Changing anthropogenic influence on the Santa Monica Bay watershed

Santa Monica Bay is an open coastal embayment located directly seaward of Los Angeles, California. The Bay provides vital economic value through its water-dependent activities, such as swimming, diving, boating, and fishing. An increase from 100,000 residents in 1900 to 10 million in 2000 has imposed numerous environmental stressors on the Bay, including urbanization of the watershed. Pollutant discharges into the Bay increased throughout the early part of the century, but declined following passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. Since that time, the predominant source of pollutant inputs has changed from point sources to non-point urban runoff. To assess how present-day and historical pollution interact to affect the environmental quality of Santa Monica Bay, three organizations collaborated on a multi-disciplinary study in 1997, towards which this volume is focused. This paper details the temporal patterns of anthropogenic influence on Santa Monica Bay to provide context for the papers that follow.     

陕西泾河南岸大堡子高速远程黄土滑坡运动过程模拟

高速远程滑坡具有速度快、运程远的特点,一旦发生,人员逃离十分困难,往往造成严重灾难,因此对这类滑坡展开研究具有重要意义。对已发生滑坡运动过程进行参数反演和模拟可为潜在高速远程滑坡的预测提供借鉴。因此本文以陕西泾河南岸大堡子高速远程黄土滑坡为例,在野外调查测绘和室内试验的基础上,利用Sassa的滑坡运动模型对该滑坡运动过程进行模拟分析。结果表明,滑坡体最大平均速度为9.56m·s-1,具有高速运动特点,运动持时为24.5s,滑坡运动过程可分为启动加速阶段（0~5.7s）和运动减速阶段（5.7~24.5s）,加速阶段平均加速度为1.68m·s-2,减速阶段加速度为-0.51m·s-2,加速过程比减速快3倍左右。滑坡区高陡地形和黄土高结构强度为滑坡高速运动提供条件,开阔阶地地形以及阶地砂砾石层近饱和含水条件决定滑坡远程运动特点。     

藏东南高位远程滑坡动力学特征及研究难点

藏东南地区地理位置特殊、地形地貌独特、水力资源丰沛、战略地位重要,规划建设有诸多重大战略性基础设施和建设工程。受构造性隆升、地震活动、海洋性冰川、立体气候和人类工程活动等内外动力因素影响,该区域内密集发育高位远程滑坡地质灾害,严重威胁重大工程的安全运营。高位远程滑坡具有隐蔽性强、冲击力大、致灾范围广等特点,使得当前的研究面临“起滑机制不清、灾变机理不明、运动预测不准”的挑战,亟需解决复杂地质环境下高位远程滑坡具有的超高起滑势能、超强运动特性和超大致灾能力3个方面的科学问题,有待揭示藏东南地区孕灾环境特征和滑坡分布规律、高海拔脆性岩体起滑机制、高位崩滑体运动形态转化机制和崩滑体流态化远程运动机制等研究难点。基于这些成果构建的高位远程滑坡动力学将有助于指导藏东南重大工程规划建设中地质灾害风险防范的理论依据,对藏东南地区可持续发展具有重要的现实意义。     

海底滑坡在太平洋的发育程度和经济意义

覆盖着三分之一地球表面,从赤道一直延伸到高纬度的太平洋,包含着许多易于产生海底滑坡的环境要素。这些要素的破坏导致了滑坡,成为一种将大量沉积物从海滨送到深水区的地质作用,并且对滨海和海岸的发展构成危险。海底滑坡也会造成人身伤亡。通过以下现象的观察可以确定和鉴别太平洋的海底滑坡:(1)海滨线和海岸建筑物破坏;(2)通讯电缆等滨海建筑物遭到破坏;(3)海底地貌在短时间内发生变化;(4)在高分辨率的声学剖面上具有特定的海底地貌特征。通过对由以上这些观察所发现的几个滑坡的研究可以使我们清楚地弄清楚这些滑坡的分布、规模和地貌特征。对海滨线和海岸建筑物造成直接影响的几个滑坡实例中,发生在不列颠哥伦比亚(加拿大)的Howe Sound的粗粒扇形三角洲中的滑坡属其中之一;另一起发生在不     

