Dating of post-glacial landforms in the central howgills

Little is known of Holocene landform development in Upland Britain. This paper describes a site at Middle Langdale in the Howgill Fells of Cumbria where large, but now stabilized and inactive gullies cut through periglacial material. At the base of the gullies large debris cones have buried earlier alluvial sediments on the valley floor. On these sediments and buried by the debris cones is a well-developed organic soil from which two ¹⁴C dates have been obtained in an attempt to estimate the age range of the soil. These dates range from 2580±55 years BP for the fine particulate fraction from the base of the organic horizon to 940±95 years BP for fossil rootlets from the uppermost organic layer, immediately below the overlying debris cones. The pollen evidence suggests that the valley floor site was initially dominated by alder carr and later by a Juncus marsh with birch, alder and hazel nearby. The pollen, from the surrounding upland area suggests woodland on the valley sides, dominated by oak and elm that was later replaced by a more open environment rich in heath species and in which disturbed ground species were present. The magnetic evidence indicates a stable local environment during soil formation but shows a sudden inwash of unweathered debris at the top of the buried soil. The evidence suggests that the valley floor was geomorphologically stable throughout the period of soil formation, although there was a local change in valley floor vegetation and a reduction of woodland cover on the valley sides at sometime during the period. The evidence then points to major geomorphological changes; a wave of soil erosion, gully development and debris cone deposition, perhaps following the Scandinavian introduction of sheep farming in the tenth century A.D.     

ACMEG‐TS: A constitutive model for unsaturated soils under non‐isothermal conditions

This paper introduces an unconventional constitutive model for soils, which deals with a unified thermo‐mechanical modelling for unsaturated soils. The relevant temperature and suction effects are studied in light of elasto‐plasticity. A generalized effective stress framework is adopted, which includes a number of intrinsic thermo‐hydro‐mechanical connections, to represent the stress state in the soil. Two coupled constitutive aspects are used to fully describe the non‐isothermal behaviour. The mechanical constitutive part is built on the concepts of bounding surface theory and multi‐mechanism plasticity, whereas water retention characteristics are described using elasto‐plasticity to reproduce the hysteretic response and the effect of temperature and dry density on retention properties. The theoretical formulation is supported by comparisons with experimental results on two compacted clays. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A thermo‐mechanical model for variably saturated soils based on hypoplasticity

The paper presents a mechanical model for non‐isothermal behaviour of unsaturated soils. The model is based on an incrementally non‐linear hypoplastic model for saturated clays and can therefore tackle the non‐linear behaviour of overconsolidated soils. A hypoplastic model for non‐isothermal behaviour of saturated soils was developed and combined with the existing hypoplastic model for unsaturated soils based on the effective stress principle. Features of the soil behaviour that are included into the model, and those that are not, are clearly distinguished. The number of model parameters is kept to a minimum, and they all have a clear physical interpretation, to facilitate the model usefulness for practical applications. The step‐by‐step procedure used for the parameter calibration is described. The model is finally evaluated using a comprehensive set of experimental data for the thermo‐mechanical behaviour of an unsaturated compacted silt. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The generation and redistribution of overland flow on a massive oxic soil in a eucalypt woodland within the semi-arid tropics of North Australia

There is a dearth of knowledge on the runoff processes of eucalypt woodland communities in the semi-arid tropics of Australia. The work was undertaken on a 100 m transect of a 0·8 degree hillslope typical of the ‘smooth plainlands’ of central-north Queensland. This paper introduces a new experimental design for measuring overland flow in such areas by way of a cascade system of unbounded runoff plots which allow the inputs and outputs between troughs to be calculated. Most storms generate overland flow. Time to overland flow ranges between 1 and 18 min where rain intensities are above 10mm hr⁻¹ and when the average detention storage of 3·6 mm is exceeded. The bare soil surfaces within the scattered grass understory control the runoff generation process through the temporal variability of field saturated hydraulic conductivity. The study demonstrated that overland flow is mainly redistributed over the freely-draining oxic soil. Some areas export more overland flow than they gain from upslope (runoff), others gain more overland flow than they export (runon). Over the study period only 2 per cent of total rain is transferred out of this 100 m transect as overland flow due to the short duration of storms, the relatively high soil permeability, and the low slope angle. The remainder adds to the large soil water store or deep drainage. The variability of runoff–runon over these ‘smooth plainlands’ highlights how results from bounded plots would be misleading in such areas.     

