The differences seen in the soil may be due to addition of carbon/ nitrogen which can change and alter the C:N ratio. The greater C:N ratio the more extracellular polymers are released which help hold the aggregates together and better its stability. The lower the C:N ratio the worse the aggregate stability and the faster the aggregate will crumble away as can be seen in both a slaking test and the alfalfa treatment. The water which is added into the 100 grams of soil has the highest aggregate water stability. The alfalfa has a higher nitrogen amount thus will exhibit a low C:N ratio. Thus the treatment in alfalfa will have limited excretion of extracellular polymers that can help bind the aggregate thus the stability of the aggregate for this treatment will be quite unfavorable as is seen in the table. The sucrose treatment will …show more content…
(3 pts) Which of the four treatments most favored the growth of Azotobacter and why (base your answer on qualitative observations of Azotobacter incubations)?
> The most favored growth of Azotobacter are seen in the addition of Na2HPO4 thus (HPO42-) a moderately reduced compounds. It is stated in the manual that the Na2HPO4 helps provide the Azotobacter with its demand for phosphorous. The phosphorous used by this nitrogen fixing bacteria may be a selective inhibitor toxic to other bacteria yet, beneficial to the Azotobacter. In the addition of Na2HPO4 there are multiple tiny, shiny gray spots all across the silver colonies.
2. (2 pts) Contrast the potential contributions of Azotobacter versus Rhizobia/Bradyzhizobia to the nitrogen budget in soils. Discuss why they are so different.
3. (4 pts) Include a drawing of each of the following: an Azotobacter cell, nodules attached to plant root system; a Rhizobia/Bradyrhizobia cell the plant nodules; and the ectomycorrhyzal fungi. Include a scale for the two cell drawings.
Azotobacter cell Nodules to Plant
Agriculture has been practiced in what is now Alabama for centuries. Alabama agriculture has changed considerably since the mid-1860s, when cotton was king and Alabama was known as "The Cotton State." One hundred years ago almost four million acres were planted to cotton, and today only 1.3 million acres are devoted to all agricultural crops” (Mitchell, 2007). Agriculture in Alabama is mainly cotton and peanuts in the past they grew cattle corn and cotton. The Native Americans started Alabama off with slash-and-burn agriculture, in which they cut and burned forests to make room for their fields of corn, beans, and squash.
A Comparison of the Laboratory and Industrial Processes When going through the process of fermentation in a laboratory they use certain methods to achieve their goals and some of the methods that they use are completely different from the ones that are used in the industry of fermentation. A fermenter is a container that maintains optimum conditions needed to grow a particular organism I will be using different criteria’s to compare the laboratory and industrial process of fermentation in this assignment; some of them are listed below: * Equipment Used * The Quantity of the Product * Method Used * Quality of the Product Before I get right on into the assignment I will firstly talk about penicillin is and what it is used for today in our society because penicillin will come up. Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1929 and penicillin is one of the earliest discovered and widely used antibiotic agents, derived from the penecillium mold and the use of penecillium did not begin until the 1940s. Penicillin kills bacteria by interfering with the ability to synthesis the cell wall and this will disallow it from splitting and reproducing and it will only lengthen longer Below are is a table that shows the most obvious differences in fermentation in a laboratory and fermentation in the scientific industry: Laboratory Fermentation: Industry Fermentation: It is a batch culture They use a Ph sensor The Ph level is not being controlled The equipment used is more expensive The temperature is not being measured They use a thermometer The yeast population isn’t been given O² They equip the fermenter with an exit gas and an exit liquid flow The food supply is not being replenished They also equip it with a antifoam and gas flow It also has a dissolved O² sensor Equipped with an Sparser In industry they have a fresh media feed
Coli. Each culture was grown in an M9 medium. One culture utilized glucose as a carbon source, while the other utilized succinate as a carbon source. Two other treatments of E. Coli were also tested, one without succinate and one without glucose. These two treatments were added as a baseline to compare how much succinate and how much glucose actually helped the E. coli grow. The two treatments were covered with parafilm and for the purposes of this experiment, will be called blanks. These cultures remained within their assigned group all day to measure the growth of E. Coli. The following process was repeated by all groups throughout the day. A cuvette was labeled with the sample that was being tested. The writing was at the top of the cuvette to prevent light from being disturbed and affecting results. 3 mL of the tested sample were placed in a flask using a sterilized 1 mL pipet. The spectrophotometer was then rezeroed with the corresponding blank inside. This was so that only growth would be measured. After recording measurements the flasks were returned to the incubator and the pipets were disposed of in a red biohazard bag. The contents of the cuvette were poured into 50% bleach to kill any E. coli. The cuvette was rinsed with distilled water. This process was repeated every 30 minutes over the course of eight and a half hours. Measurements at 12:00, 12:30, and 15:30 were missed due
within the soil. In this experiment, the liberation of ammonia is being employed as an indicator. Other components being utilized play a vital role in controlling the conditions of the experiment, as the THAM buffer, and the limitation of microbial activity, through toluene. The control experiment is crucial as it eliminates the addition of ammonia content being released by other sources within the soil into the final reading, providing accurate data.
