Remote sensing parameterization of the processes of energy and water cycle over desertification areas

In order to understand the processes of land surface-atmosphere interaction over desertification area, it is indispensable to utilize of satellite remote sensing. Two scenes of Landsat TM were used to produce a set of maps of surface reflectance, MSAVI, vegetation coverage, surface temperature, net radiation, soil heat flux, sensible heat flux and latent heat flux. Statistical analysis based on these maps revealed some quantitative significant land surface characteristics. Future developments of the method are also discussed.     

Remote sensing analysis of desert vegetation and its landscape changes: The case in middle reaches of Tarim River Basin,Xinjiang, China

Based on remote sensing information sources including B/W aerial photos of 1983, pseudo-color aerial photos of 1992 and JERS-1/OPS VNIR image of 1996, vegetation types of Yingbazha, in the middle reaches of the Tarim River Basin in Xinjiang, China are mapped using ARC/INFO and related software. The changes in vegetation areas and distribution conditions are analyzed. As a result of natural and human influences, vegetation changes have temporal and spatial characteristics. According to the principles of landscape ecology and geographical information science, the landscape changes are indicated. Moreover, the remote sensing and GIS techniques are integrated to study vegetation and its landscape.     

Kosa (yellow sand) components in precipitation collected at central Japan

In east Asia, acidic gases derived from fossil fuel combustion have increased in the past decades. On the other hand, the Asian dust, also called Kosa (yellow sand) is transported following windstorms from arid lands in the Asian continent. Many researchers have been interested in the reaction between acidic aerosols and Kosa aerosols as well as the long-range transport of these emissions. To investigate the characteristics of chemical components in precipitation on a long-term basis over Japan, precipitation was sequentially collected from April 1984 to March 1997 at Kanazawa located near the coast of the Sea of Japan. Precipitation samples were collected at 1 mm intervals for the first 5 mm rainfall and all volume of rainwater after 6 mm for all precipitation events with an automatic wet only precipitation collector. According to the analyses of precipitation including Kosa aerosols during Kosa periods, the reaction in the air between Kosa and acidic components during the long-range transport was discussed.     

Damage and recovery of the Gurbantunggut Desert vegetation following engineering activities

The fragile ecological environment of the Gurbantunggut Desert is damaged/disturbed by human activities relating to the development of oil-gas resources and the constructions of desert road and great engineering in the Jungger Basin. It was mainly represented: soil compaction, vegetation cleaning, burial of vegetation, oil polluting, and soil disturbance. With investigation and experiment, we found that when the way and intensity of engineering activities disturbing the eco-environment does not make its ecological stability disintegrated, the desert vegetation has a capacity of natural recovery. To speed and strengthen the process of vegetation recovery efficient assistant measurements, including stabilizing mobile sands promptly and sowing seeds of shrub and herb plants in good time will be needed.     

Expansion and contraction of Chinese deserts during the Quaternary

Episodic dune formations during the Quaternary are found in many deserts of China. The causes of desert expansions on different time scales are not the same. Desert extension at about 1.1 and 0.9 Ma ago were the response to the active tectonic movements, whereas the desert evolutions on the ten-thousand years time scale were the response to the orbital scale climatic changes. Spatial scale studies on desert evolution indicate that desert margins shifted greatly during the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the Holocene optimum, its changing from 125°E of the LGM to 105°E of the climatic optimum. Historical desertification in the semiarid China is not a response to climate drought but largely associated with the human impacts (mainly over-cultivation) since about 2300 years ago, which leads to the reworking of the underlying LGM sands.     

Utilization of water resources,ecological balance and land desertification in the Tarim Basin,Xinjiang

Because of the human exploitation and utilization of water resources in the Tarim Basin, the water resources consumption has changed from mainly natural ecosystem to artificial oasis ecosystem, and the environment has changed correspondingly. The basic changes are: desertification and oasis development coexist, both “the human being advance and the desert retreat” and “the desert advance and the human being retreat” coexist, but the latter is dominant. In the upper reaches, water volume drawing to irrigated agricultural areas has increased, artificial oases have been enlarging and moving from the deltas in the lower reaches of many rivers to the piedmont plains. In the middle and lower reaches of the Tarim River, the stream flow has decreased, old oases have declined, natural vegetations have been degenerating, desertification has been enlarging, and the environment has deteriorated. The transition regions, which consist of forestlands, grasslands and waters between the desert and the oases, have been decreasing continuously, their shelter function to the oases has been weakened, and the desert is threatening the oases seriously.     

Getting ‘holistic’ about land rehabilitation in hot arid regions

The paper describes Western Australian examples and causes of land degradation. It outlines shortcomings in the methodologies used to rehabilitate these areas. From this a protocol is suggested for an ‘holistic’ approach to land rehabilitation.     

应力释放模型的改进及其在研究台湾地区地震预测问题中的应用.

应力释放模型过去主要用于研究大范围历史大地震活动规律．本文对应力释放模型进行了改进，对其能否运用于区域更小、时段更短、震级更低的情况进行了探讨；以台湾地区近百年6级以上地震为例的研究结果表明，应力释放模型仍然适用．在回溯性的地震预测检验中，用改进的应力释放模型计算出台湾地区地震发生的条件概率强度，并用其预测6级以上地震的发震时刻．结果表明，其预测精度优于泊松模型．      

Determining gaseous composition of fluid inclusions with quadrupole mass spectrometer

Quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) is an instrument for effectively determining gaseous composition of fluid inclusion. The gaseous component is extracted from inclusions with thermal decrepitation method and then determined with the sensitive QMS instrument. The method is characterized by high sensitivity and high accuracy with the relative standard deviation (RSD,n=6) of less than 3%. It has been successfully used for analyzing fluid inclusions. The analytical results meet the requirement of geological study.