Numerical simulations of katabatic jumps in coats land,Antartica     

Ye Yu  Xiaoming Cai  John C. King  Ian A. Renfrew 《Boundary-Layer Meteorology》2005,114(2):413-437

A non-hydrostatic numerical model, the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), has been used to investigate the development of katabatic jumps in Coats Land, Antarctica. In the control run with a 5 m s^-1downslope directed initial wind, a katabatic jump develops near the foot of the idealized slope. The jump is manifested as a rapid deceleration of the downslope flow and a change from supercritical to subcritical flow, in a hydraulic sense, i.e., the Froude number (Fr) of the flow changes from Fr > 1 to Fr> 1. Results from sensitivity experiments show that an increase in the upstream flow rate strengthens the jump, while an increase in the downstream inversion-layer depth results in a retreat of the jump. Hydraulic theory and Bernoulli's theorem have been used to explain the surface pressure change across the jump. It is found that hydraulic theory always underestimates the surface pressure change, while Bernoulli's theorem provides a satisfactory estimation. An analysis of the downs balance for the katabatic jump indicates that the important forces are those related to the pressure gradient, advection and, to a lesser extent, the turbulent momentum divergence. The development of katabatic jumps can be divided into two phases. In phase I, the t gradient force is nearly balanced by advection, while in phase II, the pressure gradient force is counterbalanced by turbulent momentum divergence. The upslope pressure gradient force associated with a pool of cold air over the ice shelf facilitates the formation of the katabatic jump.  相似文献   

The Relative Impact of Regional Scale Land Cover Change and Increasing CO2 over China   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Mei ZHAO  Andrew J. PITMAN 《大气科学进展》2005,22(1):58-68

A series of 17-yr equilibrium simulations using the NCAR CCM3 (T42 resolution) were performed to investigate the regional scale impacts of land cover change and increasing CO2 over China. Simulations with natural and current land cover at CO2 levels of 280,355, 430, and 505 ppmv were conducted. Results show statistically significant changes in major climate fields (e.g. temperature and surface wind speed) on a 15-yr average following land cover change. We also found increases in the maximum temperature and in the diurnal temperature range due to land cover change. Increases in CO2 affect both the maximum and minimum temperature so that changes in the diurnal range are small. Both land cover change and CO2 change also impact the frequency distribution of precipitation with increasing CO2 tending to lead to more intense precipitation and land cover change leading to less intense precipitation-indeed, the impact of land cover change typically had the opposite effect versus the impacts of CO2. Our results provide support for the inclusion of future land cover change scenarios in long-term transitory climate inodelling experiments of the 21st Century. Our results also support the inclusion of land surface models that can represent future land cover changes resulting from an ecological response to natural climate variability or increasing CO2. Overall, we show that land cover change can have a significant impact on the regional scale climate of China, and that regionally, this impact is of a similar magnitude to increases in CO2 of up to about 430 ppmv. This means that that the impact of land cover change must be accounted for in detection and attribution studies over China.  相似文献   

Impact assessments and policy responses to sea-level rise in three US states: An exploration of human-dimension uncertainties   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Susanne C. Moser   《Global Environmental Change》2005,15(4):353-369

Uncertainties in the human dimensions of global change deeply affect the assessment and responses to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise (SLR). This paper explores the uncertainties in the assessment process and in state-level policy and management responses of three US states to SLR. The findings reveal important political, economic, managerial, and social factors that enable or constrain SLR responses; question disasters as policy windows; and uncover new policy opportunities in the history of state coastal policies. Results suggest that a more realistic, and maybe more useful picture of climate change impacts will emerge if assessments take more seriously the locally embedded realities and constraints that affect individual decision-makers’ and communal responses to climate change.  相似文献   

青藏高原北缘哈拉湖近800年来 湖泊沉积及其环境意义^*   总被引：5，自引：5，他引：5  

曹洁  张家武  张成君  陈发虎 《第四纪研究》2007,27(1):100-107

文章以青藏高原北缘高山祁连山湖泊——哈拉湖作为研究对象,利用放射性核素²¹⁰ Pb和¹³⁷ Cs测年资料,通过对此高海拔湖泊沉积碳酸盐氧碳同位素、碳酸盐含量、总有机碳含量、磁化率等环境代用指标的分析,揭示了这一地区近800年来的气候环境变化过程。分析表明哈拉湖记录的气候环境变化经历了3个阶段:1206~1700A.D.环境较为寒冷、湿润,并有持续变湿的趋势;1700~1920A.D.环境由冷湿的状况趋向温暖干旱,1771年之后,环境保持相对稳定;1920~2002A.D.是自1206年以来最为温暖干旱的阶段。  相似文献   

