<p>Aerosol formation is an important contributor to climate in different environments. Coastal ecosystems are of special interest, since their habitat types and species can be highly diverse which can lead to high variability in fluxes of aerosol precursor vapours. Here, we present the first results from an atmospheric observatory established in 2022 at the Tvärminne Zoological Station (TZS) on the southern coast of Finland as a part of the Centre for Coastal Ecosystem and Climate Change Research (CoastClim). This work is focused on new particle formation (NPF) and how it is influenced by the coastal environment. NPF occurred at TZS roughly as often as at the well-established boreal forest site Hyytiälä, 230 km north-north-east of TZS. However, only one-third of the events occurred during the same days at both stations. Similarly to Hyytiälä, NPF events were most likely to be observed when clean air masses from the Norwegian Sea pass over the boreal forest region. To understand the special characteristics of aerosol formation at the coast, we also studied local intermediate ion formation (LIIF), which can tell us about aerosol formation potential in the vicinity of the measurement site. LIIF was more abundant over the continent compared to the marine sector and it was favoured by low condensation sink and sunny dry conditions. This study presents an overview of aerosol size distributions at TZS and provides a basis for future work, which will aim to understand the sources of coastal aerosol precursors and their links to coastal ecology and biogeochemistry.</p>
Introduction. Shonla is a mountainous province located in the northwestern region of Vietnam, has a complex and diverse terrain with many shapes of hills, valleys and rivers. The assessment of the state of the geo-ecological conditions of the province of Shonla contributes to the development by government agencies of measures aimed at the protection and rational use of the natural environment, which is the basis for the transition to a model of sustainable development and prevention of risks caused by geological processes.Aim. Studying and assessing the current state of the geoecological conditions in Son La province, Vietnam and the proposal of measures for the transiton to models of sustainable development of the territory.Materials and methods. To obtain information about the geoecological conditions of the territory of the province of Shonla, all previously performed geological, geographical, geodynamic, hydrogeological and other studies were collected, analyzed and summarized. Special attention was paid to the collection of materials for assessing the state and degree of activity of exogenous geological processes. The field research, which was carried out with the participation of one of the authors, included a large complex of geological, hydrogeological, geophysical, hydrological and other methods. Data reflecting the current state of the geoecological conditions of the territory and the degree of impact of the existing functional infrastructure on the environment as a whole were obtained. Remote sensing materials were used to assess the geoecological condition of the territory of Shonla province.Results. The province of Shonla is a hilly area with steep slopes located along a system of fast-flowing rivers, which creates complex geoecological conditions and indicates the possibility of various geological processes and phenomena that pose a danger during the functional development of the territory. At the same time, Shongla is a territory with favorable conditions for the development of various types of natural ecotourism, which is currently actively developing in Vietnam. The main groups of natural resources located in the territory of Shonla province include land, forest and mineral resources. The study of the geoecological conditions of the province of Shonla (relief and geomorphology, geological structure, hydrogeology, mineral resources) made it possible to identify environmental problems arising from the use of the territory and propose measures for the transition to a model of sustainable development of the region.Conclusions. In the process of geological development of the territory, the characteristic features of the relief of the province of Shonla were formed. The territory is located in a region with a complex geological structure and the presence of large tectonic fault systems, which increases the risk of geological processes such as earthquakes, flash floods, landslides and others. The assessment of geoecological conditions is a scientific and methodological basis for the development and implementation of measures to prevent natural risks. In order to preserve the unique natural resources, it is necessary to develop and implement a regional model for the transition to sustainable development of the province of Shonla. The results obtained in the course of research can be directly used in construction projects, transport and management structures, as well as in planning the socio-economic development of settlements located in the province of Shonla.
