Three-dimensional mesoscale eddy identification and tracking algorithm based on pressure anomalies

Journal of Oceanology and Limnology - The Kuroshio Extension (KE) is one of the most eddy-energetic regions in the global ocean. However, most mesoscale eddy studies in the region are focused on...     

Changes in Land Use and Agricultural Production Structure Before and After the Implementation of Grain for Green Program in Western China–Taking Two Typical Counties as Examples

Soil erosion becomes a serious environmental problem in the world, especially in western China. An effective management practice called the Grain for Green Program （GGP）, which was launched in 1999, aims to reduce soil and water loss and alleviate the ecological environment problem in western China. Two typical counties in western China, the Zhongxian （in Chongqing Municipality） and Ansai （in Shaanxi Province） were chosen to evaluate the dynamic changes of land use and agricultural production structure before and after the implementation of the Program in this paper. The results showed that the cultivated land area was reduced by 7.08% from 1989 to 2003. The cultivated land per person was decreased by 8.42% during 1999-2003. Moreover, the stability index of the secondary sector of the economy was increased from 0.91 in the period 1990-1999 to 0.94 in the following ten years. In addition, the stability index of tertiary economic sector increased from 0.88 to 0.92 in Zhongxian county. Meanwhile, the cultivated land area was reduced by 15.48% from 1990 to 1999. The soil erosion modulus was decreased by 33.33% from 1999 to 2006. Also, the stability index of secondary and tertiary economic sectors was 0.86 in the period 1998-2002. However, it decreased by 77% during 2002 to 2007 in Ansai County. These results imply that the Grain for Green Program had different impact on the two regions. Several effective strategies of soil and water conservation have been carried out to ameliorate the sustainable development of ecological environment and economy in these two counties of western China.     

汉江上游3200-2800aBP特大古洪水重建研究(英文)

Palaeoflood hydrology study is a leading subject in global change study. Through field investigation in the upper reaches of Hanjiang River, palaeoflood slackwater deposits(SWD) were found in the bedrock gorges of the Yunxi reach. The results of field observation, laboratory analysis including particle-size distribution and magnetic susceptibility, and comparison with modern flood deposits, the SWD were identified as the most typical Holocene palaeoflood deposits of the Hanjiang River. By using stratigraphic correlation and OSL dating method, the palaeoflood event was dated to be 3200–2800 a BP at the turn from the middle to late Holocene. According to the palaeoflood peak stage and hydraulic parameters, the peak discharges of the palaeoflood were reconstructed as 48,830–51,710 m3/s by using the slope-area method. At same time, the flood peak discharges of 1983, 2005 and 2010 severe floods were reconstructed with the same method and hydraulic parameters in the same cross section. The error between the reconstructed and gauged discharges was 1.99%–4.21%. This showed that the reconstructed palaeoflood peak discharges were reliable. The flood peak discharge-frequency relationship at 10,000-year time scale was established by a combination of the gauged flood, historical flood and palaeoflood hydrological data. These results are very important for hydraulic engineering and flood mitigation on the Hanjiang River.     

不同生境下红砂(Reaumuria soongorica)的生理生化特征及适应性

测定了荒漠地区超旱生小灌木红砂在3种生境(山前荒漠、山前戈壁和中游戈壁)下的叶片水分状态、抗氧化酶活性及渗透调节物质含量,以探讨荒漠植物在不同生境下的生理生化特征及对荒漠极端环境的适应机制。结果表明:在3种生境下,红砂叶片相对含水量和叶片水势随着土壤含水量的下降而下降,叶绿素含量随着土壤含水量的下降而升高。随着生境土壤干旱的加剧,超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)及过氧化物酶(POD)活性逐渐升高,而过氧化氢酶活性下降。在土壤含水量较少的戈壁生境,渗透调节物质含量上升。SOD和POD活性的升高是红砂抵御干旱环境的主要抗氧化保护机制;渗透调节在红砂叶片适应干旱胁迫的过程中发挥着重要作用,高的渗透调节能力使红砂在水分不足的条件下维持较低的渗透势,有利于植物吸水,从而增强其耐旱性。     

南极普里兹湾可培养浮游细菌群落结构研究

针对南极普里兹湾内达恩利角附近海域的3个测站共12份海水样品,采用寡营养培养基分离培养极地浮游细菌,通过PCR方法获取其中95株细菌的16S rRNA基因序列。序列分析结果表明,分离获得的95株细菌分属α-变形杆菌纲(Alphaproteobactia)、γ-变形杆菌纲(Gammaproteobacteria)和拟杆菌门(Bacteroidetes)3个类群下的35个不同分类单元,其中α-变形杆菌纲为优势细菌,在不同水层中所占的比例为52.6%—62.5%。通过Shannon多样性指数分析发现,南极普里兹湾陆架区测站P2-14多样性指数较陆坡区两测站P2-11和P2-8的高,细菌多样性与浮游植物量和生产力水平呈现正相关。表层细菌Shannon多样性指数最低,50 m水层最高,100和200 m水层多样性指数变化不明显,真光层水体中细菌垂直分布与营养盐和溶解氧浓度存在关联。此外,采用寡营养陈海水培养基,还获得了一些与已报道的16S rRNA基因序列相似性较低的菌株,它们代表了微生物新物种,可能也是南极真光层特有的细菌。研究工作表明,南极普里兹湾真光层水体中蕴藏着丰富的浮游细菌资源,它们有待保护、开发和利用。     

