末次冰盛期-全新世东海陆坡滑塌沉积的地质年代与沉积学证据

基于东海陆坡区OT12-01孔长度为5.35 m沉积物AMS 14C测年、高分辨率粒度分析和XRF岩芯元素扫描数据,识别出了末次冰盛期(LGM)至全新世期间发生的多次滑塌事件。研究发现,OT12-01孔全新世晚期沉积层缺失,LGM至全新世期间呈现AMS 14C年龄模式频繁倒转、沉积物粒度、元素比值垂向上多处突变或"错动"等特征,保存了LGM至全新世非连续的沉积记录。OT12-01孔沉积物主要来源于低海平面时期的长江/黄河物质,OT12-01孔是由中国大陆陆源物质在东海陆架经水动力分选,细颗粒被搬运至东海陆坡后,发生多次滑塌形成。LGM时期物源供给是OT12-01孔形成滑塌沉积的重要因素,末次冰消期海平面快速上升可能是高频滑塌沉积的触发原因,而低海平面时期甲烷水合物溢出、频繁的地震和火山喷发可能是海底滑坡作用发生的诱因。     

景观指数的粒度变化效应

本文以延河流域的1:250000和1:500000土地利用图为对象,以景观格局分析程序Fragstats3.3为分析工具,探讨了不同比例尺条件下景观指数随粒度增加的变化特征.研究结果表明,随着粒度值由25m到400m的逐渐增加,除斑块丰富度外的景观指数均具有明显的尺度效应,其中聚集度和集合度没有尺度转折点,其他指数具有明显或不明显的尺度转折点.对比分析1:250000和1:500000土地利用格局指数的计算结果可以发现:1)尺度转折点不是一个值,而是一个相对较小的区间;2)尺度转折点与研究图件的比例尺有关,比例尺越大,所发生的第一次尺度转折点的粒度就越小;3)第一尺度域是选择适宜粒度的较好取值范围.对延河流域1:250000土地利用图进行景观指数计算的适宜粒度范围是70～90m,1:500000土地利用图的适宜粒度范围是90～120m.     

震旦纪陡山沱期凝源类Tianzhushania属研究进展

大型具刺疑源类TianZhushania的属名源于湖北长阳天柱山地区,模式标本最早发现于震旦系统陡山沱组的燧石结核中（岩石薄片）。本文综合了20多年来国内外有关该属的报道和研究,并结合最近笔者对贵州瓮安地区震旦系陡山沱组硅化保存的Tianzhushania tuberifera Yin,Gan and Xing2001与磷酸盐化保存的球状实体化石Megasphaera ornata Xiao and Knoll2000之间关系的最新研究结果,对大型具刺疑源类Tianzhushania属的形态特征,巳定种的地理分布,地层意义和可能的亲缘关系等问题进行探讨。     

Dating megafaunal extinction on the Pleistocene Darling Downs,eastern Australia: the promise and pitfalls of dating as a test of extinction hypotheses

A key to understanding Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction dynamics is knowledge of megafaunal ecological response(s) to long-term environmental perturbations. Strategically, that requires targeting fossil deposits that accumulated during glacial and interglacial intervals both before and after human arrival, with subsequent palaeoecological models underpinned by robust and reliable chronologies. Late Pleistocene vertebrate fossil localities from the Darling Downs, eastern Australia, provide stratigraphically-intact, abundant megafaunal sequences, which allows for testing of anthropogenic versus climate change megafauna extinction hypotheses. Each stratigraphic unit at site QML796, Kings Creek Catchment, was previously shown to have had similar sampling potential, and the basal units contain both small-sized taxa (e.g., land snails, frogs, bandicoots, rodents) and megafauna. Importantly, sequential faunal horizons show stepwise decrease in taxonomic diversity with the loss of some, but not all, megafauna in the geographically-small palaeocatchment. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of our intensive, multidisciplinary dating study of the deposits (>40 dates). Dating by means of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C (targeting bone, freshwater molluscs, and charcoal) and thermal ionisation mass spectrometry U/Th (targeting teeth and freshwater molluscs) do not agree with each other and, in the case of AMS ¹⁴C dating, lack internal consistency. Scanning electron microscopy and rare earth element analyses demonstrate that the dated molluscs are diagenetically altered and contain aragonite cements that incorporated secondary young C, suggesting that such dates should be regarded as minimum ages. AMS ¹⁴C dated charcoals provide ages that occur out of stratigraphic order, and cluster in the upper chronological limits of the technique (～40–48 ka). Again, we suggest that such results should be regarded as suspicious and only minimum ages. Subsequent OSL and U/Th (teeth) dating provide complimentary results and demonstrate that the faunal sequences actually span ～120–83 ka, thus occurring beyond the AMS ¹⁴C dating window. Importantly, the dates suggest that the local decline in biological diversity was initiated ～75,000 years before the colonisation of humans on the continent. Collectively, the data are most parsimoniously consistent with a pre-human climate change model for local habitat change and megafauna extinction, but not with a nearly simultaneous extinction of megafauna as required by the human-induced blitzkrieg extinction hypothesis. This study demonstrates the problems inherent in dating deposits that lie near the chronological limits of the radiocarbon dating technique, and highlights the need to cross-check previously-dated archaeological and megafauna deposits within the timeframe of earliest human colonisation and latest megafaunal survival.     

Grid pattern recognition in road networks using the C4.5 algorithm

Pattern recognition in road networks can be used for different applications, including spatiotemporal data mining, automated map generalization, data matching of different levels of detail, and other important research topics. Grid patterns are a common pattern type. This paper proposes and implements a method for grid pattern recognition based on the idea of mesh classification through a supervised learning process. To train the classifier, training datasets are selected from worldwide city samples with different cultural, historical, and geographical environments. Meshes are subsequently labeled as composing or noncomposing grids by participants in an experiment, and the mesh measures are defined while accounting for the mesh’s individual characteristics and spatial context. The classifier is generated using the C4.5 algorithm. The accuracy of the classifier is evaluated using Kappa statistics and the overall rate of correctness. The average Kappa value is approximately 0.74, which corresponds to a total accuracy of 87.5%. Additionally, the rationality of the classifier is evaluated in an interpretation step. Two other existing grid pattern recognition methods were also tested on the datasets, and comparison results indicate that our approach is effective in identifying grid patterns in road networks.