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Wang, P.; Royer, E.L.; Jackson, K., and Gutierrez, S., 2024. Impacts of Hurricane Ian along the low-lying southwest Florida coast (USA) in 2022: Lessons learned. Journal of Coastal Research, 40(5), 827–851. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. Hurricane Ian made landfall in the low-lying, densely populated, and developed southwestern Florida coast on 28 September 2022 as a large and slow-moving category 4 hurricane. Various U.S. federal and state agencies collected a large and comprehensive data set, including pre- and poststorm airborne LIDAR topography, in situ water level and wave measurements at numerous locations before, during, and after the storm, and poststorm high-water marks over a large area. This study reports results from a series of poststorm field investigations including ground observations of beach-dune erosion and deposition, catastrophic damage to various infrastructure, and widespread distribution of non-biodegradable materials washed into the estuary and numerous mangrove islands. Hurricane Ian induced large-scale inundation in low-lying southwest Florida, submerging all the barrier islands bordering Charlotte Harbor estuary, all the islands within the estuary, and up to 5 km into the mainland. Dense tree-type vegetation limited the landward penetration of beach-dune erosion and overwash deposition along the barrier islands. Net sand-volume loss from the beach-dune system ranged 10–25 m3/m and was controlled by the deep submergence of the system during the peak of the storm. The extremely high storm surge of up to 5.2 m above mean sea level generated by Hurricane Ian caused severe damage to the built environments over a large area. High storm waves superimposed on the elevated water level, reaching 1.2 m at the seaward edge of vegetated dunes, contributed to the destruction along the barrier islands. Hurricane Ian distributed a tremendous amount of non-biodegradable artificial debris over a large area and into sensitive natural environments, including numerous mangrove islands, barrier-island interior wetlands, and the estuary waterbody. Measures to prevent materials such as single-use plastics, insulation fibers, and household appliances from being washed into sensitive environments should be a significant part of prestorm preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although archaeologists often highlight the capacity of our field to identify broad-scale patterning in human societies, critiques of social evolution led many to focus on shorter-term, local histories. Drawing from a recent review of alternative models, we employ firefly synchronicity – the rhythmic coordination of flashing observed in some species of bioluminescent fireflies – as a model for understanding patterning in the timing of platform mound construction by Indigenous peoples of Tampa Bay, on the western coast of the Florida peninsula, USA. Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates and isotopic studies of oyster shells from three neighbouring sites reveals rhythmic coordination in the construction of platform mounds across the first millennium CE. We relate this patterning to interaction in seasonal and longer-term ritual cycles which may have facilitated collective management of zero-sum common property resources. Firefly synchronicity provides a useful model for identifying patterning in archaeological phenomena without much of the baggage of social evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological regime shifts are expected to increase this century as climate change propagates cascading effects across ecosystems with coupled elements. Here, we demonstrate that the climate-driven salt marsh-to-mangrove transition does not occur in isolation but is linked to lesser-known oyster reef-to-mangrove regime shifts through the provision of mangrove propagules. Using aerial imagery spanning 82 y, we found that 83% of oyster reefs without any initial mangrove cover fully converted to mangrove islands and that mean (± SD) time to conversion was 29.1 ± 9.6 y. In situ assessments of mangrove islands suggest substantial changes in ecosystem structure during conversion, while radiocarbon dates of underlying reef formation indicate that such transitions are abrupt relative to centuries-old reefs. Rapid transition occurred following release from freezes below the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) physiological tolerance limit (27.3 °C) and after adjacent marsh-to-mangrove conversion. Additional nonclimatemediated drivers of ecosystem change were also identified, including oyster reef exposure to wind-driven waves. Coupling of regime shifts arises from the growing supply of mangrove propagules from preceding and adjacent marsh-to-mangrove conversion. Climate projections near the mangrove range limit on the Gulf coast of Florida suggest that regime shifts will begin to transform subtropical estuaries by 2070 if propagule supply keeps pace with predicted warming. Although it will become increasingly difficult to maintain extant oyster habitat with tropicalization, restoring oyster reefs in high-exposure settings or active removal of mangrove seedlings could slow the coupled impacts of climate change shown here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While seldom integrated within coastal archaeological research in Southeastern North America, vegetation histories derived from palynological data offer valuable records of ancient landscape transformations driven by climatic flux, sea-level oscillations, and anthropogenic modifications. In this paper, we develop a paleo-historical-ecological reconstruction from preliminary analyses on fossil pollen assemblages preserved within marsh, hammock, and shell-midden soils at the Crystal River site (8CI1), a mound center on Florida's west-central coast occupied throughout the first millennium AD. When contextualized alongside paleoenvironmental records from western Florida and farther afield, our analysis suggests that the nature and timing of late-Holocene climatic changes varied little between different sub-regions of Florida's Gulf Coast, but also that manifestations of eustatic sea-level flux may have been highly localized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stanley Mound (8MA127) is a disturbed sand burial mound constructed in present-day interior Manatee County within the headwaters of the Myakka River drainage. While the Stanley Mound was tested in 1975 as part of a larger compliance survey, the site and its surrounding landscape remain poorly understood. Subsequent visits noted a paucity of geo-spatial and archaeological data and documented a pressing need for conservation measures. We report the results of survey testing and stabilization efforts at Stanley Mound carried out through a collaboration between USF Applied Anthropology, FPAN West-Central, and Florida State Parks. Our survey incorporated LiDAR mapping, Total Station mapping, and shovel testing with a re-analysis of the artifact assemblage recovered in 1975. In this paper we redefine the morphology of the mound, report a newly identified activity area, and describe the conservation program currently being implemented by Florida State Parks to preserve the site. Our study demonstrates the value of heavily looted and previously excavated sites to contemporary research interests, and we suggest that continued archaeological work within the interior central Gulf Coast may contribute meaningfully to studies of complex monumentality and regional interaction in Precolumbian Florida. Stanley Mound (8MA127) is a disturbed sand burial mound constructed in the interior headwaters region of the central peninsular Gulf Coast (Figure 1). The site was known to and dug by relic hunters periodically from the 1930s until, and presumably after, its professional documentation in 1975 during a contract survey of phosphate mining property (Deming 1975, 1976). Recent work by Burger (2017), described below, has revealed that the Stanley Mound has a long and complex history of excavation by collectors. Fortunately, the site was spared destruction by the phosphate drag line and the surrounding land tract was transferred to the State of Florida in the 1980s. In 2016 the land was designated as Wingate Creek State Park, and after consultation with archaeologist William Burger, Florida State Parks environmental specialists and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection recognized a pressing need for the spatial-topographic delineation, study, and conservation of Stanley Mound (Stanton 2015). Our research team documented the topographic morphology of the mound and its surrounding landscape through mapping. We shovel-tested the nearby area looking for occupational evidence associated with activities at the mound site. Lastly, we collaborated with Florida State Parks to develop and begin implementing a conservation program for the mound area. In this paper, we review the history of disturbance and investigation at Stanley Mound, and then report the results of our topographic mapping, shovel testing, and conservation/stabilization work. In a discussion, we place Stanley Mound in regional perspective and present the sand burial mounds of Florida's interior central peninsular Gulf Coast as valuable sites for future research into late-Precolumbian ritual landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]