Supersaturation of Dissolved H2 and CO2 During Fermentative Hydrogen Production with N2 Sparging

Dissolved H₂ and CO₂ were measured by an improved manual headspace-gas chromatographic method during fermentative H₂ production with N₂ sparging. Sparging increased the yield from 1.3 to 1.8 mol H₂/mol glucose converted, although H₂ and CO₂ were still supersaturated regardless of sparging. The common assumption that sparging increases the H₂ yield because of lower dissolved H₂ concentrations may be incorrect, because H₂ was not lowered into the range necessary to affect the relevant enzymes. More likely, N₂ sparging decreased the rate of H₂ consumption via lower substrate concentrations.     

产酸克雷伯氏菌耐氧产氢及其可溶性氢酶耐氧特性研究

目的：考察产酸克雷伯氏菌（KZebsielaloxytocaHPl）耐氧产氢特性及其可溶性氢酶的氧耐受特性。方法：研究K．oxytocctHPl在不同气相氧浓度条件下利用葡萄糖（1％,m/v）、丙酮酸钠（0．5％,m／v）及甲酸（0．1％,v／v）等底物产氢活性的以及K．oxyto-07,HPl可溶性氢酶在空气及氧饱和溶液中催化产氢活性。结果：K．oxytocaHP1在葡萄糖（1％,m/v）底物中具有较高耐氧产氢活性,6h内在气相氧浓度为5％、10％和21％条件下的氢产量分别为厌氧条件下的20．9％、13．7％、8．3％;K．oxytoca HP1可溶性氢酶在空气中孵育12h后,其活性残余85．4％,在氧饱和溶液中活性损失一半约3h。结论：试验结果提示K．oxytoca HP1具有耐氧产氢特性,其可溶性氢酶具有较高氧耐受性,在氢能源的开发中具有潜在的应用前景。     

青藏高原高寒草原近地表圈层N2O梯度及交换特征

深入了解N2O在不同生态系统土壤及大气中产生和交换特征对于全球气候变化研究具有重要意义.本研究重点探讨N2O在高寒草原近地表圈层中的产生及迁移过程机制.于2000年7月至2001年7月在青藏高原高寒草原地区从土壤1.5 m深到大气中32 m高度10个层次梯度进行N2O浓度变化的观测.结果显示,土壤和大气中N2O浓度均有明显的变化特征.大气中各个层次N2O的浓度都低于土壤中N2O浓度,此浓度差异直接导致了该地区高寒草原土壤向大气中排放N2O气体,其平均排放通量为0.05×10-4μmo1.m-2.s-1,但是在实验点上全年的观测中,N2O气体排放并没有表现出明显的季节性变化特征.土壤中N2O浓度随深度增加而不断升高,浓度最高值出现在1.5 m深处.进一步的分析表明,N2O浓度随深度递增主要是由环境因子中同样递增的土壤湿度所引起的.大气中不同梯度上N2O气体没有明显的浓度差异.近地表各个圈层中N2O浓度在季节上有非常相似的变化特征,即N2O高浓度均出现在入秋和深冬时节.除了N2O浓度变化在各个圈层之间显著相关以外,表层土壤中N2O浓度也与N2O排放变化有明显的相关关系,这表明浓度的差异是导致N2O气体排放变化的最直接因素.近地表土壤中N2O气体是土壤表层N2O气体排放的直接源泉,并且深层土壤中的N2O气体浓度高于浅层土壤,由此我们可以认定土壤中N2O气体通过微生物作用产生以后,由于浓度差异导致从深层土壤到浅层土壤的逐步扩散,最后经地表排放到大气当中去.     

Production and Consumption of Hydrogen in a Eutrophic Lake

The vertical distribution of hydrogen was measured in the Loclat, a eutrophic and holomictic lake near Neuchâtel, Switzerland, before and during summer stratification. H₂ concentrations decreased with depth in the anaerobic hypolimnion and were often below the detection limit (2.5 nl of H₂ liter⁻¹) in the water adjacent to the lake sediment. H₂ was apparently not released from the lake sediment. The highest H₂ concentrations (>4 μl of H₂ liter⁻¹) were observed in the aerobic water of the epilimnion and metalimnion. There, the H₂ concentrations changed with time, indicating a turnover of H₂. The H₂ production processes could not be studied in the laboratory since incubation of water samples in light or darkness did not result in H₂ production but rather always in H₂ consumption. The possible role of cyanobacteria and algae for H₂ production is discussed. Aerobic or anaerobic H₂ consumption activities were observed at all depths of the water column, with highest activities in the hypolimnion. Aerobic H₂ consumption activity was insensitive to azide inhibition, but sensitive to heat, mercuric chloride, or cyanide. It was restricted to a particle fraction of 0.2 to 3.0 μm in size, so that it must be due to single bacterial cells. Aerobic hydrogen bacteria, on the other hand, occurred in clusters of >3.0 μm. Therefore, the hydrogen bacteria could not have caused the H₂ consumption in lake water. The aerobic H₂ consumption activity followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with a K_m of 67 nM H₂. This is an exceptionally low value compared with K_m values of hydrogenases in hydrogen bacteria and other species, but is similar to that for H₂-decomposing abiontic soil hydrogenases.     

