Diversity of fungal endophytic community in Quercus suber L. under different climate scenarios

Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is an evergreen oak tree species, typically found throughout the Mediterranean Basin that presents a great ecological and economic importance in Portugal. The ecological importance is due to the role in the protection of the soil, biodiversity control, water quality and oxygen production. The cork production and processing confer cork oak a great economic relevance in Portugal. An increase of cork oak decline due to biotic and abiotic stresses has been reported, which could damage the ecosystem and lower cork production. Fungal species as D;plod;a corticola and Biscogniauxia mediterranea are cork oak pathogens that cause tree decline and affect cork productivity. The incidence of both diseases seems to increase when trees are under several environmental stresses, such as increased temperatures or drought. In this work, fungal endophytic species of cork oak were collected in different sites of Portugal (Bragança, Gerês, Alcobaça, Grândola e Gavião). The collection sites displayed differences in water availability and cork oak trees in different phytosanitary conditions. The community of fungal endophytes of young twigs and one/two-years old branches were studied by detecting fungal outgrowing from aseptic plant pieces and grouping them into morphotypes. A differentiation between live and death (xylem) branch tissue was considered by culturing the most superficial branch wood or the most inner wood. Collection sites with higher precipitation seem to display a more diverse community. Branches displayed a more diverse fungal community than young twigs, being the endophytic community, present in inner wood, more similar between sites, than young twigs or outer branch tissues. This study allowed the comparison of fungal endophytic communities living in cork oak trees with different water availability levels and disease symptoms. The results provide a good starting point towards the comprehension of the fungal community influence in disease occurrence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Susceptibility Inhomogeneity and Non-Fermi-Liquid Behavior in Ce(Ru_{0.5}Rh_{0.5})_2Si_2

Magnetic susceptibility and muon spin rotation (\muSR) experiments have been carried out to study the effect of structural disorder on the non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior of the heavy-fermion alloy Ce(Ru_{0.5}Rh_{0.5})_2Si_2. Analysis of the bulk susceptibility in the framework of disorder-driven Griffiths-phase and Kondo-disorder models for NFL behavior yields relatively narrow distributions of characteristic spin fluctuation energies, in agreement with \muSR linewidths that give the inhomogeneous spread in susceptibility. \muSR and NMR data both indicate that disorder explains the "nearly NFL" behavior observed above \sim2 K, but does not dominate the NFL physics found at low temperatures and low magnetic fields.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Quantum Griffiths effects and smeared phase transitions in metals: theory and experiment

In this paper, we review theoretical and experimental research on rare region effects at quantum phase transitions in disordered itinerant electron systems. After summarizing a few basic concepts about phase transitions in the presence of quenched randomness, we introduce the idea of rare regions and discuss their importance. We then analyze in detail the different phenomena that can arise at magnetic quantum phase transitions in disordered metals, including quantum Griffiths singularities, smeared phase transitions, and cluster-glass formation. For each scenario, we discuss the resulting phase diagram and summarize the behavior of various observables. We then review several recent experiments that provide examples of these rare region phenomena. We conclude by discussing limitations of current approaches and open questions.Comment: 31 pages, 7 eps figures included, v2: discussion of the dissipative Ising chain fixed, references added, v3: final version as publishe

Non-Fermi-Liquid Scaling in Ce(Ru_{0.5}Rh_{0.5})_2Si_2

We study the temperature and field dependence of the magnetic and transport properties of the non-Fermi-liquid compound Ce(Ru_{1-x}Rh_x)_2Si_2 at x=0.5. For fields $\lesssim$0.1T the experimental results show signatures of the presence of Kondo-disorder, expected to be large at this concentration. For larger fields, however, magnetic and transport properties are controlled by the coupling of the conduction electrons to critical spin-fluctuations. The temperature dependence of the susceptibility as well as the scaling properties of the magnetoresistance are in very good agreement with the predictions of recent dynamical mean-field theories of Kondo alloys close to a spin-glass quantum critical point.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Improved discussion. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Evidence for a common physical description of non-Fermi-liquid behavior in f-electron systems

The non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior observed in the low temperature specific heat $C(T)$ and magnetic susceptibility $\chi(T)$ of f-electron systems is analyzed within the context of a recently developed theory based on Griffiths singularities. Measurements of $C(T)$ and $\chi(T)$ in the systems $Th_{1-x}U_{x}Pd_{2}Al_{3}$, $Y_{1-x}U_{x}Pd_3$, and $UCu_{5-x}M_{x}$ (M = Pd, Pt) are found to be consistent with $C(T)/T \propto \chi(T) \propto T^{-1+\lambda}$ predicted by this model with $\lambda <1$ in the NFL regime. These results suggest that the NFL properties observed in a wide variety of f-electron systems can be described within the context of a common physical picture.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Role of Disorder on the Quantum Critical Point of a Model for Heavy Fermions

A zero temperature real space renormalization group (RG) approach is used to investigate the role of disorder near the quantum critical point (QCP) of a Kondo necklace (XY-KN) model. In the pure case this approach yields $J_{c}=0$ implying that any coupling $J \not = 0$ between the local moments and the conduction electrons leads to a non-magnetic phase. We also consider an anisotropic version of the model ($X-KN$), for which there is a quantum phase transition at a finite value of the ratio between the coupling and the bandwidth, $(J/W)$. Disorder is introduced either in the on-site interactions or in the hopping terms. We find that in both cases randomness is irrelevant in the $X-KN$ model, i.e., the disorder induced magnetic-non-magnetic quantum phase transition is controlled by the same exponents of the pure case. Finally, we show the fixed point distributions $P_{J}(J/W)$ at the atractors of the disordered, non-magnetic phases.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Anomalous heavy-fermion and ordered states in the filled skutterudite PrFe4P12

Specific heat and magnetization measurements have been performed on high-quality single crystals of filled-skutterudite PrFe_4P_{12} in order to study the high-field heavy-fermion state (HFS) and low-field ordered state (ODS). From a broad hump observed in C/T vs T in HFS for magnetic fields applied along the direction, the Kondo temperature of ~ 9 K and the existence of ferromagnetic Pr-Pr interactions are deduced. The {141}-Pr nuclear Schottky contribution, which works as a highly-sensitive on-site probe for the Pr magnetic moment, sets an upper bound for the ordered moment as ~ 0.03 \mu_B/Pr-ion. This fact strongly indicates that the primary order parameter in the ODS is nonmagnetic and most probably of quadrupolar origin, combined with other experimental facts. Significantly suppressed heavy-fermion behavior in the ODS suggests a possibility that the quadrupolar degrees of freedom is essential for the heavy quasiparticle band formation in the HFS. Possible crystalline-electric-field level schemes estimated from the anisotropy in the magnetization are consistent with this conjecture.Comment: 7 pages and 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.