The Gezira Scheme is Sudan's oldest and largest gravity irrigation system. The scheme has played an important role in the economic development of the country, and is a major source of foreign exchange. The farming system of the Gezira Scheme is dominated by crop production. The main crops grown are sorghum, wheat, groundnut and the oilseed crop sesame. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important oil crop in the world and a new edible oil crop in Sudan. Knowledge of the effects of irrigation scheduling on sunflower production and water productivity under water stress conditions is becoming increasingly important. Irrigation scheduling is particularly important since many field crops are more sensitive to water deficit at specific phonological stages. Sunflower has several growth stages: emergence, vegetative, reproductive, flowering, seed formation and maturity. Water stress in each stage results in reduction in seed yield and oil content. The treatments in the test plots, which were conducted to study the effect of water stress at different growth stages, showed that sunflower was significantly affected by water stress that occurred in the sensitive flowering and seed formation stages. Highest seed yield was obtained when water stress was avoided during these stages. The AquaCrop model was used to simulate the seed yield and water productivity. The model was able to precisely simulate seed yield, but overestimated water productivity under different irrigation treatments.

The cropping system is one of the important components of sustainable agriculture, since it provides more efficient nutrient cycling. As such, balanced fertilization must be based on the concept of sustainable crop production. Feeding the rapidly growing world population using environmentally sustainable production systems is a major challenge, especially in developing countries. A number of studies have highlighted the fact that degradation of the world's cultivated soils is largely responsible for low and plateauing yields. Soil is lost rapidly but only formed over millennia, and this represents the greatest global threat to nutrient dynamics in agriculture. This means that nutrient management is essential to provide food and nutritional security for current and future generations. Nutrient dynamics and soil sustainability imply the maintenance of the desired ecological balance, the enhancement and preservation of soil functions, and the protection of biodiversity above and below ground. Understanding the role of nutrient management as a tool for soil sustainability and nutritional security requires a holistic approach to a wide range of soil parameters (biological, physical, and chemical) to assess the soil functions and nutrient dynamics of a crop management system within the desired timescale. Further, best nutrient management approaches are important to advance soil sustainability and food and nutritional security without compromising the soil quality and productive potential. Sustainable management practices must allow environmentally and economically sustainable yields and restore soil health and sustainability. This book presents soil management approaches that can provide a wide range of benefits, including improved fertility, with a focus on the importance of nutrient dynamics. Discussing the broad impacts of nutrients cycling on the sustainability of soil and the cropping systems that it supports, it also addresses nutrient application to allow environmentally and economically sustainable agroecosystems that restore soil health. Arguing that balanced fertilization must be based on the concept of INM for a cropping system rather than a crop, it provides a roadmap to nutrient management for sustainability. This richly illustrated book features tables, figures and photographs and includes extensive up-to-date references, making it a valuable resource for policymakers and researchers, as well as undergraduate and graduate students of Soil Science, Agronomy, Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

This book discusses coastal defense measures, which have not improved in the past few decades, and better alternatives. It emphasizes on the existence of stable bays in coastal geomorphology and their use in coastal stabilization. The conventional measures for saving beaches, such as seawalls, groins, offshore breakwaters, and renourishment, are discussed in detail, followed by an alternative known as headland control. Many types of coast, and the respective defense measures, are discussed, especially for eroding beaches downcoast of harbors with long breakwaters. The formation of offshore bars during storms is examined and the design of stable recreational beaches is demonstrated. Practical design problems are discussed in all cases. Many issues requiring attention in coastal engineering are also outlined.

This book provides an assessment of the understanding of soil microbiology and biochemistry as part of reclamation processes. It attempts to assemble more specialized literature on reclamation, where application of microbiological concepts has provided the understanding of the process.

This book treats the subject of sediment transport in the marine environment, covering transport of noncohesive sediment by waves and currents in- and outside the surf zone. It can be read independently, but a background in hydraulics and basic wave mechanics is required.The primary aim of the book is to describe the physical processes of sediment transport and how to represent them in mathematical models. The book can be divided in two main parts; in the first, the relevant hydrodynamic theory is described. This part contains a review of elementary theory for water waves, chapters on the turbulent wave boundary layer and the turbulent interaction between waves and currents, and finally, surf zone hydrodynamics and wave driven currents.The second part covers sediment transport and morphological development.The part on sediment transport introduces the basic concepts (critical bed shear stress, bed load, suspended load and sheet layer, near-bed concentration, effect of sloping bed); it treats suspended sediment in waves and current and in the surf zone, and current and wave-generated bed forms. Finally, the modelling of cross-shore and long-shore sediment transport is described together with the development of coastal profiles and coastlines.

