scholarly journals Integrating forest-pasture: Spatial analysis and delineation of zones of litter production and nutrient return

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6Supl2) ◽  
pp. 4377
Author(s):  
Sabino Pereira da Silva Neto ◽  
Antonio Clementino dos Santos ◽  
Raimundo Laerton de Lima Leite ◽  
José Expedito Cavalcante da Silva ◽  
Durval Nolasco Neves Neto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Litter Production ◽  
Nutrient Accumulation ◽  
Nutrient Return ◽  
Forest Strata ◽  
Equidistant Points

This study aimed to quantify, describe, and identify plant litter production and nutrient accumulation zones in different forest-pasture integration (FPI) systems and forest strata of the Cerrado-Amazon transition on typical orthic Quartzarenic Neosol using spatial analysis, principal component analysis, and non-hierarchical fuzzy k-mean clustering logic techniques. The evaluations were performed at two FPI systems comprising a combination of Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu and thinned native vegetation with 50 and 75% (FPI-I and FPI-II, respectively) shade in an original thinned forest (NFI) and in an original intact forest (NF-II) with 80 and 95% shade, respectively. An area of 4,000 m² (40 x 100 m) that contained 32 sampling points arranged in a 4 x 25 m grid was demarcated for each treatment. Plant litter was collected using 32 collectors installed at equidistant points. Twelve nylon bags were placed on the soil surface at each point to evaluate the plant litter decomposition, totaling 384 bags per treatment. It was possible to quantify, describe, and define plant litter production and nutrient accumulation zones in different FPI systems and forest strata of the Cerrado-Amazon transition on orthic Quartzarenic Neosol using geostatistical analysis, principal components, and non-hierarchical fuzzy k-mean clustering logic procedures.

scholarly journals Integrating forest-pasture: Spatial analysis and delineation of zones of litter production and nutrient return

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6Supl2) ◽  
pp. 4377
Author(s):  
Sabino Pereira da Silva Neto ◽  
Antonio Clementino dos Santos ◽  
Raimundo Laerton de Lima Leite ◽  
José Expedito Cavalcante da Silva ◽  
Durval Nolasco Neves Neto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Litter Production ◽  
Nutrient Accumulation ◽  
Nutrient Return ◽  
Forest Strata ◽  
Equidistant Points

<p>This study aimed to quantify, describe, and identify plant litter production and nutrient accumulation zones in different forest-pasture integration (FPI) systems and forest strata of the Cerrado-Amazon transition on typical orthic Quartzarenic Neosol using spatial analysis, principal component analysis, and non-hierarchical fuzzy k-mean clustering logic techniques. The evaluations were performed at two FPI systems comprising a combination of <em>Brachiaria brizantha </em>cv. Marandu and thinned native vegetation with 50 and 75% (FPI-I and FPI-II, respectively) shade in an original thinned forest (NFI) and in an original intact forest (NF-II) with 80 and 95% shade, respectively. An area of 4,000 m² (40 x 100 m) that contained 32 sampling points arranged in a 4 x 25 m grid was demarcated for each treatment. Plant litter was collected using 32 collectors installed at equidistant points. Twelve nylon bags were placed on the soil surface at each point to evaluate the plant litter decomposition, totaling 384 bags per treatment. It was possible to quantify, describe, and define plant litter production and nutrient accumulation zones in different FPI systems and forest strata of the Cerrado-Amazon transition on orthic Quartzarenic Neosol using geostatistical analysis, principal components, and non-hierarchical fuzzy k-mean clustering logic procedures.</p>

scholarly journals Aerial Mapping of Odorous Gases in a Wastewater Treatment Plant Using a Small Drone

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1757
Author(s):  
Javier Burgués ◽  
María Deseada Esclapez ◽  
Silvia Doñate ◽  
Laura Pastor ◽  
Santiago Marco
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Hazardous Air Pollutants ◽  
Sampling System ◽  
Aerial Mapping ◽  
Sensor Signals ◽  
Current Monitoring ◽  
Flexible Tubes

