Elevated CO2 and Warming Altered Grassland Microbial Communities in Soil Top-Layers.

As two central issues of global climate change, the continuous increase of both atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global temperature has profound effects on various terrestrial ecosystems. Microbial communities play pivotal roles in these ecosystems by responding to environmental changes through regulation of soil biogeochemical processes. However, little is known about the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2) and global warming on soil microbial communities, especially in semiarid zones. We used a functional gene array (GeoChip 3.0) to measure the functional gene composition, structure, and metabolic potential of soil microbial communities under warming, eCO2, and eCO2 + warming conditions in a semiarid grassland. The results showed that the composition and structure of microbial communities was dramatically altered by multiple climate factors, including elevated CO2 and increased temperature. Key functional genes, those involved in carbon (C) degradation and fixation, methane metabolism, nitrogen (N) fixation, denitrification and N mineralization, were all stimulated under eCO2, while those genes involved in denitrification and ammonification were inhibited under warming alone. The interaction effects of eCO2 and warming on soil functional processes were similar to eCO2 alone, whereas some genes involved in recalcitrant C degradation showed no significant changes. In addition, canonical correspondence analysis and Mantel test results suggested that NO3-N and moisture significantly correlated with variations in microbial functional genes. Overall, this study revealed the possible feedback of soil microbial communities to multiple climate change factors by the suppression of N cycling under warming, and enhancement of C and N cycling processes under either eCO2 alone or in interaction with warming. These findings may enhance our understanding of semiarid grassland ecosystem responses to integrated factors of global climate change

Proto-Tethys magmatic evolution along northern Gondwana: Insights from Late Silurian–Middle Devonian A-type magmatism, East Kunlun Orogen, Northern Tibetan Plateau, China

The East Kunlun Orogen records the geological evolutions of the Neoproterozoic – Early Paleozoic Proto-Tethyan Ocean and Late Paleozoic–Mesozoic Paleo-Tethys Ocean along northern Gondwana. However, the late-stage evolution of the Proto-Tethyan Ocean and the configuration of peri-Gondwana microcontinents during the Silurian – Devonian is under debate. Here we report new geochronological and geochemical data of A-type granites from the western Wulonggou and the eastern Gouli areas in the East Kunlun Orogen to deepen our understanding of these problems. Zircon LA-ICP-MS UPb data reveal that the Danshuigou monzogranite and Shenshuitan syenogranite from the western Wulonggou area were emplaced simultaneously at 418 ± 3 Ma, while the Niantang syenogranite from the eastern Gouli area was emplaced at 403 ± 2 Ma. All these rocks display high-K calcic-alkalic to shoshonitic and metaluminous to slight peraluminous signatures, with relatively low CaO, Al2O3, MgO and Sr, and high FeOt/MgO, Ga/Al, Zr, and Nb, indicating their A-type affinity. Their moderate whole-rock εNd(t) (−5.3 to −0.6) and zircon εHf(t) (−6.3–6.4) are different from those of depleted mantle and old basement rocks, but similar to those of the Ordovician–Silurian granitoids in the East Kunlun Orogen. These chemical signatures, together with the anhydrous, low-pressure and high-temperature characteristics of the magmas, indicate that partial melting of the Ordovician–Silurian granitoids generated these A-type granites. Regionally, these A-type granites and previously reported A-type granites in the East Kunlun Orogen compose a Late Silurian – Middle Devonian A-type granite belt. This belt, together with the regionally coeval molasse formation and mafic-ultramafic rocks, indicate a post-collisional extensional regime for the East Kunlun Orogen during the Late Silurian – Middle Devonian. Given that extensive contemporaneous post-collision-related magmatic rocks have also been revealed in the neighboring West Kunlun, Altyn, Qilian and Qinling blocks/terranes, we contend that the Neoproterozoic – Early Paleozoic Proto-Tethyan Ocean that separated these blocks/terranes from Gondwana had closed by the Late Silurian – Middle Devonian, which]resulted in the re-welding of the above blocks/terranes to northern Gondwana or Gondwana-derived microcontinents

Optimization of porous silicon structure as antireflective material

The porous silicon structures can effectively trap light by virtue of the large number of pore on its surface. Therefore, it is widely used in the fields of optical applications such as photoelectric conversion, photon collection and detection. A microporous silicon with an ultra-high antireflection performance was fabricated by using electrochemical etching based on the inrush current model. The results show that the porous silicon structure had a smaller pore size range, and the reflectivity of the porous silicon was reduced to 2.27% under light radiation with a wave length of 300–1000 nm. The surface reflectivity of porous silicon structure with different pore diameters and different aspect ratios was investigated by using the finite-difference time-domain method to reveal the antireflective mechanism. The porous silicon structure with high surface quality, high pore integrity, pore diameter distribution of 300–700 nm and the aspect ratio of the pore exceeds 4 was found to be beneficial in achieving lower reflectivity in the range of incident light wavelength from 300 to 1000 nm, which is useful for designing porous silicon antireflective material

