Cu和Zn等3种元 素主要在土壤表层0～20cm累积, 0～180cm土层呈先降低后升高, 之后再降低的变化趋势。 污染较轻的As、Ni和Pb在0～60cm土层含量差异不大, 0～180cm土层大致呈先升高后降 低的变化趋势。所有重金属在土壤剖面90cm左右的土层中均存在高值区, 该层含量高于上、 下土层, 高值区的分布位置与北京剖面土壤发生层的分布特征一致, 与成土母质自然发育有 关, 并非表层土壤重金属向下淋溶沉积而成。综合土壤剖面重金属分布特征和调查区地下水 重金属浓度情况, 重金属向下层土壤迁移的趋势很小, 即使凉水河灌区污染严重的Cr、Cu、 Zn,主要在土壤表层累积, 并未导致地下水重金属污染。在当前的水质条件下, 农田再生水 灌溉输入的重金属量低于大气沉降和有机肥施用, 再生水灌溉导致地下水的污染风险小于大 气沉降和有机肥施用。因此相对于大气沉降、有机肥施用等输入途径, 再生水灌溉导致地下 水重金属污染的可能性不大。     

不同城市化水平地区农户农地收入分析——基于浙江省农户的问卷调查

用SPSS13.0单因素方差分析和均值比较方法,对浙江省不同城市化地区的农户农地收入比重进行比较分析。认为城市化不同,农户农地收入比重不同,城市化程度高的地区农户农地利用经济收入比值的平均值低于城市化程度低的地区,但城市化程度高的地区农户农地收入比值标准差大于城市化低的地区,其中主要原因是城市化不同导致农户兼业时间不同。提出要创造条件促进资源集中型农户兼业化,使农户农地利用经济效率得到提高,缩小城乡收入差距。     

淮北平原气象观测场与农田土壤湿度对比分析

为研究在同一气候背景下气象观测场与农田两地土壤湿度之间的互可代替使用关系,对2006—2008年在宿州市气象观测场和农田内开展的3年土壤湿度平行对比监测试验所获取的每旬一次两地土壤湿度监测数据,采用对比差值率、相关性分析等数理统计手段,研究分析了两地不同季节不同深度的土壤湿度之间的关系。结果表明：春、夏、秋、冬4季气象观测场地与农田的土壤湿度具有一致性,均为统计正相关。春季,取土日前有降水时,气象观测场地与农田的土壤湿度的差异高于取土日前无降水时的差异。夏季,气象观测场地与农田0～30 cm土层之间的