Parallel successions of microbiomass and oribatid mites in the soil during the transformation of the forest ecosystem into an agrocenosis in the south of Western Siberia

The analysis of the state of the destructive block in gray forest soils in the Novosibirsk region was carried out. Forest, meadow under pasture and vegetable agrocenosis were selected as the objects of the study. Soil-zoological and soil-microbiological methods were used in the work. The biomass of soil microorganisms, basal respiration, metabolic coefficient, species richness and the total numbers of oribatid mites in soils were studied. Strong changes in the studied parameters in soils with different agricultural uses, compared with the soil under the forest, are demonstrated. With the deforestation and the transformation of the formed grass ecosystem to pasture, all the studied indicators decrease. When the grass ecosystem is plowed and the soil is used for a long time as an agrocenosis, a further decrease in microbiological and zoological indexes is observed. The conclusion is made about the possibility of applying the methods used in the practice of ecological monitoring of gray forest soils is made

Microbial biomass and respiration in rangeland soils of southern Siberia and western Mongolia

Southern Siberia and western Mongolia are characterized by very cold, dry winters, and short, warm summers with modest or little precipitation. In the driest region that we investigated (119mm annual precipitation), the upper part of two catenas had a larger fraction of microbial biomass in soil organic matter (6-12%) than the four other catenas (<4%) in less dry regions (260 and 442 mm). All six catenas had values ≤4% at the lowest position near the shore of saline lakes. Respiration per unit microbial biomass was similar within and among the catenas, except for the lowest position in three catenas, where enhanced values indicated microbial stress, probably due to high salinity

Soils rich in biological ice-nucleating particles abound in ice-nucleating macromolecules likely produced by fungi

Soil organic matter carries ice-nucleating particles (INPs) the origin of which is hard to define and that are active at slight supercooling. The discovery and characterization of INPs produced by the widespread soil fungus Mortierella alpina permits a more targeted investigation of the likely origin of INPs in soils. We searched for INPs with characteristics similar to those reported for M. alpina in 20 soil samples from four areas in the northern midlatitudes and one area in the tropics. In the 15 samples where we could detect such INPs, they constituted between 1 and 94% (median 11 %) of all INPs active at - 10 degrees C or warmer (INP 10) associated with soil particles &lt; 5 mu m. Their concentration increased overproportionately with the concentration of INP 10 in soil and seems to be greater in colder climates. Large regional differences and prevalently high concentrations allow us to make inferences regarding their potential role in the atmosphere and the soil

Parallel successions of microbiomass and oribatid mites in the soil during the transformation of the forest ecosystem into an agrocenosis in the south of Western Siberia

The analysis of the state of the destructive block in gray forest soils in the Novosibirsk region was carried out. Forest, meadow under pasture and vegetable agrocenosis were selected as the objects of the study. Soil-zoological and soil-microbiological methods were used in the work. The biomass of soil microorganisms, basal respiration, metabolic coefficient, species richness and the total numbers of oribatid mites in soils were studied. Strong changes in the studied parameters in soils with different agricultural uses, compared with the soil under the forest, are demonstrated. With the deforestation and the transformation of the formed grass ecosystem to pasture, all the studied indicators decrease. When the grass ecosystem is plowed and the soil is used for a long time as an agrocenosis, a further decrease in microbiological and zoological indexes is observed. The conclusion is made about the possibility of applying the methods used in the practice of ecological monitoring of gray forest soils is made

Microbial biomass and soil organic carbon accumulation on a former lakebed near Novosibirsk, Russia

Shrinking of Lake Chany in W Siberia exposed 10,000 km2 of former lakebed. On this new land we studied a chronosequence of young soils. The fraction of microbial C in total organic C had stabilized at 3% after 30 to 40 y. Concentration of organic C increased within the first 50 to 100 y to 4–5% in the first 10 cm, and to 2–3% at 10–20 cm depth. The amount of sequestered C is equivalent to about 2.5 d of current anthropogenic CO2 emissions

Ice Nucleating Particle Concentrations Increase When Leaves Fall in Autumn

Ice nucleating particles active at −8 °C or warmer (INP−8) are produced by plants and by microorganisms living from and on them. Laboratory studies have shown that large numbers of INP−8 are produced by decaying leaves. At three widely dispersed locations in Northwestern Eurasia, we saw, from an analysis of PM10 filter samples, that seasonal median concentrations of INP−8 in the boundary layer doubled from summer to autumn. Concentrations of INP−8 increased in autumn soon after the normalized differential vegetation index had started to decrease. Whether the large-scale phenological event of leaf senescence and shedding in autumn has an impact on ice formation in clouds is a justified question

On coarse patterns in the atmospheric concentration of ice nucleating particles

The atmospheric concentration of ice nucleating particles active at around-10 degrees C (INP-10) is very low. Nevertheless, these particles play a role in the development of cloud systems, so their spatial and temporal patterns merit attention. We collated available datasets on INP-10 to identify such patterns. Among the five low altitude observatories in northern Eurasia, median values throughout May to October were lowest in Scandinavia (4 and 6 m- 3), somewhat higher in central Europe (11 m- 3), substantially higher in the West Siberian Plain (69 m- 3) and highest in the Central Yakutian Lowland (204 m- 3), suggesting that the abundance of INP-10 in northern Eurasia may increase with continentality and from West to East. The range of values at the same ob-servatories was narrower throughout November to April (2 to 27 m- 3). On average, by an order of magnitude smaller values were reported for the four Arctic observatories. Consequently, increasing poleward transport of air masses from the midlatitudes likely raises the concentration of INP-10 in the Arctic, particularly when air masses had surface contact in eastern parts of northern Eurasia

Hyperon signatures in the PANDA experiment at FAIR

We present a detailed simulation study of the signatures from the sequential decays of the triple-strange pbar p -> Ω+Ω- -> K+ΛbarK- Λ -> K+pbarπ+K-pπ- process in the PANDA central tracking system with focus on hit patterns and precise time measurement. We present a systematic approach for studying physics channels at the detector level and develop input criteria for tracking algorithms and trigger lines. Finally, we study the beam momentum dependence on the reconstruction efficiency for the PANDA detector