Katherine Ewel

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Katherine Carter Ewel (born September 30, 1944) is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida's School of Forest Resources and Conservation. [1] She is an ecosystem, forest, and wetlands ecologist who has worked in Florida for much of her career, focusing much of it on cypress swamps, pine plantations, and mangrove forests in the Pacific. [1] Ewel served as the vice-president of the Society of Wetland Scientists in 2003, becoming president in 2004 and now since 2005, a past president. [1] She has now retired and lives near Gainesville, Florida. [1]

Contents

Early life

Ewel was born on September 30, 1944, in Glens Falls, a small town in the foothills of the Adirondacks in New York State. [2] The outdoors always drew her, often visiting a cabin on Lake George, hiking and exploring with family members. [2] At first, Ewel sought to be a journalist, but after taking a biology course in her high school, her new goal was set, and was guided towards ecology by her classwork at Cornell. [2]

Career

Ewel graduated from Cornell University in 1966 with a degree in zoology, and completed her PhD in zoology at the University of Florida in 1970. [1] She became a professor at University of Florida's School of Forest Resources and Conservation, working there for over 20 years, making research contributions in wetland, upland forest, and lake ecology and management, until she was hired by the USDA Forest Service's Institute of Pacific Islands in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1994. [1] While in charge of the institute's Wetlands Team, she led research projects on mangrove forests and other wetlands in the Pacific Micronesia. [1] As a result of the extent of her work, she became a Fellow of the Society of Wetlands Scientists, serving as its vice-president in 2003, before becoming president in 2004. [1]

She retired from the Forest Service in 2005 and moved back to the Gainesville, Florida area, but never left her work in the Pacific behind, continuing to write academic articles on her work and data collected in the Pacific, [1] [3] and becoming a Society of Wetland Scientists' past president in 2005. [1]

Major research contributions

Ewel has worked on a range of ecosystems, but a large part of her career was focused on cypress swamps and mangrove forests in the pacific. She was a big proponent of the application of computer models/simulations in ecology to predict what may affect the studied ecosystems in the future. [1]

Cypress swamps

Wetlands were the focus of most of Ewel's career, but much of her early work revolved around cypress swamps, culminating in the release of her book Cypress Swamps in 2001. [4] Her work on cypress swamps began in 1972, she evaluated the possibility of cypress swamps being used as treatment wetlands for municipal sewage, combining and analyzing the results of her work with studies done throughout wetlands swamps in the southeastern U.S. [5]

Her book, Cypress Swamps, describes the characteristics of cypress swamps as a whole, but incorporated her research and others' to examine their usefulness in human society and their broader ecological context. [4] Her research presented in this book was novel in the way it used computer simulations in coordination with field and lab data to predict what may affect wetlands such as these in the future. [4]

Pine plantations

Another focus of her career while at the University of Florida were pine plantations, a major land use in Florida with approximately 32% of forested lands in the state being pine plantations. [6] Ewel used computer models throughout her research and it has been a focus of her career, eventually teaching a class on it at the University of Florida, [1] and this hold true for her research on pine plantations. Ewel constructed a model to predict leaf area of slash pine stands through climate conditions in the previous spring and the stand's basal area, [7] which is useful for determining the light penetration in pine plantations that might be seen depending on various climatic conditions that a plantation could encounter in the future. [7] Furthermore, she modeled CO2 evolution in the soils of pine plantations, discovering that by far, live root respiration was the most significant factor in soil CO2 evolution of these plantations. [8] Ewel contributed to the making of the book, Agroforestry: Realities, Possibilities, and Potentials, published in 1987. [9] She continues to use the things she learned in her research today, as in retirement she owns a pine plantation in northern Alachua County, Florida. [1]

Mangroves and other tropical wetland forests

When she joined the USDA Forest Service's Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, she led the Wetlands team's research on mangrove forests and forested peatlands in the Pacific. [1] While working in the Pacific, Ewel researched and described the structure of mangrove forests and trees in Micronesia, publishing an academic paper on it in 1999. [10] Furthermore, she studied the effect the formation of gaps in the forest canopy in pacific islands's mangrove forests would have on the ecosystem, finding that large gaps may have large impacts in dryer mangrove forests. [11] One of her most cited papers, "Different kinds of mangrove forests provide different goods and services", [12] discusses three types of mangrove forests; fringe forest, riverine forest, and basin forest, each with their own unique ecological service. [13] Ewel wrote that fringe forests provide storm protection for ecosystems and land along coasts, while riverine forests are most valuable for plants and animals as it has the highest productivity, and basin forests are an important nutrient sink. [13] Ewel also wrote about the importance of monitoring the effects of anthropogenic processes and climate change on the invertebrate, plant, and fungi [14] that are so important in the maintenance of marine critical zones such as estuaries and coastal wetlands as their diversity is important for keeping the ecosystems functioning and supporting a much larger range of biota. [14]

