Coral reef decline in the Florida Keys has been well-publicized, controversial, and polarizing owing to debate over the causative agent being climate change versus overfishing. The recurrence of mass ...bleaching in 2014, the sixth event since 1987, prompted a reanalysis of temperature data. The summer and winter of 2014 were the warmest on record. The oldest known in-situ temperature record of any coral reef is from Hens and Chickens Reef (H&C) in the Florida Keys, which showed significant warming from 1975-2014. The average number of days ≥31.5 and 32(o)C per year increased 2670% and 2560%, respectively, from the mid-1990 s to present relative to the previous 20 years. In every year after 1992 and 1994, maximum daily average temperatures exceeded 30.5 and 31°C, respectively. From 1975-1994, temperatures were <31 °C in 61% of years, and in 44% of the years prior to 1992 temperatures were <30.5 °C. The measured rate of warming predicts the start of annual bleaching between 2020 and 2034, sooner than expected from climate models and satellite-based sea temperatures. These data show that thermal stress is increasing and occurring on a near-annual basis on Florida Keys reefs due to ocean warming from climate change.
Aim
Little is known about how ileal pouch‐anal anastomosis (IPAA) influences anorectal manometric data. This study aimed to clarify temporal changes in anorectal manometric data and faecal ...incontinence in IPAA.
Methods
We examined 32 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) or familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) undergoing restorative proctocolectomy with stapled or hand‐sewn IPAA. Maximum resting pressure (MRP) and maximum squeezing pressure (MSP) were analysed before and 1–3, 6–9, and 12–24 months after IPAA. Cleveland Clinic Florida‐Faecal Incontinence Score (CCF‐FIS) was measured 6–9 and 12–24 months after IPAA.
Results
Fourteen patients underwent stapled IPAA and 18 patients underwent hand‐sewn IPAA. MRP decreased 1–3 months after stapled IPAA (median: 42.3 mmHg vs. 60.0 mmHg at preoperative value, p = 0.039), but recovered afterwards. In hand‐sewn IPAA, the median MRP decreased to 29.5 mmHg at 1–3 months after IPAA (baseline: 64.8 mmHg, p < 0.0001), and remained unchanged thereafter. Stapled IPAA did not affect MSP; however, hand‐sewn IPAA caused a reduction in the median MSP from 191.3 mmHg to 141.3 mmHg at 1–3 months (p = 0.035), which gradually increased afterwards. The median CCFFIS was 5.5 points at 6–9 months and 2 points at 12–24 months after stapled IPAA. The score was high (11 points) at 6–9 months but decreased to 5 points at 12–24 months after hand‐sewn IPAA (p = 0.022).
Conclusion
We present time trends in functional outcomes of IPAA. MRP showed a transient decrease after stapled IPAA, whereas it remained low after hand‐sewn IPAA. CCFFIS was high only at 6–9 months after hand‐sewn IPAA.
Given population declines of many shark species, coupled with increasing conservation efforts and recoveries, there is a need for baseline assessments and continued monitoring of shark populations to ...support management. The waters of South Florida, USA, are used by a diverse array of sharks that occur among a mosaic of habitats and management zones. Here we conducted standardized drumline surveys from Miami through the middle Florida Keys to examine spatial, seasonal and environmental patterns in shark occurrence, catch per unit effort, composition, and demographic structure. Between 2009 and 2021, a total of 21,755 drumlines were deployed, capturing 3398 sharks, comprising fifteen species. Ginglymostoma cirratum, (n = 1335), Carcharhinus limbatus, (n = 650), Negaprion brevirostris, (n = 314), C. leucas, (n = 253), and Sphyrna mokarran, (n = 238) were the most common species encountered. Overall, the largest shark surveyed was a 450 cm S. mokarran and the smallest shark was a 50 cm Rhizoprionodon terraenovae. At the assemblage level, relative abundance among regions and seasons were generally similar; however clear species-specific patterns of abundance, size structure, and sex-composition were detected by season, region, habitat, and management zones. Of the physical conditions evaluated, habitat type and depth emerged as the most influential parameters affecting abundances and sizes of species captured. While few species exhibited significant differences in catches by management zone, areas with the most restrictive fisheries regulations generally supported higher abundances for which differences were detected. These data serve as a baseline for future monitoring of shark populations in South Florida and assessing their response to environmental change.
