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Seeds of 52 species of herbaceous plants typical from European grassland ecosystems were obtained from a commercial supplier (Planta naturalis). When species germinated in Petri dishes the seedlings were then transplanted to plastic pots (11 x 11 x 12 cm height, 1L volume). Pots were filled with a mixture of a potting substrate (Biolan Murumuld) and sand. Pots were randomly placed in the greenhouse of the University of Tartu, Estonia. Then, we established monocultures with seven individuals of a single species per pot which were grown under well-watered conditions. One month after transplanting the seedlings to the pots, a drought treatment was applied to half of the pots (five pots per species). The experiment was harvested in late July 2020, when the first individuals started flowering, after month-long drought treatment. Plant traits related to drought responses and resource use strategies were selected and measured for each species following established protocols. These included seven above- and belowground traits: Vegetative plant height (H, cm), Leaf Area (LA, mm2), Specific Leaf Area (SLA, mm2 mg-1), Leaf Dry Matter Content (LDMC, mg g-1), Specific Root Length (SRL, cm g-1), Average root Diameter (AvgD, mm), Root Dry Matter Content (RDMC, mg g-1). Before harvesting, we measured the plant height and collected one leaf per individual for three individuals per pot. Afterward, we collected the aboveground biomass and belowground biomass of all the individuals in each pot. Due to the difficulty in untangling the roots of the different individuals in a pot, root traits were estimated at the pot level. Roots were washed and a sample of finest roots (10-50mg) was collected. Leaves and fine roots were scanned at 300dpi and 600dpi, respectively, using an Epson perfection 3200 Photo scanner for leaves and Epson V700 Photo scanner for fine roots. After scanning, leaves and roots were oven-dried at 60°C for 72h. AvgD and root length were determined using WinRHIZO Pro 2015 (Regent Instruments Inc., Canada), and leaf area with ImageJ software. We averaged all traits values at the species level, attaining a single value for each trait in each treatment. The total aboveground biomass and total belowground biomass of each pot were oven-dried at 60°C for 72h and weighed. Drought is expected to increase in future climate scenarios. Although responses to drought of individual functional traits are relatively well-known, simultaneous changes across multiple traits in response to water scarcity remain poorly understood despite its importance to understand alternative strategies to resist drought. We grew 52 herbaceous species in monocultures under drought and control treatments and characterized the functional space using seven measured above- and belowground traits: plant height, leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, specific root length, average root diameter, and root dry matter content. Then, we estimated how each species occupied this space and the amount of functional space occupied in both treatments using trait probability density functions. We also estimated intraspecific trait variability (ITV) for each species as the dissimilarity in trait values between the individuals of each treatment. We then mapped drought resistance and ITV in the functional space using generalized additive models. The response of species to drought strongly depended on their traits, with species that invested more in root tissues and conserved small size being both more resistant to drought and having higher ITV. We also observed a significant trend of trait displacement towards less conservative strategies. However, these changes depended strongly on the trait values of species in the control treatment, with species with different traits having opposing responses to drought. These contrasting responses resulted in lower trait variability in the species pool in drought compared to control conditions. Our results suggest strong trait filtering acting on conservative species as well as the existence of an optimal part in the functional space to which species converge under drought. Our results show that changes in species trait-space occupancy are key to understand plant strategies to withstand drought, highlighting the importance of individual variation in response to environmental changes, and suggest that community-wide functional diversity and biomass productivity could decrease in a drier future. Knowing these shifts will help to anticipate changes in ecosystem functioning facing climate change. The complete dataset is in the file.

Project: GCOS Earth Heat Inventory - A study under the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to update the Earth heat inventory (EHI), and presents an updated international assessment of ocean warming estimates, and new and updated estimates of heat gain in the atmosphere, cryosphere and land over the period from 1960 to present. Summary: The file “GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_Inland_Water_Heat_Content_data.nc” presents an updated estimate of the global heat storage within natural lakes and artificial reservoirs for the period 1960-2020. Several improvements have been implemented in comparison with Vanderkelen et al. (2020): new approach to estimate lake volume, new lake models considered, and an extension of the analysis period. The data are used in von Schuckmann et al. (2022).

