Importance of climate,forest fires and human population size in the Holocene boreal forest composition change in northern Europe

The relative importance of climate, forest fires and human population size on long‐term boreal forest composition were statistically investigated at regional and local scales in Fennoscandia. We employ pollen data from lakes, reflecting regional vegetation, and small forest hollows, reflecting local vegetation, from Russia, Finland and Sweden to reconstruct the long‐term forest composition. As potential drivers of the Holocene forest dynamics we consider climate, generated from a climate model and oxygen isotope data, past forest fires generated from sedimentary charcoal data and human population size derived from radiocarbon dated archaeological findings. We apply the statistical method of variation partitioning to assess the relative importance of these environmental variables on long‐term boreal forest composition. The results show that climate is the main driver of the changes in Holocene boreal forest composition at the regional scale. However, at the local scale the role of climate is relatively small. In general, the importance of forest fires is low both at regional and local scales. The fact that both climate and forest fires explain relatively small proportions of variation in long‐term boreal vegetation in small forest hollow records demonstrates the complexity of factors affecting stand‐scale forest dynamics. The relative importance of human population size was low in both the prehistorical and the historical time periods. However, this is the first time that this type of data has been used to statistically assess the importance of human population size on boreal vegetation and the spatial representativeness of the data may cause bias to the analysis.     

Stratigraphy, fossils, and age of sediments at the upper pit of the Lost Chicken gold mine: new information on the late Pliocene environment of east central Alaska

The “upper pit” at the Lost Chicken placer gold mine in east central Alaska contains fossils that provide information on the flora and insect fauna of interior Alaska just before the onset of global cooling at 2.5 myr. Fossils come from sediments interbedded with the Lost Chicken tephra (dated at 2.9 ± 0.4 myr—early Late Pliocene) and portray the floodplain and valley of a small creek within a region dominated by a coniferous forest richer in genera and species than the present one. Climate was wetter and less continental, and there was probably little or no permafrost. At least one other Pliocene tephra (the Fortymile tephra) occurs at the site and is also associated with plant and insect fossils. Among these fossils are extinct plants and insects like those found at other Tertiary sites in northern Canada and Alaska. The Lost Chicken sequence is the same age as the Beaufort Formation on Meighen Island, more than 1000 km to the north. Like Lost Chicken, Meighen Island sediments contain fossils representing a diverse boreal environment. This shows that the latitudinal climate gradient during early Late Pliocene time was shallower than at present and the boreal forest had a far greater latitudinal span than now.     

北方针叶林对气候变化响应的研究进展

北方针叶林地处北半球中高纬度地区,增温剧烈,是受气候变化影响最显著的地区之一.据预测,在未来气候变化情景下,北方针叶林将向北迁移,且可能完全移出我国,从而将对气候系统及全球碳收支产生重要的反馈作用.因此,北方针叶林在气候变化与全球碳收支中具有十分重要的作用.从气候变化的影响及碳循环研究方面综述了北方针叶林近年来的最新研究进展,探讨了未来北方针叶林拟重点加强的研究领域,为深入理解北方针叶林对气候变化的响应、制定适宜的气候变化对策提供参考依据.     

Plant and insect fossils at Norwood in south-central Minnesota: A record of late-glacial succession

The Norwood site in Sibley Co., Minnesota, contains 1.6 m of silt resting on till and overlain by peat. The base of the peat has been radiocarbon dated at 12,400 ± 60 and the top at 11,200 ± 250 yr B.P. The pollen, plant macrofossils, and insect remains in the basal silt consist of boreal species inhabiting open environments, but not tundra. No modern analogue exists for the insect assemblage, which includes elements of boreal forest, tundra-forest, and western affinities. The transition from an unstable open environment to a stable coniferous forest is reflected by both plant and insect fossils and is interpreted as a successional rather than a climatic event. During this time of significant biologic change, the climate is inferred to have been relatively uniform, with temperatures similar to those presently existing in the boreal forest south of the tundra-forest transition zone. The geologic and ecologic succession at Norwood is generally similar to that presently associated with ice stagnation of the Klutlan Glacier in the Yukon Territory. Localized successional sequences similar to those at Norwood are conceived to have occurred repeatedly during the melting of the Laurentide ice, and thus the proposed model has potentially broad application to the interpretation of late-glacial sequences.     

Seasonal and annual variation of pollen content in the snow of a Canadian high Arctic ice cap

Seasonal and annual pollen deposition over an eight-year period (1981-89) in the snow layers of the Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, was investigated. The annual and seasonal layers were determined from the snow stratigraphy. Thirteen to thirty-five kg were sampled for each layer. Most of the pollen grains deposited on the ice cap originate either from the high Arctic regional tundra, or from the boreal forest and low Arctic tundra over 1,000 km to the south. The regional pollen types show large variations throughout the year and the maximum concentration is normally found in the late summer-early autumn snow. The exotic types usually show less seasonal variation, although with slight maximum in the spring or summer layers. The annual regional and exotic pollen influx to the ice cap can be highly variable. These variations are tentatively related to climatic parameters.     

Multivariate statistical estimates of Holocene vegetation and climate change,forest-tundra transition zone,NWT, Canada

Newly derived fossil pollen data were obtained from four sites along a transect from the boreal forest limit into tundra in the eastern Northwest Territories. Multivariate statistical analyses were employed to interpret the pollen assemblages. Transfer functions were constructed between the pollen data and climatic data, and paleoclimatic estimates were derived. The objective nature of the reconstructions provides an independent verification of the general outlines of the chronology of tree-line movements during the mid- and late-Holocene as established in previous paleosol and pollen studies. Boreal forest extended to approximately 62°N, associated with mean July temperatures 1 to 3°C above modern means, from at least 5500 to 3700 yr B.P. Although a major episode of southward displacement of tree line at about 3700 yr B.P. is recorded, later events are not clearly represented. Considerations of the statistics, the time scales, and the nature of the pollen rain suggest only conservative interpretations of the results are possible. It is suggested that the pollen sites may have been sensitive recorders of regional vegetation change only when they were near the ecotone, corresponding to a climatic threshold.     

Is there a chronological record of atmospheric mercury and lead deposition preserved in the mor layer (O-horizon) of boreal forest soils?

The organic horizon (the mor layer) of podzolized boreal forest soils has accumulated atmospheric fallout of mercury and lead over centuries, resulting in current concentrations close to levels where negative effects on soil biota are thought to occur. To what extent the pollution history is preserved in the stratigraphy of this horizon is not well known. In this study we asses whether the chronology of a large historic pulse of atmospheric pollution emitted from the Rönnskär smelter in northern Sweden, particularly between 1950 and 1980, is preserved within the stratigraphy of the mor layer, which is typically 5-cm thick. Vertical sub-sampling (?5 mm) of five mor profiles sampled along a 100-km pollution gradient away from the smelter are analyzed for mercury and lead concentrations, spheroidal carbonaceous particles from fossil fuel combustion (SCPs) and stable lead isotopes (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁷Pb). Their vertical distribution is compared with the temporal variations in atmospheric inputs reconstructed for the last ∼100 years from analyses of an ombrotrophic peat core and a varved lake sediment core sampled within a distance of 50 km of the smelter. The mor profiles situated ?12 km from the smelter record the pollution history of the smelter. There is a 20 to 40-times enrichment of Hg, Pb and SCP at the transition in the O-horizon from the F- to H-layer compared to the basal part and a distinct peak in the ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb ratio (∼1.22) in the F-layer. The mor profiles situated outside the historical contamination range of the smelter (80 and 100 km away) record no obvious influence from the Rönnskär smelter, instead their vertical ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb profiles follow the general regional pollution history in northern Sweden. We conclude that the mor layer preserves a record of atmospheric Hg, Pb and SCP inputs and due to low leaching rates this organic horizon serves as a semi-archive of atmospheric Hg and Pb pollution. We stress the need of including this property in the existing ‘black-box’ models predicting the fate of Hg and Pb within contaminated boreal forest soils.     

Sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to northwestern Saskatchewan lakes east of the Athabasca oil sands

The past several decades have witnessed a significant expansion of mining activities in the Athabasca oil sands region, raising concerns about their impact on the surrounding boreal forest ecosystem. To better understand the extent to which distal sites are impacted by oil sands-derived airborne contaminants, we examine sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments and dated sediment cores from Saskatchewan lakes situated ∼100–220 km east–northeast of the main area of bitumen mining activities. The concentrations and fluxes of both parent and alkylated PAHs are low and show considerable variability over the past 70–100 years. Small yet discernible increases in PAH concentrations and fluxes occurred over the past 30 years, a trend which coincides with the rapid growth in bitumen production. However, several lines of evidence point to wildfires as the principal source of PAHs to these lakes: (1) the significant co-variations in most cores between retene (1-methyl-7-isopropyl phenanthrene) and other groups of parent and alkylated PAHs, (2) the similarity in compound specific δ¹³C signatures of the parent PAHs phenanthrene and pyrene in recently deposited surficial sediments and those corresponding to time intervals considerably pre-dating the large scale development of the oil sands and (3) the discernible up-core increases in the proportion of refractory carbon (i.e., char) in Rock-Eval 6 data. The collective evidence points to softwood combustion from boreal forest fires as the principal source of retene in sediments and the general increase in forest fire activity in this region over the past several decades as the source of refractory carbon. Mining activities associated with the Athabasca oil sands are thus not considered a major source of PAHs to these lakes.     

Post‐glacial vegetation reconstruction and a possible 8200 cal. yr BP event from the low arctic of continental Nunavut,Canada

Climate models suggest that the global warming during the early to mid‐Holocene may have partly resulted from the northward advance of the northern treeline and subsequent reduction of the planetary albedo. We investigated the Holocene vegetation history of low arctic continental Nunavut, Canada, from a radiocarbon‐dated sediment core from TK‐2 Lake, a small‐lake ca. 200 km north of the limit of the forest‐tundra. The pollen and loss‐on‐ignition data indicate the presence of dwarf shrub tundra in the region since the beginning of organic sedimentation at ca. 9000 cal. yr BP with dominance of Betula, especially since 8700 cal. yr BP. At 8100–7900 cal. yr BP the dominance of the shrub tundra was punctuated by a transient decline of Betula and coincident increases of Ericaceae undiff., Vaccinium‐type, and Gramineae. This suggests an abrupt disturbance of the Betula glandulosa population, approximately simultaneously with the sudden 8200 cal. yr BP event in the North Atlantic. However, in the absence of other sites studied in the area, linkage to the 8200 cal. yr BP event remains tentative. The lack of any evidence of forest‐tundra in the region constrains the northern limit of the mid‐Holocene advance of the forest‐tundra boundary in central northern Canada. Consequently, our results show that the climate models imposing a mid‐Holocene advance of the limit of the forest‐tundra to the arctic coast of Canada may have overestimated the positive climatic feedback effects that can result from the replacement of tundra by the boreal forest. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vegetation east of the rocky mountains 18,000 years ago

The various lobes and segments of the southern periphery of the Laurentide ice sheet reached their maximum extension at different times between 21,000 and 14,000 yr ago, but the CLIMAP date of 18,000 yr ago is taken as a reference level to review the distribution of major vegetational formations in central and eastern United States. Tundra was apparently confined to a narrow belt peripheral to the ice margin only in the Minnesota area and from northern Pennsylvania to New England, with extensions down the crest of the Appalachian Highlands at least as far as Maryland. Some areas south of the Great Lakes may later have been marked by treeless vegetation briefly as the ice retreated. The boreal forest to the south in the central United States was dominated by spruce; the jack pine that had prevailed during previous times was apparently eliminated by the time the ice reached its maximum. In the Appalachian Highlands and the Atlantic Coastal Plain, however, jack pine occurred along with spruce, which decreased in importance southward. The southern limit of the boreal forest in the Southeast was perhaps somewhere in southern Georgia and Alabama. Oak and other temperate deciduous trees were minor components of the boreal coniferous forests especially in the southern Appalacchians, but there is no evidence yet in the southeastern states for a relic mixed mesophytic forest 18,000 yr ago similar to the rich modern deciduous forests of the region, except possibly in the Lower Mississippi Valley. The climate in much of the Southeast was apparently dry as well as cool at that time; in Florida oak/pine scrub and prairie-like openings prevailed, and all but the deepest lakes dried up.     

A reexamination of late-Pleistocene boreal forest reconstructions for the Southern High Plains

Previous paleoecological research on the Southern High Plains resulted in development of a late Quaternary chronology of “pollen-analytical episodes” and the proposal that boreal forest existed in the region in the late Pleistocene. These interpretations are now considered untenable because (1) a number of the radiocarbon ages are questionable, (2) there are serious problems of differential pollen preservation and reproducibility of the pollen data, (3) there is an absence of supporting geological or paleontological data, and (4) the soils of the area contain none of the distinctive pedological characteristics produced by a boreal forest. Available data suggest that the region was primarily an open grassland or grassland with some nonconiferous trees through most of the Quaternary.     

Sedimentology and palynology of Middle Wisconsinan deposits in the Pecatonica River valley,Wisconsin and Illinois

The bedrock valley of the Pecatonica River north of Freeport, Illinois, contains a thick valley-fill complex of alluvium and drift. Within the valley, loess-capped benches surround hills of silty Illinoian drift. Beneath these benches lie thick deposits of poorly sorted stony silt interbedded with thin lenses of silt, sand, and organic-rich loam. Channel deposits and peat cap the diamicton in places. We interpret the stony silts as solifluction debris shed from silty slopes within the valley-fill during the Early or Middle Wisconsinan (Altonian). Top and bottom radiocarbon dates from a 2.5-m section of peat overlying the diamicton are 26,820 ± 200 and 40,500 ± 1700 yr B.P., respectively. We informally refer to the stony silts, channel sediments, and peat as the “Martintown unit.” Geomorphic position, sediment input, and macrofossils suggest that the dated peat was deposited in a floodplain pond (oxbow?). The pollen record from the peat indicates that a boreal forest dominated this area during the Middle Wisconsinan (late Altonian and Farmdalian). Two pollen zones are recognized: a basal Zone I with Pinus slightly more abundant than Picea and with few herbs and shrubs, and an upper Zone II dominated by Picea and with a larger representation of herbaceous and shrub taxa. Little displacement of vegetation zones is indicated, even though ice advanced to within 100 km of the site during the time of peat accumulation. Because of the problems involved in clearly defining Middle Wisconsinan forest-tundra in mid-latitudes by using analogs of Holocene forest-tundra in high latitudes, caution is required in making geomorphic inferences solely from vegetation data. Together, though, pollen and sediment data indicate that during the Middle Wisconsinan, Pecatonica hillslopes progressed through a sequence of instability-stability-instability related to climatic fluctuations.     

Pre-glacial and interglacial pollen records over the last 3 Ma from northwest Canada: Why do Holocene forests differ from those of previous interglaciations?

We synthesize pollen spectra from eleven dated stratigraphic sections from central and northern Yukon. Palaeomagnetic and tephra dating indicates the earliest assemblages, representing closed canopy Pinus and Picea forest, are middle-late Pliocene age. More open forest conditions, indicated by increased Poaceae and with evidence of permafrost, are dated at ca 3 Ma. While Pinus pollen is abundant at 3 Ma, it is reduced in records after 2.6 Ma, and subsequent Pleistocene interglacial forest records are repeatedly dominated by Picea, along with Alnus and small but significant amounts of Abies. Surface sample comparisons indicate that Abies was more widespread and abundant in past interglaciations than at present and that Middle-Pleistocene Picea–Abies forest grew in the northern Yukon Porcupine Basin, 500 km beyond modern Abies limits. In contrast, Pinus, which occurs today in southern and central Yukon, was not a significant component of these Pleistocene interglacial forests. Late-Holocene pollen assemblages with rare Abies and high Pinus are the most distinct in the past 2.6 Ma. Possible factors driving Holocene difference are paleoclimate, paludification, changes in megafaunal herbivory and an unusual fire regime. Anthropogenic burning is a factor unique to the Holocene, and if it is shown to be important in this case, it would challenge our notion of what constitutes boreal wilderness.     

Shifting zonal patterns of the southern boreal forest in eastern Canada associated with changing fire regime during the Holocene

This research aims at uncovering the stand-scale Holocene fire history of balsam fir forest stands from two bioclimatic zones of the boreal forest and assessing the existence of a sub-continental shift in past fire activity that could have triggered a change in the Holocene zonal pattern. In eastern Canada, the extant closed-crown boreal forest corresponds to two ecological regions separated along 49°N, the northern black spruce zone and the southern balsam fir zone. We sampled balsam fir stands from the southern fir zone (n = 7) and among the northernmost patches of fir forest located far beyond the fir zone boundary, into the spruce zone (n = 6). Macrofossil analysis of charcoal in mineral soils was used to reconstruct both the stand-scale and regional Holocene fire histories. Data were interpreted in the context of published palaeoecological evidence. Stands of the balsam fir zone were submitted to recurrent fire disturbances between c. 9000 and 5000 cal. yr B.P. Local fire histories suggested that four sites within the fir zone escaped fire during the Holocene. Such fire protected sites allowed the continuous maintenance of the balsam fir forest in the southern boreal landscape. Stands of the spruce zone have been affected by recurrent fires from 5000 cal. yr B.P. to present. Local fire histories indicated that no site escaped fire in this zone. Published palaeoecological data suggested that balsam fir migrated to its current northern limit sometime between 7300 and 6200 cal. yr B.P. A change of the fire regime 5000 years ago caused the regional decline of an historical northern balsam fir forest and its replacement by black spruce forest. The consequence was a sub-continental reshuffling of the fir and spruce zones within the closed-crown boreal forest. The macrofossil analysis of charcoal in mineral soils was instrumental to the reconstruction of stand-scale Holocene fire history at sites where no other in situ fire proxies were available.     

敦-密断裂左行走滑三维有限元模拟

敦-密断布列亚裂带是郯庐断裂北段的重要分支之一, 具有左行走滑剪切性质, 其走滑位移量的大小一直存在很大争议。应用ANSYS三维有限元模拟软件, 对研究区地质体建立理想模型, 并采用分段施力和连续施力两种方法进行构造几何学错移的数值模拟, 探讨敦22密断裂带的走滑位移量。模拟结果表明: 采用分段施力方式得到的累计走滑位移量为273.8 km, 连续施力方式得到的位移量为406.8 km, 说明在不考虑外界阻力影响及地质体内部形变吸收的位移量时, 郯庐断裂由南到北具有整体统一的走滑位移量。综合考虑布列亚-佳木斯地块的阻挡及地质体内部的韧性变形和逆冲推覆构造对走滑位移量的吸收等地质因素, 认为敦-密断裂带实际位移量应比模拟数值小, 也证实了郯庐断裂走滑位移量可能存在由南至北逐渐递减的规律。     

Effects of soil organic matter composition on unfrozen water content and heterotrophic CO2 production of frozen soils

Several recent studies have highlighted the importance of soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization at high latitudes during winter for ecosystem carbon (C) balances, and the ability of the soil to retain unfrozen water at sub-zero temperatures has been shown to be a major determinant of C mineralization rates. Further, SOM is believed to strongly influence the liquid water contents in frozen surface layers of boreal forest soils and tundra, but the mechanisms and specific factors involved are currently unknown. Here we evaluate the effects of the chemical composition of SOM on the amount of unfrozen water, the pore size equivalents in which unfrozen water can exist, and the microbial heterotrophic activity at sub-zero temperatures in boreal forest soils. To do this, we have characterized the chemical composition of SOM in forest soil samples (surface O-horizons) using solid state CP-MAS (cross polarization magic angle spinning) NMR spectroscopy. The acquired information was then used to elucidate the extent to which different fractions of SOM can explain the observed variations in unfrozen water content, pore size equivalents, and biogenic CO₂ production rates in the examined soil samples under frozen conditions (−4 °C). The data evaluation was done by the use of principal component analysis (PCA) and projections to latent structures by means of partial least square (PLS). We conclude that aromatic, O-aromatic, methoxy/N-alkyl and alkyl C are the major SOM components affecting frozen boreal forest soil’s ability to retain unfrozen water and sustain heterotrophic activity (95% confidence level). Our results reveal that solid carbohydrates have a significant negative impact (95% confidence level) on CO₂ production in frozen boreal spruce forest soils, in contrast to the positive effects of carbohydrate polymers during unfrozen conditions. We conclude that the hierarchy of environmental factors controlling SOM mineralization changes as soils freeze. The effect of SOM composition on pore size distribution and unfrozen water content has a superior influence on SOM mineralization and hence on heterotrophic CO₂ production of frozen soils.     

Methane oxidation: isotopic enrichment factors in freshwater boreal reservoirs

Methane oxidation plays a vital role in controlling the flux of CH₄ from many ecosystems. Release of the green house gas CH₄ to the atmosphere during creation and operation of hydroelectric reservoirs is of concern because of the dramatic changes in C and nutrient cycling that result from flooding. Experimentally flooded reservoirs in the boreal forest at the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario, Canada, have been under study for a decade. In these large-scale ecosystem experiments, stable C isotopic ratios are used to determine the importance of CH₄ oxidation but quantification requires knowledge of the C isotope enrichment factor associated with CH₄ oxidation under the appropriate environmental conditions. Laboratory incubations were used to assess the CH₄ oxidation enrichment factors in 3 experimental boreal reservoirs with different soil and vegetation, and flood histories. As a result of flooding, new flooded surfaces were created with different temperature and hydrologic regimes and the importance of CH₄ oxidation in controlling the flux of CH₄ to the atmosphere changed significantly. However, isotopic ratio data from different systems could not be compared directly because the enrichment factor changed between systems. The enrichment factor in a flooded boreal wetland ecosystem (ELARP) decreased with temperature and the rate of CH₄ oxidation increased with temperature. This was in contrast with two flooded upland boreal forest reservoirs (Flooded Upland Dynamics Experiment) where the enrichment factor was smaller than in ELARP and there was little or no temperature effect on the enrichment factors or rates of CH₄ oxidation.     

森林大火对冻土环境影响的研究进展

森林大火是森林生态系统最主要的干扰因素之一,不仅影响着森林生态系统内部的营养物质循环、水分和能量流动、土壤理化性质的变化,而且对冻土环境和冷生土壤和土壤碳库、碳氮循环等生物地球化学过程有着重要影响。随着气候变暖和人为活动不断增强,北方林区火灾日益频繁,对冻土的水热影响显著：活动层加深、薄层冻土退化、浅层有机碳大量快速释放、森林和湿地的逆向演替,导致热融沉陷、滑塌、泥石流等现象发生。通过综述国内外森林大火对冻土环境影响的研究进展,分析指出目前森林大火对冻土环境影响的研究主要集中在火烧之后短时间、小范围的定性描述与推断,缺乏长时间、大范围的定量分析。尤其是在大兴安岭地区,除了20世纪90年代初期的少量研究外,此后这方面研究虽有零星报道,但缺乏长期和系统的观测与模型研究,所以森林大火对冻土环境的研究,可以利用空间代替时间的方法,通过长、短期的野外观测和数值模拟相结合,定量研究森林大火之后,多年冻土的水热状态、过程和变化机制,可以为寒区林区、湿地保护、生态环境修复提供科学依据。     

Vegetation and climate during the last glacial maximum in Japan

The Japanese Archipelago was almost entirely covered by coniferous forests during the last glacial maximum. Northern Hokkaido was distinguished by coniferous parkland and tundra vegetation, while southern Hokkaido and northernmost Honshu were covered by northern boreal coniferous forests consisting mainly of Picea jezoensis, Picea glehnii, Abies sachalinensis, and Larix gmelinii; Tsuga was missing from the forest. More diverse boreal forests including species from Sakhalin and northern Japan grew together in northeastern Honshu. Central Honshu and the mountains of southwestern Japan supported subalpine coniferous forests which are now mainly restricted in distribution to the central mountains. Temperate coniferous forests (Picea polita, Abies firma, and Tsuga sieboldii) existed principally in the modern mid-temperate and evergreen laurel-oak forest regions. Haploxylon pine and tree birch were also abundant in the boreal and cool-temperate zones, as was Diploxylon in the southern temperate zone. Significant populations of Fagus were found along the Pacific coasts of Kyushu and Shikoku, but they were too small to be defined as a beech forest zone. Quercetum mixtum (Quercus, Ulmus, and Tilia) was more common in the coastal lowlands of southwestern Japan than those of northeastern Honshu; it was completely eliminated from Hokkaido. The reduced mean August temperature inferred from the floral assemblages showed a latitudinal gradient 20,000 yr ago; it was 8–9°C in northern Hokkaido, 7.7–8.7°C in northernmost Honshu, 7.2–8.4°C in the central mountains, 6.5°C in the Chugoku District, and 5–6°C in Kyushu. The probable annual precipitation ranged from 1050 to 1300 mm along coasts in southwestern Japan during the culmination of the last glaciation.     

郯庐断裂带的最大左行走滑断距及其形成时期

作者采用断裂带两盘地壳变形速度的估算方法,求得郯庐断裂带最大左行走滑断距为３９０ｋｍ;根据中朝地块南缘断裂被错断的现象来判断,最大左行走滑断距为４３０ｋｍ;采用古地磁学方法求得最大左行走滑断距约为３００－４００ｋｍ。最大左行走滑活动时期当在中晚三叠世。侏罗纪时期郯断裂带为逆断层,白垩纪时期的走滑活动量不大于１００ｋｍ,早第三纪的走滑断距不明显,晚第三纪－早更新世可能有５０ｋｍ左右的左行走滑断距,新构造期（<0.73Ma以来)的右行走滑断距小于lOOm。