Early Cenozoic rapid flight enigma of the Indian subcontinent resolved: Roles of topographic top loading and subcrustal erosion

Intrinsic magmatic processes are considered as critical operators of plate movements. Here we demonstrate the role of extrinsic processes consequent to intrinsic processes as a catalyst for anomalous rapid plate movement. The rapid and accelerated flight of the Indian subcontinent since Deccan volcanism until its collision with Eurasia remains as one of the geological conundrums. Data on seismic tomography, peninsular geomorphology and inferences on continuum of subcrustal structures are utilized to address this enigma. We propose geomorphic isostasy as the mechanism that has driven this fastest drift ever recorded in geological history. It was initiated by sudden instability after the Deccan volcanism and resultant extensive accumulation of lava pile over continental lithosphere of northern India, northern-eastern tilt due to crustal thickness heterogeneity and subcrustal thermal stratification. The drift was sustained by Carlsberg and Central Indian ridge-push until collision and sediment top loading at northeast thenceforth. These inferences and geomorphic isostasy as a catalytic mechanism necessitate variability of drift rates as integral inputs for any continental scale modeling.     

Effective methods for assessing ecological quality in intertidal soft-sediment habitats

Impacts of anthropogenic pollution on marine ecosystems are being addressed by legislation to protect and restore coastal and transitional waters. A range of biological measures have been investigated for their ability to indicate anthropogenic disturbance in subtidal soft-sediment habitats, but little work to date has focussed in intertidal habitats. This study investigated the sensitivity of communities, individual taxa, diversity indices and biotic indices to nutrient and organic enrichment in intertidal soft-sediment habitats. Variation in macrofaunal communities was more strongly associated with anthropogenic stressors than with natural environmental variation. Two multimetric indices, M-AMBI and IQI, were more closely associated with nutrient and organic pollution than the AMBI and ITI indices. Intertidal monitoring based on existing monitoring tools offers a cost effective alternative to subtidal monitoring and has potential to form the basis for an ecosystem level approach.     

Influence of macrofauna long-term natural variability on benthic indices used in ecological quality assessment

An essential prerequisite for the assessment of the ecological quality of marine ecosystems is the understanding of the natural variability and its effect on the performance of quality indices. This study is focused on the long-term natural variability of diversity, biotic and multimetric indices by using long-term macrofauna data of a coastal area in the southern North Sea (1978-2005). The univariate and most biotic and multimetric indices respond significantly on specific natural disturbance events such as cold winters, but the strength of response varied between indices as well as between events. As a result, the ecological quality status can decrease over a range of 3 (out of 5) classification units. The overall ecological quality was good to high, but an increase of indices occurred from the mid 1980s onwards due to changes in the climate regime. This long-term variability has to be considered within ecological quality assessment schemes.     

克拉玛依特强大风的气候特征及天气分析与预报

分析1971—2006年克拉玛依11级以上特强大风天气的气候特征,总结了年代际变化及月、季分布特点。研究显示,在全球气候变暖造成极端天气事件明显增多的大气候背景下,克拉玛依特强大风天气呈明显减少趋势。在这种气候背景下,利用NCEP资料,分析了克拉玛依发生特强大风的主要天气形势特征,提出预报思路,给出预报经验指标,提高对特强大风的防范意识和预报能力     

碎石桩复合地基非线性固结解析解

通过引入土体的e-lgσ和e-lgk对数模型,考虑了土体固结过程中压缩模量非线性增长和渗透系数非线性减小的特征,给出了一种碎石桩复合地基非线性固结解析解,并对复合地基的非线性固结性状进行了分析。结果表明,按应力和按变形定义的两种固结度不相等,按变形定义的固结度一般大于按应力定义的固结度;当压缩指数小于渗透指数时,不考虑土体的非线性特征会低估地基的固结度,而当压缩指数大于渗透指数时,不考虑土体的非线性则会高估地基的固结度;对于按应力定义的固结度来说,当压缩指数小于渗透指数时,随着附加应力的增大,地基固结速度加快,而当压缩指数大于渗透指数时,附加应力增大,地基固结减慢;对于按变形定义的固结度来说,不论压缩指数大于还是小于渗透指数,附加应力增大,地基固结速度总是加快。     

FMI方法计算地磁K指数的初步研究

对使用地磁场X和Y分量计算地磁K指数的FMI方法进行修改,使其成为适合于我国地磁观测H分量K指数的计算方法——FMI—H方法。使用该方法,对肇庆数字地磁仪的分钟值数据计算了K指数,并与全国平均K指数进行比较和统计检验。结果表明,使用FMI—H方法计算的K指数,不管是在K频次分布还是逐时值,或是日总和,都与全国平均K指数有很好的一致性。该方法可应用于我国数字化地磁资料的K指数测定计算。     

