Thursday, April 18, 2024

What Is Litter In Geography

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Lignin Degradation By Soft

Here’s How Much Plastic Trash Is Littering the Earth | National Geographic

The literature suggests that soft-rot fungi do not decompose lignin; however, it does soften wood by breaking down the middle lamella of the cell wall. Most soft-rot fungi are ascomycetes and deuteromycetes and are most lively in moist wood . Crawford observed that soft-rot fungi remained capable of reducing the lignin content in decomposing wood. Another study showed that soft-rot fungi decompose lignin up to 44% under laboratory conditions . The lignolytic peroxidases of soft-rot fungi do not have the potential to oxidise the softwood lignin, which has a high level of guaiacyl components.

Growth Of The International Coastal Cleanup

The International Coastal Cleanup event began in Texas with only a limited number of volunteers .Nevertheless, the organization has grown into a vast cleanup that involves national and international volunteers all focused on ensuringthat the coastlines of the world’s oceans are clean andfree from all forms of litter. Over the past 30 years almost 12 million volunteers have scoured more than 360,000 miles of coastline in search of glass, plastic, foam, and larger waste.

Detritivore Conversion Of Litter Into Faeces Accelerates Organic Matter Turnover

Research output: Contribution to journal Journal article Research peer-review

  • Isabel Prater
  • Jens-Arne Subke

Litter-feeding soil animals are notoriously neglected in conceptual and mechanistic biogeochemical models. Yet, they may be a dominant factor in decomposition by converting large amounts of plant litter into faeces. Here, we assess how the chemical and physical changes occurring when litter is converted into faeces alter their fate during further decomposition with an experimental test including 36 combinations of phylogenetically distant detritivores and leaf litter of contrasting physicochemical characteristics. We show that, across litter and detritivore species, litter conversion into detritivore faeces enhanced organic matter lability and thereby accelerated carbon cycling. Notably, the positive conversion effect on faeces quality and decomposition increased with decreasing quality and decomposition of intact litter. This general pattern was consistent across detritivores as different as snails and woodlice, and reduced differences in quality and decomposition amongst litter species. Our data show that litter conversion into detritivore faeces has far-reaching consequences for the understanding and modelling of the terrestrial carbon cycle.

Original language

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What Is Interception In Geography

Interceptionintercepted

Interception. storage of water above the ground surface, mostly in vegetation. where vegetation is present, precipitation consists of. gross rainfall measured above the canopy or in openings in a forest.

Also Know, what is Stemflow in geography? In hydrology, stemflow is the flow of intercepted water down the trunk or stem of a plant. Stemflow, along with throughfall, is responsible for the transferral of precipitation and nutrients from the canopy to the soil.

Also asked, why is interception important in the hydrological system?

The most important role is as a rainfall reducer, causing a significant amount of rainfall to be directly fed back to the atmosphere which is not available for infiltration. Second, interception influences the spatial distribution of infiltration. The role of interception in the hydrological cycle is crucial.

Why does interception decrease during a storm?

High winds during a storm event can mechanically shake precipitation from the canopy and thus reduce interception loss. Winds during evaporation can either shake precipitation loose or increase the rate of evaporation and the time until maximum interception capacity is attained.

Litter Is Waste In The Wrong Place

Heres Where the Oceans Trash Comes From

Litter comes from different sources, and different people. For instance, it may be intentional litter by motorists discarding litter out of windows, pedestrians dropping litter on the street, or people on picnics and at other public space events.

Another source of litter may be unintentional. It may come from uncovered loads and can easily be blown out of trucks, cars and trailers. Household rubbish, commercial rubbish and uncontrolled building waste can become litter if not secured by a proper cover. Finally, there is rubbish from the wind, and rubbish which animals carry from sites that are not properly secured.

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What Is Drainage Geography

What is drainage geography? In geomorphology, drainage systems, also known as river systems, are the patterns formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin. This is the topographic region from which a stream receives runoff, throughflow, and its saturated equivalent, groundwater flow.

What is the meaning of drainage in geography?;The flow of water through well-defined channels is known as drainage and the network of such channels is known as drainage system. The drainage pattern of an area is the result of the geological time period, nature, and structure of rocks, topography, slope, etc.

What is drainage system in geography class 9?;Drainage is a term which describes the river system of an area. A drainage basin or river basin is an area which is drained by a single river system. An upland that separates two drainage systems that are next to each other is called a water divide.

What is meant by drainage system?;A drainage system can be defined as the pattern formed by the rivers, streams and lakes in a particular drainage basin. They are governed by the topography of the land, whether a particular region is governed by hard or soft rocks, and the slope of the land.

Detritivores And Other Decomposers

Eutropis multifasciataSabah

Many organisms that live on the forest floor are , such as fungi. Organisms whose diet consists of plant detritus, such as earthworms, are termed detritivores. The community of decomposers in the litter layer also includes bacteria, amoeba, nematodes, rotifer, tardigrades, springtails, cryptostigmata, potworms, insect larvae, mollusks, oribatid mites, woodlice, and millipedes. Even some species of microcrustaceans, especially copepods live in moist leaf litter habitats and play an important role as predators and decomposers.

