A review of geochemical background concepts and an example using data from Poland

One of the most crucial issues of recent environmental sciences is the topic of background concentrations of elements and organic compounds in various abiotic and biotic systems. The relationship between natural and anthropogenically altered concentrations of chemical species is a question that involves many implications in the geosciences, environmental and biological sciences, toxicology, and other related disciplines. This is especially important when interpreting geochemical and biogeochemical anomalies of toxic elements and/or organic compounds in various media. To better understand the potential impact of hazardous substances in the environment, we must become more familiar with their spatial and temporal distribution and with their behavior under different physico-chemical and biotic conditions. This review presents an assessment of the geochemical background concept as used by various authors. Different assumptions and approaches to this topic are presented, including direct, statistical, and integrated methods. Based on the results derived from geochemical and biogeochemical studies performed in selected forest ecosystems of Poland, an integrated method is presented. As a consequence of data processing, a normal distribution of data points was obtained using an iterative 2σ-technique. This method of estimating geochemical background is feasible and can be used for setting environmental quality standards or for studying the impact of anthropogenic pollution sources on the environment.     

Metallogeny of gold in the Fennoscandian Shield

Gold occurs in a number of different ore types in the Fennoscandian Shield ranging in age from Late Archean to Late Proterozoic. Until recently, the metal was exploited primarily as a byproduct in volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits but during the 1980s more gold mines have been opened than during any other episode in the mining history of northern Europe. The occurrence of gold in the Fennoscandian Shield is reviewed in the context of the major tectonostratigraphic units:

Block reinforcement behavior and mechanism of soil slopes

In recent years, blocks created by pressure grouting of cement into soil were used to reinforce slopes by targeting specific weak areas. A clear understanding of the block reinforcement mechanism is essential for the accurate evaluation of the stability of block-reinforced slopes and reasonable design of block layouts. A series of centrifuge model tests was conducted to investigate the bearing capacity and the full deformation and failure behavior of block-reinforced slopes, with a focus on the influence of block layouts on the reinforcement effect. A block reinforcement with a reasonable layout was confirmed to increase the stiffness and the ultimate bearing capacity of the slope. The block reinforcement significantly changed the failure mode to the complex disturbance and destruction from slippage failure in an unreinforced slope. The block reinforcement restrained the deformation localization around the blocks and thus prevented the development of the coupling effect between the deformation localization process and the failure process in an unreinforced slope during loading. Such a reinforcement mechanism could be used to explain why the block reinforcement increased the bearing capacity and changed the failure mode of the slope. The blocks exhibited significant motion along with the development of deformation localization in the slope during loading. The block reinforcement effect was significantly affected by the rotation of blocks, which was determined by the block layout.     

西藏地区近几十年的增湿效应研究

利用1955-2000年西藏6个地面观测站的46年连续观测资料,分析了近几十年西藏自治区部分地区气温、降水及水汽压变化特征,并利用第二类热成风螺旋度解释气温与降水的关系.结果表明:西藏近几十年平均气温呈显著的上升趋势,尤其是20世纪90年代以来更为显著(10年上升了0.32℃);全区降水量也有增多趋势;1955-1964年西藏地区气温升高时,第二类热成风螺旋度上升,导致降水量同时增多.1965-1981年气温、降水和第二类热成风螺旋度的变化幅度均较小.1982～2000年气温显著上升时,第二类热成风螺旋度上升,引起湿旋转作用加强,温度扰动加强,从而进一步加速大气中的水汽凝结,形成更多的降水;与此同时,地面蒸发量却减少,导致地表水增加,引发更多的地质灾害,造成更大的经济损失.     

西藏改则地区在东亚季风前期大气层特征

利用JICA项目改则站第二阶段加密探空观测资料,着重揭示了该地区大气层结构的观测事实,尤其是边界层风、温、湿特征。主要结论如下：（1）该地区不论是对流层还是边界层,温度递减率都较大,白天可以接近或超过干绝热直减率,在清晨出现逆温的频率较多。（2）该地区白天近地层存在逆湿现象,近地层上部是否存在逆湿现象与天气和下垫面背景有关。（3）该地区近地层风速极值也出现在早晚时刻,白天风速较小。边界层风则随高度呈多峰值变化。     

On the Mátern covariance family: a proposal for modeling temporal correlations based on turbulence theory

Current variance models for GPS carrier phases that take correlation due to tropospheric turbulence into account are mathematically difficult to handle due to numerical integrations. In this paper, a new model for temporal correlations of GPS phase measurements based on turbulence theory is proposed that overcomes this issue. Moreover, we show that the obtained model belongs to the Mátern covariance family with a smoothness of 5/6 as well as a correlation time between 125–175 s. For this purpose, the concept of separation distance between two lines-of-sight introduced by Schön and Brunner (J Geod 1:47–57, 2008a) is extended. The approximations made are highlighted as well as the turbulence parameters that should be taken into account in our modeling. Subsequently, fully populated covariance matrices are easily computed and integrated in the weighted least-squares model. Batch solutions of coordinates are derived to show the impact of fully populated covariance matrices on the least-squares adjustments as well as to study the influence of the smoothness and correlation time. Results for a specially designed network with weak multipath are presented by means of the coordinate scatter and the a posteriori coordinate precision. It is shown that the known overestimation of the coordinate precision is significantly reduced and the coordinate scatter slightly improved in the sub-millimeter level compared to solutions obtained with diagonal, elevation-dependent covariance matrices. Even if the variations are small, turbulence-based values for the smoothness and correlation time yield best results for the coordinate scatter.     

公伯峡面板堆石坝流变变形的反演分析

采用沈珠江等提出的流变模型,根据公伯峡面板堆石坝坝体填筑竣工到蓄水前的沉降监测资料,进行反演分析得到相应的流变参数,并用该参数对大坝应力变形进行了计算分析。沉降点监测值和计算值变动规律比较一致,说明了流变模型的有效性;由于坝体堆石料的流变,面板的受力变形在运行期内呈现一定规律性的变化,并逐渐趋于稳定