Climate change is altering the timing and magnitude of biogeochemical fluxes in many high-elevation ecosystems. The consequent changes in alpine nitrification rates have the potential to influence ecosystem scale responses. In order to better understand how changing temperature and moisture conditions may influence ammonia oxidizers and nitrification activity, we conducted laboratory incubations on soils collected in a Colorado watershed from three alpine habitats (glacial outwash, talus, and meadow). We found that bacteria, not archaea, dominated all ammonia oxidizer communities. Nitrification increased with moisture in all soils and under all temperature treatments. However, temperature was not correlated with nitrification rates in all soils. Site-specific temperature trends suggest the development of generalist ammonia oxidzer communities in soils with greater in situ temperature fluctuations and specialists in soils with more steady temperature regimes. Rapidly increasing temperatures and changing soil moisture conditions could explain recent observations of increased nitrate production in some alpine soils.
With ever increasing water demands and the continuous intensification of water scarcity arising from China’s industrialization, the country is struggling to harmonize its industrial development and water supply. This paper presents a systems analysis of water withdrawals by Chinese industry and investigates demand-driven industrial water uses embodied in final demand and interregional trade based on a multi-regional input-output model. In 2007, the Electric Power, Steam, and Hot Water Production and Supply sector ranks first in direct industrial water withdrawal (DWW), and Construction has the largest embodied industrial water use (EWU). Investment, consumption, and exports contribute to 34.6%, 33.3%, and 30.6% of the national total EWU, respectively. Specifically, 58.0%, 51.1%, 48.6%, 43.3%, and 37.5% of the regional EWUs respectively in Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Fujian are attributed to international exports. The total interregional import/export of embodied water is equivalent to about 40% of the national total DWW, of which 55.5% is associated with the DWWs of Electric Power, Steam, and Hot Water Production and Supply. Jiangsu is the biggest interregional exporter and deficit receiver of embodied water, in contrast to Guangdong as the biggest interregional importer and surplus receiver. Without implementing effective water-saving measures and adjusting industrial structures, the regional imbalance between water availability and water demand tends to intensify considering the water impact of domestic trade of industrial products. Steps taken to improve water use efficiency in production, and to enhance embodied water saving in consumption are both of great significance for supporting China’s water policies.
In plains areas with semi-arid climates, shallow groundwater is one of the important factors affecting soil thermal properties. In this study, soil temperature and water content were measured when groundwater tables reached 10 cm, 30 cm, and 60 cm depths (Experiment I, II, and III) by using sensors embedded at depths of 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm for 5 days. Soil thermal properties were analyzed based on the experimental data using the simplified de Vries model. Results show that soil water content and temperature have fluctuations that coincide with the 24 h diurnal cycle, and the amplitude of these fluctuations decreased with the increase in groundwater table depth. The amplitude of soil water content at 5 cm depth decreased from 0.025 m3·m−3 in Experiment II to 0.01 m3·m−3 in Experiment III. Moreover, it should be noted that the soil temperature in Experiment III gradually went up with the lowest value increasing from 26.0°C to 28.8°C. By contrast, the trends were not evident in Experiments I and II. Results indicate that shallow groundwater has a “cooling” effect on soil in the capillary zone. In addition, calculated values of thermal conductivity and heat capacity declined with the increasing depth of the groundwater table, which is consistent with experimental results. The thermal conductivity was stable at a value of 2.3 W·cm−1·K−1 in Experiment I. The average values of thermal conductivity at different soil depths in Experiment II were 1.82 W·cm−1·K−1, 2.15 W·cm−1·K−1, and 2.21 W·cm−1·K−1, which were always higher than that in Experiment III.
The capability of obtaining spatially distributed air temperature data from remote sensing measurements is an improvement for many environmental applications focused on urban heat island, carbon emissions, climate change, etc. This paper is based on the MODIS/Terra and Aqua data utilized to study the effect of the urban atmospheric heat island in Shanghai, China. The correlation between retrieved MODIS land surface temperature (LST) and air temperature measured at local weather stations was initially studied at different temporal and spatial scales. Secondly, the air temperature data with spatial resolutions of 250 m and 1 km were estimated from MODIS LST data and in-situ measured air temperature. The results showed that there is a slightly higher correlation between air temperature and MODIS LST at a 250 m resolution in spring and autumn on an annual scale than observed at a 1 km resolution. Although the distribution pattern of the air temperature thermal field varies in different seasons, the urban heat island (UHI) in Shanghai is characterized by a distribution pattern of multiple centers, with the central urban area as the primary center and the built-up regions in each district as the sub-centers. This study demonstrates the potential not only for estimating the distribution of the air temperature thermal field from MODIS LST with 250 m resolution in spring and autumn in Shanghai, but also for providing scientific and effective methods for monitoring and studying UHI effect in a Chinese mega-city such as Shanghai.
