Non-Smooth Morphologies of Typical Plant Leaf Surfaces and Their Anti-Adhesion Effects

The micromorphologies of surfaces of several typical plant leaves were investigated by scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. Different non-smooth surface characteristics were described and classified. The hydrophobicity and anti-adhesion of non-smooth leaf surfaces were quantitatively measured. Results show that the morphology of epidermal cells and the morphology and distribution density of epicuticular wax directly affect the hydrophobicity and anti-adhesion. The surface with uniformly distributed convex units shows the best anti-adhesion, and the surface with regularly arranged trellis units displays better anti-adhesion. In contrast, the surface with randomly distributed hair units performs relatively bad anti-adheslon. The hydrophobic models of papilla-ciliary and fold-setal non-smooth surfaces were set up to determine the impacts of geometric parameters on the hydrophobicity. This study may provide an insight into surface machine molding and apparent morphology design for biomimetics engineering.

Leaf Photosynthesis in Response to Removing Fruit During Different Phenological Stages of Fruit Development in Peach Trees

Removing fruit (RF) and retaining fruit (CK) were carried out during different phenological stages of fruit development onone-year-old shoot of Okubo peach trees [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.] under preventing exportation of the assimilates tothe non experimental parts of the tree by girdling one-year-old shoot and keeping the same leaves between RF and CK.The results showed that fruit removal significantly decreased net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs)and transpiration rate (E), but significantly increased leaf surface temperature (TLeaf ) at about midday as compared with CK.Internal CO2 concentration, soluble sugar content, reductive sugar content, starch content except that during the finalrapid fruit growth stage, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase and amylase activities in source leaves were not significantlyaffected by fruit removal. There was a significantly positive parabolic correlation between Pn and Gs, and a strongpositive linear correlation between Pn and E. Moreover, Pn increased with increased TLeaf if TLeaf was below 38°C, thendecreased sharply when TLeaf exceeded the above critical temperature for both RF and CK. Pn of RF was lower, however,than that of CK in the same TLeaf , especially if TLeaf exceeded 38°C. It is suggested that the decreased stomatal aperture andincreased TLeaf may be the important mechanism in regulating photosynthesis under a decreased strength of sink demandby RF in fruit trees.

Dust Retention Ability of Plants as a Factor Improving Environment Air

It is well known that air in industrial cities contains a significant amount of dust particles, smoke, and toxic gases. The increased number of vehicles has a direct impact on air quality resulting in the emission of exhaust gases, and the increase of dust concentration in air. In this article, we are describing the dust retention ability of plants depending on their leaf structure. Plant species were classified into three groups according to their dust-holding capacities. Dust retaining ability of plant species in conditions of high, average and low dust conditions described.

Effects of Sulfur and Manganese Micronutrients on the Yield of Soybean Varieties

In this article, it is given about lengthening of praxis period, stem and leaf growth, leaf surface, number of stems and weight than the control variant soybean varieties, and the yield and grain quality of soybean varieties are significantly higher when the three types of sulfur and manganese on background of mineral fertilizers are applied in suspension in the condition of meadow-swamp soil. In the soybean varieties, mineral fertilizers were used in the variant with an additional yield of around 5 - 12 c/ha compared to the control. According to the norms of the manganese element, around 7 - 20 c/ha;when using sulfur, the yield in soybean varieties is around 8.0 - 18.0 c/ha. On the background of mineral fertilizers, grain quality has changed due to micronutrients. Protein content in the “Orzu” variety increased by 3.1% - 8.4% when manganese and sulfur elements were used;in the “Nafis” variety, the protein content was found to increase by 6.1% - 8.5%.

Green Walls as Mitigation of Urban Air Pollution:A Review of Their Effectiveness

Mitigation of urban air pollution has been constrained by the availability of urban spaces for greening.Green walls offer the prospect of greening spaces and surfaces without requiring large areas.Green walls can largely be divided into green facades where the aboveground parts of plants rooted in soil and pots grow directly on,and living walls holding bags,planter tiles,trays and vessels containing substrates in which plants are grown.Green facades and living walls can be continuous or modular with repeating units that can be assembled for extension.This review aims to pres­ent the effectiveness of green walls in removing different types of air pollutants in indoor and outdoor environments.It examined more than 45 peer-reviewed recently published scholarly articles to achieve the aim.It highlights that most of the studies on green walls focus on particulate matter removal and green walls could effectively remove particu­late matter though the effectiveness varies with plant types,air humidity,rainfall and its intensity,leaf area index and contact angle,green wall surface coverage ratio,as well as the height of green walls.Increasing the height of green walls and optimizing their distance from roadsides could promote the deposition of particulate matter.Washing off could regenerate plant surfaces for capturing pollutants.Green walls are also effective in removing NO2,O3,SO2 and CO.Indoor active living walls,when properly designed,could have air purifying performance comparable to a HVAC system.The performance of green walls could be optimized through polycultures,selection of plants,surface coverage and height,and air inflow.

Altitudinal effect of soil n-alkane δD values on the eastern Tibetan Plateau and their increasing isotopic fractionation with altitude

Stable isotope paleoaltimetry has provided unprecedented insights into the topographic histories of many of the world's highest mountain ranges. However, on the Tibetan Plateau(TP), stable isotopes from paleosols generally yield much higher paleoaltitudes than those based on fossils. It is therefore essential when attempting to interpret accurately this region's paleoaltitudes that the empirical calibrations of local stable isotopes and the relations between them are established. Additionally,it is vital that careful estimations be made when estimate how different isotopes sourced from different areas may have been influenced by different controls. We present here 29 hydrogen isotopic values for leaf wax-derived n-alkanes(i.e., δD_(wax) values,and abundance-weighted average δD values of C_(29) and C_(31)) in surface soils, as well as the δD values of soil water(δD_(sw)) samples(totaling 22) from Mount Longmen(LM), on the eastern TP(altitude ~0.8–4.0 km above sea level(asl), a region climatically affected by the East Asian Monsoon(EAM). We compared our results with published data from Mount Gongga(GG). In addition,47 river water samples, 55 spring water samples, and the daily and monthly summer precipitation records(from May to October,2015) from two precipitation observation stations were collected along the GG transect for δD analysis. LM soil δD_(wax) values showed regional differences and responded strongly to altitude, varying from.160‰ to.219‰, with an altitudinal lapse rate(ALR) of.18‰ km^(-1)(R^2=0.83; p<0.0001; n=29). These δD_(wax) values appeared more enriched than those from the GG transect by ~40‰. We found that both the climate and moisture sources led to the differences observed in soil δD_(wax) values between the LM and GG transects. We found that, as a general rule, ε_(wax/rw), ε_(wax/p) and εwax/sw values(i.e., the isotopic fractionation of δD_(wax) corresponding to δD_(rw), δD_p and δD_(sw)) increased with increasing altitude along both the LM and GG transects(up to 34‰ and 50‰, respectively). Basing its research on a comparative study of δD_(wax), δD_p, δD_(rw)(δD_(springw)) and δD_(sw), this paper discusses the effects of moisture recycling, glacier-fed meltwater, relative humidity(RH), evapotranspiration(ET), vegetation cover, latitude,topography and/or other factors on ε_(wax/p) values. Clearly, if ε_(wax-p) values at higher altitudes are calculated using smaller ε_(wax-p) values from lower altitudes, the calculated paleowaterδD_p values are going to be more depleted than the actual δD values, and any paleoaltitude would therefore be overestimated.