Received  14 August, 2017    Accepted  20 December, 2017

Increasing attentions have been paid to mineral concentration decrease in milled rice grains caused by CO2 enrichment, but the mechanisms still remain unclear. Therefore, mineral (Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn and Mn) translocation in plant-soil system with a FACE (Free-air CO2 enrichment) experiment were investigated in Eastern China after 4-yr operation. Results mainly showed that: (1) elevated CO2 significantly increased the biomass of stem and panicle by 21.9 and 24.0%, respectively, but did not affect the leaf biomass. (2) Elevated CO2 significantly increased the contents of Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, and Mn in panicle by 61.2, 28.9, 87.0, 36.7, and 66.0%, respectively, and in stem by 13.2, 21.3, 47.2, 91.8, and 25.2%, respectively, but did not affect them in leaf. (3) Elevated CO2 had positive effects on the weight ratio of mineral/biomass in stem and panicle. Our results suggest that elevated CO2 can favor the translocation of Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, and Mn from soil to stem and panicle. The CO2-led mineral decline in milled rice grains may mainly attribute to the CO2-led unbalanced stimulations on the translocations of minerals and carbohydrates from vegetative parts (e.g., leaf, stem, branch and husk) to the grains.

Changes in the soil nematode community induced by global warming may have a considerable influence on agro-ecosystem functioning. However, the impacts of predicted warming on nematode community in farmland (e.g., winter wheat field) have not been well documented. Therefore, a field experiment with free air temperature increase (FATI) was conducted to investigate the responses of the soil nematode community to nighttime warming in a winter wheat field of Yangtze Delta Plain, China, during 2007 to 2009. Nighttime warming (NW) by 1.8°C at 5-cm soil depth had no significant impact on the total nematode abundance compared to un-warmed control (CK). However, NW significantly affected the nematode community structure. Warming favored the bacterivores and fungivores, such as Acrobeles, Monhystera, Rhabditis, and Rhabdontolaimus in bacterivores, and Filenchus in fungivores, while the plant-parasites were hindered, such as Helicotylenchus and Psilenchus. Interestingly, the carnivores/ omnivores remained almost unchanged. Hence, the abundances of bacterivores and fungivores were significantly higher under NW than those under CK. Similarly, the abundances of plant-parasites were significantly lower under NW than under CK. Furthermore, Wasilewska index of the nematode community was significantly higher under NW than those under CK, indicating beneficial effect to the plant in the soil. Our results suggest that nighttime warming may improve soil fertility and decrease soil- borne diseases in winter wheat field through affecting the soil nematode community. It is also indicated that nighttime warming may promote the sustainability of the nematode community by altering genera-specific habitat suitability for soil biota.