Global forest systems: An uncertain response to atmospheric pollutants and global climate change?

Forest systems cover more than 4.1×10⁹ ha of the Earth's land area. The future response and feedbacks of forest systems to atmospheric pollutants and projected climate change may be significant. Boreal, temperate and tropical forest systems play a prominent role in carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) biogeochemical cycles at regional and global scales. The timing and magnitude of future changes in forest systems will depend on environmental factors such as a changing global climate, an accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere, and increase global mineralization of nutrients such as N and S. The interactive effects of all these factors on the world's forest regions are complex and not intuitively obvious and are likely to differ among geographic regions. Although the potential effects of some atmospheric pollutants on forest systems have been observed or simulated, large uncertainty exists in our ability to project future forest distribution, composition and productivity under transient or nontransient global climate change scenarios. The potential to manage and adapt forests to future global environmental conditions varies widely among nations. Mitigation practices, such as liming or fertilization to ameliorate excess NO_x or SO_x or forest management to sequester CO₂ are now being applied in selected nations worldwide.The U.S. Government's right to a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

Comparative evaluation of the contributions of soil physicochemical properties to variations in the yields of four major staple food crops in eastern Nigeria

The contributions of soil variables to the variations in the yields of cassava (Manihot esculenta), yam (Dioscorea rotundata), maize (Zea mays) and pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) were evaluated over 2 years in this study. The data were from three replicates of two randomized complete block design experiments sited in a newly cleared forest and on previously cultivated land both in Nsukka, eastern Nigeria. The 28 soil physicochemical properties and six crop yield parameters measured were partitioned between location and year before applying a stepwise regression procedure to analyze them.

The study showed that soil variables accounted for >70% of the variation in cassava root yields and harvest index. Both soil physical and chemical properties contributed but the former (particularly macroporosity, microporosity, total porosity and bulk density) contributed most. Selected soil variables also accounted for >70% of the variation in yam tuber yield and shape index of tubers especially in 1998. In both crop years chemical properties appeared to dominate over the physical ones. Soil variables accounted for between 51 and 99% of the variation in maize grain and stover yields. The only exception was the figure of 44% obtained at the forest location in 1998. Soil pH, total exchangeable acidity and microporosity were particularly important contributors to the variations in both maize yield parameters. The contributions of soil variables to pigeon pea yield parameters were low (<50%) except in 1999 at the forest location where seven soil variables accounted for over 85% variation in seed yield.

It was obvious generally from the study that soil variables were important determinants of yield variations in the four crops. It was also shown that physical properties should always be included in this kind of analysis. Also the number of soil variables which were of significance generally increased when the level of soil properties was low, as was the case with the cultivated site versus forest site, and 1999 versus 1998 analysis. Thus increasing the number of soil variables used and partitioning them into more homogeneous units helped to improve the results obtained using the procedure.     

Potential use of rare earth oxides as tracers of organic matter in grassland

Tracing organic matter (OM) in soil is challenging, because runoff and leaching processes are interrelated and have multiple sources. Therefore, multiple tracers with low background concentrations such as rare earth element oxides (REOs) are necessary to delineate the origin of sources of the organic materials in groundwater, rivers or in catchments. The main objective of this study was to examine the potential use of REOs as a tracer in various forms of OM (1) whole slurry, (2) solid, and (3) liquid phase of cattle slurry after mechanical separation. A laboratory experiment was carried out using five REOs (La, Gd, Sm, Pr, and Nd oxides) mixed directly into soil or mixed with various fractions of cattle slurry and then applied to the soil surface. In the additional grassland experiment, Gd oxide was spiked with soil and cattle slurry and then applied to the soil surface. The mineral N in the liquid phase (urine) of the slurry in the grassland experiment was labelled with ¹⁵N urea (16 atom%). In the laboratory experiment, results showed that the five REOs concentration of soil in 0–1 cm soil section after the rainfall simulation was still up to 20 times more than the background values. In 1–2 cm soil section, the concentration of only Gd (two fold higher) and La oxides (50% higher) were significantly higher than the soil background values. Therefore, we hypothesized that Gd and La oxides were associated also with relatively finer organic particles in slurry, thus 1–2 cm soil section were enriched with these oxides. The five REOs concentration below 2 cm soil depth were similar to the background values in all treatments. In line with the laboratory experiment, Gd concentrations in the deeper soil layers (2–4 and 4–8 cm) in the grassland experiment were not significantly affected by any treatment. Both in grassland and laboratory experiment, solid phase of the slurry (dung) was collected from the soil surface after rainfall simulation. Here, about 56% of REOs were measured on the solid phase of the slurry which indicates the strong binding potential of REOs on slurry OM. The present novel study, where REO tagged slurry was uniquely tested to study geochemical cycle of organic fertilizers, clearly highlighted the potential for their use as multiple‐tracers of (animal derived‐) OM in agricultural soils.     

Immunization and culture of rainbow trout organ sections in vitro

Splenic and anterior kidney sections or whole organs were excised from large (1 kg) or small (200 g) rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) and placed in sterile 60 mm plastic plates containing 10 ml of Eagle's minimal essential medium (EMEM) supplemented with normal or fetal calf serum for in vitro culture. The organ samples were immunized in vitro by direct injection or by mixing in the medium Yersinia ruckeri O-antigen or dinitrophenyl-Ficoll. The medium was changed once during the 10-day incubation at 15 C. The passive hemolytic plaque assay demonstrated antibody production from the plaque-forming cells (PFC); passive hemagglutination was used to measure antibody titers in the media. High numbers of PFC occurred in cultures of either kidney or spleen, demonstrating that these organs can function independently for antibody production. Splenic sections from large fish produced more PFC than comparable whole organs from small fish. EMEM supplemented with 2% normal calf serum was a satisfactory culture medium. 2-hydroxyethyl-mercaptan an ingredient used in mammalian cell culture, inhibited antibody production in trout cells. These techniques are being used in the culture of organs and cells to elucidate pathways and sequences of antigen uptake and delivery of the immunopoietic tissues in trout.     

SELECTED SURGICAL DISEASE STATES WHERE MICROBIOLOGICAL EVALUATION IS ESSENTIAL

Infection caused by bacterial organisms constitutes an important problem in surgical practice. Bacteremia due to both Gram positive and Cram negative bacteria is often complicated by shock. Frequent antibiotic susceptibility tests and bacterial culture of blood, urine, body fluids, draining wounds or other sources of infection is an essential adjunct to the proper management of surgical infections which may lead to septic shock. In combination with current medical and surgical principles of septic shock therapy, two things may help to reverse the high mortality rate, making the diagnosis early enough and supporting the patient until the shock can be reversed.     

Alteration of cellular immune responses by nutrition and weaning in calves

The effects of two levels of nutrition (400 g and 1000 g air dry matter milk substitute powder per day) and three ages of weaning (rive, nine and 13 weeks) on cellular immune responses were determined in 32 calves. The lower level of nutrition was found to increase skin sensitivity responses to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH) and decrease lymphocyte blastogenesis test (LBT) responses to ConA and pokewood mitogen (P<0·05). Weaning at five weeks old resulted in increased KLH skin responses at nine weeks old compared with unweaned calves and decreased LBT responses to ConA and phyto-haemagglutinin at 10 weeks old compared with calves weaned at nine weeks old (P<0·05). Weaning at five weeks old also increased peripheral blood concentrations of BoCD2+ and BoCD8+ lymphocytes (P<0·05). The results show that the choice of husbandry conditions alters cellular immune responses in young calves and suggest that early weaning effects are essentially nutritional.