Vertical and Horizontal Transport of Energy and Matter by Coherent Motions in a Tall Spruce Canopy

In the framework of the EGER (ExchanGE processes in mountainous Regions) project, the contribution of coherent structures to vertical and horizontal transports in a tall spruce canopy is investigated. The combination of measurements done in both the vertical and horizontal directions allows us to investigate coherent structures, their temporal scales, their role in flux transport, vertical coupling between the sub-canopy, canopy and air above the canopy, and horizontal coupling in the sub-canopy layer. The temporal scales of coherent structures detected with the horizontally distributed systems in the sub-canopy layer are larger than the temporal scales of coherent structures detected with the vertically distributed systems. The flux contribution of coherent structures to the momentum and sensible heat transport is found to be dominant in the canopy layer. Carbon dioxide and latent heat transport by coherent structures increase with height and reach a maximum at the canopy height. The flux contribution of the ejection decreases with increasing height and becomes dominant above the canopy level. The flux fraction transported during the sweep increases with height and becomes the dominant exchange process at the upper canopy level. The determined exchange regimes indicate consistent decoupling between the sub-canopy, canopy and air above the canopy during evening, nighttime and morning hours, whereas the coupled states and coupled by sweep states between layers are observed mostly during the daytime. Furthermore, the horizontal transport of sensible heat by coherent structures is investigated, and the heterogeneity of the contribution of coherent events to the flux transport is demonstrated. A scheme to determine the horizontal coupling by coherent structures in the sub-canopy layer is proposed, and it is shown that the sub-canopy layer is horizontally coupled mainly in the wind direction. The vertical coupling in most cases is observed together with streamwise horizontal coupling, whereas the cross-stream direction is decoupled.     

Cultivated land change in the Belt and Road Initiative region

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)–a development strategy proposed by China – provides unprecedented opportunities for multi-dimensional communication and cooperation across Asia, Africa and Europe. In this study, we analyse the spatio-temporal changes in cultivated land in the BRI countries (64 in total) to better understand the land use status of China along with its periphery for targeting specific collaboration. We apply FAO statistics and GlobeLand30 (the world’s finest land cover data at a 30-m resolution), and develop three indicator groups (namely quantity, conversion, and utilization degree) for the analysis. The results show that cultivated land area in the BRI region increased 3.73×10⁴ km² between 2000 and 2010. The increased cultivated land was mainly found in Central and Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, while the decreased cultivated land was mostly concentrated in China. Russia ranks first with an increase of 1.59×10⁴ km² cultivated land area, followed by Hungary (0.66×10⁴ km²) and India (0.57×104 km2). China decreased 1.95×10⁴ km² cultivated land area, followed by Bangladesh (–0.22×10⁴ km²) and Thailand (–0.22×10⁴ km²). Cultivated land was mainly transferred to/from forest, grassland, artificial surfaces and bare land, and transfer types in different regions have different characteristics: while large amount of cultivated land in China was converted to artificial surfaces, considerable forest was converted to cultivated land in Southeast Asia. The increase of multi-cropping index dominated the region except the Central and Eastern Europe, while the increase of fragmentation index was prevailing in the region except for a few South Asian countries. Our results indicate that the negative consequence of cultivated land loss in China might be underestimated by the domestic- focused studies, as none of its close neighbours experienced such obvious cultivated land losses. Nevertheless, the increased cultivated land area in Southeast Asia and the extensive cultivated land use in Ukraine and Russia imply that the regional food production would be greatly improved if China’ “Go Out policy” would help those countries to intensify their cultivated land use.     

Ecological compensation for desertification control: A review

Desertification control is a crucial way to enhancing the ecological conditions of arid and semi-arid regions, and maintaining sustainable development globally. Designing and improving an ecological compensation mechanism for desertification control has great significance related to achieving balance amongst the needs of different economic subjects and the assurance of a sustained and stable supply of desert ecosystem services. In this paper, (1) the theoretical bases of ecological compensation for desertification control were re-analyzed; (2) the research status and challenges of three important topics related to ecological compensation for desertification control were systemically discussed, including compensation standards, ecosystem service supply-consumption process and multi-scale effects, and resource- environment basis and policy orientation; (3) a research framework of ecological compensation for desertification control based on the process of desert ecosystem service supply–flow–consumption was proposed; (4) and finally, seven priority research issues were discussed, which aimed to support ecological compensation policy-making and ecological engineering implementation for desertification control.     

