Long-term impact of fertilization on activity and composition of bacterial communities and metabolic guilds in agricultural soil

To explore long-term impact of organic and inorganic fertilizers on microbial communities, we targeted both the total bacterial community and the autotrophic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in soil from six treatments at an experimental field site established in 1956: cattle manure, sewage sludge, Ca(NO₃)₂, (NH₄)₂SO₄, unfertilized and unfertilized without crops. All plots, except the bare fallows, were cropped with maize. Effects on activity were assessed by measuring the basal respiration and substrate induced respiration (SIR) rates, and the potential activity of the AOB. To determine the bacterial community composition, 16S rRNA genes were used to fingerprint total soil communities by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and AOB communities by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. The fertilization regimes had clear effects on both activity and composition of the soil communities. Basal respiration and r, which was kinetically derived as the exponentially growing fraction of the SIR-response, correlated well with the soil organic C content (r=0.93 and 0.66, respectively). Soil pH ranged from 3.97 to 6.26 in the treatments and was found to be an important factor influencing all microbial activities. pH correlated negatively with the ratio between basal respiration and SIR (r=0.90), indicating a decreased efficiency of heterotrophic microorganisms to convert organic carbon into microbial biomass in the most acid soils with pH 3.97 and 4.68 ((NH₄)₂SO₄ and sewage sludge fertilized plots, respectively). The lowest SIR and ammonia oxidation rates were also found in these treatments. In addition, these treatments exhibited individually different community fingerprints, showing that pH affected the composition of AOB and total bacterial communities. The manure fertilized plots harbored the most diverse AOB community and the pattern was linked to a high potential ammonia oxidation activity. Thus, the AOB community composition appeared to be more strongly linked to the activity than the total bacterial communities were, likely explained by physiological differences in the populations present.     

Urbanization and homogenization - Comparing the floras of urban and rural areas in Germany

The process of urbanization has resulted in an expansion of alien plant species and declines of native species, in particular already rare species. These processes may cause a greater similarity between different urban regions, i.e. biotic homogenization. We explored the relationship between urban regions and homogenization for plant species in Germany using (i) all plant species, (ii) only native species, (iii) all alien species and only those introduced (iv) before or (v) after 1500, respectively. We used the database FLORKART for species distribution on a 6 min latitude × 10 min longitude (ca. 130 km²) scale. We calculated mean similarities for the 60 “most urbanized” cells. We then resampled 60 randomly drawn “less urbanized” cells and 60 “rural” cells and compared these results to the “most urbanized” cells taking distance effects into account. Urbanization does not have an overall effect on homogenization of all species, but native species as well as pre-1500 alien plant assemblages show effects of homogenization while post-1500 alien plant assemblages show the opposite effect. On a regional scale, urbanization is not unequivocally related to homogenization. This might be different when extending the analysed range across several bioclimatic regions. Specific urban habitats, or what remains of them, require special protection and management if the trend towards homogenization is to be avoided.     

Release of nonexchangeable NH4-N after planting of ryegrass in relation to soil content and as affected by nitrate supply

The uptake of N by ryegrass grown in pot culture on a range of soils differing widely in content of nonexchangeable NH₄-N (topsoils: 117 to 354 mg kg^?1 soil; subsoils: 117 to 270 mg kg^?1 soil) was measured to indicate whether the amounts of NH₄-N released from clay minerals were correlated with soil NH₄-N. After two cuts soil analysis revealed that the amounts of mobilized nonexchangeable NH₄-N were between 3.5 and 25.2 mg kg^?1 from topsoils and between 0 and 8.2 mg kg^?1 from subsoils. There was no correlation between soil nonexchangeable NH₄-N content and release. The NH₄-N extracted with 1 N HCl and the actual N uptake of the plants correlated highly significant. Assuming that the whole of the NH₄-N released was taken up by ryegrass, NH₄-N accounted for 11.2 to 75.0% of total N uptake from topsoils and 0 to 37.3% from subsoils. The release of nonexchangeable NH₄-N was increased by the application of nitrate.     

