Dating the recent past

The dramatic environmental changes of the last 500 years are likely to continue into the future and to have an increasing impact on both the Earth and human society. Any understanding of future environmental change is thus critically dependent on our capacity to reconstruct the environmental changes of the past. Fundamental to this is an ability to place the environmental responses of the last half millennium within a reliable chronological framework. Unfortunately, this most recent part of the geological timescale presents us with some of the greatest challenges for dating. With the exception of ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U methods, whose use is restricted to the rather specific depositional environments of shallow marine and terrestrial carbonates, there is no established geochronometric tool capable of dating more than a fraction of the recent past at a resolution adequate to tackle the environmental issues of this period. This challenge has been met by refining existing procedures (including ¹⁴C, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar, event chronostratigraphy and optically stimulated luminescence) and developing new ones (such as ³²Si). These offer a means of calibrating the high-resolution environmental records of the last 500 years and answering the critical environmental questions presented by this period.     

甘青地区末次冰消期以来植被与气候演化的孢粉记录对比分析

选用甘青地区达连海、青海湖、苏家湾、大地湾4个典型高分辨率的钻孔资料进行对比分析,阐明了该地区末次冰消期以来气候变化规律与主要气候事件,初步探讨了该地区植被纬向时空演化规律。结果显示末次冰消期大致开始于15.2~14.6 ka BP之间,冰消期期间该地区气候表现为冷暖波动频繁,气候不稳定,植被类型由东向西为草原-荒漠化草原。全新世早期阶段10.4~8.2 ka BP气候表现为温干,植被类型由东向西为疏林草原-草原。全新世中期8.2~4.3 ka BP气候温暖湿润,植被发育良好,由东向西出现森林-森林草原植被。4.3 ka BP以后该地区气候总体向凉干方向发展,3.9~3.4 ka BP期间陇中地区气候波动较显著,植被类型草原-森林草原交替出现。晚全新世后期2.3~0 ka BP气候冷干,从东到西发育草原-荒漠化草原植被。     

库尔勒台钻孔应变台址勘选

"十五"期间计划在库尔勒新建钻孔体应变观测点,依据规范和地质构造背景的调查,对6个预选台进行了对比分析,认为铁门关老台站的环境基本符合要求,对铁门关水库和孔雀河可能产生的影响作了一定的评估,认为不会对应变观测产生很大影响.     

环境质量与经济增长库兹尼茨关系空间计量分析

大多数学者研究环境库兹尼茨曲线(EKC)时,都隐含地假定一个地区人均污染与相邻的地区不存在空间相关性,因而其得到的估计结果可能出现偏误,进而将结论应用到环境政策方面也令人难以信服。为克服上述缺陷,利用中国28个省域1993~2005年的面板数据,应用考虑空间效应的空间面板数据模型,对中国的环境库兹尼茨曲线进行实证分析。结果发现:(1)我国的区域污染存在空间相关性,因此空间面板数据模型更适于研究EKC曲线;(2)区域污染排放不仅受本地区人均收入影响,而且相邻区域的污染物排放也对本地区有重大影响,即污染物排放具有空间溢出作用;(3)我国居民环境质量-收入弹性仍然处于较低的水平,环境质量在居民消费需求中比重并不高。     

A comparison of ASCE and FAO-56 reference evapotranspiration for a 15-min time step in humid climate conditions

Many applications in diverse disciplines require estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) at hourly or smaller time steps. The primary objectives of this study were to compare the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and FAO-56 Penman–Monteith equations for 15-min ET₀ (ET_{0,15-min,ASCE} and ET_0,15-min,FAO) estimations for humid climate conditions and to compare the 24 h sum of ASCE (ET_0,24 h,ASCE) and FAO-56 15-min ET₀ (ET_0,24 h,FAO) with the daily ET₀ (ET_0,d,FAO) computed from the daily FAO-56 equation, which is identical to ASCE daily ET₀ equation. Ten-year, i.e., 1997–2006 continuous 15-min and daily weather data for 11 representative and well-distributed sites throughout Georgia, USA were used. It was evident that during the day, ET_{0,15-min,ASCE} was higher than ET_0,15-min,FAO due to a lower surface resistance parameter value, while at night ET_{0,15-min,ASCE} was lower than ET_0,15-min,FAO due to a higher surface resistance parameter value. The ET_0,15-min,FAO was about 5% less than ET_{0,15-min,ASCE} and ET_0,24 h,FAO was about 5% lower than ET_0,24 h,ASCE. The difference between ET_{0,15-min,ASCE} and ET_0,15-min,FAO during the day and night was highly dependent on wind speed. During the three summer months, i.e., June, July and August, on average, ET_0,24 h,FAO was only 1% higher than ET_0,d,FAO while ET_0,24 h,ASCE was 5% higher than ET_0,d,FAO. For the entire year, ET_0,24 h,FAO was 8% higher than ET_0,d,FAO while ET_0,24 h,ASCE was 13% higher than ET_0,d,FAO. The ET_0,24 h,FAO and ET_0,d,FAO had a better agreement than ET_0,24 h,ASCE and ET_0,d,FAO throughout the year and during the summer months. It is also worth noting that the daily calculations for FAO-56 and ASCE were identical. These results demonstrated that for applications that require 15-min time steps or daily ET₀ for the entire year, the use of ET_0,15-min,FAO and ET_0,24 h,FAO, respectively, will yield more consistent outcomes. The use of ET_0,d,FAO during the summer months can be as accurate as the use of ET_0,24 h,FAO for applications that require daily time steps, such as irrigation scheduling.     

