Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Preliminary Study On Floating Flexible Otec Cold Water Pipe, Nai Kuang Liang, Hai Kuan Peng

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) requires a large amount of cold seawater. The traditional rigid pipe, semi-rigidly fixed onto the ship bottom is not easy to install and disassemble, so the Floating Flexible Cold Water Pipe (FFCWP) flexibly connected to the ship is proposed. A small FFCWP was designed, fabricated, and successfully installed and recovered in the sea. The flexible pipe adopts commercially available fire ventilation snake pipe. The pipe wall material strength must be improved in the future. Assuming that the drag coefficient Cd value is 1.5, a numerical calculation is employed to simulate the FFCWP attitude from the …

Machine Learning With Multi-Source Data To Predict And Explain Marine Pilot Occupational Accidents, Gokhan Camliyurt, Youngsoo Park, Daewon Kim, Won Sik Kang, Sangwon Park

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

Marine pilot occupational accidents during transfer to/from ships are the primary concern of the International Marine Pilots’ Association (IMPA) and industry professionals. There are multiple transfer methods for marine pilots, with the most common being the pilot boat. To reach the mother ship bridge, the following stages must be safely completed: car transfer, walking on the pier, pier to pilot boat, pilot transfer by boat, cutter to pilot ladder, mother ship freeboard climbing, and ship deck to the bridge. Each stage has its own risk. Previous accident records and expert opinions are commonly used to conduct a risk analysis and …

Evaluation Of Operational Performance Of Wusongkou Cruise Port Through Network Data Envelopment Analysis, Qian-Feng Wang, Guo-Ya Gan, Xin-Liang Ye, Hsuan-Shih Lee

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

As major hubs for cruise berthing and passenger transfers, cruise ports in China were developing rapidly in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic because of an ever-growing regional market. Wusongkou Cruise Port is the most important port for cruise ships in China, and this study evaluated the operational performance of this port during 2011–2020. To this end, two-stage network data envelopment analysis was conducted to evaluate the port’s operation performance; subsequently, the change trajectory of the port’s operational efficiency during 2011–2020 was determined, and the potential reasons for the identified changes are discussed. Finally, suggestions for improving the operational performance …

Quantifying Tidewater Glacier-Fjord Environments In The Rapidly Changing Regions Of West And South Greenland, Sydney Baratta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Greenland Ice Sheet has undergone rapid mass loss over the last four decades, primarily through solid and liquid discharge at marine-terminating outlet glaciers. The acceleration of these glaciers is in part due to the increase in temperature of ocean water in contact with the glacier terminus. However, quantifying meltwater injection and heat transport can be challenging due to iceberg abundance, which threatens instrument survival and fjord accessibility. Additionally, acceleration and eventual retreat of tidewater glaciers onto land can change glacier forcing, completely altering fjord water-meltwater dynamics. Here, we couple in situ and remote sensing methods to quantify the upper-layer …

A Small Forest Owner's Engagement With A Carbon Sequestration Effort In Northeastern U.S., Frederick Pond

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

In 2023, a small forest landowner in central Vermont enrolled 140 acres in the Family Forest Carbon Program[FFCP], engaging his local forestland in combating global warming.

FFCP is a collaboration of The Nature Conservancy and American Forest Foundation, developed to offer small landowners the opportunity to engage their asset in carbon sequestration locally.

This poster presents the experience of a small forest owner's process in entering a twenty year contract to manage a small woodlot under the direction of FFCP while enrolled with the state UVA program, also known as Current Use.

Challenges to the process, advantages/downsides, future perspectives are …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of Internal Wave Interactions On Conch Reef, Florida Keys, Megan Miller

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Internal waves breaking on continental shelves play a significant role in mixing and nutrient delivery to coral reef ecosystems. As internal solitary waves, or solitons, propagate shoreward onto continental slopes, they can become unstable and break into turbulent bores that bring cool, nutrient-rich sub-thermocline water shoreward onto coral reefs. The propagation of turbulent bores generated by internal waves interacting with a complex surface creates high-frequency variabilities in the thermal and nutrient environment of Conch Reef in the Florida Keys, which has been studied previously. Here, I have created a three-dimensional model using ANSYS Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to …

Deep Learning Approaches For Chaotic Dynamics And High-Resolution Weather Simulations In The Us Midwest, Vlada Volyanskaya, Kabir Batra, Shubham Shrivastava

