Holocene Dynamics of Vegetation and Ecological Conditions in the Center of the East European Plain

Changes in the vegetation and fire regimes in the central East European Plain during the second half of the Holocene have been reconstructed based on the results of paleobotanical analysis and radiocarbon dating of material from a section of peat deposit in the Mordovia State Nature Reserve. It has been shown that birch–pine forests were widespread in the region between 7000 and 5000 yr BP, with the frequency of fires in that period being high (the fire return interval ranged from 10–20 to 100 years). Beginning from 5000 yr BP and to the early 20th century, broadleaf forests were dominant, with the fire return interval increasing to 300–500 years or longer.     

Larval and Juvenile Fish Assemblage Structure of Inshore Habitats in the Middle Reaches of Li River,China: Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Relation to Abiotic Factors

To evaluate the effect of abiotic factors on larval and juvenile fish assemblage in shallow waters of middle reaches of Li River, Guilin, China. Samplings were taken monthly at 7 stations in the mainstream and 2 stations in 3 tributaries from May 2014 to April 2015. Synchronously, temperature, pH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen rainfall and discharge were obtained. In all, 11.886 larval and juvenile fish from 18 species belonging to 8 families, 16 genera was captured. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed obvious significant difference between the environmental variables across sampling areas and months. The results of Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) indicated that water temperature, turbidity, discharge and rainfall were dominant factors on larval and juvenile fish assemblage.     

基于EEMD和EOF的鄱阳湖流域近550 a来旱涝时空变化

利用鄱阳湖流域及周边地区5个站点1467~2016年旱涝灾害史料,结合《中国近五百年旱涝分布图集》数据和现代器测降水资料,基于相关系数权重法集成重建了鄱阳湖流域近550 a旱涝序列。采用集合经验模态分解和经验正交函数等手段分析了鄱阳湖流域近550 a来的旱涝时空变化特征。结果表明：（1）鄱阳湖流域旱涝序列的各IMF分量变化规律符合自然信号的非线性变化的特征,主要的高频变化周期有2~3 a、7~8 a;中低频变化周期有22 a、36 a;低频变化周期有110 a、220 a等。（2）旱涝序列空间场的EOF分解表明,前4个模态的累积方差贡献率为93.68%,收敛效果明显。第一模态为区域整体变化一致;第二、三模态分别代表南北方向和东西方向上旱涝变化不一致;第四模态代表赣南地区的极端降水类型。（3）主要空间模态的时间系数功率谱分析结果表明,旱涝空间场模态的变化周期与旱涝序列EEMD分解的结果基本一致。 关键词： EEMD;EOF;旱涝变化;时空特征;鄱阳湖流域     

Soil surface Hg emission flux in coalfield in Wuda,Inner Mongolia,China

Hg emission flux from various land covers, such as forests, wetlands, and urban areas, have been investigated. China has the largest area of coalfield in the world, but data of Hg flux of coalfields, especially, those with coal fires, are seriously limited. In this study, Hg fluxes of a coalfield were measured using the dynamic flux chamber (DFC) method, coupled with a Lumex multifunctional Hg analyzer RA-915+ (Lumex Ltd., Russia). The results show that the Hg flux in Wuda coalfield ranged from 4 to 318 ng m^?2 h^?1, and the average value for different areas varied, e.g., coal-fire area 99 and 177 ng m^?2 h^?1; no coal-fire area 19 and 32 ng m^?2 h^?1; and backfilling area 53 ng m^?2 h^?1. Hg continued to be emitted from an underground coal seam, even if there were no phenomena, such as vents, cracks, and smog, of coal fire on the soil surface. This phenomenon occurred in all area types, i.e., coal-fire area, no coal-fire area, and backfilling area, which is universal in Wuda coalfield. Considering that many coalfields in northern China are similar to Wuda coalfield, they may be large sources of atmospheric Hg. The correlations of Hg emission flux with influence factors, such as sunlight intensity, soil surface temperature, and atmospheric Hg content, were also investigated for Wuda coalfield.

