How does the stand structure of treeline-forming species shape the treeline ecotone in different regions of the Nepal Himalayas?

Stand structure dynamics are considered as major happenings in any forest as a response to environmental changes.However,this important topic is underrepresented in the treeline studies in the Nepal Himalayas.We aimed to investigate site-as well as species-specific changes in morphometric features(basal diameter,crown cover,density,and height)along the elevational gradient across treeline ecotones in response to recent environmental changes.The stand structure characteristics of Abies spectabilis,Pinus wallichiana,and Betula utilis across the treeline ecotone of three study sites in Eastern(Barun),Central(Manang),and Western(Dhorpatan)Nepal were analyzed to elucidate structural heterogeneities.Altogether,eight transects(20 m×(60–250 m))across the treeline ecotone were established.Trees of all life forms,trees(>2 m),saplings(0.5–2 m),and seedlings(<0.5 m),within each transect were enumerated and sampled for the morphometric features and age.Site-specific and species-specific stand structure dynamics were found.The rate of basal area increment was higher in Barun,but the Manang treeline,despite profound regeneration in recent years,had a low annual basal area increment.Moreover,the altitudinal distribution of age and morphometry were not consistent among those ecotones.Furthermore,intra-specific competition was not significant.The site-specific stand structure dynamics explain why treelines do not respond uniformly to increasing temperature.It invokes,in further studies,the incorporation of the tree’s morphometric adaptation traits,phenotypic plasticity,and interactions between species genotype and the environment.

PALEOCLIMATIC CHANGES DURING THE LAST 2.5Ma RECORDED IN THE KATHMANDU BASIN, CENTRAL NEPAL HIMALAYAS

The Kathmandu valley is an intermountain basin located at about 1300 and surounded by mountains around 2400m.Thick fluvio\|lacustrine sediments from late Pliocene to Quaternary are accumulated there under monsoon climate.We undertook palynological and sedimentological studies on 284\|m\|long drilled core that reaches the basement of the kathmandu basin,in order to clarify the paleoclimatic changes and their tectonic link with uplifting of the Himalayas..The core is lithologically divided into three members:sand predominant lower member (51m),slit and clay dominant middle member (182m) and organic silty clay predominant upper member (45m).We analyzed fossil pollens contained in muddy samples which were taken from the middle and upper member in every one meter interval.The pollen assemblage is characterized by predominance of \%Quercus,\%30%～80% of the all arboreal pollen.We inferred paleoclimatic changes on the basis of comparison between present vegetation and climate of Kathmandu valley and surrounded mountains and pollen diagram which we obtained.For the purpose of inference of paleoclimate,we used the following genera as climatic index:\%Pinus\% for cold climate, \%Quercus\% and \%Cyclobalanopsis\% for warm climate, Alnus for wet climate and Gramineae for dry climate.As the reference.we also examined amount of another eight genera,two family and all spores.The pollen diagram shows two pattern of paleoclimatic changes:oscillation pattern with seven times fluctuation of warm and cold climate in younger period (ca.115m in depth),and older less fluctuated pattern of warm climate.During the older period (209～215m in depth),one cold stage was recognized,and is characterized by predominance of Pinus and occurrence of Tsuga .

THRUST PACKAGES OF 1.68 Ga INDIAN SUPRA-CRUSTAL ROCKS IN THE MIOCENE SIWALIK BELT,CENTRAL NEPAL HIMALAYAS

The Siwalik Belt is a frontal fold\|thrust belt of the Himalayas and composed of thick sequence of foreland basin sediments derived from the Himalayas during the last 15 to 17 million years.From this Miocene belt in the central Nepal,we discovered exotic thrust packages of the Middle Proterozoic rocks,which has been regarded as the Siwalik Group or post\|collisional sediments correlatable with the Subathu or Murree Formation in India.The thrust belt,called the Bagmati Belt,is narrowly distributed in the Siwalik Belt,22km to the north of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT or HFF) that is an active fault and considered to be the deformation front of the Himalayan orogen.The Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) which separates the Siwalik Belt from the Lesser Himalayan Belt runs 7km to the north of the thrust packages.Within the belt,tectonic slices of 400m to 1km in thickness are repeated three to five times due to thrusts,sandwiching a thin slice of the Siwalik beds.The thrust package consists of the pre\|Siwalik sedimetary rocks and sills of dolerite,and named as the Bagmati Group.The thickness is only about 800m due to tectonic repition by thrust,although the group has been considered to be a continuous sequence attaining 2200m in thickness.We divided the Bagmati Group into three formations,each of which shows an upward\|coarsening and thickening sequence of 200 to 350m in thickness.All sequence is composed of red\|brown orthoquartzite,pink quartzite,micaceous shale and thin sandstone interbed and rhythmite,mottled hematite and hematitic pisolite.We interpret that the Bagmati Group was deposited in shallow lacustrine and desert environments.

