Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Coupling Between Land–Ocean–Atmosphere And Pronounced Changes In Atmospheric/Meteorological Parameters Associated With The Hudhud Cyclone Of October 2014, Akshansa Chauhan, Rajesh Kumar, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

India is vulnerable to all kinds of natural hazards associated with land, ocean, biosphere, atmosphere, and snow/glaciers. These natural hazards impact large areas and the population living in the affected regions. India is surrounded by ocean on three sides and is vulnerable to cyclonic activities. Every year cyclones hit the east and west coasts of India, affecting the population living along the coasts and infrastructure and inland areas. The extent of the affected inland areas depends on the intensity of the cyclone. On 12 October 2014, a strong cyclone “Hudhud” hit the east coast of India that caused a high …

Designing A Protected Area To Safeguard Imperiled Species From Urbanization, Stephanie S. Romanach, Brad Stith, Fred A. Johnson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Reserve design is a process that can address ecological, social, and political factors to identify parcels of land needed to sustain wildlife populations and other natural resources. Acquisition of parcels for a large terrestrial reserve is difficult because it typically occurs over a long timeframe and thus invokes consideration of future conditions such as climate and urbanization changes. In central Florida, the U.S. government has authorized a new protected area, the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge. The new refuge will host important threatened and endangered species and habitats, and will be located to allow for species adaptation from climate change …

Water, Energy, And Carbon Footprints Of Bioethanol From The U.S. And Brazil, Mesfin Mekonnen, Thiago L. Romanelli, Chittaranjan Ray, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Adam Liska, Christopher M. U. Neale

Adam Liska Papers

Driven by biofuel policies, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase domestic energy supply, global production and consumption of bioethanol have doubled between 2007 and 2016, with rapid growth in corn-based bioethanol in the U.S. and sugar cane-based bioethanol in Brazil. Advances in crop yields, energy use efficiency in fertilizer production, biomass-to-ethanol conversion rates, and energy efficiency in ethanol production have improved the energy balance and GHG emission reduction potential of bioethanol. In the current study, the water, energy, and carbon footprints of bioethanol from corn in the U.S. and sugar cane in Brazil were assessed. The …

Rip Current Generation, Flow Characteristics And Implications For Beach Safety In South Florida, Stephen B. Leatherman

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rip currents are the most dangerous hazard at surf beaches. Rip currents in South Florida have previously not been studied. Beach profiles for three Florida beaches (Miami Beach, Lido Beach, Sarasota, and Pensacola Beach) and one Georgia beach (South Cumberland Island) were chosen for surveying because of their variable sand bar heights. Rip current hazard at each beach was assessed by lifeguard rip rescue and drowning statistics. A relationship was found between sand bar height, beach slope and rip current hazard.

Rip current measurements in South Florida, which involved utilizing GPS drifters, laser rangefinder and drone-imaged fluorescent tracer dye, showed …

Elevated Black Carbon Concentrations And Atmospheric Pollution Around Singrauli Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plants (India) Using Ground And Satellite Data, Ramesh Singh, Sarvan Kumar, Abhay K. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The tropospheric NO₂ concentration from OMI AURA always shows high concentrations of NO₂ at a few locations in India, one of the high concentrations of NO2 hotspots is associated with the locations of seven coal-fired Thermal Power plants (TPPs) in Singrauli. Emissions from TPPs are among the major sources of black carbon (BC) soot in the atmosphere. Knowledge of BC emissions from TPPs is important in characterizing regional carbonaceous particulate emissions, understanding the fog/haze/smog formation, evaluating regional climate forcing, modeling aerosol optical parameters and concentrations of black carbon, and evaluating human health. Furthermore, elevated BC concentrations, over the …

Impacts Of Climate Change And Bioenergy Markets On The Profitability Of Slash Pine Pulpwood Production In The Southeastern United States, Andrea Susaeta, Pankaj Lal

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this study, we assessed the impacts of climate change on the production of pulpwood and biomass for bioenergy, and the profitability of slash pine stands in the Southeastern United States. We employed the 3-PG (Physiological Processes Predicting Growth) model to determine the effects of future climates on forest growth and integrated it with a stand-level economic model to determine their impacts on optimal forest management. We found that the average production of pulpwood increased for all sites by 7.5 m³ ha⁻¹ for all climatic scenarios and productivity conditions. In the case of forest biomass for bioenergy, the …

