Temporal evolution of scour at bridge abutments in compound channels

Bridge abutment-induced sediment scour in compound river channels is time-sensitive during floods, and, thus, estimating the scour rate has significance in design. In the current study, large-scale laboratory experiments were done to examine the influence of multiple factors on scour evolution, including channel geometry, bed mobility (clear-water or live-bed), and lateral (embankment intrusion) and vertical (deck submergence) flow contractions. A new method is applied for scour measurement and determination of characteristic scour trends. Results show that the non-dimensional time scale is related to flow intensity and may peak before reaching the clear-water scour threshold; the corresponding equations also are derived. It is found that the use of scour countermeasures has a significant impact on the scour rate, and the existing equations for unprotected abutments have limitations. Under clear-water conditions, the scour rate is closely related to the overall flow contraction, which can be better reflected by the ratio of the approaching unit discharge to that at the bridge section. Specifically, the effect of vertical flow contraction on scour rate is more dominant than other factors. Two scour rate curves are derived to suit different structural and flow contraction types for clear-water scour. In contrast, the live-bed scour rate data are generally consistent and fall in a narrow band, showing less dependence on other factors. Finally, a new design approach is established to estimate the time scale and scour rate using the new equations proposed in this paper.     

Deep seismic refraction experiment in northeast Brazil: New constraints for Borborema province evolution

The Borborema Province of northeastern Brazil is a major Proterozoic crustal province that, until now, has never been explored using deep crustal seismic methods. Here are reported the first results obtained from a high-quality seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profile that has defined the internal seismic velocity structure and thickness of the crust in this region. Almost 400 recording stations were deployed in the Deep Seismic Refraction (DSR) experiment through an NW–SE ca. 900 km linear array and 19 shots were exploded at every 50 km along the line. Data from the 10 southeastern most shots of the seismic profile were processed in this work. The main features and geological structures crossed by the studied portion of the profile belong to the so-called Central Sub-province of the Borborema tectonic province. The crustal model obtained is compatible with a typical structure of extended crust. The model was essentially divided into three layers: upper crust, lower crust, and a half-space represented by the shallower portion of the mantle. The Moho is an irregular interface with depth ranging between 31.7 and 34.5 km, and beneath the Central Sub-province it varies from 31.5 to 33 km depth, where its limits are related to major crustal discontinuities. The distribution of velocities within the crust is heterogeneous, varying vertically from 5.7 to 6.3 km/s in the upper crust and from 6.45 to 6.9 km/s in the lower crust. From the average crustal velocity distribution it is evident that the Central Sub-province has seismic characteristics different from neighboring domains. The crust is relatively thin and crustal thickness variations in the profile are subtle due to stretching that occurred in the Cretaceous, during the fragmentation of Pangaea, opening of the South Atlantic Ocean and separation of South America from Africa.     

近10年西藏高原雪线时空变化及其与气象因素关系分析

本文利用2000年3月-2011年2月西藏地区的MODIS雪盖产品数据、DEM数据以及地面气象观测数据,结合GIS空间分析方法,分析了西藏地区不同自然区划地带下雪线的时空变化特征及其与气象因素的关系。研究表明：西藏及各区域年平均雪线波动变化比较平稳,全区年平均雪线为4848.6m,呈微弱上升趋势,线性倾向率为6.54m/10a;各季节平均雪线中,秋季雪线的变化对年平均贡献最大,二者相关系数达0.796。冬季雪线呈下降趋势（相关系数为-0.625）,其余三季则均表现为上升趋势,但均不显著;除东喜马拉雅南翼山地雪线逐月变化波动明显外（标准差为60.3m）,其余均表现为平缓波动形势;西藏地区的雪线空间分布基本上表现为由东南向西北方向逐步升高的态势,其中东南部和西北部雪线分布密集且复杂。中部雪线则相对较稀疏,其高、低值区分别与山脉和河谷分布相对应;整体上,西藏雪线与气温正相关,与降水量负相关,但是各区域四季雪线与气温、降水量之间又存在差异。雪线是积雪各要素特征变化最为敏感的指示器,研究西藏高原雪线的时空分布特征及其与气象因素之间的关系,对了解西藏高原乃至整个青藏高原的气候变化具有重要的意义。     

Variations of the Eco-Hydro-Climatic Environment Response to the 2015/2016 Super El Niño Event in the Mindanao Dome Upwelling System