GEOLOGY OF THE TAPLEJUNG WINDOW AND FRONTAL BELT, FAR EASTERN NEPAL HIMALAYA

We present a preliminary result of the study carried out in the northern and southern sections of the Taplejung Window and the frontal part of the thrust sheet near The study area comprises of three tectonic units: (1) The Lesser Himalayan (LH) Unit exposed in the Taplejung Window (Fig. 1a, 1b, Upreti and Le Fort, 1999), (2) The thrust sheet consisting of the Higher Himalayan Crystallines (HHC) and forming the hanging wall of the Main Central Thrust (MCT) exposed around the window, and which has traveled far south reaching very close to the MBT (Fig.1c), and (3) The Lesser Himalayan Unit sandwiched between the MBT and the southern extension of the MCT (Fig.1c).The LH Unit of the window and the sandwiched southern part consist mainly of phyllites, schists, quartzites, gneisses and augen gneiss of granitic origin with minor association of amphibolites, marbles (Fig. 1a, 1c). An foliated granitic rock is found within the phyllites and schists near the Kabeli bridge within the window. The HHC consists mainly of the garnet, kyanite, sillimanite bearing banded gneisses interbedded with quartzites with incipient traces of mobilization. Detailed petrography of all these rocks are described.

Improvement of Glacial Lakes Detection under Shadow Environment Using ASTER Data in Himalayas, Nepal

The detection of glacial lake change in the Himalayas, Nepal is extremely significant since the glacial lake change is one of the crucial indicators of global climate change in this area, where is the most sensitive area of the global climate changes. In the Himalayas, some of glacial lakes are covered by the dark mountains′ shadow because of their location. Therefore, these lakes can not be detected by conventional method such as Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), because the reflectance feature of shadowed glacial lake is different comparing to the ones which are located in the open flat area. The shadow causes two major problems: 1) glacial lakes which are covered by shadow completely result in underestimation of the number of glacial lakes; 2) glacial lakes which are partly identified are considered to undervalue the area of glacial lakes. The aim of this study is to develop a new model, named Detection of Shadowed Glacial Lakes (DSGL) model, to identify glacial lakes under the shadow environment by using Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data in the Himalayas, Nepal. The DSGL model is based on integration of two different modifications of NDWI, namely NDWIs model and NDWI she model. NDWIs is defined as integration of the NDWI and slope analysis and used for detecting non-shadowed lake in the mountain area. The NDWIshe is proposed as a new methodology to overcome the weakness of NDWIs on identifying shadowed lakes in highly elevated mountainous area such as the Himalayas. The first step of the NDWIshe is to enhance the data from ASTER 1B using the histogram equalization (HE) method, and its outcome product is named ASTER he . We used the ASTER he for calculating the NDWI he and the NDWIshe . Integrated with terrain analysis using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data, the NDWI she can be used to identify the shadowed glacial lakes in the Himalayas. NDWIs value of 0.41 is used to identify the glacier lake (NDWIs≥0.41), and 0.3 of NDWIshe is used to identify the shadowed glacier lake (NDWIshe≤0.3). The DSGL model was proved to be able to classify the glacial lakes more accurately, while the NDWI model had tendency to underestimate the presence of actual glacial lakes. Correct classification rate regarding the products from NDWI model and DSGL model were 57% and 99%, respectively. The results of this paper demonstrated that the DSGL model is promising to detect glacial lakes in the shadowed environment at high mountains.

Distribution Patterns of Medicinal Plants along an Elevational Gradient in Central Himalaya,Nepal

This study aimed to compare the distribution patterns and trends of plant parts used among different groups of medicinal plants, geographical regions,and between medicinal plants and all vascular plants.We used the published sources for elevation records of 2,331 medicinal plant species to interpolate presence between minimum and maximum elevations and estimated medicinal plant richness for each 100-m elevational band. Monte Carlo simulations were used to test whether differences in elevational distribution between different groups of medicinal plants were significant. Total number of medicinal plants as well as different groups showed unimodal relationship with elevation. The elevational distributions of medicinal plants significantly differ between regions and between medicinal plant groups.When comparing the richness of all medicinal plants to all vascular plants,Monte Carlo simulations indicated that the numbers of medicinal plants are higher than expected at low elevations.The highest richness of medicinal plants at low elevation could be possibly due to favorable environmental factors such as high temperature, rainfall,sunlight or due to higher density of human population and thus higher pressure on use of any plants in lower elevations.

