Assessment of phytoplankton class abundance using fluorescence excitation-emission matrix by parallel factor analysis and nonnegative least squares

The feasibility of using fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) along with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and nonnegative least squares (NNLS) method for the differentiation of phytoplankton taxonomic groups was investigated. Forty-one phytoplankton species belonging to 28 genera of five divisions were studied. First, the PARAFAC model was applied to EEMs, and 15 fluorescence components were generated. Second, 15 fluorescence components were found to have a strong discriminating capability based on Bayesian discriminant analysis (BDA). Third, all spectra of the fluorescence component compositions for the 41 phytoplankton species were spectrographically sorted into 61 reference spectra using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and then, the reference spectra were used to establish a database. Finally, the phytoplankton taxonomic groups was differentiated by the reference spectra database using the NNLS method. The five phytoplankton groups were differentiated with the correct discrimination ratios (CDRs) of 100% for single-species samples at the division level. The CDRs for the mixtures were above 91% for the dominant phytoplankton species and above 73% for the subdominant phytoplankton species. Sixteen of the 85 field samples collected from the Changjiang River estuary were analyzed by both HPLC-CHEMTAX and the fluorometric technique developed. The results of both methods reveal that Bacillariophyta was the dominant algal group in these 16 samples and that the subdominant algal groups comprised Dinophyta, Chlorophyta and Cryptophyta. The differentiation results by the fluorometric technique were in good agreement with those from HPLC-CHEMTAX. The results indicate that the fluorometric technique could differentiate algal taxonomic groups accurately at the division level.     

Stable sulfur isotopes in the water column of the Cariaco Basin

Previous geochemical and microbiological studies in the Cariaco Basin indicate intense elemental cycling and a dynamic microbial loop near the oxic-anoxic interface. We obtained detailed distributions of sulfur isotopes of total dissolved sulfide and sulfate as part of the on-going CARIACO time series project to explore the critical pathways at the level of individual sulfur species. Isotopic patterns of sulfate (δ³⁴S_SO4) and sulfide (δ³⁴S_H2S) were similar to trends observed in the Black Sea water column: δ³⁴S_H2S and δ³⁴S_SO4 were constant in the deep anoxic water (varying within 0.6‰ for sulfide and 0.3‰ for sulfate), with sulfide roughly 54‰ depleted in ³⁴S relative to sulfate. Near the oxic-anoxic interface, however, the δ³⁴S_H2S value was ∼3‰ heavier than that in the deep water, which may reflect sulfide oxidation and/or a change in fractionation during in situ sulfide production through sulfate reduction (SR). δ³⁴S_H2S and Δ³³S_H2S data near the oxic-anoxic interface did not provide unequivocal evidence to support the important role of sulfur-intermediate disproportionation suggested by previous studies. Repeated observation of minimum δ³⁴S_SO4 values near the interface suggests ‘readdition’ of ³⁴S-depleted sulfate during sulfide oxidation. A slight increase in δ³⁴S_SO4 values with depth extended over the water column may indicate a reservoir effect associated with removal of ³⁴S-depleted sulfur during sulfide production through SR. Our δ³⁴S_H2S and Δ³³S_H2S data also do not show a clear role for sulfur-intermediate disproportionation in the deep anoxic water column. We interpret the large difference in δ³⁴S between sulfate and sulfide as reflecting fractionations during SR in the Cariaco deep waters that are larger than those generally observed in culturing studies.     

鲁豫交界地区尾波Q_c值分析研究

该文对濮阳台记录的21次地震进行了地震波衰减研究,讨论了地球介质品质因子随频率变化的关系;利用不同地震采用不同流逝时间的尾波品质因子测定方法,有效去除了由于不同地震或同一地震的地震散射波在纵向介质中穿透深度的不同而导致对品质因子测量结果的影响,从而有利于扑捉到品质因子的异常变化特征与地震孕育过程的关系。利用改进后的模型,对鲁豫交界地区尾波值进行了计算,得到了该地区品质因子随频率的变化关系和区域介质衰减的时间变化特征。     

Impact assessment of the "Grain for Green Project" and discussion on the development models in the mountain-gorge regions

