Passage time, viability, and germination of seeds ingested by foxes

Seed passage through the gut of vertebrates is critical for endozoochorus seed dispersal because it may influence seed viability and germination capacity. Foxes are important fruit-eaters and presumed seed dispersers in the Chaco ecoregion. We experimentally assessed the seed passage time (SPT) and its effect on seed viability and germination in two fox species (Pseudalopex gymnocercus and Cerdocyon thous) that occur in the Chaco. Passage time was measured using both artificial seeds of three sizes and wild seeds of four native fleshy-fruit species commonly consumed by foxes (Ziziphus mistol, Acacia aroma, Celtis tala, and Syagrus romanzoffiana). The average SPT was 6.8 h for the Pampa fox and 7.7 h for the crab-eating fox. Passage time did not differ either among seeds of different sizes or between fox species. Passage through digestive tract of both fox species did not affect seed survival, whereas germination rate was slightly improved. Our data suggest that both fox species are legitimate seed dispersers of the four species studied, having a positive effect on both germination rate and dispersal distance from the parent plant.     

基于场所的GIS研究

探讨从地理空间认知出发,实现基于场所的GIS（PB—GIS）的相关问题。PB—GIS以场所为核心,显式表达地理空间知识,并遵循特定规则进行定性空间推理,从而服务于空间行为决策。比较PB—GIS与基于坐标的GIS（CB—GIS）之间的差异和适合解决的问题,并描述定性空间推理的特点及其在PB—GIS中的应用。在分析实现PB—GIS的关键技术基础上,采用三层架构设计了一个PB-GIS的概念体系结构。     

民勤绿洲水资源利用与生态系统退化分析

石羊河流域生态平衡失调,生态系统退化在我国干旱、半干旱地区内陆河流域中具有典型的代表性。通过对石羊河流域近代地表水资源开发及其绿洲变迁,近年来流域用水量分配,降水特征及其对植被的影响,流域下游民勤绿洲地下水位、水质的变化等因素多年来观测研究,认为：降水量对天然植被的生长没有大的作用;由于人口的增加,流域地表水资源分配不均,水资源开发过度,地下水位急剧下降,造成流域生态系统退化。流域经济因素促进社会因素的变化,社会因素的变化导致自然环境的变迁,社会、经济、自然诸因素相互作用,通过水资源的变化驱动石羊河流域生态系统的变化。     

夏季晴空金塔绿洲温度场的初步分析

 利用2004年6~8月在甘肃省酒泉金塔地区开展的“绿洲—沙漠能量和水分循环的野外观测试验(JTEX)”的温度场资料,分析了该地区的温度场结构。结果表明:绿洲在白天（夜晚）相比周围环境是冷（暖）中心。沙漠和绿洲的相互影响同沙漠与绿洲的边缘和形状有关。由于各观测点所处的位置和站点的土壤特性不同,地表温度的量值有较大差别,但总体来说,绿洲的地表温度比沙漠的低;土壤温度的垂直变化一直可活跃到大约20 cm深处,40 cm深土壤温度基本无日变化,不同层间的土壤温度在一天内有两次相交。深度越深,出现的时间越靠后,沙漠上出现不同深度间温度交叉的时间比绿洲靠后。沙漠上各层的温度都始终高于绿洲上的,沙漠的日变化也大于绿洲上的。     

中国城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的空间格局及影响因素——基于2012年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据

基于2012年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据和相关统计年鉴数据,对中国地级以上城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿、空间格局及影响因素进行了系统分析。研究发现,中国城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的整体水平并不高;等级高、规模大的城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿高,而等级低、规模小的城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿低;沿海城市群流动人口的户籍迁移意愿高,其他城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿低,但内陆部分省会城市和交通区位与资源禀赋较好的中小城市也已经形成了一批流动人口的户籍迁移意愿高值区。中国城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的空间分布特征受到流入城市和流动人口自身双重力量的影响,流入城市因素的正向影响作用大于流动人口自身因素。其中,流入城市的社会、经济发展水平和流动人口在流入城市的社会融合程度是核心要素,对城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的提升具有正向的促进作用,而流动人口过于集中在次级劳动力市场的就业特征和较高的家庭财富与收入对户籍迁移意愿的提升却具有显著的抑制作用。最后,提出了相关政策启示。     

Interglacial History of a Palaeo-lake and Regional Environment: A Multi-proxy Study of a Permafrost Deposit from Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island, Arctic Siberia

