Plant-to-plant direct competition for belowground resource in an overlapping depletion zone

In response to limited availability of soil resources in basal root zone, plant extends its roots into nearby resource-rich zones to fulfill essential resource demands for survival and reproduction. This root proliferation into that enriched zones occupied by other plants constitutes interplant overlapping rooting zones and thereby the overlapping depletion zones, causing reduction in resource uptake by neighboring plants. By incorporating this mechanism into the classic resource competition model, we study interplant direct competition through their rooting system in an overlapping depletion zone. The model results indicate an extension of Tilman’s R* rule that has already been proved true when plants compete indirectly through their effect on shared resources. The results reveal that plant’s direct competitive ability (i.e., the ability to occupy an overlapping depletion zone by excluding others) can be characterized by its R*-value, where a best competitor having lowest R*-value excludes others from an overlapping zone and occupies the zone by depleting the resource level to the lowest as in its non-overlapping depletion zone. By analyzing the model, we find a suite of traits that confers R* variation among directly competing plants. This suite of traits would be a useful proxy measure for R* that do not necessarily require to establish equilibrium field monoculture—a requirement for R* measurement in the field.

Microstructure Evolution of a Nickel-Base Alloy Resistant to High Temperature during Aging

In the present study, the microstructural evolution during aging at 1023, 1073, 1123 and 1173 K of a 35Cr-45Ni heat resistant alloy, produced in the form of centrifugally cast tubes, was characterized by means of light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with secondary and backscattered electron imaging, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Vickers hardness tests. The evolution of the Vickers hardness at 1023 K for aged samples shows that the microstructure is stable during the analyzed aging period. At 1073 K, the rate of increase in hardness is lower than 1023 K and this behavior would be associated with morphological changes observed in primary interdendritic carbides and secondary carbides in the matrix. At 1123 K and 1173 K, an atypical behavior in Vickers hardness curve is presented;where it can be seen that at certain aging times, the hardness decreases significantly. A microstructural analysis of these samples indicates that they have a region free of precipitates (near interdendritic edges) where the hardness is lower. Probably, these regions are areas poor in chromium.

Nucleation Behavior Analysis of Intragranular Acicular Ferrite in a Ti-killed C-Mn Steel

By using a Gleeble 350013 thermo-mechanical simulator, the nucleation behavior of intragranular acicular ferrites （IAF） was studied in a Ti-killed C-Mn steel. During continuous cooling transformation, the allotriomorphic ferrite （AF） and ferrite side plate （FSP） microstructures grew more rapidly with the temperature decreasing from 800 to 650 ℃, and the IAF microstructure was dominant within austenite grain with further cooling to 600 ℃. The diffusion bonding experiment and the effect of C, Mn and Si concentrations on the Ao3 temperature by thermodynam- ic calculation confirm that Ti2O3 itself absorbs neighboring Mn atoms to form Mn-depleted zone （MDZ）, which pro- motes the nucleation of IAF microstructure effectively. High temperature holding tests indicate that the nucleation potential of IAF microstructure was lowered in the Ti-killed C-Mn steel when it was treated at high temperature （1250 ℃ ） for a longer time, which is attributed to the saturated absorption degree of Mn atoms by titanium oxide.