Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Reduction Of Iron (Iii) And Humic Substances Plays A Major Role In Anaerobic Respiration In An Arctic Peat Soil, David A. Lipson, Mony Jha, Ted K. Raab, Walter C. Oechel

Ted K. Raab

Arctic peat soils contain vast reserves of organic C and are largely anaerobic. However, anaerobic respiration, particularly the role of Fe(III) and humic substances as electron acceptors, is not well understood in such ecosystems. We investigated these processes in a drained thaw lake basin on the Arctic coastal plain near Barrow, Alaska. We measured concentrations of soluble Fe and other potential electron acceptors, described the microbial community, and performed experiments in the laboratory and field to measure net rates of Fe(III) reduction and the relationship of this process to C cycling. In most areas within the basin, aerobic conditions existed …

Symbiogenesis. A New Principle Of Evolution Rediscovery Of Boris Mikhaylovich Kozo-Polyansky (1890–1957), Lynn Margulis

Lynn Margulis (1938 - 2011)

The following is a heavily edited transcript of my illustrated lecture, that included our 14 minute video (with a 2 minute animation model) that shows each step in live organisms hypothesized in the origin of nucleated cells from bacteria (“eukaryosis”). New observations presented with modern examples of live phenomena make us virtually certain that B.M. Kozo-Polyansky’s “new principle” (1924) of the importance of symbiogenesis in the evolutionary process of at least 2000 million years of life on Earth is correct. The widely touted but undocumented explanation of the origin of evolutionary novelty by “gradual accumulation of random mutations” will be …

Source Attribution Of Ozone In Southeast Texas Before And After The Deepwater Horizon Accident Using Satellite, Sonde, Surface Monitor, And Air Mass Trajectory Data, Gary A. Morris, Barry Lefer, Bernhard Rappenglueck, Christine Haman, Marc Taylor, Mark R. Schoeberl

Gary A. Morris

Since the summer of 2004, over 300 ozonesondes have been launched from Rice University (29.7 N, 95.4 W) or the University of Houston (29.7 N, 95.3 W), each < 5 km from downtown Houston. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality maintains a large database of hourly surface ozone observations in Southeast Texas. In this study, we identify the contributions to surface ozone pollution levels from natural and anthropogenic sources, both local and remote in nature. This source identification is performed two ways: 1) through an analysis of sonde data, including ozone concentrations, wind speed and direction, and relative humidity data, and 2) through an analysis that combines trajectory calculations with surface monitor data. We also examine regional changes in Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) measurements of formaldehyde and ozone from 2004 – 2010. In particular, we compare the 2010 sonde, surface monitor, and satellite data after the Deepwater Horizon accident with data from previous years to determine the impact, if any, of the large source of hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico on air quality in Southeast Texas.

San Andreas Structural Interpretation: Merging Geophysical And Geological Data At Safod And Vicinity, Rebekah E. Wood, James P. Evans, Peter E. Malin

Rebekah Wood

No abstract provided.

Wave-Induced Transport Of Atmospheric Constituents And Its Effect On The Mesospheric Na Layer, Chester S. Gardner, Alan Z. Liu

Alan Z Liu

No abstract provided.

2,2′,5,5′-Tetra­Chloro­Benzidine, Onome Ugono, Marcel Douglas, Nigam P. Rath, Alicia M. Beatty

Nigam Rath

2,2′,5,5′-Tetra­Chloro­Benzidine, Onome Ugono, Marcel Douglas, Nigam P. Rath, Alicia M. Beatty

Alicia Beatty

Background Fluorescence In Groundwater From A Tropical Karst Island Aquifer, Michelle Hoffman

Michelle Hoffman

Background levels of four fluorescent compounds were monitored biweekly at thirteen sampling sites on Guam, consisting of subtidal and intertidal springs, dissolution fractures, and internal upland contact spring discharge, over a 13-month period from 2006 to 2007. Samples were compared to local precipitation and to seawater samples from four nearby reef flats. The data revealed that the concentrations of optical brighteners were consistently two orders of magnitude greater than either sodium fluorescein or rhodamine WT, while Eosine Y was rarely detected. Background levels in seawater, by comparison, accounted for 25% or more of the fluorescent compounds detected at the thirteen …

