Leaf physiognomy and climate: A multivariate analysis

Research has demonstrated that leaf physiognomy is representative of the local or microclimate conditions under which plants grow. The physiognomy of leaf samples from Oregon, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, and the Panama Canal Zone has been related to the microclimate using Walter diagrams and Thornthwaite water-budget data. A technique to aid paleoclimatologists in identifying the nature of the microclimate from leaf physiognomy utilizes statistical procedures to classify leaf samples into one of six microclimate regimes based on leaf physiognomy information available from fossilized samples.     

Regional significance of an early Holocene moraine in Enchantment Lakes basin,North Cascade Range,Washington

The upper Enchantment Lakes basin in the North Cascade Range of Washington displays two moraine belts, each recording an episode of glacier advance after the end of the last glaciation. The inner belt, the Brynhild, 0.1 to 0.5 km beyond existing glaciers, postdates Mount St. Helens Wn tephra (～450 yr old), which lies only beyond the moraines. The morainal surface is only slightly weathered, is almost barren of lichens, and is devoid of soil, evidence suggesting that the Brynhild moraines are no more than a century old. The outer moraine, the Brisingamen, 0.3 to 0.7 km beyond existing glaciers, is weathered and is covered with large lichens. On and behind the Brisingamen moraine the Mazama ash (6900 yr old) is present beneath the Mount St. Helens Yn and Wn tephras. Despite more than 7 millennia of weathering, the rock surface behind the Brisingamen moraine is measurably less weathered than the surface beyond, which was last glaciated during the Rat Creek advance about 13,000 yr ago. The age of the Brisingamen moraine therefore is probably early Holocene. The Brisingamen moraine evidently correlates with moraines near Glacier Peak, near Mount Rainier, in northeastern and central Oregon, in the southern Canadian Rockies, and in the northern U.S. Rocky Mountains. These regional effects suggest that a climatic episode of cooling or increased snowfall affected the entire region some time during the early Holocene.     

Sedimentology and palynology of Middle Wisconsinan deposits in the Pecatonica River valley,Wisconsin and Illinois

The bedrock valley of the Pecatonica River north of Freeport, Illinois, contains a thick valley-fill complex of alluvium and drift. Within the valley, loess-capped benches surround hills of silty Illinoian drift. Beneath these benches lie thick deposits of poorly sorted stony silt interbedded with thin lenses of silt, sand, and organic-rich loam. Channel deposits and peat cap the diamicton in places. We interpret the stony silts as solifluction debris shed from silty slopes within the valley-fill during the Early or Middle Wisconsinan (Altonian). Top and bottom radiocarbon dates from a 2.5-m section of peat overlying the diamicton are 26,820 ± 200 and 40,500 ± 1700 yr B.P., respectively. We informally refer to the stony silts, channel sediments, and peat as the “Martintown unit.” Geomorphic position, sediment input, and macrofossils suggest that the dated peat was deposited in a floodplain pond (oxbow?). The pollen record from the peat indicates that a boreal forest dominated this area during the Middle Wisconsinan (late Altonian and Farmdalian). Two pollen zones are recognized: a basal Zone I with Pinus slightly more abundant than Picea and with few herbs and shrubs, and an upper Zone II dominated by Picea and with a larger representation of herbaceous and shrub taxa. Little displacement of vegetation zones is indicated, even though ice advanced to within 100 km of the site during the time of peat accumulation. Because of the problems involved in clearly defining Middle Wisconsinan forest-tundra in mid-latitudes by using analogs of Holocene forest-tundra in high latitudes, caution is required in making geomorphic inferences solely from vegetation data. Together, though, pollen and sediment data indicate that during the Middle Wisconsinan, Pecatonica hillslopes progressed through a sequence of instability-stability-instability related to climatic fluctuations.     

