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Ecovoltaic Solar Energy Development Creates Novel Microclimate, Temperature, And Soil Moisture Patterns Under Solar Panels In A Warm Desert, Juan Pinos, Seth M. Munson, Claire C. Karban, Matthew D. Petrie

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Background As solar energy development expands in desert regions, new installation practices and solar technologies seek to balance ecosystem conservation and energy generation (ecovoltaics). The Gemini Solar Project, a large ecovoltaic facility located in the northeastern Mojave Desert, employed low impact installation methods to reduce disturbance of the desert ecosystem within arrays of bifacial panels mounted on solar tracking systems. We evaluated microclimate and environmental conditions across five locations: four within-facility microsites (underneath solar panels, east and west panel driplines, and interspaces between panel rows) and one in the undisturbed desert outside the facility. Results Under panel microsites experienced lower …

Stream Temperature Responses To Summer Urban Rain Events Along The Savannah River, Joseph E. Wermter, Vivian L. Turner, Max K. Appelbaum, James M. Shepherd, Jacob Z. Lott

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

The hydrological urban heat island (HUHI) is a recent facet of the urban heat island (UHI), describing thermal enhancement of bodies of water in response to urbanization. Although the forefront of this work has been studied for large Metropolitan areas, this effect on developing cities is currently unknown. To locally measure and quantify HUHI effects in a developing city, we utilized Multi-Radar Multi Sensor (MRMS) radar-derived rainfall data to estimate rainfall in the Augusta Metropolitan Area (AMA) and the Savannah Metropolitan Area (SMA), two developing communities adjacent to the Savannah River. We analyzed mean temperature trends of two stream gauges …

Geospatial Modeling Of Winter-Related Property Damage In Arkansas, Braedyn Mcbroom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Storm Data, a monthly publication by the National Weather Service with records of weather events, reports on property damage caused by natural hazards. Since 1996, the database has included winter-related events. While the property damage data is considered incomplete, no other unique, public datasets report winter-related property damage at the county level. From 1996 to 2024, Arkansas ranked #1 in winter-related property damage. To understand the factors that are driving property damage and potentially reduce Arkansas’ vulnerability to it, three groups separated by temporal periods, i.e., “2000” (01/1996 - 06/2005), “2010” (07/2005 - 06/2015), and “2020” (07/2015 - 06/2024) …

Long-Term Measurements Of Seasonal Snowpacks Indicate Increases In Mid-Winter Snowmelt And Earlier Snowpack Disappearance In The Northeastern U.S., Geoff Wilson, Mark Green, John Campbell, Alexandra R. Contosta, Nina Lany, Amey Bailey

Faculty Publications

Snowpacks are changing in northeastern North America as the regional climate warms, yet the relative influence of changes in precipitation compared to changes in ablation on snowpacks is poorly understood. We use 56 years of weekly snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements from three locations within a study site which vary in elevation and aspect, paired with adjacent daily climate measurements, to investigate relationships between climate and snowpack onset, maximum, and disappearance. Maximum snowpack size and snowpack duration are shrinking at all sites, at rates ranging from 4.3 days/decade at the coldest site to 9.6 days/decade at the warmest site. The …

Long-Term Measurements Of Seasonal Snowpacks Indicate Increases In Mid-Winter Snowmelt And Earlier Snowpack Disappearance In The Northeastern U.S., Geoff Wilson, Mark Green, John Campbell, Alexandra R. Contosta, Nina Lany, Amey Bailey

Faculty Publications

Snowpacks are changing in northeastern North America as the regional climate warms, yet the relative influence of changes in precipitation compared to changes in ablation on snowpacks is poorly understood. We use 56 years of weekly snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements from three locations within a study site which vary in elevation and aspect, paired with adjacent daily climate measurements, to investigate relationships between climate and snowpack onset, maximum, and disappearance. Maximum snowpack size and snowpack duration are shrinking at all sites, at rates ranging from 4.3 days/decade at the coldest site to 9.6 days/decade at the warmest site. The …

A Preliminary Fuzzy Inference System For Predicting Atmospheric Ozone In An Intermountain Basin, John R. Lawson, Seth N. Lyman