This article is devoted to the topic of evaluating the quality of NMT-translation models, as well as methods of evaluating the quality of the obtained translations. The research we have conducted in the field of comparison of NMT-based translations of special texts is of high relevance in today’s translator work environment, where modern technologies are used to facilitate work processes and improve the quality of services. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of current neural machine translation (NMT) models and methods for assessing the quality of translated texts produced using them, with a focus on the application of these models to the translation of legal and legislative literature. The study aims to identify the advantages and limitations of existing NMT technologies, as well as to identify areas for their further improvement. In order to achieve this goal, the following tasks were formulated: to review and analyze the main NMT models, including Seq2Seq, Transformer, BERT and their variations, in order to identify their peculiarities and applicability to the translation of different types of texts; to study and evaluate the quality of translation made with the help of modern NMT systems; to carry out a comparative analysis of the translation of legal texts using the methods of contextual analysis, structural-semantic and comparative-comparative analysis; to determine the limitations of the existing NMT models; to identify the advantages and limitations of the existing NMT models for the translation of legal texts. The paper analyses modern NMT models, including Seq2Seq, Transformer, BERT and their variations, investigating the features of each model and their applicability to different language pairs. Special attention is paid to the evaluation of NMT translation quality using BLEU, METEOR, TER metrics as well as human evaluation of translation quality. The texts of translations of specialized literature in various fields and publicistic texts on relevant topics made with the help of NMT systems were studied using contextual analysis methods, as well as structural-semantic and comparative-semantic methods. The research conducted allows us to conclude that modern NMT models are highly effective and capable of generating high-quality translations in different languages. However, despite the success achieved, some limitations have been identified that require further research and improvements. The study provides a better understanding of current NMT translation models, their applicability and translation quality. The results and conclusions of the study can be useful for both the academic community and practitioners in the field of (machine) translation and linguistics. Furthermore, the results and conclusions of this paper emphasize the importance of further research to improve the quality of automatic translation and to extend its field of application.
Abstract
The aim of the present study is to design a smart leadership model for education managers. The research method is applicable according to its purpose, and its method is qualitative and of the type of content analysis. The statistical population includes 12 university professors and scientific research experts with a degree in public administration, as well as education managers and experts in Torbat Heydariyeh city, who were selected through purposive sampling dependent on the selection criteria, and the selection of samples continued until theoretical saturation was reached. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. The validity of the research data was examined and confirmed by returning to the participants and external auditors. The content analysis method and Atlas ti8 software were used to analyze the data. The results indicate that 4 organizing themes: pragmatic management, knowledge management, organizational management, and team management were identified and confirmed; and the results also showed that the elements of the smart leadership model for education managers are knowledge management, organizational management, team management, and pragmatic management.
Extended abstract
Introduction
Today, the issue of leadership is one of the most important topics in the field of organizational behavior, which has been discussed and practiced in various ways for a long time. In the last fifty years, when systemic theories about organizations have been formed, the issue of organizational leadership has also been an important and noteworthy topic, and various discussions and numerous researches have been presented and conducted around it. One of the approaches recently attracted the attention of management experts is intelligent leadership (Haight et al, 2017). Intelligent leadership is an exchange of ideas between a leader and followers in a specific situation, who work effectively with each other to achieve a common vision (Majlesi et al, 2020). Today, future leaders consider it necessary to recognize a change pattern in order to open windows of success for themselves and seize it; and to achieve it, they need many competencies; Smart leadership as a process and competency leadership takes this into account (Marishane & Mampane, 2019). It should be noted that the goal of smart leadership is to create the necessary skills and enthusiasm to achieve organizational leadership knowledge and improve leadership intelligence within individuals. Double effectiveness, strategic and flexible thinking, operational focus, and balance are other knowledge achievements of this theory. In fact, leadership is a real phenomenon and plays a prominent role in the effectiveness of organizations (O'Brien, 2022).
Therefore, the present study, with the aim of designing and developing a model for smart leadership in education using the interpretive structural modeling technique, seeks to design and present a model for smart leadership in education, and answer the question: what the interpretive structural model of smart leadership in education looks like?
Theoretical Framework of
Leadership
Leadership is a simple yet elegant concept, which is why there are numerous definitions. Many management experts have different views on what leadership entails, but in general, they agree that leadership involves the power to influence individuals or groups to achieve goals (Amzat et al, 2020).
Smart Leadership
Smart leadership is one of the approaches that management experts have recently paid attention to; therefore, according to leadership theories in new models, an attempt is made to look at the phenomenon of leadership from a creative and intelligent angle (Ali & Rashid, 2020). Smart leadership is an exchange of ideas between a leader and followers in a specific situation, who work effectively with each other to achieve a common vision (Majlesi & Khani, 2019).
Cheraghchi (2023) states in his research that the effectiveness of manager is determined by his management and leadership style. In his research, he examined pragmatic and transformational leadership styles and their types, and showed that a manager, based on his personality and the organization in which he works, can use a specific leadership style or a combination of styles to increase progress and growth. Familiarity with different leadership styles enables an individual to analyze different situations and choose the most appropriate style. He also states that all styles can be effective in specific situations.
