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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Anthropogenic Impacts To Essential Habitats In The Gulf Of Maine: A Case Study Of The American Lobster, Homarus Americanus, And Its Fishery, Andrew Goode
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The Gulf of Maine has been fundamentally altered by anthropogenic forcings for decades and offers an ideal study system to monitor response to change. Through complex interactions between ocean warming, altered demographic bottlenecks, and reduced top-down controls, the American lobster (Homarus americanus Milne Edwards) capitalized on favorable conditions and proliferated within the Gulf of Maine. These changes catalyzed the expansion of the lobster fishery, elevated its status as North America’s most valuable marine resource, and shifted coastal communities towards a virtual lobster monoculture. The same processes that facilitated lobster to capitalize on favorable conditions may come with unintended consequences …
The Variability Of Seawater Carbonate Chemistry In Two Florida Urban Mangrove Ecosystems, Alexandrina R. Rangel
The Variability Of Seawater Carbonate Chemistry In Two Florida Urban Mangrove Ecosystems, Alexandrina R. Rangel
All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations
Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere are yielding serious impacts across the world’s ocean, including ocean acidification, sea level rise, and increasing seawater temperature. However, these changes are not occurring uniformly across all marine ecosystems. Coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, already experience extreme and variable environmental conditions due to natural biogeochemical and physical processes. The goal of this study was to document small-scale variability in two urban mangrove ecosystems to gain insight into how ocean acidification will manifest within these systems. Using a stand-up paddleboard, a suite of sensors, and traditional bottle sampling techniques, we measured …
Physiological And Molecular Responses Of Eurythermal And Stenothermal Populations Of Zostera Marina L (Eelgrass) To Climate Change, Carmen C. Zayas-Santiago
Physiological And Molecular Responses Of Eurythermal And Stenothermal Populations Of Zostera Marina L (Eelgrass) To Climate Change, Carmen C. Zayas-Santiago
OES Theses and Dissertations
As CO2 levels in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans steadily rise, varying organismal responses may produce ecological losers and winners. Increased ocean CO2 can enhance seagrass productivity and thermal tolerance, providing some compensation for climate warming. However, the consistency of this CO2 effect across populations of cosmopolitan species such as Zostera marina L. (eelgrass) remains largely unknown. This study analyzed whole-plant performance metabolic profiles and gene expression patterns of distinct eelgrass populations in response to CO2 enrichment. Populations were transplanted from Nisqually Landing and Dumas Bay, two cold water environments in Puget Sound, WA (USA) that rarely …
Three Essays On Climate Change Adaptation In Rural African Communities, Hannah Patnaik
Three Essays On Climate Change Adaptation In Rural African Communities, Hannah Patnaik
Dissertations - ALL
Climate change is one of the defining challenges of the present era, bringing new risks and exacerbating existing vulnerabilities across the world. While there is a broad recognition that solutions around climate change will require coordination and support across borders and governments, a large body of scholarship has focused on the local-level realities of climate change and the disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable populations. The climate vulnerable poor do not have the privilege of waiting for global policy and commitment to emission reduction targets. They need planned and proactive adaptation support to build resilience to the changing climate and …
When It Rains, It Pours: A Case Study Of Spatio-Temporal Variations In High-Intensity Precipitation Events In Arkansas, Deanna Mantooth-Hendrix
When It Rains, It Pours: A Case Study Of Spatio-Temporal Variations In High-Intensity Precipitation Events In Arkansas, Deanna Mantooth-Hendrix
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Climate change is having an impact on weather systems and ecosystems worldwide. Glaciers are receding, oceans are acidifying, hurricanes are stronger, and extreme precipitation is increasing in frequency. Even with the wealth of data and knowledge about the threat of climate change, some places are slow to adapt because they think that the impact to their ecosystem will not be severe. The goal of this project was to determine if climate change is having an impact on extreme precipitation in the top urban areas of Arkansas. The major concern with an increase in extreme events in urban areas is flooding. …
