2020 hurricane impact assessment for the northern Gulf of Mexico: Hurricane Sally and Hurricane Zeta

Regional-scale shoreline and beach volume changes are quantified using the Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise’s digital elevation model products in a change detection framework following the passage of the two landfalling hurricanes, Hurricanes Sally and Zeta, along the northern Gulf Coast in late fall 2020. Results derived from this work include elevation change raster products and a standard set of beach volume and shoreline change metrics. The rapid turn-around and delivery of data products to include volume and shoreline change assessments provide valuable information about the status of the coastline and identification of areas of significant erosion or other impacts, such as breaching near Perdido Key, FL, from Hurricane Sally’s impact. These advanced change detection products help inform sediment budget development and support decisions related to regional sediment management and coastal storm risk management.

Habitat-Suitability Model for the Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) in the Northern Gulf Coast of Alabama and Mississippi, USA

The yellow rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) is a migratory bird of high conservation priority throughout its range and winters across the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains regions of the southeastern United States. Although the winter ecology of this species has been recently explored, no studies have addressed their distribution and abundance in relation to suitable habitat capable of supporting this species during winter along the northern Gulf Coast of Alabama and Mississippi. The objectives of this study were to develop a habitat-suitability model for yellow rail wintering in the northern Gulf Coast of Alabama and Mississippi. We then used this model to evaluate the distribution of habitat suitable for supporting yellow rail in this geographic area. Using a multivariate approach that makes use of presence-only data through a maximum entropy framework we compared the distribution of where the focal species was observed to a reference set of the whole study area. Of the 784,657 ha over which our model was applied, only 1% (8643 ha) of this area was predicted suitable in its present condition, for supporting yellow rail in winter. Our analysis indicates that the yellow rail along the northern Gulf Coast of Alabama and Mississippi occupy a very narrow range of environmental conditions highlighting need for specific management actions to maintain and conserve suitable winter landscapes for this habitat-restricted species.

Birds of Summer Solstice: World-Renewal Rituality on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida

Prevalent as bird imagery is in the ritual traditions of eastern North America, the bony remains of birds are relatively sparse in archaeological deposits and when present are typically viewed as subsistence remains. A first-millennium ad civic-ceremonial centre on the northern Gulf Coast of Florida contains large pits with bird bones amid abundant fish bone and other taxa. The avian remains are dominated by elements of juvenile white ibises, birds that were taken from offshore rookeries at the time of summer solstices. The pits into which they were deposited were emplaced on a relict dune with solstice orientations. The timing and siting of solstice feasts at this particular centre invites discussion of world-renewal rituality and the significance of birds in not only the timing of these events but also possibly as agents of balance and rejuvenation.

Maritime Ritual Economies of Cosmic Synchronicity: Summer Solstice Events at a Civic-Ceremonial Center on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida

Places such as Poverty Point, Mound City, and Chaco Canyon remind us that the siting of ritual infrastructure in ancient North America was a matter of cosmological precedent. The cosmic gravity of these places gathered persons periodically in numbers that challenged routine production. Ritual economies intensified, but beyond the material demands of hosting people, the siting of these places and the timing of gatherings were cosmic work that preconfigured these outcomes. A first millennium AD civic-ceremonial center on the northern Gulf Coast of Florida illustrates the rationale for holding feasts on the end of a parabolic dune that it shared with an existing mortuary facility. Archaeofauna from large pits at Shell Mound support the inference that feasts were timed to summer solstices. Gatherings were large, judging from the infrastructure in support of feasts and efforts to intensify production through oyster mariculture and the construction of a large tidal fish trap. The 250-year history of summer solstice feasts at Shell Mound reinforces the premise that ritual economies were not simply the amplification of routine production. It also suggests that the ecological potential for intensification was secondary to the cosmic significance of solstice-oriented dunes and their connection to mortuary and world-renewal ceremonialism.

Managing Centrarchid Fisheries in Rivers and Streams

<em>Abstract.</em>—Coastal rivers provide important fishing opportunities throughout the southeastern United States. Black bass <em> Micropterus </em>spp. are major components of these fisheries and are highly valued by anglers, especially in northwest Florida, where few impoundments exist. In the Escambia and Yellow rivers, as in most other rivers on the northern Gulf Coast, salinity is low in the upper segments but may exceed 13‰ in the lower, mesohaline sections. Both rivers are located within the natural intergrade zone between Largemouth Bass <em> M. salmoides </em>and Florida Bass <em> M. floridanus</em>, and the age and size structure of fish inhabiting riverine reaches differ considerably from those in salt marsh habitats. We collected tissue samples from fish in both the riverine and salt marsh habitats in the Escambia and Yellow rivers and conducted genetic analyses to determine whether individuals from the two habitat types exist as a single randomly mating (panmictic) population in each system. Analysis of 15 microsatellite loci identified significant differences in the allele frequency distributions of samples collected from riverine versus salt marsh habitats in each river. Both rivers were found to be inhabited by intergrade populations that included pure Largemouth Bass and hybrids between Largemouth Bass and Florida Bass. Fish in the salt marsh habitats tended to have more Largemouth Bass alleles than fish in riverine habitats in both systems. Together, these findings indicate fish in the salt marsh and river habitats do not exist in panmixia and have different genetic compositions. Environmental differences between the riverine and estuarine habitats may have led to divergent selection and limited mating between subpopulations within the same river system. Largemouth Bass alleles may confer greater fitness than Florida Bass alleles in estuarine environments of the northern Gulf Coast, which could explain the greater frequencies of Largemouth Bass alleles in these unique habitats.