Decadal change in Virginia barrier islands

By: Julie Zinnert

It is easy to see how dynamic the landscape is working at the Virginia barrier islands. Dramatic changes to shoreline, dunes, and interior swales can happen in a matter of weeks. One offshore hurricane (like Hurricane Joaquin) can completely destroy a master's dune grass experiment. New shrub thickets can develop over three years in what was previously grassland. Seeing this change is exciting for students and myself after working on the islands over the last ten years.
 
Recently, we analyzed several of the Virginia islands to see how the islands and communities are changing at the decadal scale. Our results were astonishing! We knew from previous work that woody vegetation has been expanding on many of the islands. In fact, shrub loss only occurred on islands that had lost island area. In a soon to be published paper in Ecosystems, we took a closer look at the upland communities. What is happening with grassy swales? Are shrubs only expanding? Are there any patterns of change consistent across the islands?
 
What we found was astounding! From the period between 1984 to 2011, all of the islands lost upland area - some more than others (ranging from 12% on Cedar to 62% on Cobb; 29% total area loss from all islands). This is similar to the amount of ice loss from the Arctic over the timeframe. Surprisingly, this amount of land loss was seen over 16 decades in the Gulf Coast barrier islands (not 3 as in Virginia)!

Shoreline migration is how barrier islands respond to sea-level rise. Shoreline hardening to protect economic infrastructure poses a challenge for the future of barrier islands. We first need to understand how barrier islands naturally adapt and change to rising sea level so that we can implement more green solutions in developed islands. The Virginia Coast Reserve provides a rare and unique site for research as the islands are undeveloped.
 
In our analysis of barrier island change, we found three major patterns of land cover transitions: complete loss of vegetation (these islands are actively migrating onto the marsh platform), frequent transitions between grass and woody vegetation, and increase in woody vegetation. It appears that islands with extensive woody vegetation do not migrate, but rather lose area through shoreline erosion. Woody vegetation may decrease resilience of barrier islands in the same way that human infrastructure does. This is exemplified in Cobb Island (see picture below). Cobb Island had very low woody cover in 1984. Between 1984 and 2011, woody area increased (over 100 ha) while the island lost over 400 ha. Extensive shrub death can be seen at the shoreline. This vegetation prevents overwash of sediments onto the backbarrier marsh. Cobb Island has had virtually no migration onto the marsh during the timeframe.
 

Shrub death is visible at the shoreline as Cobb Island erodes (a). Loss of upland area and increase in woody vegetation (red) is visible from satellite imagery on Cobb Island in 1984 (b) and 2011(c).

   
We are beginning to document linkages that occur across island processes. This is an important step as we scale from local level measurements to island and island-chain level response. The relationship between species and dune building is important to determine the species composition of interior swales. Interior swale communities affect sediment transport, island migration, and marsh dynamics. Thus, the ecological function of barrier island upland communities is highly relevant beyond the barrier island landscape.

On the value and function of barrrier island vegetation

By Julie Zinnert

Coastal barrier systems comprise 15% of coastlines globally and occur on all continents except Antarctica.  Along the Atlantic of North America, barrier islands are the frontline ecosystem to 78% of coastline, protecting 41.5 million people from nor’easters and hurricanes. These ecosystems protect mainland human infrastructure and areas of great economic value; thus, predicting the fate of barrier islands in uncertain climate conditions is essential. At the Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research site, we have a unique view into the natural response of barrier islands without direct anthropogenic influence as the Virginia barrier islands are owned and protected by various entities (e.g. The Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation). At the Coastal Plant Ecology Lab, our research focuses on the value and function of barrier island upland vegetation, an often overlooked landscape. 

