Reyhaneh Sadat Ghazi Marashi; Omid Noori; Reza Deihimfard; Amir Salemi
Volume 15, Issue 4 , January 2018, , Pages 113-124
Abstract
Introduction:
Urbanization and population growth, in addition to its rapid development across the world, has caused a major demand for the food security and the self-sufficiency in terms of food production in many cities. According to the aforementioned circumstances, the activities in the basis of ...
Read More
Introduction:
Urbanization and population growth, in addition to its rapid development across the world, has caused a major demand for the food security and the self-sufficiency in terms of food production in many cities. According to the aforementioned circumstances, the activities in the basis of urban agriculture with different traditional methods (e.g. planting on the ground surface with a soil bedding) or the modern ones (e.g. rooftop gardening with hydroponic cultivation methods) have been emerged and numerous studies regarding these methods have been accomplished. Likewise, a large number of farms in the urban areas came into existence worldwide. Nonetheless, there are yet various challenges to develop this type of agriculture. Moreover, only few numbers of studies were carried out to monitor the health and hygiene condition of the food productions grown in such places, especially in terms of air pollutants accumulation. The objective of this research was to study the hygiene of the plants cultivated in urban environment (rooftops and courtyards), and to determine the accumulation rates of pollutants in the eggplant fruit (Solanum Melongena var. depressum (L.)) and bell peppers (Capsicum fruitescens var. grossum (Mill.)).
Materials and methods:
Two types of vegetables; bell pepper and eggplant were cultivated in the rooftop and courtyard of a five story building in the 7th district of Tehran. The seeds were planted on the basis of a completely randomized design system using six times repetitions. Besides, in order to compare the hygiene of these fruits with those of the fruits cultivated in the countryside, similar samples of the same products were used in the farms located in the environs of Varamin and Karaj. Densities of heavy metals such as molybdenum, chrome, copper and manganese ( Mn, Mo, Cr and Cu) included in the fruits of belle pepper and eggplants cultivated in the urban areas of Tehran were compares with their amounts in the fruits cultivated in the farms located outside of the towns. Additionally, the amounts of heavy metals Lead and Cadmium (Cd, Pb) in the samples related to the city of Tehran were compared to the European Union Standards and the Iranian National Standard. The sample digestion was carried out using Microwave, and in order to analyse and measure the results, the device of ICP-MS was used. Data was analysed by the SAS and Microsoft Excel software and the means comparison was done through standard error.
Results and discussion:
The resulted data demonstrate that the densities of heavy metals in the most of the fruits grown in city showed significantly higher numbers in the range of 5% than those of plants grown in countryside, except the contents of chrome in eggplant which is higher in the samples of the farms located in the countryside than those of both urban areas. Moreover, the heavy metal pollutants of copper in both eggplant and bell pepper from the farms located in countryside were higher than the samples of the rooftop. The chrome density in the eggplants cultivated in farmland was 1.56 times more than that of courtyard, and 1.58 times more than that of rooftop. Densities of copper in the eggplant and bell pepper of countryside farm are respectively 1.22 and 1.24 times more than the samples of rooftop. Furthermore, except lead contents (Pb) being observed at three different levels 0.18, 0.63 and 0.14 milligrams per one kilogram of dry weight (mg/kgDW) in some samples, respectively for rooftop eggplants, rooftop bell peppers and bell peppers of courtyard, which showed significant variances to the permissible limits (in the range of 5%), other samples indicated acceptable amounts of lead and cadmium with respect to the European Union Standard and Iranian National Standard (under the limits of 5%).
Conclusion:
In general it can be concluded that all the samples cultivated in the urban areas of 7th district of the city of Tehran were healthy in terms of allowable amounts of Cadmium as an heavy metal. These density ratios fully complied with international standards, and were similar to those of the samples cultivated in the countryside. In contrast, most of the aforementioned samples contained the impermissible amounts of lead heavy metal. Likewise, the densities of other heavy metals included in products of urban farms were much higher than those of the city exteriors. As a matter of fact, this difference might be resulted from the effects of heavy traffic flow, geographic position and the unsuitable climate conditions on the air quality of urbanized areas.
Sajjad Rahimi Moghaddam; Jafar Kambouzia; Reza Deihimfard
Volume 14, Issue 3 , October 2016, , Pages 27-40
Abstract
Introduction: Iran is located in an arid and semiarid region that is vulnerable to environmental changes. So, it would appear that the occurrence of climate change in this region would have a significant impact on agricultural production systems (Eyshi Rezaie and Bannayan, 2012). Climate change might ...
