Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Effects Of Organic Matter Rich Topsoil On The Germination Growth And Metal Uptake Of Corn (Zea Mays) Grown In Flue Dust Contaminated Soil, Christopher Allen Impellitteri

OES Theses and Dissertations

The large biomass of corn (Zea mays) and promising results from a previous experiment (Chlopecka and Adriano, 1995) concerning metal uptake by corn indicate that corn may be a good candidate for phytoremediation of trace metal contaminated soil. Appling soil (acid, thermic, typic paleudult) was treated with increasing levels of a metal rich flue dust based on Zn concentration (0, 150, 300, 600, 1200, and 2400 mg/kg). Four replicates at each Zn treatment level were either limed to pH 6.3-6.5 and covered with a two inch thick layer of organic matter rich topsoil (OM), unlimed and covered with …

40Ar/39 Ar Geochronology Of The Lowland Creek Volcanic Field And Its Temporal Relations With Other Eocene Volcanic Areas, Vladimir Olegovich Ispolatov

OES Theses and Dissertations

Exposures of the Eocene Lowland Creek Volcanics (LCV) cover an area of 2000 km² in southwestern Montana, and consist of basal elastic deposits, felsic tuffs, and felsic and intermediate lavas with an aggregate thickness of about 2 km. New ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dates show that volcanic activity lasted for at least 4.2 million years (52.7- 48.5 Ma), or even longer (4.5-4.7 million years: from 53.0-53.2 Ma to 48.5 Ma). During evolution of the volcanic field, early explosive volcanism was gradually replaced by extrusive activity. During the transition period (52.7-51.5 Ma), the two volcanic styles coexisted.

The evolution of …

Elevation As A Control Of Boulder Stream Formation In The Blue Ridge Province Of Virginia, Marc D. Zamkotowicz

OES Theses and Dissertations

Within four study areas in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, boulder streams formed by periglacial processes carpet the bottoms of most high-altitude first-order valleys. The geomorphic indicators of periglacial formation in these long, linear accumulations of bouldery colluvium - the presence of vertical clasts, gradational upper contacts with talus deposits, confinement within valleys, and hump-like cross sectional profiles - were present in all areas mapped and in most individual boulder streams. The minimum critical elevation for boulder stream formation increases from north to south across Virginia, from 150 m in elevation in northern Virginia to 1500 m in southwestern …

Middle Shoreface Intervals: Evidence Of Barred Nearshore Systems In He Stratigraphic Record, James V. Gravette

OES Theses and Dissertations

An interpretation for middle shoreface (MSF) intervals was developed by comparing MSF intervals from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Blackhawk Formation, east-central Utah, with conceptual models proposed for modern nearshore areas. Specifically, MSF intervals identified within the Sunnyside Member were compared with MSF intervals identified within the Spring Canyon (Kamola and Van Wagoner, 1995) and the Aberdeen (Kamola, unpublished data) members.

A comparison of MSF interval data revealed that MSF intervals occur stratigraphically between upper and lower shore face deposits, disrupting the standard vertical succession for nearshore marine deposits (consisting of offshore, lower shore face, upper shore face, and foreshore deposits). …

Ice Transport In The Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canadian Arctic Using Detrital Fe Oxide Grain Composition, Duan Li

OES Theses and Dissertations

Nine Fe oxide mineral types (45pm-250pm) separated from 54 glacial and glaciomarine sediment samples from the Queen Elizabeth Islands (QEI) of Canada were analyzed for 12 elements by electron microprobe to determine the dispersal patterns of ice rafted debris in this area. Both cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis (DFA) on the chemical compositions were used to match each detrital Fe oxide grain to a source The entire QEI area can be subdivided into eight unique areas based on the elemental composition of the Fe oxide minerals. These subdivisions are similar to the source areas based on the assemblage of …

Influence Of Physics On The Distribution Of Ichthyoplankton Across The Chesapeake Bay Plume, Christian S. Reiss

OES Theses and Dissertations

Most marine fish have retained pelagic larval stages that are spawned away from juvenile habitats. Physical and biological processes on a number of scales may affect larval survival. Mesoscale features like estuarine or riverine plumes and fronts are thought to affect larval survival by transporting larvae to juvenile habitats or by retaining larvae in favorable developmental habitats. It is likely that these features are major contributors in the regulation of shelf-spawned estuarine-dependent taxa.

This study examined how physical oceanographic features affected the spatial distribution of ichthyoplankton across the Chesapeake Bay Plume. Larval surveys were conducted across the shelf and within …

Biostratigraphic Analysis Of Southern Florida's Plio-Pleistocene Shell Beds, Dalton L. Rasmussen

OES Theses and Dissertations

Four molluscan assemblage zones in southern Florida corresponding to the Pinecrest Sand Member of the Tamiami Formation, and the Caloosahatchee, Bermont and Fort Thompson shell beds were identified following quantitative and qualitative analyses of the fossil molluscan fauna. Twenty-eight bulk sediment samples collected from 16 localities across southern Florida were processed for fossil material, and yielded nearly 60,000 specimens belonging to 311 species. A Q-mode cluster analysis compared sediment samples on the basis of 188 species whose abundances had been converted to binary presence-absence form. The cluster analysis was run four times using the Jaccard and Dice similarity coefficients as …

Distribution Of Free Marine Viruses Of Lower Chesapeake Bay And Their Effects On Life-History Parameters Of The Estuarine Copepod Acartia Tonsa Dana, Lisa A. Drake

OES Theses and Dissertations

Naturally occurring viruses are very abundant in fresh, estuarine, and marine waters, with densities on the order of 10⁵-10⁸ viruses ml^-1. Research has focused on virus effects on bacteria, cyanobacteria, and phytoplankton, as well as mechanisms of virus production and decay. However, little is known about the distribution of viruses in benthic environments or virus effects on organisms in higher trophic levels.

To determine the distribution of virus-like particles (VLPs) and bacteria in the lower Chesapeake Bay, vertical profiles of VLPs and bacteria were determined through the water column and 15-25 cm into the sediment …

Modeling Plankton Community Structure Under Environmental Forcing On The Southeastern United States Continental Shelf, Andrew Glenn Edward Haskell

OES Theses and Dissertations

A system of coupled ordinary differential equations was developed to investigate the time-dependent behavior of phytoplankton, copepod, and doliolid populations associated with upwelling features on the outer southeastern U.S. continental shelf. Model equations describe the interactions of nitrate, ammonium, two phytoplankton size fractions, five copepod developmental stages, doliolids, and a detrital pool. Model dynamics are based primarily upon data obtained from field and laboratory experiments made for southeastern U.S. continental shelf plankton populations. Numerous simulations were performed to investigate the effects of environmental variability on the temporal distribution of the structure of resident plankton populations. Variations on a reference simulation, …