Molecular phylogeography of endangered sharp-snouted pitviper (Deinagkistrodon acutus; Reptilia, Viperidae) in Mainland China

Using phylogenetic and population genetic approaches, the present study reports the phylogeographic structure of the sharp-snouted pitviper (Deinagkistrodon acutus), a threatened snake species with commercial and medicinal importance in China. The entire mitochondrial ND2 gene (NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2) sequences of 86 individuals of D. acutus from 14 localities across its range in China were determined. Based on the results of phylogenetic analyses, distribution of diagnostic sites, haplotype network, and AMOVA hierarchical analysis, an cast-west division of the whole D. acutus population could be observed. Geographically, a line formed by a lake, river, and mountain chain (the Poyang Lake, Gan River to the southern end of the Wuyi Mountains), results in vicariance and approximately vertically splits the range into two and the whole population into two main lineages (western and eastern). The bifurcating tree suggested generally west to east dispersal trend. The data fit the isolation by distance (IBD) model well. Star-like clusters in haplotype network, significantly negative values of Fs statistics, and unimodal mismatch distributions all suggest recent demographic expansions in four areas. The results show that isolation, dispersal, bottleneck, and expansion jointly constitute the history of D. acutus. In a haplotype network, the excessive predominance of central haplotypes, few medium-frequency haplotypes, predominance (73.1 %) of the singletons among the derived haplotypes, most of which are connected to the central haplotype by only one mutational step, unsymmetrical campanulate unimodal curve of mismatch distributions and leftwards shift of the peaks, all suggest that the whole D. acutus population is a young population with low genetic diversity. Based on the data, the first priority for conservation action should be given to the Huangshan unit. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Air flow over a mountain and the convective boundary-layer

In this paper, the analytical model coupling the convective boundary layer (CBL) with the free atmosphere developed by Qi and Fu (1992) is improved. And by this improved model, the interaction between airflow over a mountain and the CBL is further discussed. The conclusions demonstrate: (1) The perturbation potential temperatures in the free atmosphere can counteract the effect of orographic thermal forcing through entraining and mixing in the CBL. If u(M)BAR > u(F)BAR, the feedback of the perturbation potential temperatures in the free atmosphere is more important than orographic thermal forcing, which promotes the effect of interfacial waves. If u(M)BAR < u(F)BAR, orographic thermal forcing is more important, which makes the interfacial height and the topographic height identical in phase, and the horizontal speeds are a maximum at the top of the mountain. (2) The internal gravity waves propagating vertically in the free atmosphere cause a strong downslope wind to become established above the lee slope in the CBL and result in the hydraulic jump at the top of the CBL. (3) With the CBL deepening, the interfacial gravity waves induced by the potential temperature jump at the top of the CBL cause the airflow in the CBL to be subcritical.

A markov chain Monte Carlo method for estimating population mixing using Y-chromosome markers: Mixing of the Han people in China

We present a new approach for estimating mixing between populations based on non-recombining markers, specifically Y-chromosome microsatellites. A Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Bayesian statistical approach is used to calculate the posterior probability