Research - University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate Dynamics -

2012-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

The Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate Dynamics group focuses on fundamental problems of Atmospheric science, Meteorology and Climatology, Atmospheric physics and atmospheric environment, Marine Biology, Physical Oceanography.

Faculty in the area of atmospheric science mainly study air pollutants that can alter the air quality and affect human health, including acid rain, persistent organic pollutants, ground level ozone, particulate matter and their chemical species. Our research is based on an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, which includes the study of the science of air issues, from the source of pollutants, and their transportation and interactions in the atmosphere, to the impacts on health and the environment. Our research also supports the development of regulations, guidelines and policies to protect the health and the environment. The main research areas are:(1) Ambient Measurements: Measurements of atmospheric trace gases to understand the air pollution formation, transport, and impact on the human health;(2) Pollution Formation Mechanism: Mechanism and prediction of the urban and regional air pollution and their effects on the atmospheric environment;(3) Source apportionment: Identifying the types of emission sources, whether they are anthropogenic or the result of naturally occurring events and their relative contributions to measured air pollution helps identify and quantify the sources that would be most effective to control. we also have strong active collaborations to numerous national and international research groups. This also helps our group members to build their own network of professional relations.

Faculty in the area of meteorology and climatology mainly engage in exploring the basic laws governing atmospheric motion, physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere, and the interaction between the atmosphere and its surrounding environment, especially the study of the mechanism of climate and environment in East Asia. The main study field is to understand the regulations and mechanisms of regional environmental system changes, and the impacts of global change on regional climate system and study on orderly human adaptation.

Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy. Marine biology differs from marine ecology as marine ecology is focused on how organisms interact with each other and the environment, and biology is the study of the organisms themselves.

Physical Oceanography involves the exploration and study of the physics and geography of the ocean currents and water properties and their roles in the earth’s climate- and eco-systems. Physical oceanography has important applications in global climate, oceanic mixing, and coastal studies, as well as being a key element in interdisciplinary studies of primary production, hydrothermal vents, and oceanic flux and storage of carbon dioxide. Practically speaking, there are 5 basic ways in which we approach the problem of understanding the ocean：Field Work (Observational oceanography)， Mathematical Theory，Numerical modeling, Laboratory work and Oceanic Remote Sensing.

Faculty in the core areas of Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate dynamics include:

● Atmospheric Science（Jihua Tan）

● Meteorology and Climatology（Fengmei Yao, Lijuan Hua）

● Atmospheric Physics and Atmospheric Environment（Fumo Yang）

● Marine Biology（Qiang Su）

● Physical Oceanography（Haiyan Li）

Geology

2012-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

The Geology group focuses on fundamental problems of quaternary geology, mineralogy, petrology, mineral deposit geology, structural geology, geochemistry and engineering geology.

The Quaternary science represent the systematic study of the most recent geologic period, spanning the last 2.6 million years or so of geological time and characterized by a series of glaciations interspersed with interglacial intervals, such as the Holocene. The key element in Quaternary science research is establishing the timing of climatic changes and of their effects on the earth’s environment. Quaternary Geology is an interdisciplinary subject concerned with the history of environmental changes on Earth. It is the goal for Quaternary geologist to interpret the geological record from this period in order to understand the key processes (physical, chemical, biological, atmospheric, human-induced) that trigger and modulate environmental change at all geographic and temporal scales.

Mineralogy, Petrology and Ore Deposits devote themselves in the framework of Earth System Science to study the formation and evolution of the geological bodies. The Mineralogy multidisciplinary covered the entire field of geology, and focuses on mineralogically-oriented topics in crystallography, crystal chemistry, applied mineralogy, mineral physics. Igneous Petrology provides field relations and fabrics of rocks, together with their mineralogical, chemical and isotopic compositions to constrain its petrogenesis. Metamorphic geology involved deformation, metamorphism and element redistribution during a metamorphic process, applying structural, geochronological and metamorphic reaction analyses to decipher tectonic processes of metamorphic terrains. The ore deposits mainly focus on material sources, genetic mechanism, spatial and temporal distribution of various types of deposits. Mineralogy and petrology studies of ore minerals and associated gangue are usually conducted with the aim of constraining the genesis and mineral associations of ore deposits.

