Case studies of extreme weather and climate events are pivotal to understanding their societal impact in the context of sustainability science. To avoid being constrained by the idiosyncrasy of an individual event, a case study must  Ice-coated forest with decapitated trees in southern China.

[1] A massive ice and snow storm occurred in early 2008 in south China and caused extensive damage to forests. Thirty-six plots of moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) plantation were established following the ice storm in the central growth area of moso bamboo, Fenyi, Jiangxi province, China. The topographical condition and stand attributes, and the ice storm impact on moso bamboo plantations were investigated. We found that an average of 54.48% (±17.58%) bamboo culms was damaged. The damage patterns included bending, snapping and uprooting, which accounted for 17.01% (±7.28%), 22.37% (±11.58%) and 15.11% (±11.54%) of the total, respectively. An average of 16.42 (±7.09) tons per hectare dead dry biomass was produced, accounting for 37.73% (±14.41%) of total aboveground biomass. A mean value of 8.21 (±3.55) Mg C per hectare was shifted from living biomass to dead. Stand level analysis showed a significant increase in damage level and dead biomass production at north oriented slopes, and with high stand density (between 3000 and 4500 culm/ha). High altitude caused a higher proportion of snapped culms but a lower proportion of uprooted. Analysis at individual culm level suggested that the susceptibility for a culm to break or uproot due to ice storm would rise as its diameter increased, while the susceptibility to bend would decline. The young (1 year old) culm was more susceptible to snapping or bending, while overmature (>5 years old) culm was more susceptible to uprooting, implying it is a good managing practice to harvest mature culm timely.

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Pyrite, a mineral that can cause potential environmental issues in coal mining, is commonly found in coal seams around intrusions. In this paper, pyrites from the Yuandian Coal Mine (Huaibei Coalfield, Anhui, Eastern China) were studied using SEM, Raman and LA-ICP-MS. The pyrite morphologic and geochemical data suggest that (1) four pyrite generations are present (framboidal sedimentary pyrites (Py I) in the original coal, coarse-grained magmatic pyrites (Py II) in the intruding diabase, fine-grained metamorphic pyrites (Py III) in the intrusive contact aureole, and spheroid/vein hydrothermal pyrites (Py IV) in the cokeite); and (2) concentrations of cobalt, nickel, arsenic, selenium, lead and copper in the metamorphic pyrites are much higher than the other pyrite generations. We propose that mafic magmatism is the main contributor of the toxic elements to the intrusion-related cokeite at Yuandian.

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