Growth and enzyme production by Bacillus subtilis and Flavobacterium pectinovorum in Picea sitchensis

Summary When Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) is stored in water, an increase takes place in the permeability of the wood. This increase is due to bacterial degradation of the tori and bordered pit membranes and partial degradation of the crossfield pits. It has been demonstrated that two bacteria—Bacillus subtilis and Flavobacterium pectinovorum—isolated from this water stored wood, grow and produce amylase, xylanase and pectinase in sapwood blocks suspended in sterile pond water. Since these organisms have also been shown to increase the permeability of sapwood blocks, it has been concluded that they are primarily responsible for the permeability changes that occur when spruce poles are stored in lake water.When the two organisms are incubated together in sapwood blocks, growth of F. pectinovorum is synergistically affected, while growth of B. subtilis is antagonised. However, no antagonism of enzyme production was evident. The levels of biological activity in the sapwood in these laboratory experiments were much higher than the values observed in the natural lake system. The concentration effect obtained in the laboratory system, in contrast to the dilution effect occurring in the lake environment, is undoubtedly responsible for this variance. Results indicate that the rate at which permeability changes occur could possibly be accelerated by replacing the natural lake system with an enclosed tank system.     

Characteristic site disturbance due to harvesting and extraction machinery traffic on sensitive forest sites with peat soils

The effects of wood harvesting and extraction machinery traffic on sensitive forest sites with peat soils were characterised with the objective of quantifying the threshold levels beyond which significant site impacts (compaction and rutting) would occur. The treatments involved running the machines in selected extraction racks (i.e., 3 m wide machine routes) while conducting normal wood thinning and extraction operations comprising one and two passes by the harvester and the forwarder with full payload, respectively. Soil disturbance thresholds were established by testing the level of significance of the difference in induced soil damage and compaction before and after machine traffic treatments. For volumetric soil water content lying between 10.0 and 14.9%, threshold cone penetration resistance levels for two 600/55–30.5 tyres were found to range from 594 to 640 kPa for deep-raised peat soil with initial strength lying between 524 and 581 kPa. In general, the proportion of the total rut depth data in each rack that exceeded the threshold level of 21.5 cm was about 5%. The threshold value corresponds to sinkage equivalent to 15% of the overall wheel diameter of the harvester, above which machine mobility would be hampered considerably. In addition, after harvester traffic the mean rut depth per unit rack length was 10.2×10⁻² cm/m, and it ranged from 0.7 to 24.7×10⁻² cm/m.     

Conifer leader browsing by roe deer in English upland forests: Effects of deer density and understorey vegetation

At moderate to high densities ungulates can impact negatively on forest crops and these may be managed by lethal control. In production forestry an understanding of the relationship between ungulate density, habitat-related factors and the incidence of tree damage may promote more efficient ungulate damage management than by lethal control alone. In plantation forests in the north east of England, the incidence of conifer leader browsing by roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) was positively associated with an index of deer density (at the site scale) and planted crop tree density (at the feeding patch scale) and was negatively associated with the relative abundance of palatable understorey vegetation (at the site scale). An interaction between the deer density index and palatable understorey browse abundance was positively associated with leader browsing. Coefficients from the optimal model were used to construct a browse probability surface across a matrix of values of deer dung density and palatable understorey vegetation abundance. This illustrated a very different relationship between dung density and conifer leader browsing probability across the various levels of palatable understorey vegetation abundance. From this we hypothesise that in areas of limited palatable understorey vegetation abundance, higher levels of culling may be required to achieve reductions in the incidence of conifer leader browsing than would be necessary in areas with moderate to high palatable understorey vegetation abundance. Improvements to understorey vegetation in concert with roe deer population control may enhance the efficiency of deer damage management in upland areas with nutrient-poor soils.     

Diversity and abundance of carabid beetles in short-rotation plantings of sweetgum, maize and switchgrass in Alabama

This study compares assemblages of carabid beetles, potentially important regulators of herbivorous insect pests, in short-rotation plantings of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) with and without grass cover crops, maize (Zea mays L.) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). A total of 38 species were trapped during the summers of 1996 and 1997. The dominant carabid encountered was Harpalus pensylvanicus Latreille, a widespread omnivorous species; H. pensylvanicus was particularly prevalent in maize plots. Several other commonly encountered species were primarily associated with one plot type. Overall carabid activity was found to be similar in maize and switchgrass plots and much greater than that in sweetgum plots of both cover types. This may be related to the presence of more consistently available dense ground cover in these plots compared to sweetgum plots, a situation favored by most carabids, although both abundance and diversity were similar in sweetgum plots with and without cover. Diversity, as indicated by species richness and dominance levels, was greater in switchgrass than in maize or sweetgum plots, which were similar. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.