{"id":202,"date":"2015-06-29T14:59:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T14:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/?p=202"},"modified":"2017-05-10T20:21:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T20:21:56","slug":"cape-cod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/2015\/06\/29\/cape-cod\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Cod"},"content":{"rendered":"

Located on the southeastern corner\u00a0of Massachusetts, Cape Cod is the “extending arm” typically associated with the appearance of the state. Cape Cod includes several cities: Provincetown at the northern-most tip, Falmouth, and Chatham to the southeast, among others (Cape Cod Web). Close to Cape Cod are the two islands of\u00a0Martha\u2019s Vineyard and Nantucket. The chain of land creates a horseshoe-shape surrounding Cape Cod Bay.\u00a0<\/strong>Woods Hole is the southernmost city on Cape Cod and home to two major scientific institutions, the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (Woods Hole). The Marine Biological Laboratory, founded in 1888, is affiliated with the University of Chicago (MBL). The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, whose mission statement declares\u00a0that it \u201cis dedicated to\u00a0research and education to advance understanding of the ocean and its interaction with the Earth system, and to communicating this understanding for the benefit of society\u201d was established approximately forty years later, in 1930 (WHOI).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"FigureWhen one thinks of Cape Cod, thoughts of breathtaking scenery and boating over miles of New England waters come to mind. However, the real attraction of the northern tip of this gigantic\u00a0peninsula (in addition to the shop-filled seaside streets of Provincetown), is an endless wall of parabolic sand dunes (parabolic, in this sense, simply meaning U-shaped). Years of erosion of the nearby scarps (steep slopes), the consistent\u00a0presence of wind, and steady accumulations of sand, have all\u00a0led to the growth and stability of these dramatic dunes (Guide’s Guide).<\/p>\n

In 1961, John F. Kennedy established the Cape Cod National Seashore, which includes over 40,000 acres of land, as a United States National Park (Nature). Since then, the National Park Service has worked diligently to maintain the sand dunes through beach-grass planting efforts (Guide’s Guide) and regular monitoring.\u00a0Westerly winds have hits the dunes consistently for decades, opening their centers so that they now all face west.<\/p>\n

According to statistics published in 2008, nearly six million people visit Cape Cod each year, with over 60% of them visiting in the summer months (Cape Links). Despite this dramatic influx of tourists, however, Cape Cod remains in many ways a natural wonder. At the same time, Cape Cod has recently\u00a0faced significant pollution problems, with the issue becoming increasingly worrisome with each passing year. In a mere forty years, between 1950 and 1990, the population of Cape Cod grew by 400 \"CapeGroundwater\"percent, with septic systems making up 97 percent of the total waste removal\u00a0on the peninsula (wicked local). This increase has caused rising\u00a0nitrogen to\u00a0end up in the groundwater and bodies of freshwater throughout the area. In addition, climate change and elevated\u00a0water levels are\u00a0affecting underground water tables, threatening the coastline, increasing the severity of storms, and influencing all of Cape Cod’s fresh\u00a0water. As water tables rise, they\u00a0cause fresh groundwater to float atop the denser saltwater (image at right), forming freshwater bubbles beneath the land’s surface. In addition, as sea levels rise, higher\u00a0tides will jeopardize static shorelines and shallow septic systems (eco-RI). When the water comes into\u00a0contact with septic systems, it contributes to the already contaminated water source. Although many efforts have been made, and continue to be made, to maintain the natural beauties of Cape Cod, there is still great potential for the historic\u00a0seaside towns to be overtaken by pollution, overpopulation, and other hazards. Thus, it is vital that society continues to work towards an overall urbanatural balance, seeking\u00a0ways for the ever-increasing human populations to live in accord with their environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Located on the southeastern corner\u00a0of Massachusetts, Cape Cod is the “extending arm” typically associated with the appearance of the state. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2617,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/urbanaturalroosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}