ALBERT

Description: Although China has surpassed the United States as the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter, in situ measurements of atmospheric CO2 have been sparse in China. This paper analyzes hourly CO2 and its correlation with CO at Miyun, a rural site near Beijing, over a period of 51 months (Dec 2004 through Feb 2009). The CO2-CO correlation analysis evaluated separately for each hour of the day provides useful information with statistical significance even in the growing season. We found that the intercept, representing the initial condition imposed by global distribution of CO2 with influence of photosynthesis and respiration, exhibits diurnal cycles differing by season. The background CO2 (CO2,b) derived from Miyun observations is comparable to CO2 observed at a Mongolian background station to the northwest. Annual growth of overall mean CO2 at Miyun is estimated at 2.7 ppm yr−1 while that of CO2,b is only 1.7 ppm yr−1 similar to the mean growth rate at northern mid-latitude background stations. This suggests a relatively faster increase in the regional CO2 sources in China than the global average, consistent with bottom-up studies of CO2 emissions. For air masses with trajectories through the northern China boundary layer, mean winter CO2/CO correlation slopes (dCO2/dCO) increased by 2.8 ± 0.9 ppmv/ppmv or 11% from 2005–2006 to 2007–2008, with CO2 increasing by 1.8 ppmv. The increase in dCO2/dCO indicates improvement in overall combustion efficiency over northern China after winter 2007, attributed to pollution reduction measures associated with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The observed CO2/CO ratio at Miyun is 25% higher than the bottom-up CO2/CO emission ratio, suggesting a contribution of respired CO2 from urban residents as well as agricultural soils and livestock in the observations and uncertainty in the emission estimates.

Description: River wetlands are heavily impacted by human intervention. The degradation and loss of river wetlands has made the restoration of river ecosystems a top priority. How to rehabilitate rivers and their services has been a research focus. The main goal of it is to restore the river wetland ecosystems with ecological methods. The Gudong River was selected as a study site in Chaoyang city in this study. Based on the analysis of interference factors in the river wetland degradation, a set of restoration techniques were proposed and designed for regional water level control, including submerged dikes, ecological embankments, revegetation and dredging. The restoration engineering has produced good results in water quality, eco-environment, and landscape. Monthly reports of the Daling River show that the water quality of Gudong River was better than Grade III in April 2013 compared with Grade V in May 2012. The economic benefit after restoration construction is 1.71 million RMB per year, about 1.89 times that before. The ratio of economic value, social value and eco-environmental value is 1:4:23.

Description: Water plays a significant role in wetlands. Floodwater utilisation in wetlands brings a wide range of wetland services, from goods production and water regulation to animal protection and aesthetics related to water supply in wetlands. In this study, the floodwater utilisation values of wetland services were estimated within the Momoge wetland and Xianghai wetland in western Jilin province of northeastern China. From 2003 to 2008, the floodwater diverted from the Nenjiang and Tao'er River is 381 million m3, which translates into a monetary value of approximately 1.35 billion RMB in 2008 (RMB: Chinese Currency, RMB 6.80 = US$ 1), and the ratio of economic value, eco-environmental value, and social value is 1:12:2. Besides the monetary value of the water itself, excessive floodwater utilisation may bring losses to wetlands; the threshold floodwater utilisation volumes in wetlands are discussed. Floodwater utilisation can alleviate water shortages in wetlands, and the evaluation of floodwater utilisation in wetland services in monetary terms is a guide for the effective use of the floodwater resources and for the conservation of wetlands.

Description: Most of the surface water for natural environmental and human water uses in southeast Australia is sourced from forested catchments located in the higher rainfall areas. Water yield of these catchments is mainly affected by climatic conditions, but it is also greatly affected by vegetation cover change. Bushfires are a major natural disturbance in forested catchments and potentially modify the water yield of the catchments through changes to evapotranspiration (ET), interception and soil moisture storage. This paper quantifies the impacts of bushfire and climate variability on streamflow from three southeast Australian catchments where Ash Wednesday bushfires occurred in February 1983. The hydrological models used here include AWRA-L, Xinanjiang and GR4J. The three models are first calibrated against streamflow data from the pre-bushfire period and they are used to simulate runoff for the post-bushfire period with the calibrated parameters. The difference between the observed and model simulated runoff for the post-bushfire period provides an estimate of the impact of bushfire on streamflow. The hydrological modelling results for the three catchments indicate that there is a substantial increase in streamflow in the first 15 yr after the 1983 bushfires. The increase in streamflow is attributed to initial decreases in ET and interception resulting from the fires, followed by logging activity. After 15 yr, streamflow dynamics are more heavily influenced by climate effects, although some impact from fire and logging regeneration may still occur. It is shown that hydrological models provide reasonable consistent estimates of forest disturbance and climate impacts on streamflow for the three catchments. The results might be used by forest managers to understand the relationship between forest disturbance and climate variability impacts on water yield in the context of climate change.

