227 research outputs found
Revisiting Mt. Kilimanjaro : Do n-alkane biomarkers in soils reflect the δ2H isotopic composition of precipitation?
Abstract. During the last decade compound-specific deuterium (δ2H) analysis of plant leaf wax-derived n-alkanes has become a promising and popular tool in paleoclimate research. This is based on the widely accepted assumption that n-alkanes in soils and sediments generally reflect δ2H of precipitation (δ2Hprec). Recently, several authors suggested that δ2H of n-alkanes (δ2H,sub>n-alkanes) can also be used as proxy in paleoaltimetry studies. Here we present results from a δ2H transect study (~1500 to 4000 m a.s.l.) carried out on precipitation and soil samples taken from the humid southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Contrary to earlier suggestions, a distinct altitude effect in δ2Hprec is present above ~2000 m a.s.l., i.e. δ2Hprec values become more negative with increasing altitude. The compound-specific δ2H values of nC27 and nC29 do not confirm this altitudinal trend, but rather become more positive both in the O-layers (organic layers) and the Ah-horizons (mineral topsoils). Although our δ2Hn-alkane results are in agreement with previously published results from the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Peterse et al., 2009, BG, 6, 2799â2807), a major re-interpretation is required given that the δ2Hn-alkane results do not reflect the δ2Hprec results. The theoretical framework for this re-interpretation is based on the evaporative isotopic enrichment of leaf water associated with transpiration process. Modelling results show that relative humidity, decreasing considerably along the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro (from 78% at ~ 2000 m a.s.l. to 51% at 4000 m a.s.l.), strongly controls δ2Hleaf water. The modelled δ2H leaf water enrichment along the altitudinal transect matches well the measured 2H leaf water enrichment as assessed by using the δ2Hprec and δ2Hn-alkane results and biosynthetic fractionation during n-alkane biosynthesis in leaves. Given that our results clearly demonstrate that n-alkanes in soils do not simply reflect δ2Hprec but rather δ2Hleaf water, we conclude that care has to be taken not to over-interpret δ2Hn-alkane records from soils and sediments when reconstructing δ2H of paleoprecipitation. Both in paleoaltimetry and in paleoclimate studies changes in relative humidity and consequently in δ2Hn-alkane values can completely mask altitudinally or climatically-controlled changes in δ2Hprec.
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Reconstruction of Indian Ocean summer monsoon dynamicsat Nam Co using lipid biomarkers since 24 cal ka BP
Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013
B
Rhizosphere bacterial carbon turnover is higher in nucleic acids than membrane lipids : Implications for understanding soil carbon cycling
Acknowledgments We thank Agnes Fastnacht, Karl Kuebler, Steffen Ruehlow, Iris Kuhlmann, Heike Geilmann, Petra Linke, and Willi Brand for technical support in establishing the experimental setup and/or with stable isotope analyses. We also thank Bernhard Ahrens and Daniel Read for helpful discussions. This project was funded by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. We acknowledge Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for the fellowship to AAM in the research training group 1257 âAlteration and element mobility at microbe-mineral interfaceâ that is part of the Jena School for Microbial Communication (JSMC). AAM was also supported by the International Max Planck Research School for Global Biogeochemical Cycles (IMPRS-gBGC).Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Three dimensional photograph of single electron tracks through a scintillator
The reconstruction of particle trajectories makes it possible to distinguish
between different types of charged particles. In high-energy physics, where
trajectories are rather long, large size trackers must be used to achieve
sufficient position resolution. However, in low-background experiments tracks
are rather short and three dimensional trajectories could only be resolved in
time-projection chambers so far. For detectors of large volume and therefore
large drift distances, which are inevitable for low-background experiments,
this technique is limited by diffusion of charge carriers. In this work we
present a "proof-of-principle" experiment for a new method for the three
dimensional tracking of charged particles by scintillation light: We used a
setup consisting of a scintillator, mirrors, lenses and a novel imaging device
(the hybrid photo detector) in order to image two projections of electron
tracks through the scintillator. We took data at the T-24 beam-line at DESY
with relativistic electrons with a kinetic energy of 5 GeV and from this data
successfully reconstructed their three dimensional propagetion path in the
scintillator. With our setup we achieved a position resolution of about 28 mum
in the best case.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl
Changes in SOM under short-rotation forestry with fast-growing tree species
Soil carbon storage is strongly affected by land use and land use change. Afforestation with fast growing tree species on former arable soils may increase soil organic carbon (SOC) contents due to the reduction in soil cultivation frequency. The DFG-funded project âThe mycorrhiza-mediated pathway for soil organic matter (SOM) formation and consequences for the SOM turnover under short rotation forestryâ investigates two major types of mycorrhiza formation as a function of land use and the importance of composition, stability and storage of SOM. In our subproject we compared SOC stocks of ongoing short rotation forestry (SRF) and former forestry fields (f-SRF). This leads to the following questions:
i) Is there a long-term increase in carbon storage under current SRF schemes; and
ii) Is this carbon storage under SRF sustainable; what are the consequences of transforming forest soils back into arable land?