Critical Self-Organization of Astrophysical Shocks

There are two distinct regimes of the first-order Fermi acceleration of shocks. The first is a linear (test-particle) regime in which most of the shock energy goes into thermal and bulk motions of the plasma. The second is an efficient regime in which the shock energy goes into accelerated particles. Although the transition region between them is narrow, we identify the factors that drive the system toward a self-organized critical state between those two regimes. Using an analytic solution, we determine this critical state and calculate the spectra and maximum energy of accelerated particles.     

A trophic model for the Danshuei River Estuary, a hypoxic estuary in northern Taiwan

The estuary of the Danshuei River, a hypoxic subtropical estuary, receives a high rate of untreated sewage effluent. The Ecopath with Ecosim software system was used to construct a mass-balanced trophic model for the estuary, and network analysis was used to characterize the structure and matter flow in the food web. The estuary model was comprised of 16 compartments, and the trophic levels varied from 1.0 for primary producers and detritus to 3.0 for carnivorous and piscivorous fishes. The large organic nutrient loading from the upper reaches has resulted in detritivory being more important than herbivory in the food web. The food-chain length of the estuary was relatively short when compared with other tropical/subtropical coastal systems. The shortness of food-chain length in the estuary could be attributed to the low biomass of the top predators. Consequently, the trophic efficiencies declined sharply for higher trophic levels due to low fractions of flows to the top predators and then high fractions to detritus. The low biomass of the top predators in the estuary was likely subject to over-exploitation and/or hypoxic water. Summation of individual rate measurements for primary production and respiration yielded an estimate of −1791 g WW m⁻² year⁻¹, or −95 g C m⁻² year⁻¹, suggesting a heterotrophic ecosystem, which implies that more organic matter was consumed than was produced in the estuary.     

Influence of strong monsoon winds on the water quality around a marine cage-culture zone in a shallow and semi-enclosed bay in Taiwan

Influences of marine cage culture and monsoonal disturbances, northeasterly (NE) and southwesterly (SW) monsoons on the proximal marine environment were investigated across a gradient of sites in a semi-enclosed bay, Magong Bay (Penghu Islands, Taiwan). Elevated levels of ammonia produced by the cages were the main pollutant and distinguished the cage-culture and intermediary zones (1000 m away from the cages) from the reference zone in the NE monsoon, indicating currents produced by the strong monsoon may have extended the spread of nutrient-enriched waters without necessarily flushing such effluents outside Magong Bay. Moreover, the levels of chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity were distinguishable between two seasons, suggesting that resuspension caused by the NE monsoon winds may also influence the water quality across this bay. It indicated that the impacts of marine cage culture vary as a function of distance, and also in response to seasonal movements of water driven by local climatic occurrences.     

汶川地震高速远程滑坡机制实验研究

汶川大地震触发了多处高速远程滑坡,导致了大量的人员伤亡及财产损失。其中,东河口滑坡是这次地震触发的最为典型的高速远程滑坡之一,同时也是目前备受关注、争论颇多的滑坡之一。野外调研结果表明,该滑坡的成因和动力特征主要包括震裂溃屈、水平抛射、碎屑流化和振动液化等4个方面。为了对该滑坡滑动过程中的振动液化这一动力特征进行模拟再现,在东河口滑坡体上采集了具有代表性的滑带土作为试验样品,并以该地震时的实测地震波作为动力输入,利用目前国际上最先进的DPRI环剪试验机,对滑坡滑动过程中的振动液化现象进行了一系列环剪试验研究。结果表明,地震作用过程中,发生在滑坡潜在滑面上的振动液化现象是导致高速远程滑坡产生的一个重要因素;伴随着振动液化过程,滑体的剪切强度迅速降低并产生逐渐增大的剪切位移,为高速远程滑坡的形成提供了条件