2010 Vol. 20, No. 3

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Articles
Impacts of Climatic Change on River Runoff in Northern Xinjiang of China over Last Fifty Years
YANG Yuhui, CHEN Yaning, LI Weihong, WANG Minzhong, SUN Guili
2010, 20(3): 193-201. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0193-y
Abstract:
The characteristics of climatic change and river runoff, as well as the response of river runoff to climatic change in the northern Xinjiang are analyzed on the basis of the hydrological and meteorological data over the last 50 years by the methods of Mann-Kendall nonparametric test and the nonlinear regression model. The results show that: 1) The temperature and the precipitation increased significantly in the whole northern Xinjiang, but the precipitation displayed no obvious change, or even a decreasing trend in the northern mountainous area of the northern Xinjiang. 2) River runoff varied in different regions in the northern Xinjiang. It significantly increased in the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains and the north of the northern Xinjiang (p=0.05), while slightly increased in the west of the northern Xinjiang. 3) North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) affects river runoff by influencing temperature and precipitation. The NAO and precipitation had apparent significant correlations with the river runoff, but the temperature did not in the northern Xinjiang. Since the mid-1990s river runoff increase was mainly caused by the increasing temperature in the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains and the north of the northern Xinjiang. Increased precipitation resulted in increased river runoff in the west of the northern Xinjiang.
Chronology and Nutrients Change in Recent Sediment of Taihu Lake, Lower Changjiang River Basin, East China
YAO Shuchun, XUE Bin, KONG Deyang
2010, 20(3): 202-208. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0202-1
Abstract:
Two short sediment cores named ZS and THS dated by the 210Pb or 137Cs method were collected from the northwest and southwest of Taihu Lake respectivly,and total organic carbon(TOC) and nutrients including total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) were determined to analyze the chronology and nutrients change in recent sediment.The results show that 137Cs activities are low(less than 15 Bq/kg) in the two cores,attributed to the 137Cs migration.Based on 210Pb constant rate of supply(CRS) model,the sedimentation accumulation rates range from 0.13 g/(cm2·yr) to 0.76 g/(cm2·yr) in the ZS core,and from 0.10 g/(cm2·yr) to 0.56 g/(cm2·yr) in the THS core.A remarkable increase in organic matter and nutrients has occurred in the two dated cores since the mid-1980s.The historical changes of organic matter and nutrients in the two cores are consisitent with the monitoring data for surface sediment after the 1960s.The TP accumulation rates after the early 1980s are 0.97 and 0.92 times higher than those from the 1950s to the 1980s in ZS and THS cores,respectively.Higher TP concentrations in the past two-decade deposits of Taihu Lake are due to both diagenetic factors and human activities.
Freeze-thaw Effects on Sorption/Desorption of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Wetland Soils
YU Xiaofei, ZHANG Yuxia, ZHAO Hongmei, LU Xianguo, WANG Guoping
2010, 20(3): 209-217. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0209-7
Abstract:
The effects of freeze-thaw cycles on sorption/desorption of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in two wetland soils and one reclaimed wetland soil were investigated. DOC concentrations added were 0-600 mg/L. Laboratory incubations of sorption/desorption of DOC had been carried out at -15℃ for 10 h, and then at +5℃ for 13 h. Soil samples were refrozen and thawed subsequently for 5 cycles. Initial Mass model was used to describe sorption behavior of DOC. The results indicate that freeze-thaw cycles can significantly increase the sorption capacity of DOC and reduce the desorption capacity of DOC in the three soils. The freeze-thaw effects on desorption of DOC in soils increase with the increasing freeze-thaw cycles. The conversion of natural wetlands to soybean farmland can decrease the sorption capacity and increase the desorption capacity of DOC in soils. Global warming and reclamation may increase DOC release, and subsequently increase the loss of carbon and the emission of greenhouse gas.
Assimilation of ASAR Data with a Hydrologic and Semi-empirical Backscattering Coupled Model to Estimate Soil Moisture
LIU Qian, WANG Mingyu, ZHAO Yingshi
2010, 20(3): 218-225. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0218-6
Abstract:
The most promising approach for studying soil moisture is the assimilation of observation data and computational modeling. However, there is much uncertainty in the assimilation process, which affects the assimilation results. This research developed a one-dimensional soil moisture assimilation scheme based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) and Genetic Algorithm (GA). A two-dimensional hydrologic model-Distributed Hydrology-Soil-Vegetation Model (DHSVM) was coupled with a semi-empirical backscattering model (Oh). The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data were assimilated with this coupled model and the field observation data were used to validate this scheme in the soil moisture assimilation experiment. In order to improve the assimilation results, a cost function was set up based on the distance between the simulated backscattering coefficient from the coupled model and the observed backscattering coefficient from ASAR. The EnKF and GA were used to re-initialize and re-parameterize the simulation process, respectively. The assimilation results were compared with the free-run simulations from hydrologic model and the field observation data. The results obtained indicate that this assimilation scheme is practical and it can improve the accuracy of soil moisture estimation significantly.
