Brave pioneers traveled to unknown parts of the Canadian Rockies a century ago to take photographs of the region and build the first topographic maps of the area.
Fast forward to today and scientists use these timeless photographs to understand how much of the landscape has evolved over the past 100 years.
The team replicated several scenes to make accurate comparisons of images taken by the early mountaineers, revealing an increased shrinkage in beamline and increased forest density – both of which are a result of climate change.
Shots of mountains in Alberta show a dramatic change in snow on the peak and tree lines on the slope, while a hilltop in the Crowsnest Forest Reserve shows an increase in vegetation as was present 77 years ago.
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Brave pioneers traveled to unknown parts of the Canadian Rockies a century ago to take photographs of the region and build the first topographic maps of the area. Left is a picture of a hilltop in the Crowsnest Forest Reserve that was shot in 1931 and taken right in 2008, revealing an increase in vegetation as was present 77 years ago
The first studies of the Canadian Rockies were conducted in the early 1900s and the timelapse of 68 to 125 years between image pairs provides scientists with ‘new information on long-term ecological change on a large spatial scale’, the team shared in the study published in the journal Nature.
‘We present quantitative analyzes of 81 high-resolution image pairs from systematic historical surveys and repeated photographs of Canadian Rocky Mountain habitats, measurements of treeline progress, changes in tree density, and shifts in growth form from crooked wood to trees,’ the paper reads.
Tree lines are used to see the boundaries of climate, as they evolve with weather changes and provide insight into how species are affected by climate change.
The team of scientists collaborated with the Mountain Legacy Project, a database containing more than 120,000 historical images of the Canadian Rockies, to conduct the study, as first reported by Smithsonian Magazine.
photo taken in 1918 (left) by Arthur Oliver Wheeler marks a beautiful view of the Athbasca Glacier that covered much of Wilcox Peak in Jasper National Park. However, studies came up with the exact picture in 2011 and found that much of the glacier was melting, allowing more vegetation to grow
Another glacier was documented in 1901 by Wheeler, called the Illecillewaet Glacier, which covered the mountain in an ice sheet. The image taken in 2011 (right) shows a large part of the mountain has been exposed since the century
They collected 8,000 images of the early Canadian Rocky Mountain landscape from the database and selected a few to do comparison.
Andrew Trant, lead author of the paper and ecologist at the University of Waterloo, and his team traveled to some of the places shown in the early photographs to see how much the landscape has evolved.
The scientists chose a photo from the late 1900s taken by researchers Morrison Parsons Bridgland and Arthur Oliver Wheeler of what is now Banff National Park to capture the region in a series of photos.
The first image of the hilltop in the Crowsnest Forest Reserve, located in Alberta, shows thinner trees along the top.
However, Trant’s image of the same formation marks increased forest density.
The study not only found an uptick in tree lines, but the comparison showed that the number of windswept trees known as crooked wood decreased dramatically
In the 1900s, James McArthur became the first mountaineer in Canada to encourage a 10,000-foot peak, allowing him to capture the first images of what is now Kluane National Park.
Those images show a large amount of now cover on the tops and a whole landscape of dusty ground.
In 2012, experts flew to the same spot where McArthur stood a century ago to catch a comparison, which shows less snow and more vegetation along the slopes.
Another photo taken in 1918 by Arthur Oliver Wheeler marks a magnificent view of the Athbasca Glacier that covered much of Wilcox Peak in Jasper National Park.
However, studies came up with the exact picture in 2011 and found that much of the glacier was melting, allowing more vegetation to grow.
In 1892, McArthur Lake crossed from Schaffer Peak (left). The image he took shows a large amount of snow on the slope. Fast forward to 2006 and much of the snow has disappeared, revealing more of the rocky landscape
During his trip through the Candian Rockies, James McArthur took a beautiful photo in 1900 of the area around Kaskawulsh Glacier, which shows a rocky landscape and a large ice sheet. A few hundred years later, the same area is forested with more trees and the glacier seems to be sitting back
‘We found that train lines at higher latitudes and those at higher altitudes were more likely to have advanced in the last century,’ reads the study.
‘Our most likely explanation for this finding is that the effects of climate change are more pronounced at higher latitudes and higher altitudes.’
The study not only found an uptick in tree lines, but the comparison showed that the number of windswept trees, known as crooked wood, declined dramatically.
The work of Trant and his team coincides with previous findings that state climate change will greatly divide forests around the world.
Eventually we expected something similar, where we found some areas that would respond and some areas did not, ‘Trant told SmithsonianMag.
“And what we saw was a fairly uniform reaction.”
The fact that tree lines are growing would cause some speculated forest species to be thriving, but that is not always the case.
Those threatened by the changes usually live in what were once alpine habits, such as white children’s pain, flowers such as moss camp, and birds such as Clark’s nutcracker.
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