This investigation was carried out during two growing seasons, 2008 and 2009, to investigate the effects of two plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on morphological and productivity characteristics of olives (Olea europaea 'Manzanillo'), grown in sandy soil under drip irrigation system in a commercial orchard in Egypt. PGPR treatments (Bacillus polymyxa as Biovine and yeast strain Saccharomyces cereivisea) were added in addition to the standard (100%) and a reduced (50%) farm fertilization program. 50 ml of Biovine and yeast were added per tree every fifteen days during the period from 1 February until the end of fruit set (June). Results showed that standard farm fertilization either with Biovine or yeast or Biovine + yeast recorded high shoot length in first season. Adding Biovine to 100% farm fertilization led to increased density of leaves, surface leaf area, and number of flowers per inflorescences. Percentage of sex expression ratio of 'Manzanillo' trees were significantly affected by treatments applied and it varied from (43.20 to 71.81) in 2008 season and (52.40 to 77.92) in 2009 season respectively, fruit set, yield per tree, and fruit dry weight in both seasons compared with the unamended control. Addition of Biovine in a reduced (50%) fertilization regime increased fruit length and width, stone length and width, fruit and stone weight, average flesh weight and flesh/stone ratio in both seasons. Biovine + yeast treatment with 100% farm fertilizer increased the oil content in olives, and also macro (N, P) and micro nutrient (Mn, Zn, Fe) levels in the fruit in both seasons.

The importance of soil suction on the behaviour of unsaturated geomaterials is widely recognized. Unsaturated soil theory relies heavily on Soil Water Characteristic Curves (SWCC), which can be established experimentally. The primary use of an SWCC is to convert moisture content, which is easily determined, to matric suction. Theoretical prediction of volume change of expansive soils remains difficult, however. Expansive clays cause damage to light structures. Movement can be estimated if suction-depth profiles are established and the soil profile is understood. Simple tests for soil reactivity have proven useful for calculating ground movements. The zone of influence of tree root systems on clay soils has been inferred from total suction-depth profiles and subsequently used to prepare guidelines for footing design for drying caused by trees. Suction can be an important bond, helping to hold collapsing sandy soils in a loose state. However, wetting reduces suction and other bonding agents, and so collapse follows, usually with the assistance of external loading. The suction of compacted unbound granular material is quite low relative to clays, yet can be important and has been shown to significantly influence properties important to pavement design. In this paper the author's general experience with soil suction and SWCCs is related.

Detection of environmental change using satellite imagery and ArcGIS software in an area with agricultural use, affected by atmospheric drought, deforestation and destruction of the irrigation system proved to be important for observing trends in changes over time. Fields Leu-Rotunda and Dabuleni (Plain of Oltenia), located in southern Romania, represent vast stretches of plains, with sandy soil texture of low fertility and high thermal conductivity. The humus content being 0,2-0,9%, and the plants wilting coefficient ranging from 1,1 to 2,1%. The maximum temperature of the air in July 1993 reached 42,8 degrees C and 69,5 degrees C at the surface of the soil in July 2002. The impact of the climatic elements were detected with the help of satellite images, using the statistical and mathematical method (NDVI). The timing was the month of maximum water requirement, the month of July. In the same month, different conditions have been observed with significant differences of affected polygons for the years 1987, 1993, 2006, 2007 and 2009.

The dune sands of the coast of Rio Grande do Norte State, northeastern Brazil, have serious engineering problems, namely low bearing capacity for shallow foundations and are not suitable as material for sub-base and road base. The use of this material in engineering practice needs improvement of their geotechnical properties. This paper investigates the effect of adding Portland cement to stabilize dune sand from the region of Natal, Brazil. Undrained triaxial tests were carried out to evaluate the effect of cement content on the geotechnical behaviour of dune sand-cement admixtures. Tests with admixtures with cement contents of 2.5, 5 and 10% of the dry mass of soil were carried out. Results showed that soil cohesion increased with increasing cement content. The friction angle of the admixtures was lower than that of the uncemented sand for cement content of 2.5 and 5% while It was larger than that of the uncemented sand for cement content of 10%.

