Habib Khodaverdiloo

• Professor
• Professor (Full) at Urmia University

Optimal fertigation regimes will minimize the leaching of agrochemicals while providing crops with sufficient nutrition for growth. A comprehensive objective function of optimization involves minimizing (i) difference between weekly plant nitrogen uptake and requirement and (ii) nitrate losses (nitrate leaching and accumulated nitrate in the root z...

The development of non-toxic and inexpensive materials for arsenic removal is required due to water sources being polluted by arsenic in many countries around the world. The main aim of this study was to characterise the capacity and behaviour of Mg/Fe layered double hydroxides/biochar [Magnesium/Iron-Layered Double Hydroxide (Mg/Fe-LDH)] composite...

Context Salinity is a major cause of yield loss in wheat globally. Aims and Methods To investigate the potential of silicon to minimise the effect of salinity in wheat, experiments were conducted using outdoor pots subjected to seven salinity treatments. Silicon (as potassium silicate K2SiO3) was applied as both a priming agent and foliar spray. S...

Salinity is a major cause of yield loss in wheat globally. Aims and Methods. To investigate the potential of silicon to minimise the effect of salinity in wheat, experiments were conducted using outdoor pots subjected to seven salinity treatments. Silicon (as potassium silicate K2SiO3) was applied as both a priming agent and foliar spray. Selected...

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the beneficial effects of seed priming and foliar spray of potassium silicate on antioxidant activities under different salinity levels, thereby potentially improving wheat growth. Seeds were soaked into solutions containing potassium silicate (K2SiO3, 1.5 mM) for 6 h, while foliar spray with K...

Soil bulk density ( ρ b ) is an important indicator of soil quality, productivity, compaction and porosity. Despite its importance, ρ b is often omitted from global datasets due to the costs of making many direct ρ b measurements and the difficulty of direct measurement on rocky, sandy, very dry, or very wet soils. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are...

A major step in designing a subsurface drainage system is calculation of drainpipe spacing. Nearly, all unsteady-state drainpipe-spacing equations use ratio of hydraulic conductivity (Ks) to drainable porosity (f) in the form of κ=Ksf. This work developed a novel inverse model based on Bees Algorithm to estimate the κ. We examined the efficiency of...

Soil water Infiltration plays an important role in the water cycle of nature. However, since the direct measurement of soil water infiltration is laborious, time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, in this study was conducted to investigate the possibility of estimating the coefficients of water infiltration equations such as Kastiakov, Kastiakov-L...

Knowledge of plant response to salinity, especially at early growth stages, is critical to optimizing crop production in salt-affected soils. In this paper we explore quantitatively the effectiveness of seed pre-treatment to lessen the effects of salinity on Borage (Borago officinalis L.) seed germination and subsequent seedling growth. Two indepen...

Determining the parameters of the soil water retention curve (SWRC) is essential to model the water flow in soil and investigate the water and nutrients transport around the roots of plants and ensure optimal management of irrigation. The unweighted least squares regression (ULS) is the most common approach applied to fit the SWRC functions to the...

The objective of this study was to compare the performance of nonlinear (NL) and linearized Langmuir models to fit the experimental data of cadmium (Cd) sorption to soils. Cd-sorption data, collected from 19 soils, were fitted to the NL and four linearized Langmuir models. Functional evaluation of the models was provided to compare Cd transport sim...

Knowledge of plant response to salinity, especially at early growth stages, is critical to optimizing crop production in salt-affected soils. In this paper we explore quantitatively the effectiveness of seed pre-treatment to lessen the effects of salinity on Borage (Borago officinalis L.) seed germination and subsequent seedling growth. Two indepen...

Modeling and monitoring vadose zone processes have a key role to effectively identify and solve important emerging issues in hydrology and related disciplines. However, major gaps and challenges remain concerning the further conceptualization of the zone complexities and parameterization of relevant models. Consequently, the main focus of this inve...