Toosi et al, (2022) conducted a study aimed at providing a model for smart leadership in the central organization of Islamic Azad University. In this study, the data in the qualitative section, including three stages of data coding, were analyzed through a coding process and based on a systematic design of grounded theory. The results of the qualitative section indicated the identification of smart leadership components in 5 main components, 21 subcategories, and 98 sub-indices. In the quantitative phase of the research, managers specializing in macro-planning at the middle and senior levels of the Islamic Azad University were selected as the population. The number of staff managers of the central organization of the Islamic Azad University was 114, and the number of staff managers in the provinces was 40, which made a total of 154 people selected as the statistical population. Due to the limited statistical population, the statistical sample was considered equal to the number of 154 people. To collect data from the statistical sample, a researcher-made intelligent leadership questionnaire was used. In the quantitative part, confirmatory factor analysis was first used, and then the relationships between the main indicators were identified using the structural equation model; and after confirming the relationships between the variables, an appropriate model was presented. The findings of the quantitative part showed that the final model of intelligent leadership was confirmed with 5 components of rational leadership, emotional leadership, spiritual leadership, collective leadership, and political leadership.
Research Methodology
The research method is applicable according to its purpose, and its method is qualitative and of the type of content analysis. The statistical population consists of 12 university professors and scientific research experts with a degree in public administration, along with education managers and experts in Torbat Heydariyeh city, selected through purposive sampling dependent on the selection criteria; and the selection of samples continued until theoretical saturation. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. The validity of the research data was examined and confirmed through feedback to the participants and external auditors.
Research findings
For data analysis, the content analysis method and Atlas ti8 software were used. The results indicate that 4 organizing themes: pragmatic management, knowledge management, organizational management, and team management were identified and confirmed; and the results as well showed that the components of the intelligent leadership model of education managers are knowledge management, organizational management, team management, and pragmatic management.
Conclusion
The present study was conducted with the aim of designing an intelligent leadership model for education managers. The results of this study are in line with the research of Cheraghchi (2023), Mohtaram & Pakbaz (2023), Fazlail & Moazzami (2023), Toosi et al, (2022), Hejazi & Hossein zadeh (2020), Ali & Rashid (2020), Keikha et al, (2019), Lang (2019), Jalali et al, (2019), Oleksiyenko & Ruan (2018), Keikha (2017), Mohamadi & Farahbakhsh (2015), Rutkauskas & Stasytyte (2013), and Mattone (2013). Lang (2019) showed that given today's changing business environment, what context and platform should be the aim of organizational leaders. Based on published research on the context and platform, this article develops a model of contextual intelligence that can be applied to develop better methods for leadership training. The model encompasses four concerns: contextual sensitivity, situational awareness and judgment, situational adaptability, and response judgment. In the next step, the article focuses on the necessary complexity that leaders must achieve if such a model is to be operationalized. This required complexity includes four components: general cognitive complexity, social complexity, affective complexity, and self-complexity.
In line with the results obtained, the following suggestions are made:
Provide funding for the electronic resource allocation and deployment system.
Design a reward and incentive system that is appropriate for innovative and collaborative employee performance.
Reduce cumbersome rules and processes based on informal structures.
Consider joint goal setting through management by objectives techniques.
Provide special budget to implement an optimal management system for economic and human investments.
In accordance with the characteristics of integrated small reactor, a study was conducted on the postulated siting accident source term scheme. The principles for selecting accident types were explored for both the design basis accident condition and the design extension condition. For the deterministic design basis accident condition, a representative accident, such as a fuel handling accident, was identified from the perspective of envelope; for the design extension condition, a representative accident was identified based on the likelihood of accident occurrence, such as when the screening frequency is 10−7/(reactor·year). When the probability of core damage is extremely low, it is considered to construct at least one entire core fuel cladding damage accident as a representative case. Focusing on the radioactive production, migration, removal, and release, a study was conducted on the source term analysis models and key parameter values of various representative accidents, thus simulating the radioactive activity released into the environment by the accident and identifying 131I as the dominant nuclide that should be given special attention. Taking a coastal plant site as the object, the dose to the public staying at 16 locations along the site boundary after the accident was further evaluated, and it was demonstrated that even reducing the site boundary to 100 m around the reactor can meet the dose limit requirements of the “small reactor review principle”, and the suitability of the source term schemes was certificated.