Chironomid, pollen, and rhizopod records from a permafrost sequence at Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island (New Siberian Archipelago) document the development of a thermokarst palaeo-lake and environmental conditions in the region during the last Interglacial (MIS 5e). Open Poaceae and Artemisia associations dominated vegetation at the beginning of the interglacial period. Rare shrub thickets (Salix, Betula nana, Alnus fruticosa) grew in more protected and wetter places as well. Saalian ice wedges started to melt during this time, resulting in the formation of an initial thermokarst water body. The high percentage of semi-aquatic chironomids suggests that a peatland-pool initially existed at the site. A distinct decrease in semi-aquatic chironomid taxa and an increase in lacustrine ones point to a gradual pooling of water in the basin, which could in turn induce thermokarst and create a permanent pond during the subsequent period. The highest relative abundance of Chironomus and Procladius reflects unfrozen water remaining under the ice throughout the ice-covered period during the later stage of palaeo-lake development. The chironomid record points to three successive stages during the history of the lake: (1) a peatland pool; (2) a pond (i.e., shallower than the maximum ice-cover thickness); and (3) a shallow lake (i.e., deeper than the maximum ice-cover thickness). The trend of palaeo-lake development indicates that intensive thermokarst processes occurred in the region during the last Interglacial. Shrub tundra communities with Alnus fruticosa and Betula nana dominated the vegetation during the interglacial optimum. The climate was moister and warmer than present. The results of this study suggest that quantitative chironomid-based temperature reconstructions from Arctic thermokarst ponds/lakes may be problematic due to other key environmental factors, such as prolonged periods of winter anoxia and local hydrological/geomorphological processes, controlling the chironomid assemblages.     

Effects of land use and cultivation time on soil organic and inorganic carbon storage in deep soils

The vertical distribution and exchange mechanisms of soil organic and inorganic carbon(SOC, SIC) play an important role in assessing carbon(C) cycling and budgets. However, the impact of land use through time for deep soil C(below 100 cm) is not well known. To investigate deep C storage under different land uses and evaluate how it changes with time, we collected soil samples to a depth of 500 cm in a soil profile in the Gutun watershed on the Chinese Loess Plateau(CLP); and determined SOC, SIC, and bulk density. The magnitude of SOC stocks in the 0–500 cm depth range fell into the following ranking: shrubland(17.2 kg m~(-2)) grassland(16.3 kg m~(-2)) forestland(15.2 kg m~(-2)) cropland(14.1 kg m~(-2)) gully land(6.4 kg m~(-2)). The ranking for SIC stocks were: grassland(104.1 kg m~(-2)) forestland(96.2 kg m~(-2)) shrubland(90.6 kg m~(-2)) cropland(82.4 kg m~(-2)) gully land(50.3 kg m~(-2)). Respective SOC and SIC stocks were at least 1.6-and 2.1-fold higher within the 100–500 cm depth range, as compared to the 0–100 cm depth range. Overall SOC and SIC stocks decreased significantly from the 5 th to the 15 th year of cultivation in croplands, and generally increased up to the 70 th year. Both SOC and SIC stocks showed a turning point at 15 years cultivation, which should be considered when evaluating soil C sequestration. Estimates of C stocks greatly depends on soil sampling depth, and understanding the influences of land use and time will improve soil productivity and conservation in regions with deep soils.     

Clinoform architecture and along‐strike facies variability through an exhumed erosional to accretionary basin margin transition

Exhumed basin margin‐scale clinothems provide important archives for understanding process interactions and reconstructing the physiography of sedimentary basins. However, studies of coeval shelf through slope to basin‐floor deposits are rarely documented, mainly due to outcrop or subsurface dataset limitations. Unit G from the Laingsburg depocentre (Karoo Basin, South Africa) is a rare example of a complete basin margin scale clinothem (>60 km long, 200 m‐high), with >10 km of depositional strike control, which allows a quasi‐3D study of a preserved shelf‐slope‐basin floor transition over a ca. 1,200 km² area. Sand‐prone, wave‐influenced topset deposits close to the shelf‐edge rollover zone can be physically mapped down dip for ca. 10 km as they thicken and transition into heterolithic foreset/slope deposits. These deposits progressively fine and thin over tens of km farther down dip into sand‐starved bottomset/basin‐floor deposits. Only a few km along strike, the coeval foreset/slope deposits are bypass‐dominated with incisional features interpreted as minor slope conduits/gullies. The margin here is steeper, more channelized and records a stepped profile with evidence of sand‐filled intraslope topography, a preserved base‐of‐slope transition zone and sand‐rich bottomset/basin‐floor deposits. Unit G is interpreted as part of a composite depositional sequence that records a change in basin margin style from an underlying incised slope with large sand‐rich basin‐floor fans to an overlying accretion‐dominated shelf with limited sand supply to the slope and basin floor. The change in margin style is accompanied with decreased clinoform height/slope and increased shelf width. This is interpreted to reflect a transition in subsidence style from regional sag, driven by dynamic topography/inherited basement configuration, to early foreland basin flexural loading. Results of this study caution against reconstructing basin margin successions from partial datasets without accounting for temporal and spatial physiographic changes, with potential implications on predictive basin evolution models.     

