Using GIS tools to detect the land use/land cover changes during forty years in Lodhran District of Pakistan.

Land use/land cover (LULC) change has serious implications for environment as LULC is directly related to land degradation over a period of time and results in many changes in the environment. Monitoring the locations and distributions of LULC changes is important for establishing links between regulatory actions, policy decisions, and subsequent LULC activities. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has the potential ability to identify the vegetation features of various eco-regions and provides valuable information as a remote sensing tool in studying vegetation phenology cycles. Similarly, the normalized difference built-up index (NDBI) may be used for quoting built-up land. This study aims to detect the pattern of LULC, NDBI, and NDVI change in Lodhran district, Pakistan, from the Landsat images taken over 40 years, considering four major LULC types as follows: water bodies, built-up area, bare soil, and vegetation. Supervised classification was applied to detect LULC changes observed over Lodhran district as it explains the maximum likelihood algorithm in software ERDAS imagine 15. Most farmers (46.6%) perceived that there have been extreme changes of onset of temperature, planting season, and less precipitation amount in Lodhran district in the last few years. In 2017, building areas increased (4.3%) as compared to 1977. NDVI values for Lodhran district were highest in 1977 (up to + 0.86) and lowest in 1997 (up to - 0.33). Overall accuracy for classification was 86% for 1977, 85% for 1987, 86% for 1997, 88% for 2007, and 95% for 2017. LULC change with soil types, temperature, and NDVI, NDBI, and slope classes was common in the study area, and the conversions of bare soil into vegetation area and built-up area were major changes in the past 40 years in Lodhran district. Lodhran district faces rising temperatures, less irrigation water, and low rainfall. Farmers are aware of these climatic changes and are adapting strategies to cope with the effects but require support from government.

Microbial diversity response in thallium polluted riverbank soils of the Lanmuchang.

Thallium (Tl) is a toxic element, but little is known about microbial communities' response to TI mobilization and sequestration. Here, we characterize the microbial communities and their feedbacks to Tl-pollution in riverbank soils to understand the distribution of microbial metal tolerance. These soils have been affected by pollution sourced from a Tl-rich mineralized area in Lanmuchang, Guizhou, China. In all studied soil samples, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria were revealed relatively in higher abundance at the phylum level. The results indicated that a number of microbial communities including Gemmatimonadetes, and Actinobacteria were correlated with total Tl, suggesting potential roles of these microbes to Tl tolerance. The patterns of phylogenetic beta-diversity in studied samples showed a high diversity of the microbial community in soils with high Tl concentrations. Sequence analysis of microbial community indicated that most of the environmental parameters in soils were associated with the major phylogenetic groups such as Gemmobacteria, Bryobacteria, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Rhodobacteria. Some species of microbes, Nocardioides (genus), Actinomycetales (Order), Ralstonia (phyla) and Sphingomonas (genus) might are tolerant of Tl. These results provide direction to the microbial communities in the presence of elevated Tl concentration in Lanmuchang and shed light on bioremediation of Tl polluted locations.

Radiation efficiency and nitrogen fertilizer impacts on sunflower crop in contrasting environments of Punjab, Pakistan.