To restore China’s degraded ecological environment, the government has launched an environmental restoration project named the “Grain for Green Project” (GGP) in 1999. From 1999 to 2010, the government will spend 40 billion dollars to convert 147 million ha of croplands and 173 million ha of wastelands into forestlands and grasslands in 25 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. A primary goal is to replace cropping and livestock grazing in fragile areas with trees and grass. Given the tremendous scale and great number of participants in the project, the attitudes of the affected farmers and the future development in the area where GGP is implemented have a direct influence on the success of the project. To gain a clear idea about the farmers’ attitudes towards the project and put forward the development models for the forestlands converted from croplands, two case sites in the mountain-gorge region in Nujiang River are selected as the study areas, and the methods of field survey and semi-structured interview are adopted to make interviews with more than 100 households in 2002 and 2003 in order to quantify the farmers’ opinions about the GGP and how it has affected their livelihood, socio-cultural and industrial structures, etc. The results are as follows: 1) the project has a certain influence on the farmers with better economic basis and exerts greater influence on the farmers living in the low-elevation regions than on those living in the regions with middle-high elevation; 2) the production models of the local farmers has changed from cultivation and animal husbandry to forestry and sidelines due to the project and the income structure has changed from animal husbandry as main income source to state subsidy and sideline as main income sources; 3) the reduction in the grain income and decrease in the quantity of livestock because of the project have led to the diminution in the total income of the farmers; 4) the project has resulted in changes in the lifestyles and architecture styles of the local farmers, and the traditional “huotang” culture has gone away after the implementation of the project; 5) energy utilization has changed from firewood to methane and electricity in the wake of the implementation of the project. The above-mentioned study results have indicated that the GGP has truly exerted influence on the livelihood and production of the local farmers. Therefore, it is very necessary to make a research into the development models in the forestlands converted from croplands to resolve the problems of the farmers’ livelihood and production. The study results will provide some references for the sustainable development of the mountain-gorge regions.     

Identification of five sea cucumber species through PCR-RFLP analysis

Sea cucumbers are traditional marine food and Chinese medicine in Asia. The rapid expansion of sea cucumber market has resulted in various problems, such as commercial fraud and mislabeling. Conventionally, sea cucumber species could be distinguished by their morphological and anatomical characteristics; however, their identification becomes difficult when they are processed. The aim of this study was to develop a new convenient method of identifying and distinguishing sea cucumber species. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) was used to identifing five sea cucumber species (Apostichopus japonicus, Cucumaria frondosa, Thelenota ananas, Parastichopus californicus and Actinopyga lecanora). A 692 bp fragment of COI was searched for BamHI, KpnI, PstI, XbaI and Eco31I restriction sites with DNAMAN 6.0, which were then used to PCR-RFLP analysis. These five sea cucumber species can be discriminated from mixed sea cucumbers. The developed PCR-RFLP assay will facilitate the identification of sea cucumbers, making their source tracing and quality controlling feasible.     

Effects of sulfate chitosan derivatives on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Sulfate chitosan derivatives have good solubility and therapeutic effect on the cell model of NAFLD. The aim of this study was to examine the therapeutic effect of sulfate chitosan derivatives on NAFLD. The male Wistar rats were orally fed high fat emulsion and received sulfate chitosan derivatives for 5 weeks to determine the pre-treatment effect of sulfate chitosan derivatives on NAFLD. To evaluate the therapeutic effect of sulfate chitosan derivatives on NAFLD, the rats were orally fed with high concentration emulsion for 5 weeks, followed by sulfate chitosan derivatives for 3 weeks. Histological analysis and biomedical assays showed that sulfate chitosan derivatives can dramatically prevent the development of hepatic steatosis in hepatocyte cells. In animal studies, pre-treatment and treatment with sulfate chitosan derivatives significantly protected against hepatic steatohepatitis induced by high fat diet according to histological analysis. Furthermore, increased TC, ALT, MDA, and LEP in NAFLD were significantly ameliorated by pre-treatment and treatment with sulfate chitosan derivatives. Furthermore, increased TG, AST, and TNF-α in NAFLD were significantly ameliorated by treatment with sulfate chitosan derivatives. Sulfate chitosan derivatives have good pre-treatment and therapeutic effect on NAFLD.     

Controlling Factors,Accumulation Model and Target Zone Prediction of the Coal‐bed Methane in the Huanghebei Coalfield,North China

The Huanghebei Coalfield, one of the coal production bases in North China, was considered as a coalfield without coal‐bed methane (CBM) during past decades. In recent years, however, CBM has been discovered in coal‐bearing successions. In order to understand the CBM geological characteristics and accumulation process in this area, fifteen coal samples were collected and analyzed with respect to coal maceral and reflectance. The result shows that the gas distribution is uneven and the content varies in different areas even for the same coal bed. The storage of CBM is affected by geological factors such as burial depth, geological structures, and magmatic intrusion, among which the former two are more important in the formation of CBM. Deep burial of coal beds with the presence of cap‐rock mudstone can seal CBM. The CBM is also accumulated and preserved at the place where normal faults are distributed. Magmatic intrusion causes contact metamorphism and controls the CBM formation by heating the coal‐bearing successions. The obtained data indicate the geological conditions in northeastern Zhaoguan Mine are preferable for CBM formation and conservation; recent exploration estimates the CBM geological reserves up to 282.16 Mm³ and average of reserve abundance at 0.1662 × 10⁸ m³ km^?2. The Changqing Mine is a potential prospect in terms of CBM exploration since its geological conditions (structures and burial depth) are similar to the Zhaoguan Mine and its cap rock is even better.     

