Defining the geochemical baseline: a case of Hong Kong soils

A geochemical baseline provides the means to distinguish between the pedogenic origin and the anthropogenic origin of the trace element in the environmental compartments. We collected 271 soil samples representative of different parent rocks and soil types from the whole territory of Hong Kong and analyzed the composition of clay mineralogy and the contents of 15 chemical elements (Fe, Cd, As, etc.) for these samples. The baseline was predicted with the method of the normalization procedure combined with the relative cumulative frequency curve. The result indicated that Fe was the best reference element for the normalization procedure among the five potential reference elements (Fe, Al, Sc, Ti, and Mn), followed by Sc and Ti. A poor correlation was found between Sc, Ti, and Cu. The predicted baseline was much lower than the A-value of the Dutch List used usually in screening the polluted soil of Hong Kong, implying that the extent of heavy metal pollution might have been underestimated with respect to local lands. We also applied the cluster analysis to distinguish the geochemical associations of the trace elements due to its importance to the baseline. Approximately three major associations including the Fe–Mn-oxides related, Al oxides or Al-bearing-clay-mineralogy related and sulfide- related associations were observed from the dendrogram.     

Stochastic modelling of soil moisture dynamics in a grassland of Qilian Mountain at point scale

Stochastic modeling of soil moisture dynamics is crucial to the quantitative understanding of plant responses to water stresses,hydrological control of nutrient cycling processes,water competition among plants,and some other ecological dynamics,and thus has become a hotspot in ecohydrology at present.In this paper,we based on the continuously monitored data of soil moisture during 2002―2005 and daily precipitation date of 1992―2006,and tried to make a probabilistic analysis of soil moisture dynamics at point scale in a grassland of Qilian Mountain by integrating the stochastic model improved by Laio and the Monte Carlo method.The results show that the inter-annual variations for the soil moisture patterns at different depths are very significant,and that the coefficient of variance(CV) of surface soil moisture(20 cm) is almost continually kept at about 0.23 whether in the rich or poor rainy years.Interestingly,it has been found that the maximal CV of soil moisture has not always appeared at the surface layer.Comparison of the analytically derived soil moisture probability density function(PDF) with the statistical distribution of the observed soil moisture data suggests that the stochastic model can reasonably describe and predict the soil moisture dynamics of the grassland in Qilian Mountain at point scale.By extracting the statistical information of the historical precipitation data in 1994―2006,and inputting them into the stochastic model,we analytically derived the long-term soil moisture PDF without considering the inter-annual climate fluctuations,and then numerically derived the one when considering the inter-annual fluctuation effects in combination with a Monte-Carlo procedure.It was found that,though the peak position of the probability density distribution significantly moved towards drought when considering the disturbance forces,and its width was narrowed,accordingly its peak value was increased,no significant bimodality was observed in the soil moisture dynamics under the given intensity of random fluctuation disturbance.     

Evolution of vegetation and climate since the last glacial maximum recorded at Dahu peat site, South China

Sporopollen analysis on a 346 cm peat record at Dahu, Jiangxi, chronologically constrained by 16 AMS 14C datings, provides an opportunity to reconstruct the vegetation evolution stages responding to cli-mate change in South China since the last glacial maximum. The result shows that during 18330-15630 cal a B.P., broad-leaved forest dominated the area, corresponding to mild, cool and fairly humid climate. At the interval of 15630-11600 cal a B.P., several evergreen broad-leaved species appeared within the broad-leaved forest, indicating moderate and humid condition. During early Holocene, broad-leaved evergreen forest community was constructed as Castanopsis/Lithorcarpus principally developed, suggesting a warm and humid scenario until 6000 cal a B. P. Since 6000 cal a B. P., abrupt forest deterioration happened with an contemporary increase of fern and herb communities, repre-senting a turnover to relatively cool and dry condition and as well, possible impact from human activi-ties. Meanwhile, several relatively cool and dry events can be identified in the sporopollen record, they can be correlated to the North Atlantic Heinrich event, YD and Holocene millennial-scale oscillations, implying that the low latitude climate was coupled with high latitude influences. Moreover, the varia-tions of temperature and humidity since LGM at Dahu were much smaller when compared with the re-cords in north monsoonal China.     

