Digital Commons Network^™

Characterization Of Magnetically Stabilized Hinges For Origami-Inspired Mechanisms, Larry L. Howell, H T. Pruett, Philip Klocke, Spencer Magleby

Faculty Publications

Origami-inspired mechanisms provide opportunities for deployable systems, including reflectarray antennas. There is a need for approaches to deploy and stabilize such arrays. Magnetic mechanisms show promise for meeting those needs and methods for modeling their behavior would facilitate their design and analysis. We demonstrate the existence of bistability in select configurations of magnetically stabilized hinges and characterize their equilibrium positions as a function of parameters estimated from simulation data for these mechanisms. Other relevant information such as potential energy, axial force data, angular position of unstable equilibria, and transition values from bistability to monostability are also modeled. The results are …

Methodology For Designing And Improving Novel Kirigami Patterns Using The Hamiltonian Circuit Framework, Larry L. Howell, Nathan Coleman, Mckaelin Edralin, Specer P. Magleby, Denise Halverson, Zhong You

Faculty Publications

The ability to compactly fold arrays to be deployed in space has seen an increasing demand in the aerospace industry. In this work, we build on existing methods to create kirigami patterns which can stow compactly and deploy out to a predictable shape using Hamiltonian circuits. We detail how designers can use this method to create novel kirigami patterns for a desired deployed shape and area. We also discuss techniques for modifying and improving the behavior and performance of kirigami patterns created using this method, and then show example applications including as a deployable radio frequency antenna of this method …

Lithium Tetraborate As A Neutron Scintillation Detector: A Review, Elena Echeverria, John W. Mcclory, Lauren Samson, Katherine Shene, Juan A. Colon Santana, Yaroslav V. Burak, Volodymyr T. Adamiv, Ihor M. Teslyuk, Lu Wang, Wai-Ning Mei, Kyle A. Nelson, Douglas S. Mcgregor, Peter A. Dowben, Carolina C. Ilie, James C. Petrosky, Archit Dhingra

Faculty Publications

The electronic structure and translucent nature of lithium tetraborate (Li₂B₄O₇) render it promising as a scintillator medium for neutron detection applications. The inherently large neutron capture cross-section due to ¹⁰B and ⁶Li isotopes and the ease with which Li₂B₄O₇ can be enriched with these isotopes, combined with the facile inclusion of rare earth dopants (occupying the Li⁺ sites), are expected to improve the luminescent properties, as well as the neutron detection efficiency, of Li₂B₄O₇. The electronic structure of both doped …

What I Think I Learned, Andrew S. Gibbons Iii

Faculty Publications

A retrospective review of fifty years of research and development experience showing the connectedness of the author’s theoretical ideas to practical application. An effort to show designers how over the span of a career new ideas begin as work-related insights and discoveries that by problem solving flow together to create a unique personal view of design and designing. Encouragement for individual designers to be willing to experiment with new ideas that may step beyond received practice and to learn from those experiences, even to the extent of testing and adopting new worldviews that may differ from the general view. Encouragement …

Shock-Wave Tolerant Phase Reconstruction Algorithm For Shack–Hartmann Wavefront Sensor Data, Thomas E. Defoor, Matthew Kalensky, Matthew R. Kemnetz, Timothy J. Bukowski, Mark F. Spencer

Faculty Publications

We develop a phase reconstruction algorithm for the Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS) that is tolerant to phase discontinuities, such as the ones imposed by shock waves. In practice, this algorithm identifies SHWFS locations where the resultant tilt information is affected by the shock and improves the tilt information in these locations using the local SHWFS observation-plane irradiance patterns. The algorithm was shown to work well over the range of conditions tested with both simulated and experimental data. In turn, the reconstruction algorithm will enable robust wavefront sensing in transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic environments.

