Effect of Ploughing Depth on the Growth and Yield of Heracleum candicans： a Threatened Medicinal Herb and a Less-explored Potential Crop of the Himalayan Region

This paper examines the effect of ploughing depths （A -- 60 cm, B -- 45 cm and C -- 30 cm） on the growth and yield of Heracleum candicans Wall （Apiaceae）, a threatened medicinal herb of the Himalayan region. This less-explored plant is being suggested as a potential crop for the mountain agriculture. The study was carried out in an orchard in Himachal Pradesh, India at 2500 m altitude, for two successive growth years. During the first year, all plants remained in juvenile state; in the second year, nearly 65 % plants produced flowers only under 60cm ploughing depth. Among its morphological traits, plant height, collar diameter and aboveground flesh weight were found to be strongly correlated （P 〈 0.01） with the belowground biomass during the first year （r =0.968, 0.925 and 0.973, respectively） and during the second year （r=0.945, 0.928 and 0.775, respectively）. Increase in the ploughing depth was significantly correlated （P〈0.01） with all growth parameters, including the belowground dry weight, marketable portion of the produce. The belowground biomass （commercial yield; 16.28 Qt/hec） at depth A was about 2.6 and 4.7 times higher than those recorded at depths B and C, respectively. The results clearly justify the importance of deep ploughing and this paper strongly recommends it for economically sustainable cropping.     

The use of MODIS data to derive acreage estimations for larger fields: A case study in the south-western Rostov region of Russia

Recent developments in remote sensing technology, in particular improved spatial and temporal resolution, open new possibilities for estimating crop acreage over larger areas. Remotely sensed data allow in some cases the estimation of crop acreage statistics independently of sub-national survey statistics, which are sometimes biased and incomplete. This work focuses on the use of MODIS data acquired in 2001/2002 over the Rostov Oblast in Russia, by the Azov Sea. The region is characterised by large agricultural fields of around 75 ha on average. This paper presents a methodology to estimate crop acreage using the MODIS 16-day composite NDVI product. Particular emphasis is placed on a good quality crop mask and a good quality validation dataset. In order to have a second dataset which can be used for cross-checking the MODIS classification a Landsat ETM time series for four different dates in the season of 2002 was acquired and classified. We attempted to distinguish five different crop types and achieved satisfactory and good results for winter crops. Three hundred and sixty fields were identified to be suitable for the training and validation of the MODIS classification using a maximum likelihood classification. A novel method based on a pure pixel field sampling is introduced. This novel method is compared with the traditional hard classification of mixed pixels and was found to be superior.     

内蒙古桌子山煤田火区特征及灭火方法探讨

内蒙古自治区桌子山煤田赋存着较为稀缺的煤种一焦煤,煤田内存在的火区不仪烧掉了宝贵的焦性煤炭资源,给煤矿生产带来严重的事故隐患,对当地生态环境也造成极大的破坏。经查明区内有26处子火区,分布面积约760万m^2,通过煤田地质特征、煤质特征、地表指示特征、同位素氡气的浓度相对分布特征、物性特征分析了区内煤层发火原因,根据桌子山煤田火区特点,建议采用浅剥、深灌与覆盖相结合的灭火方法,并对火区进行动态监测。     

Biomass burning in the tropical savannas of Ivory Coast: An overview of the field experiment Fire of Savannas (FOS/DECAFE 91)

FOS/DECAFE 91 (Fire of Savannas/Dynamique et Chimie Atmosphérique en Forêt Equatoriale) was the first multidisciplinary experiment organized in Africa to determine gas and aerosol emissions by prescribed savanna fires. The humid savanna of Lamto in Ivory Coast was chosen for its ecological characteristics representative of savannas with a high biomass density (900 g m^–2 dry matter). Moreover the vegetation and the climate of Lamto have been studied for more than twenty years. The emission ratios (X/CO₂) of the carbon compounds (CO₂, CO, NMHC, CH₄, PAH, organic acids and aerosols), nitrogen compounds (NO_x, N₂O, NH₃ and soluble aerosols) and sulfur compounds (SO₂, COS and aerosols) were experimentally determined by ground and aircraft measurements. To perform this experiment, 4 small plots (100×100 m) and 2 large areas (10×10 km) were prepared and burnt in January 1991 during the period of maximum occurrence of fires in this type of savanna. The detailed ecological study shows that the carbon content of the vegetation is constant within 1% (42 g C for 100 g of vegetal dry matter), the nitrogen content (0.29 g N for 100 g of dry matter) may vary by 10% and the sulfur content (0.05 g S/100 d.m.) by 20%. These variations of the biomass chemical content do not constitute an important factor in the variation of the gas and particle emission levels. With the emission ratios characteristic of humid savanna and flaming conditions (CO/CO₂ of 6.1% at the ground and 8% for airborne measurements), we propose a set of new emission factors, taking into account the burning efficiency which is about 80%: 74.4% of the carbon content of the savanna biomass is released to the atmosphere in the form of CO₂, 4.6% as CO, 0.2% as CH₄, 0.5% as NMHC and 0.7% as aerosols. 17.2% of the nitrogen content of the biomass is released as NO_x, 3.5% as N₂O, 0.6% as NH₃ and 0.5% as soluble aerosols.     

