Abstract
Magnetic measurements of soil and tree bark adjacent to a busy highway revealed a significant variation in the concentration of magnetic particles with distance from the highway. Furthermore, forest-facing tree-bark contains significantly more magnetic particles than road-facing tree-bark. Magnetic particles were detected both on the bark of the maple trees and in the first centimeter of the soil cover (O/A horizon). Stability of the Saturation Isothermal Magnetization (SIRM) and the hysteresis parameters of the soil indicates the presence of Single-Domain/Pseudo-Single-Domain (SD/PSD) magnetic carriers. Measurements of the tree bark hysteresis parameters and SIRM detect a significantly lower coercivity component that we interpret to be an indication of more abundant PSD-type magnetic grains. Magnetic measurements around the perimeters of eight tree trunks reveal magnetic carriers whose distribution is antipodal to the source direction (highway). We interpret our observation by adopting an air circulation model, where suspended PSD/SD particles are carried in the air stream. The air stream from the heavy traffic lowers the amount of moisture on the tree trunk surfaces facing the highway and thus reduces an adhesive potential on this side. Therefore, more particles can stay on the moist side of the trunk protected from the direct airflow. A magnetic signature of tree rings was tested as a potential paleo-climatic indicator. We have examined wood from sequoia tree, located in Mountain Home State Forest, California, whose tree ring record spans over the period 600–1700 A.D. We have measured low and high-field magnetic susceptibility, the Natural Remanent Magnetization (NRM), Saturation Isothermal Remanent Magnetization (SIRM), and stability against thermal and Alternating Field (AF) demagnetization. Magnetic investigation of the 200 mm long sequoia material suggests that the magnetic efficiency of natural remanence (=natural remanent magnetization normalized by saturation remanence) may be a sensitive paleoclimate indicator because it is substantially higher (in average > 0.01=1%) during the Medieval Warm Epoch (700–1300 A.D.) than during the Little Ice Age (1300–1850 A.D.) where it is < 0.01=1%. Diamagnetic behavior has been noted to be prevalent in regions with higher tree ring density. The mineralogical nature of the remanence carrier was not directly detected but maghemite is suggested due to low coercivity and absence of Verwey transition. Tree ring density, along with the wood’s magnetic remanence efficiency, records the Little Ice Age (LIA), which is well documented in Europe and elsewhere. Magnetic analysis of the thermal stability reveals the blocking temperatures near 200°C. This phenomenon suggests that the remanent component in this tree may be thermal in origin and was controlled by local thermal conditions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Assuncao AGL, Martins PD, De Folter S, Vooijs R, Schat H, Aarts MGM (2001) Elevated expression of metal transporter genes in three accessions of the metal hyperaccumulator Thlaspi caerulescens. Plant Cell Environ 24(2):217–226
Badar U, Ahmed N, Beswick AJ, Pattanapipitpaisal P, Macaskie LE (2000) Reduction of chromate by microorganisms isolated from metal contaminated sites of Karachi, Pakistan. Biotechnol Lett 22(10):829–836
Bell M, Walker MJ (1992) Late quaternary environmental change. Physical and human perspectives. Pearson Education Ltd., Harlow, Essex, UK
Brazdil R (1996) Reconstruction of past climate from historical sources in the Czech Lands. In: Jones PD, Bradley RS, Jouzel J (eds) Climatic variation and forcing mechanism of the last years. Springer, Berlin, pp 409–431
Brem F, Tiefenauer L, Fink A, Dobson J, Hirt AM (2006) A mixture of ferritin and magnetite nanoparticles mimics the magnetic properties of human brain tissue. Phys Rev B 73, Article no. 224427
Clark JS (1988) Effect of climate change on fire regimes in Northwestern Minnesota. Nature 334:233–235
Day R, Fuller M, Schmidt VA (1977) Hysteresis properties of titanomagnetites: grain-size and compositional dependence. Phys Earth Planetary Inter 13:260–266
Dunlop JD, Ozden Ozdemir (1997) Rock magnetism fundamental and frontiers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, p 573
Flanary BE, Kletetschka G (2005) Analysis of telomere length and telomerase activity in tree species of various life-spans, and with age in the bristlecone pine Pinus longaeva. Biogerontology 6:101–111
