Seasonal variation in the energy and water exchanges above and below a larch forest in eastern Siberia

The water and energy exchanges in forests form one of the most important hydro‐meteorological systems. There have been far fewer investigations of the water and heat exchange in high latitude forests than of those in warm, humid regions. There have been few observations of this system in Siberia for an entire growing season, including the snowmelt and leaf‐fall seasons. In this study, the characteristics of the energy and water budgets in an eastern Siberian larch forest were investigated from the snowmelt season to the leaf‐fall season. The latent heat flux was strongly affected by the transpiration activity of the larch trees and increased quickly as the larch stand began to foliate. The sensible heat dropped at that time, although the net all‐wave radiation increased. Consequently, the seasonal variation in the Bowen ratio was clearly ‘U’‐shaped, and the minimum value (1·0) occurred in June and July. The Bowen ratio was very high (10–25) in early spring, just before leaf opening. The canopy resistance for a big leaf model far exceeded the aerodynamic resistance and fluctuated over a much wider range. The canopy resistance was strongly restricted by the saturation deficit, and its minimum value was 100 s m^?1 (10 mm s^?1 in conductance). This minimum canopy resistance is higher than values obtained for forests in warm, humid regions, but is similar to those measured in other boreal conifer forests. It has been suggested that the senescence of leaves also affects the canopy resistance, which was higher in the leaf‐fall season than in the foliated season. The mean evapotranspiration rate from 21 April 1998 to 7 September 1998 was 1·16 mm day^?1, and the maximum rate, 2·9 mm day^?1, occurred at the beginning of July. For the growing season from 1 June to 31 August, this rate was 1·5 mm day^?1. The total evapotranspiration from the forest (151 mm) exceeded the amount of precipitation (106 mm) and was equal to 73% of the total water input (211 mm), including the snow water equivalent. The understory evapotranspiration reached 35% of the total evapotranspiration, and the interception evaporation was 15% of the gross precipitation. The understory evapotranspiration was high and the interception evaporation was low because the canopy was sparse and the leaf area index was low. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Introductory perspective on the COREF Project

Abstract Coral reefs are tropic to subtropic, coastal ecosystems comprising very diverse organisms. Late Quaternary reef deposits are fossil archives of environmental, tectonic and eustatic variations that can be used to reconstruct the paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic history of the tropic surface oceans. Reefs located at the latitudinal limits of coral‐reef ecosystems (i.e. those at coral‐reef fronts) are particularly sensitive to environmental changes – especially those associated with glacial–interglacial changes in climate and sealevel. We propose a land and ocean scientific drilling campaign in the Ryukyu Islands (the Ryukyus) in the northwestern Pacific Ocean to investigate the dynamic response of the corals and coral‐reef ecosystems in this region to Late Quaternary climate and sealevel change. Such a drilling campaign, which we call the COREF (coral‐reef front) Project, will allow the following three major questions to be evaluated: (i) What are the nature, magnitude and driving mechanisms of coral‐reef front migration in the Ryukyus? (ii) What is the ecosystem response of coral reefs in the Ryukyus to Quaternary climate changes? (iii) What is the role of coral reefs in the global carbon cycle? Subsidiary objectives include (i) the timing of coral‐reef initiation in the Ryukyus and its causes; (ii) the position of the Kuroshio current during glacial periods and its effects on coral‐reef formation; and (iii) early carbonate diagenetic responses as a function of compounded variations in climate, eustacy and depositional mineralogies (subtropic aragonitic to warm‐temperate calcitic). The geographic, climatic and oceanographic settings of the Ryukyu Islands provide an ideal natural laboratory to address each of these research questions.     