Ewel continues to write academic papers on Pacific wetlands after retiring in 2005, and her most cited academic contribution "A World Without Mangroves" was published in 2007, [12] and highlights the danger of losing the mangrove ecosystem in the future as, when the journal article was written, 1-2% of mangroves were being lost every year. [15]

Notable publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangrove</span> Shrub growing in brackish water

A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove salt, allowing them to tolerate conditions that kill most plants. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse due to convergent evolution in several plant families. They occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics and even some temperate coastal areas, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator. Mangrove plant families first appeared during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene epochs and became widely distributed in part due to the movement of tectonic plates. The oldest known fossils of mangrove palm date to 75 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swamp</span> A forested wetland

A swamp is a forested wetland. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in creating this environment. Swamps vary in size and are located all around the world. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water, or seawater. Freshwater swamps form along large rivers or lakes where they are critically dependent upon rainwater and seasonal flooding to maintain natural water level fluctuations. Saltwater swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more formally termed a bog, fen, or muskeg. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wetland</span> Type of land area that is flooded or saturated with water

A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor (anoxic) processes taking place, especially in the soils. Wetlands form a transitional zone between waterbodies and dry lands, and are different from other terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems due to their vegetation's roots having adapted to oxygen-poor waterlogged soils. They are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as habitats to a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants and animals, with often improved water quality due to plant removal of excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphorus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsh</span> Low-lying and seasonally waterlogged land

In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants. More in general, the word can be used for any low-lying and seasonally waterlogged terrain. In Europe and in agricultural literature low-lying meadows that require draining and embanked polderlands are also referred to as marshes or marshland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangrove crab</span> Crabs that live on or among mangroves

Mangrove crabs are crabs that live in and around mangroves. They belong to many different species and families and have been shown to be ecologically significant by burying and consuming leaf litter. Mangrove crabs have a variety of phylogenies because mangrove crab is an umbrella term that encompasses many species of crabs. Two of the most common families are sesarmid and fiddler crabs. They are omnivorous and are predated on by a variety of mammals and fish. They are distributed widely throughout the globe on coasts where mangroves are located. Mangrove crabs have wide variety of ecological and biogeochemical impacts due to the biofilms that live in symbiosis with them as well as their burrowing habits. Like many other crustaceans, they are also a human food source and have been impacted by humans as well as climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangrove forest</span> Productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones

Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangrove trees cannot withstand freezing temperatures. There are about 80 different species of mangroves, all of which grow in areas with low-oxygen soil, where slow-moving waters allow fine sediments to accumulate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freshwater swamp forest</span> Forest growing on an alluvial zone

Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are found in a range of climate zones, from boreal through temperate and subtropical to tropical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography and ecology of the Everglades</span> Details of the natural environment of the Everglades

Before drainage, the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, were an interwoven mesh of marshes and prairies covering 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2). The Everglades is both a vast watershed that has historically extended from Lake Okeechobee 100 miles (160 km) south to Florida Bay, and many interconnected ecosystems within a geographic boundary. It is such a unique meeting of water, land, and climate that the use of either singular or plural to refer to the Everglades is appropriate. When Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote her definitive description of the region in 1947, she used the metaphor "River of Grass" to explain the blending of water and plant life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pine–cypress forest</span>

Pine–cypress forest is a type of mixed conifer woodland in which at least one species of pine and one species of cypress are present. Such forests are noted in several parts of the world, but are particularly well studied in Japan, and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Mitsch</span> American ecologist

William Mitsch is an ecosystem ecologist and ecological engineer who was co-laureate of the 2004 Stockholm Water Prize in August 2004 as a result of a career in wetland ecology and restoration, ecological engineering, and ecological modelling.

Global mangrove distributions have fluctuated throughout human and geological history. The area covered by mangroves is influenced by a complex interaction between land position, rainfall hydrology, sea level, sedimentation, subsidence, storms and pest-predator relationships). In the last 50 years, human activities have strongly affected mangrove distributions, resulting in declines or expansions of worldwide mangrove area. Mangroves provide several important ecological services including coastal stabilization, juvenile fish habitats, and the filtration of sediment and nutrients). Mangrove loss has important implications for coastal ecological systems and human communities are dependent on healthy mangrove ecosystems. This article presents an overview of global mangrove forest biome trends in mangrove ecoregions distribution, as well as the cause of such changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological values of mangroves</span>

Mangrove ecosystems represent natural capital capable of producing a wide range of goods and services for coastal environments and communities and society as a whole. Some of these outputs, such as timber, are freely exchanged in formal markets. Value is determined in these markets through exchange and quantified in terms of price. Mangroves are important for aquatic life and home for many species of fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ariel Lugo</span> Puerto Rican scientist

