Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Cate Weeks, Shane Bevell, Mamie Peers, Lori Bachand

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Satellite Remote Sensing Of Glaciers And Ice Caps In Svalbard, Eurasian High Arctic, Gordon S. Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Recent compilations of climate-related observations show that important changes are now underway in the High Arctic, probably as a response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions over the last approximately 250 years. These changes include warming of the troposphere, reductions in sea ice cover, decreases in snow cover area, warming of tundra permafrost, and negative mass balances of glaciers and ice caps. In many instances, observations of change are relatively short in duration or sparse in spatial extent. The Principal Investigators will study glacier and ice cap variations over the approximately last 80 years and at a large scale on Svalbard. …

Inside Unlv, Cate Weeks, Brenda Griego, David Ashley, Mamie Peers, Shane Bevell, Gian Galassi

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Stratospheric Variability And Trends In Models Used For The Ipcc Ar4, P. M. De F. Forster, Eugene Cordero

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Atmosphere and ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) experiments for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) are analyzed to better understand model variability and assess the importance of various forcing mechanisms on stratospheric trends during the 20th century. While models represent the climatology of the stratosphere reasonably well in comparison with NCEP reanalysis, there are biases and large variability among models. In general, AOGCMs are cooler than NCEP throughout the stratosphere, with the largest differences in the tropics. Around half the AOGCMs have a top level beneath ~2 hPa and show a significant cold bias in their …

Assessment Of Temperature, Trace Species, And Ozone In Chemistry-Climate Model Simulations Of The Recent Past, V. Eyring, N. Butchart, D. W. Waugh, H. Akiyoshi, J. Austin, S. Bekki, G. E. Bodeker, B. A. Boville, C. Brühl, M. P. Chipperfield, E. Cordero, M. Dameris, M. Deushi, V. E. Fioletov, S. M. Frith, R. R. Garcia, A. Gettelman, M. A. Giorgetta, V. Grewe, L. Jourdain, D. E. Kinnison, E. Mancini, E. Manzini, M. Marchand, D. R. Marsh, T. Nagashima, P. A. Newman, J. E. Nielsen, S. Pawson, G. Pitari, D. A. Plummer, E. Rozanov, M. Schraner, T. G. Shepherd, K. Shibata, R. S. Stolarski, H. Struthers, W. Tian, M. Yoshiki

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

[1] Simulations of the stratosphere from thirteen coupled chemistry-climate models (CCMs) are evaluated to provide guidance for the interpretation of ozone predictions made by the same CCMs. The focus of the evaluation is on how well the fields and processes that are important for determining the ozone distribution are represented in the simulations of the recent past. The core period of the evaluation is from 1980 to 1999 but long-term trends are compared for an extended period (1960–2004). Comparisons of polar high-latitude temperatures show that most CCMs have only small biases in the Northern Hemisphere in winter and spring, but …

Collaborative Research: Millennial-Scale Fluctuations Of Dry Valleys Lakes: Implications For Regional Climate Variability And The Interhemispheric (A)Synchrony Of Climate Change, Brenda Hall, Glenn Berger

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to add to the understanding of what drives glacial cycles. Most researchers agree that Milankovitch seasonal forcing paces the ice ages but how these insolation changes are leveraged into abrupt global climate change remains unknown. A current popular view is that the climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean leads that of the rest of the world by a couple thousand years at Termination I and by even greater margins during previous terminations. This project will integrate the geomorphological record of glacial history with a series of cores taken from the lake bottoms in the …

Recent Global Warming: A New Approach To Interpreting Some Of The Data, Stanley Schleifer, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Samuel Borenstein, Che-Tsao Huang, Thakur Chaturgan, Feng Chan Liang, Mario Jo-Ramirez, Dorean J. Flores, Poonraj Persaud, Selwyn N. Lebourne

Publications and Research

The authors have done an analysis of meteorological data which may add to the growing body of information addressing the cause or causes of recent global warming. If an augmented greenhouse effect, due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, has been a significant factor producing global warming, then this should be indicated by an increase in the interval of time between the time of maximum insolation, and the time of maximum surface temperature, as well as a decrease in the interval of time between the time of minimum insolation and the time of minimum surface temperature, in the mid latitudes. …

