香港一富营养河港内的底泥耗氧和营养盐释放

Tolo Harbour has received massive discharges of municipal sewage, agricultural wastes and cottage industrial effluents, via three river systems, in the past two decades before the mid Eighties. The Harbour is almost land locked and poorly flushed. The soft sediment acted as a sink for nutrients and organic pollutants. After a decade of efforts in establishing and enforcing water pollution control legislations and upgrading wastewater treatment facilities, the sediments have turned into sources of nutrients and exert a measurable oxygen demand upon the overlying waters. In vitro measurements showed that the sediments oxygen demand (SOD) was between 17.6 and 54.3 mgo₂ · m^-2 · h^-1. The maximum rates of release of ortho-phosphate phosphorus and ammonia nitrogen were 15.0 and 206.0 mg · m^-2 · h^-1, respectively.     

Geomorphological, geochemical and geo-environmental aspects of karstification in the urban areas of Kerman city, southeastern, Iran

Kerman city has a semiarid-arid climate with an average annual precipitation of about 158 mm. The area is underlain by soluble subsoil and alluvial deposits, overlying highly fractured Cretaceous limestones. Geo-environmental studies indicate that both paleokarst and active karst features are developed in the area. The paleokarsts were developed in the Upper Cretaceous limestone during the cold, humid periods of Post Cretaceous and probably Early Quaternary time and include honeycombs, solution flutes, rillenkarren, caverns, and solution collapse dolines. Active karst landforms occur by combined piping-induced and limestone solution at depth in subsoils, and alluvial deposits and bajada that overly potent karstic limestones and cover subsidence sinkholes and subjacent alluvial karst collapse dolines. Many factors, such as soluble compounds (salt and gypsum), desiccation cracks, and Qanat (dug water wells), could contribute to the development of karstic landforms. The most immediate cause for active karst landforms is considered to be the drawdown of the water table in the area. There is an increasing demand for groundwater consumption to irrigate pistachio fields. Excessive pumping of the groundwater lowers the water table about 80 cm per year. This rate of drawdown accelerates land subsidence (about 6 cm per year), creates circular patterns of fractures in the ground and in buildings, disrupts agricultural work and urbanization projects, and tilts foundations. These geohazards indicate that ground sinking and karstification are in progress in the alluvial deposits and underlying limestones. The disturbance and expense caused by the geohazards could be mitigated by the application of overhead sprinkler irrigation for pistachio fields or by planting less thirsty plants.     

Uranium (U) concentration and its genetic significance in the phosphorites of the Paleoproterozoic Bijawar Group of the Lalitpur district,Uttar Pradesh,India

The paper presents the uranium (U) concentration and distribution pattern in the Paleoproterozoic phosphorites of Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The study of thin sections, SEM and XRD reveal that apatite is the essential phosphate mineral while quartz and feldspars are the dominant gangue in the phosphorites of the investigated area. The collophane is observed to be mostly oolitic in form and microspherulitic in texture. The major element geochemistry indicated that the phosphorite samples are rich in P₂O₅, CaO, SiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ whereas depletion of MgO, MnO, K₂O and Al₂O₃ was observed. The CaO/P₂O₅ ratio ranges from 1.13 to 1.46 which is slightly lower than that of cations and anions substituted francolite (1.621) and close to that of carbonate-fluorapatite (1.318). The trace element geochemistry indicates that the phosphorites of Lalitpur have the significant range of U concentration (1.67 to 129.67 μg/g) which is more than that of Th (0.69 to 0.09 μg/g) among the analysed trace elements in the phosphorite samples of the area. The positive correlation of U with P₂O₅, CaO and U/P₂O₅ indicates a close association of U with phosphate minerals like collophane (apatite), whereas negative correlation of U with SiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ may be due to mutual replacement. The antipathetic relationship of U with Ni may be an indication of high oxidizing conditions, whereas sympathetic relationship of U with K₂O points towards higher alkaline conditions of the basin of deposition during phosphatization. The variable concentration of U and its relationship with significant major and trace elements in most of the phosphorite samples lead one to believe that the deposition of these phosphorites might have taken place in highly alkaline medium during fairly oxidizing to weakly reducing environmental conditions of geosynclinal basin.     

