Sandy Desert Soils Research Articles

Profile of desert sandy soils formed in the Aral Sea dried-up seabed

In subsequent years, as a result of the strengthening of natural and anthropogenic factors, the inability of the Amu Darya and Sir Darya waters to flow into the Aral Sea, the mechanical composition of desert sandy soils, the type of salinization, the degree of salinization, the variety of humus content in the soils common in the soil covers of the dried seabed were studied. During the study of the study area soils, the strong salinization of soils was noted by the chloride-sulfate salinization type and the salinization in the surface layer of the soil profile section No. 47, that is, in the layers 0- 9 cm and 9-50 cm deep, and weak salinization by the sulfate-chloride salinization type and the salinization in the lower layer of the soil profile. In the surface layer of the studied desert sandy soils, that is, by 0-9 cm and 9- 50 cm, the humus content ranged from 0.418% to 0.528%. On the dried bottom of the Aral Sea, because of strong evaporation of groundwater in the soil profile, an intensive process of accumulation of salt crystals took place, and desert sandy soils became highly saline.

Exploring the complexities of sand dune transformation: the role of anthropogenic degradation and climatic conditions

Introduction: The sandy soils in the arid Southern Balkhash region have experienced anthropogenic degradation, leading to the formation of bare mobile sand dunes. This transformation has created significant challenges for the growth of cattle feed, particularly in areas with high economic activity. As a consequence, the socio-economic situation of the local population has been significantly worsened, and even the development of tourism has not helped. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the seasonal mobility of sand dune landforms and their hydrothermal regimes, as well as the climatic conditions of the region.Methods: To achieve the study objective, we conducted field investigations and collected data on the mobility of sand dunes, hydrothermal conditions, and climatic factors in the region. Measurements were taken during the summer months when dominant North-East, North-North-East winds prevailed, with an average frequency of 20.4–26.7 days per month and wind speeds ranging from 3.0 to 3.7 m/s, occasionally reaching up to 11.90–13.3 m/s. We also analyzed humidity, air temperature, and atmospheric precipitation levels.Results: Our findings revealed that during the summer months, a fresh-sided layer of sand actively supplied the windward part of the sand dune to the leeward one. This process occurred under very low humidity, high air temperature, and slight atmospheric precipitation conditions. Consequently, the moisture content of the surface root layer (0–20 cm) of the sand dune accumulation zone decreased to 0.2% in the middle and at the end of summer.Discussion: The observed relationship between the seasonal mobility of sand dunes and their hydrothermal regimes, along with the climatic conditions, provides valuable insights for the development of effective technologies to rehabilitate anthropogenically degraded desert sandy soils that have transformed into mobile sands. This knowledge can serve as a theoretical basis for addressing the challenges faced by cattle breeding in the region and improving the socio-economic situation of the local population.

Description of the status of supply of hums and nutrient elements of desert pasture soils based on geoinformation systems

It is vitally important to increase the productivity of the degraded and low-fertility sandy desert soils in the world. In particular, special attention is being paid to the use of modern technologies aimed at quickly and qualitatively identifying the changes occurring in sandy desert soils, eliminating the negative effects of desert soils, and preventing the accelerated degradation processes in pastures through a comprehensive study of soil properties. In this research, GIS software was used to map humus and nutrient elements of desert pasture soils. The results showed that the amount of mobile phosphorus in sandy desert soils fluctuated in the range of 10-40 mg/kg in Nurota district, while in Konimekh district this indicator changed in the range of 17-40 mg/kg.

