Main Pool Research Articles

Community structure of thermophilic photosynthetic microbial mats and flocs at Sembawang Hot Spring, Singapore.

The Sembawang Hot Spring in Singapore lies at the foot of a major regional geological feature called the Bentong-Raub Suture Zone. Amid an extensively managed surface geothermal park, an undisturbed hot spring emerges with source water at 61°C, pH 6.8, and 1 mg/L dissolved sulfide. A small main pool at the source supported orange-green benthic flocs, whereas the outflow channel with gradually less extreme environmental stress supported extensive vivid green microbial mats. Microscopy revealed that cyanobacterial morphotypes were distinct in flocs and mats at several intervals along the environmental gradient, and we describe a spiraling pattern in the oscillatorian cyanobacteria that may reflect response to poly-extreme stress. Estimation of diversity using 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed assemblages that were dominated by phototrophic bacteria. The most abundant taxa in flocs at 61°C/1 mg/L sulfide were Roseiflexus sp. and Thermosynechococcus elongatus, whilst the mats at 45.7-55.3°C/0-0.5 mg/L sulfide were dominated by Oscillatoriales cyanobacterium MTP1 and Chloroflexus sp. Occurrence of diverse chemoautotrophs and heterotrophs reflected known thermal ranges for taxa, and of note was the high abundance of thermophilic cellulolytic bacteria that likely reflected the large allochthonous leaf input. A clear shift in ASV-defined putative ecotypes occurred along the environmental stress gradient of the hot spring and overall diversity was inversely correlated to environmental stress. Significant correlations for abiotic variables with observed biotic diversity were identified for temperature, sulfide, and carbonate. A network analysis revealed three putative modules of biotic interactions that also reflected the taxonomic composition at intervals along the environmental gradient. Overall, the data indicated that three distinct microbial communities were supported within a small spatial scale along the poly-extreme environmental gradient. The findings add to the growing inventory of hot spring microbiomes and address an important biogeographic knowledge gap for the region.

Dynamics of changes in the content of betalain pigments in red beet roots during the growing season and storage

Purpose. Betalains, plant pigments of red beet roots, exhibit antioxidant activity and reduce the risks of many pathological conditions. However, the widespread introduction of betalains is hampered by insufficient knowledge of their transformations during the growing season and storage of root crops, which was the purpose of the work.Methods. Root crops of five varieties of table beets were used in the studies. The content and stability of betalains were determined by spectrophotometric methods according to the numerical indices of the absorption spectra of extracts from root crops.Results. In the beet roots in the first 20 days of vegetation after germination, the content of betaxanthines is higher than that of betacyanins, but by the 40th day, betacyanins exceed betacyanins over betaxanthin in the ratio of 1.26-2.21. By the 70th 90th days of vegetation, the main pool of betalains is formed, their content reaches 84.5-198.6 mg / 100 g, the ratio of betacyanins / betaxanthins and resistance are 2.47-9.76 and 0.82-0.91 respectively. The highest excess of the content of betacyanins over betaxanthins by 8.11 9.65 times was obtained in beet root crops of Creolka and Veselaia Smulyanka varieties. The stability of betalains during six-month storage decreases less than 1.4 times.Conclusion. It is advisable to use the developed spectrophotometric method for determining the stability of betalains in the express analysis of beet root crops. Betalains are more stable than other plant antioxidants. Beet roots are more preferred for fortifying diets than other foods with antioxidant activity.

Virtual-Memory Assisted Buffer Management

Most database management systems cache pages from storage in a main memory buffer pool. To do this, they either rely on a hash table that translates page identifiers into pointers, or on pointer swizzling which avoids this translation. In this work, we propose vmcache, a buffer manager design that instead uses hardware-supported virtual memory to translate page identifiers to virtual memory addresses. In contrast to existing mmap-based approaches, the DBMS retains control over page faulting and eviction. Our design is portable across modern operating systems, supports arbitrary graph data, enables variable-sized pages, and is easy to implement. One downside of relying on virtual memory is that with fast storage devices the existing operating system primitives for manipulating the page table can become a performance bottleneck. As a second contribution, we therefore propose exmap, which implements scalable page table manipulation on Linux. Together, vmcache and exmap provide flexible, efficient, and scalable buffer management on multi-core CPUs and fast storage devices.

