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This thesis explores the role of terrestrial vegetation in the global climate system in a series of modelling studies using the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM). The ways that vegetation affects climate, as well as the feedbacks that operate between changing climate and vegetation distributions, are investigated within the framework of three foci: 1) historical land cover changes that have resulted from human modification of natural vegetation cover; 2) historical land cover change and the dynamics of terrestrial vegetation in the context of anthropogenic and natural climate change; and 3) the role of terrestrial vegetation in the global carbon cycle. First, the radiative effect of changing human land-use patterns on the climate of the past 300 years is discussed through analysis of a series of equilibrium and transient climate simulations using the UVic ESCM. These experiments highlight the biogeophysical effects of historical land cover change on climate: those that result from physical changes to the land surface under altered vegetation cover. Results show a global cooling in the range of -0.06 to -0.22 "C, though this effect is not found to be detectable in observed temperature trends. Using a global carbon cycle the climatic effects of land cover change emissions (the biogeochemical effect of historical land cover change) are assessed. The resultant warming is found to exceed the biogeophysical cooling by 0.15 "C. Second, the effect of historical land cover change is compared with the effects of natural forcings (volcanic aerosols, solar insolation variability and orbital changes) and other anthropogenic forcings (greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols). Transient model runs from the year 1700 to 2000 are presented for each forcing individually as well as for combinations of forcings. I find that the UVic model reproduces well the global temperature data when all forcings are included. In the context of these anthropogenic and natural climate influences, the response of vegetation distributions to changing climate is explored through the use of a dynamic global vegetation model coupled interactively to the UVic ESCM. Transient simulations of the past 300 years are repeated using this new model so as to isolate the biogeophysical feedbacks that operate between vegetation and climate. Dynamic vegetation is found to act as a positive feedback to climate, amplifying both warming and cooling climate trends. Third, the development of a global carbon cycle model allows for investigation of the role of terrestrial carbon cycle dynamics under past and future climate change. When forced by historical emissions of C02 from fossil fuels and land-use change, the coupled carbon cycle model accurately reproduces historical atmospheric C02 trends, as well as terrestrial and oceanic uptake for the past two decades. Under six 21St century C02 emissions scenarios, both terrestrial and oceanic carbon sinks continue to increase, though terrestrial uptake slows in the latter half of the century. The modelled positive feedback between the carbon cycle and climate is relatively small, resulting in an increase in simulated C02 of 60 ppmv at the year 2100. Including non- C02 greenhouse gas forcing and increasing the model's climate sensitivity increases the effect of this feedback to 140 ppmv. The UVic model does not, however, simulate a switch from a terrestrial carbon sink to a source during the 2lSt century, as earlier studies have suggested. This can be explained by a lack of substantial reductions in simulated vegetation productivity due to climate changes.

In recent years, global warming awareness has resulted in an increased demand for clean sources of energy such as hydropower. As a consequence, its impact on riparian vegetation must be studied. In this research, I aimed to assess how different functional riparian groups from northern Sweden respond to hydropeaking (i.e. short-term flow regime changes due to differences in the daily energy requirements). I selected seedlings of eight species natural from Swedish riparian ecosystems which can be grouped in three different guilds (forbs, graminoids and woody) according to their habitat and morphological traits.  A seven week greenhouse experiment in which the seedlings were subjected to two watering treatments that simulated prolonged and deep submergence and frequent and short shallow submergence conditions was developed. I measured the root, stem and leaf biomass, followed leaf changes and stem growth over the weeks and evaluated the health status. The study showed how some species and guilds responded differently to the treatments although survival rates were similar. Forbs was the most resilient group unlike the woody guild.  Graminoids grew longer and thinner roots in frequent submergence situations. Small seedlings appeared to be more sensitive to prolonged submergence. No significant differences were found for leaf variables. Collectively, these results suggest that hydropeaking could significantly modify the riparian vegetation. More and longer studies are needed in order to understand the capacity that hydropower has to modify the riparian vegetation and therefore the riverine ecosystems.

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Thesis advisor: Noah P. Snyder / Dam removal is typically used to restore fish passage, natural flow regimes, and sediment transport in streams. However, dam removal also impacts the riparian vegetation, a change that can have wider effects throughout the ecosystem. Quantifying vegetation change requires a multi-year record to document pre-removal communities and both the immediate and delayed responses. In this study, vegetation change was assessed at the Merrimack Village Dam on the Souhegan River in Merrimack, NH, which was removed in August 2008. The removal caused a ~3 meter drop in water level and rapid erosion of impounded sediment, with ~50% removed in the first three months. The vegetation was sampled using plots at specific intervals along 7 monumented transects that were perpendicular to the channel or adjacent wetland. Tree, shrub, and herbaceous communities were assessed using species percent areal coverage techniques in July 2007, 2009, 2014 and 2015. Change over time was quantified using Analysis of Similarity (ANOSIM) on the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity matrix. As expected, vegetation communities in control plots upstream of the impoundment did not show significant change during the study period. Tree and shrub communities adjacent to the impoundment also did not show significant change. All herbaceous communities adjacent to the impoundment changed significantly (p < 0.05). The herbaceous plots closest to the channel changed to bare sand in 2009 due to erosion in the former impoundment, but by 2014 the riparian fringe community seen in 2007 had re-established and expanded in this area, but at a lower elevation. Between 2007 and 2014, the wetland herbaceous community changed from aquatic species to a stable terrestrial community that persisted without significant change in 2015. From 2007 to 2014, the vegetation community on a mid-channel island of impoundment sand changed from a community with ~50% invasive reed canary grass to a ~98% community of invasive black swallowwort, a species not recorded at the site pre-removal. The vegetation response was greatest in areas with largest geomorphic and hydrologic change, such as along the channel margin where erosion and bank slumping created an unstable scarp or on the mid-channel island and off-channel wetland strongly impacted by the lowered water table. However, large unvegetated areas never persisted nor did the areal coverage of invasive species expand: two common concerns of dam removals. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Scholar of the College. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.