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Wildfires are the major disturbance in boreal ecosystems and are of great importance for the biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C) and nutrients. However, these fire-induced impacts are hard to quantify and are rarely assessed together at an ecosystem level incorporating both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Following a wildfire in Sweden in an area with ongoing monitoring, we conducted a pre-fire (9 years) and post-fire (4 years) multi-catchment investigation of element losses (combustion and leaching) and impacts on water quality. Direct C and nitrogen (N) losses through combustion were ca. 4500 and 100 gm(-2), respectively. Net CO2 loss associated with soil and biomass respiration was similar to 150 g C m(-2) during the first year, but the ecosystem started to show net CO2 uptake in June 3 years post-fire. Aquatic C and N losses the first 12 months post-fire were 7 and 0.6 gm(-2), respectively. Hence, soil respiration comprised a non-negligible part of the post-fire C loss, whereas aquatic C losses were minor and did not increase post-fire. However, other elements (e.g. Ca, S) exhibited ecologically relevant increases in fluvial export and concentration with large peaks in the immediate post-fire period. The temporal dynamics of stream concentrations (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+,SO4-2, Cl-, NH4+, total organic N) suggest the presence of faster- and slower-release nutrient pools with half-lives of around 2 weeks and 4 months which we attribute to physicochemically and biologically mediated mobilization processes, respectively. Three years after the fire, it appears that dissolved fluxes of nutrients have largely returned to pre-fire conditions, but there is still net release of CO2.

The study evaluates the biogeochemical model ForSAFE-2D, designed to simulate water and chemical transport from the forest to the stream, by simulating the hydrology and the transport of the chemical tracer chloride (Cl-) along a forest hillslope in Northern Sweden. The simulated Cl- exports were in balance with the simulated inputs but measurements suggested a net release of Cl- from the catchment. Underestimated deposition inputs (deposition peaks and possibly dry deposition) were probably and partially responsible for this mismatch. However, we could not exclude that other soil biogeochemical processes omitted in ForSAFE-2D could also contribute to Cl- exports from the catchment. The study showed that ForSAFE-2D is a promising tool to better understand the factors that regulate the chemical export from the forest to the stream. The results also confirmed that there are limitations in using Cl- as a tracer in forest ecosystems.

Plant nutrients can be recycled through microbial decomposition of organic matter but replacement of base cations and phosphorus, lost through harvesting of biomass/biofuels or leaching, requires de novo supply of fresh nutrients released through weathering of soil parent material (minerals and rocks). Weathering involves physical and chemical processes that are modified by biological activity of plants, microorganisms and animals. This article reviews recent progress made in understanding biological processes contributing to weathering. A perspective of increasing spatial scale is adopted, examining the consequences of biological activity for weathering from nanoscale interactions, through in vitro and in planta microcosm and meso-cosm studies, to field experiments, and finally ecosystem and global level effects. The topics discussed include the physical alteration of minerals and mineral surfaces; the composition, amounts, chemical properties, and effects of plant and microbial secretions; and the role of carbon flow (including stabilisation and sequestration of C in organic and inorganic forms). Although the predominant focus is on the effects of fungi in forest ecosystems, the properties of biofilms, including bacterial interactions, are also discussed. The implications of these biological processes for modelling are discussed, and we attempt to identify some key questions and knowledge gaps, as well as experimental approaches and areas of research in which future studies are likely to yield useful results. A particular focus of this article is to improve the representation of the ways in which biological processes complement physical and chemical processes that mobilise mineral elements, making them available for plant uptake. This is necessary to produce better estimates of weathering that are required for sustainable management of forests in a post-fossil-fuel economy. While there are abundant examples of nanometre- and micrometre-scale physical interactions

Symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi mobilize nutrients from both organic and inorganic substrates and supply them to their host plants. Their role in mobilizing base cations and phosphorus from mineral substrates through weathering has received increasing attention in recent years but the processes involved remain to be elucidated. We grew selected ectomycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal fungi in axenic systems containing mineral and organic substrates and examined their capacity to fractionate and assimilate stable isotopes of magnesium. The mycorrhizal fungi were significantly depleted in heavy isotopes with the lowest Mg-26 values (the difference between Mg-26 in fungal tissue and Mg-26 in the substrate) compared with nonmycorrhizal fungi, when grown on mineral substrates containing granite particles. The ectomycorrhizal fungi accumulated significantly higher concentrations of Mg, K and P than the nonmycorrhizal fungi. There was a highly significant statistical relationship between Mg-26 tissue signature and mycelial concentration of Mg, with a clear separation between most ectomycorrhizal fungi and the nonmycorrhizal fungi. These results are consistent with the idea that ectomycorrhizal fungi have evolved efficient mechanisms to mobilize, transport and store Mg within their mycelia.

There is a strong need to develop remote sensing methods for mapping lake carbon content on regional to global scales. The use of in situ methods is impractical for monitoring lake water quality over large geographical areas, which is a fundamental requirement to understand the true role of lakes in the global carbon cycle. The coloured component of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), called CDOM, absorbs light strongly in the blue part of the visible spectrum and can be used as a proxy for mapping lake DOC with remote sensing. However, iron associated to organic matter can cause extra browning of waters. Consequently, the remote sensing signal we interpret as DOC may partially be attributed to the presence of iron associated to organic matter, potentially hampering our ability to estimate carbon concentrations. A thorough analysis of biogeochemical parameters was carried out on Lake Malaren on August 23, 2010, and a MERIS full resolution image was acquired simultaneously. MERIS standard, Case 2 Regional, and Boreal processors were used to calculate remote sensing products, which were compared with different lake water characteristics. The carbon to iron ratio was different from the rest of the lake in one of the basins. MERIS standard and Case 2 Regional processors were sensitive to this difference as the correlation between MERIS CDOM product and DOC was low (R-2 = 0.43) for all sampling stations and increased to 0.92 when the one basin was excluded. The Boreal Lakes processor results were less disturbed by the different carbon-iron ratios found in one basin and produced reasonably good results (R-2 = 0.65). We found MERIS products (e.g. total absorption) that provided good correlation (R-2 = 0.80) with DOC-specific absorbance at 254 nm, called SUVA, which is a metric commonly used to assess drinking water treatability. However, none of the MERIS products were suitable for mapping the total organic carbon in Lake Malaren.MERIS total suspended matter product was a good

Low-order boreal streams are particularly sensitive interfaces where dissolved organic matter (DOM) is transported from soils to inland waters. Disentangling the relative influence of key environmental factors suspected to influence stream water DOM composition is highly relevant to predicting the reactivity and fate of terrestrial DOM entering inland waters. Here we examined changes to DOM composition using absorbance and fluorescence, from 17 boreal streams ranging from first to fourth orders, over 14 months, including the rarely studied winter season, and two snowmelt periods (n = 836). We also analyzed soil pore water samples from three forest soil lysimeters to a depth of 70 cm (n = 60). Of five identified fluorescing parallel factor analysis components, two (C4 and C5) expressed a clear mire wetland or forest signature, providing distinct molecular markers of dominant land cover. In fact, land cover alone explained 49% of the variability in DOM composition. In contrast, seasonal fluctuations in hydrology only contributed to minor shifts (8%) in the composition of stream water DOM, while in-stream transformations to DOM composition were undetectable. These findings suggest that low-order boreal streams act as a passive pipe, since in-stream processing of DOM is restricted by short water residence times (6 h to 2 days). In addition, we demonstrated the sensitivity of optical approaches to distinguish between key terrestrial sources of DOM in the boreal landscape. By distinguishing the proportional leverage of key environmental controls on headwater stream DOM composition, we are better equipped to predict where and when key DOM transformations occur in the aquatic conduit.

