Molecular diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in onion roots from organic and conventional farming systems in the Netherlands

Diversity and colonization levels of naturally occurring arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in onion roots were studied to compare organic and conventional farming systems in the Netherlands. In 2004, 20 onion fields were sampled in a balanced survey between farming systems and between two regions, namely, Zeeland and Flevoland. In 2005, nine conventional and ten organic fields were additionally surveyed in Flevoland. AMF phylotypes were identified by rDNA sequencing. All plants were colonized, with 60% for arbuscular colonization and 84% for hyphal colonization as grand means. In Zeeland, onion roots from organic fields had higher fractional colonization levels than those from conventional fields. Onion yields in conventional farming were positively correlated with colonization level. Overall, 14 AMF phylotypes were identified. The number of phylotypes per field ranged from one to six. Two phylotypes associated with the Glomus mosseae-coronatum and the G. caledonium-geosporum species complexes were the most abundant, whereas other phylotypes were infrequently found. Organic and conventional farming systems had similar number of phylotypes per field and Shannon diversity indices. A few organic and conventional fields had larger number of phylotypes, including phylotypes associated with the genera Glomus-B, Archaeospora, and Paraglomus. This suggests that farming systems as such did not influence AMF diversity, but rather specific environmental conditions or agricultural practice

Neodymium isotopic composition and concentration in the western North Atlantic Ocean: results from the GEOTRACES GA02 section

The neodymium (Nd) isotopic composition of seawater is commonly used as a proxy to study past changes in the thermohaline circulation. The modern database for such reconstructions is however poor and the understanding of the underlying processes is incomplete. Here we present new observational data for Nd isotopes and concentrations from twelve seawater depth profiles, which follow the flow path of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) from its formation region in the North Atlantic to the northern equatorial Atlantic. Samples were collected during two cruises constituting the northern part of the Dutch GEOTRACES transect GA02 in 2010. The results show that the different water masses in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean, which ultimately constitute NADW, have the following Nd isotope characteristics: Upper Labrador Sea Water (ULSW), εNd = -14.2 ± 0.3; Labrador Sea Water (LSW), εNd = -13.7 ± 0.9; Northeast Atlantic Deep Water (NEADW), εNd = -12.5 ± 0.6; Northwest Atlantic Bottom Water (NWABW), εNd = -11.8 ± 1.4. In the subtropics, where these source water masses have mixed to form NADW, which is exported to the global ocean, upper-NADW is characterised by εNd values of -13.2 ± 1.0 (2sd) and lower-NADW exhibits values of εNd = -12.4 ± 0.4 (2sd). While both signatures overlap within error, the signature for lower-NADW is significantly more radiogenic than the traditionally used value for NADW (εNd = -13.5) due to the dominance of source waters from the Nordic Seas (NWABW and NEADW). Comparison between the concentration profiles and the corresponding Nd isotope profiles with other water mass properties such as salinity, silicate concentrations, neutral densities and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) concentration provides novel insights into the geochemical cycle of Nd and reveals that different processes are necessary to account for the observed Nd characteristics in the subpolar and subtropical gyres and throughout the vertical water column. While our data set provides additional insights into the contribution of boundary exchange in areas of sediment resuspension, the results for open ocean seawater demonstrate, at an unprecedented level, the suitability of Nd isotopes to trace modern water masses in the strongly advecting western Atlantic Ocean

Pictures of preterm infants elicit increased affective responses and reduced reward-motivation or perspective taking in the maternal brain

Preterm-birth increases the risk of several physical, cognitive, neuromotor, and psychosocial problems in children, and is also related to difficulties in the parent-child relationship. Research suggests that the development of early parent-child interactions in general is affected by deviations from typical infant facial characteristics, which may also be important in the case of small, preterm born infants. Therefore, we examined mothers' (N = 22, of whom 17 had no direct experience with preterm birth) neural responses to pictures of preterm and fullterm infants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also explored whether neural responses to preterm and full-term infants correlated with mothers' self-reported tendencies to be nurturing and protective with children, and with mothers' ratings of affection or aversion toward pictures of preterm infants. Results revealed that, compared to pictures of full-term infants, those of preterm infants elicited more activity in specific areas of the brain (dmPFC, right insula, left caudate, hippocampi, parahippocampi, and PAG), that have previously been associated with processing of negative emotions and with empathy. In addition, less activity was seen in one area of the brain (vmPFC) known to be associated with reward-motivation or mental state understanding and perspective-taking. Higher self-reported maternal nurturance was associated with increased activity to pictures of preterm infants vs full-term infants in the caudate, which might reflect approach- or reward-related processing. To conclude, neural responses to preterm infants are related to reward-motivation, mentalizing, negative emotions, and empathy. Future studies should examine whether such neural processing of preterm infant stimuli might underlie difficulties in the parent-child relationship of parents with a preterm child

Large Polarization Degree of Comet 2P/Encke Continuum Based on Spectropolarimetric Signals During Its 2017 Apparition

