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Ua24 Mcicsl Newsletter - October 2015, Shannon R. Trimboli Education Coordinator

MCICSL Newsletter

This issue includes the following:

Mercy Academy Begins Study of Mammoth Cave’s Aquatic Habitat

National Network of Research Learning Centers Releases New Strategic Framework

as well as education and research highlights, MCICSL symposium information and FY16 Education report

Droughtscape, Fall 2015, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s column.

NDMC 20th anniversary 2

Employment opportunity

Third quarter 2015 climate summary

Third quarter 2015 impacts summary

Workshop in Ethiopia

San Antonio multi-hazard tournament

Healthy soil is drought buffer

U2U Award

Cost-benefit analysis for utilities managing drought

NDMC helps with rural poll questions on climate

Introducing our post-docs

South Korean visitors

Water Quality In The Río Pastaza Watershed A Comparative Study Of Ríos Topo, Zuñag, And Pastaza And The Impact Of The Topo Hydroelectric Project Using Macroinvertebrates As Bioindicators, Jesse Vega-Perkins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ríos Zuñag, Pastaza, and Topo flow through one of the rainiest and water-rich places in Ecuador. Río Zuñag is a relatively small, pristine montane river and Río Pastaza is a relatively large, contaminated river that receives the untreated wastewater of many communities. Río Topo’s unique watershed and gradient allow it to be home to many plants that have adapted to its unique environment, including the hyperendemic liverwort Myriocolea irrorata. However, in recent years, all of the water of Río Topo has been sold by the state of Ecuador to be developed for hydroelectric projects (HEP). The first of these …

Laboratory Manual For Introductory Geology, Bradley Deline, Randa Harris, Karen Tefend

Geological Sciences and Geography Open Textbooks

This textbook is a comprehensive lab manual for the core curriculum Introductory Geosciences classes with both informational content and laboratory exercises. Topics include basic laws and theories in Geology, the Earth's interior and plate tectonics, water and climate change, igneous rocks and volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Accessible files with optical character recognition (OCR) and auto-tagging provided by the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation.

North-Central Nebraska Geology: Niobrara River Valley In Brown, Cherry, And Keya Paha Counties, R. M. Joeckel, L. M. Howard, S. T. Tucker

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Validation Experiments On Finite Element Models Of An Ostrich (Struthio Camelus) Cranium, Andrew R. Cuff, Jen A. Bright, Emily J. Rayfield

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The first finite element (FE) validation of a complete avian cranium was performed on an extant palaeognath, the ostrich (Struthio camelus). Ex-vivo strains were collected from the cranial bone and rhamphotheca. These experimental strains were then compared to convergence tested, specimen-specific finite element (FE) models. The FE models contained segmented cortical and trabecular bone, sutures and the keratinous rhamphotheca as identified from micro-CT scan data. Each of these individual materials was assigned isotropic material properties either from the literature or from nanoindentation, and the FE models compared to the ex-vivo results. The FE models generally replicate the location …

Using Fish Population Metrics To Compare The Effects Of Artificial Reef Density, Catheline Y. M. Froehlich, Richard Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Artificial reefs continue to be added as habitat throughout the world, yet questions remain about how reef design affects fish diversity and abundance. In the present study, the effects of reef density were assessed for fish communities and sizes of economically valuable Lutjanus campechanus 13 km off Port Mansfield, Texas, at a reef composed of more than 4000 concrete culverts. The study spanned from May to June in 2013 and 2014, and sites sampled included natural reefs, bare areas, and varying culvert patch density categories, ranging from 1–190 culverts. Abundances of adults and species evenness of juvenile populations differed between …

Development Of Enzymatic Biofuel Cell For Glucose Sensor Application, Ashar Turky Abd

Theses and Dissertations

For several decades, biological fuel cells have drawn significant attention as alternative power sources since they are environmentally friendly and less expensive, compared to the conventional noble metal-based fuel cells. Some enzymatic biocatalysts such as glucose dehydrogenase and glucose oxidase consume glucose as fuel, generating electric currents if paired with an oxygen reduction electrode. While microbial biofuel cells inevitably require a physical barrier or proton exchange membrane between anode and cathode, enzyme-based biofuel cells allow a membraneless or single compartment design, since enzymes are very selective on redox species. For example, glucose dehydrogenase oxidizes the glucose fuel only, while it …

