Impacts of maintenance channel dredging in a northern Adriatic coastal lagoon. II: Effects on macrobenthic assemblages in channels and ponds

Coastal lagoons are ephemeral habitats whose conservation requires human intervention, such as maintenance dredging of inner channels. Dredging can reduce the abundance of benthic species due to the removal of individuals with the sediment, modify sediment properties, and resuspend fine sediment, nutrients and pollutants, which can lead to eutrophication, hypoxic events and increasing toxicity. Both direct effects in the dredged channel and possible indirect effects in surrounding shallow areas could be expected. This study assesses the effects of the channel maintenance dredging, performed between October 2004 and August 2005, on the invertebrate assemblages both in channels and adjacent ponds in the northern Adriatic coastal lagoon of Pialassa Baiona. The lagoon is affected by eutrophication, chemical and thermal pollution from wastewater treatment and power plants. Three impacted sites were located in the dredged channel and three in the adjacent interconnected shallow water ponds, while three non-impacted sites were located in a channel and in a pond far from the dredged area. Replicate samples were collected from each site one time before and one time after the dredging operations. Despite the extent of the intervention, effects of the dredging on macrobenthic assemblages were detected only within the dredged channel, while in the surrounding ponds no clear and unequivocal effects were found. In particular the dredging could have promoted the increase of the abundance of the polychaete Streblospio shrubsolii in the southern and central parts of the dredged channel and the increase in abundance of the amphipod Corophium insidiosum in the northern side, compared to the controls. Instead, species diversity was reduced in the central and northern parts of the dredged channel. These effects on the macrobenthic invertebrate assemblages could be related to the observed changes of sediment characteristics, contamination and toxicity. Overall, direct effects on benthic assemblages in the dredged channels were more detectable than the possible secondary effects in the surrounding shallow ponds, where the higher spatial heterogeneity can mask any relevant effects.     

Modified Moving Particle Semi-implicit methods for the prediction of 2D wave impact pressure

As a gridless particle method, the MPS (Moving Particle Semi-implicit) method has proven useful in a wide variety of engineering applications including free-surface hydrodynamic flows. Despite its wide range of applicability, the MPS method suffers from some shortcomings such as non-conservation of momentum and spurious pressure fluctuation. By introducing new formulations for the pressure gradient and a new formulation of the source term of the Poisson Pressure Equation (PPE), and by allowing a slight compressibility, we have proposed modified MPS methods for the prediction of wave impact pressure on a coastal structure. The improved performance of the modified methods is shown through the simulation of numerous wave impact problems (including the impacts by a dam break flow, a flip-through and two cases of slightly-breaking waves) in comparison with the experimental data.     

福建兴化湾围填海湿地景观生态影响研究

基于遥感与GIS技术,运用景观生态学的原理与方法,选取景观特征指数,通过历史回顾和类比分析,从景观自然性和景观破碎化两个方面,分析了兴化湾围填海工程对湿地景观生态造成的影响及其生态效应.历史上兴化湾围填海工程造成滩涂湿地景观萎缩、景观自然性急剧下降,斑块面积缩小、斑块隔离程度增大、景观破碎化程度加剧;兴化湾围填海规划的实施,将使得兴化湾湿地景观生态人工化与破碎化的趋势进一步加剧,其最终后果将可能导致兴化湾生物多样性下降、生态服务功能严重衰退.     

阳江核电厂附近海域生物辐射影响评价研究

随着辐射防护理念的发展,环境中生物所受到的辐射影响日益引起人们的关注。本文使用ERICA项目中推荐的辐射影响评价方法,对阳江核电厂运行后对附近海域中海洋生物的辐射影响进行预测和评价。剂量率估算结果显示,阳江核电厂的液态放射性流出物对附近海域海洋生物造成的辐射剂量率不会超过7.47×10–3µGy.h–1,远低于国际上推荐的保护生物的辐射剂量率控制值,也低于本底辐射剂量率,因此,阳江核电厂正常运行后对附近海域中的海洋生物不会造成不利的辐射影响。     

土壤侵蚀危险度的计算与影响因子分析——以福建安溪红壤水土流失区为例

随着国家对生态环境的重视和水土保持科学的发展,有关土壤侵蚀危险性评价的研究越来越重要。本文对土壤侵蚀危险度评价的一般方法进行了改进。首先,分析了安溪县各强度等级的土壤侵蚀在高程、坡度、土地利用类型和土壤类型的面积分布情况,计算了不同高程带、不同坡度、不同土地利用类型和土壤类型的土壤侵蚀综合指数然后,以各影响因子的土壤侵蚀综合指数为权重,计算了不同侵蚀影响因子在安溪县各子流域的土壤侵蚀危险度,既避免了权重确定的主观性,又保证了土壤侵蚀危险度的计算适合当地的实际情况,从而明确了各子流域土壤侵蚀发生的可能程度最后,依据土壤侵蚀危险度和土壤侵蚀强度的分布规律,对整个研究区进行了水土保持分区,提出了治理方向。     

