scholarly journals Soil Nutrient Supply in Cultivated Bush Bean–Potato Intercropping Grown in Subarctic Soil Managed with Agroforestry

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8185
Author(s):  
Jim D. Karagatzides ◽  
Meaghan J. Wilton ◽  
Leonard J. S. Tsuji

To address food insecurity in northern Canada, some isolated communities started gardening initiatives to reduce dependencies on expensive foods flown in to communities. From 2012–2014, soils in northern Ontario James Bay lowlands were cultivated with bush beans and potatoes, grown in sole and intercropping configurations, in an open field and an agroforestry system enclosed by willow trees. The objective of this study was to compare the supply rates of 15 plant-available nutrients in these soils using in situ ion exchange membranes. After three years of cultivation, the agroforestry site had significantly greater supply of PO4, Ca, and Zn and these nutrients had positive correlations with yield. By contrast, the open site had significantly greater supply of Mg, SO4, and B; these nutrients, and Al, had negative correlations with yield. Whilst there were no differences between sole and intercropping configurations, significantly greater supply of NO3, Ca, Cu, Fe, and Zn occurred early in the growing season, compared to significantly greater supply of K, SO4, B, and Al later in the season. Significantly greater yields have been harvested in the agroforestry site and it is suspected that the presence of a willow shelterbelt improves the microclimate and plant-available PO4, Ca, and Zn.

FACETS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 389-406
Author(s):  
James M.C. Jones ◽  
Elizabeth A. Webb ◽  
Michael D.J. Lynch ◽  
Trevor C. Charles ◽  
Pedro M. Antunes ◽  
...  

Carbonatites are unusual alkaline rocks with diverse compositions. Although previous work has characterized the effects these rocks have on soils and plants, little is known about their impacts on local ecosystems. Using a deposit within the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence forest in northern Ontario, Canada, we investigated the effect of a carbonatite on soil chemistry and on the structure of plant and soil microbial communities. This was done using a vegetation survey conducted above and around the deposit, with corresponding soil samples collected for determining soil nutrient composition and for assessing microbial community structure using 16S/ITS Illumina Mi-Seq sequencing. In some soils above the deposit a soil chemical signature of the carbonatite was found, with the most important effect being an increase in soil pH compared with the non-deposit soils. Both plants and microorganisms responded to the altered soil chemistry: the plant communities present in carbonatite-impacted soils were dominated by ruderal species, and although differences in microbial communities across the surveyed areas were not obvious, the abundances of specific bacteria and fungi were reduced in response to the carbonatite. Overall, the deposit seems to have created microenvironments of relatively basic soil in an otherwise acidic forest soil. This study demonstrates for the first time how carbonatites can alter ecosystems in situ.


Author(s):  
A. Dobermann ◽  
R. Nagarajan ◽  
P. Stalin ◽  
P. Mutukhrishnan ◽  
Ma. A. A. Adviento

1976 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 897-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Blasco ◽  
D. C. Jordan

The acetylene-reduction assay was used for in situ and laboratory assessment of biological nitrogen fixation in the acidic, waterlogged, muskeg ecosystem of the southern James Bay area, in the region of Moosonee, Ontario. In situ assays and subsequent laboratory experimentation revealed that nitrogenase activity was predominately a function of the activities of heterocystic blue-green bacteria associated with surface water, with the phyllosphere of mosses, and with at least one lichen, a species of Peltigera. No such in situ activity was detected in the subsurface organic material, even when such material was amended with glucose. However, under laboratory conditions at 20 °C, nitrogenase activity was evident in the subsurface layers after an extended lag and was shown to be higher under anaerobic than under aerobic conditions, to have an optimum temperature range extending about a mean of 20 °C, and to be stimulated by glucose. This potential for subsurface nitrogen fixation proved to be related to the presence of microorganisms existing in anaerobic microsites within the organic layers and no microorganisms capable of fixation could be detected under aerobic incubation.


