Modelling optimal timing and frequency of insecticide sprays for knockdown in preparation for other control measures

A modelling investigation was conducted into optimizing the number of sprays and inter-spray interval to reduce an insect population to a low level, for example, prior to pheromone trapping or the release of sterile males. The model population was age-structured and density-dependent. If spray mortality is 100% for each spray, then the ideal spraying schedule is easily determined from the durations of the various life stages. For spray mortality of less than 100%, a simulation was used to determine optimal spraying schedules. Relative length of the larval period, fertility rate and age to first oviposition were found to be the most important biotic parameters for this determination. Their importance is magnified as spray mortality decreases. The stage targeted by sprays and the percent mortality caused by each spray are also important in determining the required number of sprays. Using medfly (Ceratitis capitata Wiedmann) biotic parameters as an example when the spray targets adults, it appeared that neither the stage at which density-dependent mortality takes effect, nor the form of the adult survivorship curve are important in determining the optimal spray schedule.     

连作及轮作土壤微生物菌群对黄瓜幼苗生长及土壤酶活性的影响

通过植物-土壤反馈试验,研究连作及轮作土壤微生物菌群对黄瓜幼苗生长和土壤酶活性的影响。结果表明,轮作土壤微生物处理黄瓜植株鲜质量、叶绿素含量、土壤中性磷酸酶、蔗糖酶活性显著高于连作土壤微生物处理;连作及轮作土壤微生物处理增加了黄瓜幼苗干质量、鲜质量、叶绿素含量及总叶面积,显著提高了土壤中性磷酸酶、蔗糖酶、脲酶活性。综上,连作及轮作土壤微生物菌群对黄瓜幼苗生长均产生正反馈作用,并且轮作土壤微生物的正反馈作用大于连作土壤微生物。     

Comparative soil distribution and dissipation of phoxim and thiamethoxam and their efficacy in controlling Bradysia odoriphaga Yang and Zhang in Chinese chive ecosystems

Bradysia odoriphaga Yang and Zhang (the chive gnat) is the major insect pest affecting Chinese chives (Allium tuberosum Rottl. ex Spreng.) in Northern China. Only three insecticide products are registered for its control. In the present study, we compared the persistence and distribution of thiamethoxam and phoxim in soil and determined their long-acting control effects against B. odoriphaga and two other secondary pests, Thrips alliorum Priesner and the Asiatic onion leaf miner Acrolepia alliella Semenov and Kuznetsov (Lepidoptera: Acrolepiidae), after a single soil application using the directional spray-washing method during the early Chinese chive root-rearing period. Under the same applied dosage, the rhizosphere soil at a depth of 4.0–10.0 cm had concentrations of thiamethoxam and phoxim ranging from 2.21 to 7.44 mg/kg and 0.09–0.44 mg/kg, respectively, at the 7th day after application. The half-lives of thiamethoxam and phoxim in the soil were 27.5 and 6.7 days, respectively. Thiamethoxam persisted for 210 days, whereas phoxim only persisted for 45 days in the soil and plants. In addition, thiamethoxam applied at 6.0 kg a.i./ha maintained a low population density of B. odoriphaga, T. alliorum and A. alliella for nine months longer than phoxim. In conclusion, thiamethoxam may help farmers more effectively manage B. odoriphaga and other secondary pests on Chinese chive and reduce the costs of insecticide use while sustaining protection.     

烤烟套种甘薯对烟叶质量、烟薯产量及土壤温湿度的影响

为筛选出适宜与烤烟套种的甘薯品种,解决部分烟区烤烟种植调茬难度大与综合效益低等问题,通过田间大区试验,研究烤烟套种不同甘薯品种对烟叶质量、烟薯产量及土壤温湿度的影响。结果表明,烟薯套种能够明显提升土壤相对含水率和烟叶产量,其相对含水率提高幅度介于12.03%~91.88%,烤烟产量增幅为12.29%~31.26%。烤烟套种甘薯以紫薯产量最高,块根产量达29400 kg/hm ²,且单薯质量大于100 g占总薯重的比例在紫薯中最高。烤烟套种甘薯提升了烤烟中上部烟叶的总糖和还原糖含量,降低了烟碱和总氮含量,有利于改善烟叶内在品质。烤烟套种甘薯降低了上部烟叶含梗率,但增大了上部烟叶叶面密度,以烤烟套种紫薯表现突出。烤烟与紫薯套种,可作为一种烟田增产、烟叶增值和烟农增收的种植模式。     

