Investigation into the fractal scaling of the structure and strength of soil aggregates

The hierarchical nature of soil structure is examined by measuring the physical properties of a range of aggregate sizes obtained using repetitive fracture. Fractals are used to assess the change with aggregate size of the specific volume, the proportion of pre-existing cracks which link to form the aggregate failure surface, and the aggregate failure stress. The pore size distribution, evaluated using mercury porosimetry and the application of the box counting algorithm to thin sections and thick sections, is also used to obtain a fractal dimension, D. Our results show that D depends upon the measurement approach for mass fractal scaling. This finding may limit the application of fractals to predict the scaling behaviour of soil physical properties.     

The pore–solid fractal model of soil density scaling

We have developed the fractal approach to modelling variations in soil bulk density and porosity with scale of measurement or sample size. A new expression is derived for each quantity based on the pore–solid fractal (PSF) model of soil structure. This new general expression covers a range of fractal media and accommodates existing fractal models as special cases. Model outputs cover a range of scaling behaviour expressed in terms of monotonic functions, from increasing density and decreasing porosity, through constant porosity and density to decreasing density and increasing porosity with increasing scale of measurement. We demonstrate the link between this new model for the scaling of porosity and bulk density and the water retention model for the PSF. The model for scaling bulk density is fitted to data on aggregate bulk density and shown to yield good fits describing bulk density decreasing with increasing aggregate size. Porosity scaling is also inferred from the fitting of water retention data. Inferred porosities from different fittings are shown to follow decreasing, scale‐invariant and increasing values with decreasing size of structural unit, and these theoretical results emphasize the need for further experimental investigation on the basic issue of density scaling in soil science.     

Temperature requirements for seed germination in species of the genus Allium L.

For taxonomic purposes and because many wild relatives of Allium crops are endangered in their native habitat (Sancir et al., 1989), a collection of Allium species was built up in the IPK at Gatersleben. At present it consists of more than 3000 accessions representing about 330 species. In this context it was necessary to study the seed germination behaviour and dormancy of certain wild Allium species. Therefore, seeds of 91 wild and three cultivated Allium species were tested at germination temperatures of 5°, 11°, 16° and 26°C. The purpose of this study was to develop routine germination tests for the genebank work with wild alliums.     

Resurrection of Soil Surveys: a case study of the acid sulphate soils of The Gambia.

Abstract. Statistical techniques are used to test and re-interpret archival data from soil surveys of the tidal floodplain of the River Gambia. Key soil attributes include salinity, ripeness and the acid sulphate hazard. Soil taxonomic units derived by cluster analysis of all the validated data do not correspond with the intuitively-defined soil series of the original surveys. However they do correspond with practical soil mapping units, and distinguish areas of quite different geotechnical behaviour, kinds and degrees of salinity and acid sulphate hazard.     

Patterns of species change in anthropogenically disturbed forests of Madagascar

Five main conclusions arise from this review of the responses of species to anthropogenic disturbance in Madagascar: First, species’ reactions to anthropogenic disturbance are generally negative, but remain poorly known. Our knowledge is patchy among and within higher taxonomic groups; we are still largely gathering case studies. Second, taxonomic groups vary considerably in which proximate factors are most important. Third, several groups show differing responses within different ecoregions. Whether these differences are consistent across groups requires further testing. Fourth, related species often have divergent reactions to disturbance, even within lower taxonomic groupings (families or genera). Thus, we cannot rely on phylogenetic relatedness or even ecological similarity to infer similarity in responses. Finally, disturbance typically reduces species diversity (especially of native and/or endemic species), but also causes species turnover, typically with forest specialists replaced by grassland generalists, and endemics replaced by non-endemics (including invasives). Given these knowledge gaps, we stress the urgency of applied studies that assess species’ ecology, behaviour and health across disturbance gradients, including purely anthropogenic landscapes. Remaining natural vegetation and protected areas will be unable to preserve Madagascar’s biodiversity under the impact of climatic change; we must understand responses of plants and animals to disturbance in order to create buffer zones and corridors combining secondary, degraded and natural habitats.     

Morphometry of lodicules in the genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum</Emphasis> L.

