Morphology and dynamics of the intertidal floodplain along the Amazon tidal river

Depositional environments along the tidal river downstream of Óbidos have been proposed as important sinks for up to one third of the sediment discharge from the Amazon River. However, the morphology of the intertidal floodplain and the dynamics of sediment exchange along this reach have yet to be described. River-bank surveys in five regions along the Amazon tidal river reveal a distinct transition in bank morphology between the upper, central and lower reaches of the tidal river. The upper tidal-river floodplain is defined by prominent natural levees that control the transfer of water and sediment between the mainstem Amazon River and its floodplain. Greater tidal influence in the central tidal river suppresses levee development, and tidal currents increase sediment transport into the distal parts of the floodplain. In the lower tidal river, the floodplain morphology closely resembles marine intertidal environments (e.g. mud flats, salt marshes), with dendritic tidal channels incising elevated vegetated flats. Theory, morphology and geochronology suggest that the dynamics of sediment delivery to the intertidal floodplain of the Amazon tidal river vary along its length due to the relative influence and coupling of fluvial and tidal dynamics. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sedimentary evolution of the Holocene subaqueous clinoform off the southern Shandong Peninsula in the Western South Yellow Sea

Based on the stratigraphic sequence formed since the last glaciation and revealed by 3000 km long high-resolution shallow seismic profiles and the core QDZ03 acquired recently off the southern Shandong Peninsula, we addressed the sedimentary characteristics of a Holocene subaqueous clinoform in this paper. Integrated analyses were made on the core QDZ03, including sedimentary facies, sediment grain sizes, clay minerals, geochemistry, micro paleontology, and AMS 14 C dating. The result indicates that there exists a Holocene subaqueous clinoform, whose bottom boundary generally lies at 15–40 m below the present sea level with its depth contours roughly parallel to the coast and getting deeper seawards. The maximum thickness of the clinoform is up to 22.5 m on the coast side, and the thickness contours generally spread in a banded way along the coastline and becomes thinner towards the sea. At the mouths of some bays along the coast, the clinoform stretches in the shape of a fan and its thickness is evidently larger than that of the surrounding sediments. This clinoform came into being in the early Holocene(about 11.2 cal kyr BP) and can be divided into the lower and upper depositional units(DU 2 and DU 1, respectively). The unit DU 2, being usually less than 3 m in thickness and formed under a low sedimentation rate, is located between the bottom boundary and the Holocene maximum flooding surface(MFS), and represents the sediment of a post-glacial transgressive systems tract; whereas the unit DU 1, the main body of the clinoform, sits on the MFS, belonging to the sediment of a highstand systems tract from middle Holocene(about 7–6 cal kyr BP) to the present. The provenance of the clinoform differs from that of the typical sediments of the Yellow River and can be considered as the results of the joint contribution from both the Yellow River and the proximal coastal sediments of the Shandong Peninsula, as evidenced by the sediment geochemistry of the core. As is controlled mainly by coactions of multiple factors such as the Holocene sea-level changes, sediment supplies and coastal dynamic conditions, the development of the clinoform is genetically related with the synchronous clinoform or subaqueous deltas around the northeastern Shandong Peninsula and in the northern South Yellow Sea in the spatial distribution and sediment provenance, as previously reported, with all of them being formed from the initial stage of the Holocene up to the present.     

Embedding reach-scale fluvial dynamics within the CAESAR cellular automaton landscape evolution model

We introduce a new computational model designed to simulate and investigate reach-scale alluvial dynamics within a landscape evolution model. The model is based on the cellular automaton concept, whereby the continued iteration of a series of local process ‘rules’ governs the behaviour of the entire system. The model is a modified version of the CAESAR landscape evolution model, which applies a suite of physically based rules to simulate the entrainment, transport and deposition of sediments. The CAESAR model has been altered to improve the representation of hydraulic and geomorphic processes in an alluvial environment. In-channel and overbank flow, sediment entrainment and deposition, suspended load and bed load transport, lateral erosion and bank failure have all been represented as local cellular automaton rules. Although these rules are relatively simple and straightforward, their combined and repeatedly iterated effect is such that complex, non-linear geomorphological response can be simulated within the model. Examples of such larger-scale, emergent responses include channel incision and aggradation, terrace formation, channel migration and river meandering, formation of meander cutoffs, and transitions between braided and single-thread channel patterns. In the current study, the model is illustrated on a reach of the River Teifi, near Lampeter, Wales, UK.     

