Weed management and irrigation are key treatments in emerging black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) cultivation

Interest in conversion of marginal agricultural lands to small oak woodlands for the production of black truffles (Tuber melanosporum Vittad.) is increasing in the native black truffle areas of France, Spain and Italy as well as suitable or amended sites throughout the world due to high economic returns for gastronomically valuable truffles. Successful long-term management of a perennial plantation replacing an annual crop requires understanding the system in all phases of the life cycle, and in the case of truffles this involves understanding the interactive growth of the aboveground host and the belowground symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungus whose fruitbody is the desired truffle. Here we focus on the pre-production phase, 4 years after establishing the truffle-oak plantation and prior to truffle production. We tested the influence of weed control, irrigation and fertilizer, each at 3 levels, on plant growth and ectomycorrhizal proliferation in three truffle-oaks plantations in northeast Spain. Results show that adequate weed control improves root and shoot dry weight while fertilizer and irrigation treatments did not influence plant growth. The low dose of irrigation (50% of the estimated water deficit for the site) and glyphosate weed control both increased total root tips/plant and T. melanosporum colonized tips (ectomycorrhizae) by approximately two-fold, compared to control treatments. Distribution of the ectomycorrhizae within the soil profile was significantly influenced by the low dose irrigation treatment, with increases observed in the 10?C20 cm and the 20?C30 cm deep layers compared to the control and high irrigation treatments. Four years after planting, T. melanosporum remained the dominant fungal symbiont, despite the presence of 14 other ectomycorrhizal morphotypes from these sites.     

Review of ground-based methods to measure the distribution of biomass in forest canopies

? Context

Ecological research and an effective forest management need accurate information on the structure of the forest canopy to understand the biochemical, physiological and biogeochemical processes within a forest.

? Research question

This paper reviews the currently available instruments for measuring the distribution of biomass within forest canopies. We compare the most well-established approaches and present the different measurable parameters. A special focus lies on the resolution of the obtained data.

? Results

It was found that only 3D laser scanners offer data with the resolution required by ecologists, private landholders, the forest industry and the public to detect trends in tree growth patterns and canopy interactions in all three spatial dimensions. But data validation, data analysis and parameter extraction are still under development, and the price of the instrument is quite high.

? Conclusion

Research should focus on the parameter extraction from terrestrial laser scanner data as this could allow the calculation of functional attributes for different sections of a canopy on a high spatial resolution. It could also help ecologists characterize the structure of forest stands in a quick and precise way.     

Transfer of veterinary drugs and pharmacologically-active feed additives into soil with special consideration of tetracyclines – executive summary

Conclusions  

Die Interpretation von K/Ca-Austauschkurven mit Hilfe einer einfachen GAPON-Gleichung

The interpretation of K/Ca exchange isotherms by a simple GAPON equation K/Ca exchange isotherms of various soils can be described by a GAPON equation, where the coefficients being fitted to the measured values by iteration. The resulting values for the “labile potassium” are very similar to those of exchangeable K, whereas only 5–25% of the cec is involved in the short-term K/Ca exchange.     

Improving the health of the global poor

We analyzed the technical basis for a major global program to reduce disease among the poor. Effective interventions exist against the few diseases which most account for excess mortality among the poor. Achieving high coverage of effective interventions requires a well-functioning health system, as well as overcoming a set of financial and nonfinancial constraints. The annual incremental cost would be between $40 billion and $52 billion by 2015 in 83 low-income and sub-Saharan African countries. Such a program is feasible and would avoid millions of child, maternal, and adult deaths annually in poor countries.