scholarly journals Water balance of rice plots under three different cultivation methods: first season results

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2s) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Antonio Chiaradia ◽  
Arianna Facchi ◽  
Olfa Gharsallah ◽  
Marco Romani ◽  
Gian Battista Bischetti ◽  
...  

In the last years rice cultivation methods have been the object of an intense research activity aiming to implement new irrigation methods in addition to traditional flooding, in order to reduce water use. This change has concerned also the traditional paddy-rice territories of the north-west of Italy, where rice has been traditionally cultivated as flooded and where paddy fields are a strong landscape landmark and represent a central feature in the Italian and European network for nature protection. The new techniques introduced in these territories consist in a dry seeding followed by field flooding after about one month (third-fourth leaf), and in a full aerobic cultivation with intermittent irrigations, similarly to standard irrigated crops. This paper presents the results obtained after the first year of a monitoring activity carried out at the Ente Nazionale Risi Experimental Station of Castello d’Agogna-Mortara (PV, Italy), where the main terms of water balance have been measured or estimated during the whole crop season. Because there is a substantial lack of data concerning the water balance related to the new water management techniques, the data are of wide interest despite this study covered only one season. The results here presented show that dry seeding-delayed flooding method required a rather similar amount of water respect to the traditional flooding method (2200 mm and 2491 mm, respectively), whereas the aerobic technique required one order of magnitude less water (298 mm), also due to the very shallow depth of the surface aquifer. Since evapotranspiration was nearly the same for the three methods (578 mm, 555 mm, and 464 mm, respectively for traditional flooded, dry seeding-delayed flooding and aerobic methods), percolation was very high in the case of the two flooded methods and very limited in the case of the aerobic cultivation with intermittent irrigations. These results suggest that, if the aerobic cultivation of rice represents a highly effective water-saving technique at the field scale, at the same time if applied on a large scale in traditional paddy areas, as the north-west of Italy, it could be a potential threat for groundwater dynamics, due to the dramatic decrease of groundwater recharge, and in general for traditional landscape conservation and nature protection.

Author(s):  
Ivan V. ZYKIN

During the years of Soviet power, principal changes took place in the country’s wood industry, including in spatial layout development. Having the large-scale crisis in the industry in the late 1980s — 2000s and the positive changes in its functioning in recent years and the development of an industry strategy, it becomes relevant to analyze the experience of planning the spatial layout of the wood industry during the period of Stalin’s modernization, particularly during the first five-year plan. The aim of the article is to analyze the reason behind spatial layout of the Soviet wood industry during the implementation of the first five-year plan. The study is based on the modernization concept. In our research we conducted mapping of the wood industry by region as well as of planned construction of the industry facilities. It was revealed that the discussion and development of an industrialization project by the Soviet Union party-state and planning agencies in the second half of the 1920s led to increased attention to the wood industry. The sector, which enterprises were concentrated mainly in the north-west, west and central regions of the country, was set the task of increasing the volume of harvesting, export of wood and production to meet the domestic needs and the export needs of wood resources and materials. Due to weak level of development of the wood industry, the scale of these tasks required restructuring of the branch, its inclusion to the centralized economic system, the direction of large capital investments to the development of new forest areas and the construction of enterprises. It was concluded that according to the first five-year plan, the priority principles for the spatial development of the wood industry were the approach of production to forests and seaports, intrasectoral and intersectoral combining. The framework of the industry was meant to strengthen and expand by including forests to the economic turnover and building new enterprises in the European North and the Urals, where the main capital investments were sent, as well as in the Vyatka region, Transcaucasia, Siberia and the Far East.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad Riley

This paper examines renewable energy developments on Aboriginal lands in North-West Western Australia at three scales. It first examines the literature developing in relation to large scale renewable energy projects and the Native Title Act (1993)Cwlth. It then looks to the history of small community scale standalone systems. Finally, it examines locally adapted approaches to benefit sharing in remote utility owned networks. In doing so this paper foregrounds the importance of Aboriginal agency. It identifies Aboriginal decision making and economic inclusion as being key to policy and project development in the 'scaling up' of a transition to renewable energy resources in the North-West.


