A model-by-model analysis for historical simulations was necessary for identifying reasonably performing models in the updated Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) over the Tibetan Plateau. To determine whether the capacity of the CMIP6 models in simulating temperature and precipitation over the Plateau has been enhanced, we compared the outputs of 23 CMIP6 models with an observational dataset (CN05.1) for the period 1961–2014. The results suggest the systematic model biases (cold bias and wet bias) in the Tibetan Plateau still exist in CMIP6. Most models in CMIP6 realistically simulated the surface temperature and spatial distribution of precipitation, with a pattern correlation exceeding 0.75. The bias in the mean surface temperature of the multi-model ensemble (MME) simulation was 1.08 °C lower than the observational data, which had been decreased compared with the cold bias of CMIP5 (1.52 °C). At the seasonal scale, most models exhibited a warm temperature bias in summer and a cold bias in winter. The CMIP6 MME displayed a higher reproducibility of the precipitation amplitude over dry regions compared with CMIP5 and a lower ability over wet regions.
The Global Overturning Circulation is linked to climate change on glacial-interglacial and multi-millennial timescales. The understanding of past climate-circulation links remains hindered by apparent conflicts among proxy measures of circulation. Here we reconstruct circulation changes since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) based on a global synthesis of authigenic neodymium isotope records (εNd). We propose the bottom-up framework of interpreting seawater and authigenic εNd considering not only conservative watermass mixing, but also the preformed properties and the non-conservative behavior of εNd, both subject to sedimentary influences. We extract the major spatial-temporal modes of authigenic εNd using Principal Component Analysis, and make a first-order circulation reconstruction with budget-constrained box model simulations. We show that during the LGM, the source region of North Atlantic overturning shifted southward, which led to more radiogenic preformed εNd of glacial Northern Source Water (NSW). Considering this preformed effect, we infer that glacial deep Atlantic had a similar proportion of NSW as today, although the overall strength of glacial circulation appears reduced from both North Atlantic and Southern Ocean sources, which increased the relative importance of non-conservative behavior of εNd and may have facilitated accumulation of respired carbon in the deep ocean. During the deglaciation, we find that Southern Ocean overturning increased, which offset suppressed North Atlantic overturning and resulted in a net stronger global abyssal circulation. Faster global scale deglacial circulation reduced the relative importance of non-conservative effects, resulting in Atlantic-Pacific convergence of abyssal εNd signatures. Variations of Southern Ocean overturning likely drove a significant fraction of deglacial changes in atmospheric CO2 and oceanic heat budget.
In this paper, a novel mathematical model for the heat extraction process from hot dry rocks (HDRs) by enclosed water recycling in a horizontal well is established, on a basis of which a series of exergy analyses are conducted. The pressure and temperature distributions in the wellbore and the exergy extracted under different working conditions are calculated. Eight factors are specifically studied to evaluate their effects on the accumulated exergy of the produced hot water. It is found that the accumulated exergy first gradually increases but decreases subsequently with the water rising flow rate. The accumulated exergy is noticed to increase obviously with the increase of the length for the horizontal section, temperature of the HDR, thermal conductivity of the HDR, and diameter of the casing. The temperature distributions in the HDR around the wellbore are analyzed at different time. More specifically, the temperature drop of the HDR gradually spreads to far area of the wellbore with the continuous extraction of geothermal energy. The temperature of the rock around the wellbore decreases by increasing the injection rate. A higher HDR thermal conductivity leads to a quick heat transfer from the remote to near wellbore area. The exergy analyses in this study provide strong theoretical supports to utilize the HDR heat extraction.
