Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-126).

Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the Dept. of Natural Resource Sciences. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/12/07). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-169). / Microfiche. / xii, 169 leaves, bound ill., maps 29 cm

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Paleoproductivity records during the late Pleistocene are sparse. The equatorial Pacific and the Southern Ocean are collectively responsible for the majority of the new production in the oceans. The nutrient and carbon mass balances of these regions must be constrained in order to fully understand net global biological productivity on glacial timescales. The geochemistry of two east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean cores (02° 33.48 N; 117° 55.06 W) and (00° 15.42 S; 113° 00.57 W) are used to examine changes in biological productivity due to nutrient upwelling on glacial timescales during the Pleistocene. The cores were recovered in March 2006 on the AMAT03 cruise, a site survey cruise for IODP Proposal 626. The total concentrations of Ca, Ti, Fe, Al, P, Ba, S, Mg, Sr, Zn and Mn were determined by a total sediment digestion followed by analysis by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP). Original solid forms of P for 34 evenly spaced samples throughout one core were determined using the P Sequential Extraction technique. This study is attempting to compare upwelling and productivity records by determining temporal records of nutrient proxies, using Latimer and Filippelli (2006) which focused on the Southern Ocean. Equatorial upwelling and Southern Ocean upwelling both appear to exhibit strong glacial timescale variability. The P geochemistry results indicate that the P signal is largely biological. The equatorial Pacific evidence, in accordance with Southern Ocean patterns, supports a nutrient budget-driven productivity signal over time. Gabriel M. Filippelli, Ph. D, Committee Chair

