Most Treasured HP Collectible

[Geoff Quickfall]

Hello Jurgen

Paleo climatology based on palynlomorphs, that is I am a Paleo Climatologist Palynologist which means I use microfossil records to add to past climate data.

Slightly off topic, but one of the reasons for my love of the 41C/CX. I worked as a commercial ‘bush‘ pilot flying float aircraft in northern Canada. That salary allowed me to replace my aging HP 25C and purchase my first HP 41C in 1980. I completed my Botany degree while still flying and that morphed into an MSc. The research grant purchased us a brand new 8088 with two stacked 5mb hard drives and a monochrome Amdek screen.

The lab including fume hood, desiccators and ovens were on timers based on the time functions in the HP 41CX, which controlled 4 different lab pieces of equipment via HPIL. My math and number crunching was via the HP 41CX routines I composed. I had an HPIL printer paper and a tape drive back up for data.

For an informal taste and some of the HP 41C/CX involvement in the MSc check out my HHC2016 presentation on YouTube.

My PhD application required a two page proposal. This is unlike the full proposal as it is not in depth and only gives a cursory direction. The formal proposal occurs after acceptance and involves the PhD committee usually within six months of the research start.


Statement of Proposal


Introduction:

My MSc research (Quickfall, 1987) reconstructed the successional history of three bog sites on Haida Gwaii; Argonaut Hill, Drizzle Pit and Kunghit Island K3. The conclusion of the research indicated that peat growth and spread (paludification) could be divided into two episodes centered around 4700 yBP (5400 cal yBP) and 2500 yBP (2500 cal yBP).

Drizzle Pit Bog, Geike Bog and Kunghit Island bogs formed approximately 4860, 4620 and 5330 cal yBP respectively; probably in response to reduced temperatures and/or increased precipitation. This is also indicated by a synchronous recurrence surface at Argonaut Hill. This possibly concurrent event, coincides with numerous studies in Europe and North America (Cruise, G.M. 1990; Anderson et.al. 1994).

With respect to the above events, there is a paucity of high-resolution data for Haida Gwaii as well as western Canada. Haida Gwaii offers a unique benefit with respect to anthropomorphic induced paludification and succession. Studies in Europe, with its continuous history of manipulation of the environment by man, leads to increased complexity as to the changes in plant/bog succession (Cruise, G.M. 1990). Haida Gwaii offers many bog sites with a non-industrialized environmental history of the mid-to late Holocene. Interestingly there is a climatic change event known as the “4.2 ka BP climatic event” (Weiss, H., 2016). This paper focuses on Europe, Asia and the Mediterranean and discuss the 4.2 ka BP event and its dramatic consequences for human civilizations, but comparative data are lacking for the Pacific Northwest.

There are however reports of alpine glacial advances around 4.2 ka BP climatic event (Menounos et. al., 2008). Some evidence points to an advance as early as 4.9 and 4.2 ka BP (Gardner and Jones, 1985, Koch et. al., 2007, Osborn et. al., 2007, Lenard et. al., 1999). One paper indicates a series of climatic events causing “long periods of extended ice cover date to about 6.9-5.6 ka, 4.9-3.8 ka, 3.5-1.9 ka (Clague et al, 2009). 

Proposal

From the papers noted above, and from my preliminary evidence in 1987 on bog ecosystems from Haida Gwaii, that climatic changes have occurred and that these changes sometimes coincide with glacial advances in British Columbia.

It is proposed that a high-resolution analysis of Holocene paludification events on Haida Gwaii as originally noted in my 1987 thesis be undertaken. The high-resolution analysis will include detailed paleoecological analysis of several peat cores using ecologically sensitive biological indicators such as rhizopoda, fungi, testate amoeba and other fossils in addition to pollen and spores (Kuhry et.al. 1992, Mitchell et.al. 2008; Booth et.al. 2010).

Concurrently, the use of high precision radiocarbon analysis will increase the level of accuracy for estimation of changes in the rates of peat accumulation (Blackford, 2000). This research will lead to a more detailed reconstruction of climate changes that occurred on Haida Gwaii that involve paludification, bog growth and carbon sequestration during the mid to late Holocene. The key focus of this study is to produce a more detailed paleoecological record than has been available previously on the west coast of British Columbia, for comparison with recent high-resolution international records.
 
References

Anderson, R.S., Smith, S., (1994). Paleoclimatic interpretations of meadow sediment and pollen stratigraphies from California. Geology, vol. 22, pp 723–726.

Booth, P.K., Lamentowicz, M., Charam, D.J. (2010). Preparation and analysis of Testate amoebae in Peatlands. Mires and Peat, vol. 7, pp 1-7.

Blackford, J., (2000). Paleaoclimatic records from peat bogs. Tree, vol. 5, pp 193–198.

Clague, J.J., Menounos, B., Osborn, G., Luckman, B.H., Koch, K., (2009). Nomenclature and resolution in Holocene glacial chronologies. Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 28, pp 2231–2238.

Cruise, G.M. (1990). Holocene peat initiation in the Ligurian Apennines, Northern Italy. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology, vol. 63, pp 173-182.

Koch, J., Osborn, G.D., and Clague, J.J. (2007). Pre-“Little Ice Age” glacier fluctuations in Garibaldi Provincial Park, Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. Holocene, vol. 17, pp 1069-1078.

Kuhry, P., Gignac, L.D., and Vitt, D.H. and Bayley, S.E. (1992). Development of Sphagnum-dominated peatlands in boreal Canada. Canadian Journal of Botany, vol. 71, pp 10–22.

Leonard, E.M., and Reasoner, M.A. (1999). A Continuous Holocene Glacial Record Inferred from Proglacial Lake Sediments in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Quaternary Research, vol. 51, issue 1, pp 1-13.

Menounos, B, Clague, J.J., Osborn, G., Luckman, B.H., Lakeman, T.R., and Minkus, R. (2008). Western Canadian glaciers advance in concert with climate change circa 4.2 ka. Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 35, Issue 7, pp 1-6.

Mitchell, E.A.D., Charman, D.J., Warner, W. (2008). Testate amoebae analysis in ecological and paleoecological studies of wetlands: past, present and future. Biodiversity and Conservation, vol. 17, Issue 9, pp 2115–2137.

Osborn, G., Menounos, B., Koch, J., Clague, J.J., Vallis, V. (2007). Multi-proxy record of Holocene glacial history of the Spearhead and Fitzsimmons ranges, southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia. Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 26, pp 479–493.

Quickfall, G.S. (1987). Paludification and Climate on the Queen Charlotte Islands during the past 8000 years. MSc thesis. Simon Fraser University.

Weiss, H. (2016). Global megadroughts, societal collapse and resilience at 4.2 – 3.9ka BP across the Mediterranean and west Asia. Past Global Changes, vol. 24, pp 62-63.