Degrading river network due to urbanization in Yangtze River Delta

Evolution of river systems under the background of human activities has been a heated topic among geographers and hydrologists. Spatial and temporal variations of river systems during the 1960s–2010s in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) were investigated based on streams derived from the topographic maps in the 1960s, 1980s and 2010s. A list of indices, drainage density (Dd), water surface ratio (WSR), ratio of area to length of main streams (R), evolution coefficient of tributaries (K) and box dimension (D), were classified into three types (quantitative, structural, and complex indices) and used to quantify the variations of stream structure. Results showed that: (1) quantitative indices (Dd, WSR) presented decreasing trend in the past 50 years, and Dd in Wuchengxiyu, Hangjiahu and Yindongnan have decreased most, about 20%. Structurally, the Qinhuai River basin was characterized by significant upward R, and K value in Hangjiahu went down dramatically by 46.8% during the 1960s–2010s. Decreasing tendency in D was found dominating across the YRD, and decreasing magnitude in Wuchengxiyu and Hangjiahu peaks for 7.8% and 6.5%, respectively in the YRD. (2) Urbanization affected the spatial pattern of river system, and areas with high level of urbanization exhibited least Dd (2.18 km/km²), WSR (6.52%), K (2.64) and D (1.42), compared to moderate and low levels of urbanization. (3) Urbanization also affected the evolution of stream system. In the past 50 years, areas with high level of urbanization showed compelling decreasing tendency in quantitative (27.2% and 19.3%) and complex indices (4.9%) and trend of enlarging of main rivers (4.5% and 7.9% in periods of the 1960s–1980s and the 1980s–2010s). In the recent 30 years, areas with low level of urbanization were detected with significant downward trend in Dd and K. (4) Expanding of urban land, construction of hydraulic engineering and irrigation and water conservancy activities were the main means which degraded the river system in the YRD.     

Heavy metals distribution in agricultural topsoils in urban area

Intensive urbanisation of the Croatian capital of Zagreb has led to a situation where very good agricultural soils, developed mostly on Pleistocene eolian sediments and alluvial and proluvian Holocene sediments are entrapped within urban and suburban areas. Therefore the influence of urban and industrialised environments on the accumulation of metals in agricultural topsoils has been investigated. On an area of 860 km² of the wider Zagreb region, 331 samples were taken according to a regular 1ǵ km square mesh. Samples were dissolved in aqua regia and analysed for Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn with flame atomic aqua regia absorption spectroscopy. The following concentration ranges have been determined: Cd 0.25-3.85 mg kg^-1 (average 0.66 mg kg^-1), Cu 4.30-183 mg kg^-1 (average 20.8 mg kg^-1), Fe 5.8-51.8 g kg^-1 (average 27 g kg^-1), Mn 79.2-1282 mg kg^-1 (average 613 mg kg^-1), Ni 0.70-282 mg kg^-1 (average 49.5 mg kg^-1), Pb 1.50-139 mg kg^-1 (average 25.9 mg kg^-1), and Zn 15.2-277 mg kg^-1 (average 77.9 mg kg^-1). Visualisation of the spatial data is made by the aid of GIS, and selected maps of the heavy metal concentrations in topsoils are displayed. Statistical multivariate analysis was carried out for quantitative study and data were processed by means of R-mode factor analysis, applying the varimax-raw rotational technique. F1, which grouped Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn and partially Ni, is characterized as a factor with strongly scattered anthropogenic influence. The elements in F2, Fe, Mn and partially Ni are mainly of geogenic, i.e. pedogenic, origin. The variations in concentrations of the investigated elements are thus of both natural and anthropogenic origins. The variations in the main soil constituents, particularly Fe and Mn, are determined primarily by the composition of different regolithic substrates of the fluvial origin in recent pedogenesis. High concentrations of nickel are also related to morphogenetic characteristics of the wider region, primarily basic and ultrabasic magmatic rocks of the surrounding mountain range. It is, however, assumed that the anomalous nickel concentrations in the vicinity of the highway and the airport are of anthropogenic origin, i.e. caused by fuel combustion. Copper is characterized by strongly scattered anthropogenic influence, which is related particularly to uncontrolled solid waste disposals or discharges of liquid waste from households or agricultural enterprises. With Zn, Pb and Cd, there are two possible ways of diffuse pollution. The Sava River, which drains the area and feeds the abundant Quaternary aquifer spreading below the major part of the investigated agricultural areas, has been exposed to intensive pollution by mining, industry and cities in the recent history. The part of the area with the highest determined concentrations of Zn, Pb and Cd was repeatedly flooded as recently as the previous decade; therefore, the recent sedimentation of the river deposits exposed to pollution is a very probable cause of the accumulation of metals in this until recently inundation area. The other way is atmospheric deposition of particles from urban sources (industrial emission, traffic, waste disposals, heating plants, etc.). In addition to agricultural enterprises, several economically important, but ecologically risky, facilities are situated in the vicinity of the water-protection area. The area is intersected by a very busy ring road, while a marshalling yard, the city dump, pharmaceutical and chemical industry, the district-heating plant and the airport are all located in close proximity. The geochemical maps show a clear relationship between human activities and metal concentration gradients.     

