Growth performance of exotic and indigenous tree species in saline soils in Turkana, Kenya

In the arid zone of central Turkana, north-western Kenya, where soil salinity affects 15–20% of the rangelands, growth performances of trees planted in saline soil rehabilitation trials have not been evaluated. Tree-planting trials have emphasised exotic species over indigenous ones. However, advantages and disadvantages of promoting exotic tree species have not been examined. The current study was aimed at evaluating growth performance of seven exotic and nine indigenous tree species used in saline soil rehabilitation trials. The tree species were established from 6-month-old saplings using microcatchments (FT1) from 1988 through 1990 and pitting treatment (FT2) from 1989 through 1992. The soils in FT1 and FT2 treatments were moderately to highly saline. The exotic tree species produced greater cover and volume during the first year (FT1) but by the second year, production was not sustained due to greater mortality (FT1 & FT2). The indigenous species in general had higher survival rates. Relative growth rates (RGR) of exotic and indigenous species did not differ (FT1 & FT2). Tree mortality was negatively correlated with RGR for exotic species in FT1 but not for indigenous ones. However, changes in plant performance were not in response to salinity alone. Rather, water scarcity superimposed on soil salinity might have influenced plant growth performance. Greater water and salinity stress and subsequently greater mortality in exotic species provided a more convincing reason for promotion of indigenous tree species. In the future, knowledge of salinity distribution and selection of indigenous species to match this will be a better way of rehabilitating sites affected by soil salinity in the arid zone of central Turkana, north-western Kenya.     

Research on performance-based seismic design criteria

IntroductionAt present, the proper design and construction of buildings for earthquake-resistance is the most effective measure to mitigate the earthquake damage. In a broad sense, the earthquake resistance design should include the following seven contents:1) Determining the seismic design criteria Determining the seismic design goals3) Determining the seismic design parameters (intensity or ground motion) and their numerical values4) Determining the category of importance for buildings and …     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Introduction to Climatology for the Tropics . J. O. Ayoade. Conservation and Management of Natural Resources in the United States . Charles F. Bennett. The Keeping of Animals: Adaptation and Social Relations in Livestock Producing Communities . Riva Berleant-Schiller and Eugenia Shanklin, ed. The Evolution of Geographic Thought in America: A Kentucky Root Wilford A. Bladen and Pradyumna P. Karan, eds. Latin America: Geographical Perspectives , 2nd ed. Harold Blakemore and Clifford T. Smith, ed. The Rural Real Estate Market. Department of Geography Publication Series, No. 18 . Chris Bryant. Urban Geomorphology in Drylands . R. U. Cooke, D. Brunsden, J. C. Doornkamp, and D. K. C. Jones with contributions by J. Griffiths, P. Knott, R. Potter, and R. Russell. Italian Geography, 1960–1980. Meeting of the Status of the Geographic Research in Italy, 1960–1980. Treated under the auspices of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and organized by Istituto di Geografia Umana della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Milano , Giacomo Corna Pellecrini and Carlo Brusa, eds. The Changing Fenland . H. C. Darby. The Future for the City Centre . R. L. Davies and A. G. Champion, eds. Saudi Arabia, Energy, Developmental Planning, and Industrialization . Ragaei El Mallakh, Dorothea H. El Mallakh, eds. For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier . Maria Patricia Fernández-Kelly. The Great Lakes Forest: An Environmental and Social History . Susan L. Flader, ed. Regional Transformation and Industrial Revolution: A Geography of the Yorkshire Woolen Industry . Derek Gregory Crime in City Politics . Anne Heinz, Herbert Jacob and Robert L. Lineberry, eds. Revitalizing Cities . H. Briavel Holcomb and Robert A. Beauregard. Cartographic Relief Presentation . Eduard Imhof. H. J. Steward, Trans. Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey . S. V. Kalesnik and V. F. Pavlenko, ed. Cognition and Environment . Stephen Kaplan and Rachel Kaplan. Environmental Protection: The International Dimension . David A. Kay and Harold K. Jacobsen, eds. Mathematical Programming Methods for Geographers and Planners , James Killen. Gentrification Amid Urban Decline: Strategies for America's Older Cities . Michael H. Lang. The North Atlantic Sulphur System . Risto Laulajainen. The Jerusalem Cathedra: Studies in the History, Archaeology, Geography and Ethnography of the Land of Israel, Vol. 2 . Lee I. Levine ed. Jerusalem and Detroit: Recreation Planning and Management . Stanely R. Lieber and Daniel R. Fesenmaier, eds. Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada . L. D. McCann, ed. Scarborough Where We Live: The Residential Districts of Minneapolis and St. Paul . Judith A. Martin and David A. Lanegran. California: The Geography of Diversity . Crane S. Miller and Richard S. Hyslop. Palo Alto The Dilemma of Amazonian Development . Emilio F. Moran, ed. Boulder Nuclear Waste: Socioeconomic Dimensions of Long-Term Storage . Steve H. Murdock, F. Larry Leistritz, and Rita R. Hamm, eds. Boulder Communism and the Politics of Inequalities . Daniel N. Nelson, ed. The Los Angeles Metropolis . Howard J. Nelson. Dubuque An Historical Geography of Urban System Development: Tidewater Virginia in the 18th Century . James O'Mara. Procedures and Standards for a Multipurpose Cadastre . East Asia: Geographical and Historical Approaches to Foreign Area Studies . Clifton W. Pannell, ed. Dubuque Mackinder: Geography as an Aid to Statecraft . W. H. Parker. Beyond the Urban Fringe: Land Use Issues of Nonmetropolitan America . Rutherford H. Platt and George Macinko, eds. Recreation Geography of the USSR . V. S. Preobrazhensky and V. M. Krivosheyev, eds. Missouri: A Geography . Milton D. Rafferty The Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production . Carolyn E. Sachs. Cayman Islands Seashore Vegetation: A Study in Comparative Biogeography . Jonathan D. Sauer. Hillslope Materials and Processes . Michael J. Selby. Housing in Britain: The Post-War Experience . John R. Short The Study of Population: Elements, Patterns and Processes . George A. Schnell and Mark Stephen Monmonier. Columbus The Soviet Union: A Systematic Geography . Leslie Symons, ed. The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression . Ehud R. Toledano. The Impact of Recession on Industry, Employment and the Regions, 1976–1981 . Alan R. Townsend. Landslides and Their Control , 2nd ed. Quido Záruba and Vojtech Mencl. Translated from the Czech by H. Zárubová and V. Mencl.     

