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Plastic film mulching (FM) became a general practice to enhance crop productivity and its net primary production (NPP), but it can increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The proper addition of organic amendments might effectively decrease the impact of FM on global warming. To evaluate the feasibility of biomass addition on decreasing this negative influence, cover crop biomass as a green manure was incorporated with different recycling levels (0-100% of aboveground biomass) under FM and no-mulching. The net global warming potential (GWP) which integrated with soil C stock change and GHG (N2O and CH4) fluxes with CO2-equivalent was evaluated during maize cultivation. Under the same biomass incorporation, FM significantly enhanced the grain productivity and NPP of maize by 22-61 and 18-58% over no-mulching, respectively. In contrast, FM also highly increased the respired C loss, which was 11-95% higher than NPP increase, over no-mulching. Irrespective with biomass recycling ratio and mulching system, negative NECB which indicates the decrease of soil C stock was observed, mainly due to big harvest removal. FM decreased more soil C stock by 57-158% over no-mulching, but its C stock was clearly increased with increasing biomass addition. FM significantly increased total N2O and CH4 fluxes by 4-61 and 140-600% over no-mulching, respectively. Soil C stock changes mainly decided net GWP scale, but N2O and CH4 fluxes negligibly influenced. As a result, FM highly increased net GWP over no-mulching, while this net GWP was clearly decreased with increasing biomass application. However, cover cropping, and its biomass recycling was not enough to compensate the negative impact of FM on global warming. Therefore, more biomass incorporation might be essential to compensate this negative effect of FM.

Forest soil acidification caused by acid deposition is a serious threat to the forest ecosystem. To investigate the liming effects of biomass ash (BA) and alkaline slag (AS) on the acidic topsoil and subsoil, a three-year field experiment under artificial Masson pine was conducted at Langxi, Anhui province in Southern China. The surface application of BA and AS significantly increased the soil pH, and thus decreased exchangeable acidity and active Al in the topsoil. Soil exchangeable Ca2+ and Mg2+ in topsoil were significantly increased by the surface application of BA and AS, while an increase in soil exchangeable K+ was only observed in BA treatments. The soil acidity and active Al in subsoil were decreased by the surface application of AS. Compared with the control, soluble monomeric and exchangeable Al in the subsoil was decreased by 38.0% and 29.4% after 3 years of AS surface application. There was a minimal effect on soluble monomeric and exchangeable Al after the application of BA. The soil exchangeable Ca2+ and Mg2+ in the subsoil increased respectively by 54% and 141% after surface application of 10 t ha-1 AS. The decrease of soil active Al and increase of base cations in subsoil were mainly attributed to the high migration capacity of base cations in AS. In conclusion, the effect of surface application of AS was superior to BA in ameliorating soil acidity and alleviating soil Al toxicity in the subsoil of this Ultisol.

It's a slow death, but bolts still slay rainforest trees.

Abstract Agricultural practice is facing multiple challenges under volatile commodity markets, inevitable climate change, mounting pest pressure and various other environment-related constraints. The objective of this research is to present a dynamic optimization model of crop rotations and farm management and show its suitability for economic analysis over a 30 year time period. In this model, we include management practices such as fertilization, fungicide treatment and liming, and apply it in a region in Southwestern Finland. Results show that (i) growing pest pressure favours the cultivation of wheat-oats and wheat-oilseeds combinations, while (ii) market prices largely determine the crops in the rotation plan and the specific management practices adopted. The flexibility of our model can also be utilized in evaluating the value of other management options such as new cultivars under different projections of future climate and market conditions.

Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N(2)O) have increased significantly since pre-industrial times owing to anthropogenic perturbation of the global nitrogen cycle, with animal production being one of the main contributors. Grasslands cover about 20 per cent of the temperate land surface of the Earth and are widely used as pasture. It has been suggested that high animal stocking rates and the resulting elevated nitrogen input increase N(2)O emissions. Internationally agreed methods to upscale the effect of increased livestock numbers on N(2)O emissions are based directly on per capita nitrogen inputs. However, measurements of grassland N(2)O fluxes are often performed over short time periods, with low time resolution and mostly during the growing season. In consequence, our understanding of the daily and seasonal dynamics of grassland N(2)O fluxes remains limited. Here we report year-round N(2)O flux measurements with high and low temporal resolution at ten steppe grassland sites in Inner Mongolia, China. We show that short-lived pulses of N(2)O emission during spring thaw dominate the annual N(2)O budget at our study sites. The N(2)O emission pulses are highest in ungrazed steppe and decrease with increasing stocking rate, suggesting that grazing decreases rather than increases N(2)O emissions. Our results show that the stimulatory effect of higher stocking rates on nitrogen cycling and, hence, on N(2)O emission is more than offset by the effects of a parallel reduction in microbial biomass, inorganic nitrogen production and wintertime water retention. By neglecting these freeze-thaw interactions, existing approaches may have systematically overestimated N(2)O emissions over the last century for semi-arid, cool temperate grasslands by up to 72 per cent.

