Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

On The Relative Importance Of Offshelf/Onshelf Drivers Of Variability In Mcdw Inventory On The Amundsen Shelf, Antarctica, Pierre St-Laurent, S. E. Stammerjohn, T. Maksym, R. M. Sherrell

Presentations

Ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea (west Antarctica) are melting rapidly and may raise global sea levels substantially over the coming century through reduced buttressing. The high basal melt rates are associated with the presence of warm modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) that intrudes across the continental shelf and melts the floating portion of the ice sheet from its base near the grounding zone. How much mCDW is present on the continental shelf (its volume inventory) is thus thought to be a key proxy for the year-to-year variability in ice shelf melt rates. Over the past decade, the literature has …

New Guidance To Build Resiliency And Mitigate For Sea Level Rise As Elements Of The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, Pamela Mason, Julie Herman, Christine Tombleson, Jessica Hendricks, Karen Duhring

Reports

The Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), worked in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Virginia Coastal Policy Center (VCPC) to develop guidance to inform the implementation of Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA) regulations promulgated in 2021. The 2021 regulations added provisions to require local governments to consider climate changes, specifically flooding, sea level rise and storms, and the preservation of mature trees in the administration of the CBPA program. Specifically, CCRM developed analytical data using criteria specified in the CBPA regulations, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration …

Norfolk, Virginia Federal Flood Risk Management Study, Jian Shen, Rico Wang, Mac Sisson

Reports

The City of Norfolk and Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are partnering to conduct a Coastal Storm Risk Management Study (CSRM) study to determine the Federal interest and feasibility of alternatives to mitigate coastal flooding risk in the City. The CSRM is in the Feasibility Study (FS) phase in which alternatives are proposed and developed to conceptual/preliminary design level, benefit/cost analyses are conducted, and environmental studies are completed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The magnitude of the feasibility study will require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

A component of the FS/EIS is the …

Gis Data: Kent County, Maryland – Shoreline Inventory Data 2022, Karinna Nunez, Tamia Rudnicky, Sharon Killeen, Jessica Hendricks, Catherine R. Duning, Evan Hill

Data

The shoreline inventory files have been generated to support the application of the Maryland Shoreline Stabilization Model (SSM), developed by the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), to enhance and streamline regulatory decision making in Maryland. This shoreline inventory includes the features needed as inputs to run the SSM.

The data developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three-tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three-tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shore zone into three regions:

1) the …

Gis Data: Baltimore County, Maryland – Shoreline Inventory Data 2022, Karinna Nunez, Tamia Rudnicky, Sharon Killeen, Jessica Hendricks, Catherine R. Duning, Evan Hill

Data

The shoreline inventory files have been generated to support the application of the Maryland Shoreline Stabilization Model (SSM), developed by the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), to enhance and streamline regulatory decision making in Maryland. This shoreline inventory includes the features needed as inputs to run the SSM.

The data developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three-tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three-tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shore zone into three regions:

1) the …

Gis Data: Queen Anne’S County, Maryland – Shoreline Inventory Data 2022, Karinna Nunez, Tamia Rudnicky, Sharon Killeen, Jessica Hendricks, Catherine R. Duning, Evan Hill

Data

The shoreline inventory files have been generated to support the application of the Maryland Shoreline Stabilization Model (SSM), developed by the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), to enhance and streamline regulatory decision making in Maryland. This shoreline inventory includes the features needed as inputs to run the SSM.

The data developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three-tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three-tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shore zone into three regions:

1) the …

Gis Data: Baltimore City, Maryland – Shoreline Inventory Data 2022, Karinna Nunez, Tamia Rudnicky, Sharon Killeen, Jessica Hendricks, Catherine R. Duning, Evan Hill

Data

The shoreline inventory files have been generated to support the application of the Maryland Shoreline Stabilization Model (SSM), developed by the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), to enhance and streamline regulatory decision making in Maryland. This shoreline inventory includes the features needed as inputs to run the SSM.

The data developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three-tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three-tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shore zone into three regions:

1) the …

Gis Data: Wicomico County, Maryland – Shoreline Inventory Data 2022, Karinna Nunez, Tamia Rudnicky, Sharon Killeen, Jessica Hendricks, Catherine R. Duning, Evan Hill

Data

The shoreline inventory files have been generated to support the application of the Maryland Shoreline Stabilization Model (SSM), developed by the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), to enhance and streamline regulatory decision making in Maryland. This shoreline inventory includes the features needed as inputs to run the SSM.