Late Quaternary Distribution And Biogeography Of The Southern Lake Eyre Basin (Sleb) Megafauna, South Australia, Steve Webb

Steve Webb

Understanding the population demography, species distribution and biogeography of Australia’s megafauna is essential for understanding their extinction. This process is only just beginning, and this article discusses these aspects while concentrating on a particular region; the southern Lake Eyre Basin (SLEB). It is also the first detailed description of the distribution of megafauna across that region of central Australia. The data are based on an extensive longitudinal study of 41 palaeontological sites spread across 250 000km2. Megafauna adaptation and response to extensive environmental change during the late Quaternary is reflected in the composition and distribution of 21 megafauna species found …

Millenial-Aged Organic Carbon Subsidies To A Modern River Food Web, Steven T. Petsch, J. J. Cole, P. Raymond, J. E. Bauer, N. Caraco

Steven T. Petsch

Recent studies indicate that highly aged material is a major component of organic matter transported by most rivers. However, few studies have used natural 14C to trace the potential entry of this aged material into modern river food webs. Here we use natural abundance 14C, 13C, and deuterium (2H) to trace the contribution of aged and contemporary organic matter to an important group of consumers, crustacean zooplankton, in a large temperate river (the Hudson River, New York, USA). Zooplankton were highly 14C depleted (mean delta14C = -240 per thousand) compared to modern primary production in the river or its watershed …

Comparison Of Viscous Damping In Unsaturated Soils, Compression And Shear, Paul Michaels

Paul Michaels

Geophysical down-hole surveys can be used to measure the small strain dynamic properties of soils by the effects these properties have on wave propagation. The relevant effects include amplitude decay (corrected for beam divergence) and velocity dispersion. In this paper, down-hole data collected during the GeoInstitute's Denver 2000 field day are presented and analyzed as a Kelvin-Voigt solid. Findings for these unsaturated soils include viscous damping and stiffness which differ significantly for shear and compressional waves. A strong viscous damping is observed in compression, but weak damping is presented in shear. Lumped parameter constitutive models are discussed which mathematically represent …

Relating Damping To Soil Permeability, Paul Michaels

Paul Michaels

Published comparisons of complex moduli in dry and saturated soils have shown that viscous behavior is only evident when a sufficiently massive viscous fluid (like water) is present. That is, the loss tangent is frequency dependent for water saturated specimens, but nearly frequency independent for dry samples. While the Kelvin-Voigt (KV) representation of a soil captures the general viscous behavior using a dashpot, it fails to account for the possibly separate motions of the fluid and frame (there is only a single mass element). An alternative representation which separates the two masses, water and frame, is presented here. This Kelvin-Voigt-Maxwell-Biot …

Reproducibility Of Soil Moisture Ensembles When Representing Soil Parameter Uncertainty Using A Latin Hypercube–Based Approach With Correlation Control, Alejandro N. Flores, Dara Entekhabi, Rafael L. Bras

Alejandro N. Flores

Representation of model input uncertainty is critical in ensemble-based data assimilation. Monte Carlo sampling of model inputs produces uncertainty in the hydrologic state through the model dynamics. Small Monte Carlo ensemble sizes are desirable because of model complexity and dimensionality but potentially lead to sampling errors and correspondingly poor representation of probabilistic structure of the hydrologic state. We compare two techniques to sample soil hydraulic and thermal properties (SHTPs): (1) Latin Hypercube (LH) based sampling with correlation control and (2) random sampling from SHTP marginal distributions. A hydrology model is used to project SHTP uncertainty onto the soil moisture state …

Source Parameters And Time‐Dependent Slip Distributions Of Slow Slip Events On The Cascadia Subduction Zone From 1998 To 2008, D. A. Schmidt, Haiying Gao