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is the leading non-conventional oilseed crop in Pakistan. Nitrogen fertilizer can affect plant growth and productivity by changing canopy size which has an effect on the radiation use efficiency (RUE) of the crop. The response of sunflower hybrids in terms of phenology, fraction of intercepted radiation (F i), and RUE to nitrogenous rates (0, 60, 120, 180, and 240 kg ha-1) was studied in three field experiments conducted in three various environments: Multan (arid), Faisalabad (semi-arid), and Gujranwala (sub-humid) during spring seasons 2008 and 2009. The treatments were laid out according to a randomized complete block design with split plot arrangements, keeping the sunflower hybrids in main plots and nitrogen rates in sub-plots, and replicated three times. The results showed Hysun-38 took a maximum number of days to anthesis (101) as compared to Pioneer-64A93 (100) and Hysun-33 (99). The mean values of F i were 0.850, 0.903, and 0.978, and the estimated values of RUE for total aboveground dry matter were 2.14, 2.47, and 2.65 g MJ-1 at experimental locations of Multan, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala, respectively. The values of RUE for grain yield (RUEGY) were 0.78, 0.98, and 1.26 g MJ-1 at experimental locations of Multan, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala, respectively. The average RUEGY values over three locations were 2.61, 2.60, 2.43, and 2.36 g MJ-2 in N4 (180 kg ha-1), N5 (240 kg ha-1), N3 (120 kg ha-1), and N2 (60 kg ha-1) treatments, respectively. Increasing rates of N increased RUEGY over the standard treatment N3 (120 kg N ha-1); however, the averaged values over three locations were 1.22, 1.08, 0.99, and 0.92 g MJ-2 in N4, N5, N3, and N2 treatments, respectively. Therefore, optimum water and N doses are important for attaining higher RUE, which may enhance sunflower growth and yield.

Optimizing the phosphorus use in cotton by using CSM-CROPGRO-cotton model for semi-arid climate of Vehari-Punjab, Pakistan.

Crop nutrient management is an essential component of any cropping system. With increasing concerns over environmental protection, improvement in fertilizer use efficiencies has become a prime goal in global agriculture system. Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important nutrients, and strategies are required to optimize its use in important arable crops like cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) that has great significance. Sustainable P use in crop production could significantly avoid environmental hazards resulting from over-P fertilization. Crop growth modeling has emerged as an effective tool to assess and predict the optimal nutrient requirements for different crops. In present study, Decision Support System for Agro-technology Transfer (DSSAT) sub-model CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton-P was evaluated to estimate the observed and simulated P use in two cotton cultivars grown at three P application rates under the semi-arid climate of southern Punjab, Pakistan. The results revealed that both the cultivars performed best at medium rate of P application (57 kg ha-1) in terms of days to anthesis, days to maturity, seed cotton yield, total dry matter production, and harvest index during 2013 and 2014. Cultivar FH-142 performed better than MNH-886 in terms of different yield components. There was a good agreement between observed and simulated days to anthesis (0 to 1 day), days to maturity (0 to 2 days), seed cotton yield, total dry matter, and harvest index with an error of -4.4 to 15%, 12-7.5%, and 13-9.5% in MNH-886 and for FH-142, 4-16%, 19-11%, and 16-8.3% for growing years 2013 and 2014, respectively. CROPGRO-Cotton-P would be a useful tool to forecast cotton yield under different levels of P in cotton production system of the semi-arid climate of Southern Punjab.

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index as a tool for wheat yield estimation: a case study from Faisalabad, Pakistan.

For estimation of grain yield in wheat, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is considered as a potential screening tool. Field experiments were conducted to scrutinize the response of NDVI to yield behavior of different wheat cultivars and nitrogen fertilization at agronomic research area, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) during the two years 2008-09 and 2009-10. For recording the value of NDVI, Green seeker (Handheld-505) was used. Split plot design was used as experimental model in, keeping four nitrogen rates (N1 = 0 kg ha(-1), N2 = 55 kg ha(-1), N3 = 110 kg ha(-1), and N4 = 220 kg ha(-1)) in main plots and ten wheat cultivars (Bakkhar-2001, Chakwal-50, Chakwal-97, Faisalabad-2008, GA-2002, Inqlab-91, Lasani-2008, Miraj-2008, Sahar-2006, and Shafaq-2006) in subplots with four replications. Impact of nitrogen and difference between cultivars were forecasted through NDVI. The results suggested that nitrogen treatment N4 (220 kg ha(-1)) and cultivar Faisalabad-2008 gave maximum NDVI value (0.85) at grain filling stage among all treatments. The correlation among NDVI at booting, grain filling, and maturity stages with grain yield was positive (R(2) = 0.90; R(2) = 0.90; R(2) = 0.95), respectively. So, booting, grain filling, and maturity can be good depictive stages during mid and later growth stages of wheat crop under agroclimatic conditions of Faisalabad and under similar other wheat growing environments in the country.