Moose Lake Research Articles

Temporal trends in fish mercury concentrations in an Adirondack Lake managed with a continual predator removal program.

Mercury is a neurotoxic pollutant and contamination in remote ecosystems due to atmospheric mercury deposition coupled with watershed characteristics that influence mercury bioavailability. Biological interactions that affect mercury bioaccumulation are especially relevant as fish assemblages change in response to species introductions and lake management practices. We studied the influence of shifting food web dynamics on mercury in fisheries of Little Moose Lake in the southwestern Adirondack Mountains of New York, USA. Annual removal of non-native Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) has been used as a management strategy since 2000 to restore the native fish assemblage and food web in favor of Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Changes in total mercury, stable carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) isotopes, and growth were evaluated for Lake Trout and Smallmouth Bass. Growth rates increased for both predators and trophic position increased for Lake Trout post-removal. Mercury concentrations in Lake Trout increased over the 16-year study period influenced by a diet shift from invertebrates to higher trophic level prey fish, regardless of increased growth. Smallmouth Bass mercury concentrations decreased with compensatory growth from a reduced population size. These contrasting trends indicate that changes in mercury deposition were not the primary driver for mercury bioaccumulation responses in Little Moose Lake. Stable isotope values changed for both predators and for several lower trophic level organisms, likely reflecting changes in nutrient cycling and/or inputs. Our findings emphasize the potential role of fisheries management on whole-lake and predatory fish responses to mercury contamination in temperate lakes.

Opportunities for environmental public health action on the social determinants of health and health inequity

Karen Rideout,* Dianne Oickle, Julie Scarpino, Heejune Chang, Tim Ness, Vittoria Vecchiarelli, and Lydia Ma** *Environmental Health Policy Analyst, BC Centre for Disease Control and National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health, Vancouver, BC. Knowledge Translation Specialist, National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, Antigonish, NS. Public Health Inspector, Manitoba Health, Moose Lake, MB. Medical Officer of Health, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Winnipeg, MB. Senior Environmental Health Officer, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, ON. Senior Public Health Inspector, Health Protection Division, Community and Health Services Department, The Regional Municipality of York, Markham, ON. **Manager, National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health, Vancouver, BC.

"A Purely Ideational Lake": The Representation of Wilderness in Dreiser's An American Tragedy

On July 11, 1906 Chester Gillette and Grace Brown rented a small boat from the Glennmore Hotel at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. When they had not returned by the next morning, a search was initiated, and within a few hours, the overturned boat and Grace's body were found in a small bay of the lake. The subsequent police investigation revealed that Grace was pregnant, and that she had been having a sexual relationship with Chester, her supervisor at the Cortland, New York, skirt factory at which they worked. Chester was arrested and eventually convicted of murder in a sensational case that drew widespread attention.1 One avid reader of the newspaper accounts of the trial was Theodore Dreiser, who saw the case as the ultimate version of the American-Dream-gone-wrong story that he had long been considering writing. Dreiser studied court records and newspaper accounts of the Gillette trial, and in July of 1923, he and his mistress, Helen Richardson Dreiser, drove to visit the sites associated with the murder.2 His 1925 novel, An American Tragedy, is an imaginative retelling of the murder at Big Moose Lake. While previous critics have thoroughly explored Dreiser's use of his source material, there has been little discussion of the significance of the Adirondack setting.3 In their anthology Beyond Nature Writing (2001), Karla Armbruster and Kathleen R. Wallace argue that if ecocriticism is to avoid marginalization, critics need to go beyond an examination of traditional nature writing in order to demonstrate “the field's true range and its power to illuminate an almost endless variety of texts” (3). They further urge ecocritics to draw from disciplines such as environmental history for “insights into the relationship between natural and cultural environments” (5). The representation of the Adirondack setting in An American Tragedy reveals much about the ways in which the concept of wilderness was being negotiated in the early twentieth century.

