Origin of glacial–fluvial landforms in the Azas Plateau volcanic field, the Tuva Republic, Russia: Role of ice–magma interaction

The basaltic Azas Plateau volcanic field is located in the Tuva Republic of the Russian Federation. The area was glaciated multiple times, and the field is characterized by the formation of subglacial volcanoes called tuyas, but subaerial volcanoes and lava fields also exist. A combined study of remote sensing and field observations in the vicinity of the tuyas in the southeastern Azas Plateau volcanic field identified landforms that are best explained by the jökulhlaup hypothesis. The landforms include elongated hills, paleochannels, and butte and basin topography. These landforms are hypothesized to have formed by both erosion and deposition caused by high-energy water streams. The triggering for the hypothesized jökulhlaups was either melting of ice by subglacial volcanism and/or destabilization of ice-dammed/subglacial reservoirs. The age estimation of the flood events is difficult, but they probably occurred during the ice ages of the Quaternary, as late as in the Middle-Late Pleistocene.     

Glacial and palaeoenvironmental history of the Cape Chelyuskin area, Arctic Russia

Quaternary glacial stratigraphy and relative sea-level changes reveal at least two glacial expansions over the Chelyuskin Peninsula, bordering the Kara Sea at about 77°N in the Russian Arctic, as indicated from tills interbedded with marine sediments, exposed in stratigraphic superposition, and from raised-beach sequences mapped to altitudes of at least up to ca. 80 m a.s.l. Chronological control is provided by accelerator mass spectrometry ¹⁴C dating, electron-spin resonance and optically stimulated luminescence geochronology. Major glaciations, followed by deglaciation and marine inundation, occurred during marine oxygen isotope stages 6–5e (MIS 6–5e) and stages MIS 5d–5c. These glacial sediments overlie marine sediments of Pliocene age, which are draped by fluvial sediment of a pre-Saalian age, thereby forming palaeovalley/basin fills in the post-Cretaceous topography. Till fabrics and glacial tectonics record expansions of local ice caps exclusively, suggesting wet-based ice cap advance, followed by cold-based regional ice-sheet expansion. Local ice caps over highland sites along the perimeter of the shallow Kara Sea, including the Byrranga Mountains and the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, appear to have repeatedly fostered initiation of a large Kara Sea ice sheet, with the exception of the Last Glacial Maximum (MIS 2), when Kara Sea ice neither impacted the Chelyuskin Peninsula nor Severnaya Zemlya, and barely touched the northern coastal areas of the Taymyr Peninsula.     

The biota of lake abalakh (Yakutia,eastern Siberia,Russia Federation)

The fauna and flora of Lake Abalakh, a saline lake in Yakutia, eastern Siberia, Russian Federation, is described from a collection made in July, 1990. The fauna comprisedMoina mongolica, Metadiaptomus asiaticus, Brachionus plicatilis and larval ceratopogonids. The flora was much more diverse. It contained 82 taxa most of which were cyanophytes, bacillariophytes, and chlorophytes. Also present were cryptophytes (1 taxon), xanthophytes (5) and euglenoids (1).     

The Southern Margin of the Late Cainozoic Ice Cap on the Central Plateau of Tasmania

The easternmost extremity of the ice cap that developed in the Tasmanian Central Highlands during the time of most extensive Late Cainozoic glaciation lay on the doleritecapped Central Plateau east and north-east of Lake St Clair. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the more restricted ice cover included a small discrete ice cap (probably less than 250-300 m thick) that formed on the Central Plateau. The LGM ice limits on the southern part of the Central Plateau, including all five southern outlet valleys, are reported here. Earlier ice limits have been identified in two of these valleys, but on the plateau proper earlier glacial deposits have been generally extensively reworked beyond the LGM limit, such that confirmation of a glacial origin for diamictons on slopes is difficult. South of the plateau, the oldest deposits flooring lower reaches of two outlet valleys indicate that ice flowed southwards directly from the plateau, but later deposits indicate diffluent flow from the Derwent Glacier.     

Geocryological characteristics of the upper permafrost in a tundra-forest transition of the Indigirka River Valley,Russia

Understanding geocryological characteristics of frozen sediment, such as cryostratigraphy, ice content, and stable isotope ratio of ground ice, is essential to predicting consequences of projected permafrost thaw in response to global warming. These characteristics determine thermokarst extent and controls hydrological regime—and hence vegetation growth—especially in areas of high latitude; it also yields knowledge about the history of changes in the hydrological regime. To obtain these fundamental data, we sampled and analyzed unfrozen and frozen surficial sediments from 18 boreholes down to 1–2.3 m depth at five sites near Chokurdakh, Russia. Profiles of volumetric ice content in upper permafrost excluding wedge ice volume showed large variation, ranging from 40 to 96%, with an average of 75%. This large amount of ground ice was in the form of ice lenses or veins forming well-developed cryostructures, mainly due to freezing of frost-susceptible sediment under water-saturated condition. Our analysis of geocryological characteristics in frozen ground including ice content, cryostratigraphy, soil mechanical characteristics, organic matter content and components, and water stable isotope ratio provided information to reconstruct terrestrial paleo-environments and to estimate the influence of recent maximum thaw depth, microtopography, and flooding upon permafrost development in permafrost regions of NE Russia.     

Luminescence geochronology for sediments from Lake El’gygytgyn,northeast Siberia,Russia: constraining the timing of paleoenvironmental events for the past 200 ka

This study focused on the luminescence dating of sediments from Lake El’gygytgyn, a meteorite impact crater 100 km north of the Arctic Circle in northeast Siberia, formed 3.58 Ma ago. The sediment is principally eolian deposited in to a lake with nearly permanently ice. The fine-grained polymineral and quartz extracts taken from nine distinct levels from the upper 12.3 m of sediment core PG1351 were dated by infrared stimulated (IRSL) and green stimulated luminescence (GSL) using multiple aliquot additive dose procedures. The veracity of these ages is evaluated by comparing to an age model for the core derived from magnetic excursions and from correlation of variations of the magnetic susceptibility record to similar magnitude variations in δ ¹⁸O in the Greenland Ice core record. The IRSL ages from the upper 9 m of core correspond well with the independent age control for the past ca. 200 ka. However, sediments deeper in the core at 12.3 m with an inferred age of ca. 250 ka age yield a saturated IRSL response and therefore a non-finite OSL age. The youngest sediment dated from 0.70 m depth yielded the IRSL age of ca. 11.5 ka, older than the corresponding age of 9.3–8.8 ka, indicating a discrepancy in dating the youngest sediments in the upper 1 m of core. This study confirms the utility of IRSL by the multiple aliquot additive dose method to date sediments <200 ka old from eastern Siberia. This is the sixth in a series of eleven papers published in this special issue dedicated to initial studies of El’gygytgyn Crater Lake and its catchment in NE Russia. Julie Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles, Pavel Minyuk were guest editors of this special issue.     

Comments on Jansson, K.N. and Glasser, N.F. (2008) “Modification of peripheral mountain ranges by former ice sheets: The Brecon Beacons, southern UK,” Geomorphology 97, 178–189

