There was heterogeneous distribution in stomatal conductance (g-s) and stomatal aperture for both high- and low-light leaves of Ligustrum sinense Lour. in four designated positions within a leaf. Linear or exponential...There was heterogeneous distribution in stomatal conductance (g-s) and stomatal aperture for both high- and low-light leaves of Ligustrum sinense Lour. in four designated positions within a leaf. Linear or exponential or polynomial relationships between g-s and stomatal aperture were found when regression of g-s and stomatal aperture was established. Statistical analysis revealed that the relationship between g-s and stomatal aperture for high-light leaves was more significant than that of low-light leaves. A linear relationship between g-s and stomatal aperture existed in both positions 1 and 3 for both high- and low-light leaves. The stomatal density of the low-light leaves was much lower than that of the high-light leaves. The sensitivity of stomata to changing environment for high-light leaves was higher than that for low-light leaves, which may also relate to the higher stomatal density for the high-light leaves.展开更多
The recorded meteorological data of monthly mean surface air temperature from 72 meteorological stations over the Qinghal-Tibet Plateau in the period of 1960-2003 have been analyzed by using Empirical Orthogonal Funct...The recorded meteorological data of monthly mean surface air temperature from 72 meteorological stations over the Qinghal-Tibet Plateau in the period of 1960-2003 have been analyzed by using Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) method, to understand the detailed features of its temporal and spatial variations. The results show that there was a high consistency of the monthly mean surface air temperature, with a secondarily different variation between the north and the south of the plateau. Warming trend has existed at all stations since the 1960s, while the warming rates were different in various zones. The source regions of big rivers had intense warming tendency. June, November and December were the top three fast-warming months since the 1960s; while April, July and September presented dramatic warming tendency during the last decade.展开更多
A better understanding of the regional disparity and imbalance characteristics of China's urbanization development is the important premise for constituting correct policy and strategy and promoting the healthy an...A better understanding of the regional disparity and imbalance characteristics of China's urbanization development is the important premise for constituting correct policy and strategy and promoting the healthy and sustainable development of urbanization in the 21st century. The regional differences of China's urbanization level have close relations with natural conditions of landform and climate etc.,the urbanization level reduces with the eleva-tion of topography and decrease of precipitation. According to the statistical data set of ur-banization in 1950-2006,the temporal change course of inter-provincial disparity of Chinese urbanization level since the founding of New China in 1949 was studied,and then the inter-regional and intra-regional disparities of urbanization development were analyzed by the Theil index and its nested decomposition method,to grasp the dynamic change of spatial disparities of China's urbanization level on the whole. Using the imbalance index model,the imbalance status of urban population distribution relative to total population,grain output,total agricultural output value,gross output value of industry,tertiary industrial output value as well as gross regional product was discussed,to hold the balance characteristics of urbanization development relative to the regional development conditions from the macroscopic scales.展开更多
This study focuses on the development stages of ageing and its regional differences in China based on examination of official statistics and documents. The development of ageing in China has experienced three major st...This study focuses on the development stages of ageing and its regional differences in China based on examination of official statistics and documents. The development of ageing in China has experienced three major stages. Firstly, in the 1950s, low coefficient of elderly population (over 65 years) paced up to primary adult type. Secondly, there was a deeply drop of the elderly population because of natural disaster and political factors in the 1960s. Thirdly, from the 1970s to the end of 20th century, the constant increasing of elderly coefficient made China close to elderly society. With statistic data of population, Logistic model is used to simulate the future development of ageing, and two characteristics of development of ageing are presented. Firstly, as for ageing from 2005 to 2050, the elderly coefficient will grow up significantly from 8.48% to 16.30%. Secondly, after 2025, the increasing rate of elderly coefficient will slow down gradually. The regional differences of elderly population in China can be summarized as follows: 1) the eastern China possesses higher elderly coefficient and huger elder population than the western China; 2) about 47.4% of municipalities and provinces in the eastern China become elderly especially Shanghai, Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Beijing, Tianjin and Shandong Province; 3) ageing intensity is higher in rural area than urban area but getting close each other, and there are more elderly people in rural area than in urban area. Therefore, these will arose aged care problems, and it becomes important issue to establish the social security system in rural areas as soon as possible for elderly people.展开更多
