Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Airflow Dynamics In Wind Cave And Jewel Cave: How Do Barometric Caves Breathe?, Annika K. Gomell, Andreas Pflitsch

International Journal of Speleology

Recent research on air pressure propagation through barometric caves has revealed various speleoclimatological processes, which cause a more complex relationship between surface air pressure changes and resulting pressure gradients between cave and surface air than previously assumed. So far, however, studies on barometric cave airflow have only been based on surface air pressure measurements. Thus, this study investigates and compares airflow at the openings of Wind Cave and Jewel Cave – two major barometric cave systems in South Dakota, USA – as a response to surface air pressure changes and air pressure gradients. Based on high-resolution long-term air pressure measurements …

A Technique-Based Approach To Structure-From-Motion: Applications To Human-Coastal Environments, Robert Van Alphen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Photogrammetry is a method by which physical information can be extracted from thecorrespondence of 2-dimensional images. In the geosciences, Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry is a technique that has seen considerable interest in the past decade of research. Here I present three case studies of various scope and methodologies which can inform the use of SfM in the geosciences. First, I discuss the theoretical and algorithmic basis of SfM photogrammetry and its uses thus far in the geosciences. Chapters two through four show specific studies which highlight several approaches to SfM and the data which can be produced. Chapter five then concludes …

Guano-Derived Morphologies And Associated Minerals Found In Cova De Sa Guitarreta, Llucmajor, Balearics, Antonio Merino Juncadella, Joan J. Fornós, Antoni Mulet, Joaquín Ginés

International Journal of Speleology

Cova de sa Guitarreta is located in the southern part of Mallorca Island (western Mediterranean). It was formed presumably by hypogenic processes in Upper Miocene reefal calcarenites. The cave hosts an important breeding colony of bats during the end of spring and early summer. Its microclimate is influenced by the presence of a thermal phreatic water table (27.7ºC) as well as by bat populations remaining in the cave along the reproductive season. The morphological bat-related features include bat claws and thumb marks scratches, together with several morphologies linked to bat excreta and aggressive leachates from guano. From the mineralogical point …

Field And Remote Sensing Analysis Of The 2015 Pyroclastic Density Currents At Colima (Mexico) And Calbuco (Chile) Volcanoes: Implications For Hazard Assessment And Crisis Management, Elodie Macorps

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although one of the most spectacular phenomena of active volcanoes, Pyroclastic density currents, or PDCs, are considered the most dangerous volcanic hazards. PDCs are avalanches of hot volcanic gases, ash, and larger volcanic fragments that travel at incredible speed down the flank of a volcano. High dynamic pressures, high temperatures, and high velocities are the primary dangers associated with PDCs and lead to near-complete destruction and death.

I use a multi-disciplinary approach to study the deposits left behind by PDCs, in order to understand their dynamics, their interactions with the receiving landscape, and their final distribution, starting on the ground …

Save Water Drink Wine: Challenges Of Implementing The Ethnography Of The Temecula Valley Wine Industry Into Food-Energy-Water Nexus Decision-Making, Zaida E. Darley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study demonstrates the interrelationships of people, food, energy, and water associated with Temecula Valley’s wine industry and reveals contradictions and biases in how people view these resources, which ultimately shape management and policies. The FEW (Food, Energy, and Water) Nexus is an approach increasingly used by policy- and decision-makers to understand the interrelationship of several resources. However, a FEW Nexus approach often lacks in social aspects that influence environmentally and economically sustainable outcomes, especially in the wine and wine tourism industry. When quantitative and qualitative data are available, the other challenge is which assessment to use. Two assessments often …

Coral Reef Restoration In The Tropical West Atlantic Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Linden Cheek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is increasing threats to coasts, both from storm surge and sea level rise. Healthy coral reefs provide reduction in storm surges, wave energy, coastal flooding and everyday erosion, and are found across a variety of spatial scales. Given the state of coral reefs worldwide, active Coral Reef Restoration (CRR) in emerging as a necessary component of coastal protection. CRR can be classified as a nature-based solutions (NbS) for coastal protection that also provides a multitude of ecosystem-based services to both humans and other life. Nearly all literature on coral restoration efforts assume a steady-state of human-ecological interactions, but …