Information of paddy rice distribution is essential for food production and methane emission calculation. Phenology-based algorithms have been utilized in the mapping of paddy rice fields by identifying the unique flooding and seedling transplanting phases using multi-temporal moderate resolution (500 m to 1 km) images. In this study, we developed simple algorithms to identify paddy rice at a fine resolution at the regional scale using multi-temporal Landsat imagery. Sixteen Landsat images from 2010–2012 were used to generate the 30 m paddy rice map in the Sanjiang Plain, northeast China—one of the major paddy rice cultivation regions in China. Three vegetation indices, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI), were used to identify rice fields during the flooding/transplanting and ripening phases. The user and producer accuracies of paddy rice on the resultant Landsat-based paddy rice map were 90% and 94%, respectively. The Landsat-based paddy rice map was an improvement over the paddy rice layer on the National Land Cover Dataset, which was generated through visual interpretation and digitalization on the fine-resolution images. The agricultural census data substantially underreported paddy rice area, raising serious concern about its use for studies on food security.
This study aims to predict monthly columnar ozone in Peninsular Malaysia based on concentrations of several atmospheric gases. Data pertaining to five atmospheric gases (CO2, O3, CH4, NO2, and H2O vapor) were retrieved by satellite scanning imaging absorption spectrometry for atmospheric chartography from 2003 to 2008 and used to develop a model to predict columnar ozone in Peninsular Malaysia. Analyses of the northeast monsoon (NEM) and the southwest monsoon (SWM) seasons were conducted separately. Based on the Pearson correlation matrices, columnar ozone was negatively correlated with H2O vapor but positively correlated with CO2 and NO2 during both the NEM and SWM seasons from 2003 to 2008. This result was expected because NO2 is a precursor of ozone. Therefore, an increase in columnar ozone concentration is associated with an increase in NO2 but a decrease in H2O vapor. In the NEM season, columnar ozone was negatively correlated with H2O (−0.847), NO2 (0.754), and CO2 (0.477); columnar ozone was also negatively but weakly correlated with CH4 (−0.035). In the SWM season, columnar ozone was highly positively correlated with NO2 (0.855), CO2 (0.572), and CH4 (0.321) and also highly negatively correlated with H2O (−0.832). Both multiple regression and principal component analyses were used to predict the columnar ozone value in Peninsular Malaysia. We obtained the best-fitting regression equations for the columnar ozone data using four independent variables. Our results show approximately the same R value (≈ 0.83) for both the NEM and SWM seasons.
Net area change analysis can dramatically underestimate total change of land cover, even sometimes seriously misinterpret ecological processes of the ecosystem, especially in arid or semiarid zones. In this paper, a suite of indices are presented to characterize land-cover swaps that may seriously damage the ecosystem in arid or semiarid zones, based on swap-change areas extracted from remotely sensed images. First, swap percentage of total area and swap intensity of total changes were used to determine the status of land-cover swap change in an area. Then, dominated swap category and individual swap-change intensity for a land-cover category were used to determine flagged land-cover swap-change categories. Finally, swap-change mode and Pielou’s index were used to determine the land-cover swap-change processes of dominant categories. A case study is conducted using this approach, based on two land-cover maps in the 1980s and 2000 in Naiman Qi, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, China. This study shows that the approach can clearly quantify the severity and flagged classes of land-cover swap-change and reveal their relationship with ecological processes of the ecosystem. These results indicate that the approach can give deep insights into swap change, which can be very valuable to land-cover policy making and management.
In this study, interval-parameter programming, two-stage stochastic programming (TSP), and conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) were incorporated into a general optimization framework, leading to an interval-parameter CVaR-based two-stage programming (ICTP) method. The ICTP method had several advantages: (i) its objective function simultaneously took expected cost and risk cost into consideration, and also used discrete random variables and discrete intervals to reflect uncertain properties; (ii) it quantitatively evaluated the right tail of distributions of random variables which could better calculate the risk of violated environmental standards; (iii) it was useful for helping decision makers to analyze the trade-offs between cost and risk; and (iv) it was effective to penalize the second-stage costs, as well as to capture the notion of risk in stochastic programming. The developed model was applied to sulfur dioxide abatement in an air quality management system. The results indicated that the ICTP method could be used for generating a series of air quality management schemes under different risk-aversion levels, for identifying desired air quality management strategies for decision makers, and for considering a proper balance between system economy and environmental quality.
