Landfill development in the urban fringe of Metro Manila

In low-lying areas of urban and suburban regions in Asia, the use of landfill has allowed urban land use to encroach onto watery landforms, such as back marshes, which were formerly used as rice fields. To improve understanding of the associations between land-use patterns and landfill development, we carried out a case study in the urban fringe of Metro Manila in the Philippines. We examined landfill volume derived from land-use change using GIS, and field surveyed qualitative aspects of the landfill used. We calculated the rate of application of landfill in low-lying housing development areas to be 5.0 × 10³ m³ km^?2 year^?1, most of which consisted of offsite disposal of construction waste or crushed rock produced by urban development and renewal on the adjoining uplands. The flow of fill material from offsite sources to onsite landfill development areas was on the basis of individual agreements between suppliers and developers.     

Are small rodents key promoters of ecosystem restoration in harsh environments? A case study of abandoned croplands on Mongolian grasslands

We focused on the potential contribution of fossorial rodents to recovery of degraded abandoned Mongolian croplands. From field observations and the literature, we determined that plant litter and soil crusting were the main factors preventing establishment or growth of the perennial grass Elymus chinensis (Poaceae) on these croplands. We hypothesized that small fossorial rodents such as Mongolian gerbils promote grass establishment and growth by clearing litter and destroying crusts. We designed a path model linking number of burrows to patch size and plant volume of E. chinensis. As we hypothesized, small rodents increased the patch size of E. chinensis through reduction of litter cover. However, unexpectedly, we could not find significant effects on E. chinensis via crust thickness. Our results suggest that litter removal by the rodents gave E. chinensis suitable space that was free of competitors; this allowed expansion of the E. chinensis patches. Any effect of soil crusting on plant volume could not be explained simply by the variables we used, probably because some other mechanism, such as temporal variation in the crust, was involved. We demonstrate that small rodents are key agents in the recovery of degraded grasslands.     

Studying air pollution with kitt peak solar flux atlas — analysis method and results of observation

For the measurement of atmospheric NO2 vertical column density (VCD), Kitt Peak Solar Flux Atlas can be substituted as an extraterrestrial solar radiation. Compared with differential analysis method, the Taylor expansion of integrated transfer equation underestimates the VCD. This underestimation is as large as 35% when the amount of NO2 is 1 × 1017 cm－2 and observation is conducted with an air mass factor of 10. Even when the VCD is 2 × 1016 cm－2 and the air mass factor is 4, the relative error of the retrieved VCD is still no less than 3%. If the observation is restricted under the small air mass factor condition (≤4), with Kitt Peak Solar spectrum as an extraterrestrial solar radiation, only an atmospheric layer of 2 km thick from ground can be studied, which will make the absorption too weak to be detected by normal instruments.The VCD in winter Tokyo area was observed and analyzed by differential method, which shows a good precision even when the absorption is as low as 3%. The largest average VCD was about 1.3 × 1017 cm－2, and the lowest was about 1.3 × 1016 cm－2. The trend of its variation was almost the same as the ground level observation by Saltzman reagent method.     

Correlation study between suspended particulate matter and DOAS data

Continuous data of aerosol optical thickness monitored using differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) are correlated with the concentration of ground-measured suspended particulate matter (SPM). A high correlation is found between the DOAS and the ground SPM data, making it possible to calculate the mass extinction efficiency of the aerosols in the atmosphere. It is found that the value of mean mass extinction efficiency (MEE) varies over a range of 2.6–13.7m2 g?1, with smaller and larger values occurring for size distributions dominated by coarse and fine particles, respectively.     

大气气溶胶的垂直非均一对向上亮度和卫星遥感地表反射率的效应

均一模式和两层模式是两个忽略气溶胶垂直非均一、并广泛用于卫星遥感的辐射模式。通过两个模式的数值模拟，分析了气溶胶的垂直非均一对向上天空亮度和卫星遥感地面反射率的效应。数值模拟选用了２４个有代表性的气溶胶模式。对于具有强分子散射的卫星短波通道，由于分子和气溶胶散射性的明显不同，应用均一和两层模式计算的向上亮度往往存在较大误差。对长波通道，如果气溶胶的光学特性随高度变化不大，该亮度误差较小，但如果存在不同散射相函数和一次散射反照率的气溶胶层，该误差仍可能较大。对于干净的大气，由均一和两层模式计算的亮度误差可分别高达３１．４％和３１．５％，而对于混浊的大气，该误差可分别高达６７．８％和５９．２％。该亮度误差可以引起地表反射率解存在大的不确定性，特别是对于短波通道和强吸收的气溶胶。对于包含强吸收气溶胶的混浊大气，均一和两层模式不适合于大气订正应用。     

