Hurricane Wilma’s impact on overall soil elevation and zones within the soil profile in a mangrove forest

Soil elevation affects tidal inundation period, inundation frequency, and overall hydroperiod, all of which are important ecological factors affecting species recruitment, composition, and survival in wetlands. Hurricanes can dramatically affect a site’s soil elevation. We assessed the impact of Hurricane Wilma (2005) on soil elevation at a mangrove forest location along the Shark River in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA. Using multiple depth surface elevation tables (SETs) and marker horizons we measured soil accretion, erosion, and soil elevation. We partitioned the effect of Hurricane Wilma’s storm deposit into four constituent soil zones: surface (accretion) zone, shallow zone (0–0.35 m), middle zone (0.35–4 m), and deep zone (4–6 m). We report expansion and contraction of each soil zone. Hurricane Wilma deposited 37.0 (±3.0 SE) mm of material; however, the absolute soil elevation change was + 42.8 mm due to expansion in the shallow soil zone. One year post-hurricane, the soil profile had lost 10.0 mm in soil elevation, with 8.5 mm of the loss due to erosion. The remaining soil elevation loss was due to compaction from shallow subsidence. We found prolific growth of new fine rootlets (209 ± 34 SE g m−2) in the storm deposited material suggesting that deposits may become more stable in the near future (i.e., erosion rate will decrease). Surficial erosion and belowground processes both played an important role in determining the overall soil elevation. Expansion and contraction in the shallow soil zone may be due to hydrology, and in the middle and bottom soil zones due to shallow subsidence. Findings thus far indicate that soil elevation has made substantial gains compared to site specific relative sea-level rise, but data trends suggest that belowground processes, which differ by soil zone, may come to dominate the long term ecological impact of storm deposit

Lifelong Youthfulness and Usefulness: What's Age Got to Do With It?

Acting as moderator is J P Ouellette, HUMS Practicum IV. Dr. Ann Jache, UAA Sociology Dept., Chair, Gerontology Minor, Casey Smith, world class snowboarder, Arliss Sturgulewski, distinguished Alaska State Legislator, Dr. Richard Newman, founder of The Total Health Clinic, Anchorage, and Willie Hensley, Alaska Native leader, Distinguished Professor in Public Policy and Administration. This event is presented by UAA Human Services classes: Adulthood and Aging and Practicum II, III, IV

Pattern

The word “pattern” is a very complex term. Generally, it refers to “an arrange- ment that reveals an order, or design, which is meaningful” (cf. Thaker 1999: 427). But a quick look at many of its different domains of application (e.g. theoretical biology, mathematics, aesthetics, linguistics, etc., etc.) proves that “pattern” has a semantic potential richer than one usually expressed by such a definition. For instance, in the framework of the so-called combinatorics on words (cf. at least Lothaire 2012), a pattern is “a word over an alphabet of variables and is meant to describe some kind of repetitive structures” (cf. Rampersard 2017: 98). Therefore, in this first theoretical approach, “the pattern XX over the single variable X is meant to describe the repetition of the same word twice in succession” (cf. Rampersard 2017: 98)

The call of the road: factors predicting students’ car travelling intentions and behaviour

Automobile use, Travel patterns, Theory of planned behaviour, Habit,