Mild to moderate overweight in dogs: is there an impact on routine hematological and biochemical profiles,echocardiographic parameters and cardiac autonomic modulation?

Veterinary Research Communications - Obesity is considered the most common nutritional disease of dogs. Even though overt obesity is more likely to impair health, even moderately overweight dogs...     

氮、磷添加对青藏高寒草甸土壤碳氮磷化学计量特征影响的Meta分析

为了解青藏高原高寒草甸土壤碳(Carbon,C)、氮(Nitrogen,N)、磷(Phosphorus,P)化学计量特征对氮、磷添加的响应,提高养分管理水平及草地生态系统的养分平衡。本研究严格筛选出21篇文章(612项数据)进行Meta分析,通过亚组分析分析了不同施肥方式(氮添加、磷添加、氮磷添加)、不同施肥强度(轻度、中度、重度)对青藏高原草地土壤C,N,P化学计量特征的影响。研究结果表明：养分添加显著增加了青藏高原草地土壤C,N,P含量;氮添加对土壤的增加效应随施肥强度增加而增加,磷轻度施肥(20g·m^-2以下)处理、氮磷添加轻度施肥处理下的土壤C,N,P含量及化学计量比增加效果最好。本研究结果总体反映出氮、磷添加对青藏高原高寒草甸土壤产生积极影响,研究结果可为青藏高原草地生态系统的保护提供科学依据。     

Allometric model of the Reineke equation for Japanese cypress (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Chamaecyparis obtusa</Emphasis>) and red pine (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pinus densiflora</Emphasis>) stands

An allometric model that explains the mechanism of the difference in the slope of the Reineke equation (A) among species was proposed based on the allometric relationships of mean tree height (H) to quadratic mean diameter D (H ∝ D ^θ ) and stand density N (H ∝ N ^δ ), i.e., A = θ/δ. The proposed model was fitted to Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa Endl.) and red pine (Pinus densiflora) stands. The allometric exponents θ and δ were, respectively, 0.8995 and −0.5000 for cypress and 0.8612 and −0.6619 for pine. The difference between cypress and pine was significant for δ but not for θ. Inserting the exponents into the model resulted in predicted slopes of −1.7991 for cypress and −1.3011 for pine. The difference in the slope of the Reineke equation between the two species was produced by characteristics related to the tree crown, rather than characteristics related to stem slenderness. The proposed model enables us to estimate the slope of the Reineke equation from commonly measured stand attributes, such as mean tree height and quadratic mean diameter. Therefore, the proposed model is expected to be practical and convenient for estimating the slope of the Reineke equation and for explaining the mechanism of its variation among species. The model should be also accepted as a generalized model of the stand density versus quadratic mean diameter relationship, whereas the original Reineke equation should be seen as a specific case of this model.     

Influence of forage harvesting regimes on dynamics of biological dinitrogen fixation of a tropical woody legume

Effects of three forage harvesting regimes-total removal of foliage and branches once (T-12) or twice a year (T-6) and 50% removal every 2 months (P-2)-on growth and biological dinitrogen fixation of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp were studied under subhumid tropical conditions in Guadeloupe, French Antilles. Gliricidia sepium was grown in association with the perennial C(4) grass Dichantium aristatum (Poir) C.E. Hubbard in a two-storied fodder production system. The medium-term effects of pruning on N(2) fixation were assessed by the (15)N natural abundance method. Gmelina arborea Roxb. was used as the non-fixing reference. The trees in the T-12 regime followed the natural phenological cycle, and flowering and podfilling at the beginning of the dry season reduced both foliage and nodule biomass. The T-6 regime impeded flowering, and only a few flowers, on older branches, were produced in the P-2 regime. In trees in the T-12, T-6, and P-2 regimes, fixed N comprised 54-87, 54-92, and 60-87%, respectively, of the total N in aboveground biomass, depending on sampling date. Total annual accumulation of N in harvestable aboveground biomass was highest in trees in the T-6 regime at 313 kg ha(-1), of which 204 kg ha(-1) of N was fixed from the atmosphere. In all treatments, about 70% of the N exported per year from the plot in the fodder harvest came from N(2) fixation. Thus, N(2) fixation makes an important contribution to the N economy of the G. sepium-D. aristatum forage production system, and greatly reduces the need for fertilizer application.     

Freezing cycles enhance winter injury in Picea rubens

We examined changes in chlorophyll absorbency in red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) foliage in response to simulated freezing cycles. Current-year branch tips were collected from 16 trees on January 8, January 20, February 8 and February 26, 1996. Tissue was subjected to freezing cycle treatments with a minimum of -35 degrees C and a maximum of 3 degrees C for a one-cycle treatment, and -9, -6, -3, 0 or 3 degrees C for four-cycle treatments. Samples were frozen at a rate of 5 degrees C h(-1), and warmed at 12 to 15 degrees C h(-1). Controls were held at -9 degrees C. Temperatures during the three-day periods preceding each sample date averaged -18, 4.7, -9.6 and 3.7 degrees C, respectively. On January 8, treated trees showed no significant (P > 0.1) increase in the breakdown of chlorophyll, as measured by the ratio of chlorophyll a absorbency (435 nm) to phaeophytin a absorbency (415 nm), compared with control branch tips. On later sampling dates, seven trees consistently exhibited needle reddening and nine exhibited few symptoms (< 10% of total needle surface reddened) after four-cycle treatments. On February 26, chlorophyll degradation in trees with needle reddening differed (P < 0.05) from the control by 26, 26, 16, 14 and 15% for the 3, 0, -3, -6 and -9 degrees C maxima, respectively. No detectable chlorophyll degradation occurred after a one-cycle treatment in any trees on any sampling date. Freezing cycles with sub-zero maxima and a -35 degrees C minimum enhanced winter injury in red spruce after a midwinter thaw had rendered the trees susceptible to freezing damage.     

Comparison of physical and mechanical properties of tension and opposite wood from ten tropical rainforest trees from different species

On 10 trees from 10 species of French Guyana tropical rainforest in a clear active process of restoring verticality growth strains were measured in situ in order to determine the occurrence of tension wood within samples. Wood specimens were cut in the vicinity of the growth strains measurements in order to measure some mechanical and physical properties. As suspected, tensile growth strains was very much higher in tension wood zone, because longitudinal modulus of elasticity was slightly higher. Longitudinal shrinkage was also much higher in tension wood than in opposite wood.