Evaluation of aluminum speciation in surface waters in China and its environmental risk assessment

As the ongoing global research on acid precipitation is developing in depth, more and more attention has been paid to the ecological effects of aluminum (Al) due to its toxicity to plants and animals, which is caused by acid precipitation. As a very serious problem of terrestrial and aquatic environmental acidification occurs in China, especially in southwestern China, a systematic investigation of Al speciation in these regions is very important. In this paper, the Al speciation results of surface waters in China are reported and its ecological impacts is evaluated. More than 100 water samples were collected from about twenty provinces of China. Driscoll's Al speciation scheme combined with the modified MINQEL computer model is used for speciation of Al. This study shows that the ecological impacts of acidification are quite different between China and Western countries, because of different geographical environments and geological settings. In Western countries, acidification is mainly caused by NO₂^-. Due to low concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, the buffer capacities of soil and water are weak. Therefore, natural waters can be acidified to pH<5 very easily, resulting in a considerable mobilization of Al and worsening of the ecological environment. In China, acid precipitation is mainly in the form of sulfuric acid. In northwestern China, concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ are high in soil and surface waters. This leads to much higher capacity and a high resistance ability to acidification. The pH values of waters in this region are high (around 7) and no serious Al toxicity is found at present. However, in northeastern and southeastern China, the soil is rich in Al (unsaturated aluminosilicates in northeastern China, saturated aluminosilicates in north and central China, aluminum-rich soil in southeastern and southwestern China). The concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ in soil and waters are lower than those of northwestern China. Therefore the buffer capacity is limited. Numerous surface waters have already been acidified and pH values declined to 5. The impacts of Al toxicity on ecological systems in these regions are very serious, especially in Jiangxi, Hubei Provinces and Chongqing Municipality.     

Groundwater flow and solute transport at the Mourquong saline-water disposal basin, Murray Basin, southeastern Australia

Saline groundwater and drainage effluent from irrigation are commonly stored in some 200 natural and artificial saline-water disposal basins throughout the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia. Their impact on underlying aquifers and the River Murray, one of Australia's major water supplies, is of serious concern. In one such scheme, saline groundwater is pumped into Lake Mourquong, a natural groundwater discharge complex. The disposal basin is hydrodynamically restricted by low-permeability lacustrine clays, but there are vulnerable areas in the southeast where the clay is apparently missing. The extent of vertical and lateral leakage of basin brines and the processes controlling their migration are examined using (1) analyses of chloride and stable isotopes of water (²H/¹H and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O) to infer mixing between regional groundwater and lake water, and (2) the variable-density groundwater flow and solute-transport code SUTRA. Hydrochemical results indicate that evaporated disposal water has moved at least 100 m in an easterly direction and that there is negligible movement of brines in a southerly direction towards the River Murray. The model is used to consider various management scenarios. Salt-load movement to the River Murray was highest in a "worst-case" scenario with irrigation employed between the basin and the River Murray. Present-day operating conditions lead to little, if any, direct movement of brine from the basin into the river. Electronic Publication     

Une dépression piézométrique naturelle en hausse au Sahel (Sud-Ouest du Niger)A rising piezometric depression in the Sahel (southwestern Niger)

In southwest Niger, the Continental Terminal water table displays a natural hollow shape about 10 m in depth over an area of 4000 km². A 10-year survey of this hollow aquifer has shown that current recharge is above $\text{20 }\text{mm}\text{yr}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}$. The water table has risen continuously since the 1950–1960s as a result of land clearance. This shows a disequilibrium in the aquifer balance. The long-term recharge rate is estimated by radioisotopes to be around $\text{1 }\text{mm}\text{yr}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}$. This figure fits with the only possible origin of the piezometric depression, i.e. evapotranspiration losses in its centre. To cite this article: G. Favreau et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 395–401.     

Modelling phosphorus transport in a surface irrigation drain

Understanding phosphorus (P) transport from agricultural land is essential to the development of effective management strategies that reduce the impact of agriculture on inland water quality. This paper describes the development and application of a process based model describing P transfer down a farm scale irrigation drain.     

