BACKGROUND Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant and inexpensive resource for biofuel production. Alongside its biotechnological conversion, pretreatment is essential to enable efficient enzymatic hydrolysis by making cellulose susceptible to cellulases. Wet oxidation of biomass, such as acetone/water oxidation, that employs hot acetone, water, and oxygen, has been found to be an attractive pr...

Key ecosystem processes such as carbon and nutrient cycling could be deteriorating as a result of biodiversity loss. However, currently we lack the ability to predict the consequences of realistic species loss on ecosystem processes. The aim of this study was to test whether species contributions to community biomass can be used as surrogate measures of their contribution to ecosystem processes...

Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass produces a complex biocrude, which can be further upgraded to biofuel or chemicals, but there is a need for improved molecular understanding of product composition and reaction pathways. This study extensively characterizes semivolatile compounds in biocrudes from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of microalgae (N. gaditana, C. vulgaris), macroalgae (L. hyperb...

Indonesia’s fire and haze problem is reviewed, and a model quantifying the relationship between drought and haze from biomass burning in western Indonesia is presented. Visibility observations from weather stations in Sumatra and Kalimantan were used as a haze indicator. The Drought Code component of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System was used as a drought indicator. Using meteorolog...

The effect of climate change on peatlands is great importance due to their large carbon stocks. In this study, we examined microbial biomass and temperature O2 availability soil respiration surface subsurface Sphagnum peat. interactive biotic abiotic factors significantly affects respiration. Increasing enhanced the respiratory activity thus respiration, while there a threshold. more decomposed...

Glyphosate, one of the most applied herbicides globally, has been extensively studied for its effects on non-target organisms. In the field, following precipitation, glyphosate runs off into agricultural ditches where it infiltrates into the soil and thus may encounter the roots of vegetation. These edge-of-field ditches share many characteristics with wetlands, including the ability to reduce ...

Themajority of experiments in plant biology use plants grown in some kind of container or pot.We conducted a meta-analysis on 65 studies that analysed the effect of pot size on growth and underlying variables.On average, a doubling of the pot size increased biomass production by 43%. Further analysis of pot size effects on the underlying components of growth suggests that reduced growth in smal...

We present a mathematical model for growth and control of facultative anaerobic bacterial biofilms in nutrient rich environments. The growth of the microbial population is limited by protonated lactic acids and the local pH value, which in return are altered as the microbial population changes. The process is described by a non-linear parabolic system of three coupled equations for the dependen...

Population increases of the gastropod Lacuna vincta have been associated with significant damage to kelp blades and decreases in kelp biomass in subtidal kelp beds off Nova Scotia, Canada. We measured the total level and along-blade distribution of grazing damage by Lacuna vincta on the dominant kelp species at 5 sites in Nova Scotia, Canada, over a 15 mo period. Grazing was typically low or ab...

Chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) is a major targeted species in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, fished by China, Japan, and Russia, predominantly captured with purse seine fishing gear. A formal stock assessment of region has yet to be implemented managing authority, that is, North Fisheries Commission (NPFC). This study aims provide wider choice potential models for using available data provided...