Two current (SRF) and two former (f-SRF) (Populus nigra x P. maximowiczii) test sites in different temporal stages of change were selected, with corresponding reference sites (REF)in each case. We found an accumulation of SOC in topsoil of current long-term SRF in comparison to REF, but lower carbon content in the subsoil. In former SRF sites accumulation of SOC was not detectable and we found no increase in the total SOC stocks per site. Effects are marked by soil treatment. Variance in total accumulation of SOC occurs in spatial distribution of investigated areas and was effected by its annual variabilities. Combined, the investigations results in following:
i) SRF changes the carbon distribution in the anthric horizon. However, a total carbon storage change could not be detected.
ii) The differences in carbon distribution were quickly removed by planting
Grasshopper herbivory immediately affects element cycling but not export rates in an Nâlimited grassland system
As a cause of ecosystem disturbances, phytophagous insects are known to directly influence the element and organic matter (OM) cycling in ecosystems by their defoliation and excretion activity. This study focuses on the interplay between short-term, insect herbivory, plant responses to feeding activity, rhizosphere processes, and belowground nutrient availability under nutrient-poor soil conditions. To test the effects of insect herbivory on OM and nutrient cycling in an N-limited pasture system, mesocosm laboratory experiments were conducted using Dactylis glomerata as common grass species and Chorthippus dorsatus, a widespread grasshopper species, to induce strong defoliating herbivory. 13CO2 pulse labeling was used together with labeled 15N feces to trace the fate of C in soil respiration at the beginning of herbivory, and of C and N in above- and belowground plant biomass, grasshopper, feces, bulk soil, soil microbial biomass, throughfall solutions, and soil solutions. Within five days, herbivory caused a reduction in aboveground grass biomass by about 34%. A linear mixed-effects model revealed that herbivory significantly increased total dissolved C and N amounts in throughfall solutions by a factor of 4â10 (P < 0.05) compared with the control. In total, 27.6% of the initially applied feces 15N were translocated from the aboveground to the belowground system. A significant enrichment of 15N in roots led to the assumption that feces-derived 15N was rapidly taken up to compensate for the frass-related foliar N losses in light of N shortage. Soil microorganisms incorporated newly available 13C; however, the total amount of soil microbial biomass remained unaffected, while the exploitative grass species rapidly sequestered resources to facilitate its regrowth after herbivory attack. Heavy herbivory by insects infesting D. glomerata-dominated, N-deficient grasslands remarkably impacted belowground nutrient cycling by an instant amplification of available nutrients, which led to an intensified nutrient competition between plants and soil microorganisms. Consequently, these competitive plantâsoil microbe interactions accelerated N cycling and effectively retained herbivory-mediated C and N surplus release resulting in diminished N losses from the system. The study highlighted the overarching role of plant adaptations to in situ soil fertility in short-term ecosystem disturbances
Increased soil carbon storage through plant diversity strengthens with time and extends into the subsoil
Soils are important for ecosystem functioning and service provisioning. Soil communities and their functions, in turn, are strongly promoted by plant diversity, and such positive effects strengthen with time. However, plant diversity effects on soil organic matter have mostly been investigated in the topsoil, and there are only very few long-term studies. Thus, it remains unclear if plant diversity effects strengthen with time and to which depth these effects extend. Here, we repeatedly sampled soil to 1âm depth in a long-term grassland biodiversity experiment. We investigated how plant diversity impacted soil organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations and stocks and their stable isotopes 13C and 15N, as well as how these effects changed after 5, 10, and 14âyears. We found that higher plant diversity increased carbon and nitrogen storage in the topsoil since the establishment of the experiment. Stable isotopes revealed that these increases were associated with new