Is Precipitation the Dominant Controlling Factor of High Inorganic Nitrogen Content in the Changjiang River and Its Mouth？

The main reasons for the high content of inorganic N and its increase by several times in the Changjiang River and its mouth during the last 40 years were analysed in this work. The inorganic N in precipitation in the Changjiang River catchment mainly comes from gaseous loss of fertilizer N, N resulting from the increases of population and livestock, and from high temperature combustions of fossil fuels. N from precipitation is the first N source in the Changjiang River water and the only direct cause of high content of inorganic N in the Changjiang River and its mouth. The lost N in gaseous form and from agriculture non-point sources fertilizer comprised about 60% of annual consumption of fertilizer N in the Changjiang River catchment and were key factors controlling the high content of inorganic N in the Changjiang River mouth. The fate of the N in precipitation and other N sources in the Changjiang River catchment are also discussed in this paper.     

Development-Conservation Dilemma in the NilgiriMountains of South India

The Nilgiri Mountains of south India is considered unique by anthropologists, geologists, climatologists, botanists as well as tourists. It has remained a subject of constant study and research over the last two centuries. Man-nature balance had continued undisturbed in the Nilgiris for thousands of years until the early 19th century when it became a British colony attracting, in due course, various developmental activities. Subsequently, the Nilgiris and its popular hill stations emerged as favourite places for the British population in India for rest and recuperation, game and for raising commercial plantations. In the process, the traditional indigenous crops were replaced by “English“ vegetables and the natural forests gave way to commercial plantations of coffee, tea and other exotic species of trees.     

Development and Extension of Seawater Desalination by Reverse Osmosis

Seawater desalination has been people‘s fond dream since ancient times,the dream is now becoming a reality.This paper presents a brief development history of reverse osmosis.Much attention was paid to innovative development in mebranes,modules.equipments and applied technology,including asymmetric and composite membranes,spiral-wound element and hollow fiber module,energy recovery equipments and different technological processes.The extension of reverse osmosis,such as desalination,pre-concentration,integrated processes and nanofiltration,is also briefly mentioned.     

Characteristics of Light Transmission in Summer and Winter and Its Relation to Sediment Transport in the East China Sea

INTRODUCTIONTheSubeiShoalandtheChangjiangRiverestuarineareainthewestoftheHuanghaiandEastChinaSeasisoneofthemarginalseasintheworld ,wheresuspendedmatterisextremelyhigh .Here ,notonlyistheretheTaiwanWarmCurrentoneoftheKuroshio’sbranchesintheEastChinaSea,butalsotheHuanghaiCoastalCurrent,andChangjiangDilutedWater.Sothestrongmixingbetweenthecoastalandoffshorewaterscomplicatessuspendedmatterdistributioninthisarea.HowthesuspendedmatterdischargedfromtheChangjiangRiverandtheabandonedHuan…     

FUZZY COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF CONTAINER TRANSPORTATION MODES ALONG THE CHANGJIANG RIVER MAIN LINE AND ITS DELTA AREA

The Changjiang River (Yangtze) is one of the fastest growth areas of container transportation in Chi-na. Rail, road and water transportation have competed against each other for container transportation in the Chang-jiang River main line and its delta area. It is of significance to assess these different transportation modes scientifi-cally in order to organize container transportation efficiently in this area and make decision for integral plan and construction of transportation system in this area. This paper outlines application of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to appraise different modes of typical direction of containers. Twelve assessment indexes were decided. Membership functions were formulated. Evaluation results indicated that road transportation was optimal mode in the Changjiang River delta area, however water transportation was the primary way in the Changjiang River main line.     