The Handbook of Cucurbits: Growth, Cultural Practices, and Physiology contains information on cultural practices, nutrition, and physiological processes of cucurbits under both normal and stressful conditions. It presents the history and importance of cucurbit crop production as well as exhaustive information on growth responses of cucurbits to various environmental conditions and nutrients. Unlike numerous other books and articles on cucurbits that exist in relative isolation of each other, this handbook provides a complete collection of factors on cucurbits. It addresses issues and concerns related to cucurbits growth, physiology, cultural practices, diseases, and production. It has been prepared by many competent and knowledgeable scientists, specialists, and researchers in agriculture and horticulture from several countries. It serves as a resource for both lectures and independent purposes, covering issues related to cucurbits from planting to production. The book is divided into 11 sections: Introductory Chapters; Cucurbits Physiological Stages of Growth and Development I; Cultural Practices of Cucurbits; Cucurbits Physiological Stages of Growth and Development II; Genetics, Genomics, and Breeding of Cucurbits; Cucurbits Grafting; Cucurbits Pathology and Diseases; Weed Control, Pest Control, and Insects of Cucurbits; Therapeutic and Medicinal Values of Cucurbits; Growth Responses of Cucurbits under Stressful Conditions (Abiotic and Biotic Stresses); and Examples of Cucurbits Crop Plants Growth and Development and Cultural Practices. Each of these sections consists of one or more chapters to discuss, independently, as many aspects of cucurbits as possible for that specific topic. Numerous figures and tables are included to facilitate the comprehension of the presented material. Hundreds of index words are also included to further increase accessibility to desired information.

Human beings strongly depend on the sustainable availability of resources, such as food, water and energy. The continued supply of these resources can only be assured by sustainable land uses but these are easily threatened by inappropriate human activities. Human behavior is intermingled with hydrological, biogeochemical, atmospheric and ecological processes through land use and land cover change (LULCC). LULCC is a locally pervasive and globally significant environmental trend and has become a process of paramount importance to the study of global environmental change. This thesis investigates LULCC and its links with soil hydrology, soil degradation and climate variability through combining results from fieldwork, laboratory work and Remote Sensing. Seasonal, inter-annual and broad timescale land transitions are analyzed for a robust identification of biophysical change. The determinants of LULCC are determined using spatially explicit statistical modelling of most systematic land transitions. This thesis explores soil hydrological impacts of LULCC for a better soil water management. The thesis further explores the climatic factors leading to the observed trends in vegetated land cover for improved understanding of the link between climate and carbon fixation and water use by vegetation.

The push-pull test is a powerful site characterization technique that has been applied to a wide range of problems in contaminant hydrogeology. The theoretical and practical apsects of push-pull testing were initially developed to characterize groundwater acquifers but the method has now been extended to saturated and unsaturated soils and sediments as well as to surface water bodies. Dr. Istok and his collaborators have been instrumental in the development of these techniques and he is widely recognized as the world's leading expert push-pull testing. This is the only reference book available on this powerful method.

Encompassing high priority research areas such as bioenergy production, global warming mitigation, and sustainable agriculture, biochar has received increased worldwide interest in the past decade. Biochar: Production, Characterization, and Applications covers the fundamentals of biochar including its concept, production technology, and characterization. The book builds on this foundation by providing examples of state-of-the-art biochar application technology in agronomy and environmental sciences, along with detailed case studies. Edited by a group of well-known biochar experts and including chapters written by a group of international experts in their field, this valuable resource can be used both as a textbook for graduate courses or as a handbook for policy makers and practitioners in the field.

In 2007, the first edition of Handbook of Plant Nutrition presented a compendium of information on the mineral nutrition of plants available at that time-and became a bestseller and trusted resource. Updated to reflect recent advances in knowledge of plant nutrition, the second edition continues this tradition. With chapters written by a new team of experts, each element is covered in a different manner, providing a fresh look and new understanding of the material. The chapters extensively explore the relationship between plant genetics and the accumulation and use of nutrients by plants, adding to the coverage available in the first edition. The second edition features a chapter on lanthanides, which have gained importance in plant nutrition since the publication of the first edition, and contains chapters on the different mineral elements. It follows the general pattern of a description of the determination of essentiality or beneficial effects of the element, uptake and assimilation, physiological responses of plants to the element, genetics of its acquisition by plants, concentrations of the element and its derivatives and metabolites in plants, interaction of the element with uptake of other elements, diagnosis of concentrations of the element in plants, forms and concentrations of the element in soils and its availability to plants, soil tests and fertilizers used to supply the element. The book demonstrates how the appearance and composition of plants can be used to assess nutritional status and the value of soil tests for assessing nutrition status. It also includes recommendations of fertilizers that can be applied to remedy nutritional deficiencies. These features and more make Handbook of Plant Nutrition, Second Edition a practical, easy-to-use reference for determining, monitoring, and improving the nutritional profiles of plants worldwide.

