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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Investigating The Paleoecological Consequences Of Supercontinent Breakup: Sponges Clean Up In The Early Jurassic, Frank Corsetti, Kathleen Ritterbush, David Bottjer, Sarah Greene, Yadira Ibarra, Joyce Yager, A. Joshua West, William Berelson, Silvia Rosas, Thorsten Becker, Naomi Levine, Sean Loyd, Rowan Martindale, Victoria Petryshyn, Nathan Carroll, Elizabeth Petsios, Olivia Piazza, Carlie Pietsch, Jessica Stellmann, Jeffrey Thompson, Kirstin Washington, Dylan Wilmeth Jun 2015

Investigating The Paleoecological Consequences Of Supercontinent Breakup: Sponges Clean Up In The Early Jurassic, Frank Corsetti, Kathleen Ritterbush, David Bottjer, Sarah Greene, Yadira Ibarra, Joyce Yager, A. Joshua West, William Berelson, Silvia Rosas, Thorsten Becker, Naomi Levine, Sean Loyd, Rowan Martindale, Victoria Petryshyn, Nathan Carroll, Elizabeth Petsios, Olivia Piazza, Carlie Pietsch, Jessica Stellmann, Jeffrey Thompson, Kirstin Washington, Dylan Wilmeth

Faculty Publications

The continued release of fossil fuel carbon into the atmosphere today means it is imperative to understand Earth system response to CO2 rise, and the geologic record offers unique opportunities to investigate such behavior. Stomatal and paleosol proxies demonstrate a large change in atmospheric pCO2 across the Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) transition, concomitant with the eruption and emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and the splitting of Pangea. As one of the “big 5” mass extinctions—when the so-called modern fauna was particularly hard hit—we know the biosphere was severely affected during this time, but the details are relatively poorly understood, …


Glowing Seashells: Diversity Of Fossilized Coloration Patterns On Coral Reef-Associated Cone Snail (Gastropoda: Conidae) Shells From The Neogene Of The Dominican Republic, Jonathan R. Hendricks Apr 2015

Glowing Seashells: Diversity Of Fossilized Coloration Patterns On Coral Reef-Associated Cone Snail (Gastropoda: Conidae) Shells From The Neogene Of The Dominican Republic, Jonathan R. Hendricks

Faculty Publications

The biology of modern Conidae (cone snails)—which includes the hyperdiverse genus Conus—has been intensively studied, but the fossil record of the clade remains poorly understood, particularly within an evolutionary framework. Here, ultraviolet light is used to reveal and characterize the original shell coloration patterns of 28 species of cone snails from three Neogene coral reef-associated deposits from the Cibao Valley, northern Dominican Republic. These fossils come from the upper Miocene Cercado Fm. and lower Pliocene Gurabo Fm., and range in age from about 6.6-4.8 Ma. Comparison of the revealed coloration patterns with those of extant species allow the taxa to …


Dust Deposition In The Eastern Indian Ocean: The Ocean Perspective From Antarctica To The Bay Of Bengal, Maxime Grand, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, Clifton Buck, William Landing Mar 2015

Dust Deposition In The Eastern Indian Ocean: The Ocean Perspective From Antarctica To The Bay Of Bengal, Maxime Grand, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, Clifton Buck, William Landing

Faculty Publications

Atmospheric deposition is an important but still poorly constrained source of trace micronutrients to the open ocean because of the dearth of in situ measurements of total deposition (i.e., wet + dry deposition) in remote regions. In this work, we discuss the upper ocean distribution of dissolved Fe and Al in the eastern Indian Ocean along a 95°E meridional transect spanning the Antarctic margin to the Bay of Bengal. We use the mixed layer concentration of dissolved Al in conjunction with empirical data in a simple steady state model to produce 75 estimates of total dust deposition that we compare …


Dissolved Fe And Al In The Upper 1000 M Of The Eastern Indian Ocean: A High‐Resolution Transect Along 95°E From The Antarctic Margin To The Bay Of Bengal, Maxime Grand, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, William Landing, Peter Morton, Clifton Buck, Pamela Barrett, Joseph Resing Mar 2015

