Investigating the Climate-Growth Response of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Northern Poland

Research Highlights: This study used a 99-year time-series of daily climatic data to determine the climate-growth relationship for Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing in Northern Poland. The use of daily climatic data improved the calculated climatic response of the trees. Background and Objectives: It was hypothesised that daily temperature and precipitation data would more precisely identify climate–growth relationships than monthly data. We compared our results to a previous study conducted in the 1990s that utilised monthly precipitation and temperature data. Materials and Methods: The chronology construction and data analyses were performed using CooRecorder, CDendro and R packages (dplR, treeclim, dendrotools). Forty-nine cores from 31 trees were included in the final chronology. Results: The precipitation and temperature of March had the strongest influence upon ring-widths. Despite a statistically significant correlation between monthly temperature and ring-widths, reduction of error (RE) and coefficient of efficiency (CE) statistics confirmed that daily data better describe the effect of climate on tree rings width than monthly data. Conclusions: At this site, the growing season of Scots pine has changed with the observed association with precipitation now starting as early as February–March and extending to June–July

Fertilisation with potato starch wastewater effect on the growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forest in Poland

Fertilisation is often used to increase plant productivity in agriculture but has also been used in forestry. In our study, Scots pine forest growing in a nitrogen-poor environment was fertilised with NPK post-production wastewater from a potato starch factory. Our research aimed to investigate the dependence of tree growth on different NPK concentrations. Cell characteristics such as cell wall thickness (CWT), lumen diameter (LD) and tree-ring features such as ring width (RW), total number of cells in annual growth (nTotal), earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) were investigated. Twenty-six years of regular fertilisation of the forest with different doses of wastewater rich in NPK elements have affected the anatomical structure of Scots pine trees. It is presumed that the reduction in CWT and LD on the fertilised site was due to deficiencies in plant water conductivity, which may have occurred due to physiological drought. The influence of nitrogen on unfertilised site from the wastewater area could contribute to the CWT thickening. The results confirm that the use of NPK in excessive doses is detrimental to trees' conductive system

The Tay Salmon fisheries in the nineteenth century

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, new methods of preservation allowed Tay salmon to be sold on the London market for the entire fishing season. Such was the size and buoyancy of this market that it absorbed the entire produce of the Tay fisheries, though catches were at that time increasing due to the introduction of stake nets in the Firth. However, these beneficial developments created tensions among the participants in the fisheries. Stake nets took fish which would have ascended to the river, reducing the catches of river tacksmen and the rentals of river proprietors. An increasing number of tacksmen meant that management of the fisheries ceased, as formerly, to be in the hands of a single company and gave rise to more competitive exploitation of the existing salmon stock. A particular result of these developments was that all participants in the fisheries developed an abiding preoccupation with the threat of over-fishing. This was 'further enhanced by the introduction of stake nets on the coast after they were banned from the estuary, development of a series of stake net substitutes in the estuary, more efficient conventional methods of fishing at more stations, and a revival of poaching from mid-century onwards. The court case which led to stake nets being removed from the estuary formalised the animosity between the various proprietorial groups. Their subsequent adoption of entrenched positions eventually led to the tripartition of the Tay fisheries into estuarial, river and upper river factions. Successive inquiries and two Acts of Parliament failed to reconcile the enmities which were sustained by strongly held beliefs in property rights and the need to defend rental incomes. The impasse was ultimately resolved by a single company which, by doubling rental payments, was able to take all netting stations into its own hands and thus revive unified control of the Tay salmon fisheries

A 250-Year Isotopic Proxy Rainfall Record from Southern Botswana

Climate records along aridity gradients where manifestations of climate change are most profound are important for testing climate models. The Kalahari Transect spans such a gradient, but instrumental records of climate parameters are limited in the sparsely populated region. We analysed the δ13C and δ18O record from a Vachellia erioloba (E.Mey) tree from the southern Kalahari Desert in Botswana to explore its potential as a climate proxy archive. Radiocarbon dates show that the record spans the period 1758-2013 CE. Both the δ13C and δ18O records correlate with local rainfall. The isotope proxies show a weak positive correlation with sea-surface temperature reconstruction from the southwestern Indian Ocean, and a stronger correlation with the El Niño Southern Oscillation index. This appears to contradict previous evidence that higher sea-surface temperatures are associated with reduced summer rainfall over the southern African interior. Instead of eastward shifts in the temperate tropical trough synoptic system during elevated southwestern Indian Ocean temperature anomalies, the evidence supports a westwards shift. The result demonstrates the potential of Vachellia erioloba as a climate proxy archive that may yield past climate variability from the arid regions of southern Africa

Physico-chemical properties of waste derived biochar from community scale faecal sludge treatment plants

Background: The dumping of untreated faecal sludge from non-sewered onsite sanitation facilities causes environmental pollution and exacerbates poor public health outcomes across developing nations. Long-term mechanisms to treat faecal sludge generated from these facilities are needed to resolve the global sanitation crisis and realize the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” by 2030. Pyrolysis of faecal sludge removes pathogens and generates biochar, which can be used as a soil enhancer.Methods: The properties of faecal sludge biochars from three full-scale treatment plants in India were determined via Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, crystal x-ray diffraction (XRD), proximate analyses, and BET surface area porosimetry.Results: Results showed that all three biochars had low specific surface area, high alkaline pH values, high ash content, and negative surface charge. Fourier transform infrared spectra showed the same surface functional groups present in each biochar. X-ray diffraction analysis showed the mineral composition of each biochar differed slightly. Scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated a porous structure of each biochar with ash particles evident.Conclusions: Slight differences in the ash content, surface area, pH and mineral content was observed between the three biochars