Description:    To quantitatively assess the effects of agricultural practices on methane (CH 4 ) emissions from rice fields, a two-year (2005/2006) field experiment with 2 3 factorial designs was conducted to assess the effects of three driving factors on CH 4 emissions in South China: continuously flooded (W0) and mid-season and final drainages (W2), straw (S1) and nitrogen fertilizer (N1) applications and their controls (S0, N0). Results showed that averaged across all the treatments about 75 % of the seasonal total CH 4 occurred between the rice transplanting and booting stage, while constituted only 33 % of the seasonal total rice biomass during the same period. Averaged across the treatments in 2006, CH 4 emissions were substantially decreased by mid-season drainage up to 60 % (15.6 vs. 39.0 g m −2 ). The decreased CH 4 emissions represented almost all of the decrease in the total global warming potentials. Without straw incorporation CH 4 emissions substantially decreased up to 59 % (15.9 vs. 38.7 g m −2 ). The stimulating effects of straw were significantly greater for W0 than W2 treatment, being also greater in the 2005 than in the 2006 season. A significant inter-annual difference in CH 4 emissions was found when averaged across straw incorporation and N fertilizer applications for the W2 treatment (42.8 and 15.4 g m −2 in 2005 and 2006, respectively). Moreover, N fertilization has no significant effect on CH 4 emissions in this study. Our results demonstrate that although straw effects varied greatly with specific management, both straw managements and water regimes are equally important driving factors and thus being the most promising measures attenuating CH 4 emissions while achieving sustainable rice production. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Article Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s10705-012-9503-3 Authors Jinyang Wang, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Agriculture and GHGs Mitigation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 China Xiaolin Zhang, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Agriculture and GHGs Mitigation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 China Zhengqin Xiong, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Agriculture and GHGs Mitigation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 China M. A. K. Khalil, Department of Physics, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207, USA Xu Zhao, State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 China Yingxin Xie, National Engineering Research Center for Wheat, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China Guangxi Xing, State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 China Journal Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Online ISSN 1573-0867 Print ISSN 1385-1314

Description:    Persistently high activity concentrations of radioactive Cs-137 ( T 1/2  = 30.17 a) in various animals and fruits originating from Bavarian forest ecosystems suggest that the contamination of soils in these ecosystems is still critical even decades after the severe inputs following the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Aware of the fact, that such inputs are a global threat that can re-emerge at any time, a new monitoring network was established in cooperation with the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health, to enhance the value of long-term radioprotection strategies in forests. Based on the investigation of 48 forest sites throughout the entire state territory, the project delivers a total of 889 gamma spectrometric records and demonstrates the current Cs-137 contamination situation of Bavarian forest soils, providing a valuable update on the residual contamination levels and thus a comprehensive inventory for any future radioprotection management. First results of this project are presented hereby. The total Cs-137 areal activity densities in Bavarian forest soils currently vary between 640 and 61,166 Bq m − ², with the peak areal activity density of each profile being located in the uppermost, humus rich mineral A-horizon in 68 % of all cases. Moreover, the results detect a positive correlation of humus thickness and relative areal Cs-137 activity density in humus horizons ( R ² = 0.50), validating previous findings on that topic by means of a very comprehensive data set across 2.56 Mio ha forest stands by showing that humus bodies 〉7.5 cm still contain at least 50 % of the total areal topsoil activity density. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Paper Pages 1-15 DOI 10.1007/s10342-012-0626-5 Authors Jennifer Winkelbauer, Department of Geomorphology and Soil Science, Technische Universität München, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany Jörg Völkel, Department of Geomorphology and Soil Science, Technische Universität München, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany Matthias Leopold, Department of Geomorphology and Soil Science, Technische Universität München, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany Kerstin Hürkamp, Institute of Radiation Protection, Helmholtz-Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, München-Neuherberg, Germany Rudolf Dehos, Department of Radioprotection and Radioecology, Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health, Munich, Germany Journal European Journal of Forest Research Online ISSN 1612-4677 Print ISSN 1612-4669