Time-Of-Flight monitoring reveals higher sediment redistribution rates related to burrowing animals than previously assumed

Burrowing animals influence surface microtopography and hillslope sediment redistribution, but changes often remain undetected due to a lack of autonomous high resolution field monitoring techniques. In this study we present a new approach to quantify microtopographic variations and surface changes caused by burrowing animals and rainfall-driven erosional processes applied to remote field plots in arid and mediterranean Chile. We compared the mass balance of redistributed sediment within plot areas affected and not affected by burrowing animals, quantified the cumulative sediment redistribution caused by animals and rainfall, and upscaled the results to the hillslope scale. The new instrument showed a very good detection accuracy. The cumulative sediment redistribution within areas affected by burrowing animals was higher (−10.44 cm3 cm−2 year−1) in the mediterranean than the arid climate zone ( −1.41 cm3 cm−2 year−1). Daily sediment redistribution during rainfall within areas affected by burrowing animals were up to 350 % / 40 % higher in the mediterranean / arid zone compared to the unaffected areas, and much higher than previously reported in studies not based on continuous microtopographic monitoring. Furthermore, 38 % of the sediment eroding from the burrows accumulated within the burrow entrance while 62 % was incorporated into overall hillslope sediment flux. The cumulative sediment excavation by the animals was 14.62 cm3 cm−2 year−1 in the mediterranean and 16.41 cm3 cm−2 year−1 in the arid climate zone. Our findings can be implemented into long-term soil erosion models that rely on soil processes but do not yet include animal-induced surface processes on microtopographical scales in their algorithms.

ANALYSIS OF GREEN CAMPUS POTENTIAL IN PARTS OF ARID ZONE USING HYDRO-LANDSCAPE TECHNIQUE

India is a massive country with wide range of climatic condition in terms of rainfall, temperature, depth of ground water level, soil cover etc. These variations may affect the ground cover such as in Tropical and sub-tropical zone - the scarcity of rainfall and the micro-climate becomes conducive for the growth of vegetation where as in arid zone such as Gujarat and Rajasthan- the soil and water are not very favorable, as a consequence scarcity of vegetation. The current view on climatic analysis of India clearly indicates that the development of Green Campus in arid climate zone will be a challenging issue especially in the field of landscape architecture. The basic issues related to arid climate is depletion in the depth of ground water level condition by virtue of which the vegetation in general is decreasing. In this way, the hydro-landscape technique will be useful for Green Campus development in part of arid zone with selective areas conducive to develop of soil moisture content. The present study is with the application of hydro-landscape technique to develop the green campus in arid climate in order to establish the area with conducive environment.

Indoor Thermal Assessment of Medium-Cost House in Arid Climate

An environmental responsive design of building internal spaces is important criteria and should be taken into account in the pre-design stage of the residential buildings. This study aims to analyze the existing spatial spaces of a residential building in terms of thermal performance in a dry desert climate area. Temperature data loggers were utilized in the duplex house. Results indicate that wall exposure, window size, floor level and orientation play are the key to designing a friendly environment of internal spaces. The neighbourhood fabric has an important role in terms of shadows and time of direct exposure to radiation. Keywords: Indoor house, Arid climate, Air temperature, spatial design eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6i18.3076

Competition of Plants and Microorganisms for Added Nitrogen in Different Fertilizer Forms in a Semi-Arid Climate

