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Reanalysis Of The 1954-1963 Atlantic Hurricane Seasons, Sandy Delgado Jul 2014

Reanalysis Of The 1954-1963 Atlantic Hurricane Seasons, Sandy Delgado

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HURDAT is the main historical archive of all tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic Basin, which includes the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, from 1851 to the present. HURDAT is maintained and updated annually by the National Hurricane Center at Miami, Florida. Today, HURDAT is widely used by research scientists, operational hurricane forecasters, insurance companies, emergency managers and others. HURDAT contains both systematic biases and random errors. Thus, the reanalysis of HURDAT is vital. For this thesis, HURDAT is reanalyzed for the period of 1954-1963. The track and intensity of each existing tropical cyclone in HURDAT is …


Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Chilling Events In Mangrove Forests Of South Florida, Bina Thapa Mar 2014

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Chilling Events In Mangrove Forests Of South Florida, Bina Thapa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chilling events are infrequent but important disturbances in subtropical Florida. When temperatures drop to near freezing, significant mortality often accrues in mangrove forests. Chilling events play a role in maintaining structural diversity in mangrove forests, and in limiting mangrove poleward distribution. I examined the spatio-temporal distribution of chilling events in mangrove forests of southern Biscayne Bay by using Landsat TM5 images since 1989. Damage was usually confined to dwarf mangrove forest, especially when chilling temperatures were moderate and short in duration. However, damage from extended and severe freezes such as in January 2010 impacted larger trees as well. Recovery is …


Anthropogenic Disturbances In Estuarine Ecosystems: The Effects Of Altered Freshwater Inflow, Introduction Of Invasive Species, And Habitat Alteration In The Loxahatchee River, Fl, Zachary R. Jud Mar 2014

Anthropogenic Disturbances In Estuarine Ecosystems: The Effects Of Altered Freshwater Inflow, Introduction Of Invasive Species, And Habitat Alteration In The Loxahatchee River, Fl, Zachary R. Jud

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the majority of Earth’s population living in coastal areas, estuarine ecosystems have been particularly affected by anthropogenic disturbances. My dissertation research focused on three interrelated types of human disturbance that affect estuaries: Anthropogenic alteration of freshwater inflow, the introduction of invasive species, and habitat alteration. Using the LoxahatcheeRiver(Jupiter, FL) as a model system, my goal was to understand how these disturbances affect estuarine organisms, particularly fishes. One of the most ecologically harmful disturbances affecting estuaries is anthropogenic alteration of freshwater inflow (and resulting changes in salinity patterns). To identify effects of freshwater inflow on the behavior of an ecologically …


Ecohydrology, Evapotranspiration And Hydrogeochemistry Of Carbonate Mangrove Wetlands, David Lagomasino Jan 2014

Ecohydrology, Evapotranspiration And Hydrogeochemistry Of Carbonate Mangrove Wetlands, David Lagomasino

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal environments can be highly susceptible to environmental changes caused by anthropogenic pressures and natural events. Both anthropogenic and natural perturbations may directly affect the amount and the quality of water flowing through the ecosystem, both in the surface and subsurface and can subsequently, alter ecological communities and functions. The Florida Everglades and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve (Mexico) are two large ecosystems with an extensive coastal mangrove ecotone that represent a historically altered and pristine environment, respectively. Rising sea levels, climate change, increased water demand, and salt water intrusion are growing concerns in these regions and underlies the need …