巴丹吉林沙漠北部沙样中磷的化学赋存形态

文章采用7步连续浸提法对采集于巴丹吉林沙漠北部沙样中磷的各种存在形态进行了分析测定,并对沙样进行了分级形态研究。测定结果表明:在巴丹吉林沙漠北部沙样中总磷(TP)的含量范围为164.28～342.85μg/g,平均含量为275.20μg/g,其主要成分为无机磷(IP),平均含量为264.24μg/g,占TP含量的96.02%;而有机磷(Or-P)平均含量为10.96μg/g,平均占TP的3.98%。在所有不同粒径的沙样中,自生钙结合磷(Ca-P)含量最高,平均为217.17μg/g,占TP的78.91%,其次是原生碎屑磷(De-P),平均含量43.36μg/g,占TP的15.76%,二者占TP的绝大部分;其他各形态磷含量的高低顺序依次为:有机磷(Or-P)、铝结合磷(Al-P)、铁结合态磷(Fe-P)、可交换磷(Ex-P)、闭蓄态磷(Obs-P)。在所取沙漠颗粒物样品中Ca-P、De-P和Ex-P的含量均随沙样粒径的减小而增大;Or-PFe-P的含量随粒径的减小而减小;Obs-P、Al-P、的含量随粒径的变化无特定规律;总磷(TP)含量随沙样粒径的减小而增大。     

Isolated Spring Wetlands in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts,USA: Potential Response of Vegetation to Groundwater Withdrawal

Desert springs, often the sole sources of water for wildlife and cattle, support wetland and wetland/upland transition ecosystems including rare and endemic species. In the basin and range province in Nevada, USA, springs in the Great Basin and Mojave deserts are sustained by interconnected deep carbonate and shallow basin-fill aquifers which are threatened by proposed groundwater withdrawal to sustain rapidly expanding urban areas, a common problem in arid regions worldwide. This paper draws on historic groundwater data, groundwater modeling, and studies of environmental controls of spring ecosystems to speculate on the potential effects of groundwater withdrawal and water table decline on spring-supported vegetation. The focus is on springs in the Great Basin and Mojave deserts representative of those that may be affected by future, planned groundwater withdrawal. Groundwater withdrawal is expected to reduce spring discharge directly through reduced flows from the shallow basin-fill aquifer or through reduction of the hydraulic head of the deep carbonate aquifer. This flow reduction will truncate the outflow stream, reducing the areal cover of wetland and wetland/upland transition vegetation. Lowering the local water table may also reduce the amount of upland phreatophytic vegetation by causing water levels to drop below plant rooting depths. Percolation of salts to surface soils may be reduced, eventually altering desert shrub cover from halophytes to nonhalophytes. The extent of these effects will vary among springs, based on their distance from extraction sites and location relative to regional groundwater flow paths. On-site monitoring of biotic variables (including cover of selected hygrophytes and phreatophytes) should be a necessary complement to the planned monitoring of local hydrologic conditions.     

Vegetation monitoring using different scale of remote sensing data

This work sets out to simulate landscape model of Mu Us Desert in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China at different spatial resolution using remote sensing images and distinguished landscape heterogeneity among different spatial resolutions. Landscape models were created from classification image of SPOT satellite data with 20m resolution and NOAA data with 1 km resolution. This study created landscape models of different scales by resampling the SPOT classified image using majority rule. The pixel resolution was increased from the finest scale of 20m by 20m up to 1000m by 1000m that was the coarsest spatial resolution. The Shannon diversity index was used to compare landscape models between different scales. At the finer scale the verify small patches such as deciduous forest, shrub and reedswamp with high vegetation coverage set on matrices with low vegetation cover (moving sand dune and sparse grassland) were verified. Broadening of scale resulted to the loss of small patches and at 1000m resolution, matrix classes were dominant. At 1km resolution of NOAA data, the matrix classes which greatly related to the topography of Mu Us Desert were detected. Diversity index decreased during scale broadening and the difference between SPOT 1km scale model and AVHRR data was not significant. The results showed that SPOT 20m model is good for the use of ecotone oriented revegetation planning, and NOAA 1km model is good for the seasonal and annual monitoring of each landscape unit, and revegetation planning at the regional level.     

