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.     

基于信息抽取的食品安全事件自动问答系统方法研究

针对从海量食品安全事件新闻报道中很难抽取出所需答案的问题，以食品安全事件语料库为研究对象，提出了一种基于信息抽取技术的自动问答系统。首先，利用深度学习模型TextCNN对用户输入的问题进行分类，得到其所属类型。其次，对于输入问题，借助Lucene搜索引擎找到其最佳匹配文档。再次，根据输入问题的类型，从食品安全事件数据库（采用信息抽取技术自动提取的一个结构化数据库）中筛选出该文档所包含的答案候选句集合。最后，利用深度学习模型Bi LSTM及基于答案候选句上下文的特征提取方法构建一个答案抽取模型，该模型能从给定的答案候选句集合中提取出最终答案。为检查基于食品安全事件数据库的答案候选句筛选方式及基于答案候选句上下文的特征提取方式对整个自动问答系统性能的影响，进行了多种比较实验，结果表明含有基于食品安全事件数据库的答案候选句筛选方式和基于答案候选句上下文的特征提取方式的问答系统表现最佳，其回答准确率达到44%。这相比于传统的问答系统，具有明显的优势。     

近55年来河西地区干旱时空演变特征及其与ENSO事件的关系

根据河西地区14个气象站点1961-2015年的逐月气象观测资料，基于SPEI指数采用Mann-Kendall趋势检验法、反距离加权插值(IDW)等方法分析了近55年来河西地区年代际、四季干旱及空间变化特征，并探讨了ENSO 事件与该区干旱的关系。结果表明：在年代际变化上，自20世纪90年代以来河西地区干旱次数增多、干旱程度加重。季节时间变化上，河西地区春、夏、秋季均呈干旱化趋势，春季干旱化趋势最为突出，夏季次之，冬季略呈变湿趋势。空间变化上，整个河西地区春季均呈干旱化趋势，而且大部分地区的春旱趋势极为显著，其中春旱趋势最显著的地方是金塔；冬季整个研究区趋于湿润化。各季节干旱高频区分别集中在：春季在金塔、民勤地区，夏季在河西西北部，秋季在河西中东部及西部的安西—玉门一线，冬季在101°E以西的河西地区。河西地区秋季SPEI与SSTA指数的相关性最为显著，春季次之，夏季最弱。ENSO事件发生强度与河西地区SPEI影响因子的多项式拟合关系表明，ENSO事件强度对温度的影响高于降水；其中在ENSO暖事件(厄尔尼诺事件)发生年份，气温有明显的上升趋势；在ENSO冷事件(拉尼娜事件)发生年份，少数年份降水有所增加，对气温的影响较弱。     

Improving cereal yield forecasts in Europe – The impact of weather extremes

The impact of extreme events (such as prolonged droughts, heat waves, cold shocks and frost) is poorly represented by most of the existing yield forecasting systems. Two new model-based approaches that account for the impact of extreme weather events on crop production are presented as a way to improve yield forecasts, both based on the Crop Growth Monitoring System (CGMS) of the European Commission. A first approach includes simple relations – consistent with the degree of complexity of the most generic crop simulators – to explicitly model the impact of these events on leaf development and yield formation. A second approach is a hybrid system which adds selected agro-climatic indicators (accounting for drought and cold/heat stress) to the previous one. The new proposed methods, together with the CGMS-standard approach and a system exclusively based on selected agro-climatic indicators, were evaluated in a comparative fashion for their forecasting reliability. The four systems were assessed for the main micro- and macro-thermal cereal crops grown in highly productive European countries. The workflow included the statistical post-processing of model outputs aggregated at national level with historical series (1995–2013) of official yields, followed by a cross-validation for forecasting events triggered at flowering, maturity and at an intermediate stage. With the system based on agro-climatic indicators, satisfactory performances were limited to microthermal crops grown in Mediterranean environments (i.e. crop production systems mainly driven by rainfall distribution). Compared to CGMS-standard system, the newly proposed approaches increased the forecasting reliability in 94% of the combinations crop × country × forecasting moment. In particular, the explicit simulation of the impact of extreme events explained a large part of the inter-annual variability (up to +44% for spring barley in Poland), while the addition of agro-climatic indicators to the workflow mostly added accuracy to an already satisfactory forecasting system.     

