Comparison of soil physico-chemical properties under different land-use and cover types in northeastern China's Horqin Sandy Land

The Horqin Sandy Land of northeastern China was originally a grassland with plenty of water and lush vegetation dominated by palatable grass species along with sparsely scattered woody species. However, it has experienced severe desertification in recent decades due to its fragile ecology together with inappropriate human activities. Currently, the landscape of the Horqin Sandy Land is dominated by irrigated croplands and sand dunes with different degrees of vegetation cover, as the region has become the most important part of the semiarid agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China. In this study, we compared soil physical and chemical properties under different land-use and cover types (irrigated cropland, rainfed cropland, sandy grassland, fixed dunes, and mobile dunes). We found that soil particle size distribution; organic C, total N, and total mineral element, microelement, and available microelement and nutrient contents; pH; CEC; and bulk density differed significantly among the land-use and cover types. In general, soil quality was highest in the cropland, intermediate in the sandy grassland, and lowest in the dunes. The most important soil quality attribute, soil organic carbon (SOC) storage, decreased in the following order: irrigated cropland (5,699 g/m²) > sandy grassland (3,390 g/m²) > rainfed cropland (2,411 g/m²) > fixed dunes (821 g/m²) > mobile dunes (463 g/m²). SOC was significantly positively correlated with a large proportion of the other soil physico-chemical parameters. Our results suggest that the key issue in restoration of the degraded soils will be to increase SOC storage, which would also create a high potential for sequestering soil C in desertified areas of the Horqin Sandy Land.     

Bayesian assessment of site‐specific performance of geotechnical design charts with unknown model uncertainty

Soil properties are indispensable input parameters in geotechnical design and analysis. In engineering practice, particularly for projects with relatively small or medium sizes, soil properties are often not measured directly, but estimated from geotechnical design charts using results of some commonly used laboratory or in situ tests. For example, effective friction angle ?′ of soil is frequently estimated using standard penetration test (SPT) N values and design charts relating SPT N values to ?′. Note that directly measured ?′ data are generally not available when (and probably why) the use of design charts is needed. Because design charts are usually developed from past observation data, on either empirical or semi‐theoretical basis, uncertainty is unavoidably involved in the design charts. This situation leads to two important questions in engineering practice: 1 how good or reliable are the soil properties estimated in a specific site when using the design charts? (or how to measure the performance of the design charts in a specific site?); and 2 how to incorporate rationally the model uncertainty when estimating soil properties using the design charts? This paper aims to address these two questions by developing a Bayesian statistical approach. In this paper, the second question is firstly addressed (i.e., soil properties are probabilistically characterized by rationally incorporating the model uncertainty in the design chart). Then, based on the characterization results obtained, an index is proposed to evaluate the site‐specific performance of design charts (i.e., to address the first question). Equations are derived for the proposed approach, and the proposed approach is illustrated using both real and simulated SPT data. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changing river temperatures in northern Germany: trends and drivers of change

Climate change is one of the main drivers of river warming worldwide. However, the response of river temperature to climate change differs with the hydrology and landscape properties, making it difficult to generalize the strength and the direction, of river temperature trends across large spatial scales and various river types. Additionally, there is a lack of long‐term and large‐scale trend studies in Europe as well as globally. In this study, we investigated the long‐term (25 years; 132 sites) and the short‐term (10 years; 475 sites) river temperature trends, patterns and underlying drivers within the period 1985–2010 in seven river basins of Germany. The majority of the sites underwent significant river warming during 1985–2010 (mean warming trend: 0.03 °C year^?1, SE = 0.003), with a faster warming observed during individual decades (1985–1995 and 2000–2010) within this period. Seasonal analyses showed that, while rivers warmed in all seasons, the fastest warming had occurred during summer. Among all the considered hydro‐climatological variables, air temperature change, which is a response to climate forcing, was the main driver of river temperature change because it had the strongest correlation with river temperature, irrespective of the period. Hydrological variables, such as average flow and baseflow, had a considerable influence on river temperature variability rather than on the overall trend direction. However, decreasing flow probably assisted in a faster river temperature increase in summer and in rivers in NE basins (such as the Elbe basin). The North Atlantic Oscillation Index had a greater significant influence on the winter river temperature variability than on the overall variability. Landscape and basin variables, such as altitude, ecoregion and catchment area, induced spatially variable river temperature trends via affecting the thermal sensitivity of rivers, with the rivers in large catchments and in lowland areas being most sensitive. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distribution of caesium-137 in soils across a hillslope hollow

