The fourth coast, revisited

The author traveled for 2.5 months by canoe and other modes of transport down the entire length of the Mississippi River with the Mississippi. An Anthropocene River project. Reflecting on this journey, this essay revisits Catherine Brown and William Morrish’s 1991 essay, The Fourth Coast: An Expedition on the Mississippi River, in which Brown and Morrish document their research efforts to identify coherent anthropogenic structures and systems that could warrant the characterization of the Mississippi River as a Fourth Coast. To encourage a flourishing of overlapping multispecies life, the essay moves beyond their spatial reimagining by defining the “distributed nature of home” as a model for conceptualizing distributed spatialities and plural temporalities along the Mississippi River.

Anthropogenic Elements of the Cultural Landscape of the Island Goli Otok in Croatia

The island Goli otok (north Adriatic, Croatia) cultural landscape is a complex system of interactions between people and nature, which has arisen through the anthropogenic use of this unique natural space with the aim of implementing ideas of the ideological re-education of political prisoners between 1949 and 1956, and the punishment of criminals and some political prisoners between 1956 and 1988. The most significant elements of the cultural landscape of the island are comprised of the anthropogenic structures of the political prison camp which deliberately used the natural features of the landscape in such a way as to enable methods of coercion of prisoners, which finally resulted in the unique identity of the space as a unit.

Terrestrial Locomotor Evolution in Urban Environments

The structural habitat of terrestrial urban environments can differ drastically from environments less impacted by human activities. Whether or not urban species use anthropogenic structures, they are subject to novel selection pressures to effectively locomote. Urban environments are distinctly more open than non-urban habitats, they offer few refuges, and habitat space is patchy with clustered perches. Animals must either change their behaviour to use only natural substrates or contend with manufactured substrates. Arboreal species are particularly impacted because the anthropogenic structures with which they interact, even if infrequently, differ from trees in structural, material, and surface properties. The chapter explores potential adaptive responses to the spatial structure and properties of climbing substrates in urban environments relevant to terrestrial and climbing locomotion. For each, the authors first discuss differences between urban and non-urban terrestrial habitats relevant to locomotion. They then discuss how these differences influence behaviour and locomotor demands, providing a mechanism through which natural selection shapes morphology. Lastly, they discuss the morphological traits most likely to be impacted by these altered demands and predict how natural selection may affect these traits in urban environments based on biomechanical principles. As there have been very few studies investigating urban morphological adaptation related to locomotion, the chapter draws on trait–environment relationships in natural environments. The discussion provides a starting point for developing rigorous hypotheses about functionally relevant trait shifts in urban environments and future directions for investigating locomotor adaptations in urban species.

Re-imagining urban coasts: a socio-geomorphology lens to enhance life in an era of extremes

<p>Geomorphology has much to contribute to the understanding of how geomorphic landscapes have responded to climatological extremes and will likely respond in the future. These contributions can be in terms of systems dynamics and their past, present and likely future responses to sudden events, tipping points or more gradual changes to natural landforms and anthropogenic structures. However, equally importantly, geomorphic contributions also include making proactive resilience and climate change adaptation decisions in order to create physical space for geomorphic systems to respond more naturally and dynamically to extremes – now or in the near (100 year) future. The choices society makes in the present – such as planning, infrastructure and engineering decisions – have a strong bearing on the physical space left to allow natural landforms to adjust to extreme events while minimizing social and economic impacts. This creates a new frontier for geomorphology science at the social, political and policy interface.  Interesting questions arise in this space, such as: <em>How much do we expect a geomorphic system to respond dynamically to extreme forcing? i.e. How much physical space do we [planners] need for the system to respond to an extreme event?</em> Should society see storms as catalysts for proactive adaptation? How much (physical space, i.e. geomorphic accommodation space) can we allow when realigning road or rail inland to reduce risk in future storm events? How do complex physical geomorphic systems interact with complex urban systems? Can we work with artists, landscape architects, geo-spatial, urban and social scientists to create transformative, systems-based adaptation scenarios to allow us to better live in an era of extremes? Geomorphologists are usefully contributing to improving the resilience and/or limiting deterioration or habitat loss (e.g. habitat squeeze due to sea level rise) in urban ecosystems and anthropogenic structures.  This includes geomorphic contributions to nature-based solutions, green infrastructure and the resilience of traditional engineering to extreme events.  This paper highlights some of the opportunities we have to influence and shape our future resilience to extreme events – in the present day – through interdisciplinary research and socio-geomorphology practice. We need to create windows of opportunity now for more dynamic and resilient geomorphic futures.  </p>

Identifying the influence of dams and ponds on the thermal regime at regional scale: The case of Loire catchment

