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Tag Archives: science

Are Barrier Islands Worth Protecting? What Makes This Type of Island Special?

Barrier islands are islands that form a barrier between open water and a larger body of land.  They form a “first defense” of protection from sea born storms such as hurricanes.  They protect the mainland against unceasing tidal action and waves.  They are breeding and nesting grounds for numerous vertebrates and invertebrates.  They form some of the loveliest places, visually, on this planet.  But, are they special?  When they are in trouble, are they worth saving?

Cat Islands, Mississippi Delta

I may or may not agree with what is in the following articles but, every one of these articles is important.  I have arranged them in chronological order.  My choices have taken into account the inclusions of maps and photographs (it is an easy way to compare today with yesterday).  I hope that you open one or two (or all) of them.  These research papers are more than just interesting and they are worth a browse through….

A blog worth browsing!  SkyTruth  Last Chance for Cat Island?

 

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The following are links to grey papers, peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.  Together, these publications form a body of work that is more than just interesting, it is historical and most are scientific in their approach to finding out answers to questions about things like barrier islands and what they do for this planet.

 

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Thesis:  Quantifying the Impact of Hurricanes, Mid-Latitude Cyclones and other Weather and Climate Extreme Events on the Mississippi-Alabama Barrier Islands Using Remotely Sensed Data.  pdf

Author:  Rebekah Jones

Published in:  2014

Thesis:  Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Department of Geography and Anthropology.

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access text2.pdf

 

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Chapter:  Hurricane Katrina, the Role of US National Parks on the Northern Gulf of Mexico and Post Storm Wetland Restoration.  pdf

Author:  Mark Ford.  National Park Service Southeast Regional Office, New Orleans, LA.

Book:  Safe Havens:  Protected Areas for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation.  Edited by Radhika Murti and Camille Buyck.

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Safe%20Havens.pdf#page=155

This is Chapter 16.  The book is worth finding!

 

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Article:  Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.  link

Author:  Cutler J. Cleveland, (ed. Peter Saundry

Published in:  The Encyclopedia of the Earth

Published on:  December 5, 2010 and updated on February 22, 2013

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/51cbf0267896bb431f6a0797/

 

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Article:  What are Barrier Islands Worth?  Estimates of Willingness to Pay for Restorationpdf

Authors:

Published in:  2009

Journal:  Marine Resource Economics (link), Vol. 24, pages 131-146.

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1889277

 

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Article:  Geomorphologic Evolution of Barrier Islands along the Northern U.S. Guld of Mexico and Implications for Engineering Design in Barrier Restorationpdf

Authors:

  • Julie Dean Rosati, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center (Publications)
  • Gregory W. Stone, Louisiana State University (Publications)

Published in:  January 2009

Journal:  Journal of Coastal Research (link), Vol. 25, No. 1, pages 8-22.

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access JCRv25-1_Rosati_Stone.pdf

 

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Article:  Historical Changes in the Mississippi-Alabama Barrier-Island Chain and the Roles of Extreme Storms, Sea Level, and Human Activitiespdf

Author:  Robert A. Morton, U.S. Geological Survey

Published in: November 2008.

Journal:  Journal of Coastal Research (link), Vol. 24, No. 6, pages 1587-1600.

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access historical.changes.in.the.MS.AL.barrier.islands.pdf

 

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Article:  Hurricane Katrina Storm Surge Distribution and Field Observations on the Mississippi Barrier Islandspdf

Authors:

  • Hermann M. Fritz, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (publications)
  • Chris Blount, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Robert Sokoloski, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Justin Singleton, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Andrew Fuggle, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Brian G. McAdoo, Department of Geology and Geography, Vassar College (publications)
  • Andrew Moore, Department of Geology, Kent State University (publications)
  • Chad Grass, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Banks Tate, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (Publications)

Published in:  2007

Journal:  Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science (link), 2007, pages 1-9.

