User:Bailey.t/sandbox

This is my sandbox page. It also links to my website, which is pretty cool.

Article contribution 1: Fire Regime

 * 1) Added "Effects From Altered Fire Regimes."
 * 2) Improved upon "United States" article by adding more details.
 * 3) Added proper source to information in "United States," in order to avoid misattribution and/or plagiarism.
 * 4) Fixed californiachaparral source web address.
 * 5) Hyperlinked biota, resprouters, United States Geological Survey, and shrubland to the associated wikipedia articles.
 * 6) I removed the bushfire paragraph. It did not have any sources and I felt that it either needed to be rewritten to better relate to fire regime, or it needed to be moved to a different place or topic.
 * 7) Added Wikipedia article corrections from feedback, including fixing a title so that only the first word is capitalized, and removing "however" throughout so that my sentences sound more like facts instead of arguments.

Effects from altered fire regimes
Biota s that are able to survive and adapt to their particular fire regimes can receive significant benefits, including the ability to regrow stronger, further protect against fire and disease, or vigorously develop in formerly occupied locations. As fire regimes change the area both current and future species may begin to suffer. Decreasing fire intervals negatively affect the ability of fire-killed species to recover to pre-disturbance levels, leading to longer recovery times. Some species, such as resprouters, are better able to withstand changing fire regimes through increased resistance and resilience. But, many fire-killed species may be unable to recover if shortened fire intervals persist over time.

United States
BEFORE:

The California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, covering a large portion of the U.S.State, is dependent on periodic natural wildfires for optimal health and renewal. The increasing rural-urban fringe interface and wildfire suppression practices of the last century have now resulted in significant environmental and human safety issues and events.

AFTER:

The California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, covering a large portion of the U.S. state, is dependent on periodic natural wildfires for optimal health and renewal. The increasing rural-urban fringe interface and wildfire suppression practices of the last century have resulted in an increased vulnerability to less frequent, more severe wildfires; Fire suppression increased fuel in coniferous forests. Chaparral fire suppression, unlike fire suppression in coniferous forests, has not affected the natural fire regime, according to a study conducted by the United States Geological Survey. Furthermore, prescribed burning in the shrubland area was also proven ineffective at reducing the risk of wildfires, which are normally driven by high winds and unaffected by modern fire suppression.

Article contribution 2: 2014 Guerrero earthquake

 * 1) Added the time to the first sentence of the article. (I did not put this in my sandbox as I only added the time)
 * 2) I created the paragraph "Location" (I decided to move half of it to the first paragraph of the article. I felt like it should be at the front because it explains where and how the earthquake happened. Because of this, the "Location" paragraph currently needs more work, so I made a note in the talk page about it.)
 * 3) Added "Damages" paragraph
 * 4) No plagiarism found, removed a duplicate source in the article (earthquake-report.com had two sources linking to the same article)
 * 5) Updated the article's chart with new information -- Total Damage and Landslides -- as well as added the source for magnitude, depth, and epicenter
 * 6) Hyperlinked a lot of text
 * 7) Added changes based off of peer review, including adding 2 citations and fixing a grammatical error.

2014 Guerrero earthquake
The epicenter occurred 265 kilometers southwest of Mexico City and at a depth of 24 kilometers. Thrust motion at shallow depths is what caused the earthquake. This was broadly consistent with a slip on or near the Guerrero Seismic Gap, a boundary between the Cocos and North American plates along the Pacific Coast approximately 200 kilometers long. The shaking was felt in states as far away as Puebla and Tlaxcala.

Location
The April 2014 earthquake was located just northwest of the rupture area of a 1957 Guerrero earthquake that measured 7.8 on the moment magnitude scale. Since 1975, 23 earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater have occurred within 200 kilometers of the same area as the April 2014 earthquake.

Damages
One person was injured when a wall collapsed in the city of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan. 30 homes and a few buildings in Morelia sustained minor damages. At least 700 buildings and over 500 homes were damaged in Guerrero, and 21 homes collapsed. Building and home damages were also reported in capital Mexico City and states Morelos, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, State of Mexico, and Peubla.

Blackouts were reported in Pachuca, Ecatepec, Chimalhuacán, Colonia del Valle, Nezahualcóyotl, Ixtapaluca, Azcapotzalco, Coyoacán, Xochimilco, Tláhuac, Cuauhtémoc, and around the state of Guerrero.

Landslides were reported, including 13 in Guerrero, 1 in Morelos, 1 in Michoacan, and 1 in Tlaxcala.

Article Contribution 3: Hidden Pines Fire

 * 1) Added Background
 * 2) Checked for Plagiarism, none found
 * 3) Updated and fixed information in beginning paragraph. I left the beginning sentence the same so I did not include it.
 * 4) Hyperlinked Smithville, RAWS, Drought, Austin

Hidden Pines Fire
It burned over 4,582 acres and destroyed 64 homes and many other buildings. An investigation by the Texas A&M Forest Service Law Enforcement Department said the fire was likely caused by an accident on Luecke ranch near Smithville, which produced a spark that came out from around a cutting unit pulled behind a tractor. The spark ignited dry grass around the tractor, starting the fire. The fire was fully contained after 11 days on October 24, in part because of widespread rain.

Background
In the months leading up to the fire, Texas had frequent periods of widespread heavy rain, which was followed by a period of abrupt, intense drought. The temperature continued to remain high as the summer heat lingered, with temperatures reaching 99 degrees on October 12 in the Austin area. The drought continued to remain, and the Bastrop RAWS station reported only .25 inches of rain from September 12 to October 12.