Use of 13C and 15N Mass Spectrometry to Study the Decomposition of Calamagrostis epigeios in Soil Column Experiments with and Without Ash Additions

Abstract

The dynamics of C and N in terrestrial ecosystems are not completely understood and the use of stable isotopes may be useful to gain further insight in the pathways of CO₂ emissions and leaching of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (DON) during decomposition of litter. Objectives were (i) to study the decomposition dynamics of Calamagrostis epigeios, a common grass species in forests, using ¹³C-depleted and ¹⁵N-enriched plants and (ii) to quantify the effect wood ash addition on the decomposition and leaching of DOC and DON. Decomposition was studied for 128 days under aerobic conditions at 8°C and moisture close to field capacity in a spodic dystric Cambisol with mor-moder layer. Variants included control plots and additions of (i) Calamagrostis litter and (ii) Calamagrostis litter plus 4 kg ash m^?2.

• Decomposition of Calamagrostis resulted in a CO₂ production of 76.2 g CO₂–C m^?2 (10% of added C) after 128 days and cumulative DOC production was 14.0 g C m^?2 out of which 0.9g C m^?2 was Calamagrostis-derived (0.1% of added C). The specific CO₂ formation and specific DOC production from Calamagrostis were 6 times higher (CO₂) and 4 times smaller (DOC) than those from the organic layer. The amount of Calamagrostis-derived total N (NH₄ ⁺, NO₃ ^?, DON) leached was 0.7g N m^?2 (4.8% of added N). Cumulative DON production was 0.8g N m^?2 which was slightly higher than for the control. During soil passage, much of the DOC and DON was removed due to sorption or decomposition. DOC and DON releases from the mineral soil (17cm depth) were 6.3g C m^?2 and 0.5g N m^?2.

  Addition of ash resulted in a complete fixing of CO₂ for 40 days due to carbonatisation. Afterwards, the CO₂ production rates were similar to the variant without ash addition. Production of DOC (98.6g C m^?2) and DON (2.5g N m^?2) was marked, mainly owing to humus decay. However, Calamagrostis-derived DOC and Culamagrostis-derived total N were only 3.9g C m^?2 (0.5 YO of added C) and 0.5g N m^?2 (3.4% of added N). The specific DOC production rate from the organic layer was 6 times higher than that from Cularnagrostis. The results suggest that with increasing humification from fresh plant residues to more decomposed material (O_F and O_H layers) the production ratio of DOC/CO₂-C increases. Addition of alkaline substances to the forest floor can lead to a manifold increase in DOC production.

     

Messy broadcasting — Decentralized broadcast schemes with limited knowledge

We consider versions of broadcasting that proceed in the absence of information about the network. In particular, the vertices of the network do not know the structure of the network or the starting time, originator, or state of the broadcast. Furthermore, the protocols are not coordinated. This synchronous anonymous communication model has been called messy broadcasting. We perform a worst case analysis of three variants of messy broadcasting. These results also provide upper bounds on broadcasting where every vertex simply calls each of its neighbors once in random order. We prove exact bounds on the time required for broadcasting under two variants and give a conjectured value for the third.     

Multiresidue Analysis of Pesticides in Vegetables and Citrus Fruits by LC–MS–MS

In this work, an analytical multiresidue method using liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC–MS–MS) with triple quadrupole in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode for the simultaneous determination of 54 pesticides in vegetables (pepper and tomato) and citrus fruits (orange and lemon) has been developed. The procedure involves initial single phase extraction of sample with acetonitrile by agitation, followed by liquid–liquid partition aided by “salting out” process using NaCl. The average recovery by the LC–MS–MS method obtained for these compounds varied from 65.5 to 114.5% with a relative standard deviation between 2.3 and 8.3%. The method presents good linearity over the range assayed 10–500 μg L^?1 (except famoxadone 50–1,000 μg L^?1) and the detection limits for the pesticides studied varied from 0.03 to 14.9 μg kg^?1. The proposed method was used to determine pesticide levels in vegetables and citrus fruit samples from different experimental orchards and greenhouses from the Region of Murcia.     

Transport and accumulation of spin anisotropy

We show that spin anisotropy can be transferred to an isotropic system by transport of a spin-quadrupole moment. We derive the quadrupole moment current and continuity equation and study a spin-valve structure consisting of two ferromagnets coupled to a quantum dot probing an impurity spin. The quadrupole backaction on their coupled spin results in spin torques and anisotropic spin relaxation which do not follow from standard spin-current considerations. We demonstrate the detection of the impurity spin by charge transport and its manipulation by electric fields.     

Photoactivatable Fluorophore for Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Microscopy and Bioconjugation Technique for Hydrophobic Labels

The use of photoactivatable dyes in STED microscopy has so far been limited by two-photon activation through the STED beam and by the fact that photoactivatable dyes are poorly solvable in water. Herein, we report ONB-2SiR, a fluorophore that can be both photoactivated in the UV and specifically de-excited by STED at 775 nm. Likewise, we introduce a conjugation and purification protocol to effectively label primary and secondary antibodies with moderately water-soluble dyes. Greatly reducing dye aggregation, our technique provides a defined and tunable degree of labeling, and improves the imaging performance of dye conjugates in general.