Water SA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1 January) ◽  
Author(s):  
JE Cobbing

The Grootfontein Aquifer, part of the important North West dolomite aquifers, supplies about 20% of Mahikeng’s domestic water needs. Over-abstraction caused the large natural spring draining the aquifer to disappear in 1981, and groundwater levels have since fallen nearly 30 m in the vicinity of the former spring. Analysis of water levels and a water balance using recent assessments of groundwater abstractions confirm past work describing the hydrogeological functioning of the aquifer, and suggest that current abstractions need to fall by between 19 and 36 ML/day (7 and 13 Mm3/a) to bring the aquifer back into longterm balance. Continued over-abstraction at Grootfontein implies increasing risk to Mahikeng’s water supply, and illuminates the larger challenge of ensuring groundwater use in the North West dolomites that is sustainable and in the public interest.


2019 ◽  
Vol 629 ◽  
pp. A102 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Duarte Puertas ◽  
J. Iglesias-Páramo ◽  
J. M. Vilchez ◽  
L. Drissen ◽  
C. Kehrig ◽  
...  

Stephan’s Quintet (SQ), the prototypical compact group of galaxies in the local Universe, has been observed with the imaging Fourier transform spectrometer SITELLE, attached to the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope, to perform a deep search for intergalactic star-forming emission. In this paper we present the extended ionised gaseous structures detected and analyse their kinematical properties. The large field of view (11′ × 11′) and the spectral ranges of SITELLE have allowed a thorough study of the entire galaxy system, its interaction history and the main properties of the ionised gas. The observations have revealed complex three-dimensional strands in SQ seen for the first time, as well as the spatially resolved velocity field for a new SQ dwarf galaxy (M 82-like) and the detailed spectral map of NGC 7320c, confirming its AGN nature. A total of 175 SQ Hα emission regions have been found, 22 of which present line profiles with at least two kinematical components. We studied 12 zones and 28 sub-zones in the SQ system in order to define plausible physical spatial connections between its different parts in the light of the kinematical information gathered. In this respect we have found five velocity systems in SQ: (i) v = [5600−5900] km s−1 associated with the new intruder and the southern debris region; (ii) v = [5900−6100] km s−1, associated with the north starburst A and south starburst A and the strands connected to these zones; (iii) v = [6100−6600] km s−1, associated with the strands from the large-scale shock region (LSSR); (iv) v = [6600−6800] km s−1, associated with the young tidal tail, the starburst A (SQA), NGC 7319, and the NGC 7319 north lobe; and (v) v = [6800−7000] km s−1, associated with the strands seen connecting LSSR with SQA. We fail to detect ionised gas emission in the old tail, neither in the vicinity of NGC 7318A nor in NGC 7317, and the connection between NGC 7319 north lobe and SQA cannot be confirmed. Conversely, a clear gaseous bridge has been confirmed both spatially and kinematically between the LSSR zone and the NGC 7319 AGN nucleus. Finally, a larger scale, outer rim winding the NGC 7318B/A system clockwise north-west to south-east has been highlighted in continuum and in Hα. This structure may be reminiscent of a sequence of a previously proposed scenario for SQ a sequence of individual interactions.


1969 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Preston

If anyone could be claimed the father of the school for the scientific study of Indian defence policy it would undoubtedly be Sir Charles Metcalfe MacGregor. With the re-opening of the Central Asian Question in the early 1860s, it became MacGregor's mission in life completely to recast the Indian defence structure and it counter-insurrectionary role to enable it to undertake large-scale offensive operations against a major European military power. Almost single-handedly, he began to create the machinery within the Indian Army establishment—the special departments, professional institutes, journals and literature—to stimulate a greater awareness of the special and peculiar nature of Indian defence problems that this new role involved, and to encourage an iconoclastic re-examination of prevailing defence assumptions. From MacGregor's groundwork there was logically bound to arise a sense of Indian Army professionalism separate and distinct from that of Great Britain, and the beginnings of the belief that obligations of national defence are inseparable from nationhood. It was MacGregor who first appreciated on the basis of systematic and scientific study that India constituted a vast manpower reservoir, greater than that of Ireland and Egypt together, upon which Britain relied for the prosecution of her imperial, military and foreign policies in the East; that the North-West Frontier presented the only strategic boundary that Britain had to defend; and that the geo-strategic and demographic facts of her existence had made India potentially a great military power bound to adopt a ‵Continental′ military policy and defence structure in many respects parallel to those of the major European military powers.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. de Figueiredo

