An Assessment of Storage Terms in the Surface Energy Balance of a Subalpine Meadow in Northwest China

The heat storage terms in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system may play an important role in the surface energy budget.In this paper,we evaluate the heat storage terms of a subalpine meadow based on a ficld experiment conducted in the complex terrain of the eastern Qilian Mountains of Northwest China and their impact on the closure of the surface energy balance under such non-ideal conditions.During the night, the average sum of the storage terms was -5.5 W m,which corresponded to 10.4%of net radiation.The sum of the terms became positive at 0730 LST and negative again at about 1500 LST,with a maximum value of 19 W mobserved at approximately 0830 LST.During the day,the average of the sum of the storage terms was 6.5 W m,which corresponded to 4.0%of net radiation.According to the slopes obtained when linear regression of the net radiation and partitioned fluxes was forced through the origin,there is an imbalance of 14.0%in the subalpine meadow when the storage terms are not considered in the surface energy balance.This imbalance was improved by 3.4%by calculating the sum of the storage terms.The soil heat storage flux gave the highest contribution(1.59%),while the vegetation enthalpy change and the rest of the storage terms were responsible for improvements of 1.04%and 0.77%,respectively.

<i>In Vitro</i>Conservation Tactics for a Sweet Genotype of <i>Amygdalus scoparia</i>, an Endangered Medicinally Important Tree Species by Propagation Using Synthetic Seeds

Bud stems arisen from in vitro cultures of A. scoparia were encapsulated in calcium alginate pieces for short term stockpile and germplasm interchange. The maximum frequency (88.96%) of conversion of encapsulated nodal segments into plantlets and the highest node number (7.20) was performed on a murashige and Skoog’s medium (MS medium) containing 2.2 μM banzyl adenine (BA). The highest length of re-growing shoots was achieved when MS medium was supplied with 2.2 μM BA and 0.5 μM NAA. However, the number of shoots produced was higher (5.30 and 5.10) on MS medium supplemented with 2.2 μM BA and 0.5 μM NAA and MS medium with 2.2 μM BA, respectively than on the hormone-free media. Treatment with 19.6 μM IBA resulted in the highest conversion of encapsulated nodal segments into plantlets. The frequency of conversion (89.6% - 88.6%) was retained at 25?C for up to 2 weeks without significant change. The highest frequencies (61.1%) of plantlet formation from encapsulated nodal segments were obtained by transferring synthetic seeds onto peat mass and perlite (2:1) (v/v) mixture substrate. When transplanted into the peat mass and perlite (2:1) (v/v) mixture, these plantlets showed greater plantlet high, leaf number, shoot number and root number per plantlet than those of the other substrates. The synthetic seed technology offered a promising way for short term storage without refrigerating, germplasm conservation exchange for improvement and an alternative clonal propagation method for this endangered genotype of A. scoparia.

Transporting Mammalian Cells at Ambient Temperature:A Viable Alternative to Dry Ice

The most common method of shipping cells between institutes and companies is sending them frozen, usually treated with anti-freeze solution (most commonly DMSO because it is less toxic than many alternatives), and then packaging them in dry ice for shipment. However many countries place restrictions on dry ice shipments. An alternative to shipping frozen cell vials is to send flasks of growing cells in media. This also has problems because cells in media have limited viability and the flasks can leak. Here we report on an alternative method for shipping viable cells at ambient temperature without dry ice or in media filled flasks. In this study we report on the development and properties of HemSol?. This is an inexpensive, eco-friendly and protects cell integrity at ambient temperature while maintaining viability. We have previously shown that HemSol? protects platelet and RBC function in cold storage and circulating tumor cells up to 6 days. Therefore we wanted to know if HemSol? could also be used to transport live cells. Since HemSol? is a liquid, we experimented with encasing the cells with HemSol? and gelatin so as to prevent dry ice shipment of cells and circumvent the shipping of cells in media. We performed mock shipping experiments where cells were stored in HemSol? gel kept at room temperature on a lab benchtop and cells stored in dry ice was also kept on lab benchtop for up to 2 days. After the mock shipping period, we analyzed cells for their functions. Our results show that cells in HemSol? gel have greater than 95% viability and restored biological functions in 2 hours, whereas, cells shipped in dry ice required more than 24 hours to recover and needed media change to remove the DMSO.

Analysis of the Surface Energy Closure for a Site in the Gobi Desert in Northwest China

The heat storage terms over an ideal（non-vegetated） horizontal desert surface may be very important and easily neglected in surface energy balance studies.In this paper,based on a field experiment over the Gobi Desert in the middle part of the Hexi Corridor in Northwest China（39 05 N,100 16 E;1457-m elevation）,we studied the energy budget closure and evaluated the contribution of the heat storage terms to the closure of the surface energy balance.There were imbalances of 8% and 15% in summer and winter,respectively,if the heat storage terms were not taken into account.For both seasons,a nearly perfect result of the surface energy closure（99%） was obtained by inclusion of the estimates of heat storage terms.The soil heat storage term improved the surface energy imbalance by about 6% in summer and 13% in winter,and the air enthalpy storage term improved it by about 0.6% in summer and 1% in winter,while the contribution of the atmospheric moisture changes could be ignored.