Assessing vegetation dynamics in the Three-North Shelter Forest region of China using AVHRR NDVI data

The Three-North Shelter Forest Programme (TNSFP) covers 551 Chinese counties and an area of 4,069,000 km² mostly in arid and semi-arid regions. In this paper, we discuss the temporal and spatial changes in value of the normalized-difference vegetation index (NDVI) in this region, and the relationships between NDVI and climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) based on NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies NDVI data with 8-km resolution from 1982 to 2006. During the past 25 years, the vegetation cover has generally increased in eastern regions of China and the oasis in the north piedmont of Tianshan Mountains, but has decreased northwest of Xinjiang and in the Hulunbeier Plateau. The multi-year monthly average NDVI distribution map showed that NDVI increased from April to August, but in the western and northern plateau areas, the lower temperatures and high altitude created a shorter growing season (1 or 2 months). The vegetation of the study area has generally increased in the regions covered by the TNSFP. Linear regression analysis of the vegetation cover showed an increasing trend over large areas. The largest annual growth rate per pixel (the slope of the regression) was 0.009; the largest negative annual change was −0.004. The correlation between NDVI and precipitation was higher than that between NDVI and temperature, suggesting that precipitation is the most important factor that affects NDVI changes in the study area, especially for temperate desert vegetation in northwestern China.     

Millennial-scale oscillations of the westerly jet path during the last glacial period

It has been established that East Asian summer monsoon intensity varies with Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles, suggesting a connection between the climates of East Asia and the North Atlantic on a millennial timescale. However, the dynamics of such a connection are still unsolved. Here we demonstrate that temporal changes in the provenance of aeolian dust in Japan Sea sediments, which we interpret to reflect changes in the westerly jet path over East Asia, exhibit variations in harmony with Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles. The dominance of dust with a Mongolian Gobi provenance during stadials suggests a westerly jet axis located to the south of the Himalaya–Tibetan Plateau throughout most of the year, whereas the co-dominance of dust from both the Taklimakan Desert and the Mongolian Gobi during interstadials suggests that the westerly jet axis jumped to the north of the Tibetan Plateau at latest in summer. As the shift of the westerly jet axis to the north of the Tibetan Plateau is closely related to the onset of the East Asian summer monsoon, changes of the westerly jet path apparently critically affect the teleconnection between the climates of Asia and North Atlantic on a millennial timescale.     

Spatial and Temporal Variation of a Cyclonic Eddy Detected Downstream of the Tsushima Islands in November 2007

Horizontal, vertical and temporal distribution of a cyclonic (counterclockwise) eddy, where biological productivity is high, downstream of the Tsushima Islands in the eastern channel of the Tsushima Straits in November 2007 was revealed using conductivity–temperature–depth and acoustic Doppler current profiler data. The eddy had a horizontal scale of approximately 40–60 km, and the accompanying baroclinic current was more than 15 cm s⁻¹ at the edge of the eddy. The island-induced cyclonic eddy moved east-northeastward at about 10 km day⁻¹ (∼10 cm s⁻¹) along the Tsushima Warm Current and was intensified by the barotropic instability in the current shear. The cyclonic eddy with high surface chlorophyll a concentrations intensified in the vicinity of the Tsushima Islands and was advected by the Tsushima Warm Current towards the southwestern Japan Sea.     

Identification of the Unchanging Reference Component of Compositional Data from the Properties of the Coefficient of Variation

In analyses of compositional data, it is important to select a suitable unchanging component as a reference to detect the behavior of a single variable in isolation. This paper introduces two tests for detecting the unchanging component, based on a new approach that utilizes the coefficient of variation of component ratios. That is, the coefficient of variation of a compositional ratio is subject to change when the unchanging component is switched between the denominator and numerator, and the coefficient of variation tends to be small when the unchanging component occurs as the denominator against any arbitrary components (Test 1). In addition, the ratio of the component pair that gives the lowest coefficient of variation is most likely to represent the two unchanging components (Test 2). However, Tests 1 and 2 are not necessary and sufficient conditions for uniquely finding the unchanging component. To verify the effectiveness of the tests, 500 artificial datasets were analyzed and the results suggest that the tests are able to identify the unchanging component, although Test 1 underperforms when the dataset includes a component with skewness greater than 0.5, and Test 2 fails when the dataset includes components with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.75. These defects can be overcome by interpreting the two test results in a complementary manner. The proposed tests provide powerful yet simple criteria for identifying the unchanging component in compositional data; however, the reliability of this approach needs to be assessed in further studies.     