Diversity – Independent Factors Predict Elevated Extinction Rates, Dustin Perriguey, Corinne Myers, Jason Moore, Louis Scuderi
Diversity – Independent Factors Predict Elevated Extinction Rates, Dustin Perriguey, Corinne Myers, Jason Moore, Louis Scuderi
Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs
Multiple linear regression was used to determine the relationships between diversity-independent factors (i.e., abiotic, climatic) 2, 5, and 10 Myrs-prior to the most elevated Phanerozoic extinctions. We constructed five abiotic variables from Phanerozoic proxy records1–5 to compare to extinction rates: mean temperature, temperature instability, carbon cycle instability, continental weathering rates, and habitat instability. All three models were statistically significant (P < 0.05) and explained > 70% of the variation in Alroy’s6 three-timer generic extinction rates. However, the 2 Myr-prior model explained the most variance in extinction rates and had the most predictive power, based on adjusted and predictive R2 (~ 72% and 41%, respectively). Carbon …
Stability Of Low Crested And Submerged Breakwaters: A Reanalysis And Model Development, Christopher P. Burgess
Stability Of Low Crested And Submerged Breakwaters: A Reanalysis And Model Development, Christopher P. Burgess
Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Low-crested and submerged structures (LCS) play an integral part in the stabilization of shorelines for recreational purposes, yet there are a plethora of empirical models and gaps in the understanding of their stability and damage progression. The objectives were: i) to evaluate the present formulae, ii) explore variable importance, iii) formulate a stability model, iv) extend the current datasets and v) explore a new model for LCS. The literature points to an increasing understanding of the initiation of damage of LCS and recent exploration of the shear stress-induced erosion (van Rijn, 2019). Assessment of two existing models (Kramer, 2006 and …
Improving Airfield Pavement Degradation Prediction Skill With Local Climate And Traffic, Evan M. Fortney
Improving Airfield Pavement Degradation Prediction Skill With Local Climate And Traffic, Evan M. Fortney
Theses and Dissertations
Airfield pavements are a critical component of the global transportation network that provide a platform for national defense. Preventative and corrective maintenance activities are founded upon accurate expectations of degradation. The leading pavement management software creates degradation predictions from pavement groups using age as the IV and current state conditions as the DV. For this work, a framework is created and implemented that utilizes a PCR model to build upon accepted practices for degradation modeling to enhance and possibly augment future prediction capabilities. The model was applied to pairs of location and pavement family and reveals several findings: the selected …
Recent Flooding Events On The Chagrin And Cuyahoga Rivers, Ohio, Kayley Martin
Recent Flooding Events On The Chagrin And Cuyahoga Rivers, Ohio, Kayley Martin
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
From the 1910s through the 1980s, the number of intense daily precipitation events in the United States remained constant, however, since the 1980s there has been an increasing trend in intense single-day precipitation events (U.S Environmental Protection Agency, 2016). One outcome of intense precipitation events is river flooding, particularly in the upper Midwest region where floods have increased in magnitude and frequency (U.S Environmental Protection Agency, 2016). In this thesis project, recent flooding history on the Chagrin and Cuyahoga Rivers in Ohio was studied to expand on previous research that observed an abrupt increase in high magnitude flood events on …
Trends In Observed And Simulated Radar Reflectivity For The 21st Century, Christopher Michael Battisto
Trends In Observed And Simulated Radar Reflectivity For The 21st Century, Christopher Michael Battisto
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
The effects of climate change may influence the prevalence of regional atmospheric conditions supportive of hazardous convective weather (HCW). As a result, the possibility of an increase in the frequency, strength, and/or variability of thunderstorms and their high-impact hazards—including tornadoes, damaging winds, hail, and flash flood-producing downpours—has garnered much scientific and public interest. Radar reflectivity, which remotely assesses precipitation intensity, may be used to detect, track, catalog, and appraise HCW and their parent storms over broad spatiotemporal scales. Reflectivity may also be simulated with regional climate models, and recent, but limited, efforts using these simulation output have identified the potential …