Birds as lines: The production of alternative regimes of environmental management in the aftermath of a toxic disaster

This paper analyses how in the aftermath of one of the worst environmental disasters ever to occur in Spain – the Aznalcóllar Disaster – various environmentalist and conservationist groups mobilised migratory birds to bring new insights and the need for new precautions to the controversy elicited by the spill. The case study, thus, revolves around how environmentalists established a “hybrid collective action” to draw attention to unconsidered risks and impacts of the disaster and thereby make the case for open debate. Building upon this, I engage with two different, though interrelated, theoretical debates that contribute to a rethinking of environmental management (EM) as a social and materially situated practice. Drawing on the idea of “tactic” (De Certeau, 1984), I draw attention to the devices, actions and procedures that environmentalists carried out to resist attempts to minimise the spill and to undermine administrations’ assumptions of control, coherence and singularity associated the idea of management. Drawing on Tim Ingold’s latest work (2007, 2008, 2011), I analyse environmentalists’ most successful tactic: the enactment of migratory birds as “lines”. Together with other authors in this special issue, I will use this notion to make an argument against some of the assumptions of the “hybrid ontology”. In contrast to more essentialists and static notions of non-human agency and politics, the idea of line is particularly useful as a way of understanding how nature(s) can be effectuated differently and how this leads to the imagining of new regimes of cohabitation, human and non-human management and intervention.     

Think globally,act locally: On the status of the threatened fauna in the Central Himalaya of Nepal

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) publishes the Red List of Threatened Species, the most authoritative information available globally on the conservation status of species. However, the status of globally threatened species remains controversial at local levels because many of them are not protected as part of national statutory law. Such anomalies are examples of controversies in implementing the much-hyped environmental slogan “think globally, act locally”. Here we provide a comparative review between globally threatened species as listed by the IUCN Red List found in Nepal and those of nationally protected species under Nepalese law. We discovered a significantly higher diversity of globally threatened mammals and birds in Nepal than would be expected relative to their global ratios. We established remarkable disparities in species conservation in Nepal: (1) a large number (an average of 85% of species of five taxonomic groups: mammals, birds, amphibians, fishes and reptiles) of IUCN-listed globally threatened species found in Nepal are not protected by national law; (2) most protected species listed are mammals (70%), but more than half of globally-threatened mammals found in Nepal are not protected; and (3) amphibians and fish are not protected, although they represent 12% of the total number of globally-threatened species found in the country. Such large gaps in Nepalese conservation law are an indication of unresponsive and inefficient conservation planning. The Government of Nepal and international conservation partners should: (1) emphasize knowledge-based conservation strategies for all taxonomic groups; and (2) prioritize updating the lists of protected species.     

长江三峡河段下切速率研究*

长江三峡河段的阶地主要分布在宽谷河段和长江支流河口部位。文章通过对阶地堆积物沉积相的分析和TL测年,计算出了三峡河段不同地点的下切速率:重庆河段为84.56cm/ka,涪陵河段为93.9cm/ka,丰都河段为69.8cm/ka,忠县河段为77.65cm/ka,万州河段为75.1cm/ka,奉节河段为83.8cm/ka,宜昌三斗坪河段为74.2cm/ka。 整个三峡河段的平均下切速率为81.2cm/ka。分析得出:1)三峡河段不同地点的下切速率相近;2)近0.4Ma以来,长江三峡河段的下切速率有越来越快的趋势,这表明该地区在此期间发生了构造隆升而引起河流下切加剧;3) 长江三峡河段的下切速率与金沙江下段相近。     

鄂西-三峡地区的古人类资源及相关研究进展

自20世纪50年代发现长阳人化石以来,迄今在鄂西-三峡地区已经发现了至少10处古人类化石地点,时代跨越了整个更新世时期,尤其以更新世中、晚期人类化石最为丰富。除人类化石外,在这一地区还发现了大量的古人类制作的石器、骨器、艺术品、装饰品等人类活动遗存,以及与古人类伴生的动物化石。近年的野外发掘及实验室研究证明鄂西-三峡地区更新世中期以来一直是古人类生存与繁衍昌盛的区域,该地区丰富的古人类资源对研究与中国古人类演化有关的一系列关键学术问题具有非常重要的价值。     

三峡库区丰都段泥质岩的工程地质特性及其水稳性分析

三峡库区丰都段基岩岸坡主要由J2—3泥质岩与砂岩互层组成。其中泥质岩(包括泥岩、粉砂质泥岩、泥质粉砂岩)所占比例较大。根据野外调查和室内试验测试结果，三峡库区丰都段泥质岩普遍具有较高的成岩胶结程度，大部分泥质岩膨胀性弱或不具有膨胀性，因而具有良好的水稳性和崩解耐久性，并且随着粗颗粒含量的增大，泥质岩的水稳性明显提高。可以认为，三峡库区丰都段目前稳定的泥质岩岸坡在水库蓄水后仍将比较稳定。相对而言，粘粒含量较高的泥岩岸坡在水位波动带受干湿交替影响比较明显。     

第四纪作为地质年代和地层单位的国际争议与最终确立

第四纪(Quaternary)是地球科学中广泛使用的术语,代表地质年代中最晚的时段.在探讨全球环境变化趋势时,第四纪研究具有重要地位.但第四纪作为地质年代和地层单位的地位和底界问题,自18世纪提出以来,在国际学术界中就一直存在不同的观点;尤其是2004年部分权威学者和国际组织提出取消第四纪的方案,引发了激烈的国际大辩论.直到2009年,第四纪在地质年代中的正式地位及其底界划分方案,才最终获得了国际地科联的官方批准.回顾第四纪最初命名到正式地位确定的过程,特别强调了中国科学家立足于黄土等地质记录的研究工作,积极地参加了这场讨论,对于第四纪在地质学中的地位确立做出了重要贡献.     