Collaborative Research: A Glaciochemical Record Of Natural And Anthropengic Environmental Change In The Northwestern North American Arctic, Karl J. Kreutz

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This is a collaborative proposal between the Universities of New Hampshire and Maine and the Geological Survey of Canada. This Office of International Science and Engineering is contributing to this award. The Principal Investigators will recover two ice cores the Eclipse Icefield (3100 meters) in the St. Elias
Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada in cooperation with the Geological Survey of Canada in 2002. The core will be analyzed for stable isotopes, major ions, trace elements, rare earth elements and persistent organic pollutants. The Eclipse record will provide, for the first time, detailed depositional histories of a wide variety of pollutants during …

Collaborative Research: A 700-Year Tephrochronology Of The Law Dome Ice Core, East Antarctica, Gregory A. Zielinski

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to analyze samples from the Law Dome ice core for volcanic tephra. The Law Dome ice core is the best-dated ice core from East Antarctica and contains a detailed record of climate and atmospheric chemistry over at least the last 700 years. Several global volcanic eruptions appear to be recorded in the Law Dome core, including the well known Tambora 1815 and Unknown 1809 events, as well as the Huaynaputina 1600 and Ruiz 1595 events. To verify the source eruptions responsible for these signals, as well as to differentiate between local Antarctic and southern hemisphere …

Project Title: Sustainable Adaptations To Drought And Climate Variability In Agricultural Production Systems Across Nebraska, Cody L. Knutson, Michael J. Hayes, Robert K. Hitchcock, Jeffrey Peake, Martin Kleinschmit

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought is a normal part of Nebraska’s climate. It is also the leading cause of monetary disaster loss in the United States. FEMA (1995) has estimated that U.S. drought losses average $6-8 billion dollars per year. A majority of these losses are incurred in the agricultural sector. Nebraska’s losses alone topped $1.2 billion in 2002 (AP 2003).
To enhance viable operations in this variable climate, many Nebraska farmers and ranchers have begun making the transition to agricultural practices that fall into the realm of sustainable agriculture. Sustainability has been increasingly stressed as essential for creating more resilient systems and reducing …

Highly Detailed Reconstructions Of New England Weather Over The Past Few Centuries And Their Climatic Implications, Gregory A. Zielinski

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award will enable researchers to reconstruct daily weather conditions for New England over the past 300 years by compiling and analyzing written archives such as diaries, journals, agricultural records, and marine logs. These archives will be used to reconstruct daily weather maps that will be compared with recent climatic conditions. New England has a large number of lengthy weather archives and is a region sensitive to changing climatic conditions. The region is influenced by storm tracks and upper-air disturbances that impact the Canadian High, Icelandic Low and the Bermuda-Azores High from year-to-year.

Obtaining highly detailed and lengthy records of …

A New Mt. Logan Ice Core Record - Change In Climate And Chemistry Of The Atmosphere For The North Pacific, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Gregory Zielinski, Karl J. Kreutz, Andrei V. Kurbatov

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Mt. Logan, in the St. Elias Range, southeast Alaska, offers a unique opportunity for monitoring climate change and change in the atmospheric chemistry of the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific. In 1980, a 103-meter (M) ice core was recovered from Mt. Logan which spanned AD 1689-1980. It revealed well-defined annual layers, calibrated through the identification of radioactive bomb and volcanic horizons, allowing continuous, sub-seasonal sampling for stable isotopes and ion chemistry. The -29 degree C mean annual temperature at the site assures that the soluble, insoluble, and isotopic components of the core are well preserved.

