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A field experiment was conducted during 1993–1995 to study the effect of industrial effluent on the initial growth of Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (Neem) in arid region. The effluent released from textile industry had high pH, EC, SAR and RSC. Various treatments were: irrigation with effluent only (W1), effluent mixed with canal water at 1:1 ratio (W2), gypsum‐treated effluent (W3), gypsum‐treated soil (W4) and wood ash‐treated soil (W5). W5 was the best treatment where neem attained 218 cm height, 118 cm crown diameter and 11.2 cm collar circumference at 28 months of age; followed by W1 treatment, where trees were on an average 186 cm tall and had 104 cm crown diameter and 9.4 cm collar circumference. Growth of the seedlings was the poorest in W2treatment. Increase in biomass accumulation over W2 treatment (1.89 kg tree−1) was 3.6 fold in W5, 2.1 fold in W1, 2.0 fold in W4 and 1.4 fold in W3 treatments. Though effluent application increased soil organic matter, electrical conductivity and in some cases pH also, but gypsum‐ and wood ash‐ treated soil ameliorated the pH by 0.25 units in comparison to the initial data. These results suggest that industrial wastewater can be effectively used to boost up establishment and growth of Neem (Azadirachta indica) in arid zone. Addition of wood ash improves the rate of growth. Irrigation with industrial effluent caused slight increase in electrical conductivity and decline in the soil pH. Santrauka Eksperimentas vyko 1993–1995 m. siekiant ištirti pramoninių nuotekų poveikį Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (Neem) sodinukų augimo pradžiai sausringuose regionuose. Tekstilės pramonės išleidžiamų nuotekų didelės pH rodiklio reikšmės, elektrinis laidumas, natrio adsorbcijos santykis ir natrio karbonato liekana. Tiriant taikyti įvairūs dirvožemio apdorojimo būdai: drėkinta tik nuotekomis (W1 ), nuotekos maišytos su kanalo vandeniu santykiu 1:1 (W2 ), nuotekos veiktos gipsu (W3 ), į dirvožemį dėta gipso (W4 ) ir dirvožemis tręštas medienos pelenais (W5 ). Efektyviausias buvo W5 apdorojimo būdas. 28 mėnesių augalai siekė 218 cm aukštį, jų vainiko skersmuo buvo 118 cm, žiedo perimetras – 11,2 cm. Stebint W1 apdorojimo tipą, medžiai buvo vidutiniškai 186 cm aukščio, vainikas – 104 cm skersmens, žiedai 9,4 cm perimetro. Blogiausiai sodinukai augo apdorojant W2 būdu. Nors naudojant nuotekas dirvožemio organinių medžiagų kiekis, elektrinis savitasis laidumas ir kai kuriais atvejais pH reikšmė padidėjo, tačiau gipsu ir medienos pelenais apdorotame dirvožemyje pH padidėjo per 0,25 vienetus, palyginti su pirminiais duomenimis. Šie rezultatai rodo, kad pramoninės nuotekos gali būti efektyviai naudojamos Neem (Azadirachta indica) želdinti ir auginti sausose teritorijose. Medienos pelenai pagerino augimo spartą. Drėkinimas pramoninėmis nuotekomis lėmė nežymų elektrinio savitojo laidumo augimą ir dirvožemio pH sumažėjimą. Резюме Экспериментальное поле возделывалось в 1993–1995 гг. с целью изучить воздействие промышленных стоков на начало роста Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (Neem) в засушливых районах. В стоках от производства текстиля высоко значение pH, электропроводимость, соотношение адсорбции натрия и остаток карбоната натрия. Применялись разные способы обработки почвы: орошение только стоками (W1 ); смесью стоков с водой из канала в соотношении 1:1 (W2 ); стоками, обработанными гипсом (W3 ); обработка почвы гипсом (W4 ) и удобрение древесной золой (W5 ). Наиболее эффективным способом оказалась обработка древесной золой. Высота растений в возрасте 28 месяцев составляла 218 см, венчик в поперечнике – 118 см, цветок – 11,2 см. После обработки почвы по типу W1 растения достигали 186 см в высоту, венчик в поперечнике – 104 см, цветок – 9,4 см. Наименее эффективным для растений способом оказалась обработка почвы по типу W2 . Несмотря на то, что при применении стоков количество органических веществ в почве, электропроводимость и в некоторых случаях значение pH увеличилось, однако при обработке почвы гипсом и древесной золой pH увеличилось более чем на 0,25 единиц по сравнению с начальными данными. Эти результаты показали, что промышленные стоки могут эффективно применяться для озеленения и выращивания Neem (Azadirachta indica) на засушливых территориях. Древесная зола ускоряла рост растений. Орошение промышленными стоками способствовало незначительному увеличению электропроводимости и уменьшению в почве pH.

Land use changes from cropland to orchards in Eastern China have raised serious concerns about the regional nitrogen (N) cycle and greenhouse gas balance. We measured soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and methane (CH4) uptake using manual static chambers in an apple orchard. The primary aims were to assess the effect of N fertilizer application on gas fluxes and quantify the site-specific N2O emission factor (EFd). Field experiments were arranged in a randomized block design with three N input rates (0, 800 and 2600/2000 kg N ha−1 year−1). We found that orchard soils were a negligible CH4 sink (−1.1 to −0.4 kg C ha−1 year−1). Annual N2O emissions responded positively to N input rates, ranging from 34.1 to 60.3 kg N ha−1 year−1. EFd ranged from 1.00% to 1.65% with a mean of 1.34%. The extremely large background emissions of N2O (34.1–34.3 kg N ha−1 year−1) most likely originated from nitrate accumulation in the soil profile because of historical overuse of N fertilizer. We conclude that (1) site-specific EFd is suitable for assessing regional direct N2O emissions from upland orchards; and (2) conventional fertilization regimes must be avoided, and reduced N input rates are recommended in the study region.

