High tunnels, or unheated plastic greenhouses, are becoming increasingly popular among organic vegetable growers across the United States. However, the intensive production typical of these systems presents soil health challenges, including salinization due to high fertilizer or compost inputs coupled with lack of rainfall to leach salts. Legume cover crops may improve soil health in high tunnels by reducing the need for external inputs, while adding organic matter. We tested the soil health effects of a winter hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) cover crop used to replace fertilizer N in an organic tomato cropping system in high tunnels. Studies were replicated across three sites differing in climate and soil type (Kansas, Kentucky, and Minne

Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic photosynthetic communities which are used in biofertilization of many plants especially rice plant. Cyanobacteria play a vital role to increase the plant's ability for salinity tolerance. Salinity is a worldwide problem which affects the growth and productivity of crops. In this work three cyanobacteria strains (Nostoc calcicola, Anabaena variabilis, and Nostoc linkia) were isolated from saline soil at Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate; North Egypt. The propagated cyanobacteria strains were used to withstand salinity of the soil and increase rice plant growth (Giza 178). The length of roots and shoot seedlings was measured for seven and forty days of cultivation, respectively. The results of this investigation showed

Geotechnical engineering like any other engineering field has to develop and cope with new technologies. This article intends to investigate the spatial relationships between soil’s liquid limit (LL), plasticity index (PI) and Liquidity index (LI) for particular zones of Sulaymaniyah City. The main objective is to study the ability to produce digital soil maps for the study area and determine regions of high expansive soil. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation tool within the GIS (Geographic Information System) program was used to produce the maps. Data from 592 boreholes for LL and PI and 245 boreholes for LI were used for this study. Layers were allocated into three depth ranges (1 to 2, 2 to 4 and 4 to 6)

In this study, the relationship between the bare soil temperature with respect to its salinity is presented, the bare soil feature is considered only by eliminating all other land features by classifying the site location by using the support vector machine algorithm, in the same time the salinity index that calculated from the spectral response from the satellite bands is calibrated using empirical salinity value calculated from field soil samples. A 2D probability density function is used to analyze the relationship between the temperature rising from the minimum temperature (from the sunrise time) due to the solar radiation duration tell the time of the satellite capturing the scene image and the calibrated salinity index is presented. T

Thermal properties of soils are important in buried structures contact problems. Although laboratory is distinctly advantageous in measuring the thermal conductivity of soil under ideal condition, given the ability to simulate relatively large-scale in place of soil bed, the field thermal conductivity of soil is not yet commonly used in many types of research. The use of only a laboratory experiment to estimate thermal conductivity may be the key reason for overestimation or underestimation it. In this paper, an intensive site investigation including field thermal conductivity tests for six different subsoil strata were performed using a thermal probe method (TLS-100) to systematically understanding the effects of field dry density, water c

Gypseous soil is considered as a problematic soil for embankment construction, however, implementation of emulsified asphalt as a stabilization agent could be a proper solution for enhancing its properties as a subgrade soil. In this work, the sustainability of asphalt stabilized soil has been assessed in terms of its resistance to cyclic (freezing-thawing) and (heating-cooling) processes. Specimens have been prepared at optimum fluid content (moisture and emulsion) and tested under direct shear stresses while subjected to 30 cycles of (freezing-thawing) and (heating-cooling). Both of dry and soaked testing conditions have been implemented. Data have been observed after each 10 cycles, and compared with that of reference mix. It was conclud

In this study, from a total of 856 mastitis cases in lactating ewes, only 34 Streptococcus agalactiae isolates showed various types of resistance to three types of antibiotics (Penicillin, Erythromycin and Tetracycline). St. agalactiae isolates were identified according to the standard methods, including a new suggested technique called specific Chromogenic agar. It was found that antibiotic bacterial resistance was clearly identified by using MIC-microplate assay (dilution method). Also, by real-time PCR technique, it was determined that there were three antibiotics genes resistance ( pbp2b, tetO and mefA ). The high percentage of isolate carried of a single gene which was the Tetracycline (20.59%) followed by percentage Penicillin was