The main factors affecting soil compatibility include moisture content, compaction work, soil type, grading and coarse material content etc.. The effects of compaction work are as follows: the stronger compaction work is, the more larger soil dry density is. The optimum moisture content decreases with the compaction work increasing. This paper mainly studies the effect of compaction work to aeolian sand compatibility. Its lay-down thickness is about 30-50cm when we use vibratory roller to compact aeolian sand in practical engineering. This paper analysis's and studies the maximum dry density and the optimum moisture content of aeolian sand in the middle region of Inner Mongolia, and achieves its lay-down thicknesses are 30cm, 40cm, and 50cm respectively at the optimum moisture content. We use 85kg vibration-impact rammer instead of YZ 18 vibratory roller to simulate the aeolian sand compaction effect at the optimum moisture content. The specification does not specify the number of compatibility times, but it is generally 3 to 5 times in the actual project. We choose the most suitable compatibility times and lay-down thickness through anglicizing the Aeolian sand compactness for vibration-impact rammer rolling on eloign sand 3 times, 4 times, and 5 times respectively at 3 different kinds of lay-down thicknesses. Through the study of the Inner Mongolia area Aeolian sand, it provides a useful reference for highway and railway construction in the desert area as well as the encapsulated layer thickness of reinforced retaining wall, a new type support structure.

The interaction of wind and water in semiarid and arid areas usually leads to low-frequency flash flood events in desert rivers, which have adverse effects on river systems and ecology. In arid zones, many aeolian dune-fields terminate in stream channels and deliver aeolian sand to the channels. Although aeolian processes are common to many desert rivers, whether the aeolian processes contribute to fluvial sediment loss is still unknown. Here, we identified the aeolian-fluvial cycling process responsible for the high rate of suspended sediment transport in the Sudalaer desert stream in the Ordos plateau of China. On the basis of element geochemistry data analysis, we found that aeolian sand was similar to suspended sediment in element composition, which suggests that aeolian sand contributes to suspended sediment in flash floods. Scatter plots of some elements further confirm that aeolian sand is the major source of the suspended sediment. Factor analysis and the relation between some elements and suspended sediment concentration prove that the greater the aeolian process, the higher the suspended sediment concentration and the greater the contribution of aeolian sand to suspended sediment yield. We conclude that aeolian sand is the greatest contributor to flash floods in the Sudalaer desert stream.

The Late Pleistocene was characterized by rapid climate oscillations with alternation of warm and cold periods that lasted up to several thousand years. Although much work has been carried out on the palaeoclimate reconstruction, a direct correlation of ice-core, marine and terrestrial records is still difficult. Here we present new data from late Middle Pleniglacial to Lateglacial alluvial-fan and aeolian sand-sheet deposits in northwestern Germany. Records of Late Pleniglacial alluvial fans in central Europe are very rare, and OSL dating is used to determine the timing of fan aggradation. In contrast to fluvial systems that commonly show a delay between climate change and incision/aggradation, the small alluvial-fan systems of the Senne area responded rapidly to climatic changes and therefore act as important terrestrial climate archives for this time span. The onset of alluvial-fan deposition correlates with the climate change from warm to cold at the end of MIS 3 (29.3 +/- 3.2ka). Strong fan progradation started at 24.4 +/- 2.8ka and may be related to a period of higher humidity. The vertical stacking pattern of sedimentary facies and channel styles indicate a subsequrent overall decrease in water and sediment supply, with less sustained discharges and more sporadic runoffs from the catchment area, corresponding to an increasing aridity in central Europe during the Late Pleniglacial. Major phases of channel incision and fan aggradation may have been controlled by millennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles. The incision of channel systems is attributed to unstable climate phases at cold-warm (dry-wet) or warm-cold (wet-dry) transitions. The alluvial-fan deposits are bounded by an erosion surface and are overlain by aeolian sand-sheets that were periodically affected by flash-floods. This unconformity might be correlated with the Beuningen Gravel Bed, which is an important marker horizon in deposits of the Late Pleniglacial resulting from deflation under polar desert conditions. The deposition of aeolian sand-sheet systems (19.6 +/- 2.1 to 13.1 +/- 1.5ka) indicates a rapid increase in aridity at the end of the Late Pleniglacial. Intercalated flash-floods deposits and palaeosols (Finow type) point to temporarily wet conditions during the Lateglacial. The formation of an ephemeral channel network probably marks the warm-cold transition from the AllerOd to the Younger Dryas.

