Drought would significantly influence the forest soils through changing the litterfall production and decomposition process. However, comprehensive in situ studies on drought effects in subtropical forests, especially in bamboo forests, have rarely been conducted. Here, we conducted a throughfall exclusion experiment with a rainfall reduction of ~80% in moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) forests to investigate effects of drought on litter quantity, quality, soil microbial and enzyme activities, and soil nutrients across two years in subtropical China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrees can build fine-root systems with high variation in root size (e.g., fine-root diameter) and root number (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrganic electrode materials have secured a distinctive place among the auspicious choices for modern energy storage systems due to their resource sustainability and environmental friendliness. Herein, a novel all-organic electrode-based sodium ion full battery is demonstrated using 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (NTCDA) as raw material for the assembly of positive and negative electrodes. Both the electrodes exhibit excellent cycling stability and rate performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Plant Sci
February 2019
Leaf size (i.e., leaf surface area and leaf dry mass) profoundly affects a variety of biological carbon, water and energy processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe variation in fine root traits in terms of size inequality at the individual root level can be identified as a strategy for adapting to the drastic changes in soil water and nutrient availabilities. The Gini and Lorenz asymmetry coefficients have been applied to describe the overall degree of size inequality, which, however, are neglected when conventional statistical means are calculated. Here, we used the Gini coefficient, Lorenz asymmetry coefficient and statistical mean in an investigation of roots in a mixed mature forest on Changbai Mountain, China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBimanual coordination is critical for a broad array of behaviors. Drummers, for example, must carefully coordinate movements of their 2 arms, sometimes beating on the same drum and sometimes on different ones. While coordinated behavior is well-studied, the early stages of planning are not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudies of visually guided unimanual reaching have established that a saccade usually precedes each reach and that the reaction times (RTs) for the saccade and reach are highly correlated. The correlation of eye and hand RT is commonly taken as a measure of eye-hand coordination and is thought to assist visuospatial guidance of the hand. We asked what happens during a bimanual reach task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrimates frequently reach toward visual targets. Neurons in early visual areas respond to stimuli in the contralateral visual hemifield and without regard to which limb will be used to reach toward that target. In contrast, neurons in motor areas typically respond when reaches are performed using the contralateral limb and with minimal regard to the visuospatial location of the target.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor both ecologists and physiologists, foliar physioecology as a function of spatially and temporally variable environmental factors such as sunlight exposure within a tree crown is important for understanding whole tree physiology and for predicting ecosystem carbon balance and productivity. Hence, we studied concentrations of nitrogen (N), non-structural carbohydrates (NSC = soluble sugars + starch), and δ(13)C in different-aged needles within Pinus koraiensis tree crowns, to understand the needle age- and crown position-related physiology, in order to test the hypothesis that concentrations of N, NSC, and δ(13)C are needle-age and crown position dependent (more light, more photosynthesis affecting N, NSC, and δ(13)C), and to develop an accurate sampling strategy. The present study indicated that the 1-yr-old needles had significantly higher concentration levels of mobile carbohydrates (both on a mass and an area basis) and N(area) (on an area basis), as well as NSC-N ratios, but significantly lower levels of N(mass) (on a mass basis) concentration and specific leaf area (SLA), compared to the current-year needles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnowledge of the responses of soil nitrogen (N) availability, fine root mass, production and turnover rates to atmospheric N deposition is crucial for understanding fine root dynamics and functioning in forest ecosystems. Fine root biomass and necromass, production and turnover rates, and soil nitrate-N and ammonium-N in relation to N fertilization (50 kg N ha(-1) year(-1)) were investigated in a temperate forest over the growing season of 2010, using sequential soil cores and ingrowth cores methods. N fertilization increased soil nitrate-N by 16% (P<0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnowledge of soil respiration and photosynthesis under elevated CO(2) is crucial for exactly understanding and predicting the carbon balance in forest ecosystems in a rapid CO(2)-enriched world. Quercus mongolica Fischer ex Ledebour seedlings were planted in open-top chambers exposed to elevated CO(2) (EC = 500 µmol mol(-1)) and ambient CO(2) (AC = 370 µmol mol(-1)) from 2005 to 2008. Daily, seasonal and inter-annual variations in soil respiration and photosynthetic assimilation were measured during 2007 and 2008 growing seasons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeostatistic methods were applied to study the spatial heterogeneity of top soil (0 - 10 cm) ammonium N and nitrate N in a broadleaved-Korean pine mixed forest of Changbai Mountains, Northeast China. The semi-variogram of soil ammonium N and nitrate N could be well fitted by spherical or Gaussian model. The spatial distribution of soil ammonium N and nitrate N all exhibited moderate autocorrelation, with the structural ratio being 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeostatistic method was applied to study the spatial distribution of woody plant fine root biomass in a natural broad-leaved Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) mixed forest soil in Changbai Mountain. The investigation was carried out in three selected plots, sized 50 m x 50 m, in 2008. In the three plots, the living fine root biomass in surface soil (0-20 cm) was 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince specific benzodiazepine (Bz) binding sites have been found in the vision and oculomotor control areas of the central nervous system (CNS), the fast phases of optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) should be affected by Bz administration. In this study, we examine the effects of Bzs on OKN fast phases under closed- and open-loop experimental conditions. Six normal subjects participated in the experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSaccadic latency is composed of separate sensory and motor processing delays. Therefore, any alteration in the sensory processing should effect the saccadic latency. Because the highest density of benzodiazepine (Bz) binding sites is located in cerebral cortex, sensory processing of stimuli in this cortical area is expected to be substantially effected by administration of Bzs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen gratings moving in different directions are presented separately to the two eyes, we typically perceive periods of the combination of motion in the two eyes as well as periods of one or the other monocular motions. To investigate whether such interocular motion combination is determined by the intersection-of-constraints (IOC) or vector average mechanism, we recorded both optokinetic nystagmus eye movements (OKN) and perception during dichoptic presentation of moving gratings and random-dot patterns with various differences of interocular motion direction. For moving gratings, OKN alternately tracks not only the direction of the two monocular motions but also the direction of their combined motion.
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