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Emerging Red Sore Disease Of American Eel (Anguilla Rostrata) In Chesapeake Bay: Etiology, Epidemiology, And Impacts In Aquaculture And The Wild, Amanpreet Kaur Kohli
Emerging Red Sore Disease Of American Eel (Anguilla Rostrata) In Chesapeake Bay: Etiology, Epidemiology, And Impacts In Aquaculture And The Wild, Amanpreet Kaur Kohli
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Emerging infectious diseases in aquatic systems, both in aquaculture and in the wild, are a global concern. Many have proposed an uptick in marine diseases as a result of environmental changes including a warming climate, habitat modifications, trade and transfer of wildlife and aquaculture products, pollution, overharvesting of resources, and other anthropogenic impacts. These perturbations can disturb the delicate host-pathogen relationships and result in new diseases or exacerbate the existing diseases in a population. Diseases can lead to several direct and indirect effects in the ecosystem such as population declines and extinctions, and thereby a change in population dynamics, as …
Chesapeake Bay Carbonate Cycle: Past, Present, And Future, Fei Da
Chesapeake Bay Carbonate Cycle: Past, Present, And Future, Fei Da
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Multiple natural and anthropogenic drivers are expanding the variability of the estuarine carbonate system (CO2 system). These changes in the CO2 system are threatening the health of ecologically and economically important bivalve species. This dissertation investigates the Chesapeake Bay CO2 system by using numerical models and historical water quality data, focusing on the past three decades, the contemporary period, and the late 2060s. In Chapter 2, sensitivity experiments are conducted with a 3-D Chesapeake Bay hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model and reveal that the magnitude of decadal trends in the CO2 system over the past 30 years is much greater than that observed …
Impacts And Uncertainties Of Climate Change On The Chesapeake Bay, Kyle E. Hinson
Impacts And Uncertainties Of Climate Change On The Chesapeake Bay, Kyle E. Hinson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Climate change impacts in the Chesapeake Bay will limit the efficacy of nutrient reduction efforts and decrease dissolved oxygen, but uncertainties associated with the magnitude of these effects remain. An understanding of underlying mechanisms that have driven recent warming trends will narrow uncertainties for future pathways of temperature change. Additionally, future simulations of climate impacts in the estuary are dependent on multiple different sources of uncertainty, many of which have not yet been fully evaluated. This dissertation used a three- dimensional coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model to investigate recent warming trends as well as underlying uncertainties likely to influence regional projections of …
Development Of 3d And 360 Gis-Based Models To Visualize Projected Sea Level Rise In Coastal Virginia, Candice M. Vinson
Development Of 3d And 360 Gis-Based Models To Visualize Projected Sea Level Rise In Coastal Virginia, Candice M. Vinson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Science communication is a skill that can be strengthened with practice. Like any skill, it helps to know what you need to practice in order to get better at it. When presenting information to an audience, the skill of science communication comes into play as early as the first draft of a presentation. As you think about how you will tell your story to the audience, you likely consider including text on slides, images, graphs, maps, or even videos. However, it is crucial to remember that accessibility barriers are something we must often consciously work to rid our presentations of, …
Roles Of Hydrodynamics And Topographies On The Transport Of Dissolved Material, Particulates, And Harmful Algae In Chesapeake Bay, Jilian Xiong
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Estuaries are highly productive and characterized by complex shoreline geometry and topography. Multiple materials produced within or transported into estuaries include non-living dissolved/particulate materials and living organisms. Estuarine circulation determines material transport and distributions, which further impact estuarine ecosystem to support abundant fauna/flora and their vulnerability to escalated anthropogenic inputs. Short-term material transport process in Chesapeake Bay (CB) has been studied for years, yet its long-term characteristics and the transport of materials with settling and biological behaviors that interact with physical transport have not been fully studied. This study aims to understand the transport of non-living and non-motile dissolved/particulate materials, …
