Other Earth Sciences Commons^™

Natural Fracture Evolution: Investigations Into The Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin, Usa, Natalie Abigail Mitchell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Optimizing recovery from unconventional shale reservoirs has generated considerable research into optimal recovery methods through hydraulic fracturing design and shale reservoir characterization in the development of long-term hydrocarbon producers. Permeability at multiple scales from nanometer-scale pore sizes and nano-darcy permeability to completion-induced fractures defining a 100’s of meter stimulated reservoir volume plays a significant role in hydrocarbon flow during production in shale reservoirs. Preexisting cemented fractures in unconventional shale reservoirs are abundant and preferentially reactivate during induced hydraulic fracturing treatment to create necessary large-scale permeability. While previous investigations have significantly improved our knowledge of shale reservoirs, it has also highlighted …

The Burning Bush: Linking Lidar-Derived Shrub Architecture To Flammability, Michelle S. Bester

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) sensors are powerful tools for characterizing vegetation structure and for constructing three-dimensional (3D) models of trees, also known as quantitative structural models (QSM). 3D models and structural traits derived from them provide valuable information for biodiversity conservation, forest management, and fire behavior modeling. However, vegetation studies and 3D modeling methodologies often only focus on the forest canopy, with little attention given to understory vegetation. In particular, 3D structural information of shrubs is limited or not included in fire behavior models. Yet, understory vegetation is an important component of forested ecosystems, …

Frayed Connections: How Long-Term Nitrogen Additions Disrupt Plant-Soil Interactions And The Carbon Cycle Of A Temperate Forest, Brooke A. Eastman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Forests are expected to mitigate some of the negative effects of climate change by sequestering anthropogenic carbon (C) from the atmosphere, but the degree to which they drawn down C will depend on the availability of key nutrients, such as nitrogen (N). There is a fair amount of uncertainty in the future of the forest C sink, mostly owing to the fate of soil organic matter (SOM) and soil heterotrophic respiration to future conditions. In N limited systems, plants allocate a significant amount of their photosynthate belowground for the acquisition of nutrients, but under conditions of chronic N deposition, plants …

Using Landsat-Based Phenology Metrics, Terrain Variables, And Machine Learning For Mapping And Probabilistic Prediction Of Forest Community Types In West Virginia, Faith M. Hartley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study investigates the mapping of forest community types for the entire state of West Virginia, USA using Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) Phenology Metrics analysis ready data (ARD) derived from the Landsat time series and digital terrain variables derived from a digital terrain model (DTM). Both classifications and probabilistic predictions were made using random forest (RF) machine learning (ML) and training data derived from ground plots provided by the West Virginia Natural Heritage Program (WVNHP). The primary goal of this study is to explore the use of globally consistent ARD data for operational forest type mapping over a …

Chemical Characterization Of Clastic Cave Sediments And Insights Into Particle Transport And Storage In Karst Aquifers, Jill L. Riddell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Abstract

Chemical characterization of clastic cave sediments and insights into particle transport and storage in karst aquifers

Jill L. Riddell

Cave sediments can be divided into two groups: precipitates and clastics. Precipitates are speleothems, or lithologic or mineral features that are chemically precipitated in the cave environment. Clastic cave sediments are frequently described by depositional facies, sorting, and particle size (Bosch and White, 2004). Robust analytical chemical analyses of these sediments to quantify their physical and chemical components is rarely performed although some chemical characterization of mineralogy and paleomagnetism has become prevalent in recent years (Chess et al., 2010; Sasowsky …

Estimating The Azimuthal Mode Structure Of Ultra Low Frequency Waves And Its Effects On The Radial Diffusion Of Radiation Belt Electrons, Mohammad Barani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Characterizing the azimuthal mode number 𝑚 of Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) waves is critical to quantifying the radial diffusion of radiation belt electrons. A Wavelet cross-spectral technique is applied to the compressional ULF waves observed by multiple pairs of GOES and MMS satellites to estimate the mode structure of ULF waves. A more realistic distribution of mode numbers is achieved by inclusion of the modes corresponding to different wave propagation directions as well as at 𝑚 higher than fundamental mode number. For the event study of a geomagnetic storm using GOES data, ULF wave power is found to dominate at …

Evaluation Of A Low-Cost Uas And Phenocams For Measuring Grapevine Greenness, Timothy J. Hoheneder

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Unpersoned aerial systems (UAS) could provide winegrowers with the potential to monitor vineyard productivity with ultra-high-resolution imagery and low operational costs. This ability could prove particularly valuable in the challenging cool-climate viticultural areas of Appalachia. Especially in this mountainous region of increasingly variable microclimates, there could be of great value from an ability to use UAS-measured greenness to monitor wine grape phenology and predict harvest quality and quantity. In this study, I assess how UAS-measured greenness relates to three complementary measures of field-based: leaf angle measurements, phenocam measured greenness, and leaf spectral measurements of greenness. After correlating these field-based measures …

Historic Log Buildings As Archives Of Past Forest Ecology, Kristen K. De Graauw

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation is composed of three separate but related manuscripts with the common theme of using historic log buildings from the central Appalachian Mountain region of eastern North America as ecological archives. In Chapter 1, I explore the biases, limitations, and ecological applications of tree-ring data from historic log buildings. European immigrants selected trees from a forested stand based on species, log sizes, and construction locations. Despite this selection bias, ecological information can be gleaned from historic log buildings, which offer a complementary record of past forest ecology and represent a site type that is not often associated with old-growth …

Risk Assessment And Mapping Of Hand, Foot, And Mouth Disease At The County Level In Mainland China Using Spatiotemporal Zero-Inflated Bayesian Hierarchical Models, Chao Song, Yaqian He, Yanchen Bo, Jinfeng Wang, Zhoupeng Ren, Huibin Yang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a worldwide infectious disease, prominent in China. China’s HFMD data are sparse with a large number of observed zeros across locations and over time. However, no previous studies have considered such a zero-inflated problem on HFMD’s spatiotemporal risk analysis and mapping, not to mention for the entire Mainland China at county level. Monthly county-level HFMD cases data combined with related climate and socioeconomic variables were collected. We developed four models, including spatiotemporal Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), and zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) models under the Bayesian hierarchical modeling framework to explore disease …