Impact analysis of climate data aggregation at different spatial scales on simulated net primary productivity for croplands

For spatial crop and agro-systems modelling, there is often a discrepancy between the scale of measured driving data and the target resolution. Spatial data aggregation is often necessary, which can introduce additional uncertainty into the simulation results. Previous studies have shown that climate data aggregation has little effect on simulation of phenological stages, but effects on net primary production (NPP) might still be expected through changing the length of the growing season and the period of grain filling. This study investigates the impact of spatial climate data aggregation on NPP simulation results, applying eleven different models for the same study region (∼34,000 km²), situated in Western Germany. To isolate effects of climate, soil data and management were assumed to be constant over the entire study area and over the entire study period of 29 years. Two crops, winter wheat and silage maize, were tested as monocultures. Compared to the impact of climate data aggregation on yield, the effect on NPP is in a similar range, but is slightly lower, with only small impacts on averages over the entire simulation period and study region. Maximum differences between the five scales in the range of 1–100 km grid cells show changes of 0.4–7.8% and 0.0–4.8% for wheat and maize, respectively, whereas the simulated potential NPP averages of the models show a wide range (1.9–4.2 g C m⁻² d⁻¹ and 2.7–6.1 g C m⁻² d⁻¹ for wheat and maize, respectively). The impact of the spatial aggregation was also tested for shorter time periods, to see if impacts over shorter periods attenuate over longer periods. The results show larger impacts for single years (up to 9.4% for wheat and up to 13.6% for maize). An analysis of extreme weather conditions shows an aggregation effect in vulnerability up to 12.8% and 15.5% between the different resolutions for wheat and maize, respectively. Simulations of NPP averages over larger areas (e.g. regional scale) and longer time periods (several years) are relatively insensitive to climate data aggregation. However, the scale of climate data is more relevant for impacts on annual averages of NPP or if the period is strongly affected or dominated by drought stress. There should be an awareness of the greater uncertainty for the NPP values in these situations if data are not available at high resolution. On the other hand, the results suggest that there is no need to simulate at high resolution for long term regional NPP averages based on the simplified assumptions (soil and management constant in time and space) used in this study.     

Cultivation Influences on Soil Organic Carbon Associated with Texture in Seasonally Frozen Zones

[Objective] This study aimed to examine indicative roles of texture representing soil organic carbon presence and variability subsequent to cultivation under cold temperate climates with seasonal freeze-thaw events.[Method] Three chronosequences were selected for paired comparisons.Soil samples were collected at six depths with a 10 cm increment.Analysis of variance with general linear model and regression was performed for statistical analysis.[Result] In seasonally frozen soils where fragmentation of macroaggregates was stimulated,soil organic carbon level was positively associated with clay ＋ silt proportion due to a wider textural range,better than sole clay content.Exponential function better fitted the experimental data to present progressively increased effectiveness of clay ＋ silt content in maintaining carbon.Clay content explained 12％-41％ and 14％-43％ of variation via linear and exponential functions,respectively.Accordingly,clay ＋ silt content explained 47％-65％ and 46％-70％.[Conclusion] Texture reflected soil organic carbon occurrence as consequences of reclamation.For seasonally frozen soils with wider textural ranges,it is robust to adapt clay ＋ silt content as dependent variable and exponential function.The generated algorithms provided an available pathway to estimate soil organic carbon losses following cultivation and to evaluate soil fertility.     

Phosphorus dynamics in tile-drain flow during storms in the US Midwest

Excess phosphorus (P) in freshwater systems has been associated with eutrophication in agro-ecosystems of the US Midwest and elsewhere. A better understanding of processes regulating both soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and total phosphorus (TP) exports to tile-drains is therefore critical to minimize P losses to streams while maintaining crop yield. This paper investigates SRP and TP dynamics at a high temporal resolution during four spring storms in two tile-drains in the US Midwest. Depending on the storm, median concentrations varied between 0.006-0.025 mg/L for SRP and 0.057-0.176 mg/L for TP. For large storms (>6 cm bulk precipitation), for which macropore flow represented between 43 and 50% of total tile-drain flow, SRP transport to tile-drains was primarily regulated by macropore flow. For smaller tile-flow generating events (<3 cm bulk precipitation), for which macropore flow only accounted for 11-17% of total tile-drain flow, SRP transport was primarily regulated by matrix flow. Total P transport to tile-drains was primarily regulated by macropore flow regardless of the storm. Soluble reactive P (0.01-1.83 mg m⁻²/storm) and TP (0.10-8.64 mg m⁻²/storm) export rates were extremely variable and positively significantly correlated to both mean discharge and bulk precipitation. Soluble reactive P accounted for 9.9-15.5% of TP fluxes for small tile-flow generating events (<3 cm bulk precipitation) and for 16.2-22.0% of TP fluxes for large precipitation events (>6 cm bulk precipitation). Although significant variations in tile-flow response to precipitation were observed, no significant differences in SRP and TP concentrations were observed between adjacent tile-drains. Results stress the dominance of particulate P and the importance of macropore flow in P transport to tile-drains in the US Midwest. Although only spring storms are investigated, this study brings critical insight into P dynamics in tile-drains at a critical time of the year for water quality management.     

Post-fire soil respiration in relation to burnt wood management in a Mediterranean mountain ecosystem

After a wildfire, the management of burnt wood may determine microclimatic conditions and microbiological activity with the potential to affect soil respiration. To experimentally analyze the effect on soil respiration, we manipulated a recently burned pine forest in a Mediterranean mountain (Sierra Nevada National and Natural Park, SE Spain). Three representative treatments of post-fire burnt wood management were established at two elevations: (1) “salvage logging” (SL), where all trees were cut, trunks removed, and branches chipped; (2) “non-intervention” (NI), leaving all burnt trees standing; and (3) “cut plus lopping” (CL), a treatment where burnt trees were felled, with the main branches lopped off, but left in situ partially covering the ground surface. Seasonal measurements were carried out over the course of two years. In addition, we performed continuous diurnal campaigns and an irrigation experiment to ascertain the roles of soil temperature and moisture in determining CO₂ fluxes across treatments. Soil CO₂ fluxes were highest in CL (average of 3.34 ± 0.19 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹) and the lowest in SL (2.21 ± 0.11 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹). Across seasons, basal values were registered during summer (average of 1.46 ± 0.04 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹), but increased during the humid seasons (up to 10.07 ± 1.08 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ in spring in CL). Seasonal and treatment patterns were consistent at the two elevations (1477 and 2317 m a.s.l.), although respiration was half as high at the higher altitude.Respiration was mainly controlled by soil moisture. Watering during the summer drought boosted CO₂ effluxes (up to 37 ± 6 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ just after water addition), which then decreased to basal values as the soil dried. About 64% of CO₂ emissions during the first 24 h could be attributed to the degasification of soil pores, with the rest likely related to biological processes. The patterns of CO₂ effluxes under experimental watering were similar to the seasonal tendencies, with the highest pulse in CL. Temperature, however, had a weak effect on soil respiration, with Q₁₀ values of ca. 1 across seasons and soil moisture conditions. These results represent a first step towards illustrating the effects of post-fire burnt wood management on soil respiration, and eventually carbon sequestration.     

Phosphorus content in five representative landscape units of the Lomas de Arequipa (Atacama Desert-Peru)

Phosphorus forms and content were studied in soils of the Lomas de Arequipa (Atacama desert, Peru) using a fractionation method. These Lomas are small hills periodically submitted to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) which causes heavy rainfall. Sample soils were randomly selected in five landscape types characterized by vegetation: cactaceae (Cac), cactaceae and herbaceous (CacHerb), shrubs (Shr), trees with cover < 60% (Tree) and shrubs or trees with cover > 60%) (ShrTree). All the soils were strongly acidic and classified as loamy sand, sandy loam or silt loam. Organic carbon content was under 1% in Cac or CacHerb, then increased strongly in ShrTree (6.50%). Considering phosphorus, all the forms (labile as well resistant forms) increased markedly from Cac soils to ShrTree soils. In all the soils, the labile forms (Resin-P: range 45–105 μg g^− 1; NaHCO3-Pi: 23–123 μg g^− 1; or NaHCO3-Po: 10–122 μg g^− 1) were very high. These high phosphorus contents were attributed to the specific climatic conditions of the Lomas that feature a long period of vegetation dormancy (very dry period) and a short period of growth, following ENSO-associated precipitation. We suggested that during the dry period, plant decay and microbial cells death lead to release and accumulation of labile P in the soil, the rainfall wetting the soil, permitting vegetation growth. In this respect, the Lomas climatic conditions contribute to soil fertility, especially as labile forms of phosphorus are chiefly concerned.