Droughtscape- 2018 Fall, National Drought Mitigation Center

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Contents

From the director.............. 2

Drought greatly improves in Southern Plains and South............. 3

Texas, Missouri, and Colorado logged late-summer impacts.............. 5

Memory, remote sensing and a new research methodology............. 8

Navigating the U.S. Drought Monitor......... 9

Planners discuss the barriers to effective drought mitigation planning............ 12

Exploring climate issues from a county management perspective.............. 13

Strategic Framework for Drought Risk Management and Enhancing Resilience in Africa..................... 14

Mena global policy forum looks from data to mitigation............. 15

About us............17

State-by-state drought classification table developed by NDMC graduate student........19

Further Evidence For The Invasion And Establishment Of Pterois Volitans (Teleostei: Scorpaenidae) Along The Atlantic Coast Of The United States, H. Scott Meister, David M. Wyanski, Joshua K. Loefer, Steve W. Ross, Andrea M. Quattrini, Kenneth J. Sulak

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We document the continues population expansion of red lionfish, Pterois volitans, the first documented successful introduction of an invasive marine fish species from the western Pacific to Atlantic coastal water of the United States. Red lionfish are indigenous to the Indo-Pacific and have apparently established one or more breeding population on reefs off the southeastern United States. Fifty-nine specimens, most presumably adult red lionfish, were documented or collected on live-bottom reefs North Carolina, South Caroline, and Florida, and on a manmade structure off Georgia. Observation/collection depths and bottom water temperatures for these fish ranged from 4-99 m and 13.8-24.4 …

Marine Threats Overlap Key Foraging Habitat For Two Imperiled Sea Turtle Species In The Gulf Of Mexico, Kristen M. Hart, Autumn R. Iverson, Ikuko Fujisaki, Margaret M. Lamont, David Bucklin, Donna J. Shaver

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Effective management of human activities affecting listed species requires understanding both threats and animal habitat-use patterns. However, the extent of spatial overlap between high-use foraging areas (where multiple marine species congregate) and anthropogenic threats is not well-known. Our modeling approach incorporates data on sea turtle spatial ecology and a suite of threats in the Gulf of Mexico to identify and map “hot spots” of threats to two imperiled turtle species. Of all 820 “high” threats grid cells, our tracked turtles foraged at least 1 day in 77% of them. Although threat data were not available outside the U.S. Exclusive Economic …

Estimating Dominant Runoff Modes Across The Conterminous United States, Brian Buchanan, Daniel A. Auerbach, James Knighton, Darrick Evensen, Daniel R. Fuka, Zachary Easton, Michael Wieczorek, Josephine A. Archibald, Brandon Mcwilliams, Todd Walter

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Effective natural resource planning depends on understanding the prevalence of runoff generating processes. Within a specific area of interest, this demands reproducible, straightforward information that can complement available local data and can orient and guide stakeholders with diverse training and backgrounds. To address this demand within the contiguous United States (CONUS), we characterized and mapped the predominance of two primary runoff generating processes: infiltration‐excess and saturation‐excess runoff (IE vs. SE, respectively). Specifically, we constructed a gap‐filled grid of surficial saturated hydraulic conductivity using the Soil Survey Geographic and State Soil Geographic soils databases. We then compared surficial saturated hydraulic conductivity …

Global Dynamics Of A Mutualism–Competition Model With One Resource And Multiple Consumers, Yuanshi Wang, Hong Wu, Donald L. Deangelis

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Recent simulation modeling has shown that species can coevolve toward clusters of coexisting consumers exploiting the same limiting resource or resources, with nearly identical ratios of coefficients related to growth and mortality. This paper provides a mathematical basis for such as situation; a full analysis of the global dynamics of a new model for such a class of n-dimensional consumer–resource system, in which a set of consumers with identical growth to mortality ratios compete for the same resource and in which each consumer is mutualistic with the resource. First, we study the system of one resource and two consumers. …

Ancient Convergent Losses Of Paraoxonase 1 Yield Potential Risks For Modern Marine Mammals, Wynn K. Meyer, Jerrica Jamison, Rebecca Richter, Stacy E. Woods, Raghavendran Partha, Amanda Kowalczyk, Charles Kronk, Maria Chikina, Robert K. Bonde, Daniel E. Crocker, Joseph Gaspard, Janet M. Lanyon, Judit Marsillach, Clement E. Furlong, Nathan L. Clark