基于中等复杂地球系统模式的全新世 气候突变事件模拟试验^*     

徐韵  陈星 《第四纪研究》2007,27(3):392-400

全新世暖湿气候背景下的代表性气候突变是发生在约8.2kaB.P. 和4.2kaB.P. 的气候突然变冷变干的事件。对于气候突变事件的出现,海洋环流被普遍认为是其中的关键环节。科学家们利用不同类型的气候模式进行过个例和机理模拟试验,但还未能对气候突变机理做出合理的解释。本研究使用一个中等复杂程度的地球系统模式EMIC ( Earth-system Models Intermediate Complexity) MPM-2,模拟研究了全新世气候背景下北大西洋区域,淡水强迫机制作用对温盐环流以及全球气候的可能影响、气候系统响应和恢复时间特征以及南北半球的差异。模拟结果表明海洋对北大西洋淡水通量异常的强度响应敏感,海洋环流对热量和盐份的输送与淡水通量异常强度之间的平衡决定了温盐环流能否对淡水强迫产生不可逆转变,当淡水通量异常达到某一阈值后可能引起海洋和气候平衡态的改变。同时还发现,在气候变化过程中,两次淡水通量异常对海洋和大气系统的强迫作用是不同的,首次淡水通量异常对气候平衡态的影响要远大于其后的淡水通量异常。模拟结果还表明,北大西洋海洋的异常状况可以通过海洋、大气等各圈层相互作用传递到不同圈层和空间区域,在南北半球出现不同的响应特征。上述模拟结果对于认识全新世气候变化特征、不同突变事件之间的关系及其对现代气候的可能影响具有启发意义。  相似文献   

Modelling the sustainability and productivity of pastoral systems in the communal areas of Namaqualand     

F.D. Richardson  B.D. Hahn  M.T. Hoffman   《Journal of Arid Environments》2007,70(4):701-714

We investigated the effects of rainfall and the number of animals on changes in vegetation and on the output of milk and meat from the communal areas of Namaqualand. Previously published short- and long-term models link processes that range from the levels of tissue (in, for example, the mammary gland), to the milk yields of individual animals, to the growth and survival of their young and to long-term changes in plant species populations at the ecosystem level. These models have been used to study how different factors and management strategies affect livestock productivity and vegetation composition on a 20,000 ha rangeland in Namaqualand. First, the inter-relations between rainfall, stocking rate and productivity were studied using the short-term model. This model shows that in addition to total rainfall and stocking rate, the timing of rainfall within a year also influences doe live weight and survival to the end of the year. When the long-term model is run, using recorded rainfall, predictions of small stock numbers agree closely with livestock data recorded over the same 30-year period. One thousand replicates of 100-year runs of the long-term model were then used to study the probable impact of different upper limits to stock numbers on animal performance. Off take (sales and slaughterings) are maximal when stock numbers are limited to 2000 adults. Animal numbers increase marginally as the limit is increased above this level, but the variability between years in numbers increases. Secondly, the long-term model was used to study the long-term effects of the stocking rate strategies on rangeland condition. The model predicts that although these effects are variable, when moderately degraded range is stocked with an upper limit at the recommended level it is unable to recover to less degraded states over 100 years. Thirdly, the model was used to examine the effects of reduction in stock numbers and slaughtering of kids in a drought year on goat numbers during the subsequent 5 years. Finally, the model predicts that a 10% reduction in mean annual rainfall will lead to a 35% reduction in animal numbers over 200 years.  相似文献   

Hillslope gullying in the Solway Firth — Morecambe Bay region, Great Britain: Responses to human impact and/or climatic deterioration?     

R.C. Chiverrell  A.M. Harvey  G.C. Foster 《Geomorphology》2007,84(3-4):317

In the Solway Firth — Morecambe Bay region of Great Britain there is evidence for heightened hillslope instability during the late Holocene (after 3000 cal. BP). Little or no hillslope geomorphic activity has been identified occurring during the early Holocene, but there is abundant evidence for late Holocene hillslope erosion (gullying) and associated alluvial fan and valley floor deposition. Interpretation of the regional radiocarbon chronology available from organic matter buried beneath alluvial fan units suggests much of this geomorphic activity can be attributed to four phases of more extensive gullying identified after 2500–2200, 1300–1000, 1000–800 and 500 cal. BP. Both climate and human impact models can be evoked to explain the crossing of geomorphic thresholds: and palaeoecological data on climatic change (bog surface wetness) and human impact (pollen), together with archaeological and documentary evidence of landscape history, provide a context for addressing the causes of late Holocene geomorphic instability. High magnitude storm events are the primary agent responsible for gully incision, but neither such events nor cooler/wetter climatic episodes appear to have produced gully systems in the region before 3000 cal. BP. Increased gullying after 2500–2200 cal. BP coincides with population expansion during Iron Age and Romano-British times. The widespread and extensive gullying after 1300–1000 cal. BP and after 1000–800 cal. BP coincides with periods of population expansion and a growing rural economy identified during Norse times, 9–10th centuries AD, and during the Medieval Period, 12–13th centuries AD. These periods were separated by a downturn associated with the ‘harrying of the north’ AD 1069 to 1070. The gullying episode after 500 cal. BP also coincides with increased anthropogenic pressure on the uplands, with population growth and agricultural expansion after AD 1500 following 150 years of malaise caused by livestock and human (the Black Death) plagues, poor harvests and conflicts on the Scottish/English border. The increased susceptibility to erosion of gullies is a response to increased anthropogenic pressure on upland hillslopes during the late Holocene, and the role of this pressure appears crucial in priming hillslopes before subsequent major storm events. In particular, the cycles of expansion and contraction in both population and agriculture appear to have affected the susceptibility of the upland landscape to erosion, and the hillslope gullying record in the region, therefore, contributes to understanding of the timing and spatial pattern of human exploitation of the upland landscape.  相似文献   