Synergistic effects of biochar and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium (CMC) applications on improving water retention and aggregate stability in desert soils

Making improvements to the water-holding characteristics and water-erosion resistance of desert soils, particularly in inland extremely arid areas, is vital for achieving both sustainable water resource utilisation and food security. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the co-application of biochar and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium (CMC) on the physical properties of sandy desert soil, including infiltration rate, saturated water conductivity, field water-holding capacity and aggregate stability. Sandy desert soil samples were collected from jujube plantations on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert in the Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. Five CMC application ratios (C0:0, C1:0.01 g/kg, C2:0.02 g/kg, C3:0.04 g/kg and C4:0.08 g/kg) and five biochar application ratios (B0:0, B1:1.0 g/kg, B2:2.0 g/kg, B3:4.0 g/kg and B4:8.0 g/kg) were designed and a total of 11 experimental treatments were performed, which were labelled as CK (control group), B2C0, B2C1, B2C2, B2C3, B2C4, B4C4, B0C2, B1C2, B3C2 and B4C2. Compared with CK, the combined application of biochar and CMC reduced the soil bulk density (BD) by 1.29–9.41% and the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) by 29.64–94.98%, and increased the soil saturated water content (SSWC) by 8.81–30.74% and the water holding capacity (WHC) by 13.91–36.87%. Similarly, the water-stable aggregates that were co-applied with biochar and CMC increased by 29.10–256.86%. This resulted in significant improvement in the stability of sandy desert soil against water erosion. The principal component analysis (PCA) results found B4C4 to have the best comprehensive improvement effect. Therefore, 0.08 g/kg of CMC and 8.0 g/kg of biochar were used as recommended for improving the hydraulic properties of desert soils. Generally, CMC and biochar have a mutually complementary effect on improving sandy desert soil, providing new ideas and approaches for the improvement of soil and the sustainable development of agriculture in desert areas.

The mechanical composition of irrigated sandy desert soils in the Jondor district of Bukhara region, and the amount of nutrients in them

The article presents information about the genesis of sandy desert soils of Bukhara region (on the example of the Jondor district), distribution, mechanical (granulometric) composition of the soil, humus in the composition of the soil, the amount and levels of availability of common and mobile nutrients, the level of salinity, the type of these soils, as well as about the usage of these soils in agriculture.

EFFECT OF WIND AND HYDROTHERMAL REGIMES OF SAND DUNE ON MOBILITY OF RELIEF FORMS

The sandy pastures around the world are most often used year-round for cattle breeding. Here, desert sandy soils (Arenosols), which have become widespread, unlike the others, even with a short-term anthropogenic load, easily lose the texture of the surface horizon, which, under conditions of high wind activity, in a short time (5-7 years) turn into mobile sands and, with in the absence of work to fixing them, they quickly expand into hilly dunes. Due to the lack of vegetation in them, the processes of deflation and the appearance of foci of winding are rapidly developing. Such foci were formed in the Southern Balkhash region as a result of the intensive use of woody plants by local residents as a source of fuel and daily cattle passing. They thereby became, on the one hand, the "conductor" of desertification, and on the other hand, its victim. To restore the fertility of such formations, we wanted to understand first of all how dunes are created and how they undergo changes over time. Therefore, we studied the influence of the wind regime on the seasonal changes in their landforms, considering the wind and hydrothermal regimes. It has been established that the bare surface of sand dunes is strongly heated during the summer months, up to 45.0-46.0°С in its windward part and up to 47.2 and 52.0°С in the leeward part. And the humidity of the upper layer of a sand dune at the end of summer drops to a critical level (0.26%), which, under conditions of wind activity and aridity of the local climate, leads to the movement of sand masses by the wind from its windward to leeward part. This, in turn, in combination creates unfavorable conditions for the survival of plants.

Microbiome of Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. Reveals a Potential Association with Non-Photosynthetic Cyanobacteria.