Power analysis for biomarkers in mussels for use in coastal pollution monitoring

Data from literature on neutral red retention time (NRRT) in lysosomes, micronucleus (MN) frequency and condition index (CI) in mussel Mytilus, especially Mytilus edulis and Mytilus galloprovincialis, were re-analyzed to ascertain their statistical power in detecting a minimum 20% spatial/temporal change in field studies. Results showed that CI largely displayed higher statistical power (>90%) than lysosomal NRRT and MN frequency (<50%), suggesting that data from the latter two biomarkers may lead to erroneous conclusions if sample size is inadequate. Samples of green-lipped mussel Perna viridis were also analyzed in Hong Kong. To achieve statistically valid power, the optimal sample sizes for monitoring lysosomal NRRT, MN frequency, CI and gonosomatic index (GSI) were determined as ?34, ?90, ?16 and ?29, respectively. Natural variability of lysosomal NRRT and MN frequency was significantly greater than CI and/or GSI in mussels, rejecting the general belief in the greater variability of higher-tiered hierarchical biomarkers.     

Method for rapid localization of seafloor petroleum contamination using concurrent mass spectrometry and acoustic positioning

Locating areas of seafloor contamination caused by heavy oil spills is challenging, in large part because of observational limitations in aquatic subsurface environments. Accepted methods for surveying and locating sunken oil are generally slow, labor intensive and spatially imprecise. This paper describes a method to locate seafloor contamination caused by heavy oil fractions using in situ mass spectrometry and concurrent acoustic navigation. We present results of laboratory sensitivity tests and proof-of-concept evaluations conducted at the US Coast Guard OHMSETT national oil spill response test facility. Preliminary results from a robotic seafloor contamination survey conducted in deep water using the mass spectrometer and a geo-referenced acoustic navigation system are also described. Results indicate that this technological approach can accurately localize seafloor oil contamination in real-time at spatial resolutions better than a decimeter.     

Managing tourist harbors: Are managers aware of the real environmental risks?

The management of tourist harbors has traditionally been analyzed with little attention to managers’ awareness of the effects of their decisions on the environment. The aims of this paper were to assess managers’ perceptions of the main environmental risks in their regions and to identify common behaviors among the managers involved in eight tourist harbors in southern Italy, where the same tourist harbor is often managed by different managers. A questionnaire was administered and statistical analyses were performed to test differences between managers of big and small harbors. Managers showed a low perception of environmental risks and, surprisingly, in certain harbors, some meaningful cases were highlighted: the most homogeneous case, where all managers showed a reasonable level of environmental awareness, and cases with strong mismatches among managers. In this paper, we propose that an assessment of managers’ perceptions of risk be included as a new form of analysis when environmental risk assessments are carried out.     

Distribution and seasonal fluctuations in the aquatic biodiversity of the southern Altiplano

We compared the distribution and seasonal fluctuations in the aquatic biota in relation to chemical and physical water variables in the Altiplano watersheds of the Ascotán, Carcote and Huasco salars; Chungará and Cotacotani lakes; Isluga and Lauca Rivers and the Parinacota wetland. We sampled during the austral autumn–winter of 2006 and in the spring–summer of 2006–2007, using three sampling stations for each system. We used canonical correspondence analysis to establish relations between frequency of taxa and environmental variables.We demonstrate that the structure and composition of the aquatic biota in humid areas of the Altiplano is determined by physical and chemical variables of the water. The most relevant one is total nitrogen, which is also the limiting nutrient for phytoplankton production in tropical systems.Benthos and zooplankton showed significant associations with the set of environmental variables (Monte Carlo test, p<0.05); however, the association was not significant for phytoplankton. Lake Chungará showed the greatest variation in composition and abundance of zooplankton between autumn-winter and spring-summer, while in the Huasco salar the physical and chemical characteristics were related to the composition and abundance of the benthonic fauna. Thus, changes in the water volume of these systems would have repercussions in chemical and physical variables, altering the species assemblage and possibly the efficiency and stability of ecosystem functions.