Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Itr/Im: Enabling The Creation And Use Of Geogrids For Next Generation Geospatial Information, Peggy Agouris, Mary-Kate Beard-Tisdale, Chaitanya Baru, Sarah Nusser

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The objective of this project is to advance science in information management, focusing in particular on geospatial information. It addresses the development of concepts, algorithms, and system architectures to enable users on a grid to query, analyze, and contribute to multivariate, quality-aware geospatial information. The approach consists of three complementary research areas: (1) establishing a statistical framework for assessing geospatial data quality; (2) developing uncertainty-based query processing capabilities; and (3) supporting the development of space- and accuracy-aware adaptive systems for geospatial datasets. The results of this project will support the extension of the concept of the computational grid to facilitate …

Information And Data Management Program's Pi Workshop, Peggy Agouris

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The objective of this workshop is to bring together the PIs and Co-PIs currently funded by the Information and Data Management Program of the National Science Foundation to discuss and exchange ideas on the focus topics of their field, as well as to identify and elaborate on emerging themes and particular emphases for future activities.

More specifically, the researchers, along with selected industry and government invitees, cooperatively focused on:

(1) analyzing research and development issues fundamental in making progress towards new challenges imposed by such diverse data sources as the Internet, embedded and distributed sensors, and satellites;

(2) specifying areas …

Information And Data Management Program's Pi Workshop, Peggy Agouris

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The objective of this workshop is to bring together the PIs and Co-PIs currently funded by the Information and Data Management Program of the National Science Foundation to discuss and exchange ideas on the focus topics of their field, as well as to identify and elaborate on emerging themes and particular emphases for future activities.

More specifically, the researchers, along with selected industry and government invitees, cooperatively focused on:

(1) analyzing research and development issues fundamental in making progress towards new challenges imposed by such diverse data sources as the Internet, embedded and distributed sensors, and satellites;

(2) specifying areas …

Linking Bioturbation And Sensory Biology: Chemoreception Mechanisms In Deposit-Feeding Polychaetes, Sara M. Lindsay, Paul Rawson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Soft-sediment benthic habitats are ubiquitous in the marine environment and typically feature macrofaunal assemblages that include large numbers of deposit-feeding invertebrates such as polychaetes, bivalves, gastropods, crustaceans, holothurians, and hemichordates. Via their feeding, modulated in part by chemoreception, these organisms have profound effects on the ecology, biology, geology, and chemistry of their habitats. Very little is known, however, concerning the physiology and molecular biology of chemoreception in deposit feeders.

This research is a comprehensive investigation of the sensory mechanisms coordinating chemoreception in deposit feeding spionid polychaetes. It directly addresses this lack of information and will therefore have a significant impact …

The Aeolian Flux Of Calcium, Chloride And Nitrate To The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys Landscape: Evidence From Snow Pit Analysis, Rebecca A. Witherow, W. Berry Lyons, Nancy A.N. Bertler, Kathleen A. Welch, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Sharon B. Sneed, Thomas Nylen, Michael J. Handley, Andrew Fountain

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

We have determined the flux of calcium, chloride and nitrate to the McMurdo Dry Valleys region by analysing snow pits for their chemical composition and their snow accumulation using multiple records spanning up to 48 years. The fluxes demonstrate patterns related to elevation and proximity to the ocean. In general, there is a strong relationship between the nitrate flux and snow accumulation, indicating that precipitation rates may have a great influence over the nitrogen concentrations in the soils of the valleys. Aeolian dust transport plays an important role in the deposition of some elements (e.g. C(2+)) into the McMurdo Dry …

The Effects Of Joint Enso-Antarctic Oscillation Forcing On The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, Nancy A.N. Bertler, T. R. Naish, H. Oerter, S. Kipfstuhl, P. J. Barrett, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Karl J. Kreutz

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Stable oxygen analyses and snow accumulation rates from snow pits sampled in the McMurdo Dry Valleys have been used to reconstruct variations in summer temperature and moisture availability over the last four decades. The temperature data show a common interannual variability, with strong regional warmings occurring especially in 1984/85, 1995/96 and 1990/91 and profound coolings during 1977/78, 1983/84, 1988/89, 1993/94, and 1996/97. Annual snow accumulation shows a larger variance between sites, but the early 1970s, 1984, 1997, and to a lesser degree 1990/91 are characterized overall by wetter conditions, while the early and late 1980s show low snow accumulation values. …

