Radiation pressure — a stabilizing agent of dust clouds in comets?

The internal dynamics of an illuminated dust cloud of finite optical thickness is investigated. The dependence of the radiation pressure on the optical depth makes the individual particles oscillate, in one dimension, around the accelerated centre of gravity of the cloud. The cloud moves as an entity, irrespectively of the velocity dispersion of the particles and their efficiency for radiation pressure. If the optical depth does not change, i.e. if the cloud does not expand laterally, its lifetime is unlimited. A contraction caused by energy dissipation in mechanical collissions between the dust particles is expected. The range of particle sizes which can be transported by such a “coherent cloud” is estimated, as well as the acceleration of the whole cloud. The structure of the cloud in real space and in velocity space is investigated. A comparison with the “striae” observed in the dust tails of great comets shows that the parent clouds of these striae may have been of the kind considered.     

Chemical Characteristics of Carbonaceous Aerosols During Dust Storms over Xi＇an in China

Characterization of carbonaceous aerosols including CC (carbonate carbon), OC (organic carbon), and EC (elemental carbon) were investigated at Xi'an, China, near Asian dust source regions in spring 2002. OC varied between 8.2 and 63.7 μg m-3, while EC ranged between 2.4 and 17.2 μ m-3 during the observation period. OC variations followed a similar pattern to EC and the correlation coeflcient between OC and EC is 0.89 (n=31). The average percentage of total carbon (TC, sum of CC, OC, and EC) in PM2.5 during dust storm (DS) events was 13.6%, which is lower than that during non-dust storm (NDS) periods (22.7%). CC, OC, and EC accounted for 12.9%, 70.7%, and 16.4% of TC during DS events, respectively. The average ratio of OC/EC was 5.0 in DS events and 3.3 in NDS periods. The OC-EC correlation (R2=0.76, n=6) was good in DS events, while it was stronger (R2=0.90, n=25) in NDS periods. The percentage of water-soluble OC (WSOC) in TC accounted for 15.7%, and varied between 13.3% and 22.3% during DS events. The distribution of eight carbon fractions indicated that local emissions such as motor vehicle exhaust were the dominant contributors to carbonaceous particles. During DS events, soil dust dominated the chemical composition, contributing 69% to the PM2.5 mass, followed by organic matter (12.8%), sulfate (4%), EC (2.2%), and chloride (1.6%). Consequently, CC was mainly entrained by Asian dust. However, even in the atmosphere near Asian dust source regions, OC and EC in atmospheric dust were controlled by local emission rather than the transport of Asian dust.     

2010年沙尘天气对巴彦浩特空气质量的影响

利用巴彦浩特2010年1月至2011年2月PM10、SO2、NO2的逐日监测数据和同一时期气象观测资料,分析巴彦浩特空气污染物特征及PM10浓度与沙尘天气之间的关系。分析结果表明:2010年春、夏、秋三季巴彦浩特的主要污染物是PM10,冬季主要污染物是SO2;沙尘天气是造成巴彦浩特PM10浓度变化的最重要因素;影响巴彦浩特空气质量的沙尘主要来源于其西北方向和西北偏北方向。建议有关部门在巴彦浩特西北地区搞好生态保护与建设,以减轻沙尘天气对巴彦浩特地区空气质量的影响。     

