The pollen, plant macrofossil and aquatic fossil stratigraphies from a transect of sites in the Sierra Nevada, California, were examined to deduce paleoenvironmental change since the late-Wisconsinan. Fossil pollen samples were compared to modern pollen samples from both sides of the Sierra Nevada crest. Modern samples corresponded largely to modern vegetation units, validating the use of pollen for this purpose in mountainous environments. Vegetation change during the Holocene was largely contemporaneous on both sides of the crest at elevations where lake cores and meadow sections were analysed. Deglaciation occurred by ca. 12,500 yr BP at a site on the east side, and by ca. 11,000 yr BP at a west side site. Prior to ca. 10,000 yr BP, few trees were found around the higher elevation sites. An open forest with trees characteristic of the modern Sierra Montane and Upper Montane forest grew around the mid- to high elevation sites by the early Holocene. Montane chaparral species, such as bush chinquapin, mountain mahogany and probably huckleberry oak, with sagebrush, were most abundant then. Along with lowered lake levels or absence of perennially standing water, and greater affinities to modern pollen samples from the more arid east side, these observations suggest drier conditions than today. However, by ca. 6500-5500 yr BP, effective precipitation increased, as shown by increases in subalpine conifers (mountain hemlock and red fir) and higher lake levels, and less affinities to modern samples from the east side. Modern vegetation developed at most sites within the last 2-3 millenia. Specific changes in the vegetation at this time included a reduction in upper elevational limits of mountain hemlock and red fir, with possible downslope retreat of whitebark pine, indicating greater cooling and/or wetter conditions. This is consistent with the record of wet meadow genesis as well as tree-ring and Neoglacial chronologies.

Based on thesis, University of California. / Bibliography: p. 195-213.

Based on thesis, University of California. / Bibliography: p. 195-213.

The biogeography and ecology of P. balfouriana, a subalpine conifer endemic to California, were studied. Direct gradient-analysis, classification, and ordination were combined to identify the primary factors controlling the tree community in the southern Sierra Nevada. Competition, disturbance, and temperature were inferred as the most important factors regulating the tree community. Pinus balfouriana responded strongly to variation in soil drainage, distrubance, and temperature. Wildfire was the most important chronic disturbance agent in southwestern Inyo National Forest. Stochastic models of wildfire probability in space and time were developed. Evidence of thunderstorm genesis zones in the vicinity of Overlook Mountain and Ball Mountain in the Golden Trout Wilderness was found. A gradient in wildfire ignition probability was identified. Wildfire ignition is most likely at 2700 m elevation on submesic sites. Wildfire return interval is long enough to permit the coexistence of P. balfouriana and P. murrayana; and, short enough that it has important fitness consequences for P. balfouriana. Wildfire disturbance may limit the geographic range of the species in the southern Sierra Nevada. There was a close negative correlation between the abundance of P. balfouriana near the lower-forest-border and the wildfire disturbance gradient. However, the northern range boundary is probably not determined solely by wildfire disturbance. The canopies of mature P. balfouriana were found to be highly elliptic (when viewed from above) with the major axis of the ellipse oriented exactly north-to-south. This trait permits maximum photosynthesis in the early morning and late afternoon. It simultaneously minimizes evaporative demands during midday. Elliptic canopies minimize solar interception during winter and maximize it during summer. This is important for carbon-balance since the photosynthetic apparatus is only active for a brief period during mid-summer. The lower-forest-border was accurately predicted with a carbon-balance model strongly suggesting carbon-balance limitations. The dispersal potential of P. balfouriana, in the absence of vertebrate seed dispersers, was studied. Anemochory under modern climatic conditions would permit closure of the disjunction in P. balfouriana within a single (120,000 year) glacial cycle.

As a tool in discriminating basic rocks from different tectonic settings, a type of diagram was developed that employs three ratios of trace elements. The diagram separates basic rocks formed in mid-ocean ridge, intra-plate, and volcanic arc settings. It can be used to differentiate basalts from marginal basin, forearc, and arc rift zone settings. A second application of this type of diagram, employing major elements, distinguishes tholeiitic, calcalkaline, and boninitic series volcanic rocks. The southern part of the Foothills terrane, western Sierra Nevada, California, is composed chiefly of Jurassic-Triassic(?) metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of lower greenschist grade. Major tectonism affecting the terrane, associated with the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Nevadan orogeny, was sinistral transpression with shearing along the Bear Mountains and Melones fault zones. The line of slip in high shear strain regions is approximated by the modal stretching lineation, which is at a rake of approximately 45° SE to the general shear zone orientation, suggesting sub-equal components of strike slip and dip slip. The sense of shear from kinematic indicators is consistently east side to the northwest. The terrane hosts three types of syngenetic massive sulfide deposits: Cyprus-type Cu deposits, Kuroko-type Zn-Cu-Pb deposits, and Besshi-type Cu-Zn deposits. The Cyprus-type deposits lie at the top of a Triassic(?) tholeiitic - basalt sequence in the lower Penon Blanco Formation. The deposits are part of an ophiolitic sequence that appears to have formed in an open-ocean spreading center environment. Felsic lava facies host the Kuroko-type deposits at the top of the Middle to Late Jurassic upper Gopher Ridge Formation, a dominantly bimodal sequence of meta-rhyolitic lavas and tuffs and meta-basaltic lavas. The tectonic setting appears to have been an arc-rift zone that formed during the transition from arc volcanism forming the lower Gopher Ridge Formation to younger basinal sedimentation forming the Mariposa Formation. The Besshi-type deposits are sediment-hosted in the Late Jurassic Mariposa Formation. They appear to have formed in the median part of a long linear basin between rifted arc segments. The inferred tectonic setting of the sulfide deposits was an early back-arc or interarc basin, which may have been related to transtensional tectonics.

