Browsing by Author "Giddings, Sarah N."

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    Land Use and Land Cover Shape River Water Quality at a Continental Caribbean Land-Ocean Interface
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Clark, Kasey E.; Bravo, Viviana D.; Giddings, Sarah N.; Davis, Kristen A.; Pawlak, Geno; Torres, Mark A.; Adelson, Anne E.; César-Ávila, Carolina I.; Boza, Ximena; Collin, Rachel
    Land use and land cover (LULC) can significantly alter river water, which can in turn have important impacts on downstream coastal ecosystems by delivering nutrients that promote marine eutrophication and hypoxia. Well-documented in temperate systems, less is known about the way land cover relates to water quality in low-lying coastal zones in the tropics. Here we evaluate the catchment LULC and the physical and chemical characteristics of six rivers that contribute flow into a seasonally hypoxic tropical bay in Bocas del Toro, Panama. From July 2019 to March 2020, we routinely surveyed eight physical and chemical characteristics (temperature, specific conductivity, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate and nitrite, ammonium, and phosphate). Our goals were to determine how these physical and chemical characteristics of the rivers reflect the LULC, to compare the water quality of the focal rivers to rivers across Panama, and to discuss the potential impacts of river discharge in the Bay. Overall, we found that the six focal rivers have significantly different river water characteristics that can be linked to catchment LULC and that water quality of rivers 10 s of kilometers apart could differ drastically. Two focal catchments dominated by pristine peat swamp vegetation in San San Pond Sak, showed characteristics typical of blackwater rivers, with low pH, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients. The remaining four catchments were largely mountainous with >50% forest cover. In these rivers, variation in nutrient concentrations were associated with percent urbanization. Comparisons across Panamanian rivers covered in a national survey to our focal rivers shows that saltwater intrusions and low DO of coastal swamp rivers may result in their classification by a standardized water quality index as having slightly contaminated water quality, despite this being their natural state. Examination of deforestation over the last 20 years, show that changes were <10% in the focal catchments, were larger in the small mountainous catchments and suggest that in the past 20 years the physical and chemical characteristics of river water that contributes to Almirante Bay may have shifted slightly in response to these moderate land use changes. (See supplementary information for Spanish-language abstract).
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    Using forty years of research to view Bahía Almirante on the caribbean coast of Panama as an integrated social-ecological system
    (Elsevier, 2024) Collin, Rachel; Adelson, Anne E.; Altieri, Andrew H.; Clark, Kasey E.; Davis, Kristen; Giddings, Sarah N.; Kastner, Samuel; Mach, Leon; Pawlak, Geno; Sjögersten, Sofie; Torres, Mark; Scott, Cinda P.
    Tropical coastal systems play a vital role in sustaining biodiversity, performing ecological functions, and providing ecosystem services. They are also home to 75% of people in the tropics. Given that coasts face intense anthropogenic pressures including climate change, human population growth, and land-use change, it is critical to develop an understanding of the linkages between physical processes, biological interactions, and social dynamics in the complex environment where land and sea meet. Here, we review and synthesize 40 years of research from the Bahía Almirante region on the Caribbean coast of Panama, summarizing the large knowledge base of marine ecology, paleontology, ecosystem science and social science and adding newer information on physical processes. We describe how the system experiences both global and local drivers that are common to many tropical coastal systems and examine the crosscutting linkages that shape the system's response to change. To accomplish this, we utilized the Press-Pulse Dynamics framework as a lens to organize the many strands of research and to allow the interdisciplinary research team to generate explicit illustrative hypotheses about important socioecological linkages related to stressors such as the variability in precipitation and increased migration and tourism. The goal for this review and synthesis is to encourage researchers in Bahía Almirante and other estuarine systems to consider the landscape and seascape more broadly, to reach beyond their immediate field of expertise, and to consider both social and environmental aspects as they seek to increase system understanding in ways that can enable more productive public discourse surrounding policy, infrastructural change, and conservation. Resumen: Los sistemas costeros tropical juegan un rol vital en el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad, cumpliendo funciones ecológicas y previendo servicios ecosistémicos. Estos también representan el hogar para el 75% de las personas en los Trópicos. Dado que las costas enfrentan intensas presiones antropogénicas, incluido el cambio climático, el crecimiento de la población humana y el cambio en el uso de la tierra, es fundamental desarrollar una comprensión de los vínculos entre los procesos físicos, las interacciones biológicas y la dinámica social en el complejo entorno donde se encuentran la tierra y el mar. Aquí, revisamos y sintetizamos 40 años de investigación en la región de la Bahía de Almirante en la costa Caribeña de Panamá. Resumimos la gran base de conocimientos principalmente de ecología marina, paleontología y ciencias sociales y reunimos información más reciente sobre procesos físicos. Describimos cómo el sistema experimenta impulsores tanto globales como locales que son comunes a muchos sistemas costeros tropicales y examinamos los vínculos transversales que dan forma a la respuesta del sistema al cambio. Para lograr esto, se utilizó el marco Press-Pulse Dynamics como lente para organizar las muchas líneas de investigación y permitir que el equipo de investigación interdisciplinario genere hipótesis ilustrativas explícitas sobre importantes vínculos socioecológicos relacionados con factores estresantes como la variabilidad en las precipitaciones y el aumento de la migración. Y turismo. El objetivo de esta revisión y síntesis es alentar a los investigadores de Bahía Almirante y otros sistemas estuarinos a considerar el paisaje y el paisaje marino de manera más amplia, ir más allá de su campo inmediato de especialización y considerar aspectos sociales y ambientales mientras buscan aumentar el sistema. Comprensión de manera que pueda permitir un discurso público más productivo en torno a las políticas, el cambio infraestructural y la conservación.