How Chinese Financial Centers Integrate into Global Financial Center Networks: An Empirical Study Based on Overseas Expansion of Chinese Financial Service Firms

The increasing globalization of the Chinese economy has been enabled by both Chinese financial institutions operating globally as well as international firms operating within China. In geographical terms, this has been organized through a number of strategic cities serving as gateways for the exchange of financial functions, products and practices between China and the global economy. Drawing on location data of financial service firms in China listed on stock exchanges in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong, this paper shows that Chinese financial firms are expanding globally and how Chinese financial centers are positioned and connected in the urban networks shaped by these financial service firms. It is found that Hong Kong, China, holds strategic positions in the integration of Chinese cities into global financial center networks, and that establishing a foothold in global financial centers such as New York and London has been a priority for Chinese financial institutions. The increasing capital flows directed by Chinese financial institutions suggests a shifting global financial geography, with numerous Chinese cities playing increasingly important roles within global financial center networks.     

Vegetation impacts soil water content patterns by shaping canopy water fluxes and soil properties

Soil water content is a key variable for biogeochemical and atmospheric coupled processes. Its small‐scale heterogeneity impacts the partitioning of precipitation (e.g., deep percolation or transpiration) by triggering threshold processes and connecting flow paths. Forest hydrologists frequently hypothesized that throughfall and stemflow patterns induce soil water content heterogeneity, yet experimental validation is limited. Here, we pursued a pattern‐oriented approach to explore the relationship between net precipitation and soil water content. Both were measured in independent high‐resolution stratified random designs on a 1‐ha temperate mixed beech forest plot in Germany. We recorded throughfall (350 locations) and stemflow (65 trees) for 16 precipitation events in 2015. Soil water content was measured continuously in topsoil and subsoil (210 profiles). Soil wetting was only weakly related to net precipitation patterns. The precipitation‐induced pattern quickly dissipates and returns to a basic pattern, which is temporally stable. Instead, soil hydraulic properties (by the proxy of field capacity) were significantly correlated with this stable soil water content pattern, indicating that soil structure more than net precipitation drives soil water content heterogeneity. Also, both field capacity and soil water content were lower in the immediate vicinity of tree stems compared to further away at all times, including winter, despite stemflow occurrence. Thus, soil structure varies systematically according to vegetation in our site. We conclude that enhanced macroporosity increases gravity‐driven flow in stem proximal areas. Therefore, although soil water content patterns are little affected by net precipitation, the resulting soil water fluxes may strongly be affected. Specifically, this may further enhance the channelling of stemflow to greater depth and beyond the rooting zone.     

Reconstructing past eutrophication trends from diatoms and biogenic silica in the sediment and the pelagic zone of Lake Constance, Germany

In Lake Constance, phosphorus concentrations and the seasonal development of phytoplankton communities in water samples from the pelagic zone were regularly recorded since the 1950's. Before the 1950's, there were occasional investigations of plankton communities since 1896. We compared these data with the sedimentary record in two sediment cores. Then, the eutrophication history of Lake Constance was inferred from diatoms. The record of biogenic silica in the cores is discussed with respect to diatom biomass increase.Diatom assemblages in the sediment cores precisely reflected the pelagic diatom development for the period 1971--1992. Both sediment cores and the water samples have a high interannual variability of diatom assemblages. Below a sediment depth of 27 cm (AD 1920), more than 50% of the diatoms were partly corroded, and we limited the reconstruction of trophic state changes to the interval of 1920--1993. Oligotrophic conditions of Lake Constance were indicated by the dominance of various Cyclotella taxa from 1920 to 1940. Since 1939/1940, increasing abundance of it Tabellaria fenestrata showed oligotrophic to mesotrophic conditions. Between 1953 and 1956, increasing Stephanodiscus hantzschii and disappearing Cyclotella indicated advanced eutrophication and total phosphorus values ranged between 8--10 mg m-3 during turnover in late winter. Further eutrophication was shown by disappearing T. fenestrata and increasing S. minutulus in 1963. Maximum TP concentrations of 87 mg m-3 occurred in 1979/80 and was accompanied by increasing abundances of Aulacoseira granulata. From 1986 to 1992, reoccurrence of Tabellaria fenestrata and Cyclotella indicate some recovery of Lake Constance.Biogenic silica and diatom abundances were similar among cores but indicate a 3--4 fold increase of diatom biomass only. This was far below the estimate of biomass increase from sedimentary pigment data (25 fold) and the estimate of phytoplankton data from the literature (70 fold).     

