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Analysis of landscape metrics showed that the percentage of total high burn severity area comprised by the largest patch of recovered heavy fuel types was relatively small in all fires studied, but increased rapidly with time since fire.
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The author has identified the following significant results. Photgeologic examination of repetitive multispectral ERTS-1 imagery of Northern California has disclosed several systems of linear features which may be important for the interpretation of the structural history of California. They are separated from an orthogonal system of linears in the Klamath Mts. by a set of discontinuous southeast-trending linear features (the Mendocino system) which is traceable from the Pacific Coast, at Cape Mendocino, into the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Within the Sierra Nevada, the Mendocino system separates the north-trending Sierran system from a set of linears characteristic of the Modoc Plateau. With minor exception, little overlap exists among the systems which suggests a decipherable chronology and evolutionary history for the region. The San Andres system of linears appears to truncate or co-exist with most of the other systems in the northern Coast Ranges. The Mendocino system truncates the Klamath, Sierran, and Modoc systems. The Sierran system may represent fundamental and long-persisting pre-late Paleozoic zones of crustal weakness which have been reactivated from time to time. The Mendocino system was possibly developed in early Mesozoic and is important to the structural framework of Northern California.
Deriving individual tree information from discrete return, small footprint LiDAR data may improve forest above ground biomass estimates, and provide tree-level information that is important in many ecological studies. Several crown delineation algorithms have been developed to extract individual tree information from LiDAR point clouds or rasterized canopy height models (CHM), but many of these algorithms have difficulty discriminating between overlapping crowns, and also may fail to detect understory trees. Our approach uses a watershed based delineation of a CHM, which is subsequently refined using the LiDAR point cloud. Individual tree detection was validated with stem mapped field data from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), Maryland, and on a plot and stand level through comparisons of stem density and basal area to delineated metrics at both SERC and a study area in the Sierra Nevada, California. For individual tree detection, the algorithm correctly identified 70% of dominant trees, 58% of co-dominant trees, 35% of intermediate trees and 21% of suppressed trees at SERC. The algorithm had difficulty distinguishing between crowns of small, dense understory trees of approximately the same height. Delineated crown volume alone explained 53% and 84% of the variability in basal area at the SERC and Sierra Nevada sites, respectively. The algorithm produced crown area distributions comparable to diameter at breast height (DBH) size class distributions observed in the field in both study sites. The algorithm detected understory crowns better in the conifer-dominated Sierra Nevada site than in the closed-canopy deciduous site in Maryland. The ability for the algorithm to reproduce both accurate tree size distributions and individual crown geometries in two dissimilar and complex forests suggests great promise for applicability to a wide range of forest systems.
This thesis examines the response of alpine landscapes to the onset of glaciation. The basic approach is to compare fluvial and glacial laudscapes, since it is the change from the former to the latter that accompanies climatic cooling. This allows a detailed evaluation of hypotheses relating climate change to tectonic processes in glaciated mountain belts. Fieldwork was carried out in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California, and the Sangre de Cristo Range, Colorado, alongside digital elevation model analyses in the western US, the Southern Alps of New Zealand, and the Himalaya of northwestern Pakistan. hypothesis is overstated in its appeal to glacial erosion as a major source of relief production and subsequent peak uplift. Glaciers in the eastern Sierra Nevada and the western Sangre de Cristos have redistributed relief, but have produced only modest relief by enlarging drainage basins at the expense of low-relief topography. Glaciers have lowered valley floors and ridgelines by similar amounts, limiting the amount of "missing mass' that can be generated, and causing a decrease in drainage basin relief. The principal response of glaciated landscapes to rapid rock uplift is the development of towering cirque headwalls. This represents considerable relief production, but is not caused by glacial erosion alone. Large valley glaciers can maintain their low gradient regardless of uplift rate, which supports the "glacial buzzsaw" hypothesis. However, the inability of glaciers to erode steep hillslopes as rapidly can cause mean elevations to rise. Cosmogenic isotope dating is used to show that (i) where plucking is active, the last major glaciation removed sufficient material to reset the cosmogenic clock; and (ii) former glacial valley floors now stranded near the crest of the Sierra Nevada are at varying stages of abandonment, suggesting a cycle of drainage reorganiszation and relief inversion due to glacial erosion similar to that observed in river networks. Glaciated landscapes are quite distinct from their fluvial counterparts in both landforms and processes. Given the scarcity of purely fluvial, active mountain ranges, it is essential that glacial erosion be considered amongst the processes sculpting active orogenic belts.