LOW TEMPERATURE DATING OF HIGH MOUNTAIN ROCKS:(U-Th)/He AGES FROM HIGHER HIMALAYAN SAMPLES, EASTERN NEPAL

Recently the (U\|Th)/He method on apatite has been applied to studies of cooling and exhumation in mountain belts in order to place constraints on the low temperature cooling history (Wolf et al., 1997; House et al., 1998). Because the closure temperature of the method is 65～75℃, it provides useful information regarding the exhumation of rocks through the upper few kilometers of the earth’s crust. When the (U\|Th)/He method is coupled with methods such as 40 Ar/ 39 Ar with higher closure temperatures (210～500℃), a cooling history can be reconstructed over a wide range of temperatures. In eastern Nepal, in the Dudh Kosi valley a suite of samples from the Main Central Thrust (MCT) to the middle of the Higher Himalayan section was previously dated using 40 Ar/ 39 Ar on K\|feldspar, biotite, muscovite, and hornblende (Hubbard and Harrison,1989). We have applied the (U\|Th)/He method to apatite from these same samples. The structurally highest site, Ngozumba, is in the middle to upper part of the Higher Himalaya in the Gokyo valley. At Ngozumba previous 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages include: muscovite at (16 6±0 4)Ma (closure temperature (CT)350℃), biotite at (16 8±1 4)Ma (CT 300℃), and K\|feldspar at (15 5±1 8)Ma (CT 250℃).The apatite age for an augen gneiss from this location was (6 3±3 8)Ma suggesting slower cooling for that part of the range during the last 15Ma. Structurally below Ngozumba, in the MCT zone, 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages include:(20 9±0 2)Ma for hornblende (CT 500℃), (12 0±0 2)Ma for muscovite, and (8 0±0 2)Ma for K\|feldspar (CT 220℃). The apatite age obtained for a biotite schist at this location was (4 6±0 2)Ma and is consistent with relatively constant cooling since 12Ma. In between the MCT and the Ngozumba site samples were collected near the settlement of Ghat that yielded anomalously young 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages:(7 7±0 4)Ma for muscovite, (7 5±0 6)Ma for biotite, and (3 6±0 2)Ma for K\|feldspar (CT 210℃). The apatite age is consistent with these young ages at (0 8±0 1)Ma. Plausible explanations for the young ages at this site include: post\|MCT age movement on a small\|scale shear zone or late\|stage movement of hydro\|thermal fluids through this localized zone. The MCT zone 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages were used to constrain a one\|dimensional thermal model aimed at understanding rates of exhumation (Hubbard et al., 1991). The model yielded exhumation rates of 0 7～1 9km/Ma for the MCT zone region. The (U\|Th)/He age for apatite from this region is consistent with the model results. By coupling the (U\|Th)/He ages with the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages in this region we can determine that exhumation processes have acted at a relatively constant rate during the last 15～20 million years (with the possible exception of the Ghat location). Major fault activity likely pre\|dates this time period, or has had little affect on the cooling history.

SLOPE INSTABILITY HAZARDS IN GRANITES OF THE LESSER HIMALAYAN EXAMPLE OF THE PALUNG GRANITE OF CENTRAL NEPAL

Granites are hard and sound rock at relatively fresh or unweathered condition. Steep rocky slopes are the characteristic features in the area occupied by granites of the Lesser Himalaya including Kathmandu nappe. Almost vertical to sometimes overhanging slopes in granites look stable in dry season, but the steeper slopes in the areas occupied by granitic rocks are metastable to unstable. The instabilities are related to: variation in texture and mineral composition of granite, nature and intensity of weathering (mechanical and chemical), altitude of the area, orientation of natural slope with reference to the predominant joint sets, quality of rock mass, stress release and activity of subsurface water during monsoon. The study is supposed to be an example for the study of the slope instabilities in the other part of the Himalaya occupied by granitic bodies.

