<正> Four observed blocking anticyclones in different regions of the Northern Hemisphere are in-vestigated.Analyses show that there exist distinct differences in the maintenance of the time-meanquasi-geostrophic potential vorticity(PV)low in 300 hPa within blocking areas.In two Pacificblocking cases,the PV advection by time-mean flow tends to flow the PV low to northwestern partof the blocking highs,and thus is beneficial to the maintenance of the blockings'strength.Thetransfer by transient eddies acts to balance the effect of the time-mean flow.In the Atlantic andAlaska blocking cases,however,the advection of mean flow tends to flow the PV low eastward.The PV transfer by transient eddies acts to flow potential vorticity low to the western part of theblocking ridges and also to balance the time-mean flow's effect.Thus,in the latter two cases,it isthe transfer by the transient eddies that acts to maintain the blockings.