CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Bailey, J.N.L.; and Edwards, T.W.D.
Date : 2005.
Title : Inferring flood frequency and climate from carbon- and oxygen-isotope dendrorecords, Peace-Athabasca Delta, northern Alberta.
Publication : Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographer. Tuesday, May 31 to Saturday, to June 4, 2005. University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
Issue :
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Abstract
Living Picea glauca (white spruce) were cored at four locations in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD), northern Alberta, as part of efforts to investigate climate variability and ice-jam flood frequency in the delta over the past 150-300 years. Trees at two upland sites located well beyond the range of possible floods were sampled to provide "benchmark" records of local atmospheric climate, independent of river influence, while records obtained from two lowland sites were expected to contain additional signals related to periodic spring ice-jam or summer high-water flooding. Preliminary analysis of ring-width and cellulose dð13C and dð18O records, and comparison with independent historical evidence, confirms the existence of strong flood-dependent signals in some lowland trees. These are expressed most clearly by dð13C data, which reveal increased 13C discrimination in river-influenced trees at times of high flood frequency, signifying reduced levels of environmental stress compared to trees at upland sites. Ongoing studies are coupling dendrologic and isotopic data to further probe the possibility of generating quantitative proxies for flood frequency at the two lowland sites in the PAD.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology