Impact of floodplain and Stage 0 stream restoration on flood attenuation and floodplain exchange during small frequent storms

River flooding impacts human life and infrastructure, yet provides habitat and ecosystem services. Traditional flood control (e.g., levees, dams) reduces habitat and ecosystem services, and exacerbates flooding elsewhere. Floodplain restoration (i.e., bankfull floodplain reconnection and Stage 0) can also provide flood management, but has not been sufficiently evaluated for small frequent storms. We used 1D unsteady Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System to simulate small storms in a 5 km-long, second-order generic stream from the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and varied % channel restored (starting at the upstream end), restoration location, restoration bank height (distinguishes bankfull from Stage 0 restoration), and floodplain width/Manning's n. Stream restoration decreased (attenuated) peak flow up to 37% and increased floodplain exchange by up to 46%. Floodplain width and % channel restored had the largest impact on flood attenuation. The incremental effects of new restoration projects on flood attenuation were greatest when little prior restoration had occurred. By contrast, incremental effects on floodplain exchange were greatest in the presence of substantial prior restoration, setting up a tradeoff. A similar tradeoff was revealed between attenuation and exchange for project location, but not bank height or floodplain width. In particular, attenuation and exchange were always greater for Stage 0 than for bankfull floodplain restoration. Stage 0 thus may counteract human impacts such as urbanization.     

Vegetation patterns and nature reserve construction in an extremely-arid desert in Anxi,NW China's Gansu Province

Anxi County is located in the northwestern part of the Hexi Corridor in gansu Province and has the sole national level nature reserve of extremely-arid desert in China.Phytosociological methods (Braun-Blanquet,1964) are used to classify plant community types in this area.Eleven are disting uished,including six of deserts,four of oases and one transitional type between deserts and oases.Direct gradient analysis (DCA) is employed to correlate the distribution of plant communities to physiogeographic conditions.This study makes clear that water is the most important ecological factor for the distribution of plant species and communities in this area.The effects of water have been demonstrated in different ways.A vegetation gradient from lower altitude to higher altitude in the southern part of the reserve is driven by a precipitation gradient.The effects of the depth of ground water table contribute to the differentiation of vegetation from desert to oasis in the flat area.In a finer scale,the washed gullies have obviously higher species richness and also higher vegetation cover than the surround gobi surfaces,possibly caused by the effects of floods.The vegetation patterns demonstrate that the area of Anxi County is a complete landscape unit.The range of the current nature reserve is not large enough for the purpose of conserving the unique biodiversity in this area.     

COLD WATER PATCHES IN WARM STREAMS: PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THE INFLUENCE OF SHADING1

ABSTRACT: Discrete cold water patches within the surface waters of summer warm streams afford potential thermal refuge for cold water fishes during periods of heat stress. This analysis focused on reach scale heterogeneity in water temperatures as influenced by local influx of cooler subsurface waters. Using field thermal probes and recording thermistors, we identified and characterized cold water patches (at least 3°C colder than ambient streamflow temperatures) potentially serving as thermal refugia for cold water fishes. Among 37 study sites within alluvial valleys of the Grande Ronde basin in northeastern Oregon, we identified cold water patches associated with side channels, alcoves, lateral seeps, and floodplain spring brooks. These types differed with regard to within floodplain position, area, spatial thermal range, substrate, and availability of cover for fish. Experimental shading cooled daily maximum temperatures of surface waters within cold water patches 2 to 4°C, indicating a strong influence of riparian vegetation on the expression of cold water patch thermal characteristics. Strong vertical temperature gradients associated with heating of surface layers of cold water patches exposed to solar radiation, superimposed upon vertical gradients in dissolved oxygen, can partially restrict suitable refuge volumes for stream salmonids within cold water patches.     