Biological controls on bacterial populations in ballast water during ocean transit

Bacteria (and viruses) numerically dominate ballast water communities, but what controls their population dynamics during transit is largely unexplored. Here, bacterial abundance, net and intrinsic growth rates, and grazing mortality were determined during a trans-Atlantic voyage. The effects of grazing pressure by microzooplankton on heterotrophic bacteria during transit were determined for source port, mid-ocean exchange (MOE), and six-day-old source port ballast water. When the grazer component was removed, bacterial abundances significantly increased. Additionally, we determined that the grazer-mediated mortality for ballast water originating from ports was greater than MOE water and that mortality decreased over time for the source port ballast water. This study shows that bacterial populations in transit are controlled by microzooplankton grazing. If these findings are representative of ballast water environments, they suggest that if the grazing component is selectively removed by various treatment methods, bacterial populations may increase; this could have environmental and human health consequences.     

Patterns and trends in seabird bycatch in the pelagic longline fishery off South Africa

Both foreign and domestic pelagic longline fishing vessels operate in South Africa’s Exclusive Economic Zone and adjacent international waters where they kill hundreds of seabirds each year as bycatch. To update assessments of the impact of the pelagic longline fishery on seabirds off South Africa, information on necropsied seabirds and national fisheries observer bycatch records were summarised for 2006–2013. Foreign-flagged (Asian) vessels had 100% observer coverage throughout the study period, whereas only 6% of the fishing effort by South African-flagged vessels was observed (with no coverage in 2011–2013). Vessels with observers caught seabirds at a rate of 0.132 birds per 1 000 hooks, resulting in an estimated mortality of 2 851 individuals (356 per year) comprising 14 species. Extrapolation of the observed fishing sets to the unobserved fishing sets by the South African domestic longline fleet suggested that approximately 750 additional birds were likely killed during the study period, therefore a combined 450 birds were killed per year. White-chinned petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis was the most frequently killed species (66%), followed by ‘shy-type’ albatrosses Thalassarche cauta/steadi (21%), black-browed albatross T. melanophris (7%), Indian yellow-nosed albatross T. carteri (3%), and Cape gannet Morus capensis (2%). The seabird bycatch rates were lower than in 1998–2005. Nationality of the vessel, time of line-setting, moon phase, year, season, fishing area, and seabird bycatch mitigation measures all influenced seabird mortality. Concurrent with 100% observer coverage, significant reductions in the seabird bycatch rate occurred in the Asian fleet in the latter years of the study, and these rates now approximate the national target (0.05 birds per 1 000 hooks). However, seabird bycatch rates remained high in the South African fleet, where no observers were deployed during 2011–2013, highlighting the need for independent observer programmes in fisheries—a matter of global interest. Suggestions are made as to how seabird bycatch by pelagic longline fisheries off South Africa may be further reduced.     