The objective of this study was to characterize the cadmium (Cd) adsorption behavior on biochar derived from grape and apple pruning residues (GPR and APR, respectively). Consequently, batch experiments were carried out with increasing levels of initial Cd concentration (0 to 200 mg L−1) under different shaking times (0 to 240 min) and temperatures...

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) contamination in soil is a worldwide challenge that requires effective cleaning technology. The plant-based phytoremediation technology is solar-driven, relatively cost-effective, and environmentally friendly. However, practical employment of phytoremediation in arid and semi-arid soils has many technical challenge...

Seed priming is known to often alleviate salinity stress during seed emergence and subsequent crop growth. This study compares the effects of salinity stress on the germination and emergence of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds untreated (control) and primed with ascorbic acid (Asc), potassium silicate (K2SiO3), proline (Pro), spermidine (Spd) and...

This study was conducted to determine critical values of soil physical quality indicators according to vegetative growth of spring wheat in a range of degrees of soil compactness. A non-saline loam soil was used to produce a range of degrees of soil compactness in 10 mini-lysimeters. The mini-lysimeters were put outdoors and received similar amount...

Complete descriptions of the particle-size distribution (PSD) curve should provide more information about various soil properties as opposed to only the textural composition (sand, silt and clay (SSC) fractions). We evaluated the performance of 19 models describing PSD data of soils using a range of efficiency criteria. While different criteria pro...

In order to study the effect of biochar application as simple and enriched, on the soil nutrients status in the salinity conditions, a research was conducted as a factorial arrangement based on completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates. The biochar (grape pruning residues) was applied in three levels (0, 2% biochar, and 2% enriched b...

Improving soil microbial activity and using microbial synergistic relations, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), are of major importance for plant growth in contaminated soils with heavy metals. In this study, growth of Russian knapweed (Acroptilon repens L.) inoculated with either AMF or PGPR...

Because of the undesirable effects of lead on soil properties and human health, evaluation of its remediation methods seems to be essential. In order to evaluate the effect of humic acid (HA) on the decontamination of lead (Pb) spiked-soils in the presence of wormwood plant (Artemicia absantium), an experiment was carried out in a completely random...

The use of plants and soil microorganisms is a promising technique for the phytoremediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils. This study was carried out in order to evaluate the soil microbial potential with four Cd concentration levels (0, 10, 30 and 100 mg kg-1); the study also addressed the inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) spec...

Microorganisms are one of the important parts of soil, that their activity and population can be affected by the high levels of heavy metals such as lead (Pb). The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes of Microbial Indicators of inoculated fungi and bacteria in Hyoscyamus niger rhizosphere at different levels of lead (Pb). For this pu...

he objective of this study was to evaluate the Pb tolerance, potential for accumulation and remediation of Pb of Hyoscyamus (Hyoscyamus niger L.), Onopordum (Onopordum acanthium L.) and Centaurea (Centaurea cyanus L.), native to Western Azerbaijan region. For this purpose, a soil was selected and spiked uniformly with different concentrations of Pb...

Cation exchange capacity (CEC) has diverse applications from soil classification and management to agricultural/environmental simulations. Direct measurement of CEC is difficult. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of calibration dataset size on accuracy and validity of soil CEC pedotransfer functions (PTFs) derived for select...

Microbe-assisted phytoremediation is a promising technology for remediation of potentially toxic element contaminated soils. A greenhouse study was conducted to assess the effect of Pseudomonas spp. and Glomus spp. on phytoremediation of a Pb-contaminated calcareous soil by Centaurea cyanus L. The study was carried out as a factorial experiment arr...

Introduction: Recently, due to enhancement of industrialization, urbanization and disposal of wastes, fertilizers and pesticides the concentration of heavy metals (HMs)in agricultural soil has increased. Heavy metals are serious threat for environment due to their hazardous effects. Lead (Pb) is one of the toxic heavy metal that threats the health...

