50 Search Results

Soil viruses control the dynamics and metabolism of their hosts, strongly modifying carbon and nutrient cycling as well as soil biochemistry. Warming specifically affects viruses and their hosts, but the consequences of climate warming on the virus–host interactions, and for soil functions, remain unknown. Here, we investigated the viral communities and the virus–host interactions under warming in situ based on a forest soil column translocation experiment. The abundance of the Petitvirales (DNA viruses) decreased by 25%, but that of the Durnavirales and Martellivirales (RNA viruses) strongly increased. The DNA viral lysogenic signals and RNA viral lytic proteins increased in soil,more » indicating the opposite lifestyles of DNA and RNA viruses. Correspondingly, the DNA abundance of viral hosts increased, whereas RNA viral hosts remained stable. The high DNA viruses/host ratios reflect very intensive interactions between the virus and host, leading to the drop in the host functions (such as carbon metabolism processes and nitrogen and phosphorus cycles) up to 43%. In contrast, the functions of the hosts for RNA viruses increased by up to 48%. The fundamental difference in behaviour of DNA and RNA viruses is that the former use mainly lysogenic, whereas the latter lytic, lifestyles and thus control the responses of host communities to warming. Conclusively, the opposite response of DNA and RNA viruses to warming in abundance, lifestyle, and interactions with hosts leads to divergent changes in nutrient fluxes in soil. These new perspectives on viral regulations of microbial communities and their function under soil warming reveal the undeniable role of viruses in microbial ecology.« less

Grazing exclusion and land abandonment are commonly adopted to restore degraded ecosystems in semiarid and arid regions worldwide. However, the temporal variation in the soil- versus root-associated microbiome over plant species turnover during secondary succession has rarely been quantified. Using the chronosequence restored from fenced grassland and abandoned farmlands on the Loess Plateau of China, we characterized the dynamics of the soil- and root-associated microbiome of host plant with different dominance statuses during secondary succession from 0 to 40 years. Our results revealed that the root microhabitat, the host plant and their interactions were the main contributors to the bacterial communitymore » shift (R² = 15.5%, 8.1%, and 22.3%, respectively), and plant interspecies replacement had a greater effect on the shift in the root-associated microbial community than intraspecies replacement did during succession. The root-associated bacterial community of pioneer plants was particularly responsive to succession, especially the endosphere community. Endosphere microbial diversity was positively correlated with host plant coverage change, and the diversity and abundance of taxon recruitment into the endosphere of pioneer plants from the surrounding environment decreased as succession progressed. The community assembly processes also indicated that the endosphere microbiota are strongly selected in younger host plants, whereas stochastic processes dominate in aged host plants. Our study provides evidence of the unique response of the root-associated microbiome to the replacement of plant species during secondary succession, and the function of endosphere microbes should be considered when studying plant–microbe feedback.« less

Abstract Land use change (LUC) alters the global carbon (C) stock, but our estimation of the alteration remains uncertain and is a major impediment to predicting the global C cycle. The uncertainty is partly due to the limited number and geographical bias of observations, and limited exploration of its predictors. Here we generated a comprehensive global database of 5,980 observations from 790 articles. The number of sites evaluated is at least seven times larger than in previous meta‐analyses. Our constrained estimates of different LUC's effects on soil organic C (SOC) and their variations across global climates reveal underestimation/overestimation in previousmore » estimates. Converting forests and grasslands to croplands reduced SOC by 24.5% ± 1.53% (−11.03 ± 1.06 Mg ha⁻¹) and 22.7% ± 1.22% (−8.09 ± 0.67 Mg ha⁻¹), while 28.0% ± 1.56% (4.46 ± 0.42 Mg ha⁻¹) and 33.5% ± 1.68% (5.8 ± 0.38 Mg ha⁻¹) increases, respectively, were obtained in the reverse processes. Converting forests to grasslands decreased SOC by 2.1% ± 1.22% (−1.13 ± 0.44 Mg ha⁻¹), while the reverse process increased SOC by 18.6% ± 1.73% (3.31 ± 0.51 Mg ha⁻¹). Modeled relative importance of 10 drivers of LUC's impact on SOC revealed that higher initial SOC (iSOC) does not solely determine SOC loss in SOC‐negative LUC scenarios as previously proposed. Across four decades, reconverting croplands to forests and grasslands recovered only 49.5% (6.1 ± 0.51 Mg ha⁻¹) and 75.3% (7.0 ± 0.38 Mg ha⁻¹) of the iSOC, respectively, indicating the need for protecting C‐rich ecosystems. Our global data set advances information on LUC's effect on SOC and can be valuable to constrain Earth system models to reliably estimate global SOC stocks and plan climate change mitigation strategies.« less

Mineral protection mechanisms are important in determining the response of particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) to temperature changes. However, the underlying mechanisms for how POC and MAOC respond to temperature changes are remain unclear. Here, by translocating soils across 1304 m, 1425 m and 2202 m elevation gradient in a temperate forest, simulate nine months of warming (with soil temperature change of +1.41 °C and +3.91 °C) and cooling (with soil temperature change of −1.86 °C and −4.20 °C), we found that warming translocation significantly decreased POC by an average of 10.84 %, but increased MAOCmore » by an average of 4.25 %. Conversely, cooling translocation led to an average increase of 8.64 % in POC and 13.48 % in MAOC. Exchangeable calcium (Ca_exe) had a significant positive correlation with POC and MAOC during temperature changes, and Fe/Al-(hydr)oxides had no significant correlation or a significant negative correlation with POC and MAOC. Our results showed that POC was more sensitive than MAOC to temperature changes. Ca_exe mediated the stability of POC and MAOC under temperature changes, and Fe/Al-(hydr)oxides had no obvious protective effect on POC and MAOC. Our results support the role of mineral protection in the stabilization mechanism of POC and MAOC in response to climate change and are critical for understanding the consequences of global change on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics.« less

