Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

In many parts of arid and semi-arid regions of Iran, agricultural activities such as mismanagement of land as well as inappropriate irrigation systems have seriously led to land degradation and desertification. Therefore, it is necessary to do some researches in order to determine which region is suitable for agriculture or not and if the region is suitable, what type of agriculture management should be applied prevalently. To achieve this goal, a region in Arak Mighan playa (Savarabad watershed) was chosen. At first, different maps of region including soil map, elevation and land use maps were prepared by ArcGIS 10.1. Five land uses were recognized as treatments including garden lands, dry farming systems, irrigation lands, dry lands and rangelands. Soil samples were taken and soil factors including N, Ca, Mg, and Humus as well as degradation factors such as EC, SAR, pH, Na and Hco3 were measured at two depths of 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm. The analysis of factors was done by SPSS software and results showed that there were significant differences among treatments based on Duncan test.  In addition, rangeland was identified as a favorable treatment in terms of EC, pH, SAR in the surface layer. According to the results, it was found that rangelands had ideal conditions and dry farming and dry lands were identified as the most unfavorable treatments.

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