Elevational distribution of butterflies in the Himalayas: a case study from Langtang National Park, Nepal

Mountain ecosystems are relatively more vulnerable to climate change since human induced climate change is projected to be higher at high altitudes and latitudes. Climate change induced effects related to glacial response and water hazards have been documented in the Himalayas in recent years, yet studies regarding species' response to climate change are largely lacking from the mountains and Himalayas of Nepal. Changes in distribution and latitudinal/altitudinal range shift, which are primary adaptive responses to climate change in many species,are largely unknown due to unavailability of adequate data from the past. In this study, we explored the elevational distribution of butterflies in Langtang Village Development Committee(VDC) of Langtang National park; a park located in the high altitudes of Nepal. We found a decreasing species richness pattern along the elevational gradient considered here.Interestingly, elevation did not appear to have a significant effect on the altitudinal distribution ofbutterflies at family level. Also, distribution of butterflies in the area was independent of habitat type,at family level. Besides, we employed indicator group analysis(at family level) and noticed that butterfly families Papilionidae, Riodinidae, and Nymphalidae are significantly associated to high, medium and low elevational zone making them indicator butterfly family for those elevational zones, respectively. We expect that this study could serve as a baseline information for future studies regarding climate change effects and range shifts and provide avenues for further exploration of butterflies in the high altitudes of Nepal.

Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in Nepal

The seismic ground motion hazard for Nepal has been estimated using a probabilistic approach. A catalogue of earthquakes has been compiled for Nepal and the surrounding region （latitude 26% N and 31.7% N and longitude 79° E and 90° E） from 1255 to 2011. The distribution of catalogued earthquakes, together with available geological and tectonic information were used to delineate twenty-three seismic source seismic source information and probabilistic earthquake hazard prediction relationship, peak ground accelerations （PGAs） have zones in Nepal and the surrounding region. By using the parameters in conjunction with a selected ground motion been calculated at bedrock level with 63%, 10%, and 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years. The estimated PGA values are in the range of 0.07-0.16 g, 0.21 0.62 g, and 0.38-1.1 g for 63%, 10%, and 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years, respectively. The resulting ground motion maps show different characteristics of PGA distribution, i.e., high hazard in the far-western and eastern sections, and low hazard in southern Nepal. The quantified PGA values at bedrock level provide information for microzonation studies in different parts of the country.

An Investigation of Landslide Susceptibility Using Logistic Regression and Statistical Index Methods in Dailekh District, Nepal

Landslide distribution and susceptibility mapping are the fundamental steps for landslide-related hazard and disaster risk management activities, especially in the Himalaya region which has resulted in a great deal of death and damage to property. To better understand the landslide condition in the Nepal Himalaya, we carried out an investigation on the landslide distribution and susceptibility using the landslide inventory data and 12 different contributing factors in the Dailekh district, Western Nepal. Based on the evaluation of the frequency distribution of the landslide, the relationship between the landslide and the various contributing factors was determined.Then, the landslide susceptibility was calculated using logistic regression and statistical index methods along with different topographic(slope, aspect, relative relief, plan curvature, altitude, topographic wetness index) and non-topographic factors(distance from river, normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI), distance from road, precipitation, land use and land cover, and geology), and 470(70%) of total 658 landslides. The receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve analysis using 198(30%) of total landslides showed that the prediction curve rates(area under the curve, AUC) values for two methods(logistic regression and statistical index) were 0.826, and 0.823with success rates of 0.793, and 0.811, respectively. The values of R-Index for the logistic regression and statistical index methods were83.66 and 88.54, respectively, consisting of high susceptible hazard classes. In general, this research concluded that the cohesive and coherent natural interplay of topographic and non-topographic factors strongly affects landslide occurrence, distribution, and susceptibility condition in the Nepal Himalaya region. Furthermore, the reliability of these two methods is verified for landslide susceptibility mapping in Nepal’s central mountain region.

Quantitative analysis of the Nepal earthquake on 25 April, 2015 in the perspective of future earthquake hazard

The earthquake that occurred in Nepal on 25 April, 2015 was followed by about 256 aftershocks which continued for another 20-25 days. The Coulomb stress change due to the main shock has been estimated at depths 10 km, 15 km and 22 km which justify the occurrence of about 218 aftershocks of magnitudes 4 to 5 mostly at 10 km depth and the rest of magnitudes 5 to 7.3 mostly at 15-30 km depth. The western, southern and northern fringes of the fault plane that slipped on 25 April, 2015 show a high value of positive Coulomb stress change estimated at the above mentioned depths and yet these parts of the fault remained devoid of any aftershock epicentre and therefore must be treated as seats for possible future events. Co-seismic displacement of 5 GPS stations located in Nepal after the devastating earthquake of MwZ8 on 25 April, 2015 and its largest aftershock of MwZ3 on 12 May, 2015 have been separately estimated and analysed.

