分类: 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间: 2018-09-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要: Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are bio-sedimentary associations that play crucial ecological roles in arid and semi-arid regions. In the Gurbantunggut Desert of China, more than 27% of the land surface is characterized by a predominant cover of lichen-dominated BSCs that contribute to the stability of the desert. However, little is known about the major factors that limit the spatial distribution of BSCs at a macro scale. In this study, the cover of BSCs was investigated along a precipitation gradient from the margins to the center of the Gurbantunggut Desert. Environmental variables including precipitation, soil particle size, soil pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic carbon, total salt, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and total potassium were analyzed at a macro scale to determine their association with differing assemblages of BSCs (cyanobacteria crusts, lichen crusts and moss crusts) using constrained linear ordination redundancy analysis (RDA). A model of BSCs distribution correlated with environmental variables that dominated the first two axes of the RDA was constructed to clearly demonstrate the succession stages of BSCs. The study determined that soil particle size (represented by coarse sand content) and precipitation are the most significant drivers influencing the spatial distribution of BSCs at a macro scale in the Gurbantunggut Desert. The cover of lichen and moss crusts increased with increasing precipitation, while the cover of cyanobacteria crusts decreased with increasing precipitation. The cover of lichen and moss crusts was negatively associated with coarse sand content, whereas the cover of cyanobacteria crusts was positively correlated with coarse sand content. These findings highlight the need for both the availability of soil moisture and a relatively stable of soil matrix, not only for the growth of BSCs but more importantly, for the regeneration and rehabilitation of disturbed BSC communities in arid and semi-arid lands. Thereby, this study will provide a theory basis to effectively increase soil stability in desert regions.
分类: 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间: 2018-09-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要: Hotan Prefecture is located at the southwestern edge of Taklimakan Desert, the world's largest shifting sand desert, of China. The desert is one of the main sources for frequent sand-dust weather events which strongly affect the air quality of Hotan Prefecture. Although this region is characterized by the highest annual mean PM10 concentration values that are routinely recorded by environmental monitoring stations across China, both this phenomenon and its underlying causes have not been adequately addressed in previous researches. Reliable pollutant PM10 data are currently retrieved using a tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) 1400a, a direct real-time monitor, while additional concentration values including for PM2.5, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3) have been collected in recent years by the Hotan Environmental Monitoring Station. Based on these data, this paper presents a comparison of the influences of different kinds of sand-dust weather events on PM10 (or PM2.5) as well as the concentrations of other gaseous pollutants in Hotan Prefecture. It is revealed that the highest monthly average PM10 concentrations are observed in the spring because of the frequent occurrence of three distinct kinds of sand-dust weather events at this time, including dust storms, blowing dust and floating dust. The floating dust makes the most significant contribution to PM10 (or PM2.5) concentration in this region, a result that differs from eastern Chinese cities where the heaviest PM10 pollution occurs usually in winter and air pollution results from the excess emission of local anthropogenic pollutants. It is also shown that PM10 concentration varies within typical dust storms. PM10 concentrations vary among 20 dust storm events within Hotan Prefecture, and the hourly mean concentrations tend to sharply increase initially then slowly decreasing over time. Data collected from cities in eastern China show the opposite with the hourly mean PM10 (or PM2.5) concentration tending to slowly increase then sharply decrease during heavy air pollution due to the excess emission of local anthropogenic pollutants. It is also found that the concentration of gaseous pollutants during sand-dust weather events tends to be lower than those cases under clear sky conditions. This indicates that these dust events effectively remove and rapidly diffuse gaseous pollutants. The analysis also shows that the concentration of SO2 decreases gradually at the onset of all three kinds of sand-dust weather events because of rapidly increasing wind velocity and the development of favorable atmospheric conditions for diffusion. In contrast, changes in O3 and NO2 concentrations conformed to the opposite pattern during all three kinds of sand-dust weather events within this region, implying the inter transformation of these gas species during these events.