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Comparison on surface properties and desulfurization of MnO2 and pyrolusite blended activated carbon by steam activation

In this study, MnO₂ and pyrolusite were used as the catalysts to prepare modified activated carbon, that is, AC-Mn and AC-P, respectively, from coals by blending method and steam activation. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) results indicated that the AC-P had higher surface areas and micropore volumes than the AC-Mn with the same blending ratio. The relative contents of basic functional groups (i.e., C = O, π-π*) on AC-P were slightly lower than those on AC-Mn, while both contained the same main metal species, namely, MnO. The desulfurization results showed that with 3 wt% of blending ratio, AC-Mn3 and AC-P3 had higher sulfur capacities at 220 and 205 mg/g, respectively, which were much higher than for the blank one (149.6 mg/g). Moreover, the AC-P had relatively higher sulfur capacity than the AC-Mn with the same contents of Mn, which might be attributed to the existence of other metals in pyrolusite. After the desulfurization process, MnO were gradually transferred into MnSO₄, and the relative contents of basic functional groups decreased evidently for both AC-Mn3 and AC-P3. The results demonstrated that pyrolusite could be one good alternative to MnO₂ to prepare modified activated carbon for desulfurization.

Implications: MnO₂ and pyrolusite were used as the additives to prepare modified activated carbon from coals by a blending method and by steam activation, that is, AC-Mn and AC-P, respectively. The AC-P had higher surface areas and micropore volumes than the AC-Mn with the same blending ratio. The AC-Mn and AC-P had higher sulfur capacities than a blank one. Moreover, the AC-P had relatively higher sulfur capacity than the AC-Mn with the same contents of Mn. The results demonstrated that pyrolusite could be one good alternative to MnO₂ to prepare modified activated carbon for desulfurizatio.     

Feasibility of coupling a thermal/optical carbon analyzer to a quadrupole mass spectrometer for enhanced PM2.5 speciation

A thermal/optical carbon analyzer (TOA), normally used for quantification of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in PM_2.5 (fine particulate matter) speciation networks, was adapted to direct thermally evolved gases to an electron impact quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS), creating a TOA-QMS. This approach produces spectra similar to those obtained by the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), but the ratios of the mass to charge (m/z) signals differ and must be remeasured using laboratory-generated standards. Linear relationships are found between TOA-QMS signals and ammonium (NH₄⁺), nitrate (NO₃^?), and sulfate (SO₄^2-) standards. For ambient samples, however, positive deviations are found for SO₄^2-, compensated by negative deviations for NO₃^?, at higher concentrations. This indicates the utility of mixed-compound standards for calibration or separate calibration curves for low and high ion concentrations. The sum of the QMS signals across all m/z after removal of the NH₄⁺, NO₃^?, and SO₄^2- signals was highly correlated with the carbon content of oxalic acid (C?H?O?) standards. For ambient samples, the OC derived from the TOA-QMS method was the same as the OC derived from the standard IMPROVE_A TOA method. This method has the potential to reduce complexity and costs for speciation networks, especially for highly polluted urban areas such as those in Asia and Africa.

Implications: Ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate can be quantified by the same thermal evolution analysis applied to organic and elemental carbon. This holds the potential to replace multiple parallel filter samples and separate laboratory analyses with a single filter and a single analysis to account for a large portion of the PM_2.5 mass concentration.     

Pond bank access as an approach for managing toxic cyanobacteria in beef cattle pasture drinking water ponds

Forty-one livestock drinking water ponds in Alabama beef cattle pastures during were surveyed during the late summer to generally understand water quality patterns in these important water resources. Since livestock drinking water ponds are prone to excess nutrients that typically lead to eutrophication, which can promote blooms of toxigenic phytoplankton such as cyanobacteria, we also assessed the threat of exposure to the hepatotoxin, microcystin. Eighty percent of the ponds studied contained measurable microcystin, while three of these ponds had concentrations above human drinking water thresholds set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (i.e., 0.3 μg/L). Water quality patterns in the livestock drinking water ponds contrasted sharply with patterns typically observed for temperate freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Namely, we found several non-linear relationships between phytoplankton abundance (measured as chlorophyll) and nutrients or total suspended solids. Livestock had direct access to all the study ponds. Consequently, the proportion of inorganic suspended solids (e.g., sediment) increased with higher concentrations of total suspended solids, which underlies these patterns. Unimodal relationships were also observed between microcystin and phytoplankton abundance or nutrients. Euglenoids were abundant in the four ponds with chlorophyll concentrations >?250 μg/L (and dominated three of these ponds), which could explain why ponds with high chlorophyll concentrations would have low microcystin concentrations. Based on observations made during sampling events and available water quality data, livestock-mediated bioturbation is causing elevated total suspended solids that lead to reduced phytoplankton abundance and microcystin despite high concentrations of nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. Thus, livestock could be used to manage algal blooms, including toxic secondary metabolites, in their drinking water ponds by allowing them to walk in the ponds to increase turbidity.     

