Perfection and complexity in the lower Brazos River

The “perfect landscape” concept is based on the notion that any specific geomorphic system represents the combined, interacting effects of a set of generally applicable global laws and a set of geographically and historically contingent local controls. Because the joint probability of any specific combination of local and global controls is low, and the local controls are inherently idiosyncratic, the probability of existence of any given landscape is vanishingly small. A perfect landscape approach to geomorphic complexity views landscapes as circumstantial, contingent outcomes of deterministic laws operating in a specific environmental and historical context. Thus, explaining evolution of complex landscapes requires the integration of global and local approaches. Because perfection in this sense is the most important and pervasive form of complexity, the study of geomorphic complexity is not restricted to nonlinear dynamics, self-organization, or any other aspects of complexity theory. Beyond what can be achieved via complexity theory, the details of historical and geographic contexts must be addressed. One way to approach this is via synoptic analyses, where the relevant global laws are applied in specific situational contexts. A study of non-acute tributary junctions in the lower Brazos River, Texas illustrates this strategy. The application of generalizations about tributary junction angles, and of relevant theories, does not explain the unexpectedly high occurrence or the specific instances of barbed or straight junctions in the study area. At least five different causes for the development of straight or obtuse junction angles are evident in the lower Brazos. The dominant mechanism, however, is associated with river bank erosion and lateral channel migration which encroaches on upstream-oriented reaches of meandering tributaries. Because the tributaries are generally strongly incised in response to Holocene incision of the Brazos, the junctions are not readily reoriented to the expected acute angle. The findings are interpreted in the context of nonlinear divergent evolution, geographical and historical contingency, synoptic frameworks for generalizing results, and applicability of the dominant processes concept in geomorphology.     

Teaching about relict, no-analog landscapes

Only a few very young landforms are the result of currently operating geomorphic processes. Because the time scale for landscape evolution is much longer than the time scale for late Cenozoic climate changes, almost all landscapes are palimpsests, written over repeatedly by various combinations of climate-determined processes. Relict glacial and periglacial landforms are widely identified in mid-latitude regions that have been traditionally described as having been shaped by the “normal” processes of fluvial erosion. Less confidently, deeply weathered regolith and associated relict landforms in the middle and high latitudes are attributed to early Tertiary warmth. However, assemblages of geomorphic processes specific to certain climatic regions, like faunal and floral assemblages, cannot be translated across latitude, so in spite of the many books about the geomorphology of specific modern climate regions, there are few sources that discuss former warm high-latitude, or cold low-latitude, low-altitude geomorphic processes that have no modern analogs. Students and teachers alike who attempt to interpret landforms by extrapolating modern climatic conditions to other latitudinal zones will find their outlook broadened, and they become better prepared to consider the geomorphic impacts of global climate change.     

甘肃省张掖丹霞与彩色丘陵地貌的形成与景观特征

对发育在甘肃省张掖市境内祁连山山麓、白垩系中下统碎屑岩地层中的丹霞地貌与彩色丘陵形成的地层、构造、地貌、古地理环境和外动力条件进行了分析;将该地的丹霞地貌划分为窗棂状宫殿式、柱状式和巷谷式三类不同的地貌景观群,并分别描述了各类丹霞地貌和彩色丘陵的景观特征;从景观的典型性、美学价值、科考价值、观赏价值四个方面评价了丹霞地貌与彩色丘陵的科教旅游价值;认为张掖丹霞地貌既有南方丹霞之秀美、又有北方雅丹之雄浑,彩色丘陵色彩斑斓、绚丽多姿、气势宏大,这两种奇特的地貌景观相互衬托,成为国内独特的地质遗迹,具有极高的观赏价值和重要的科研价值,是旅游观光、绘画摄影、科普教育、科学研究和考察的最佳场所。     

旅游地景观生态分类方法探讨——以福州市青云山风景区为例

综合分析了影响旅游地景观的主要因子,以人为干扰为基础,以地貌为基本线索,以植被为标志,以土壤为参照,结合实地考察和景观生态制图技术,建立研究区的三级景观生态分类体系.结论认为:旅游地景观类型的划分应强调整体的综合,而不是对个别组分进行分类;多要素综合的分级分类体系,既能反映控制景观形成过程的主要因子,又可体现景观的综合性,能较好地反映客观实际;旅游地景观生态类型的划分,应根据景观异质性、图形比例尺和图斑的需要,明确分类单元的等级,确定分类的基础单元.     

