Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Effects Of Wet Meadow Fragmentation On Grassland Birds, Christopher J. Helzer

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Histomorphological Responses Of Red Shiner (Cyprinella Lutrensis) To Atrazine, Terbufos, And Their Mixture, Ibrahim A. Messaad

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alterations of normal histomorphology of fish tissues, behavior, and thermal tolerance are recognized by environmental toxicologists and fish biologists as powerful tools indicating diverse biochemical and physiological changes. Toxicity of atrazine (2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-1,3,5-triazine), terbufos (S-(((1,1-dimethyl-ethyl)thio)methyl)O,O-diethyl phosphorodithioate), and their mixture to red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) at 23$\sp\circ$C and 30$\sp\circ$C was investigated in 14-d bioassays after 14-d acclimation. During the bioassays, fish behavior, indications of toxicosis, and external anomalies were observed. After the bioassays, the critical thermal maximum (CTM) was determined. Fish also were preserved for examinations of gill, liver, and kidney tissues using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy (LM). SEM …

Geology Newsletter- 1996, Department Of Geology

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Vol. 1, No. 21

• Faculty News
• Alumni/ Friends/ Former Faculty Notes
• Geology Development
• Donations
• Scholarship Donations

Public Beach Assessment Report Gloucester Point Public Beach, Gloucester County, Virginia, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., George R. Thomas

Reports

Gloucester Point Public Beach is located at the southern end of Gloucester County, Virginia on the York River. It is a southeastward facing shoreline about 960 ft long and it is part of a larger stretch of moderately low shore between Sarah Creek and the George P. Coleman Bridge. While no shoreline improvement projects have taken place at the public beach, shore protection projects updrift and including the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) affect it. In 1983, erosion along the shoreline at VIMS just updrift of the public beach led to the installation of a riprap revetment in front …

Yellow Sea & East China Sea Bibliography, Nicole D. Scott, Patricia T. Carrier, John D. Milliman

Reports

No abstract provided.

Cycle Symmetry And Its Causes, Cisco Group (Virgilian And Wolfcampian), Texas, Wan Yang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

181 transgressive-regressive cycles composed of nonmarine and marine carbonate and siliciclastic rocks of the Cisco Group on the Eastern Shelf, Texas, display complex characteristics at both hemicycle and full-cycle scales. They are delineated on the basis of successive changes of depositional environments, stratal boundary relations, and stratigraphic position. Transgressive and regressive stratigraphic environment gradients are defined as the magnitude of environmental shift divided by thickness for each hemicycle. They indicate the rates of lateral environmental shifts during transgression and regression. Cycle symmetry index is defined as the ratio between transgressive and regressive stratigraphic environment gradients. It provides a measure of …

Historical Biomass Burning: Late 19th Century Pioneer Agriculture Revolution In Northern Hemisphere Ice Core Data And Its Atmospheric Interpretation, G. Holdsworth, K. Hiuchi, G. A. Zielinski, Paul Andrew Mayewski, M. Wahlen, B. Deck, P. Chylek, B. Johnson, P. Damiano

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Ice core data from Yukon and Greenland spanning from ∼1750 to 1950 indicate that between ∼1850 and ≤1910 a clear atmospheric signal exists of an episodic biomass burning event that is referred to as the Pioneer Agriculture Revolution. This is best seen in NH₄⁺ ion and particulate concentrations but also in some limited black carbon concentration data, where for all three quantities maximum levels reach about 3 times the prerevolution background concentrations. Tree cellulose δ¹³C data and some early, controversial, French, air CO₂ data, occurring within the same time interval, are interpreted as providing other …

Low Temperature Magnetic Properties Of Siderite And Magnetite In Marine Sediments, Bernard A. Housen, S. K. Banerjee, B. M. Moskowitz

Geology Faculty Publications

Low temperature magnetic techniques provide useful tools to detect the presence of magnetite and pyrrhotite in sediments through identification of their low temperature transitions, to determine the amount of ultrafine-grained (superparamagnetic) material in sediments, and can potentially detect the presence of certain types of magnetotactic bacteria. Application of these types of experiments to nannofossil chalks from beneath the Barbados accretionary prism led to some unusual results, which are attributed to the presence of siderite. Thermal demagnetization of low-temperature remanence after cooling in zero field and in a 2.5 T field both displayed large remanence losses from 20 K to 40 …

Late Cenozoic Structure And Tectonics Of The Northern Mojave Desert, Elizabeth R. Schermer, B. P. Luyendyk, S. Cisowski

