Geology topics

C. H. Marshall

Publications and source records attributed to C. H. Marshall.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2004

The impact of anthropogenic land-cover change on the Florida Peninsula Sea Breezes and warm season sensible weather

During the twentieth century, the natural landscape of the Florida peninsula was transformed extensively by agriculture, urbanization, and the diversion of surface water features. The purpose of this paper is to present a numerical modeling study in which the possible impacts of this transformation on the warm season climate of the region were investigated. For three separate July–August periods (1973, 1989, and 1994), a pair of simulations was performed with the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System. Within each pair, the simulations differed only in the specification of land-cover class. The two different classes were specified using highly detailed datasets that were constructed to represent pre-1900 natural land cover and 1993 land-use patterns, thus capturing the landscape transformation within each pair of simulations. When the pre-1900 natural cover was replaced with the 1993 land-use dataset, the simulated spatial patterns of the surface sensible and latent heat flux were altered significantly, resulting in changes in the structure and strength of climatologically persistent, surface-forced mesoscale circulations—particularly the afternoon sea-breeze fronts. This mechanism was associated with marked changes in the spatial distribution of convective rainfall totals over the peninsula. When averaged over the model domain, this redistribution was reflected as an overall decrease in the 2-month precipitation total. In addition, the domain average of the diurnal cycle of 2-m temperature was amplified, with a noted increase in the daytime maximum. These results were consistent among all three simulated periods, and largely unchanged when subjected to a number of model sensitivity factors. Furthermore, the model results are in reasonable agreement with an analysis of observational data that indicates decreasing regional precipitation and increasing daytime maximum temperature during the twentieth century. These results could have important implications for water resource and land-use management issues in south Florida, including efforts to restore and preserve the natural hydroclimate of the Everglades ecosystem. This study also provides more evidence for the need to consider anthropogenic land-cover change when evaluating climate trends.

Florida↗

USGS2004

Has the conversion of natural wetlands to agricultural land increased the incidence and severity of damaging freezes in south Florida?

On several occasions, winter freezes have wrought severe destruction on Florida agriculture. A series of devastating freezes around the turn of the twentieth century, and again during the 1980s, were related to anomalies in the large-scale flow of the ocean–atmosphere system. During the twentieth century, substantial areas of wetlands in south Florida were drained and converted to agricultural land for winter fresh vegetable and sugarcane production. During this time, much of the citrus industry also was relocated to those areas to escape the risk of freeze farther to the north. The purpose of this paper is to present a modeling study designed to investigate whether the conversion of the wetlands to agriculture itself could have resulted in or exacerbated the severity of recent freezes in those agricultural areas of south Florida. For three recent freeze events, a pair of simulations was undertaken with the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System. One member of each pair employed land surface properties that represent pre-1900s (near natural) land cover, whereas the other member of each pair employed data that represent near-current land-use patterns as derived from analysis of Landsat data valid for 1992/93. These two different land cover datasets capture well the conversion of wetlands to agriculture in south Florida during the twentieth century. Use of current land surface properties resulted in colder simulated minimum temperatures and temperatures that remained below freezing for a longer period at locations of key agricultural production centers in south Florida that were once natural wetlands. Examination of time series of the surface energy budget from one of the cases reveals that when natural land cover is used, a persistent moisture flux from the underlying wetlands during the nighttime hours served to prevent the development of below-freezing temperatures at those same locations. When the model results were subjected to an important sensitivity factor, the depth of standing water in the wetlands, the outcome remained consistent. These results provide another example of the potential for humans to perturb the climate system in ways that can have severe socioeconomic consequences by altering the land surface alone.

Monthly Weather Review↗

USGS2003

Wetlands: Crop freezes and land-use change in Florida

South Florida experienced a significant change in land usage during the twentieth century, including the conversion of natural wetlands into agricultural land for the cultivation of winter vegetable, sugar cane and citrus crops. This movement of agriculture from more northerly areas was intended partly to escape the risk of damaging winter freezes. Here we present evidence from a case study using a coupled atmosphere and land-surface computer-modelling system that suggests that the draining of wetlands may have inadvertently increased the frequency and severity of agriculturally damaging freezes in the south of Florida.

Nature↗

USGS1963