Improvement of soil aggregate stability by repeated applications of organic amendments to a cultivated silty loam soil

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of repeated field applications of three urban compost amendments and one farmyard manure amendment over a 9-year period on aggregate stability in a silty loam soil initially characterized by low clay and initial organic matter contents and poor aggregate stability. Three different aggregate stability tests with increasing disruptive intensities (fast wetting > mechanical breakdown > slow wetting tests) and different disaggregation mechanisms, were used. All of the amendments, which were applied at approximately 4 Mg C ha⁻¹ every other year, increased the organic carbon content and improved the stability of the aggregates against the disruptive action of water, as determined by each of the stability tests. However, the year-to-year variations in the aggregate stability that related to factors other than the organic inputs were greater than the cumulative increase in aggregate stability relative to the control. The positive effects of the tested amendments on aggregate stability were linked to their contribution to soil organic C contents (r = 0.54 for the fast wetting test and r = 0.41-0.42 for the mechanical breakdown and slow wetting tests; p < 0.05). The addition of urban composts had a larger positive effect on aggregate stability than farmyard manure at the majority of sampling dates. The addition of biodegradable immature compost, such as municipal solid waste (MSW), improved the aggregate stability through an enhanced resistance to slaking. The addition of mature composts, such as the co-compost of sewage sludge and green wastes (GWS) or biowaste compost (BW), improved the aggregate stability by increasing interparticular cohesion. The MSW compost was the most efficient in improving aggregate stability during the first 6 years of the experiment (average improvements of +22%, +5% and +28% in the fast wetting, mechanical breakdown and slow wetting tests, respectively, compared to the control treatment); this result was likely due to the larger labile organic pool of the MSW compost that was highly effective at stimulating soil microbial activity. After the first 6 years, the two other composts, GWS and BW, became more efficient (average improvements of +25%, +61% and +33% in the fast wetting, mechanical breakdown and slow wetting tests, respectively, compared to the control treatment), which was probably linked to the greater increase in soil organic C contents. Therefore, the application of urban compost to silty soil that is susceptible to water erosion was effective at improving aggregate stability and thus could be used to enhance the resistance of soil to water erosion.     

菌渣还田量对紫色水稻土净温室气体排放的影响

中国是食用菌生产大国,每年食用菌菌渣产出量较大,为探明菌渣还田量对紫色水稻土净温室气体排放的影响,于2017年3~9月,通过盆栽试验,采用静态暗箱/气相色谱法,研究了不施肥(CK)、常规施肥(NPK)、9 t·hm~(-2)菌渣+NPK(LM)、18 t·hm~(-2)菌渣+NPK(MM)、36 t·hm~(-2)菌渣+NPK(HM)这5种处理稻田土壤温室气体的排放规律,并采用土壤碳库法对农田系统净温室气体排放(NGHGE)进行评价.结果表明:(1)土壤温室气体(包括CH_4、CO_2、N_2O)排放随着菌渣还田量的增加而增加,CH_4排放量顺序为:HMMMLM≈NPKCK;HM处理显著增加了CH_4的排放通量(P0.01),其他处理差异并不显著(P0.05),CH_4排放通量LM处理呈双峰型曲线,MM处理呈多峰型,HM处理呈现非常明显的单峰型曲线;CO_2累积排放量大小依次为:MMNPK≈LMHMCK,CO_2排放通量曲线LM处理呈单峰型、MM处理呈双峰型、HM处理呈现多峰型;NPK处理N_2O累积排放量显著高于其他处理,N_2O排放通量曲线NPK处理呈双峰型、LM和MM处理呈现多峰型,HM呈单峰型变化;(2)LM处理土壤固碳能力较低,NPK、MM与HM处理土壤固碳能力均较高;MM处理土壤固碳能力显著高于其他处理(P0.01),比纯施化肥处理提高了59.2%,比LM和HM处理提高了87.79%和65.65%;与土壤固碳能力相反,LM处理植物固碳能力最高,比NPK和MM处理提高了16.1%~22.2%,约为CK处理和HM处理的2.1倍;(3)MM处理整个水稻生产期NGHGE值最小,为-490.29 kg·hm~(-2),表现为温室气体的"汇",18 t·hm~(-2)菌渣还田是紫色水稻土净温室气体排放最优的还田方式.     

Hormetic protection of Drosophila melanogaster middle-aged male flies from heat stress by mildly stressing them at young age

Previous studies have shown that exposing flies to hypergravity (3g or 5g) for the first 2 weeks of adult life slightly increases longevity of male flies and survival time at 37°C for both sexes, and delays an age-linked behavioral change. The present experiment tested whether the hypergravity could also protect flies from four successive deleterious non-lethal heat shocks at 4 and 5 weeks of age. Males that lived in hypergravity for the first 2 weeks of adult life lived slightly longer (ca. +15% or 1.2 day) after heat shocks (30 min or 45 min at 37°C) than flies that always lived at 1g, but this positive effect of hypergravity was not observed in females. Therefore, hypergravity exposure at young age can help the male flies recovering from a heat shock at older ages.     

Specialization of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema scapterisci with its mutualistic Xenorhabdus symbiont

The level of specialization of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema scapterisci with its native Xenorhabdus symbiont was investigated by testing (1) the influence of non-native bacterial strains on nematode fitness within an insect-host (Galleria mellonella) and (2) specificity of the association between the nematode infective juveniles and non-native bacteria. All non-native Xenorhabdus spp. or Photorhabdus spp. strains tested were mutualistically associated with other entomopathogenic nematodes in nature. We showed that most of the Xenorhabdus spp. strains tested led to an insignificant difference of the nematode's fitness compared to the one obtained with the native bacterium. Conversely, Photorhabdus spp. strains almost entirely abolished nematode reproduction. The phylogenetic analysis of bacterial strains tested, showed that there was a negative correlation between S. scapterisci's reproduction rate with a bacterial strain and the genetic distance of this bacterial strain from the native one. We also showed that the native bacterium was the only one which was transmitted by S. scapterisci's infective juveniles. All these results, suggested a specialization between S. scapterisci and its native Xenorhabdus. As the same phenomenon was already demonstrated in the association between S. carpocapsae and X. nematophila, specialization between partners would not be an exception in entomopathogenic nematode-bacteria interactions. Nevertheless, S. scapterisci showed a dramatically higher compatibility with non-native Xenorhabdus spp. strains than did S. carpocapsae, suggesting differences in the co-evolutionary processes between nematodes and bacteria in these two model systems.Table 1 List of the bacterial strains, native nematode species with their geographical origin, accession numbers of bacterial 16S rDNA partial sequences and number of combination experiments for each bacterium tested

可持续发展与草原生态环境保护——以内蒙古草原区为例

草原具有自然和社会两方面的功能，在实现这些功能的过程中，应该遵循可持续性发展原则来维持健康的草原。草原的自然功能是社会功能的基础和保障，草原的社会功能是自然功能的延伸和发展，社会功能的发挥是建立在自然功能实现基础之上的。内蒙古地区在发展过程中要以科学发展观为指导，把建设社会主义新牧区的任务与草原发展的丰富内涵结合起来，加强草原生态环境保护，建设环境友好型和资源节约型社会。     

辽宁省可持续发展指标体系和评价方法研究

阐述了可持续发展指标体系的概念及国内外可持续发展指标体系的研究状况，详细介绍了辽宁省建立可持续发展指标体系应遵循的原则，并提出了指标综合评价法，为实现区域可持续发展提供了技术依据。