Assessing long term effects of compost fertilization on soil fertility and nitrogen mineralization rate

Background

Fertilization with organic waste compost can close the nutrient cycles between urban and rural environments. However, its effect on yield and soil fertility must be investigated.

Aim

This study investigated the long-term effect of compost on soil nutrient and potentially toxic elements (PTEs) concentration, nutrient budgets, and nitrogen (N) mineralization and efficiency.

Methods

After 21 years of annual compost application (100/400 kg N ha^–1 year^–1 [100BC/400BC]) alone and combined with mineral fertilization, soil was analyzed for pH, organic carbon (SOC), nutrient (total N and P, N_min, extractable CAL-P, CAL-K, and Mg), and PTE (Cu, Ni, Zn) concentrations. Yields were recorded and nutrient/PTE budgets and apparent net mineralization (ANM, only 2019) were calculated.

Results

N efficiency was the highest in maize and for mineral fertilization. Compost application led to lower N efficiencies, but increased ANM, SOC, pH, and soil N, and surpluses of N, P, and all PTEs. Higher PTE concentrations were only found in 400BC for Cu. Nutrient budgets correlated with soil nutrient concentration. A surplus of 16.1 kg P ha^–1 year^–1 and 19.5 kg K ha^–1 year^–1 resulted in 1 mg kg^–1 increase in CAL-P and CAL-K over 21 years.

Conclusion

Compost application supplies nutrients to crops with a minor risk of soil-accumulation of PTEs. However, the nutrient stoichiometry provided by compost does not match crop offtakes causing imbalances. Synchronization of compost N mineralization and plant N demand does not match and limits the yield effect. In winter wheat only 65–70% of N mineralization occurred during the growth period.     

Semisynthesis and pharmacological investigation of lipo-alkaloids prepared from aconitine

Processed aconite drugs are widely used in Eastern medicine as painkillers and antirheumatic agents. It is known that the traditional processing of aconite drugs increases the amount of lipo-alkaloids. In order to obtain information about the pharmacological potential of these compounds, semisynthesis of 9 aconitine-derived lipo-alkaloids was carried out and their COX-1, COX-2 and LTB₄ formation inhibitory activities were investigated. It was found that compounds esterified with unsaturated fatty acids demonstrated significant COX-2 inhibitory effects, while in the COX-1 assay only 14-benzoylaconine-8-O-eicosapentaenoate exerted remarkable activity. The inhibition of LTB₄ formation was pronounced in cases of long chain fatty acid derivatives.     

Modeling spatial variability in the life-cycle costs of low-volume forest roads

Cost estimation is probably the most decisive factor in the process of computer-aided, preliminary planning for low-volume road networks. However, the cost of construction is normally assumed to be route-independent for a specific project area, resulting in sub-optimal layouts. This is especially true for mountainous terrain and in areas with unstable subsoil. Here, we present a model for more accurately estimating spatial variability in road life-cycle costs, based on terrain surface properties as well as geological properties of the subsoil. This parametric model incorporates four structural components: embankment, retaining structures, pavement, and drainage and stream-crossing structures. It is linked to a geo-database that allows users to derive location-specific parameter values as input. In applying this model, we have demonstrated that variability in costs ranges widely for mountainous areas, with the most expensive construction being approximately five times greater there than on more favorable sites. This variability strongly affects the optimal layout of a road network. First, when location-specific slope gradients are considered, costs are reduced by about 17% from those calculated via currently available engineering practices; when both slope gradient and geotechnical formations are included, those costs are decreased by about 20%. Second, the length of the road network is increased by about 4% and 10% respectively, compared with current practices.     

Impregnation of radiata pine wood by vacuum treatment II: effect of pre-steaming on wood structure and resin content

Radiata pine sapwood and heartwood were dried using high-temperature, conventional-temperature, and air drying schedules with and without pre-steaming. They were then impregnated by vacuum treatment with double-distilled water, toluidine blue, and fluorescein dye. For sapwood, there were only minor differences in uptake between drying methods and when pre-steaming was used. Using microscopy, the primary flow pathways in sapwood were found to be the resin canal network and ray parenchyma cells, which provided conduction without large resistance. In heartwood, uptake was strongly influenced by pre-steaming the green lumber. After pre-steaming heart-wood, there was an increase in uptake from all surfaces but especially from the radial surfaces. Lower extractive contents, disruption of epithelial and ray parenchyma cells, and alteration of the condition of bordered pits were also associated with pre-steaming. It was therefore possible to classify flow paths in radiata pine heartwood five ways, according to uptake values and wood anatomical features.This research was presented in part at the 48th annual meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society, Shizuoka, April 1998.     