The data developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three-tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three-tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shore zone into three regions:

1) the …

Shear Turbulence In The High-Wind Southern Ocean Using Direct Measurements, Laur Ferris, Carole Anne Clayson, Donglai Gong, Et Al

VIMS Articles

The ocean surface boundary layer is a gateway of energy transfer into the ocean. Wind-driven shear and meteorologically forced convection inject turbulent kinetic energy into the surface boundary layer, mixing the upper ocean and transforming its density structure. In the absence of direct observations or the capability to resolve sub-grid scale 3D turbulence in operational ocean models, the oceanography community relies on surface boundary layer similarity scalings (BLS) of shear and convective turbulence to represent this mixing. Despite their importance, near-surface mixing processes (and ubiquitous BLS representations of these processes) have been under-sampled in high energy forcing regimes such as …

Wind-Modulated Western Maine Coastal Current And Its Connectivity With The Eastern Maine Coastal Current, Denghui Li, Zhengui Wang, Huijie Xue, Andrew C. Thomas, Ron J. Etter

VIMS Articles

Using a high-resolution circulation model and an offline particle tracking model, we investigated variations of the Western Maine Coastal Current (WMCC) and its connectivity with the Eastern Maine Coastal Current (EMCC). The models showed that the weak, broad, and sinuous WMCC is generally southwestward with an offshore and a nearshore core, fed by the extension of the EMCC and runoff from the Penobscot and Kennebec–Androscoggin Rivers, respectively. A sea-level dome can form offshore of Casco Bay in late fall and early winter as the northeastward alongshore wind sets up a seaward sea-level gradient from the coast to meet the shoreward …

Sediment Characteristics Of The Chesapeake Bay And Its Tributaries, Virginia Province: Data Files, Gary F. Anderson

Data

During the 1990’s, Dr. Maynard Nichols and colleagues at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science compiled digital databases of sediment observations in the Chesapeake Bay and other coastal bays and rivers. These projects were performed under several cooperative agreements with NOAA, EPA and USGS. This particular dataset covers the Chesapeake Bay for bulk properties and contaminants. Additional references are provided below. The original files and filenames are provided without edit. See the readme.txt file for overall explanation of the datasets and individual .DOC files for the data dictionary and further data processing information for each waterbody.

Analysis Of Edna To Assess Effects Of Water Quality On Freshwater Fungal Diversity In A Virginia Coastal Watershed, Lauren French

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Freshwater fungi comprise a phylogenetically and functionally diverse group which contributes to wide-ranging ecosystem processes in aquatic systems. Saprotrophic fungi convert detritus into nutrient-rich food sources for fish and invertebrates, whereas pathogenic and parasitic fungi can cause disease and population declines of other aquatic organisms. With their diverse and important roles, changes in freshwater fungal community structure may have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems. To understand how natural and anthropogenic stressors to freshwater systems impact fungal-mediated ecosystem processes, a greater understanding of the taxonomic and functional composition of freshwater fungal communities is needed. We assessed relationships among freshwater habitat types, water …

A General Pattern Of Trade-Offs Between Ecosystem Resistance And Resilience To Tropical Cyclones, Christopher J. Patrick, John S. Kominoski, (...), Enie Hensel, Marc J. S. Hense, Bradley A. Strickland, (..), A. K. Hardison, Sean Kinard, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Tropical cyclones drive coastal ecosystem dynamics, and their frequency, intensity, and spatial distribution are pre-dicted to shift with climate change. Patterns of resistance and resilience were synthesized for 4138 ecosystem time series from n = 26 storms occurring between 1985 and 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere to predict how coastal ecosystems will respond to future disturbance regimes. Data were grouped by ecosystems (fresh water, salt water, terrestrial, and wetland) and response categories (biogeochemistry, hydrography, mobile biota, sedentary fauna, and vascular plants). We observed a repeated pattern of trade-offs between resistance and resilience across analyses. These patterns are likely the outcomes …

Controls On Sediment Bed Erodibility In A Muddy, Partially-Mixed Tidal Estuary, Cristin L. Wright, Carl T. Friedrichs, Grace M. Massey

VIMS Articles

he objectives of this study are to better understand controls on bed erodibility in muddy estuaries, including the roles of both sediment properties and recent hydrodynamic history. An extensive data set of erodibility measurements, sediment properties, and hydrodynamic information was utilized to create statistical models to predict the erodibility of the sediment bed. This data set includes >160 eroded mass versus applied stress profiles collected over 15 years along the York River estuary, a system characterized by “depth-limited erosion,” such that the critical stress for erosion increases rapidly with depth into the bed. For this study, erodibility was quantified in …

Primary Productivity In The Mid-Atlantic Bight: Is The Shelf Break A Location Of Enhanced Productivity?, Jiejie Ma, Walker O. Smith Jr.

