Alternative N fertilizers that produce low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soil are needed to reduce the impacts of agricultural practices on global warming potential (GWP). We quantified and compared growing season fluxes of NO, CH, and CO resulting from applications of different N fertilizer sources, urea (U), urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN), ammonium nitrate (NHNO), poultry litter, and commercially available, enhanced-efficiency N fertilizers as follows: polymer-coated urea (ESN), SuperU, UAN + AgrotainPlus, and poultry litter + AgrotainPlus in a no-till corn ( L.) production system. Greenhouse gas fluxes were measured during two growing seasons using static, vented chambers. The ESN delayed the NO flux peak by 3 to 4 wk compared with other N sources. No significant differences were observed in NO emissions among the enhanced-efficiency and traditional inorganic N sources, except for ESN in 2009. Cumulative growing season NO emission from poultry litter was significantly greater than from inorganic N sources. The NO loss (2-yr average) as a percentage of N applied ranged from 0.69% for SuperU to 4.5% for poultry litter. The CH-C and CO-C emissions were impacted by environmental factors, such as temperature and moisture, more than the N source. There was no significant difference in corn yield among all N sources in both years. Site specifics and climate conditions may be responsible for the differences among the results of this study and some of the previously published studies. Our results demonstrate that N fertilizer source and climate conditions need consideration when selecting N sources to reduce GHG emissions.

Microbial populations within poultry litter have been largely ignored with the exception of potential human or livestock pathogens. A better understanding of the community structure and identity of the microbial populations within poultry litter could aid in the development of management practices that would reduce populations responsible for toxic air emissions and pathogen incidence. In this study, poultry litter air and physical properties were correlated to shifts in microbial community structure as analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and measured by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Litter samples were taken in a 36-point grid pattern at 5 m across and 12 m down a 146 m x 12.8 m chicken house. At each sample point, physical parameters such as litter moisture, pH, air and litter temperature, and relative humidity were recorded, and samples were taken for molecular analysis. The DGGE analysis showed that the banding pattern of samples from the back and water/feeder areas of poultry house were distinct from those of samples from other areas. There were distinct clusters of banding patterns corresponding to the front, middle front, middle back, back, and waterer/feeder areas. The PCA analysis showed similar cluster patterns, but with more distinct separation of the front and midhouse samples. The PCA analysis also showed that moisture content and litter temperature (accounting for 51.5 and 31.5% of the separation of samples, respectively) play a major role in spatial diversity of microbial community in the poultry house. Based on analysis of DGGE fingerprints and cloned DGGE band sequences, there appear to be differences in the types of microorganisms over the length of the house, which correspond to differences in the physical properties of the litter.

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The sensitivity of the near-surface weather variables and small-scale convection to soil moisture for Western Kentucky was investigated with the aide of the MM5 Penn State/NCAR mesoscale atmospheric model for three different synoptic conditions in June 2006. The model was initialized with FNL reanalysis from NCEP containing soil moisture data calculated with the Noah land surface model. Dry and wet experiments were performed in order to find the influence of soil moisture specification on boundary layer atmospheric variables. Dry experiments showed less available atmospheric moisture (between 2 and 6 g kg -1 ) at near-surface levels during all synoptic events consistent with slightly deeper boundary layers, higher lifting condensation levels and a larger Bowen ratio. As expected, precipitation rates were generally smaller than those of the control simulation. However, during a moderately strong synoptic event in early June, the dry experiments displayed larger precipitation rates compared to the control experiment (up to 5 mm in 3 hr) as the soil volumetric fraction was decreased from 0.05 to 0.15 (m 3 m -3 ) with respect to the control simulation. Precipitation rates in wet experiments were also modulated by characteristics of synoptic conditions. In early June, precipitation rates slightly were larger than the control run (from 0.2 mm 3 h -1 to 1.4 mm 3 h -1 ) while in the other periods precipitation was reduced significantly. Both dry and wet anomaly experiments experienced reduced precipitation for different reasons. It was found, lifting condensation level, CAPE and low Bowen ratio were not sensitive markers of changes in soil moisture. Equivalent potential temperature was a better indicator of precipitation changes among all experiments. The controlling factor in these responses was the soil moisture content forcing vertical velocities. Thermodynamic conditions such as local stability played a less substantial role in controlling the precipitation processes. It was found that the response of planetary boundary layer variables under a variety of soil moisture conditions can be modified due to degree of synoptic forcing. Weak-to-moderate forcing favored convection while strong synoptic forcing tended to suppress it under dry soil moisture conditions. Wetter soils did not produce a response in horizontal wind fields as large as under the drier soils. [Key words: soil moisture, regional modeling, land surface-atmosphere interactions.]

The reporter strain Pseudomonas putida TOD102 (with a tod-lux fusion) was used in chemostat experiments with binary substrate mixtures to investigate the effect of potentially occurring cosubstrates on toluene degradation activity. Although toluene was simultaneously utilized with other cosubstrates, its metabolic flux (defined as the toluene utilization rate per cell) decreased with increasing influent concentrations of ethanol, acetate, or phenol. Three inhibitory mechanisms were considered to explain these trends: (1) repression of the tod gene (coding for toluene dioxygenase) by acetate and ethanol, which was quantified by a decrease in specific bioluminescence; (2) competitive inhibition of toluene dioxygenase by phenol; and (3) metabolic flux dilution (MFD) by all three cosubstrates. Based on experimental observations, MFD was modeled without any fitting parameters by assuming that the metabolic flux of a substrate in a mixture is proportional to its relative availability (expressed as a fraction of the influent total organic carbon). Thus, increasing concentrations of alternative carbon sources "dilute" the metabolic flux of toluene without necessarily repressing tod, as observed with phenol (a known tod inducer). For all cosubstrates, the MFD model slightly overpredicted the measured toluene metabolic flux. Incorporating catabolite repression (for experiments with acetate or ethanol) or competitive inhibition (for experiments with phenol) with independently obtained parameters resulted in more accurate fits of the observed decrease in toluene metabolic flux with increasing cosubstrate concentration. These results imply that alternative carbon sources (including inducers) are likely to hinder toluene utilization per unit cell, and that these effects can be accurately predicted with simple mathematical models.