Microbial associations may influence the negative effects of potentially toxic elements on plants. In a greenhouse experiment, the growth; biochemical response; and Pb, Fe, and Zn uptake of Onopordum acanthium L. were investigated in response to inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, AMF (a mixture of Funneliformis mosseae, Rhizophagus irre...

Establishing ring diameter effects on the field-saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K fs , determined with ponding infiltrometer methods can help to find a compromise between the need to sample a large area with an individual measurement and the impracticality of using large rings in the field. Five ring sizes (diameter, D = 5.5, 10.9, 16.0, 27....

Phytoremediation is a promising method for remediation of heavy metals (HMs) contaminated environments. However, the main failures are the limited bioavailabilty of HMs such as lead (Pb) in the soil and/or suppressed plant growth in contaminated sites. These limitations specifically occur in semi-arid zone environments such as calcareous soils. Arb...

One of the new approaches for increasing phytoremediation efficiency of heavy metals in contaminated soils is using soil chelating agents. In order to evaluate the effect of humic acid (HA) application on elevating the solubility of lead (Pb) in the soil and its uptake by the collar plant (Xeanthium vetelus), an experiment was carried out under gre...

Annually, too much green wastes are produced that they should manage for being useful. One of their best using is composting. In this study the different green wastes were collected from Urmia, West Azerbaijan- Iran and Anzali lagoon. These green wastes were animal manure, hay debris, leaves of Maple and Platanus trees, the remains of Azolla f...

Background and Objectives: World population growth, human need of food, his interference in natural ecosystems and changing soil intrinsic properties by degradation, increases the need of evaluating land use changes impacts on soil quality. This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of land use change on some of soil quality indicators in a...

Introduction: Heavy metals (HMs) are serious threat for environment due to their dangerous effects. These metals as contaminants that can be accumulated in soil and after absorption by plants, finally will be found in food chains. Cadmium (Cd) is one of the dangerous HMs that threats the health of plants, living organisms and human. Physicochemical...

In many arid and semi-arid countries, wastewater irrigation is becoming a common practice in agriculture. In this study, the effect of long-term (40 years) wastewater irrigation on selected physical and hydraulic properties of soil in different parts of a landscape was investigated. The performance of some infiltration models, including Philip (Ph)...

Two halophytes, Salicornia europaea and Atriplex verucifera, and the non-halophyte Chenopodium album were grown in pots on sodic and non-sodic Iranian soils spiked with up to 100 mg Cd kg−1. The halophytes grew best on the sodic soil in the absence of Cd spiking, while C. album performed better on non-sodic soil. Cadmium spiking reduced the growth...

Heavy metals (HMs) such as lead (Pb) enter the soil through various pathways and affect soil quality. HMs decline population, activity, and efficiency of soil microorganisms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of soil Pb contamination on population, activity and functionality of microbes in a sterilized soil inoculated with spec...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) affect plant growth and tolerance under environmental stresses such as soil contamination with metals. In this study the effect of inoculation with selected strains of AMF (a mixture of Glomus species including G. intraradices, G. mosseae and G. fasciculatum) and PGP...

The phytoavailability and potential transfer of Pb to Atriplex verucifera, Salicornia europaea and Chenopodium album in two calcareous soils with different salinity/sodicity were compared. The soils were spiked with 0, 250, 500 and 1000 mg Pb kg−1 soil. Plant shoots were harvested and analysed for total Pb after they had been grown in the contamina...

Phytoremediation, the use of plants in association with microorganisms for remediation of contaminated sites, is a promising technique for reclamation of heavy metals contaminated soils. In this research the role of selected species of Glomus (G. intraradices، G. mosseae و G. fasciculatum) and Pseudomonas (P. putida، P. fluorescens و P. aeruginosa)...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are known to enhance plant growth and survival in heavy metal contaminated soils through different mechanisms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the enhancement of soil Pb extraction by Acroptilon repens through inoculation with some AMF (a mixture of Glomu...