The consumption of the litterfall by decomposers results in the breakdown of simple carbon compounds into carbon dioxide and water , and releases inorganic ions into the soil where the surrounding plants can then reabsorb the nutrients that were shed as litterfall. In this way, litterfall becomes an important part of the nutrient cycle that sustains forest environments.

As litter decomposes, nutrients are released into the environment. The portion of the litter that is not readily decomposable is known as humus. Litter aids in soil moisture retention by cooling the ground surface and holding moisture in decaying organic matter. The flora and fauna working to decompose soil litter also aid in soil respiration. A litter layer of decomposing biomass provides a continuous energy source for macro- and micro-organisms.

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What Is The Importance Of Geography

Whilst maps and countries may not be essential in life, it is definitely important to learn about them and also the impact that humans have on the environment. With the next generation being aware of global warming and climate change, they can take steps to improve this. It is also vital that we learn about poorer countries so we can help them become more developed. In Japan, there are no rubbish bins outside and you are encouraged to take your litter home, because of this, Japan is not very polluted.

The Most Common Types Of Litter Found On Beaches

Litter Pollution – HSIE:Geography

According to the data collected by the International Coastal Cleanup in 2017, cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic bottles and bottle caps, plastic grocery and other plastic bags, plastic beverage lids, straw, and stirrers, as well as plastic and foam take-out containers were the most common form of beach litter found in all ocean coastlines sampled.

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Human Environment Interaction Definition In Geography

Human Environment Interaction in Geography

Lets look at the Human Environment Interaction;definition in Geography and answer the question What does Human Environment Interaction mean in geography?; The Human Environment Interaction definition is the way humans interact with their surroundings, or ecosystem.; Its the way they interact with the earth and its environment and make changes to that environment.; At the same time, the environment can have an impact on humans.; The environment can Change what we eat, wear, build or do in everyday life.; So, the environment impacts us and we impact the environment.

Human Environment Interaction in a sentence, is the way that humans interact with and modify their environment.

Well take a look at people and environment interaction in a closer level next.

Effects Of N Addition On The Decomposition Rate

For both species, the percentage of litter remained relatively stable during the cold and dry seasons and decreased rapidly in the warm and wet seasons . The amount of mass in the two litters decreased exponentially with time in the N treatment plots , and N2 and N3 increased significantly litter decomposition in V. negundo and S. trilobata after 7 and 10 months, respectively . A repeated-measures ANOVA showed that N addition did not influence the amount of remaining mass in the litter samples . Furthermore, none of the treatments had an impact on the T50% or the decomposition rate constant k , indicating that although N treatment promoted decomposition of two litters from two temperate shrublands in the early decomposition stage, it had no significant influence on the total or average decomposition rate of litters. In addition, we found that litter decomposition in V. negundo was faster than that in S. trilobata in all treatments during the whole decomposition period .

Table 3. Overall effects of N addition on the mass; the remaining C, N, and P; and the C/N and C/P ratios of decomposing foliar litter of Vitex negundo and Spiraea trilobata in northern China.

Table 4. The decomposition rate constant and the time to 50% decomposition in the different treatments.

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The 10 Types Of Litter Most Commonly Found On Beaches Around The World

Ocean trash has become a serious issue over the past couple years. It is estimated that 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean every year endangering sea life and contributing to the creation of microplastics and the buildup of garbage patches such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. To combat this, the International Coastal Cleanup, established by Linda Maraniss and Kathy OHara in 1985, takes place annually on the third Saturday in September with the primary purpose of collecting and documenting the trash that littered the coastlines of oceans around the globe. In the past 30+ years, the annual event spread to 153 countries with the almost 12 million volunteers having collected almost 250 million pounds of trash. Below looks at the most common types of litter found on beaches during the 2017 International Coastal Cleanup.

Site Description And Experimental Design

Commonwealth Litter Programme (CLiP)

The study was conducted on Mt. Dongling in Beijing, North China. The study area has a temperate continental monsoon climate, with a warm, humid summer and dry, cold winter. The mean annual temperature is 6.3°C, with a minimum temperature of 10.1°C in January and a maximum temperature of 18.3°C in July. The mean annual precipitation is approximately 612 mm, with most falling between June and August. The soil at the study site is classified as a cinnamon soil according to the Chinese Soil Taxonomy . The estimated atmospheric inorganic wet N deposition at this site was approximately 14.5 kgha1year1 . We performed our study in Vitex negundo and Spiraea trilobata shrublands, and the general information about the shrublands is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Elevation, mean annual temperature , soil total C , soil total N , and soil total P of the experimental sites .

Table 2. Initial chemical properties of the leaf litter.

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Role Of Trees And Litter Quality

The major component of organic material in forest soil results from the vegetation that is deposited on the soil surface as an organic layer and is partially dispersed into the soil .

