Governmental policies drive the LUCC trajectories in the Jianghan Plain

The prosperity of farmers is closely tied to governmental policies. The Jianghan Plain is an important region for commodity grains, cotton and edible oil for China. The trajectories of land use and land cover change (LUCC) of the study area from 1995 to 2010 were studied based on the LUCC database of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The LUCC was characterised by a continuous decrease of arable land and continuous increase of waters and construction land. The LUCC was obviously concurrent with the implementation of related national policies. The transition to construction land was ever well controlled by ‘Notice regarding the further strengthening of land management and arable land protection’ promulgated in 1997. However, it flourished again with the ‘Rise of Central China Strategy’ taking effect since 2006. The transition of construction land to others reflects an uncommon trend, which must be strengthened with the strict implementation of the overall plan, which imposes a limited acreage quota of construction land to each district. The policies were quite contradictory to the transition of waters. LUCC related to waters is most active, which was driven by both natural forces and national policies. Just after the devastating flood of 1998, the state council of China put forward the Green Policy to govern the major rivers. As to the study area, it is mainly to ‘push over dykes to let flood through and return farmland to lakes’. In 2004, the Grain Direct Subsidy Policy was implemented, which, along with the surge in the price of rice, resulted in a strengthening trend of conversion of ponds to paddy fields.     

A novel auditory working-memory vigilance task for mental fatigue assessment

An auditory working-memory vigilance task (AWVT), which involves higher mental abilities of a person, like working-memory and decision-making, in addition to vigilance, is presented for measuring human mental fatigue in this paper. A 25-h sleep deprivation study, with hourly testing by AWVT (3 min), PalmPVT (5 min) and self-report of sleepiness, is conducted on eight healthy subjects. The trend of mental fatigue level as measured by a specially proposed score, AWVT Fatigue Index (AFI), during the 25-h study shows very similar pattern to those of PalmPVT lapses and self-report sleepiness. AFI even shows closer correspondence to self-report sleepiness than PalmPVT lapses. This suggests that AWVT is able to measure performance decrement due to sleep deprivation, and it can even provide better measurement of mental fatigue than PalmPVT. AWVT shows a learning curve of less than 3 trials indicating that no skill is required in performing AWVT. Furthermore, repeat studies are done on five of the eight subjects. Pearson’s correlation analysis and other statistical exhibits suggest that AWVT has good test–retest reliability and within subject consistency, which are even better than those of PalmPVT. These results suggest that the AWVT can be used as a reliable objective measure of mental fatigue, and it can even track mental fatigue more accurately than PalmPVT in the real world where most tasks require not just a reaction time type response, but also higher mental abilities.     

Influences of sediment properties and macrophytes on phosphorous speciation in the intertidal marsh

Phosphorus (P) in wetlands is mainly bound to sediment in various species, which is essential to predict water column P levels. The purpose of this work is to understand the influences of sediment properties and vegetation types on P speciation. Sediments under four vegetation types in the tidal flat and offshore sandbar in Hangzhou Bay of China were collected seasonally. The rank order of P species in sediment based on concentration was exchangeable P (Exch-P)?相似文献   

北京平原区夏垫断裂的多源遥感影像特征

1679年9月2日三河—平谷8.0级地震在地表形成总体走向N40°~45°E,倾角60°~70°,长达10 km的破裂带。该文采用Landsat-8、SPOT-5、SAR、GDEM、Google Earth多源遥感影像研究夏垫断裂的遥感影像特征。利用ERDAS软件,对Landsat-8影像按7∶4∶2依次为R、G、B分量作彩色合成增强处理,突出影像的线性构造特征;对Landsat-8和SPOT-5影像、Landsat-8和SAR影像分别进行融合处理,丰富影像的光谱信息;对GDEM与SPOT影像进行三维叠加,突出影像的三维特征;对SAR影像进行斑点压缩、方向滤波处理,突出影像平行断裂方向的线性特征。文中分析、对比了Google Earth和SPOT-5影像上地震陡坎的特征,陡坎在SPOT-5影像上表现较明显,但在影像上表现不出较低陡坎,同时,在两种影像上容易将绿色植被、狭窄道路或其它地物误认为陡坎;SAR滤波后的影像表现出暗色的线性条带;Landsat-8和SAR融合后的影像表现出较宽的异常条带,该条带指示断裂带所在位置。     

北京平原区夏垫活动断裂滑动速率及古地震复发间隔

搜集了有关夏垫断裂钻孔测年数据,采用最小二乘法对数据进行拟合分析,拟合结果显示夏垫断裂滑动速率在地段和时段上均存在差异,且在时段上的差异更加明显。前20 ka以来滑动速率相对较小(0.13~0.30 mm/a);前26 ka~20 ka,滑动速率较大(1.38~2.56mm/a),约为前20 ka以来滑动速率的9~11倍。利用潘各庄探槽、东柳河屯探槽、齐心庄探槽、大胡庄探槽、地震联合钻孔剖面及钻孔资料判定除1679年三河-平谷8级地震外,前20 ka以来夏垫断裂还存在6次古地震事件,古地震平均复发间隔约为3 000 a。     

Detection and Characterization of Avastrovirus Associated with Diarrhea Isolated from Minks in China

Astroviruses are becoming a growing concern in veterinary and public health. Many astrovirus species are associated with enteric diseases have been described in both mammalian and avian hosts. In the present study, 23 fecal samples from diarrheic minks were collected in Liaoning and Shandong Province, and an investigation of astrovirus was performed using biochemical methods and RT-PCR assay with specific primers. A total of four mink astroviral isolates were detected from sick minks with diarrhea problems. Further sequencing and characterization of the partial ORF1b gene and ORF2 gene segments revealed low sequence identities (20.0–85.3 and 31.8–87.2 %) with known astroviral strains, indicating the emergence of a novel clade of astroviruses. Some new features of the astroviral genome have also been discovered. The phylogenetic tree revealed that all samples were distantly related to mink astrovirus and were closely related to chicken astroviruses and turkey astroviruses. MK/DL-1, MK/DL-2, MK/SD-1, and MK/SD-2 formed a new clade and were found to be more closely related to astroviruses from birds than to other mink strains, indicating past cross-species transmission and considerable zoonotic potential.     

