Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Quantifying Current Soil Brine Contamination Within The Smackover Oil Field In Arkansas Using Multispectral Digital Imagery, Victoria Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A remote sensing study was performed to quantify current soil brine contamination across the historic Smackover Oil Field in south-central Arkansas, United States. The oil field was established in 1922 and was not subject to the future waste regulations created by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission. Brine is a waste product of oil manufacturing which contains water with high salt levels. The storage and transport of brine in the oil field created landscape scarring across the study area.

Landsat 9 multispectral digital imagery was utilized to create supervised classification maps based on earthen pits and creek scarring across the …

Soil Salinity And Sodicity Of Galveston And Pelican Islands, Texas, Rachel Murray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Galveston Island, Texas, is frequently affected by hurricanes. In 2008, Hurricane Ike inundated much of the island with seawater, causing elevated soil salinity levels that killed much of the vegetation on the island, including tens of thousands of trees. Residual salinity in soils and groundwater has hampered vegetation re-establishment in some areas.

This project aims to create a map product that displays the current soil salinity and sodicity levels on Galveston and Pelican Islands. The existing USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Galveston County Soil Survey map units were used as a base for the project. ArcGIS Desktop software was …

A Comparative Assessment Of Soil Characteristics Between Forests And Urban Lawns, Remigio Casanova, Stephanie Huerta, Lukia Kalugin, Garrison Layne, Valerie Pacheco

Undergraduate Research Conference

Objectives

• Examine the differences in soil characteristics between a recreational lawn and a forest

• Make comparisons between a forest and lawn sampling area from a visual standpoint to observe a difference in what vegetation the soil supports.

• Collect data through on on-site and in in-laboratory methods.

• Interpret the results by examining the collected data and looking for patterns.

Soil Gypsum Content Analysis Of The Proposed Road Route Extension Of Fm 2185 In The Gypsum Plain, Culberson County, Texas, Chikaodili Ohakawa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soils serve as the underlying substrate on which foundations for most structures are built. The properties of a soil type are therefore an important consideration in building engineered structures. Gypsic soils are problematic for construction of such structures. One of the main problems with gypsic soils is dissolution. Gypsum (CaSO₄·2H₂O) in soils dissolves easily creating voids which can be detrimental to the integrity of engineering structures. To mitigate this, it is important to determine the amount of gypsum present in soils, before construction is initiated.

In this study, three methods were employed in the determination of …

The Effects Of Prescribed Burning On Soil Water Infiltration Rates And Other Select Soil Physical And Chemical Properties In East Texas, Cassady Pennington Dunson, Brian P. Oswald, Kenneth Farrish, Tyson Hart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on whether prescribed burning affects soil physical and chemical properties, especially water infiltration, in Western Gulf Coast forests. Soil water infiltration rates were measured 1) pre-burn (before the fire), 2) post-burn (one month after the fire), and 3) at vegetation green-up (three months after the fire). Soil samples were also collected to determine the effects of prescribed burning on soil pH, bulk density, particle density, pore space, soil strength, O-horizon weight and depth (organic matter), water stable aggregates, and soil fertility. This project was conducted on two different burn intervals. The National Forests and Grasslands of Texas …

Correlates Of Snake Entanglement In Erosion Control Blankets, Sarah E. Ebert, Kasey L. Jobe, Christopher M. Schalk, Daniel Saenz, Cory K. Adams, Christopher E. Comer

Faculty Publications

In road construction projects across the United States, erosion control methods (e.g., erosion control blankets [ECBs]), are mandated to stimulate seedbed regeneration and prevent soil loss. Previous reports have suggested that snakes are vulnerable to entanglement in ECBs. We conducted a literature review, field surveys, and an entanglement experiment to examine what factors increase a snake’s risk of ECB entanglement. Our literature review produced reports of 175 reptiles entangled in mesh products, 89.1% of which were snakes, with 43.6% of snake entanglements occurring in erosion control products. During our field surveys, we found 10 entangled snakes (n = 2 alive; …

Physical And Chemical Controls On Suffosion Development In Gypsic Soil, Culberson County, Texas, Jonah Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the Gypsum Plain, suffosion processes have encouraged road failure through dissolution and transport of gypsic soils; however, no prior research has been conducted within the Delaware Basin in regard to these processes. These phenomena were evaluated in both field and laboratory settings in order to assess the parameters of suffosion development associated with Ranch to Market (RM) 652 in Culberson County, Texas, where infrastructure extends across Castile and Rustler strata. Field studies simulated surficial ponding in various gypsic soils and correlated suffosion potential with soil composition and thickness. Soluble fractions of gypsic soils were delineated through geochemical analyses, further …

Geophysical Delineation Of Megaporosity And Fluid Migration Pathways For Geohazard Characterization Within The Delaware Basin, Culberson County, Texas, Jonathan David Woodard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Differential dissolution of gypsum karst within the Delaware Basin poses a significant threat to infrastructure that society depends on. The study area is located in Culberson County, Texas and traverses a distance of approximately 54 kilometers along RM 652 within the Gypsum Plain which is situated on the northern margin of the Chihuahua Desert and includes outcrops of Castile and Rustler strata that host karst geohazards. Regions of karst geohazard potential have been physically surveyed proximal to the study area in evaporites throughout the Castile Formation outcrop; minimal hazards, in comparison to the Castile Formation, have been documented in …