With the advent of remote sensing, we have been able to obtain a broader perspective of barrier island change. In a paper soon to be published in Ecosystems, we have documented a 29% loss in Virginia barrier islands from 1984-2011. This is similar to the rate of ice melt in the Arctic (~11% per decade).  With such dramatic loss in upland communities, we have also documented dynamic changes in land cover and the expansion of woody vegetation across several islands. Considering that the upland portion of barrier islands is where anthropogenic development occurs, there is an urgent need to fully understand the ecological processes, function, and connection to other landscapes (e.g. marshes, lagoons).

Historically, ecological research on barrier island has focused on answering fundamental scientific questions at local scales. However, as our understanding of barrier island ecology has grown, so has the recognition that these systems are highly complex and dynamic across space and time. Over the next several weeks, I will highlight current research ongoing in our lab that examines the role of barrier island upland vegetation at both local and broad scales, and how this work is contributing to our understanding of such a unique, but globally distributed landscape. From overwash communities and dune vegetation to shrub expansion, vine infiltration and loss of maritime forests, we span islands, their communities, and underlying mechanistic processes. Given their unique position on the landscape and the harsh abiotic factors they constantly face, these sensitive ecosystems can inform us on both the effects of climate and resilience of our natural world to such dramatic change.


Hog Island: overwash fans from 2000 in the south (left) and shrub expansion in the north (right).

Nisrine Machaka-Houri

 

 Dr. Nisrine Machaka-Houri

 

Dr. Machaka-Houri was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1976 . She is the third child of a family of four children. Her father got a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Saint Joseph (USJ), which inspired her two brothers to pursue their bachelor’s in the same major. Her mother only finished the 9^th grade, and her only sister finished the 12^th grade. Dr. Machaka-Houri, did not decide to get a PhD until later in her life, after she got married to her beloved husband—Dr. Ahmad Houri. She was the first person to have a PhD degree in her family, which encouraged one of her brothers to get his PhD in his field.

 

After graduating from high school, Dr. Machaka-Houri applied to many universities. Unfortunately, she was not accepted into any of them. Or is it fortunately? After her wedding to Dr. Houri, a postdoc at Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, she began to pursue her undergraduate education in interior design at Design Institute of San Diego, a subject she was quite fascinated with. After having settled into their new life in the United States, Dr. Machaka-Houri and her husband began to find great joy in their discovery of the nature around them, wondering about its beauty, and capturing a plethora of pictures of a variety of flowers. Dr. Houri’s passion for photography as a hobby, stirred a passion for Dr. Machaka-Houri with experiences that she fondly refers to as “amusing” and “amazing”.

 

After year and a half, the couple returned to their home in Lebanon, where Dr. Machaka-Houri received her B.S. in interior design from the Lebanese American University (LAU), in 2001. But it was the memories of her discoveries of the flora and her curiosity for the variation in nature, that caused her to pursue the discovery of the plants and nature around her in Lebanon. At the initial stages of her exploration of nature, there was only one floral guide available in Lebanon that only classified about 165 flowers.  they encountered a great difficulty in their attempts to catalogue and discern the different flora around them, causing them to begin their own field guide and classification of the diversity in plant life around them.  Thus they created their own floral field guide, based on their collection of pictures and particular attention to detail. And within a short amount of time, Ahmad and Nisrine published the first volume of the Photographic Guide to Wild Flowers of Lebanon in 2001, that consisted of images and details about 240 species of plants. 

 

Photographic guide to wild flowers of Lebanon – Volume (1)

 

Example of the floral classification in the Photographic guide to wild flowers of Lebanon book

 

Having published their book, and with a deeply rooted passion for nature, Dr. Machaka-Houri received her postgraduate diploma in Biodiversity Conservation and Management in 2006 from the University of London. The journey to her professional certification in the field of botanical studies and biodiversity, was marked by her determination to succeed and learn even if it required great lengths and dedication through long-distance learning. Two years later, in 2008, Ahmad and Nisrine published the second volume of the Photographic Guide to Wild Flowers of Lebanon, that classified additional 400 species. However, even with two major publications, Dr. Machaka-Houri received a lot of underestimation from her peers, who judged her place in academia due to her contribution to the field guides with a mere undergraduate degree. And so in order to validate her place in academia, she decided to continue her education and get a PhD, becoming one of the most accomplished women in ecology by 2013. Soon after, in 2014 she went back to USA with her husband and three beautiful children, to continue her postdoctoral education with an esteemed fellowship at the department of Plant and Microbial Biology at University of California, Berkeley. 

