Search

Ice loss to the sea currently accounts for virtually all of the sea-level rise that is not attributable to ocean warming, and about 60% of the ice loss is from glaciers and ice caps rather than from the two ice sheets. The contribution of these smaller glaciers has accelerated over the past decade, in part due to marked thinning and retreat of marine-terminating glaciers associated with a dynamic instability that is generally not considered in mass-balance and climate modeling. This acceleration of glacier melt may cause 0.1 to 0.25 meter of additional sea-level rise by 2100.

Glaciers affect biogeochemistry of landscapes through their sediments. Glacial erosion rates are high and the sediments produced are distinctively fine grained, hence glaciers can be thought of as producers of mineral surface area. Although this mineral surface area is highly reactive, temperature limits chemical weathering fluxes from glaciers and their surroundings. More significant effects may be associated with silt deposited in loess and on continental margins. Thick deposits in both settings contribute to carbon cycling through both silicate weathering and organic carbon burial. The impact of glaciers on biogeochemical cycles will be long-lasting, as the legacy of glacial erosion processes continues as long as sediment yields are elevated.

The comprehensive physics-based hydrologic-response model InHM was used to simulate 3D variably-saturated flow and solute transport for three controlled sprinkling experiments at the Coos Bay 1 (CB1) experimental catchment in the Oregon Coast Range. The InHM-simulated hydrologic-response was evaluated against observed discharge, pressure head, total head, soil-water content, and deuterium concentration records. Runoff generation, tensiometric/piezometric response in the soil, pore-water pressure generation, and solute (tracer) transport were all simulated well, based on statistical and graphical model performance evaluation. The InHM simulations reported herein indicate that the 3D geometry and hydraulic characteristics of the layered geologic interfaces at CB1 can control the development of saturation and pore-water pressures at the soil-saprolite interface. The weathered bedrock piezometric response and runoff contribution were not simulated well with InHM in this study, most likely as a result of the uncertainty in the weathered bedrock layer geometry and fractured-rock hydraulic properties that preclude accurate fracture flow representation. Sensitivity analyses for the CB1 boundary-value problem indicate that: (i) hysteretic unsaturated flow in the CB1 soil is important for accurate hydrologic-response simulation, (ii) using an impermeable boundary condition to represent layered geologic interfaces leads to large errors in simulated magnitudes of runoff generation and pore-water pressure development, and (iii) field-based retention curve measurements can dramatically improve variably-saturated hydrologic-response simulation at sites with steep soil-water retention curves. The near-surface CB1 simulations reported herein demonstrate that physics-based models like InHM are useful for characterizing detailed spatio-temporal hydrologic-response, developing process-based concepts, and identifying information shortfalls for the next generation of field experiments. The field-based observations and hydrologic-response simulations from CB1 highlight the challenges in characterizing/simulating fractured bedrock flow at small catchments, which has important consequences for hydrologic response and landslide initiation.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has pioneered an integrated approach to the study of Earth’s Critical Zone by supporting a network of Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs). The CZOs are intensively studied and monitored sites with a focus on a range of Critical Zone processes that are well represented at the various sites. The initial network (beginning in 2007) consisted of 3 CZOs, expanded to 6 in 2009, and is currently expanding to a total of 10 in 2014. The investment in financial and human resources into the CZOs has enabled a range of new scientific investigations that were not accessible under traditional funding mechanisms, and this is leading to novel and exciting advances in scientific understanding of a fundamentally important part of the Earth system.

Primary succession is a fundamental process in macroecosystems; however, if and how soil development influences microbial community structure is poorly understood. Thus, we investigated changes in the bacterial community along a chronosequence of three unvegetated, early successional soils ( approximately 20-year age gradient) from a receding glacier in southeastern Peru using molecular phylogenetic techniques. We found that evenness, phylogenetic diversity, and the number of phylotypes were lowest in the youngest soils, increased in the intermediate aged soils, and plateaued in the oldest soils. This increase in diversity was commensurate with an increase in the number of sequences related to common soil bacteria in the older soils, including members of the divisions Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Verrucomicrobia. Sequences related to the Comamonadaceae clade of the Betaproteobacteria were dominant in the youngest soil, decreased in abundance in the intermediate age soil, and were not detected in the oldest soil. These sequences are closely related to culturable heterotrophs from rock and ice environments, suggesting that they originated from organisms living within or below the glacier. Sequences related to a variety of nitrogen (N)-fixing clades within the Cyanobacteria were abundant along the chronosequence, comprising 6-40% of phylotypes along the age gradient. Although there was no obvious change in the overall abundance of cyanobacterial sequences along the chronosequence, there was a dramatic shift in the abundance of specific cyanobacterial phylotypes, with the intermediate aged soils containing the greatest diversity of these sequences. Most soil biogeochemical characteristics showed little change along this approximately 20-year soil age gradient; however, soil N pools significantly increased with soil age, perhaps as a result of the activity of the N-fixing Cyanobacteria. Our results suggest that, like macrobial communities, soil microbial communities are structured by substrate age, and that they, too, undergo predictable changes through time.

