Soil organic carbon dynamics study bias deduced from isotopic fractionation in corn plant

Carbon stable isotope techniques were extensively employed to trace the dynamics of soil organic carbon(SOC)across a land-use change involving a shift to vegetation with different photosynthetic pathways.Based on the isotopic mass balance equation,relative contributions of new versus old SOC,and SOC turnover rate in corn fields were evaluated world-wide.However,most previous research had not analyzed corn debris left in the field,instead using an average corn plant δ^(13)C value or a measured value to calculate the proportion of corn-derived SOC,either of which could bias results.This paper carried out a detailed analysis of isotopic fractionation in corn plants and deduced the maximum possible bias of SOC dynamics study.The results show approximately 3‰ isotopic fractionation from top to bottom of the corn leaf.The ^(13)C enrichment sequence in corn plant was tassel﹥stalk or cob﹥root﹥leaves.Individual parts accounting for the total dry mass of corn returned distinct values.Consequently,the average δ^(13)C value of corn does not represent the actual isotopic composition of corn debris.Furthermore,we deduced that the greater the fractionation in corn plant,the greater the possible bias.To alleviate bias of SOC dynamics study,we suggest two measures:analyze isotopic compositions and proportions of each part of the corn and determine which parts of the corn plant are left in the field and incorporated into SOC.

Seasonal Change in CO2 Production Rate along Depth in a Grassland Field

Soil is a large terrestrial carbon pool so that the evaluation and prediction of soil respiration is important for understanding and managing carbon cycling between the pedosphere and the atmosphere. For better understanding about characteristics and mechanisms of soil respiration, this study monitored seasonal behaviors of soil gaseous CO2 concentration profile with relevant soil physical conditions in a meadow field, and numerically analyzed the monitored data sets to inversely determine time-series of depth distributions of CO2 production rate in the field by assuming optimum ranges of depth and moisture condition for aerobic respiration of soil fauna and flora. The results of the inverse analyses showed that the depth range of intense CO2 production resided in top soil layers during summer and moved down into subsoil layers in winter, implying that the depth range of main CO2 sources can change dynamically with seasons. The surface CO2 emission rates derived from the inverse analyses fell in the range typically found in the same kind of land use. The evaluated mean residence time of gaseous CO2 in the study field was around half a day. These findings suggested that the modelling assumptions about soil respiration in this study are effective to probe spatial and temporal behavior of respiratory activity in a soil layer, and it is still important to integrate facts about in-situ CO2 concentration profiles with soil physical parameters for quantitatively predicting possible behaviors of soil respiration in response to hypothetical changes in atmospheric and soil climates.

Electrochemical Study of Cadmium (Ⅱ) Complexation with Cysteine

The complexation of Cd with cysteine has been investigated at pH ~9, and in constant ionic medium 0.59 M NaNO3 and borate buffer. Reduction signals of the hydrated Cd2+ and Cd-cysteinate complex were resolved on the potential scale during amperometric titration of 2 × 10-6 M Cd2+ with cysteine and cysteine with Cd2+, in a differential pulse (DP) mode on HMDE. The 1:1 molar ratio of Cd2+ to cysteine, and cysteine to Cd2+, was defined for Cd-cysteinate complex formed under the defined conditions. The appearance of the prepeak on the Cd-cysteinate reduction signal is showed, as the result of cysteine adsorption in reduced form. From the mass balance equations, the stoichiometric stability constants of Cd-cysteinate complex were calculated. Under various experimental conditions, comparable log K values were obtained. The grand average log K = 7.83 M-1 refers to 0.59 M ionic strength and 23℃.