Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Contrasting Hydrodynamic Responses To Atmospheric Systems With Different Scales: Impact Of Cold Fronts Vs. That Of A Hurricane, Wei Huang, C. Li

VIMS Articles

In this paper, subtidal responses of Barataria Bay to an atmospheric cold front in 2014 and Hurricane Barry of 2019 are studied. The cold fronts had shorter influencing periods (1 to 3 days), while Hurricane Barry had a much longer influencing period (about 1 week). Wind direction usually changes from southern quadrants to northern quadrants before and after a cold front’s passage. For a hurricane making its landfall at the norther Gulf of Mexico coast, wind variation is dependent on the location relative to the location of landfall. Consequently, water level usually reaches a trough after the maximum cold front …

Fate Of Ayeyarwady And Thanlwin River Sediment: Relative Importance Of Oceanographic And Tectonic Controls - Associated Dataset, Steven Kuehl, Courtney K. Harris

Data

Data set archive associated with Kuehl et al. (2019) collected as part of NSF award OCE-1737221. Core and CTD data are from a two-week oceanographic research cruise which was conducted in December 2017 in the Northern Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, using a locally hired vessel. Overall, we occupied 30 stations and collected ~50 sediment cores (kasten, gravity and box), along with CTD profiles on the shelf and inside the Yangon River estuary. The area covered includes both the western and eastern sides of the delta, almost 250 nm across, and southward across the continental shelf to a major …

A Modeling Study On The Influence Of Sea-Level Rise And Channel Deepening On Estuarine Circulation And Dissolved Oxygen Levels In The Tidal James River, Virginia, Usa, Ya Wang, Jian Shen

VIMS Articles

The impact of channel deepening and sea-level rise on the environmental integrity of an estuary is investigated using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic-eutrophication model. The model results show that dissolved oxygen (DO) only experienced minor changes, even when the deep channel was deepened by 3 m in the mesohaline and polyhaline regions of the James River. We found that vertical stratification decreased DO aeration while the estuarine gravitational circulation increased bottom DO exchange. The interactions between these two processes play an important role in modulating DO. The minor change in DO due to channel deepening indicates that the James River is unique …

The Importance Of Organic Content To Fractal Floc Properties In Estuarine Surface Waters, Insights From Video, Lisst, And Pump Sampling: Supporting Data, Kelsey A. Fall, Grace M. Massey, Carl T. Friedrichs

Data

The linked folders and associated data files contain the observations utilized in Fall, K.A., Friedrichs, C.T., Massey, G.M., Bowers, D.G., and Smith, S.J. (2021). The importance of organic content to fractal floc properties in estuarine surface waters: Insights from video, LISST, and pump sampling. JGR Oceans.

The file “Description of Data Files.pdf” outlines the content of the ten data folders, each of which is associated with a data set collected on an individual one-day cruise in the York River estuary.

A Database Of Ocean Primary Productivity From The 14c Method, J. F. Marra, R. T. Barber, (...), Walker O. Smith Jr., L. Zoffli

VIMS Articles

The database on ocean primary productivity comprises over two decades (1985–2008) of data that the authors have participated in collecting, using the assimilation of inorganic ¹⁴C through photosynthesis, in incubations carried out in situ. The dataset is perhaps unique in that it uses, overwhelmingly, consistent methodology while covering a wide geographic range. Ancillary data are included. Using the database, it is hoped that investigators can test for the relationships among the environmental drivers for ocean productivity, the meaning of the ¹⁴C method in terms of phytoplankton physiology and the dynamics in the water column, and as a resource …

Ocean_Data_Tools: A Matlab Toolbox For Interacting With Bulk Freely-Available Oceanographic Data, Laur Ferris