Landform Influences on Treeline Patchiness and Dynamics in a Changing Climate

Local landforms and microtopography control site conditions, spatial patterns, and dynamics in treeline landscapes. Several topography-related treeline types are presented and their responses to a warming climate discussed. On rugged mountain terrain, pronounced changes in vertical range and variety of treeline landscapes will not take place as long as debris slides and avalanches occur regularly. On intensively eroded steep terrain, trees will mainly colonize convexities. On trough shoulders and similar gentle topography with irregular mosaics of convex and concave landforms, tree establishment is most likely to take place on convex topography. On gentle slopes and rolling uplands, where the proportion of wind-swept terrain is comparatively large, microsite facilitation appears to be a precondition for tree establishment. At higher elevations, the relative importance of shelter-providing landforms will increase due to windier conditions. At the beginning of treeline rise, seedling establishment, growth, and survival are closely related to local landforms and microtopography and their effects on site conditions. Later, the feedback from trees on their environment may overrule the effects of landforms.     

Drumlin Formation Time: Evidence from Northern and Central Sweden

Large‐scale drumlins occur abundantly throughout central and northern Sweden. Whereas many drumlins in the north are an integral part of a relict glacial landscape >100,000 years old, those to the south are generally interpreted as of last deglaciation age. Typically, the latter ones have not been overprinted by younger glacial landforms. Despite this apparent difference in formation history, drumlins in both regions have similar directional and morphological characteristics. A systematic analysis of >3000 drumlins in (i) areas within relict landscapes, (ii) areas with an ambiguous deglaciation age assignment, and (iii) areas within deglacial landscapes, indicates that these latter deglaciation drumlins differ clearly in both shape and size from drumlins in the other two types of landscapes. In addition, numerical modelling indicates that basal melting conditions, a prerequisite for drumlin formation, prevailed only for a very limited time over much of northern Sweden during the last deglaciation, but lasted for longer periods of time during earlier stages of the Weichselian. A reconnaissance radionuclide bedrock exposure date from the crag of a large drumlin in the relict landscape indicates that glacial erosion, and presumably drumlin formation, at this location predated Marine Isotope Stage 7. We conclude, therefore, that the large‐scale drumlins of central and northern Sweden did not form during the last deglaciation, or during any other specific ice flow event. Instead, we suggest that they were formed by successive phases of erosion and deposition by ice sheets of similar magnitude and configuration.     

King of the plains: Lester King's contributions to geomorphology

Lester King was one of the most influential geomorphologists of the twentieth century. He based his interpretations of landforms and landscapes firmly in the concept of parallel scarp retreat, for although he acknowledged the possibility of slope decline in certain lithological and vegetational environments, he used the mechanism little, if at all, in understanding landscape. Rather, pediments and inselbergs, for instance, as well as entire landscapes, were construed in terms of scarp recession.King appreciated and emphasised the evidence provided by plains for the interpretation of landscape. He considered pediplanation (scarp retreat and pedimentation) to be active in all regions where running water is responsible for shaping the land surface. King's studies in denudation chronology are consistent with his commitment to scarp retreat, implicit in which is the possibility of the survival of very old surfaces; though whether old enough to match the realities of landscape is doubtful.King challenged the Davisian scheme of landscape evolution and offered an alternative model that has proved viable in many parts of the world. Whether pedimentation and scarp retreat are necessarily related is however questionable. King devised original explanations for several well known landforms, and though many of his ideas and interpretations have fallen by the wayside he stimulated many of his contemporaries critically to review their assumptions and explanations.     

HUMAN IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT: UNPREDICTABILITY AND THE PRIMACY OF PLACE

Landscapes, environments, and ecosystems (i.e., places) are historically and spatially contingent and therefore unique. Generalizations and laws are based on “all other things being equal.” Owing to historical and spatial contingency, all other things are never completely equal and often do not approach that ideal closely enough to allow for reliable prediction. The problem is illustrated by examining effects of grazing and fire suppression on transitions between grass and woody vegetation communities. In three different environments in the southern United States (central Texas, southwestern Virginia, and eastern North Carolina), three different relationships exist between grazing and fire regime, and vegetation. Other examples are common in the geographic and environmental literature. This suggests that the search for a single applicable generalization or predictive model of a given human-induced environmental change that can be applied without accounting for the particular characteristics of places may be futile. Several general ways to address this issue are suggested. First is the recognition that place matters. Conditions specific to a location or region will influence what, how, or even if generalizations apply. Second is the adoption of a “demographic” approach. This is based on the idea that for places, like people, it is possible to make aggregate or probabilistic generalizations or predictions, but these cannot be applied to deterministic prediction of individuals. Third is a synoptic approach based on forecasting not via simple cause-effect relationships, but based on a typology of situations that recognizes and incorporates the unique characteristics of site and situation. Several converging threads of inquiry in geography and geosciences explicitly or implicitly address the issue of historical and spatial contingency. [Key words: landscape, environment, place, prediction.]     

The Great Australian Wind Rush and the Devaluation of Landscape Amenity

Up until very recently--and in marked contrast to such countries as Spain, Denmark and Germany--Australia generated hardly any electricity from the wind. Driven largely by the mandatory targets embodied in the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (Commonwealth) this situation is now changing. Australia has several operational small- to medium-sized wind energy power stations in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. But--in the face of often strong local opposition--the Australian Wind Energy Association is keen to increase the number and scale of such projects. This paper outlines recent overseas developments in wind energy and then focuses on the environmental and planning dilemmas posed by this form of electricity production. Particular attention is focused on a highly controversial wind energy proposal in south-western Victoria, the Portland Wind Energy Project (PWEP). The argument presented is that wind is only one of a number of possible renewable energy options, that coastal landscapes are an 'endangered species', and that it is time for geographers to revisit methodologies concerned with evaluating landscape beauty and debating the place of landscape values within the ecologically sustainable development paradigm.     

Fractal behavior in space and time in a simplified model of fluvial landform evolution

Two general approaches have been applied to understanding the fractal structure of fluvial topography: (1) deterministic, process-based models, and (2) stochastic partial differential equations (PDE). Deterministic models reproduce the fractal behavior of fluvial topography but have two limitations: they often underestimate the amount of lateral valley and ridge migration that occurs in nature, and the complexity has made it difficult to identify the precise origin of fractal behavior in fluvial landscapes. The simplicity of stochastic PDE models has made them useful for investigating fractal behavior, but they incorrectly suggest that fractal behavior is only possible with stochastic forcing. In this paper I investigate whether simplified, deterministic PDE models of landform evolution also exhibit fractal behavior and other features of complexity (i.e. deterministic chaos). These models are based on the KPZ equation, well known in the physics literature. This equation combines diffusion (i.e. hillslope processes) and nonlinear advection (i.e. bedrock or alluvial channel incision). Two models are considered: (1) a deterministic model with uniform erodibility and random initial topography, and (2) a deterministic model with random erodibility and uniform initial topography. Results illustrate that both of these deterministic models exhibit fractal behavior and deterministic chaos. In this context, chaotic behavior means that valley and ridge migration and nonlinear amplification of small perturbations in these models prevent an ideal steady state landscape from ever developing in the large-system limit. These results suggest that fractal structure and deterministic chaos are intrinsic features of the evolution of fluvial landforms, and that these features result from an inverse cascade of energy from small to large wavelengths in drainage basins. This inverse cascade differs from the direct cascade of three-dimensional turbulence in which energy flows from large to small wavelengths.     

Degradation of unconsolidated Quaternary landforms in the western North America

One of the major goals of geomorphology is to understand the rate of landscape evolution and the constraints that erosion sets on the longevity of land surfaces. The latter has also turned out to be vital in modern applications of cosmogenic exposure dating and interpretation of lichenometric data from unconsolidated landforms. Because the effects of landform degradation have not been well documented, disagreements exist among researchers regarding the importance of degradation processes in the dating techniques applied to exposures. Here, we show that all existing qualitative data and quantitative markers of landform degradation collectively suggest considerable lowering of the surface of unconsolidated landforms over the typical life span of Quaternary moraines or fault scarps. Degradation is ubiquitous and considerable even on short time scales of hundreds of years on steeply sloping landforms. These conservative analyses are based entirely on field observations of decreasing slope angles of landforms over the typical range of ages in western North America and widely accepted modeling of landscape degradation. We found that the maximum depth of erosion on fault scarps and moraines is on average 34% of the initial height of the scarp and 25% of the final height of the moraine. Although our observations are limited to fault scarps and moraines, the results apply to any sloping unconsolidated landform in the western North America. These results invalidate the prevailing assumption of no or little surface lowering on sloping unconsolidated landforms over the Quaternary Period and affirm that accurate interpretations of lichen ages and cosmogenically dated boulder ages require keen understanding of the ever-present erosion. In our view, the most important results are twofold: 1) to show with a large data set that degradation affects universally all sloping unconsolidated landforms, and 2) to unambiguously show that even conservative estimates of the total lowering of the surface operate at time and depth scales that significantly interfere with cosmogenic exposure and lichen dating.     