Rhizosphere processes in nitrate-rich barley soil tripled both N2O and N2 losses due to enhanced bacterial and fungal denitrification

Plant and Soil - Plants can directly affect nitrogen (N) transformation processes at the micro-ecological scale when soil comes into contact with roots. Due to the methodological limitations in...     

Impacts of monoculture cropland to alley cropping agroforestry conversion on soil N2O emissions

Monoculture croplands are a major source of global anthropogenic emissions of nitrous oxide (N₂O), a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to ozone depletion. Agroforestry has the potential to reduce N₂O emissions. Presently, there is no systematic comparison of soil N₂O emissions between cropland agroforestry and monoculture systems in Central Europe. We investigated the effects of converting the monoculture cropland system into the alley cropping agroforestry system on soil N₂O fluxes at three sites (each site has paired agroforestry and monoculture) in Germany, where agroforestry combined crop rows and poplar short-rotation coppice (SRC). We measured soil N₂O fluxes monthly over 2 years (March 2018–January 2020) using static vented chambers. Annual soil N₂O emissions from agroforestry ranged from 0.21 to 2.73 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, whereas monoculture N₂O emissions ranged from 0.34 to 3.00 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. During the rotation of corn crop, with high fertilization rates, agroforestry reduced soil N₂O emissions by 9% to 56% compared to monocultures. This was mainly caused by low soil N₂O emissions from the unfertilized agroforestry tree rows. Soil N₂O fluxes were predominantly controlled by soil mineral N in both agroforestry and monoculture systems. Our findings suggest that optimized fertilizer input will further enhance the potential of agroforestry for mitigating N₂O emissions.     

On the Pressure Response in the Brain due to Short Duration Blunt Impacts

When the head is subject to non-penetrating (blunt) impact, contusion-type injuries are commonly identified beneath the impact site (the coup) and, in some instances, at the opposite pole (the contre-coup). This pattern of injury has long eluded satisfactory explanation and blunt head injury mechanisms in general remain poorly understood. There are only a small number of studies in the open literature investigating the head''s response to short duration impacts, which can occur in collisions with light projectiles. As such, the head impact literature to date has focussed almost exclusively on impact scenarios which lead to a quasi-static pressure response in the brain. In order to investigate the response of the head to a wide range of impact durations, parametric numerical studies were performed on a highly bio-fidelic finite element model of the human head created from in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan data with non-linear tissue material properties. We demonstrate that short duration head impacts can lead to potentially deleterious transients of positive and negative intra-cranial pressure over an order of magnitude larger than those observed in the quasi-static regime despite reduced impact force and energy. The onset of this phenomenon is shown to be effectively predicted by the ratio of impact duration to the period of oscillation of the first ovalling mode of the system. These findings point to dramatically different pressure distributions in the brain and hence different patterns of injury depending on projectile mass, and provide a potential explanation for dual coup/contre-coup injuries observed clinically.     

Production of N2 through Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation Coupled to Nitrate Reduction in Marine Sediments

In the global nitrogen cycle, bacterial denitrification is recognized as the only quantitatively important process that converts fixed nitrogen to atmospheric nitrogen gas, N₂, thereby influencing many aspects of ecosystem function and global biogeochemistry. However, we have found that a process novel to the marine nitrogen cycle, anaerobic oxidation of ammonium coupled to nitrate reduction, contributes substantially to N₂ production in marine sediments. Incubations with ¹⁵N-labeled nitrate or ammonium demonstrated that during this process, N₂ is formed through one-to-one pairing of nitrogen from nitrate and ammonium, which clearly separates the process from denitrification. Nitrite, which accumulated transiently, was likely the oxidant for ammonium, and the process is thus similar to the anammox process known from wastewater bioreactors. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation accounted for 24 and 67% of the total N₂ production at two typical continental shelf sites, whereas it was detectable but insignificant relative to denitrification in a eutrophic coastal bay. However, rates of anaerobic ammonium oxidation were higher in the coastal sediment than at the deepest site and the variability in the relative contribution to N₂ production between sites was related to large differences in rates of denitrification. Thus, the relative importance of anaerobic ammonium oxidation and denitrification in N₂ production appears to be regulated by the availability of their reduced substrates. By shunting nitrogen directly from ammonium to N₂, anaerobic ammonium oxidation promotes the removal of fixed nitrogen in the oceans. The process can explain ammonium deficiencies in anoxic waters and sediments, and it may contribute significantly to oceanic nitrogen budgets.     

