Strategies to restore floodplain vegetation after abandonment of human activities

Restoring the flooding‐related disturbance regime by removing and setting back flood defenses (channel widening) is the most efficient strategy for recovering riparian plant communities in floodplains formerly impacted by human activities such as agriculture, mining, and forestry. Removing flood defenses is generally not socially accepted, and alternative recovery strategies must be explored. We assessed vegetation establishment on 33 sites in the floodplains of the Middle Ebro River and three of its tributaries (NE Spain) where restoration approaches applied in the last 20 years include channel widening, floodplain excavation, and abandonment of agriculture, gravel extraction, and hybrid poplar plantations, with and without plantation of native species. Using analysis of similarity and ordinations, we found that channel widening led to plant communities closely resembling those found on natural gravel bars, including new recruits of keystone tree species. Excavation of the floodplain as the restoration approach resulted in pioneer, non‐strictly riparian communities. Abandonment of agricultural land or clearing of poplar plantations resulted in alternative stable states predominating, regardless of time elapsed since restoration and whether poles of native species were planted. However, forest‐like communities relatively similar to mature, natural riparian references were attainable when hybrid poplars were allowed to resprout after clear‐cutting, or after the human activities were abandoned and trees were not cut. Combining channel widening and assisted revegetation where flood defenses cannot be altered may partially reproduce a mosaic of habitats typical of natural floodplains.     

Predominance of terrestrial organic matter in sediments from a cyanobacteria- blooming hypereutrophic lake

Although an understanding of the quantity and quality of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) pools is necessary to design sound environmental management strategies for lacustrine systems, the characterization of organic matter sources and the assessment of their relative contributions to eutrophic and inland lake sediments remain insufficient. In this study, the contribution of potential organic matter sources to sediments in shallow and hypereutrophic lake Taihu, China was assessed on the molecular level using source-specific fatty acid biomarkers. The results indicated that SOM was composed mainly of terrestrial plants with a maximal contribution of 45.3 ± 2.4% to the total organic carbon, which accounted for approximately 66% among the determined organic matter sources. Evidence suggests the terrestrial plants remained in a fresh state in surface sediments: the correlation (R² = 0.62, p < 0.05) between bacterial and terrestrial plant carbon was strong. On the other hand, aquatic plant and bacterial carbon contributed 5–15% to the total organic carbon, which was followed by the faint contribution (<5% of total organic carbon) of algae-derived organic carbon including cyanobacteria, diatoms, and dinoflagellates. The results provided details of the contributions of SOM sources, illustrating the usefulness of fatty acid biomarkers in discriminating organic matter sources within lake environments. Although organic matter sources of sediments varied in spatial and temporal patterns, the strong correlation between terrestrial plant and total organic carbon (R² = 0.60, p < 0.05) indicates that terrestrial plants were the dominant source in lake sediments.     

A hybrid anaerobic solid-liquid bioreactor for food waste digestion

A hybrid anaerobic solid-liquid (HASL) bioreactor is an enhanced two-phase anaerobic system, that consists of a solid waste reactor as the acidification reactor and a wastewater reactor, i.e. an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor as the methanogenic reactor. Food waste digestion in HASL bioreactors with pre-acidification and HASL operation stages was investigated in two separate runs. After 8 days of pre-acidification in Run A and 4 days in Run B, total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations in the leachates of both acidification reactors were similar. During HASL operation stage, TVFA and COD removal in the methanogenic phase were 77–100% and 75–95%, respectively. Some 99% of the total methane generated was from the methanogenic phase with a content of 68–70% methane. At the end of operation, about 59–60% of the added volatile solids (VS) were removed with a methane yield of 0.25 l g^–1 VS.     

Assessing delay and lag in sagittal trunk control using a tracking task

Slower trunk muscle responses are linked to back pain and injury. Unfortunately, clinical assessments of spine function do not objectively evaluate this important attribute, which reflects speed of trunk control. Speed of trunk control can be parsed into two components: (1) delay, the time it takes to initiate a movement, and (2) lag, the time it takes to execute a movement once initiated. The goal of this study is to demonstrate a new approach to assess delay and lag in trunk control using a simple tracking task. Ten healthy subjects performed four blocks of six trials of trunk tracking in the sagittal plane. Delay and lag were estimated by modeling trunk control for predictable and unpredictable (control mode) trunk movements in flexion and extension (control direction) at movement amplitudes of 2°, 4°, and 6° (control amplitude). The main effect of control mode, direction, and amplitude of movement were compared between trial blocks to assess secondary influencers (e.g., fatigue). Only control mode was consistent across trial blocks with predictable movements being faster than unpredictable for both delay and lag. Control direction and amplitude effects on delay and lag were consistent across the first two trial blocks and less consistent in later blocks. Given the heterogeneity in the presentation of back pain, clinical assessment of trunk control should include different control modes, directions, and amplitudes. To reduce testing time and the influence of fatigue, we recommend six trials to assess trunk control.     

