Vulnerability of water resources,vegetation productivity and soil erosion to climate change in Mediterranean watersheds

Climate change is expected to increase temperatures and lower rainfall in Mediterranean regions; however, there is a great degree of uncertainty as to the amount of change. This limits the prediction capacity of models to quantify impacts on water resources, vegetation productivity and erosion. This work circumvents this problem by analysing the sensitivity of these variables to varying degrees of temperature change (increased by up to 6·4 °C), rainfall (reduced by up to 40%) and atmospheric CO₂ concentrations (increased by up to 100%). The SWAT watershed model was applied to 18 large watersheds in two contrasting regions of Portugal, one humid and one semi‐arid; incremental changes to climate variables were simulated using a stochastic weather generator. The main results indicate that water runoff, particularly subsurface runoff, is highly sensitive to these climate change trends (down by 80%). The biomass growth of most species showed a declining trend (wheat down by 40%), due to the negative impacts of increasing temperatures, dampened by higher CO₂ concentrations. Mediterranean species, however, showed a positive response to milder degrees of climate change. Changes to erosion depended on the interactions between the decline in surface runoff (driving erosion rates downward) and biomass growth (driving erosion rates upward). For the milder rainfall changes, soil erosion showed a significant increasing trend in wheat fields (up to 150% in the humid watersheds), well above the recovery capacity of the soil. Overall, the results indicate a shift of the humid watersheds to acquire semi‐arid characteristics, such as more irregular river flows and increasingly marginal conditions for agricultural production. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of phytoplankton community in the channel from Dongting Lake to Changjiang River, China

1 INTRODUCTION Dongting Lake (28°18'–29°45'N, 111°35'– 113°18'E) is the second largest freshwater lake in China, and directly connected with the Changjiang River (Yangtse River) through the channel. The sur- face area was about 2 740 km2 (at the low     

Ethanol Production Using Corn,Switchgrass, and Wood; Biodiesel Production Using Soybean and Sunflower

Energy outputs from ethanol produced using corn, switchgrass, and wood biomass were each less than the respective fossil energy inputs. The same was true for producing biodiesel using soybeans and sunflower, however, the energy cost for producing soybean biodiesel was only slightly negative compared with ethanol production. Findings in terms of energy outputs compared with the energy inputs were: • Ethanol production using corn grain required 29% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. • Ethanol production using switchgrass required 50% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. • Ethanol production using wood biomass required 57% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. • Biodiesel production using soybean required 27% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced (Note, the energy yield from soy oil per hectare is far lower than the ethanol yield from corn). • Biodiesel production using sunflower required 118% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced.     

High Acetone Concentrations throughout the 0–12 km Altitude Range over the Tropical Rainforest in Surinam

Airborne measurements of acetone were performed overthe tropical rainforest in Surinam(2°–7° N, 54°–58° W, 0–12 kmaltitude) during the LBA-CLAIRE campaign in March1998, using a novel proton transfer reaction massspectrometer (PTR-MS) that enables the on-linemonitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOC) with ahigher proton affinity than water. The measuredacetone volume mixing ratios ranged from 0.1 nmol/molup to 8 nmol/mol with an overall average of 2.6nmol/mol and a standard deviation of 1.0 nmol/mol. Theobserved altitude profile and correlations with CO,acetonitrile, propane and wind direction are discussedwith respect to potential acetone sources. No linearcorrelation between acetone and CO mixing ratios wasobserved, at variance with results of previousmeasurement campaigns. The mean acetone/CO ratio(0.022) was substantially higher than typical valuesfound before. The abundance of acetone appears to beinfluenced, but not dominated, by biomass burning,thus suggesting large emissions of acetone and/oracetone precursors, such as possibly 2-propanol, fromliving plants or decaying litter in the rainforest.     

气候变化对我国小麦发育及产量可能影响的模拟研究

利用随机天气模型, 将气候模式对大气中CO₂倍增时预测的气候情景与CERES-小麦模式相连接, 研究了气候变化对我国冬小麦和春小麦生产的可能影响.结果表明, 气候变化后小麦发育将加快, 生育期缩短, 冬小麦平均缩短7.3天, 春小麦平均缩短10.5天, 春小麦生育期缩短的绝对数和相对数均大于冬小麦.籽粒产量呈下降趋势, 冬小麦平均减产7%~8%, 雨养条件下比水分适宜时减产幅度略大.春小麦的减产幅度大于冬小麦, 水分适宜时平均减产17.7%, 雨养时平均减产31.4%.     

