Effects of postfire seeding and fertilizing on hillslope erosion in north-central Washington,USA

After the 1998 North 25 Fire in the Wenatchee National Forest, eight study sites were established on steep, severely burned hillslopes to examine the effectiveness of postfire seeding and fertilizing treatments in increasing cover to reduce hillslope erosion, and to measure the nutrient content of the eroded sediment. At each site, four 4 by 9 m plots were located with four randomly applied treatments: seed (winter wheat, Triticum estivum) at 34 kg ha^− 1, fertilizer (75% ammonium nitrate and 25% ammonium sulfate) at 31 kg ha^− 1, seed and fertilizer, and untreated control. Sediment fences were installed at the base of each plot to measure erosion rates and sample the eroded sediments. In addition, precipitation amounts and intensities, surface cover, canopy cover, and nutrient concentrations in the eroded sediments were measured for four years after the fire. Total precipitation was below average during the four-year study period, and most erosion occurred during short duration, moderate intensity summer rainfall events. The overall first year mean erosion rate was 16 Mg ha^− 1 yr^− 1, and this decreased significantly in the second year to 0.66 Mg ha^− 1 yr^− 1. There were no significant differences in erosion rates between treatments. In the first year, the seeded winter wheat provided 4.5% canopy cover, about a fourth of the total canopy cover, on the seeded plots; however, the total canopy cover on the seeded plots did not differ from the unseeded plots. The below average precipitation in the spring after seeding may have affected the winter wheat survival rate. In the fourth year of the study, the mean canopy cover in the fertilization treatment plots was 74%, and this was greater than the 55% mean canopy cover in the unfertilized plots (p = 0.04); however, there was no accompanying reduction in erosion rate for either the seeding or fertilization treatments. Revegetation by naturally occurring species was apparently not impacted by seeding during the four years of this study. The pH of the sediment as well as the concentrations of NO₃–N, NH₄–N, and K was not affected by seeding or fertilizing. The nutrient loads in the eroded sediment were minimal, with most of the nutrient loss occurring in the first postfire year. These results confirm that seeding success is highly dependent on rainfall intensity, amounts, and timing, and that soil nutrients lost in eroded sediments are unlikely to impair the site productivity.     

Monitoring fish stocks in relation to acidification in Norwegian watersheds

The Norwegian Monitoring Programme for Long-Range Transported Air Pollutants started in 1980. The biological part of this programme includes besides invertebrate studies in streams, (i) fish community status in lakes by means of interviews, test-fishing in lakes by using standard gill-net series, recruitment studies of brown trout in inland streams, and juvenile stock assess and monitoring of fish kills in salmon rivers. Damaged fish stocks are recognized within a land area of 51,500 km² in southern Norway and 30 km² in northern Norway. At least 6,000 lake-dwelling fish stocks have either been lost or are at various stages of reduction. Brown trout (Salmo trutta) is the most widespread and abundant species of fish in Norwegian watersheds, and is also most severe affected by acidification. More recently, there are some indications of an increase in the abundance of brown trout in some areas. However, analysis of age structure in lakes, and fry densities in streams in such areas revealed large annual variations in recruitment rate, which indicates unstable water chemical conditions. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is virtually extinct in 25 rivers in southernmost, southwestern and western Norway.     

Characterizing stand-replacing disturbance in western Alberta grizzly bear habitat, using a satellite-derived high temporal and spatial resolution change sequence

Timely and accurate mapping of anthropogenic and natural disturbance patterns can be used to better understand the nature of wildlife habitats, distributions and movements. One common approach to map forest disturbance is by using high spatial resolution satellite imagery, such as Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) or Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) imagery acquired at a 30 m spatial resolution. However, the low revisit times of these sensors acts to limit the capability to accurately determine dates for a sequence of disturbance events, especially in regions where cloud contamination is a frequent occurrence. As wildlife habitat use can vary significantly seasonally, annual patterns of disturbance are often insufficient in assessing relationships between disturbance and foraging behaviour or movement patterns.The Spatial Temporal Adaptive Algorithm for mapping Reflectance Change (STAARCH) allows the generation of high-spatial (30 m) and -temporal (weekly or bi-weekly) resolution disturbance sequences using fusion of Landsat TM or ETM+ and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery. The STAARCH algorithm is applied here to generate a disturbance sequence representing stand-replacing events (disturbances over 1 ha in area) for the period 2001-2008, over almost 6 million ha of grizzly bear habitat along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. The STAARCH algorithm incorporates pairs of Landsat images to detect the spatial extent of disturbances; information from the bi-weekly MODIS composites is used in this study to assign a date of disturbance (DoD) to each detected disturbed area. Dates of estimated disturbances with areas over 5 ha are validated by comparison with a yearly Landsat-based change sequence, with producer's accuracies ranging between 15 and 85% (average overall accuracy 62%, kappa statistic of 0.54) depending on the size of the disturbance event. The spatial and temporal patterns of disturbances within the entire region and in smaller subsets, representative of the size of a grizzly bear annual home range, are then explored. Disturbance levels are shown to increase later in the growing season, with most disturbances occurring in late August and September. Individual events are generally small in area (<10 ha) except in the case of wildfires, with, on average, 0.4% of the total area disturbed each year. The application of STAARCH provides unique high temporal and spatial resolution disturbance information over an extensive area, with significant potential for improving understanding of wildlife habitat use.     

