Effects of dietary forage to concentrate ratio and wildrye length on nutrient intake,digestibility, plasma metabolites,ruminal fermentation and fecal microflora of male Chinese Holstein calves

Twenty-eight male, weaned Chinese Holstein calves((156.8±33.4) kg) were used to investigate the effects of dietary forage to concentrate ratio(F:C) and forage length on nutrient digestibility, plasma metabolites, ruminal fermentation, and fecal microflora. Animals were randomly allocated to four treatments in a 2×2 factorial arrangement: whole-length forage(WL) with low F:C(50:50); WL with high F:C(65:35); short-length forage(SL) with high F:C(65:35); and SL with low F:C(50:50). Chinese wildrye was used as the only forage source in this trial. The grass in the SL treatments was chopped using a chaff cutter to achieve small particle size(~50% particles 19 mm). Dry matter intake(DMI) and organic matter(OM) intake was increased by increasing both F:C(P0.01) and forage length(FL)(P0.05), while acid detergent fiber(ADF) and neutral detergent fiber(NDF) intakes were only increased by increasing the F:C(P0.01). The digestibility of NDF was increased as the FL increased(P0.01), and it was also affected by interaction between F:C and FL(P0.05). Cholesterol(CHO)(P0.01), leptin(LP)(P0.05), and growth hormone(GH)(P0.01) concentrations in plasma were increased as dietary F:C increased. A significant increase in plasma triglyceride(TG)(P0.01), insulin(INS)(P0.05), and GH(P0.01) levels was observed with decreasing dietary FL. Ruminal p H values of calves fed with low F:C diets were significantly lower than those in high F:C treatment(P0.05). Increasing the F:C enhanced ruminal acetic acid(P0.05) and acetic acid/propionic acid(P0.01). Fecal Lactobacillus content was significantly higher, while Escherichia coli and Salmonella contents were significantly lower in WL and high F:C groups(P0.05). Lower fecal scores(higher diarrhea rate) were observed in calves fed with SL hay compared to WL hay(P0.05). Denatured gradient gel electrophoresis(DGGE) bands and richness index(S) were significantly affected by the interaction between F:C and FL(P0.05), under high F:C, band numbers and richness index from WL group were higher than that from SL group(P0.05), whereas there were no differences between WL andSL groups under low F:C(P0.05). Microflora similarity was 50–73% among the different treatments. It is concluded that the WL with high F:C(65:35) diet is suitable for weaned calves.     

Carbon Sequestration in Soil Humic Substances Under Long-Term Fertilization in a Wheat-Maize System from North China

The changes in humic substances （HS） is fundamental in detecting soil carbon sequestration mechanisms in natural and cultivated environments. Based on a long-term trial, the amounts of water dissolved substances （WSS）, humic acid （HA）, fulvic acid （FA） and humin （HU） were determined to explore the impact of long-term fertilization on HS. Increases in the amounts of WSS, HA, FA and HU were significant different among the treatments with manure. A significant correlation was found between the increased soil organic carbon （SOC） and HS （R^2=0.98, P〈0.01）. The change in the E4/E6 ratio was significantly correlated with the increased SOC （R2=0.88, P〈0.01）, HA （R^2=0.91, P〈0.01）, FA （R^2=0.91, P〈0.01） and HU （R^2=0.88, P〈0.01）. The cluster was mainly divided into two parts as manure fertilization and inorganic fertilization, based on the increases in HA, FA and HU. These results suggest that long term fertilization with manure favours carbon sequestration in HS and is mainly stabilized as HU, while the HA becomes more aliphatic. We conclude that increases in SOC can be linked to changes in the molecular characteristics of HS fractions under long term fertilization.     

Energy balance and partition in Inner Mongolia steppe ecosystems with different land use types

Land use change and grassland degradation are two of the most critical problems ubiquitously found in arid and semi-arid areas in Northern China. Energy fluxes, including net radiation (R_n), latent heat flux (LE), sensible heat flux (H) and soil heat flux (G), were examined over an entire year (December 2005 to November 2006) in different steppe ecosystems – the steppe and cropland in Duolun and the fenced and grazed steppe in Xilinhot – in Inner Mongolia based on direct measurements from four eddy-covariance flux towers. The seasonal changes in R_n, LE, H and G of the four sites were similar, with very low values during the period of snow cover from December to February, followed by a gradual increase in the growing season. The opposite seasonal patterns of the LE and H fraction resulted in significant seasonal changes in Bowen ratio (β). Human activity in cropland ecosystems not only resulted in a rapidly shift between LE and H, but also triggered a decrease in latent heat fraction because of a shortened growing season of crop plants. The significantly positive relationships between canopy surface conductance (g_c) and LE/LE_eq of all of the study sites suggested that a lack of precipitation coupled with high VPD conduced remarkable decreases of stomatal conductance. This could impede the latent heat partitioning of available energy (R_n − G) in semi-arid ecosystems, Inner Mongolia. The obvious decrease in the values of g_c and the decoupling factor (Ω) in both the cropland and the degraded steppe suggested that land use change could depress latent flux fraction and increase its sensitivity to air and soil drought.     

不同氮磷比与水分添加对刨花楠光合生理特性的影响分析

在全球变化的背景下,氮沉降现象普遍,降水分布不均,干旱变得更加频繁,植物对环境变化的响应与适应已成为亚热带地区研究的热点生态学课题之一。以亚热带珍贵常绿阔叶树种刨花楠(Machilus pauhoi)为对象,探讨不同氮磷比及水分添加对其光合生理特性各指标的影响。结果表明:(1)水分对刨花楠净光合速率(P_n)、光补偿点(LCP)、蒸腾速率(T_r)有显著影响,干旱胁迫下(田间持水量为40%)的刨花楠的P_n、LCP和T_r会明显下降,与正常水分条件(田间持水量80%)相比,P_n下降了52%,LCP下降了72%,T_r下降了38%;而水分对光饱和点(LSP)、气孔导度(G_s)、胞间CO_2浓度(Ci)、水分利用效率(WUE)无显著影响;(2)不同氮磷添加对P_n、LSP、LCP、G_s、C_i、WUE等光合生理特性指标无显著影响。     

易县旺隆建立生态农业结构短期经济效益的评价

根据低山丘陵区的特点,因地制宜地实行农、林、果、牧等生物措施与工程措施相结合,充分发挥当地的资源优势,建立良性的生态农业结构,取得短期的经济效益,是开发低山丘陵区的有效途径。     

Uncertainties in static closed chamber measurements of the carbon isotopic ratio of soil-respired CO2

The δ¹³C of soil-respired CO₂ (δ_r) is frequently determined using static closed chamber methods. δ_r is obtained as the intercept of the least squares linear regression of δ vs 1/C*, where measured δ¹³C-CO₂ (δ) and volume fraction of CO₂ (C*) values of chamber headspace samples are used. Theoretically, we show that the variance of the estimate of δ_r can be reduced by extending the 1/C* interval of the regression towards (i) higher or (ii) lower values, or (iii) distributing the 1/C* values optimally within the pre-selected headspace CO₂ sampling time period. Experimental applications of these approaches indicated that: (1) lowering the initial CO₂ level, thereby increasing 1/C*, yielded a positive bias to the δ_r result. (2) It was feasible to obtain lower variance in the δ_r estimate by lowering 1/C* values through extended CO₂ sampling time. We also recommend that each chamber is sampled only once, mainly because this allows freedom to select the sampling times, in order to optimize the distribution of 1/C* values.