The decline of floodplain vegetation along the Lower River Murray, South Australia, has evoked recommendations for ‘environmental flows’ to restore and maintain the health of the ecosystem. To assist managers to maximize benefits from environmental flows, this thesis considers the significance of water for germination and recruitment in key floodplain plant species. Three dominant species are considered, including two trees, river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and black box (E. largiflorens), and an understorey shrub, tangled lignum (Muehlenbeckia florulenta). The soil seed bank was dominated by terrestrial annual native plants. Among 1400 seedlings, a single river red gum was found, and no black box or lignum, suggesting that these species do not contribute to the persistent soil seed bank and rely instead on aerial seed banks (serotiny). Sampling of the soil seed bank was continued to determine when seed fall might coincide with appropriate soil moisture conditions. Responses of the soil seed bank to varied water regimes were compared to determine requirements for seedling survival. The results indicated that species richness, rapidity of response and survival time were all promoted by sustained soil moisture. Stands of eucalypts in various states of health (from very stressed to very healthy) were monitored to identify seasonal patterns in bud crops, flowering, fresh leaves and volumes of seed released from the aerial seed bank. Distinct seasonal phenological patterns were apparent, and suggested alternating flowering among individual trees (biennial for red gum, bi-annual for black box), producing an annual peak in summer. Peak seed rain occurred in summer (December–March) in healthy trees for both red gum and black box, with light seed rain continuing throughout the year. Seed fall from stressed trees was much reduced. Stressed trees responded after a second watering event, with much more varied and extended annual seed fall patterns. Lignum showed a spring peak in flowering and seed production. There was a prolific response of flowering and seeding to rainfall, but few seedlings survived. Vigorous vegetative growth occurred in existing plants in response to rainfall and watering but no new cloned plants were found during the study. An investigation of chromosomes as a potential tool to appraise the balance between sexual and asexual reproduction in lignum proved inconclusive, although a previous report of octoploidy in lignum was confirmed. Seeds from all three species and lignum cuttings were tested for their responses to varied watering regimes, based on combinations of simulated rain and flood conditions. The optimal soil moisture for continued growth and survival in all seeds and cuttings was 10 25%, with moisture values <10% causing wilting and death. The results also suggested that red gum and black box seeds which germinate in water under flooded conditions need to be stranded onto moist soil at the water’s edge within 10 days, for the seedling to continue to grow. It was also concluded that germination on rain-moistened soil is a key supplementary mechanism for recruitment, particularly between irregular flood events. For greatest benefit, the timing of environmental flows should complement any seasonal rainfall and irregular flooding that may occur. Extension of suitable soil moisture conditions (10-25%) for as long as possible after >5 mm rainfall, or after over-bank flows, would increase chances for survival of seedlings. December is the most likely month for maximal benefit from watering in the Lower Murray Valley, for germination and recruitment, based on regional rainfall and flooding patterns. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1344528 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2008

