Six billion people: how the continents were populated--yesterday,today, and tomorrow

World population growth from settlement of the continents to future population size is broadly traced in this work. Population growth has accelerated greatly in the past two centuries and especially since 1950. The first billion was reached only in 1850, while the fifth billion, in 1986, required only 11 years. Past population growth was slow, irregular, and variable from continent to continent. Population estimates for prehistory have a margin of error of around 50%. Modern man first appeared in Africa or possibly the Middle East around 100,000 BC. The three great centers of population in China, India, and the Middle East and Mediterranean area developed during the Neolithic Revolution and have maintained their importance. At least 500,000 years ago, humans began using fire and clothing to escape the limits of their biotype and geographic area of origin. The peopling of the continents was not achieved by massive displacement of surplus population, but by movement of small groups into empty space where they proliferated. World population was an estimated 460-510 million in 1500, with probably 135 million in China, 95 million in India, and 80 million in Europe. The balance between fertility and mortality postulated by transition theory has not occurred in Europe. World population is projected to increase from 2.5 billion to 6 billion between 1950 and 2000, with 61% in Asia, 12% in Africa, 9% in Latin America, and 5% in Europe. The world rate of population growth is still about 1.4% annually. The demographic explosion will have been a transitory episode in human history, but revolutionary in its impact.     

The geomagnetic field over the past 5 million years

The modern geomagnetic field is usually expressed as a spherical harmonic expansion. Although the palaeomagnetic record is very incomplete in both space and time, sufficient data are available from a span of ages to generate time-averaged spherical harmonic field models with many degrees of freedom. Here three data sets are considered: directional measurements from lavas, inclination measurements from ocean sediments, and intensity measurements from lavas. Individual data are analysed, as well as site-averages, using the same methods that have been developed for the modern field, to give models for the past 5 Myr. The normal-polarity field model has an axial-dipole intensity similar to that of the modern-day field, whilst the equatorial-dipole component is very much smaller. The field is not axisymmetric, but shows flux concentrations at the core's surface under Canada and Siberia similar to those observed in the field over historical timescales. Tests on synthetic data show that it is unlikely that these similarities result from the overprinting of the palaeomagnetic field due to inadequate cleaning of the samples. The reverse-polarity field model does not show such obvious features, but this may be due to the sparsity of the data.
The patterns observed in the normal-polarity field, with persistent features in the northern hemisphere and a smooth southern hemisphere, could be explained if the present pattern of secular variation is typical of the past several million years. This would reveal itself as large variations over time in the direction of the magnetic vector in regions of high secular variation, with relatively little change over quieter regions. However, we have been unable to find any evidence for a geographical pattern of secular variation in the data.     

International refugees: a geographical perspective

In the modern era, the world's refugee problem has changed magnitude and location; it has expanded from a local to a continental, and now global, scale issue. About 90% of the world's 10 million refugees are from developing countries, and over 90% of these will stay there. Refugee generating and receiving countries are concentrated in 5 world regions: Central America, Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Each concentration is unique and is associated with a particular set of regional conflicts. International efforts address short-term relief needs, whereas political instability and repression that generate refugees continue unabated. Refugees along sensitive border regions affect bilateral relations, large groups of refugees can pose political and security problems for the host country, and disputes over refugee policies and their implementation can complicate diplomatic ties. Some highlights of the data follow. 1) The 3 million cross-border refugees and 5.5 million internally displaced persons make the many governments in Sub-Saharan Africa increasingly dependent on Western assistance to solve their problems. Refugees are fleeing armed conflict, tribal violence, and drought, and often generate additional regional turmoil. 2) 3-4 million Afghans have fled their country since the 1978 Marxist coup; about 2.5 million have entered Pakistan. Most choose to remain in camps near the Afghanistan border where they are targets of cross-border attacks. 3) 1.2 million Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans live outside their native countries. Official refugee and unofficial migrant populations are active in various rebel insurgencies, contribute to strained bilateral relations and tensions in border areas, and are the subject of heated political debate in host countries. 4) 90% of the 1.7 million Indochinese who fled from 1975-May 1986 have been resettled; 168,000 refugees remain in 1st-asylum camps, not including 240,000 Khmer without refugee status, in temporary camps in Thailand. Thailand's large refugee population is involved in factional strife, smuggling, and guerrilla activities. The Thai are particularly concerned about Hmong refugees, who are accused of opium cultivation and destruction of Thai forests through slash-and-burn cultivation. 5) Nearly 62% of the thousands of present Vietnamese refugees to Hong Kong have been in camps 3 years, and 17% 6 years. Many have turned to crime, alcohol, drugs, or prostitution.     

