Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Past Hydroclimate And Vegetation Variation In Romania Inferred From Isotopic Geochemistry And Pollen Of Cave Bat Guano, Daniel Martin Cleary

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While an abundance of paleo-records related to hydroclimate and vegetation exist in East-Central Europe, currently there is a scarcity of reconstructions that have the resolution to effectively capture the past 2000 years. A more complete understanding of this interval is important as it includes significant climatic events such as the Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age, and the post-industrial revolution human induced climate change. A solution to increasing our understanding of these events is the use of cave bat guano, a relatively underutilized source of climatic information.

Cave bat guano piles commonly have near annual deposition and in Europe can …

"There Is No Planet B": Frame Disputes Within The Environmental Movement Over Geoengineering, David Russell Zeller Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines frame disputes within the environmental movement over geoengineering proposals. Among other core framing tasks, social movement organizations must evaluate solutions and strategies for the social problems they seek to address. These framings are frequently disputed by those within the movement. Recent controversies regarding a set of climate intervention proposals commonly known as geoengineering offer the opportunity to document the ongoing construction of competing visions of environmental sustainability. The nascent quality of these proposals generate dissonant framings—episodes where organizations within the environmental movement exhibit disagreement about one or more core framing tasks—a situation Goffman referred to as a …

Understanding Climate Change And Sea Level: A Case Study Of Middle School Student Comprehension And An Evaluation Of Tide Gauges Off The Panama Canal In The Pacific Ocean And Caribbean Sea, Juan Carlos Millan-Otoya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study had two main objectives. The first was to determine the degree of understanding of climate change, sea level and sea level rise among middle school students. Combining open-ended questions with likert-scaled questions, we identified student conceptions on these topics in 86 students from 7^th and 8^th grades during 2012 and 2013 before and after implementing a Curriculum Unit (CU). Additional information was obtained by adding drawings to the open-ended questions during the second year to gauge how student conceptions varied from a verbal and a visual perspective. Misconceptions were identified both pre- and post-CU among …

The Effect Of Urbanization On The Embodied Energy Of Drinking Water In Tampa, Florida, Mark Vincent Eli Santana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing urbanization has serious implications for resource and energy use. One of these resources is drinking water. The increased amount of impervious surfaces associated with urban development is responsible for increased runoff during rain events, which may have a negative impact on the quality of nearby bodies of water, including drinking water sources. The growing populations associated with urbanization require a higher water demand. In addition, urban drinking water systems use energy to collect, treat, and distribute a safe reliable effluent to users. Therefore, this study focuses on the degree to which urbanization influences the embodied energy of drinking water …

Hail Formation In Florida, Matthew Stanley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Hail poses a substantial threat to life and property in the state of Florida. These losses could be minimized through better understanding of the relationships between atmospheric variables that impact hail formation in Florida. Improving hail forecasting in Florida requires analyzing a number of meteorological parameters and synoptic data related to hail formation.

NOAA archive data was retrieved to create a database that was used to categorize text files of hail days. The text files were entered into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory website to create National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric …

Synoptic To Interannual Variability In Volumetric Flushing In Tampa Bay, Fl Using Observational Data And A Numerical Model, Monica Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research provides insight into changes in volumetric flushing of the Tampa Bay estuary caused by synoptic scale wind events. The two main studies of this dissertation involve 1) using wavelet analysis to investigate the link between the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the frequency and strength of volumetric flushing driven by synoptic variability and 2) using a multi-decadal model simulation to examine how extratropical/winter storms and hurricanes affect the overall flushing rates for Tampa Bay, FL.

In the first study, two analyses are performed on 55 years of observational data to investigate the effect of multiple small wind events …