IRAQI JOURNAL OF DESERT STUDIES

A pot experiment was carried out during spring and fall seasons 2018 at the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad. The layout of the experiment was factorial and aimed to study the effect of three factors on field emergence and its properties of maize seed. The first factor was four cultivars (Baghdad3, Fajr1, Al-Maha and Sara). The second factor was seed priming by soaked it in gibberellin (GA3) (primed and un-primed seed). The third factor was drought stress represented by irrigation interval (irrigation every 2, 4 and 6 days). Randomize complete block design with four replications was used. The results of spring season showed that seed priming led to give lower means of first day, time mean, and higher means of first and final count, coecient of velocity and index of field emergence (3.3 day, 5.2 day, 22.9%, 66.4%, 19.6 and 191), respectively. Treatment of irrigation every 2 days gave lower means of first day, time mean and higher means of first and final count, coecient of velocity and index of field emergence (3.8 day, 5.4 day, 17.7%, 61.9%, 19.1 and 163.1), respectively. The results of fall season showed that Al-Maha cultivar gave lower and higher means of first day and coecient of velocity of field emergence (4.0 day and 17.9), respectively. Baghdad3 cultivar gave higher means of first and final count, index, and lower mean of time mean of field emergence (11.3%, 56.7%, 145 and 5.7 day), respectively. Seed priming led to give lower means of first day, time mean, and higher means of first and final count, coecient of velocity and index of field emergence (3.9 day, 5.5 day, 10.9%, 54.9%, 18.3 and 142), respectively. Treatment of irrigation every 4 days gave lower mean of first day of field emergence (4.2 day). Treatment of irrigation every 2 days gave higher means of first and final count and index of field emergence (9.7%, 54.5% and 128), respectively. Treatment of (Sara × primed seed × irrigation every 6 days) gave lower mean of first day of field emergence (2.5 day). Treatment of (Baghdad3 × primed seed × irrigation every 2 days) gave higher means of first and final count, coefficient of velocity and index of field emergence (35.0%, 90.0%, 20.1 and 19.5), respectively. It can be concluded that Baghdad3 and Sarah the cultivars have the ability to tolerate drought stress somewhat after priming their seed, especially when planting in fall season. ,therefor it could be recommended to prim seed of these cultivars before planting under stress conditions of drought or not.

AL-Mimouna project is located on the boundaries of Maysan Governorate between the latitude 46 ° 45 '00 "- 47º 00' 00" and Attitude 31 ° 30' 00" - 31 ° 45 '00 ". Project area is about 54460 hac2. The aim was study the variation in soil characteristics using pedological statistics and the application of the numerical classification system with cluster analysis and the principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the 49 field survey sites distributed over seven taxonomic units and selected 21 pedological characteristics. Results showed that the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) extracted 6 main factors which explained 83.2% of the total variance. The first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth factors contributed 19.9, 17.3, 13.5, 12.2, 12.1 and 7.9%, respectively of the total depending on fixed properties to compare the lower taxonomic levels which due to the marginality among the classes especially the saline horizon problem. The suggested method by using oriented numerical classification with choosing effected properties without use of PCA was the nearest to classify the soil in study area and closed to traditional classification with similarity percentage range between 40-66%.

