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Courageous pioneers traveled unknown regions of the Canadian Rockies a century ago to take photos of the region and create the first topographic maps of the region.
Fast forward to today and scientists are using these timeless images to understand how much the landscape has changed over the past 100 years.
The team reproduced different scenes to create exact comparisons of images taken by early climbers, revealing an upward creep of the treeline and increased forest density – both resulting from climate change.
Shots of mountains in Alberta show dramatic change in snow on summit and trees on slope, while hill in Crowsnest Forest Preserve reveals increase in vegetation from what was present 77 ago years.
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Courageous pioneers traveled unknown regions of the Canadian Rockies a century ago to take photos of the region and create the first topographic maps of the region. On the left, an image of a hill in Crowsnest Forest Preserve taken in 1931 and on the right in 2008, showing an increase in vegetation over what was present 77 years ago.
The first surveys of the Canadian Rockies were conducted in the early 1900s and the 68 to 125-year delay between image pairs provides scientists with ‘new information on long-term ecological changes at large spatial scales’ ‘the team said in the published study. in the journal Nature.
“ We present quantitative analyzes of 81 pairs of high-resolution systematic historical survey images and repeated photographs of Canadian Rocky Mountain habitats, measuring treeline advancement, changes in tree density and changes in growth form from krummholz to trees, ” the article read.
Tree lines are used to see the boundaries of climate, as they evolve with changing weather and provide insight into how species are affected by climate change.
The team of scientists worked with the Mountain Legacy Project, a database containing more than 120,000 historical images of the Canadian Rockies, to complete the study, as Smithsonian Magazine first reported.
photo taken in 1918 (left) by Arthur Oliver Wheeler highlights a breathtaking view of the Athbasca Glacier which covered much of Wilcox Peak in Jasper National Park. However, studies captured the exact image in 2011 and found that much of the glacier had melted, allowing more vegetation to grow.
Another glacier was documented in 1901 by Wheeler, called the Illecillewaet Glacier which covered the mountain with a layer of ice. The image taken in 2011 (right) shows that much of the mountain has since been exposed over the century
They collected 8,000 landscape images of the early Canadian Rocky Mountains from the database and selected a few for comparison.
Andrew Trant, lead author of the article and conservationist at the University of Waterloo, and his team traveled to some of the places shown in the first photos to see how much the landscape had changed.
Scientists chose a photo from the late 1900s taken by surveyors Morrison Parsons Bridgland and Arthur Oliver Wheeler of what is now Banff National Park to capture the area in a series of photos.
The first image of a hilltop in Crowsnest Forest Preserve in Alberta shows sparse trees along the top.
However, the image of Trant of the same formation shows increased forest density.
Not only did the study find an increase in tree lines, but comparisons revealed that the amount of windswept trees, known as krummholz, decreased significantly.
In the 1900s, James McArthur became the first climber in Canada to brave a 10,000-foot peak, which enabled him to capture the first images of what is now Kluane National Park.
These images show a large amount of surfacing now on the peaks and a vast landscape of dusty ground.
In 2012, experts traveled to the same spot where McArthur stood a century ago to capture a comparison, which shows less snow and more vegetation along the slopes.
Another photograph taken in 1918 by Arthur Oliver Wheeler highlights a breathtaking view of the Athbasca Glacier that covered much of Wilcox Peak in Jasper National Park.
However, surveys captured the exact image in 2011 and revealed that much of the glacier had melted, allowing more vegetation to grow.
In 1892, McArthur stumbled across the lake from Schaffer Peak (left) by chance. The image he took shows a large amount of snow on the slope. However, fast forward to 2006 and much of the snow is gone, revealing more of the rocky landscape
During his journey through the Candian Rockies, James McArthur took a stunning photo of the area around the Kaskawulsh Glacier in 1900, which shows a rocky landscape and a large sheet of ice. About 100 years later, the same area is littered with more trees and the glacier appears to have receded
“We found that forest lines at higher latitudes and those at higher elevations were more likely to have advanced over the past century,” the study reads.
“Our most likely explanation for this finding is that the impacts of climate change have been more pronounced at higher latitudes and at higher altitudes.
Not only did the study find an increase in tree lines, but comparisons revealed that the amount of windswept trees, known as krummholz, decreased significantly.
The work of Trant and his team coincides with previous findings that state climate change will dramatically redistribute forests around the world.
Going in, we kind of expected something similar, where we find some domains that would have responded and some that didn’t, ”Trant told SmithsonianMag.
“And what we saw was a pretty consistent response.
The fact that the tree lines increase would cause some forest species to flourish, but this is not always the case.
Those threatened by the changes tend to live in what were once alpine habitats such as whitebark pine, flowers such as moss campion, and birds such as Clark’s nutcracker.
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