Population Dynamics and Breeding Space Niche of Four Heron Species in Tanghai Wetlands

The population dynamics and breeding behaviors of Black-crowned Night Herons （ Nycticorax nycticorax ）, Egrets （Egtetta garzetta）, Chinese Pond Herons （Ardeola bacchus） and Great Egrets （Casmerodius albus） were observed in Tanghai Wetlands, Hebei Province from August 2004 to July 2005. Further, we studied the relationship of nest space distribution and directly calculated the nest density of vertical and horizontal levels, the niche overlapping index and the niche breadth. The results showed that there were two breeding areas, named Area Ⅰ and Area Ⅱ . The maximum population occurred in the period from April to September and was approximately 5800 individuals. Area Ⅰ was occupied earlier than Area Ⅱ by approximately half a month. In the breeding period, Black-crowned Night Herons were dominant in numbers and most occupied the upper nests of the core areas. Great Egrets also took the upper nests but they have the smallest population. Most Egrets took the middle nests of the edges of the area. Chinese Pond Herons, with a smaller population than the Egret, mostly nested in the edges, but some of them also took the lower nests of the core area. On the whole, the vertical niche of Egrets is the widest, the horizontal niche of Black-crowned Night Herons is the widest and the niche breadth of Chinese Pond Herons is the largest. The nest distribution pattern is the most similar between Chinese Pond Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons, and the niche overlapping index of Chinese Pond Herons and Egrets is the largest. Black-crowned Night Herons and Great Egrets control Egrets and Chinese Pond Herons in competition. Rich food and the optimal ecological environments lead to plenty of herons in the wetlands. In addition, it is a distinguishing feature of the four species that nests are built in poplar trees over 22 m tall.

High-altitude gastrointestinal bleeding:An observation in Qinghai-Tibetan railroad construction workers on Mountain Tanggula

AIM: To investigate the gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) in people from lowland to high altitude and in workers on Mountain Tanggula and its causes as well as treatment and prophylaxis.METHODS: From 2001 to October 2003, we studied GIB in 13 502 workers constructing the railroad on Mountain Tanggula which is 4905 m above the sea level. The incidence of GIB in workers at different altitudes was recorded. Endoscopy was performed when the workers evacuated to Golmud (2808 m) and Xining (2261 m). The available data on altitude GIB were analyzed.RESULTS: The overall incidence of GIB was 0.49% in 13 502 workers. The incidence increased with increasing altitude. The onset of symptoms in most patients was within three weeks after arrival at high altitude. Bleeding manifested as hematemesis, melaena or hematochezia, and might be occult. Endoscopic examination showed that the causes of altitude GIB included hemorrhage gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, and gastric erosion. Experimental studies suggested that acute gastric mucosal lesion (AGML) could be induced by hypoxic and cold stress, which might be the pathogenesis of altitude GIB. Those who consumed large amount of alcohol, aspirin or dexamethasone were at a higher risk of developing GIB. Persons who previously suffered from peptic ulcer or high-altitude polycythemia were also at risk of developing GIB. Early diagnosis, evacuation, and treatment led to early recovery. CONCLUSION: GIB is a potentially life threatening disease, if it is not treated promptly and effectively. Early diagnosis, treatment and evacuation lead to an early recovery. Death due to altitude GIB can be avoided if early symptoms and signs are recognized.

Study on the Landscaping Technologies for Coastal Saline-Alkali Land in Tanghai County of Tangshan City

Tanghai County is one of the counties in Tangshan City with the highest saline-alkali degree, with 80% of its land being covered by saline-alkali soils. Through studying landscaping technologies for coastal saline-alkali land in Tanghai County, 3 dominant modes for landscaping engineering in such land were summarized as shallow underground pipe desalination technology, banding soil replacement technology and hole membrane soil replacement technology, which are different in application scope and also in cost (respectively 260, 210 and 170 yuan). 3 landscaping measures were also proposed, including promotion of suitable plant cultivation technologies, application of saline-alkali tolerant plants and biological improvement of soils. To explore economic and practical planting patterns for saline-alkali land, low-cost landscaping tests were conducted from the perspectives of improving landscaping engineering mode and optimizing landscaping measures, and the results showed that it was practical to apply low-cost landscaping patterns, and comprehensive ecological measures should be adopted to realize the sustained utilization of soil.

