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Forest Ecosystems 3rd edition Richard H. Waring Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Richard H. Waring, Steven W. Running
ISBN(s): 9780123706058, 012370605X
Edition: 3
File Details: PDF, 30.32 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
Forest Ecosystems

THIRD EDITION
This page intentionally left blank
Forest
Ecosystems
Analysis at Multiple Scales
THIRD EDITION

Richard H. Waring
DEPARTMENT OF FOREST SCIENCE
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
CORVALLIS, OREGON

Steven W. Running
DEPARTMENT OF ECOSYSTEM AND CONSERVATION SCIENCES
NUMERICAL TERRADYNAMIC SIMULATION GROUP
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
MISSOULA, MONTANA

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Elsevier Academic Press
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright © 2007, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cover Image–Gross primary production for June 2–10, 2003, draped over a digital elevation map of the complex
50,000 km2 forested landscape of western Montana. The calculations for this image combined 250 m resolution
spectral data from MODIS of the fraction of absorbed PAR with 1 km daily surface meteorology (Running et al.,
2004).

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Waring, Richard H.
Forest ecosystems analysis at multiple scales / Richard H. Waring, Steven W. Running. – 3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-12-370605-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Forest ecology. 2. Forest management. I. Running,
S. W. II. Title.
QH541.5.F6W34 2007
577.3–dc22 2007017124

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-12-370605-8

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visit our Web site at www.books.elsevier.com

Printed in the United States of America

07 08 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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R.H.W. dedicates this book to his wife, Doris Carlson Waring,
his partner in love and life for 50 years.

S.W.R. dedicates this book to his wife, Constance C. Running,

who has found fabric art to be a good antidote to
her husband’s preoccupation with his science.
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS

Preface to the Third Edition xi

Preface to the Second Edition xiii
Preface to the First Edition xv
Acknowledgments xvii

1. Forest Ecosystem Analysis at Multiple Time and Space Scales

I. Introduction 1
II. The Scientific Domain of Forest Ecosystem Analysis 2
III. The Space/Time Domain of Ecosystem Analysis 4
IV. Time and Space Scaling from the Stand/Seasonal Level 10
V. Management Applications of Ecosystem Analysis 14
VI. Related Textbooks 16
VII. Web Site for Updated Materials 16

SECTION I. Introduction to Analysis of Seasonal Cycles of Water, Carbon,

and Minerals through Forest Stands
2. Water Cycles
I. Introduction 19
II. Heat and Water Vapor Transfer from Vegetation 21
III. Water Flow through Trees 34
IV. Water Storage and Losses from Snow 46
V. Water Flow across and through Soil 50
VI. Coupled Water Balance Models 52
VII. Summary 57

3. Carbon Cycle
I. Introduction 59
II. Photosynthesis 62
III. Autotrophic Respiration 67
IV. Heterotrophic Respiration 71

vii
viii Contents

V. Modeling Photosynthesis and Respiration 76

VI. Net Primary Production and Allocation 82
VII. Comparison of Forest Ecosystem Models 96
VIII. Summary 98

4. Mineral Cycles
I. Introduction 99
II. Plant Processes Affecting Nutrient Cycling 100
III. Sources of Nutrients 111
IV. Soil and Litter Processes 119
V. Mass Balance and Models of Mineral Cycles 138
VI. Summary 144

SECTION II. Introduction to Temporal Scaling

5. Temporal Changes in Forest Structure and Function
I. Introduction 149
II. Structural Stages in Stand Development 151
III. Functional Responses of Stands at Different Stages in Development 159
IV. Looking Back in Time 162
V. Ecosystem Models, Projections Forward in Time 168
VI. Summary 180

6. Susceptibility and Response of Forests to Disturbance

I. Introduction 183
II. Biotic Factors 184
III. Abiotic Factors 203
IV. Summary 218

SECTION III. Introduction to Spatial Scaling and Spatial/Temporal Modeling

7. Spatial Scaling Methods for Landscape and Regional Ecosystem Analysis
I. Introduction 225
II. Abiotic Site Variables 231
III. Providing the Driving Variables, Climatology 236
IV. Describing the Ecosystem 243
V. Spatially Explicit Landscape Pattern Analysis 257
VI. Data Layer Inconsistencies 259
VII. Summary 259
Contents ix

8. Regional and Landscape Ecological Analysis

I. Introduction 261
II. Horizontal Connections: Biotic Analysis of Forest Patterns 262
III. Vertical Connections: Forest–Atmosphere Interactions 272
IV. Vertical and Horizontal Connections: Regional Biogeochemistry 274
V. Summary 288

9. The Role of Forests in Global Ecology

I. Introduction 291
II. Global Forest Distribution 292
III. Forest–Climate Interactions 300
IV. Forests in the Global Carbon Cycle 303
V. Forests and Biodiversity 310
VI. Sustainability of Global Forests 314
VII. Summary 315

10. Advances in Eddy-Flux Analyses, Remote Sensing, and Evidence of

Climate Change
I. Introduction 317
II. Eddy-Covariance Fluxes 318
III. New Remote Sensing of Forests 328
IV. Climate Change and Forests 339

Epilogue 345
Bibliography 347
Index 409

Color plates appear between pages 220–221; 260–261; 268–269; and at the back of the book.
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

With notification that the second edition of Forest Ecosystems was out of print, we con-
sidered whether a complete revision of the text was warranted. We recognize that the
modeling of forest ecosystem responses has increased significantly in the last decade to
include biodiversity and climatic limitations, but the underlying principles presented in
the second edition appear to remain sound. At the same time, the network of sites that
continuously monitor seasonal and interannual variation in CO2 and water vapor exchange
has grown. By combining data from many sites, new generalities have emerged that should
be shared. Also, we wished to illustrate that forest disturbance and recovery can be more
accurately documented than was previously possible. Finally, with the publication of the
2007 reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we recognize the press-
ing need to provide background material to policy makers charged with designing policies
that reduce carbon emissions and perpetuate healthy forests in an unstable climate with
new mixtures of species.
In our decision to publish a third edition of the textbook, we have corrected errors in
the previous edition, updated color plates, and added Chapter 10 that focuses on new
information. Specifically, we document in the added chapter how climatic change has
already affected forests, offer insights gained from an expanded network of eddy-flux sites,
and provide evidence of improvements in remote sensing technology. To keep up with the
expanded role that remote sensing and modeling will play in predicting and monitoring
the effects of future policies, we provide a web site reference to replace the compact disc
available with the previous edition.

