Extracellular carbohydrate polymers from five desert soil algae with different cohesion in the stabilization of fine sand grain

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from four filamentous cyanobacteria Microcoleus vaginatus, Scytonema javanicum, Phormidium tenue and Nostoc sp. and a coccoid single-cell green alga Desmococcus olivaceus that had been separated from desert algal crusts of Tegger desert of China, were investigated for their chemical composition, structure,and physical properties. The EPS contained 7.5-50.3% protein (in polymers ranging from 14 to more than 200 kD, SDS-PAGE) and 16.2-46.5% carbohydrate (110-460 kD, GFC). 6-12 kinds of monosaccharides, including 2-O-methyl rhamnose, 2-O-methyl glucose, and N-acetyl glucosamine were found. The main carbohydrate chains from M. vaginatus and S. javanicum consisted mainly of equal proportion of Man, Gal and Glc, that from P. tenue consisted mainly of arabinose, glucose and rhamnose. Arabinose was present in pyranose form, mainly alpha-L 1 --> 3 linked, with branches on C4 of almost half of the units. Glucose was responsible for the terminal units, in addition of having some units as beta1 --> 3 and some as beta1 --> 4 linked. Rhamnose was mainly 1 --> 3 linked with branches on C2 on half of the units. The carbohydrate polymer from D. olivaceus was composed mainly of beta1 --> 4 linked xylose, galactose and glucose. The galactose part was present both in beta-pyranose and -furanose forms. Arabinose in alpha-L-furanose form was mainly present as 1 --> 2 and 1 --> 2, 5 linked units, rhamnose only as alpha 1 --> 3 and xylose as beta 1 --> 4. The backbone of the polysaccharide from Nostoc sp. was composed of beta-1 --> 4 linked xylose, galactose and glucose. Most of the glucose was branched on position C6, terminal glucose and 2-O-methyl glucose units are also present. The relationship between structure, physical properties and potential biological function is discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Primary succession of algal community structure in desert soil

The microbiotic crust study is among new focuses in investigating on the desertification control. Based on determination of algal crusts with different successive ages (4-, 8-, 17-, 34-, 42-year-old) and unconsolidated sand in the desert area, species composition and clustering analyses were carried out in this study. Results on successional orientation revealed that (1) the abundance of Cyanophyta, specially of Scytonema javanicum gradually decreased; (2) the abundance of Chlorophyta, Bacillariophyta and a species of Cyanophyta, Phormidium tenue increased; (3) the biodiversity increased gradually with the community succession; and (4) biomass of microalgae increased at the early stage, but decreased at the later stage due to the abundance of lichens and mosses. But, the speed of natural succession was so slow that the community-building species was still the first dominant species after 42 years, except that its dominant degree decreased just slightly. However, successive speed and trend were affected by water, vegetation coverage, terrain, time and soil physico-chemical properties as well, especially Mn content in the soil appeared to have a threshold effect.

Effect of desert soil algae on the stabilization of fine sands

Four filamentous cyanobacteria, Microcoleus vaginatus, Phormidium tenue, Scytonema javanicum (Kutz.) and Nostoc sp., and a single-celled green alga, Desmococcus olivaceus, all isolated from Shapotou (Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China), were batch cultured and inoculated onto unconsolidated sand in greenhouse and field experiments. Their ability to reduce wind erosion in sands was quantified by using a wind tunnel laboratory. The major factors related to cohesion of algal crusts, such as biomass, species, species combinations, bioactivity, niche, growth phase of algae, moisture, thickness of the crusts, dust accretion (including dust content and manner of dust added) and other cryptogams (lichens, fungi and mosses) were studied. The best of the five species were M. vaginatus and P. tenue, while the best mix was a blend of 80% M. vaginatus and 5% each of P. tenue, S. javanicum, Nostoc sp. and D. olivaceus. The threshold friction velocity was significantly increased by the presence of all of the cyanobacterial species, while the threshold impact velocity was notably increased only by the filamentous species. Thick crusts were less easily eroded than thin crusts, while biomass was more effective than thickness. Dust was incorporated best into Microcoleus crust when added in small amounts over time, and appeared to increase growth of the cyanobacterium as well as strengthen the cohesion of the crust. Microbial crust cohesion was mainly attributed to algal aggregation, while lichens, fungi and mosses affected more the soil structure and physico-chemical properties.