Projections of Wind Changes for 21st Century in China by Three Regional Climate Models
JIANG Ying, LUO Yong, ZHAO Zongci, SHI Ying, XU Yinlong, ZHU Jinhong
2010, 20(3): 226-235. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0226-6
Abstract:
This paper examines the capability of three regional climate models (RCMs), i.e., RegCM3 (the International Centre for Theoretical Physics Regional Climate Model), PRECIS (Providing Regional Climates for Impacts Studies) and CMM5 (the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University-the National Center for Atmospheric Research of USA, NCAR Mesoscale Model) to simulate the near-surface-layer winds (10 m above surface) all over China in the late 20th century. Results suggest that like global climate models (GCMs), these RCMs have the certain capability of imitating the distribution of mean wind speed and fail to simulate the greatly weakening wind trends for the past 50 years in the country. However, RCMs especially RegCM3 have the better capability than that of GCMs to simulate the distribution and change feature of mean wind speed. In view of their merits, these RCMs were used to project the variability of near-surface-layer winds over China for the 21st century. The results show that 1) summer mean wind speed for 2020-2029 will be lower compared to those in 1990-1999 in most area of China;2) annual and winter mean wind speed for 2081-2100 will be lower than those of 1971-1990 in the whole China;and 3) the changes of summer mean wind speed for 2081-2100 are uncertain. As a result, although climate models are absolutely necessary for projecting climate change to come, there are great uncertainties in projections, especially for wind speed, and these issues need to be further explored.
An Efficient Approach for Historical Storage and Retrieval of Segmented Road Data in Geographic Information System for Transportation
Mohammad Reza Jelokhani-Niaraki, Ali Asghar Alesheikh, Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki
2010, 20(3): 236-242. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0236-4
Abstract:
One of the most powerful functions of Geographic Information System for Transportation (GIS-T) is Dynamic Segmentation (DS), which is used to increase the efficiency and precision of road management by generating segments based on attributes. The road segments describing transportation data are both spatially and temporally referenced. For a variety of transportation applications, historical road segments must be preserved. This study presents an appropriate approach to preserve and retrieve the historical road segments efficiently. In the proposed method, only the portions of segments of a time stamp that have been changed into new segments rather than storing the entire segments for every old time stamp are recorded.The storage of these portions is based on the type of changes. A recursive algorithm is developed to retrieve all segments for every old time stamp. Experimental results using real data of Tehran City, Iran justify the strength of the proposed approach in many aspects. An important achievement of the results is that database volume for 2006, 2007 and 2008 within the Historical Line Event Table (HLET) is reduced by 70%, 80% and 78%, respectively. The proposed method has the potential to prevent from vast data redundancy and the unnecessary storage of entire segments for each time stamp. Since the present technique is performed on ordinary plain tables that are readable by all GIS software, special software platforms to manage the storage and retrieval of historical segments are not needed. In addition, this method simplifies spatio-temporal queries.
Millennial-centennial Scales Climate Changes of Holocene Indicated by Magnetic Susceptibility of High-resolution Section in Salawusu River Valley, China
LU Yingxia, LI Baosheng, WEN Xiaohao, QIU Shifan, WANG Fengnian, NIU Dongfeng, LI Zhiwen
2010, 20(3): 243-251. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0243-5
Abstract:
The upmost segment (Holocene series) of the Milanggouwan stratigraphic section (MGS1) in the Salawusu River valley shows 11 sedimentary cycles of dune sands and fluvio-lacustrine facies, or dune sands and paleosols. The analysis of the magnetic susceptibility of this segment suggests that there are 11 magnetic susceptibility cycles with the value alternating from low to high, in which the layers of the dune sands correspond to the lower value of the magnetic susceptibility and the layers of fluvio-lacustrine facies and paleosols correspond to the higher peaks. The study reveals that the low and high magnetic susceptibility values indicate the climate dominated by cold-arid winter monsoon and warm-humid summer monsoon of East Asia, respectively, and the study area has experienced at least 22 times of millennial-centennial scales climate alternation from the cold-arid to the warm-humid during the Holocene. In terms of the time and the climate nature, the variations basically correspond to those of the North Atlantic and some records of cold-warm changes in China as well. They might be caused by the alternation of winter and summer monsoons in the Mu Us Desert induced by global climate fluctuations in the Holocene.
Simulation Study on Purification Efficiency for Nitrogen in Different Types of Wetlands in Sanjiang Plain, China
GUO Yue, JIANG Ming, LU Xianguo
2010, 20(3): 252-257. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0252-4
Abstract:
The purification law of nitrogen in Deyeuxia angustifolia, Carex lasiocarpa and Deyeuxia angustifolia-Carex lasiocarpa combined wetland systems in the Sanjiang Plain, China was studied by field simulation experiment. The results indicate that the removal rates of TN, NH4+-N and NO3--N in above three types of wetlands present an obvious logarithm growth trend along with the time. There are evident removal effects for NH4+-N and NO3--N in water bodies of wetlands after the 30th day of experiment, with the removal rates over 80.0%, but the removal rate of TN is slightly low, being 63.1%-74.3%. NO3--N is most quickly removed by the combined wetland, and NH4+-N by Deyeuxia angustifolia wetland. The removal speeds of TN by the three wetland systems are comparatively slow, of which the Deyeuxia angustifolia wetland is the fastest. In consideration of plant growth season, Deyeuxia angustifolia wetland has much more practical application value in purifying nitrogen. These results can provide references for the study on the purification function of wetlands and the control of non-point source pollution in Northeast China.