Dynamics Of Thermally Induced Ice Streams Simulated With A Higher-Order Flow Model, Douglas Brinkerhoff, Jesse Johnson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We use a new discretization technique to solve the higher-order thermomechanically coupled equations of glacier evolution. We find that under radially symmetric continuum equations, small perturbations in symmetry due to the discretization are sufficient to produce the initiation of non-symmetric thermomechanical instabilities which we interpret as ice streams, in good agreement with previous studies which have indicated a similar instability. We find that the inclusion of membrane stresses regularizes the size of predicted streams, eliminating the ill-posedness evident in previous investigations of ice stream generation through thermomechanical instability. Ice streams exhibit strongly irregular periodicity which is influenced by neighboring ice …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Select Ecosystems, Mary Snow, Richard Snow

Publications

Terrestrial and marine environments are experiencing pronounced changes. As species and their ecosystems undergo rising temperatures, varying precipitation patterns and alterations in their chemistry and phenology, there is a great deal of added stress on many organisms. Many species attempting to adapt to a rapidly changing climate are forced to migrate or to become extinct. Forest communities are changing in composition as well as migrating northward. Often, roads, cities, and other forms of development physically impede migration. Some species are not able to migrate at the pace with which their ecosystems are warming. In some forest communities, southern boundaries are …

Hydrogeologic Investigation Of A Pumice Aquifer, Fremont/Winema National Forest, Oregon, Jonathan Michael Weatherford

Dissertations and Theses

The middle Holocene cataclysmic eruption of Mount Mazama blanketed Walker Rim, in south central Oregon, with 270 cm to 300 cm of pumice, causing capture of surface water systems by groundwater, stream relocation, and the formation of biologically diverse fens and seasonal wetlands. The pumice aquifer at Round Meadow, an 8.6 km² basin, hosts both a fen and seasonally ponded wetlands. The Round Meadow watershed lies within a closed basin between the upper Klamath and Deschutes river basins. As the highest meadow at Walker Rim, it is a relatively well-constrained system to study the effects of hydrological disruption.

A …

Ua24 Mcicsl Newsletter - September 2015, Shannon R. Trimboli Education Coordinator

MCICSL Newsletter

This issue includes the following:

Citizen Scientists Contribute Over $46,700 of Labor to Mammoth Cave National Park

Federal Agencies Directed to Advance Citizen Science

as well as education and research highlights,and MCICSL strategic planning.

Study On The Accumulated Temperature Distribution Model Of Snowmelt Flood Magnitude From The Perspective Of Ecological Environmental Protection Of Mountain Areas, Yang Liu, Xian Yong Meng, Zhi Hui Liu, Danlin Yu

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Mountain flood that causes landslide and other geological disasters can damage the fragile ecological environment in mountain areas. In this paper, threshold and distribution model of accumulated temperature based on snowmelt flood magnitude are designed in mountainous watershed. Meanwhile, input data for this model make use of ample reliable data that include remote sensing and so on. In detail, this model simulates the average watershed temperature by using the meteorologic re-analysis data of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and calculates the average snow depth by using hyperspectral remote sensing data. In addition, the model related data comprise long-term observation …

Late Quaternary Speleogenesis And Landscape Evolution In A Tropical Carbonate Island: Pango La Kuumbi (Kuumbi Cave), Zanzibar, Nikos Kourampas, Ceri Shipton, William Mills, Ruth Tibesasa, Henrietta Horton, Mark Horton, Mary Prendergast, Alison Crowther, Katerina Douka, Patrick Faulkner, Llorenç Picornell, Nicole Boivin

International Journal of Speleology

Kuumbi Cave is one of a group of caves that underlie a flight of marine terraces in Pleistocene limestone in eastern Zanzibar (Indian Ocean). Drawing on the findings of geoarchaeological field survey and archaeological excavation, we discuss the formation and evolution of Kuumbi Cave and its wider littoral landscape. In the later part of the Quaternary (last ca. 250,000 years?), speleogenesis and terrace formation were driven by the interplay between glacioeustatic sea level change and crustal uplift at rates of ca. 0.10-0.20 mm/yr. Two units of backreef/reef limestone were deposited during ‘optimal’ (highest) highstands, tentatively correlated with MIS 7 and …

The Science And Practice Of River Restoration, Ellen E. Wohl, Stuart N. Lane, Andrew C. Wilcox

Geosciences Faculty Publications

River restoration is one of the most prominent areas of applied water-resources science. From an initial focus on enhancing fish habitat or river appearance, primarily through structural modification of channel form, restoration has expanded to incorporate a wide variety of management activities designed to enhance river process and form. Restoration is conducted on headwater streams, large lowland rivers, and entire river networks in urban, agricultural, and less intensively human-altered environments. We critically examine how contemporary practitioners approach river restoration and challenges for implementing restoration, which include clearly identified objectives, holistic understanding of rivers as ecosystems, and the role of restoration …

Lahar Infrasound Associated With Volcán Villarrica's 3 March 2015 Eruption, Jeffrey B. Johnson, Jose L. Palma

