Age profiles in elephant and mammoth bone assemblages

Age profiles of modern African elephant (Loxodonta africana) populations are significantly affected by drought conditions that cause local die-offs. Subadult animals die in proportions that may be nearly twice what is recorded in live populations. Such biasing of death sample age profiles might also have occurred during late Pleistocene die-offs of Mammuthus. This comparative study of modern and fossil proboscidean age structures supports a tentative interpretation that late Pleistocene extinction of Mammuthus (at least in the southwestern United States) resulted from severe drought conditions, at which Clovis hunters were witnesses, but not necessarily frequent participants.     

The origin of Island mammoths and the quaternary land bridge history of the Northern Channel Islands,California

Pygmy proboscidean remains of Mammuthus exilis occur abundantly in late Quaternary deposits on the Northern Channel Islands, California. On the assumption that ancestral elephants could not have swum to the islands and must therefore have walked out, various land bridges have been hypothesized that link the northern islands to the mainland by a peninsula. Geological evidence for a land bridge, however, is lacking, and new evidence shows that elephants are excellent swimmers and skilled at crossing watergaps. The Santa Barbara Channel was narrowed to only 6 km during glacially lowered sea levels. Modern elephants swim much further, and at speeds ranging from 0.96–2.70 km/hr. Motives for California elephants to cross Pleistocene watergaps are inferred from motives that lead modern elephants in Asia and Africa to cross watergaps. These are the visual and olfactory sensing of islands and of insular food during times of drought or fire-induced food shortage. Diminutive size of M. exilis principally reflects lack of island predators, an adaption to periodic food stress in a finite forage area affected by periodic drought and fire, and an adaptation for keeping population numbers high to maintain genetic variability and to ensure survival despite accidents. A late Quaternary scenario describes the environmental setting of the Santa Barbara Channel and the conditions that led to proboscidean dispersal to the preexistent super-island Santarosae.     

The Sevsk woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) site in Russia: Taphonomic,biological and behavioral interpretations

Excavations at Sevsk, Bryansk Region, Russia, by the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1988–1991 recovered 3800 bones of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.) representing a minimum of 33 individuals. The locality is one of the largest naturally occurring deposits of mammoth remains in Europe and is inferred to be a catastrophic death assemblage. The material includes five skeletons of juvenile mammoths, from 1 month to 6 or 7 years of age, as well as partial skeletons and isolated bones of adult individuals. A femur and humerus of an approximately 10–12-month-old fetus are also among the finds. Morphological features suggest that the Sevsk mammoths belonged to one family group; the age structure and sexual composition of the assemblage do not differ significantly from that of a family group of Modern African elephants. In contrast to other localities in Siberia and central Russia, relatively more (about 45% of individuals) prepubertal animals are preserved at Sevsk. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the mammoths died about 14,000 years ago. Data from diatoms, pollen and rodents, as well as archeological evidence, corroborate this age, and provide the basis for a paleoenvironmental reconstruction at the end of the Valdaian Glaciation in western Russia.     

Causes and Consequences of Ecosystem Service Regionalization in a Coastal Suburban Watershed

The demand for ecosystem services and the ability of natural ecosystems to provide those services evolve over time as population, land use, and management practices change. Regionalization of ecosystem service activity, or the expansion of the area providing ecosystem services to a population, is a common response in densely populated coastal regions, with important consequences for watershed water and nitrogen (N) fluxes to the coastal zone. We link biophysical and historical information to explore the causes and consequences of change in ecosystem service activity—focusing on water provisioning and N regulation—from 1850 to 2010 in a coastal suburban watershed, the Ipswich River watershed in northeastern Massachusetts, USA. Net interbasin water transfers started in the late 1800s due to regionalization of water supply for use by larger populations living outside the Ipswich watershed boundaries, reaching a peak in the mid-1980s. Over much of the twentieth century, about 20 % of river runoff was diverted from reaching the estuary, with greater proportions during drought years. Ongoing regionalization of water supply has contributed to recent declines in diversions, influenced by socioecological feedbacks resulting from the river drying and fish kills. Similarly, the N budget has been greatly perturbed since the suburban era began in the 1950s due to food and lawn fertilizer imports and human waste release. However, natural ecosystems are able to remove most of this anthropogenic N, mitigating impacts on the coastal zone. We propose a conceptual model whereby the amount and type of ecosystem services provided by coastal watersheds in urban regions expand and contract over time as regional population expands and ecosystem services are regionalized. We hypothesize that suburban watersheds can be hotspots of ecosystem service sources because they retain sufficient ecosystem function to still produce services that meet increasing demand from the local population and nearby urban centers. Historical reconstruction of ecosystem service activity provides a perspective that may help to better understand coupled human–natural system processes and lead to more sustainable management of coastal ecosystems.     