Indications of buried lunar bedrock may help us to understand the tectonic evolution of the Moon and provide some clues for formation of lunar regolith. So far, the information on distribution and burial depth of lunar bedrock is far from sufficient. Due to good penetration ability, microwave radiation can be a potential tool to ameliorate this problem. Here, a novel method to estimate the burial depth of lunar bedrock is presented using microwave data from Chang’E-1 (CE-1) lunar satellite. The method is based on the spatial variation of differences in brightness temperatures between 19.35 GHz and 37.0 GHz (ΔTB). Large differences are found in some regions, such as the southwest edge of Oceanus Procellarum, the area between Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Nectaris, and the highland east of Mare Smythii. Interestingly, a large change of elevation is found in the corresponding region, which might imply a shallow burial depth of lunar bedrock. To verify this deduction, a theoretical model is derived to calculate the ΔTB. Results show that ΔTB varies from 12.7 K to 15 K when the burial depth of bedrock changes from 1 m to 0.5 m in the equatorial region. Based on the available data at low lunar latitude (30°N–30°S), it is thus inferred that the southwest edge of Oceanus Procellarum, the area between Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Nectaris, the highland located east of Mare Smythii, the edge of Pasteur and Chaplygin are the areas with shallow bedrock, the burial depth is estimated between 0.5 m and 1 m.
The thermal effect of urban impervious surfaces (UIS) is a complex problem. It is thus necessary to study the relationship between UIS and land surface temperatures (LST) using complexity science theory and methods. This paper investigates the long-range cross-correlation between UIS and LST with detrended cross-correlation analysis and multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis, utilizing data from downtown Shanghai, China. UIS estimates were obtained from linear spectral mixture analysis, and LST was retrieved through application of the mono-window algorithm, using Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus data for 1997–2010. These results highlight a positive long-range cross-correlation between UIS and LST across People’s Square in Shanghai. LST has a long memory for a certain spatial range of UIS values, such that a large increment in UIS is likely to be followed by a large increment in LST. While the multifractal long-range cross-correlation between UIS and LST was observed over a longer time period in the W–E direction (2002–2010) than in the N–S (2007–2010), these observed correlations show a weakening during the study period as urbanization increased.
The influence of temperature and precipitation on maximum latewood density (MXD) was mainly discussed in this paper, based on the samples of Picea schrenkiana from the Manas River Basin, Xinjiang, China. The correlation analysis between MXD and instrumental records from the Shihezi Meteorological Station showed that the MXD was positively related to the mean maximum temperature throughout the growing season at high elevations. Comparatively, the ring-width at low altitudes was limited by the precipitation in May?June. The composite chronology by MXD sequences was highly correlated with the mean maximum temperature in July?August (r = 0.54, p<0.001), which was then reconstructed by the composite chronology. The comparative analysis on the reconstructed temperatures, observed values, and drought indices (Is) revealed that precipitation would affect MXD when the absolute value of Is was greater than 1.5σ (i.e., |Is|>2.5) in the period of 1953?2008 A.D. or close to 1.5σ for 2?3 consecutive years. The response characteristics are linked with the semiarid climate in the study area. In a single year or consecutive years of extreme dryness, the lack of precipitation would limit the thickening of latewood cell walls and thus impact the MXD. All in all, if a MXD chronology is aimed to reconstruct temperature history, the moisture conditions at the sampling site should be considered prudently.
Satellite microwave thermal emissions mixed with signals from active sensors are referred to as radio-frequency interference (RFI). Based on Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer–Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) observations from June 1 to 16, 2011, RFI over Europe was identified and analyzed using the modified principal component analysis algorithm in this paper. The X band AMSR-E measurements in England and Italy are mostly affected by the stable, persistent, active microwave transmitters on the surface, while the RFI source of other European countries is the interference of the reflected geostationary TV satellite downlink signals to the measurements of spaceborne microwave radiometers. The locations and intensities of the RFI induced by the geostationary TV and communication satellites changed with time within the observed period. The observations of spaceborne microwave radiometers in ascending portions of orbits are usually interfered with over European land, while no RFI was detected in descending passes. The RFI locations and intensities from the reflection of downlink radiation are highly dependent upon the relative geometry between the geostationary satellite and the measuring passive sensor. Only these fields of view of a spaceborne instrument whose scan azimuths are close to the azimuth relative to the geostationary satellite are likely to be affected by RFI.
Fengyun-3B (FY-3B) is the second polar-orbiting satellite in the new Fengyun-three series. This paper describes the assimilation of the FY-3B Microwave Temperature Sounder (MWTS) radiances in the Chinese Numerical Weather prediction system – the Global and Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System (GRAPES). A quality control procedure for the assimilation of the FY-3B MWTS radiance was proposed. Extensive monitoring before assimilation shows that the observations of channel 4 are notably contaminated. Channels 2 and 3 are used in this research. A cloud detection algorithm with an improved cloud-detection threshold is determined and incorporated into the impact experiments. The clear field-of-view (FOV) percentage increased from 42% to 57% with the new threshold. In addition, the newly added FOVs are located in the clear region, as demonstrated by the cloud liquid water path data from NOAA-18. The impact of the MWTS radiances on the prediction of GRAPES was researched. The observation biases of FY-3B MWTS O-B (differences between satellite observations and model simulations) significantly decreased after an empirical bias correction procedure. After assimilation, the residual biases are small. The assimilation of the FY-3B MWTS radiances shows a positive impact in the Northern Hemisphere and a neutral impact in the Southern Hemisphere.