We present a varve thickness chronology from glacier-dammed Iceberg Lake in the southern Alaska icefields. Radiogenic evidence confirms that laminations are annual and record continuous sediment deposition from A.D. 442 to A.D. 1998. Varve thickness is positively correlated with Northern Hemisphere temperature trends, and more strongly with a local, ∼600 yr long tree ring width chronology. Varve thickness increases in warm summers because of higher melt, runoff, and sediment transport (as expected), but also because shrinkage of the glacier dam allows shoreline regression that concentrates sediment in the smaller lake. Varve thickness provides a sensitive record of relative changes in warm season temperatures. Relative to the entire record, temperatures implied by this chronology were lowest around A.D. 600, warm between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1300, cooler between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1850, and have increased dramatically since then. Combined with stratigraphic evidence that contemporary jökulhlaups (which began in 1999) are unprecedented since at least A.D. 442, this record suggests that 20th century warming is more intense, and accompanied by more extensive glacier retreat, than the Medieval Warm Period or any other time in the last 1500 yr.

Ice-marginal Hidden Creek Lake, Alaska, USA, outbursts annually over the course of 2–3 days. As the lake fills, survey targets on the surface of the ‘ice dam’ (the glacier adjacent to the lake) move obliquely to the ice margin and rise substantially. As the lake drains, ice motion speeds up, becomes nearly perpendicular to the face of the ice dam, and the ice surface drops. Vertical movement of the ice dam probably reflects growth and decay of a wedge of water beneath the ice dam, in line with established ideas about jökulhlaup mechanics. However, the distribution of vertical ice movement, with a narrow (50–100 m wide) zone where the uplift rate decreases by 90%, cannot be explained by invoking flexure of the ice dam in a fashion analogous to tidal flexure of a floating glacier tongue or ice shelf. Rather, the zone of large uplift-rate gradient is a fault zone: ice-dam deformation is dominated by movement along high-angle faults that cut the ice dam through its entire thickness, with the sense of fault slip reversing as the lake drains. Survey targets spanning the zone of steep uplift gradient move relative to one another in a nearly reversible fashion as the lake fills and drains. The horizontal strain rate also undergoes a reversal across this zone, being compressional as the lake fills, but extensional as the lake drains. Frictional resistance to fault-block motion probably accounts for the fact that lake level falls measurably before the onset of accelerated horizontal motion and vertical downdrop. As the overall fault pattern is the same from year to year, even though ice is lost by calving, the faults must be regularly regenerated, probably by linkage of surface and bottom crevasses as ice is advected toward the lake basin.

Field studies suggest a linkage between high physical erosion rates and rates of chemical denudation. Mechanical erosion by temperate glaciers is commonly an order of magnitude higher than in mountainous fluvial catchments, leading to an expectation that chemical weathering fluxes should also be high from glacierized basins. Yet solute fluxes from glaciers are not found to be higher than non-glacierized catchments. Application of a model of silicate weathering from glaciers based on mineral surface area production and mineralogy shows that solute fluxes are consistent with the low temperatures, dilute water chemistry, and high mineral surface area production in these environments. Low temperatures reduce silicate-weathering rates; this effect explains the difference between silica fluxes from glaciers and from non-glacierized basins. As in laboratory flow-through reactors, glacial solute flux should depend on surface area production and mineral weathering rate constants. The surface area production is significant: a typical glacial erosion rate and grain-size distribution produces on the order of 104 km2 of mineral surface area per square kilometer per year. This new surface area is highly reactive because mineral weathering rates decline with surface age. Application of the “reactor” model yields results largely consistent with measured solute fluxes for the example of Bench Glacier, Alaska. The model underpredicts potassium fluxes, probably due to accelerated initial dissolution of biotite strained by abrasion. The success of the model in predicting other silicate weathering fluxes reflects the far-from-equilibrium conditions in glacial runoff, such that mineral weathering rate constants are not limited by saturation state. In a small data set from glacial catchments, both annual silica fluxes and mean concentrations increase with water discharge. This suggests that mineral surface area increases with water discharge from glaciers, an effect plausibly linked to erosion rates. Those glaciers for which both erosion rate and silica flux data are available support the idea that production of new reactive mineral surface area by glacial erosion drives silicate weathering fluxes.