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:24:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Rogerio Gomes Pereira.pdf: 1311913 bytes, checksum: 594d4803b27bb1b817ac16d754681cbb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-14 / The average national rice yield was 11,3 million tones, with a harvested area of about 2,7 million hectares (IBGE 2010). Part of this comes from upland production systems in savannas that have high acidity, low fertility, with low phosphorus and potassium levels, low cation exchange capacity and high aluminum saturation. Upland rice in the Brazilian savannas (Cerrados) experiences multiple abiotic stresses and is characterized by high levels of uncertainty caused by rainfall variability. The increasing consumption of plant biomass to generate energy has produced products and by-products with high potential for agricultural use. Among these products is charcoal, that, due to its physical-chemical and molecular properties, have beneficial effects for the physical, chemical and biological soil characteristics. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of charcoal on soil chemical properties and on the development of upland rice, and on the transpiration rate response of upland rice as an alternative to decrease the effect of drought on its growth and development. Two pot experiments were carried out using a random split-plot experimental design. The main treatments (plots) were water stress (WS) and no-water stress (NWS) and the sub treatments (subplots) were different biochar doses, 0% or control (T1), 6% (T2), 12% (T3) and 24% (T4) in growing medium (sand). The plastic pots were randomized within the sub plots with six replications. The total transpirable soil water (TTSW), the p factor, defined as the average fraction of TTSW that can be depleted from the root zone before reduction in transpiration occurs and the normalized transpiration rate (NTR) were determined. Charcoal significantly increased dry matter accumulation and leaf area of rice plants in both experiments and positively affected the chemical and physical soil properties such as water retention and nitrate availability to the plants. Biochar addition increased TTSW, p factor and reduced NTR. Consequently, biochar addition was able to change the moisture threshold (p factor) of the growing medium, up to a maximum concentration of 12%, hence delaying the point where transpiration declines and affects yield. / A safra nacional de arroz foi de 11,3 milhões de toneladas, com uma área colhida de aproximadamente 2,7 milhões hectares (IBGE 2010). Parte desta produção é cultivada em sistema de sequeiro sob solos de cerrados que é caracterizado por apresentar elevada acidez e baixa fertilidade natural, com baixos teores de fósforo, potássio, capacidade de troca catiônica e elevada saturação por alumínio. O arroz de terras altas cultivado no Brasil Central (Cerrados) experimenta múltiplos estresses abióticos e sua produtividade é caracterizada pela incerteza devido à variabilidade na precipitação. O crescente consumo de biomassa vegetal para a geração de energia tem disponibilizado subprodutos com alto potencial para o uso agrícola. Dentre esses subprodutos, destaca-se o carvão vegetal, que devido as suas características físico-químicas e moleculares, tem-se mostrado benéfico para as propriedades físicas, químicas e biológicas do solo. O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar os efeitos de diferentes doses de carvão vegetal de eucalipto na produção de matéria seca na cultura do arroz de terras altas e nas características físico-químicas e hídricas em substrato areia, e na resposta da taxa de transpiração do arroz de terras altas como uma alternativa para minimizar os efeitos da seca no seu desenvolvimento e crescimento. Dois experimentos em vasos foram realizados por meio do delineamento em parcela sub-dividida. A parcela principal foi constituída pelo tratamento deficiência hídrica (WS) e não deficiência hídrica (NWS) e as sub-parcelas pelas diferentes doses de carvão; 0% (controle, T1), 6% (T2), 12% (T3) e 24% (T4) adicionadas no substrato (areia). Os vasos foram inteiramente casualizados nas sub-parcelas com seis repetições por dose de carvão. A quantidade de água transpirável no solo (TTSW), o fator de depleção (p), definido como a fração de água disponível no solo que pode ser retirada da zona radicular antes de ocorrer a redução da taxa de transpiração, e a taxa de transpiração normalizada (NTR) foram determinadas. A adição de carvão ao substrato proporcionou um aumento significativo na produção de matéria seca e área foliar das plantas de arroz em ambos os experimentos. Nos tratamentos T2, T3 e T4, a adição de carvão vegetal alterou significativamente as características químicas e físico-hídricas do solo, aumentando a retenção de água e a disponibilidade de nitrato para as plantas. A adição de carvão aumentou a TTSW, o fator p e reduziu a NTR. Conseqüentemente, o carvão foi responsável por modificar o fator p, até uma concentração máxima de 12% e retardar o ponto no qual o declínio da transpiração afeta o rendimento.

