Root zone microbial populations, urease activities, and purification efficiency for a constructed wetland

In order to investigate the effects of microorganisms and their urease activities in macrophytic root zones on pollutant removal, four small-scale plots (SSPs) of vertical/reverse-vertical flow wetlands were set up to determine: a) the relationship between the abundance of microorganisms in the root zones and water purification efficiency; and b) the relationship between urease activities in the root zones and pollutant removal in a constructed wetland system. Total numbers of the microbial population (bacteria, fungi, and actinomyces) along with urease activities in the macrophytic root zones were determined. In addition, the relationships between microbial populations and urease activities as well as the wastewater purification efficiencies of total phosphorus (TP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), biochemical oxygen demand in 5 days (BOD5), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were also analyzed. The results showed that there was a highly significant positive correlation (r = 0.9772, P < 0.01) between the number of bacteria in the root zones and BOD5 removal efficiency and a significant negative correlation (r = -0.9092, P < 0.05) between the number of fungi and the removal efficiency of TKN. Meanwhile, there was a significant positive correlation (r = 0.8830, P < 0.05) between urease activities in the root zones and the removal efficiency of TKN. Thus, during wastewater treatment in a constructed wetland system, microorganism and urease activities in the root zones were very important factors.

EROD activities in a primary cell culture of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) hepatocytes exposed to polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbonas

Aryl hydrocarbon (Ah) receptor (Ah-agonist) effects of environmental samples containing polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons were evaluated using a 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (FROD) assay of a primary hepatocyte culture from grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). The results were compared with those obtained from the assay using the rat hepatoma cell line H4IIE and chemical analysis using high-resolution gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). A dose-response relationship was observed between the EROD activities, either from primary hepatocyte culture assay or from H4IIE assay, and concentrations of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). The results showed that the assay based on the H4IIE cell line (EC50 = 0.83 mug/mL) is more sensitive to TCDD than the assay based on primary hepatocyte Culture (EC50 = 9.7 pg/mL). In tests of environmental samples, the results from the assay using primary hepatocyte culture were comparable to those from the assay using the H4IIE cell line and chemical analysis of concentrations of mixtures of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofuran (PCDD/PCDF). The lack of a change in the activities of glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in cell culture upon exposure to TCDD indirectly indicates that the compound is persistent to biodegradation in the cell culture system. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. 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.

Macrozoobenthos in 2 shallow mesotrophic Chinese lakes with contrasting sources of primary production

Comparative studies on macrozoobenthos were done in 2 shallow mesotrophic lakes in the middle basins of the Yangtze River, China: Lake Biandantang where macrophytes were abundant, and Lake Houhu where macrophytes were scarce Samples were taken monthly at 4 stations in each lake from April 1997 to March 1999, and a total of 67 and 31 tara of macrozoobenthos were recorded in Lake Biandantang and Lake Houhu, respectively. Both annual mean density and biomass of macrozoobenthos were higher in Lake Biandantang than in Lake Houhu: 780 vs 532 indivials/m(2) and 37.1 vs 25.9 g wet mass/m(2), respectively. Abundance of functional feeding groups followed the order: scraper > collector > predator > shredder in Lake Biandantang, and collector > predator > scraper > shredder in Lake Houhu. Only 1 density peak occurred from winter to early spring in Lake Houhu; however, in Lake Biandantang, there were 2 peaks, the winter peak and spring peak. K-dominance curves and Shannon-Wiener, Simpson, and Margelef indices indicated that macrozoobenthos were more diverse in Lake Biandantang than in Lake Houhu Our study suggests that, in shallow lakes, submerged macrophytes are essential for the maintenance of biodiversity of macrozoobenthos mainly because the macrophytes increase habit heterogeneity and availability of suitable food, and may also decrease predation by fish on the macrozoobenthos.

