Characterizing long-term forest disturbance history and its drivers in the Ning-Zhen Mountains,Jiangsu Province of eastern China using yearly Landsat observations (1987–2011)

Forest losses or gains have long been recognized as critical processes modulating the carbon flux between the biosphere and the atmosphere. Timely, accurate and spatially explicit information on forest disturbance and recovery history is required for assessing the effectiveness of existing forest management. The major objectives of our research focused on testing the mapping efficacy of the vegetation change tracker (VCT) model over a forested area in China. We used a new version of VCT algorithm built upon the Landsat time series stacks (LTSS). The LTSS consisted of yearly image acquisitions to map forest disturbance history from 1987 to 2011 over the Ning-Zhen Mountains, Jiangsu Province of east China. The LTSS consisted of TM and ETM+ scenes with different projections due to distinct data sources (Beijing remote sensing ground station and the USGS EROS Center). The validation results of the disturbance year maps showed that most spatial agreement measures ranged from 70 to 86 %, comparable with the VCT accuracies reported for many places in USA. Very low accuracies were identified in 1995 (38.3 %) and 1992 (56.2 %) in the current analysis. These resulted from the insensitivity of the VCT algorithm to detect low intensity disturbances and also from the mis-registration errors of the image pairs. Major forest disturbance types existing in our study area were identified as agricultural expansion (39.8 %), urbanization (24.9 %), forest management practice (19.3 %), and mining (12.8 %). In general, there was a gradual decreasing trend in forest cover throughout this region, caused principally by China’s economic, demographic, environmental and political policies and decisions, as well as some weather events. While VCT has largely been used to assess long term changes and trends in the USA, it has great potential for assessing landscape level change elsewhere throughout the world.     

SoilFlex‐LLWR: linking a soil compaction model with the least limiting water range concept

Soil compaction impacts growing conditions for plants: it increases the mechanical resistance to root growth and modifies the soil pore system and consequently the supply of water and oxygen to the roots. The least limiting water range (LLWR) defines a range of soil water contents within which root growth is minimally limited with regard to water supply, aeration and penetration resistance. The LLWR is a function of soil bulk density (BD), and hence directly affected by soil compaction. In this paper, we present a new model, ‘SoilFlex‐LLWR’, which combines a soil compaction model with the LLWR concept. We simulated the changes in LLWR due to wheeling with a self‐propelled forage harvester on a Swiss clay loam soil (Gleyic Cambisol) using the new SoilFlex‐LLWR model, and compared measurements of the LLWR components as a function of BD with model estimations. SoilFlex‐LLWR allows for predictions of changes in LLWR due to compaction caused by agricultural field traffic and therefore provides a quantitative link between impact of soil loading and soil physical conditions for root growth.     

Effect of ammonia and nitrite on vigour,survival rate,moulting rate of the blue swimming crab <Emphasis Type="Italic">Portunus pelagicus</Emphasis> zoea

The effects of ammonia and nitrite on vigour, survival rate, moulting rate of zoea of blue swimming crab, Portunus pelagicus, were studied. A total of five nitrite-N treatments (26.67, 53.34, 106.68, 213.36, 426.72 mg/l) and a control (no nitrite-N added) were set up for the acute nitrite-N toxicity experiment; a total of five ammonia-N treatments (8.43, 16.86, 33.72, 67.44, 134.88 mg/l) and a control (no ammonia-N added) were set up for the acute ammonia-N toxicity experiment. The results showed that the vigour, survival rate and moulting rate of zoea of the blue swimming crabs exposed to over 53.34 mg/l were significantly different (P < 0.05) from the control group. The zoea LC₅₀ values (mg/l) of nitrite-N were 179.47, 76.56, 66.70, 37.49, 25.01, 25.35, 25.34 mg/l for 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96 h, respectively. The vigour, survival rate and moulting rate of zoea of the blue swimming crabs exposed to over 16.86 mg/l were significantly different (P < 0.05) from the control group. The zoea LC₅₀ values (mg/l) of ammonia-N were 51.04, 39.62, 38.72, 24.43, 16.90, 13.42, 11.16 mg/l for 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96 h, respectively. The zoeae are highly sensitive to ammonia and nitrite, and the toxicity of ammonia and nitrite on Portunus pelagicus decrease with development of this crab.     

The Humus Content and Soil Biological Properties as a Function of Organic and Mineral Fertilization

There is a growing recognition for the need to develop sensitive indicators of soil quality that reflect the effects of land management on soil and assist land users in promoting sustainability of agro-ecosystems. Three soil enzymes (dehydrogenase, phosphatase and invertase) microbial biomass as biological variables and soil organic matter content (SOM) were investigated relative to fertilization and soil fertility (estimated by crop yield) at a long-term fertilization trial (Keszthely, Hungary). 0-34.7-69.4-104.1t farmyard manure (FYM) ha m 1 5 yr m 1 and the corresponding amount of mineral fertilizers (NPK) were applied in two different crop rotation systems. There were four straw and/or stalk incorporating treatments in the second crop rotation 'B'. Enzyme activities, microbial biomass and the amount of SOM were generally higher in the fertilized soils than in the unfertilized soils. The type of amendments (mineral, FYM or mixed) had significant effects only on the amount of SOM. The correlations among the biological variables and the crop yield were generally low (r < 0.250. The differences in field management resulted only in the invertase activity.