A possible role for river restoration enhancing biodiversity through interaction with wildfire

BackgroundHistorically, wildfire regimes produced important landscape-scale disturbances in many regions globally. The “pyrodiversity begets biodiversity” hypothesis suggests that wildfires that generate temporally and spatially heterogeneous mosaics of wildfire severity and post-burn recovery enhance biodiversity at landscape scales. However, river management has often led to channel incision that disconnects rivers from their floodplains, desiccating floodplain habitats and depleting groundwater. In conjunction with predicted increases in frequency, intensity and extent of wildfires under climate change, this increases the likelihood of deep, uniform burns that reduce biodiversity.Predicted synergy of river restoration and biodiversity increaseRecent focus on floodplain re-wetting and restoration of successional floodplain habitat mosaics, developed for river management and flood prevention, could reduce wildfire intensity in restored floodplains and make the burns less uniform, increasing climate-change resilience; an important synergy. According to theory, this would also enhance biodiversity. However, this possibility is yet to be tested empirically. We suggest potential research avenues.Illustration and future directionsWe illustrate the interaction between wildfire and river restoration using a restoration project in Oregon, USA. A project to reconnect the South Fork McKenzie River and its floodplain suffered a major burn (“Holiday Farm” wildfire, 2020), offering a rare opportunity to study the interaction between this type of river restoration and wildfire; specifically, the predicted increases in pyrodiversity and biodiversity. Given the importance of river and wetland ecosystems for biodiversity globally, a research priority should be to increase our understanding of potential mechanisms for a “triple win” of flood reduction, wildfire alleviation and biodiversity promotion

Posture alignment and the surrounding musculature

It is reported that musculoskeletal conditions are the most common reason to seek medical consultations in the U.S., therefore, it is important to find the underlying cause of the pain and discomfort that society is experiencing (Osar, 2012). When examining the musculoskeletal system and how it is interconnected with the nervous system, it can be found that society as a whole experiences dysfunction from simple everyday movement patterns that can lead to injury and pain (Page, 2014). One’s posture is critical to health and wellness, and activities of daily living as the core and the spine are crucial in determining how the rest of the body moves and functions. The position of the spine is determined by the neuromuscular system surrounding the spine and along the kinetic chain which affects an individual’s movement patterns. Evidence indicates any small deviation along the kinetic chain will result in change to the neuromuscular system and the increased risk of injury or pain. Because posture and the risk of injury or pain are correlated, it is critical to be able to differentiate between good posture and the different types of posture deviations. The purpose of this paper is to define good posture and provide an understanding of the underlying causes of postural deviations. An analysis of the four types of postural deviations – lordosis, kyphosis, flat back, and sway back will provide the ability to recognize the common types of postural deviations and provide a structured approach to correcting each type of postural deviation.Thesis (B.?)Honors Colleg

Seismic resilience of interdependent built environment for integrating structural health monitoring and emerging technologies in decision-making

The functionality of interdependent infrastructure and resilience to seismic hazards have become a topic of importance across the world. The ability to optimize an engineered solution and support informed decisionmaking is highly dependent on the availability of comprehensive datasets and requires substantial effort to ingest into community-scale models. In this paper, a comprehensive seismic resilience modeling methodology is developed, with detailed multi-disciplinary datasets, and is explored using the state-of-the-science algorithms within the Interdependent Networked Community Resilience Modeling Environment (IN-CORE). The methodology includes a six-step chained/linked process consists of 1) community data and information, 2) spatial seismic hazard analysis using next-generation attenuation, 3) interdependent community model development, 4) physical damage and functionality analysis, 5) socio-economic impact analysis and 6) structural health monitoring (SHM) and emerging technologies (ET). An illustrative case study is presented to demonstrate the seismic functionality and resilience assessment of Shelby County in Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States. From the results discussion, it is then concluded that data from structural health monitoring and emerging technologies is a viable approach to enhance characterising the seismic hazard resilience of infrastructure, enabling rapid and in-depth understanding of structural behaviour in emergency situations. Moreover, considering the momentum of the digitalization era, setting a holistic framework on resilience, which includes SHM and ET, will allow reducing uncertainties that still a challenge to quantify and propagate, supported by sequential updating techniques from Bayesian statistics