Assessment Of Land Cover Change In St. Martin’S Marsh Aquatic Preserve, Florida, Usa, Katie Wagner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

St. Martin’s Marsh Aquatic Preserve (SMMAP) is a 28,461 acre (115.18 km2) preserve located on the coast of Citrus County, Florida, USA. There has been no published research that focused on coastal change on this unique coast. This thesis research focuses on coastal land cover change that has occurred within the preserve from 1988 to 2018. Multitemporal Landsat images were classified using a support vector machine (SVM) classification, while changes in vegetation were evaluated using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Field research was conducted to examine nineteen sites for classification training and test data and notes on habitat composition. …

Reconstruction Of Radar Images By Using Spherical Mean And Regular Radon Transforms, Ozan Pirbudak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is the recovery of functions and finite parametric distributions from their spherical means over spheres and designing a general formula or algorithm for the reconstruction of a function f via its spherical mean transform. The theoretical study is and supported with a numerical implementation based on radar data. In this study, we approach the reconstruction problem in two different way. The first one is to show how the reconstruction problem could be converted to a Prony-type system of equations. After solving this Prony-type system of equations, one can extract the parameters that describe the corresponding …

Morphological And Mineralogical Evidence For Ancient Bat Presence In Cova Des Pas De Vallgornera (Llucmajor, Mallorca, Western Mediterranean), Antoni Merino, Joan J. Fornós, Antoni Mulet, Joaquín Ginés

International Journal of Speleology

Cova des Pas de Vallgornera is a unique karst cave located at the Llucmajor coastal platform that stands out not only because of its length, more than 78 km, but also for its particular morphological suite, richness and variety of speleothems and mineral infillings. Although the mineralogy of speleothems and minerals related to hypogene morphologies has been studied and described, the existence of minerals derived from guano deposits was still poorly investigated. The cave hosted bat colonies until the collapse of its natural entrances, circa 2.4 My ago, since then until its discovery in 1968, the cave remained sealed. These …

Estimating Coastal Water Turbidity Using Viirs Nighttime Measurement, Chih-Wei Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal water turbidity is a key environmental factor that influences the relative clarity of the water, which therefore reduces sunlight penetration. The comprehensive spatial and temporal coverage of remote sensing allows mapping of water turbidity near the coast. Even in locations where time-consuming and expensive conventional turbidity monitoring programs exist, local technological limitations prevent complete coverage. Traditional optical satellite techniques using the visible band also have limitations in monitoring turbidity due to non-optimal observing conditions such as clouds, sun-glint, and thick aerosols. In this study, in order to complement the daytime satellite measurements, I used the data from Visible Infrared …

Assessing The Cooling Effects Of Urban Vegetation On Urban Heat Mitigation In Selected U.S. Cities, Qiuyan Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a growing problem worldwide. Mitigation of UHI is necessary for cities to adapt to climate change and enhance sustainable development at a city scale. Cooling cities with urban vegetation management is a sustainable solution for urban heat mitigation. Urban vegetation influences urban microclimate through the shading effect, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration. The differences in horizontal and vertical structures of urban vegetation determine the shading effect, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration. Enhancing the cooling effect of urban vegetation requires a comprehensive understanding of how vegetation structure affects UHI. The effects of horizontal structure on land surface temperature …

Optical Remote Sensing Of Oil Spills In The Gulf Of Mexico, Shaojie Sun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Assessment of oil spills in the ocean using passive remote sensing (i.e., reflected sun light) faces two challenges: detect oil presence/absence and quantify oil volume. While the optical properties of oil allow it to be differentiated from the surrounding marine environment, sun glint can facilitate oil presence/absence detection because the oil-water spatial contrast is enhanced due to wave dampening. However, sun glint also modulates the magnitude and shape of the spectral reflectance of surface oil. In addition to this difficulty, the most critical challenge is how to quantify oil volume (or thickness) through remote sensing. To date, such quantifications have …