How to Own a Building

How to Own a Building Natalie Vestin (bio) Winner of the 2012 Prairie Schooner Summer Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest, selected by Judge Steven Church (Runners-up: Kirby Wright, "Ladder of Glass," and Garrett J. Brown, "Galileo in the Uecker Seats") [New York City] For years, people saw only the ugly rectangular shapes, like two steel pillars hoisting the sky. Too tall, uninventive. Architecture should serve a city's beauty, draw the eye to glory, incite homesickness when miniaturized in a snow globe. A beckoning arch, a gravity-shunning curve, a wall of mirrored glass that gives a neighboring building its own inverse twin. Their ugliness was infamous, memorialized for decades before their ghosts lit the skyline. Philippe Petit didn't see ugly. His eye was trained to other details. Petit, the tightrope walker, the funambulist, saw purpose, a way to make a city come to a standstill and gaze up at what seemed impossible. Where others saw grandiose suicide, he saw possibility. What he saw: two buildings of equal height spaced fairly close to each other. And, oh, they were tall, taller than anything. He knew the wind, he anticipated the sway of the topmost floors, and he reckoned the arrival of the police helicopters. Then, on the wire no one could see from the ground, he stepped out and walked on air above the city. His feet were sure, and what he saw, what he felt from the buildings holding him up, approximated love. He fell in love with the ugliest buildings in the world, and people watching from the street split open with wonder. What is the excuse people use when they don't want to draw a picture? I can't draw a straight line. The idea being that lines are the simplest elements of design. Inability to draw a line speaks of more humiliating inabilities when it comes to circles, proportions, and vanishing points. It truly is difficult to draw a straight line. Our eyes are always moving, [End Page 9] our hands brace against the finest of tremors, and somehow motion and straight become bitter adversaries. Blame kindergarten and rulers and angles. Blame structure forced on human perception unable to view the world through a protractor. There's not much to say about a straight line in architecture. Straight lines hold up buildings, making them indispensable. But line after line after line, column, pillar, minaret, here is where you might seek to understand your wavering drawing skills. Repeating linear structures mimic movement. They take the eyes over and across, back and forth, waves on the sea, direction forced by perspective, larger lines in front, smaller in the back, all an illusion drawing sight to the infinite. Recent research suggests that gazing at stripes can precipitate migraines in some people. Lines force movement of the eye on its thick stem, hallucination really, possibility and passage imparted by a static structure, neurological overload, a journey toward the vanishing point. Structures, like people, can be extroverts or introverts. Extroverted buildings are those that allow people to climb, structures no more than lines that reach into the sky and deliver their human contents upward. Grandiose, vast, piercing—delivering these qualities to people who live and work among dizzying staircases and elevators whose speed and range adjust cerebral blood pressure. Buildings that sway, subject to the wind and traffic helicopters. Structures that, at their most extroverted, at their very tops, reward an exhilarating climb with a view that dilates the femoral blood vessels and weakens the legs with what can never be identified properly as terror or sexual arousal. A two-minded moment of delight at being on top of the world holding hands with the universal imp of the perverse, the imp that whispers what would happen if you jumped, you know you want to, how extraordinary, how awful. [Moose Lake] Children in other regions might learn about World War I or the influenza epidemic, but in northern Minnesota, 1918 is the year of the fire. Started by a spark on dry wood, it spread for miles, wiping out an entire county, driving people and animals into lakes where they couldn't go deep enough underwater, where they couldn...

Recent evidence of biological recovery from acidification in the Adirondacks (New York, USA): a multiproxy paleolimnological investigation of Big Moose Lake

This investigation provides evidence of biological recovery from acidification in an acid-impacted Adirondack (New York, USA) lake. Water chemistry measurements collected monthly since 1982 show that Big Moose Lake is undergoing chemical recovery from acid deposition. To assess possible biological recovery, changes in chrysophyte, diatom, and cladoceran assemblages are analyzed in a sediment core. Three questions are addressed: (i) is there a significant shift in species composition after the 1995 implementation of the US Acid Rain Program? (ii) Are post-1995 changes in species composition consistent with chemical recovery from acidification or, rather, other changing chemical/climatic factors? (iii) Are the species assemblages returning to their pre-acidification state? Post-1995 declines in the relative abundance of diatom and chrysophyte taxa with low pH-optima and increases in taxa with higher pH-optima indicate biological recovery from acidification. In contrast, the cladocera remain unresponsive to post-1995 increases in pH. No species group has returned to its pre-disturbance state and post-ca. 1995 increases in certain taxa (e.g., Synura echinulata ) may be related to recent climate warming in the Adirondacks.

Testing lake sediment and dendrogeomorphic proxies for little ice age environmental change in the upper fraser river area, british columbia, canada