Ariel E. Lugo is a scientist, ecologist and former Director of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF) within the USDA United States Forest Service, based in Puerto Rico. He is a founding member of the Society for Ecological Restoration and Member-at-Large of the Board of the Ecological Society of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cypress dome</span> Swamp dominated by pond or bald cypress

A cypress dome is a type of freshwater forested wetland, or a swamp, found in the southeastern part of the United States. They are dominated by the Taxodium spp., either the bald cypress, or pond cypress. The name comes from the dome-like shape of treetops, formed by smaller trees growing on the edge where the water is shallow while taller trees grow at the center in deeper water. They usually appear as circular, but if the center is too deep, they form a “doughnut” shape when viewed from above. Cypress domes are characteristically small compared to other swamps, however they can occur at a range of sizes, dependent on the depth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangrove restoration</span> Ecosystem regeneration

Mangrove restoration is the regeneration of mangrove forest ecosystems in areas where they have previously existed. Restoration can be defined as "the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed." Mangroves can be found throughout coastal wetlands of tropical and subtropical environments. Mangroves provide essential ecosystem services such as water filtration, aquatic nurseries, medicinal materials, food, and lumber. Additionally, mangroves play a vital role in climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration and protection from coastal erosion, sea level rise, and storm surges. Mangrove habitat is declining due to human activities such as clearing land for industry and climate change. Mangrove restoration is critical as mangrove habitat continues to rapidly decline. Different methods have been used to restore mangrove habitat, such as looking at historical topography, or mass seed dispersal. Fostering the long-term success of mangrove restoration is attainable by involving local communities through stakeholder engagement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue carbon</span> Carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems

Blue carbon is a concept within climate change mitigation that refers to "biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management". Most commonly, it refers to the role that tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrass meadows can play in carbon sequestration. These ecosystems can play an important role for climate change mitigation and ecosystem-based adaptation. However, when blue carbon ecosystems are degraded or lost, they release carbon back to the atmosphere, thereby adding to greenhouse gas emissions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peatland</span> Wetland terrain without forest cover, dominated by living, peat-forming plants

A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. Peatlands are unusual landforms that derive mostly from biological rather than physical processes, and can take on characteristic shapes and surface patterning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherman's fox squirrel</span> Subspecies of rodent

Sherman's fox squirrel is a subspecies of the fox squirrel. It lives in the U.S. states of Florida and Georgia in fire-prone areas of longleaf pine and wiregrass, especially around sandhills. A tree squirrel, Sherman's fox squirrel has lost much of its habitat to farming and development. This type of squirrel nests in oak trees using leaves and Spanish moss.

John Jeffrey Ewel is an emeritus professor and tropical succession researcher in the department of biology at the University of Florida. Most of his research was conducted through experimental trials to understand ecosystem processes in terrestrial and tropical environments. The results of the research provided the ability to further comprehend forest structure and management, as well as its nutrient dynamics. The primary research conducted dealt with the beginning stages of the regrowth and recovery following agriculture practices. Ewel also participated in studies regarding invasive species and restoration ecology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Lovelock</span> Australian marine biologist and ecologist

