Erosion rates as a potential bottom‐up control of forest structural characteristics in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

On a cool, crisp winter afternoon in a California desert, at the foot of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a crowd of more than two thousand people gathered. Some were curious; more were angry. Before all of them, standing on an oil tank with a microphone and loudspeaker, forty-seven-year-old Joseph Y. Kurihara shouted angry words of defiance. Referring to the generally despised Fred Tayama, who was assaulted the night before, Kurihara bellowed, “Why permit that sneak to pollute the air we breathe? … Let's kill him and feed him to the roving coyotes! … If the Administration refuses to listen to our demand, let us proceed with him and exterminate all other informers in this camp.”

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Elevation and vegetation determine Cryptosporidium oocyst shedding by yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

International Journal for Parasitology Parasites and Wildlife ◽

10.1016/j.ijppaw.2015.02.004 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 171-177 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Diego Montecino-Latorre ◽

Xunde Li ◽

Chengling Xiao ◽

Edward R. Atwill

Keyword(s):

Sierra Nevada ◽

Cryptosporidium Oocyst ◽

Marmota Flaviventris ◽

Sierra Nevada Mountains

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Impact of change in erosion rate and landscape steepness on hillslope and fluvial sediments grain size in the Feather River Basin (Sierra Nevada, California)

Earth Surface Dynamics Discussions ◽

10.5194/esurfd-2-1047-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 1047-1092 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

M. Attal ◽

S. M. Mudd ◽

M. D. Hurst ◽

B. Weinman ◽

K. Yoo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Grain Size ◽

River Basin ◽

Sierra Nevada ◽

Sediment Flux ◽

Fluvial Sediments ◽

Sediment Grain Size ◽

Erosion Rates ◽

Wide Range ◽

Feather River ◽

Order Of Magnitude

Abstract. The characteristics of the sediment transported by rivers (e.g., sediment flux, grain size distribution – GSD –) dictate whether rivers aggrade or erode their substrate. They also condition the architecture and properties of sedimentary successions in basins. In this study, we investigate the relationship between landscape steepness and the grain size of hillslope and fluvial sediments. The study area is located within the Feather River Basin in Northern California, and studied basins are underlain exclusively by tonalite lithology. Erosion rates in the study area vary over an order of magnitude, from > 250 mm ka−1 in the Feather River canyon to < 15 mm ka−1 on an adjacent low relief plateau. We find that the coarseness of hillslope sediment increases with increasing hillslope steepness and erosion rates. We hypothesize that, in our soil samples, the measured ten-fold increase in D50 and doubling of the amount of fragments larger than 1 mm when slope increases from 0.38 to 0.83 m m−1 is due to a decrease in the residence time of rock fragments, causing particles to be exposed for shorter periods of time to processes that can reduce grain size. For slopes in excess of 0.7 m m−1, landslides and scree cones supply much coarser sediment to rivers, with D50 and D84 more than one order of magnitude larger than in soils. In the tributary basins of the Feather River, a prominent break in slope developed in response to the rapid incision of the Feather River. Downstream of the break in slope, fluvial sediment grain size increases, due to an increase in flow competence (mostly driven by channel steepening) but also by a change in sediment source and in sediment dynamics: on the plateau upstream of the break in slope, rivers transport easily mobilised fine-grained sediment derived exclusively from soils. Downstream of the break in slope, mass wasting processes supply a wide range of grain sizes that rivers entrain selectively, depending on the competence of their flow. Our results also suggest that in this study site, hillslopes respond rapidly to an increase in the rate of base-level lowering compared to rivers.

