Watson’s Ten Caritas Processes with the Lens of Unitary Human Caring Science

The author in this paper articulates how Watson’s caritas processes evolved to caritas-veritas light on virtues, facilitating unitary transformative experience. This shift builds harmonic coherence between major streams of consciousness that focus on (a) the physical and conceptually concrete (objective/quantitative/particulate/determinate); (b) the mental, emotional, meaningful/belief systems (subjective/qualitative/interactive/integrative); and (c) the gestalt of spirit and the natural environment (virtual/quantum/unitary/transformative). The lived experience of harmonically braided streams of consciousness melds human-environment, potentiating health, healing, love, and compassion. Unitary transformative pandimensional awareness unfolds in the consciousness and everyday life of the practicing nurse, facilitating a direct experience of sacred praxis.

Planform and stratigraphic signature of proximal braided streams: remote-sensing and ground-penetrating-radar analysis of the Kicking Horse River, Canadian Rocky Mountains

ABSTRACT Braided rivers have accumulated a dominant fraction of the terrestrial sedimentary record, and yet their morphodynamics in proximal intermountain reaches are still not fully documented—a shortcoming that hampers a full understanding of sediment fluxes and stratigraphic preservation in proximal-basin tracts. Located in the eastern Canadian Cordillera near the continental divide, the Kicking Horse River is an iconic stream that has served as a model for proximal-braided rivers since the 1970s. Legacy work on the river was based solely on ground observations of small, in-channel bars; here we integrate field data at the scale of individual bars to the entire channel belt with time-lapse remote sensing and ground-penetrating-radar (GPR) imaging, in order to produce a more sophisticated morphodynamic model for the river. Cyclical discharge fluctuations related to both diurnal and seasonal variations in melt-water influx control the planform evolution and corresponding stratigraphic signature of trunk channels, intermittently active anabranch channels, and both bank-attached and mid-channel bars. Three-dimensional GPR fence diagrams of compound-bar complexes are built based on the identification of distinct radar facies related to: i) accretion and migration of unit bars, ii) both downstream and lateral outbuilding of bar-slip foresets; iii) buildup of bedload sheets, iv) channel avulsion, and v) accretion of mounded bars around logs or outsized clasts. Trends observed downstream-ward include decreases in gradient and grain size decreases, trunk-channel shrinkage, intensified avulsion (with increase in abundance for anabranch channels), and a shift from high-relief to low-relief bar topography. The integration of ground sedimentology, time-lapse remote sensing, and GPR imaging demonstrates that proximal-braided streams such as the Kicking Horse River can be critically compared to larger systems located farther away from their source uplands despite obvious scale differences.

Altered fluvial patterns in North China indicate rapid climate change linked to the Permian-Triassic mass extinction

The causes of the severest crisis in the history of life around the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) remain controversial. Here we report that the latest Permian alluvial plains in Shanxi, North China, went through a rapid transition from meandering rivers to braided rivers and aeolian systems. Soil carbonate carbon isotope (δ13C), oxygen isotope (δ18O), and geochemical signatures of weathering intensity reveal a consistent pattern of deteriorating environments (cool, arid, and anoxic conditions) and climate fluctuations across the PTB. The synchronous ecological collapse is confirmed by a dramatic reduction or disappearance of dominant plants, tetrapods and invertebrates and a bloom of microbially-induced sedimentary structures. A similar rapid switch in fluvial style is seen worldwide (e.g. Karoo Basin, Russia, Australia) in terrestrial boundary sequences, all of which may be considered against a background of global marine regression. The synchronous global expansion of alluvial fans and high-energy braided streams is a response to abrupt climate change associated with aridity, hypoxia, acid rain, and mass wasting. Where neighbouring uplands were not uplifting or basins subsiding, alluvial fans are absent, but in these areas the climate change is evidenced by the disruption of pedogenesis.

