19 Books found
Springer-Verlag GmbH Books
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Biosaline Agriculture and Salinity Tolerance in Plants
The availability of freshwater for agricultural use is declining in many areas of the world. This is the reason for the increasing use of lower quality or of saline water for crop production. Prolonged use of saline water severely affects the irrigated soils, which contributes to the global land degradation process and has direct impact on biomass production. For this reason, reduction of the spread of salinization, revitalization of salinized ...
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Cash Crop Halophytes Recent Studies
The last decade has witnessed a sharp increase in losses of arable land from salinisation. In Europe this is especially hard for the farmers in the Mediterranean countries where irrigation farming is very common and many fields have reached a soil salinity level which prevents farmers from raising common crops. This is a world wide problem in dry and semi-dry tropical regions. The losses in soil fertility in certain regions is so severe that ...
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Faunal Ecology and Conservation of the Great Indian Desert
The Great Indian or Thar Desert is characterized by extremely harsh climatic conditions. Nevertheless, this unique region, consisting of very different habitats ranging from grassland, sand dunes and rocky expanses to hilly wooded terrains, but also crop fields and abandoned human habitations, features a spectacular biodiversity. In 16 chapters, reputed experts in their fields describe the regional climate and microclimatic regime of this hot, ...
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Lake Naivasha, Kenya
This is the first comprehensive study of an east African lake for thirty years. It represents the culmination of research expeditions which stretch back twenty years and is thus able to pick up long term changes which the individual research activities do not reveal. Lake Naivasha is a tropical lake whose natural fluctuations are now dwarfed by human impacts. Papers show how the irrigation for horticulture and power cooling has reduced the lake ...
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Managing Weather and Climate Risks in Agriculture
In many parts of the world, weather and climate are one of the biggest production risks and uncertainty factors impacting on agricultural systems performance and management. Both structural and non-structural measures can be used to reduce the impacts of the variability (including extremes) of climate resources on crop production. While the structural measures include strategies such as irrigation, water harvesting, windbreaks etc., the ...
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Physiology of Cotton
Cotton production today is not to be undertaken frivolously if one expects to profit by its production. If cotton production is to be sustainable and produced profitably, it is essential to be knowledgeable about the growth and development of the cotton plant and in the adaptation of cultivars to the region as well as the technology available. In addition, those individuals involved in growing cotton should be familiar with the use of management ...
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Plant Nutrition of Greenhouse Crops
Plant nutrition in greenhouse cultivation differs in many essential aspects from field crops and justified the development of a special publication on this subject. The high productions realised and the specific produce quality requirements ensure high uptakes of nutrients and a careful tuning of the application. The covering with glass or plastic is responsible for specific climatic conditions, which in modern greenhouse can be fully adjusted ...
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Soil Biology and Agriculture in the Tropics
The relationships between soils, microbes and humans are of crucial relevance in the tropics, where plant stress and microbial activity are exacerbated. This volume of Soil Biology presents the living component of tropical soils, showing how it is shaped by environmental conditions and emphasizing its dramatic impact on human survival and well-being. Following an introduction to the specificities of tropical soils and of their microbial ...
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The Aral Sea Encyclopedia
The situation of the Aral Sea is known as one of the worst man-made environmental crises of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Many have seen the satellite photos evidencing the startling shrinkage and deterioration of the sea, as it was a few decades ago and how it appears today. Whereas the Aral Sea was the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water in 1960, it has now shrunk to a small fraction of that within three increasingly saline ...
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Water Requirements for Irrigation and the Environment
Irrigated agriculture produces about 40% of all food and fibre on about 16% of all cropped land. As such, irrigated agriculture is a productive user of resources; both in terms of yield per cropped area and in yield per volume of water consumed. Many irrigation projects, however, use (divert or withdraw) much more water than consumed by the crop. The non-consumed fraction of the water may cause a variety of undesirable effects ranging from ...
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Policy Reforms and Agriculture Development in Central Asia
The Central Asian republics – Kazakhstan, the Krygyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – are transitioning from centrally planned economies to market-oriented systems. This volume addresses the process and policy reforms these countries face and how the reforms may impact agricultural development in a region that has experienced varying degrees of economic growth over the fifteen years since independence. It offers expert policy ...
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Crop Field Response to Deficit Irrigation
With limited water resources to divert for agriculture, innovations aimed at increasing efficient use of irrigation water must be developed. Among the means to survive the consequences of water scarcity and yet to sustain high crop production under irrigated agriculture with decreasing share of water, deficient irrigation programs are highly valued and their adoption is widely promoted. However, to ensure that the same level of crop yields ...
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Planted Forests: Contributions to the Quest for Sustainable Societies
Planted forests, from irrigated eucalypts in Brazil to Douglas-fir seedlings in the mountains of Oregon, are described and discussed by international experts. The varieties, purposes, forms, and ecological, economic and social aspects of planted forests are considered in technical details and in case studies from temperate and tropical regions of the world. ...
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Salinity: Environment - Plants - Molecules
This book addresses the responses of plants to salinity. Although salinity is a common environmental factor for marine organisms, for the majority of land plants high soil salinity is an environmental constraint that limits growth, productivity, and normal plant functions. Salinity is particularly widespread in arid/semiarid climates where crop production depends on irrigation. A comprehensive approach is taken in this book. After discussing ...
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Sustainability of Irrigated Agriculture
Irrigated agriculture and the use of water resources in agriculture face the challenges of sustainable development. Research has advanced our knowledge of water use by crops, soil-water-solutes interactions, and the engineering and managerial tools needed to mobilize, convey, distribute, control and apply water for agricultural production. However, the achievements booked in user practice have revealed the need for new developments in the ...
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The Inter-Relationship Between Irrigation, Drainage and the Environment in the Aral Sea Basin
The irrigated area in the Aral Sea basin totals about 7.5 million ha. Part of the water supplied to this area is consumed by the irrigated crops; the remainder drains into the groundwater basin, downstream depressions, or back into the rivers. But the water accumulates salts and chemicals during its period of use, causing environmental problems which this book discusses. The natural discharge capacity of the groundwater basin is ...
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Towards the Rational Use of High Salinity Tolerant Plants
The Symposium on high salinity tolerant plants, held at the University of Al Ain in December 1990, dealt primarily with plants tolerating salinity levels exceeding that of ocean water and which at the same time are promising for utilization in agriculture or forestry. These plants could be very useful for a country like the UAE where fresh water resources are very scarce and the groundwater available at some places is already very salty. ...
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Towards the Rational Use of High Salinity Tolerant Plants
The symposium on high salinity tolerant plants, held at the University of Al Ain in December 1990, dealt primarily with plants tolerating salinity levels exceeding that of ocean water and which at the same time are promising for utilization in agriculture or forestry. The papers of the proceedings of this symposium have been published in two volumes. This volume (1) deals with mangroves and inland high salinity tolerant plants and ...
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Understanding Options for Agricultural Production
Understanding Options for Agricultural Production is a synthesis of a global multidisciplinary network of scientists from around the world. This book describes the outputs of the IBSNAT network, including topics on data standards and the minimum data set, crop simulation models of major food crops, and application programs to assess risk resulting from implementation of different management options and strategies. These outputs were ...