The sensitivity of snowmelt driven water supply to climate variability and change is difficult to assess in the mountain west, where strong climatic gradients coupled with complex topography are sampled by sparse ground measurements. We developed a snowmelt model, which ingests daily satellite imagery and meteorological data and is suitable for application to areas greater than 1000 km2, yet captures important spatial variability in steep mountain terrain. We applied the model to the Middle Fork of the Flathead Basin, a 2900 km2 snowmelt-dominated watershed in northwest Montana. Time integration of the melt model yielded a history of snow water equivalent distribution for the years 2000-2008. We found that over 25% of the total annual snow falls above the highest measurement station in the basin, and over 70% falls above the mean elevation of the nine nearest SNOTEL stations. Furthermore, elevation lapse rates in snow water equivalent are variable from year-to-year and are not described by the poorly distributed ground measurements. Consequently, scaling point measurements of snow water equivalent to describe basin conditions leads to significant misrepresentation. Numerical melt simulations performed on the basins peak snow accumulation elucidated the control of temperature variability on snowmelt timing under modern climate and future climate projected by downscaled GCMs. Natural temperature variability affects snowmelt timing on the order of 4 weeks, and plays an even larger role in a warmer climate. Timing of melt in a large snowpack year was found to be more susceptible to natural temperature variability than in a small snowpack year. On average, snowmelt timing occurs 24 days earlier in our projected future climate, but the range of variability is such that an overlap of todays conditions occurs as often as 50% of the time.

Growing plants modify the microclimate within which they grow by altering their physical structure. Thus individuals affect the subsequent growth of both themselves and competing neighbours. It is important that this feedback be represented in a model of dynamic vegetation change. A flexible generalised model "Ecospace" is presented, which was designed to be applicable to all terrestrial vegetation. The model uses a three-dimensional grid of hexagonal tiles to represent space above and below ground. Each individual plant may occupy one or more tiles within the grid. Any number of individuals may occupy each tile until all space is filled. Microclimate, comprising solar radiation, wind and temperature, is calculated for each tile. Plant growth depends on the microclimate of occupied tiles. Three different plant functional groups are represented. The current model can represent an area of up to 50 m2 for low shrub vegetation. However, at present, computer run time and restricted memory limits the volume which can practically be simulated. There is no fundamental reason why these limits could not be overcome. Some model runs are presented for heather plants growing under different structural and climatic regimes. Since the model represents the feedback of vegetation structure on microclimate, it is suitable for studies of the impact of changing weather patterns on ecosystems.

The conversion of UK even-aged conifer plantations to continuous cover forestry (CCF), a form of forest management that maintains forest cover over time and avoids clear-cutting, requires more frequent and spatially explicit monitoring of forest structure than traditional systems. Key aims of CCF management are to increase the spatial heterogeneity of forest stands and to make increased use of natural regeneration, but judging success in meeting these objectives and allowing an adaptive approach to management requires information on spatial structure at a within-stand scale. Airborne remote sensing provides an alternative approach to field survey and has potential to meet these monitoring needs over large areas. An integral part of CCF is the creation of canopy gaps, allowing regeneration by increasing understorey light levels. This study examined the use of airborne lidar and passive optical data for the identification and characterisation of canopy gaps within UK Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) plantations. The potential for using the distribution of canopy and gaps within a stand to quantify spatial heterogeneity and allow the detection of changes in spatial structure, between stands and over time, was assessed. Detailed field surveys of six study plots, located in three UK spruce plantations, allowed assessment of the accuracy of gap delineation from remotely sensed data. Airborne data (multispectral, hyperspectral and lidar) were acquired for all sites. A novel approach to the delineation of gaps from lidar data was developed, delineating gaps directly from the lidar point cloud, avoiding the interpolation errors (and associated under-estimation of gap area) resulting from conversion to a canopy height model. This method resulted in improved accuracy of delineation compared to past techniques (overall accuracy of 78% compared to field gap delineations), especially when applied to lidar data collected at relatively low point densities. However, lidar data can be costly to acquire and provides little information about the presence of natural regeneration or other understorey vegetation within gaps. For these reasons, the potential of passive optical (and in particular, hyperspectral) data for gap delineation was also considered. The use of spectral indices, based on shortwave infrared reflectance or hyperspectral characteristics of the red- edge and chlorophyll absorption well, were shown to enhance the discrimination of canopy and gap and reduce the influence of illumination conditions. An average overall accuracy of 71% was obtained using hyperspectral characteristics for gap delineation, suggesting the use of optical data compares reasonably to results from lidar. Methods based on shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectance were shown to be sensitive to within gap vegetation type, with SWIR reflectance being lower in the presence of natural regeneration. Potential for using optical data to classify within gap vegetation type was also demonstrated. Methods of quantifying spatial structure through the use of indices describing variations in gap size, shape and distribution were found to allow the detection of structural differences between stands and changes over time. Gap distribution based indices were also found to be strongly related to alternative methods based on relative tree positions, suggesting significant potential for consistent monitoring of structural changes during conversion of plantations to CCF. Remotely sensed delineations of canopy gap distribution may also allow spatially explicit modelling of understorey light conditions and potential for regeneration, providing further information to aid the effective management of CCF forests.