Release of labile Si from forest and agricultural soils

Despite the importance of silicon (Si) as benefecial nutrient for many plants, including economically-important cereals, the reactivity of various Si pools in soils (silicate minerals, amorphous compounds, phytoliths, organic litter) is not fully quantified which does not allow predicting the capacity of agricultural or forested soil to provide soluble Si to soil porewaters where it can be used by plants. Towards better understanding of factors controlling bioavailable Si in soils, here we quantified the release rate of Si from several pairs of French forest and agricultural topsoils, developed on calcareous or loess parent material. We used mixed-flow and column reactors, in acetate and carbonate buffers and distilled water, at various pH (4–8) and time of reaction (day to month).The rate of Si release from soil (RSi) exceeded that of crystalline clay minerals by 1–2 orders of magnitude, being 5–10 times lower than that of various allophanes. The rates were weakly dependent on pH (compared to clays or phytoliths) and varied from 5 × 10−7 to 2 × 10−6 mol/gsoil/day at 4 < pH ≤ 8. In terms of Si reactivity, four studied soil groups followed the order: “calcaric cambisols ≈ hypereutric cambisols ≥ luvisols ≥ albeluvisol”. Calcaric and hypereutric cambisols as well as luvisols exhibited a weak decrease of RSi with pH increase. The rate of Si release from albeluvisol increased 2 times with a pH increase from 4 to 8. There was no measurable difference in RSi between agricultural and forest soils.The pool of labile Si in forest soils was quantified via soil column flow-through experiments. The breakthrough curves of Si demonstrated high concentrations (1.6–5.7 mg/L) over first several hours of reaction in the soil column. The water leachable Si pool ranged from 0.04 to 0.08 mg Si gsoil−1, corresponding to labile Si stock in the 0–20 cm soil of 80–160 kg ha−1. These values can meet the annual requirements of plants in forests and cultivated soils. The pool of labile Si correlated (RPearson > 0.90; p < 0.05) with Si associated with amorphous Fe and Al compounds and soluble bioavailable Si extracted using CaCl2 method, but negatively correlated with total Si content in soils and Si of phytoliths. The main pools of soil labile Si could be allophanes, organo-Fe-Al-Si compounds and adsorbed forms of Si onto Fe and Al hydroxides. We hypothesize that, because of low sensibility of RSi to type of soil and fluid pH, the majority of soils regulate Si release at some ‘universal’ rate which is further reflected in relatively narrow range of riverine Si concentrations and export fluxes across the world. Therefore, the modeling of chemical weathering and element export flux in the watersheds should incorporate the experimentally measured reactivity of the whole soil rather than individual constituting primary or secondary minerals.

The effects of biochar on soil organic matter pools are not influenced by climate change

The sustainability of Mediterranean croplands is threatened by climate warming and rainfall reduction. The use of biochar as an amendment represents a tool to store organic carbon (C) in soil. The vulnerability of soil organic C (SOC) to the joint effects of climate change and biochar application needs to be better understood by investigating its main pools. Here, we evaluated the effects of partial rain exclusion (∼30%) and temperature increase (∼2 °C), combined with biochar amendment, on the distribution of soil organic matter (SOM) into particulate organic matter (POM) and the mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM). A set of indices suggested an increase in thermal stability in response to biochar addition in both POM and MAOM fractions. The MAOM fraction, compared to the POM, was particularly enriched in labile substances. Data from micro-Raman spectroscopy suggested that the POM fraction contained biochar particles with a more ordered structure, whereas the structural order decreased in the MAOM fraction, especially after climate manipulation. Crystalline Fe oxides (hematite) and a mix of ferrihydrite and hematite were detected in the POM and in the MAOM fraction, respectively, of the unamended plots under climate manipulation, but not under ambient conditions. Conversely, in the amended soil, climate manipulation did not induce changes in Fe speciation. Our work underlines the importance of discretely taking into account responses of both MAOM and POM to better understand the mechanistic drivers of SOC storage and dynamics.

