Earliest Cucurbita from the Great Lakes, Northern USA

Directly dated Cucurbita from archaeological sites near Lake Huron expand the range and human usage of adventive, cultivated wild gourds or squash into the Great Lakes region, USA, by 4000 ¹⁴C yr BP. The data also show that domesticated C. pepo squash was cultivated there by 3000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Although milder Hypsithermal climate may have been a contributing factor, squash and gourds expanded northward during the mid-Holocene mainly by human agency and may be the first human-introduced adventive plant in temperate North America. Even after 3000 ¹⁴C yr BP, when domesticated squash generally replaced wild varieties at northern sites, squash stands were probably informally managed rather than intensively cultivated.     

Spatial Representation of Aquatic Vegetation by Macrofossils and Pollen in a Small and Shallow Lake

We have explored the contemporary spatial relationship between aquatic vegetation and surficial macrofossil and pollen remains in a small, shallow, English lake. A detailed point-based (n = 87) underwater vegetation survey was undertaken in the middle of the plant-growing season in July 2000. Then following plant die-back in November 2000, surface sediment samples (upper 1.5 cm) were collected from 30 of these plant survey points and analysed for plant macro-remains (all 30 samples), and pollen (4 evenly spaced samples). All data were stored as separate layers in a geographical information system and spatial relationships between the aquatic vegetation and plant remains were explored. In contrast to pollen types, plant macrofossils were not evenly dispersed across all parts of the lake and, with the exception of Chara oospores, higher concentrations of remains (particularly for Potamogeton) were found close to areas of source-plant dominance. The spatial pattern of macrophyte–macrofossil relationships revealed that vegetative remains (particularly leaf fragments) were probably deposited at source, whereas seeds were recovered close to the shore suggesting slightly wider dispersal. Overall, however, macro-remains best represented local ‘patch-scale’ vegetation within 20–30 m of the core site. The macro-remains effectively recorded the dominant plants in the lake with 63% of samples containing a combination of remains of Chara, Elodea, and Potamogeton. However, relationships between macrophytes and fossils were complex. Some species were significantly over-represented by macrofossils (e.g., Chara spp., Nitella flexilis agg., and Zannichellia palustris), while others were either under-represented (e.g., Potamogeton spp.), or not represented at all (e.g., Lemna trisulca). Pollen represented macrophyte diversity poorly, but some taxa were found (e.g., Myriophyllum spicatum, Ceratophyllum demersum) that were not recorded by macro-remains. We conclude that macrofossil analysis may be very usefully employed to determine the dominant taxa in past aquatic plant communities of shallow, productive lakes and that the addition of pollen analysis provides further information on former species richness.     

土壤盐分特征对内陆盐沼盐生植物群落的影响

为研究内陆盐沼植物群落的分布对土壤盐分的响应特征,选取鄂尔多斯盐湖盐沼区作为研究区,筛选了肉质耐盐植物群落,苔草植物群落和禾草植物群落3类典型植物群落,开展了土壤含水量、pH、电导率以及Na_⁺,K_⁺,Mg2_⁺,Ca_{^{2 +}},Cl_^-、SO_4^2-、CO_3^2-和HCO_3^-的测定,分析了区内典型植物群落对土壤水盐因子的响应规律。探讨了3类植物群落之间土壤因子含量的差异性;采用相关性分析和CCA分析,评价了3类植物群落多样性及物种分布随土壤因子的变化规律。结果表明,区内3类植物群落中,土壤盐分含量表现为肉质耐盐植物群落最高,苔草植物群落最低,禾草植物群落居中;植物多样性与土壤中含量最高的Na_⁺和SO_4^2-的相关性最显著;植物分布同时受到土壤盐分、水分和pH的显著影响。研究结果可为鄂尔多斯盐湖区土壤盐渍化改良和植被恢复提供理论支撑。     

What happened to climate change? CITES and the reconfiguration of polar bear conservation discourse

