The stability of soil organic carbon across topographies in a tropical rainforest.

Mechanisms of soil organic carbon (SOC) stability are still unclear in forest ecosystems. In order to unveil the influences of topography on the SOC stability, a 60ha dynamic plot of a tropical montane rainforest was selected in Jianfengling, in Hainan Island, China and soil was sampled from 60 quadrats. The chemical fractions of the SOC were detected with 13C CPMAS/NMR and path analyses explore the mechanisms of SOC stability in different topographies. The chemical fractions of the SOC comprised alkyl carbon > O-alkyl carbon > carboxyl carbon > aromatic carbon. The decomposition index (DI) values were greater than 1 in the different topographies, with an average DI value was 1.29, which indicated that the SOC in the study area was stable. Flat and top areas (together named RF) had more favorable nutrients and silt contents compared with steep and slight steep areas (together named RS). The influencing factors of SOC stability varied across the topographies, where SOC, soil moisture (SM) and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4 +-N, AN) were the main influencing factors in the RF, while SM and AN were the main factors in the RS. Greater SOC and AN strengthened the SOC stability, while higher soil moisture lowered SOC stability. The inertia index was higher in the RS than the RF areas, indicating that local topography significantly affects SOC content and SOC stability by changing soil environmental factors. Topography cannot be neglected in considering SOC stability and future C budgets.

Non-microbial methane emissions from tropical rainforest soils under different conditions.

Non-microbial methane (NM-CH4), emissions from soil might play a significant role in carbon cycling and global climate change. However, the production mechanisms and emission potential of soil NM-CH4 from tropical rainforest remain highly uncertain. In order to explore the laws and characteristics of NM-CH4 emission from tropical rainforest soils. Incubation experiments at different environmental conditions (temperatures, soil water contents, hydrogen peroxide) and for soils with different soil organic carbon (SOC) contents were conducted to investigate the NM-CH4 emission characteristics and its influence factors of soils (0-10cm) that collected from a tropical rainforest in Hainan, China. Incubation results illustrated that soil NM-CH4 release showed a linear increase with the incubation time in the first 24 hours at 70 °C, whereas the logarithmic curve increase was found in 192 h incubation. Soil NM-CH4 emission rates under aerobic condition were significantly higher than that of under anaerobic condition at first 24 h incubation. The increasing of temperature, suitable soil water contents (0-100%), and hydrogen peroxide significantly promoted soil NM-CH4 emission rates at the first 24 h incubation. However, excessive soil water contents (200%) inhibited soil NM-CH4 emissions. According to the curve simulated from the NM-CH4 emission rates and incubation time at 70 °C of aerobic condition, soil would no longer release NM-CH4 after 229 h incubation. The NM-CH4 emissions were positively corelated with SOC contents, and the average soil NM-CH4 emission potential was about 6.91 ug per gram organic carbon in the tropical mountain rainforest. This study revealed that soils in the tropical rainforest could produce NM-CH4 under certain environment conditions and it supported production mechanisms of thermal degradation and reactive oxygen species oxidation. Those results could provide a basic data for understanding the soil NM-CH4 production mechanisms and its potential in the tropical rainforest.

Efficient polyhydroxyalkanoates production from a waste-activated sludge alkaline fermentation liquid by activated sludge submitted to the aerobic feeding and discharge process.

It was reported in our previous publication that the accumulation of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) was significantly enhanced when waste-activated sludge (WAS) was anaerobically fermented at pH 10.0 (Yuan, et al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 2025-2029). In this paper, the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) by activated sludge with an aerobic feeding and discharge (AFD) process was investigated by the use of WAS alkaline fermentation liquid as the carbon source. It was observed that compared with other PHA synthesis processes reported in the literature, the AFD process showed the highest PHA production. The PHA content in sludge reached 72.9% when activated sludge was submitted to the AFD process. This was the highest PHA content obtained so far by activated sludge using wastes as the renewable carbon source. Although nitrogen and phosphorus were released into the WAS alkaline fermentation liquid, their presence did not affect PHA synthesis, which indicates that it is unnecessary to remove the released nitrogen and phosphorus, and the fermentation liquid can be used directly for PHA production. The accumulated PHAwas mainly composed of 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) (73.5 mmol C%), 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) (24.3 mmol C%), and 3-hydroxy-2-methylvalerate (3H2MV) (2.2 mmol C%). Further investigation showed that SCFA rather than protein and carbohydrate in the alkaline fermentation liquid made the main contribution to PHA production. The PHA produced from WAS alkaline fermentation liquid had a molecular weight of 8.5 x 10(5) Da and a melting point of 101.4 degrees C. Analysis using the 16S rRNA gene clone library revealed that gamma-Proteobacteria, alpha-Proteobacteria, and beta-Proteobacteria were the dominant microorganisms in the PHA production system.

The effects of the ratio of propionate to acetate on the transformation and composition of polyhydroxyalkanoates with enriched cultures of glycogen-accumulating organisms.

Studies on the synthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) mainly focus on the enriched cultures of phosphorus-accumulating (PAO) or glycogen-accumulating organisms (GAO) with acetate or propionate as the sole carbon source. However, PHA production with a mixture of propionate and acetate by enriched cultures of GAO has not been reported. It is well known that the physical and mechanical properties of PHA can be improved by incorporating 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) into the polymer. To synthesize PHA with a high 3HV percentage, five laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors were operated with the enriched cultures of GAO using different ratios of propionate and acetate (P/A) as the carbon sources in this study. The effects of P/A ratio on the anaerobic and aerobic transformations, composition and synthesis rate of PHA were studied. The results showed that with the increase in the P/A ratio, the anaerobic yields of total PHA declined from 4.226 to 2.469 mmol-C per gram of volatile suspended solids (VSS), and the 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) fraction in PHA decreased from approximately 70 to 10%, along with an increase in 3HV and 3-hydroxy-2-methylvalerate (3H2MV) percentages. When there were equal quantities (mmol-C L(-1)) ofpropionate and acetate, 3HB was produced more quickly than 3H2MV. By increasing P/A ratio from 1/10 to 10/1, the initial synthesis rate of 3H2MV rose from 0.002 to 0.029, while 3HB and the total PHA declined from 0.083 to 0.007 and 0.110 to 0.071 mmol-C g-VSS(-1) min(-1), respectively. Also, it was observed that more 3HV was incorporated into PHA with increasing P/A ratio. This study suggested that when the enriched cultures of GAO were applied to the synthesis of PHA, the composition, yield and synthesis rate of PHA could be manipulated by varying the feed composition.