Search results for "conservation."
showing 10 items of 1994 documents
Il muro di Padova: un muro di solida paura
2009
Il muro di Padova: un muro di solida paura - The Padua Wall: a Wall of Solid Fear, If there is a lucky relevance in the concept of liquid fear, it is the physical image of what, not having a solid content, slides over, trickles through chinks and floods any surface that comes across. If applied to a specific case, the concept materialises in its solid ambivalence. In the Padua case under examination, the municipality makes the choice, explosive from a communication perspective, to par8 tially isolate - with an iron fence, the so-called wall - an inhabited area, considered out of control because of the growing flow of regular and irregular immigrants, of crime episodes, of drug dealing, of a…
Float glass colouring by ion exchange
2008
Abstract Back in the Middle Ages, glass artists used to produce yellowish colorations in soda-lime glasses using mixtures that contained silver salts, clay composites and natural oils. The resulting colour was a characteristic pale yellow known as silver-stain. This coloration is mainly caused by the extinction – absorption and, to a lesser extent, scattering – of light occasioned by silver nanoparticles formed inside the glass. This colouring technique comprises a heat treatment divided in two stages: in the first one, an ion exchange between the silver ions in the mixture and the alkali ions in the glass takes place. This process is called nucleation of silver nanoparticles. The second st…
Role of rock fragment cover on runoff generation and sediment yield in tilled vineyards
2017
The soil in conventional Mediterranean vineyards is an active and non-sustainable source of sediment and water. Lack of vegetation cover, small soil organic matter content and intense ploughing result in large rates of erosion in a millennia-old tillage system. There is a need for soil conservation strategies that enable sustainability of wine and grape production; therefore, it is essential to measure the rates and to investigate the processes and factors of soil erosion. This study evaluated factors that can reduce soil losses in traditional Mediterranean vineyards. The investigation was carried out with 96 rainfall simulation experiments at the pedon scale (0.24 m2) to measure soil detac…
Mechanisms for Translocation of Heavy Metals from Soil to Epigeal Mosses
2011
The mechanisms for translocation of heavy metals from soil to epigeal mosses were investigated. The first mechanism was demonstrated for (137)Cs and involved the uplifting of the pollutant-containing dust from the soil, followed by the local secondary deposition on surfaces of epigeal mosses and epiphytic lichens. The second mechanism involved the diffusion of metal cations from the soil through water wetting the moss into the gametophyte. The mechanism was demonstrated by measuring the electric conductance of wetted gametophytes with single ends immersed in solutions of Cu and Na salts. In addition, the concentrations of Cu and Cd were compared in moss samples exposed to the natural soil a…
BIOCHARS IN SOILS: TOWARDS THE REQUIRED LEVEL OF SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING
2017
The special issue on Biochar as an Option for Sustainable Resource Management Key priorities in biochar research for future guidance of sustainable policy development have been identified by expert assessment within the COST Action TD1107. The current level of scientific understanding (LOSU) regarding the consequences of biochar application to soil were explored. Five broad thematic areas of biochar research were addressed: soil biodiversity and ecotoxicology, soil organic matter and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil physical properties, nutrient cycles and crop production, and soil remediation. The highest future research priorities regarding biochar’s effects in soils were: functional …
Links Between Soil Security and the Influence of Soil on Human Health
2017
Soil is important to human health because of (1) food availability and quality, (2) human contact with various chemicals in soil, (3) human contact with soil organisms, and (4) disposal of wastes. The five dimensions of soil security each have ties to soils and their influence on human health. Capability is related to the ability of soils to produce adequate and high-quality food and filter waste products to provide a clean environment, particularly clean, safe water supplies. Condition influences the nutritional quality of agricultural products produced in a given soil. Capital recognizes that there is value to the services soil provides in promoting human health, costs when soil constitue…
Long-term effects of soil management on ecosystem services and soil loss estimation in olive grove top soils
2016
Soil management has important effects on soil properties, runoff, soil losses and soil quality. Traditional olive grove (OG) management is based on reduced tree density, canopy size shaped by pruning and weed control by ploughing. In addition, over the last several decades, herbicide use has been introduced into conventional OG management. These management strategies cause the soil surface to be almost bare and subsequently high erosion rates take place. To avoid these high erosion rates several soil management strategies can be applied. In this study, three strategies were assessed in OG with conventional tillage in three plots of 1. ha each. Soil properties were measured and soil erosion …
Long-term monitoring of soil bulk density and erosion rates in two Prunus Persica (L) plantations under flood irrigation and glyphosate herbicide tre…
2021
Abstract Early season fruit production for the northern European market is highly intensive in fertilization, machinery, irrigation and the use of herbicides. Those conditions increase the soil losses and soil compaction and threaten the Sustainable Goals for Development of the United Nations by 2030. Long-term soil erosion measurements are necessary to determine the sustainability of agriculture managements. Moreover, soil erosion on flood irrigation land is a topic that request more surveys and research as rainfed sloping terrains attracted all the attention of scientists and research investment. Improved Stock Unearthing Method (ISUM) was applied to two 15 years-old herbicide treated fie…
Soil Quality as Affected by Intensive Versus Conservative Agricultural Managements
2017
Soils, the earth’s skin, are at the intersection of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The persistence of life on our planet depends on the maintenance of soils as they constitute the biological engines of earth. Human population has increased exponentially in recent decades, along with the demand for food, materials, and energy, which have caused a shift from low-yield and subsistence agriculture to a more productive, high-cost, and intensive agriculture. However, soils are very fragile ecosystems and require centuries for their development, thus within the human timescale they are not renewable resources. Modern and intensive agriculture implies serious concern about…
Monitoring desertification and land degradation over sub-Saharan Africa
2004
A desertification monitoring system is developed that uses four indicators derived using continental-scale remotely sensed data: vegetation cover, rain use efficiency (RUE), surface run-off and soil erosion. These indicators were calculated on a dekadal time step for 1996. Vegetation cover was estimated using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The estimation of RUE also employed NDVI and, in addition, rainfall derived from Meteosat cold cloud duration data. Surface run-off was modelled using the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) model parametrized using the rainfall estimates, vegetation cover, land cover, and digital soil maps. Soil erosion, one of the most indicative paramet…