American Tropical Research Articles

A Climatology of Intensity Change and Translation Speed of Landfalling North American Tropical Cyclones between 1971 and 2020

Abstract In this study, we investigated the translation speed and intensity change characteristics for landfalling North American tropical cyclones (TCs) from 1971 to 2020. We calculated three variables—intensity change, mean translation speed, and translation speed change—prior to each TC landfall and investigated the climatology of these variables for seven coastal segments. We found that lower-latitude segments generally had greater positive intensity changes prior to landfall, and higher-latitude segments had greater translation speeds. Longitude primarily influenced translation speed changes, with landfalling TCs along the Atlantic coast of the United States notably accelerating prior to landfall. Temporal trends in each of these variables were inconsistent geographically, but most segments showed an increase in positive intensity changes over time, demonstrating the increasing likelihood of intensifying TCs before landfall in recent years. We defined extreme intensification and extreme weakening as the 90th and 10th percentile of all landfalling TC intensity changes, respectively. We found that extreme intensification and weakening have been increasing and decreasing in frequency, respectively. Results from this study can be used in a variety of future applications, including in operational forecasting and model production, and provide a baseline for climate attribution studies investigating extreme intensity change events. Significance Statement Landfalling tropical cyclones pose significant hazards to life and property in coastal regions across North America. This study develops a comprehensive climatology of intensity change and translation speed of tropical cyclones during the final 36 h prior to landfall. We found that incidences of extreme intensification and weakening of landfalling North American tropical cyclones have increased and decreased, respectively, since 1971. We also identify lower-latitude coastal segments tend to average faster translation speeds that higher-latitude segments, while segments on the east coast of the United States tended to average a greater acceleration. These results show the importance of looking at tropical cyclone characteristics regionally and provide a useful baseline to assess how tropical cyclone risk is changing in a warming climate.

Beyond Carbon: The Contributions of South American Tropical Humid and Subhumid Forests to Ecosystem Services

AbstractTropical forests are recognized for their role in providing diverse ecosystem services (ESs), with carbon uptake the best recognized. The capacity of tropical forests to provide ESs is strongly linked to their enormous biodiversity. However, causal relationships between biodiversity and ESs are poorly understood. This may be because biodiversity is often translated into species richness. Here, we argue that focusing on multiple attributes of biodiversity—structure, composition, and function—will make relationships between biodiversity and ESs clearer. In this review, we discuss the ecological processes behind ESs from tropical humid and subhumid forests of South America. Our main goal is to understand the links between the ESs and those three biodiversity attributes. While supporting and regulating services relate more closely to forest structure and function, provisioning services relate more closely to forest composition and function, and cultural services are more related to structure and composition attributes. In this sense, ESs from subhumid forests (savannas) differ from those provided by the Amazon Forest, although both ecosystems are recognized as harboring tremendous biodiversity. Given this, if anthropogenic drivers of change promote a shift in the Amazon Forest toward savanna—the savannization hypothesis—the types of services provided will change, especially climate regulating services. This review emphasizes the importance of deeply understanding ecosystem structure, composition, and function to better understand the services ecosystems provide. Understanding that anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity occur through these three main attributes, it becomes easier to anticipate how humans will impact ESs.

Soil Macroinvertebrate Communities as Indicators of Ecosystem Services in American Tropical Environments

Soil Macroinvertebrate Communities as Indicators of Ecosystem Services in American Tropical Environments

Die Neuordnung pflanzengeografischen Wissens als „Transitzone“ Wallacea. Ein amerikanisches Expansionsprojekt auf den Philippinen, 1902–1928

The Reshaping of Phytogeographical Knowledge as the "Transition zone" Wallacea: An American Expansion Project in the Philippines, 1902-1928. This paper examines the development of a concept that to this day plays an important role in biogeography: the region Wallacea. Focussing on the work of the American tropical botanist Elmer D. Merrill in the Philippines, I argue that his research on the geographical movement and settlement of Philippine plants reflects a shift in the United States' scientific and cultural understanding of the Pacific area towards a notion of "American tropics". While inventorying plants for the American administration from 1901 to 1923, the composition of Philippine flora prompted Merrill to question biogeographical regionalization in Wallace's Malay Archipelago. Not being able to situate the Philippine flora within "Asian" or "Australasian" biota, Merrill described the islands as an area of trans-regional plant migration. Together with the paleontologist Roy E. Dickerson, he later conceptualized the region Wallacea as biogeographical "transition zone" between the Philippines and Australia. In addition to the scientific conceptualization, Wallacea constitutes a space between two biogeographical subregions, whose flora was considered as being part of both, but could not be unambiguously attributed to either of these regions. In this respect, the plants resembled the inhabitants of the United States' insular overseas territories, who were legally defined neither as aliens nor as citizens. In this sense, Wallacea embodies epistemic as well as geopolitical boundaries, while its case also illustrates some of the ways in which colonial interests in the usability of plants found expression in botanical research during the early period of American overseas expansion.

