Identification of rural land management signals in runoff response

Rural land management signals in catchment‐scale runoff have proven difficult to identify in general. The Pontbren experimental catchment in upland Wales, UK, provides a new data set with which to address this challenge. This data set includes more than 4 years of data from six tipping bucket rainfall gauges and eight stream flow gauges representing different land management regimes at different scales. Data‐based mechanistic rainfall–runoff models were fitted to this data set using the CAPTAIN toolbox. The spatial and temporal variabilities of model parameters were identified and interpreted where possible. The analysis highlighted a dependency between the modelled residence time and the presence of agriculturally improved grassland, which produced a flashier response than grassland in a more natural condition. Another factor found to strongly affect the spatial variability of runoff response was the presence of lakes, while catchment area had a less pronounced effect, and the influence of trees, steepness and soil type could not be identified. Some time variability of response was observed but this was not consistent across the catchment and could not easily be interpreted. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A darkling beetle population in West Texas during the 1997–1998 El Niño

We examined the abundance and distribution of Eleodes extricata (Tenebrionidae) in a semi-arid region of West Texas. During the 2-year study, climatic conditions were extreme but opposite, with 1997 being unusually wet and mild, and 1998 being unusually dry and hot. These conditions were associated with striking differences in the population structure of the beetles. Under identical pitfall-sampling efforts, we captured 1562 and 671 individuals in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Capture rates were lowest in grassland, and highest in sand shinnery oak, and within the latter, they were lowest in blowouts, intermediate along the edges of blowouts, and highest under vegetative cover. Sex ratios were consistently female-biased, and the degree of bias increased from spring through fall in both years. These increases were more pronounced in 1998, with the sex ratios of early and late sampling periods differing by over four-fold, from 1·15 to 5·00. Females were heavier than males, and the dry masses of both sexes increased from spring though fall in both years. As with sex ratios, these increases were more pronounced in 1998. Only the largest beetles survived the drought, illustrating how extreme conditions can exert especially strong directional selection, and affect sex ratios in populations with sexual size dimorphism.     

Fluxes of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>, CH<Subscript>4</Subscript> and N<Subscript>2</Subscript>O from alpine grassland in the Tibetan Plateau

Using static chamber technique,fluxes of CO2,CH4 and N2O were measured in the alpine grassland area from July 2000 to July 2001,determinations of mean fluxes showed that CO2 and N2O were generally released from the soil,while the alpine grassland accounted for a weak CH4 sink.Fluxes of CO2,CH4 and N2O ranged widely.The highest CO2 emission occurred in August,whereas almost 90?of the whole year emission occurred in the growing season.But the variations of CH4 and N2O fluxes did not show any clear patterns over the one-year-experiment.During a daily variation,the maximum CO2 emission occurred at 16:00,and then decreased to the minimum emission in the early morning.Daily pattern analyses indicated that the variation in CO2 fluxes was positively related to air temperatures(R^2=0.73)and soil temperatures at a depth of 5 cm(R^2=0.86),whereas daily variations in CH4 and N2O fluxes were poorly explained by soil temperatures and climatic variables.CO2 emissions in this area were much lower than other grasslands in plain areas.     

CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> processes in an alpine grassland ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau

In this paper, the CO2 concentrations profile from 1.5 m depth in soil to 32 m height in atmosphere were measured from July 2000 to July 2001 in an alpine grassland ecosystem located in the permafrost area on the Tibetan Plateau, which revealed that CO2 concentrations varied greatly during this study period. Mean concentrations during the whole experiment in the atmosphere were absolutely lower than the CO2 concentrations in soil, which resulted in CO2 emissions from the alpine steppe soil to the atmosphere. The highest CO2 concentration was found at a depth of 1.5 m in soil while the lowest CO2 concentration occurred in the atmosphere. Mean CO2 concentrations in soil generally increased with depth. This was the compositive influence of the increasing soil moistures and decreasing soil pH, which induced the increasing biological activities with depth. Temporally, the CO2 concentrations at different layers in air remained a more steady state because of the atmospheric turbulent milking. During the seasonal variations, CO2 concentrations at surface soil interface showed symmetrical patterns, with the lowest accumulation of CO2 occurring in the late winter and the highest CO2 concentration in the growine seasons.     

Study of Aerodynamic Parameters on Different Underling Surfaces

Aerodynamic parameters including the zero-plane displacement (d), roughness length (20), and friction velocity (u*) on the different underlying surfaces of heavy-grazing site, medium-grazing site, light-grazing site, no-grazing site, dune, inter-dune, grassland, rice paddy site, wheat site, soybean site, and maize site have been computed based on the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory by utilizing the micrometeorologically observed data of dune and vegetation in the semi-arid area at Naiman, Inner Mongolia of China, conducted jointly by the Institute of Desert Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences of Japan in 1990-1994. And their relationships between wind speed and Richardson number are analyzed. The aerodynamic characteristics of different man-made disturbed grassland ecosystems are also compared. Result shows that the vegetation coverage and the above-ground biomass decrease with the increase in man-made stress of the grassland. The roughness length for different underlying surfaces is closely related to vegetation height, above-ground biomass, and ground surface undulation, and Richardson number Ri is also its influencing factor. The friction velocity varies largely on different underlying surfaces, and it is positively proportional to wind speed and roughness length. The aerodynamic parameters of various times on the same underlying surface are different, too. Above results indicate that grassland and vegetation are of significance in preventing desertification, especially in the arid and semi-arid land ecosystems. And the results of this paper are also important for constructing the land surface physical process as well as regional climate model.     

