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Soil Use Efficiency
Soil Use Efficiency (SUE) is the use of individual and inter-related factors (inherent and dynamic) related to soil quality, soil nutrient availability and nutrient uptake potential as effective reference points for improvement of crop productivity in individual and varying soil types. Assessing SUE involves a site evaluation of the land and pit excavation to examine the soil profile. Site characterization identifies impairments to biomass productivity and the provisioning of ecological services. Inherent impairments are from limits inherent to the land and soil such as steep slope, and subsoil claypan. Dynamic impairments are the result of land degradation, such as soil acidification, loss of soil carbon, water erosion, and wind erosion. Understanding these relationships informs land management decisions needed to restore land productivity. The determination of water-use efficiency (WUE) and Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production systems is governed prim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soil Quality
Soil quality refers to the condition of soil based on its capacity to perform ecosystem services that meet the needs of human and non-human life.Tóth, G., Stolbovoy, V. and Montanarella, 2007. Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - An integrated approach to support soil-related policies of the European Union", EUR 22721 EN. 40 pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. . Soil quality reflects how well a soil performs the functions of maintaining biodiversity and productivity, partitioning water and solute flow, filtering and buffering, nutrient cycling, and providing support for plants and other structures. Soil management has a major impact on soil quality. Soil quality relates to soil functions. Unlike water or air, for which established standards have been set, soil quality is difficult to define or quantify. Indicators of soil quality Soil quality can be evaluated using the Soil Management Assessment Framework. Soil quality in agric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soil Carbon
Soil carbon is the solid carbon stored in global soils. This includes both soil organic matter and inorganic carbon as carbonate minerals. Soil carbon is a carbon sink in regard to the global carbon cycle, playing a role in biogeochemistry, climate change mitigation, and constructing global climate models. Overview Soil carbon is present in two forms: inorganic and organic. Soil inorganic carbon consists of mineral forms of carbon, either from weathering of parent material, or from reaction of soil minerals with atmospheric CO2. Carbonate minerals are the dominant form of soil carbon in desert climates. Soil organic carbon is present as soil organic matter. It includes relatively available carbon as fresh plant remains and relatively inert carbon in materials derived from plant remains: humus and charcoal. Global carbon cycle Although exact quantities are difficult to measure, human activities have caused substantial losses of soil organic carbon. Of the 2,700 Gt of carbon st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Storie Index
The Storie index is a method of soil rating based on soil characteristics that govern the land's potential utilization and productivity capacity. Developed by R. Earl Storie at University of California, Berkeley in the 1930s as a method of land valuation, it is independent of other physical or economic factors that might determine the desirability of growing certain plants in a given location.R.E.Storie. Storie Index Soil Rating. 1978. Division of Agricultural Science, University of California. http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/3203.pdf . *The evaluation is easy to be realized, being this an advantage of this method. *A variety of categories are comprised in few categories. Four or five parameters are evaluated: *A: Soil depth and texture; *B: Soil permeability; *C: Soil chemical characteristics; *D: Drainage, Surface runoff; *E: Climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soil Value
Soil value (german: Bodenwertzahl) or BWZ is a comparative assessment of soil quality used in Germany. It is determined from soil sampling data and ranges from 0 (very low) to 100 (very high). According to the Geological Service of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the soil value of arable land is based on a field assessment framework which combines an assessment of soil type, soil condition (soil development) and the parent material of which the soil is composed. The result, the soil value, expresses the relative net income that, under normal and proper management, is determined only by the profitability of the soil. Additions or deductions in this value to take account of variations in yield due to terrain and climate (e.g. average annual temperature) give the field value (''Ackerzahl''). Range of values The following colour scheme is used referring to the soil quality for certain ranges of values: [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecological Efficiency
Ecological efficiency describes the efficiency with which energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next. It is determined by a combination of efficiencies relating to organismic resource acquisition and assimilation in an ecosystem. Energy transfer Primary production occurs in autotrophic organisms of an ecosystem. Photoautotrophs such as vascular plants and algae convert energy from the sun into energy stored as carbon compounds. Photosynthesis is carried out in the chlorophyll of green plants. The energy converted through photosynthesis is carried through the trophic levels of an ecosystem as organisms consume members of lower trophic levels. Primary production can be broken down into gross and net primary production. Gross primary production is a measure of the energy that a photoautotroph harvests from the sun. Take, for example, a blade of grass that takes in ''x'' joules of energy from the sun. The fraction of that energy that is converted into glucose ref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boundary Conditions