WINTER RUNOFF AND EROSION ON NORTHWESTERN USA CROPLAND

h200l.llNTRODUCTI0NTheNorthwesternWheatandRangeRegi0n(NWax)(Austin,l98l),whichincludesportionsofIdaho,Oregon,andWashington,isoneofthem0stuniqueagriculturalregionsoftheUSA.Winterandspringsmallgrainsand0thercropsareproukcedonl0esss0ilsdepositedoverbasalt.TheloessvariesinboththicknessandtopograPhicfeatures.Someareashavesteepanddune-likeslopes,while0thershavel0ng,gentlesl0pes.Theregion,br0kenfromnativeprairielessthanl20yearsag0(Kaise,l96l)hassufferedseriousdegradationofthesoilresourcebyw…     

Abundance, Biomass, Production and Trophic Roles of Micro- and Net-Zooplankton in Ise Bay, Central Japan, in Winter

We investigated the geographical variations in abundance and biomass of the major taxonomic groups of micro- and net-zooplankton along a transect through Ise Bay, central Japan, and neighboring Pacific Ocean in February 1995. The results were used to estimate their secondary and tertiary production rates and assess their trophic roles in this eutrophic embayment in winter. Ise Bay nourished a much higher biomass of both micro- and net-zooplankton (mean: 3.79 and 13.9 mg C m^–3, respectively) than the offshore area (mean: 0.76 and 4.47 mg C m^–3, respectively). In the bay, tintinnid ciliates, naked ciliates and copepod nauplii accounted for, on average, 69, 18 and 13% of the microzooplankton biomass, respectively. Of net-zooplankton biomass, copepods (i.e. Acartia, Calanus, Centropages, Microsetella and Paracalanus) formed the majority (mean: 63%). Average secondary production rates of micro- and net-zooplankton in the bay were 1.19 and 1.87 mg C m^–3d^–1 (or 23.1 and 36.4 mg C m^–2d^–1), respectively, and average tertiary production rate of net-zooplankton was 0.75 mg C m^–3d^–1 (or 14.6 mg C m^–2d^–1). Available data approximated average phytoplankton primary production rate as 1000 mg C m^–2d^–1 during our study period. The transfer efficiency from primary production to zooplankton secondary production was 6.0%, and the efficiency from secondary production to tertiary production was 25%. The amount of food required to support the zooplankton secondary production corresponded to 18% of the phytoplankton primary production or only 1.7% of the phytoplankton biomass, demonstrating that the grazing impact of herbivorous zooplankton was minor in Ise Bay in winter.     

烟台四十里湾海区栉孔扇贝同化率周年变化及其与环境的关系

于１９９７年６月－１９９８年５月用现场方法测定了烟台四十里湾海区总颗粒物质（ＴＰＭ）、颗粒有机物（ＰＯＭ）现存量和栉孔扇贝同化率（ＡＥ）周年变化,并分析栉孔扇贝同化率与海区温度、盐度、ＴＰＭ和ＰＯＭ的关系。结果表明,（１）整个海区ＴＰＭ现存量秋季最高,其次为春季和冬季,夏季最低;海区ＰＯＭ含量变化不大,在１．３４－１．６５ｍｇ／Ｌ之间;栉孔扇贝同化率在春、夏、秋三了较高,冬季较低,其中在秋末冬初（     

青岛市沿岸潮间带海水营养状况与 底栖海藻种类组成的研究

对青岛市沿岸旅游区潮间带海水的营养状况和底栖 海藻的种类组成和生物量进行了调查。结果表明,青岛沿岸潮间带海水无机氮、磷的含量较 高,呈富营养状态。调查海区共发现底栖海藻51种,其中有红藻30种、褐藻11种和绿藻10种 。     

不同固沙区结皮中微生物生物量和数量的比较研究

沙地生态系统是温带干旱区、半干旱区的重要草地类型, 沙地的稳定性是生态系统健康的重要条件。在中国科学院沙坡头沙漠试验研究站, 笔者对不同程度固沙区结皮和流动沙丘表层中的微生物生物量和数量进行了比较研究。结果表明: 自然和人工植被固沙区结皮及流沙表层的微生物数量分布不同, 细菌数量比真菌和放线菌数量多数百倍, 在所有微生物类群中, 细菌数量最大, 微生物总数的变化取决于好气性细菌数量的多少, 但生物量却与之不同。在不同程度固沙区结皮中, 微生物生物量大小依次排列为: 自然植被区>1956年人工植被区>1964年人工植被区>1982年人工植被区>流沙区, 微生物生物量在自然植被固沙区中最多, 分别是1956年、1964年、1982年人工植被固沙区和流沙区的2.63、4.17、9.25和44.29倍, 表明微生物生物量随人工植被的栽植年代增加而增大, 在流动沙丘中最小, 而菌丝生物量方面是1956年人工植被固沙区已与自然植被固沙区十分接近。微生物生物量和数量与沙丘固定程度、人工植被栽植年代、结皮厚度、苔藓种类等均呈正相关, 人工植被栽植年代越长, 结皮越厚、微生物生物量和数量也越大。在不同年代人工植被固沙区结皮中, 微生物生物量和数量与相对稳定的自然植被固沙区相比, 仍未达到稳定状态。