Particulate content of savanna fire emissions

As part of the FOS-DECAFE experiment at Lamto (Ivory Coast) in January 1991, various aerosol samples were collected at ground level near prescribed fires or under local background conditions, to characterize the emissions of particulate matter from the burning of savanna vegetation. This paper deals with total aerosol (TPM) and carbon measurements. Detailed trace element and polycyclic hydrocarbon data are discussed in other papers presented in this issue.Near the fire plumes, the aerosols from biomass burning are primarily of a carbonaceous nature (C%70% of the aerosol mass) and consist predominantly of submicron particles (more than 90% in mass.) They are characterized by their organic nature (black to total carbon ratio Cb/Ct in the range 3–20%) and their high potassium content (K/Cb0.6). These aerosols undergo aging during their first minutes in the atmosphere causing slight alterations in their size distribution and chemical composition. However, they remain enriched in potassium (K/Cb=0.21) and pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, such that both of these species may be used as tracers of savanna burning aerosols. We show that during this period of the year, the background atmosphere experiences severe pollution from both terrigenous sources and regional biomass burning (44% of the aerosol). Daynight variations of the background carbon concentrations suggest that fire ignition and spreading occur primarily during the day. Simultaneous TPM and CO₂ real-time measurements point to a temporal and spatial heterogeneity of the burning so that the ratio of the above background concentrations (TPM/CO₂) varies from 2 to 400 g/kg C. Smoldering processes are intense sources of particles but particulate emissions may also be important during the rapidly spreading heading fires in connection with the generation of heavy brown smoke. We propose emission factor values (EF) for aerosols from the savanna biomass burning aerosols: EF (TPM)=11.4±4.6 and 69±25 g/kg C_{dry plant} and EF(Ct)=7.4±3.4 and 56±16 g C/kg C_{dry plant} for flaming and smoldering processes respectively. In these estimates, the range of uncertainty is mostly due to the intra-fire variability. These values are significantly lower than those reported in the literature for the combustion of other types of vegetation. But due to the large amounts of vegetation biomass being burnt in African savannas, the annual flux of particulate carbon into the atmosphere is estimated to be of the order of 8 Tg C, which rivals particulate carbon emissions from anthropogenic activities in temperate regions.     

卫星遥感在秸秆焚烧监测中的应用

通过对MODIS光谱特征的分析，提出了一种综合运用3S技术进行秸秆焚烧动态监测的资料处理流程和量化判识指标。通过在关中地区2004年麦秸秆焚烧监测中的应用，效果良好，为政府部门迅速、准确地了解全省秸秆焚烧情况，提高预警能力和监督检查的效率提供了科学依据。     

基于遥感信息的华北冬小麦区域生长模型及模拟研究

卫星遥感估产和作物生长模拟在作物监测和产量预测方面有各自不可替代的优势。但是,遥感估产难以揭示作物生长发育和产量形成的内在机理,作物模拟在区域应用时初始值的获取和参数的区域化遇到很多困难。如何利用二者的互补性使其相互结合受到人们关注。该文在Wofost模型本地化和区域化的基础上,首次利用同化法的思路探讨了MODIS遥感信息与华北冬小麦生长模拟模型结合的可行性和方法,初步建立了潜在生产水平(水分适宜条件)下区域遥感-作物模拟框架模型(WSPFRS模型)。模拟结果显示:WSPFRS模型对区域尺度的出苗期重新初始化后,模拟的开花期、成熟期空间分布的准确性比Wofost模拟结果有所改进;利用遥感信息对区域尺度上返青期生物量重新初始化后,模拟贮存器官干重的空间分布更接近实际单产的分布,贮存器官干重的高值区与实际高产区基本相符。该研究将为下一步实际水分供应条件下基于遥感信息的冬小麦区域生长模拟研究奠定了基础。     