A super El Ni?o event occurred in the equatorial Pacific during 2015-2016,accompanied by considerable regional eco-hydro-climatic variations within the Mindanao Dome(MD)upwelling system in the tropical western Pacific.Using timeseries of various oceanic data from 2013 to 2017,the variability of eco-hydro-climatic conditions response to the 2015/2016 super El Ni?o in the upper 300 m of the MD region are analyzed in this paper.Results showed that during the 2015/2016 super El Ni?o event,the upwelling in the MD region was greatly enhanced compared to those before and after this El Ni?o event.Upwelling Rossby waves and the massive loss of surface water in the western Pacific were suggested to be the main reasons for this enhanced upwelling.De-creased precipitation caused by changes in large-scale air-sea interaction led to the increased surface salinities.Changes in the struc-tures of the thermohaline and nutrient distribution in deep waters contributed to the increased surface chlorophyll a,suggesting a po-sitive effect of El Ni?o on surface carbon storage in the MD region.Based on the above analysis,the synopsis mechanism illustrating the eco-hydro-climatic changing processes over the MD upwelling system responding to the El Ni?o event was proposed.It high-lights the prospect for the role played by El Ni?o in local eco-hydro-climatic effects,which has further profound implications for understanding the influence of the global climate changes on the ocean carbon cycle.     

Short-term climate changes during the Last Glacial–Holocene transition: comparison between Mediterranean records and the GRIP event stratigraphy

This paper presents biostratigraphical and stable isotope data obtained from core CM92–43, which was recovered from the central Adriatic as part of a comprehensive investigation of the palaeoenvironmental history of the basin. The data span the period of the Last Glacial–Holocene (LG–H) transition (ca. 18000 to 8000 GRIP ice-core yr BP). Regional biozones are defined on the basis of characteristic assemblages of planktic Foraminifera, and these are compared with other foraminiferal biostratigraphical schemes from the southern Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Variations in relative abundance of selected planktic Foraminifera and in selected pollen types are shown alongside variations in δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C obtained from Globigerina bulloides and relative abundance of Globigerinoides ex. gr. ruber. The data are compared with the GRIP ice-core record and the event stratigraphy scheme based on this record, and it is concluded that the climate forcing mechanisms that controlled climate variations in the North Atlantic region during the LG–H transition also extended their influence into the Mediterranean region over the same period. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

INTERCOMPARISON OF THE INTERDECADAL VARIATIONS OF SUMMER PRECIPITATION IN CHINA SIMULATED BY AOGCMS FROM THE IPCC-DDC

Simulations of the interdecadal variations of summer rainfall over China are assessed from 5 coupled AOGCMs from the Data Distribution Center (DDC) of the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change (IPCC) under the IPCC-Special Report in Emission Scenarios (SRES) A2 and B2 scenario. We examined their ability in simulating the interdecadal variations of summer precipitation over China from 1951 to 1990. The difference before and after the mid-1960’s and the late 1970’s is given respectively to check the capability of the models, especially in reproducing the rainfall jump in North China. We also investigated the interdecadal variations simulated by the models in the 1990’s and the average of 2001-2020 in the future under the scenario A2 and B2. The analysis shows that the current AOGCMs is not good enough in simulating the interdecadal variations of summer precipitation in China. The interdecadal variations of summer rainfall simulated by most of the models cannot reproduce the observation in North China. Higher resolution models are suggested to well simulate the interdecadal variability in regional scale.     

Summertime temperature variations in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and their related circulation anomalies in the past five decades

Using the daily data of temperature from China Meteorological Administration and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis from 1960 to 2005, we have analyzed the relationships between the summertime high/low temperature events in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLRYR) and the related circulation anomalies in the Eastern Hemisphere. Our results have demonstrated that a significantly increasing trend is observed in daily minimum temperature in the past 50 years. And in some regions in the Northern Hemisphere, the opposite scenarios are observed in circulation anomalies in lower and upper parts of the troposphere in the years when the temperatures are higher than normal, as compared to those in the years when the temperatures are lower than normal in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLRYR). Additionally, the anomalous circulation structure in vertical direction in both the high and lower temperature years are barotropic. It is found that the emergence and maintenance of the aforementioned anomalous circulations are related to three kinds of wave train teleconnection patterns. Further more, influences of the long wave surface radiation on the air temperature are stronger in the nighttime than that in the daytime. While both the maximum and minimum temperatures have negative relationships with the sensible heat flux but positive relationships with the latent heat flux. To some extent, the anomalous dynamic heating (cooling) caused by the vertical thermal advection as well as the diabatic heating (cooling) caused by diabatic processes can explain the formation of the high (low) temperature events in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLRYR) in boreal summer.     