Flanary BE, Kletetschka G (2006) Analysis of telomere length and telomerase activity in tree species of various lifespans, and with age in the bristlecone pine Pinus longaeva. Rejuvenation Res 9:61–63
Ghaderian YSM, Lyon AJE, Baker AJM (2000) Seedling mortality of metal hyperaccumulator plants resulting from damping off by Pythium spp. New Phytol 146(2):219–224
Grove JM (2001) The onset of the Little Ice Age. In: Jones PD, Ogilvie AEJ, Davies TD, Briffa KR (eds) History and climate memories of the future? Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, NY, pp 153–185
Han FX, Kingery WL, Selim HM, Gerard PD (2000) Accumulation of heavy metals in a long-term poultry waste- amended soil. Soil Sci 165(3):260–268
Heller F, Strzyszcz Z, Magiera T (1998) Magnetic record of industrial pollution in forest soils of Upper Silesia, Poland. J Geophys Res Solid Earth 103(B8):17767–17774
Jelinek V (1973) Precision Ac bridge set for measuring magnetic susceptibility of rocks and its anisotropy. Stud Geophys Geod 17(1):36–48
Kapicka A, Jordanova N, Petrovsky E, Ustjak S (2000) Magnetic stability of power-plant fly ash in different soil solutions. Phys Chem Earth Part A Solid Earth Geodesy 25(5):431–436
Kapicka A, Petrovsky E, Jordanova N, Podrazsky V (2001) Magnetic parameters of forest top soils in Krkonose Mountains, Czech Republic. Phys Chem Earth Part A Solid Earth Geodesy 26(11–12):917–922
Kletetschka G, Acuna MH, Kohout T, Wasilewski PJ, Connerney JEP (2004) An empirical scaling law for acquisition of thermoremanent magnetization. Earth Planet Sci Lett 226:521–528
Kletetschka G, Fuller MD, Kohout T, Wasilewski PJ, Herrero-Bervera E, Ness NF, Acuna MH (2006) TRM in low magnetic fields: a minimum field that can be recorded by large multidomain grains. Phys Earth Planetary Inter 154:290–298
Kapicka A, Petrovsky E, Ustjak S, Machackova K (1999) Proxy mapping of fly-ash pollution of soils around a coal- burning power plant: a case study in the Czech Republic. J Geochem Exploration 66(1–2):291–297
Kletetschka G (1994) A study of the origin and nature of secondary iron oxides in Chinese loess. Master thesis, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Kletetschka G, Banerjee SK (1995) Magnetic stratigraphy of Chinese Loess as a record of natural fires. Geophys Res Lett 22:1341–1343
Kletetschka G, Kohout T, Wasilewski PJ (2003) Magnetic remanence in the Murchison meteorite. Meteoritics Planet Sci 38(3):399–405
Kletetschka G, Wasilewski PJ, Taylor PT (2000) Hematite vs. magnetite as the signature for planetary magnetic anomalies? Phys Earth Planet Inter 119(3–4):259–267
Kletetschka G, Zila V, Wasilewski PJ (2003) Magnetic anomalies on the tree trunks. Stud Geophys Geod 47:371–379
Lecoanet H, Leveque F, Arnbrosi JP (2001) Magnetic properties of salt-marsh soils contaminated by iron industry emissions (southeast France). J Appl Geophys 48(2):67–81
Magiera T, Strzyszcz Z (2000) Ferrimagnetic minerals of anthropogenic origin in soils of some Polish national parks. Water Air Soil Pollut 124(1–2):37–48
Moberg A, Sonechkin DM, Holmgren K, Datsenko NM, Karlen W (2005) Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low- and high-resolution proxy data. Nature 433:613–617
Schmidt MWI, Knicker H, Hatcher PG, Kogel-Knabner I (2000) Airborne contamination of forest soils by carbonaceous particles from industrial coal processing. J Environ Qual 29(3):768–777
Silver S, Phung LT (1996) Bacterial heavy metal resistance: new surprises. Ann Rev Microbiol 50:753–789
Stephens SL, Libby WJ (2006) Anthropogenic fire and bark thickness in coastal and island pine populations from Alta and Baja California. J Biogeogr 33:648–652
Strzyszcz Z (1999) Heavy metal contamination in mountain soils of Poland as a result of anthropogenic pressure. Izvestiya Akademii Nauk Seriya Biologicheskaya (6):722–735
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Vojtech Zila, who helped in the collecting of the tree samples, Peter Wasilewski, who provided the magnetic facility, Peter Pruner, Daniela Venhodova, who obtained data in Pruhonice Laboratory, and Jaroslav Kadlec, who helped with the climatic interpretation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kletetschka, G. (2011). Magnetic Measurements on Maple and Sequoia Trees. In: Petrovský, E., Ivers, D., Harinarayana, T., Herrero-Bervera, E. (eds) The Earth's Magnetic Interior. IAGA Special Sopron Book Series, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0323-0_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0323-0_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0322-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0323-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)