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Weather prediction is indispensable across various sectors, from agriculture to disaster forecasting, deeply influencing daily life and work. Recent advancement of AI foundation models for weather and climate predictions makes it possible to perform a large number of predictions in reasonable time to support timesensitive policy- and decision-making. However, the uncertainty quantification, validation, and attribution of these models have not been well explored, and the lack of knowledge can eventually hinder the improvement of their prediction accuracy and precision. Our project is embarking on a two-fold approach leveraging deep learning techniques (LSTM and Transformer) architectures. Firstly, we model the Lorenz …

Investigating The Effects Of A Southward Flow In The Southeastern Florida Shelf Using Robotic Instruments, Alfredo Quezada

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

We deployed a Slocum G3 glider fitted with an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), a Conductivity-Temperature-Depth sensor (CTD), optics sensor channels, and a propeller on the Southeastern Florida shelf. The ADCP and CTD provide continuous measurements of Northern and Eastern current velocity components, salinity, temperature, and density, throughout the water column in a high-current environment. The optics sensor channels are able to provide measurements of chlorophyll concentrations, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and backscatter particle counts. Additionally, for one of the glider deployments, we deployed a Wirewalker wave-powered profiling platform system also fitted with an ADCP and a CTD in …

Biophysical Factors Affecting Habitat Suitability For Crassostrea Virginica, Jason D. Tilley

Dissertations

Oyster reefs provide a variety of important ecosystem services. However, the mortality rate of eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, the dominant species that produces oyster reefs in the northern Gulf of Mexico, is increasing at an alarming rate due to a variety of abiotic and biological factors. I examined how biophysical factors, including the less-studied fatty acid profiles of the suspended particulate matter on which oysters feed, influenced morphometric condition of C. virginica.

I sampled suspended particulate matter (SPM) and oysters in-situ in the western Mississippi Sound, which historically supported the majority of oyster production in Mississippi waters. Sampling …

Prevalence, Faunal Composition, And Vertical Distribution Of Bioluminescence In The Pelagic Gulf Of Mexico: Fishes, Crustaceans, Cephalopods And Gelatinous Megaplankton, Devynne M. Brown

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Bioluminescence is the phenomenon of light emission by living organisms. It occurs through a chemical reaction within an organism and serves various purposes. The diversity of bioluminescent capabilities and occurrence in unrelated taxa suggest that bioluminescence has evolved independently numerous times amongst taxa thriving in certain environments. One such environment is the deep ocean, where little to no sunlight penetrates the water column, specifically in the mesopelagic (200-1000 m depth) and bathypelagic (> 1000 m) zones. The mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones have been extensively sampled and well documented in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), one of the few places globally …

Wonderstone And Its Connection To Liesegang, Microbes, And Beyond, Haden S. Mandery

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the western and southwestern United States, the term wonderstone is used to describe volcanic, volcaniclastic, and sedimentary rocks with variegated banding produced by iron oxide mineralization or staining. This iron oxide mineralization is typically described as Liesegang banding. In this paper I will (1) test if the banding in wonderstone follows the spacing and width laws characteristic of Liesegang, (2) identify the source of iron that ultimately precipitated in the bands, and (3) examine the role that microbes played in the formation of the mineralization in these rocks. I conclude that the iron oxide mineralization is not Liesegang banding. …

Enhancing Our Understanding Of Ancient Oceans Through The Investigation Of Molybdenum Behavior Under Sulfidic Conditions, Rachel Faye Phillips

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The most abundant trace metal in the ocean today, molybdenum (Mo), exhibits distinct behavior in oxygenated water, where it remains predominantly dissolved, compared to euxinic (i.e., oxygen-free and sulfidic) water, in which it is sequestered into the sediment. This dissimilar behavior allows us to use Mo concentrations and isotopic compositions in sediment to reconstruct marine oxygenation conditions throughout geologic history. However, Mo sequestration mechanisms under euxinic conditions remain unresolved, which limits the accuracy and precision of reconstructions made using Mo signatures in the rock record. For my doctoral research, I experimentally investigated abiotic and biotic Mo sequestration mechanisms under various …

Stream Restoration Effectiveness In Mullins Creek In Fayetteville, Arkansas, Amadeo Scott

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Lotic waterways are vital for habitat, food, water, and flood protection, but urbanization poses a major threat to their integrity. Runoff from urban surfaces leads to pollution, flashiness, loss of biodiversity, and other symptoms, also known as Urban Stream Syndrome (USS). To combat USS, streams can be restored, but most restorations are not monitored so their long-term effectiveness is unknown. This study quantitatively evaluated a decade-old stream restoration in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to assess its effectiveness in combating USS and achieving set restoration goals, and to gain insights for future restoration projects. Restoration goals included decreasing erosion and sedimentation, increasing pool …

Measuring The Lengths Of Sperm Whales Of The Northern Gulf Of Mexico By Wavelet Analysis Of Their Usual Clicks, George Drouant

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Acoustic recordings of underwater sounds produced by marine mammals present an attractive alternative to costly and logistically complex ship based visual surveys for collecting population data for various species.

