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Potential Climate Change Effects On Groundwater Recharge In The High Plains Aquifer, Usa, Russell S. Crosbie, Bridget R. Scanlon, Freddie S. Mpelasoka, Robert C. Reedy, John B. Gates, Lu Zhang

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Considering that past climate changes have significantly impacted groundwater resources, quantitative predictions of climate change effects on groundwater recharge may be valuable for effective management of future water resources. This study used 16 global climate models (GCMs) and three global warming scenarios to investigate changes in groundwater recharge rates for a 2050 climate relative to a 1990 climate in the U.S. High Plains region. Groundwater recharge was modeled using the Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere- Transfer model WAVES for a variety of soil and vegetation types representative of the High Plains. The median projection under a 2050 climate includes increased recharge in the Northern …

Oil Pollution In Water Bodies Of Restricted Circulation, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Coastal lagoons and embayments near urban centers around the world share many common characteristics and problems. Physical impediments to free water circulation (spits, barrier islands, internal islands, tombolos, submerged sills) often lead to water stagnation and, in the presence of excess nutrients, eutrophication. Urban and industrial activities provoke (usually accidental) spills of hazardous materials into these confined water bodies, such as crude petroleum and refined petroleum products, leading to difficulties for resident biota and potential hazards for human health. The sluggish turnover of these water bodies (or low-energy zones within them) may retard the natural attenuation of the spilled contaminants. …

Climate Change Effects On Vibrio Bacteria In The Winyah Bay Estuary And The Projected Spread Of Vibrio Under Future Climatic Scenarios., Reem Deeb

Theses and Dissertations

While there are several studies on the distribution ofVibrio vulnificusandVibrio parahaemolyticusin estuarine waters around the world, there is little information on the distribution of both organisms in South Carolina waters. Monthly sampling of surface and bottom water from 9 sites in Winyah Bay was conducted over the period April-October 2012. Both organisms were enumerated on CHROMagarVibriomedia. TheVibriocounts obtained were mainly less than 20 Colony Forming Units (CFU)/ml which is typical for what was found elsewhere along the coast of the Carolinas. TheVibrio vulnificuscounts were the highest when salinity ranged between 5 ppt and 20 ppt.Vibrio parahaemolyticusdid not show a clear …

Full Issue 42(2)

International Journal of Speleology

All articles in Volume 42 Issue 2. Does not include cover image.

An Avalanche Hazard Model For Bitlis Province, Turkey, Using Gis Based Multicriteria Decision Analysis, Levent Selçuk

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Most avalanche fatalities in Turkey have occurred in Bitlis Province. The scope of this research was to identify the avalanche hazard area of that province, using geographical information system (GIS) based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and to evaluate it by means of sensitivity and accuracy analysis. The model consists of 5 GIS layers: elevation, slope, aspect, vegetation density, and land use. The hazard model is obtained by using a comparison matrix where all identified criteria of GIS layers are compared against each other. The acceptability of the model was determined using historical events. All of these events plotted over the …

Appropriate Terminology For Karst-Like Phenomena: The Problem With ‘Pseudokarst’, Rolan S. Eberhard, Chris Sharples

International Journal of Speleology

The practice of referring to certain morphologically karst-like phenomena as ‘pseudokarst’ is problematic, because it ignores basic principles of sound classification, logical naming conventions and accepted geomorphic classifications and terminology. These problems have compounded the difficulty in establishing an accepted classification of ‘pseudokarst’ types. The practice embodies a karst-centric perspective which should be avoided in favour of using conventional geomorphic terminology for non-karstic features. We illustrate this by providing existing conventional terms for many ‘pseudokarst’ types reported in the literature.

An Exploration Of The Development And Proliferation Of Hydraulic Fracturing, Ellee G. Cook, Travis Dodson, Kara Shervanick, Alice Whitten

Environmental Studies Student Works

No abstract provided.

