Population ecology of the endangered Himalayan Yew in Khokhan Wildlife Sanctuary of North Western Himalaya for conservation management

The Himalayan Yew （Taxus baccata subsp, wallichiana） is an endangered native high value medicinal plant of the Himalayan Region. The several medicinal properties of the bark and leaves of this species have increased its risk of extinction due to pressures for utilization. It is also subjected to harvest for fuelwood. The species does not regenerate well from seed and that is another risk factor. The objective of this research was to investigate the population ecology of the species as a foundation for its conservation. Six forest communities in the Khokhan Wildlife Sanctuary where the species is present were sampled. The abundance of the species, impacts of harvesting and its current regeneration patterns indicate that it may soon be extirpated from the Sanctuary. A plan for conserving the remaining sub-populations is presented. It could provide a template for conservation in other locations where the species is at risk.     

中国喜马拉雅构造运动的陆内变形特征与油气矿藏富集

在前人研究的基础上,结合近年来在油气勘探中不断积累的地质资料和地质认识,提出了中国喜马拉雅构造运动的陆内变形特征及其分布规律受控于小型克拉通板块拼贴的基底结构和印/欧碰撞与太平洋板块俯冲所主导的双重控制因素;喜马拉雅构造运动的发育特征主要表现为三种动力学机制:青藏高原隆升、盆地与造山带体制和东部拉张活动。喜马拉雅构造运动的大地构造格局及其构造变形分布规律集中体现为4个构造域:青藏高原隆升区、环青藏高原盆山体系、稳定区和环西太平洋裂谷活动区。我国沉积盆地在喜马拉雅构造运动中的构造特征分为三种类型:(1)东部渤海湾、松辽等盆地受拉张构造环境控制的裂谷沉降;(2)中部四川、鄂尔多斯等盆地受青藏高原的向东推挤、盆缘冲断、盆内抬升剥蚀;(3)西部的塔里木、准噶尔、柴达木等盆地受青藏高原的向北推挤、冲断挠曲沉降,表现为克拉通单边或双边的压缩挠曲沉降与克拉通内部的冲断隆升沉降等多种盆山耦合形式。喜马拉雅构造运动控制着中国油气晚期定位与富集成藏,主要体现在:盆地的沉积与成藏,形成新生界自生自储的含油气盆地和油气藏;圈闭形成与油气运聚成藏;早期油气藏的调整和再分配;油气藏的破坏。     

Impact of topography and land-sea distribution on East Asian paleoenvironmental patterns

Much geological research has illustrated the transition of paleoenvironmental patterns during the Cenozoic from a planetary-wind-dominant type to a monsoon-dominant type, indicating the initiation of the East Asian monsoon and inland-type aridity. However, there is a dispute about the causes and mechanisms of the transition, especially about the impact of the Himalayan/Tibetan Plateau uplift and the Paratethys Sea retreat. Thirty numerical sensitivity experiments under different land-sea distributions and Himalayan/Tibetan Plateau topography conditions are performed here to simulate the evolution of climate belts with emphasis on changes in the rain band, and these are compared with the changes in the paleoenvironmental patterns during the Cenozoic recovered by geological records. The consistency between simulations and the geological evidence indicates that both the Tibetan Plateau uplift and the Paratethys Sea retreat play important roles in the formation of the monsoon-dominant environmental pattern. Furthermore, the simulations show the monsoon-dominant environmental pattern comes into being when the Himalayan/Tibetan Plateau reaches 1000–2000 m high and the Paratethys Sea retreats to the Turan Plate.     

喜马拉雅中部甘达基河流域尼泊尔国鸟(棕尾虹雉)生境分布变化

甘达基河流域(Gandaki River Basin,GRB)是喜马拉雅中部地区的一部分,该地区栖息着许多珍稀的野生动物。由于气候和人类活动的影响,许多珍稀保护物种的生境处于危险之中。本研究基于最大熵(MaxEnt)模型,运用生物气候、土地覆被和DEM数据,分析各环境要素对棕尾虹雉(Lophophorusimpejanus)的生境适宜性的影响,评估棕尾虹雉现在状况和未来栖息地分布的变化。研究表明,目前棕尾虹雉的高度适宜栖息地面积约为749 km^2,主要分布在流域北部、东部和西部,尤其是郎塘国家公园、马纳斯卢峰自然保护区和安纳布尔纳峰自然保护区等保护区内。到2050年,棕尾虹雉的高度适宜栖息地面积将减少至561 km^2,主要在流域北部和西北部(即Chhyo,Tatopani,Humde和Chame地区)。未来环境变化的模拟表明,由于适宜栖息地面积的减少,棕尾虹雉面临的生存风险将增加。     

