Extent and Channel Morphology of Unmapped Headwater Stream Segments of the Quabbin Watershed,Massachusetts1

Brooks, Robert T. and Elizabeth A. Colburn, 2011. Extent and Channel Morphology of Unmapped Headwater Stream Segments of the Quabbin Watershed, Massachusetts. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(1):158‐168. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2010.00499.x Abstract: Effective regulatory protection and management of headwater resources depend on consistent and accurate identification and delineation of stream occurrence. Published maps and digital resources fail to represent the true occurrence and extent of headwater streams. This study assessed the accuracy of mapped origins of “blue‐line” streams depicted on U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps, and, if present, the morphological characteristics of unmapped stream segments. We identified 170 mapped stream origins on the Quabbin Reservoir watershed, Massachusetts. Of 30 mapped stream origins, we identified and examined 26 unmapped stream segments above 25, with an average length of 502 m. Twenty unmapped tributaries occurred on 10 of the 26 unmapped segments, with an average length of 127 m. Wetland reaches occurred more frequently and were larger on unmapped than on mapped stream segments. A significant and complex stream network occurs above most mapped stream origins. For the Quabbin watershed, we estimate that there are 85.8 km of unmapped stream upgradient of 314.5 km of mapped streams. Reliance on mapped stream networks for regulatory standards allows for the potential disturbance or even destruction of the unmapped stream resources. Jurisdictional regulations and guidelines should be revised so that the occurrence of streams should require field validation.     

Influence of grain size on species-habitat models

High resolution remote sensing data facilitate the use of small-scale habitat features such as trees or hedges in the analysis of species-habitat relationships. Such data potentially enable more accurate species-habitat mapping than lower resolution data. Here, for the first time, we systematically investigated this hypothesis by altering the spatial resolution from 1 m up to 1000 m grain size in species-habitat models of 13 bird species. The study area covered the Nidda river catchment in central Germany, a large heterogeneous landscape of 1620 km². A high resolution habitat map of the area was converted to coarser spatial and thematic resolutions in seven steps. We investigated how model performance responded to grain size, and we compared the differential effects of spatial resolution and thematic resolution on model performance. Explained deviance (D²) of the bird models generally decreased with coarser spatial resolution of the data, although it did not decrease monotonically in all species. On average across all species, model D² decreased from 41.5 at 1 m grain size to 15.9 at 1000 m grain size. Ten species were best modelled at 1 m, two species at 3 m and one species at 32 m grain size. Model performance degraded continuously with increasing grain size, both in habitat generalist and habitat specialist bird species, and was systematically lower in habitat generalists. The higher model performance observed at finer grain sizes was most likely caused by the combination of three factors: (1) high spatial accuracy of bird records and (2) a more precise location and delineation of habitat features and, (3) to a lesser degree, by more habitat types differentiated in maps of finer resolution. We conclude that higher spatial and thematic resolution data can be essential for deriving accurate predictions on bird distribution patterns from species-habitat models. Especially for bird species that are sensitive to specific land-use types or to small-scaled habitat features, a grain size of 1-3 m seems most promising.     

Modelling the spatial population dynamics of the green oak leaf roller (Tortrix viridana) using density dependent competitive interactions: Effects of herbivore mortality and varying host-plant quality

Cyclic population dynamics of forest insects with periods of more than two generations have been discussed in relation to a variety of extrinsic and intrinsic forces. In the present study, we employed the selection pressure of density dependent competitive interactions according to Witting's equations (Witting, 2000) as driver for a discrete spatiotemporal model of the green oak leaf roller (Tortrix viridana). The model was successfully parameterised to rebuild the cyclic population dynamics of an empirical data set of a 30-year leaf roller monitoring in Russia. Our analysis focussed on the role of herbivore mortality and host plant food quality, which have a significant effect on T. viridana population dynamics. An additional egg or larvae mortality lowers population density and can lead to selection pressures that favour individuals with higher growth rate. This increased population growth rate can not only compensate the additional mortality, but also can lead to higher average moth abundances in subsequent generations. Furthermore, we analysed the effect of inter- and intraspecific variation in host plant quality on herbivore population dynamics and the spatial distribution of abundance and defoliation patterns. We found significant effects of the qualitative composition of a trees neighbourhood on the herbivore population of the respective tree. Also, the patchy damage patterns observable in reality have been reproduced by the present model. The applicability of the model approach and the putative genetic processes underlying Witting's model are discussed.     