.This study assesses Little Ice Age (LIA) lake sediment morphological and geochemical records and moraine chronologies in the upper Fraser River watershed, British Columbia, Canada, to resolve differences in paleoenvironmental interpretation and to clarify sediment production and sediment delivery processes within alpine geomorphic systems. Moose Lake (13.9 km2), situated at 1032 m a.s.l., contains a partially varved record indicating variable rates of accumulation during the last millennium that, in general, coincide with previously documented LIA glacial advances in the region and locally. Dendrochronological assessment of forefield surfaces in the headwaters of the catchment (Reef Icefield) shows that periods of moraine construction occurred just prior to ad 1770, ad 1839 and ad 1883, and some time before ad 1570. Taken collectively, increases in varve thickness within eight Moose Lake sediment cores coincide with documented glacier advances over the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, the eighteenth century, and nineteenth through twentieth centuries. Glacial activity during the sixteenth century is also indicated. While varve thickness variations in proximal and distal sediments clearly reflect glacial activity upstream of Moose Lake, the intermediate varve record is relatively insensitive to these decadal and longer‐term catchment processes. Variations in Ca and related elements derived from glaciated carbonate terrain within the Moose River sub‐catchment (including Reef Icefield) indicate gradually increasing delivery from these sources from the twelfth through twentieth centuries even where the varve thickness record is unresponsive. Elevated carbonate concentrations confirm glacial activity c. ad 1200, ad 1500, ad 1750, and ad 1900.

The Genetic Legacy of Stocking Muskellunge in a Northern Minnesota Lake

AbstractThe effects of stocked fish on native populations of the same species are poorly understood. During the 1960s‐1980s, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) stocked muskellunge Esox masquinongy derived from Shoepack Lake in the Hudson Bay drainage of northern Minnesota into Moose Lake in the Upper Mississippi River drainage. In the mid‐1980s, the MNDNR recognized that stocked Shoepack Lake‐strain fish (hereafter, Shoepack strain) were not attaining large sizes, and sources were switched statewide; subsequently, muskellunge from a Wisconsin hatchery were stocked once into Moose Lake. We used 14 microsatellite DNA markers to estimate the genetic contribution by each source population to muskellunge sampled in four different years from 1981 to 2004, and we evaluated the effects of Shoepack‐strain ancestry on fish size. Two samples in the 1980s had mostly fish with a single ancestry; thus, these fish were probably Shoepack‐strain fish stocked a few years earlier or native fish. By 2004, when most fish would have been naturally produced in the lake, contributions from all three source populations were detected, including admixed individuals from crosses among all ancestral sources. The estimated ancestry by source was 52% native Moose Lake ancestry, 29% Wisconsin strain, and 19% Shoepack strain, with 24% of the individuals having pure Moose Lake ancestry. Fish without Shoepack‐strain ancestry had a greater median length than did those with Shoepack‐strain ancestry and had a greater proportion of legal‐sized individuals (total length ≥ 1,016 mm) in the population. In contrast, Moose Lake and Wisconsin‐strain descendents were common among all sizes of fish. Management options include doing nothing, accepting that extensive introgression has already occurred, or manipulating the population by either stocking to dilute Shoepack‐strain ancestry or genetic screening to purge the population of Shoepack‐strain ancestry.

Microbial thiosulphate reaction arrays: the interactive roles of Fe(III), O2 and microbial strain on disproportionation and oxidation pathways

In this work, we experimentally evaluate pH and SO4(2-) dynamics associated with abiotic and microbial S2O3(2-) oxidation under varying [O2], [Fe(III)] and microbial strain/consortia (two pure strains, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, their consortia, and two enrichments from an acidic environmental system, Moose Lake 2002 and Moose Lake 2003). Results of the batch experiments demonstrate highly active microbial processing of S2O3(2-) while abiotic controls under identical experimental conditions remain static with no pH decrease. When abiotic controls were manually titrated with acid to achieve similar pH decreases to those occurring in the microbial treatments, different S pathways were involved. In particular, disproportionation is a substantial component of initial microbial S2O3(2-) processing, and is accelerated by the presence of Fe(III), indicating that recycling of S through intermediate oxidation states is likely to be widespread in acidic mine environments where high [Fe(III)] is common. Furthermore, the microbially mediated S reaction pathways were dependent on both environmental conditions and microbial strain/consortia, indicating that microbial community structure also plays a key role. Collectively, these results highlight the importance of microbial activity, their poor representation by abiotic S models, the likelihood that Fe(III), rather than O2, is a key control on microbial S processing in acid environments and the need to identify the microbial community/strain involved.

Incorporating hydrologic dynamics into buffer strip design on the sub-humid Boreal Plain of Alberta

The status quo in forestry practice is to leave standard width buffers around water bodies in order to prevent the excess transport of sediments and nutrients from terrestrial to aquatic systems. This practice does not seem to be effective in the sub-humid boreal forest where climatic and physiographic variability produces complex hydrologic pathways not well protected by standard width buffers. We developed a remote sensing technique that forms a hydrologic basis for buffer strip design. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery was used to map, both inundated and saturated areas (herein called wet areas) amenable for surface transport of nutrients and sediments on a low relief landscape in northern Alberta, Canada. Wet areas coverage of the Moose Lake drainage basin showed a semi-logarithmic relationship with daily discharge ( r 2 = 0.72, p < 0.001, n = 18). This relationship was used to define a flow–duration curve for wet areas that could be used as an aspatial assessment of what proportion of a drainage basin should be protected. A probability map of wet areas formation was calculated from the database of 18 images. We demonstrated how the probability map may be used to design adaptive buffer strips for the mitigation of increased nutrient loading to boreal lakes following timber harvesting.

