2008年初我国南方冻雨雪天气环流及垂直结构分析

利用美国国家环境预报中心NCEP 1971\_2000年1月及2008年1月的再分析值高度、 温度和风的气候平均场, 以及国家气象中心要素库中的2008年1月8日～2月6日08：00～08：00 24 h降水和冻雨实况等实测资料, 对2008年初我国南方的持续冰冻过程的异常成因做了分析。结果表明, 在稳定的高空环流形势下, 来自极地的冷空气和来自南支槽前暖湿气流及东海、 南海的偏东气流交绥于我国大陆东南部, 加之稳定的滇黔静止锋、 华南静止锋和近地面冷高压前东北冷平流, 多因素综合导致了这场罕见持续冰冻天气; 冻雨出现在冷暖空气交界的锋区附近, 偏在能量锋区低值一侧。对流层中低层为西南暖湿气流, 强逆温层是冻雨天气突出的垂直特征, 贵州西部以没有融化层的“单层结构”为主, 贵州中部“单层结构”和“二层结构”均存在; 湖南省西部冻雨垂直结构表现为“单层结构”和“二层结构”, 以“二层结构”居多, 东南部郴州的冻雨垂直结构主要为“三层结构”和“二层结构”。逆温层之下湿度很大, 逆温层之上湿度迅速减小, 干\, 暖空气有利于稳定层结, 抑制低层湿空气向上扩散, 对南方阴雨天气和冻雨天气的维持起了不可忽视的作用。     

Coastal Wave Height Prediction using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) in the South Caspian Sea

The prediction of wave parameters has a great significance in the coastal and offshore engineering. For this purpose, several models and approaches have been proposed to predict wave parameters, such as empirical, soft computing, and numerical based approaches. Recently, soft computing techniques such as recurrent neural networks (RNN) have been used to develop sea wave prediction models. In this study, the RNN for wave prediction based on the data gathered and the measurement of the sea waves in the Caspian Sea, in the north of Iran is used for this study. The efficiency of RNNs for 3, 6, and 12 hourly and diurnal wave prediction using correlation coefficients is calculated to be 0.96, 0.90, 0.87, and 0.73, respectively. This indicates that wave prediction by using RNNs yields better results than the previous neural network approaches.     

Correct application of the IUCN protected area management categories to the CCAMLR Convention Area

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has been working to develop and implement a system of marine protected areas (MPAs) for over 10 years. Within CCAMLR there is a long-held belief that the area covered by the CCAMLR Convention is equivalent to a category IV protected area as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This belief was founded upon a comparison of the central objective of CCAMLR as defined by the CCAMLR Convention with the IUCN definition of a category IV MPA. This advice was accepted by the CCAMLR Scientific Committee but to date there has not been any analysis of this advice within CCAMLR, IUCN or in the literature. This paper critically analyses that advice, and finds that the CCAMLR Convention area does not meet the IUCN definition of an MPA and thus the CCAMLR Convention Area cannot be considered equivalent to a category IV MPA.     

China’s engagement in the establishment of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean: From reactive to active

The stalemate since 2012 over the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean has been a source of debate within and outside the Commission for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). In 2015, China's support for the proposal for the establishment of a Ross Sea MPA was commended as a major step forward. As the newest Member of the CCAMLR, China refrained itself from commenting specifically on the issue of MPAs in the previous years, and had not articulated clearly its basic position until 2014. In light of its basic position and practices, China may become more active, maintain its basic position and take a case-by-case approach in relation to other MPA proposals. Moreover, bilateral interaction is helpful in finding practical solutions.     

Some littoral harpacticoid copepods,including five new species,from Wellington,New Zealand

Seven species of littoral harpacticoid copepods are recorded from the Wellington coast of central New Zealand. Amongst these are five new species, one in each of the genera Scutellidium, Eupelte, Amphiascus and two in Porcellidium. Amphiascopsis cinctus (Claus, 1866) and A. south‐georgiensis (Lang, 1936) are recorded and figured.     

Monitoring vegetation and land use quality along the rural-urban gradient in a Mediterranean region

This paper illustrates a methodology to quantify vegetation quality and its possible degradation in a large ‘shrinking’ Mediterranean city. Vegetation quality was estimated at three years (1960, 1990, 2006) in the Nuts-3 prefecture of Rome, central Italy (5355 km²) through the analysis of comparable land cover maps. The aims of this work are to assess how ‘compact growth’ and ‘sprawl’ impact on vegetation quality, and to monitor the territorial disparities observed in the vegetation quality as caused by urbanization and land use polarization. Built-up areas covered 3.3% and 12.9% of the investigated area in 1960 and 2006, respectively, with a dispersed to compact urban surface ratio passing from 1.2 to 1.9. Vegetation quality increased slightly during the investigated period with a diverging trend between urban and rural areas. As a consequence, territorial disparities in the same variable grew due to low-density urban diffusion in lowlands and depopulation with land abandonment and natural forestation in mountain areas.     