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•Standardized survey of sharks in South Florida; 3398 sharks of 15 species sampled.•Species-specific patterns of abundance, size, and sex.•Habitat type and depth were significant predictors of shark abundances and size.•Areas with most restrictive fisheries generally supported higher abundance.•These data provide a baseline for future assessments.
The Covid-19 pandemic heightened already intense and increased scrutiny of public education in recent years. The administrative impulse to stage community engagement efforts to deliberate upon these ...questions, however well-intentioned, rarely realises full community engagement and reflection. Based on an examination of public engagement events held at Florida schools related to the Covid-19 health crisis, the proposed essay identifies a more concerning transformation of "public comment" into a weaponisable prop for lawmakers seeking the public legitimacy necessary for their agenda, marrying the worlds of critical studies with those of public administration and its orientations. More than merely failing to genuinely engage the public, we argue that such events forestall a more productive arrangement of the democratic form that does not rely on publicness and the leader that secures that space. Ultimately, we suggest a path that affords the possibility of public engagement, but that does not seal off the possibility of that more radical democratic future to come.
The coral fauna of the Tamiami Formation documents a northern expansion of reef development along the Florida Peninsula during the mid-Pliocene warm period (MPWP). Radiometric dating (U-Pb) of ...Solenastrea bournoni produced an age of 2.99±0.11Ma, constraining reef development to the MPWP and the peak of Plio-Pleistocene faunal turnover; subsequent to the final closure of the Central American Seaway (CAS) but prior to major Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG). Coral faunal analyses are based on a total of 1614 coral specimens collected along a 165km stretch of the west Florida coast, and included rarefaction and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). A total of 60 coral species occur within the Tamiami Formation, with faunal assemblages ranging from 42 to 87% extinct taxa. The Tamiami collections can be split into a southern “reef” assemblage with high diversity of stenotopic taxa and a northern “non-reef” assemblage with lower diversity eurytopic taxa. The southern reef assemblage contains framework buildups of the dominant tropical taxa Stylophora affinis, Orbicella annularis, and Acropora cervicornis. We interpret enhanced west Florida reef development during the middle Pliocene to be a product of more equitable sea surface temperatures, and reduced salinity fluctuations associated with higher sea levels. While mean sea surface temperature estimates based on oxygen isotopic analysis of the coral Solenastrea bournoni (25.3°C) are similar to present day values (26°C), a completely flooded southern Florida Platform in the Pliocene would be less prone to salinity fluctuations associated with coastal runoff and extreme cold-water events during winter storms. While higher latitude range shifts of tropical reef corals associated with current global climate change have been documented elsewhere in the world, we do not foresee the West Florida Shelf being conducive to significant range shifts in tropical coral taxa or reef development within the coming century.
•Radiometric dating of the Tamiami Formation produced an age of 2.99 ± 0.11 Ma.•Tamiami Reefs formed during the MPWP and the peak of Plio-Pleistocene faunal turnover.•Tamiami corals form a southern “reef” assemblage and a northern “non-reef” assemblage.•The Tamiami coral fauna documents northern reef expansion during the MPWP.•Mean sea surface temperature estimates are similar to present day values (26°C).
Although the water management sector is often characterized as resistant to risk and change, urban areas across the United States are increasingly interested in creating opportunities to transition ...toward more sustainable water management practices. These transitions are complex and difficult to predict – the product of water managers acting in response to numerous biophysical, regulatory, political, and financial factors within institutional constraints. Gaining a better understanding of how these transitions occur is crucial for continuing to improve water management. This paper presents a replicable methodology for analyzing how urban water utilities transition toward sustainability. The method combines standardized quantitative measures of variables that influence transitions with contextual qualitative information about a utility's unique decision making context to produce structured, data‐driven narratives. Data‐narratives document the broader context, the utility's pretransition history, key events during an accelerated period of change, and the consequences of transition. Eventually, these narratives should be compared across cases to develop empirically‐testable hypotheses about the drivers of and barriers to utility‐level urban water management transition. The methodology is illustrated through the case of the Miami‐Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD) in Miami‐Dade County, Florida, and its transition toward more sustainable water management in the 2000s, during which per capita water use declined, conservation measures were enacted, water rates increased, and climate adaptive planning became the new norm.