R. H. W.
S. W. R.

xi
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The first edition of Forest Ecosystems: Concepts and Management, with my colleague
William Schlesinger of Duke University, was published in 1985. At that time, most of the
information on forest ecosystems consisted of mass balance analyses conducted on stands
or small watersheds for periods up to one year. Few simulation models were available,
and those that could be tested were largely restricted to predictions of streamflow. Today,
new methods and new models provide a much wider basis for extrapolation, in space as
well as time. In 1991 and again in 1997, William Schlesinger demonstrated his unique
abilities to synthesize and expand our understanding of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
by publishing Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change.
The opportunity to expand the scope of analysis of forest ecosystems was clear. Such
an expansion, however, required new techniques and experience beyond those possessed
by either author of the first edition. With my colleague’s support, I sought a new coauthor
with experience that extended to the global scale. The person with the most noteworthy
experience in scaling the analysis of forest ecosystems was Steven Running at the Uni-
versity of Montana. To my pleasure, he agreed to join me in the endeavor of writing a
major revision of the first edition that emphasized quantitative modeling and extrapolations
across large spatial and time scales.
A broadened perspective of management is essential today. The pressing issues include
regional and global analyses of biodiversity, changes in climatic cycles, implications of
wide-scale pollution, and the possibility of fire, floods, insect out-breaks, and other major
disturbances that extend beyond the limits of political boundaries. Organizing the princi-
ples and providing examples for expanding the horizon of ecosystem analyses were the
challenges in writing the new edition. From our own experience in teaching graduate and
undergraduate courses, we recognize the difficulty in presenting material that crosses many
fields, but the success of expanded integration and problem analysis lies in acquiring new
methods and concepts. To that end we have made an attempt to define terms and to explain
concepts in a variety of ways by providing equations, graphs, and tabular examples.
Many critical facets of ecosystem behavior, as well as future changes in the environ-
ment, remain unknown. Perhaps the best we can do is to distinguish those processes that
have a firm basis for analysis from those that require more research. The search for prin-
ciples that scale, matched with appropriate methods, will be required, regardless of the
quest. We hope that students, faculty, research scientists, and managers of natural resources
will gain confidence in their abilities to predict and to monitor the implications of various
changes. We encourage concern about the long-term implications of policies, in the hopes
that the alternatives considered will sustain ecosystem processes to which many organisms
contribute, and on which all life depends.

R. H. Waring

xiii
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

Our challenge and reasons for writing this book are to share an emerging insight that there
are key linkages between the processes that operate in forests. We emphasize forests in
this book because we know them best and because their long life permits us to evaluate
the effects of periodic disturbance more readily. Our examples, most often, are drawn from
simple cases in which principles are more easily seen and explained. We believe, however,
the principles apply widely, as we show in predicting transpiration and other hydrologic
properties for a variety of forests in differing climatic settings.
In many cases, scientists cannot accurately predict the effects of acid rain, fire suppres-
sion, short-rotation timber harvest, or increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere
on forests or other ecosystems. We believe a diagnostic approach linking a variety of
processes is warranted and that with carefully designed experiments the mysteries will
unravel.
We have striven to provide a cosmopolitan flavor to the book. Because most experi-
mental work has been focused on rather simple systems, our examples are drawn mainly
from temperate and boreal forests. However, the same processes operate in more complex
forests, as references denote. The book is written for upper-level students with some
background in general ecology, inorganic chemistry, physics, and plant physiology. We
hope that specialists will see new implications to their work and be encouraged to develop
integrative experiments. Managers of forest resources (wood products, wildlife, and water)
will find explanations for some of their observations and predictions of the effects of
various management policies.
We owe a debt to earlier studies of ecosystems, particularly those sponsored by the
National Science Foundation in the 1970s as part of the International Biological Program,
which established a group of five major ecosystem programs in the United States, in addi-
tion to earlier work at Hubbard Brook in New Hampshire. For almost a decade, balance
sheets were constructed describing how carbon, water, and minerals are stored or trans-
ported in a variety of forest, grassland, desert, tundra, and aquatic systems.
Much of the basic information has been published in books and other periodicals. A
summary of the international program with listings of data from all woodland sites
appeared in 1981, edited by D. E. Reichle.1 Regional efforts at synthesis have also been
made for the other biomes. These references, as well as the open literature, provide a
description of how forest systems operate.
Few of the research programs, however, involved experiments that evaluated linkages
between major processes. The influence of fire, erosion, wind storms, and epidemic out-
breaks of insects or disease organisms could not be rigorously evaluated until a benchmark

1
Reichle, D. E. (1981). “Dynamic Properties of Forest Ecosystmes.” Int. Biol. Programme No. 23, Cam-
bridge Univ. Press, London and New York.

xv
xvi Preface to the First Edition

for rates of normal processes had been established. The foundation was laid for critical
experiments that could test hypotheses involving how and why ecosystems respond to
periodic disturbances of various kinds. We propose that integrated experiments based on
ecosystem-level insight can provide answers to managers. Whether this is the case, as we
emphasize in interpreting the probability of disturbance in forests, awaits future tests.