关于建立田间墒情监测网信息系统的探讨

阐述建立田间墒情监测网的方法步骤，以及旱情评估的几种理论，在此基础上提出了墒情监测网信息系统的方案，该方案主要为地方（灌区或县、市）灌溉农业的用户服务，以期达到省水增产目的，同时与全国抗旱信息系统兼容为抗旱防灾、减灾服务     

Short-term gully retreat rates over rolling hill areas in black soil of Northeast China

Soil loss has become one severe problem in black soil areas of Northeast China after several decades of cultivation. Gully erosion is one of its main components. In this study, short-term gully retreat was monitored from 5 active gullies selected in representative black soil area during April 2002 to June 2004, using differential global positioning system (GPS). With the support of geographic information system (GIS), multitemporal digital elevation models (DEM) were constructed from the data collected by GPS and then used for further analysis. This presents a new method to compute the retreat rate of gully heads and the rate of soil losses caused by gully erosion. The results indicate that the average volumetric retreat rate was 729.1 m³ year^− 1, corresponding with an average linear retreat rate of 6.2 m year^− 1 in gully head and planimetric changes of 323.6 m² year^− 1 during the two monitored years, but more erosion took place during the second and third monitored period compared to the first. The erosion by freeze thawing and snowmelt accounts for a large percent. And this will be emphasized when rainfall is added in spring. If only considering the third monitored period, the conservatively estimated retreat rate by freeze thawing and snowmelt (i.e. before rainy season) may even reach 8.6 m year^− 1 in gully head, with a volumetric rate of 120.9 m³ year^− 1 and planimetric changes of 173.6 m² year^− 1. These results reveal that gully erosion is a great threat in the study area and conservation measures are urgently needed. Based on the analysis of multi-temporal DEM, one conceptual model for gully developing in black soil of Northeast China is proposed, which is supported by the data.     

Quantification of the biocontrol agent Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf153 in soil using a quantitative competitive PCR assay unaffected by variability in cell lysis- and DNA-extraction efficiency

Although often neglected, variability in cell lysis efficiency and DNA extraction yield represents the major hurdles of any polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based quantification protocol in soil and other natural environments. In this study we developed a technique that minimizes the effects of these constraints, providing at the same time a reliable internal control to distinguish between PCR-inhibition and negative results. We used Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf153, a root-colonizing bacterium that shows biocontrol activity against tobacco and cucumber black root rot, as the target organism for PCR quantification. Prior to DNA extraction, the genetically engineered, cognate reference strain P. fluorescens CHA0/c2 was inoculated in a reference soil. CHA0/c2 in the reference soil and Pf153 in the soil sample were lysed in parallel and afterward the lysates were mixed in known proportions. CHA0/c2 carries the plasmid pME6031-cmp2 that contains an allelic variant (competitor) of the Pf153 specific sequence Pf153_2. In a quantitative competitive PCR (QC-PCR) assay the competitor allows the quantification of the target strain down to 0.66 Pf153 CFU/mg soil. Processing the reference strain in the same way as Pf153 enables the exact quantification of the target strain in biocontrol assays performed in natural soil, overcoming differences in DNA extraction efficiency and PCR amplification from different soil environments. This technique is easily adaptable to other Pseudomonas strains simply by replacing the competitor used here with one derived from a SCAR-marker which is specific for the strain of choice.     

基于作物生长模型的东北玉米冷害监测预测研究

在全球气候变暖背景下,东北地区的气温明显上升,但由于存在玉米相对晚熟品种越区(北扩)种植现象,区域性和阶段性的玉米低温冷害仍时有发生。因此,开展东北玉米低温冷害监测预测研究仍十分必要。本文首先利用东北玉米生长模型(NEC_MaGM)构造冷害监测指标,然后开展玉米冷害监测预测方法研究并进行个例分析。结果显示,从不利天气条件和玉米对低温响应两方面遴选的8个单项指标中,以指标2 (DC_Tas9,抽雄期到9月底的累积热量单位与同期多年平均值的差值百分率)和指标1 (DN_Tas,当年抽雄期与多年平均抽雄期的差值)对历史玉米冷害的概括能力最强;根据冷害致灾机理、单一指标的历史概括能力及其独立性等因素,构建了由指标1、2以及指标4 (DW_GrS,水分适宜条件下模拟穗重与多年平均穗重的差值百分率)和指标7 (DW_Fro,初霜冻日时模拟穗重与模拟成熟时穗重的差值百分率)组合而成的东北玉米低温冷害综合指标;基于NEC_MaGM和冷害综合指标进行单点冷害监测,确定了若45%以上站点出现玉米冷害即为区域性冷害的标准,独立样本监测检验与实际情况一致;利用NEC_MaGM在网格尺度上的监测可以得到更详细的冷害空间分布状况,有利于开展农业气象业务服务工作;根据前期天气实况加上区域气候模式预测的气象要素数据,再结合预报时效之后的多年平均气候数据,在格点尺度利用NEC_MaGM可以实现对东北玉米低温冷害的预测。预测个例表明,该方法能够反映冷害的形成过程和严重程度,但其准确性不仅与作物模型有关,还依赖于区域气候模式的模拟能力。     

构建我国食品安全监管体系的研究

从食品安全在构建社会主义和谐社会中的重大作用出发,分析了现阶段我国食品监管体系存在的问题。同时借鉴国外对食品安全监管的原则和方法,从监管体系方面提出了几点对策和措施。     

稻草持续还田定位监测结果与分析

监测结果表明,稻草持续还田能提升土壤有机质、增进氮磷钾养分含量,改善土壤结构,提高土壤保水保肥性能,增强土壤微生物活性,优化农田生态环境,提高土壤综合生产能力,对推进耕地质量建设,促进农业可持续发展具有重要的意义。     

基于蓝牙技术的粮情监测系统

介绍了蓝牙射频技术及芯片NRF401,论述了以NRF401为核心器件的粮库温度监测系统的硬件电路及软件的设计,实现了安全、可靠、方便的粮库温度监测方法.