Environmental effects on distributions of culturable soil oligotrophic bacteria along an elevational gradient in the Chihuahuan Desert

Oligotrophic bacteria have been isolated from many habitats, yet environmental regulation of their distributions in soil has not been elucidated. To address the issue of environmental influence upon oligotrophic distributions, Chihuahuan Desert soils were sampled from five sites along an elevational and vegetational gradient within Big Bend National Park during January and August of 2002 and 2003. Soils were diluted and plated on oligotrophic media, and plates were incubated at 15, 25, 35, 45 and 60 °C. Additionally, measurements of soil organic matter, pH, moisture, extractable nitrate, extractable ammonium and microbial biomass carbon were collected for each sample to relate oligotrophic bacterial distributions to soil nutrient and edaphic characteristics. Analysis of variance indicated significant site, season, incubation-temperature and interaction effects on total oligotroph numbers. Canonical correspondence analysis and multiple regressions indicated that all soil-chemistry variables significantly influenced discrete morphologies of oligotrophs. Oligotroph distributions were most congruent with soil-chemistry variation in three sites, whereas oligotrophic diversity in two sites did not adhere closely to measured environmental variables. While vegetation type may structure oligotroph communities at the two mid-elevational sites, abiotic constraints are drivers in low-desert sites.     

Lake Area Changes and the main causes in the hinterland of Badain Jaran Desert during 1973–2010, China

Lake area information in the Badain Jaran Desert in 1973, 1990, 2000, and 2010 was obtained by visual interpretation and water index analysis of remote sensing images, based on the spatial and temporal characteristics of lake area changes during 37 years. Results indicated that the number of lakes declined from 94 to 82 and the total surface area was reduced by 3.69 km² during 1973–2010. The desert lake area reduced by different degrees in different periods, but this occurred most rapidly during 1973–1990. According to the statistics of lake area changes, lake area decreases mainly occurred in the lakes with areas less than 0.2 km², while the areas of lakes greater than 0.9 km² only fluctuated. The changes of lake areas were probably due to changes in the quantity of underground water supplies rather than the effects of local climate change or human factors.     

A protoceratopsid skeleton with an associated track from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia

The Djadokhta Formation of the Gobi Desert is known for the number and diversity of dinosaur and other vertebrate bones and skeletons found there, but only theropod, hadrosaur and supposed ankylosaurid footprints have been reported from this stratum. Dinosaur footprints are also noted from the Nemegt Formation, and occur as typical dinosaur track accumulations (tracksites). An articulated protoceratopsid skeleton - specimen ZPAL Mg D-II/3 - was collected by the Polish-Mongolian Expedition of 1965 from the Djadokhta Formation of Flaming Cliffs in Mongolia. Recently, the natural cast of a tetradactyl digitigrade footprint was found underneath the pelvic girdle while the skeleton and matrix were being prepared. This is possibly the first find of a dinosaur track in close association with an articulated skeleton. Although Protoceratops is an extremely common dinosaur in Mongolia, its footprints have never previously been reported from the Late Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert.     

Granule ripples in the Kumtagh Desert,China: Morphology,grain size and influencing factors

Granule ripples are found mainly in four regions of the Kumtagh Desert in China; they are characterized by an asymmetrical shape, with gentle lower slopes on both sides and abrupt crests. The ripples tend to be oriented perpendicular to the prevailing winds, except when they form near obstacles such as yardangs. The wavelengths (λ) range between 0·31 m and 26 m and heights (h) range from 0·015 m to 1 m. The relationship between wavelength and height can be described by a simple linear function, and the mean ripple index (λ/h) is about 20·4 for the study sites. The sediments are poorly sorted, with negative to very negative skewness at lee and stoss slopes and between‐ripple troughs, which confirms the ‘poured in’ and ‘shadow’ appearance described by previous researchers. The bimodal or trimodal distributions of grains (with modes of ?1·16φ, ?0·5φ and 3·16φ) and the enrichment of coarse particles at the ripple surface (with coarse granule contents ranging between 5·2% and 62·1%) indicate that the underlying layer is the original sediment source and that the granule ripples resist erosional processes. Although the impact of saltating particles and, consequently, the creep and reptation of coarse grains are responsible for granule ripple initiation at a micro‐scale, however, the characteristics of local sediments, wind regimes and topographical obstacles, as well as the feedbacks among bedform and airflow, more strongly affect the development and alignment of granule ripples at a macro‐scale.     

