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Full-Text Articles in Earth Sciences

Understanding Combined Sewer Overflow (Cso) And Green Infrastructure Interaction In New Jersey : An Economic Analysis, Taylor J. Wieczerak Aug 2021

Understanding Combined Sewer Overflow (Cso) And Green Infrastructure Interaction In New Jersey : An Economic Analysis, Taylor J. Wieczerak

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

New Jersey, as a coastal area, has historically struggled with a variety of problems stemming from stormwater runoff, which have only grown more prevalent and harmful as urbanization and climate change have taken their toll. One such issue that has emerged in recent years is the prevalence of combined sewer overflows (CSOs). These sewer systems are common in urban areas in the United States and abroad, and increased urbanization has them not only obsolete but a persistent danger, as their discharges can contaminate waterways and affect human health. While municipalities across the United States are beginning to move towards mitigating …


A Geo-Economic Framework For Dune Construction And Long-Term Coastal Resiliency In New Jersey, Jesse Charles Kolodin Aug 2021

A Geo-Economic Framework For Dune Construction And Long-Term Coastal Resiliency In New Jersey, Jesse Charles Kolodin

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Following the extensive coastal impacts (i.e., storm surges) caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the State of New Jersey chose to install large-scale engineered berm-dune structures as their main coastal resiliency strategy. Initially, the project was entirely funded with federal emergency relief funds, but will require state and local beachfront communities to pay a percentage costshare for future renourishment projects. The thesis specifically focuses on three adjacent beachfront communities within the barrier island stretch of Long Beach Island, NJ (i.e., Beach Haven, Long Beach Township, and Ship Bottom), all of which had been provided engineered dunes in 2016. Following installation, …


Coastal Onlap/Offlap Amplification Due To Organic Sediment Accumulation And Degradation : Implications For Sea Level Reconstruction, Norjmaa Khosbaatar Aug 2021

Coastal Onlap/Offlap Amplification Due To Organic Sediment Accumulation And Degradation : Implications For Sea Level Reconstruction, Norjmaa Khosbaatar

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Coastal-plain depositional systems such as fluvial deltas are archives of past external (allogenic) forcing, such as sea-level variations, and their evolution can be described by two geomorphic boundaries: the alluvial-basement transition or upstream boundary, and the shoreline or downstream boundary. Patterns of landward/seaward migration of the shoreline (i.e., transgression/regression) and the alluvial basement transition (i.e., coastal onlap/offlap) in the rock record are often used for reconstruction of past sea-level changes. Theories for stratigraphic interpretation, however, need to be adapted to deal with internal (autogenic) processes that could play a significant role, but are to date largely unexplored. In particular, in-situ …


Effect Of Abiotic Factors On Enzyme Activity In Brownfield Soils, Diane Hagmann May 2021

Effect Of Abiotic Factors On Enzyme Activity In Brownfield Soils, Diane Hagmann

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Several factors can influence soil function, including biotic and abiotic. Biotic factors are those that are living, like microorganisms. Abiotic factors are those that are non-living, and include heavy metals, organic contaminants, pH, and nutrients. Liberty State Park in Jersey City (N.J., U.S.A), is a 100-ha brownfield was once a major rail yard that was restricted public access in 1969. The site without any intervention of humans grew a forest. The primary objective of this dissertation is to understand the impacts of both inorganic and organic contaminants on soil function in addition to provide strategies that can override the negative …


Upstream Propagation Of Sea-Level Signals In Fluvio-Deltaic Environments : Time-Lags, And The Dynamics Of The Fluvial Surface, Madeline Pianta Kollegger May 2021

Upstream Propagation Of Sea-Level Signals In Fluvio-Deltaic Environments : Time-Lags, And The Dynamics Of The Fluvial Surface, Madeline Pianta Kollegger

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The sedimentary record of fluvio-deltaic environments holds clues to past climate and sea level change. Although theories for stratigraphic interpretation generally rely upon the assumption that the fluvial surface responds uniformly to sea level changes, recent theoretical work suggests that changes in the relief and concavity of the fluvial surface can influence the propagation of sea level information upstream, and result in geologically long-lived lags in the system response. We test this theoretical result using measurements from an evolving experimental delta subject to sea-level cycles. As predicted by the theoretical results, during sea-level fall the relief increases and the fluvial …


Identification Of Ice-Rafted Debris In The Weddell Sea To Characterize Glaciation At The Eocene-Oligocene Transition, Josie Horowitz Jan 2021

Identification Of Ice-Rafted Debris In The Weddell Sea To Characterize Glaciation At The Eocene-Oligocene Transition, Josie Horowitz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

At the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT), approximately 34 million years ago (Ma), the Earth’s climate changed from a warm greenhouse to a cooler climate which resulted in ice-sheet growth and stable continental-scale ice sheets in Antarctica. Hole 696B of the Ocean Drilling Program Leg 113 drilled in 650 m of water depth on the South Orkney Microcontinent spans the entire EOT. Cores 53R and 54R are dated at lower Oligocene (~33.1 to ~33.5 Ma) and total ~14 meters in thickness from ~549 to ~564 mbsf. Ice-rafted debris (IRD) in sediment cores gives insight into the extent of glaciation in West Antarctica, …


Community-Scale Beach Nourishment And Groin Construction Decisions Along Human-Modified Coasts : The Interplay Between Socioeconomics, Coordination, Tourism, And Shoreline Change, Arye Max Janoff Jan 2021

Community-Scale Beach Nourishment And Groin Construction Decisions Along Human-Modified Coasts : The Interplay Between Socioeconomics, Coordination, Tourism, And Shoreline Change, Arye Max Janoff

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In response to coastal erosion driven by storms, sea-level rise, and local gradients in sediment supply, communities defend their homes and maintain beach recreation by widening beaches via soft engineering (i.e., beach nourishment) or hard engineering (i.e., groins). Past research has found that, at regional scales, the net effect of these interventions has in many cases not only counteracted historically observed beach erosion, but has reversed erosional trends, on average shifting shorelines seaward. While groins trap sediments locally at and upcoast of the structure relative to the direction of alongshore transport, however, they often have adverse downcoast impacts, resulting in …