Plant Geography and Paleovegetation Studies | Physical Geography | Research

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INFO FOR GRADS | FACILITIES | COURSES | PUBLICATIONS

Research and teaching in plant geography and paleovegetation (fossil pollen and plant macrofossil) studies at Michigan State University (MSU) focus on understanding the nature and patterns of vegetation dynamics of both the present and past. Four faculty members contribute to this program. Professors Yansa, Harman and Schaetzl conduct research in Michigan and other parts of eastern and central North America. Dr. Duvall studies plant distributions in West Africa and the Atlantic Basin.

Recent and current research projects conducted by these faculty and their graduate students include studies of:

Present-day plant-soil and plant-climate interactions, such as analyzing the spatial patterns of current vegetation as it relates to soil and topographic characteristics and/or microclimate conditions. This work is often done within a GIS framework.

Historic plant-environment interactions, including reconstructing the species composition and dominance of pre-settlement (ca. A.D. 1800) plant communities in the Great Lakes region by analyzing the U.S. Public Land Survey notes and plat maps.

C. Yansa (left) and S. Yohn (right) coring a Michigan lake

C. Duvall and assistant collecting data in Mali

C. Yansa describing a sediment core collected from a Michigan lake for pollen and plant macrofossil analysis

Northern Michigan (R. Schaetzl)

Woodland in Mali (C. Duvall)

Humans, plant distributions, and ecosystems, including analysis of ecosystem structure to assess the effects of human-altered species distributions, and examining historical documents in the U.S. and West Africa to understand past plant introductions and other vegetation changes caused by humans.

Paleovegetation studies, involving analysis of pollen and other plant remains (plant macrofossils) to reconstruct past vegetation dynamics, including pioneer plant colonization after deglaciation and subsequent shifts in species dominance in response to Holocene climatic changes. Fossil studies are also conducted in collaboration with archaeologists to interpret the environmental conditions that existed for prehistoric Native Americans.

INFORMATION FOR INTERESTED GRADUATE STUDENTS

This program offers graduate students a theoretical training that is blended with extensive field- and laboratory-based research. A multi-disciplinary approach is encouraged and students are urged to interact with faculty and students within the Department of Geography (especially those involved in the Quaternary Landscapes Research Group and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations), as well as those in other departments, both on and off campus. Graduate students are given professional training, such as coauthorship on peer-reviewed papers resulting from their research in graduate-level seminars. Teaching opportunities are often given to graduate students as well.

RESEARCH AND TEACHING FACILITIES

Field equipment in support of this research include: increment borers for taking tree ring samples; various soil and plant sampling and analysis tools; and coring equipment to collect lake and peat-bog sediments for fossil analysis. Fully functional and equipment-rich pollen and soils laboratories are available for student use. Students also have access to the Department's computing facilities for work on digital soil and vegetation maps and remote sensing in the analysis of vegetation patterns in relation to soils, topography and climate.

J. Harman leading a plant geography field trip in the Great Smoky Mts

GEO 401 (Plant Geography) class of 2006: after data collection in a MSU woodlot

PLANT GEOGRAPHY COURSES

Courses related to plant geography are listed below. Additional courses are required of graduate students to complete their degree requirements (http://www.geo.msu.edu/programs.html).

GEO 871 – Seminar in Physical Geography (theme changes annually, some years the focus is plant geography) – for both M.A. and Ph.D. students
GEO 401 – Plant Geography (an equivalent course taken elsewhere will be accepted)
GEO 408 – Soil Geomorphology Field Study
GEO 409 – Global Climate Change and Variability
GEO 412 – Glacial Geology and the Record of Climate Change
GEO 428 – Digital Terrain Analysis
GEO 454 – Geography of Environment & Development
GEO 492 – Pollen Analysis (Past Vegetation Reconstruction) (course not yet officially “on-line”; course # will change)
GEO 824 – Monitoring the Biosphere from Space
GEO 835 – Biogeography
BOT 441 – Plant Ecology
FOR 804 – Forest Ecology
FOR 824 – Forest Soils
ZOL 361 – Michigan Birds

Students may also take additional supportive courses in climatology, geomorphology, geology, plant biology, forestry, soil science, and related disciplines. All students must also develop a proficiency in at least one tool area (mathematics, statistics, geographic information systems, remote sensing, computer science, or a combination thereof).