自然界水循环中的水量平衡原理与干旱研究

概述了国际、国内干旱研究概况。指出区域多年平均降水量的多少,反映了区域中水资源对生态、经济发展承载力的大小。农业生产中把防止土壤蒸发措施叫抗旱;水利建设中拦河筑坝、引水灌溉、凿井汲水,叫兴修水利抗旱救灾。因此干旱的实质是径流消退、土壤蒸发自然衰减并达到区域内水资源对生态和经济发展的承载能力下降到某一限度或阀值的称谓,如人们感官中的小旱、大旱等。根据径流消退公式和土壤蒸发衰减曲线,参照大风、地震研究方法,输入降水、逐日蒸发观测值,即可成功实现统一干旱标准的实时旱情监测。     

Drought and human adjustment in Saudi Arabia

Drought is one of the natural hazards which causes death and damage for property particularly in drylands of the world. Drought as a natural hazard tends to limit and disrupt human activities. On the other hand, man has tried to adjust his living conditions to this hazard. The adjustment to drought is different from one country to another. Adjustment to drought is affected by culture, income, and by the political system in the country. In the case of Saudi Arabia adjustment to drought hazard is usually the work of both individuals, and government. The Saudi Arabian government has spent large sums of money to reduce impact of drought hazard.     

The adversity of Brazilian drought

Drought-stricken NE Brazil is studied in the context of four regional units: the semiarid lowlands of the interior sertão, which have the maximum precipitation fluctuations; the well-watered Cariri valley, which experiences harvest shortages during abnormally dry years; the coastal fringe, which suffers during years of widespread drought; and the highlands of Baturite, where dry spells are noticed only through an influx of migrants from low-lying and drought-stricken areas.Adjustment to drought is, in general, low; it depends on the degree of drought awareness, which is also quite low. Affluent individuals are more inclined to make adjustments to droughts, although the likelihood of their being affected is less than among poor individuals. Middleclass individuals are more inclined to react to threats of an impending drought than to act under actual drought conditions. If age is taken into consideration, middle-aged individuals show greater awareness of drought conditions and a higher propensity to making adjustments than aged or youthful populations. Women are less inclined to make adjustments than men, and married people less than singles. Large families, probably compelled by the constraints, are especially prone to undertake changes in living conditions when a drought strikes.In general, the choices provided by economic feasibility, the possibilities of mitigating drought effects through technological know-how, and the social input of marriage and family size are very important parameters in shaping the character of the adjustments to drought.     

Human Responses to Middle Holocene (Altithermal) Climates on the North American Great Plains

The climate of the Great Plains during the middle Holocene varied considerably, but overall it was marked by a north–south gradient of increasingly warmer and drier conditions, with a reduction in effective moisture, surface water, and resource abundance, and an increase in resource patchiness, sediment weathering, erosion, and aeolian activity. Pronounced drought conditions were most evident on the Southern High Plains. Understanding the human responses to middle Holocene climates is complicated by a lack of archaeological data, which is partly a result of geomorphic processes that removed or deeply buried sites of this age, and by the varying adaptive responses of hunter-gatherers during this period. On the Southern High Plains, where drought was most severe, surface and groundwater sources dried and bison populations were diminished, prompting substantial adaptive changes, including local abandonment, well-digging to tap underground water, and a widening of the diet breadth to incorporate higher-cost, lower-return seed and plant resources. Sites of this age on the Central and Northern Plains also show a possible increase in diet breadth (with the incorporation of plant foods in the diet), and perhaps changes in settlement mobility (including possible shift into higher elevation areas, or mapping-on to extant rivers and springs). But linking those changes to middle Holocene drought is less straightforward.     