HALF A CENTURY OF CROPLAND CHANGE*

ABSTRACT. The census concept of total cropland is a better measure of effective agricultural land than is total farmland, which includes extensive areas of woodland owned by farmers. The cropland area of the United States dropped from 478 million acres in 1949 to 431 million acres in 1997, for a net loss of less than 1 million acres, or roughly one‐fifth of 1 percent, per year. In the midwestern agricultural heartland most counties changed less than 5 percent in the half‐century, and more counties gained than lost. The West was a crazy quilt of change, and in the East most counties lost more than 10 percent. Major metropolitan counties lost a few percentage points more than did adjacent areas, but at a lower rate per capita than the nation as a whole. Most of the loss of cropland was in marginal agricultural counties with soils of low inherent fertility and topography unsuited to modern farm machinery. The loss of cropland to suburban encroachment may be cause for intense local concern, but attempts to thwart development cannot be justified on grounds of a net national loss of good cropland.     

西南极海沉积物碘的迁移与富集

本文研究了西南极不同地理环境沉积碘的地球化学迁移和富集机制 ,结果表明海湾和深海表层沉积物碘主要与有机质结合 ,但在陆架和半深海 ,与氧化物结合和吸附态碘可占相当大的比例。碘在表层沉积物中迁移的环境特征与铁类似 ,即在还原环境中迁移 ,在氧化环境中转入固相 ,然而碘在沉积物中主要并不是作为电子接受者 ,而是随有机质分解或氧化物还原后被释放进入液相。沉积物表层 I/Corg值高于浮游生物是由于吸附和氧化过程的参与。沉积物 I/Corg值随深度的降低代表了有机质分解 ,氧化物还原 ,粘粒物质解析及间隙水碘扩散的综合效应。沉积物碘的扩散通量与沉积通量在同一数量级水平解释了沉积岩贫碘的原因。根据计算和讨论结果重新提出了海洋沉积物碘迁移和富集的地球化学模式。     

科尔沁沙地荒漠化土地初析

应用1996年TM卫星影像资料得出,科尔沁沙地中心地区荒漠化土地占总土地面积的34.02%,以风蚀荒漠化土地为主。各种荒漠化土地在14个旗(县)的分布不同,按严重程度划分为重度荒漠化地区、中度荒漠化地区和轻度荒漠化地区。对历史时期和近期的分析表明,科尔沁沙地荒漠化土地产生和扩展的根本原因是过度开垦。     

REMOBILIZATION AND ACCUMULATION OF IODINE IN MARINE SEDIMENTS, WESTERN ANTARCTIC OCEAN

Remobilization and accumulation mechanisms of iodine in marine sediments, which are divided into several geochemical environment, are studied. The result shows that iodine is characteristically rich in organic fractions of the sediments on the bottom of bay and pelagic sediments. However, it may be associated with oxyhydroxide and adsorptive phase in a highter percentage at the continental shelf and hemipelagic sediments. The environmental characteristics of remobilization of iodine in surficial sediments are similar to that of iron, that is, it is remobilized on anoxic conditions and converted into solid phases when it is in oxic environments, though the iodine does not act as the electron acceptor. The processes of adsorption and oxidation are responsible for the value of I_t/C_(org) in excess of that of planktonic materials other than the organic fraction in surficial sediments. It is a comprehensive effect of organism decomposition, oxyhydroxide reduction, particulate adsorption and pore water diffu     

