Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Inferring Phytoplankton Carbon And Eco-Physiological Rates From Diel Cycles Of Spectral Particulate Beam-Attenuation Coefficient, G. Dall'olmo, E. Boss, M. J. Behrenfeld, T. K. Westberry, C. Courties, L. Prieur, M. Pujo-Pay, N. Hardman-Mountford, T. Moutin

Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The diurnal fluctuations in solar irradiance impose a fundamental frequency on ocean biogeochemistry. Observations of the ocean carbon cycle at these frequencies are rare, but could be considerably expanded by measuring and interpreting the inherent optical properties. A method is presented to analyze diel cycles in particulate beam-attenuation coefficient (cp) measured at multiple wavelengths. The method is based on fitting observations with a size-structured population model coupled to an optical model to infer the particle size distribution and physiologically relevant parameters of the cells responsible for the measured diel cycle in cp. Results show that the information related to size …

Emergent Behavior In A Coupled Economic And Coastline Model For Beach Nourishment, Eli D. Lazarus, D E. Mcnamara, M D. Smith, S Gopalakrishnan, A B. Murray

Publications

Developed coastal areas often exhibit a strong systemic coupling between shoreline dynamics and economic dynamics. "Beach nourishment", a common erosion-control practice, involves mechanically depositing sediment from outside the local littoral system onto an actively eroding shoreline to alter shoreline morphology. Natural sediment-transport processes quickly rework the newly engineered beach, causing further changes to the shoreline that in turn affect subsequent beach-nourishment decisions. To the limited extent that this landscape/economic coupling has been considered, evidence suggests that towns tend to employ spatially myopic economic strategies under which individual towns make isolated decisions that do not account for their neighbors. What happens …

Minerva 2011, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes an article on four newly-hired Honors preceptors, Rob Glover, Sarah Harlan-Haughey, Jordan LaBouff, and Justin Martin; a feature on Honors award, scholarship, and fellowship winners; and an article on the Honors College collaboration with the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Infrastructure (INBRE) National Genomics Research Initiative.

Synthesis And Characterization Of Catalysts For The Selective Transformation Of Biomass-Derived Materials, Isaac Tyrone Ghampson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The experimental work in this thesis focuses on generating catalysts for two intermediate processes related to the thermal conversion of lignocellulosic biomass: the synthesis and characterization of mesoporous silica supported cobalt catalysts for the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, and an exploration of the reactivity of bulk and supported molybdenum-based nitride catalysts for the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guaiacol, a lignin model compound. The first section of the work details the synthesis of a series of silicasupported cobalt Fischer-Tropsch catalysts with pore diameters ranging from 2-23 nm. Detailed X-ray diffraction measurements were used to determine the composition and particle diameters of the metal fraction, …

Spatial Population Models In Spatiotemporally Structured Environments, David Hiebeler

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Spatial effects, such as habitat fragmentation and the location and size of disturbance events, play a key role in the dynamics of populations. This is true in natural populations (such as herbs living under a forest canopy) as well as human-dominated systems (for example, crop pests in agricultural landscapes). Focusing on the development of spatial population models, the project seeks to better understand how and why spatially autocorrelated disturbances affect the dynamics of populations with mixtures of short- and long-distance dispersal. A variety of disturbances are considered, including (1) static disturbance, representing habitat heterogeneity across a landscape; (2) short-term disturbance …

Mri: Id-Development Of A Hybrid Scanning Fluorescence And Sum Frequency Spectroscopy Imaging Microscope, Michael D. Mason, David J. Neivandt, Michael Grunze, Samuel T. Hess

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation program (MRI), Michael Mason and colleagues from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Maine will develop a hybrid scanning fluorescence (FL) and sum frequency (SF) spectroscopy imaging microscope. The instrument will be constructed by the addition of sample scanning and FL capability to an existing broadband SF spectrometer. The SF NIR pump source will be used to excite SF at the sample interface, while a modulated Argon ion CW laser will excite FL. These collinear sources will give rise to spatially and temporally correlated SF and FL signals which will …