                                  

Photographic guide to wild flowers of Lebanon – Volume (2)

 

   

Dr. Machaka-Houri has continued contributing to the scientific field through her published works, books, presentations, conferences, and continued research in biodiversity. Moreover, she was as a coordinator for developing an ecotourism website for the Green-Line Organization, where she personally worked on the historic sites and wild flower sections in Lebanon. She also enjoys volunteering at Ibad Al Rahman Organization to sponsor, the disadvantaged students in Lebanon. With her contributions to science and society she was awarded the “Women in Science Hall of Fame - 2015” award—program initiated by the U.S. Department of State. In 2015 she was selected to participate in the “Women's Innovations in Science Entrepreneurship (WISE)” program, to be conducted April 11-29, 2016 in the US.

 

 

Dr. Nisrine Machaka-Houri and her family

 

 

Dr. Bissett - the newest CPEL PhD

Today was a stellar day for the Coastal Plant Ecology Lab! Spencer Bissett successfully defended his dissertation titled CONSEQUENCES OF VINE INFESTATION: LINKING ABIOTIC INFLUENCES AND BIOTIC INTERACTIONS TO SUCCESSIONAL AND STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN COASTAL COMMUNITIES. His research focused on coastal habitats which are inherently vulnerable to the effects of global change at the interface of marine and terrestrial systems. Barrier island systems in particular serve not only as protective buffers against storm events, but also as sentinel ecosystems for observation of the impacts of sea level rise, and of increasing storm frequency and intensity. In the mid-Atlantic region, shrub thickets of Morella species compose the dominant woody community. Spencer's objective was to investigate the distribution and community roles of vine species in mid-Atlantic barrier island woody communities. He quantified environmental variables at two barrier habitats with differing site management histories and corresponding topography, and found that abiotic factors affected distributions of woody species, which subsequently affected vine species distributions. Vines demonstrated a long-lasting effect of arresting or delaying succession, and are potentially responsible for the lack of redevelopment of mature maritime forest at these sites. At Hog Island, Virginia, remotely-sensed data were utilized to determine the three-dimensional structural effects of vine infiltration in woody canopies. Vines were found to reduce canopy height and depth, and increase density, short-term diversity, and light-intercepting biomass. Significant vine infiltration can accelerate senescence of shrub thickets, but often results in persistent tangled masses of vegetation which reduce recruitment of later-successional species. These effects may represent long-term, lasting impacts of vine establishment and expansion in these habitats, affecting community succession towards diverse and stable maritime forest, and significantly altering resource dynamics in these sensitive ecosystems.

Congratulations Dr. Bissett! Your achievement is well earned!

Spencer just moments after passing his defense. Somehow a Hawaiian shirt materialized out of nowhere.

Dr. Priya Davidar - pioneering female ecologist in India

By Kanchan Anand Joshi

 

Dr. Priya Davidar is one of the first women ecologists in India. She was born in 1952, and was the eldest amongst the children. She feels that she became an ecologist through fortunate set of circumstances. Her father was E.R.C. Davidar, a big game hunter who later gave up the gun and became a wildlife photographer and conservationist. Her father took her for fishing and trekking in wilderness areas, which gave her the spirit of adventure and curiosity about life around her.  It is perhaps not surprising that Dr. Davidar chose to become a field biologist. She earned her Ph.D. from the Bombay Natural History Society under the supervision of Dr. Salim Ali – ‘the bird man of India’. She personally feels that her advisor was gender blind and supported all his students.

