Assessing the effects of post‐pine beetle forest litter on snow albedo

The effect of forest litter on snow surface albedo has been subject to limited study, mainly in the hardwood‐dominated forests of the northeastern United States. Given the recent pine beetle infestation in Western North America and associated increases in litter production, this study examines the effects of forest litter on snow surface albedo in the coniferous forests of south‐central British Columbia. Measured changes in canopy transmittance provide an indication of canopy loss or total litterfall over the winter of 2007–2008. Relationships between percent litter cover, an index of albedo, snow depth, and snow ablation during the 2008 melt season are compared between a mature, young, and clearcut coniferous stand. Results indicate a strong feedback effect between canopy loss and subsequent enhanced shortwave transmittance, and litter accumulation on the snow surface from that canopy loss. However, this relationship is confounded by other variables concurrently affecting albedo. While results suggest that a relatively small percent litter cover can have a significant effect on albedo and ablation, further research is underway to extract the litter signal from that of other factors affecting albedo, particularly snow depth. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a Neolithic pine tree‐ring chronology for northern Scotland

The peatlands of northern Scotland (one of the largest and most intact areas of blanket bog in the world) contain a rare widespread horizon of subfossil pine in stratigraphic context. Eighteen bog pine from three new sites are incorporated into a mean Neolithic pine chronology now composed of subfossil pine from 12 sites, which is tree‐ring‐dated against Irish bog pine chronologies to span 3198–2757 BC. Germination and peaks of radial growth infer drier conditions between 3199 and 3130 BC. Dying‐off phases and depression of growth reflect a change to wetter conditions between 3023 and 3002 BC and a terminal decline of pine between 2809 and 2782 BC. The close synchronization of germination/die‐off phases and major ring‐width variations between sites across this region indicates that the environmental changes are probably triggered by climate change. Twenty‐four bog pine samples remain unmatched. Future multi‐discipline research into this important example of climatic change at the Neolithic/Bronze Age transition is recommended. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling investigation of water partitioning at a semiarid ponderosa pine hillslope

The effects of vegetation root distribution on near‐surface water partitioning can be two‐fold. On the one hand, the roots facilitate deep percolation by root‐induced macropore flow; on the other hand, they reduce the potential for deep percolation by root‐water‐uptake processes. Whether the roots impede or facilitate deep percolation depends on various conditions, including climate, soil, and vegetation characteristics. This paper examines the effects of root distribution on deep percolation into the underlying permeable bedrock for a given soil profile and climate condition using HYDRUS modelling. The simulations were based on previously field experiments on a semiarid ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) hillslope. An equivalent single continuum model for simulating root macropore flow on hillslopes is presented, with root macropore hydraulic parameterization estimated based on observed root distribution. The sensitivity analysis results indicate that the root macropore effect dominates saturated soil water flow in low conductivity soils (K_matrix below 10^?7 m/s), while it is insignificant in soils with a K_matrix larger than 10^?5 m/s, consistent with observations in this and other studies. At the ponderosa pine site, the model with simple root‐macropore parameterization reasonably well reproduces soil moisture distribution and some major runoff events. The results indicate that the clay‐rich soil layer without root‐induced macropores acts as an impeding layer for potential groundwater recharge. This impeding layer results in a bedrock percolation of less than 1% of the annual precipitation. Without this impeding layer, percolation into the underlying permeable bedrock could be as much as 20% of the annual precipitation. This suggests that at a surface with low‐permeability soil overlying permeable bedrock, the root penetration depth in the soil is critical condition for whether or not significant percolation occurs. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

LAND‐USE CHANGE IN THE ATLANTIC COASTAL PINE BARRENS ECOREGION

Information on the rates, characteristics, and drivers of land‐use change are vital for addressing the impacts and feedbacks of change on environmental processes. The U.S. Geological Survey's Land Cover Trends project is conducting a consistent, national analysis of the rates, causes, and consequences of land‐use change. In this article we assess change in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens ecoregion from 1973 to 2000. Urban lands expanded by more than 900 square kilometers during the study period. Land‐use change in the ecoregion followed the tenets of “Forest Transition Theory” (ftt ) prior to the study period, but forest lands experienced consistent declines from 1973 to 2000. Increasing government regulation during the study period, consistent with concept of the “Quiet Revolution” (qr ), mitigated forest loss during the latter half of the study period. Generalized theories, including ftt and the qr , are valuable, but local and regional determinants of comparative land rents ultimately drive land‐use change at this scale.     