Xiamen is an economically competitive and highly urbanized city along the coastal area of Fujian Province, China. The research on spatio-temporal variation of landscape heterogeneity under the influence of human activ...Xiamen is an economically competitive and highly urbanized city along the coastal area of Fujian Province, China. The research on spatio-temporal variation of landscape heterogeneity under the influence of human activities is of great importance to the further study on the relationship of landscape pattern and ecological process. It is also crucial to the discovery of spatial variation and intensity distribution of human activities. The research analyzed the intensity of human impacts and the spatial variation features and dynamics of landscape patterns by introducing statistical theories and approaches. We analyzed spatio-temporal variation of landscape heterogeneity using the geostatistical techniques, such as semivariogram and Kriging interpolation.Results show that there is a higher correlation between landscape heterogeneity indexes and human impact index. Both the indexes show a moderate spatial autocorrelation as well as an obvious characteristic of anisotropy. From 1998 to 2008, the spatial differentiation of the changes in the intensity of human activities and the changes in landscape heterogeneity shows that the landscape patterns in Xiamen are closely related with the urban land utilization methods, the condition of traffic and geographical location and the physical geographical condition such as the terrain and the ecological environment. The process of urbanization has a significant impact on the urban landscape pattern.展开更多
The floodplain -egetation of the Tarim River in Northwest China is strongly influenced by irrigated agriculture. The abstrac- tion of river water disturbs; the natural dynamics of the floodplain ecosystem. The human i...The floodplain -egetation of the Tarim River in Northwest China is strongly influenced by irrigated agriculture. The abstrac- tion of river water disturbs; the natural dynamics of the floodplain ecosystem. The human impact on the hydrological system by bank dams and the irrigation of cotton plantings have caused adverse changes of the Tarim River and its floodplains, so the current stocks of the typical Tugai vegetation show significant signs of degradation. Field studies of soils and statistical analysis of soil moisture data have shown that the vitality of the Tugai vegetation is primarily determined by its position to the riverbank and the groundwater. There exist complex interactions between soil hydrological conditions and the vitality of the vegetation. But the availability of water is not only influenced by the groundwater level and seasonal flood events. The spatial distribution of stocks at different states of vitality seems also to be decisively influenced by physical soil properties. Our results show that the water supply of plant communities is strongly in- fluenced by the soil texture. Spatial differences of soil moisture and corresponding soil water tensions may be the decisive factors for the zonafion of vegetation. Physical soil properties control the water retention and rising of capillary water from deeper soil layers and the phreatic zone and may supply the root systems of the phreatophytic vegetation with water. Keywords: soil moisture;soil texture; soil water tensions; Tarim River; water retention展开更多
Seven surveys were carried out in April, September, October, December 2006 and March, May, August 2007 in the Yellow Sea, China. Variations in the spatial and temporal distribution of Synechococcus, picoeukaryotes and...Seven surveys were carried out in April, September, October, December 2006 and March, May, August 2007 in the Yellow Sea, China. Variations in the spatial and temporal distribution of Synechococcus, picoeukaryotes and heterotrophic bacteria are quantified using flow cytometry. Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria are most abundant from late spring to autumn, while picoeukaryotes concentration is high in spring. Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria concentrated high in the northwest part of the Yellow Sea in spring and autumn, while picoeukaryotes distributed evenly over the whole study area except for a small frontal zone in the coastal area on the west (in spring) and central Yellow Sea (in autumn). Under mixing conditions, the vertical distribution of the three picoplankton groups showed a well-mixed pattern. Upon a well-established stratification, the maximum abundance of picoplankton occurred above the mixed layer depth (-30 m). Cell sizes of Synechococcus and picoeukaryotes were estimated by converting forward scatter signals (FSC) from cytometry analysis to cell diameter, showing the results of 0.65-0.82 um for Synechococcus and 0.85-1.08 um for picoeukaryotes. The average integrated carbon biomasses ranged 15.26-312.62 mgC/m2 for Synechococcus, 18.54-51.57 mgC/m2 for picoeukaryotes, and 402.63-818.46 mgC/m2 for heterotrophic bacteria. The distribution of Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria was temperature dependent, and picoplankton presence was poor in the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass.展开更多
