松嫩草地40余年气温、降水变化及其若干影响研究

分析了松嫩草地４０余年气温、降水的变化,评估了这些变化对土壤水分及草地生产力的影响。继而根据大气环流模式ＣＯ２倍增“平衡试验”结果评估了未来大气ＣＯ２加倍条件下降水、气温的变化对松嫩草地土壤水分及草地生产力可能产生的影响。     

呼伦贝尔草原沙漠化土地的综合整治区划

呼伦贝尔草原的沙漠化土地现在多处于由级向级发展的阶段,有很大的发展潜力和危险性,必须对其进行综合整治。其主要成因是过度放牧,过度放牧不仅直接使砂质草原发生沙漠化,而且还严重影响天然樟子松的天然更新和扩展,因此必须对放牧进行科学的规划和管理。作者遵循地带性和非地带性相结合原则、发生学原则、主导性原则、与已有的相关区划相统一原则,把呼伦贝尔草原划分为2个综合整治亚区和5个综合整治小区,并提出了相应的综合整治对策。     

Impact of rainfall variability and grazing pressure on plant diversity in Mongolian grasslands

Climate and grazing are the main drivers of plant community composition and species richness in arid environments. This study aimed to examine the vegetation response to a spatial precipitation gradient, interannual rainfall variability, and grazing pressure in Mongolia. To examine the effect of a spatial precipitation gradient, we compared species richness among six sites. To investigate the effects of interannual rainfall variability and grazing pressure, we compared species richness for 2 years at two sites, in desert-steppe and steppe areas. The regional gradient in annual precipitation showed positive and negative relationships with grass richness and shrub richness, respectively, although total species richness did not vary significantly. The proportions of the different functional groups were affected by grazing pressure and rainfall variability in both zones. In the desert-steppe zone, species richness was lower in the drier year but did not vary with grazing pressure. In the steppe zone, species richness varied significantly with grazing pressure but did not vary between years. Precipitation would be more important than grazing pressure on vegetation changes in drier areas with high rainfall variability.     

Stakeholder views on restoring depleted cereal fallows in arid Tunisia: Societal barriers and possible crevices

All dryland countries struggle with manmade dryland degradation and climate change will reinforce this trend. In arid Tunisia (100-200 mm annual rainfall), depleted cereal fallows are a prominent feature of the desertified landscape. Based on long-term agro-ecological work with promising native steppe grasses, this work explores the societal barriers to restoring cereal fallows with these species. Interviews were conducted with 23 stakeholders (researchers, local decision makers of development agencies and land users) and 40 statements were drawn from these interviews as well as from written sources. These were sorted by 27 stakeholders (some of whom were interviewed before) following a distinct Q-sorting technique inspired by Q-methodology. Principal Components Analysis of these Q-sorts revealed three major types of barriers. (1) A widespread knowledge barrier was obvious since opinion on several agro-ecological statements was often opposite to the scientific evidence. (2) Strong convictions about the sacred nature of barley cropping and olive growing pointed to a cultural barrier to sowing steppe grasses on cereal fallows; (3) Finally, especially non-scientific agropastoralists expressed a lack of trust in any state-backed project aimed at combating desertification. Without the living proof of economic benefits of reseeding, no spontaneous uptake of reseeding can be expected.     

Precipitation variability in Hulunbuir,northeastern China since 1829 AD reconstructed from tree-rings and its linkage with remote oceans

Precipitation is the main factor limiting the radial growth of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica in the Hulunbuir region, northeastern China. We used tree-ring width data to reconstruct precipitation from prior August to current July during the 1829–2009. The reconstruction was verified by the jackknife method, and accounts for 60.49% of the actual precipitation variance during their common period (1951–2009). Over the past 181 years, the climate in the Hulunbuir region has experienced distinct dry–wet alternations at the decadal scale. The Hulunbuir area experienced seven wet periods and seven dry periods, and there was no significant long-term increase or decrease in precipitation. The reconstructed precipitation sequence for Hulunbuir was largely consistent with the precipitation sequence of Helan Mountain and Baiyinaobao in China. Multi-taper method spectral analysis found periodicities of 18.6, 7.2, 4.0, 2.7–2.8, 2.4 and 2.2 years in 0.05 significant level and 10.2, 8.9, 5.0 and 2.0 years at 0.1 significant level. Our reconstructions are significantly correlated with the intensity of the East Asia Summer Monsoon, El Niño/Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation.     

