A late Early Pleistocene pollen record from Fontana Ranuccio (central Italy)

A pollen record from a sediment core drilled underneath the Acheulian site of Fontana Ranuccio provides new data on the vegetation characters in central Italy during the late Early Pleistocene, in a forest phase possibly corresponding to a substage of Marine Isotope Stage 21. A number of tree taxa nowadays extinct in Europe (Cathaya, Tsuga, Taxodium type, Carya and Pterocarya) are present at Fontana Ranuccio in a temperate phase characterised by dense forest conditions, dominated by Alnus and Pterocarya. The comparison of the Fontana Ranuccio record with other dated sites distributed along the Italian peninsula indicates that the floristic and vegetational characters of the Mid Pleistocene revolution present a rather distinct succession of biostratigraphic events. Compared to other Early Pleistocene pollen records from southern Europe, the Italian Peninsula shows greater floristic similarities with the Eastern Mediterranean regions than with the Iberian Peninsula. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of rainfall uncertainty on the performance of physically based rainfall–runoff models

This paper analyses the effect of rain data uncertainty on the performance of two hydrological models with different spatial structures: a semidistributed and a fully distributed model. The study is performed on a small catchment of 19.6 km² located in the north‐west of Spain, where the arrival of low pressure fronts from the Atlantic Ocean causes highly variable rainfall events. The rainfall fields in this catchment during a series of storm events are estimated using rainfall point measurements. The uncertainty of the estimated fields is quantified using a conditional simulation technique. Discharge and rain data, including the uncertainty of the estimated rainfall fields, are then used to calibrate and validate both hydrological models following the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) methodology. In the storm events analysed, the two models show similar performance. In all cases, results show that the calibrated distribution of the input parameters narrows when the rain uncertainty is included in the analysis. Otherwise, when rain uncertainty is not considered, the calibration of the input parameters must account for all uncertainty in the rainfall–runoff transformation process. Also, in both models, the uncertainty of the predicted discharges increase in similar magnitude when the uncertainty of rainfall input increase.     

Meeting future food demand with current agricultural resources

Meeting the food needs of the growing and increasingly affluent human population with the planet’s limited resources is a major challenge of our time. Seen as the preferred approach to global food security issues, ‘sustainable intensification’ is the enhancement of crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts and preserving the ability of future generations to use the land. It is still unclear to what extent sustainable intensification would allow humanity to meet its demand for food commodities. Here we use the footprints for water, nitrogen, carbon and land to quantitatively evaluate resource demands and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of future agriculture and investigate whether an increase in these environmental burdens of food production can be avoided under a variety of dietary scenarios. We calculate average footprints of the current diet and find that animal products account for 43–87% of an individual’s environmental burden – compared to 18% of caloric intake and 39% of protein intake. Interestingly, we find that projected improvements in production efficiency would be insufficient to meet future food demand without also increasing the total environmental burden of food production. Transitioning to less impactful diets would in many cases allow production efficiency to keep pace with growth in human demand while minimizing the food system’s environmental burden. This study provides a useful approach for evaluating the attainability of sustainable targets and for better integrating food security and environmental impacts.     

一种简化的暴雨灾害风险及影响评估方法和应用研究 ——以京津冀“7·21”暴雨事件为例

文章综合考虑中国区域范围内降雨时空分布特征以及地理地貌等特征,将全国降雨区划分为4大类,在此基础上,得出不同降雨类区暴雨致灾因子的强度等级评定方法;同时,研究确定了与暴雨灾害密切相关的地形高程、高程标准差、河网密度、土壤类型等环境脆弱性影响要素,并对各类要素分别进行了分级评定;将各类环境脆弱性影响要素结合暴雨致灾因子要素,运用加权求和方法建立了暴雨灾害综合风险评估模型;并结合GIS技术,将城市、农村人口分布情况、用地等数据叠加到风险分布格局中,最终分析得出不同风险等级下影响的城市和农村人口数量、土地面积等内容。该评估模型相较于以往其他暴雨风险评估模型,其适用范围更广,可以适用于全国范围内的任意区域暴雨灾害风险评估;实时评估业务能力更强,将该模型结合降雨实况资料或预报资料可以对全国任意区域降雨灾害综合风险进行事后、跟踪评估或预评估;评估对象更有针对性,结合GIS技术,可以针对得出的风险分布结果分别给出不同风险等级范围内的承灾体受影响的定量评估结果。     

开放式地理实体关系抽取的Bootstrapping方法

从网络文本中抽取地理实体间空间关系和语义关系要求高时效性和强鲁棒性。本文提出一种开放式地理实体关系的自动抽取方法,通过bootstrapping技术统计词语的词性、位置和距离特征来计算语境中词语权值,据此确定描述地理实体关系的关键词,最终组织成结构化实例,并使用百度百科和Stanford CoreNLP开展了试验。研究结果表明,本文方法能自动挖掘自然语言的部分词法特征,无须领域专家知识和大规模标注语料,适用于未知关系类型的信息抽取任务;较之经典的Frequency、TFIDF和PPMI频率统计方法,精度和召回率分别提升约5%和23%。     

全球气候数据集生成及气候变化应用研究

科技部在"十三五"期间部署的国家重点研发计划"全球变化及应对"专项资助了"全球气候数据集生成及气候变化关键过程和要素监测"研究项目。项目围绕由全球气候观测系统提出的基本气候变量,完善地空天基观测体系,生成中国首套以遥感数据为主体的涵盖大气、海洋和陆表长时间序列、高精度、高时空一致性的产品,即气候数据集,动态监测全球变化关键过程和要素。     