The complex spatiotemporal vegetation variability in the subtropical mountain-hill region was investigated through a multi-level modeling framework. Three levels - parcel, landscape, and river basin levels- were selec...The complex spatiotemporal vegetation variability in the subtropical mountain-hill region was investigated through a multi-level modeling framework. Three levels - parcel, landscape, and river basin levels- were selected to discover the complex spatiotemporal vegetation variability induced by climatic, geomorphic and anthropogenic processes at different levels. The wavelet transform method was adopted to construct the annual maximum Enhanced Vegetation Index and the amplitude of the annual phenological cycle based on the 16-day time series of a5om Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Enhanced Vegetation Index datasets during 2OOl-2OlO. Results revealed that land use strongly influenced the overall vegetation greenness and magnitude of phenological cycles. Topographic variables also contributed considerably to the models, reflecting the positive influence from altitude and slope. Additionally, climate factors played an important role: precipitation had a considerable positive association with the vegetation greenness, whereas the temperature difference had strong positive influence on the magnitude of vegetation phenology. The multilevel approach leads to a better understanding of the complex interaction of the hierarchical ecosystem, human activities and climate change.展开更多
Urbanization improves our lives but also threatens human health and sustainable development. Revealing the spatiotemporal pattern of urban expansion and spatiotemporal relationships with driving forces, especially in ...Urbanization improves our lives but also threatens human health and sustainable development. Revealing the spatiotemporal pattern of urban expansion and spatiotemporal relationships with driving forces, especially in terms of the ubiquitous and fast growing small city, is a crucial prerequisite to solving these problems and realizing sustainable development. Kunshan, China was used as a case study here. Eleven variables from four aspects covering physical, socioeconomic, accessibility and neighborhood were selected, and logistic regression and geographically weighted logistic regression modeling were employed to explore spatiotemporal relationships from 1991-2014. Results reveal that urban expansion in Kunshan shows an accelerating tendency with annual expansion from 2000-2014 four times higher than for 1991-2000. More importantly, the annual expansion rate of Kunshan of 28.42% in 2000-2014 is higher than that of a large city. Urban expansion and related factors have spatiotemporal varying relationships. From a global perspective, the closer to a city, town, main road and the higher the GDP, the more likely a region will undergo urbanization. Interestingly, the effect of population on urban expansion is decreasing, especially in developed areas, and the effect of distance to lake is enhanced. From a local perspective, the magnitude and even the sign of the coefficients vary across the study area. However, the range of the coefficient of GWLR is around that of the corresponding variable in LR, and the sign of most variables in GWLR is consistent with that of corresponding variables in LR. GWLR surpasses LR with the same explanatory variables in revealing regional differences and improving model reliability. Based on these findings, more attention should be given to small cities in China. Promoting the connotation of city culture and public services to realize New-type Urbanization and regional diversity policy in order to manage urban expansion scientifically are also recommended.展开更多
Following the Ediacaran metazoan radiation,the "Cambrian Explosion" set up the major framework of todays' animal phyla as well as modern marine ecosystem.Here,we present a preliminary investigation on th...Following the Ediacaran metazoan radiation,the "Cambrian Explosion" set up the major framework of todays' animal phyla as well as modern marine ecosystem.Here,we present a preliminary investigation on the temporal and spatial(from shallow to deep waters) variations of the early Cambrian ocean chemistry in South China through analyzing a Fe-S-C systematic dataset integrated from literature.Our investigation indicates that the early Cambrian deep ocean in South China was still anoxic and Fe2+-enriched(i.e.,ferruginous) although its surface was oxic,and in between a metastable euxinic(anoxic and sulfidic) water zone may have dynamically developed in anoxic shelf waters with an increasing weathering sulfate supply.Furthermore,accompanying marine transgression and regression cycles in the early Cambrian,such a "sandwich" structure in ocean redox chemistry demonstrates five evolutional stages,which can be well correlated to the spatiotemporal patterns of fossil records in South China.The good correlation between metazoan fossil occurrences and water chemistry in South China suggests that early animals possibly possessed ability to inhabit anoxic but generally not euxinic environments as free H2S was fatal to most eukaryotes.This view can well explain why those small shell fauna and sponges disappeared from shelf to slope areas where sulfidic Ni-Mo-rich shales were widely deposited.Thus,we conclude that the spatiotemporal variations of ocean chemistry and its biological effects probably played a key role in the phased animal radiations and "extinctions" in the early Cambrian.展开更多
文摘There was heterogeneous distribution in stomatal conductance (g-s) and stomatal aperture for both high- and low-light leaves of Ligustrum sinense Lour. in four designated positions within a leaf. Linear or exponential or polynomial relationships between g-s and stomatal aperture were found when regression of g-s and stomatal aperture was established. Statistical analysis revealed that the relationship between g-s and stomatal aperture for high-light leaves was more significant than that of low-light leaves. A linear relationship between g-s and stomatal aperture existed in both positions 1 and 3 for both high- and low-light leaves. The stomatal density of the low-light leaves was much lower than that of the high-light leaves. The sensitivity of stomata to changing environment for high-light leaves was higher than that for low-light leaves, which may also relate to the higher stomatal density for the high-light leaves.