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are sources of greenhouse gases, hazardous air pollutants and offensive odors. These emissions can have negative repercussions in and around the plant, degrading the quality of life of surrounding neighborhoods, damaging the environment, and reducing employee’s overall job satisfaction. Current monitoring methodologies based on fixed gas detectors and sporadic olfactometric measurements (human panels) do not allow for an accurate spatial representation of such emissions. In this paper we use a small drone equipped with an array of electrochemical and metal oxide (MOX) sensors for mapping odorous gases in a mid-sized WWTP. An innovative sampling system based on two (10 m long) flexible tubes hanging from the drone allowed near-source sampling from a safe distance with negligible influence from the downwash of the drone’s propellers. The proposed platform is very convenient for monitoring hard-to-reach emission sources, such as the plant’s deodorization chimney, which turned out to be responsible for the strongest odor emissions. The geo-localized measurements visualized in the form of a two-dimensional (2D) gas concentration map revealed the main emission hotspots where abatement solutions were needed. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the multivariate sensor signals suggests that the proposed system can also be used to trace which emission source is responsible for a certain measurement.

Application of multivariable statistical techniques in plant-wide WWTP control strategies analysis

2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 75-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Flores ◽  
J. Comas ◽  
I.R. Roda ◽  
L. Jiménez ◽  
K.V. Gernaey
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Casual Relation ◽  
Evaluation Matrix ◽  
Natural Groups

The main objective of this paper is to present the application of selected multivariable statistical techniques in plant-wide wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) control strategies analysis. In this study, cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis/factor analysis (PCA/FA) and discriminant analysis (DA) are applied to the evaluation matrix data set obtained by simulation of several control strategies applied to the plant-wide IWA Benchmark Simulation Model No 2 (BSM2). These techniques allow i) to determine natural groups or clusters of control strategies with a similar behaviour, ii) to find and interpret hidden, complex and casual relation features in the data set and iii) to identify important discriminant variables within the groups found by the cluster analysis. This study illustrates the usefulness of multivariable statistical techniques for both analysis and interpretation of the complex multicriteria data sets and allows an improved use of information for effective evaluation of control strategies.

scholarly journals The role of hydrological transience in peatland pattern formation

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Morris ◽  
A. J. Baird ◽  
L. R. Belyea
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Litter Production ◽  
Landscape Models ◽  
Water Tables

Abstract. The sloping flanks of peatlands are commonly patterned with non-random, contour-parallel stripes of distinct micro-habitats such as hummocks, lawns and hollows. Patterning seems to be governed by feedbacks among peatland hydrological processes, plant micro-succession, plant litter production and peat decomposition. An improved understanding of peatland patterning may provide important insights into broader aspects of the long-term development of peatlands and their likely response to future climate change. We recreated a cellular simulation model from the literature, as well as three subtle variants of the model, to explore the controls on peatland patterning. Our models each consist of three submodels, which simulate: peatland water tables in a gridded landscape, micro-habitat dynamics in response to water-table depths, and changes in peat hydraulic properties. We found that the strength and nature of simulated patterning was highly dependent on the degree to which water tables had reached a steady state in response to hydrological inputs. Contrary to previous studies, we found that under a true steady state the models predict largely unpatterned landscapes that cycle rapidly between contrasting dry and wet states, dominated by hummocks and hollows, respectively. Realistic patterning only developed when simulated water tables were still transient. Literal interpretation of the degree of hydrological transience required for patterning suggests that the model should be discarded; however, the transient water tables appear to have inadvertently replicated an ecological memory effect that may be important to peatland patterning. Recently buried peat layers may remain hydrologically active despite no longer reflecting current vegetation patterns, thereby highlighting the potential importance of three-dimensional structural complexity in peatlands to understanding the two-dimensional surface-patterning phenomenon. The models were highly sensitive to the assumed values of peat hydraulic properties, which we take to indicate that the models are missing an important negative feedback between peat decomposition and changes in peat hydraulic properties. Understanding peatland patterning likely requires the unification of cellular landscape models such as ours with cohort-based models of long-term peatland development.

scholarly journals Contributions of organic matter and nutrients via leaf litter in an urban tropical dry forest fragment

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeiner Castellanos-Barliza ◽  
Juan Diego León-Peláez ◽  
Rosalba Armenta-Martínez ◽  
Willinton Barranco-Pérez ◽  
William Caicedo-Ruíz
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Tropical Dry Forest ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Litter Production ◽  
Forest Fragment ◽  
Litter Bags ◽  
One Year ◽  
Degraded Ecosystems