Citrullus colocynthis grows in the sandy desert soil of the Arabian Peninsula with limited access to water, aside from occasional precipitation or dew. Understanding its ability to produce water-filled fruit and nutrient-rich seeds despite the harsh environment, can be useful for agricultural applications. However, information regarding the microbiome of C. colocynthis is lacking. We hypothesized that C. colocynthis associates with bacteria that aid its survival, like what has been observed in other desert plants. Here, we used 16S rRNA gene data to gain insight into the microbiome of C. colocynthis to identify its associated bacteria. In total, 9818 and 6983 OTUs were generated from root, soil, and leaf samples combined. Overall, bulk soils had the highest alpha diversity, followed by rhizosphere and root zone soils. Furthermore, C. colocynthis is associated with known plant-growth-promoting bacteria (including Acidobacteria, Bacterioidetes, and Actinobacteria), and interestingly a class of non-photosynthetic Cyanobacteria (Melainabacteria) that is more abundant on the inside and outside of the root surface than control samples, suggesting its involvement in the rhizophagy process. This study will provide a foundation for functional studies to further understand how C. colocynthis-microbes interactions help them grow in the desert, paving the path for possible agricultural applications.

Effectiveness of application of mineral fertilizers in growing food plants in desert pasture conditions of Uzbekistan

Pastures are the main source of fodder for the desert livestock of the country and can be used all year round. Pasture fodder is the cheapest source of fodder. This research work focused on the effectiveness of the use of mineral fertilizers in the cultivation of forage crops in desert pastures, phenological observations of desert forage plants, the determination of the amount of macronutrients in the vegetative organs of desert forage plants. Based on the results, one of the most effective ways to get high yields from desert forage plants was the use of mineral, local, micro and bacterial fertilizers. Moreover, it was found that preventing the degradation of sandy desert soils and improving fodder production for livestock depended on the planting and care of high-yielding desert forage crops, mainly in desert pastures. In general, the use of agro-technical measures was aimed at preventing the degradation of sandy desert soils and improving natural pastures, ensuring the germination of seeds of various desert forage plants in sandy desert soils, achieving growth and accumulation of high nutrient mass, and using mineral forage plants.

Effective methods of preventing degradation of desert pasture soils of Uzbekistan

Natural desert pastures are the main source of fodder for the livestock of the republic, which allows them to use desert pastures all year round. In this research, effective agro-technical measures used to cultivate promising varieties of desert forage plants suitable for soil-climatic conditions was studied in order to improve the condition and increase the productivity of degraded desert pastures. Predictive methods were employed to development of agro-technical measures aimed at restoring, maintaining, increasing and protecting the fertility of sandy desert soils in improving the condition of desert pastures, and to implement a number of complex measures, such as overcoming the process of soil degradation. According to the results, The results showed that seeds of shrubs and semi-shrubs are sown at a depth of 1.5-2.0 cm, the norm of sowing the seeds of the same crop, salsola orientalis and haloxylon 6-8 kg/ha, male grass 5-6 kg/ha and other desert plants planted in accordance with regulatory documents. Once the seedlings began to germinate, field germination of seeds, number of seedlings and retention dynamics, development of adult plants, and formation of the root system were determined.

Sphingomonas arenae sp. nov., isolated from desert soil.

Two bacterial strains, designated as SYSU D00720T and SYSU D00722, were isolated from a desert sandy soil sample collected from Gurbantunggut Desert in Xinjiang, north-west China. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped, oxidase-positive and catalase-negative. Colonies were circular, opaque, convex, smooth, orange on Reasoner's 2A (R2A) agar. The isolates were found to grow at 4-45 °C (optimum, 28-30 °C), at pH 6.0-7.0 (optimum, 7.0) and with 0-1.5 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0%). Growth was observed on R2A agar, Luria-Bertani agar and nutrient agar, but not on trypticase soy agar. The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, sphingoglycolipid, two unidentified aminolipids, one unidentified glycolipid, one unidentified aminoglycolipid, one unidentified aminophospholipid, one unidentified phospholipid and two unidentified lipids. The main fatty acids (>10%) were C17 : 1 ω6c, summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 ω7c and/or C18 : 1 ω6c) and C16 : 0. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10 and the major polyamine was sym-homospermidine. The genomic DNA G+C content was 66.0 mol%. Strains SYSU D00720T and SYSU D00722 were nearly identical with a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 99.6 %, and 100.0 % average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values. Phylogenetic analyses clearly demonstrated that these two strains belonged to the same species of the genus Sphingomonas, and had highest sequence similarity to Sphingomonas lutea KCTC 23642T (97.3 %). The ANI, AAI and dDDH values of strains SYSU D00720T and SYSU D00722 to S. lutea KCTC 23642T were both 73.2, 69.9 and 19.2 %, respectively. Based on phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic distinctiveness, strains SYSU D00720T and SYSU D00722 represent a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas arenae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SYSU D00720T (=MCCC 1K05154T=NBRC 115061T).

