The global rainforest mapping project JERS-1:a paradigm of international collaboration for monitoring land cover change

The Global Rainforest Mapping (GRFM) project was initiated in 1995 and, through a dedicated data acquisition policy by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), data acquisitions could be completed within a 1.5-year period, resulting in a spatially and temporally homogeneous coverage to contain the entire Amazon Basin from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Central America up to the Yucatan Peninsular in Mexico; equatorial Africa from Madagascar and Kenya in the east to Sierra Leone in the west; and Southeast Asia, including Papua New Guinea. To some extent, GRFM project is an international endeavor led by NASDA, with the goal of producing spatially and temporally contiguous Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data sets over the tropical belt on the Earth by use of the JERS-1 L-band SAR, through the generation of semi-continental, 100m resolution, image mosaics. The GRFM project relies on extensive collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (JRC) and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) for data acquisition, processing, validation and product generation. A science program is underway in parallel with product generation. This involves the agencies mentioned above, as well as a large number of international organizations, universities and individuals to perform field activities and data analysis at different levels.     

Promoting social justice and conserving montane forest environments: a case study of Nepal's community forestry programme

This paper analyses participatory forest policy and the ways it has influenced the relationships between people as it relates to the forest resource management. This case study was conducted in the middle hills of Nepal, and information was collected through direct observation, individual interviews, group discussion and secondary information analysis. It substantiates a few examples of how the community forestry programme can be used as a means to promote the participation of the women, the poor and dalit (untouchables) in forest resource management, as well as enhancing social justice and improving the forest resources in their locality. However, it also demonstrates that though the community forestry programme has a positive impact, it faces several constraints and challenges. The local Forest User Group is controlled by a few élites making the poor and disadvantaged vulnerable to further marginalization. The results of the case study strongly indicate that community forestry processes must address the political, economic and social needs of the forest users, and also provide a neutral platform on which the poor can present their cases.     

Fire Severity,Water Repellency Characteristics and Hydrogeomorphological Changes Following the Christmas 2001 Sydney Forest Fires

Soil water repellency can enhance overland flow and erosion and may be altered by fire. The Christmas 2001 bushfires near Sydney allowed investigation of the relationship between fire severity, water repellency and hydrogeomorphological changes. For two sub-catchments with differences in fire severities in Nattai National Park, south-west of Sydney, this paper considers: (1) the links between fire severity based on SPOT image analysis and ground observation of fire severity and repellency; (2) the textural and organic/minerogenic characteristics of eroded sediment; and (3) erodibility, erosion and deposition of soils in both catchments. Ground surveys show that image analysis reflects well the degree of vegetation consumption by fire, but cannot adequately predict the degree of ground litter consumption, associated soil heating and repellency effects. Fire had varying effects on repellency, leaving it unchanged, destroying it or enhancing it, depending on the soil temperature reached. The main post-fire hydrogeomorphological changes have been widespread erosion and colluvial and alluvial deposition of topsoil in foot-slope locations and river systems, but only localised redistribution of the highly erodible, repellent sandy subsurface layer. The fire did not trigger major geomorphological change in the study area, but fires probably cause important topsoil and nutrient depletion and may also affect water quality.     

结构设计地震作用效应影响因素及规律分析

基于现行《建筑抗震设计规范》（GB50011－2001），本文分析了现行抗震设计中影响结构设计地震作用效应的主要因素，以规则平面框架对例对新旧规范影响结构设计地震作用效应的因素进行了对比，给出了其间的重要变化和基本规律。     

海底MT信号采集电路的设计

设计海底大地电磁信号采集电路，需考虑海底信号特征、海上作业以及海底环境等各种因素。分析表明，除遵循电路设计的一般原则外，海底大地电磁测量要重点解决微弱信号检测、智能化数据采集、海底环境监测和同步记录等4个方面的问题。在设计方案中，电路灵敏度达到微伏级；使用嵌入式计算机实现采集控制；对方位、倾斜、振动、温度等参数进行巡回记录；仪器的时钟精度精准到微秒。所研制的电路经过了室内模拟测试和海洋试验。首次采集到中国海域的大地电磁数据。     

含裂隙煤层底板突水规律的数值模拟与工程应用

本文结合淮北杨庄矿某工作面实际工程情况, 利用NCAP-2D-W对煤层底板突水进行多方案的数值模拟试验研究。主要内容包括:(1) 考虑在承压水不变的条件下,设计不同裂隙分布状态,探讨单裂隙、多裂隙、不同长度裂隙对煤层底板破坏的影响及开采矿压对裂隙顶部破坏的影响;(2) 考虑承压水的变化,分别考虑单裂隙和多裂隙两种分布状态,探讨裂隙对煤层底板破坏的影响及开采矿压对裂隙底部破坏的影响。通过分析受采动荷载、岩层结构变化、煤层底板中裂隙分布状态及承压水变化等因素影响的数值试验,获得了随开采工作面不断推进煤层底板破坏区的发展、突水导升高度的递增、突水通道的形成等相关规律。     