Eruptions resumed in 1730 in Lanzarote Island after a prolonged period of volcanic repose, probably encompassing the entire Holocene. This historical eruption involved about 3-5 km3 of basaltic pyroclasts and lavas, covering some 225 km2 (one third of the island). The accumulation of volcanic products had a strong impact on the landscape of this Miocene oceanic island. This was the second largest effusive basaltic event in recorded history, surpassed only by the 1783 Lakagigar eruption in Iceland. The central part of Lanzarote was mantled by lapilli-derived soils and aeolian sands, which provided a strongly contrasting ground for the basaltic products of the 1730 eruption. After the initial phase of the eruption, the style changed and new vents were controlled by a 15-km-long volcano tectonic zip-like eastwards-progressing fissure, with the first vents opening offshore west of the island. This abrupt modification may explain the progression of this eruption, from the average duration of historical Canarian eruptions (a few months), towards an exceptionally prolonged period of about six years. Besides duration, other outstanding features of the 1730-1736 eruption include the tholeiitic composition of lavas and the length of flows and lava tubes, particularly in the final stages. Initially, the eruption had a catastrophic impact on the resources of the island, since most of the farmland was covered by lavas and lapilli. However, agriculture significantly improved after the eruption with the introduction of dry farming, using lapilli cover as a new mulching technique.

The integrated crop-livestock-forest system can enhance the production of soybeans, meat and wood in regions characterized by sandy soils and warm climate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the yield of soybean, Urochloa ruziziensis grass and eucalyptus in an integrated system during the first four years after the establishment of eucalyptus in the northwestern region of Parana state, Brazil. The experiment was established in October 2009, using soybean (summer) -U. ruziziensis (autumn/winter) succession between single rows of Corymbia maculata (eucalyptus species). The spacing between tree rows and eucalyptus plants in the row were 14 and 4.2 m, respectively. Adjacent plots had the same soybean-U. ruziziensis succession, but without eucalyptus. The spatial variability of soybean grain yields and grass shoot dry matter production was evaluated with and without trees, and the data was analyzed using geostatistics, with the results expressed as spatial variability maps. The tree component did not significantly affect soybean yield in the first two growing seasons. In the 3rd and 4th growing season (2011/12 and 2012/13), the interference of eucalyptus reduced the soybean grain yield by 2.9 and 27.0%, respectively, and the effect was stronger close to the tree rows. In July 2012, the tree component reduced the shoot dry matter productivity of U. ruziziensis by 29.2%. At 19 and 35 months after eucalyptus planting, the cumulative wood volume production was 0.73 and 5.17 m(3) ha(-1), respectively.

This paper shares the authors' experience of using low pressure grouting to improve the subgrade performance. The first part of the paper introduced a case history where low pressure grouting was applied in weakened subgrade of the active airport pavements in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). The treated areas seemed to have been improved and only one of all eight treated areas had reoccurrence of depression. However, the performance of the treated area was difficult to be evaluated. The latter part of the paper investigated the effectiveness of grout injection through laboratory experiments. The laboratory equipment used for the grout injection tests included an injection mold and a steel tank of 1 m length x 0.6 m wide x 0.6 m depth for subgrade soil sample. Three grout types namely neat cement grout, fly ash cement grout, bentonite cement grout were used for this study. Six tests were conducted on sandy soil samples to examine the effect of grout type on the effectiveness of injection. The sandy soil was compacted to approximate 80 % of the maximum dry density. The injection pressure was fixed at 0.5 MPa. Insitu CBR test was also conducted to determine the strength of the grouted sample. The results showed that the fly ash cement grout could penetrate further than the neat cement grout; however its strength was lower than the neat cement grout.