Sensitive response of desert vegetation to moisture change based on a near-annual resolution pollen record from Gahai Lake in the Qaidam Basin, northwest China

We present a 50-year pollen record at near-annual resolution from Gahai Lake in the Qaidam Basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Chronology of a 22-cm short core was established by ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs analysis. The pollen results at 0.5 cm intervals show large changes in Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratios from < 0.2 to 0.95 in the last 50 years. High (low) A/C ratios represent increase (decrease) in steppe pollen production, which correspond to high (low) relative humidity observed at nearby Delingha weather station. On the basis of good correspondence with instrumental records and carbonate content from Gahai Lake, we conclude that A/C ratio is sensitive to moisture change and can be a very useful index in reconstructing paleoclimate of arid regions. Comparison with pollen and snow accumulation data from Dunde ice core suggests that effective moisture at low and high elevations shows the opposite relationship when mountain precipitation was extremely high, possibly due to topography-induced uplifting and subsiding air dynamics.     

Molecular line profiles as diagnostics of protostellar collapse: modelling the 'blue asymmetry' in inside-out infall

The evolution of star-forming core analogues undergoing inside-out collapse is studied with a multipoint chemodynamical model which self-consistently computes the abundance distribution of chemical species in the core. For several collapse periods the output chemistry of infalling tracer species such as HCO⁺, CS and N₂H⁺ is then coupled to an accelerated Λ-iteration radiative transfer code, which predicts the emerging molecular line profiles using two different input gas/dust temperature distributions. We investigate the sensitivity of the predicted spectral line profiles and line asymmetry ratios to the core temperature distribution, the time-dependent model chemistry, as well as to ad hoc abundance distributions. The line asymmetry is found to be strongly dependent on the adopted chemical abundance distribution. In general, models with a warm central region show higher values of blue asymmetry in optically thick HCO⁺ and CS lines than models with a starless core temperature profile. We find that in the formal context of Shu-type inside-out infall, and in the absence of rotation or outflows, the relative blue asymmetry of certain HCO⁺ and CS transitions is a function of time and, subject to the foregoing caveats, can act as a collapse chronometer. The sensitivity of simulated HCO⁺ line profiles to linear radial variations, subsonic or supersonic, of the internal turbulence field is investigated in the separate case of static cores.     

北极和南极表面温度对中低纬度海洋热强迫的响应

利用耦合了平板海洋模型的全球气候模式进行了大量的格林函数实验,以探究两极地区对于施加在中低纬度海域的热强迫的气候响应。结果表明,北极地区的气候不仅受到距离较近的北太平洋与北大西洋的影响,远离北极的热带太平洋以及南太平洋也对其气候有显著的影响,南极地区的气候则主要是受到邻近的南大洋的影响。通过经验正交函数法的进一步分析发现,北极响应最显著的区域包括波弗特海(Beaufort Sea)、拉普捷夫海(Laptev Sea)以及北极中心区附近;南极地区的响应主要集中在别林斯高晋海(Bellinsgauzen Sea)区域。另外,利用温度归因法对辐射反馈过程和大气能量输运分解发现,北极地区表面温度的响应主要是受到了反照率反馈以及垂直递减率反馈的影响,而南极地区的响应则主要是反照率反馈发挥了作用。     

基于物态本构模型的路基动力反应分析

以动力固结理论和瞬态动力学理论为基础,将有效应力物态动本构关系引入到以动力反应与动力固结相耦合、静应力与动应力变化相耦合、孔压的产生、扩散和消散相耦合的动力三维瞬态动力学基本方程组中,形成了饱和土体有效应力物态地震反应分析的完整理论体系。利用有限元法对饱和路基进行了瞬态地震反应分析,较好地反映了土体在震动过程中剪 胀、剪缩的实际性态,比以往引进孔压模型和静-动交替分析计算更为合理。     

人为因素导致的地面沉降

天然气、石油、地下水、地热热水和卤水等流体运移出地下储存地层时,地层耗尽了流体而产生压缩变形,这些变形传递到地表表面就形成了人为的地面沉降。在本文中:(1)列举了世界上主要的地面沉降区域;(2)论述了引发地面沉降的力学机制,这些可以量测的地面沉降发生在地下含水层体系、天然气气田和石油油田之上;(3)描述了目前可以用于地面沉降测量和岩石变形原位测试的技术手段;(4)简要介绍了几个地面沉降预测的数值模型;(5)说明了用于控制地面沉降发展和减轻相关环境影响的几种防治措施。     