The litterfall and decomposition represent the main transfer of organic matter and nutrients from the vegetation to the soil surface and determine positive trajectories in the process of rehabilitating and restoring degraded ecosystems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contributions of organic materials and nutrients through the characterization of fine litter in an urban dry forest fragment. Litter production was monitored for one year by collecting 29 traps (0.5 m2). To evaluate leaf nutrient resorption, green leaves were collected from 5-10 individuals that represented the dominant tree species. Litter-bags (20 x 20 cm, 2 mm pore) were used for six months to evaluate the decomposition of leaf litter. Annual fine litter production was found to be 8 574 kg ha-1, with the Cordia alba species contributing the most leaf litter (1 134 kg ha-1) and nutrients (N: 6.16; P: 0.21; Ca: 4.72; Mg: 0.47; K: 1.27 kg ha-1). Decomposition rates (k constant) followed the decreasing order: C. alba (k: 4.6) > Machaerium milleflorum (k: 3.5). M. milleflorum and Albizia niopoides presented a pattern of rapid N and P release in the first 30 days, with more than 80 % and 60 % released from M. milleflorum and C. alba, respectively, by the end of the experiment. The litterfall monitoring carried out in this urban dry forest fragment revealed some important aspects of the functioning of an ecosystem as seriously threatened as the tropical dry forest. Rev. Biol. Trop. 66(2): 571-585. Epub 2018 June 01. 

New approach for data evaluation of industrial wastewater treatment plant: methodology and case study for a coke and steel-processing plant

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 2897-2903
Author(s):  
Christian Drakides ◽  
Meiling Lay-Son
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Industrial Effluents ◽  
Toxic Effects ◽  
Processing Plant ◽  
Complex Situation ◽  
Haldane Model ◽  
Steel Processing

Environmental monitoring of biological wastewater treatment plants (BWWTP) treating industrial effluents produces large amount of data. Frequent sampling is done in the influent and effluent but also in intermediate points. Samples are analyzed for classical and specific contaminants and physical-chemical parameters are monitored. In this paper data from a BWWTP treating the effluents of a coke and steel-processing factory are analyzed. Due to a complex situation, this BWWTP gave poor performances that did not match environmental regulations, meanwhile upgrading proved to be uneasy. Data analysis using principal component analyses (PCA) or kinetic modeling with a Haldane model was unsuccessful in handling these data, which was attributed to undetermined toxic effects. A new methodology is reported, that allowed to identify a kinetics for thiocyanate degradation and a relation between pH and toxic effects. This analysis of the plant data allowed to make hypothesis on the process control parameters and to recommend management modifications, allowing a further increase of the performances.

Rate of recycling of sulfur from urine, feces and litter applied to the soil surface

Soil Research ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 543 ◽  
Author(s):  
GJ Blair ◽  
AR Till ◽  
C Boswell
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Test Plant ◽  
Soil P ◽  
S Uptake ◽  
Organic Matter Pool ◽  
Preferential Uptake ◽  
Soil Organic Matter Pool

The recycling of S from plant litter, dung and urine is an important process for supplying S for pastures. A pot experiment was conducted where 35S-labelled litter (25% white clover/38% ryegrass/21% weed) and S-35-labelled urine and faeces collected from sheep fed the same herbage as was used as litter was surface applied to pots and the fate of the applied S was followed for 100 days with ryegrass as the test plant. In camp soil, 45% of the S applied in urine was taken up by ryegrass plants within 12 days of application. In non-camp soil, the uptake of urine-S was about 20% over the same period. Cumulative uptake of 35S from urine in camp soil was subsequently restricted, with a maximum of 60% eventually measured in plants after 100 days. Mean rates of release of S (0-37 days) from litter and faeces was respectively 16.2 and 4.5 mg g-1 day-1. The calculated half-times from S in the two materials were respectively 43 and 154 days under controlled environmental conditions with adequate moisture. Litter S followed organic matter (OM) decomposition, but faecal S release was initially more rapid than faecal OM decomposition. There was little S release from faeces after day 25. Rather, S was immobilized in faeces during the 25-100 day period. The decomposition of litter and faeces was divided into an initial rapid process during which soluble S and more labile S was released, followed by a slower process involving the release of S from tissues more resistant to mineralization. The uptake of 35S from labelled materials was initially more rapid than would be expected for total S released from the added litter and faeces and the 35Suptake effect was short-lived relative to the continued effect of added material on total S uptake. The preferential uptake of 35S from the surface-applied material appears to be due to limited root development at the early stages of the experiment. Movement of 35S into the soil organic matter pool was very rapid; 58.4% of urine S was in the soil organic matter fraction in the non-camp soil by day 6. The amount of applied S in the organic matter equilibrated at about day 75. The accumulation of applied S from the materials added was greater than that recorded in previously reported studies for inorganic sulfate (e.g. about 50%). Soil P and S status had little effect on rates of release of S. from the applied materials, however, the effect of the camp and non-camp soil on total S recycling was markedly different as a result of the different amounts of plant growth and thus S uptake in the two soils. The decomposition of litter indicated peak rates of S release at two specific times over the 100 days and indicated successional changes in micro-organism activity. With faeces, the experiment was not continued for sufficiently long to show micro-organism effects.

