Geomorphological controls on coastal vegetation at the Virginia Coast Reserve

The establishment and succession of vegetation on migrating, low-profile barrier islands is greatly affected by the physical hydrogeomorphological processes that regulate island topography, saline and fresh groundwater table surfaces. Apart from the physical destruction of plants by overwash processes, fluctuations in water table elevations and variations in groundwater salinity, both spatially and temporally, also appear to have significant impact on the nature and distribution of vegetation on these islands. Species composition, community structure and biodiversity on the Virginia barrier islands are controlled by the same processes that give rise to landforms and maintain their form. These processes include marine water inundations, groundwater salinity variations and changes in depth to the fresh-water table. Land surface elevation, landform morphology and position on the barrier island determine exposure to high tides, storm surges, sand burial, and the extent of the fresh-water reserves.In this article, the underpinnings of a Long-term Ecological Research Program in which 25 geologists, geomorphologists, climatologists, and ecologists have a common research plan is presented and several examples of the product of this research partnership dealing with geomorphological and hydrologic controls on vegetation dynamics are detailed. Among the aspects of ecological dynamics examined in terms of geomorphological processes are vegetation zonation, succession, disturbance, and ecosystem state change.     

Floor design in underground coal mines

Summary Floor failure and excessive heave in underground coal mines can jeopardize the stability of the whole structure, including the roof and pillars, due to differential settlements and redistribution of stress concentrations. Besides, floor failure is detrimental to haulageway operation and can lead to unacceptable conditions of high deformation. Thus, the design of any underground opening must consider roof/pillar and floor as one structural system.This paper presents guidelines for the design of mine floors, including the necessary field and laboratory investigations and the determination of the bearing capacity of floor strata. The design methodology is based essentially on a modified Hoek-Brown rock mass strength criterion. The main modifications are the introduction of the concept of the point of critical energy release to account for the long term strength, the inclusion of tensile strength and the adoption of a lithostatic state of stress in the rock mass. The determination of the dimensionless parametersm ands result from correlations with the RMR (rock mass rating) of the Geomechanics Clasification. Nine case histories, both in longwall and room and pillar coal mining, were analyzed with the proposed methodology.     

Do the shallow‐water habitats of a hypersaline tropical estuary act as nursery grounds for fishes?

Fish assemblages were studied in a hypersaline tropical estuary in Northeastern Brazil. A total of 104 species were collected by beach seine during the dry and rainy seasons of 2012. Two families, Atherinopsidae and Gerreidae, were numerically dominant in all zones of the estuary; juveniles of Atherinella brasiliensis, Eucinostomus argenteus, Lile piquitinga, Ulaema lefroyi, Lutjanus analis and Sphoeroides greeleyi contributed 77% of the total catch. The factors that best explained the fish abundance pattern were salinity and depth, which were related to spatial segregation. Species richness was lowest in the upper zone, an area with high salinity and shallow depth. The distinct roles of structurally different habitats (submerged macrophyte beds and mangrove prop‐roots) and the influence of physicochemical conditions in the middle zone of the estuary may influence taxonomic diversity. The middle zone of the estuary is the one most attractive to juveniles of reef species (Lutjanidae and Serranidae). The fish assemblages are clearly dominated by marine estuarine dependent species, highlighting the importance of the ecosystem as a nursery ground for marine species of the Brazilian coast.     

Strategies to Make Methods Based on Flow Injection Analysis Greener

The implementation of flow injection analysis (FIA) systems and correlated techniques in the laboratory routine provides an increase of analytical throughput and the reduction of risks of analyte losses and contamination. Naturally, it contributes to the reduction of reagent consumption and minimization of waste generation. This paper presents and discusses an overview of the main strategies adopted to make methods based on FIA systems more environmentally friendly, and offers a review of these methods that covers the period from January 2002 to December 2019. Strategies based on reagent management (adoption of procedures without reagents, replacement of toxic reagents, recycling and reuse of reagents and, use of immobilized reagents), the online waste treatment, and the improvements of FIA systems (flow system configurations that avoid reagent wastage, use of green detectors, automation, and miniaturization) are approached in this perspective.     

Seismotectonics of south-west Dominican Republic using recent data

The Dominican Republic has a high level of seismic activity, and a new seismic network has been installed to improve the detection of earthquakes. The network has been operated by Instituto Politécnico Loyola since 2012. It uses six new stations of its own, as well as 17 other stations publically available. In this study, we investigate in particular the south-west of the country where no seismic stations have been operating before. We find an area, SE of the Enriquillo Plantain Garden fault (responsible for the 2010 Haiti M7.0 earthquake), with a high seismic activity (M?=?2–4) compared to the surrounding area. This shallow seismicity (except two events around 40 km depth) is not seen in any global catalogs, and it does not seem to be associated with any known faults. However, the region has been under rapid recent uplift since margins between hills and valleys are filled with massive alluvial fans. We made 24 new fault plane solutions using P-polarities and S/P amplitude ratios. The solutions show mainly reverse mechanisms and the P-axis directions are mainly NNE oriented, which is in agreement with a published strain direction from GPS measurements. We conclude that the main cause of the seismicity in our study area is the push of the Beata Ridge against Enriquillo basin and the rest of the Gonave microplate, reflected in the mainly reverse focal mechanisms.     

Spatiotemporal variability of vegetation due to drought dynamics (2012–2017): a case study of the Upper Paraíba River basin,Brazil

Natural Hazards - Vegetation indices have been widely used for monitoring the spatiotemporal variables of vegetation and characterizing droughts, primarily in semiarid regions. Drought is a...     

The use of fractal geometry to determine the impact of inlet migration on the dynamics of a seagrass landscape

The use of fractal geometry to evaluate seagrass scaling behavior and the persistence of seagrass landscape patterns in relation to a disturbance is presented in this paper.Ria Formosa is a dynamic barrier-island system with a migrating inlet that creates a cyclic disturbance in a seagrass landscape. Seagrass patches which develop in the intertidal and shallow subtidal areas of Ria Formosa were digitized from a temporal sequence of aerial photographs, from 1980 to 1998. The methodology used to evaluate seagrass scaling behavior was proposed by Meltzer and Hastings (1992), and relates the frequency distribution of patch size with the existence of patch size-related patterns. The Hurst exponent was calculated to assess the temporal persistence of the seagrass landscape. Univariate regression was used to investigate relations between temporal persistence and disturbance. The existence of patch size-related patterns was identified for all years suggesting shifts in generating processes occurring at different domains of scales in the seagrass landscape. The results enforces the idea that it is important to recognize the existence of diverse processes occurring at different domains of scales and, emphasizes the importance of evaluating issues of temporal and spatial scale while trying to understand changes in seagrass landscapes. The Hurst exponent estimates show that although the migration and relocation of the inlet affected this system the evolutionary trajectory of the seagrass landscape is persistent, i.e., the patch dynamics observed is stable. Furthermore, persistence values were different for differently sized patches, small patches having lower persistence then larger patches.