Search results for " zero"

Influence of land-use intensity on the spatial distribution of N-cycling microorganisms in grassland soils

2011

A geostatistical approach using replicated grassland sites (10 m × 10 m) was applied to investigate the influence of grassland management, i.e. unfertilized pastures and fertilized mown meadows representing low and high land-use intensity (LUI), on soil biogeochemical properties and spatial distributions of ammonia-oxidizing and denitrifying microorganisms in soil. Spatial autocorrelations of the different N-cycling communities ranged between 1.4 and 7.6 m for ammonia oxidizers and from 0.3 m for nosZ-type denitrifiers to scales >14 m for nirK-type denitrifiers. The spatial heterogeneity of ammonia oxidizers and nirS-type denitrifiers increased in high LUI, but decreased for biogeochemical …

The effect of a temperature-sensitive prophage on the evolution of virulence in an opportunistic bacterial pathogen

2019

AbstractViruses are key actors of ecosystems and have major impacts on global biogeochemical cycles. Prophages deserve particular attention as they are ubiquitous in bacterial genomes and can enter a lytic cycle when triggered by environmental conditions. We explored how temperature affects the interactions between prophages and other biological levels by using an opportunistic pathogen, the bacterium Serratia marcescens, that harbours several prophages and that had undergone an evolution experiment under several temperature regimes. We found that the release of one of the prophages was temperature-sensitive and malleable to evolutionary changes. We further discovered that the virulence of …

Shelf life improvement of the loaf bread using allyl, phenyl and benzyl isothiocyanates against Aspergillus parasiticus

2017

Abstract Fungal growth inhibition and aflatoxins (AFs) reduction using allyl (AITC), benzyl (BITC) and phenyl (PITC) isothiocyanates were studied in loaf bread contaminated with Aspergillus parasiticus . Two inoculated loaf bread slices were introduced into a plastic tray together with paper filters or small plastic bags paper filters soaked with AITC, BITC or PITC, the final concentration inside the package was of 0.5, 1 or 5 μL/L. The plastic trays, incubated at room temperature, were visual examined for the shelf life evaluation during 8 days. The quantification of the AFs was carried out using liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Shelf life increase of three an…

2019

Abstract Eutrophication (as an increase in total phosphorus [TP]) increases harmful algal blooms and reduces the proportion of high-quality phytoplankton in seston and the content of ω-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) in fish. However, it is not well-known how eutrophication affects the overall nutritional value of phytoplankton. Therefore, we studied the impact of eutrophication on the production (as concentration; μg L−1) and content (μg mg C−1) of amino acids, EPA, DHA, and sterols, i.e., the nutritional value of phytoplankton in 107 boreal lakes. The lakes were categorized in seven TP concentration categories ranging f…

Plant removal disturbance and replant mitigation effects on the abundance and diversity of low-arctic soil biota

2014

Abstract Due to the dependence of soil organisms on plant derived carbon, disturbances in plant cover are thought to be detrimental for the persistence of soil biota. In this work, we studied the disturbance effects of plant removal and soil mixing and the mitigation effects of replanting on soil biota in a low-arctic meadow ecosystem. We set up altogether six replicate blocks, each including three randomized treatment plots, at two distinct fells at Kilpisjarvi, northern Finland. Vegetation was removed in two thirds of the plots: one third was then kept barren (the plant-removal treatment), while the other third was replanted with a local herb Solidago virgaurea. The remaining plots of int…

Response to reindeer grazing removal depends on soil characteristics in low Arctic meadows

2014

In Arctic tundra, grazing is expected to exert a positive influence on microbial activity thus enhancing nutrient cycling and promoting the presence of high productive graminoids. We investigated the changes occurring in two low Arctic meadow sites after 10 years exclusion from grazing. We compared plant, soil fauna and microbial community composition, extracellular enzymes activities, and soil nutrients in ungrazed and adjacent grazed area in two low Arctic meadows. The two closely located experimental sites were both dominated by the common grass Deschampsia flexuosa which covered more than 50% of the meadows. Plant community was affected significantly by site and grazing, but the effect …

Toward a better understanding of in-field weed regulation by carabid beetles, and their functional characteristics, in European arable landscapes

2019

For future arable agriculture, there is a need for more sustainable methods to manage weeds that are less reliant on herbicides and maintain food production. Control of weeds by natural enemies is an agro-ecological alternative to reduce the use of herbicides. While strong evidence points to carabid beetles exerting a regulatory effect on certain weed species, it is difficult to predict whether a particular assemblage of carabid species or functional groups will drive the function of weed seed predation in field conditions. There are also uncertainties about which key local and landscape-scale factors affect the function of weed seed predation, and the functional characteristics of carabid …

Retrieval of canopy water content of different crop types with two new hyperspectral indices: Water Absorption Area Index and Depth Water Index

2018

Crop canopy water content (CWC) is an essential indicator of the crop’s physiological state. While a diverse range of vegetation indices have earlier been developed for the remote estimation of CWC, most of them are defined for specific crop types and areas, making them less universally applicable. We propose two new water content indices applicable to a wide variety of crop types, allowing to derive CWC maps at a large spatial scale. These indices were developed based on PROSAIL simulations and then optimized with an experimental dataset (SPARC03; Barrax, Spain). This dataset consists of water content and other biophysical variables for five common crop types (lucerne, corn, potato, sugar …

Scenario-based discrimination of common grapevine varieties using in-field hyperspectral data in the western of Iran

2019

Abstract Field spectroscopy is an accurate, rapid and nondestructive technique for monitoring of agricultural plant characteristics. Among these, identification of grapevine varieties is one of the most important factors in viticulture and wine industry. This study evaluated the discriminatory ability of field hyperspectral data and statistical techniques in case of five common grapevine varieties in the western of Iran. A total of 3000 spectral samples were acquired at leaf and canopy levels. Then, in order to identify the best approach, two types of hyperspectral data (wavelengths from 350 to 2500 nm and 32 spectral indices), two data reduction methods (PLSR and ANOVA-PCA) and two classif…

Cheese flavour : instrumental techniques

2004

This chapter discusses instrumental techniques to analyze cheese flavor. It focuses on recent advances made to study and identify the taste-active components present in the water-soluble fraction of cheese. A general procedure for the preparation of fractions involves an extraction of grated cheese by water followed by a fractionation scheme, generally adapted from the fractionation protocol used to isolate cheese nitrogen fractions in the study of proteolysis in cheese during ripening. However, as sub-fractions have to be evaluated sensorially to assess their relative sensory impact and try to link it to their chemical composition, a suitable eluent has to be used in the chromatographic st…