Importance Of Muddy Bed Aggregate Processes In Cohesive Sediment Dynamics Associated With Sediment Management Projects, David Perkey
Importance Of Muddy Bed Aggregate Processes In Cohesive Sediment Dynamics Associated With Sediment Management Projects, David Perkey
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The erosion and transport processes of fine sediment is largely impacted by the aggregation state. Understanding fine sediment transport processes is a key component to managing the nation’s navigation channels, ports, and reservoirs. To improve its ability to apply management strategies related to fine sediments, the USACE has undertaken research that focusses on the aggregation state of fine sediment. Of particular interest is the ability to expand the use of fine-grained sediment in projects that seek to beneficially use dredge material. In this study, a newly developed camera system was used to evaluate the aggregation state of eroded sediment from …
The Role Of Zooplankton Community Composition In Fecal Pellet Carbon Production In The York River Estuary, Chesapeake Bay, Kristen Nicole Sharpe
The Role Of Zooplankton Community Composition In Fecal Pellet Carbon Production In The York River Estuary, Chesapeake Bay, Kristen Nicole Sharpe
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The biological pump is a critical component of carbon transformation in aquatic ecosystems, but the role that zooplankton play in carbon production and vertical export is rarely studied in estuaries. Zooplankton produce carbon-rich fecal pellets which sink to depth and can fuel benthic community metabolism. The body size and taxonomic structure of the zooplankton community varies on interannual, seasonal, and diel time scales, and can lead to varying carbon production and export rates. We quantified fecal pellet carbon (FPC) production by the whole mesozooplankton community (> 200 µm) in the York River, a sub-estuary of Chesapeake Bay. Biomass and taxonomic …
Across-Scale Energy Transfer In The Southern Ocean, Laur Ferris
Across-Scale Energy Transfer In The Southern Ocean, Laur Ferris
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Numerous physics are responsible for forward energy cascade at oceanic fronts but their roles are not fully clear. This dissertation investigates wind-sheared turbulence in the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL), internal wave interactions in the ocean interior, and instability-driven turbulence in energetic jets; with attention paid to the parameterizations used to quantify them. At the OSBL, meteorological forcing injects turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), mixing the upper ocean and rapidly transforming its density structure. In the absence of direct observations or capability to resolve sub-grid scale turbulence in ocean models, the community relies on boundary layer scalings (BLS) of shear and …
Data-Driven Approaches For Water Quality Modeling In Coastal Systems, Xin Yu
Data-Driven Approaches For Water Quality Modeling In Coastal Systems, Xin Yu
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Water quality in coastal waters is of great socio-economic concern. Anthropogenic activities along the coast have led to an increasing number of impaired waterbodies and degraded ecosystems. To manage water quality issues, accurately modeling the coastal water quality is vitally important. One traditional way to model water quality is using numerical models. Despite great advances in hydrodynamic modeling over the past few decades, water quality simulation is still challenging as the performance of water quality model depends on how well the complex biogeochemical processes are parameterized. While numerical models are the dominant tool for water quality modeling, there are increasing …
Toward A Comprehensive Water Quality Model For The Chesapeake Bay Using Unstructured Grids, Xun Cai
Toward A Comprehensive Water Quality Model For The Chesapeake Bay Using Unstructured Grids, Xun Cai
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Chesapeake Bay is one of the most productive ecosystems on the US east coast which supports various living resources and habitat, and therefore has significant impacts on human beings and ecosystem health. Developing the capability of accurately simulating the water quality condition in the Chesapeake Bay, such as seasonal hypoxia, phytoplankton production, and nutrient dynamics, helps to better understand the interactions of hydrodynamical and biochemical processes, and more importantly, to predict conditions under changing climate and human intervention. Currently, most Chesapeake Bay models use structured grids that lack the flexibility for local refinements to fit complex geometry over both large …
Barrier-Island Dynamics: Transgression, Regression, And State Changes, Justin Lee Shawler