Dissolved Fe And Al In The Upper 1000 M Of The Eastern Indian Ocean: A High‐Resolution Transect Along 95°E From The Antarctic Margin To The Bay Of Bengal, Maxime Grand, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, William Landing, Peter Morton, Clifton Buck, Pamela Barrett, Joseph Resing

Faculty Publications

A high‐resolution section of dissolved iron (dFe) and aluminum (dAl) was obtained along ~95°E in the upper 1000 m of the eastern Indian Ocean from the Antarctic margin (66°S) to the Bay of Bengal (18°N) during the U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) CO2 Repeat Hydrography I08S and I09N sections (February–April 2007). In the Southern Ocean, low concentrations of dAl (<1 n M) reflect the negligible dust inputs impacting the water masses subducted in the circumpolar domain. The low dAl concentrations characterizing the Southern Ocean terminate near 45°S, probably because of the advection of subtropical water masses that received dust and sedimentary inputs in their formation region. Our subsurface dFe data near the southern Kerguelen Plateau were significantly higher than historical observations in other Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean. We surmise that the offshore advection of dFe‐rich waters along the western flank of the southern Kerguelen plateau and enhanced vertical mixing could contribute to this elevated subsurface dFe inventory. Elevated subsurface particulate and dFe levels downstream of the northern Kerguelen Plateau may reflect long‐range lateral transport from the plateau's sediments and/or remineralization inputs. At the northern edge of the south Indian subtropical gyre, the deposition of Australian dust, possibly combined with the advection of dAl‐enriched waters from the Indonesian Throughflow, creates a region of elevated dAl in the upper 400 m but without a corresponding enrichment in dFe. In the northern Indian Ocean, the South Equatorial Current constitutes a remarkable biogeochemical front separating the oxygen‐rich and dFe‐poor subtropical gyre waters from the dFe‐rich and oxygen‐depleted waters of the northern Indian Ocean. By tracing the accumulation of macronutrients and dFe along the advective pathway of Indian Central Water, we show that the central waters of the northern Indian Ocean receive excess dFe in addition to that produced by remineralization inputs. The resuspension of shelf sediments and release of pore waters probably contribute to the elevated dFe and dAl levels observed below the highly stratified upper layers of the Bay of Bengal.


The Digital Atlas Of Ancient Life: Delivering Information On Paleontology And Biogeography, Jonathan R. Hendricks, Alycia L. Stigall, Bruce S. Lieberman Jan 2015

The Digital Atlas Of Ancient Life: Delivering Information On Paleontology And Biogeography, Jonathan R. Hendricks, Alycia L. Stigall, Bruce S. Lieberman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Quantifying The Impact Of Atmospheric Deposition On The Biogeochemistry Of Fe And Al In The Upper Ocean: A Decade Of Collaboration With The Us Clivar-Co2 Repeat Hydrography Program, Maxime Grand, Clifton Buck, William Landing, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, Matthew Brown, Joseph Resing Mar 2014

Quantifying The Impact Of Atmospheric Deposition On The Biogeochemistry Of Fe And Al In The Upper Ocean: A Decade Of Collaboration With The Us Clivar-Co2 Repeat Hydrography Program, Maxime Grand, Clifton Buck, William Landing, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, Matthew Brown, Joseph Resing

Faculty Publications

The aerosol deposition of continental material and its partial dissolution in the surface ocean exerts an important control on the distribution of iron and other potentially limiting trace metal (TM) micronutrients in the open ocean. This dust deposition has implications for the regulation of global climate through the coupling of biolimiting TM cycles, marine productivity, and the global carbon cycle. Thus, it is important to determine the locations of dust deposition in the open ocean and to quantify the magnitude and subsequent dissolution of the dust. At present, there are too few dust deposition estimates and solubility measurements in the …


