A midge-salinity transfer function for inferring sea level change and landscape evolution in the Hudson Bay Lowlands,Manitoba, Canada

We compared water chemistry and environmental data with midge assemblage data, using multivariate analysis to assess the environmental gradients that limit midge (Chironomidae, Chaoboridae and Ceratopogonidae) distributions in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, northeastern Manitoba, Canada. Midge remains, comprising 62 taxa, were obtained from surficial sediments of 63 ponds. Ponds were sampled to maximize the salinity gradient. Specific conductance ranged from 46 to 29,000 μS cm^?1. Proximity to the coast was a principal determinant of pond salinity, with ponds closer to Hudson Bay shoreline more saline that those farther away. Multivariate analysis indicated that midge distributions have a significant relationship ( $ {\text{r}}_{\text{boot}}^{2} = 0.68 $ ) with salinity in the data set. This work will allow paleolimnological inferences of midge community responses to changing sea level (i.e. salinity) via isostatic rebound within the Hudson Bay Lowlands, and will provide essential limnological information to scientists and managers in a region where understanding of aquatic ecosystems is limited. One undescribed midge taxon was dominant in ponds with the highest salinities and may be a key indicator for inferring highly saline environments.     

Big Ben: a new wide-bore piston corer for multi-proxy palaeolimnology

We present a design for a large diameter piston corer, deployed from a raft that is suitable for use in shallow lakes. The piston corer, known as Big Ben, consists of a core tube, a piston on a rope and a corer head, to which rods are attached to drive the tube into the sediment. A core catcher, which aids the support of the core tube when full of sediment, has been incorporated into the design. To extrude the sediment, a framework has been designed to keep the core tube upright and stationary and a modified bottle jack is used to push the piston upwards during the extrusion process. The practical operation of the Big Ben coring system from setting up a coring platform to collecting and safely extruding a core is detailed. Finally we summarise recent experiences of deploying the corer and highlight its potential uses in the developing field of multi-proxy palaeolimnology.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:

Pyne, Stephen J., How The Canyon Became Grand: A Short History

Gibson, Clark C., Politicians and Poachers: The Political Economy of Wildlife Policy in Africa

Voeks, Robert A., Sacred Leaves of Candomblé: African Magic, Medicine, and Religion in Brazil

Grossman, Lawrence S., The Political Ecology of Bananas: Contract Farming, Peasants and Agrarian Change in the Eastern Caribbean

Fennell, David A., Ecotourism: An Introduction

Soffer, Arnon, Rivers of Fire: The Conflict Over Water in the Middle East

Light, Andrew and Smith, Jonathan M., Philosophy and Geography II: The Production of Public Space

Davies, Richard O., Main Street Blues: The Decline of Small-Town America

Driver, Felix and Gilbert, David, Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and Identity

Baldassare, Mark, California in the New Millennium: The Changing Social and Political Landscape

Herzog, Lawrence A., From Aztec to High Tech: Architecture and Landscape Across the Mexico-United States Border

Cowie, Jefferson, Capital Moves: RCA’s Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor

Aiken, Charles, The Cotton Plantation South Since the Civil War

Smith, Steven D., Crass, David, and Zierden, Martha A., The Southern Colonial Backcountry: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Frontier Communities

Hoelscher, Steven D., Heritage of Stage: The Invention of Ethnic Place in America’s Little Switzerland

Bradley, Betsy Hunter, The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States     

Error‐sensitive historical GIS: Identifying areal interpolation errors in time‐series data

Historical GIS has the potential to re‐invigorate our use of statistics from historical censuses and related sources. In particular, areal interpolation can be used to create long‐run time‐series of spatially detailed data that will enable us to enhance significantly our understanding of geographical change over periods of a century or more. The difficulty with areal interpolation, however, is that the data that it generates are estimates which will inevitably contain some error. This paper describes a technique that allows the automated identification of possible errors at the level of the individual data values.     