埃尔塔宁小行星质量的下限估计

埃尔塔宁小行星是一颗２１５ 万年前在南太平洋撞击地球的小行星,它也是目前唯一的深海区与地球碰撞的小行星。根据埃尔塔宁号和Ｐｏｌａｒｓｔｅｒｎ 号海洋调查船在陨击海区勘查的小行星残骸分布密度,我们估计埃尔塔宁小行星质量为２ ．３ ×１０１３ｇ ,对应于它的直径为０ ．２３ 公里。这比Ｋｙｔｅ 等人（１９８８） 估计的质量小了１０ 倍,然而它更接近埃尔塔宁小行星撞击事件的实际情况,可以作为埃尔塔宁小行星质量下限和半径下限更合理的估计值。     

复杂线-线对象的拓扑关系描述与计算方法

空间拓扑关系是GIS中空间查询和分析的基础。针对当前空间拓扑关系模型在表达较复杂对象间拓扑关系存在局限性的突出问题,以线对象为实例,根据点集拓扑理论,重新定义和区分线对象的复杂性;以9I模型为基础,提出一种适合二维复杂线对象的拓扑关系的线性序列描述模型,将复杂线-线的拓扑关系表示成基本拓扑关系的组合。分析不同情形下线之间拓扑关系不同的计算方法。为实现复杂线-线拓扑关系的计算,提高扫描线算法的效率,探讨包络矩形粗滤、线节点重合或共线的斜率坐标判断法等改进方法,提出判断线-线是否相交的矢量叉乘法,具有快速高效的特点。最后,通过实验系统导入线坐标串,进行图形绘制、拓扑关系计算并输出结果,从而验证该模型和算法的可行性。     

湖南省凤凰县城雨洪管控路径

发达国家的经验表明,基于低影响开发的雨洪管理措施可以有效缓解城市雨洪灾害.聚焦中国海绵城市建设过程中新旧城区的关联性问题,提出"现状评估-低影响开发指标分解-建设效果模拟验证"的雨洪管控路径.以湖南省凤凰县为例,基于城市内涝模型,对新旧城区进行雨洪风险性评估与改造可行性评估,在现状评估基础上,构建低影响开发控制指标分解...     

The carboniferous lithostratigraphy of Southeast County Limerick,Ireland, and the origin of the shannon trough

The Carboniferous succession in southeast County Limerick, on the southeastern margin of the Shannon Trough, is Courceyan to mid-Namurian in age and over 1900 m thick. The lithostratigraphy is described in detail. Its most important aspect is the presence of two thick volcanic sequences, a Chadian one of the alkali basalt to trachyte suite and one of Asbian age dominated by limburgites and ankaramites. The associated Dinantian carbonates are of shelf or ramp facies throughout, and no fundamental division into shelf and basin facies occurs as in the Dublin and Craven Basins in early Viséan times. Rapid differential subsidence between this area and the Shannon Estuary began during deposition of the late Courceyan to early Chadian Waulsortian facies but was less marked in the remaining Viséan when much of the volcanic topography was preserved by rapid basinal subsidence. There was basinal inversion in the late Dinantian to lower Namurian, followed by renewed subsidence in mid-Namurian times. This contrasts with the continuous rapid subsidence of the area further west on the Shannon Estuary. This behaviour, together with a comparison of that of nearby Carboniferous basins such as the Dublin, South Munster, and Craven Basins, which lack substantial volcanic sequences, suggests an origin in a transtensional regime rather than one of simple crustal stretching.     

Impact of 4DVAR assimilation of rainfall data on the simulation of mesoscale precipitation systems in a mei-yu heavy rainfall event

The multi-scale weather systems associated with a mei-yu front and the corresponding heavy precipitation during a particular heavy rainfall event that occurred on 4 5 July 2003 in east China were successfully simulated through rainfall assimilation using the PSU/NCAR non-hydrostatic, mesoscale, numerical model （MM5） and its four-dimensional, variational, data assimilation （4DVAR） system. For this case, the improvement of the process via the 4DVAR rainfall assimilation into the simulation of mesoscale precipitation systems is investigated. With the rainfall assimilation, the convection is triggered at the right location and time, and the evolution and spatial distribution of the mesoscale convective systems （MCSs） are also more correctly simulated. Through the interactions between MCSs and the weather systems at different scales, including the low-level jet and mei-yu front, the simulation of the entire mei-yu weather system is significantly improved, both during the data assimilation window and the subsequent 12-h period. The results suggest that the rainfall assimilation first provides positive impact at the convective scale and the influences are then propagated upscale to the meso- and sub-synoptic scales.
Through a set of sensitive experiments designed to evaluate the impact of different initial variables on the simulation of mei-yu heavy rainfall, it was found that the moisture field and meridional wind had the strongest effect during the convection initialization stage, however, after the convection was fully triggered, all of the variables at the initial condition seemed to have comparable importance.