Measuring and modeling Russian newspaper coverage of climate change

As a significant emitter of greenhouse gases and a country rich in fossil fuels, Russia plays a crucial role in achieving a comprehensive solution to climate-related challenges. Yet, Russia's official position on climate change has varied considerably since the beginning of global negotiations, with the country playing everything from policy leader to laggard. While there are a number factors that shape domestic policy positions, this study offers a comprehensive investigation of newspaper coverage on climate change in Russia. How have Russian newspapers discussed the issue since the Yeltsin era? We approach this question by compiling the largest data set of Russian newspaper coverage to date, which includes 11,131 climate-related articles from 65 papers over a roughly 35 year period. After introducing a “computer assisted” approach to measure the core themes running through climate change coverage, we statistically evaluate the national- and newspaper-level factors associated with how coverage is framed, focusing attention on 23 high circulation papers over the period from 2000 to 2014. We find that national-level predictors—particularly economic conditions—are highly influential in determining whether climate change is covered and how the issue is framed, while paper-level factors such as the presence of an energy interest and ownership structure also have notable effects. Overall, this study offers a rich data set and useful methods to better understand the drivers of climate communication in Russia.     

黄河中游砒砂岩地区长川流域植被盖度及其动态分析

应用遥感监测并结合地面实测数据,分析黄河中游砒砂岩地区典型流域——内蒙古长川流域植被盖度及其变化特征。经野外实测数据进行检验植被盖度遥感监测的精度发现,以遥感手段通过植被盖度与归一化植被指数(NDVI)之间关系来估算长川流域植被盖度的精度达到81.3%。长川流域上游地区(北部)植被盖度相对较高,达到40%~70%;沟道两侧也有相对较高的植被盖度,也达到了30%~60%;一般梁峁地植被盖度较低,只有5%~15%。从1983年开始实施的小流域第一期水土流失重点治理和1993年至1997年期间实施的小流域第二期第一阶段水土流失重点治理的效果明显,使得长川流域植被盖度在该期间内大幅度增高。     

地表覆盖对坡面流流速影响的模拟试验

植被覆盖对坡面流流速的影响,会引起坡面输沙特征的改变,但在陡坡条件下盖度与流速的响应关系尚不明确.针对目前国内外研究的不足,本研究采用变坡实验水槽在较大坡度(5°～ 25°)、流量(0.25 ～2 L/s)和盖度(0％～25％)范围内,系统研究了坡面流平均流速与盖度、坡度、流量之间的关系.结果表明:坡面流流速在0.15～ 1.35 m/s内变化,流速与盖度、坡度和流量关系密切.随着地表模拟盖度的增加,水流克服覆盖物的阻碍作用而消耗的能量越多,水流流速随之减小.随着坡度和流量的增加,坡面流重力势能与水流动能增加,因此流速随坡度和流量呈幂函数增加.通过统计回归发现,盖度对流速的影响最大,占45％左右,坡度和流量次之.三个因子可以较好模拟陡坡、定床条件下水流流速(R2 =0.93).研究结果有助于认识陡坡地表覆盖下坡面流的水动力学特性,为建立土壤侵蚀过程模型提供理论基础.     

Changing climate affects vegetation growth in the arid region of the northwestern China

The northwestern China is a typical dry-land region of Inner Asia, where significant climate change has been observed over the past several decades. How the regional vegetation, particularly the grassland-oasis-desert complex, responds to such climatic change is poorly understood. To address this question, we investigated spatio-temporal changes in vegetation growth and their responses to a changing climate by biome and bioregion, using satellite-sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from 1982 to 2003, along with corresponding climate data. Over the past 22 years, about 30% of the total vegetated area showed an annual increase of 0.7% in growing season NDVI. This trend occurred in all biomes and all bioregions except Sawuer, a subregion of the study area with no significant climate change. Further analyses indicated that NDVI change was highly correlated with the current precipitation and evapotranspiration in growing season but was not associated with temperature. We also found that NDVI was positively correlated with the preceding winter precipitation. These findings suggest that precipitation may be the key cause of vegetation growth in this area, even for mountain forests and grasslands, whose growth are often regarded to be limited by low temperate in winter and early spring.     