Middle-Late Pleistocene polycyclic evolution of a stable coastal area (southern Apulia, Italy)     

Giuseppe Mastronuzzi  Yves Quinif  Paolo Sans  Gianluca Selleri 《Geomorphology》2007,86(3-4):393-408

The Otranto–Leuca coastal tract is marked by the presence of numerous sea caves placed close to present sea level. They are located generally at the back of a shore platform covered by a sequence of breccia deposits, marine sediments and speleothems. At Grotta di Masseria dell'Orte, marine cemented sands rest on a narrow shore platform at about 6.2 m above mean sea level and are covered by speleothems older than 185 ka. At Grotta del Diavolo, which is mostly filled by breccia deposits, three beach levels have been detected at about 3.0, 3.5 and 5.9 m above msl. They are either covered by or overlie speleothems that yield an U/Th age of 340, 78 ka and between 170.3 and 146.5, respectively. Geomorphological evidence and radiometric ages indicate that the area after a period of uplift has been tectonically stable since the last part of the Middle Pleistocene so that marine landforms close to the present shoreline underwent a polycyclic evolution. The sedimentary fills of sea caves formed during Middle-Late Pleistocene glacial stages, when arid or semiarid conditions promoted the removal of regolith and the development of thick breccia deposits. During Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 9.3, 5.5 and 5.1, cave sediments were partially eroded whereas beach layers and related speleothems developed. These are, in fact, the only marine isotope stages marked by a sea level position which in this Mediterranean region was either close to, or slightly higher than, the present one.  相似文献   

Soil erosion along a long slope in the gentle hilly areas of black soil region in Northeast China     

CUI Ming  CAI Qiangguo  ZHU Axing  FAN Haoming 《地理学报》2007,17(3):375-383

Characteristics of soil erosion change along a long slope in the gentle hilly areas in black soil region in Northeast China are discussed. A simplified slope model based on seg-ments was used to analyze the runoff data and soil erosion data observed between 2003 and 2004 over 10 field plots with different slope length in Heshan Farm, Heilongjiang Province. We found that soil erosion rate over long slopes in the black soil region changed alternatively along the slope and creates alternative zones of intensive erosion and week erosion.The exact place of each zone is different for different rainfall conditions. In a year with less and mild precipitation, rill cannot happen within the top 50 m, while in a year with large and inten-sive precipitation, rill can be formed starting even at 15 m from the top of the slope.  相似文献   

喀斯特生态脆弱区猫跳河流域土地利用/覆被变化研究   总被引：13，自引：0，他引：13  

彭建  蔡运龙  何钢  王文博  黄秋昊  严汾 《山地学报》2007,25(5):566-576

LUCC是当前国际全球变化研究的前沿和热点领域,喀斯特生态脆弱区的土地利用/覆被变化是国际LUCC研究中的薄弱环节。以贵州中部的典型喀斯特流域——猫跳河流域为例,通过详实的地面调查,以1973年的Landsat-MSS影像、1990年和2002年的Landsat-TM影像为数据源,在RS、G IS、GPS为核心的"三S"集成技术支撑下,应用单一土地利用动态度、单一土地利用转入率和转出率、综合土地利用动态度、土地利用度以及土地覆被变化空间指数等指标,定量研究了该流域在过去30 a间的土地利用/覆被的变化特征。研究表明:(1)研究区的土地覆被类型主要以耕地、灌草地、灌木林以及有林地为主;(2)1970年代以来,土地利用/覆被变化剧烈,各地类之间的变化幅度存在较大差别,水田、灌木林、其他林地、灌草地等地类先减后增,旱地和裸岩地先增后减,有林地、水域、城镇建设用地、农村居民点、交通工矿用地等持续增加;⑶1973~1990年的土地利用动态度和土地利用度均比1990~2002年大,前一时期的裸岩地明显增加,土地利用具有明显的不可持续性,进入1990年后,裸岩地缩减,流域生态环境质量趋于好转;⑷伴随着分布面积在平面空间上的张缩,各地类的平均分布高程和坡度在垂直方向上也出现了相应的变化。  相似文献