Mapping the dynamic degree of aeolian desertification in the Shiyang River Basin from 1975 to 2010

The Shiyang River Basin is an area of China that is severly affected by aeolian desertification.Thus,we established an aeolian desertified land classification system for visual interpretation,which classified the Aeolian Desertified Land(ADL)into Slight(SL),Moderate(M),Severe(S)and Extremely Severe(ES)according to the severity.Imagery of Landsat series(acquired in 1975,1990,2000 and 2010)were employed to monitor the status,trend and spatial pattern of aeolian desertification,especially to map the overall spatial pattern of ADL dynamics by proposing a new Dynamic Index(DI)in the Shiyang River Basin from 1975 to 2010.The results show a generally decreasing trend from 1975 to 2010.However,the ES ADL kept increasing throughout the whole study period.Moreover,the area of ADLs with different severity increased with increasing severity,this S and ES ADLs dominated characteristics of aeolian desertification was contrary to those sandy lands in eastern China where was dominated by SL and M ADLs.Among the three sub-periods of 1975−1990,1990−2000 and 2000−2010,the first two were the restoration stage,while the last one was the expansion stage of aeolian desertification.Moreover,all these new ADLs occurred in Minqin County during 2000−2010,indicating a detrimental increase of aeolian desertification in Minqin,and the concentration of ADLs toward the lower reaches of the Shiyang River Basin.The DI works well to identify areas with desertification changes no matter the sub-periods.Moreover,DI results disclosed a stable status of aeolian desertification,and the DI decreased with increasing ADL severity.These results indicate that it will be difficult to control the expansion of aeolian desertification in Minqin County over an extended period of time.Thus,we suggest effective and long-lasting aeolian desertification control programs in the Shiyang River Basin,especially in Minqin,and SL and MADLs should have priority in facilitating a quick reversal of aeolian desertification.

Land use and landscape pattern change: a linkage to the construction of the Qinghai-Xizang Highway

Based on digital land use data from 1995 to 2000 and road data, the land use and landscape changes of Golmud, Qumaleb and Zhidoi are studied on a macro-scale. Land use and landscape changes in highway buffer zones and city expansion are special subjects. A new formula is used to define the exact degree of dynamic land use. To adequately define land use and landscape pattern changes, the buffer zones, illustrating the changes at different distances from the road, are recognized with ArcGIS 8.1 software. Prominent changes took place in land use and landscape patterns from 1995 to 2000, and the area of built-up land increased by 323.8%. The comprehensive degree of dynamic land use is 2.25, and the degree of dynamic land use of built-up land is the highest, followed by cultivated land. Woodland has the lowest value. The used degree index of land resources declined by 38.8 from 1995 to 2000. Landscape changed dramatically which influenced ecological processes immensely. Different from the corridor effect of other traffic routes, the corridor effect of this section of road is not obvious and its “point” radiation effect can be easily seen. The expanding range of Golmud City is confined to a 3 km buffer, while for Wudaoliang, it is 1 km. No land use change happened in the Nanshankou buffer.

Effect of Branching Architecture on Glass Transition Behavior of Hyperbranched Copolystyrenes:the Experiment and Simulation Studies

By controlling the feed ratio of CMS/styrene and the polymerization time, a series of hyperbranched copolystyrenes（HBCPS） were synthesized with comparable weight-averaged molecular weights（Mw） but different degree of branching（DB） through atom transfer radical self-condensing vinyl copolymerization（ATR-SCVCP） with Cu Br/2,2？-bipyridyl as the catalyst. The resulting HBCPS samples were used to investigate the effect of branching architecture on their glass transition behavior. With the DB increased, the glass transition temperatures（Tg） of HBCPS samples measured by DMA and DSC both decreased. Their spin-lattice relaxation times（1H T1r） of protons displayed the same downtrend with increasing DB. Besides, a correlation between the Tgs and the DB was well established by all-atom molecular dynamics（MD） simulations. The values of MD-determined Tgs are little higher than the corresponding experimental ones. However, the dependence of Tgs on DB is in good agreement with the experimental results, i.e., Tg decreases both in experiments and simulations with increasing DB.