Biodegradable Magnesium Alloys For Biomedical Implants: Properties, Challenges, And Surface Modifications With A Focus On Orthopedic Fixation Repair, Kevin Koshy Thomas, Mah Noor Zafar, William G. Pitt, Ghaleb A. Husseini

Faculty Publications

Biomedical devices made from high-modulus and hardness materials play a critical role in enhancing the quality of life for people with bone-related ailments. While these materials have been successfully used in orthopedic applications, concerns including stress-shielding have necessitated the exploration of alternative solutions. An ideal biomedical implant requires a delicate balance of mechanical performance, corrosion resistance, tissue biocompatibility, and other properties such as tribological performance and osseointegration. This review explores the suitability of biodegradable magnesium (Mg) alloys as a promising material for biomedical implants. It delves into the essential properties of biomedical implants, emphasizing the importance of matching mechanical characteristics …

Miocene Climatic Optimum Fungal Record And Plant-Based Crest Climatic Reconstruction From Southern Mcmurdo Sound, Antarctica, Mallory Pilie, Martha E. Gibson, Ingrid C. Romero, Noelia B.Nuñez Otaño, Matthew J. Pound, Jennifer M.K. O'Keefe, Sophie Warny

Faculty Publications

Deep-time palynological studies are necessary to evaluate plant and fungal distribution under warmer-than-present scenarios such as those of the Middle Miocene. Previous palynological studies from southern McMurdo Sound, Antarctica (SMS), have provided unique documentation for Neogene environments in the Ross Sea region during a time of pronounced global warming. The present study builds on these studies and provides a new climate reconstruction using the previously published SMS pollen and plant spore data. Additionally, 44 SMS samples were reanalyzed with a focus on the fungal fraction of the section to evaluate the fungal distribution under warmer than present conditions. The probability-based …

A Personal Tribute To Professor Ashok Midha, Larry L. Howell

Faculty Publications

When I received the news that Professor Ashok Midha had passed away, I was grieved by the unexpected news. But I also felt another emotion: gratitude for having known him. I am grateful for him, for the opportunity I had to learn from him, and for the influence he has had on my life and career. I wanted to honor his memory in some way. This document is in response to that desire.

Some of my thoughts at his passing are summarized in the first chapter and the conclusion. The other writing is taken from a draft of my personal …

Assuring Netlist-To-Bitstream Equivalence Using Physical Netlist Generation And Structural Comparison, Reilly Mckendrick, Jeffrey Goeders, Keenan Faulkner

Faculty Publications

Hardware netlists are generally converted into a bitstream and loaded onto an FPGA board through vendor-provided tools. Due to the proprietary nature of these tools, it is up to the designer to trust the validity of the design’s conversion to bitstream. However, motivated attackers may alter the CAD tools’ integrity or manipulate the stored bitstream with the intent to disrupt the functionality of the design. This paper proposes a new method to prove functional equivalence between a synthesized netlist, and the produced FPGA bitstream. The novel approach is comprised of two phases: first, we show how we can utilize implementation …

Multifunctional Composite With Hybrid Carbon Fiber And Carbonaceous Coconut Particle Reinforcement, Foster Feni, Maryam Jahan, Rong Zhao, Guoqiang Li, Guang-Lin Zhao, Patrick F. Mensah

Faculty Publications

The utilization of multifunctional composite materials presents significant advantages in terms of system efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and miniaturization, making them highly valuable for a wide range of industrial applications. One approach to harness the multifunctionality of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is to integrate it with a secondary material to form a hybrid composite. In our previous research, we explored the use of carbonaceous material derived from coconut shells as a sustainable alternative to inorganic fillers, aiming to enhance the out-of-plane mechanical performance of CFRP. In this study, our focus is to investigate the influence of carbonized coconut shell particles on …

Environmental Dna (Edna) Removal Rates In Streams Differ By Particle Size Under Varying Substrate And Light Conditions, Elise D. Snyder, Jennifer L. Tank, Pedro F.P. Brandão-Dias, Kyle Bibby, Arial J. Shogren, Aaron W. Bivins, Brett Peters, Erik M. Curtis, Diogo Bolster, Scott P. Egan, Gary A. Lamberti

Faculty Publications

The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a sampling tool offers insights into the detection of invasive and/or rare aquatic species and enables biodiversity assessment without traditional sampling approaches, which are often labor-intensive. However, our understanding of the environmental factors that impact eDNA removal (i.e., how rapidly eDNA is removed from the water column by the combination of decay and physical removal) in flowing waters is limited. This limitation constrains predictions about the location and density of target organisms after positive detection. To address this question, we spiked Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) eDNA into recirculating mesocosms (n = 24) under …

Protecting Zn Anodes By Atomic Layer Deposition Of Zro2 To Extend The Lifetime Of Aqueous Zn-Ion Batteries, Shichen Sun, Yeting Wen, Aiden Billings, Roya Rajabi, Boyu Wang, Kangkang Zhang, Kevin Huang