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access ECSS_HurricaneKatrina_Fz.pdf

 

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Article:  National Assessment of Shoreline Change:  Part 1 Historical Shoreline Changes and Associated Coastal Land Loss Along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.  pdf

Authors:

  • Robert A. Morton
  • Tara L. Miller
  • Laura J. Moore (publications)

Published in:  2004

Journal:  USGS:  Science for a Changing World, Open File Report 2004-1043

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1043/

Just a quick note.  The front cover of this report is stamped “Distribution Unlimited.”  There are publishing companies who want to charge to let you see this.  It is available for free, just a bit tricky to find….

 

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Article:  Land Loss Rates:  Mississippi River Deltaic Plain.  pdf

Authors:

  • Louis D. Britsch, Geotechnical Laboratory, Department of the Army
  • E. Burton Kemp III, US Army Engineer District, New Orleans

Published in:  April 1990

Publisher:  U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it by using a Google Scholar Search

If this article is not showing in the link, try copying and pasting the full title (Land Loss Rates: Mississippi River Deltaic Plain) into a search box on your browser.  This is a wonderful publication for photographs!

 

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Article:  The Flank Margin Model for Dissolution Cave Development in Carbonate Platforms.  pdf

Authors:

  • John E. Mylroie, Department of Geology and Geography, Mississippi State University (publications)
  • James L. Carew, Department of Geology, The College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina

Published in:  1990

Journal:  Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Vol. 15, pages 413-424.

My copy was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access Mylroie_Carew_1990_ESPL%20flank%20margin%20caves.pdf

 

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Chapter:  Sediments of the Eastern Mississippi Delta.  pdf

Author:  P.C. Scruton

Book information:  Finding Ancient Shorelines, edited by Jack L. Hough and Henry W. Menard.  Published by SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology.  1955

My copy of this chapter was downloaded in December, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access SEC2.body.pdf

 

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Links to Two Articles on Molecular Cell Biology – Yes, I do read this stuff….

I am placing the link information for these articles here with the thought that easier access to articles such as this will encourage reading (or, maybe in this case curiosity) and open discussion.  This is also an open invitation for you to write a precis on this article (or, any other article that you find necessary or interesting)….

Once you actually get into reading articles like these ones, they are not nearly as intimidating as they could be!  This particular article even gives you some of the trickier definitions in the marginalia.

You can find more Biochemistry articles here.

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Article:  Versatility of the Mitochondrial Protein Import Machinery.

Authors:  Nikolaus Pfanner (Publications List) and Andreas Geissler.

Published in:  2001

Journal:  Nature Reviews, Molecular Cell Biology, Volume 2, May 2001, pages 339 – 349.

My copy was downloaded in November, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access Geissler%20and%20Pfanner.pdf

If any of the links do not work, please send a note or leave a comment and I will try to help.

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Article:  The Versatility and Universality of Calcium Signalling.

Authors:  Michael J. Berridge (Publications), Peter Lipp and Martin D. Bootman

Published in:  2000

Journal:  Nature Reviews, Molecular Cell Biology.  Volume 1, October 2000, pages 11 – 21.

My copy was downloaded in November, 2014.  I found it here http://web1.johnshopkins.edu/csl/academics/580427/rsc/580427_4_calciumsignalingreview_032106.pdf

Publications Lists for the Authors:

  • Michael J. Berridge  –  Link
  • Peter Lipp  –  Link
  • Martin D. Bootman  –  Link

If any of the links do not work, please send a note or leave a comment and I will try to help.

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If you find any broken links on this blog, please leave a comment or send me a note so that it can be repaired.  Thank  you….

Link to the Article: Open-minded Environmental Education by David P. Burns and Stephen P. Norris, 2009

I am placing the link information for this article here with the thought that easier access to articles such as this will encourage reading and open discussion.  This is also an open invitation for you to write a precis on this article (or, any other article that you find necessary or interesting)….

There are a few articles that I have read with this one.  I will be putting them up here but, there are many peer-reviewed articles on this topic.  You can find more of them by using this search link.

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Article:  Open-minded Environmental Education in the Science Classroom.