The Working Group M.O. (Interactions of soil minerals with organic components and microorganisms) (WGMO) of the International Soil Science Society (ISSS) was founded in 1990 at the 14th World Congress of Soil Science (Kyoto, Japan), with Professor P.M. Huang being the Chairman. Since then, the Working Group M.O. has served as a forum to bring together soil chemists, soil mineralogists, soil microbiologists, soil biochemists, soil physi cists and environmental, ecological, and health scientists. The objective of the Working Group M.O. is to promote research, teaching, and also the exchange of technology concerning the knowledge and the impact of the interactions between minerals-organics and microorganisms on environmental quality, agricultural sustainability, and ecosystem "health". This group is first a scientific group as defined just previously, but it also intends to develop exchange and transfer between scientists and engineers. The first International Meeting organized by Professor P. M. Huang, was held in Edmonton, Canada, in August 1992, where 87 papers were presented by scientists from 20 countries. Following this meeting, a two volume book was edited by P. M. Huang, J. Berthelin, J.-M. Bollag, W. B. McGill, and A. L. Page, entitled "Environmental impact of soil component interaction" : Volume I "Natural and anthropogenic organic-volume II "Metals, other inorganic and microbial activities", and published by c.R.C. Lewis Pub lishers (1995).

Trace Elements in Abiotic and Biotic Environments helps readers understand the fundamental principles and phenomena that control the transfer of trace elements. This book describes the occurrence and behavior of trace elements in rocks, soil, water, air, and plants, and also discusses the anthropogenic impact to the environment. In addition, it covers the presence of trace elements in feeds, as either contaminants or as nutritional or zootechnical additives, and their transfer across the food chain to humans. Also discussed is international legislation on trace elements for both micronutrients and contaminants in soil and plant food. A special focus is placed on the human health effects of both trace element deficiency and excess. All trace elements are covered-from aluminum to zirconium-as well as rare-earth elements (actinides and lanthanides).

Population growth in the Blue Nile Basin has led to fast land-use changes from forest to agricultural land, which resulted in speeding up the soil erosion processes producing highly negative impacts on the local soil fertility and agricultural productivity. The eroded sediment is transported downstream by water and sinks in the lower basin where it significantly reduces reservoir storage and irrigation canals capacity. The only effective solution to mitigate the sedimentation problem is to limit the sediment inputs from upstream by locally implementing erosion control practices. However, given the vastness and remoteness of the involved areas, this first requires the knowledge of the most critical zones. The book identifies the sources of the sediment depositing in the Lower Blue Nile Basin and quantifies the amounts involved providing essential information for the planning and implementation of any interventions aiming at reducing soil erosion. The methods used consist of extensive field work covering most of the basin, watershed, hydrodynamic and morphodynamic modelling and, for the first time, the mineralogical analysis of the sediment at the sources and sinks. The method is successful in indentifying the areas providing most of the transported sediment, where it is recommended to start with erosion control practices.

A Practical, Get-Your-Hands-in-the-Soil Manual Global climate change, increasing pollution, and continued rapid population growth is wreaking havoc on the planet. Stabilizing the environment at safe levels requires a large-scale restoration of damaged ecosystems. Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase outlines the basic concepts of geotherapy and highlights the importance of healing the biosphere's ability to store soil carbon to prevent climate change impacts. Facing challenges head on, it addresses how and why policymakers have underestimated the long-term impacts of climate change and how we can correct the flawed carbon management mechanisms today. The book also factors in where carbon can be most effectively stored, how quickly that can be done, and the practical and policy actions needed to get there. This text presents innovative new technologies for restoring the most productive ecosystems on land while maintaining high biodiversity. It addresses processes and techniques of soil carbon restoration through biogeochemical cycling, biochar, slow-release fertilizers, weathering of minerals (olivine) and rock (basalt) powders, amendments and bio-fertilizers, and the establishment of vetiver and other perennials. Written by highly recognized professionals from every continent except Antarctica, this extensive work consists of 34 chapters covering issues that include: field experiences with biochar including a history of its research; practical uses of biochar in farming systems and the use of biochar for soil fertility enhancement; the potential of remineralization as a global movement; seawater concentrate for abundant agriculture; superior food production using sea salt and plant extracts; recycling waste nutrients using biochar and limestone; and commercially viable carbon farming. The book concludes with a chapter providing general thoughts on regreening the earth and averting a global crisis. Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase is an encyclopedia of ideas providing the tools needed for anyone involved with the ecological restoration and transformation of the planet.

The 2014 International Conference on Biotechnology, Agriculture, Environment and Energy (ICBAEE 2014) was held May 22-23, 2014 in Beijing, China. The objective of ICBAEE 2014 was to provide a platform for researchers, engineers, academics as well as industry professionals from all over the world to present their research results and development activities in Biotechnology, Agriculture, Environment and Energy. This conference provided opportunities for the delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences face to face, to establish business or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration. The program consisted of invited sessions and technical workshops and discussions with eminent speakers, and contributions to this proceedings volume cover a wide range of topics in Biotechnology, Agriculture, Environment and Energy.