Faculty Publications

Aqueous rechargeable Zn-ion batteries (ARZIBs) are a newly emerged class of electrochemical cells suited for large-scale stationary energy storage applications due to their unique advantages in safety, cost, and supply chain. To advance ARZIB technology toward commercialization, the corrosion problem of Zn anodes in aqueous electrolytes must be adequately addressed. Here we report our efforts to tackle this issue by using atomic layer deposition (ALD) to coat the Zn anode surface with a protective nanoscale ZrO₂ thin film, collectively denoted as ALD-ZrO₂@Zn in this study. We show the pertinent properties of ALD-ZrO₂@Zn in aqueous Zn-salt …

Youth Identity And Postsecondary Decision Making In A Rural State: Evidence Of A College For All Master Narrative, Jayson Seaman, Cindy L. Hartman, Andrew D. Coppens, Erin H. Sharp, Sarah Jusseaume, Molly Donovan

Faculty Publications

This study examined the normative messages that inform youth postsecondary decision making in a predominantly rural state in the northeastern U.S., focusing on the institutionalization and circulation of identity master narratives. Using a multilevel, ecological approach to sampling, the study interviewed 33 key informants in positions of influence in educational, workforce, and quality of life domains. Narrative analysis yielded evidence of a predominant master narrative – College for All – that participants described as a prescriptive expectation that youth and families orient their postsecondary planning toward four-year, residential baccalaureate degree programs. Both general and domain-specific aspects of this master narrative …

Coarsening Dynamics Of Ternary Polymer Solutions With Mobility And Viscosity Contrasts, Jan Ulric Garcia, Douglas R. Tree, Alyssa Bagoyo, Tatsuhiro Iwama, Kris T. Delaney, Glenn H. Fredrickson

Faculty Publications

Using phase-field simulations, we investigate the bulk coarsening dynamics of ternary polymer solutions undergoing a glass transition for two models of phase separation: diffusion only and with hydrodynamics. The glass transition is incorporated in both models by imposing mobility and viscosity contrasts between the polymer-rich and polymer-poor phases of the evolving microstructure. For microstructures composed of polymer-poor clusters in a polymer-rich matrix, the mobility and viscosity contrasts significantly hinder coarsening, effectively leading to structural arrest. For microstructures composed of polymer-rich clusters in a polymer-poor matrix, the mobility and viscosity contrasts do not impede domain growth; rather, they change the transient …

Tidygeo Preparing Analysis-Ready Datasets From Gene Expression Omnibus, Avery Mecham, Ashlie Stephenson, Badi I. Quinteros, Grace S. Brown, Stephen R. Piccolo

Faculty Publications

TidyGEO is a Web-based tool for downloading, tidying, and reformatting data series from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). As a freely accessible repository with data from over 6 million biological samples across more than 4000 organisms, GEO provides diverse opportunities for secondary research. Although scientists may find assay data relevant to a given research question, most analyses require sample-level annotations. In GEO, such annotations are stored alongside assay data in delimited, text-based files. However, the structure and semantics of the annotations vary widely from one series to another, and many annotations are not useful for analysis purposes. Thus, every GEO series …

The Concept Of Land Bridge Marshes In The Mississippi River Delta And Implications For Coastal Restoration, John W. Day, Robert R. Twilley, Angelina Freeman, Brady Couvillion, Tracy Quirk, Navid Jafari, Giulio Mariotti, Rachael Hunter, Charles Norman, G. Paul Kemp, John R. White, Ehab Meselhe

Faculty Publications

Louisiana has high coastal wetland loss rates due to natural processes such as subsidence and anthropogenic activities such as construction of river levees and dams, pervasive alteration of surface hydrology by local industries such as oil and gas, and navigation. With the exception of the Atchafalaya River discharge area, most of Louisiana's marsh coastline is retreating and coastal marshes are degrading. In the inactive degrading delta regions, there exists a previously uncharacterized landform referred to colloquially as coastal ‘land bridge’ marshes. Land bridge marshes are saline or brackish marshes fronting large estuarine bays or lakes with sufficient fetch and wave …