南极地区气候系统变化: 过去、现在和将来

 南极科学委员会（SCAR）下属的"南极与全球气候系统（AGCS）计划"专家委员会发布了"南极与南大洋气候系统（SASOCS）"白皮书,重点评估了过去50 a南极地区气候系统的变化并预估了未来100 a情景。白皮书总体认为,过去50 a南极气候系统变化表现出很强的区域特征。南极半岛地区升温明显,半岛及亚南极岛屿上的冰川均处于退缩状态;南半球环状模（SAM）转为正位相,西南极上空的暖湿气团入侵加强,南极冬季对流层有升温趋势,平流层变冷,极涡消退日期推迟;东南极外围的南极底层水变淡,Weddell海区的底层水有变暖趋势。虽有上述区域变化,整个南极地区在过去50 a中近地面气温并无明显升高,降水亦无明显增加。自20世纪80年代以来海冰面积也无明显变化,只在某些扇区变化强烈。模式预估结果为：到21世纪末南极内陆地区将增暖（3.4±1.0）℃, 海冰面积将缩小约30%。现有的冰盖模式尚不足以回答未来气候变暖情景下冰盖融化与海平面变化之间的定量关系,有待更深入研究。     

Quaternary evolution of the intermontane Val d'Agri Basin, Southern Apennines

Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) enables the chronology of the late Pleistocene evolution for the Val d'Agri intermontane basin of Southern Apennines to be defined in the frame of Mediterranean geodynamic and climate changes. Quartz sand from braided floodplain and alluvial fan depositional systems was analyzed using the coarse-grained, single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) technique. The obtained optical ages are mostly consistent with other assessments (radiocarbon, tephrochronology) and stratigraphic constraints. OSL allows for the dating to 56–43 ka of an asymmetric subsidence stage that forced alluvial fan progradation, filling of a former lacustrine area, and development of an axial alluvial plain. A short period of Mediterranean-type pedogenesis, recorded at the top of the prograding-aggrading fans (OSL age bracket 43–32 ka), corresponds with MIS 3. During the subsequent stage of decline of vegetation cover, possibly corresponding to MIS 2, the latest progradation of alluvial fans occurred. The subsequent uplift and breakthrough of the basin threshold during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene induced entrenchment of the drainage network. The results presented here provide an example of the usefulness of OSL dating in intermontane continental settings where other geochronological constraints are scarce.     

The lithospheric geodynamics of plate boundary transpression in New Zealand: Initiating and emplacing subduction along the Hikurangi margin, and the tectonic evolution of the Alpine Fault system

In contrast to the normal ‘Wilson cycle’ sequence of subduction leading to continental collision and associated mountain building, the evolution of the New Zealand plate boundary in the Neogene reflects the converse—initially a period of continental convergence that is followed by the emplacement of subduction. Plate reconstructions allow us to place limits on the location and timing of the continental convergence and subduction zones and the migration of the transition between the two plate boundary regimes. Relative plate motions and reconstructions since the Early to Mid-Miocene require significant continental convergence in advance of the emplacement of the southward migrating Hikurangi subduction—a sequence of tectonism seen in the present plate boundary geography of Hikurangi subduction beneath North Island and convergence in the Southern Alps along the Alpine Fault. In contrast to a transition from subduction to continental convergence where the leading edge of the upper plate is relatively thin and deformable, the transition from a continental convergent regime, with its associated crustal and lithospheric thickening, to subduction of oceanic lithosphere requires substantial thinning (removal) of upper plate continental lithosphere to make room for the slab. The simple structure of the Wadati–Benioff zone seen in the present-day geometry of the subducting Pacific plate beneath North Island indicates that this lithospheric adjustment occurs quickly. Associated with this rapid lithospheric thinning is the development of a series of ephemeral basins, younging to the south, that straddle the migrating slab edge. Based on this association between localized vertical tectonics and slab emplacement, the tectonic history of these basins records the effects of lithospheric delamination driven by the southward migrating leading edge of the subducting Pacific slab. Although the New Zealand plate boundary is often described as simply two subduction zones linked by the transpressive Alpine Fault, in actuality the present is merely a snapshot view of an ongoing and complex evolution from convergence to subduction.     

ITCZ rather than ENSO signature for abrupt climate changes across the tropical Pacific?

Latitudinal movements of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), analogous to its present-day seasonal shifts, and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-type variability both potentially impacted rainfall changes at the millennial timescale during the last glacial period. In this study we compare tropical Pacific sedimentary records of paleoprecipitation to decipher which climate mechanism was responsible for the past rainfall changes. We find that latitudinal movements of the ITCZ are consistent with the observed rainfall patterns, challenging the ENSO hypothesis for explaining the rapid rainfall changes at low latitudes. The ITCZ-related mechanism appears to reflect large-scale atmospheric rearrangements over the tropical belt, with a pronounced Heinrich-Dansgaard/Oeschger signature. This observation is coherent with the simulated tropical rainfall anomalies induced by a weakening of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation in modeling experiments.