Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Near-Inertial Wave Energetics Modulated By Background Flows In A Global Model Simulation, Keshav J. Raja, Maarten J. Buijsman, Jay F. Shriver, Brian K. Arbic, Oladeji Siyanbola

Faculty Publications

We study the generation, propagation, and dissipation of wind-generated near-inertial waves (NIWs) in a global 1/25° Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) simulation with realistic atmospheric forcing and background circulation during 30 days in May–June 2019. The time-mean near-inertial wind power input and depth-integrated energy balance terms are computed for the total fields and the fields decomposed into vertical modes to differentiate between the radiative and (locally) dissipative components of NIW energy. Only 30.3% of the near-inertial wind input projects onto the first five modes, whereas the sum of the NIW energy in the first five modes adds up to 58% …

Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion (Mbrsd) Assessment – Final Report, Jerry D. Wiggert, Brandy N. Armstrong, M. Kemal Cambazoglu, Sandeep Kalathupurath Kuttan

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this project is to provide managers at the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) with the scientific information needed to accurately address public concerns regarding the potential effects of the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan / Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion (MBrSD) on the jurisdictional waters and resources of Mississippi. The stated design purpose of the MBrSD is to reconnect and re-establish the deltaic sediment deposition process between the Mississippi River and the Breton Sound Basin through a diversion that will deliver up to 75,000 cfs of sediment-laden freshwater. The report presented herein provides …

Prospects For Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Recovery And Restoration, Denis A. Wiesenburg, Bob Shipp, F. Joel Fodrie, Sean Powers, Julien Lartigue, Kelly M. Darnell, Melissa M. Baustian, Cam Ngo, John F. Valentine, Kateryna Wowk

Faculty Publications

Previous oil spills provide clear evidence that ecosystem restoration efforts are challenging, and recovery can take decades. Similar to the Ixtoc 1 well blowout in 1979, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill was enormous both in volume of oil spilled and duration, resulting in environmental impacts from the deep ocean to the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Data collected during the National Resource Damage Assessment showed significant damage to coastal areas (especially marshes), marine organisms, and deep-sea habitat. Previous spills have shown that disparate regions recover at different rates, with especially long-term effects in salt marshes and deepsea habitat. Environmental recovery …

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 …

Autonomous Seawater PCo2 And Ph Time Series From 40 Surface Buoys And The Emergence Of Anthropogenic Trends, Adrienne J. Sutton, Richard A. Feely, Stacy Maenner-Jones, Sylvia Musielwicz, John Osborne, Colin Dietrich, Natalie Monacci, Jessica Cross, Randy Bott, Alex Kozyr, Andreas J. Andersson, Nicholas R. Bates, Wei-Jun Cai, Meghan F. Cronin, Eric H. De Carlo, Burke Hales, Stephan D. Howden, Charity M. Lee, Derek P. Manzello, Michael J. Mcphaden, Melissa Meléndez, John B. Mickett, Jan A. Newton, Scott E. Noakes, Jae Hoon Noh, Solveig R. Olafsdottir, Joseph E. Salisbury, Uwe Send, Thomas W. Trull, Douglas C. Vandemark, Robert A. Weller

Faculty Publications

Ship-based time series, some now approaching over 3 decades long, are critical climate records that have dramatically improved our ability to characterize natural and anthropogenic drivers of ocean carbon dioxide (CO₂) uptake and biogeochemical processes. Advancements in autonomous marine carbon sensors and technologies over the last 2 decades have led to the expansion of observations at fixed time series sites, thereby improving the capability of characterizing sub-seasonal variability in the ocean. Here , we present a data product of 40 individual autonomous moored surface ocean pCO₂ (partial pressure of CO₂) time series established between …

A Multiscale Approach To High-Resolution Ocean Profile Observations Within A 4dvar Analysis System, Matthew J. Carrier, John J. Osborne, Hans E. Ngodock, Scott R. Smith, Innocent Souopgui, Joseph M. D'Addezio

Faculty Publications

Most ocean data assimilation systems are tuned to process and assimilate observations to constrain features on the order of the mesoscale and larger. Typically this involves removal of observations or computing averaged observations. This procedure, while necessary, eliminates many observations from the analysis step and can reduce the overall effectiveness of a particular observing platform. Simply including these observations is not an option as doing so can produce an overdetermined, ill-conditioned problem that is more difficult to solve. An approach, presented here, aims to avoid such issues while at the same time increasing the number of observations within the assimilation. …

The Impact Of The Deepwater Horizon Blowout On Historic Shipwreck-Associated Sediment Microbiomes In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Leila J. Hamdan, Jennifer Salerno, Allen H. Reed, Samantha B. Joye, Melanie Damour

