The hydrological influence of black locust plantations in the loess area of northwest China

Black locust (Robina pseudoacacia) has become one of the most important shelter species in the loess area of northwest China. This paper summarizes recent research concerning its hydrological influence, including canopy interception, litter absorption capacity, its effect on rainfall kinetic energy, infiltration rates, surface runoff, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration, and its role in soil conservation. Several predictive models are listed. on the basis of existing results, optimum characteristics for an effective plantation are defined, and problems requiring further research are identified.     

Transforming observational data and theoretical isochrones into the ACS/WFC Vega-mag system

We propose a zero-point photometric calibration of the data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Wide Field Channel (WFC) on board the Hubble Space Telescope , based on a spectrum of Vega and the most up-to-date in-flight transmission curves of the camera. This calibration is accurate at the level of a few hundredths of a magnitude. The main purpose of this effort is to transform the entire set of evolutionary models into a simple observational photometric system for ACS/WFC data, and to make them available to the astronomical community. We provide the zero-points for the most used ACS/WFC bands, and give basic recipes for calibrating both the observed data and the models. We also present the colour–magnitude diagram from ACS data of five Galactic globular clusters, spanning the metallicity range  −2.2 <[Fe/H] < −0.04  , and we provide fiducial points representing their sequences from several magnitudes below the turn-off to the red giant branch tip. The observed sequences are compared with the models in the newly defined photometric system.     

Short-term Climate Characteristics at Ny-(A)lesund over the Arctic Tundra Area

Based on the Germany Koldwey Station's 1994-2003 conventional observation hourly data, this paper conducts a statistical analysis on the short-term climate characteristics for an arctic tundra region (Ny-(A)lesund island) where our first arctic expedition station (Huanghe Station) was located. Affected by the North Atlantic warming current, this area has a humid temperate climate, and the air temperature at Ny-(A)lesund rose above 0 ℃ even during deep winter season during our research period. The wind speed in this area was low and appeared most at southeast direction. We find that the temperature at Ny-(A)lesund rose in the faster rate (0.68 ℃/10 a) than those at the whole Arctic area. Compared with the floating ices where our expedition conducted in the Arctic, Ny-(A)lesund was warmer and more humid and had lower wind speed. Comparison of the near surface air temperature derived by NCEP/NCAR reanalysis to the conventional measurements conducted at the Koldwey site in Ny-(A)lesund area shows a good agreement for winter season and a significant difference for summer season.     

Galileo系统及其在中国的应用

较详细地介绍了Galileo系统的全面体系结构、频率设计、服务内容及其广泛的应用范围，指出了它与GPS系统相比的优点，并对开发和增强Galileo系统在我国多层次、全方位的应用提出了建议。     

EFFECT OF SULPHATE-REDUCING BACTERIA ON ELECTRO-CHEMICAL CORROSION BEHAVIOR OF 16Mn STEEL IN SEA MUD

ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＩｔｗａｓｇｅｎｅｒａｌｌｙｃｏｎｓｉｄｅｒｅｄｐｒｅｖｉｏｕｓｌｙｔｈａｔｔｈｅｃｏｒｒｏｓｉｏｎｏｆｓｔｅｅｌｉｎｓｅａｍｕｄｗａｓｎｏｔｓｅｒｉｏｕｓ.Ｈｏｗｅｖｅｒ,ｉｔｗａｓｌａｔｅｒｆｏｕｎｄｔｈａｔｔｈｅｃｏｒｒｏｓｉｏｎｒａｔｅｏｆｓｔｅｅｌｉｎｓｏｍｅｓｅａｍｕｄｗａｓｈｉｇｈｅｒｔｈａｎｔｈａｔｉｎｓｅａｗａｔｅｒ(Ｋｉｎｇ,1980;Ｓｅｈｍｉｄｅ,1982;Ｇｕｏｅｔａｌ.,1997;Ｈｏｕ,1998).Ｔｈｅｒｅａｒｅｓｏｍｅｒｅｐｏｒｔｓｔｈａｔｔｈｅｃｏｒｒｏｓｉｏｎｒ…     

Modelling the effect of low soil temperatures on transpiration by Scots pine

For ecosystem modelling of the Boreal forest it is important to include processes associated with low soil temperature during spring‐early summer, as these affect the tree water uptake. The COUP model, a physically based SVAT model, was tested with 2 years of soil and snow physical measurements and sap flow measurements in a 70‐year‐old Scots pine stand in the boreal zone of northern Sweden. During the first year the extent and duration of soil frost was manipulated in the field. The model was successful in reproducing the timing of the soil warming after the snowmelt and frost thaw. A delayed soil warming, into the growing season, severely reduced the transpiration. We demonstrated the potential for considerable overestimation of transpiration by the model if the reduction of the trees' capacity to transpire due to low soil temperatures is not taken into account. We also demonstrated that the accumulated effect of aboveground conditions could be included when simulating the relationship between soil temperature and tree water uptake. This improved the estimated transpiration for the control plot and when soil warming was delayed into the growing season. The study illustrates the need of including antecedent conditions on root growth in the model in order to catch these effects on transpiration. The COUP model is a promising tool for predicting transpiration in high‐latitude stands. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fast iterative solution of large undrained soil‐structure interaction problems

In view of rapid developments in iterative solvers, it is timely to re‐examine the merits of using mixed formulation for incompressible problems. This paper presents extensive numerical studies to compare the accuracy of undrained solutions resulting from the standard displacement formulation with a penalty term and the two‐field mixed formulation. The standard displacement and two‐field mixed formulations are solved using both direct and iterative approaches to assess if it is cost‐effective to achieve more accurate solutions. Numerical studies of a simple footing problem show that the mixed formulation is able to solve the incompressible problem ‘exactly’, does not create pressure and stress instabilities, and obviate the need for an ad hoc penalty number. In addition, for large‐scale problems where it is not possible to perform direct solutions entirely within available random access memory, it turns out that the larger system of equations from mixed formulation also can be solved much more efficiently than the smaller system of equations arising from standard formulation by using the symmetric quasi‐minimal residual (SQMR) method with the generalized Jacobi (GJ) preconditioner. Iterative solution by SQMR with GJ preconditioning also is more elegant, faster, and more accurate than the popular Uzawa method. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.