Xinjiang is the main cotton-producing area in China. However, its natural environment is special, and natural disasters frequently occur during the agricultural production process. Fortunately, the application of modern agricultural production technology provides a good tool for cotton farmers to reduce disaster losses. In order to analyze the impact of agricultural natural disasters on farmers’ adoption of agricultural production technology, based on the survey data of 216 cotton farmers in the main cotton production areas, this study uses a binary logistic model to analyze the impact of disaster types and stages on cotton farmers’ application of drip irrigation water-saving technology. The results show that hail, drought, and disease disasters have a significant impact on the application of drip irrigation water-saving technology, considering that the damage to equipment and technology’s control of disasters are the reasons behind; post-disaster remediation in the growth or maturity period also has a significant impact, which can reduce losses; and market price risk for cotton also has a significant impact.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a worldwide impact on the work of libraries of all types, as it required their organisers to respond to the rapidly changing needs of user communities and institutions. A number of organisational strategies were developed to adjust the libraries’ operation and their environment to the new extraordinary conditions. The dynamic epidemiological situation and the rapid acquisition of the associated knowledge resulted in some implemented arrangements being only temporary and some becoming permanent. In this article, which is a case study of the actions taken by the organisers and managers of the Library of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, individual stages of implementing the rules introduced in connection with the COVID-19 hazard from March 2020 to September 2021 are discussed. The author attempts to describe the extent to which the unique situation justified deviating from standard library management rules, and pays special attention to the legal aspects of the decisions made. The text presents the rationale, solutions and discussions related to the new rules for organising the librarians’ work, serving users and providing access to collections.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
Abstract Background Previous studies have discussed the special structural adaptations of Late Palaeozoic lycopsids, for example, the dispersal potential of reproductive organs. Based on materials from the Upper Devonian Wutong Formation in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province, China, we now analyze the morphometric and perform some calculation to evaluate the dispersal of sporophyll units of lycopsids. Results The fossil sporophyll units are divided into two types in view of obvious difference in shape and we name two new (form) species for them. We also analyze the falling process and give the calculation method of dispersal distance. Conclusions The fossil sporophyll units show relatively poor potential of wind dispersal compared with modern samaras, and show potential adaptation to the turbulent environment.
Purpose: analysis of the water bodies state monitoring system operating on the territory of Russia, identification of problems of accounting for diffuse pollution of water bodies in the framework of state monitoring of water bodies and development of proposals for its improvement.
Materials and methods. Data from the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, Russian meteorological service, Federal Service of State Statistics, research by Russian scientists on this theme, and Internet materials were used as materials for research. Methods of systemic complex study, comparison, generalization and analysis of data were used.
Results. The unified system of state environmental monitoring (state monitoring of environment), founded to ensure environmental protection in Russia, and the system of state monitoring of water bodies included in it, and its organizational aspects are analyzed. Problems that do not allow to assess the diffuse pollution of water bodies reliably, especially dangerous and significant in size in the zones of agricultural production, located mainly in the catchments of small rivers when conducting state monitoring of water bodies have been identified.
Conclusions. The composition and structure of water bodies state monitoring data, which is currently operating, are mainly focused on monitoring water quality in the zone of industrial-urbanized territories, which are characterized by point (concentrated) types of pollution sources, and their intensity is relatively stable in time and space. The solution to the problem of identifying diffuse sources of water bodies pollution, assessing the degree of their impact on the quality of water resources and exercising control over them is represented in organization and conduct of special (additional) work during all typical hydrological seasons - flooding and high water, especially their upward branches, within the framework of water bodies state monitoring.
Carlos Javier Pelegrín, Yaiza Flores, Alfonso Jiménez
et al.
Chemical contaminants should not be present in beverages for human consumption, but could eventually be ingested by consumers as they may appear naturally from the environment or be produced by anthropogenic sources. These contaminants could belong to many different chemical sources, including heavy metals, amines, bisphenols, phthalates, pesticides, perfluorinated compounds, inks, ethyl carbamate, and others. It is well known that these hazardous chemicals in beverages can represent a severe threat by the potential risk of generating diseases to humans if no strict quality control is applied during beverages processing. This review compiles the most updated knowledge of the presence of potential contaminants in various types of beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), as well as in their containers, to prevent undesired migration. Special attention is given to the extraction and pre-concentration techniques applied to these samples, as well as to the analytical techniques necessary for the determination of chemicals with a potential contaminant effect. Finally, an overview of the current legislation is carried out, as well as future trends of research in this field.
Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Nutritional diseases. Deficiency diseases
Angela Ianniciello, Kevin M. Rattigan, G. Vignir Helgason
Discovered over fifty years ago, autophagy is a double-edged blade. On one hand, it regulates cellular energy sources by “cannibalization” of its own cellular components, feeding on proteins and other unused cytoplasmic factors. On the other, it is a recycling process that removes dangerous waste from the cytoplasm keeping the cell clean and healthy. Failure of the autophagic machinery is translated in dysfunction of the immune response, in aging, and in the progression of pathologies such as Parkinson disease, diabetes, and cancer. Further investigation identified autophagy with a protective role in specific types of cancer, whereas in other cases it can promote tumorigenesis. Evidence shows that treatment with chemotherapeutics can upregulate autophagy in order to maintain a stable intracellular environment promoting drug resistance and cell survival. Leukemia, a blood derived cancer, represents one of the malignancies in which autophagy is responsible for drug treatment failure. Inhibition of autophagy is becoming a strategic target for leukemic stem cell (LSC) eradication. Interestingly, the latest findings demonstrate that LSCs show higher levels of mitochondrial metabolism compared to normal stem cells. With this review, we aim to explore the links between autophagy and metabolism in the hematopoietic system, with special focus on primitive LSCs.
This article reviews and analyzes national and international legislation on the protection of natural ecological systems and other types of them. The scientific views on the concept of ecological system, agrarian ecological system, agro landscape are investigated. System analysis of legislation in the field of protection and preservation of ecological systems allows to state that it is at the stage of formation and needs improvement. It is emphasized that the legal mechanism for protecting and preserving both natural ecological systems and other types of them is fragmentary and needs substantial improvement.
The author of the article emphasizes that for the maintenance and proper functioning of ecological systems, regardless of whether they are created artificially or naturally, any activity permitted by law must be carried out in compliance with the requirements for the protection of land, soils and other natural resources, the preservation of interconnections and the interaction of all the components that are part of the ecosystem. In addition, the issue of preserving ecological systems, maintaining their integrity should be considered as one of the strategic objectives of the state ecological and land policy of the country.
It is important to note that ecosystems are changing (and sometimes destroyed) under the influence of industrial and other human activities, which leads to irreversible negative changes in the natural environment. Thus, there is a need for the allocation and consolidation of ecosystems as a special object of protection at the legislative level. As well as more detailed regulation in the legislation of the provisions on their protection and restoration.
In this paper we consider the topography of the burials of the Early Byzantine period (5th – 6th centuries), containing in their inventory items of German origin found in some cities of Northern Illyricum, whose necropolises were subjected to extensive excavations: Sirmium, Singidunum, Viminacium (present-day Northern Serbia). Two different types of burial places with German objects were witnessed on these city burials: isolated burials on cemeteries common to the whole population and separate cemeteries with the predominance of the German element. It can be assumed that these different types of organization of the funerary space correspond to different forms of settling of barbarians in the cities of the northern borderland of the Late Roman / Early Byzantine Illyricum. The barbarous presence in the urban burial context is very slight. In Syrmium, which repeatedly fell under the power of the barbarians (priests, gepids), a few barbarous burials were committed in cemeteries, which belonged mainly to the Roman city population, which indicates a fairly deep integration of the outgoing barbarians into the urban late-antique environment. In Singidunum and Viminacium, the frontier fortresses on the Danube, special “barbarian” cemeteries stand out, since the barbarians settled here were primarily a military force, that is, a separate social group with its own structure. It is also possible that unlike Sirmium, where archaeological traces of the presence of the Roman population are clearly revealed, barbarian mercenaries and their families accounted for a numerical majority in the garrison towns of the Danube borderland.
