ALBERT

Notes: 1. Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled for 1 year to assess functional and taxonomic differences in invertebrate biomass and production with respect to habitat types, reaches and catchments in Wine Spring Basin, western North Carolina. Quantitative samples were collected from depositional, cobble-riffle and bedrock outcrop habitats at four stream reaches (two headwater sites, one second order, and one third order). Other measures included physical parameters, periphyton and organic matter standing crops. Invertebrate data from the Wine Spring catchment were also compared with data from another catchment (Ball Creek) within the same region.2. The three habitat types had different current velocities and mean substratum particle sizes; both measures were greatest in bedrock outcrop habitats and lowest in depositional habitats. Organic matter standing crops, invertebrate functional group productivity and biomass also differed significantly with respect to habitat type. Cobble-riffle areas had the lowest standing crops of organic matter, invertebrate productivity and biomass.3. Both invertebrate communities and organic matter standing crops differed significantly between the two headwater reaches. First- to third-order reaches differed in taxonomic composition at the genus level, yet had similar relative functional group productivity and biomass.4. Annual mean invertebrate biomass and secondary production were greater in the Wine Spring Basin than in Ball Creek. Sites in both the Wine Spring and Ball Creek catchments, however, exhibited similar functional group distributions per habitat type.5. Local geomorphology and related physical parameters influenced the structure of invertebrate functional group composition, and the distribution of organic matter standing crops. Furthermore, comparison of community structure in Wine Spring with that in Ball Creek suggested that taxonomic composition was more related to catchment-specific parameters (e.g. thermal regime, evolutionary history) than stream size.

Notes: We have studied the Cenozoic and active tectonics of the north-eastern rim of Tibet west of the Yellow River (Gansu, China) where the western Haiyuan Fault enters the eastern Qilian Shan, a high mountainous region, which was the site of the 1927 May 23, M= 8-8.3, Gulang earthquake. Fieldwork, combined with analysis of aerial photographs and satellite images, reveals consistent cumulative left-lateral offsets of postglacial geomorphic features along the fault, but no recent rupture. West of the Tianzhu pull-apart basin, the levelling of offset-terrace risers implies Holocene horizontal and vertical slip rates on the steeply south-dipping, N110E-striking fault of 11 ± 4 and 1.3 ± 0.3 mm yr-1, respectively. The presence of subordinate, mostly normal, throws due to local changes in fault strike, and kinematic compatibility at the SW corner of the Tianzhu basin, constrains the azimuth of the fault-slip vector to be N110-115E. On the less prominent, N85-100E-striking Gulang Fault, which splays eastwards from the Haiyuan Fault near 102.2°E, less detailed observations suggest that the average Holocene left-slip rate is 4.3 ± 2.1 mm yr-1 with a minor component of ˜˜N-directed thrusting, with no recent seismic break either. East of ˜˜103°E, coeval slip on both faults thus appears to account for as much as 15 ± 6 mm yr-1 of left-lateral movement between NE Tibet and the southern edge of the Ala Shan Platform, in a N105 ± 6E direction. West of ˜˜103°E structural and geomorphic evidence implies that ˜˜NNE-directed shortening of that edge across the rising, north-eastern Qilian mountain ranges occurs at a rate of 4 ± 2 mm yr-1, by movement on right-stepping thrusts that root on a 10-20°S-dipping décollement that probably branches off the Haiyuan Fault at a depth of ˜˜25 km. The existence of fresh surface breaks with metre-high free faces on a N-dipping, hanging-wall normal fault south of the easternmost, Dongqingding thrust segment, and of half-metre-high pressure ridges on that segment, indicates that the 1927 Gulang earthquake ruptured that complex thrust system. The ˜˜4 mm yr-1 shortening rate is consistent with the inference that the thrusts formed and move as a result of orthogonal slip partitioning in a large restraining bend of the Haiyuan Fault.Based on a retrodeformable structural section, we estimate the cumulative shortening on the Qilian Shan thrusts, north of the Haiyuan Fault, to be at least 25 km. The finite displacements and current slip rates on either the thrusts or the left-lateral faults imply that Cenozoic deformation started in the Late Miocene, with slip partitioning during much of the Plio-Quaternary. Assuming coeval slip at the present rates on the Haiyuan and Gulang Faults in the last 8 Ma would bring the cumulative left-lateral displacement between NE Tibet and the Ala Shan Platform to about 120 km, consistent with the 95 ± 15 km offset of the Yellow River across the Haiyuan Fault, but many times the offset (˜˜16 km) inferred on one rccent strand of that fault east of the river. Relative to the SE Gobi Desert, NE Tibet thus appears to have moved by a fair amount in the Late Cenozoic and is still moving fast. While some of this motion probably contributes to displace (towards the ESE) and rotate (CCW) the south-west edge of the Ordos block, much of it appears to be transmitted to the South China block, which leads, with the additional contribution of other large left-slip faults to the south and despite thrusting in the Lungmen Shan, to the extrusion (towards the ESE-SE) of that block relative to the Gobi, hcncc to north-eastern Asia.The ˜˜260 km long western Haiyuan Fault links two faults that ruptured about 70 years ago during two great earthquakes only seven years apart. Despite spectacular evidence of Holocene movement, it bears no trace of a large earthquake in the past eight centuries, either in the field or in the historical record. Given its relatively high slip rate, it should therefore be singled out as one of the most critical sites for impending great earthquakes (at least M ≥ 7.5, probably M ≥ 8) in the region. That such a seismic gap, called here the ‘Tianzhu gap', lies only ˜˜100 km north of Lanzhou and Xining, largest population centres of west-central China, makes instrumental monitoring of that fault particularly urgent. That the M ˜˜ 8, Gulang earthquake ruptured a complex thrust surface under high mountains in a restraining bend of the Haiyuan strike-slip fault suggests that the occurrence of comparable earthquakes in other areas with similar fault geometry, such as south of the big bend of the San Andreas Fault in California, should not be ruled out.