Soil organic carbon decomposition and carbon pools in temperate and sub-tropical forests in China

Decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) is a critical component of the global carbon cycle, and accurate estimates of SOC decomposition are important for forest carbon modeling and ultimately for decision making relative to carbon sequestration and mitigation of global climate change. We determined the major pools of SOC in four sites representing major forest types in China: temperate forests at Changbai Mountain (CBM) and Qilian Mountain (QLM), and sub-tropical forests at Yujiang (YJ) and Liping (LP) counties. A 90-day laboratory incubation was conducted to measure CO(2) evolution from forest soils from each site, and data from the incubation study were fitted to a three-pool first-order model that separated mineralizable soil organic carbon into active (C(a)), slow (C(s)) and resistant (C(r)) carbon pools. Results indicate that: (1) the rate of SOC decomposition in the sub-tropical zone was faster than that in the temperature zone, (2) The C(a) pool comprised approximately 1-3% of SOC with an average mean residence time (MRT) of 219 days. The C(s) pool comprised approximately 25-65% with an average MRT of 78 yr. The C(r) pool accounted for approximately 35-80% of SOC, (3) The YJ site in the sub-tropical zone had the greatest C(a) pool and the lowest MRT, while the QLM in the temperature zone had the greatest MRT for both the C(a) and C(s) pools. The results suggest a higher capacity for long-term C sequestration as SOC in temperature forests than in sub-tropical forests.     

Evaluation of the economic and environmental impact of converting cropland to forest: a case study in Dunhua county, China

The Sloping Land Conversion Program (also known as "Grain for Green" or the Upland Conversion Program) for converting cropland to forest is one of China's most ambitious environmental initiatives, and is one of the world's largest land-conservation programs with a budget of RMB 337 billion (over US$ 40 billion). Although environmental impacts have played a vital role in the general reasoning and argumentation for forest plantations, environmental impact analyses have often received less attention than economic analyses in the planning of plantation forestry projects. The overall goal of this paper is to evaluate the program's environmental impact considering the farmer's interests and the potential social benefits due to carbon sequestration in different scenarios based on household and field survey data in Dunhua County. Our findings are that: (1) in many cases, the program did not give adequate consideration to land productivity and environmental heterogeneity when selecting plots; (2) more than half of the reforestation plots were on flat cropland (slopes of less than 5 degrees ); (3) in five of the eight townships, net incomes on reforested land were substantially above or below previous crop incomes, raising questions about the efficiency of the allocation of compensation to farmers participating in the program; (4) the potential carbon co-benefit increased the NPV of the program by 5954-7009 RMB/ha. In conclusion, we recommend that more attention should be paid to the quality of reforestation programs rather than just their scale and note that consideration of potential carbon sequestration co-benefits enhances the benefits of cropland conversion programs.     

Tests of soil organic carbon density modeled by InTEC in China's forest ecosystems

The integrated terrestrial ecosystem C-budget model (InTEC) developed by Chen and co-workers has been used successfully to predict carbon dynamics of forests in Canada. It was tested here for forest soil organic carbon (SOC) density of China's northern temperate zone and southern subtropical zone. The results show that the simulated SOC density is highly correlated and in broad agreement with observations in Liping and in Changbaishan, representing the southern subtropical zone and the northern temperate zone in China, respectively. SOC density ranged from 2.2 to 11.2 kg/m(2) in Liping and from 3.4 to 14.8 kg/m(2) in Changbaishan. The correlation coefficients (r(2)) are 0.63 (N=16) and 0.76 (N=14) between the simulated and measured data in Liping and Changbaishan, respectively. The SOC densities under different vegetation types in Liping decrease in the order of mixed forest, broadleaf forest, Chinese fir, couch grass, and Chinese redpine, and in Changbaishan in the order of mixed forest, silver fir, larch forest, and birch forest.     

pH值对易腐有机垃圾厌氧发酵产物分布的影响

易腐有机垃圾的厌氧发酵(水解和酸化)程度和发酵类型受pH值的影响.批式实验结果表明:发酵液pH=7时有利于微生物的生长繁殖,从而促进碳水化合物的水解和酸化过程,还能促进可溶性蛋白的酸化过程.在不同pH值条件下,易腐有机垃圾的基本发酵类型为:pH=7时主要进行丁酸发酵;pH=8时丁酸发酵类型逐渐占优势;而pH=5时丙酸发酵类型逐渐占优势.乳酸是酸化初期的主要产物,但在发酵液的pH=5和pH=7条件下,乳酸可被微生物进一步代谢,而pH=8时乳酸却未能被代谢.在酸化初期醇的产生量大于挥发性脂肪酸,酸化后期pH=5和pH=7时挥发性脂肪酸与醇产生量比值为1.2～1.5∶1,而pH=8时两者比值为1.6～2.5∶1.pH为5、7和8三者的水解速率常数k_h分别为0.000 8 h^-1、0.000 9 h^-1和0.000 2h^-1.pH=7在反应时间t>100 h以后,发酵液中可溶态总有机碳全部由酸化产物组成,酸化完全;而pH=5和pH=8达到酸化完全的反应时间分别为t>300 h和t>600 h.