Browsing by Author "Herrero, Juan"
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Item Editorial: Human-wildlife conflicts: consequences of the erosion of the available habitat, introduction of alien species, and anthropization(2023) Angelici, Francesco M.; Gippoliti, Spartaco; Herrero, Juan; Meriggi, Alberto; Perry, Gad (TTU)Why do human-wildlife conflicts exist? Before answering this fundamental question, we would like to point out that there are no problematic species in themselves. Unfortunately, the growth of human population has often created conflicts, or in any case interactions, often with dramatic consequences, between humanity and wildlife. In fact, the human population increases continuously dramatically in number, and the degradation of the world’s natural areas decreases through deforestation, urbanization, intensive agriculture, pastures, fires, etc. This has already caused the disappearance of habitats, communities and animal species, disappearance includes local and unfortunately with no return. To make man (and his activities) coexist with wildlife, it is increasingly necessary to implement strategies, to reach a compromise, always with a view to being able to safeguard, if possible, nature, its components and functions. We should be aware that successful conservation programs, especially of large carnivores, may also led to conflicts (Gippoliti et al., 2018; Herrero et al., 2021). Management between researchers and local communities should be strengthened, again being fully aware that some forms of conflicts in wildlife-human coexistence are unavoidable (Hill, 2021).Item Established soil science methods can benefit the construction industry when determining gypsum content(2021) Herrero, Juan; Zartman, Richard E. (TTU)We reviewed the treatment of gypsum and related calcium sulfates in a variety of scientific articles, most of which are about construction materials and their recycling. We checked if the substances involved in the reviewed articles had their gypsum content determined, and we depicted how these determinations were recently addressed in soil science. The corollary is that the easy and reliable analytical methods developed in soil science for gypsum content are overlooked in industrial studies. We suggest that the methods from soil science would work for many construction materials namely those with earthy or loose consistence and with heterogeneous composition, such as is the case for debris or rubble needing an assessment of gypsum content for their re-use, recycling, or disposal. The simple, robust proposed methods developed in soil science will reduce the isolation of the disciplines, an effect of the atomization of science in increasingly narrower sub-disciplines.Item Sensor-based assessment of soil salinity during the first years of transition from flood to sprinkler irrigation(2018) Casterad, Ma Auxiliadora; Herrero, Juan; Betrán, Jesús A.; Ritchie, Glen (TTU)A key issue for agriculture in irrigated arid lands is the control of soil salinity, and this is one of the goals for irrigated districts when changing from flood to sprinkling irrigation. We combined soil sampling, proximal electromagnetic induction, and satellite data to appraise how soil salinity and its distribution along a previously flood-irrigated field evolved after its transformation to sprinkling. We also show that the relationship between NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) and ECe (electrical conductivity of the soil saturation extracts) mimics the production function between yield and soil salinity. Under sprinkling, the field had a double crop of barley and then sunflower in 2009 and 2011. In both years, about 50% of the soil of the entire studied field— 45 ha—had ECe < 8 dS m−1i.e., allowing barley cultivation, while the percent of surface having ECe ≥ 16 dS m−1 increased from 8.4% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2011. Our methodology may help monitor the soil salinity oscillations associated with irrigation management. After quantifying and mapping the soil salinity in 2009 and 2011, we show that barley was stunted in places of the field where salinity was higher. Additionally, the areas of salinity persisted after the subsequent alfalfa cropping in 2013. Application of differential doses of water to the saline patches is a viable method to optimize irrigation water distribution and lessen soil salinity in sprinkler-irrigated agriculture.Item Two fixed ratio dilutions for soil salinity monitoring in hypersaline wetlands(2015) Herrero, Juan; Weindorf, David C. (TTU); Castañeda, CarmenHighly soluble salts are undesirable in agriculture because they reduce yields or the quality of most cash crops and can leak to surface or sub-surface waters. In some cases salinity can be associated with unique history, rarity, or special habitats protected by environmental laws. Yet in considering the measurement of soil salinity for long-term monitoring purposes, adequate methods are required. Both saturated paste extracts, intended for agriculture, and direct surface and/or porewater salinity measurement, used in inundated wetlands, are unsuited for hypersaline wetlands that often are only occasionally inundated. For these cases, we propose the use of 1:5 soil/water (weight/weight) extracts as the standard for expressing the electrical conductivity (EC) of such soils and for further salt determinations. We also propose checking for ion-pairing with a 1:10 or more diluted extract in hypersaline soils. As an illustration, we apply the two-dilutions approach to a set of 359 soil samples from saline wetlands ranging in ECe from 2.3 dS m-1 to 183.0 dS m-1. This easy procedure will be useful in survey campaigns and in the monitoring of soil salt content. Copyright: