Proximity to a forest leads to higher honey yield: Another reason to conserve

Although tropical forest conservation is a top priority for human and environmental health, deforestation persists, mainly because of food and economic needs. No community will totally give up economic activities for the sake of ecological integrity, unless it is given alternative economic activities from which to draw its livelihood. Beekeeping in the forest buffer zone instead of traditional destructive honey-harvesting from forest trees is one such option at Arabuko Sokoke Forest (ASF) in Kenya. ASF is a dry coastal forest which is home to endangered and threatened fauna and is a hotspot considered a priority for conservation. In order to find out whether honey quantity and quality differed with distance from the forest, we studied honey yield per harvest (kg) and obtained samples from hives placed at varying distances from ASF in two successive years. Honey yield increased with proximity to the forest. Indeed the yield almost doubled in hives placed less than 1 km from the forest compared to those placed more than 3 km from the forest. All the honey samples met internationally required quality standards, although sugar levels were at the lower limit. This study demonstrates that the conservation of tropical forest ecosystems can have real local economic benefits. The documentation of the services provided by nearby natural areas should help make conservation of these areas a priority, even for the local communities.     

Adsorption of Orthophosphate to Humic-Fe-Complexes and to Amorphous Fe-Oxide

The adsorption of orthophosphate to humic surfaces was studied in a model experiment. The adsorption maximum of humic substances greatly increased with higher concentrations of organically complexed Fe (III), indicating that orthophosphate was bound to humic surfaces via metal bridges. The molar ratio P_adsorbed/Fe was nearly 1 for Fe freshly complexed to humic substances, whereas the ratio for amorphous Fe-oxide was a tenfold lower. An increase in pH from 5.2 to 6.2 lead to an increase of P-adsorption of about 30% in the case of humic-Fe-surfaces, which could be explained by an increased accessibility of adsorption sites at pH 6.2. The addition of a 0.01 M CaCl₂-matrix increased orthophosphate adsorption at pH 6.2 but not at pH 5.2. This could be explained by electrostatic interactions caused by the Ca⁺⁺ ion.     

玉米苗期根系生长与耐低磷的关系

在田间筛选试验的基础上,利用两个磷高效(181和186)、两个磷低效(153和197)玉米自交系,进一步研究了这些自交系苗期耐低磷能力差异及其与根系生长的关系。结果表明,在低磷胁迫(P.5.78.mg/kg)下,所有自交系玉米地上部重量、初生根重、次生根重及磷累积量降低,但磷高效自交系181和186受影响程度显著小于153和197。在试验所处的玉米生育时期(6叶龄),磷对所用自交系的初生根及次生根数量没有影响。比较181和197的根系形态,在低磷胁迫下,磷低效自交系197的初生根侧根长、轴根长均显著下降,磷高效自交系181则下降幅度很小。而且,低磷使181初生根的侧根/轴根比值、根长度/根重比值较高。说明低磷胁迫下,181自交系可以将根中的有限的养分及干物质作更合理的分配,促进细根的生长,从而获得较长的根系。     

致谢审稿专家

Two agricultural soils were collected from Dahu and Pinchen counties and swine manure compost (SMC) from Pingtung County in Taiwan, China to investigate the sorption and dissipation of three tetracyclines (TCs), i.e., oxytetracycline (OTC), tetracycline (TC) and chlortetracycline (CTC), in compost, soils and soil/compost mixtures with different organic carbon (OC) contents. There were seven treatments in total. TCs were most strongly adsorbed to SMC in all treatments due to the high OC content. When SMC was present in the soils, the sorption of TCs was significantly enhanced, which might be attributed to the increased OC content and CEC. The adsorption of TCs showed non-linear adsorption isotherms and fitted well to the Freundlich model. After 49 d of incubation at 25 oC in soils and soil/compost mixtures in the dark, TCs elapsed in all substrates, with the time required for 50% degradation (DT50) between 20 and 41 d, and the time for 90% degradation (DT90) between 68 and 137 d. Soil amended with compost enhanced the stability of TCs and reduced their mobility. The dissipation of TCs in a soil environment was slow, indicating that these compounds might be persistent in soil.     