Historical climate changes in southern Xinjiang

1 Introduction Southern Xinjiang has experienced tremendous changes in climate and eco-environment during historic times, for example, the rise and decline of oases and ancient towns, shrinkages and enlargement of lakes and changes in river system, etc. (Figure 1). All these can be attributable to the natural changes of climate and environment superimposed by human impacts. So, it is interesting and significant to reveal the inter-relation between natural climate changes and human抯 impact …     

Effect of earthquake energy input characteristics on hysteretic damper efficiency

Robust performance of hysteretic dampers, used in controlling mid‐rise buildings, against change of earthquake characteristics is investigated in this paper. A shear type ten‐storey building incorporating hysteretic dampers is studied as a model under the assumption of elastic perfectly plastic behavior for inelastic frame and damper deformations. An energy‐based damper performance index is used to evaluate damper overall efficiency. Thirty‐five earthquake records are applied and the damper strength is optimized for each earthquake record to obtain the maximum performance index or the damper efficiency. Based on the obtained numerical results it is found that, besides the effect of maximum energy input on damper efficiency, other time‐dependant properties such as energy‐based effective duration and earthquake dominant period have great influence on the damper efficiency. A factor (α), which represents the combined effect of maximum energy input, effective duration and dominant earthquake period, is also derived for the prediction of damper efficiency. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The eruptive rate and history of Kuju volcano in Japan during the past 15,000 years

The eruptive history of Kuju volcano on Kyushu, Japan, during the past 15,000 years has been determined by tephrochronology and ¹⁴C dating. Kuju volcano comprises isolated lava domes and cones of hornblende andesite together with aprons of pyroclastic-flow deposits on its flanks. Kuju volcano produced tephras at roughly 1000-yr intervals during the past 5000 years and 70% of the domes and cones have formed during the past 15,000 years. The youngest magmatic activity of Kuju volcano was the 1.6 km³ andesite eruption about 1600 years ago which emplaced a lava dome and block-and-ash flow. Kuju volcano shows a nearly constant long-term eruption rate (0.7–0.4 km³ for 1000 years) during the past 15,000 years. This rate is within the range of estimated average eruption rates of late Quaternary volcanoes in the Japanese Arc, but is about one order of magnitude higher than the eruption rate of Unzen volcano. Kuju volcano has been in phreatic eruption since October 1995. The late Quaternary history of Kuju indicates that it poses a significant volcanic hazard, primarily due to block-and-ash flows from collapsing lava domes.     

The innermost corona observed at the 1973 June 30 eclipse

Slitless flash spectrograms in heights below 8000 km above the solar limb were obtained by the University of Kyoto Expedition at Atar, Mauritania. The integrated intensities of Fexiv 5303, Fex 6374, Fexi 7892, and the continuum are measured as a function of height above the solar limb at eleven points (P.A. = 284–300°) around the third contact point. It is found that a significant amount of the emission in Fex 6374 originates in chromospheric levels well below 8000 km. This implies that the interspicular region of the chromosphere is occupied by coronal material. The average values of the electron temperature and the electron density in the interspicular region are derived from the Fex 6374 and the Fexi 7892 intensities on the assumption of spherical symmetry: T _e = 0.9–1.1 × 10⁶ K and N _e = 9–10 × 10⁸ cm^–3. The intensity variations of the coronal lines and the continuum with position angle are also studied. Strong correlations between Fexiv 5303 and the continuum and between Fex 6374 and Fexi 7892 are found. From the Fex 6374 intensities it is inferred that there is a density fluctuation in the innermost corona by at least a factor of two.Contributions from the Kwasan and Hida Observatories, University of Kyoto, No. 271.     

A coronal condensation observed at the total solar eclipse of June 11, 1983 and a related transient prominence

A coronal condensation was observed simultaneously with Fexiv 5303, Fex 6374, Fe xi 7892, and H filtergraphs. The size and shape of the condensation in 5303 are different from those in other filtergrams. H filtergrams taken around the eclipse time show that a small transient prominence exists in close proximity to the condensation core and behaves like a post-flare loop system, though the appearance is quite different and no flare-report exists. A small-scale energetic phenomenon seems to have occurred at the top of magnetic loops.Contributions from the Kwasan and Hida Observatories, University of Kyoto, No. 285.