Glacier sliding is commonly linked with elevated water pressure at the glacier bed. Ice surface motion during a 3 week period encompassing an outburst of ice-dammed Hidden Creek Lake (HCL) at Kennicott Glacier, Alaska, USA, showed enhanced sliding during the flood. Two stakes, 1.2 km from HCL, revealed increased speed in two episodes, both associated with uplift of the ice surface relative to the trajectory of bed-parallel motion. Uplift of the surface began 12 days before the flood, initially stabilizing at a value of 0.25 m. Two days after lake drainage began, further uplift (reaching 0.4 m) occurred while surface speed peaked at 1.2 md–1. Maximum surface uplift coincided with peak discharge from HCL, high water level in a down-glacier ice-marginal basin, and low solute concentrations in the Kennicott River. Each of these records is consistent with high subglacial water pressure. We interpret the ice surface motion as arising from sliding up backs of bumps on the bed, which enlarges cavities and produces bed separation. The outburst increased water pressure over a broad region, promoting sliding, inhibiting cavity closure, and blocking drainage of solute-rich water from the distributed system. Pressure drop upon termination of the outburst drained water from and depressurized the distributed system, reducing sliding speeds. Expanded cavities then collapsed with a 1 day time-scale set by the local ice thickness.

Ice-dammed Hidden Creek Lake, Alaska, USA, outbursts annually in about 2–3 days. As the lake fills, a wedge of water penetrates beneath the glacier, and the surface of this ‘ice dam’ rises; the surface then falls as the lake drains. Detailed optical surveying of the glacier near the lake allows characterization of ice-dam deformation. Surface uplift rate is close to the rate of lake-level rise within about 400 m of the lake, then decreases by 90% over about 100 m. Such a steep gradient in uplift rate cannot be explained in terms of ice-dam flexure. Moreover, survey targets spanning the zone of steep uplift gradient move relative to one another in a nearly reversible fashion as the lake fills and drains. Evidently, the zone of steep uplift gradient is a fault zone, with the faults penetrating the entire thickness of the ice dam. Fault motion is in a reverse sense as the lake fills, but in a normal sense as the lake drains. As the overall fault pattern is the same from year to year, even though ice is lost by calving, the faults must be regularly regenerated, probably by linkage of surface and bottom crevasses as ice is advected toward the lake basin.

Runoff from the temperate Kennicott Glacier in the Wrangell Mountains, Alaska, displays distinctive oscillations in discharge, electrical conductivity, and solute concentrations during the summer melt season. In addition to daily fluctuations, the Kennicott River undergoes quasi-cyclic changes in discharge over 12- to 18-day periods probably linked to weather-induced variations in melt. Solute variations are lagged from discharge by several days; solute concentrations peak during falling discharge, and reach minima during rising discharge. We explore probable weathering reactions through mass balance analysis. The reactions responsible for most solute fluctuations are halite dissolution and H2CO3-driven calcite dissolution, while sulfide oxidation and associated calcite dissolution are significant but steady components of the solute flux. Halite dissolution is probably limited by the glacial abrasion rate. Calcite dissolution by carbonation co-varies directly with the calculated PCO2 of the runoff. This result is not expected in an environment that is poorly connected to the atmosphere; a possible explanation is that respiration by subglacial microbes produces CO2 at the glacier bed. The extent of sulfide oxidation is limited by availability of O2, and the lack of temporal variation in this reaction suggests that this limit operates in both the distributed system and subglacial conduits. All solute variations are consistent with changes in subglacial water storage and are therefore indicative of changing efficiency of subglacial drainage through time.

The architecture of the Critical Zone, including mobile regolith thickness and depth to the weathering front, is first order controlled by advance of a weathering front at depth and transport of sediment at the surface. Differences in conditions imposed by slope aspect in the Gordon Gulch catchment of the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory present a natural experiment to explore these interactions. The weathering front is deeper and saprolite more decayed on north-facing than on south-facing slopes. Simple numerical models of weathering front advance, mobile regolith production, and regolith transport are used to test how weathering and erosion rates interact in the evolution of weathered profiles. As the processes which attempt are being made to mimic are directly tied to climate variables such as mean annual temperature, the role of Quaternary climate variation in governing the evolution of Critical Zone architecture can be explored with greater confidence.

We present here deductions about the location, rate, and mechanisms of chemical weathering in a small catchment based on a catchment-scale sprinkling experiment. In this experiment demineralized water was applied at an approximately steady rate in the CB 1 catchment in the Oregon Coast Range to reach and maintain a quasi-steady discharge for a period of 4 days. Because of nearly steady flow conditions within the catchment, the contribution to solute fluxes from soil and bedrock could be partitioned. One half of the solute flux from the catchment derived from colluvial soil, and one half from weathering in bedrock. This implies more intense weathering in the thin colluvium mantling the catchment than in the thick underlying weathered bedrock. The annual solute flux from the catchment, scaled to the annual runoff from the catchment, is 32 ± 10 t km -2 year -1 , equivalent to published chemical denudation rates for nearby rivers with drainage areas 10 6 times greater than the experiment site. Soil waters sampled during the sprinkling experiment had steady compositions following a period of transient water flow conditions, implying steady-state chemical evolution in the soil. The waters leached 'organic' anions from shallow depths in the soil, which solubilized aluminium and iron, indicating that podzolization is occurring in these soils. Carbonate dissolution appears to be an important source of solutes from the bedrock, despite being present as only a minor phase in the rock. Water balance suggests that the residence time of water in the catchment is about 2 months, and that typical 24 h storms displace only a fraction of the stored water. A consequence is that runoff chemistry is dominated by old water, which imposes strong limits on the variability of runoff composition.