Vulnerable groups and preliminary insights into intersecting categories of identity in Laamu Atoll,Maldives

The notion of vulnerability has acquired a significant role in discussions around reducing risk and identifying vulnerable groups, which is particularly important for targeting risk‐reducing policy and practice. Through ten semi‐structured interviews with 24 stakeholders, this study collected local perceptions on the following groups considered most vulnerable in Laamu Atoll, Maldives: youth and children, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, displaced persons and migrants, and farmers. In doing this, the significance of intersecting categories of identity for understanding vulnerability emerged and was explored; an approach that is often absent or scarcely applied in studies that identify vulnerable groups in the Maldives and elsewhere. Intersections between location, youth and gender or disability, as well as gender and marital status emerged as relevant for the Laamu Atoll context. Although this study acknowledges the incompleteness of its intersectional analysis, these findings provide important preliminary insights into the role of intersectionality in shaping vulnerability experience. To enhance scholarship on vulnerability, future studies could further explore intersectionality in Laamu Atoll and the Maldives using this study as a base and also improve its practical applicability for policy and practice.     

Sediment routing in the Zagros foreland basin: Drainage reorganization and a shift from axial to transverse sediment dispersal in the Kurdistan region of Iraq

In the northwestern sector of the Zagros foreland basin, axial fluvial systems initially delivered fine-grained sediments from northwestern source regions into a contiguous basin, and later transverse fluvial systems delivered coarse-grained sediments from northeastern sources into a structurally partitioned basin by fold-thrust deformation. Here we integrate sedimentologic, stratigraphic, palaeomagnetic and geochronologic data from the northwestern Zagros foreland basin to define the Neogene history of deposition and sediment routing in response to progressive advance of the Zagros fold-thrust belt. This study constrains the depositional environments, timing of deposition and provenance of nonmarine clastic deposits of the Injana (Upper Fars), Mukdadiya (Lower Bakhtiari) and Bai-Hasan (Upper Bakhtiari) Formations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Sediments of the Injana Formation (~12.4–7.75 Ma) were transported axially (orogen-parallel) from northwest to southeast by meandering and low-sinuosity channel belt system. In contrast, during deposition of the Mukdadiya Formation (~7.75–5 Ma), sediments were delivered transversely (orogen-perpendicular) from northeast to southwest by braided and low-sinuosity channel belt system in distributive fluvial megafans. By ~5 Ma, the northwestern Zagros foreland basin became partitioned by growth of the Mountain Front Flexure and considerable gravel was introduced in localized alluvial fans derived from growing topographic highs. Foredeep accumulation rates during deposition of the Injana, Mukdadiya and Bai-Hasan Formations averaged 350, 400 and 600 m/Myr respectively, suggesting accelerated accommodation generation in a rapidly subsiding basin governed by flexural subsidence. Detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra show that in addition to sources of Mesozoic-Cenozoic cover strata, the Injana Formation was derived chiefly from Palaeozoic-Precambrian (including Carboniferous and latest Neoproterozoic) strata in an axial position to the northwest, likely from the Bitlis-Puturge Massif and broader Eastern Anatolia. In contrast, the Mukdadiya and Bai-Hasan Formations yield distinctive Palaeogene U-Pb age peaks, particularly in the southeastern sector of the study region, consistent with transverse delivery from the arc-related terranes of the Walash and Naopurdan volcano-sedimentary groups (Gaveh-Rud domain?) and Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic arc to the northeast. These temporal and spatial variations in stratigraphic framework, depositional environments, sediment routing and compositional provenance reveal a major drainage reorganization during Neogene shortening in the Zagros fold-thrust belt. Whereas axial fluvial systems initially dominated the foreland basin during early orogenesis in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, transverse fluvial systems were subsequently established and delivered major sediment volumes to the foreland as a consequence of the abrupt deformation advance and associated topographic growth in the Zagros.