Aboveground Biomass Retrieval in Tropical and Boreal Forests Using L-Band Airborne Polarimetric Observations

Forests play a crucial part in regulating global climate change since their aboveground biomass (AGB) relates to the carbon cycle, and its changes affect the main carbon pools. At present, the most suitable available SAR data for wall-to-wall forest AGB estimation are exploiting an L-band polarimetric SAR. However, the saturation issues were reported for AGB estimation using L-band backscatter coefficients. Saturation varies depending on forest structure. Polarimetric information has the capability to identify different aspects of forest structure and therefore shows great potential for reducing saturation issues and improving estimation accuracy. In this study, 121 polarimetric decomposition observations, 10 polarimetric backscatter coefficients and their derived observations, and six texture features were extracted and applied for forest AGB estimation in a tropical forest and a boreal forest. A parametric feature optimization inversion model (Multiple linear stepwise regression, MSLR) and a nonparametric feature optimization inversion model (fast iterative procedure integrated into a K-nearest neighbor nonparameter algorithm, KNNFIFS) were used for polarimetric features optimization and forest AGB inversion. The results demonstrated the great potential of L-band polarimetric features for forest AGB estimation. KNNFIFS performed better both in tropical (R2 = 0.80, RMSE = 22.55 Mg/ha, rRMSE = 14.59%, MA%E = 12.21%) and boreal (R2 = 0.74, RMSE = 19.82 Mg/ha, rRMSE = 20.86%, MA%E = 20.19%) forests. Non-model-based polarimetric features performed better compared to features extracted by backscatter coefficients, model-based decompositions, and texture. Polarimetric observations also revealed site-dependent performances.

Defining a diverse core collection of the Colombian Central Collection of potatoes: a tool to advance research and breeding.

The highly diverse Colombian Central Collection (CCC) of cultivated potatoes is the most important source of genetic variation for breeding and the agricultural development of this staple crop in Colombia. Potato is the primary source of income for more than 100.000 farming families in Colombia. However, biotic and abiotic challenges limit crop production. Furthermore, climate change, food security, and malnutrition constraints call for adaptive crop development to be urgently addressed. The clonal CCC of potatoes contains 1,255 accessions - an extensive collection size that limits its optimal assessment and use. Our study evaluated different collection sizes from the whole clonal collection to define the best core collection that captures the total genetic diversity of this unique collection, to support a characterization more cost-effectively. Initially, we genotyped 1,141 accessions from the clonal collection and 20 breeding lines using 3,586 genome-wide polymorphic markers to study CCC's genetic diversity. The analysis of molecular variance confirmed the CCC's diversity with a significant population structure (Phi=0.359; p-value=0.001). Three main genetic pools were identified within this collection (CCC_Group_A, CCC_Group_B1, and CCC_Group_B2), and the commercial varieties were located across the pools. The ploidy level was the main driver of pool identification, followed by a robust representation of accessions from Phureja and Andigenum cultivar groups based on former taxonomic classifications. We also found divergent heterozygosity values within genetic groups, with greater diversity in genetic groups with tetraploids (CCC_Group_B1: 0.37, and CCC_Group_B2: 0.53) than in diploid accessions (CCC_Group_A: 0.14). We subsequently generated one mini-core collection size of 3 percent (39 entries) and three further core collections sizes of 10, 15, and 20 percent (i.e., 129, 194, and 258 entries, respectively) from the total samples genotyped. As our results indicated that genetic diversity was similar across the sampled core collection sizes compared to the main collection, we selected the smallest core collection size of 10 percent. We expect this 10 percent core collection to be an optimal tool for discovering and evaluating functional diversity in the genebank to advance potato breeding and agricultural-related studies. This study also lays the foundations for continued CCC curation by evaluating duplicity and admixing between accessions, completing the digitalization of data, and ploidy determination using chloroplast count.

Greenhouse gases fluxes and carbon cycle in agroecosystems under humid continental climate conditions