KTi2(PO4)3 with Large Ion Diffusion Channel for High‐Efficiency Sodium Storage

To accommodate the decreasing lithium resource and ensure continuous development of energy storage industry, sodium‐based batteries are widely studied to inherit the next generation of energy storage devices. In this work, a novel Na super ionic conductor type KTi₂(PO₄)₃/carbon nanocomposite is designed and fabricated as sodium storage electrode materials, which exhibits considerable reversible capacity (104 mAh g^?1 under the rate of 1 C with flat voltage plateaus at ≈2.1 V), high‐rate cycling stability (74.2% capacity retention after 5000 cycles at 20 C), and ultrahigh rate capability (76 mAh g^?1 at 100 C) in sodium ion batteries. Besides, the maximum ability for sodium storage is deeply excavated by further investigations about different voltage windows in half and full sodium ion cells. Meanwhile, as cathode material in sodium‐magnesium hybrid batteries, the KTi₂(PO₄)₃/carbon nanocomposite also displays good electrochemical performances (63 mAh g^?1 at the 230th cycle under the voltage window of 1.0–1.9 V). The results demonstrate that the KTi₂(PO₄)₃/carbon nanocomposite is a promising electrode material for sodium ion storage, and lay theoretical foundations for the development of new type of batteries.     

High‐Performance Aqueous Rechargeable Li‐Ni Battery Based on Ni(OH)2/NiOOH Redox Couple with High Voltage

New energy storage and conversion systems require large‐scale, cost‐effective, good safety, high reliability, and high energy density. This study demonstrates a low‐cost and safe aqueous rechargeable lithium‐nickel (Li‐Ni) battery with solid state Ni(OH)₂/NiOOH redox couple as cathode and hybrid electrolytes separated by a Li‐ion‐conductive solid electrolyte layer. The proposed aqueous rechargeable Li‐Ni battery exhibits an approximately open‐circuit potential of 3.5 V, outperforming the theoretic stable window of water 1.23 V, and its energy density can be 912.6 W h kg^‐1, which is much higher than that of state‐of‐the‐art lithium ion batteries. The use of a solid‐state redox couple as cathode with a metallic lithium anode provides another postlithium chemistry for practical energy storage and conversion.     

Enhancing the performance of hazard indexes in assessing hot spots of harbour areas by considering hydrodynamic parameters

The hazard assessment strategies for harbour areas usually rely on tools able to predict environmental threats posed by contaminated sediments, mostly based on biological and chemical parameters and distinctly less on hydrological factors. Although ports are considered semi-enclosed and low-energy systems with scarce capacity to disperse contaminants to the open sea, the hydrological pattern established within the port basin cannot be neglected, especially when the localisation of hot spots is required for clean-up and remediation actions. In the present study we considered both approaches (biological/chemical and hydrological) for assessing hot spots of harbour areas. In particular, the relationship between the sediment hazard assessment c_NWAC (cumulative Normalized and Weighted Average Concentration) index (which is based on chemical and biological data) and a properly selected hydrodynamic parameter (the bottom shear stress) of the port area was investigated. This study demonstrates that marine currents influence significantly the fine-grained fraction distribution of the surficial sediments, and thus, the spatial and temporal variability of contaminant concentration. The evaluation of hydrodynamic parameters enhances the performance of hazard tools in the localization of areas of most concern and thus a detailed knowledge of the hydrodynamic features of the port seabed is advisable before defining a proper characterisation strategy for the harbour area.     

兰州唐古特白刺根际微生物分离鉴定

【目的】从兰州唐古特白刺根际分离得到对植物有潜在促生效果的功能微生物，为研发相关菌种制剂的研究奠定基础。【方法】通过平板划线法从其根际分离纯化出6株细菌，并对菌株进行形态特征观察、革兰氏染色等一系列生理生化试验。用藜麦检测各菌株的促生功能，并对具有优良促生作用的1个菌株16S rRNA基因进行分子鉴定及基因草图绘制。【结果】根据生化鉴定结果，6株细菌分别属于不动杆菌属(Acinetobacter)、土壤杆菌属(Agrobacterium)、类芽孢杆菌属(Paenibacillus)、芽孢杆菌属(Bacillus)、鞘氨醇单胞菌属(Sphingomonas)和假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)。其中，16S rRNA基因鉴定BC4属于肠杆菌属(Enterobacter)，具有较好的促生效果。【结论】BC4具有较好的促生效果，为兰州唐古特白刺菌种资源的开发和利用提供了一定的理论依据。