"Wee Beasties" and other "Critters" in TP

[Michaelangelica]

Worm Grunting: A Mystery Solved
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/sc...ml?ref=science
These are probably strange Yank worms only.

[Michaelangelica]

"What we discovered through the experiments that are reported in this paper is that there's not simply the plant-available pool and the pool of calcium in the silicate minerals, but there's also an intermediate pool of calcium contained in the common calcium phosphate mineral called apatite, which previously hadn't been recognized as being available to plants," says Blum.
Trees do not take up calcium directly from this source; instead, they rely on fungi that live symbiotically on tree roots.
Previous research had shown that these ectomycorrhizal fungi send out projections (hyphae) that release organic acids and penetrate mineral particles.
The acids dissolve the mineral material around the hyphae, releasing essential nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Blum's study was the first to show that the trees are using calcium that the fungi have obtained in this way.

Appetite For Apatite: Rock-Eating Fungi Help "Mine" Minerals
This "apatite:-

seems to be a gemstone. Dolomite has to be cheaper??
I got the pic from this site

strangely the new -gare information seems to see aconnection with calcium!

Rough Natural Blue Apatite
approx 1" - 1 1/2"
Blue Apatite

Apatite is most often seen in blue, but also can be found in brown, pink, yellow, green (from Spain called asparagus stone) and a rare variety of violet.

Apatite is an inspirational stone. It develops psychic abilities and spiritual attunement. Use it to aid communication and self-expression.

* Encourages extroversion
* Dissolves alienation
* Draw negativity from oneself
* Stimulates creativity and intellect
* Clears confusion

Healing properties of Apatite

Apatite heals bones, aids absorption of calcium, helps cartilage, bones, teeth and motor skills. Relieves arthritis, joint problems. Overcomes hypertension

Google Image Result for http://crystal-cure.com/pics/apatite-rough.jpg

[Michaelangelica]

"What we discovered through the experiments that are reported in this paper is that there's not simply the plant-available pool and the pool of calcium in the silicate minerals, but there's also an intermediate pool of calcium contained in the common calcium phosphate mineral called apatite, which previously hadn't been recognized as being available to plants," says Blum.
Trees do not take up calcium directly from this source; instead, they rely on fungi that live symbiotically on tree roots.
Previous research had shown that these ectomycorrhizal fungi send out projections (hyphae) that release organic acids and penetrate mineral particles.
The acids dissolve the mineral material around the hyphae, releasing essential nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Blum's study was the first to show that the trees are using calcium that the fungi have obtained in this way.

Appetite For Apatite: Rock-Eating Fungi Help "Mine" Minerals
This "apatite:-

seems to be a gemstone. Dolomite has to be cheaper??
I got the pic from this site
Apatite meaning
Strangely the "New -Age" information given seems to see a connection with calcium!

Rough Natural Blue Apatite
approx 1" - 1 1/2"
Blue Apatite

Apatite is most often seen in blue, but also can be found in brown, pink, yellow, green (from Spain called asparagus stone) and a rare variety of violet.

Apatite is an inspirational stone. It develops psychic abilities and spiritual attunement. Use it to aid communication and self-expression.

* Encourages extroversion
* Dissolves alienation
* Draw negativity from oneself
* Stimulates creativity and intellect
* Clears confusion

Healing properties of Apatite

Apatite heals bones, aids absorption of calcium, helps cartilage, bones, teeth and motor skills. Relieves arthritis, joint problems. Overcomes hypertension

Apatite meaning

Microbe Diet Key To Carbon Dioxide Release

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2008) — As microbes in the soil break down fallen plant matter, a diet "balanced" in nutrients appears to help control soil fertility and the normal release of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

When plants drop their leaves, stems and twigs, this organic matter slowly becomes part of the soil as a result of decomposition, which is facilitated by bacteria and other microbes. This process adds plant nutrients to the soil and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Duke University scientists found the proportion of nitrogen to carbon in this organic matter determines how much nitrogen becomes available to plants in the soil and how much carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Their study also yielded a universal mathematical formula that can predict the decomposition process anywhere in the world.
. . .
"A diet rich in carbon causes microbes to release more carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide as they strive to maintain the healthy balance between nitrogen and carbon in their diet," Manzoni said.

Microbe Diet Key To Carbon Dioxide Release
It would be nice if some of our Hypography members clever at sums, could get this formula and stick it in the "sums' thread???

[Essay]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Microbe Diet Key To Carbon Dioxide Release
It would be nice if some of our Hypography members clever at sums, could get this formula and stick it in the "sums' thread???

I'll try to look at this later.... Busy week!

...I don't know what that pretty blue rock is (maybe later)....
...but hey! Re:
"Strangely the "New -Age" information given seems to see a connection with calcium!"

I think if you google "calcium hydroxy apatite" ...with the quotes, you'll find all sorts of info about bones, teeth, shells, etc.

bbl,
~

[erich]

Apatite + Tobacco = Polonium poisoning.