Effects of a photosynthesis inhibitor,atrazine, on the salt-marsh fiddler crab,Uca pugnax (Smith)

Atrazine (2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamine-s-triazine) concentrations of 1,000 ppm either killed or eliminated the escape response (considered to be analogous to death) ofUca pugnax in laboratory experiments in August 1977. Adverse effects were observed at concentrations as low as 100 ppm and the severity was dependent on size and sex of the crab. However, in subsequent experiments, each with a new group of crabs, the effects of atrazine became smaller and smaller until a November experiment when no deleterious effects were observed even when exposed to 1,000 ppm. Experiments in August, 1978 confirmed the data obtained 1 year earlier. Ecological and physiological considerations of this seasonal variation in response are discussed. Crabs fed for 20 days with detritus wetted with 10^?4 M atrazine were not adversely affected. Crabs exposed to a single application of 0, 100, 1,000, and 10,000 ppm atrazine in the field and in microecosystems were adversely affected only by the 10,000-ppm rate. Toxicity of atrazine to the larval stage of the crab was not investigated.     

Holocene climate of New England

Stratigraphic studies of pollen and macrofossils from six sites at different elevations in the White Mountains of New Hampshire demonstrate changes in the distributions of four coniferous tree species during the Holocene. Two species presently confined to low elevations extended farther up the mountain slopes during the early Holocene: white pine grew 350 m above its present limit beginning 9000 yr B.P., while hemlock grew 300–400 m above its present limit soon after the species immigrated to the region 7000 yr. B.P. Hemlock disappeared from the highest sites about 5000 yr B.P., but both species persisted at sites 50–350 m above their present limits until the Little Ice Age began a few centuries ago. The history of the two main high-elevation conifers is more difficult to interpret. Spruce and fir first occur near their present upper limits 9000 or 10,000 yr B.P. Fir persisted in abundance at elevations similar to those where it occurs today throughout the Holocene, while spruce became infrequent at all elevations from the beginning of the Holocene until 2000 yr B.P. These facts suggest a more complex series of changes than a mere upward shift of the modern environmental gradient. Nevertheless, we conclude that the minimum climatic change which would explain the upward extensions of hemlock and white pine is a rise in temperature, perhaps as much as 2°C. The interval of maximum warmth started 9000 yr B.P. and lasted at least until 5000 yr B.P., correlative with the Prairie Period in Minnesota.     

Condensation and fractionation of rare earths in the solar nebula

Using the most recent thermodynamic data, we calculated the condensation behavior of REE and investigated several models to explain ‘group II’ REE patterns in Allende inclusions. All models involve removal of large fractions of the more refractory heavy REE in an early condensate, probably perovskite, followed by condensation of the remainder at lower temperature. Boynton (1975 Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta39, 569–584), found that the pattern of one such inclusion could not be fit by that of the gas remaining after ideal solution of REE in perovskite and, assuming the presence of only one REE component, calculated relative activity coefficients for REE in perovskite that would be needed to produce a match. In attempting to fit 20 group II patterns with this type of model, we found that these activity coefficients could not be used for most inclusions and that the relationship between ionic radius and required activity coefficients had to change rapidly and irregularly over a narrow range of perovskite removal temperature. Because this feature and the high degree of nonideality needed are most unreasonable, we propose a different model in which two REE components control the patterns: (1) the gas remaining after removal of perovskite in which REE dissolve in ideal solution; (2) a material uniformly enriched in all REE. Two-component models in which solid solution of REE in perovskite is slightly non-ideal and activity coefficients vary negligibly over a narrow temperature range cannot be ruled out. By varying perovskite removal temperatures and the relative proportions of the two components, all 20 REE patterns can be satisfactorily explained.By using a thermodynamically reasonable model, we conclude that perovskite removal occurred over a very narrow temperature range, that multiple refractory element-bearing components are present, indicating a complex history for these inclusions, and that the undeniable gas-solid fractionations that produced the REE patterns may have taken place under somewhat more reducing conditions than those of a normal solar gas.     

Lime incrustingHapalosiphon intricatus (Cyanophyceae) and phosphate availability in a Florida cave

Hapalosiphon intricatus (Cyanophyceae) with lightly calcified sheaths, is the dominant filamentous alga reported from a humid, dimly-lighted limestone cave in northcentral Florida (USA). Within the limestone substrate, hydroxyapatite is the form of the phosphate mineral providing nutrient to the algae. Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal series No. 4381.