A comparative study of benthic nematodes in two Chinese lakes with contrasting sources of primary production

Ecological studies on benthic nematodes were conducted in two small, shallow lakes in the middle Yangtze basin, China; Lake Houhu, where the main source of primary production is phytoplankton and Lake Biandantang where it is predominantly macrophytic in origin. Monthly sampling was carried out from April 1996 to March 1997. A total of 36 species of nematodes was found in Lake Houhu and 51 species in Lake Biandantang. The dominant trophic groups of nematodes were algophages in Lake Houhu and bacteriophages associated with omniphages and phytophages in Lake Biandantang. Community analyses based on K-dominance curves, Shannon-Wiener and Simpson diversity indices, demonstrate that the benthic nematodes are more diverse in Lake Biandantang than in Lake Houhu. The results suggest that the abundance of submerged vegetation is essential for maintenance of habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity of nematodes in shallow lakes.

STUDY ON THE MODE OF PRIMARY CONTROL IN THE EGG OF GYNOGENETIC CRUCIAN CARP FOR INHIBITING THE DEVELOPMENT OF 2 TYPES OF SPERM NUCLEI

By comparing the different developmental characteristics of two types of sperm nuclei which were from gynogenetic fish (crucian carp) and amphimictic fishes (red carp, red goldfish and sex-reversal red carp) respectively in the eggs of gynogenetic crucian carp, it was preliminarily revealed that there existed selective inhibiting actions of the primary control in the eggs of crucian carp for inhibiting the development of the two types of sperm nuclei. To homologous sperms, the primary control showed weak effect, thus leading to the decondensation of homologous sperm nuclei at different degrees in the eggs of crucian carp. But to heterologous sperms, the primary control showed strong effects, resulting in the total inhibition of the development of heterologous sperm nuclei. Moreover, our experimental results also showed that the different developmental behavior of the two types of sperm nuclei might have a great relationship to the changes of the sex ratio in the population of gynogenetic crucian carp. The infiltration of "the genetic materials in sperm nuclei" into the female nucleus at random might play an important role in male emergence in the naturally gynogenetic population of crucian carp.

A New Discrimination Method of Maize Seed Varieties Based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

A new discrimination method for the maize seed varieties based on the near-infrared spectroscopy was proposed. The reflectance spectra of maize seeds were obtained by a FT-NIR spectrometer (12 000-4 000 cm(-1)). The original spectra data were preprocessed by first derivative method. Then the principal component analysis (PCA) was used to compress the spectra data. The principal components with the cumulate reliabilities more than 80% were used to build the discrimination models. The model was established by Psi-3 neuron based on biomimetic pattern recognition (BPR). Especially, the parameter of the covering index was proposed to assist to discriminating the variety of a seed sample. The authors tested the discrimination capability of the model through four groups of experiments. There were 10, 18, 26 and 34 varieties training the discrimination models in these experiments, respectively. Additionally, another seven maize varieties and nine wheat varieties were used to test the capability of the models to reject the varieties not participating in training the models. Each group of the experiment was repeated three times by selecting different training samples at random. The correct classification rates of the models in the four-group experiments were above 91. 8%. The correct rejection rates for the varieties not participating in training the models all attained above 95%. Furthermore, the performance of the discrimination models did not change obviously when using the different training samples. The results showed that this discrimination method can not only effectively recognize the maize seed varieties, but also reject the varieties not participating in training the model. It may be practical in the discrimination of maize seed varieties.

不同灌溉制度对玉米根系生长及水分利用效率的影响

为了探讨不同灌溉制度对玉米根系生长和水分利用效率的影响及基因型间差异,在大型活动防雨棚和棚外田间条件下,利用一组玉米遗传材料杂交种户单四号、父本803和母本天四进行了研究。结果发现玉米杂交种在根系生长、分布和水分利用效率上表现出显著的杂种优势。在充分灌溉条件下,玉米杂交种在浅层的根长密度大于亲本,但在水分亏缺条件下,玉米杂交种根长密度在整个剖面上都显著大于亲本;同一玉米基因型在不同的灌溉制度下根长密度在土壤剖面的分布也不同,拔节期不灌溉条件下玉米根系在深层土壤中的分布较充分灌溉条件下大,保证了玉米对深层土壤水分的充分吸收,而后期灌水延缓了表层根系生长的衰退,产生明显的补偿效应;拔节期干旱而抽雄期和灌浆期灌水显著提高了3种基因型玉米的水分利用效率。通过合理灌溉优化玉米根系分布特性以提高玉米吸水能力和水分利用效率,是节水栽培上的可行途径。

