黑龙江哈尔滨白渔泡国家湿地公园沼泽、林地和农田土壤物理、化学和生物性质差异

为了揭示黑龙江哈尔滨白渔泡国家湿地公园沼泽、林地和农田土壤物理、化学和生物性质的差异,于2018年7月25日~8月2日,在湿地公园内,在天然芦苇(Phragmites australis)沼泽、林地、旱田和水田中设置采样地,采集不同深度(0~10 cm、10~20 cm和20~30 cm)的土壤样品,测定土壤样品的物理、化学和生物指标。研究结果表明,白渔泡国家湿地公园不同采样地土壤指标存在差异;与天然芦苇沼泽土壤相比,其它采样地土壤的含水量明显偏低,土壤全氮、全磷、碱解氮和有机质含量都明显偏小,水田土壤速效磷含量偏大;天然芦苇沼泽土壤脲酶、硝酸还原酶、纤维素酶、蛋白酶和β-葡萄糖苷酶活性都高于林地和农田土壤,水田0~10 cm和10~20 cm深度土壤的硝酸还原酶活性显著高于旱田和林地;与天然芦苇沼泽土壤相比,旱田土壤小于0.25 mm的小团聚体含量偏大,而其它采样地土壤的各粒级团聚体的比例变化较小,水田土壤团聚体平均重量直径比天然芦苇沼泽和旱田土壤低。     

Testing the circumstellar disc hypothesis: a search for H2 outflow signatures from massive young stellar objects with linearly distributed methanol masers

The results of a survey searching for outflows using near-infrared imaging are presented. Targets were chosen from a compiled list of massive young stellar objects associated with methanol masers in linear distributions. Presently, it is a widely held belief that these methanol masers are found in (and delineate) circumstellar accretion discs around massive stars. If this scenario is correct, one way to test the disc hypothesis is to search for outflows perpendicular to the methanol maser distributions. The main objective of the survey was to obtain wide-field near-infrared images of the sites of linearly distributed methanol masers using a narrow-band 2.12-μm filter. This filter is centred on the  H₂ v = 1–0 S(1)  line; a shock diagnostic that has been shown to successfully trace CO outflows from young stellar objects. 28 sources in total were imaged of which 18 sources display H₂ emission. Of these, only two sources showed emission found to be dominantly perpendicular to the methanol maser distribution. Surprisingly, the H₂ emission in these fields is not distributed randomly, but instead the majority of sources are found to have H₂ emission dominantly parallel to their distribution of methanol masers. These results seriously question the hypothesis that methanol masers exist in circumstellar discs. The possibility that linearly distributed methanol masers are instead directly associated with outflows is discussed.     

Biological and granulometric controls on sedimentary organic matter of an intertidal mudflat

A variety of measures of organic matter concentration and quality were made on samples collected from the top few mm of intertidal mudflat sediment over the course of a year, in order to assess the relative importance of biological and sedimentological influences on sedimentary organic matter. Winter and summer were times of relatively fine-grained sediment accumulation, caused by biological deposition or stabilization processes and resulting in higher organic matter concentrations. Stable carbon isotope and Br:C ratios indicated a planktonic source of bulk organic matter. Ratios of organic carbon to specific surface area of the sediments were consistent with an organic monolayer coverage of sediment grains. Correction for changing grain size during the year showed no change in the organic concentration per unit surface area, in spite of organic matter inputs by in situ primary production, buildup of heterotroph biomass and mucus coatings, and biodeposition of organic-rich seston. There were also no indications of changes in bulk organic quality, measured as hydrolyzable carbohydrates and amino acids, in response to these biological processes. It is concluded that biological processes on a seasonal time scale affect the bulk organic matter of these sediments via a modulation of grain size rather than creation or decay of organic matter.     

The NAIAD experiment for WIMP searches at Boulby mine and recent results

The NAIAD experiment (NaI Advanced Detector) for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter searches at Boulby mine (UK) is described. The detector consists of an array of encapsulated and unencapsulated NaI(Tl) crystals with high light yield. Six crystals are collecting data at present. Data accumulated by four of them (10.6 kg × year exposure) have been used to set upper limits on the WIMP–nucleon spin-independent and WIMP–proton spin-dependent cross-sections. Pulse shape analysis has been applied to discriminate between nuclear recoils, as may be caused by WIMP interactions, and electron recoils due to gamma background. Various calibrations of crystals are presented.     

Galaxy formation: Warm dark matter, missing satellites, and the angular momentum problem

We present warm dark matter (WDM) as a possible solution to the missing satellites and angular momentum problem in galaxy formation and introduce improved initial conditions for numerical simulations of WDM models, which avoid the formation of unphysical haloes found in earlier simulations. There is a hint, that because of that the mass function of satellite haloes has been overestimated so far, pointing to higher values for the WDM particle mass. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.