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[Objective] Drought is a significant abiotic stress affecting agricultural production in many regions of China. This study investigates the spatiotemporal variations in drought during the growing seasons of summer maize in the Huaibei Plain. [Method] The analysis was based on the drought severity index (DSI) from 2010 to 2019 calculated using metrological data measured from weather stations across the region. We focused on the top 0-10 cm soil layer and the root zone from the soil surface to the depth of 50 cm. The M-K test and the Kriging spatial interpolation were used to analyze the spatiotemporal variation in droughts over the region at different time scales. [Result] ① Since 2016, the severity and frequency of droughts have both significantly increased in the areas of Dangshan, Mengcheng, and Qiaocheng, while decreased in the area of Fuyang. In Suzhou, droughts mainly occurred in 2010-2012 and 2019. Compared to seasonal scale, some drought events exhibited greater severity and higher frequency at the ten-day scale with unpredictable onset. ② The highest average annual drought index and frequency both occurred during the sowing-emergence stage, reaching moderate level or above, with the frequencies exceeding 40%. Severe droughts or worse at both timescales occurred in northern Dangshan and central Mengcheng and Suzhou. The frequency of the 0-10 cm soil-layer droughts was higher in the southwest, while the frequency of 0-50 cm soil-layer droughts was higher in the east and north than in other areas. ③ At the ten-day scale, the periods with the highest drought severity in each growing season mostly started in the early stage of sowing - emergence, emergence - jointing, and the mid-stage of jointing - tasseling. Severe droughts occurred primarily in August and September. [Conclusion] Since 2016, there has been a significant increase in drought severity and frequency for summer maize in the Huaibei Plain, particularly during the sowing seedling stage. Severe droughts were observed at uncertain ten-day scales, with increased drought frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] Drought is an abiotic stress detrimentally affecting crop production in many countries. Understanding its occurrence in a region is crucial to improving its water and agricultural management. In this paper, we analyzed the spatiotemporal variation in drought from 1961-2022 in Huaibei located in central China. [Method] The analysis is based on meteorological data measured from 1961-2022 from 21 weather stations across the region. Monthly, seasonal, and annual standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) in each station were calculated, from which we calculated the spatiotemporal variation in drought across the region. [Result] ① Monthly, seasonal and annual SPEI in Huaibei had been in decrease from 1961-2022. ② The frequency and duration of persistent droughts had both been in increase from 1961-2022, with Huaibei station showing the highest drought frequency at 0.73 times/year, and Sixian station showing the longest drought duration at 4.61 months. ③ Annual change in droughts in spring and autumn did not show any identifiable trend. Frequency and intensity of droughts in winter were the highest, reaching 34.43% and 21.86%, respectively. Spatially, spring drought was more frequent in the center, east, and southwest of the region; summer drought was less frequent in the southeast of the region; autumn drought was more frequent in the east and north of the region; winter drought was more frequent in the west, northeast and southeast of the region. ④ On average, annual change in drought was increasing at a rate of 0.01/10 a, but not at significant levels. Drought areas had been in increase from 1961 to 2022 at a rate of 1.4%/10 a. The north has a high tendency for occurrence of droughts, while drought intensity tends to be high in the west and southeast of the region. Drought is more frequent in the northeast and southwest. [Conclusion] Overall, there are noticeable trends in spatiotemporal variation in drought in the Huaibei region, with drought frequency and intensity varying between different regions and showing an increase trend from 1961 to 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] Soil temperature is not only important for hydrological processes but also plays an imperative role in crop growth and soil biochemical reactions. Understanding its spatiotemporal variation is crucial to improving soil and hydrological management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of the SARIMA model to model spatiotemporal change in temperature across the entire