Enhancement Of Rainfall-Triggered Shallow Landslide Hazard Assessment At Regional And Site Scales Using Remote Sensing And Slope Stability Analysis Coupled With Infiltration Modeling, Thilanki Maneesha Dahigamuwa Rajaguru Mudiyanselage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Landslides cause significant damage to property and human lives throughout the world. Rainfall is the most common triggering factor for the occurrence of landslides. This dissertation presents two novel methodologies for assessment of rainfall-triggered shallow landslide hazard. The first method focuses on using remotely sensed soil moisture and soil surface properties in developing a framework for real-time regional scale landslide hazard assessment while the second method is a deterministic approach to landslide hazard assessment of the specific sites identified during first assessment. In the latter approach, landslide inducing transient seepage in soil during rainfall and its effect on slope stability …

A Review Of Fractals In Karst, Eulogio Pardo-Igúzquiza, Peter A. Dowd, Juan J. Durán, Pedro Robledo-Ardila

International Journal of Speleology

Many features of a karst massif can either be modelled using fractal geometry or have a fractal distribution. For the exokarst, typical examples include the geometry of the landscape and the spatial location and size-distribution of karst depressions. Typical examples for the endokarst are the geometry of the three-dimensional network of karst conduits and the length-distribution of caves. In addition, the hydrogeological parameters of the karst massif, such as hydraulic conductivity, and karst spring hydrographs may also exhibit fractal behaviour. In this work we review the karst features that exhibit fractal behaviour, we review the literature in which they are …

Remote Estimation Of Surface Water PCo2 In The Gulf Of Mexico, Shuangling Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surface ocean partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂) is a critical parameter in the quantification of air-sea CO₂ flux, which further plays an important role in quantifying the global carbon budget and understanding ocean acidification. The demand for a clearer understanding of how, and how fast, the ocean is changing due to atmospheric CO₂ absorption, requires accurate and synoptic estimation of surface pCO₂.

Surface ocean pCO₂ is mainly controlled by four oceanic processes – thermodynamics, ocean mixing, biological activities, and air-sea CO₂ exchange. Surface ocean pCO_{2 …}

Review Of Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards And Risk Reduction In The Modern World, Kira H. Hamman

Numeracy

Timothy H. Dixon. 2017. Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction in the Modern World. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 300 pp. ISBN 978-1108113663.

In Curbing Catastrophe, Timothy H. Dixon explores commonalities among natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the meltdown at Fukushima. He identifies communication failure between scientists and policy makers as a major culprit in the devastation that results from such events and offers strategies for improving that communication. He includes optional in-depth scientific and quantitative examinations of the events and the resulting devastation, making the book appropriate for use …

Spatial And Temporal Distributions Of Pelagic Sargassum In The Intra-Americas Sea And Atlantic Ocean, Mengqiu Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pelagic Sargassum is one type of marine macroalgae that is known to be abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and Sargasso Sea. It is also known to serve as a critical habitat for many marine animals. In the past few years, large amounts of Sargassum have been reported in the Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea (CS), causing significant environmental and economic problems. The goal of this study is to improve the understanding of Sargassum distributions, quantity, transport pathways, and bloom mechanisms in the CS and Tropic Atlantic through combining a variety of techniques including satellite remote sensing, field and laboratory …

A Comparative Study On Coastal Zone Changes And Anthropogenic Impacts Between Tampa Bay, Usa, And Xiangshan Harbor, China, During The Last 30 Years, Qiandong Guo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the U.S. and China are the two largest national economic entities in the world. However, it is noticeable that the two countries have considerably different strategies for economic development, environmental protection and land supply in coastal zones. In order to understand the coastline dynamics, land use land cover (LULC) changes and land management policies in the U.S. and China, a case study of the Tampa Bay (TB) watershed, Florida, U.S., and Xiangshan Harbor (XH), Zhejiang Province, China was conducted. The two areas possess similar humid subtropical climate and dense population, but experienced different anthropogenic impacts. TB sat at a …

