USING UPLAND FOREST IN SHIMENTAI NATURE RESERVE,CHINA*

ABSTRACT. The Shimentai Nature Reserve in Yingde County, Guangdong Province, China, established recently in a subtropical upland forest area, has served for ages as an essential and customary source of livelihood for local people. Assessment of forest usage indicates heavy reliance by villagers on its diversified biotic resources. This forest dependence, associated with socioeconomic factors such as distance from village, ethnic origin, out‐migration of rural youngsters, and a local tradition of conservation, is unlikely to decline in the near future. The reserve management recognizes the need to address the livelihood issues of local people and to win local support. A pragmatic adherence to provincial and higher‐level policies that exclude forest‐tapping activities could lead to more people‐versus‐park conflicts, which would dilute fundamental conservation objectives. A more enlightened and localized approach that nurtures a synergy between limited forest use and conservation while helping to develop new income sources could furnish workable alternatives.     

SPRING ICE-JAM FLOODING OF THE PEACE-ATHABASCA DELTA: EVIDENCE OF A CLIMATIC OSCILLATION

A historic record of spring ice-jam floods of the Peace-Athabasca Delta was analyzed for the years 1826–1995. The temporal pattern of flooding is non-random. The likelihood of a flood following a flood, or a non-flood following a non-flood, is greater than expected by chance. Probability analysis of flood occurrence reveals that the period 1860–1880 was a time of unusually few floods, and the period 1915–1950 was a time of unusually frequent floods. The long-term flood frequency is 1 flood in 6.25 years. Changes in flood frequency over the record reveal a pattern of oscillation described by a sine-based model that is correlated with the long-term (Gleissberg) cycle of solar activity. Monte Carlo simulation was used to test a Bennett Dam Model and a Cyclic Model. The Bennett Dam Model is unlikely to have generated the observed flood history (p=0.04). The observed flood history shows a better fit to the Cyclic Model (p=0.65). No correlations between floods and ENSO cold or warm events was detected. The most recent wet period began about 1900 and ended in the early 1960's prior to completion of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam in British Columbia. As independent corroboration of climatically-driven changes in flood frequency we present three additional lines of evidence. The pattern of annual muskrat returns (95 year record) reveals both 10 year cycles and long-term patterns that agree well with the observed flood cycle. The annual area burned in Wood Buffalo National Park is inversely related to flood occurrence. Incised channels and dendritic drainage patterns in the bed of Lake Mamawi provide probable evidence of a previous dry period in the delta. Climatic change or oscillation likely underlies the drying trend observed in recent decades in the Peace-Athabasca Delta.     

Preservation of planar laminae due to migration of low-relief bed waves over aggrading upper-stage plane beds: comparison of experimental data with theory

Experimental studies of the formation of planar laminae by migration of low-relief bed waves over aggrading upper-stage plane beds show that the average thickness of laminae at a point increases with both aggradation rate and the variance of the heights of bed waves passing that point. In general, the preserved laminae represent only a small proportion (generally less than 50%) of the height of the largest bed waves in the population. The theory developed by Paola & Borgman (1991), relating the probability density function of stratal thickness to that of bed wave height for the case of no net aggradation, was adapted for aggrading conditions and shown to agree well with data. These results suggest that the theory can be used to estimate, from the distribution of thickness of planar laminae, either the distribution of bed wave heights, mean aggradation rate, mean bed wave length or mean bed wave celerity, provided the other parameters can be estimated.     

The morphology and dynamics of low amplitude bedwaves upon upper stage plane beds and the preservation of planar laminae

Experimental studies of subcritical, unidirectional flow over upper stage plane beds of medium grained sand reveal the ubiquitous presence of low amplitude bedwaves. Flow depth was 0·11 m, mean flow velocities were 0·86–1·0 m s^?1, shear velocities were 0·058–0·71 m s^?1 and dimensionless shear stresses were 0·56–0·87. Bedwaves are asymmetrical in profile and range from 0·75 to 11 mm in height (mainly 2–6 mm), from 0·7 to 1·3 m in wavelength and have mean celerities of 10 mm s^?1. Flow records suggest that the bedwaves are associated with accelerating flow over the bedwave crests and flow which decelerates and diverges laterally over the troughs. High resolution bed profiling during aggradation of the bed combined with subsequent box coring illustrates that these bedwaves are responsible for the planar laminae characteristic of upper stage plane beds. Lamina preservation is dependent upon the mean aggradation rate and the sequence of bedwaves of different height crossing any point; individual laminae are more readily preserved at higher aggradation rates where the possibility of reworking by later bedwaves is reduced. Laminae are recognized by small changes in grain size and commonly a fining upwards at the top of laminae which is generated by fine grained material infiltrating a lower lamina in the leeside of a bedwave.     

A polygon reduction algorithm for enhancing graphics performance with application to fast rendering of geophysical and ionospheric model data

Many scientific applications employ computer graphics as a means of interactively visualizing two-dimensional geophysical data sets. This paper presents an algorithm for improving rendering performance by using an image segmentation approach to reduce the number of rendered polygons while maintaining complete display fidelity. Though applied here specifically to the output from a numerical ionosphere model, the algorithm is broadly applicable to many other two-dimensional cellular data sets, geophysical and otherwise. In an ionospheric context, this algorithm demonstrates the ability to reduce the number of rendered polygons by 95 per cent or more with a corresponding reduction in rendering time.     

Near-Ultrahigh Pressure Processing of Continental Crust: Miocene Crustal Xenoliths from the Pamir

Xenoliths of subducted crustal origin hosted by Miocene ultrapotassicigneous rocks in the southern Pamir provide important new informationregarding the geological processes accompanying tectonism duringthe Indo-Eurasian collision. Four types have been studied: sanidineeclogites (omphacite, garnet, sanidine, quartz, biotite, kyanite),felsic granulites (garnet, quartz, sanidine and kyanite), basalticeclogites (omphacite and garnet), and a glimmerite (biotite,clinopyroxene and sanidine). Apatite, rutile and carbonate arethe most abundant minor phases. Hydrous phases (biotite andphengite in felsic granulites and basaltic eclogites, amphibolesin mafic and sanidine eclogites) and plagioclase form minorinclusions in garnet or kyanite. Solid-phase thermobarometryreveals recrystallization at mainly ultrahigh temperatures of1000–1100°C and near-ultrahigh pressures of 2·5–2·8GPa. Textures, parageneses and mineral compositions suggestderivation of the xenoliths from subducted basaltic, tonaliticand pelitic crust that experienced high-pressure dehydrationmelting, K-rich metasomatism, and solid-state re-equilibration.The timing of these processes is constrained by zircon agesfrom the xenoliths and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of the host volcanic rocksto 57–11 Ma. These xenoliths reveal that deeply subductedcrust may undergo extensive dehydration-driven partial melting,density-driven differentiation and disaggregation, and sequestrationwithin the mantle. These processes may also contribute to thealkaline volcanism observed in continent-collision zones. KEY WORDS: xenolith; high-pressure; subduction; Pamir; Tibet