Effect of Low Night Temperatures on Photosynthetic Activity of the Maize Seedlings (Zea mays L.)

Night chilling (5 °C) subsequently lowered photosynthetic intensity in the leaves of maize seedlings at 20 °C through an increase in leaf diffusive resistance brought on by lower tissue water content in morning hours. A more significant increase in leaf diffusion resistance was observed when soil temperature was lowered than in the case of lower air temperature.
The unfavorable effect of soil and air cooling temperature on photosynthesis was limited by air saturated with water vapour. However, as a result of lowering the night temperature from 5 °C to 1 °C, the efficiency of the protective influence of higher atmospheric humidity was decreased. This demonstrates that the participation of factors unrelated to plant water status in inhibiting photosynthesis increases with lower night temperatures.
An additional reason for inhibited photosynthesis following cool nights was a decrease in chlorophyll accumulation, below 50 μg per 1 cm² of leaf area.     

Crunoecia irrorata (Curtis) (Trichoptera: Lepidostomatidae) and conservation of boreal springs: indications of clustering of red‐listed species

• 1. Crunoecia irrorata is widely dispersed across Europe, but rare and red‐listed in Finland. Its geographical range comprises most of the southern boreal zone in Fennoscandia. The species is confined to springs in the north, but occurs also in lower reaches of headwater streams in central and western Europe. It becomes more rare and less abundant towards the limits of its range across Europe, showing diffusive rarity. Glacial history and climate limit the distribution of the species in the north.
• 2. The most important habitat characteristic for C. irrorata in Finland was the total area of helocrene habitats. Its occurrence was positively related to taxon richness of benthic macroinvertebrates, but not bryophytes. Co‐occurrence of C. irrorata with other red‐listed spring‐dependent taxa was observed, indicating high conservation value of the springs occupied.
• 3. Crunoecia irrorata occurred frequently in moderately disturbed springs, indicating tolerance to human disturbance around springs. However, the effect of the disturbance on population size is not known. Forestry and water and gravel extraction are potential threats to C. irrorata, and only a few of its populations are strictly protected. Therefore, populations of C. irrorata in the boreal zone should be conserved and monitored to ensure the species' survival at the northern limits of its range.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

氧化节杆菌生物降解苯并芘

A pot experiment was conducted with multi-metal (Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn) contaminated acidic soil to investigate changes in available metal burden resulting from the application of industrial wastes (fly ash and steel slag). The efficiency of amendments-induced metal stabilization was evaluated by diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT), sequential extraction, and plant uptake. The stability of remediation was assessed by an acidification test and by chemical equilibrium modeling. Addition of fly ash (20 g kg-1 ) and steel slag (3 g kg-1 ) resulted in similar increase in soil pH. Both amendments significantly decreased the concentrations of metals measured with DGT (C DGT) and the metal uptake by Oryza sativa L. Significant correlations were found between C DGT and the concentration of a combination of metal fractions (exchangeable, bound to carbonates, and bound to Fe/Mn oxides), unraveling the labile species that participate in the flux of metal resupply. The capability of metal resupply, as reflected by the R (ratio of C DGT to pore water metal concentration) values, significantly decreased in the amended soils. The C DGT correlated well with the plant uptake, suggesting that DGT is a good indicator for bioavailability. Acidification raised the extractable metal concentration in amended soil but the concentration did not return to the pre-amendment level. Equilibrium modeling indicated that the soil amendments induced the precipitation of several Fe, Al and Ca minerals, which may play a positive role in metal stabilization. Chemical stabilization with alkaline amendments could be an effective and stable soil remediation strategy for attenuating metal bioavailability and reducing plant metal uptake.     

Measurement variability in soybean water status and soil‐nutrient extraction in a row spacing study in the U.S. southeastern coastal plain

Abstract

Full‐season determinate soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] was grown in the field in a humid climate for three seasons (1979–81). The objective was to examine variability in several methods of determining basic relationships between soil and plant water status in a range of canopy configurations and to examine treatment effects on soil‐nutrient extraction. In each year, two cultivars, “Davis” (group VI) and “Coker 338” (group VIII) were planted in four row spacings. In 1980 and 1981 the experiment was expanded and split for irrigation and row orientation (N—S or E‐W). Post‐harvest soil samples were collected and analyzed to determine if irrigation, row spacing, or cultivar influenced K, Ca, and Mg extraction patterns.