基于GIS的珠三角区域空气质量时空特征研究

以广东省环境信息GIS综合发布平台发布的2005年至2010年间粤港珠三角区域空气质量日报中空气质量等级数据为基础,利用GIS技术,首次采用网格化分析、均值分析、标准差分析、专题图渲染等分析方法,针对空间网格的空气质量年度均值、标准差等指标,对近5年来珠三角区域空气质量在横向上从珠三角空间区域范围,纵向上5年时间尺度内时空特征进行深入的研究,解决了在大地理区域、5年时间尺度空气质量分等定级过程中的区域边界划分问题。结果表明：珠三角的RAQI区域均值从2006年的2.3下降到2010年的2.02,空气质量整体上逐年改善;区域污染高值中心由东莞西部逐步向佛山中部转移;珠三角的肇庆南部、佛山中部、中山北部以及广州的南沙等区域空气质量变化幅度较大;惠州、深圳、香港等地区的空气质量较好,也较为稳定。     

Creating an academic landscape of sustainability science: an analysis of the citation network

Sustainability is an important concept for society, economics, and the environment, with thousands of research papers published on the subject annually. As sustainability science becomes a distinctive research field, it is important to define sustainability clearly and grasp the entire structure, current status, and future directions of sustainability science. This paper provides an academic landscape of sustainability science by analyzing the citation network of papers published in academic journals. A topological clustering method is used to detect the sub-domains of sustainability science. Results show the existence of 15 main research clusters: Agriculture, Fisheries, Ecological Economics, Forestry (agroforestry), Forestry (tropical rain forest), Business, Tourism, Water, Forestry (biodiversity), Urban Planning, Rural Sociology, Energy, Health, Soil, and Wildlife. Agriculture, Fisheries, Ecological Economics, and Forestry (agroforestry) clusters are predominant among these. The Energy cluster is currently developing, as indicated by the age of papers in the cluster, although it has a relatively small number of papers. These results are compared with those obtained by natural language processing. Education, Biotechnology, Medical, Livestock, Climate Change, Welfare, and Livelihood clusters are uniquely extracted by natural language processing, because they are common topics across clusters in the citation network.     

工业园共生演化定量研究

以江苏泰兴精细化工园及南通农药化工园为例,将最大流原理及自组织特征映射神经网络用于研究非成熟工业园的产业共生演化.由于演算得到的序参量ξ值虽然可以表征各工业园共生效益随时间变化情况,却无法用来横向比较工业园间共生效益,因此对计算过程进行了改进,提出新的序参量计算方法.比较了序参量ξ与产业关联度、交换量等指标后,定义ξ为产业共生演化效率指标,并将卡伦堡工业园2005年得出的ξ值2.87作为共生演化稳定状态标准值.研究发现,2个工业园在较少人工干预下,ξ值逐年上升,分别从0.04,0.133增加到1.51和1.675,但远小于卡伦堡工业园的2005年ξ值.建议在工业园自发形成进程基础上,加以合理引导,促进工业园更好更快地发展.     

