Early performance of Pinus radiata provenances in the earthquakeravaged dry river valley area of Sichuan, southwest China

A provenance experiment involving five native provenances and an Australian landrace of Pinus radiata （D. Don） was established over three sites in the dry river valley area of Sichuan, southwest China in 2004 in order to select the most suitable provenance for environmental planting on the dry, steep and degraded slopes to reduce soil erosion. Although with much lower soil moisture supply and mean minimum temperatures in winter compared to P. radiata provenance trials estab- lished elsewhere in the world, these sites are within the working limits of the species defined by previous climate modelling and matching. Be- cause of the difficult site conditions and severe natural disturbances after the experiment was established, mortality was high across the three sites in comparison to provenance trials in other countries.

Effects of a Combined Application of Nitrogenous and Phosphorus Fertilizers on the Growth of Pinus radiata

In the arid valley of the upper reaches of the Minjiang river,combined application tests of nitrogenous and phosphorus fertilizers were conducted to the 1-year-old seedlings of Pinus radiate to investigate the appropriate amount of fertilization,so as to provide bases of fertilization management of young P.radiate in the arid val-ley.Different combined application amounts of nitrogenous and phosphorus were studied based on the randomized blocks design.The results showed that in comparing 3 treatment groups with the control,the first and second treatments significantly increased the ground diameter and height of P.radiate,while the third treatment merely significantly increased the ground diameter.Under the conditions of this study,the recommended fertilization amount was 30 g of urea and 150 g of calcium superphosphate per plant for the one-year-old P.radiate.

Effect of Fertilizer Application on the Yield of Walnut (Juglans regia L.)

[Objectives] This study was conducted to explore the fertilization ratio of walnut, so as to provide a basis for rational fertilization of walnut. [Methods] Under the condition of gravelly yellow soil in Chaotian District, Guangyuan City, the orthogonal design of L_9(3~4) was used to test the fertilization ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. [Results] The effects of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers on walnut yield ranked as phosphate fertilizer>potassium fertilizer>nitrogen fertilizer. The different treatments had great effects on the yield of walnut, and for the land with gravelly yellow soil, the suitable annual fertilization amount of walnut was urea 1 200 g/plant + calcium superphosphate 1 500 g/plant + potassium sulfate 940 g/plant. [Conclusions] This study provides a theoretical basis for rational fertilization of walnut in Sichuan Province.

Quambalaria species associated with eucalypt diseases in southern China

The genus Quambalaria includes several important pathogens of species of Eucalyptus and Corymbia, mainly causing leaf and shoot blight. Recently,extensive shoot and leaf dieback and stem cankers suspected to be Quambalaria diseases have been found on young Eucalyptus urophylla ? E. grandis trees in Guangdong and Hainan Provinces. The occurrence of Quambalaria species and their association with eucalypt hosts within China needs to be investigated for tree diseases management. The isolates from the diseased samples were identified based on their morphological structures and phylogenetic analyses with DNA sequence data for the internal transcribed spacer region and large ribosome subunit RNA of the nuclear r DNA. This work revealed that three species of Quambalaria were present: Quambalaria pitereka from Corymbia citriodora,Q. eucalypti from E. urophylla ? E. grandis, both isolated from young eucalypt leaves and shoots in Guangdong Province, and Quambalaria simpsonii, which was isolated from stem cankers of E. urophylla ? E. grandis at four different sites across Guangdong and Hainan Provinces.These results confirmed that Quambalaria agents were associated with the diseases occurring on eucalypt hosts in South China. This is the first report of Q. eucalypti in Asia and the first report of Q. simpsonii in China on Eucalyptus trees.

Interconnected Ni(OH)_(2)and polyether amine on carbon fiber surface for simultaneously improving interfacial adhesion of epoxy composites and electrochemical properties

Interconnected Ni(OH)_(2)nanoflakes and polyether amine(PEA)were deposited on carbon fiber tows via a facial and effective process of chemical bath deposition and dip coating.Based on this,a win–win benefit of simultaneously improvements in interfacial shear strength(IFSS)of carbon fiber/epoxy composites and the electrochemical activity has been achieved.Compared with CF and CF-Ni(OH)_(2)composites,the IFSS of CF-Ni(OH)_(2)-PEA/epoxy composite respectively increased 7.9%and 45.4%,which was put down to the covalent bonding of Ni(OH)_(2)-PEA coating with fiber and epoxy matrix,as well as the effective stress transfer by the uniform honeycomb structure of Ni(OH)_(2).In aqueous KOH electrolyte,the CF-Ni(OH)_(2)-PEA electrode presented the maximum specific capacitance of 689.98 F·g^(-1)at 5 m V·s^(-1),572.28 F·g^(-1)at a current density of 0.5 A·g^(-1)due to the strong adhesion of carbon fiber with Ni(OH)_(2)by PEA,the reservation of the threedimensional hollow honeycomb structure of Ni(OH)_(2)for easy ion-transport and–NH_(2)functional groups from PEA for providing more active sites.The excellent performance of CF-Ni(OH)_(2)-PEA reinforcement demonstrates its promising potential for application in high performance composites with integrated structure and function,which shows great advantages in various fields of aerospace,energy,electronics,automobile,civil engineering,sports,etc.