The first reported use of underwater acoustic recordings in the long-term monitoring of sperm whale populations was by Ackleh et al. (Ackleh et al., 2012). The paper describes counting sperm whale clicks at different locations to track population changes over time.

Analysis of sperm whale clicks offers additional insight into sperm whale populations. The echo location clicks (usual clicks) of sperm whales can be used to give an estimate of …

Impact Of Weather Factors On Airport Arrival Rates: Application Of Machine Learning In Air Transportation, Robert W. Maxson, Dothang Truong, Woojin Choi

Publications

Weather is responsible for approximately 70% of air transportation delays in the National Airspace System, and delays resulting from convective weather alone cost airlines and passengers millions of dollars each year due to delays that could be avoided. This research sought to establish relationships between environmental variables and airport efficiency estimates by data mining archived weather and airport performance data at ten geographically and climatologically different airports. Several meaningful relationships were discovered from six out of ten airports using various machine learning methods within an overarching data mining protocol, and the developed models were tested using historical data.

Multi-Layer Evolution Of Acoustic-Gravity Waves And Ionospheric Disturbances Over The United States After The 2022 Hunga Tonga Volcano Eruption, P. A. Inchin, A. Bhatt, S. A. Cummer, S. D. Eckermann, B. J. Harding, J. Ma, J. J. Makela, J B. Snively

Publications

e Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano underwent a series of large-magnitude eruptions that generated in the atmosphere. We investigate the spatial and temporal evolutions of fluctuations driven by atmospheric acoustic-gravity waves (AGWs) and, in particular, the Lamb wave modes in high spatial resolution data sets measured over the Continental United States (CONUS), complemented with data over the Americas and the Pacific. Along with >800 barometer sites, tropospheric observations, and Total Electron Content data from >3,000 receivers, we report detections of volcano-induced AGWs in mesopause and ionosphere-thermosphere airglow imagery and Fabry-Perot interferometry. We also report unique AGW signatures in the ionospheric D-region, measured …

Tree-Ring Reconstruction Of Ouachita River Streamflow, Keaton Cade Jenkins-Joyce

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Ouachita River drains the Ouachita Mountains and Upper Coastal Plain in Arkansas and Louisiana. The Ouachita River is used for navigation, power generation, recreation, water supply, and wastewater treatment. The river has been prone to low flows during drought and extreme flooding, which were principal justifications for the construction of three large multipurpose dams on the stream. It is likely that the use of the Ouachita River will be stressed by future population growth, economic expansion, and climate change. For this study, tree-ring chronologies from various locations in and near the Ouachita River drainage basin were used to reconstruct …

Patterns In Winter Stonefly Distribution Along A River Continuum And Land-Use Gradient In Northwest Arkansas Streams, Zachary Tipton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Freshwater ecosystems are facing a crisis with extinction rates of aquatic species exceeding those of their terrestrial counterparts by up to fivefold. This decline is predominantly attributed to evolving land use patterns within watersheds, leading to chemical and physical transformations in freshwater habitats. Northwest Arkansas (NWA) represents one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, undergoing substantial shifts in land use. Consequently, the status of aquatic life in this region remains uncertain. Addressing this concern, the latest Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan emphasizes the necessity of distribution and population data to guide conservation efforts for Species of Greatest Conservation Need …

The Changing Tides Of Action To Address Ocean Acidification In Maine, Ivy L. Frignoca, Heather R. Kenyon

Maine Policy Review

As carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise worldwide, ocean acidification has become a consequence that threatens both human and natural processes. On a global scale, ocean acidification is relatively well understood. However, the complex ecosystem of the nearshore environment presents challenges for monitoring and addressing ocean acidification. In a state such as Maine, whose communities heavily depend on the health of the coastal environment, understanding this threat becomes critically important.