Propagation Of Interval And Probabilistic Uncertainty In Cyberinfrastructure-Related Data Processing And Data Fusion, Christian Servin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Data uncertainty affects the results of data processing. So, it is necessary to find out how the data uncertainty propagates into the uncertainty of the results of data processing. This problem is especially important when cyberinfrastructure enables us to process large amounts of heterogeneous data. In the ideal world, we should have an accurate description of data uncertainty, and well-justified efficient algorithms to propagate this uncertainty. In practice, we are often not yet in this ideal situation: the description of uncertainty is often only approximate, and the algorithms for uncertainty propagation are often not well-justified and not very computationally efficient. …

A History Of Place: Using Phytolith Analysis To Discern Holocene Vegetation Change On Sanak Island, Western Gulf Of Alaska, Cricket C. Wilbur

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study investigated a terrestrial climate proxy, phytoliths, as a complimentary approach to documenting the dynamics of present and past vegetation on Sanak Island, the largest island in a small island group in the eastern Aleutian archipelago, and as a new basis by which to interpret Holocene environmental variability in Alaska. A phytolith reference collection was established from 59 selected plant species of maritime tundra belonging to 27 families. The grass species and a sedge species produced abundant phytolith forms whereas the majority of dicotyledons in this study were trace producers of phytoliths. A paleoenvironmental reconstruction from fossil phytoliths recovered …

Early Eocene To Middle Miocene Cooling And Aridification Of East Antarctica, Sandra Passchier, Steven M. Bohaty, Francisco J. Jiménez‐Espejo, Jörg Pross, Ursu Röhl, Tina Van De Flierdt, Carlota Escutia, Henk Brinkhuis

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

[1] Few high‐latitude terrestrial records document the timing and nature of the Cenozoic “Greenhouse” to “Icehouse” transition. Here we exploit the bulk geochemistry of marine siliciclastic sediments from drill cores on Antarctica's continental margin to extract a unique semiquantitative temperature and precipitation record for Eocene to mid‐Miocene (~54–13 Ma). Alkaline elements are strongly enriched in the detrital mineral fraction in fine‐grained siliciclastic marine sediments and only occur as trace metals in the biogenic fraction. Hence, terrestrial climofunctions similar to the chemical index of alteration (CIA) can be applied to the alkaline major element geochemistry of marine sediments on continental margins …

Citizens’ Perspectives Of Access To The Decision Making Process And Community Improvement As Determinants Of Brownfields Redevelopment Success, Shevon Jean Letang

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Brownfields redevelopment is acclaimed as a successful program that has revitalized struggling urban communities and returned unproductive, underutilized, and abandoned industrial and commercial properties to municipalities’ tax rolls. Despite a major brownfields' redevelopment goal being to improve the communities and their citizens' quality of life, to date, the program has not been evaluated from the mainstreams' perspective as to its impact on their neighborhoods and their quality of life. A survey of 129 citizens from urban, suburban and exsuburban municipalities in Passaic County New Jersey sought to evaluate the social outcomes of three redeveloped projects from the affected mainstreams' perspective. …

Chemical Contaminants As Stratigraphic Markers For The Anthropocene, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Thousands and even millions of years from now, widespread anthropogenic contaminants in sediments would likely persist, incorporated into the geological record. They would inadvertently preserve evidence of our present era (informally designated as the Anthropocene Epoch) characterized by large human populations engaged in intensive industrial and agricultural activities.

Hypothetical geologists in the distant future would likely find unusually high concentrations of a wide variety of contaminants at stratigraphic levels corresponding to our present time, analogous to the iridium anomaly marking the bolide impact event at the close of the Cretaceous Period. These would include both organic and inorganic substances, such …

Evaluation Of The Effects Of Absorption Field Product Architecture Type On Effluent Dispersal And Soil Chemical Properties In A Profile-Limited Soil, Nina J.M. Prater

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On-site wastewater treatment systems (OWTSs) are commonly used by households in areas of low population density to treat household wastewater and recycle it back to the environment. The traditional absorption field product used in OWTSs is a pipe-and-gravel architecture type, which has been used for decades and is the basis for most design regulations. However, new products of differing architecture types including chambers, polystyrene-aggregate, pipe-and-tire-chip, and gravel-less-pipe systems have recently become available. A three-year field study was conducted in Bethel Heights, AR to assess the performance of several newer products and to compare different architecture types to the traditional pipe-and-gravel …

Sigma Gamma Epsilon Undergraduate Research Poster Session, Erika Elswick

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The Sigma Gamma Epsilon undergraduate research poster session will highlight recent and on-going student research. Abstracts for poster presentations will be available in the Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 2012 Annual Meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina, 4-7 November 2012.

