Geoindicators: tracking rapid geological change
by
Liverman, David
Geological Survey of Newfoundland - IUGS Geoindicator Initiative management board
Coauthors: Ridgway, John, Berger, Anthony, Satkunas, Jonas

Understanding climate and environmental change in general, requires consideration of the impacts not only on biota and human communities but also on a wide range of abiotic landscape features, processes and phenomena. A convenient taxonomy of the various ways in which many of these parameters can change in less than 100 years is provided by the geoindicator approach developed by the International Union of Geological Sciences. This concept may also help to distinguish those changes that are induced by human actions (which might be managed) from those that result from natural environmental changes (which might not). The latter include non-climatic processes such as earthquakes, volcanism, uplift and subsidence. In dealing with any change in the environment, it is important to recognize both human forcing factors and the “background flux of nature”. Rapid geological change should be taken into account in understanding climate change impacts as well as in developing strategies for adaptation. In Mauritania the geoindicators approach might well prove useful in dealing with major issues relating to environmental change. The issues include desertification; coastal problems (including wetlands preservation); and the supply and quality of drinking water. Indicators that might apply in these areas include desert surface fissures and crusts, dune formation and reactivation, groundwater quality and chemistry, shoreline position, soil and sediment erosion, soil quality, wetlands extent, and wind erosion. The main emphasis to date of the geoindicators initiative has been on applying them to current environmental monitoring programmes, and to state of the environment reporting. The geoindicators approach can be well integrated into the IGCP project “The role of Holocene environmental catastrophes in human history”; and the IUGS/ICSU “Dark nature: rapid natural change and human responses “ project. All these initiatives are based on the recognition that geological change can be rapid, even catastrophic, and that its impacts are measurable and significant. As such, the geoindicators concept can be applied to understanding past environmental changes. Standard methods of examining past geological change often use identical approaches to those outlined as part of the geoindicators initiative. Perhaps the main difference is in the time scales used, where the resolution required in the geoindicators approach (annual to decadal) is rarely achievable in palaeoenvironmental research. Examining Holocene environmental change gives a better understanding of the modern rate of change that might be expected to occur, as well as the potential impacts of such change. Understanding of past catastrophes allows refinement of the geoindicators method. Determining whether measurable changes in that indicator would provide warning of a threshold about to be crossed in advance of catastrophic or rapid environmental change can assess the usefulness of a given indicator. GEOIN is an international effort to encourage the application of geoscience to environmental concerns through monitoring and assessing rapid geological change. GEOIN operates via the Internet (at http;//www.geoindicator.org) as a medium for the exchange of data, information and experiences. GEOIN is also involved in conferences, workshops, training courses, publications and other activities. Table 1: The 27 geoindicators Listed here are 27 earth system processes and phenomena that are liable to change in less than a century in magnitude, direction, or rate to an extent that may be significant for environmental sustainability and ecological health. Coral chemistry and growth patterns (in revision to include other high resolution palaeoenvironmental methods) Desert surface crusts and fissures Dune formation and reactivation Dust storm magnitude, duration and frequency Frozen ground activity Glacier fluctuations Groundwater quality Groundwater chemistry in the unsaturated zone Groundwater level Karst activity Lake levels and salinity Relative sea level Sediment sequence and composition Seismicity Shoreline position Slope failure (landslides) Soil and sediment erosion Soil quality Stream channel morphology Streamflow Stream sediment storage and load Subsurface temperature regime Surface displacement Surface water quality Volcanic unrest Wetlands extent, structure, and hydrology Wind erosion Table 2: Geoindicator checklist: explanation of format For each indicator the following information is tabulated. NAME: Applied to individual geoindicators. Note that some are fairly specific (relative sea level, streamflow), whereas others are more general (frozen ground activity, soil quality). BRIEF DESCRIPTION: What is the geoindicator, and how does it express geological processes and phenomena? SIGNIFICANCE: Why is it important to monitor this geoindicator? How are changes in it liable to affect agriculture, forestry, environmental health, human settlements, and other economic sectors and societal issues? HUMAN OR NATURAL CAUSE: Can this geoindicator be used to distinguish natural from anthropogenic change, and if so how? This field makes explicit the ease or difficulty of separating human from natural change, a fundamental consideration in dealing with environmental change. ENVIRONMENT WHERE APPLICABLE: In what general landscape settings would this geoindicator be used (e.g. coasts, deserts, tundra, mountains)? This field facilitates the identification of all geoindicators for any particular environment. TYPES OF MONITORING SITES: Where specifically should this geoindicator be measured? SPATIAL SCALE: At what scale would this geoindicator normally be monitored in the field, and (after the slash /) to which larger scale can it generally