基于收入群体差异的北京典型郊区低收入居民的行为空间困境

既有低收入居民空间困境的研究以居住空间研究为主,关注低收入者受到的住房与社区隔离,难以刻画低收入者在整日尺度面临的时空制约。行为空间作为行为地理学与时间地理学的重要概念,为描述低收入居民在日常生活中面临的移动性与可达性相关的问题提供了有力的工具。本文提出利用潜在活动空间和实际活动空间共同描述居民行为空间,分析低收入居民在时空可达性和实际利用城市空间能力上的劣势。基于2012年北京市上地—清河居民活动与出行日志,利用路网分析、最小多边形分析等方法刻画居民每日的潜在活动空间和实际活动空间。通过对不同收入群体的比较,发现低收入居民比其他居民的潜在活动空间和实际活动空间都要小。进一步构建模型分析潜在活动空间和实际活动空间的影响因素,发现包括收入在内的个体社会经济属性、空间属性和行为属性对潜在活动空间和实际活动空间存在影响,但是二者的影响因素存在差异。对行为空间的测量有利于增进对于不同群体社会分异与空间隔离的认知,对未来的研究具有重要的意义。     

元阳梯田水稻地方品种与现代水稻品种的农艺性状比较研究

本文对3个元阳县哈尼族人持续种植了上百年的水稻品种和3个现代品种分别种植在元阳梯田6个不同海拔梯度进行主要农艺性状比较研究。研究结果表明：传统品种在不同海拔的株高、穗长、有效穗等农艺性状差异不显著,而现代品种在不同海拔的农艺性状波动较大,这可能是元阳地方水稻品种长期种植与环境相适应的结果。     

祁连山冰川服务价值评估及其时空特征

冰川为干旱区人类福祉和社会经济发展提供必不可少的资源与服务,开展冰川服务价值评估及时空特征研究对于区域社会经济可持续发展和环境保护具有重要意义.基于祁连山第一次和第二次冰川编目数据,通过构建冰川服务价值评估体系,并结合单位面积服务价格法、价值当量因子法和冰川服务价值变化指数等方法,评估祁连山冰川服务价值及时空变化.结果...     

1951年以来奥地利人口变化的空间特征

根据1951-2001年奥地利人口调查统计数据,分析了近50年来奥地利人口变化的时空间规律,以及人口变化中的增长区和下降区的区域配置等特征,并建立人口变化模式。研究表明：20世纪后半叶奥地利经历了其他欧盟国所表现出的城市化、城市郊区化和人口老龄化的各个过程。特别是城市老龄化表现更为突出,据预测推算,到2035年奥地利将会有1/3的人口超过60岁。在分析过程中,不仅应用了行政区划的区域方法,而且也依据土地利用的经济性质,在“土地经济生产小区”的基底上,对人口的变化规律进行了更为深入的透视。研究结果显示：奥地利西部阿尔卑斯山地中的城市区域人口增长幅度最大。沿着捷克和斯洛伐克边界伸展的北部和东北部区域是最严重的人口缺失地区。而奥地利阿尔卑斯山地东部的一些早期产业都市及其郊区,乃至更远一些的南部和东南部的老工业区域,目前由于普遍存在着经济的困境,也直接导致了这些地区人口的下降。但奥地利未来的总人口趋势将持续稳定。     

银行业改革与国有商业银行网点空间布局——以中国工商银行和中国银行为例

伴随着国有商业银行股份制改革,中国国有商业银行在全国的网点布局发生了战略性变化。在经营效益的驱动下,银行采取集中化策略,大幅度减少基础网点数目,而增加支行数目。两类网点地理分布的空间不均衡性加大,地理集中度上升。网点布局向主要经济增长极集中,而从边疆地区与落后地区撤离。对中国工商银行和中国银行基础网点及支行空间分布统计分析表明,两者的两类网点的地理分布在股份制改革后均发生了较大的变化,基础网点更加接近主要客户群体,支行则更加集中在经济发展较好的地区。结合自身的业务优势与特点,两者在两类网点的区位选择上也有一定的差别。国有商业银行经营效益导向的网点布局战略将可能带来落后地区的金融排斥问题。     

Aquaterra Incognita: Lost Land Beneath The Sea

The author proposes scientific recognition of an existing, previously undefined and unnamed global feature. Aquaterra is suggested as the new name for the lands that were alternately exposed and inundated as ice sheets advanced and retreated over the past 120,000 years. The vertical amplitude of sea level change amounts to 130 meters, and the aggregate global area of aquaterra equates to the continent of North America. The time period coincides with the total span during which modern humans are known to have existed.     

