Miscanthus x giganteus role in phytodegradation and changes in bacterial community of soil contaminated by petroleum industry

Second-generation biofuel crop miscanthus is one of the most promising plants tested for phytomanagement of contaminated sites. In this preliminary pot case study, the most used hybrid Miscanthus x giganteus was cultivated in three different real contaminated soils: agricultural soil contaminated with Cd; post-military soil slightly contaminated with Zn, Pb and Cd; and soil contaminated by petroleum industry with metals and hydrocarbons. The stress response of plants and soil microbial communities was monitored to receive data that are important for successful phytomanagement application. With metals only, the plant grew well, and chlorophyll fluorescence measurement proved their good vitality. Changes in leaf anatomy (leaf thickness and sclerenchyma cells area) were additionally determined in post-military soil compared to agricultural. On the contrary, in petroleum-contaminated soil, the biomass yield was too reduced and also physiological parameters were significantly decreased. The response of microbial communities also differed. In agricultural soil, no microbial stress was determined. In post-military soil, it became reduced during the experiment, and in petroleum contamination, it increased year-on-year. It could be concluded that miscanthus is suitable for cultivation in metals contaminated soils with potential for microbial communities support, but in soil contaminated by the petroleum industry, its application did not seem meaningful.

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High resolution electron microscopy of lanthanum phosphate crystals

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100108519 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 274-275

Author(s):

J. C. Wheatley ◽

J. M. Cowley

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Catalytic Activity ◽

High Resolution ◽

Petroleum Industry ◽

High Resolution Electron Microscopy ◽

Lanthanum Phosphate ◽

Good Catalyst ◽

Resolution Electron ◽

Good Catalytic Activity ◽

Physical And Chemical

Rare-earth phosphates are of particular interest because of their catalytic properties associated with the hydrolysis of many aromatic chlorides in the petroleum industry. Lanthanum phosphates (LaPO4) which have been doped with small amounts of copper have shown increased catalytic activity (1). However the physical and chemical characteristics of the samples leading to good catalytic activity are not known.Many catalysts are amorphous and thus do not easily lend themselves to methods of investigation which would include electron microscopy. However, the LaPO4, crystals are quite suitable samples for high resolution techniques.The samples used were obtained from William L. Kehl of Gulf Research and Development Company. The electron microscopy was carried out on a JEOL JEM-100B which had been modified for high resolution microscopy (2). Standard high resolution techniques were employed. Three different sample types were observed: 669A-1-5-7 (poor catalyst), H-L-2 (good catalyst) and 27-011 (good catalyst).

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Automatic control in the petroleum industry—a case study

Journal of the Institution of Production Engineers ◽

10.1049/ipej.1955.0052 ◽

1955 ◽

Vol 34 (8) ◽

pp. 539

Author(s):

I. McCallum

Keyword(s):

Automatic Control ◽

Petroleum Industry

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Assessment of viral assemblages in different types of wetland water in northeast China using RAPD-PCR

Aquatic Microbial Ecology ◽

10.3354/ame01952 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 85 ◽

pp. 183-196

Author(s):

Y Sun ◽

J Liu ◽

Q Yao ◽

J Jin ◽

X Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bacterial Community ◽

Water Samples ◽

Northeast China ◽

Bacterial Community Composition ◽

Freshwater Wetlands ◽

Viral Community ◽

Rapd Pcr ◽

Wetland Water ◽

Different Types ◽

Viral Communities

Viruses are the most abundant and ubiquitous biological entities in various ecosystems, yet few investigations of viral communities in wetlands have been performed. To address this data gap, water samples from 6 wetlands were randomly collected across northeast China; viruses in the water were concentrated by sequential tangential flow filtration, and viral communities were assessed through randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR (RAPD-PCR) with 4 decamer oligonucleotide primers. Principal coordinate analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis of the DNA fingerprints showed that viral community compositions differed among the water samples: communities in the 2 coastal wetlands were more similar to each other than to those in the 4 freshwater wetlands. The Shannon-Weaver index (H) and evenness index (E) of the RAPD-PCR fingerprint also differed among the 6 wetlands. Mantel test revealed that the changes in viral communities in wetland water were most closely related to the water NH4+-N and inorganic C content, followed by total K, P, C and NO3--N. DNA sequence analysis of the excised bands revealed that viruses accounted for ~40% of all sequences. Among the hit viral homologs, the majority belonged to the Microviridae. Moreover, variance partitioning analysis showed that the viral community contributed 24.58% while environmental factors explained 30.56% of the bacterial community variation, indicating that the bacterial community composition was strongly affected by both viral community and water variables. This work provides an initial outline of the viral communities from different types of wetlands in northeast China and improves our understanding of the viral diversity in these ecosystems.

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