Few complex studies of greenhouse gas (GHG: carbon dioxide, CO2; methane, CH4; nitrous oxide, N2O) fluxes and carbon cycle components were carried out on the geographical territory of Eastern Europe and represented in world databases. Most of the investigations had focused on particular problems of carbon and nitrogen pools and fluxes, or had covered a narrow range of ecosystems. Therefore, the idea of this research was to carry out a multi-disciplinary study of carbon fluxes and pools in the sector of agriculture and land use – one of the main sources of GHG – in regions with humid continental climate that are the most affected by current climate change. Our work was aimed at solving the problem of quantifying GHG fluxes and carbon pools in crop and livestock production, analyzing the reasons for their formation and possible absorption pathways at three locations in the European part of Russia in the cold continental climate zone. The study examined both agricultural and natural ecosystems; field measurements, laboratory analyses, and simulation modelling techniques were applied. The sites included seven types of ecosystems: croplands, pastures, hayfields, fallows, forests, stockyards, and compost piles. Livestock facilities are potent sources of three main biogenic GHG (0.42 − 9.27 g C-CO2 m-2 h-1; 2.43 − 783.51 mg C-CH4 m-2 h-1; 0.01 − 1.49 mg N-N2O m-2 h-1); whereas croplands, hayfields and forests can absorb methane (from −1.10 to −118.2 μg C-CH4 m-2 h-1), as well as pastures, hayfields, fallows and forests are weak sinks of nitrous oxide (from −0.10 to −4.57 μg N-N2O m-2 h-1). Ecosystems were ranked using a non-parametric test by increasing rate of CO2 emission from soil in the following order: croplands (0.06 − 0.24 g C-CO2 m-2 h-1) ≤ hayfields (0.06 − 0.25 g C-CO2 m-2 h-1) ≤ pastures (0.06 − 0.22 g C-CO2 m-2 h-1) = fallows (0.13 − 0.26 g C-CO2 m-2 h-1) = forests (0.16 − 0.30 g CO2 m-2 h-1) ≤ stockyards (0.42 − 1.57 g CO2 m-2 h-1) < compost piles (1.95 − 9.27 g CO2 m-2 h-1). According to the correlation analysis, the most important dynamic environmental factor on which the intensity of soil respiration depends is the soil temperature at the depth of 10 cm (r = 0.55 − 0.97, p < 0.05). As the regression analysis shows, hydrothermal and agrochemical controls explain the 46 − 89% variance of CO2 emission from soil. The content of total carbon (1.31−7.95%) as well as of total nitrogen (0.12 − 0.62%) in soil follows a latitudinal pattern and increases from north to south regardless of the type of land use and farming intensity. The amount of carbon incorporated into the arable soil layer by root residues decreases in the following sequence: barley > winter wheat > spring wheat > oats > soybean from 402 to 198 kg C ha-1 yr-1. Field crop stubble is an additional source of soil carbon at 118 − 368 kg C ha-1 yr-1 in the following sequence: spring wheat > winter wheat > oats > soybean > barley. According to simulation modelling (DeNitrification-DeComposition model, DNDC; and Rothamsted Carbon model, RothC), accumulation of soil organic carbon is possible under winter wheat (270 kg C ha-1 yr-1), while under other crops its stocks decrease (from −190 to −423 kg C ha-1 yr-1). According to DNDC modelling, agrolandscapes are net sinks of carbon to a varying degree (at least 500 kg C ha-1 yr-1), with phytomass being the main pool of carbon sink, most of which is removed with yields.

Analysis of durum wheat photosynthetic organs during grain filling reveals the ear as a water stress-tolerant organ and the peduncle as the largest pool of primary metabolites

Main conclusionThe pool of carbon- and nitrogen-rich metabolites is quantitatively relevant in non-foliar photosynthetic organs during grain filling, which have a better response to water limitation than flag leaves.The response of durum wheat to contrasting water regimes has been extensively studied at leaf and agronomic level in previous studies, but the water stress effects on source–sink dynamics, particularly non-foliar photosynthetic organs, is more limited. Our study aims to investigate the response of different photosynthetic organs to water stress and to quantify the pool of carbon and nitrogen metabolites available for grain filling. Five durum wheat varieties were grown in field trials in the Spanish region of Castile and León under irrigated and rainfed conditions. Water stress led to a significant decrease in yield, biomass, and carbon and nitrogen assimilation, improved water use efficiency, and modified grain quality traits in the five varieties. The pool of carbon (glucose, glucose-6-phosphate, fructose, sucrose, starch, and malate) and nitrogen (glutamate, amino acids, proteins and chlorophylls) metabolites in leaf blades and sheaths, peduncles, awns, glumes and lemmas were also analysed. The results showed that the metabolism of the blades and peduncles was the most susceptible to water stress, while ear metabolism showed higher stability, particularly at mid-grain filling. Interestingly, the total metabolite content per organ highlighted that a large source of nutrients, which may be directly involved in grain filling, are found outside the blades, with the peduncles being quantitatively the most relevant. We conclude that yield improvements in our Mediterranean agro-ecosystem are highly linked to the success of shoots in producing ears and a higher number of grains, while grain filling is highly dependent on the capacity of non-foliar organs to fix CO2 and N. The ear organs show higher stress resilience than other organs, which deserves our attention in future breeding programmes.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Prediction of Carbon Storage in Guilin Based on FLUS and InVEST Models

