Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Building An Improved Drought Climatology Using Updated Drought Tools: A New Mexico Food-Energy-Water (Few) Systems Focus, Lindsay E. Johnson, Hatim M.E. Geli, Michael J. Hayes, Kelly Helm Smith

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought is a familiar climatic phenomenon in the United States Southwest, with complex human-environment interactions that extend beyond just the physical drought events. Due to continued climate variability and change, droughts are expected to become more frequent and/or severe in the future. Decision-makers are charged with mitigating and adapting to these more extreme conditions and to do that they need to understand the specific impacts drought has on regional and local scales, and how these impacts compare to historical conditions. Tremendous progress in drought monitoring strategies has occurred over the past several decades, with more tools providing greater spatial and …

An Assessment Of The Hydrological Trends Using Synergistic Approaches Of Remote Sensing And Model Evaluations Over Global Arid And Semi-Arid Regions, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Rejoice Thomas, Surya Prakash Tiwari, Karuppasamy Manikandan, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Drylands cover about 40% of the world’s land area and support two billion people, most of them living in developing countries that are at risk due to land degradation. Over the last few decades, there has been warming, with an escalation of drought and rapid population growth. This will further intensify the risk of desertification, which will seriously affect the local ecological environment, food security and people’s lives. The goal of this research is to analyze the hydrological and land cover characteristics and variability over global arid and semi-arid regions over the last decade (2010–2019) using an integrative approach of …

Monitoring 2019 Bonnet Carré Spillway Impacts - Final Report, J. Read Hendon, Jerry D. Wiggert, Jill Hendon

Faculty Publications

Due to the multiple and extended openings of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2019, the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) was tasked by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to conduct ecological sampling in the Mississippi Sound and adjacent waters. in an effort to better understand the impacts of the extensive freshwater diversion of Bonnet Carré Spillway operations on Mississippi's coastal and marine resources. The period of performance for this project was June 1, 2019, to August 31, 2019. This technical report summarizes the three months of weekly surveys and analyses, over June - August 2019, conducted by the University …

Characterizing El Niño-Southern Oscillation Effects On The Blue Nile Yield And The Nile River Basin Precipitation Using Empirical Mode Decomposition, Justin A. Le, Hesham El-Askary, Mohamed Allali, Eman Sayed, Hani Sweliem, Thomas C. Piechota, Daniele C. Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Using new mathematical and data-driven techniques, we propose new indices to measure and predict the strength of different El Niño events and how they affect regions like the Nile River Basin (NRB). Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), when applied to Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), yields three Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) tracking recognizable and physically significant non-stationary processes. The aim is to characterize underlying signals driving ENSO as reflected in SOI, and show that those signals also meaningfully affect other physical processes with scientific and predictive utility. In the end, signals are identified which have a strong statistical relationship with various physical …

Effect Of Lockdown On Hcho And Trace Gases Over India During March 2020, Akshansha Chauhan, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

COVID-19 is one of the deadly Epidemics that has impacted people living in more than 200 countries. In order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, India observed total lockdown in the first phase for a period of 21 days (24 March–13 May 2020), so that social distancing is maintained. However, this sudden decision severely affected the normal life of people. The air quality improved due to lockdown, some relaxation was given in different cities and within some areas in the city where the people were not affected by COVID-19. In this paper, we discuss results of detailed analysis of trace …

Atmospheric Measurements With Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas), Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

This Special Issue provides the first literature collection focused on the development and implementation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their integration with sensors for atmospheric measurements on Earth. The research covered in the Special Issue combines chemical, physical, and meteorological measurements performed in field campaigns as well as conceptual and laboratory work. Useful examples for the development of platforms and autonomous systems for environmental studies are provided, which demonstrate how careful the operation of sensors aboard UAS must be to gather information for remote sensing in the atmosphere. The work serves as a key collection of articles to introduce …

Aspergillus Niger Decreases Bioavailability Of Arsenic(V) Via Biotransformation Of Manganese Oxide Into Biogenic Oxalate Minerals, Bence Farkas, Marek Kolenčík, Miroslav Hain, Edmund Dobročka, Gabriela Kratošová, Marek Bujdoš, Huan Feng, Yang Deng, Qian Yu, Ramakanth Illa, B. Ratna Sunil, Hyunjung Kim, Peter Matúš, Martin Urík