In China, a significant reduction in primary pollution has been observed due to the Clean Air Action since 2013, and ozone pollution has become increasingly prominent over the past years. Pearl River Delta (PRD) is one of the most successful regions concerning primary pollution control, while is suffering from severe ozone pollution during autumn. In this study, we present a field campaign in Shenzhen, a megacity in PRD, in October 2018 with measurements of ozone and photochemical precursors. These observational data are helpful to analyze the local ozone budget and its sensitivity to precursors with the help of an observation-based model (RACM2-LIM1). The observed ozone concentration was up to 121 ppbv during a photochemical episode from 1 to 8 October, when intensive ozone formation up to tens of ppbv/h was found. Ozone vertical measurement indicates the fast ozone production is happening throughout the planetary boundary layer (PBL), which is an important source of morning ozone increase resulting in ozone pollution. An explicit case study is performed to reveal the diurnal feature of instantaneous ozone production rate (P(O-x)) and accumulative P(O-x) based on the O-3-NOx-VOC sensitivity, ROx radical primary production rate (P (ROx)), and L-N/Q for three cases including ozone pollution and attainment periods. Results show that nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) reduction have positive and negative impact on local ozone production from one pollution episode to the other, which indicates the complexity of O-3-precursors sensitivity and difficulty to control ozone pollution in Shenzhen. Finally, comparison among measurements in other campaigns provides additional evidence on local ozone production sensitivity on NOx and anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (AVOCs) with respect to a temporal and spatial change. The
Excessive fertilization in rice paddy fields leads to surface water eutrophication, groundwater contamination and air pollution. Determining optimum nitrogen (N) management is essential for maintaining rice yield while reducing the environmental risk caused by N loss. A two-year field experiment (2017–2018) was carried out in a typical paddy field in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The WHCNS (soil Water Heat Carbon Nitrogen Simulator) model was calibrated and evaluated for simulations of measured ponding water depth, evapotranspiration, aboveground dry matter, yield, runoff and crop N. The model was then used to evaluate the effects of different N fertilizer rates and split-N application ratios (SNR) practices on crop growth and N losses. Results showed that the model performed well in simulating rice growth and N losses in the region. Ammonia volatilization and denitrification were the mainly pathways of N loss in paddy field, and their two-year average losses were 34% and 38% of the total N loss, respectively. N leaching accounted for 23%, and runoff N loss accounted for 5% of total N loss. N losses were evaluated for two different scenarios and simulated ratios of ammonia volatilization, denitrification, N leaching, and runoff to total N loss under different N management scenarios were 15%–53%, 33%–55%, 6%–30%, and 4%–8%, respectively. Ammonia volatilization and N runoff exponentially increased with an increase of N fertilizer rate, whereas denitrification and N leaching showed an increasing and then a decreasing trend. Yield increased by 36 kg ha−1, and the total N loss decreased by 32.6 kg N ha−1 when the N fertilizer rate was reduced from 231 kg N ha−1 to 155 kg N ha−1 and the SNR was changed from 5:3:1 to 1:1:4. Therefore, reducing the N fertilizer rate and increasing the SNR in the late rice growing season can significantly reduce N loss and effectively improve N use efficiency.
Energy Return on Investment (EROI) has become a policy analysis tool related to sustainability. However, most EROI studies adopt the standard EROI method, which has two inherent defects. First, standard EROI leaves out energy quality. Second, input factors such as labor, auxiliary services and environmental factors are not considered. Therefore, this paper introduces exergy into the EROI calculation and establishes a new extended exergy-based EROI (ExEROI). ExEROI treats “available energy” as energy quality; with the idea of embodied flows, ExEROI quantifies all the five input factors of the EROI analysis framework. Shale gas exploitation in the Sichuan Basin is used as an example in the case study. The ExEROI result is 9.68, which is much lower than the standard EROI result of 82.95. This is due to the inclusion of more input factors and the fact that the input factors are measured by exergy. Specifically, the auxiliary service input factor accounts for 77.10% of the total inputs, and such inputs are ignored by the standard EROI method. ExEROI makes up for the shortcomings of standard EROI and avoids the possible misinformation caused by standard EROI. ExEROI has the potential for use as an integral aspect of energy resource exploitation evaluations.