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The paroxysmal 2015 eruption of Volcán Villarrica (Chile) produced a 2.5 h long lahar, which descended more than 20 km within the Rio Correntoso/Turbio drainage and destroyed two small bridges. A three-element infrasound array 10 km from the summit, and 4 km from the lahar’s closest approach, was used to study the flow’s progression. Array processing using cross-correlation lag times and semblance places constraints on the lahar’s dynamics, including detection of an initial flow pulse that traveled from 2 to 12 km at an average speed of 38m/s. Subsequently, the lahar signal evolved to a relatively stationary infrasonic tremor located …

Large-Scale And High-Resolution 3-D Cave Mapping By Terrestrial Laser Scanning: A Case Study Of The Domica Cave, Slovakia, Michal Gallay, Ján Kaňuk, Zdenko Hochmuth, John D. Meneely, Jaroslav Hofierka, Vladimír Sedlák

International Journal of Speleology

Mapping and modelling the complicated geometry of caves is a challenging task that has traditionally been undertaken by tacheometric surveying methods. These methods are excellent for capturing the general shape of a cave system but they are not suitable for high-speed, high-resolution mapping of complex surfaces found in this environment. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) technologies can acquire millions of points represented by 3-D coordinates, at very high spatial densities on complex multifaceted surfaces within minutes. In the last few years, advances in measurement speed, reduction in size / cost and increased portability of this technology has revolutionised the collection of …

Comparative Sorption Of Methylene Blue Onto Hydrophobic Clays, Alvaro D. Sponza, Natalia J. Fernandez, David Yang, Karla A. Ortiz, Abel E. Navarro

Publications and Research

Chemical modifications of clay to remove methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions at room temperature were compared. Natural bentonite (NC) was modified by cation exchange with hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (HC), bencyltriethylammonium chloride (BC), and tetramethylammonium chloride (TC) to reverse the surface polarity of the hydrophilic bentonite. The adsorption of MB was studied and fitted by the adsorption theories of Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, and Temkin. Equilibrium parameters were calculated, indicating that chemical modification did not improve the adsorption, due to the electrostatic adsorption mechanism. Specific surface area was determined, reporting the following trend: NC > TC > BC > HC. Isotherms show that TC is …

Ua24 Mcicsl Newsletter - August 2015, Shannon R. Trimboli Education Coordinator

MCICSL Newsletter

This issue includes the following:

Bat Night was a success for education and research

MCICSL participated in national network strategic planning

as well as Summer research opportunities

Changes In Tall Shrub Abundance On The North Slope Of Alaska, 2000-2010, Rocio Raquel Duchesne-Onoro

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The observed greening of Arctic vegetation and the expansion of shrubs in the last few decades has likely had profound implications for the tundra ecosystem, including feedbacks to climate. Uncertainty surrounding the magnitude, direction, and implications of this vegetation shift calls for monitoring of vegetation structural parameters, such as fractional cover of shrubs. Due to the extent of the North Slope of Alaska and its extreme environments, remote sensing may be the most suitable tool to produce wall-to-wall fractional shrub cover maps for the entire region, however, most regional maps have relied on vegetation indices or needed many years worth …

Ecology And Morphology Of The Late Miocene Musk Deer, Longirostromeryx Wellsi (Artiodactyla: Moschidae: Blastomerycinae), Katheryn Y. C. Chen

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Longirostromeryx wellsi, one of the latest surviving members of the extinct clade Blastomerycinae (Artiodactyla: Moschidae), possesses highly derived craniodental morphology that deviates from typical musk deer form. Previous work suggests that the unique anatomy of L. wellsi represents adaptations for occupying open savannas. To test this hypothesis I conduct principal components analysis on five postcranial bones of L. wellsi, comparing them to that of several extant ruminant artiodactyls, which are divided among seven habitat categories. These elements are also compared with the postcrania of other blastomerycines. These analyses indicate that L. wellsi anatomy is most similar to that of other …

Stable Isotope Analysis Of Bison Latifrons And Paleoecological Inferences, Fabian Ceron Hardy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bison latifrons was a large Pleistocene herbivore that is traditionally hypothesized to have been adapted to living in forest openings and woodlands. According to this view, the species was primarily a browser of high-growing, woody plants. Very little isotopic work has been conducted on this species, and there have been no prior studies of high altitude localities containing this species. This study aims to address both of these issues.

B. latifrons is known from sites in several states, including California, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, and Florida, among others. These sites provide diverse examples of this species’ habitat and the opportunity to …

Automatic Detection And Denoising Of Signals In Large Geophysical Datasets, Gabriel O. Trisca

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

To fully understand the complex interactions of various phenomena in the natural world, scientific disciplines such as geology and seismology increasingly rely upon analyzing large amounts of observations. However, data collection is growing at a faster rate than what is currently possible to analyze through traditional approaches. These datasets, supplied by the increasing use of sensors and remote sensing, require specialized computer programs to effectively analyze complex and expansive volumes of data.

Elaborating on existing geophysical data processing approaches for infrasound data collected from an avalanche-prone area, this project proposes new techniques for processing large geophysical datasets. These improved techniques …

The Colorado Plateau As A Virtual Laboratory For Mobile Games For Geoscience Education And Relations Between Rock Strength And River Metrics, Natalie Bursztyn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation encompasses two studies: one developing virtual field trips for mobile devices for an innovative approach to lower-division geoscience education, and the other examining the role of rock strength in river erosion and landscape evolution.

The education study involves the development of three virtual field trip modules (Geologic Time, Geologic Structures, and Hydrologic Processes, all free on iTunes and Google Play) that lead students down a virtual Colorado River through Grand Canyon by physically moving around their campus quad, football field or other location, using their GPS-equipped smart phone or tablet. As students reach each location in the scaled …

Genetic Variability Of The 5-Enolpyruvylshikimate-3-Phosphate (Epsp) Synthase Gene In Round-Up™ Resistant Soil Bacteria, Seth Steenwyk, Hannah Van Maanen, Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Global use of Round-up™ has had a profound effect on agricultural systems. While there is a clear challenge with the emergence of resistant weeds, less emphasis has been placed on its impacts regarding the soil ecosystem. In this study, we sought to identify glyphosate resistance in two specific soil bacteria, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas syringae pv. glycinea. To accomplish this purpose, selective media and colony PCR were used to isolate and identify colonies with glyphosate resistance. The presence of glyphosate resistance in soil bacteria was verified, and continuing work is being done to analyze sequence data that may lead to …

Ua24 Mcicsl Newsletter - July 2015, Shannon R. Trimboli Education Coordinator

MCICSL Newsletter

This issue includes the following:

Interns with The Nature Conservancy Participate in Research at Mammoth Cave

Renaissance in Cave Biology Research Underway

as well as Summer research projects, in the news and White-nose Syndrome workshop

Interdisciplinary Modeling For Water-Related Issues Graduate Course, Laurel Saito, Alexander Fernald, Timothy Link

All ECSTATIC Materials

The science and management of aquatic ecosystems is inherently interdisciplinary, with issues associated with hydrology, atmospheric science, water quality, geochemistry, sociology, economics, environmental science, and ecology. Addressing water resources issues in any one discipline invariably involves effects that concern other disciplines, and attempts to address one issue often have consequences that exacerbate existing issues or concerns, or create new ones (Jørgensen et al. 1992; Lackey et al. 1975; Straskraba 1994) due to the strongly interactive nature of key processes (Christensen et al. 1996). Thus, research and management of aquatic ecosystems must be interdisciplinary to be most effective, but such truly …

Droughtscape, Summer 2015, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s column

New Drought Risk Management Research Center

Second quarter 2015 climate summary

Second quarter 2015 impacts summary

Caribbean region an innovator in drought early warning

Wind River Reservation tribes move toward drought planning

Ranchers, U.S. Forest Service, University of Arizona co-develop drought plans

Summer blockbuster from CoCoRaHS: Assessing Drought in the U.S

Western states drought coordinators meet

Haverstraw Bay Benthic Habitat Characterization, Robert M. Cerrato, Alison M. Flanagan, Roger D. Flood

School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

High-resolution backscatter and bathymetric maps created by multibeam and sidescan sonar surveys were used to identify five different seafloor bottom types within Haverstraw Bay. Grab samples were collected within these areas to characterize sediment properties and macrofauna. Selected sampling locations were revisited and seafloor images were obtained with an HD underwater camera. Multivariate analysis was used to identify the most important factors explaining variations in community structure. Results indicated that categorical variables defining bottom types, grain size, and water depth can explain about 42% of community structure variation. In addition, shell length data collected for Rangia cuneata, an introduced …

Paleoclimate Implications From Stable Isotope Analysis Of Sedimentary Organic Carbon And Vertebrate Fossils From The Cedar Mountain Formation, Ut, U.S.A., Garrett Andrew Hatzell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of fossilized vertebrate teeth and bone were analyzed to determine isotopic values of vertebrate faunal diet from the early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah. Results for δ18O of PO4 (δ18Op) (Suarez et al., 2014) from the same data set have been compared to the δ18O of CO3 (δ18Oc) portion of teeth and turtle shell to determine if diagenetic alteration of the isotopes has occurred by plotting the line of best fit equation that models the relationship between unaltered δ18OP and δ18OC of modern mammals from Iacumin et al., 1996. Results indicate slight diagenesis of …