玉米根系剖面分布对水分亏缺的响应

在水分亏缺和正常供水(土壤含水量分别维持在田间持水量的40%～45%和75%～80%)两种水分条件下,采用土柱实验方法,研究了玉米杂交种户单四号(F1)及其父本803(♂)、母本天四(♀)根系剖面分布对水分亏缺的响应。结果表明:水分亏缺除了对父本的总根重无显著影响之外,使杂交种和母本的总根重以及3个品种的总根长和根系总表面积均显著下降。在剖面分布上,水分亏缺显著降低了杂交种和母本在表层土层中的根重和根表面积,使杂交种在表层和中层土层中的根长以及亲本在深层土层中的根长显著下降。可见,玉米杂交种响应中度干旱胁迫的形态学变化是减少上层干土中的根系生长,而增加深层土层中根系的相对生长,即其深层根系分布占总根系的比重较亲本高,这种根系剖面分布的优化导致杂交种较高的生物量积累和水分利用效率。

施肥对干旱胁迫下夏玉米根系提水的调节作用研究

以耐旱性玉米品种郑单958号为材料,采用两室分根土培装置,通过时域反射计(TDR)对上下土层土壤含水量进行控制和观测,研究施肥对干旱胁迫条件下玉米根系提水作用的影响.结果表明,玉米根系在土层上干下湿条件下(即上下层土壤存在一定水势差时)存在明显提水作用;玉米根系提水量在整个生育期呈单峰变化,并以吐丝期最大;上层土壤施肥可以调节玉米根系提水作用强弱,整个生育期根系总提水量表现为NP配施>单施P>CK>单施N,NP配施处理全生育期单株提水量(1 948.6 g)分别是单施P处理、CK和单施N处理的1.5倍、3.1倍和3.5倍.玉米整个生育期根系总提水量与收获期不同层次根系干重和体积存在极显著正相关关系,也与其地上部分生物量和籽粒产量呈极显著或显著正相关关系.可见,玉米根系的提水作用强弱因生育期和施肥处理而变化,施肥主要通过影响根系生长来调节其提水作用;在一定水分环境条件下,玉米根系提水作用能促进作物生长,提高其籽粒产量.

黄土旱塬Hybrid-Maize模型适应性及春玉米生产潜力估算

通过对Hybrid-Maize玉米高产模型进行田间验证,应用该模型对黄土旱塬春玉米生产潜力进行初步估算。结果表明,Hybrid-Maize模型在黄土旱塬表现出较好模拟效果,总生物量、秸秆生物量和籽粒产量模拟值与实测值间具有极显著线性相关性,其决定系数分别为0.9469、0.8164和0.9650,回归系数分别为1.0198、0.9787和1.1844,接近于1。黄土旱塬区多年光温生产潜力和气候生产潜力因品种不同有所差别,对多年平均光温籽粒和总生物量生产潜力,紧凑型玉米品种分别为13.25和22.45t/hm2,平展型玉米品种分别为12.32和20.62t/hm2,年际变化小;对多年平均气候籽粒和总生物量生产潜力,紧凑型玉米品种分别为11.97和19.94t/hm2,平展型玉米品种分别为11.37和18.63t/hm2,年际波动大。在黄土旱塬区,玉米产量潜力挖掘的主要途径应集中在提高密度和水分限制条件下,Hybrid-Maize玉米模型在指导玉米高产栽培上具有较好应用。

玉米根系活力杂种优势及其与光合特性的关系

对大田不同水分处理条件下玉米杂交种及其亲本在经济产量形成期的根系活力及其衰退的杂种优势进行了研究,并分析了根系活力与叶片光合特性之间的关系。结果表明,水分亏缺显著降低了玉米的根系活力;充分供水和水分亏缺条件下,玉米杂交种根系活力都具有显著的杂种优势;杂交玉米种根系活力衰退速率具有显著的负优势,抽雄后灌水能够显著降低玉米根系活力衰退速率。杂交玉米种在抽雄期各水分处理下的光合速率显著大于亲本;玉米根系活力与光合速率之间具有显著的正相关关系,随着根系活力的增高,玉米光合速率、气孔导度和蒸腾速率均增高。因此,杂交种较高的抗旱性是根冠共同作用的结果。在玉米育种和栽培中,要充分地考虑到根系对地上部生理活性的影响。