[Taxacom] Macroslope

[Michael A. Ivie]

Sounds like a "drainage"

Alex Borisenko wrote:
> Hi Neil,
>
> "Macroslope" in its Russian meaning refers more to geography than to 
> landscape characteristics (e.g., elevation patterns). With some 
> reservations, it could be approximated by, say, the mountainous part of 
> the entire catchment basin of a large mountain system or ridge - quite 
> close to the definition outlined by Robin. As such, it will include all 
> slopes and valleys pointing in the same approximate direction (e.g., 
> south, west, etc.) and will disregard all the variation happening 
> within, e.g., the aspects of all the 'little' slopes within it. As 
> previously mentioned, this term is rather vague and intuitive and 
> appears to have no strict definition - even in Russian. Despite all 
> this, it has been quite operational, e.g., in characterizing the 
> distribution of certain organisms or even whole communities which have 
> problems penetrating through the central portion of large mountain 
> systems (take the Himalayas as an example) - hence its wide usage in the 
> country of origin. Apparently, English has survived without this term 
> for centuries, but there seems to be no better way of translating it 
> from Russian...
>
> Best wishes,
> Alex
>
>
>
> Neil Bell wrote:
>   
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I notice that "microslope" also has some hits in google.
>>
>> Extrapolating from context, it seems that "macroslope" is used to mean 
>> variation in elevation over a large area (i.e. at a course resolution), 
>> while "microslope" is over a small area or at a fine resolution, i.e. 
>> they are aspects of topography at different scales. Perhaps the 
>> important thing is that a given point could exist on a macroslope of one 
>> gradient and a microslope of another, and that both of these could be 
>> independently significant?
>>
>> I also wondered at first whether macro/micro could refer to magnitude of 
>> gradient, but this doesn't seem to be how the words are used.
>>
>> Neil.
>>
>>
>>
>> Alex Borisenko wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Hi Robin,
>>>
>>> The term 'macroslope' (in its Russian form - "макросклон") is actively 
>>> used in Russian biogeographic literature in the meaning you had 
>>> outlined, although there seem to be no 'official' definitions for it in 
>>> any specialized Russain dictionaries (at least online), which is odd.
>>> Occurrences of the English word that I was able to confirm seem to 
>>> originate from papers written by Russian authors, so I do not know if 
>>> this qualifies as 'legitimate' usage. That said, this is a convenient 
>>> way to define parts of large mountain systems with a certain aspect, so 
>>> maybe it is about time to introduce the term anyway...
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>> Alex
>>>
>>>
>>> Robin Leech wrote:
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I found a Russian Geology paper that uses the word "macroslope".
>>>>
>>>> Volodicheva, Natalya. [no date]  #15.  The Caucasus, p. 350-376, illust.
>>>>     IN: Maria Shahgedanova (ed.). The Physical Geography of Northern 
>>>> Eurasia.
>>>>
>>>> The text mentioned above is at least 1998, and "macroslope" is used but not
>>>> defined.
>>>>
>>>> Robin
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>> From: "Frederick W Schueler" <bckcdb at istar.ca>
>>>> Cc: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2008 2:46 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Macroslope
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>     
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>>>> Kleo Pullin wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>     
>>>>>       
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>>>> A while ago I came across this word in a beautiful book about Siberian 
>>>>>> tigers.  The book is, "Riding the Tiger: Tiger Conservation in 
>>>>>> Human-Dominated Landscapes," edited by Richard Burge, John Seidensticker, 
>>>>>> Sarah Christie, Peter Jackson.   John Seidensticker is a big cat 
>>>>>> conservationist at the Smithsonian and might know the word or know which 
>>>>>> of the Russian authors of the papers to ask.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>> * google gives 1080 hits, in many of which it's used as if it were a
>>>>> routine English word.
>>>>>
>>>>> fred.
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>             Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
>>>>>           Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
>>>>>        RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
>>>>>     on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
>>>>>       (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Taxacom mailing list
>>>>> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>>>> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>>>>>
>>>>>     
>>>>>       
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Taxacom mailing list
>>>> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>>> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>     
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>>   
>>     
>
>   

-- 
__________________________________________________
NOTE NEW ADDRESS (As of 01/01/2007 DO NOT USE OLD P.O. BOX ADDRESS):

Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.

For Postal Service, FedEx, UPS or Freight Delivery:

Montana Entomology Collection
Marsh Labs, Room 50      
Montana State University                
1601 S. 19th Ave
Bozeman, MT 59717-3020            
USA                                              

(406) 994-4610 (voice)
(406) 994-6029 (FAX)
mivie at montana.edu