VIMS Articles

Estimates of primary production represent the input of carbon into food webs, as well as the initial step in the biological pump. For the past 60 years, much of the productivity information has been obtained using measurements of 14C-bicarbonate removal during simulated in situ incubations. However, such measurements often do not reflect the complexity of the environment, and also suffer from uncertainties, biases and limitations. A vertically resolved bio-optical model has been used to estimate productivity based on profiles commonly assessed in oceanographic investigations, but comparisons with simultaneous measurements of 14C-uptake are limited. We conducted three cruises off the coast …

2022 Hampton Roads Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

2022 Wachapreague Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

2022 Gloucester Point Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

2022 Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel Station Tide Prediction Calendars, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

No abstract provided.

Storm Surge Simulation From The 2009 Nor’Easter On The Virginia Shoreline, Karinna Nunez, Yinglong J. Zhang, Evan Hill, Catherine Riscassi Duning

Data

The November 2009 nor’easter formed from the remnants of Hurricane Ida and generated strong winds, heavy rain, and storm surge across the east coast of the United States. The height of the storm surge generated by the nor’easter was modelled throughout Virginia using SCHISM (Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model). SCHISM outputs were translated to GIS and processed to be overlaid upon the LUBC (land use and bank cover) shoreline of coastal Virginia.

A Data Repository For Clarifying Water Clarity: A Call To Use Metrics Best Suited To Corresponding Research And Management Goals In Aquatic Ecosystems (York River Estuary Case Study Dataset), Jessica S. Turner, Kelsey A. Fall, Carl T. Friedrichs

Data

This data repository is a permanent archive of the results presented in the associated publication (Turner et al. 2022, Limnology & Oceanography Letters, doi.xxxx). The objective of this study was to illustrate a water clarity phenomenon in the lower York River Estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. The data include light attenuation, Secchi depth, turbidity, and salinity from the lower York River Estuary in western Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA from the years 2014-2016.

Toward A Comprehensive Water Quality Model For The Chesapeake Bay Using Unstructured Grids, Xun Cai

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Chesapeake Bay is one of the most productive ecosystems on the US east coast which supports various living resources and habitat, and therefore has significant impacts on human beings and ecosystem health. Developing the capability of accurately simulating the water quality condition in the Chesapeake Bay, such as seasonal hypoxia, phytoplankton production, and nutrient dynamics, helps to better understand the interactions of hydrodynamical and biochemical processes, and more importantly, to predict conditions under changing climate and human intervention. Currently, most Chesapeake Bay models use structured grids that lack the flexibility for local refinements to fit complex geometry over both large …

Marine Heatwaves In The Chesapeake Bay, Piero L. F. Mazzini, Cassia Pianca

VIMS Articles

Prolonged events of anomalously warm sea water temperature, or marine heatwaves (MHWs), have major detrimental effects to marine ecosystems and the world's economy. While frequency, duration and intensity of MHWs have been observed to increase in the global oceans, little is known about their potential occurrence and variability in estuarine systems due to limited data in these environments. In the present study we analyzed a novel data set with over three decades of continuous in situ temperature records to investigate MHWs in the largest and most productive estuary in the US: the Chesapeake Bay. MHWs occurred on average twice per …

Modeling Polar Marine Ecosystem Functions Guided By Bacterial Physiological And Taxonomic Traits, Hyewon Heather Kim, Jeff S. Bowman, (...), Deborah K. Steinberg, Scott C. Doney

VIMS Articles

Heterotrophic marine bacteria utilize organic carbon for growth and biomass synthesis. Thus, their physiological variability is key to the balance between the production and consumption of organic matter and ultimately particle export in the ocean. Here we investigate a potential link between bacterial traits and ecosystem functions in the rapidly warming West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region based on a bacteria-oriented ecosystem model. Using a data assimilation scheme, we utilize the observations of bacterial groups with different physiological traits to constrain the group-specific bacterial ecosystem functions in the model. We then examine the association of the modeled bacterial and other key …

Ephemeral Surface Chlorophyll Enhancement At The New England Shelf Break Driven By Ekman Restratification, H. Oliver, W. G. Zhang, K. M. Hirzel, Walker O. Smith Jr., Et Al