How a wet tropical rainforest copes with repeated volcanic destruction

The Holocene Period for the province of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, is characterised by periodic catastrophic volcanism. The region is mantled in dense wet tropical rainforest, and has been occupied by people since the Pleistocene. Analyses of peat from two nearby sites within a lowland rainforest environment provide us with a macro-level landscape account of the periodic destruction and recovery of the coastal forests during seven periods of volcanic activity in the latter part (2900 yr ago to present) of the Holocene. Radiocarbon dating shows the very close correlation of the peat and tephra layers at both sites, yet the pollen analysis reveals different vegetation communities. These initial results allow us to begin identifying the processes of recovery, and to recognise different ecological pressures placed on vegetation at these neighbouring sites. Evidence of hydrological changes are observed beginning with a marine incursion recorded at Garu Site 3 1360 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The distinct differences in the vegetation re-establishment and community regeneration rates suggest the greater level of disturbance at Garu Site 1 could be related to the depth of the ashfall, although the proximity of a known human settlement may also be a contributing factor. Of note, palynologically, we found that the fern spore flora is particularly rich and believe it will be useful for ecological interpretation.     

Age and impacts of the caldera-forming Aniakchak II eruption in western Alaska

The mid-Holocene eruption of Aniakchak volcano (Aniakchak II) in southwest Alaska was among the largest eruptions globally in the last 10,000 years (VEI-6). Despite evidence for possible impacts on global climate, the precise age of the eruption is not well-constrained and little is known about regional environmental impacts. A closely spaced sequence of radiocarbon dates at a peatland site over 1000 km from the volcano show that peat accumulation was greatly reduced with a hiatus of approximately 90–120 yr following tephra deposition. During this inferred hiatus no paleoenvironmental data are available but once vegetation returned the flora changed from a Cyperaceae-dominated assemblage to a Poaceae-dominated vegetation cover, suggesting a drier and/or more nutrient-rich ecosystem. Oribatid mites are extremely abundant in the peat at the depth of the ash, and show a longer-term, increasingly wet peat surface across the tephra layer. The radiocarbon sample immediately below the tephra gave a date of 1636–1446 cal yr BC suggesting that the eruption might be younger than previously thought. Our findings suggest that the eruption may have led to a widespread reduction in peatland carbon sequestration and that the impacts on ecosystem functioning were profound and long-lasting.     

不同覆盖措施对高寒地区剥离的草皮块堆放温湿度及成活的影响

重大工程建设会扰动高寒草地,法规要求扰动区草皮层应予以剥离,待工程建设后再用于恢复原生植被,当前对剥离草皮堆放成活的影响研究较少。试验设计遮阳网与穿孔膜两种覆盖条件,探讨分析其对剥离的草皮块堆放与铺植利用后土壤温湿度及草皮块返青覆盖度的影响,研究结果表明：遮阳网覆盖堆体较自然地表日均土壤温度显著降低,同时各深度层极大延长冻结期,降水对土壤水分的补充效应延后,并造成堆放期水分大量损失;穿孔膜覆盖堆体较自然地表提高了土壤温度,阻碍了降水对土壤水分的补充,并造成堆放后土壤吸持水能力降低。遮阳网覆盖的草皮块返青覆盖度显著高于穿孔膜覆盖的返青覆盖度,堆放期日平均土壤温度>0 ℃的堆放日数与草皮块返青覆盖度的线性拟合较好。工程建设中应尽量缩短堆放时长,采用透水透气类覆盖材料,增加土壤与空气热量交换,以维持更长的冻结期,并适时补充水分,提高草皮块铺植的恢复成效。     

