Holocene Vegetation Dynamics, Fire History, Lake Level and Climate Change in the Kootenay Valley, Southeastern British Columbia, Canada

The environmental history of the Kootenay Valley in the southern Canadian Rockies was reconstructed using lake sediment from Dog Lake, British Columbia, and compared to other paleoenvironmental studies in the region to understand how vegetation dynamics and fire regimes responded to climate change during the Holocene. A pollen-based vegetation reconstruction indicates five periods of vegetation change. At 10,300 cal yr B.P. Pinus-Juniperus parkland colonized the valley and by 7600 cal yr B.P. was replaced by mixed stands of Pinus, Picea and Pseudotsuga/Larix. Fire frequencies increased to their Holocene maximums during the 8200–4000 cal yr B.P. period. From 5500–4500 cal yr B.P. Pseudotsuga/Larix reached its maximum extent in the Kootenay Valley under a more frequent fire regime. At 5000 cal yr B.P. Picea and Abies began to expand in the area and by 4500 cal yr B.P. the forest shifted to a closed montane spruce forest type with dramatically reduced fire frequency. The shift to less frequent forest fires after 4500 cal yr B.P., along with a moisterPicea – dominated closed forest, corresponds to Neoglacial advances in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Fire intervals after 4000 cal yr B.P. are significantly longer than the shorter fire intervals of the early to mid Holocene. A return to drier, more open forest condition occurs between 2400–1200 cal yr B.P. with a slight increase in fire activity and summer drought events. Lower lake levels inferred by charophyte accumulation rates during the 2400–1200 cal yr B.P. interval support this moisture regime shift. An abrupt shift toPicea dominated forest occurred from 1200–1000 cal yr B.P. and a final period of wet-closed forest cover reaches its maximum extent from 700–150 cal yr B.P. that appears to be a response to Little Ice Age cooling. Present forests are within their natural range of variability but are predicted to shift again to a drier more open structure with increased Pseudotsuga/Larix cover. More frequent stand replacing fires and increased area burned likely will accompany this change due to continued global warming.     

Tropical forest monitoring and remote sensing: A new era of transparency in forest governance?

The extent of tropical deforestation is now being tracked by actors in the nongovernmental, academic, private and government sectors using several different sources of satellite imagery. This paper presents an overview of the satellite systems that can be used for operational forest monitoring in the tropics and examines some recent trends in their use. It also reviews various satellite-based studies to map moist tropical forests and draws upon lessons learned from land cover mapping projects in several countries and regions. The case of Indonesia, examined as a nation undergoing rapid conversion of forest to other land uses, is contrasted with Brazil where satellite-based deforestation monitoring is fully operational. In Indonesia, the paper argues, the creation of a national monitoring system for tropical forest conversion is needed to create a source of transparent, reliable information on forest cover and condition. Such a system is likely to succeed if based on multitemporal, moderate-resolution optical data such as imagery provided by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer). When MODIS images are complemented by radar and fine-resolution imagery from sensors such as IKONOS and QuickBird, areas of abrupt change can be identified and the causes potentially discerned. Thus, satellite imagery at multiple temporal and spatial resolutions can effectively increase transparency in the forestry sector by revealing the rate and extent of deforestation on an annual basis and identifying potential areas of illegal logging.     

The importance of crustal structure in explaining the observed uncertainties in ground motion estimation

In this short article, the possible reduction in the standard deviation of empirical ground motion estimation equations through the modelling of the effect of crustal structure is assessed through the use of ground-motion simulations. Simulations are computed for different source-to-site distances, focal depths, focal mechanisms and for crustal models of the Pyrenees, the western Alps and the upper Rhine Graben. Through the method of equivalent hypocentral distance introduced by Douglas et al. [(2004) Bull Earthquake Eng 2(1): 75–99] to model the effect of crustal structure in empirical equations, the scatter associated with such equations derived using these simulated data could be reduced to zero if real-to-equivalent hypocentral distance mapping functions were derived for every combination of mechanism, depth and crustal structure present in the simulated dataset. This is, obviously, impractical. The relative importance of each parameter in affecting the decay of ground motions is assessed here. It is found that variation in focal depth is generally more important than the effect of crustal structure when deriving the real-to-equivalent hypocentral distance mapping functions. In addition, mechanism and magnitude do not have an important impact on the decay rate.     