Morphology of ripe lodicules in wheat taxonomic species was analyzed for all ploidy levels. From the initial set of sixteen characters, the best representatives and discriminants were selected. Length of main lobe and hairiness of this lobe as well as cushion appeared as the most stable selected characters. A non-metric multidimensional scaling procedure distinguished wheat diploids in the ordination space with Triticum urartu in a separate position. Other wheats, which were recognized as narrow endemics or hybrid recombinants, were seen as extremes in this space and they surround the centre with most of threshable taxa. Morphology of the lodicule differs between unthreshable and threshable wheats as well as between units having AABB and AAGG genomes. The development of hairs, lateral lobe and cushion is a factor creating main differences between lodicules of various taxa. Wheat species characterized by the best discriminants create in the space an original sphere of points described by correlation and regression parameters of three ordination axes. Large intra-specific variation of lodicule morphology is a source of flexibility of wheat breeding system.     

Designation of local varieties in the Hungarian soil classification system: Remarks from a viewpoint of land evaluation application

This paper examines the information transfer of soil taxonomic classification units of the Hungarian soil classification from the viewpoint of land productivity evaluation applications. For this purpose statistical analyses of a national soil and plant production database (with 80000 entries) have been applied. Results show that soil groupings both in taxonomic and productivity classifications may be incorrect in some cases. Taxonomic misclassification can occur at higher levels of soil classification. With only the general purpose classification of soil characteristics in lower level taxonomic units major interpretive information loss can occur.     

On the development of soil-genetic zoning

The principles of typological soil-genetic zoning based on the substantive-genetic classification of Russian soils (2004) and realized for the State Soil Map of Russia on a scale of 1 : 1 M are considered. Three categories of characteristics are applied to the system of zoning units: taxonomic, process-based, and landscape- indicative characteristics. The relationship between them changes in dependence on the taxonomic level of the zoning unit; at the lower level, the spatial (landscape-indicative) criterion plays the major role. This criterion is also important in the delimitation of soil groups (soil communities) serving as the central taxonomic unit of the zoning. At this level, all the three groups of characteristics are equally important. The definitions of the taxonomic units of the soil-genetic zoning are given, and their characteristic features are described. An algorithm of the zoning procedure is illustrated by the example of the maps developed for the Privolzhskii federal okrug. It is suggested that the soil-genetic zoning can be used as one of the ways to update the State Soil Map.     

Influence of the temporal resolution of data on the success of indicator species models of species richness across multiple taxonomic groups

Indicator species models may be a cost-effective approach to estimating species richness across large areas. Obtaining reliable distributional data for indicator species (and therefore reliable estimates of species richness) often requires longitudinal data, that is, surveys for indicator species repeated for several years or time steps. Maximum information must be extracted from such data. We used genetic algorithms and a Bayesian approach to compare the influence of presence/absence data and reporting rate data (the proportion of survey years in which a species was present) on models of species richness based on indicator species. Using data on birds and butterflies from the Great Basin (Nevada, USA), we evaluated models of species richness for one taxonomic group based on indicator species drawn from the same taxonomic group and from a different group. We also evaluated models of combined species richness of both taxonomic groups based on indicator species drawn from either group. We identified suites of species whose occurrence patterns explained as much as 70% of deviance in species richness of a different taxonomic group. Validation tests revealed strong correlations between observed and predicted species richness, with 83-100% of the observed values falling within the 95% credible intervals of the predictions. Whether reporting rate data improved the explanatory and predictive ability of cross-taxonomic models depended on the taxonomic group of the indicator species. The discrepancy in predictive ability was smaller for same-taxon models. Our methods provide a manager with the means to maximize the information obtained from longitudinal survey data.     

Ecological and taxonomic features of actinomycetes complex of the soils of the Lake Elton region

Ecological and taxonomic characteristics of the actinomycete complex of solonchak soils and light chestnut soils in the Lake Elton region have been presented. Data on the abundance and taxonomic structure have confirmed the ecological importance of actinomycetes in soils with evident signs of salinity.     

