Age-related modulation of the nitrogen resorption efficiency response to growth requirements and soil nitrogen availability in a temperate pine plantation

Nitrogen (N) resorption is a key strategy for conserving N in forests, and is often affected by soil nutrient condition and N sink strength within the plant. However, our understanding of the age-related pattern of N resorption and how increasing N deposition will affect this pattern is limited. Here, we investigated N resorption along a chronosequence of stands ranging in age from 2 to 100 years old, and conducted a 4-year exogenous N input experiment in stands at age class 11, 20, and 45 in a Larix Principis-rupprechtii plantation in north China. We found a logarithmic increase in leaf N resorption efficiency (NRE) and green leaf N concentration, and a logarithmic decrease in senesced-leaf N concentration along the stand-age chronosequence. Leaf NRE was negatively correlated with plant-available N concentration. Stand-level N resorption was positively correlated with the annual N requirement for tree growth. N resorption contributed to 45, 62, and 68% of the annual N supply in the 11-, 20-, and 45-year-old stands, respectively. Our exogenous N input experiment showed that leaf NRE in the 11- and 20-year-old stands decreased 17 and 12% following a 50-kg N ha¯¹ y¯¹ input. However, leaf NRE was not affected in the 45-year-old stand. The increases in leaf NRE and the contribution of N resorption to annual N supply along stand ages suggested that, with stand development, tree growth depends more on N resorption to supply its N need. Furthermore, the leaf NRE of mature stand was not decreased under exogenous N input, suggesting that mature stands can be stronger sinks for N deposition than young stands due to their higher capacity to retain the deposited N within plants via internal cycle. Ignoring age-related N use strategies can lead to a bias in N cycle models when evaluating forest net primary production under increasing global N deposition

Flow Characteristics of a Pipe Diffuser for Centrifugal Compressors

The pipe diffuser, an efficient kind of radial bladed diffuser, is widely used in centrifugal compressors for gas turbine engines. This paper investigates flow characteristics of a pipe diffuser for centrifugal compressors by solving three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The results show that the pipe diffuser is adaptable to high Mach number incoming flows, and its unique leading edge could uniform the flow distortion. Numerical analysis indicates that the choke in pipe diffuser occurs suddenly, which leads to the dramatically steep performance curves near choke condition. Besides, it is found that the first half flow passage is particularly important to the pipe diffuser performance as it influences the choking behavior, the static pressure distribution, and the matching, so more attention should be paid to this region when designing or optimizing a pipe diffuser. Two counter-rotating vortices generated in the diffuser inlet region are captured by numerical simulation, and they can exist in the downstream of the diffuser passage. More detailed analysis show that these two vortices dominate the flow structure in the whole diffuser passage by shifting flow to certain positions and forming high-momentum flow cells and wake flow cells. The leading edge formed by the intersection of adjacent diffuser passages significantly affects this pair of vortices. In addition, these two vortices also affect the flow separation in pipe diffuser flow passages, they suppress separation near the front wall and back wall while facilitate separation at center locations. Therefore, it is recommended to design the leading edge of the pipe diffuser carefully to control the vortices and obtain a better flow field