Aliakbar Noroozi; Morteza Miri; Davoud Nikkami; Tayeb Razi; Amir Sarreshtehdari; Ziaedin Shoaei
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the oak forest dieback with respect to drought occurrence, soil moisture changes and dust occurrences factors in Ilam, Kermanshah, Lorestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces of Iran. The data used were field surveys collected through GPS, MODIS satellite ...
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the oak forest dieback with respect to drought occurrence, soil moisture changes and dust occurrences factors in Ilam, Kermanshah, Lorestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces of Iran. The data used were field surveys collected through GPS, MODIS satellite imagery, GLDAS Soil Moisture, dust and precipitation data of the meteorological stations of the provinces during an 18-years period (2000-2017). The results of the study of greenness values of the forests in the study area showed that the first decline occurred in 2005 and repeated more severely with much wider spatial extent in 2008. Investigation of the relationship between drought events and its spatial and temporal variations with the changes in forests greenness of the study area showed that the reduction in precipitation amount is one of the main reasons for forest greenness reduction in the study area. The increased frequency of periods of rainfall shortage and drought duration, especially at 9 and 12-month time scales, showed a significant relationship between drought occurrences and forests greenness in the study area. The results indicated that by decreasing precipitation drought periods increased, soil moisture decreased, and dust storm occurrences increased. As a result, in most of the years, with decreasing soil moisture and increasing dust storms, the forests greenness of the study area has decreased and vis versa. Therefore, there is a direct relationship between soil moisture and forest greenness while an inverse relationship exists between dust and forest greenness.
Davoud Nikkami
Abstract
Using erosion plots is a way to research on soil erosion and conservation that with different dimensions, which are constructed in the natural arenas or in laboratories. Mistakes and false conclusions are common task that should be avoided when sampling runoff and sediment from the tanks of these plots. ...
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Using erosion plots is a way to research on soil erosion and conservation that with different dimensions, which are constructed in the natural arenas or in laboratories. Mistakes and false conclusions are common task that should be avoided when sampling runoff and sediment from the tanks of these plots. A few researches have been done on the ways of sampling from these tanks and reducing the errors. In this study, the accuracy of sampling was investigated by placing a bucket in the tank and using bottle sampling. For this purpose, two 220 liter tanks were used. In the first tank located at the upper level, concentrations of sediment were prepared for five, 10 and 20 grL-1 and the mixture of runoff and sediment was transferred to the second tank. Coarse particles were trapped by a bucket of twenty liters placed underneath the importer tube in the second tank. The contents of the bucket were weighed in the laboratory after drying. Also, sampling of the second tank contents was carried out after mixing the solution and using one-liter bottles in three replications per each concentration. Sampling was also done without placing the bucket as a witness. The significance of the effect of concentrations on the error value was defined by analysis of variance through a random block design scheme. Results demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the concentrations obtained in the experiment with bucket and without bucket at a level of one percent. Without using bucket, the amount of errors were 63.13, 78.40 and 73.97 percent for 5, 10 and 20 gr.L-1 concentrations, respectively and with using bucket they were 15.90, 15.07 and 4.83 percent. The mean errors in all concentrations were 71.83 and 11.93 percent without and with using buckets, respectively.