Overcompensatory response of a smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) population to harvest: release from competition?

An intensive seven-year removal of adult, juvenile, and young-of-the-year smallmouth bass ( Micropterus dolomieu ) from a north temperate lake (Little Moose Lake, New York, USA) resulted in an increase in overall population abundance, primarily due to increased abundance of immature individuals. We developed a density-dependent, stage-structured model to examine conditions under which population control through harvest could result in the increase of a targeted species. Parameter values were derived from a 54-year data set collected from another north temperate lake (Lake Opeongo, Ontario, Canada) smallmouth bass population. Sensitivity analyses identified the demographic conditions that could lead to increased abundance in response to harvest. An increase in population abundance with harvest was most likely to occur when either (i) per capita recruitment at low levels of spawner abundance was large, juvenile survivorship was high, and maturation of age-4 and older juveniles was moderately high or (ii) per capita recruitment at low levels of spawner abundance was slightly lower, yet the maturation rate of age-3 juveniles and adult survivorship were high. Our modeling results together with empirical evidence further demonstrate the importance of overcompensation as a substantial factor to consider in efforts to regulate population abundance through harvest.

Growth chronologies of white sucker, Catostomus commersoni, and lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush: a comparison among lakes and between trophic levels

A growth chronology index was used to determine whether changes in ecosystem structure and function in lakes could be associated with fish growth histories. Growth chronologies were compared for white suckers, Catostomus commersoni, from Little Moose (oligotrophic), Oneida (eutrophic), and Cayuga (mesotrophic) lakes (New York) from opercular bone growth increments, and for lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush, from Little Moose Lake using otolith growth. The longevity of these species allowed the development of chronologies from 17 to 33 years in length using only contemporary collections. We used these chronologies to examine whether fish growth histories could be used as an index for ecosystem-scale changes. Specifically, we examined whether zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, invasion in Oneida and Cayuga lakes in the early 1990s, and treatment of sewage effluent from dwellings around Little Moose Lake beginning during the late 1980s could be detected in white sucker and lake trout growth chronologies. White sucker growth in Oneida and Cayuga Lakes did not differ before and after zebra mussel invasions. Neither white sucker nor lake trout growth chronologies from Little Moose Lake reflect changes in growth expected with reduced productivity levels associated with improved sewage treatment. Growth chronologies of these two species did not detect the ecosystem-scale changes that occurred in the study lakes.

Expulsion of miniature radio transmitters along with eggs of muskellunge and northern pike––a new method for locating critical spawning habitat

Identification and protection of critical spawning habitat for muskellunge Esox masquinongy and northern pike Esox lucius is important for preserving the reproductive potential of both species. In this study, we implanted miniature radio transmitters through the oviduct into the egg masses of female muskellunge and northern pike just prior to spawning. This non-surgical procedure was a novel approach for identifying spawning sites when transmitters were expelled with the eggs during egg deposition. Preliminary studies in three lakes showed that muskellunge and northern pike deposited many of the transmitters in likely spawning habitat. An inability to find eggs limited our validation of this method, but nevertheless, a relatively high proportion (70%) of northern pike larger than 690 mm (27.2 inches) expelled transmitters in a previously known spawning area in Willow Lake, Minnesota. Shoreline vegetation in that area consisted primarily of sedges Carex spp., and the adjacent water was shallow with substrate consisting of large mats of water bulrush Scirpus subterminalis. A lower proportion (50%) of muskellunge expelled transmitters in Elk Lake, Minnesota. Water depth at likely spawning sites averaged 1.1 m (3.6 feet) and vegetative cover was variable, but Chara spp. was common to most sites. In Moose Lake, Minnesota, containing sympatric populations of muskellunge and northern pike, 60% of muskellunge and 90% of pike expelled transmitters. Chara spp. beds were the predominant substrate where transmitters were expelled in Moose Lake, but the two species deposited transmitters on deepwater bars (3.7–5.2 m) in addition to shallow near-shore habitat. These results suggest more flexibility in depths used for spawning than typically reported for muskellunge and northern pike.

