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Physical and Environmental Geography Commons™

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2005

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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Physical and Environmental Geography

Fire-Induced Albedo Change And Its Radative Forcing At The Surface In Northern Austrailia, Y. Jin, David P. Roy Jul 2005

Fire-Induced Albedo Change And Its Radative Forcing At The Surface In Northern Austrailia, Y. Jin, David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the impact of fire on surface albedo and the associated radiative forcing over 56% of continental Australia encompassing the fire-prone northern tropical savanna. Fire-affected areas and albedos are derived for the 2003 fire season using daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance data. Near-infrared and total shortwave albedos are observed to generally decrease after fire occurrence. Regionally, the total shortwave albedo drops by an average of 0.024, with increasing reductions as the dry season progresses and larger reductions in grasslands than woody savannas. These fire-induced albedo changes exert a positive forcing at the surface that increases …

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Wither The Fruited Plain: The Long Expedition And The Description Of The "Great American Desert", Kevin Z. Sweeney Apr 2005

Wither The Fruited Plain: The Long Expedition And The Description Of The "Great American Desert", Kevin Z. Sweeney

Great Plains Quarterly

The view from Pikes Peak is breathtaking. Situated where the Great Plains meets the Rocky Mountains, one feels as if the whole nation is laid out before you. It is the perfect vantage point from which to write an inspirational anthem to the environmental magnificence of the United States. In the summer of 1893, Katherine Lee Bates, a Wellesley College English professor, sat on the summit of Pikes Peak, inspired by the panorama to pen the words to "America the Beautiful." Her poem was set to the tune "Materna" by Samuel Augustus Ward two years later to become one of …

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Limnología De Las Lagunas Glaciales En El Páramo Del Chirripó, Costa Rica. (Limnology Of Glacial Lakes In The Chirripó Páramo Of Costa Rica.), Sally P Horn, Kenneth H. Orvis, Kurt A. Haberyan Jan 2005

Limnología De Las Lagunas Glaciales En El Páramo Del Chirripó, Costa Rica. (Limnology Of Glacial Lakes In The Chirripó Páramo Of Costa Rica.), Sally P Horn, Kenneth H. Orvis, Kurt A. Haberyan

Geography Publications and Other Works

More than 30 lakes of glacial origin exist within the Chirripó páramo in the Cordillera de Talamanca of Costa Rica. This chapter describes the geomorphic setting and physical and chemical limnology of 19 lakes located between 3450-3570 m elevation in the upper basins of five glaciated valleys. All lakes are clear, dilute, and apparently polymictic. Water chemistry data from 1998, 2000, and 2001 are similar from lake to lake and year to year, and are consistent with sparse prior measurements between 1966 and 1991. However, the lake water temperatures we have measured are much higher than those reported by earlier …

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Dinámica De La Vegetación Después De Fuegos Recientes En Los Páramos De Buenavista Y Chirripó, Costa Rica (Vegetation Dynamics Following Recent Fires In The Buenavista And Chirripó Páramos Of Costa Rica), Sally P Horn Jan 2005

Dinámica De La Vegetación Después De Fuegos Recientes En Los Páramos De Buenavista Y Chirripó, Costa Rica (Vegetation Dynamics Following Recent Fires In The Buenavista And Chirripó Páramos Of Costa Rica), Sally P Horn

Geography Publications and Other Works

Field studies following fires in the Buenavista (La Muerte Massif) and Chirripó páramos demonstrate that woody species show varying responses to fire. The bamboo Chusquea subtessellata and the ericaceous shrubs Vaccinium consanguineum and Pernettya prostrata typically resprout vigorously after fire, but rarely if ever recolonize burn sites by seeding. The shrub Hypericum irazuense, in contrast, generally suffers high mortality in páramo fires, but successfully reestablishes by seed following all but the largest fires. Preexisting vegetation, fire characteristics, and site differences both before and after burning likely affect rates of shrub and herb survival, colonization, and growth in páramo burn …

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Registros De Sedimentos Lacustres De La Vegetación Del Holoceno Y Historia Del Fuego En El Páramo De Costa Rica. (Lake-Sediment Records Of Holocene Vegetation And Fire History In The Costa Rican Páramos), Sally P Horn, Brandon L. League Jan 2005

Registros De Sedimentos Lacustres De La Vegetación Del Holoceno Y Historia Del Fuego En El Páramo De Costa Rica. (Lake-Sediment Records Of Holocene Vegetation And Fire History In The Costa Rican Páramos), Sally P Horn, Brandon L. League

Geography Publications and Other Works

We examined pollen, pteridophyte (ferns and fern-allies) spores, and charcoal in a 5.6 m long sediment core from Lago de las Morrenas 1, and charcoal in a 1.1 m long sediment core from Lago Chirripó, to reconstruct postglacial vegetation and fire history in the Chirripó páramo. Lago de las Morrenas 1, the largest lake in the Valle de las Morrenas of Chirripó National Park, is presently surrounded by treeless páramo vegetation and has apparently been so since deglaciation approximately 10,000 radiocarbon years ago. Pollen spectra suggest no pronounced changes in vegetation since ice retreat. Pollen percentages for Gramineae and other …

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Empirical Downscaling Of Wind Speed Probability Distributions, S C. Pryor, Justin T. Schoof, R J. Barthelmie Jan 2005

Empirical Downscaling Of Wind Speed Probability Distributions, S C. Pryor, Justin T. Schoof, R J. Barthelmie

Publications

This paper presents a novel approach to developing empirically downscaled estimates of near-surface wind speed and energy density and results from application of the technique to multiple stations in northern Europe. The downscaling takes a probabilistic approach in that it uses the mean and standard deviation of relative vorticity at 500 hPa and mean sea level pressure gradients computed using output from the ECHAM4/OPYC3 atmosphere-ocean general circulation model as the predictors and parameters of the wind speed probability distribution at surface stations as the predictands.We demonstrate that this approach generates accurate depictions of the wind climate during the conditioning period …

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The Impact Of Non-Stationarities In The Climate System On The Definition Of "A Normal Wind Year": A Case Study From The Baltic, S C. Pryor, R J. Barthelmie, Justin T. Schoof Jan 2005

The Impact Of Non-Stationarities In The Climate System On The Definition Of "A Normal Wind Year": A Case Study From The Baltic, S C. Pryor, R J. Barthelmie, Justin T. Schoof

Publications

Wind speeds over the Baltic significantly increased over the second half of the 20th century (C20th), with the majority of the increase being focused on the upper quartile of the wind speed distribution and in the southwest of the region. These changes have potentially profound implications for the wind energy resource. For example, based on the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) reanalysis data it is shown that, owing to this non-stationarity, using the normalization period of 1987–98 to determine the wind resource (as in the Danish wind index) leads to overestimation of the wind energy …

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An Inventory Of Rangelands In Part Of The Broome Shire, Western Australia, W E. Cotching Jan 2005

An Inventory Of Rangelands In Part Of The Broome Shire, Western Australia, W E. Cotching

Technical Bulletins

The inventory of rangelands in part of the Broome Shire in Western Australia was undertaken by DAFWA between 1989 and 1990. It describes and maps the natural resources of the region’s pastoral leasehold land. This survey report provides a baseline record of the existence and condition of the natural area’s resources, to assist with the planning and implementation of land management practices. The report identified and described the condition of soils, landforms, vegetation, habitat, ecosystems, and declared plants and animals. It also assessed the impact of pastoralism and made land management recommendations. The survey of part of the Broome Shire …

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