Converting wood into paper is a complex process involving many different stages, one of which is pulping. Pulping involves liberating the wood fibres from each other, which can be done either chemically or mechanically. This thesis focuses on the most common chemical pulping method, the kraft cooking process, and especially on a recently developed improvement of the impregnation phase, which is the first part of a kraft cook. Extended impregnation kraft cooking (EIC) technique is demonstrated to be an improvement of the kraft pulping process and provides a way to utilize softwood to a higher degree, at higher pulp yield. We demonstrate that it is possible to produce softwood (Picea abies) kraft pulp using a new cooking technique, resulting in a pulp that can be defibrated without inline refining at as high lignin content as 8% on wood, measured as kappa numbers above 90. Lignin is the wood constituent that holds the wood fibres together in the wood matrix. The new cooking technique uses the differences in reaction rate between the diffusion and consumption of hydroxide ions; it is used to ensure a homogenous impregnation of wood chips at lower impregnation temperatures and longer impregnation times than are generally used in the industry. The applied cooking temperatures are also substantially lower than those used in conventional kraft pulping systems, promoting uniform delignification. This results in a narrower kappa number distribution than in lab-cooked conventional kraft pulp. High-kappa-number pulps were investigated for pulp sheet properties such as tensile strength, tensile stiffness, and compression strength. It was demonstrated that an EIC pulp of kappa number 95 has strength properties comparable to those of a conventional pulp of kappa number 82. Comparing the effects of starch multilayers on conventional and EIC pulps reveals similar effects. The use of the starch multilayer treatment increased the tensile index and decreased the tensile stiffness and short-span compression test (SCT) indices. The EIC technique has also been used to produce a series of bleachable-grade pulps. The results indicate the possibility of increasing the lignin content of the pulp entering the oxygen delignification stage, since the reject content of gently defibered pulp is lower than 0.1% at kappa number 49. In this thesis, we recommend that wood chips be impregnated for 2 h at 110 °C to neutralize acidic compounds in the wood and impregnate the chips with cooking chemicals, and that the ensuing cook be performed at 135–140 °C, depending on the target kappa number. We also recommend increasing the available amounts of cooking chemicals in the impregnation stage by using a higher liquor-to-wood ratio and keeping the alkali profile fairly high in the ensuing cook. This concept will reduce the amount of reject material, increase the pulping uniformity, and increase the selectivity towards lignin degradation in the kraft cook. / Omvandling av ved till papper är en komplicerad process som består av många olika steg där ett är massaframställningen (eng. pulping). Massaframställning medför att vedfibrerna frigörs från varandra på kemisk eller mekanisk väg. Denna avhandling fokuserar på den vanligaste kemiska metoden, sulfatkokning och speciellt den nyligen utvecklade förbättringen av impregnerings fasen, som är den första delen av ett sulfatkok. Här visas att Extended Impregnation kraft Cooking (EIC) innebär en förbättring av sulfatkokningen och ett sätt att uppnå högre vedutnyttjande vid högre utbyte för barrved. Vi visar att det är möjligt att producera barrvedsmassa med en ny kokningsprincip som resulterar i en massa som är defibrerbar utan inline-raffinering vid så högt lignin innehåll som 8% (på ved), mätt som kappatal över 90. Lignin är den vedkomponent som håller ihop vedfibrerna i vedmatrisen. Kokningsprincipen utnyttjar skillnaderna i reaktionshastighet mellan diffusion och konsumtion av hydroxidjoner och nyttjas till att skapa en homogen impregnering av vedflisen vid lägre impregneringstemperatur och under längre tid än vad som vanligen används i industrin. De använda koktemperaturerna är också betydligt lägre än vid konventionell sulfatkokning vilket gynnar jämn delignifiering. Detta resulterar i en smalare kappatalsfördelning jämfört med laboratoriekokade konventionella massor. Massor med höga kappatal undersöktes med avseende på egenskaper hos handark, såsom dragstyrka, dragstyvhet och kompressionsstyrka Det visades att handark från EIC massa vid kappatal 95 hade jämförbara styrkeegenskaper med konventionell massa vid kappatal 82. Vid jämförelse av effekten av stärkelse multilager på konventionella och EIC massor avslöjar liknande effekter. Användningen av stärkelsemultilager ökade dragindex och minskade dragstyvhets- och kompressions index (SCT, short-compression test). Kokprincipen har även använts för att ta fram en serie blekbara massor. Resultaten visar på möjligheten att öka lignininnehållet i massan in till i syrgasdelignifierings-steget eftersom spetinnehållet för milt defibrerad massa var lägre än 0,1% vid kappatal 49. I den här avhandlingen rekommenderar vi att vedflis impregneras i 2 timmar vid 110 °C för att neutralisera sura komponenter i veden och impregnera flisen med kokkemikalier, samt att utföra det efterföljande koket vid 135–140 °C beroende på önskat kappatal. Vi rekommenderar även att öka den tillgängliga mängden kokkemikalier i impregneringssteget genom att använda högre vätske-ved förhållande och att hålla alkali profilen relativt hög i det efterföljande koket. Detta koncept reducerar spetmängden, ger jämnare kokning och ökar selektiviteten för nedbrytning av lignin i sulfatkoket. / QC 20120216