In 2001 and …

Glaciology Of Blue Ice Areas In Antarctica, Gordon Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

A 'horizontal ice core' was collected at the Mount Moulton blue ice field in West Antarctica and preliminary analyses of the sample material suggests that a ~500 kyr climate record is preserved in the ice at this site. This award will contribute to the understanding of the Mt Moulton record by assessing the potential for ice-flow induced deformation of the stratigraphic profile. In addition, this award builds on the recognition of blue ice areas as archives of long climate records by conducting reconnaissance studies for a potential horizontal ice core location at the Allan Hills in East Antarctica. The objectives …

How Serious Is The Global Warming Threat?, Roy W. Spencer

Center for Applied Economics

Global warming is the quintessential environmental scare. While the local effects of litter, chemical contamination, and aerosol pollution had dominated our environmental concerns in the 1970’s and 1980’s, we are now faced with a threat that is global in extent and predicted to be long-lasting1. The culprit is humanity’s use of fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when burned. Since carbon dioxide is a ‘greenhouse gas’, it affects the radiative energy budget of the Earth. While carbon dioxide is a relatively minor atmospheric constituent, with a concentration now approaching 400 parts per million (pre-industrial levels were about …

A Science Management Office For The U. S. Component Of The International Trans Antarctic Expedition (Us Itase Smo)Ûa Collaborative Pgrm Of Research From S. Pole To N. Victoria Land, Paul A. Mayewski, Gordon S. Hamilton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a science management office for a pilot ice-core drilling and analysis program to test the feasibility of obtaining well-dated, high-resolution isotope and chemistry records from East Antarctica. Shallow ice cores will be obtained from two locations: 1) ~100 km from South Pole towards the Pole of Inaccessibility, as an extension of the Byrd Station-to-South Pole ITASE traverse [International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition]; 2) at Taylor Dome, near the original deep coring site, and (3) possibly at AGO 3 and AGO 4 as part of a logistics traverse to these sites. All of the cores collected will be …

Crop Updates 2006 - Katanning, David Stephens, Michael Meuleners, Meredith Fairbanks, Thomas Schulz, T. J. Flowers, T. D. Colmer, Narelle Simpson, Ron Mctaggart, Wal Anderson, Lionel Martin, Dave Allen, Brenda Shackley, Raj Malik, Kelly Winfield, Rodger Beermier, Shahahan Miyan, Abul Hashem, Shahab Pathan, Vikki Osten, Alex Douglas, Garren Knell, Steve Curtin, Wade Longmuir, Henry Brockman, Justin Hardy, Arjen Ryder, John Paul Collins, Jessica Johns, John Pepall, Allan Herbert

Crop Updates

This session covers sixteen papers from different authors

1. 2006 SEASONAL OUTLOOK, David Stephens and Michael Meuleners, Department of Agriculture

2. Review of climate model summaries reported in the Department of Agriculture’s growing season outlooks, Meredith Fairbanks, Department of Agriculture

3. Farmers commodity outlook 2006, Thomas Schulz, Department of Agriculture

4. Why is salinity such a difficult problem for plant breeders? T J Flowers, TD Colmer, University of Western Australia

5. Matching nitrogen supply to wheat demand in 2005, Narelle Simpson, Ron McTaggart, Wal Anderson, Lionel Martin and Dave Allen, Department of Agriculture

6. Wheat varieties in 2006, Brenda Shackley, …

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Crop Updates 2006 - Cadoux And Calingiri, Raj Malik, Kelly Winfield, David Stephens, Michael Meuleners, Kari-Lee Falconer, Bill Bowden, Narelle Simpson, Anne Wilkins, Nathan Hancock, Peter Newman, Glenn Adam, Andrew Blake, Caroline Peak, Stephen Davies, Chris Gazey, Bob Gilkes, Dan Evans, Tania Liaghati

Crop Updates

This session covers nine papers from different authors

1. Performance of oaten hay varieties in Western Australian environments, Raj Malik and Kellie Winfield, Department of Agriculture

2. Performance of dwarf potential milling varieties in Western Australian environments, Raj Malik and Kellie Winfield, Department of Agriculture

3. 2006 Seasonal outlook, David Stephens, Michael Meuleners and Kari-Lee Falconer, Department of Agriculture

4. Matching nitrogen supply to crop demand in high rainfall cropping, Bill Bowden, Narelle Simpson Department of Agriculture

5. An overview of the potential for a Biofuels Industry in Western Australia, Anne Wilkins and Nathan Hancock, Department of Agriculture

