Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Using Foraminifera In Stemseas Site 1 To Understand The Recent Paleoceanographic And Paleoclimatic History Of Tanner Basin, California Borderland, Michael Stanley Stone

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

In May of 2016, the STEMSEAS Educational Transit cruise OC1605-tranA collected the STEMSEAS Site 1 core from the Tanner Basin in the California Borderland. This research serves as the first formal survey of the foraminifera preserved within that core. The purpose of this research is to use foraminifera preserved within that core to understand the recent depositional and paleoenvironmental conditions at Site 1, and to place that information into a regional paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic context. In pursuing this purpose, this research aims to answer three questions: 1) Can biostratigraphic markers in the foraminiferal assemblages in STEMSEAS Site 1 core be …

Assessment Of The High-Resolution Sediment Gravity Flow Record In Prince William Sound, Alaska, Elisabeth Rose Clyne

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

South-Central Alaska is one of the most seismically active and climatologically sensitive places in the world. Within this region, Prince William Sound (PWS) receives abundant sediment from multiple sources, potentially housing a high-resolution environmental record spanning the past 4,000 years. Inputs to PWS are derived from local rivers and glaciers, and may include earthquake- and glacial-outburst-triggered sediment gravity flows. Therefore, this is an ideal location to investigate the long-term record of seismic, glacial, and riverine activity. This study examines the elemental, grain size, and stable isotope signatures in PWS to identify gravity flow deposits and the potential paleoseismic and paleoclimate …

Geological Framework Of The Continental Shelf Of South Carolina Winyah Bay: Paleodrainage, Transgressions And Essential Fish Habitat, Amanda Roach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A regional geophysical survey of the inner continental shelf off central South Carolina was completed on a cooperative cruise between NOAA and Coastal Carolina University in July 2015. An integrated mapping suite comprised of subbottom echosounder, side scan, multibeam and split beam sonars was used to define the regional geologic framework, including paleodrainage patterns across the shelf and to identify potential fish habitat locations that will provide additional inputs to a thematic habitat mapping routine developed by NOAA. Results from the thematic mapper characterization suggest that large-scale framework elements such as paleochannel networks may play a role in determining benthic …

The Utility Of Foraminifera In Documenting Sediment Provenance For Overwash Deposits: A Case Study Using Sediments Deposited By Tropical Cyclone Pam In Vanuatu, Thomas Kosciuch

Master's Theses

Tropical cyclone inundation is a major threat to the highly exposed islands of the South Pacific. This vulnerability was highlighted in March 2015 when Tropical Cyclone (TC) Pam made landfall on Vanuatu as a Category 5 storm, impacting coastlines with storm surges that produced high water marks up to 7 m above MSL and deposited sediments up to 400 m inland. We examined the foraminiferal assemblages contained within TC Pam sediments at two locations in Vanuatu: a mixed-carbonate embayment (Manuro), and a volcaniclastic beach (Port Resolution Bay; PRB). At Manuro, the TC Pam sediments were up to 10 cm thick …

3d Seismic Interpretation Of A Plio-Pleistocene Mass Transport Deposit In The Deepwater Taranaki Basin Of New Zealand, Francisco Jose Rusconi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A series of Plio-Pleistocene mass transport deposits (MTD) have been identified in the deepwater Taranaki Basin, in New Zealand, using the Romney 3D seismic survey, which covers an area of approximately 2000 km2. One of these MTDs has been chosen for description and interpretation based on high confidence mapping of its boundary surfaces. The deposit exhibits an array of interesting features similar to those documented by researchers elsewhere plus a unique basal feature unlike those previously observed. The basal shear surface exhibits erosional features such as grooves, “monkey fingers”, and glide tracks. Internally, the MTD is typically characterized by low …

Resolving Chronological And Temperature Constraints On Antarctic Deglacial Evolution Through Improved Dating Methodology, Cristina Subt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In order to determine the timing of Antarctic ice sheet retreat and advance during the Late Quaternary, various tools are used to measure the age of marginal marine sediments. Carbonate 14C dating is a well-established approach, but requires foraminiferal microfossils, shells or other carbonate materials that are rare in most Antarctic regions, and may also suffer from vital effects, which can result in variability of up to 500 years in living organisms. Bulk acid insoluble organic (AIO) 14C dates are frequently as an alternative, but this approach works best where high productivity and sedimentation rates reign, and not too well …

Quaternary Sea-Level History And The Origin Of The Northernmost Coastal Aeolianites In The Americas: Channel Islands National Park, California, Usa, Daniel R. Muhs, Jeffrey S. Pigati, R. Randall Schumann, Gary L. Skipp, Naomi Porat, Stephen B. Devogel