Chemical denudation rates and strontium isotope ratios in streams vary substantially and systematically in the foreland of the retreating Bench Glacier in south-central Alaska. To study weathering of young glacier sediments, we sampled 12 streams draining a chronosequence of till and moraine soils derived from Cretaceous metagraywacke–metapelite bedrock. Both sediment age and vegetation cover increase with distance from the glacier. Cation denudation rates decline with increasing distance from the glacier, whereas silica denudation rates increase. Carbonate dissolution and sulfide oxidation account for roughly 90% of the solute flux from the youngest sediments. Biotite alteration accounts for 5–11% of the solute flux; its peak contribution is found in the glacier outlet stream. Silicate weathering is the dominant reaction only in the oldest sediments. In a laboratory dissolution experiment using fresh glacial sediment, carbonate dissolution dominated the solute flux during the first 700 hours, paralleling the behavior of young sediments in the field. In contrast to trends in the field, the silica flux did not increase after the carbonate was exhausted from the reactor. A possible reason for this difference is that establishment of vegetation causes an increase in silicate weathering. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio in the glacier outlet stream is greater than that in proglacial streams and in bulk rock, due to a greater contribution of biotite weathering in the outlet than in proglacial streams. Strontium isotope ratios decline with sediment exposure age in the proglacial streams, and are consistent with a carbonate source. Because the dominant weathering reactions in the young sediments are of carbonate and sulfide rather than silicate minerals, weathering at the glacier margin is not an important long-term sink for atmospheric CO2.

Previous studies of alpine glaciers have demonstrated that as water discharge increases through the summer, the predominant mode of subglacial drainage shifts from a distributed system to a more efficient conduit drainage system. We observed an early-melt-season speed-up and flood event lasting roughly 2 days in a small, uncomplicated Alaskan glacier that appears to have resulted from a sudden shift of the subglacial system in response to a significant accumulation of meltwater within the glacier. Calculated melt-water inputs exceeded discharge before the event; the implied change in storage over this 10 day period was equivalent to roughly 0.13 m averaged over the entire glacier bed. The pattern of discharge and suspended-sediment variations and the appearance of large ice chunks in the stream suggest that the speed-up occurred during a period of establishment of new subglacial conduits. A culminating flood and associated suspended-sediment pulse appear to have marked the final establishment of the new section of subglacial conduit. The flood ended the episode of high sliding velocity, but released water with high solute concentrations that reflect relatively long contact time with sediments. Discharge of stored water, inferred from high solute concentrations and lack of diurnal variation in discharge, continued for at least 3 days. While events such as this must recur through the melt season as the conduit system extends up-glacier and the locus of meltwater inputs shifts, their manifestations in the outlet stream will likely be more subdued later in the season.

As part of a larger, collaborative study, we conducted field experiments to investigate how rainfall signals propagate through an unsaturated soil profile, leading to a rapid pore pressure response and slope instability. We sprinkler-irrigated an entire, unchanneled headwater basin in the steep, humid Oregon Coast Range, and we drove the system to quasi steady state as indicated by tensiometers, piezometers, and discharge. During initial wetting some of the deeper tensiometers responded before the arrival of an advancing head gradient front. With continued irrigation most tensiometers attained near- zero pressure heads before most piezometers responded fully, and a stable unsaturated flow field preceded the development of a stable saturated flow field. Steady discharge occurred after the last piezometer reached steady state. With the onset of steady discharge the unsaturated zone, saturated zone, and discharge became delicately linked, and a spike increase in rain intensity led to a response in the saturated zone and discharge much faster than could have happened through advection alone. We propose that the rain spike produced a slight pressure wave that traveled relatively rapidly through the unsaturated zone, where it caused a large change in hydraulic conductivity and the rapid effusion of stored soil water. An important control on the hydrologic response of this catchment lies with the soil-water retention curve. In general, below pressure heads of about 20.05 m, soil-water contents change slightly with changes in pressure head, but above 20.05 m the soil-water content is highly variable. Minor rainstorms upon a wet soil can produce slight changes in pressure head and corresponding large changes in soil-water content, giving rise to the passage of pressure waves in response to increased rain intensity and a relatively rapid response in the unsaturated zone. This rapid unsaturated zone response led to a rapid rise in the saturated zone, and it may be the underlying mechanism enabling short bursts of rain to cause slope instability.