Stable Isotope geochemistry is one field of isotope geochemistry based upon study of the relative concentrations of the elements in the Earth. Variations in the abundance of these stable isotopes of the elements, typically measured with an isotope ratio mass spectrometer, can reveal information about the temperature of a rock. Isotope ratios can even shed light on chemical processes of geological events. Computing Geochemistry is an interdiscipline which use the theory and technique of computing chemistry to solve some problems in geochemistry. For some situations that experiments cannot be implemented, computing geochemistry can give us some theoretical estimation.

Geological Engineering is based on the theories of natural science and earth science, focused on the geological investigation, the survey of mineral resources and the engineering problems on geological structure and geological background of important projects, adopts the method of geology, geophysical and geochemical technology, geomathematics, remote sensing technology, testing and detecting technology as well as the computer technology, and services for the national economic construction.

Faculty in the core areas of Geology include:

● Quaternary Geology （Haitao You, Yumei Li, Ping Liu）

● Mineralogy, Petrology, Mineral Deposit Geology （Chunming Wu, Qing Liu, Guiping Zhao, Jinfeng Sun）

● Structural Geology （Quanlin Hou, Yiwen Ju, Yuxiu Zhang）

● Geochemistry （Yongbing Li）

● Engineering Geology （Qingli Zeng）

Solid Geophysics

2012-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

The Solid Geophysics group focuses on fundamental problems of geodynamics, geodetic survey, physics of the Earth’s interior, strong motion seismology, applied geophysics, seismology and computational geophysics.

Dealing with the fundamental physical processes necessary for an understanding of plate tectonics and a variety of geophysical/geological/geochemical/geodetic phenomena (special emphasis on the deformation processes of planetary mantle and crust, and the resulting earthquakes and volcanism) with interdisciplinary knowledge in geophysics, geology, physics, mechanics, chemistry and computational sciences.
•Rheology and mineral properties of the deep earth, physical properties of rocks and their dependence on pressure, temperature and chemical composition
• Upper mantle - lower mantle; lithosphere - asthenosphere

• Mantle convection, hot spots and plumes, heat flow and the thermo-mechanical evolution of the earth
•Dynamic consequences of natural events, including source dynamics, seismic modeling, seismo-tectonics, modeling of earthquakes, impacts
• Dynamic consequences of natural events, including source dynamics, seismic modeling, seismo-tectonics, modeling of earthquakes, impacts
• Plate kinematics, plate tectonics and plate dynamics, driving mechanisms
• Crust-mantle interaction, chemical recycling
• Stress field; horizontal and vertical crustal movements
• Integrated models and non-linear processes
• Evolution of continents and oceans, including the formation and destruction of oceanic lithosphere, orogenic processes and basin evolution
• Sea surface and ocean bottom topography, including variations of sea level
• Dynamic interpretation and modeling of potential fields, including isostasy, glacial isostasy
• Magma formation, differentiation, transport and emplacement, including modeling of volcanic eruptions
• Data aquisition and analysis for geodynamics, including the use of SLR, VLBI, GPS, etc

Faculty in the core areas of Solid Geophysics include:

● Geodynamics （Yaoling Shi, Bojing Zhu）

● Geodetic Survey （Wenke Sun, Jinhai Yu）

● Physics of the Earth’s Interior （Dongping Wei, Duojun Wang, Yuanze Zhou, Maining Ma, Rongqiang Wei）

● Strong Motion Seismology （Wenbo Zhang）

● Applied Geophysics （Jian Zhang）

● Seismology （Baoping Shi, Xiangwei Yu）

● Computational Geophysics （Huai Zhang）