Conditioning of desert sandy soil and investigation of the ameliorative effects of poultry manure and bentonite treatment rate on plant growth.

Soil is the base of any ecosystem since it conserves nutrients and water for plant roots including agriculture and plantations. In dry and semi-arid places across the world, including the UAE, sandy soils are common. Their fertility is extremely low, and production is hampered by a number of agronomic challenges. Soil conditioner sources like bentonite and chicken manure might be used to improve the poor sandy soil attributes and hence boost soil productivity. From November 2019 to March 2020, an experiment was conducted to investigate the growth rates of Bougainvillea following bentonite and chicken manure amendments to sandy soil taken from Lehbab, Dubai. Bougainvillea was evaluated for its plant height (cm), max length of primary branch (cm), the number of leaves per plant, number of secondary branches, shoot weight (g), root length (cm), root weight (g), root/shoot ratio, chlorophyll contents, and chlorophyll a* and b*. In this experiment, a complete randomized design (CRD) with five treatments was used (10 replications per treatment). According to the findings, bentonite and chicken manure additions considerably influence the productive properties of sandy soil, as indicated by Bougainvillea growth. Additionally, the research suggests that Bougainvillea may be efficiently planted with 10% bentonite and 15% chicken manure applied to sandy soil, resulting in the healthiest plants compared to other amendments.

Optimal Use of Natural Resources in Al-Muthanna Desert (Soil as A model)

Soil is one of the important natural resources in Al-Muthanna desert, and the climate has played an important role in its formation. The soil in the study area is classified into several types that vary in their quality for agriculture. I concluded that the soil of the depressions and the plains alluvial soils are among the best types of those soils, followed by the sandy desert soil, which is characterized by its large area and can be exploited when providing water for it. As for the gypsum desert soils, they are of medium quality for cultivation, due to the presence of gypsum in them in high quantities and the lack of water retention. While the sandy and rocky dune soils are unsuitable for agriculture due to their high permeability. Wind and water erosion works to expose rocky soil rocks and transfer sand dune soil particles, but they constitute an important resource in the manufacture of building materials and glass if they are used properly.

The role of biochar particle size and application rate in promoting the hydraulic and physical properties of sandy desert soil

Enhancing the resistance of sandy desert soil to drought and wind erosion is key to controlling aeolian desertification. Using biochar as an amendment can improve soil quality. This study aimed to determine the impacts of biochar particle size and application rate on the hydraulic and physical properties of sandy desert soil. Biochars were produced by pyrolyzing corn straw at 500 °C with limited oxygen. Samples of sandy desert soil were collected from the Tengger Desert in Northwestern China. Tests were designed with three biochar particle sizes (0–0.25, 0.25–1, and 1–2 mm) and five biochar application rates (wt%: 0, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 4%). Soil hydraulic and physical properties were characterized by the soil–water characteristic curve, soil porosity, soil specific surface area (SSA), and soil structural index (SI). The results showed that biochar significantly increased the soil porosity and the number of extreme micropores, micropores, and small pores. As a consequence, the saturated soil water content (θs), permanent wilting point (PWP), field capacity (FC), and available water content (AWC) were significantly enhanced. The significant improvement in SI demonstrated that biochar enhanced the soil aggregate stability, therefore, the resistance of sandy desert soil to wind erosion is enhanced. Biochar dosage was a more important factor that influenced the FC, AWC, PWP, SI, and SSA of the soil more than biochar particle size. The properties of θs, PWP, FC, AWC, and SI were all closely related to SSA, indicating that SSA played a key role in the mechanism affecting the response of the soil to biochar application. The significant increase in water retention and aggregate stability of sandy desert soil with added biochar suggests a novel strategy to control aeolian desertification by amending the soil.