In 2014, Maine’s legislature established a six month study commission to investigate this problem and produce recommendations. The commission proposed a coast-wide monitoring network that could identify and use a …

The Relationship Between Biofouling Adhesion And Frequency Of Mechanical Cleaning To Control The Recruitment To Clear Coatings, Dylan Thomas Eggers

Theses and Dissertations

There is a need to control biofouling on sensors and transparent windows in the marine environment. Clear silicone coatings offer a method to reduce the adhesion strength of marine organisms to the surface, however, these also require mechanical cleaning to maintain the surfaces free of fouling. This research evaluated the performance of eighty seven formulations and took the top two candidates to investigate a) the frequencies of wiping required by a brush to maintain two coatings and uncoated glass surfaces free of fouling and b) the effects of clear silicone coatings fouling release properties on required frequencies. The panels were …

Initiation Criteria For The Onset Of Geomagnetic Substorms Based On Auroral Observations And Electrojet Current Signatures, Mayowa Michael Kayode-Adeoye

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

In recent years, several substorm onset criteria have been developed, either from auroral observations (many authors) or from auroral electrojet properties such as those described by (Forsyth et al., 2015; Maimaiti et al., 2019; Newell & Gjerloev, 2011; Partamies et al., 2011) The different criteria are being investigated using a low order physics model of the magnetosphere called WINDMI (Spencer et al., 2009) and inferences are being made in line with the WINDMI model. The model variables will be compared with the criteria for substorm onset proposed by examining the SML index.

The WINDMI model uses solar wind and IMF …

The Tidal Prism, Viable Eelgrass Habitat, And The Effects Of Sea Level Rise In Morro Bay, Kaden A. Caliendo

Master's Theses

The tidal prism, or the volume of water exchanged from the sea to an estuary from mean low to mean high tide, influences system hydrodynamics and ecological functioning. Since 1884, the tidal prism in Morro Bay, California has been estimated to be decreasing over time due to sedimentation from upstream practices. What is the current tidal prism in Morro Bay and how will that change with sea level rise? How will eelgrass respond to rising sea levels?

For this study, inexpensive tidal gauges were deployed at four locations in Morro Bay from March to August 2023 to measure spatially varying …

State Of The Fisheries: Status Reports And Aquatic Resources Of Western Australia 2022/23, S.J. Newman, K.G. Santoro, D.J. Gaughan

Status reports of the fisheries and aquatic resources

Aquatic resources within Western Australia (WA) are in good condition, and this has positioned WA as a global leader in sustainable fisheries management. The sustainable fisheries of WA continue to support our strong economy and regional communities. Nonetheless, the lack of a consistent approach to build in the knowledge of Traditional Owners remains a gap in our longer term fisheries science in Western Australia.

Climate change and climate variability continues to impact fish stocks, challenging our ability to effectively monitor, assess, and manage fish stocks. We are continually working with our stakeholders, and the broader community to be adaptive, responsive, …

Enhancing Urban Water Quality Through Biological-Chemical Treatment: Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Community And Temporal Chlorophyll-A Response, Matthew Chaffee

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

With a growing human population, urbanization is impeding a plethora of natural waterways. Of these, urban ponds play a vital role in nutrient sequestration, flood prevention, and habitat sanctuaries. However, nutrient loading can reduce habitat effectiveness and promote harmful algae blooms. To reduce internal nutrient loads, a biological-chemical treatment strategy consisting of floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) and lanthanum were applied to two urban retention ponds, Densmore and Wilderness Ridge Ponds. To measure effectiveness, chlorophyll-a samples were collected and correlated with Sentinel-2. A novel band algorithm termed 3BR1 produced a strong correlation (R² = 0.72) to physical chlorophyll-a …

Wavelet Compression As An Observational Operator In Data Assimilation Systems For Sea Surface Temperature, Bradley J. Sciacca

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The ocean remains severely under-observed, in part due to its sheer size. Containing nearly billion of water with most of the subsurface being invisible because water is extremely difficult to penetrate using electromagnetic radiation, as is typically used by satellite measuring instruments. For this reason, most observations of the ocean have very low spatial-temporal coverage to get a broad capture of the ocean’s features. However, recent “dense but patchy” data have increased the availability of high-resolution – low spatial coverage observations. These novel data sets have motivated research into multi-scale data assimilation methods. Here, we demonstrate a new assimilation approach …

Interactions Between Sediment Mechanical Structure And Infaunal Community Structure Following Physical Disturbance, William Cyrus Roger Clemo

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

Shallow, river-influenced coastal sediments are important for global carbon storage and nutrient cycling and provide a habitat for diverse communities of invertebrates (infauna). Elevated bed shear stress from extreme storms can resuspend, transport, and deposit sediments, disrupting the cohesive structure of muds, and sorting and depositing sand eroded from beaches. These physical disruptions can also resuspend or smother infauna, decreasing abundances and changing community structure. Infaunal activities such as burrowing, tube construction, and feeding can impact sediment structure and stability. However, little is known about how physical disturbance impacts short and long-term sediment habitat suitability and whether disturbance-tolerant infauna influence …

Evaluating The Impact Of Oyster Reef Breakwaters On Hydrodynamics, Morphodynamics, And Sediment Transport Using Xbeach, Tabassum Islam

