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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Assessing Kiln-Produced Hardwood Biochar For Improving Soil Health In A Temperate Climate Agricultural Soil, Emily J. Cole Nov 2015

Assessing Kiln-Produced Hardwood Biochar For Improving Soil Health In A Temperate Climate Agricultural Soil, Emily J. Cole

Doctoral Dissertations

Soil quality has become a major factor used in assessing sustainable land management and the overall environmental quality, food security, and economic viability of agricultural lands. Recently, biochar has been touted as having many potential uses as a soil amendment for improving soil quality, specifically improving cation exchange capacity, pH and nutrient availability. However, soil biology also plays a significant role in biogeochemical processes that influence soil health and should be included in a more comprehensive study of soil health. This dissertation describes 4 projects within the same 3-year field study with the cumulative purpose of better understanding the effect …


Oceanographic Controls On The Expression Of Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events In The Western Interior Sea, Christopher M. Lowery Aug 2015

Oceanographic Controls On The Expression Of Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events In The Western Interior Sea, Christopher M. Lowery

Doctoral Dissertations

The Cretaceous Period (145-66 Ma) was a time of elevated global temperatures superimposed on fluctuating climate regimes and repeated biotic turnover. It recorded several major perturbations of the carbon cycle, characterized by widespread deposition of organic-rich black shale and benthic and photic zone dysoxia to euxinia, termed oceanic anoxic events (OAEs). The Cenomanian-Turonian OAE2 and the enigmatic Coniacian-Santonian OAE3 are well-preserved in the Western Interior Sea (WIS) of North America. The expression of these OAEs in the WIS differs both from each other and from contemporaneous open-ocean sections. Despite decades of research, questions remain about the role of oceanographic parameters …


Sediment Records From Coastal Ponds: Temporal Archives Of Storm Inundation And Environmental Change, Christine M. Brandon Aug 2015

Sediment Records From Coastal Ponds: Temporal Archives Of Storm Inundation And Environmental Change, Christine M. Brandon

Doctoral Dissertations

Hurricanes are powerful storms that can cause billions of dollars in damage and kill many people when they strike populated coastal areas. Understanding how frequently coastal cities can expect storms of a certain magnitude would help inform more effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. Unfortunately, current estimates of hurricane frequency rely on numerical models based on weather observations that, on the east coast of the United States, only extend ~150 years into the past. While this is sufficient for estimating the characteristics (i.e. wind speed and storm surge height) of annual or decadal storms, the properties of larger, rarer, and more …