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Acid deposition is widespread in Japan, but acidification of stream water is rare in forest ecosystems. Bedrock‐derived cations, including those released into the soil by weathering of bedrock minerals, generally act to neutralize acid deposition and flow out into streams. Volcanic ash, which is widespread in Japan, may also release cations and neutralize acids, but the contribution of volcanic‐ash‐derived cations is currently poorly explored. To assess the importance of volcanic ash as a source of base cations, we examined strontium in two catchments underlain by chert bedrock at Mount Amamaki, Japan. Additionally, we obtained comparative data from two sandstone‐bedrock catchments in the same area. We measured 87Sr/86Sr ratios in samples of stream water, bulk precipitation, riverbed rock, and soil from the catchments. We used the 87Sr/86Sr data to analyze the relative contributions of atmospheric deposition, bedrock, and volcanic ash in soil as sources of Sr in the stream waters. We estimated volcanic ash in soil to contribute between 46% and 78% of stream‐water Sr for one chert‐bedrock catchment, and between 0% and 52% for the other. We conclude that volcanic ash in soil is an important source of Sr in stream water. Thus, volcanic ash can act as a source of base cations and hence contribute to the acid‐neutralizing capacity of soil in forest ecosystems in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two‐stage sampler was designed to investigate the vertical distribution of heavy metals and trace elements that contaminate forest soils through atmospheric deposition. The hand‐corer consisted of two L‐shaped aluminum angles that were driven separately into the soil to reduce friction between the corer wall and the soil. This allowed for soil cores to be collected with less compression than with traditional corers. The corer is easily made, inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to carry. The degree of compression of soil cores collected at a depth of 20 cm from various montane forests in Japan was usually less than 10% (collected core length >18 cm); although, more compression occurred in soil with a higher air content. The degree of compression of soil cores collected from urban forests was lower than that in montane forests. When the two‐stage sampler was compared with a tube‐type sampler in a Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) forest, the compression degree of a soil core collected with the two‐stage sampler was a quarter that of the tube‐type sampler. The collection of less‐compressed soil cores will allow for reconstruction of a more accurate linear depth distribution of contaminants. To demonstrate this, we investigated the vertical distribution of Pb, Sb, and radioactive 137Cs in soil cores collected from conifer plantations on Mount Tsukuba, Japan, in April 2011. The migration centers of anthropogenic Pb, Sb, and 137Cs were positioned at 7.9, 7.5, and 3.3 cm from the ground surface, respectively. These distances probably reflect differences in the history of atmospheric pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed how warm air temperatures, high solar radiation, and weak wind speeds might induce hypoxia in a shallow lake during a heat wave. We simulated bottom‐water dissolved oxygen concentrations and compared concentrations in 2022 with the average for the previous 30 years. We found that hypoxia was most sensitive to wind speeds. When the wind speed was low, convection was insufficient to prevent hypoxia, but there was no hypoxia if the wind speed equaled the average speed during the previous 30 years. However, if solar radiation and air temperatures equaled the respective averages during the previous 30 years, hypoxia did not occur, even if wind speeds were low. We conclude that the combined effects of weak winds and either high solar radiation or air temperatures induced hypoxia during the heat wave of 2022. Plain Language Summary: The concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) is one of the most important characteristics of lake ecosystems. However, a mechanistic understanding of the formation of bottom‐water DO in shallow water during heat waves is still limited by the paucity of relevant data. We combined high‐frequency monitoring via a new buoy system and numerical simulation to analyze how meteorological changes during a heat wave affected bottom‐water DO concentration in a shallow lake. We found that slackening of wind speeds and increases of either air temperatures or solar radiation induced bottom‐water hypoxia by constraining convective mixing. Wind speeds during the night were low, and the supply of DO by convective mixing during the night was insufficient to prevent hypoxia. Key Points: Hypoxia was observed in Lake Kasumigaura during a heat wave in 2022We observed higher solar radiation and air temperatures, and weaker winds in 2022 than the average for the previous 30 yearsInsufficient convection led to hypoxia because of the combined effects of weak winds, high solar radiation, and high air temperatures [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In forest ecosystems, understanding the relationship between the vertical distribution of fine roots and residual soil nitrogen is essential for clarifying the diversity–productivity–water purification relationship.Vertical distributions of fine‐root biomass (FRB) and concentrations of nitrate‐nitrogen (NO3‐N) in soil water were investigated in a conifer plantation with three thinning intensities (Control, Weak and Intensive), in which hardwood abundance and diversity were low, moderate and high, respectively.Intensive thinning led to the lowest NO3‐N concentration in soil water at all depths (0–100 cm) and highest FRB at shallow depths (0–50 cm). The NO3‐N concentration at a given depth was negatively correlated with total FRB from the surface to the depth at which NO3‐N concentration was measured, especially at shallow depths, indicating that more abundant fine roots led to lower levels of downward NO3‐N leaching. FRB contributed positively to nitrogen content of hardwood leaves.These findings demonstrate that a hardwood mixture in conifer plantations resulted in sufficient uptake of NO3‐N from soil by well developed fine‐root systems, and translocation to canopy foliage. This study suggests that productivity and water purification can be achieved through a hardwood mixture in conifer plantations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A heterogeneous chiral imidazolodinone catalyst was synthesized by immobilization on a sulfated chitin through non‐covalent ionic interactions. The chitin‐based organocatalyst promoted the asymmetric Diels‐Alder reaction with high enantioselectivity under heterogeneous conditions and was successfully reused multiple times without apparent loss of catalytic activity and enantioselectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous multiple‐catalyst assemblies were developed in which the flavinium cation and Na or Li cations were easily immobilized on a chitin‐derived anionic polymeric scaffold through noncovalent ionic interactions. The supramolecular flavinium catalysts were successfully employed in the environmentally friendly heterogeneous Baeyer–Villiger oxidation and sulfoxidation by H2O2. Owing to the cooperative catalytic effect of flavinium, alkali metal, and sulfated chitin, the supramolecular flavinium assembly showed higher catalytic activity for the Baeyer–Villiger oxidation of cyclic ketones than the corresponding homogeneous flavinium catalyst. Because the ionic assembly was stable under the reaction conditions, the catalyst could be readily recovered by simple filtration and reused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The free-living, cosmopolitan, freshwater betaproteobacterial bacterioplankton genus Polynucleobacter was detected in different years in 11 lakes of varying types and a river using the size-exclusion assay method (SEAM). Of the 350 strains isolated, 228 (65.1%) were affiliated with the Polynucleobacter subclusters PnecC (30.0%) and PnecD (35.1%). Significant positive correlations between fluorescence in situ hybridization and SEAM data were observed in the relative abundance of PnecC and PnecD bacteria to Polynucleobacter communities (PnecC + PnecD). Isolates were mainly PnecC bacteria in the samples with a high specific UV absorbance at 254 nm (SUVA254), and a low total hydrolysable neutral carbohydrate and amino acid (THneutralCH + THAA) content of the dissolved organic matter (DOM) fraction, which is known to be correlated with a high humic content. In contrast, the PnecD bacteria were abundant in samples with high chlorophyll a and/or THneutralCH + THAA concentrations, indicative of primary productivity. With few exceptions, differences in the relative abundance of PnecC and PnecD in each sample, determined using a high-sensitivity cultivation-based approach, were due to DOM quality. These results suggest that the major DOM component in the field, which is allochthonously or autochthonously derived, is a key factor for ecological niche separation between PnecC and PnecD subclusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]