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Graph Theory in Geosciences

Submitted by jdp on Fri, 02/27/2015 - 10:15 am

Wolfgang Scwhanghart, Tobias Heckmann and I have collaborated recently to review applications of graph theory in geomorphology and the geosciences in general. One of our papers, Graph Theory in the Geosciences, was just published in Earth-Science Reviews. The abstract is below. Our other joint paper, dealing specifically with graph theory applications in geomorphology, is still in press (in the journal Geomorphology) even though it was completed and accepted before the ESR paper. Go figure. 

Resources and Biodiversity

Submitted by jdp on Tue, 02/24/2015 - 03:16 pm

What is the relationship between the diversity of resources (e.g., space, sunlight, water, nutrients) and biodiversity? In most cases it is direct and positive—that is, the greater the diversity of resources the greater the biodiversity.  The relationship is also often mutually reinforcing—that is, byproducts, detritus, and the organisms themselves increase the diversity of the resource base. Of course, ultimately both resource and biodiversity are limited by both abiotic and biotic controls. The relationships look something like this:

French Studies Forum on the Paris Attacks

The University of Kentucky recently hosted a French Studies Forum on the Paris Attacks, organized by French and Francophone Studies within the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

The participants in the forum address the cultural and political context of, as well as the emerging and continuing fallout surrounding, the recent deadly attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Paris kosher market (January 7-9, 2015).

French Studies Forum on Paris Attacks

We invite you to a forum discussion organized by French and Francophone Studies at UK on the Paris attacks of January 7-9, 2015. 

UK faculty from the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, the Department of History, and the Department of Geography will discuss the recent deadly attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Paris kosher market, as well as provide some context for the social and political debates that continue to emerge in the wake of the attacks.

Discussion participants:

Dr. Ihsan Bagby, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (MCLLC)

Dr. Jeffrey Peters, French and Francophone Studies (MCLLC)

Joel Pett, political cartoonist, Lexington Herald-Leader

Dr. Jeremy Popkin, Department of History

Dr. Suzanne Pucci, French and Francophone Studies (MCLLC)

Dr. Leon Sachs, French and Francophone Studies (MCLLC)

Dr. Michael Samers, Department of Geography

Dr. Sadia Zoubir-Shaw, French and Francophone Studies (MCLLC)

Date:
-
Location:
New Student Center, Room 211
Tags/Keywords:

Δ DELTAS

Submitted by jdp on Fri, 01/23/2015 - 01:44 pm

 

Several studies have noted the temporal coincidence between shoreline erosion around some major deltas (e.g., Nile, Mississippi, Ebro), and the reduction of stream sediment loads due to reforestation, soil conservation practices, and trapping of river sediment behind dams. There are, of course, excellent reasons to suspect a causal link, but the link itself has not, in my view, been fully established.

THE CYCLE OF EROSION

Submitted by jdp on Sun, 01/11/2015 - 01:43 pm

 

Out on the trails of Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, this morning, I got to thinking about William Morris Davis’ “cycle of erosion” conceptual model (also called the geographical or geomorphological cycle). The drive-by, oversimplified version is that landscape evolution starts with uplift of a more-or-less planar, low relief surface. Weathering and erosion goes to work, and results in an initial stage of increasing relief as streams carve valleys, and slope processes operate on the slopes thereby created. Eventually, however, as the streams begin to approach base level, a new stage of decreasing relief begins as hilltops and drainage divides are lowered and valleys infilled. This continues until the entire landscape is about as close to baselevel as the geophysics of mass transport will allow, creating a low-relief, almost-planar surface called a peneplain. At some point a new episode of uplift occurs and the cycle begins anew.

I was thinking of this because many landscapes in the world, like the one I was viewing this morning, do give the impression of a dissected plateau or a low-relief surface into which denudational processes have cut.

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