Satellite Remote Sensing Of Glaciers And Ice Caps In Svalbard, Eurasian High Arctic, Gordon S. Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Recent compilations of climate-related observations show that important changes are now underway in the High Arctic, probably as a response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions over the last approximately 250 years. These changes include warming of the troposphere, reductions in sea ice cover, decreases in snow cover area, warming of tundra permafrost, and negative mass balances of glaciers and ice caps. In many instances, observations of change are relatively short in duration or sparse in spatial extent. The Principal Investigators will study glacier and ice cap variations over the approximately last 80 years and at a large scale on Svalbard. …

U.S.-Japan-Hong Kong Planning Visit: Long Term Collaborative Research Studying Fe Effects On Ecosystem Structure In The Subarctic Pacific, Mark L. Wells

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a short-term U.S-Japan-Hong Kong Planning Visit in preparation for a long-term collaborative research project studying Fe effects on ecosystem structure in the Sub arctic Pacific. The collaborators are Professor Mark Wells at the University of Maine and Professor Shigenobu Takeda at the University of Tokyo in Japan and Professor Paul Harrison at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Virtually the entire Sub arctic Pacific to the Aleutian Islands is a High Nitrate Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) region, characterized by persistently elevated concentrations of macronutrients throughout the year. Independent studies have demonstrated that a shortage of the …

Collaborative Research: The Tectonothermal Evolution Of A Convergent Orogen, Scott E. Johnson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Understanding of orogenesis and its relations to mantle convection and plate tectonics relies on integrated studies of the interrelations among processes of deformation, metamorphism and magmatism. A well preserved portion of the northern Appalachian orogen is providing an outstanding laboratory for a truly integrative study of the evolution of mid-crustal processes that strongly influence orogenesis. This project is employing structural, microstructural, petrologic and thermobarometric analyses, and chemical and isotopic dating, to temporally and spatially link deformation, metamorphism and magmatism during the progressive growth of this orogenic belt. This information is being used to set constraints and boundary conditions on coupled, …

An Aquaculture-Based Method For Calibrated Bivalve Isotope Paleothermometry, Alan D. Wanamaker Jr., Karl J. Kreutz, Harold W. Borns Jr., Douglas S. Introne, Scott Feindel, Bruce J. Barber

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

To quantify species- specific relationships between bivalve carbonate isotope geochemistry ( delta O-18(c)) and water conditions ( temperature and salinity, related to water isotopic composition [delta O-18(w)]), an aquaculture-based methodology was developed and applied to Mytilus edulis ( blue mussel). The four- by- three factorial design consisted of four circulating temperature baths ( 7, 11, 15, and 19 degrees C) and three salinity ranges ( 23, 28, and 32 parts per thousand ( ppt); monitored for delta O-18(w) weekly). In mid- July of 2003, 4800 juvenile mussels were collected in Salt Bay, Damariscotta, Maine, and were placed in each configuration. …

Collaborative Research: Millennial-Scale Fluctuations Of Dry Valleys Lakes: Implications For Regional Climate Variability And The Interhemispheric (A)Synchrony Of Climate Change, Brenda Hall, Glenn Berger

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to add to the understanding of what drives glacial cycles. Most researchers agree that Milankovitch seasonal forcing paces the ice ages but how these insolation changes are leveraged into abrupt global climate change remains unknown. A current popular view is that the climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean leads that of the rest of the world by a couple thousand years at Termination I and by even greater margins during previous terminations. This project will integrate the geomorphological record of glacial history with a series of cores taken from the lake bottoms in the …

Calving Giant Icebergs: Old Principles, New Applications, James P. Kenneally, Terence J. Huges

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Earth-orbiting satellites can now monitor calving of large icebergs from ice shelves bordering the marine West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and recent calving events have stimulated interest in calving mechanisms. To advance this interest pioneering work in brittle and ductile fracture mechanics is reviewed, leading to a new application to calving of giant icebergs from Antarctic ice shelves. The aim is to view iceberg calving as more than terminal events for Antarctic ice when glaciologists lose interest. Instead calving launches Antarctic ice into the larger dynamic system of Earth's climate machine. This encourages a holistic approach to glaciology.

