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BackgroundBiological soil crusts are common components of desert ecosystem; they cover ground surface and interact with topsoil that contribute to desertification control and degraded land restoration in arid and semiarid regions.Methodology/Principal FindingsTo distinguish the changes in topsoil affected by biological soil crusts, we compared topsoil properties across three types of successional biological soil crusts (algae, lichens, and mosses crust), as well as the referenced sandland in the Mu Us Desert, Northern China. Relationships between fractal dimensions of soil particle size distribution and selected soil properties were discussed as well. The results indicated that biological soil crusts had significant positive effects on soil physical structure (P<0.05); and soil organic carbon and nutrients showed an upward trend across the successional stages of biological soil crusts. Fractal dimensions ranged from 2.1477 to 2.3032, and significantly linear correlated with selected soil properties (R2 = 0.494∼0.955, P<0.01).Conclusions/SignificanceBiological soil crusts cause an important increase in soil fertility, and are beneficial to sand fixation, although the process is rather slow. Fractal dimension proves to be a sensitive and useful index for quantifying changes in soil properties that additionally implies desertification. This study will be essential to provide a firm basis for future policy-making on optimal solutions regarding desertification control and assessment, as well as degraded ecosystem restoration in arid and semiarid regions.

We propose a D-shaped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) refractive index sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity and a wide detection range. The gold layer is deposited on the polished surface, avoiding filling or coating inside the air holes of the PCF. The influences of the gold layer thickness and the diameter of the larger air holes are investigated. The sensing characteristics of the proposed sensor are analyzed by the finite element method. The maximum sensitivity can reach 31,000  nm/RIU, and the refractive index detection range is from 1.32 to 1.40. Our proposed PCF has excellent sensing characteristics and is competitive in sensing devices.

Structure-based forest management is a scientific and easy-to-operate method for sustainable forest management. We analyzed the stand spatial structure of Larix principis-rupprechtii plantation under five reserve densities. The results indicated that with the decrease of densities after thinning, the average mingling degree and uniform angle index had an increasing tendency, but the amplitude was small. Most of the trees were in zero mix, and a few of them were in moderate, strong, and relatively strong mix; the horizontal distribution patterns were uniform or near-uniform random. The distribution of neighborhood comparison and opening degree changed with a fluctuant pattern, but thinning decreased the competitive intensities to some extent. A composite structure index (Ci) was established, based on the relative importance of the above four indicators, to evaluate the overall effect of thinning on stand structure characteristics. The findings showed that Ci increased with the increase of thinning intensity, that is, the stand spatial structure became more complex. This indicated that Ci may be a simple and rapid indicator to evaluate the overall effect of thinning on stand spatial structure within densities after thinning.

A dual D-type photonic crystal fiber (PCF) was proposed in this work to measure the refractive index and temperature of seawater. Two golden layers were designed to be coated on the two polished planes in the dual D-type PCF. Two confinement loss peaks in the transmission spectrum appeared due to the surface plasmon resonances which were inspired on the two golden layers. In order to achieve two-parameter sensing, one of the two polished planes was further coated with a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer which was temperature-sensitive. Seawater was assumed to be coated on the outer surface of the PCF. Numerical results by using the finite element method showed that the measurement sensitivity of the refractive index of seawater reached 1371 and 1228 nm/RIU, while the measurement sensitivity of temperature reached −0.3 and −1.06 nm/ °C, respectively. Finally, we obtained the transfer matrix expression which could be used to measure the refractive index and temperature of seawater simultaneously. The designed dual D-type PCF, which is simple in structure, highly sensitive and two-parameter measuring, could be a promising candidate for the monitoring of seawater.