Mid to late holocene climate evolution of the lake telmen basin, north central mongolia, based on palynological data

Palynological and sedimentological data from Lake Telmen, in north-central Mongolia, permit qualitative reconstruction of relative changes in moisture balance throughout the mid to late Holocene. The climate of the Atlantic period (7500–4500 yr ago) was relatively arid, indicating that Lake Telmen lay beyond the region of enhanced precipitation delivered by the expanded Asian monsoon. Maximum humidity is recorded between 4500 and 1600 cal yr B.P., during the Subboreal (4500–2500 yr ago) and early Subatlantic (2500 yr–present) periods. Additional humid intervals during the Medieval Warm Epoch (1000–1300 A.D. or 950–650 ago) and the Little Ice Age (1500– 1900 A.D. or 450–50 yr B.P.) demonstrate the lack of long-term correlation between temperature and moisture availability in this region. A brief aridification centered around 1410 cal yr B.P. encompasses a decade of cold temperatures and summer frost between A.D. 536 and 545 (1414–1405 yr B.P.) inferred from records of Mongolian tree-ring widths. These data suggest that steppe vegetation of the Lake Telmen region is sensitive to centennial- and decadal-scale climatic perturbations.     

An assessment of changes in properties of steppe kurgan paleosoils in relation to prevailing climates over recent millennia

Comparative analysis of morphological and chemical properties of the soil chronosequence on Kastanozems soils in the steppe zone of the Russian Plain, which included paleosoils buried beneath kurgans erected ca. 2000 BC, AD 50, AD 200, and AD 1250 was performed to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions in this archeologically important region. Paleoenvironmental dynamics were traced using the state of microbial communities of paleo and modern soils (including the dynamics of total and glucose-reactive biomass, and the abundance of microorganisms grown on selected media). We demonstrate that the share of the glucose-reactive microorganisms in the microbial community, the ecological–trophic structure, and oligotrophicity index might serve as indicators of the state of microbial communities and be used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The morphological–chemical and microbial properties confirm an arid period ca. 2000 BC, slightly wetter conditions ca. AD 50, and more humid conditions ca. AD 1250.     

呼伦贝尔市新旧综合气象干旱指数应用对比

利用呼伦贝尔市4个气象台站1972—2013年逐日气象观测资料,计算逐日新的综合气象干旱指数MCI与旧的综合气象干旱指数CI,并对比两种干旱指数统计出的干旱日数、干旱强度,以及根据相应标准统计出的干旱过程和与实际干旱发生情况的吻合程度,分析新旧指数的优劣。结果表明,由于CI没有区分逐日降水量在指数中的权重,从而造成其跳变要多于MCI,而且MCI引入了近150天降水量的SPI并区分了冬、夏半年的权重值,避免了干旱指数对呼伦贝尔市冬季、初春干旱评价过重的问题。结合呼伦贝尔市实际的气候特点和干旱灾害发生实况,MCI更符合实际,适合业务应用。     

Plant communities of central Tibetan pastures in the Alpine Steppe/Kobresia pygmaea ecotone

Eleven plant communities of the central Tibetan ecotone (31°20′-33°00′N/89°00′-92°10′E) between the Kobresia pygmaea grazing pastures of the eastern highlands and the open short grass steppe with cushion plants (“Alpine Steppe”) of the north-western highlands have been described on the basis of 189 plot-based floristically complete vegetation records. In parallel, remote sensing techniques distinguish four main land-use cover types. Our hypotheses are: (1) The plant communities of the central Tibetan highlands are grazing-adapted and resilient to degradation. (2) In contrast to grazing resilient plant functional types, the turf cover of the K. pygmaea pastures and the Kobresia schoenoides wetlands is degradable through desiccation, periglacial processes, soil-dwelling small mammals and livestock. Five grazing-related plant functional traits are introduced. Grazing tolerance is the prevalent functional type. Species with no specific protection against grazing make up not more than 6% of the total cover. Unpalatable plants cover up to 8%. Only the azonal K. schoenoides swamps - the indispensable winter grazing reserve - have been widely degraded and depleted by 75%, being replaced by Carex sagaensis grazing pastures. It can be foreseen that governmental policy of sedentarisation of nomads will lead to reduced grazing mobility and degradation of winter grazing reserves.     

Aeolian landform processes since the last deglaciation revealed by OSL chronology and stratigraphy in the Hulunbuir dune field in NE China

The Hulunbuir dune field (HLB) is situated near the northern limit of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), and vulnerable to climate change. The aeolian sand–paleosol sequences of this region are crucial for understanding the past landform processes in response to climate change, but not yet understood well due to chronological controversies. Here, we presented 20 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from five aeolian sand–paleosol profiles in the HLB, and reconstructed the aeolian landform processes since 18 ka. The findings of this study suggested that the HLB was probably dominated by mobile dunes before 18 ka, as 10 out of 11 aeolian samples were dated to 18–12 ka. Two strong sandy paleosol layers were found and dated to ∼9 ka and 5–0.5 ka, indicating that strong in situ pedogenic process on the accumulative sand could occur during the Holocene. The OSL ages of samples near the top of three profiles were >9.5 ka, indicating two possible surface processes. First, the land surface was stable since 9.5 ka after stabilization, with no accumulation or erosion. Alternatively, the surface could have been erosive with the eroded sediments feeding downwind active dunes. The latter explanation is consistent with the current local landforms, which has widespread blowout pits, indicators of strong wind erosion. We emphasized that the OSL age of a sand layer sample in fossil dunes implied the onset of mobile dune stabilization, not the age of dune activity, as previously stated.