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The aim of this work was to evaluate the transformation of manganese oxide (hausmannite) by microscopic filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger and the effects of the transformation on mobility and bioavailability of arsenic. Our results showed that the A. niger strain CBS 140837 greatly affected the stability of hausmannite and induced its transformation into biogenic crystals of manganese oxalates—falottaite and lindbergite. The transformation was enabled by fungal acidolysis of hausmannite and subsequent release of manganese ions into the culture medium. While almost 45% of manganese was bioextracted, the arsenic content in manganese precipitates increased throughout the 25-day static cultivation of fungus. …

Modeling Holocene Peatland Carbon Accumulation In North America, Qianlai Zhuang, Sirui Wang, Bailu Zhao, Filipe Aires, Catherine Prigent, Zicheng Yu, Jason K. Keller, Scott Bridgham

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Peatlands are a large carbon reservoir. Yet the quantification of their carbon stock still has a large uncertainty due to lacking observational data and well‐tested peatland biogeochemistry models. Here, a process‐based peatland model was calibrated using long‐term peat carbon accumulation data at multiple sites in North America. The model was then applied to quantify the peat carbon accumulation rates and stocks within North America over the last 12,000 years. We estimated that 85–174 Pg carbon was accumulated in North American peatlands over the study period including 0.37–0.76 Pg carbon in subtropical peatlands. During the period from 10,000 to 8,000 years …

Multidecadal Analysis Of Beach Loss At The Major Offshore Sea Turtle Nesting Islands In The Northern Arabian Gulf, Rommel H. Maneja, Jeffrey D. Miller, Wenzhao Li, Rejoice Thomas, Hesham El-Askary, Sachi Perera, Ace Vincent B. Flandez, Abdullajid U. Basali, Joselito Francis A. Alcaria, Jinoy Gopalan, Surya Prakash Tiwari, Mubarak Al-Jedani, Perdana K. Prihartato, Ronald A. Loughlan, Ali Qasem, Mohamed A. Qurban, Wail Falath, Daniele Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Undocumented historical losses of sea turtle nesting beaches worldwide could overestimate the successes of conservation measures and misrepresent the actual status of the sea turtle population. In addition, the suitability of many sea turtle nesting sites continues to decline even without in-depth scientific studies of the extent of losses and impacts to the population. In this study, multidecadal changes in the outlines and area of Jana and Karan islands, major sea turtle nesting sites in the Arabian Gulf, were compared using available Kodak aerographic images, USGS EROS Declassified satellite imagery, and ESRI satellite images. A decrease of 5.1% and 1.7% …

Mass And Number Size Distributions Of Rbc In Snow And Firn Samples From Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, Luciano Marquetto, Susan Kaspari, Jefferson Cardia Simões

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

An extended‐range Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) coupled to a Marin‐5 nebulizer was used to measure the refractory black carbon (rBC) mass and number size distributions in 1,004 samples from a West Antarctica snow/firn core. The SP2 was calibrated using Aquadag and a Centrifugal Particle Mass Analyzer for BC particles ranging from 0.5 to 800 fg. Our results indicate a significant contribution of rare, large particles of mass‐equivalent diameter (D_BC) > 500 nm to the total rBC mass (36%), while small particles (D_BC < 100 nm) are abundant but contribute <8% to total rBC mass. We observed a primary mass median diameter of 162 ± 40 nm, smaller than reported for snow in other regions of the globe but similar to East Antarctica rBC size distributions. In addition, we observed other modes at 673, 1,040, and >1,810 nm (uncontained mode). We compared two sets of samples from different seasons …

Enhancing The Visibility Of Vernier Effect In A Tri-Microfiber Coupler Fiber Loop Interferometer For Ultrasensitive Refractive Index And Temperature Sensing, Fangfang Wei, Dejun Liu, Zhe Wang, Zhuochen Wang, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Gang-Ding Peng, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

In this paper a Vernier effect based sensor is analyzed and demonstrated experimentally in a tri-microfiber coupler (Tri-MFC) and polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) loop interferometer (Tri-MFC-PMF) to provide ultrasensitive refractive index and temperature sensing. The main novelty of this work is an analysis of parameters of the proposed Tri-MFC-PMF with the objective of determining the conditions leading to a strong Vernier effect. It has been identified by simulation that the Vernier effect is a primary factor in the design of Tri-MFC-PMF loop sensing structure for sensitivity enhancement. It is furthermore demonstrated experimentally that enhancing the visibility of the Vernier spectrum in …

