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The Bulianta Coal Mine is among the problematic coal mining areas in China that is still creating environmental damage, especially associated with soil destruction. Therefore, a scientific investigation was conducted to establish a scientific basis for evaluating the impact of planted forest on soil physical and chemical properties, as well as the ecological benefits following 15 years of vegetation restoration in the area. The soil physicochemical characteristics and distribution of organic carbon storage in the 0–80 cm layer soils of Pinus sylvestris forests, Prunus sibirica forests, and Hippophae rhamnoides forests restored after 5, 10, and 15 years were investigated. The immersion method was used to determine soil porosity and density followed by the determination of soil indicators, and a statistical ANOVA test was applied to examine the differential effects of different vegetation types and restoration years on soil properties. The results clearly demonstrated the following: (1) The recovery of vegetation was achieved after a period of 15 years, with the average bulk density of the 0–80 cm soil layer as follows: P. sylvestris forest (1.513 g·cm−3) > P. sibirica forest (1.272 g·cm−3) > H. rhamnoides forest (1.224 g·cm−3), and the differences among different forest types were statistically significant (p < 0.05). (2) In planted forests, soil nutrients were predominantly concentrated in the 0–20 cm layer, while soil carbon storage exhibited a decline with an increasing soil depth. (3) The soil carbon storage across the three forest types was as follows: P. sylvestris forest (45.42 t·hm−2) > P. sibirica forest (44.56 t·hm−2) > H. rhamnoides forest (41.87 t·hm−2). In summary, during the ecological vegetation restoration process in the Bulianta Core Mine, both P. sylvestris forest and P. sibirica forest exhibit superior carbon storage capacities compared to H. rhamnoides forest, as well as more effective soil improvement outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understory vegetation constitutes an essential component of the ecosystem within the coal mining area, disclosing the correlation between plant species composition and soil properties throughout the multi-year restoration process, and offering a theoretical framework for ecological restoration and reconstruction in the northwest wind-blown sand mining area. We investigated the coupling and coordination degree between the composition of understory vegetation and soil in Pinus sylvestris forests, Hippophae rhamnoides forests, and Prunus sibirica forests at different restoration stages (5 years, 10 years, 15 years) using field survey methods and indoor separation techniques. The results clearly indicate that: (1) After 15 years of recovery, a total of 32 species of herbs appeared in different plantations, belonging to 8 families and 21 genera, of which Artemisia scoparia had the highest importance value (42.85); (2) Significant differences were observed in herb diversity, soil physicochemical properties, and their relationships among different plantations (p < 0.05); (3) The vegetation–soil coupling coordination index of the plantations was as follows: P. sibirica forest (0.5111) > P. sylvestris forest (0.5069) > H. rhamnoides forest (0.4932). The vegetation status of the H. rhamnoides forest is a state of vegetation lagging development type of intermediate-level coordinated development, while the vegetation status of the P. sibirica forest and the P. sylvestris forest is barely harmonious. The status of the P. sibirica forest and P. sylvestris forest is better than that of H. rhamnoides forests. It is essential to enhance the management measures implemented in the Bulianta mine area. Appropriate tending, particularly the regulation of soil nutrients, might be more conducive to the restoration of vegetation and the improvement of forest ecosystem services in the mining area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorophyll is the molecular basis for the function of photosystems and is also a promising tool for ecological prediction. However, the large-scale patterns of chlorophyll variation in grasslands remain poorly understood. We performed consistent measurements of chlorophyll a , b , a + b , and the a : b ratio (chlorophyll a/b) for 421 species across northern hemisphere grassland transects, recorded their distributions, variations, and influencing factors, and examined their relationships with leaf nitrogen. The results showed that the distributional ranges were 0.52–28.33 (mean 5.49) mg·g−1 dry weight, 0.15–12.11 (mean 1.83) mg·g−1 dry weight, 0.67–39.29 (mean 7.32) mg·g−1 dry weight, and 1.28–7.84 (mean 3.02) for chlorophyll a , b , a + b , and a / b , respectively. The chlorophyll averages differed among regions (higher in the Loess Plateau and the Mongolian Plateau than in the Tibetan Plateau), grassland types (desert grasslands > meadow > typical grasslands), life forms, life spans, and taxonomies. In the entire northern hemisphere grassland, chlorophyll concentrations and chlorophyll a / b were negatively correlated to photosynthetically active radiation and the soil N:P ratio, and positively correlated to the mean annual temperatures. These results implied that chlorophyll in grasslands was shaped by the layered structure of grasses, distinct plateau environments, and phylogeny. The allocation patterns of leaf nitrogen to chlorophyll differed among regions and grassland types, showing that caution is required if simply relating single leaf N or chlorophyll to productivity separately. These findings enhance our understanding of chlorophyll in natural grasslands on a large scale, as well as providing information for ecological predictive models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FeCl3/C was used as an efficient and convenient promoter for glycosylation through Ferrier-type rearrangement of 3,4,6-tri-O-benzyl-D-glucal, which is a relatively unreactive substrate for this type of reaction. The method was applicable to a wide range of alcohols, especially phenols. A series of 2,3-unsaturated-O-glucosides were prepared efficiently (47–92%) by this method under mild conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of ultracoarse‐grained models for large biomolecules needs to derive the optimal number of coarse‐grained (CG) sites to represent the targets. In this work, we propose to use the statistical internal cluster validation indexes to determine the optimal number of CG sites that are optimized based on the essential dynamics coarse‐graining method. The calculated curves of Calinski‐Harabasz and Silhouette Coefficient indexes exhibit the extrema corresponding to the similar CG numbers. The calculated ratios of the optimal CG numbers to the residue numbers of fine‐grained models are in the range from 4 to 2. The comparison of the stability of index results indicates that Calinski‐Harabasz index is the better choice to determine the optimal CG representation in coarse‐graining. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural was conveniently synthesized by dehydration of D-fructose in a good yield. To further build bioactive derivatives from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, 2,3-unsaturated glycosides were directly obtained through the Ferrier-rearrangement reaction of various glycals. Noticeably, a solid acid catalyst was successfully applied in the preparation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and then recycled to promote the Ferrier-rearrangement reaction, making it possible to achieve two steps of reaction in an eco-friendly manner through the simple process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subtilisin-like proteases (SBTs) are a large family of serine peptidases that are unique to plants. Previous studies have shown that SBTs are associated with developmental processes and environmental responses. However, comprehensive identification and systematic analysis of the SBT family have not been conducted in cotton. We used bioinformatics methods to analyze the structural characteristics, phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, expression modes, evolutionary relationships, selection pressures and stress responses of SBT gene family members in upland cotton. In this study, we identified 120 and 112 SBTs in the tetraploid cotton species G. hirsutum and G. barbadense, while 67 and 69 SBTs were identified in the diploid species G. arboreum and G. raimondii, respectively; these SBTs were divided into five distinct subfamilies. We identified the SBT gene GhSBT27A, and explore its function through virus-induced gene silencing and transmission electron microscopy. These results suggested that the GhSBT27A gene was involved in the response to drought stress. These results lay a foundation for further study on the drought stress mechanism of cotton., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Dai, Zhou, Zhang, Zhang, Ni, Wu, Liu, Wang and Chen.)