基于PSR模型的白龙江流域景观生态安全时空变化

以地貌灾害频发的甘肃白龙江流域为研究区,基于"压力-状态-响应"框架模型构建流域景观生态安全评价指标体系,探讨其时空变化过程及其特征。结果表明:1990~2010年间白龙江流域景观生态安全综合指数逐渐上升,中高安全等级以上的面积约占研究区总面积的52%。流域内低生态安全区域主要集中在舟曲-武都段白龙江两岸区域、宕昌县西北区域和迭部县北部山区,高安全区域主要集中在自然保护区、林业发展区等植被覆盖较好的区域,其分布格局与滑坡、泥石流和水土流失等地貌灾害的风险分布格局相反。     

水工工程对长江下游渔业的胁迫与补偿

长江下游及河口区鱼类物种丰富,特有性高,能构成渔汛的经济品种均集中在该江段,其可捕的经济鱼类品种及渔获量为全江之首,该水域鱼类区系复杂,是长江物种多样性最为丰富的区域之一,随长江干流上水工建筑的大量建造,江湖被隔绝,洄游通道被阻断,海水的入侵、生境的破碎、水文条件的改变等导致了渔业生态功能的削弱,对下游鱼类可捕量、天然鱼类资源、物种多样性、种质资源产生了严重影响,通过对下游渔业资源特征进行了描述,结合当前重大水工建筑:水电工程、调水工程、航道工程、大桥工程及沙石开采工程,介绍了长江水工工程的规模与现状,探讨了不同工程对鱼类环境业已显现的影响,以及对渔业生态和资源的破坏作用,剖析水工工程对渔业可能造成的潜在伤害,同时就工程规划的设计理念、渔业生态的补偿措施提出了建议,指出渔业部门应尽的责任和义务,提出了保护下游渔业资源和生态环境急待开展的科学研究任务.     

Comparing flow regime,channel hydraulics,and biological communities to infer flow–ecology relationships in the Mara River of Kenya and Tanzania

Abstract

Equatorial rivers of East Africa exhibit unusually complex seasonal and inter-annual flow regimes, and aquatic and adjacent terrestrial organisms have adapted to cope with this flow variability. This study examined the annual flow regime over the past 40 years for three gauging stations on the Mara River in Kenya and Tanzania, which is of international importance because it is the only perennial river traversing the Mara-Serengeti ecoregion. Select environmental flow components were quantified and converted to ecologically relevant hydraulic variables. Vegetation, macroinvertebrates, and fish were collected and identified at target study sites during low and high flows. The results were compared with available knowledge of the life histories and flow sensitivities of the riverine communities to infer flow–ecology relationships. Management implications are discussed, including the need to preserve a dynamic environmental flow regime to protect ecosystems in the region. The results for the Mara may serve as a useful model for river basins of the wider equatorial East Africa region.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor M. Acreman     

Numerical simulation of the impact of vegetation index on the interannual variation of summer precipitation in the Yellow River Basin

Two sets of numerical experiments using the coupled National Center for Environmental Prediction General Circulation Model （NCEP/GCM T42L18） and the Simplified Simple Biosphere land surface scheme （SSiB） were carried out to investigate the climate impacts of fractional vegetation cover （FVC） and leaf area index （LAI） on East Asia summer precipitation, especially in the Yellow River Basin （YRB）. One set employed prescribed FVC and LAI which have no interannual variations based on the climatology of vegetation distribution; the other with FVC and LAI derived from satellite observations of the International Satellite Land Surface Climate Project （ISLSCP） for 1987 and 1988. The simulations of the two experiments were compared to study the influence of FVC, LAI on summer precipitation interannual variation in the YRB. Compared with observations and the NCEP reanalysis data, the experiment that included both the effects of satellite-derived vegetation indexes and sea surface temperature （SST） produced better seasonal and interannual precipitation variations than the experiment with SST but no interannual variations in FVC and LAI, indicating that better representations of the vegetation index and its interannual variation may be important for climate prediction. The difference between 1987 and 1988 indicated that with the increase of FVC and LAI, especially around the YRB, surface albedo decreased, net surface radiation increased, and consequently local evaporation and precipitation intensified. Further more, surface sensible heat flux, surface temperature and its diurnal variation decreased around the YRB in response to more vegetation. The decrease of surface-emitting longwave radiation due to the cooler surface outweighed the decrease of surface solar radiation income with more cloud coverage, thus maintaining the positive anomaly of net surface radiation. Further study indicated that moisture flux variations associated with changes in the general circulation also contributed to the precipitation interannual variation.     

