东海与黑潮海水中宇宙射线成因核素10Be的研究

讨论了中日东海MASFLEX合作计划中调查的东海及冲绳海槽海水中溶解态10Be浓度水平及垂直剖面的结果，在这个海区，影响10Be浓度的因素主要有生物生产力，悬浮颗粒物的再溶解，以及长江水与黑潮水的混合程度。在样品采集期间（夏季和秋季），东海水柱呈分层状态，通常10Be的垂直剖面可以分成三层，即表面混合层，10Be释放层和底层，表层水10Be的浓度众长江口到黑潮逐渐增大，在黑潮的边缘则剧烈增大，10Be的垂直分布表明，在夏季10Be富集在长江口附近和大陆架中部的底层水中，这两个富集海区是分开的，很可能是由大陆沿岸水所隔开，在秋季，10Be在底层水中的富集仅仅出现在东海大陆架的西部，这个现象是和受季风影响的东海海流的变化相一致的，黑潮分支在台湾东北外海向东海南部侵入对10Be的影响要比黑潮主干流本身更加重要显著，由箱式模型所得到的10Be质量平衡计算结果表明，来自黑潮的10Be输入要比长江及大气沉降的输入更为重要，输入东海的10Be大约81％进入到沉积物中，而19％的10Be则通过海流和水交换流出东海，在东海的10Be沉积通量是10Be全球平均大气生产率的5倍左右，因而东海是10Be的一个重要汇集地。     

234 Th示踪法测定北太平洋西北海域冬季真光层中颗粒态有机碳输出通量

讨论了1997年冬季在北太平洋西北海域7个站位的表层至200m水深水柱中溶解及颗粒态234Th,颗粒态有机碳(POC)、氮(PON)及叶绿素a浓度的垂直分布剖面.溶解态、颗粒态及总的234Th的放射性在真光层中显著低于母体238U的放射性,总的234Th放射性在水深大于100m时趋于平衡.利用234Th-238U在海洋表层海水中的放射性不平衡推导出了北太平洋西北海域冬季真光层海水中234Th的平均停留时间和输出通量以及颗粒态有机碳和有机氮的输出通量.在亚北极环流区溶解态234Th的停留时间为40~50d,而在黑潮-亲潮共同影响区为20d左右.颗粒态有机碳和有机氮从真光层的输出通量范围分别为3.8~8.2和0.50~0.98mmol/(m2·d),西部海区高于东部海区,南部海区高于北部海区.在黑潮-亲潮共同影响区较高的颗粒态有机碳输出通量表明光照量及陆源营养盐物质的提供是两个决定生产力的主要因素.叶绿素a的水深分布和POC/PON的值同Redfield的比值的一致性表明这个海区的冬季颗粒物主要由浮游植物构成.北太平洋西北海域在冬季的颗粒有机碳输出通量可高于世界大洋一些海区春、夏季的颗粒有机碳输出通量.     

Without power? Landslide inventories in the face of climate change

Projected scenarios of climate change involve general predictions about the likely changes to the magnitude and frequency of landslides, particularly as a consequence of altered precipitation and temperature regimes. Whether such landslide response to contemporary or past climate change may be captured in differing scaling statistics of landslide size distributions and the erosion rates derived thereof remains debated. We test this notion with simple Monte Carlo and bootstrap simulations of statistical models commonly used to characterize empirical landslide size distributions. Our results show that significant changes to total volumes contained in such inventories may be masked by statistically indistinguishable scaling parameters, critically depending on, among others, the size of the largest of landslides recorded. Conversely, comparable model parameter values may obscure significant, i.e. more than twofold, changes to landslide occurrence, and thus inferred rates of hillslope denudation and sediment delivery to drainage networks. A time series of some of Earth's largest mass movements reveals clustering near and partly before the last glacial‐interglacial transition and a distinct step‐over from white noise to temporal clustering around this period. However, elucidating whether this is a distinct signal of first‐order climate‐change impact on slope stability or simply coincides with a transition from short‐term statistical noise to long‐term steady‐state conditions remains an important research challenge. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial correspondence of knickzones and stream confluences along bedrock rivers in Japan: implications for hydraulic formation of knickzones

Knickzones, defined here as locally steep reaches including distinct knickpoints, in bedrock river morphology, have often been investigated in relation to local anomalies in lithology, tectonics, hydraulics, climate and associated base‐level change, and/or deformation of valley‐side slopes. However, exact formative causes of many knickzones in a humid, tectonically active island arc remain unclear. Using databases of geology, streams and knickzones, we examine knickzone distribution across the Japanese Archipelago to evaluate the effects of the stream network structure and rock type boundaries on knickzone formation. Knickzones are frequently found just upstream and downstream of major stream confluences along mainstreams, whereas knickzones are less frequent around major rock type boundaries. While the major confluences do not form hanging valleys due to similar catchment size, this observation suggests that many knickzones have been formed by the long‐term effect of flow turbulence scouring bedrock at the confluences. Such a hydraulic control on bedrock erosion in the steep Japanese mountains under humid climate conditions indicates that the formative cause of many knickzones therein can be autogenic by means of stream hydraulics.     

Semianalytical models of sprite formation from plasma inhomogeneities

A spherical plasma inhomogeneity located at mesospheric altitudes in a thundercloud quasi-electrostatic field is considered as a possible cause of sprite formation. A simple semianalytical model of ionization instability in a quasi-electrostatic field, the value of which is larger than the air breakdown value, is developed on the assumption that plasma ball conductivity is controlled by impact ionization and electron attachment to neutrals. After several simplifications, the problem is reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations for the average conductivity and plasma ball radius. The analytical estimates and numerical simulation indicate that the predicted expansion rate and acceleration of the plasma inhomogeneity boundary are close in magnitude to the values observed during high-speed imaging of sprite development.     

Performances of Landfill Liners under Dry and Wet Conditions

This paper addresses the study conducted on the performance of landfill liner interface parameters. Interface shear strength parameters for various combinations of 9 different lining materials were studied and presented in this paper. This comprehensive testing program covers the interfaces between: (1) soil and compacted clay liner (CCL), (2) geomembrane (HDPEs or PVC) and soil, (3) geosynthetic clay liner (GCL)/CCL and soil, (4) geomembrane and geotextile, (5) geotextile and soil, (6) geotextile and GCL/CCL, and (7) geomembrane and GCL/CCL. The experiments were conducted for both at dry or optimum moisture condition and at saturated or wet condition. The interface performance under both conditions were compared to access the material performances. Tabulated summaries of interface test data under dry or optimum moisture condition (OMO) and saturated or wet condition are presented in the paper.