ABSTRACT
Water-rich regions in Earth's deeper mantle are suspected to play a key role in the global water budget and the mobility of heat-generating elements. We show that ice-VII occurs as inclusions in natural diamond and serves as an indicator for such water-rich regions. Ice-VII, the residue of aqueous fluid present during growth of diamond, crystallizes upon ascent of the host diamonds but remains at pressures as high as 24 gigapascals; it is now recognized as a mineral by the International Mineralogical Association. In particular, ice-VII in diamonds points toward fluid-rich locations in the upper transition zone and around the 660-kilometer boundary.
ABSTRACT
Fengshui forests (sacred groves) are important in traditional Chinese culture and home to many endangered species. These forests may provide protection for some endangered plant species outside the nature reserves, but little is known about their role in genetic conservation. Using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers, we compared the genetic diversity of 6 populations of Phoebe bournei (Hemsl.) Yang, a commercially important woody species, which is under second-class national protection and endemic to China. Samples were collected from the nature reserves and Fengshui forests in southern China. Herein, we show that Fengshui forest populations are capable of maintaining some level of genetic diversity. For nature reserve populations, the average NA and NE were 1.58 and 1.39, respectively; and for Fengshui forests, they were 1.39 and 1.12, respectively. For nature reserve populations, Nei's gene diversity (H) and Shannon's index (I) were 0.32 and 0.11, respectively; and for Fengshui forests, they were 0.22 and 0.07, respectively. We discuss the reasons for the genetic differences between populations of the Fengshui forests and nature reserves and propose conservation strategies for the Fengshui forest.
