Using perlite as a substrate carrier for measuring microbial available phosphorus by respiration kinetics in soils

The release of CO₂ by soil microorganisms after the addition of nitrogen and glucose in excess and calibration additions of phosphorus has successfully been used to assess microbial available P, assuming the native soil P pool is then limiting respiration. However, in P-fixing soils and soils with high P content, carbon can be exhausted before the available soil P pool. It is not possible to simply increase the amount of glucose as then the glucose concentration would be lethal for microorganisms. A modified method was tested where soil is mixed with perlite. It was hypothesised that perlite, having a high water holding capacity, would dilute the concentration of glucose, while maintaining the bioavailability of added nutrients, thus avoiding carbon limitation. Factorial combinations of amount of soil and perlite (both adjusted to −25 kPa water potential) were tested to examine if perlite as such had any effect on the respiration. Five tropical soil samples with a sharp gradient in P availability and one N-limited compost material were used. The method successfully reduced the risk of carbon limitation. Microbial indices, such as basal respiration, substrate-induced respiration and maximum P-limited respiration, were directly proportional to the amount of soil in the experiments but unrelated to the amount of perlite, showing that perlite did not affect microbial measurements.     

Empirical predictions of plant material C and N mineralization patterns from near infrared spectroscopy, stepwise chemical digestion and C/N ratios

Prediction of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) mineralization patterns of plant litter is desirable for both agronomic and environmental reasons. Near infrared reflectance (NIR) spectroscopy has recently been introduced in decomposition studies to characterize biochemical composition. The purpose of the current study was to use empirical techniques to predict C and N mineralization patterns of a wide range of plant materials incubated under controlled temperature and moisture conditions. We hypothesized that the richness of information in the NIR spectra would considerably improve predictions compared to traditional stepwise chemical digestion (SCD) or C/N ratios. Initially, we fitted a number of empirical functions to the observed C and N mineralization patterns. The best functions fitted with R²=0.990 and 0.949 to C and N, respectively. The fractions of C and N mineralized at different points in time were then either predicted directly with regression functions or indirectly by prediction of the parameters of the empirical functions fitted to incubation data. In both cases, partial least squares (PLS) regressions were used and predictions were validated by cross-validations. We found that the NIR spectra (best R²=0.925) were able to predict C mineralization patterns marginally better than the SCD fractions (best R²=0.911), but considerably better than the C/N ratios (best R²=0.851). In contrast, N mineralization was better predicted by SCD fractions (best R²=0.533) than the C/N ratio (best R²=0.497), which was better than NIR predictions (best R²=0.446). Although the predictions with the NIR spectra were only slightly better for C and worse for N mineralization compared to SCD fractions, NIR spectroscopy still holds advantages, as it is a much less laborious and cheaper analytical method. Furthermore, exploration of the applications of NIR spectroscopy in decomposition studies has only just begun, and offers new ways to gain insights into the decomposition process.     

Influence of liquid cattle manure on reduction processes in soil

Summary Reduction processes in cultivated soil during the decomposition of liquid cattle manure were studied in laboratory experiments. Anoxic slurries of soil and manure in different proportions or alone were followed over 5 weeks. Upon NO _inf3 ^sup- depletion, ferrous Fe appeared in solution in soil-manure slurries. Sulfide levels were generally low in the presence of both soil and manure, probably because of precipitation by Fe²⁺; Fe thereby counteracted the production of free hydrogen sulfide. Methane formation was the quantitatively most important electron sink under prolonged anoxic conditions. When extra sulfate was added to soil-manure slurries, the concentration of Fe²⁺ remained low and less methane was produced. The detection of Fe²⁺ was examined in a model system with a gel-stabilized soil-manure mixture sandwiched between two soil phases with a water content near field capacity. Large methodological problems made it impossible to quantify Fe²⁺ in this oxic-anoxic environment, but the results indicated that reducing conditions were maintained in the manure-saturated zone for the 20-day period of this experiment.     

Attentional modulation of neural processing of shape, color, and velocity in humans

Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to measure changes in regional cerebral blood flow of normal subjects, while they were discriminating different attributes (shape, color, and velocity) of the same set of visual stimuli. Psychophysical evidence indicated that the sensitivity for discriminating subtle stimulus changes was higher when subjects focused attention on one attribute than when they divided attention among several attributes. Correspondingly, attention enhanced the activity of different regions of extrastriate visual cortex that appear to be specialized for processing information related to the selected attribute.     

Glazed lunar rocks: origin by impact

The glassy coating of lunar rock 12017 is enriched in 15 trace elements relative to the crystalline interior. It apparently consists chiefly of shock-melted rock, somewhat richer in rare earth elements and alkali metals than rock 12017 itself. The glass has been contaminated by about 0.5 percent carbonaceous-chondrite-like material or, alternatively, by a mixture of 0.06 to 0.3 percent fractionated meteoritic material and approximately 10 to 15 percent local soil. The glazing seems to represent molten material splashed from a nearby meteorite impact and not in situ melting by a sudden increase in solar luminosity.     

New early Jurassic tetrapod assemblages constrain Triassic-Jurassic tetrapod extinction event

The discovery of the first definitively correlated earliest Jurassic (200 million years before present) tetrapod assemblage (Fundy basin, Newark Supergroup, Nova Scotia) allows reevaluation of the duration of the Triassic-Jurassic tetrapod extinction event. Present are tritheledont and mammal-like reptiles, prosauropod, theropod, and ornithischian dinosaurs, protosuchian and sphenosuchian crocodylomorphs, sphenodontids, and hybodont, semionotid, and palaeonisciform fishes. All of the families are known from Late Triassic and Jurassic strata from elsewhere; however, pollen and spore, radiometric, and geochemical correlation indicate an early Hettangian age for these assemblages. Because all "typical Triassic" forms are absent from these assemblages, most Triassic-Jurassic tetrapod extinctions occurred before this time and without the introduction of new families. As was previously suggested by studies of marine invertebrates, this pattern is consistent with a global extinction event at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. The Manicouagan impact structure of Quebec provides dates broadly compatible with the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and, following the impact theory of mass extinctions, may be implicated in the cause.     

Giant Friedel Oscillations on the Beryllium(0001) Surface

Large-amplitude electron density oscillations were observed on a Be(0001) surface by means of variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. Fourier transforms of the images showed a ring of radius 2kF, where kF is the Fermi wave vector of the Be(0001) surface state. This wavelength was expected from Friedel oscillations caused by electronic screening of surface defects, but the amplitude of the waves for energies near the Fermi energy was anomalously large and inconsistent with the Friedel concept of screening. The enhanced amplitude of the waves must be a many-body effect, either in the electron gas (possibly an incipient charge density wave) or in the response of the lattice (electron-phonon coupling).