The Spatial and Temporal Variation of Modern Tectonic Stress Field in North China before and after the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake

By using 126 earthquake focal mechanism solutions (M S≥4.7) during the period of 1963～1998, modern tectonic stress field in North China is inverted by means of the step by step convergence. The inversion results indicate that the tectonic stress field in the research region is clearly variational in space and time: (1) The middling principal stress axis σ 2 is basically vertical. The maximum and minimum principal stress axes σ 1 and σ 2 are nearly horizontal, but the azimuths of σ 1 and σ 3 are inconsistent in different districts and periods. (2) Before the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, the three principal stress axes are uniform. The azimuth of maximum principal stress axis σ 1 is 68° (striking in a NEE-SWW direction). (3) After the Tangshan earthquake, the maximum principal stress axis σ 1 and minimum principal stress axis σ 3 have variations in different districts. In the northern area of North China and on the eastern side of the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone, the maximum principal stress axis σ 1 is also striking in a NEE-SWW direction. Its azimuth is 68°. It is the same as that before the Tangshan earthquake. In the southern area of North China, the maximum principal stress axis σ 1 is striking in a E-W direction and its azimuth is 87°.

Hydrogeochemical Characteristics of Fluorine in Shallow Groundwater of Tongshan Area

Tongshan area,a part of the floodplain of the abandoned Huanghe River, is one of the popular endemic fluorosis areas in East China. One of the reasons is high concentration of fluorine in shallow groundwater. Test results of 36 groundwater samples show that fluorine concentration in shallow groundwater is 0.18–6.7 mg/L and 50 % of the samples exceed the Chinese drinking water quality standard. There exists a significant negative correlation in content between Ca2+ and F - . The correlations between fluorine concentration and other cations (for example Na+, K+, Mg2+) are not significant. The content of dissolved fluorine from the flooding sediments of the Huanghe River that varying from 5.6 mg/kg to 15.2 mg/kg plays an important role in forming the high fluorine groundwater. Usually, the dissolved fluorine content in silt is much higher than that in silty clay and clay. According to the geological investigation fluorine content in deep groundwater (over 60 m) is less than 1.0 mg/L and suitable for drinking, so it is an effective measure to prevent endemic fluorosis by extracting deep groundwater in disease areas.

The success of the prediction of Haicheng earthquake and the negligence of the Tangshan earthquake

The success of the prediction of Haicheng earthquake and the failure of the prediction of Tangshan earthquake were both well known in the world. What happened, why such a strong earthquake as occurred in Haicheng had been predicted successfully and with a small loss of lives and property? Why a successively strong earthquake about a year later in a region not so further was failure in the imminent stage of prediction and there were so many fatalities and a great degree of property? The author addresses these points based on these true experiences including the first hand experiences leading up to, during, and following these two earthquarter. In addition, he also introduced some seimic phenomena which he had seen after Chi-chi earthquake in Taiwan.

Discussion on the Seismogenic Fault of the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake

The opinions of two papers carried in the journal "Seismology and Geology" are discussed in the paper.One is that the Tangshan fault is a high-angle,west-dipping and thrust with strike-slip fault.The other is that the Fuzhuang-Xihe fault distributed on the east side of Tangshan city is the seismogenic fault that caused the Tangshan earthquake.For the former opinion,it needs to explain the relationship between the active style of the thrust Tangshan fault and the formation genesis of a Quaternary depression along the west side of Tangshan city.For the latter opinion,if the Fuzhuang-Xihe fault is the seismogenic fault of the Tangshan earthquake,it needs to explain the genesis relationship between this west-dip slip fault zone and the strike-slip surface fissure zone that extends through Tangshan city.And it needs more evidence exclude the possibility that the surface rupture belongs to the rupturing of a secondary structure.This paper suggests doing more work on the active fault that controls the Caobo Quaternary depression.

