Energy and water balance measurements for water productivity analysis in irrigated mango trees, Northeast Brazil

Crop water parameters, including actual evapotranspiration, transpiration, soil evaporation, crop coefficients, evaporative fractions, aerodynamic resistances, surface resistances and percolation fluxes were estimated in a commercial mango orchard during two growing seasons in Northeast Brazil. The actual evapotranspiration (E_a) was obtained by the eddy covariance (EC) technique, while for the reference evapotranspiration (E₀); the FAO Penman–Monteith equation was applied. The energy balance closure showed a gap of 12%. For water productivity analysis the E_a was then computed with the Bowen ratio determined from the eddy covariance fluxes. The mean accumulated E_a for the two seasons was 1419 mm year⁻¹, which corresponded to a daily average rate of 3.7 mm day⁻¹. The mean values of the crop coefficients based on evapotranspiration (K_c) and based on transpiration (K_cb) were 0.91 and 0.73, respectively. The single layer K_c was fitted with a degree days function. Twenty percent of evapotranspiration originated from direct soil evaporation. The evaporative fraction was 0.83 on average. The average relative water supply was 1.1, revealing that, in general, irrigation water supply was in good harmony with the crop water requirements. The resulting evapotranspiration deficit was 73–95 mm per season only. The mean aerodynamic resistance (r_a) was 37 s m⁻¹ and the bulk surface resistance (r_s) was 135 s m⁻¹. The mean unit yield was 45 tonne ha⁻¹ being equivalent to a crop water productivity of 3.2 kg m⁻³ when based on E_a with an economic counterpart of US$ 3.27 m⁻³. The drawback of this highly productive use of water resources is an unavoidable percolation flux of approximately 300 mm per growing season that is detrimental to the downstream environment and water users.     

Relative abundance and activity of melanized hyphae in different soil ecosystems

Here we report on the frequency of melanized fungal hyphae in 323 soils, covering different land use types. The proportion of total hyphae that was melanized averaged 61%. Arable fields with loamy sand, heathlands and city parks on sandy soils had the highest percentage of melanized hyphae. In addition to the frequency determinations, a microcosm study was performed on the role of melanized hyphae in two different ecosystems: an ex-arable field and a forest. Melanized hyphae appeared to be part of the active hyphae in the forest soil but not in the ex-arable soil. In conclusion, our results indicate that (1) melanized hyphae represent a large proportion of the total fungal biomass in soils and that (2) their function might differ between ecosystems.     

Plant carbon inputs and environmental factors strongly affect soil respiration in a subtropical forest of southwestern China

Soil respiration is a large component of global carbon fluxes, so it is important to explore how this carbon flux varies with environmental factors and carbon inputs from plants. As part of a long-term study on the chemical and biological effects of aboveground litterfall denial, root trenching and tree-stem girdling, we measured soil respiration for three years in plots where those treatments were applied singly and in combination. Tree-stem girdling terminates the flow of carbohydrates from canopy, but allows the roots to continue water and nutrient uptake. After carbon storage below the stem girdles is depleted, the girdled trees die. Root trenching immediately terminates root exudates as well as water and nutrient uptake. Excluding aboveground litterfall removes soil carbon inputs, but allows normal root functions to continue. We found that removing aboveground litterfall and the humus layer reduced soil respiration by more than the C input from litter, a respiration priming effect. When this treatment was combined with stem girdling, root trenching or those treatments in combination, the change in soil respiration was indistinguishable from the loss of litterfall C inputs. This suggests that litterfall priming occurs only when normal root processes persist. Soil respiration was significantly related to temperature in all treatment combinations, and to soil water content in all treatments except stem girdling alone, and girdling plus trenching. Aboveground litterfall was a significant predictor of soil respiration in control, stem-girdled, trenched and stem-girdled plus trenching treatments. Stem girdling significantly reduced soil respiration as a single factor, but root trenching did not. These results suggest that in addition to temperature, aboveground carbon inputs exert strong controls on forest soil respiration.     

Hexavalent Chromium Removal by Candida sp. in a Concentric Draft-Tube Airlift Bioreactor

The main purpose of this work was to conduct a kinetic study on cell growth and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] removal by Candida sp. FGSFEP in a concentric draft-tube airlift bioreactor. The yeast was batch-cultivated in a 5.2-l airlift bioreactor containing culture medium with an initial Cr(VI) concentration of 1.5 mM. The maximum specific growth rate of Candida sp. FGSFEP in the airlift bioreactor was 0.0244 h^?1, which was 71.83% higher than that obtained in flasks. The yeast strain was capable of reducing 1.5 mM Cr(VI) completely and exhibited a high volumetric rate [1.64 mg Cr(VI) l^?1 h^?1], specific rate [0.95 mg Cr(VI) g^?1 biomass h^?1] and capacity [44.38 mg Cr(VI) g^?1 biomass] of Cr(VI) reduction in the airlift bioreactor, with values higher than those obtained in flasks. Therefore, culture of Candida sp. FGSFEP in a concentric draft-tube airlift bioreactor could be a promising technological alternative for the aerobic treatment of Cr(VI)-contaminated industrial effluents.     

