The Production of Methanol by Flowering Plants and the Global Cycle of Methanol

Methanol has been recognised as an important constituent of the background atmosphere, but little is known about its overall cycle in the biosphere/atmosphere system. A model is proposed for the production and emission to the atmosphere of methanol by flowering plants based on plant structure and metabolic properties, particularly the demethylation of pectin in the primary cell walls. This model provides a framework to extend seven sets of measurements of methanol emission rates to the global terrestrial biosphere. A global rate of release of methanol from plants to the atmosphere of 100 Tg y^–1 is calculated. A separate model of the global cycle of methanol is constructed involving emissions from plant growth and decay, atmospheric and oceanic chemical production, biomass burning and industrial production. Removal processes occur through hydroxyl radical attack in the atmosphere, in clouds and oceans, and wet and dry deposition. The model successfully reproduces the methanol concentrations in the continental boundary-layer and the free atmosphere, including the inter-hemispheric gradient in the free atmosphere. The model demonstrates a new concept in global biogeochemistry, the coupling of plant cell growth with the global atmospheric concentration of methanol. The model indicates that the ocean provides a storage reservoir capable of holding at least 66 times more methanol than the atmosphere. The ocean surface layer reservoir essentially buffers the atmospheric concentration of methanol, providing a physically based smoothing mechanism with a time constant of the order of one year.     

某盆地油气勘查成本预算和风险分析

某高原盆地的油气资源量较为丰富，可找到大型油气田。根据含油气盆地地质构造特征、生油岩的厚度与热演化程度、储集层和区域性盖层的发育情况等因素，确定了两个含油气远景区，拟作为重点找油气靶区。提出了两个可供选择的油气勘探布署方案。在此基础上，选用适当的成本预算基本参数，进行油气勘查成本估算，并对两个方案进行了优选对比与具体的风险分析，提出方案决策意见。     

Dissolved silica budget in the North basin of Lake Lugano

We studied the dissolved silica cycle in the water column of the North basin of Lake Lugano, Switzerland/Italy. Lake Lugano is a meromictic, eutrophic lake, permanently stratified below 100-m depth. A one-box model was used to calculate a silica mass-balance over 1993, based on various lake measurements, such as sediment traps, sediment cores, water analysis and biota countings. We found that the North basin of Lake Lugano is at steady state as far as dissolved silica is concerned. The primary source of dissolved silica in the lake is river input (about 80%), with diffusion from bottom sediments and groundwater input also playing a role. Atmospheric input is negligible. The main export of dissolved silica occurs via biogenic uptake by diatoms and final burial of their frustules in the bottom sediment. Loss of dissolved silica through the lake outflow only represents 15% of the total output. Of the total amount of Si exported to the lake bottom through diatom sinking, less than 20% is re-supplied to the surface water by diffusion. Thus, the lake acts as an important permanent sink for silica. The long residence time of dissolved silica in the lake (7 years) is related to the strong physical stratification of the lake. Only about 10% of the standing stock are available to phytoplankton uptake.     

Riparian alder fens — source or sink for nutrients and dissolved organic carbon? — 2. Major sources and sinks

Natural riparian forest wetlands are known to be effective in their ability to remove nitrate by denitrification and sediments with attached phosphorus via sedimentation. On the other hand, litter input and decomposition is a process of crucial importance in cycling of nitrogen and phosphorus in a forest ecosystem.In this study we investigated the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the alder fen ecosystem through leaf litter and its decomposition and the removal capacity of nitrogen and phosphorus by measuring denitrification and sedimentation in the alder fen.We found an average input of leaf litter during fall 1998 of 226 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ DW with nutrient concentration of 0.17% P and 1.6% N. This means a yearly input of 0.4 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ P and 3.6 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ N. The decomposition of leaf litter using litter bags with small and large mesh size resulted in bags with macroinvertebrates (large mesh size) and without macroinvertebrates (small mesh size). After 57 days the litter bags with macroinvertebrates had a decomposition rate of 79%.Denitrification was measured in May and June of 1997 using the acetylene inhibition technique on intact soil cores and slurry-experiments. The average annual denitrification rate was 0.2 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ N using data from the core experiments. The denitrification rate was higher after addition of nitrate, indicating that denitrification in the riparian alder fen is mainly controlled by nitrate supply.The sedimentation rate in the investigated alder fen ranged from 0.47 kg m⁻² yr⁻¹ DW to 4.46 kg m⁻² yr⁻¹ DW in 1998 depending on the study site and method we used. Sedimentation rates were lower in newly designed plate traps than in cylinder traps. The alder fen also showed lower rates than the adjacent creek Briese. Average phosphorus removal rate was 0.33 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ P.Input sources for the surface water of the alder fen are sediment mineralization and decomposition of leaf litter; output sources are sedimentation and denitrification. This study showed that a nutrient input of 24.58 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ N, 8.8 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ P and 419 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ DOC into the surface water of the alder fen is possible. Alder fens cannot improve water quality of an adjacent river system. This is only true for a nearly pristine alder fen with the hydrology of 10 months flooded conditions and 2 months non-flooding conditions a year.     

Predicting average annual groundwater levels from climatic variables: an empirical model

On the basis of one-dimensional theoretical water flow model, we demonstrate that the groundwater level variation follows a pattern similar to recharge fluctuation, with a time delay that depends on the characteristics of aquifer, recharge pattern as well as the distance between the recharge and observation locations. On the basis of a water budget model and the groundwater flow model, we propose an empirical model that links climatic variables to groundwater level. The empirical model is tested using a partial data set from historical records of water levels from more than 80 wells in a monitoring network for the carbonate rock aquifer, southern Manitoba, Canada. The testing results show that the predicted groundwater levels are very close to the observed ones in most cases. The overall average correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed water levels is 0.92. This proposed empirical statistical model could be used to predict variations in groundwater level in response to different climate scenarios in a climate change impact assessment.     

