Assessing the extent of mangrove change caused by Cyclone Vance in the eastern Exmouth Gulf, northwestern Australia

Changes in mangal area were quantified in the eastern Exmouth Gulf over six years (1999–2004) after Cyclone Vance using Landsat TM satellite imagery and aerial photography. Vance was the strongest tropical cyclone ever to impact the Australian mainland before 2006 and produced wind gusts of more than 280 km h⁻¹. Image data were processed using ENVI™ and IDRISI™ software. Three sets of Landsat TM images from 1999 (a few days before the cyclone), 2002 and 2004 were used, along with 2004 digital aerial photography. A ‘common’ subset of 904 km² was selected from all images and classification was developed using ISODATA™ unsupervised classification to identify spectrally distinct areas followed by principal component analysis (PCA), vegetation indices and supervised classification. Some 12,800 ha of mangrove habitat was present before the cyclone and approximately 5700 ha (44%) was removed by it. Most mangroves lost (74%) between 1999 and 2004 were converted either to bare sediment or to live saltmarshes and this occurred mostly between 1999 and 2002. Five basic categories of damage were conspicuous from imagery and field observations, and evidence suggests that much of the loss was due to the longer term consequences of sediment deposition or smothering, rather than the immediate effects of wind or waves. Mangroves exhibited accelerated recovery between 2002 and 2004, and around 1580 ha regenerated during this time, amounting to a return of 68% of their former coverage. At this recovery rate we estimate that they should have returned to their pre-cyclone area by 2009. Over half of the saltmarsh habitats (54%) were removed by the cyclone (4060 ha) but their recovery has been far more rapid than mangroves. After 5 years, saltmarshes had returned to 87% of their previous area. The 5700 ha of mangrove habitat damaged by Cyclone Vance exceeds any anthropogenic impact that has ever taken place in Western Australia by several orders of magnitude.     

提高机采水平的配套技术及应用

随着濮城油田的持续性高速开发,油田综合含水逐渐上升,油水井井况进一步恶化,作为油田生产主体的机械采油井躺井频繁、管杆泵使用寿命缩短。近几年中原油田采油二厂濮城油田年平均躺井数达560井次之多,导致机械采油井维护费用增加,管杆泵投入增大,严重制约着油田的生产和经营。通过加缓蚀剂在油管内壁形成保护油膜,起到润滑作用;应用特殊抽油杆防腐止磨;应用尼龙扶正器对抽油杆体扶正,避免了钢体与钢体的硬磨;应用旋转井口通过地面人力转动改变油管与抽油杆的偏磨面;配合合理生产参数;各种配套技术的合理应用,使濮城油田躺井减少,避免了频繁作业,增加长寿井,管杆泵投入节约了19.3%。     

省级地震数据容灾备份技术初探

对地震数据容灾备份技术进行了研究,探讨了地震数据容灾备份的重要性及设计方案,及开展此项工作的技术和流程。详细介绍了地震数据容灾备份所需的网络备份技术、数据复制技术、灾难检测技术和系统迁移技术。     

The impact of dredge-fill on Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows: regression and patterns of recovery

Posidonia oceanica meadows can be severely damaged by dredge-fill operations. We report on the construction of gas pipelines that occurred between 1981 and 1993 in SW Sicily, Italy. A large portion of the meadow was mechanically removed, and the excavated trench was filled with a mosaic of substrates, ranging from sand to consolidated rock debris. Meadow loss and recovery were quantified over 7 years after the end of operations. We recorded an overall loss of 81.20 ha of meadow. Substrate strongly affected recovery as the percent cover by P. oceanica consistently increased on calcareous rubble, reaching values of 44.37 ± 3.05% in shallow sites after 7 years, whereas no significant increase occurred on other substrates. As in the Mediterranean Sea exploitation of coastal areas continues to grow with consequent impacts on P. oceanica meadows, this case study illustrates how artificial rubble-like materials could be employed to support the restoration of damaged meadows.     

