Urban spraw1 is one of the main problems that led to the reduction of the limited fertile land in the Nile Delta in Egypt.Now in Egypt, it may cause problems in food security.Remote sensing and GIS are effective tools to map and analyze urban sprawl using three Land sat images (Land sat-TM acquired in 1986, Land sat-ETM + acquired in 2013 and Landsat-OLI acquired in 2019), which provide needed data for measuring the change in urban area for the studied area.The purpose of this study is to estimate the changes in Agriculture area due to urban sprawl in El-Gharbiya Governorate, Egypt by using remotely sensed Land sat multispectral images for the period between the years 1986 to 2019.Software's (ENVI 5.1and ArcGIS 10.2) have been used for processing and analyzing remote sensing data.Satellite data monitoring of land use -land cover changes in the study area.There were two classes identified in the studied area in 1986 and 2019, the agricultural area and urban sprawl.Area of agriculture land decreasing by 6000 ha.Urban area increasing by 5880 ha.The changing patterns of human life, human activities and increasing population growth in the study area have accelerated the environmental degradation.Urban expansion is the land degradation process in the study area.Agriculture, which present the first and largest economic sectors in the study area need to get more attention from the Government because these are most influenced and damaged sectors by urban encroachment.The application of law in Egypt must be enhanced and the essential services must be provided for the increase in the development of rural areas.
Mineralogical, petrographic and stable isotope analyses were carried out on sediment and rock samples collected from a deep-sea cold seep province in the Paola Ridge (southeastern Tyrrhenian Sea). The results, coupled with the interpretation of the seafloor backscatter, constrained both the biogeochemical zonation and the spatial distribution of the cold seep habitats in the area. These have proved to change in depth in a range of few meters and laterallywithin narrow zones. The mud volcanoes, characterized by a high backscatter signature, are the site of vigorous gas venting and, in the subsurface, show a rapid transition from the oxic sea water interface toward the methane-sulfate transition zone in the sediments. Intermediate backscatter typifies areas where free venting is hampered by the presence of mudflows at the seafloor. These conditions favor: i) the oxidation of sulfides near the seafloor, ii) the precipitation of siderites a few meters below the seafloor and iii) the formation of sulfides deeper in the sub-seafloor. Faults are likely candidates to act as conduits for sulfates and metal oxides that juxtapose different redox environments. Siderites precipitated in the fast and low venting sites showed enrichment in δ13C and δ18O, which are compatible with their precipitation in the methanogenic zone. The heavy-oxygen isotopic compositions of the siderites are possibly related to the dissociation of gas hydrates, which have not been mapped so far by seismic data in the study area. Mud diapirism is characterized by low backscatter seafloor, large fields of pockmarks and is dissected bynormal faults. In coincidence with the normal faults, authigenic calcites and aragonites are present at or very close to the seafloor. They have the typical isotopic signature indicating formation during sulfate-dependent microbially-mediated anaerobic oxidation of methane.They are associated with Lucinoma borealis, the youngest being dated 640-440 BP. This suggests that the seepage activity in the mud diapirs was likely clogged by either carbonates or activity of the faults only very recently.
This work aims at assessing the groundwater quality in Halaib and Shalatien area, the main water resource for irrigation and civic utilization is groundwater (springs and wells).The groundwater aquifers in this area could be classified into three aquifer systems according to their litho-stratigraphic as follows: Fractured basement aquifer system, Nubian sandstone aquifer system and Quaternary aquifer system.13 samples from different aquifer systems were taken in the study area; four samples were taken from groundwaters of fractured basement aquifer, eight from the Nubian sandstone aquifer and one from the Quaternary aquifer.Assessment in terms of salinity and sodicity hazards according to USDA (1954).Evaluation of groundwater quality using irrigation water quality index (IWQI) method was established by Meireles et al. (2010) for agricultural purposes with help of the Geographic Information System (GIS) technique.Five chemical parameters were utilized to calculate the IWQI including EC, Na + , Cl -, HCO3 -and SAR.The IWQI map results showed that 46.2 % of the samples classified as low restricted are suitable for irrigation directly without any processing, 23.1% of the samples classified as moderate to highly restricted and can be used only in soils with high permeability values, recommended leaching of salts to avoid soil degradation.The remaining (30.7%) of the studied samples classified as severe restricted are suitable only for soils that have high permeability values applied the excess of water for leaching to avoid the accumulation of salt.In brief, these samples should be avoided its use for irrigation under normal conditions.
An integrated geochemical and microbiological investigation of soils from the Solfatara Crater (Campi Flegrei, southern Italy) demonstrated that interstitial soil gases dominated by CO2 and other typical hydrothermal gaseous species (e.g. H2S, CH4, ethane, benzene, alkenes and S-bearing organic compounds) influenced the composition of microbial communities. The relatively high concentrations of hydrothermal fluids permeating the soil produced acidic conditions and whitish deposits that characterize the Solfatara Crater floor. Archaea and Bacteria showed almost equal cell abundance (up to 3.2 × 107 and 4.2 × 107 cell/g, respectively) with relatively low levels of biodiversity and equitability in sites characterized by elevated temperatures (up to 70°C), very low pH values (up to 2.2) and reducing conditions. In these sites, high-throughput sequencing showed the marked selection of microorganisms, mainly affiliated with the genera Thermoplasma, Ferroplasma and Acidithiobacillus. A relatively high biodiversity and concomitant distinctive structure of the microbial community were observed in soils poorly affected by fumarolic emissions that were oxic and rich in organic matter.
