Biogeosystem Technique as a methodology for overcoming the outdated theory and management principles of semiarid silviculture

<p>Forests and artificial forest lines at the climax stage are the source of greenhouse gases. Artificial forests, forest lines, recreational forest plantations can help to reduce the greenhouse emission, increase oxygen production, enlarge the soil carbon biological capacity, and improve silviculture land protective and recreational function. </p><p>Artificial forest systems on the Chernozem and Kastanozem have the obvious signs of the climatic suppression. The adverse influence of climate on artificial forests via summer droughts is aggravated by poor soil conditions for silviculture. The lifespan of artificial forests reduces from typical for most tree species of 200-800 years to short 30-60 years. In dry steppe, the habitus and dimensions of trees are worse in comparison to natural analogue in good conditions of development. Now the artificial forests in semiarid and arid areas do not suit the task of carbon sequestration, oxygen producing and climate correction. It aggravates the current uncertainty of biosphere. Standard outdated agronomy and soil reclamation technologies fail to prepare the soil for the long-term successful forest growth. The known silviculture technology fails to provide the forest soil watering, because standard irrigation is linked to enormous water consumption, soil and landscape degradation.</p><p>We propose the Biogeosystem Technique (BGT*) for the semiarid and arid forestry improvement. The BGT* is a transcendental (non-imitating natural processes) approach to improve soil management including pre-planting soil processing, soil watering and fertigation (chemisation) for proper long-term artificial forestry. The BGT* provide regulation of the fluxes of energy, matter (including organic carbon), water and higher biological productivity of artificial forestry: intra-soil machining provides productive fine aggregate system of the 20-50 cm soil layer for root development; waste intra-soil dispersed recycling while intra-soil machining of the 20-50 cm soil layer provides better soil reclamation, remediation, plant nutrition, macro- and micro elements (including heavy metals), matter organic matter  transfer and turnover in the soil continuum; intra-soil pulse continuous-discrete plant watering reduces the transpiration rate, water consumption of trees is less for 5-20 times, and at the same time provides increased biological productivity of forest plantation, reversible biological sequestration of carbon. The BGT* methods reduce the loss of organic matter from soil into vadoze zone and atmosphere; reduce greenhouse emission from soil and forest, and improve the agro-ecological environment. Apply of the BGT* methods to the dry steppe Chernozem and Kastanozem artificial forest systems will increase the artificial forests oxygen and biomas production, prolong forest lifespan, improve the silviculture land protection function, and mitigate climate change.</p><p>BGT* robotic systems will be of low energy and material consumption, will improve forestry, agriculture, reduce the biosphere and climate uncertainty, insure the recreational appearance of forest, make the life attractive.</p><p>Objectives of the study: to show the long-term results of Russian steppe terrain silviculture system on Chernozem and Kastanozem; using BGT* methodology, to justify intra-soil 20-50 cm milling, waste intra-soil dispersed recycling while intra-soil 20-50 cm machining, intra-soil pulse continuous-discrete plant watering to provide higher artificial forest biological productivity, reversible carbon biological sequestration, soil fertility, the human and soil health.</p>

Major role of particle fragmentation in regulating biological sequestration of CO2 by the oceans

A critical driver of the ocean carbon cycle is the downward flux of sinking organic particles, which acts to lower the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. This downward flux is reduced by more than 70% in the mesopelagic zone (100 to 1000 meters of depth), but this loss cannot be fully accounted for by current measurements. For decades, it has been hypothesized that the missing loss could be explained by the fragmentation of large aggregates into small particles, although data to test this hypothesis have been lacking. In this work, using robotic observations, we quantified total mesopelagic fragmentation during 34 high-flux events across multiple ocean regions and found that fragmentation accounted for 49 ± 22% of the observed flux loss. Therefore, fragmentation may be the primary process controlling the sequestration of sinking organic carbon.

Systematic variation in marine dissolved organic matter stoichiometry and remineralization ratios as a function of lability

Remineralization of organic matter by heterotrophic organisms regulates the biological sequestration of carbon, thereby mediating atmospheric CO2. While surface nutrient supply impacts the elemental ratios of primary production, stoichiometric control by remineralization remains unclear. Here we develop a mechanistic description of remineralization and its stoichiometry in a marine microbial ecosystem model. The model simulates the observed elemental plasticity of phytoplankton and the relatively constant, lower C:N of heterotrophic biomass. In addition, the model captures the observed decreases in DOC:DON and the C:N remineralization ratio with depth for more labile substrates, which are driven by a switch in the dominant source of labile DOM from phytoplankton to heterotrophic biomass. Only a model version with targeted remineralization of N-rich components is able to simulate the observed profiles of preferential remineralization of DON relative to DOC and the elevated C:N of bulk DOM. The model suggests that more labile substrates are associated with C-limited heterotrophic growth and not with preferential remineralization, while more recalcitrant substrates are associated with growth limited by processing rates and with preferential remineralization. The resulting patterns of variable remineralization stoichiometry mediate the extent to which a proportional increase in carbon production resulting from changes in phytoplankton stoichiometry can increase the efficiency of the biological pump. Results emphasize the importance of understanding the physiology of both phytoplankton and heterotrophs for anticipating changes in biologically driven ocean carbon storage.