U.S. Foreign Policy and a Geographically Challenged U.S. Citizenry

Abstract

This article shows how the random walk drainage network simulation model might be used as a class teaching exercise. Practical instructions about running the model are given and the results discussed. A source of directional bias in the resulting simulated drainage patterns is identified and given an interpretation in the terms of the model. Three points of educational value concerning the model are emphasized in conclusion.     

Aeolian dust in a saline playa environment, Nevada, U.S.A.

Saline playas in north-western Nevada, U.S.A., remnants of pluvial periods of the Pleistocene, represent a tremendous source of unconsolidated sediments available for aeolian transport. This study investigated the transport of aqueous-soluble solutes in dust from July 1994 through June 1996 along a transect from a barren salt-encrusted playa surface (elevation=1224 m), to a former pluvial lake beach (elevation=1228 m), to a dune-mantled upland (elevation=1248 m). The content of aqueous-soluble solutes in aeolian dust showed a significant (p≤0·05) interaction with dust trap location (playa, beach, dune) and time of collection. Dust collectors on the playa surface generally contained significantly more aqueous-soluble solutes and had greater total flux of solutes than either the beach or the dune locations. The solute content of aeolian dust was usually higher, in some cases several orders of magnitude, than that in the surface 5 cm of soil. Recent changes in playa hydrology may explain this result. Pulses of nitrate-rich dust, synchronous with spring emergence, and other nutrient additions via aeolian dust may have stimulated invasion of dune-mantled uplands by the weedSalsola paulsenii (barb-wire Russian thistle).     

2000a B.P.来毛乌素地区的沙漠化问题

对最近2000aB．P．来毛乌素地区的沙漠化研究表明，现今流沙的分布范围与气候之间“不平衡”，毛乌素沙地并非气候演变的“顶极产物”，而是在特定的自然条件下过度的人类活动使“古沙翻新”的结果，但古沙翻新的形式在不同的地貌位置有所不同。同时，萨拉乌苏组中的古风成砂并非现代流沙的唯一沙源，还有相当一部分来自黑垆土之下的古风成砂。如果未来温室效应继续导致全球变暖，毛乌素沙地不会南侵，有向北退缩的可能。     

The sediment record of the past 200 years in a Swiss high-alpine lake: Hagelseewli (2339 m a.s.l.)

Sediment cores spanning the last two centuries were taken in Hagelseewli, a high-elevation lake in the Swiss Alps. Contiguous 0.5 cm samples were analysed for biological remains, including diatoms, chironomids, cladocera, chrysophyte cysts, and fossil pigments. In addition, sedimentological and geochemical variables such as loss-on-ignition, total carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, grain-size and magnetic mineralogy were determined. The results of these analyses were compared to a long instrumental air temperature record that was adapted to the elevation of Hagelseewli by applying mean monthly lapse rates.During much of the time, the lake is in the shadow of a high cliff to the south, so that the lake is ice-covered during much of the year and thus decoupled from climatic forcing. Lake biology is therefore influenced more by the duration of ice-cover than by direct temperature effects during the short open-water season. Long periods of ice-cover result in anoxic water conditions and dissolution of authigenic calcites, leading to carbonate-free sediments.The diversity of chironomid and cladoceran assemblages is extremely low, whereas that of diatom and chrysophyte cyst assemblages is much higher. Weak correlations were observed between the diatom and chrysophyte cyst assemblages on the one hand and summer or autumn air temperatures on the other, but the proportion of variance explained is low, so that air temperature alone cannot account for the degree of variation observed in the paleolimnological record.Analyses of mineral magnetic parameters, spheroidal carbonaceous particles and lead suggest that atmospheric pollution has had a significant effect on the sediments of Hagelseewli, but little effect on the water quality as reflected in the lake biota.