Storm response of a mixed sand gravel beach ridge plain under falling relative sea levels: A stratigraphic investigation using ground penetrating radar

Beach ridge stratigraphy can provide an important record of both sustained coastal progradation and responses to events such as extreme storms, as well as evidence of earthquake induced sediment pulses. This study is a stratigraphic investigation of the late Holocene mixed sand gravel (MSG) beach ridge plain on the Canterbury coast, New Zealand. The subsurface was imaged along a 370 m shore-normal transect using 100 and 200 MHz ground penetrating radar (GPR) antennae, and cored to sample sediment textures. Results show that, seaward of a back-barrier lagoon, the Pegasus Bay beach ridge plain prograded almost uniformly, under conditions of relatively stable sea level. Nearshore sediment supply appears to have created a sustained sediment surplus, perhaps as a result of post-seismic sediment pulses, resulting in a flat, morphologically featureless beach ridge plain. Evidence of a high magnitude storm provides an exception, with an estimated event return period in excess of 100 years. Evidence from the GPR sequence combined with modern process observations from MSG beaches indicates that a palaeo-storm initially created a washover fan into the back-barrier lagoon, with a large amount of sediment simultaneously moved off the beach face into the nearshore. This erosion event resulted in a topographic depression still evident today. In the subsequent recovery period, sediment was reworked by swash onto the beach as a sequence of berm deposit laminations, creating an elevated beach ridge that also has a modern-day topographic signature. As sediment supply returned to normal, and under conditions of falling sea level, a beach ridge progradation sequence accumulated seaward of the storm feature out to the modern-day beach as a large flat, uniform progradation plain. This study highlights the importance of extreme storm events and earthquake pulses on MSG coastlines in triggering high volume beach ridge formation during the subsequent recovery period. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Challenges to the representation of suspended sediment transfer using a depth‐averaged flux

The sediment saturation recovery process (i.e. the adaptation of suspended sediment concentration [SSC] to local forcing) is the main feature of the non‐equilibrium suspended sediment transport (SST) frequently occurring in fluvial, estuarine and coastal waters. In order to quantitatively describe this phenomenon, a series solution is analytically derived, including the evolution of both vertical SSC profile and near‐bed sediment flux (NBSF), and is verified by net erosion and net deposition experiments, respectively. The results suggest that the sediment saturation recovery process involves vertically varying fluxes that are not represented correctly by depth‐averaging. Consequently, a vertical two‐dimensional (2D) combined scheme is established and applied respectively in to a dredged trench and to a sand wave feature to demonstrate this argument. By analyzing the variations of the calculated depth‐averaged SSC and NBSF we reveal that the equilibrium state presented by the sediment carrying capacity (SCC) form of the NBSF, which is usually applied in depth‐integrated SST models, lags behind the actual dynamic bed equilibrium state. Moreover, the key factor α, the so‐called saturation recovery coefficient within this form, is not only a function of local Rouse number but also is influenced by the local SSC profile. Finally, a three‐dimensional (3D) non‐orthogonal curvilinear body‐fitted SST model is developed and validated in the Yangtze estuary, China, combined with the in situ hourly hydrographic data from August 14–15, 2007 during spring tide in the wet season. Model results confirm that the vertically varying sediment saturation recovery process, the discrepancies between the actual and SCC form of NBSF and non‐constant value of α are significant in actual real geomorphic cases. The quantitative morphological change resulting from variations in environmental conditions may not be correctly represented by uncorrected depth‐integrated SST models if they do not treat the effects of vertical motion on the sediment saturation recovery process. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