Photophysical And Photochemical Investigations Of New Tunable Luminescent Metal-Metal Bonded D8-D10 Exciplexes, Howard H. Patterson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports Dr. Howard Patterson at the University of Maine at Orono to investigate d8-d10 exciplexes exhibiting multiple excimeric emissions that can be tuned across the UV and visible regions by: site-selective excitation, temperature, varying the concentration in solution or the solid state (alkali halide hosts), and/or controlled laser irradiation that leads to reversible write/read/erase changes. Photophysical, photochemical, and computational studies will be performed in order to assess the factors that are important for establishing structure-luminescence relationships in tunable systems. The broad tunability previously observed in d10-d10 complexes will be extended …

Collaborative Research: Microparticle/Tephra Analysis Of The Wais Divide Ice Core, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov, Mark Wells, Paul Andrew Mayewski

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to perform continuous microparticle concentration and size distribution measurements (using coulter counter and state-of-the-art laser detector methods), analysis of biologically relevant trace elements associated with microparticles (Fe, Zn, Co, Cd, Cu), and tephra measurements on the WAIS Divide ice core. This initial three-year project includes analysis of ice core spanning the instrumental (~1850-present) to mid- Holocene (~5000 years BP) period, with sample resolution ranging from subannual to decadal. The intellectual merit of the project is that it will help in establishing the relationships among climate, atmospheric aerosols from terrestrial and volcanic sources, ocean biogeochemistry, and …

Evolution Of Norms And Conservation Rules In Two Fisheries, James Acheson, Ann Acheson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Dr. James M. Acheson and Dr. Ann Acheson will undertake research on the processes by which rules to regulate natural resources come into being and the reasons they are followed or ignored. Most renewable natural resources are in a state of decline, including fisheries, grasslands, and forests. One reason is that rules and laws to conserve natural resources often fail to work well. This team of researchers will seek to understand the underlying reasons by studying two fisheries in the Gulf of Maine: the lobster industry, where effective rules have been developed and catches are at record highs, and the …

Effects Of Trace Metal Limitation On Oxidative Stress In Zooxanthellae And Its Role In Coral Bleaching, Mark Wells, J. Malcolm Shick, Charles G. Trick, Walter Dunlap, Paul Long

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Coral bleaching has increased dramatically in frequency, severity, and geographic extent since the 1980s and this trend is anticipated to continue, causing major environmental and economic impacts in tropical regions. This bleaching - the loss by corals of their photosynthetic endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae; Symbiodinium spp.) - involves increased oxidative stress arising from the combined effects of elevated temperature at high light intensities. Although the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in corals and phytoplankton is routine during daylight hours, the failure of antioxidant defenses in zooxanthellae becomes catastrophic under comparatively small changes in environmental temperature, because reef corals live close …

Rapid: A Unique Cruise Opportunity To Test The Effect Of Trace Metal Limitation On Oxidative Stress And Coral Bleaching, Mark L. Wells, J. Malcolm Shick

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Intellectual Merit. Coral bleaching has increased dramatically in frequency, severity, and geographic extent since the 1980's and this trend is anticipated to continue, causing major environmental and economic impacts in tropical regions. This bleaching, or loss by corals of their photosynthetic endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae; Symbiodinium spp.), appears to result from increased oxidative stress arising from the combined effects of elevated temperature at high light intensities. However, the mechanisms underlying this failure are not understood. The premise of the PIs' current project entitled "Effects of Trace Metal Limitation on Oxidative Stress in Zooxanthellae and Its Role in Coral Bleaching" (OCE - …

Collaborative Research: Centers For Ocean Science Education Excellence - Oceans In The Earth-Sun System, Annette Decharon

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award establishes a new Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) via awards to the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (0528706), the University of Maine (0528702), and the University of New Hampshire (0528686). The main goals of this thematic Center are to broaden understanding of the oceans in the context of the earth and solar systems and to help the COSEE network reach rural and inland audiences. The PIs will pioneer a system of interfaces, tools, and resources to reach underserved and underrepresented groups, and to bring ocean sciences to inland audiences by presenting it in the context of …

Ice-Bed Coupling Beneath And Beyond Ice Streams: Byrd Glacier, Antarctica, Terence J. Hughes, Aitbala Sargent, James L. Fastook