Barrier-Island Dynamics: Transgression, Regression, And State Changes, Justin Lee Shawler
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Barrier islands provide critical habitat for shorebirds and buffer backbarrier and inland coastal habitats and communities from the direct effects of storms and wave energy. Yet, barrier systems are under threat from these very same processes. In particular, whereas long-term barrier behavior and landward migration rate is directly related to the rate of sea-level rise, decadal to centennial barrier-island dynamics are more complicated, and often highly localized. Barrier-island dynamics—including state changes between seaward growth and landward migration—are driven by a complex interplay of forcings and interactions, including changes in longshore and cross-shore sediment fluxes, underlying geology and slope, barrier-marsh and …
Diel, Seasonal, And Interannual Changes In Coastal Antarctic Zooplankton Community Composition And Trophic Ecology, John A. Conroy
Diel, Seasonal, And Interannual Changes In Coastal Antarctic Zooplankton Community Composition And Trophic Ecology, John A. Conroy
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Throughout the ocean, zooplankton transfer energy from primary producers to higher predators and transport carbon from surface waters to depth. The efficiency of these processes depends in part upon the taxonomic composition and trophic ecology of the zooplankton community. Zooplankton species abundance and distribution shifted over recent decades along the West Antarctic Peninsula during a period of rapid regional warming and sea-ice decline. Although conducted within the context of long-term change, this dissertation research focuses on zooplankton dynamics at finer temporal scales that have received less attention. I analyzed depth-stratified net samples to investigate zooplankton diel vertical migration during Antarctic …
Water Clarity And Suspended Particle Dynamics In The Chesapeake Bay: Local Effects Of Oyster Aquaculture, Regional Effects Of Reduced Shoreline Erosion, And Long-Term Trends In Remotely Sensed Reflectance, Jessica Turner
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Water clarity is a key indicator of the ecosystem health in the Chesapeake Bay. Estuarine water clarity fluctuates due to external inputs from the watershed as well as processes occurring within the estuary itself, such as sediment resuspension and organic matter production. Therefore, water clarity requires study at multiple spatial and temporal scales and with multiple metrics. One local-scale process potentially influencing water clarity is shellfish aquaculture. One part of this dissertation examined how water quality and hydrodynamics varied among oyster farms as well as inside versus outside the extent of caged areas located in southern Chesapeake Bay. Current speed …
Sediment Transport And Trapping On The Ayeyarwady-Martaban Continental Shelf, Matthew Joshua Fair
Sediment Transport And Trapping On The Ayeyarwady-Martaban Continental Shelf, Matthew Joshua Fair
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin Rivers, which primarily drain Myanmar, are together one of the largest point sources of freshwater and sediment to the global ocean. Much of the estimated 600 Mt of river sediment annually carried by the combined Ayeyarwady and Thanlwin River system is delivered to a wide continental shelf in the northern Andaman Sea. Called here the Ayeyarwady-Martaban continental shelf, this area is influenced by strong tides, monsoon conditions, and periodic cyclones; however, the processes that dominate dispersal of fluvial material in the coastal ocean of this system remain poorly understood. The shelf exhibits a dramatic asymmetry of …
Estuarine Microbiomes And Biogeochemistry: Impacts Of Spatiotemporal Variation, Algal Blooms, And Microplastics, Samantha Grace Fortin
Estuarine Microbiomes And Biogeochemistry: Impacts Of Spatiotemporal Variation, Algal Blooms, And Microplastics, Samantha Grace Fortin
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Estuaries are biogeochemical hotspots connecting terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. Anthropogenic disturbances, including increased nitrogen loading and plastic pollution, may have significant impacts on estuarine carbon and nitrogen cycling by altering microbiome structure and functions. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to examine how microbiomes and their associated biogeochemical processes are influenced by natural variation and anthropogenic disturbances in the York River Estuary (YRE). In chapter 2, spatial and temporal variation in benthic microbiomes and the rates of denitrification, anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) were examined to determine biotic and abiotic drivers of nitrogen …