连续式淡水鱼弹簧刷去鳞机参数优化与试验

为了提高连续式淡水鱼弹簧刷去鳞机的去鳞效果,该文以鲢鱼为试验对象,通过自制去鳞机研究了去鳞机去鳞辊上的弹簧缠绕方式及整机运行参数对去鳞效果的影响,通过正交试验确定了各参数之间的最优组合,即去鳞辊上缠绕的不锈钢弹簧采用1.2mm×16mm、弹簧缠绕圈数2.5圈、弹簧头尾固定间距40mm,去鳞辊转速1390r/min、压辊转速100r/min、输送辊转速800r/min,此时鲢鱼去鳞率均值为68.7%。该研究可为连续式淡水鱼弹簧刷去鳞机的改进提供参考。     

Quantitative mapping of soil types based on regression kriging of taxonomic distances with landform and land cover attributes

Nowadays, French soil scientists tend to gather new and existing soil data into a common database. The use of this database potentially allows for resolving environmental issues, largely through soil mapping. The purpose of this study is to present a methodology for mapping soil types illustrated by typical observations in the soil database, in this case from the La Rochelle area on the French Mid-Atlantic Coast. The main hypothesis underlying the method is that soil types result from environmental factors such as landform, parent material, and land cover. The method can be divided into four stages. The first step is to construct a local soil type classification from the database by a two-stage continuous classification procedure. The result of this procedure is that at each observation point, the soil is described by a vector of taxonomic distances to each of k centroidal soil types. In the example given, k=18. The second step involves fitting soil–environment equations, one for each centroidal soil type, by regressing taxonomic distances on layers of multivariate environmental data observed on a fine 20-m grid, by multiple linear regression. In this case, the layers are terrain attributes derived from a digital elevation model and land cover attributes derived from three bands of a SPOT image. The third step is to predict k maps or raster GIS layers representing taxonomic distances to soil types on the 20-m grid, using the soil–environment equations and the kriging of the residuals from the regressions. This results in many potential maps: a summary map depicting the nearest centroidal soil type (the soil type for which the taxonomic distance is least) at each location is possibly the most useful, and another one representing the minimum taxonomic distance which, if considered too large, might suggest locations for further field survey to refine the soil types. A map of standard errors of the kriged taxonomic distance residuals to the nearest centroidal soil type can be made to indicate spatial uncertainty. Continuous fuzzy membership maps can also be constructed from the distances. The fourth step involves validation with an independent soil data set allowing discovery of the nature of the actual prediction errors. Thirty-eight percent of sites in a validation sample of 1234 sites was unequivocally validated, 23% was equivocally validated, and the remainder was predicted wrongly by the method.     

The importance of mycological studies for soil quality control

Published and original data obtained in the course of long-term studies of mycobiota of several soil types in regions with different pollution levels and composition of the pollutants (Tver, Moscow, and Samara oblasts; West Siberia; and the Komi Republic) are analyzed. The expediency of using mycological characteristics for soil quality control and estimation of the toxic impact on the environment is discussed. The most pollutant-sensitive mycological characteristics were determined for the following soils: oligotrophic peat gley, eutrophic peat, whitish podzolic, Al-Fe-humus podzol, soddy pale podzolic, soddy-podzolic, and brown forest soils. These are (a) the structure of the fungal biomass, (b) the taxonomic diversity of the fungi, and (c) the percentage of melanized forms of micromycetes. At the same time, the total number of fungi (in colony-forming units) and the indices of the richness of individual species and genera proved to be poorly informative for assessing the ecological status of the soils. Criteria for the choice of mycobiotic parameters suitable for scaling the soil ecological quality are suggested.     