She came to the US in 1981 for her post-doctoral studies and found she had a lot of catching up to do in terms of scientific and analytical skills.  Although most people were warm and friendly, race and gender were undercurrents that were difficult to ignore at times.  The support of many outstanding scientists in US helped her.  Despite her impressive field experience, Dr. Davidar remained unsure about the job prospects for an ecologist in India, so she completed her M.S. from Harvard school of Public Health and studied immune responses of rodents to the deer tick. But she soon realized that she was not interested in human related health diseases, and took the opportunity to return to India when she was offered a faculty position at the newly established Pondicherry University in 1987. Dr. E. O. Wilson has this to say about her decision to return to India:  "When she chose to return to India, I knew she had a remarkable opportunity to play a pioneering role in ecology and biogeography, which she has achieved”.

Coming back to India was an opportunity to do field work in remote areas, as well as a shock, due to the politics, mediocrity and often times brutality of academic life.  Caste, region and gender have overwhelming influence in professional life in India, she found.  My advice to researchers from disadvantaged backgrounds unwelcome in upper-caste networks is to find collaborators who are supportive to buffer the harshness," she says. "Being persistent and carrying on despite difficulties is important. What I found is, time is an important ally that leads to eventual success." She received hostility from male colleagues too. “They suggested that I get married and stay in the kitchen”. “I used to take it quite personally and suffered a lot. Now, I realize this only creates needless stress for oneself,” she says.

Overcoming all these obstacles, Dr. Davidar has held a post at Pondicherry University’s Salim Ali School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences since 1987, and carried out research in diverse fields such as pollination biology, island biogeography, species distribution patterns, and conservation biology. She has advised more than 30 MS students and 12 Ph.D.’s have been awarded under her guidance. She has more than 90 publications. Of late, there has been a shift in the focus of her research. She is actively working in the field of grass roots conservation and together  with her husband Jean-Philippe Puyravaud carry out research and training at the Sigur Nature Trust, a nonprofit nature oriented charitable trust. She feels that relationships are among the most important aspects of a career. Dr. Davidar’s father and Dr. Salim Ali were important early influences for her. Also her encounter with Jean-Philippe Puyravaud changed the course of her life. She married him and her career!

 

Silent no more –a story of life after gang rape

By Julie Zinnert

It was a Friday night, and I was staying the night at my friend’s house.  At some point (after her parents went to bed), she suggested we try her aunt’s vodka.  I never had a drink before in my life.  I do not know how much we had, but it was enough that I have only flashes of pictures from that night; the rest is a haze that I cannot seem to uncover.  I was gang raped by 4 older guys at the age of 13.  At the time I was dating a guy who showed up at my friend’s house with his brother and two friends.  What I remember from that night: laying on the bathroom floor with a guy on top of me – my head beside the toilet; laying on the dining room floor with another guy on top of me; my “boyfriend” slapping me and calling me a bitch as he left.  But it is the story of how my life unfolded from that night onward that has caused the most damage.

Ever since that summer night before 8^th grade I crossed an invisible line.  I became different.  For the next 20 years, I viewed myself through the lens of my friend’s words as she told people the next day: “Julie had sex with 4 guys”.  Those words shaped me (and others) into believing it was a choice I had made, that it was my fault, I was to blame.  And nobody disagreed.  After that night I was called a slut, a whore, easy.  I was ostracized.  Everybody in my grade and many others knew.  And based on my southern Baptist upbringing, having sex with anyone was not something I was about to tell my family. I had committed one of the worst sins: unmarried, underage sex.  I only now wonder how teachers did not hear of this.  Or did they and just not know how to respond? 

