In this chapter, we briefly discuss the development of the Everglades over the past 5 million years, the modifications made to the Everglades over the past century and a half and the quantification of the changes that have occurred to the peat soils of the Everglades due to natural and anthropogenic causes during this most recent period. Using Geographic Information Systems and historical data sets, we have been able to calculate the original peat volumes, the remaining peat volumes and thus, the amount lost over the past approximately 150 years. From these volume calculations and peat physical and chemical characterizations by the USEPA over a large area of the Everglades, we have estimated the mass of peat and carbon lost, 900 million metric tons and 300 million metric tons, respectively. The amount of peat lost has implications for hydrological, ecological and landscape restoration and habitat recovery for the Everglades.
This research analyzed the spatial relationship between a mega-scale fracture network and the occurrence of vegetation in an arid region. High-resolution aerial photographs of Arches National Park, Utah were used for digital image processing. Four sets of large-scale joints were digitized from the rectified color photograph in order to characterize the geospatial properties of the fracture network with the aid of a Geographic Information System. An unsupervised landcover classification was carried out to identify the spatial distribution of vegetation on the fractured outcrop. Results of this study confirm that the WNW-ESE alignment of vegetation is dominantly controlled by the spatial distribution of the systematic joint set, which in turn parallels the regional fold axis. This research provides insight into the spatial heterogeneity inherent to fracture networks, as well as the effects of jointing on the distribution of surface vegetation in desert environments. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER
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