农林类开放存取资源的获取

阐述了开放存取概念的内涵、产生背景和实现途径,并重点介绍了实现农林类开放存取的各种主要的网络资源。     

自动分析曲线线型并可绘图的计算机程序

本程序图文并茂,直观性强。而且,引入常数k的曲线模拟模型可提高精确度百倍以上,使其更适合理化特性或理论曲线的模拟分析。     

Golfer exposure to chlorpyrifos and carbaryl following application to turfgrass

Exposure of golfers to pesticides following their application to turfgrass is of concern to regulators, turfgrass professionals, and consumers. Multipathway exposures were evaluated for golfers on turfgrass treated with chlorpyrifos and carbaryl. Air concentrations and transferable foliar residues (TFRs) were measured to assess potential respiratory and dermal exposures, respectively. At the same time, exposure to individuals simulating the play of golf was determined by dosimetry and urinary biomonitoring. Individual golfer exposure was determined in 76 rounds of golf following eight applications of chlorpyrifos and two applications of carbaryl. Estimated exposures to golfers following full course and full rate applications of chlorpyrifos and carbaryl were 19-68 times below current U.S. EPA acute reference dose (Rfd) values, indicating safe exposures under U.S. EPA hazard quotient criteria. Dermal exposure was determined to be the dominant exposure pathway to golfers, accounting for approximately 60% of the chlorpyrifos absorbed dose and 100% of the carbaryl absorbed dose. This study also provides a set of transfer factors (TFs) that may be used to determine dermal exposure of golfers to pesticides using transferable residue data.     

Response to Fertilization Associated to Leaf Mineral Content in Strawberry

Leaf mineral content along the crop cycle may explain differences in response to fertilization among strawberry genotypes. A two year field experiment was conducted using responsive (‘Camarosa’, ‘Ventana’) and nonresponsive (‘Camino Real’, ‘Candonga’) to fertilization genotypes under proportional increases in nutrients supply: from a control dose “C” [120 kg nitrogen (N) ha^?1, 70 kg phosphorus pentoxide (P₂O₅) ha^?1, 220 kg potassium oxide (K₂O) ha^?1, 40 kg calcium oxide (CaO) ha^?1 and 20 kg magnesium oxide (MgO) ha^?1] to “1.33C” and “1.66C” in 2007 and to “1.5C” and “2C” in 2008. Response to fertilization was high (45–120%) at begining of harvesting and low (10-28%) at middle and end of harvesting. Correlation between leaf area and total yields was high (r ≈ 0.73) at begining of harvesting, except on ‘Camino Real’ (late and compact genotype). At begining of flowering and harvesting, responsive genotypes showed higher potassium (K) and lower calcium (Ca) leaf contents than nonresponsive genotypes, accentuated with the fertilization increase.     

An assay to estimate tannins added to postmortem Turkey meat

A method for quantification of tannins in wine was adapted to determine tannins added to turkey meat. Standard curves containing varying amounts of GSE [0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 5.0%, (w/w)] as a source of tannins were developed. The R(2) value of the mean standard curve was 0.9992. The overall percent recovery of GSE in meat was determined to be 54.78%. Results showed that estimation of GSE in four out of five of the spiked samples was less than or equal to 10%. It is unclear as to why spiked samples at 0.048 mg of GSE were always underestimated (25.0%). Overall, the method seems applicable for estimation of tannins in poultry meat and is probably applicable to estimation of tannins in other meat products.     

