The influence of socioeconomic, environmental, and demographic factors on municipality-scale land-cover change in Mexico

Land-cover change is the result of complex multi-scale interactions between socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental factors. Demographic change, in particular, is thought to be a major driver of forest change. Most studies have evaluated these interactions at the regional or the national level, but few studies have evaluated these dynamics across multiple spatial scales within a country. In this study, we evaluated the effect of demographic, environmental, and socioeconomic variables on land-cover change between 2001 and 2010 for all Mexican municipalities (n?=?2,443) as well as by biome (n?=?4). We used a land-cover classification based on 250-m MODIS data to examine the change in cover classes (i.e., woody, mixed woody, and agriculture/herbaceous vegetation). We evaluated the trends of land-cover change and identified the major factors correlated with woody vegetation change in Mexico. At the national scale, the variation in woody vegetation was best explained by environmental variables, particularly precipitation; municipalities where woody cover increased tended to be in areas with low average annual precipitation (i.e., desert and dry forest biomes). Demographic variables did not contribute much to the model at the national scale. Elevation, temperature, and population density explained the change in woody cover when municipalities were grouped by biome (i.e., moist forest, dry forest, coniferous forest, and deserts). Land-cover change at the biome level showed two main trends: (1) the tropical moist biome lost woody vegetation to agriculture and herbaceous vegetation, and (2) the desert biome increased in woody vegetation within more open-canopy shrublands.     

河南省春季降水与温度变化的时空分布——基于地理信息系统的分析

春季的气候条件异常一直是制约河南省小麦生产的瓶颈之一,春旱作为河南省主要的气象灾害,严重影响了小麦的生长。近几十年来,极端天气事件随着全球气候变暖的加快而越发频繁。春季干旱发生的主要因子降水和温度的变异性显著变大。基于GIS及和河南省30年的气候整编资料,对河南省春季降水、温度及降水温度比的变化趋势及时空变化分布进行了研究。结果表明:豫南春季降水减少最为严重(南阳盆地除外),豫中次之,豫北春季降水稍有增加;从温度的变化分布来看,河南全省春季温度都呈上升趋势,其中,豫南的信阳、驻马店,豫西北的济源、焦作、洛阳、郑州及平顶山地区温度上升趋势较大,南阳盆地、豫东平原及豫北平原地带温度变化相对较小;反应春季气候异常的降水温度比豫南为负向变化最大,豫北为正向变化最大,空间分布与春季降水基本吻合。综合分析说明未来河南地区的气候变化将会更加不稳定。     

Environment Simulation for Studying the Effects of Air Pollutants on Computers

This paper describes a study directed towards the laboratory simulation of parameters of the office environment related to air borne gaseous and particulate pollutants and initial operating experience of a particulate test chamber, instrumentation, and control techniques. Also discussed is the design of a simple gaseous test chamber being constructed. Gas dilution procedures, control and general operating approach are described.     

Dust Scrubber Design—A Critique on the State of the Art

Geographic variation in the prevalence of respiratory disease between communities has been used to incriminate air pollution at low concentrations in the production of disease. Though demographic factors and the design and conduct of survey research affect the validity of these observations, there are other complex factors which are often neglected. From several community studies planned or conducted by the authors, illustrations will be given of the effect of the following six frequently neglected factors: the reliability of the air pollution monitoring network; the validity of the air pollution monitoring network; the competing effect of differential migration of population; the competing effect of occupational pollution of members of the population; the competing effect of socioeconomic factors; and the competing effect of personal air pollution—tobacco smoking.     

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of The Lead Peroxide Method for Atmospheric Monitoring of Sulfur Dioxide

This paper presents a simplified analysis to determine the variables that affect the empirical correlation factor used in the lead peroxide method. The rate of sulfation has been determined from two different models. In the first model, the mass transfer rate is calculated from the gas phase resistance alone whereas in the second model, the diffusion resistance in the gel phase is assumed to be the rate limiting step. Although the gas phase and the gel phase resistances may be both important in the actual case, it has been found that the correlation factor based on the first model is adequate to describe general experimental observations. Reasonable agreement has been obtained between the measured and the calculated va|ue of the correlation factor.     

Determination of Oxides of Nitrogen in Combustion Effluents with a Nitrate Ion Selective Electrode

The nitrate ion selective electrode was investigated as an alternative approach to the present colorimetric determination of nitrate resulting from oxidative absorption of nitrogen oxides from combustion effluents. The electrode offers advantages of speed and relatively simple experimental procedure. Replicate measurements of 10^?4–10^?2M nitric acid solutions using bracketing standards show that the electrode approach is capable of good precision (coefficient of variation = ±4%). Comparison of a method utilizing the nitrate electrode with the more laborious phenol disulfonic acid method for the measurement of nitrogen oxides in both oil and gas fired combustion effluents showed agreement within 4% of the mean even in the presence of high levels of SO₂. The correlation coefficient found for PDS vs nitrate electrode is 0.987.     

The Survival of Airborne Serratia marcescens in Urban Concentrations of Sulfur Dioxide

Aerosols of Serratia marcescens ATCC 274 were suspended in a 709L rotating drum at 20 ± 1 °C and high to mid-range relative humidities. At specified times after bacterial aerosolization, sulfur dioxide was added to concentrations of 2.5, or 5 mg/m³. Viable cell decay rate constants, in control aerosols without added sulfur dioxide, increased rapidly from near 100% to 60% RH in the first hour (termed: young aerosol) of suspension, and from a minimum rate constant at 80% in the succeeding four hours (termed: old aerosol).Upon addition of sulfur dioxide to a cloud of S. marcescens, generally, viable cell decay rate constants increased further. One exception was at 80% relative humidity where maximum resistance to SO₂ accelerated death was observed for old aerosols. Cells in young aerosols were particularly sensitive to SO₂ addition at mid-range humidities, while in older aerosols the cells were insensitive to up to 5 mg SO₂/m³ introduced at high RH; but were up to 10 times more sensitive than cells in young aerosols to a given increase (from 2.5 to 5 mg/m³) in SO₂ concentration at mid-range humidities.