含盐废水电渗析膜分离处理工艺研究

在水资源日益紧张、含盐废水排放量日益增多的大趋势下,寻求经济有效的含盐废水处理技术已成为重要的研究课题。以厦门某食品企业水产品加工腌泡环节含盐废水为研究对象。含盐废水经氨水沉淀、离子交换树脂软化处理,废水中钙镁离子被有效脱除,出水钙镁质量浓度已经降为10．4mg·L-1,达到软水水质标准。软化后的废水经4‰聚丙烯酰胺（PAM）絮凝并通过活性炭吸附,污染密度指数值（SDI）降低至0．41,完全达到膜分离装置进水水质的要求。预处理液再经电渗析膜进一步浓缩分离后,氯化钠质量浓度可由7351mg·L-1提升到78156mg·L-1,对盐分浓缩了10倍以上,达到废水和盐分的处理回收利用。本处理工艺流程简洁,药耗少、能耗低,比较适合小规模含盐废水的综合处理。     

基于解释图的概率多规划识别事故分析方法研究

基于多规划识别在行为分析的多目标性、过程性与结果解释性方面的优势,提出了一种改进的概率多规划识别事故分析法,并将其应用于井下电机车撞、压人事故行为分析。通过构建事故规划库和基本事件解释图,找出顶层事故致因的所有解释集合,并定义解释集合重要度对解释集合路径进行重要程度排序,从而找到导致顶层事件发生的最佳解释集合;通过临界重要度系数验算,对解释集合重要度的排序结果进行论证,两者计算结果基本一致且后者优势明显,说明了基于解释图的多规划识别算法应用于事故分析的可行性和优越性;最后指出了此算法对处理逻辑结构复杂的大样本事故分析存在的不足及拟解决办法。     

Cumulative Impacts of Dock Shading on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Spartina alterniflora</Emphasis> in South Carolina Estuaries

Salt marshes dominated by Spartina alterniflora and the associated networks of tidal creeks that drain them are characteristic geographical features of southeastern estuaries, important nursery habitat areas, and preferred sites for residential development. As the size of the coastal population increases, so has the number of requests for dock permits. With each new request for a dock permit, public concerns about the cumulative environmental impacts of dock proliferation on the coastal environment have increased. The objective of this particular study was to evaluate the impacts of shading by dock structures on stem densities of S. alterniflora in South Carolina coastal marshes. Shading impacts under individual docks were extrapolated to the tidal creek (local), county, and statewide scales. Dock structures were sampled both under and next to the walkway in the Charleston Harbor area of South Carolina. The density of S. alterniflora under docks was significantly lower than that which occurred next to the docks (i.e., 5 m away) for the short-form, tall-form, and both forms combined. We estimated that shading effects from dock structures in South Carolina decreased the stem density of S. alterniflora by 71%. Dock shading effects were small when evaluated from the perspective of the amount of marsh that occurs within specific tidal creeks (0.03–0.72%), in coastal counties at a maximum dock length (0.01–0.98%), or statewide (0.01–0.13%) at a maximum dock length. However, approximately 7,000 docks have been permitted over the last decade, resulting in a loss of salt marsh equivalent to 60 ha.1Denise M. Sangers present address: Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, 1362 McMillan Avenue, Suite 400 Charleston, South Carolina 29405, USA. 2 A. Frederick Hollands present address: Hollings Marine Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, South Carolina 29412, USA.     

MAPPING REGIONAL PRECIPITATION INTENSITY DURATION FREQUENCY ESTIMATES1

ABSTRACT: For regional precipitation frequency analyses, methods are needed to spatially interpolate or smooth point intensity duration frequency (IDF) estimates at gage sites for the purposes of visualization and estimation at ungaged sites. In this study to update IDF estimates for Michigan, the assumption is made that for practical purposes, the entire state may be treated as a homogeneous region in which annual maximum precipitation is identically distributed at each site apart from a site‐specific scaling factor, commonly known as the index flood. Several interpolation and smoothing techniques are evaluated for IDF estimation at ungaged sites, including trend surface analysis, thin plate splines, inverse distance weighting, and several kriging algorithms. Ordinary block kriging is recommended as a practical and objective method for smoothing the variability in the index flood values and developing isopluvial maps.