Forest Drought Response Index (Fordri): A New Combined Model To Monitor Forest Drought In The Eastern United States, Tsegaye Tadesse, David Y. Hollinger, Yared A. Bayissa, Mark Svoboda, Brian Fuchs, Beichen Zhang, Getachew Demissie, Brian D. Wardlow, Gil Bohrer, Kenneth L. Clark, Ankur R. Desai, Lianhong Gu, Asko Noormets, Kimberly A. Novick, Andrew D. Richardson

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Monitoring drought impacts in forest ecosystems is a complex process because forest ecosystems are composed of different species with heterogeneous structural compositions. Even though forest drought status is a key control on the carbon cycle, very few indices exist to monitor and predict forest drought stress. The Forest Drought Indicator (ForDRI) is a new monitoring tool developed by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) to identify forest drought stress. ForDRI integrates 12 types of data, including satellite, climate, evaporative demand, ground water, and soil moisture, into a single hybrid index to estimate tree stress. The model uses Principal Component Analysis …

The Waterfall Crisis, Guiliana G. Grisaffi

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

While the Earth’s surface is 71% covered in water, that does not mean that one day all our water could be gone. The current global water crisis is not just a water crisis-it is a waterfall crisis. One wicked, terrible problem that leads to many other wicked problems, a waterfall crisis. Millions of women and young girls are taken out of work and school and instead forced to collect and gather fresh water for their families. Children are suffering from irreversible health consequences from toxic, contaminated water, an example of a health consequence is a lower IQ from lead poisoning. …

Seasonal Grassland Productivity Forecast For The U.S. Great Plains Using Grass-Cast, Melannie D. Hartman, William J. Parton, Justin D. Derner, Darin K. Schulte, William K. Smith, Dannele E. Peck, Ken A. Day, Stephen J. Del Grosso, Susan Lutz, Brian Fuchs, Maosi Chen, Wei Gao

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Every spring, ranchers in the drought-prone U.S. Great Plains face the same difficult challenge —trying to estimate how much forage will be available for livestock to graze during the upcoming summer grazing season. To reduce this uncertainty in predicting forage availability, we developed an innovative new grassland productivity forecast system, named Grass-Cast, to provide science-informed estimates of growing season aboveground net primary production (ANPP). Grass-Cast uses over 30 yr of historical data including weather and the satellite-derived normalized vegetation difference index (NDVI)—combined with ecosystem modeling and seasonal precipitation forecasts—to predict if rangelands in individual counties are likely to produce below-normal, …

The Multidisciplinary Enrichment Of Undergraduate Environmental Geology Students From International Summer Programs. Case Study: Summer 2019 3mugis, Russia, Ruslana Baker, Malek Shami, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer

Publications and Research

Hosted by the People’s Friendly University of Russia (RUDN), the Modeling, Monitoring, and Managing of Urban Green Infrastructure (3MUGIS) summer program was organized by the collaboration of the New York City Urban Soil Institute (NYC-USI), City University of New York – Brooklyn College, and under the auspices of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). The program consisted of one-week lecture sessions and two-weeks of fieldwork across five bioclimatic zones, ranging from the sub-arctic tundra of the Kola Peninsula to the Southern Steps of Rostov, Black Sea. Faculty and guest lecturers included scientists with various expertise from Germany, USA, Russia, …

The Urban Heat Island Effect And Its Impact On The Climate And Landscape Of Phoenix, Arizona, Gurwinder Sahota, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Ali Zarine, Malek Shami

Publications and Research

This paper examines the impact of the urban heat island effect on the climate and landscape of Phoenix, Arizona. Urbanization is quickly becoming the most influential environmental factor because of the exponential growth in the human population coupled with industrialization, modernization, and commercialization, which has become the allure of urban centers worldwide. While urbanization offers numerous advantages, it comes at the cost of altering the environment by replacing permeable natural soils and vegetation with impermeable urban surfaces, such as pavements, buildings, and other such structures. This impervious modification results in absorption of solar energy that is taken up by the …

Satellite-Based Monitoring Of Irrigation Water Use: Assessing Measurement Errors And Their Implications For Agricultural Water Management Policy, T. Foster, Taro Mieno, Nicholas Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Reliable accounting of agricultural water use is critical for sustainable water management. However, the majority of agricultural water use is not monitored, with limited metering of irrigation despite increasing pressure on both groundwater and surface water resources in many agricultural regions worldwide. Satellite remote sensing has been proposed as a low-cost and scalable solution to fill widespread gaps in monitoring of irrigation water use in both developed and developing countries, bypassing the technical, socioeconomic, and political challenges that to date have constrained in situ metering. In this paper, we show through a systematic meta-analysis that the relative accuracy of different …