利用场地观测计算地表通量

高原地表的感热和潜热通量在亚洲季风系统中有很重要的作用。由于高原地域辽阔，且自然环境较严酷，不利于建立完善的地面观测系统。因此，卫星遥感观测就成为测算高原整体感热和潜热通量的有效工具。地面场地的观测结果作为地表通量的真实值，对于卫星遥感测算是非常重要的。它也为构建陆面—大气模型提供了科学依据，是卫星资料的资料同化系统中的重要组成部分。 计算场地热量通量有几种不同的处理方法。最简单的方法利用有效的观测和试验的参数，可以给出稳定连续的估计。愈精确的Bowen比或者廓线的观测能给出愈精确的信息。综合了湍流测量及辐射测量、土壤热通量的观测结果的估计对陆面—大气相互作用进行了详细的描述，以适应模式的发展。从1998年开始，这些方法联合应用到青藏高原；场地通量观测方面的成果以及目前对其理解将在本文中做一概述。     

Multi-offset phase analysis of surface wave data (MOPA)

Inaccuracy in the shear wave velocity profile inverted from surface wave data manifests from both modelling error and data uncertainty. An alternative method for dispersion curve evaluation by weighted linear regression of phase-offset data can be applied to both equispaced and non-equispaced data for objective identification of these often overlooked error sources.From field data, near-field effects are noted to at most half a wavelength and lateral discontinuities identified by marked changes in wavenumber with offset. Transition frequencies to dominant higher modes appear lower than when identified from standard plane-wave transform methods. Effects can be discriminated by their frequency, position or offset dependence.When a non-corrupt dispersion curve is extracted, the errors are up to 5% at low frequency. Through theoretical Gaussian error propagation analysis, the resulting shear wave velocity profile shows up to 18% uncertainty at depth.     

Surface Ice Flow Velocity and Tide Retrieval of the Amery Ice Shelf using Precise Point Positioning

Five days of continuous GPS observation data were collected in the frontal zone of the Amery ice shelf and subsequently post-processed using precise point position (PPP) technology based on precise orbit and clock products from the International GNSS service. The surface ice flow velocity of the observed point was derived from PPP to be 2.25 m/day toward the northeast with an azimuth of 41°. Major semi-diurnal and diurnal oceanic tide constituents could be recovered from the 5 days of PPP-derived height variations and compared well with a hydrodynamic ocean tide model. The PPP technique can replace double-difference GPS positioning in remote or hostile environments, and be used to retrieve the surface ice flow velocity without any reference station. Furthermore, the solution can be derived epoch-by-epoch with accuracy in the centimeters to decimeter range.     

SEDIMENT MOBILIZATION BY SURFACE EROSION IN MIDDLE MOUNTAIN CATCHMENTS OF NEPAL

1 INTRODUCTION Soil erosion in the foothills of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH) is considered to be a hot topic in land degradation research in the region (Scherr and Yadav, 1996). The land degradation research has mainly addressed the issue of topsoil los…     

长岭山北麓断裂上新发现的地震地表破裂带

通过野外地震地质调查,在甘肃省古浪县、景泰县交界处的长岭山地区新发现了丰富的线状分布的地震地表破裂现象,表现为基岩崩塌、黄土滑坡、地震裂缝、地震土林、地震沟槽、陷落坑以及断层陡坎等,局部可见残留的破裂滑动自由面。其分布严格受长岭山北麓活动断裂控制。通过地震地表破裂带本身的特征分析、年代学分析、地表破裂带长度与震级的拟合关系以及结合区域活动断裂资料研究,认为该地震地表破裂带可能为1927年古浪8.0级地震的产物。     

Evaluation of the Urban Tile in MOSES using Surface Energy Balance Observations

The UK Met Office has introduced a new scheme for its urban tile in MOSES 2.2 (Met Office Surface Exchange Scheme version 2.2), which is currently implemented within the operational Met Office weather forecasting model. Here, the performance of the urban tile is evaluated in two urban areas: the historic core of downtown Mexico City and a light industrial site in Vancouver, Canada. The sites differ in terms of building structures and mean building heights. In both cases vegetation cover is less than 5%. The evaluation is based on surface energy balance flux measurements conducted at approximately the blending height, which is the location where the surface scheme passes flux data into the atmospheric model. At both sites, MOSES 2.2 correctly simulates the net radiation, but there are discrepancies in the partitioning of turbulent and storage heat fluxes between predicted and observed values. Of the turbulent fluxes, latent heat fluxes were underpredicted by about one order of magnitude. Multiple model runs revealed MOSES 2.2 to be sensitive to changes in the canopy heat storage and in the ratio between the aerodynamic roughness length and that for heat transfer (temperature). Model performance was optimum with heat capacity values smaller than those generally considered for these sites. The results suggest that the current scheme is probably too simple, and that improvements may be obtained by increasing the complexity of the model.