So began a recent email from James Mayeau telling me about a hike up to Round Top Lake with Larry Fields.  They were returning to get some photographs of the White Bark Pine Trees… remember Mr Fields told us about them in the Sierra Nevada Range of California along with that lesson on climate change?  

Anyway following is the official account from Mr Mayeau:

“GUIDED by an experienced hiker with an encyclopaedic familiarity of the trails of the central Sierra Nevada, we made the assent to the headwater of the American River. 

The trail was fairly well-maintained. A few of the tree trunks had “i”-shaped trail markers–called blazes–on them. These served as historical reminders of the Wild West days, when the trail itself was considerably less distinct.

Still there were a couple iffy places where a novice could get lost taking the wrong line at the fork in the road.

We passed an abandoned gold mine attended by the skeleton of a model T, and spare engine block, with the wheels knocked off and a rear hub adapted to power the sluce box.

I’m guessing the enterprise folded circa 1910-20.  How the miners got the car up here is a head scratcher. If they drove, then the T was one hell of an SUV.
Leaving the mine we immediately faced the problem of fording the river. One, two, three steps… done.  Thanks to some handy stepping stones.  Where I live you need a trestle bridge to do it.

The walk was a steady grade with switchbacks snaking up the side of a gradual rise. It didn’t feel like climbing really.

Whitebark Pines overlap with the ranges of other high-altitude conifers. These include Western White Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Mountain Hemlock, and Red Fir.

We cruised over a rise, and there it was!

Round Top Lake surrounded by a semi circle of Whitebark on the North, and a semi circle of glacial cirque on the South.    There were only Whitebark Pines, the kings of the mountain.

Although the trip took an hour or more it seemed shorter because we were met by a trickle of hikers coming down as we went up. Everyone was cordial, happy to be there, passing small-talk and banter.

Regards,
James Mayeau

More photographs http://picasaweb.google.com/JamesMayeau/RoundTopLake#   
More about whitebark pines http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/cone-bearing_trees/white-bark_pine.html 
Part 1 http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2009/08/white-bark-pine-trees-a-note-on-climate-change-from-larry-fields/  

The wader self introduced to New Zealand in the 1930s, and has expanded its range in Australia as well as New Zealand over the last few decades.

Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace suggested the current distribution and abundance of plant and animal species is a consequence of evolution rather than Divine intervention.  Consequent to this is the idea that distributions will change, they are not constant.

While the theory of evolution by natural selection is now accepted by the mainstream as a best explanation for the diversity of life on planet Earth, the very recent preoccupation with temperature and in particular the idea that small changes in temperature may result in the extinction of particular species, does not sit well with their theories on the distribution of the many species with a very broad geographic range; like the spur-winged plover.  

Darwin and Wallace formed their ideas independently and during a time when there was much interest in the careful collection and recording of life in previously unexplored places.  

The interest in places beyond Europe also resulted in a realisation that while photoperiod and cold winters may be key drivers of the distribution and abundance of species in the northern hemisphere, in places like Australia predation, competition, rainfall and changes in land-use can be much more important.  

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Notes and Links

The photograph of the spur-winged plover was taken on Great Keppel Island by Jennifer Marohasy.  This is part 2 of a new series on the distribution and abundance of species – and temperature gradients.    ‘Rainbow Lorikeets and Temperature Gradients’ (Part 1) is here:
http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2009/08/rainbow-lorikeets-and-temperature-gradients/

There are two distinct races which until recently were thought to be separate species. The Masked Lapwing of Northern Australia (Vanellus miles miles) has an all-white neck and large yellow wattles, the Spur-winged Plover of the southern and eastern states (Vanellus miles novaehollandiae) has a black neck-stripe and smaller wattles. (Note that the northern hemisphere Spur-winged Plover is a different bird.)   http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Vanellus_miles#Distribution 

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/masked-lapwing-vanellus-miles

Cases are known where shorebirds extensively feed on offal from McDonalds fast food outlets, widely found in many shorebird wintering sites, and species have changed their wintering sites for that very reason. Masked lapwings Vanellus miles, black-winged stilts Himantopus himantopus and South Island pied oystercatchers Haematopus finschi in New Zealand are presumably expanding because pasturalism has created a much larger breeding habitat for them—but, on the other hand, the resultant damage to braided river systems has resulted in severe declines in species specialized to breed in them (e.g. black stilt Himantopus novaezelandiae, black-fronted tern Sterna albostriata)   http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2006/2/n002p089.pdf