Late Quaternary clay minerals off Middle Vietnam in the western South China Sea: Implications for source analysis and East Asian monsoon evolution

High-resolution clay mineral records combined with oxygen isotopic stratigraphy over the past 450 ka during late Quaternary from Core MD05-2901 off Middle Vietnam in the western South China Sea are re-ported to reconstruct a history of East Asian monsoon evolution. Variations in Illite, chlorite, and kaolinite contents indicate a strong glacial-interglacial cyclicity, while changes in smectite content present a higher frequency cyclicity. The provenance analysis indicates a mixture of individual clay minerals from various sources surrounding the South China Sea. Smectite derived mainly from the Sunda shelf and its major source area of the Indonesian islands. Illite and chlorite originated mainly from the Mekong and Red rivers. Kaolinite was provided mainly by the Pearl River. Spectral analysis of the kaolin-ite/(illite chlorite) ratio displays a strong eccentricity period of 100 ka, implying the ice sheet-forced win-ter monsoon evolution; whereas higher frequency changes in the smectite content show an ice sheet-forced obliquity period of 41 ka, and precession periods of 23 and 19 ka and a semi-precession period of 13 ka as well, implying the tropical-forced summer monsoon evolution. The winter monsoon evolution is generally in coherence with the glacial-interglacial cyclicity, with intensified winter monsoon winds during glacials and weakened winter monsoon winds during interglacials; whereas the summer monsoon evolution provides an almost linear response to the summer insolation of low latitude in the Northern Hemisphere, with strengthened summer monsoon during higher insolation and weakened summer monsoon during lower insolation. The result suggests that the high-latitude ice sheet and low-latitude tropical factor could drive the late Quaternary evolution of East Asian winter and summer monsoons, respectively, implying their diplex and self-contained forcing mechanism.     

Coal facies evolution of the main minable coal-bed in the Heidaigou Mine,Jungar Coalfield,Inner Mongolia,northern China

The No. 6 Coal-bed from the Heidaigou Mine, Jungar Coalfield, Inner Mongolia is a super-large Ga deposit. The dominant carrier of Ga is boehmite in coal. The study of coal facies may provide genetic enrichment information of Ga and its carrier (boehmite) in the Ga deposit. On the basis of study on coal petrology and mineralogy, it was found that the No. 6 Coal-bed from the Heidaigou Mine of Jungar was enriched in inertinites and the microlitho-types were dominated by clarodurite. The maceral morphological features and association indicate that the coal-bed was formed in a dry sedimentary environment or in a periodic dry sedimentary environment caused by the alternating variations of groundwater level. The optimum conditions for the enrichment of Ga and its particular carrier (boehmite) were dominated by four transitional conditions: (1) the upper delta plain which was the transitional zone between alluvial and lower delta plains, (2) the transitional zone between the dry and wet forest swamps, being slightly apt to the dry one, (3) the transitional tree density between the thick and loose ones, and (4) the low moor that was the transitional zone between two high moors during peat accumulation.     

Robust H∞ control for aseismic structures with uncertainties in model parameters

This paper presents a robust H∞ output feedback control approach for structural systems with uncertainties in model parameters by using available acceleration measurements and proposes conditions for the existence of such a robust output feedback controller. The uncertainties of structural stiffness, damping and mass parameters are assumed to be norm-bounded. The proposed control approach is formulated within the framework of linear matrix inequalities, for which existing convex optimization techniques, such as the LMI toolbox in MATLAB, can be used effectively and conveniently. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust H∞ strategy, a six-story building was subjected both to the 1940 El Centro earthquake record and to a suddenly applied Kanai-Tajimi filtered white noise random excitation. The results show that the proposed robust H∞ controller provides satisfactory results with or without variation of the structural stiffness, damping and mass parameters.     

赴英、法交流访问的情况报告

本文是对欧洲中期数值预报中心（ECMWF）的考察，访问和交流的情况报告，较为详尽地介绍了ECMWF的机构，业务及研究的历史发展情况，同时，结合对法国奥里机场气象台的考察简要介绍了法国气象机构和业务建设以及英法两国气象教育与人才培养的基本情况。     

1997/1998年El Nino/La Nina期间洋流的演变特征和影响的分析

利用ＴＯＧＡ—ＴＡＯ赤道次表层海流与海温观测资料，比较清楚地揭示了１９９７／１９９８年Ｅｌ Ｎｉｎｏ期间在赤道西太平洋暖池上空西风异常的驱动下，次表层异常海流的产生机制和向东传播过程中的变化特征。对比分析了海表、次表层异常海流的两种热力平流过程，即水平温度平流和因海流水平辐合辐散造成的垂直上翻（或下沉）运动对混合层及海表温度异常的贡献，结果证实了后一效应对ＥＮＳＯ发生发展的重要意义。最后还对文中的海流异常是否就是理论分析得到的Ｋｅｌｖｉｎ波在海流场上的反映进行了讨论。     

砂体及其研究价值

本文论述了砂体的意义，砂体的研究价值，砂体的分类，并从多方面阐明了砂体在可地浸砂岩型铀矿找矿工作中的作用。抛砖引玉，力图推进砂体的研究工作，为可地浸砂岩型铀矿的找矿工作服务。     

四川省九寨沟、黄龙等著名旅游地的地球化学特征

通过1：20万区域化探资料的开发，研究了九寨沟、黄龙、峨眉山、乐山大佛、青城山和都江堰等四川省著名旅游胜地的地球化学背景及农业必需元素、生态环境和地热的元素异常发育特征，从地球化学的角度对景区进行了较全面的评价。