The number of syntrophic butyrate-degrading bacteria in a flooded paddy field soil was 1.7 x 10(3) MPN/g dry soil. Butyrate was degraded to acetate and methane when paddy soils were incubated anaerobically with the addition of butyrate. However, butyrate degradation was completely suppressed by the addition of the specific inhibitor of methanogenesis, 2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES) to the soil. A...

This paper designs a WSN gateway for environmental monitoring of paddy field, which includes the hardware structure and the software program. We use the MSP430F149 as the core of the gateway node and the nRF905 as the peripherals equipment for node communication. We choose TDR-3, a soil moisture sensor, and DHT22, a temperature-humidity sensor, to collect and process the environmental informati...

Butachlor is the most commonly used herbicide on paddy fields in Taiwan and throughout Southeast Asia. Since paddy fields provide habitat for pond breeding amphibians, we examined growth, development, time to metamorphosis, and survival of alpine cricket frog tadpoles (Fejervarya limnocharis) exposed to environmentally realistic concentrations of butachlor. We documented negative impacts of but...

Denitrification occurs markedly in rice paddy fields; however, few microbes that are actively involved in denitrification in these environments have been identified. In this study, we used a laboratory soil microcosm system in which denitrification activity was enhanced. DNA and RNA were extracted from soil at six time points after enhancing denitrification activity, and quantitative PCR and cl...

Pollen and phytolith analyses were undertaken at the Jiangli site in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, combined with studies on macrofossils by flotation. The concentration of pollen decreased while the percentage of Poaceae pollen in the profile increased from the late phase of the Majiabang Culture to the Songze Culture suggesting that human impact on the local environment intensified gradually. The ...

Mass balance analysis and water quality model development for paddy field were performed using field experimental data during 2001-2002. About half (47-62%) of the total outflow was lost by surface drainage, with the remainder (490-530 mm) occurring by evapotranspiration. Most of nutrient inflow and outflow were mediated by fertilization and plant uptake, respectively. Nutrient outflow by surfa...

We studied nutrient balance in a paddy field that had a recycling irrigation system and evaluated the effect of the irrigation system on nutrient balance during the irrigation period, from April to August 2002. Chemical fertilizer was the main input of phosphorus; the soil absorbed about 56% of it. The amount of nitrogen supplied by the irrigation system was higher than in a representative padd...

The APEX (Aqueous Photochemistry of Environmentally-occurring Xenobiotics) software previously developed by one of us was used to model the photochemistry of As(III) in paddy-field water, allowing a comparison with biotic processes. The model included key paddy-water variables, such as the shielding effect of the rice canopy on incident sunlight and its monthly variations, water pH, and the pho...

Ti Grade 2 was prepared by cryogenic attritor milling in liquid nitrogen and liquid argon. Two types of milling balls were used—stainless steel balls and heavy tungsten carbide balls. The effect of processing parameters on particle size and morphology, contamination of powder and its microhardness was investigated. Milling in liquid nitrogen was not feasible due to excessive contamination by ni...