Soil quality changes in land degradation as indicated by soil chemical, biochemical and microbiological properties in a karst area of southwest Guizhou, China

Not only the nutritional status and biological activity but also the soil ecological functioning or soil health has been impacted profoundly by land degradation in the karst area of southwest China where the karst ecosystems are generally considered as extremely vulnerable to land degradation under intensified land-use changes. The objectives of this study are to elucidate the changes in overall soil quality by a holistic approach of soil nutritional, biological activity, and soil health indicators in the karst area as impacted by intense cultivation and vegetation degradation. Topsoil samples were collected on selected eco-tesserae in a sequence of land degradation in a karst area of southwest Guizhou in 2004. The soil nutrient pools of organic carbon (C_org), extractable extracellular carbon (C_ext), total soil nitrogen (N_t), alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (N_ah), total phosphorus (P_t), available phosphorus (P_a) were analyzed by wet soil chemistry. The soil biological properties were studied by means of measurements of microbial biomass carbon (both by fumigation–extraction, FE-C_mic, and by calculation from substrate-incubation respiration, SIR-C_mic) of respiration [respiration without addition of substrates, basal respiration (BR), and potential respiration (PR) with substrate-incubation] and of soil enzyme activities (invertase, urease, and alkaline phosphatase). Soil health status was assessed by simple indices of C_mic/C_org and BR/C_mic in conjunction with bacterial community structures determined by polymerase chain reaction and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. While the nutritional pool parameters, such as C_org and C_ext, described basically the changes in soil life-supporting capacity with cultivation interference and vegetation declined, those parameters of biological activity such as FE-C_mic, SIR, and SIR-C_mic as well as bacterial community structures measured by molecular method evidenced well the changes in soil functioning for ecosystem health with the land degradation.     

Application of membrane technology for water treatment： Ultrasound-associated cleaning of fouled microfiltration membranes

The use of membranes is a widely employed, versatile, and effective separation process. One of the limiting aspects in applying microfiltration （MF） for wastewater treatment is that of problems with membrane fouling and consequent flux reduction. Membrane fouling occurs by the irreversible deposition of retained particles, colloids, macromolecules, salts, etc. at the membrane surface and/or inside the membrane. The predominant fouling mechanisms observed with MF membranes are classified as three categories： the build-up of a cake layer on the membrane surface, blocking of membrane pores, and adsorption of fouling material on the membrane surface or in the pore walls. Although many techniques have been developed to overcome fouling, studies on membrane cleaning still seem to be insufficient for practical membrane filtration systems. Current membrane cleaning technologies include hydraulic, chemical, and mechanical methods. Ultrasound （US） has been widely used as a method of cleaning materials because of the cavitation phenomenon. In this study, US cleaning technique was applied to removing the fouling of polyvinglidenefluoride （PVDF） MF membrane, which was used to treat yeast cell and isolated soybean protein （ISP） solution, respectively. The US employed 40 kHz frequency and the output power of 1.43-2.85 W/cm^2. The evolution of the cleaning effect is followed by the measurements of the flux recovery rate （FRstat） and the cleaning time cycle. Results showed that the membrane property, which was fouled by yeast cell solution, could be recovered by water cleaning with US irradiation. And the cleaning time with the same FRstat decreased with the increase of US intensity.     

Postglacial vegetation history of Mitkof Island, Alexander Archipelago, southeastern Alaska

An AMS radiocarbon-dated pollen record from a peat deposit on Mitkof Island, southeastern Alaska provides a vegetation history spanning ∼12,900 cal yr BP to the present. Late Wisconsin glaciers covered the entire island; deglaciation occurred > 15,400 cal yr BP. The earliest known vegetation to develop on the island (∼12,900 cal yr BP) was pine woodland (Pinus contorta) with alder (Alnus), sedges (Cyperaceae) and ferns (Polypodiaceae type). By ∼12,240 cal yr BP, Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) began to colonize the island while pine woodland declined. By ∼11,200 cal yr BP, mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) began to spread across the island. Sitka spruce-mountain hemlock forests dominated the lowland landscapes of the island until ∼10,180 cal yr BP, when western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) began to colonize, and soon became the dominant tree species. Rising percentages of pine, sedge, and sphagnum after ∼7100 cal yr BP may reflect an expansion of peat bog habitats as regional climate began to shift to cooler, wetter conditions. A decline in alders at that time suggests that coastal forests had spread into the island's uplands, replacing large areas of alder thickets. Cedars (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, Thuja plicata) appeared on Mitkof Island during the late Holocene.     

污水渗滤土地处理系统中的复氧方式及效果

复氧是困扰人工快渗、构造湿地等污水渗滤土地处理系统已久的问题.国际上目前采用的方法主要有3种:一是采用干湿交替的工作方式进行系统复氧,一是设置通气管对系统内部进行复氧,再一是利用植物的根系对系统内部进行复氧.研究结果表明,干湿交替的工作方式对系统的复氧条件有明显改善,而小水力负荷周期的工作方式对系统的复氧更为有效.通气管的设置通常与间歇性布水工作方式相结合,其效果通常要明显好于单纯采用干湿交替的工作方式.植物根系对系统的复氧,常因植物不同类型而具有不同的氧传输能力,植物根茎所能到达的范围往往决定了系统有效处理部位的大小.     