Plant litter contains various classes of organic compounds. There are four major assemblies of soluble organic material in litter: sugars, phenolics, hydrocarbons and glycerides. The soluble sugars, primarily mono and oligosaccharides are difficult to metabolise. The relative proportions of these compounds differ with the plant part and plant species. The plant litter quality is measured by means of chemical composition of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and chief cell wall components, such as lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses that influence the litter decomposition and nutrient release .

Lignin accounts for about 1540% of the total litter quantity. In certain extreme cases, litter can have lignin contents as low as 4% or as high as 50%. Lignin, in contrast to cellulose, is an extremely flexible molecule. The structure of lignin differs with the plant species. For example, deciduous species are comprised of fluctuating proportions of syringyl and guaiacyl forms of lignin, while conifers have generally guaiacyl lignin .

The Nutrient Cycle In The Rainforest

The majority of nutrients in the tropical rainforest are stored in the biomass. ;The biomass is all the living things in an ecosystem, including plants and animals.

Nutrients are rapidly recycled in the tropical rainforest biome. The warm, moist climate provides ideal conditions for decomposers to break down organic material in the litter layer very quickly. The litter layer is all the dead organic material such as fallen leaves, dead wood or dead animals on the surface of the soil. Vegetation takes up nutrients which are dissolved in the soil.

The soil is formed by the mixing of dead organic material with weathered bedrock. Soils in the rainforest are mainly thin and poor. Nutrient levels in the soil are low due to the leaching by the heavy equatorial rain. This leaching means that the lower layers of the soils lack the nutrients and minerals needed by the lush vegetation.;Also, rainforest vegetation rapidly absorbs nutrients from the soil.;Soils are often red in colour as they are rich in iron.

The nutrient cycle in the rainforest is an excellent example of interdependence. the diagram above shows the links between different stores of nutrients in the rainforest. Decomposers rely on fallen leaves, branches and dead animals to thrive. In turn, nutrients from decomposed matter enter the soil providing nutrients to support the growth of vegetation that is consumed by primary consumers.

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Littering Leads To Tension In Society

Often, irresponsible citizens tend to litter the streets and other public properties or even private properties of their neighbors. When other members of the public complain against such littering, the guilty often go into denial mode or exhibits adamant behavior. Thus, tensions are born between members of society which can also lead to violent clashes in extreme cases.

Factors Affecting Litter Decomposition

What’s the World’s Most Littered Plastic Item? Cigarette Butts | National Geographic

Litter decomposition consists of two simultaneous processes: the associated mineralisation and humification of lignin, cellulose and other compounds through a series of actions by microorganisms and the leaching of soluble compounds into the soil whose carbon and nitrogen are gradually mineralised . These methods depend on abiotic factors like temperature, humidity and biotic features, such as chemical composition of litter and soil organisms . Hence, the physico-chemical environment, litter quality and the composition of the decomposer community are the three leading features regulating litter decomposition .

Temperature can be considered as a prime factor in determining the rates of litter decomposition , and decomposition is more sensitive to temperature than the primary production . Soil microbial activity rises exponentially with soil temperature . A few studies have indicated the role of the chemical nature of the litter in decomposition along with climate .

Fresh leaf litter is a readily available substrate for soil macro- and microfauna. The litter quality also affects the degradation process, as it generally reduces throughout the decomposition due to the loss of readily accessible carbon and the accumulation of recalcitrant compounds . Liu et al. revealed the influence of the type of leaf litter on the decomposition process and soil microbes . The major factors that influence litter degradation are diagrammatically represented in Fig.;1.

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Asite Selection And General Considerations

Submerged decaying plant litter that serves as substrate for aquatic fungi can be found in almost all types of lotic habitats. Alternatively, plant material introduced as leaf bags or packs can be used after appropriate stream exposure. Collected leaf litter, woody substrates, dead macrophytes, or other organic materials are suitable for determination of fungal biomass and production since these assays are designed to target a broad group of fungi of mainly ascomycetous and basidiomycetous affinities . If the objectives of the study also include estimation of sporulation rate and/or community structure of aquatic hyphomycetes, then headwater streams may be the best choice because of the greater abundance and diversity of these fungi in fast flowing well-aerated streams. Aquatic hyphomycetes can also be found in large rivers and specific objectives of the study may dictate the choice of site.

José C.B. Dubeux Jr., Lynn E. Sollenberger, in, 2020

Lignin Degradation By White Rot Fungi

White-rot fungi have the capability to completely mineralise lignin to CO2 and water. The outcome, for wood, is that the whole lignocellulosic complex is decayed more or less instantaneously. A bulky cluster of the white rots might even decompose lignin differently to cellulose . The attack of lignin arrangement has long been supposed to start through the elimination of the methoxyl group. An earlier investigation revealed that a mixture of hydroxylation and demethylation is shadowed by an oxidative attack on the aromatic ring .

Lignolytic schemes are species specific and depend on the ecological niche of the fungus . For instance, the white-rot Ganoderma lucidum creates Mn-peroxidase in a medium with popular wood; however, it does not in pine . Such interpretations might support the outcome that white-rot fungi are usually found on angiosperm than on gymnosperm woods .

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