Notes: The effects of increasing levels of monocalciumphosphate-supply to a soybean meal based diet on growth and mineralization were investigated in common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). To monitor the P-status, phosphorus-content of whole body and of dorsal scales, backbone and opercula were sampled. The results showed that 0.7% P kg−1 DM from the native foodstuffs was insufficient for adequate performance. Adding inorganic phosphorus, growth and mineralization were enhanced and P-content of dorsal scales and whole body corresponded with the different amount of phosphorus in the diets.

Notes: [Auszug] To the editor — In their article describing the formation of nitric oxide (NO) from nitrite in ischaemic heart, Zweier and colleagues stress that it is a non-enzymic reaction1. This conclusion is based on the exclusion from involvement of NO synthase(s) which act on arginine. I would like to ...

Notes: [Auszug] β–sarcoglycan, a 43 kDa dystrophin–associated glycoprotein, is an integral component of the dystrophin–glycoprotein complex. We have cloned human β–sarcoglycan cDNA and mapped the β–sarcoglycan gene to chromosome 4q12. Pericentromeric markers and an ...

Notes: [Auszug] In the motor task used, the fingers of the non-dominant hand were opposed to the thumb in two specified sequences, A and B (Fig. 10). Subjects were instructed to tap each sequence, without looking at their hand, as accurately and rapidly as possible. FIG. 1 a, The sequence of finger-to-thumb ...

Notes: [Auszug] Nature 378, 386-390(1995) IN this Letter in the 23 November issue, the authors' affiliations were omitted. They are shown correctly here and in the reprints. Correspondence should be addressed to ...

Notes: [Auszug] To analyse the function of neuregulin in vivo, we have mutated the neuregulin gene by homologous recombination in embryonic stem (ES) cells, and used these cells to create mice that carry the mutation. A variety of different protein isoforms are pro-duced from the single neuregulin gene6. All ...