Two goals of Lithoprobe's geoscientific studies in the Phanerozoic accretionary cordillera of western North America were to define the subsurface geometries of the terranes and to infer the physical ...conditions of the crust. These questions were addressed in Canada's southern cordillera a decade ago and have more recently been addressed in the northern cordillera, of which one component of the new studies is magnetotelluric (MT) profiling from ancestral North American rocks to the coast. We present a resistivity cross section, and its interpretation, of the northern cordillera derived from modeling data from 42 MT sites along a 470‐km‐long NE‐SW profile. Beneath the Coast Belt (southwestern end of the profile) a deep crustal low‐resistivity layer dips inland; we interpret the crustal part of this conductor as being due to metasedimentary rocks emplaced and metamorphosed during Paleocene Kula plate subduction. A strong lateral transition in lithospheric mantle resistivity exists below the Intermontane Belt that is spatially coincident with changes in chemical and isotopic characteristics of Tertiary to recent alkaline lavas, suggesting that isotopically enriched lithosphere related to the Coast Belt basalts extends partly beneath the Intermontane Belt. The unusually high lower crustal resistivity in the Intermontane and Omineca Belts, similar in value to the resistivity found in the unextended part of central British Columbia, excludes the presence of fluids or conducting metasediments. Finally, our resistivity model displays strong lateral variation of the middle and lower crust between different terranes within the same belt, as a result of the complex structural evolution of the lithosphere.
The association of site characteristics with the n-factor, a ratio of air to ground surface temperature, was investigated at five sites in the boreal forest near Mayo, Yukon Territory. Permafrost was ...in equilibrium with surface conditions at three sites, was degrading at another, and was absent from the fifth. Air and near-surface ground temperatures were recorded by data loggers between September 2000 and April 2002, and mean daily temperatures were accumulated to calculate n-factors for the freezing (nf) and thawing (nt) seasons. Air temperature did not vary between the sites, so inter-site differences in nf and nt were because of variations in surface temperature. Variations in nf between the sites over the two winters were primarily because of differences in snow depth, but at sites with similar snow cover, the surface temperatures were relatively high when the site was underlain by unfrozen ground. During summer, daily mean the surface temperatures were initially less than air temperatures. However, once the thawing front had penetrated below the depth of diurnal temperature fluctuation, the air and ground surface temperatures converged. Since the rate of thaw penetration is governed by soil thermal diffusivity, nt varies directly with this property. These results indicate that subsurface conditions, particularly absolute temperature and ground thermal properties, exert considerable influence on n-factors, and, at the Mayo sites, the influence is greater than that of the vegetation.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The likelihood of addressing the complex environmental, economic, and social/cultural issues associated with local climate change impacts is enhanced when collaborative partnerships with local people ...are established. Using a community-centered approach in the Teslin region of Canada's Yukon Territory, we utilized our research skills to respond to local needs for information by facilitating both an internal community process to clarify traditional and local knowledge, values, and perceptions on locally identified priorities, while gathering external information to enable local people to make sound decisions. Specifically, we sought to clarify local perceptions surrounding climate change impacts on fire risk and wildlife habitat, and the potential adaptation strategies appropriate and feasible within the Teslin Tlingit Traditional Territory. This paper provides a characterization of the study region and our project team; provides background on the interview and data collection process; presents our key results; and discusses the importance of our findings and charts a way forward for our continued work with the people in the Teslin region. This approach presents an excellent opportunity to help people holistically connect a range of local values, including fire risk mitigation, habitat enhancement, economic development, and enhanced social health.
Interpreting the relationships among the internal processes of glaciers and their mesoscale structural products has been a long‐standing challenge for glaciologists. Trapridge Glacier is a small ...polythermal surge‐type valley glacier that has been studied for 40 years. It offers an opportunity to investigate the structural evolution of a glacier through a series of surges and to apply novel modeling approaches to gain physical insight as to how different structures are formed. Following the glacier's most recent slow surge, the structural attributes were documented, with emphasis on their three‐dimensional geometry and sequential development: ice stratification (S0), longitudinal foliation (S1), and associated medial moraine, folding of stratification (F1), transverse foliation (S2), thrusts (S3), and recumbent folds (F3), fractures (surface crevassing and crevasse traces; S4). Efforts to represent these structures using models of glacier flow dynamics remain at an early stage but provide informative tests of model skill and of current understanding of the processes that control structure generation. Using field interpretations as a guide to the relevant processes of formation, structures on Trapridge Glacier are compared with computer‐simulated structures for the same glacier. Modeling achieved the greatest success in simulating moraine patterns, ice stratification, longitudinal foliation, and the downglacier decrease in the density of surface crevasse traces. The least successful effort was to simulate the orientation of crevasse traces.
