Summary of taxa and distribution of Sirenia in the North Pacific Ocean

Abstract North Pacific fossil sirenians comprise representatives of three subfamilies of the Dugongidae: Halitheriinae ( Metaxytherium arctodites , Middle Miocene, North America), Hy-drodamalinae ( Dusisiren spp., Early-Late Miocene, and Hydrodamalis spp., Late Miocene-Pleistocene, North America and Japan), and Dugonginae ( Dioplotherium allisoni , Early-Middle Miocene, North America). Indeterminate dugongid remains are also known from the Late Oligocene of Japan, and the discovery of additional taxa in the western Pacific, especially in Paleogene rocks, can be anticipated. The known North Pacific Neogene taxa apparently dispersed into the Pacific from the Caribbean. Metaxytherium gave rise in the Pacific to Dusisiren ; a series of chronospecies of the latter genus eventually culminated in Hydrodamalis , which was exterminated by humans circa AD 1768. Dioplotherium left no known descendants in the Pacific. The Recent Dugong probably entered the Pacific from the Indian Ocean. The presence in the North Pacific Miocene of at least three sympatric dugongid lineages, together with desmostylians, is evidence for a diversity of marine plants that was reduced by subsequent climatic cooling.     

Suckers (Fish, Catostomidae) from the Eocene of China account for the family’s current disjunct distributions

Unequivocal Eocene suckers from China are for the first time reported here. This discovery demonstrates that catostomids of the Eocene Epoch (some 55-35 Ma ago) are scattered widely on mainland Asia as well as western North America. The present day disjunct distribution pattern of catostomids, with 68 extant species widespread in North America and the northern part of Middle America and only two in the restricted areas of Asia, is the result of their post-Eocene decline in Asia due to the competitive pressure from cyprinids, their Late Cenozoic radiation in North America, and the vicariant and dispersal events triggered by the changed biogeographic landscape. All of these prove to be a historical product of the geological, biological, and climatic changes throughout the Cenozoic.     

我国生物地理学研究进展

生物地理学研究是生物学和地理学交叉非常明显的部门自然地理学学科,它具有很强的基础研究特点,同时研究成果也具有很大的应用潜力。近年来,我国生物地理学基础研究在国家自然科学基金委等部门的支持下,在山地植被与地理环境、干旱半干旱区植被与地理环境、植物区系、植物物候、土壤动物与土壤生态功能、土壤生物结皮等方面开展了全面而深入的研究。同时拓展了传统生物地理学的研究方向,在植物地理学与全球变化、植物地理学与生物多样性保护、植物地理学与生态系统管理等方面也开展了大量研究。尤为可贵的是干旱半干旱区土壤生物结皮研究、典型温带荒漠区原生荒漠植被对水分改变的响应与适应研究取得了令国内外关注的高水平研究成果。     

SANDSTONE WEATHERING THRESHOLDS IN PETRA,JORDAN

From ongoing research examining weathering rates and mechanisms in the Paleozoic sandstones of Petra, Jordan, two possible thresholds have been identified. From a carved Roman Theater built under Vitruvian standards during the first century A.D., a two-meter sampling scheme was used to measure the presently weathered surfaces from a hypothetical false datum determined through originally documented Roman engineering and construction canon. Some 526 depth measurements were made on vertical and horizontal surfaces and correlated to the intrinsic variables of sandstone matrix-to-clast ratios, overall densities, matrix chemistry (Si, Ca, Fe, Al concentrations), and to the extrinsic accumulated annual insolation receipt (mega-joules/m²).

When matrix iron concentrations exceeded 2%, an abrupt decrease in overall weatherability is indicated until weathering is found to have decreased below measurable limits at 4%. It is speculated that matrix iron acts as a sandstone-clast binding agent, reducing clast disaggregation. In sandstone strata with matrix calcium concentrations exceeding 10%, weathering was accelerated with insolation >5200–5300 megajoules/m². It is speculated that the increased heating from insolation is responsible for irregular calcite crystal expansion and contraction causing matrix/clast interface microfracturing, clast disaggregation, and subsequent weathering.

Mean recession rates ranged from 13 to 66 mm/millennium on horizontal surfaces and from 7 to 18 mm/millennium on vertical surfaces. Gross differences in recession rates were attributed to the extrinsic influences of moisture availability (slope) and insolation (aspect), while minor differences were attributed to intrinsic characteristics of matrix chemistry (Fe, Ca), sandstone density, and clast/matrix ratios. [Key words: sandstone, weathering, erosion, Petra, Jordan.]     

中国奥陶纪三叶虫生物地理

三叶虫证据表明,除北疆区的阿尔泰地体和兴安区的额尔古纳-兴安地体与西伯利亚和劳伦陆块在动物群方面紧密关联外,中国奥陶纪的所有板块和大部分地体均系当时东泛冈瓦纳的重要组成部分,在生物地理上彼此密切相关。对这些属于东泛冈瓦纳的中国区块的台地或内陆棚三叶虫动物群的综合分析研究证明,它们在特马豆克期（Tremadocian）以及凯迪晚期-赫南特期（late Katian-Hirnantian）或阿石极期（Ashgill）应归属同一生物地理区,而在弗洛期-凯迪早期（Floian-early Katian）或阿仑尼克期-卡拉多克期（Arenig-Caradoc）则可划分为两个生物地理亚区：一个由华南、塔里木板块和安南或印支地体组成,另一个包括华北板块以及滇缅马、藏南、中天山-北山地体（可能还有海南地体）。饶有趣味的是在凯迪晚期或阿石极期开始发生的生物地理亚区解体之前,有关陆块的深水相三叶虫动物群已经历了从达瑞威尔中期（mid Darriwilian）至凯迪早期的长期频繁交流以及组成逐渐趋于齐一的过程。因此深水动物群之间的属种交流和一体化进程的发生、发展和完成显然均先于浅水一侧的三叶虫。     