COMMON NAMES: Masked Lapwing, Masked Plover, Spur-winged Plover; German Maskenkiebitz.  GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Australia, n. to New Guinea, s. to NZ, east to Lord Howe. First breeding pair in NZ was in 1932 at Invercargill; reached North Island in 1970. COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native, Vagrant, Non-breeder; S.Group – rare (RR, AK, ?); Land, Wet grasslands. http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/species.asp?id=13467

Spatial and temporal variation in the breeding of Masked Lapwings (Vanellus miles) in Australia. Lynda E. Chambers A , D , Heather Gibbs B , Michael A. Weston B , C and Glenn C. Ehmke C . Abstract: Spatial and temporal variation in the breeding of Masked Lapwings (Vanellus miles) in Australia were examined using data from Birds Australia’s Nest Record Scheme (NRS; 1957–2002), the Atlas of Australian Birds (1998–2006), and climatic data (1952–2006). Breeding in north-western Australia was concentrated in summer, while in other regions the peak of breeding occurred during spring. Breeding success varied between regions and years but was generally highest in Tasmania. Clutch-size (mean 3.57 eggs ± 0.033 s.e., n = 549 clutches) did not vary regionally or temporally. In the north-east, breeding became earlier over time (~1.9 days per year, NRS), while in the south-east, breeding became later (~0.9 days per year); in other regions temporal trends were not evident. Only Tasmania showed a significant temporal change in breeding success (decrease of ~1.5% per year). All regions experienced warming climates, and annual rainfall increased in north-western regions and decreased in eastern regions. There were weak or no relationships between the amount or success of breeding, clutch-size and the climatic variables considered (with the possible exception of Tasmania), suggesting either that data limitations precluded us from detecting subtle effects or that Masked Lapwings have been little influenced or are resilient to changes in climate over most of their range.   http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/IWSGB/v100/p00105-p00110.pdf 

Australian biota has been isolated from other parts of the globe for a long time and, in conjunction with historical climate, this has resulted in fairly unique flora and fauna (Dunlop and Brown, 2008). Australian winters are generally mild, the country is relatively dry (~50% of the country receiving less than 300 mm per year and ~90% less than 800 mm), and considerable rainfall variability results in highly variable river flows (Crowder, 2000; Dunlop and Brown, 2008). As a result, Australian species may have a greater variety of responses to environmental variation than northern hemisphere species, where photoperiod and cold winter temperatures are the primary phenological drivers (e.g. Menzel, 2003; Dingle, 2008).
http://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim09/G2/chambers.pdf 

http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=MU07064

I’ve been watching some workers suck-dry meat left on the front veranda of the house I’m minding in central Queensland. Occasionally there is a dead ant or two; some even squashed after attempting to attack me.

Anyway, the dead ants are never just left where they fall, but rather are picked up and carried away by other worker ants.

I’ve read that harvester ants carry their dead back to the nest and stack the bodies up in little piles.

I wonder where the green tree ants I’ve been watching take their dead.

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Notes and Links

“And they do stack their dead in all kinds of interesting ways… They stacked dead bodies up in intricate little piles that get rearranged on a more or less constant basis.”  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6603664

The photograph is of some of the ants I’ve been watching.

While it is currently very fashionable to emphasis the influence temperature can have on the distribution and abundance of plant and animal species, let’s not ignore the very broad geographic ranges of many species, or the words of the early naturalists, including Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913).  Mr Wallace wrote:

“NOWHERE does the ancient doctrine—that differences or similarities in the various forms of life that inhabit different countries are due to corresponding physical differences or similarities in the countries themselves—meet with so direct and palpable a contradiction [as in the Malay Archipelago]. Borneo and New Guinea, as alike physically as two distinct countries can be, are zoologically wide as the poles asunder; while Australia, with its dry winds, its open plains, its stony deserts, and its temperate climate, yet produces birds and quadrupeds which are closely related to those inhabiting the hot damp luxuriant forests, which everywhere clothe the plains and mountains of New Guinea.”  