Cool season precipitation plays a critical role in regional water resource management in the western United States. Throughout the twenty-first century, regional precipitation will be impacted by rising temperatures and changing circulation patterns. Changes to precipitation magnitude remain challenging to project; however, precipitation phase is largely dependent on temperature, and temperature predictions from global climate models are generally in agreement. To understand the implications of this dependence, we investigate projected patterns in changing precipitation phase for mountain areas of the western United States over the twenty-first century and how shifts from snow to rain may impact runoff. We downscale two bias-corrected global climate models for historical and end-century decades with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model to estimate precipitation phase and spatial patterns at high spatial resolution (9 km). For future decades, we use the RCP 8.5 scenario, which may be considered a very high baseline emissions scenario to quantify snow season differences over major mountain chains in the western U.S. Under this scenario, the average annual snowfall fraction over the Sierra Nevada decreases by >45% by the end of the century. In contrast, for the colder Rocky Mountains, the snowfall fraction decreases by 29%. Streamflow peaks in basins draining the Sierra Nevada are projected to arrive nearly a month earlier by the end of the century. By coupling WRF with a water resources model, we estimate that California reservoirs will shift towards earlier maximum storage by 1–2 months, suggesting that water management strategies will need to adapt to changes in streamflow magnitude and timing.
The author has identified the following significant results. The transverse faults observed in the central Coast Ranges of California are believed to represent the remnants of a major system of shear faults older than the San Andreas system. The transverse shear system is believed to have developed in the Mesozoic when the Pacific Plate was advancing under the North American Plate. Shear faults thus developed due to unequal rates of underthrusting. This tectonic model indicates that the intrusive belt of the proto-Sierra Nevada and the belt of eugeosynclinal sedimentary belt (Franciscan group) which lay to the west were both subjected to regional left-handed shear. Later development of the San Andreas system as transform faults of the East Pacific Rise changes the tectonic style to right-lateral tangential. The model explains the peculiar distribution of the Franciscan rocks in the Diablo Range east of the San Andreas fault and in Santa Lucia Range west of Nacimiento fault and the presence of Sierra Nevada type granitic blocks in between the two faults in the Salinia block. This model is also consistent with an analysis of the Texas and Parras shears which indicates that the southwestern part of North America has been subjected to a major left-lateral regional shear before the development of the San Andreas fault system.
The author has identified the following significant results. The pattern of linear systems within the project area has been extended into the western foothill belt of the Sierra Nevada. The chief pattern of linear features in the western Sierran foothill belt trends about N. 10 - 15 deg W., but in the vicinity of the Feather River the trend of the features abruptly changes to about N. 50-60 deg W and appears to be contiguous across the Sacramento Valley with a similar system of linear features in the Coast Ranges. The linear features in the Modoc Plateau and Klamath Mt. areas appear unrelated to the systems detected in the Coast Ranges of Sierran foothill belt. Although the change in trend of the Sierran structural features has been previously suggested and the interrelationship of the Klamath Mt. region with the northern Sierra Nevadas has been postulated, the data obtained from the ERTS-1 imagery strengthens these notions and provides for the first time evidence of a direct connection of the structural trends within the alluviated part of the Sacramento Valley. In addition rocks of Pleistocene and Holocene age are offset by some of the linear features seen on ERTS-1 imagery and hence may record the latest episode of geologic deformation in north-central California.
Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems performed bearing life testing for the Scan Mirror Motor/Encoder Assembly (SMMA), part of the Scan Mirror Assembly on-board the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) on the NASA Glory Spacecraft. The baseline bearing life test duration extended beyond the launch date for the Glory Spacecraft; a risk that the program was willing to undertake with the understanding that if any anomalies or failures occurred before the required life was achieved, then the mission objectives or operating profile could be modified on orbit to take those results into account. Even though the Glory Spacecraft failed to reach orbit during its launch in March of 2011, the bearing life testing was continued through a mutual understanding of value between Sierra Nevada Corporation and our customer; with a revised goal of testing to failure rather than completing a required number of life cycles. Life testing thus far has not only exceeded the original mission required life, but has also exceeded the published test data for Cumulative Degradation Factor (CDF) from NASA/CR-2009-215681. Many lessons were learned along the way regarding long life testing. The bearing life test has been temporarily suspended due to test support equipment issues.
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The Long Valley Caldera located in the eastern Sierra Nevada (California) shows new signs of volcanic activity. This renewed activity is expressed by gas emissions, hydro-thermal activity and frequent earthquakes.
An investigation of further possible vertical crustal movements in the Western United States made with circuit microclosure analysis is presented. The San Andreas fault in Cal., the Nevada seismic zone in Nev., and the Sierra Nevada in Calif. were studied based on supposition that in areas undergoing crustal movement the misclosure for a particular circuit should have the smallest value when the circuit is formed from the most temporarily homogeneous survey data; it should have larger, predictable values when the circuit is closed with surveys conducted at other times. Leveling surveys along the San Andreas fault and the Nevada seismic zone are discussed, noting the possibility of regional tilting in the Great Basin between 1934 and 1955, and of elevation changes in the Northern Nevada Range using results of leveling surveys between Roseville, Cal. and Reno, Nev.