Microbially driven acidity generation in a tailings lake

ABSTRACT In situ characterization and geochemical modelling of acid generation in a mine tailings lake (Moose Lake, ON, Canada) over a 2‐year period (2001–2002; surficial lake pyrrhotite slurry disposal initiated in 2002) show that bacteria significantly impact acidity behaviour through particle‐associated S oxidation and that they do so under conditions that differ from those controlling abiotic pathways. Seasonal epilimnetic pH decreases occurred in both years, decreasing from approximately 3.5 in May to 2.8 by September (2001) or July (2002). Epilimnetic acid generation rates were depth‐dependent, with maximal rates observed not at the surface of lake where O2 concentrations were highest, but rather within a geochemically reactive zone (approximately 1 m thick) of steep, decreasing O2 gradients and dynamic Fe and S geochemistry in the lower epilimnetic region of the lake. Acid generation occurred dominantly through particle rather than aqueous pathways, but model predictions of acid generation via abiotic pyrrhotite oxidation involving either O2 or ferric iron (Fe3+) predicted neither the observed rates nor the depths at which maximal rates occurred. In contrast, model predictions based on microbial pathways involving both O2 and ferric iron (Fe3+) agreed extremely well with both the observed depth profile of H+ generation and the observed rates at any given depth. Imaging showed extensive microbial colonization of epilimnetic‐associated pyrrhotite particles commonly with significant biofilm formation. FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) probing of the community in both pelagic and particle compartments indicated mixed communities occurred in both, and that Acidithiobacillus spp. accounted for 2–46% of the total community in either compartment. Initiation of pyrrhotite slurry discharge at the lake surface in 2002 was accompanied by a relative increase in the number of particle‐associated microbes, as well as a relative proportional decrease of Acidithiobacillus spp. in the total microbial community. Given the widespread occurrence of bacteria across mining environments, the implications of our results extend beyond this specific site and provide new insight into bacterially driven processes contributing to bulk system characteristics which are not currently well constrained.

Climatic and landscape controls of the boreal forest fire regime: Holocene records from Alaska

Summary The response of ecosystems to past and future climatic change is difficult to understand due to the uncertainties in the direction and magnitude of changes and the relative importance of interactions between climate and local factors. In boreal ecosystems such interactions may dictate the response to climatic change, but the interaction of climate, vegetation composition and the fire regime remains poorly understood. Sediment cores from lakes in south‐central Alaska were analysed for lithology, macrofossils, pollen and charcoal to investigate the relationships between moisture availability, species composition and mean fire return intervals (MFI). Macrofossil and lithological evidence suggests that variations in effective moisture occurred over the past 7000 years and that the regional climate has been wetter during the past c. 3800 years than before. Boreal forests existed in the region throughout the past 7000 years. Picea glauca and Picea mariana were the prevalent forest species around Chokasna Lake, whereas P. glauca and hardwood species (e.g. Betula) co‐dominated the landscape around Moose Lake. Picea mariana replaced P. glauca as the dominant Picea species around Chokasna Lake at c. 2000 bp. MFI was &gt; 500 years before 3800 bp, except from 5800 to 5000 bp at Moose Lake and 5400 to 4550 bp at Chokasna Lake, when values were c. 200 years. MFI decreased to c. 200 years during the late‐Holocene at both sites and to c. 150 years after 2000 bp at Chokasna Lake. At both sites, fires occurred more frequently under wetter climatic conditions. Our results therefore support other recent studies demonstrating that warmer/drier climatic conditions do not necessarily induce greater fire importance. A combination of increased ignition by lightning strikes and seasonal‐moisture variability probably resulted in more frequent fires under wetter conditions.

Evolution of the Moose Lake Delta, British Columbia: implications for Holocene environmental change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Reconstruction of the geomorphic history of the Moose Lake delta is used to infer environmental change in the uppermost Fraser River watershed, British Columbia. Delta-top changes are interpreted from surface channel morphology, riverbank exposures, hand auger data, vibracores and other borehole records. River channel and overbank sediments are related to source area contributions in terms of granule lithology and fine (<63 μm) fraction geochemistry. A substantial area of the northeast delta-top floodplain dates from the early Holocene, and is characterized by fragmentary, low-discharge paleochannels with bed material characteristic of the uppermost Fraser River sub-basin. Floodplain development since ca. 4.0 ka BP has been limited to the western and southern areas of the delta and records persistently higher sediment loads, aggradation and larger, more active channels. These changes reflect overall shifts from warm, dry Hypsithermal to cooler, wetter Neoglacial climatic conditions defined regionally. The composition of both laterally and vertically accreted floodplain sediments plus channel morphology and floodplain stratigraphy record the changing influence of partially glaciated source areas on the Holocene sediment flux. Specifically, periods of climatic deterioration and possibly glacier expansion lead to relatively greater yields of carbonate-rich sediment from the higher elevation Moose River sub-basin. Storage and reworking of sediments on the Moose Lake delta-top floodplain influence interpretation of the more distal lacustrine record. Over the last 4000 years, gradual increases in lacustrine sedimentation rate of up to ∼18% are inferred to result from delta progradation.