The Case Of Canoe Brook Wells In Glacial Sand And Gravel, Livingston, New Jersey : Establishing The Hydraulic Signs Of Well Contamination Risk Using Topography, Brian Frank

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

When little groundwater level data is available, the potential energy gradients reflected in the topography, assumed to be saturated to the surface, can be used to estimate the directions and relative rates of groundwater flow (flow systems). Darcy’s law conveniently relates groundwater water levels to the rate of groundwater flow. Toth (1963) related topography to groundwater flow systems. Flow systems can transport surface contamination, if present, to wells. The topography and likely contamination point source surface locations were used to create and contrast the flow systems impacting two wells in order to assess contamination risk. The two wells, Canoe Brook …

Quantitative Reasoning And Sustainability, Corrine H. Taylor

Numeracy

Quantitative Reasoning and Sustainability have much in common. Both are complex, nuanced concepts with rather long definitions that have evolved over time. Both subjects are “everybody’s business” on college campuses, and must be approached in courses across the curriculum, not merely in one course on QR or in one course on Sustainability. The growing, wider presence of both QR and Sustainability on college campuses is due to their applicability in individuals’ personal, professional, and public lives. Moreover, QR and Sustainability support and enhance each other in and out of the classroom. Sustainability is an important, authentic, relevant context for lessons …

Chronostratigraphic Framework For The Iodp Expedition 318 Cores From The Wilkes Land Margin: Constraints For Paleoceanographic Reconstruction, Lisa Tauxe, Catherine E. Stickley, Saiko Sugisaki, Peter K. Bijl, Steven M. Bohaty, Henk Brinkhuis, Carlota Escutia, J. A. Flores, A. J. P. Houben, M. Iwai, Francisco J. Jiménez‐Espejo, Robert Mckay, Sandra Passchier, Jörg Pross, Christina Riesselman, Ursula Röhl, Francesca Sangiorgi, Kevin Welsh, Adam Klaus, Annick Fehr, James Bendle, Robert B. Dunbar, J. Gonzàlez, T. Hayden, K. Katsuki, M. P. Olney, Stephen Pekar, P. K. Shrivastava, Tina Van De Flierdt, Trevor Williams, M. Yamane

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

[1] The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 318 to the Wilkes Land margin of Antarctica recovered a sedimentary succession ranging in age from lower Eocene to the Holocene. Excellent stratigraphic control is key to understanding the timing of paleoceanographic events through critical climate intervals. Drill sites recovered the lower and middle Eocene, nearly the entire Oligocene, the Miocene from about 17 Ma, the entire Pliocene and much of the Pleistocene. The paleomagnetic properties are generally suitable for magnetostratigraphic interpretation, with well‐behaved demagnetization diagrams, uniform distribution of declinations, and a clear separation into two inclination modes. Although the sequences were discontinuously …

Geochemistry Of The Hudson Highlands Migmatites And Relation To Post-Ottawan Deformation, Justin Wayne Kulick

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The 1010 Ma Canada Hill Granite represents a small post-orogenic granitoid body that can be found intermingled with Middle Proterozoic rocks in the Hudson Highlands, NY and postdates the thermal peak of the Ottawan Orogeny. The Canada Hill Granite is part of a chemically diverse group of plutonic rocks that formed from crustal melting during late to post-Ottawan dextral transpression and lithospheric thinning.