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Along most of the Pacific Coast of North America, sand dunes are dominantly silicate-rich. On the California Channel Islands, however, dunes are carbonate-rich, due to high productivity offshore and a lack of dilution by silicate minerals. Older sands on the Channel Islands contain enough carbonate to be cemented into aeolianite. Several generations of carbonate aeolianites are present on the California Channel Islands and represent the northernmost Quaternary coastal aeolianites on the Pacific Coast of North America. The oldest aeolianites on the islands may date to the early Pleistocene and thus far have only been found on Santa Cruz Island. Aeolianites …

Late Quaternary Uplift Along The North America-Caribbean Plate Boundary: Evidence From The Sea Level Record Of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Daniel R. Muhs, Eugene S. Schweig, Kathleen R. Simmons, Robert B. Halley

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The tectonic setting of the North America-Caribbean plate boundary has been studied intensively, but some aspects are still poorly understood, particularly along the Oriente fault zone. Guantanamo Bay, southern Cuba, is considered to be on a coastline that is under a transpressive tectonic regime along this zone, and is hypothesized to have a low uplift rate. We tested this by studying emergent reef terrace deposits around the bay. Reef elevations in the protected, inner part of the bay are ~11e12 m and outercoast, wave-cut benches are as high as ~14 m. Uranium-series analyses of corals yield ages ranging from ~133 …

How Dredge Pits Evolve Over Time: A Look At Their Geomorphologic Evolution And Infilling Processes, Patrick Robichaux

LSU Master's Theses

As coastal environments become more susceptible to land loss through accelerating sea level rise and subsidence, new restoration methods harnessing borrowed sediment are more valuable than ever. Mud-capped dredge pits (MCDPs) are a relatively new source of restoration-quality sediment that has only recently been utilized for beach and barrier island restorations in Louisiana. Because MCDPs have been in use for less than two decades in only a handful sites, little is understood about their evolution over decadal timescales. To improve our understanding of MCDPs after they are dredged, we have conducted a suite of geophysical surveys including bathymetry, sidescan sonar, …

A Study Of Marine Terrace Formation Along The California Central Coast, Mary C. Devlin

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Marine terrace formation is in many instances attributed to wave action, and shore platforms are often called “wave-cut”. However, alternative models for marine terrace formation suggest that other types of physical and chemical weathering have a more central role in the formation of marine terraces than is widely acknowledged. Roering and Retallack (2012) concluded that the roles of subaerial physical and chemical weathering are significant, and played a major role in the formation of the terraces. In this study, weathering of beach cliffs and shore platforms associated with marine terraces at eight sites in two different locations along the central …

The Geochemistry Of Loess: Asian And North American Deposits Compared, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess is widely distributed over Asia and North America and constitutes one of the most important surficial deposits that serve as terrestrial records of the Quaternary. The oldest Pleistocene loess in China is likely ∼2.6 Ma, thus spanning much or all of the Pleistocene. In North America, most loess is no older than the penultimate glacial period, with the exception of Alaska, where the record may go back to ∼3.0 Ma. On both continents, loess deposits date primarily to glacial periods, and interglacial or interstadial periods are represented by paleosols. Both glacial and non-glacial sources of silts that comprise the …

Evaluation Of Simple Geochemical Indicators Of Aeolian Sand Provenance: Late Quaternary Dune Fields Of North America Revisited, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Dune fields of Quaternary age occupy large areas of the world's arid and semiarid regions. Despite this, there has been surprisingly little work done on understanding dune sediment provenance, in part because many techniques are time-consuming, prone to operator error, experimental, highly specialized, expensive, or require sophisticated instrumentation. Provenance of dune sand using K/Rb and K/Ba values in K-feldspar in aeolian sands of the arid and semiarid regions of North America is tested here. Results indicate that K/Rb and K/Ba can distinguish different river sands that are sediment sources for dunes and dune fields themselves have distinctive K/Rb and K/Ba …

Cytonuclear Discordance In The Florida Everglades Invasive Burmese Python (Python Bivittatus) Population Reveals Possible Hybridization With The Indian Python (P. Molurus), Margaret E. Hunter, Nathan A. Johnson, Brian J. Smith, Michelle C. Davis, John S.S. Butterfield, Ray W. Snow, Kristen M. Hart

