The turnover and stabilization of organic matter (OM) in soils depend on mass and energy fluxes. Understanding the energy content of soil organic matter (SOM) is therefore of crucial importance, but this has hardly been studied so far, especially in mineral soils. In this study, combustion calorimetry (bomb calorimetry) was applied to determine the energy content (combustion enthalpy, ΔCH) of various materials: litter inputs, forest floor layers (OL, OF, OH), and bulk soil and particulate organic matter (POM) from topsoils (0–5 cm). Samples were taken from 35-year-old monocultural stands of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), black pine (Pinus nigra), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), and red oak (Quercus rubra) grown under highly similar soil, landscape and boundary conditions. This allowed to investigate the influence of the degree of transformation and litter quality on the ΔCH of SOM. Tree species fuel the soil C cycle with high-energy litter (38.9 ± 1.1 kJ g−1C) and fine root biomass (35.9 ± 1.1 kJ g−1C). As plant material is transformed to SOM, ΔCH decreases in the order: OL (36.8 ± 1.6 kJ g−1C) ≥ OF (35.9 ± 3.7 kJ g−1C) > OH (30.6 ± 7.0 kJ g−1C) > 0–5 cm bulk soil (22.9 ± 8.2 kJ g−1C). It indicates that the energy content of OM decreases with transformation and stabilization, as microorganisms extract energy from organic compounds for growth and maintenance, resulting in lower-energy bulk SOM. The POM fraction has 1.6-fold higher ΔCH compared to the bulk SOM. Tree species significantly affect ΔCH of SOM in the mineral soil with the lowest values under beech (12.7 ± 3.4 kJ g−1C). The energy contents corresponded to stoichiometric and isotopic parameters as proxies for the degree of transformation. In conclusion, litter quality, in terms of elemental composition and energy content, defines the pathway and degree of the energy-driven microbially mediated transformation and stabilization of SOM.

The viviparous eelpout Zoarces viviparus is a common fish across the North Atlantic and has successfully colonized habitats across environmental gradients. Due to its wide distribution and predictable phenotypic responses to pollution, Z. viviparus is used as an ideal marine bioindicator organism and has been routinely sampled over decades by several countries to monitor marine environmental health. Additionally, this species is a promising model to study adaptive processes related to environmental change, specifically global warming. Here, we report the chromosome-level genome assembly of Z. viviparus, which has a size of 663 Mb and consists of 607 scaffolds (N50 = 26 Mb). The 24 largest represent the 24 chromosomes of the haploid Z. viviparus genome, which harbors 98% of the complete Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologues defined for ray-finned fish, indicating that the assembly is highly contiguous and complete. Comparative analyses between the Z. viviparus assembly and the chromosome-level genomes of two other eelpout species revealed a high synteny, but also an accumulation of repetitive elements in the Z. viviparus genome. Our reference genome will be an important resource enabling future in-depth genomic analyses of the effects of environmental change on this important bioindicator species.

Introduction: Conventional agricultural land-use may negatively impact biodiversity and the environment due to the increased disturbances to the soil ecosystem by tillage, for example. Cultivation of the perennial grain intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium, IWG, Kernza®) is a nature-based solution for sustainable agriculture, improving nutrient retention mainly through its extensive root system. Nematodes serve as sensitive bioindicators, detecting early changes in the soil food web, reflecting in changes in their community structure. Materials and Methods:IWG and annual wheat sites in South France, Belgium and South Sweden were investigated in April 2022 for two depths (5–15 cm; 25–35 cm) to evaluate the difference in nematode community structure among the cropping systems. Results: Sites with IWG cultivation held an accumulation of structure indicators (c-p 3–5 nematodes) compared to sites with annual wheat cultivation. A generalised linear mixed model revealed significantly more root feeders, especially for the subsoil, under IWG as a result of the perennial cultivation. The maturity index, plant-parasitic index, channel index and structure index were greater for IWG sites. The enrichment index was greater for annual wheat sites due to the dominance of bacterivores and enrichment indicators (c-p 1 nematodes). The nematode community structure (weighted faunal profile analysis) indicates IWG sites as being a generally undisturbed system with efficient nutrient cycling and balanced distribution of feeding types, as well as higher metabolic footprint values for root feeders (including plant-parasitic nematodes) and fungivores. Annual wheat sites, on the other hand, held indicators of a disturbed system with increased occurrence of opportunistic species and a more bacterial driven pathway. The topsoil had an increased occurrence of structure indicators in both cropping systems. Conclusion: IWG creates favourable conditions for a diverse food web, including improved nutrient cycling and a heterogeneous resource environment, regardless of climatic conditions, establishing it as a stable and resilient agricultural management system.

Introduction: This study examined the sources and factors of resilience in Russian sexual and gender minorities. We hypothesized that, through their involvement in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community (source of resilience), LGBT people establish friendships that provide them with social support (factor of resilience), which in turn should contribute to their mental health. Method: The study sample consisted of 1,127 young and middle-aged LGBT adults (18 to 50 years) from Russia. We collected the data online and anonymously. Results: Partial mediation could be confirmed. LGBT people who were involved in “their” community reported more social support from friends, which partially mediated the positive association between community involvement and mental health. The mediation remained significant when we controlled for demographics and outness as potential covariates. Additional analyses showed that the present sample reported lower mental health but not less social support than Russian nonminority samples recruited in previous research. Conclusion: Our study underlines the importance of the LGBT community in times of increasing stigmatization of sexual and gender minorities.

The cold pressor test (CPT) elicits strong cardiovascular reactions via activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), yielding subsequent increases in heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP). However, little is known on how exposure to the CPT affects cardiac ventricular repolarization. Twenty-eight healthy males underwent both a bilateral feet CPT and a warm water (WW) control condition on two separate days, one week apart. During pre-stress baseline and stress induction cardiovascular signals (ECG lead II, Finometer BP) were monitored continuously. Salivary cortisol and subjective stress ratings were assessed intermittently. Corrected QT (QTc) interval length and T-wave amplitude (TWA) were assessed for each heartbeat and subsequently aggregated individually over baseline and stress phases, respectively. CPT increases QTc interval length and elevates the TWA. Stress-induced changes in cardiac repolarization are only in part and weakly correlated with cardiovascular and cortisol stress-reactivity. Besides its already well-established effects on cardiovascular, endocrine, and subjective responses, CPT also impacts on cardiac repolarization by elongation of QTc interval length and elevation of TWA. CPT effects on cardiac repolarization share little variance with the other indices of stress reactivity, suggesting a potentially incremental value of this parameter for understanding psychobiological adaptation to acute CPT stress.