The postglacial history of three Picea species in New England, USA

Given the difficulty of separating the three Picea species—P. glauca, P. mariana, and P. rubens (white, black, and red spruce)—in the pollen record, little is known about their unique histories in eastern North America following deglaciation. Here we report the first use of a classification tree analysis (CART) to distinguish pollen grains of these species. It was successfully applied to fossil pollen from eight sites in Maine and one in Massachusetts. We focused on the late glacial/early Holocene (14,000 to 8000 cal yr B.P.) and the late Holocene (1400 cal yr B.P. to present)—the two key periods since deglaciation when Picea has been abundant in the region. The result shows a shift from a Picea forest of P. glauca and P. mariana in the late glacial to a forest of P. rubens and P. mariana in the late Holocene. The small number of P. rubens grains identified from the late glacial/early Holocene samples (<5%) suggests that that species was either absent or rare at most of the sites. The occurrence and distribution of the three species do not reveal any geographic or temporal trend during late glacial time, but the data suggest that they were distributed in local patches on the landscape. The results of this study indicate that the recent population expansion of Picea (1000 to 500 cal yr B.P.) was likely the first time since deglaciation that P. rubens was abundant in the region.     

Late Pliocene to late Pleistocene environments preserved at the Palisades Site, central Yukon River, Alaska

The Palisades Site is an extensive silt-loam bluff complex on the central Yukon River preserving a nearly continuous record of the last 2 myr. Volcanic ash deposits present include the Old Crow (OCt; 140,000 yr), Sheep Creek (SCt; 190,000 yr), PA (2.02 myr), EC (ca. 2 myr), and Mining Camp (ca. 2 myr) tephras. Two new tephras, PAL and PAU, are geochemically similar to the PA and EC tephras and appear to be comagmatic. The PA tephra occurs in ice-wedge casts and solifluction deposits, marking the oldest occurrence of permafrost in central Alaska. Three buried forest horizons are present in association with dated tephras. The uppermost forest bed occurs immediately above the OCt; the middle forest horizon occurs below the SCt. The lowest forest bed occurs between the EC and the PA tephras, and correlates with the Dawson Cut Forest Bed. Plant taxa in all three peats are common elements of moist taiga forest found in lowlands of central Alaska today. Large mammal fossils are all from common late Pleistocene taxa. Those recovered in situ came from a single horizon radiocarbon dated to ca. 27,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The incongruous small mammal assemblage in that horizon reflects a diverse landscape with both wet and mesic environments.     

Turbulence Statistics Inside and Over Forest: Influence on Footprint Prediction

Observations of wind statistics within and above a Scots pine forest are comparedwith those predicted from an analytical second-order closure model. The roughnesssublayer (RSL) effects, and the influence of stability on similarity functions, arestudied using observations. The commonly accepted forms of similarity functionsdescribe the influence of diabatic effects above the RSL well. According to earlierstudies they are expected also to apply within the RSL. As an exception, the averagewind speed normalised with friction velocity was found to be invariant with stabilityclose to the canopy top under unstable conditions. Lagrangian stochastic trajectorysimulations were used to evaluate the influence of canopy turbulence profiles onfootprint prediction. The main uncertainty was found to arise from parameterisationof the random forcing term in the Lagrangian velocity equation. The influence ofdiabatic conditions was studied, and it was found that thermal stability affectssignificantly the footprint function above the forest canopy, but significantuncertainty exists because of uncertainties in the formulation of stability functions.     

Observation of gravity waves in a boreal forest

In this paper we report the results of the analysis of two 60-min wave events that occurred in a boreal aspen forest during the 1994 BOREAS (Boreal Ecosystems-Atmosphere Study) field experiment. High frequency wind and temperature data were provided by three 3-D sonic anemometer/thermometers and fourteen fine-wire thermocouples positioned within and above the forest. Wave phase speeds, estimated from information revealed by spectral analysis and linear plane wave equations, are 2.2 and 1.3 m s^-1 for the two events. The wavelengths are 130 m and 65 m respectively and are much larger than the vertical wave displacements. There is strong evidence from the present analysis and from the literature supporting our postulate that these waves are generated by shear instability. We propose that wind shear near the top of the stand is often large enough to reduce the gradient Richardson number below the critical value of 0.25 and thus is able to trigger the instability. When external conditions are favorable, the instability will grow into waves.