2004年至2009年南极中山站的气候变化特征

利用2004年～ 2009年逐月气象资料,采用气候统计诊断分析方法,对中山站气温、气压、相对湿度、风的气候变化趋势进行研究.结果表明,中山站平均气温四季均呈下降趋势,变化幅度为-0.003℃/a～-0.46℃/a,冬季气温降幅最大,秋季降幅最小;年平均气温表现为弱的下降趋势,平均每年下降-0.003℃;年极端最高气温呈逐年下降趋势,降幅为-0.4℃/a,年极端最低气温呈逐年上升趋势,升幅为0.2℃/a;年平均气温、极昼平均气温日变化呈升温趋势,升幅分别为0.04℃/a、0.01℃/a,极夜平均气温表现为弱的降温趋势,降幅为-0.002℃/a;年平均气压、极端最高气压、极端最低气压、年平均相对湿度、年最小相对湿度均呈明显的下降趋势;平均风速具有明显的日变化规律,2004年2月～2009年11月大风日数共出现了835d,年大风日数均在100d以上;最大风速最大值为31.5m.s-1、极大风速最大值为39.1m.s-1,均出现在11月;年最多风向频率为49％～64％,以NE、E为主.     

1961—2010年西双版纳傣族自治州极端气温时空变化特征

利用1961—2010年西双版纳傣族自治州的逐日气象格点数据(0.25°×0.25°),运用R软件摘出研究区范围内的每个格点数据,利用STARDEX中的FORTRAN子程序计算出57个极端气候指数,选取其中与气温相关的9个主要极端指数,结合线性趋势分析与Mann-Kendall秩次检验等方法分析了1961—2010年西双版纳极端气温变化的特征。结果表明:(1)西双版纳近50年来气温呈显著上升趋势,平均气温、平均最高气温和平均最低气温分别以0.27℃/10a、0.22℃/10a和0.36℃/10a的速率上升,其值的空间分布呈现出自西北向东南递减趋势;(2)气温日较差平均值和较大气温日较差阈值呈下降趋势,分别以0.13℃/10a和0.25℃/10a的速率下降,其值的空间分布呈现出自西向东递减趋势;(3)冷暖日、冷暖夜阈值均呈上升趋势,分别以0.27℃/10a、0.16℃/10a、0.46℃/10a和0.27℃/10a的速率上升趋势,其值的空间分布呈现出北部、西北部向南部、东南部递减趋势。西双版纳气温变化呈明显增温趋势,研究区冷事件在减少,暖事件在增多。     

秦皇岛市近64年气温变化特征分析

利用1954—2017年秦皇岛市气象站逐月平均气温资料,运用线性趋势、滑动平均等方法,对秦皇岛市气温变化特征进行分析。结果表明:近64 a秦皇岛平均气温呈上升趋势,趋势率为0.169℃/10 a;年平均最高气温和平均最低气温升温趋势率为0.153℃/10 a和0.156℃/10 a;不同季节升温不同,春季和冬季升温更为突出;月气温变化中3月升温趋势最大,2月次之;年极端最高气温变化范围在31.0~40.0℃,年极端最低气温变化范围-26~-8.6℃;秦皇岛观测站搬迁后气温比20世纪90年代明显下降。     

都兰县近40年气候资源变化特征分析

利用都兰县1961－2000年40年气象资料，运用统计学方法，对光、热、水等气候资源以及蒸发、风等气象要素的变化进行了分析，揭示了气候资源变化的基本事实和变化规律。结果表明：随着全球气候的变暖，近40年来，都兰县平均气温以0.269℃/10a的气候倾向率呈较明显的增温趋势，进入20世纪90年代升温趋势更加明显；气温≥0℃、≥5℃和≥10℃期间的积温均呈上升趋势，其中，≥10℃期间的积温上升趋势最为明显；年和汛期降水量增加，夏季降水量增加尤为明显；日照时数、蒸发和风速的年际变化呈下降趋势。     

秦皇岛地区气候资源及农业气候资源特征分析

利用近50 a秦皇岛气象资料,对该地区气候资源及农业气候资源特征进行了分析总结。结果表明:秦皇岛地区年降水量650～700 mm左右,呈减少趋势。全年80%保证率的降水量为425 mm,存在供需矛盾。蒸发量较降水量明显偏多,直接决定了该地区土壤在自然状态下绝大部分时段处于干旱状态。年平均气温10℃左右,呈上升趋势。平均年太阳辐射总量为5 154 MJ/m2,太阳辐射资源较丰富。秦皇岛地区农时较长,气温稳定通过10℃期间历时192 d,可以实行短生育期作物一年二熟或套作二熟。     

西宁市近50年气候变化特征分析

利用西宁市气象观测站1961~2010年的气温和降水资料,分析了西宁市近50年的气候特征及周期变化。结果表明:50年来西宁市年平均气温呈现非连续性上升趋势,线性倾向值为0.09℃/10a,各季的变暖趋势和变暖幅度不尽相同,增幅依次为冬季、春季、秋季、夏季。50年来降水总体为波动中明显增加的趋势,增长率为16.3mm/10a,各季降水量也呈增加的趋势。西宁市降水和气温的年代分布具有明显的阶段性,显示气候变化具有阶段性、季节差异性特征。近50年来,西宁市年气温和降水变化均以27a为第1主周期。     