基金Under the auspices of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40401054, No. 40121101), Hundred Talents Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, President Foundation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZCX3-SW-339), National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2005CB422004)
文摘The recorded meteorological data of monthly mean surface air temperature from 72 meteorological stations over the Qinghal-Tibet Plateau in the period of 1960-2003 have been analyzed by using Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) method, to understand the detailed features of its temporal and spatial variations. The results show that there was a high consistency of the monthly mean surface air temperature, with a secondarily different variation between the north and the south of the plateau. Warming trend has existed at all stations since the 1960s, while the warming rates were different in various zones. The source regions of big rivers had intense warming tendency. June, November and December were the top three fast-warming months since the 1960s; while April, July and September presented dramatic warming tendency during the last decade.
基金National Science and Technology Supporting Program of "the Eleventh Five-Year Plan",No.2006BAJ05A06 2006BAJ14B03-01Innovation Project of CAS, No.KZCX2-YW-307-02
文摘A better understanding of the regional disparity and imbalance characteristics of China's urbanization development is the important premise for constituting correct policy and strategy and promoting the healthy and sustainable development of urbanization in the 21st century. The regional differences of China's urbanization level have close relations with natural conditions of landform and climate etc.,the urbanization level reduces with the eleva-tion of topography and decrease of precipitation. According to the statistical data set of ur-banization in 1950-2006,the temporal change course of inter-provincial disparity of Chinese urbanization level since the founding of New China in 1949 was studied,and then the inter-regional and intra-regional disparities of urbanization development were analyzed by the Theil index and its nested decomposition method,to grasp the dynamic change of spatial disparities of China's urbanization level on the whole. Using the imbalance index model,the imbalance status of urban population distribution relative to total population,grain output,total agricultural output value,gross output value of industry,tertiary industrial output value as well as gross regional product was discussed,to hold the balance characteristics of urbanization development relative to the regional development conditions from the macroscopic scales.
文摘This study focuses on the development stages of ageing and its regional differences in China based on examination of official statistics and documents. The development of ageing in China has experienced three major stages. Firstly, in the 1950s, low coefficient of elderly population (over 65 years) paced up to primary adult type. Secondly, there was a deeply drop of the elderly population because of natural disaster and political factors in the 1960s. Thirdly, from the 1970s to the end of 20th century, the constant increasing of elderly coefficient made China close to elderly society. With statistic data of population, Logistic model is used to simulate the future development of ageing, and two characteristics of development of ageing are presented. Firstly, as for ageing from 2005 to 2050, the elderly coefficient will grow up significantly from 8.48% to 16.30%. Secondly, after 2025, the increasing rate of elderly coefficient will slow down gradually. The regional differences of elderly population in China can be summarized as follows: 1) the eastern China possesses higher elderly coefficient and huger elder population than the western China; 2) about 47.4% of municipalities and provinces in the eastern China become elderly especially Shanghai, Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Beijing, Tianjin and Shandong Province; 3) ageing intensity is higher in rural area than urban area but getting close each other, and there are more elderly people in rural area than in urban area. Therefore, these will arose aged care problems, and it becomes important issue to establish the social security system in rural areas as soon as possible for elderly people.