Differences in preferential flow with antecedent moisture conditions and soil texture: Implications for subsurface P transport

Preferential flowpaths transport phosphorus (P) to agricultural tile drains. However, if and to what extent this may vary with soil texture, moisture conditions, and P placement is poorly understood. This study investigated (a) interactions between soil texture, antecedent moisture conditions, and the relative contributions of matrix and preferential flow and (b) associated P distributions through the soil profile when fertilizers were applied to the surface or subsurface. Brilliant blue dye was used to stain subsurface flowpaths in clay and silt loam plots during simulated rainfall events under wet and dry conditions. Fertilizer P was applied to the surface or via subsurface placement to plots of different soil texture and moisture condition. Photographs of dye stains were analysed to classify the flow patterns as matrix dominated or macropore dominated, and soils within plots were analysed for their water‐extractable P (WEP) content. Preferential flow occurred under all soil texture and moisture conditions. Dye penetrated deeper into clay soils via macropores and had lower interaction with the soil matrix, compared with silt loam soil. Moisture conditions influenced preferential flowpaths in clay, with dry clay having deeper infiltration (92 ± 7.6 cm) and less dye–matrix interaction than wet clay (77 ± 4.7 cm). Depth of staining did not differ between wet (56 ± 7.2 cm) and dry (50 ± 6.6 cm) silt loam, nor did dominant flowpaths. WEP distribution in the top 10 cm of the soil profile differed with fertilizer placement, but no differences in soil WEP were observed at depth. These results demonstrate that large rainfall events following drought conditions in clay soil may be prone to rapid P transport to tile drains due to increased preferential flow, whereas flow in silt loams is less affected by antecedent moisture. Subsurface placement of fertilizer may minimize the risk of subsurface P transport, particularily in clay.     

Catchments as reactors: a comprehensive approach for water fluxes and solute turnover

Sustainable water quality management requires a profound understanding of water fluxes (precipitation, run-off, recharge, etc.) and solute turnover such as retention, reaction, transformation, etc. at the catchment or landscape scale. The Water and Earth System Science competence cluster (WESS, http://www.wess.info/) aims at a holistic analysis of the water cycle coupled to reactive solute transport, including soil–plant–atmosphere and groundwater–surface water interactions. To facilitate exploring the impact of land-use and climate changes on water cycling and water quality, special emphasis is placed on feedbacks between the atmosphere, the land surface, and the subsurface. A major challenge lies in bridging the scales in monitoring and modeling of surface/subsurface versus atmospheric processes. The field work follows the approach of contrasting catchments, i.e. neighboring watersheds with different land use or similar watersheds with different climate. This paper introduces the featured catchments and explains methodologies of WESS by selected examples.     

Performance of limestones laden with mixed salt solutions of Na2SO4–NaNO3 and Na2SO4–K2SO4

The behaviour of two types of limestones having a different porosity, Maastricht and Euville limestone, laden with aqueous solutions of equimolar mixtures of sodium sulphate/sodium nitrate or sodium sulphate/potassium sulphate was investigated. At 50 % RH, the efflorescences on Maastricht samples during the first 30 h of drying consisted of similar amounts of thenardite and darapskite in case of an equimolar mixture of sodium sulphate/sodium nitrate while those on Euville samples under the same conditions contained mainly darapskite. After drying at 20 °C and 85 % RH, thenardite, formed through the precipitation and dehydration of mirabilite, was mostly detected in the efflorescences on both Maastricht and Euville samples. Re-wetting by increasing the RH from 50 to 85 % resulted in substantial damage on Maastricht stone laden with an equimolar mixture of sodium sulphate/sodium nitrate as a consequence of high supersaturation of mirabilite. In case of a contamination with equimolar amounts of sodium sulphate and potassium sulphate, the efflorescence on both limestones during drying at 50 % RH contained predominantly aphthitalite. The observed crystallisation behaviour is compared to the theoretical behaviour. The results indicate a strong influence of stone properties on the crystallisation behaviour of salt mixtures.     