Climatic variability in the northern sector of the American tropics since the latest MIS 3

We inferred millennial-scale climate variations and paleohydrological conditions in the northern sector of the American tropics for 30.3–5.5calka BP using geochemical characteristics of sediments from Lake Chalco in central Mexico. The sediment sequence is chronologically constrained with three tephra and nine radiocarbon dates. Temporal variations in titanium, total inorganic carbon, total organic carbon/titanium ratio, carbon/nitrogen ratio, and silica/titanium ratio indicate changes in runoff, salinity, productivity, and sources. Higher concentrations of Ti indicate more runoff during latest Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (30.3–28.6calka BP). Runoff was lower during the last glacial maximum (LGM; 23–19calka BP) than during the Heinrich 2 event (26–24calka BP). The interval of reduced runoff continued up to 17.5calka BP but increased during the Bølling/Allerød. Trends of decreasing runoff and increasing salinity are observed throughout MIS 1. Lake Chalco received less runoff during the LGM compared to deglaciation, opposite the trend of other North American tropical records. Different amounts of rainfall at different sites are possibly due to shifts in the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, changes in the size of the Altlantic warm pool, and varying sea-surface temperatures of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

North American Tropical Cyclone Landfall and SST: A Statistical Model Study

Abstract A statistical–stochastic model of the complete life cycle of North Atlantic (NA) tropical cyclones (TCs) is used to examine the relationship between climate and landfall rates along the North American Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. The model draws on archived data of TCs throughout the North Atlantic to estimate landfall rates at high geographic resolution as a function of the ENSO state and one of two different measures of sea surface temperature (SST): 1) SST averaged over the NA subtropics and the hurricane season and 2) this SST relative to the seasonal global subtropical mean SST (termed relSST). Here, the authors focus on SST by holding ENSO to a neutral state. Jackknife uncertainty tests are employed to test the significance of SST and relSST landfall relationships. There are more TC and major hurricane landfalls overall in warm years than cold, using either SST or relSST, primarily due to a basinwide increase in the number of storms. The signal along the coast, however, is complex. Some regions have large and significant sensitivity (e.g., an approximate doubling of annual major hurricane landfall probability on Texas from −2 to +2 standard deviations in relSST), while other regions have no significant sensitivity (e.g., the U.S. mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts). This geographic structure is due to both shifts in the regions of primary TC genesis and shifts in TC propagation.

Warwick Anderson. 2007. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. 355 pages.

Warwick Anderson. 2007. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. 355 pages.

Paradise in the New World: an Iberian vision of tropicality

This article provides an in-depth exploration of early modern ideas of the American tropics in the specific context of colonial Spanish America. Its principal focus is a 17th century treatise entitled Paraíso en el Nuevo Mundo (Paradise in the New World). Written in the mid-17th century by a jurist named Antonio de León Pinelo, the treatise proposes that Eden was once located in the South American tropics. León Pinelo, although born in Spain, considered himself a criollo or Spanish American due to his long years of residence in Peru. Building on studies of criollo consciousness, as well as on recent work that demonstrates the prominence of ideas about the tropics in Iberian colonial expansion, this article intervenes in a rapidly growing academic literature on the genealogies of tropicality since the early modern era. In doing so, it highlights the importance of recognizing criollo writers as producers of distinctive discourses of tropicality that reflected and responded to their ambivalent subject positions and their political and personal aims. First, the article illustrates how León Pinelo’s argument about paradise involved the construction of a comparative tropical geography and the sketching out of a distinctive New World tropicality. Second, it examines León Pinelo’s embrace of negative as well as positive elements in his depiction of American tropical nature and suggests that his incorporation of negative phenomena was intended to lend weight to his argument about paradise. Third, the article considers how the author’s representations of a tropical New World Eden were inflected by his Spanish American patriotism as well as by his role as an agent of empire situated in Madrid.

