Resilience of Bottomland Hardwood Stands Following Agricultural Use on the Santee Experimental Forest

Resilience is a key function that affects an ecosystem’s ability to recover from disturbance. Understanding the extent to which forest communities recover after a long period of disturbance without direct intervention is important to provide context for considering ecosystem response to disturbance regimes. Species composition and structure were recorded on bottomland hardwood stands that were once inland and freshwater tidal rice fields. We sampled 17 old-field sites and 7 reference sites across three geomorphic settings. The old-field sites ranged from 30 to 120 years since agricultural abandonment. A total of 89 species were found across the old field sites and reference sample areas. Of that total, trees comprised 33 species, shrubs—5 species, and vine/herbs/forbs—51 species. Using field data, combined with stand inventory records, aerial photography (1936-2010), and high-resolution LiDAR imagery, we chronicled the evolution of the forest since the cessation of agriculture. Our findings demonstrate how Pinus taeda seeded directly after the rice fields went to fallow;and this conversion of bottomland swamp to rice to pine was a direct result of water management embankments constructed across the landscape to aid in crop irrigation. The remnant water management features may still alter flooding patterns thereby affecting development of Taxodium distichum and Nyssa aquatica in the old-fields. These results suggest, that over the 100+ years forest stands on the Santee Experimental Forest have developed to represent bottomland hardwoods characteristic of the southeastern United States coastal plain.

Application of LiDAR Data for Hydrologic Assessments of Low-Gradient Coastal Watershed Drainage Characteristics

Documenting the recovery of hydrologic functions following perturbations of a landscape/watershed is important to address issues associated with land use change and ecosystem restoration. High resolution LiDAR data for the USDAForestServiceSanteeExperimentalForestin coastalSouth Carolina,USAwas used to delineate the remnant historical water management structures within the watersheds supporting bottomland hardwood forests that are typical of the re- gion. Hydrologic functions were altered during the early1700’s agricultural use period for rice cultivation, with changes to detention storage, impoundments, and runoff routing. Since late1800’s, the land was left to revert to forests, without direct intervention. The resultant bottomlands, while typical in terms of vegetative structure and composition, still have altered hydrologic pathways and functions due to the historical land use. Furthermore, an accurate estimate of the watershed drainage area (DA) contributing to stream flow is critical for reliable estimates of peak flow rate, runoff depth and coefficient, as well as water and chemical balance. Peak flow rate, a parameter widely used in design of channels and cross drainage structures, is calculated as a function of the DA and other parameters. However, in contrast with the upland watersheds, currently available topographic maps and digital elevation models (DEMs) used to estimate the DA are not adequate for flat, low-gradient Coastal Plain (LCP) landscape. In this paper we explore a case study of a 3rd order watershed (equivalent to 14-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC)) at headwaters of east branch of Cooper River draining to Charleston Harbor, SC to assess the drainage area and corresponding mean annual runoff coefficient based on various DEMs including LiDAR data. These analyses demonstrate a need for application of LiDAR-based DEMs together with field verification to improve the basis for assessments of hydrology, watershed drainage characteristics, and modeling in the LCP.

法国新的卫生评估机构即将运作

法国新的卫生评估机构Haute Autorite de Sante(HAS)即将于1月1日正式运作。HAS将负责评估药物产品用于补偿目的的医学利益。它也宣布已指定曾任国家卫生评估局ANAES总主任的Alain Conlomb为其主任。这一机构是HAS的一部分，与委员会一起进行医学利益评估。