Phosphorus availability and farm structural factors: examining scarcity and oversupply in north‐east Germany

Assessing factors influencing phosphorus (P) availability in soils is important in preventing its overexploitation and excessive application in agricultural systems. Despite high historical P applications in the federal state of Brandenburg (Germany), county data on soil test P (STP) reveal considerable disparities in soil available P. In addition, negative soil balances as a result of small mineral P and manure inputs have been observed, raising questions about the factors leading to this situation. Our work focused on identifying possible causes operating at the farm management level by conducting a letter survey in two administrative districts of Brandenburg, the counties Barnim and Uckermark, linking farm management factors (ownership type, farm size, land tenure, animal husbandry with or without grassland and its intensity, presence of a biogas plant and organic production) to farmers’ self‐indicated levels of STP. Small‐ to medium‐sized individual farms tended to have (very) high STP, while large partnership farms and companies/cooperatives were sensitive to factors resulting in low STP. Farms with low shares of land ownership, the presence of grassland, extensive cattle farming and stockless organic farming had lower STP. On the other hand, biogas plants, partly in combination with intensive livestock (cattle) farming, were associated with larger STP. It was concluded that more care should be devoted to the design of agricultural policies and that further (inter‐ and transdisciplinary) research on this topic is needed.     

Organic input quality is more important than its quantity: C turnover coefficients in different cropping systems

Annual C input to soil is a major factor affecting soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. However different types of C-sources can have different behaviour, in relation to their chemical characteristics and how they interact with soil. Root-derived C, in particular, should be more efficient than other organic materials as a result of the physicochemical and biological characteristics of the surrounding environment, leading to a reduction in the C decomposition rate.To test this hypothesis, we considered a long-term experiment underway in Northern Italy since 1962, comparing permanent meadow and 6 different crop rotations over a wide range of nutrient inputs, in both organic and inorganic forms. C inputs from amendments were measured and those from crops were calculated using allometric functions and crop and residues yields. The time evolution of SOC was studied through a single-pool, first-order kinetic model, allowing the estimation of humification coefficients for residues, roots, farmyard manure and cattle slurries.The highest value of the humification coefficient was estimated for farmyard manure, which confirmed its high efficiency in stabilising SOC content. Root C presented a humification coefficient 1.9 times higher than above-ground plant materials while slurries were intermediate, with a humification coefficient roughly half that of farmyard manure and even lower that of roots.The quality of C input thus seems of fundamental importance for evaluating the sustainability of different cropping systems in terms of SOC dynamics.     

Strong functional stability of soil microbial communities under semiarid Mediterranean conditions and subjected to long-term shifts in baseline precipitation

We investigated the effect of soil microclimate on the structure and functioning of soil microbial communities in a Mediterranean Holm-oak forest subjected to 10 years of partial rain exclusion manipulations, simulating average drought conditions expected in Mediterranean areas for the following decades. We applied a high throughput DNA pyrosequencing technique coupled to parallel measurements of microbial respiration (R_H) and temperature sensitivity of microbial respiration (Q₁₀). Some consistent changes in the structure of bacterial communities suggest a slow process of community shifts parallel to the trend towards oligotrophy in response to long-term droughts. However, the structure of bacterial communities was mainly determined by short-term environmental fluctuations associated with sampling date (winter, spring and summer) rather than long-term (10 years) shifts in baseline precipitation. Moreover, long-term drought did not exert any chronic effect on the functioning of soil microbial communities (R_H and Q₁₀), emphasizing the functional stability of these communities to this long-term but mild shifts in water availability. We hypothesize that the particular conditions of the Mediterranean climate with strong seasonal shifts in both temperature and soil water availability but also characterized by very extreme environmental conditions during summer, was acting as a strong force in community assembling, selecting phenotypes adapted to the semiarid conditions characterizing Mediterranean ecosystems. Relations of climate with the phylogenetic structure and overall diversity of the communities as well as the distribution of the individual responses of different lineages (genera) to climate confirmed our hypotheses, evidencing communities dominated by thermotolerant and drought-tolerant phenotypes.     