In nitrogen (N) -limited agricultural systems, a high microbial immobilization of applied fertilizer-N can limit its availability to plants. However, there is scarce information on the effect of the form of fertilizer used on the plant–microorganism competition in clay-rich soils under a severe semi-arid climate. In a field study, we investigated the wheat–microorganism competition after the direct application of NH415NO3 closely to seeds in arable fields in North Kazakhstan, documenting the effect of the use of liquid versus granular fertilizer and mini-tillage versus no-tillage. Our results barely showed any fertilizer-N translocation in the soil. Plants outcompete microorganisms for fertilizer-N during the vegetation period. Microbial-to-plant 15N ratios revealed a predominant fertilizer-15N uptake by plants. The strong competition for N was mainly related to the placement of the fertilizer close to the seeds. Moreover, the long time interval between fertilization and sampling enhanced the competition for N, meaning that previously microbially immobilized N became available to plants through the death of microorganisms and their subsequent mineralization. The fertilizer distribution between microorganisms and plants did depend on the form of fertilizer used, owing to the good solubility of granular fertilizer. The smaller fertilizer-N uptake under the no-tilling condition was probably due to the more intense soil compaction, which caused a reduction in plant growth. The application of fertilizer close to the seeds and the small fertilizer translocation during the vegetation period ultimately resulted in a high level of plant-N being derived from the fertilizer.

Future climate change scenario in hot semi-arid climate of Saurashtra, Gujarat by using statistical downscaling by LARS-WG model

Climate change is considered to be the greatest challenge faced by mankind in the twenty first century which can lead to severe impacts on different major sectors of the world such as water resources, agriculture, energy and tourism and are likely to alter trends and timing of precipitation and other weather drivers. Analyses and prediction of change in critical climatic variables like rainfall and temperature are, therefore, extremely important. Keeping this in mind, this study aims to verify the skills of LARS-WG (Long Ashton Research - Weather Generator), a statistical downscaling model, in simulating weather data in hot semi-arid climate of Saurashtra and analyze the future changes of temperature (maximum and minimum) and precipitation downscaled by LARS-WG based on IPCC SRA2 scenario generated by seven GCMs' projections for the near (2011-2030), medium (2046-2065) and far (2080-2099) future periods. Rajkot (22.3° N, 70.78° E) observatory of IMD, representing hot semi-arid climate of Saurashtra, Gujarat state was chosen for this purpose. Daily rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature data for the period of 1969-2013 have been utilized. LARS-WG is found to show reasonably good skill in downscaling daily rainfall and excellent skill in downscaling maximum and minimum temperature. The downscaled rainfall indicated no coherent change trends among various GCMs’ projections of rainfall during near, medium and far future periods. Contrary to rainfall projections, simulations from the seven GCMs have coherent results for both the maximum and minimum temperatures. Based on the ensemble mean of seven GCMs, projected rainfall at Rajkot in monsoon season (JJAS) showed an increase in near future, i.e., 2011-2030, medium future (2046-2065) and far future (2080-2099) periods to the tune of 2, 11 and 14% respectively compared to the baseline value. Model studies indicating tropospheric warming leading to enhancement of atmospheric moisture content could be the reason for this increasing trend. Further, at the study site summer (MAM) maximum temperature is projected to increase by 0.5, 1.7 and 3.3°C during 2011-2030, 2046-2065 and 2080-2099 respectively and winter (DJF) minimum temperature is projected to increase by 0.8, 2.2 and 4.5 °C during 2011-2030, 2046-2065 and 2080-2099 respectively.

Exploring the impact of balconies on cooling energy demand in an arid climate zone

This paper explores the impact of balconies on the energy demand required for cooling in the arid climate zone of the city of Adrar, in Algeria. For the purpose to assess several situations of the balconies, we have chosen a parametric method based on a campaign of thermal simulations. The open and eliminated balcony type were selected and characterized by four parameters: the balcony to room ratio, the orientation, the window type, and the balcony position. A set of 100 simulations was selected randomly based on the Monte-Carlo probability technique. The final sample was corrected based on Cook’s distance which gave 85 simulations as a final sample size. A generalized regression model was performed to identify the impact of each parameter. The accuracy of the model is above 97% and the sensitivity analysis shows that the most important factor is the balcony to room ratio which could reduce the energy demand up to 26% followed by the window type (24%), the orientation (8%) and the balcony position (5%). This conclusion stresses the idea of considering the balcony as a passive solution to reduce the cooling energy demand.