A 7000-year record of environmental change,including early farming impact,based on lake-sediment geochemistry and pollen data from County Sligo,western Ireland

Detailed, chronologically tightly constrained, lake-sediment-based geochemical and pollen records have enabled local changes in soil erosion, woodland cover and composition, and prehistoric farming impact to be reconstructed in considerable detail. The profile opens shortly after 7800 BC when tall canopy trees were well-established and presumably in equilibrium with their environment. A distinct perturbation that involved an increase in pine and birch, a decrease in oak and a minor opening-up of the woodland is regarded as the local expression of the 8.2 ka climate anomaly. Lack of response in the geochemical erosional indicators is interpreted as evidence for drier conditions. A short-lived, over-compensation in climate recovery followed the 8.2 ka event. Neolithic farming impact is clearly expressed in both the pollen and geochemical data. Both datasets indicate that Neolithic impact was concentrated in the early Neolithic (3715–3440 BC). In the interval 3000–2700 BC there appears to have been a break in farming activity. The pollen data suggest substantially increased farming impact (both arable and pastoral) in the Bronze Age, with maximum farming and woodland clearances taking place in the late Bronze Age (1155–935 BC). These developments are poorly expressed in the geochemical record, possibly due to within-lake changes.     

北半球陆地生态系统碳交换通量的空间格局及其区域特征

陆地生态系统通过植被的光合作用吸收大气中的CO2,深入了解陆地生态系统碳吸收强度的空间变异及其区域特征对于准确地预测和评估全球碳收支以及制定高效的区域性生态系统管理政策具有重要的指导性意义。本文以China FLUX的长期联网观测数据为基础,整合了北半球区域已发表的涡度相关文献数据,对北半球区域碳交换通量,即总初级生产力（GPP）、生态系统呼吸（RE）和净生态系统生产力（NEP）的空间格局及其区域特征进行综合分析。我们获取了233个通量站点,732条站点年数据。观测站点分布于亚洲、欧洲和北美洲,纵跨纬度2.97°N到74.47°N,横跨经度148.88°W到161.34°E。气候类型涵盖了热带、亚热带、温带、北方林、极地与亚极地以及高山气候类型。生态系统类型包涵了森林（107个站点）、草地（65个站点）、农田（33个站点）和湿地（28个站点）四大生态系统。研究结果得出：北半球陆地生态系统GPP和RE呈现出显著的随着纬度升高而线性降低的趋势,纬度每升高1°N,GPP和RE在空间格局上约减少22.9gC/m2/a,而NEP的纬向变化规律不明显。森林和农田生态系统的GPP和NEP显著高于草地和湿地生态系统。RE则在森林生态系统最高,平均约为1185±641gC/m2/a,而在其余生态系统间无显著差异。在亚洲、欧洲和北美洲3个区域之间,森林、农田和湿地生态系统的GPP,RE和NEP均无显著差异。仅在草地生态系统中,欧洲草地生态系统的GPP和RE分别为1472±473gC/m2/a和1236±452gC/m2/a,显著高于亚洲和北美洲。GPP,RE和NEP呈现出从温暖性气候区向寒冷性气候区逐渐降低的趋势,同时受到水分状况的调节,表现出在相同的温度带里,相对湿润的气候区具有更高的NEP。这些结果表明北半球陆地生态系统碳交换通量存在着空间变异性,但没有显著的区域差异,然而在不同气候区和生态系统类型间差异显著,这意味着北半球陆地生态系统碳交换通量主要受到温度和水分环境条件以及人类活动的共同影响。     

青藏高原冰川演变与生态地质环境响应

利用青藏高原现代冰川雪线的遥感调查与监测结果,对青藏高原40多年来由于现代冰川雪线的变化而引发的水资源、冻土、荒漠化、湿地、湖泊、地质灾害、海平面上升以及地震等生态地质环境问题进行了分析,并对可能产生的生态环境和气候问题进行了初步探讨.     

重庆金佛山石笋的同位素年龄和古气候信息

对采自重庆金佛山梁天湾洞穴的一根长达295mm的石笋进行了高精度的TIM S-U系定年和碳氧稳定同位素测试分析,初步建立了末次冰期晚期( 31. 90～15. 21 ka B. P. )以来长江中游地区较高分辨率的古气候变化序列。石笋大约从31.90kaB. P.开始沉积,至15. 21kaB. P.沉积结束,属于末次冰期晚期的产物,其平均沉积速率为1. 77mm /100a。从石笋的氧同位素曲线中明显地检出了Heinrich事件,并且氧同位素曲线与周边地区的石笋记录有着良好的对比关系。      