Phytoplankton In The Damariscotta River Estuary, Brian Thompson, Mary Jane Perry, Christopher V. Davis

Maine Sea Grant Publications

This research project examined the distribution of phytoplankton in the Damariscotta River, as well as environmental factors, such as nutrients, light, and physical conditions, in order to assess the estuary’s ability to sustain additional farms.

Mt. Piscgah Community Conservation Area Management Plan, Winthrop Conservation Commission, Kennebec Land Trust

Maine Town Documents

The 94-acre Mt. Pisgah Community Conservation Area was established in 2003 when the Maine Forest Service granted a conservation easement to the Kennebec Land Trust and then sold the property to the Town of Winthrop. The successful protection of the Mt Pisgah tower property culminated a community-wide effort to conserve the area for outdoor recreation, water quality protection, and continued access to the lookout tower.

Antarctic Temperatures Over The Past Two Centuries From Ice Cores, David P. Schneider, Eric J. Steig, Tas D. Van Ommen, Daniel A. Dixon, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Julie M. Jones, Cecilia M. Bitz

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

We present a reconstruction of Antarctic mean surface temperatures over the past two centuries based on water stable isotope records from high-resolution, precisely dated ice cores. Both instrumental and reconstructed temperatures indicate large interannual to decadal scale variability, with the dominant pattern being anti-phase anomalies between the main Antarctic continent and the Antarctic Peninsula region. Comparative analysis of the instrumental Southern Hemisphere (SH) mean temperature record and the reconstruction suggests that at longer timescales, temperatures over the Antarctic continent vary in phase with the SH mean. Our reconstruction suggests that Antarctic temperatures have increased by about 0.2 degrees C since …

Ice Core Evidence For A Second Volcanic Eruption Around 1809 In The Northern Hemisphere, Kaplan Yalcin, Cameron P. Wake, Karl J. Kreutz, Mark S. Germani, Sallie I. Whitlow

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

A volcanic signal observed in ice cores from both polar regions six years prior to Tambora is attributed to an unknown tropical eruption in 1809. Recovery of dacitic tephra from the 1809 horizon in a Yukon ice core ( Eclipse) that is chemically distinct from andesitic 1809 tephra found in Antarctic ice cores indicates a second eruption in the Northern Hemisphere at this time. Together with the similar magnitude and timing of the 1809 volcanic signal in the Arctic and Antarctic, this could suggest a large tropical eruption produced the sulfate and Antarctic tephra and a minor Northern Hemisphere eruption …

Collaborative Research: Agulhas-South Atlantic Thermohaline Transport Experiment (Asttex), Deirdre A. Byrne

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

A field experiment is proposed, which will provide multi-year time series of salt, heat, and mass transports from the Agulhas retroflection region into the South Atlantic subtropical gyre. The program will deploy inverted echo sounders, both with and without pressure sensors and near-bottom current meters. The in situ data will be complemented with satellite data, both SST and altimetry. Historical data will also be included in the data analysis. The success of the program is based substantially on a new technique, GEM-ETTA, for analyzing IES (inverted echo sounder) and PIES (pressure and inverted echo sounder) data. Analysis of the field …

Collaborative Research: Biogeochemical Modeling Of Carbon Partitioning In The Pacific: The Role Of Si And Fe In Regulating Production By Siliceous And Calcifying Phytoplankton, Fei Chai

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Physical and biological interactions play a complex role in the partitioning of carbon between the atmosphere, upper ocean, deep ocean and sediments. At present, interdisciplinary models offer the best means to test hypotheses about how carbon partitioning is regulated in various oceanic regions on time scales of years to centuries. A new interdisciplinary model will integrate advances in several areas to test two related hypotheses: 1) that switches in community and productivity dominance between diatoms and other phytoplankton groups (e.g. non?siliceous picoplankton and calcifying phytoplankton) significantly affect carbon partitioning, vary spatially and temporally and are regulated by a combination of …

