Exploring host-pathogen combinations for compatible and incompatible reactions in grapevine downy mildew

Rhizoctonia leguminicola, the traditional name for the causal agent of blackpatch of red clover (Trifolium pratense) and other legumes, produces alkaloids, one of which causes livestock to salivate excessively. Fungal presence is generally confirmed by microscopy, disappearance of symptoms in livestock after removal of suspect forage, and chromatography of the alkaloid slaframine, in legume tissue. Use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify a pathogen-specific DNA fragment would complement the other methods of pathogen identification. Primers were designed to the R. leguminicola ITS region, sequence provided by another laboratory. Two separate primer pairs each amplified a different fragment–one ~250 bp long (expected length 249 bp), and the other 300 to 400 bp long (expected length 368 bp)–in DNA extracted from cultures of R. leguminicola. Under the experimental conditions, the primers to the larger fragment amplified a stronger band, and a minimum of 0.1 ng DNA per reaction was needed to produce a detectable band. With the primers to the 368-bp fragment, a band 300 to 400 bp long was also amplified in DNA extracted from red clover (cultivar Kenland) inoculated with R. leguminicola and harvested 70 h post inoculation. No amplification with this primer set occurred in DNA extracted from mock-inoculated red clover plants, supporting the likelihood that the primers amplified R. leguminicola DNA extracted from inoculated red clover. This primer set did not amplify DNA extracted from a red clover isolate of the legume pathogen Stemphylium sarcinaeforme, or DNA extracted from two isolates of the legume pathogen Colletotrichum trifolii, indicating specificity for R. leguminicola DNA. Lack of amplification of alfalfa DNA indicated that the R. leguminicola primers will be useful for testing for the presence of blackpatch in alfalfa.     

Do Eurasian minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus L.) inhabiting brackish water enter fresh water to reproduce: Evidence from a study on otolith microchemistry

Dynamics of coastal fish assemblages in the Baltic Sea are still rather poorly understood. In particular, little information is available on migrations and movements of the small‐bodied littoral fish species like Eurasian minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus L.). Minnow is considered typically as a river and lake species, but it also inhabits brackish coastal waters of the Baltic Sea. In this study, we investigated movement patterns of brackish water inhabiting minnows using otolith microchemistry. Fish were collected from four different sites (from two bays and two stream mouths) around Saaremaa Island. The results indicated that at least three distinct migration patterns exist: (i) seawater residency, (ii) fast springtime migrations to fresh water or to bays with lower salinities (areas near stream mouths) and (iii) prolonged migrations to fresh water (some cases overwintering in streams). Migration patterns listed above were not evenly distributed among sites, and some individuals did not migrate to fresh water in every year. None of the analysed fish were freshwater residents. Additionally, potentially ontogenetic effects on Mn and Sr concentrations were observed in the otolith core regions, which may have important implications for the interpretation of otolith chemistry data. The overall findings of this study demonstrate that much more complex migration patterns exists in brackish water inhabiting minnow populations than previously thought and at least some individuals do enter freshwater to reproduce.     

Mycorrhizal fungi mitigate nitrogen losses of an experimental grassland by facilitating plant uptake and soil microbial immobilization