In this study we present data from a seven-year time series from 15 nested streams within a 68 km(2) catchment, covering a pH gradient of almost three units. We demonstrate that the two landscape types, forest and wetlands, control the relative mobilization of Al and Fe in this boreal landscape. The La/U ratio is almost constant across the whole catchment despite large variations in pH, Al/Fe and TOC, whereas U and La mobilization increases with increasing contribution of deeper soils and groundwater further downstream. High Al/TOC ratios in the forested catchments suggest that Al originates from the underlying mineral soils, and low Al/TOC ratios derive from wetlands where Al is retained. We observe a competition effect on the binding to TOC between Al and La and also that the relationship between TOC, Al and La changes from the smaller (0.05-2 km(2)) catchments to larger (3-68 km(2)) downstream locations. As pH increase downstream, Al and Fe are gradually removed from the aqueous phase by precipitation of particulate gibbsite-like phases and ferrihydrite. This selective removal of Al and Fe from TOC binding sites results in higher La, and U concentrations downstream. Observed element patterns (U, La) and the range of upper continental crust normalized (La/Nd)(UCC) and (La/Yb)(UCC) in the near stream, riparian zone were very similar to the observed ratios across the whole catchment. The rising (La/Nd)(UCC) over (La/Yb)(UCC) may be due to a selective removal of REE binding to ferrihydrate in the riparian soil, the result of two distinctly different end-members but most probably not due to the in-stream precipitation of ferrihydrate or gibbsite-like phases.

Stream water concentrations of 13 major and trace elements (Al, Ba, Ca, Cr, Cu, La, Mg, Na, Ni, Si, Sr, U, Y) were used to estimate fluxes from 15 boreal catchments. All elements displayed a significant negative correlation to the wetland coverage, but the influence of wetlands was stronger for organophilic metals; 73% of the spatial differences in the normalized element fluxes could be explained based only on the wetland coverage and the affinity for organic matter, which was quantified using thermodynamic modeling. When the analysis was restrained to the smaller streams (<10 km(2)) the explanatory power increased to 88%. The results suggest that wetlands may decrease the fluxes of metals from boreal forests to downstream recipients by up to 40% at otherwise similar runoff. We suggest that the decrease in element fluxes is caused by a combination of low weathering in peat soils and accumulation of organophilic metals in peat. The model could not explain the spatial patterns for some metals with low affinity for organic matter, some redox-sensitive metals, and some metals with exceptionally high atmospheric deposition, but the results still demonstrate that wetlands play an important role for the biogeochemical cycling of many metals in the boreal landscape., AuthorCount:4

Natural organic matter (NOM) serve as precursors for disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water production making NOM removal essential in predisinfection treatment processes. We identified molecular formulas of chlorinated DBPs after chlorination and chloramination in four Swedish surface water treatment plants (WTPs) using ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS). Chlorine-containing formulas were detected before and after disinfection and were therefore classified to identify DBPs. In total, 499 DBPs were detected, of which 230 have not been reported earlier. The byproducts had, as a group, significantly lower ratio of hydrogen to carbon (H/C) and significantly higher average carbon oxidation state (Cos), double bond equivalents per carbon (DBE/C) and ratio of oxygen to carbon (O/C) compared to Cl-containing components present before disinfection and CHO formulas in samples taken both before and after disinfection. Electrophilic substitution, the proposed most significant reaction pathway for chlorination of NOM, results in carbon oxidation and decreased H/C while O/C and DBE/C is left unchanged. Because the identified DBPs had significantly higher DBE/C and O/C than the CHO formulas we concluded that chlorination of NOM during disinfection is selective toward components with relatively high double bond equivalency and number of oxygen atoms per carbon. Furthermore, choice of disinfectant, dose, and predisinfection treatment at the different WTPs resulted in distinct patterns in the occurrence of DBP formulas.

Increased color in surface waters, or browning, can alter lake ecological function, lake thermal stratification and pose difficulties for drinking water treatment. Mechanisms suggested to cause browning include increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and iron concentrations, as well as a shift to more colored DOC. While browning of surface waters is widespread and well documented, little is known about why some lakes resist it. Here, we present a comprehensive study of Malaren, the third largest lake in Sweden. In Malaren, the vast majority of water and DOC enters a western lake basin, and after approximately 2.8 years, drains from an eastern basin. Despite 40 years of increased terrestrial inputs of colored substances to western lake basins, the eastern basin has resisted browning over this time period. Here we find the half-life of iron was far shorter (0.6 years) than colored organic matter (A(420); 1.7 years) and DOC as a whole (6.1 years). We found changes in filtered iron concentrations relate strongly to the observed loss of color in the western basins. In addition, we observed a substantial shift from colored DOC of terrestrial origin, to less colored autochthonous sources, with a substantial decrease in aromaticity (-17%) across the lake. We suggest that rapid losses of iron and colored DOC caused the limited browning observed in eastern lake basins. Across a wider dataset of 69 Swedish lakes, we observed greatest browning in acidic lakes with shorter retention times (< 1.5 years). These findings suggest that water residence time, along with iron, pH and colored DOC may be of central importance when modeling and projecting changes in brownification on broader spatial scales.