Assessment Of Aerosol Optical Depth Under Background And Polluted Conditions Using Aeronet And Viirs Datasets, Mijin Kim, Seung Hee Kim, Woogyung Vincent Kim, Yun Gon Lee, Jhoon Kim, Menas C. Kafatos

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

We investigated aerosol optical depth (AOD) under background and polluted conditions using Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) observations. The AOD data were separated into background, high, and median AOD (BAOD, HAOD, and MAOD, respectively) based on the cumulative AOD distribution at each point and then their spatiotemporal variations were analyzed. Persistent pollutant emissions from industrial activity in South Asia (SUA) and Northeast Asia (NEA) produced the highest BAOD values. Gridded-BAODs obtained from VIIRS Deep Blue AOD products showed widespread high-level BAOD over the oceans associated with transport from dust and biomass burning events. The …

Hu Aquaponics Monitoring And Control System : European Annual Edunet Conference 2020, Rachel L. Fogle, Glenn P. Williams, Josh R. Krug

Presidential Research Grants

The functional purpose of the HU Aquaponics Monitoring and Control System Project is to develop an environmental and plant monitoring and control system for the HU Aquaponics Lab, located in the Student Union. The project involves the design and implementation of technology that will regularly take measurements from the environment (e.g., air temperature, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc). PLCnext Technology will systematically collect, store, and web-publish the measurement data for HU researchers and the public to use for scientific research.

An Examination Of Enhanced Atmospheric Methane Detection Methods For Predicting Performance Of A Novel Multiband Uncooled Radiometer Imager, Cody M. Webber, John P. Kerekes

Articles

To evaluate the potential for a new uncooled infrared radiometer imager to detect enhanced atmospheric levels of methane, three different analysis methods were examined. A single-pixel brightness temperature to noise-equivalent delta temperature (NEdT) comparison study performed using data simulated from MODTRAN6 revealed that a single thermal band centered on the 7.68 µm methane feature leads to a detectable brightness temperature difference exceeding the sensor noise level for a plume of about 17 ppm at ambient atmospheric temperature compared to an ambient plume with no enhanced methane present. Application of a normalized differential methane index method, a novel approach for methane …

Trends In Water Quality Of Cave Pools At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, July 2008–September 2018, Rebecca Weissinger, Andy Armstrong, Kirsten Bahr, Chris Groves

Crawford Hydrology Laboratory

No abstract provided.

The Coastal Monitor Winter/Spring 2020 (Volume 6, No 2), John Tanacredi Ph.D.

The Coastal Monitor

It is a distinct pleasure to welcome our new President, Dr. James Lentini, who epitomizes the STEAM connection between Art and Science at Molloy College. Dr. Lentini has been a leader in higher education for more than 30 years and has had stellar academic training in the arts which include his passion for music. From composer, to classical guitarist, to music technology on an international level, receiving countless awards, honors, and praise from the most prestigious entities in the Arts. His transition to Molloy College was at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and his leadership, under these most difficult …

Calibrating Human Attention As Indicator: Monitoring #Drought In The Twittersphere, Kelly Smith, Andrew Tyre, Zhenghong Tang, Michael Hayes, Adnan Akyuz

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

State climatologists and other expert drought observers have speculated about the value of monitoring Twitter for #drought and related hashtags. This study statistically examines the relationships between the rate of tweeting using #drought and related hashtags, within states, accounting for drought status and news coverage of drought. We collected and geolocated tweets, 2017–18, and used regression analysis and a diversity statistic to explain expected and identify unexpected volumes of tweets. This provides a quantifiable means to detect state-weeks with a volume of tweets that exceeds the upper limit of the prediction interval. To filter out instances where a high volume …

An Open-Sourced, Web-Based Application To Improve Our Ability To Understand Hunter And Angler Purchasing Behavior From License Data, Nathaniel B. Price, Christopher J. Chizinski, Joseph J. Fontaine, Kevin L. Pope, Micaela Rahe, Jeff Rawlinson