Source identification of PM2.5 particles measured in Gwangju, Korea

The UNMIX and Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) receptor models were used to investigate sources of PM_2.5 aerosols measured between March 2001 and February 2002 in Gwangju, Korea. Measurements of PM_2.5 particles were used for the analysis of carbonaceous species (organic (OC) and elemental carbon (EC)) using the thermal manganese dioxide oxidation (TMO) method, the investigation of seven ionic species using ion chromatography (IC), and the analysis of twenty-four metal species using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP)-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (AES)/ICP-Mass Spectrometry (MS). According to annual average PM_2.5 source apportionment results obtained from CMB calculations, diesel vehicle exhaust was the major contributor, accounting for 33.4% of the measured PM_2.5 mass (21.5 μg m^− 3), followed by secondary sulfate (14.6%), meat cooking (11.7%), secondary organic carbon (8.9%), secondary nitrate (7.6%), urban dust (5.5%), Asian dust (4.4%), biomass burning (2.8%), sea salt (2.7%), residual oil combustion (2.6%), gasoline vehicle exhaust (1.9%), automobile lead (0.5%), and components of unknown sources (3.4%). Seven PM_2.5 sources including diesel vehicles (29.6%), secondary sulfate (17.4%), biomass burning (14.7%), secondary nitrate (12.6%), gasoline vehicles (12.4%), secondary organic carbon (5.8%) and Asian dust (1.9%) were identified from the UNMIX analysis. The annual average source apportionment results from the two models are compared and the reasons for differences are qualitatively discussed for better understanding of PM_2.5 sources.Additionally, the impact of air mass pathways on the PM_2.5 mass was evaluated using air mass trajectories calculated with the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) backward trajectory model. Source contributions to PM_2.5 collected during the four air mass patterns and two event periods were calculated with the CMB model and analyzed. Results of source apportionment revealed that the contribution of diesel traffic exhaust (47.0%) in stagnant conditions (S) was much higher than the average contribution of diesel vehicle exhaust (33.4%) during the sampling period. During Asian dust (AD) periods when the air mass passed over the Korean peninsula, Asian dust and secondary organic carbon accounted for 25.2 and 23.0% of the PM_2.5 mass, respectively, whereas Asian dust contributed only 10.8% to the PM_2.5 mass during the AD event when the air mass passed over the Yellow Sea. The contribution of biomass burning to the PM_2.5 mass during the biomass burning (BB) event equaled 63.8%.     

塔克拉玛干沙漠腹地风蚀起沙特征观测研究

利用塔克拉玛干沙漠腹地塔中气象站2009—2018年的地面观测资料,分析塔中地区的风蚀起沙特征,结果表明:(1)塔中地区临界起沙风速呈明显的季节变化特征,夏季>春季>秋季>冬季,临界起沙风速介于4.47～4.92 m/s;(2)春、夏季是风蚀事件的多发季节,春、夏季沙尘水平通量的平均值分别为2638.9、3298.9 ...     

Formation of chlorite rims and the impact of pore-lining chlorite on reservoir quality: a case study from Shiqianfeng sandstones in upper Permian of Dongpu Depression,Bohai Bay Basin,eastern China

The source material, precursor and formation processes of chlorite rims, and impact of pore-lining chlorite on reservoir quality of the Shiqianfeng sandstones, Dongpu Depression, Bohai Bay Basin, China, are studied using an integrated approach, including core observation, point-count analysis of thin-sections, scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe analysis and cathode luminescence. The petrographic analysis shows that chlorite rims consist of grain-coating chlorite, poorly crystalline pore-lining chlorite and euhedral-crystallised pore-lining chlorite. The chemical composition shows that pore-lining chlorite is mainly Fe-rich with an average of 0.785 for Fe/(Fe+Mg) ratio. Petrographic analysis shows a large amount of volcanic dust (3.0～16.0 vol%, average of 7.93 vol%) in Shiqianfeng sandstones, which determines the formation of poorly crystalline pore-lining chlorite. Transformation of volcanic dust to smectite rims started with shallow burial depth at an early diagenetic stage, followed by in situ alteration of the smectite rims to poorly crystalline chlorite rims. Euhedral-crystallised chlorite mainly develops in sandstones with high porosity, high permeability and open flow systems. Pore-lining chlorite can inhibit quartz overgrowth but cannot effectively prevent pore-filling of authigenic quartz, carbonate and kaolinite cements, and therefore cannot prevent porosity destruction. However, the occurrence of pore-lining chlorite is a barometer of good reservoir quality and intense hydrodynamic conditions.     