VIMS Articles

ocean_data_tools simplifies the process of extracting, formatting, and visualizing freely-available oceanographic data. A wealth of oceanographic data (from research cruises, autonomous floats, global ocean models, etc.) is accessible online. However, many oceanographers and environmental scientists (particularly those from subdisciplines not accustomed to working with large datasets) can be dissuaded from utilizing this data because of the overhead associated with determining how to batch download data and format it into easily-manipulable data structures. ocean_data_tools solves this problem by allowing the user to transform common oceanographic data sources into uniform structure arrays, call general functions on these structure arrays, perform custom calculations, …

Climate-Induced Variability In South Atlantic Wave Direction Over The Past Three Millennia, A. P. Silva, A. H. F. Klein, A. F. H. Fetter-Filho, Christopher J. Hein, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Through alteration of wave-generating atmospheric systems, global climate changes play a fundamental role in regional wave climate. However, long-term wave-climate cycles and their associated forcing mechanisms remain poorly constrained, in part due to a relative dearth of highly resolved archives. Here we use the morphology of former shorelines preserved in beach-foredune ridges (BFR) within a protected embayment to reconstruct changes in predominant wave directions in the Subtropical South Atlantic during the last ~ 3000 years. These analyses reveal multi-centennial cycles of oscillation in predominant wave direction in accordance with stronger (weaker) South Atlantic mid- to high-latitudes mean sea-level pressure gradient …

Effects Of Seawater Exchange On Water Chemistry Among Coastal Lakes With Intermittent Connections To The Sea, A. Challen Hyman, Dana Bigham Stephens

VIMS Articles

Intermittently closed and open lakes and lagoons (ICOLLs) are a dynamic class of coastal waterbodies with the unique feature of intermittently connecting to the sea. Understanding the functioning and potential threats of these globally rare systems is important to their preservation and protection. Coastal dune lakes of northwest Florida are one example of an understudied group of ICOLLs which connect with the Gulf of Mexico for brief periods of time. Using a 17-year, monthly water chemistry dataset, we analyzed long-term patterns in water chemistry among 16 coastal dune lakes. Using salinity as a proxy for frequency of seawater inflows, principal …

A Continental Shelf Pump For Co2 On The Adélie Land Coast, East Antarctica, Mar C. Arroyo, Elizabeth H. Shadwick, Stephen R. Rintoul, Kazuya Kusahara

VIMS Articles

We quantify the transport of inorganic carbon from the continental shelf to the deep ocean in Dense Shelf Water (DSW) from the Mertz and Ninnis Polynyas along the Adélie Land coast in East Antarctica. For this purpose, observations of total dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO₂) from two summer hydrographic surveys in 2015 and 2017 were paired with DSW volume transport estimates derived from a coupled ocean‐sea ice‐ice shelf model to examine the fate of inorganic carbon in DSW from Adélie Land. Transports indicate a net outflow of 227 ± 115 Tg C yr⁻¹ with DSW in the postglacial …

Estuarine Forecasts At Daily Weather To Subseasonal Time Scales, Andrew C. Ross, Charles A. Stock, Keith W. Dixon, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Most present forecast systems for estuaries predict conditions for only a few days into the future. However, there are many reasons to expect that skillful estuarine forecasts are possible for longer time periods, including increasingly skillful extended atmospheric forecasts, the potential for lasting impacts of atmospheric forcing on estuarine conditions, and the predictability of tidal cycles. In this study, we test whether skillful estuarine forecasts are possible for up to 35 days into the future by combining an estuarine model of Chesapeake Bay with 35-day atmospheric forecasts from an operational weather model. When compared with both a hindcast simulation from …

Data-Driven, Multi-Model Workflow Suggests Strong Influence From Hurricanes On The Generation Of Turbidity Currents In The Gulf Of Mexico, Courtney K. Harris, Jaia Syvitski, H. G. Arango, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Turbidity currents deliver sediment rapidly from the continental shelf to the slope and beyond; and can be triggered by processes such as shelf resuspension during oceanic storms; mass failure of slope deposits due to sediment- and wave-pressure loadings; and localized events that grow into sustained currents via self-amplifying ignition. Because these operate over multiple spatial and temporal scales, ranging from the eddy-scale to continental-scale; coupled numerical models that represent the full transport pathway have proved elusive though individual models have been developed to describe each of these processes. Toward a more holistic tool, a numerical workflow was developed to address …