A New Aerodynamic Parametrization for Real Urban Surfaces

This study conducted large-eddy simulations (LES) of fully developed turbulent flow within and above explicitly resolved buildings in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. The more than 100 LES results, each covering a 1,000 $\times $ 1,000 m $^{2}$ area with 2-m resolution, provide a database of the horizontally-averaged turbulent statistics and surface drag corresponding to various urban morphologies. The vertical profiles of horizontally-averaged wind velocity mostly follow a logarithmic law even for districts with high-rise buildings, allowing estimates of aerodynamic parameters such as displacement height and roughness length using the von Karman constant $=$ 0.4. As an alternative derivation of the aerodynamic parameters, a regression of roughness length and variable Karman constant was also attempted, using a displacement height physically determined as the central height of drag action. Although both the regression methods worked, the former gives larger (smaller) values of displacement height (roughness length) by 20–25 % than the latter. The LES database clearly illustrates the essential difference in bulk flow properties between real urban surfaces and simplified arrays. The vertical profiles of horizontally-averaged momentum flux were influenced by the maximum building height and the standard deviation of building height, as well as conventional geometric parameters such as the average building height, frontal area index, and plane area index. On the basis of these investigations, a new aerodynamic parametrization of roughness length and displacement height in terms of the five geometric parameters described above was empirically proposed. The new parametrizations work well for both real urban morphologies and simplified model geometries.     

Seasonal and spatial variations in the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in a eutrophic brackish lake,Lake Hamana,Japan

The dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity in the surface brackish waters of Lake Hamana were investigated monthly from October 2017 to September 2019 at 14 stations. The partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂) in the surface water ranged from 29 to 1476 μatm and was undersaturated for atmospheric CO₂ during the observation periods, although most coastal waters were net source areas because of the large amount of terrestrial organic and inorganic carbon input. Since there was a strong negative correlation between pCO₂ and the dissolved oxygen, seasonal and temporal variations in pCO₂ were mainly derived from phytoplankton activity. The high phytoplankton activity induced by the effluents from sewage treatment plants, which was low in carbon and high in nitrogen. Therefore, in urbanized coastal waters with sewage treatment plants, such as the coastal waters of Japan, there is a possibility of shifting from weaker carbon dioxide source areas to sink areas. However, pCO₂ was oversaturated at the polluted river mouth, especially after high precipitation events due to the large carbon supply.

     

Comparative studies in method for stratigraphical structure measurement of ice cores: Identification of cloudy bands

1　IntroductionCloudybandsaretypicalstratigraphicstructureindeepicecoresandtheylookwhitecolorwhenaflorescentlightwasirradiated.InWisconsinice ageiceattheGreenland ,manycloudybandsarelocatedincoldperiodsiceandcloudybandsareusedfordatingofdeepicecoresincepairofseriescloudybandandclearlayercorrespondstoannuallayer(Alleyetal.1 997;Meeseetal.1 997) .AndcloudybandcorrespondstovolcaniclayerfortheAntarcticicecore (GowandWilliamson 1 976) .Therefore,identificationofcloudybandsisimportantworkfordatin…     

Compositional variations,chemical weathering,and provenance of sands from the Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata beach areas,Bangladesh

The modal and chemical composition of sands from Cox’s Bazar beach (CBB) and Kuakata beach (KB) areas of Bangladesh has been investigated to infer their maturity, chemical weathering, and provenance signatures. The CBB and KB sands are typically high quartz, low feldspar, and lithic fragments, representing a recycled orogen source. Major element compositions of CBB sands are characterized by high SiO₂ (83.52–89.84 wt%) and low Al₂O₃ (4.39–6.39 wt%), whereas KB sands contained relatively low SiO₂ (63.28–79.14 wt%) and high Al₂O₃ (9.00–11.33 wt%) contents. The major, trace and rare earth element (REE) compositions of beach sands display comparable distribution patterns with enriched Th and SiO₂ for both sands relative to upper continental crust (UCC). Pb, Rb, Y, and Fe for KB sands are little higher than UCC and the rest of the elements are marked depleted for both suites reflecting destruction of plagioclase and K-feldspar during fluvial transportation. The CBB and KB sands are compositionally low mature to immature in nature subsequently classified as subarkose and litharenite, respectively. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns for CBB and KB sands show LREE enrichment and nearly flat HREE (La_N/Yb_N, 7.64–9.38 and 5.48–8.82, respectively) coupled with prominent Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu*, 0.51–0.72 and 0.52–0.76, respectively), suggesting felsic source provenance. The provenance discrimination diagrams, immobile trace element ratios (Th/Sc, Zr/Sc, Ce/Sc, and Ti/Zr), and REE (∑LREE/HREE, Eu/Eu* and Gd_N/Yb_N) parameters indicate that CBB and KB sands were largely derived from felsic source rocks, with compositions close to average rhyolite, granodiorite, granite, and UCC.