R. H. W.
W. H. S.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I GRATEFULLY acknowledge helpful reviews by Michael Ryan, Kevin O’Hara, Michael

Unsworth, Beverly Law, Barbara Bond, Hank Margolis, and John Marshall on early drafts
of one or more of the first six chapters. Kate Lajtha, Dan Binkley, and Kermit Cromack,
Jr. generously offered valuable advice and references for the chapter on mineral cycling.
I owe a special debt to Joe Landsberg and Pam Matson, who not only reviewed and edited
much of the first six chapters but suggested ways to present major sections in a more
logical manner. Ron Neilson and Larry Band provided comprehensive reviews of Chapters
7–9, and Eva Falge redrafted figures from an original publication and consulted on analy-
ses presented from eddy-flux sites in Chapter 10, for which I am most appreciative.
In completing the final manuscript, I leaned heavily on the scientifice advice, editorial
assistance, and enduring friendship of Joe Landsberg, who served as my recent host while
I was on sabbatical leave in Australia. In addition, I thank John Finnigan, Head of the
Centre for Environmental Mechanics, CSIRO, for permitting me access to all CSIRO
research facilities in Canberra, A.C.T. I took special advantage of Graham Smith, who
introduced me to the marvelous computer network and software that CSIRO provides
visiting scientists, and to Greg Heath, who carefully redrafted a number of complicated
figures. Support for my sabbatical year in Australia was obtained through a CSIRO
McMaster Fellowship and a grant received from the Forestry and Forest Products Research
and Development Corporation. In addition, I received salary support from the College of
Forestry, Oregon State University, and a NASA grant (NAGW-4436).
Finally, to Doris, my wife, I promise not to write another book before I retire, and rec-
ognize that my luxury to pursue this and other scientific endeavors for the last 40 years
rests on your love and support, for which I am truly appreciative.

R. H. W.

SEVERAL COLLEAGUES influenced my thinking on how to address regional ecosystem

analysis. Ramakrishna Nemani, my invaluable associate since 1981, has been an integral
contributor to and coauthor of the ideas and implementations of Chapters 7–9. David L.
Peterson and Larry Band introduced me to remote sensing and landscape analysis tech-
niques that were developed into the RHESSys regional modeling package. John Aber,
Pam Matson, and Peter Vitousek were instrumental in the conceptual development of
FOREST-BGC. I shared many intense discussions with Dave Schimel, Chris Field, and
Tom Gower on how to generalize the representation of ecosystem processes at larger
scales. Although many agencies have funded the research featured in this book, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration deserves special thanks. Diane Wickland,
Bob Murphy, and Tony Janetos have sponsored both of our research programs consis-
tently, beginning in the early 1980s when remote sensing and ecological disciplines

xvii
xviii Acknowledgments

seemed to have little in common. In addition, I thank Dan Fagre, Glacier National Park,
for funding all work related to the GNP. My Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group
has had a stream of excellent students who have continued to advance the development
of principles that apply to regional analyses, including Joe Coughlan, George Riggs, Rob
Kremer, Ronni Korol, E. Ray Hunt, Kevin Ryan, Daolan Zheng, Lars Pierce, Joe White,
Peter Thornton, John Kimball, Kathy Hibbard, Galina Churkina, and Mike White. A
number of them built new simulations and images specifically for Chapters 7–9 of this
textbook. Joe Glassy and Saxon Holbrook provided an advanced computing environment
for the laboratory.
Finally, Connie, Trina, and Emily have endured many nights with a husband and father
on the road, rather than at home helping them.

S. W. R.
COMPANION WEB SITE INFORMATION

The companion Web site for this book can be found at:
www.books.elsevier.com/companions/9780123706058
This site contains a link to the authors’ site which contains modeling software, tutorials,
and video clips.
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substance is a true bituminous coal, containing more bitumen than is
found in any other variety. Polished sections of the compact masses
exhibit the peculiar structure of coniferous trees, and prove that the
coal was derived from a species allied to the American Fir.”64 A
similar phenomenon was observed by Doctor Dieffenbach in the
Chathain Islands. In the same bed of peat he was able distinctly to
trace a gradual transition from pure vegetable matter to a mineral
substantially identical with common coal.65

But though Peat may thus, as it should seem, pass directly into pure
Coal, there are many cases in which it first assumes a more
imperfect form, known under the name of Lignite. This substance is
described as of a brownish color, “soft and mellow in consistence
when freshly quarried, but becoming brittle by exposure, the
fracture following the direction of the fibre of the wood.”66 It clearly
occupies an intermediate position between Peat and Coal. Like the
former, it still exhibits the stems and woody fibre of the plants from
which it is derived, very little altered in their structure; while on the
other hand it is already beginning to acquire some of the consistency
and density of Coal; to which also it approaches much more closely
in its chemical composition. It should be remembered, moreover,
that Lignite does not designate a substance of a fixed, invariable
character. On the contrary, under the one general name are
comprised a definite number of varieties, leading from one extreme
to the other by a series of almost insensible gradations; the extreme
variety on one side being scarcely distinguishable from Peat, while
the extreme variety on the other is practically identical with ordinary
Coal. It can hardly be doubted, therefore, that Coal must have the
same origin as Lignite, while it is at least equally certain that Lignite
has been derived from Peat; and we have already seen what
overwhelming evidence may be adduced to show that the origin of
Peat is to be sought for in the sunken swamps and forests of a long
past age.

Lastly, when we come to examine the texture of Coal itself, we find

much to confirm the conclusion at which we have thus arrived. In
beds of pure Coal the remains of many species of plants have been
detected, and sometimes in such abundance as to constitute visibly
the bulk of the Coal. Even large trees are sometimes found standing
erect in the Coal fields, with their bark actually converted into this
mineral. The annexed Figure represents a portion of the stem,
together with the roots of a tall forest tree, Sigillaria, discovered not
long ago in a Coal mine at Saint Helens, near Liverpool. The stem,
which was nine feet high, was found erect in the seam of Coal, while
the roots, ten in number, stretched away into the vegetable soil
beneath.
Fig. 11.—Stem and roots of a Forest Tree, Sigillaria. From a Coal-
mine, near Liverpool.

a, The trunk traversing a bed of Coal.

b, The roots spreading out in the underclay.