Impact Of Canyon Upwelling And Downwelling In The Mid-Atlantic Bight, Haixing Wang
Impact Of Canyon Upwelling And Downwelling In The Mid-Atlantic Bight, Haixing Wang
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Submarine canyons can impact regional oceanography and provide a conduit for shelf-slope exchanges via topographically induced processes such as canyon upwelling and downwelling. Between Virginia and New York in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), there are five major shelf-incising canyons (Norfolk, Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, and Hudson canyons) and four sizable slope-confined canyons (Accomac, Spencer, Lindenkhol, and Toms canyons). Canyon upwelling and downwelling at these canyons have not been well studied. Consequently, the associated hydrographic variability and dynamics inside the canyons and on the adjacent shelf are largely unknown, and the integrated impact of submarine canyons on MAB shelf hydrography and shelf-slope …
Improving Observation, Assessment, And Management Of Atlantic Coastal Sharks, Cassidy Dawn Peterson
Improving Observation, Assessment, And Management Of Atlantic Coastal Sharks, Cassidy Dawn Peterson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Coastal sharks represent a group of stocks for which observation, assessment, and management are particularly challenging. Large distributional ranges, complex migratory behavior, low economic value, and relatively few observations in fishery independent surveys hinder relative abundance estimation. Assessing stock status of coastal sharks is encumbered by limited data availability, data quality, and knowledge of life history strategy. Further, coastal sharks are challenging to manage due to their slow intrinsic population growth rates, competing stakeholder interests, history of overexploitation, and in some cases, subjection to international exploitation. This dissertation aimed to improve the capacity to observe relative abundance of coastal sharks. …
Quantifying The Increased Resiliency Of Chesapeake Bay Hypoxia To Environmental Conditions: A Benefit Of Nutrient Reductions, Luke Thomas Frankel
Quantifying The Increased Resiliency Of Chesapeake Bay Hypoxia To Environmental Conditions: A Benefit Of Nutrient Reductions, Luke Thomas Frankel
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Seasonal hypoxia is a characteristic feature of the Chesapeake Bay as a result of anthropogenic eutrophication from agriculture and urban development throughout the watershed. Although in recent years coordinated management efforts have successfully reduced the flux of nutrients into the Bay, the overall goal of sufficient oxygen concentrations below the pycnocline for living resources remains unfulfilled. This was particularly apparent in 2018 and 2019 when the volume of hypoxic water exceeded the long-term (35-year) average due to anomalously high riverine discharge. To quantify the impact of watershed nutrient reductions, conventional statistical methods were employed in concert with a 3-D numerical …
Controls On Estuarine Sediment Bed Erodibility: Insights From The York River Estuary, Cristin Lee Wright
Controls On Estuarine Sediment Bed Erodibility: Insights From The York River Estuary, Cristin Lee Wright
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The erodibility of estuarine sediment beds has a number of ecological and societal implications, including alteration of benthic habitats, light-limitation of primary production, and reintroduction of pollutants to the water column, as well as impacts on dredging operations and on the fate of potentially dangerous objects on the seafloor. The objectives of this study are to better understand controls on bed erodibility in estuarine environments, including the roles of sediment grain size, water content, percent organics, and bed fabric, as well as effects of tides, storms, salinity distribution, river discharge, and location within the estuary. An extensive set of erosion …
Sediment And Terrestrial Organic Carbon Budgets For The Offshore Ayeyarwady Delta: Establishing A Baseline For Future Change, Evan Rose Flynn
Sediment And Terrestrial Organic Carbon Budgets For The Offshore Ayeyarwady Delta: Establishing A Baseline For Future Change, Evan Rose Flynn
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Large river deltas serve as globally important archives of terrestrial and shallow marine biogeochemical signatures because of rapid sediment burial, and have the potential to impact global biogeochemical cycling on modern and geologic timescales. This study investigates modern sediment and terrestrial organic carbon (TerrOC) accumulation within the offshore Ayeyarwady Delta in order to determine sediment and TerrOC budgets for this largely understudied mega-delta. The Ayeyarwady is the world’s third largest delta in terms of sediment supply, and remains one of the last long free-flowing rivers in Asia. However, recent increases in regional anthropogenic impacts risk severe alterations to sediment and …