Exploring untapped potential of Streptomyces spp. in Gurbantunggut Desert by use of highly selective culture strategy

Streptomycetes have been, for over 70 years, one of the most abundant sources for the discovery of new antibiotics and clinic drugs. However, in recent decades, it has been more and more difficult to obtain new phylotypes of the genus Streptomyces by using conventional samples and culture strategies. In this study, we combined culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches to better explore the Streptomyces communities in desert sandy soils. Moreover, two different culture strategies termed Conventional Culture Procedure (CCP) and Streptomycetes Culture Procedure (SCP) were employed to evaluate the isolation efficiency of Streptomyces spp. with different intensities of selectivity. The 16S rRNA gene amplicon analysis revealed a very low abundance (0.04–0.37%, average 0.22%) of Streptomyces in all the desert samples, conversely the percentage of Streptomyces spp. obtained by the culture-dependent method was very high (5.20–39.57%, average 27.76%), especially in the rhizospheric sand soils (38.40–39.57%, average 38.99%). Meanwhile, a total of 1589 pure cultures were isolated successfully, dominated by Streptomyces (29.52%), Microvirga (8.06%) and Bacillus (7.68%). In addition, 400 potential new species were obtained, 48 of which belonged to the genus Streptomyces. More importantly, our study demonstrated the SCP strategy which had highly selectivity could greatly expand the number and phylotypes of Streptomyces spp. by almost 4-fold than CCP strategy. These results provide insights on the diversity investigation of desert Streptomyces, and it could be reference for researchers to bring more novel actinobacteria strains from the environment into culture.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Storytelling in the Uncanny Valley