Haiying Gao

We invert for the time‐dependent slip history of slow slip events on the Cascadia subduction zone using GPS data from 1998 to 2008. The 16 slip transients have sufficient station coverage to solve for the slip distribution on the plate interface. GPS time series are inverted for fault slip using the Extended Network Inversion Filter. Limited station coverage south of Portland (45.5°N latitude) restricts our analysis to events on the northern half of the subduction zone. Slip is resolved at the base of the seismogenic zone and the slip distributions suggest a potential segment boundary near Seattle (47.6°N) that correlates …

A Comparison Of Biocolloid And Colloid Transport In Single Saturated Rock Fractures, Junlei Qu

Sarah E Dickson

No abstract provided.

Cap-And-Trade Legislation, John C. Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

A Low Threshold For North Atlantic Ice Rafting From “Low-Slung Slippery” Late Pliocene Ice Sheets, Ian Bailey, Clara T. Bolton, Robert M. Deconto, David Pollard, Ralf Schiebel, Paul A. Wilson

Robert M DeConto

Suborbital variability in late Pleistocene records of ice-rafted debris and sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic Ocean appears most extreme during times of enlarged ice sheets with a well-constrained benthic oxygen isotope-defined “ice volume threshold” (δ18OT) for the “100 ka (inter)glacial” world. Information on climate instability for the earlier Pleistocene and late Pliocene is more fragmentary and/or of much lower temporal resolution, but the data available suggest similar behavior with δ18OT remaining more or less constant over the past 3000 ka. This finding is puzzling because it implies that ice rafting is highly sensitive to ice volume on short …

Central New York Varve Chronology: A Suggestion For Quaternary Geologists, Thomas Bradley Walker

Thomas Bradley Walker

Work done to build a chronology of deglaciation using varves has been the focus of a number of researchers in New England for many years. The locations employed to build their timeline have been quite useful to date. However, New England is not the only place in the Northeast conducive to studying the last deglaciation of North America. The discovery of a set of ice proximal varves in an ancient glacial lake, now a swamp, in Oswego County, central New York, has shown that some locations outside of New England would be suitable for similar studies. The land having been …

Cleaning Of Rivers Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Despite immense drain on our scarce resources, rivers remain polluted. Waste disposal into rivers on top of meager to absent infrastructural facilities, including treatment facilities, are the most important drivers of pollution. Unscientific development paradigm devoid of adequate environmental safeguards and failure of forestry sector to cope up with the challenge has led to the deteriorated condition of green cover and water. Several state-of-art geo-spatial programs developed by the author would be applied for generating optimum state-of-art plan. Three state-of-art geo-spatial programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation Program (MAAP), Data Automatic Modification Program (DAMP) and Multi-Stage Simulation Program (MUSSIP) - developed primarily …

An Examination Of The Impact Of Air From China On Summertime Air Quality In Japan Before, During, And After The Beijing Olympics, Gary A. Morris, Hajime Akimoto, Masayuki Takigawa, Jun Hirokawa, Fumio Hasebe, Masatomo Fujiwara, Koji Miyagawa, Nicholay Krotkov, Jacquie Witte, Yugo Kanaya, Nathan Kellams, Ted Pietrzak

Gary A. Morris

During July – September 2008 pollution controls in China associated with the Beijing Olympics led to emissions reductions of up to 43%, as observed by NASA satellite instruments. Pollution from China has an impact on air quality throughout East Asia. In this poster, we examine the impact of China's pollution on Japan through the use of Aura satellite data (2005 – 2009), ozonesonde data (2000 – 2009), and data from air quality surface monitors (2000 – 2009). We also examine the year-to-year variability in meteorological flow regimes through trajectory model simulations of transport to Japan from the areas around Beijing …