This study has been conducted to evaluate the fertility status of common soil series within diagnosed physiographic units in the Al-Wahda agricultural project, depending on chemical methods by estamating soil content from Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, then classifying the project soils according to their content of these nutrients. The physiographical and topogrifical maps of the project have been analyzed, and according to their results five pedons locations were selected, which represents the most extensive soil series in the project for morphological description and estimating some physical, chemical and fertility proparties, plus 45 Auger hole locations have been identified by grid method in each hole soil samples were collected at depths 0-0.15, 0.15-0.30 and 0.30-0.45 m to estimate some chemical and fertility properties (SOM, pH, ECe, Total N and available P & K). The results of study showed that highly saline soils was formed 40.9%, while moderately saline soils formed 31.8% , while strong saline soils percentage reached 27.3%. The Spatial distribution of soil's organic matter content classes in the project showed the supremacy of the low class with 80.2% in comparison to the medium class which formed 19.8%. Two total nitrogen classes were diagnosed which are very low and low with percentages of 87.5% and 12.5% respectively. The highest weighted mean for total N 0.132% was recorded at the irrigation levee soil, while the lowest value 0.039 was recorded at the depression soil. The spatial distribution map for available phosphorus ranged between 6-27mgP. Kg-1 and in a classical manner it showed extension in the medium class's area followed by a less degree of the low class. The two classes formed 65.2% and 34.8% respectively. The highest content value 17.9mg P.kg-1was found within the irrigation levee soil, while the lowest content 8.9 mg P.kg-1was showed at the depression soil physiographic unit. The spatial distribution of the available potassium coexisted of two classes high and medium which forming 26.4% and 73.6% respectively. The highest mean of soil's content 358.6 mg K.kg-1 was recorded in the depression soil, while the lowest mean 188.0 mg K.kg-1 was recorded at the irrigation levee soil. The nutrients index showed that soil's total nitrogen content reached 1.00 which means that Al-Wahda agricultural project's soils have low total nitrogen, while phosphorus index reached 2.30, which means that the project has moderate soil content of this element, while the potassium index reached 3.00 which means that soils potassium content is high.

Capparis spinosa is an effective wild medicinal plant in antibiotics field. Three extract methods aqueous, methanol and ethanol of growing seeds plant located at the Anbar desert were tested to inhibiting the growth of four species of important medical bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The results showed that the methanol extract was effectively inhibitor of C. spinosa the growth of all bacteria growth subjected to study while maximum inhibitory effect against B. subtilis was found by 24.8 mm greater inhibition zones followed by E. coli by 17.2 mm and the effect of ethanol extract C. spinosa inhibition of bacterial species was greater in B. subtilis (18.8 mm) followed by E. coli (12.7 mm). The effect of C. spinosa was the highest effect in B. subtilis and E. coli and was 11.7 and 16.8 mm respectively.

In order to study the effect of sedimentary environments on the iron and manganese crystallization indices. Six districts were selected in al-Anbar governorate, including al-Baghdadi, Heet, Abu Tayban, Ramadi, Khalidiya and Falluja district. Two pedons were taken for each region and two different environments, one was for the sedimentary and the other was for desert laid in a vertical direction on Euphrates River. The total iron, manganese, available iron , manganese, Crystalline Free Iron, manganese Oxides, and Amorphous iron, manganese oxides have been measured as well as calculation of crystallization indices for iron and manganese. The Results showed that the over the crystallization of iron and manganese index in desert soils was superior sedimentary soil, as well as the iron crystallization index compared with the manganese crystallization index with a presence in pattern distribution in the desert soil compared to the sedimentary soil affected by the movement and the transfer of clay from the surface horizons to sub horizons. The percentage of organic matter was effected negatively on the percentage of crystallization index in the surface horizon and for all environments .

The present investigation was conducted at research field station - College of Agriculture - Baghdad University - Abu Ghraib (25 km west of Baghdad). The location lie on latitude \24 44ْ North and longitude 33° 22\ west with the elevation of 34m above seat level during the growing season of 2017. The aim of this study is to schedule irrigation of quinoa using the pan evaporation method (pan class-A) under different potassium fertilization and nutrient uptake by the plant . The experimental design was split plot design with three replication including two factor the first was irrigation scheduling at 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 pan evaporation coefficient while the second was potassium fertilization levels were applied to the soil as potassium sulphate (48% K2O) with the level as 0.0 , 60,120 and 180 Kg ha-1. The results showed that there were a significant differences in the concentration of the three major nutrients in the quinoa grains. The highest absorption of the nitrogen element was obtained in the treatment of PEF1.2 and potassium fertilizer 120 Kg ha-1, which reached to 137.03 Kg ha -1, while the absorption of phosphorus and potassium in the quinoa grain was obtained the highest concentration of treatment PEF 1.2 and the level of fertilization of 180 kg ha-1 reached to 16.31 and 83.62 Kgha-1 for phosphorus and potassium respectively, while the protein level in quinoa seeds reached the highest level in the treatment of PEF1.2 and the level of fertilization 120 Kg ha-1.