Storytelling, Self, Society, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2021), pp. 1–9. Copyright © 2022 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI 48201 Introduction to the Special Issue Storytelling in the Uncanny Valley Joseph Sobol and Ariel Gratch I n September 2017, the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival was held for the first time at a spectacular new site, along the serpentine footpaths of Ashton Gardens in Lehi, Utah, in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. Now indisputably the largest and most lavishly endowed storytelling festival in the United States, Timpanogos is set apart by having been founded, funded, and steered by a single private patron, the Ashton family, a major philanthropic force in central Utah. The storytelling festival is one of their signature projects. Another is Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, where a landscape tapestry of fourteen historic gardens has been overlaid and intensively irrigated atop the sandy desert soil of the Wasatch Valley. At Ashton Gardens there is a Grecian garden ranged around a plateau of primly roofless colonnades; a Roman garden complete with miniature aqueduct; a French garden with a Monet water lily motif framing a koi pond; a rose garden in the form of a monastic courtyard; a Secret Garden in the manner of Hodgson Burnett; a Garden of Gethsemane with Galilean flora and a life-sized (but discreetly vacant) timber cross; and so on. There is an amphitheater of sloping lawns that seats five thousand around a stage flanked with Jumbotron screens, and behind it a reproduction waterfall with sandstone cliffs that simulate the geology of southern Utah’s own Bryce Canyon. At the festival during the daytime the waterfall purls away in the distance, but for the evening concerts at the amphitheater the torrent is thoughtfully shut off, leaving an eerie and complex void. 2 n Introduction to the Special Issue Watching the contemporary narrative performance extravaganza play out amid this dense ecology of applied cross-cultural signifiers, all tightly bound within the soft power web of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, one can be forgiven for finding oneself lost in a kind of uncanny valley of storytelling. The uncanny valley is a term of art in robotics, animation, and artificial intelligence; it denotes the concave emotional landscape in which increasingly lifelike simulations of human and natural phenomena begin to shift the viewer’s responses from attraction and delight to unease, anxiety, and dread. Of course, it is easy enough to float through this parkland of artificial Edens with nothing but pleasure at their sumptuous surfaces and ingenuities of design. But at some level the sheer volume of water springing from the desert that this topiary magic show demands to sustain itself creates subsidence beneath the basement of the mind. Once a sinkhole opens, the landscape may never quite recapture its radiant first impressions. Storytelling during the COVID-19 pandemic era of the twenty-first century ’s third decade plunges us still deeper into the uncanny valley. In one swoop the watershed of venues that fed the contemporary storytelling profession was closed off like the cataract in Ashton Gardens’ sandstone canyon, leaving a similarly complex void. Storytellers being the resourceful performing animals that they are, the void began to be filled almost immediately with a hubbub of online voices. The contemporary storytelling movement by now represents a generational succession of movements germinating in distinct cultural domains. The festival -based storytelling movement of the 1970s and 1980s has been analyzed as a phenomenon of secondary orality (Sobol, 113–133, 150–165), a homeostatic post-hippiedom re-grounding reflex on the part of a society adrift in televisual, technologized spaces and cut off from their roots in oral/kinesthetic expression. The personal storytelling movement that exploded in the United States after the millennium expresses a very different phase in what Walter Ong called “the technologization of the Word.” Storytelling platforms like The Moth and other Story Slams were organically conceived as cross-platform events, grounded in live performance but filmed and recorded for curation into syndicated radio shows, audio podcasts, and YouTube channels. All these outlets feed back into the branding echo-system and build audiences for the live shows, becoming key elements of their media phenomenology (Sobol, 6...

Microflora of degraded desert-sandy soils in the case of Uzbekistan

This article presents the results of a study conducted by desert-sandy soils. In the studied desert-sandy soils rapid development of the studied microorganisms was observed mainly in the spring. Mushrooms, ammonificators and oligonitrophilic are sensitive in terms of optimal soil moisture, therefore increasing the number of them observed in the wet periods of the year. Actinomycetes are easier to tolerate unfavorable environmental conditions than other groups of microorganisms, therefore, their seasonal dynamics were insignificant.

Agrochemical properties of degraded desert sandy soils of Uzbekistan

This article presents the results of research conducted in desert sandy soils. The study found that the humus content in the soil was moderate in the upper layer, very low and low in the nitrate form of nitrogen, the amount of mobile phosphorus was low in the surface layer of the soil, and very low in the 1 m layer, high and very high in exchangeable potassium.

Reclaimed desert habitats favor entomopathogenic nematode and microarthropod abundance compared to ancient farmlands in the Nile Basin

Abstract Characterizing entomopathogenic nematode (EPN) biogeography with a goal of augmentation and conservation biological control requires fine-scale taxonomic resolution, because closely related EPN species can exhibit divergent phenotypes for key properties such as habitat adaptation and insect host specificity. Consequently, we employed high throughput genome sequencing (HTS) to identify and compare EPNs and natural enemies of EPNs in 58 citrus orchards in 2 ecoregions in Egypt (El Beheira and Al Qalyubia governorates). We designed improved primers targeting the ITS2 rDNA to discriminate EPN species and used pre-reported primers targeting D2-D3 region for soil microarthropods. Five EPN species (Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, H. indica, H. taysearae, Steinernema glaseri, and S. scapterisci) and one steinernematid not represented in Genbank databases were detected. This is the first report of S. scapterisci and possibly the unknown (perhaps undescribed) species in Egypt. Only heterorhabditid species, dominated by H. indica, were detected in the reclaimed, sandy desert soils of El Beheira governorate. In the fine textured, ancient farming lands of the Nile delta all six species were detected, but at lower frequency and abundance. Microarthropod family richness (P = 0.01) and abundance (P = 0.001) was higher in the reclaimed lands than in the Nile Delta. Soil clay content, pH and elevation explained significant variation in the mite community structure. Population density of H. indica, the only EPN found consistently and at high abundance in El-Beheira, was inversely related to abundance of species in the nematophagous mite family Rhodacaridae.

Agro-Morphological, Yield and Quality Traits and Interrelationship with Yield Stability in Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) Genotypes under Saline Marginal Environment.

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a halophytic crop that shows resistance to multiple abiotic stresses, including salinity. In this study we investigated the salinity tolerance mechanisms of six contrasting quinoa cultivars belonging to the coastal region of Chile using agro-physiological parameters (plant height (PH), number of branches/plant (BN), number of panicles/plant (PN), panicle length (PL), biochemical traits (leaf C%, leaf N%, grain protein contents); harvest index and yield (seed yield and plant dry biomass (PDM) under three salinity levels (0, 10, and 20 d Sm−1 NaCl). The yield stability was evaluated through comparision of seed yield characteristics [(static environmental variance (S2) and dynamic Wricke’s ecovalence (W2)]. Results showed that significant variations existed in agro-morphological and yield attributes. With increasing salinity levels, yield contributing parameters (number of panicles and panicle length) decreased. Salt stress reduced the leaf carbon and nitrogen contents. Genotypes Q21, and AMES13761 showed higher seed yield (2.30 t ha−1), more productivity and stability at various salinities as compared to the other genotypes. Salinity reduced seed yield to 44.48% and 60% at lower (10 dS m−1) and higher salinity (20 dS m−1), respectively. Grain protein content was highest in NSL106398 and lowest in Q29 when treated with saline water. Seed yield was positively correlated with PH, TB, HI, and C%. Significant and negative correlations were observed between N%, protein contents and seed yield. PH showed significant positive correlation with APL, HI, C% and C:N ratio. HI displayed positive correlations with C%, N% and protein content., All measured plant traits, except for C:N ratio, responded to salt in a genotype-specific way. Our results indicate that the genotypes (Q21 and AMES13761) proved their suitability under sandy desert soils of Dubai, UAE as they exhibited higher seed yield while NSL106398 showed an higher seed protein content. The present research highlights the need to preserve quinoa biodiversity for a better seedling establishment, survival and stable yield in the sandy desertic UAE environment.

Domestic wastewater infiltration process in desert sandy soil and its irrigation prospect analysis

Although domestic wastewater and its reclaimed water are alternative water resources in arid region, investigation of their negative effect must be done to prevent environmental pollution. In this paper, a short-term column experiment was conducted to simulate the infiltration process of wastewater in desert soil. Alfalfa was planted and irrigated with fresh water for control (CK), tertiary treated domestic wastewater (TTW), secondary treated domestic wastewater (STW) and raw domestic wastewater untreated (RW). The effect of wastewater application on desert soil, drainage and plant properties was evaluated. Experimental results demonstrated that the tested desert soil has no soil structure, organic matter, nor microbial community while possess high infiltration rate. The use of wastewater significantly improved plant growth, and the biomass of TTW, RW, STW were 5.5, 4.3, 2.9 times of CK. The infiltration rate of water in bare soil was high (high to low: TTW, CK, RW, STW), while plant growth reduced infiltration rate (ca. 40% with TTW and RW). Wastewater irrigation and plant growth decreased soil zeta potential, while increased formation of aggregates and bacterial abundance and diversity in soil. Top soil (0–30 cm) accumulation of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), organic matter and E. coli was evidenced and all could go down to deep soil and drainage with constant wastewater use. It was concluded that domestic wastewater had big potential in desert soil vegetation recovering and function restoration. Nevertheless, the N, salt, P and organic matter and E. coli in wastewater could give rise to desert soil and groundwater contamination if improper treatment was used.