Geology Faculty Publications

In the Fort Irwin region of the northern Mojave desert, late Cenozoic east striking sinistral faults predominate over northwest striking dextral faults of the same age. Kinematic indicators and offset marker units indicate dominantly sinistral strike slip on the east striking portions of the faults and sinistral-thrust slip on northwest striking, moderately dipping segments at the east ends of the blocks. Crustal blocks ∼7–10 km wide by ∼50 km long are bounded by complex fault zones up to 2 km wide at the edges and ends of each block. Faulting initiated after ∼11 Ma, and Quaternary deposits are faulted and …

Naticid Gastropod Prey Selectivity Through Time And The Hypothesis Of Escalation, Patricia H. Kelley, Thor A. Hansen

Geology Faculty Publications

The hypothesis of escalation posits that biologic hazards such as predation have increased during the Phanerozoic. Previously, a survey of drilling frequencies in the Cretaceous and Paleogene of the North American Coastal Plain suggested an episodic pattern of escalation within the naticid gastropod predator-prey system. This study examines escalation from the perspective of naticid prey selectivity. If escalation occurred within the system, less selectivity of prey may be apparent in the Paleogene compared to younger assemblages. We test this hypothesis for four Eocene Coastal Plain assemblages. Contrary to predictions, intraspecific prey size selectivity was well developed for nine of eleven …

Timing Of Latest Eocene Molluscan Extinction Patterns In Mississippi, David M. Hassl, Thor A. Hansen

Geology Faculty Publications

Molluscs removed from 12 bulk samples of the Yazoo Formation (upper Eocene), exposed in a quarry at Cynthia, Mississippi, are similar in com- position and diversity to those found in the underlying upper Eocene Moodys Branch Formation, when dif- ferences in outcrop area are considered (74% of the Yazoo species are also found in the Moodys Branch). This suggests there was no significant extinction during the late Eocene (at the P15/P16 biozone boundary) as has been reported for planktic foraminifera. Only 11.4% of the species from the Yazoo extend into the Oligocene Red Bluff Formation, suggesting a large molluscan extinction …

Impact Of Groundwater Contamination In East Multnomah County On The Interlachen Community, Scott A. Wells, Shuguang Li, Marvin Beeson, Michael Cummings, Richard Pratt, Robert Leslie Annear, Karann Brandt

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Friends of Blue and Fairview Lake through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) program contracted with Portland State University faculty and staff to provide an independent review of the groundwater contamination problem at the Boeing-Cascade site in East Multnomah County. An independent consultant, Karann Brandt, of PRC Environmental Management, Inc., was also assisting the panel with the review.

The region of groundwater contamination is a 2.5 square mile region bounded by NE Halsey Blvd. to the Columbia River and NE 178th to NE 223rd (see Figure 1). The groundwater contamination is primarily of volatile organic compounds …

Theoretical Analysis Of Cross Joint Geometries And Their Classification, Taixu Bai

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Joints as opening-mode fractures play important roles as indicators of tectonic stress fields and as pathways for underground fluid flow. This thesis analytically investigates the relationships among cross joint geometry, orientations and ratios of remote principal stresses, and fluid pressure. Results show that main trends of cross joints are perpendicular to the least far field stresses during cross joint formation, and cross joint paths can be used to determine relative magnitudes of remote principal stresses. Based on the theoretical derivation, cross joint geometries are grouped into five main categories: curving-parallel, curving-perpendicular, quasi-curving-parallel, quasi-curving-perpendicular and non-curving geometries. By introducing the concepts …

Depletion Of Atmospheric Nitrate And Chloride As A Consequence Of The Toba Volcanic Eruption, Q. Yang, Paul Andrew Mayewski, G. A. Zielinski, M. Twickler, K. C. Taylor

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Continuous measurements of SO₄²⁻ and electrical conductivity (ECM) along the GISP2 ice core record the Toba mega‐eruption at a depth 2590.95 to 2091.25 m (71,000±5000 years ago). Major chemical species were analyzed at a resolution of 1 cm per sample for this section. An ∼6‐year long period with extremely high volcanic SO₄²⁻ coincident with a 94% depletion of nitrate and 63% depletion of chloride is observed at the depth of the Toba horizon. Such a reduction of chloride in a volcanic layer preserved in an ice core has not been observed in any previous studies. The …

Relationship Between Continuous Aerosol Measurements And Firn Core Chemistry Over A 10‐Year Period At The South Pole, M. H. Bergin, E. A. Meyerson, J. E. Dibb, Paul Andrew Mayewski