Atmospheric Flash Drought In The Caribbean, Craig A. Ramseyer, Paul W. Miller

Faculty Publications

Despite the intensifying interest in flash drought both within the United States and globally, moist tropical landscapes have largely escaped the attention of the flash drought community. Because these ecozones are acclimatized to receiving regular, near-daily precipitation, they are especially vulnerable to rapid-drying events. This is particularly true within the Caribbean Sea basin where numerous small islands lack the surface and groundwater resources to cope with swiftly developing drought conditions. This study fills the tropical flash drought gap by examining the pervasiveness of flash drought across the pan-Caribbean region using a recently proposed criterion based on the evaporative demand drought …

Soil Legacy Nutrients Contribute To The Decreasing Stoichiometric Ratio Of N And P Loading From The Mississippi River Basin, Zihao Bian, Hanqin Tian, Shufen Pan, Hao Shi, Chaoqun Lu, Christopher Anderson, Wei Jun Cai, Charles S. Hopkinson, Dubravko Justic, Latif Kalin, Steven Lohrenz, Steven Mcnulty, Naiqing Pan, Ge Sun, Zhuonan Wang, Yuanzhi Yao, Yongfa You

Faculty Publications

Human-induced nitrogen–phosphorus (N, P) imbalance in terrestrial ecosystems can lead to disproportionate N and P loading to aquatic ecosystems, subsequently shifting the elemental ratio in estuaries and coastal oceans and impacting both the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The N:P ratio of nutrient loading to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin increased before the late 1980s driven by the enhanced usage of N fertilizer over P fertilizer, whereafter the N:P loading ratio started to decrease although the N:P ratio of fertilizer application did not exhibit a similar trend. Here, we hypothesize that different release rates of …

The Influence Of Salinity And Vegetation Texture On The Ecological Roles Of Insects In Tidal Marshes In Louisiana, Benjamin G. Aker, Claudia Husseneder, Lane D. Foil

Faculty Publications

Tidal marsh insect communities are influenced by both salinity and aspects of vegetation texture (vegetation diversity, plant density, and architectural structure). These factors affect the abundances and intra- and interguild interactions of these insects and should result in broad-scale variation in the distribution and ecological functioning of tidal marsh insect communities along these gradients. However, this assumption has not been tested within Gulf Coast marshes, and the insect communities and their ecological roles are not well known. This study identifies how family-level insect biodiversity varies by salinity and which factors are most important in affecting the distribution of insect functional …

Building Resilience To Extreme Weather And Climate Events In The Rural Water And Wastewater Sectors, Nathan P. Kettle, Sarah F. Trainor, Renee Edwards, Donald Antrobus, Curt Baranowski, Tina Buxbaum, Kevin Berry, Michael Brubaker, Kristine L. De Long, Steve Fries, Davin Holen, Barry Keim, Danielle Meeker, Harry Penn, Cheryl Rosa, Rick Thoman, John Walsh, Jian Zhang

Faculty Publications

Extreme weather and climate events pose significant risks to rural water and wastewater systems. We examine the vulnerability of the water sector to weather and climate extremes in rural, predominantly Indigenous and underserved coastal areas and analyze how networks support resilience. Drawing on the analysis of 39 web-based questionnaire responses and 19 interviews with rural water and wastewater managers and service providers in southern Louisiana and western Alaska, this article reports a range of interrelated historical, environmental, and social factors that influence vulnerability to extreme weather events. Formal and informal social networks serve multiple roles in building resilience. These roles …

Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Mud Dauber Nests Under Atmospheric Drying, Joon S. Park, Hai Lin, Hussein Alqrinawi

Faculty Publications

Mud dauber wasps construct soil nests to protect their offspring from predators, extreme temperatures, and rainwater. The mechanical and thermal properties of these nests are important for the reproductive success of mud daubers. The previous study showed that the high densities and strengths of mud dauber nests were due to the repetitive tapping and atmospheric drying used by mud daubers during nest construction. This study investigated the effect of atmospheric drying on the mechanical and thermal properties of mud dauber nests. The soil shrinkage curve, elastic modulus, suction stress characteristic curve, soil water retention curve, shear strength, and thermal conductivity …