Nitrogen (N) is one of the most limited nutrients of terrestrial ecosystems, whose losses are prevented in tightly coupled cycles in finely tuned systems. Global change-induced N enrichment through atmospheric deposition and application of vast amounts of fertilizer are now challenging the terrestrial N cycle. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are known drivers of plant-soil nutrient fluxes, but a comprehensive assessment of AMF involvement in N cycling under global change is still lacking. Here, we simulated N enrichment by fertilization (low/high) in experimental grassland microcosms under greenhouse conditions in the presence or absence of AMF and continuously monitored different N pathways over nine months. We found that high N enrichment by fertilization decreased the relative abundance of legumes and the plant species dominating the plant community changed from grasses to forbs in the presence of AMF, based on aboveground biomass. The presence of AMF always maintained plant N:phosphorus (P) ratios between 14 and 16, no matter how the soil N availability changed. Shifts in plant N:P ratios due to the increased plant N and P uptake might thus be a primary pathway of AMF altering plant community composition. Furthermore, we constructed a comprehensive picture of AMF’s role in N cycling, highlighting that AMF reduced N losses primarily by mitigating N leaching, while N₂O emissions played a marginal role. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi reduced N₂O emissions directly through the promotion of N₂O-consuming denitrifiers. The underlying mechanism for reducing N leaching is mainly the AMF-mediated improved nutrient uptake and AMF-associated microbial immobilization. Our results indicate that synergies between AMF and other soil microorganisms cannot be ignored in N cycling and that the integral role of AMF in N cycling terrestrial ecosystems can buffer the upcoming global changes.     

The estimation of aboveground biomass and nutrient pools of understorey plants in closed Norway spruce forests and on clearcuts

The estimation model PhytoCalc allows a non-destructive quantification of dry weight and nutrient pools of understorey plants in forests by using the relationship between species biomass, cover and mean shoot length. The model has been validated with independent samples in several German forest types and can be a useful tool in forest monitoring. However, in open areas within forests (e.g. clearcuts), the current model version underestimates biomass and produces unreliable nutrient pool estimations. Thus, tissue density, as approximated by leaf dry matter content (LDMC), is systematically higher under high light compared to low light conditions. We demonstrate that the ratio of LDMC under clearcut conditions to LDMC under forest conditions can be used to adjust the PhytoCalc model to clearcut conditions. We investigated the LDMC ratio of five exemplary species commonly occurring on clearcuts. Integrating the square of the ratio as a correction factor improved estimates of biomass to more than 70% fit between observations and predictions. Results also suggest this ratio can be used to correct nutrient concentrations modelled in PhytoCalc, which tend to be overestimated in clearcuts. As morphological groups of plant species exhibit significantly different ratios, we advise using group-specific correction factors for clearcut adjustments in the future.     

Assessing the long-term species composition predicted by PrognAus

Tree growth models are supposed to contain stand growth laws as so called "emergent properties" which derive from interactions of individual-tree growth and mortality functions. This study investigates whether the evolving tree species composition in a long term simulation by the distance-independent tree growth model PrognAus matches the species composition of the potential natural vegetation type which is expected to occur if one refrains from further management interventions and major disturbances, climate change, and changes in site conditions can be excluded. For this purpose the development of 6933 sample plots of the Austrian National Forest Inventory was predicted for 2500 years. The resulting species proportions, derived from volume per hectare of 15 tree species or species groups, were used to classify every sample plot according to potential natural forest types, following a classification scheme based on expert knowledge. These simulated potential natural vegetation types were compared with expert reconstructions of the sample plots of the Austrian National Forest Inventory. A total of 5789 plots were actually classified with the scheme; in 33% of the cases the classification on the basis of the PrognAus-simulations was identical with the classification by the Austrian National Forest Inventory. A predominantly correct classification was achieved for the subalpine Picea abies-type and the Fagus sylvatica-type although PrognAus showed a tendency to overestimate the proportion of F. sylvatica and P. abies. Weaknesses in the ability to simulate forest types dominated by Quercus spp., Acer spp., and Pinus sylvestris were identified. This shortcoming might be caused by the mortality model which allows a larger diameter at breast height for F. sylvatica or by the ingrowth model whose terms for the consideration of inter-specific competition may lead to a disadvantage of Quercus spp., P. sylvestris, and Abies alba. Moreover, the ingrowth model might be influenced by management effects and the effect of selective browsing.     