<p>Human activities and natural processes are the main drivers of the spatio-temporal variability of thermal regime. Despite a few local studies on the thermal regime variability, regional assessments are scarce in the scientific literature. However, regional assessments allow tracing systematic human-induced changes emerging from some types of anthropogenic structures like dams or ponds and identifying the locations of highly influenced reaches.</p><p>In the current study, we propose a framework to detect the influence of dams and ponds on stream temperature. We use observational data from 526 evenly distributed hourly stream temperature stations in the Loire River catchment, France (110,000 km<sup>2</sup>). The data consist of unbalanced time series of natural and altered thermal regimes that contain at least 80 summer days from 2000–2018. By comparing time series of observed stream temperature and air temperature, we define five indicators to distinguish different patterns of thermal regime. Three of them are based on weekly stream-air temperature linear regressions (slope; intercept; and coefficient of determination). The remaining two indicators compare monthly air and stream temperature regime: 1) the proportion of times stream temperature is greater than air temperature from March–October (“frequency”), and 2) the lag time between the annual peak in air temperature and annual peak in stream temperature (“shift”).</p><p>K-means clustering partitioned stations into three clusters: 1) pond-like, 2) dam-like 3) and natural, with 164, 37, and 316 stations, respectively. Supporting this cluster analysis, 93% of stations in pond-like cluster have upstream ponds, and 55% of stations in dam-like cluster have upstream large dams. Pond-like stations have the greatest slope between weekly stream and air temperatures (slope = 0.4) and have stream temperatures greater than air temperatures more frequently (68%) than other clusters. In contrast, dam-like stations have the lowest correlations between weekly stream and air temperatures (mean R<sup>2</sup>=0.3, compared to 0.7 for the other two clusters). Dam-like stations also exhibit the largest shifts in stream thermal regime relative to air temperature (mean shift = 30 days). Impounded runoff index (IRI), the ratio of reservoir volume to annual discharge, best explaines variability within the dam-like cluster. For pond-like stations, catchment areas and mean upstream ponded surface area best explain the within-cluster variability, particularly for the frequency indicator, although this relationship is sensitive to interannual air temperature regime.</p><p>These findings support modelers in quantifying the downstream impacts of different types of anthropogenic structures and managers in surveying and monitoring stream networks through identification of critical reaches.</p>

Under cover of the night: context-dependency of anthropogenic disturbance on stress levels of wild roe deer Capreolus capreolus

Wildlife populations are increasingly exposed to human-induced modifications of their habitats. To cope with anthropogenic stressors, animals can adjust their behaviour—for example, by shifting their activity to more sheltered habitats, or becoming more nocturnal. However, whether use of spatial and temporal adjustments in behaviour may regulate the endocrine response is poorly documented. Here, we analyzed faecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs) of wild roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) living in a human-dominated agro-ecosystem. Using Global Positioning System monitoring of 116 individuals, we assessed their spatial behaviour and tested whether proximity to anthropogenic structures (linear distance to built-up areas) and the use of refuge habitats (woodland and hedges) influenced FCM levels. In accordance with our predictions, individuals ranging closer to anthropogenic structures during daytime had higher FCM levels, but this relationship was buffered as use of refuge habitat increased. In addition, this link between proximity to anthropogenic structures and FCM levels disappeared when we analyzed spatial behaviour at night. Finally, FCM levels were higher when the ambient temperature was lower, and during years of low resource availability. Our results demonstrate that the stress levels of large mammals may be strongly influenced by their proximity to anthropogenic activities, but that these effects may be buffered by behavioural adjustments in terms of space use and circadian rhythm. Whereas most studies have focused on the influence of environmental heterogeneity, our analysis highlights the need to also consider the fine-scale spatial response of individuals when studying the hormonal response of wild animals to human disturbance. We emphasize the potential to mitigate this hormonal stress response, and its potential negative consequences on population dynamics, through the preservation or restoration of patches of refuge habitat in close proximity to human infrastructure.

Landscape Factors that Influence European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Nest Box Occupancy at NASA Plum Brook Station (PBS), Erie County, Ohio, USA

During the last decade at NASA Plum Brook Station (PBS), Erie County, Ohio, United States, there has been a nearly 50% decrease in European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) occupancy (nests with ≥1 egg) of nest boxes designed to be used by starlings. Increased availability of natural cavities, from invertebrate pests, might have altered nest box occupation rates. It was hypothesized that starling nest box occupation rates would be a function of an index of potentially suitable tree cavities for nesting starlings, the semi-colonial nature of breeding starlings, and access to foraging areas (e.g., mowed lawns near buildings). Specifically, it was predicted that starling occupancy of nest boxes would correlate positively with a low density of potentially suitable tree cavities (calculated from a constructed index based on characteristics preferred by nesting starlings), and proximity of other starling occupied nest boxes and anthropogenic structures or mowed lawns. The objective was to quantify landscape factors around nest boxes with known starling occupation rates. Potentially suitable tree cavities were readily available near nest boxes. However, starling nest box occupation was instead a function of proximity to buildings, a factor associated with additional nesting sites and preferred foraging areas (mowed lawns). Nesting starlings in this study were influenced by anthropogenic structures and associated resources.

Analysis of time-lapse data error in complex conductivity imaging to alleviate anthropogenic noise for site characterization

Previous studies have demonstrated the potential benefits of the complex conductivity (CC) imaging over electrical resistivity tomography for an improved delineation of hydrocarbon-impacted sites and accompanying biogeochemical processes. However, time-lapse CC field applications are still rare, in particular for measurements performed near anthropogenic structures such as buried pipes or tanks, which are typically present at contaminated sites. To fill this gap, we have developed CC imaging (CCI) results for monitoring data collected in Trecate (northwest Italy), a site impacted by a crude oil spill. Initial imaging results reveal only a poor correlation with seasonal variations of the groundwater table at the site (approximately 6 m). However, it is not clear to which extend such results are affected by anthropogenic structures present at the site. To address this, we performed a detailed analysis of the misfit between direct and reciprocal time-lapse differences. Based on this analysis, we were able to discriminate spatial and temporal sources of systematic errors, with the latter commonly affecting measurements collected near anthropogenic structures. Following our approach, CC images reveal that temporal changes in the electrical properties correlate well with seasonal fluctuations in the groundwater level for areas free of contaminants, whereas contaminated areas exhibit a constant response over time characterized by a relatively high electrical conductivity and a negligible polarization effect. In accordance with a recent mechanistic model, such a response can be explained by the presence of immiscible fluids (oil and air) forming a continuous film through the micro and macropores, hindering the development of ion-selective membranes and membrane polarization. Our results demonstrate the applicability of CCI for an improved characterization of hydrocarbon-contaminated areas, even in areas affected by cultural noise.