Desiccation tolerance ofEurypanopeus depressus (smith) (Decapoda: Xanthidae) and the exploitation of microhabitat

Investigations into zonation of estuarine invertebrates often indicate that animals living higher in the intertidal region have greater tolerance to effects of aerial exposure. Desiccation tolerances ofEurypanopeus depressus, a xanthid mud crab, were measured in the laboratory for both intertidal and subtidal populations to determine whether intertidal distribution is the result of either increased physiological resistance to drying or other factors. Initially, both populations had a similar percentage of body weight due to water, and at time of death both had lost a similar percentage of water. Desiccation tolerance increased exponentially with size. In laboratory experiments,E. depressus appears very susceptible to desiccation stress with loss of tactile response occurring at 30% depletion of body water. This crab may be able to avoid desiccation and survive in the intertidal zone by remaining in the shelter and moisture of oyster shells and mud at low tide. However,E. depressus may not be limited strictly by physical factors of its environment. Biotic factors such as behavior leading to predator avoidance are possibly more important components in limiting distribution.     

An analysis of the drought in Yunnan, China, from a perspective of society drought severity

Drought disaster management entails not only understanding meteorological drought as a natural hazard but also evaluating the adverse societal impacts related to the economy and human lives. For the purpose of quantifying the drought severity from the perspective of society drought, a drought index, namely “Society Drought Severity Index” (SDSI), was put forward to analyze the drought in Yunnan Province of China. In SDSI for Yunnan, the drought severity was represented by the weighted discrepancy between the “appropriate” water needs and the total available water resources, inspired by the established Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). Technically, the trend in historical water consumption records in agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors was applied to represent the appropriate water needs; an apparent “runoff” was used to represent the available water resource in Yunnan. The SDSI of Yunnan revealed a trend toward increasing drought severity, which resulted from a combination of meteorological changes and water needs escalation. Moreover, the spatial center of the 2010 drought in Yunnan based on SDSI was different from that identified by PDSI, which exactly reflected the influence of water needs on drought severity. The SDSI was deemed to be a beneficial tool for drought disaster management and drought risk governance.     

Drought risk assessment using remote sensing and GIS techniques

Beginning with a discussion of drought definitions, this review paper attempts to provide a review of fundamental concepts of drought, classification of droughts, drought indices, and the role of remote sensing and geographic information systems for drought evaluation. Owing to the rise in water demand and looming climate change, recent years have witnessed much focus on global drought scenarios. As a natural hazard, drought is best characterized by multiple climatological and hydrological parameters. An understanding of the relationships between these two sets of parameters is necessary to develop measures for mitigating the impacts of droughts. Droughts are recognized as an environmental disaster and have attracted the attention of environmentalists, ecologists, hydrologists, meteorologists, geologists, and agricultural scientists. Temperatures; high winds; low relative humidity; and timing and characteristics of rains, including distribution of rainy days during crop growing seasons, intensity, and duration of rain, and onset and termination, play a significant role in the occurrence of droughts. In contrast to aridity, which is a permanent feature of climate and is restricted to low rainfall areas, a drought is a temporary aberration. Often, there is confusion between a heat wave and a drought, and the distinction is emphasized between heat wave and drought, noting that a typical time scale associated with a heat wave is on the order of a week, while a drought may persist for months or even years. The combination of a heat wave and a drought has dire socio-economic consequences. Drought risk is a product of a region’s exposure to the natural hazard and its vulnerability to extended periods of water shortage. If nations and regions are to make progress in reducing the serious consequences of drought, they must improve their understanding of the hazard and the factors that influence vulnerability. It is critical for drought-prone regions to better understand their drought climatology (i.e., the probability of drought at different levels of intensity and duration) and establish comprehensive and integrated drought information system that incorporates climate, soil, and water supply factors such as precipitation, temperature, soil moisture, snow pack, reservoir and lake levels, ground water levels, and stream flow. All drought-prone nations should develop national drought policies and preparedness plans that place emphasis on risk management rather than following the traditional approach of crisis management, where the emphasis is on reactive, emergency response measures. Crisis management decreases self-reliance and increases dependence on government and donors.     