银杏外种皮综合利用的研究

从银杏外种皮中提取的银杏酚酸和白果酚有杀虫、杀菌作用。银杏酚酸和银杏黄素、银杏异黄素混合物对致病性真菌生长有明显抑制作用 ,且有抗过敏、抗炎等作用。同时测定了银杏外种皮中萜内酯的含量和微量元素、氨基酸、蛋白质的含量。结果表明 :银杏外种皮有综合利用和开发的前景     

Galaxies, human eyes, and artificial neural networks

The quantitative morphological classification of galaxies is important for understanding the origin of type frequency and correlations with environment. However, galaxy morphological classification is still mainly done visually by dedicated individuals, in the spirit of Hubble's original scheme and its modifications. The rapid increase in data on galaxy images at low and high redshift calls for a re-examination of the classification schemes and for automatic methods. Here are shown results from a systematic comparison of the dispersion among human experts classifying a uniformly selected sample of more than 800 digitized galaxy images. These galaxy images were then classified by six of the authors independently. The human classifications are compared with each other and with an automatic classification by an artificial neural network, which replicates the classification by a human expert to the same degree of agreement as that between two human experts.     

Energetics, patterns of interaction strengths, and stability in real ecosystems

Ecologists have long been studying stability in ecosystems by looking at the structuring and the strengths of trophic interactions in community food webs. In a series of real food webs from native and agricultural soils, the strengths of the interactions were found to be patterned in a way that is important to ecosystem stability. The patterning consisted of the simultaneous occurrence of strong "top down" effects at lower trophic levels and strong "bottom up" effects at higher trophic levels. As the patterning resulted directly from the energetic organization of the food webs, the results show that energetics and community structure govern ecosystem stability by imposing stabilizing patterns of interaction strengths.     

香龙血树真菌病害的鉴定

1997-2000年在广州地区的香龙血树[Dracaena fragrans(L.)Ker-Gaw.]种植单位共调查到9种真菌病害，即：可可球二孢茎枯病，顶多毛孢叶斑病，弯孢霉灰斑病，弯孢霉褐斑病，炭疽病，拟盘多毛孢叶斑病，拟茎点霉灰斑病，拟茎点霉叶斑病和球壳孢叶枯病，其病原菌分别被鉴定为：可可球二孢（Botryodiplodia theobromaePat.)、龙血树顶多毛孢（Bartalinia dracaenaeaP.G.Xi,Z.D.JiangetP.K.Chi)，弯孢霉[Gurvularia lunata(Walker)Boedijn]、塞河弯孢霉[Curvularia senegalensis(Speg.)Subram]、围小丛壳[Glomerella cingulata(Stonem)Spauld,etSchrenk]，棒孢拟盘多毛孢[Pestalotiopsis clavispora(Atk)Stey]、龙血树拟茎点霉（phomopsis dracaenae Sahni)，龙血树生拟茎点霉（Phomop-sis dracaenicola Z.D.Jiang,P.G.XietP.K.Chi)，龙血树球壳孢（Sphaeropsis dracaenaeP.G.XietP.K.Chi)，对生产影较大的是由可可球二孢引起的茎枯病和由围小丛壳引起的叶部炭疽病。     

球壳孢目真菌同工酶电泳：Ⅱ.Ascochyta等八属代表种的分析

对球壳孢目8属46个种的代表菌株进行了酯酶等5种同工酶及菌体可溶性蛋白的聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳分析，电泳图谱显示，种间区别明显，大多数种具有各自的特征性图式，从聚类分析所得相似性矩阵和树状图可见，属内种间的遗传一致性最高的是Sphaeropsis属性，供试菌株相互的相似性多在50％以上，Ascochyta和Phyllosticta两属内的种也表现出较高的相似性，其他属内的供试种则不能类聚在一起。各属间Macrophoma,Coniothyrium,Sphaeropsis和Phyllosticta四属的菌株可在一定的遗传距离内聚为一类，Ascochyta属与这一类的距离也很近，Phomopsis和Phoma两属的菌株出现交叉相聚现象；Septoria属的菌株则各自独立，与其他类群间的距离也较远。     

苎麻苗期封行期植株营养诊断及调节施肥研究

以“养分指数”为依据对新栽麻和成龄麻苗期、封行期进行植株养分平衡营养诊断,结果表明,各时期养分元素障碍因子对产量与品质的限制程度依次为(1)苗期新栽麻B>Fe>Cu>S,成龄麻N>B>P>Fe>Cu>S;(2)封行期基础肥力较好的土壤上新栽麻Mg,B>Zn>K>Ca,成龄麻Mg,B>Zn>N,P>K>Ca;基础肥力较差的土壤上新栽麻与成龄麻Mg,B>Zn>N,P>K>Ca>