Collaborative Research: Globec-01: Tidal Front Mixing And Exchange On Georges Bank: Controls On The Production Of Phytoplankton, Zooplankton, And Larval Fishes, David W. Townsend, Robert Houghton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Georges Bank supports a rich fishery because: (1) large portions of the bank are shallow enough that light-limitation of phytoplankton is usually not important; (2) deep waters rich in inorganic nutrients are available for mixing onto the bank; and (3) the Bank's clockwise circulation can retain the planktonic stages of important fish species. The tidally mixed front (TMF) is central to the productivity of Georges Bank through the processes of nutrient injection in the north and retention of larvae on the south flank. These two regions are connected by a circulation pathway along the front in which nutrients lead to …

Collaborative Research: A Glaciochemical Record Of Natural And Anthropengic Environmental Change In The Northwestern North American Arctic, Karl J. Kreutz

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This is a collaborative proposal between the Universities of New Hampshire and Maine and the Geological Survey of Canada. This Office of International Science and Engineering is contributing to this award. The Principal Investigators will recover two ice cores the Eclipse Icefield (3100 meters) in the St. Elias
Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada in cooperation with the Geological Survey of Canada in 2002. The core will be analyzed for stable isotopes, major ions, trace elements, rare earth elements and persistent organic pollutants. The Eclipse record will provide, for the first time, detailed depositional histories of a wide variety of pollutants during …

The 1452 Or 1453 A.D. Kuwae Eruption Signal Derived From Multiple Ice Core Records: Greatest Volcanic Sulfate Event Of The Past 700 Years, Chaochao Gao, Alan Robock, Stephen Self, Jeffrey B. Witter, J. P. Steffenson, Henrik Brink Clausen, Marie-Louise Siggard-Andersen, Sigfus Johnson, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Caspar Ammann

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

We combined 33 ice core records, 13 from the Northern Hemisphere and 20 from the Southern Hemisphere, to determine the timing and magnitude of the great Kuwae eruption in the mid-15th century. We extracted volcanic deposition signals by applying a high-pass loess filter to the time series and examining peaks that exceed twice the 31 year running median absolute deviation. By accounting for the dating uncertainties associated with each record, these ice core records together reveal a large volcanogenic acid deposition event during 1453 - 1457 A. D. The results suggest only one major stratospheric injection from the Kuwae eruption …

A 12,000 Year Record Of Explosive Volcanism In The Siple Dome Ice Core, West Antarctica, Andrei V. Kurbatov, G. A. Zelinski, N. W. Dunbar, Paul Andrew Mayewski, E. A. Meyerson, Sharon B. Sneed, K. C. Taylor

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Air mass trajectories in the Southern Hemisphere provide a mechanism for transport to and deposition of volcanic products on the Antarctic ice sheet from local volcanoes and from tropical and subtropical volcanic centers. This study extends the detailed record of Antarctic, South American, and equatorial volcanism over the last 12,000 years using continuous glaciochemical series developed from the Siple Dome A (SDMA) ice core, West Antarctica. The largest volcanic sulfate spike ( 280 mu g/L) occurs at 5881 B. C. E. Other large signals with unknown sources are observed around 325 B. C. E. ( 270 mu g/L) and 2818 …

Collaborative Research: A 700-Year Tephrochronology Of The Law Dome Ice Core, East Antarctica, Gregory A. Zielinski

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to analyze samples from the Law Dome ice core for volcanic tephra. The Law Dome ice core is the best-dated ice core from East Antarctica and contains a detailed record of climate and atmospheric chemistry over at least the last 700 years. Several global volcanic eruptions appear to be recorded in the Law Dome core, including the well known Tambora 1815 and Unknown 1809 events, as well as the Huaynaputina 1600 and Ruiz 1595 events. To verify the source eruptions responsible for these signals, as well as to differentiate between local Antarctic and southern hemisphere …

Numerical Facility In Geodynamics, Peter O. Koons, Scott Johnson, Phaedra Upton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Support from this grant will contribute to the construction of a numerical facility for Geodynamical Modeling at the University of Maine to investigate mechanical and thermal problems arising in lithosphere and mantle deformation. Specifically, the PI's will examine the degree of coupling among atmospheric and tectonic processes through construction of three-dimensional models conditioned by observations from the active tectonic regions of eastern Tibet, New Zealand and southeast Alaska. In related research, the PI's are examining the necessary conditions for formation and exhumation of ultra-high pressure metamorphism terrains during plate convergence. The overriding objective of the numerical facility is to provide …