Crustal structure of seismic velocity in southern tibet and east-westward escape of the crustal material

The reflecting events from Moho and other interfaces within the crust are recognized from the wavefield characteristics of P- and S-wave for the 480km long wide-angle seismic profile between Peigu Tso and Pumoyong Tso. Then, seismic crustal structures of P- and S-wave velocities and Poisson ratio under the nearly east-west profile in southern Tibet are interpreted by fitting the observed traveltimes with the calculated ones by forward modelling. Our interpreting results demonstrate that the crustal thickness varies remarkably in the east-west direction, showing a pattern that the crust could be divided into three parts bounded by the west of Dingri and the east of Dinggyê, respectively, where the depth of Moho is about 71km for the western part, about 76km for the middle and about 74km for the eastern. There is one lower velocity layer (LVL) at the bottom of the upper crust with depth of 20–30 km. One of the distinct features is that the thickness of LVL abruptly thins from 24km on the west to 6km on the east. The other is that the velocity variation in the crust along east-west direction for both P- and S-wave displays a feature as quasi-periodic variation. The lower velocity (compared to the average value for the continent of the globe) in the lower crust and three sets of north-southward active normal faults are probably attributed to the coupling process of material delamination in the lower crust, crustal thicking and east-westward escape of the crustal material accompanied with the continental collision between India and Eurasia Plate.     

福建近海主要底层经济鱼类的种群动态

本文研究了1994年福建近海底拖网渔船主要捕捞对象－带鱼,白姑鱼,二长棘鲷,短尾大眼鲷和条尾绯鲤5种底层和近底层鱼类的种群结构,生长和死亡参数及其开发比率,与1976年比较,带鱼渔获的最大年龄由1976年7龄降至1994年的4齿,白姑鱼,二长棘鲷和短尾大眼鲷由1976年或1982年的5龄降至1994年的3龄,条尾绯鲤由1976年的5龄降至1994年的4龄,带鱼的捕捞死亡系数由1976年的0．491上升到1994年的0．956。二长棘鲷由0．340上升到1．273,短尾大眼鲷由0．505上升到0．868。条尾绯鲤由0．576上升到0．924,白姑鱼由1982年的0．235上升到1994年的0．789,开发比率均比1976年或1982年有较大提高,分别在0．495,0．706,呈现充分开发或过度利用,并讨论了种群变动原因,捕捞结构和底拖网捕捞力量调整及5种鱼类的最小可捕标准问题。     

长牡蛎(Crassostrea gigas)代谢率的季节变化及其与夏季死亡关系的探讨

2002年6月—2003年9月,在中国北方重要养殖海区桑沟湾,采用呼吸瓶法现场研究了两种不同规格长牡蛎(Crassostrea gigas)的耗氧率、排氨率及氧氮比的季节变化,从代谢水平探讨了长牡蛎夏季死亡的原因。结果表明,长牡蛎的耗氧率、排氨率以及氧氮比均具有明显的季节变化(P<0.001)。三龄牡蛎的个体耗氧率7月份最高[2.86mgO2/(ind·h)],1月份最低[0.07mgO2/(ind·h)];个体排氨率8月份最高[6.45μmol NH4-N/(ind·h)],1月份最低[0.47μmolNH4-N/(ind·h)];一龄牡蛎个体耗氧率和排氨率的变化范围分别为0.01—1.38mgO2/(ind·h)和0.04—1.66μmol NH4-N/(ind·h)。三龄个体单位个体耗氧率、排氨率高于一龄牡蛎,而单位软体干重的耗氧率、排氨率则小于一龄个体。一龄个体的氧氮比变化范围为16.7—58.0,10月份最高,一月份最低;三龄个体的氧氮比变化范围为8.7—64.0,6—7月份较高平均为52.7,8月份产卵后迅速下降到14.7,氧氮比的剧降表明该阶段长牡蛎代谢消耗了大量的蛋白质,使其体质脆弱,可能是引起三龄牡蛎夏季大量死亡的原因之一。     

台湾海峡南部夏季微型浮游动物对浮游植物的摄食压力及其生产力

2004年7~8月在台湾海峡南部的5个站位,用稀释法研究了浮游植物的生长率,微型浮游动物对浮游植物的摄食率及其生产力.微型浮游动物主要为无壳纤毛虫,尤其是急游虫类和侠盗虫类.浮游植物的生长率为0.52~0.72/d,浮游动物的摄食率为0.45~1.33/d,相当于每天摄食浮游植物现存量的36%~74%和初级生产力的88%~141%.微型浮游动物的次级生产力(MP02)为初级生产力的28.5%~58.4%.表明微型浮游动物在台湾海峡夏季海洋生态系统的能量流动中发挥着重要的作用.