The importance of spatial scale for the conservation of tidal flat macrobenthos: An example from New South Wales, Australia

Planners of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) commonly use maps of habitat types when choosing areas to conserve. This assumes that habitats are homogeneous, and therefore, that any area of habitat will represent the full spectrum of ecological diversity within that habitat. Here, we report that macrobenthic assemblages in tidal flat habitats were spatially heterogeneous in terms of beta diversity (taxonomic turnover), abundance, taxonomic richness and Shannon-Wiener H′ Diversity. Importantly, the patterns of heterogeneity were scale dependent for the three spatial scales we examined; plots (20 m), sites (100s of m) and estuaries (<30 km). The three estuaries in the study were compositionally similar as they shared the same dominant taxa, although one estuary had significantly more taxa and a higher abundance of macrobenthos. Assemblages within tidal flats differed at scales of 100s of m for all ecological measures. Most notably, beta diversity was highest at this scale. Assemblages were relatively more homogeneous at the 20-m scale. These findings highlight the value of examining more than one ecological measure and estimating magnitude of effects across a variety of scales. This work presents two important considerations for MPAs. First, although tidal flats in different estuaries are compositionally similar for dominant taxa, rarer taxa and high heterogeneity in abundance should influence the choice and number of tidal flats in MPAs. Second, strong compositional heterogeneity within individual tidal flats implies that conservation of whole habitat, rather than sections of a tidal flat, is essential if this habitat type is to be used to represent taxonomic diversity.     

Species diversity versus phylogenetic diversity: A practical study in the taxonomically difficult genus Dactylorhiza (Orchidaceae)

Setting conservation priorities in taxonomically complex groups such as the orchid genus Dactylorhiza is a difficult task. As an alternative to taxonomic diversity, we used here a molecular phylogenetic analysis and the results of a genetic investigation using plastid microsatellites with an extensive geographic sampling to assess in a more objective way the patterns of diversity within this genus. Although western Europe is thought to be the main diversity centre for the genus due to the large number of species found there, we found higher phylogenetic and genetic diversity as well as higher endemicity in the Caucasus and the Mediterranean Basin, two biodiversity hotspots. Species number seems to be correlated with taxonomic effort, tentatively estimated here by the number of herbaria, and is thus biased and not an appropriate measure of diversity. Our results show that phylogenetic analyses and genetic data obtained with molecular tools can offer an alternative measure of biodiversity that is not sensitive to taxonomic inflation. Conservation of allotetraploid taxa is also discussed, and it is recommended that sites in which polyploids are formed should be conserved rather than any specific allotetraploid taxon.     

Bias in bacterial diversity as a result of Nycodenz extraction from bulk soil

Nycodenz density centrifugation (NDC) is an isolation method that allows extraction of both culturable and unculturable bacterial cells from soil, to be used in further downstream analysis; however, to date there has been a lack of information concerning the efficiency of this method. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the overall efficiency of NDC extractions from soil and to identify sampling bias, if any.Bacterial cells were extracted from three soil plots from the Danish CRUCIAL field trial using an already established NDC protocol. To evaluate all aspects of the NDC procedure, DNA was extracted directly from soil, from NDC-extracted cells, and from the soil pellets left after NDC. Bacterial diversity was assessed by PCR amplification of the V4-V6 regions of the 16S rRNA from the extracted DNA followed by sample-tagged amplicon-pyrosequencing using the 454 Genome Sequencer FLX system. Sequences were processed and analyzed using the Ribosomal Database Project’s (RDP) Pyrosequencing Pipeline tools.In this study, we show that extraction of bacteria from soil using NDC can result in significant biases in the form of either over- or underrepresentation of specific bacterial phyla commonly found in soil. Furthermore, rarefaction analysis, analysis of similarity, multidimensional scaling plots and analysis of variance showed that the diversity in the NDC-extracted sample was reduced significantly compared to both the original soil sample and the remaining NDC-pellet. To further study the soil diversity a mathematical model was employed to estimate how many sequences would be required in order to find 95% of all operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in the soil. The model estimated that the soil contains approximately 29,400 OTUs and that just 351,500 sequences are needed to cover 95% of the bacterial biodiversity, the equivalent of one full standard GS FLX run.     

