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

Mangrove Shrub growing in brackish water

A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves 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.

Swamp 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.

Wetland Land area that is permanently or seasonally saturated with water

A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from terrestrial land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique anoxic hydric soils. Wetlands are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal species. Methods for assessing wetland functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed for many regions of the world. These methods have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions some wetlands provide.

Everglades National Park One-and-a-half million acres in Florida (US) managed by the National Park Service

Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River. An average of one million people visit the park each year. Everglades is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States after Death Valley and Yellowstone. UNESCO declared the Everglades & Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and listed the park as a World Heritage Site in 1979, and the Ramsar Convention included the park on its list of Wetlands of International Importance in 1987. Everglades is one of only three locations in the world to appear on all three lists.

Picayune Strand State Forest

Picayune Strand State Forest is one of 37 state forests in Florida managed by the Florida Forest Service. The 78,000-acre forest consists primarily of cypress swamps, wet pine flatwoods and wet prairies. It also features a grid of closed roads over part of it, left over from its previous land development schemes.

Apalachicola National Forest A national forest located Florida

The Apalachicola National Forest is the largest U.S. National Forest in the state of Florida. It encompasses 632,890 acres and is the only national forest located in the Florida Panhandle. The National Forest provides water and land-based outdoors activities such as off-road biking, hiking, swimming, boating, hunting, fishing, horse-back riding, and off-road ATV usage.

Mangrove forest 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 mangrove trees. All of these trees grow in areas with low-oxygen soil, where slow-moving waters allow fine sediments to accumulate.

Hammock (ecology) Type of ecosystem in the southeastern United States

Hammock is a term used in the southeastern United States for stands of trees, usually hardwood, that form an ecological island in a contrasting ecosystem. Hammocks grow on elevated areas, often just a few inches high, surrounded by wetlands that are too wet to support them. The term hammock is also applied to stands of hardwood trees growing on slopes between wetlands and drier uplands supporting a mixed or coniferous forest. Types of hammocks found in the United States include tropical hardwood hammocks, temperate hardwood hammocks, and maritime or coastal hammocks. Hammocks are also often classified as hydric, mesic or xeric. The types are not exclusive, but often grade into each other.

Colt Creek State Park

Colt Creek State Park is a Florida State Park in Central Florida, 16 miles (26 km) north of Lakeland off of State Road 471. This 5,067 acre park nestled within the Green Swamp Wilderness Area and named after one of the tributaries that flows through the property was opened to the public on January 20, 2007. Composed mainly of pine flatwoods, cypress domes and open pasture land, this piece of pristine wilderness is home to many animal species including the American bald eagle, Southern fox squirrel, gopher tortoise, white-tailed deer, wild turkey and bobcat.

Geography and ecology of the Everglades 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.

William J. Mitsch

William Mitsch, born March 29, 1947 in Wheeling, West Virginia USA, 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.

South Florida rocklands Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion of Florida, United States

The South Florida rocklands ecoregion, in the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, occurs in southern Florida and the Florida Keys in the United States, where they would naturally cover an area of 2,100 km2 (810 sq mi). These forests form on limestone outcrops with very thin soil; the higher elevation separating them from other habitats such as coastal marshes and marl prairies. On mainland Florida, rocklands exist primarily on the Miami Rock Ridge, which extends from the Miami River south to Everglades National Park. South Florida rocklands are further divided into pine rocklands and rockland hammocks.

Ecological values of mangroves

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.

Ariel Lugo Puerto Rican scientist

Ariel E. Lugo is a scientist, ecologist and 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.

Cypress dome 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.

Mangrove restoration

Mangrove restoration is the regeneration of mangrove forest ecosystems in areas where they have previously existed. The practice of mangrove restoration is grounded in the discipline of restoration ecology, which aims to “[assist] the recovery of resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed”. Since environmental impacts are an ongoing threat, to successfully restore an ecosystem implies not merely to recreate its former condition, but to strengthen its capacity to adapt to change over time. Mangrove forests are most likely to thrive in the upper half of the intertidal zone. If planted below the mean tide level, or subject to too great a sea level rise, they may fail to thrive. Success will also depend on the species chosen and their suitability to conditions.

Mire Wetland terrain without forest cover, dominated by living, peat-forming plants

A mire, peatland, or quagmire is a wetland area dominated by living peat-forming plants. Mires arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. All types of mires share the common characteristic of being saturated with water, at least seasonally with actively forming peat, while having their own ecosystem. Like coral reefs, mires are unusual landforms that derive mostly from biological rather than physical processes, and can take on characteristic shapes and surface patterning.

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.

Beverly Law is professor emeritus at Oregon State University known for her research on forest ecosystems, especially with respect to carbon cycling, fire, and how human actions impact future climate.

Catherine Lovelock 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.
  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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