Atmospheric mineral particles collected at Qira in the Taklamakan Desert, China

Aerosol particles were collected in the situation of the widespread dust suspension on 21 February 1991 at Qira in the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, western China. The collected particles were examined by a transmission electron microscope equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyzer in order to obtain the size and elemental composition of individual mineral particles.On the basis of EDX analyses for 386 particles, mineral particles were present in high number fractions (>99%) of particles in the radius range of 0.1–4 μm. Particles mainly composed of silicates comprised 76% of mineral particles. “Ca-rich” particles were detected in 7% of all the particles. Ca in the particles would be present not only as CaCO₃ but also as an internal mixture of CaCO₃ and CaSO₄. Particles containing halite (NaCl) were detected in number proportions of about 10% and were mainly present in the radius range of 0.5 μm. Some halite particles would be modified by chemical reactions with sulfuric acid.     

Choosing Indicators of Natural Resource Condition: A Case Study in Arches National Park, Utah, USA

/ Heavy visitor use in many areas of the world have necessitated development of ways to assess visitation impacts. Arches National Park recently completed a Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) plan. Integral to this plan was developing a method to identify biological indicators that would both measure visitor impacts and response to management actions. The process used in Arches for indicator selection is outlined here as a model applicableto many areas facing similar challenges. The steps were: (1) Vegetation types most used by visitors were identified. Impacted and unimpacted areas in these types were sampled, comparing vegetation and soil factors. (2) Variables found to differ significantly between compared sites were used as potential indicators. (3) Site-specific criteria for indicators were developed, and potential indicators evaluated using these criteria. (4) Chosen indicators were further researched for ecological relevancy. (5) Final indicators were chosen, field tested, and monitoring sites designated. In Arches, indicators were chosen for monitoring annually (soil crust index, soil compaction, number of used social trails and soil aggregate stability) and every five years (vegetation cover and frequency; ground cover; soil chemistry; and plant tissue chemistry).KEY WORDS: Biological indicators; Recreation impacts; Recreation management; Desert soils; Trampling     

Learning,retention and coding of nest-associated visual cues by the Australian desert ant, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Melophorus bagoti</Emphasis>

A variety of social insects use visual cues for homing. In this study, we examine the possible factors affecting the learning and retention of nest-associated visual cues by the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti and the manner in which such cues are encoded by foraging ants. We placed four prominent cylindrical landmarks around a nest and trained foragers from that nest to a food source. Ants were tested with the landmark array in a distant testing field after (1) a known number of exposures to the landmarks (1, 3, 7 or 15 trials, spread over a period of 1 day, 2 days or ≥3 days) and (2) after a known period of delay (0, 24, 48, 96 or 192 h). The results show that a combination of an increase in training trials and an increase in number of training days affected the acquisition of landmark memory. Moreover, once the landmarks were learnt, they became a part of long-term memory and lasted throughout the ants’ foraging lifetime. To examine visual cue encoding behaviour, ants trained under similar conditions for 4 days were tested with (1) an identical landmark array, (2) landmarks of the same size used in training, but placed at twice the distance from each other, and (3) landmarks whose dimensions were doubled and placed at twice the distance from each other. In conditions (1) and (3), the ants searched extensively at the centre of the four landmarks, suggesting that, similar to the Saharan ant (genus Cataglyphis) and the honeybee, M. bagoti too uses a snapshot to match the view of the landmarks around the nest. But contrary to the snapshot model, in condition (2), the ants did not search extensively at the centre of the landmarks, but searched primarily 0.5 m from the landmark, the distance from each landmark to the nest during training. We discuss how various search models fare in accounting for these findings.     