Studies of household activity patterns and urban structure

Simonsen, Kirsten, 1973: Studies of household activity patterns and urban structure. Geografisk Tidsskrift 73: 26–35. København, juni 1, 1974.

This Paper focuses upon the daily activity patterns of individuals and households. It gives a survey of the relevant literature and discusses the possible use of activity studies. Furthermore, it treats the interrelationship between activity patterns and environment and illustrates this by a case study from a Danish provincial town.     

Tinkering at the Limits: agricultural shows,small-scale producers and ecological connections

Agricultural shows in Australia are typically depicted as celebrations of colonisation and scientific and technical modernisation in food production. The historical focus of shows is on competition to maximise perceived quality and yield of goods, from wheat to cattle. Through these frameworks, shows are often understood as supporting industrial-scale agricultural practices that promote an ecologically-blind approach to food production. However, we suggest that competitions in contemporary agricultural shows play a role in contesting the limits of such anthropocentric thinking. We focus on a hitherto unexplored aspect of agricultural shows: small-scale growers who exhibit produce in their annual local show competitions. Through a case study drawing on interviews with exhibitors and judges, combined with participant observation at the 2012 Royal Canberra Show, we highlight the complex relationships between people, place and more-than-humans in this unique cultural site. In so doing, we suggest that exhibiting in the show can intensify urban and peri-urban small-scale producer engagement in practices of ‘tinkering’. This facilitates embodied encounters with the limits of both human mastery and those of the materiality of non-humans involved in food production. Through the ongoing, adaptive processes of tinkering encouraged by such competitions, we suggest that exhibiting in agricultural shows can support the growth of ecologically informed, place-based understandings of the food system and challenge binaries of the rural/city divide.     

Syn‐rift mass flow generated ‘tectonofacies’ and ‘tectonosequences’ of the Kingston Peak Formation,Death Valley,California, and their bearing on supposed Neoproterozoic panglacial climates

The Kingston Peak Formation of the Pahrump Group in the Death Valley region of the Basin and Range Province, USA, is the thick (over 3 km) mixed siliciclastic–carbonate fill of a long‐lived structurally‐complex Neoproterozoic rift basin and is recognized by some as a key ‘climatostratigraphic’ succession recording panglacial Snowball Earth events. A facies analysis of the Kingston Peak Formation shows it to be largely composed of ‘tectonofacies’ which are subaqueous mass flow deposits recording cannibalization of older Pahrump carbonate strata exposed by local faulting. Facies include siltstone, sandstone and conglomerate turbidites, carbonate megabreccias (olistoliths) and related breccias, and interbedded debrites. Secondary facies are thin carbonates and pillowed basalts. Four distinct associations of tectonofacies (‘base‐of‐scarp’; FA1, ‘mid‐slope’; FA2, ‘base‐of‐slope’; FA3, and a ‘carbonate margin’ association; FA4) reflect the initiation and progradation of deep water clastic wedges at the foot of fault scarps. ‘Tectonosequences’ record episodes of fault reactivation resulting in substantial increases in accommodation space and water depths, the collapse of fault scarps and consequent downslope mass flow events. Carbonates of FA4 record the cessation of tectonic activity and resulting sediment starvation ending the growth of clastic wedges. Tectonosequences are nested within regionally‐extensive tectono‐stratigraphic units of earlier workers that are hundreds to thousands of metres in thickness, recording the long‐term evolution of the rifted Laurentian continental margin during the protracted breakup of Rodinia. Debrite facies of the Kingston Peak Formation are classically described as ice‐contact glacial deposits recording globally‐correlative panglacials but they result from partial to complete subaqueous mixing of fault‐generated coarse‐grained debris and fine‐grained distal sediment on a slope conditioned by tectonic activity. The sedimentology (tectonofacies) and stratigraphy (tectonosequences) of the Kingston Peak Formation reflect a fundamental control on local sedimentation in the basin by faulting and likely earthquake activity, not by any global glacial climate.