Using turbidity and acoustic backscatter intensity as surrogate measures of suspended sediment concentration in a small subtropical estuary

The suspended sediment concentration is a key element in stream monitoring, although the turbidity and acoustic Doppler backscattering may be suitable surrogate measures. Herein a series of new experiments were conducted in laboratory under controlled conditions using water and mud samples collected in a small subtropical estuary of Eastern Australia. The relationship between suspended sediment concentration and turbidity exhibited a linear relationship, while the relationships between suspended sediment concentration and acoustic backscatter intensity showed a monotonic increase. The calibration curves were affected by both sediment material characteristics and water quality properties, implying that the calibration of an acoustic Doppler system must be performed with the waters and soil materials of the natural system. The results were applied to some field studies in the estuary during which the acoustic Doppler velocimeter was sampled continuously at high frequency. The data yielded the instantaneous suspended sediment flux per unit area in the estuarine zone. They showed some significant fluctuations in instantaneous suspended mass flux, with a net upstream-suspended mass flux during flood tide and net downstream sediment flux during ebb tide. For each tidal cycle, the integration of the suspended sediment flux per unit area data with respect of time yielded some net upstream sediment flux in average.     

土壤水分对幼龄桉树蒸腾和生长的影响

通过盆栽试验,研究不同土壤水分对幼龄桉树蒸腾和生长的影响.结果表明,土壤含水量越高,桉树蒸腾量越大.随着桉树增长,植株蒸腾量逐月增大,但蒸腾强度却逐月下降,说明桉树叶面积增长速度,大于蒸腾量增长速度.不同土壤水分条件下桉树的蒸腾量、蒸腾时间长短和最大蒸腾量出现的时间不同.水分亏缺对桉树的影响是多方面的,外观表现为幼嫩枝梢萎蔫,分枝少、叶片少、叶面积下降、叶色变深、变暗,植株下部叶子叶尖枯死;生理上表现为气孔导度降低,阻力增大,气孔关闭,光合速率降低,养分吸收量减少.总的影响是生长量显著降低.在试验条件下,桉树每生产1 kg干物质所付出的蒸腾耗水量与土壤水分有关,土壤干旱时桉树的水分利用效率最低.     

人为干扰强度对村级景观结构特征的影响

以研究点与村落中心间的距离作为人为干扰强度的划分指标 ,把村落按重度人为干扰、中度人为干扰和轻度人为干扰 3个等级分为中心区、过渡区和基质区 ,分析不同人为干扰强度与村级景观特征的相互关系。结果表明 :随着人为干扰强度的增强 ,多样性指数、相对丰富度指数和均匀度指数均相应增大 ,在中度人为干扰强度区 ,上述 3种指数均最大 ,但优势度指数最小。随着干扰强度的增强 ,与人们生活密切相关的景观类型的分形维数减小 ,斑块的相似性增强     

Electrosensory prey detection in the African sharptooth catfish, Clarias gariepinus (Clariidae), of a weakly electric mormyrid fish, the bulldog (Marcusenius macrolepidotus)

During their seasonal runs in the Okavango and other freshwater bodies in southern Africa, the sharptooth catfish, Clarias gariepinus, specialises on the bulldog, Marcusenius macrolepidotus, as its main prey. We examined whether the catfish can locate bulldogs by detecting their pulse-type electric organ discharges (EODs). The electrosensory threshold for single-cycle, monopolar square-wave pulses was exceedingly low (down to 13 μV_p–p/cm for 4-ms pulses) in trained, food-rewarded sharptooth catfish (n=4), confirming the results of Lissmann and Machin who were, however, unable to identify a biological function. Other stimulus pulse waveforms (single-cycle, monopolar as well as bipolar sine-wave pulses) were also effective stimuli according to their spectral low-frequency energy contents (0– 30 Hz). Male bulldogs display an EOD pulse approximately 10× the duration of female EODs (≈0.5 ms). The C. gariepinus threshold for field-recorded playbacks of a male bulldog EOD (of long duration) was 103 μV_p–p/cm, whereas the brief female and juvenile EODs were not detected (using intensities of natural EODs). EODs of other mormyrids were detected when either monopolar or of long duration. Signal source amplitude increased linearly with standard length (SL) in bulldogs. Signal reach, as calculated from signal source amplitude and receiver sensitivity, is up to 150 cm for a large male bulldog (SL 27.5 cm), and 83 cm for a male that has just turned sexually mature (SL 12.6 cm). Therefore, most bulldogs eaten by catfish are probably male, in agreement with the size distribution of bulldogs found in catfish stomachs. These results suggest that sharptooth catfish rely heavily on their acute electrical sense during hunting, and an important function for electroreception in an African catfish has been identified. Received: 13 December 1999 / Revised: 20 April 2000 / Accepted: 20 May 2000     

Mapping Patterns of Human Use and Potential Resource Conflicts on Public Lands

Focusing on a 2.2 million hectare area surrounding the Lolo National Forest in western Montana, USA, we illustrate a GIS method for predicting patterns of human use on public lands and highlighting potential for impacts on fish and wildlife species. Data inputs include human population count (derived from the 1990 Census), roads and trails, and the predicted distributions of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) and 41 terrestrial vertebrates of special concern. Because results highlight areas where conflicts between humans and resources may occur, they are of potential use to land managers. This approach can be applied wherever data are available, and inputs can be varied according to the topics of interest.     

