scholarly journals Resistance, resilience, and recovery of salt marshes in the Florida Panhandle following Hurricane Michael

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Castagno ◽  
Tori Tomiczek ◽  
Christine C. Shepard ◽  
Michael W. Beck ◽  
Alison A. Bowden ◽  
...  

AbstractCharacterizing the fragility, resistance, and resilience of marshes is critical for understanding their role in reducing storm damages and for helping to manage the recovery of these natural defenses. This study uses high-resolution aerial imagery to quantify the impacts of Hurricane Michael, a category 5 hurricane, on coastal salt marshes in the Florida Panhandle, USA. Marsh damage was classified into several categories, including deposition of sediment or wrack, fallen trees, vegetation loss, and conversion to open water. The marshes were highly resistant to storm damages even under extreme conditions; only 2% of the 173,259 km2 of marshes in the study area were damaged—a failure rate much lower than that of artificial defenses. Marshes may be more resistant than resilient to storm impacts; damaged marshes were slow to recover, and only 16% of damaged marshes had recovered 6 months after landfall. Marsh management mattered for resistance and resilience; marshes on publicly-managed lands were less likely to be damaged and more likely to recover quickly from storm impacts than marshes on private land, emphasizing the need to incentivize marsh management on private lands. These results directly inform policy and practice for hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, adaptation, and conservation, particularly given the potential for more intense hurricane landfalls as the climate changes.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Maria Sarika ◽  
Andreas Zikos

Biologia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saverio Sciandrello ◽  
Valeria Tomaselli

AbstractAn overview of the salt-marsh herbland and scrub vegetation belonging to the class Salicornietea fruticosae Br.-Bl. et Tx. ex A. Bolòs y Vayreda 1950 in Apulia is presented. Data available from literature have been supplemented with original relevés performed in different locations of the Apulia region. On the basis of a total of 297 relevés, fifteen communities have been defined, according to the traditional phytosociological system based on dominant and/or diagnostic taxa. For comparison purposes, the salt-marsh vegetation has been classified using numerical methods. The results obtained show that most of the clusters correspond to specific associations, and confirm the division into vegetation alliances and orders. Numerical analysis also allowed us to assign the proper allocation of some associations and plant communities drawn from literature. Five alliances, with plant communities characterized by specific ecological features, have been discriminated: Sarcocornion alpini and Arthrocnemion glauci (lower marshes), Salicornion fruticosae (middle marshes), Inulion crithmoidis and Suaedion brevofoliae (upper marshes). In addition, during the field work, a population of Halocnemum strobilaceum (Arthrocnemo-Halocnemetum strobilacei), new record for the Apulia region, has been found.


2014 ◽  
pp. 180-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Greenberg ◽  
Augusto Cardoni ◽  
Bruno J. Ens ◽  
Xiaojing Gan ◽  
Juan Pablo Isacch ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-402
Author(s):  
Xue Han ◽  
Gregory E Frey ◽  
Changyou Sun

Abstract Abstract Forest-management burns have been widely acknowledged as a useful land-management tool in the United States. Nevertheless, fire is inherently risky and may lead to severe damages or create smoke that affects public health. Past research has not explored the difference in policy and practice between open burns, which meet minimum legal criteria, and certified prescribed burns, which follow a higher standard of care. This study seeks to understand the distinction between legal open burns and certified prescribed burns, and, furthermore, to identify trends by type of burn in the Southeast United States. To that end, we compared statutes, regulations, incentives, and notifications of fire as a forest-management tool among nine states in the US Southeast. We found no steady time trends in number or area of burns among the states for the past decade. A nontrivial proportion of legal open burns, which tend to be smaller burns, are noncertified burns, meaning they meet minimum legal requirements, but not the higher standard required for certified prescribed burns.


Oryx ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Lindsey ◽  
C. P. Havemann ◽  
R. M. Lines ◽  
A. E. Price ◽  
T. A. Retief ◽  
...  

AbstractLegislative changes during the 1960s–1970s granted user rights over wildlife to landowners in southern Africa, resulting in a shift from livestock farming to wildlife-based land uses. Few comprehensive assessments of such land uses on private land in southern Africa have been conducted and the associated benefits are not always acknowledged by politicians. Nonetheless, wildlife-based land uses are growing in prevalence on private land. In Namibia wildlife-based land use occurs over c. 287,000 km2. Employment is positively related to income from ecotourism and negatively related to income from livestock. While 87% of meat from livestock is exported ≥ 95% of venison from wildlife-based land uses remains within the country, contributing to food security. Wildlife populations are increasing with expansion of wildlife-based land uses, and private farms contain 21–33 times more wildlife than in protected areas. Because of the popularity of wildlife-based land uses among younger farmers, increasing tourist arrivals and projected impacts of climate change on livestock production, the economic output of wildlife-based land uses will probably soon exceed that of livestock. However, existing policies favour livestock production and are prejudiced against wildlife-based land uses by prohibiting reintroductions of buffalo Syncerus caffer, a key species for tourism and safari hunting, and through subsidies that artificially inflate the profitability of livestock production. Returns from wildlife-based land uses are also limited by the failure to reintroduce other charismatic species, failure to develop fully-integrated conservancies and to integrate black farmers sufficiently.


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