Large quantities of soil organic carbon in Arctic permafrost zones are becoming increasingly unstable due to a warming climate. High temperatures and substantial rainfall in July 2007 in the Canadian High Arctic resulted in permafrost active layer detachments (ALDs) that redistributed soils throughout a small watershed in Nunavut, Canada. Molecular biomarkers and NMR spectroscopy were used to measure how ALDs may lead to microbial activity and decomposition of previously unavailable soil organic matter (SOM). Increased concentrations of extracted bacterial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) and large contributions from bacterial protein/peptides in the NMR spectra at recent ALDs suggest increased microbial activity. PLFAs were appreciably depleted in a soil sample where ALDs occurred prior to 2003. However an enrichment of bacterial derived peptidoglycan was observed by (1)H-(13)C heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC) and (1)H diffusion edited (DE) NMR and enhanced SOM degradation was observed by (13)C solid-state NMR. These data suggest that a previous rise in microbial activity, as is currently underway at the recent ALD site, led to degradation and depletion of labile SOM components. Therefore, this study indicates that ALDs may amplify climate change due to the release of labile SOM substrates from thawing High Arctic permafrost.
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems and is derived from various inputs that control its turnover. Glaciers and ice sheets are the second largest water reservoir in the global hydrologic cycle, but little is known about glacial DOM composition or contributions to biogeochemical cycling. Here we employ SPR-W5-WATERGATE (1)H NMR spectroscopy to elucidate and quantify the chemical structures of DOM constituents in Antarctic glacial ice as they exist in their natural state (average DOC of 8 mg/L) without isolation or preconcentration. This Antarctic glacial DOM is predominantly composed of a mixture of small recognizable molecules differing from DOM in marine, lacustrine, and other terrestrial environments. The major constituents detected in three distinct types of glacial ice include lactic and formic acid, free amino acids, and a mixture of simple sugars and amino sugars with concentrations that vary between ice types. The detection of free amino acid and amino sugar monomer components of peptidoglycan within the ice suggests that Antarctic glacial DOM likely originates from in situ microbial activity. As these constituents are normally considered to be biologically labile (fast cycling) in nonglacial environments, accelerated glacier melt and runoff may result in a flux of nutrients into adjacent ecosystems.
The synthesis of colloidal Cr(3+)-doped SnO(2) nanocrystals prepared under mild conditions via a hydrolysis method is described. We show by means of nanocrystal surface ligand exchange that even under mild reaction conditions a significant fraction of the dopant ions reside on the nanocrystal surfaces. Two different approaches aimed at achieving internal dopant incorporation-surface-bound dopant complexation and isocrystalline shell growth-are described and compared. While free-standing nanocrystals are paramagnetic, the films prepared from the same nanocrystals exhibit ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature. The measured magnetization is associated with structural defects formed at the interfaces of nanocrystals in their films, and discussed in terms of the defect-related itinerant-electron-mediated mechanism. The observed ferromagnetism is compared to ferromagnetism in Cr(3+)-doped In(2)O(3) nanocrystalline films. These results demonstrate the possibility of controlling surface structure and composition of doped oxide nanocrystals using different approaches. Furthermore, this work emphasizes the importance of surface structure and composition in tailoring properties of doped multifunctional transparent conducting oxide nanostructures.
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