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

Alabama Port is a unique marsh and sandy beach shoreline. Since the 1950s, substantial erosion has occurred along this shoreline due to storms, wind-generated waves, and ship wakes. This research focuses on evaluating the effect of oyster reef breakwaters on wave height attenuation and sediment stabilization through numerical modeling (XBeach) under three different synthetic storm scenarios coupled with three unique sea level rise projections near Alabama Port. This has been accomplished by comparing a with and without project condition using XBeach in a two-dimensional (2D) mode by analyzing wave height, velocity, and cumulative bed-level changes at the study site. The …

Ecology And Management Of Dyer's Woad (Isatis Tinctoria) In Northern Utah, Erin Marie Hettinger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Dyer’s woad (Isatis tinctoria L.) is a non-native forb that continues to threaten natural areas throughout Northern Utah and much of the Intermountain West. Once introduced, dyer’s woad can become extremely invasive, decreasing forage quality, and displacing native species. While dyer’s woad is found throughout much of Northern Utah, its range in other states remains limited. If promptly managed, control success in these areas will be much higher and populations may be kept at bay before ecological damage becomes severe.

This project tested the ability of dyer’s woad seedlings to compete with common rangeland grasslands at varied densities as …

Reducing Inputs And Adding Value To Turfgrass Systems Through Clover Inclusion And Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Applications, Paige E. Boyle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Recently, the US has seen an expansion in the amount of turfgrass land cover (lawns, parks, roadsides, sports fields, and golf courses), as well as an interest in reducing fertilizer, water, and pesticide use in these grass systems. To help maintain quality and function while reducing resource inputs, two promising approaches have emerged: planting clover into lawns and applying plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria.

White clover and grass mixtures have been studied for their ability to cut down on fertilizer usage and provide a uniform, dark green lawn, but other clover types have not been as widely studied and may provide similar …

New Observations On The Age And Origin Of The Geologist Seamounts, South Hawaiian Seamount Province, Brandon Chester Scott

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Investigation into seamounts that stem from intraplate volcanism—that is volcanism occurring far from plate boundaries—presents an opportunity to deconvolve processes associated with mantle compositional heterogeneities and melting dynamics. Upwelling and decompression of thermochemically anomalous mantle plumes is the primary mechanism for significant intraplate volcanism; however, many seamounts dotted across the Pacific Plate do not correlate spatially, temporally, or geochemically with mantle plume volcanism. One region of enigmatic volcanism in the ocean basins that is not clearly attributable to plume-derived magmatism are the Geologist Seamounts and the wider South Hawaiian Seamount Province (∼19°N, 157°W). Here we present merged multibeam (<100 m) and satellite altimetry bathymetric maps of the Geologist Seamounts region, new 40Ar/39Ar age determinations, and major and trace element geochemistry for six remote-operated vehicle recovered igneous rock samples (NOAA-OER EX1504L3) and two dredged samples (KK840824-02) from the Geologist Seamounts. The new ages indicate volcanism was active from 89–86 Ma and 73–72 Ma, inferring that, in conjunction with previous ages of ~83 Ma, seamount emplacement initiated near the paleo Pacific-Farallon spreading ridge and volcanism continued for at least a ~17 Ma period. Geochemical analyses indicate that Geologist Seamounts lava flows are highly alkalic and represent low-degree partial mantle melts primarily formed from a mixture of melting within the garnet and spinel stability field prior to eruption. Using the new age and chemical constraints three separate formation models for the Geologist Seamounts are tested: (1) a mantle-plume derived origin, (2) a shear-driven upwelling origin, and (3) a lithospheric extension origin. The ages and morphological characteristics infer the seamounts were likely not related to the Euterpe Plume (Musician Seamounts) or a different extinct plume. Shear driven upwelling cannot account for ~17 Ma of volcanism in a limited geographic region, nor for the oblique orientation of Geologist Seamounts relative to paleo spreading direction as shear driven upwelling forms seamount chains mirroring the direction of crustal spreading. Lastly, we build upon previous models that local microblock formation and rotation corresponded with regional lithospheric extension and the formation of the Geologist Seamounts. Using available multibeam bathymetry and magnetic reversal data, we propose the microblock was bounded by the Molokai and short-lived Kana Keoki Fracture Zones. Regional deformation and corresponding volcanism among the Geologist Seamounts associated with the microblock potentially occurred in pulses contemporaneous to independently constrained changes in Pacific Plate motion vectors at ca. 85 and 75 Ma—indicating that major changes in plate vectors can generate intraplate volcanism.