冰川退缩地15种丛藓科植物茎的比较结构学观察

应用石蜡切片和扫描电镜方法对一号冰川退缩地生长的15种丛藓科植物茎的结构及表面微形态特征进行观察,结果表明：该地区的15种丛藓科植物的茎分为具中轴和无中轴两类,其细胞壁均有不同程度的加厚。而具中轴的丛藓科植物的茎又分为表皮、皮部、中轴三部分,茎表皮细胞短,1层,细胞壁大多向外突出,表面粗糙,表面纹饰多为颗粒状;皮部所占面积最大,大部分有内、外皮部的分化,大多数种的细胞壁由外向内逐渐变薄,细胞由小到大整齐排列;中轴所占的面积也不同,其细胞壁多具角隅加厚;而没有中轴分化的种类,其各自细胞壁加厚的程度基本一致。     

冰川退缩地26种丛藓科植物叶中肋细胞结构的研究

该研究应用离析方法,并通过光学显微镜对新疆天山一号冰川退缩地的26种丛藓科植物叶片中肋细胞的形态结构进行比较分析,结果表明:(1)丛藓科植物叶片的中肋细胞的长、宽和细胞壁厚度、纹孔场数目及细胞端尾数目在一定程度上存在着差异,反映出各中肋细胞的功能及导水作用在同属及不同属植物之间存在一定的差异。(2)中肋细胞的端尾多以及细胞壁的波状结构都具有增强细胞间的联系、提高机械固着和支撑作用。(3)不同生境下,中肋细胞侧壁的纹孔场数目能有效控制导水和物质交换的速度。这些特征可能都是冰川地区苔藓植物对恶劣生境的积极响应,具有一定的生态学和分类学意义。     

Thanetian–Ilerdian coralline algae and benthic foraminifera from northeast India: microfacies analysis and new insights into the Tethyan perspective

Thanetian–Ilerdian carbonate deposits from the Lakadong Limestone in Assam Shelf, Meghalaya, northeast India, are studied with respect to microfacies distributions and controlling ecological factors on dominant biogenic components. Palaeoenvironmental implications are inferred following the detailed analysis of microfacies characterized by rich assemblages of coralline red algae and benthic foraminifera. The carbonate sediments have been interpreted as lagoonal to outer shelf facies. It is envisaged that the analysed benthic communities thrived in a meso‐oligotrophic regime above the fair‐weather wave base. The Lakadong Limestone constitutes a well‐preserved record of Late Palaeocene–earliest Eocene shallow marine carbonate ecosystem and has high potential to decipher its response to an interval of distinct changes in climate and tectonic settings. The abundance of oligotrophic larger benthic foraminifera in the Lakadong Limestone is comparable to the foraminiferal assemblages of west Tethys. The phylogenetic changes (‘Larger Foraminiferal Turnover’, LFT) and subsequent rapid radiation of typical Eocene larger benthic foraminifera (Alveolina, Nummulites) usually observed in the west Tethys have also been observed in the upper part of the Lakadong Limestone. The eastward migration of Eocene foraminifera from the west coincided with the India‐Asia collision and global warming events at the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary that may have produced a wide array of modifications in biogeography, seasonal run‐offs and ocean circulation pathways. The data indicate that rapid rate of migration from west before the onset of geographic barriers and/or timely restoration of pan‐Tethyan environmental conditions ensured the incidence of these forms in the earliest Eocene sediments.     

Enigmatic tubes associated with microbial crusts from the Late Jurassic of the Northern Calcareous Alps (Austria): a mutualistic sponge–epibiont consortium?

Irregular tube-shaped microfossils incertae sedis are a typical constituent of Late Jurassic shallow-water reefal carbonates of the Northern Calcareous Alps of Austria and are described in open nomenclature. The enigmatic, polymorphous spar-filled tubes with neither observable external nor internal skeletal elements occur either free within peloidal sediments or mostly fixed to skeletal substrates embedded in microbial crusts including the genera Labes Eliášová, Crescentiella Senowbari-Daryan et al . or Isnella Senowbari-Daryan. The tubes are varied in shape and closely resemble different taxa of sponges. As the microbial crusts preferentially occur associated with these tubiform microfossils, this association is suggested to be non-parasitic and mutualistic. Without the surrounding crusts, the existence of these animals would have been masked or perhaps even totally lost in the fossil record expressing the importance of these findings as a characteristic element in the inventory of Late Jurassic reefal biocoenoses.     