Not less than thirty such trees, some of them four or five feet in
diameter, and all incrusted with Coal, were laid bare a short time
since, in a Colliery near Newcastle, within an area of fifty yards
square. “In 1830,” writes Sir Charles Lyell, “a slanting trunk was
exposed in Craigleith quarry, near Edinburgh, the total length of
which exceeded sixty feet. Its diameter at the top was about seven
inches, and near the base, it measured five feet in its greater, and
two feet in its lesser, width. The bark was converted into a thin
coating of the purest and finest Coal.” Again, “in South Staffordshire,
a seam of Coal was laid bare in the year 1844, in what is called an
open work at Parkfield Colliery, near Wolverhampton. In the space of
about a quarter of an acre, the stumps of no less than seventy-three
trees, with their roots attached, appeared, some of them more than
eight feet in circumference. The trunks, broken off close to the root,
were lying prostrate in every direction, often crossing each other.
One of them measured fifteen, another thirty feet in length, and
others less. They were invariably flattened to the thickness of one or
two inches, and converted into Coal. Their roots formed part of a
stratum of Coal ten inches thick, which rested on a layer of clay two
inches thick, below which was a second forest resting on a two-foot
seam of Coal. Five feet below this again was a third forest, with
large stumps of Lepidodendra, Calamites, and other trees.”67

We have now brought to a close a very important line of argument

in the Science of Geology. We have pointed out that, in the strata
which compose the Crust of the Earth, there are rocks of various
kinds, distinguished from one another as well by the nature of the
materials which compose them, as by the manner in which these
materials are arranged together; and we have shown that rocks
presenting the same general appearances, and composed of exactly
the same materials, are being produced in the present age upon the
Surface of the Earth, through the agency of natural causes.
Moreover, we have closely examined, in certain cases, the nature of
the process by which the formation of these rocks is accomplished at
the present day; and we have seen how difficult it is, when the facts
of the case are once clearly before us, to resist the conclusion that
the rocks which we now find buried in the Earth, were produced in
some former age, by the same causes which are still at work. We
shall next proceed to inquire how far this conclusion is confirmed by
the independent evidence of Fossil Remains.
But before entering on a new line of argument, it is fit we should
take notice of an objection which has sometimes been urged against
the reasoning we have hitherto pursued, and which has done much
to create and to keep alive a prejudice unfavorable to the Science of
Geology. Religious writers have not unfrequently insinuated, and
sometimes have plainly asserted, that, in ascribing the present
structure of the Earth’s Crust to the operation of natural causes,
Geologists would seem to make no account of God’s Omnipotence. A
moment’s reflection will convince the reader that this charge is
utterly unphilosophical. Is it not plain that the more fully we
appreciate and acknowledge the wonderful works of Nature, the
more deeply must we become impressed with the power and
wisdom of Him who is the Author and Ruler of Nature? To say that
secondary causes exist, and to point out the monuments that bear
witness to their operation in long passed ages, is not to deny, but
rather to affirm the existence of a Great First Cause, upon whom
they all depend for their existence, their preservation, and their
guidance.

We are everywhere reminded by abundant evidence, that it has

pleased the Great Creator to employ the agency of His creatures in
the fashioning and the adorning of this material universe. He does
not create at once, as He well might do, the great oak of the forest;
but He allows the seed to sink into the earth, where it is watered by
the gentle dews of Heaven, and fructified by the genial warmth of
the sun; soon it puts forth a tender germ; the germ, in time,
imbibing the elements of its support from the air and the earth,
becomes a sappling, and the sappling a tree, which spreads its huge
branches on every side, and serves for many purposes of ornament
and of use. Or let us take the case of the honeycomb, that most
curious and ingenious work, at once the palace and the storehouse
of a vast and busy community. It is not produced in a moment by a
simple act of creation. God has not made it Himself, but He has
taught the bee to make it. In like manner He has provided for the
little birds, not by building their nests, but by infusing into their
nature that mysterious instinct which prompts them to build, and
guides them in their work.

Geologists, therefore, when they undertake to explain the existence

of Stratified Rocks, not by the immediate action of the Creator, but
by the intervention of natural causes, are not on that account to be
accused of impiety. They do not disparage, but rather magnify His
glory, when they expatiate upon the endless variety of agents which,
according to their theory, He has employed in the structure of the
material world. If the honeycomb, as a work of contrivance and
design, excites the wonder and admiration of the philosopher, what
must we think of the contrivance and design exhibited by Him who
has made, not the honeycomb only, but the bee that builds the
honeycomb? And so, too, we get novel and unexpected views of
God’s Omnipotence, when, through the science of Geology, we come
to understand the vast and harmonious series of secondary causes
by which he has brought the Crust of the Earth into its present form
and shape. The impress of His hand is stamped upon His works; and
all that is wonderful and attractive in Nature is but the token of His
power and the shadow of His beauty. And so our national poet has
sung:

“Thou art, O God, the life and light

Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
Are but reflections caught from Thee.
Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are Thine.”
 CHAPTER X.
FOSSIL REMAINS—THE MUSEUM.

Recapitulation—Scope of our argument—Theory of stratified rocks

the framework of geological science—The theory brings geology
into contact with revelation—the line of reasoning hitherto
pursued confirmed by the testimony of fossil remains—Meaning
of the word fossil—Inexhaustible abundance of fossils—Various
states of preservation—Petrifaction—Experiments of Professor
Göppert—Organic rocks afford some insight into the fossil world
—The reality and significance of fossil remains must be learned
from observation—The British Museum—Colossal skeletons—
Bones and shells of animals—Fossil plants and trees.

EADER, you are beginning to suspect us. ‘How long do

we propose to detain people?’ For anything that appears
we may be designing to write on to the twentieth
century. ‘And whither are we going?’ Toward what
object? which is as urgent a quære as, how far?
Perhaps we may be leading you into treason. You feel symptoms of
doubt and restiveness; and like Hamlet with his father’s ghost, “you
will follow us no further unless we explain what it is that we are in
quest of.”

These words of Thomas De Quincey to his readers, in the middle of

one of his discursive essays, which, interesting as they certainly are
in all their parts, yet sometimes beget a feeling of weariness from
the uncomfortable apprehension that they will not come to an end,
are, perhaps, scarcely less appropriate in our own case. It may be
that our readers have been left too long in the uneasy state of
suspense and hope deferred. They came to our pages to look for a
practical solution of the question, Is Geology at variance with the
Bible? And what avails it, they may ask, to discourse to them of the
Gulf Stream, and Rivers, and Glaciers, and Alluvial Plains, and Coral
Rocks, and Coal Mines? With painful steps they have been toiling
after us through tedious disquisitions, straining their eyes to see the
end, but the end is not yet in sight. Well, then, if they will rest for a
few minutes by the way, we will pause, too, and tell them what we
are about, and try to bring out more clearly the object at which we
are aiming.

