Landscape improvement, or ongoing degradation – reconciling apparent contradictions from the arid rangelands of Western Australia

Recent quantitative site-based monitoring and qualitative aerial and ground traverses provide contrasting assessments of the health of much of the arid shrublands of Western Australia extensively grazed by livestock (‘rangelands’). Although these results seem incompatible, we explain the apparent contradictions based on landscape succession processes operating at multiple levels of ecological organisation. Specifically, we suggest that the intact areas in which site-based monitoring is conducted are contracting as catchment canalisation and desiccation increase. However, the impacts of these processes have not yet become manifest at the site scale. The site-based system addresses important regional questions. These relate to the large, relatively intact areas away from most active surface flows, which should be a focus for resource conservation, given practical limits to repairing widespread degradation with low management inputs. We provide a complementary set of questions to provide a more comprehensive audit of rangeland dynamics in the context of underlying hierarchical landscape patterns and processes that might threaten intact areas. We recognise the need to match questions and levels of ecological organisation and the implications these have for sampling. We also recognise the difficulty in producing concise statements of change for clients when reporting on complex ecological issues and processes. Without a clearly articulated, and well understood, hierarchical model of pattern and process within which apparently contradictory findings can be reported meaningfully, policy makers may be confused by the results, with the consequent risk of policy inaction.     

Non‐linear thermodynamic laws application to soil processes

An attempt has been made to analyze the possibility to use nonequilibrium thermodynamics for the soil dynamic open systems’ treatment. Entropy change of such a system is expressed by the entropy sum produced within the system and the entropy coming from or going into the outer sphere.

In the steady state, dynamic soil‐formation processes occur within an organized structure and are characterized by stable parameters close to equilibrium. Accordingly, when examining soil, one can proceed from the conventional thermodynamic equilibrium. However, the matter of Onzager‐Prigozhin general phenomenological theory applicability to soil processes is more complicated. To study soil stability it is necessary to go beyond the limits of linear thermodynamics.     

Reviews

Books reviewed: H.W. Arndt and Hal Hill (eds), Southeast Asia’s economic crisis: Origins, lessons and the way forward William Cline, Trade and income distribution Morris Goldstein, The Asian financial crisis: Causes, curses and systemic implications Lamont Lindstrom and James Gwero (eds), Big Wok: Storian blong Wol Wo Tu long Vanuatu     

THE INFLUENCE OF TYLOSES ON THE MANUFACTURE OF MATCHES

This article deals with the results of time studies of pruning P. radiata from 22 ft. to 35 ft. with pole saws. The influence on pruning time of mean diameter and number of branches removed in the pruning operation, number of cones removed and time of day is investigated and a multiple regression equation, expressing the relationship between pruning time and these variables, is computed. A taper table is prepared and used to investigate the effect of pruning on the formation of knot-free timber. The economics of high-pruning is discussed.     

不同坡位香椿人工林生长和林分结构差异

研究香椿人工林在不同坡位的生长差异,为香椿人工林的培育生产提供参考。以32~39年生香椿人工林为对象,按照不同坡位（上、中、下）设置样地,测定样地内的香椿生长指标;使用Weibull函数对不同坡位林分直径分布结构进行分析;通过林木分级统计并分析各样地林分特征;解析不同坡位香椿人工林的生长过程。结果表明,试验区香椿人工林呈中高度郁闭,下坡位香椿平均树高为13.71 m,胸径为21.32 cm,南北冠幅为5.29 m,均显著最高,而上坡对应各生长指标显著最低。不同坡位香椿人工林径阶分布的Weibull模型拟合效果为下坡＞上坡＞中坡,拟合形状参数c均在1.0~3.6,为单峰左偏状分布,c_下坡＞c_上坡＞c_中坡,下坡趋向于竞争期更稳定的自然稀疏后期。下坡林分林木分级集中在Ⅱ、Ⅲ级,占81.48%,而上坡Ⅰ、Ⅱ、Ⅲ、Ⅳ级林木占比分别为19.23%、21.79%、37.18%、20.51%,并存有少量Ⅴ级木,林木分级分布相对分散。解析香椿人工林生长过程显示,胸径、树高、材积总生长量均为下坡＞中坡＞下坡。试验区下坡的香椿人工林树高、胸径及冠幅均有生长优势。全试验区林分径阶分布呈单峰左偏状分布,下坡林分趋向于更稳定的自然稀疏后期,且林木分级多集中于Ⅱ、Ⅲ级,胸径、树高、材积总生长量最高。     

