Land management impacts on runoff sources in small Amazon watersheds

Forest clearing and conversion to cattle pasture in the lowland Amazon region has been linked to soil compaction and increased soil water storage, which combine to diminish soil infiltration, enhance quick lateral flows and increase the stream flow response to precipitation. Quantifying the importance of quick surficial flow in response to this land use change requires identification of water sources within catchments that contribute to stream flow. Using an end member mixing analysis approach, potential contributing sources of stream flow were evaluated during an entire rainy season in a forest and a pasture watershed drained by ephemeral‐to‐intermittent streams in the south‐western Amazon. Water yield was 17% of precipitation in the pasture and 0·8% of precipitation in the forest. During the early rainy season, throughfall, groundwater, and soil water contributed 79%, 18%, and 3%, respectively, to total forest stream flow. Over the entire rainy season, throughfall, groundwater, and shallow soil water provided 57%, 24%, and 19%, respectively, of stream flow. In the pasture watershed, overland flow dominated stream flow both in the early (67%) and late (57%) rainy season, with a mean contribution of 60% overland flow, 35% groundwater, and 5% soil water. The uncertainty associated with those estimates was studied using a Monte Carlo approach. In addition to large changes in total surface flow, marked differences were found in the proportions of total stream flow in the second half of the rainy season between the forest and pasture watershed. These results suggest that (1) there is great potential for alteration of the hydrological budgets of larger watersheds as the proportion of deforested land in the Amazon increases, and (2) as more rainfall is diverted into fast flowpaths to streams in established pastures, the potential to deliver water with higher solute concentrations generated by erosion or by bypassing sites of solute removal increases. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Five young star clusters in the outer region of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Colour–magnitude diagrams in the Washington system are presented for the first time for five star clusters projected on to the outer region of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The clusters are found to have ages in the range 0.1–1.0 Gyr, as derived from the fit of isochrones with   Z = 0.004  . This sample increases substantially the number of young clusters in the outer SMC – particularly in the south-east quadrant – with well-derived parameters. We combine our results with those for other clusters in the literature to derive as large and homogeneous a data base as possible (totalling 49 clusters) in order to study global effects. We find no conclusive evidence for a dispersion in the cluster ages and metallicities as a function of their distance from the galaxy centre, in the SMC outer region. L 114 and 115, although very distant, are very young clusters, lying in the bridge of the SMC and therefore most likely formed during the interaction which formed this feature. We also find very good agreement between the cluster age–metallicity relation (AMR) and the prediction from a bursting model from Pagel & Tautvaišienė with a burst that occurred 3 Gyr ago. Comparing the present cluster AMR with that derived by Harris & Zaritsky for field stars in the main body of the SMC, we find that field stars and clusters underwent similar chemical enrichment histories during approximately the last couple of Gyr, but their chemical evolution was clearly different between 4 and 10 Gyr ago.     

Investigating the effect of soil models on deformations caused by braced excavations through an inverse-analysis technique

In this study, a series of inverse-analysis numerical experiments was performed to investigate the effect of soil models on the deformations caused by excavation by using the finite element method. The nonlinear optimization technique that was incorporated into the finite element code was used for the inverse-analysis numerical experiments. Three soil models (the hyperbolic model, pseudo-plasticity model, and modified pseudo-plasticity model) were employed in the intended numerical experiments on a well-documented excavation case history. The results indicate that wall deflection due to excavation can be accurately back-figured by each of the three soil models, while the ground surface settlement can be reasonably optimized only by the pseudo-plasticity model and the modified pseudo-plasticity model. Importantly, the modified pseudo-plasticity model can yield more reasonable simulations when the wall deflection and the ground surface settlement are simultaneously back-figured. The results show that selection of an adequate soil model that is capable of adequately describing the stress–strain-strength characteristics of the soils is essentially crucial when predicting the excavation-induced ground response.     

