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Northwest Yunnan is nested in the border areas of Tibet, Myanmar, and Southwest China. The religiously and ethnically diverse region has astonishingly seen a lack of "conflict", as is often assumed in regions of ethnic and religious differences. This paper argues that there is an organic form of pluralism through frequent inter-ethnic and inter-religious marriages, multi-lingual daily interactions, and strategic ethnicity registrations. Ethnic and religious boundaries are made permanently or temporarily permeable through the celebration of boundary-crossing rituals such as weddings and funerals and other shared experiences such as collective labor and migrant work. Despite an increasingly strong push to be integrated into the state power through various top-down developmental projects, minority peoples here still use kinship, collective rituals, and other shared experiences to foster group formation that is fluid, porous, and malleable, instilling empathy and obligation as the basis of this pluralistic borderland society. This organic form of pluralism presents an alternative to the nation as the standard modern form of community. This paper ultimately argues that this specific type of plurality requires us to think beyond the normative liberal notions of religious tolerance and diversity that are still promoted within the frame of the exclusivist nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report five new dinosaur track sites in Chaya County, about 120 km southeast of Changdu City. The track assemblages are dominated by sauropods (45 tracks), which have been identified tentatively as cf. Brontopodus. Also present are two thyreophoran trackways consisting of 13 tracks that show strong similarities with the ichnogenus Deltapodus, the potential trackmakers of which were probably stegosaurids. The sauropod tracks from the Chaya region are dominated by large tracks with different affinities if compared to those of the Changdu area. The isolated sauropod tracks from Changdu and Chaya regions show similar morphological patterns, but those from the Chaya region lack large scale tracks. This paper compares and discusses the known ichno and body fossil records of sauropods, theropods, and ornithischians from the Middle Jurassic of Yunnan, Sichuan, and eastern Tibet and their importance for our understanding of dinosaur faunas from this region. The absence of basal neornithischian records in the Yunnan and Changdu regions is likely a preservational bias but also an ecological pecularity cannot be completely excluded. The palaeogeographic position of the four sampled skeleton and track sites suggests the possible existence of a corridor through which faunal exchanges were taking place throughout the Jurassic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shoshonitic rocks are widely distributed in post-collisional settings and provide key information on deep geodynamic mechanisms and magmatic evolution. In this paper, we present petrographic, zircon U-Pb age-related, trace elemental, Hf isotopic, bulk-rock elemental, and Sr-Nd isotopic data of the Dalongtan shoshonitic syenite porphyries (DSSPs) in central Yunnan, southeastern Tibet. The DSSPs formed at 33.2 ± 0.3 Ma in a post-collisional setting. They define linear trends on Harker diagrams, and they display similar trace element patterns and enriched bulk-rock Sr-Nd isotopes [(87Sr/86Sr)i = 0.70964–0.70968, εNd(t) = −12.9 to −12.7] and zircon Hf isotopes (εHf(t) = −15.7 to −13.1) to the coeval mantle-derived potassic mafic rocks. This suggests that the DSSPs were fractionated from the lithospheric mantle-derived mafic magmas. The DSSPs, along with the coeval felsic and mafic magmatic rocks (37.2–32.3 Ma), exhibit a planar distribution on the SE Tibet and predate the left-lateral shearing of the Ailaoshan–Red River shear zone (ARSZ) (32–22 Ma), suggesting that there are no genetic relationships between them. The DSSPs have geochemical characteristics similar to those of A-type granites, with high total alkalinity (10.39–11.17 wt.%), HFSE concentrations (Zr + Nb + Ce + Y = 890.2–1054.3 ppm), Ga/Al ratios (10,000 × Ga/Al = 2.95–3.46), whole-rock zircon saturation temperatures (906–947 °C), and oxygen fugacity (ΔFMQ = +3.30–+4.65), indicating that they are products of the high-temperature melting of the lithosphere as a result of asthenosphere upwelling in extensional settings. Based on our data and regional observations, it is proposed that the generation of the DSSPs may be linked to the convective thinning of the thickened lithospheric mantle following the India–Asia collision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with habitat destruction and the intensification of climate change, economic and social development is threatening the living of species. In the context of China's domestic economic circulation, the spatial structure of biodiversity loss is complicated by the decentralization of production, with many regions affecting the survival of species in other regions. Based on the environmentally extended MRIO model, this paper calculated the subnational biodiversity loss footprint through structural path analysis and social network analysis, identified the regional linkages and spatial networks of species loss, and traced the conservation responsibility to specific sectors. Our findings indicate that Yunnan, Tibet, Guangdong, and Sichuan possess the most significant biodiversity footprints, comprising over 40% of the total footprint. In terms of threat patterns, Yunnan and Tibet have the largest intra-regional footprints, indicating their important impact on species within the region; Guangdong and Zhejiang have the largest extra-regional footprints, indicating their role in threatening other species through cross-regional trades. The primary industry, tap water and food and tobacco sectors are major biodiversity footprint producers. Overall, some eastern and coastal areas are the final drivers of biodiversity loss in China, driven by increasingly complex trade links. Notably, the directionality of species loss in biodiversity hotspots is evident, with Shandong and Guangdong significantly influencing the biodiversity of Yunnan and Guangxi, respectively. This study systematically analyzed the complete network of biodiversity loss and divided four biodiversity protection communities to promote the realization of trans-regional protection and compensation. Examining the biodiversity loss through the lens of networks, and connecting economic activities to species, serves as a warning to decision-making bodies that a future of increasingly intricate domestic trade could pose a critical threat to biodiversity, necessitating collaborative conservation efforts. [Display omitted] • 1.Inter-provincial trade contributes to the complex structure of biodiversity loss. • The characteristics of biodiversity footprints vary widely among provinces. • Some eastern and coastal provinces are the final drivers of biodiversity loss. • Four protection communities are established through social network analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • To computationally simulate the ore-forming process in the Luziyuan deposit. • To determine the boundary conditions of the deposit model in a scientific way. • To identify the controlling ore-forming mechanism in the Luziyuan deposit. • To use computational simulations for identifying the location of an ore deposit. The giant Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit is a typical hydrothermal ore-forming deposit in the southern Baoshan block of SE Tibet. Although extensive studies were conducted to understand the ore-forming system associated with the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit through using the traditional geoscience methods, the ore-forming process involved in this deposit has not been justified in a strictly scientific manner to date. In this paper, the hydrothermal ore-forming process of the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit is computationally simulated through using the dual length-scale approach associated with the finite element method (FEM). In the dual length-scale approach, the FEM is first used to simulate the regional model of a large length-scale in the geological region where the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit is located. Afterward, the FEM is then used to simulate the deposit model of the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit. Particularly, the boundary conditions of the deposit model are consistently determined from using the computational simulation results of the regional model. The related numerical results demonstrated that: (1) the pore-fluid convection provides a continuous source of ore-forming fluid and ore-forming material for the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit; (2) the convective pore-fluid flow is the main dynamic mechanism, which controls the temperature, pore-fluid velocity and chemical species distribution in the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit; (3) the localized structure is the main controlling factor for the localized pore-fluid flow pattern, which further controls the formation and location of the orebody in the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit; (4) the dual length-scale approach associated with the FEM is very useful for simulating the hydrothermal ore-forming process of the Luziyuan Pb-Zn deposit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]