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-124). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential plant nutrient that may limit plant growth and agricultural productivity if not available for crop plant uptake in sufficient quantities at the time required. Many Australian soils are deficient in available P, despite a long history of P fertilizer application, and this is due to fertilizer P rapidly becoming unavailable largely through biochemical fixation. The resulting low P fertilizer efficiency, coupled with rapidly rising cost of fertilizers, has increased interest in biological cycling of P from sources such as crop residues. However, to date, much of the Australian research has focussed on soils with relatively high organic matter content (> 2%) and relatively heavy texture i.e. medium to high clay content. Furthermore, although there is information on pasture residue decomposition and P release for sandy soils with low organic matter in Australia, a recent shift to continuous cropping systems means that information for a range of crop residues is required but is not currently available. Therefore the aims of the work described in this thesis were to (i) increase the efficiency of P use when crop residue P are applied to crops and (ii) determine the effect of crop residue biochemical quality on decomposition rates, soil P dynamics and plant P uptake in light textured sandy soils with low organic matter which are typical of a large proportion of the southern Australian wheat growing area. A further aim was to investigate the effects of combined additions of plant residue and P fertilizer on P cycling in these soils, a scenario highly relevant to farming systems. A series of soil incubation and plant growth experiments were undertaken to characterize P dynamics in soil following addition of a wide range of crop residues (total 15) collected from agricultural sites throughout South Australia. The residues, differing in age and biochemical quality, were young shoots of canola, lupin, pea, lucerne and lentil; mature shoot residues of canola, lupin, pea and wheat and mature root residues of wheat, canola and lupin. The concentration of total and water soluble P, C, and N in the residues was measured using standard wet chemical analyses and the carbon chemistry was determined by NMR spectroscopy. Decomposition of crop residues was continuously monitored over a period of up to 140 days by measuring soil respiration. Available P and microbial biomass P and C were also assessed at different times during the incubations. The total P in residues ranged from 0.16% to 0.32% and 0.05% to 0.08% in young and mature shoots, respectively. Water-soluble P was related to residue total P and ranged from 29% to 81% and 13% to 29% of total P in young and mature shoots, respectively. The C: P ratio ranged from 133: 1 to 253: 1 and 504: 1 to 858: 1 in young and mature shoots, respectively. Phosphorus availability and microbial P uptake differed between soils amended with crop residues and soluble P fertilizer as triple super phosphate (TSP). Soil respiration rates were significantly higher in soils amended with crop residues than in the soils amended with TSP or the unamended control in the first 58 days of incubation. In an experiment in which residues and TSP were added at a rate of 10 mg P kg⁻¹, available P was greater for TSP than residue-amended soil, whereas microbial P showed the opposite trend. Respiration rate and microbial P were positively correlated with C addition rate, which was highest in mature wheat residue because it had the lowest P concentration. In order to assess when P released from the residues is available for plants, wheat was grown over three consecutive crop periods with each period lasting for 4 weeks. Young residues with high content of water soluble P, C, N and amide and low lignin and phenolic content decomposed faster than mature residues. The C type and amount added with residues controlled the dynamics of P availability. Surprisingly, canola mature root increased available P and plant growth as much as young shoot residues while root residues of wheat and lupin resulted in P immobilization and low plant growth. Compared to canola young shoot, canola mature root has a higher total P concentration and a lower C: P ratio. Plant P uptake was positively correlated with residue total and water-soluble P content and negatively correlated with residue C: P and C: N ratio and amount of C added with the residues. In another experiment where residue was added at 2.5 g C kg⁻¹ soil and compared with TSP (4 and 10 mg P kg⁻¹ soil), available P and plant P uptake decreased in the following order: TSP-10P > canola root ≥ young shoot ≥ TSP-4P > control > mature shoot. Microbial P was greater with residue addition than with TSP and in the control. Residues with low total P and high C: P ratio resulted in P immobilisation in the microbial biomass. Therefore, residues with high total P and low C: P ratio can be an important source of P for plants. Net P immobilisation of mature wheat residues (0.07% P) was significantly reduced by combining wheat residue (C: P ratio 615: 1) with TSP leading to a C: P ratio of 155: 1 to 310: 1. Furthermore, the combination of wheat residue with TSP increased available P in residue and TSP-amended soils by 3.0 mg P kg⁻¹ soil, which was shown to be sufficient to support wheat growth in the early stages of development in the other experiments. Although water-soluble P fertilizers provide plants with immediately available P, a large proportion becomes unavailable over time. Addition of low C: P residues on the other hand, may not result in high amounts of immediately available P, but the P supply is more sustained due to P release from decomposing residues and turnover of microbial biomass P. Phosphorus immobilization after addition of residues which have high C: P ratio (615: 1) may be offset when residue is applied together with inorganic P fertilizer if the resulting C: P ratio is 300: 1 or less. Overall, this study has highlighted the potential role that crop residues, either alone or in combination with inorganic P, can play in increasing P availability in the light textured, low organic matter, P-limited soils typical of many southern Australian farming systems. The results provide important quantitative information on the potential of a wide range of crop residues to supply wheat with P, and how additions of inorganic P interact with residue decomposition and influence available P supply. This quantitative information will be valuable for the construction or validation of mechanistic models of residue decomposition relevant to low organc matter light textured soils in farming systems of southern Australia, and will ultimately assist in the development of economic management strategies for minimizing P fertilizer inputs and maximizing the benefits of biological cycling of P. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2009

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-140).