Tracer studies during catchment-scale sprinkler experiments illuminate the pathways of subsurface flow in a small, steep catchment in the Oregon Coast Range. Bromide point injections into saturated materials showed rapid flow in bedrock to the catchment outlet. Bedrock flow returned to the colluvium, sustaining shallow subsurface flow there. The bromide peak velocity of ;10 23 ms 21 exceeded the saturated hydraulic conductivity of intact bedrock. This, and the peak shapes, verify that fractures provide important avenues for saturated flow in the catchment. Deuterium added to the sprinkler water moved through the vadose zone as plug flow controlled by rainfall rate and water content. Ninety-two percent of the labeled water remained in the vadose zone after 3 days (;140 mm) of sprinkling. Preferential flow of new water was not observed during either low-intensity irrigation or natural storms; however, labeled preevent water was mobile in shallow colluvium during a storm following our spiking experiment. In response to rainfall, waters from the deeper bedrock pathway, which have traveled through the catchment, exfiltrate into the colluvium mantle and mix with relatively young vadose zone water, derived locally, creating an area of subsurface saturation near the channel head. This effectively becomes a subsurface variable source area, which, depending on its size and the delivery of water from the vadose zone, dictates the apportioning of old and new water in the runoff and, correspondingly, the runoff chemistry. The slow movement of water through the vadose zone allows for chemical modification and limits the amount of new water in the runoff. Moreover, it suggests that travel time of new rain water does not control the timing of runoff generation.

The observation that "old" water dominates storm runoff suggests that release of low-solute water from soils rather than rainwater must cause storm runoff dilution. This inference is supported by sprinkling experiments in an 860-m 2 catchment in the Oregon Coast Range, in which .200 mm of both high and low ionic strength precipitation produced similar concentration-discharge trends. Rainwater chemistry was buffered as it traveled through catchment soils: the amount of sprinkling-derived water in the runoff increased during long periods of steady discharge but was not accompanied by a change in runoff solute concentrations. Stored water plays a role in runoff dilution as well. Nearly all runoff from the catchment passes through underlying weathered bedrock rather than perching and discharging only through soil. Bedrock water composition appears to vary through storm events, as the average contact time of water with rock declines with increasing discharge, a behavior at odds with the concept of stable end-members.

Observations from natural rain storms and sprinkling experiments at a steep zero-order catchment in the Oregon Coast Range demonstrate the importance offlow through near-surface bedrock on runoff generation and pore pressure development in shallow colluvial soils. Sprinkling experiments, involving irrigation of the entire 860 m 2 catchment at average intensities of 1.5 and 3.0 mm/h, permitted detailed observation of runoff and the development of subsurface saturation under controlled conditions. A weir installed to collectflow through the colluvium at the base of the catchment recovered runoff equal to one third to one half of the precipitation rate during quasi-steady irrigation. Three key observations demonstrate that a significant proportion of storm runoffflows through near-surface bedrock and illustrate the importance of shallow bedrockflow in pore pressure development in the overlying colluvial soil: (1) greater discharge recovery during both the experiments and natural rainfall at a weir installed approximately 15 m downslope of the weir at the base of the catchment, (2) spatially discontinuous patterns of positive pressure head in the colluvium during steady sprinkling, and (3) local development of upward head gradients associated withflow from weathered rock into the overlying colluvium during high-intensity rainfall. Data from natural storms also show that smaller storms produce no significant runoff or piezometric response and point to a critical intensity-duration rainfall to overcome vadose zone storage. Together these observations highlight the role of interaction betweenflow in colluvium and near- surface bedrock in governing patterns of soil saturation, runoff production, and positive pore pressures.

The architecture of the critical zone—the distribution of mobile regolith, the thickness of weathered rock, and their characteristics, as well as the topography of the land surface—is shaped by erosion and weathering processes that depend upon both lithology and climate. In this trip we explore the Boulder Creek watershed, a landscape that juxtaposes uplifted Precambrian crystalline rocks of Colorado’s Front Range against Mesozoic marine sedimentary rocks underpinning the western edge of the High Plains. The landscape is strongly shaped by Quaternary climate cycles operating on this template inherited from the Laramide orogeny. Stop 1 will provide an overview of the abrupt topographic step at the Front Range–High Plains join, where we will discuss fl uvial strath terraces on the Plains. At Stop 2 in Betasso Preserve, we will discuss the impact of the canyon cutting set off by late Cenozoic exhumation of the High Plains on the hillslopes and groundwater systems lining the master stream. At Stop 3, we will hike 2 miles down Gordon Gulch, a focus site in the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory. At stops on the hike, we will discuss exhumation rates, climate-modulated weathering, hillslope hydrology and hillslope sediment transport, and the infl uence of slope aspect on these processes. Our goal is to focus on the history of climate-driven erosion and weathering processes, and how to incorporate these processes into quantitative models of landscape evolution. Anderson, S.P., Anderson, R.S., Tucker, G.E., and Dethier, D.P., 2013, Critical zone evolution: Climate and exhumation in the Colorado Front Range, in Abbott, L.D., and Hancock, G.S., eds., Classic Concepts and New Directions: Exploring 125 Years of GSA Discoveries in the Rocky Mountain Region: Geological Society of America Field Guide 33, p. 1–18, doi:10.1130/2013.0033(01). For permission to copy, contact editing@geosociety.org. ©2013 The Geological Society of America. All rights reserved. CELEBRATING ADVANCES IN GEOSCIENCE 1888 2013 on June 26, 2014 fieldguides.gsapubs.org Downloaded from