A column method for determination of soil organic partition coefficients of eight pesticides

A column method was developed to conveniently and reliably determine the soil organic partition coefficients (K-oc) of three insecticides (methiocarb, azinphos-methyl, fenthion), four fungicides (triadimenol, fuberidazole, tebuconazole, pencycuron), and one herbicide (atrazine), in which real soil acted as a stationary phase and the water solution of pesticide as an eluent. The processes of sorption equilibrium were directly shown through a breakthrough curve(BTC). The log K-oc values are 1.69, 1.95, 2.25, 2.55, 2.69, 2.67, 3.10, and 3.33 for atrazine, triadimenol, methiocarb, fuberidazole, azinphos-methyl, tebuconazole, fenthion and pencycuron, respectively.

原状土通气培养法测定黄土高原土壤供氮能力的研究

评价原状土通气培养法在反映黄土高原土壤供氮能力方面的效果。【方法】以采自于黄土高原差异较大的11个农田耕层土壤为供试土样,以包括和不包括土壤起始NO3--N原状土盆栽黑麦草累积吸氮量为参比,进行室内原状土通气培养法测定土壤供氮能力的研究。【结果】以包括土壤起始NO3--N盆栽试验植物吸氮量为参比,通气培养前CaCl2所淋洗起始NO3--N和起始矿质氮与5期黑麦草地上部氮素累积量密切相关,相关系数分别为0.856和0.862,达1%显著水平;与此相反,通气培养30周所矿化氮素、土壤起始矿质氮+通气培养30周矿化氮素、氮素矿化势(N0)及N0+起始矿质氮与5期黑麦草地上部氮素累积量间无显著相关关系,相关系数分别仅为0.410、0.553、0.492和0.419。以不包括土壤起始NO3--N盆栽试验植物吸氮量为参比,通气培养前CaCl2淋洗起始NO3--N和起始矿质氮与五期黑麦草地上部氮素累积量间的相关性尽管有所降低,但相关性仍达5%显著水平,相关系数分别为0.613和0.607;而通气培养30周矿化氮素、土壤起始矿质氮+通气培养30周矿化氮素、N0及N0+起始矿质氮与五期黑麦草地上部吸氮量的相关系数却明显...

黄土高原丘陵沟壑区不同土地利用模式对土壤氮素淋溶的影响

通过对黄土高原丘陵沟壑区不同土地利用模式土壤剖面NO-3-N、NH+4-N、有机质和全氮分布的测定,论述黄土高原丘陵沟壑区不同土地利用模式对土壤氮素淋溶的影响,对当地农业发展提出建议。结果表明:在200 cm内土壤NO-3-N最大值都出现在200 cm处,其中日光温室最大为20.36 mg/kg。土壤NH+4-N在200 cm内是较均匀的分布在10~25 mg/kg。不同土地利用模式对土壤剖面土壤NH+4-N、有机质和全氮分布没有影响。随着深度的变化对土壤NH+4-N分布也没有影响。土壤有机质和全氮在土壤剖面的分布是,随着深度的增加而减少,60 cm以下有机质保持在1.07~5.95 g/kg,全氮保持在0.12~0.35 g/kg。根据试验结果得出,土壤氮素淋溶的主要成分是NO-3-N,土壤NO-3-N淋溶程度与降雨、灌溉、施肥量呈正比,在坡地的淋溶较少。

小麦氮磷肥长期配施对土壤硝态氮淋溶的影响

利用长期肥料定位试验,监测旱地农田土壤硝态氮的淋溶动向,研究施肥量与硝态氮累积量之间的关系,为科学施肥提供参考。【方法】在试验小区0～300cm土壤剖面中,每20cm深度取一个土样,1mol·L-1KCl浸提后以AA3连续流动分析仪测定硝态氮含量。【结果】单施氮肥土壤硝态氮累积峰出现在80～100cm土层和300cm以下土层,当施氮量达到180kg·hm-2·a-1时,0～300cm土层硝态氮累积总量相当于8年的施氮量。单施磷肥对土壤硝态氮分布无影响;氮、磷肥配施时,施氮量增加硝态氮累积量显著增加,配施磷肥后可以减少硝态氮累积量,且施氮量越大减少的越多。过量施用氮肥,即使配施磷肥,硝态氮也能发生淋溶并在100～120cm和240～260cm土层附近累积;二次多项式回归能够较好地反映氮、磷施用量与土壤硝态氮累积量之间的关系。【结论】长期过量施用氮肥,导致硝态氮大量淋溶并形成两个累积峰,科学合理地配施磷肥可以减少硝态氮淋失;旱地麦田长期施用最大产量施肥量,可能导致硝态氮大量累积在土壤深层。