Effect of Extraction Variables on the Biodegradable Chelant-Assisted Removal of Toxic Metals from Artificially Contaminated European Reference Soils

Development of aminopolycarboxylate chelants (APCs) having enhanced biodegradability is gaining increasing focus to replace the EDTA and its homologs with those used widely for the ex situ treatment of contaminated soils and are potential eco-threats. The paper reports the chelant-assisted extraction of the toxic metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn) from the metal-spiked European reference soils (Eurosoil 1 and Eurosoil 4) using biodegradable APCs, namely EDDS, GLDA, and HIDS. The effects of chelant-to-metal molar ratio, solution pH, and metal/chelant stability constants were evaluated, and compared with that of EDTA. The selectivity aptitude of the biodegradable chelants towards the toxic metals was assumed from the speciation calculations, and a proportionate correlation was observed at neutral pH. Pre- and post-extractive solid phase distributions of the target metals were defined using the sequential extraction procedure and dissolution of metals from the theoretically immobilized fraction was witnessed. The effect of competing species (Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, and Mn) concentrations was proven to be minimized with an excess of chelant in solution. The highlight of the outcomes is the superior decontamination ability of GLDA, a biodegradable APC, at minimum chelant concentration in solution and applicability at a wide range of pH environments.     

花椒林在喀斯特石漠化治理中的碳汇效益

[目的]评价石漠化地区花椒林的碳汇功能,为石漠化治理工程的碳汇效益提供技术示范与参考。[方法]以贵州省花江喀斯特石漠化治理示范区生态环境综合治理模式下顶坛花椒(Zanthoxylum planispinum)为研究对象,依据当地的石漠化现状,通过测定强度、中度和轻度石漠化和不同龄级的花椒林生物量、土壤深度和持土量,对花椒林碳汇量进行估算。[结果]石漠化程度越高,花椒林碳汇量越低,反之,石漠化程度越低,花椒林碳汇量越大,其中轻度石漠化花椒林碳密度为3.24t/hm2,中度石漠化为3.12t/hm~2,强度石漠化为2.81t/hm~2,轻度中度强度;随着土壤深度和持土量的增加,花椒林碳汇量也呈现增加的趋势。[结论]花椒林的平均碳密度为3.06t/hm~2,花椒林的综合最优碳汇经济效益为1.92×10~4~2.56×10~4元/hm~2。     

水稻早世代稳定株系的农艺性状分析

育种实践表明，水稻品种间和亚种间杂交后代农艺性状发生疯狂分离，纯合个体的出现一般需经7~10代，5~8年^[1,2]。采用花培^[3,4]和远缘杂交染色体消除技术^[5,6]虽已应用于缩短作物育种时间，但仍耗时耗力。在作物如小麦、大麦、花生、水稻 ^[8~13]等育种实践中，偶尔会遇到杂种F2不分离的现象。吴先军等^[11]提出了水稻早世代稳定现象的概念，即水稻杂交后代F3以前出现农艺性状整齐一致、以后世代不分离的遗传现象。由于水稻早世代稳定现象在育种中具有巨大的应用潜力，对其遗传机制和育种应用进行深入而系统的研究具有重大的理论探讨价值和现实意义。     

过饱和持水时间和温度对固形基质浸液成分的影响

将木屑、砻糠、草屑、泥炭、风化煤和鸡粪6种不同物料置于不同温度下浸水后取其滤液,分析其铵态氮、硝态氮、速效磷以及可溶性的5种金属元素(钾、钙、镁、钠、铁)的含量,为调整营养液配方提供依据。几种物料浸液中的矿质元素在108 h以后基本趋于稳定。高温利于氮素释放,使有效氮含量峰值出现提早;在氮素形态上,木屑等5种物料主要以铵态氮的形式释放,而泥炭则主要以硝态氮的形式释放。浸液中有效磷含量的相对稳定值有所不同,在不同物料上表现为:鸡粪>木屑>砻糠>草屑>泥炭>风化煤;浸液中不同温度、不同时间下的有效金属元素含量基本保持稳定,只有K 含量随温度的升高变化较为明显。根据研究结果,在忽略复合后基质间影响的情况下,建议复合基质浸水7 d后待浸液中各矿质养分含量稳定,初步按下列公式调整营养液,C调=C理-C浸液使基质内各成分含量稳定在理想状态,以后营养液管理仍按原配方添加营养液。     