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The invasive Burmese python (Python bivittatus) has been reproducing in the Florida Everglades since the 1980s. These giant constrictor snakes have caused a precipitous decline in small mammal populations in southern Florida following escapes or releases from the commercial pet trade. To better understand the invasion pathway and genetic composition of the population, two mitochondrial (mtDNA) loci across 1,398 base pairs were sequenced on 426 snakes and 22 microsatellites were assessed on 389 snakes. Concatenated mtDNA sequences produced six haplotypes with an average nucleotide and haplotype diversity of π = 0.002 and h = 0.097, respectively. Samples collected …

Moving From Generalisations To Specificity About Mangrove –Saltmarsh Dynamics, Kerrylee Rogers, Ken W. Krauss

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Spatial and temporal variability in factors influencing mangrove establishment and survival affects the distribution of mangrove, particularly near their latitudinal limit, where mangrove expansion into saltmarsh is conspicuous. In this paper the spatial variability in mangrove distribution and variability in factors influencing mangrove establishment and survival during the Quaternary period are reviewed, focusing on research at latitudinal limits in Australia and mainland USA. Despite similarities in the response of mangrove to some drivers, the expression of these drivers is both spatially and temporally variable, demonstrating the need for analyses of mangrove-saltmarsh dynamics to move beyond generalizations and incorporate regional and …

Robustness Of Observation-Based Decadal Sea Level Variability In The Indo-Pacific Ocean, A. G. Nidheesh, M. Lengaigne, J. Vialard, T. Izumo, A. S. Unnikrishnan, B. Meyssignac, B. Hamlington, C. De Boyer Montegut

OES Faculty Publications

We examine the consistency of Indo-Pacific decadal sea level variability in 10 gridded, observation-based sea level products for the 1960-2010 period. Decadal sea level variations are robust in the Pacific, with more than 50% of variance explained by decadal modulation of two flavors of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (classical ENSO and Modoki). Amplitude of decadal sea level variability is weaker in the Indian Ocean than in the Pacific. All data sets indicate a transmission of decadal sea level signals from the western Pacific to the northwest Australian coast through the Indonesian throughflow. The southern tropical Indian Ocean sea level variability is …

Measuring Inorganic Carbon Fluxes From Carbonate Mineral Weathering From Large River Basins: The Ohio River Basin, Autumn B. Singer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations have motivated efforts to better quantify reservoirs and fluxes of Earth’s carbon. Of these fluxes from the atmosphere, one that has received relatively little attention is the atmospheric carbon sink associated with carbonate mineral dissolution. Osterhoudt (2014) and Salley (2016) explored new normalization techniques to improve and standardize a process for measuring this flux over large river basins. The present research extends this work to the 490,600 km2 Ohio River drainage basin and 11 subbasins. The study estimated the DIC flux leaving these basins between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2014, based on secondary hydrogeochemical, …

Rodenticide Incidents Of Exposure And Adverse Effects On Non-Raptor Birds, Nimish B. Vyas

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Interest in the adverse effects of rodenticides on birds has focused primarily on raptors. However, non-raptor birds are also poisoned (rodenticide exposure resulting in adverse effects including mortality) by rodenticides through consumption of the rodenticide bait and contaminated prey. A literature search for rodenticide incidents (evidence of exposure to a rodenticide, adverse effects, or exposure to placebo baits) involving non-raptor birds returned 641 records spanning the years 1931 to 2016. The incidents included 17 orders, 58 families, and 190 non-raptor bird species. Nineteen anticoagulant and non-anticoagulant rodenticide active ingredients were associated with the incidents. The number of incidents and species …

Evidence For Late Pliocene Deglacial Megafloods From Giant Sediment Waves In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Zexuan Wang

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Laurentide Ice Sheet outburst floods to the Gulf of Mexico have been mainly documented based on deep-sea cores, especially the megafloods, only during the last several interglacial episodes in the late Pleistocene. The paleoclimatic significance of giant sedimentary structures developed under unconfined Froude-supercritical turbidity currents in subaqueous settings is considerably under-examined. This research extensively documents >20-km-wide and 200-m-thick Plio-Pleistocene giant sediment waves for the first time on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope using 3D seismic data, which show waveform morphology in unprecedented detail. The results suggest that such large-scale bedforms were formed under sheet-like unconfined Froudesupercritical turbidity currents …

Integrating Future Scenario-Based Crop Expansion And Crop Conditions To Map Switchgrass Biofuel Potential In Eastern Nebraska, Usa, Yingxin Gu, Bruce K. Wylie

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) has been evaluated as one potential source for cellulosic biofuel feedstocks. Planting switchgrass in marginal croplands and waterway buffers can reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, and improve regional ecosystem services (i.e. it serves as a potential carbon sink). In previous studies, we mapped high risk marginal croplands and highly erodible cropland buffers that are potentially suitable for switchgrass development, which would improve ecosystem services and minimally impact food production. In this study, we advance our previous study results and integrate future crop expansion information to develop a switchgrass biofuel potential ensemble map for current and future …

