User:Kralph1/sandbox

Article 1: May 2016 United States storm complex
My additions include:
 * I checked for plagiarism but found none. The start-article is very short.
 * I noted in the talk page that I specified some details.

Article contribution
Ten deaths of Texans and thousands of home evacuations led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a state-wide Disaster Proclamation on June 1, 2016 considering the damage in thirty-one counties. Meteorologists attribute this storm's devastation to the power of the El Nino climate cycle. An El Nino system is indentified following fluctuation in the climate, characterized by an eastern shift of warming ocean water from the western tropical Pacific Ocean and rainfall along the equator.

Article contribution


Following the El Nino event in 1997 - 1998, the largest recorded to date, the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory attributes the first large-scale water bleaching event to the warming waters. This process, called reef symbiosis, results to warming ocean water temperatures.

Article 3: Invasive Species in the United States
My additions include:
 * I added a detail about a particularly detrimental termite to the section "Economic impacts of invasive species".
 * I updated a subsection to "Invasive species by state" to include the state of Louisiana.

Article contribution


The United States government spends an estimated $1 billion to recover from the invasive Formosan termite, investing $300 million of this budget is spent in areas surround New Orleans, a major port city.



Louisiana

The city of New Orleans, the "gateway to the Mississippi", is a porous port city with rich soils. In turn, many aquatic plants are introduced to the region, making Louisiana the state with the second largest list of invasive aquatic species, second to Florida.

The "Dirty Dozen"  details a list of the United States' most destructive invasive species. Of the twelve, four are identified in the state, including the zebra mussel, tamarisk, Hydrilla, and Triadica sebifera (Chinese Tallow).

Update: I linked zebra muscle, hydrilla, and Triadica sebifera to their respective wikipedia pages.