Microbial response time to sugar and amino acid additions to soil

Soil microbial respiration is derived predominantly from the turnover of carbohydrates and proteins in soil. In most agricultural ecosystems, these C compounds enter soil mainly from rhizodeposition (root exudation and turnover). Our aim was to determine how long it takes for the microbial population to reach their maximum mineralization potential after the addition of low-molecular-weight (MW) rhizodeposits to the soil. We added sugar in the form of glucose and amino acids in the form of glycine to an arable, grazed grassland, Eucalyptus forest and boreal forest soil and monitored CO₂ efflux over a 6-h period. Artificial rainwater amended (zero C addition) or unamended soils were used as controls. The Michaelis-Menten substrate utilization profiles showed vastly different patterns of microbial mineralization capacity and substrate affinity between the soils. However, in all soils we showed that activation of the soil microbial community to C addition occurred almost instantaneously (?60 s) with the average time taken to reach half maximal CO₂ production being 14±8 min for glucose and 10±8 min for glycine. After reaching their maximal mineralization potential, the rate of CO₂ evolution remained constant for the remainder of the experiment. Our results showed that while substrate uptake and mineralization within the soil microbial biomass was activated quickly, subsequent adaptation and upregulation of its C processing capacity did not occur at least in the short term. The fast rate of microbial activation and substrate use we partially attribute to the large degree of functional redundancy that exists within the soil microbial community for processing rhizodeposits.     

引入分维理论评价土壤对优势流的敏感性

Food dye Brilliant Blue was introduced as the tracer in a dye-tracing experiment to obtain dye profile patterns of sandy loam soil,aeolian sandy soil,percolating paddy soil and permeable paddy soil.The dyed soil profiles were then photographed and the photos were scanned into a computer.Edited with certain software,only the dyed areas were left on the profile photos,which indicted the preferential flow paths for water and solute transport.Fractal dimensions of the dye patterns were calculated according to Arnold‘s function.Soil particle size distribution was analyzed by pipette method.The regression analysis showed that there was significant relationship between soil clay content and fractal dimension D of the dye pattern of soil profile.Based on the experiment results,the possibility of introducing fractal dimension to estimation of soil sensitivity to preferential flow is discussed.     

Crop responses to applied soil compaction and to compaction repair treatments

Crop responses to annual compaction treatments (applied to whole plots) and management treatments to ameliorate compacted soil were determined in a field experiment on a Vertisol. Initially, all treatments except a control were compacted with a 10 Mg axle load on wet soil (26% gravimetric water content compared with a plastic limit of 22%). Annually applied axle loads of 10 and 6 Mg on wet soil (25–32% soil water) tended to reduce seedling emergence, grain yield (wheat, sorghum and maize), soil water storage and crop water use efficiency (WUE). Annual applications of an axle load of 6 Mg on dry soil (<22% soil water) had little effect on crop performance. Mean reductions in the yield of five crops (three wheat, one sorghum and one maize) in comparison with the uncompacted control were 23% or 0.79 Mg ha⁻¹ (10 Mg on wet soil), 13% or 0.44 Mg ha⁻¹ (6 Mg on wet soil) and 1% or 0.03 Mg ha⁻¹ (6 Mg on dry soil). Maize grown in the fifth year of treatment application was most affected by compaction of wet soil, its WUE being reduced from 14.3 to 9.7 kg ha⁻¹ mm⁻¹ in response to an axle load of 10 Mg. Reduced WUE was associated with delayed soil water extraction at depth. A 3-year pasture ley was the most successful amelioration treatment. A wheat and a maize crop grown after the ley outyielded the control by 0.33 and 0.90 Mg ha⁻¹, respectively. So the pasture not only ameliorated the initial compaction damage, with respect to crop performance, but resulted in improvements in two subsequent crops.     

Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide: Response of endemic Mt. Graham red squirrels to catastrophic forest damage

A consequence of isolation is increased susceptibility to catastrophe. Insect damage to fragmented and isolated forests has the potential to serve as a catastrophic force; such damage has increased worldwide due to climate change and fire suppression policies. We examined the response of endangered endemic Mt. Graham red squirrels to catastrophic insect damage due to moths, beetles, and introduced aphids. Insects changed the forest environment significantly for the endemic squirrel by reducing basal area and stem densities of live stems, while increasing number and basal area of standing dead stems. Availability of two major foods, fungi and tree seeds, declined in insect-damaged forests relative to trends in undamaged forests. Numbers of Mt. Graham red squirrels declined precipitously in insect-damaged forests suggesting a catastrophe. Conservation options are limited in such situations. Forest-insect induced catastrophes are likely to become more common in the near future as forest health declines due to past management tactics and climate change. Prudent conservation measures include the anticipation of insect outbreaks and effective forest treatments to decrease likelihood of such catastrophes to species of precarious conservation status, while avoiding abrupt changes to critical habitat.     