During the growing seasons, parallel leaf diffusive resistance (R_s) was poorly correlated with xylem pressure potential (ψ_x), canopy s x temperature (T_c), canopy minus air temperature (?T), leaf vapor pressure deficit (LVPD), and atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) in single factor correlations. Xylem pressure potential was highly correlated with T_c , ?T, VPD, and LVPD, but was poorly correlated with soil water potential. Both ψ_x and T_c were significantly affected by the imposition of shade from a 60% shading cloth within as little as 1 minute of shade imposition. The impact of cultivar on seasonal ψ_x was significant and was nearly half the magnitude of the observed difference caused by irrigation. Irrigation raised ψ_x by only 2.2 bars over the two—year observation period, in spite of large differences in soil water potential when irrigation was imposed. The impact of canopy configuration was not measureable in any water relations parameter except infrared‐determined T_c. Correlation of T and ψ_x was significantly more reliable when limited to a single variety, row spacing, and row orientation. Aspect of infrared temperature measurement also significantly affected observed T_c.

Analysis of post‐harvest soil samples indicated that narrow (50 cm) row spacing in 1980 and irrigation in 1981 significantly decreased post—harvest Mehlich No. I extractable K, but none of the cultural practices influenced extractable Ca or Mg at P(0.05). In 1980, ex‐tractable K within soybean rows was significantly greater than between rows. Similar trends were observed for Ca and Mg in 1980 and for all 3 nutrients in 1981, but those differences were not significant at P(0.05). Overall, these measurements quantify the difficulty in relating soil and plant water status and identifying nutrient extraction patterns in sandy soils within the humid U.S. Southeastern Coastal Plain.     

温室作物叶-气系统水流阻力研究初探

温室作物叶-气系统水流阻力的确定对计算作物蒸腾量、制定温室作物灌溉制度以及调控温室小气候具有重要意义,但测量难度较大。该文通过对温室作物周围环境微气象条件的连续观测，计算分析了温室作物叶-气系统水流阻力各分项即叶片周围层流副层边界层阻力(r_b)、冠层上方湍流边界层阻力(r_g)、空气动力学阻力(r_e)和叶片气孔阻力(r_i)的变化规律。结果表明：温室内r_b比较稳定，平均约235 s/m，且与环境因素关系不甚密切；温室内黄瓜、西红柿类植物生殖生长期r_g<b，在计算r_e时，r_g的影响可忽略，取r_e≈r_b；利用基于能量平衡方程和空气动力学方程得出的叶-气温差计算公式计算得到r_i，符合其变化的一般规律；在此基础上计算了温室黄瓜的蒸腾速率，与实测值的一致性较好。     

Quantifying habitat specificity to assess the contribution of a patch to species richness at a landscape scale

Assessing and predicting the species richness of a complex landscape remains a problem because there is no simple scaling function of species richness in a heterogeneous environment. Furthermore, the potential value of an area for biodiversity conservation may depend on which, rather than how many, species the area contains. This paper shows how we can objectively evaluate the contribution of an area, e.g., a habitat patch, to larger-scale plant species richness, e.g., a landscape composed of patches of several habitat types, and how we can test hypotheses that attempt to explain this contribution. We quantified the concept of habitat specificity to assess the proportion of each observed plant population that is concentrated within a given spatial element. A case study of a biodiversity-monitoring program in the Swiss Canton of Aargau showed that the relative contribution of the three main types of land use to the overall species richness differed strongly between higher taxa (vascular plants and molluscs). However, the type of data, i.e., presence-absence or abundance, was not important. Resampling of the plant data suggested that stratification provided an unbiased estimate of relative specificity, whereas unstratified sampling caused bias even for large samples. In a second case study of vascular plants in an agricultural landscape in central Switzerland, we tested whether the type, size or shape of a landscape element can predict its contribution to the species richness of the landscape. Habitat types that were less frequently disturbed contributed more per m² to landscape species richness than more frequently disturbed ones. Contrary to expectation, patch size was negatively correlated to specificity per m² for arable fields, whereas patch shape appeared to be unrelated to the specificity per m² both for arable fields and for meadows. The specificity approach provides a solution to the problem of scaling species richness and is ideally suited for testing hypotheses on the effect of landscape structure on landscape species richness. Specificity scores can easily be combined with measures of other aspects of rarity to assess the contribution of a spatial element to conservation goals formulated at regional, national or global level.     