Distribution Pattern of Vascular Plant Species of Mountains in Nepal and their Fate Against Global Warming

This study aims to find the altitudinal distribution pattern of vascular plant species reported from high mountain of Nepal(Manang) along the whole Himalayan elevation gradient, and evaluate their fate against climate change. Data was gathered from multiple sources, field investigations, literatures, and herbarium specimens. Altogether, 303 vascular plant species were reported from Manang. We used a published data to calculate distribution range of each species by interpolating between its upper and lower elevation limits. The relationship between elevation and species richness is elucidated by generalized linear model. The consequence of global warming upon Manang's vascular plant species was estimated based on projected temperature change for next century and adiabatic lapse rate along the elevation gradient of the Himalayas. The vascular plant species richness has a unimodel relationship with elevation along the whole elevation gradient of Nepal as well as in three biogeographical regions of Nepal. Vascular plants of Manang are found distributed from low land Terai to high alpine regions of Nepal and their elevation distribution range varies from 200 to 4700 m. Out of 303 vascular plants of Manang, only seven species might be affected if temperature increase by 1.5°C, whereas at least 70 species will be affected with 5°C temperature increased. However, the majority of species(233 species) have wider distribution range(> 1000 m) and more than 5°C temperature tolerance range, thus they are likely to be less affected from global warming by the end of 21 st century.

Digital Terrain Modelling Using Corona and ALOS PRISM Data to Investigate the Distal Part of Imja Glacier,Khumbu Himal,Nepal

This study used Corona KH-4A and Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) PRISM images to generate digital terrain models (DTMs) of the distal part of Imja Glacier,where a few supraglacial ponds (～0.07 km 2) expanded into the large Imja Glacier Lake (Imja Tsho,～0.91 km 2) between 1964 and 2006.DTMs and subsequently derived topographical maps with contour intervals of 1 m were created from the high-resolution images (Corona in 1964 and ALOS in 2006) in the Leica Photogrammetric Suite (LPS) platform.The DTMs and topographic maps provided excellent representation of the elevation and micro-topography of the glacier surface,such as its supra-glacial ponds/lake,surface depressions,and moraine ridges,with an error of about +/-4 m (maximum).The DTMs produced from the Corona and ALOS PRISM images are suitable for use in studies of the surface change of glaciers.The topographical maps produced from the Corona data (1964) showed that part of the dead ice in the down-glacier area was even higher than the top of the lateral moraine ridges,while the glacier surface in the up-glacier area was noticeably lower than the moraine crests.This suggests more extensive melting of glacier ice in the up-glacier area before 1964.The average lowering of the glacier surface from 1964 to 2006 was 16.9 m for the dead-ice area west of the lake and 47.4 m for the glacier surface east of the lake;between 1964 and 2002,the lake surface lowered by 82.3 m.These figures represent average lowering rates of 0.4,1.1,and 2.2 m/year for the respective areas.

Implications of tree species–environment relationships for the responsiveness of Himalayan krummholz treelines to climate change

Climate warming is expected to advance treelines to higher elevations. However, empirical studies in diverse mountain ranges give evidence of both advancing alpine treelines as well as rather insignificant responses. In this context, we aim at investigating the sensitivity and responsiveness of the near-natural treeline ecotone in Rolwaling Himal, Nepal, to climate warming. We analysed population densities of tree species along the treeline ecotone from closed forest stands via the krummholz belt to alpine dwarf shrub heaths(3700-4200 m) at 50 plots in 2013 and 2014. We quantified species-environment relationships, i.e. the change ofenvironmental conditions(e.g., nutrient and thermal deficits, plant interactions) across the ecotone by means of redundancy analyses, variation partitioning and distance-based Moran's eigenvector maps. In particular, we focus on explaining the high competitiveness of Rhododendron campanulatum forming a dense krummholz belt and on the implications for the responsiveness of Himalayan krummholz treelines to climate change. Results indicate that treeline trees in the ecotone show species-specific responses to the influence of environmental parameters, and that juvenile and adult tree responses are modulated by environmental constraints in differing intensity. Moreover, the species-environment relationships suggest that the investigated krummholz belt will largely prevent theupward migration of other tree species and thus constrain the future response of Himalayan krummholz treelines to climate warming.