Pollen analysis of two surface transects of modern soil samples and four stratigraphic sections from the central Sierra Nevada of California have provided a climatic record covering the time interval since the recession of the last glaciers of the Wisconsin glaciation. Two separate warm intervals are recognized between the recession of the Wisconsin glaciers and the reappearance of glaciers in the Sierra during the Little Ice Age.

This dissertation contains studies that use various geochronometric and thermochronometric techniques to better understand the post-magmatic evolution of Sierra Nevada, California. (U-Th)/He ages in apatite and zircon from Sierran batholithic rocks are used to constrain the Cenozoic exhumation of the northern part of the range. Zircon and apatite ages determined from the same samples revealed relatively rapid cooling and exhumation rates (0.2 - 0.8 km/My) from ~ 90 to 60 Ma, followed by tectonic quiescence and slow exhumation (0.02 - 0.04 km/My) from the late Paleocene to present. In addition to the thermochronology of basement lithologies, the detrital zircon geochronology of grains from preserved Eocene fluvial sediments in the central and northern Sierra Nevada was performed. U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from the deposits were found to have distributions closely matching age-area estimates of Mesozoic plutons in the Sierra Nevada, suggesting that Eocene river systems were draining local Sierran catchments and likely had steeper axial gradients than has been proposed. Provenance analysis of the Eocene sediments is used to provide constraints on the paleotopography of the Sierra Nevada and inferred range-wide Cenozoic uplift.In addition to the Sierra Nevada work, this dissertation also contains studies that focus on the development of the K-Ca system as a geochronometric technique suitable for dating the deposition of sedimentary sequences. We present a new method for measuring Ca isotopic ratios using a multi-collector ICP-MS equipped with a hexapole collision cell. Isobaric argon interferences are minimized via gas phase reactions in the collision cell. The reproducibility of Ca ratio measurements is found to be ~ 0.02 % (RSD), which is comparable to high precision TIMS techniques and an order of magnitude improvement over single collector ICP-MS techniques using a similar reaction cell method. K-Ca ages of glauconite and K-rich evaporites are determined in order to evaluate the usefulness of the K-Ca system as a sedimentary geochronometer. K-Ca ages in both glauconite and K-salts are found to be variable and significantly younger than documented depositional ages. Reported ages, however, are thought to be recording important basinal thermal histories and recrystallization events.

Seasonally snow covered alpine areas play a larger role in the hydrologic cycle than their area would indicate. Their ecosystems may be sensitive indicators of climatic and atmospheric change. Assessing the hydrologic and bio- geochemical responses of these areas to changes in inputs of water, chemicals and energy should be based on a detailed understanding of watershed processes. This dissertation discusses the development and testing of a model capable of predicting watershed hydrologic and hydrochemical responses to these changes. The model computes integrated water and chemical balances for watersheds with unlimited numbers of terrestrial, stream, and lake subunits, each of which may have a unique, variable snow -covered area. Model capabilities include 1) tracking of chemical inputs from precipitation, dry deposition, snowmelt, mineral weathering, basefiow or flows from areas external to the modeled watershed, and user -defined sources and sinks, 2) tracking water and chemical movements in the canopy, snowpack, soil litter, multiple soil layers, streamflow, between terrestrial subunits (surface and subsurface movement), and within lakes (2 layers), 3) chemical speciation, including free and total soluble species, precipitates, exchange complexes, and acid -neutralizing capacity, 4) nitrogen reactions, 5) a snowmelt optimization procedure capable of exactly matching observed watershed outflows, and 6) modeling riparian areas. Two years of data were available for fitting and comparing observed and modeled output. To the extent possible, model parameters are set based on physical or chemical measurements, leaving only a few fitted parameters. The effects of snowmelt rate, rate of chemical elution from the snowpack, nitrogen reactions, mineral weathering, and flow routing on modeled outputs are examined.

Seasonally snow covered alpine areas play a larger role in the hydrologic cycle than their area would indicate. Their ecosystems may be sensitive indicators of climatic and atmospheric change. Assessing the hydrologic and bio-geochemical responses of these areas to changes in inputs of water, chemicals and energy should be based on a detailed understanding of watershed processes. This dissertation discusses the development and testing of a model capable of predicting watershed hydrologic and hydrochemical responses to these changes. The model computes integrated water and chemical balances for watersheds with unlimited numbers of terrestrial, stream, and lake subunits, each of which may have a unique, variable snow-covered area. Model capabilities include (1) tracking of chemical inputs from precipitation, dry deposition, snowmelt, mineral weathering, baseflow or flows from areas external to the modeled watershed, and user-defined sources and sinks, (2) tracking water and chemical movements in the canopy, snowpack, soil litter, multiple soil layers, streamflow, between terrestrial subunits (surface and subsurface movement), and within lakes (2 layers), (3) chemical speciation, including free and total soluble species, precipitates, exchange complexes, and acid-neutralizing capacity, (4) nitrogen reactions, (5) a snowmelt optimization procedure capable of exactly matching observed watershed outflows, and (6) modeling riparian areas. Two years of data were available for fitting and comparing observed and modeled output. To the extent possible, model parameters are set based on physical or chemical measurements, leaving only a few fitted parameters. Thc effects of snowmelt rate, rate of chemical elution from the snowpack, nitrogen reactions, mineral weathering, and flow routing on modeled outputs are examined.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "December 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-78). Online version available on the World Wide Web.