ANALYSIS OF REMOTE SENSING ARCHAEOLOGY ON TRAFFIC FUNCTION TRANSFORMATION OF TONGJI GRAND CANAL IN SUI AND TANG DYNASTIES

In China, most directions of river flowing are from west to east. During historic period, since the water traffic played an important role, it was very important to form a cross-horizontal net of water carriage route. Canals should be dug so as to make up the lack of north-south river. Tongji Grand Canal, dug in the first year of Daye (605 A.D.) in the Sui Dynasty, was the important component of north-south system of Grand Canals in China. It promoted economic and social development of the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties (605 A.D.-1279 A.D.). As Tongji Canal (i.e. Tongji Grand Canal) flowed across the Huaibei Plain, which is aggraded by abundant mud and sand deposit resulted from the Huanghe (Yellow) River flooding, many traces (such as old channel) and human culture heritages were buried under mud-sand. Tongji Canal was silted up, and disappeared in the Jin Dynasty (1115 A.D.-1234 A.D.). From then on, there were many different stories about the flowing route of the canal in historical literature. Based on space-bone and air-bone remote sensing imagery, we attempt to search the old channel of Tongji Canal, and supplement historical record. The paper discusses transformation process of Tongji Canal’s traffic function, and resumptively summarizes the reasons of the transformation, which results from synthetic function of physical geographical, political, economic, and social conditions.

Variation of the Energy Field of Longmenshan Fault Zone before the Wenchuan M_S 8. 0 Earthquake

During the process of preparation and occurrence of a large earthquake, the stress-strain state along the fault zone has close relation with the weak seismicity around the fault zone. The seismic energy release near the fault zone before an earthquake can better reflect the dynamic process of earthquake preparation. Thus, in this paper, the method of natural orthogonal function expansion has been adopted to discuss the time variation about the energy field of the seismic activity along the Longmenshan fault zone before the Wenchuan MsS. 0 earthquake, 2008. The results show that evident short-term rise changes appeared in the time factors of the typical field corresponding to several key eigenvalues of the energy field along the Longmenshan fault zone before the Wenchuan earthquake, probably being the short-term anomaly message for this earthquake. Through contrastive analysis of earthquake examples such as the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, the authors think that the study of time variation of energy field of seismicity along active fault zone will be helpful for conducting intentional and intensive earthquake monitoring and forecast in active fault regions with high seismic risk based on medium- and long-term earthquake trend judgment.

Study on the Cause of Complex Spatial Distribution of the Tangshan Earthquake Sequence

By analyzing higher-accuracy location data of the Tangshan earthquake sequence,a clear distribution pattern of three aftershock belts in the NE,NWW,and NW directions of has been obtained.The analysis reveals three rupture planes of strong events of MS7.8,MS7.1 and MS6.9 in the sequence.It indicates that the complex pattern is closely related to the earthquake source,and the NE-,NWW-and NW-trending regional fault zones,which have been revealed by the research of the pre-seismicity anomaly.In summary,the source is located in the junction of the three fault zones,and the rupture planes of the three strong events located in the source can be regarded as the locked segments on the three fault zones.On these grounds,the paper explains the complexity of the source and epicentral distribution of aftershocks.

Application of the Stress Evolutionary Model in Hebei Province,North China

Coulomb stress changes associated with strong earthquakes occurring since 1484 in Hebei Province,China are investigated. The North China block has had many large historical earthquakes and some damaging earthquakes in the past century,including the 1976 Tangshan earthquake (M =7.8) . The study area and the adjacent areas of the province comprise the most active seismic fault zones and suffer from both strong and frequent events. The North China Block,which includes the Ordos plateau and the North China plain,is part of the Archean Sino-Lorean craton and one of the most active seismic regions in the world. Its movement is accommodated on major strike-slip intraplate fault zones that strike in the E-W direction. The faults in the study area contribute to the complexity of the stress field. Seismic hazard assessment in this region is attempted by calculating the change of the Coulomb failure function ( ΔCFF) arising from both the coseismic slip of strong events (MS≥6.5) and the stress built up by continuous tectonic loading on major regional faults. At every step of the stress evolutionary model an examination of possible triggering of each next strong event is made and the model finally puts in evidence that the fault segments that are apt to fail in an impending strong event,thus providing future seismic hazard evaluation. In this paper,the results of ΔCFF for Zhangjiakou fault, Xiadian fault and Langfang fault have been shown as examples to express the possiblity of generating future seismic hazard.

