Time and scale of gully erosion in the Jedliczny Dol gully system, south-east Poland

Key catchments of the Roztocze loess area in south-east Poland have a great potential of revealing the history of long-term soil erosion and changes in land use. The knowledge of how and when soil erosion took place in the past helps one understand the impact of land use changes on the landscapes [Bork, H.-R., 1989. Soil erosion during the past Millennium in Central Europe and its significance within the geomorphodynamics of the Holocene. Catena 15, 121–131]. The Jedliczny Dol gully system near the town Zwierzyniec in south-east Poland was investigated by using detailed field stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating of charcoal and wood.In connection with new settlements which were established between the 14th and 16th centuries, arable land was cultivated and forests were used much more intensively. As a consequence, the loess soils were strongly eroded during heavy rainfalls. Up to 4 m of colluvial sediments were deposited in the gully system during the 15th and/or 16th centuries. The thickness of the colluvial sediments indicate severe erosion which might be related to excessive timber exploitation for the local glass and iron production. With the foundation of the so-called Ordinariat Zamoyski at the end of the 16th century, some parts of the area were presumably reforested. High pressure on the land at the beginning of the 19th century enabled a second main phase of gulling before 1900.Since 1890 at the latest, almost the whole catchment is used as a forest, however, concentrated runoff on compacted forest roads can still be high after heavy rainfalls.In loess areas soil erosion caused by intensive land use, triggered by heavy rainfalls, can change the landscape drastically. These changes will continue to influence how catchments react, even if land use gets less intensive again. This knowledge should be considered regarding future, sustainable land use and recent changes in land use in the south-eastern Polish loess regions.     

Identification of ergosterol in vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae

Summary Ergosta-5,7,22-tri-3-enol (ergosterol) was identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in roots of berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L., cv. Landsorte) and sweet corn (Zea mays L., cv. Honeycomb-F1) infected with the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungus Glomus intraradices. The fungal-derived compound ergosterol was determined quantitatively in root extracts using reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography. The concentrations of ergosterol in VAM-infected roots reached 72 g^-1 dry material in berseem and 52 g^-1 in sweet corn after 80 days of growth, whereas concentrations in non-infected roots remained below 8 g^-1 dry weight. Additionally, phytosterols such as -sitosterol, campesterol, and stigmasterol were detected in both infected and non-infected roots. Ergosterol, as a characteristic fungal substance, is proposed as an indicator of fungal biomass in the early stages of VAM infection.     

Isolation and identification of the metolachlor stereoisomers using high-performance liquid chromatography, polarimetric measurements, and enantioselective gas chromatography

Because of the presence of two chiral elements (an asymmetrically substituted carbon and a chiral axis), the herbicide metolachlor consists of four stereoisomers stable at ambient temperature with aSS-, aRS-, aSR-, and aRR-configurations (aSS, the isomer with aS,1'S-configuration, etc.). Metolachlor, initially introduced into the market as the racemic product containing all four stereoisomers, is currently being replaced worldwide by S-metolachlor, the product enantiomerically enriched with the herbicidally active 1'S-isomers (aSS, aRS). The isomer-specific analysis of metolachlor requires not only enantioselective ("chiral") analytical techniques but also suitable reference compounds. In this study, two of the four metolachlor isomers were isolated from rac-metolachlor in enantio- (ee > 98%) and diastereomerically pure forms by a combination of achiral and chiral high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The two isomers were identified as the aSS- and the aRR-isomers by polarimetric measurements, in reference to previous data. The two isomers were then thermally equilibrated to 1:1 mixtures of the aSS/aRS and aRR/aSR diastereomers, respectively, so that analytical data of all four metolachlor isomers became available; they were then used to identify these isomers in technical products by chiral high-resolution gas chromatography (HRGC). The kinetics of the thermally induced interconversion of the atropisomers was studied and the consequences, such as for GC analysis, are discussed. A comparison of on-column and split/splitless injection indicated that the latter technique results in significant isomerization prior to separation and, therefore, cannot be used for accurate isomer analysis.     

The formation and early evolution of the Milky Way galaxy

Recent observations indicate that the Milky Way may have formed by aggregation of gas and stars from a reservoir of preexisting small galaxies in the local universe. The process probably began more than 12 billion years ago with material of different original angular momentum following two separate evolutionary lines, one into the slowly rotating halo and central bulge and the other into the rapidly rotating disk. The existence of distinct thick and thin disks shows that continuing mergers of satellite galaxies likely also determined the early evolution of the main structural component of the luminous Galaxy.