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The Sigmocheirini, a xystodesmid milliped tribe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, U.S.A. (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae)

Insect Systematics & Evolution ◽

10.1163/187631295x00044 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 339-360 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Rowland M. Shelley

Keyword(s):

Sierra Nevada ◽

New Genus ◽

San Joaquin Valley ◽

Western Slope ◽

Kern County ◽

Pigmentation Pattern ◽

Sierra Nevada Mountains

AbstractThe xystodesmid milliped tribe Sigmocheirini occupies a band along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and eastern fringe of the San Joaquin Valley from Placer to Kern counties, California. It is comprised of two genera, Sigmocheir Chamberlin, with three species occurring from Placer to Tulare counties, and the monotypic Ochthocelata gen. n., the sole component, O. adynata sp. n., occurring in northern Kern County. The species of Sigmocheir display a distinctive, trimaculate pigmentation pattern with yellow middorsal and paranotal spots; the coloration of O. adynata is unknown. Sigmocheir calaveras Chamberlin is a senior name for S. dohenyi Chamberlin, the spelling of which was subsequently corrected to danehyi and assigned to the new genus, Tuolumnia, a synonym of Sigmocheir. Sigmocheir furcata sp. n. is proposed for forms from the northern generic range. The southernmost species is S. maculifer (Chamberlin), comb. n., transferred from Harpaphe Cook. The Sigmocheirini are related to the sympatric tribe Xystocheirini; relationships within Sigmocheir are hypothesized as maculifer + (calaveras + furcata).

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Cybaeus (Araneae: Cybaeidae): the consocius species group of the Californian clade

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.4965.3.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4965 (3) ◽

pp. 401-436

Author(s):

ROBB BENNETT ◽

CLAUDIA COPLEY ◽

DARREN COPLEY

Keyword(s):

Sierra Nevada ◽

Single Species ◽

Species Group ◽

Identification Key ◽

Central Coast ◽

Distribution Maps ◽

The Third ◽

Sierra Nevada Mountains ◽

Moist Forest ◽

Species Groups

Species of North American Cybaeus L. Koch (Araneae: RTA clade: Cybaeidae) are common moist-forest spiders classified in Holarctic and Californian clades. Here, in the third paper in a planned series reviewing the six Californian clade species groups, we review the species of the consocius group. We recognize nine species: Cybaeus consocius Chamberlin & Ivie, C. hesper Chamberlin & Ivie, C. hummeli Bennett spec. nov., C. opulentus spec. nov., C. pan Bennett spec. nov., C. penedentatus Bennett, C. simplex Roth, C. ubicki Bennett spec. nov., and C. vulpinus Bennett. Eight of these species have restricted distributions in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern California, U.S.A (C. opulentus, C. pan spec. nov., and C. vulpinus) or the central coast of western California (C. consocius, C. hesper, C. hummeli spec. nov., C. penedentatus, and C. ubicki spec. nov.); a single species (C. simplex), is relatively widely distributed in western Oregon, U.S.A. Descriptions, illustrations, distribution maps, and an identification key are provided as well as a discussion of conservation issues of relevance to the group.

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Nahoa’s Tears

Beyond Hawai'i ◽

10.1525/california/9780520295063.003.0006 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Gregory Rosenthal

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Sierra Nevada ◽

Gold Mining ◽

Family Members ◽

Gold Rush ◽

Sea Otter ◽

Agricultural Work ◽

Pacific World ◽

Alta California ◽

Sierra Nevada Mountains

Meanwhile, the California Gold Rush opened up yet another front in the Hawaiian migrant experience. Eighteen-year-old Henry Nahoa wrote a letter home from California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in the 1850s to express his “aloha me ka waimaka [aloha with tears]” to family members in Hawaiʻi. Nahoa’s tears were not alone. At least one thousand Hawaiians migrated to California in the period before, during, and after the Gold Rush. Chapter five explores workers’ experiences in Alta California from the 1830s to the 1870s. During this time, men like Nahoa lived and labored under Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. rule. They worked in sea otter hunting, cattle hide skinning, gold mining, and urban and agricultural work, from the coasts, to the sierras, to cities and farms. Nineteenth-century California was an integral part of the “Hawaiian Pacific World.”

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