Simulating dynamic urban expansion at regional scale in Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Metropolitan Area

Dynamic urban expansion simulation at regional scale is one of the important research methodologies in Land Use/Cover Change （LUCC） and global environmental change influenced by urbanization. However, previous studies indicate that the single urban expansion simulation for future scenarios at local scale cannot meet the requirements for characterizing and interpreting the interactive mechanisms of regional urbanization and global environmental change. This study constructed a regional Dynamic Urban Expansion Model （Reg-DUEM） suitable for different scenarios by integrating the Artificial Neural Network （ANN） and Cellular Automaton （CA） model. Firstly we analyzed the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban expansion and acquired a prior knowledge rules using land use/cover change datasets of Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan metropolitan area. The future urban expansion under different scenarios is then simulated based on a baseline model, economic models, policy models and the structural adjustment model. The results indicate that Reg-DUEM has good reliability for a non-linear expansion simulation at regional scale influenced by macro-policies. The simulating results show that future urban expansion patterns from different scenarios of the metropolitan area have the tremendous spatio-temporal differences. Future urban expansion will shift quickly from Beijing metropolis to the periphery of Tianjin and Tangshan city along coastal belt.

Three-dimensional crustal velocity structure model of the middle-eastern north China Craton (HBCrust1.0)

Lithosphere thinning and destruction in the middle-eastern North China Craton(NCC), a region susceptible to strong earthquakes, is one of the research hotspots in solid earth science. All 42 seismic wide-angle reflection/refraction profiles have been completed in the middle-eastern NCC. We collect all the 2-D profiling results and perform gridding of the velocity and interface depth data, building a 3-D crustal velocity structure model for the middle-eastern NCC, named HBCrust1.0, by using the Kriging interpolation method. Our result shows that the first-arrival times calculated by HBCust1.0 fit well with the observations. The result demonstrates that the upper crust is the main seismogenic layer, and the brittle-ductile transition occurs at depths near interface C(the interface between upper and lower crust). The depth of interface Moho varies beneath the source area of the Tangshan earthquake, and a low-velocity structure is found to extend from the source area to the lower crust. Based on these observations, it can be inferred that stress accumulation responsible for the Tangshan earthquake may have been closely related to the migration and deformation of the mantle materials. Comparisons of the average velocities of the whole crust, the upper and the lower crust show that the average velocity of the lower crust under the central part of the North China Basin(NCB) in the east of the craton is obviously higher than the regional average. This high-velocity probably results from long-term underplating of the mantle magma.

Late-Quaternary strong earthquakes on the seismogenic fault of the 1976 M_s7.8 Tangshan earthquake,Hebei,as revealed by drilling and trenching

Composite borehole profiling combined with trenching is an effective way to acquire evidence of past ruptures of buffed active faults. In this study, three composite borehole profiles and a large-scale trench excavation were carded out across the surface rupture zone of the 1976 Ms7.8 Tangshan earthquake. The following three major conclusions have been reached. （1） The surface rupture zone of the 1976 earthquake extends more than 47 km long to the south of Tangshan city, passing to the west of Sunjialou, to Daodi town in Fengnan County, to Xihe in Fengnan County. （2） The surface rupture zone is divided into south and north branches. The north branch has mainly fight-lateral strike-slip motion, and the vertical displacement of the surface is up on the west and down on the east. On the other hand, the vertical displacement of the south branch is up on the east and down on the west, accompanied by some right-lateral slip. Such a faulting style cannot be explained by the movement of a single normal or reverse fault, but is consistent with the vertical displacement field induced by the fight-lateral strike-slip of the fault belt. The drilling and trenching data from this study verify that such activity continued through the Late Quaternary on the Tangshan Fault. （3） The fault planes exhumed by trenching and the dislocations of strata revealed by the boreholes indicate that multiple faulting events occurred on the Tangshan Fault in the Late Quaternary. The timing of three ruptures prior to the 1976 earthquake was 7.61-8.13, 〉14.57, and 24.21-26.57 ka BP. Counting the earthquake of 1976, the recurrence interval of the four strong events is about 6.7 to 10.8 ka. On one of the three borehole profiles, the Niumaku profile, nine faulting events were detected since 75.18 ka BP with an average interval of 8.4 ka. In addition, this paper also discusses the difference between the Late Quaternary sedimentary environments to the north and south of Tangshan city based on stratum dating.