Assessing estuarine environmental quality using fish-based indices: performance evaluation under climatic instability

The seasonal variation of five selected multimetric indices for the determination of the Ecological Quality Status (EQS) of transitional waters was evaluated, as well as the indices’ responses to an extreme drought event that occurred in 2005. The database used regards the Mondego River estuary, which was sampled from June 2003 to August 2006 on a monthly basis. Among the selected indices (EBI - Deegan et al. [Deegan, L., Finn, J.T., Ayvazlan, S.G., Ryder-Kieffer, C.A., Buonaccoesi, J., 1997. Development and validation of an Estuarine Biotic Integrity Index. Estuaries 30(3), 601-617], EDI - Borja et al. [Borja, A., Franco, J., Valencia, V., Bald, J., Muxika, I., Belzunce, M.J., Solaun, O., 2004. Implementation of the European Water Framework Directive from the Basque Country (northern Spain): a methodological approach. Marine Pollution Bulletin 48(3-4), 209-218], EFCI - Harrison and Whitfield [Harrison, T.D., Whitfield, A.K., 2004. A multi-metric fish index to assess the environmental condition of estuaries. Journal of Fish Biology 65, 683-710], EBI - Breine et al. [Breine, J.J., Maes, J., Quataert, P., Van den Bergh, E., Simoens, I., Van Thuyne, G., Belpaire, C., 2007. A fish-based assessment tool for the ecological quality of the brackish Scheldt estuary in Flanders (Belgium). Hydrobiologia 575, 141-159] and TFCI - Coates et al. [Coates, S., Waugh, A., Anwar, A., Robson, M., 2007. Efficacy of a multi-metric fish index as an analysis tool for the transitional fish component of the Water Framework Directive. Marine Pollution Bulletin 55, 225-240]), the EBI by Breine et al. (2007) was the only that evidenced clear interannual and seasonal variations. The EQS by the several indices ranged from “Low” to “High”, depending on the index considered, evidencing the high level of mismatch between indices. The results are discussed in the scope of the EU Water Framework Directive, regarding monitoring strategies, application of indices and EQS assessment.     

The performance of benthic indicators of ecological change in Adriatic coastal lagoons: throwing the baby with the water?

The ecological quality of 127 stations from six Adriatic coastal lagoons was assessed using a suite of biotic indices: H', d, 1-lambda', Delta(*), Delta(+), W, AMBI, BOPA and FINE. The analysis indicated the difficulties in deriving and using the existing indices from benthic communities in highly variable environmental conditions in coastal lagoons. Different metrics rendered different results: the use of H' resulted in the classification of all stations as "Moderate/Poor/Bad", whereas BOPA classified the majority of the stations as "Good/High". Using Delta(+), most of the stations resulted as "Not anthropogenically impacted", while the W-statistics gave 82 stations as "Undisturbed" and 45 as "Moderately/Grossly disturbed". AMBI classified 55 stations as "High/Good" and 72 as "Moderate/Poor/Bad", whereas those were 32 and 95 with FINE, respectively. The latter, which was developed just for Italian coastal lagoons, was the most conservative among the indices studied. Yet, it showed the highest correlation with the species/abundance matrix. Using indices developed for coastal waters in lagoons can give the distorted indication that the water body is degraded, when it might be just a natural, low diversity, high abundance community, i.e. a lagoonal community. Moreover, the outcome of the use of a certain index has a financial dimension such that lagoons misclassified as being "poor status" will then require expensive remediation measures. For the lagoons studied, there is probably an adequate quality and quantity of benthic data available for making management decisions, but this study highlights the limits of the existing indices for lagoonal ecosystems. The challenge for the next future is to couple long term conservation of the natural environment with the highly productive activities carried out in lagoonal ecosystems.     

Assessing benthic ecological status in stressed Liaodong Bay (China) with AMBI and M-AMBI

Rapid economic development in recent decades has resulted in environmental degradation of Liaodong Bay, North China, where eutrophication is becoming more evident because of excess nutrients inputs. To assess the benthic ecological status in Liaodong Bay, AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) and multivariate-AMBI (M-AMBI) were applied using both benthic macroinvertebrate density and biomass data collected from Liaodong Bay in July 2007. This first application of AMBI and M-AMBI in Liaodong Bay showed that the nearshore areas of the bay, especially near river estuaries, were severely disturbed, with a clear gradient of disturbance decreasing seaward. Ecological status assessed from density and biomass data was quite similar. Significant relationships were also found between both indices and environmental variables in Liaodong Bay. Moreover, the spatial distributions of both AMBI and M-AMBI matched those of plotted eutrophication indices (EI) in the surface water layer, and significant linear correlations were found between both benthic indices and EI. In general, both AMBI and M-AMBI worked well on assessing the ecological status of Liaodong Bay under eutrophication stress due to excess nutrients inputs.