In mathematics, in the field of differential equations, a boundary value problem is a differential equation together with a set of additional constraints, called the boundary conditions. A solution to a boundary value problem is a solution to the differential equation which also satisfies the boundary conditions. Boundary value problems arise in several branches of physics as any physical differential equation will have them. Problems involving the wave equation, such as the determination of normal modes, are often stated as boundary value problems. A large class of important boundary value problems are the Sturm–Liouville problems. The analysis of these problems involves the eigenfunctions of a differential operator. To be useful in applications, a boundary value problem should be well posed. This means that given the input to the problem there exists a unique solution, which depends continuously on the input. Much theoretical work in the field of partial differential equ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agricultural Production
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture. The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials (such as rubber). Food classes include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, cooking oils, meat, milk, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plant Nutrition
Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements and compounds necessary for plant growth and reproduction, plant metabolism and their external supply. In its absence the plant is unable to complete a normal life cycle, or that the element is part of some essential plant constituent or metabolite. This is in accordance with Justus von Liebig’s law of the minimum. The total essential plant nutrients include seventeen different elements: carbon, oxygen and hydrogen which are absorbed from the air, whereas other nutrients including nitrogen are typically obtained from the soil (exceptions include some parasitic or carnivorous plants). Plants must obtain the following mineral nutrients from their growing medium: * the macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg), carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H) * the micronutrients (or trace minerals): iron (Fe), boron (B), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water-use Efficiency
Water-use efficiency (WUE) refers to the ratio of water used in plant metabolism to water lost by the plant through transpiration. Two types of water-use efficiency are referred to most frequently: * photosynthetic water-use efficiency (also called instantaneous water-use efficiency), which is defined as the ratio of the rate of carbon assimilation (photosynthesis) to the rate of transpiration, and * water-use efficiency of productivity (also called integrated water-use efficiency), which is typically defined as the ratio of biomass produced to the rate of transpiration. Increases in water-use efficiency are commonly cited as a response mechanism of plants to moderate to severe soil water deficits and have been the focus of many programs that seek to increase crop tolerance to drought. However, there is some question as to the benefit of increased water-use efficiency of plants in agricultural systems, as the processes of increased yield production and decreased water loss due t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Restoration
Land restoration, which may include renaturalisation or rewilding, is the process of ecological restoration of a site to a natural landscape and habitat, safe for humans, wildlife, and plant communities. Ecological destruction, to which land restoration serves as an antidote, is usually the consequence of pollution, deforestation, salination or natural disasters. Land restoration is not the same as land reclamation, where existing ecosystems are altered or destroyed to give way for cultivation or construction. Land restoration can enhance the supply of valuable ecosystem services that benefit people. Repairing damaged land Land restoration can include the process of cleaning up and rehabilitating a site that has sustained environmental degradation, such as those by natural cause (desertification) and those caused by human activity (strip mining), to restore that area back to its natural state as a wildlife home and balanced habitat. Countering desertification Land reclamation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Management
Land management is the process of managing the use and development (in both urban and rural settings, but it is mostly managed in Urban places.) of land resources. Land resources are used for a variety of purposes which may include organic agriculture, reforestation, water resource management and eco-tourism projects. Land management can have positive or negative effects on the terrestrial ecosystems. Land being over- or misused can degrade and reduce productivity and disrupt natural equilibriums. See also * Conservation grazing * Environmental management scheme * Habitat conservation * Holistic management * Land change science * Land registration * Sustainable agriculture *Wildlife management References Further reading * Dale P.D. and McLaughlin, J.D. 1988. ''Land Information Management'', Clarendon Press: Oxford. * Larsson G. 2010. ''Land Management as Public Policy'', University Press of America. . * United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Agenda 21 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wind Erosion
Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials and are effective agents in regions with sparse vegetation, a lack of soil moisture and a large supply of unconsolidated sediments. Although water is a much more powerful eroding force than wind, aeolian processes are important in arid environments such as deserts. The term is derived from the name of the Greek god Aeolus, the keeper of the winds. Definition and setting ''Aeolian processes'' are those processes of erosion, transport, and deposition of sediments that are caused by wind at or near the surface of the earth. Sediment deposits produced by the action of wind and the sedimentary structures characteristic of these deposits are also described as ''aeolian''. Aeolian processes are most important in areas where there is little ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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