Predicting Post-Fire Change In West Virginia, Usa From Remotely-Sensed Data, Michael Strager P. Strager, Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, Aaron E. Maxwell

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Prescribed burning is used in West Virginia, USA to return the important disturbance process of fire to oak and oak-pine forests. Species composition and structure are often the main goals for re-establishing fire with less emphasis on fuel reduction or reducing catastrophic wildfire. In planning prescribed fires land managers could benefit from the ability to predict mortality to overstory trees. In this study, wildfires and prescribed fires in West Virginia were examined to determine if specific landscape and terrain characteristics were associated with patches of high/moderate post-fire change. Using the ensemble machine learning approach of Random Forest, we determined that …

Cone In Cone Concretions Of The Stanley Group In Southeastern Oklahoma, Kyle B. Ayres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cone in cone concretions found in the Stanley Group of Southeastern Oklahoma have a variety of external and internal attributes which allow diagenetic and theoretical models of formation to be hypothesized. Stanley Group carbonate cone in cone concretions are initially formed in sulfur reducing horizons at shallow burial depths in a poorly circulated possibly deep trough containing siliceous sediments and organic matter. Collected concretions near the town of Smithville, Oklahoma displayed four different external morphologies and four variations of mineral constituents. All concretions contained microscopic cones which initiated diffusion and/or fluid patterns and is an early cementation process that directly …

Spatial Analysis Of Forest Crimes In Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, Karun Pandit, Eddie Bevilacqua, Giorgos Mountrakis, Robert W. Malmsheimer

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Forest crime mitigation has been identified as a challenging issue in forest management in the United States. Knowledge of the spatial pattern of forest crimes would help in wisely allocating limited enforcement resources to curb forest crimes. This study explores the spatial pattern of three different types of forest crimes: fire crime, illegal timber logging crime, and occupancy use crime in the Salem-Patosi Ranger District of Mark Twain National Forest. Univariate and bivariate Ripley’s K-functions were applied to explore the spatial patterns in crime events, like clustering and attraction among forest crime types. Results reveal significant clustering for each forest …

Comparison Of Terrain Indices And Landform Classification Procedures In Low-Relief Agricultural Fields, Derek A. Evans, Karl W. J. Williard, Jon E. Schoonover

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Landforms control the spatial distribution of numerous factors associated with agronomy and water quality. Although curvature and slope are the fundamental surface derivatives used in landform classification procedures, methodologies for landform classifications have been performed with other terrain indices including the topographic position index (TPI) and the convergence index (CI). The objectives of this study are to compare plan curvature, the convergence index, profile curvature, and the topographic position index at various scales to determine which better identifies the spatial variability of soil phosphorus (P) within three low relief agricultural fields in central Illinois and to compare how two methods …

Discordant Data And Interpretation Of Results From Wildlife Habitat Models, Anita T. Morzillo, Michael G. Wing, Justin Long

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Wildlife habitat management is an important part of natural resource management. As a result, there are a large number of models and tools for wildlife habitat assessment. A consequence of the many assessment tools is inconsistency when comparing results between tools, which may lead to potential confusion management decisions. Our objective was to compare results from two wildlife habitat models – one being relatively coarse (HUC5) scale and not spatially dynamic and the other being finer scale spatial data based on a 30 m spatial resolution –for habitat assessment of three species across the West Cascades of Oregon: Northern spotted …

Ceramic Petrofacies: Modeling The Angelina River Basin In East Texas, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

Ceramic provenance studies remain the basis of worldwide archaeological research concerned with reconstructing exchange networks, tracing migrations, and informing upon ceramic economy. Unfortunately, Texas archaeologists have been plagued with an inability to trace ceramic production sources to the same extent as researchers within other regions. Ceramic petrofacies models have been employed successfully in archaeological contexts at the San Pedro Valley, Tonto basin, Tucson basin, Agua Fria, and Gila and Phoenix basins in Arizona, but have not yet been employed east of Arizona. Data resulting from the construction of an actualistic petrofacies model in the prehistoric coastal environment of East Texas …

Gis Aided Archaeological Research Of El Camino Real De Los Tejas With Focus On The Landscape And River Crossings Along El Camino Carretera., Jeffrey M. Williams

Faculty Publications

Many generations of indigenous pathways through the forests of eastern Texas have their origins obscured in antiquity. Utilized by early European explorers, these pathways became modified through heavy use and the expansions and improvements needed to accommodate easy passage of European horses and carts and finally the heavy wagons of Anglo-American settlers. The first road through Texas, El Camino Real de Los Tejas, utilized portions of these early trails.

El Camino Carretera (known as the cart road) is an early segment of El Camino Real de los Tejas that crossed the Sabine River at the boundary between Texas and Louisiana. …

Soil Leachate Responses During 10 Years Of Induced Whole-Watershed Acidification, Pamela J. Edwards, James N. Kochenderfer, Dean W. Coble, Mary Beth Adams

Faculty Publications

Soil solution was collected from zero-tension lysimeters for 10 yr on two small central Appalachian watersheds in West Virginia, U.S.A. Ammonium sulfate fertilizer was applied to one catchment 3 times per year during each year. The other watershed was used as a reference to account for ambient baseline conditions. Ca and Mg concentrations collected below the A- and B-horizons of the treated watershed increased and then decreased over time as a result of the treatment. By contrast, Ca and Mg concentrations in the C-horizon continued to increase throughout the study period.