Key Points
Biophysical, regulatory, political, financial and institutional factors influence urban water management transition
Data‐driven narratives combine standardized measures with context to facilitate understanding of transitions
Narratives enable cross‐case comparison and theory development about transitions toward sustainability
Plain Language Summary
Securing sustainable freshwater supplies is one of the greatest challenges facing cities today. However, because each city confronts this challenge in the context of its own unique water sources, political structures, infrastructure, and management history, scholars struggle to understand and draw common lessons for success across cities. Using the example of Miami‐Dade County, we present a new method for understanding cities' transitions toward more sustainable water management practices that can be used to compare multiple cities. This method integrates a city's individual context with standardized measures of variables that may influence a transition: water stress, media attention, financial health, and institutional structure. The method produces a concise, data‐driven narrative of a city's transition, accompanied by a visual timeline. Using these narratives and timelines, researchers can explore important questions about water management transitions, such as what factors result in periods of rapid change, when cities take action over only a few years to adopt a number of new sustainable water policies.
Global increases in temperatures and urbanization are impacting the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. Urbanization processes create suitable habitats for vector mosquitoes in which there are a ...reduced number of predators, and human hosts are widely available. We hypothesize that mosquito vector species, especially Aedes aegypti, are locally concentrated primarily in those specific habitats at the neighborhood levels that provide suitable conditions and environmental resources needed for mosquito survival. Determining how mosquito vector species composition and abundance depend on environmental resources across habitats addresses where different types of vector control need to be applied. Therefore, our goal was to analyze and identify the most productive aquatic habitats for mosquitoes in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Immature mosquito surveys were conducted throughout Miami-Dade County from April 2018 to June 2019, totaling 2,488 inspections. Mosquitoes were collected in 76 different types of aquatic habitats scattered throughout 141 neighborhoods located in the urbanized areas of Miami-Dade County. A total of 44,599 immature mosquitoes were collected and Ae. aegypti was the most common and abundant species, comprising 43% of all specimens collected. Aedes aegypti was primarily found in buckets, bromeliads, and flower pots, concentrated in specific neighborhoods. Our results showed that aquatic habitats created by anthropogenic land-use modifications (e.g., ornamental bromeliads, buckets, etc.) were positively correlated with the abundance of Ae. aegypti. This study serves to identify how vector mosquitoes utilize the resources available in urban environments and to determine the exact role of these specific urban features in supporting populations of vector mosquito species. Ultimately, the identification of modifiable urban features will allow the development of targeted mosquito control strategies optimized to preventatively control vector mosquitoes in urban areas.
A growing body of research suggests that the marine environments of south Florida provide a critical link between the tropical and high-latitude Atlantic. Changes in the characteristics of water ...masses off south Florida may therefore have important implications for our understanding of climatic and oceanographic variability over a broad spatial scale; however, the sources of variability within this oceanic corridor remain poorly understood. Measurements of ΔR, the local offset of the radiocarbon reservoir age, from shallow-water marine environments can serve as a powerful tracer of water-mass sources that can be used to reconstruct variability in local-to regional-scale oceanography and hydrology. We combined radiocarbon and U-series measurements of Holocene-aged corals from the shallow-water environments of the Florida Keys reef tract (FKRT) with robust statistical modeling to quantify the millennial-scale variability in ΔR at locations with (“nearshore”) and without (“open ocean”) substantial terrestrial influence. Our reconstructions demonstrate that there was significant spatial and temporal variability in ΔR on the FKRT during the Holocene. Whereas ΔR was similar throughout the region after ∼4000 years ago, nearshore ΔR was significantly higher than in the open ocean during the middle Holocene. We suggest that the elevated nearshore ΔR from ∼8000 to 5000 years ago was most likely the result of greater groundwater influence associated with lower sea level at this time. In the open ocean, which would have been isolated from the influence of groundwater, ΔR was lowest ∼7000 years ago, and was highest ∼3000 years ago. We evaluated our open-ocean model of ΔR variability against records of local-to regional-scale oceanography and conclude that local upwelling was not a significant driver of open-ocean radiocarbon variability in this region. Instead, the millennial-scale trends in open-ocean ΔR were more likely a result of broader-scale changes in western Atlantic circulation associated with an increase in the supply of equatorial South Atlantic water to the Caribbean and shifts in the character of South Atlantic waters resulting from variation in the intensity of upwelling off the southwest coast of Africa. Because accurate estimates of ΔR are critical to precise calibrations of radiocarbon dates from marine samples, we also developed models of nearshore and open-ocean ΔR versus conventional 14C ages that can be used for regional radiocarbon calibrations for the Holocene. Our study provides new insights into the patterns and drivers of oceanographic and hydrologic variability in the Straits of Florida and highlights the value of the paleoceanographic records from south Florida to our understanding of Holocene changes in climate and ocean circulation throughout the Atlantic.