An elastoplastic strainhardening model for soil allowing for hydraulic bonding–debonding effects

The paper presents a strainhardening constitutive model for unsaturated soil behaviour based on energy conjugated stress variables in the framework of superposed continua. The proposed constitutive law deals with hydro‐mechanical coupling phenomena. The main purpose is to develop within a consistent framework a model that can deal with possible mechanical instabilities occurring in partially saturated materials. The loss of capillary effects during wetting processes can, in fact, play a central role in unstable processes. Therefore, it will be shown that the bonding effects due to surface tensions can be described in a mathematical framework similar to that employed for bonded geomaterials to model weathering or diagenesis effects, either mechanically or chemically induced. The results of several simulations of common laboratory tests on partially saturated soil specimens are shown. The calculated behaviour appears to be in good qualitative agreement with that observed in the laboratory. In particular it is shown that volumetric collapse phenomena due to hydraulic debonding effects can be successfully described by the model. Finally, it will be highlighted the ability of the model to naturally capture the transition to a fully saturated condition and to deal with possible mechanical instabilities in the unsaturated regime. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

广西红树林根际土壤放线菌的原位培养分离及其活性筛选

为了发掘广西红树林根际土壤的放线菌资源,本文利用原位培养装置,埋于根际土壤中俘获放线菌,30d后取回实验室,采用平板涂布法对4个地点的原位培养样品于15种培养基上进行分离纯化;对分离株基于16SrRNA基因序列进行系统发育分析;进一步进行抗菌活性和产酶活性检测。共分离得到113株放线菌。对其中33株放线菌进行测序,结果表明20株属于链霉菌属,11株属于拟诺卡氏菌属,1株属于伦兹氏菌属,1株与拟诺卡氏菌属相似性最高为90%,很可能属于放线菌一个新属。抗菌实验结果显示其中有7株、4株、18株、6株、10株、3株实验菌株分别对大肠埃希菌、铜绿假单胞菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、普通变形杆菌、乙型溶血性链球菌和肺炎克雷伯氏菌具有抑制作用;有55株、62株、24株、72株的实验菌株分别具有纤维素酶活性、淀粉酶活性、胶原蛋白酶活性、酯酶活性。原位培养可以丰富对广西红树林根际土壤的认识,分离到了新种甚至可能是新属的放线菌,分离得到的部分放线菌菌株具有较高生物活性,为后续工作提供了良好的实验材料。     

紫色土典型三角形层状剖面入渗模拟

通过室内特制的土壤水分入渗试验装置,分别设置上粗下细和上细下粗两种典型不同质地紫色土三角形层状剖面,探讨典型不规则层次结构的土壤入渗特性。结果显示,同一三角形层状剖面入渗,粗质土半剖面的垂直湿润锋随时间推进速度快于细质土。对于粗质土,上细下粗剖面设置下其半剖面的垂直湿润锋随时间推进速度快于上粗下细,但对于细质土,两种层状剖面设置下其垂直湿润锋随时间推进速度差异不明显。无论上粗下细,还是上细下粗,两种层状剖面对斜面湿润锋变化曲线影响不大。两种层状剖面入渗,湿润锋、入渗速率与时间均呈极显著幂函数关系。建立的紫色土典型三角形层状剖面入渗模型,经验证,模拟值与实测值具有非常好的一致性,且可与经验模型相互转换,模型参数也具有一定的物理意义。     

Effect of degree of saturation on mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils and its elastoplastic simulation

The two stress-state variable approach has been widely used in interpreting unsaturated soil behaviour. However this approach cannot take into account the effect of degree of saturation or water contents on the stress–strain behaviour and strength of unsaturated soils. The triaxial test results presented in this paper show that even if the same path of net stress and suction is followed, the stress–strain relation and strength are different due to different degrees of saturation. When other conditions are the same, the higher the degree of saturation for the soil sample is, the higher the stress ratio corresponding to a given axial strain will be. This effect can be modeled by using an elasto-plastic constitutive model coupling hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils. Comparisons between the predicted and measured results are presented, which demonstrate that the model can quantitatively simulate the influence of the degree of saturation on stress–strain behaviour and strength of unsaturated soils.     

粗粒土大三轴试验研究综述

自然界中广泛分布粗粒土,其具有压实密度大、良好透水性、抗剪强度高、沉降变形小、不易产生地震液化等优良的工程特性,已被广泛运用于土石坝工程建设中。本文在阅读大量参考文献的基础上概括和总结了粗粒土大三轴试验研究进展情况,包括抗剪强度、变形特性、应力-应变关系特性、试验中的若干问题,并结合已有认识,提出了笔者一些自己的思考,指出了今后关于粗粒土的研究方向。