Post-Anthesis Photosynthetic Assimilation and the Changes of Carbon and Nitrogen in Different Varieties of Spring Maize

Plastic mulching, given its positive effects on temperature and water retention, has been widely used to solve water shortages and nutrient scarcity in rainfed agricultural soils. This practice affects the physical and chemical processes of soil, including carbon and nitrogen cycling. However, research into microbe-mediated carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil with plastic mulching is still limited. In this study, the structures and functions of the soil bacterial community in non-mulched spring maize, plastic-mulched spring maize, and bareland fallow in a dryland field on the Loess Plateau in China were analyzed to explore the responses of microbe-mediated carbon and nitrogen cycling to plastic mulching. Results showed that the richness of soil bacteria was the highest in bareland fallow. Plastic mulching increased the diversity and richness of soil bacteria to a certain extent (p > 0.05), and significantly increased the content of microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) (p < 0.05). Plastic mulching enhanced the total abundances of carbon and nitrogen cycling-related microbes, exhibiting a significant increase in the abundances of Cellvibrio, Bacillus, Methylobacterium and Nitrospira (p < 0.05). Predicted functional analysis revealed 299 metabolic pathways related to carbon and nitrogen cycling, including methane metabolism, carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms, and nitrogen metabolism. The number of gene families assigned to carbon and nitrogen cycling-related metabolic pathways was higher in plastic mulched than that in non-mulched spring maize. This study demonstrated that plastic mulching enhances the capacity of carbon and nitrogen cycling, revealing its potential in mediating greenhouse gas emissions in the dryland spring maize fields on the Loess Plateau.

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Metabolic signalling and the partitioning of resources in plant storage organs

The Journal of Agricultural Science ◽

10.1017/s0021859699006978 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 133 (3) ◽

pp. 243-249 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

NIGEL G. HALFORD

Keyword(s):

Dry Weight ◽

Wild Relatives ◽

Crop Plants ◽

Wild Plants ◽

Young Plant ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen ◽

Cultivated Potato ◽

Metabolic Signalling ◽

Storage Organs ◽

Plant Storage

The most important harvested organs of crop plants, such as seeds, tubers and fruits, are often described as assimilate sinks. They play little or no part in the fixation of carbon through the production of sugars through photosynthesis, or in the uptake of nitrogen and sulphur, but import these assimilated resources to support metabolism and to store them in the form of starch, oils and proteins. Wild plants store resources in seeds and tubers to later support an emergent young plant. Cultivated crops are effectively storing resources to provide us with food and many have been bred to accumulate much more than would be required otherwise. For example, approximately 80% of a cultivated potato plant's dry weight is contained in its tubers, ten times the proportion in the tubers of its wild relatives (Inoue & Tanaka 1978). Cultivation and breeding has brought about a shift in the partitioning of carbon and nitrogen assimilate between the organs of the plant.

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Precipitation in silicon: Microanalysis

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100104431 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 46 ◽

pp. 474-475

Author(s):

R.W. Carpenter

Keyword(s):

Transition Metals ◽

Spatial Resolution ◽

Thin Foil ◽

Precipitation Reaction ◽

High Current ◽

Reaction Products ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen ◽

Dielectric Layers ◽

Precipitation Processes ◽

Areas Of Interest

Interest in precipitation processes in silicon appears to be centered on transition metals (for intrinsic and extrinsic gettering), and oxygen and carbon in thermally aged materials, and on oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen in ion implanted materials to form buried dielectric layers. A steadily increasing number of applications of microanalysis to these problems are appearing. but still far less than the number of imaging/diffraction investigations. Microanalysis applications appear to be paced by instrumentation development. The precipitation reaction products are small and the presence of carbon is often an important consideration. Small high current probes are important and cryogenic specimen holders are required for consistent suppression of contamination buildup on specimen areas of interest. Focussed probes useful for microanalysis should be in the range of 0.1 to 1nA, and estimates of spatial resolution to be expected for thin foil specimens can be made from the curves shown in Fig. 1.

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