对在沙漠地区应用化学固沙剂固沙的探讨

探讨了化学固沙的原理和效果。提出了开展化学-生物一体化固沙新观点。认为LD系列化学固沙剂、超高强吸水保水剂等固沙植被用新材料及低成本制备技术，将在沙漠地区的公路、铁路建设中具有更为广阔的应用前景。     

Mowers versus growers: Riparian buffer management in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains,USA

Despite long-standing knowledge of the benefits of riparian buffers for mitigating nonpoint source pollution, many streams are unprotected by buffers. Even landowners who understand ecological values of buffers mow riparian vegetation to the streambank. Do trends in rural riparian conditions reflect the development of riparian forest science? What motivates residential riparian management actions? Using high-resolution orthoimagery, we quantified riparian conditions and trends between 1998 and 2015 in the rural upper Little Tennessee River basin in Macon County, North Carolina and explored how landowners view riparian zone management and riparian restoration programs. Buffer composition in 2015 was as follows: no buffer (32.5%), narrow (19.3%), forested (26.7%), shrub (7.2%), and intermediate (7.0%). Relative to 1998, the greatest decrease occurred in the no buffer class (−17.7%, 46 km) and the largest increases occurred in the shrub (+72.5%, 20 km) and narrow (12.6%, 14 km) classes. Forested buffer marginally increased. Semi-structured interview data suggest that landowners prioritize recreational and scenic aspects of riparian buffers over ecological functions such as filtration and bank stabilization. Riparian restoration programs might be made more enticing to non-adopters if outreach language appealed to landowner priorities, design elements demonstrated intentional management, and program managers highlighted areas where ecological goals and landowner values align.     

Understanding Interaction Effects of Climate Change and Fire Management on Bird Distributions through Combined Process and Habitat Models

Abstract: Avian conservation efforts must account for changes in vegetation composition and structure associated with climate change. We modeled vegetation change and the probability of occurrence of birds to project changes in winter bird distributions associated with climate change and fire management in the northern Chihuahuan Desert (southwestern U.S.A.). We simulated vegetation change in a process‐based model (Landscape and Fire Simulator) in which anticipated climate change was associated with doubling of current atmospheric carbon dioxide over the next 50 years. We estimated the relative probability of bird occurrence on the basis of statistical models derived from field observations of birds and data on vegetation type, topography, and roads. We selected 3 focal species, Scaled Quail (Callipepla squamata), Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), and Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus), that had a range of probabilities of occurrence for our study area. Our simulations projected increases in relative probability of bird occurrence in shrubland and decreases in grassland and Yucca spp. and ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) vegetation. Generally, the relative probability of occurrence of all 3 species was highest in shrubland because leaf‐area index values were lower in shrubland. This high probability of occurrence likely is related to the species’ use of open vegetation for foraging. Fire suppression had little effect on projected vegetation composition because as climate changed there was less fuel and burned area. Our results show that if future water limits on plant type are considered, models that incorporate spatial data may suggest how and where different species of birds may respond to vegetation changes.     

玉门油田污染荒漠土壤石油降解菌多样性

为探索石油污染荒漠土壤石油降解微生物多样性、筛选高效石油降解菌,采用涂布平板法从石油污染荒漠土壤分离具有石油降解能力细菌,采用细菌形态观察和16S rRNA基因序列分析其多样性,并设计特异性引物,对分离细菌降解相关基因进行检测.结果表明,分离的37株细菌分别属于放线菌纲(Actinobacteria)、γ变形菌纲(Gammaproteobacteria)、β变形菌纲(Betaproteobacteria)、芽孢杆菌纲(Bacilli)和α变形菌纲(Alphaproteobacteria),分别占35.14%、32.43%、13.51%、13.51%、5.41%,归属于21个属的34个种类.优势菌属为假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)、红球菌属(Rhodococcus)、微球菌属(Micrococcus)、寡养单胞菌属(Stenotrophomonas)、无色杆菌属(Achromobacter)和葡萄球菌属(Staphylococcus),占总数的51.35%,其中有36株细菌能以石油为唯一碳源稳定生长,对原油有明显的降解能力.在石油质量浓度为1 500 mg/L的基础培养基中,菌株YM43在培养7 d后对石油的降解率达55.47%,另有8株细菌的降解率不低于30.55%,11株细菌的降解率介于10.05%~28.37%,18株细菌的降解率不高于8.05%. PCR检测表明,有25株细菌含有烷烃单加氧酶基因,6株含芳烃双加氧酶基因,6株含联苯双加氧酶基因,4株含萘双加氧酶基因,3株含甲苯双加氧酶基因,2株含邻苯二酚双加氧酶基因.研究显示,石油污染荒漠土壤中可培养细菌具有高度多样性,分离的菌株有较强的石油降解能力,其降解功能与所存在的降解基因有关.