How to standardize the multiplicity of methods to evaluate natural antioxidants

A great multiplicity of methods has been used to evaluate the activity of natural antioxidants by using different techniques of inducing and catalyzing oxidation and measuring the end point of oxidation for foods and biological systems. Antioxidant in vitro protocols for foods should be based on analyses at relatively low levels of oxidation under mild conditions and on the formation and decomposition of hydroperoxides. For antioxidant in vivo protocols, widely different methods have been used to test the biological protective activity of phenolic compounds. Unfortunately, many of these protocols have been based on questionable methodology to accurately measure oxidative damage and to assess relevant changes in biological targets. Many studies testing the ex vivo activity of phenolic compounds to inhibit human low-density lilpoprotein (LDL) oxidation have been difficult to evaluate because of the structural complexity of LDL particles and because a multitude of markers of oxidative damage have been used. Although studies with animal models of atherosclerosis have demonstrated the antioxidant effect of phenolic compounds in delaying the progress of this disease, human clinical trials of antioxidants have reported inconsistent and mixed results. Complex mixtures of plant polyphenols have been shown to be absorbed to varying degrees as metabolites in the intestine, but little is known about their interactions, bioavailability, and their in vivo antioxidant activity. Several metabolites identified in human plasma after consuming flavonoids need to be tested for possible nonantioxidant activities. More research and better-designed human studies are required to clarify the complex questions of bioavailability of polyphenols and the factors affecting their in vivo activities. Until we know what relevant in vivo activities to measure, any claims on the biological and health protective effects of natural polyphenolic compounds in our diet are premature.     

Notes to Authors

A detailed information for contributors to PEDOSPHERE is available upon your request and may also befound in at least one issue of PEDOSPHERE each year. Please consult carefully the lay-out of one of the latest issuesof PEDOSPHERE and pay special attention to the following notes:GeneralPEDOSPHERE publishes original research findings on soil science. Critical reviews are also considered. Contri-butions must be written in English and should have been neither published nor submitted for publication elsewhere.     

SOM fractionation methods: Relevance to functional pools and to stabilization mechanisms

Soil organic matter (SOM) consists of various functional pools that are stabilized by specific mechanisms and have certain turnover rates. For the development of mechanistic models that predict changes in SOM storage, these pools have to be quantified and characterized. In the past, numerous fractionation schemes have been developed to separate and analyse such SOM fractions. In this review, the SOM fractions obtained with such operational fractionation procedures are described in terms of their pool sizes, chemical properties, and turnover rates. The main objective of this review is to evaluate these operationally defined fractions with respect to their suitability to describe functional SOM pools that could be used to parameterize SOM turnover models. Fractionation procedures include (1) physical separation of SOM into aggregate, particle size, and density fractions and fractions according to their magnetic susceptibility, and (2) various wet chemical procedures that fractionate SOM according to solubility, hydrolysability, and resistance to oxidation or by destruction of the mineral phase. Furthermore, combinations of fractionation methods are evaluated.The active SOM pool with turnover rates <10 years may best be represented by the soil microbial biomass and the light fraction (<1.6-2 g cm⁻³) obtained by density fractionation (if black carbon contents are considered). Most chemical and physical fractionations as well as combinations of methods yield SOM fractions that are not homogeneous in terms of turnover rates. It has proven to be particularly difficult to isolate functional fractions that represent the passive model pools in which the majority of soil SOM is stabilized. The available fractionation methods do not correspond to specific stabilization mechanisms and hence do not describe functional SOM pools. Another problem is that comprehensive data for turnover rates and data for whole soil profiles are only now becoming available, especially for new fractionation methods. Such information as well as the use of specific markers and compound-specific isotope analysis may be important for future differentiation and evaluation of functional SOM fractions.     