Fatty acids and hydrocarbons in surficial sediments of Lake Huron

Fatty acid and hydrocarbon distributions in surficial sediments from ten locations in southern Lake Huron indicate both aquatic and terrigenous recent biological sources of these geolipid materials. Normal alkanoic acids appear to be derived primarily from aquatic sources whereas normal alkanes are from multiple origins. Geolipid distributions are determined by the nature of the biogenic source and are modified during transport and deposition. Sediments receiving urban runoff in Saginaw Bay contain large amounts of non-biogenic hydrocarbons of a petroleum or industrial nature.     

Sea-floor fissures, biological communities and sediment fatty acids of the Northern Okushiri Ridge, Japan Sea: Implications for possible methane seepage

A biological community was discovered in the Northern Okushiri Ridge, northeastern Japan Sea. The community was closely associated with sea-floor fissures, and presumed to be supported by methanotrophic and/or thiotrophic bacterial production. Sediments inside of and in the vicinity of the fissures were collected, and the short-chain (C_9–20) sediment fatty acids were analyzed for amounts and compositions. The fatty acid compositions were compared with those from a known methane seep and a submarine volcano in the Sagami Bay, central Japan, and from a whale skeleton at the Torishima Seamount, northwestern Pacific Ocean. As a result, a close relationship between the sediments from the Northern Okushiri Ridge, the known methane-seep, and the whale skeleton was found. This finding represents the first discovery of methane seepage and associated biological communities in the Japan Sea. This also supports the hypothesis that the eastern margin of the northern Japan Sea is at the early stage of new subduction.     

Scaling laws between seismo-electric/magnetic fields and earthquake magnitude

The mechanisms generating the charges/potentials and abnormal electromagnetic radiation that accompany earthquakes have been discussed based on observational, theoretical and laboratory studies, in particular over the last few decades. We previously conducted stick‐slip tests using precut granite cores with a contact electrode on the sample side, and proposed that surface charges released from charge trapping centres on sheared asperities are a possible source of the above‐mentioned charges or potentials. Here we discuss seismo‐electric and magnetic fields formed by the surface charges, and derive their scaling laws with the earthquake magnitude at a distance. According to our model, detectability of these fields at a point on the ground surface depends strongly on wet/dry condition at a fault zone (sheared asperities).     

Studying Air Pollution with Kitt Peak Solar Flux Atlas—Analysis Method and Results of Observation

l.Introducti0nTwoflightsoftheSAGEIIIinstrumentwereplanedbeinglaunchedinJune2O00byRussianMeteor-3Mandin2002byInternationalSpaceStation(ISS).Itisexpectedthattheywouldofferinformationofalmostglobalcoverage.Theseinstrumentswillutilizetheselfcal-ibratingsolaroccultationtechniquetomeasureprofilesofaerosoIextinctionfrom0to4Okm,ozonefrom6to85km,nitrogendioxidefroml0to5Okm,andwatervaporfrom0to5Okm,andutilizelunaroccultationobservati0nstomonitorthekeynighttimesPecies,nitrogentrioxidefrom22to55k…     

Application of the Information Criterion to the Estimation ofGalaxy Luminosity Function

To determine the exact shape of the luminosity function (LF) of galaxies is one of the central problems in galactic astronomy and observational cosmology. The most popular method to estimate the LF is maximum likelihood, which is clearly understood with the concepts of the information theory. In the field of information theory and statistical inference, great advance has been made by the discovery of Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC). It enables us to perform a direct comparison among different types of model swith different numbers of parameters, and provides us a common basis of the model adequacy. In this paper we applied AIC to the determination of the shape of the LF. We first treated the estimation using stepwise LF(Efstathiou, Ellis and Peterson,1988), and derived a formula to obtain the optimal bin number. In addition, we studied the method to compare the goodness-of-fit of the parametric form (Sandage, Tamman and Yahil, 1979) with stepwise LF. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.