Our design from the beginning was to consider the points of contact
between Geology and Revelation; to examine the relations that exist
between these two departments of knowledge,—one resting upon
reason and observation, the other given to us from Heaven; and to
inquire how far it may be possible to adopt the conclusions of the
former, while we adhere, at the same time, with unswerving fidelity,
to the unchangeable truths of the latter. With this end in view, we
proceeded at once to sketch out the more prominent features of
Geological theory; not the particular theory of one writer, or of one
school, but that more general theory which is adopted by all writers,
and prevails in every school. This theory, we were all well aware, is
in many points widely at variance with the common notions of
sensible and even well-informed men who have not devoted much
attention to the study of Physical Science. And it occurred to us that,
possibly, many of our readers might be disposed to cut the
controversy short by rejecting, in a summary way, the whole system
of Geology, and treating it as an empty shadow or an idle dream.
This, we were convinced, would be a mistaken and mischievous
course. Geology is not a house of cards that it may be blown down
by a breath. It is a hypothesis, a theory, if you will; but no one can
in fairness deny that behind this theory there are facts,—
unexpected, startling, significant facts; that these facts, when
considered in their relation to one another, when illustrated by the
present phenomena of Nature, and skilfully grouped together, as
they have been by able men, disclose certain general truths, and
suggest certain arguments, which do seem to point in the direction
of those conclusions at which Geologists have arrived.

It follows that he who would investigate fairly the claims of Geology,

must first learn to appreciate the significance of these facts, and to
estimate the value of these arguments. And this is precisely what we
have been trying to do. We are not writing a treatise on Geology.
Certainly not: it would be presumptuous in us, with our scanty
knowledge, to attempt it. Besides, Geology has it own professors,
and its lecture-halls, and its manuals. Neither do we mean to
assume the character of the advocates or champions of Geology. It
does not ask our services; in its cause are enrolled no small
proportion of the most illustrious names which for the last fifty years
have adorned the annals of Physical Science. Nor do we want even
to enforce upon our readers that more general theory of Geology
which we are endeavoring to explain and illustrate. Our purpose is
merely to collect from various sources, and to string together, the
evidence that may be adduced in its favor; that so, when we come
hereafter to consider this theory in its relation with the History of the
Bible, we may not incur the risk of discomfiture by denying that
which has been proved by facts, but rather approach the subject
with such knowledge as may help us to discover the real harmony
that we know to exist between the truths inscribed on the works of
God, and those which are recorded in His Written Word.

In the accomplishment of this task we have devoted ourselves

chiefly to the study of the Aqueous or Stratified Rocks. According to
Geologists, these rocks, such as we find them now, were not the
immediate work of creation, but were slowly produced in the long
lapse of ages, and laid out one above another, by a vast and
complex machinery of secondary causes. The elements of which
they are composed were gathered together from many and various
sources; from the ocean, from the air, from other pre-existing rocks;
and, for aught we know, may have had a long and eventful history
before they came to assume their present structure and
arrangement. Thus, for example, the Conglomerates, and
Sandstones, with which we are so familiar, are made up of broken
fragments derived from earlier rocks, and then transported to distant
sites by the mountain torrents, or the stately rivers of vast
continents, or the silent currents of the sea; the Limestone with
which we build our houses is the work of living animals that once
swarmed in countless myriads beneath the waters of the ocean; and
the Coal which supplies the motive power to our manufactories, our
railways, our ships of war and commerce, is but the modern
representative of ancient swamps and forests, which, having been
buried in the earth, and there, by the action of chemical laws,
endowed with new properties, were laid by for the future use of man
in the great storehouse of Nature.

This mode of accounting for the origin and formation of Stratified

Rocks constitutes in a manner the framework that supports and
binds together the whole system of Geology. If it be once fairly
established, Geology is entitled to take high rank as a Physical
Science. If on the contrary it should prove to be without foundation,
then Geology is no longer a science, but a dream. Moreover, it is this
theory of stratification which, from the first, has brought Geology
into contact with Revelation. For Geologists have been led to infer
the extreme Antiquity of the Earth, from the immense thickness of
the Stratified Rocks on the one hand, and, on the other, the very
slow and gradual process by which each stratum in the series has
been, in its turn, spread out and consolidated. Those likewise who
claim for the Human Race a greater Antiquity than the Bible allows,
seek for their proofs in the supposed origin and antiquity of those
superficial deposits, in which the remains of Man or of his works are
sometimes found entombed.

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the theory of Stratified

Rocks should engage the largest share of our attention when we
undertake to discuss the relation in which Geology stands to
Revealed Religion. For the present we say nothing about the
conclusions that flow from this theory, or the errors to which it has
led when hastily or ignorantly applied: we are only investigating the
evidence by which it is supported. In our former chapters we have
drawn out at some length the line of reasoning which is derived from
the character of the Aqueous Rocks themselves when considered in
the light of Nature’s present operations. We have shown that
Stratified Rocks of many different kinds, just such as those which
compose the Crust of the Earth, have been produced by natural
causes within historic times; and we have explained some of the
more simple and intelligible parts of that complex machinery, which,
even now, is busily at work gathering, sorting, distributing, piling up
together, and consolidating the materials of new strata all over the
world. These considerations, as we took occasion to point out, beget
a strong presumption in favor of Geological theory. Here we have
Nature at work, actually bringing into existence a stratum of rock
before our eyes. And there, in the Crust of the Earth, we find
another stratum of precisely the same kind already finished. What
can be more reasonable than to ascribe the one to the action of the
same causes which we see at work upon the other? And thus, by
extending the area of our observations from one class of Aqueous
Rocks to another, the idea gradually grows upon us that these rocks
have been spread out, stratum upon stratum, during many
successive ages, by the agency of secondary causes similar to those
which are still in operation; and that each stratum, in its turn, as it
first came into existence, was for a time the uppermost of the series.