The climate is changing and the rate of this change is expected to increase. In the 20th century global surface temperatures rose by 0.6 (±0.2) K. Based on current model predictions, and economic forecasts, global temperature increases of 1.4 to 5.8 K are expected over the period 1990 – 2100. One of the main drivers for this temperature increase is the build up of CO2 in the atmosphere which has been increasing since pre-industrial times. Pre-industrial concentrations of CO2 were bounded between 180 ppm and 300 ppm, however the current concentrations of 380 ppm are far in excess of these bounds. Further more, forecasts indicates that a further doubling in the next century is a distinct possibility. However making predictions about the future climate is difficult. Predicting the trajectory that the climate will take uses assumptions of economic growth, technological advances and ecological and physical processes. If we are to make informed decisions regarding the future of the planet, we have to account not only for future anthropogenic emissions and land use, but we also have to identify the response of the Earth system. By its very nature the Earth is immensely complex; processes, interactions and feedbacks exist which operate on vastly different spatial and temporal scales. Each of these processes has an associated level of uncertainty. This uncertainty propagates through models and the processes and feedbacks they simulate. One of our jobs as environmental scientists is to quantify and then reduce these uncertainties. Consequently it is critical to quantify the interactions of the land-surface and the atmosphere. The role of the land-surface is critical to the response of the Earth’s climate. All general circulation models and regional scale models need representations of the land-surface. A lot of the work concerning the land-surface aims to determine the land-surface partitioning of energy, the evapotranspiration of water and if the land-surface is a sink or a source of CO2. To do achieve this we need to understand (1) the underlying processes governing the response of the land-surface, (2) the response of these processes to perturbations from climate change and humans, (3) the temporal and spatial heterogeneity in these processes, and (4) the feedbacks that land-surface processes have with the climate. In this thesis I use a coupled atmosphere-biosphere model to show current understanding of the carbon, water and energy dynamics of the biosphere and the atmosphere to be consistent with both PBL and stand-based measurements. I then use the CAB model to investigate the strength of different feedbacks between the atmosphere and biosphere. Finally the model is then used in a Monte Carlo Bayesian inversion scheme to invert atmospheric measurements to infer information about surface parameters.

The Taurus Mountains are an E-W trending mountain range in southern Turkey, with an elevation of up to 3500 m. In the south central Taurides, the Beysehir-Hoyran-Hadim nappes, a series of thrust sheets of Palaeozoic to Early Cenozoic age, are emplaced onto a relatively autochthonous Tauride platform, known as the Geyik Dag. These thrust sheets consist of a variety of discrete tectonostratigraphic units of continental platform, rifted margin and oceanic (ophiolitic) origin. It is generally accepted that the relatively autochthonous Tauride platform and the associated thrust sheets restore as a north-facing passive margin during Jurassic–Cretaceous time; however, the Triassic and earlier tectonic setting of the Tauride units is contentious. New data (mainly structural and sedimentological) presented here tests contrasting tectonic models of Late Palaeozoic – Early Mesozoic Tethys ocean evolution. Also, new light is shed on the Late Cretaceous and Early Cenozoic break-up and emplacement of the Tauride units during closure of Tethys. The Late Palaeozoic Tauride stratigraphy consists of shallow-marine carbonate, sandstone and mudstone, characteristic of a proximal passive margin. Detailed stratigraphic logging, facies interpretation, compositional analysis and geochemical evidence supports a passive margin setting, with sediment derived from the Tauride “basement”. Early – Middle Triassic mixed siliciclastic/carbonate sediments are interpreted as representing rifting and subsidence. Late Triassic coarser terrestrial clastics (Cayir Formation) are considered to represent a pulse of rift-related flexural uplift. Sediment provenance during this time was from the underlying Tauride platform to the north of the studied area. A previous hypothesis that a Palaeotethyan ocean closed in this area during latest Triassic “Cimmerian” orogenesis is discounted. Instead, structural and sedimentary data suggest that all of the deformation relates to Late Cretaceous – Early Cenozoic southward emplacement of the Beysehir-Hoyran-Hadim nappes. A first phase of thrusting (thin-skinned) emplaced ophiolite and distal margin units, whilst a second phase (thick-skinned) thrust platform lithologies southwards onto the foreland. Evidence is also summarised, notably from the Palaeozoic – Early Mesozoic Konya Complex to the north, which illustrates the relation of the Tauride platform to other geological terranes in Turkey and elsewhere in the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt. This thesis increases understanding of large-scale tectonic and sedimentary processes associated with continental margins and orogenic development.