Bacterioplankton in freshwater streams play a critical role in stream nutrient cycling. Despite their ecological importance, the temporal variability in the structure of stream bacterioplankton communities remains understudied. We investigated the composition and temporal variability of stream bacterial communities and the influence of physicochemical parameters on these communities. We used barcoded pyrosequencing to survey bacterial communities in 107 streamwater samples collected from four locations in the Colorado Rocky Mountains from September 2008 to November 2009. The four sampled locations harboured distinct communities yet, at each sampling location, there was pronounced temporal variability in both community composition and alpha diversity levels. These temporal shifts in bacterioplankton community structure were not seasonal; rather, their diversity and composition appeared to be driven by intermittent changes in various streamwater biogeochemical conditions. Bacterial communities varied independently of time, as indicated by the observation that communities in samples collected close together in time were no more similar than those collected months apart. The temporal turnover in community composition was higher than observed in most previously studied microbial, plant or animal communities, highlighting the importance of stochastic processes and disturbance events in structuring these communities over time. Detailed temporal sampling is important if the objective is to monitor microbial community dynamics in pulsed ecosystems like streams.

This textbook provides a modern, quantitative and process-oriented approach to equip students with the tools to understand geomorphology. Insight into the interpretation of landscapes is developed from basic principles and simple models, and by stepping through the equations that capture the essence of the mechanics and chemistry of landscapes. Boxed worked examples and real-world applications bring the subject to life for students, allowing them to apply the theory to their own experience. The book covers cutting edge topics, including the revolutionary cosmogenic nuclide dating methods and modeling, highlights links to other Earth sciences through up-to-date summaries of current research, and illustrates the importance of geomorphology in understanding environmental changes. Setting up problems as a conservation of mass, ice, soil, or heat, this book arms students with tools to fully explore processes, understand landscapes, and to participate in this rapidly evolving field.

[1] We argue that by fracturing rock, not by raising it relative to base level, tectonics plays its most important role in causing rapid incision of valleys and rapid erosion of hillslopes. Tectonic deformation riddles the upper crust with fractures, which not only provide avenues for water flow and thus promote weathering and further disintegration of rock but also fragment bedrock into debris that is readily extracted and transported by surface processes. Bends in active faults require straining of adjacent rock masses. Aftershocks that occur subsequent to slip on primary faults reflect penetrative brittle deformation of the upper crust. At least some aftershocks must nucleate or lengthen cracks, which contribute to the comminution of these rock masses. Scaling rules suggest that dimensions of ruptures for very small (M < −2) earthquakes can be meters or less. The Gutenberg-Richter recurrence relationship implies that such earthquakes are common, as high-magnification seismographs in low-noise environments confirm. Moreover, large differences among fault plane solutions for aftershocks show that the small faults on which they occur are not parallel to one another; some faults must intersect. Thus the upper crust in tectonically active regions should be fragmented into blocks down to the scale of boulders or smaller. Dismembered rock arrives at the Earth's surface already prepared to be transported away. As a corollary, both deeply exhumed lower crust and posttectonic igneous rock, never deformed under brittle conditions and not deformed recently, should be less susceptible to detachment and subsequent transport than fractured rock.

Viable microbes have been detected beneath several geographically distant glaciers underlain by different lithologies, but comparisons of their microbial communities have not previously been made. This study compared the microbial community compositions of samples from two glaciers overlying differing bedrock. Bulk meltwater chemistry indicates that sulfide oxidation and carbonate dissolution account for 90% of the solute flux from Bench Glacier, Alaska, whereas gypsum/anhydrite and carbonate dissolution accounts for the majority of the flux from John Evans Glacier, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. The microbial communities were examined using two techniques: clone libraries and dot blot hybridization of 16S rRNA genes. Two hundred twenty-seven clones containing amplified 16S rRNA genes were prepared from subglacial samples, and the gene sequences were analyzed phylogenetically. Although some phylogenetic groups, including the Betaproteobacteria , were abundant in clone libraries from both glaciers, other well-represented groups were found at only one glacier. Group-specific oligonucleotide probes were developed for two phylogenetic clusters that were of particular interest because of their abundance or inferred biochemical capabilities. These probes were used in quantitative dot blot hybridization assays with a range of samples from the two glaciers. In addition to shared phyla at both glaciers, each glacier also harbored a subglacial microbial population that correlated with the observed aqueous geochemistry. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that microbial activity is an important contributor to the solute flux from glaciers.

