Impact of small-scale vegetation structure on tephra layer preservation. ...

• Main Authors: Cutler, Nick A, Shears, Olivia M, Streeter, Richard T, Dugmore, Andrew J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2016
• Subjects: Ecosystem; Iceland; Parmeliaceae
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.6465; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/261293

The factors that influence tephra layer taphonomy are poorly understood, but vegetation cover is likely to play a role in the preservation of terrestrial tephra deposits. The impact of vegetation on tephra layer preservation is important because: 1) the morphology of tephra layers could record key characteristics of past land surfaces and 2) vegetation-driven variability in tephra thickness could affect attempts to infer eruption and dispersion parameters. We investigated small- (metre-) scale interactions between vegetation and a thin (<10 cm), recent tephra layer. We conducted surveys of vegetation structure and tephra thickness at two locations which received a similar tephra deposit, but had contrasting vegetation cover (moss vs shrub). The tephra layer was thicker and less variable under shrub cover. Vegetation structure and layer thickness were correlated on the moss site but not under shrub cover, where the canopy reduced the influence of understory vegetation on layer morphology. Our results show ...