Microwave Wireless Power Transfer System Based on a Frequency Reconfigurable Microstrip Patch Antenna Array

The microwave wireless power transfer (MWPT) technology has found a variety of applications in consumer electronics, medical implants and sensor networks. Here, instead of a magnetic resonant coupling wireless power transfer (MRCWPT) system, a novel MWPT system based on a frequency reconfigurable (covering the S-band and C-band) microstrip patch antenna array is proposed for the first time. By switching the bias voltage-dependent capacitance value of the varactor diode between the larger main microstrip patch and the smaller side microstrip patch, the working frequency band of the MWPT system can be switched between the S-band and the C-band. Specifically, the operated frequencies of the antenna array vary continuously within a wide range from 3.41 to 3.96 GHz and 5.7 to 6.3 GHz. For the adjustable range of frequencies, the return loss of the antenna array is less than −15 dB at the resonant frequency. The gain of the frequency reconfigurable antenna array is above 6 dBi at different working frequencies. Simulation results verified by experimental results have shown that power transfer efficiency (PTE) of the MWPT system stays above 20% at different frequencies. Also, when the antenna array works at the resonant frequency of 3.64 GHz, the PTE of the MWPT system is 25%, 20.5%, and 10.3% at the distances of 20 mm, 40 mm, and 80 mm, respectively. The MWPT system can be used to power the receiver at different frequencies, which has great application prospects and market demand opportunities

Microwave Wireless Power Transfer System Based on a Frequency Reconfigurable Microstrip Patch Antenna Array

The microwave wireless power transfer (MWPT) technology has found a variety of applications in consumer electronics, medical implants and sensor networks. Here, instead of a magnetic resonant coupling wireless power transfer (MRCWPT) system, a novel MWPT system based on a frequency reconfigurable (covering the S-band and C-band) microstrip patch antenna array is proposed for the first time. By switching the bias voltage-dependent capacitance value of the varactor diode between the larger main microstrip patch and the smaller side microstrip patch, the working frequency band of the MWPT system can be switched between the S-band and the C-band. Specifically, the operated frequencies of the antenna array vary continuously within a wide range from 3.41 to 3.96 GHz and 5.7 to 6.3 GHz. For the adjustable range of frequencies, the return loss of the antenna array is less than −15 dB at the resonant frequency. The gain of the frequency reconfigurable antenna array is above 6 dBi at different working frequencies. Simulation results verified by experimental results have shown that power transfer efficiency (PTE) of the MWPT system stays above 20% at different frequencies. Also, when the antenna array works at the resonant frequency of 3.64 GHz, the PTE of the MWPT system is 25%, 20.5%, and 10.3% at the distances of 20 mm, 40 mm, and 80 mm, respectively. The MWPT system can be used to power the receiver at different frequencies, which has great application prospects and market demand opportunities

Elevated CO2 and Warming Altered Grassland Microbial Communities in Soil Top-Layers.

As two central issues of global climate change, the continuous increase of both atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global temperature has profound effects on various terrestrial ecosystems. Microbial communities play pivotal roles in these ecosystems by responding to environmental changes through regulation of soil biogeochemical processes. However, little is known about the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2) and global warming on soil microbial communities, especially in semiarid zones. We used a functional gene array (GeoChip 3.0) to measure the functional gene composition, structure, and metabolic potential of soil microbial communities under warming, eCO2, and eCO2 + warming conditions in a semiarid grassland. The results showed that the composition and structure of microbial communities was dramatically altered by multiple climate factors, including elevated CO2 and increased temperature. Key functional genes, those involved in carbon (C) degradation and fixation, methane metabolism, nitrogen (N) fixation, denitrification and N mineralization, were all stimulated under eCO2, while those genes involved in denitrification and ammonification were inhibited under warming alone. The interaction effects of eCO2 and warming on soil functional processes were similar to eCO2 alone, whereas some genes involved in recalcitrant C degradation showed no significant changes. In addition, canonical correspondence analysis and Mantel test results suggested that NO3-N and moisture significantly correlated with variations in microbial functional genes. Overall, this study revealed the possible feedback of soil microbial communities to multiple climate change factors by the suppression of N cycling under warming, and enhancement of C and N cycling processes under either eCO2 alone or in interaction with warming. These findings may enhance our understanding of semiarid grassland ecosystem responses to integrated factors of global climate change