Author(s):  
Christopher H. Ingles ◽  
John A. Mavrogenes

ABSTRACT Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry was used to traverse hydrothermal vein sphalerite from different ore-forming stages of the Porgera Au-Ag mine, Papua New Guinea. Elements were measured in situ over the growth of crystals to investigate the greatly varying concentrations of cations in sphalerite and their positions in the lattice. Traverse profiles for 16 elements were obtained and aligned to transmitted light images where possible. Each sample contained an array of elements, with many displaying orders of magnitude concentration differences. Results show the simultaneous incorporation of Cu and Sn in sphalerite, as well as Cu and Ag, In and Sn, As and Sb, Fe and Mn, and Cu and Ga. The relation [4Zn2+ ↔ 2Cu+ + Sn2+ + Sn4+] is proposed to explain the 1:1 Cu–Sn correlation. Further relations can be seen, including a Ga “ceiling” or Cu “floor”, where Ga incorporation becomes dependent on Cu concentrations. Furthermore, silver was also observed to correlate with Au, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Bi. Meta-stable solid solutions between pairs such as Cu, Ag; Fe, Mn; As, Sb; and In, Sn are also suggested. Each of these pairs are neighbors on the periodic table of elements, which suggests that simple solid solution can occur, and positive correlations for all four solid solutions were found in one sample alone. While the concept of charge-specific solid solutions in sphalerite has been discussed in the literature with reference to monovalent cations, the results presented herein also indicate solid solutions of higher oxidation states, containing many cations. Furthermore, while cations in charge-specific solid solutions have been proposed to compete for lattice sites in sphalerite, simultaneous in situ coupled concentrations at Porgera suggest otherwise. Cationic substitution equations displaying decimal ratios of each element in solid solution can then provide a novel method to distinguish between solid solution concentrations in different samples. For example, displaying 1:1 ratios of Cu–Ag and Sb–As: [2Zn2+ ↔ (Cu+0.5, Ag+0.5) + (As3+0.5, Sb3+0.5)], or for a 100:1 Fe–Mn ratio: [Zn2+ ↔ (Fe2+0.99, Mn2+0.01)].


1974 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. CAMPBELL ◽  
D. W. STEWART ◽  
W. NICHOLAICHUK ◽  
V. O. BIEDERBECK

Wood Mountain loam was wetted with water or (NH4)2SO4 solution to provide a factorial combination among three moisture and three NH4-N levels. Samples in polyethylene bags were incubated at 2.5-cm depths in fallow, and in an incubator that simulated the diurnal patterns of temperature fluctuation recorded in the field. During the growing season, treatments were sampled regularly for moisture, NO3− and exchangeable NH4-N. Similar determinations were made on in situ samples taken in fallow Wood Mountain loam. The incubator simulated the effects of growing season temperatures on soil N transformations satisfactorily. Pronounced increases or decreases in temperature led to flushes in N mineralization. However, in the 1972 growing season, temperature was suboptimal and temperature changes were generally small. Consequently, when a stepwise multiple regression technique was used to analyze the data, neither ammonification nor nitrification showed a quantitative relationship to temperature. Comparison of the nitrification occurring in laboratory-incubated soils with that occurring in situ led to the conclusion that 70 to 90% of the NO3-N produced in surface soil resulted from wetting and drying. Estimates of potentially ammonifiable soil N(No) and its rate of mineralization (k) were derived from cumulative ammonification by assuming that the laws of first-order kinetics were applicable. In the 10, 15, and 20% moisture treatments the average No was 27, 41, and 82 ppm, respectively. Under the conditions of this study, the time required to mineralize half of No was about 7 wk.


2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junhua Ao ◽  
Jiabing Fu ◽  
Jiang Tian ◽  
Xiaolong Yan ◽  
Hong Liao

Root morphology and architecture are believed to be important for plant phosphorus (P) efficiency, but their genetic information is relatively scarce. In the present study, a field and a specially designed minirhizotron experiments were conducted using two soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) genotypes and their 88 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) to elucidate the genetic variability for root morph-architecture traits and root growth dynamics as related to P efficiency in soybean. The results indicated that the root morph-architecture traits were continually segregated in the RILs with a normal distribution, indicating which are possibly controlled by quantitative trait loci. Significantly positive correlations were found between root and P traits, suggesting feasibility of screening P efficient genotype through simple selection of root traits in field. Most root morph-architecture traits were closely correlated, showing a coordinating contribution to P efficiency. Furthermore, root morphological traits always had higher heritability than architecture traits, thus, could serve as more reliable index in field selection. The dynamic parameters of root growth from the minirhizotron experiment showed that the P efficient genotype established longer and larger root system with preferring distribution in surface layer and also kept more active roots, therefore, had a better growth performance in field, than the P-inefficient genotype. Taken together, this is the first report on in situ root growth dynamics and its relation to P efficiency using minirhizotron systems in crops. Our findings help to better understand the relationships between P efficiency and root traits and, thus, facilitate development of P efficient genotypes in crops.


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