Modeling Of Cryopreservation Pathway Operation At An Aquatic Biomedical Stock Center For Zebrafish, Sarah Bodenstein, Fidan Abdullayeva, Joy M. Murphy, Zoltan M. Varga, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Aquatic biomedical model organisms play a substantial role in advancing our understanding of human health, however, comparably little work has been directed towards developing dependable, high-throughput storage programs for valuable genetic resources. The Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC) has developed a standardized cryopreservation pathway and stored thousands of genetic lines in their repository for use by the biomedical research community. This has yet to be replicated in other facilities, and an overall repository-level pathway has never been analyzed for aquatic species. To encourage repository development for other biomedical models and to improve the ZIRC storage process and system, this study …

Global Dataset Of Soil Organic Carbon In Tidal Marshes, Tania L. Maxwell, André S. Rovai, Maria Fernanda Adame, Janine B. Adams, José Álvarez-Rogel, William E.N. Austin, Kim Beasy, Francesco Boscutti, Michael E. Böttcher, Tjeerd J. Bouma, Richard H. Bulmer, Annette Burden, Shannon A. Burke, Saritta Camacho, Doongar R. Chaudhary, Gail L. Chmura, Margareth Copertino, Grace M. Cott, Christopher Craft, John Day, Carmen B. De Los Santos, Lionel Denis, Weixin Ding, Joanna C. Ellison, Carolyn J. Ewers Lewis, Luise Giani, Maria Gispert, Swanne Gontharet, José A. González-Pérez, M. Nazaret González-Alcaraz, Connor Gorham, Anna Elizabeth L. Graversen, Anthony Grey

Faculty Publications

Tidal marshes store large amounts of organic carbon in their soils. Field data quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks provide an important resource for researchers, natural resource managers, and policy-makers working towards the protection, restoration, and valuation of these ecosystems. We collated a global dataset of tidal marsh soil organic carbon (MarSOC) from 99 studies that includes location, soil depth, site name, dry bulk density, SOC, and/or soil organic matter (SOM). The MarSOC dataset includes 17,454 data points from 2,329 unique locations, and 29 countries. We generated a general transfer function for the conversion of SOM to SOC. Using this …

Deep Learning For Enhanced Free-Space Optical Communications, M. P. Bart, N. J. Savino, P. Regmi, L. Cohen, H. Safavi, H. C. Shaw, S. Lohani, T. A. Searles, B. T. Kirby, H. Lee, R. T. Glasser

Faculty Publications

Atmospheric effects, such as turbulence and background thermal noise, inhibit the propagation of light used in ON-OFF keying (OOK) free-space optical (FSO) communication. Here we present and experimentally validate a convolutional neural network (CNN) to reduce the bit error rate of FSO communication in post-processing that is significantly simpler and cheaper than existing solutions based on advanced optics. Our approach consists of two neural networks, the first determining the presence of bit sequences in thermal noise and turbulence and the second demodulating the bit sequences. All data used for training and testing our network is obtained experimentally by generating OOK …

Multiphoton Quantum Van Cittert-Zernike Theorem, Chenglong You, Ashe Miller, Roberto De J. León-Montiel, Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza

Faculty Publications

Recent progress on quantum state engineering has enabled the preparation of quantum photonic systems comprising multiple interacting particles. Interestingly, multiphoton quantum systems can host many complex forms of interference and scattering processes that are essential to perform operations that are intractable on classical systems. Unfortunately, the quantum coherence properties of multiphoton systems degrade upon propagation leading to undesired quantum-to-classical transitions. Furthermore, the manipulation of multiphoton quantum systems requires nonlinear interactions at the few-photon level. Here, we introduce the quantum van Cittert-Zernike theorem to describe the scattering and interference effects of propagating multiphoton systems. This fundamental theorem demonstrates that the quantum …

Cells Collectively Migrate During Ammonium Chemotaxis In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Gabela Nelson, Alexis Strain, Atsuko Isu, Alireza Rahnama, Ken Ichi Wakabayashi, Adam T. Melvin, Naohiro Kato

Faculty Publications

The mechanisms governing chemotaxis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii are largely unknown compared to those regulating phototaxis despite equal importance on the migratory response in the ciliated microalga. To study chemotaxis, we made a simple modification to a conventional Petri dish assay. Using the assay, a novel mechanism governing Chlamydomonas ammonium chemotaxis was revealed. First, we found that light exposure enhances the chemotactic response of wild-type Chlamydomonas strains, yet phototaxis-incompetent mutant strains, eye3-2 and ptx1, exhibit normal chemotaxis. This suggests that Chlamydomonas transduces the light signal pathway in chemotaxis differently from that in phototaxis. Second, we found that Chlamydomonas collectively migrate during …