North European last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT; 15–9 ka) tephrochronology: extended limits and new events

High‐precision correlation of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental records is crucial for testing hypotheses of synchronous change. Although radiocarbon is the traditional method for dating late Quaternary sedimentary sequences, particularly during the last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT; 15–9 ka), there are inherent problems with the method, particularly during periods of climate change which are often accompanied by major perturbations in atmospheric radiocarbon content. An alternative method is the use of tephras that act as time‐parallel marker horizons. Within Europe, numerous volcanic centres are known to have erupted during the LGIT, providing considerable potential for high‐precision correlation independent of past radiocarbon fluctuations. Here we report the first identification of the Vedde Ash and Askja Tephra in Ireland, significantly extending the known provenance of these events. We have also identified two new horizons (the Roddans Port Tephras A and B) and tentatively recognise an additional horizon from Vallensgård Mose (Denmark) that provide crucial additional chronological control for the LGIT. Two phases of the Laacher See Tephra (LST) are reported, the lower Laacher See Tephra (LLST) and probably the C2 phase of the Middle Laacher See Tephra (MLST‐C2) indicating a more northeasterly distribution of this fan than reported previously. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ANALYSIS ON THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION VARIATION CHARACTERISTIC OF URBAN HEAT ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND ITS MECHANISM——A Case Study of Hangzhou City

Urban heat environmental quality(UHEQ) is affected by the interacting of weather condition and underlying surface framework of urban area .In the last two decades,many researchers from domestic and overseas have studied many problems at the aspect of urban heat environment such as urban heat islands ,urban air temperature and their rela-tion with urban land cover,city population,air pollution etc,In the recent years,Hangzhou,acting as a center city of Zhejiang Province in China,its urbanization quantum and quantity have both changed greatly,in particular ,representing as business affairs building,resident real property and all kins of specialty market having arisen in built-up zone,Based on Landsat TM images data in 1991 and 1999,urban underlying surface temperature value and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were calculated using image interpreting and supervised classification technique by remote sensing software ERDAS image 8.4,The relation model between urban underlying surface temperature (UUST )and urban air temperature was setup according to the certain correlation patten .Reference to the relational standard of assessing human comfort and other meteorology data of Hangzhou City in summer,the spatial distribution characteristic and the spatial varia-tion degree of human comfort of heat environmental quality are estimated and mapped on a middle scale,that is ,in six districts of Hangzhou City .Then the paper reveals the main characteristic of spatial variation from 1991 to 1999.Lastly,the change mechanism is analyzed and discussed from the viewpoint of city planning,construction and environmental protec-tion.     

Effects of Different Diets on the Dietary Attractability and Selectivity of Chinese Shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis

Attractabilities of different diets and dietary selectivity of Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis were studied through behavior observation and feeding experiment, respectively. The five diets used in the experiment are: Fish Flesh (FF), Shrimp Flesh (SF), Clam Foot (CF), Polychaete Worm (PW), and Formulated Diet (FD). No significant differences of attractability exist between any two different diets when every two natural diets or all five diets are provided simultaneously. On the other hand, significant differences of attractability exist between FD and every single natural diet when they are provided simultaneously. Results of behavioral observation indicate that natural diets are more attractive than FD. In feeding experiment, Chinese shrimp has distinct selectivity on different diets. It positively selects CF and PW, negatively selects FF and SF, and excludes FD absolutely. The results of the present studies indicate that the dietary selectivity of shrimp was based not only on the attractabilities of the diets, but also on the responses such as growth and food conversion.     

Evaluation of ferrous and ferric Mössbauer fractions

The Mössbauer fractions f for various ferrous- and/or ferric-containing oxides and oxyhydroxides, silicates and carbonates were evaluated from the experimental temperature dependence of their center shifts, using the Debye approximation for the second-order Doppler shift. It is concluded that ferrous ions exhibit a lower fraction as compared to ferric ions. Using standard mixtures of -Fe₂O₃ with selected Fe²⁺ or Fe³⁺ compounds, it is found that the calculated Fe³⁺ f values are somewhat overestimated with respect to those of Fe²⁺. Possible explanations for this shortcoming are discussed and it is suggested that a different temperature dependence of the intrinsic isomer shift is the most likely reason. This suggestion is corroborated by analyses of hematite and hedenbergite data which are available for temperatures up to 900 K and 800 K respectively.