Monitoring interannual dynamics of desertification in Minqin County,China, using dense Landsat time series

ABSTRACT

Minqin County in northwestern China is highly affected by desertification. Campaigns have been initiated in recent decades to combat desertification in Minqin. To assess the effectiveness of these campaigns, this study used a dense Landsat time series from 1987 to 2017 to investigate the interannual dynamics of vegetation coverage and greenness over the past 31 years. First, this study applied an advanced technology to reconstruct a high-quality Landsat annual time series. Specifically, one image in the vegetation-peak season was selected as the base image in each year, and then problematic pixels were interpolated by the neighborhood similar pixel interpolator using ancillary images in the same year. Second, the land cover map and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) were derived from all reconstructed images. Third, the change of vegetation coverage and EVI values over the 31 years were analyzed. The results show that the total vegetation coverage and greenness increased during the 31 years. Linking this change trend to other factors suggests that vegetation in Minqin County is highly affected by agriculture and groundwater supply rather than by climate. To mitigate desertification in a sustainable way, agriculture should be well managed to avoid overconsumption of natural resources such as underground water.     

《坤輿万国全图》与《利玛窦中国札记》中外译本考疑

金尼阁编译的《利玛窦中国札记》多种欧洲文字版本之间存在翻译差异,而300年后出版的英译本和中译本与原文存在严重错漏。600页的札记,利玛窦只用不到两页的篇幅叙述测绘《坤輿万国全图》一事,连实际比例尺的描述也不清楚。利玛窦承认没有见过其他的版本,"六幅版"地图出现在南京或北京,个别欧洲文字翻译版本不一,《坤輿万国全图》究竟是在南京还是北京完成的也有疑问。《利玛窦中国札记》用的是中国传统的测绘术语,指出地图的错误是针对西方地图而不是中国地图。《坤輿万国全图》中一半的中文地名,当时欧洲地图没有对应。1593年,利玛窦尚未制作《坤輿万国全图》,"六幅版"中文世界地图已出现在南京。因此,《坤輿万国全图》原本早已存在,《坤輿万国全图》应是郑和时代(1405—1433)大航海的成果,中国的地图学,不是西学东渐,甚至有可能是中国的世界地理与地图学流传到西方。世界地图史应该还原中国对地理大发现与地图学的贡献。     

Vibration isolation by trenches in continuously nonhomogeneous soil by the BEM

Vibration isolation of structures from ground-transmitted waves by open trenches in isotropic, linearly elastic or viscoelastic soil with a shear modulus varying continuously with depth is numerically studied. Both an exponential and a linear shear modulus variation with depth are used in this work. Waves produced by the harmonic motion of a rigid surface machine foundation are considered. The problem is solved by the frequency domain boundary element method employing the Green's function of Kausel-Peek-Hull for a thin layered half-space. Thus only the trench perimeter and the soil-foundation interface need essentially to be discretized. The proposed methodology is first tested for accuracy by solving two Rayleigh wave propagation problems in nonhomogeneous soil with known analytical solutions and/or for which experimental results are available. Then the method is applied to vibration isolation problems and the effect of the inhomogeneity on the wave screening effectiveness of trenches is studied.     

Non-linear steady state vibration and dynamic snap through of shallow arch beams

The non-linear steady state vibration of shallow arch beams is studied by a finite element method based on the principle of virtual work. Both the free and forced periodic vibrations are considered. The axial and flexural deformations are coupled by the induced axial force along the beam element. The spatial discretization is achieved by the usual finite element method and the steady state nodal displacements are expanded into a Fourier series. The harmonic balance method gives a set of non-linear algebraic equations in terms of the vibrating frequency and the Fourier coefficients of nodal displacements. The non-linear algebraic equations are solved by the Newtonian algorithm iteratively. The combined algorithm is called the incremental harmonic balance method. The importance of the conditions of completeness and balanceability is presented. Since the non-linearity is essentially softening, different orders of internal resonances between two modes can occur repeatedly. Isolated response curves are possible and are connected to the bifurcation of a particular excited mode.     

Simple model for transient soil loading in earthquake analysis. II. Non-associative models for sands

This paper extends the bounding surface, generalized plasticity, model of Part I to reproduce the behaviour of sands under both static and transient loading. The essential features of the first model are preserved but the following changes are introduced:

• (i) The shape of the yield surface is modified.
• (ii) A non-associative flow rule is introduced.
• (iii) The hardening parameter of the bounding surface includes not only volumetric but also deviatoric plastic strain.
• (iv) Plastic volumetric and deviatoric strains are introduced during unloading.

Each of these modifications can be introduced separately in a hierarchical manner to model in an improved way the behaviour of sands. Good comparison with experimental observations is recorded. The simplicity of the original model is preserved with modifications being introduced progressively to model rising complexity of the phenomena.     

A subgrid parameterization of orographic precipitation

Summary Estimates of the impact of global climate change on land surface hydrology require climate information on spatial scales far smaller than those explicitly resolved by global climate models of today and the foreseeable future. To bridge the gap between what is required and what is resolved, we propose a subgrid-scale parameterization of the influence of topography on clouds, precipitation, and land surface hydrology. The parameterization represents subgrid variations in surface elevation in terms of probability distributions of discrete elevation classes. Separate cloud, radiative, and surface processes are calculated for each elevation class. Rainshadow effects are not treated by the parameterization; they have to be explicitly resolved by the host model. The simulated surface temperature, precipitation, and snow cover for each elevation class are distributed to different geographical locations according to the spatial distribution of surface elevation within each grid cell.The subgrid parameterization has been implemented in the Pacific Northwest Laboratory's climate version of the Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model. The scheme is evaluated by driving the regional climate model with observed lateral boundary conditions for the Pacific Northwest and comparing simulated fields with surface observations. The method yields more realistic spatial distributions of precipitation and snow cover in mountainous areas and is considerably more computationally efficient than achieving high resolution by the use of nesting in the regional climate model.With 17 Figures     