After that night, many guys felt they had some sort of privilege to touch or harass me.  Two guys that were older and lived in the neighborhood would routinely touch and grab me as I was walking home.  A loud-mouthed guy in my grade would not leave me alone; he wanted to have sex with me.  I finally gave in to make him go away; it worked.  During the school year I was befriended by a good-looking, “popular” guy.  We talked on the phone about what happened and other things and he listened to me.  I started to feel like maybe I was not this horrible person who did such an awful thing.  He must have even felt some feeling of humanity towards me because he finally let me know that he started talking to me on a bet from someone else that he could have sex with me.  I was deeply hurt because he was the only person that I thought viewed the true me.  Perhaps he was not a bad guy for being honest, but that closed the only opportunity for understanding that I had for many years.  Afterwards, I retreated inward because all I could ever be in other people’s eyes was a slut.  I did not feel this way inside, but this was the message that I was told by everyone around me. 

The night of being gang raped is still a haze to me.  It is the events thereafter that have left the scars.  Our society and culture allowed me to be the one responsible for what happened. People’s reactions taught me that I was bad, I was to blame, I was responsible, I must have deserved it, I was a whore, I was devalued.  Everything bad fell to me.  There were no negative repercussions for the guys.  And I never questioned it because I didn’t know to.  How many women feel this way today?  It is still our culture to hear stories of rape and suggest that maybe a girl/woman deserved it because she was drunk or wearing something too slutty.  We question every aspect and detail and if there is one part that is told differently, we instantly claim that women must be making it up or telling lies.  The aftermath of my rape is a sign that we have a long way to go as a society in how we treat women who have been sexually abused.  In a recent blog post, I read that 22.5% of undergraduate women at the University of Michigan reported nonconsensual touching, kissing, or sexual penetration in the past year. 9.7% of all women reported nonconsensual sexual penetration.  And many of these women believe that they are at fault, that somehow they might have deserved this or at the least, caused it to happen. 

My story after that night is filled with a lot of bad choices, but many good ones, too. I ended up getting arrested in 9^th grade for possession of LSD at school.  When my dad picked me up from school, I remember he held me and cried.  It is only one of two times I ever saw my dad cry.  But he didn’t know why his daughter started down this path.  He never found out until a few years ago.  None of my family did.  In 10^th grade I became pregnant.  This was the first time I was scared out of my wits and told my parents that I was in trouble (although it was not well received as you can imagine).  I remember riding home on the bus as I was beginning to have a miscarriage.  By this point in my life I was pretty used to dealing with awful feelings and emotions in public.  I quickly learned how to put on my mask of happiness when inside I was destroyed.  Later I began to see it as a symbolic cleansing of body.

I wonder what that night was like from the guys’ perspective.  How did they all watch what was happening and not think it was wrong?  Did anyone feel that it was wrong? Or was I just this piece of flesh to give each of them a notch on their belt? Was this a bonding experience for brothers? I rarely saw the guys again since they were in high school (while I was in middle school).  By the time I was in high school I started down another path of drugs that ended with me attending a different school and less chance of running into them.  I did see a couple of the guys on occasion and I remember nothing but looks of contempt.  I was a whore and deserved everything that happened.  Sometime during my high school years, the two brothers committed suicide (at different times).  I remember when the first brother killed himself, a good friend of mine was very sad.  I could not fathom how she could be friends with a person who had done such an awful thing to me.  I know now that in her eyes, I was at fault.  I wonder now if she still feels that way.  I wonder if having two little girls makes her view things differently. When I learned about both brothers killing themselves, I felt a small feeling of justice.  At least there were two less rapists in this world.

As I write these words, I feel this strange sort of detachment from myself; this couldn’t possibly have happened to me.  But it did.  I was a child living in suburbia, going to church, getting good grades, and these things aren’t supposed to happen.  I am sharing my story to tell everybody that rape is never the victim’s fault; our bodies belong only to us and to take without permission is a violation of our most basic rights.  I want to tell parents that this can happen to their daughters and sons and the only way to stop it is to educate and not avoid it because it feels uncomfortable.  I want to tell friends and family that when someone’s behavior changes so dramatically, it is a sign of serious hurt or damage – don’t place blame and don’t ignore the signs – offer love.  But mostly I want other victims to know that they have been only momentarily devalued – that it is not a reflection of you at all.  It is scary to accept being a victim, but once you can accept it, you become a survivor.  It is okay to let it be someone else’s fault.  We do not bear the burden of someone else’s actions.  It is a very scary, lonely, isolated feeling.  You question how you could have done things differently, but the truth is, you did nothing wrong.  When I was finally told by my now husband that it was not my fault, it took me several years to believe those words.