In the context of sustainable development and dual-carbon construction, to quantify the carbon storage and its spatial-temporal distribution characteristics of Guilin City and predict the carbon storage of Guilin City in 2035 under different future scenarios, this study set four future scenarios based on SDGs and the sustainable development plan of Guilin City: natural development, economic priority, ecological priority, and sustainable development. At the same time, FLUS and InVEST models and GeoDa 1.20and ArcGIS software were used to establish a coupling model of land use change and ecosystem carbon storage to simulate and predict the distribution and change of ecosystem carbon storage based on land use change in the future. The results showed that: (1) From 2005 to 2020, forest land was the main type of land use in Guilin, and cropland and impervious continued to expand. In 2035, the forest land under four different future scenarios will be an important transformation type; (2) From 2005 to 2020, the carbon storage in the northwest of Guilin was relatively high, and the carbon loss area was larger than the carbon increase area. The carbon storage in the ecological priority scenario in 2035 is the highest, reaching 874.76 × 106 t. The aboveground carbon storage (ACG) is the main carbon pool in Guilin. Most of the regions with high carbon storage are located in the northwest and northeast of Guilin. No matter what scenario, the carbon storage in the main urban area is maintained at a low level; (3) In 2035, the distribution of carbon storage in Guilin has a strong spatial positive correlation, with more hot spots than cold spots. The high-value areas of carbon storage are concentrated in the northwest and east, whereas the low-value areas are concentrated in the urban area of Guilin.

Effects of Nitrogen Source and Concentration on the Growth and Biochemical Composition of the Red Seaweed Grateloupia turuturu (Halymeniaceae, Rhodophyta)

Seaweeds, as biofilters that remediate seawater eutrophication, have been widely applied in integrated cultivations for both ecological and economic benefits. Although Grateloupia turuturu (Rhodophyta) is considered as a qualified species in integrated maricultivation, its growth and biochemical performance under different nitrogen conditions are still unknown. Here, we cultured G. turuturu under two nitrogen sources (nitrate and ammonium) at six concentrations (0, 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 µM) to investigate its growth and nitrogenous compounds (total and inorganic nitrogen, soluble protein, amino acids, and pigments) as well as the allocation pattern of nitrogen storage pools. Our results showed that G. turuturu was well acclimated to high concentrations of both nitrogen sources, and algal age played an important role in the preference of nitrogen sources. Most of the biochemical compositions in G. turuturu increased significantly with the increased concentrations of nitrogen, except for the protein and nitrate contents. Protein and residual organic nitrogen (RON, mainly amino acids) were found to be the two main nitrogen storage pools in G. turuturu. Our study revealed that G. turuturu can produce more profitable compositions at high nitrogen concentrations, making it a profitably promising biofilter to remediate eutrophication.

Intelligent renovation of existing Olympic venues: digital design and construction strategy of a DfD-based prefabricated structure system

This article introduces introduces a new prefabricated and assembled steel structure system and its key construction technologies for repeated switching scenes in existing stadiums. This steel structure system follows the DfD design method, minimizing the volume of each group of structural member units and separating the connection interfaces between members. In order to improve the construction and assembly efficiency of all the structural components, this study establishes an assembly-oriented BIM model data system by adding customized attributes in the family library in Autodesk REVIT. By associating model attributes with on-site monitoring data of the construction process, this research realizes real-time acquisition and display of construction data of all components during the whole life cycle. At the same time, aiming at the requirements of high-precision positioning and digital dynamic monitoring in future on-site construction, this research proposes an innovative construction positioning monitoring method which combines motion capture system with traditional construction monitoring technology. By correcting the positioning data of motion capture system with traditional construction monitoring data, real-time dynamic monitoring of several monitoring points in a 12*15 m large site is realized and the measurement error is controlled within ±1 mm. This study takes the construction project of “ice-water conversion” from the main swimming pool of the National Swimming Center in the Summer Olympic Games to the curling venue of the Winter Olympic Games as an example to show the important role of relevant technology to improve the construction efficiency in the construction application for the renovation of existing Olympic venues.