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

High concentrations of ozone in the Uinta Basin, Utah, can occur after sufficient snowfall and a strong atmospheric anticyclone creates a persistent cold pool that traps emissions from oil and gas operations, where sustained photolysis of the precursors builds ozone to unhealthy concentrations. The basin's winter-ozone system is well understood by domain experts and supported by archives of atmospheric observations. Rules of the system can be formulated in natural language ("sufficient snowfall and high pressure leads to high ozone"), lending itself to analysis with a fuzzy-logic inference system. This method encodes human expertise as machine intelligence in a more prescribed …

Dominant Role Of Grazing And Snow Cover Variability On Vegetation Shifts In The Drylands Of Kazakhstan, Venkatesh Kolluru, Ranjeet John, Jiquan Chen, Preethi Konkathi, Srinivas Kolluru, Sakshi Saraf, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Jingfeng Xiao, Khushboo Jain, Maira Kussainova

Faculty Publications

Decomposing the responses of ecosystem structure and function in drylands to changes in human-environmental forcing is a pressing challenge. Though trend detection studies are extensive, these studies often fail to attribute them to potential spatiotemporal drivers. Most attribution studies use a single empirical model or a causal graph that cannot be generalized or extrapolated to larger scales or account for spatial changes and multiple independent processes. Here, we proposed and tested a multi-stage, multi-model framework that detects vegetation trends and attributes them to ten independent social-environmental system (SES) drivers in Kazakhstan (KZ). The time series segmented residual trend analysis showed …

Dominant Role Of Grazing And Snow Cover Variability On Vegetation Shifts In The Drylands Of Kazakhstan, Venkatesh Kolluru, Ranjeet John, Jiquan Chen, Preethi Konkathi, Srinivas Kolluru, Sakshi Saraf, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Jingfeng Xiao, Khushboo Jain, Maira Kussainova

Faculty Publications

Decomposing the responses of ecosystem structure and function in drylands to changes in human-environmental forcing is a pressing challenge. Though trend detection studies are extensive, these studies often fail to attribute them to potential spatiotemporal drivers. Most attribution studies use a single empirical model or a causal graph that cannot be generalized or extrapolated to larger scales or account for spatial changes and multiple independent processes. Here, we proposed and tested a multi-stage, multi-model framework that detects vegetation trends and attributes them to ten independent social-environmental system (SES) drivers in Kazakhstan (KZ). The time series segmented residual trend analysis showed …

Influence Of Climate Zone Shifts On Forest Ecosystems In Northeastern United States And Maritime Canada, Samuel Roy, Xinyuan Wei, Aaron Weiskittel, Daniel J. Hayes, Peter Nelson, Alexandra R. Contosta

Faculty Publications

Climate zones play a significant role in shaping the forest ecosystems located within them by influencing multiple ecological processes, including growth, disturbances, and species interactions. Therefore, delineation of current and future climate zones is essential to establish a framework for understanding and predicting shifts in forest ecosystems. In this study, we developed and applied an efficient approach to delineate regional climate zones in the northeastern United States and maritime Canada, aiming to characterize potential shifts in climate zones and discuss associated changes in forest ecosystems. The approach comprised five steps: climate data dimensionality reduction, sampling scenario design, cluster generation, climate …

The Queer Ecology Of Clouds In Nineteenth-Century British Poetics, Lucien Darjeun Meadows

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the nineteenth century, British writers were interested in the emergent science of meteorology, and their lyrical writing (their “poetics”), from poetry to creative and scientific prose, often turns to clouds as both meteorological formations and as material metaphors for human-environment interactions. These writers frequently invoke clouds to disrupt or “queer” depictions of human-environment relationships built on human domination of environmental beings. Clouds, in poetic writing, help writers (and readers) instead experience subject-subject relationships of reciprocity—a collaborative, non-hierarchical way of existing with and learning from our ecological relatives.