The Effect Of Watershed Runoff And Sediment Resuspension On Turbidity And Sediment Deposition In St. John, Us Virgin Islands: Implications For Watershed And Marine Development And Restoration In Bays With Coral Reefs, Stephen E. Campbell

Theses

In the US Virgin Islands (USVI), land-based (terrigenous) sedimentation has been identified as a major cause of coral stress. Development, such as the building of unpaved roads in steep coastal watersheds, has increased sediment yields and marine terrigenous sedimentation by up to an order of magnitude above background levels. When activated during storm events, ephemeral streams transport sediment from the watershed to coastal waters. Once deposited on the seafloor, resuspension of benthic sediments can further increase turbidity and deposition. However, isolating the relative contributions of runoff and resuspension to turbidity and deposition using conventional sediment trap monitoring has been challenging. …

Environmental Changes Across The Early Mississippian Carbon Isotope Excursion, Dev Krishna Maharjan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Early Mississippian K–O (Kinderhookian-Osagean) δ13C excursion or TICE (mid-Tournaisian carbon isotope excursion) is characterized by an anomalous carbonate carbon isotope value of ≥5‰ that has been documented from numerous stratigraphic sections across the globe. This δ13C excursion coincides with global cooling and sea-level fall and predicts a significant change in seawater chemistry. However, sulfate sulfur isotope data across the K-O δ13C excursion reported in previous studies seem not to be responsive to the carbon cycle. Likewise, a recent study has documented a unidirectional increase in nitrogen isotopes across this excursion, which is not anticipated considering the amount of organic …

Determining Sources Of Nitrate In The Semi-Arid Rio Grande Using Nitrogen And Oxygen Isotopes, Diego Alberto Sanchez Hernandez

Masters Theses

The Rio Grande, a semi-arid river in the American Southwest, is a major source of surface water for agriculture and drinking supplies in New Mexico and Texas. In addition to increasing salinity, considerable increases of NO₃^- [nitrate] have been observed in the semi-arid portion of the Rio Grande. It is possible that elevated water salinity inhibits denitrification on irrigated fields and, thus, fails to mediate excess nutrient load from anthropogenic activities. Therefore, two major goals of this project were to 1) characterize and quantify major NO₃^- sources, and 2) assess whether elevated water salinity affects microbial …

Sensitivity Of Mangrove Range Limits To Climate Variability, Kyle C. Cavanaugh, Michael J. Osland, Remi Bardou, Gustavo Hinojosa-Arango, Juan M. Lopez-Vivas, John D. Parker, Andre S. Rovai

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Aim: Correlative distribution models have been used to identify potential climatic controls of mangrove range limits, but there is still uncertainty about the relative importance of these factors across different regions. To provide insights into the strength of climatic control of different mangrove range limits, we tested whether temporal variability in mangrove abundance increases near range limits and whether this variability is correlated with climatic factors thought to control large scale mangrove distributions.

Location: North and South America.

Time period: 1984–2011.

Major taxa studied: Avicennia germinans, Avicennia schuaeriana, Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa.

Methods: We characterized temporal variability in the enhanced …

Investigations Of The Spatial And Temporal Variations Of Sr And Nd Isotopes In Sediments From Two Indian Rivers: Implications To Source Identification, Sonali Pradhan, Jing Zhang, Mark Baskaran, Prabhaker Vasant Shirodkar, Ying Wu, Umesh Kumar Pradhan

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Radiogenic isotopes of Sr and Nd provide crucial information on chemical and physical erosion processes, therefore used as tracers for fingerprinting the sources of fluvial sediments. Moreover, elemental geochemistry, 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd signatures in silicate fractions of sediments primarily reflect intricate controls of characteristics and provenance of sediment. A suite of sediment samples collected from two rivers of India, Narmada (large) and Netravati (small) were analyzed for elemental concentrations, 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd in silicate as well as acid-leachable fractions. 87Sr/86Sr in acid-leachable sediment fractions from both the rivers (0.7094 ± 0.0002 for Narmada and 0.7158 ± 0.003 for Netravati) showed …

Δ13c And Δ15n In The Endangered Kemp’S Ridley Sea Turtle Lepidochelys Kempii After The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Kimberly J. Reich, Melania C. López-Castro, Donna J. Shaver, Claire Iseton, Kristen M. Hart, Michael J. Hooper, Christopher J. Schmitt