scholarly journals Groundwater Quality Assessment: An Improved Approach to K-Means Clustering, Principal Component Analysis and Spatial Analysis: A Case Study

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Marín Celestino ◽  
Diego Martínez Cruz ◽  
Elena Otazo Sánchez ◽  
Francisco Gavi Reyes ◽  
David Vásquez Soto
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Groundwater Quality ◽  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Component Analysis ◽  
Groundwater Quality Assessment

scholarly journals Erosion Control in the Sustainable Cultivation of Maize (Zea mays L.) and Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) at Two Stages of the Agricultural Cycle in Southern Guatemala

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4654
Author(s):  
Rafael Blanco Sepúlveda ◽  
Francisco Enríquez Narváez
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
Erosion Control ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Tillage Practices ◽  
Erosion Threshold ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Vegetal Cover

Agricultural intensification in the mountains of Central America has increased soil vulnerability to erosion by water. This study was undertaken to analyse the erosion that affects the mixed cultivation of maize and beans at two stages of the crop development cycle (at 3 and 6 months after sowing) in southern Guatemala, together with the influence of the ground and crop canopy vegetal cover on soil erosion. The main aim of this analysis is to establish the soil erosion threshold enabling sustainable agriculture. The results obtained show that the soil surface was severely eroded, with mean values of area affected of 88.4% and 73.5% at 3 and 6 months, respectively. In the 3-month plots, the erosion bore scant relation to the factors analysed. Conversely, the area affected by soil erosion in the 6-month plots was significantly related to the degree of ground cover by weeds and litter, and the erosion threshold was located at 80% of vegetal cover. However, plots with this level of cover did not achieve effective erosion control, due to the low level of plant litter cover (15.7%) compared to that of weeds (75.5%). We conclude that this low content of vegetal residue in the soil, together with the tillage practices employed, explains the large surface area affected by erosion and the impossibility of establishing an erosion threshold.

Soil factors that influence the fruiting of Tuber melanosporum (black truffle)

Soil Research ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 731 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. G. García-Montero ◽  
M. A. Casermeiro ◽  
J. Hernando ◽  
I. Hernando
Keyword(s):  
Ammonium Oxalate ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Tuber Melanosporum ◽  
Black Truffle ◽  
Truffle Cultivation ◽  
Soil Features ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Collective Influence

Although soil is one of the factors in the biology of Tuber melanosporum (black truffle of Périgord), which has been the subject of much study, there are few quantitative analyses relating to its effects on carpophore production. The aim of this work is to establish the statistical relationship between T. melanosporum productivity in 20 soil surface horizons and their conventional soil properties (granulometric texture, pH, calcareous fractions, organic carbon, total nitrogen, exchangeable cations). The study area is situated in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula under a Mediterranean climate. Statistical analysis shows that the collective influence of these conventional soil features is low, as principal component analysis explains only 27% of the variance in T. melanosporum production. However, a high percentage of active limestone (calcium carbonate extractable with ammonium oxalate) accounts for 40% of the variance in T. melanosporum production. Active limestone is very important to T. melanosporum because it regulates soil pH and exchangeable Ca2+ availability and participates in the organisation and maintenance of the soil structure; it also plays a role in the truffle’s nutrition. These results obtained for active limestone may be of use in truffle cultivation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document