Dwelling in the confluence of literary studies, queer studies, and ecology, The …

Drivers Of Flight Performance Of California Condors (Gymnogyps Californianus), Sophie R. Bonner, Sharon A. Poessel, Joseph C. Brandt, Molly T. Astell, James R. Belthoff, Todd E. Katzner

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Flight behavior of soaring birds depends on a complex array of physiological, social, demographic, and environmental factors. California Condors (Gymnogyps californianus) rely on thermal and orographic updrafts to subsidize extended bouts of soaring flight, and their soaring flight performance is expected to vary in response to environmental variation and, potentially, with experience. We collected 6298 flight tracks described by high-frequency GPS telemetry data from five birds ranging in age from 1 to 19 yr old and followed over 32 d in summer 2016. Using these data, we tested the hypothesis that climb rate, an indicator of flight performance, …

Developing High-Resolution Meteorological Datasets To Assess The Short-Term Association Between Meteorological Factors And Green Space And Mental Disorders, Xinlei Deng

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Global climate change is linked to the frequency and intensity of local climate extremes such as heatwaves, cold spells, and flooding. Scientific evidence indicates that heatwaves and higher ambient temperature could increase the risk of hospital admission and emergency department (ED) visits for mental disorders (MDs). On the other hand, urban green space is considered a way to reduce heat island effects and provide comfort for area residents. However, there still exist huge research gaps. Except for temperature, few studies have examined how other meteorological factors (relative humidity (RH), solar radiation (SR), heat index (HI), and rainfall) are associated with …

High-Tide Floods And Storm Surges During Atmospheric Rivers On The Us West Coast, Christopher G. Piecuch, Sloan Coats, Sönke Dangendorf, Felix W. Landerer, J. T. Reager, Philip R. Thompson, Thomas Wahl

CCPO Publications

Amospheric rivers (ARs) effect inland hydrological impacts related to extreme precipitation. However, little is known about the possible coastal hazards associated with these storms. Here we elucidate high-tide floods (HTFs) and storm surges during ARs through a statistical analysis of data from the US West Coast during 1980-2016. HTFs and landfalling ARs co-occur more often than expected from random chance. Between 10%-63% of HTFs coincide with landfalling ARs, depending on location. However, only 2%-15% of ARs coincide with HTFs, suggesting that ARs typically must co-occur with anomalously high tides or mean sea levels to cause HTFs. Storm surges during ARs …

The Influence Of Aerosols On Ice And Mixed-Phase Clouds Based On In-Situ Observations And Cam6 Simulations, Flor Vanessa Maciel

Master's Theses

Clouds have a large impact on Earth’s radiation budget, and although there is aconsiderable amount of research on them, there are still uncertainties concerning how thermodynamics, dynamics, and aerosol indirect effects impact their microphysical properties. The lack of observational analysis on cirrus and mixed-phase cloud controlling factors, i.e., temperature, relative humidity, vertical velocity, and aerosol number concentrations, limits our understanding of how these properties impact their microphysical properties and, therefore, complicates how they are simulated within climate models. With seven flight campaigns funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and five funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), …

Compound Extremes Drive The Western Oregon Wildfires Of September 2020, John T. Abatzoglou, David E. Rupp, Larry W. O'Neill, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Several very large high‐impact fires burned nearly 4,000 km² of mesic forests in western Oregon during September 7–9, 2020. While infrequent, very large high‐severity fires have occurred historically in western Oregon, the extreme nature of this event warrants analyses of climate and meteorological drivers. A strong blocking pattern led to an intrusion of dry air and strong downslope east winds in the Oregon Cascades following a warm‐dry 60‐day period that promoted widespread fuel flammability. Viewed independently, both the downslope east winds and fuel dryness were extreme, but not unprecedented. However, the concurrence of these drivers resulted in compound extremes …

Classic Article: Gravitational Circulation In Straits And Estuaries, Donald V. Hansen, Maurice Rattray Jr.

Journal of Marine Research

A coupled set of partial differential equations and associated boundary conditions is written to describe circulation and salt-flux processes for estuaries in which turbulent mixing results primarily from tidal currents. Similarity solutions, motivated by characteristic salinity distributions observed in estuaries, are obtained for this set of equations and are compared with observational data. The circulation is separated into modes analogous to the barotropic, baroclinic, and Ekman modes of oceanic circulation. The salinity distribution, although coupled to the velocity distribution, is found to vary independently of it as well. The theoretical results are discussed in regard to: (i) correlation between the …

Editor's Commentary: On Properties Of Seawater Defined By Temperature, Salinity, And Pressure, Kenneth H. Brink

Journal of Marine Research

A classical, and highly productive, approach to studying hydrographic data in the ocean is to use T–S (Temperature–Salinity) analysis. This is a convenient methodology that allows definition of water mass types and quantification of mixing. Information about temperature, salinity and pressure (depth) can further be used to calculate the water’s density...

