The Present Flora and Vegetation of the Moraines of the Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada: A Study in Plant Succession

Birks, H. J. B.

doi:10.1016/0033-5894(80)90007-1

Cited by 113 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…However, there is evidence of convergent patterns on some glacier forelands (e.g. Fjegri, 1933: Archer, 1973Birks, 1980;Wardle, 1980;Vetaas, 1994).…”

Section: Successional Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Variation in Successional Trajectories and Rates of Vegetation Change on Glacier Forelands in South-Central Norway

Robbins¹,

Matthews

2010

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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Variability in the vascular plant species composition of four stages of primary succession was investigated on 39 glacier forelands in the Jotunheim and Jostedalsbreen regions of south-central Norway. The relative frequencies of species were recorded in the pioneer zone adjacent to the glacier snout, in vegetation on terrain ages of c. 70 years and c. 250 years, and in mature vegetation outside the foreland (approximately 10,000 years since deglaciation). Sorensen dissimilarity, non-metric multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis were used to compare the relative variability in species composition of these four stages and to identify patterns of succession within four altitudinal belts. Indicator species analysis identified characteristic species within each stage. Variation partitioning was used to quantify the relative influence of altitude and continentality on species composition.Variability increased between pioneer and later successional stages at all but the highest altitudes, which showed no significant difference in variability between stages. The results suggest that up to an altitude of around 1600 m succession on glacier forelands follows a divergent trajectory: above this altitude little successional change occurs. Rate of successional change also varies with altitude: below about 1000 m, in the sub-alpine belt, the transition from pioneer vegetation to birch woodland occurs within 70 years; above about 1600 m in the high-alpine belt, herbaceous pioneer vegetation can persist indefinitely; at intermediate altitudes, the dwarf-shrub and snowbed vegetation types of the low-and mid-alpine belts develop within c. 250 years. The explanatory power of altitude and continentality on compositional variation and the relative importance of altitude increased with successional stage.

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“…However, there is evidence of convergent patterns on some glacier forelands (e.g. Fjegri, 1933: Archer, 1973Birks, 1980;Wardle, 1980;Vetaas, 1994).…”

Section: Successional Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Variation in Successional Trajectories and Rates of Vegetation Change on Glacier Forelands in South-Central Norway

Robbins¹,

Matthews

2010

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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“…Moraine surface cover (particularly vegetation) typically varies with local climate and landform age (Birks, 1980;Matthews and Whittaker, 1987) and can be important when attempting to identify and differentiate moraines (Barr and Clark, 2012a). Specifically, moraines are often easier to identify when their surface vegetation is notably different from the surrounding landscape (Fig.…”

Section: Surface Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of topographic controls on moraine distribution

2014

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Ice-marginal moraines are often used to reconstruct the dimensions of former ice masses, which are then used as proxies for palaeoclimate. This approach relies on the assumption that the distribution of moraines in the modern landscape is an accurate reflection of former ice margin positions during climatically controlled periods of ice margin stability. However, the validity of this assumption is open to question, as a number of additional, nonclimatic factors are known to influence moraine distribution. This review considers the role played by topography in this process, with specific focus on moraine formation, preservation, and ease of identification (topoclimatic controls are not considered). Published literature indicates that the importance of topography in regulating moraine distribution varies spatially, temporally, and as a function of the ice mass type responsible for moraine deposition. In particular, in the case of ice sheets and ice caps ( > 1000 km 2 ), one potentially important topographic control on where in a landscape moraines are deposited is erosional feedback, whereby subglacial erosion causes ice masses to become less extensive over successive glacial cycles. For the marine-terminating outlets of such ice masses, fjord geometry also exerts a strong control on where moraines are deposited, promoting their deposition in proximity to valley narrowings, bends, bifurcations, where basins are shallow, and/or in the vicinity of topographic bumps. Moraines formed at the margins of ice sheets and ice caps are likely to be large and readily identifiable in the modern landscape. In the case of icefields and valley glaciers (10-1000 km 2 ), erosional feedback may well play some role in regulating where moraines are deposited, but other factors, including variations in accumulation area topography and the propensity for moraines to form at topographic pinning points, are also likely to be important. This is particularly relevant where land-terminating glaciers extend into piedmont zones (unconfined plains, adjacent to mountain ranges) where large and readily identifiable moraines can be deposited. In the case of cirque glaciers (< 10 km 2 ), erosional feedback is less important, but factors such as topographic controls on the accumulation of redistributed snow and ice and the availability of surface debris, regulate glacier dimensions and thereby determine where moraines are deposited. In such cases, moraines are likely to be small and particularly susceptible to post-depositional modification, sometimes making them difficult to identify in the modern landscape. Based on this review, we suggest that, despite often being difficult to identify, quantify, and mitigate, topographic controls on moraine distribution should be explicitly considered when reconstructing the dimensions of palaeoglaciers and that moraines should be judiciously chosen before being used as indirect proxies for palaeoclimate (i.e., palaeoclimatic inferences should only be drawn from moraines when topographic controls on mora...

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“…A 1977 'sonderheft' of The Tea Phytologist (Anonymous, 1977), a very occasional spoof journal of the Botany School, shows John as a member of an imaginary Botany School at Alfred-Wegener-Inst fÃ¼r Polar on October 20, 2016 hol.sagepub.com Downloaded from cricket team (Figure 3). His participation in the 6-week expedition to the St Elias Mountains, Yukon, in company with Herb and others in 1971, to study vegetational colonisation of glacial retreat moraines in space and time, was especially productive, resulting in some of the most cited publications from his Cambridge years (Birks, 1977a(Birks, , 1980a(Birks, , 1980cJacobson and Birks, 1980). John's research was supported by Sylvia Peglar, who was the technician in charge of the pollen lab of the Botany School.…”

Section: The Cambridge Yearsmentioning

confidence: 99%

John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology

Battarbee

Lamb

Bennett³

et al. 2014

The Holocene

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We describe the career of John Birks as a pioneering scientist who has, over a career spanning five decades, transformed palaeoecology from a largely descriptive to a rigorous quantitative science relevant to contemporary questions in ecology and environmental change. We review his influence on students and colleagues not only at Cambridge and Bergen Universities, his places of primary employment, but also on individuals and research groups in Europe and North America. We also introduce the collection of papers that we have assembled in his honour. The papers are written by his former students and close colleagues and span many of the areas of palaeoecology to which John himself has made major contributions. These include the relationship between ecology and palaeoecology, late-glacial and Holocene palaeoecology, ecological succession, climate change and vegetation history, the role of palaeoecological techniques in reconstructing and understanding the impact of human activity on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and numerical analysis of multivariate palaeoecological data.

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The Present Flora and Vegetation of the Moraines of the Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada: A Study in Plant Succession

Cited by 113 publications

References 34 publications

Regional Variation in Successional Trajectories and Rates of Vegetation Change on Glacier Forelands in South-Central Norway

Regional Variation in Successional Trajectories and Rates of Vegetation Change on Glacier Forelands in South-Central Norway

A review of topographic controls on moraine distribution

John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology

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