With a burgeoning population, increasing land area, and the emergence of new megacities, urban areas have the ability to alter biogeochemical cycles across great scales. Though cities are hotspots of pollution, these concentrated population centers present an opportunity to reduce the human footprint and provide a model of sustainability. Creating sustainable cities requires an understanding of urban biogeochemical cycles of nutrients, such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Studies in urban areas, however, often include measurements at only a few sites, either in an urban-rural comparison or as an anchor along an urban-rural gradient. In my dissertation work, I deployed a network of sites across the greater Boston area to measure several key biogeochemical processes: 1) rates of carbon dioxide (CO2) efflux through soil respiration, 2) atmospheric inputs and soil solution concentrations of N, P, and organic C, and 3) rates of N mineralization and nitrification in soils. I found that urban soil respiration is driven by landowner management and that respiration from urban residential soils produces almost 75% of the CO2 as fossil fuel emissions in these areas during the growing season. I also found that mean fluxes of inorganic N in throughfall are double rural rates and vary more than threefold throughout the urban area, exhibiting rates at some urban sites which are as low as rural rates. These rates are driven by vehicular N emissions and local fertilizer inputs, and are decoupled from rates of soil biogeochemical cycling of C and N. Finally, I found atmospheric fluxes of organic N equaling almost 40% of total atmospheric N inputs, atmospheric inputs of organic C on par with rural rates, atmospheric inputs of P similar to rates of P in parking lot runoff, and an enhancement of nutrient inputs to urban ecosystems by the urban tree canopy. My dissertation work highlights the need for a more thorough understanding of biogeochemical fluxes in cities, provides further impetus for the development of a more holistic, multifaceted understanding of urbanization, and suggests that urban areas should be studied as systems unto themselves, rather than strictly in comparison to rural areas.

L’objectif de ce travail de thèse a été d’étudier l’impact des activités microbiennes sur la spéciation et les flux de phosphore au sein de la colonne d’eau du lac Pavin. Ce lac ferrugineux et méromictique (stratifié de façon permanente) constitue un modèle d’étude des processus de phosphatogenèse, la transition oxique-anoxique délimitant une zone de précipitation de phases minérales phosphatées. Alors que l’on pensait que cette précipitation résultait de processus abiotiques, la contribution des communautés microbiennes a été récemment évoquée mais son ampleur restait à déterminer.Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse ont permis de révéler une plus forte activité phosphatasique alcaline (APA) au niveau du compartiment supérieur brassé saisonnièrement (mixolimnion). De plus, une corrélation négative entre la concentration en orthophosphates en solution et l’APA a été montrée. Nous avons déterminé le flux et la composition des particules phosphorées sédimentant vers la zone de phosphatogenèse. Nous avons également quantifié par spectrofluorimétrie les inclusions de polyphosphates (poly-P) intracellulaires du mixolimnion et montré qu’elles sont particulièrement abondantes dans le pic de turbidité lié à la biomasse photosynthétique. En outre, l’optimisation d’un protocole de quantification des poly-P nous a permis de déceler plusieurs contraintes associées. Enfin, en utilisant une approche corrélative couplant différentes microscopies, nous avons identifié des bactéries magnétotactiques abondantes à l’interface redox, accumulant des inclusions de soufre et de phosphore (poly-P), et qui pourraient ainsi contribuer significativement aux cycles biogéochimiques de ces éléments. / This work aimed at deciphering the contribution of microbial activities to the speciation and fluxes of phosphorus particles in the water column of Lake Pavin. This ferruginous and meromictic (i.e. permanently stratified) lake is a model case for phosphatogenesis; the oxic/anoxic boundary is located within the water column, delimiting a zone where precipitation of phosphate mineral phases occurs. While it was previously assumed that this precipitation was induced by abiotic processes only, recent clues highlighted the contribution of microbial communities. Yet, the nature and magnitude of this contribution were poorly known.Here, we show that the highest activity of alkaline phosphatases (APA) occurred within the mixolimnion (the upper layer affected by seasonal mixing). Moreover, we found a negative correlation between the concentration of dissolved orthophosphates and the APA. We quantified the flux and the composition of the phosphorus particles settling to the phosphatogenesis zone. We also quantified the intracellular polyphosphate (poly-P) inclusions in the mixolimnion, by using spectrofluorimetry. We showed that poly-P were particularly abundant at depths where the photosynthetic biomass dominated. Furthermore, the development of a poly-P quantification protocol enabled us to detect several associated issues. Finally, using a correlative approach with different types of microscopy, we identified abundant magnetotactic bacteria at the redox interface, containing intracellular inclusions of sulfur and phosphorus (poly-P). These bacteria may therefore play a major role in the biogeochemical cycles of these elements.

Please read the abstract in the front section of this document / Dissertation (MSc (Microbiology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Microbiology and Plant Pathology / unrestricted