Warwick Anderson. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. ix + 355 pp., figs., bibl., index. Durham, N.C./London: Duke University Press, 2006. $23.95 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsWarwick Anderson. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. ix + 355 pp., figs., bibl., index. Durham, N.C./London: Duke University Press, 2006. $23.95 (paper).Pauline M. H. MazumdarPauline M. H. Mazumdar Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 100, Number 3September 2009 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/649173 Views: 142Total views on this site © 2009 by The History of Science Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

At sea movement of Macquarie Island giant petrels: Relationships with marine protected areas and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations

Satellite tracking devices were used to examine the at sea movements of southern and northern giant petrels from Macquarie Island during the Austral summers of 2005–06 and 2006–07. Time spent at sea for nine northern giant petrels (four breeding adults, five recently fledged juveniles) and 10 southern giant petrels (three breeding adults, one non-breeding adult, and six recently fledged juveniles) was examined in relation to marine protected areas and fishing activity in the area immediately adjacent to Macquarie Island in 2005–06, and in terms of the jurisdictions of Regional Fisheries Management Authorities (RFMOs) at a broader scale during both seasons. Breeding adult southern and northern giant petrels spent a large proportion of their time at sea in the Macquarie Island Marine Park (25% and 65%, respectively), primarily during chick rearing. Further from Macquarie Island, the most important foraging areas for adult giant petrels were the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) statistical sub-areas 58.4.1 and 88.1, where foraging activity was concentrated around the ice edge and the Polar Frontal Zone. Fledglings of both species spent time in the Marine Park immediately after fledging, before moving into international waters. We found significant temporal and spatial overlap in the areas used by recently fledged juvenile northern giant petrels and the areas utilised by the single trawler that operated in these waters during 2005–06. Adult giant petrels spent little time in RFMO waters other than those under the jurisdiction of CCAMLR, but fledgling southern and northern giant petrels spent considerable time (56% and 78% of total time at sea) on the high seas of the Pacific Ocean, in areas under the jurisdictions of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO). Band returns indicate that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO) areas are likely to be extensively utilised by Macquarie Island giant petrels in the first three years after fledging. Overall, Macquarie Island’s giant petrel populations are well protected by marine reserves during the breeding season. However, after fledging birds move into RFMO areas that currently have low standards of observer coverage and by catch mitigation, and where fisheries related mortality is likely to pose a significant risk.

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines by Warwick Anderson

American EthnologistVolume 35, Issue 3 p. 3059-3062 Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines by Warwick Anderson LAURENCE MONNAIS, LAURENCE MONNAIS Université de MontréalSearch for more papers by this author LAURENCE MONNAIS, LAURENCE MONNAIS Université de MontréalSearch for more papers by this author First published: 31 July 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00093.xAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume35, Issue3August 2008Pages 3059-3062 RelatedInformation

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race and Hygiene in the Philippines. By Warwick Anderson (Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2006. ix plus 355 pp. $84.95 hardback/$23.95 paperback)

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race and Hygiene in the Philippines. By Warwick Anderson (Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2006. ix plus 355 pp. $84.95 hardback/$23.95 paperback)

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines (review)

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines (review)

Review: Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines, by Warwick Anderson

Review: <i>Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines</i>, by Warwick Anderson

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Warwick Anderson. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines.Patrice Bidou, Jacques Galinier and Bernard Juillerat (eds). Anthropologie et psychanalyse: Regards croisés.Denise Brennan. What's Love Got to Do With It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic.Rae Bridgman. StreetCities: Rehousing the Homeless.Alex Butler. Feminism, Nationalism and Exiled Tibetan Women.Ian Condry. Hip‐Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization.Jennifer Deger. Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community.Jean Guiart. Les Mélanesiens devant l'économie de marché: du milieu de XIXe siècle à la fin du millénaire.Maria Heimer and Stig Thøgersen (eds). Doing Fieldwork in China.Robert K. Hitchcock, Kazunobu Ikeya, Megan Biesele and Richard B. Lee (eds). Updating the San: Image and Reality of an African People in the 21st Century.Charles J‐H Macdonald. Uncultural Behavior: An Anthropological Investigation of Suicide in the Southern Philippines.David Mosse. Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice.Louise Purbrick. The Wedding Present: Domestic Life Beyond Consumption.Michael Roberts. Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period 1590s to 1815.Jennifer Shennan and Makin Corrie Tekenimatang (eds). One and a Half Pacific Islands: Stories the Banaban People Tell of Themselves.Linda Stone and Paul F. Lurquin. Genes, Culture and Human Evolution. A Synthesis.Reed L. Wadley (ed.). Histories of the Borneo Environment: Economic, Political and Social Dimensions of Change and Continuity.

WARWICK ANDERSON. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. 2006. Pp. ix, 355. Cloth $84.95, paper $23.95

WARWICK ANDERSON. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. 2006. Pp. ix, 355. Cloth $84.95, paper $23.95

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. By Warwick Anderson. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006. ix, 355 pp. $84.95 (cloth); $23.95 (paper).

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. By Warwick Anderson. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006. ix, 355 pp. $84.95 (cloth); $23.95 (paper).

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines, and: The Cultivation of Whiteness: Science, Health, and Racial Destiny in Australia (review)

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines, and: The Cultivation of Whiteness: Science, Health, and Racial Destiny in Australia (review)

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines (review)

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines (review)

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines

Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines