USE OF STAGE DATA TO CHARACTERIZE HYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS IN AN URBANIZING ENVIRONMENT1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of a study on the use of continuous stage data to describe the relation between urban development and three aspects of hydrologic condition that are thought to influence stream ecosystems—overall stage variability, stream flashiness, and the duration of extreme‐stage conditions. This relation is examined using data from more than 70 watersheds in three contrasting environmental settings—the humid Northeast (the metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts, area); the very humid Southeast (the metropolitan Birmingham, Alabama, area); and the semiarid West (the metropolitan Salt Lake City, Utah, area). Results from the Birmingham and Boston studies provide evidence linking increased urbanization with stream flashiness. Fragmentation of developed land cover patches appears to ameliorate the effects of urbanization on overall variability and flashiness. There was less success in relating urbanization and streamflow conditions in the Salt Lake City study. A related investigation of six North Carolina sites with long term discharge and stage data indicated that hydrologic condition metrics developed using continuous stage data are comparable to flow based metrics, particularly for stream flashiness measures.     

THE MISUSE OF HYDROLOGIC UNIT MAPS FOR EXTRAPOLATION,REPORTING, AND ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACT: The use of watersheds to conduct research on land/water relationships has expanded recently to include both extrapolation and reporting of water resource information and ecosystem management. More often than not, hydrologic units (HUs) are used for these purposes, with the implication that hydrologic units are synonymous with watersheds. Whereas true topographic watersheds are areas within which apparent surface water drains to a particular point, generally only 45 percent of all hydrologic units, regardless of their hierarchical level, meet this definition. Because the area contributing to the downstream point in many hydrologic units extends far beyond the unit boundaries, use of the hydrologic unit framework to show regional and national patterns of water quality and other environmental resources can result in incorrect and misleading illustrations. In this paper, the implications of this misuse are demonstrated using four adjacent HUs in central Texas. A more effective way of showing regional patterns in environmental resources is by using data from true watersheds representative of different ecological regions containing particular mosaics of geographical characteristics affecting differences in ecosystems and water quality.     

青藏铁路的环境与安全

概述了青藏铁路线的环境特征，立足于青藏铁路及其周边环境构成一个相互影响的系统，重点分析了青藏高原环境对青藏铁路安全的危害和铁路建设与运营对环境构成的负面影响，并针对两个方面分别提出了相应的对策，对促进铁路安全保障和环境保护具有积极的意义。     

INTEGRATING SERVICE‐LEARNING INTO WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES1

ABSTRACT: The objective of this article is to open a dialogue on integrating service‐learning into community based watershed management programs and to discuss opportunities and challenges that a service‐learning program presents to universities and communities. The article presents the concept and definition of service‐learning, and arguments concerning why institutions of higher education and university faculty and students should be involved with community based watershed management programs. The article describes a case study for developing a service‐learning program for watershed management at Virginia Tech and discusses lessons learned from the case study. The paper concluded that to make a service‐learning program sustainable, there should be a long term plan, regular and effective communication with the stakeholders, and some incentives for faculty and students for long term commitment to the community based watershed management programs.     

