Paleoecology of a Middle Wisconsin Deposit from Southern California

Analysis of a buried deposit in the Diamond Valley of southern California has revealed well-preserved pollen, wood, and diatom remains. Accelerator mass spectrometry dates of 41,200±2100 and 41,490±1380 ¹⁴C yr B.P. place this deposit in marine isotope stage 3. Diatoms suggest a shallow lacustrine environment. Pollen data suggest that several plant communities were present near the site, with grassland, scrub, chaparral, forest, and riparian communities represented. Comparison with modern pollen suggests similarities with montane forests in the nearby San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges, indicating vegetation lowering by at least 900 m elevation and temperatures 4°–5°C cooler than today. An increase in high-elevation conifer pollen documents climatic cooling near the profile top. Early-profile diatoms are typical of warm water with high alkalinity and conductivity, whereas later diatoms suggest a higher flow regime and input of cooler water into the system. We suggest that the sequence is part of the cooling phase of an interstadial Dansgaard–Oeschger cycle. Records of the middle Wisconsin period are rare in southern California, but the Diamond Valley site is similar to records from Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin Valley and the ODP Site 893A record from Santa Barbara Basin. It is probable that the Diamond Valley assemblage is a local expression of a vegetation type widespread in the ranges and basins of southwestern California during the middle Wisconsin.     

Effect of adsorbed metal ions on the transport of Zn- and Ni-EDTA complexes in a sand and gravel aquifer

Adsorption, complexation, and dissolution reactions strongly influenced the transport of metal ions complexed with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in a predominantly quartz-sand aquifer during two tracer tests conducted under mildly reducing conditions at pH 5.8 to 6.1. In tracer test M89, EDTA complexes of zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni), along with excess free EDTA, were injected such that the lower portion of the tracer cloud traveled through a region with adsorbed manganese (Mn) and the upper portion of the tracer cloud traveled through a region with adsorbed Zn. In tracer test S89, Ni- and Zn-EDTA complexes, along with excess EDTA complexed with calcium (Ca), were injected into a region with adsorbed Mn. The only discernable chemical reaction between Ni-EDTA and the sediments was a small degree of reversible adsorption leading to minor retardation. In the absence of adsorbed Zn, the injected Zn was displaced from EDTA complexes by iron(III) [Fe(III)] dissolved from the sediments. Displacement of Zn by Fe(III) on EDTA became increasingly thermodynamically favorable with decreasing total EDTA concentration. The reaction was slow compared to the time-scale of transport. Free EDTA rapidly dissolved aluminum (Al) from the sediments, which was subsequently displaced slowly by Fe. In the portion of tracer cloud M89 that traveled through the region contaminated with adsorbed Zn, little displacement of Zn complexed with EDTA was observed, and Al was rapidly displaced from EDTA by Zn desorbed from the sediments, in agreement with equilibrium calculations. In tracer test S89, desorption of Mn dominated over the more thermodynamically favorable dissolution of Al oxyhydroxides. Comparison with results from M89 suggests that dissolution of Al oxyhydroxides in coatings on these sediment grains by Ca-EDTA was rate-limited whereas that by free EDTA reached equilibrium on the time-scale of transport. Rates of desorption are much faster than rates of dissolution of Fe oxyhydroxides from sediment-grain surfaces and, therefore, adsorbed metal ions can strongly influence the speciation of ligands like EDTA in soils and sediments, especially over small temporal and spatial scales.     

A 1500-year record of climatic and environmental change in ElkLake, Minnesota I: Varve thickness and gray-scale density

The deepest part (29.5 m) of Elk Lake, ClearwaterCounty, northwestern Minnesota, contains a complete Holocene section that iscontinuously varved. The varve components are predominantly autochthonous(CaCO₃, organic matter, biogenic silica, and several iron andmanganese minerals), but the varves do contain a minor detrital-clastic(aluminosilicate) component that is predominantly wind-borne (eolian) andprovides an important record of atmospheric conditions. Singular spectrumanalysis (SSA) and wavelet analysis of varve thickness recognized significantperiodicities in the multicentennial and multidecadal bands that varied inpower (i.e., variable significance) and position (i.e., variable period) withinthe periodic bands. Persistent periodicities of about 10, 22, 40, and 90 years,and, in particular, multicentennial periodicities in varve thickness and otherproxy variables are similar to those in spectra of radiocarbon production, aproxy for past solar activity. This suggests that there may be a solar control,perhaps through geomagnetic effects on atmospheric circulation. Multicentennialand multidecadal periodicities also occur in wavelet spectra of relativegray-scale density. However, gray-scale density does not appear to correlatewith any of the measured proxy variables, and at this point we do not know whatcontrolled gray scale.     

Using Spatial Statistics to Examine the Pattern of Urban Land Development in Halifax–Dartmouth

This article examines the locational patterns of population and employment and the resultant changes in urban form in the Halifax–Dartmouth region between 1970 and 1996. The article employs the univariate and bivariate K function to measure spatial dependence or clustering within and between the classes of residential and commercial land parcels. The results of the K function estimates suggest that residential land parcels cluster together, commercial land parcels cluster together, and residential and commercial land parcels have become more clustered over time. Evidence of clustering provides insight into the changing urban form of the region and possible multinucleation.     

Wind erosion from military training lands in the Mojave Desert, California, U.S.A.

Military training activities reduce vegetation cover, disturb crusts, and degrade soil aggregates, making the land more vulnerable to wind erosion. The objective of this study was to quantify wind erosion rates for typical conditions at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, CA, U.S.A. Five Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) sampler stations were installed at each of five sites. Each BSNE station consisted of five BSNE samplers with the lowest sampler at 0·05 m and the highest sampler at 1·0 m above the soil surface. Once a month, sediment was collected from the samplers for analysis. Occurrence of saltating soil aggregates was recorded every hour using Sensits, one at each site. The site with the most erosion had a sediment discharge of 311 kg m⁻¹ over a period of 17 months. Other sites eroded much less because of significant rock cover or the presence of a crust. Hourly sediment discharge was estimated combining hourly Sensit count and monthly sediment discharge measured using BSNE samplers. More simultaneously measured data are needed to better characterize the relationship between these two and reconstruct a detailed time-series of wind erosion. This measured time-series can then be used for comparison with simulation results from process-based wind erosion models such as the Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS), once it has been adapted to the unique aspects of military lands.     

Anthropogenic Impacts on Summer Precipitation in Central Arizona,U.S.A.

This article explores the possibility of urbanization‐ and irrigation‐induced increases in summer precipitation totals in central Arizona. Maximum precipitation impacts are hypothesized to occur downwind of the Phoenix area in the Lower Verde basin. Results from statistical tests indicate that summer precipitation totals in the Lower Verde basin are greater than totals in nearby basins. Precipitation totals in the basin also appear to be equivalent to totals at more monsoon‐impacted stations in eastern Arizona. While this research is preliminary, the results do provide encouraging evidence of the existence of anthropogenically enhanced summer precipitation in central Arizona.     

Building Web-Based Spatial Information Solutions around Open Specifications and Open Source Software

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are moving from isolated, standalone, monolithic, proprietary systems working in a client‐server architecture to smaller web‐based applications and components offering specific geo‐processing functionality and transparently exchanging data among them. Interoperability is at the core of this new web services model. Compliance with Open Specifications (OS) enables interoperability. Web‐GIS software's high costs, complexity and special requirements have prevented many organizations from deploying their data and geo‐processing capabilities over the World Wide Web. There are no‐cost Open Source Software (OSS) alternatives to proprietary software for operating systems, web servers, and Relational Database Management Systems. We tested the potential of the combined use of OS and OSS to create web‐based spatial information solutions. We present in detail the steps taken in creating a prototype system to support land use planning in Mexico with web‐based geo‐processing capabilities currently not present in commercial web‐GIS products. We show that the process is straightforward and accessible to a broad audience of geographic information scientists and developers. We conclude that OS and OSS allow the development of web‐based spatial information solutions that are low‐cost, simple to implement, compatible with existing information technology infrastructure, and have the potential of interoperating with other systems and applications in the future.     

Erosion rates of alpine bedrock summit surfaces deduced from in situ Be and Al

We have measured the concentration of in situ produced cosmogenic ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al from bare bedrock surfaces on summit flats in four western U.S. mountain ranges. The maximum mean bare-bedrock erosion rate from these alpine environments is 7.6 ± 3.9 m My⁻¹. Individual measurements vary between 2 and 19 m My⁻¹. These erosion rates are similar to previous cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) erosion rates measured in other environments, except for those from extremely arid regions. This indicates that bare bedrock is not weathered into transportable material more rapidly in alpine environments than in other environments, even though frost weathering should be intense in these areas. Our CRN-deduced point measurements of bedrock erosion are slower than typical basin-averaged denudation rates ( 50 m My⁻¹). If our measured CRN erosion rates are accurate indicators of the rate at which summit flats are lowered by erosion, then relief in the mountain ranges examined here is probably increasing.

We develop a model of outcrop erosion to investigate the magnitude of errors associated with applying the steady-state erosion model to episodically eroding outcrops. Our simulations show that interpreting measurements with the steady-state erosion model can yield erosion rates which are either greater or less than the actual long-term mean erosion rate. While errors resulting from episodic erosion are potentially greater than both measurement and production rate errors for single samples, the mean value of many steady-state erosion rate measurements provides a much better estimate of the long-term erosion rate.