Classic Article: A Bathythermograph, Athelstan F. Spilhaus

Journal of Marine Research

In the study of the homogeneous layer in the ocean, Rossby and Montgomery (1935) found it desirable to have an instrument which would provide a continuous record of temperature against pressure in the surface layers of the ocean. A preliminary instrument named an “oceanograph” was constructed and used during the summer of 1934. The manifold uses to which such an instrument could be put presaged a widespread employment of the apparatus. This, however, did not come about because of certain inherent difficulties in Rossby’s design. The record was made on a large smoked foil, and thus entailed the attachment of …

Editor's Commentary: On The Process Of Upwelling, Kenneth H. Brink

Journal of Marine Research

Although Harald Sverdrup is now probably best known for his work on basin-scale ocean circulation, his interests were remarkably diverse, and included continental shelf processes. As a coastal oceanographer, I can’t resist highlighting this contribution to the coastal upwelling literature. A relatively simple data set is exploited here, consisting of cross-shelf sections taken near Point Conception, California...

Observations Of Nonlinear Momentum Fluxes Over The Inner Continental Shelf, Thomas P. Connolly, Steven J. Lentz

Journal of Marine Research

Nonlinear momentum fluxes over the inner continental shelf are examined using moored observations from multiple years at two different locations in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Inner shelf dynamics are often described in terms of a linear alongshore momentum balance, dominated by frictional stresses generated at the surface and bottom. In this study, observations over the North Carolina inner shelf show that the divergence of the cross-shelf flux of alongshore momentum is often substantial relative to the wind stress during periods of strong stratification. During upwelling at this location, offshore fluxes of alongshore momentum in the surface layer partially balance the …

Editor's Commentary: Control Of Salinity In An Estuary By A Transition, Kenneth H. Brink, Harlow G. Farmer

Journal of Marine Research

In 1900, Martin Knudson (Knudson 1900; Burchard et al. 2018) considered the salt and volume fluxes for a steady-state estuary. He arrived at very useful relationships between the flux of fresh water coming in from upstream compared to the output salinity and volume flux. While these relations are fundamental and extremely useful, they do not close the problem. Rather, there is always one more piece of information needed; for example, to know the flux of brackish water onto the shelf, you still have to know the outflow salinity...

Classic Article: On Properties Of Seawater Defined By Temperature, Salinity, And Pressure, George Veronis

Journal of Marine Research

Hydrographic station data, consisting principally of temperature and salinity determinations, have been used by physical oceanographers to develop a climatological picture of the distribution of these quantities in the oceans of the world. Density as determined by Knudsen's formula, taken together with hydrostatic and geostrophic dynamics, also provides a crude picture of oceanic flow. However, the data probably contain substantially more information than has been derived from them in the past.The quantity that is orthogonal to potential-density curves in the θS plane is suggested as a useful variable to complement the information contained in potential density. The derivation of …

Nitrogen Cycling In Muddy Sediments Of Great Peconic Bay, Usa: Seasonal N Reaction Balances And Multi-Year Flux Patterns, Stuart Waugh, Robert C. Aller

Journal of Marine Research

To better understand the capacity of sediments to serve as both source and sink of nitrogen (N) and to identify any evidence of evolving changes in sedimentary N cycling, N₂ production, N remineralization, and N₂ fixation were studied over a multi-year period (2010–2015) in bioturbated mud of Great Peconic Bay, a temperate northeastern U. S. estuary. Benthic fluxes and rates of organic matter remineralization were measured using in situ and ex situ incubations. Net annual NH⁺ ₄, NO–₃/NO–₂, and N₂–N fluxes (μ = 1.1, 0.03, and 1.2 mmol m ^{–2 …}

Density And Size-Dependent Bioturbation Effects Of The Infaunal Polychaete Nephtys Incisa On Sediment Biogeochemistry And Solute Exchange, Emma Michaud, Robert C. Aller, Qingzhi Zhu, Christina Heilbrun, Georges Stora

