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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Low Impact Sampling Of Speleothems – Reconciling Scientific Study With Cave Conservation, Claire L.V. Macgregor, John C. Hellstrom, Jon D. Woodhead, Russell N. Drysdale, Rolan S. Eberhard Nov 2021

Low Impact Sampling Of Speleothems – Reconciling Scientific Study With Cave Conservation, Claire L.V. Macgregor, John C. Hellstrom, Jon D. Woodhead, Russell N. Drysdale, Rolan S. Eberhard

International Journal of Speleology

Speleothems are increasingly valued as important paleoclimate archives and yet the removal of samples from caves can come at a cost to natural heritage, impacting delicate environments with limited mechanisms for repair. Conservation of cave environments is a key responsibility for scientists and, with this in mind, we are working to develop and implement techniques that allow us to extract valuable scientific data, with minimal impact. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of low-impact reconnaissance dating surveys on caves in southern Tasmania and southwest Western Australia as a precursor to the removal of stalagmites for paleoclimate reconstruction. Small flakes …


Riverine And Estuarine Co2-System Studies On The West Coast Of Florida, Christopher S. Moore Nov 2021

Riverine And Estuarine Co2-System Studies On The West Coast Of Florida, Christopher S. Moore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal and estuarine acidification impacts ecosystem health and economic resources and has both natural and anthropogenic components (Cai et al., 2021). Riverine input is one of several important factors that can influence acidification in coastal ecosystems. Rivers disgorging into coastal environments can create strong gradients, both spatial and temporal, that make accurate CO2-system characterization challenging. The work described in this thesis provides a baseline CO2-system study of four major rivers that flow into Tampa bay with an emphasis on seasonal change. As a second objective, this thesis examines the effects of HgII additions on CO2-system measurements in organic-rich estuarine waters. …


Continuous Color Model As A Tool To Improve Speleothem Age Model Development, Celia Campa-Bousoño, Ángel García-Pérez, Ana Moreno, Miguel Iglesias, Hai Cheng, R Lawrence Edwards, Heather Stoll Oct 2021

Continuous Color Model As A Tool To Improve Speleothem Age Model Development, Celia Campa-Bousoño, Ángel García-Pérez, Ana Moreno, Miguel Iglesias, Hai Cheng, R Lawrence Edwards, Heather Stoll

International Journal of Speleology

Because they can archive a variety of geochemical proxies and be precisely and accurately dated with the U-Th decay series chronometer, stalagmites are widely used for paleoclimate reconstructions. However, limitations in the use of this chronometer arise because U-Th dating is analytically time consuming, expensive, and requires a relatively large sample size. These limitations restrict the number of absolute dates usually obtained, which can result in significant uncertainties in the age model and inhibit the ability to archive high resolution records of environmental variability, particularly in those stalagmites where there are variations in growth rate not constrained by U-Th dates. …


Air Pressure Propagation Through Wind Cave And Jewel Cave: How Do Pressure Waves Travel Through Barometric Caves?, Annika K. Gomell, Daniel C. Austin, Marc J. Ohms, Andreas Pflitsch Sep 2021

Air Pressure Propagation Through Wind Cave And Jewel Cave: How Do Pressure Waves Travel Through Barometric Caves?, Annika K. Gomell, Daniel C. Austin, Marc J. Ohms, Andreas Pflitsch

International Journal of Speleology

In barometric caves, air pressure gradients between the outside atmosphere and the cave induce strong bidirectional compensating currents, which control almost all elements of speleoclimatology, including air temperature, humidity, and CO2 dynamics. Therefore, this study set out to investigate air pressure propagation through Wind Cave and Jewel Cave – two major barometric cave systems in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA. Based on high-resolution air pressure data from both the surface and several measurement sites inside the caves, four systematic changes of pressure waves during their journey through the caves and their related speleoclimatological processes were identified and …


From River To Sea: Improving Carbon System Measurement Methods For Use In Rivers, Estuaries, And Oceans, Ellie Hudson-Heck Aug 2021

From River To Sea: Improving Carbon System Measurement Methods For Use In Rivers, Estuaries, And Oceans, Ellie Hudson-Heck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last 30 years, spectrophotometric methodologies have been developed, with increasing rigor, to accurately measure all four carbon system parameters: total alkalinity (AT), total carbon (CT), partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), and pH. Spectrophotometric measurements of carbon system parameters rely on quantitative characterizations of the response of sulfonephthalein indicator dyes (e.g., meta-cresol purple (mCP), thymol blue (TB), and bromocresol purple (BCP)) to changing solution pH, as well the response of indicator physical-chemical characteristics to key environmental variables (salinity (SP), temperature (T), and pressure). Until recently, the physical-chemical properties …


Archaeology And Seasonality Of Stock Island (8mo2), A Glades-Tradition Village On Key West, Ryan M. Harke Jun 2021

Archaeology And Seasonality Of Stock Island (8mo2), A Glades-Tradition Village On Key West, Ryan M. Harke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Later Glades-period cultures (ca. 500–1760 CE) of south Florida and the Florida Keys are understudied and thus poorly understood, especially those that pre-date the arrival of Spaniards to the New World. Recent archaeological models of their sociopolitical organization suggest that by the Glades I-II transition (750/800 CE), south Florida peoples were organized into what appear to be regional population centers (e.g., Pineland and Mound Key, Granada, Turner River) and smaller hinterland towns in the Everglades (e.g., Cane Patch, Bear Lake) and the Florida Keys (e.g., Stock Island, Clupper Site). Smaller towns are hypothesized to be sedentary, heterarchically-organized, simple chiefdoms from …


Past Ice-Ocean Interactions On The Sabrina Coast Shelf, East Antarctica: Deglacial To Recent Paleoenvironmental Insights From Marine Sediments, Kara J. Vadman May 2021

Past Ice-Ocean Interactions On The Sabrina Coast Shelf, East Antarctica: Deglacial To Recent Paleoenvironmental Insights From Marine Sediments, Kara J. Vadman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) contains ~53 meters of sea level equivalent (SLE) ice, and observations suggest it is sensitive to ongoing and past climate change. The EAIS has traditionally been considered insensitive to climate perturbations because it is largely grounded above sea level. However, aerogeophysical surveys, oceanographic observations, and models indicate that large areas of the EAIS are grounded below sea level and contain 19.2 m SLE. Marine-based parts of the EAIS are thought to be located on inland-sloping beds that drain through marine terminating outlet glaciers, indicating large areas of the EAIS may be more sensitive to …


Investigating The Hydrology Of The Western Greenland Ice Sheet: Spatiotemporal Variability And Implications On Ice-Dynamics, Jessica Z. Mejia Apr 2021

Investigating The Hydrology Of The Western Greenland Ice Sheet: Spatiotemporal Variability And Implications On Ice-Dynamics, Jessica Z. Mejia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1990's the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass at an accelerating rate in response to climatic warming and is currently the largest terrestrial contributor to sea-level rise. While ice sheet models agree the GrIS will continue losing mass throughout the century, there are significant uncertainties associated with future sea-level rise contributions. Predicting the GrIS's response to future climate warming scenarios is limited by gaps in our understanding of the links between ice sheet hydrology and dynamics. Meltwater produced on the ice surface flows within supraglacial streams that deliver it to crevasses or moulins—vertical conduits extending from …