Diversity of endolithic fungal communities in dolomite and limestone rocks from Nanjiang Canyon in Guizhou karst area, China

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 685-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Tang ◽  
Bin Lian

The endolithic environment, the tiny pores and cracks in rocks, buffer microbial communities from a number of physical stresses, such as desiccation, rapid temperature variations, and UV radiation. Considerable knowledge has been acquired about the diversity of microorganisms in these ecosystems, but few culture-independent studies have been carried out on the diversity of fungi to date. Scanning electron microscopy of carbonate rock fragments has revealed that the rock samples contain certain kinds of filamentous fungi. We evaluated endolithic fungal communities from bare dolomite and limestone rocks collected from Nanjiang Canyon (a typical karst canyon in China) using culture-independent methods. Results showed that Ascomycota was absolutely dominant both in the dolomite and limestone fungal clone libraries. Basidiomycota and other eukaryotic groups (Bryophyta and Chlorophyta) were only detected occasionally or at low frequencies. The most common genus in the investigated carbonate rocks was Verrucaria. Some other lichen-forming fungi (e.g., Caloplaca , Exophiala , and Botryolepraria ), Aspergillus , and Penicillium were also identified from the rock samples. The results provide a cross-section of the endolithic fungal communities in carbonate rocks and help us understand more about the role of microbes (fungi and other rock-inhabiting microorganisms) in rock weathering and pedogenesis.

Author(s):  
Nathan Ricks ◽  
Taryn Williamson ◽  
Susan Meyer ◽  
John Chaston ◽  
Craig Coleman

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Ricks ◽  
Taryn Williamson ◽  
Susan E. Meyer ◽  
John M. Chaston ◽  
Craig E. Coleman

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1532
Author(s):  
Mariusz Pasik ◽  
Krzysztof Bakuła ◽  
Sebastian Różycki ◽  
Wojciech Ostrowski ◽  
Maria Elżbieta Kowalska ◽  
...  

This paper presents changes in the range and thickness of glaciers in Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) No. 128 on King George Island in the period 1956–2015. The research indicates an intensification of the glacial retreat process over the last two decades, with the rate depending on the type of glacier front. In the period 2001–2015, the average recession rate of the ice cliffs of the Ecology Glacier and the northern part of the Baranowski Glacier was estimated to be approximately 15–25 m a−1 and 10–20 m a−1, respectively. Fronts of Sphinx Glacier and the southern part of the Baranowski Glacier, characterized by a gentle descent onto land, show a significantly lower rate of retreat (up to 5–10 m a−1 1). From 2001 to 2013, the glacier thickness in these areas decreased at an average rate of 1.7–2.5 m a−1 for the Ecology Glacier and the northern part of the Baranowski Glacier and 0.8–2.5 m a−1 for the southern part of the Baranowski Glacier and Sphinx Glacier. The presented deglaciation processes are related to changes of mass balance caused by the rapid temperature increase (1.0 °C since 1948). The work also contains considerations related to the important role of the longitudinal slope of the glacier surface in the connection of the glacier thickness changes and the front recession.


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Teller ◽  
Mark M. Fenton

The history of Late Wisconsinan glaciation in southwestern Manitoba has been established by identifying and correlating ice-laid lithostratigraphic units in the subsurface. Five Late Wisconsinan tills are defined on the basis of their texture, mineralogic composition, and stratigraphic position. These new formations are, from youngest to oldest, Marchand, Whitemouth Lake, Roseau, Senkiw, and Whiteshell Formations.Late Wisconsinan ice first invaded southeastern Manitoba 22 000 to 24 000 years ago. This Laurentide glacier advanced from the northeast across the Precambrian Shield and deposited the sandy Whiteshell and Senkiw tills, which contain abundant Precambrian rock fragments and minerals and few Paleozoic carbonate grains. Shortly after this, Keewatin ice advanced from the northwest over Paleozoic carbonate rocks, depositing the loamy carbonate-rich Roseau Formation throughout most of the area. This ice remained over southeastern Manitoba until after 13 500 years ago, when it rapidly retreated northward with Lake Agassiz on its heels. Two brief glacial readvances occurred. The first overrode Lake Agassiz lacustrine sediment as far south as central North Dakota shortly after about 13 000 years ago. The clayey Whitemouth Lake till was deposited in southern Manitoba at this time. After a rapid retreat, the ice briefly pushed southward over southeastern Manitoba about 12 000 years ago to just south of the International Boundary. The sandy carbonate-rich Marchand Formation was deposited at this time as the ice overrode its own sandy outwash. By 11 000 years ago, ice had disappeared from southeastern Manitoba.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean M. Kearney ◽  
Sean M. Gibbons ◽  
Mathilde Poyet ◽  
Thomas Gurry ◽  
Kevin Bullock ◽  
...  