Ultraviolet/visible (UV/Vis) absorbance spectroscopy is a commonly used technique for characterizing dissolved organic matter (DOM). We present an analysis of UV/Vis absorbance spectra from 983 lakes throughout Sweden, sampled during autumn 2009. Metrics included both specific absorbances (i.e. absorbance per mass unit of organic carbon), and descriptions of spectral shape. Overall, we found three factors to which all spectral metrics were similarly related: acidity, retention-time, and latitude. In general, alkaline lakes with a long retention time in northern Sweden have lower specific absorbance and steeper spectral slope than acidic lakes with a short retention time in southern Sweden. Relative to the specific absorbance measured at 254 nm (SUVA), commonly used as a measure of DOM aromaticity, the specific absorbance at longer wavelengths and metrics of spectral shape were more sensitive to acidity and less sensitive to latitude. Although different spectral metrics are hypothesized to reflect different properties of DOM, UV/Vis absorbance spectroscopy may not be useful for more refined characterization of organic matter because of the strong inter-correlation between metrics. Nevertheless, it remains useful as a quick, cheap and reliable method of estimating DOM quantity and describing quality. We suggest that the most informative range to measure absorbance is between approximately 250 and 360 nm, where the between-lake variability is largest and absorbance can, in general, be precisely measured.

In this study, we examine the impact of increasing concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) on the recovery from acidification for 66 lakes in Southern Sweden. The lakes are small, weakly buffered, and have all been affected by acidifying deposition. A majority of the lakes (similar to 75%) showed an increase in DOC concentrations between 1990 and 2008. The method used in this study was to model pH in 2008 from DOC, acid neutralizing capacity, pCO(2) (partial carbon dioxide pressure), and Al speciation, using both the DOC observed in 2008 and the "unelevated" DOC of 1990. Furthermore, we consider the indirect effects of increasing DOC on acidity, i.e., the ancillary effects from DOC on pCO(2), Al transport and speciation, and release of base cations (BCs). Our results indicate that the DOC increase in the latest decades has retarded the recovery from acidification by 0.13 pH units (median for all lakes) and by more than 1 unit for individual lakes. The effects of elevated pCO(2) and BC concentrations accompanying the DOC increase compensated for each other for the average lake, whereas the effects of higher Al transport on pH were minor. The estimate of the amount of BCs released with the organic anions is however uncertain, and further studies on this topic are needed.

Prix de l’Exposition Scientifique, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Persistence infection is the keystone of the ruminant and human diseases called brucellosis and Malta fever, respectively, and is linked to the intracellular tropism of Brucella spp. While described as non-motile, Brucella spp. have all the genes except the chemotactic system, necessary to assemble a functional flagellum. We undertook to determine whether these genes are expressed and are playing a role in some step of the disease process. We demonstrated that in the early log phase of a growth curve in 2YT nutrient broth, Brucella melitensis expresses genes corresponding to the basal (MS ring) and the distal (hook and filament) parts of the flagellar apparatus. Under these conditions, a polar and sheathed flagellar structure is visible by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We evaluated the effect of mutations in flagellar genes of B. melitensis encoding various parts of the structure, MS ring, P ring, motor protein, secretion apparatus, hook and filament. None of these mutants gave a discernible phenotype as compared with the wild-type strain in cellular models of infection. In contrast, all these mutants were unable to establish a chronic infection in mice infected via the intraperitoneal route, raising the question of the biological role(s) of this flagellar appendage. © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., SCOPUS: ar.j, FLWIN, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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