Smoke invigoration versus inhibition of clouds over the Amazon

The effect of anthropogenic aerosols on clouds is one of the most important and least understood aspects of human-induced climate change. Small changes in the amount of cloud coverage can produce a climate forcing equivalent in magnitude and opposite in sign to that caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases, and changes in cloud height can shift the effect of clouds from cooling to warming. Focusing on the Amazon, we show a smooth transition between two opposing effects of aerosols on clouds: the microphysical and the radiative. We show how a feedback between the optical properties of aerosols and the cloud fraction can modify the aerosol forcing, changing the total radiative energy and redistributing it over the atmospheric column.     

Apogeotropic roots in an Amazon rain forest

Roots of some tropical trees grow vertically upward on the stems of neighboring trees. Apogeotropic roots occur in 12 species across five families. These roots, originating as fine roots in the mineral soil, grow upward as fast as 5.6 centimeters in 72 hours. Apogeotropic root growth may be an adaptation to extremely low soil nutrient availability in Amazon forests. In these forests upward-growing roots obtain nutrients via the predictable pathway of precipitation that flows down along the stem. Apogeotropic roots form a nutrient cycling pathway in which nutrients are absorbed and transported directly from plant to plant, without entering the soil solution.     

Reconstruction of the Amazon Basin effective moisture availability over the past 14,000 years

Quantifying the moisture history of the Amazon Basin is essential for understanding the cause of rain forest diversity and its potential as a methane source. We reconstructed the Amazon River outflow history for the past 14,000 years to provide a moisture budget for the river drainage basin. The oxygen isotopic composition of planktonic foraminifera recovered from a marine sediment core in a region of Amazon River discharge shows that the Amazon Basin was extremely dry during the Younger Dryas, with the discharge reduced by at least 40% as compared with that of today. After the Younger Dryas, a meltwater-driven discharge event was followed by a steady increase in the Amazon Basin effective moisture throughout the Holocene.     

Increasing trend of extreme rain events over India in a warming environment

Against a backdrop of rising global surface temperature, the stability of the Indian monsoon rainfall over the past century has been a puzzle. By using a daily rainfall data set, we show (i) significant rising trends in the frequency and the magnitude of extreme rain events and (ii) a significant decreasing trend in the frequency of moderate events over central India during the monsoon seasons from 1951 to 2000. The seasonal mean rainfall does not show a significant trend, because the contribution from increasing heavy events is offset by decreasing moderate events. A substantial increase in hazards related to heavy rain is expected over central India in the future.     

Interstellar molecular clouds

The interstellar medium in our galaxy contains matter in a variety of states ranging from hot plasma to cold and dusty molecular gas. The molecular phase consists of giant clouds, which are the largest gravitationally bound objects in the galaxy, the primary reservoir of material for the ongoing birth of new stars, and the medium regulating the evolution of galactic disks.     

影响浙江沿海2个台风暴雨环流过程对比分析

“烟花”(2106)和“梅花”(2212)是两个均在浙江舟山登陆并在浙江沿海产生强降水的热带气旋。利用常规气象站观测资料和ERA5再分析资料,对两个台风影响浙江沿海并造成台风暴雨的成因进行对比分析,发现:(1)“烟花”受多系统、缺少明确引导气流环境的影响,移动缓慢,降水时间长;“梅花”受冷空气南下渗透影响,台风变性,多集中性暴雨发生。(2)“烟花”有两条水汽输送带和两个明显的水汽辐合区,为长时间暴雨提供充足水汽;“梅花”只有一条水汽输送通道,但有一个相较“烟花”更加强烈的水汽辐合区,使暴雨落区更加集中,雨强更加大。(3)“烟花”受长时间低层暖湿气流和垂直风切维持的影响,降水时间长但强度较弱;“梅花”影响期间上升运动强烈,降水效率高,降水多由短时暴雨形成。     

亚马逊网络书店的信息检索

文章论述了亚马逊网络书店的特征，从图书信息，检索速度，检索途径，检索的交互性等分析了其特的价值．对我国网络书店和图书馆有一定的启示。     

Land-use allocation protects the Peruvian Amazon

Disturbance and deforestation have profound ecological and socioeconomic effects on tropical forests, but their diffuse patterns are difficult to detect and quantify at regional scales. We expanded the Carnegie forest damage detection system to show that, between 1999 and 2005, disturbance and deforestation rates throughout the Peruvian Amazon averaged 632 square kilometers per year and 645 square kilometers per year, respectively. However, only 1 to 2% occurred within natural protected areas, indigenous territories contained only 11% of the forest disturbances and 9% of the deforestation, and recent forest concessions effectively protected against clear-cutting. Although the region shows recent increases in disturbance and deforestation rates and leakage into forests surrounding concession areas, land-use policy and remoteness are serving to protect the Peruvian Amazon.     

Selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon

Amazon deforestation has been measured by remote sensing for three decades. In comparison, selective logging has been mostly invisible to satellites. We developed a large-scale, high-resolution, automated remote-sensing analysis of selective logging in the top five timber-producing states of the Brazilian Amazon. Logged areas ranged from 12,075 to 19,823 square kilometers per year (+/-14%) between 1999 and 2002, equivalent to 60 to 123% of previously reported deforestation area. Up to 1200 square kilometers per year of logging were observed on conservation lands. Each year, 27 million to 50 million cubic meters of wood were extracted, and a gross flux of approximately 0.1 billion metric tons of carbon was destined for release to the atmosphere by logging.