Mid-Miocene Sea Level Altitude Of The Qaidam Basin, Northern Tibetan Plateau, Yuanyuan Sun, Yu Liang, Hu Liu, Jun Liu, Junliang Ji, Xue Ke, Xiaobo Liu, Yuxin He, Huanye Wang, Bin Zhang, Yongsu Zhang, Guangsheng Zhuang, Junling Pei, Yongxiang Li, Cheng Quan, Jianxing Li, Jonathan C. Aitchison, Weiguo Liu, Zhonghui Liu

Faculty Publications

A detailed uplift history of the Tibetan Plateau is essential for disentangling the proposed geodynamical models and assessing its impacts on climate and biodiversity. However, when and how the plateau formed remains highly controversial. Here, we present unusual geochemical indicators of marine signatures in the Cenozoic terrestrial strata of the Qaidam Basin, northern Tibetan Plateau, with strong implications for the basin altitude. Our investigations across the basin reveal typical marine alkenones and anomalously high carbonate carbon isotopic values during the mid-Miocene, but not at earlier stages, which are accompanied by a divergent trend in the paired carbonate oxygen and leaf …

Sentencing In An Era Of Plea Bargains, Jeffrey Bellin, Jenia I. Turner

Faculty Publications

The literature offers inconsistent answers to a question that is foundational to criminal law: Who imposes sentences? Traditional narratives place sentencing responsibility in the hands of the judge. Yet, in a country where 95% of criminal convictions come from guilty pleas (not trials), modern American scholars center prosecutors—who control plea terms—as the deciders of punishment. This Article highlights and seeks to resolve the tension between these conflicting narratives by charting the pathways by which sentences are determined in a system dominated by plea bargains.

After reviewing the empirical literature on sentence variation, examining state and federal plea-bargaining rules and doctrines, …

Morphodynamic Modeling Of Fourleague Bay In Mississippi River Delta: Sediment Fluxes Across River-Estuary-Wetland Boundaries, Nan Wang, Qin Chen, Kelin Hu, Kehui Xu, Samuel J. Bentley, Jiaze Wang

Faculty Publications

To mitigate land losses in the Mississippi River Delta, sediment diversions are being employed to enable the flow of river water and sediments into wetlands experiencing degradation. A two-dimensional coupled flow-wave Delft3D model was used in this study to explore the hydrodynamics and sediment transport in Fourleague Bay (FLB), Louisiana, USA, which has been considered an analog site for studying the efficiency of sediment diversion projects. In-situ measurements of sediment accretion and hydrodynamic characteristics from 2015 to 2016 were utilized to calibrate and validate the morphodynamic model. The validated model was then applied to quantify sediment transport in FLB and …

Sediment Delivery To Sustain The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta Under Climate Change And Anthropogenic Impacts, Jessica L. Raff, Steven L. Goodbred, Jennifer L. Pickering, Ryan S. Sincavage, John C. Ayers, Md Saddam Hossain, Carol A. Wilson, Chris Paola, Michael S. Steckler, Dhiman R. Mondal, Jean Louis Grimaud, Celine Jo Grall, Kimberly G. Rogers, Kazi Matin Ahmed, Syed Humayun Akhter, Brandee N. Carlson, Elizabeth L. Chamberlain, Meagan Dejter, Jonathan M. Gilligan, Richard P. Hale, Mahfuzur R. Khan, Md Golam Muktadir, Md Munsur Rahman, Lauren A. Williams

Faculty Publications

The principal nature-based solution for offsetting relative sea-level rise in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta is the unabated delivery, dispersal, and deposition of the rivers’ ~1 billion-tonne annual sediment load. Recent hydrological transport modeling suggests that strengthening monsoon precipitation in the 21st century could increase this sediment delivery 34-60%; yet other studies demonstrate that sediment could decline 15-80% if planned dams and river diversions are fully implemented. We validate these modeled ranges by developing a comprehensive field-based sediment budget that quantifies the supply of Ganges-Brahmaputra river sediment under varying Holocene climate conditions. Our data reveal natural responses in sediment supply comparable to …