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, International relations
Experimental determinations of Drosophila population dynamics cannot be explained by the Lotka-Volterra model of interspecific competition. This paper presents other possible mathematical models of competition between species, and gives the results of experiments designed to test the validity of such models. Eight of the ten new models presented contain the Lotka-Volterra model as a special case. The experiments made to test the models are of two kinds. Type 1 experiments are continuous one- or two-species populations, which permit the estimation of the carrying capacity of each species and the numbers of the two species at the point of stable equilibrium. Type 2 experiments measure the change in numbers over a short time interval in populations started with many different initial densities of the two species. Type 2 experiments give information on the dynamics of the two-species system in the phase plane whose coordinates are the number of individuals of each species. The models accounting best for the results are models five and seven (Table II). Each of these two models contains one parameter more than the Lotka-Volterra model. Model five adds a nonlinear term of self-interaction (−βiN2i). Model seven has the form, dNi/dt = riN/Kθii(Kθii − Nθi i − αijNj1−θi i). The exponential parameter θ removes the restriction of the logistic theory of population growth, that each individual added to the population decrease the rate of growth of the population by a constant amount. With model seven the rate of growth of a population of a single species need not have its maximum at K2, that is when the number of individuals is half the carrying capacity of the environment.
Introduction: Physical and biological soil crusts are the principal types of soil crusts. Physical and biological soil crusts are distributed in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid regions which constitute over 40% of the earth terrestrial surface. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) result from an intimate association between soil particles and cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens and mosses in different proportions which live on the surface, or in the immediately uppermost millimeters of soil. Some of the functions that BSCs influences include: water absorption and retention, nutrient retention, Carbon and nitrogen fixation, biological activate and hydrologic Status. BSCs are important from the ecological view point and their effects on the environment, especially in rangeland, and desert ecosystems and this caused which researchers have a special attention to this component of the ecosystems more than before.
Materials and Methods: This study carried out in the Qara Qir rangelands of Golestan province, northeast of Iran (37º15′ - 37º23′ N &54º33′ -54º39′ E), to investigate the effects of BSCs on some of soil biological properties. Four sites including with and without BSCs cover were selected. Soil biological properties such as microbial populations, soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, as well as, other effective properties such asorganic carbon percent, total nitrogen, electrical conductivity, and available water content were measured in depths of 0-5 and 5-15 cm of soil with four replications. The gathered data were analyzed by nested plot, and the mean values were compared by Duncan test.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that organic carbon and water content were higher at the surface under BSCs, followed by 5-15 cm soils under BSCs. Both soil depths of uncrusted soils showed substantially lower organic carbon and water content than the BSC-covered soils. Total nitrogen was far higher in BSC-encrusted surface soils than uncrusted surface soils or BSC sub-surface soils. All Electrical conductivities were lower in surface soils covered with BSCs than sub-surface soils. The values for non-BSC covered soils were far higher than values for soils covered with BSCs. The values of soil biological properties such as microbial populations, soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were higher at the surface under BSCs, followed by 5-15 cm soils under BSCs. The values for non-BSC covered soils were far lower than values for soils covered with BSCs at 0-5 cm depth but these properties in the uncrusted soils did not differ with BSCs covered surface at 5-15 cm depth. The amount of organic carbon was higher in BSC-covered surface soils at both measured depths, likely due to the ability of BSCs to fix atmospheric carbon. This leads to enhanced BSCs biomass and thus organic carbon especially in the soil surface layer (0-5 cm). An extensive cover of even a thin layer of photosynthetically active organisms can be an important basis for carbon input into the soil. BSCs also produce and secrete extracellular polysaccharides into surrounding soils, increasing the soil carbon and nitrogen pool. In general, there is a positive correlation between C and N fixation by BSCs. Also distribution of soil microbial population is positively correlated with the distribution of organic carbon and nitrogen. Microbial population is reduced following increase at depth, which is proportional to reduce of the concentration of nutrient and suitable conditions such as water content for growing them. Therefore proportionate to Microbial population, the properties such as soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were reduced following increase at depth, because it did not provide the conditions for living organisms. These conditions were more inappropriate for non-BSC covered soils due to lower water content, organic carbon, total nitrogen and much higher electrical conductivity at both depths especially at 5-15 cm depth.
Conclusion: Biological soil crusts can play a key role in the biological properties of soil. Our data showed that organic carbon percent, total nitrogen, and available water content and biological properties such as microbial populations, soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were increased significantly in two mentioned depths especially in 0-5 cm depth on sites covered with BSCs, relative to without BSCs. Electrical Conductivity had a reverse trend. In general, it can be concluded that BSCs improve soil conditions and provide suitable habitats for heterotrophic microorganisms and increase soil microbial activity. As the presence of BSCs generally increased the positive qualities of the soil, it is suggested that they can be used as a qualitative indicator of soil quality in rangelands.
Agriculture (General), Irrigation engineering. Reclamation of wasteland. Drainage