By speaking out, I release myself from the wounds that were created by the actions of those 4 guys many years ago.  Today I am a successful female scientist in plant ecology that has risen past the beliefs society tried to impose on me.  I have freed myself from the people that told me I was nothing.  I don’t need to prove myself to anyone.  I know now that I was raped by 4 guys.  They committed a terrible, atrocious act.  I lived too many years not knowing that it wasn’t my fault.  I no longer need to accept responsibility.  By speaking out, I am crossing another invisible line. People now know who I am.  At times, it feels scarier than accepting the blame and believing it was my fault.  I have allowed myself to be a victim.  Today I am more than a survivor.  I am true to myself and I know that I can achieve anything.

 

Me at the age of 13 – a few months before crossing the invisible line.

Lucy Emma Braun

By Ashley Moulton

 

Emma Lucy Braun is best known for her pioneering work in many fields including plant & forest ecology, vascular plant taxonomy, and plant geography. She was born in 1889 in Ohio and quickly developed a curiosity of nature during family trips to neighboring woods with her sister Annette Braun. Later she received her B.A. and Masters at the University of Cincinnati which helped further her early interest in plant geography and distributions. She then went to get her PhD in Botany in 1914. Her sister Annette was the first female PhD recipient at University of Cincinnati and studied entomology and she was the second.

 

 

Following her doctorate studies she became employed for the university. During this time she went on many road trips all over the country with her sister in their Model T. Ford. Together they explored many remote areas together and made friends with moonshiners. During their trips, Lucy made observations on the vegetation and prepared herbarium samples while her sister Annette studied moths. She took numerous photos during her travel, which she used later for teaching classes as a professor at the University of Cincinnati.

 

 

Over the next 31 years she ascended up the ranks from an Assistant in Botany to Professor of Plant Ecology at the University of Cincinnati. During her time as a professor she had 13 Master students and one PhD student, 9 of which were females which was highly unusual at this period of time for woman professors. Lucy’s focus on graduate mentoring and publishing her research made her rather unique in comparison to her contemporaries who at this time often focused solely on teaching. 

Lucy had an early retirement from teaching in 1948 at age 59, which allowed her conduct more specialized research. In total she wrote 4 books as well as 180 articles that were published in over twenty journals. Most notably was her book, Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America, published in 1950 which was a huge success and went out of print numerous times. This book was a culmination of her 25 years of fieldwork and over 65,000 miles of traveling with her sister. The book itself describes in detail the plants of deciduous forests and their evolution since the most recent ice age to the middle of the 20^th century. Also in 1950 Lucy was elected the first female president of the Ecological Society of America.

 

 

She made several floristic contributions including organizing the Ohio Flora Committee, within the Ohio Academy of Science which lead to the publication of “the Woody Plants of Ohio (1961)” and “The monocotyledoneae of Ohio (1967)”. Her published articles comparing her floristic studies in Ohio to a previous flora notes from hundreds of years prior served as a model for comparing change over time in flora now known as longitudinal studies. Also during her time she fought to preserve over 10,000 acres of natural areas and set up nature reserves, particularly in her home state. She also collected an Extensive herbarium of nearly 12,000 species that now resides in the National Museum in Washington, D.C. She received numerous awards and honors before her death in 1971 at age of 82. Her strong willed and forceful personality was noted by many as one of her greatest strengths as well as the inseparable relationship she had with her sister Annette.