AN INVESTIGATION OF HYDROGEOLOGIC, STRATIGRAPHIC, AND STRUCTURAL CONTROLS ON ACER GRANDIDENTATUM COMMUNITIES IN A KARST LANDSCAPE, OWL MOUNTAIN PROVINCE, FORT HOOD MILITARY INSTALLATION, TEXAS

The Owl Mountain Province is located within the Fort Hood Military Installation, an approximately 880 km2 installation established in the 1940s in Bell and Coryell counties, Texas, which has undergone extensive land use changes associated with military training, maintaining much of the vegetation in early succession. This study investigates thelithologic, stratigraphic, and structural controls on the hydrologic, hydrogeologic, and geomorphologic evolution of the Owl Mountain Province as expressed by mesic vegetation communities, including Pleistocene relicts Acer grandidentatum, within karst terrains. These systems exhibit complexly overprinted speleogenetic evolutions within a dynamic groundwater regime resulting from regional climate shifts throughout the Neogene that have been complicated by extensive anthropogenic modifications as a result of urbanization, agriculture, and expanding populations in the region. Landscape evolution and the resulting vegetation patterns, examined through the prism of hydrologic and geologic principles, are investigated throughout the inter-disciplinary nature of this study and used as the foundation for the explanation of the floristic phenomena observed within the Owl Mountain Province

Geochemical Characterization of Base Metals in Stream Water and Sediments in the Caddo Lake Watershed, Cass, Harrison, and Marion Counties, Texas

The Caddo Lake watershed is located in northeastern Texas and encompasses much of Cass, Harrison, and Marion counties. The watershed is drained by major streams and tributaries flowing in an easterly direction over Eocene-aged rocks and sediments of the Wilcox and Claiborne groups, and empty into the western arm of Caddo Lake. Since 1995, Caddo Lake and some of its tributaries have been included on the State of Texas Clean Water Act 303(d) list by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for impairment due to mercury content in edible tissue, depressed dissolved oxygen, base metal concentrations, and low pH values. The purpose of this multi-year study was to characterize base metal concentrations in stream water and sediments in the Caddo Lake watershed, and document the potential watershed transport and contribution to the impairment of Caddo Lake. Recent water (n = 58) and sediment (n = 116) sampling at 29 sites revealed copper, lead, and zinc concentrations within normal limits and below EPA actionable standards. Mercury concentrations were elevated at 21 of the 29 sampling sites, which could lead to methylation and bioavailability to organisms at all trophic level

Structural Control of Mesic Vegetation Communities within the Owl and Bear Creek Watersheds, Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas

The Fort Hood Military Installation is a karst landscape, dominated by Lower Cretaceous carbonates of the Trinity and Fredericksburg groups. The study area is the northeastern peninsula known as the Owl Mountain Province, utilized by the U.S. Army for troop maneuvers and training. The geomorphic evolution of the province has been controlled by the structural development of incised canyons in the Owl and Bear creek watersheds, following the deformational trend of the Balcones/Ouachita fault system and the transverse Belton High-Central Texas Reef Trend. These trends control cave development in the subsurface, karst manifestations at the surface, joints in outcrop, stream orientation, and vegetation associations. Previous transect vegetation surveys identified nine discrete areas of Acer grandidentatum habitat confined to mesic slot canyons in the watersheds. Traditional vegetation modeling has relied heavily on slope and aspect as key elements controlling ecological associations and soil moisture; in karst landscapes, permeability and solutional widening of conduits formed by local and regional deformation events can influence the location and ecological stability of these vegetation communities. Orientation trends derived from geologic mapping and spatial analyses of this karst landscape support the hypothesis that regional deformation events have exerted structural control on the relict mesic vegetation population

An Investigation of Hydrogeologic, Stratigraphic, and Structural Controls on Acer Grandidentatum Communities in a Karst Landscape, Owl Mountain Province, Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas

The Owl Mountain Province is located within the Fort Hood Military Installation, an approximately 880 km2 installation established in the 1940s in Bell and Coryell counties, Texas, which has undergone extensive land use changes associated with military training, maintaining much of the vegetation in early succession. This study investigates thelithologic, stratigraphic, and structural controls on the hydrologic, hydrogeologic, and geomorphologic evolution of the Owl Mountain Province as expressed by mesic vegetation communities, including Pleistocene relicts Acer grandidentatum, within karst terrains. These systems exhibit complexly overprinted speleogenetic evolutions within a dynamic groundwater regime resulting from regional climate shifts throughout the Neogene that have been complicated by extensive anthropogenic modifications as a result of urbanization, agriculture, and expanding populations in the region. Landscape evolution and the resulting vegetation patterns, examined through the prism of hydrologic and geologic principles, are investigated throughout the inter-disciplinary nature of this study and used as the foundation for the explanation of the floristic phenomena observed within the Owl Mountain Province

An Investigation of Hydrogeologic, Stratigraphic, and Structural Controls on Acer Grandidentatum Communities in a Karst Landscape, Owl Mountain Province, Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas

The Owl Mountain Province is located within the Fort Hood Military Installation, an approximately 880 km2 installation established in the 1940s in Bell and Coryell counties, Texas, which has undergone extensive land use changes associated with military training, maintaining much of the vegetation in early succession. This study investigates thelithologic, stratigraphic, and structural controls on the hydrologic, hydrogeologic, and geomorphologic evolution of the Owl Mountain Province as expressed by mesic vegetation communities, including Pleistocene relicts Acer grandidentatum, within karst terrains. These systems exhibit complexly overprinted speleogenetic evolutions within a dynamic groundwater regime resulting from regional climate shifts throughout the Neogene that have been complicated by extensive anthropogenic modifications as a result of urbanization, agriculture, and expanding populations in the region. Landscape evolution and the resulting vegetation patterns, examined through the prism of hydrologic and geologic principles, are investigated throughout the inter-disciplinary nature of this study and used as the foundation for the explanation of the floristic phenomena observed within the Owl Mountain Province

Conservation and Use of Coastal Wetland Forests in Louisiana

The natural ecosystems of coastal Louisiana reflect the underlying geomorphic processes responsible for their formation. The majority of Louisiana\u27s wetland forests are found in the lower reaches of the Mississipp Alluvial Valley and the Deltaic Plain. The sediments, water, and energy of the Mississippi River have shaped the Deltaic Plain as natural deltas have been formed and abandoned over the last 5,000 years (Coleman et al. 1998). During the regressive or constructional phase of the delta cycle, the system is dominated by freshwater riverine inputs with the formation of corresponding freshwater marshes and swamps, which then deteriorate during the marine-dominated transgressive phase (Roberts 1997). These processes have resulted in the current coastal landscape of bottomland hardwood forests on the remnant natural levees of the distributary channels with swamps dominated by baldcypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) L.C. Rich.), pondcypress (Taxodium ascendens Brongn.) and water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica L.) occupying lower elevations (Penfound 1952; Mitsch and Gosselink 2003)