Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry of Seabird Guano Fertilization: Results from Growth Chamber Studies with Maize (Zea Mays)

Stable isotope analysis is being utilized with increasing regularity to examine a wide range of issues (diet, habitat use, migration) in ecology, geology, archaeology, and related disciplines. A crucial component to these studies is a thorough understanding of the range and causes of baseline isotopic variation, which is relatively poorly understood for nitrogen (δ(15)N). Animal excrement is known to impact plant δ(15)N values, but the effects of seabird guano have not been systematically studied from an agricultural or horticultural standpoint.This paper presents isotopic (δ(13)C and δ(15)N) and vital data for maize (Zea mays) fertilized with Peruvian seabird guano under controlled conditions. The level of (15)N enrichment in fertilized plants is very large, with δ(15)N values ranging between 25.5 and 44.7‰ depending on the tissue and amount of fertilizer applied; comparatively, control plant δ(15)N values ranged between -0.3 and 5.7‰. Intraplant and temporal variability in δ(15)N values were large, particularly for the guano-fertilized plants, which can be attributed to changes in the availability of guano-derived N over time, and the reliance of stored vs. absorbed N. Plant δ(13)C values were not significantly impacted by guano fertilization. High concentrations of seabird guano inhibited maize germination and maize growth. Moreover, high levels of seabird guano greatly impacted the N metabolism of the plants, resulting in significantly higher tissue N content, particularly in the stalk.The results presented in this study demonstrate the very large impact of seabird guano on maize δ(15)N values. The use of seabird guano as a fertilizer can thus be traced using stable isotope analysis in food chemistry applications (certification of organic inputs). Furthermore, the fertilization of maize with seabird guano creates an isotopic signature very similar to a high-trophic level marine resource, which must be considered when interpreting isotopic data from archaeological material

British Romanticism and the Global Climate

As a result of developments in the meteorological and geological sciences, the Romantic period saw the gradual emergence of attempts to understand the climate as a dynamic global system that could potentially be affected by human activity. This chapter examines textual responses to climate disruption cause by the Laki eruption of 1783 and the Tambora eruption of 1815. During the Laki haze, writers such as Horace Walpole, Gilbert White, and William Cowper found in Milton a powerful way of understanding the entanglements of culture and climate at a time of national and global crisis. Apocalyptic discourse continued to resonate during the Tambora crisis, as is evident in eyewitness accounts of the eruption, in the utopian predictions of John Barrow and Eleanor Anne Porden, and in the grim speculations of Byron’s ‘Darkness’. Romantic writing offers a powerful analogue for thinking about climate change in the Anthropocene

Hydrogen peroxide-mediated inhibition of lipopolysaccharide-stimulated inhibitory kappa B kinase activity in rat aortic smooth muscle cells

1. In rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMC), exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) resulted in NF-κB-DNA binding, degradation of IκB-α, -β and -ε and increased activity of both α and β isoforms of inhibitory kappa B kinase (IKK). 2. Expression of dominant-negative (DN)-IKK-α, IKK-β and NF-κB-inducing kinase (NIK) abolished LPS-stimulated NF-κB reporter activity, suggesting that activation of a NIK/IKK-dependent pathway is indispensable for NF-κB activation by LPS in this cell type. 3. The tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor, pervanadate, abolished LPS-stimulated NF-κB-DNA-binding activity. However, the effect of pervanadate was shown to be mediated by excess hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) present in the reaction mix. Preincubation of RASMC with H(2)O(2) inhibited LPS-stimulated IKK kinase activity and downstream NF-κB-DNA binding activity. 4. H(2)O(2) also strongly stimulated p38 MAP kinase activity in RASMCs. Effective inhibition of this pathway using SB203580 did not reverse the effects of H(2)O(2) on LPS-stimulated IKK/NF-κB signalling. 5. These studies show that hydrogen peroxide-mediated inhibition of LPS-stimulated NF-κB activation in RASMC occurs upstream of IKK. The inhibitory effect of H(2)O(2) is not due to tyrosine phosphatase inhibition, it is mediated by H(2)O(2) through a mechanism which is independent of any cross-talk involving MAP kinase homologues