Epidemiological study on the relationship between the environmental pollution and lung cancer in high lung cancer incidence areas,China

Xuanwei and Fuyuan, two counties located in southwest China, are areas with exceptionally high lung cancer incidence since the 1970s. In this study, questionnaires from a total of 18 communes, and 28 administrative villages (consisting of 280 small villages) in the two counties were fulfilled and collected. The sampling sites were randomly chosen in consideration of the incidence rate of lung cancer and the types of coal used. The sampling sites were divided into high lung cancer occurrence areas and low lung cancer occurrence areas. Industrial and environmental information was investigated and finally analyzed for the possible relationship to the lung cancer. It indicated that 78.1 % of the villages in high lung cancer incidence areas had been found using smoky coal or coking coals in people’s everyday lives; 43.4 % of these villages located near the coking factories, 31.1 % near the iron-zinc smelters and 11.8 % near the chemical industries. In the low lung cancer incidence areas, 78.8 % of the villages had been found using non-smoky coals (anthracite) in people’s everyday lives; 26.9 % of these villages are near the coking factories, 23.1 % near the iron-zinc smelters and 5.8 % near the chemical industries. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the coal type used was a foremost risk factor related to incidence of lung cancer [β > 0, Exp (β) >1, P < 0.05]. The use of smoky coals and coking coals seemed to be a hazardous factor for lung cancer generation, while non-smoky coals seemed to have no significant relationship to the lung cancer incidence. The results in this study added basic and important data and should be helpful for the future study on the etiology of lung cancer.     

Economic benefit assessment of the geo-hazard monitoring and warning engineering system in the Three Gorges Reservoir area: a case study of the landslide in Zigui

The completion and operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir in China have increased the frequency of geo-hazards and dangers in the area. To monitor and to warn of geo-hazards effectively, the Chinese government has invested billions of funds for constructing a monitoring and warning engineering system. Similar to other social infrastructure investments, a reasonable assessment of investment returns is necessary. Therefore, this study proposes an economic benefit assessment model, which considers both the expected and the actual values. The economic benefit of the geo-hazard monitoring and warning engineering in the Three Gorges Reservoir areas is evaluated. Based on the engineering characteristics, the model reasonably defines the frontier of the input and output and adds the casualties and the losses of ecological environment into the economic benefit evaluation index system. A case study on the Zhangjiawan landslide in Guojiaba Town, Zigui County, was conducted. The evaluation results show that (1) land has the largest benefit in direct reductional loss (total of 56.7 %), while the largest indirect reductional losses of the hazard-bearing bodies are in agricultural production and ecological environment (total of 97.6 %); (2) the costs-to-expected return ratio of landslide monitoring and warning engineering is 1:280, whereas the cost-to-actual benefit ratio is 1:30; (3) the accumulation of relevant information and the public knowledge of geological disasters should be strengthened.

     

Simulated impacts of irrigation on evapotranspiration in a strongly exploited region: a case study of the Haihe River basin,China

Irrigation is the major water supply for crop production in water‐limited regions. However, this important water component is usually neglected or simplified in hydrological modelling primarily because information concerning irrigation is notably difficult to collect. To assess real effects of irrigation on the simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) in water‐limited region, the Community Land Model version 4 was established over a typical semi‐humid agricultural basin in the northern China – the Haihe River basin. In the irrigated cropland, incorporating an irrigation scheme can enhance the simulated ET and improve the simulation of spatial variability of soil moisture content. We found that different configurations in the irrigation scheme do not cause significant differences in the simulated annual ET. However, simulated ET with simulated irrigation differs clearly from that with observed irrigation in mean annual magnitude, long‐term trend and spatial distribution. Once the irrigation scheme is well‐calibrated against observations, it reasonably reproduces the interannual variability of annual irrigation, when irrigation water management is relatively stable. More importantly, parameter calibration should be consistent with the configuration of the source of irrigation water. However, an irrigation scheme with a constant parameter value cannot capture the trend in the annual irrigation amount caused by abrupt changes in agricultural water management. Compared with different remotely sensed ET products, the enhancement in the simulated ET by irrigation is smaller than the differences among these products, and the trend in simulated ET with the observed irrigation cannot be captured correctly by the remotely sensed ET. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.