Relationship between the riverine nitrate–nitrogen concentration and the land use in the Teshio River watershed, North Japan

The present research investigated the relationship between nitrate–nitrogen (NO₃–N) in river water and the land use/land cover (hereafter, land use) in the Teshio River watershed located in northern Hokkaido island to understand the effect of human activities such as agriculture, forestry, industry, and urbanization in the drainage basin on the river ecosystem quality and services. River water was sampled at nine points seasonally during a 2-year period and the nutrients concentration was measured. Land use profiles were estimated at two spatial scales, riparian and sub-catchment, for each sampling station. The spatial pattern of water quality in the Teshio River showed increased NO₃–N levels associated with agriculture and urban expansion, and forest reduction in the watershed. Land use at the riparian scale closely reflected that at the sub-catchment scale, which masked the unique riparian buffer effect on the river water condition. The increased agricultural and reduced forest area in the riparian zone, especially in the upper middle reach, could be a possible reason for a decline of ecosystem service for the provisioning of clean water and habitat for aquatic organisms. Measures towards sustainable and more nature-friendly agricultural management are necessary in the area to protect the Teshio River ecosystem and its ecosystem services.     

COMPARISON OF PARAMETRIC TAIL ESTIMATORS FOR LOW‐FLOW FREQUENCY ANALYSIS1

ABSTRACT: In recent years, several approaches to hydrologic frequency analysis have been proposed that enable one to direct attention to that portion of an overall probability distribution that is of greatest interest. The majority of the studies have focused on the upper tail of a distribution for flood analyses, though the same ideas can be applied to low flows. This paper presents an evaluation of the performances of five different estimation methods that place an emphasis on fitting the lower tail of the lognormal distribution for estimation of the ten‐year low‐flow quantile. The methods compared include distributional truncation, MLE treatment of censored data, partial probability weighted moments, LL‐moments, and expected moments. It is concluded that while there are some differences among the alternative methods in terms of their biases and root mean square errors, no one method consistently performs better than the others, particularly with recognition that the underlying population distribution is unknown. Therefore, it seems perfectly legitimate to make a selection of a method on the basis other criteria, such as ease of use. It is also shown in this paper that the five alternative methods can perform about as well as, if not better than, an estimation strategy involving fitting the complete lognormal distribution using L‐moments.     

Pushing,pulling and manoeuvring an industrial cart: a psychophysiological study

One of the most frequent manual occupational tasks involves the pushing and pulling of a cart. Although several studies have associated health risks with pushing and pulling, the effects are not clear since occupational tasks have social, cognitive and physical components. The present work investigates a real case of a pushing and pulling occupational task from a manufacturing company. The study initially characterizes the case in accordance with Standard No. ISO 11228-2:2007 as low risk. An experiment with 14 individuals during three modalities of pushing and pulling was performed in order to further investigate the task with the application of electrophysiology. At the end, a simple questionnaire was given. The results show electrophysiological differences among the three modalities of pushing and pulling, with a major difference between action with no load and fully loaded with a full range of motions on the cart to handle.     

REGIONALIZATION OF LOW-FLOW FREQUENCY ESTIMATES: AN ALABAMA CASE STUI)Y1

ABSTRACT: Low-flow estimates, as determined by probabilistic modeling of observed data sequences, are commonly used to describe certain streamflow characteristics. Unfortunately, however, reliable low-flow estimates can be difficult to come by, particularly for gaging sites with short record lengths. The shortness of records leads to uncertainties not only in the selection of a distribution for modeling purposes but also in the estimates of the parameters of a chosen model. In flood frequency analysis, the common approach to mitigation of some of these problems is through the regionalization of frequency behavior. The same general approach is applied here to the case of low-flow estimation, with the general intent of not only improving low-flow estimates but also illustrating the gains that might be attained in so doing. Data used for this study is that which has been systematically observed at 128 streamflow gaging sites across the State of Alabama. Our conclusions are that the log Pearson Type 3 distribution is a suitable candidate for modeling of Alabama low-flows, and that the shape parameter of that distribution can be estimated on a regional basis. Low-flow estimates based on the regional estimator are compared with estimates based on the use of only at-site estimation techniques.     

三江平原典型沼泽湿地养分累积与沉积特征

研究了三江平原两类典型沼泽湿地(毛果苔草沼泽和芦苇沼泽)沉积物剖面有机碳、全氮、全磷和全硫的垂直分布规律,初步分析了三江平原湿地的沉积速率与沉积通量.结果表明,土壤有机碳、全氮、全磷和全硫在垂直方向上具有明显的分层和富聚现象,自上而下,有机碳的含量逐渐降低;全氮含量呈先增加后减少的分布趋势;毛果苔草沼泽全磷含量呈先减少后增加的"V"型分布,芦苇沼泽全磷含量逐渐降低;全硫的分布和有机碳的分布规律一致.相关性分析表明,全氮、全磷和全硫与有机碳之间呈极显著的正相关关系(P<0.01);有机碳与容重之间呈极显著的负相关关系(P<0.01).植被类型是影响沼泽湿地土壤有机碳、全氮、全磷和全硫的空间分布的主要因素之一.应用137Cs、210Pb测定沉积年代,并结合恒定放射性通量(CRS)模式推算年龄的结果表明,三江平原湿地平均沉积速率为0.33 cm·a-1,沉积通量为0.03～0.48 g·(cm2·a)-1,平均为0.29 g·(cm2·a)-1.