Forstmeteorologische Messungen in einem Eichenbestand

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Genetische Ressourcen der Kulturpflanzen im alpinen Raum

Zusammenfassung Die Kulturpflanzenevolution im alpinen Raum ist durch drei Faktoren geprägt, durch klimatische, geologisch-landschaftsmorphologische und geschichtliche. Die Aufgliederung in cine Vielzahl von ökologischen Nischen, in denen verdrängte Arten und Varietäten überleben konnten, mußte zwangsläufig zu einer bestimmten Formenanreicherung führen. Ihr stcht aber ein scharfer natürlicher Selektionsdruck einschränkend entgegen, der mit fortschreitender Höhenlage stärker wird. Er bestimmt letztlich das Ausschen der Populationen und läßt allfällige Zufallsfaktoren bei beginnender Einnischung und kleiner werdenden Populationsgrößen in den Hintergrund treten. Darin liegt die Ursache, daß mit zunehmender Höhenlage die Populationen uniformer werden, die umgekehrt im Flachland die größte Variabilität aufweisen.Die Kulturpflanzenarten, Varietäten und Sorten sind einem ständigen Bewegungsprozeß unterworfen, bedingt durch das Streben des Menschen, Leistung, Qualität, Aussehen, usw., zu verbessern. Die Suche nach Neuem birgt stets die Möglichkeit in sich, daß ein besseres Sortiment das altbewährte verdrängt. Ist eine Sorte ausreichend adaptierfähig und bringt sie eine Verbesserung mit sich, wird sie sich schrittweise — das alte Sortiment vor sich herschiebend — bis in die Alpentäler ausbreiten. Die Frage, wieviele Arten und Varietäten auf diese Weise ins Land gelangten, bleibt unbeantwortet. Jedenfalls waren es nur wenige, die diesem Verdrängungsprozeß haben standhalten können und bis heute erhalten geblieben sind.Wenn wir im Rückzugsgebiet der Alpen eine Formenanhäufung finden, die historisch betrachtet einen Abriß des Widerstandsfähigsten aus den letzten Jahrhunderten darstellt, ist dieser Formenreichtum doch bescheiden im Vergleich zu dem eines Genzentrums. Besteht hier das entscheidende evolutionsmotorische Moment darin, daß neu entstandene Formen auch eine entsprechende Überlebens-und Fortpflanzungschance besitzen, wirkt der scharfe Selektionsdruck der Alpen einer solchen Mannigfaltigkeit entgegen und wird stets in genotypische wie phänotypische Uniformität münden.

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Crop genetic ressources in the alps

Summary The evolution of cultivated plants in the area of the Alps is especially influenced by climatical, geological-orographical and historical factors. The available abundance of ecological niches providing chances for the survival of otherwise displaced species and varieties, consequently led to a certain increase of diversity. It is counteracted by strong natural selection pressures increasing with progressive altitudes. These selection pressures ultimately determine the composition of the populations and predominate over coincidental factors during the first phases of annidation connected with descreasing population size. That causes an increasing uniformity of the populations in higher altitudes whereas in the lowlands the highest diversity can be found.Due to human efforts in improving yields, quality, appearance, etc., of cultivated species, varieties and cultivars, they are subject to a permanent evolutionary process. The search for new material always includes the possibility that better accessions displace the well-known old ones. If a variety is sufficiently adaptable and shows improved characters, it will proceed step by step, — pushing the old accessions ahead of it — into the valleys of the Alps. How many species and varieties were introduced in this way is a question which cannot be answered. Anyway, only a few varieties could resist this displacing process and are in existance still today.Though we can find a certain amount of variation in the refugial area of the Alps, which, as seen from the historical standpoint of view, represents a part of the most resistant races from the last few centuries, this variation is relatively low in comparison with that of a gene center. In a gene center the decisive evolutionary mechanisms result in the maintaining of newly evolved forms whereas the strong selection pressures of the Alps counteract a high variability and will always lead to genotypical and phenotypical uniformity.

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Chromosome 17 deletions and p53 gene mutations in colorectal carcinomas

Previous studies have demonstrated that allelic deletions of the short arm of chromosome 17 occur in over 75% of colorectal carcinomas. Twenty chromosome 17p markers were used to localize the common region of deletion in these tumors to a region contained within bands 17p12 to 17p13.3. This region contains the gene for the transformation-associated protein p53. Southern and Northern blot hybridization experiments provided no evidence for gross alterations of the p53 gene or surrounding sequences. As a more rigorous test of the possibility that p53 was a target of the deletions, the p53 coding regions from two tumors were analyzed; these two tumors, like most colorectal carcinomas, had allelic deletions of chromosome 17p and expressed considerable amounts of p53 messenger RNA from the remaining allele. The remaining p53 allele was mutated in both tumors, with an alanine substituted for valine at codon 143 of one tumor and a histidine substituted for arginine at codon 175 of the second tumor. Both mutations occurred in a highly conserved region of the p53 gene that was previously found to be mutated in murine p53 oncogenes. The data suggest that p53 gene mutations may be involved in colorectal neoplasia, perhaps through inactivation of a tumor suppressor function of the wild-type p53 gene.