Dealing With Many Species: Improving Methodology For Forming And Assessing Species Complexes, Kristen Omori
Dealing With Many Species: Improving Methodology For Forming And Assessing Species Complexes, Kristen Omori
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
In the United States, the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act mandates that all federally fished species must have catch limits, which can be challenging for data-limited species. One approach is to assess and manage a group of species with similar life history characteristics, vulnerability to the fishery, and overlapping geographic distributions in a single management unit, or a complex (i.e., stock or species complex). Using the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) Other Rockfish complex as a case study, the main goals of this dissertation are five-fold: 1) review species complexes in the United States; 2) compare multivariate techniques for assigning species to complexes; …
Temporal Variability In Cohesive Sediment Dynamics In A Partially Mixed Estuary, The York River Estuary, Virginia, Usa: A Numerical Study Developed From Observations, Danielle Tarpley
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Fine-grained material such as silts and clays are the predominant sediment type in low energy systems such as micro-tidal embayments and estuaries. Due to its cohesive nature, fine sediment typically moves through marine systems as aggregated particles, or flocs, rather than as individual mineral grains. The particle's components, local hydrodynamics, and concentration influence floc size, density, and fall velocity. These, in turn, impact suspended sediment transport, which complicates predictions of the fate of sediment for water quality, contaminant distribution, and dredging purposes in these systems. This dissertation used a state-of-the-art modeling system and observations to examine the variability in sediment …
Influence Of Suspended Particle Size And Composition On Particle Image Processing, Estuarine Floc Fractal Properties, And Resulting Estuarine Light Attenuation, Kelsey Fall
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Understanding the nature of suspended particles is crucial to explaining water clarity issues in many estuaries, including the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. Typical near surface estuarine particles are not individual sediment grains, but rather are clusters of inorganic and organic components known as flocs. Because of their fragile nature, flocs are challenging to observe in-situ, so their influence on the optical properties of the system are not well-known. This dissertation used a combination of state-of-the-art optical instrumentation, including laser scattering and transmissometry, a high-definition particle imaging camera system (PICS), and irradiance meters, along with supporting laboratory analysis techniques …
Inorganic Carbon Chemistry In East Antarctic Coastal Polynyas, Mar C. Arroyo
Inorganic Carbon Chemistry In East Antarctic Coastal Polynyas, Mar C. Arroyo
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Polynyas are large areas of open water or reduced sea ice coverage that persistently form in polar environments and often experience enhanced rates of physical, chemical, and biological processes that impact ocean dynamics on local to global scales. Polynyas that form adjacent to the coast, known as coastal polynyas, play an important role in the global carbon cycle by regulating the exchange of CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere in the high latitudes. Because of their importance to the global carbon cycle, there is a particular interest to better characterize CO2 system processes in Antarctic coastal polynyas. In this study, …
Environmental Controls On Pteropod Ecology And Physiology Along The Western Antarctic Peninsula, Patricia Susan Thibodeau
Environmental Controls On Pteropod Ecology And Physiology Along The Western Antarctic Peninsula, Patricia Susan Thibodeau
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Pteropods (pelagic snails) are ubiquitous zooplankton in the Southern Ocean and abundant along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. They are important prey for higher trophic levels, grazers of phytoplankton, and contribute to particulate organic and inorganic carbon export. Pteropods are heralded as bioindicators of ecosystem health due to the vulnerability of their aragonitic shells under ocean acidification conditions, which could greatly affect their abundances in the future. Despite their importance within Antarctic food webs, few studies have analyzed the effects of climate change on pteropod physiology and biogeography in the …