...extural variation. However, further studies areneeded to evaluate the effects of nitrification inhibitors on ammoniavolatilization, another important N loss pathway, as few studies have reported that nitrificationinhibitors may enhance ammonia volatilization fromsoils with high pH (Kim et al., 2012). Another interesting result found about DCD treatments is that DCD is very short lived as its effect diminishes greatly by the 30th day in almost all parameters in both soils, as compared to the other inhibitors applied; these results are supported by Di et al. (2009). This conclusion is furthersupported by the lack of a significant impact on bacteria and archeae in the two soils at the 30th day of incubation. Similarly, O’Callaghan et al. (2010) also found that DCD was relatively benign and did not affect the soil microbial communities, which is supported by our results.
The study is to determine which of the soil compaction method is most effective way in terms of which method can compact the soil particles closer by referring to the difference of the sand volume in the mould before and after the compaction test done.
Nitrogen is the foundation for the growth of a crop of barley that will produce a sufficient yield. Applying fertilizer to the crop requires careful and necessary steps that will help determine the amount needed. Therefore step one, when determining nitrogen needs for the next growing year, it is important to find out how much nitrogen is left in the soil from the previous growing year. This process requires a soil sample test, which will give test results showing what type of nutrients are still left in the soil. “Step two, nitrogen is mineralized from the soil and made available for plant growth during the next growing season. The problem is there is no test for this so, in Southern Idaho, farmers use an estimation of around forty-five pounds acre” (Robertson and Stark). Step three, when following crops like sugar beets, potatoes, and onions, which have rapid residue decomposition, farmers do not have to use extra recommendations, for nitrogen, to break down those previous crop’s residue. However, if they have a crop that produces mature grain residue, which has low tissue nitrogen levels, farmers have to appl...
value of the water has any effect on how much water each type of soil
Soils assist in plant development, reuse dead material, control and channel water streams, bolster structures and streets, and give living space and sustenance to many plants and creatures. Soil quality evaluations go past measuring corruption, but to concentrate on these dirt capacities and the procedures that make them. Soil cooperates with billions of microorganisms, parasites, and different organisms that are the establishment of a rich advantageous biological system. Soil may be considered a biological community that can be figured out how to give supplements to plant development, ingest and hold water for use amid dryer periods, channel and cradle potential toxins from leaving our fields, fill in as a firm establishment for rural exercises, and give living space to soil organisms to thrive and differentiate to keep the environment running easily and efficently.
There are many features that characterize a soil. One such feature is aggregates. There are many different types of aggregates, such as platy, prismatic, granule, blocky, angular, and more. There are several different factors which influence the formation of these aggregates. Hans Jenny, in his book Factors of Soil Formation (1941), recognizes five factors which influence soil formation: climate, biota, topography, parent material, and time. This paper will explore each of these factors in order to gain a better understanding as to what influences aggregate formation and strength.
The first type of soil is Histosols. Histosols are formed in Topical Wetland climate with a weathered and thick organic soils (more than 20% organic materials by mass) or peat soils (Bouwman, 1990). According to Histosol (n.d.), organic soils are formed by the accumulation of partially decomposed organic matter under waterlogged conditions of peat bogs, moors, and swamps. Thus the accumulated of plants residues and animals and their decomposition products are preserved, resulting in high organic content in soils. They are light in weight, with extremely high water holding capacities (WHC) and have high cation exchange capacity (CEC), it also appeared dark in color (University of Hawai‘i, 2014). Based on Grozav & Rogobete (2010) who studied soil on Romania said that histosols have high compressibility, low bulk density, and high rate of decay upon drainage. According to Kim (2000), in a water-saturated environment, where conditions are good, thick and much deposit are usually formed. There are problem of dropping in the level of soils surface causes by the natural drainage, where “continuous decomposition of the organic matter brought about by the better aeration” (Kim, 2000, pp. 23-24). Since Histosols exhibit very low bulk density values, it may need to be compacted in o...
Qualities of soil additionally assume a crucial part in soil disintegration. Soil's hydrological, synthetic, physical, and mineralogical qualities are real supporters to soil disintegration. In addition, the landform in which the dirt exists likewise influences its inclination to dissolve. On the off chance that the dirt is found at a precarious slant inclination, it would be simpler for soil erosion to
Specific gravity of solids can be defined as the ratio for weight in air of a given volume of soil particles to the weight in air of an equal volume of pure water at a standard temperature. It is often used in relating a weight of soil to its volume. The specific gravity of soil is determined in the laboratory by the density bottle test. The test is of moderate difficulty with the major source of error due to the presence of entrapped air in the soil sample (Bowles, 1997). The density bottle is weighed and filled with the soils whose specific gravity is to be found, and weighed again. The difference in weights is divided by the weight of an equal volume of water to give the specific gravity of the soils.
Soil composition is a two way, dirt road. It gives what it takes and vice versa.
It affects the efficiency of soil aggregation which a combination between soil particles and cation. SOC is the carbon from organic matter. Aggregate stability is very closely with the organic carbon content. The organic matter appears to be a predominant indicator of aggregate stability. SOC is assumed to stabilize aggregate against disruptive process by two major actions. First, organic matter increase the cohesion of aggregate, through the binding of mineral particles by organic polymer or through the physical enmeshment of particles by fine roots, fungal hyphae or cynobacteria (Tisdall and Oedes, 1982). Second, organic matters decrease the wettability of aggregate by slowing their rate of wetting and thus extent of slaking (Chenu et al.,