In many carbonate reservoirs, much of the porosity is in the form of micropores (with diameter 1-10 microns). This porosity lies far below the resolution of any conventional wireline logging tools and can only be observed through the analysis of extracted core. To investigate the spatial distribution of the microporosity over a large range of length scales requires accurate depth matching of extracted core to wireline data. With such a correlation up- and down-scaling relationships can be developed between porosity relationships observed at different length scales. The scaling relationships can then be used to infer the distribution of microporosity in regions of the borehole without extracted core. This thesis presents a new, general method for the accurate correlation of extracted core to wireline logs using their statistical properties. The method was developed using an X-ray computed tomography (CT) scan of a section of extracted carbonate core and well log data from the so-called Fullbore MicroImager (FMI) resistivity tool. Using geological marker features the extracted core was constrained to correspond to a 2ft (609mm) section of FMI data. Using a combination of statistics (mean, variance and the range from variograms of porosity), combined in a likelihood function, the correlation was reduced to an uncertainty of 0.72" (18.29mm). When applied to a second section of core, the technique reduced the uncertainty from 2ft (609mm) down to 0.3ft (91mm). With accurate correlation between core and wireline logs, the scaling relationships required to transfer porosity information between scales could be investigated. Using variogram scaling relationships, developed for the mining industry, variograms from the CT scan were up-scaled and compared with those calculated from associated FMI data. To simulate core samples in regions of the borehole without extracted core, two statistical simulation techniques were developed. The techniques both capture twopoint spatial statistics from binarised, horizontal slices of FMI data. These statistics iv are combined to obtain multi-point statistics, using either neighbourhood averaging or least squares estimation weighted by variance. The multi-point statistics were then used to simulate 2-D slices of 'virtual' core. Comparisons between the two techniques, using a variety of features, revealed that the neighbourhood averaging produced the most reliable results. This thesis thus enables, for the first time, core-to-log depth matching to the resolution of the logging tools employed. Spatial statistics extracted from the core and up-scaled can then be compared with similar statistics from the precisely-located log data sampling the volume of rock around the borehole wall. Finally simulations of 'virtual' core can be created using the statistical properties of the logs in regions where no core is available.

The thesis examines the performance of geoscience minerals researchers from three Australian geoscientific research centres. The study explores whether the changing funding regimes for geoscientific research in Australia have impacted on the research performance of these geoscientists, measured through analysis of activity and output. The context of the study is the literature outlining the settings for the general culture of geoscientific research and the Australian scientific policy and research environment, in particular, including an evaluation of bibliometric methods. The case study of three geoscience minerals research centres and their researchers finds that journal and book publishing is only one component of the researchers' performance and that conferences, technical reports as well as teaching have an important place in the dissemination of research results. The study also finds that the use of the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) indices not only influences the policy directions for scientific and geoscientific research funding in Australia, but also directs the ways in which the geoscientists publish. It also tends to restrict publishing output: the tail wags the dog. The study recommends: that the various ways through which research outcomes are disseminated, as well as other components of the research continuum including the processes of education and professional activity, receive wider acceptance and recognition in Australian government policy; that the Australian geoscientific community re-assess its educational and research directions through a considered auditing and strategic planning process; and that a more comprehensive approach to the dissemination of geoscientific research outcomes into the public domain be enacted.