Inter‐decadal variation in diadromous and potamodromous fish assemblages in a near pristine tropical dryland river

AbstractFreshwater ecosystems are both incredibly biodiverse and highly threatened globally. Variation in environmental parameters including habitat and flow can substantially affect many ecological processes within riverine aquatic communities, but the ties between such parameters and ecology are neither well studied nor understood. In highly variable tropical dryland river systems, assessing such relationships requires data collection over inter‐decadal time scales, which is not typically permitted on development schedules driven over short periods (including election and funding cycles). Here, we used seine net sampling data collected over an 18‐year period in the tropical dryland Fitzroy River, Western Australia, to assess how environmental and temporal factors including habitat, seasonality, and inter‐annual variation in wet season magnitude affect the community assemblage structure, recruitment, and growth of aquatic species in dryland rivers. Results demonstrated that macrohabitat (main channel vs floodplain creek) and the magnitude of wet season rains and resultant flooding both had a substantial influence on biotic communities, alongside seasonal and diel variation. The magnitude of wet season flooding (measured as river discharge volume) had the greatest impact on assemblage composition within floodplain creek habitats and was a significant driver of recruitment rates and growth of recruits and adults of several species examined. This study highlights key considerations for conserving dryland river systems and constituent biota. Specifically, these are maintaining (a) rhythmicity of flow within each year, (b) diversity of flow volume between years, and (c) a variety of habitat types including ephemeral, semi‐permanent, and permanent shallow floodplain and deeper main channel pools, in order to support a diverse array of generalist and specialist diadromous and potamodromous fishes.

Variations in dissolved organic matter chemistry on a vertical scale in the eastern Indian Ocean

Oceans cover approximately 71% of the Earth's surface area, which is why some people refer to the Earth as a large water sphere. Marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) constitutes the main carbon pool for biogeochemical cycles and plays an important role in global carbon dynamics. Here, the molecular composition and component characteristics of surface (5 m), deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM), and deep (2000 m) layer DOM in the eastern Indian Ocean (EIO) were investigated using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) and three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy. Thousands of individual DOM formulas (approximately 3716–6986 formulas) were detected at 100–700 Da, showing a Gaussian distribution. The elements carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) were detected and constituted four formula classes in solid-phase extracted marine DOM samples. Furthermore, the order of the percent intensity of the formulas was CHO > CHNO > CHOS > CHNOS. Carboxylic-rich alicyclic molecule (CRAM) compounds, as part of recalcitrant DOM (RDOM), were detected at 61.32%-78.77% (by intensity). In addition, the concept of islands of stability (IOS, approximately 3.99%-11.22%) has been proposed in this study, representing the most stable components in the marine environment. Such molecular formulas as described above probably contribute to increased RDOM content in the EIO and potentially reflect enhanced accumulation or sequestration of RDOM in the deep layer. The variation in the spectroscopic indices (FI, β/α, BIX, and HIX) and fluorescent components (C1 to C4) with depth indicates a shift from protein-like to humic-like components, leading to gradual aging of the water column. In brief, this study relies on data from marine DOM in the EIO to provide a molecular and chemical background for global models of marine DOM production, transformation and sequestration.

Insight into Genetic Diversity of Cultivated Lima Bean (&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Phaseolus lunatus&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; L.) in Benin

Lima bean is a tropical and subtropical legume from the genus Phaseolus which is cultivated for its importance in food and in medicine, but which remains a Neglected and Underutilized Crop in Benin. Understanding the genetic diversity of a species’ genetic resources is useful for the establishment of appropriate conservation strategies and breeding programs and for sustainable use. We use 6 out of ten SSR markers to analyze the diversity and population structure of 28 Lima bean landraces collected in Benin. A total of 28 alleles with an average of 4.16 alleles per SSR were amplified. The Polymorphic Information Content value ranged from 0.079 to 0.680 with an average of 0.408. The analysis of population structure revealed three subpopulations. PCoA revealed three well-separated clusters among the analyzed accessions in accordance with the population structure results and the clustering based on the Neighbor-Joining tree. AMOVA showed highly significant (p = 0.001) diversity among and within populations. Hence, 32% of the genetic variation was distributed among the population and 68% was distributed within populations. A high PhiP value (0.321) was found between the three sub-subpopulations indicating a high genetic differentiation between these sub-subpopulations. By exhibiting the highest average number of alleles, Shannon-Weaver information and Shannon-Weaver diversity indices, and the highest mean number of private alleles, subpopulation 1 is the main gene pool of the analyzed collection. The present study is an important starting point for the establishment of appropriate conservation strategies and breeding programs for Lima bean genetic resources.

ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆՈՒՄ ՏԱՐԱԾՎԱԾ ՃԱԿՆԴԵՂԻ ԳԵՆԵՏԻԿԱԿԱՆ ԲԱԶՄԱԶԱՆՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՈՒՍՈՒՄՆԱՍԻՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ ISSR ՄԱՐԿԵՐՆԵՐԻ ԿԻՐԱՌՄԱՄԲ

Genetic markers for the study of genetic diversity are divided into 4 groups: morphological or phenotypic, biochemical or protein, cytogenetic, and molecular or DNA. Currently, ISSR-DNA markers or Inter Simple Sequence Repeats is widely used for the genetic characterization of various crop varieties and wild species. In the present day, ISSR-DNA markers (Inter Simple Sequence Repeats) are widely used to characterize various crop varieties and wild species from their genetic makeup. It is used both for inter-species and intra-species genetic variability of populations and for genetic diversity, and species identification, as well as for genome mapping and marking of useful economic traits. The purpose of this research was to certify the wild species and population varieties of beet common in Armenia using DNA markers, to offer them as a selection starting material. The studied wild species and population varieties of beet are distinguished by a high degree of polymorphism: 33.3-88.9 %. According to the indicators of genetic diversity, most of the studied species and varieties are characterized as the main or typical gene pools with a minimum number and frequency of rare alleles. An exception is the Aparan population of table beet, which is distinguished by a high degree of originality. According to the indicators studied with ISSR DNA markers, it is possible to select the right parental forms for beet breeding activities.

Tree biomass – a fragile carbon storage in old-growth birch and aspen stands in hemiboreal Latvia

Birch (Betula pendula Roth, Betula pubescens Ehrh.) and European aspen (Populus tremula L.) stands dominate the deciduous forests of Northern Europe. Due to increasing forest protections, more deciduous stands will reach the old-growth stage. Thus, data on the carbon storage potential in such areas are essential. We aimed to establish a benchmark for carbon stocks of the main carbon pools in old-growth deciduous hemiboreal stands. Carbon pools were calculated from measurements in forty old-growth (104–148 years-old) deciduous stands in forests on fertile mineral soil. The carbon stock in these stands is distributed across tree biomass (~ 60%), mineral soil (~ 30%), the forest floor (~ 5%), and deadwood (~ 4%). Living tree biomass and deadwood carbon pools were closely associated with stand parameters: dominant tree species, standing volume and stand density. As the stand ages and tree dieback occurs, the significance of individual large trees to maintain high density and standing volume, thus also the carbon stock of the stand, rises. Reliance on a small number of large trees makes the carbon storage in old-growth stands fragile and easily affected by natural disturbances. It happens at an earlier age for species with a relatively short life span, like birch and aspen. Our data from stands with the limited recent influence of such disturbances provide a benchmark for carbon storage potential in old deciduous stands. Keywords: carbon pools, tree biomass, deadwood, forest floor, soil, birch, European aspen

Digital Twins Solve the Mystery of Raman Spectra of Parental and Reduced Graphene Oxides.

