Belowground community responses to fire: meta‐analysis reveals contrasting responses of soil microorganisms and mesofauna

Global fire regimes are shifting due to climate and land use changes. Understanding the responses of belowground communities to fire is key to predicting changes in the ecosystem processes they regulate. We conducted a comprehensive meta‐analysis of 1634 observations from 131 empirical studies to investigate the effect of fire on soil microorganisms and mesofauna. Fire had a strong negative effect on soil biota biomass, abundance, richness, evenness, and diversity. Fire reduced microorganism biomass and abundance by up to 96%. Bacteria were more resistant to fire than fungi. Fire reduced nematode abundance by 88% but had no significant effect on soil arthropods. Fire reduced richness, evenness and diversity of soil microorganisms and mesofauna by up to 99%. We found little evidence of temporal trends towards recovery within 10 years post‐disturbance suggesting little resilience of the soil community to fire. Interactions between biome, fire type, and depth explained few of these negative trends. Future research at the intersection of fire ecology and soil biology should aim to integrate soil community structure with the ecosystem processes they mediate under changing global fire regimes.     

A green and effective method for the determination of metalaxyl enantiomers in tobacco and soil by supercritical fluid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

We reported a new methodology for the stereoselective determination of metalaxyl enantiomers in tobacco and soil. The QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) method was used for the extraction and clean-up of the tobacco and soil samples. Separation of the metalaxyl enantiomers was performed on an ACQUITY UPC2 Trefoil CEL1 chiral column coupled with supercritical fluid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS), and the run time was only 5 minutes. Under the optimized conditions, the recoveries for the enantiomers were between 78.2% and 93.3% with intraday relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranging from 1.1% to 5.4%. The limit of detection (LOD) for the enantiomers in tobacco and soil varied from 0.005 to 0.007 mg/kg, and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 0.017 to 0.020 mg/kg. In this method, only a small amount of methanol was consumed to obtain a rapid stereoselective separation. This proposed method showed good accuracy and precision and might be suitable for fast enantioselective determination of metalaxyl in food and environmental samples. The developed method was further validated by application to the analysis of authentic samples.     

施入不同土层的秸秆腐殖化特征及对玉米产量的影响

耕作和秸秆还田是打破犁底层、改善黑土肥力的重要措施.本研究利用田间试验,分析了耕作和秸秆还田对秸秆腐殖化系数、总有机质含量(SOC)和玉米产量的影响.结果表明:深耕+秸秆施入20～35 cm(ST+S)能够打破犁底层,与浅耕(TT)、深耕(ST)和浅耕+秸秆还田(TT+S)相比,试验6年间土壤容重平均降低了5.7%、3.3%和5.7%,其中ST和ST+S试验第一年效果最好;试验6年后秸秆腐解率表现为0～20 cm土层(72.0%)>20～35 cm土层(59.2%);0～20和20～35 cm土层秸秆腐殖化系数在试验的第一年达到了最大值,分别为15.9%和12.7%;与初始土壤相比,TT、ST和ST+S处理0～20 cm土层SOC和轻组有机碳(LFOC)含量呈下降趋势,而TT+S处理分别增加了2.9%和12.4%,ST+S处理20～35 cm土层分别增加了9.2%和9.9%;对玉米产量的影响表现为ST+S>TT+S>ST>TT,耕作和秸秆还田的时间效应明显,其中ST处理玉米产量的影响可以持续3年,而ST+S处理可以持续6年.因此,通过耕作的方式将秸秆施入20～35 cm土层是一种有效的、可持续改善黑土质量的农业措施.     

腾格里沙漠东南缘苔藓结皮对荒漠土壤种子库的影响

对腾格里沙漠东南缘沙坡头人工植被区和天然植被区苔藓结皮种子库进行了研究.结果表明,土壤种子库密度随着苔藓结皮的发育呈现增加的趋势,天然植被区是24年生人工植被区的3.4倍.种子库中共发现12种植物种子,分属于6科,其中1年生草本植物占70%以上.人工植被区未发现有多年生草本的植物种子,天然植被区多年生草本占20%,半灌木植物在人工植被区和天然植被区分别占20%和10%.人工植被区土壤种子库物种丰富度指数相对较低,而天然植被区物种丰富度指数是人工植被区的2倍;人工植被区土壤种子库物种多样性指数随着结皮的发育略有下降,天然植被区的多样性指数最高,为0.693;人工植被区土壤种子库物种相似性指数为1,相对较高,而人工植物区与天然植被区的物种相似性指数为0.4.苔藓结皮的出现增加了地表粗糙度,有利于对种子的捕获,同时显著地改善了土壤环境,有利于更多植物的定居.     

Detection and Quantification of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum Race 1 in Plants and Soil by Real-time PCR

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum (Fon) is the most serious soil-borne disease in the world and has become the main limiting factor of watermelon production. Reliable and quick detection and quantification of Fon are essential in the early stages of infection for control of watermelon Fusarium wilt. Traditional detection and identification tests are laborious and cannot efficiently quantify Fon isolates. In this work, a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay has been described to accurately identify and quantify Fon in watermelon plants and soil. The FONRT-18 specific primer set which was designed based on identified specific sequence amplified a specific 172 bp band from Fon and no amplification from the other formae speciales of Fusarium oxysporum tested. The detection limits with primers were 1.26 pg/μl genomic DNA of Fon, 0.2 pg/ng total plant DNA in inoculated plant, and 50 conidia/g soil. The PCR assay could also evaluate the relationships between the disease index and Fon DNA quantity in watermelon plants and soil. The assay was further used to estimate the Fon content in soil after disinfection with CaCN₂. The real-time PCR method is rapid, accurate and reliable for monitoring and quantification analysis of Fon in watermelon plants and soil. It can be applied to the study of disease diagnosis, plant-pathogen interactions, and effective management.     

Reproductive significance of feeding on saprobic and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi by the collembolan, Folsomia candida

1. Collembolans have often been credited with negatively affecting arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbioses, mainly by grazing and severing the associated external fungal network from host roots. However, most previous experiments were performed using relatively 'clean' systems where other, non-mycorrhizal, fungi were largely excluded. Yet, plant rhizospheres harbour a wide variety of highly palatable non-AM fungi, most of which have saprobic lifestyles.
2. In this study we isolated and cultured several rhizosphere fungi, and the collembolan , Folsomia candida , from the Long-Term Mycorrhiza Research Site, University of Guelph, Canada, to test the hypothesis that, given a choice, collembolans would prefer to feed on saprobic fungi and that such a choice is of adaptive significance to the animals.
3. A laboratory food preference experiment revealed that F. candida favours common saprobic fungi over a variety of AM fungi. Coincidentally, fecundity levels across two Folsomia generations were higher when animals fed exclusively on the preferred fungus, Alternaria alternata . When fed less palatable fungi, fecundity was greatly reduced; in fact animals from the F1 generation were unable to produce any eggs when placed on an exclusive diet of one of the following three AM fungi, Acaulospora spinosa, Scutellospora calospora and Gigaspora gigantea .
4. These results indicate that a strict diet of AM fungi by collembolans has reproductive consequences. Therefore, we propose that under natural conditions these animals spend more time feeding on common saprobic fungi rather than their AM counterparts. This suggests that previous 'clean' studies that investigated the interactions between collembolans and AM fungi may have reported exaggerated effects of animal grazing. The influence of collembolans on the functioning of AM symbioses, under more natural conditions, remains not well understood.