Importance of water loss in the chilling injury of grapefruit stored at low temperature

Differences in chilling injury susceptibility of grapefruit from exterior and interior tree canopy positions were used to investigate the hypothesis that water loss is related to chilling injury symptom development during low-temperature storage. The sun-exposed surface of grapefruit from exterior canopy positions was more susceptible to chilling injury and had lower diffusive resistance than the shaded surface of the same fruit. Reducing the rate of fruit transpiration during the first week of storage by a pre-cooling treatment prior to low-temperature storage delayed, but did not eliminate, the development of chilling injury.     

Leaf anatomical characteristics and physiological responses to short-term drought in Ziziphusmauritiana (Lamk.)

The aim of this work was to study the association between leaf anatomical characteristics and response to short-term drought stress in Ziziphusmauritiana Lamk. Six Z. mauritiana cultivars (Seb, Gola, Umran, Keitly, Q-29 and B-5/4) under field conditions in Israel's Negev desert were studied. Width of palisade mesophyll, spongy mesophyll and epidermis, xylem number and diameter in mid-vein were investigated with light microscopy. Short-term (3 weeks) drought stress tolerance was evaluated by monitoring plant response (leaf transpiration, diffusive resistance, chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf water potential and leaf relative water content). Greater epidermis and mesophyll widths and xylem diameters and densities were associated with increased tolerance to short-term water deficit expressed by preliminary wilting symptoms and proportional differences between initial and final physiological parameters. Significantly larger differences were found in Keitly, Umran and B-5/4 than in Seb, Gola and Q-29, indicating that the former cultivars are more sensitive to drought stress. Our results indicate that tolerance in descending order was Seb, Q-29, Gola, B-5/4, Keitly and finally Umran. The existence of an association between anatomical characteristics and short-term drought stress tolerance based on physiological responses is suggested.     

Effect of Antitranspirants on Leaf Temperature Transpiration Rate and Diffusive Resistance in Brinjal Plants

Brinjal plants ( Solanum melongena L.) grown under moisture stress conditions in glasshouse were treated with three chemicals namely, cycocel, limewash, and potassium chloride to study their effect on leaf temperature, transpiration rate and diffusive resistance. Moisture stress imposed at three stages increased leaf temperature and diffusive resistance but decreased transpiration rate. Application of antitranspirants decreased leaf temperature and transpiration but increased diffusive resistance.     

毛乌素沙地主要建群植物蒸腾耗水特性的研究

在植物生长旺季初期(7月份),采用LI-1600型气孔针对毛乌素沙地主要建群植物油蒿(Artemisia ordosica)、中间锦鸡儿(Caragana intermedia)、沙柳(Salix psammophyla)和旱柳(Salix matsudana)的蒸腾耗水进行了测定。结果表明:供试植物的蒸腾速率日动态曲线均为单峰型,无午休现象,其中固定沙地油蒿和半固定沙地油蒿的蒸腾速率在中午13∶00出现峰值。气孔扩散阻力是所有供试植物蒸腾速率的主要影响因子。对供试植物的蒸腾耗水进行的评估表明,不同植物的日最大蒸腾速率和日平均蒸腾速率大小为固定沙地油蒿>半固定沙地油蒿>沙柳>旱柳>中间锦鸡儿;植物单株月累计蒸腾耗水量大小为旱柳>沙柳>固定沙地油蒿>半固定沙地油蒿>中间锦鸡儿;植物种群单位面积单位时间内的蒸腾耗水量大小顺序为固定沙地油蒿>半固定沙地油蒿>沙柳>旱柳>中间锦鸡儿。