Oceanic evaporation via the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) has been regarded as the major source of precipitation over China, but a recent study estimated that terrestrial evaporation might contribute up to 80% of the precipitation in the country. To explain the contradiction, this study presents a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of oceanic and terrestrial evaporation to atmospheric moisture and precipitation in China’s major river basins. The results show that from 1980 to 2010, the mean annual atmospheric moisture (precipitable water) over China was 13.7 mm, 39% of which originates from oceanic evaporation and 61% from terrestrial evaporation. The mean annual precipitation was 737 mm, 43% of which originates from oceanic evaporation and 57% from terrestrial evaporation. Oceanic evaporation makes a greater contribution to atmospheric moisture and precipitation in the East Asian Monsoon Region in South and East China than terrestrial evaporation does. Particularly, for the Pearl River and southeastern rivers, oceanic evaporation contributes approximately 65% of annual precipitation and more than 70% of summer precipitation. Meanwhile, terrestrial evaporation contributes more precipitation in northwest China due to the westerly wind. For the northwestern rivers, terrestrial evaporation from the Eurasian continents contributes more than 70% of precipitation. There is a linear relation between mean annual precipitation and the contribution of oceanic evaporation to precipitation, with a correlation coefficient of 0.92, among the ten major river basins in China.
Elemental geochemistry is an essential part of understanding mineralization mechanisms. In this paper, a data set of 544 cobalt crust samples from seamounts of the Western Pacific are used to study the enrichment characteristics of metal elements. REE normalization is utilized to reveal the origin of the crusts; effects of water depth on Co enrichment and impacts of phosphatization on mineral quality are discussed to obtain the evolution of these marine mineral deposits, which gives support to further resource assessment. Conclusions are reached as follows: 1) Elemental abundances, inter-element relationships, and shale-normalized REE patterns for phosphate-poor crusts from different locations reflect hydrogenetic origin of the crusts. EFs (enrichment coefficients) of REE exhibit exponential increase from surface sediments to phosphorite to polymetallic nodules to crusts, suggesting that the improved degree of hydrogeneous origin induces the enrichment of REE. 2) The crusts in the Western Pacific, formed through hotspot produced guyots trails, have relatively lower REE than those in the Mid-Pacific. The latter could be attributed to the peculiar submarine topography of seamounts formed by intraplate volcanism. 3) The non-phosphatized younger crust layers have 40% higher Co than the phosphatized older layers. This indicates the modification of the elemental composition in these crusts by phosphatization. A general depletion of hydroxide-dominated elements such as Co, Ni, and Mn and enrichment of P, Ca, Ba, and Sr is evident in phosphatized crusts, whereas non-phosphatized younger generation crusts are rich in terrigenous aluminosilicate detrital matter. 4) Co increases above the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) from less than 0.53% to over 0.65% in seamount regions with water depth of less than 2,500 m, suggesting the significance of the dissolution of carbonate in the sea water column to the growth and composition of crusts.
Determining the origin of beach ridges in lacustrine basins can often be problematic. The sedimentary processes responsible for formation of beach ridges on the north shore of Huangqihai Lake were investigated by using ground penetrating radar (GPR). A 400 MHz GPR antenna was used to achieve a high vertical resolution of 0.04–0.08 m. The radar stratigraphy was then determined using principles of seismic stratigraphy. The radar facies (RF) were determined by analyzing internal configuration and continuity of reflections, as well as reflection termination patterns.
The identified RF fall into three groups (inclined, horizontal and irregular). The inclined group consists of RF that display inclined reflections. The horizontal group consists of RF that exhibit predominantly horizontal reflections. In the irregular group, the reflections are typically weak. RF with reflections with gently landward dips in the shore-normal profile are interpreted as washover sheet deposits. RF with steeply landward-dipping and imbricated reflections are interpreted as washover lobes. Washover sheets develop when overwash fails to enter a significant body of water and sedimentation takes place entirely on the relatively flattened topography. Washover lobe development occurs when overwash enters a region in which topography dips steeply landward, and sedimentation takes place on the surface of washover sheets or previous washover lobes. The beach-ridge deposits are interpreted as being formed entirely from vertically and laterally stacked washover sheets and washover lobes. They were formed by wave-dominated processes and secondary overwash processes supplemented by longshore currents.