The land-application of Class B biosolids is tightly regulated to allow for natural attenuation of co-applied pathogens. Since many agricultural fields that receive biosolids are artificially drained through subsurface tiles, it is possible that under scenarios of excessive drainage associated with heavy rainfall events, co-applied pathogens might be carried offsite to contaminate nearby surface waters. To address this concern, we used genetic as well as traditional methods to investigate the impact of rainfall on the offsite drainage of Escherichia coli from agricultural fields during biosolids application. Water samples from field drain tiles and a reference field (no biosolids applied) were collected pre-, during and post-biosolids application, while samples of applied biosolids were collected on site during application. The samples were analyzed for E. coli-density and community- and isolate-fingerprinting to assess the genetic link between E. coli in drainage water and those co-applied with biosolids. In contrast to E. coli densities present in the reference field drainage, our results revealed that post-application drainage water collected from biosolids treated fields contained significantly higher E. coli densities following heavy rainfall events, as compared to light rainfall events. Also, in contrast to the reference field, heavy rainfall correlated significantly with increased similarity of E. coli community fingerprints occurring in biosolids to those draining from treated field. Fingerprinting of individual E. coli revealed a high similarity (>94%) between some isolates collected from biosolids and post-application drainage water. Using a combination of enumeration and genetic typing methods, we show that heavy rainfall following biosolids application to agricultural fields induced the offsite transport of biosolids-associated E. coli, potentially compromising the quality of water draining through the watershed.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.06.021 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
December 2024
Division of Plant Science and Technology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
The western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, has evolved resistance to nearly every management tactic utilized in the field. This study investigated the resistance mechanisms in a WCR strain resistant to the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein eCry3.1Ab using dsRNA to knockdown WCR midgut genes previously documented to be associated with the resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, Ningxia, 750021, China.
Lycium barbarum is an important economic crop in the arid region of Northwest China, and the regulation of irrigation and fertilisation is an important way to improve the quality and yield of Lycium barbarum. To explore the effects of water-fertiliser coupling on photosynthesis, quality and yield of Lycium barbarum under irrigation methods based on predicted crop evapotranspiration (ET), ET was calculated via reference evapotranspiration (ET) predicted on the basis of public weather forecasts, and the irrigation water volume was determined as a proportion of this ET. A field experiment was conducted via a completely randomised experimental design with five irrigation water volumes (W0 (100% ET), W1 (90% ET), W2 (80% ET), W3 (70% ET) and W4 (65% ET)) and three fertiliser application rates (high fertiliser (FH), medium fertiliser (FM) and low fertiliser (FL)).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
Xi'an Shiyou University School of Electronic Engineering, Xi'an, 710065, China.
The expressway green channel is an essential transportation policy for moving fresh agricultural products in China. In order to extract knowledge from various records, this study presents a cutting-edge approach to extract information from textual records of failure cases in the vertical field of expressway green channel. We proposed a hybrid approach based on BIO labeling, pre-trained model, deep learning and CRF to build a named entity recognition (NER) model with the optimal prediction performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Recent changes in climate and environments have promoted the range expansion of insect pests of tropical and subtropical origins into temperate regions. For more accurate and faster risk assessment of this expansion, we developed a novel indicator to link a physiologically derived parameter of chilling injury with the survival of insect populations in nature by using two insects, Spodoptera frugiperda and Cicadulina bipunctata with tropical and subtropical origins, and one cool-adapted insect, Laodelphax striatellus. The parameter derived from a proportional increment in the time to 99.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Viale Mattioli 25, Turin, 10125, Turin, Italy.
Enhancing crops productivity to ensure food security is one of the major challenges encountering agriculture today. A promising solution is the use of biostimulants, which encompass molecules that enhance plant fitness, growth, and productivity. The regulatory metabolite zaxinone and its mimics (MiZax3 and MiZax5) showed promising results in improving the growth and yield of several crops.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!