•ΔR in south Florida varied significantly during the Holocene.•Variability in nearshore ΔR in the mid-Holocene was likely driven by groundwater.•Large-scale changes in Atlantic circulation drove open-ocean ΔR variability.•Age-specific ΔR estimates for radiocarbon calibrations are presented.
Severe diabetes complications impact the quality of life of patients and may lead to premature deaths. However, these complications are preventable through proper glycemic control and management of ...risk factors. Understanding the risk factors of complications is important in guiding efforts to manage diabetes and reduce risks of its complications. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify risk factors of severe diabetes complications among adult hospitalized patients with diabetes in Florida.
Hospital discharge data from 2016 to 2019 were obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration through a Data Use Agreement with the Florida Department of Health. Adapted Diabetes Complications Severity Index (aDCSI) scores were computed for 1,061,140 unique adult patients with a diagnosis of diabetes. Severe complications were defined as those with an aDCSI ≥ 4. Population average models, estimated using generalized estimating equations, were used to identify individual- and area-level predictors of severe diabetes complications.
Non-Hispanic Black patients had the highest odds of severe diabetes complications compared to non-Hispanic White patients among both males (Odds Ratio OR = 1.20, 95% Confidence Interval CI: 1.17, 1.23) and females (OR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.23, 1.31). Comorbidities associated with higher odds of severe complications included hypertension (OR = 2.30, 95% CI: 2.23, 2.37), hyperlipidemia (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.27, 1.31), obesity (OR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.26) and depression (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.11), while the odds were lower for patients with a diagnosis of arthritis (OR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.79, 0.82). Type of health insurance coverage was associated with the severity of diabetes complications, with significantly higher odds of severe complications among Medicare (OR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.80, 1.90) and Medicaid (OR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.77, 1.90) patients compared to those with private insurance. Residing within the least socioeconomically deprived ZIP code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in the state had a protective effect compared to residing outside of these areas.
Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in the severity of diabetes complications exist among hospitalized patients in Florida. The observed disparities likely reflect challenges to maintaining glycemic control and managing cardiovascular risk factors, particularly for patients with multiple chronic conditions. Interventions to improve diabetes management should focus on populations with disproportionately high burdens of severe complications to improve quality of life and decrease premature mortality among adult patients with diabetes in Florida.
The weather patterns and topography of America's Gulf Coast create favorable growing conditions for thousands of species of mushrooms, but the complete region has generally gone uncharted when it ...comes to mycology. Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States at last delivers an in-depth, high-quality, user-friendly field guide, featuring more than 1,000 common and lesser-known species—some of which are being illustrated in color for the first time. Using easily identifiable characteristics and a color key, the authors enable anyone, whether amateur mushroom hunter or professional mycologist, to discern and learn about the numerous species of mushrooms encountered in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Wild-food enthusiasts will appreciate the information on edibility or toxicity that accompanies each description, and they will also find the book’s detailed instructions for collecting, cleaning, testing, preserving, and cooking wild mushrooms to be of great interest. Providing encyclopedic knowledge in a handy format that fits in a backpack, Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States is a must-have for any mushroom lover.
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