Potential impacts of invasive Spartina alterniflora on spring bird communities at Chongming Dongtan,a Chinese wetland of international importance

Invasive smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora, hereafter Spartina) has been expanding rapidly in the estuarine wetlands at Chongming Dongtan (East China) at the expense of native sea-bulrush (Scirpus mariqueter, hereafter Scirpus) and common reed (Phragmites australis, hereafter Phragmites). To examine the potential impacts of the Spartina invasion on bird diversity, we compared the abundance and species richness of birds in habitats created by Spartina, Phragmites, Spartina mixed with Phragmites, Scirpus, and the bare intertidal zone at Chongming Dongtan in spring 2008. Most birds were recorded in the native habitats, with songbirds and breeding birds being most abundant in the Phragmites habitats, and waterbirds and migrants being most abundant in the Scirpus habitats and bare intertidal zone. Both species number and population densities of birds were lower in the exotic Spartina habitats than in the other four habitats. Although some songbirds and breeding birds used the Spartina-invaded habitats, and even preferred Spartina-invaded habitats to Scirpus habitats and bare intertidal zone, their densities were lower in the Spartina-invaded habitats than in the native Phragmites habitats. This might have resulted from the dense Spartina stands restricting bird movement and providing insufficient useable food for most birds. We conclude that the spread of exotic Spartina has negative impacts on local bird communities. Because Chongming Dongtan is an important stopover site for energy replenishment of shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, urgent measures are needed to control further spread of Spartina and to restore the native habitats for birds.     

塔里木盆地北缘兴地断裂构造变形特征

兴地断裂发生在中元古代末期，使中元古巨厚的沉积岩发生了强烈褶皱和隆起，并伴有大量岩浆侵入和区域变质作用。在兴地断裂形成的同时，发生了第一期构造变形，其特点以韧性变形为主，由三个变形幕构成，形成了本区主要构造骨架；晚元古代本区进入晋宁期发展阶段，团结的塔里木地台基底局部裂开，形成一系列近东西向的断陷盆地，发生了第二期变形，形成以塑性变形为主的板劈理和千枚理为其特征。该期变形结束了塔里木基底发展，进入了稳定盖层沉积发展阶段；进入早古生代，兴地断裂控制了该时期的沉积作用，之后发生第三期变形，以脆性变形为主，形成一系列碎裂岩和脆性变形组构，使兴地断裂形成几十米乃至上百米宽的破碎带，从而改造了早期的糜棱岩；至中、新生代，兴地断裂再次活动，形成断裂两侧南升北降的扭动形迹。通过对兴地断裂的深入探讨，笔者认为：该断裂具有线性特征明显，活动时间漫长，构造变形复杂，是塔里木盆地北缘规模巨大的复活大断裂。     

海洋表层气泡运动规律的研究

建立了海洋表层气泡运动和半径变化的数学模型,通过计算发现一定深度的气泡存在一个临界半径;在一定初始深度气泡的半径小于临界半径时不能到达水面,随着时间的增长,气泡半径逐渐变小,直至最终溶解;气泡的半径大于临界半径时,气泡随着时间的增长,半径逐渐增大,直至达到水面破碎;气泡的初始深度不同,其临界半径也不同;半径在临界点附近的气泡的存活时间最长.对海洋表层气泡运动规律的研究对了解海洋表层气泡的分布规律有重要意义.     

长江口地区地面沉降的深部动力学机制分析

地表变形、活动断裂和地球物理的综合分析表明,菲律宾洋壳向欧亚大陆的俯冲导致的地幔对流是控制中国东部沿海地区晚新生代以来构造作用的主导因素,是长江口地区地面沉降的主要深部动力学机制。由于地幔对流和青藏高原挤压共同作用导致的地壳热流值的差异则是长江口地区西部隆升、东部沉降且向东沉降速率增大的直接驱动力。预测未来长江口地区的基岩沉降范围将以>10cm/a的速率向西扩大,沉降速率将呈明显加速趋势,40000a之内上海市可能被海水淹没,但板块构造演化的“渐变”特征决定其对当地未来的人类活动不会造成显著影响。根据“地壳均衡理论”,建议在长江口南西部(浙江省北东部)的丘陵山区加大重力载荷如加快城市化进程或人工造山以减小和控制上海地区的沉降。     

南京地区新近纪砂砾层的沉积环境演变

南京地区分布着一套新近纪的松散砂砾沉积,曾被统称为雨花台砾石层。依据岩性、层序、沉积构造等特征,我们解译了4个地点砂砾层的沉积环境。研究发现,洞玄观组的沉积环境类似于曲流河沉积,六合组类似于砂质辫状河沉积,雨花台组则属于砾质辫状河沉积。沉积环境的不同印证了前人的观点,即这些砂砾层是不同时期形成。古流向显示,从中新世到更新世早期本区的流域格局与目前的大体一致。而河流沉积环境的演化,却指示河道的坡降具有不断增大的趋势。我们认为这可能是全球海平面不断下降导致侵蚀基准面降低所引起的,而差异性的构造运动似乎不是主要的驱动因素。     