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Mammals diversified by colonizing drastically different environments, with each transition yielding numerous molecular changes, including losses of protein function. Though not initially deleterious, these losses could subsequently carry deleterious pleiotropic consequences. We have used phylogenetic methods to identify convergent functional losses across independent marine mammal lineages. In one extreme case, Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) accrued lesions in all marine lineages, while remaining intact in all terrestrial mammals. These lesions coincide with PON1 enzymatic activity loss in marine species’ blood plasma. This convergent loss is likely explained by parallel shifts in marine ancestors’ lipid metabolism and/or bloodstream oxidative environment affecting PON1’s role …

Internal Parasites Of The Two Subspecies Of The West Indian Manatee Trichechus Manatus, Heidi Wyrosdick, Alycia Chapman, Antonio A. Mignucci-Giannoni, Carla I. Rivera-Pérez, Robert K. Bonde

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The West Indian manatee Trichechus manatus is divided into 2 subspecies: the Antillean (T. m. manatus) and Florida (T. m. latirostris) manatees. This study reports sample prevalence of manatee parasites from populations of these 2 subspecies in different geographical locations. Although necropsy is a valuable diagnostic tool for parasite infections, the need for antemortem diagnostic techniques is important. Fecal samples collected during necropsies of Antillean manatees (n = 3) in Puerto Rico and Florida manatees (n = 10) in Crystal River, Florida, as well as from live-captured Florida manatees (n = 11) were evaluated using centrifugal …

Serum Proteins In Healthy And Diseased Florida Manatees (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris), J.W. Harvey, K.E. Harr, D. Murphy, M.T. Walsh, M. De Wit, R.K. Bonde

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A major goal of this study was to determine whether serum protein fractions of healthy Florida manatees differ with age, sex, or living environments (wild versus housed). A second goal was to determine which serum protein fractions vary in diseased versus healthy manatees. Serum protein fractions were determined using agarose gel electrophoresis. Healthy adults had slightly higher total serum protein and total globulin concentrations than younger animals. This largely resulted from an increase in gamma globulins with age. Total serum protein, albumin, alpha-1 globulin, beta globulin, and total globulin concentrations were slightly higher in housed manatees compared to wild manatees, …

Breakpoint Analysis Of Modis Vegetarian Cover Change In Southern California Deserts, Rebecca Baiman

STAR Program Research Presentations

This study applies time series breakpoint analysis to look at Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data of southern California. Past studies have looked at this desert land using Landsat data in order to analyze any changes the environment has gone through due to renewable energy development or other factors. This study develops a method for utilizing structural change models to study the DRECP land area. Focusing on breakpoints, this study found that most positive breakpoints represented years with high rainfall. Additionally, sandy washes with little vegetation did not yield any breakpoint between 2000 and 2018. This study can be used …

Relationships Between Landscape Constraints And A Crayfish Assemblage With Consideration Of Competitor Presence, Joshua B. Mouser, Robert Mollenhauer, Shannon K. Brewer

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Aim: Crayfish are globally diverse and one of the most important taxa in North American streams. Despite their importance, many species are of conservation concern and efforts to improve conditions are limited. Here, we address two major impediments to improving conditions: (a) our lack of knowledge of the interplay among natural landscape and human-induced changes; and (b) a very limited understanding of how species interactions affect overall crayfish distributions.

Location: Ozark Highlands ecoregion, USA.

Methods: We used both existing data and field-collected data to examine the relationships between 12 Faxonius species and physicochemical variables at multiple spatial scales. Data were …

The Global Food-Energy-Water Nexus, Paolo D’Odorico, Kyle Frankel Davis, Lorenzo Rosa, Joel A. Carr, Davide Chiarelli, Jampel Dell’Angelo, Jessica Gephart, Graham K. Macdonald, David A. Seekell, Samir Suweis, Maria Cristina Rulli

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Abstract Water availability is a major factor constraining humanity’s ability to meet the future food and energy needs of a growing and increasingly affluent human population. Water plays an important role in the production of energy, including renewable energy sources and the extraction of unconventional fossil fuels that are expected to become important players in future energy security. The emergent competition for water between the food and energy systems is increasingly recognized in the concept of the “food-energy-water nexus.” The nexus between food and water is made even more complex by the globalization of agriculture and rapid growth in food …

Variation In Home Range Size And Patterns In Adult Female American Crocodiles Crocodylus Acutus, Jeffrey S. Beauchamp, Kristen M. Hart, Michael S. Cherkiss, Frank J. Mazzotti

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The American crocodile Crocodylus acutus is a threatened species that uses relatively deep, open-water habitats with low salinity. Adult female American crocodiles nest on sandy coastal beaches, islands or human-made berms, assist in the hatching process, and can travel long distances to nesting habitat. We satellite-tracked 15 adult female American crocodiles in 2 hydrologically distinct areas in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA, to quantify the home range sizes, test for intraspecific differences in home range and core area size and structure, and identify important crocodile high-use areas. Overall home ranges (95% kernel density estimate; KDE) for adult female crocodiles in …