Structural improvement of age-hardened gypsum-treated bauxite red mud waste using readily decomposable phyto-organics

Several years (7) after incidental lithification by added gypsum, the effect of crushing and phyto-organics on some physical properties of red mud wastes (RMW) was examined under laboratory conditions. It was hypothesized that mechanically breaking up the hardened masses would increase their permeability. However, on the contrary, crushing these rock-hard masses into <2-mm particles did not increase permeability. A phyto-organic treatment on the other hand greatly improved permeability of the crushed entities such that infiltration rates increased from 0 to 10 cm/h. After 24 weeks of incubation, the structure of the newly formed phyto-organically treated gypsum-hardened RMW aggregates was also substantially improved over that of the controls, as a >3-fold increase in resistance to disintegration during wet sieving was exhibited by the phyto-organically treated samples. The increase in water infiltration by combining crushing with phyto-organic applications was ascribed to a decrease in particle dispersion, creating more stable clay clusters, which in turn stabilized channels and pores. Conversely, it was concluded that the singular crushing of gypsum-hardened bauxite waste in the waste dumps is potentially wasteful and ineffective.     

大尺度水循环模拟系统不确定性研究进展(英文)

The regional hydrological system is extremely complex because it is affected not only by physical factors but also by human dimensions.And the hydrological models play a very important role in simulating the complex system.However,there have not been effective methods for the model reliability and uncertainty analysis due to its complexity and difficulty.The uncertainties in hydrological modeling come from four important aspects:uncertainties in input data and parameters,uncertainties in model structure,uncertainties in analysis method and the initial and boundary conditions.This paper systematically reviewed the recent advances in the study of the uncertainty analysis approaches in the large-scale complex hydrological model on the basis of uncertainty sources.Also,the shortcomings and insufficiencies in the uncertainty analysis for complex hydrological models are pointed out.And then a new uncertainty quantification platform PSUADE and its uncertainty quantification methods were introduced,which will be a powerful tool and platform for uncertainty analysis of large-scale complex hydrological models.Finally,some future perspectives on uncertainty quantification are put forward.     

Characteristics of dry-wet abrupt alternation events in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin and the relationship with ENSO

During recent decades, more frequent flood-drought alternations have been seen in China as a result of global climate change and intensive human activities, which have significant implications on water and food security. To better identify the characteristics of flood-drought alternations, we proposed a modified dry-wet abrupt alternation index (DWAAI) and applied the new method in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin (YRB-ML) to analyze the long-term spatio-temporal characteristics of dry-wet abrupt alternation (DWAA) events based on the daily precipitation observations at 75 rainfall stations in summer from 1960 to 2015. We found that the DWAA events have been spreading in the study area with higher frequency and intensity since 1960. In particular, the DWAA events mainly occurred in May and June in the northwest of the YRB-ML, including Hanjiang River Basin, the middle reaches of the YRB, north of Dongting Lake and northwest of Poyang Lake. In addition, we also analyzed the impact of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on DWAA events in the YRB-ML. The results showed that around 41.04% of DWAA events occurred during the declining stages of La Niña or within the subsequent 8 months after La Niña, which implies that La Niña events could be predictive signals of DWAA events. Besides, significant negative correlations have been found between the modified DWAAI values of all the rainfall stations and the sea surface temperature anomalies in the Nino3.4 region within the 6 months prior to the DWAA events, particularly for the Poyang Lake watershed and the middle reaches of the YRB. This study has significant implications on the flood and drought control and water resources management in the YRB-ML under the challenge of future climate change.     

中国土壤动物生态地理研究进展(英文)

This review summarizes main research findings in soil fauna eco-geography in China in the past 30 years.The subject areas and main results were overviewed including biodiversity and eco-geological distribution of soil fauna communities.Studies of ecological distributions of soil fauna and dynamic ranges in space from tropical,subtropical to temperate regions,and in categories from forest,grassland,desert,wetland,farmland to urban ecosystems,the responses and indications of soil fauna to soil environments.Ef...     

中国东部植被NDVI对气温和降水的时空响应(英文)

Temporal and spatial response characteristics of vegetation NDVI to the variation of temperature and precipitation in the whole year,spring,summer and autumn was analyzed from April 1998 to March 2008 based on the SPOT VGT-NDVI data and daily temperature and precipitation data from 205 meteorological stations in eastern China.The results indicate that as a whole,the response of vegetation NDVI to the variation of temperature is more pronounced than that of precipitation in eastern China.Vegetation NDVI maxi...