农村人口非农化与中国城镇化问题

在传统农业社会向现代工业社会转变的工业化和现代化过程中,农村劳动力大规模的转移、农业劳动力占社会总劳动力份额大幅度的下降是世界各国经济发展的趋势.改革开放30年来,我国的城镇化水平已由1978年的18.6%提升到2008年的45%左右.其中很重要的因素就是有1.5亿的农民工进城务工,约有一半的农民工已转化为城镇的暂住人口,这是我国城市化成长发展的主流形式.从农村人口非农化过程推动我国有特色的城市化、城镇化发展的动力机制以及城乡统筹与城镇化的策略等方面探索农村人口非农化与我国城市化的相互关系,并用科学发展观指导我国城市化可持续发展的进程.     

CONSISTENCY AND DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT IN URBAN SOCIAL DIMENSIONALITY: INTRA-URBAN VARIATIONS IN THE 24 METROPOLITAN AREAS OF CANADA

Relatively few factorial ecologies have explored either the consistency of the social dimensionality of urban areas in more than a few cities or the separation of city-specific from general effects. This study of almost 3,000 census tracts in all 24 Canadian metropolitan areas (CMAs) used 35 variables from 198 1 census data to solve these problems. It shows there is a persistent similarity in six of the seven to nine dimensions found in separate analyses of three city size categories: over 1 million; 0.5-1 million; 100-500 thousand people. From this basis a combined study of all the centers shows that 85% of the variability can be summarized by nine dimensions called Economic Status, Impoverishment, Ethnicity, Early and Late Family, Family/Age, Pre-Family, Non-Family, Housing, and Migrant Status. The evidence for several different family-related axes illustrates the increasing complexity of the social dimensionality of modern cities based on family differentiation. F-ratio values and Eta coefficients are used to show that all the first-order axes, except Migration and Ethnicity, have much greater variability within, rather than between the cities, demonstrating the general rather than the city-specific nature of these dimensions. An analysis of the highest scoring tracts on the axes demonstrates the way in which some CMAs have relatively high incidences of some of the characteristics, thereby identifying the particular characteristics of many centers.     

Transtensional fault-termination basins: an important basin type illustrated by the Pliocene San Jose Island basin and related basins in the southern Gulf of California, Mexico

Transtensional basins are sparsely described in the literature compared with other basin types. The oblique‐divergent plate boundary in the southern Gulf of California has many transtensional basins: we have studied those on San Jose island and two other transtensional basins in the region. One major type of transtensional basin common in the southern Gulf of California region is a fault‐termination basin formed where normal faults splay off of strike‐slip faults. These basins suggest a model for transtensional fault‐termination basins that includes traits that show a hybrid nature between classic rift and strike‐slip (pull‐apart) basins. The traits include combinations of oblique, strike‐slip and normal faults with common steps and bends, buttress unconformities between the fault steps and beyond the ends of faults, a common facies pattern of terrestrial strata changing upward and away from the faults into marine strata, small fault blocks within the basin that result in complex lateral facies relations, common Gilbert deltas, dramatic termination of the margin of the basin by means of fault reorganization and boundary faults dying and an overall short basin history (few million years). Similar transtensional fault‐termination basins are present in Death Valley and other parts of the Eastern California shear zone of the western United States, northern Aegean Sea and along ancient strike‐slip faults.     