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Before ice core chemistry can be used to estimate past atmospheric chemistry it is necessary to establish an unambiguous link between concentrations of chemical species in the air and snow. For the first time a continuous long‐term record of aerosol properties (aerosol light scattering coefficient, σ_sp , and Ångström exponent, å) at the South Pole are compared with the chemical record from a high resolution firn core (∼10 samples per year) covering the period from 1981 to 1991. Seasonal signals in å, associated with winter minima due to coarse mode seasalt and summer maxima due to accumulation mode sulfate …

Localized Amplification Of Seismic Waves And Correlation With Damage Due To The Northridge Earthquake: Evidence For Focusing In Santa Monica, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Paul M. Davis, Leon Knopoff

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The analysis of seismograms from 32 aftershocks recorded by 98 seismic stations installed after the Northridge earthquake in the San Fernando Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains, and Santa Monica, California, indicates that the enhanced damage in Santa Monica is explained in the main by focusing due to a lens structure at a depth of several kilometers beneath the surface and having a finite lateral extent. The diagnosis was made from the observation of late-arriving S phases with large amplitudes, localized in the zones of large damage. The azimuths and angles of incidence of the seismic rays that give rise to …

Chemical Species Spatial Distribution And Relationship To Elevation And Snow Accumulation Rate Over The Greenland Ice Sheet, Q. Yang, Paul Andrew Mayewski, E. Linder, S. Whitlow, M. Twickler

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Major chemical species (Cl⁻, NO⁻₃, SO²⁻₄, Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) from 24 snowpits (sampled at a resolution of 3 cm, total 2995 samples) collected from northern, central, and southern Greenland were used for this investigation. The annual and seasonal (winter and summer) concentration of each chemical species was calculated and used to study the spatial distribution of chemical species over the central portion of the Greenland Ice Sheet. A two-sided t-distribution test (α=0.05) suggests that concentrations of major chemical species in snow do …

Propogation Of Juniperus For Conservation Plantings In The Great Plains, Scott Allen Lee

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

The Biology Of Alewife Alosa Pseudoharengus In Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, Eric A. Laux

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Quantification Of Extraterrestrial Lava Flow Effusion Rates Through Laboratory Simulations, Tracy K.P. Gregg, Jonathan H. Fink

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We have used carefully controlled laboratory simulations to develop a model which relates lava flow morphology to effusion rate and rheology. Through comparisons with measured and estimated eruption rates on Earth, this approach allows us to constrain eruptive styles and compositions of extraterrestrial lava flows. By applying this model to lava flows on the Moon, Mars and Venus, we have determined that all the common flow morphologies (domes, folds and levees) on these planets could have been produced by basalt-like or andesite-like lavas through either continuous or episodic emplacement. The presence of more evolved magma compositions on other planets is …

Application Of Permutations To Lossless Compression Of Multispectral Thematic Mapper Images, Ziya Arnavut, Sunil Narumalani

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The goal of data compression is to find shorter representa- tions for any given data. In a data storage application, this is done in order to save storage space on an auxiliary device or, in the case of a communication scenario, to increase channel throughput. Because re- motely sensed data require tremendous amounts of transmission and storage space, it is essential to find good algorithms that utilize the spa- tial and spectral characteristics of these data to compress them. A new technique is presented that uses a spectral and spatial correlation to create orderly data for the compression of multispectral …

Investigation Of Spatial Patterns Of Ground-Water Exchange With Lakes, Using A Three-Dimensional Numerical Model, Indranil Bandopadhyay

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogeologic variables controlling groundwater exchange with inflow and flow-through lakes were simulated using a three-dimensional numerical model (MODFLOW) to investigate and quantify spatial patterns of lake bed seepage and hydraulic head distributions in the porous medium surrounding the lakes. Also, the total annual inflow and outflow were calculated as a percentage of lake volume for flow-through lake simulations. The general exponential decline of seepage rates with distance offshore was best demonstrated at lower anisotropy ratio (i.e., Kh/Kv = 1, 10), with increasing deviation from the exponential pattern as anisotropy was increased to 100 and 1000. 2-D vertical section models constructed …

Swath Mapping On The Continental Shelf And Slope: The Eel River Basin, Northern California, John A. Goff, Larry A. Mayer, John E. Hughes Clarke, Lincoln F. Pratson

Affiliate Scholarship

First Paragraph

The STRATAFORM program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (Nittrouer and Kravitz, 1996, this issue) seeks to understand how sedimentary processes lead to the formation of the stratigraphic sequences on continental margins. A central challenge facing this effort is to understand the transport of sediments in shore-parallel as well as shore-perpendicular directions• Multidimensionality is necessary to describe, for example, the accumulation of sediments from river inputs, the distribution of gullies and canyons on the slope, the meandering of channels, and the structure of slumps and slides.