现代黄河三角洲沉积层压实下沉的计算分析

1855年以来形成的厚度为15 m的现代黄河三角洲分流叶瓣在遭废弃后的最近30 a内的沉积压实幅度为2.28～3.87 m,年平均压实量达0.1 m,其中黏土质粉砂被压实了25.8%,粉砂沉积地层被压实了15.2%,黏土质粉砂的沉积压实量是粉砂沉积压实量的1.7倍,在此期间基本上完成了三角洲压实下沉过程。下伏沉积地层的压缩量有限,不同沉积年代的沉积压实下沉量相差小,如厚度为20～30 m的沉积压实量仅有0.2～0.28 m,其中黏土质粉砂被压实了0.91%,粉砂被压实了1.19%,沉积地层平均被压实了1%。无论是黏土质粉砂还是粉砂,孔隙度与沉积地层深度呈负指数函数关系,黏粒含量愈高,孔隙水则愈难以排出,覆盖在下伏沉积地层上面的表层沉积物对压实下沉贡献愈大。     

长江中下游成矿带钨矿床

长江中下游成矿带是我国重要的铜-铁-金多金属成矿带,近年来在长江中下游成矿带内发现多处白钨矿床和矿化点,为该成矿带的成矿学研究提供了新的研究课题。相比成矿带铜铁金多金属矿床研究程度,钨矿床成矿作用研究明显薄弱,尚未进行系统的成矿作用和成矿规律总结。成矿带内发育的钨矿床主要为北亚带的东顾山矿床、主带(中亚带)的阮家湾矿床和南亚带的桂林郑矿床和高家塝矿床。本文对这四个钨矿床及几个含钨矿床的地质和地球化学特征、成岩成矿时代、成矿岩体地球化学特征等方面的研究资料和成果进行了总结,讨论和试图阐明长江中下游成矿带钨矿床的成矿作用。研究显示,长江中下游成矿带存在三期钨成矿作用,分别为146～143Ma、127Ma和97Ma,在成矿带的铜主成矿期前和铁成矿期均有钨成矿作业发生。钨矿床中白钨矿的Sr-Nd同位素组成分别落入董岭式基底或江南式基底范围,表明长江中下游成矿带的董岭式和江南式基底是形成原始含矿岩浆的物质基础。长江中下游成矿带的钨矿床成矿岩体为中酸性岩,ε_(Hf)(t)值很低,且Zr/Hf、K/Rb比值小,表明成钨岩浆岩为古老地壳物质重熔并经历了较充分的分异演化,对比成矿带中成铜、成铁岩体,源区性质可能是导致长江中下游成矿带金属成矿差异的根本原因。燕山期的陆内俯冲是造成长江中下游成矿带钨矿床成矿的主导机制。     

珠江口盆地中新统珠江组强制海退沉积层序与有利砂体分布*

针对珠江口盆地中新统珠江组强制海退体系域沉积层序特征认识不足、层序归属不合理等问题,综合利用高分辨率三维地震、岩心和测井数据,采用层序地层学、地震沉积学和石油地质学的相关理论和分析方法,在对强制海退形成机理进行分析的基础上对该体系域的沉积层序特征、演化模式和有利砂体分布进行了探讨分析,指出该体系域顶界面具有明显的顶超侵蚀特征,应归属于SQ1层序的最后一个体系域,并总结了该体系域的沉积层序演化模式。结果表明: 强制海退体系域具有退覆式的高角度斜交型前积反射结构,表现为陆架边缘三角洲的沉积特征,钻测井资料显示为多个具反旋回的前三角洲泥、远砂坝、河口砂坝与水下分流河道的组合沉积;强制海退体系域钻井岩心中发育陆坡区常见的生物扰动、泥质条带变形和滑塌、滑动现象,其前端下倾方向发育具强振幅反射结构的浊积扇沉积;强制海退体系域有利储集砂体位于该体系域顶界面和底界面附近,分别为陆架边缘三角洲前缘砂体和浊积扇砂体,是实现岩性油气藏勘探突破的重要方向。