杨凌区土壤入渗特性的空间变异特征研究

为揭示杨凌区黏壤土区域土壤入渗特性的空间变异特征,通过在该研究区内进行的44组大田土壤入渗试验为基础,采用标定理论与地统计学相结合的方法,对Philip入渗公式进行了标定,并分析了标定因子和土壤累计人渗量的空间变异特征.结果表明:在研究区内基于土壤稳渗率A计算的标定因子aA标定效果最优;aA的变异系数为0.257 5,属于中等变异强度,且服从对数正态分布;aA的空间变化呈现二阶趋势,块金值与基台值的比值为0.228 0,表明其具有强烈的空间相关性.普通Kriging插值结果显示所有测点的aA和90 min累计入渗量空间分布特征具有高的一致性,并在此基础上,将aA和30 min、60 min、90 min累计入渗量预测值与实测值进行了比较,其两者的误差绝对值均值分别为12.25％、28.15％、25.56％和24.57％,结合实际情况,可认为该方法的预测结果是完全可以接受的.     

Analysis of the structure of microbial community in soils with different degrees of salinization using T-RFLP and real-time PCR techniques

Molecular methods were used to study variation in the taxonomic structure of bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities in soil samples taken along a salinity gradient from a solonchak in the vicinity of Lake Akkol’ (Shingirlau, Kazakhstan). Soils from arable fields located 195 km from the solonchak served as the control. Total DNA was isolated from every sample and analyzed by T-RFLP and real-time PCR. Salinization was found to be the main ecological factor determining the structure of soil microbial community in the study region. The values of Simpson’s index characterizing the diversity of this community proved to be similar in all the samples, which, however, significantly differed in the taxonomic composition of microorganisms. A significantly increased content of archaea was revealed in the sample with the highest salinity. The results of this study show that the structure of soil microbial community reflects specific features of a given soil and can be used as an indicator of its ecological state.     

Sustaining biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes in the Western Ghats: Remnant forests matter

Human-modified tropical landscapes under semi-natural or agro-ecosystems often harbor biodiversity of significant conservation value. In the Western Ghats of India, these ecosystems also provide connectivity between protected areas and other remnant forests. We investigated the conservation value of these landscapes and agro-ecosystems using results from 35 studies covering 14 taxonomic groups. Large, conspicuous taxonomic groups and tree-covered land-use types have received much focus in this area of research in the Western Ghats. We computed a response ratio defined as the log ratio of species richness in human land use to species richness in forest control site from 17 studies. In a meta-analysis, we investigated variation of this ratio across studies with respect to three variables: taxonomic group, the land-use type sampled and the extent of forest cover within the study landscape. Higher forest cover within the landscape emerged as a major positive influence on biodiversity in human-modified landscapes for vertebrates and vegetation while no patterns emerged for invertebrates. Our results suggest that loss of remnant forest patches from these landscapes is likely to reduce biodiversity within agro-ecosystems and exacerbate overall biodiversity loss across the Western Ghats. Conservation of these remnant forest patches through protection and restoration of habitat and connectivity to larger forest patches needs to be prioritized. In the densely populated Western Ghats, this can only be achieved by building partnerships with local land owners and stakeholders through innovative land-use policy and incentive schemes for conservation.     

Surveying soil faunal communities using a direct molecular approach

Soil faunal communities are often phylogenetically diverse and the accurate assessment of the taxonomic structure of these communities is both time-consuming and requires a high level of taxonomic expertise. Here we describe a DNA sequence-based methodology for characterizing soil micro- and mesofaunal communities that is similar to the molecular approaches commonly used to survey soil microbial diversity. The technique involves the direct extraction of faunal DNA from soil, PCR amplification of the extracted DNA with metazoan-specific primers, followed by the construction of clone libraries and direct sequencing of individual PCR products. We used this technique to characterize micro- and mesofaunal community composition from six individual soils representing two land-use types. The technique captured the more abundant faunal groups in the soils (nematodes, Collembola, Acari, tardigrades, enchytraeids) and provided sufficient taxonomic resolution to describe the overall structure of the communities. We compared the results obtained using this molecular approach to results obtained using a traditional, microscopy-based approach and found that the results were broadly similar. However, since biases are inherent in both methods it remains unclear which method provides a more accurate assessment of soil faunal community composition. Although this molecular approach has some distinct disadvantages over the more widely-used direct extraction methods, one advantage is that the taxonomic identification it can provide will be more accurate and consistent across research groups, facilitating effective comparisons of mesofaunal surveys.