Marine Pore-Water Sulfate Profiles Indicate In Situ Methane Flux From Underlying Gas Hydrate, Walter S. Borowski, Charles K. Paull, William Ussler Iii

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Marine pore-water sulfate profiles measured in piston cores are used to estimate methane flux toward the sea floor and to detect anomalous methane gradients within sediments overlying a major gas hydrate deposit at the Carolina Rise and Blake Ridge (U.S. Atlantic continental margin). Here, sulfate gradients are linear, implying that sulfate depletion is driven by methane flux from below, rather than by the flux of sedimentary organic matter from above. Thus, these linear sulfate gradients can be used to quantify and assess in situ methane flux, which is a function of the methane inventory below.

Ua66/8/3 Annual Report, Wku Geography & Geology

WKU Archives Records

Annual report created by and about WKU Geography & Geology.

Boundary Conditions For Convergent Radial Tracer Tests And Effect Of Well Bore Mixing Volume, Vitaly A. Zlotnik, John David Logan

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Convergent radial flow tracer tests have a complex spatial nonaxial transport structure caused by the flow in the vicinity of the injection well and its finite mixing volume. The formulation of the boundary value problem, and especially the treatment of the boundary conditions at the injection well, is nontrivial. Hodgkinson and Lever [1983], Moench [1989, 1991], and Welty and Gelhar [1994] have developed different models and methods for the analysis of breakthrough curves in the extraction well. To extend interpretation techniques to breakthrough curves in the zone between injection and extraction wells, an analysis of conventional transport models is given, …

Prismatine: Revalidation For Boron-Rich Compositions In The Kornerupine Group, Edward S. Grew, Mark A. Cooper, Frank C. Hawthorne

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Kornerupine and prismatine were introduced independently by Lorenzen in 1884 (but published in 1886 and 1893) and by Sauer in 1886, respectively. Ussing (1889) showed that the two minerals were sufficiently close crystallographically and chemically to be regarded as one species. However, recent analyses of boron using the ion microprobe and crystal structure refinement, indicate that the boron content of one tetrahedral site in kornerupine ranges from 0 to 1. Kornerupine and prismatine, from their respective type localities of Fiskenaesset, Greenland and Waldheim, Germany, are distinct minerals, members of an isomorphic series differing in boron content. For this reason, we …

Influence Of Rice Production On The Quality Of Water In Tailwater Collection Reservoirs, R. A. Dewell, T. L. Lavy

Technical Reports

Since maintaining high water quality standards in the state remains a high priority, monitoring for pesticides in water sources must continue. Determining the type, concentration, and characteristics of any pesticides present in water supplies are essential to the overall assessment of water quality. Five independent locations, implementing contained water management systems and recyclable water, were monitored in 1995 and 1996. Irrigation, runoff, and pond water samples were collected every 10 to 14 days between permanent flood establishment and draining. Water samples were transported to the laboratory and extracted for 16 pesticides using solid phase extraction (SPE) techniques. Quantification and confirmation …

Bioaccumulation Of Methyl Mercury Through A Food Chain, J. T. Knight

Technical Reports

The bioaccumulation of mercury through the food chain has received much attention in Arkansas during the last three years. The discovery of mercury contamination and subsequent fish consumption advisories in southwest Arkansas have increased public awareness of the potential for bioaccumulation of different toxic compounds. It is postulated that the mercury problem in Arkansas is a result of methylation and resulting bioaccumulation of mercury as methyl mercury. This study was designed to derive a Bioaccumulation Factor (BAF) for mercury in a simple food chain under controlled conditions. A BAF is calculated by dividing the concentration found in the organism by …

Effects Of Zebra, Mussel, Dreissena Polymorpha Infestation On Lake Dardanelle Water Quality, Charles J. Gagen, Joseph N. Stoeckel

Technical Reports

Zebra mussels recently invaded southern waterways including the Arkansas River. Large-scale filtration of suspended particulate matter by dense populations could alter reservoir ecosystem function. Furthermore, they attach to hard surfaces, thereby threatening normal operations of artificial structures. We designed this study to provide baseline data prior to establishment of high population levels of zebra mussels in Lake Dardanelle. The characterization of spatial and temporal variability in water quality, zooplankton, phytoplankton, and macrophytes will allow testing of several hypotheses. We sampled zebra mussel veliger and settling juvenile densities and zooplankton densities at four fixed sites and the key water quality variables …