分类: 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间: 2018-09-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要: Severe wind is a major natural hazard and a main driver of desertification on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Generally, studies of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's wind climatology focus on mean wind speeds and its gust speeds have been seldom investigated. Here, we used observed daily maximum gust speeds from a 95-station network over a 5-year period (2008–2012) to analyze the characteristics of extreme wind speeds and directions by fitting Weibull and Gumbel distributions. The results indicated the spatial distribution of extreme wind speeds and their direction on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is highly variable, with its western portion prone to greater mean speeds of extreme wind gusts than its eastern portion. Maximum extreme wind speeds of 30.9, 33.0, and 32.2 m/s were recorded at three stations along the Qinghai Tibet Railway. Severe winds occurred mostly from November to April, caused primarily by the westerly jet stream. Terrain greatly enhances the wind speeds. Our spatial analysis of wind speed data showed that the wind speeds increased exponentially with an increasing altitude. We also assessed the local wind hazard by calculating the return periods of maximum wind gusts from the observational data based on the statistical extreme value distributions of these wind speeds. Further attention should be given to those stations where the yearly maximum daily extreme wind speed increased at a rate greater than that of mean value of daily extreme wind speeds. Severe extreme wind events in these regions of the plateau are likely to become more frequent. Consequently, building structural designers working in these areas should use updated extreme wind data rather than relying on past data alone.
分类: 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间: 2018-09-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要: Climate change is threatening natural ecosystems in the Earth, and arid regions of southern Africa are particularly exposed to further drying. Welwitschia mirabilis Hook. (Welwitschiaceae) is an unusual gymnosperm tree that is recognized as an icon of the Namib Desert, southern Africa. Many aspects of its biology were investigated in the past, with a special emphasis for its physiology and adaptations, but nothing is known about its potential sensitivity to current climate changes. In this study, we adopted an approach based on distribution data for W. mirabilis and ecological niche models for clarifying the species-climate interactions and for predicting the potential impacts of climate change on W. mirabilis populations in three well-separated sub-ranges (northern, southern and central) in northwestern Namibia, southern Africa. We evidenced that the populations occurring in the northern sub-range have peculiar climatic exigencies compared with those in the central and southern sub-ranges and are particularly exposed to the impact of climate change, which will consist of a substantial increase in temperature across the region. These impacts could be represented by demographic changes that should be detected and monitored detailedly to plan efficient measures for managing populations of this important species on the long-term scale.
分类: 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间: 2018-09-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要: Homogeneity analysis of the streamflow time series is essential to hydrological modeling, water resources management and climate change studies. In this study, five absolute homogeneity tests and one clustering approach were used to determine the homogeneity status of the streamflow time series (over the period 1960–2010) in 14 hydrometric stations of three important basins (i.e., Aras River Basin, Urmia Lake Basin and Sefid-Roud Basin) in northwestern Iran. Results of the Buishand range test, von Neumann ratio test, cumulative deviation test, standard normal homogeneity test and Pettitt test for monthly streamflow time series detected that about 42.26%, 38.09%, 33.33%, 39.28% and 68.45% of the streamflow time series were inhomogeneous at the 0.01 significance level, respectively. Streamflow time series of the stations located in the eastern parts of the study area or within the Urmia Lake Basin were mostly homogeneous. In contrast, streamflow time series in the stations of the Aras River Basin and Sefied-Roud Basin showed inhomogeneity at annual scales. Based on the overall classification for the monthly and annual streamflow series, we determined that about 45.60%, 11.53% and 42.85% of the time series were categorized into the 'useful', 'doubtful' and 'suspect' classes according to the five absolute homogeneity tests. We also found the homogeneity patterns of the streamflow time series by using the clustering approach. The results suggested the effectiveness of the clustering approach for homogeneity analysis of the streamflow time series in addition to the absolute homogeneity tests. Moreover, results of the absolute homogeneity tests and clustering approach indicated obvious decreasing change points of the streamflow time series in the 1990s over the three basins, which were mostly related to the hydrological droughts.
分类: 物理学 >> 普通物理:统计和量子力学,量子信息等 提交时间: 2018-09-17
摘要: The generalized Rabi model is exactly solved by employing the unitary transformation method in the occupation number representation. The analytical expressions for the complete energy spectrum consisting of two sub-energy spectra are presented in the whole range of all the physical parameters. Each energy level possesses twofold degeneracy and is determined by the parameter in the unitary transformation, which obeys a highly nonlinear equation. The corresponding eigenfunction is a convergent infinite series in terms of these physical parameters. Due to the level crossings between the neighboring eigenstates at certain parameter values, such the degeneracies could lead to novel physical phenomena in these quantum systems with the light-matter interaction.