Aeolian dynamics over a coastal foredune,Prince Edward Island,Canada

Near‐surface airflow over a morphologically simple, vegetated, 8 m high foredune with a small wave‐cut scarp was measured for onshore to oblique‐onshore conditions during a low‐moderate (5–6 m s^‐1 ) wind event and a high velocity (11–18 m s^‐1) sand‐transporting gale event. Flow across the foredune was characterized by significant flow compression and acceleration up and across the foredune during both events. During the gale, a pronounced jet (speed bulge) developed at the foredune crest, which increased in magnitude with increasing wind speed. The vertical (W) velocity component of the 3D flow field was positive (upwards) across the stoss slope under low wind conditions but negative (downwards) during gale wind conditions, with upslope acceleration. During the low velocity event, there was speed‐down within the vegetation canopy, as would be expected for a porous roughness cover. During the strong wind event there was speed‐up in the lower portion of the vegetation canopy, and this was found up the entire stoss slope. Sediment transport during the gale force event was substantial across the beach and foredune despite the moderate vegetation cover and minimum fetch. Aeolian suspension was evident in the lee of the dune crest. The observations presented herein show that strong storm winds are an effective mechanism for translating sediment landwards across a high vegetated foredune, contributing sediment to the stoss slope, crest and leeward slopes of the foredune and backing dunes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Third-order geomorphometric variables (derivatives): definition,computation and utilization of changes of curvatures

Third-order geomorphometric variables (based on third derivatives of the altitudinal field) have been neglected in geomorphometry, but their application to the delimitation of surface objects will lead to their increasing significance in future. New techniques of computation, presented and evaluated here, facilitate their use. This paper summarizes recent knowledge concerning definition, computation and geomorphologic interpretation of these variables. Formulae defining various third-order variables are unified based on the physical definition of slope gradient. Methods for their computation are compared from the point of view of method error and error generated by digital elevation model (DEM) inaccuracy. For exact mathematical test surfaces, the most natural and simple variant of the method of central differences (CD2) shows a method error 2–3 times smaller than the other methods used recently in geomorphometry. However, success in coping with DEM inaccuracy depends (for a given grid mesh) on the number and weighting of points from which the derivative is computed. This was tested for surfaces with varying degrees of random error. Here least squares-based methods are the most effective for mixed derivatives (especially for finer grids and less accurate DEMs), while a variant of the CD method, that repeats numerical evaluation of first derivatives (CD1), is the most successful for derivatives in cardinal directions. The CD2 method is generally the most successful for coarser grids where the method error is dominant.

Utilization of third-order variables is documented from examples of terrain feature (ridge, valley and edge) extraction and from a first statistical test of the hypothesis that real segments of the land surface have a tendency to a constant value of some morphometric variable. For detection of (sharp) ridges and valleys, it is shown that the rate of change of tangential curvature is inadequate: rate of change of normal curvature is also required. A basic confirmation of the constant-value tendency is provided.     

Concentration versus streamflow trends of major ions and tritium in headwater streams as indicators of changing water stores

Documenting the processes that control the variations in stream geochemistry at different streamflows is important for being able to use chemical tracers to understand catchment functioning. The concentrations of most solutes, including reactive cations (e.g., Na, Ca, K, and Mg) and anions that are primarily derived from precipitation (Cl and Br), in five headwater streams from southeast Australia vary little with streamflow and are close to being chemostatic. By contrast, NO₃ and SO₄ concentrations are higher at high streamflows. There is also a systematic increase of ³H activities from as low as 1.1 to as high as 2.6 TU with increasing streamflow. The changes in geochemistry cannot be explained solely by increased mineral dissolution at high streamflows or enhanced baseflow driven by hydraulic loading. They are best explained by an increased baseflow input augmented by water mobilized from shallower stores as the catchments wet up. The mean transit times of the water sustaining streamflow varies from 35 to 70 years at low streamflows to <7 years at high streamflows. The use of a range of geochemical tracers, including radioactive isotopes, allows the different possible causes of chemostatic behaviour to be assessed and improves our understanding of catchment functioning.     