Using Marine Snails To Teach Biogeography And Macroevolution: The Role Of Larvae And Dispersal Ability In The Evolution And Persistence Of Species, Jonathan R. Hendricks Dec 2012

Using Marine Snails To Teach Biogeography And Macroevolution: The Role Of Larvae And Dispersal Ability In The Evolution And Persistence Of Species, Jonathan R. Hendricks

Faculty Publications

While some marine animals are capable of traveling great distances, many have limited mobility as adults and spend the majority of their lifetimes in a small geographical area or may even be cemented to a single place. While it might be expected that species with limited mobility would have small geographic distributions, some nevertheless occur over very large areas. This is the case for some marine snails (gastropods). A key factor that impacts the geographic distribution of marine snails is the type of larvae they have during the phase of their life history that follows hatching from an egg. Because …


Bioactive Trace Metal Distributions And Biogeochemical Controls In The Southern Ocean, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, Maxime Grand Sep 2012

Bioactive Trace Metal Distributions And Biogeochemical Controls In The Southern Ocean, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, Maxime Grand

Faculty Publications

Extensive sampling in many regions of the Southern Ocean has demonstrated that surface water concentrations of dissolved Fe are low enough to limit phytoplankton growth. In contrast, there is currently no evidence that other bioactive elements (e.g., Mn, Zn, Co) are similarly limiting. Although atmospheric input of dissolved Fe to Southern Ocean surface waters appears to be low, resuspension of sediments from shallow regions around islands and the Antarctic coastline can inject significant amounts of Fe into the surrounding waters, stimulating primary production and providing a natural laboratory for studying the response of biological systems to natural Fe fertilization processes. …


Particle Transport Over Rough Hillslope Surfaces By Dry Ravel: Experiments And Simulations With Implications For Nonlocal Sediment Flux, Emmanuel Gabet, Morgan Mendoza Feb 2012

Particle Transport Over Rough Hillslope Surfaces By Dry Ravel: Experiments And Simulations With Implications For Nonlocal Sediment Flux, Emmanuel Gabet, Morgan Mendoza

Faculty Publications

Past studies of hillslope evolution have typically assumed that soil creep processes are governed by a linear relationship between local hillslope angle and transport distance. The assumption of “linear diffusion” has fallen out of favor because, when coupled with an expression of mass continuity, it yields unrealistic hillslope profiles. As a consequence, a better understanding of the mechanics of sediment transport is needed. Here we report results from a series of flume experiments performed to investigate sediment transport by dry ravel, a common soil creep process in arid and semiarid environments. We find that, at gentle slopes, transport distances follow …


Bedrock Erosion By Root Fracture And Tree Throw: A Coupled Biogeomorphic Model To Explore The Humped Soil Production Function And The Persistence Of Hillslope Soils, Emmanuel Gabet, Simon Mudd Oct 2010

Bedrock Erosion By Root Fracture And Tree Throw: A Coupled Biogeomorphic Model To Explore The Humped Soil Production Function And The Persistence Of Hillslope Soils, Emmanuel Gabet, Simon Mudd

Faculty Publications

In 1877, G. K. Gilbert reasoned that bedrock erosion is maximized under an intermediate soil thickness and declines as soils become thinner or thicker. Subsequent analyses of this “humped” functional relationship proposed that thin soils are unstable and that perturbations in soil thickness would lead to runaway thinning or thickening of the soil. To explore this issue, we developed a numerical model that simulates the physical weathering of bedrock by root fracture and tree throw. The coupled biogeomorphic model combines data on conifer population dynamics, rootwad volumes, tree throw frequency, and soil creep from the Pacific Northwest (USA). Although not …


W(H)Ither Fossils? Studying Morphological Character Evolution In The Age Of Molecular Sequences, Elizabeth J. Hermsen, Jonathan R. Hendricks Apr 2008

W(H)Ither Fossils? Studying Morphological Character Evolution In The Age Of Molecular Sequences, Elizabeth J. Hermsen, Jonathan R. Hendricks