Relative Impacts Of Global Changes And Regional Watershed Changes On The Inorganic Carbon Balance Of The Chesapeake Bay, Pierre St-Laurent, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Raymond G. Najjar, Elizabeth Shadwick, Hanquin Tian, Yuanzhi Yao

VIMS Articles

The Chesapeake Bay is a large coastal-plain estuary that has experienced considerable anthropogenic changeover the past century. At the regional scale, land-use change has doubled the nutrient input from rivers and led to an increase in riverine carbon and alkalinity. The bay has also experienced global changes, including the rise of atmospheric temperature and CO2. Here we seek to understand the relative impact of these changes on the inorganic carbon balance of the bay between the early 1900s and the early 2000s. We use a linked land–estuarine–ocean modeling system that includes both inorganic and organic carbon and nitrogen cycling. Sensitivity …

Challenges In Quantifying Air‐Water Carbon Dioxide Flux Using Estuarine Water Quality Data: Case Study For Chesapeake Bay, Marie Herrmann, Raymond G. Najjar, Fei Da, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Sreece Goldberger, Alana Menendez, Elizabeth Shadwick, Pierre St-Laurent

VIMS Articles

Estuaries play an uncertain but potentially important role in the global carbon cycle via CO₂ outgassing. The uncertainty mainly stems from the paucity of studies that document the full spatial and temporal variability of estuarine surface water partial pressure of carbon dioxide ( p CO₂). Here, we explore the potential of utilizing the abundance of pH data from historical water quality monitoring programs to fill the data void via a case study of the mainstem Chesapeake Bay (eastern United States). We calculate p CO₂ and the air‐water CO₂ flux at monthly resolution from 1998 to …

Associated Dataset: Relative Impacts Of Global Changes And Regional Watershed Changes On The Inorganic Carbon Balance Of The Chesapeake Bay, Pierre St-Laurent, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs

Data

The dataset is a permanent archive of the results presented in the associated publication (St-Laurent et al. 2020, Biogeosciences).

This study used a biogeochemical module embedded in the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) to examine the relative impacts of global changes and regional watershed changes on the inorganic carbon balance of the Chesapeake Bay over the past century. The numerical experiments contrast the periods 1900-1914 and 2000-2014 and the results are fully described in the associated publication.

Zooplankton Diel Vertical Migration During Antarctic Summer, John A. Conroy, Deborah K. Steinberg, Patrica S. Thibodeau, Oscar Schofield

VIMS Articles

Zooplankton diel vertical migration (DVM) during summer in the polar oceans is presumed to be dampened due to near continuous daylight. We analyzed zooplankton diel vertical distribution patterns in a wide range of taxa along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) to assess if DVM occurs, and if so, what environmental controls modulate DVM in the austral summer. Zooplankton were collected during January and February in paired day-night, depth-stratified tows through the mesopelagic zone along the WAP from 2009-2017, as well as in day and night epipelagic net tows from 1993-2017. The copepod Metridia gerlachei, salp Salpa thompsoni, pteropod …

Constraining An Ocean Model Under Getz Ice Shelf, Antarctica, Using A Gravity‐Derived Bathymetry, Romain Millan, Pierre St-Laurent, Eric Rignot, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Getz Ice Shelf, the largest producer of ice shelf meltwater in Antarctica, buttresses glaciers that hold enough ice to raise sea level by 22 cm. We present a new bathymetry of its sub‐ice shelf cavity using a three‐dimensional inversion of airborne gravity data constrained by multibeam bathymetry at sea and a reconstruction of the bedrock from mass conservation on land. The new bathymetry is deeper than previously estimated with differences exceeding 500 m in a number of regions. When incorporated into an ocean model, it yields a better description of the spatial distribution of ice shelf melt, specifically along glacier …