In support of this conclusion we are now about to bring forward a

new and independent argument founded on the testimony of Fossil
Remains. An eminent writer has summed up in a few words the
value and importance of Fossil Remains in reference to Geological
theory. “At present,” he says, “shells, fishes, and other animals are
buried in the mud or silt of lakes and estuaries; rivers also carry
down the carcases of land animals, the trunks of trees, and other
vegetable drift; and earthquakes submerge plains and islands, with
all their vegetable and animal inhabitants. These remains become
enveloped in the layers of mud and sand and gravel formed by the
waters, and in process of time are petrified, that is, are converted
into stony matter like the shells and bones found in the oldest strata.
Now, as at present, so in all former time must the remains of plants
and animals have been similarly preserved; and, as one tribe of
plant is peculiar to the dry plain, another to the swampy morass; as
one family belongs to a temperate, another to a tropical region, so,
from the character of the embedded plants, we are enabled to arrive
at some knowledge of the conditions under which they flourished. In
the same manner with animals: each tribe has its locality assigned it
by peculiarities of food, climate, and the like; each family has its own
peculiar structure for running, flying, swimming, plant-eating, or
flesh-eating, as the case may be; and by comparing Fossil Remains
with existing races, we are enabled to determine many of the past
conditions of the world with considerable certainty.”68

On this branch of our subject we do not mean to offer much in the

way of argument strictly so called. We shall content ourselves with a
simple statement of facts, and leave them to produce their own
impression. It will be necessary at the outset to explain some
technical matters, that what we have to say hereafter may be the
better understood: and if in this we are somewhat dry and tiresome,
we will try to make amends by the curious and interesting story of
Nature’s long buried works, which we hope in the sequel to unfold.

When the word Fossil was first introduced into the English language,
it was employed to designate, as the etymology suggests, whatever
is dug out of the earth.69 But it is now generally used in a much
more restricted sense, being applied only to the remains of plants
and animals embedded in the Crust of the Earth and there preserved
by natural causes. When we speak of remains, we must be
understood to include even those seemingly transient impressions,
such as foot-prints in the sand, which having been made permanent
by accidental circumstances, and thus engraved, as it were, on the
archives of Nature, now bear witness to the former existence of
organic life.
Now in every part of the world where the Stratified Rocks have been
laid open to view, remains of this kind are found scattered on all
sides in the most profuse abundance. In Europe, in America, in
Australia, in the frozen wastes of Siberia, in the countless islands
scattered over the waters of the Pacific, there is scarcely a single
formation, from the lowest in the series to the highest, that, when it
is fairly explored, does not yield up vast stores of shells, together
with bones and teeth, nay, sometimes whole skeletons of animals;
also fragments of wood, impressions of leaves, and other organic
substances.

Fig. 12.—Fossil Irish Deer (County Fermanagh). In the Museum of

Trinity College, Dublin. From Haughton’s Manual of Geology
These Fossil Remains do not always occur in the same state of
preservation. Sometimes we have the bone, or plant, or shell, in its
natural condition; still retaining not only its own peculiar form and
structure, but likewise the very same organic substance of which it
was originally composed. Examples innumerable may be seen in the
British Museum, or, indeed, in almost any Geological collection: the
fine skeletons of ancient Irish Deer, which are exhibited in the
Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, and of which all the bones are in
excellent preservation, must be familiar to many of our readers.

It happens, however, more frequently that the organic substance

itself has disappeared, but has left an impression on the rock, that
now bears witness to its former presence. Thus, for instance, when
a shell has been dissolved and carried away by water percolating the
rock, it has very often left after it, on the hard stone, a mould of its
outer surface and a cast of its inner surface, with a cavity between
corresponding to the thickness of the shell. In such cases we have
the form, the size, and the superficial markings of the organic body,
but we have no part of its original substance, and no traces of its
internal structure. This form of fossilization, as Sir Charles Lyell has
well put it, “may be easily understood if we examine the mud
recently thrown out from a pond or canal in which there are shells. If
the mud be argillaceous, it acquires consistency in drying, and on
breaking open a portion of it, we find that each shell has left
impressions of its external form. If we then remove the shell itself,
we find within a solid nucleus of clay, having the form of the interior
of the shell.”70 In many cases the space first occupied by the shell is
not left empty when the shell has been removed, but is filled up with
some mineral substance, such as lime or flint. The mineral thus
introduced becomes the exact counterpart of the organic body which
has disappeared; and has been justly compared to a bronze statue,
which exhibits the exterior form and lineaments, but not the internal
organization nor the substance of the object it represents.

There is a third form more wonderful still, in which Fossil Remains

are not uncommonly found. The original body has passed away as in
the former case, and yet not only does its outward shape remain,
but even its internal texture is perfectly preserved in the solid stone
which has taken its place. This kind of change is exhibited most
remarkably in the vegetable kingdom. Fossil trees of great size have
been discovered of which the whole substance has been changed
from wood to stone: yet with such exquisite skill has the change
been effected that the minute cells and fibres, and the rings of
annual growth, may still be clearly traced; nay, even those delicate
spiral vessels which, from their extreme minuteness, can be
discerned only by the aid of the microscope. Thus the tree remains
complete in all its parts; but it is no longer a tree of wood; it is, so to
speak, a tree of stone.

The mystery of this extraordinary transformation has not yet been

fully cleared up by scientific men; but the general principle, at least,
is sufficiently understood. It is thus briefly explained by Sir Charles
Lyell: “If an organic substance is exposed in the open air to the
action of the sun and rain, it will in time putrefy, or be dissolved into
its component elements, consisting usually of oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen, and carbon. These will readily be absorbed by the
atmosphere or be washed away by rain, so that all vestiges of the
dead animal or plant disappear. But if the same substances be
submerged in water, they decompose more gradually; and if buried
in the earth, still more slowly, as in the familiar example of wooden
piles or other buried timber. Now, if as fast as each particle is set
free by putrefaction in a fluid or gaseous state, a particle equally
minute of carbonate of lime, flint, or other mineral is at hand and
ready to be precipitated, we may imagine this inorganic matter to
take the place just before left unoccupied by the organic molecule.
In this manner a cast of the interior of certain vessels may first be
taken, and afterward the more solid walls of the same may decay
and suffer a like transmutation.”71 This exposition, so simple and
luminous in itself, may, perhaps, be rendered still more intelligible to
the general reader by an ingenious illustration of Mr. Jukes. “It is,”
he says, “as if a house were gradually rebuilt, brick by brick, or
stone by stone, a brick or a stone of a different kind having been
substituted for each of the former ones, the shape and size of the
house, the forms and arrangements of its rooms, passages, and
closets, and even the number and shape of the bricks and stones,
remaining unaltered.”72

