A quantitative study of sediment delivery and stream pollution from different forest road types

The objective of this paper is to quantify, and enable the prediction of, sediment delivery and water pollution impacts from a spectrum of forest roads. Ten 100–200 m long sections of forest road were selected to incorporate a wide range of the key physical site factors that are likely to affect the rate of sediment generation. Each road section was permanently instrumented for 1 year to measure rainfall and runoff continuously. Suspended load, bedload, and traffic were integrated measurements over 2‐ to 3‐week site‐service intervals. Total annual sediment load (normalized for slope) varied about 25‐fold, from 216 mg m^?2 per millimetre of rain for a high‐quality gravel surfaced road with minimal traffic to 5373 mg m^?2 per millimetre of rain for an unsurfaced road on an erodible subsoil with moderate light‐vehicle traffic. For the seven gravel‐surfaced roads in this study, truck traffic (axles/week) explained 97% of the variation in annual sediment delivery (per unit of rainfall) from the road. Equations are proposed that allow annual sediment delivery rates to be estimated when net rainfall, road slope, road area, and truck traffic are known. Roads produce runoff rapidly and were found to deliver sediment for about the same duration as rainfall is falling, in this study varying between 5 and 10% of the time. The patterns of sediment delivery measured from the experimental roads (frequency, duration, and intensity) in this study are similar to levels that have been shown to alter the composition of in‐stream macroinvertebrate communities in small (e.g. <10 l s^?1), clean, mountain streams. However, in larger well‐mixed streams (e.g. >500 l s^?1), dilution is sufficient to prevent concentrations reaching critical levels that are likely to result in biological impacts. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Single Particle Analysis of Aerosols, Observed in the Marine Boundary Layer during the Monterey Area Ship Tracks Experiment (MAST), with Respect to Cloud Droplet Formation

The chemical composition of individual particles >0.2 m sampled duringthe MAST-experiment wereanalysed by SEM-EDX, in combination with multivariatetechniques. The objective of this experiment was toidentify the mechanisms responsible for themodification of marine stratocumulus clouds byemissions from ships and in a wider sense to provideinformation on the global processes involved inatmospheric modification of cloud albedo. Aerosolswere examined under different MBL pollution levels(clean, intermediately polluted and moderatelypolluted) in five different reservoirs: backgroundbelow-cloud and above-cloud aerosol; background clouddroplet residual particles; below-cloud ship plumeaerosol and ship track cloud droplet residualparticles.In this study a relation was provided between theaerosol emitted from the ship's stack to an effect incloud. Additionally, a large fraction of the ambientaerosol was found to be composed of organic materialor other compounds, consisting of low Z-elements,associated with chlorine. Their number fraction waslargest in clean marine boundary layers, and decreasedwith increasing pollution levels. The fraction of`transformed sea salt' (Na, Cl, S), on the other hand,increased with the pollution level in the MBL. Only20% of the particles fell within the detectable rangeof the analysis.     

Stable isotopic studies of dinosaur eggshells from the Nanxiong Basin, South China

Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes have been observed in dinosaur eggshell samples,identified as Macroolithus yaotunensis,collected in two sections of the Nanxiong Basin,Guangdong Province,South China.Multiple positiveδ18O perturbations that occurred during the K/T transition of about 150 ka suggest that there may have been at least three periods of the extreme dry climate with a mean annual air temperature over 27℃.δ13C ranges from -8.37‰ to -11.60‰ of the dinosaur eggshells,added to the metabolic enrichment of 16‰,may indicate that the dinosaurs represented by this type of eggshells probably consumed the plant species of C3 type with the δ13C values of -24.3‰- -27.6‰.Moreover,the trend toward more negative δ13C values of the eggshells during the K/T transition could be an indirect consequence of a lasting increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration.     

A New Family of Sauropod Dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Tianzhen, Shanxi Province, China

A new gigantic sauropod, Huabeisaurus allocates gen. et sp. nov., about 20 m in length and 5 m in height, was discovered in the Upper Cretaceous Huiquanpu Formation, Tianzhen County, Shanxi Province. It is notably different from Diplodocidae, Titanosauridae and Nemegtosauridae in the following aspects: the teeth are strong, peg-like with a length ratio of the tooth crown to tooth root at about 3 to 1; the cervical vertebrae are long with forked spines; the spines in dorsal vertebrae are relatively high, unbifiarcated; the caudal vertebrae are amphicoelous, with anterior neural spines and unbifurcated spines and chevrons; the femur is straight and long, narrow and flat and the tibia and fibula are long and flat. These characters show that the described genus should represent a new family, Huabeisauridae fam. nov. The discovery enriches the sauropod dinosaur record in China, and is quite significant to the study of the taxonomy, evolution, migration, extinction and palaeobiogeographic provincialism of the     

The effect of truck traffic and road water content on sediment delivery from unpaved forest roads

