A comparison of measured catchment sediment yields with measured and predicted hillslope erosion rates in Europe

Purpose  

This study aims to understand better the relationship between measured soil loss rates due to sheet and rill erosion (SL), predicted SL rates and measured catchment sediment yields (SY) in Europe.     

Distribution and function of allantoin (5-ureidohydantoin) in rice grains

Despite increasing knowledge of allantoin as a phytochemical involved in rice, relatively little is known about its distribution and function in rice grains. In this study, allantoin was quantified in 15 Chinese rice grains, and its contents varied with grain fraction, cultivar, and genotype. Bran always had the highest allantoin level, followed by brown rice and milled rice. Hull contained the lowest allantoin content. Allantoin in japonica bran ranged from 70 to 171 μg/g but rarely exceeded 100 μg/g in indica bran. There was a positive relationship between allantoin level in grains and seedling survival in seedbeds under low temperature or water deficit. Exogenous allantoin stimulated plant growth, increased soluble sugar and free proline contents, and decreased malondialdehyde content in rice seedlings. However, allantoin did not show any antioxidant activity through free radical-scavenging capacity, reducing power, linoleic acid peroxidation inhibition, and chelating activity. The results suggest that allantoin in rice grains may play some roles in providing plant stress protection but not serving as a beneficial health antioxidant.     

The versatile,changing, and advancing roles of fish in sediment toxicity assessment—a review

Purpose  

Sediments serve as integral and dynamic parts of our aquatic systems. Within the last 15 to 20 years, however, the scientific community has begun noticing deterioration of sediment quality at an alarming rate worldwide. Sediments are now harboring hazardous pollutants that can directly influence water quality, thereby creating very stressful conditions for aquatic life. As a consequence, global efforts were initiated in the early 1970s, to find ways to assess sediment quality. Because of their obvious ecological and economic significance, fish have remained a major taxonomic group for appraising the general quality of aquatic systems. However, for sediment risk assessment, fish have lagged behind invertebrates due to their mobility and generally, pelagic lifestyle. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that comprehensively presents and reviews the versatile role of fish in assessing the state of health of aquatic sediments.     

Desorption and distribution of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on aged black carbon containing sediment

Purpose

There is a strong affinity between organic compounds and black carbon (BC) in sediments, but the release of adsorbed organic compounds from BC may vary with the duration of contaminant–sediment contact (i.e., aging). The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effect of the application of rice straw carbon (RC) on the control of hydrophobic ionizable organic compounds (HIOCs) pollution and investigate whether aging affects the release of adsorbed pentachlorophenol (PCP) in RC-amended sediment.

Materials and methods

Two experiments were conducted in this study: Tenax-mediated desorption kinetics experiment and PCP’s distribution experiment over aging time. The Tenax-mediated desorption kinetics data were fit with a modified two-domain model. PCP’s distribution pools in sediment involves water soluble (F ₁), 48 h desorption (F ₂), 432 h desorption minus 48 h desorption (F ₃), strongly complexed (F ₄), and nonextractable fractions (F ₅).

Results and discussion

A good fit of the desorption kinetics data was obtained with the modified two-domain model, and R ² ranged from 0.979 to 0.999. The presence of RC in the sediment reduced the rapid and slow desorption fractions (F _rap and F _slow) as well as the rapid and slow rates of desorption of PCP (k _rap and k _slow) from the sediment, and the RC also increased the desorption-resistant fraction (F _r ). F _rap and F _slow both increased, while F _r decreased after aging. The PCP content of F ₁, F ₂, and F ₃ increased but decreased in F ₄ and F ₅ with contact time. Furthermore, the segregation of PCP varied less with aging time in sediments with 2.0 % RC than in sediments with 0.5 % RC.

Conclusions

RC played a dominant role in hindering PCP mass transfer and reducing PCP availability in sediments. After the RC-amended sediment was aged for 98 days, the PCP was released more easily and became more readily available, which was attributed primarily to the RC–sediment aging rather than of the PCP–sediment aging. Furthermore, 0.5 % RC is not sufficient to control PCP release from sediments, and 2.0 % RC is needed to fix PCP in sediments over long periods of time.     

How weed control and fertilisation influence tree physiological processes and growth at early establishment in an exotic F<Subscript>1</Subscript> hybrid pine plantation of subtropical Australia

Purpose

This study investigated how nitrogen (N) nutrition and key physiological processes varied under changed water and nitrogen competition resulting from different weed control and fertilisation treatments in a 2-year-old F₁ hybrid (Pinus elliottii Engelm var. elliottii?×?P. caribaea var. hondurensis Barr. ex Golf.) plantation on a grey podzolic soil type, in Southeast Queensland.

Materials and methods

The study integrated a range of measures including growth variables (diameter at ground level (DGL), diameter at breast height (DBH) and height (H)), foliar variables (including foliar N concentration, foliar δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) and physiological variables (including photosynthesis (A_n), stomatal conductance (g_s), transpiration (E), intrinsic water use efficiency (WUE_i) (A/g_s) and xylem pressure potential (Ψ_XPP)) to better understand the mechanisms influencing growth under different weed control and fertilisation treatments. Five levels of weed control were applied: standard (routine), luxury, intermediate, mechanical and nil weed control, all with routine fertilisation plus an additional treatment, routine weed control and luxury fertilisation. Relative weed cover was assessed at 0.8, 1.1 and 1.6 years after plantation establishment to monitor the effectiveness of weed control treatments. Soil investigation included soil ammonium (NH₄ ⁺-N), nitrate (NO₃ ^?-N), potentially mineralizable N (PMN), gravimetric soil moisture content (MC), hot water extractable organic carbon (HWETC), hot water extractable total N (HWETN), total C, total N, stable C isotope composition (δ¹³C), stable N isotope composition (δ¹⁵N), total P and extractable K.