The Impact Of Winter Storms On Sediment Transport Through A Narrow Strait, Bohai, China, Chenghao Wang, Zhiqiang Liu, Courtney K. Harris, Et Al

VIMS Articles

The Yellow River is one of the most significant sources of terrestrial sediment to the global seas, and the Bohai Strait is the only pathway that delivers Yellow River‐derived sediments from the shallow Bohai Sea to the Yellow Sea. To investigate sediment transport processes through the strait under the influence of storms (strong northerly winds) that frequently occur in winter, we deployed two sets of observing platforms equipped with Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) and a suite of other sensors in the strait in January 2018. Aided by a system of high‐resolution models, we reconstructed sediment dynamics in response to …

Vims 2019 York River Estuary Data In Support Of: Improved Penetrometer Performance In Stratified Sediment For Cost-Effective Characterization, Monitoring And Management Of Submerged Munitions Sites (Serdp Project: Mr18-1233), Grace M. Massey, Cristin L. Wright, Carl T. Friedrichs, Nina Stark, Dennis Kiptoo

Data

This work complements the efforts by the Virginia Tech Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering in SERDP MR18-1233, as described in the project’s final report (Stark et al, 2020) and in the Master’s thesis by Dennis Kiptoo (Kiptoo, 2020). One of the objectives of the project was to improve calibration of the Bluedrop free fall penetrometer (FFP) with high resolution sampling of a variety of sediment types. To accomplish this, a series of 9 stations over 12 cruises were visited along the York River, an estuary in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay, and in the Pamunkey River, which …

Providential Tides: The Double Low Water Of Narragansett Bay, D. G. Bowers, J. M. Brubaker

VIMS Articles

We investigate a mechanism for producing double-lows and double-highs in the semi-diurnal tide by selective amplification of higher harmonics in a resonant gulf. A double low water is observed at Providence, RI, near the head of Narragansett Bay on days when there is a flattening of the low water tidal curve at Newport, at the mouth of the bay. The flattening is caused by an unusually large quarter-diurnal component to the tide at Newport. The quarter diurnal component has the right phase (a maximum close to the time of the minimum in the semi-diurnal tide) to produce a prolonged flattening …

Vims 2019 Potomac River Estuary Data In Support Of: Improved Penetrometer Performance In Stratified Sediment For Cost-Effective Characterization, Monitoring And Management Of Submerged Munitions Sites (Serdp Project: Mr18-1233), Grace M. Massey, Cristin L. Wright, Carl T. Friedrichs, Nina Stark, Dennis Kiptoo

Data

This work complements the efforts by the Virginia Tech Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering in SERDP MR18-1233, as described in the project’s final report (Stark et al, 2020) and in the Master’s thesis by Dennis Kiptoo (Kiptoo, 2020). Previous work on this project, conducted in the York River during 2018-2918 worked to improve calibration of the Bluedrop free fall penetrometer (FFP) with high resolution sampling of a variety of sediment types (Massey et al, 2020a). Calibration methods developed (Kiptoo, 2020) were used to rapidly identify different sediment types from a grid of 59 Bluedrop PPF stations sampled on the …

Massive Pollutants Released To Galveston Bay During Hurricane Harvey: Understanding Their Retention And Pathway Using Lagrangian Numerical Simulations, Jiabi Du, Kyeong Park, Xin Yu, Yinglong J. Zhang, Fei Ye

VIMS Articles

Increasing frequency of extreme precipitation events under the future warming climate makes the storm-related pollutant release more and more threatening to coastal ecosystems. Hurricane Harvey, a 1000-year extreme precipitation event, caused massive pollutant release from the Houston metropolitan area to the adjacent Galveston Bay. 0.57 × 10⁶ tons of raw sewage and 22,000 barrels of oil, refined fuels and chemicals were reportly released during Harvey, which would likely deteriorate the water quality and damage the coastal ecosystem. Using a Lagrangian particle-tracking method coupled with a validated 3D hydrodynamic model, we examined the retention, pathway, and fate of the released …