基金Under the auspices of National 'Eleventh Five-Year Plan' Science and Technology Support Project (No. 2009BADB2B0302)Science and Technology Major Project of Fujian Province,the European Union Seventh Framework Project (No. 247608)
文摘Xiamen is an economically competitive and highly urbanized city along the coastal area of Fujian Province, China. The research on spatio-temporal variation of landscape heterogeneity under the influence of human activities is of great importance to the further study on the relationship of landscape pattern and ecological process. It is also crucial to the discovery of spatial variation and intensity distribution of human activities. The research analyzed the intensity of human impacts and the spatial variation features and dynamics of landscape patterns by introducing statistical theories and approaches. We analyzed spatio-temporal variation of landscape heterogeneity using the geostatistical techniques, such as semivariogram and Kriging interpolation.Results show that there is a higher correlation between landscape heterogeneity indexes and human impact index. Both the indexes show a moderate spatial autocorrelation as well as an obvious characteristic of anisotropy. From 1998 to 2008, the spatial differentiation of the changes in the intensity of human activities and the changes in landscape heterogeneity shows that the landscape patterns in Xiamen are closely related with the urban land utilization methods, the condition of traffic and geographical location and the physical geographical condition such as the terrain and the ecological environment. The process of urbanization has a significant impact on the urban landscape pattern.
基金Under the auspices of Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany Project-Sustainable Management of River Oases along the Tarim River(No.01LL0918D)National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.31270742,31360200)
文摘The floodplain -egetation of the Tarim River in Northwest China is strongly influenced by irrigated agriculture. The abstrac- tion of river water disturbs; the natural dynamics of the floodplain ecosystem. The human impact on the hydrological system by bank dams and the irrigation of cotton plantings have caused adverse changes of the Tarim River and its floodplains, so the current stocks of the typical Tugai vegetation show significant signs of degradation. Field studies of soils and statistical analysis of soil moisture data have shown that the vitality of the Tugai vegetation is primarily determined by its position to the riverbank and the groundwater. There exist complex interactions between soil hydrological conditions and the vitality of the vegetation. But the availability of water is not only influenced by the groundwater level and seasonal flood events. The spatial distribution of stocks at different states of vitality seems also to be decisively influenced by physical soil properties. Our results show that the water supply of plant communities is strongly in- fluenced by the soil texture. Spatial differences of soil moisture and corresponding soil water tensions may be the decisive factors for the zonafion of vegetation. Physical soil properties control the water retention and rising of capillary water from deeper soil layers and the phreatic zone and may supply the root systems of the phreatophytic vegetation with water. Keywords: soil moisture;soil texture; soil water tensions; Tarim River; water retention
基金Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No.2011CB409804)the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (No.2007AA09Z434)the Knowledge Innovation Project,CAS (KZCX2-YW-213-3)
文摘Seven surveys were carried out in April, September, October, December 2006 and March, May, August 2007 in the Yellow Sea, China. Variations in the spatial and temporal distribution of Synechococcus, picoeukaryotes and heterotrophic bacteria are quantified using flow cytometry. Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria are most abundant from late spring to autumn, while picoeukaryotes concentration is high in spring. Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria concentrated high in the northwest part of the Yellow Sea in spring and autumn, while picoeukaryotes distributed evenly over the whole study area except for a small frontal zone in the coastal area on the west (in spring) and central Yellow Sea (in autumn). Under mixing conditions, the vertical distribution of the three picoplankton groups showed a well-mixed pattern. Upon a well-established stratification, the maximum abundance of picoplankton occurred above the mixed layer depth (-30 m). Cell sizes of Synechococcus and picoeukaryotes were estimated by converting forward scatter signals (FSC) from cytometry analysis to cell diameter, showing the results of 0.65-0.82 um for Synechococcus and 0.85-1.08 um for picoeukaryotes. The average integrated carbon biomasses ranged 15.26-312.62 mgC/m2 for Synechococcus, 18.54-51.57 mgC/m2 for picoeukaryotes, and 402.63-818.46 mgC/m2 for heterotrophic bacteria. The distribution of Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria was temperature dependent, and picoplankton presence was poor in the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 41071267)Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Scholars ([2012]940)Ministry of Education of China, and the Science Foundation of Fujian Province (Grant Nos. 2012I0005, 2012J01167)
文摘The complex spatiotemporal vegetation variability in the subtropical mountain-hill region was investigated through a multi-level modeling framework. Three levels - parcel, landscape, and river basin levels- were selected to discover the complex spatiotemporal vegetation variability induced by climatic, geomorphic and anthropogenic processes at different levels. The wavelet transform method was adopted to construct the annual maximum Enhanced Vegetation Index and the amplitude of the annual phenological cycle based on the 16-day time series of a5om Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Enhanced Vegetation Index datasets during 2OOl-2OlO. Results revealed that land use strongly influenced the overall vegetation greenness and magnitude of phenological cycles. Topographic variables also contributed considerably to the models, reflecting the positive influence from altitude and slope. Additionally, climate factors played an important role: precipitation had a considerable positive association with the vegetation greenness, whereas the temperature difference had strong positive influence on the magnitude of vegetation phenology. The multilevel approach leads to a better understanding of the complex interaction of the hierarchical ecosystem, human activities and climate change.