The distribution of soil ¹³⁷Cs in relation to selected soil and landform properties was studied across a 16 ha hillslope hollow in the Hunter valley, New South Wales, Australia. The hillslope was used as grazing for cattle. Caesium-137 was not significantly related to the amount of sand, silt, or clay, the bulk density, the organic matter content, the slope angle or the relative distance downslope. However, ¹³⁷Cs was significantly related to the thickness of the soil A horizon. Spatial variations in ¹³⁷Cs were compared with topographic units and a six-element hillslope model, but there was little correspondence. It was thought that the effects of microtopography could have masked potential interrelationships between ¹³⁷Cs and broader scale landform parameters.     

Inelastic constitutive properties and shear localization in Tennessee marble

The inelastic response of Tennessee marble is modelled by an elastic plastic constitutive relation that includes pressure dependence of yield, strain‐softening and inelastic volume strain (dilatancy). Data from 12 axisymmetric compression tests at confining pressures from 0 to 100 MPa are used to determine the dependence of the yield function and plastic potential, which are different, on the first and second stress invariants and the accumulated inelastic shear strain. Because the data requires that the strain at peak stress depends on the mean stress, the locus of peak stresses is neither a yield surface nor a failure envelope, as is often assumed. Based on the constitutive model and Rudnicki and Rice criterion, localization is not predicted to occur in axisymmetric compression although faulting is observed in the tests. The discrepancy is likely due to the overly stiff response of a smooth yield surface model to abrupt changes in the pattern of straining. The constitutive model determined from the axisymmetric compression data describes well the variation of the in‐plane stress observed in a plane strain experiment. The out‐of‐plane stress is not modelled well, apparently because the inelastic normal strain in this direction is overpredicted. In plane strain, localization is predicted to occur close to peak stress, in good agreement with the experiment. Observation of localization on the rising portion of the stress–strain curve in plane strain does not, however, indicate prepeak localization. Because of the rapid increase of mean stress in plane strain, the stress–strain curve can be rising while the shear stress versus shear strain curve at constant mean stress is falling (negative hardening modulus). Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

甘蔗“新台糖10号”农艺性状试验

以“粤糖63／237”为对照品种进行新植、宿根共3年的对比试验，结果表明，“新台糖10号”的新植、宿根的蔗茎产量及蔗糖份均高于对照品种。“新台糖10号”是适合遂溪县蔗区种植的早熟、高产、高糖以及宿根性好的甘蔗品种。     

Limits on the chirality of interstellar and intergalactic space

We raise the question of whether velocities of left and right circularly-polarized photons might be different (for reasons other than the well-known Faraday effect). Such a difference could manifest itself either in the time profiles of pulsed or bursting astronomical sources or in the rotation of the direction of polarization of linearly polarized radiation from them. The existing observations of pulsars, gamma ray bursters, and quasar jets are used to set limits to the difference in speed, between 10^-17and 10^-32     

Transport properties and microstructural characteristics of a thermally cracked mylonite

An experimental study was carried out on a granitic mylonite (La Bresse, France) to analyze the influence of pore microstructure on transport properties. Different crack networks were obtained by a controlled thermal treatment. Microstructures were analyzed by means of gas adsorption and mercury porosimetry. Transport properties have been investigated by measuring gas permeability and electrical conductivity. The dependence of permeability on confining pressure shows an exponential decrease, characteristic of a porosity made of cracks. Correlations between measured parameters have been analyzed by comparing them with relations deduced from theoretical models. Linking the formation factor to the porosity leads to a rather low tortuosity value (about 2.4), characterizing a medium with a well connected porosity. Correlation between permeabilityk and formation factorF leads to a power-law relationk F ^–n wheren2.9, which is consistent with a crack model describing the behavior of the thermally treated rock.     

关于GIS工具软件可视化设计的几点注记

文中从实用的角度 ,结合具体实践 ,对 GIS工具型软件可视化设计及实现阶段的基本问题 ,提出了 Visual C++5.0软件环境中有效的解决方法。