The spatial distribution of soil moisture and its multiple-scale correlations to other environmental factors were examined along the Upper Minjiang River valley, China, a landscape subject to severe land degradation of soil and water erosion but also under investigation for potential ecosystem restoration. Results showed that: (1) Soil moisture was highest in the headwaters, and lowest in the arid valley, while moderate values characterized outside the arid valley. The polynomial model of soil moisture distribution on slopes was concave in the lightly disturbed headwaters, convex in the highly damaged arid valley, while convex on south facing slopes and concave on north facing slopes in highly damaged areas in better environmental condition. (2) Soil moisture was correlated with environmental factors at different scales, where elevation and air humidity were only correlated at the sample plot scale, light intensity and wind speed were found to be significant at both slope and site scales and slope and sample plot scales; while slope angle was correlated at all the three scales. From this we conclude that it is possible to improve soil moisture conditions in the arid valley by lowering slope angle and adding low-cost irrigation systems. (3) The practical threshold of soil moisture for growing meadows, shrubs, and forests were 11Á800 per cent, 3Á925 per cent, and 16Á078 per cent respectively; the arid valley displayed soil-moisture conditions unfavourable to forest growth. The planned reforestation project is not ecologically reasonable. Reducing human disturbance and revegetating with natural shrubs and meadows may produce more effective results.

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Hard photon emitted from energetic heavy ion collisions is of very interesting since it does not experience the late-stage nuclear interaction, therefore it is useful to explore the early-stage information of matter phase. In this work, we have presented a first calculation of azimuthal asymmetry, characterized by directed transverse flow parameter F and elliptic asymmetry coefficient v 2 , for proton-neutron bremsstrahlung hard photons in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions. The positive F and negative v 2 of direct photons are illustrated and they seem to be anti-correlated to the corresponding free proton's flow.