塔里木河流域适应气候变化和人类活动的应对措施

自2001年开始实施塔里木河流域近期综合治理工程,提出了以强化流域水资源统一管理和调度为核心,以源流区节水改造和干流河道治理为重点进行综合治理,积极稳妥地进行经济结构调整,实施退耕封育保护,有效保护好现有天然林草植被.通过向塔里木河下游生态输水,干涸近30a的台特玛湖于2001年11月16日开始有水,使塔里木河下游绿色走廊得到初步复苏等,流域生态环境得到极大的恢复.然而,自2007年以来,塔里木河向下游输水已大为减少,仅能输水到中游,特别是2009年水文干旱,塔里木河干流断流达1 100km多,使下游绿色走廊再度陷入生态危机.为此,需要重新审视塔里木河流域的综合治理,从加强源流治理开始,来巩固干流治理成果.认真总结10a来治理经验与教训,针对人类活动和气候变化对源流与干流造成的影响程度,积极采取应对措施.     

Reef status in the Rasfari region (North Malé Atoll,Maldives) five years before the mass mortality event of 1998

The Maldives was severely hit by massive coral bleaching and subsequent mortality in 1998. The results of reef monitoring in the following years have supported contrasting views about their recovery potential, partly because of the scarcity of information on the situation before 1998. Quantitative data on coral assemblages collected in 1993 in the Rasfari region (North Malé Atoll) may provide a base-line for the evaluation of the present status of the Maldivian reefs. Five years before the 1998 mortality, most coral communities appeared to be similar, in terms of both coral cover and growth-form composition, to those described in 1958 and 1964, notwithstanding increased human pressure and local events such as minor bleaching episodes in 1987 and crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) attacks in 1989. Three lessons can be learnt from these results to help to understand the present situation, some ten years after the 1998 mass mortality. First, Maldivian reefs proved in the past to be capable of maintaining flourishing coral life despite various disturbances. Second, four years had been sufficient for complete reef recovery after a (minor) bleaching event. Third, recovery after both COTS attack and bleaching follows a predictable path suggesting that the presence of a three-dimensional community structure, which should reduce post settlement mortality of coral recruits, is essential for rapid coral recovery. As coral recruitment remains high and large tabular Acropora colonies are now reappearing, it is expected that Maldivian reefs should return to their original condition within the next few years.     

Community turnover provides insight into variable invertebrate recovery between restored streams with different integrated catchment management plans

ABSTRACT

Understanding temporal patterns in restored environments is important for identifying potential barriers to recovery and improved management of degraded habitats. In this paper, we use temporal beta diversity analyses to compare invertebrate community recovery trajectories in three restored agricultural stream sites under different integrated catchment plans, a native forest reference site, and two unmodified pasture control stream sites over 24 years. The restored sites diverged from their initial community composition over time and became more similar to the reference site community, which was relatively stable over time. Variation partitioning showed that prior to restoration beta diversity was primarily associated with environmental and spatial drivers, whereas post-restoration beta diversity was more influenced by temporal and environmental drivers, including changes in substrate size, fine sediments, water clarity, and nutrients, as well as temperature and flow regime. Species’ contributions to beta diversity varied between sites and years, with sensitive EPT taxa contributing more in reference and control sites. However, contributions of some EPT species, particularly mayflies, increased in restored sites post-ICM. In summary, after nearly two decades of ICM, restored stream sites show recovery towards reference conditions, yet differences persist, indicating that rehabilitation may take longer, depending on the restoration goals.     

State studies of Earth's plasmasphere: A review

The plasmasphere sandwiched between the ionosphere and the outer magnetosphere is populated by up flow of ionospheric cold (∼1 eV) and dense plasma along geomagnetic field lines. Recent observations from various instruments onboard IMAGE and CLUSTER spacecrafts have made significant advances in our understanding of plasma density irregularities, plume formation, erosion and refilling of the plasmasphere, presence of thermal structures in the plasmasphere and existence of radiation belts. Still modeling work and more observational data are required for clear understanding of plasmapause formation, existence of various sizes and shapes of density structures inside the plasmasphere as well as on the surface of the plasmapause, plasmasphere filling and erosion processes; which are important in understanding the relation of the process proceeding in the Sun and solar wind to the processes observed in the Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere.