Origin of the Mushroom Stone Forest at the southeastern foot of the Little Sangpu Mountain in eastern Guangdong,China: A palaeo-sea-level indicator or not?

The Mushroom Stone Forest, which consists of granite boulders looking like mushrooms with flared sidewalls, is located in eastern Guangdong China, and is a famous scenic spot that draws many tourists each year. The Mushroom Stone Forest has been traditionally recognized as a collection of wave erosion landforms and used for the reconstruction of palaeo-sea-level changes along the coastal areas of eastern Guangdong in previous coastal researches. By combining in situ measurements of the aspect,vertical profile and height of boulder sidewalls,palaeo-coastal wave direction estimation, rock density determination, major elemental analysis, and petrographic thin section analysis, this paper presents an alternative origin for the Mushroom Stone Forest.Our results suggest that wave or wind erosion cannot offer a satisfactory explanation for the formation of the Mushroom Stone Forest; The boulders that make up the Mushroom Stone Forest originated from the corestones in the granite weathering crusts of the Little Sangpu Mountain; When the debris of the weathering crust was removed, the corestones are perched on rocky outcrops or half-buried by weathering debris beneath the natural land surface;The flared sidewall (concave vertical profile) of the boulders is a particular form developed in the foot zone of a half-buried boulder through increased chemical weathering beneath the land surface. A recent exposed half-buried boulder found in the study area provides convincing evidence to support this argument. Sea water reached the foot of the Sangpu Mountain during the Holocene transgression, but it merely provided a mechanism to erode the weathering debris from the bottom of the mushroom rocks and enhanced salt weathering that created tafoni on the boulders. These findings demonstrate that the boulders of the Mushroom Stone Forest are not sea stacks and cannot be served as a palaeo-sea-level indicator.     

环境管制对佛山市污染密集型企业空间格局变化的影响——基于2004年、2008年、2013年经济普查数据的实证

以佛山市2004年、2008年和2013年3次经济普查数据库中的污染密集型企业为研究对象,采用格数据空间回归模型,研究了佛山市污染密集型企业空间格局变化特征,并探究了环境管制对污染密集型企业及不同行业的企业空间格局变化的影响。研究发现:① 环境管制严格程度的变化使其从影响企业区位变动次要因素逐渐成为推动企业空间格局变化的重要因素,说明了环境管制变化会引起其对污染密集型企业区位变动作用程度的变化。② 在城市内部尺度,地方政府权衡污染行业整治利弊后,针对不同区域不同行业制定的差异化环境管制力度和模式,形成了不同行业空间格局响应的差异。研究结果对理解环境管制影响污染行业空间格局变化提供更微观的视角,对环境管制政策实现企业更替和产业升级具有一定启示,也对政府产业和环境政策制定具有借鉴意义。     

藏、汉对比视角下的城市空间环境认知研究——以中国西藏日喀则市为例

以分布式认知理论为基础,采用质性研究法、数量分析法以及GIS空间分析技术,探讨日喀则市藏族、汉族居民对城市空间环境认知的异同性。研究表明,藏族对城市空间环境的认知得分高于汉族对城市空间环境的认知得分。藏族、汉族对城市空间环境的认知水平可分为高、中、低3类。认知空间呈现圈层结构与混合结构模式,可分为藏汉一致性、藏族独立以及汉族独立3种认知空间类型。影响居民对城市空间环境的认知因素有共性因素和差异性因素。景观走廊质量、宜居性、基础设施两项是藏族居民关注的主要影响因素,汉族居民更关注公共服务设施的服务能力以及对当地文化的融入感。     

1990～2010年中国人口收缩区分布的时空格局演变——基于不同测度指标的分析

在人口收缩内涵界定的基础上,采用总人口和劳动力等直接指标结合出生率、老龄化率等间接指标进行综合测度,在地级尺度和县市尺度上分析了1990~2010年中国人口收缩区的数量变化、空间分布及演化特征（由于获取限制,未包含港澳台地区数据）,并对比了不同测度指标和方法之间的差异。主要的研究发现如下：①人口收缩区在数量上有明显的增长,收缩程度呈现出明显加剧趋势;②人口收缩区在中部和西部偏东地区快速扩张,川黔渝地区、长江中游地区、东北地区最为严重;③单一指标在识别人口绝对收缩方面效果较好,而且总人口指标往往比劳动力指标更早的反映一个区域的人口状况;④综合指标测度的方法能够更加全面的判断一个区域的人口发展状况,进而识别出人口处于相对收缩状态的区域;⑤人口收缩在县市尺度上比在地级尺度上表现更为明显,但两者的差异呈缩小趋势。基于以上研究发现,建议政府更加重视区域人口收缩问题及其对社会经济发展的影响。     

Selective feeding of bay scallop Argopecten irradians on phytoplankton community revealed by HPLC analysis of phytopigments in Bohai Sea,China

Understanding the feeding selectivity on phytoplankton by shellfish is currently a big challenge.In order to investigate the feeding behavior of bay scallop(Argopecten irradians)on phytoplankton,we compared its compositions of phytopigments in digestive glands with those in the surrounding seawater,and conducted five consecutive investigations between July and November 2016 in a bay scallop culture area along coast of Qinghuangdao City,northwest of the Bohai Sea,China.Phytopigments in four-size fractionated phytoplankton of seawater(micro-(20-200 μm);nano(L)-[10-20 μm];nano(S)-[2.7-10 μm],and pico-[2.7 μm])and digestive glands of A.irradians were examined to investigate the selective feeding of A.irradians.Results show that fucoxanthin and peridinin constituted the major part of taxonomically diagnostic carotenoids(TDCs)in the micro-and nano(L)-phytoplankton in seawater.Compared with total phytoplankton biomass of seawater(TPB,sum of the four sizes),a substantial decrease of fucoxanthin proportion to total DCs in digestive glands was observed while that of peridinin,19'-butanoyloxyfucoxanthin,alloxanthin and 19'-hexanoyloxy-fucoxanthin showed an obvious increase when those pigments were mainly confined to micro-sized phytoplankton(20-200 μm).However,zeaxanthin and prasinoxanthin were mainly confined to nano(s)-and pico-phytoplankton,of which the proportions in digestive glands were usually lower in TPB.The contribution of lutein to total DCs in digestive glands(with an average of 7.23%)increased compared with TPB of seawater(with an average of 0.63%)during all five sampling times.     

Spatio-temporal variability of small fishes related with environmental factors in a typical domestic tap water lake,Eastern China

The knowledge of prey small fish stock, distribution and abundance is necessary to guide stocking of piscivorous fish for the biomanipulation in domestic tap water lakes. This study describes the current status of small fish community in Lake Kuilei (China), and examines the spatial and seasonal variations of the community in relation to key environmental factors. Based on submerged macrophyte cover and water depth, the lake was divided into five major habitats: (1) macrophyte covered shallow habitat of water depth < 2.00 m, (2) uncovered or less-covered shallow habitat (2.00 m–3.50 m), (3) uncovered medium shallow habitat (3.50 m–5.00 m), (4) uncovered medium deep habitat (5.00 m–6.50 m) and (5) uncovered deep habitat (6.50 m–8.50 m). The abundance and composition of small fish were monitored by benthic fykenet sampling from April 2013 to January 2014. A total of 2881 individuals belonging to 5 families and 21 species were collected. Based on their abundance (accounted for 88.96% of the total) and occurrence (more than 33.33%), Acheilognathus chankaensis, Acheilognathus macropterus, Microphysogobio microstomus, Pseudorasbora parva and Rhinogobius giurinus were recognized as dominant small fish species. The results of correlation analysis identified that species richness ( Sr ), Shannon-Wiener diversity index ( H′ ) and Margalef′s richness index ( D ) were significantly negatively correlated with water depth, but positively correlated with biomass of submerged macrophytes.Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that the spatial distributions of most small fishes were negatively associated with water depth. The details of these findings are beneficial to understanding the adaptation of the small fishes in degraded environments, and to developing suitable biomanipulation strategies for the management of fish resources and water quality in the lakes along the lower reach of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River basin.

     

Spatial patch structure and adaptive strategy for desert shrub of Reaumuria soongorica in arid ecosystem of the Heihe River Basin

In many arid ecosystems, vegetation frequently occurs in high-cover patches interspersed in a matrix of low plant cover. However, theoretical explanations for shrub patch pattern dynamics along climate gradients remain unclear on a large scale. This context aimed to assess the variance of the Reaumuria soongorica patch structure along the precipitation gradient and the factors that affect patch structure formation in the middle and lower Heihe River Basin (HRB). Field investigations on vegetation patterns and heterogeneity in soil properties were conducted during 2014 and 2015. The results showed that patch height, size and plant-to-patch distance were smaller in high precipitation habitats than in low precipitation sites. Climate, soil and vegetation explained 82.5% of the variance in patch structure. Spatially, R. soongorica shifted from a clumped to a random pattern on the landscape towards the MAP gradient, and heterogeneity in the surface soil properties (the ratio of biological soil crust (BSC) to bare gravels (BG)) determined the R. soongorica population distribution pattern in the middle and lower HRB. A conceptual model, which integrated water availability and plant facilitation and competition effects, was revealed that R. soongorica changed from a flexible water use strategy in high precipitation regions to a consistent water use strategy in low precipitation areas. Our study provides a comprehensive quantification of the variance in shrub patch structure along a precipitation gradient and may improve our understanding of vegetation pattern dynamics in the Gobi Desert under future climate change.

     

Effects of current climate,paleo-climate,and habitat heterogeneity in determining biogeographical patterns of evergreen broad-leaved woody plants in China

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Understanding biogeographic patterns and the mechanisms underlying them has been a main issue in macroecology and biogeography, and has implications for...     

Developing a comprehensive evaluation method for Interconnected River System Network assessment: A case study in Tangxun Lake group

Journal of Geographical Sciences - The Interconnected River System Network (IRSN) plays a crucial role in water resource allocation, water ecological restoration and water quality improvement. It...     

Multiscale geographically and temporally weighted regression: exploring the spatiotemporal determinants of housing prices

Understanding scale effects is important and indispensable for geography studies. However, spatial and spatiotemporal statistical tools for measuring the operational scales of different processes are rather limited. This article extends the popular geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model to consider operational scale effects by proposing multiscale GTWR (MGTWR), which offers a flexible and scalable framework for identifying and analysing multiscale processes by specifying flexible bandwidths for various covariates. Then, MGTWR is employed to explore spatiotemporal variations and how influential factors are associated with housing prices in Shenzhen. This article attempts to extend GTWR to MGTWR in consideration of scale effects, thereby highlighting the importance of different levels of spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Furthermore, the empirical results of this study can provide valuable policy implications for real estate development in areas where urban planning should address multiscale effects in both temporal and spatial dimensions.