[1] Glacial erosion is known to be driven by sliding, which occurs in brief episodes in the melt season. What is not known is how well this sliding history is reflected in the sediment output from a glacier and to what degree temporary sediment storage in the glacier smoothes the history of sediment production. We document sediment evacuation rates for three seasons at Bench Glacier, a small temperate alpine glacier in the Chugach Range of Alaska. Two lines of evidence suggest that subglacial sediment storage is small. Strong hysteresis in the relationship between sediment and water discharge argues for sediment exhaustion from the subglacial system on seasonal and flood event timescales. Uplift of the glacier surface during periods of enhanced basal motion reflects intimate contact of the glacier sole with up-glacier-inclined stoss slopes of bedrock bumps. Sediment evacuation rates at Bench Glacier should therefore closely track glacial erosion rates over annual timescales. Much of the sediment emerges in a major pulse that closely follows the termination of enhanced sliding each year, suggesting that the conduits and well-connected cavities that allowed removal of englacial water to terminate sliding also promoted efficient transport of sediment. This small glacier efficiently modifies the landscape, lowering its bed by 1–2 mm/yr while sliding only 1–2 m/yr. Our sparse measurements of instantaneous bed load discharge average 41% of concurrent suspended sediment discharge. Assuming that half of the suspended load derives from abrasion of subglacially quarried clasts, roughly two thirds of the sediment evacuated can be attributed to quarrying.

[1] We report the spatial and temporal pattern of sliding on the 7-km-long Bench Glacier, Alaska. Using five continuously recording GPS antennas following motion of the surface ice, distributed at 1 km spacing along the glacier center line, we documented surface ice motion over 50 days during summer 2002. Surface speeds in two previous winters constrain the motion component associated with ice deformation, allowing isolation of the sliding speed history. We observed two speedup events bracketing 2 weeks of steady slow sliding. The first event was not associated with a meteorological trigger, was more subtle than the second, and propagated up-glacier at a rate of several hundred meters per day. The second event coincided with a warm up-valley wind, which triggered considerable melt of the glacier surface. Sliding speeds in this event reached 0.3 m d−1 and began almost simultaneously at all sites in the ablation area. Both the horizontal and vertical displacement time series can be explained by growth and collapse of cavities in the lee of bumps in the bedrock bed. Cavities grow during rapid sliding and decay by viscous creep. We posit that effective pressure, averaged over some large area of the bed, is inversely proportional to the sliding speed. This effective pressure then controls the collapse rate of cavities, whose dimensions are estimated from a plausible, stepped-bed geometry. This model explains well the horizontal and vertical surface displacement history through the first event and beginning of the second event. The vertical record demands a substantial and abrupt drop in water pressure that departs from the posited sliding-effective pressure relationship. We argue that this pressure drop reflects establishment of efficient subglacial drainage, also manifested in a nearly simultaneous step increase in water discharge in the exit stream. The establishment of an efficient conduit system terminates sliding; its maintenance inhibits further sliding over the remainder of the summer.

[1] Hidden Creek Lake (HCL), an ice-marginal lake impounded by Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska, fills annually to ∼20 to 30 × 106 m3 and then drains subglacially within 2 to 3 days. During the 1999 and 2000 jokulhlaups, we carried out a series of planned observations around the lake and in the Kennicott River, which drains the glacier. Approximately 20% of the lake volume was contained within a subglacial water “wedge” beneath the ice dam. The entire volume of the lake drains through the wedge; hydraulic head loss through this constriction may be responsible for the fairly symmetrical shape of the HCL outflow hydrographs, deduced from lake level records, basin hypsometry, and collapse of the ice dam. The flood hydrographs in the Kennicott River are similar in shape to the outflow hydrographs, and within error, lake volume matched the river flood volume in both years. Up to 12 × 106 m3 of water was temporarily stored within the glacier during the 2000 jokulhlaup. During the 2000 jokulhlaup the background flow in the Kennicott River shifted to a dilute chemical composition. As the HCL jokulhlaup progressed, Donoho Falls Lake filled with water whose chemistry was closer to that of the background flow in Kennicott River than to HCL water. Comparison of these chemical signals with typical summer variations in Kennicott River chemistry suggests that the jokulhlaup created high subglacial water pressure that impeded normal drainage of solute-rich water from a distributed drainage system into a conduit system at the glacier bed and even caused flow direction locally to reverse.

