Home-field advantage in litter decomposition: A critical review from a microbial perspective.

Litter decomposition is a key component of biogeochemical recycling. It is highly sensitive to changes in microbial community assembly. An interesting phenomenon in litter decomposition is the home-field advantage (HFA), where litter decomposes faster in native locations than in foreign sites. However, the role of the HFA in litter decomposition remains controversial. This review examines current evidence relating to the HFA using the leaf economics spectrum theory and the Lotka-Volterra niche competition model and explains its influence on the microbial assembly process. Here, it is proposed that the microbial community assembly could help to explain the HFA at spatiotemporal scales. This review improves understanding of the role of the succession of microbial communities in HFA litter decomposition and in the elemental cycle of forest systems.

Preparation and characterization of novel forward osmosis membrane incorporated with sulfonated carbon nanotubes.

In this study, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were modified with sulfonated groups and incorporated into the active layer of a forward osmosis (FO) membrane to achieve a desirable thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) FO membrane. Different concentrations of sulfonated carbon nanotubes (SCNTs) were added, and their impact on the FO membrane was also investigated, including the hydrophilicity, roughness, membrane morphology and FO performance. With the addition of SCNTs, the membrane surface got smoother and denser, and the hydrophilicity also improved significantly. Regarding FO performance, SCNTs-functionalized FO membranes exhibited higher water flux (J w) and lower reverse salt flux (J s). The optimal J w of 29.9 ± 1.6 LMH was achieved by using 1 M NaCl solution as the draw solution (DS) and deionized (DI) water as the feed solution (FS), almost 140% higher than the control (21.3 ± 2.1 LMH) and J s decreased to about 12%.

The exploration of monochromatic near-infrared LED improved anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria Rhodopseudomonas sp. for wastewater treatment.

The future wastewater treatment requires high-efficiency and energy-saving technology. Anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria (APB) is deemed as an eco-friendly microorganism, which could be employed in wastewater treatment. Here, monochromatic near-infrared (MNIR) light emitting diode (LED) was used, and three key factors (light quality, light intensity and photoperiod) of it were analyzed by a response surface methodology (RSM) in APB wastewater treatment. The results showed that light quality was the biggest impact factor in APB wastewater treatment, and nearly 58.07% of NH4+-N and 70.62% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) could be removed based on 46.4% of that theoretically possible. The light quality's study revealed that APB had the highest NH4+-N and COD removal, biomass production, and bacteriochlorophyll a production with 850nm IR LED. Moreover, the application of optimal MNIR LED could not only save energy, but also avoid algae bloom of photo-bioreactors (PBR).