Boreal temperature variability inferred from maximum latewood density and tree-ring width data, Wrangell Mountain region, Alaska

Variations in both width and density of annual rings from a network of tree chronologies were used to develop high-resolution proxies to extend the climate record in the Wrangell Mountain region of Alaska. We developed a warm-season (July–September) temperature reconstruction that spans A.D. 1593–1992 based on the first eigenvector from principal component analysis of six maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies. The climate/tree-growth model accounts for 51% of the temperature variance from 1958 to 1992 and shows cold in the late 1600s–early 1700s followed by a warmer period, cooling in the late 1700s–early 1800s, and warming in the 20th century. The 20th century is the warmest of the past four centuries. Several severely cold warm-seasons coincide with major volcanic eruptions. The first eigenvector from a ring-width (RW) network, based on nine chronologies from the Wrangell Mountain region (A.D. 1550–1970), is correlated positively with both reconstructed and recorded Northern Hemisphere temperatures. RW shows a temporal history similar to that of MXD by increased growth (warmer) and decreased growth (cooler) intervals and trends. After around 1970 the RW series show a decrease in growth, while station data show continued warming, which may be related to increasing moisture stress or other factors. Both the temperature history based on MXD and the growth trends from the RW series are consistent with well-dated glacier fluctuations in the Wrangell Mountains and some of the temperature variations also correspond to variations in solar activity.     

Paleoclimate reconstruction based on the timing of speleothem growth and oxygen and carbon isotope composition in a cave located in the rain shadow in Israel

High-resolution ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U ages and δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C compositions of speleothems in Ma’ale Efrayim Cave located to the east of the central mountain ridge of Israel enable us to examine the nature of the rain shadow aridity during glacial and interglacial intervals. Speleothem growth occurred during marine glacial isotopic periods, with no growth during the two last marine isotope interglacial intervals and during the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum. This contrasts with speleothem growth in caves located on the western flank of the central mountain ridge, in the Eastern Mediterranean semiarid climatic zone, which continued throughout the last 240,000 yr. Thus, during glacial periods water reached both sides of the central mountain ridge. A comparison of the present-day rain and cave water isotopic compositions and amounts at the Ma’ale Efrayim Cave site with those on the western flank shows that evaporation and higher temperatures on the eastern flank are major influences on isotopic composition and the lack of rainfall. The δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C profiles of the speleothems deposited between 67,000 and 25,000 yr B.P. match the general trends of the isotopic profiles of Soreq Cave speleothems, suggesting a similar source (eastern Mediterranean Sea) and similar climatic conditions. Thus, during glacial periods the desert boundary effectively migrated further south or east from its present-day location on the eastern flank, whereas interglacial periods appear to have been similar to the present, with the desert boundary at the same position. The decrease in overall temperature and a consequent reduction in the evaporation to precipitation ratios on the eastern flank are viewed as the major factors controlling the decay of the rain shadow effect during glacial periods.     

变形体的稳定性及其定量分析方法初探

变形体的稳定性是变形体性质的重要内容，它是工程实际中极为关注的问题，但从变形监测的角度上来分析变形的稳定性目前在国内外还未见任何实质性的报导。本文讨论了从变形监测角度上分析变形体稳定性的一般方法，进行变形稳定性的分类，初步研究了变形体稳定性的定量分析方法，定义了一系列量化指标，如稳定度、因素的影响域与因素的稳定域等。这些有利于把稳定性分析推向应用和深入，从而提高变形监测在变形体定性分析中的地位，增     

新疆南天山环境应力场特征

基于新疆强震固定台和流动观测记录的主要和余震加速度资料，选用了三个分向记录都完整的３７次地震。震级范围为１．８－６．８级，震中距为几至几十公里。根据用位错理论二维断裂力学模式推导的震源峰值、加速度与环境剪应力场关系式计算了新疆南天山环境剪应力值。计算结果表明，新疆南天山环境应力平均值偏高，这与新疆处于特殊构造环境条件有关。     

Revisiting the abandoned shorelines of Lake George,Australia: a refined optical dating framework

Abandoned shorelines are an important archive used to constrain past fluctuations in the hydrological balance of lakes around the globe. Within Australia, the shorelines preserved at Lake George, NSW, form one of the few shoreline archives in the south-east of the continent that record palaeoenvironmental conditions throughout the late Quaternary. Here, we examined and tested the lake-level record for Lake George constructed in the 1970s by dating a well-preserved shoreline sequence at Luckdale, on the lake's eastern shore, using single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. Ten stratigraphic units were identified, and these suggest a late Quaternary highstand for Lake George in MIS 3, with fluctuations superimposed upon an overall drying trend throughout MIS 2 and into the present. At Luckdale, the highest four shoreline-associated units were deposited ~13 to 19 m above lake base and date to between 39 ± 2 and 29 ± 1 ka ago. Our study pushes back the timing of maximum lake depth at Lake George to at least MIS 3, rather than MIS 2. The overall drying trend is supported by similar reductions in both Riverine Plain fluvial activity and other associated lake-level records from within the Murray basin.     

