A UK perspective on the development of marine ecosystem indicators

This paper reviews the suite of marine ecosystem indicators currently in use or under development in the UK to support the major national and international biodiversity and ecosystem policies. Indicators apply to a range of different ecosystem components, and range from those that can only be used for high level environmental health monitoring, to those which actively support management. Assessment of indicators against a management framework of driving force, pressure, state, impact and response, has shown that there are many indicators of state for ecosystem components, but relatively few for pressure of human activities on the environment, or of the socio-economic response to those pressures. This outcome, a result of unplanned sectorally driven indicator development, is not a co-ordinated contribution to marine environmental management and must be addressed if we are to avoid high monitoring costs and duplication of effort.     

Tectonic significance of Late Neoproterozoic granites from the Tibesti massif in southern Libya inferred from Sr and Nd isotopes and U–Pb zircon data

The Neoproterozoic crust of the Tibesti massif was stabilized by magmatism that included subduction-generated batholithic suites and post-orogenic granite plutons. All of the magmatism occurred in a period of about 20 million years centered around 550 Ma, and nearly all of the granites have initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of about 0.706. The Wadi Yebigue pluton has U–Pb zircon ages of 563 Ma and 558 Ma on two different phases and ε_Nd at 550 Ma from −0.5 to −2.2. These isotopic data and the geologic history of the massif suggest that granites in the Tibesti massif developed during and shortly after closure of a short-lived ocean basin that developed by fragmentation of pre-existing continental crust of the Saharan region.     

Assessing the suitability of OSPAR EcoQOs for eutrophication vs ICES criteria for England and Wales

This paper provides a preliminary evaluation of the suitability of OSPAR Ecological Quality objectives for eutrophication for coastal and offshore waters of England and Wales on the basis of ICES criteria. In principle, EcoQOs are easy to understand, but responses to nutrient enrichment are complex. Few studies provide unequivocal evidence of links between inputs and response. Monitoring is generally feasible and in place, but needs to be improved. The best EcoQO is winter nutrient concentrations. Chlorophyll concentrations are a good indicator in environments susceptible to nutrient enrichment. The EcoQO for zoobenthos/fish kills potentially meets all criteria for a good indicator; EcoQOs for phytoplankton indicator species, oxygen concentrations and zoobenthos changes do not. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on seasonal effects of nutrient inputs and phytoplankton response, natural susceptibility of different water bodies, differences between coastal and offshore environments, and developing longer time series of data.     

Associations of Vertebrate Skeletal Concentrations and Discontinuity Surfaces in Terrestrial and Shallow Marine Records: A Test in the Cretaceous of Montana

Although lags of bones and teeth are commonly cited criteria for marine unconformities, the consistency of the association of vertebrate fossils and discontinuity surfaces, as well as the taphonomic (postmortem) controls on this relationship, are poorly understood. A field test across fluvial, paralic, and shallow marine facies in the Campanian Two Medicine and Judith River formations of Montana indicates that the distribution of vertebrate skeletal concentrations is poorly correlated with the inferred durations of erosional and omissional hiatuses. Instead, vertebrate concentrations associated with discontinuities of all durations tend to be patchy and closely track the abundance of fossil material in underlying and lateral facies. Based on the analysis of 83 measured sections, we found first that erosional bases of channels and minor scours within channels yield vertebrate lags; tidally influenced fluvial deposits are more productive than are "upland" fluvial deposits. Second, erosional shoreface ravinements and their correlative transgressive marine flooding surfaces (fourth-order sequence boundaries) have well-developed vertebrate lags only along segments that cut across older shoreface deposits. Third, a nonerosional, widely traceable discontinuity, which is interpreted as the nonmarine extension of a 75.4-Ma third-order transgressive surface, is completely lacking in vertebrate concentrations. Despite being unfossiliferous itself, this discontinuity does mark a regional change in the richness of the vertebrate fossil record, with overlying beds characterized by a much greater abundance of skeletal material. Fourth, a laterally extensive set of erosional surfaces, embedded within multistory fluvial sandstone sheets, is the nonmarine extension of an 80-Ma third-order sequence boundary in the marine basin and lacks vertebrate concentrations. The strong dependence of vertebrate lag development on preexisting local sources of skeletal material rather than on the magnitude of the erosional vacuity or the duration of the hiatus contrasts with skeletal concentrations of invertebrates in marine successions, where exhumation is generally much less important than the production of new elements during the hiatus. These findings provide a guide to prospecting productive fossil horizons in terrestrial records and underscore fundamental differences in the ways in which bioclastic material accumulates in terrestrial and shallow marine settings, the qualities of paleobiologic data derived from such concentrations, and the relative reliabilities of skeletal material as cues to stratigraphically significant discontinuities.     

焦作市用电负荷气象指数预报方法

根据用电负荷与气象要素关系,选取了预报因子,建立了焦作市用电负荷气象指数预报方法,2003年以来预报准确率达到83.2%.     