Discussion on Sustainable Urbanization in Tibet
FAN Jie, WANG Hongyuan, CHEN Dong, ZHANG Wenzhong, WANG Chuansheng
2010, 20(3): 258-268. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0258-y
Abstract:
After 1995, Tibet entered the stage of accelerated urbanization. The large floating population from outside Tibet has become the driving force for urban expansion and the rising of urbanization rate. After analyzing the changes of urban functions and spatial structure of urban system in Tibet, this paper argues that before 1995 the urbanization in Tibet was mainly driven by administrative function, resulting in certain population migration, whereas in the past decade economic function has become the key factor accelerating urban expansion with the market mechanism creating large-scale inflow of population. The floating population-based urbanization and high population growth in the agricultural and pastoral areas of Tibet has promoted the regional economic prosperity, but exerted resources and environmental pressure and brought some problems for Tibetan culture protection at the same time. The conflicts and contradictions between urbanization and the sustainability of natural resources, environment and social development have been intensified. Addressing these problems, this paper proposes some countermeasures for improving the sustainability of Tibetan urbanization.
Regional Financial Development and Regional Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis of Suzhou City, China
LIU Yong, LI Weiping
2010, 20(3): 269-274. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0269-8
Abstract:
There are many defects in researches on the relationship of the regional financial development (FD) and economic growth of China, such as simply assuming the causality direction, not highlighting financial institution, using incomplete financial indicator, etc. This article, taking Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province, China as a case, builds a simple model to study the level of FD from three aspects of financial scale, structure and institution. Three original indicators of PRIVY (private investment/aggregate investment), DEPTH (aggregate loan/GDP) and FDIVG (FDI/GDP) are used to construct the FD economic indicator through Principal Component Analysis approach. Then we use Granger method to analyze the relationship between the FD and the economic growth of Suzhou. Empirical test results show that the FD of Suzhou is the Granger reason of economic growth, while economic growth is not the reason for FD, because the relationship between the FD and the economic growth of Suzhou is just in the "supply-leading" period. In terms of Suzhou experiences, the local government should strengthen the protection of private investment, improve the institutional environment, and establish the reasonable financial structure. So we can concluded that FD could play a great role in promoting economic growth at the economy takeoff stage.
Dissipative Travelling Wave Solution for El Niño Tropic Sea-air Coupled Oscillator
WEN Zhaohui, LIN Wantao, LIN Yihua, MO Jiaqi
2010, 20(3): 275-280. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0275-x
Abstract:
El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an interannual phenomenon involved in the tropical Pacific sea-air interactions. An asymptotic method of solving equations for the ENSO model is proposed. Based on a class of oscillator of ENSO model and by employing a simple and valid method of the variational iteration, the coupled system for a sea-air oscillator model of interdecadal climate fluctuations is studied. Firstly, by introducing a set of functionals and computing the variationals, the Lagrange multipliers are obtained. And then, the generalized variational iteration expressions are constructed. Finally, by selecting appropriate initial iteration, and from the iterations expressions, the approximations of solution for the sea-air oscillator ENSO model are solved successively. The approximate dissipative travelling wave solution of equations for corresponding ENSO model is studied. It is proved from the results that the method of the variational iteration can be used for analyzing the sea surface temperature anomaly in the equatorial Pacific of the sea-air oscillator for ENSO model.
Comprehensive Measurement for Carrying Capacity of Resources and Environment of City Clusters in Central China
FANG Chuanglin, LIU Xiaoli
2010, 20(3): 281-288. doi: 10.1007/s11769-010-0281-z
Abstract:
Studying the carrying capacity of resources and environment of city clusters in the central China has important practical guidance significance for promoting the healthy, sustainable and stable development of this region. According to their influencing factors and reciprocity mechanism, using system dynamics approaches, this paper built a SD model for measuring the carrying capacity of resources and environment of the city clusters in the central China, and through setting different development models, the comprehensive measurement analysis on the carrying capacity was carried out. The results show that the model of promoting socio-economic development under the protection of resources and environment is the optimal model for promoting the harmony development of resources, environment, society and economy in the city clusters. According to this model, the optimum population scale of the city clusters in 2020 is 42.80×106 persons, and the moderate economic development scale is 22.055×1012 yuan (RMB). In 1996-2020, the carrying capacity of resources and environment in the city clusters took on obvious phase-change characteristics. During the studied period, it is basically at the initial development stage, and will come through the development process from slow development to speedup development.