VIMS Articles

The Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) hosts a large and productive marine ecosystem supported by high phytoplankton concentrations. Enhanced surface chlorophyll concentrations at the MAB shelf-break front have been detected in synoptic measurements, yet this feature is not present in seasonal means. To understand why, we assess the conditions associated with enhanced surface chlorophyll at the shelf break. We employ in-situ and remote sensing data, and a 2-dimensional model to show that Ekman restratification driven by upfront winds drives ephemerally enhanced chlorophyll concentrations at the shelf-break front in spring. Using 8-day composite satellite-measured surface chlorophyll concentration data from 2003–2020, we constructed a …

Simple Relationships Between Residence Time And Annual Nutrient Retention, Export, And Loading For Estuaries, Jian Shen, Jiabi Du, Lisa V. Lucas

VIMS Articles

Simple mathematical models are derived from mass balances for water and transported substance to provide insight into the relationships between import, export, transport, and internal removal for nonconservative sub-stances in an estuary. Extending previous work, our models explicitly include water and substance inputs from the ocean and are expressed in terms of timescales (i.e., mean residence time and the timescale for net removal). Steady-state, timescale-based expressions for ratios of export to import, retention to import, and net export to loading, as well as for loading and annually averaged concentration, are provided. The net export:loading model explains the underlying mechanisms for …

Multi-Biomarker Analysis For Identifying Organic Matter Sources In Small Mountainous River Watersheds: A Case Study Of The Yuba River Watershed, Christina R. Pondell, Elizabeth A. Canuel

VIMS Articles

Organic matter in soils and sediments derives from a mixture of biological origins, often making it difficult to determine inputs from individual sources. Complicating the determination of source inputs to soil and sedimentary organic matter (OM) is the fact that physical and microbial processes have likely modified the initial composition of these sources. This study focused on identifying the composition of watershed-derived OM to better understand inputs to inland waters and improve our ability to resolve between terrigenous and aquatic sources in downstream systems, such as estuaries and coasts. We surveyed OM sources from the Yuba River watershed in northern …

Following The Sand Grains, Duncan M. Fitzgerald, Zoe J. Hughes, Alice Staro, Christopher J. Hein, Et Al

VIMS Articles

When longshore transport systems encounter tidal inlets, complex mechanisms are involved in bypassing sand to downdrift barriers. Here, this process is examined at Plum Island Sound and Essex Inlets, Massachusetts, USA. One major finding from this study is that sand is transferred along the coast—especially at tidal inlets—by parcels, in discrete steps, and over decadal-scale periods. The southerly orientation of the main-ebb channel at Plum Island Sound, coupled with the landward migration of bars from the ebb delta to the central portion of the downdrift Castle Neck barrier island, have formed a beach protuberance. During the constructional phase, sand is …

A Cycle Of Wind-Driven Canyon Upwelling And Downwelling At Wilmington Canyon And The Evolution Of Canyon-Upwelled Dense Water On The Mab Shelf, Haixing Wang, Donglai Gong, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Courtney K. Harris, Travis Miles, Hao-Cheng Yu, Yinglong J. Zhang

VIMS Articles

Submarine canyons provide a conduit for shelf-slope exchange via topographically induced processes such as upwelling and downwelling. These processes in the Wilmington Canyon, located along the shelf-break of the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), have not been previously studied, and the associated hydrographic variability inside the canyon and on the adjacent shelf are largely unknown. Observations from an underwater glider deployed in Wilmington Canyon (February 27 - March 8, 2016), along with wind and satellite altimetry data, showed evidence for a wind-driven canyon upwelling event followed by a subsequent downwelling event. Next, a numerical model of the MAB was developed to more …

Spreading And Accumulation Of River-Borne Sediments In The Coastal Ocean After The Environmental Disaster At The Doce River In Brazil, Angleo T. Lemos, Alexander Osadchiev, Piero L. F. Mazzini, Et Al

VIMS Articles

This study is focused on the fate of a large volume of mine slurry discharged from the Doce River (DR) to the coastal ocean after the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian which occurred in November 2015. We used Eulerian (ROMS) and Lagrangian (STRiPE) numerical models, as well as satellite remote sensing data, to study the spreading and seafloor accumulation of fine river-borne sediments during the initial six months following the disaster. We show that the regions of intense sediment accumulation were determined by spreading patterns of the surface-advected DR plume. The river discharge rate governed the plume surface area, while …