Distribution and effectiveness of nivation in Mediterranean mountains: Peñalara (Spain)

Snow accumulation is responsible for geomorphic and biogeographic processes taking place in the southern sector of the Peñalara massif in central Spain (40°51′N, 3°57′W; max. altitude 2428 m at Pico de Peñalara). This work compares the intensity of nivation on the eastern slope, leeward of the prevailing westerly winds and heavily eroded by glacial activity during the Pleistocene, to that of the western slope on the windward side, unaffected by glacial erosion and completely covered by a thick weathering mantle. On the eastern slope, nivation is effective only where the weathering mantle is exposed or on morainic formations. It does not occur on the landforms derived from glacial erosion. In contrast, the western side shows almost no evidence of snow action except where catastrophic mass movements have altered the regularity of the slope. During the post-glacial epoch, nivation cirques formed in the scars left by mass wasting. In the last 30 years, spring temperatures have increased and this activity has diminished. The pattern of evolution observed at Peñalara can be extrapolated to other Mediterranean mountains with similar characteristics such as marginal glacial activity during the Pleistocene, unconsolidated formations on the summits caused by chemical weathering, and dry, hot summers that can increase the effectiveness of nivation.     

Present land use and cover patterns and their development potential in North Ningxia

With the objectives to acquire the fundamental data of the territorial resource, understand the impacts of human activities on the land use and cover patterns and evaluate the potential of the future exploitation, an intensive land cover classification with an accuracy of 93% has been completed for North Ningxia by remote sensing technique based on the adoption of a combination method composed of texture training, maximum likelihood classification and post-processing such as re-allocation and aggregation. This classification result was incorporated with the contemporaneous socio-economic and meteorological data for cross-sectional regression modelling to reveal the spatial determinants of the land cover patterns and understand the human-environmental relationships. A tentative evaluation on the potential of soil exploitation in the near future was carried out in combination with our land use and cover change detection results aiming at supplying some useful references for the central and local governments in their sustainable land use planning.     

大兴安岭浅覆盖区生态地质评价方法初探——以1∶25万区调呼中镇幅为例

通过野外调查，在收集统计大量基础地质、经济地质、环境地质、旅游地质、农(林)业地质等数据信息的基础上，在GIS技术指导下，采用定量定性相结合的半定量分析评价方法，对森林浅覆盖区生态地质现状及各类资源的开发利用潜力进行了综合评价。在研究和探讨森林浅覆盖区生态地质综合评价方法的基础上，提出了森林浅覆盖区生态地质评价模型，确定了综合参数，划分了生态地质类型。     

北山戈壁荒漠地区1：5万植物地球化学测量效果

北山戈壁荒漠景观区土壤垂直剖面不存在通常的A、B、C分层结构，且掺杂有大量风成沙。在公婆泉地区开展1：5万常规地球化学测量方法研究的同时，进行了植物地球化学测量试验研究。研究表明，两种方法的主要指示元素异常有很好对应性，红沙是我国西部干旱荒漠广大地区开展植物地球化学测量的一种良好采样对象。     

烃类垂向微渗漏及其地表异常显示

烃类以微泡、水动力、扩散和渗透方式向地表迁移过程中,其效能、方式与油气藏的盖层、断裂与裂隙系统、储层的流体性质、地层压力等地质因素密切相关.通过对塔里木盆地雅克拉凝析气田上的地表、井中化探资料与地质资料的综合分析,认为该气田的井中垂向地球化学特征、控制烃类垂向微渗漏地质因素、地表化探异常显示之间呈现出很好的内在联系.     

