Eastern Laurentia in Rodinia: constraints from whole-rock Pb and U/Pb geochronology

Whole-rock Pb isotopic signatures and U/Pb geochronology refute a Rodinian correlation of northeastern Laurentia and proto-Andean Amazonia. According to this previously proposed model, the Labrador–Scotland–Greenland Promontory (LSGP) of northeastern Laurentia collided with the proto-Andean margin of Amazonia, at the Arica Embayment, during the Grenville/Sunsás Orogeny (ca. 1.0 Ga). Links between the two margins were based upon the correlation of the LSGP with Arequipa-Antofalla Basement (AAB), a Proterozoic block along the proto-Andean margin of Amazonia adjacent to the Arica Embayment. Specifically, similarities in 1.8–1.0 Ga basement rocks in both regions suggested that the AAB was originally a piece of the LSGP. Furthermore, similarities in unique, post-collisional, but pre-rift, glacial sedimentary sequences also supported a link between the AAB and LSGP.Tests of these apparent similarities fail to support correlation of the AAB and the LSGP and, thus, eliminate a direct link between northeastern Laurentia and southwestern Amazonia in Rodinia. However, Pb isotopic compositions and U/Pb geochronology provide the basis for two new correlations, namely, (1) the ca. 1.3–1.0 Ga basement in the central and southern Appalachians may be an allochthonous block that was transferred to Laurentia from Amazonia at ca. 1.0 Ga, and (2) an allochthonous AAB may be a piece of the Kalahari Craton that was transferred to Amazonia at ca. 1.0 Ga. Based on these new correlations and a previously proposed Grenvillian connection between southern Laurentia (Llano) and Kalahari, we propose that Amazonia may have collided with a contiguous southeastern Laurentia/Kalahari margin at ca. 1.0 Ga.     

From catfish to organic fish: making distinctions about nature as cultural economic practice

This paper addresses the cultural economy of nature and the material culture of economic practice. Attending to ways that cultural notions about the biophysical world play key roles in political economic conflicts, discussion centers on two recent debates involving the cultural economy of seafood production and trade. The first debate is over whether the label “catfish” should include catfish imported from Vietnam into the United States; the second deals with whether fish and shellfish should be eligible to be certified “organic” under new US regulations. Analysis reveals that the key dynamic in these debates is not necessarily how people think about “nature”, but instead is how people make distinctions about the world. Rather than focusing on what is natural or not, key actors make distinctions among both organisms and environments. The ways that different groups define and enclose the biophysical world works to distinguish places as either appropriate or not for certain kinds of production activities. The overall argument is that significance and meaning of the biophysical become implicated in economic geographies by making distinctions about the world that then become important for how economic activity can work. As such, cultural economic approaches should attend to the ways that the biophysical is involved in relations such as competition and international trade, while nature-society approaches should shift focus from Nature to specific aspects of the biophysical world.     

Paleoecology of two marine oxygen isotope stage 7 sites correlated by the Sheep Creek tephra, northwestern North America

Pollen analysis at two sites, correlated by the presence of the 190,000 yr-old Sheep Creek tephra, documents fluctuations in vegetation and climate consistent with this date and indicates that the records span marine oxygen isotope stage 7 and the stage 6/7 transition. Dawson Cut, near Fairbanks, Alaska, provides a 5.2-m-long pollen record of interglacial boreal forest succeeded by shrub tundra and then forest/tundra. Ash Bend, Stewart River, central Yukon, provides a 9.5-m-long record of interglacial boreal forest succeeded by forest/tundra, shrub tundra, and herbaceous tundra. The replacement of forest at both sites by more open or tundra vegetation indicates warm interglacial conditions giving way to cold and arid climate. It is not clear whether stage 7 was warmer than the present. The warm-cool-warm climate oscillation evident at both sites may correlate to Lake Baikal substages 7a, 7b, and 7c. Sheep Creek tephra fell on forest/tundra vegetation.     

