The present study examines the rise and fall of the sluice of the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368 AD) unearthed in Zhidanyuan, Shanghai, by means of radiocarbon-dated sediment profiles, sedimentary facies indices and the historical literatures. Magnetic fabric parameters of sediment profiles help reconstruct the tidal creek setting at the sluice site. Our records evidence a fluvially-dominated hydrodynamic setting before sluice construction, but a saltwater intruded setting in the later stage. Magnetic fabric shows a stable flow direction in the upstream of the sluice, implying the fluvial deposition, while scattering flow directions downstream, suggesting interactions between the river flow and tidal currents. It is concluded that the sluice construction was primarily aimed at preventing saltwater intrusion from the Yangtze River mouth, but its operation did not fully fit the high sediment siltation in the channel that occurred after the sluice construction. This weakens significantly the role of sluice operation, leading to its abandonment eventually.
This paper discusses the ideas and methods of designing effective descriptors for identifying plant species of urban landscape vegetation. Fourteen of such descriptors induced from image spectrum, texture, and shape properties were designed. These descriptors were intended to meet such requirements as possessing a true physical or geometric implication relating to ecological significance, having a relatively steady segmentation threshold and being less sensitive to image types or environmental conditions during image acquisition. This study used decision trees to combine four selected descriptors for plant species identification, and the experiment was able to reach an error rate of 5.8% compared 25.9% by merely using the conventional pixel brightness values in plant species identification.
Impacts of hydrological conditions on peatland soil enzyme activities and phenolic concentrations were investigated using peat cores from two typical peatlands, the forest swamp and the marsh in North-east China, under water level manipulation in the laboratory. The results indicated varied impacts of dry and waterlogged conditions on soil enzyme activities, depending on the confounding factors including the peatland types and the variation frequency of hydrological conditions. Carbon-related enzyme activities, phenol oxidase and β-glucosidase, were much higher in the marsh than in the forest swamp. On the contrary, phenolic concentration was measured to be much higher in the latter. Soil enzyme activities and phenolic concentrations were found to vary between the two peatlands, much more remarkably than within the individual peatlands caused by the changes in the water level. The negative relationship or inconspicuous correlation between phenolics and phenol oxidase was found to vary with specific soil conditions. These results implied that the enzyme activities and phenolic concentrations might be related to the developmental stages or the types of wetlands more than to hydrological conditions.
In clayey lands, swelling problem causes vertical displacements on road subbase, and finally, failure in pavement occurs due to lack of appropriate drainage systems. One popular and inexpensive method of soil stabilization is using lime. Investigations indicate that based on environmental and atmospheric conditions, the chemical reaction of lime and clayey soil is not accomplished well, owning to low temperature and high humidity. This paper aims to investigate the influence of adding rice husk ash on the reaction between soil and lime and lime reaction and determine soil physical and mechanical characteristics. Therefore, sufficient laboratory soil tests, such as Atterberg limits, compaction, California bearing ratio (CBR), and direct shear test are carried out, and the results are analyzed. The results generally indicate that adding lime and rice husk ash (RHA) causes a decrease in dry density and an increase in optimum water content. Increasing lime and RHA causes a decreasing rate in soil liquid limit and plastic limit. Adding lime and RHA to the soil causes a decrease in deformability of soil samples and gives more brittle materials. Also, this action causes an increase in shear strength. Moreover, increasing in CBR amount under the influence of increasing RHA is one of the main results of this paper.