The Australasian parrot, the rainbow lorikeet, Trichoglossus haemotadus, is a case in point.  It has a distribution extending through eastern Indonesia, New Guinea, and along the entire eastern seaboard of Australia, from Queensland to Tasmania.

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Notes and Links

I understand there is some dispute whether the populations of rainbow lorikeet in eastern Indonesia represent the same or a different, but closely related, species to those in eastern Australia.  Nevertheless it is apparent that this species or species complex has a distribution more influenced by its evolutionary history than temperature gradients.

Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, Chapter 1, http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/wallace/alfred_russel/malay/chapter1.html

The picture of the lorikeets was taken by Jennifer Marohasy at Great Keppel Island on Sunday August 23, 2009…

IF you would like a printed A4-sized copy of this picture  make a donation to the running of this blog – see orange button at the top RHS of this page – and I will send you an autographed copy with an Alfred Wallace quote about lorikeets.

On the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, there are Black Oaks, Allocasuarina cristata, also growing near the limit of their range but because of a lack of water, rather than cold. These trees also reproduce by suckering. 

Helen Mahr explains:

I HAVE a large clump of male Allocasuarina cristata trees north of my house, about 1 hectare in area suckering from roots. Also known as Belah or Black Oaks the wind whistles or whines through them and while they are excellent shelter, the noise means the aborigines would never camp there … scared of the ancestor spirits at night.

Outlying suckers, shown in the above photograph with the root they are growing from party exposed, are perhaps 20 metres from the main clump.  They have perhaps doubled in size during the 40 years I have been watching them.

The main clump may be thousands of years old.

There are a few female trees scattered in the vicinity, the nearest about 1 km away.

I understand the seedlings germinate only in good years, and may need several good rainfall seasons to establish.

Helen Mahr
Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

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Notes and Links

White Bark Pine Trees: A Note on Climate Change from Larry Fields
http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2009/08/white-bark-pine-trees-a-note-on-climate-change-from-larry-fields/

Photographs taken by Helen Mahr today, August 13, 2009.

The second photograph shows a Black Oak on the edge of the clump – affected by the SSE prevailing wind. Nearby the prickly wattles, Acaia victoriae, is in bloom. The green shrubby tree in the middle distance is a false sandalwood, Myoporum platycarpum… also called native apricot because of its fruit which is not edible. 

The third photograph includes my car as a size indicator of these hardy, fire resistant, and ancient trees.

In the Sierra Nevada the White Bark Pine is typically the highest-elevation pine tree marking the tree line.

Round Top Lake, at 9,340 feet elevation in the Northern Sierras near Carson Pass is my favorite place for informal climate history research.   Here White Bark Pine trees grow in tight clumps around half of the lake; as shown in this photograph from Kevin Gong’s website. http://kevingong.com/Photography/RoundTopTrees.html

Here the pines in any given group are nearly identical genetically; they reproduce asexually. A new tree trunk will grow outward from an existing root system, and then curve upward. Because the seeds that do sprout at this altitude can’t endure the harsh winters.

Walking along the trail, one can see a small gap between the pines near the lake and the ones farther down that have grown from seed.

Question: After the last Ice Age, how did the pines reach the lake in the first place?
Answer: At some time after the last Ice Age, the Northern Sierras were somewhat warmer than they are now. The pines sprouted from seeds at that time.

Several years ago, I was surprised to see a knee-high pine seedling a short distance outside the half-circle of pine clusters hugging the lake. However it did not survive.

If the Northern Sierra climate heats up in a big way, I’d expect individual seed-sprouted pines at Round Top Lake to eventually supplant the clumps of small trees.

Perhaps over the last thousand years, the clones have been gradually accumulating random mutations which would put them at a competitive disadvantage with their surviving seed-sprouted progeny?

When I see isolated pine seedlings that grow to 6 feet in height, then I’ll believe that the Northern Sierra climate is the warmest that it’s been since before the last Ice Age.

