Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Effects Of Fractures On The Occurrence And Distribution Of Arsenic In The Upper Floridan Aquifer During Aquifer Storage And Recovery, William Charles Hutchings

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is used world-wide to supplement available water supplies by storing surplus water in aquifers and recovering it during periods of drought and increased demand. The use of ASR as an option for increasing available municipal irrigation and fresh water supplies is threatened as a result of the mobilization of arsenic in some aquifers during ASR. Arsenic is liberated from arsenic-bearing sulfide minerals as a result of the mixing of oxidizing injected water with reducing insitu groundwater. Fracture networks can have significant influence on the migration and distribution of arsenic in the Upper Floridan Aquifer …

Assessment Of Student Achievement In Introductory Physical Geology: A Three -Year Study On Delivery Method And Term Length, Marianne O'Neal Caldwell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Physical Geology is a popular general education course at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) as at many other colleges and universities. Unlike many science courses, most students taking Physical Geology are not majoring in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) discipline. Typically most students enrolled in Physical Geology are majoring in business, education, or pursuing a general A.A degree for transfer to a four-year university. The class is likely to be one of the few, if not the only, physical science classes that many of these students will take in their academic career. Therefore, this class takes on increased importance, …

A Geochemical Analysis Of Fulgurites: From The Inner Glass To The Outer Crust, Michael L. Joseph

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes produce natural glasses on the surface of the Earth, called fulgurites. These natural glasses are tubular in shape with a central void surrounded by an inner glass, and the inner glass is surrounded by an outer crust or toasted region. Previous studies report different kinds of melts existing in several different types of fulgurites; however, little to no chemical data has been collected that tracks chemical variations from the inner glass to the outer crust of a fulgurite. This study uses microprobe and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer analytical techniques to collect transects of chemical …

Sediment Transport And Distribution Over Continental Shelves: A Glimpse At Two Different River-Influenced Systems, The Cariaco Basin And The Amazon Shelf., Laura Lorenzoni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation was to understand lithogenic suspended sediment transport mechanisms and distribution in two river-influenced margins: The Cariaco Basin, Venezuela, and the Amazon Shelf, Brazil. Lithogenic sediment input in the Cariaco Basin is controlled by small mountainous rivers (SMR), while in the Amazon Shelf it is dominated by the Amazon River, the largest river in the world in terms of freshwater discharge (~20% of global riverine discharge). Optical transmissometer measurements were coupled with particulate organic matter (POM) observations to understand changes in the geochemical composition of suspended sediment and spatial/temporal distributions over the two regions of interest. …

Paleobiological Assessment Of Controls Underlying Long-Term Diversity Dynamics, Andrés L. Cárdenas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deciphering the factors underlying both long-term patterns of diversity and taxonomic turnover rates (i.e., extinction, and origination) has been one of Paleobiology's major foci for the past three decades. The importance of documenting these components is that they will expand our ability to interpret and model the evolutionary processes underlying those trends, highlight the evolutionary impact of historical events, and contribute to the formulation of robust predictions about the future of global diversity in response to the current anthropologically driven environmental changes. Accordingly, the first part of this study examines the possible occurrence of global marine evolutionary environmental controls into …

Temporal And Spatial Analysis Of Monogenetic Volcanic Fields, Koji Kiyosugi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Achieving an understanding of the nature of monogenetic volcanic fields depends on identification of the spatial and temporal patterns of volcanism in these fields, and their relationships to structures mapped in the shallow crust and inferred in the deep crust and mantle through interpretation of geochemical, radiometric and geophysical data.

We investigate the spatial and temporal distributions of volcanism in the Abu Monogenetic Volcano Group, Southwest Japan. E-W elongated volcano distribution, which is identified by a nonparametric kernel method, is found to be consistent with the spatial extent of P-wave velocity anomalies in the lower crust and upper mantle, supporting …

Natural And Anthropogenic Influences On The Morphodynamics Of Sandy And Mixed Sand And Gravel Beaches, Tiffany Roberts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Beaches and coastal environments are dynamic, constantly shaped and reshaped by natural processes and anthropogenic modifications. The morphodynamics and influence of natural and anthropogenic factors of two different coasts at various temporal and spatial scales are discussed.

To quantify the performance of several beach nourishment projects at annual temporal and kilometer spatial scales on three adjacent microtidal low-wave energy barrier islands in west-central Florida, a total of 5,200 beach and nearshore-profiles spaced at 300 m were surveyed monthly to bi-monthly from 2006-2010. Beach nourishment performance is most significantly influenced by the interruption of longshore sediment transport by complex tidal-inlet processes. …

Shelf-Scale Mapping Of Fish Distribution Using Active And Passive Acoustics, Carrie Christy Wall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fish sound production has been associated with courtship and spawning behavior. Acoustic recordings of fish sounds can be used to identify distribution and behavior. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) can record large amounts of acoustic data in a specific area for days to years. These data can be collected in remote locations under potentially unsafe seas throughout a 24-hour period providing datasets unattainable using observer-based methods. However, the instruments must withstand the caustic ocean environment and be retrieved to obtain the recorded data. This can prove difficult due to the risk of PAMs being lost, stolen or damaged, especially in highly …

Something Is Askew In Florida's Water: Arguing For A Better Descriptive Statistic For Positively Skewed Water-Quality Data, Amie October West

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

It may be of no surprise that water quality data is right-skewed, but what appears to be overlooked by some is that the arithmetic mean and standard deviation most often fail as measures of central tendency in skewed data. When using the arithmetic mean and arithmetic standard deviation with nutrient data, one standard deviation about the arithmetic mean can capture nearly all of the data and extend into negative values. Representing nutrient data this way can be misleading to viewers who are using the statistics, and making assumptions, to understand the characteristics of those waters. Through an in-depth statistical …