Economics of tillage management systems in northeastern Alberta

Non-Peer ReviewedThe economic returns and riskiness of continuous barley production using four tillage management systems were compared at five sites in three soil zones in northeastern Alberta. The study used five years of data from a tillage experiment in northeastern Alberta. The four tillage systems included conventional one (C1), which leaves 5% standing stubble, conventional two (C2), which leaves 50% standing stubble, minimum-tillage (Min), and zero-tillage (ZT). Economic calculations were based on 1992 input costs and product prices. The systems were evaluated at barley prices of $46,$69, and $92 t-1, calculated with and without all risk crop insurance. Over the five sites the expected net returns were generally higher for ZT at all barley prices. Income variability was usually lower for ZT and C2 depending on the site. The study concluded that use of reduced tillage management systems by producers in northeastern Alberta could increase farm-level returns and reduce the risk of financial loss, while potentially decreasing the amount of soil erosion

The Deglaciation of Maine, USA

The glacial geology of Maine records the northward recession of the Late Wisconsinan Laurentide Ice Sheet, followed by development of a residual ice cap in the Maine-Québec border region due to marine transgression of the St. Lawrence Lowland in Canada. The pattern of deglaciation across southern Maine has been reconstructed from numerous end moraines, deltas and submarine fans deposited during marine transgression of the coastal lowland. Inland from the marine limit, a less-detailed sequence of deglaciation is recorded by striation patterns, meltwater channels, scattered moraines and waterlain deposits that constrain the trend of the ice margin. There is no evidence that the northern Maine ice cap extended as far south-west as the Boundary Mountains and New Hampshire border. Newly-obtained radiocarbon ages from marine and terrestrial ice-proximal environments have improved the chronology of glacial recession in Maine. Many of these ages were obtained by coring late-glacial sediments beneath ponds and lakes. Data from this study show that the state was deglaciated between about 14.5 and 11.0 ka BP (14C years). The coastal moraine belt in southern Maine was deposited by oscillatory ice-margin retreat during the cold pre-Bølling time. Rapid ice recession to northern Maine then occurred between 13 and 11 ka BP, during the warmer Bølling/Allerød chronozones. Radiocarbon-dated pond sediments in western and northern Maine show lithologic evidence of Younger Dryas climatic cooling and persistence of the northern ice cap into Younger Dryas time. A large discrepancy still exists between radiocarbon ages of deglaciation in coastal south-western Maine and the timing of ice retreat indicated by New England varve records in areas to the west. Part of this problem may stem from the uncertainty of reservoir corrections applied to the radiocarbon ages of marine organics

Capturing MSO with One Quantifier

International audienceWe construct a single Lindström quantifier Q such that FO(Q), the extension of first-order logic with Q has the same expressive power as monadic second-order logic on the class of binary trees (with distinct left and right successors) and also on unranked trees with a sibling order. This resolves a conjecture by ten Cate and Segoufin. The quantifier Q is a variation of a quantifier expressing the Boolean satisfiability problem

Assessment of Lake Sediment Sensitivity to Earthquakes and Climate Cycles along the North Anatolian Fault,

Understanding the irregularity of seismic cycles: A case study in Turke

The mineralogical composition of calcium and calcium-magnesium carbonate pedofeatures of calcareous soils in the European prairie ecodivision in Hungary

Abstract There is little data on the mineralogy of carbonate pedofeatures in the calcareous soils in Hungary which belong to the European prairie ecodivision. The aim of the present study is to enrich these data. The mineralogical composition of the carbonate pedofeatures from characteristic profiles of the calcareous soils in Hungary was studied by X-ray diffractometry, thermal analysis, SEM combined with microanalysis, and stable isotope determination. Regarding carbonate minerals only aragonite, calcite (+ magnesian calcite) and dolomite (+proto-dolomite) were identified in carbonate grains, skeletons and pedofeatures. The values relating, respectively, to stable isotope compositions (C13, O18) of carbonates in chernozems and in salt-affected soils were in the same range as those for recent soils (latter data reported earlier). There were no considerable differences between the values for the carbonate nodules and tubules from the same horizons, nor were there significant variations between the values of the same pedofeatures from different horizons (BC-C) of the same profile. Thus it can be assumed that there were no considerable changes in conditions of formation. Tendencies were recognized in the changes of (i) carbonate mineral associations, (ii) the MgCO3 content of calcites, (iii) the corrected decomposition temperatures, and (iv) the activation energies of carbonate thermal decompositions among the various substance-regimes of soils. Differences were found in substance-regimes types of soils rather than in soil types

The Influence of Different Stresses on Glomalin Levels in an Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus—Salinity Increases Glomalin Content

Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, and the soil fraction containing glomalin is correlated with soil aggregation. Thus, factors potentially influencing glomalin production could be of relevance for this ecosystem process and for understanding AM fungal physiology. Previous work indicated that glomalin production in AM fungi may be a stress response, or related to suboptimal mycelium growth. We show here that environmental stress can enhance glomalin production in the mycelium of the AM fungus Glomus intraradices. We applied NaCl and glycerol in different intensities to the medium in which the fungus was grown in vitro, causing salinity stress and osmotic stress, respectively. As a third stress type, we simulated grazing on the extraradical hyphae of the fungus by mechanically injuring the mycelium by clipping. NaCl caused a strong increase, while the clipping treatment led to a marginally significant increase in glomalin production. Even though salinity stress includes osmotic stress, we found substantially different responses in glomalin production due to the NaCl and the glycerol treatment, as glycerol addition did not cause any response. Thus, our results indicate that glomalin is involved in inducible stress responses in AM fungi for salinity, and possibly grazing stress

An alternative application to the portuguese agro-industrial residue : wheat straw

The effects of alkaline treatments of the wheat straw with sodium hydroxide were investigated. The optimal condition for extraction of hemicelluloses was found to be with 0.50 mol/l sodium hydroxide at 55 °C for 2 h. This resulted in the release of 17.3% of hemicellulose (% dry starting material), corresponding to the dissolution of 49.3% of the original hemicellulose. The yields were determined by gravimetric analysis and expressed as a proportion of the starting material. Chemical composition and physico-chemical properties of the samples of hemicelluloses were elucidated by a combination of sugar analyses, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and thermal analysis. The results showed that the treatments were very effective on the extraction of hemicelluloses from wheat straw and that the extraction intensity (expressed in terms of alkali concentration) had a great influence on the yield and chemical features of the hemicelluloses. The FTIR analysis revealed typical signal pattern for the hemicellulosic fraction in the 1,200–1,000 cm−1 region. Bands between 1,166 and 1,000 cm−1 are typical of xylans.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo/Brazil (FAPESP)Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BPD/26156/2005, SFRH/BPD/26108/200