Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Precipitation And Sea Level Rise Impacts On Groundwater Levels In Virginia Beach, Virginia, Brett A. Buzzanga

OES Theses and Dissertations

Global sea level rise (SLR) is one of the most immediate impacts of climate change, and poses a significant threat to low-lying coastal communities worldwide. The metropolitan region of Hampton Roads in Southeastern Virginia is one such community, and one where knowledge surrounding SLR is rapidly accumulating. However, most of the research is focused exclusively on surface water processes despite the presence of a shallow groundwater table closely connected to them. SLR will continue to cause the groundwater table to increase in tidally influenced areas of Hampton Roads, and thereby decrease storage capacity of the unsaturated zone.

This study investigates …

Life History And Management Methods For Blueline Tilefish (Caulolatilus Microps) From The United States Mid-Atlantic Region, Michael A. Schmidtke

OES Theses and Dissertations

Blueline tilefish (Caulolatilus microps) have recently undergone an increase in landings from waters off the US Mid-Atlantic region (Virginia-Massachusetts). Currently, life history characteristics of blueline tilefish in this area are undescribed. Additionally, appropriate indices of population abundance are not available for this region, necessitating the use of data-limited management methods to set restrictions for harvest of blueline tilefish in this area. This dissertation describes growth and reproductive characteristics of blueline tilefish caught off the coast of Virginia and explores improvements of data-limited management methods that have been applied to blueline tilefish in the US Mid-Atlantic. Blueline tilefish from …

Selenium Distribution And Cycling In The Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean, Zoe Wambaugh

OES Theses and Dissertations

Oxygen minimum zones in oceanic waters have become increasingly important to the marine environment and society. Low oxygen waters affect not only the distribution and abundance of marine organisms, but also impact the solubility and transport of trace elements that are of biological importance, with the chemical speciation and solubility depending on the actual redox poise of the waters. One redox sensitive trace element of interest is selenium, which can be both toxic and essential for organisms, depending on its chemical speciation. In 2013, the US GEOTRACES program completed the GP16 transect from Peru to Tahiti, going through the oxygen …

High Resolution Spectra Of Carbon Monoxide, Propane And Ammonia For Atmospheric Remote Sensing, Christopher Andrew Beale

OES Theses and Dissertations

Spectroscopy is a critical tool for analyzing atmospheric data. Identification of atmospheric parameters such as temperature, pressure and the existence and concentrations of constituent gases via remote sensing techniques are only possible with spectroscopic data. These form the basis of model atmospheres which may be compared to observations to determine such parameters. To this end, this dissertation explores the spectroscopy of three molecules: ammonia, propane and carbon monoxide.

Infrared spectra have been recorded for ammonia in the region 2400-9000 cm^-1. These spectra were recorded at elevated temperatures (from 293-973 K) using a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS). Comparison between …

Influence Of Tides And Mesoscale Eddies In The Ross Sea, Stefanie Lynn Mack

OES Theses and Dissertations

The Ross Sea is the most biologically productive region in the Southern Ocean. Primary production is controlled by dissolved iron (dFe), a limiting micronutrient. The main focus of this thesis, motivated by the PRISM-RS project, is to investigate how tides and mesoscale eddies affect the pathways of dFe to the surface ocean.

A regional ocean model with four hindcast simulations are used. Tidal forcing is added to simulations and mesoscale eddies are resolved by changing the horizontal grid resolution from 5 to 1.5 km. Simulations cover 1.5 years, ending at the time of the PRISM-RS cruise in early 2012. An …

Analysis Of Virginia Barrier Island Shoreline Movement And Correlations To Sea Level, Wave Height Changes, And Teleconnection Patterns, James Daniel Haluska

OES Theses and Dissertations

The Virginia barrier islands stretch from Assateague Island in the north to Fisherman’s Island in the south. This string of islands is subject to frequent North Atlantic extra-tropical storm and hurricane influence. In addition, sea level rise has the potential to cause continued shoreline loss and inlet widening for this island group. This dissertation describes the effect of sea level rise, changes in wave height, and teleconnection pattern (AO, NAO, and MEI) correlations to shoreline location changes to the islands and inlet location and width changes. Locations of island shorelines were determined from satellite and aircraft images using ArcGIS software …

Groundwater And Tidal Controls On Wetland Hydrology, Julie J. Metz Wetland Mitigation Bank, Woodbridge, Virginia, Benjamin Stuart Hiza

OES Theses and Dissertations

Julie J. Metz Wetlands Mitigation Bank, a 92-hectare freshwater wetland located in Woodbridge, Virginia, borders the tidally-influenced Neabsco Creek. Seven pods separated by earthen berms were built by Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc. (WSSI) in 1995 and 1997 by removing the toe of small sandy alluvial fans and covering the underlying coarse gravel bed with a low permeability cap. The basal Quaternary gravels were deposited in a creek valley incised into a thick sand-and-clay Cretaceous delta. The alluvial-fan apron developed at the base of steep slopes along the sides of the valley. Pressure transducer data from five monitoring wells along …

Hydrologic Response Caused By Wetland Expansion At Huntley Meadows Park In Hybla Valley, Virginia, Stephen Fraser Stone

OES Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to understand the effects of wetland expansion across a watershed. The 2013 restoration and expansion of the wetlands at Huntley Meadows Park (Fairfax County, VA) performed by Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. provided the opportunity to study this process. The 630 ha park contains more than 364 ha of freshwater emergent and freshwater forested wetlands. The restoration and expansion project used a subsurface vinyl-piling dam that impedes groundwater flow leaving the wetland, thus expanding the existing pond and the surrounding wetland.

This study used a network of more than twenty monitoring instruments making observations …