2005-2013年中国新增造林植被生物量碳库固碳潜力分析

本文利用2005-2013年林业统计年鉴中每个省市新造林面积和遥感分类提取得到的2010年土地覆被类型,结合公开发表的各类森林生长方程和各个时期的森林存活率,估算了中国新造林在2005-2100年生物量碳库变化及其固碳潜力。结果表明：2005-2013年中国新造林面积达到4394×10⁴ hm²,在自然生长状况下,到2020年新造林蓄积量增加16.8亿m³,生物量增加1.6 Pg,生物量碳库0.76 Pg C;新造林生物量碳库在2005-2100年中将增加2.11 Pg C,相当于目前现有森林生物量碳库的25%,约是过去20年森林总碳汇的1.5倍;新造林生物量碳密度逐年增加,最高达到48.1 Mg/hm²。整合林业统计年鉴以及遥感解译的森林类型对新造林生物量固碳潜力分析,研究表明新造林具有较大的碳汇潜力,对中国现有森林碳汇平衡有重要贡献。     

Potential for Coal-to-Liquids Conversion in the United States—Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis

The United States has the world’s largest coal reserves and Montana the highest potential for mega-mine development. Consequently, a large-scale effort to convert coal to liquids (CTL) has been proposed to create a major source of domestic transportation fuels from coal, and some prominent Montanans want to be at the center of that effort. We calculate that the energy efficiency of the best existing Fischer–Tropsch (FT) process applied to average coal in Montana is less than 1/2 of the corresponding efficiency of an average crude oil refining process. The resulting CO₂ emissions are 20 times (2000%) higher for CTL than for conventional petroleum products. One barrel of the FT fuel requires roughly 800 kg of coal and 800 kg of water. The minimum energy cost of subsurface CO₂ sequestration would be at least 40% of the FT fuel energy, essentially halving energy efficiency of the process. We argue therefore that CTL conversion is not the most valuable use for the coal, nor will it ever be, as long as it is economical to use natural gas for electric power generation. This finding results from the low efficiency inherent in FT synthesis, and is independent of the monumental FT plant construction costs, mine construction costs, acute lack of water, and the associated environmental impacts for Montana.

Mopping up leaking carbon: A natural analog at Wadi Namaleh,Jordan

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is one of the important options available for partially stemming greenhouse gas emissions from large point sources. The possibility of leaking from deep storage needs to be addressed. The Wadi Namaleh area in southern Jordan provides an interesting case study of how excess CO₂ can be trapped in the form of carbonates in the near surface, even when the local geology is not obviously conducive for such a process.Carbonate veins are formed in surface alteration zones of rhyolite host rock in this arid region. The alteration zones are limited to areas where surface soil or colluvium are present. Oxygen, deuterium and carbon isotopes of the carbonates and near-surface ground water in the area suggest that the source of carbon is deep seated CO₂, and that the carbonate precipitated in local meteoric water under ambient temperature conditions. Analysis of strontium in the carbonate, fresh rhyolite and altered host shows that the source for calcium is aeolian. Trace elements show that metal and REE mobility are constrained to the alteration zone.Thus, interaction of H₂O, CO₂ and atmospheric wet and dry deposition lead to the formation of the clayey (montmorillonite) alteration zone. This zone acts to trap seeping CO₂ and water, and thus produces conditions of progressively more efficient trapping of carbon dioxide by means of a positive feedback mechanism. Replication of these conditions in other areas will minimize CO₂ leakage from man-made CCS sites.     

Australian Climate,Energy and Water Policies: conflicts and synergies

Responding to the threat of climate change, conserving freshwater ecosystems and securing adequate energy and water supplies are among the greatest challenges facing modern societies. Yet recognition of the interdependencies between climate, energy and water policy—with resulting synergies and trade-offs—remains limited, leaving societies and governments alike vulnerable to the dangers of conflicted or unintended policy outcomes from sectoral decisions. In this paper, we analyse current Australian climate, energy and water policies to identify the risks of perverse outcomes between the three policy sectors. In doing so we categorise the conflicts and synergies between particular energy generation, carbon sequestration and water supply policies to improve understandings of the challenges facing decision makers in Australia and internationally. Four types of interventions are identified that would enable integration and optimisation of policies, namely: better cross-sectoral knowledge to inform decisions; the identification of technologies with co-benefits; markets with broader cross-sectoral participation (including linking water and carbon markets); and better-integrated governance institutions.     