soil profile. [Method] The study is based on temperatures measured from 1964 to 2022 across a 0-320 cm profile located at the Wudaogou Hydrological Experimental Station, in Anhui province, China. Linear regression, Sen's slope estimation, MK test and other methods are used to analyze the seasonal change in temperature in different soil layers, and to establish the SARIMA model. [Result] ① In spring and winter, the temperature in 0-160 cm soil layer had been in increase from 1964 to 2022 at significant levels. Except in the 0-10 cm soil, summer temperature in other soil layers had been in decrease from 1964 to 2022 at significant levels. In the fall, the temperature had been increasing in the 0 and 20 cm soil layer, but decreasing in other soil layers. ② The temperature in depths of 0, 10, 20, 40, and 160 cm had endured sudden drops in spring in 2006, 2013, 2012, 2015 and 2018, followed by significant increases. Since 1984, temperature in the 320 cm soil layer had begun to decrease significantly. ③ The correlation between measured and predicted temperature was >0.95. With the increase in soil depth, the correlation increases, MAE decreases from 1.666 to 0.390, and the RMSE decreases from 2.139 to 0.525. [Conclusion] The SARMA model is accurate to model spatiotemporal change in soil temperature across the entire 0-320 cm soil profile in Huaibei Plain area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fumonisins (FBs), particularly fumonisin B1 (FB1) and fumonisin B2 (FB2) produced mainly by Fusarium verticillioide and Fusarium proliferatum, are common contaminants in animal feed and pose a serious threat to both animal and human health. The use of microbial enzymes to efficiently and specifically convert fumonisins into non-toxic or low-toxic metabolites has emerged as the most promising approach. However, most of the available enzymes have only been evaluated in vitro and lack systematic evaluation in vivo. In this study, the detoxification efficacy of two carboxylesterases, FumD (FUMzyme®) and FumDSB, was evaluated comparatively in piglets. The results show that feeding piglets 4.4 mg/kg FBs-contaminated diets for 32 days did not significantly affect the average daily gain, organ indices, and immunoglobulins of the piglets. However, a significant reduction (21.2%) in anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-4 was observed in the FBs group, and supplementation with FUMzyme® and FumDSB significantly increased interleukin-4 by 62.1% and 28.0%, respectively. In addition, FBs-contaminated diets resulted in a 3-fold increase in the serum sphinganine/sphingosine (Sa/So) ratio, which is a specific biomarker that has been used to accurately reflect fumonisin levels. The serum Sa/So ratio was significantly reduced by 48.8% after the addition of FUMzyme®, and was insignificantly reduced by 8.2% in the FumDSB group. These results suggested that FUMzyme was more effective than FumDSB in mitigating FBs toxicity in piglets by down-regulating the Sa/So ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses to wheat worldwide, with negative effects on wheat growth and yield. Assessing genetic variation and drought stress tolerance of key agronomic and physiological traits of spring wheat and screening germplasm resources for higher drought tolerance and yield stability are a prerequisite for developing new, better-adapted spring wheat varieties. This study evaluated nine important agronomic and physiological traits in 152 spring wheat cultivars under non-stress (NS) and drought-stress (DS) conditions. Under DS conditions, grain yield per plot (GYP) and grain weight per spike (GWE) were significantly reduced by 33.8% and 31.7%, and their drought-tolerance indexes (DIs) were only 0.66 and 0.69, respectively, indicating that GYP and GWE are the most susceptible traits to drought stress. The SPAD value of flag leave at flowering stage decreased by 13.9% under DS conditions, and the DI of SPAD was 0.86. In addition, DI-SPAD was significantly positively correlated with DIs of plant height (PH), grain number per spikelet (GPS), grain number per spike (GNS), GWE and GYP, indicating that the drought tolerance and yield of wheat are closely related to chlorophyll retention. Six wheat germplasm accessions were identified for their ability to sustain grain yield and improve drought tolerance simultaneously. These results provide insights into the genetic co-variation between grain yield and drought stress tolerance and provide a theoretical basis for the development of new wheat cultivars with excellent drought tolerance and high yields in the presence and absence of drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]