Environmental stress response limits microbial necromass contributions to soil organic carbon

The majority of dead organic material enters the soil carbon pool following initial incorporation into microbial biomass. The decomposition of microbial necromass carbon (C) is, therefore, an important process governing the balance between terrestrial and atmospheric C pools. We tested how abiotic stress (drought), biotic interactions (invertebrate grazing) and physical disturbance influence the biochemistry (C:N ratio and calcium oxalate production) of living fungal cells, and the subsequent stabilization of fungal-derived C after senescence. We traced the fate of ¹³C-labeled necromass from ‘stressed’ and ‘unstressed’ fungi into living soil microbes, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total soil carbon and respired CO₂. All stressors stimulated the production of calcium oxalate crystals and enhanced the C:N ratios of living fungal mycelia, leading to the formation of ‘recalcitrant’ necromass. Although we were unable to detect consistent effects of stress on the mineralization rates of fungal necromass, a greater proportion of the non-stressed (labile) fungal necromass C was stabilised in soil. Our finding is consistent with the emerging understanding that recalcitrant material is entirely decomposed within soil, but incorporated less efficiently into living microbial biomass and, ultimately, into stable SOC.     

Enhancing pedotransfer functions with environmental data for estimating bulk density and effective cation exchange capacity in a data‐sparse situation

Soil bulk density (BD) and effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) are among the most important soil properties required for crop growth and environmental management. This study aimed to explore the combination of soil and environmental data in developing pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for BD and ECEC. Multiple linear regression (MLR) and random forest model (RFM) were employed in developing PTFs using three different data sets: soil data (PTF‐1), environmental data (PTF‐2) and the combination of soil and environmental data (PTF‐3). In developing the PTFs, three depth increments were also considered: all depth, topsoil (<0.40 m) and subsoil (>0.40 m). Results showed that PTF‐3 (R²; 0.29–0.69) outperformed both PTF‐1 (R²; 0.11–0.18) and PTF‐2 (R²; 0.22–0.59) in BD estimation. However, for ECEC estimation, PTF‐3 (R²; 0.61–0.86) performed comparably as PTF‐1 (R²; 0.58–0.76) with both PTFs out‐performing PTF‐2 (R²; 0.30–0.71). Also, grouping of data into different soil depth increments improves the estimation of BD with PTFs (especially PTF‐2 and PTF‐3) performing better at subsoils than topsoils. Generally, the most important predictors of BD are sand, silt, elevation, rainfall, temperature for estimation at topsoil while EVI, elevation, temperature and clay are the most important BD predictors in the subsoil. Also, clay, sand, pH, rainfall and SOC are the most important predictors of ECEC in the topsoil while pH, sand, clay, temperature and rainfall are the most important predictors of ECEC in the subsoil. Findings are important for overcoming the challenges of building national soil databases for large‐scale modelling in most data‐sparse countries, especially in the sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA).     

响应曲面法优化高粱挤压最佳操作参数的研究

以高粱为原料,研究系统操作参数,包括:物料含水率、喂料速度、螺杆转速、机筒温度对目标参数的影响,并以响应曲面法优化最佳操作参数,优化得到的最佳操作参数为:物料含水率15.77%,喂料速度26.97r/min,螺杆转速181.20r/min,五区温度158.28℃。     

美味牛肝菌中油脂提取工艺的研究

采用超声波辅助法提取美味牛肝菌中的油脂，在单因素（提取时间、液料比和温度）实验考察的基础上，以油脂提取率为指标，通过响应面法对美味牛肝菌油脂的提取工艺进行优化。实验结果表明：响应面回归模型显著，拟合性好，可用于预测油脂提取率；优化后的油脂提取工艺为：液料比34.2 mL/g，温度36℃，提取时间4.5 h，此条件下油脂提取率为3.54826 %，与模型预测值相符，表明优化的油脂提取工艺合理。     

Preparation of Adjuvant Diluent for Live Vaccine against Classical Swine Fever and Evaluation of its Immune Effects