Profile convexities in bedrock and alluvial streams

Longitudinal profiles of bedrock streams in central Kentucky, and of coastal plain streams in southeast Texas, were analyzed to determine the extent to which they exhibit smoothly concave profiles and to relate profile convexities to environmental controls. None of the Kentucky streams have smoothly concave profiles. Because all observed knickpoints are associated with vertical joints, if they are migrating it either occurs rapidly between vertical joints, or migrating knickpoints become stalled at structural features. These streams have been adjusting to downcutting of the Kentucky River for at least 1.3 Ma, suggesting that the time required to produce a concave profile is long compared to the typical timescale of environmental change. A graded concave longitudinal profile is not a reasonable prediction or benchmark condition for these streams. The characteristic profile forms of the Kentucky River gorge area are contingent on a particular combination of lithology, structure, hydrologic regime, and geomorphic history, and therefore do not represent any general type of equilibrium state. Few stream profiles in SE Texas conform to the ideal of the smoothly, strongly concave profile. Major convexities are caused by inherited topography, geologic controls, recent and contemporary geomorphic processes, and anthropic effects. Both the legacy of Quaternary environmental change and ongoing changes make it unlikely that consistent boundary conditions will exist for long. Further, the few exceptions within the study area–i.e., strongly and smoothly concave longitudinal profiles–suggest that ample time has occurred for strongly concave profiles to develop and that such profiles do not necessarily represent any mutual adjustments between slope, transport capacity, and sediment supply. The simplest explanation of any tendency toward concavity is related to basic constraints on channel steepness associated with geomechanical stability and minimum slopes necessary to convey flow. This constrained gradient concept (CGC) can explain the general tendency toward concavity in channels of sufficient size, with minimal lithological constraints and with sufficient time for adjustment. Unlike grade- or equilibrium-based theories, the CGC results in interpretations of convex or low-concavity profiles or reaches in terms of local environmental constraints and geomorphic histories rather than as “disequilibrium” features.     

论旅游资源中石灰华景观的形态建成过程--以四川九寨沟和贵州黄果树等地石灰华群为例

在众多风景旅游资源中,石灰华景观以其独特壮丽的形态为世人所瞩目,并引发出一系列对其成因的解释。本文通过对四川九寨沟和贵州黄果树等旅游地区的石灰华景观进行考察和研究,认为,石灰华景观的形态建成过程主要是受生物、地形和水文的共同控制。其中,生物的控制作用处于十分重要或中心地位,生物(蓝藻、绿藻等低等生物)通过与沉积物颗粒紧密结合形成的藻席的成层加积和侧向延伸生长,与地形、水文等因素一起共同引导和控制着石灰华景观的形成和发育规模。文中提出了旅游资源中瀑华和坝华等主要石灰华景观的形态建成过程模式,为石灰华景观旅游资源的科学保护提出理论依据。     

Trouble with Sense of Place in Working Landscapes

The sense of place (SOP) conceptual framework offers theoretical and empirical evidence that links peoples’ multifaceted connections to place(s) to their engagement in pro-environmental and conservation behaviors. The bulk of this research has focused on peoples’ connection to high-amenity places and landscapes. Recent research applies SOP in working landscapes—however, these studies encounter “troubles” that include measurement challenges and mixed results in predicting statistical relationships with conservation outcome variables. As authors of some of these studies, we propose three opportunities and corresponding survey items for developing meaningful SOP measures in future working landscapes research: (1) modify existing SOP dimensions and items to better capture the working landscape dynamics; (2) address how scale may affect behavior and SOP dimensions; and (3) incorporate a conservation ethic dimension into the SOP framework in working lands.     