Thirty-two samples were collected of the Canada Hill Granite and surrounding rocks from the Hudson Highlands, NY in the West Point-Bear Mountain area, from which new major- and trace-element data have been obtained. The Canada Hill Granite …

A 14,000-Year Record Of Wildfire And Alluvial Fan Deposition Reveals Relationships Among Fire, Climate, Vegetation, And Sediment Yields In The Middle Fork Salmon River, Idaho, Kerry Elizabeth Riley

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Changes in climate influence vegetation distributions and the frequency and severity of fire and post-fire erosion. While the frequency of large fires has increased on all vegetated continents over the last decade, it remains unclear whether recent large fires are extraordinary over millennial timescales. In the Middle Fork Salmon River of central Idaho, over 40% of the watershed has burned in the last 30 years and the subsequent increase in erosion from severely burned hillslopes has produced many large fire-related debris flows. Fires have burned throughout the steep topographic gradient of the watershed that encompasses high elevation sub-alpine and mixed …

Fate Of Cerium Oxide (Ceo₂), Nanoparticles In Landfill Leachate, Casey Marie Ezyske

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Nanomaterial (NM) based manufacturing is predicted to grow to 15% of the global manufacturing economy by 2014. Subsequent to their use, most of the engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), man-made particles with at least dimension between 1 and 100 nm, will be disposed of in landfills. Landfill leachate is highly contaminated wastewater containing a variety of constituents that may affect the fate and transport of the nanomaterials. In this study, the size and zeta potential of cerium oxide (CeO₂), an industrially important nanomaterial, was investigated in different solution matrices (Milli-Q water, a real landfill leachate, KC1 solution, and humic acid …

The Role Of Self-Interest As A Determining Factor Of Environmental Concerns, Eleftherios Papaioannou

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

While it may be quite evident that people perform environmentally harmful acts, the psychological origin of environmentally destructive behaviors and attitudes has been largely avoided and set-aside. This research offers an insight claiming that environmental concerns only exist when there is no self-interest. Self-interest was narrowed down to the self and the focus placed on the T . The study conducted was aimed at bringing about a correlational relationship between selfism and environmental concerns, with the hypothesis stating that a negative correlation should exist.

Scientific research has devised environmental concern measurements according to various ideas of what it is that …

Geochemistry Of The Diorite Pluton From The Stony Point Complex, New York, And Its Relation To The Cortlandt Complex, Andrew James Temples

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The Cortlandt-Beemerville magmatic belt of probable late Ordovician age is bound in the west by the Beemerville alkaline complex, New Jersey, and in the east by the calc-alkalic to alkalic Cortlandt complex, New York. Connecting the Cortlandt and Beemerville plutonic complexes is a string of east-west trending lamprophyre and felsic dike rocks (Eby, 2004). The Stony Point complex on the western side of the Hudson River is linked to the Cortlandt complex on the eastern side of the river, as well as the Rosetown complex further to the west through similar mineralogical and chemical compositions. Due to a lack of …

Droughtscape, Spring 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

Contents

Director’s report.

Climate Masters 1

Ranch plan workshop . 3

Winter climate summary 4

Winter impacts summary . 6

Zhao research.

Getachew research 0

Other international news

Wardlow move 13

IPCC disaster report .

Proceedings Of The European Society For Isotope Research - Esir Ix, Editor: Bogdan P. Onac, Editor: Ioan I. Bucur

Studia UBB Geologia

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Studies Of Airborne Particulate Emmisions From The Ampellum S.A. Copper Smelter, Zlatna, Romania, Ben J. Williamson, Nicolae Har, William O. Purvis, Ana Maria Rusu

Studia UBB Geologia

Preliminary studies have been carried on the characterization of particulate emissions from the Ampellum S.A. copper smelter in the town of Zlatna, Romania. The particulates studied were collected on polycarbonate filters using air pump apparatus and on the surfaces of lichens. Mass of total suspended particulates (TSP) and PM10 varied from 19 to 230 μg/m3 and 3 to 146 μg/m3, respectively (PM10/TSP = 0.14 to 1.0), depending on wind direction and proximity to the smelter. Particulates on collection filters from a site directly downwind from the smelter have a mean equivalent spherical diameter (ESD) of 0.94 μm (s.d. 1.1) and …