Impacts Of Physical Transport On Estuarine Phytoplankton Dynamics And Harmful Algal Blooms, Qubin Qin
Impacts Of Physical Transport On Estuarine Phytoplankton Dynamics And Harmful Algal Blooms, Qubin Qin
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The spatial and temporal variability of phytoplankton biomass in estuaries is determined by both local processes and transport processes. Local processes include biological processes (e.g., photosynthesis, respiration/excretion, and grazing) and settling, whereas transport processes include advective and diffusive transports. Transport processes have been demonstrated to regulate phytoplankton dynamics significantly by distributing both phytoplankton and other dissolved and particulate substances (e.g., nutrients, salts, sediments, and chromophoric dissolved organic matter). Yet, these transport properties lack a framework that unifies the pieced description of their various effects, and quantification of their importance under various environmental conditions. This dissertation highlights the role of horizontal …
Seasonal Variability Of The Co2-System Throughout The Chesapeake Bay Mainstem, Jaclyn Rain Friedman
Seasonal Variability Of The Co2-System Throughout The Chesapeake Bay Mainstem, Jaclyn Rain Friedman
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Declining water quality, in addition to hypoxia and eutrophication, may have a significant impact on the seasonality of biogeochemical parameters throughout the mainstem of the Chesapeake Bay. The carbonate (CO2) system in the Chesapeake Bay experiences seasonal and spatial complexities and is influenced by both natural and anthropogenic variability. Although site-specific studies investigating CO2-system variability exist within the Chesapeake Bay, few studies have investigated the seasonality of the CO2-system throughout the entire mainstem. Additionally, recent comprehensive studies investigating over 50 estuaries along the East Coast of the United States suggest that estuarine systems are heterotrophic and act as sources of …
Development Of Large-Scale Unstructured Grid Storm Surge And Sub-Grid Inundation Models For Coastal Applications, Zhuo Liu
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Storm surge and inundation induced by hurricanes and nor'easters pose a profound threat to coastal communities and ecosystems. These storm events with powerful winds, heavy precipitation, and strong wind waves can lead to major flooding for cities along U.S. Coasts. Recent examples of Hurricane Irene (2011) in North Carolina and Virginia and Hurricane Sandy (2012) in New York City not only demonstrated the immense destructive power by the storms, but also revealed the obvious, crucial need for improved forecasting of storm tide and inundation. in part I, a large-scale unstructured-grid 3-D barotropic storm tide model SCHISM (Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated …
Impact Of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation On Water Quality In Cache Slough Complex, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: A Numerical Modeling Study, Xun Cai
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) plays a significant role in many aquatic systems, and impacts both physical and ecological quantities. It can baffle currents, attenuate waves, recycle nitrogen and phosphorus from the sediment bed, perform ecosystem function as a primary producer, and provide critical habitat for many aquatic species. Conversely, the invasive SAV, Egeria densa (Brazilian waterweed), in the San Francisco Bay & Delta has been a nuisance since its introduction into the system in the 1960s. It has displaced most of the native submersed aquatic plant species in the Delta and restructured the ecosystem, thus threatening the survival of several …
Evaluation Of Population Structure And The Interspecific Relationship Of Striped Marlin (Kajikia Audax) And White Marlin (K. Albida) Based On Traditional Or Genome-Wide Molecular Markers, Nadya Mamoozadeh
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The istiophorid billfishes (marlins, spearfishes, and sailfish) are highly migratory pelagic fishes exhibiting broad and continuous spatial distributions in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. These species are targeted by a number of recreational, commercial, artisanal, and subsistence fisheries worldwide, and are also caught as bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries targeting tunas and swordfish. Though stock assessments have not been conducted for all istiophorids, assessments available for some species indicate that many istiophorid stocks are overfished and/or experiencing overfishing. However, the development of stock-specific recovery efforts is often impeded by a lack of information on basic species biology, including stock …