A minimalistic approach for evapotranspiration estimation using the Prophet model

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of the recently introduced Prophet model for estimating reference evapotranspiration (ETo). A comparative study was conducted for benchmarking the model results with support vector regression (SVR) and temperature-based empirical models (Thornthwaite and Hargreaves) in southern Japan. The performance of the Prophet, SVR and temperature-based empirical models was evaluated by Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and coefficient of determination (R²). The results indicate that temperature-based Prophet and SVR models have greater accuracy than the empirical models. The Prophet model with sole input of relative humidity, sunshine hours or windspeed showed acceptable accuracy (NSE > 0.80; R² > 0.80), while SVR models with similar inputs showed greater errors. Accuracy improved with increasing number of input parameters, giving excellent performance (NSE > 0.95; R² > 0.95) with all input parameters. Hence, the Prophet model is a new promising approach for modelling ETo with limited input variables.     

Physical disturbance creates bacterial dominance of benthic biological communities in tropical deltaic environments of the Gulf of Papua

Unlike many reactive continental shelf mud deposits in temperate regions, bacteria and microfauna rather than macrofauna typically dominate benthic biomass and activities over large areas of the Gulf of Papua (GoP) deltaic complex, Papua New Guinea. During mid NW monsoon periods (Jan–Feb), macrofaunal densities at Gulf stations were relatively low (), large macroinfauna were absent (upper 25 cm), and small (), surface deposit-feeding polychaetes and tubiculous amphipods were dominant, reflecting a frequently destabilized seabed and high sedimentation/erosion rates. Although frequent physical disturbance generally inhibits development of macrobenthic communities, some regions of the Gulf deposits are periodically colonized and extensively bioturbated during quiescent periods, as shown by preserved biogenic sedimentary structures. Bacterial inventories integrated over the top 20 cm were extremely variable within each sub region of the clinoform complex. A possible bimodal pattern with bathymetric depth and distance offshore may occur: lowest-inventories within the sandy, proximal Fly River delta, an open Gulf inner topset zone (10–20 m) having sites of relatively high inventories, an open Gulf mid-topset region with intermediate values and less extreme variation, and the outer topset—upper foreset zone (40–50 m) where highest values are attained (). Various measures of microbial activity, including measures proportional to the cellular rRNA content and the proportion of dividing cells, indicate extremely productive populations over the upper 1-m of the seabed throughout the Gulf of Papua region. Bacterial biomass (0–20 cm) including data of Alongi et al. (1991, 1992, 1995) varied from a low of in intertidal mud banks to a high of in the topset—foreset zone. Macrofaunal biomass did not exceed in any sampled region, ranging from 0.009±0 to with no obvious correlation with bathymetric depth (1–63 m). Meiofaunal biomass was generally an order of magnitude lower than macrofaunal biomass. Relatively elevated bacterial biomass and high turnover rates are consistent with high measured rates of benthic remineralization, presumably reflecting the rapid response time of bacteria to physical reworking, the associated entrainment of organic substrate, and flushing of metabolites. Solute exchange is also enhanced below the directly mixed surface region, possibly producing ‘far field’ stimulation of microbes in underlying deposits. Physical reworking and reoxidation of sediments between 10 and 50 m water depth maintain suboxic, nonsulfidic conditions in the upper 0.5–1 m despite active microbial communities and high benthic remineralization rates.     

Summer temperature variability across four urban neighborhoods in Knoxville,Tennessee, USA

The urban heat island (UHI) is a well-documented effect of urbanization on local climate, identified by higher temperatures compared to surrounding areas, especially at night and during the warm season. The details of a UHI are city-specific, and microclimates may even exist within a given city. Thus, investigating the spatiotemporal variability of a city’s UHI is an ongoing and critical research need. We deploy ten weather stations across Knoxville, Tennessee, to analyze the city’s UHI and its differential impacts across urban neighborhoods: two each in four neighborhoods, one in more dense tree cover and one in less dense tree cover, and one each in downtown Knoxville and Ijams Nature Center that serve as control locations. Three months of temperature data (beginning 2 July 2014) are analyzed using paired-sample t tests and a three-way analysis of variance. Major findings include the following: (1) Within a given neighborhood, tree cover helps negate daytime heat (resulting in up to 1.19 ^°C lower maximum temperature), but does not have as large of an influence on minimum temperature; (2) largest temperature differences between neighborhoods occur during the day (0.38–1.16 ^°C difference), but larger differences between neighborhoods and the downtown control occur at night (1.04–1.88 ^°C difference); (3) presiding weather (i.e., air mass type) has a significant, consistent impact on the temperature in a given city, and lacks the differential impacts found at a larger-scale in previous studies; (4) distance from city center does not impact temperature as much as land use factors. This is a preliminary step towards informing local planning with a scientific understanding of how mitigation strategies may help minimize the UHI and reduce the effects of extreme weather on public health and well-being.     

