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We studied seasonal dynamics of seed banks along an altitudinal gradient in three alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau, as well as seed size distribution relative to depth. Seed bank density and species richness decreased significantly with altitude increase in both April and July. The highest elevations showed highest seed bank depletion. Although species composition of the vegetation changed along the altitudinal gradient, seed bank composition was almost unvaried from April to July. This indicated that seed bank density has an obvious seasonal change but composition does not. We found a low degree of similarity between the species composition of vegetation and of the seed bank along the whole gradient, and this similarity decreased with altitude increase. These suggest that the role of the seed bank decreased gradually with altitude increase. The hypothesis that a species seed bank strategy is an inherited trait was not confirmed because for some species seed bank strategy changed with altitude. We found that persistent seed banks were the most frequent strategy at all three altitudes. Species with persistent seeds tended to have smaller seeds than those with transient seeds only in highest altitude, while the other two altitudes did not show difference. There was no trend in seed size distribution with altitudes and soil depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Xianshuihe fault system is a highly active, left-lateral slip fault that has played an important role in accommodating late Cenozoic crustal deformation of the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. The left-lateral displacement on the western portion of the fault system, the Ganzi fault, is ~80 km, based on geologic and geomorphic markers. Left-lateral movement along the fault may have initiated in middle Miocene time (12 Ma), followed by the intensive, brittle, left-lateral movement in late Cenozoic time (2-4 Ma). Lying within the headwater regions of the Jinsha (Yangtze) River in the Yushu region, the northwestern end of the Xianshuihe fault system consists of four branches. These are, from north to south--the Dangjiang fault, the Yushu fault, the Batang fault, and the Xialaxiu fault. Both the Yushu and Dangjiang faults display clear geologic and geomorphic evidence for active, left-lateral slip movement. Several offset markers of Triassic age along the Dangjiang fault suggest ~39 km of left-lateral slip, but the geomorphic evidence along the Dangjiang and Yushu faults suggests only ~16 km and ~25 km of left-lateral slip, respectively. Both the Batang and Xialaxiu faults demonstrate clear evidence for normal dip slip, by an associated series of E-W--trending grabens and horsts that absorb ~9 km of left-lateral movement in early to middle Pleistocene time. About 32 km of left-lateral movement on the fault system was estimated to be absorbed by NE-SW shortening along the rugged North Yushu block in late Neogene time. This is interpreted to have formed as a rhomb-shaped restraining bend, along which the left-lateral movement along the northwestern end of the fault system was partially transferred into crustal shortening. The westward continuation of the Dangjiang fault is marked by an E-W--trending fault, which can be traced westward for 150 km to central Tibet, where it joins the Fenghuo Shan thrust belt. This thrust belt is interpreted to represent the northwestern continuation of the Xianshuihe fault system, along which 39 km of the left-lateral movement was entirely transferred into the N-S shortening. It indicates that the left-lateral movement within the southeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau along the fault system, either caused by lateral extrusion or by clockwise rotation, is largely restricted to the northwestern end of the fault system. Quaternary extension occurred along the northwestern continuation of the Xianshuihe-Xiaojiang fault was coeval with extension along its southern end, indicating that the southeastern margin of the plateau underwent clockwise rotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ophiolites that crop out in Southeast Asia represent the relics of the Tethys Ocean, which existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during much of the Mesozoic. Two ophiolite belts in Myanmar, i.e., the Eastern Belt and the Western Belt, have been conventionally regarded as parts of a single suture connecting with the Yarlung-Tsangpo suture in the Tibetan Plateau and displaced by the dextral Sagaing fault. Here we present for the first time a combined analysis of zircon secondary ion mass spectrometry U-Pb ages and Hf-O isotopes of two Myanmar ophiolites, the Kalaymyo ophiolite from the Western Belt and the Myitkyina ophiolite from the Eastern Belt. Our results show that the Kalaymyo ophiolite has an Early Cretaceous age (ca. 127 Ma), coeval with Neo-Tethyan ophiolites along the Yarlung- Tsangpo suture. In contrast, the Myitkyina ophiolite was formed during the Middle Jurassic (ca. 173 Ma) and thus the Eastern Belt is the southern continuation of the Meso-Tethyan Bangong-Nujiang suture in the Tibetan Plateau. Consequently, we argue that the two Myanmar ophiolite belts belong to two different sutures of the Meso-Tethys and Neo-Tethys, and that the boundary between the Sibumasu and west Burma blocks is a Jurassic suture rather than a transcurrent shear zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]