AbstractEndospore-formers in the human microbiota are well adapted for host-to-host transmission, and an emerging consensus points to their role in determining health and disease states in the gut. The human gut, more than any other environment, encourages the maintenance of endospore formation, with recent culture-based work suggesting that over 50% of genera in the microbiome carry genes attributed to this trait. However, there has been limited work on the ecological role of endospores and other stress-resistant cellular states in the human gut. In fact, there is no data to indicate whether organisms with the genetic potential to form endospores actually form endosporesin situand how sporulation varies across individuals and over time. Here, we applied a culture-independent protocol to enrich for endospores and other stress-resistant cells in human feces to identify variation in these states across people and within an individual over time. We see that cells with resistant states are more likely than those without to be shared among multiple individuals, which suggests that these resistant states are particularly adapted for cross-host dissemination. Furthermore, we use untargeted fecal metabolomics in 24 individuals and within a person over time to show that these organisms respond to shared environmental signals, and in particular, dietary fatty acids, that likely mediate colonization of recently disturbed human guts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 484 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-223
Author(s):  
И. Ф. Юсупова

Baltic oil shales — kukersites were studied as an example of rocks with rock-forming organic matter (OM). The volumetric significance of their OM is shown (due to the low density) in the volume and thickness of the shale layers. A higher OM content is responsible for a lower strength of the shales relative to the carbonate rocks of the deposit. The variable OM contents and other heterogeneities of the shale layers (structure, nodules, etc.) are factors of the mosaic distribution of areas with different density–strength properties and, as a result, of uneven reduction of layers and their deformation in the case of OM loss (full or partial). It is concluded that the intercalation of kukersite and limestone layers leads to density and strength anisotropy of the shale deposit. Episodic loss of OM and carbonates by the shales is considered for the local areas of the deposit: here, kukersites contain only a terrigenous component with clasts of limestones, shales, and epigenetic sulfides. The loss of OM is explained by sulfate-reduction processes in the underground hydrosphere.


1997 ◽  
Vol 272 (2) ◽  
pp. C550-C559 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. R. Chin ◽  
C. D. Balnave ◽  
D. G. Allen

We have examined the extent to which prolonged reductions in low-frequency force (i.e., low-frequency fatigue) result from increases in intracellular free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and alterations in muscle metabolites. Force and [Ca2+]i were measured in mammalian single muscle fibers in response to short, intermediate, and long series of tetani that elevated the [Ca2+]i-time integral to 5, 17, and 29 microM x s, respectively. Only the intermediate and long series resulted in prolonged (>60 x min) reductions in Ca2+ release and low-frequency fatigue. When fibers recovered from the long series of tetani without glucose, Ca2+ release was reduced to a greater extent and force was reduced at high and low frequencies. These findings indicate that the decrease in sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release associated with fatigue has at least two components: 1) a metabolic component, which, in the presence of glucose, recovers within 1 h, and 2) a component dependent on the elevation of the [Ca2+]i-time integral, which recovers more slowly. It is this Ca2+-dependent component that is primarily responsible for low-frequency fatigue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 922 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
H. Saleem ◽  
Shaukat Ali Shan ◽  
A. Rehman

Abstract Theoretical models are presented to show that expansion of plasma in the radial direction from a denser solar surface to a rarefied upper atmosphere with short-scale inhomogeneous field-aligned flows and currents in the form of thin threads itself is an important source of electrostatic instabilities. Multifluid theory shows that the shear flow–driven purely growing electric fields appear in the transition region. On the other hand, plasma kinetic theory predicts that the short-scale current sheets (or filaments) produce current-driven electrostatic ion acoustic (CDEIA) waves in the hydrogen plasma of the transition region that damp out in the system through wave–particle interactions and increase the temperature. Similar processes take place in the solar corona and act positively for increasing the temperature further and maintaining it. The shear flow–driven instabilities and CDEIA waves have short perpendicular wavelengths of the order of 1 m and low frequencies of the order of 1 or several Hz when the ions’ shear flow scale length is considered to be of the order of 1 km. It is pointed out that the purely growing fluid instabilities turn into oscillatory instabilities and the growth rates of kinetic CDEIA wave instabilities are reduced when the dynamics of 10% helium ions is taken into account along with 90% hydrogen ions. Therefore, the role of helium ions should not be ignored in the study of wave dynamics in solar plasma.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Fei ◽  
Marc-Henri Derron ◽  
Tiggi Choanji ◽  
Michel Jaboyedoff ◽  
Chunwei Sun ◽  
...  

<p>Freezing-thaw weathering is recognized as one of the most significant factors in the fatigue of rock mass in areas where the temperature periodically fluctuates around the freezing point. <br>A one-year monthly SfM monitoring program from December 19, 2019, to January 7, 2021, was done to detect rockfall activity on a rockslide cliff composed of marl-sandstone at La Cornalle, Switzerland. More than one hundred rockfall events were detected during this period with the volumes varied from 0.005m<sup>3</sup> to 4.85m<sup>3</sup>. <br>We texture all the rockfalls on the 3D SfM model. It is shown that most of them are mainly located in three areas:  the top of the cliff, the foot of the cliff, and the medium-left part of the cliff. The common feature of these three parts is that the layers are more or less overhanging with dense fractures around them. At the same time, the meteorological data collected by a weather station on site is correlated with the rockfall events to figure out the relationship between each other. Actually, about 30% of total rockfall volume fell during winter on this site. The triggering factor of rockfall during winter is related to freezing-thaw cycling. This kind of weathering can be understood as an interplay between rock properties and its dynamic environment.<br>In order to make clear the role of freezing-thaw played on the rockfall generation, an on-site 24h monitoring measurement program that consists of two crack meters, one rock thermal sensor, and thermal camera monitoring is installed in January 2021. Those datasets will help to understand how the crack grows with the changing temperature. In addition, freezing-thaw cycling laboratory experiments for the rock samples taken from different areas of the cliff will be done with an environmental test chamber. The topography of the rock samples before and after the experiments will be acquired by a 3D handheld scanner. This work will benefit to reveal the rock surface evolution during the freezing-thaw cycling in a dynamic environment with varied humidity and number of cycles. <br>In conclusion, the combination of on-site measurements and laboratory freezing-thaw experiments will provide a good basis for a better understanding of the rockfall triggering mechanism led by physical weathering.</p>


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