Spar Caves As Fossil Hydrothermal Systems: Timing And Origin Of Ore Deposits In The Delaware Basin And Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico And Texas, Usa, David D. Decker, Victor J. Polyak, Yemane Asmerom

International Journal of Speleology

Studies of sulfuric acid hypogene speleogenesis have contributed significantly to understanding the history of the Guadalupe Mountains of southeast New Mexico and west Texas for at least the past 12 Ma. A recently published hypothesis of supercritical CO₂ spar cave genesis provides information that constrains the timing of the start of uplift to between 27 and 16 Ma, and helps to explain landscape evolution of this region for the last 185 Ma. This new speleogenetic model is summarized here and shows that U-Pb dating of crystals from different spar caves reveal different ages, and that a majority of the …

Remote Sensing And Spatial Metrics For Quantifying Seagrass Landscape Changes: A Study On The 2011 Indian River Lagoon Florida Seagrass Die-Off Event, René Dieter Baumstark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida’s seagrasses are ecologically important marine environments which have suffered major degradation caused by increasing anthropogenic pressures. A 2011 seagrass die-off event caused by an algal bloom in the Florida Indian River Lagoon (IRL) was particularly severe with a majority of seagrass lost in areas such as the Banana River. An understanding of how this coastal marine environment changed is an important step toward better managing resources for conservation. Modern tools and methods provide new opportunities to study these changes at the landscape scale, a scale that informs on the larger more comprehensive state of a system. Classified satellite imagery …

Evaluating Satellite And Supercomputing Technologies For Improved Coastal Ecosystem Assessments, Matthew James Mccarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water quality and wetlands represent two vital elements of a healthy coastal ecosystem. Both experienced substantial declines in the U.S. during the 20^th century. Overall coastal wetland cover decreased over 50% in the 20^th century due to coastal development and water pollution. Management and legislative efforts have successfully addressed some of the problems and threats, but recent research indicates that the diffuse impacts of climate change and non-point source pollution may be the primary drivers of current and future water-quality and wetland stress. In order to respond to these pervasive threats, traditional management approaches need to adopt modern …

Veress M., 2016. Covered Karsts, Reza Khoshraftar

International Journal of Speleology

No abstract provided.

Using Remote Sensing To Evaluate Wetland Recovery In The Northern Tampa Bay Area Following Reduction In Groundwater Withdrawals, Amor Elder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the past, the Northern Tampa Bay Area (NTBA) wetlands saw severe declines in hydrologic conditions due to excessive groundwater withdrawal rates. Eventually these rates were reduced to allow the wetlands to recover. To monitor this recovery, the Southwest Florida Water Management district (SWFWMD) set up a fieldwork based scoring methodology, called the Wetlands Assessment Procedure (WAP). WAP has been used in many studies of the area since groundwater withdrawal reductions; with many of those studies finding the recovery to be mixed at best. However, these studies were very limited in the number of wetlands they could assess due to …

Effects Of Anthropogenic Activity On The Green Swamp Preserve Ecosystem, Barbara Ann Nordheim-Shelt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Green Swamp Preserve is a large geographic area that has sustained many changes since Europeans settled in Florida. There has been little published research on the impacts of anthropogenic activity on this system. This thesis research seeks to document more recent changes in the Green Swamp and to evaluate the effects of various human activities on the system. The study period is from 1985 to 2015. For this time period changes in land use and landcover were examined using neural network classifications. Changes in vegetation health were evaluated by examining Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Green Vegetation Index …

Toxicity Of Fluorescent Tracers And Their Degradation Byproducts, Philippe Gombert, Hugues Biaudet, René De Sèze, Pascal Pandard, Jean Carré