Authors:  David P. Burns and Stephen P. Norris

Journal:  Paideusis.  Vol. 18 (2009), No. 1, pages 35-42.

Published in:  2009

My copy was downloaded in November, 2014.  I found it here http://journals.sfu.ca/paideusis/index.php/paideusis/article/view/183.  If the link does not work, please contact me and I will try to help you find a copy.

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The Most Complete Titanosaur ever Discovered….

Sometimes it is simply the size of some of nature’s creatures leaves me in awe…  And, it was still growing!  Wow!

Lacovara, K.J., Lamanna, M.C., Ibiricu, L.M., Poole, J.C., Schroeter, E.R., Ullmann, P.V., Voegele, K.K., Boles, Z.M., Carter, A.M., Fowler, E.K., Egerton, V.M., Moyer, A.E., Coughenour, C.L., Schein, J.P., Harris, J.D., Martinez, R.D., & Novas, F.E.  2014. A Gigantic, Exceptionally Complete Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur from Southern Patagonia, Argentina. Scientific Reports 4 (6196).

My Precis

The 2/3’s complete skeleton of a titanosaur, Dreadnoughtus schrani, found recently in Argentina, would have been approximately 26m in length and weighed 593 metric tons and, may have still been growing when it died.

My Precis Expanded

Not much is known or understood about titanosaurs, the largest of the dinosaurs, as the only skeletons that have been found have been fragmentary, frustrating attempts to estimate size and other characteristics but the recent discovery of a titanosaur in Argentina has given scientists an almost 2/3’s complete and extremely well preserved skeleton to work with. This is the most complete titanosaur ever found and was given the name Dreadnoughtus schrani; Dreadnought from Old English, meaning ‘fearing nothing’. Schrani, honouring Adam Schran for his support of this research.

When the skeleton of Dreadnoughtus was compared to the skeletons of other titanosaurs, differences in the shapes and sizes of the bones were found that make Dreadnoughtus unique. This is one of the largest of these giants with an estimated length of 26m and a weight of 593 metric tons. Examinations of the bones have revealed that even at this size, this titanosaur may still have been growing!

I found the original article here: http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140904/srep06196/full/srep06196.html

If you have any trouble locating the article please contact me or, call your local college or university library for assistance.

The Discovery of an Element – Argon

I can only imagine the excitement of discovering something so unique as  a new gas and there seemed to be much enthusiasm in this lecture.  To come to the realization that the discovery might be an element, well…. I think that it is a good thing that Lord Rayleigh decided to continue upon his rather “unacceptable” career as a scientist.

This is a lecture filled with unfamiliar words and details.  If I have anything wrong, please let me know.  I look forward to hearing from you!

 

The Article

Rayleigh, Lord. 1895. Argon. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol. 1, No. 26 (Jun. 28, 1895), 701-712.

 

My Precis

Using scientific methods of derivation and measurement, evidence of a new gas and possibly a new element called  “Argon” has been found.

 

My Precis Expanded

More than 50 years ago the French scientist, Regnault, introduced scientific methods of weighing gases and using these methods weights were obtained for nitrogens derived in two different manners.  It was found that the results varied even after the tests were repeated. We explored this discrepancy, rather than erasing its existence, by repeating the experiments of deriving nitrogen through both atmospheric and chemical means. The methods gave consistently different weights and quality and further testing proved that the new, lighter gas was not a mixture of gases or impure but pure nitrogen and the heavier ingredient we had isolated was given the name “Argon.”

The spectrum of argon obtained from the oxygen and chemical methods are the same and the density has been found to be between 19.9 and 19.7 with a ratio of specific heats of 1.65. The theoretical limit of specific heats is 1.67 and ordinary gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc., have numbers around 1.4. Therefore the density of argon places it into a type of gas known as monatomic.

This evidence strongly suggests that Argon is an element.

 

I found the original article here and downloaded my copy on September 5, 2014:

http://www.jstore.org/stable/1624351

This article is more easily available using this link.  If you have any trouble locating the article please contact me or, call your local college or university library for assistance.