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Ice sheet thickness is determined mainly by the strength of ice-bed coupling that controls holistic transitions from slow sheet flow to fast streamflow to buttressing shelf flow. Byrd Glacier has the largest ice drainage system in Antarctica and is the fastest ice stream entering Ross Ice Shelf. In 2004 two large subglacial lakes at the head of Byrd Glacier suddenly drained and increased the terminal ice velocity of Byrd Glacier from 820 m yr(-1) to 900 m yr(-1). This resulted in partial ice-bed recoupling above the lakes and partial decoupling along Byrd Glacier. An attempt to quantify this behavior is …

Collaborative Research: Asian Ice Core Array (Aica)--Reconstruction Of Past Physical And Chemical Climate Over Asia, Paul Mayewski, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Funding is provided to help the researchers build on success using ice cores for understanding past physical and chemical climate change from Antarctica, Arctic, North Pacific and Asia by analyzing and interpreting a new array of Asian ice cores. The researchers plan to use five existing ice cores and collect one new ice core to enhance the reconstruction of environmental conditions over Asia.

The primary research questions for the Asian Ice Core Array (AICA) research include:

(1) Asian climate variability - How do major Asian circulation features (i.e., Asian monsoon, Westerlies, polar air masses, Siberian and Tibetan Highs) vary on …

Evaluation Of A Compact Sensor For Backscattering And Absorption, Alina Gainusa Bogdan, Emmanuel S. Boss

Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Seawater inherent optical properties (IOPs) are key parameters in a wide range of applications in environmental studies and oceanographic research. In particular, the absorption coefficient (a) is the typical IOP used to obtain the concentration of chlorophyll-a in the water-a critical parameter in biological oceanography studies and the backscattering coefficient (bb) is used as a measure of turbidity. In this study, we test a novel instrument concept designed to obtain both the absorption and backscattering coefficients. The instrument would emit a collimated monochromatic light beam into the water retrieving the backscattered light intensity as a function of distance from the …

An Ice-Core Proxy For Northerly Air Mass Incursions Into West Antarctica, Daniel D. Dixon, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Ian D. Goodwin, Gareth J. Marshall, Rhaelene Freeman, Kirk A. Maasch, Sharon B. Sneed

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

A 200-year proxy for northerly air mass incursions (NAMI) into central and western West Antarctica is developed from the examination of 19 shallow (21–150 m deep) Antarctic ice-core non-sea-salt (nss) Ca2+ concentration records. The NAMI proxy reveals a significant rise in recent decades. This rise is unprecedented for at least the past 200 years and is coincident with anthropogenically driven changes in other large-scale Southern Hemisphere (SH) environmental phenomena such as greenhouse gas (GHG) induced warming, ozone depletion, and the associated intensification of the SH westerlies. The Hysplit trajectory model is used to examine air mass transport pathways into West …

Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Project (Rice): Us Deep Ice Core Glaciochemistry Contribution (2011- 2014), Paul Andrew Mayewski, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to analyze a deep ice core which will be drilled by a New Zealand research team at Roosevelt Island. The objectives are to process the ice core at very high resolution to (a) better understand phasing sequences in Arctic/Antarctic abrupt climate change, even at the level of individual storm events; (b) determine the impact of changes in the Westerlies and the Amundsen Sea Low on past/present/future climate change; (c) determine how sea ice extent has varied in the area; (d) compare the response of West Antarctica climate to other regions during glacial/interglacial cycles; and (e) …

Collaborative Research: Molluscan Radiocarbon As A Proxy For Upwelling In Holocene Peru, Daniel H. Sandweiss

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Abstract: Under this award the PI will measure 14C in independently dated Peruvian mollusks from multiple time intervals to define long-term trends in upwelling variation. Upwelling is a defining factor of El Nino-southern oscillation (ENSO) in the eastern Pacific, particularly along the coast of Peru. Historical records of this phenomenon are limited and older proxy records in this region are few. The proposal will exploit the ventilation age difference between equatorial surface and deeper upwelled waters. The detection of El Nino events will be made by screening for shell increment alteration and by sequential d18O analysis. The simultaneous excursions in …

An Emerging Technique: Multi-Ice-Core Multi-Parameter Correlations With Antarctic Sea-Ice Extent, Sharon B. Sneed, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Daniel A. Dixon