Multicomponent Cubic Oxide Exsolution In Synthetic Basalts: Temperature Dependence And Implications For Magnetic Properties, Julie A. Bowels, Lisa Tatsumi-Petrochilos, Julie E. Hammer, Stefanie A. Brachfeld

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Although the compositional unmixing of cubic-structured iron oxides has profound effects on the magnetic properties of rocks that contain them, a basic understanding of the kinetics and thermodynamics of this process has not been achieved in experimental studies due to sluggish reaction rates in binary oxide phases. Exploiting the fact that many natural Fe-oxides contain multiple additional cations, including Ti, Mg and Al, we perform novel “forward” laboratory experiments in which cubic-cubic phase exsolution proceeds from initially homogeneous multicomponent oxides. A variety of Fe-Ti-Mg-Al cubic iron oxides were nucleated and grown in synthetic, multicomponent basalt under different ƒO2 environments, and …

Post-Speleogenetic Biogenic Modification Of Gomantong Caves, Sabah, Borneo, Joyce Lundberg, Donald A. Mcfarlane

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

The Gomantong cave system of eastern Sabah, Malaysia, is well-known as an important site for harvesting edible bird-nests and, more recently, as a tourist attraction. Although the biology of the Gomantong system has been repeatedly studied, very little attention has been given to the geomorphology. Here, we report on the impact of geobiological modification in the development of the modern aspect of the cave, an important but little recognized feature of tropical caves. Basic modeling of the metabolic outputs from bats and birds (CO₂, H₂O, heat) reveals that post-speleogenetic biogenic corrosion can erode bedrock by between …

Investigation Of Arsenic In The Transition Zone Basin Of The Mojave River, Matthew Edward Howard

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to identify the source(s) of arsenic in the Transition Zone subbasin of the Mojave River. The transition zone is a sub-section of the Mojave River watershed. The project area is located in the arid southwestern desert region of the United States. 43 monitoring wells were sampled during September of 2010 and October of 2011. The objective of this project is to understand the processes by which arsenic is being released from sediment into groundwater supply. This project is part of an ongoing study of Transition Zone subbasin and will be used in future work …

Varying Sediment Sources (Hudson Strait, Cumberland Sound, Baffin Bay) To The Nw Labrador Sea Slope Between And During Heinrich Events 0 To 4, J. T. Andrews, Donald C. Barber, A. E. Jennings, D. D. Erbel, B. Maclean, M. E. Kirby, J. S. Stoner

Geology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Core HU97048-007PC was recovered from the continental Labrador Sea slope at a water depth of 945m, 250km seaward from the mouth of Cumberland Sound, and 400km north of Hudson Strait. Cumberland Sound is a structural trough partly floored by Cretaceous mudstones and Paleozoic carbonates. The record extends from ~ 10 to 58k cal a BP. On-board logging revealed a complex series of lithofacies, including buff-colored detrital carbonate-rich sediments [Heinrich (H)-events] frequently bracketed by black facies. We investigate the provenance of these facies using quantitative X-ray diffraction on drill-core samples from Paleozoic and Cretaceous bedrock from the SE Baffin Island Shelf, …

Shoreline Changes In Point Pelee, Canada: An Airphoto-Based Analysis, Abdullah Bamasoud

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Shoreline retreat has significant consequences for Point Pelee National Park’s (PPNP) ecological and economic systems. In this study, the shoreline changes of PPNP are examined in terms of their rates, their relationship to natural and anthropogenic influences, and methods for predicting shoreline positions.

The rates of shoreline change are analyzed for the period 1959-2004 using ortho-airphotos. The eastern shoreline of the Park exhibited varying recession in both rising and falling Lake Erie water level, especially in the Northeast Beach, where it averaged -3.14 m˖y-1. The western shoreline of the Park generally exhibited accretion and had an inverse relationship with Lake …