This singular kind of petrifaction, by which not only the external

form, but even the organic tissue itself, is converted into stone, has
been illustrated, in a very interesting way, by Professor Göppert of
Breslau. With a view to imitate as nearly as he could the process of
Nature, “he steeped a variety of animal and vegetable substances in
waters, some holding siliceous, others calcareous, others metallic
matter in solution. He found that in the period of a few weeks, or
even days, the organic bodies thus immersed were mineralized to a
certain extent. Thus, for example, thin vertical slices of deal, taken
from the Scotch fir, were immersed in a moderately strong solution
of sulphate of iron. When they had been thoroughly soaked in the
liquid for several days, they were dried and exposed to a red heat
until the vegetable matter was burnt up and nothing remained but
an oxide of iron, which was found to have taken the form of the deal
so exactly that casts even of the dotted vessels peculiar to this
family of plants were distinctly visible under the microscope.”73

If we have succeeded in making ourselves understood, the reader

will now have a pretty accurate notion of what is meant, in modern
Geology, by Fossil Remains. They are the remains or impressions of
plants and animals, buried in the earth by natural causes, and
preserved to our time in any one of the three forms we have just
described. Either the body itself remains, still retaining its own
natural substance, together with its external form and its internal
structure. Or secondly, the organic substance and the organic
structure have both disappeared, but the outward form and the
superficial markings have been left impressed on the solid rock. Or
thirdly, the substance of the body has been converted into stone, but
with such a delicate art, that it is in all respects, outwardly and
inwardly, still the same body, with a new substance. We should
observe, however, that these three different forms of fossilization,
which we have successively described, are not always clearly distinct
in actual fossil specimens, but are often curiously blended together
according as the original organic substance has been more or less
completely displaced, or the process of petrifaction has been more
or less perfectly accomplished.

It will probably have occurred to the intelligent reader that we have

already had some insight into the Fossil world, when investigating
the origin of Organic Rocks. We have seen, for instance, that Coal is
the representative to our age of swamps and forests which once
covered the earth with vegetation; that Mountain Limestone is in
great part formed from the skeletons of reef-building corals; that the
White Chalk of Europe is almost entirely derived from the remains of
marine shells. But it should be observed that these and such like
rocks, while they afford us much valuable information about the
ancient organic condition of our planet, are not, strictly speaking,
Fossil Remains. For, not only does the substance of the organic
bodies they represent exhibit an altered character, but the internal
structure has been in great part effaced, and even the outward
forms and superficial markings have disappeared. They contain, it is
true, great multitudes of Fossils. In the Coal, for example, are found,
as we have seen, trunks of trees, together with the impressions of
plants and leaves: in the Chalk and Mountain Limestone, fragments
of shells and corals are often discovered in a state of perfect
preservation. But the bulk of these formations is made up not so
much of Fossil Remains, as of that into which Fossil Remains have
been converted. Coal, for instance, is something more than Fossil
wood; Chalk, and Limestone, and Marble, are something more than
Fossil shells and corals.

Fossil Remains properly so called present a very much more lively

picture of the ancient inhabitants of our Globe. But it is a picture
that can but faintly be conveyed to the mind by the way of mere
verbal description. He who would appreciate aright the reality and
the significance of Fossil Remains must gather his impressions from
actual observation. Let him go, for instance, to the British Museum,
and walk slowly through the long suite of noble galleries which are
there exclusively devoted to this branch of science. He will feel as if
transported into another world, the reality of which he could scarcely
have believed if he had not seen it with his own eyes. Before him,
and behind him, and on each side of him, as he moves along, are
spread out in long array forms of beasts, and birds, and fish, and
amphibious animals, such as he has never seen before, nor dreamt
of in his wildest dreams. Yet much as he may wonder at these
strange figures, he never for a moment doubts that they were once
indued with life, and moved over the surface of the earth, or
disported in the waters of the deep. Nay more, though the forms are
new to him, he will be at no loss, however inexperienced in Natural
History, to find many analogies between the creation in the midst of
which he stands, and the creation with which he has been hitherto
familiar. There are quadrupeds, and bipeds, and reptiles. Some of
the animals were manifestly designed to walk on dry land, some to
swim in the sea, and some to fly in the air. Some are armed with
claws like the lion or the tiger, others have the paddles of a turtle,
and others again have the fins of a fish. Here is an enormous beast
that might almost pass for an elephant, though an experienced eye
will not fail to detect an important difference; and there is an
amphibious monster that suggests the idea of a crocodile; and again
a little further on is an unsightly creature which unites the general
characteristics of the diminutive sloth with the colossal proportions
of the largest rhinoceros.

If left to mere conjecture, the visitor would perhaps suppose that

these uncouth monsters had been brought together by some
adventurous traveller from the remote regions of the world. But no:
he will find on inquiry that the vast majority belong to species which
for centuries have not been known to flourish on the Earth; and that
many of the strangest forms before him have been dug up almost
from beneath the very soil on which he stands,—from the quarries of
Surrey, of Sussex, and of Kent, and from the deep cuttings on the
many lines of railway that diverge from the great metropolis of
London. The life they represent so vividly is, indeed, widely different
from that which flourishes around us; but it is the life not so much of
a far distant country as of a far distant age.

It must not be supposed, however, that such skeletons as those

which first arrest the eye in the galleries of the British Museum—so
colossal in their proportions and so complete in all their details—
fairly exhibit the general character of Fossil Remains. Perfect
skeletons of gigantic animals are rarely to be found. They are the
exception and not the general rule,—the magnificent reward of long
and toilsome exploration, or, it may be, the chance discovery that
brings wealth to the humble home of some rustic laborer. Very
different are the common every day discoveries of the working
Geologist. Disjointed bones and skulls, scattered teeth, fragments of
shells, the eggs of birds, the impressions of leaves,—these are the
ordinary relics that Nature has stored up for our instruction in the
various strata of the Earth’s Crust: and these likewise constitute by
far the greater part of the treasures which are gathered together in
our Geological Museums.

