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“Coniferous forests cover extensive areas of the boreal and temperate zones. Owing to their primary production and C storage, they have an important role in the global carbon balance. Forest disturbances such as forest fires, windthrows or insect pest outbreaks have a substantial Staurosporine cost effect on the functioning of these ecosystems. Recent decades have seen an increase in the areas affected by disturbances in both North America and Europe, with indications that this increase is

due to both local human activity and global climate change. Here we examine the structural and functional response of the litter and soil microbial community in a Picea abies forest to tree dieback following an invasion of the bark beetle Ips typographus, with a specific focus on the fungal community. The insect-induced disturbance rapidly and profoundly changed vegetation and nutrient availability by killing spruce trees so that SBE-β-CD Microbiology inhibitor the readily available root exudates were replaced by more recalcitrant, polymeric plant biomass components. Owing to the dramatic decrease in photosynthesis, the rate of decomposition processes in the ecosystem decreased as soon as the one-time litter input had been processed. The fungal community showed profound changes, including a decrease

in biomass (2.5-fold in the litter and 12-fold in the soil) together with the disappearance of fungi symbiotic with tree roots and a relative increase in saprotrophic taxa. Within the latter group, successive changes reflected the changing availability of needle litter and woody debris. Bacterial biomass appeared to be either unaffected or increased after the disturbance, resulting in a substantial increase in the bacterial/fungal biomass ratio.”
“Multifunctional nanoprobes open exciting possibilities for accurate diagnosis and therapy. In this research, we developed a Cu-64-labeled GdVO4:4%Eu two-dimension (2D) tetragonal ultrathin nanosheets (NSs) that simultaneously possess radioactivity, fluorescence, and paramagnetic properties for multimodal imaging. The carboxyl-functionalized Eu3+-doped GdVO4 NSs were synthesized by a facile solvothermal

check details reaction, followed by ligand exchange with polyacrylic acid (PAA). With ultrathin thickness of similar to 5 nm and width of similar to 150 nm, the carboxyl-functionalized NSs were further modified by DOTA chelator for Cu-64 labeling and Asp-Gly-Glu-Ala (DGEA) peptide for integrin alpha(2)beta(1) targeting. After initial evaluation of the cytotoxicity and targeting capability with PC-3 cells, the obtained multifunctional nanoprobes (Cu-64-DOTA-GdVO4:4%Eu-DGEA) were further explored for targeted positron emission tomography (PET) and T-1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of PC-3 tumor (prostate cancer, high integrin alpha(2)beta(1) expression) in vivo. Based on the strong fluorescence of the NSs, the particle distribution in mouse tissues was also determined by fluorescent microscopy.