Digital Twins concept presents a new trend in virtual material science, common to all computational techniques. Digital twins, virtual devices and intellectual products, presenting the main constituents of the concept, are considered in detail on the example of a complex problem, which concerns an amazing identity of the D-G-doublet Raman spectra of parental and reduced graphene oxides. Digital twins, presenting different aspects of the GO and rGO structure and properties, were virtually synthesized using a spin-density algorithm emerging from the Hartree-Fock approximation. Virtual device presents AM1 version of the semi-empirical unrestricted HF approximation. The equilibrium structure of the twins as well as virtual one-phonon harmonic spectra of IR absorption and Raman scattering constitute a set of intellectual products. It was established that in both cases the D-G doublets owe their origin to the sp3 and sp2 C-C stretchings, respectively. This outwardly similar community reveals different grounds. Thus, multilayer packing of individual rGO molecules in stacks provides the existence of the sp3 D band in addition to sp2 G one. The latter is related to stretchings of the main pool of sp2 C-C bonds, while the sp3 constituent presents out-of-plane stretchings of dynamically stimulated interlayer bonds. In the GO case, the sp3 D component, corresponding to stretchings of the main pool of sp3 C-C bonds, is accompanied by an sp2 G component, which is related to stretchings of the remaining sp2 C-C bonds provided with the spin-influenced prohibition of the 100% oxidative reaction in graphene domain basal plane.

Formation of the Regional Political Elite of Vinnytsia Region

The article examines the process of regional political elite formation of Vinnytsia region in the context of Ukrainian state formation based on the analysis of the results of national and local elections held in the constituencies of Vinnytsia region, biographies of deputies from the region as well as deputies of Vinnytsia regional and city councils, heads of Vinnytsia regional state administration, heads of district state administrations and district councils of the region. The author provides the definition for the regional political elite and outlines the ways of its set up, offers the model of its modern structure for Vinnytsia region.Also, it was determined that at the beginning of the existence of an independent Ukraine, a key role in the formation of the new regional political elite was played by the people from the «nomenklatura» and former leaders of the Soviet enterprises. The obtained data confirms, that this social group was the main pool of recruitment of heads of Vinnytsia Regional State Administration and District State Administrations of Vinnytsia region until the mid-2000s, and the traditions they introduced into modern political culture influenced the formation of political and economic groups (clans) and the dominance of neopatrimonial relations in the interaction between different actors.As defined, people from different spheres of economic and socio-political life of the region participate in the formation of the modern regional political elite of Vinnytsia region. In particular, they are representatives of the economic elite (business owners, managers of private and state enterprises), party elite, elites of mass media and public organizations, and intellectual elite (heads and employees of science, education, medicine and culture). The tendency to increase the number of business representatives in these authorities while reducing the number of heads of state authorities, local governments and utilities was shown by the example of the Vinnytsia Regional Council of II, III, VII convocations and Vinnytsia City Council of VI and VII convocations; a consistently high level of the number of people from the intellectual elite in the regional and city councils was noted. Special attention is paid to the penetration of media and public sector figures into the power institutions as well as to their influence on the formation of the political agenda of the region.

Modelling the longitudinal distribution, abundance, and habitat use of the giant freshwater shrimp (Macrobrachium spinipes) in a large intermittent, tropical Australian river to inform water resource policy

Abstract Water development threatens rivers and their biodiversity. Amphidromous shrimp are particularly vulnerable as they require migration between freshwater and estuaries to complete their life cycle. The Fitzroy River is a large tropical intermittent river undergoing water development that is home to the amphidromous shrimp Macrobrachium spinipes (cherabin), yet little is known about its habitat use and flow‐ecology making it difficult to inform sustainable water‐take. We investigated habitat associations, distributional patterns suggestive of amphidromy, and the influence of water availability by sampling main channel and floodplain pools along a 350‐km river length during 2 contrasting flow years. Applying a size‐specific abundance model, we estimated abundance per size class, site, and year. We then predicted abundance at the landscape scale with remotely sensed water to reveal the impact of water availability on the meta‐population. Our model revealed that juveniles were in greatest abundance in downstream main channel pools, whereas adults were in greatest abundance in upstream floodplain pools. Abundance varied by year with lower numbers predicted in the low‐flow year. Longitudinal and habitat patterns remained when our pool‐level results were scaled to the landscape, and the positive relationship of abundance to wet‐season flow was strengthened. The predominance of smaller cherabin in the lower reaches of the river provides indirect support for an estuarine nursery and amphidromous life history; however, small individuals observed in landlocked pools, during late dry season suggests possible within‐river recruitment. The importance of water development policies that protect wet‐season flow and passage along the Fitzroy River is supported by this work. These types of policies are likely to be important for this and other amphidromous shrimp species across Australia, Southeast Asia and further afield. Further research detailing the species life history and describing flow–recruitment relationships will be important contributions to understanding this important taxonomic group and refining policies for current and future water resource development.