RECENT PUBLICATIONS, THESES AND DISSERTATIONS

Recent publications that typify published plant geography research in recent years:

2007	Yansa, C.H. Lake records of Paleoindian and Early Archaic environments of the Northeastern Plains: The “park oasis” hypothesis. Plains Anthropologist (in press).
2007	Yansa, C.H., W.E. Dean, and E.C. Murphy. Late Quaternary paleoenvironments of an ephemeral wetland in North Dakota, USA: Relative interactions of ground-water hydrology and climate change. Journal of Paleolimnology (in press).
2006	Duvall, C.S. On the origin of the tree Spondias mombin in Africa. Journal of Historical Geography 32: 249-266.
2006	Hupy, C.M. The Dynamics of the Forest Transition Zone in Central Lower Michigan, U.S.A.: Two Millennia of Change. Ph.D. Dissertation, MSU Geography.
2006	Yansa, C.H. The timing and nature of Late Quaternary vegetation changes inthe northern Great Plains, USA and Canada: A re-assessment of the spruce phase. Quaternary Science Reviews 25: 263-281.
2005	Hupy, C. M. and A.M.G.A. WinklerPrins. A political ecology of forest exploitation in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan: 1800-1950. The Great Lakes Geographer 12: 26-42.
2005	Hupy, J.P., S. Aldrich, R,J. Schaetzl, P. Varnakovida, E. Arima, J. Bookout, N. Wiangwang, A. Campos, and K. McKnight. Mapping soils, vegetation, and landforms: An integrative physical geography field experience. Professional Geographer 57: 438-451.
2005	Schaetzl, R.J. and S.N. Anderson. Soils: Genesis and Geomorphology. Cambridge University Press. 832 pp.
2005	Yansa, C.H. and A.C. Ashworth. Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments of the southern Lake Agassiz basin, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science 20: 255-267.
2004	Curry, B.B. and C.H. Yansa. Stagnation of the Harvard sublobe (Lake Michigan lobe) in northeastern Illinois, USA, from 24,000 to 17,600 BP and subsequent tundra-like ice-marginal paleoenvironments from 17,600 to 15,700 BP. Géographie Physique et Quaternaire 58: 305-321.
2004	Scull, P.R., and J.R. Harman. Forest distribution and site quality in southern Lower Michigan, USA. Journal of Biogeography 31: 1503-1514.
2003	Duvall, C.S. Symbols, not data: rare trees and vegetation history in Mali. The Geographical Journal 169: 295-312.
2002	Schaetzl, R.J. A Spodosol-Entisol transition in northern Michigan. Soil Science Society of America Journal 66: 1272-1284.
2002	Schaetzl, R.J. and S.A. Isard. The Great Lakes Region. In The Physical Geography of North America , A. Goudie and A. Orme, (eds.), pp. 307-334. Oxford Univ. Press.

Selected older papers include:

1999	Yansa, C.H. and Basinger, J.F. A postglacial plant macrofossil record of vegetation and climate change in southern Saskatchewan. In Holocene Climate and Environmental Change in the Palliser Triangle: A Geoscientific Context for Evaluating the Impacts of Climate Change on the Southern Canadian Prairies, D.S. Lemmen and R.E. Vance (eds.). Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 534: 139-172.
1998	Yansa, C.H. Holocene paleovegetation and paleohydrology of a prairie pothole in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology 19: 429-441.
1996	Schaetzl, R.J. and D.G. Brown. Forest associations and soil drainage classes in presettlement Baraga County, Michigan. The Great Lakes Geographer 3: 57-74.
1995	Barrett, L.R., J. Liebens, D.G. Brown, R.J. Schaetzl, P. Zuwerink, T.W. Cate, and D.S. Nolan. Relationships between soils and presettlement vegetation in Baraga County, Michigan. American Midland Naturalist 134: 264-285.
1994	Schaetzl, R.J. Changes in O horizon mass, thickness and carbon content following fire in northern hardwood stands. Vegetatio 115: 41-50.
1989	Medley, K.E. and J.R. Harman. Growing season temperature and a midwestern vegetation transition. East Lakes Geographer 23: 128-136.
1989	Schaetzl, R.J., S.F. Burns, D.L. Johnson, and T.W. Small. Tree uprooting: Review of impacts on forest ecology. Vegetatio 79: 165-176
1987	Medley, K.E. and J.R. Harman. Relationships between the vegetation tension zone and soils distribution across central Lower Michigan. Michigan Botanist 26: 78-87.
1986	Harman, J.R. and J. Plough. Asymmetric distribution of coniferous trees on northern Lake Michigan islands. East Lakes Geographer 21: 24-33.
1985	Dodge, S.L. and J.R. Harman. Soil, subsoil, and forest composition in south-central Michigan, USA. Physical Geography 6: 85-100.

Typical soil and vegetation of Michigan's western Upper Peninsula

A Michigan forest (R. Schaetzl)