Jansson and Glasser (Jansson, K.N., Glasser, N.F., 2008. Modification of peripheral mountain ranges by former ice sheets: the Brecon Beacons, southern UK. Geomorphology 97, 178–189.) have recently provided unconventional interpretations of selected glacial erosional and depositional landforms in the Brecon Beacons, UK, based on remotely sensed imagery. These new interpretations contradict well-established and reliable evidence for the origins and ages of certain glacial landforms of this upland area and elsewhere. They suggest that during a post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice-sheet event ice flowed up supposed, essentially “fluvial” valleys producing “glacial lineations” and depositing marginal moraines at the valley heads and on cirque floors. We argue that their interpretations of some key landforms are incorrect and that they have ignored much of the previous dating and field geomorphological evidence. Sedimentary and morphological evidence (e.g., lack of erratic content; convex planform with respect to the headwall; relatively large height range of moraines; and close association with headwall extent, height, and steepness) all indicate that higher level cirque-floor and valley-head moraines in the Brecon Beacons (> c. 400 m) were formed by cirque glaciers. Available dating evidence indicates a Younger Dryas age. We demonstrate that the supposed “fluvial” valleys, comprising trough heads with steep headwalls, have more nearly parabolic than V-shaped cross profiles indicating substantial glacial modification. Field evidence shows that proposed key exemplar post-LGM glacial lineations are in fact debris flow deposits. We conclude that whilst the adoption of a macroscale approach can shed new light on large-scale, ice-sheet movements, this approach should not be undertaken without consideration of the associated field evidence.     

利用冰雷达诊断南极冰盖底部环境的研究综述

现今南极冰盖底部的环境对冰盖的动力演化有着重要的影响,准确的冰盖底部环境信息有利于更加准确地模拟南极冰盖的起源、发展以及未来的演化。采用无线电回波技术,可有效地对冰盖进行探测。通过定量地处理雷达波在冰盖内部的介电衰减,可以获取冰盖底部的反射率,从而对冰盖底部环境,特别是冰下水文环境进行诊断。综述了雷达波在冰盖内部衰减处理的三种方法,分析了它们的适用性及局限性,并对这些方法应用于诊断冰盖底部的环境以及方法本身可能的改进进行了讨论。     

黄土高原森林植被景观的特征分析

用1∶50万森林类型图为信息源,以G IS为手段,对黄土高原地区森林景观类型斑块的大小、形状以及空间特征进行了分析。结果表明:黄土高原地区27类森林总面积仅64 980.7 km2,共有斑块数5 890个,林斑平均面积较小,且分布不均,森林景观破碎化程度较高。森林景观以华北落叶松林、山杨林、油松林、辽东栎林等为优势类型。黄土高原森林景观类型的形状指数值都比较大,说明森林斑块的形状明显偏离于圆形和方形,多为狭长的不规则形,其斑块的边界率都比较高。不同类型森林分维数变化较大,这也表明黄土高原森林景观破碎化程度较高,景观异质性较大。     

黄土高原泥流灾害成因及特征

黄土泥流是戴土地区一类重要的灾害地貌过程,是泥石流的一个特殊类型,是水土流失的一种特殊形式,也是山地环境恶化、水土流失极严重的标志。本文在对黄土泥流这一黄土高原特有的严重水土流失现象的分布、成因、物质组成、动静力学性质、堆积形态等全面系统研究的基础上,对其和一般泥石流与高含沙水流做了初步对比和分析,揭示了黄土泥流灾害的形成规律、运动机制和沉积特征。     

藏南羊卓雍错沉积物元素地球化学记录的过去2000年环境变化

以青藏高原南部的羊卓雍错（简称羊湖）沉积岩芯为研究对象,以较可靠的年代数据（ ²¹⁰Pb和AMS ¹⁴C交叉定年）为框架,基于高分辨率的元素地球化学记录,通过数理统计分析方法提取环境信息,结合粒度和磁化率,重建该地区过去2000年来的环境变化。结果显示,该区黑暗时代冷期（DCAP）和小冰期（LIA）气候较为寒冷,降水量较高;而中世纪暖期（MWP）和现代暖期（CWP）气候较为温暖,降水量较低,气候具有冷湿—暖干的特征。其中,重建的温度显示,中世纪暖期的温暖程度似乎持平甚至超过20世纪暖期;小冰期期间可能存在一次百年尺度的温暖事件,而17世纪和18世纪可能是过去2000中最寒冷的一段时期。分析发现,过去2000年以来青藏高原南部存在着冷湿—暖干的气候模式;过去2000年青藏高原南部地区温度的变化可能主要受到太阳辐射的影响,而小冰期期间西风环流的南移和增强可能是导致区域降水增加的重要因素。另外,该时期羊湖的湖泊水位的变化受温度和降水共同控制：当温度降低,降水增加时,湖泊水位上升,反之亦然。     

