Treesearch

The cumulative effect of recent prolonged warm drought on regional ecosystem function is still uncertain. Large regions of the United States are experiencing new hydroclimatic conditions with extreme variability in climate drivers such as total precipitation, precipitation patterns (e.g., storm size, intensity and frequency), and seasonal temperatures.

Hurricanes are infrequent but influential disruptors of ecosystem processes, including streamflow and evapotranspiration dynamics in the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts. However, literature on hurricane effects on long-term streamflow dynamics is lacking in this highly urbanizing region characterized by a poorly drained low-gradient forested landscape.

Regeneration failure of Quercus in mature Quercus-dominated forests has been reported throughout the temperate zone. Quercus seedlings are often abundant in these forests, yet frequently fail to recruit to larger size classes despite canopy disturbances. To examine intra-stand patterns of advanced reproduction, competition, and irradiance in an upland Quercus stand, we installed a 2 ha plot that captured the canopy disturbance severity gradient caused by a wind event. To quantify disturbance severity and stand conditions, we inventoried all living and dead woody stems ≥5 cm diameter at...

Classifying streams according to permanence is important in determining regulatory jurisdiction and in implementing pollution control programs. Administrators of these programs need rapid methods for making timely and defensible decisions.

Effective water resources assessment and management requires quantitative information on the variability of ambient and biological conditions in aquatic communities. Although it is understood that natural systems are variable, robust estimates of variation in water quality and biotic endpoints (e.g. community-based structure and function metrics) are rare in US waters; due, in large part, to the need for, but paucity of, consistent, long-term studies.

It has long been recognized that conditions at a point on a stream are highly dependent on conditions upgradient within the topographic watershed. The hydrologic unit (HU) system has provided a useful set of nationally consistent, hydrologically based polygons that has allowed for the generalization and tabulation of various conditions within the stream and its valley.

This study explains the geographical importance of the Cooper and Wando River watersheds, located east of Charleston (SC), in relation to inland rice cultivation during the colonial and antebellum periods. By focusing on the geological formation of this watershed, this paper will explain the connection between this plantation enterprise and the natural environment. The central South Carolina coastal plain physiography consists of a series of soil deposits during the Pleistocene. This topography provided a foundation for which free and enslaved rice cultivators lived and worked. By examining...

Rice became the market export crop in the early eighteenth century that made South Carolina become an economic and agricultural powerhouse after many exotic tropical cultivars failed (Carney and Porcher 1993, Carney 1996, 2001, Littlefield 1981, Fields-Black 2008).

Understanding how regional-specific water resources respond to disturbances can serve as useful information to land managers as they aim to set flow targets needed to maintain ecological integrity in surface waters or to design riparian buffers for water quality protection. There are three distinct land provinces across North Carolina: the Mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain. Population density, topography, and distribution of major forest landscapes are unique to each region, resulting in a range of different water resource needs and responses to land management practices.

The interaction between the physical and climatic attributes of a basin (form) control how water is partitioned, stored, and conveyed through a catchment (function). Hydrologic Landscapes (HLs) were previously developed across Oregon and are comprised of components describing climate, seasonality, aquifer permeability, terrain, and soil permeability for over 5,000 assessment units; they therefore represent hydrologic form throughout Oregon.