Correction To: Organochlorine Chemical Residues In Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis Cardinalis) Eggs From Greater Washington, Dc Usa, Christopher J. Schmitt, Kathy R. Echols, Paul H. Peterman, Carl E. Orazio, K. Christiana Grim, Shirlee Tan, Nora E. Diggs, Peter P. Marra

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The original version of this article contained a mistake. Author name in the text citation and reference in section should be Maldonado et al (2016), it was incorrectly spelled as Maldinado et al (2015).

Droughtscape- 2018 Summer, National Drought Mitigation Center

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Contents

From the director.......................... 2

Drought expands and intensifies ............ 3

Dry down fuels fires ..................... 5

Tweeting #drought18.................... 7

MOISST and NSMN..................... 8

Caribbean planning progress .............. 9

Drought observer network study........... 10

MENA teams report progress ............. 12

NDMC global outreach............... 13

Climate hub workshop................ 15

On the horizon ........................... 16

Tracking Drought Perspectives: A Rural Case Study Of Transformations Following An Invisible Hazard, Theresa Jedd, Deborah Bathke, Duane Gill, Bimal Paul, Nicole Wall, Tonya Bernadt, Jacob Peter, Anthony Mucia, Milan Wall

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Rural towns are especially susceptible to the effects of drought because their economies are dependent on natural resources. However, they are also resilient in many ways to natural hazards because they are rich in civic engagement and social capital. Because of the diverse nature of drought’s impacts, understanding its complex dynamics and its effects requires a multidisciplinary approach. To study these dynamics, this research combines appreciative inquiry, the Community Capitals Framework, and a range of climatological monitoring data to assess the 2012–14 Great Plains drought’s effect on McCook, Nebraska. Community coping measures, such as water-use reduction and public health programs, …

Nonbreeding Duck Use At Central Flyway National Wildlife Refuges, Kent Andersson, Craig A. Davis, Grant Harris, David A. Haukos

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Within the U.S. portion of the Central Flyway, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages waterfowl on numerous individual units (i.e., Refuges) within the National Wildlife Refuge System. Presently, the extent of waterfowl use that Refuges receive and the contribution of Refuges to waterfowl populations (i.e., the proportion of the Central Flyway population registered at each Refuge) remain unassessed. Such an evaluation would help determine to what extent Refuges support waterfowl relative to stated targets, aid in identifying species requiring management attention, inform management targets, and improve fiscal efficiencies. Using historic monitoring data (1954–2008), we performed this assessment for 23 …

Evaluation Of Potential Translocation Sites For An Imperiled Cyprinid, The Hornyhead Chub, Brian T. Hickerson, Annika W. Walters

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Translocation of isolated species into suitable habitats may help to secure vulnerable, geographically limited species. Due to the decline of Wyoming Hornyhead Chub Nocomis biguttatus, conservation actions, such as the translocation of populations within the plausible historical range, are being considered to improve population redundancy and resiliency to disturbance events. Translocation of Wyoming Hornyhead Chub must be rigorously evaluated because a hatchery stock does not exist, so all fish used in translocations will come from the wild population. We present an approach to identify the best available translocation sites prior to translocation efforts taking place. We evaluated fish community composition …

Macrobenthic Infaunal Communities Associated With Deep‐Sea Hydrocarbon Seeps In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Travis W. Washburn, Amanda W. J. Demopoulos, Paul A. Montagna

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

There are thousands of seeps in the deep ocean worldwide; however, many questions remain about their contributions to global biodiversity and the surrounding deep‐sea environment. In addition to being globally distributed, seeps provide several benefits to humans such as unique habitats, organisms with novel genes, and carbon regulation. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are unique seep macrobenthic assemblages, by comparing seep and nonseep environments, different seep habitats, and seeps at different depths and locations. Infaunal community composition, diversity, and abundance were examined between seep and nonseep background environments and among three seep habitats (i.e., microbial …

Organochlorine Chemical Residues In Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis Cardinalis) Eggs From Greater Washington, Dc Usa, Christopher J. Schmitt, Kathy E. Echols, Paul H. Peterman, Carl E. Orazio, K. Christiana Grim, Shirlee Tan, Nora E. Diggs, Peter P. Marra