We will suppose, then, that the visitor has gratified his sense of
wonder in gazing at the larger and more striking forms, few in
number, that rise up prominently before him, and seem to stare at
him in return from their hollow sockets: he must next turn his
attention to the cases that stand against the walls, and to the
cabinets that stretch along the galleries in distant perspective. Let
him survey that multitude of bones of every shape and size, and
those countless legions of shells, and then try to realize to his mind
what a profusion and variety of animal life are here represented. And
yet he must remember that this is but a single collection. There are
thousands of others, public and private, scattered over England,
France, Germany, Italy, and beyond the Atlantic, on the continent of
America, and even in Australia; all of which have been furnished
from a few isolated spots,—scarcely more than specks on the
surface of the Globe,—where the interior of the Earth’s Crust has
chanced to be laid open to the explorations of the Geologist.

Lastly, before he leaves this splendid gallery, let him take a passing
glance at the Organic Remains of the vegetable world. There is no
mistaking the forms here presented to his view. He will recognize at
once the massive and lofty trunks of forest trees with their spreading
branches; the tender foliage of the lesser plants; and, in particular,
the graceful fern, which cannot fail to attract his eye by its unrivalled
luxuriance. But if the forms are familiar, how strange is the
substance, of this ancient vegetation! The forest tree has been
turned into sandstone; many of the plants are of the hardest flint;
and the rich green of the fern has given place to the jet black color
of coal. Let him take a magnifying glass and scrutinize the internal
structure of these mineralized remains; for the more closely they are
examined the more wonderful do they appear. He can observe
without difficulty their minute cells and fibres, the exact counterpart
of those which may be seen in the plants that are now growing upon
the earth; he may detect the little seed-vessels on the under surface
of the coaly fern; nay, if he gets a polished transverse section of the
sandstone tree, he may count the rings that mark its annual growth,
and tell the age it attained in its primeval forest.
Fig. 13.—Fossil Wood, from the Carboniferous Limestone of Mayo,
showing the rings of Annual Growth.
 CHAPTER XI.
FOSSIL REMAINS—THE EXPLORATION.

From the museum to the quarry—Fossil fish in the limestone rocks of

Monte Bolca—In the quarries of Aix—In the chalk of Sussex—
The ichthyosaurus or fish-like lizard—Gigantic dimensions of this
ancient monster—Its predatory habits—The plesiosaurus—The
megatherium or great wild beast—History of its discovery—The
mylodon—Profusion of fossil shells—Petrified trees erect in the
limestone rock of Portland—Fossil plants of the coal measures—
The sigillaria—The fern—The calamite—The lepidodendron—Coal
mine of Treuil—Fossil remains afford undeniable evidence of
former animal and vegetable life—Their existence cannot be
accounted for by the plastic power of nature—Nor can it
reasonably be ascribed to a special act of creation.

ROM the galleries of the Museum we must now descend

into the subterranean recesses of the mine and the
quarry. For it is not enough to be familiar with the
appearance of Fossil Remains, as they are laid out for
show by human hands: we must see them also as they
lie embedded in the successive strata of the Earth’s Crust, which are
the shelves of Nature’s cabinet. We shall begin with the celebrated
quarries of Monte Bolca, in Northern Italy, not far from Verona. Here,
in the hard limestone rock, fifty miles from the nearest sea, entire
skeletons of many different species of fish are found embedded in
profuse abundance, and in a wonderful state of preservation. They
lie parallel to the layers of the rock; and, though flattened by
pressure, still retain their scales, bones, fins, nay, even their
muscular tissue, undisturbed and unharmed. Their color is a deep
brown, which forms a remarkable contrast with the creamy hue of
the limestone in which they are enveloped. The quarries have been
worked only by students of Natural History for the sake of Organic
remains, and are, therefore, of very limited extent; yet so abundant
are these fossil treasures that upward of a hundred different species
have been discovered, and thousands of specimens have been
dispersed over the cabinets of Europe. So closely are they
sometimes packed together that many individuals are contained in a
single block.

Fig. 14.—Platax Papilio.

From the limestone of Monte Bolca.
 Fig. 15.—Semiophorus Velicans.
From the limestone of Monte Bolca.

From these facts Geologists have been led to conclude:—that the

strata in question were deposited on the bed of an ancient sea in
which these fishes swam; that the waters of the sea were suddenly
rendered noxious, probably by the eruption of volcanic matter; that
the fishes in consequence perished in large numbers, and were then
almost immediately embedded in the calcareous deposits of which
the strata are composed. These views receive no small confirmation
from a very remarkable phenomenon to which we may be allowed,
in passing, to call attention. In the year 1831 a volcanic island was
suddenly thrown up in the Mediterranean between Sicily and the
African coast; and the waters of the sea were at the same time
observed to be charged with a red mud over a very wide area, while
hundreds of dead fish were seen floating on the surface. Is it not
pretty plain that when the mud subsided many of the fish were
enveloped in the deposit, and thus preserved to future times? If so,
then, we should have an exact modern parallel to the fossil fishes of
Monte Bolca. But for the present it is our purpose rather to describe
facts than to develop theories.74

Near the town of Aix, the ancient capital of Provence, in the south of
France, is a group of strata, consisting chiefly of Conglomerate, Marl,
Gypsum, and Limestone, which has earned for itself no small fame in
the annals of Geology. Besides many curious relics of an extinct
vegetation, these strata yield also an abundance of Fossil Insects,
which emerge from the rocky bed in which they have slept for ages,
with a surprising freshness and a life-like reality. But the quarries of
Aix, like those of Monte Bolca, are chiefly famous for their Fossil
Fish. And in this case, too, as in the former, it would seem as if vast
multitudes had suddenly perished together from some mysterious
cause, and were then as suddenly entombed. They exhibit no mark
of mechanical violence: and yet they are found, not unfrequently,
crowded together as closely as they can fit, in every variety of
position, on the same slab of limestone. A good example of such a
block is represented in our woodcut.
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