Land desertification and restoration in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is characterized by high population growth, degraded and fragile nat-ural ecosystems, and a limited amount of arable lands. It is one of the most water-sc...     

石灰土中秸秆还田降解率及其对土壤肥力的影响

石灰土具有高的有机碳的积累,但营养成分的供给速率偏低,导致土壤贫瘠。本文通过室内模拟实验,研究相同来源玉米秸秆在岩溶土与非岩溶土中的降解情况,对秸秆降解率、土壤理化性质、土壤肥力等进行动态检测,结果表明：（1）总体上岩溶土秸秆降解速率比非岩溶土快。秸秆降解速度最快主要集中在最初60天,之后呈缓慢上升趋势,到98天基本达到平衡。非岩溶土降解峰值出现时间为第42天,岩溶土为第28天,峰值出现时间前者比后者滞后14天。总降解时间持续160天,岩溶土降解率为77%,非岩溶土为75%。（2）秸秆降解期间,土壤pH值前期有下降的趋势,后期慢慢回升,这与秸秆降解过程中不同时期降解产物变化规律相吻合。秸秆还田可以提高土壤肥力,其中速效氮和速效钾含量增加非常明显。（3）与岩溶土相比,全量检测结果显示各肥力指标在非岩溶土含量低,但升幅百分比高;有效态检测结果显示非岩溶土速效磷和速效钾含量高。说明秸秆还田一些营养元素有效态在非岩溶土中更易于释放,而岩溶土由于其土壤质地的特殊性,许多养分被土壤粘土矿物牢固结合,营养元素供给速率慢,但因此也易于养分全量的累积。     

Mapping degraded grassland on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau with multi-temporal Landsat 8 data — where do the severely degraded areas occur?

The Tibetan Plateau in Western China is the world’s largest alpine landscape, sheltering a rich diversity of native flora and fauna. In the past few decades, the Tibetan Plateau was found to suffer from grassland degradation processes. Grassland degradation is assumed to not only endanger biodiversity but also to increase the risk for natural hazards in other parts of the country which are ecologically and hydrologically connected to the area. However, the mechanisms behind the degradation processes remain poorly understood due to scarce baseline data and insufficient scientific research.We argue that remote sensing data can help to better understand degradation processes and patterns by: (1) identifying the distribution of severely degraded areas and (2) comparing the patterns of key spatial attributes of the identified areas (altitude above sea level, aspect, slope, administrative districts) with existing theories on degradation drivers. Therefore, we applied four Landsat 8 images covering large portions of the three counties Jigzhi, Baima and Darlag in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. The dates of the Landsat scenes were selected to cover differing phenological stages of the ecosystem. Reference data were collected with a remotely piloted aircraft and a standard consumer RGB camera. To exploit the phenological information in the Landsat data as well as deal with the problem of cloud cover in multiple images, we developed a straightforward PCA-based procedure to merge the Landsat scenes. The merged Landsat data served as input to a supervised support vector machine classification which was validated with an iterative bootstrap procedure and an additional independent validation set. The considered classes were “high-cover grassland”, “grassland (including several stages of grassland vitality)”, “(severely) degraded grassland”, “green shrubland”, “grey shrubland”, “urban areas” and “water bodies”. Kappa accuracies ranged between 0.84 and 0.93 in the iterative procedure, while the independent validation led to a kappa accuracy of 0.76. Mean producer’s and user’s accuracies for all classes were higher than 80%, and confusion mainly occurred between the two shrubland classes and between the three grassland classes.Analysis of the slope, aspect and altitude values of the vegetation classes revealed that the degraded areas mostly occurred at the higher altitudes of the study area (4300–4600 m), with no strong connection to any specific slope or aspect. High-cover grassland was mostly located on sunny slopes at lower altitudes (less than 4300 m), while shrubland preferred shady, relatively steep slopes across all altitudes. These observations proved to be stable across the examined counties, while the proportions of land-cover classes differed between the examined regions. Most counties showed 5–7% severely degraded land cover. Darlag, the county located at the edge of the permafrost zone, and featuring the highest average altitude and lowest annual temperature and precipitation, was found to suffer from larger areas of severe degradation (14%).Therefore, our findings support a strong connection between degradation patterns and climatic as well as altitudinal gradients, with an increased degradation risk for high altitude areas and areas in colder and drier climatic zones. This is relevant information for pastoral management to avoid further degradation of high altitude pastures.     

A Case Study of the November 2012 Mixed Rain-Snow Storm over North China

A mixed rain-snow storm associated with a strong burst of cold air and development of an extratropical cyclone occurred over North China from 3 to 5 November 2012.This early snowfall event was characterized by a dramatic drop in temperature,strong winds,high precipitation intensity,broad spatial extent,and coexistence of multi-phase precipitating hydrometeors.This study investigates the multi-scale interactions between the large-scale circulation background and the synoptic-scale weather systems associated with the storm.The results are as follows.（1） The Arctic Oscillation （AO） had been in its negative phase long before the event,leading to southward advection of cold air into North China in advance of the storm.（2）The large-scale atmospheric circulation experienced a decreased number of long waves upstream of North China prior to the storm,resulting in reduced wave velocity and an almost stagnant low pressure system （extratropical cyclone） over North China.（3） An Ω-shaped blocking high over East Asia and the western Pacific obstructed the eastward movement of an upstream trough,allowing the corresponding surface cyclone to stabilize and persist over Beijing and its neighboring areas.This blocking high was a major factor in making this event a historically most severe precipitation event in autumn in Beijing for the past 60 years.（4） Baroclinic instability at lower levels gave rise to rapid development of the cyclone under the classical ＂second type＂ development mechanism for extratropical cyclones.（5） Moisture originated from the Yellow Sea entered the slowly-moving cyclone in a steady stream,creating fairly favorable water vapor supply for the heavy rainfall-snowfall,especially during the later stage of the cyclone development.（6） Moisture transport and frontal lifting triggered low-level instability and updrafts.Intensification of the front enhanced the vertical wind shear,causing conditional symmetric instability （CSI） to expand upward within the unstable lower troposphere,and to eventually gear into the CSI region of the upper troposphere,which facilitated the upward development of low-level updrafts.     

地温异常数据原因分析及处理方法

针对地温异常数据种类,结合天气学原理、气象要素的时间、空间变化规律和各要素间相互联系的规律进行分析,找出导致异常数据原因,提出相应的处理方法,尽可能使缺测的要素及缺测时次减小到最小值,最大限度地保证资料的完整.     

Effects of grazing by Daphnia on algal carotenoids: Implications for paleolimnology

Reverse-phase thin layer chromatography was used to quantify algal carotenoid degradation resulting from grazing by Daphnia magna in suspensions of lyophilized Oscillatoria utermöhlii, O. limnetica, Anabaena flos-aquae and Synechococcus sp. Three samples were removed every 24 h from 0 h to 144 h and the carotenoid, carbon and nitrogen content of the remaining algal-fecal mixture was determined. Grazing by Daphnia reduced carotenoid concentrations by 30%–80% after 144 h, with myxoxanthophyll being the most labile pigment in experiments with filamentous cyanophytes. However, as a group, the carotenoids were more resistant to the combined effects of grazing by Daphnia and bacterial action than were particulate algal carbon (78% to 82% lost by 144 h) or nitrogen (86%–90%) during the period in which easily digestible material remained. The maximal extent of carotenoid enrichment relative to particulate carbon ranged from 150% to 300% of initial pigment concentrations but declined with repeated coprophagy. On the basis of these results and published pigment budgets, we conclude both that fecal transportation of pigments may be an important determinant of carotenoid accumulation rates and that carotenoid stratigraphies should record predator-mediated changes in zooplankton community structure, especially in oligotrophic conditions.     

THE HYDROLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND WATER BUDGET OF QINGHAI LAKE DRAINAGE BASIN

The rapid shrinkage of the surface area reflects the long-term deficit water budget of Qinghai Lake. Study of the yearly hydrology and meteorology in the lake catchment basin and the hydrologic factors as well as water budget led to the conclusion that evaporation exceeding the water input resulted in the drop of lake level, thai the obvious decrease of runoff to the lake and precipitation on the catchment accelerated the falling of lake level before 1987. and that increase of about 6.7% in rainfall on the whole basin will balance the lake's water budget.     

Causes of Forest Encroachment: An Analysis of Bangladesh

Deforestation is a major cause of environmental degradation. Tropical countries with huge population pressure and widespread poverty are main frontier of deforestation. Bangladesh, being one the most densely populated country with diminishing tropical forestland, supports lowest per capita forestland. The forests are depleting mainly due to illegal logging and conversion to non-forestry uses. In this paper encroachment of forestland by individuals has been dealt with. The socioeconomic causes and pattern of encroachment have been analyzed. Limited land availability and unemployment have been identified as the major proximate causes of encroachment and, if no measures are adopted within next three decades the existing natural forests might be encroached.Part of thesis of the first author submitted for the partial fulfillment of the Master of Science in Forestry in the Khulna University, Bangladesh in 2001 (Iftekhar, 2001). Some of the findings have been presented in the World Forestry Congress XIII, Canada, held from 21 to 28 September 2003 (Iftekhar et al., 2003).     

汶川地震诱发的地面塌陷成因

针对目前由汶川地震诱发的地面塌陷研究尚少的现状,以北川县安昌镇开茂村水没河流域地面塌陷坑群为研究对象,根据所处的地质环境条件,通过现场调查、工程勘察及钻孔岩土试验,探讨了地震诱发的地面塌陷成因及机制。认为塌陷区第四系松散层上部含细颗粒的饱和粉土、粉质粘土和下部粗颗粒的饱和砂层、砂砾层等的存在是产生地面塌陷的前提,强烈的地震诱发了砂土液化是产生地面塌陷的内因,而塌陷坑的陆续出现说明了地面塌陷一般都有个时间发展过程,是一种渐进性质的破坏;且地下水动力条件的改变、真空吸蚀作用、余震作用以及强降雨加剧了潜蚀作用,最终导致地面塌陷的产生与发展。结果表明:这些塌陷坑群的出现主要是由地震砂土液化和潜蚀作用共同作用的结果。     

MULTIDISCIPLINARY INVESTIGATIONS ON THREE ROCK GLACIERS IN THE SWISS ALPS: LEGACIES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

This paper recognizes the contribution of Professor Wilfried Haeberli for his inspiration and leadership in the field of permafrost science and his generous encouragement, both direct and indirect, to the ETH Researchers who have, through him, endeavoured to contribute to this fascinating research area. The multidisciplinary investigations described in this paper have focused on three rock glaciers, Muragl, Murtèl‐Corvatsch and Furggwanghorn, all of which have been subject to a varying degree of prior study, and which are continuing to attract new generations of researchers to understand and explain the processes and predict future behaviour. This paper marks a stage at which it is possible to summarize some advances in the state of the art and associated innovations that can be attributed to early motivation by Wilfried Haeberli and offers a tribute as well as gratitude for his ongoing feedback and advice. Some thoughts on the development of thermokarst due to water ponding and flow, and a conceptual model of geotechnical mechanisms that aim to explain some aspects of rock glacier kinematics, are also introduced.