冬季北极涛动和华北冬季气温变化关系研究

利用北极涛动指数（AOI）、NCEP／NCAR40a再分析资料中的海平面气压（SLP）、850、500、200hPa等压面高度场资料及中国160站月平均气温资料，运用小波分析，经验正交函数（EOF）分析等方法，分析了华北冬季气温和冬季北极涛动指数的变化特征及其关系。结果表明它们之间存在有着显著相关，特别是在年代际尺度上关系尤其密切。华北在20世纪70年代初以前为持续冷冬，80年代中期之后变为持续暖冬，其间相对正常，而冬季北极涛运指数亦存在类似的3个阶段，冬季北极涛动高（低）低数年，华北地区为暖（冷）冬年。其原因在于，北极涛动在于对流层低层和高层都可激发类似EU遥相关型的异常，通过影响西伯利亚高压和东亚大槽影响华北地区气温。强（弱）涛运年大气环流具有弱（强）东亚冬季风特征，西伯利亚高压减弱（增强），亚洲大陆地面东北风减弱（增强），高空东亚大槽减弱（增强）。     

三江源生态环境监测研究

青海省生态环境监测系统主要由遍布全省各典型生态系统区的生态环境监测站网、卫星遥感信息接收处理系统，信息收集、处理、模拟、评价系统，综合信息服务与反馈等部分组成。建立环境监测系统的目的是对青海省的生态环境进行系统监测和评估，及时为各级政府、有关部门和公众提供准确、全面的生态环境监测信息，为生态环境保护和建设提供科学依据。青海省生态环境监测系统于2003年5月1日开始业务运行，目前尚处于起步阶段。     

高分辨率厘米级局部大地水准面的典型应用

介绍了香港大地水准面HKGEOID_2 0 0 0和深圳市高分辨率、高精度似大地水准面SZGEOID_2 0 0 0。利用HKGEOID_2 0 0 0和GPS椭球高求得的正常高与香港地区由三角高程测量得到的“正常高 (或本地高 )”进行比较 ,结果表明 ,其差值的均方根为 0 .1 0 2m ,标准差 (STD)为± 3 .4cm。结合HKGEOID_2 0 0 0、SZGEOID_2 0 0 0和这两个大地水准面模型重复覆盖地区的高精度GPS水准数据 ,探测这两个大地水准面模型之间的差异和香港主要高程基准面 (HKPD)与我国 1 95 6黄海高程基准面之间的系统偏差。     

飞行物体虚拟环境仿真系统的研究

概述了飞行物体虚拟环境仿真系统包含的主要技术，重点讨论了虚拟环境中视景系统构建的关键问题，如场景建模、模型驱动及视点的控制与变换等。     

大地测量数据接口技术与接口标准

建立了由接口文件、接口文件处理器和共享信息模型组成的大地测量数据接口体系结构，划分了大地测量数据服务的3类不同接口类型。在建立了面向对象的接口数据模型的基础上，讨论了面向传统用户的控制点数字化成果格式、面向生产过程的大地控制网统一数据结构和面向GIS的大地测量数据交换格式。     

山西省大型水库水环境评价

通过对山西省大型水库1983年至1985年及1996年至1998年水质监测资料的分析评价，表明67％的水库水质只要进行简单处理后，即可满足各类用水要求，其余33％污染较重的水库，其污染物质也十分单一。因此山西省大型水库开发利用的前景十分广阔。在此基础上，进一步提出了大型水库水质保护和改善措施。     

中国西部退耕还林(草)和沙漠化土地绿化的区域性气候效应

中国正在实施的西部大开发必将导致较大规模的土地利用和地表覆盖(LULC)变化,其中最重要的两类LULC变化是退耕还林(草)和沙漠化土地绿化工程。利用最新的全球地表特征资料数据库(GLCCD)识别以上两项生态建设工程的实施规模与范围,并以此更新了目前比较流行的区域气候模式的下边界条件,利用修正了的区域气候模式研究上述大规模LULC变化可能对中国区域性气候造成的影响。使用的卫星资源数据库是由美国地质测绘局(USGS)和Nebraska-Lincoln大学牵头,根据NOAA卫星的AVHRR资料、USGS掌握的高分辨率数字化地图,以及生态区划和植被分布等资料组建的。