Early solar system aqueous activity: K isotope evidence from Allende

The alkali element K is moderately volatile and fluid mobile; thus, it can be influenced by both primary processes (evaporation and recondensation) in the solar nebula and secondary processes (thermal and aqueous alteration) in the parent body. Since these primary and secondary processes would induce different isotopic fractionations, K isotopes could become a potential tracer to distinguish them. Using recently developed methods with improved precision (0.05‰, 95% confidence interval), we systematically measured the K isotopic compositions and major/trace elemental compositions of chondritic components (18 chondrules, 3 CAIs, 2 matrices, and 5 bulks) in the carbonaceous chondrite fall Allende. Among all the components analyzed in this study, CAIs, which formed initially under high‐temperature conditions in the solar nebula and were dominated by nominally K‐free refractory minerals, have the highest K₂O content (average 0.53 wt%) and have K isotope compositions most enriched in heavy isotopes (δ⁴¹K: ?0.30 to ?0.25‰). Such an observation is consistent with previous petrologic studies that show CAIs in Allende have undergone alkali enrichment during metasomatism. In contrast, chondrules contain lower K₂O content (0.003–0.17 wt%) and generally lighter K isotope compositions (δ⁴¹K: ?0.87‰ to ?0.24‰). The matrix and bulks are nearly identical in K₂O content and K isotope compositions (0.02–0.05 wt%; δ⁴¹K: ?0.62 to ? 0.46‰), which are, as expected, right in the middle of CAIs and chondrules. This strongly indicates that most of the chondritic components of Allende suffered aqueous alteration and their K isotopic compositions are the ramification of Allende parent‐body processing instead of primary nebular signatures. Nevertheless, we propose the small K isotope fractionations observed (< 1‰) among Allende components are likely similar to the overall range of K isotopic fractionation that occurred in nebular environment. Furthermore, the K isotope compositions seen in the components of Allende in this study are consistent with MC‐ICP‐MS analyses of the components in ordinary chondrites, which also show an absence of large (10‰) isotope fractionations. This is not expected as evaporation experiments in nebular conditions suggest there should be large K isotopic fractionations. Nevertheless, possible nebular processes such as chondrules back exchanging with ambient gas when they formed could explain this lack of large K isotopic variation.     

The conformity of HI galaxies in ALFALFA-SDSS sample

The conformity effect,indicating the evolution of galaxies is related to its surrounding neighbor galaxies as far as a few Mpc,is an interesting phenomenon in the modeling of galaxy and evolution.Here we study the conformity effect of HI galaxies in a matched galaxy sample between SDSS DR7 and ALFALFA surveys.By checking the probability difference for the detected H i galaxies as a function of distance around a normal or an H i galaxy,we find that this effect is significant out to 5 Mpc.It also shows a dependence on the stellar mass of galaxies,with the strength the strongest in the stellar mass range of 10¹⁰*/M_⊙<10^10.5.However,when the sample is confined to central galaxies in groups with virial radii smaller than 1 Mpc,the 1-halo conformity signal is still evident,while the 2-halo conformity signal is reduced to a very weak amplitude.Our results confirm the previous study in the optical band that the 2-halo term is possibly caused by the bias effect in the sample selection.Furthermore,we confirm the existence of the 1-halo conformity discovered in the optical and radio band in previous investigations.Our results provide another viewpoint on the conformity effect and hope to shed light on the co-evolution of the galaxies and their neighbors in the current galaxy formation models.     

Searching for r-process-enhanced stars in the LAMOST surveyⅠ:the method

The abundance patterns of r-process-enhanced stars contain key information required to constrain the astrophysical site(s)of r-process nucleosynthesis,and to deepen our understanding of the chemical evolution of our Galaxy.To expand the sample of known r-process-enhanced stars,we have developed a method to search for candidates in the LAMOST medium-resolution(R7500)spectroscopic survey by matching the observed spectra to synthetic templates around the EuⅡline at 6645.1 A.We obtain a sample of 13 metal-poor(-2.35<[Fe/H]<-0.91)candidates from 12209 unique stars with 32774 mediumresolution spectra.These candidates will be further studied by high-resolution follow-up observations in the near future.We describe some extensions of this effort to include larger samples of stars,in particular at lower metallicity,using the strength of the BaⅡline at 6496.9 A.     

BoxCox multi-output linear regression for 10.7 cm solar radio flux prediction

We consider the problem of predicting the mid-term daily 10.7 cm solar radio flux(F10.7),a widely-used solar activity index.A novel approach is proposed for this task,in which BoxCox transformation with a proper parameter is first applied to make the data satisfy the property of homoscedasticity that is a basic assumption of regression models,and then a multi-output linear regression model is used to predict future F10.7 values.The experiment shows that the BoxCox transformation significantly improves the predictive performance and our new approach works substantially better than the prediction from the US Airforce and other alternative methods like Auto-regressive Model,Multi-layer Perceptron,and Support Vector Regression.     

External calibrator in global signal experiment for detection of the epoch of reionization

We present a conceptual design study of external calibrators in the 21 cm experiment towards detecting the globally averaged radiation of the epoch of reionization(EoR). Employment of external calibrator instead of internal calibrator commonly used in current EoR experiments allows removing instrumental effects such as beam pattern, receiver gain and instability of the system if the conventional three-position switch measurements are implemented in a short time interval. Furthermore, in the new design the antenna system is placed in an underground anechoic chamber with an open/closing ceiling to maximally reduce the environmental effect such as RFI and ground radiation/reflection. It appears that three of the four external calibrators proposed in this paper, including two indoor artificial transmitters and one outdoor celestial radiation(the Galactic polarization), fail to meet our purpose. Diurnal motion of the Galactic diffuse emission turns out to be the most probable source as an external calibrator, for which we have discussed the observational strategy and the algorithm of extracting the EoR signal.