Soil microbiomes vary in their ability to confer drought tolerance to Arabidopsis

Drought is a major constraint on agricultural production. Crop genetic improvement for drought tolerance has received much attention and there is ample information about the ability of specific soil microbes to influence drought tolerance in plants. However, in nature, plants interact simultaneously with an array of beneficial, benign and pathogenic microbes. There is a need to understand the cumulative effect of these multiple interactions on a plant's ability to overcome abiotic stresses such as drought. The objective of this research was to investigate the potential of whole soil microbiomes to help Arabidopsis thaliana plants deal with drought stress under in vivo conditions. A sympatric microbiome (i.e., having a history of exposure to Arabidopsis at a natural site) significantly increased plant biomass under drought conditions, but caused earlier death rates as a consequence of drought; whereas, the two non-sympatric soils did not influence Arabidopsis biomass. Consistent with this, we observed reduced expression levels for several Arabidopsis drought response marker genes (ATDI21, DREB1A, DREB2A, and NCED3) in the sympatric Arabidopsis soil treatment. Pyrosequencing analysis of the three soil microbiomes used in this study identified 84 bacterial OTUs (3% genetic distance) from 41 genera (Burkholderia, Phormidium, Bacillus, Aminobacter, Acidiphilum and among others) that were significantly higher in the sympatric Arabidopsis soil, as compared to the two non-sympatric soils. In conclusion, we have identified a robust set of Arabidopsis-associated microbes that when present in the soil can modify the plant's ability to sense abiotic stress and increase its biomass production.     

Using Sterols to Detect Pig Slurry Contribution to Soil Organic Matter

Samples of pig slurry, as well as dairy and poultry manures collected in Brittany (western France) were analysed to test the ability of sterol profiles to provide a fingerprint of pig slurry contribution to soil organic matter. The data show that the 5β-stanol, known as coprostanol, is the most abundant sterol present in pig slurry, whereas this compound occurs only in minor amounts in both poultry and dairy manures. Moreover, systematic variations of (campesterol + sitosterol)/cholesterol (i.e., C₂₈₊₂₉/C₂₇) and (coprostanol + epi-coprostanol)/cholesterol (i.e., 5β/C₂₇) ratios allow to discriminate clearly pig slurry from poultry and dairy manures. The robustness of the pig slurry “sterol fingerprint” was tested by analysing the sterol profiles of soil samples from an experimental field that had received a massive pig slurry input between 10 to 14 years ago. The results indicate that the specific sterol profile of pig slurry is conservative once the slurry has been incorporated into the soil. In particular, the diagnostic 5β/C₂₇ ratio proves to be constant with time in soils having received pig slurry application, even 10 years after the end of the application. The “sterol fingerprint” of pig slurry is thus sufficiently distinctive from dairy and poultry manures, and also sufficiently time-resistant, to be of diagnostic value in determining whether a soil sample was once contaminated by pig slurry.     

Chemical response of soil leachate to alternative approaches to experimental acidification

Abstract

One approach to evaluating computer models which predict terrestrial‐aquatic ecosystem response to acid deposition is the experimental acidification of soils with subsequent comparisons among predicted and measured soil solution response. Using a soil microcosm experimental approach, comparisions between simulated acid rain (i.e. dilute H₂SO₄), dry NH₄NO₃, and prilled reduced S were made for suitability for large‐scale field experiments. Soil microcosms consisting of reconstructed soil profiles received a background simulated throughfall dosing over the six month treatment period. Results indicated that simulated throughfall, applied at twice the ambient rate, acidified soil leachates approximately 0.5 pH units over the treatment period. Along with the decline in leachate pH was an apparent release of base cations as well as Fe and Al. Over the length of the treatment period, very little of the prilled S dissolved and the simulated acid rain treatment did not have significant effects on leachate chemistry.     

A model to simulate response of plant stomata to environmental conditions

In order to simulate plant transpiration under different field climatic conditions we have developed and verified a semi-empirical model for predicting the stomatal response to solar global radiation, leaf temperature, vapour pressure difference between the leaf and ambient air, ambient air CO₂ concentration and soil water potential. The transpiration and the stomatal relative conductance of a Nicotania Tabaccum var “samsun” plant leaves were measured in a laboratory apparatus and compared to those predicted by the model: good agreement was obtained between them for the different investigated cases. The model was incorporated in a numerical greenhouse microclimate model and its effects on the canopy microclimate are discussed here.