The primary reading this week will focus on fire records from the Sacramento Mtns in southern New Mexico and is written by UNM folks!
Frechette, J.D., Meyer, G.A., 2009. Holocene fire-related alluvial-fan deposition and climate in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests, Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico, USA. The Holocene, 19(4), 639-651.
It is about 10 pages, but there are lots of figures. Pay attention to what the figures are trying to tell you as you read. Enjoy!
The Whitlock paper is optional, but highly recommended as a short, concise intro to the topic. It is posted on the wiki along with the primary reading.
For your blog post prior to Thursday's class here are a few questions to consider in your response:
- What was one thing that you found interesting in the paper?
- Is there one thing that you have questions about after reading the paper? What were you confused by or feel you need more information about?
- Were you convinced by the story that the authors proposed in the paper? Why, why not or why maybe? Be specific.
For those interested in further elaborations of the effects of fire based on research in New Mexico, you may find Craig D. Allen's 2007 article Interactions Across Spatial Scales among Forest Dieback, Fire, and Erosion in Northern New Mexico Landscapes of interest.
ReplyDeleteHolocene climate intervals, and much more indicated by 2002 research by Benson, L.V., et. al. entitled Holocene multidecadal and muticentennial droughts affecting Northern California and Nevada (NM gets a mention); you can also see some great maps on-line at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/metadata/noaa-lake-5472.html maps.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I found most interesting about this whole section is how helpful fire can be. We hear all our lives that fire is bad and that “only we can prevent wild fires,” but this article and the lecture brings up all this data that kind of sheds light on the positives of fire. The last time I heard that fire was good for trees was when the neighbor kids accidentally and very stupidly lit another neighbor’s juniper on fire maybe seventeen years ago. Now there is the evidence of charcoal being used as fertilizers, the subtle slash and burn policies of the Amazon, before that got way out of hand, and now there is geographical and climatic evidence to support climate patterns with the fan depositions. I may be a little too over intrigued by this, but I just thought this idea was quite brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI agree and also find it interesting how helpful fire can be to the environment. Fire is a natural force of nature that has been here since the beginning. Nature has it's ways of cleansing for rebirth, and I like that we are learning from our past to hopefully help the future.
DeleteInteresting paper. Learned some new words, stats concepts, and was again amazed at how useful geology (geomorphology here) can be!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone figure out why in Table 1, d13C was reported? It was very nice of the authors, but I didn't see it mentioned in any text and can't think of a reason off hand that it would be useful in this study...
This is an important study, one which provides added data to paleoclimate information regarding drought and other geo morphic occurrences and can be coupled with other areas (such as that mentioned from Yellowstone). It is interesting to include multi decadal precip. as an influence, and that is similar to our current climate condition where it is wetter along the pacific coast and drier here contributing to severe fires. This is just very helpful in understanding our current climate change issues and adds a sense of continuum to our environmental changes.
ReplyDeleteI would like to better understand the "cumulative probability density" information.
There is a road cut near Chacon, on hwy 518, that has charcoal sediment and it would make an interesting C14 study of climate in the southern Sangre de Cristo, based on the work they explain here.
The most interesting thing in the paper was the relationship between very large depositions of poorly sorted boulders secondary to a large fire because of the loss of vegetation and the subsequent change in the landscape and what that means as far as the plants and animals effected by that change both immediately and in the long run. The main question that popped into my mind is whether the fire and erosion transport vegetation and microorganisms which may survive both the fire and the erosion because they are meters below the surface and how that changes local ecologies. I would like more information about how fires shape the landscape and whether that increases or decreases the diversity of life in the area over a long period of time. I liked what the authors said in the paper because it makes sense that both large and small fires occur naturally under various combinations of temperature and weather patterns and the subsequent biomass which is then either more or less likely to catch fire depending on local and regional variations in temperature and moisture. I liked this topic because fire in the landscape and forces shifts in plant and animal habitat, growth, and movement and it is one of the things I find most fascinating in both ecology and anthropology.
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ReplyDeleteI thought overall the paper showed how much we can learn by looking at sedimentary depositions. It interesting to see how we can derive dates by looking at the stratigraphy and applying simple concepts. The fact that we can see record of fire events that are trapped within the alluvial fans explains a lot about the past. Its cool to know that by just observing how much charcoal is trapped in the sediments we can see how severe a fire may have been. I was curious though as to how the charcoal is preserved within the sediment. I mean I would think that it would breakdown relatively quickly. I know the article mentioned that smaller debris is easily broken down by bioturbation. Therefore why wouldn’t the other pieces of charcoal also be broken up? Overall though I felt that it is smaller studies like this along with many others will help us to piece together our past climate. Furthermore I think it will help to give insight into the types of climate changes that we may experience in the near future.
ReplyDeleteMike J
ReplyDeleteThe phenomenon that declining populations living in degraded or fragmented habitats will eventually go extinct has been described as ‘extinction debt’ (Tilman et al. 1994; Kuussaari et al. 2009). Even if present day fragmentation and habitat destruction ceased and no further habitat loss occurred, populations of many species may be on a path to extinction (Krauss et al. 2010). The IPCC Climate Change and Biodiversity, Technical Paper V 2002, states,
“At the global level, human activities have caused and will continue to cause a loss of biodiversity through, inter alia, land-use and land-cover change; soil and water pollution and degradation (including desertification), and air pollution; diversion of water to intensively managed ecosystems and urban systems; habitat fragmentation; selective exploitation of species; the introduction of non-native species; and stratospheric ozone depletion.”
The current rate of biodiversity loss and species extinction caused at least in part due to human population growth, habitat conversion, global warming and their consequences, impacts of exotic species, new pathogens, etc. suggests that a wave of mass extinction is either upon us or set to have a profound impact on life on this planet (Wake et al. 2008). Many scientists from a range of disciplines around the world claim and argue that we are in the midst of the sixth great mass extinction event (Wake et al. 2008).
This weekend I saw some documents on alien species also listed as noxious species. I had no idea how many millions were being spent in every state on this issue. Interesting, NMSU seems to be working closely with the government on this issue here in New Mexico. However, when I found the list of flora, fauna, and aquatic list of invasive species here in New Mexico I was surprised at the number of fish (about 50), plants (about 50) and reptiles that had been introduced. One mammal that looked like a large, wet rat was all by its lonesome in that catagory. I haven't set up a chart for them so don't have an accurate count to date.
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