初冬季节青藏高原清水河地区甲烷排放率变化(英)

As the globally largest area covered by high altitudinal permafrost, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may contribute substantially to atmospheric CH4 budget when global warming. Preliminary observations on CH4 emission at Qingshuihe from November 5 to 14, 1995 show that alpine grassland may be a small source for atmospheric CH4 during early winter. The emission rates of CH4 from moist grassland surface varied from-16. 1 to 23. 9 μg. m-2h-1, with an average of 1. 82 μg. m-2h-1. Emission rates of CH4 from water surface of Qingshuihe River were from -21. 0 to 37. 1 μg. m-2h-1, with an average of 1. 56 μg. m-2h-1. The emission rates of CH at 30 to 200 cm in depth ranged from-69. 0 to 36. 0 μg. m-2h-1, with the average rate at these depths varying from -2. 15 to 2. 04 μg' m-2h-1. The mean emission rates of CH4 in the active layer and permafrost indicate the lower part of active layer tends to release CH4, CH4 is absorbed at low rates in the middle section and in the vicinity of permafrost table, and net fluxes of CH4 is emitted from the soils in the upper part. During the observation periods, the methane concentrations in static chambers and emission rates of grassland and water surface displayed noticeable diurnal variations. The water/ice content may play important role in the spatial variations of methane emission rates. The emission rates of methane is weakly correlated with the ground temperatures at sampling depths and air temperatures. The observed emission rates of methane from the comparatively dry and sandy grassland soils are quite low compared with that observed in the permafrost regions in the high latitudes.     

短期增温和降水减少对沙质草地土壤微生物量碳氮和酶活性的影响

通过模拟气候变化,探究短期增温和降水减少对沙质草地土壤微生物量碳氮及酶活性的影响,揭示沙质草地土壤微生物量碳氮和酶活性对短期气候变化的响应规律。结果表明：（1）短期增温和降水减少对土壤微生物量碳氮和酶活性均产生显著影响。（2）在自然温度下,与自然降水相比,降水减少40%时土壤微生物量碳（MBC）和微生物氮（MBN）含量最高,增幅分别为87.9%和98.8%;降水减少60%时土壤碱性蛋白酶（S-ALPT）活性最低,降幅达32.8%。（3）在增温条件下,与自然降水相比,降水减少40%时土壤MBC和MBN含量最低,降幅分别为25.67%和48.16%,土壤脲酶（S-UE）活性最高,增幅20.42%。（4）土壤pH与3种土壤酶活性正相关,与土壤微生物量碳氮负相关。土壤微生物量碳氮与土壤纤维素酶（S-CL）活性负相关,与S-UE、S-ALPT活性正相关。     

世界各国草地资源管理体制及其对我国的启示

草地在世界各大洲均有分布,世界各国对草地资源的管理有着不同的体制与策略.本文梳理了各大洲主要国家的草地资源管理体制,分析了草地资源管理历史进程与趋势,总结了各国草地资源管理的优势和可资借鉴之处.结合我国草地资源管理中存在的问题,建议我国要在国家层面重视草地资源的管理,建立专门行政部门管理全国60忆亩草地,建立健全现有的草地资源管理体制,同时建立草原质量的监测数据网络,并加强对草地利用的监管力度.     

Grassland productivity in an alpine environment in response to climate change

Situated in a climatically stressful environment, alpine grassland is sensitive to subtle climate changes in its productivity. We remedy the current deficiency in studying grassland productivity by taking the integrated effect of all relevant factors into consideration. The relative importance of temperature, rainfall and evaporation to the alpine grassland productivity in western China was determined through analysis of their relationship with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) between 1981 and 2000. Climate warming stimulated grassland productivity in the 1980s, but hampered it in the 1990s. Temperature is more important than rainfall to grassland productivity early in the growing season. However, their relative importance is reversed late in the growing season. Monthly summer month rainfall modified by maximum monthly temperature is a good predictor of alpine grassland productivity at 62.0 per cent. However, the best predictor is water deficiency, which is able to improve the estimation accuracy to 78.3 per cent. Hence, the impact of temperature on grassland productivity is better studied indirectly through evaporation.     

黄河源区土地沙漠化时空变化遥感分析

通过野外调查与室内分析, 建立了黄河源区沙漠化土地分类分级系统。在此基础上, 通过遥感数据处理与参数反演, 建立了沙漠化遥感监测指数模型, 并利用1986~2000 年 Landsat-TM/ETM+ 遥感数据, 对近15 年来黄河源区土地沙漠化过程进行了定量分析与评价。 研究结果表明, 黄河源区沙漠化土地面积达3519.97 km², 其中以轻度沙漠化土地为主。沙漠 化土地集中分布在玛多宽谷盆地南缘与黑河宽谷盆地北缘之间, 沿西北-东南走向的低山丘 陵展布, 分布于河谷, 湖滨、古河道及山麓洪积扇等地形面上, 呈斑块状、片状和带状分布。 1986~1990 年黄河源区沙漠化土地年增长率为21.87%, 沙漠化土地的变化表现为沙漠化土地 快速蔓延。1990~2000 年沙漠化土地年扩展率为2.73%, 虽然沙漠化扩展速率降低, 但在进一 步扩展的同时, 主要表现为沙漠化程度的进一步加重。总之, 20 世纪80 年代末期以来, 黄 河源区沙漠化过程呈现为正在发展和强烈发展的态势。但在不同时段上沙漠化发展呈现出不 同的特征, 80 年代末沙漠化土地增长率高, 沙漠化过程表现为沙漠化土地的迅速蔓延; 进入 90 年代沙漠化土地增长相对减缓, 但中度沙漠化土地则保持直线增长的趋势, 呈现出以沙漠 化程度的加重为主的发展趋势。