蒙城地震台地电阻率各向异性参量研究

地电阻率各向异性参量计算方法是由钱复业,赵玉林等研究出来的方法。我们试用该方法编制相应的计算机程序,对蒙城地震台1978～2008年地电阻率的数据进行处理;并结合震例进行对比分析,发现对于震中距300km内的中强震,与地电阻率各向异性参数的趋势性变化存在密切的关系;地电阻率各向异性参量特征可以反映孕震区地下介质的孕震信息,对未来地震的预测将起到一定作用。     

Phase synchronization of slips by periodical (tangential and normal) mechanical forcing in the spring-slider model

In the present study, the character of slip regimes under weak external periodical (tangential and normal) mechanical forcing has been investigated in a laboratory spring-slider system. We report the experimental evidence of phase synchronization in a slip dynamics, induced by the external periodic mechanical impact. At certain conditions, we have a stick-slip effect in the spring-slider system. To describe this effect, we can use rate-and state-dependent friction law. In our experiments, the slip events are distinguished by acoustic emission bursts, which are generated by slider displacement. In addition to drag, the weak variable mechanical forcing was superimposed either tangential or normal to the slip plane. With increasing external forcing one can see increasing phase synchronization of the first arrivals (onsets) of stick-slip generated acoustic pulses. The grouping of the onsets in a certain phase of the external periodic forcing is considered as a hallmark of the phase synchronization. The onsets of stick-slip pulses in the case of normal mechanical forcing are shifted relative to onsets in the case of tangential forcing.     

Interaction of a river plume with coastal upwelling in the northeastern South China Sea

Observational and modeling studies were conducted to investigate the Pearl River plume and its interaction with the southwesterly driven upwelling circulation in the northern South China Sea during the summer. After exiting the Pearl River Estuary, the discharged freshwater generates a nearly stationary bulge of freshwater near the entrance of the estuary. Forced by the wind-driven coastal upwelling current, the freshwater in the outer part of the bulge flows downstream at the speed of the current and forms a widening and deepening buoyant plume over the shelf. The plume axis gradually shifts offshore of the current maximum as a result of currents induced by the contrasting density at the nose of plume and by the intensified Ekman drift in the plume. In this plume–current system, the fraction of the discharged freshwater volume accumulated in the bulge reaches a steady state and the volume of newly discharged freshwater is transported downstream by the upwelling current. Enhancement of stratification by the plume thins the surface frictional layer and enhances the cross-shelf circulation in the upper water column such that the surface Ekman current and compensating flow beneath the plume are amplified while the shoaling of the deeper dense water in the upwelling region changes minimally. The pressure gradient generated between the buoyant plume and ambient seawater accelerates the wind-driven current along the inshore edge of the plume but retards it along the offshore edge. Along the plume, downward momentum advection is strong near the highly nonlinear source region and a weaker upward momentum advection occurs in the far field over the shelf. Typically, the plume is shaped by the current over the shelf while the current itself is adjusting to a new dynamic balance invoked by the plume-induced changes of vertical viscosity and the horizontal pressure gradient. The spatial variation of this new balance leads to a coherent change in the cross-isobath transport in the upper water column during upwelling.     

Response of the Changjiang diluted water around Jeju Island to external forcings: A modeling study of 2002 and 2006

The Changjiang diluted water (CDW) around Jeju Island between 2002 and 2006 in response to external forcings, such as wind, tidal forcing and low river discharge, is studied using a three-dimensional model. The model results suggest that wind largely determines spatial differences of CDW and the freshwater export toward Jeju Island between two years. In 2006, when northwestward wind blows during mid June to mid August, the wind-induced Ekman flow causes a broad northeastward extension of CDW and carries a significant amount of freshwater northeastward Jeju Island in August. On the other hand, in 2002 northward wind during mid July to early August drives the CDW to the southwest of Jeju Island, and thereafter the CDW is mainly advected northeastward along the Cheju Current during mid August when the wind becomes weak. Therefore, the amount of freshwater around Jeju Island increases in September, not in August. The response to tidal forcing shows that tide-induced vertical mixing tends to enhance a meander of CDW around Changjiang Bank and shift the CDW flowing into the Yellow Sea southeastward toward Jeju Island. As a result, the amount of freshwater toward Jeju Island becomes larger than that in no-tides case. The summer low river discharge as a flood control scenario has little influence on the spatial behavior of CDW around Jeju Island although the discharge contributes to the amount of freshwater around Jeju Island.