川西高原杂谷脑河阶地的形成

根据野外实地地貌调查,确定了川西高原杂谷脑河理县段发育了8级阶地,并对阶地沉积物进行了ESR年代测试,初步确定杂谷脑河第II,III,IV,VI级阶地约形成于距今54,125,248,481ka。阶地成因分析表明这些主要阶地序列主要是构造隆升的结果,因此,杂谷脑河各级主要阶地分别代表了川西高原中更新世以来的几次隆升事件。根据阶地高程和阶地形成年代确定的杂谷脑河下蚀速率为0.39m/ka,与大地测量获得的龙门山隆升速率 (0.3~0.4m/ka) 相一致。     

阿拉善高原沙漠化土地防治区划与治理对策

中国深受沙漠化危害,沙漠化土地防治区划是沙漠化研究和防治的重要措施。阿拉善高原地处亚洲干旱荒漠区,是中国北方沙漠化过程发生发展较为典型的区域。随着气候变化、区域社会经济发展和国家生态文明建设多项工程的实施,阿拉善高原土地沙漠化也发生了显著的变化。根据阿拉善高原沙漠化、土地利用变化、产业发展的过程和现状,我们认为区域沙漠化土地治理重点主要包括6个方面：重点生态功能保护区、三大沙漠交汇扩展治理区、荒漠植被保护与恢复区、人工绿洲生态建设稳定区、线性交通基础设施和片状工矿综合治理区及乌兰布和沙产业示范区。在此基础上,将阿拉善高原划分为3个荒漠化土地防治亚区和12个治理小区,并提出相应的沙漠化防治措施和治理对策。     

青藏高原湿地研究进展

青藏高原具有全球重要性,是地球表面上很少受人类活动干扰的区域之一,在全球变化研究中被作为先兆区或预警区。青藏高原湿地多为高寒沼泽、高寒沼泽化草甸和高寒湖泊,具有生态蓄水、水源补给、气候调节等重要的生态功能,在防止全球水危机方面起着关键的作用。因此青藏高原湿地在全球变化研究中占有特殊的重要地位,已经引起国内外学者的关注。本文从湿地的类型和分布、湿地土壤、湿地植被、泥炭的形成与演化、湿地动物、古植被古气候、温室气体排放以及湿地退化几个方面对青藏高原湿地研究进行了综述,并提出了未来的重点研究领域。     

黄土丘陵区雨强对水流含沙量的影响

To study the effects of changes in the rainfall intensity on sediment concentrations in the Loess Plateau,the observed rainfall intensities and sediment concentrations from three typical small watersheds were used to analyze the relationship between these parameters.The results showed that the sediment concentration generally increased with the increasing rainfall intensity on slope scale.However,at watershed scale,a significant threshold phenomenon was observed for the effects of the rainfall intensity on the sediment concentration.When the rainfall intensity exceeds the threshold,the flood sediment concentration will no longer increase with the increase in the rainfall intensity.The rainfall intensity threshold increased with increasing vegetation coverage.The rainfall intensity threshold was 10–15 mm/h during 1956–1969,reached 20 mm/h from 1990 to 1997 and is approximately 40 mm/h at present.Due to a rainfall intensity of 10–15 mm/h almost happened every year,the vegetation did not change much from the 1950s to 1980s.Sediment yield mainly depends on soil erosion caused by surface flow,but the surface flow speed does not increase indefinitely with the increase in the flow discharge.Thus,the annual maximum sediment concentration of the tributaries in the loess area has been basically stable before the 1990s.     

