9 research outputs found
Designing and optimising outdoor areas in organic poultry farming
Designing an outdoor area for poultry is essential to maximing use of space and improving animal welfare. Featuring trees in the outdoor area provides shade and protection for broilers, allowing them to explore, forage, and find more nutrients via the plants, grubs and insects present. The composition of the grazing area is also important to keep the soil covered. This space must be properly managed to stay attractive and effective. This tool provides tips and covers the basics for farmers and advisors who want to re-design their outdoor grazing area for poultry
Soil carbon dioxide emissions controlled by an extracellular oxidative metabolism identifiable by its isotope signature
Soil heterotrophic respiration is a major determinant of the carbon (C) cycle
and its interactions with climate. Given the complexity of the respiratory
machinery, it is traditionally considered that oxidation of organic C into
carbon dioxide (CO2) strictly results from intracellular metabolic
processes. Here we show that C mineralization can operate in soils deprived
of all observable cellular forms. Moreover, the process responsible for
CO2 emissions in sterilized soils induced a strong C isotope
fractionation (up to 50 ‰) incompatible with respiration of cellular
origin. The supply of 13C glucose in sterilized soil led to the release
of 13CO2 suggesting the presence of respiratory-like metabolism
(glycolysis, decarboxylation reaction, chain of electron transfer) carried
out by soil-stabilized enzymes, and by soil mineral and metal catalysts.
These findings indicate that CO2 emissions from soils can have two
origins: (1) from the well-known respiration of soil heterotrophic
microorganisms and (2) from an extracellular oxidative metabolism (EXOMET)
or, at least, catabolism. These two metabolisms should be considered
separately when studying effects of environmental factors on the C cycle
because the likelihood is that they do not obey the same laws and they
respond differently to abiotic factors