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 Minnesota) over three years. We measured vetch cover crop effects on a suite of soil health indicators, including potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), permanganate oxidizable carbon, and microbial biomass. Preliminary results suggest that vetch effects on PMN were highly variable. Soil mineral N, meanwhile, was often lower in the vetch treatment than in a fertilized control, both in spring and in fall. While further work on vetch effects on crop yields is needed, our results suggest that even legume cover crops such as vetch have the potential to reduce nitrate leaching.
Two field experiments were conducted during the season 2021-2022 in central Iraq represented by the Al-Muthanna governorate - Al-Majd District and Al-Qadisiyah governorate / Al-Nouriah Research Station to determine the productivity of the Baghdad 3 cultivar from spray foliar fertilization of Macro and Micro elements with alcoholic sugars and half the fertilizer recommendation for addition floor, three treatments were used for fertilization: T1 as the control treatment and T2 with alcoholic sugar fertilization at a concentration of 20 g.L-1 + the fertilizer combination of Macro and Micro elements, and T3 with alcoholic sugar fertilization at a concentration of 40 g.L-1 + the fertilizer combination of Macro and Microelements, at irrigation 55
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loaded reinforced concrete circular short columns. An experimental investigation into the behavior
of 24 short reinforced concrete columns with and without steel fibers was carried out. The columns
had a circular section (200 mm diameter and 900 mm long). Test variables include concrete
strength, spacing of spiral reinforcement, and inclusion of steel fibers. The axial stress and axial
strains were obtained and used to evaluate the effects of the presence of steel fibers. It was found
that the addition of steel fibers slightly improves the load carrying capacity of the tested columns
whereas it significantly enhances the ductility of these specimens. Test results also indicated that for
the same confinement parameter
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Experimental work was carried out to investigate the effect of fire flame (high temperature) on specimens of one way slabs using Self Compacted Concrete (SCC). By using furnace manufactured for this purpose, twenty one reinforced concrete slab specimens were exposed to direct fire flame. All of specimens have the same dimensions. The slab specimens were cooled in two types, gradually by left them in the air and suddenly by using water. After that the specimens were tested under two point loads, to study, the effect of
different: temperature levels (300ºC, 500ºC and 700ºC), and cooling rate (gradually and sudden cooling conditions) on the concrete compressive strength, modulus of rupture, flexural strength and the behavior of reinf
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This study investigates the changes occurring in the province of Basra using geospatial methods and analyzes the variations in land surface temperature among the various types of land cover. For the months of July and December in the years 2013 and 2021, Landsat images were used in Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS, and satellite images were processed using ArcGIS 10.8 software. The study's categories for land use and land cover were generated through the application of supervised classification techniques, and the land surface temperature was calculated using data from a satellite sensor's brightness temperature. According to the study's findings, there has been an increase in urban areas (including barren land). From 2013 to 2021, a greater correlati
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In the last two decades, arid and semi-arid regions of China suffered rapid changes in the Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) due to increasing demand on food, resulting from growing population. In the process of this study, we established the land use/cover classification in addition to remote sensing characteristics. This was done by analysis of the dynamics of (LUCC) in Zhengzhou area for the period 1988-2006. Interpretation of a laminar extraction technique was implied in the identification of typical attributes of land use/cover types. A prominent result of the study indicates a gradual development in urbanization giving a gradual reduction in crop field area, due to the progressive economy in Zhengzhou. The results also reflect degradati
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