Late Holocene environmental changes inferred from diatoms in a lake on the western Taimyr Peninsula, northern Russia

Changes in the diatom assemblages preserved in a sediment core taken from a small lake located north of arctic treeline on the western Taimyr Peninsula, Russia, were examined in order to investigate late Holocene (i.e., ca 5000 cal yr BP to present) climatic and environmental changes within the region. Early diatom assemblages were dominated by benthic Fragilaria taxa and indicate a transitional phase in the lake history, most likely reflecting lake development and environmental change associated with treeline retreat to the south of the study site. Concurrent with pollen and macrofossil evidence of a vegetation shift to shrub tundra in the catchment basin at ca 4200 cal yr BP, an increase in cold-water taxa, followed by little change in diatom assemblages until ca 2800 cal yr BP, suggests that conditions were relatively cool and stable at this time. The last 2000 years of the Middendorf Lake record have been marked by fluctuating limnological conditions, characterized by striking successional shifts between Fragilaria pinnata and Aulacoseira distans var. humilis. Recent conditions in Middendorf Lake indicate an increase in diatom taxa previously rare in the record, possibly associated with twentieth-century climatic warming. The Middendorf Lake record indicates that significant limnological change may occur in the absence of catchment vegetation shifts, suggesting late-Holocene decoupling of aquatic and terrestrial responses to climatic and hydrological change. Our study results represent one of the few paleoecological records currently available from northern Russia, and highlight the need for further development of calibration data sets from this region.     

Geochemical evidences of dry climate in the Mid-Holocene in Gonghe Basin, northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Previous research on climatic change in the Mid-Holocene in China indicates that it was a warm and humid period, accompanied by stronger summer monsoons, and it is defined as the Megathermal in the Holocene, or the Holocene Optimum period. However, this conclusion is mainly directed at the monsoonal region in eastern China. In this research, we chose the Gonghe Basin in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau as the study area. Geochemical analysis of the profiles of paleosols and aeolian sand in the Santala area in the middle of the Gonghe Basin, along with OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) dating, indicates that the regional climate has experienced several warm-humid and cold-dry cycles since 11.8 ka. In particular, the Mid-Holocene (8.1–4.6 ka) was relatively cold and dry as evidenced by drastic fluctuations in chemical weathering degree and humidity, a higher aridity index, and sparse vegetation, accompanying increased winter monsoonal strength. In order to clarify whether this is an individual or local signal, we compared our geochemical analysis results with lake and peat records and aeolian deposits of the monsoonal boundary region. The results indicate that the climate deteriorated widely, with declines in temperature and moisture, in the Mid-Holocene in the modern monsoonal boundary zone. Furthermore, the duration of climate deterioration (relatively dry period) generally decreased from west to east in the aforementioned regions. Therefore, this dry phase in Gonghe Basin may be representative of dry events in Mid-Holocene in northern China. In addition, we discuss the reasons for this dry climate from several perspectives: (1) it probably can be attributed to a decline in summer monsoonal strength; (2) the regional evaporation loss (forced by high temperature) was not compensated by regional precipitation; (3) the thermal dynamic effect of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.     

Dating of two thermokarst lakes in Beiluhe Basin,Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Most of the thermokarst lakes are spread appreciably in Beiluhe Basin,Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China,where ice-rich permafrost exists.Two typical thermokarst lakes with differing area and depth were examined to ascertain their age.We obtained lake-bottom samples of 50 cm length from lake BLH-A and 25 cm length from lake BLH-B.Environmental 137 Cs and 210 Pb and radiocarbon age dating techniques were applied to the 50 cm and 25 cm samples,respectively.The results indicate that the initiation of BLH-A is about 800-900 a B.P.,and approximately 1,450±30 a B.P.to 2,230±30 a B.P.for BLH-B.These results will provide scientific bases for sedimentological study and thermokarst activity in Beiluhe Basin.