新兴的环境地貌学

随着人类改造自然能力的增长,人类与环境地貌之间的相互作用加剧,地球表层的地貌系统在自然地域分异的基础上,出现的新的内容和特征。地貌演化不再是纯自然的过程,而且,人工地貌、人工—自然混合地貌占的比重增加了。因此,有必要对人、环境与地貌的作用机制,地貌的环境意义等问题进行研究,于是,环境地貌学应运而生。与传统地貌学不同的是,环境地貌学从人类活动与环境地貌相互作用的角度,运用系统论、综合分析方法,厚今薄古,研究现存地貌特征及后效,做出环境地貌的经济评价,探讨环境地貌的社会文化效应。本文拟对环境地貌学的产生、学科性质、研究内容和方法进行探讨,希望有助于促进环境地貌学的研究。     

The farmer as a landscape manager: Management roles and change patterns in a Danish region

Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 111(2):107–116, 2011

Rural landscapes are mainly maintained and changed through farmers' decisions and practices. As a landscape manager the farmer has many different roles of which three roles related to the farm as a whole is investigated in this paper: producer, owner and citizen. Although most farmers take landscape decisions in all these three roles production based decisions are assumed to be more important for full time farmers than for hobby farmers who have their main income outside the farm and who may consider their farm more as a living place than as a production place. Based on a large survey carried out in Hvorslev, Eastern Jutland, Denmark in 2008 farmers' landscape practices are analysed in relation to their background, occupational status and view of their farms as a production place versus a living place. Altogether 377 farmers were interviewed and some comparisons are made to a similar survey in the same area in 1996. It was found that a significant proportion of farmers are hobby farmers who mainly see the farm as a living place and who to a large degree have different landscape practices than full time farmers have. The findings indicate that more research is needed to fully understand the reasons for and implications of the differences in landscape management practices.     

Intermediate disturbance and patterns of species richness

Abstract

The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) predicts highest species diversity in environments experiencing intermediate intensity disturbance, after an intermediate timespan. Because many landscapes comprise mosaics with complex disturbance histories, the theory implies that each patch in those mosaics should have a distinct level of diversity reflecting the magnitude of disturbance and the time since it occurred. We model changing patterns of species richness across a landscape experiencing varied scenarios of simulated disturbance in order to predict first the variation of richness through time in individual patches, based on their disturbance histories, and then the changing patterns of richness across the landscape through time, representing the cumulative impact of changing richness within the individual patches. Model outputs show that individual landscape patches have highly variable species richness through time, with the trajectory reflecting the timing, intensity and sequence of disturbances. When the results are mapped across the landscape, the resulting temporal and spatial complexity reveals a distribution of biodiversity that is strikingly contingent on the details of disturbance history. These results illustrate the danger of generalization (in either data interpretation or management decisions), as IDH actually imposes a highly variable pattern of diversity.     

Antarctica, Scott Base and its environs

Abstract: The landscape in the vicinity of Scott Base is one of the most singular of landscapes in the already unique environment of the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica. A rich history of human endeavour together with a broad range of physical features such as volcanoes, various glacial landforms, polar beaches and the Dry Valleys with their own glaciers, sand dunes and patterned ground must make it one of the most fascinating areas on earth. This paper highlights some of the more notable of these landscape features.     

五台山冰缘地貌植物群落的数量分类与排序

在野外样方调查的基础上,采用双向指示种分析法(TWINSPAN)和除趋势对应分析法(DCA)对五台山冰缘地貌植被进行了数量分类和排序研究,将五台山冰缘地貌植被分为13个群丛,13个群丛是不同冰缘地貌生态景观的重要组成要素,各群丛的群落学特征与冰缘地貌生境有密切的生态关系。DCA样方排序结果和种排序结果表明,五台山冰缘地貌植物群落分布格局是土壤、水分、热量等综合环境因子决定的。而不同冰缘地貌上植物群丛优势种的分布格局在很大程度上决定着植物群丛类型的分布格局,反映出植物群落类型和物种分布随冰缘地貌类型及环境梯度变化的趋势。     

中国书法景观的公众地理知觉特征——书法景观知觉维度调查

书法景观是一种代表中国特色文化符号的文化景观,景观知觉维度研究是了解这种景观基本特征的手段。本文将尝试开放问卷对书法知觉场所地方记忆报告结果进行编码,并构建专门计算公式进行权重计算,结果表明书法景观主要知觉维度可归为6 类：知觉时间、地理环境、书法特性、书法载体形式、价值和个体心理,并揭示了热点景点书法景观的知觉维度特征。眼动仪分析结果表明旅游景点的书法景观作为地域标志和景观标志,在公众知觉过程中占有重要地位。相对园林、湖泊和海滨景点内的书法景观,公众更多知觉到了山岳和宫殿庙宇内的书法景观。利用知觉频数描述了不同类型书法景观的地理场所公众知觉特征,根据书法景观知觉频率可将这些场所划分为景点、与人们生活息息相关的场所、新闻媒体和广场三个层次。本文的研究实际上也为中国特色文化景观的实证研究提供了一个有效的方法。