IntroductionThere is evidence of decreasing uptake of routine immunisations in the UK in recent years. As the United Kingdom begins a mass vaccination campaign with a novel COVID-19 vaccine, it is unclear whether refusal of the vaccine in some regions and among some socio-economic groups will pose challenges for achieving herd/community immunity against SARS-CoV-2.MethodsThis study estimates uptake of a COVID-19 at unprecedented spatial resolution across the UK using a large-scale survey and state-of-the-art Bayesian statistical methods for estimating public opinion. Between 24 September and 14 October 2020, 17,684 individuals are surveyed in a cross-sectional online survey design. Regions and socio-economic groups who may be more resistant towards a new vaccine are identified using multilevel regression and poststratification. Gibbs sampling is used for Bayesian model inference, with uncertainty in parameter estimates captured via 95% highest posterior density intervals.FindingsThis study predicts that clusters of non-vaccinators will likely emerge in many regions across the UK, most notably in London (which has 13 of the 20 lowest ranking regions) and the North West (which has four, including Greater Manchester and Liverpool). Males are much more likely to state intent to accept the vaccine than females (OR 1·59, 1·47 to 1·73); while Muslims are less likely than atheists / agnostics (0·75, 0·57 to 0·96), Black / Black British are less likely than Whites (0·47, 0·38 to 0·60), and Polish speakers (0·45, 0·31 to 0·63) are less likely than those who primarily speak English or Welsh. Across the UK, 8·7% (8·2 to 9·2%) state that they would “definitely not” accept a vaccine, but less than half (47·5%, 46·5 to 48·5%) say they would “definitely” accept a COVID-19 vaccine, with a substantial proportion unsure.InterpretationThe study findings are extremely important in the context of achieving herd/community immunity. Low predicted acceptance rates in parts of London and the North West are of particular concern as many of these regions have among the highest rates of COVID-19 infection across the UK: low vaccine uptake in these regions may result in disease “hotspots” that amplify the spread of the disease and require increases in vaccination levels in adjacent regions to provide nationwide herd/community immunity. It is therefore extremely important to identify such regions, and to engage with communities within them in advance of vaccination rollout to the population at large. Encouragingly, intent to accept a COVID-19 vaccine is higher among older age-groups, who are among the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.Declaration of InterestsThe Author is involved in Vaccine Confidence Project collaborative grants with GlaxoSmithKline outside the submitted work.FundingThis project was funded by the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Fund.Ethical ApprovalApproval for this study was obtained via the Imperial College Research Ethics Committee on 24 July 2020 with reference 20IC6133.


2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Geoff Humphreys

Australian hydrocarbon production reached record levels in 2009 due to strong growth in production of LNG from the North West Shelf Venture. Domestic gas production also reached record levels. Coal seam gas production continued to grow, with the continuing development of existing fields and the development of the Kenya and Talinga projects in Queensland. Two new conventional gas projects also came into production: Blacktip in the Timor Sea and Longtom in the Gippsland Basin. However oil production was below that in the previous year, reflecting natural field decline and the absence of large scale projects reaching production. The project sanction highlight of the year was the final investment decision on the $43 billion Gorgon LNG project. This project will comprise three LNG trains with total capacity of 15 million tonnes per annum plus a domestic gas plant. The first gas from this project is planned for 2014. Eight other potential LNG projects are in various stages of front end engineering and design, most targeting final investment decisions in 2010 or 2011. The pipeline of committed and potential LNG projects has a combined value estimated to be well over $100 billion. These projects have the potential to significantly increase Australian LNG production over the next five to ten years. In the near term the start-up of the Van Gogh, Pyrenees and Turrum oil projects are expected to provide some respite from the decline in Australian oil production. Cost estimates for new projects are again escalating and skills shortages in all parts of the project delivery chain threaten the ability to deliver all of the projects under consideration.


