Hydrometeorological behaviour of pine and larch forests in eastern Siberia

Seasonal changes in the water and energy exchanges over a pine forest in eastern Siberia were investigated and compared with published data from a nearby larch forest. Continuous observations (April to August 2000) were made of the eddy‐correlation sensible heat flux and latent heat flux above the canopy. The energy balance was almost closed, although the sum of the turbulent fluxes sometimes exceeded the available energy flux (R_n ? G) when the latent heat flux was large; this was related to the wind direction. We examined the seasonal variation in energy balance components at this site. The seasonal variation and magnitude of the sensible heat flux (H) was similar to that of the latent heat flux (λE), with maximum values occurring in mid‐June. Consequently, the Bowen ratio was around 1·0 on many days during the study period. On some clear days just after rainfall, λE was very large and the sum of H and λE exceeded R_n ? G. The evapotranspiration rate above the dry canopy from May to August was 2·2 mm day^?1. The contributions of understory evapotranspiration (E_u) and overstory transpiration (E_o) to the evapotranspiration of the entire ecosystem (E_t) were both from 25 to 50% throughout the period analysed. These results suggest that E_u plays a very important role in the water cycle at this site. From snowmelt through the tree growth season (23 April to 19 August 2000), the total incoming water, comprised of the sum of precipitation and the water equivalent of the snow at the beginning of the melt season, was 228 mm. Total evapotranspiration from the forest, including interception loss and evaporation from the soil when the canopy was wet, was 208–254 mm. The difference between the incoming and outgoing amounts in the water balance was from +20 to ?26 mm. The water and energy exchanges of the pine and larch forest differed in that λE and H increased slowly in the pine forest, whereas λE increased rapidly in the larch forest and H decreased sharply after the melting season. Consequently, the shape of the Bowen ratio curves at the two sites differed over the period analysed, as a result of the differences in the species in each forest and in soil thawing. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Far-infrared properties of metallic dust grains

Far-infrared properties of metallic particle are reinvestigated in detail. In the far-infrared region, absorption due to the eddy current generally dominates over that obtained by using the Rayleigh approximation erroneusly. The wavelength dependence of the eddy current term is examined carefully and shown to be less steep than that predicted by the Rayleigh approximation for dust grains larger than 100 nm in radius. It also depends more sensitively on the grain size. A wider temperature distribution is expected corresponding to a given size distribution and hence the emission spectrum becomes less steep than the preductions by the Rayleigh approximation. Iron and graphite particles are investigated as typical interstellar metallic grains. Effects of coating of dielectric materials are also examined. Comparisons with experimental results and with observations are discussed.     

Concentration and subcellular distribution of trace elements in liver of small cetaceans incidentally caught along the Brazilian coast

Concentrations of trace elements (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, Cs, Ba, T-Hg, Org-Hg, Tl and Pb) were determined in liver samples of estuarine dolphin (Sotalia guianensis; n = 20), Franciscana dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei; n = 23), Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis; n = 2), common dolphin (Delphinus capensis; n = 1) and striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba; n = 1) incidentally caught along the coast of Sao Paulo State and Parana State, Brazil, from 1997 to 1999. The hepatic concentrations of trace elements in the Brazilian cetaceans were comparable to the data available in literature on marine mammals from Northern Hemisphere. Concentrations of V, Se, Mo, Cd, T-Hg and Org-Hg increased with increasing age in liver of both estuarine and Franciscana dolphins. Very high concentrations of Cu (range, 262-1970 microg/g dry wt.) and Zn (range, 242-369 microg/g dry wt.) were observed in liver of sucklings of estuarine dolphin. Hepatic concentrations of V, Se, T-Hg, Org-Hg and Pb were significantly higher in estuarine dolphin, whereas Franciscana dolphin showed higher concentrations of Mn, Co, As and Rb. Ratio of Org-Hg to T-Hg in liver was significantly higher in Franciscana dolphin than estuarine dolphin, suggesting that demethylation ability of methyl Hg might be lower in liver of Franciscana than estuarine dolphins. High hepatic concentrations of Ag were found in some specimens of Franciscana dolphin (maximum, 20 microg/g dry wt.), and 17% of Franciscana showed higher concentrations of Ag than Hg. These samples with high Ag concentration also exhibited elevated hepatic Se concentration, implying that Ag might be detoxified by Se in the liver. Higher correlation coefficient between (Hg+0.5 Ag) and Se than between Hg and Se and the large distribution of Ag in non-soluble fraction in nuclear and mitochondrial fraction of the liver also suggests that Ag might be detoxified by Se via formation of Ag2Se in the liver of Franciscana dolphin.     

Interdecadal Variations of ENSO Signals and Annual Cycles Revealed by Wavelet Analysis

Interdecadal variations of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) signals and annual cycles appearing in the sea surface temperature (SST) and zonal wind in the equatorial Pacific during 1950–1997 are studied by wavelet, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and singular value decomposition (SVD) analyses. The typical timescale of ENSO is estimated to be about 40 months before the late 1970s and 48–52 months after that; the timescale increased by about 10 months. The spatial pattern of the ENSO signal appearing in SST also changed in the 1970s; before that, the area of strong signal spread over the extratropical regions, while it is confined near the equator after that. The center of the strongest signal shifted from the central and eastern equatorial Pacific to the South American coast at that time. These SST fluctuations near the equator are associated with fluctuations of zonal wiond, whose spatial pattern also shifted considerably eastward at that time. In the eastern equatorial Pacific, amplitudes of annual cycles of SST are weak in El Niño years and strong in La Niña years. This relation is not clear, however, in the 1980s and 1990s.     

Multi-scale limit load analysis for discontinuous rock mass based on the homogenization method

A new method to evaluate the strength of rock mass structures is proposed and examined. The method is based on the collapse load analysis of elasto-perfectly plastic material along with the homogenization method, which enables the multi-scale analyses for heterogeneous media. The homogenization process replaces a rock mass with cracks by an equivalent continuum medium with macroscopic stiffness while the failure criterion for the rock mass is estimated in the localization process. It is shown that both the averaged stiffness and the macroscopic failure criterion of the discontinuous rock mass are numerically obtained via the finite element analyses. Thus, the failure strength of a rock mass structure is evaluated by the collapse load analysis in the form of Linear Programming with the macroscopic failure criterion. This is the first attempt to apply the homogenization method to the strength analysis of rock mass. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.