太行山南端浅层速度结构成像和隐伏断裂探测

利用太行山南端的深地震反射剖面数据,运用初至波层析成像方法反演得到该区域的浅层P波速度结构和基底面展布形态,发现剖面浅部的P波速度变化与沉积盖层厚度和断裂分布有着较好的对应关系。利用跨断裂完成的浅层地震反射剖面,对区域内2条第四纪隐伏活动断裂进行高分辨率成像。结果表明,汤西断裂为东倾的正断层,控制汤阴地堑的西边界,活动年代为中更新世;汤东断裂为西倾的正断层,是汤阴地堑的主控边界断裂,活动年代为晚更新世。     

The cordierite‐bearing anatectic rocks of the higher Himalayan crystallines (eastern Nepal): low‐pressure anatexis,melt productivity,melt loss and the preservation of cordierite

Cordierite‐bearing anatectic rocks inform our understanding of low‐pressure anatectic processes in the continental crust. This article focuses on cordierite‐bearing lithologies occurring at the upper structural levels of the Higher Himalayan Crystallines (eastern Nepal Himalaya). Three cordierite‐bearing gneisses from different geological transects (from Mt Everest to Kangchenjunga) have been studied, in which cordierite is spectacularly well preserved. The three samples differ in terms of bulk composition likely reflecting different sedimentary protoliths, although they all consist of quartz, alkali feldspar, plagioclase, biotite, cordierite and sillimanite in different modal percentages. Analysis of the microstructures related to melt production and/or melt consumption allows the distinction to be made between peritectic and cotectic cordierite. The melt productivity of different prograde assemblages (from two‐mica metapelite/metagreywacke to biotite‐metapelite) has been investigated at low‐pressure conditions, evaluating the effects of muscovite v. biotite dehydration melting on both mineral assemblages and microstructures. The results of the thermodynamic modelling suggest that the mode and type of the micaceous minerals in the prograde assemblage is a very important parameter controlling the melt productivity at low‐pressure conditions, the two‐mica protoliths being significantly more fertile at any given temperature than biotite gneisses over the same temperature interval. Furthermore, the cordierite preservation is promoted by melt crystallization at a dry solidus and by exhumation along P‐T paths with a peculiar dP/dT slope of about 15–18 bar °C^?1. Overall, our results provide a key for the interpretation of cordierite petrogenesis in migmatites from any low‐P regional anatectic terrane. The cordierite‐bearing migmatites may well represent the source rocks for the Miocene andalusite‐bearing leucogranites occurring at the upper structural levels of the Himalayan belt, and low‐P isobaric heating rather than decompression melting may be the triggering process of this peculiar peraluminous magmatism.     

Active tectonics of the Himalaya

The Himalayan mountains are a product of the collision between India and Eurasia which began in the Eocene. In the early stage of continental collision the development of a suture zone between two colliding plates took place. The continued convergence is accommodated along the suture zone and in the back-arc region. Further convergence results in intracrustal megathrust within the leading edge of the advancing Indian plate. In the Himalaya this stage is characterized by the intense uplift of the High Himalaya, the development of the Tibetan Plateau and the breaking-up of the central and eastern Asian continent. Although numerous models for the evolution of the Himalaya have been proposed, the available geological and geophysical data are consistent with an underthrusting model in which the Indian continental lithosphere underthrusts beneath the Himalaya and southern Tibet. Reflection profiles across the entire Himalaya and Tibet are needed to prove the existence of such underthrusting. Geodetic surveys across the High Himalaya are needed to determine the present state of the MCT as well as the rate of uplift and shortening within the Himalaya. Paleoseismicity studies are necessary to resolve the temporal and spatial patterns of major earthquake faulting along the segmented Himalayan mountains.     

喜马拉雅山南部的构造复杂性

根据对恒河盆地西部的多振型宽频带面波频散资料的分析推断,该区的地壳结构不具有大陆地盾的特征,相反,却非常象某些海洋高地。这一异常的海洋型地壳与恒河盆地东部地盾地壳的分界线可能在阿拉瓦利山脉（Aravalli Ridge）。该处地壳的地质特征具有异常高的电导率,其走向垂直于喜马拉雅山脉。目前广为接受的假定认为是构造均匀的印度大陆岩石圈向喜马拉雅山下俯冲。本文的研究结果对此观点提出了置疑:在北部印度大陆内的地壳运动可能存在着差异。我们追溯印度-欧亚大陆的碰撞历史,这个因素恐怕是不容忽视的。     

Bauxite development in the North Apuseni mountains, western Romania

The stratigraphic and palaeogeomorphologic conditions of bauxite formation in the North Apuseni mountains are related to the geotectonic evolution of western Romania during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Bauxitization, accumulation and preservation of the bauxites were directly associated with karst development in the area under study. The petrographic and mineralogic nature of the bauxite deposits reveal superimposed aliagenetic, catagenic and, locally, metamorphic features. A comparative analysis of the principal chemical components of the different bauxite-bearing zones of the North Apuseni mountains are used to show similar development.