Unraveling the Geologic History of the Hemlo Archean Gold Deposit,Superior Province, Canada: A U-Pb Geochronological Study

The Hemlo deposit is one of Canada’s largest gold camps. Gold is both structurally and lithologically controlled, but shows unusual relationships relative to many other Archean lode deposits. Field evidence suggests that gold was emplaced within mechanical and chemical traps along a jog in a major sinistral shear zone, most likely during early formation of second-generation (G2) structures, which represent the most intense phase of regional deformation. Mineralization was followed by amphibolite-facies regional metamorphism. U-Pb geochronology has been carried out on zircons from rocks associated with the deposit, in order to determine the precise chronology of geologic events and their relationship to mineralization. Zircon populations are commonly affected by both inheritance and hydrothermal/metamorphic crystal growth. Meaningful and precise age information can only be determined by precise single zircon dating on rocks from a well constrained, structural, and stratigraphic context. Gold is mostly found near the deformed contact between the Moose Lake quartz porphyry volcanic complex and stratigraphically underlying metasedimentary rocks. These rocks have been folded by a camp-scale, noncylindrical F2 fold. Zircon from the Moose Lake quartz porphyry is dominated by inheritance and gives ages that extend from ~2800 to ~2690 Ma. Metasedimentary rocks that underlie and overlie the Moose Lake porphyry show a much narrower range of provenance ages, and are dominated by 2,690- to 2,693-million-year-old zircon. Two detrital zircons from a metasedimentary rock directly beneath the porphyry define an age of 2685 ± 4 Ma. This should be an older age limit on volcanism, deformation, and gold mineralization. The four youngest near-concordant zircons from the Cedar Lake pluton define a magmatic age of 2680 ± 1 Ma. This pluton was emplaced prior to or early during G2 deformation, while emplacement of gold was most likely controlled by G2 structures. Therefore, 2680 ± 1 Ma probably also represents an older age limit on gold mineralization. A feldspar porphyry dike that cuts gold ore gives a younger age bracket of 2677 ± 1 Ma. The results of zircon dating suggest that a volcanosedimentary complex was constructed in the area over the period of 2693 to 2685 Ma. This developed on earlier crust, ca. 2720 Ma in age, but there is evidence from detritus and xenocrysts for older rocks dating back to over 2800 Ma. Deposition of supracrustal rocks was followed by granodiorite plutonism at 2680 ± 1 Ma, then major deformation (G2) and gold mineralization, overprinted by amphibolite-facies metamorphism (previously dated at 2676 Ma from titanite ages). Late-tectonic sanukitoid suite plutons were emplaced at 2677 ± 1 Ma. Thus, the primary gold-forming event occurred near the beginning of a period of plutonism and crustal reworking that lasted, at most, a few million years. This time association supports the view that granitoid magmas were the source of auriferous fluids. Plutons intruded into an actively deforming crust and were probably also the heat source for regional metamorphism. The most likely environment was a tectonically active, Timiskaming-type sedimentary basin. Similarly aged basins are found in the Timmins area to the east and the Shebandowan greenstone belt to the west.

The Hemlo gold deposit, Ontario, Canada: principal deposit characteristics and constraints on mineralization