Naturalist Jeffrey P Schaffer devoted a couple of pages to Round Top Lake in his hiking guidebook, The Tahoe Sierra. http://www.amazon.com/Tahoe-Sierra-Natural-History-Northern/dp/0899972209

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More from Larry Fields here: http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/author/larry-fields/

The Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis; family Pinaceae) occurs in the mountains of the Western United States and Canada, specifically the subalpine areas of the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range, the Pacific Coast Ranges, and the northern Rocky Mountains (including the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem). The Whitebark Pine is typically the highest-elevation pine tree of these mountains, marking the tree line. Thus, they are often found as krummholz, trees dwarfed by exposure and growing close to the ground. In more favourable conditions, trees may grow to 20 m in height, although some can reach up to 27 m… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebark_Pine

SAM the Koala was euthanized last Thursday. 

When bushfires were raging the state of Victoria earlier this year, the koala became famous after video footage was released showing her drinking water from a fire fighter’s bottle.

But the four-year-old never recovered from surgery last Thursday to remove cysts associated with Urogenital chlamydiosis, a disease which affects about 50 percent of Australia’s koala population.

But a Border Collie named Gurr and his toy-making is one notch above chimp termite-fishing.

On 13th August 2005 I set out for a hike with a friend, Kanako, and the large handsome Border Collie mix.   

We set out from Sacramento County to hike the little-known Bassi Cabin loop trail. The hike is a symphony of coniferous forest, running water, and glacier-polished granite.

I walked down through the trees, Gurr ran ahead to be certain that there were no ferocious Golden Retrievers in our path, stopped to sniff the shrubbery, ran back to check up on us, and then ran forward again. When we came to some large Jeffrey pines, we turned off the trail for the short cross-country leg of our adventure. In a few minutes, we came to the creek. Gurr promptly jumped into the water, and when he came out, we walked downstream for about 200 m, before crossing over. We followed a game trail to Bassi cabin, which is still occasionally used by the Bassi family.

The cabin itself is fairly ordinary, but the backdrop is gorgeous: the steep face of a gigantic granite boulder, flanked by conifers, towers over the cabin. About 100 m past the cabin, my friend Kanako and I sat down by the creek for lunch.

Unlike humans, Gurr thinks that a lunch break is for playing fetch. He prefers to fetch big sticks, rather than small ones, because the heavier sticks give his neck muscles a better workout. Gurr managed to find a nice piece of wood of the right weight. Then, to my surprise, he started chomping down on one end. He is not normally a very chewy dog. When Gurr has excess energy–which is most of the time–he usually runs, swims, or digs. But the wood chips were flying, and I wondered what he was up to. My question was answered a few minutes later, when Gurr brought the wood chunk to me, knowing that I would throw it for him. Initially, the wood chunk was too large for Gurr to grip comfortably in his mouth; so he chewed a handle on one end!

The canine craftsmanship had nothing to do with high-priority survival, and everything to do with lower-priority preparation for play. As an indicator of cognitive function, toy-making trumps tool-making. In terms of intelligence, chimpanzees have nothing on Border Collies!

***

Larry lives in California and is a regular reader and contributor to this weblog.  The picture is of Gurr.

The species, Sarcodes sanguinea, has no chlorophyll and so, like most plants, can’t obtain its energy directly from the sun. Instead it is parasitic on fungi that also colonise the roots of pine trees.  Experiments with radioactive carbon 14 show that the sugars from the conifer roots enter the fungi and then are transferred into the roots of the snow plant.

So we have a true vascular plants with flowers and seed-bearing capsules, that can’t photosynthesis, instead getting its energy from pine trees via fungi.

Does this all have something to do with being perfectly red?

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Links and Notes

http://tinyurl.com/pbffc2

Regional specialization of Sarcodes sanguinea (Ericaceae) on a single fungal symbiont from the Rhizopogon ellenae (Rhizopogonaceae) species complex1
Annette M. Kretzer et al., American Journal of Botany, 2000, http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/87/12/1778

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljune97.htm
http://www.botany.org/parasitic_plants/Sarcodes_sanguinea.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_plant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericaceae

http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2009/05/do-tourists-degrade-national-parks/#comments

Thanks Larry!

The following photograph is of a somewhat isolated plant community taken in February 2008 in the Blue Mountains, West of Sydney.