Digital Commons Network^™

Application Of Hydrodynamic Models In Simulating The Thermal Regime Of Lake Superior, Rasika K. Gawde

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

In large systems, such as the Great Lakes and coastal oceans, physical processes have a significant influence on chemical and biological phenomena. Hydrodynamic modeling assists in describing these physical characteristics and in recent years, these models have been extensively applied in the Great Lakes basin to study the response of the lake ecosystem to long-term meteorological forcing conditions.

Due to its role in mediating physical, biological and chemical processes in lake environments, water temperature (and the attendant thermal regime) has been the parameter of interest in many of these mathematical modeling studies and was adopted as the primary metric for …

Climate Anomalies And Primary Production In Lake Superior, Marcel L. Dijkstra

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This dissertation supports the modeling of primary production in Lake Superior by offering site specific kinetics and algorithms developed from lab experiments performed on the natural phytoplankton assemblage of Lake Superior. Functions, developed for temperature, light and nutrient conditions and the maximum specific rate of primary production, were incorporated in a 1D specific primary production model and confirmed to published in-situ measured rates of primary production.

An extensive data set (supporting model calibration and confirmation), with a fine spatiotemporal resolution, was developed from field measurements taken bi-weekly during the sampling seasons of 2011, 2012 and 2014; considered to be meteorologically …

Factors Affecting Diporeia Growth Rates In Lake Superior, Miles J. Corcoran

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

An ability to predict population dynamics of the amphipod Diporeia is important in understanding how energy pathways in the Lake Superior food web might be altered by disturbances to the ecosystem. Estimating growth rates for this prominent prey item for fish requires information on the physiological effects of changes to its environment. These effects have been investigated for Diporeia in other Great Lakes, but little is known about Lake Superior populations. The primary objective of this study is to obtain quantitative data for rates of Diporeia respiration and consumption that can be incorporated into a bioenergetics model for Lake Superior. …

Improving The Reliability Of Aquatic Biogeochemical Models: Integrating Information And Optimizing Complexity, Cory P. Mcdonald

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

No abstract provided.