Tree wave migration across an elevation gradient in the Altai Mountains,Siberia

The phenomenon of tree waves(hedges and ribbons) formation within the alpine ecotone in Altai Mountains and its response to observed air temperature increase was considered. At the upper limit of tree growth Siberian pine(Pinus sibirica) forms hedges on windward slopes and ribbons on the leeward ones. Hedges were formed by prevailing winds and oriented along winds direction. Ribbons were formed by snow blowing and accumulating on the leeward slope and perpendicular to the prevailing winds, as well as to the elevation gradient. Hedges were always linked with microtopography features, whereas ribbons were not. Trees are migrating upward by waves and new ribbons and hedges are forming at or near tree line, whereas at lower elevations ribbons and hedges are being transformed into closed forests. Time series of high-resolution satellite scenes(from 1968 to 2010) indicated an upslope shift in the position ribbons averaged 155±26 m(or 3.7 m yr~(-1)) and crown closure increased(about 35%–90%). The hedges advance was limited by poor regeneration establishment and was negligible. Regeneration within the ribbon zone was approximately 2.5 times(5060 vs 2120 ha~(-1)) higherthen within the hedges zone. During the last four decades, Siberian pine in both hedges and ribbons strongly increased its growth increment, and recent tree growth rate for 50 year-old trees was about twice higher than those recorded for similarly-aged trees at the beginning of the 20~(th) century. Hedges and ribbons are phenomena that are widespread within the southern and northern Siberian Mountains.     

Y2K and Other Stories

GPS technology will face not one but two critical rollover dates over the next eight months. One is the millennium (Y2K) rollover. The other is the GPS week 1024 rollover also known as the GPS End of the Week (EOW). Each rollover dat has the potential to cause severe problems in GPS receivers and related software. This article expolres the reasons why these dates are a problem and describes choices that must be made as to their solution. The paper also describes some verification methods that may be used to test GPS receivers and software. ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Amplitude,frequency and drivers of Caspian Sea lake-level variations during the Early Pleistocene and their impact on a protected wave-dominated coastline

The Caspian Sea, the largest isolated lake in the world, witnessed drastic lake-level variations during the Quaternary. This restricted basin appears very sensitive to lake-level variations, due to important variations in regional evaporation, precipitation and runoff. The amplitude, frequency and drivers of these lake-level changes are still poorly documented and understood. Studying geological records of the Caspian Sea might be the key to better comprehend the complexity of these oscillations. The Hajigabul section documents sediment deposited on the northern margin of the Kura Basin, a former embayment of the Caspian Sea. The 2035 m thick, well-exposed section was previously dated by magneto-biostratigraphic techniques and provides an excellent record of Early Pleistocene environmental, lake-level and climate changes. Within this succession, the 1050 m thick Apsheronian regional stage, between ca 2·1 Ma and 0·85 Ma, represents a particular time interval with 20 regressive sequences documented by sedimentary and palaeontological changes. Sequences are regressing from offshore to coastal, lagoonal or terrestrial settings and are bounded by abrupt flooding events. Sediment reveals a low energy, wave-dominated, reflective beach system. Wave baselines delimiting each facies association appear to be located at shallower bathymetries compared to the open ocean. Water depth estimations of the wave baselines allow reconstruction of a lake-level curve, recording oscillations of ca 40 m amplitude. Cyclostratigraphic analyses display lake-level frequency close to 41 kyr, pointing to allogenic forcing, dominated by obliquity cycles and suggesting a direct or indirect link with high-latitude climates and environments. This study provides a detailed lake-level curve for the Early Pleistocene Caspian Sea and constitutes a first step towards a better comprehension of the magnitude, occurrence and forcing mechanisms of Caspian Sea lake-level changes. Facies models developed in this study regarding sedimentary architectures of palaeocoastlines affected by repeated lake-level fluctuations may form good analogues for other (semi-)isolated basins worldwide.     

白令海北部陆坡23 ka以来古生产力变化及其对海冰扩张的响应

本文基于白令海北部陆坡ARC6-B11岩心的沉积物粒度、颜色反射率、有机碳/氮含量和高分辨率化学元素XRF扫描数据,结合底栖和浮游有孔虫AMS14C测年资料,重建了研究区23 ka以来至中全新世的沉积记录,重点研究了海冰的扩张变化对生产力和沉积物输入的影响。研究结果显示,末次盛冰期白令海北部陆坡受到海冰南向扩张的影响而生产力较低,沉积物中砂粒级和冰筏碎屑（IRD）含量较高。HS 1时期由于受到常年冰的覆盖,沉积物中砂粒级和IRD含量存在低值,沉积物中较高的总有机碳（TOC）含量受陆源有机质的影响较大,异常的TOC含量峰值主要受到低海平面和海冰形成过程产生的富氧水团控制下的高浓度细粒物质携带的陆源有机质的快速沉积作用的影响,难以作为反映白令海古生产力的替代指标。B/A暖期和全新世生产力较高,在B/A暖期存在Ca/Ti峰值现象,Ca/Ti峰值现象的产生与碳酸盐补偿深度增加有关,水体通风条件的改变可能起到一定的作用,也不能忽视颗石藻对其产生的潜在影响。     

Comparative Analysis of Satellite Databases of Incoming Short-Wavelength Fluxes to the World Ocean Surface

This work involves satellite data provided by EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). The data cover the period from 1982 to 2015 depending on the type of satellite and coverage region. It has been found that monthly and daily average values for regional databases in the area of their overlap are overestimated for the western part and underestimated in the eastern part by approximately 25 W/m². The largest values for the mismatch of fluxes are observed at points close to the centers of database areas where the root-mean-square deviation reaches approximately 25 W/m². Comparative analysis of global and regional data reveals an area corresponding to the center of visibility for geostationary satellites. In this area, data from the satellites are comparable with global data; the difference between fluxes is less than 10 W/m². At the periphery of the satellite visibility area, the situation is the reverse: the global coverage data are more overstated than the regional data of geostationary satellites by more than 10 W/m²; the root-meansquare deviation is about 30 W/m² for daily average values and about 45 W/m² for hourly average values.