Quantitative description of soil hydraulic properties is necessary for any scheduling related to soil and water resources conservation. Soil hydraulic properties are important inputs for simulation of water flow and solute transport in soil. Since direct measurement of these properties is time consuming and costly, pedotransfer functions (PTFs) hav...

Pollution of the biosphere by heavy metals (HM) is a global threat that has accelerated dramatically since the beginning of industrial revolution. HMs can accumulate in soil and, in turn, adversely affect the microbial population density and physicochemical properties of soils, leading to the loss of soil fertility and yields of crops. The HMs gene...

Twelve soil profiles and 62 soil cores were described from two neighboring landscapes in the northwest of Iran to understand whether long-term wastewater irrigation has caused variations in morphological, physicochemical, and DTPA-heavy metals contents in soils. Along a gradual slope, different positions reflected heterogeneous response to flooding...

To characterize the parameters of sorption isotherm models, a study was conducted to (a) correlate fitted parameters of the isotherm models with calculated Cd sorption parameters and (b) evaluate the correlation between Langmuir and Freundlich sorption models parameters. A statistically significant (P ≤ 0.01) negative correlation was observed betwe...

Mobility and bioavailability of lead (Pb) could be affected considerably by soil physicochemical properties; however, less is known about the effect of Pb levels and aging time. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Pb levels and wetting-drying (WD) cycles on distribution and bioavailability of Pb in three semi-arid zone soils treated...

Concentrations and spatial distribution of Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb along two landscapes including a wastewater-irrigated area and a control area were determined to assess the impact of long-term wastewater irrigation and landscape properties on heavy metal contamination. Some disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were taken from soil trenches and soil...

Little information is available for cadmium (Cd) sorption/desorption behaviour in soils with relatively variable CaCO3 content. The objectives of this study were to: (i) parameterise the sorption and desorption of Cd and the hysteretic behaviour of Cd sorbed to soils with varying CaCO3 content; and (ii) correlate sorption, desorption, and retention...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) associations are integral, functioning parts of plant roots and are widely recognized as enhancing plant growth on severely disturbed sites, including those contaminated with heavy metals (HMs). They are reported to be present on the roots of plants growing on HM-contaminated soils and play an important role in me...

Soil contamination with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in agricultural lands, in part, is responsible for limiting the crop productivity and the food chain contamination. The objective of this study were to asses the limiting of crop productivity by cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb), the potential transfer and bioaccumulation of these PTEs in plants, a...

Effects of cadmium (Cd) concentration and inoculation of heavy metal-resistant soil microbes on plant growth and Cd-accumulation by millet (Pennisetum glaucum), alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and couch grass (Triticum repens) were studied. A soil sample (Soil 1) was spiked with different (0 to 100 mg kg -1) concentrations of Cd and incubated under perio...

s u m m a r y The unsaturated soil hydraulic properties are needed for many different applications in soil hydrology. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) have proven to be useful to indirectly estimate these parameters from more easily obtainable soil data. Until now no studies have been conducted to derive or verify PTFs for calcar-eous soils, which hyd...

Soil textural components are the most common inputs in pedotransfer functions (PTFs), although other soil properties, such as bulk density, organic matter content and structural indexes, are also used. The possibility of using the geometric mean dg and the geometric standard deviation σg of soil particle diameters instead of soil particle size dist...

Phytoremediation is a new, in-situ and emerging remediation technology for contaminated soils. This technology, compared to other methods, is a sustainable, natural, relatively cheap and applicable to large scale area. Modeling phytoremediation provides quantitative insight for the governing process as well as for managers to assess the remediated...

Phytoremediation is a new technology that employs plants to remediate contaminated soils. This method compared to those that involve the use of large scale energy consuming equipments is an inexpensive method. Phytoremediation models are useful tools to further understanding the governing processes and also to manage the contaminated soils. A thoro...