Plain Language Summary
A surge is a short‐lived event during which a glacier flows considerably faster than normal. The switch from slow to fast flow is related to ice instability, resulting from changing hydrology and sediment characteristics at the glacier bed. Building on half a century of field investigations on Trapridge Glacier in the St Elias Mountains (Yukon), we use archived and contemporary field data to investigate and model numerically the structural evolution of the glacier through its most recent full, but unusually slow, surge cycle that ended in 2005. After documenting the initial layering in the glacier (stratification), both ductile structures (stratification, foliation, folds) and brittle structures (crevasses, thrusts, and other fractures) were measured and their order of formation recorded. Using the data collected, the authors were able to simulate the development of these structures using newly derived models of the dynamics of glacier flow (Part 1). Modeling the structures observed in the field then underpinned the development of generic models for broadly similar glaciers (Part 2). The work offers new insight concerning the structural evolution of glaciers generally, notably how the various structures are formed and modified in response to changing stress and strain conditions.
Key Points
The formation and evolution of structures in a polythermal surging glacier have been subjected to combined field and modeling analysis
The model‐calculated deformation gradient reveals how total strain influences the development of longitudinal foliation in glaciers
Crack modeling yields an explanation for the observed downglacier decrease in fracture density at the glacier surface
We investigated whether plant interaction intensity in a subarctic-alpine meadow is important for determining community structure and species abundance. Using two common species as phytometers, we ...measured interaction intensity using a neighbor removal approach. Eight biotic and abiotic variables known to influence species abundance and community structure were measured, with regression trees used to examine how plant interactions and the biotic and abiotic variables were related to species evenness, richness, and phytometer spatial cover. A range of interactions was present, with both strong competition and facilitation present over small-scale abiotic and biotic gradients. Despite the variation in interaction intensity, it was generally unrelated to either community structure or phytometer cover. In other words, plant interactions were intense in many cases but were not important to community structure. This may be due to the prevalence of clonal species in this system and the influence of previous year's interactions on plant survival and patterns of community structure. These results also suggest how conflicting theories of the role of competition in unproductive environments may be resolved. Our findings suggest that plant interactions may be intense in reducing individual growth, while simultaneously not important in the context of community structure. Plant interactions need to be viewed and tested relative to other factors and stresses to accurately evaluate their importance in plant communities, with continued differentiation between the intensity of plant interactions and their relative importance in communities.
Androgens have benefits, such as promoting muscle growth, but also significant costs, including suppression of immune function. In many species, these trade-offs in androgen action are reflected in ...regulated androgen production, which is typically highest only in reproductive males. However, all non-reproductive Arctic ground squirrels, irrespective of age and sex, have high levels of androgens prior to hibernating at sub-zero temperatures. Androgens appear to be required to make muscle in summer, which, together with lipid, is then catabolized during overwinter. By contrast, most hibernating mammals catabolize only lipid. We tested the hypothesis that androgen action is selectively enhanced in Arctic ground squirrel muscle because of an upregulation of androgen receptors (ARs). Using Western blot analysis, we found that Arctic ground squirrels have AR in skeletal muscle more than four times that of Columbian ground squirrels, a related southern species that overwinters at approximately 0°C and has low pre-hibernation androgen levels. By contrast, AR in lymph nodes was equivalent in both species. Brain AR was also modestly but significantly increased in Arctic ground squirrel relative to Columbian ground squirrel. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that tissue-specific AR regulation prior to hibernation provides a mechanism whereby Arctic ground squirrels obtain the life-history benefits and mitigate the costs associated with high androgen production.
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