MAGNETOTELLURIC SOUNDING AND LATERAL INHOMOGENEITIES IN THE LITHOSPHERE

ABSTRACT

Libyan Desert Glass (LDG), rediscovered in modern times in 1932, is an ultrahigh-temperature glass composed of nearly pure SiO₂. LDG is found as surface float in Egypt’s Libyan (Western) Desert, its strewnfield defined by the intersection of major faults. Extra-terrestrial components are present in LDG but there is no associated impact crater. LDG is not an impactite, nor do pieces exhibit aerodynamic forms. Extremely viscous silica remained hot long enough to flow several centimetres. Additional constraints on the origin of LDG are imposed by exotic materials found nearby: a dark 30-gram granular micro-diamond mass, mullite-magnetite-silica glass rocks with micro-diamonds, lumps of fine-grained magnetite, titanium filaments, titanium nitride, titanium aluminide, aluminium oxycarbonitride, phosphides, silver, zirconium, zinc, carbonaceous grains, and metal grains coated with carbonaceous materials. The region is underlain by 500–3000 m of flat-lying sandstone composed of quartz grains and little else. To account for LDG and the other unusual materials and nearby outgassing vents, serpentinization is evoked. Products of this complex low-temperature crustal process include serpentine, magnetite, aqueous silica, and great quantities of hydrogen. The hydrogen, produced in Basement rocks beneath the sandstones, may have risen along faults, passing around grains of quartz (with which it does not react) until slowed by tight conditions, perhaps self-sealed by silica produced during serpentinization. Columns of quartz hundreds or thousands of metres high with intergranular spaces filled with H₂ (±CH₄) may have been established with some hydrogen leaking into the surface domain while still more was produced at depth. Disturbance by occasional impacts or airbursts, large or small, would violently release great columns of pressurized hydrogen, which, ignited, would burn until exhaustion. Such sustained heating events could be repeated. Exotic products might come from materials formed cold in the outer solar system, transformed in a great flickering flame with temperatures perhaps exceeding 1800°C.     

Vegetation history along the eastern, desert escarpment of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico

Plant macrofossils from 38 packrat middens spanning the last ~ 33,000 cal yr BP record vegetation between ~ 650 and 900 m elevation along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, northern Baja California. The middens span most of the Holocene, with a gap between ~ 4600 and 1800 cal yr BP, but coverage in the Pleistocene is uneven with a larger hiatus between 23,100 and 14,400 cal yr BP. The midden flora is relatively stable from the Pleistocene to Holocene. Exceptions include Pinus californiarum, Juniperus californica and other chaparral elements that were most abundant > 23,100 cal yr BP and declined after 14,400 cal yr BP. Despite being near the chaparral/woodland-desertscrub ecotone during glacial times, the midden assemblages reflect none of the climatic reversals evident in the glacial or marine record, and this is corroborated by a nearby semi-continuous pollen stratigraphy from lake sediments. Regular appearance of C₄ grasses and summer-flowering annuals since 13,600 cal yr BP indicates occurrence of summer rainfall equivalent to modern (JAS average of ~ 80–90 mm). This casts doubt on the claim, based on temperature proxies from marine sediments in the Guaymas Basin, that monsoonal development in the northern Gulf and Arizona was delayed until after 6200 cal yr BP.     

应用音频大地电磁法探测内蒙古巴丹吉林高大沙山结构及成因

巴丹吉林沙漠拥有世界罕见的高大沙山群。为了解巴丹吉林高大沙山结构与成因,应用音频大地电磁法进行测量,利用非线性共轭梯度法二维反演得到了沙山的横截电性剖面。沙山电性剖面深部呈现明显的低阻,而沙山中部存在一定规模高阻区域。判断巴丹吉林沙漠众多高大沙山群的形成是由其稳定的西北风作用、源源不断的地下水补给机制和特殊的地层环境共同作用的结果。地下水由于蒸腾作用上升遇到古老沙丘的钙质层阻挡,由背风坡底部蒸发出来。水蒸气凝结在顶部滚落的沙子表面,使其抗风蚀能力增强,起到固沙作用;随着时间推移,沙山越来越大,形成高大沙山。     

干旱荒漠区植被覆盖变化的遥感监测分析

多期的遥感数据可以用来分析干旱荒漠区植被的空间分布格局和变化特征。本文以1989、2000和2007年3个不同时相的Landsat TM/ETM+影像为数据源,利用线性光谱混合分析和RGB彩色合成法构建一个研究框架,对古尔班通古特沙漠西缘进行植被信息的提取和变化监测分析。在混合像元分解过程中,通过多种方法选择端元,比较...     

腾格里沙漠南缘近315年5～6月PDSI指数变化

利用昌灵山早材宽度年表重建腾格里沙漠南缘在过去315 a的5～6月份PDSI指数变化,重建方程的方差解释量达42.0%。腾格里沙漠南缘5～6月的PDSI指数重建序列平均值为-0.32。腾格里沙漠南缘5～6月的PDSI指数重建序列对西北地区干旱极端历史事件有良好的响应。空间分析显示腾格里沙漠南缘5～6月的PDSI指数重建序列与亚洲季风尾闾区PDSI指数的变化比较一致,同时还与西北地区的多条PDSI指数重建序列有着良好的相关性。腾格里沙漠南缘5～6月的PDSI指数重建序列具有25 a(95%)、12 a(95%)、3.4 a(99%)、2.8 a(99%)、2.6 a(99%)、2.3 a(95%)的周期变化。     

NRM engagement between remote dryland communities and government agencies: Success factors from Australia

The management of dryland environments involves the interaction of multiple government agencies and citizens, and is required to respond to a wide range of responsibilities and aspirations for a given region. This paper focuses on the characteristics of engagement between management agencies and citizens in a dryland region, presented here as a series of success factors. These factors are based on empirical research carried out in the Lake Eyre Basin in Australia, one of the world’s largest inwardly draining basins. The results reinforce generic and dryland-specific factors supporting successful community engagement. The former, such as building trust, working in partnership, supporting community champions, and maintaining transparency, are necessary but insufficient for achieving successful community engagement in the case study region. In addition, community engagement in the case study region also required respecting the extreme conditions and extraordinary variability of the Basin and committing to longer timeframes even if the outcomes of community engagement are slow to accrue, in order to take advantage of opportunities in more prosperous times.