A Comparison of Public Lands and Farmlands for Grassland Bird Conservation     

Mary Ann Cunningham 《The Professional geographer》2005,57(1):51-65

Midwestern states have invested extensively in grasslands for wildlife conservation, yet these public lands make up a minority of grassland habitat. How effective are public grasslands, relative to private lands, for conserving native songbird populations? I compare private and public lands in southern Minnesota using bird survey data from Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields and public lands and assessing fragmentation in a GIS. Bird abundance and diversity were greater on CRP lands. Vegetation composition, field isolation, and field size appear to explain differences in bird counts. Land cover data show that grassland habitat on public lands is scarce and widely scattered. The CRP provides more, and here better, habitat for grassland birds. Funding partly explains this disparity. Trends in farm set‐aside program rules and distribution, which can be vary greatly over time, will strongly influence the success or failure of biodiversity conservation in this region.  相似文献   

Interannual Variability in Pollen Dispersal and Deposition on the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap*     

Carl A. Reese  Kam‐biu Liu 《The Professional geographer》2005,57(2):185-197

Pollen collected from snow samples on the Quelccaya Ice Cap in 2000 and 2001 reveals significant interannual variability in pollen assemblage, concentration, and provenance. Samples from 2000, a La Niña year, contain high pollen concentrations and resemble samples from the Andean forests (Yungas) to the east. Samples from 2001, an El Niño year, contain fewer pollen and resemble those from the Altiplano. We suggest that varying wind patterns under different El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions may affect the processes of pollen transport over the Altiplano and on the ice cap, although confounding variables such as flowering phenology and sublimation should also be considered  相似文献   

Analysis of earth dams affected by the 2001 Bhuj Earthquake   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Raghvendra Singh  Debasis Roy  Sudhir K. Jain   《Engineering Geology》2005,80(3-4):282-291

An earthquake of magnitude of 7.6 (M_w 7.6) occurred in Bhuj, India on January 26, 2001. This event inflicted damages of varying extents to a large number of small to moderate size multi-zone earth dams in the vicinity of the epicenter. Some of the distress was due to the liquefaction of saturated alluvium in foundation. Liquefaction was relatively localized for the majority of these dams because the earthquake struck in the middle of a prolonged dry season when the reservoirs behind these dams were nearly empty and shallow alluvium soils underneath the downstream portions of the dams were partly dry. Otherwise, liquefaction of foundation soils would have been more extensive and damage to these dams more significant. Six such dams have been examined in this paper. Four of these facilities, Chang, Shivlakha, Suvi, and Tapar were within the 50 km of epicenter region. These dams underwent free-field ground motion with peak ground accelerations between 0.28g to 0.52g. Of these Chang Dam underwent severe slumping, whereas Shivlakha, Suvi, and Tapar Dams were affected severely especially over the upstream sections. Fatehgadh Dam and Kaswati Dam were affected relatively less severely. Foundation conditions underneath these dams were first examined for assessing liquefaction potential. A limited amount of subsurface information available from investigations undertaken prior to the earthquake indicates that, although the foundation soils within the top 2.0 to 2.5 m underneath these dams were susceptible to liquefaction, Bhuj Earthquake did not trigger liquefaction because of lack of saturation of these layers underneath the downstream portions of these dams. These dams were then analyzed using a simple sliding block procedure using appropriate estimates of undrained soil strength parameters. The results of this analysis for these structures were found to be in general agreement with the observed deformation patterns.  相似文献   

Analysis of rock structure stability in coal mines   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Yi‐Shan Pan  Zhong‐Hua Li 《国际地质力学数值与分析法杂志》2005,29(10):1045-1063

In this paper, the theory of limit point instability is used to analyse the stability of rock structures in coal mines. A general method of analysing stability of rock structures is put forward and a uniform instability condition of rock structures is set up. Some instability phenomena, such as rock bursts in circular roadways, pillars and long walls, and the outburst of coal and gas from circular roadways, are discussed analytically. At a later stage, the critical point of rock structure instability is determined. The influence of relative parameters (such as the mechanical properties of rock, coal, and the geometric sizes) on the stability of the rock structures is carefully analysed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Riddle of arsenic in groundwater of Bengal Delta Plain—role of non-inland source and redox traps     

D. Chatterjee  R. K. Roy  B. B. Basu 《Environmental Geology》2005,49(2):188-206

In the Bengal Delta Plain (BDP) the primary arsenic sourcing appears to be different from the global scenario. Here, the Terminal Pleistocene–Holocene depositional platform, the interactive early Holocene depositional morphology with fluvio-estuarine and marine incursions played a crucial role for arsenic sourcing and enrichment. The lenticular silt-fine sand layer between anoxic clay beds favoured entrapment of dissolved organic carbon with decayed phyto-planktons debris. The Terminal Pleistocene–Holocene transgression and regression processes may have acted as major events in the BDP. Interestingly, at the end of the last glacial maxima, the Pleistocene delta had undergone block movements, wherein some parts of the platform were raised above the level of Holocene deposition. Those blocks were found to be free from arsenic in the groundwater. The sea, during re-emerging inundation (10–7 ka BP), has witnessed a monsoon-induced environment in the BDP with the resultant oscillation of sea level leading to higher upsurge towards the north. This might have resulted in the marine incursion and inundation in pre-existing land depressions. Meanwhile arsenic entrapments through marine incursion as well as enrichment in the presence of organic carbon/DOC and/or Fe/Mn/Al catalytic agents could have developed into localised redox traps. It may be of relevance that due to the repetitive transgressive–regressive phases in Holocene, resulting in periodic exposure and weathering of iron-bearing minerals and consequent iron enrichment in the aquifer system. The iron, thus present, had free charge to host arsenic as a sink. It appears that arsenic, wherever found, would likely be of atypical localised exhaustible phenomenon, both in horizontal and vertical context. It also rationalises the cause of the absence of arsenic in the other nearby Pleistocene platform, which has not come across Holocene interaction and marine incursion, as to the likely limiting condition for the search for arsenic in the BDP or beyond.  相似文献   