Governance And The Capacity To Manage Resilience In Regional Social-Ecological Systems, Louis Lebel, John M. Anderies, Bruce Campbell, Carl Folke, Steve Hatfield-Dodds, Terence P. Hughes, James Wilson

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

The sustainability of regional development can be usefully explored through several different lenses. In situations in which uncertainties and change are key features of the ecological landscape and social organization, critical factors for sustainability are resilience, the capacity to cope and adapt, and the conservation of sources of innovation and renewal. However, interventions in social-ecological systems with the aim of altering resilience immediately confront issues of governance. Who decides what should be made resilient to what? For whom is resilience to be managed, and for what purpose? In this paper we draw on the insights from a diverse set of …

Highly Detailed Reconstructions Of New England Weather Over The Past Few Centuries And Their Climatic Implications, Gregory A. Zielinski

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award will enable researchers to reconstruct daily weather conditions for New England over the past 300 years by compiling and analyzing written archives such as diaries, journals, agricultural records, and marine logs. These archives will be used to reconstruct daily weather maps that will be compared with recent climatic conditions. New England has a large number of lengthy weather archives and is a region sensitive to changing climatic conditions. The region is influenced by storm tracks and upper-air disturbances that impact the Canadian High, Icelandic Low and the Bermuda-Azores High from year-to-year.

Obtaining highly detailed and lengthy records of …

Ambassadors Of The Bay: 2005 Final Report, Maine Sea Grant College Program

Maine Sea Grant Publications

The MDI Water Quality Coalition has been working with citizens on water quality related projects in Frenchman Bay since 1997. Over the last decade, many issues of concern to the residents and users of the bay have come up. These issues include polluted runoff from paved streets and parking lots, increasing development in the upper reaches of coastal watersheds as well as right on the shoreline, nutrient enrichment of bays, over harvesting of marine resources, shifting of mussel harvesting techniques to aquaculture, building of piers, increasing visitation by cruise ships, contamination of swim areas, declining eelgrass populations, shoreline erosion, and …

A New Mt. Logan Ice Core Record - Change In Climate And Chemistry Of The Atmosphere For The North Pacific, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Gregory Zielinski, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Mt. Logan, in the St. Elias Range, southeast Alaska, offers a unique opportunity for monitoring climate change and change in the atmospheric chemistry of the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific. In 1980, a 103-meter (M) ice core was recovered from Mt. Logan which spanned AD 1689-1980. It revealed well-defined annual layers, calibrated through the identification of radioactive bomb and volcanic horizons, allowing continuous, sub-seasonal sampling for stable isotopes and ion chemistry. The -29 degree C mean annual temperature at the site assures that the soluble, insoluble, and isotopic components of the core are well preserved.

In 2001 and …

Glaciology Of Blue Ice Areas In Antarctica, Gordon Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

A 'horizontal ice core' was collected at the Mount Moulton blue ice field in West Antarctica and preliminary analyses of the sample material suggests that a ~500 kyr climate record is preserved in the ice at this site. This award will contribute to the understanding of the Mt Moulton record by assessing the potential for ice-flow induced deformation of the stratigraphic profile. In addition, this award builds on the recognition of blue ice areas as archives of long climate records by conducting reconnaissance studies for a potential horizontal ice core location at the Allan Hills in East Antarctica. The objectives …

Calibrated Near-Forward Volume Scattering Function Obtained From The Lisst Particle Sizer, Wayne H. Slade, Emmanuel S. Boss

Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The physical nature of particles, such as size, shape, and composition govern their angular light scattering, which is described by the volume scattering function (VSF). Despite the fact that the VSF is one of the most important inherent optical properties, it has rarely been measured in aquatic environments since no commercial instrument exists to measure the full VSF in the field. The commonly used LISST (Laser In Situ Scattering and Transmissometry) particle sizer (Sequoia Scientific, http://www.sequoiasci.com) measures near-forward angular scattering of a laser source (λ = 670 nm) at 32 logarithmically-spaced photodetectors arranged between 0.08 and 15 degrees and inverts …