A well-preserved Archaeopteryx specimen with theropod features

A nearly complete skeleton of Archaeopteryx with excellent bone preservation shows that the osteology of the urvogel is similar to that of nonavian theropod dinosaurs. The new specimen confirms the presence of a hyperextendible second toe as in dromaeosaurs and troodontids. Archaeopteryx had a plesiomorphic tetraradiate palatine bone and no fully reversed first toe. These observations provide further evidence for the theropod ancestry of birds. In addition, the presence of a hyperextendible second toe blurs the distinction of archaeopterygids from basal deinonychosaurs (troodontids and dromaeosaurs) and challenges the monophyly of Aves.     

Deciphering the reaction dynamics underlying optimal control laser fields

Femtosecond high-resolution pump-probe experiments have been used together with theoretical ab initio quantum calculations and wave packet dynamics simulations to decode an optimal femtosecond pulse that is generated from adaptive learning algorithms. This pulse is designed to maximize the yield of the organometallic ion CpMn(CO)3 while hindering the competing fragmentation. The sequential excitation and ionization of the target ion are accomplished by an optimized field consisting of two dominant subpulses with optimal frequencies and time delays.     

Multi-university research teams: shifting impact, geography, and stratification in science

This paper demonstrates that teamwork in science increasingly spans university boundaries, a dramatic shift in knowledge production that generalizes across virtually all fields of science, engineering, and social science. Moreover, elite universities play a dominant role in this shift. By examining 4.2 million papers published over three decades, we found that multi-university collaborations (i) are the fastest growing type of authorship structure, (ii) produce the highest-impact papers when they include a top-tier university, and (iii) are increasingly stratified by in-group university rank. Despite the rising frequency of research that crosses university boundaries, the intensification of social stratification in multi-university collaborations suggests a concentration of the production of scientific knowledge in fewer rather than more centers of high-impact science.     

Increasing river discharge to the Arctic Ocean

Synthesis of river-monitoring data reveals that the average annual discharge of fresh water from the six largest Eurasian rivers to the Arctic Ocean increased by 7% from 1936 to 1999. The average annual rate of increase was 2.0 +/- 0.7 cubic kilometers per year. Consequently, average annual discharge from the six rivers is now about 128 cubic kilometers per year greater than it was when routine measurements of discharge began. Discharge was correlated with changes in both the North Atlantic Oscillation and global mean surface air temperature. The observed large-scale change in freshwater flux has potentially important implications for ocean circulation and climate.     

Was there really an Archean phosphate crisis?

During the Archean, massive amounts of iron were deposited in the form of banded iron formations. It has been suggested that sedimenting particles of ferric oxyhydroxide may have stripped dissolved phosphate from the oceans, causing a reduction in phytoplankton productivity. However, that model does not take into account the high concentration of dissolved silica that was present in seawater at that time. We show experimentally that silica effectively competes with phosphate for sorption sites on ferrihydrite particles. Furthermore, coprecipitation of silica with ferrihydrite reduces particle reactivity toward phosphate. Hence, Archean oceans probably contained considerably more phosphate than previously predicted.     

耐盐性Imt1基因表达载体的构建及其在酵母中的高效表达

 将Imt1（Inositol O-methyltransferase，肌醇甲基转移酶）构建成酵母表达载体pBD#-3，在酵母双突变体gpd#+（-）(glycerol 3-phosphate-dehydrogenase,3-磷酸甘油脱氢酶)中高效表达，使gpd#+（-）突变株对氯化钠的耐性由2.5%提高到5.0%。生化分析表明，在每mg干酵母细胞内积累高达2.2nmol的Ononitol(芒柄醇)含量。Western blot分析证明了Imt1基因的表达。这一研究为植物耐盐基因工程开辟了一条新途径。