Faculty Publications

More than 2,000 historic shipwrecks spanning 500 years of history, rest on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor. Shipwrecks serve as artificial reefs and hotspots of biodiversity by providing hard substrate, something rare in deep ocean regions. The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill discharged crude oil into the deep Gulf. Because of physical, biological, and chemical interactions, DWH oil was deposited on the seafloor, where historic shipwrecks are present. This study examined sediment microbiomes at seven historic shipwrecks. Steel-hulled, World War II-era shipwrecks and wooden-hulled, 19th century shipwrecks within and outside of the surface oiled area and subsurface plume were examined. Analysis …

Concorde Meteorological Analysis (Cma) - Data Guide, Patrick Fitzpatrick, Yee H. Lau

Faculty Publications

CONCORDE is the CONsortium for oil spill exposure pathways in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE), and is an interdisciplinary research program funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to conduct scientific studies of the impacts of oil, dispersed oil and dispersant on the Gulf’s ecosystem (Greer et al. 2018). A CONCORDE goal is to implement a synthesis model containing circulation and biogeochemistry components of the Northern Gulf of Mexico shelf system which can ultimately aid in prediction of oil spill transport and impacts.

The CONCORDE Meteorological Analysis (CMA) is an hourly gridded NetCDF dataset which provides atmospheric forcing for …

Light Rare Earth Element Depletion During Deepwater Horizon Blowout Methanotrophy, Alan M. Shiller, Eric W. Chan, D.J. Joung, Molly Redmond, John D. Kessler

Faculty Publications

Rare earth elements have generally not been thought to have a biological role. However, recent work has demonstrated that the light REEs (LREEs: La, Ce, Pr, and Nd) are essential for at least some methanotrophs, being co-factors in the XoxF type of methanol dehydrogenase (MDH). We show here that dissolved LREEs were significantly removed in a submerged plume of methane-rich water during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) well blowout. Furthermore, incubation experiments conducted with naturally methane-enriched waters from hydrocarbon seeps in the vicinity of the DWH wellhead also showed LREE removal concurrent with methane consumption. Metagenomic sequencing of incubation …

A Compilation Of Global Bio-Optical In Situ Data For Ocean-Colour Satellite Applications, André Valente, Shubba Sathyendranath, Vanda Brotas, Steve Groom, Michael Grant, Malcolm Taberner, David Antoine, Robert A. Arnone Prof, William M. Balch, Kathryn Baker, Ray Barlow, Simon Bélanger, Jean-François Berthon, Sükrü Beşiktepe, Vittorio Brando, Elisabetta Canuti, Francisco Chavez, Hervé Claustre, Richard Crout, Robert Frounin, Carlos García-Soto, Stuart W. Gibb, Richard Gould, Stanford Hooker, Mati Kahru, Holger Klein, Susanne Kratzer, Hubert Loisel, David Mckee, Brian G. Mitchell, Tiffany Moisan, Frank Muller-Karger, Leonie O'Dowd, Michael Ondrusek, Alex J. Poulton, Michel Repecaud, Timothy Smythe, Heidi M. Sosik, Michael Twardowski, Kenneth Voss, Jeremy Werdell, Marcel Wernand, Giuseppe Zibordi

Faculty Publications

A compiled set of in situ data is important to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite-data records. Here we describe the data compiled for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The data were acquired from several sources (MOBY, BOUSSOLE, AERONET-OC, SeaBASS, NOMAD, MERMAID, AMT, ICES, HOT, GeP&CO), span between 1997 and 2012, and have a global distribution. Observations of the following variables were compiled: spectral remote-sensing reflectances, concentrations of chlorophyll a, spectral inherent optical properties and spectral diffuse attenuation coefficients. The data were from multi-project archives acquired via the open internet …

Hierarchical Modeling: Biogeochemical Processes And Mechanisms That Drive Clay Nano-And Microfabric Development, Kenneth J. Curry, Richard H. Bennett, Paula J. Smithka, Matthew H. Hulbert

Faculty Publications

Conceptual scientific models of clay and clay fabric development can be constructed profitably by considering chemical and physical systems in terms of an ordered hierarchy. We develop here a hierarchical model of early stages of marine sediment development identifying processes and focusing on mechanisms. While the focus of our model is on mechanisms, the physical aspects of the hierarchy are cast in terms of the nanometer (nanofabric) level of organization of sediment fabric. This level is nested below the micrometer (microfabric) level that includes aggregates of clay signatures and is nested above the molecular level that includes edges and faces …

Monsoon-Driven Biogeochemical Processes In The Arabian Sea, Jerry D. Wiggert, Raleigh Hood, Karl Banse, John Kindle

Faculty Publications

Although it is nominally a tropical locale, the semiannual wind reversals associated with the Monsoon system of the Arabian Sea result annually in two distinct periods of elevated biological activity. While in both cases monsoonal forcing drives surface layer nutrient enrichment that supports increased rates of primary productivity, fundamentally different entrainment mechanisms are operating in summer (Southwest) and winter (Northeast) Monsoons. Moreover, the intervening intermonsoon periods, during which the region relaxes toward oligotrophic conditions more typical of tropical environments, provide a stark contrast to the dynamic biogeochemical activity of the monsoons. The resulting spatial and temporal variability is great and …