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

ABSTRACT. Using results stemming from the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) ice-core array plus data from ice cores from the South Pole and Siple Dome we investigate the use of sodium (Na+), non-sea-salt sulfate (nssSO4 2–) and methylsulfonate (MS–) as proxies for Antarctic sea-ice extent (SIE). Maximum and mean annual chemistry concentrations for these three species correlate significantly with maximum, mean and minimum annual SIE, offering more information and clarification than single ice-core and single species approaches. Significant correlations greater than 90% exist between Na+ and maximum SIE; nssSO4 2– with minimum and mean SIE; and MS– with mean SIE. …

Event Discovery And Classification In Space-Time Series: A Case Study For Storms, Avinash Rude

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent advancement in sensor technology has enabled the deployment of wireless sensors for surveillance and monitoring of phenomenon in diverse domains such as environment and health. Data generated by these sensors are typically high-dimensional and therefore difficult to analyze and comprehend. Additionally, high level phenomenon that humans commonly recognize, such as storms, fire, traffic jams are often complex and multivariate which individual univariate sensors are incapable of detecting. This thesis describes the Event Oriented approach, which addresses these challenges by providing a way to reduce dimensionality of space-time series and a way to integrate multivariate data over space and/or time …

Exfoliated Graphite Nanoplatelet-Filled Impact Modified Polypropylene Nanocomposites, Alex Duguay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnP)-filled polymer composites have demonstrated superior electrical, mechanical, physical and thermal properties and are becoming a major focus for both academic and industrial research and development (R&D) activities. The main objective of this study was to characterize the influence of xGnP particle diameter, filler loading and the addition of coupling agents on the mechanical, rheological and thermal properties of xGnP-filled impact modified polypropylene (IMPP) composites. IMPP is currently being used at the AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center in polymer impregnated (pre-preg) fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) tapes consisting of an IMPP matrix polymer and E-glass continuous fibers. …

Interannual Variability In American Lobster Settlement: Correlations With Sea Surface Temperature, Wind Stress And River Discharge, Mahima Jaini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recruitment to benthic marine populations is fundamentally a biophysical problem. The American Lobster Settlement Index is an annual diver-based survey of the young-of-year American lobsters (Homarus americanus) found in inshore nurseries in New England, USA and Atlantic Canada at the end of the postlarval settlement season. The considerable interannual variability in the settlement index suggests that environmental factors play an important role in regulating planktonic larval supply and transport. In this study, I focused on the longest settlement time series from three oceanographically contrasting regions: Midcoast Maine, coastal Rhode Island and the lower Bay of Fundy. Sampling in these regions …

Effects Of Particle Aggregation And Disaggregation On Their Inherent Optical Properties, Wayne H. Slade, Emmanuel Boss, Clementina Russo

Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship

In many environments a large portion of particulate material is contained in aggregated particles; however, there is no validated framework to describe how aggregates in the ocean scatter light. Here we present the results of two experiments aiming to expose the role that aggregation plays in determining particle light scattering properties, especially in sedimentdominated coastal waters. First, in situ measurements of particle size distribution (PSD) and beam-attenuation were made with two laser particle sizing instruments (one equipped with a pump to subject the sample to aggregate-breaking shear), and measurements from the two treatments were compared. Second, clays were aggregated in …

Career: Data Management For Ad-Hoc Geosensor Networks, Silvia Nittel

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This project explores data management methods for geosensor networks, i.e. large collections of very small, battery-driven sensor nodes deployed in the geographic environment that measure the temporal and spatial variations of physical quantities such as temperature or ozone levels. An important task of such geosensor networks is to collect, analyze and estimate information about continuous phenomena under observation such as a toxic cloud close to a chemical plant in real-time and in an energy-efficient way. The main thrust of this project is the integration of spatial data analysis techniques with in-network data query execution in sensor networks. The project investigates …

