Márton Jolánkai

Effect of Soil Physical State on the Earthworms in Hungary

Hungarian authors have long been discussing the role of earthworms in improving soil productivity. Earthworm counts in our higher quality soils are similar to those found in soils where more attention is paid to earthworm activity. Negative impacts that are independent of farming—such as sustained dry spells in the summer—also affect earthworm counts. Negative impacts that definitely depend on farming include land use causing soil moisture loss, deep stubble treatment leaving the soil without cover, and ploughing in the summer without subsequent pressing. The climate change is having both positive and negative impacts. Weather patterns are causing losses but adopting climate mitigating tillage are generating benefits. In the trials results so far show that tillage focusing on preserving soil moisture, structure, and organic materials, covering the surface in the critical months as well as adequate soil loosening are fundamental pre-requisites for making the soil a favourable habitat for earthworms.

Continuous field soil moisture content mapping by means of apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) measurement

Abstract A soil moisture content map is important for providing information about the distribution of moisture in a given area. Moisture content directly influences agricultural yield thus it is crucial to have accurate and reliable information about moisture distribution and content in the field. Since soil is a porous medium modified generalized Archie’s equation provides the basic formula to calculate moisture content data based on measured ECa. In this study we aimed to find a more accurate and cost effective method for measuring moisture content than manual field sampling. Locations of 25 sampling points were chosen from our research field as a reference. We assumed that soil moisture content could be calculated by measuring apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) using the Veris-3100 on-the-go soil mapping tool. Statistical analysis was carried out on the 10.791 ECa raw data in order to filter the outliers. The applied statistical method was ±1.5 interquartile (IRQ) distance approach. The visualization of soil moisture distribution within the experimental field was carried out by means of ArcGIS/ArcMAP using the inverse distance weighting interpolation method. In the investigated 25 sampling points, coefficient of determination between calculated volumetric moisture content data and measured ECa was R2 = 0.87. According to our results, volumetric moisture content can be mapped by applying ECa measurements in these particular soil types.

Agronomic impacts on yield formation of wheat

Crop growth and productivity are the results of complex physiological and biochemical processes. Grain yield depends on the interaction of these processes, each being controlled by genes and influenced by the environment. Nitrogen is one of the most important elements in the nutrition of higher plants and one of the most costly inputs in the production of winter wheat. It is second only to the precipitation as the most frequent yield limiting factor, and even when N is not a yield limiting factor, wheat is less than 50% efficient at utilizing applied N fertilizer. Winter wheat requires nitrogen in different doses in the different fenophases. Its distribution is carried out in the form of a base fertilization and one or two, rarely more top-dressing. Generally speaking for the quality to manifest, more nitrogen is needed than the dose ensuring maximum yield.

Agronomic benefits of long-term trials

Long-term trials are established in order to explore and observe plant and soil interrelationships in situ. Long-term trials can be described as live instruments providing ceteris paribus conditions in temporal sequences. This review provides an introduction to major long-term trials in Hungary and in other parts of the world. It gives a brief summary of the origins of plant nutritional research, beginning with some data from Homer and the willow tree experiment of van Helmont, as well as the discovery of physiological processes by von Liebig, Lawes and Boussingault. The most profound long-term trials, like the Orto Botanico in Padova, the Linne Garden in Uppsala and the Broadbalk in Rothamsted are presented in the paper. The agronomic, educational and scientific benefits of the major Hungarian long-term trials are also discussed, from Westsik (1929) to Martonvasar and the National Plant Nutrition Trials (OMTK) set up in 1963. There is a list of experimental sites giving information on the most important ...

Agronomic impacts on energy crop performance

Introduction Maize (Zea mays L.) crop with an average 65 % starch content is highly suitable for bioethanol production. Starch content of some cultivars have been slightly increased by recent plant breeding projects. The Szent Istvan University Crop Production Institute has recently started a new research on exploring the most characteristic agronomic impacts (biological bases, production sites, plant nutrition and crop year effects) influencing the efficiency of maize starch based bioethananol and so ethyl-tertiary-butyl-ether (ETBE) production. The aim of the research is to observe, identify and quantify agronomic impacts and their interactions that may have an influence on production efficiency and stability. The present paper provides information concerning the first year of the trial.

Investigating nutritional relationship among weediness, yield and quality of winter wheat

There is a lot of factor which can influence the yield and the quality of winter wheat. One of them is weediness. One of the most important elements of the plant protection procedure of winter wheat is the weed control. Herbicides application became the traditional element of the production technology of winter wheat. The technology of spraying herbicides is based on widely used patterns, but recently the changing farming conditions necessities the elaboration of new method. As Debreczeni (1978) stated the usage the pesticides inevitable. According to Pollhamerne (1988) it is important to take into consideration the quality of soil and the agrotechnics, when we evaluate the effect of the climate factors. Barta et al. (2004) investigated the effect of environmental factors on protein content. The effect of different water stress on the yield and yield components of winter wheat was evaluated by Baser et al. (2004). Barnard and Bona (2004) investigated the relation between the sprout damage and the falling number. According to Pepo and Gyfiri (1997) there are three groups of elements influencing the quality of winter wheat. The first group is the biological elements (variety), the second group is the agro-ecological condition (weather, soil and configurations of the terrain), and the third group is the agrotechny. This paper focuses on the relationship among the weediness, the yield and the quality at winter wheat.

Changing climate struck biodiversity in Asia and the Pacific: An overview

Two over-riding trends characterize the beginning of the third millennium. First, the global human ecosystem diversity is threatend by grave imbalances in productivity and in the distribution of goods and service. The unsustainable progression of extremes of wealth and poverty threatens the stability of the whole human system, and with it the global environment. Secondly, the world is undergoing accelerating change, with internationally-coordinate environmental stewardship lagging behind economic and social development. While each part of the Earths surface is endowed with its own combination of environmental attributes, each area must also contend with a unique, but interlinked, set of current and emerging problems. Forests, woodlands and grasslands are still being degraded or destroyed, marginal lands turned into deserts, and natural ecosystems reduced or fragmented, further threatening biodiversity (Dearden, P. 1996).