西瓜皮水浸提物对西瓜种子萌发的影响

对西瓜皮水浸提物对西瓜种子发芽的生物学效应进行了研究。结果表明:水浸液在低浓度时对种子萌发率及其胚根的抑制作用较弱;随水浸液浓度的增加萌发数显著下降,并且显著地抑制胚根的伸长。     

Mapping QTLs using a novel source of salinity tolerance from Hasawi and their interaction with environments in rice

Background

Salinity is one of the most severe and widespread abiotic stresses that affect rice production. The identification of major-effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for traits related to salinity tolerance and understanding of QTL × environment interactions (QEIs) can help in more precise and faster development of salinity-tolerant rice varieties through marker-assisted breeding. Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from IR29/Hasawi (a novel source of salinity) were screened for salinity tolerance in the IRRI phytotron in the Philippines (E1) and in two other diverse environments in Senegal (E2) and Tanzania (E3). QTLs were mapped for traits related to salinity tolerance at the seedling stage.

Results

The RILs were genotyped using 194 polymorphic SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). After removing segregation distortion markers (SDM), a total of 145 and 135 SNPs were used to construct a genetic linkage map with a length of 1655 and 1662 cM, with an average marker density of 11.4 cM in E1 and 12.3 cM in E2 and E3, respectively. A total of 34 QTLs were identified on 10 chromosomes for five traits using ICIM-ADD and segregation distortion locus (SDL) mapping (IM-ADD) under salinity stress across environments. Eight major genomic regions on chromosome 1 between 170 and 175 cM (qSES1.3, qSES1.4, qSL1.2, qSL1.3, qRL1.1, qRL1.2, qFWsht1.2, qDWsht1.2), chromosome 4 at 32 cM (qSES4.1, qFWsht4.2, qDWsht4.2), chromosome 6 at 115 cM (qFWsht6.1, qDWsht6.1), chromosome 8 at 105 cM (qFWsht8.1, qDWsht8.1), and chromosome 12 at 78 cM (qFWsht12.1, qDWsht12.1) have co-localized QTLs for the multiple traits that might be governing seedling stage salinity tolerance through multiple traits in different phenotyping environments, thus suggesting these as hot spots for tolerance of salinity. Forty-nine and 30 significant pair-wise epistatic interactions were detected between QTL-linked and QTL-unlinked regions using single-environment and multi-environment analyses.

Conclusions

The identification of genomic regions for salinity tolerance in the RILs showed that Hasawi possesses alleles that are novel for salinity tolerance. The common regions for the multiple QTLs across environments as co-localized regions on chromosomes 1, 4, 6, 8, and 12 could be due to linkage or pleiotropic effect, which might be helpful for multiple QTL introgression for marker-assisted breeding programs to improve the salinity tolerance of adaptive and popular but otherwise salinity-sensitive rice varieties.

     

Postharvest quality response of strawberries with aloe vera coating during refrigerated storage

Strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) were coated either with chitosan (1, 1.5, and 2% solution, w/v) or aloe vera (AV) gel and the coatings were air dried. Coated strawberries were put in a polypropylene box and stored in refrigerator (6 ± 1°C and 50 ± 5% relative humidity. The success of coating in retaining the postharvest quality of the strawberries was evaluated by determining respiration rate, firmness, weight loss, external colour change, ascorbic acid content, total soluble solids, acidity, pH, microbial decay and sensory quality. The incidence of microbial rot started on day-6 in uncoated and 1% chitosan coated strawberries. Strawberries coated with 1.5 and 2% chitosan were affected by microbial decay on day-9 of storage. On the other hand, rot incidence was initiated in AV gel coated strawberries on day-15 of storage. Aloe vera gel or chitosan coating reduced respiration rate, weight loss, and microbial decay and preserved firmness, ascorbic acid content, and other quality parameters, thus delaying ripening and the progress of fruit decay due to senescence or microbial attack. Furthermore, AV gel delayed the changes in external colour and retained all other postharvest quality of strawberries compared to chitosan coated or uncoated ones throughout the storage.     