Model Estimates Of Net Primary Productivity, Evapotranspiration, And Water Use Efficiency In The Terrestrial Ecosystems Of The Southern United States During 1895–2007, Hanqin Tian, Guangsheng Chen, Mingliang Liu, Chi Zhang, Ge Sun, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, Xiaofeng Xu, Wei Ren, Shufen Pan, Arthur Chappelka

Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu

The effects of global change on ecosystem productivity and water resources in the southern United States (SUS), a traditionally ‘water-rich’ region and the ‘timber basket’ of the country, are not well quantified. We carried out several simulation experiments to quantify ecosystem net primary productivity (NPP), evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE) (i.e., NPP/ET) in the SUS by employing an integrated process-based ecosystem model (Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model, DLEM). The results indicated that the average ET in the SUS was 710 mm during 1895–2007. As a whole, the annual ET increased and decreased slightly during the first and second half …

Cenozoic Mass Extinctions In The Deep Sea; What Disturbs The Largest Habitat On Earth?, Ellen Thomas

Ellen Thomas

No abstract provided.

Deformation And Alteration Associated With Oceanic And Continental Detachment Fault Systems: Are They Similar?, Barbara John, Michael Cheadle

Barbara John

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Different Aproaches To Extract Heterogeneous Objects From An Image Using An Orchards Example, Przemysław Kupidura, Gwadera Łukasz

Przemysław Kupidura

Traditional, pixel-based classification is very often an useless tool for an automatic extraction of heterogeneous types of land cover. This paper presents the application of mathematical morphology for a semi-automatic extraction of heterogenous objects using an example of orchards. Thanks to this algorithm it is possible to obtain orchards pixels of unique set of digital numbers, allowing succesful application of a traditional pixel-based classification for extraction of this class.The algorithm concerning a sequence of morphological operations of multispectral satellite images of very high resolution (VHR) is then veryfied on test images. The paper concerns also a comparison of an efficiency …

Semi-Automatic Method For A Built-Up Area Intensity Survey Using Morphological Granulometry, Przemysław Kupidura

Przemysław Kupidura

Built-up areas as a land-use type are easy to extract in a visual photo-interpretation process, however their heterogeneous character makes theirs automatic or semi-automatic extraction very complicated, even impossible using non-contextual, pixel-based methods of image classification. This paper concerns the application of the semi-automatic method of the extraction of built-up areas in satellite images. Granulometric maps, a mathematical morphology operator is used as a main tool for surveying a heterogeneity of particular parts of an aerial or satellite image. This function measures amount and size of objects in the determined neighborhood of each pixel of an image. Pixels representing built-up …

Partitioning Of ?India-Eurasua Convergence In The Pamir-Hindu Kush From Gps Measurements, Rebecca Bendick

Rebecca Bendick

No abstract provided.

Choosing Carbon Mitigation Strategies Using Ethical Deliberation, Rebecca Bendick

Rebecca Bendick

No abstract provided.

Why Subduction Zones Are Curved, Rebecca Bendick

Rebecca Bendick

No abstract provided.

Earthquake Emergency Education In Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Rebecca Bendick

Rebecca Bendick

No abstract provided.

Sedimentary Setting Of Adriatic Flysch Formation (Middle Eocene-Middle Miocene), Southeastern Montenegro As Revealed By Turbidite Sequences., Zoran Kilibarda, Damjan Cadjenovic, Jelena Milutin, Novo Radulovic

Zoran Kilibarda

A 750 m long outcrop of Middle Eocene-Miocene flysch is exposed in an asymmetrical syncline in Crnjak Cove, south of Bar, Montenegro. Texture, physical sedimentary structures, petrography, and trace fossil studied in these sediments allowed the recognition of turbidite facies that display various members of the Bouma sequence (Ta,b,c,d,e). These are interpreted in order to reconstruct the depositional setting of these gravitational deposits. Predominantly clastic lihologies in this 300 m thick sequence are arranged in seven distinct turbidite facies, which represent three superimposed submarine fans. The oldest fan consists of: 1) basal marl (T1: 0-30 m), which indicate basin to …