Spectropolarimetry is a powerful technique for investigating the physical properties of gas and solid materials in cometary comae without mutual contamination, but there have been few spectropolarimetric studies to extract each component. We attempt to derive the continuum polarization degree of comet 2P/Encke, free from influence of molecular emissions. The target is unique in that it has an orbit dynamically decoupled from Jupiter like main-belt asteroids, while ejecting gas and dust like ordinary comets. We observed the comet using the Higashi-Hiroshima Optical and Near-Infrared Camera attached to the Cassegrain focus of the 150-cm Kanata telescope on UT 2017 February 21 when the comet was at the solar phase angle of 75.7 deg. We find that the continuum polarization degree with respect to the scattering plane is 33.8+/-2.7 % at the effective wavelength of 0.815 um, which is significantly higher than those of cometary dust in a high-Pmax group at similar phase angles. Assuming that an ensemble polarimetric response of 2P/Encke's dust as a function of phase angle is morphologically similar with those of other comets, its maximum polarization degree is estimated to > 40 % at the phase angle of ~100 deg. In addition, we obtain the polarization degrees of the C2 swan bands (0.51-0.56 um), the NH2 alpha bands (0.62-0.69 um) and the CN-red system (0.78-0.94 um) in a range of 3-19 %, which depend on the molecular species and rotational quantum numbers of each branch. The polarization vector aligns nearly perpendicularly to the scattering plane with the average of 0.4 deg over a wavelength range of 0.50-0.97 um. From the observational evidence, we conjecture that the large polarization degree of 2P/Encke would be attributable to a dominance of large dust particles around the nucleus, which have remained after frequent perihelion passages near the Sun.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

What a cute baby! Preliminary evidence from a fMRI study for the association between mothers ? neural responses to infant faces and activation of the parental care system

Infant facial characteristics, i.e., baby schema, are thought to automatically elicit parenting behavior and affective orientation toward infants. Only a few studies, conducted in non-parents, have directly examined the neural underpinnings of this baby schema effect by manipulating distinctiveness of baby schema in infant faces. This study aims to further our understanding of the intuitive nature of parenting, by studying the baby schema effect in mothers of young children (at least one child aged between 2 and 6 years old). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine mothers’ (N = 23) neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces varying in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, it was studied how this neural activation to infant faces was associated with maternal nurturance. Results revealed that infant faces elicited widespread activation in bilateral visual cortices, the hippocampus, sensory-motor areas, parietal and frontal cortices, and the insula, which was not modulated by the distinctiveness of baby schema in the infant faces. Furthermore, higher self-reported maternal nurturance was related to increased neural responses to infant faces in the putamen and amygdala, brain regions known to be associated with reward and salience processing. These findings could suggest that in our small sample of mothers some of the core networks involved in reward and salience processing might be less sensitive to variation in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, unfamiliar infant faces seem to be rewarding only for mothers who report high nurturance. These findings should be considered preliminary, because they need to be replicated in studies with larger samples

Controls of the surface water partial pressure of CO₂ in the North Sea

The seasonal variability of the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) has been investigated in the North Sea, a northwest European shelf sea. Based on a seasonal and high spatial resolution data set the main controlling factors - biological processes and temperature - have been identified and quantified. In the central and northern parts being a CO2- sink all year round, the biological control dominates the temperature control. In the southern part, the temperature control dominates the biological control at an annual scale, since the shallow water column prevents stronger net-CO2 removal from the surface layer due to the absence of seasonal stratification. The consequence is a reversal of the CO2 sea-to- air flux during the spring bloom period, the only time, when CO2 is taken up from the atmosphere in the southern region. Net community production in the mixed layer has been estimated to 4mol Cm−2 yr−1 with higher values (4.3 mol Cm−2 yr−1) in the northern part and lower values in the southern part (2.6 mol Cm−2 yr−1)

Neodymium isotopic composition and concentration in the western North Atlantic Ocean: Results from the GEOTRACES GA02 section

The neodymium (Nd) isotopic composition of seawater is commonly used as a proxy to study past changes in the thermohaline circulation. The modern database for such reconstructions is however poor and the understanding of the underlying processes is incomplete. Here we present new observational data for Nd isotopes and concentrations from twelve seawater depth profiles, which follow the flow path of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) from its formation region in the North Atlantic to the northern equatorial Atlantic. Samples were collected during two cruises constituting the northern part of the Dutch GEOTRACES transect GA02 in 2010. The results show that the different water masses in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean, which ultimately constitute NADW, have the following Nd isotope characteristics: Upper Labrador Sea Water (ULSW), eNd = -14.2 ± 0.3; Labrador Sea Water (LSW), eNd = -13.7 ± 0.9; Northeast Atlantic Deep Water (NEADW), eNd = -12.5 ± 0.6; Northwest Atlantic Bottom Water (NWABW), eNd = -11.8 ± 1.4. In the subtropics, where these source water masses have mixed to form NADW, which is exported to the global ocean, upper-NADW is characterised by eNd values of -13.2 ± 1.0 (2sd) and lower-NADW exhibits values of eNd = -12.4 ± 0.4 (2sd). While both signatures overlap within error, the signature for lower-NADW is significantly more radiogenic than the traditionally used value for NADW (eNd = -13.5) due to the dominance of source waters from the Nordic Seas (NWABW and NEADW). Comparison between the concentration profiles and the corresponding Nd isotope profiles with other water mass properties such as salinity, silicate concentrations, neutral densities and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) concentration provides novel insights into the geochemical cycle of Nd and reveals that different processes are necessary to account for the observed Nd characteristics in the subpolar and subtropical gyres and throughout the vertical water column. While our data set provides additional insights into the contribution of boundary exchange in areas of sediment resuspension, the results for open ocean seawater demonstrate, at an unprecedented level, the suitability of Nd isotopes to trace modern water masses in the strongly advecting western Atlantic Ocean