Response Of Stratification Processes To Tidal Current Alteration Due To Channel Narrowing And Deepening, Lei Zhu, Qing He, Jian Shen

VIMS Articles

Stratification in estuaries has received much focus due to its importance in estuarine hydrodynamics and material transport. By utilizing a well‐calibrated numerical model, in this work we investigate the changes in stratification in the deepened and narrowed North Passage of the Changjiang Estuary. Before channel narrowing and deepening, lateral straining, generated by the interaction between vertical shear in lateral flow and transverse salinity gradient, is the dominant factor that controls stratification. A two‐layer structure of the lateral flow strains the isopycnal transversely, resulting in rapid stratification from late flood to early ebb tide. Thus, maximum stratification occurs during the early …

Seasonal Variability Of The Co2 System In A Large Coastal Plain Estuary, Jaclyn R. Friedman, Elizabeth H. Shadwick, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Raymond G. Najjar, Olivia A. De Meo, Fei Da, Juliette L. Smith

VIMS Articles

The Chesapeake Bay, a large coastal plain estuary, has been studied extensively in terms of its water quality, and yet, comparatively less is known about its carbonate system. Here we present discrete observations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity from four seasonal cruises in 2016–2017. These new observations are used to characterize the regional CO₂ system and to construct a DIC budget of the mainstem. In all seasons, elevated DIC concentrations were observed at the mouth of the bay associated with inflowing Atlantic Ocean waters, while minimum concentrations of DIC were associated with fresher waters at the …

Saildrone: Adaptively Sampling The Marine Environment, C. L. Gentemann, Joel P. Scott, Piero L. F. Mazzini, Cassia Pianca, Et Al

VIMS Articles

From 11 April to 11 June 2018 a new type of ocean observing platform, the Saildrone surface vehicle, collected data on a round-trip, 60-day cruise from San Francisco Bay, down the U.S. and Mexican coast to Guadalupe Island. The cruise track was selected to optimize the science team’s validation and science objectives. The validation objectives include establishing the accuracy of these new measurements. The scientific objectives include validation of satellite-derived fluxes, sea surface temperatures, and wind vectors and studies of upwelling dynamics, river plumes, air–sea interactions including frontal regions, and diurnal warming regions. On this deployment, the Saildrone carried 16 …

2020 Wachapreague Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

2020 Gloucester Point Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

2020 Hampton Roads Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

2020 Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

Co2-System Observations From A Mooring On The West Antarctic Peninsula Continental Shelf, Elizabeth H. Shadwick, Olivia A. De Meo

Data

These are CO₂-system data from a mooring deployed on the continental shelf of the West Antarctic Peninsula (latitude: 66.5S, longitude: 69.9W), at station 300.100 of the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (PAL-LTER) sampling grid (https://pal.lternet.edu). Temperature, salinity, and pH were acquired by using an SBE SeapHOx sensor ~18m below the surface with 3-hourly resolution from January 2018 to January 2019. Sensor data were averaged to 24-hour resolution. The salinity sensor failed in May 2018, and mean value between the start of the deployment and the last observation is used to populate the remainder of the record. The pH data …

Feeding Time: How Nutrients Drive Phytoplankton Growth, Brianna Stanley

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Biology | Environmental Science | Oceanography

This lesson plan helps students make the connection between the amount of nutrients present in an ecosystem and the resulting growth of phytoplankton in our coastal waters. This lesson takes this concept a step deeper, by exploring how the proportions of nitrogen and phosphorus in the environment create the ideal conditions for phytoplankton growth. Students will explore the concept of limiting factors and will work on both their graphing skills and their ability to compare ratios.