Simulation experiment on hydrocarbon generating potential of various source rocks on the northern margin of the Qaidam Basin,Qinghai, China

The northern margin of the Qaidam Basin is one of the main oil-gas exploration areas in western China, where source rocks are composed mostly of Middle and Lower Jurassic dark mud shale, carbargillite and coal. A large number of subsurface and outcrop samples differing in lithology with different types of organic matter were selected for resource evaluation, research and calculation. And among them, 13 samples were used for simulation experiment on hydrocarbon generating potential of various source rocks. At first, two kinds of heating modes were compared through simulation experiment, including single temperature-step heating and continual heating. Perhaps, the process of hydrocarbon generation and expulsion occurred naturally between a close system and an open system. In addition, the first heating mode was convenient, and all its reaction products were involved in the whole thermal evolution, and the final simulation experimental results were basically in consistency with the natural evolution trend Therefore, the first heating mode was adopted and the hydrocarbon yield of every sample was worked out. According to the type and lithology of organic matter and the hydrocarbon yield of samples for simulation experiment, hydrocarbon generation and expulsion mode with three kinds of lithology and five types of source rock has been established to provide the basis for hydrocarbon generation evaluation, research and resource calculation.     

应用混合分布研究银川平原地下水埋深对植被的影响

银川平原地处西北干旱地区,自然生态环境在西北地区具有典型性。研究银川平原的生态环境,需要研究植被,它反映多种因素的作用。在影响植被的各种因素中,地下水对植被生长的影响非常重要,但将地下水对植被生长的影响进行定量化分离并不容易。近年来,用混合分布函数处理大量数据的方法受到越来越多的关注,但是混合分布函数的参数求解一直比较困难。文章提出了一种基于混合分布函数和数据直方图之间的关系,用最小二乘法估计参数的新方法;并用这种方法,结合银川平原遥感数据中的归一化植被指数NDVI,对地下水埋深与植被生长的关系进行定量分析,得到地下水埋深对植被影响所服从的正态分布密度函数。     

Cavity expansion analyses of crushable granular materials with state‐dependent dilatancy

Crushability is one of the important behaviors of granular materials particularly under high stress states, and affects both the deformability and strength of the materials that are in essence associated with state‐dependent dilatancy. In this presentation, first, a new critical state model is proposed to take into account the three different modes of compressive deformation of crushable granular materials, i.e. particle rearrangement, particle crushing and pseudo‐elastic deformation. Second, the governing equations for cavity expansion in crushable granulates are introduced, in which the state‐dependent dilatancy as well as the bounding surface plasticity model are used. Then, the procedure to obtain semi‐analytical solutions to cavity expansion in the material is described in detail, in which a commercial differential equation solver is employed. Finally, cavity expansion analyses are carried out on Toyoura sand, a well‐documented granular material, to demonstrate the effects of crushability and state‐dependent dilatancy. The study shows that particle crushing does occur at both high stress and critical states and affects the stress fields and the deformation behavior of the material surrounding the cavity in association with state‐dependent dilatancy. This leads to conclusion that particle crushing and state‐dependent dilatancy have to be taken into account when cavity expansion theory is used to interpret cone penetration tests and pressuremeter tests. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bacterial communities are sensitive indicators of contaminant stress

With many environments worldwide experiencing at least some degree of anthropogenic modification, there is great urgency to identify sensitive indicators of ecosystem stress. Estuarine organisms are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic contaminants. This study presents bacterial communities as sensitive indicators of contaminant stress. Sediments were collected from multiple sites within inner and outer zones of three heavily modified and three relatively unmodified estuaries. Bacterial communities were censused using Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis and analysed for a suite of metal and PAH contaminants. Shifts in both bacterial community composition and diversity showed strong associations with sediment contaminant concentrations, particularly with metals. Importantly, these changes are discernable from environmental variation inherent to highly complex estuarine environments. Moreover, variation in bacterial communities within sites was limited. This allowed for differences between sites, zones and estuaries to be explained by variables of interest such as contaminants that vary between, but not within individual sites.     

Variability of Antarctic Intermediate Water south of Australia and its relationship with frontal waves

A streamfunction EOF method is applied to a time series of hydrographic sections in the Southern Ocean south of Australia to study water mass variations. Results show that there are large thermohaline variations north of the Subantarctic Front (SAF) at 300–1500 dbar level, indicating upwelling and downwelling of the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) along isopycnal surfaces. Based on the latest altimeter product, Absolute Dynamic Topography, a mechanism due to frontal wave propagation is proposed to explain this phenomenon, and an index for frontal waves is defined. When the frontal wave is in positive (negative) phase, the SAF flows northeastward (southeastward) with the fresh AAIW downwelling (upwelling). Such mesoscale processes greatly enhance cross-frontal exchanges of water masses. Spectral analysis shows that frontal waves in the Southern Ocean south of Australia are dominated by a period of about 130 days with a phase speed of 4 cm/s and a wavelength of 450 km.     