Catherine Ellen Lovelock is an Australian marine ecologist, whose research focuses on coastal ecosystems. She is a professor in the School of Biological Science at the University of Queensland and 2020 Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellow.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Ewel, Katherine | School of Forest Resources & Conservation". sfrc.ufl.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  2. 1 2 3 Personal Communication - Email - 11/14/18
  3. ↑ "Water Institute Affiliated Faculty - Katherine Ewel". UF Water Institute. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  4. 1 2 3 Ewel, Katherine C.; Odum, Howard T., eds. (2001-01-01). Cypress Swamps. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. ISBN   9780813024295.
  5. ↑ Kadlec, Robert H.; Wallace, Scott; Knight, Robert L. (1995-12-13). Treatment Wetlands. CRC Press. ISBN   9780873719308.
  6. ↑ R., Carter, Douglas (2002). Florida's renewable forest resources. University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, EDIS. ISBN   9789024735907. OCLC   51929783.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. 1 2 Gholz, H. L.; Vogel, S. A.; Cropper, W. P.; McKelvey, K.; Ewel, K. C.; Teskey, R. O.; Curran, P. J. (1991-02-01). "Dynamics of Canopy Structure and Light Interception in Pinus Elliottii Stands, North Florida" (PDF). Ecological Monographs. 61 (1): 33–51. doi:10.2307/1942998. ISSN   0012-9615. JSTOR   1942998.
  8. ↑ Ewel, Katherine C.; Cropper.Jr., Wendell P.; Gholz, Henry L. (1987-04-01). "Soil CO2 evolution in Florida slash pine plantations. II. Importance of root respiration". Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 17 (4): 330–333. doi:10.1139/x87-055. ISSN   0045-5067.
  9. ↑ Gholz, H. L. (1987-08-31). Agroforestry: Realities, Possibilities and Potentials. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN   9789024735907.
  10. ↑ Cole, Thomas G; Ewel, Katherine C; Devoe, Nora N (1999-05-01). "Structure of mangrove trees and forests in Micronesia". Forest Ecology and Management. 117 (1–3): 95–109. doi:10.1016/s0378-1127(98)00474-5. ISSN   0378-1127.
  11. ↑ Ewel, Katherine C.; Zheng, Songfa; Pinzon, Zuleika S.; Bourgeois, John A. (1998-12-01). "Environmental Effects of Canopy Gap Formation in High-Rainfall Mangrove Forests1". Biotropica. 30 (4): 510–518. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.1998.tb00091.x. ISSN   0006-3606. S2CID   86400998.
  12. 1 2 "Katherine Ewel - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  13. 1 2 EWEL, KATHERINE; TWILLEY, ROBERT; ONG, JIN (1998-01-01). "Different kinds of mangrove forests provide different goods and services". Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters. 7 (1): 83–94. doi:10.2307/2997700. ISSN   1466-8238. JSTOR   2997700.
  14. 1 2 Levin, Lisa A.; Boesch, Donald F.; Covich, Alan; Dahm, Cliff; Erséus, Christer; Ewel, Katherine C.; Kneib, Ronald T.; Moldenke, Andy; Palmer, Margaret A. (2001-08-01). "The Function of Marine Critical Transition Zones and the Importance of Sediment Biodiversity". Ecosystems. 4 (5): 430–451. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.468.5518 . doi:10.1007/s10021-001-0021-4. ISSN   1432-9840. S2CID   207045823.
  15. ↑ Duke, N. C.; Meynecke, J.-O.; Dittmann, S.; Ellison, A. M.; Anger, K.; Berger, U.; Cannicci, S.; Diele, K.; Ewel, K. C. (2007-07-06). "A World Without Mangroves?" (PDF). Science. 317 (5834): 41–42. doi:10.1126/science.317.5834.41b. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17615322. S2CID   23653981.
  16. ↑ Ewel, Katherine C.; Cropper Jr., Wendell P.; Gholz, Henry L. (1987-04-01). "Soil CO2 evolution in Florida slash pine plantations. I. Changes through time". Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 17 (4): 325–329. doi:10.1139/x87-054. ISSN   0045-5067.
  17. ↑ Williams, Kimberlyn; Ewel, Katherine C.; Stumpf, Richard P.; Putz, Francis E.; Workman, Thomas W. (1999-09-01). "Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Forest Retreat on the West Coast of Florida, USA". Ecology. 80 (6): 2045–2063. doi:10.1890/0012-9658(1999)080[2045:slracf]2.0.co;2. ISSN   0012-9658.
  18. ↑ Benstead, Jonathan P.; March, James G.; Fry, Brian; Ewel, Katherine C.; Pringle, Catherine M. (2006-02-01). "Testing Isosource: Stable Isotope Analysis of a Tropical Fishery with Diverse Organic Matter Sources". Ecology. 87 (2): 326–333. doi:10.1890/05-0721. hdl: 1912/4672 . ISSN   0012-9658. PMID   16637358.
  19. ↑ Chimner, Rodney A.; Ewel, Katherine C. (2005-12-01). "A Tropical Freshwater Wetland: II. Production, Decomposition, and Peat Formation". Wetlands Ecology and Management. 13 (6): 671–684. doi:10.1007/s11273-005-0965-9. ISSN   0923-4861. S2CID   42615186.
  20. ↑ Daily, Gretchen Cara (1997-02-01). Nature's Services: Societal Dependence On Natural Ecosystems. Island Press. ISBN   9781559634762.
  21. ↑ Ewel, Katherine C. (2001-12-01). "Natural Resource Management: The Need for Interdisciplinary Collaboration". Ecosystems. 4 (8): 716–722. doi:10.1007/s10021-001-0040-1. ISSN   1435-0629. S2CID   28678646.
  22. ↑ Krauss, Ken W.; Cahoon, Donald R.; Allen, James A.; Ewel, Katherine C.; Lynch, James C.; Cormier, Nicole (2010-01-01). "Surface Elevation Change and Susceptibility of Different Mangrove Zones to Sea-Level Rise on Pacific High Islands of Micronesia". Ecosystems. 13 (1): 129–143. doi:10.1007/s10021-009-9307-8. ISSN   1432-9840. S2CID   24822168.
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