Stable isotope coherence in the earlywood and latewood of tree-line conifers

Annually resolved and replicated tree-ring stable isotope series have the potential to reconstruct growing season environmental parameters over multi-millennial timescales. As this archive may require only minimal statistical detrending, it has the potential to preserve a large portion of low frequency climate signals. To date, many studies have utilised only the latewood portion of the tree ring, in an attempt to minimize carry-over effects from previous year reserves and maximise the annual nature of the climate signal preserved. However, the old trees from tree-line locations, necessary to build long chronologies, often display narrow ring-widths (< 0.5 mm), making accurate earlywood–latewood separation difficult and particular time consuming. The resulting samples may also be too small for efficient cellulose purification or multiple isotopic determinations. As photosynthates from the current year are predominantly used in conifer ring formation at marginal sites with short growing seasons, latewood separation may not be especially advantageous in determining a useful climate signal and therefore unnecessary where resources are limited. To test this hypothesis, Scots pine from Northern Norway and European larch from the Swiss Alps are used. Both sites are tree-line locations where growth is predominantly temperature limited. Tree rings were cut and extracted to cellulose for both the earlywood and latewood of each annual growth ring and stable carbon isotope ratios were measured. Our results demonstrate a very high common carbon isotope signal between earlywood and latewood in both species (r_larch = 0.68 and r_pine = 0.79), which also show high correlations with summer temperature over the investigated period (AD 1980–2004 for larch and AD 1929–1978 for pine). High turnover rates and small reserve pools at these tree-line locations may account for these high common signals. These results suggest that for European tree-line conifers, the separation of earlywood from latewood is unnecessary to resolve an annual isotopic signal and make a reliable climate calibration. Using the whole ring may provide additional analytical advantages and consequently even improve climate calibrations.     

On modelling the effects of afforestation on acidification in heterogeneous catchments at different spatial and temporal scales

A modelling approach is presented for simulating and predicting future changes in streamwater Gran alkalinity throughout a large, heterogeneous river system. The methodology is based on integrating End Member Mixing Analysis (EMMA), the Model of Acidification of Groundwater in Catchments (MAGIC) and spatial data describing the catchment characteristics stored on a Geographical Information System (GIS). These are integrated within a Functional Unit Network (FUN) to predict the changes in Gran alkalinity resulting from possible future changes in atmospheric deposition and land use (low intensity afforestation) in the River Dee catchment, NE Scotland. Model results indicate that declining sulphate and constant nitrogen deposition, combined with low intensity Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) afforestation are unlikely to contribute significantly to streamwater acidification.     

Climatic significance of the stable carbon isotope composition of tree-ring cellulose: Comparison of Chinese hemlock (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Tsuga chinensis</Emphasis> Pritz) and alpine pine (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pinus densata</Emphasis> Mast) in a temperate-moist region of China