额济纳绿洲夏末典型晴天小气候特征分析

绿洲系统特有的地理地貌形成了绿洲特殊的小气候特征。利用额济纳绿洲2003年9月8～10日小气候观测资料，分析了绿洲柽柳林的小气候特征。在柽柳林内，地表和近地层大气温度有明显的日变化，日间地表给大气加热，大气温度呈超绝热递减率随高度递减；夜间大气给地表加热，大气为稳定层结。近地层空气湿度的日变化与温度相反。林内空气温度的垂直分布主要取决于冠层与地表吸收太阳辐射状况。在林冠顶层，白天以上升气流为主，夜间以下沉气流为主，绿洲荒漠环流效应已经不明显。绿洲上空大气浑浊度小，对太阳辐射的削减较少，绿洲具有很好的光资源背景。     

采场支承压力分布规律的数值模拟研究

采用FLAC-3D软件模拟了在煤层开采过程中采场支承压力的动态变化、依据数值模拟结果,拟合了支承压力集中系数与工作面推进距离的关系曲线。通过对比分析模拟结果,得出了工作面推进距离和长度及煤层的厚度和埋藏深度对支承压力集中系数和支承压力峰值点距工作面距离的影响程度,进而总结出采场支承压力分布规律,这些规律可为采场巷道维护、防治煤与瓦斯突出和顶煤可放性评价提供依据。     

绿洲荒漠过渡带夏季晴天地表辐射和能量平衡及小气候特征

利用张掖试验基地2006年6月24日至7月17日的加密观测资料,系统分析了夏季典型晴天张掖绿洲荒漠过渡带地表辐射收支和地表能量平衡特征及小气候特征。结果表明:夏季晴天绿洲荒漠过渡带总辐射值还是比较大的,并且净辐射值也很大,这说明绿洲荒漠过渡带地表具有比较充足的可利用热能,为加热大气和土壤提供了必要的热能条件。在地表能量分配中,晴天绿洲荒漠过渡区主要用于大气运动引起的感热交换,其次是土壤交换,用于水蒸发相变的能量相对较小。近地层空气温度和湿度的变化刚好相反。气温白天随高度的增加而递增,夜晚随高度的增加而递减。近地层大气温度变化要比地表温度缓慢。白天土壤辐射增温,越接近地表增温越快,夜间辐射冷却,地表温度下降最为明显。近地层水平风速在白天较大,夜间逐渐减小。在绿洲荒漠过渡带全天以上升气流为主,水平风速随高度增加明显递增。     

Cyclic variations in the angular diameter of χ Cygni

We report the direct detection of cyclic diameter variations in the Mira variable χ Cygni. Interferometric observations made between 1997 July and 1999 September, using the Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope (COAST) and the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), indicate periodic changes in the apparent angular diameter at a wavelength of 905 nm, with amplitude 45 per cent of the smallest value. The star appears largest at minimum light. Measurements made at a wavelength of 1.3 μm over the same period suggest much smaller size changes. This behaviour is consistent with a model in which most of the apparent diameter variation at 905 nm is caused by a large increase in the opacity of the outer atmospheric layers (which is mostly owing to titanium oxide) near minimum light, rather than by physical motions of the photosphere. The 1.3-μm waveband is relatively uncontaminated by TiO, and so much smaller size changes would be expected in this band. The latest non-linear pulsational models predict maximum physical size close to maximum light, and increases in opacity near minimum light that are too small to reproduce the diameter variation seen at 905 nm. This suggests either that the phase-dependence of the model pulsation is incorrect, or that the opacities in the models are underestimated. Future interferometric monitoring in uncontaminated near-infrared wavebands should resolve this question.     

沙枣树干液流的动态研究

利用热平衡方法,研究了黑河下游额济纳绿洲中沙枣(Elaeagnus angustifolia L.)树干液流的特点及其与环境因子的关系,结果表明：①在整个生长季的晴天, 沙枣树干液流的日变化呈现明显的单峰窄峰曲线;液流在10：00时迅速上升,在12：00时达到高峰,14：00时又迅速下降;日累计液流为2.43 L·d－1,白天液流量占全天的92.6%~93.9％,晚上占6.1%~7.4％;由于存在根压,沙枣在夜间有微弱上升液流。② 1月份液流量最小为22.0 L;7月份最大,为76.6 L;非生长季节的液流量占全年液流的35.6％;生长季节占64.4％。③生长季液流速率与环境因子逐步回归分析表明,树干液流受环境因子的综合影响,在日变化中大小依次是净辐射、总辐射、空气温度、风速和相对湿度,相关系数为0.69,决定系数为0.49;在季节变化中影响大小依次是空气温度、总辐射、净辐射、相对湿度和风速,相关系数和决定系数都是0.91。