The aim of this study was to develop a novel oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion as adjuvant diluents (AD) for live vaccine against classical swine fever (CSF) that could effectively enhance the immune effect of vaccine.The AD was prepared by high-pressure homogenization technique.Formulations and preparation parameters were optimized with response surface design.Its stability, particle size, polydispersity (PDI) and Zeta potential were characterized.The humoral immune response and cellular immune response of the AD were evaluated with BALB/c mice by intramuscular injection.The particle size of the AD prepared by optimized formulation and parameters was 100.4 nm, PDI was 0.147, and Zeta potential was —28.7 mV.The experiment results showed that the AD had good stability.The AD was inoculated combined with live vaccine against CSF into BALB/c mice by intramuscular injection.The results showed that the live vaccine against CSF specific immune responses could be evoked in mice by co-inoculation with AD and vaccine.The cellular immune response levels in co-inoculated groups were significantly higher than control group (P<0.05), with obvious phenomena of higher levels of IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-4 in serum.The result revealed that cellular immune capability significantly improved with the AD.The results strongly revealed that cellular immune capability significantly improved by introducing AD for effective immune-adjuvant for live vaccine against CSF.     

Movement rules for juvenile steelhead: dynamic linking of movement behaviour to habitat and density

We incorporated explanatory factors including stream habitat type and fish density into individual‐based models with dynamic connections among adjacent habitat units to infer dispersal behaviour of juvenile steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss in a Great Lakes watershed. We used mark–recapture data and an inverse modelling approach to estimate daily probability of steelhead moving out of a habitat unit, P(move), according to four competing models. The models used included (i) a null model where all fish had equal movement probability; (ii) a habitat‐dependent model where P(move) depended on the habitat type; (iii) a density‐dependent model of P(move); and (iv) a model where P(move) depended on both density and habitat type. The habitat‐dependent model provided the most parsimonious fit to the observed data according to Akaike's information criteria (AICc). In the null model, P(move) averaged 0.70, whereas P(move) averaged 0.75 in pools, 0.68 in riffles and 0.73 in runs in the habitat‐dependent model.     

Atmospheric humidity and genotype are key determinants of the diurnal stomatal conductance pattern

Great understanding of the genotypic difference in diurnal stomatal conductance (g_s) pattern and the key determinants of the pattern is important for saving water by adopting cultivars appropriately. Fifteen wheat genotypes were studied under different soil conditions and various meteorological conditions with pot cultivation in rain shelter for two years. Genotype and air humidity were found to be key determinants of diurnal g_s pattern. All genotypes under low relative humidity (LRH) and most genotypes under high relative humidity (HRH) displayed a gradual decline pattern from morning through the afternoon. Under moderate relative humidity (MRH), all genotypes present a single-peak curve pattern, but they differed in peak time, which may lead to unreliable g_s comparison between genotypes and get ostensible contrasting materials. The stomatal conductance was significantly different among genotypes under LRH and the increased g_s magnitude is also significantly different when it was compared between LRH and HRH. The present results provide new thinking for selecting and adopting appropriate cultivars with specific stomata traits for the area with various meteorological conditions.     

Acquired Thermo‐Tolerance and Trans‐Generational Heat Stress Response at Flowering in Rice

In rice, pre‐exposure to sublethal treatment followed by harsh lethal treatment is known to improve tolerance of different abiotic stresses at the vegetative stage within and across generations. Our major aim was to test the phenomenon of thermo‐tolerance at flowering across (trans)‐generations and within generation using rice cultivars contrasting for heat stress tolerance at flowering. To test trans‐generational response, plants were exposed to higher temperature at flowering stage and seeds obtained from previous generations were exposed to heat stress during flowering, which recorded significantly lower fertility when exposed to the same degree of stress in their subsequent generations. A pre‐acclimation to moderately high acclimating temperatures imposed over three different durations during the vegetative and initial reproductive stage showed positive response in the tolerant N22, particularly under severe heat stress (40 °C). This finding indicates the possibility of acquiring ameliorative thermo‐tolerant mechanisms at anthesis, restricted to tolerant genetic backgrounds to combat subsequent harsh conditions within the same generation. However, trans‐generational memory was ineffective in mitigating spikelet sterility losses in both tolerant and susceptible backgrounds. Rice is extremely sensitive to heat stress during flowering; hence, similar exercise across other crops of interest needs to be carried out before generalizing conclusions.