In the past decade, polar bears have become the poster species of climate change. But in March 2013, a joint proposal by the governments of the United States and the Russian Federation to up-list polar bears to Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) diverted public attention from climate change towards the hunting of polar bears. Prior to a vote on the proposal, non-governmental organisations spear-headed a media campaign to support the up-listing. In the United Kingdom the campaign received support from celebrities and was widely reported in English language news media. Narratives of commercial legal and illegal polar bear hunting and the imminent extinction of polar bears were aggressively promoted, rhetorically supported by the manipulation of trade and scientific data. By rendering discourses of commercial hunting and a lucrative global trade in polar bear parts highly visible, sustainable hunting and climate change-induced habitat loss were rendered invisible. Media reports of commercial hunting de-coupled polar bear conservation from climate change mitigation, and disassociated polar bear hunting from regulated indigenous subsistence practices. A review of current polar bear conservation measures and an analysis of media coverage leading up to the CITES decision reveal these conflicting discourses, and suggest that more nuanced media coverage of polar bear conservation is necessary if appropriate multilateral conservation policies are to be enacted and publicly supported.     

Plant diversity as a good indicator of vegetation stability in a typical plateau wetland

Biotic indicators have been widely used to monitor wetland health. However, few studies have explicitly evaluated if plant diversity could serve as a useful community-level indicator of wetland stability, especially when wetlands are confronted with anthropogenic perturbations. Based on three-year record of wetland plant species abundance in Napahai plateau wetland, Shangri-la under the influence of varying anthropogenic perturbation types, our study tests the impact of such perturbations on plant richness and the relationship between ecosystem temporal stability and plant richness, and further assesses the effectiveness of using plant diversity indicator to probe ecosystem temporal stability of Napahai plateau wetland and the potential mechanisms. The results showed that anthropogenic perturbations could have contributed significantly to realistic variation in plant diversity, and further demonstrated that ecosystem temporal stability was positively related to realistic variation in plant diversity. In particular, communities with high levels of diversity might have better capacity to dampen perturbation impacts than communities with low levels of diversity, and statistical averaging could have played an important role in causing greater stability in more diverse communities. Also, asynchrony might have a stabilizing effect on community stability, and diversity could have stabilized communities through both species asynchrony and population stability propagation. Therefore, our results suggest that plant diversity could be used as a useful indicator of the stability conditions of plateau wetland ecosystems confronted with anthropogenic perturbations, and the preservation of plant communities at sufficient abundance and diversity is necessary for maintaining healthy plateau wetlands and for sustaining their essential ecosystem functions and services.     

Quantitative reconstruction of climate variability during the Eemian (Merkinė) and Weichselian (Nemunas) in Lithuania

Little is known concerning climate changes in the Eastern Baltic region during the last interglacial–glacial cycle and in particular, climate changes during the Weichselian. In this study, a quantitative reconstruction of the mean January and July temperature for the Medininkai-117 site in Lithuania is presented. The reconstruction is based on pollen and plant macrofossils from this site, which reveal that the vegetation was characteristic of many northern Europe sites during the Eemian and Early Weichselian. Gradual evolution of the vegetation suggests that relatively uniform climate conditions existed during the Eemian. Our reconstructions support the view of a relatively stable Eemian, with short cooling phases of low amplitude. A strong increase in temperature was apparent during the beginning of the interglacial and decrease during the transition to the Weichselian. Reconstructed July temperatures of the Eemian interglacial were approximately 2 °C higher than today (18.5 °C; today: 16.2 °C) and were similar to today for January (− 5.2 °C; today: − 5.1 °C). July temperatures during the Early Weichselian were only ~ 2°C lower than during the Eemian, whereas the January temperatures gradually decreased. Winter temperatures were relatively high (above − 10 °C) during the Early Weichselian.     

地震安全性评价中的多方案比较工作方法

在对秦山核电二期工程建设项目地震动参数的复核中采用了多方案比较方法。由于新增的地震地质资料不会改变原报告对地震地质研究的结论,近十多年地震的活动对工作区地震背景的影响没有发生根本变化。在分析研究本地区具有代表性的不同潜在震源区的划分方案后,采用相对应的地震动参数衰减关系进行地震危险性概率分析计算,与确定性方法计算结果比较后确定秦山核电二期扩建工程厂址极限安全地震动SL-2复核结果为0.15g。本次复核工作的技术路线可以为相似类型的重大工程地震参数复核参考。     

江宁五通群上部古羊齿及其植物化石组合

南京江宁上坊上泥盆统五通群上部发现古羊齿，且较丰富，植物组合以鳞木类为主，钩蕨、古羊齿亦相当发育。这一组合与下石炭统的古植物有差异，其中古羊齿的标准性具广泛的地层对比意义。