Identifying key areas of ecosystem services potential to improve ecological management in Chongqing City,southwest China

Because natural ecosystems and ecosystem services (ES) are both critical to the well-being of humankind, it is important to understand their relationships and congruence for conservation planning. Spatial conservation planning is required to set focused preservation priorities and to assess future ecological implications. This study uses the combined measures of ES models and ES potential to estimate and analyze all four groups of ecosystem services to generate opportunities to maximize ecosystem services. Subsequently, we identify the key areas of conservation priorities as future forestation and conservation hotspot zones to improve the ecological management in Chongqing City, located in the upper reaches of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China. Results show that ecosystem services potential is extremely obvious. Compared to ecosystem services from 2000, we determined that soil conservation could be increased by 59.11%, carbon sequestration by 129.51%, water flow regulation by 83.42%, and water purification by 84.42%. According to our prioritization results, approximately 48% of area converted to forests exhibited high improvements in all ecosystem services (categorized as hotspot-1, hotspot-2, and hotspot-3). The hotspots identified in this study can be used as an excellent surrogate for evaluation ecological engineering benefits and can be effectively applied in improving ecological management planning.     

Spatial distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon in subtropical forests of mountain Lushan,China

The study on the spatial distribution of forest soil organic carbon (SOC) is of great significance for accurate assessment of carbon storage in forest ecosystems. In the present study, by taking eight kinds of forest soils of Mountain Lushan in the subtropical area as the research object, we studied the spatial distribution characteristics of SOC in this mountainous area. The results showed that the SOC content and SOC density (SOCD) of main forest types in the Mountain Lushan were lower than the national and the world average. The soil layer of Lushan forest was thinner, and the SOC and active SOC (ASOC) contents of different forest types and SOCDs are the highest in the surface soil. SOCD of the topsoil accounts for 32.64–54.03% of the total SOCD in the whole soil profile. Surface litter is an important source of SOC, and the different vegetation types are the important reason for the different spatial distribution of SOC in this area. Soil SOC contents in the high-altitude forest (bamboo forest, deciduous broadleaf forest, Pinus taiwanensis forest, evergreen-deciduous forest, and coniferous-broadleaved mixed forest) were higher than those in the low-altitude forest (evergreen broadleaf forest, shrub, and Pinus massoniana forest). However, the difference in SOC content exhibited at the altitude gradient is significantly lower than that in SOC in the soil profile. This indicates that both soil depth and elevation are the important factors that affected SOC distribution. However, the influence of soil depth on spatial distribution of SOC may be more complex than that of altitude. Vegetation types and soil properties are the main reasons for the large differences of reduction rate in the contents of SOC and ASOC.     

Soil CO2 fluxes from direct seeding rice fields under two tillage practices in central China

Agricultural practices affect the production and emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from paddy soils. It is crucial to understand the effects of tillage and N fertilization on soil CO₂ flux and its influencing factors for a better comprehension of carbon dynamics in subtropical paddy ecosystems. A 2-yr field study was conducted to assess the effects of tillage (conventional tillage [CT] and no-tillage [NT]) and N fertilization (0 and 210 kg N ha^?1) on soil CO₂ fluxes during the 2008 and 2009 rice growing seasons in central China. Treatments were established following a split-plot design of a randomized complete block with tillage practices as the main plot and N fertilizer level as the split-plot treatment. The soil CO₂ fluxes were measured 24 times in 2008 and 17 times in 2009. N fertilization did not affect soil CO₂ emissions while tillage affected soil CO₂ emissions, where NT had similar soil CO₂ emissions to CT in 2008, but in 2009, NT significantly increased soil CO₂ emissions. Cumulative CO₂ emissions were 2079–2245 kg CO₂–C ha^?1 from NT treatments, and 2084–2141 kg CO₂–C ha^?1 from CT treatments in 2008, and were 1257–1401 kg CO₂–C ha^?1 from NT treatments, and 1003–1034 kg CO₂–C ha^?1 from CT treatments in 2009, respectively. Cumulative CO₂ emissions were significantly related to aboveground biomass and soil organic C. Before drainage of paddy fields, soil CO₂ fluxes were significantly related to soil temperature with correlation coefficients (R) of 0.67–0.87 in 2008 and 0.69–0.85 in 2009; moreover, the Q₁₀ values ranged from 1.28 to 1.55 and from 2.10 to 5.21 in 2009, respectively. Our results suggested that NT rice production system appeared to be ineffective in decreasing carbon emission, which suggested that CO₂ emissions from integrated rice-based system should be taken into account to assess effects of tillage.