The efficiency of artificial materials used for erosion control on steep slopes

This study investigates the performance of artificial materials used for erosion control on steep slopes under high rainfall intensity. Soil samples were laid on a 300 × 100 cm platform inclined at either 35° or 45°, after which the soil was covered with various materials and subjected to a rainfall intensity of 130 mm/h for an hour. A wooden-block net covered with a jute net resulted in the greatest erosion resistance, providing 83% resistance at 35° and 76% at 45°. On the 35° slope, the artificial materials showed relatively good erosion resistance. As the slope was raised to 45°, some of the materials did not attach effectively to the soil surface. Thus, the runoff velocity increased and erosion became severe. For optimum erosion resistance, the material used to protect soil must attach to the soil surface well and have structural properties, such as a high coverage ratio to reduce the impact of rainfall on the soil and uniformly distributed transverse structures to reduce runoff energy and trap soil.     

肥城煤田白庄煤矿土地复垦适宜性评价方法探讨

土地复垦适宜性评价是土地复垦方案编制过程中至关重要的环节,该文以白庄煤矿为例,在分析土地复垦相关因素的前提下,遵循一定的评价原则,制定了土地复垦适宜性评价的方法和步骤,并最终确定了复垦区各单元的复垦方向,对同类地区土地复垦方案的编制具有一定的参考价值。     

Compact high-resolution temperature loggers for measuring the thermal gradients of marine sediments

Currently, two major types of ship-operated underwater instruments are used for heat flow measurements including a Lister-type heat probe (LTHP) and small temperature loggers (STLs) that are attached to a solid-steel lance or a core barrel. In both operations, penetration friction heat introduces a transient disturbance to the temperature of the surrounding sediments. A pragmatic approach is to extrapolate a cylindrical temperature decay function to estimate the equilibrium ambient temperature (EAT) and equilibrium ambient temperature gradient (EATG) of the sediments from short temperature recordings. The extrapolated EAT and EATG will greatly affect the estimate of the base of the gas hydrate stability zone (BGHS). In order to achieve a better extrapolation of EAT, EATG, and 1-s temperature sampling requirements, compact (22.2 cm × 2.2 cm) high-resolution temperature loggers (CHTLs) have been designed to work with a sediment core barrel. The mechanical and electronic design of the CHTL is detailed in the text. With a 24-bit, low noise A/D converter embedded in the mix-signal microprocessor, including a highly stable reference resistor based ratiometric scheme, the CHTL is capable of resolving 0.1 m°C in the range of −1 to 25°C. It has a memory capacity of 4 Mbyte which can work continually up to 16 days with a 1-s sampling interval. From a data processing efficiency consideration, field experiments indicate that adopting short support fins to attach the CHTLs to a relatively small size core barrel is better than using high support fins. A similar approach such as extrapolating the cylindrical temperature decay function to estimate EAT, EATG can be obtained from regressing a direct calculated temperature gradient of short recorded data. The resulting EATG accuracy may be significantly improved through the application of the proposed correction formula and therefore is much better than that which is directly calculated from the extrapolated EATs.     

Evidence for sediment recirculation on an ebb-tidal delta of the East Frisian barrier-island system, southern North Sea

