How much more global warming and sea level rise?

Two global coupled climate models show that even if the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had been stabilized in the year 2000, we are already committed to further global warming of about another half degree and an additional 320% sea level rise caused by thermal expansion by the end of the 21st century. Projected weakening of the meridional overturning circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean does not lead to a net cooling in Europe. At any given point in time, even if concentrations are stabilized, there is a commitment to future climate changes that will be greater than those we have already observed.     

Structure-disrupting ions: detection of qualitative change in an enzyme

Preparations of erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase from normal individuals show similar degrees of inhibition by neutral salts. Preparations from Caucasian subjects with different hereditary deficiency syndromes differ from each other and from normal subjects, indicating a qualitative difference in these specific "deficient" enzymes. Sensitivity to neutral salts may be a means of detecting an amino acid substitution.     

Recovery of fertilizer nitrogen from continuous corn soils under contrasting tillage management

Tillage systems influence soil properties and may influence the availability of applied and mineralized soil N. This laboratory study (20°C) compared N cycling in two soils, a Wooster (fine, loamy Typic Fragiudalf) and a Hoytville (fine, illitic Mollic Epiaqualf) under continuous corn (Zea mays) production since at least 1963 with no-tillage (NT), minimum (CT) and plow tillage (PT) management. Fertilizer was added at the rate of 100 mg ¹⁵N kg^–1–1 soil as 99.9% ¹⁵N as NH₄Cl or Ca(NO₃)₂ and the soils were incubated in leaching columns for 1 week at 34 kPa before being leached periodically with 0.05 M CaCl₂ for 26 weeks. As expected, the majority of the ¹⁵NO₃^– additions were removed from both soils with the first leaching. The majority of applied ¹⁵NH₄⁺ additions were recovered as ¹⁵NO₃^– by week 5, with the NT soils demonstrating faster nitrification rates compared with soils under other tillage practices. For the remaining 22 weeks, only low levels of ¹⁵NO₃^– were leached from the soils regardless of tillage management. In the coarser textured Wooster soils (150 g clay kg^–1), mineralization of native soil N in the fertilized soils was related to the total N content (r² 0.99) and amino acid N (r² 0.99), but N mineralization in the finer textured Hoytville (400 g clay kg^–1) was constant across tillage treatments and not significantly related to soil total N or amino acid N content. The release of native soil N was enhanced by NH₄⁺ or NO₃^– addition compared to the values released by the unfertilized control and exceeded possible pool substitution. The results question the use of incubation N mineralization tests conducted with unfertilized soils as a means for predicting soil N availability for crop N needs.     

Human-mediated vegetation switches as processes in landscape ecology

Switches are processes in which there is positive feedback between vegetation and environment. Landscape features can be created and modified by switches. The concept has previously been used with physical factors and non-human animals as the switch mediator, i.e. the factor which the vegetation modifies and which in turn affects the vegetation. Here, the switch concept is extended to include some types of human behaviour as possible switch mediators. With this extension, the switch concept can explain the impact on the landscape of some types of human behaviour. Examples are given of the behaviour of mower drivers, mowing up to a boundary which they create and/or maintain, and of walkers trampling tracks which they create and/or maintain. Other possibilities are discussed briefly. It is concluded that the concept of a human-mediated switch can unify the study of human behaviour, vegetation processes and landscape ecology.     

Biodegradation of nitrilotriacetic acid and related imino aand amino acids in river water

With a gas chromatography procedure capable of quantitatively de tecting nitrilotriacetic acid, N-methyliminodiacetic acid, iminodiacetic acid, sarcosine, and glycine at concentrations of 0.025 milligram per liter, it was shown that these compounds were biodegraded by river water. In particular, nitrilotriacetic acid was degraded without the accumulation of any of the amino acids mentioned above or the appearance of any new peaks in the gas chromatography analysis.     

Cytokine activity in bovine mammary gland secretions during the periparturient period.

The presence of cytokine activity in periparturient bovine mammary secretions was evaluated. Mammary secretions were modified for use in biological assays for interleukin-2 (IL-2) like and antiviral activity. The level of IL-2 like activity in mammary gland secretions was lower during the last week of gestation when compared to levels detected approximately two weeks prepartum. Antiviral titers gradually increased as parturition approached. Results from Western blots indicated that the antiviral activity observed in prepartum secretions may be due to tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Interferons (IFN) were not detected in the colostrum samples.