Pollen ratios have been commonly used to indicate landscape change and climate variation. However, the reliability of these indicators needs to be verified by studies on modern pollen process. Here, we synthesized the major pollen ratios used in previous studies and found that pollen ratios are valuable indicators for the change of vegetation types and climate, e.g., precipitation and moisture. Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratio could increase from desert to steppe and positively correlate with mean annual precipitation (MAP). Artemisia/Cyperaceae (A/Cy) ratio could be used to identify cool meadow and warm steppe, and it is positively correlated with temperature of July (T_July) and negatively correlated with MAP. Arboreal pollen/nonarboreal pollen (AP/NAP) ratio can be used as a semi-quantitative indicator for landscape and regional precipitation changes. In spite of the significant climatic and environmental implications of the pollen ratios, they were also questioned in some studies under various circumstances and thus caution is needed when using them to indicate climate in different vegetation zones.

This paper describes the scaling up to a day scale of the Ryel hour scale model incorporating the process of hydraulic redistribution (HR). The Ryel model was applied to the Inner Mongolia Huangfuchuan basins to analyze transpiration, evaporation and stomatal conductance of Artemisia tridentate, and to indicate the added value of the feedback by comparing simulations with and without incorporating HR. Five climate scenarios were designed based on 40-y continuous climate data from the study area and the response of HR to the different climate scenarios was modeled. Under 1991 climate conditions, cumulative transpiration and evaporation with HR during the growing season were 161.7 mm and 206.14 mm, respectively, compared with transpiration of 140.7 mm and evaporation of 174.2 mm without HR. Under the five different climate change scenarios, HR influenced evaporation more than transpiration. The effect of HR on transpiration, evaporation and stomatal conductance was very different among the scenarios. Inclusion of HR gave rise to the largest increase in transpiration and evaporation under the T2P0 scenario and the smallest under the T2P2 scenario, but transpiration and evaporation decreased under the T0P-2 scenario. Stomatal conductance significantly increased with the inclusion of HR. The model used in this study has potential benefits for incorporating HR into soil processes, such as water movement and mass transfer.

The Huoshan Fault, being of NEN strike, is one of the most important faults in the Shanxi Graben System of North China; it is the location of the 1303 A.D. Hongtong earthquake (M_S = 8.0). The late Pleistocene and Holocene offset of some gullies that cross the fault and some fault scratches have proved its right lateral movement during the late Quaternary; however, until now, geological evidence to support the movement in the Neogene and early Quaternary was scarce. Our work provides further crucial evidence that supports both its movement in the late Cenozoic and the total right-lateral displacement since the Pliocene. The difference in the outcrop heights of the Pliocene sediment along the fault, the difference in the geomorphological development along the fault, the inconsistency in the lithological composition of the Pliocene proluvial gravels with the rock types within the catchments of the current upper stream, and the offset of the Pliocene alluvial gravels all completely indicate that the fault has always moved right-laterally since the Pliocene. Additionally, this evidence indicates that the accumulative displacement is up to 12.5 km. Based on the horizontal and vertical displacement of the fault since the Pliocene, the time-averaged horizontal slip rate of the fault is estimated to be about 3.5 mm/a, while the ratio of the horizontal to vertical offsets is about 3.8; these data are roughly close to the results that were acquired from the Holocene and the present movement of the fault. This similarity in the tectonic movement parameters may imply that the intensity as well as the configuration of the regional stress field has remained constant, and that no significant changes have taken place since the Pliocene.

In this paper, Visual MODFLOW is used to simulate groundwater flow and transport within the study area based on a certain scenario, assessing the leakage impact of a Sewage Plant accidental pool on groundwater using NH₃-N as the assessment factor. In the model constructed, soil absorption and degradation was taken into account; the adsorption process of NH₃-N adopted the Langmuir equation and the degradation was simplified as a first-order dynamic reaction. The leakage process was defined as a recharge with contaminants in the case that where there are two accidents happening to the Sewage Plant within a one month interval. The result of the model indicated that the NH₃-N concentration of groundwater increased sharply when the Sewage Plant was malfunctioning. The peak of NH₃-N concentration under the accident pool was about 8.0 × 10^−5 mg/L at the first accident. When the second accident happened, the NH₃-N concentration increased to a maximum of about 1.1 × 10^−4mg/L. At a location of about 20 m from the accident pool, the concentration declined to about one sixth of the center, which demonstrated that the NH₃-N concentration increase caused by leakage of the accident pool was little, and the spatial influence also was small. The paper provides a method of dealing with the transport of physically and chemically reactive substances in groundwater with Visual MODFLOW and assessing the Sewage Plant accident pool leakage impact on groundwater quantitatively.

Wet atmospheric deposition samples were collected in rainy days from 2004 to 2008 in Dalian of Liaoning Province, Northeast of China, which were measured by rain gauge and analyzed for total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) concentration. The mean annual volume of rainfall was from 438.25 to 850.94 mm, and the concentration of TIN was 3.47 mg/L, which showed negative correlation with the volume of rainfall. The order of TIN concentration among seasons was: winter>spring>autumn>summer. Increased use of fertilizers in agricultural areas or widespread use of private transportation led to the increase of TIN fluxes. Variations of TIN concentration among years were significantly different; the annual precipitation TIN inputs were positively related to the volume of rainfall and were surprisingly high with the deposition flux ranging from 10.24 to 25.17 kg N/(hm²·a). The maximum mean annual flux was 25.17 kg N/(hm²·a) which is equal to 53.94 kg N/(hm²·a) usage of CO(NH)₂ (an amount that could have caused changes in terrestrial life). The fluxes of TIN also showed a different seasonal fluctuation during the course of our study, and we found that majority of TIN deposition occurred in summer (from June to August), which accounted for 56.44% of total annual precipitation and 40.06% of total annual deposition flux. Annual TIN fluxes decreased considerably after the rainy season and reached the lowest level (1.39 kg N/(hm²·a)) in winter.

Security evaluation has become a hot topic in the research field of water resource management. In this paper, we established a novel water resource security indicator system based on the Pressure-Status-Response (PSR) framework using gray relation analysis (GRA) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). A case study of Beijing from 1996 to 2007 was conducted to verify the evaluation system. Results showed that the gray relative closeness degrees of water resource security to the positive ideal solution were low, with the least one of 0.360 in 1999 and the largest one of 0.527 in 2007, implying that Beijing was facing severer challenges with water resources during the concerned time. Also, the analysis of water resource security indicated that the pressure of water resource was constantly increasing. Finally, factor analysis was employed to calculate the gray relation degrees of evaluating indices with the ideal solutions so as to reveal the relativity of water resource security of Beijing, which may contribute to a better understanding of the urban water resource management and regulation.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and MODerate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua spacecraft measure the upwelling infrared radiance used for numerous remote-sensing- and climate-related applications. AIRS provides high spectral resolution infrared radiances, while MODIS provides collocated high spatial resolution radiances at 16 broad infrared bands. An optimal algorithm for cloud-clearing has been developed for AIRS cloudy soundings at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where the spatially and spectrally collocated AIRS and MODIS data has been used to analyze the characteristic of this algorithm. An analysis and characterization of the global AIRS cloud-cleared radiances using the bias and the standard deviation between the cloud-cleared and the nearby clear measurements are studied. Scene inhomogeneity for both land- and water-surface types has been estimated to account for the assessed error. Both monthly and seasonal changes of global AIRS/MODIS cloud-clearing performance also have been analyzed.