Cluster analysis of post-landfall tracks of landfalling tropical cyclones over China

In this paper, we apply finite-mixture-model-based clustering algorithms to cluster post-landfall tracks of tropical cyclones (TCs) making landfall over China. Because existing studies find that landfall surfaces or elevations affect post-landfall TC movements, we also take account of elevations in addition to time orders in this model. Our study reveals three clusters, with cluster 1 making landfall in Hainan province and moving across the western coast of Guangdong province. Most of the TC tracks in cluster 1 move over the ocean and make secondary landfalls over Yunnan province of China and Vietnam. Cluster 1 finally dissipates inland and moves westward as a result of the westward-shift subtropical high, westward steering flow, easterly vertical wind shear and strong mountainous blocking. Cluster 2 makes landfall over Guangdong and Fujian provinces. TCs in cluster 2 subsequently move inland and disappear due largely to westward-shift subtropical high, easterly steering flow, easterly vertical wind shear and relatively strong mountainous blocking. Cluster 3 makes landfall along the Fujian and Zhejiang coast and sustains a long period of time, recurving mostly to the mid-latitude region owing to the surrounding eastward-shift subtropical high, westerly vertical wind shear, weak mountainous blocking and westerly steering flow. Because cluster 2 is significantly associated with La Niña events, TCs more likely make landfall over southeastern China coast and move westward or northwestward without recurving. Cluster 3 sustains a longer time than clusters 1 and 2 in spite of its weak horizontal and vertical water vapor supply. TCs in cluster 3 interact actively with westerlies during the post-landfall period. However, we cannot observe any analogous interactions with the mid-latitude westerlies in clusters 1 and 2. TCs of clusters 1 and 2 are influenced by summer monsoon flows. Moreover, summer monsoon exerts a greater influence on cluster 1 than cluster 2. The composite 200 hPa divergence of cluster 3 is stronger than that of clusters 1 and 2. This explains to some degree why cluster 3 sustains longer than clusters 1 and 2 after making landfall.     

Structural vibration control by shape memory alloy damper

A damper device based on shape memory alloy (SMA) wires is developed for structural control implementation. The design procedures of the SMA damper are presented. As a case study, eight such SMA dampers are installed in a frame structure to verify the effectiveness of the damper devices. Experimental results show that vibration decay of the SMA damper controlled frame is much faster than that of the uncontrolled frame. The finite‐element method is adopted to conduct the free and forced vibration analysis of the controlled and uncontrolled frame. The experimental and numerical results illustrate that the developed SMA dampers are very effective in reducing structural response and have great potential for use as efficient energy dissipation devices with the advantages of good control of force and no lifetime limits, etc. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Copper toxicity in the marine copepod Tigropus japonicus: low variability and high reproducibility of repeated acute and life-cycle tests

The intertidal copeopod Tigriopus japonicus, which is abundant and widely distributed along the coasts of Western Pacific, has been suggested to be a good marine ecotoxicity testing organism. In this study, a series of experiments were conducted to investigate the reproducibility and variability of copper (Cu) sensitivity of T. japonicus so as to evaluate its potential to serve as an appropriate test species. To understand the seasonal variation of Cu sensitivity, individuals of T. japonicus were collected from the field in summer and winter, and subjected to standard 96 h acute (static renewal) toxicity tests. 96 h-LC50 values of T. japonicus collected from the two seasons were marginally different (p = 0.05), with an overall coefficient of variation (CV) of 33%. Most importantly, our results indicated that chronic Cu sensitivity of T. japonicus was highly reproducible. The CVs of intrinsic rates of increase in the population of the control and Cu treatment (10 microg Cu l(-1)) groups were only 10-11% between 10 runs of a standardised complete life-cycle test. Moreover, different Cu(II) salts generally resulted in a similar 96 h-LC50 value while Cu(I) chloride was consistently slightly less toxic than Cu(II) salts. Given such a high reproducibility of toxic responses, it is advocated to use T. japonicus as a routine testing organism.     

Chronic toxicity of tributyltin on development and reproduction of the hermaphroditic snail Physa fontinalis: Influence of population density

Tributyltin (TBT) is toxic to aquatic organisms and occurs widely in sediments and surface waters of American and European rivers and lakes. This study investigated TBT effects on development and population growth rate (r) of the common, hermaphroditic European freshwater snail Physa fontinalis. Egg ropes of similar age (1-3 days old) were exposed to a control (solvent only) and nominal concentrations of 0.01, 1.0 and 10 microg TBT l(-1) in triplicate. Hatching and mortality were recorded during 0-40 days of exposure. At day 40, 18 juveniles were randomly selected from each concentration (i.e., six from each test vessel) and individually exposed to the same concentration of TBT in 50 ml beakers. A cohort of 20 juveniles was allowed to continue developing in the original test vessels, so that individual and grouped results could be compared. Mortality and reproduction were recorded at 48-h intervals throughout the study period (110 days). Abnormal embryonic development was observed at 1 and 10 microg TBT l(-1). Although 50% of eggs hatched at 10 microg TBT l(-1), all these hatchlings failed to survive. Survivorship of hatchlings was significantly reduced by TBT at 1 microgl(-1). In general, there was a delay in egg production in isolated snails when compared with the grouped snails. Survival, fecundity and population growth rate (r) were reduced in both individual and grouped P. fontinalis at 1.0 microg TBT l(-1). Only a decline in r was observed in snails exposed individually to 0.01 microg TBT l(-1).