Statistical analyses of regional surface water quality in southeastern Ontario

Historical records from Ontario's Provincial Water Quality Monitoring Network (PWQMN) for rivers and streams were analyzed to assess the feasibility of mapping regional water quality patterns in southeastern Ontario which spans two major geologic zones, the Precambrian Shield and the St. Lawrence Lowlands, thus serving as a paradigm for much of Ontario. Despite biases toward the populated Lowlands and associated pollution problems, general spatial trends are evident via the analysis of intervariable relations, individual parameter maps and multivariate analysis. Using a robust algorithm designed to identify outliers and abstract underlying bivariate relations, a linear regional hardness-alkalinity relation was derived, where most anomalies proved to be mine drainage impacted sites. Regionally, multivariate ordination reveals that central tendencies of common indicators of ionic strength and nutrient richness correlate positively and that site clusters broadly reflect the transition from oligotrophic Shield waters to eutrophic conditions of heavily agricultural Lowland streams. Results suggest that on the Shield more precisely delineated aquatic regions may be realized by applying GIS to integrate river and synoptic lake survey data. Further synthesis with bedrock and surficial geology, physiography, pedology and other temporally invariant spatial attributes should yield regional patterns of background quality from which locally attainable water objectives might be defined. Additional synoptic surveys of sedimentary Lowland streams may be required as most available sites relflect anthropogenic pollution.     

Robust graphical methods for diagnosing trend in irregularly spaced water quality time series

Graphical methods can play an important role in the reliable assessment of trends in typically ill behaved river quality data series both as diagnostic tools and as visual corroborative evidence when assumptions required for formal statistical tests are not met. Robust, graphically-oriented trend diagnosis procedures are presented for data series characterized by nonnormal populations, uneven time spacing, nonmonotonic trend and other factors which can create serious problems for standard parametric time series methods. Cleveland's robust locally weighted regression (RLWR) developed for investigating nonlinearity in x-y scatterplots is adapted as a robust/resistant smoothing filter for the analysis of irregular time series comprising quantitative observations. Low powered RLWR trend lines reveal temporally local phenomena, e.g. abrupt jumps (often associated with point source impacts) and periodicities, while higher powered RLWR yields smooth lines characterizing medium and longer term trends. Simple variants of Tukey smoothing concepts are developed for series with censored observations. Applications to Ontario river quality series reveal that graphical evidence is frequently sufficient to obviate the need for formal trend testing. The methods are generally applicable to most time series.     

塔里木河下游阿拉干断面胡杨树高的分布和密度

通过小尺度生态监测与遥感数据分析获取塔里木河下游胡杨(Populus euphratica Oliv.)林现状信息,将胡杨个体对输水的响应实测数据和QuickBird影像信息进行对比和分析,"面"上宏观调查与"点"上典型研究相结合,集中对塔里木河下游阿拉干断面设立的100 hm2长期监测样方内的4 500棵胡杨树进行了详细的调查.研究表明:胡杨密度随着离河岸距离增加而呈现降低的规律.不同树高的胡杨也呈一定规律分布.树高小于3 m的幼树主要分布在距河道50 m范围内;树高39 m之间的胡杨在研究区中占绝对优势;树高大于9 m的胡杨在距河道200 m内分布比较均匀,200 m之外分布稀少.     

Stable Isotopes of Nitrogen in Fossil Cladoceran Exoskeletons: Implications for Nitrogen Sources in the Central Baltic Sea During the Past Century

15  N of bulk sediment, organic carbon concentrations, and abundances of exoskeletons of Bosmina longispina maritima in the sediment, the data are used to evaluate significant sources of nitrogen in the food web over the past century. Nitrogen isotopic composition of bulk sediments ranges from 2.5 to 4.5?, that of exokeletons varies between 0.4 and 6.2?. The two are positively correlated. A marked increase in the abundance of Bosmina since 1965 (from less than 500 specimen to more than 5000 specimen cm³ of sediment) is correlated with a significant increase in sedimentary organic carbon concentrations (from 4% to more than 10%). The isotopic data do not identify increased land-derived nitrate as the dominant nitrogen source fuelling the increase. Instead, we postulate that nitrogen fixation by diazotrophic bacteria has been one of the larger sources of nitrogen in the Baltic Sea, as it is today. Received: 29 April 1998 / Accepted in revised form: 13 August 1998     

Teil V: Das Umweltinformationssystem der Universität Osnabrück

The basis for the first energy and flow analysis of the University of Osnabrück and the resulting ecobalance was an extensive data collection, preparation and processing. To simplify drawing up the balance in the following years and to facilitate an eco-controlling based on this data, a concept for a University’s Environmental Information System (EIS) was developed. It consists of three parts: the operative level includes the data bases of the individual administrative departments; at the central data base level, the ecobalance and the environmental characteristic values are computed; and the processing and presentational level serves as an interface between the data and users. The implementation of the EIS is intended within the framework of the general Management Information System, the development of which was started in 1998.