Statistics of low frequency currents over the western Norwegian shelf and slope II: Model

We examine velocity statistics from a numerical simulation of the Nordic Seas with 4 km resolution, with a focus on the Norwegian shelf and slope. The model mean flow is dominated by its version of the Norwegian Atlantic Current, with two branches, one near the shelfbreak and the other near the 2000 m isobath. The model variances are surface-intensified and increase with water depth over the shelf; the variance ellipses also indicate topographic steering. Seasonality is more pronounced on the shelf than on the slope and the velocity probability distributions are weakly non-Gaussian, reflecting an excess of extreme velocities. All these aspects are broadly consistent with the observations. There are, however, differences with the observations. The topographic steering of the mean flow and of the variance ellipses is less pronounced in the model, a probable consequence of the model bathymetry, etopo5, being too smooth. The temporal and spatial coherence scales are too large by about a factor of 2, probably due to the model resolution. And correlations between velocity time series from the model and in situ moorings are generally small, despite the model having realistic forcing. The low predictability presumably reflects the degree of chaos in the flow and highlights the need for data assimilation.     

Rockfalls and rockfall inventory data: Some observations from surprise valley,Jasper National Park,Canada

The major controls of rockfall activity are divided into two interacting groups. (a)Climatic factors which, through their control of temperatures and the availability and state of water, are primary controls of rockfall trigger mechanisms. (b) Geologic factors which, via cliff form (plan, profile, dissection etc.) and the character and availability of materials, influence the type, spatial distribution and intensity of rockfall activity. Detailed examination of these controls suggest that both seasonal and daily patterns of rockfall activity can vary markedly over a very small area. The implications of this variability for the design and interpretation of rockfall inventories are discussed using sample data from Surprise Valley, Jasper National Park, for the period from May-October 1969. On a seasonal basis rockfall activity showed a major spring peak with secondary maxima in the fall and associated with major summer storms. Two sites of differing aspect and morphology were studied in more detail revealing marked differences in the mean hourly frequency (0·94:0·20), mean hourly probability (0·40:0·16, hours with rockfall/hours observed) and daily pattern of rockfall activity. The west facing site showed equal hourly probability of rockfalls from 10⁰⁰ to 20⁰⁰ hr whereas the east facing slope had a greater hourly probability when it was in the sun (11⁰⁰ 14⁰⁰hr) than in the shade (14⁰⁰-19⁰⁰hr). The differences in rockfall frequency and probabilities reflect the physical characteristics of the individual sites whereas the daily pattern of rockfalls is related to microclimate. These results suggest that if future inventory studies are to make a significant contribution, they must be carefully designed field experiments in which. (i) Data are restricted to the study or comparison of single continuously observed sites. (ii) Study sites and/or data periods are carefully selected to isolate and investigate specific controls e.g. the influence of cliff form, aspect, periods of rainfall etc. on rockfall patterns. (iii) Good on-site microclimate data are available. Also comparison of frequency measures based on the arithmetic mean should be avoided since the distribution of rockfalls per hour closely follows a Poisson distribution with occasional high values which unduly influence the value of the arithmetic mean. It is suggested that rockfall probabilities, based on the binary decision of whether or not a rockfall occurs in a given period, are a more useful measure for daily patterns of rockfall activity.     

PCA and SVM as geo-computational methods for geological mapping in the southern of Tunisia,using ASTER remote sensing data set

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficiency of Advanced Space Borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data in the discrimination of geological formations and the generation of geological map in the northern margin of the Tunisian desert. The nine ASTER bands covering the visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral regions (wavelength range of 400–2500 nm) have been treated and analyzed. As a first step of data processing, crosstalk correction, resampling, orthorectification, atmospheric correction, and radiometric normalization have been applied to the ASTER radiance data. Then, to decrease the redundancy information in highly correlated bands, the principal component analysis (PCA) has been applied on the nine ASTER bands. The results of PCA allow the validation and the rectification of the lithological boundaries already published on the geologic map, and gives a new information for identifying new lithological units corresponding to superficial formations previously undiscovered. The application of a supervised classification on the principal components image using a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm shows good correlation with the reference geologic map. The overall classification accuracy is 73 % and the kappa coefficient equals to 0.71. The processing of ASTER remote sensing data set by PCA and SVM can be employed as an effective tool for geological mapping in arid regions.