Excessive use of nitrogen in Chinese agriculture results in high N2O/(N2O+N2) product ratio of denitrification,primarily due to acidification of the soils

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of fertilizer N, and decades of overuse has caused nitrate leaching and possibly soil acidification. We hypothesized that this would enhance the soils' propensity to emit N₂O from denitrification by reducing the expression of the enzyme N₂O reductase. We investigated this by standardized oxic/anoxic incubations of soils from five long‐term fertilization experiments in different regions of China. After adjusting the nitrate concentration to 2 mM, we measured oxic respiration (R), potential denitrification (D), substrate‐induced denitrification, and the denitrification product stoichiometry (NO, N₂O, N₂). Soils with a history of high fertilizer N levels had high N₂O/(N₂O+N₂) ratios, but only in those field experiments where soil pH had been lowered by N fertilization. By comparing all soils, we found a strong negative correlation between pH and the N₂O/(N₂O+N₂) product ratio (r² = 0.759, P < 0.001). In contrast, the potential denitrification (D) was found to be a linear function of oxic respiration (R), and the ratio D/R was largely unaffected by soil pH. The immediate effect of liming acidified soils was lowered N₂O/(N₂O+N₂) ratios. The results provide evidence that soil pH has a marginal direct effect on potential denitrification, but that it is the master variable controlling the percentage of denitrified N emitted as N₂O. It has been known for long that low pH may result in high N₂O/(N₂O+N₂) product ratios of denitrification, but our documentation of a pervasive pH‐control of this ratio across soil types and management practices is new. The results are in good agreement with new understanding of how pH may interfere with the expression of N₂O reductase. We argue that the management of soil pH should be high on the agenda for mitigating N₂O emissions in the future, particularly for countries where ongoing intensification of plant production is likely to acidify the soils.     

Divalent Metal Cations upon Coordination to the N7 of Purines Differentially Stabilize the PyPuPu DNA Triplex due to Unequal Hoogsteen-type Hydrogen Bond Enhancement

Abstract

The PyPuPu triplexes consisting of CG*G triads are stabilized by alkaline earth cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺) and transition metal cations (Mn²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺), while similar triplexes including TA*A triads are stabilized only by transition metal cations. We hypothesize that such a differential triplex stabilization by divalent metal cations can be the consequence of their coordination to the N7 of the third strand purines with concomitant polarization effects on the bases resulting in unequal Hoogsteen-type hydrogen bond enhancement.     

Plant Responses to High CO2 Concentration in the Atmosphere

The impact of continuous rise in ambient CO₂ concentration (AC) in the atmosphere on different facets of growth of crop plants is assessed. The effects of CO₂ enrichment (EC) on plant growth, C₃ and C₄ photosynthesis, source-sink ratio, partitioning and translocation of metabolites, photosynthetic enzymes, respiratory rate, leaf area index, stomatal conductance (q _s ), transpiration rate, biomass production and water use efficiency are reviewed. The CO₂ fertilization effects are studied in both short-term (open top chambers) and long-term experiments. Long-term experiments suggest that ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase is inactivated at high CO₂ concentrations. Also g _s is lowered. One of the conspicuous effects of EC is the closure of stomata in C₃ plants. Photosystem (PS) 2 electron transport is more affected than PS1. Starch is the immediate product accumulated in the leaf of C₃ plants. The “CO₂ fertilization effect” does not confer any great advantage even in C₃ plants. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

蓝细菌制氢研究进展

蓝细菌具有很低的营养需求,能够利用太阳能直接光解水产生氢能,利用蓝细菌产氢是理想的生物制氢方式之一。目前,蓝细菌氢的产率尚未达到实际应用的要求。蓝细菌产氢依赖于菌株的遗传背景和产氢的环境条件。对蓝细菌产氢生理、产氢速率、产氢的环境条件、菌株筛选和突变株构建以及在光生物反应器中产氢的特征作了综述,以期有利于蓝细菌产氢水平的提高。     

Impacts and potential effects due to Prorocentrum minimum blooms in Chesapeake Bay

The dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum (P. minimum) can be found in all seasons and over a broad range of habitat conditions in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Blooms (>3000 cells ml⁻¹), locally referred to as ‘mahagony tides’, were restricted to salinities of 4.5–12.8 psu, water temperatures of 12–28 °C, and occurred most frequently in April and May. P. minimum blooms have been detected at routine water quality monitoring stations located in the main channel of the Bay and tidal tributaries. Nearshore investigations of bloom events, however, have accounted for the majority of events recorded in excess of 10⁵ cells ml⁻¹. Mahogany tides were associated with widespread harmful impacts including anoxic/hypoxic events, finfish kills, aquaculture shellfish kills and submerged aquatic vegetation losses. We summarize the state of knowledge regarding physical and chemical factors related to P. minimum blooms, their abundance, distribution and frequency, and ecological effects in Chesapeake Bay.