Eco-Efficiency of Electric and Electronic Appliances: A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Several papers have studied the eco-efficiency of manufacturing systems to address strategic socioeconomic issues in the context of sustainability analysis. Their goal has been to take into account not only environmental impact aspects throughout the whole life cycle but also to incorporate the associated economic value as well, thus, giving a comprehensive vision of both factors. This paper focuses on different commonplace household electric appliances, comparing their eco-efficiency computed using a data envelopment analysis model. We consider the retail price as a measure of the product’s economic value and the ecopoint LCA score as the assessment of its environmental impact. We conclude that cell phones and the bulky analyzed appliances have the highest eco-efficiency scores, whereas the rest would require a more environmentally friendly redesign and/or an increase in their perceived value to improve their eco-efficiency.     

基于Landsat 7的武汉市热岛效应研究

城市化使得城市数量和规模不断增加,城市作为人类对自然环境改造最为剧烈的部分,具有独特的区域环境,其中城市内部温度显著高于周边郊区的热岛效应是一个突出的城市环境问题,受到了普遍关注和研究。武汉市是长江中游特大城市,城市热岛效应明显,但对其研究很少。利用Landsat TM6波段数据,生成武汉市城市亮温场,分析了武汉市热场的分布、大小,利用亮温场均值、方差和相对温度评价城市热岛强度,并对城市热场的范围及强度变化与城市发展规模及方向进行了分析,取得了较好的效果。     

新的污染物环境危害评价指标——超标强度

污染物的危害程度不仅与超标率和超标倍数有关,而且与污染物超标持续时间有关。同样高的污染物浓度,如果其持续时间长短不同,其对环境的生态效应是不同的。为此,在充分分析超标率、超标倍数所存在缺陷的基础上,通过实例分析对比,以直观图解的方式提出了一套新的污染物环境危害评价指标体系——超标强度指标体系。超标强度指标体系中涉及的主要概念和指标有标准面积、超标面积、超标持续时间、超标强度和综合超标强度。在阐述了各指标的概念含义和计算方法后,以同一组监测数据为例,用超标率和超标倍数与超标强度指标进行了对比评价。结果表明,用超标强度及其指标体系可以科学、准确区分和评判超标率、超标倍数指标体系所不能区分和评判的真实存在的客观事实,而且非常精确地给出了污染物超标持续时间。超标强度指标所涵盖的内容比超标率和超标倍数更丰富,评价的结果更准确,所反映的生态环境质量状况更客观准确、科学真实。超标持续时间表明了污染物超标状态的持续时间。     

A comparative study between two ignition sources: Electric igniter versus pyrotechnic igniter

The risk assessment of combustible explosive dust is based on the determination of the probability of dust dispersion, the identification of potential ignition sources and the evaluation of explosion severity. It is achieved in most of cases with the two main experimental normalized devices such as the Hartmann tube (spark ignition) and the 20 L spherical bomb (with two 5 kJ pyrotechnic ignitors).Ignition energy of the 5 kJ ignitor is well calibrated and generates a reproducible ignition. But, on the other hand, this ignition is not punctual and the over pressure produced is nearly 2 bar. Moreover, the pyrotechnic igniter accelerates the combustion with multi ignition points in a large volume and that disturbs the flame propagation. In this way, this ignition source does not allow to analyze the combustion products because the composition of the pyrotechnic igniter was found in the combustion products.This paper deals with the comparison of two ignition sources in the 20 L spherical bomb. Different explosive dusts of great industrial interest are studied with electrical and pyrotechnic ignitors, in order to understand, first, the influence of each type of igniter on the explosion behaviour and then to evaluate the possibility of establishing a correspondence between parameters obtained with these two ignition sources.Severity parameters of nicotinic acid, aluminium powder and titanium alloy were measured by using the two types of ignition system in our 20 L spherical bomb equipped with the Kühner dihedral injector. The explosion overpressure $\mathrm{P}$ and the rate of pressure rise $\left(\raisebox{1ex}{$dP$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$dt$}\right.\right)$ were measured in a large range of concentration allowing to propose correlations between electrical and pyrotechnic ignition for each parameter and each type of powder. These correlations aim to link the tests used with two different collections of experimental parameters for the same dust. The relevance of these correlations will be discussed.     

基于SHMS的润扬悬索桥桥址区北风特性的研究

气象研究表明,作用在润扬悬索桥上的强风荷载主要是夏季台风和冬季偏北大风。运营近三年来,润扬悬索桥结构健康监测系统(SHMS)中的风速仪记录了经过该桥址区的大量强风样本。本文通过对北京时间2007-03-10 T13:00～2007-03-10 T16:00期间的实测强北风风速风向数据的分析,得到了该时段的风速和风向、紊流强度、紊流积分尺度、紊流功率谱密度函数等强风特性。结果表明,桥址区实测北风风速风向较稳定;顺风向紊流功率谱密度函数与Kaimal谱吻合较好;紊流强度较规范偏高。