In this work, we conducted a study that is to bleach wastewater model solutions loaded with dyes of indigo and sulfur black, while using and optimizing the process of hybridized treatment of textile effluents by torque of coagulation-ultrafiltration (CO-UF). According to the separate optimization of coagulation processes (optimum dose of the coagulant (lime) and ultrafiltration membrane (hydrodynamic characterization of the membrane based on polysulfone (PSU)), we combined the two methods in order to increase performance fading exploited colored waters. The results of the rate of discoloration separated by the methods of coagulation and ultrafiltration are respectively of the order of 33.55% and 80.36% for the water loaded with indigo and of the order of 25.33% and 60.78% for those charged with the black sulfur. While the results of the bleaching obtained by the hybrid method CO-UF have shown that the bleaching rate was calculated as around 98% for the indigo and of the order of 92% for the black sulfur, obviously very interesting with respect to the coagulation and ultrafiltration used separately. Moroccan Journal of Chemistry, Vol. 4, No 1 (2016)

The present research is dedicated to the study of anaerobic co-digestion process of different biomass materials. Anaerobic co-digestion of digested sludge, grass silage, haylage and cattle manure was evaluated in mesophilic tank reactors in the lab-scale experiment. Twelve laboratory scale tank reactors (1.5 L) were used during the incubation period of 45 days. First triplet of reactors was fed with pure digested sludge and the other three with different mixtures having the volumetric ratios of 30/35/25/10, 40/30/20/10 and 50/25/15/10 for digested sludge/corn silage/grass haylage/cattle manure. Methane production was analyzed for all labscale reactors individually. The resulting specific methane production of above-mentioned batches was 336.34, 238.1 and 233.23 LSTP[CH4] kg-1 [TVS], respectively. Other results such as cumulative biogas and methane yield, volumetric biogas and methane yield, volumetric biogas and methane yield per day were also assessed. These results had the highest meaning when complex substrate had no more than 30% of inoculum

Description of the subject. Extracellular enzymes from filamentous fungi are increasingly used in eco-friendly biotransformation processes. Their relevant technological role and their stability towards extreme process conditions make of them the first sustainable solution for the elaboration of bio-based products from biomass conversion. Objectives. This paper describes the isolation of filamentous fungi from decaying plant material in the region of Meknes (northern central Morocco) and the assessment of their ability to breakdown lignocellulose. The objective is to select performant fungi with enzymatic machinery adapted to local environment and with potential for the breakdown of the regional specific lignocellulosic by-products into potentially high-value molecules. Method. Cereals, decaying wood, olive-pomace and -pulp and their composts were used to isolate lignocellulolytic fungi. One hundred twenty-seven pure strains were isolated and screened at 25 °C on selective media with cellulose or lignin as the sole carbon source. Performant strains were validated for the production of ligno-cellulolytic enzymes and identified using molecular technique. Results. Twenty-eight fungi had mycelial diameter on cellulose ≥ 6 cm and cellulolytic index ≥ 0.9. Twenty-two strains had the same profile on lignin medium. The production of endoglucanase, lignin peroxidase and manganese peroxidase enzymes was confirmed in performant strains using qualitative assay and molecular identification revealed that the best performing fungi were Mucor circinelloides, Mucor racemosus, Penicillium brasilianum, Penicillium crustosum, Paecilomyces sp., Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani, Aspergillus fischeri, Curvularia spicifera, Humicola grisea, Trichoderma atroviride and Cosmospora viridescens. Measurement of ligno-cellulolytic activities revealed that Penicillium and Fusarium strains mainly from wood decay and compost had the best profiles among performing strains. Conclusions. Isolated fungi are high decomposers of biomass and represent a prominent solution to develop green bioprocesses in the region.