玄武岩盖层下石林的岩溶动力学特征

受玄武岩盖层的影响，石林地区的地下水在雨季和旱季对碳酸盐岩都具有侵蚀性，玄武岩盖层空气CO2呈现出低—高—低的双向变化梯度。溶蚀试验表明．地下0～0．6m，水平方向的溶蚀量大于垂直方向的溶蚀量，而随着深度的增加，垂直方向的溶蚀量大于水平方向。富含CO2的水通过具有最大渗透张量和较小主轴倾角的玄武岩裂隙下渗，对碳酸盐岩的溶蚀作用表现为一个脱钙、富铝铁、硅迁移的复杂过程，并在地下0～0．6m形成许多水平凹槽、穿洞等岩溶形态，而地表0．6m以下以垂向溶蚀为主，有利于石柱的形成与发育。     

The importance of plant root characteristics in controlling concentrated flow erosion rates

While it has been demonstrated in numerous studies that the aboveground characteristics of the vegetation are of particular importance with respect to soil erosion control, this study argues the importance of separating the influence of vegetation on soil erosion rates into two parts: the impact of leaves and stems (aboveground biomass) and the influence of roots (belowground biomass). Although both plant parameters form inseparable constituents of the total plant organism, most studies attribute the impact of vegetation on soil erosion rates mainly to the characteristics of the aboveground biomass. This triggers the question whether the belowground biomass is of no or negligible importance with respect to soil erosion by concentrated flow. This study tried to answer this question by comparing cross‐sectional areas of concentrated flow channels (rills and ephemeral gullies) in the Belgian Loess Belt for different cereal and grass plant densities. The results of these measurements highlighted the fact that both an increase in shoot density as well as an increase in root density resulted in an exponential decrease of concentrated flow erosion rates. Since protection of the soil surface in the early plant growth stages is crucial with respect to the reduction of water erosion rates, increasing the plant root density in the topsoil could be a viable erosion control strategy. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

利用NOAA AVHRR数据研究北半球雪盖气候学特征

利用NOAA卫星图像,研究了北半球、欧亚、北美和青藏高原雪盖气候学特征及其变化趋势.指出北半球、欧亚和北美雪盖气候变化趋势基本一致,年均雪盖面积在1987年前后明显下降; 而青藏高原雪盖面积在1984年后明显下降,说明青藏高原雪盖的年际变化与北半球及欧亚、北美不完全一致.     

A statistical approach to evaluating distance metrics and analog assignments for pollen records

The modern analog technique typically uses a distance metric to determine the dissimilarity between fossil and modern biological assemblages. Despite this quantitative approach, interpretation of distance metrics is usually qualitative and rules for selection of analogs tend to be ad hoc. We present a statistical tool, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which provides a framework for identifying analogs from distance metrics. If modern assemblages are placed into groups (e.g., biomes), this method can (1) evaluate the ability of different distance metrics to distinguish among groups, (2) objectively identify thresholds of the distance metric for determining analogs, and (3) compute a likelihood ratio and a Bayesian probability that a modern group is an analog for an unknown (fossil) assemblage. Applied to a set of 1689 modern pollen assemblages from eastern North America classified into eight biomes, ROC analysis confirmed that the squared-chord distance (SCD) outperforms most other distance metrics. The optimal threshold increased when more dissimilar biomes were compared. The probability of an analog vs no-analog result (a likelihood ratio) increased sharply when SCD decreased below the optimal threshold, indicating a nonlinear relationship between SCD and the probability of analog. Probabilities of analog computed for a postglacial pollen record at Tannersville Bog (Pennsylvania, USA) identified transitions between biomes and periods of no analog.     

The Influence of Vegetation Cover on Summer Precipitation in China： a Statistical Analysis of NDVI and Climate Data

This study provides new evidence for the feedback effects of vegetation cover on summer precipitation in different regions of China by calculating immediate (same season), and one-and two-season lagged correlations between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and summer precipitation. The results show that the correlation coefficients between NDVI in spring and the previous winter and precipitation in summer are positive in most regions of China, and they show significant difference between regions. The stronger one-and two-season lagged correlations occur in the eastern arid/semi-arid region, Central China,and Southwest China out of the eight climatic regions of China, and this implies that vegetation cover change has more sensitive feedback effects on summer precipitation in the three regions. The three regions are defined as sensitive regions. Spatial analyses of correlations between spring NDVI averaged over each sensitive region and summer precipitation of 160 stations suggest that the vegetation cover strongly affects summer precipitation not only over the sensitive region itself but also over other regions, especially the downstream region.