Soil conditions and land use intensification effects on soil microbial communities across a range of European field sites

Intensive land use practices necessary for providing food and raw materials are known to have a deleterious effect on soil. However, the effects that such practices have on soil microbes are less well understood. To investigate the effects of land use intensification on soil microbial communities we used a combined T-RFLP and pyrosequencing approach to study bacteria, archaea and fungi in spring and autumn at five long term observatories (LTOs) in Europe; each with a particular land use type and contrasting levels of intensification (low and high). Generally, due to large gradients in soil variables, both molecular methods revealed that soil microbial communities were structured according to differences in soil conditions between the LTOs, more so than land use intensity. Moreover, variance partitioning analysis also showed that soil properties better explained the differences in microbial communities than land use intensity effects. Predictable responses in dominant bacterial, archaeal and fungal taxa to edaphic conditions (e.g. soil pH and resource availability) were apparent between the LTOs. Some effects of land use intensification at individual field sites were observed. However, these effects were manifest when land use change affected soil conditions. Uniquely, this study details the responses of different microbial groups to soil type and land use intensification, and their relative importance across a range of European field sites. These findings reinforce our understanding of drivers impacting soil microbial community structure at both field and larger geographic scales.     

Bt抗虫棉新品系毒蛋白表达差异分析

【目的】本研究旨在探讨部分抗虫棉不抗虫的原因。【方法】通过室内生物测定、卡那霉素、Bt-Cry1Ab/Ac试纸条、PCR分析、Southern blot检测和Bt蛋白含量检测等方法分析了23个抗虫棉新品系的抗虫性。【结果】生测结果表明供试品系间幼虫死亡率差异显著。卡那霉素、Bt-Cry1Ab/Ac试纸条、PCR分析和Southern blot检测结果表明,Bt基因在供试材料中整合并稳定遗传且为单拷贝。RT-PCR结果表明,各试验品系Bt基因相对表达量差异较大,花期叶片Bt基因的相对表达量最高;Bt蛋白检测结果发现抗虫棉Bt蛋白表达量在生育前期大于后期,营养器官中的大于生殖器官,不同年份Bt蛋白含量差异显著。幼虫死亡率与Bt基因相对表达量的相关系数仅为0.1745,与Bt蛋白的相关系数为0.7130,表明Bt蛋白含量越高,抗虫性越好;各组织器官的Bt蛋白与Bt基因的相对表达量相关系数为-0.3659~0.2542,二者表达趋势不一致,表明遗传背景对抗虫棉Bt蛋白的表达具有一定影响。且Bt基因可能在转录后受到调控导致Bt蛋白含量发生变化,从而影响了抗虫棉的抗虫性。【结论】这些结果有望为抗虫棉育种提供参考。     

Soil biodiversity and DNA barcodes: opportunities and challenges

Soils encompass a huge diversity of organisms which mostly remains to be characterized due to a number of methodological and logistical issues. Nonetheless, remarkable progress has been made in recent years toward developing strategies to characterize and describe soil biodiversity, especially thanks to the development of molecular approaches relying on direct DNA extraction from the soil matrix.Metabarcoding can be applied to DNA from any environment or organism, and is gaining increasing prominence in biodiversity studies. This approach is already commonly used to characterize soil microbial communities and its application is now being extended to other soil organisms, i.e. meso- and macro-fauna.These developments offer unprecedented scientific and operational opportunities in order to better understand soil biodiversity distribution and dynamics, and to propose tools and strategies for biodiversity diagnosis. However, these opportunities also come with challenges that the scientific community must face. Such challenges are related to i) clarification of terminology, (ii) standardisation of methods and further methodological development for additional taxonomic groups, (iii) development of a common database, and (iv) ways to avoid waste of information and data derived from metabarcoding. In order to facilitate common application of metabarcoding in soil biodiversity assessment, we discuss these opportunities and challenges and propose solutions towards a more homogeneous framework.