Journal of Marine Research

The impact of bioturbation on the geochemistry of aquatic sediments is known to depend on the benthic infauna species that are present. However, burrowing and activity patterns of each species may also change during the different stages of a life cycle. In this study, we examined the effects of four size classes of the polychaete Nephtys incisa on burrow networks and sediment biogeochemistry. In our experimental aquaria, the total biovolume (~ biomass) of Nephtys was kept constant, but different age classes were introduced, so the size and abundance varied between treatments. Despite differences in the geometry of burrow networks (due …

Upwelling Velocity And Ventilation In The Western South China Sea Deduced From Cfc-12 And Sf6 Observations, Weimin Wang, Peng Huang, Hengxiang Deng, Mian Chen, Minggang Cai, Zhiyou Jing, Shihao Luo, Xuehong Zheng, Chunhui Wang, Hongwei Ke

Journal of Marine Research

This study presents observations of the transient tracers CFC-12 and SF₆ in the western South China Sea during the fall of 2015. A CFC-12 maximum was discovered in the western South China Sea at the subsurface layer (150–200 m), which could be traced back to the North Pacific Tropical Water. The transit time distribution approach was used to estimate the ventilation time in this area. The constrained Δ /Γ ratio of 0.5 was obtained using CFC-12/SF₆ tracer pair. This ratio is lower than the empirical unit ratio of one as used for previous estimates. Waters in the northern …

Editor's Commentary: A Bathythermograph, Kenneth H. Brink

Journal of Marine Research

In this classic, Athelstan Spilhaus reports on his progress on a prototype of the mechanical bathythermograph, a project that C.-G. Rossby encouraged him to pursue. Although now most often seen in museums or on movie sets (they look a bit like rockets), bathythermographs were extremely influential from the later 1930s into the 1950s. These remarkable, durable instruments allowed continuous traces of temperature versus depth (previously measured as bottle temperatures at typically 50-m separations), and so opened up an entirely new vision of what ocean thermal structure actually looks like. Spilhaus further provides some actual data...

Classic Article: On The Process Of Upwelling, H. U. Sverdrup

Journal of Marine Research

The phenomenon of upwelling which is present along many coasts has been discussed from various points of view. A general explanation of the phenomenon has been given by application of Ekman’s theory of wind driven currents (Thorade 1909; McEwen 1912), and emphasis has been put on the velocity of the vertical motion (McEwen 1934) or on the depth from which water is brought to the surface (Sverdrup 1930; Gunther 1936). Defant (1936) has discussed the horizontal and vertical motion and the distribution of density within the region of upwelling off the coast of southwest Africa, but his analysis is based …

Editor's Commentary: Gravitational Circulation In Straits And Estuaries, Kenneth H. Brink, Maurice Rattray Jr.

Journal of Marine Research

For decades, people understood the rudiments of how idealized estuaries work: fresh water flows outward above saltier water that intrudes into the estuary. At the same time, mixing smooths out contrasts, so that the ultimate shallow outflow water is much saltier that the upstream riverine inflow had been. But, this vision is qualitative, so that it is hard to predict or diagnose flow structures or the outflow salinity. Hansen and Rattray provided a major step forward in an age before any sophisticated numerical models could deal simultaneously with the many competing effects...

Classic Article: Control Of Salinity In An Estuary By A Transition, Henry Stommel, Harlow G. Farmer

Journal of Marine Research

A theoretical reason is developed to explain why the mouth of a vertically stratified estuary should act as a constraint on the amount of salt water available for mixing in the estuary. Flume experiments designed to test this idea are described. The effect of tides on the control action and application to various estuaries is discussed.

Review: Influence Of Meteorological Conditions And Algal Community Composition On Hypolimnetic Hypoxia, Ian P. Stone

Honors Projects

Hypoxia has been a central focus of research regarding water quality impairments throughout the world in the past century. The fresh and coastal marine waters affected by hypoxia are of great importance due to the ecosystem services and species habitat they provide, and because of the regional economic activity spurned by these waters in return. As such, a great deal of research effort has been devoted to elucidating the causes and ecological effects of hypoxia with the hopes of remediating the issue. The bulk of this effort has been directed at the role of anthropogenic allochthonous nutrient loading and algal …