Read More
Introduction: Iran is located in an arid and semiarid region that is vulnerable to environmental changes. So, it would appear that the occurrence of climate change in this region would have a significant impact on agricultural production systems (Eyshi Rezaie and Bannayan, 2012). Climate change might affect the water available for agriculture and, consequently, lead to drought occurring in semiarid areas (Koocheki et al., 2006). Evaluating adaptation strategies, such as changing the planting of dates, can help to increase maize water use efficiency under climate change conditions (Ramprasad et al., 2016). One of the cheapest ways to measure the effects of climate change on agricultural production is through a modelling approach and application of simulation models (Manschadi et al., 2010). Materials and methods: This study aims at investigating the sowing date as a strategy for maize adaptation and improving its water use efficiency under climate change conditions in Khuzestan Province. For this purpose, six locations in Khuzestan Province were selected (Ahwaz, Behbahan, Dezful, Izeh, Ramhormoz and Shushtar). Daily long-term climatic data including minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall and global radiation in a baseline period (1980-2010) were collected for these locations from their meteorological stations. Then, daily long-term climatic data were generated for the future period of 2040-2069 in these locations by using a method proposed by AgMIP under two climate scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). In this study, the SC704 cultivar was used. Taking into account three sowing dates (4 February, 19 February [a common sowing date] and 5h March), six locations, and two climate scenarios over 30 years, a total of 1620 simulation experiments were carried out in this study. In order to simulate the growth and yield of maize under different sowing dates, the APSIM model was applied.Results and discussion: Results indicated that early sowing date (4 February) with 10117.1 kg ha-1 had a higher economical grain yield compared to 19 February (10061.3 kg ha-1 ) and 5 March (7194.6 kg ha-1 ). Also, in the future period, the reduction percentage in economical grain yield at the different sowing dates compared to the baseline common planting date (19 February) showed that the early sowing date of 4 February recorded less reduction (-3.3 and -4.5 percent under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) than 19 February (-6.5 and -6.7 percent under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) and 5st March (-31.1 and -23.2 percent under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively). On average in Khuzestan Province, an early sowing date indicated higher water use efficiency (WUE) )11.8 kg ha-1 mm-1 ) compared to 19 February (10.7 kg ha-1 mm-1 ) and 5 March (7.6 kg ha-1 mm-1 ) in the baseline period. However, under climate change conditions, reduction of WUE in different planting dates compared to the baseline common sowing date (19 February) revealed that 4 February (2.8 and 3.3 percent under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) was superior compared with 19 February (-12 and -11 percent under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) and 5 March (- 40.1 and -32.5 percent under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) in term of WUE in Khuzestan Province. Conclusion: In general, according to the results found the common sowing date of maize in Khuzestan is not optimal for maize in terms of water use efficiency and economical grain yield. Accordingly, to increase economical grain yield and water use efficiency in both the future and baseline periods at Khuzestan Province, farmers should choose the early sowing date (4 February) compared to the common and late ones.
Javad bayat; Seyed Hossein Hashemi; Korous Khoshbakht; Reza Deihimfard
Volume 14, Issue 2 , July 2016, , Pages 1-12
Abstract
In this study, 83 sampling points were chosen in the study area. Sampling was conducted at two soil depths (0-30 cm and 30-60 cm) and the concentrations of nitrate, phosphate, EC, pH and organic carbon were determined. Interpolation maps were created using the IDW method. These showed that in the top ...
Read More
In this study, 83 sampling points were chosen in the study area. Sampling was conducted at two soil depths (0-30 cm and 30-60 cm) and the concentrations of nitrate, phosphate, EC, pH and organic carbon were determined. Interpolation maps were created using the IDW method. These showed that in the top soil, soil phosphorus, EC and OC have the maximum concentration in the northern part of the area and nitrate in the southern part of the area; in second depth soil, phosphorus has the maximum concentration in the North of the area and nitrate and EC in the South of the area, while OC has a uniform distribution over the whole area. Analysis of soil chemical properties showed high concentrations of nitrate and phosphate in the upper soil layer in the studied areas, mainly due to the use of untreated urban wastewater and chemical fertilizers by the farmers; in addition, results of organic carbon measurement showed that this area has a good condition in terms of organic matters. Soil pH in the area was alkaline and EC decreased at a lower depth. The results of Spearman correlation analysis showed that EC has a positive correlation with nitrate and a negative correlation with phosphate at both depths. Also, organic carbon has a positive correlation with soil phosphate in the top soil.
Malihe Jamali,; Korous Khoshbakht,; Reza Deihimfard; Reza Momeni Vesalian
Volume 11, Issue 4 , January 2014
Abstract
South lands of Tehran are the main source of agricultural productions in which some kinds of vegetables, legumes, cereals and other crops are growing. This research measured and zoned heavy metal soil pollutionin 1500 ha of these cultivated fields south of the city of Tehran in Iran. In this study, 128 ...
Read More
South lands of Tehran are the main source of agricultural productions in which some kinds of vegetables, legumes, cereals and other crops are growing. This research measured and zoned heavy metal soil pollutionin 1500 ha of these cultivated fields south of the city of Tehran in Iran. In this study, 128 samples were collected using the systematic-random method from 64 areas at depths of 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm and the concentrations of cadmium, chromium, nickel, lead and zinc were measured. The parameters of pH, electrical conductivity, and phosphate were also recorded. Zoning maps were developed using the inverse distance weighted method. The results showed that concentrations of heavy metals, with the exception ofnickel, were higher at the shallower depth than at the lower depth. The zoning map shows that cadmium, chromium, lead and zinc occurred in greater concentrations in the northern areas and nickel in the southern areas. A comparison of these results with Iranian soil resource pollution standards indicates that the levels of chromium, nickel and zinc exceeded the standards in some parts of the study area.
Eskandar Zand; Fatemeh Bena Kashani; Mohammad Ali Baghestani; Azar Maknali; Mehdi Minbashi; Saeid Soufizadeh; Reza Deihimfard
Volume 4, Issue 3 , April 2007
Reza Deihimfard; Eskandar Zand
Volume 2, Issue 6 , January 2005
Eskandar Zand; Mohammad Reza Moosavi; Reza Deihim Fard; Azar Maknali; Naser Bagherani; Mohammad Freidunpoor; Reza Tabatabei Nimavard
Volume 2, Issue 5 , October 2004
Reza Deihimfard; Eskandar Zand; Houman Liaghati; Saeid Soufizadeh