AbstractIrrigation of paddy fields to arsenic (As) containing groundwater leads to As accumulation in rice grains and causes serious health risk to the people worldwide. To reduce As intake via consumption of contaminated rice grain, identification of the mechanisms for As accumulation and detoxification in rice is a prerequisite. Herein, we report involvement of a member of rice NRAMP (Natural Resistance‐Associated Macrophage Protein) transporter, OsNRAMP1, in As, in addition to cadmium (Cd), accumulation through expression in yeast and Arabidopsis. Expression of OsNRAMP1 in yeast mutant (fet3fet4) rescued iron (Fe) uptake and exhibited enhanced accumulation of As and Cd. Expression of OsNRAMP1 in Arabidopsis provided tolerance with enhanced As and Cd accumulation in root and shoot. Cellular localization revealed that OsNRAMP1 resides on plasma membrane of endodermis and pericycle cells and may assist in xylem loading for root to shoot mobilization. This is the first report demonstrating role of NRAMP in xylem mediated loading and enhanced accumulation of As and Cd in plants. We propose that genetic modification of OsNRAMP1 in rice might be helpful in developing rice with low As and Cd content in grain and minimize the risk of food chain contamination to these toxic metals.

The future performance of the widely abundant European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) across its ecological amplitude is uncertain. Although beech is considered drought-sensitive and thus negatively affected by drought events, scientific evidence indicating increasing drought vulnerability under climate change on a cross-regional scale remains elusive. While evaluating changes in climate sensitivity of secondary growth offers a promising avenue, studies from productive, closed-canopy forests suffer from knowledge gaps, especially regarding the natural variability of climate sensitivity and how it relates to radial growth as an indicator of tree vitality. Since beech is sensitive to drought, we in this study use a drought index as a climate variable to account for the combined effects of temperature and water availability and explore how the drought sensitivity of secondary growth varies temporally in dependence on growth variability, growth trends, and climatic water availability across the species' ecological amplitude. Our results show that drought sensitivity is highly variable and non-stationary, though consistently higher at dry sites compared to moist sites. Increasing drought sensitivity can largely be explained by increasing climatic aridity, especially as it is exacerbated by climate change and trees' rank progression within forest communities, as (co-)dominant trees are more sensitive to extra-canopy climatic conditions than trees embedded in understories. However, during the driest periods of the 20th century, growth showed clear signs of being decoupled from climate. This may indicate fundamental changes in system behavior and be early-warning signals of decreasing drought tolerance. The multiple significant interaction terms in our model elucidate the complexity of European beech's drought sensitivity, which needs to be taken into consideration when assessing this species' response to climate change.

Abstract Exploring the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of vegetation in the confluent area of water systems in western Jinan and its response mechanism to climatic factors is of great significance for the scientific evaluation of the benefits of the water system connectivity project and eco-environmental protection and can provide a reference for ecotourism development in the Jixi wetland park. Based on the Landsat series of images and meteorological data, this study used ENVI to interpret the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of the confluent area from 2010 to 2021 and the spatiotemporal change characteristics and trends of NDVI were quantitatively analysed. The response of the growing-season NDVI (GSN) to climate factors and its time-lag effect were explored. The results showed that the overall change in the interannual NDVI in the confluent area from 2010 to 2021 was stable. The GSN in the confluent area was significantly positively correlated with precipitation, average temperature, and relative humidity in 37.64%, 25.52%, and 20.87% of the area respectively, and significantly negatively correlated with sunshine hours in 15.32% of the area. There was a time-lag effect on the response of the GSN to climate factors; the response to precipitation and sunshine hours lagged by one month, and the response to average temperature and relative humidity was longer.

AbstractVolume reduction of radioactive solid wastes is carried out with an aim to minimize disposal space requirement. Cellulosic combustible solid wastes like cotton, paper etc. are treated by incineration and the plastic wastes are volume reduced by baling. Compaction of plastic wastes by baling gives low volume reduction factors (3 – 5) and also the resultant waste bale may spring back to original volume after disposal. With a view to achieve higher volume reduction factors, studies were conducted at CWMF on the melt-densification of plastic wastes at 180 - 190C. The melted plastics were characterized by TGA/DTA & IR Spectroscopy and found that there was no structural loss of the polymer compounds. The melted mass was observed to have the expected theoretical density.A melt densification unit (MDU) was set up at CWMF with a facility for melting 20kg of the plastic waste in each batch in a 200L MS drum. The system has a furnace with vacuum chamber where plastic waste in drum is melted and an off gas treatment system consisting of a scrubber followed by HEPA filter. A continuous stack monitor is installed to estimate any release of radioactivity in the off-gases. This paper describes the operational experience of melting of different plastic wastes namely polythene sheets & bottles, HDPE pipes and cans, PVC shoe covers and neoprene gloves. About 47M3 of β-γ and 18 M3 of α contaminated plastic wastes were melted using the above MDU. The volume reduction factors varied from 2.5 to 30 depending on the initial bulk density of the material. The radioactivity in the off-gases was found to be always below detectable limits. The leach indices of waste matrices were 2 to 3 orders better than the stipulated limits.