Fracture mechanics analysis of multiple cracks in anisotropic media     

Chia‐Huei Tu  C.‐S. Chen  T.‐T. Yu 《国际地质力学数值与分析法杂志》2011,35(11):1226-1242

This paper presents a single‐domain boundary element method (BEM) for linear elastic fracture mechanics analysis in the two‐dimensional anisotropic material. In this formulation, the displacement integral equation is collocated on the un‐cracked boundary only, and the traction integral equation is collocated on one side of the crack surface only. A special crack‐tip element was introduced to capture exactly the crack‐tip behavior. A computer program with the FORTRAN language has been developed to effectively calculate the stress intensity factors of an anisotropic material. This BEM program has been verified having a good accuracy with the previous researches. Furthermore, by analyzing the different anisotropic degree cracks in a finite plate, we found that the stress intensity factors of crack tips had apparent influence by the geometry forms of cracks and media with different anisotropic degrees. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Chronology and stratigraphy of the Magdalen Islands archipelago from the last glaciation to the early Holocene: new insights into the glacial and sea‐level history of eastern Canada          下载免费PDF全文

Audrey M. Rémillard  Guillaume St‐Onge  Pascal Bernatchez  Bernard Hétu  Jan‐Pieter Buylaert  Andrew S. Murray  Benoit Vigneault 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2016,45(4):604-628

  相似文献   

The use of the exponent K(q) function to delimit homogeneous regions in regional frequency analysis of extreme annual daily rainfall          下载免费PDF全文

A. P. García‐Marín  J. Estévez  C. Sangüesa‐Pool  R. Pizarro‐Tapia  J. L. Ayuso‐Muñoz  F. J. Jimenez‐Hornero 《水文研究》2015,29(1):139-151

The regional frequency analysis of extreme annual rainfall data is a useful methodology in hydrology to obtain certain quantile values when no long data series are available. The most crucial step in the analysis is the grouping of sites into homogeneous regions. This work presents a new grouping criterion based on some multifractal properties of rainfall data. For this purpose, a regional frequency analysis of extreme annual rainfall data from the Maule Region (Chile) has been performed. Daily rainfall data series of 53 available stations have been studied, and their empirical moments scaling exponent functions K(q) have been obtained. Two characteristics parameters of the K(q) functions (γ_max and K(0)) have been used to group the stations into three homogeneous regions. Only five sites have not been possible to include into any homogenous regions, being the local frequency analysis of extreme daily rainfall the most appropriate method to be used at these locations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Fossil wood     

Howard J. Falcon‐Lang 《Geology Today》2011,27(4):154-158

Plants have been making wood (secondary xylem) for more than 370 million years. This familiar material is one of the keys to their massive success. Wood allows plants to attain breathtaking heights and maximize the capture of sunlight for growth. By creating complex, multi‐layered forests, the evolution of wood, has done more to shape life on land than almost any other innovation. Wood is one of the most common terrestrial fossils encountered in the geological record. Whether preserved as huge petrified logs or as minute chunks of charcoal, fossil wood is abundant in rocks of Late Devonian age and younger. It is of enormous scientific importance, shedding light on the identity and stature of ancient trees. As a record of growth over a sustained period, it also tells us much about the climates and environments in which those trees lived. In this article, I explain some aspects of the origin, evolution, preservation, and identification of fossil wood, and emphasise its great significance for geology.  相似文献   

The lateglacial Quercus expansion in the southern European Alps: rapid vegetation response to a late Allerød climate warming?     

W. Finsinger  C. S. Lane  G. J. van Den Brand  F. Wagner‐Cremer  S. P. E. Blockley  A. F. Lotter 《第四纪科学杂志》2011,26(7):694-702

A pollen‐inferred vegetation shift, from pioneer birch–pine woodland to mixed pine–summergreen oak forests, in the southern Alpine forelands, is commonly attributed to a centennial‐scale warming that occurred between the Gerzensee Oscillation (GO) and the Younger Dryas. Two microtephra layers bracketing the Younger Dryas onset (the Laacher See Tephra and the Vedde Ash) improve the chronology at Lago Piccolo di Avigliana (northern Italy) and allowed accurate correlation with Central European records where the GO is clearly detected. We used pollen percentages, pollen accumulation rates (PARs) and plant macrofossils to assess the population dynamics of Quercus, and leaf‐cuticle analysis for a better taxonomic identification of Quercus. Our results indicate that the species that was locally present was probably Quercus robur. PARs suggest that the population expansion started as early as the Bølling and followed an exponential increase through time. We attribute this gradual shift to increasing summer temperatures and longer growing seasons which contrast with a gradually decreasing temperature trend as recorded in Greenland ice cores and in Central Europe. Breaks or set‐backs in the PAR record may indicate the biotic response to minor Lateglacial cooling events of different life‐history stages in the Quercus population. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献