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Northern Cardinal eggs from six neighborhoods near Washington DC were analyzed for organochlorine pesticides and PCBs. All compounds were detected more frequently and at higher concentrations in more heavily urbanized neighborhoods. DDT (mostly as p,pʹ-DDE) was detected in all neighborhoods. p,pʹ-DDT was typically 0.5‒16 ng/g (ww) in most suburban neighborhoods but was not detected (< 0.1 ng/g) in more rural areas; however, p,pʹ-DDT was 127‒1130 ng/g in eggs from two suburban Maryland nests and comprised 65.7% of total p,pʹ-DDT isomers in the most contaminated sample, indicating recent exposure to un-weathered DDT. Total chlordane (sum of 5 compounds) was 2‒70 ng/g; concentrations were greatest in older suburban neighborhoods. Total PCB (sum of detected congeners) was < 5‒21 ng/g. Congener patterns were similar in all neighborhoods and resembled those typical of weathered mixtures. Results indicate that wildlife remains exposed to low concentrations of legacy contaminants in suburban neighborhoods and that cardinal eggs can be used to monitor local- ized contamination.

Smap Soil Moisture Change As An Indicator Of Drought Conditions, Rajasekaran Eswar, Narendra N. Das, Calvin Christian Poulsen, Ali Behrangi, John Swigart, Mark D. Svoboda, Dara Entekhabi, Simon Yueh, Bradley Doorn, Jared Entin

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Soil moisture is considered a key variable in drought analysis. The soil moisture dynamics given by the change in soil moisture between two time periods can provide information on the intensification or improvement of drought conditions. The aim of this work is to analyze how the soil moisture dynamics respond to changes in drought conditions over multiple time intervals. The change in soil moisture estimated from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite observations was compared with the United States Drought Monitor (USDM) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) over the contiguous United States (CONUS). The results indicated that the …

Predicting Spatial Patterns In Precipitation Isotope (Δ2h And Δ18o) Seasonality Using Sinusoidal Isoscapes, Scott T. Allen, James W. Kirchner, Gregory R. Goldsmith

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding how precipitation isotopes vary spatially and temporally is important for tracer applications. We tested how well month‐to‐month variations in precipitation δ18O and δ2H were captured by sinusoidal cycles, and how well spatial variations in these seasonal cycles could be predicted, across Switzerland. Sine functions representing seasonal cycles in precipitation isotopes explained between 47% and 94% of the variance in monthly δ18O and δ2H values at each monitoring site. A significant sinusoidal cycle was also observed in line‐conditioned excess. We interpolated the amplitudes, phases, and offsets of these sine functions across the landscape, using multiple linear …

Adam J. Liska: Curriculum Vitae, Adam Liska

Adam Liska Papers

Associate Professor, George Dempster Smith Chair of Industrial Ecology, Departments of Biological Systems Engineering and Agronomy & Horticulture, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 236 L.W. Chase Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0726, Ph: (402) 472-8744, e-mail: aliska2@unl.edu

Ph.D. 2003 Biology (magna cum laude), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Ranking Matthiessen State Park Trails By Hazard Rather Than Difficulty, Levi S. Gambill, Danielle N. Conrad, Joshua A. Woodard, Max Reams

Student Scholarship – Geology

Matthiessen State Park offers differing perspectives of the geology of the area, from the stunning views of bluffs and floodplain of the Vermilion River to the deep, winding canyons of the park’s Dells Area. A numerical system was used to rank the severity of hazards along the various park trails similar to the work of Ross, who pioneered the ranking of trails by hazard, specifically for Starved Rock State Park. Ross showed that ranking trails by hazard may be more useful for visitors than simply ranking trails by degree of difficulty. Ranking of trails for Matthiessen State Park proved somewhat …

An Assessment Of Atmospheric And Meteorological Factors Regulating Red Sea Phytoplankton Growth, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Mohamed A. Qurban, Emmanouil Proestakis, Michael J. Garay, Olga V. Kalishnikova, Vassilis Amiridis, Antonis Gkikas, Eleni Marinou, Thomas Piechota, K. P. Manikandan

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

This study considers the various factors that regulate nutrients supply in the Red Sea. Multi-sensor observation and reanalysis datasets are used to examine the relationships among dust deposition, sea surface temperature (SST), and wind speed, as they may contribute to anomalous phytoplankton blooms, through time-series and correlation analyses. A positive correlation was found at 0–3 months lag between chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) anomalies and dust anomalies over the Red Sea regions. Dust deposition process was further examined with dust aerosols’ vertical distribution using satellite lidar data. Conversely, a negative correlation was found at 0–3 months lag between SST anomalies …