原油粘度变化对水驱油开发动态影响的数学模拟方法

为了研究注水开发油田原油粘度升高对开发效果的影响, 通过对实际油藏原油粘度统计, 回归出了原油粘度增长模型.在三维三相黑油渗流模型的基础上, 建立了一个原油粘度随含水和压力变化的油藏渗流数学模型, 并采用有限差分方法建立了相应的数值模型, 采用超松弛法对该模型进行了求解, 用Fortran90语言开发了一个新的数值模拟器.应用该模拟器模拟了不同的原油粘度变化规律对水驱效果的影响, 并与常规模拟器的结果进行了对比.结果表明: 初始水油粘度比为1∶10、含水达到98%时, 粘度增长指数由0增加到0.02, 对应的原油采出程度由44.80%降低到34.29%.目前商业软件中忽略了原油粘度随含水升高而增加的因素, 使得预测的采收率明显偏高.      

Chemical Procedures for Rhenium Extraction from Geological Samples: Optimising the Anion Resin Bead Clean‐up Step

Rhenium–osmium geochronometry for samples with low Re and complex matrices requires improved Re extraction methods. Here, we investigate plausible controls on efficiency and efficacy of Re extraction during our anion resin bead purification. Four different protocols are compared, each isolating a single variable to test. Rhenium concentrations for solutions at each step of each protocol document differences in chemical recovery/yield. The negative‐thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (N‐TIMS) signal intensity serves as a proxy for Re yield and purity. These data document correlations between the N‐TIMS signal intensity and (a) the duration of anion resin bead conditioning prior to loading with Re‐bearing solution, and (b) both duration and strength of nitric acid used during rinsing of the Re‐loaded anion resin bead. The optimal protocol improved Re signal intensity around fourteen times compared with our current Re extraction protocol, an aggregate of 2.4 times improvement in chemical recovery (yield) and 5.8 times improvement in emission efficiency (purity). Repeated N‐TIMS isotopic measurements on our in‐house Re standard solution (1407) verify that our optimal protocol‐3 does not fractionate Re isotopes. The improved anion resin bead method considerably lowers the Re detection limit and allows Re‐Os isotopic analysis of picogram‐level Re hosted in geological samples with complex matrices.     

混合气体驱替煤层气技术的可行性研究

气体驱替煤层气技术是近年来发展起来的具有温室气体减排和提高煤层气采收率双赢效果的新兴技术,相关研究受到世界主要发达国家的广泛重视。对于温室气体减排的压力,发达国家的研究主要着眼于该技术在高渗透、不可采煤层中的应用,注入气体主要为CO2,目的是尽可能多地封存CO2,同时提高煤层气采收率。目前,国内在这方面的研究刚刚起步。国内煤层具有渗透率普遍较低、不开采煤层与要开采煤层难以界定的特点,注CO2气体驱替煤层气在这种煤层中的可行性值得商榷。针对国内煤层特点和煤矿瓦斯抽采率低的现状,建议采用富N2混合气体驱替煤层气技术,以提高煤层气产采收率。通过理论分析、数值模拟和现场试验研究分析了实施混合气体驱替煤层气技术的可行性。研究结果表明,混合气体驱替煤层气技术适用于国内低渗透、可开采煤层,可以提高煤层气采收率和单产量。     

A comparative analysis of the NDVIg and NDVI3g in monitoring vegetation phenology changes in the Northern Hemisphere

Phenology is a sensitive and critical feature of vegetation and is a good indicator for climate change studies. The global inventory modelling and mapping studies (GIMMS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has been the most widely used data source for monitoring of the vegetation dynamics over large geographical areas in the past two decades. With the release of the third version of the NDVI (GIMMS NDVI3g) recently, it is important to compare the NDVI3g data with those of the previous version (NDVIg) to link existing studies with future applications of the NDVI3g in monitoring vegetation phenology. In this study, the three most popular satellite start of vegetation growing season (SOS) extraction methods were used, and the differences between SOSg and SOS3g arising from the methods were explored. The amplitude and the peak values of the NDVI3g are higher than those of the NDVIg curve, which indicated that the SOS derived from the NDVIg (SOSg) was significantly later than that derived from the NDVI3g (SOS3g) based on all the methods, for the whole northern hemisphere. In addition, SOSg and SOS3g both showed an advancing trend during 1982–2006, but that trend was more significant with SOSg than with SOS3g in the results from all three methods. In summary, the difference between SOSg and SOS3g (in the multi-year mean SOS, SOS change slope and the turning point in the time series) varied among the methods and was partly related to latitude. For the multi-year mean SOS, the difference increased with latitude intervals in the low latitudes (0–30°N) and decreased in the mid- and high-latitude intervals. The GIMMS NDVI3g data-sets seemed more sensitive than the GIMMS NDVIg in detecting information about the ground, and the SOS3g data were better correlated both with the in situ observations and the SOS derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer NDVI. For the northern hemisphere, previous satellite measures (SOS derived from GIMMS NDVIg) may have overestimated the advancing trend of the SOS by an average of 0.032 d yr^–1.     

卫星遥感海南岛气候特性的研究

利用NOAA极轨气象卫星的AVHRR资料,研究了海南岛干、湿两季在无云情况下的下垫面短波反射率、植被指数、下垫面温度和射出长波辐射的分布及变化特征。结果表明利用气象卫星资料可以较详细地了解气候形成的主要因素之一——下垫面状况。