科尔沁沙地巴克窑地区近150年的环境演变*

在沉积和花粉分析的基础上,对科尔沁沙地东南部巴克窑地区过去150年的植被和环境演变进行了重建。巴克窑等湖泡的诞生时间是在上个世纪前期,约1837年前后。这个时间也正是科尔沁沙地东南部地区首次大规模人口移入和垦荒年代。突然增加的人类活动导致了沙丘植被的迅速破坏,而植被减少和沙丘活化引起区域水文循环的重新调整,即原来通过植物蒸腾作用输出的水量明显减弱,致使地下潜水位上升,形成一系列湖泡。以后,沙地系统的演化主要是在人类活动、气候和系统内部反馈机制的共同作用下完成的。     

遥感技术在化工环境保护中的应用

遥感技术获取的可见光、红外及微波信息，可以对化工企业及化学矿山环境污染（水、粉尘、大气、废渣污染等）及环境地质灾害（滑坡、泥石流、地面塌陷等）进行实时动态监测，并可获得较高的社会经济效益，达到地面环保及常规环境地质工作难以达到的效果。特别是对重点大中型化工企业及化学矿山建立环境遥感信息动态监测系统，可以为国家决策部门及时准确地提供环境治理和改造的依据。     

RELATIONSHIP OF ECO-ENVIONMENTAL CHANGE WITH NATURAL EROSION AND ARTIFICIALLY ACCELERATED EROSION

Ｆｏｒｌｏｎｇｔｉｍｅ,ｔｈｅｐｒｏｂｌｅｍａｂｏｕｔｎａｔｕｒａｌｅｒｏｓｉｏｎａｎｄａｒｔｉｆｉｃｉａｌｌｙａｃｃｅｌｅｒａｔｅｄｅｒｏｓｉｏｎｉｓｉｎｄｉｓｐｕｔｅ.ＨｉｓｔｏｒｉｃａｌｇｅｏｇｒａｐｈｅｒｓｃｏｎｓｉｄｅｒｔｈａｔｈｕｍａｎｉｎｄｕｃｅｄｅｃｏｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌｄｅｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｏｎｉｓａｃｃｏｕｎｔａｂｌｅｆｏｒｔｈｅｓｅｖｅｒｅｓｏｉｌｅｒｏｓｉｏｎａｎｄｅｃｏｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔｄｅｔｅｒｉｏｒａｔｉｏｎｏｎＬｏｅｓｓＰｌａｔｅａｕ[7,8].Ｓｏｍｅｇｅｏｌｏｇ…     

A record of accelerated erosion in the recent sediments of Blelham Tarn in the English Lake district

Two frozen cores from Blelham Tarn were subsampled and measured using mineral magnetic, loss-on-ignition (LOI), radiometric, granulometric and diatom analyses. A detailed chronology was established using varves, radioisotopes and diatoms. This has enabled an accurately dated reconstruction of sedimentation over the past forty years. Despite a large increase in lake productivity, evidence suggests that the observed exponential increase in sedimentation rates can be attributed to erosion within the catchment. The predominant sediment source has been identified as surface soil. A comparison between the trend of accelerated sedimentation and the record of increased sheep stocking density for the area within which the most of the catchment lies, as well as observations of contemporary surface processes within the catchment, both suggest that much of the recent erosion is a direct response to increased pressure from sheep grazing.     

Secondary ferrimagnetic minerals in Welsh soils: a comparison of mineral magnetic detection methods and implications for mineral formation

A study of mineral magnetic parameters was carried out on a Late Pleistocene and Holocene sedimentary sequence (of nearly 18 m) from Lake Bledowo (central Poland). Sediments of Lake Bledowo have already been analysed for bulk sediment mineralogy and biogenic materials. The mineral magnetic stratigraphy confirms the major changes in palaeo-environmental conditions that have been deduced from other methods. The most important mineral magnetic change results from the authigenetic formation of ferrimagnetic greigite, Fe₃S₄, during the beginning of lacustrine conditions (± 12 000 yr BP). Our data also indicate a detrital origin of overlying ferrimagnetic iron oxides. It is suggested that they originate from brown soils developed on the boulder clay constituting the west side of the lake shore. Variations of ferrimagnetic iron oxide size are related to the early diagenetic processes in the sediment. Larger particles are present in periods with early diagenesis of organic matter in anoxic conditions. This indicates the dissolution of fine magnetic particles by iron-oxide-reducing bacteria and results in homogeneous magnetic grain sizes, despite their origin from soils, characterized by a multimodal grain-size distribution.     

Science and the desertification debate

Desertification is an environmental issue that has major environmental and social dimensions, and which has been controversial in a number of respects. The recent UN Convention on Desertification and Drought places considerable emphasis on the social dimensions of the problem and the role local peoples and NGOs have to play in tackling it. When desertification first became regarded as a major issue in the 1970s, science was seen to have a major role in understanding and solving the problem, but in some circles has been regarded as failing to contribute usefully. This paper explores the nature of scientific contributions, why science may have been seen to fail to serve the needs of policy-makers, and why scientific findings may have been misinterpreted in broader circles dealing with the issue. It concludes by identifying areas where science has still a valuable role to play in an issue that is now perhaps regarded as more political and social than scientific.     

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN RUSSIA AND ESTONIA*

ABSTRACT. The use of e-mail by a grassroots activist group that straddles the Estonian-Russian border transcends political boundaries and provides ready connections to people in distant places. Activists create a perceived space of resistance in a supportive network that is stretched across space. This network of concern, defined by the physical space in which these activists work and by the strong communicative connections among them, was created to overcome continued environmental mismanagement and remove cultural barriers to cooperation. E-mail communication has enabled an ongoing influence on environmental policy in Estonia and Russia. This circumstance of a collaborative e-mail network created by grassroots activists to aid political work is a testament to how communication technology has expanded for the purpose of strengthening previously silenced voices in a regional and political context.     

Three-dimensional Rayleigh hysteresis of oriented core samples from the German Continental Deep Drilling Program: susceptibility tensor, Rayleigh tensor, three-dimensional Rayleigh law

Rayleigh hysteresis, as defined by the well-known Rayleigh relations, has been observed not only when magnetization of pyrrhotite-bearing KTB-samples is measured in parallel to a weak dc magnetic field, but also in experiments where field and measuring directions have been adjusted strictly perpendicularly to each other. Nine-tupels of independent Rayleigh hysteresis loops could thus be compiled. Their characteristic coefficients X ^ijk of initial susceptibility together with the Rayleigh loss coefficients α^jk have been proved to determine completely the samples' weak-field magnetic anisotropy. Interpreting the coefficient matrices ( X ^ijk) and (α^jk) as the tensor of initial susceptibility and the Rayleigh tensor, respectively, generalization of the isotropic Rayleigh relations in terms of corresponding tensor relationships has been suggested for the anisotropic case. Application to the KTB samples showed 3-D Rayleigh hysteresis measurements to be an excellent tool for rock magnetic analysis in terms of ore content and crystalline texture. In particular, a magnetocrystalline double texture of the basal planes of pyrrhotite precipitates and their [1120] directions of easy magnetization have been clearly detected. Surprisingly, the welt-known theorem α= const. X ²_I, formulated by Néel (1942) for the isotropic case, has been found to hold true even in tensor generalization (α_jk) = const ( X ²_jk). To reach sufficient resolution for the measurements performed, a sensitive vibrating coil magnetometer (VCM) has been developed.