Detection of rice sheath blight for in-season disease management using multispectral remote sensing

Timely diagnosis of crop diseases in fields is critical for precision on-farm disease management. Remote sensing technology can be used as an effective and inexpensive method to identify diseased plants in a field scale. However, due to the diversity of crops and their associated diseases, application of the technology to agriculture is still in research stage, which needs to be elaborately investigated for algorithm development and standard image processing procedures. In this paper, we examined the applicability of broadband high spatial-resolution ADAR (Airborne Data Acquisition and Registration) remote sensing data to detect rice sheath blight and developed an approach to further explore the applicability. Based on the field symptom measurements, a comprehensive field disease index (DI) was constructed to measure infection severity of the disease and to relate to image sampled infections. In addition to direct band digital number (DN) values, band ratio indices and standard difference indices were used to examine possible correlations between field and image data. The results indicated that the broadband remote sensing imagery has the capability to detect the disease. Some image indices such as RI₁₄, SDI₁₄ and SDI₂₄ worked better than others. A correlation coefficient above 0.62 indicated that these indices would be valuable to use for identification of the rice disease. In the validation analysis, we obtained a small root mean square error (RMS = 9.1), confirming the applicability of the developed method. Although the results were encouraging, it was difficult to discriminate healthy plants from light infection ones when DI < 20 because of their spectral similarities. Hence, it was clear that identification accuracy increases when infection reaches medium-to-severe levels (DI > 35). This phenomenon illustrated that remote sensing images with higher spectral resolution (more bands and narrower bandwidth) were required in order to further examine the capability of separating the light diseased plants from healthy plants.     

干旱半干旱地区农田土壤NO3-N深层积累及其影响因素

以长期试验资料为基础,着重分析了干旱半干旱地区农田系统中施肥、作物、降水、耕作措施以及土壤类型和特性对产生土壤NO3-N深层积累的影响.分析发现,氮肥的过量施用和400～800 mm降水量偏低是导致干旱半干旱地区土壤NO3-N积累在100～300 cm土层的主要因素.随着氮肥用量的增加,NO3-N深层积累显著增加;氮磷配施有助于降低其积累量.不同作物对氮素的吸收利用效率也是影响NO3-N深层积累的因素,作物之间的轮作方式会有效降低NO3-N深层积累;休闲期种植合理植物可有效降低NO3-N深层积累.NO3-N深层积累主要产生在质地较重的土壤上,带正电荷粘土矿物对NO3-N吸附是导致热带土壤中NO3-N积累的主要因素.深入研究深层积累NO3-N的生物有效性、迁移变化机理、与作物根系之间的关系以及对土壤性状和环境的影响具有重要意义.     

The effect of conservation practices in sloped croplands on soil hydraulic properties and root‐zone moisture dynamics

Rain‐induced erosion and short‐term drought are the two factors that limit the productivity of croplands in the red soil region of subtropical China. The objective of this study was to estimate the effects of conservation practices on hydraulic properties and root‐zone water dynamics of the soil. A 3‐year experiment was performed on a slope at Xianning. Four treatments were evaluated for their ability to reduce soil erosion and improve soil water conditions. Compared with no practices (CK) and living grass strips (GS), the application of polyacrylamide (PAM) significantly reduced soil crust formation during intense rainfall, whereas rice straw mulching (SM) completely abolished soil crust formation. The SM and PAM treatments improved soil water‐stable aggregates, with a redistribution of micro‐aggregates into macro‐aggregates. PAM and SM significantly increased the soil water‐holding capacity. These practices mitigated the degradation of the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) during intense rainfalls. These methods increased soil water storage but with limited effects during heavy rainfalls in the wet period. In contrast, during the dry period, SM had the highest soil water storage, followed by PAM and CK. Grass strips had the lowest soil water storage because of the water uptake during the vigorous grass growth. A slight decline in the soil moisture resulted in a significant decrease in the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (Ku) of the topsoil. Therefore, the hydraulic conductivity in the field is governed by soil moisture, and the remaining soil moisture is more important than improving soil properties to resist short‐term droughts. As a result, SM is the most effective management practice when compared with PAM and GS, although they all protect the soil hydraulic properties during wet periods. These results suggest that mulching is the best strategy for water management in erosion‐threatened and drought‐threatened red soils. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.