863 Weathering is the ubiquitous hallmark of the interaction of rock with environmental conditions on Earth’s surface. Alteration of fresh rock both releases nutrients to organisms and consumes atmospheric CO 2 . The disaggregated products of weathering provide substrate to anchor roots, and their production is the fi rst step in sculpting landscapes. The porosity structure developed by weathering retains water and paces its fl ow back to the oceans. For all these reasons, we care a great deal about the rates of weathering, how deeply below the surface a rock is weathered, and if this zone of weathering is steady or changing in time. Understanding the connections between weathering rate and erosion rate is a long-lived question in the study of Earth’s surface, and inevitably requires knowledge of the depth to which weathering processes reach and the rates of these processes over time. The balance between the downward penetration of weathering agents (atmospheric fl uids and organisms) and the damage they cause, and the removal of weathered material by erosion integrated over time, governs the thickness of the weathered zone. One

Understanding the relationship between subsurface flow paths on hillslopes and chemical weathering of bedrock is fundamental to understanding the timing and mechanisms that weather bedrock to saprolite. The link between chemical weathering of bedrock and contact time with reactive water along flow paths motivates this study. Water drives the chemical alteration of rock into saprolite, yet connected porosity generally declines with depth into the weathered profile. Saprolite formation, therefore, reflects coupled weathering and permeability development over time. This study uses numerical modeling and soil-moisture monitoring to explore the hydrology of the unsaturated zone and the influence of fracture density, hillslope gradient, and permeability contrasts within the saprolite development horizon on saprolite development.

Sprinkling systems are frequently used to simulate rainfall for process-based investigations of near-surface hydrologic response without measuring or accounting for spatial variability. Data analyses from three sprinkling experiments at the Coos Bay 1 experimental catchment (CB1) demonstrate considerable spatial variability in sprinkling. Furthermore, simulated rainfall from sprinklers was found to be more heterogeneous than natural storms at CB1. Water balance calculations and evapotrans-piration estimates indicate that evaporation of airborne droplets is a significant portion of applied sprinkling rates, although still less than the amount blown off the field site by strong winds. Incorporation of spatial variability in sprinkling input and soil-water storage did not significantly change water balance calculations. Saturation patterns within the near-surface soil profile and the timing of tensiometric response are affected by sprinkling heterogeneity. Pore-water pressure and saturation development at the soil-saprolite interface are primarily controlled by convergent surface / subsurface topography and bedrock fracture flow, but are also sensitive to sprinkling spatial variations. The analyses presented herein suggest that incorporating spatial variability in sprinkling rates is important when conducting hydrologic-response modeling of sprinkler experiments. This paper is the first-part of a two-part series focused on CB1. The data analyses in this paper are used to parameterize comprehensive physics-based hydrologic-response simulations of three CB1 sprinkling experiments reported in the companion paper.

We use a minimally invasive, shallow geophysical technique to image the structure of the criti cal zone from surface to bedrock (0–20 m) in two small drainages within the Boulder Creek Criti cal Zone Observatory (BcCZO). Shallow seismic refracti on (SSR) surveys provide a three-dimensional network of two-dimensional cross-secti ons (termed quasi-3D) of criti cal zone compressional wave velocity (V p ) structure within each catchment, yielding a spati al descripti on of the current criti cal zone structure. The two catchments, Betasso and Gordon Gulch, represent contrasti ng geomorphic histories within the Front Range: Betasso shows hillslope response to a late Cenozoic increase in fl uvial incision of Boulder Creek, while Gordon Gulch represents more steady erosion. The mean depth to fresh bedrock in both catchments is roughly 15 m. Unique subsurface features in each catchment refl ect acti ve geomorphic processes not suggested by similariti es in mean interface depths. Betasso contains thick disaggregated materials high in the drainage that are nearly absent near the outlet. This presumably refl ects the impact of base-level lowering, which we suggest has progressed roughly 500 to 1000 m up into the catchment. Aspect-driven diff erences in the subsurface within each catchment add complexity and overprint the broader geomorphic signals. Shallow seismic refracti on subsurface structure models will guide future investi gati ons of criti cal zone processes from landscape to hydrologic modeling and are invaluable as connecti ons between ti me-consuming point measurements of physical, chemical, and biological processes. Abbreviati ons: BcCZO, Boulder Creek Criti cal Zone Observatory; ERT, electrical resisti vity tomography; GPR, ground-penetrati ng radar; Ma, megaannum; quasi-3D, a three-dimensional grouping of two-dimensional surveys; SSR, shallow seismic refracti on.

The most surreal experience in my few field seasons in Spitsbergen was an encounter with a tourist ship. My companions and I were lost in the fog in a zodiac boat. After some tense moments, we disc...