Potential implications of differential preservation of testate amoeba shells for paleoenvironmental reconstruction in peatlands

Testate amoebae are now commonly used in paleoenvironmental studies but little is known of their taphonomy. There is some experimental evidence for differential preservation of some testate amoeba shell types over others, but it is unclear what, if any impact this has on palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. To investigate this issue we looked at palaeoecological evidence for the preservation of different shell types. We then investigated the possible impact of selective preservation on quantitative palaeoenvironmental inference. We first used existing palaeoecological data sets to assess the vertical patterns of relative abundance in four testate amoeba shell types: (1) shells made of secreted biosilica plates (idiosomes, e.g. Euglypha), (2) idiosomes with thick organic coating (Assulina), (3) proteinaceous shells (e.g. Hyalosphenia), (4) shells built from recycled organic or mineral particles (xenosomes) (e.g. Difflugia, Centropyxis). In three diagrams a clear pattern of decay was only observed for the idiosome type. In order to assess the implications of differential preservation of testate amoeba taxa for paleoenvironmental reconstruction we then carried out simulations using three existing transfer functions and a wide range of scenarios, downweighting different test categories to represent the impact of selective test decomposition. Simulation results showed that downweighting generally reduced overall model performance. However downweighting a shell type only produced a consistent directional bias in inferred water table depth where that shell type is both dominant and shows a clear preference along the ecological gradient. Applying a scenario derived from previous experimental work did not lead to significant difference in inferred water table. Our results show that differential shell preservation has little impact on paleohydrological reconstruction from Sphagnum-dominated peatlands. By contrast, for the minerotrophic peatlands data-set loss of idiosome tests leads to consistent underestimation of water table depth. However there are few studies from fens and it is possible that idiosome tests are not always dominant, and/or that differential decomposition is less marked than in Sphagnum peatlands. Further work is clearly needed to assess the potential of testate amoebae for paleoecological studies of minerotrophic peatlands.     

Multi-scale coupling analysis of urbanization and ecosystem services supply-demand budget in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,China

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Rapid economic development and human activities have severely affected ecosystem function. Analysis of the spatial distribution of areas of rapid urbanization is...     

Parallelization of the flow-path network model using a particle-set strategy

High-performance simulation of flow dynamics remains a major challenge in the use of physical-based, fully distributed hydrologic models. Parallel computing has been widely used to overcome efficiency limitation by partitioning a basin into sub-basins and executing calculations among multiple processors. However, existing partition-based parallelization strategies are still hampered by the dependency between inter-connected sub-basins. This study proposed a particle-set strategy to parallelize the flow-path network (FPN) model for achieving higher performance in the simulation of flow dynamics. The FPN model replaced the hydrological calculations on sub-basins with the movements of water packages along the upstream and downstream flow paths. Unlike previous partition-based task decomposition approaches, the proposed particle-set strategy decomposes the computational workload by randomly allocating runoff particles to concurrent computing processors. Simulation experiments of the flow routing process were undertaken to validate the developed particle-set FPN model. The outcomes of hourly outlet discharges were compared with field gauged records, and up to 128 computing processors were tested to explore its speedup capability in parallel computing. The experimental results showed that the proposed framework can achieve similar prediction accuracy and parallel efficiency to that of the Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)-based Real-Time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS).     

Three-dimensional gravity inversion based on 3D U-Net++

The gravity inversion is to restore genetic density distribution of the underground target to be explored for explaining the internal structure and distribution...     

南大洋海冰影像地图投影变换与瓦片切割应用研究

南大洋海冰分布是南极考察过程中影响破冰船航行的重要因素,也是南极研究的重要内容之一。目前国际上不同机构发布的南大洋海冰分布图,大多是球面投影,不能直接用于主流的瓦片地图发布。将极方位立体投影海冰图转换为目前主流的网络墨卡托投影地图,并利用合适的图像重采样方法,按照不同级别比例尺进行瓦片切割和编号存储,最终实现海冰影像地图的发布共享是本文的主要研究内容。笔者对不同的图像重采样方法进行了比较,分析了最邻近点采样方法、双线性内插和双三次卷积重采样方法的优劣,针对本文的研究优选双线性内插方法进行影像地图瓦片的切割,并最终叠加融合在Google地图上,实现了Google底图、准实时海冰影像图与破冰船走航位置的集成显示,为雪龙船的冰区航行提供了重要的数据支撑。     

