Abstract. Since the 1980s, alpine grasslands have been seriously degraded on the Tibetan Plateau. Grazing exclusion by fencing has been widely adopted to restore degraded grasslands. To clarify the effect of grazing exclusion on soil quality, we investigated soil properties and nutrients by comparing free-grazing (FG) and grazing exclusion (GE) grasslands in Tibet. Soil properties -including soil bulk density, pH, particle size distributions, and proportion of aggregatesshowed no significant difference between FG and GE plots.

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FeNiCrBSiNbW coatings were prepared using a twin wires arc spraying process and were subsequently annealed at 450, 550 and 650uC for 1 h to obtain coatings with different crystallisation. The effect of crystallisation on the electrochemical properties of the coatings was investigated. Transformation of the amorphous phase to crystalline phases of a-(Fe,Cr), Fe 3 B and Fe 23 B 6 occurred when the as sprayed coating was treated at 650uC. Open circuit potential tests, potentiodynamic polarisation tests and electrochemical impendence spectroscopy were employed to investigate the corrosion resistance of the coatings in 3?5 wt-%NaCl solution. The results showed that the corrosion resistance of the coatings decreased with increasing annealing temperature, and the as sprayed coating exhibited the best corrosion resistance among the four kinds of coatings. This was attributed to the high amorphous phase content and the absence of borides such as Fe 3 B and Fe 23 B 6 phases in the coating.

The objective of this research is to develop and assess a pattern analysis for land cover maps. The selective landscape metrics (PD, CONTAG, PAFRAC, and SHDI) have been computed for the multi-temporal land cover maps based on Landsat MSS/TM remote sensing during 1978-2004. Our study systematically explores and compares trends and patterns of urban sprawl across the town level in Wujiang.

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