Assessment of aquifer recharge and groundwater availability in a semiarid region of Brazil in the context of an interbasin water transfer scheme

Particularly in arid and semiarid areas, more and more populations rely almost entirely on imported water. However, the extent to which intentional discharge into transiting river systems and unintentional leakage may be augmenting water resources for communities along and down gradient of the water transfer scheme has not previously been subject to research. The objective of this study was to assess both the potential of a large-scale water transfer (WT) scheme to increase groundwater availability by channel transmission losses in a large dryland aquifer system (2,166 km²) in Brazil, and the capability of the receiving streams to transport water downstream under a prolonged drought. An integrated surface-water/groundwater model was developed to improve the estimation of the groundwater resources, considering the spatio-temporal variability of infiltrated rainfall for aquifer recharge. Aquifer recharge from the WT scheme was simulated under prolonged drought conditions, applying an uncertainty analysis of the most influential fluxes and parameters. The annual recharge (66 mm/year) was approximately twice the amount of water abstracted (1990–2016); however, the annual recharge dropped to 13.9 mm/year from 2012 to 2016, a drought period. Under similar drought conditions, the additional recharge (6.89 × 106 m³/year) from the WT scheme did not compensate for the decrease in groundwater head in areas that do not surround the receiving streams. Actually, the additional recharge is counteracted by a decrease of 25% of natural groundwater recharge or an increase of 50% in pumping rate; therefore, WT transmission losses alone would not solve the issue of the unsustainable management of groundwater resources.

     

水文干旱研究进展

水文干旱是自然干旱中的一种重要类型,影响自然界水循环过程中蒸发、下渗和径流三大环节,关系着水文循环和水量平衡。当前的干旱研究多集中在气象干旱、农业干旱上。鉴于水文干旱研究的重要性和目前水文干旱研究的不足,对当前水文干旱研究进行了分类评述,提出了研究中存在的问题及主要发展方向,可为水文干旱的进一步研究提供参考。     

Mammoth tracks indicate a declining Late Pleistocene population in southwestern Alberta,Canada

Much debate has raged over the role that early humans played in this most recent large extinction. Fossil mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) footprints were discovered at the St. Mary Reservoir in southwestern Canada (Wally's Beach DhPg-8). They are located in aeolian sediment dated at 11,300–11,000 years BP. By comparing the size distribution of these tracks with those of modern African elephants (Loxodonta africana), the age distribution of this mammoth population was determined. Containing far fewer juveniles than would be expected for an expanding or stable population, these tracks provide the first evidence that a living mammoth population, coexisting with human inhabitants, was in decline. Additionally, the same site provides corroborating evidence of humans hunting megafauna (horse and bovids). This suggests that humans, in addition to climate change, played a role in the end Pleistocene extinctions in North America.     

岩溶地区小城镇地下水资源多目标应急配置研究——以织金县为例

以织金县珠藏向斜北段储水构造为例,依据混合整数线性规划和多目标线性规划原理,从保障应急水资源供给的角度构建了不同干旱条件下地下水资源多目标应急配置模型（E-MIP）,并提出了2010-2030年的织金县城区地下水资源应急配置方案,结果表明:（1）珠藏背斜北部储水构造中裂隙-溶洞水的出露方式以地下河集中排泄为主,平均流量为62.04 m3·s-1,基岩-松散岩类孔隙泉则以分散排泄为主,平均流量仅2.14 m3·s-1;（2）干旱程度的加深不单纯限制了可利用水资源量,也直接刺激了用水效率和社会经济效益的提升,2010-2030年期间的织金县重度干旱缺水率比轻度干旱低21.25%,但其社会经济效益却增加了5.84倍;（3）应急地下水资源配置原则是优先保障居民生活用水需求,其次依据用水效率和权重次序对盈余地下水资源量进行产业化分配。进一步推算出了2020年、2025年织金县城区不同干旱状态下水资源应急配置方案。      