Changes in groundwater bacterial community during cyclic groundwater-table variations

Column experiments containing an aquifer sand were subjected to static and oscillating water tables to investigate the impact of natural fluctuations and rainfall infiltration on the groundwater bacterial community just below the phreatic surface, and its association with the geochemistry. Once the columns were established, the continuously saturated zone was anoxic in all three columns. The rate of soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization was higher when the water table varied cyclically than when it was static due to the greater availability of NO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻. Natural fluctuations in the water table resulted in a similar NO₃⁻ concentration to that observed with a static water table but the cyclic wetting of the intermittently saturated zone resulted in a higher SO₄²⁻ concentration. Rainfall infiltration induced cyclic water-table variations resulted in a higher NO₃⁻ concentration than those in the other two columns, and a SO₄²⁻ concentration intermediate between those columns. As rainwater infiltration resulted in slow downward displacement of the groundwater, it is inferred that NO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻ were being mobilized from the vadose zone. NO₃⁻ was mainly released by SOM mineralization (which was enhanced by the infiltration of oxygenated rainwater), but the larger amount of SO₄²⁻ release required a second mechanism (possibly desorption). Different groundwater bacterial communities evolved from initially similar populations due to the different groundwater histories.     

Climate–water quality relationships in Texas reservoirs

Water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and concentrations of salts in surface water bodies can be affected by the natural environment and local human activities such as surface and ground water withdrawals, land use and energy extraction, and variability and long‐term trends in atmospheric conditions including temperature and precipitation. Here, we quantify the relationship between 121 indicators of mean and extreme temperature and precipitation and 24 water quality parameters in 57 Texas reservoirs using observational data records covering the period 1960 to 2010. Over time scales ranging from 1 week to 2 years, we find that water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, chloride, sulfate, and phosphorus all show consistent correlations with atmospheric predictors, including high and low temperature extremes, dry days, heavy precipitation events, and mean temperature and precipitation. Based on these relationships combined with regional climate projections, we expect climate change to increase water temperatures, decrease dissolved oxygen levels, decrease pH, increase specific conductance, and increase levels of sulfate and chloride in Texas reservoirs. Over decadal time scales, this may affect aquatic ecosystems in the reservoirs, including altering the risk of conditions conducive to algae occurrence, as well as affecting the quality of water available for human consumption and recreation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beach–dune sediment budgets and dune morphodynamics following coastal dune restoration,Wickaninnish Dunes,Canada

The results from three years of surveying and monitoring a dynamic foredune and dunefield restoration effort on Vancouver Island, Canada is presented. Complete removal of foredune vegetation occurred in three phases spaced a year apart in an effort to control invasive Ammophila spp. The collection of airborne LiDAR, orthophotographs, and bi‐monthly topographic surveys provided a means to quantify and examine sediment budgets and geomorphic responses. Three survey swaths, corresponding with each phase of vegetation removal, were established to provide detailed topographic coverage over the impacted beach, foredune, and dunefield landscape units. The swath corresponding with the first phase of removal recorded a positive sediment budget of 1·3 m³ m^?2 after three years. A control swath, with data collected for a year prior and two years following removal, exhibited a distinct pulse of sediment delivery into the dunefield unit with a maximum gain of 0·03 m³ m^?2 pre‐removal compared to 0·11 m³ m^?2 post‐removal. Vegetation analysis zones, associated with each of the three swaths, demonstrate a range of vegetation responses due to variation in the vegetation removal and subsequent re‐invasion or removal methods employed. The first site to be cleared of vegetation, received ongoing invasive re‐growth control, and three years following removal vegetation cover dropped from 57% in 2009 to 13% in 2012 (?44%). An adjacent site was cleared of vegetation two years later (only one year of recovery) but experienced rapid Ammophila re‐invasion and percent cover changed from 61% in 2009 to 26% in 2012 (?35%). The data presented provides insights for improving the application of sediment budget monitoring in dynamic restorations and discusses the potential for detailed spatial–temporal survey data to improve our understanding of meso‐scale landscape morphodynamics following foredune disturbance. Overall, the vegetation removal treatments reduced the extent of invasive grass and increased dunefield mobility and dynamic activity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.