滇东寒武系层序地层学特征

介绍了对滇东寒武系进行层序地层学研究所采用的方法、层序的基本特征及取得的主要成果。确定有１０个层序，其时限为１～１０Ｍａ，其中下寒统武有６个，中、上寒武统各２个。此外还划分出次层序２７个、组合层序２个。此项研究工作对本区寒武系地层划分与对比、界线的确定具有重要意义：（１）沧浪铺阶生物地层的争论，是由于滇东存在两个Ⅰ型层序边界，乌龙箐段与红井哨段为假整合关系，故生物带发育不完整；（２）双龙潭组与西王庙组应为同时异相沉积体；（３）双龙潭组顶部时限，以ＳＢ２ｉ为标志，应与娄山关组底部边界对比，故可能上延至晚寒武世早期     

试论未来全球气候变化

未来全球气候变化是人们关注的重大课题。从内蒙古盐湖近２０ｋａ气候演变的研究可知，地质时期和历史时期气候波动变化是有规律可循的。用已经了解的这种变化规律来予测未来气候变化是有价值的。研究表明，未来１ｋａ左右全球为暖期，之后将进入下一个冰期。     

A spectrophotometric measurement of soil cation exchange capacity based on cobaltihexamine chloride absorbance

Among numerous methods for cation exchange capacity (CEC) determination for soils and sediments, the cobaltihexamine chloride method is frequently used due to its ability to measure CEC at soil pH. After exchange with Co(NH₃)₆³⁺ ions, CEC is estimated via the measurement of the Co remaining in solution. The modified method proposed allows a more rapid determination of CEC based on the measurement of the absorbance at 472 nm of the cobaltihexamine chloride solution before and after exchange. This method has been applied to various soil's horizons from four sites, selected to cover a wide range of CEC and pH values. The model obtained allows one to calculate CEC from absorbance at 472 nm with 95% confidence intervals. As CEC is of relevant meaning in agronomical and environmental purposes, and more recently in ecotoxicological studies, this modified method can be proposed as a rapid test for CEC evaluation.     

Climate changing characteristics of Zhangye City in Heihe River basin during 1968–2005

At present, researches on climate change of the Heihe River basin mainly focus on the relationship between basin climate change and regional water resources, regional desertification and dynamic climatic seasons of sandstorm, but less on climate change of oasis region, where there are more intense and frequent human activities. Based on data of precipitation, temperature, strong wind and dust events frequencies obtained from the six meteorological stations of Zhangye region in Heihe River basin, the features of climate change during 1968–2005 were carefully studied. Results show that the regional temperature rise rate exceeded the average level of China. The annual precipitation changed a little, but the precipitation had a slowly increasing trend in spring and winter. Frequencies of strong wind and sandstorm days show obviously descending trends, which had a close correlation with the regional temperature rise and the precipitation increase in spring and winter. Meanwhile, further human economic activities and exploitations to the oasis in the inland valley of arid regions also affected the climate change of this region, which has a sensitive and fragile eco-environment. __________ Translated from Journal of Desert Research, 2007, 27(6): 1048–1054 [译自: 中国沙漠]     

Exurbia from the bottom-up: Confronting empirical challenges to characterizing a complex system

We describe empirical results from a multi-disciplinary project that support modeling complex processes of land-use and land-cover change in exurban parts of Southeastern Michigan. Based on two different conceptual models, one describing the evolution of urban form as a consequence of residential preferences and the other describing land-cover changes in an exurban township as a consequence of residential preferences, local policies, and a diversity of development types, we describe a variety of empirical data collected to support the mechanisms that we encoded in computational agent-based models. We used multiple methods, including social surveys, remote sensing, and statistical analysis of spatial data, to collect data that could be used to validate the structure of our models, calibrate their specific parameters, and evaluate their output. The data were used to investigate this system in the context of several themes from complexity science, including have (a) macro-level patterns; (b) autonomous decision making entities (i.e., agents); (c) heterogeneity among those entities; (d) social and spatial interactions that operate across multiple scales and (e) nonlinear feedback mechanisms. The results point to the importance of collecting data on agents and their interactions when producing agent-based models, the general validity of our conceptual models, and some changes that we needed to make to these models following data analysis. The calibrated models have been and are being used to evaluate landscape dynamics and the effects of various policy interventions on urban land-cover patterns.     

Integrating diverse methods to understand climate-land interactions in East Africa

The questions of how land use change affects climate, and how climate change affects land use, require examination of societal and environmental systems across space at multiple scales, from the global climate to regional vegetative dynamics to local decision making by farmers and herders. It also requires an analysis of causal linkages and feedback loops between systems. These questions and the conceptual approach of the research design of the Climate-Land Interaction Project (CLIP) are rooted in the classical human-environment research tradition in Geography.This paper discusses a methodological framework to quantify the two-way interactions between land use and regional climate systems, using ongoing work by a team of multi-disciplinary scientists examining climate-land dynamics at multiple scales in East Africa. East Africa is a region that is undergoing rapid land use change, where changes in climate would have serious consequences for people’s livelihoods, and requiring new coping and land use strategies. The research involves exploration of linkages between two important foci of global change research, namely, land use/land cover (LULC) and climate change. These linkages are examined through modeling agricultural systems, land use driving forces and patterns, the physical properties of land cover, and the regional climate. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are being used to illustrate a diverse pluralism in scientific discovery.