乌兰县近35年气候变化及对生态环境的可能影响分析

利用乌兰气象观测站1981~2015年气温、降水资料,运用气候诊断分析方法,分析近35年来乌兰气温、降水变化特征。结果表明:1981~2015年间乌兰气温存在变暖趋势,年气候倾向率为0.363℃/10a;春、夏、秋、冬四个季节的气候倾向率为0.3℃/10a(秋季)~0.5℃/10a(春季)。春季增温最为明显,冬季和夏季增温较为明显,秋季增温较缓;年平均气温在1996~1997年间发生突变。年降水量主要集中在5~9月份,此时降水量(172.0mm)占年降水量(194.1mm)的88.61%,其余月份的降水量(22.1mm)仅占年降水量的11.39%。1982~1985年、1990~2003年出现降水连续偏少年份,2004~2012年为降水持续偏多年份。从20世纪80年代起,乌兰降水呈现出增多趋势,但突变检验表明:降水虽有增加趋势,但未发生突变性增加。平均气温的增加趋势,在一定程度上能够有效扩大农作物种植面积,延长农作物生长季节,增加农作物品种和产量,提高农作物品质,但也可能会增加干旱、洪涝、冰雹、雷电、雪灾等农牧业气象灾害出现机率。     

黄山近50年的气候变化研究

利用1956-2005年黄山风景区光明顶气象站的气象资料，分析了近50年黄山旅游风景区气温、降水、日照时数的变化特征。结果显示，黄山风景区年均温、冬季、夏季气温均呈上升趋势，冬季增温强于夏季；降水总体趋势下降；年平均日照时数也呈总体下降趋势，表明黄山风景区气候正在趋向变暖，特别是20世纪90年代以来气温升高显著，冬季增温明显，夏季降水变化加剧。     

秦皇岛探测环境变化对气象要素的影响

为分析秦皇岛地面气象探测环境变化对气象要素的影响，采用距平百分率和线性倾向估计及趋势系数等方法，对秦皇岛气象站（54449）新、旧站址搬迁前后1989—1998、1999—2008年各10年，与没有迁站的昌黎站做同期资料比较，结果表明：秦皇岛探测环境变化对气象要素有显著影响：年平均气温、年极端气温较迁站前显著下降，相对湿度增大，日照时数明显减少，雾日增多。指出气象要素变化除具有随时间变化的共同差异外，主要受探测环境变化的影响。     

安徽砀山水果产区近十年气候变化的R/S分析

基于1996—2005年的地面气象资料,应用R/S方法对砀山近十年平气温、降水和日照量等气候要素进行了分析。结果表明,砀山年平均气温、极端最高气温和极端最低气温均呈下降趋势,年降水量呈上升趋势,年日照量变化和缓,且具有较强的持续性。气候要素年际季节变化趋势表现为:冬、夏季平均温差减小,气温年较差有减小的趋势;降水夏季增加,其他各季节平均降水变率减小,各季节平均日照量变率减小。     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.     

Provincial development plans in Zimbabwe: an analysis of their content,structure and methodology

Zimbabwean provincial plans were instituted to help in the achievement of the national goal of the creation of an egalitarian, socialist and integrated society. The national goal itself was adopted as an antithesis to the dualist society characterised by spatial, economic, social, politican and technological inequalities that Zimbabwe inherited from colonialism. This meant that provincial plans had to play both a functional (or growth allocating/distribution) and a territorial (or redistribution) role.

This paper reviews their role in achieving the national goal by examining their functions, content, structure and methodology. The paper concludes that because of their nature, provincial plans are not suitable tools for the achievement of the national goal.     

Surface applied water treatment residuals affect bioavailable phosphorus losses in Florida sands

Water treatment residuals (WTR) can reduce runoff P loss and surface co-application of P-sources and WTR is a practical way of land applying the residuals. In a rainfall simulation study, we evaluated the effects of surface co-applied P-sources and an Al-WTR on runoff and leacheate bioavailable P (BAP) losses from a Florida sand. Four P-sources, namely poultry manure, Boca Raton biosolids (high water-soluble P), Pompano biosolids (moderate water-soluble P), and triple super phosphate (TSP) were surface applied at 56 and 224kgPha(-1) (by weight) to represent low and high soil P loads typical of P- and N-based amendments rates. The treatments further received surface applied WTR at 0 or 10gWTRkg(-1) soil. BAP loss masses were greater in leachate (16.4-536mg) than in runoff (0.91-46mg), but were reduced in runoff and leachate by surface applied WTR. Masses of total BAP lost in the presence of surface applied WTR were less than approximately 75% of BAP losses in the absence of WTR. Total BAP losses from each of the organic sources applied at N-based rates were not greater than P loss from TSP applied at a P-based rate. The BAP loss at the N-based rate of moderate water-soluble P-source (Pompano biosolids) was not greater than BAP losses at the P-based rates of other organic sources tested. The hazards of excess P from applying organic P-sources at N-based rates are not greater than observed at P-based rates of mineral fertilizer. Results suggest that management of the environmental P hazards associated with N-based rates of organic materials in Florida sands is possible by either applying P-sources with WTR or using a moderate water-soluble P-source.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.