The Otzum ebb-tidal delta, located between Langeoog and Spiekeroog islands along the East Frisian barrier-island coast, southern North Sea, was investigated with respect to its morphological evolution, sediment distribution patterns and internal sedimentary structures. Bathymetric charts reveal that, over the last 50 years, the size of the Otzum ebb-tidal delta has slightly shrunk, while sediment has accreted on the ebb-delta lobe to the east of the main inlet channel (west of Spiekeroog). Swash bars superimposed on the eastern ebb-tidal shoal (Robben Plate) have migrated south or south-eastwards, i.e. towards the inlet throat. The main ebb-delta body is composed of fine quartz sand, whereas the superimposed swash bars and the inlet channel bed consist of medium-grained quartz sand containing high proportions of coarser bioclastic material. Internal sedimentary structures in short box-cores (up to 30 cm long) are dominated by flood-oriented cross-beds. Longer vibro-cores (up to 1.5 m long) show that, at depth, the sediment is dominated by storm-generated parallel (upper plane bed) laminations with intercalated shell layers and dune cross-bedding. The cross-bedded sands in both box-cores and vibro-cores from the ebb-delta shoal predominantly dip towards the south or southeast, indicating transport towards the inlet throat by the flood current. The observations demonstrate that, contrary to previous contentions, the sediments of the highly mobile swash bars do not bypass the inlet but are instead being continually recirculated by the combined action of tidal currents and waves. In this model, the cycle begins with both fine and medium sands, including shell hash, being transported seawards in the main ebb channel until they reach the shallow ebb-delta front. From here, the sediment is pushed onto the eastern ebb-delta shoal by the flood current assisted by waves, becoming strongly size-sorted in the process. The medium sands together with the shell hash are formed into swash bars which migrate along arcuate paths over a base of fine sand back to the main ebb channel located south of the ebb delta. By the same token, the fine sand between the swash bars is transported south-eastwards by the flood current in the form of small dunes until it cascades into the large flood channel located to the west of Spiekeroog. From here, the fine sand is fed back into the main ebb channel, thus completing the cycle. No evidence was found on the ebb delta for alongshore sediment bypassing.     

Simulating impact of larch caterpillar (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Dendrolimus superans</Emphasis>) on fire regime and forest landscape in Da Hinggan Mountains,Northeast China

Larch caterpillar (Dendrolimus superans) is very common in the Da Hinggan Mountains, Northeast China, affecting fire regime and forest ecosystem change at large spatio-temporal scales. In this study, we used a spatially explicit landscape model, LANDIS, to simulate the changes of fire regime and forest landscape under four larch caterpillar disturbance intensity levels scenarios in Huzhong forest area, northern of Da Hinggan Mountains. The results indicate that larch caterpillar disturbances would decrease ...     

山东3次大暴雨过程云街雷达回波特征及其作用分析

利用济南多普勒天气雷达资料,结合探空与天气实况,对山东3次大暴雨过程中云街雷达回波特征和云街对于强降雨的作用进行了分析。结果表明:在天气雷达低层反射率因子上云街表现为多条窄带回波,走向与低层平均风场基本一致,持续时间约6～7 h,强度基本在5～20 dBz。云街对3次强降水的作用主要表现在3方面:一是触发机制,云街可触发对流单体;二是后向传播作用,云街新生对流单体依次沿云街走向向西南方向传播,具有明显后向传播特征,导致对流系统向西偏南方向发展,强降水区也向西偏南方向移动;三是利于降水强度增大和长时间的维持,持续不断的云街激发的雷暴,在移动过程中沿引导气流方向发展并与对流系统主体合并,主体回波得以发展与维持,产生大的雨强,并持续较长时间,导致极端强降雨天气。云街对3次强降水中尺度对流系统的维持与发展及极端强降雨的产生起到了重要作用。2007年7月18日过程云街触发雷暴的频次明显高于其他2次过程,主要原因是对流抑制能量和抬升凝结高度明显小于其他2次过程,更易于雷暴的触发。     

Trade-offs associated with different modeling approaches for assessment of fish and shellfish responses to climate change

Considerable progress has been made in integrating carbon, nutrient, phytoplankton and zooplankton dynamics into global-scale physical climate models. Scientists are exploring ways to extend the resolution of the biosphere within these Earth system models (ESMs) to include impacts on global distribution and abundance of commercially exploited fish and shellfish. This paper compares different methods for modeling fish and shellfish responses to climate change on global and regional scales. Several different modeling approaches are considered including: direct applications of ESM’s, use of ESM output for estimation of shifts in bioclimatic windows, using ESM outputs to force single- and multi-species stock projection models, and using ESM and physical climate model outputs to force regional bio-physical models of varying complexity and mechanistic resolution. We evaluate the utility of each of these modeling approaches in addressing nine key questions relevant to climate change impacts on living marine resources. No single modeling approach was capable of fully addressing each question. A blend of highly mechanistic and less computationally intensive methods is recommended to gain mechanistic insights and to identify model uncertainties.     