Distribution of calcareous nannoplankton in surface sediments along the northern KwaZulu-Natal Bight,South Africa

The coccolith assemblages from seafloor sediments over the inner shelf in the northern region of the KwaZulu- Natal Bight on the east coast of South Africa were identified and their distribution determined. In all, 29 Recent species and taxonomic groups, as well as 29 reworked species were recorded. The distribution of the Recent species appears to be governed by environmental features that have been documented in other studies: temperature, salinity, nutrient concentration and water circulation pattern, which reveals the long-term existence of a circulation cell in the sector between Durban Bay and the Thukela River. The outer edge of the cell consists of nutrient-enriched mixed layers and is characterised by an enhanced abundance of Gephyrocapsa oceanica, whereas the central region consists of a stratified nutrient-depleted water mass with elevated abundance of Umbilicosphaera sibogae, Florisphaera profunda, and a group of umbelliform species. The elevated levels of G. oceanica, coupled with the rarity of U. sibogae, F. profunda and the umbelliform species, confirm the presence of a permanent upwelling cell off Richards Bay. The maximum abundance of F. profunda found between Richards Bay and Lake Nhlabane indicates a region of nutrient-depleted (except for nitrite) conditions.     

青藏铁路对西藏各经济部门发展影响的定量评估

青藏铁路对西藏经济发展影响重大,定量评估其对各经济部门发展的影响程度,是全面评价铁路交通基础设施效益、分析未来冰冻圈变化对线性工程及经济社会重大影响的基础。将灰色关联分析法与投入产出法相结合,既填补了关联度分析的黑箱式缺陷,又弥补了西藏投入产出调查缺乏长时间序列数据的问题,以此来认识青藏铁路对西藏经济发展的影响机理与路径。以2006-2016年统计数据为基础,采用灰色关联度模型计算青藏铁路与西藏各经济部门发展的灰色关联度值,表明铁路运输水平与西藏地区生产总值（GDP）、第三产业高度相关,其中与货运邮电业、住宿餐饮业两个部门关联度达到了0.9以上。在灰色关联度结果的基础上,运用西藏2012年投入产出表及投入产出模型计算铁路的直接作用,以及对各经济部门的间接波及作用,研究发现：青藏铁路建设及运营的劳动密集程度高,且通过灰色关联度较高行业的产品及服务影响其他行业,以直接作用、后向和前向波及作用、消费波及作用三种路径对区域经济的发展产生重要影响,扣除消费波及作用的总体贡献达到41.7亿元,相当于2012年西藏GDP的5.95%。由于铁路交通基础设施重要的直接作用及间接波及作用,建议在工程条件适宜地区加快铁路运输网络建设,同时,将工程设施的社会经济效益纳入冰冻圈服务功能核算中。     

A CRPS-Based Spatial Technique for the Verification of Ensemble Precipitation Forecasts

Traditional precipitation skill scores are affected by the well-known“double penalty”problem caused by the slight spatial or temporal mismatches between forecasts and observations. The fuzzy (neighborhood) method has been proposed for deterministic simulations and shown some ability to solve this problem. The increasing resolution of ensemble forecasts of precipitation means that they now have similar problems as deterministic forecasts. We developed an ensemble precipitation verification skill score, i.e., the Spatial Continuous Ranked Probability Score (SCRPS), and used it to extend spatial verification from deterministic into ensemble forecasts. The SCRPS is a spatial technique based on the Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS) and the fuzzy method. A fast binomial random variation generator was used to obtain random indexes based on the climatological mean observed frequency, which were then used in the reference score to calculate the skill score of the SCRPS. The verification results obtained using daily forecast products from the ECMWF ensemble forecasts and quantitative precipitation estimation products from the OPERA datasets during June-August 2018 shows that the spatial score is not affected by the number of ensemble forecast members and that a consistent assessment can be obtained. The score can reflect the performance of ensemble forecasts in modeling precipitation and thus can be widely used.     

断陷湖盆缓坡带古河道定量恢复方法及油气地质意义：以霸县凹陷文安斜坡东营组为例

河流沉积砂体定量表征是油田高效勘探开发的重要基础。文章综合利用定量岩心分析、测井相分析、定量地震沉积学和三维地震剖面识别方法,对霸县凹陷文安斜坡东营组古河道砂体厚度,河道（带）宽度,（满岸）河道水深等河流参数进行了定量化计算。研究表明,文安斜坡东营组发育北部苏桥、中部文安和南部长丰镇三个物源输入口,河流呈NEE-SWW向分散于文安斜坡带,其中河道带宽度（w）为1.04~2.61 km,平均宽度（wcb）为1.71 km;主河道宽度（W）为15.2~179.6 m,平均宽度（Wc）为84.4 m;主河道沉积水深（D）为1.34~5.21 m,平均水深（Dc）为3.29 m;主河道满岸水深（Dmax）为2.35~9.15 m,平均满岸水深（Dmaxa）为5.77 m;主河道沉积厚度（H）为2.15~8.32 m,平均厚度（Hc）为5.25 m,河道长度（L）为18.5~28.2 km,平均河道带长度（Lcb）为25.1 km,流向（A）为40°~65°。确定文安斜坡东营组发育辫状河沉积,斜坡东侧中外带为主要的砂岩卸载区,河流以垂向挖掘性河流为主,侧向迁移为辅,河道砂岩平面呈“条—带”状。文安斜坡西侧内带以侧向迁移河流为主,下蚀作用为辅,河道砂岩呈“席—带”状。东营组河道砂岩具有“下生上储”的有利成藏条件,具有良好的岩性、构造—岩性圈闭（油气藏）勘探前景。