粉状改性脲醛胶的胶合工艺及性能研究

粉状改性脲醛胶黏剂游离甲醛少、储存期长且胶合性能优良,近年来获得广泛应用。采用粉状改性脲醛胶黏剂,对柳杉木材进行层积胶合,以剪切强度、木破率、浸渍剥离率为检测指标,研究其实木胶合工艺及性能。试验结果表明:粉状改性脲醛胶黏剂具有较好的胶合性能,满足非结构集成材标准要求;综合生产成本和效率等因素,确定较优胶合工艺参数为单位压力0.7MPa、热压时间31min、涂胶量180g/m~2、胶合面纹理组合为"弦切面-弦切面"。     

Redesigning Industrial Agroecosystems

Summary

The development and mixed benefits of high-input industrial agriculture are reviewed, then illustrated with findings from a Georgia landscape study. As a basis for considering ways to reduce the serious negative aspects of industrial agriculture, we compared the basic ecological energetics and processes of natural ecosystems with pre-industrial, industrial, and reduced-input conservation tillage agroecosystems. We also reviewed our 20-year comparison of conventional tillage with no-till systems. The conclusion is that current trends to redesign industrial agriculture along the lines of reduced-input conservation tillage systems should be accelerated in order to maintain and restore soil quality, and to reduce pollution and soil erosion at the landscape scale.     

车用纤维增强塑料(FRP)的成型工艺及其应用

概述了纤维增强塑料(FRP)的性能特点和主要成分,重点介绍了FRP的成型工艺及各种工艺方法在汽车工业中的应用。     

文峪河上游河岸林凋落物及其分解过程研究

通过凋落物定点收集调查和分解袋定点埋置实验,对文峪河上游山地溪流河岸带寒温性针阔叶混交林的年凋落量动态和凋落叶在不同环境中的分解进程进行了周年研究.结果表明,研究地区山地溪流河岸林在河岸带和溪流中的年凋落量分别为3.46和4.09 t·hm-2·a-1;河岸带和溪流凋落物中阔叶凋落量占优势,分别占40.55％和40.1...     

Characterization of Treatment Processes and Mechanisms of COD, Phosphorus and Nitrogen Removal in a Multi-Soil-Layering System

Characteristics of the treatment processes inside a MSL system were investigated by using a laboratory-scale MSL system, which was set up in a D 10 × W 50 × H 73 cm acrylic box enclosing "soil mixture blocks" alternating with permeable zeolite layers. For the study of the treatment processes inside the system, wastewater, with mean concentrations (mg L⁻¹) of COD: 70, T-N: 12, T-P: 0.9, was introduced into the system at a loading rate of 1,000 L m⁻² d⁻¹. Treatment processes in the MSL system were different for the COD, P and N pollutants. Eighty percent of COD was removed in the 1st soil layer among the 6 layers, and the removal rate increased as water moved down and finally reached 90% in the last layer of the system. Phosphorus concentration was lower under the soil mixture layers than under the permeable layers, presumably because P was adsorbed mainly by soil and mixed iron particles. The P concentration in water gradually decreased in the lower layers of the system. The concentration of PO₄^3--P was generally lower in the aerated MSL system than in the non-aerated one. NH₄⁺-N was adsorbed and nitrified in the upper part of the system. The NO₃⁻-N concentration was lower in water under the soil mixture layers than under the permeable layers, indicating that denitrification mainly occurred in the soil mixture layers.