The influence of riparian vegetation on near‐bank turbulence: a flume experiment

Measurements from a fixed‐bed, Froude‐scaled hydraulic model of a stream in northeastern Vermont demonstrate the importance of forested riparian vegetation effects on near‐bank turbulence during overbank flows. Sections of the prototype stream, a tributary to Sleepers River, have increased in channel width within the last 40 years in response to passive reforestation of its riparian zone. Previous research found that reaches of small streams with forested riparian zones are commonly wider than adjacent reaches with non‐forested, or grassy, vegetation; however, driving mechanisms for this morphologic difference are not fully explained. Flume experiments were performed with a 1:5 scale, simplified model of half a channel and its floodplain, mimicking the typical non‐forested channel size. Two types of riparian vegetation were placed on the constructed floodplain: non‐forested, with synthetic grass carpeting; and forested, where rigid, randomly distributed, wooden dowels were added. Three‐dimensional velocities were measured with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter at 41 locations within the channel and floodplain at near‐bed and 0·6‐depth elevations. Observations of velocity components and calculations of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), Reynolds shear stress and boundary shear stress showed significant differences between forested and non‐forested runs. Generally, forested runs exhibited a narrow band of high turbulence between the floodplain and main channel, where TKE was roughly two times greater than TKE in non‐forested runs. Compared to non‐forested runs, the hydraulic characteristics of forested runs appear to create an environment with higher erosion potential. Given that sediment entrainment and transport can be amplified in flows with high turbulence intensity and given that mature forested stream reaches are wider than comparable non‐forested reaches, our results demonstrated a possible driving mechanism for channel widening during overbank flow events in stream reaches with recently reforested riparian zones. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Soil morphology and organic matter dynamics under cheatgrass and sagebrush-steppe plant communities

Widespread cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) invasion represents a major shift in species dominance that may alter ecosystem processes across much of the western US. To investigate differences following such conversion, soil morphology and organic matter under cheatgrass-dominated and native shrub-steppe vegetation were compared by standard soil analysis procedures at seven paired sites in Idaho and Utah. Results suggest that, following conversion to cheatgrass dominance, increased porosity and labile organic inputs enhance microbial decomposition in near-surface horizons beneath cheatgrass compared to adjacent soils under native vegetation. Enhanced decomposition could result in depletion of long-term SOM, leading to impoverished sites difficult to restore to native perennial vegetation.     

Mineralogy and petrology of the diabasic rocks in a differentiated olivine diabase sill complex,Sierra Ancha,Arizona

The Precambrian Sierra Ancha sill complex, more than 700 feet thick, is a multiple intrusion with a central layer of feldspathic olivine-rich diabase, and upper and lower layers of olivine diabase derived from a high-alumina basalt magma. Minor rock types include albite diabase and albite-diabase pegmatite. Deuteric alteration was extensive. Principal primary minerals are plagioclase (An₇₂ to An₁₆), augite (Wo₄₃En₄₄Fs₁₃ to Wo₄₀En₃₈Fs₂₂), olivine (Fo₇₄ to Fo₅₄), orthopyroxene (En₇₇ to En₄₄), magnetite (Mgt₆₆Usp₃₄ to Mgt₈₉Usp₁₁), and ilmenite (Ilm₈₆Hem₁₄ to Ilm₉₆Hem₄). Ilmenite formed by reaction-exsolution from magnetite_ss is consistently different in compositon from primary ilmenite. Primary ilmenite became enriched in Mn and depleted in Mg as crystallization proceded. A systematic Fe-Mg partition between contacting olivine and orthopyroxene suggests that equilibrium prevailed on an extremely local scale during crystallization. Albite-diabase pegmatite contains a mineral assemblage including augite, ferrosalite (Wo₄₉En₂₈Fs₂₃ to Wo₄₉En₁₄Fs₃₇), albite (An₂ to An₀), and iron-rich chlorite. Altered diabase and albite diabase also have unusually calcium-rich pyroxenes. The calcium-rich pyroxenes, which occur in assemblages like those characterizing some spilites, are richer in calcium and lower in aluminum and titanium than basaltic augite.Contribution No. 1712 of the Division of Geological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.