Characteristics of landslide in Koshi River Basin,Central Himalaya

Koshi River basin, which lies in the Central Himalayas with an area of 71,500 km2, is an important trans-boundary river basin shared by China, Nepal and India. Yet, landslide-prone areas are all located in China and Nepal, imposing alarming risks of widespread damages to property and loss of human life in both countries. Against this backdrop, this research, by utilizing remote sensing images and topographic maps, has identified a total number of 6877 landslides for the past 23 years and further examined their distribution, characteristics and causes. Analysis shows that the two-step topography in the Himalayan region has a considerable effect on the distribution of landslides in this area. Dense distribution of landslides falls into two regions: the Lesser Himalaya(mostly small and medium size landslides in east-west direction) and the TransitionBelt(mostly large and medium size landslides along the river in north-south direction). Landslides decrease against the elevation while the southern slopes of the Himalayas have more landslides than its northern side. Change analysis was carried out by comparing landslide distribution data of 1992, 2010 and 2015 in the Koshi River basin. The rainfallinduced landslides, usually small and shallow and occurring more frequently in regions with an elevation lower than 1000 m, are common in the south and south-east slopes due to heavy precipitation in the region, and are more prone to the slope gradient of 20°~30°. Most of them are distributed in Proterozoic stratum(Pt3ε, Pt3 and Pt2-3) and Quaternary stratum. While for earthquake-induced landslides, they are more prone to higher elevations(2000~3000 m) and steeper slopes(40°~50°).

Landslide susceptibility assessment of the region affected by the 25 April 2015 Gorkha earthquake of Nepal

Nepal was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on 25^(th) April,2015.The main shock and many large aftershocks generated a large number of coseismic landslips in central Nepal.We have developed a landslide susceptibility map of the affected region based on the coseismic landslides collected from remotely sensed data and fieldwork,using bivariate statistical model with different landslide causative factors.From the investigation,it is observed that most of the coseismic landslides are independent of previous landslides.Out of 3,716 mapped landslides,we used 80% of them to develop a susceptibility map and the remaining 20% were taken for validating the model.A total of 11 different landslide-influencing parameters were considered.These include slope gradient,slope aspect,plan curvature,elevation,relative relief,Peak Ground Acceleration(PGA),distance from epicenters of the mainshock and major aftershocks,lithology,distance of the landslide from the fault,fold,and drainage line.The success rate of 87.66% and the prediction rate of86.87% indicate that the model is in good agreement between the developed susceptibility map and theexisting landslides data.PGA,lithology,slope angle and elevation have played a major role in triggering the coseismic mass movements.This susceptibility map can be used for relocating the people in the affected regions as well as for future land development.

A New Species of Megophryid Frog of the Genus Scutiger from Kangchenjunga Conservation Area, Eastern Nepal

This study investigated the systematics of the megophryid genus Scutiger from eastern and western Nepal using molecular and morphological data. Our results support two divergent lineages, one of which has nuptial spines on the dorsal surface of the first three fingers while the other has spines only on the dorsal surface of the first two fingers. The Ghunsa lineage from eastern Nepal shows significant morphological and molecular differences to other species of genus Scutiger and is here described as a new species. Based on the molecular analysis, the Muktinath lineage from western Nepal is confirmed to be Scutiger boulengeri and represents a species complex widespread throughout the Himalayan region. The newly described taxon is endemic to the eastern Himalayas and currently known only from the Ghunsa valley, Taplejung district, Nepal.

尼泊尔基本石油地质条件及对油气勘探的启示

尼泊尔境内地质条件复杂,油气勘探程度和投入及油气地质认识程度很低,但其低喜马拉雅带及以南地区具丰富的油气显示。为了进一步探讨尼泊尔山前带的油气勘探潜力,结合前人研究成果及新认识,对尼泊尔低喜马拉雅带及以南的区域油气地质特征进行了梳理、总结与分析。结果表明,尼泊尔低喜马拉雅带及以南发育多套潜在的规模性烃源岩,具有潜在的生、储、盖组合;新构造运动是控制区域性油气运移与调整成藏的关键;丰富的地表油气显示及静态石油地质条件预示着尼泊尔低喜马拉雅带及以南,尤其是MBT以南具有良好的油气远景与勘探潜力。