Radioactive Polonium in Tobacco

[Michaelangelica]

When Under Attack, Plants Can Signal Microbial Friends For Help

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2008) — Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered that when the leaf of a plant is under attack by a pathogen, it can send out an S.O.S. to the roots for help, and the roots will respond by secreting an acid that brings beneficial bacteria to the rescue.
. . .
“Plants are a lot smarter than we give them credit for,”
. . .

“People think that plants, rooted in the ground, are just sitting ducks when it comes to attack by harmful fungi or bacteria, but we've found that plants have ways of seeking external help,” he notes.
. . .
Using molecular biological tools, the scientists detected the transmission of a long-distance signal, a “call for help,” from the leaves to the roots in the plants that had Bacillus in the soil. The roots responded by secreting a carbon-rich chemical--malic acid.

When Under Attack, Plants Can Signal Microbial Friends For Help

[Michaelangelica]

Sugar again

The trick now is to work out the simplest ways to get native grasses into weed dominated sites and which combination of native grasses best control weeds.”

In previous trials, the researchers found applying sugar was very successful in helping establish Kangaroo Grass as the sugar reduced the soil nutrients available to competing exotic weeds. The sugar fed soil micro-organisms which absorbed lots of soil nutrients as they grew and so the weed species were 'starved.'

“We used sugar as a tool to find out what the real problem was in getting native grasses to re-establish – this was the interaction between weeds and nutrients,” says Dr Prober. “Now we are working out ways to overcome the problem. In particular, if the native grasses we reintroduce really do take up the nutrients over the long term, then that's a sustainable solution. Sugar is just one way of achieving this outcome.”

A little sugar could restore natives*(ScienceAlert)

[Michaelangelica]

I always thought slime moulds would be. . . well . . .slimy.
But look at these fantastic macro photographs.
HERE
English Russia Slime Molds
EG








English Russia Slime Molds

[Michaelangelica]

Worms help remediate soils

listen now | download audio

Earthworms can eat thirty times their body weight of soil each day. Metals in the soil are taken in and change in form, often becoming inert. Mark Hodson is investigating the use of earthworms to help remediate sites degraded by metal contamination.

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Transcript

Robyn Williams:Worms; pink ones, brown ones, and most not lowly at all. This lot are moving into toxic zones to gobble up heavy metals. Mark Hodson from the University of Reading.

Mark Hodson: The soils that we want to do something about are fairly degraded, not much grows there, usually former industry sites. And the contaminants could be a whole host of things, things like arsenic, lead, zinc, copper, left over either from the actual processing and industry that was going on or even things like lead paint can end up contaminating soils.

Robyn Williams: And I suppose that makes the soils pretty well unusable indefinitely.

Mark Hodson: Yes, not indefinitely because it's always possible to clean these things up but in the first instance, yes, they're pretty grim places, there's not much growing there and there's not much life in the soil.

Robyn Williams: Not much growing there, but before you talk about worms, it has been a suggestion to put plants in to help clean things up. Has that been effective? How long does it take?

Worms help remediate soils - Science Show - 15 November 2008

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by malcolmf

This is a key point in relation to your beasties, Michael. Models of the soil carbon cycle (e.g. Colorado Uni's Century) usually allow for such pools as fast (1 year), slow (decades) and stable (centuries / millennia) turnover rates. However, even these are approximations: some papers on mycorrhizae suggest their turnover time can be as little as five days, as compared to the glomalin they produce which seems to join the slow pool.

The headline is that, once creatures get hold of carbon, it is as good as gone, back to the air. This implies a trade-off between the two main goals of carbon burial, namely removal from the air and agricultural productivity. The former does not want creatures to access the carbon, the latter does. We have to examine our motivations for making terra preta, and the two camps might choose very different methods as a result. I suggest that atmospheric goals might require high-tech, high-volume, highly recalcitrant carbon while soil goals might require something much closer to Amazonian practices or RBlack's carbon-compost approach.

Your history is in compost, isn't it? How do you feel about the potential conflict of goals between atmosphere and soil?

M

Well I've had a BIG THINK and it didn't help.

Does anyone know the answers to your questions?

.................................................

Some lovely writing about wee beasties of all kinds
EG

1) Eat Radiation

Humans have only three responses responses to radioactive waste: pay someone else to take it away quickly, die, or develop superpowers. Unfortunately the last option has a vanishingly small success rate and the tragic side-effect of utterly destroying the victims fashion sense. Luckily a species of bacteria with the ability to consume uranium and other extremely antisocial wastes has been discovered by US scientists - and as a bonus, it's utterly impossible to make a crap movie adaptation of a bacteria.

Geobacter sulfurreducens has already been used at the Rifle Mills site to clear up a large amount of what the nuclear industry calls "oops!", and what us non-radioactive humans call "a goddamn nuclear contamination of groundwater and the Colorado river". Following on the brave scientific tradition of not only looking a gift horse in the mouth but sending it to the vet for a full set of dental X-rays, some scientists suggest the metal-munching microbe could form the basis for a bio-battery cell. Because when you've fed a superpowered organism nothing but nuclear waste for years, nothing can go wrong with then sticking it in a box and carrying it around with you.

"Super Cells" that Eat Radiation, Generate Electricity & Cure Cancer -A Galaxy Classic

I loved "tragic side-effect of utterly destroying the victims fashion sense"