三峡地区震旦系碳酸盐岩碳氧同位素特征

本文对三峡地区秭归庙河陡山沱组第一段至第三段，宜昌棺材崖陡山沱组第三段上部至灯影组底部以及四溪灯影组石板滩段和白马沱段碳酸盐岩碳氧同位素组成特点的研究结果表明，三峡地区震旦系碳同位素组成与全球新元古代广布的后Martinoan冰期地层δ^13C的分布模式基本一致，本文还讨论了地层中碳同位素组成与生物演化和地层层序发展的关系，指出陡山沱组一段白云岩中δ^13C的负异常可以作为震旦系底界划分的标志，最晚Varanger冰期在三峡地区由陡山沱组三段上部出现的三级层序界面所替代，震旦系内部陡山沱组一段和三段可能形成于Marinoan冰期之后，伊迪卡拉生物分异发展之前，而陡山沱组四段及上覆灯影峡组则大致与国外伊迪卡拉期地层对比。     

长江三峡地区汉代以来人类文明的兴衰与生态环境变迁

巫山张家湾遗址考古发掘结果表明,研究区汉代曾有较发达的农业及手工业活动。陶窑和废铁渣、废陶坯及大量陶片、汉代砖瓦的发现充分表明当时的手工业活动已具相当的规模。铁锸等铁制农具及猪、马等家畜骨头的发现表明农业已相当发达。孢粉分析表明当时植被主要以草本植物为主,木本植物较少,地面植被呈退化趋势,生态环境恶化。地面植被的减少导致地表侵蚀的增强,大量碎屑物质从赵家坡山上冲刷下来,破坏了当时人类赖以生存的环境,人们被迫迁徙。该文研究结果还表明,在利用孢粉分析的手段恢复古环境演变时应考虑到人类活动的影响,须与其它指标相互印证,才能得出合理的结果。     

Mesozoic molybdenum deposits in the east Qinling–Dabie orogenic belt: Characteristics and tectonic settings

The East Qinling–Dabie orogenic belt accommodates the largest Mo ore district in the world. It contains 8.43 Mt of proven Mo metal reserves which accounts for 66% of the total proven Chinese Mo reserves. The Mo ore district includes 24 deposits and 12 occurrences, with four major types of Mo mineral systems, i.e., porphyry, porphyry-skarn, skarn and hydrothermal veins. The latter can be further subdivided into quartz vein and carbonatite vein types. Although Mo mineralization in the belt began in the Paleoproterozoic (1680 ± 24 to 2044 ± 14 Ma), all economically significant deposits were formed during the Mesozoic. Re/Os dating of molybdenite has shown that there are three episodes of Mo mineralization, i.e., Late Triassic (233–221 Ma), Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (148–138 Ma) and Early to middle Cretaceous (131–112 Ma).Late Triassic Mo deposits developed as molybdenite–quartz veins and carbonatite vein types. Stable isotope systematics (C, O, S) and high contents of Re and Sr indicate that the carbonatite Mo veins are mantle-derived. Porphyry and porphyry–skarn Mo mineral deposits were formed in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous and Early to middle Cretaceous. The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous granite porphyries that are associated with the Mo deposits usually occupy less than 1.5 km² at the surface and are situated in the East Qinling area, far west of China's continental margin. On the other hand, the Early to middle Cretaceous batholiths and granite porphyries, , with associated Mo deposits are located in the Dabieshan area and eastern part of the East Qinling area. The Late Jurassic to Early Creataceous granitoids and related Mo deposits possibly formed in a back-arc extensional setting of the Eurasian continental margin, which was probably triggered by the oblique subduction of the Izanagi plate. The Early to middle Cretaceous batholiths and granite porphyries are linked to the tectonic regime of lithospheric thinning, asthenospheric upwelling and partial melting of the crust, induced by a change in Izanagi Plate motion parallel to the continent margin.In the East Qinling–Dabie belt there are vein type Pb–Zn–Ag deposits surrounding porphyry and/or porphyry–skarn Mo (W) deposits, forming well defined ore clusters. The same spatial arrangement (i.e., porphyry Mo stockworks and outlying Pb–Zn–Ag ore veins) is also observed at the deposit scale. Thus, Mo porphyry stockworks and distal polymetallic veins belong to the same ore system and may reflect an outward temperature decrease from the highly fractionated granite plutons. Both, porphyry stockworks and polymetallic veins, can be used as vectors for further prospecting.     

小波多尺度分解特征分析

介绍了小波多尺度分析的数学原理，以三峡13期流动重力资料为例进行了小波分解。讨论了网格距对三峡流动重力资料分解结果的影响，提出了一种计算平均点距的方法；讨论了小波阶数与重力变化波长的关系．根据网格距及小波理论计算了各阶小波及逼近对应的波长范围。讨论了重力变化区移动与数据延拓、网格加密、网形完整性以及小波计算起始点之间的关系。结果表明．如重力网形不完整，分解结果中重力变化区随小波阶增加的移动没有规律．如果网形完整．分解结果普遍存在随小波阶增加而有规律移动的负重力变化区。重力变化区移动与小波分解起始点密切相关。