International Journal of Speleology

Tracer tests are frequently used to delineate catchment area of water supply springs in karstic zones. In the karstic chalk of Normandy, the main tracers used are fluorescent: uranine, sulforhodamine B, naphtionate, and Tinopal®. In this area, a statistical analysis shows that less than half of the injected tracers joins the monitored restitution points and enters the drinking water system where they undergo chlorination. Most of the injected tracers is absorbed in the rock matrix or is thrown out of the aquifer via karstic springs: then it can join superficial waters where it is degraded due to the sun and …

Development And Validation Of A Remote Sensing Model To Identify Anthropogenic Boreholes That Provide Dry Season, Refuge Habitat For Anopheles Vector Mosquitoes In Sub-Saharan Africa, James Pkemoi Kukat

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A lack of surveillance systems is an impediment to public health intervention for perennial vector-borne disease transmission in northern tropical savanna region of Kenya. The population in this area are mostly poor nomadic pastoralists with little acquired functional immunity to Plasmodium falciparum, due to infrequent challenges with the parasite. A common characteristic in tropical savanna climatic zone is the availability of riverbeds that have anthropogenic boreholes that provide malaria vector mosquitoes, such as Anopheles gambiae s.l and Anopheles funestus, with aquatic refuge habitats for proliferation and endemic transmission to proximity human households during the dry-season. Unfortunately, currently there …

Modeling The Construction And Evolution Of Distributed Volcanic Fields On Earth And Mars, Jacob Armstrong Richardson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Magmatism is a dominant process on Earth and Mars that has significantly modified and evolved the lithospheres of each planet by delivering magma to shallow depths and to the surface. Two common modes of volcanism are present on both Earth and Mars: central-vent dominated volcanism that creates large edifices from concentrating magma in chambers before eruptions and distributed volcanism that creates many smaller edifices on the surface through the independent ascent of individual magmatic dikes. In regions of distributed volcanism, clusters of volcanoes develop over thousands to millions of years. This dissertation explores the geology of distributed volcanism on Earth …

A Decade Of Modern Cave Surveying With Terrestrial Laser Scanning: A Review Of Sensors, Method And Application Development, Idrees Mohammed Oludare, Biswajeet Pradhan

International Journal of Speleology

During the last decade, the need to survey and model caves or caverns in their correct three-dimensional geometry has increased due to two major competing motivations. One is the emergence of medium and long range terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) technology that can collect high point density with unprecedented accuracy and speed, and two, the expanding sphere of multidisciplinary research in understanding the origin and development of cave, called speleogenesis. Accurate surveying of caves has always been fundamental to understanding their origin and processes that lead to their current state and as well provide tools and information to predict future. Several …

Informing The Design And Deployment Of Health Information Technology To Improve Care Coordination, Diego A. Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the health care sector is 20 years behind in the use of information technology to improve the process of health care delivery as compared to other sectors. Patients have to deliver their data over and over again to every health professional they see. Most health care facilities act as data repositories with limited capabilities of data analysis or data exchange. A remaining challenge is, how do we encourage the use of IT in the health care sector that will improve care coordination, save lives, make patients more involved in decision-making, and save money for the American …

Sinkhole Vulnerability Mapping: Results From A Pilot Study In North Central Florida, Clint Kromhout, Alan E. Baker

Sinkhole Conference 2015

At the end of June in 2012, Tropical Storm Debby dropped a record amount of rainfall across Florida which triggered hundreds, if not thousands, of sinkholes to form which resulted in tremendous damage to property. The Florida Division of Emergency Management contracted with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Geological Survey to produce a map depicting the state’s vulnerability to sinkhole formation. The three-year project began with a pilot study in three northern Florida counties: Columbia, Hamilton and Suwannee. Utilizing the statistical modeling method Weights of Evidence, results from the pilot study yielded a 93 percent success rate of …