多层螺旋CT后处理技术对肺隔离症的诊断价值

目的:探讨多层螺旋CT后处理技术在肺隔离症诊断中的应用价值。方法:对13例经手术及病理证实的肺隔离症进行回顾性分析。所有检查采用64排螺旋CT扫描机,先行CT平扫,再行双期增强扫描,然后再行多平面重建(MPR),最大密度投影(MIP)及容积再现(VR)。结果:13例肺隔离症患者中,10例的病灶位于左下叶后基底段,3例的病灶位于右下叶后基底段,病灶CT平扫表现为分叶形3例,圆形或卵圆形3例,不规则形7例。增强及重建后13例均显示异常供血动脉。其中异常体动脉供血有9例来自胸主动脉,4例来自腹主动脉。结论:多层螺旋CT及图像后处理技术能准确显示异常动脉血供和引流静脉,在肺隔离症的诊断和术前评估中具有重大价值。     

Land restoration in food security programmes: synergies with climate change mitigation

Food-insecure households in many countries depend on international aid to alleviate acute shocks and chronic shortages. Some food security programmes (including Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program–PSNP – which provides a case study for this article) have integrated aid in exchange for labour on public works to reduce long-term dependence by investing in the productive capacity and resilience of communities. Using this approach, Ethiopia has embarked upon an ambitious national programme of land restoration and sustainable land management. Although the intent was to reduce poverty, here we show that an unintended co-benefit is the climate-change mitigation from reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increased landscape carbon stocks. The article first shows that the total reduction in net GHG emissions from PSNP’s land management at the national scale is estimated at 3.4 million?Mg?CO₂e?y^?1 – approximately 1.5% of the emissions reductions in Ethiopia’s Nationally Determined Contribution for the Paris Agreement. The article then explores some of the opportunities and constraints to scaling up of this impact.

Key policy insights

• Food security programmes (FSPs) can contribute to climate change mitigation by creating a vehicle for investment in land and ecosystem restoration.

• Maximizing mitigation, while enhancing but not compromising food security, requires that climate projections, and mitigation and adaptation responses should be mainstreamed into planning and implementation of FSPs at all levels.

• Cross-cutting oversight is required to integrate land restoration, climate policy, food security and disaster risk management into a coherent policy framework.

• Institutional barriers to optimal implementation should be addressed, such as incentive mechanisms that reward effort rather than results, and lack of centralized monitoring and evaluation of impacts on the physical environment.

• Project implementation can often be improved by adopting best management practices, such as using productive living livestock barriers where possible, and increasing the integration of agroforestry and non-timber forest products into landscape regeneration.

     

Spatial characterization of the location of potentially leaky wells penetrating a deep saline aquifer in a mature sedimentary basin

This work was motivated by considerations of potential leakage pathways for CO₂ injected into deep geological formations for the purpose of carbon sequestration. Because existing wells represent a potentially important leakage pathway, a spatial analysis of wells that penetrate a deep aquifer in the Alberta Basin was performed and various statistical measures to quantify the spatial distribution of these wells were presented. The data indicate spatial clustering of wells, due to oil and gas production activities. The data also indicate that the number of wells that could be impacted by CO₂ injection, as defined by the spread of an injected CO₂ plume, varies from several hundred in high well-density areas to about 20 in low-density areas. These results may be applied to other mature continental sedimentary basins in North America and elsewhere, where detailed information on well location and status may not be available.     

Inducing fractures and increasing cleat apertures in a bituminous coal under isotropic stress via application of microwave energy