Faculty Publications

A major challenge in the post-genomics era will be to integrate molecular sequence data from extant organisms with morphological data from fossil and extant taxa into a single, coherent picture of phylogenetic relationships; only then will these phylogenetic hypotheses be effectively applied to the study of morphological character evolution. At least two analytical approaches to solving this problem have been utilized: (1) simultaneous analysis of molecular sequence and morphological data with fossil taxa included as terminals in the analysis, and (2) the molecular scaffold approach, in which morphological data are analyzed over a molecular backbone (with constraints that force extant …


Exceptionally Preserved Jellyfishes From The Middle Cambrian, Paulyn Cartwright, Susan L. Halgedahl, Jonathan R. Hendricks, Richard D. Jarrard, Antonio C. Marques, Allen G. Collins, Bruce S. Lieberman Oct 2007

Exceptionally Preserved Jellyfishes From The Middle Cambrian, Paulyn Cartwright, Susan L. Halgedahl, Jonathan R. Hendricks, Richard D. Jarrard, Antonio C. Marques, Allen G. Collins, Bruce S. Lieberman

Faculty Publications

Cnidarians represent an early diverging animal group and thus insight into their origin and diversification is key to understanding metazoan evolution. Further, cnidarian jellyfish comprise an important component of modern marine planktonic ecosystems. Here we report on exceptionally preserved cnidarian jellyfish fossils from the Middle Cambrian (~505 million years old) Marjum Formation of Utah. These are the first described Cambrian jellyfish fossils to display exquisite preservation of soft part anatomy including detailed features of structures interpreted as trailing tentacles and subumbrellar and exumbrellar surfaces. If the interpretation of these preserved characters is correct, their presence is diagnostic of modern jellyfish …


Bedrock Channel Geometry Along An Orographic Rainfall Gradient In The Upper Marsyandi River Valley In Central Nepal, William Craddock, Douglas Burbank, Bodo Bookhagen, Emmanuel Gabet Jul 2007

Bedrock Channel Geometry Along An Orographic Rainfall Gradient In The Upper Marsyandi River Valley In Central Nepal, William Craddock, Douglas Burbank, Bodo Bookhagen, Emmanuel Gabet

Faculty Publications

Pronounced rainfall gradients combined with spatially uniform exhumation of rocks at Quaternary timescales and uniform rock strength make the upper Marsyandi River valley in central Nepal a useful natural laboratory in which to explore variations in bedrock channel width. We focus on small catchments (0.6–12.4 km2) along a more than tenfold gradient in monsoon rainfall. Rainfall data are gathered from a dense weather network and calibrated satellite observations, the pattern of Quaternary exhumation is inferred from apatite fission track cooling ages, and rock compressive strength is measured in the field. Bedrock channel widths, surveyed at high scour indicators, scale as …


Biogeography And The Cambrian Radiation Of Arachnomorph Arthropods, Jonathan R. Hendricks, Bruce S. Lieberman Jan 2007

Biogeography And The Cambrian Radiation Of Arachnomorph Arthropods, Jonathan R. Hendricks, Bruce S. Lieberman

Faculty Publications

Biogeographic patterns in primarily Cambrian arachnomorph taxa are investigated using a recently constructed phylogenetic hypothesis in order to explore the biogeographic context of the Cambrian radiation. A modified version of Brooks Parsimony Analysis is employed to elucidate patterns of vicariance and geodispersal in taxa from six regions (Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia, Australia, Africa and China). Well resolved vicariance and geodispersal trees are very similar and reconstruct Laurentia and China as sister areas. This close area relationship between Laurentia and China provides extensive evidence for congruent vicariance and range expansion in Cambrian arachnomorphs, while data from trilobites do not show this pattern. …


Prediction Of Sediment-Bound Nutrient Delivery From Semi-Arid California Watersheds, Emmanuel Gabet, Noah Fierer, Oliver Chadwick Oct 2005

Prediction Of Sediment-Bound Nutrient Delivery From Semi-Arid California Watersheds, Emmanuel Gabet, Noah Fierer, Oliver Chadwick

Faculty Publications

Soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) are lost from hillslopes in particulate forms through soil erosion. The fate of the eroded C (e.g., sequestration or oxidation) may affect the global C budget, and delivery of N and P to waterbodies can lead to eutrophication. Whereas the magnitude of particulate nutrient losses may be similar to or greater than dissolved losses, it is rarely estimated. We couple a sediment delivery model with measurements of C, N, and P in soil to account explicitly for hillslope sediment transport processes that yield sediment-bound nutrients to fluvial networks. The model is applied …


A Stochastic Sediment Delivery Model For A Steep Mediterranean Landscape, Emmanuel Gabet, Thomas Dunne Sep 2003

A Stochastic Sediment Delivery Model For A Steep Mediterranean Landscape, Emmanuel Gabet, Thomas Dunne

Faculty Publications

It is a truism in geomorphology that climatic events operate on a landscape to drive sediment transport processes, yet few investigations have formally linked climate and terrain characteristics with geomorphological processes. In this study, we incorporate sediment transport equations derived from fieldwork into a computer model that predicts the delivery of sediment from hillslopes in a steep Mediterranean landscape near Santa Barbara, California. The sediment transport equations are driven by rainstorms and fires that are stochastically generated from probability distributions. The model is used to compare the rates and processes of sediment delivery under two vegetation types: coastal sage scrub …


Sediment Transport By Dry Ravel, Emmanuel Gabet Jan 2003

Sediment Transport By Dry Ravel, Emmanuel Gabet

Faculty Publications

Dry ravel is a general term that describes the rolling, bouncing, and sliding of individual particles down a slope and is a dominant hillslope sediment transport process in steep arid and semiarid landscapes. During fires, particles can be mobilized by the collapse of sediment wedges that have accumulated behind vegetation. On a daily basis, particles may be mobilized by bioturbation and by small landslides. Experiments on a dry ravel flume indicate that a basic expression of the momentum equation predicts the distance traveled by particles propelled down a rough surface. This equation is further elaborated to produce a nonlinear slope-dependent …


Sediment Detachment By Rain Power, Emmanuel Gabet, Thomas Dunne Jan 2003

Sediment Detachment By Rain Power, Emmanuel Gabet, Thomas Dunne

Faculty Publications

In interrill areas, overland flow is often incapable of detaching soil particles so detachment is primarily by raindrop impact. We derive a mathematical expression, rain power (R, W m−2), relating the energy expenditure of raindrops impacting a soil surface to the rate of detachment of soil particles. Rain power incorporates rainfall, hillslope, and vegetation characteristics and is modulated by flow depths. Rainfall simulation experiments on natural hillslopes were performed to measure detachment rates and across-slope flow depth distributions in surface runoff. Our results indicate that flow depths follow a Poisson distribution, and this observation is used to develop a dimensionless …


Lottery Proceeds In California Pay For Installation Of A Ground-Water Monitoring System, June Ann Oberdorfer, J. W. Williams, M. G. Smelser Jan 1990

Lottery Proceeds In California Pay For Installation Of A Ground-Water Monitoring System, June Ann Oberdorfer, J. W. Williams, M. G. Smelser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Uses And Abuses Of Wastewater Injection Wells In Hawaii, F. L. Peterson, June Ann Oberdorfer Mar 1985

Uses And Abuses Of Wastewater Injection Wells In Hawaii, F. L. Peterson, June Ann Oberdorfer

Faculty Publications

During the past two decades in Hawaii, more than 500 injection wells for the disposal of domestic sewage wastewater have been constructed and operated. Thus far, contamination of potable groundwater supplies has not been a problem. Many of the injection wells, however, have not performed as designed, and aquifer clogging and reduced injection capacity have produced numerous well failures resulting in public health, legal, and financial problems. Factors most commonly responsible for the well problems have been unfavorable hydrogeology, underdesign of injection well capacity, poor effluent quality, and lack of injection well maintenance. Detailed study of clogging mechanisms in the …