小型空心砌块建筑墙体施工技术

某工程设计采用轻质砼小型空心砌块墙体,在施工过程中,从各个建筑细部上很下工夫,精益求精,使施工质量得到保证,本文介绍其施工技术与细部做法。     

Combining CLUE-S and SWAT models to forecast land use change and non-point source pollution impact at a watershed scale in Liaoning Province,China

Non-point source （NPS） pollution has become a major source of water pollution. A combination of models would provide the necessary direction and approaches designed to control NPS pollution through land use planning. In this study, NPS pollution load was simulated in urban planning, historic trends and ecological protection land use scenarios based on the Conversion of Land Use and its Effect at Small regional extent （CLUE-S） and Soil and Water Assessment Tool （SWAT） models applied to Hunhe-Taizi River Watershed, Liaoning Province, China. Total nitrogen （TN） and total phosphorus （TP） were chosen as NPS pollution indices. The results of models validation showed that CLUE-S and SWAT models were suitable in the study area. NPS pollution mainly came from dry farmland, paddy, rural and urban areas. The spatial distribution of TN and TP exhibited the same trend in 57 sub-catchments. The TN and TP had the highest NPS pollution load in the western and central plains, which concentrated the urban area and farm land. The NPS pollution load would increase in the urban planning and historic trends scenarios, and would be even higher in the urban planning scenario. How- ever, the NPS pollution load decreased in the ecological protection scenario. The differences observed in the three scenarios indicated that land use had a degree of impact on NPS pollution, which showed that scientific and ecologically sound construction could effec- tively reduce the NPS pollution load in a watershed. This study provides a scientific method for conducting NPS pollution research at the watershed scale, a scientific basis for non-point source pollution control, and a reference for related policy making.     

Accumulation of terrestrial organic carbon on an active continental margin offshore southwestern Taiwan: Source-to-sink pathways of river-borne organic particles

Sediment samples (213 sites) collected from the tectonic-active continental margin, offshore southwestern Taiwan were analyzed for grain sizes, organic carbon, nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition to obtain mass accumulation rate of terrestrial organic carbon and carbon budget to evaluate fate of terrestrial organic carbon from small mountainous rivers on the continental margin offshore southwestern Taiwan. Terrestrial organic carbon accumulation rates range from 0.29 to 45.6 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹ with a total accumulation budget of 0.063 Mt yr⁻¹, which accounts for less than 13% of total river particulate organic carbon loads exported from the adjacent rivers, the Gaoping (a.k.a., Kaoping), Erhjen and Tsengwen rivers. This low burial efficiency of terrestrial organic carbon demonstrated that a majority of river-borne particles together with organic materials was moved away from the study area.For the river-borne particles from the Gaoping river, a pair of depocenters in the upper slope flanking the Gaoping submarine canyon are the locations where the maximum TC_org accumulation rate were observed which hold up to 45% (0.016 Mt yr⁻¹) of the calculated accumulation found in the study region. On the other hand, the occurrence of higher-fraction terrestrial organic carbon in the upper and middle Gaoping submarine canyon suggests that a majority of particulate organic carbon of the Gaoping river was transported directly into the deep-sea basin through the Gaoping submarine canyon. Our results demonstrated that active margin with narrow shelf and slope is not an efficient sink for the large amount of terrigenous organic carbon supplied by the small rivers, but, a transient environment for these river derived particles.     

Coupled hydro-mechanical model for partially saturated soils predicting small strain stiffness

In the paper, we present newly developed hydro-mechanical hypoplastic model for partially saturated soils predicting small strain stiffness. Hysteretic void ratio dependent water retention model has been incorporated into the existing hypoplastic model. This required thorough revision of the model structure to allow for the hydro-mechanical coupling dependencies. The model is formulated in terms of degree of saturation, rather than of suction. Subsequently, the small strain stiffness effects were incorporated using the intergranular strain concept modified for unsaturated conditions. New features included degree of saturation-dependent size of the elastic range and an updated evolution equation for the intergranular strain. The model has been evaluated using two comprehensive data sets on completely decomposed tuff from Hong-Kong and Zenos Kaolin from Iran. It has been shown that the modified intergranular strain formulation coupled with the hysteretic water retention model correctly reproduces the effects of both the stress and suction histories on small strain stiffness evolution. The model can correctly predict also different other aspects of partially saturated soil behaviour, starting from the very small strain range up to the asymptotic large-strain response.     