Author(s):  
Christopher P. Lynam ◽  
Stephen J. Hay ◽  
Andrew S. Brierley

Jellyfish medusae prey on zooplankton and may impact fish recruitment both directly (top-down control) and indirectly (through competition). Abundances of Aurelia aurita, Cyanea lamarckii and Cyanea capillata medusae (Scyphozoa) in the North Sea appear to be linked to large-scale inter-annual climatic change, as quantified by the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI), the Barents Sea-Ice Index (BSII) and changes in the latitude of the Gulf Stream North Wall (GSNW). Hydroclimatic forcing may thus be an important factor influencing the abundance of gelatinous zooplankton and may modulate the scale of any ecosystem impact of jellyfish. The population responses are probably also affected by local variability in the environment manifested in intra-annual changes in temperature, salinity, current strength/direction and prey abundance. Aurelia aurita and C. lamarckii in the north-west and south-east North Sea exhibited contrasting relationships to change in the NAOI and BSII: north of Scotland, where the North Sea borders the Atlantic, positive relationships were evident between the abundance of scyphomedusae (data from 1974 to 1986, except 1975) and the indices; whereas west of northern Denmark, a region much less affected by Atlantic inflow, negative relationships were found (data from 1973 to 1983, except 1974). Weaker negative relationships with the NAOI were also found in an intermediate region, east of Scotland, for the abundance of A. aurita and C. capillata medusae (1971 to 1982). East of Shetland, the abundance of jellyfish was not correlated directly with the NAOI but, in contrast to all other regions, the abundances of A. aurita and C. lamarckii (1971 to 1986, not 1984) were found to correlate negatively with changes in the GSNW, which itself was significantly positively correlated to the NAOI with a two year lag. On this evidence, we suggest that, for jellyfish, there exist three regions of the North Sea with distinct environmental processes governing species abundance: one north of Scotland, another east of Shetland, and a more southerly group (i.e. east of Scotland and west of northern Denmark). Impacts by jellyfish are likely to vary regionally, and ecosystem management may benefit from considering this spatial variability.


Author(s):  
John B. Tait

SynopsisThe Faroe-Shetland Channel is the threshold from the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean to north-west European seas. Through it passes the main bulk of the oceanic water-mass which is the predominant influx, among several other water-masses, to these seas.The following research into the dynamics and general hydrography of the region is based on numerous observations of temperature and salinity, from surface to bottom, taken mainly on two vertical cross-sections of the Channel between the years 1927 and 1952 inclusive, excepting the war years 1940 to 1945.The research reveals very large scale seasonal and long-term variations in the northeastward volume-transport of oceanic water, suggests the existence on occasions of what appear to be horizontal tortional currents within the oceanic water-mass, and demonstrates (a) the intrusion of Gulf of Gibraltar (extra-Mediterranean) water into this mass over a period of years, (b) the formation of heavy oceanic water and (c) of a sub-oceanic watermass. The last-mentioned may sometimes almost entirely displace the bottom Norwegian Sea water-mass which normally underlies the oceanic mass.One or other, or both, of two types of Arctic water may also sometimes displace bottom Norwegian Sea water as the bottom water-mass of the region, the process, like that of the above-mentioned Gulf of Gibraltar water influx, waxing and waning over a term of years and thus exemplifying the phenomenon of marine climatic change.


Ocean Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Lucia Pineau-Guillou ◽  
Pascal Lazure ◽  
Guy Wöppelmann

Abstract. We investigated the long-term changes of the principal tidal component M2 along North Atlantic coasts, from 1846 to 2018. We analysed 18 tide gauges with time series starting no later than 1940. The longest is Brest with 165 years of observations. We carefully processed the data, particularly to remove the 18.6-year nodal modulation. We found that M2 variations are consistent at all the stations in the North-East Atlantic (Cuxhaven, Delfzijl, Hoek van Holland, Newlyn, Brest), whereas some discrepancies appear in the North-West Atlantic. The changes started long before the 20th century and are not linear. The secular trends in M2 amplitude vary from one station to another; most of them are positive, up to 2.5 mm/yr at Wilmington since 1910. Since 1990, the trends switch from positive to negative values in the North-East Atlantic. Concerning the possible causes of the observed changes, the similarity between the North Atlantic Oscillation and M2 variations in the North-East Atlantic suggests a possible influence of the large-scale atmospheric circulation on the tide. Our statistical analysis confirms large correlations at all the stations in the North-East Atlantic. We discuss a possible underlying mechanism. A different spatial distribution of mean sea level (corresponding to water depth) from one year to another, depending on the low-frequency sea-level pressure patterns, could impact the propagation of the tide in the North Atlantic basin. However, the hypothesis is at present unproven.


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