The thermal history and uplift process of the Ouxidaban pluton in the South Tianshan orogen: Evidence from Ar-Ar and (U-Th)/He

The uplift and exhumation process in the Tianshan orogen since the late Paleozoic were likely related to the preservation of ore deposits. This study involved reconstructing the whole tectonic thermal history of the Ouxidaban pluton in central South Tianshan Mountains based on hornblende/plagioclase Ar-Ar and zircon/apatite(U-Th)/He methods. The thermal history and uplift process of central South Tianshan Mountains since the late Paleozoic were analyzed according to the results of previous works and cooling/exhumation rate features. The hornblende yields a plateau age of 382.6±3.6 Ma, and the plagioclase yields a weighted mean age of 265.8±4.9 Ma. The Ouxidaban pluton yields weighted mean zircon(U-Th)/He age of 185.8±4.3 Ma and apatite(U-Th)/He age of 31.1±2.9 Ma, respectively. Five stages of tectonic thermal history of South Tianshan Mountains since the late Paleozoic could be discriminated by the cooling curve and modeling simulation:(1) from the latest Silurian to Late Devonian, the average cooling rate of the Ouxidaban pluton was 7.84°C/Ma;(2) from the Late Devonian to the latest Middle Permian, the average cooling rate was about 2.07°C/Ma;(3) from the latest Middle Permian to the middle Eocene, the cooling rate decreased to about 0.68°C/Ma, suggesting that the tectonic activity was gentle at this time;(4) a sudden increase of the cooling rate(5.00°C/Ma) and the exhumation rate(0.17 mm/a), and crustal exhumation of ~1.83 km indicated that the Ouxidaban pluton would suffer a rapid uplift event during the Eocene(~46?35 Ma);(5) since the middle Eocene, the rapid uplift was sustained, and the average cooling rate since then has been 1.14°C/Ma with an exhumation rate of about 0.04 mm/a and an exhumation thickness of 1.33 km. The strong uplift since the Cenozoic would be related to a far-field effect from the Indian and Eurasian plates' collision. However, it was hysteretic that the remote effect was observed in the Tianshan orogenic belt.     

Climate change and global cycling of persistent organic pollutants: A critical review

Climate warming, one of the main features of global change, has exerted indelible impacts on the environment, among which the impact on the transport and fate of pollutants has aroused widespread concern. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of pollutants that are transported worldwide. Determining the impact of climate warming on the global cycling of POPs is important for understanding POP cycling processes and formulating relevant environmental policies. In this review, the main research findings in this field over the past ten years are summarized and the effects of climate warming on emissions, transport, storage, degradation and toxicity of POPs are reviewed. This review also summarizes the primary POP fate models and their application. Additionally, research gaps and future research directions are identified and suggested. Under the influence of climate change, global cycling of POPs mainly shows the following responses. (1) Global warming directly promotes the secondary emission of POPs; for example, temperature rise will cause POPs to be re-released from soils and oceans, and melting glaciers and permafrost can re-release POPs into freshwater ecosystems. (2) Global extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, result in the redistribution of POPs through intense soil erosion. (3) The changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean currents have significantly influenced the global transport of POPs. (4) Climate warming has altered marine biological productivity, which has changed the POP storage capacity of the ocean. (5) Aquatic and terrestrial food-chain structures have undergone significant changes, which could lead to amplification of POP toxicity in ecosystems. (6) Overall, warming accelerates the POP volatilization process and increases the amount of POPs in the environment, although global warming facilitates their degradation at the same time. (7) Various models have predicted the future environmental behaviors of POPs. These models are used to assist governments in comprehensively considering the impact of global warming on the environmental fate of POPs and therefore controlling POPs effectively. Future studies should focus on the synergistic effects of global changes on the cycling of POPs. Additionally, the interactions among global carbon cycling, water cycling and POP cycling will be a new research direction for better understanding the adaptation of ecosystems to climate change.     

Reducing the biases in shortwave cloud radiative forcing in tropical and subtropical regions from the perspective of boundary layer processes

Biases in shortwave cloud radiative forcing (SWCF), which cause overestimates in tropical regions and underestimates in subtropical marine stratocumulus regions, are common in many climate models. Here, two boundary layer processes are investigated in the atmospheric model GAMIL2, entrainment at the top of the boundary layer and longwave radiative cooling at the top of stratocumulus clouds, in order to reduce biases and reveal the mechanisms underlying these processes. Our results show that including the entrainment process in the model can reduce negative SWCF biases in most tropical regions but increases positive SWCF biases in subtropical marine stratocumulus regions. This occurs because entrainment reduces the low-level cloud fraction and its cloud liquid water content by suppressing the vertical turbulent diffusion in the boundary layer and decreasing the relative humidity when warm and dry free atmosphere is entrained in the boundary layer. Longwave radiative cooling at the top of stratocumulus clouds can enhance turbulent diffusion within the stratocumulus-topped boundary layer. When combined with the entrainment process, longwave radiative cooling reduces the positive SWCF biases in subtropical marine stratocumulus regions that are observed using the entrainment process alone. The incorporation of these two boundary layer processes improves the simulated SWCF in tropical and subtropical regions in GAMIL2.