High-resolution fully-coupled atmospheric–hydrological modeling: a cross-compartment regional water and energy cycle evaluation

The land surface and the atmospheric boundary layer are closely intertwined with respect to the exchange of water, trace gases and energy. Nonlinear feedback and scale dependent mechanisms are obvious by observations and theories. Modeling instead is often narrowed to single compartments of the terrestrial system or largely bound to traditional disciplines. Coupled terrestrial hydrometeorological modeling systems attempt to overcome these limitations to achieve a better integration of the processes relevant for regional climate studies and local area weather prediction. This study examines the ability of the hydrologically enhanced version of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF-Hydro) to reproduce the regional water cycle by means of a two-way coupled approach and assesses the impact of hydrological coupling with respect to a traditional regional atmospheric model setting. It includes the observation-based calibration of the hydrological model component (offline WRF-Hydro) and a comparison of the classic WRF and the fully coupled WRF-Hydro models both with identical calibrated parameter settings for the land surface model (Noah-MP). The simulations are evaluated based on extensive observations at the preAlpine Terrestrial Environmental Observatory (TERENO-preAlpine) for the Ammer (600 km2) and Rott (55 km2) river catchments in southern Germany, covering a five month period (Jun–Oct 2016). The sensitivity of 7 land surface parameters is tested using the Latin-Hypercube One-factor-At-a-Time (LH-OAT) method and 6 sensitive parameters are subsequently optimized for 6 different subcatchments, using the Model-Independent Parameter Estimation and Uncertainty Analysis software (PEST). The calibration of the offline WRF-Hydro gives Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies between 0.56 and 0.64 and volumetric efficiencies between 0.46 and 0.81 for the six subcatchments. The comparison of classic WRF and fully coupled WRF-Hydro, both using the calibrated parameters from the offline model, shows nominal alterations for radiation and precipitation but considerable changes for moisture- and heat fluxes. By comparison with TERENO-preAlpine observations, the fully coupled model slightly outperforms the classic WRF with respect to evapotranspiration, sensible and ground heat flux, near surface mixing ratio, temperature, and boundary layer profiles of air temperature. The subcatchment-based water budgets show uniformly directed variations for evapotranspiration, infiltration excess and percolation whereas soil moisture and precipitation change randomly

Rhizobium Promotes Non-Legumes Growth and Quality in Several Production Steps: Towards a Biofertilization of Edible Raw Vegetables Healthy for Humans

The biofertilization of crops with plant-growth-promoting microorganisms is currently considered as a healthy alternative to chemical fertilization. However, only microorganisms safe for humans can be used as biofertilizers, particularly in vegetables that are raw consumed, in order to avoid sanitary problems derived from the presence of pathogenic bacteria in the final products. In the present work we showed that Rhizobium strains colonize the roots of tomato and pepper plants promoting their growth in different production stages increasing yield and quality of seedlings and fruits. Our results confirmed those obtained in cereals and alimentary oil producing plants extending the number of non-legumes susceptible to be biofertilized with rhizobia to those whose fruits are raw consumed. This is a relevant conclusion since safety of rhizobia for human health has been demonstrated after several decades of legume inoculation ensuring that they are optimal bacteria for biofertilization

The ScaleX campaign: scale-crossing land-surface and boundary layer processes in the TERENO-preAlpine observatory

Augmenting long-term ecosystem-atmosphere observations with multidisciplinary intensive campaigns aims at closing gaps in spatial and temporal scales of observation for energy- and biogeochemical cycling, and at stimulating collaborative research. ScaleX is a collaborative measurement campaign, co-located with a long-term environmental observatory of the German TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories) network in mountainous terrain of the Bavarian Prealps, Germany. The aims of both TERENO and ScaleX include the measurement and modeling of land-surface atmosphere interactions of energy, water, and greenhouse gases. ScaleX is motivated by the recognition that long-term intensive observational research over years or decades must be based on well-proven, mostly automated measurement systems, concentrated on a small number of locations

Molecular characterization of field isolates of Pseudomonas syringae pv. glycinea differing in coronatine production

Coronatine-producing and non-producing strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. glycinea have been examined. We found a connection between copper resistance and synthesis of coronatine. Published data implied that these properties may be encoded on different plasmids. Production of coronatine and copper resistance were also found to be correlated for pv. glycinea in 19 field-isolates from leaf spots of plants in a soybean field and in 28 strains of a bacterial culture collection. Genomic diversity within pv. glycinea was investigated by plasmid profiling, DNA hybridization studies and PCR analysis. All strains unable to produce coronatine (cor-) were sensitive to copper ions and showed no homology to DNA from plasmid pSAY1, which carries a gene cluster for steps in coronatine production. In addition, cor- strains could be distinguished from coronatine-producing strains by a single unique band when amplified by random primer PCR. Plasmid profiles of strains isolated from field-populations during 1983, 1985 and 1990 showed that coronatine-producing and non-producing strains were present. The plasmid patterns also varied in 28 strains examined from a culture collection. No correlation between plasmid patterns and race specificity was observed. Cosmid pSAY1 proved to be an effective probe for detection of the coronatine synthesis genes and also revealed polymorphisms in coronatine producing strains of pv. glycinea

Unifying bacteria from decaying wood with various ubiquitous Gibbsiella species as G. acetica sp. nov. based on nucleotide sequencesimilarities and their acetic acid secretion

Bacteria were isolated from necrotic apple and pear tree tissue and from dead wood in Germany andAustria as well as from pear tree exudate in China. They were selected for growth at 37◦C, screenedfor levan production and then characterized as Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic rods. Nucleotidesequences from 16S rRNA genes, the housekeeping genes dnaJ, gyrB, recA and rpoB alignments, BLASTsearches and phenotypic data confirmed by MALDI-TOF analysis showed that these bacteria belong to thegenus Gibbsiella and resembled strains isolated from diseased oaks in Britain and Spain. Gibbsiella-specificPCR primers were designed from the proline isomerase and the levansucrase genes. Acid secretion wasinvestigated by screening for halo formation on calcium carbonate agar and the compound identified byNMR as acetic acid. Its production by Gibbsiella spp. strains was also determined in culture supernatantsby GC/MS analysis after derivatization with pentafluorobenzyl bromide. Some strains were differentiatedby the PFGE patterns of SpeI digests and by sequence analyses of the lsc and the ppiD genes, and the ChineseGibbsiella strain was most divergent. The newly investigated bacteria as well as Gibbsiella querinecans,Gibbsiella dentisursi and Gibbsiella papilionis, isolated in Britain, Spain, Korea and Japan, are taxonomicallyrelated Enterobacteriaceae, tolerate and secrete acetic acid. We therefore propose to unify them in thespecies Gibbsiella acetica sp. nov