The effects of beach nourishment on the sandy-beach amphipod Exoediceros fossor: impact and recovery in Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Beach nourishment is increasingly being implemented to address problems of erosion. However, the ecological consequences of nourishment are poorly understood, especially in Australia. In Botany Bay, sand was piped from an intertidal borrow area at Elephant's Trunk to nourish the nearby eroding beach at Towra Point. The effects on an intertidal exoedicerotid amphipod, Exoediceros fossor (Stimpson, 1856), were examined using a beyond-BACI (Before–After, Control–Impact) sampling design. Sampling was conducted before and after engineering operations at sites within the borrow and nourishment locations and multiple control locations. Hypotheses concerning impact and recovery were tested using asymmetrical ANOVAs and two-tailed F-tests. These examined the effects on abundance and spatial variability, respectively. The impact of the engineering operations on abundance was very large at both borrow and nourishment locations. However, recovery started within several weeks and, using space × time interactions as a criterion, appeared to be complete within a year. This conclusion is made cautiously because of low statistical power and because other criteria for recovery suggest that it was not complete at some sites. As beach erosion is likely to increase in severity with rising sea levels and greater storm surges associated with climate change, management authorities will need a better understanding of the ecological effects of beach nourishment.     

The effect of human use of sandy beaches on developmental stability of Talitrus saltator (Montagu, 1808) (Crustacea, Amphipoda). A study on fluctuating asymmetry

In recent years, there has been an increasing intensity of human use of coastal areas in Galicia (NW Spain). Actually, there is great concern about rapid and unplanned urban and industrial development on certain locations, as this can generate adverse impacts on those areas. In this study, we selected three sandy beaches along the Galician coast (Chanteiro, Insuela and Valieros) facing different levels of anthropic pressure, and we analysed Talitrus saltator individuals with the aim of elucidating whether anthropogenic pressures on beaches such as tourism or pollution have an influence on the incidence of morphological developmental alterations in sandhoppers in the field. Specifically, levels of fluctuating asymmetry were selected as indicators of environmental stress. Results of two sampling dates (May and September) show that individuals collected at the most touristy and polluted beach were those showing the highest asymmetry values, although results were only statistically significant for samples collected during spring. Results are in accordance with the hypothesis that beach management and pollution reduce symmetry in sandhoppers living in altered beaches.     

Measuring species richness on sandy beach transects: extrapolative estimators and their implications for sampling effort

Species richness is a measure that is fundamental to many studies in ecology, and it is particularly important on sandy beaches, where it underlies patterns described by the broadly accepted swash exclusion hypothesis. However, its estimation in practice is problematic. This has led ecologists in other fields to adopt extrapolative estimators of species richness, which project the total number of species present in a habitat by adjusting upward the number of species observed by an amount related to the number of rare species encountered in the samples. In so doing, the species richness can be estimated, with confidence intervals, at any level of sampling effort. Despite the availability and advantages of these methods, beach ecologists have continued to use the observed species richness as a point estimate of biodiversity for beaches. Here, we employ a Monte Carlo resampling approach over a range of routine transect designs used to sample sandy beaches, and evaluate the performance of seven non-parametric extrapolative estimators for species richness relative to that of the more conventionally used observed species richness. We find that the first-order Jackknife estimator (Jack 1) is the least biased, most accurate and most consistent across sites. Employing this estimator would allow accurate estimation of species richness on short (tens of metres) stretches of beach without exceeding the acceptable levels of sampling effort (4–5 m²). Spreading this effort evenly over three across-shore transects, each with a minimum of 13 equally spaced levels seems appropriately efficient. Although a greater number of research studies is required to ascertain the generality of these results beyond the beaches we sampled, we tentatively recommend the application of our results in biodiversity surveys on sandy beaches.     

祁连山敦德冰心微粒变化特征和大气环境记录

对祁连山敦德冰心总微粒含量、粒径分布以及总微粒含量、粗微粒含量与沙尘暴的关系进行了分析,结果表明,微粒主要来源于亚洲粉尘发源地和区域性源地,属于典型的陆源微粒。微粒含量和微粒粒径变化反映了沙尘暴的强度和波动历史,沙尘暴频率高时,微粒含量高,微粒粒径大,反之,微粒含量低,微粒粒径小。末次冰期以来,微粒含量变化呈减少趋势,暖期微粒含量低,冷期微粒含量高,夏季微粒含量高,冬季微粒含量低;不同粒径微粒相关性良好,反映了它们在来源、沉积和冰内变化方面具有相同之处。