A study investigated the effect of truck‐traffic intensity and road water‐content on the quality of runoff water from unsealed forest roads. Three sections of a gravel‐surfaced forest road were instrumented and exposed to low and high levels of truck traffic during wet winter conditions and dry summer conditions between July 2001 and December 2002. Rainfall, runoff, road moisture, and traffic were measured continuously, and suspended and bedload sediments were integrated measurements over 2‐week site‐service intervals. The median suspended sediment concentration from the three road segments under low truck‐traffic conditions (less than nine return truck passes prior to a storm) was 269 mg l^?1, increasing 2·7‐fold to a median of 725 mg l^?1 under high truck‐traffic conditions (greater than or equal to nine return truck passes prior to a storm). These concentrations, and increases due to traffic, are substantially less than most previously reported values. When these data are expressed as modified universal soil loss equation (MUSLE) erodibility values K, accounting for differences in rainfall energy, site characteristics and runoff, high traffic resulted in a road surface that was four times more erodible than the same road under low traffic conditions. Using multiple regression, traffic explained 36% of the variation in MUSLE erodibility, whereas road water content was not significant in the model. There was little difference in the erodibility of the road when trafficked in low water‐content compared with high water‐content conditions (MUSLE K values of 0·0084 versus 0·0080 respectively). This study shows that, for a good quality well‐maintained gravel forest road, the level of truck traffic affects the sediment concentration of water discharging from the road, whereas the water content of the road at the time of that traffic does not (note that traffic is not allowed during runoff events in Victoria). These conclusions are conditional upon the road being adequately maintained so that trafficking does not compromise the lateral drainage of the road profile. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于漂流浮标观测分析日本福岛以东表层海洋物质的散播轨迹

认识海洋中的物质如何散播对于理解海洋环境变化和人类活动污染在海洋中的扩散过程具有非常重要的意义。利用历史海表漂流浮标观测数据,对日本福岛以东海域的表层物质散播轨迹进行了拉格朗日示踪分析和观测模拟试验研究。结果发现,福岛以东海域海表浮标的散播路径主要分为东、南两支,其中速度较快的东支为主要通道,沿黑潮延伸体汇入北太平洋流,最短用时大约22个月即可到达北美西海岸;南支则沿黑潮延伸体以南的大范围南向流向西南方向运移,速度较慢且明显受涡旋活动影响,最快大约5个月即可到达吕宋海峡和中国台湾以东海域,进而进入南海和东海等中国近海海域。通过开展观测模拟试验,发现海表浮标散播的概率密度分布呈现以福岛附近海域为核心、向西南和正东方向递减扩展的形态,其中,到达中国近海的浮标主要通过吕宋海峡进入。文章详细讨论了研究结果的局限性、不足之处,以及因基于大量现场观测而具备的重要参考价值。     

山东郯城和江苏东海早白垩世晚期恐龙足迹化石新发现及古环境*

首次在山东郯城早白垩世晚期地层中发现恐龙足迹化石,分属蜥脚类和兽脚类恐龙足迹,足迹大小差异较大。通过对山东省郯城县新发现的2处恐龙足迹化石点和江苏省东海县南古寨恐龙足迹化石点的对比研究,探讨了足迹类型、大小、速度与足迹深度的关系,发现同等条件下,蜥脚类恐龙足迹通常较兽脚类足迹深,而蜥脚类恐龙足迹深度随着足迹大小的增加有变深的趋势;波痕、雨痕和泥裂等沉积构造以及足迹回填和叠覆现象对足迹化石保存形态和细节有较大影响,而构造变形对足迹形态和行迹并无明显影响,但高角度的构造变形会加速差异风化,使足迹化石更易暴露而被破坏。对研究区古环境与古生态的研究表明,早白垩世晚期研究区经历了水体逐渐变浅、气候由湿到干并伴随短暂间歇性干旱的过程,沉积环境由河湖演变为三角洲前缘、并逐渐过渡到三角洲平原,生态环境逐渐恶化,动植物由兴而衰、逐渐减少。     

中国恐龙研究历史与现状

中国恐龙研究历史可分为三个阶段：萌芽阶段（１９０２￣１９２９）,奠基阶段（１９２９￣１９４９）和发展阶段（１９４９￣１９７９）。从恐龙化石、恐龙蛋和恐龙足迹研究三个方面全面回顾了中国恐龙研究历程。并对近２０年来中国恐龙研究进展和现状进行了总结。     

Analysing the positional accuracy of GNSS multi-tracks obtained from VGI sources to generate improved 3D mean axes

ABSTRACT

The sharing of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) tracks on the Internet is increasing enormously. Every day a great number of users capture routes using different devices and share these data. Individually these tracks present a poor positional accuracy because these devices obtain positions with accuracy of about 5-10 metres. In addition, they are usually captured for navigation and not for surveying. However, we can take advantage of the great quantity of tracks of the same linear element in order to obtain a more accurate solution. This study analyses this possibility using a wide set of tracks obtained in known conditions. We emulated those tracks obtained by Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) users and we compared the mean axis obtained using all tracks with others obtained from a more accurate source. Additionally, we analyse the displacement of other axes obtained by varying several parameters such as the number of tracks and their length or by dividing the route into sections in function of sinuosity, etc. The results have shown an improved 3D mean axis and the viability of the method proposed in this study in order to use axes obtained from several tracks in maps at certain scales.     

浙江白垩纪恐龙与恐龙蛋化石的时空分布

浙江省恐龙化石地质遗迹调查表明,全省有9个白垩纪陆相红层盆地产恐龙和恐龙蛋化石,至今已发现有4科5属5种恐龙骨骼和7科11属24种恐龙蛋化石。浙江省恐龙和恐龙蛋化石主要分布在天台盆地和金衢盆地的东阳、衢州、龙游、金华、浦江、兰溪一带,主要产于天台群的赖家组,衢江群的金华组、衢县组。永康、南马、新昌、嵊州、仙居、诸暨、湖山等地永康群朝川组、方岩组中也有较丰富的恐龙化石。依据恐龙和恐龙蛋化石在盆地内地层中的分布、地层的同位素年龄和相伴生的其他生物群特征等分析表明,恐龙和恐龙蛋化石的赋存地质时代以晚白垩世为主。此外,恐龙和恐龙蛋化石在浙江的广泛分布表明该地区地质历史时期气候温暖,植被茂盛,水资源丰富,是恐龙及其他生物生存繁衍的理想场所。