Retrieval of effective leaf area index (LAIe) and leaf area density (LAD) profile at individual tree level using high density multi-return airborne LiDAR

As an important canopy structure indicator, leaf area index (LAI) proved to be of considerable implications for forest ecosystem and ecological studies, and efficient techniques for accurate LAI acquisitions have long been highlighted. Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR), often termed as airborne laser scanning (ALS), once was extensively investigated for this task but showed limited performance due to its low sampling density. Now, ALS systems exhibit more competing capacities such as high density and multi-return sampling, and hence, people began to ask the questions like—“can ALS now work better on the task of LAI prediction?” As a re-examination, this study investigated the feasibility of LAI retrievals at the individual tree level based on high density and multi-return ALS, by directly considering the vertical distributions of laser points lying within each tree crown instead of by proposing feature variables such as quantiles involving laser point distribution modes at the plot level. The examination was operated in the case of four tree species (i.e. Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Populus tremula and Quercus robur) in a mixed forest, with their LAI-related reference data collected by using static terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). In light of the differences between ALS- and TLS-based LAI characterizations, the methods of voxelization of 3D scattered laser points, effective LAI (LAIe) that does not distinguish branches from canopies and unified cumulative LAI (ucLAI) that is often used to characterize the vertical profiles of crown leaf area densities (LADs) was used; then, the relationships between the ALS- and TLS-derived LAIes were determined, and so did ucLAIs. Tests indicated that the tree-level LAIes for the four tree species can be estimated based on the used airborne LiDAR (R² = 0.07, 0.26, 0.43 and 0.21, respectively) and their ucLAIs can also be derived. Overall, this study has validated the usage of the contemporary high density multi-return airborne LiDARs for LAIe and LAD profile retrievals at the individual tree level, and the contribution are of high potential for advancing forest ecosystem modeling and ecological understanding.     

An Overview of Paleo-AO/NAO Studies

The discovery of decadal variability of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the introduction of Arctic oscillation (AO) concept have initiated a series of paleo-AO/NAO related studies since the mid-to-late 1990s. The progress and new findings of paleo-AO/NAO works after that time were comprehensively reviewed. The new results from the observations and modelings at four key timescales were summarized in detail: ①the reconstructions of the AO/NAO annual index over the past millennium; ②the debate on AO/NAO’s trend since early Holocene; ③the weakening of AO/NAO’s amplitude during the Last Glacial Maximum; and ④the anomalous positive phase of AO/NAO during the Last Interglacial. In addition, the possible mechanism for different timescales of AO/NAO is also summarized. Furthermore, the distinction between AO/NAO’ was mean state and amplitude, which were not explicitly separated in previous studies, were comprehensively discussed. Considering the current uncertainties related to paleo-AO/NAO studies, we encourage the community to search for more proxies having longer-than-10,000-year length with annual resolution around AO/NAO highly correlated regions. Another, we encourage long-term transient modeling on AO/NAO can be performed in order to improve our understanding of the dynamics and interaction between AO/NAO’s high-frequency variability and the climatological background, so as to further improve AO/NAO’s predictability on global warming context.     

山西省2017年农田灌溉水有效利用系数测算分析研究

以山西省172个样点灌区为研究区域,按照《全国农田灌溉水有效利用系数测算分析技术指导细则》测算方法及要求,测算样点灌区农田灌溉水有效利用系数,在此基础上,以全省灌区统计资料为权重,测算分析得出山西省2017年大、中、小和纯井灌区农田灌溉水利用系数分别为0.484 6、0.501 0、0.475 8和0.639 8,全省系数为0.538。通过对测算成果分析,认为测算结果真实反映了当年山西省灌区农田灌溉用水效率,相关成果对山西省灌区工程建设、用水管理和规划编制等有一定指导意义。