To understand seasonal dynamic of non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) in evergreen conifers, the authors analyzed the soluble sugar, starch and NSC content of leaf, branch, bark and root system of Picea mongolica from April to October. The results indicate that starch abundance in different organs of Picea mongolica reach the highest point in May, then decrease gradually and maintain at a low level from August to October. This might be reasoned that germination required starch is accumulated through photosynthesis from April to May. The soluble sugar content is slight low in May, raise gradually and reach the highest point in October. However, starch accumulated during the growth season may not account for soluble sugar increment in winter. No significant correlation is detected between Picea mongolica different organs’ starch, soluble sugar, and NSC content to monthly mean temperature and precipitation.

Based on published distribution data and environmental and geographical factors, the authors discussed the geographic patterns of species richness of Aves and its taxa in China. Results show that the avian species richness in China exhibited latitudinal gradients that decreased as latitude increased but the correlation was weak, which was proved by linear regression. The hotspots of species richness included Khingan Mountain Ranges, lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Wuyishan, Xishuangbanna, West Tianshan, Southeast Himalayas to Hengduan Mountains, etc. Low species richness territories included most areas of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, some areas on the south of the Yangtze River, etc. Several factors, including EVI, annual mean temperature and annual mean precipitation, with high Spearman Correlation demonstrated a complex multi-factor machanism determining the geographic patterns of species richness. According to factor analysis, the principal components included energy, elevation range, temperature evenness, and the distance to the nearest large waterbody.

A fault scarp striking NW290° is identified through aerial photo examine and field survey. Differential GPS measure and DEM analysis show that the height of this scarp ranges from 3 to 13 m. This height difference is mainly related to different ages of geomorphology surfaces: the higher scarps can be found in the older alluvial fans and lower scarps in the younger ones. In addition, the fan-shaped fluvial deposition in the hanging wall also influences the scarp height on the alluvial fan of the same period, and the depositional effect goes weaker when farther away from the streams, hence higher the scarp is. Trench investigation suggests that at least two paleoseismic events occurred along this fault scarp in the southwest of Yuxiang County since the end of Late Pleistocene. The first event happened between 16720±70 and 7700±40 aBP, and close to 16720±70 aBP; the second event is between 7700±40 and 7020±40 aBP, with an over 2.2 m vertical displacement, suggesting that this is a Holocene fault scarp. The vertical rate of the fault activity is about 0.9 mm/a through comparative studies.