THE LAND USE INVESTIGATION IN TIBET PLATEAU USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY

Tibet Plateau is Known as "the Roof of the World" with the area of 1,220,000km^2, which is about 1/8 land area of China. Because of the high elevation, cold climate and it caused difficulties in regional economic planning and land resources management. Since 1985, the land use investigation in Tibet has been carried out, in which the basic data and thematic maps must be obtained and completed at county and township levels, in order to meet the needs of local administrations. In the investigation, remote sensing technology was comprehensively adopted. At present, the investigation in county level had been completed and the compilation is going to be carried out. Due to paying a great attention to studying on a series of key technical problems, the systematic methods of using remote sensing technology in the plateau land use investigation were formed and successfully put into application.

Shoot and root traits in drought tolerant maize(Zea mays L.) hybrids

This study aimed to investigate the differences in shoot and root traits, and water use and water use efficiency（WUE） in drought tolerant（DT） maize（Zea mays L.） hybrids under full and deficit irrigated conditions. A two-year greenhouse study was conducted with four hybrids（one conventional hybrid, 33D53AM, two commercial DT hybrids, P1151 AM, N75H, and an experimental hybrid, Exp HB） grown under two water regimes（I（100） and I（50）, referring to 100 and 50% of evapotranspiration requirements）. Under water stress, the hybids P1151 AM, N75, and Exp HB showed more drought tolerance and had either greater shoot dry weight or less dry weight reduction than the conventional hybrid（33 D53 AM）. However, these three hybrids responded to water stress using different mechanisms. Compared with the conventional hybrid, the two commercial DT hybrids（P1151 AM and N75H） had a smaller leaf area, shoot dry weight, and root system per plant. As a result, these hybrids used less water but had a higher WUE compared with the conventional hybrid. In contrast, the experimental hybrid（ExpHB） produced more shoot biomass by silking stage at both irrigation levels than all other hybrids, but it had relatively lower WUE. The hybrids demonstrated different drought response mechanisms that may require different irrigation management strategies. More investigation and validation are needed under field conditions and in different soil types.

Responses of water productivity to irrigation and N supply for hybrid maize seed production in an arid region of Northwest China

Water and nitrogen（N） are generally two of the most important factors in determining the crop productivity. Proper water and N managements are prerequisites for agriculture sustainable development in arid areas. Field experiments were conducted to study the responses of water productivity for crop yield（WP_（Y-ET）） and final biomass（WP_（B-ET）） of film-mulched hybrid maize seed production to different irrigation and N treatments in the Hexi Corridor, Northwest China during April to September in 2013 and also during April to September in 2014. Three irrigation levels（70%–65%, 60%–55%, and 50%–45% of the field capacity） combined with three N rates（500, 400, and 300 kg N/hm^2） were tested in 2013. The N treatments were adjusted to 500, 300, and 100 kg N/hm^2 in 2014. Results showed that the responses of WP_（Y-ET） and WP_（B-ET） to different irrigation amounts were different. WP_（Y-ET） was significantly reduced by lowering irrigation amounts while WP_（B-ET） stayed relatively insensitive to irrigation amounts. However, WP_（Y-ET） and WP_（B-ET） behaved consistently when subjected to different N treatments. There was a slight effect of reducing N input from 500 to 300 kg/hm^2 on the WP_（Y-ET） and WP_（B-ET）, however, when reducing N input to 100 kg/hm^2, the values of WP_（Y-ET） and WP_（B-ET） were significantly reduced. Water is the primary factor and N is the secondary factor in determining both yield（Y） and final biomass（B）. Partial factor productivity from applied N（PFP_N） was the maximum under the higher irrigation level and in lower N rate（100–300 kg N/hm^2） in both years（2013 and 2014）. Lowering the irrigation amount significantly reduced evapotranspiration（ET）, but ET did not vary with different N rates（100–500 kg N/hm^2）. Both Y and B had robust linear relationships with ET, but the correlation between B and ET（R^2=0.8588） was much better than that between Y and ET（R^2=0.6062）. When ET increased, WP_（Y-ET） linearly increased and WP_（B-ET） decreased. Taking the indices of Y, B, WP_（Y-ET）, WP_（B-ET） and PFP_N into account, a higher irrigation level（70%–65% of the field capacity） and a lower N rate（100–300 kg N/hm^2） are recommended to be a proper irrigation and N application strategy for plastic film-mulched hybrid maize seed production in arid Northwest China.

Soil Health and Sustainable Land Resource Management Practices at Municipal Level: A Case from Bheri Nagarpalika (Municipality), Jajorkot District, Nepal

The increasing challenges of pressure and ever-growing demands on limited resources in Nepal by diverse actors,land degradation,biodiversity loss and climate change require the rational use of land resources to sustain and enhance productivity and maintain resilient ecosystems for achieving the sustainable and efficient use of resources,taking into account biophysical and socioeconomic dimensions.Regarding this,Nepal Government has realized and taken initiation of scientific and sustainable land use zoning following the National Land Use Act 2019(2076 B.S.)to use land resources in practicable and sustainable manner.Using spatial information techniques such asZ-3 satellite image,remote sensing(RS),global positioning system(GPS)and geographic information system(GIS).Multicriteria decision making(MCDM)methods for acquiring spatial/temporal data,through expert judgment techniques based on field observation as well as laboratory analysis result,it was found that the soil nutrient status of,the municipality varied spatially and has pH with very high acidic to slightly alkaline but most of the soils are slightly acidic(39.58%).Majority of the soil are loam and sandy loam type with very low to high level of organic matter.Most of the municipal area is under medium range of organic matter.Nitrogen content ranges from very low to very high level as to same ranges of phosphorous(37.69%).Potassium level is also in very high to low as 37 percent land area has high level of potassium.Reclamation of acidic soil mainly in leachable soil is recommended with the proper management of Nitrogen with addition of organic matter is needed to manage for improving crop production.

A STUDY ABOUT SOIL WATER CHARACTERISTIC,CONDUCTIVITY OF WATER AND EQUILIBRIUM ADSORPTION OF CUPRIC ION IN SOIL——A UTILITY EQUIPMENT USED IN SOIL SCIENCE AND ITS ILLUSTRATION OF USE

A utility equipment used in soil science is designed and installed.The equipment can be used in research pro- grams of soil water and solute transport.Pressure in pressure chamber of the equipment in which a tested soil sam- ple is laid can be adjusted exactly so that we can determine the water content of soil sample.With the equipment we can not only study the problems related water movement in soil but also measure some solute,such as cadmi- um,plumbum and so on,adsorption on surface of soil in saturated and unsaturated state.As an illustration of the use of the equipment,we give the isothermal of cupric ion adsorption in soil.This equipment can be used in the re- search work and application of soil science.