6. IWM performs over 5 years …

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Crop Updates 2006 - Farming Systems, Wayne Pluske, Bill Bowden, Craig Scanan, Stephen Davies, Chris Gazey, Peter Tozer, Derk Bakker, Louise Barton, David Gatter, Renee Buck, Daniel Murphy, Christoph Hinz, Bill Porter, Meredith Fairbanks, Nicolyn Short, Ian Foster, James Fisher, Doug Abrecht, Mario D'Antuono, Tracey M. Gianatti, Paul Carmody, Frank D'Amden, Rick Llewellyn, Michael Burton, Caroline Peek, Nadine Eva, Chris Carter, Megan Abrahams, Andrew Blake, Paul Blackwell, Sylvian Pottier, Michael Robertson, Greg Lyle, Lisa Brennan, Tony J. Vyn, Simon Teakle, Peter Norris, Jeff Russell, James Fisher, Roy Murray-Prior, Deb Pritchard, Mike Collins, Greg Hamilton, Rob Hetherington, Andrew Van Burgel, Cliff Spann

Crop Updates

This session covers nineteen papers from different authors:

SOIL AND NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

1. Inve$tigating fertili$er inve$tment, Wayne Pluske, Nutrient Management Systems

2. KASM, the potassium in Agricultural System Model,Bill Bowden and Craig Scanlan, DAWA Northam and UWA, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences

3. Long term productivity and economic benefits of subsurface acidity management from surface and subsurface liming, Stephen Davies, Chris Gazey and Peter Tozer, Department of Agriculture

4. Furrow and ridges to prevent waterlogging, Dr Derk Bakker, Department of Agriculture

5. Nitrous oxide emissions from a cropped soil in Western Australia, Louise Barton^{1 …}

Cave Levels, Marine Terraces, Paleoshorelines, And The Water Table In Peninsular Florida, Lee J. Florea, H L. Vacher

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Levels of passages are a common feature of many cave systems around the world. Likewise, coastal and marine terraces are common in coastal plain settings. This paper extends the discussion of cave levels from traditional research sites in the interior lowlands of the United States to the Atlantic Coastal Plains, namely peninsular Florida. Are there levels in Florida caves, and is there a link between the elevation of cave levels, marine terraces, paleoshorelines, and thus the water table, above and below present sea level in peninsular Florida?

Loop Current Warming By Hurricane Wilma, Lie-Yauw Oey, Tal Ezer, Dong-Ping Wang, S. J. Fan, Xun-Qiang Yin

CCPO Publications

Hurricanes mix and cool the upper ocean, as shown here in observations and modeling of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico during the passage of hurricane Wilma. Curiously, the upper ocean around the Loop Current warmed prior to Wilma's entrance into the Gulf. The major cause was increased volume and heat transports through the Yucatan Channel produced by storm-induced convergences in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. Such oceanic variability may have important impacts on hurricane predictions.

Climate In The Balance, Cameron P. Wake

The University Dialogue

This essay explores how our climate system works, how humans are changing the climate system, and how we might face the challenges of reducing our negative impact on the climate system in the future.

Past Glacial And Interglacial Conditions In The Arctic Ocean And Marginal Seas - A Review, Dennis A. Darby, Leonid Polyak, Henning A. Bauch

OES Faculty Publications

Past changes in the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas have been profound, even during the last 10,000 years. Understanding these changes, such as those occurring during the transition from glacial to interglacial climates, are important for research on modern processes, because this knowledge provides a framework and unique perspective in which to view the modern physical and biological processes. This paper discusses our current understanding of past environmental change and processes relative to those currently in progress. Special emphasis is placed on the most recent transition from a glacial state to the modern interglacial conditions.

Uncertainty, Climate Change And Nuclear Power, David M. Hassenzahl

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Long time-horizon environmental risks with potential for global impacts have increased in visibility over the past several decades. Such issues as climate change, the nuclear fuel cycle, persistent synthetic chemicals, and stratospheric ozone depletion share some characteristics, including intergenerational impacts, strongly decoupled incidence of risks and benefits, substantial decision stakes and extreme uncertainty. What is not well understood are the similarities and differences among sources and implications of uncertainty among these global environmental threats, especially those associate with current and future human behavior. This describes the uncertainties associated with managing two global concerns: the nuclear (fission) fuel cycle and anthropogenic …