Results and discussion

There were significant relationships between foliar N concentrations and relative weed cover and between tree growth and foliar N concentration or foliar δ¹⁵N, but initial site preparation practices also increased soil N transformations in the planting rows reducing the observable effects of weed control on foliar δ¹⁵N. A positive relationship between foliar N concentration and foliar δ¹³C or photosynthesis indicated that increased N availability to trees positively influenced non-stomatal limitations to photosynthesis. However, trees with increased foliar N concentrations and photosynthesis were negatively related to xylem pressure potential in the afternoons which enhanced stomatal limitations to photosynthesis and WUE_i.

Conclusions

Luxury and intermediate weed control and luxury fertilisation positively influenced growth at early establishment by reducing the competition for water and N resources. This influenced fundamental key physiological processes such as the relationships between foliar N concentration, A _n, E, g_s and Ψ_XPP. Results also confirmed that time from cultivation is an important factor influencing the effectiveness of using foliar δ¹⁵N as an indicator of soil N transformations.

     

Removal of Fluoride from Water by Locally Available Sand Modified with a Coating of Iron Oxides

Locally available low-cost material viz. sand from the Kaliani river of Kanaighat area of Golaghat district Assam, India, was collected. The sand was fractionated and the different fractions were characterized by classical chemical analysis, powder XRD, SEM-EDXA, DTA-TGA, and by FT-IR. The chemical analysis of the size fraction of a 600–850-μm range gave more than 90% silica. This fractionated portion was modified by coating with iron oxide. Coating was carried out on the washed and separated sand by repeated treatment of Fe(NO₃)₃ at 110 and 600 °C, respectively. From FESEM analysis, formation of iron oxide coating over sand surface is clearly observed. The coated sand was used to remove toxic fluoride ion from the drinking water. Iron oxide-coated sand shows highly improved fluoride removal capacity compared to raw sand. The defluoridation capacity of coated sands rose up to 89% from 7% in uncoated raw sand. The effects of different parameters like adsorbent dose, contact time, temperature, initial fluoride concentration, and pH and the effects of different anions present in water along with arsenic on defluoridation capacity of the material were studied in a batch mode.     

On the trail of the last autochthonous Italian einkorn (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum monococcum</Emphasis> L.) and emmer (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum dicoccon</Emphasis> Schrank) populations: a mission impossible?

In 1970s it was thought that two species of ‘farro’, namely emmer (Triticum dicoccon Schrank) and einkorn (T. monococcum L.), were no longer present in Italy, but in 1981, some populations were discovered in a mountain area of the Appennino Sannita (central southern Italy). In 2006/2007 three monitoring missions were carried out to check the current situation of these ancient hulled wheats, specifically in the same areas where they were formerly collected. The same zones were also investigated by both paleo-ethnobotany and agrobiodiversity points of view. The results of this research have shown that nowadays einkorn is completely extinct while emmer is still cultivated in very few traditional farms, mainly as a fodder crop. A strong genetic erosion was detected also for emmer and several nowadays samples were contaminated by seeds of modern spelt (T. spelta L.) varieties. In the present study the causes of this genetic erosion and which safeguarding actions to be undertaken are discussed.     

Changes in forest soil organic matter quality affected by windstorm and wildfire

Purpose

Windthrows and fires are major natural disturbances in forest ecosystems, which can affect organic matter in the surface and the mineral layer of forest soil. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the changes occurring in the structure and properties of humic acid (HA) in the lands where windthrows and wildfires occurred.

Materials and methods

In November 2004, the forest in the area of 12,000 ha in the Tatra National Park, Slovakia, was seriously damaged by northern wind gusts exceeding 200 km/h. In July 2005, a wildfire broke out in a 220 ha of wind-damaged area. The HAs have been isolated from four research plots: (a) the area where the fallen trees were removed (EXT); (b) an area after windstorm covered by wood from struck trees (NEX), left for spontaneous succession; (c) an area after extracted timber, damaged by the surface wildfire (FIR); and (d) a reference intact spruce forest area (REF). Changes in the chemical structure of the HAs isolated from the research plots were determined on the basis of elemental analysis and UV-Vis, EPR, IR, and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy.

Results and discussion

All used analytical methods showed a decrease in the humification degree of the humic acids extracted from the soils where the spruce forest has been affected by a wildfire and a windthrow. In the case of the control sample HA (REF), the calculated atomic H/C and O/C ratios and the degree of aromaticity (α) calculated from the ¹³C NMR spectra were higher, indicating higher aromaticity of HA from the REF area. The more complex and developed structure of REF HA was confirmed by the higher value of E^1%₆ and the lower E4/E6 ratio obtained using UV-Vis spectroscopy. Also, the higher g-parameters determined from the EPR spectra of the stable radicals present in HA confirmed the lower aromaticity on the plots that have been subjected to the calamities. The ¹³C NMR spectra and the elemental analysis show that the structure of the HA extracted from the NEX plot is the closest to the REF.

Conclusions

The results of the systematic research showed significant changes in the structure of HA taken from spruce forest soils that were subjected to windstorms and fires. An enrichment of the HAs in aliphatic carbon and so a lower humification degree of the organic matter in the areas calamity-affected were observed. The results clearly indicate that the HAs extracted from the disturbed plots of the spruce forest are not as stable as those extracted taken from the control plot.