A new insight into land use classification based on aggregated mobile phone data

Land-use classification is essential for urban planning. Urban land-use types can be differentiated either by their physical characteristics (such as reflectivity and texture) or social functions. Remote sensing techniques have been recognized as a vital method for urban land-use classification because of their ability to capture the physical characteristics of land use. Although significant progress has been achieved in remote sensing methods designed for urban land-use classification, most techniques focus on physical characteristics, whereas knowledge of social functions is not adequately used. Owing to the wide usage of mobile phones, the activities of residents, which can be retrieved from the mobile phone data, can be determined in order to indicate the social function of land use. This could bring about the opportunity to derive land-use information from mobile phone data. To verify the application of this new data source to urban land-use classification, we first construct a vector of aggregated mobile phone data to characterize land-use types. This vector is composed of two aspects: the normalized hourly call volume and the total call volume. A semi-supervised fuzzy c-means clustering approach is then applied to infer the land-use types. The method is validated using mobile phone data collected in Singapore. Land use is determined with a detection rate of 58.03%. An analysis of the land-use classification results shows that the detection rate decreases as the heterogeneity of land use increases, and increases as the density of cell phone towers increases.     

New advances in the study of Alpine glaciations

The European Alps is the birthplace of glaciology and in particular Quaternary glaciology and for over one hundred years has been a model region for studying mountain glaciations. In this paper, we review the achievements from this region, which will benefit glaciological studies of the Tibetan Plateau, China. According to new evidences of glaciofluvial de- posits discovered in valleys and forelands of the Alps, researchers have progressed from an original four Pleistocene gla- ciations to seven glaciations： Biber, Donua, Gtinz, Haslach, Mindel, Riss and WOrm. The earliest one Biber possibly oc- curred between the Pliocene and Pleistocene, but the chronology before Riss is still in doubt. Recent years, Riss and Wtirm glaciations have been supported by a large numbers of cosmogenic exposure dating. In particular, cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating has been carried out for different moraine boulders in numerous valleys, which reveals a series of climatic change events, and they are comparable to post-glacial age records of northern Europe. The advancement of glaciological studies in the Alps is important in promoting glaciological research in the Tibetan Plateau.     

Perceptions of climate change in China: The research and policy connection

Global climate change has evolved from a scientific problem into an economic and political problem oI worlOwloe rater- est. National perspectives play a crucial role in addressing climate change. Mutual understanding of perspectives is nec- essary to result in rational policies and a consensus among stakeholders with divergent interests. Conceptual frameworks for understanding the problem of climate change in China, the largest developing country and the largest greenhouse gas emitter, are of great significance to national and international efforts to address the problems of climate change. Chinese perceptions of climate change as a sustainable development problem have recently been in tension with an emerging Western perspective that frames climate change as a security issue. This paper explores Chinese perceptions of climate change as expressed in recent governmental policy statements, public opinion surveys, and academic scholarship with a focus on publications in Chinese-language journals, often unfamiliar in the West. It looks at the relationship between Chinese research and policy and finds that the Chinese policy frame of climate change as a sustainable development problem draws from the body of domestic research and is reflective of the perspectives and multidisciplinary approach of Chinese researchers in areas of climate change.     

Effects of an artificial oyster shell reef on macrobenthic communities in Rongcheng Bay,East China

An artificial oyster shell reef was deployed in Rongcheng Bay, East China. However, the effects of this reef on the surrounding macrobenthic communities were unknown. We compared sedimentary factors, macrobenthic biomass, abundance, and community composition and ecological indicators between the reef and non-reef areas over a one year period. The mean values for chlorophyll a （Chl a）, total organic matter （TOM）, total organic carbon （TOC）, and total nitrogen （TN） content in surface sediments in the reef area were slightly higher than those in the non-reef area. The Chl a levels differed significantly between the two areas, but the TOM, TOC, and TN were not significantly different. The abundance of crustaceans was significantly different between the two areas, but the abundance and biomass ofpolychaetes, echinoderms, mollusk did not differ significantly. The permutational multivariate analysis of variance （PERMANOVA） revealed that the macrobenthic community differed significantly through time and analysis of similarity multivariate analyses （ANOSIM） revealed that the macrobenthic community differed significantly in some months. The ecological indicators revealed that the environmental quality of the reef area was slightly better than that of the non-reef area. Overall, our results suggest that the artificial oyster shell reef may change the macrobenthic community and the quality of the environment. Despite the lack of an effect in the short term, long-term monitoring is still needed to evaluate the effects of artificial oyster shell reefs on macrobenthic communities.     

Assessing seawater quality with a variable fuzzy recognition model

With the rapid development of the marine economy industry, human exploitation of marine resources is increasing, which is contributing to the growing trend of eutrophication and frequent occurrence of red tide. Accordingly, investigations of seawater quality have attracted a great deal of attention. This study was conducted to construct a seawater environmental quality assessment model based on the variable fuzzy recognition model. The uncertainty and ambiguity of the seawater quality assessment were then considered, combining the monitoring values of evaluation indicators with the standard values of seawater quality. Laizhou Bay was subsequently selected for a case study. In this study, the correct variable model for different parameters was obtained according to the linear and nonlinear features of evaluation objects. Application of the variable fuzzy recognition model for Laizhou Bay, water quality evaluation and comparison with performance obtained using other approaches revealed that the generated model is more reliable than traditional methods, can more reasonably determine the water quality of various samples, and is more suitable for evaluation of a multi-index, multi-level, nonlinear marine environment system; accordingly, the generated model will be an effective tool for seawater quality evaluation.