Erosion Rates and Land-use History in Southern Michigan

The quantities and kinds of sediment that have accumulated in Frains and Murray Lakes, Michigan, over known intervals of time, provide a measure of erosion from the watersheds. This study has focused on the ash-weight of sediment and has derived estimates of ‘sediment yield’ from the landscape, though estimates of sediment yield from watersheds have seldom been made from the quantity of sediment accumulating in natural lakes. An exception is Mirror Lake, New Hampshire, where estimates from a core could be compared directly with sediment yields monitored in the last few years in experimental watersheds in the surrounding Hubbard Brook Forest (Likens & Davis, 1975). Detailed study of sediment cores can yield much more information than has been presented here. The chemical constituents of the sediments yield information about the chemistry of lake water and runoff from the watershed, while the remains of phytoplankton that are preserved in the sediment show the progress of eutrophication. A recent study of pre- and post-settlement sediment at Linsley Pond, Connecticut, is an example of a multidisciplinary approach to the determination of human influences on lake history (Brugam, 1975). The data from Frains Lake permit a reconstruction of erosional events since Man arrived on the scene. The result is similar to Wolman's (1967) history of erosion in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland; his reconstruction, however, was based entirely on analogy with modern watersheds that were experiencing different kinds of land-use at the current time. Thus his estimate of pre-settlement erosion, for example, is tentative because there are no undisturbed watersheds today to measure for comparison.

[1]  W. Hinton.  Hybridization: A Threat to the Survival of Small Populations of Endangered Species , 1976, Environmental Conservation.

[2]  G. Likens,et al.  Post-Glacial History of Mirror Lake and Its Watershed In New Hampshire, U. S. A.: An Initial Report , 1975 .

[3]  G. Likens,et al.  The Export of Nutrients and Recovery of Stable Conditions Following Deforestation at Hubbard Brook , 1974 .

[4]  L. Brubaker,et al.  Pollen Grains in Lake Sediments: Pollen Percentages in Surface Sediments from Southern Michigan , 1971, Quaternary Research.

[5]  W. Pennington,et al.  IODINE IN LAKE SEDIMENTS IN NORTHERN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND , 1971 .

[6]  R. H. Meade.  Errors in Using Modern Stream-Load Data To Estimate Natural Rates of Denudation , 1969 .

[7]  G. Likens,et al.  Biotic regulation of particulate and solution losses from a forest ecosystem , 1969 .

[8]  S. Judson.  Erosion Rates Near Rome, Italy , 1968, Science.

[9]  F. Went,et al.  Biological and mechanical role of soil fungi. , 1968, Science.

[10]  J. C. Roth.  BENTHIC AND LIMNETIC DISTRIBUTION OF THREE CHAOBORUS SPECIES IN A SOUTHERN MICHIGAN LAKE (DIPTERA, CHAOBORIDAE) , 1968 .

[11]  G. Likens,et al.  Nutrient Loss Accelerated by Clear-Cutting of a Forest Ecosystem , 1968, Science.

[12]  M. Wolman.  A Cycle of Sedimentation and Erosion in Urban River Channels , 1967 .

[13]  M. Wolman,et al.  Effects of construction on fluvial sediment, urban and suburban areas of Maryland , 1967 .

[14]  W. Broecker,et al.  The geochemistry of C14 in fresh-water systems , 1959 .

[15]  J. Rowley,et al.  Modifications in design and use of the Livingstone piston sampler , 1956 .

[16]  M. Nice,et al.  Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth. , 1956 .

[17]  G. E. Hutchinson,et al.  THE NATURAL C CONTENTS OF MATERIALS FROM HARD-WATER LAKES. , 1954, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[18]  E. Deevey.  Studies on Connecticut Lake sediments; III, The biostratonomy of Linsley Pond, Part II , 1942 .

[19]  E. Deevey.  Studies on Connecticut lake sediments; 3, The biostratonomy of Linsley Pond , 1942 .

[20]  W. Kerfoot.  Net Accumulation Rates and the History of Cladoceran Communities , 1974 .

[21]  M. B. Davis,et al.  REDEPOSITION OF POLLEN GRAINS IN LAKE SEDIMENT , 1973 .

[22]  T. Webb,,et al.  Calibration of absolute pollen influx , 1973 .

[23]  J. Stockmarr.  Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis , 1971 .

[24]  W. Tutin.  The usefulness of pollen analysis in interpretation of stratigraphic horizons, both Late-glacial and Post-glacial: With 3 figures in the text and on 1 folder , 1969 .

[25]  Ernest Habinowicz,et al.  Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth , 1955, Nature.