The use of soil data in natural heritage planning and management

Abstract. Native woodland restoration is a conservation priority within the UK and there is an increasing awareness that a long-term strategy is required to guide this process. A GIS-based modelling approach has been developed, which links site conditions as expressed in an integrated soil and land cover dataset with the site requirements for different woodland types. There are three important aspects to the model – the parameter weightings, the added value of the integrated dataset, and the woodland categories which are described and predicted. The initial quantitative and qualitative validation has been encouraging although more is required and planned. The results indicate that for broad strategic planning purposes, predictions of woodland potential are not improved significantly when climatic factors are incorporated. The concept that soil acts as an integrator of other environmental variables is discussed alongside the practical application of the model by a range of users.     

Regulation of enzymes involved in the sulphur-assimilatory pathway

The regulation of enzymes involved in sulphate assimilation in plants has been investigated. Extractable activity of ATP sulphurylase (the first enzyme of the assimilatory pathway) has been shown to be regulated by sulphate availability and O-acctylserine (OAS) supply. OAS addition to the medium increased extractable activity and was able, at least partially, to overcome the repression of extraclable activity observed by supply of sulphate and cysteine. Cysteine synthase, the final enzyme of the cysteine biosynthetic pathway, was not regulated under these conditions.     

Organic chemistry in drug discovery

The role played by organic chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry continues to be one of the main drivers in the drug discovery process. However, the precise nature of that role is undergoing a visible change, not only because of the new synthetic methods and technologies now available to the synthetic and medicinal chemist, but also in several key areas, particularly in drug metabolism and chemical toxicology, as chemists deal with the ever more rapid turnaround of testing data that influences their day-to-day decisions.     

Preindustrial to modern interdecadal variability in coral reef pH

The oceans are becoming more acidic due to absorption of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems is unclear, but it will likely depend on species adaptability and the rate of change of seawater pH relative to its natural variability. To constrain the natural variability in reef-water pH, we measured boron isotopic compositions in a approximately 300-year-old massive Porites coral from the southwestern Pacific. Large variations in pH are found over approximately 50-year cycles that covary with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation of ocean-atmosphere anomalies, suggesting that natural pH cycles can modulate the impact of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems.     

Impact of time between field application of Bacillus subtilis strains SB01 and SB24 and inoculation with Sclerotinia sclerotiorum on the suppression of Sclerotinia stem rot in soybean

This study evaluated the impact of time between the application of cell suspensions or cell-free filtrates of Bacillus subtilis strains SB01 or SB24 on soybean plants under field conditions and inoculation with Sclerotinia sclerotiorum on their effectiveness for suppression of S. sclerotiorum. The results showed that the cell suspensions of two strains provided greater effectiveness than the cell-free filtrates, but the suppression effectiveness decreased as the time between application in the field and S. sclerotiorum inoculation increased. The B. subtilis cell suspensions applied on soybean leaves for up to 10 days under field conditions were able to provide a significant (P < 0.01) reduction in disease severity by approximately 20–90% at 5 days after the S. sclerotiorum inoculation. When rated 15 days after S. sclerotiorum inoculation, plants treated with bacterial cells for ≤6 days reduced Sclerotinia stem rot severity by 15–70%. Most effectiveness was provided by the cell suspensions present on soybean leaves for <3 days under field conditions, which significantly (P < 0.01) reduced disease severity by 40–70% over 15 days. In comparison, the cell-free filtrates remaining on leaves for <6 days significantly (P < 0.01) reduced disease severity during the first 5 days after the inoculation, while the best cell-free filtrate treatments were those with ≤1-day intervals, which significantly (P < 0.01) reduced disease severity by 10–40% during 15 days after the inoculation. The effectiveness of B. subtilis was reduced when it rained after application.