The effects of Hurricane Irma on seagrass meadows in previously eutrophic estuaries in Southwest Florida (USA).

In six contiguous estuaries in Southwest Florida (USA) focused management actions over the past several decades have reduced watershed nutrient loads, resulting in an additional 11,672 ha of seagrass meadows between 1999 and 2016, an improvement of 32%. However, in September of 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall in the state of Florida, affecting the open water and watersheds of each of these six estuaries. In response, seagrass coverage declined by 1203 ha between 2016 and 2018, a system-wide decrease of 3%. The range of decreases associated with Hurricane Irma varied from less than a 1% loss of seagrass coverage in St. Joseph Sound to declines of 7 and 11% in Clearwater Harbor and Lemon Bay, respectively. Areas with the largest losses between 2016 and 2018 were those systems where seagrass coverage had declined in prior years, indicating the effects of Hurricane Irma might have been intensified by prior impacts.

Widespread recovery of seagrass coverage in Southwest Florida (USA): Temporal and spatial trends and management actions responsible for success.

In Southwest Florida, a variety of human impacts had caused widespread losses of seagrass coverage from historical conditions. St. Joseph Sound and Clearwater Harbor lost approximately 24 and 51%, respectively, of their seagrass coverage between 1950 and 1999, while Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay had lost 46% and 15%, respectively, of their seagrass coverage between 1950 and the 1980s. However, over the period of 1999 to 2016, the largest of the six estuaries, Tampa Bay, added 408 ha of seagrass per year, while the remaining five estuaries examined in this paper added approximately 269 ha per year. In total, seagrass coverage in these six estuaries increased 12,171 ha between the 1980s and 2016. Focused resource management plans have held the line on nitrogen loads from non-point sources, allowing seagrass resources to expand in response to reductions in point source loads that have been implemented over the past few decades.

The hospital-based group in a managed care environment. Reading the terrain.

The root-level changes in health care delivery that are in progress will make demands on pathologists that are almost without precedent in the post-Medicare era. Their turbulent pace and uncertain direction confer an added sense of urgency to the need for an effective response. For pathologists, the most uncomfortable changes may involve assuming responsibilities that are a marked departure from traditional training and practice. Chief among these are a need for more familiarity with the ways a corporate structure operates, a more thorough understanding of the needs and wants of buyers of physicians' services, and the ability to manage a practice successfully as an enterprise. Despite the variety of current approaches to managed care, there are common themes that invite the careful consideration of pathologists. Many of these reflect basic problems with which care managers must cope routinely. Of equal importance to the future success of pathology practice is the need to develop a high level of skill in constantly evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, and future directions of one's own practice.