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

State fish and wildlife agencies rely on hunters and anglers (i.e., sportspersons) to fund management actions through revenue generated from license sales and excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment. There is a need to develop new techniques that bridge the information gap on participation and provide agencies with an understanding of sportspersons at a resolution that can more directly inform efforts to engage sportspersons. Monitoring sportsperson participation using information about their license-purchasing behavior has the potential to reveal important patterns in recruitment (first-time purchase of a hunting or fishing license), retention (continued purchase of licenses across multiple years), and …

Application Of Excitation-Emission Matrices To Fluorescent Dye Tracing Of Groundwater Flow, Cayla M. Baughn

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Fluorescent dye tracing of groundwater is a technique employed particularly in carbonate rock karst regions to examine karst hydrology by mapping underground flow paths. It is important to understand the hydrology of karst environments because solutionally-enlarged conduits may allow the rapid influx of contaminants into the groundwater system. Fluorescent dye tracing involves the injection of a fluorescent dye into an appropriate injection site (sinking streams, sinkholes, or even through soil flushed with water) and is followed by sampling at sites where the dye may be recovered (typically springs). Various methods exist by which sampling may occur, but all methods ultimately …

Quantifying Surface Severity Of The 2014 And 2015 Fires In The Great Slave Lake Area Of Canada, Nancy H. F. French, Jeremy Graham, Ellen Whitman, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez

Michigan Tech Publications

The focus of this paper was the development of surface organic layer severity maps for the 2014 and 2015 fires in the Great Slave Lake area of the Northwest Territories and Alberta, Canada, using multiple linear regression models generated from pairing field data with Landsat 8 data. Field severity data were collected at 90 sites across the region, together with other site metrics, in order to develop a mapping approach for surface severity, an important metric for assessing carbon loss from fire. The approach utilised a combination of remote sensing indices to build a predictive model of severity that was …

Trace Metals And The Environment: Studying The Behaviour Of Iceland’S Glacially Sourced Trace Metals, Owen Bailey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Trace metal contamination in marine ecosystems is a problem for every trophic level, from zooplankton up to humans. The mobility and uptake availability of these metals depend on such environmental parameters as salinity, temperature, and pH, among others. To explore the effects of varying parameters on dissolved metal behaviour, I studied the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, into which the Breidamerkurjökull glacier deposits trace metals from volcanic ash through glacial melt. In this study I develop and follow a sampling procedure to analyze trace metal concentrations in the lagoon, while additionally discussing the behaviour and impact of trace metals, focusing on cadmium, …

Forecasting Vegetation Health In The Mena Region By Predicting Vegetation Indicators With Machine Learning Models, Sachi Perera, Wenzhao Li, Erik Linstead, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Machine learning (ML) techniques can be applied to predict and monitor drought conditions due to climate change. Predicting future vegetation health indicators (such as EVI, NDVI, and LAI) is one approach to forecast drought events for hotspots (e.g. Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions). Recently, ML models were implemented to predict EVI values using parameters such as land types, time series, historical vegetation indices, land surface temperature, soil moisture, evapotranspiration etc. In this work, we collected the MODIS atmospherically corrected surface spectral reflectance imagery with multiple vegetation related indices for modeling and evaluation of drought conditions in the MENA …

Spatiotemporal Variations Of City-Level Carbon Emissions In China During 2000–2017 Using Nighttime Light Data, Yu Sun, Sheng Zheng, Yuzhe Wu, Uwe Schlink, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

China is one of the largest carbon emitting countries in the world. Numerous strategies have been considered by the Chinese government to mitigate carbon emissions in recent years. Accurate and timely estimation of spatiotemporal variations of city-level carbon emissions is of vital importance for planning of low-carbon strategies. For an assessment of the spatiotemporal variations of city-level carbon emissions in China during the periods 2000–2017, we used nighttime light data as a proxy from two sources: Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) data and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS). The results …

2020 Chesapeake Bay Dead Zone Report, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science, Anchor Qea

Reports

The “Dead Zone” of the Chesapeake Bay refers to a volume of bottom water that is characterized by dissolved oxygen concentrations less than 2 mg/L, which is too low for aquatic organisms such as fish and blue crabs to thrive.The Chesapeake Bay experiences such “hypoxic”conditions every year, with the severity varying from year to year, depending on nutrient and freshwater inputs, wind, and temperature. Multiple metrics are used to relate the severity of hypoxia between different years:

• Hypoxic Duration (days): The number of days in a given year between the first and last day of hypoxic conditions exceeding 2 km3in …