be aggregated? For example, glacier fluctuations are assessed on a glacier by glacier basis, but despite contrasts in behaviour from one glacier to another, such assessments may be aggregated to give an average or mean assessment of glacier condition over an entire glacial region. Stream sediment discharge, though measured on a river by river basis, is often aggregated to give an overall picture for a particular nation or region. The spatial scale used here is a convenient one based on standard practice in ecology: patch (0-1 km), landscape (1-10 km), mesoscale (10-100 km), regional (100-1,000 km), continental (1,000-10,000 km). METHOD OF MEASUREMENT: How is this indicator measured in the field? What laboratory and other analytical techniques are involved? Field mapping is the basic requirement for studying most geoindicators. Special reference is also made to new tools and technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), based on satellite transmission of microwave signals to surface receivers, whose positions can be determined with accuracies as great as 3-5 mm for short baselines (100 km) and 10-15 mm over longer distances (1000 km). GPS techniques may be combined with Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry to establish velocity fields with accuracies of 1-2 mm/year over distances of 10-500 km. Satellite images, properly enhanced, can provide information of great value to landscape studies, because they contain spatial and spectral data, which can provide insights not otherwise available. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) constitute a rapidly developing technology that allows the organization and manipulation of spatially related datasets in powerful new ways, which provide an analytical tool for testing landscape models and developing new ideas. FREQUENCY OF MEASUREMENT: How often should this geoindicator be monitored in the field, so as to establish a proper time series and baseline trend? These are general guidelines only, for in most cases the nature of the site and the environmental issue being investigated will determine the frequency of repeated measurement. For some earth systems, the more often a geoindicator is measured the easier it is to screen out the background `noise' in the signal. Seasonally variable geoindicators should be monitored at the same time every year. Nevertheless, it must be born in mind that many geoindicators remain stable for considerable periods of time and undergo change mainly during infrequent extreme events, such as floods, surface faulting, storms, and landslides. LIMITATIONS OF DATA AND MONITORING: What important difficulties are there in acquiring field or laboratory data and in applying this indicator? In many cases, field and other analytical data may be limited in application because natural systems are open to a wide range of external influences, or because of the spatial and temporal complexity of earth processes. Current efforts in many countries to reduce government expenditures are compromising the effectiveness of existing monitoring programs. APPLICATIONS TO PAST AND FUTURE: How can this geoindicator be applied to paleoenvironmental analysis? What predictive potential has it? Most earth systems operate over long time periods, evolving at rates that are beyond human experience, so that geological records of past environments and natural events are essential in developing an understanding of baseline trends and directions of landscape change. Predictions and forecasts require a thorough understanding of both the dynamic behaviour of earth systems and the directions in which they have developed in the recent past. Studies of the natural archive preserved in, for example, successive layers of ice and sediment, the character of ground temperature profiles, or the isotopic composition of groundwater and speleothem and coral growth layers are, thus, of fundamental importance. POSSIBLE THRESHOLDS: What thresholds or limits are there, across which drastic environmental change or threats to human health and biodiversity may occur? For virtually all indicators, a threshold may be said to be crossed when changes begin to affect ecosystem or human health and property. Such thresholds are clearly a matter of perception: some may see a geoindicator change as unimportant, while others may regard it as beneficial or harmful. The focus here is, therefore, on physical and chemical thresholds in nature that determine system behaviour, such as freezing and melting temperatures of soils and water. KEY REFERENCES: Listed here for further reference are a few, readily obtainable, practical manuals, or citations to key scientific/technical publications on this geoindicator. OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Listed here are the kinds of national agencies (e.g. geological surveys), scientific programs and projects (e.g. under the United Nations) or specific international organizations (e.g. World Glacier Monitoring Service) from which further information, data sets and expertise may be available. These can be useful points of entry for further queries. The Annex at the end of the checklist explains the acronyms and includes contact addresses. RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL AND GEOLOGICAL ISSUES: Briefly mentioned here are environmental and geological issues and situations related to the specific geoindicator under consideration. OVERALL ASSESSMENT: A summary of the importance of this geoindicator for environmental monitoring and sustainability assessments. Table 3: GEOINDICATORS can be used for * State-of-Environment reporting * Long-term ecosystem monitoring * Environmental impact assessments * Assessing effects of regional and global change * Establishing present and past baseline trends * Emphasizing the importance of rapid geological processes

Date received: November 7, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # camu-03.