Abstract Grid-scale energy storage is essential for reliable electricity transmission and renewable energy integration. Redox flow batteries (RFB) provide affordable and scalable solutions for stationary energy storage. However, most of the current RFB chemistries are based on expensive transition metal ions or synthetic organics. Here, we report a reversible chlorine redox flow battery starting from the electrolysis of aqueous NaCl electrolyte and the as-produced Cl ₂ is extracted and stored in the carbon tetrachloride (CCl ₄ ) or mineral spirit flow. The immiscibility between the CCl ₄ or mineral spirit and NaCl electrolyte enables a membrane-free design with an energy efficiency ofmore » >91% at 10 mA/cm ² and an energy density of 125.7 Wh/L. The chlorine flow battery can meet the stringent price and reliability target for stationary energy storage with the inherently low-cost active materials (~$5/kWh) and the highly reversible Cl ₂ /Cl ⁻ redox reaction.« less

In the physics of the Fractional Quantum Hall (FQH) effect, a zoo of Abelian topological phases can be obtained by varying the magnetic field. Aiming to reach the same phenomenology in spin-like systems, in this work we propose a family of SU(N)-symmetric models in the fundamental representation, on the square lattice with short-range interactions restricted to triangular units, a natural generalization for arbitrary N of an SU(3) model studied previously where time-reversal symmetry is broken explicitly. Guided by the recent discovery of SU(2)₁ and SU(3)₁ chiral spin liquids (CSL) on similar models we search for topological SU(N)₁ CSL in somemore » range of the Hamiltonian parameters via a combination of complementary numerical methods such as exact diagonaliza- tions (ED), infinite density matrix renormalization group (iDMRG) and infinite Projected Entangled Pair State (iPEPS). Extensive ED on small (periodic and open) clusters up to N = 10 and an innovative SU(N)-symmetric version of iDMRG to compute entanglement spectra on (infinitely-long) cylinders in all topological sectors pro- vide unambiguous signatures of the SU(N)₁ character of the chiral liquids. An SU(4)-symmetric chiral PEPS, constructed in a manner similar to its SU(2) and SU(3) analogs, is shown to give a good variational ansatz of the N = 4 ground state, with chiral edge modes originating from the PEPS holographic bulk-edge correspondence. Finally, we discuss the possible observation of such Abelian CSL in ultracold atom setups where the possibility of varying N provides a tuning parameter similar to the magnetic field in the physics of the FQH effect.« less

Abstract Due to the non-flammable nature of water-based electrolytes, aqueous lithium-ion batteries are resistant to catching fire. However, they are not immune to the risk of explosion, since the sealing structure adopted by current batteries limits the dissipation of heat and pressure within the cells. Here, we report a safe aqueous lithium-ion battery with an open configuration using water-in-salt electrolytes and aluminum oxide coated anodes. The design can inhibit the self-discharge by substantially suppressing the oxygen reduction reaction on lithiated anodes and enable good cycle performance over 1000 times. Our study may open a pathway towards safer lithium-ion battery designs.

All-solid-state lithium–sulfur batteries (ASSLSBs) hold great promise for safe and high-energy-density energy storage. However, developing high-performance sulfur cathodes has been proven difficult due to low electronic and ionic conductivities and large volume change of sulfur during charge and discharge. Here, we reported an approach to synthesize sulfur cathodes with a mixed electronic and ionic conductivity by infiltrating a solution consisting of Li₃PS₄ (LPS) solid electrolyte and S active material into a mesoporous carbon (CMK-3). This approach leads to a uniform dispersion of amorphous Li₃PS₇ (L₃PS) catholyte in an electronically conductive carbon matrix, enabling high and balanced electronic/ionic conductivities in themore » cathode composite. The inherent porous structure of CMK-3 also helps to accommodate the strain/stress generated during the expansion and shrinkage of the active material. In sulfide-based all-solid-state batteries with Li metal as the anode, this cathode composite delivered a high capacity of 1025 mAh g^–1 after 50 cycles at 60 °C at 1/8C. This work highlights the important role of high and balanced electronic and ionic conductivities in developing high-performance sulfur cathodes for ASSLSBs.« less

In carbonate electrolytes, the organic-inorganic solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed on the lithium (Li) metal anode surface is strongly bonded to Li and experiences the same volume change as Li, thus it undergoes continuous cracking/reformation during plating/stripping cycles. Here we report, an inorganic-rich SEI is designed on a Li metal surface to reduce its bonding energy with Li metal by dissolving 4 M concentrated LiNO₃ in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as an additive for a fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) based electrolyte. Due to the aggregate structure of NO₃^- ions and its participation in the primary Li⁺ solvation sheath, abundant Li₂O, Li₃N, andmore » LiN_xO_y grains are formed in the resulting SEI, in addition to the uniform LiF distribution from the reduction of PF₆^- ions. The inorganic-rich SEI’s weak bonding (high interface energy) to Li can effectively promote Li diffusion along the SEI/Li interface and prevent Li dendrite penetration into the SEI. As a result, our designed carbonate electrolyte enables a Li anode to achieve a high Li plating/stripping CE of 99.55% (1 mA cm^-2, 1.0 mAh cm^-2) and the electrolyte also enables a Li||LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂(NMC811) full cell (2.5 mAh cm^-2) to retain 75%of its initial capacity after 200 cycles with an outstanding CE of 99.83%.« less