Gregoryceras in the Oxfordian of Kachchh (India): Diverse eventful implications

The Kachchh Oxfordian ammonoid stratigraphic record for over 150 years remained restricted largely to Early Oxfordian condensed oolitic facies in the relatively distal Mainland Kachchh. Recently, it has been enlarged with the discovery in 1994 of over 200 m-thick uncondensed Middle to Late Oxfordian succession at Kantkote in the proximal part of the basin. Apart from abundant Perisphinctinae and Mayaitinae, a 10 m-thick sediment interval in the lower half of the above succession yielded a few examples of Gregoryceras. The specimens are here identified as G. gr. devauxi Bert and Enay and in view of their association with Larcheria subschilli (Lee) are assigned to the Middle Oxfordian Subschilli Horizon of the Schilli Subzone. Gregoryceras distribution south of the equator in Kachchh, Chile, Mexico and Madagascar, all within 35-40° latitude marks the southern limit of its latitudinal expansion during the first order maximum flooding surface (MFS) of the Schilli Subzone of the Kachchh Toarcian-Hauterivian Sequence. The maximum ammonoid diversity, density and frequency of the Kachchh first order sequence coupled with dominance of mayaitins and perisphinctins suggest over 20 m depth in the Gregoryceras interval. Distinctly greater bathymetry in the 200 km distally away basinal part causes sediment starved situation, and explains the Middle Oxfordian to early Early Kimmeridgian submarine nondepositional hiatus in the Mainland Kachchh.     

The impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

With a pace of about twice the observed rate of global warming, the temperature on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau (Earth's ‘third pole’) has increased by 0.2 °C per decade over the past 50 years, which results in significant permafrost thawing and glacier retreat. Our review suggested that warming enhanced net primary production and soil respiration, decreased methane (CH₄) emissions from wetlands and increased CH₄ consumption of meadows, but might increase CH₄ emissions from lakes. Warming‐induced permafrost thawing and glaciers melting would also result in substantial emission of old carbon dioxide (CO₂) and CH₄. Nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission was not stimulated by warming itself, but might be slightly enhanced by wetting. However, there are many uncertainties in such biogeochemical cycles under climate change. Human activities (e.g. grazing, land cover changes) further modified the biogeochemical cycles and amplified such uncertainties on the plateau. If the projected warming and wetting continues, the future biogeochemical cycles will be more complicated. So facing research in this field is an ongoing challenge of integrating field observations with process‐based ecosystem models to predict the impacts of future climate change and human activities at various temporal and spatial scales. To reduce the uncertainties and to improve the precision of the predictions of the impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles, efforts should focus on conducting more field observation studies, integrating data within improved models, and developing new knowledge about coupling among carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles as well as about the role of microbes in these cycles.     

Plankton populations of Lake Leake and Tooms Lake—Oligotrophic Tasmanian Lakes

The characteristic feature of Lake Leake and Tooms Lake is their great similarity in physical and chemical limnology. This similarity extends to the plankton populations in general terms, both lakes being dominated by Cyclotella stelligera Cleve et Grun. and having few other species. Floristic differences are minimal. Despite this floristic similarity distinct differences exist in plankton periodicity, principally in that of Cyclotella stelligera. The extreme oligotrophy of the lakes, already suspected from their low nutrient levels, is confirmed by the extremely meagre standing crops.     

First record of the Late Cretaceous starfish Metopaster parkinsoni (Forbes, 1848) in Iran

A body fossil of the starfish Metopaster parkinsoni was collected from chalky rocks of the Coniacian – Santonian transition in the Abderaz Formation at the Padeha section, east of Mashhad (Kopet-Dagh, Iran). The species is common in the English Chalk and is well known from the Cenomanian to the Maastrichtian of Europe. The new Iranian occurrence of M. parkinsoni extends its geographical range of 700 km to the South and 2500 km to the East. The species proliferated in upper offshore environments of the North Tethyan continental shelves. The outstanding occurrence of many well-preserved specimens during the Coniacian – Santonian transition in Europe and Iran may be related to favorable taphonomic conditions driven by the Ocean Anoxic Event (OAE III).     

Lower Jurassic corals from the Pamir Mountains,Central Asia

The paper describes new Lower Jurassic corals from the South-Eastern Pamir Mountains (Tajikistan) and interprets their relationships with contemporaneous West Tethyan corals. Taxonomic similarities with Pliensbachian European and North African faunas indicate a Pliensbachian age for this fauna, which was previously considered to be of Hettangian/Sinemurian age. Together with the taxa earlier described from the Pamirs, this fauna consists of 30 species of 25 genera, including Triassic holdover genera such as Stylophyllopsis, Phacelostylophyllum and Eocomoseris. The bulk of the fauna represents new Jurassic genera: Alichurastrea, Eomicrophyllia, Guembelastreomorpha, Gurumdynia, Pinacomorpha, Protostephanastrea, Psenophyllia, Sedekastrea and Stylimorpha. Earlier coral studies of the region concerned the genera: Archaeosmilia Melnikova, 1975, Archaeosmiliopsis Melnikova, 1975, Cylismilia Roniewicz, 1988, Pachysmilia Melnikova, 1989, and Prodonacosmilia Melnikova in Melnikova and Roniewicz, 1976. Two species that were considered to belong to the genus Cylismilia, are redescribed and reclassified in the genera Psenophyllia, and Archaeosmilia Melnikova, respectively.