基金Major consulting project of the Chinese academy of engineering(201405ZD001)
文摘Urbanization improves our lives but also threatens human health and sustainable development. Revealing the spatiotemporal pattern of urban expansion and spatiotemporal relationships with driving forces, especially in terms of the ubiquitous and fast growing small city, is a crucial prerequisite to solving these problems and realizing sustainable development. Kunshan, China was used as a case study here. Eleven variables from four aspects covering physical, socioeconomic, accessibility and neighborhood were selected, and logistic regression and geographically weighted logistic regression modeling were employed to explore spatiotemporal relationships from 1991-2014. Results reveal that urban expansion in Kunshan shows an accelerating tendency with annual expansion from 2000-2014 four times higher than for 1991-2000. More importantly, the annual expansion rate of Kunshan of 28.42% in 2000-2014 is higher than that of a large city. Urban expansion and related factors have spatiotemporal varying relationships. From a global perspective, the closer to a city, town, main road and the higher the GDP, the more likely a region will undergo urbanization. Interestingly, the effect of population on urban expansion is decreasing, especially in developed areas, and the effect of distance to lake is enhanced. From a local perspective, the magnitude and even the sign of the coefficients vary across the study area. However, the range of the coefficient of GWLR is around that of the corresponding variable in LR, and the sign of most variables in GWLR is consistent with that of corresponding variables in LR. GWLR surpasses LR with the same explanatory variables in revealing regional differences and improving model reliability. Based on these findings, more attention should be given to small cities in China. Promoting the connotation of city culture and public services to realize New-type Urbanization and regional diversity policy in order to manage urban expansion scientifically are also recommended.
基金financially supported by National Basic Research Program of China(Grant Nos.2013CB955700&2011CB80880)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41172030)Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University(Grant No.NCET-11-0724)
文摘Following the Ediacaran metazoan radiation,the "Cambrian Explosion" set up the major framework of todays' animal phyla as well as modern marine ecosystem.Here,we present a preliminary investigation on the temporal and spatial(from shallow to deep waters) variations of the early Cambrian ocean chemistry in South China through analyzing a Fe-S-C systematic dataset integrated from literature.Our investigation indicates that the early Cambrian deep ocean in South China was still anoxic and Fe2+-enriched(i.e.,ferruginous) although its surface was oxic,and in between a metastable euxinic(anoxic and sulfidic) water zone may have dynamically developed in anoxic shelf waters with an increasing weathering sulfate supply.Furthermore,accompanying marine transgression and regression cycles in the early Cambrian,such a "sandwich" structure in ocean redox chemistry demonstrates five evolutional stages,which can be well correlated to the spatiotemporal patterns of fossil records in South China.The good correlation between metazoan fossil occurrences and water chemistry in South China suggests that early animals possibly possessed ability to inhabit anoxic but generally not euxinic environments as free H2S was fatal to most eukaryotes.This view can well explain why those small shell fauna and sponges disappeared from shelf to slope areas where sulfidic Ni-Mo-rich shales were widely deposited.Thus,we conclude that the spatiotemporal variations of ocean chemistry and its biological effects probably played a key role in the phased animal radiations and "extinctions" in the early Cambrian.