plant-derived inputs, resulting in less processed and less decomposed soil organic matter. In subsoils, mainly the presence of specific plant functional groups drove organic matter dynamics. For example, the presence of deep-rooting tall herbs decreased carbon concentrations, most probably through stimulating soil organic matter decomposition. Moreover, plant diversity effects on soil organic matter became stronger in topsoil over time and reached subsoil layers, while the effects of specific plant functional groups in subsoil progressively diminished over time. Our results indicate that after changing the soil system the pathways of organic matter transfer to the subsoil need time to establish. In our grassland system, organic matter storage in subsoils was driven by the redistribution of already stored soil organic matter from the topsoil to deeper soil layers, for example, via bioturbation or dissolved organic matter. Therefore, managing plant diversity may, thus, have significant implications for subsoil carbon storage and other critical ecosystem services
Detection of non-classical space-time correlations with a novel type of single-photon camera
During the last decades, multi-pixel detectors have been developed capable of
registering single photons. The newly developed Hybrid Photon Detector camera
has a remarkable property that it has not only spatial but also temporal
resolution. In this work, we use this device for the detection of non-classical
light from spontaneous parametric down-conversion and use two-photon
correlations for the absolute calibration of its quantum efficiency
Plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi efficiently acquire Nitrogen from substrate additions by shaping the decomposer community composition and their net plant carbon demand
Acknowledgements SC received funding from long term DAAD scholarship to carry out the research. ML is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG; FOR 456, FOR 1451 â âThe Jena Experimentâ) and by the âZwillenberg-Tietz Stiftungâ. We acknowledge help from Agnes Fastnacht with greenhouse resources and monitoring of the experiment. Special thanks to Karl KĂźbler for construction and deployment of the pulse labelling setup in the greenhouse. We acknowledge Heike Geilmann and Steffen Ruehlow for help with stable isotope measurements, and Maria Foerster for helping with fatty acid analysis. We also thank Erika Kothe, Ruchira Mukherji, Elisa Catao and Huei Ying Gan for helpful comments and discussions and Simon Benk for proof reading the MS. Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Drought Reduces Release of Plant Matter Into Dissolved Organic Matter Potentially Restraining Ecosystem Recovery
Future climate scenarios indicate increasing drought intensity that threatens ecosystem functioning. However, the behavior of ecosystems during intense drought, such as the 2018 drought in Northern Europe, and their respective response following rewetting is not fully understood. We investigated the effect of drought on four different vegetation types in a temperate climate by analyzing dissolved organic matter (DOM) concentration and composition present in soil leachate, and compared it to two accompanying years. DOM is known to play an important role in ecosystem recovery and holds information on matter flows between plants, soil microorganisms and soil organic matter. Knowledge about DOM opens the possibility to better disentangle the role of plants and microorganisms in ecosystem recovery. We found that the average annual DOM concentration significantly decreased during the 2018 drought year compared to the normal year. This suggests a stimulation of DOM release under normal conditions, which include a summer drought followed by a rewetting period. The rewetting period, which holds high DOM concentrations, was suppressed under more intense drought. Our detailed molecular analysis of DOM using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry showed that DOM present at the beginning of the rewetting period resembles plant matter, whereas in later phases the DOM molecular composition was modified by microorganisms. We observed this pattern in all four vegetation types analyzed, although vegetation types differed in DOM concentration and composition. Our results suggest that plant matter drives ecosystem recovery and that increasing drought intensity may lower the potential for ecosystem recovery
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