Re-evaluating the vertical mass-flux profiles of aeolian sediment at the southern fringe of the Taklimakan Desert, China

Reliable estimation of the mass-flux profiles of aeolian sediment is essential for predicting sediment transport rates accurately and designing measures to cope with wind-erosion. Vertical mass-flux profiles from seventeen wind-erosion events were re-evaluated using five typical models based on observed data obtained from a smooth bare field at the southern fringe of the Taklimakan Desert, China. The results showed that the exponential-function model and the logarithmic-function model exhibited the poorest fit between observed and predicted mass-flux profiles. The power-function model and the modified power-function model improved the fit to field data to an equivalent extent, while the five-parameter combined-function model with a scale constant（σ） of 0.00001 m（different from the σ value proposed by Fryear, which represented the height above which 50% of the total mass flux occurred） was verified as the best for describing the vertical aeolian sediment mass-flux profiles using goodness of fit（R2） and the Akaike Information Criterion（AIC） values to evaluate model performance. According to relationships among model parameters, the modified power model played a prominent explanatory role in describing the vertical profiles of the observed data, whereas the exponential model played a coordinating role. In addition, it was found that the vertical profiles could not be extrapolated using the five selected models or easily estimated using an efficient model without field observations by a near-surface sampler at 0 to 0.05 m.

Diversity and vertical distributions of sediment bacteria in an urban river contaminated by nutrients and heavy metals

The aim of this study was to investigate the benthic bacterial communities in different depths of an urban river sediment accumulated with high concentrations of nutrients and metals. Vertical distributions of bacterial operational taxonomic units （OTUs） and chemical para- meters （nutrients： NH4＋, NO3, dissolved organic carbon, and acid volatile sulfur; metals： Fe, Zn, and Cu） were characterized in 30 cm sediment cores. The bacterial OTUs were measured using the terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Biodiversity indexes and multivariate statistical analyses were used to characterize the spatial distributions of microbial diversity in response to the environmental parameters. Results showed that concentrations of the nutrients and metals in this river sediment were higher than those in similar studies. Furthermore, high microbial richness and diversity appeared in the sediment. The diversity did not vary obviously in the whole sediment profile. The change of the diversity indexes and the affiliations of the OTUs showed that the top layer had different bacterial community structure from deeper layers due to the hydrological disturbance and redox change in the surface sediment. The dominant bacterial OTUs ubiquitously existed in the deeper sediment layers （5-27 cm） corresponding to the distributions of the nutrients and metals. With much higher diversity than the dominant OTUs, the minor bacterial assemblages varied with depths, which might be affected by the sedimentation process and the environmental competition pressure.

THE SEISMIC PROFILER FOR DEEP SEDIMENT LAYERS AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS

DDCl-1 type seismic profiler for deep sediment layers is a large scale marine survey equipment. Its penetrating strata depth may reach to 1 km. This equipment suits surveys for continental shelf,seafloor trench and geological structure under seafloor etc. It suits also geological environment surveys of seafloor resources.The working principle, block diagrams composition and echo signal processing characteristics are presented, and some typical strata profiles are shown.