The Archean, world-class, Hemlo lode gold deposit has been overprinted by deformation and metamorphism resulting, in part, in several proposed depositional models for its emplacement. No single model clearly accounts for all of the characteristics of the deposit. Most proposed models are inappropriate in terms of timing with respect to host rock, deformation, intrusion, or metamorphism, or require inappropriate geometry, metal tenors or metal ratios. The deposit is spatially associated with: high-strain zones; a restraining bend in the Hemlo greenstone belt; and the volcanic–sedimentary contact of the Moose Lake volcanic complex (MLVC). The restraining bend correlates with changes in the style of mineralization and/or alteration, hence, the deposit is subdivided into two segments. The West Segment is west-striking and consists of numerous, low-grade, erratically mineralized, west- to west–northwest-striking zones. Mineralization is locally dominantly fracture-controlled or disseminated. The Main Segment strikes approximately 290°, contains the majority of the ore and consists of two main tabular zones of dominantly disseminated mineralization: the Main Mineralized Zone, within the Lake Superior shear zone, and the Lower Mineralized Zone, within the Moose Lake fault zone. A broad zone of alteration, about 4 km long and as much as 400 m wide, asymmetrically surrounds the deposit. There is ample evidence, at a variety of scales, of D 2 structural control on the various mineralized zones. Tabular zones of alteration and/or disseminated mineralization are parallel to the predominant S 2 fabric in the West Segment, and a composite mylonitic S 2–S 2M–S 3C fabric in the Main Segment. Tabular mineralized zones of fracture-controlled alteration and pervasive alteration are paraconcordant with lithotectonic units. The deposit is ductilely deformed by D 2 and D 3 strains, which are associated with sinistral and dextral transpression, respectively. The deposit was emplaced after F 2 folding, synchronous with the incipient development of high-strain zones during mid-D 2 strain. Post-deposit overprinting by deformation and regional metamorphism has resulted in remobilization and modification of some of the original deposit characteristics. The Hemlo gold deposit is interpreted as an atypical, mesozonal-orogenic, disseminated-replacement-stockwork deposit, broadly synchronous with D 2 and “middle” stage granitoid plutonism, prior to or synchronous with peak regional metamorphism, and involving magmatic±metamorphic fluids. Its emplacement is poorly constrained between 2694 and 2677 Ma. U–Pb systematics are consistent with field evidence for a history of protracted, episodic, progressive strain, intrusive activity, and an evolving hydrothermal system. The chief emplacement controls specifically appear to have been the restraining bend, competency contrast at a major lithologic contact, and permeability in a fragmental unit, with general, more broadly developed, steady-state permeability in ductile zones. Enigmatic barite associated with the deposit is considered an intrinsic product of the hydrothermal system. The orientation of the major part of the deposit is consistent with statistically preferred orientations for large gold deposits in other gold camps of the Superior Province. Other examples of alteration and mineralization in the Hemlo greenstone belt share some common attributes with the Hemlo deposit. These factors provide a basis for selecting favourable exploration targets in the greenstone belt.

Ganienkeh: Haudenosaunee Labor-Culture and Conflict Resolution

Controversy has surrounded the Mohawk community of Ganienkeh in upstate New York since its inception and, to this day, passionate opinions accompany any consideration of Ganienkeh. 1 For the last dozen years, many have argued that Ganienkeh is merely a legal shelter for profiteering endeavors (such as Indian gaming or trafficking tobacco and alcohol) and the warrior society often associated with them. Others suggest that such endeavors do not fully represent the Ganienkeh community, and that, to whatever extent they are part of recent life at Ganienkeh, they are necessary adjustments to changing economic, political, and legal conditions and not signs of wholesale corruption. Far from academic, this disagreement has been at the root of violent tensions within Haudenosaunee government and society. 2 Unfortunately the intensity and complexity of recent developments and debates obscures a different story of Ganienkeh. Ganienkeh's founding was a rare case of Indigenous people reclaiming land from the United States. What motivated the Ganienkeh Mohawks to move so boldly, what sustained them during the years of conflict resulting from their action, and what can be learned from the Ganienkeh conflict and its resolution? Contemporary perceptions and understandings of Ganienkeh are too charged to provide sufficient context to answer questions about Ganienkeh's origins or its broader significance to Haudenosaunee-American interaction and other conflicts arising from that interaction. Therefore, without denying their significance, this article will set aside more recent controversies associated with Ganienkeh and ground an analysis of the conflict in sources generated during the conflict itself. When the Ganienkeh conflict is viewed outside the controversies of today, Haudenosaunee labor-culture stands out as a motivating and sustaining force within the Ganienkeh community as it sought to re-establish its claim on Haudenosaunee land and a Haudenosaunee way of life. Two aspects of the Ganienkeh conflict are the focus of this paper: the public discourse pertaining to the dispute and the negotiation process between the [End Page 1] state of New York and the Ganienkeh Mohawks which sought to end it. 3 I will begin by presenting historical and scholarly background on the Ganienkeh conflict. Then I will primarily attempt to show that differences between Haudenosaunee and American labor-cultures strongly contributed to the cause and continuation of the dispute while also providing a common focal point for public and official communication between otherwise disparate parties. In the process I hope this discussion of the Ganienkeh conflict connotes the possibility that labor concerns should figure prominently in discourse about other conflicts and Indigenous life in general. The Beginning of the Ganienkeh Conflict May is a precious "between time" in the Adirondack mountains of New York State when the snow is finally melting, the whine of recreational snowmobiles is fading, and stampedes of summer residents and tourists have not yet doubled or tripled a town's population. The small communities of Moose Lake and Eagle Bay probably spent 13 May 1974, like most days in May, subtly shifting the conversation from complaints about snow to complaints about mud and generally enjoying the "month between." The dawn of 14 May, however, found early arrivals for the summer season of 1974. Under cover of darkness a well-armed group of Mohawks had traveled down from reservations along the Canadian-U.S. border and occupied some six hundred acres of nearby state land, which encompassed a closed girl's camp and a body of water called Moss Lake. As a standoff developed between local residents, the New York State Police, and the Mohawks, the obscure mountain communities near Moss Lake quickly became national news. It was soon clear that, unlike tourists, the Mohawks were not leaving after the fall foliage passed. Over a year later, on 6 July 1975, The New York Times ran an article by Richard Severo describing the ongoing conflict. 4 Severo recounted that in 1797 Joseph Brandt, a Mohawk of disputed status, signed away nine million acres of Mohawk land to New York State for fifteen...