Stone run (block stream) formation in the Falkland Islands over several cold stages,deduced from cosmogenic isotope (10Be and 26Al) surface exposure dating

Cosmogenic isotope (¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al) surface exposure dating has been applied to valley‐axis and hillslope stone runs (relict periglacial block streams) and their source outcrops in the Falkland Islands, South Atlantic. The data indicate that stone runs are considerably older landforms than previously envisaged and afford no evidence that they are a product of the Last Glacial Maximum; the samples range in apparent ¹⁰Be age from 42k to 731k yr BP, but some of these are minima. The results indicate that valley‐axis stone runs may be up to 700–800k yr old, have simple exposure histories and are composite landforms that developed over several cold stages. Analyses of some hillslope and outcrop samples also demonstrate simple exposure histories with ¹⁰Be ages from 42k to 658k yr BP. In contrast, isotopic ratios from other hillslope and outcrop samples reveal they have had a complex exposure history involving periods of burial or shielding; the samples range in ¹⁰Be age from 59k to 569k yr BP and these are regarded as minimum age estimates. Larger stone runs may be older than smaller runs and there is a possibility that stone runs older than 800k yr exist in other parts of the Falklands. The assertion that glaciation in the Falklands was restricted to the highest uplands is supported by the data, and the potential for age determination of other boulder‐strewn and bedrock landforms, using cosmogenic isotope analysis, in order to extend the geochronology of Quaternary events and processes is noted. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Converting tropical rain forest to forest plantation in sabah,malaysia. Part I. Dynamics and net losses of nutrients in control catchment streams

Streamwatcr chemistry was monitored for five years in six streams in a paired catchment experiment in Mendolong, Sabah, Malaysia, including controls in rain forest and secondary vegetation after the [Borneo fire] of 1982–3 and comparing the effects of different ways of establishing forest plantations with Acacia mangium. Three catchments were covered with selectively logged lowland hill dipterocarp forest (W4-W6) and three (W1-W3) with secondary vegetation after forest fires. The control catchments, W3 and W6 reported in this paper, had no treatments applied. Reference monitoring at all streams was for 25 months and the total period of study reported here is 64 months. The soils in the catchments were mainly Orthic Acrisol in W3 and Gleyic Podsol in W6 and a mix of both soil types in the other catchments. Element baseflow concentrations were generally low and not significantly different from stormflow concentrations for all streams during the reference period. Concentrations were also generally consistently low for the two control streams during the whole period of measurement. Chemical inputs as wet deposition were low as a result of a high input from local convection. The rain forest on the Podsol had a tight nutrient circulation indicated by small net losses of macronutrients. The Podsol was found to have poorer conditions for soil mineralization and more surficial runoff, resulting in higher loads of S, C and N in the organic phases, with higher organic C/N ratio, in the discharge. Nitrogen was found to accumulate in both catchments. An almost double accumulation of N in W3 was attributed to a larger biomass accumulation continuing after the forest fire 3–8 years earlier. On the other hand, the Acrisol in W3 had much larger net losses of S, Si, K, Ca, Mg and Na. Most of differences could be attributed to differences in weathering between the soils and local mineralogical differences.     

Doing Research on Eclipsing Binary Stars with Small Telescopes and PC computers

Astronomical research with a small telescope (20 cm – 40 cm) has always been a challenging problem. The invention of CCD cameras and personal computers has now put this question to past as small telescopes can do good and practicle science. This paper describes the use of small telescope in the study of eclipsing binary stars. Binary stars play an important role as astrophysical laboratories in our quest to understand the evolution and structure of stars. The most useful aspects of research with a small telescope in binary star research is; 1) as a viable teaching laboratory for begining students 2) to teach and learn the fundamental observational techniques that are common to many types of astronomical research areas 3) as a starting point to initiate research programs in observational astronomy, optics, instrumentation, computational astrophysics and 4) as a foundation to develop an infrastructure and technical know how for larger telescope facility. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.