Carbonate mounds of the Lower Ordovician (Canadian) Stone­henge Formation contain evidence of algal origin in the form of convex upward growth structures, stromatolites, and filamentous algae. Facies distribution and thickness relationships of the Stonehenge show that the mounds formed near the margins of a distinct sedimentary basin on the Cambro-Ordovician carbonate platform of Pennsylvania. Interpretations of the sedimentary environments of the major lithologies deposited in the seaway indicate that the Stonehenge beds were deposited in facies mosaic style. Five major lithologic associations have been described and interpreted in this framework. 1. dolostone cycles ... supratidal facies, 2. siliceous dolomitic pelmicrite ... subtidal flat facies, 3. intrasparudite-intrasparite ... subtidal channel facies, 4. massive calcilutite ... algal mound facies, 5. cryptalgal calcarenite ... mound debris facies. The positions of these lithologies in the stratigraphic succession of the Stonehenge indicate that the mounds formed in the base of subtidal channels at the climax of a regional transgression. / Earth and Environmental Science / Accompanied by one .pdf file: 1) Manns-Supplemental-1973.pdf

The dominantly transgressive Upper Silurian interval of the Keyser Limestone (U. Sil. - L. Dev.) in the central Appalachians has yielded the most diverse fauna of rhombiferan cystoids found in any single formation in North America. All forms are members of the Callocystitidae, a diverse family of the Glyptocystitida. Nine lithofacies are recogniz­ed within this stratigraphic interval, representing all major epeiric sea environments from supratidal through shallow shelf below wave base. Identification of cystoid genera and species by disarticulated part studies (comparison of isolated plates to the corresponding element on whole thecae of known taxa) demonstrates their restriction to three discrete assemblages on the open shelf. Cystoid bearing lithofacies represent a contemporaneous and laterally coexisting sequence of skeletal sands and silt which include: 1. well sorted calcarenite (both biosparudite and biosparite), 2. poorly sorted biosparite, 3. open shelf (fossiliferous) calcisiltite. Maximum cystoid diversity is recorded in the calcisiltite, diminish­ing progressively in coarser shoreward calcarenites. Callo­cystitid distribution is suggested to have been primarily depth controlled. These cystoids were intolerant of turbid water, high sedimentation rate and of high energy nearshore sands and infirm mud bottoms. A new genus Laosacystis monterey is described and assigned to the subfamily Staurocystinae on the basis of its four protuberant ambulacra. / Earth and Environmental Science / Accompanied by one .pdf file: 1) Stephenson-Supplemental-1974.pdf

Excellent exposures of an 80 meter wide, 40 kilometer long vertical diabase intrusion near Frederick, Maryland, were extensively studied. This diabase has been classified as a low-TiO2 (approx. 0.80 wt. % TiO2) quartz-normative (approx. 0.9 wt. % quartz) tholeiite and correlates with the quartz-normative Triassic diabases common in northeastern United States (Weigand and Ragland, 1970) and, more specifically, the 0.80 wt. % TiO2 falls within the 0.60-0.85 wt. % range typical of the Rossville-type of Triassic diabase in Pennsylvania (Smith, 1973). The presence of centimeter-sized plagioclase (An90+5) phenocrysts and the absence of olivine and presence of quartz in the CIPW norms also indicates a correlation with the Rossville type. The intrinsic oxygen fugacity was studied using the techniques of Buddington and Lindsley (1964) and Sato (1971). Good agreement was found between the two methods; for example, at 1100 C, the fO2 determined using both techniques was 10^-12+/-0.5 atmospheres at one atmosphere total pressure. The one atmosphere dry solidus was found to be at 1005+/-5 C and the one kbar and ten kbar wet (3 wt. % H2O) solidus were at 885+/-15 C and 800+/-15 C respectively. The one atmosphere dry liquidus was found to be at 1210+/-5 C, and the one kbar wet (3 wt. % H2O) liquidus was at 1165+/-15 C. The ten kbar wet liquidus although not within the range of the equipment used, was determined to be above 1150 C. Using the pyrolite model of Green and Ringwood (1967), the Frederick disbase is the result of differentiation of an olivine tholeiite in a magma chamber within 25+/-5 kilometers of the surface, which was subsequently intruded near the surface during the initial stages of the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the early Mesozoic. / Earth and Environmental Science / Accompanied by one .pdf file: 1) Sutphen-Supplemental-1975.pdf