Description: In this article we propose two conformal mapping based grid generation algorithms for global ocean general circulation models (OGCMs). Contrary to conventional, analytical forms based dipolar or tripolar grids, the new algorithms are based on Schwarz–Christoffel (SC) conformal mapping with prescribed boundary information. While dealing with the basic grid design problem of pole relocation, these new algorithms also address more advanced issues such as smoothed scaling factor, or the new requirements on OGCM grids arisen from the recent trend of high-resolution and multi-scale modeling. The proposed grid generation algorithm could potentially achieve the alignment of grid lines to coastlines, enhanced spatial resolution in coastal regions, and easier computational load balance. Since the generated grids are still orthogonal curvilinear, they can be readily utilized in existing Bryan–Cox–Semtner type ocean models. The proposed methodology can also be applied to the grid generation task for regional ocean modeling where complex land–ocean distribution is present.

Description: Global change has been shown to greatly alter the amount of aboveground litter inputs to soil, which could cause substantial cascading effects on belowground biogeochemical cyling. Although having been studied extensively, there is uncertainty about how changes in aboveground litter inputs affect soil carbon and nutrient turnover and transformation. Here, we conducted a comprehensive compilation of 68 studies on litter addition or removal experiments, and used meta-analysis to assess the responses of soil physicochemical properties and carbon and nutrient cycling under changed aboveground litter inputs. Our results suggested that litter addition or removal could significantly alter soil temperature and moisture, but not soil pH. Litter inputs were more crucial in buffering soil temperature and moisture fluctuations in grassland than in forest. Soil respiration, soil microbial biomass carbon and total carbon in the mineral soil increased with increasing litter inputs, suggesting that soil acted as a~net carbon sink although carbon loss and transformation increased with increasing litter inputs. Total nitrogen and the C : N ratio in the mineral soil increased with increased litter inputs. However, there was no correlation between litter inputs and extractable inorganic nitrogen in the mineral soil. Compared to other ecosystems, tropical and subtropical forests are more sensitive to variation in litter inputs. Increased or decreased litter inputs altered the turnover and accumulation of soil carbon and nutrient in tropical and subtropical forests more substantially over a shorter time period compared to other ecosystems. Overall, our study suggested that, although the magnitude of responses differed greatly among ecosystems, increased litter inputs generally accelerated the decomposition and accumulation of carbon and nutrients in soil, and decreased litter inputs reduced them.

Description: Livestock exclosure has been widely used as an approach for grassland restoration. However, the effects of exclosure on grassland are controversial and can depend on many factors, such as the grassland ecosystem types, evolutionary history and so on. In this study, we conduct field experiments to investigate the variations of ecosystem function in response to livestock exclosure in a Kobresia humilis meadow under six years grazing exclosure on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. We focused on two ecosystem functions: plant community structure and ecosystem carbon cycling. The plant aboveground productivity, plant diversity and the composition of plant functional groups of the meadow were addressed as the indicators of the plant community structure. The 13C isotope pulse labeling technique was applied to evaluate the alterations of ecosystem carbon cycling during the short-term. The results showed that the plant community structure was changed after being fenced for six years, with significantly decreased aboveground productivity, species loss and varied composition of the four plant functional groups (grasses, sedges, legumes and forbs). Using the pulse labeling technique, we found a lower cycling rate of 13C in the plant–soil system of the fenced plots compared with the grazed sites during the first 4 days after labeling. A higher proportion of 13C amount recovered in the plant–soil system were migrated into soil as root exudates immediately after labeling at both fenced and control grazed sites, with significantly lower proportion in the fenced site, coinciding with the lower loss of 13C in soil respiration. Thirty-two days after labeling, 37% of recovered 13C remained in the soil of the fenced plots, with significant differences compared to the grazed plots (47%). In addition, less 13C (5% vs. 7%) was lost by soil respiration in the fenced plots during the chase period of 32 d. Overall, our study suggested that livestock exclosure had negative effects on the two ecosystem functions investigated, and the effects on 13C cycling and sequestrations in the soil were in response to variations in community structures, especially the suppression of forbs and legumes in the fenced site.