Object-Based Caching For Mpi-Io, Phillip M. Dickens

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

As the size of the data sets manipulated by data-intensive scientific applications approaches the petabyte level and beyond, the need for scalable I/O techniques becomes increasingly important and difficult. Much of the research on this issue has been performed within the context of
MPI-IO: the de-facto standard parallel I/O interface for data-intensive applications. Its popularity stems from the fact that MPI-IO provides to applications a rich and flexile parallel I/O API coupled with highly efficient implementations of this API. This problem is being further addressed by the development of powerful parallel I/O subsystems, and state-of-the-art file systems that can efficiently …

Holtite And Dumortierite From The Szklary Pegmatite, Lower Silesia, Poland, A. Pieczka, Edward S. Grew, L. A. Groat, R. J. Evans

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

The Szklary holtite is represented by three compositional varieties: (I) Ta-bearing (up to 14.66 wt.% Ta(2)O(5)), which forms homogeneous crystals and cores within zoned crystals; (2) Ti-bearing (up to 3.82 wt.% TiO(2)), found as small domains within the core; and (3) Nb-bearing (up to 5.30 wt.% Nb(2)O(5),) forming the rims of zoned crystals. All three varieties show variable Sb+As content, reaching 19.18 wt.% Sb(2)O(3) (0.87 Sb a.p.f.u.) and 3.30 wt.% As(2)O(3) (0.22 As a.p.f.u.) in zoned Ta-bearing holtite, which constitutes the largest Sb+As content reported for the mineral. The zoning in holtite is a result of Ta-Nb fractionation in the …

Adrift In A Sea Of Information About Sustainable Seafood: The Maine Consumer Perspective, Catherine V. Schmitt

Maine Sea Grant Publications

Various methods and strategies for communicating "sustainability" information about seafood are reviewed. Seafood guides (e.g., Monterey Bay Aquarium) are comparatively analyzed for their ratings of Maine seafood. There is no single source for consumers to obtain information about seafood fishery status, health benefits, safety risks, recreational fishing opportunities, and local sources

for Maine seafood.

Functional Equivalence Of Spatial Images From Touch And Vision: Evidence From Spatial Updating In Blind And Sighted Individuals, Nicholas Giudice, M. R. Betty, J. M. Loomis

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

This research examined whether visual and haptic map learning yield functionally equivalent spatial images in working memory, as evidenced by similar encoding bias and updating performance. In 3 experiments, participants learned 4-point routes either by seeing or feeling the maps. At test, blindfolded participants made spatial judgments about the maps from imagined perspectives that were either aligned or misaligned with the maps as represented in working memory. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 revealed a highly similar pattern of latencies and errors between visual and haptic conditions. These findings extend the well-known alignment biases for visual map learning to haptic …

Recent Increase In Black Carbon Concentrations From A Mt. Everest Ice Core Spanning 1860-2000 Ad, Susan D. Kaspari, M. Schwikowski, M. Gysel, M. G. Flanner, Shichang Kang, Shugui Hou, Paul Andrew Mayewski

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

A Mt. Everest ice core spanning 1860-2000 AD and analyzed at high resolution for black carbon (BC) using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) demonstrates strong seasonality, with peak concentrations during the winter-spring, and low concentrations during the summer monsoon season. BC concentrations from 1975-2000 relative to 1860-1975 have increased approximately threefold, indicating that BC from anthropogenic sources is being transported to high elevation regions of the Himalaya. The timing of the increase in BC is consistent with BC emission inventory data from South Asia and the Middle East, however since 1990 the ice core BC record does not indicate …

Recent Increase In Black Carbon Concentrations From A Mt. Everest Ice Core Spanning 1860–2000 Ad, S. D. Kaspari, M. Schwikowski, M. Gysel, M. G. Flanner, Kang Shichang, S. Hou, Paul A. Mayewski

Climate Change Institute Faculty Scholarship

A Mt. Everest ice core spanning 1860–2000 AD and analyzed at high resolution for black carbon (BC) using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) demonstrates strong seasonality, with peak concentrations during the winter-spring, and low concentrations during the summer monsoon season. BC concentrations from 1975–2000 relative to 1860–1975 have increased approximately threefold, indicating that BC from anthropogenic sources is being transported to high elevation regions of the Himalaya. The timing of the increase in BC is consistent with BC emission inventory data from South Asia and the Middle East, however since 1990 the ice core BC record does not indicate …