青藏高原及周边区域沙尘气溶胶三维分布和传输特征

利用MERRA-2再分析资料和CALIPSO星载激光雷达产品,分析了1980—2017年青藏高原和塔克拉玛干沙漠上空沙尘气溶胶的分布和传输特征.对比了MERRA-2与AERONET及MISR的气溶胶光学厚度（AOD）产品,其相关系数分别为0.809和0.776.基于MERRA-2资料分析表明,研究区域沙尘光学厚度（DAOD）按春、夏、秋、冬季依次递减.塔克拉玛干沙漠和青藏高原地区DAOD均在5月达最高值.青藏高原北部DAOD比南部高0.06~0.10,两地区的DAOD值差异在5月最高.自2000年开始,塔克拉玛干沙漠和印度恒河平原DAOD高值区强度和影响范围显著增大,对青藏高原的沙尘输送增强,印度沙尘对青藏高原的影响显著增加.CALIPSO观测表明,青藏高原上空的沙尘主要来自塔克拉玛干沙漠,传输量春季最大,秋、冬季最小;部分来自印度恒河平原,传输主要发生在夏、秋季.塔克拉玛干沙尘通过柴达木盆地向青藏高原传输,最远可至30°N,传输高度在4~8 km.冬季青藏高原上空的沙尘主要来自柴达木盆地.塔克拉玛干沙漠和青藏高原的最大气溶胶消光系数廓线分别出现在春季和夏季.塔克拉玛干沙漠和青藏高原地区沙尘层厚度多年平均值分别为1.00和0.82 km.2007—2017年,塔克拉玛干沙尘层厚度呈下降趋势,年下降率为0.018 km.青藏高原沙尘层厚度春季最大,冬季次之,夏季最小;沙尘层厚度年变化趋势不显著.     

Floral biodiversity: a question of survival in the Indian Thar Desert

The Thar Desert of North-west India has sprung into prominence recently because of nuclear testing in 1998. It occupies about 3 million km² of diverse habitat. Each of the various habitats and landforms in the desert supports distinctive plants. 682 plant species have been identified including 107 grasses. Plants are removed for fuel, fodder, fencing and other farming, domestic and commercial purposes. There are about 200 species of plants with recognised medicinal uses in the desert. The medicinal usefulness of others is yet to be established. Commiphora wightii, Withania somnifera and Urginia indica have high glycoside content and are valued for gums and used in ayurvedic medicines for enhancing mental retention and memory enhancement. Such plants are being indiscriminately exploited for fuelwood.     

新疆伊犁河谷沙漠沉积不同粒径组分的地球化学元素分布特征

本文通过对伊犁河谷西部塔克尔莫乎尔沙漠内的可克达拉（TKP）剖面典型层位样品 的不同粒级组分地球化学元素分析,探究西风环流控制的沙漠沉积区元素特征和化学风化指标 在不同粒级组分中的分布特征。研究结果表明TKP 剖面Na 和Sr 元素趋向于在粗粒级中富集; Fe、Mg、Al、Rb 元素趋向于细粒级中富集,K 元素含量随粒径增大先升高再降低,16 ~ 32 μm 粒 级处出现谷值;Ti 元素含量与粒度关系不明确。CIA、Rb/Sr 随粒级增大逐渐降低,Na2O/Al2O3、 Na2O/K2O、K2O/Al2O3 随粒级增大逐渐升高。TKP 剖面地球化学元素和比值在<2 μm、2~16 μm、 16 ~32 μm 细粒级组分不同粒级间变化较为剧烈,32~ 63 μm、63~125 μm、>125 μm 粗粒级组分 变化则不明显,而且粗粒级组分在剖面中的变化也比较稳定。剖面整体风化程度较弱,因此这 种现象可能是物源不统一造成的,为塔克尔莫乎尔沙漠具有物源多样性特点的观点提供了地球 化学元素方面的证据。     

Research on distribution performance of desert sand for heat storage in downcomer

In this research, desert sand is used as the sensible heat storage medium, which exchanges heat with air in the downcomer to realize heat storage and heat release. The desert sand distribution uniformity has a significant impact on the heat exchange performance and efficiency between desert sand and air for the process of convection in the downcomer. Given the superiority of sensible heat storage in convective heat transfer between desert sand and air, distributors with cylinder or conical bore solid particles and homogeneity performance testing device are designed and manufactured on the basis of convection system equipped with solid particle–air downcomer. Then, the convection experiment between solid sand and air is researched. The greater the desert sand flow rate and higher the volume density, the larger the variance of regional mass flow rate and the worse the homogeneity performance. For the cylinder bore distributor, the smaller the sand particle size is, the greater affected the sand groups can be. The sand homogeneity performance is preferable with the two particle size ranges: 0.18-0.25 mm and 0.15-0.18 mm. The total sand flow rate decreases, but the uniformity improves with the increase of the air flow velocity, and the best distribution performance is achieved at an air velocity of 0.6 m/s. However, the distribution performance declines with the air flow velocity persistently increasing because the sand groups are pushed to one pipe side close to the wall. The sand groups deflect seriously with the air flow velocity increasing.