Measurement of fast electron spin relaxation times with atomic resolution

Single spins in solid-state systems are often considered prime candidates for the storage of quantum information, and their interaction with the environment the main limiting factor for the realization of such schemes. The lifetime of an excited spin state is a sensitive measure of this interaction, but extending the spatial resolution of spin relaxation measurements to the atomic scale has been a challenge. We show how a scanning tunneling microscope can measure electron spin relaxation times of individual atoms adsorbed on a surface using an all-electronic pump-probe measurement scheme. The spin relaxation times of individual Fe-Cu dimers were found to vary between 50 and 250 nanoseconds. Our method can in principle be generalized to monitor the temporal evolution of other dynamical systems.     

Impact of Biomass Combustion on Urban Fine Particulate Matter in Central and Northern Europe

The distribution of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEOn) and their derivatives of nonylphenol (NP) and nonylphenoxy ethoxy acetic acids (NPEnC) in the sediments of a relatively closed freshwater reservoir was investigated using sediment layers sliced from undisturbed sediment cores collected with a gravity core sampler at three sampling sites (St. 1, St. 2 and St. 3) along the water flow direction. The relationships between the bound content of these compounds and the sediment organic matter as well as the likely transformation pathways were evaluated. The total content of NPEOn (n?=?1–15) fell in 84.6–336.5, 59.9–135.5 and 77.0–623.4 μg/kg-dry for all sliced layers at St.1, St.2 and St.3, respectively, with the content of individual NPEOn species showing a general decreasing trend with the attached molar number of the ethoxy (EO) chain. Compared to each detected NPEOn species, the bound content of NP was much higher, falling in 73.2–248.4, 79.9–358.2 and 25.5–1,988.4 μg/kg-dry at St. 1, St. 2 and St. 3, respectively. A general increasing trend of the NP content along the water flow direction of the reservoir was revealed. NPEnC (n?=?1–10) varied in 1.93–4.12, 2.85–9.84 and 1.05–19.1 μg/kg-dry for sediment at the respective site of St. 1, St. 2 and St. 3, with the averaged values at these sites (2.91, 4.71 and 6.72 μg/kg-dry) showing an increasing trend from the upstream to the downstream. For NPEnC, a parametric trend of increases in the content of NPE₁C, NPE₂C and NPE₃C with the bound sediment organic matter (9.06–11.8%) seemed to be existent. Furthermore, the computed magnitudes of NPEO_1–2/NPEO_1–15, NP/NPEO_1–15 and NPEC_1–10/NPEO_1–15 suggested that non-oxidative hydrolytic transformation was probably prevailing within the sedimented mud phase of the reservoir, with the oxidative hydrolytic transformation pathway being less involved.     

Soil respiration after slash and stump removal in three clear-cut areas with patch scarification and mounding

We studied the soil carbon dioxide respiration (R_s) at three clear-cut mesic forest sites in south, central and north central Finland, which had been treated with different intensities of stump lifting and slash removal and then patch mounded and planted with spruce. The follow-up period after the initial calibration lasted for five consecutive years. Throughout the study the R_s remained at fairly steady levels according to the study site and soil disturbance level. Based on a split-plot test using the general linear model there were no significant differences in the R_s between the different stump and slash removal treatments at the three study sites, but unaffected and moderately affected soil surfaces had significantly higher R_s than mounds and wheel ruts. We conclude that the removal of stumps and slash have minor direct effects on R_s, but large indirect effects through soil disturbance.     

Asymmetrical, transitional, lumbosacral vertebral segments in six dogs: a characteristic spinal syndrome

Clinical findings in six dogs with asymmetrical, transitional, lumbosacral vertebral segments are reported. All dogs exhibited low back pain and varying degrees of asymmetrical cauda equina dysfunction. Results of myelography, epidurography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indicated a unilateral disk protrusion in all dogs. In the dogs with MRIs, focal degenerative alterations in the vertebral end plates and adjacent body of the vertebra were detected. All dogs were treated with a dorsal laminectomy or hemilaminectomy. Results following surgery were good or excellent in all six dogs.