1961—2017年基于地面观测的新疆积雪时空变化研究

选取新疆89个气象站1961—2017年逐日积雪深度观测资料, 分析近60 a新疆冬季最大积雪深度及积雪日数的时空变化特征。结果表明： 新疆冬季最大积雪深度以天山为界, 天山以北多于南部, 北疆北部和伊犁河谷最大达60 ~ 100 cm, 天山山区及天山北坡30 ~ 60 cm, 南疆大部地区不足20 cm; 新疆北部最大雪深多出现在1996年以后, 也是新疆气候由暖干转为暖湿的阶段。近60 a新疆区域尤其是北疆、 天山山区冬季最大积雪深度呈显著增加趋势, 南疆略有增加; 89个气象站中87.6%呈增加趋势, 20个显著增加, 主要分布在天山以北地区。分析不同积雪深度出现的日数, 新疆区域、 北疆地区、 天山山区≤10 cm积雪约占积雪总日数的48% ~ 58%, 10 ~ 20 cm积雪占24% ~ 32%, 20 ~ 30 cm积雪占12% ~ 15%, >30 cm积雪约占5%左右; 南疆地区以≤5 cm积雪为主。新疆区域、 北疆地区以及天山山区积雪日数总体呈减少趋势, 其中≤10 cm积雪日数减少, 尤其北疆显著减少, >20 cm积雪日数显著增加, 南疆变化不明显; 空间变化趋势分布基本与区域变化一致。     

降水变化对中国南方强酸雨分布的影响

Acid rain has been recognized as a serious environmental problem in China since the 1980s, but little is known about the effects of the climatic change in regional precipitation on the temporal and spatial variability of severe acid rain. We present the effects of the re-gional precipitation trend change on the area and intensity of severe acid rain in southern China, and the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of SO2 and NO2 concentrations are analyzed on the basis of SO2 and NO2 column concentration data. The results are as follows. (1) The emission levels of SO2 and NO2 have reached or passed the precipitation scavenging capacity in parts of southern China owing to the emission totals of SO2 and NO2 increasing from 1993 to 2004. (2) Notable changes in the proportion of cities subject to severe acid rain occurred mainly in the south of the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River during 1993-2004. With an abrupt change in 1999, the severe acid rain regions were mainly located in central and western China during 1993-1999 and moved obviously eastward to the south of the lower-middle reaches of the Yangtze River with the proportion of cities subject to se-vere acid rain increasing significantly from 2000 to 2004. (3) The spatial distribution and variation in the seasonal precipitation change rate of more than 10 mm/10a are similar to those of severe acid rain in southern China. An abrupt change in 1999 is seen for winter and summer precipitation, the same as for the proportion of cities subject to severe acid rain in southern China. The significant increase in summer storm precipitation from 1991 to 1999 mitigated the annual precipitation acidity in the south of the Yangtze River and reduced the area of severe acid rainfall. On the other hand, the decrease in storm rainfall in summer ex-panded the area of severe acid rainfall in the south of the Yangtze River in 2000-2006. Therefore, the change in seasonal precipitation is an important factor in the severe acid rain regions moving eastward and expanding in southern China.     

Annual budget of benthic production in Mont Saint-Michel Bay considering cloudiness,microphytobenthos migration,and variability of respiration rates with tidal conditions

In order to provide an accurate annual rate of net benthic community production, community photosynthetic response to incident irradiance and respiration were measured at different times of the year, at mid-tide level on the muddiest part of the Mont Saint-Michel Bay. As the water turbidity prevented any photosynthesis by the microphytobenthos during immersion periods, primary production was measured only during emersion periods. In contrast respiration was expected to vary according to the tidal cycle and was measured during both emersion and immersion periods. Primary production and respiration rates under emersion were assessed using in situ infra-red gas analysis of CO₂ exchange measured in a benthic chamber. Respiration rates under immersion were assessed through total CO₂ concentration variations in incubated cores.