中国昆虫生物地理学进展与展望

昆虫是地球上多样性最高的生物类群,其物种数量超过所有生物物种数量的一半,在生态系统中具有重要功能,且与人类生活密切相关。理解昆虫多样性及地理分布格局对于科学研究和人类社会发展有重要意义。基于详细的文章资料梳理,本文总结了1950—2020年中国昆虫生物地理学领域文章发表趋势,并从昆虫物种多样性调查、昆虫区系研究、昆虫群落多样性、昆虫遗传多样性格局、昆虫地理分布格局等几个方面论述了中国昆虫生物地理研究的代表性研究进展。中国昆虫生物地理学研究几十年来取得了可喜的发展,但仍需重点加强几方面的思考和工作,包括整合性思维、时空尺度、科学问题的凝练、昆虫性状生物地理学、昆虫多样性和地理分布数据共享。     

长江上游山区聚落与水土保持的耦合机制

运用地理学、生态学和物理学的理论,从全新的角度对长江上游山区聚落形成的环境机制进行了系统的分析,提出山区聚落与水土保持之间存在的内在联系：1．山区聚落场所地处山体的自然截流部位,山区耕地的数量和质量是人类聚落对山地坡面过程中水、土资源截流效果的指示器,截留的规模决定聚落规模;2．小流域综合治理是一个完整的截流或节流体系,水土保持的本质就是对山地坡面过程截留;3．通过水土保持,人类获得赖以生存的物质和能量。因此,水土保持是山区聚落生态建设的基础工程,是链接人口、资源与环境协调发展的纽带,沟通人文聚落与自然环境和谐共处的桥梁。     

Modeling surficial sand and gravel deposits

Mineral-deposit models are an integral part of quantitative mineral-resource assessment. As the focus of mineral-deposit modeling has moved from metals to industrial minerals, procedure has been modified and may be sufficient to model surficial sand and gravel deposits. Sand and gravel models are needed to assess resource-supply analyses for planning future development and renewal of infrastructure. Successful modeling of sand and gravel deposits must address (1) deposit volumes and geometries, (2) sizes of fragments within the deposits, (3) physical characteristics of the material, and (4) chemical composition and chemical reactivity of the material. Several models of sand and gravel volumes and geometries have been prepared and suggest the following: Sand and gravel deposits in alluvial fans have a median volume of 35 million m³. Deposits in all other geologic settings have a median volume of 5.4 million m³, a median area of 120 ha, and a median thickness of 4 m. The area of a sand and gravel deposit can be predicted from volume using a regression model (log [area (ha)] =1.47+0.79 log [volume (million m³)]). In similar fashion, the volume of a sand and gravel deposit can be predicted from area using the regression (log [volume (million m³)]=–1.45+1.07 log [area (ha)]). Classifying deposits by fragment size can be done using models of the percentage of sand, gravel, and silt within deposits. A classification scheme based on fragment size is sufficiently general to be applied anywhere.     

Combating desertification in the Negev: dryland agriculture vs. dryland urbanization

The Negev region occupies nearly two-third of Israel's land area (21,671 km²) but hosts less than 9% of its 6.5 million strong population. Until recently, the process of desertification did not affect the Negev profoundly. This was mainly due to large-scale afforestation programs, restrictions imposed on grazing, and large water subsidies from the less arid part of the country to its more arid part. However, there are some indications that the process of desertification in the Negev has already started and may accelerate in the future. In light of this trend, the efficient long-term strategy for the Negev's development is essential. The present study compares two alternative strategies of the Negev's future development: agricultural expansion vs. urbanization path. Two basic criteria—the minimization of adverse environmental impacts and economic feasibility—are used for the evaluation. The urbanization path is found to be preferable. Since agriculture and livestock grazing are the major contributors to desertification, replacing them with urban development may lessen the risk of desertification in the future. In contrast, urban development, if properly planned and regulated, may reduce the spatial extent of the area affected by agricultural development, and thus minimize the anthropogenic impact on the desert environment. Economic reason is also important: While even in the future, agricultural production in the Negev may remain limited due to economic considerations, urban development may justify the often-large investment required for the provision of fresh water.