Response of the cladoceran community to trophic state change in Lake Apopka, Florida

A paleolimnological evaluation of cladoceran microfossils was initiated to study limnological changes in Lake Apopka, a large (125 km²), shallow (mean depth = 1.6 m), warm, polymictic lake in central Florida. The lake switched from macrophyte to algal dominance in the late 1940s, creating a Sediment Discontinuity Layer (SDL) that can be visually used to separate sediments derived from macrophytes and phytoplankton. Cladoceran microfossils were enumerated as a means of corroborating extant eutrophication data from the sediment record. Inferences about the timing and trajectory of eutrophication were made using the cladoceran-based paleo-reconstruction. The cladoceran community of Lake Apopka began to change abruptly in both total abundance and relative percent abundance just before the lake shifted from macrophyte to algal dominance. Alona affinis, a mud-vegetation associated cladoceran, disappeared before the SDL was formed. Planktonic and benthic species also began to increase below the SDL, indicating an increase in production of both planktonic and benthic species. Chydorus cf. sphaericus, an indicator of nutrient loading, increased relative to all other cladocerans beginning in the layer below the SDL and continuing upcore. Changes in the transitional sediment layer formed before the lake switched to phytoplankton dominance, including an increase in total phosphorus concentration, suggest a more gradual eutrophication process than previously reported. Data from this study supported conclusions from other paleolimnological studies that suggested anthropogenic phosphorus loading was the key factor in the hypereutrophication of Lake Apopka.     

Global heat budget, plate tectonics and climatic change

For the past 2000 Ma, the temperature of the Earth's surface has fluctuated around a mean similar to that of today, although individual locations have undergone long-term changes of ∼30°C at different times in different places. Water bodies absorb at least five times as much solar radiation as land surfaces, and ocean currents transport the excess heat absorbed in the tropics towards the poles. Changes in the distribution of land and sea due to plate tectonics explain the major temperature fluctuations (>25°C) around the globe in the last 350 Ma, and are first-order controls. Large-scale changes in ocean currents and thermohaline circulations are probably second-order controls (15–25°C). The Milankovitch orbital cycles are third-order controls producing variations in air temperature of the order of 10°C, while massive volcanic eruptions and changes in carbon dioxide are amongst the fourth-order controls producing minor perturbations (<5°C). The major climatic fluctuations are continuous but regional in effect and not global. Extraterrestrial factors may not cause major changes in climate when viewed from a geological perspective.     

总磷作为饮用水生物稳定性控制指标的研究

根据国内提出的控制饮用水生物稳定性的可同化有机碳(AOC)标准,通过配制水样研究了AOC及细菌再生长潜力(BRP)同水中磷含量的关系;同时针对净水工艺试验出水水样,考察了水中的磷同其生物稳定性的关系。结果表明,对于配水水样,在一定的磷浓度范围内,磷是水中细菌生长的限制因子;在净水试验工艺出水水样中添加50μg/L的PO₄3--P后,AOC增加了55%,BRP增加了123%,表明水中磷是其生物稳定性的限制因子。由于常规的净水工艺对水中的磷可以有效去除,把水中总磷(TP)控制在5μg/L内来提高饮用水生物稳定性具有一定的可能性和现实性。     

滇池微生物解磷与聚磷作用的实验研究及磷的现代沉积与微生物成矿作用

滇池是世界上磷质来源最丰富的湖泊，是研究磷的现代沉积和微生物对磷循环作用及微生物成矿的天然场所。研究发现，滇池微生物种群和数量繁多，但能对磷溶解、转化、迁移、聚集、沉积的微生物主要有解磷菌和聚磷菌两类。这两类微生物与滇池磷的含量之间有一系列规律的相关性：在底泥磷高含量区域，解磷菌的种群和数量与底泥磷含量成负相关关系，与水体磷含量成正相关关系，而聚磷菌的种群和数量与底泥磷含量成正相关关系，与水体磷含量成负相关关系；在底泥磷低含量区域，上述相关性则相反。滇池中这种活着的微生物在自然环境条件下对磷的溶解、转化、迁移、聚集和沉积的作用，对古磷块岩微生物成矿说提供了可靠的依据，而且对以磷为限制性因子的湖、海、江河环境污染的防治提供了理论资料。     

Sediment Phosphorus Chemistry and Microbial Biomass along a Lowland New Zealand Stream

An evaluation of the distribution of P concentrations in streamflow, P fractions andthe microbial biomass P pool was made of bed and bank sediments along a lowlandstream in New Zealand. Agricultural intensification increased downstream. However,most P fractions decreased downstream (total P decreased from c. 400 to 250 mg kg^-1) in bed sediments, while P in streamflow remained relatively constant (generally < 0.005 mg l^-1) and sediment microbial P increased from 2 to 8 mg kg^-1. An investigation of P release from dried and rewetted sediments showed that solution P (CaCl2-P) increased, on average > 300%, and proportional to the size of the microbial biomass P pool before drying, except in sediments with much organic carbon (OC). When supplied with a P source (1 mg l^-1) and then simultaneously with a C source (glucose, 100 mg l^-1), all sediment behaved similarly and biotic sorption accounted for, on average, 27 and 34% of the total sediment uptake, respectively (maximum of 58%). The quantity of P taken up was related to the initial size of the microbial biomass P pool, and the availability of P as influenced by organic P complexes and OC. The sediment microbial biomass represents a transient, but small store of P could be useful to indicate bioavailable P inputs.