In the reconstruction of past climate using stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) in tree ring, the responses of the stable carbon composition (δ13C) of multiple tree species to environmental factors must be known detailedly. This study presented two δ13C series in annual tree rings for Chinese hemlock (Tsuga chinensis Pritz) and alpine pine (Pinus densata Mast), and investigated the relationships between climatic parameters and stable carbon discrimination (Δ13C) series, and evaluated the potential of climatic reconstruction using Δ13C in both species, in a temperate-moist region of Chuanxi Plateau, China. The raw δ13C series of the two species was inconsistent, which may be a result of different responses caused by tree's inherent physiological differences. After removing the low-frequency effects of CO2 concentration, the high-frequency (year-to-year) inter-series correlation of Δ13C was strong, indicating that Δ13C of the two tree species were controlled by common environmental conditions. The Δ13C series of the species were most significantly correlated with temperature and moisture stress, but in different periods and intensity between the species. During the physiological year, the impacts of temperature and moisture stress on Δ13C occur earlier for Chinese hemlock (previous December to February for moisture stress and February to April for temperature, respectively) than for alpine pine (March to May for moisture stress and April to July for temperature, respectively). In addition, in temperatemoist regions, the control on Δ13C of single climatic parameter was not strongly dominant and the optimal multiple regressions functions just explained the 38.5% variance of the total. Therefore, there is limited potential for using δ13C alone to identify clear, reliable climatic signals from two species.     

The foreshore: geographical implications of the three legal systems in Great Britain

Despite the word 'foreshore' being in common usage relating to the coast, it has three distinct legal definitions in Great Britain. There are three property law regimes, English law in England and Wales, Scots law (feudal) in Scotland and Udal tenure in parts of Orkney and Shetland. These result in the boundaries between private property interests and public property interests lying in a different position on the beach area under each of these property regimes. This paper examines the physical extent of each of the foreshore definitions and highlights a number of associated issues that rely on these different boundaries fundamentally impacting upon the management of the coast.     

松粉热解脂肪酸生物标志物的特征及其地球化学意义

现代松粉的温－压热模拟实验中，产出的轻质烃和氯仿抽提物芳烃馏份的GC－MS分析均检出大量偶数碳优势明显的脂肪酸类分子生物标志物，轻烃主要为C16，C18烷酸及其甲，乙酯，芳烃组分相对比较复杂，包括饱和脂肪酸（酯），不饱和脂肪酸（酯）和脂肪酸内酯，前者碳数分布为C15－，C30，C16，C18碳酸（酯）相对丰度占绝对优势为特征，后者碳数分布为C20-C30,以C26，C28和C30脂肪酸内酯为主，在250℃以下样品中检测出相对丰度较高的不饱和C18碳酸（酯），脂肪酸酯化合物在极低的温度条件下便可排出，并分别在200－300℃和300－400℃之间形成两次产出高峰；花粉内质体中的游离态脂肪酸及不饱和脂肪酸形成低温阶段的第一次高峰；花粉壁脂质结构中的脂肪酸及饱和脂肪酸在较高温度阶段形成第二次高峰，原样及低温样品以脂肪酸酯为主，250℃及其以上温度条件下因水解产生较多的脂肪酸，随温率继续升高，脂肪酸酯易发生脱羰反应而生成链烷烃。400℃以后因强烈降解脂肪酸酯含量大大降低，这与350－450℃之间奇数碳优势正构烷烃在轻质烃和饱和烃中的大量产出相吻合，研究表明，植物花粉是沉积有机质中饱和及不饱和C16，C18脂肪酸酯的重要母源之一。     

漠河樟子松树轮指数与标准化植被指数的关系研究

利用我国寒温带针叶林的樟子松树轮数据和多年NDVI数据,运用树轮指数生成程序ARSTAN得到最大密度、晚材密度等7种树轮指数的标准化序列。首先分析了森林NDVI的逐月和逐年变化特征,然后分析了各种树轮指数与森林NDVI的关系。结果表明,漠河森林NDVI月变化和年变化主要受温度影响,属于温度驱动型;最大密度指数与NDVI年均值间有较强的相关关系;生长季（5～9月）NDVI与当年树轮的最大密度、晚材密度、早材密度和晚材宽度指数相关,但与最小密度、树轮宽度、早材宽度指数关系不显著;夏季（6～8月）NDVI与早材密度指数显著相关,但早材宽度指数却与前一年夏季NDVI有关。就单月NDVI而言,5月份的NDVI与最大密度和晚材密度指数显著相关,而6月份的NDVI与早材密度指数显著相关。从7种树轮指数对区域尺度上的生长季NDVI的指示效果来看,密度指数比宽度指数更有效。