COALBED METHANE PRODUCT WATER CHEMISTRY IN THREE WYOMING WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT: The Powder River Basin in Wyoming has become one of the most active areas of coalbed methane (CBM) development in the western United States. Extraction of methane from coalbeds requires pumping of aquifer water, which is called product water. Two to ten extraction wells are manifolded into one discharge point and product water is released into nearby unlined holding ponds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemistry, salinity, and sodicity of CBM product water at discharge points and associated holding ponds as a function of watershed. The product water samples from the discharge points and associated holding ponds were collected from the Cheyenne River (CHR), Belle Fourche River (BFR), and Little Powder River (LPR) watersheds during the summers of 1999 and 2000. These samples were analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), alkalinity, sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), sulfate (SO₄^2‐), and chloride (C^1‐). From the chemical data, practical sodium adsorption ratio (SARp) and true sodium adsorption ratio (SARt) were calculated for the CBM discharge water and pond water. The pH, EC, TDS, alkalinity, Na, Ca, Mg, K, SARp, and SARt of CBM discharge water increased significantly moving north from the CHR watershed to the LPR watershed. CBM discharge water in associated holding ponds showed significant increases in EC, TDS, alkalinity, Na, K, SARp, and SARt moving north from the CHR to the LPR watershed. Within watersheds, the only significant change was an increase in pH from 7.21 to 8.26 between discharge points and holding ponds in the LPR watershed. However, the LPR and BFR exhibited larger changes in mean chemistry values in pH, salinity (EC, TDS), and sodicity (SAR) between CBM product water discharges and associated holding ponds than the CHR watershed. For instance, the mean EC and TDS of CBM product water in LPR increased from 1.93 to 2.09 dS/m, and froml,232 to 1,336 mg/L, respectively, between discharge and pond waters. The CHR exhibited no change in EC, TDS, Na, or SAR between discharge water and pond water. Also, while not statistically significant, mean alkalinity of CBM product water in BFR and LPR watersheds decreased from 9.81 to 8.01 meq/L and from 19.87 to 18.14 meq/L, respectively, between discharge and pond waters. The results of this study suggest that release of CBM product water onto the rangelands of BFR and LPR watersheds may precipitate calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) in soils, which in turn may decrease infiltration and increase runoff and erosion. Thus, use of CBM product water for irrigation in LPR and BFR watersheds may require careful planning based on water pH, EC, alkalinity, Na, and SAR, as well as local soil physical and chemical properties.     

ANALYZING CORRELATIONS BETWEEN STREAM AND WATERSHED ATTRIBUTES1

ABSTRACT: Bivariate correlation analysis has been widely used to explore relationships between stream and watershed attributes that have all been measured on the same set of watersheds or sampling locations. Researchers routinely test H₀: ρ= 0 for each correlation in a large table and then go on to discuss only those that are declared “significant.” Such test results are inaccurate because no allowance is made for multiple testing, and also because the tests are not mutually independent. This paper reviews the Bonferroni approach to controlling the overall error rate in multiple testing and shows how the approach becomes impractical for large correlation tables. The Hotelling/Williams test is introduced for comparing two dependent correlations that share a variable, and numerical constraints for two such correlations are illustrated. References are also given for testing other hypothesized patterns among dependent correlations, and links to dependent correlation software are provided. The methods are illustrated for watershed and stream variables sampled in 23 small agricultural watersheds of the Willamette Valley, Oregon.     

在降雨量极少的条件下日本琵琶湖的环境因子的分布(英文)

琵琶湖是日本第一大淡水湖,20世纪60年代以来,由于经济的发展,湖水水质逐步变坏。1977年湖的北部出现赤潮,1983年湖的南部出现了湖泊富营养化的产物微囊藻。多年来,在深水区湖水温度分层情况下,叶绿素a或浮游植物主要分布在湖的表层(Tezuka,1984)。但在1994年夏季,降雨量极少的情况下,在深水区叶绿素a或浮游植物主要分布在温跃层附近,这种现象在琵琶湖是罕见的(Nakanishi,1995)。最近,琵琶湖北湖的藻类爆发显著增加了溶氧的消耗,导致了湖底层溶氧的减少。如果湖底层溶氧持续减少,底泥储存的磷就会释放到湖水中,从而加快湖泊富营养化的进程。本文分析了琵琶湖南北10个点1994年4月至1995年3月每月1次的常规观测资料,深入剖析了全湖物理化学参数的时空分布,不仅发现叶绿素的峰值在湖水温度分层时出现在温跃层的上部,而且湖底边界层同时出现了低溶氧和高浊度的现象。分析认为绿素a和溶氧、浊度的对应关系表明温跃层是一光合成活跃的区间。     

青海省盐湖卤虫资源的开发与保护--以尕海湖为例

通过在青海省的实地考察和对尕海湖周边植被的调查，总结出造成青海省尕海湖卤虫产量减少的影响因素，得出防治对策，并对若干卤虫开发利用的问题进行了讨论，为青海省卤虫资源的保护与开发提供参考。