WESTERN RANGE BOUNDARIES OF FLOODPLAIN TREES IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

Forest vegetation in the southeastern United States extends westward beyond the Ozark and Ouachita plateaus in Arkansas and Missouri into the Central Plains. Along this transect, luxuriant forests give way to mixed forests and grasslands that include smaller trees and progressively fewer tree species and eventually to grassland‐dominated landscapes in central Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. This transition is directly related to decreasing precipitation with distance to the west of the Mississippi River valley. Many species, however, have abrupt western range boundaries related to physiography and hydrogeomorphic processes. The western range limits for many trees correspond to Coastal Plain boundaries that at a regional scale impose sharper range boundaries than would be expected on the basis of decreasing precipitation. Also, riparian habitats within stream valleys extending westward from the Coastal Plain provide suitable habitats for trees in the dry regions of the Great Plains. The presence of riparian trees in this region is determined largely by the presence or absence of groundwater conditions necessary for survival. For floodplain trees, then, it is primarily habitat—not climate—that determines the location of range boundaries.     

Development of the IAP Dynamic Global Vegetation Model

ABSTRACT The lAP Dynamic Global Vegetation Model （IAP-DGVM） has been developed to simulate the distribution and structure of global vegetation within the framework of Earth System Models. It incorporates our group＇s recent developments of major model components such as the shrub sub-model, establishment and competition parameterization schemes, and a process-based fire parameterization of intermediate complexity. The model has 12 plant functional types, including seven tree, two shrub, and three grass types, plus bare soil. Different PFTs are allowed to coexist within a grid cell, and their state variables are updated by various governing equations describing vegetation processes from fine-scale biogeophysics and biogeochemistry, to individual and population dynamics, to large-scale biogeography. Environmental disturbance due to fire not only affects regional vegetation competition, but also influences atmospheric chemistry and aerosol emissions. Simulations under observed atmospheric conditions showed that the model can correctly reproduce the global distribution of trees, shrubs, grasses, and bare soil. The simulated global dominant vegetation types reproduce the transition from forest to grassland （savanna） in the tropical region, and from forest to shrubland in the boreal region, but overestimate the region of temperate forest.     

New remains of Pleistocene Ovibos moschatus from Germany and its geographic and stratigraphic occurrence in Europe

All remains of Pleistocene muskoxen from central and western Europe are attributable to a single species, Ovibos moschatus. Its occurrence was restricted mainly to the area north of the Pyrenees and Alps, covering lowlands and mountain areas up to 1600 m. In the Middle Pleistocene, Ovibos occurred in a cold phase, well before the Elsterian, and again during the Saalian and Weichselian. In the Late Pleistocene, Ovibos co-occurred with other faunal elements indicative of severe continental climatic conditions during the early and late Weichselian. During the middle Weichselian, the genus seems to have retreated. A list of European localities that have yielded Ovibos moschatus, inclusive of geographical references, is provided.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: USA, Eine Geographische Landeskunde , Vol. I, Der Grossraum in Strukturellem, Wandel, 3rd Ed. Helmut Blume . Introduction to Remote Sensing . James B. Campbell . The Sounds of People and Places: Readings in the Geography of American Folk and Popular Music . George O. Carney , ED. Development and Underdevelopment . John Cole . Mobility and Employment in Urban Southeast Asia: Example from Indonesia and the Philippines . Michael A. Costello , Thomas R. Leinbach , AND Richard Ulack . Soviet Asia: Economic Development and National Policy Choices . Leslie Dienes . The Third World City . David Drakakis -Smith . Scholars' Guide to Washington, DC for Cartography and Remote Sensing Imagery (maps, charts, aerial photographs, satellite images, cartographic literature and geographic information systems). Ralph E. Ehrenberg . Population and Development in the Third World . Allan AND Anne Findlay . The Early Mapping of Hawaii . Gary L. Fitzpatrick . Energetics of Physical Environment: Energetic Approaches to Physical Geography . K. J. Gregory , ED. Wildland Recreation: Ecology and Management . William E. Hammitt and David N. Cole . Agricultural Commercialization and Government Policy in Africa . J. Hinderink AND J. J. Sterkenburg . The Dynamics of American Housing . James W. Hughes AND George Sternlieb . Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation State . Charles F. Keyes . Resolving Locational Conflict . Robert W. Lake , ED. Lands at Risk in the Third World: Local-level Perspectives . Peter D. Little and Michael M. Horowitz , EDS. Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Culture of American Science . David N. Livingstone . Regions: The Economics and Politics of Territory . Ann R. Markusen . Wetlands . William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink . Historical Geography: Progress and Prospect . Michael Pacione , ED. Loess and Periglacial Phenomena . Marton P$eacsi and Hugh M. French , EDS. Regional Management of Metropolitan Floodplains, Experience in the United States and Abroad . Rutherford H. Platt , ED. Human Cartography: Mapping the World of Man . Janos Szegö . Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History . Helen H. Tanner , ED. The Botany of Mangroves . P. B. Tomlinson . Urban Spatial Traffic Patterns . Rodney Vaughan . The Night After … Climatic and Biological Consequences of a Nuclear War . Yevgeni Velikhov , ED. Industrial Geography . H. D. Watts . Dictionary of Quotations in Geography . James O. Wheeler and Francis M. Sibley . Vermont Townscape . Norman Wiliams , Jr. , Edmund K. Kellogg and Peter M. Lavigne .