[1] Empirical studies and climate models suggest large variations of absolute sea level (ASL) changes between oceanic basins. Such potential variations raise concern on the applicability of global mean ASL predictions to specific regions and on estimates of relative sea level (RSL) hazards. We address this issue for the western Canada and northwestern United States coastline by estimating the 20th century ASL rate using a combination of 34 colocated tide gauge and Global Positioning System (GPS) stations. The tide gauge data are quality controlled and corrected for spatially and temporally correlated sea level transients in order to derive robust RSL trends and standard errors. Reference frame and other GPS-specific issues are considered as part of the error budget in absolute GPS vertical velocities. Our combined tide gauge-GPS analysis, aligned to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2000, indicates a northeast Pacific ASL rise of 1.8 ± 0.2 mm/a through the 20th century, which is similar to accepted rates for the global eustatic mean. For the period 1993-2003, we find a regional ASL rate of À4.4 ± 0.5 mm/a consistent with satellite altimetry. On the basis of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 4 mean scenario and our assessment of coastal motions from GPS and tide gauge data, we derive a map of predicted 21st century RSL rise in western Canada and the northwestern United States. Variations in coastal uplift strongly affect spatial RSL patterns. Subsidence of southern Puget Sound may significantly increase RSL rise in the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area. Conversely, tectonic uplift along parts of the outer west coast may reduce future RSL rise by up to 50-100%.Citation: Mazzotti, S., C. Jones, and R. E. Thomson (2008), Relative and absolute sea level rise in western Canada and northwestern United States from a combined tide gauge-GPS analysis,

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Surveys for signs of attack by Asian long-horned beetles, Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), currently rely upon visual examination of trees to discover signs of attack. By embedding simulated A. glabripennis oviposition pits and exit holes on open-grown Norway maples, Acer platanoides L. (Aceraceae), we evaluated the effect of sign density, height (below or above 2.5m), and position (bole or branch) when foliage was present or absent on inspector ability to distinguish trees with or without signs. From this, we quantified detectability, or the proportion of trees correctly identified as infested, and determined the time taken to do so. Effectiveness in detecting trees with signs improved when sign density increased, when signs were below 2.5m, and when oviposition pits were located on boles and exit holes on branches. These main findings require some caveats, due to a number of significant interactions. Foliage presence/absence had no apparent influence on effectiveness; possible reasons are provided for this result. Time-to-find curves, which illustrated the proportion of inspectors who accurately identified an infested tree as a function of survey duration, revealed that for most treatment combinations, most infested trees were detected within the first 2 min of survey time. These findings provide baseline data to assist managers in designing effective protocols for ground surveys of A. glabripennis.

Discovery of the non-native Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Ontario, Canada, in 2003 led to the implementation of an eradication programme. The plan consisted of removing all infested trees and all trees belonging to a genus considered suitable for complete development of this wood-borer that were found within 400 m of an infested tree; however, many of the trees within that 400 m belonged to genera for which suitability for development of A. glabripennis was questionable or unknown. We visually inspected over 3000 such trees annually for the three years following removal of infested trees. All but one tree were unattacked: an ash (Fraxinus excelsior Linnaeus (Oleaceae)) tree had signs of oviposition and early-instar development, but not of adult emergence. Before that survey, we had found only one other species with questionable suitability, a little leaf linden (Tilia cordata Miller (Malvaceae)) that had many signs of oviposition, but no evidence of full development, suggesting resistance to A. glabripennis. Both of these trees were within 200 m of the most heavily infested maple (Acer platanoides Linnaeus (Sapindaceae)) tree found in that infestation, suggesting that colonisation of trees with questionable or unknown suitability might occur mostly where population pressure is high.