Carbon isotopic composition and its implications on paleoclimate of the underground ancient forest ecosystem in Sihui, Guangdong

Anthropogenic impacts on Late Holocene land-cover change and floristic biodiversity loss in tropical southeastern Asia

Southern China and Southeast Asia witnessed some of their most significant economic and social changes relevant to human land use during the Late Holocene, including the intensification and spread of rice agriculture. Despite rice growth being associated with a number of earth systems impacts, how these changes transformed tropical vegetation in this region of immense endemic biodiversity remains poorly understood. Here, we compile a pollen dataset incorporating ∼150,000 identifications and 233 pollen taxa to examine past changes in floral biodiversity, together with a compilation of records of forest decline across the region using 14 pollen records spanning lowland to mountain sites. Our results demonstrate that the rise of intensive rice agriculture from approximately 2,000 y ago led not only to extensive deforestation but also to remarkable changes of vegetation composition and a reduction in arboreal diversity. Focusing specifically on the Tertiary relic tree species, the freshwater wetland conifer Glyptostrobus (Glyptostrobus pensilis), we demonstrate how key species that had survived changing environmental conditions across millions of years shrank in the face of paddy rice farming and human disturbance.

Geobacter soli sp. nov., a dissimilatory Fe(III)-reducing bacterium isolated from forest soil

A novel Fe(III)-reducing bacterium, designated GSS01(T), was isolated from a forest soil sample using a liquid medium containing acetate and ferrihydrite as electron donor and electron acceptor, respectively. Cells of strain GSS01(T) were strictly anaerobic, Gram-stain-negative, motile, non-spore-forming and slightly curved rod-shaped. Growth occurred at 16-40 °C and optimally at 30 °C. The DNA G+C content was 60.9 mol%. The major respiratory quinone was MK-8. The major fatty acids were C(16:0), C(18:0) and C(16:1)ω7c/C(16:1)ω6c. Strain GSS01(T) was able to grow with ferrihydrite, Fe(III) citrate, Mn(IV), sulfur, nitrate or anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate, but not with fumarate, as sole electron acceptor when acetate was the sole electron donor. The isolate was able to utilize acetate, ethanol, glucose, lactate, butyrate, pyruvate, benzoate, benzaldehyde, m-cresol and phenol but not toluene, p-cresol, propionate, malate or succinate as sole electron donor when ferrihydrite was the sole electron acceptor. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain GSS01(T) was most closely related to Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA(T) (98.3% sequence similarity) and exhibited low similarities (94.9-91.8%) to the type strains of other species of the genus Geobacter. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain GSS01(T) and G. sulfurreducens PCA(T) was 41.4 ± 1.1%. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis, phenotypic characterization and physiological tests, strain GSS01(T) is believed to represent a novel species of the genus Geobacter, and the name Geobacter soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GSS01(T) ( =KCTC 4545(T) =MCCC 1K00269(T)).

Abnormally high ammonium of natural origin in a coastal aquifer-aquitard system in the Pearl River Delta, China

High-nitrogen loadings of rivers and aquifers systems are a major concern because of potential effects on human health and water quality impacts such as eutrophication of lakes and coastal zones. This nitrogen enrichment is commonly attributed to anthropogenic sources such as sewage and agricultural and industrial wastes. The aims of this study were to delineate spatial distribution of groundwater ammonium in the coastal aquifer system in Pearl River Delta (PRD), China and to identify the origin of the abnormally high ammonium. A total of 40 boreholes were drilled to collect core samples of the aquitard and groundwater samples in the basal aquifer. The core samples were used for extraction of pore water for centrifugation and bulk chemical analyses in laboratory. Unlike previous studies which focused mainly on the aquifer, this study treated the aquifer-aquitard system as a hydrogeochemical continuum. The results show that the aquifer-aquitard system contains an exceptionally large total ammonium mass. Ammonium occurred at concentrations up to 390 mg/L in the basal sand Pleistocene aquifer 20-50 m deep, the largest concentration reported for groundwater globally. This ammonium was natural, areally extensive (1600 km(2)) and originated in the overlying Holocene-Pleistocene aquitard and entered the aquifer by groundwater transport and diffusion. Total ammonium in the aquifer (190 × 10(6) kg) was exceeded by total ammonium in the aquitard (8600 × 10(6) kg) by a factor of 45. Much organic nitrogen remained in the aquitard available for conversion to ammonium. This natural ammonium in the aquifer was slowly transported into the PRD river channels and the estuary of the South China Sea. The rate of this contribution will likely be greatly increased by sand dredging in the river channels and estuary. Although the ammonium in PRD groundwater occurred in the largest concentrations and mass reported globally, the literature shows no reports of other delta aquitards having been examined for ammonium occurrence and therefore abundant ammonium formed in aquitards rich in organic matter may not be uncommon and this "geologic" source of ammonium may present a large and hitherto unappreciated source of nitrogen discharging to surface waters.