基于 ＲS 和 GIS 的土壤侵蚀强度快速分析: 以昌都市扎玉镇为例

以昌都市左贡县扎玉镇为例,选用中巴地球资源二号遥感数据、数字高程模型数据和土地利用类型数据,用遥感软件提取植被指数并进行密度分割,确定植被覆盖度,并对其进行分级; 用地理信息系统软件提取坡度信息,并对坡度进行分级; 在1∶ 5 万比例尺下修正已有的土地利用类型。结果统计扎玉镇 76. 26%的土壤处于轻度及以下侵蚀状态,强烈及以上的土壤侵蚀比例达 5. 48%,土壤侵蚀剧烈的地区主要分布在耕地部分,中度侵蚀的地区主要集中在林草地部分,因此土地利用合理化以及提高植被覆盖率可以有效减小土壤侵蚀强度。     

Earth System Model FGOALS-s2: Coupling a dynamic global vegetation and terrestrial carbon model with the physical climate system model

Earth System Models （ESMs） are fundamental tools for understanding climate-carbon feedback. An ESM version of the Flexible Global Ocean-Atmosphere-Land System model （FGOALS） was recently developed within the IPCC AR5 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 （CMIP5） modeling framework, and we describe the development of this model through the coupling of a dynamic global vegetation and terrestrial carbon model with FGOALS-s2. The performance of the coupled model is evaluated as follows. The simulated global total terrestrial gross primary production （GPP） is 124.4 PgC yr-I and net pri- mary production （NPP） is 50.9 PgC yr-1. The entire terrestrial carbon pools contain about 2009.9 PgC, comprising 628.2 PgC and 1381.6 PgC in vegetation and soil pools, respectively. Spatially, in the tropics, the seasonal cycle of NPP and net ecosystem production （NEP） exhibits a dipole mode across the equator due to migration of the monsoon rainbelt, while the seasonal cycle is not so significant in Leaf Area Index （LAI）. In the subtropics, especially in the East Asian monsoon region, the seasonal cycle is obvious due to changes in temperature and precipitation from boreal winter to summer. Vegetation productivity in the northern mid-high latitudes is too low, possibly due to low soil moisture there. On the interannual timescale, the terrestrial ecosystem shows a strong response to ENSO. The model- simulated Nifio3.4 index and total terrestrial NEP are both characterized by a broad spectral peak in the range of 2-7 years. Further analysis indicates their correlation coefficient reaches -0.7 when NEP lags the Nifio3.4 index for about 1-2 months.     

中国西部植被覆盖变化对北方夏季气候影响的数值模拟

植被覆盖的变化是气候变化的成因之一,植被改变对气候的反馈可能会加强或者减缓气候的变化.文中利用CCM3全球气候模式以及20世纪70年代和90年代中国西部的植被覆盖资料进行数值模拟试验,研究了这两个时期植被变化对北方夏季区域气候的影响.模拟结果表明:植被增加的地方,地面吸收的辐射通量增加;植被减少的地方,地面吸收的辐射通量减少.地面辐射平衡的变化造成局地大气热量异常,并引起周边大气热量的调整,从而导致东亚地区夏季大气环流异常.相对于70年代的植被状况,用90年代植被模拟的北方地区对流层上层为异常气旋性环流,而中、低层为异常反气旋环流,东北亚到中国东部盛行异常北风,同时西太平洋副热带高压强度偏弱、位置偏南.这种异常环流特征说明模拟的90年代中国东部夏季风明显减弱,异常的环流形势造成华北和东北地区夏季水汽输送减少,水汽辐合减弱,年降水量减少了40 mm,呈现减少的特征,这是和观测事实是比较吻合的.降水和环流的异常还造成华北和东北夏季平均地面气温降低了0.4-0.8℃.因此近30年来中国西部植被变化可能是东亚夏季风年代际变化以及北方夏季降水减少的一个重要因素.