Abstract Removing water from various feeds is usually carried out using evaporation process especially in food industry. Due to the high latent heat of water, this unit operation results in consumption of unacceptable amount of energy. Finding low energy consuming processes which could be replaced with this process is still a challenge. The processes with no phase inversion may be considered for concentration purposes with reasonable energy consumption in comparison with the other various separation procedures. Reverse osmosis and most of the other membrane technologies are separation techniques without any change in the phase and therefore consume low amount of energy. Concentrating the sugar thin juice in the classical sugar manufacturing procedure is carried out using conventional evaporation. Reverse osmosis membranes may be used as a pre-concentration step to partially separate water from the sugar thin juice in combination with this part of the plant. Final concentration and thick juice preparation for crystallization may be carried out in the evaporation unit. In this study, membranes were employed for sugar thin juice concentration using a two-stage reverse osmosis process in two different arrangements. The energy consumption was calculated and compared for conventional evaporation versus reverse osmosis combined with evaporation. The results indicate that the employment of revers osmosis membranes for concentrating the sugar thin juice leads to sensibly lower energy requirements. Furthermore, there is no thermal loss of sugar in the membrane process.

A field study was conducted on two texturally different soils to determine the influences of biosolids application on selected soil chemical properties and carbon dioxide fluxes. Two sites, located in Manildra (clay loam) and Grenfell (sandy loam), in Australia, were treated at a single level of 70 Mg ha-1 biosolids. Soil samples were analyzed for SOC fractions, including total organic carbon (TOC), labile, and non-labile carbon contents. The natural abundances of soil δ13C and δ15N were measured as isotopic tracers to fingerprint carbon derived from biosolids. An automated soil respirometer was used to measure in-situ diurnal CO2 fluxes, soil moisture, and temperature. Application of biosolids increased the surface (0-15 cm) soil TOC by > 45% at both sites, which was attributed to the direct contribution from residual carbon in the biosolids and also from the increased biomass production. At both sites application of biosolids increased the non-labile carbon fraction that is stable against microbial decomposition, which indicated the soil carbon sequestration potential of biosolids. Soils amended with biosolids showed depleted δ13C, and enriched δ15N indicating the accumulation of biosolids residual carbon in soils. The in-situ respirometer data demonstrated enhanced CO2 fluxes at the sites treated with biosolids, indicating limited carbon sequestration potential. However, addition of biosolids on both the clay loam and sandy loam soils found to be effective in building SOC than reducing it. Soil temperature and CO2 fluxes, indicating that temperature was more important for microbial degradation of carbon in biosolids than soil moisture.

AbstractThis study examined the influence of pectinase‐producing non‐Saccharomyces yeasts on the chemical and sensory attributes of red and white wines with added pectin. Merlot and Chardonnay wines were produced with or without a mixture of pectinase‐producing non‐Saccharomyces yeasts (Cryptococcus adeliensis, Issatchenkia orientalis, and Pichia kluyveri) added to the must prior to alcoholic fermentation conducted by a commercial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To ensure sufficient substrate was present, varying concentrations of apple pectin (up to 1.25 g/L for red wines and 1.00 g/L for white wine) were added at the start of fermentation. After bottling, trained panelists (n = 10) analyzed these wines for aroma, flavor, taste, and mouthfeel attributes. For both wines, significant interactions were noted between the presence of non‐Saccharomyces yeasts and pectin addition which affected pH, titratable acidity, and concentrations of D‐galacturonic acid. While no significant sensory differences were observed among the red wines, limited changes were noted for white wines. However, a strong positive correlation was found between the D‐galacturonic acid and buttery aroma for Chardonnay and with flavor for Merlot. Increasing D‐galacturonic acid concentrations, through utilization of non‐Saccharomyces yeasts, may improve the wine quality as a buttery aroma is often associated with high‐quality Chardonnay. For both red and white wines, the utilization of these particular non‐Saccharomyces yeasts significantly influenced chemical properties but yielded minor sensory changes without any faults.Practical ApplicationWith the recent trend to reduce alcohol content in commercial wines, the interest in non‐Saccharomyces yeasts has grown. This study showed that the addition of non‐Saccharomyces yeasts, perhaps due to their pectinase activity, influenced the chemical characteristics of red and white wines with limited sensory differences, making these yeasts a useful tool for winemakers to modify wine properties.