The research deals with problems of animal waste potential usage in order to produce biogas for energy generation in Ukraine. Although there are favorable conditions to develop biogas sector based on animal waste, the share energy, produced from it, is extremely low. The paper analyzes energy potential of agricultural biomass in Ukraine, economic tools, aimed at stimulating electricity generation from biogas based on animal waste, the results of their impact on biogas plants deployment. Among a number of barriers, which inhibit the development of this sector in Ukraine, the main ones are the need for significant initial investments to construct profitable biogas plants and a large amount of raw materials for their uninterrupted operation. Given the fact that 48.2% of farm animals are concentrated in small-scale farms and households, which cannot individually implement biogas projects, it is proposed to combine their financial and raw material resources within energy co-operatives. Economic benefits, which may be gained by small-scale farms within energy co-operative through the sale of electricity, generated from biogas, by feed-in tariff are calculated. It is discussed that in addition to economic benefits for small-scale farms owners, realization of the co-operative model in the bio-energy sector will let to obtain a number of ecological and social benefits both for territorial communities, and the state as a whole. International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, Vol 18 (2018)

This research focused on accurately modelling emergence (VEEmergence) and silking (R1) dates using 5 cm deep soil temperature (ST) and how sowing date (SD) affects VEEmergence and R1 date of different maturity hybrids and which is the optimum sowing date in the changed climate. Three sowing dates were used between 4th April and 10th May. The same maize hybrids (FAO 290, FAO 350, FAO 420) were involved in the experiment between 2011–2013. The 5 cm deep soil temperature could be used for simulating the date of VEEmergence and R1 and the Percentage of Predicted Deviation (PD) was below 10%. When calculating the effective heat units (HU) at 5 cm depth, setting 6 °C as base temperature leads to better modelling. SD did not clearly affect yield since due to the influence of genotype and crop years. The FAO 290 hybrid had the lowest yield (11.534 t ha-1) and it responded sensitively to sowing date. Its highest yield (12.788 t ha-1; P < 0.05) could be obtained with SD3. FAO 350 and FAO 420 hybrids provided stable yields without any significant effect of SD. The highest yield was provided by the FAO 420 hybrid (13.494 t ha-1) with a wide SD interval (4th April – 10th May). The obtained findings help farmers in making grounded decisions to obtain high and stable yield under the changed climatic circumstances. The obtained findings help farmers in making grounded decisions to obtain high and stable yield under the changed climatic circumstances.

The objective was to examine the effect of drought and flood on barley plants' biomass and growth rate in early vegetative development while comparing the stress adaption of different varieties. A greenhouse trial was conducted in the Estonian Crop Research Institute (ECRI) in 2021, where five Estonian grown spring barley varieties were grown in optimal, drought and flood treatments for six weeks to measure plants' projected leaf area (PA) and relative growth rate (RGR) through phenotyping. Both drought and flooding stress have a strong negative impact on plant biomass in early vegetative growth phases, causing PA at the end of the trial to decrease 26% and 49% respectively. Meanwhile, RGR throughout the trial decreased 6% in drought treatment and 16% in flood treatment. This indicates the greater impact of flood stress on plant's growth compared to drought stress. Genetic variation related to adaption to extreme water regimes in varieties is rather low, especially in drought stress conditions. In drought treatment, the variation coefficient (CV) was 14%, and in flood treatment 25%. Even as most varieties' PA and RGR varied between treatments, the difference between varieties in specific stress treatments was minimal. Estonian grown spring barley varieties are susceptible to extreme water regime related stress caused by potential climate change. This indicates the importance of assessing water-related stress tolerance in breeding material, adapting more accurate innovative evaluation approaches, and integrating climate-resilient genetic material into breeding programs, to hedge the risk caused by unfavourable growth environments in Estonian barley production.