The partical size play a big role in determination of floor tiles products characteristics, So the idea of this research came to study the effect of the partical size of the raw materials (caoline , glass sand , limestone, sodium silicate ) which extracted from the Anbar western desert in Iraq ,Including various types of stones and metals and it's consider as greater field for metals in Middle East, The effect of partical size on some physical properties such as water adsorption, resistance for thermal shock ,shrinkage after pride and the mechanical properties which represent by durability,We used raw materials with partical size 53 , 65 , 77 , 85 , 110 and 140 µm and used manufacturing methods similar to that used in General company of ceramic industry in Anbar province from where mixing ratio, incineration conditions. The study showed that the partical size play a big role in determination of products characteristics, So the best size of raw materials was 77 µm give the lowest ratio of adsorption of water which is 14.5% and the resistance of thermal shock 150 thermal period , the shrinkage ratio was the least possible 0.5%, also we noticed improvement in durability which was 137 kg .m-2.

The paper aims to estimate runoff based on the values of single storm which is calculated as a first step for water harvesting to contribute water scarcity and management of surface water resources, as well as to find morphometric properties of Almurr basin .The Basin is located north-west of Iraq in the province of Nineveh, with a total area (2469 km 2). Dams were proposed, chosen in the best and most suitable sites to store rain water. SCS developed method adopted to estimate the depth of surface runoff for the study area, taking into consideration the important variables as, soil type, land use and antecedent moisture content (AMC).watershed Modeling system (WMS) Technique, satellite images, digital maps and digital elevation model (DEM) were used to simulate and analyze hydrological data and to determine the best sections of the proposed dams sites. Data of daily rains of Rabiaa station of the period (2003-2012) were adopted for the purpose of estimating runoff. Almurr basin was divided into fifteen Sub basins. The (2 and 15) Sub basins were found to be the best water harvesting. Consequently, most suitable locations were selected at the end of each these two sub basins as the proposed site for the construction of a dam of five meters height. The reserved water estimated at (820 830) m3 and (668323) m3 for the two sub basins respectively. The mean rainfall for the above period reached (297) mm and the depth of surface runoff between (2.17and 46.2) mm. The rainstorms during (2007-2008) and (2011-2012) did not produce any surface runoff

Lath house trial was conducted out at Horticulture and Landscape Design Department, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad ( Abu-Ghraib ), the alternative porition of University of Anbar, for the period from April 2017 to January 2018 to study the effect of foliar spraying with growth regulator ( Thidiazuron ) ( TDZ ) and nutrient solution ( Folizyme-GA ) in some growth and minerals traits of Marumi Kumquat saplings, 108 uniform saplings were selected in their growth as much as possible at the age of three years, a factorial experiment was conducted according to the Randomized Complete Block Design ( RCBD ), with three replicates for each treatment, the experiment included spraying with four concentrations of growth regulator ( 0 , 10 , 20 and 30 mg l-1 ), and three levels of spraying with nutrient solution ( 0 , 1 and 2 ml l-1 ) . The results showed that the two factors of the study had a significant effect in all studied traits, especially the foliar application treatment of ( TDZ ) at 20 mg l-1 and spraying with nutrient solution of Folizyme-GA at a concentration of 2 ml L-1, where achieved a significant superiority in the average increase in number and length of main shoots, number of leaves, leaves area, dry weight of vegetative parts, percentage of carbohydrates in shoots, leaves content of nitrogen, phosphorus, Potassium and chlorophyll, which recorded 9.50 shoot . sapling -1, 8.58 shoot . sapling -1, 32.86 cm, 32.64 cm, 417.8 leaf . sapling -1, 394.1 leaf . sapling -1, 84.99 dm2, 78.96 dm2, 124.30 gm, 112.98 gm, 9.40, 9.19, 2.52, 2.47, 0.30, 0.31, 1.69, 1.72%, 10.98 mg gm-1 fresh weight and 10.80 mg gm-1 fresh weight respectively for both factors of the study, while the control treatment gave the lowest values for all above traits .