地形在高大金字塔沙山形成发育过程中的作用——以敦煌鸣沙山-月牙泉地区为例

地形在金字塔沙山形成发育过程中起着重要的作用。金字塔沙山通常形成于山前地带,应属于地形屏障影响下形成的一种沙丘类型。首先,上升气流的发育是山前风阻区气流的主要特征,地形屏障是上升气流发生发展的主要原因。沙山的坡脚、坡中及坡顶分别是上升气流的启动区、发育区及衰退区。上升气流是沙山增高增大发育的主要机制。其次,金字塔沙山多发育于局地环流发育较强的地带,局地环流与区域风况配置是形成复杂沙丘类型的重要因素。本区局地环流偏南风不仅持续时间长,且受到鸣沙山微地形的影响,下坡气流较强。实地观测结果破解了常规气候台观测数据难以揭示上升气流及局地环流对金字塔沙丘形成发育的影响。第三,下附地形在沙山形成发育过程中决定着沙丘发育的“临界尺度”,即丘体达到“临界尺度”的时候,坡面上升气流及风速放大作用逐渐显现,促使丘体增高增大发育,随着沙丘形态与上升气流的互馈作用进一步增强,金字塔沙丘逐渐形成演化为高大沙山。实地观测进一步证实了金字塔沙山是纵向（横向）沙丘形变的一种形式。并提出了金字塔沙山在地形条件下形成演化的一种新模式。     

Identification of the “source” and “sink” patterns influencing non-point source pollution in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area

Non-point source pollution is one of the primarily ecological issues affecting the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. In this paper, landscape resistance and motivation coefficient, which integrated various landscape elements, such as land use, soil, hydrology, topography, and vegetation, was established based on the effects of large-scale resistance and motivation on the formation of non-point source pollution. In addition, cost models of the landscape resistance and motivation coefficients were constructed based on the distances from the landscape units to the sub-basin outlets in order to identify the “source” and “sink” patterns affecting the formation of non-point source pollution. The results indicated that the changes in the landscape resistance and motivation coefficients of the 16 sub-basins exhibited inverse relationships to their spatial distributions. The landscape resistance and motivation cost curves were more volatile than the landscape resistance and motivation coefficient curves. The landscape resistance and motivation cost trends of the 16 sub-basins became increasingly apparent along the flow of the Yangtze River. The landscape resistance and motivation cost models proposed in this paper could be used to identify large-scale non-point source pollution “source” and “sink” patterns. Moreover, the proposed model could be used to describe the large-scale spatial characteristics of non-point source pollution formation based on “source” and “sink” landscape pattern indices, spatial localization, and landscape resistance and motivation coefficients.     

新疆阿拉套山花岗岩类的岩石化学

新疆阿拉套山南坡东西向展布的花岗岩石的岩石化学研究表明，本区同时存在Ｉ型和Ｓ型两种类型的花岗岩，其分布受构造环境控制，靠近古板块缝合线为Ｉ型花岗岩分布区、远离古板块缝合线为Ｓ型花岗岩分布区。源岩性质和作用强弱等因素可能是造成岩石化学成分差异的原因。     

Automated Segmentation of Resistivity Image Logs Using Wavelet Transform

We describe a wavelet-transform-based method for automated segmentation of resistivity image logs that takes into account the apparent dip in the data and addresses the problem of discriminating lithofacies boundaries from noise and intrafacies variations. Our method can be applied to borehole measurements in general, but might have an advantage when applied to resistivity image logs as it addresses explicitly the large variability in facies segments recorded with a high-resolution multiple-sensor tool. We have developed an algorithm based on this method that might outperform other existing segmentation methods in the cases of low to moderate dip. We made a detailed comparison of the segmentation from our method with the one done by a geologist to delineate different lithofacies blocks in a well drilled in a deepwater depositional environment. Our results show considerable success rates in reproducing the geologically defined lithofacies boundaries, and the generality of our procedure suggests it could also be applied to other depositional environments.     

快速城市化过程中的深圳东部海岸地貌环境与可持续发展

The geomorphological environment is one of the most fundamental variables af-fecting the development of human society.The mission of geomorphological environment research is to explore the most basic environment and features of our Earth’s surface mor-phology.The results can be applied to resource evaluation,environmental protection and reducing and preventing geological disasters.Thus,it can serve to help achieve sustainable development.This paper examines the Shenzhen east coastal zone as a case strongly in-fluenced by urban expansion.We use modern geomorphological theory and methods,along with GIS and RS techniques,to reveal key characteristics of the geomorphological environ-ment and landform classification.Furthermore,coastal ecosystem evaluation and regional resources sustainable utilization should be considered relative to the corresponding geo-morphological environment.Based on this study,we conclude that modern geomorphological theory and methods,supported by "3S" techniques including GIS,RS and GPS,can play an important role in resolving the environment,resources and population problems as well as sustainable development challenges facing humankind at present.