[Effects of human disturbance on soil aggregates content and their organic C stability in Karst regions].

Taking the primary forest land (PF), natural restoration land (NR), grazing grassland burned annually in winter (GB), and maize-sweet potato cropland (MS) in Karst regions of Northwest Guangxi as test objects, this paper studied the soil aggregates content and their organic C stability in the four ecosystems under different human disturbance patterns. The soil water-stable aggregates (>0.25 mm) content in PF, NR, and GB accounted for more than 70%, while that in MS was only 37%. The destruction rate of soil aggregates structure in the four ecosystems decreased in the sequence of MS (54.9%) > GB (23.2%) > NR (9.8%) and PF (9.6%), with significant differences among them (P<0.05). With increasing incubation time, the mineralization rate of soil aggregate organic C decreased after an initial increase and kept stable after 20 days, and increased with decreasing aggregate size. In the same size aggregates, the mineralization rate of organic C in the four ecosystems increased in the sequence of MS < GB and NR < PF. In PF, the mineralization ratio of soil organic C was 1.7% - 3.8%, being significantly higher than that in NR, GB, and MS. The cumulative mineralization amount of soil organic C had the same change trend with the mineralization rate. The contents of soil organic C and aggregate organic C were significantly positively correlated with the mineralization rate and cumulative mineralization amount of organic C, respectively, and significantly negatively correlated with the mineralization ratio of organic C.

[Spatiotemporal heterogeneity and its formation causes of soil physical properties in karst peak-cluster depression area of northwest Guangxi, China].

Soil samples were collected from the grassland, shrub land, secondary forest, and original forest on the hill slope in a typical karst peak-cluster depression area of northwest Guanxi, with the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of soil physical properties investigated by classical statistics, and the formation causes of the heterogeneity analyzed by redundancy analysis (RDA). In 0-15 cm soil layer, the clay (< 0.002 mm) and silt (0.002-0.05 mm) contents of shrub land and original forest had significant differences with those of grassland and secondary forest, respectively, but the clay, silt, and sand (0.05-2.0 mm) contents had no significant differences between grassland and secondary forest. No significant difference was observed in the soil sand content among the four land types, but the soil bulk density of grassland was significantly different from that of other three land types. The soil clay content of grassland increased with increasing elevation, while that of the other three land types was the highest on medium slope, and had no significant differences for the same land types among different slope locations. The soil clay content in different layers of 0-30 cm had a greater variation extent in original forest (14.55%) than in grassland (7.12%), shrub land (11.24%), and secondary forest (13.77%), and the soil particle size composition was greatly affected by the disturbance of human activities. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and vegetation type were the dominant factors affecting the soil physical properties, and the bare rock ratio had greater effects on soil sand content.

Study of the electrospun PLA/silk fibroin-gelatin composite nanofibrous scaffold for tissue engineering.

In this article, a nanofibrous composite scaffold of poly L-lactic acid(PLA)/silk fibroin(SF)-gelatin was fabricated by multilayer electrospinning. To investigate the feasibility of PLA/SF-gelatin use as scaffolds, the porosity and mechanical properties were examined; in particular, the biocompatibilities were evaluated in vivo and in vitro by the means of cell adhesion and cytotoxicity testing, short-term subcutaneous implantation testing, and acute hemolysis testing according to the requirements of ISO 10993. The results showed the scaffold achieved the desirable levels of pliability (elastic up to 7.3% strain) and the appropriate breaking strength (2.22 MPa). The porosity of the SF-gelatin layer was 87% and the pore diameter was 142 nm. After 12 days of cultivation, SEM observation demonstrated the scaffold was nontoxic, biocompatible, and capable of supporting 3T3 mouse fibroblasts attachment, spreading, and growth. The hemolysis test proved the scaffolds with hemolytic rates from 3.1 to 4.5%. The subcutaneous implantation test indicated minor inflammatory reactions surrounding the scaffolds and biodegradation were initially observed in about 3 months. The desired porous structure, strong and pliable properties, combined with the ability of PLA/SF-gelatin scaffold to support cell growth in vitro, especially excellent biocompatibility in vivo, suggested potential application for tissue engineering scaffolds.