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The Deepwater Horizon explosion in April 2010 and subsequent oil spill released 3.19 × 106 barrels (5.07 × 108 l) of MC252 crude oil into important foraging areas of the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys kempii (Lk) in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). We measured δ13C and δ15N in scute biopsy samples from 33 Lk nesting in Texas during the period 2010 to 2012. Of these, 27 were equipped with satellite transmitters and were tracked to traditional foraging areas in the northern GoM after the spill. Differences in δ13C between the oldest and newest scute layers from 2010 …

Vegetation Response To Invasive Tamarix Control In Southwestern U.S. Rivers: A Collaborative Study Including 416 Sites, Eduardo Gonzalez, Anna A. Sher, Robert M. Anderson, Robin F. Bay, Daniel W. Bean, Gabriel J. Bissonnete, Berenger Bourgeois, David J. Cooper, Kara Dohrenwend, Kim D. Eichhorst, Hishma El Waer, Deborah K. Kennard, Rebecca Harms-Weissinger, Annie L. Henry, Lori J. Makarick, Steven M. Ostoja, Lindsay V. Reynolds, W. Wright Robinson, Patrick B. Shafroth

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Most studies assessing vegetation response following control of invasive Tamarix trees along southwestern U.S. rivers have been small in scale (e.g., river reach), or at a regional scale but with poor spatial-temporal replication, and most have not included testing the effects of a now widely used biological control. We monitored plant composition following Tamarix control along hydrologic, soil, and climatic gradients in 244 treated and 172 reference sites across six U.S. states. This represents the largest comprehensive assessment to date on the vegetation response to the four most common Tamarix control treatments. Biocontrol by a defoliating beetle (treatment 1) reduced …

Synoptic Atmospheric Conditions, Land Cover, And Equivalent Temperature Variations In Kentucky, Dorothy Yemaa Na-Yemeh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has demonstrated that equivalent temperature (T_E), which incorporates both the surface air temperature (T) and moist heat content associated with atmospheric moisture, is a better indicator of overall heat content. This thesis follows up on a study that used T_E to determine the impacts of land use/land cover and air masses on the atmospheric heat content over Kentucky during the growing season (April-September). The study, which used data from the Kentucky Mesonet, reveals that moist weather types dominate the growing season and, as expected, differences between T and T_E are smaller under dry atmospheric conditions …

Assessing Seasonal And Spatial Variability In The Hydrogeochemistry Of Glacial Meltwater In Iceland, Anisha Tuladhar

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A detailed comparative geochemical characterization of three different types of Iceland glacial systems was conducted during June, August, and October, 2016. The study was carried out at a total of 11 outlet glacier rivers flowing from the icecaps Vatnajökull, Eyjafjallajökull, and Mýrdalsjökull. A total of 75 grab samples were collected (25 for each sampling period). The hydrogeochemical variations of Icelandic glacial meltwater are influenced by volcanic activity, temporal changes, and geographical location, which differed between the sampling sites within the glaciers and icecaps. Lower pH range, and comparatively higher and variable specific conductivity, SO4, S and F is linked to …

Groundwater And Tidal Controls On Wetland Hydrology, Julie J. Metz Wetland Mitigation Bank, Woodbridge, Virginia, Benjamin Stuart Hiza

OES Theses and Dissertations

Julie J. Metz Wetlands Mitigation Bank, a 92-hectare freshwater wetland located in Woodbridge, Virginia, borders the tidally-influenced Neabsco Creek. Seven pods separated by earthen berms were built by Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc. (WSSI) in 1995 and 1997 by removing the toe of small sandy alluvial fans and covering the underlying coarse gravel bed with a low permeability cap. The basal Quaternary gravels were deposited in a creek valley incised into a thick sand-and-clay Cretaceous delta. The alluvial-fan apron developed at the base of steep slopes along the sides of the valley. Pressure transducer data from five monitoring wells along …

Quantity Trumps Quality: Bayesian Statistical Accumulation Modeling Guides Radiocarbon Measurements To Construct A Chronology In Real-Time, Devon Robert Firesinger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of an accurate and precise geochronology is imperative to understanding archives containing information about Earth’s past. Unable to date all intervals of an archive, researchers use methods of interpolation to approximate age between dates. Sections of the radiocarbon calibration curve can induce larger chronological uncertainty independent of instrumental precision, meaning even a precise date may carry inflated error in its calibration to a calendar age. Methods of interpolation range from step-wise linear regression to, most recently, Bayesian statistical models. These employ prior knowledge of accumulation rate to provide a more informed interpolation between neighboring dates. This study uses …