Are we overlooking the eco-geomorphic importance of wood in braided rivers?: A case study in Grand Teton National Park

A decades-long body of research has hypothesized a fundamental incompatibility between braided rivers, which form due to a lack of bank cohesion and a highly-mobile channel bed, with vegetation, which stabilizes channel surfaces and hinders sediment mobilization. At the same time, many researchers have observed high densities of wood, occurring either as large jams or dense stands of mature trees, along the braid plain of multi-thread rivers worldwide. Here we seek to reconcile the perceived incompatibility of wood and braided rivers with the high densities of vegetation found along these streams using two multi-thread, gravel-bed rivers in Grand Teton National Park. In August of 2017, we completed topographic surveys along ~500 m reaches of Pacific and Pilgrim Creeks, tributaries to the Snake River in Jackson Hole. We seek to compare digital elevation models generated from these surveys with 2014 elevation data collected via airborne lidar to determine whether in-channel wood drives increases in bar density, depth variability, and in-channel habitat suitability for native salmonids. While the majority of our efforts following the August 2017 field campaign have been focused on lidar data processing and cleaning, our initial results indicate that wood is a dominant driver of bar formation in both Pilgrim and Pacific Creek, and may be the dominant driver of depth variability (e.g., pool scour) in gravel-bed braided streams in Grand Teton National Park. Featured photo by Grand Teton on Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/MyszYZ

Recent coastline changes of fan-deltas in the Western Gulf of Corinth, Central Greece

This study deals with the assessment of recent shoreline change rates along the fandeltas of Finix, Tholopotamo, Lagadi, Meganitas, Selinous, Kerinitis, and Vouraikos streams by using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques. These Late Holocene fandeltas have been formed by high gradient braided streams that deposit their coarse sediment load along the southern coast (North Peloponnese) of the western Gulf of Corinth. For the purposes of the study a spatial database was constructed, organized and implemented consisting of analogue detailed (at the scale of 1:5000) topographic diagrams, and orthorectified aerial photos taken in 1945, 1996 and 2008. Comparisons of fan-deltas shoreline positions for the periods 1945 vs. 1996 and 1945 vs. 2008 were made and the segments of the coastline along the aprons of the fan-deltas which are subject to erosion accretion were defined. Coastal erosion is the main dominant geomorphic process along a significant part of the fan deltas coastline. The highest retreat rate value (2.44 m/yr for the period 1945-1996) was estimated for the Finix stream fan delta, about 150 m west of the river mouth, while the highest accretion rates since 1945 (3.10 and 3.00 m/yr) occurred at the mouths of Vouraikos and Selinous rivers respectively.

The Grain-size Patchiness of Braided Gravel-Bed Streams – example of the Urumqi River (northeast Tian Shan, China)

In gravel-bed rivers, sediments are often sorted into patches of different grain-sizes, but in braided streams, the link between this sorting and the channel morpho-sedimentary elements is still unclear. In this study, the size of the bed sediment in the shallow braided gravel-bed Urumqi River is characterized by surface-count and volumetric sampling methods. Three morpho-sedimentary elements are identified in the active threads of the river: chutes at flow constrictions, which pass downstream to anabranches and bars at flow expansions. The surface and surface-layer grain-size distributions of these three elements show that they correspond to only two kinds of grain-size patches: (1) coarse-grained chutes, coarser than the bulk river bed, and (2) finer-grained anabranches and bars, consistent with the bulk river bed. In cross-section, the chute patches are composed of one coarse-grained top layer, which can be interpreted as a local armour layer overlying finer deposits. In contrast, the grain size of the bar-anabranch patches is finer and much more homogeneous in depth than the chute patches. Those patches, which are features of lateral and vertical sorting associated to the transport dynamics that build braided patterns, may be typical of active threads in shallow gravel-bed rivers and should be considered in future works on sorting processes and their geomorphologic and stratigraphic results.

Experimental Study on River Channel's Formation and Change Process of on the Surface of Delta Deposition

Experimental study on river channels formation and change process with two different constant flows 2.45L/s and 4.9L/s that which come from mountains and into delta depositions surface, based on sediment supply 15.72kg/h at the water inlet. After 964h experiment, research on the study shows as follows: with 2.45L/s flow, on the surface of delta depositions forming process the channel appears as straight, braided, micro-bend and meandering form. The first formation processes of delta deposition are straight and braided river which appeared alternately every 50h on the surface. When time goes on the delta get longer and braided streams branch of the shunt decrease gradually, that made the channel appeared with slightly curved form. Combined with that flexural radius gets bigger because of the outer bank erosion of slightly curved channel backed off, finally the meandering channels presented. With 4.9L/s flow, the formation processes gave priority of braided river, which appeared every 15h cycle, following the aggravate of eroding in floodplain and scouring in main channel, the river pool board-shallow comes with the main-flow swing, the channel existed as slightly curved form, and appears two sides of deposition. Finally analysis and research the channel cross-section morphological and longitudinal slope. In conclusion, the delta depositions surface channel existed as micro-bend of no branch with single strands, under the constantly water and sediment conditions.