Description: Speciation analysis of iodine in aerosols is a very useful approach for understanding geochemical cycling of iodine in the atmosphere. In this study, overall iodine species, including water-soluble iodine species (iodide, iodate and water-soluble organic iodine), NaOH-soluble iodine and insoluble iodine have been determined for 129I and 127I in the aerosols collected at Risø, Denmark, between March and May 2011 (shortly after the Fukushima nuclear accident) and in December 2014. The measured concentrations of total iodine are in the range of 1.04–2.48 ng m−3 for 127I and (11.3–97.0) × 105 atoms m−3 for 129I, and 129I / 127I atomic ratios of (17.8–86.8) × 10−8. The contribution of Fukushima-derived 129I (peak value of 6.3 × 104 atoms m−3) is estimated to be negligible (less than 6 %) compared to the total 129I concentration in northern Europe. The concentrations and species of 129I and 127I in the aerosols are found to be strongly related to their sources and atmospheric pathways. Aerosols that were transported over the contaminated ocean, contained higher amounts of 129I than aerosols transported over the European continent. The high 129I concentrations of the marine aerosols are attributed to secondary emission from heavily 129I-contaminated seawater rather than primary gaseous release from nuclear reprocessing plants. Water-soluble iodine was found to be a minor fraction to total iodine for both 127I (7.8–13.7 %) and 129I (6.5–14.1 %) in ocean-derived aerosols, but accounted for 20.2–30.3 % for 127I and 25.6–29.5 % for 129I in land-derived aerosols. Iodide was the predominant form of water-soluble iodine, accounting for more than 97 % of the water-soluble iodine. NaOH-soluble iodine seems to be independent of the sources of aerosols. The significant proportion of 129I and 127I found in NaOH-soluble fractions is likely bound with organic substances. In contrast to water-soluble iodine however, the sources of air masses exerted distinct influences on insoluble iodine for both 129I and 127I, with higher values for marine air masses and lower values for terrestrial air masses.

Description: Alpine wetland meadow could functions as a carbon sink due to it high soil organic content and low decomposition. However, the magnitude and dynamics of carbon stock in alpine wetland ecosystems are not well quantified. Therefore, understanding how environmental variables affect the processes that regulate carbon fluxes in alpine wetland meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is critical. To address this issue, Gross Primary Production (GPP), Ecosystem Respiration (Reco), and Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) were examined in an alpine wetland meadow using the eddy covariance method from October 2003 to December 2006 at the Haibei Research Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Seasonal patterns of GPP and Reco were closely associated with leaf area index (LAI). The Reco showed a positive exponential to soil temperature and relatively low Reco occurred during the non-growing season after a rain event. This result is inconsistent with the result observed in alpine shrubland meadow. In total, annual GPP were estimated at 575.7, 682.9, and 630.97 g C m−2 in 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively. Meanwhile, the Reco were equal to 676.8, 726.4, 808.2 g C m−2, and thus the NEE were 101.1, 44.0 and 173.2 g C m−2. These results indicated that the alpine wetland meadow was a moderately source of carbon dioxide (CO2). The observed carbon dioxide fluxes in the alpine wetland meadow were higher than other alpine meadow such as Kobresia humilis meadow and shrubland meadow.

Description: Global change has been shown to alter the amount of above-ground litter inputs to soil greatly, which could cause substantial cascading effects on below-ground biogeochemical cycling. Despite extensive study, there is uncertainty about how changes in above-ground litter inputs affect soil carbon and nutrient turnover and transformation. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis on 70 litter-manipulation experiments in order to assess how changes in above-ground litter inputs alter soil physicochemical properties, carbon dynamics and nutrient cycles. Our results demonstrated that litter removal decreased soil respiration by 34%, microbial biomass carbon in the mineral soil by 39% and total carbon in the mineral soil by 10%, whereas litter addition increased them by 31, 26 and 10%, respectively. This suggests that greater litter inputs increase the soil carbon sink despite higher rates of carbon release and transformation. Total nitrogen and extractable inorganic nitrogen in the mineral soil decreased by 17 and 30%, respectively, under litter removal, but were not altered by litter addition. Overall, litter manipulation had a significant impact upon soil temperature and moisture, but not soil pH; litter inputs were more crucial in buffering soil temperature and moisture fluctuations in grassland than in forest. Compared to other ecosystems, tropical and subtropical forests were more sensitive to variation in litter inputs, as altered litter inputs affected the turnover and accumulation of soil carbon and nutrients more substantially over a shorter time period. Our study demonstrates that although the magnitude of responses differed greatly among ecosystems, the direction of the responses was very similar across different ecosystems. Interactions between plant productivity and below-ground biogeochemical cycling need to be taken into account to predict ecosystem responses to environmental change.