Stratigraphic and Structural Setting of the Hemlo Gold Deposit, Ontario, Canada

Results of detailed surface and underground mapping and a compilation of data from the three gold mines in the Hemlo area, Ontario, are presented. In particular, the lithostratigraphy of the area is established, the nature of the lithologic units spatially closely associated with the ore and the protolith of the ore are determined, and the deformation history and the three-dimensional geometry of the area are elucidated. The genesis of the gold deposit is discussed in context of these results. Four generations (G 1 to G 4 ) of ductile structures, as well as brittle faulting, are recognized. G 2 deformation is the strongest and the geometry of the Hemlo camp is dominated by macroscopic (camp-scale) S-shaped F 2 folds. The two ore zones at Hemlo, the main and lower ore zones, are spatially associated with the two limbs of a newly recognized camp-scale F 2 fold, the Moose Lake fold, and the orebody is folded by F 2 at outcrop scale, mine scale, and possibly camp scale. G 2 deformation is most intense in the Hemlo shear zone, interpreted to be a sinistral transpressional zone. The Hemlo gold deposit is hosted in the shear zone, mainly in the segment that trends east-southeasterly where deformation is stronger. The main gold mineralization at Hemlo occurred before G 2 or early during G 2 deformation and before peak metamorphism. The latter took place during late G 2 to after G 2 deformation. The ore and alteration zones are dominantly, but not exclusively, spatially associated with the stratigraphically lower contact of a volcanic quartz ± feldspar porphyry (the Moose Lake porphyry). A mafic unit (altered felsic fragmental rock) and a barite horizon are spatially closely associated with the ore zones. The protolith of the ore is mainly the fragmental rock and the barite. The stratigraphically lower contact of the Moose Lake porphyry and the fragmental rock at the contact probably served as mechanical traps and the barite horizon as a chemical trap.

Postglacial history of subalpine forests, Olympic Peninsula, Washington, USA

To investigate subalpine vegetation history on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington (USA), two pollen, macrofossil and charcoal records were studied in climatically distinct zones: Martins Lake (1415 m) in the moist Tsuga mertensiana zone and Moose Lake (1508 m) in the drier Abies lasiocarpa zone. The interpretation of fossil pollen assemblages was aided by comparisons with 308 modern assemblages from the Olympic Peninsula and western North America. Both pollen records show a cold/dry period following deglaciation (.10000 radiocarbon years BP) with sparse tundra and little similarity to any modern pollen assemblage. In the early Holocene, when summer temperatures are thought to have been higher than present, high percentages of Alnus sinuata-type pollen at both lakes suggest increased avalanche activity. At Martins Lake warmer summers were not accompanied by forest establishment, possibly because persistent spring snow pack, snow avalanches, and/or edaphic constraints limited tree establishment at this site. The Martins Lake record shows a steplike shift in vegetation to modern Tsuga mertensiana Abies amabilis parkland across the Mazama tephra (6730 BP). In contrast to Martins Lake, Abies lasiocarpa forest quickly established at Moose Lake in the early Holocene, though forests were probably initially open and fires may have been frequent. From 7800 to 5100 BP forests near Moose Lake shifted gradually to cooler and moister species composition, with the addition of Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, Tsuga mertensiana and Pinus, though Abies lasiocarpa remained dominant. Forest cover was probably greatest during this transition, with parklike conditions at Moose Lake beginning at c. 5100 BP. The major differences in the records between the two sites may be due to differences in the local expression of regional climatic change and/or differences in soil development and stabilization.