For the degassing of coal seams, either prior to mining or in un-minable seams to obtain coalbed methane, it is the combination of cleat frequency, aperture, connectivity, stress, and mineral occlusions that control permeability. Unfortunately, many potential coalbeds have limited permeability and are thus marginal for economic methane extraction. Enhanced coalbed methane production, with concurrent CO₂ sequestration is also challenging due to limited CO₂ injectivity. Microwave energy can, in the absence of confining stress, induce fractures in coal. Here, creation of new fractures and increasing existing cleat apertures via short burst, high-energy microwave energy was evaluated for an isotropically stressed and an unstressed bituminous coal core. A microwave-transparent argon gas pressurized (1000 psi) polycarbonate vessel was constructed to apply isotropic stress simulating ~ 1800 foot depth. Cleat frequency and distribution was determined for the two cores via micro-focused X-ray computed tomography. Evaluation occurred before and after microwave exposure with and without the application of isotropic stress during exposure. Optical microscopy was performed for tomography cleat aperture calibration and also to examine lithotypes influences on fracture: initiation, propagation, frequency, and orientation. It was confirmed that new fractures are induced via high-energy microwave exposure in an unconfined bituminous core and that the aperture increased in existing cleats. Cleat/fracture volume, following microwave exposure increased from 1.8% to 16.1% of the unconfined core volume. For the first time, similar observations of fracture generation and aperture enhancement in coal were also determined for microwave exposure under isotropic stress conditions. An existing cleat aperture, determined from calibrated X-ray computed tomography increased from 0.17 mm to 0.32 mm. The cleat/fracture volume increased from 0.5% to 5.5%. Optical microscopy indicated that fracture initiated likely occurred in at least some cases at fusain microlithotypes. Presumably this was due to the open pore volumes and potential for bulk water presence or steam pressure buildup in these locations. For the major induced fractures, they were mostly horizontal (parallel to the bedding plane) and often contained within lithotype bands. Thus it appears likely that microwaves have the potential to enhance the communication between horizontal wellbore and existing cleat network, in coal seams at depth, for improved gas recovery or CO₂ injection.     

Laboratory analysis of the effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on respiration in biological soil crusts

Metabolic activity of Biological Soil Crusts (BSCs) is principally dependent on moisture availability, but also on temperature and light conditions. Less understood is how BSCs respond to elevated atmospheric CO₂. This paper reports laboratory experimental results of elevated atmospheric CO₂ on carbon fluxes for cyanobacterial BSCs. The study uses newly designed dynamic gas exchange chambers in which the internal atmosphere was controlled. CO₂ flux was monitored during controlled experiments in two phases under simulated rainfall events (2 & 5 mm plus control with no wetting) each lasting 3 days with a dry period in between. Phase 1 subjected crusts to 392 ppm CO₂ (representing ambient level) in dry air; in phase 2, the CO₂ concentration was 801 ppm. Both phases exhibited significant efflux (respiration) of CO₂ immediately after wetting, followed by substantial influx (sequestration) of CO₂. Samples subject to 2 mm wetting sequestered an order of magnitude more C under elevated CO₂ than at ambient CO₂; for samples subject to 5 mm wetting, this increase was threefold. The findings highlight the role of BSCs in future carbon budgets by enabling greater sequestration into dryland soils even under enhanced atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, following both light and heavy rainfall events.     

Change of Soil Organic Carbon after Cropland Afforestation in ′Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control′ Program Area in China

Land use change is one of the major factors that affect soil organic carbon(SOC) variation and global carbon balance. However, the effects of land use change on SOC are always variable. In this study, using a series of paired-field experiments, we estimated the effects of revegetation types and environmental conditions on SOC stock and vertical distribution after replacement of cropland with poplar(Populus tomentosa) and korshinsk peashrub(Caragana korshinskii) in three climate regions(Chifeng City, Fengning City and Datong City of the ′Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control′(BTSSC) program area. The results show that SOC sequestration rate ranges from 0.15 Mg/(ha·yr) to 3.76 Mg/(ha·yr) in the soil layer of 0–100 cm in early stage after cropland afforestation in the BTSSC program area. The SOC accumulation rates are the highest in Fengning for both the two vegetation types. Compared to C. korshinskii, P. tomentosa has greater effects on SOC accumulation in the three climate regions, but significantly greater effect only appears in Datong. The SOC density increases by 20%–111% and 15%–59% for P. tomentosa and 9%–63% and 0–73% for C. korshinskii in the 0–20 cm and 20–100 cm soil layers, respectively. Our results indicate that cropland afforestation not only affects SOC stock in the topsoil, but also has some effects on subsoil carbon. However, the effect of cropland afforestation on SOC accumulation varied with climate regions and revegetation types. Considering the large area of revegetation and relatively high SOC accumulation rate, SOC sequestration in the BTSSC program should contribute significantly to decrease the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.