薏苡种子质量标准研究

薏苡为贵州优质特色杂粮,种植面积全国最大,种子市场需求量大,目前市场缺乏薏苡优质种子质量评价检验标准。研究通过对薏苡种子的净度、千粒重、含水量、发芽率、发芽势和发芽指数等指标的测定与统计分析,初步建立薏苡优质种子质量评价检验标准。     

泥石流入汇主河淤积规律的水槽试验研究

以试验为基础,研究了泥石流入汇主河后淤积规律,主要探讨了淤积量及淤积分布问题。通过试验分析认为,泥石流入汇主河后的淤积量基本随流量比的增大而增大,就其淤积速率而言,有先增大后减小的变化规律。淤积量在流量比大约为0.5时出现峰值,在流量比为0.65时出现谷值,淤积量与流量比关系变化曲线以倾斜向上的直线为对称轴,呈倾斜向上的正弦波形。各工况下淤积范围基本不变,但试验中反映出,淤积范围有随交汇角增大而增大的趋势。     

Nitrogen fertilizer–induced mineralization of soil organic C and N in six contrasting soils of Bangladesh

A 90‐day laboratory incubation study was carried out using six contrasting subtropical soils (calcareous, peat, saline, noncalcareous, terrace, and acid sulfate) from Bangladesh. A control treatment without nitrogen (N) application was compared with treatments where urea, ammonium sulfate (AS), and ammonium nitrate (AN) were applied at a rate of 100 mg N (kg soil)^–1. To study the effect of N fertilizers on soil carbon (C) turnover, the CO₂‐C flux was determined at nine sampling dates during the incubation, and the total loss of soil carbon (TC) was calculated. Nitrogen turnover was characterized by measuring net nitrogen mineralization (NNM) and net nitrification (NN). Simple and stepwise multiple regressions were calculated between CO₂‐C flux, TC, NNM, and NN on the one hand and selected soil properties (organic C, total N, C : N ratio, CEC, pH, clay and sand content) on the other hand. In general, CO₂‐C fluxes were clearly higher during the first 2 weeks of the incubation compared to the later phases. Soils with high pH and/or indigenous C displayed the highest CO₂‐C flux. However, soils having low C levels (i.e., calcareous and terrace soils) displayed a large relative TC loss (up to 22.3%) and the added N–induced TC loss from these soils reached a maximum of 10.6%. Loss of TC differed depending on the N treatments (urea > AS > AN >> control). Significantly higher NNM was found in the acidic soils (terrace and acid sulfate). On average, NNM after urea application was higher than for AS and AN (80.3 vs. 71.9 and 70.9 N (kg soil)^–1, respectively). However, specific interactions between N‐fertilizer form and soil type have to be taken into consideration. High pH soils displayed larger NN (75.9–98.1 mg N (kg soil)^–1) than low pH soils. Averaged over the six soils, NN after application of urea and AS (83.3 and 82.2 mg N (kg soil)^–1, respectively) was significantly higher than after application of AN (60.6 mg N (kg soil)^–1). Significant relationships were found between total CO₂ flux and certain soil properties (organic C, total N, CEC, clay and sand content). The most important soil property for NNM as well as NN was soil pH, showing a correlation coefficient of –0.33** and 0.45***, respectively. The results indicate that application of urea to acidic soils and AS to high‐pH soils could be an effective measure to improve the availability of added N for crop uptake.