黄土丘陵干旱区地下水资源遥感调查研究

以宁夏固原县东部的黄土丘陵干旱地区为研究区，利用ETM的热红外波段进行地下水资源遥感调查，识别对地下水资源和水环境有重要影响的地形地貌、岩性构造、土壤植被、水系特征等综合自然体的遥感特征，分析研究地表水与地下水联系的环境条件，提取遥感找水信息异常，圈定找水靶区，为探水井设计及施工提供重要依据，取得了良好的应用效果。     

华南上泥盆统法门阶哲杜斯贝动物群的埋藏学和居群动力学特征*

哲杜斯贝是一种以高丰度和低物种分异度为显著特征、在全球广泛独立分布的小嘴贝类。笔者对华南台地相和台间盆地相5个含哲杜斯贝类上泥盆统剖面进行沉积环境和埋藏特征研究,确定华南哲杜斯贝类的原生沉积环境为台地的正常浅水,这与美国和摩洛哥生长在冷泉环境中的哲杜斯贝不同,表明其既可在浅海环境中生长,也可以在冷泉环境中生长,具有较强的生态可塑性。台地相(原地埋藏)的3个哲杜斯贝种群具有以下特征:(1)均呈现出壳体呈层状紧密堆积、集群生长特点,丰度极高,并且有相当数量的个体呈现出由于拥挤生长而导致的壳体生长畸形现象;(2)缺乏其他底栖后生生物,显示了极低的生物多样性;(3)壳体大小—频率分布和生存曲线揭示了3个哲杜斯贝种群都具有非常低的幼年期死亡率特点,同时同一介壳层内哲杜斯贝个体大小均一,表明绝大多数的个体能够达到或接近自然寿命后死亡。上述证据表明,哲杜斯贝具有密集群居生活的习性,其生活在一个独特的、不适合其他后生底栖生物生存的环境。     

Theoretical framework of generalized watershed drought risk evaluation and adaptive strategy based on water resources system

Drought is an extreme event in hydrologic cycle. The occurrences of drought events usually feature determinacy and randomness. With the increasing impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities, drought happens in more areas with higher frequency, and now it threatens the water and ecology security in river basin. Drought is firstly a resource issue, and with its development, it transforms into a disaster issue. From the perspective of the water resources system, the Dongliao River Basin, which has high frequency of drought occurrence, was studied to propose the connotation and the quantitative evaluation method of generalized drought. The driving factors of natural climate variability (NCV), anthropogenic climate change (ACC), underlying condition change and hydraulic engineering regulation (HER) can alter the impacts of drought events. The influencing time of NCV, ACC and HER was decided, respectively, and generalized drought risk maps were drawn. Finally, water emergency dispatch, water demand compression and water diversion were proposed to cope with the generalized drought risk.     

湿地及其保护

湿地是人类赖以生存的基本生态系统,也是地球上生产力最高的生态系统之一。湿地蕴藏着巨大的经济和社会价值,而它的退化和萎缩是全球面临的问题。湿地是由水、浸泡于水中之土及其中的动植物和各类矿产这三大要素构成。可划分为人工湿地、天然湿地两大类及若干亚类及小类。合理利用并加强湿地的保护刻不容缓。     

灌区干旱风险评估模型研究

根据风险理论,建立了包括农业干旱发生概率、抗旱能力、受灾体种植面积比等多因子的灌区农业干旱风险评估模型。并将相对产量作为灌区农业干旱评估指标,能够反映土壤 作物 大气系统中水分运动对农业生产的影响,利用该指标结合干旱风险评估模型对灌区农业干旱进行风险评估,分析出灌区各种作物对干旱风险度影响最大的生育阶段和风险度最高的农作物,以便灌区制定合理的抗旱方案以减小灌区干旱损失。