An assessment of oceanic variability for 1960–2010 from the GFDL ensemble coupled data assimilation

The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory has developed an ensemble coupled data assimilation (ECDA) system based on the fully coupled climate model, CM2.1, in order to provide reanalyzed coupled initial conditions that are balanced with the climate prediction model. Here, we conduct a comprehensive assessment for the oceanic variability from the latest version of the ECDA analyzed for 51 years, 1960–2010. Meridional oceanic heat transport, net ocean surface heat flux, wind stress, sea surface height, top 300 m heat content, tropical temperature, salinity and currents are compared with various in situ observations and reanalyses by employing similar configurations with the assessment of the NCEP’s climate forecast system reanalysis (Xue et al. in Clim Dyn 37(11):2511–2539, 2011). Results show that the ECDA agrees well with observations in both climatology and variability for 51 years. For the simulation of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean and global salinity variability, the ECDA shows a good performance compared to existing reanalyses. The ECDA also shows no significant drift in the deep ocean temperature and salinity. While systematic model biases are mostly corrected with the coupled data assimilation, some biases (e.g., strong trade winds, weak westerly winds and warm SST in the southern oceans, subsurface temperature and salinity biases along the equatorial western Pacific boundary, overestimating the mixed layer depth around the subpolar Atlantic and high-latitude southern oceans in the winter seasons) are not completely eliminated. Mean biases such as strong South Equatorial Current, weak Equatorial Under Current, and weak Atlantic overturning transport are generated during the assimilation procedure, but their variabilities are well simulated. In terms of climate variability, the ECDA provides good simulations of the dominant oceanic signals associated with El Nino and Southern Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during the whole analyzed period, 1960–2010.     

龙口市污水灌区与清水灌区冬小麦植被指数变化差异分析

为了研究污水灌溉对农田土壤环境和作物生长的影响,利用2008—2009年10期中国环境与灾害监测预报小卫星(HJ-1A)CCD1影像数据,结合龙口市冬小麦物候期的变化特征提取出单一冬小麦种植区,反演了冬小麦生长期内的归一化植被指数(NDVI),并对污水灌区和清水灌区的冬小麦植被指数进行比对分析,最后结合相应的重归一化植被指数(RDVI)和叶面积指数(LAI)进行验证。结果显示,研究区内污水灌溉已经对灌区的作物生长产生了一定的影响,污水灌溉区作物的生长状况明显不及清水灌溉区作物长势。说明污水灌溉会导致冬小麦的长势变差,对污水排放的控制和污水无污化处理势在必行。     

Characteristics of dynamic strain and strength of frozen silt under long-term dynamic loading

The dynamic strain and strength of frozen silt under long-term dynamic loading are studied based on creep tests. Three groups of tests are performed (Groups I, II, and III). The initial deviator stresses of Groups I and II are same and the dynamic stress amplitude of Group II is twice as that of Group I. The minimum value of dynamic stress in Group III is near zero and its dynamic stress amplitude is larger than those of Groups I and II. In tests of all three groups there are similar change trends of accumulative strain, but with different values. The accumulative strain curves consist of three stages, namely, the initial stage, the steady stage, and the gradual flow stage. In the tests of Groups I and II, during the initial stage with vibration times less than 50 loops the strain amplitude decreased with the increase of vibration times and then basically remained constant, fluctuating in a very small range. For the tests of Group III, during the initial and steady stages the strain amplitude decreased with the increase of vibration times, and then increased rapidly in the gradual flow stage. The dynamic strength of frozen silt decreases and trends to terminal dynamic strength as the vibration times of loading increase.