Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Watershed Prioritization, David G. Parker, Rod Williams, Hubert D. Scott

Technical Reports

The overall objective of this two-year study was to evaluate the water quality in the thirty-seven sub-basin watersheds in the Illinois River in Arkansas and to arrive at a watershed prioritization list to use in targeting non-point source activities. A water quality monitoring program was conducted with sampling in all thirty-seven sub-basins during both storm and base flow events and more intensive sampling in eight representative sub-basins during stOffil events. Each sub-basin was sampled seasonally during low flow (base-flow) conditions and during high flow storm (storm flow) conditions. In addition to the regular sampling, the intensive sub-basins were sampled approximately …

Function Of Funnel-Shaped Coral Growth In A High-Sedimentation Environment, Bernhard Riegl, Carlton Heine, George M. Branch

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Advantages and disadvantages of a funnel-shaped growth in 2 coral species (Acropora clathrata, Turbinaria peltata) in a high-sedimentation environment (Natal, South Africa) were observed in the field and modeled in a flow tank. Funnel-shaped growth serves different purposes in different hydrographic settings. In calm waters with little currents (in our case deep reef areas, 18 to 25 m) funnel-shaped colonies served as 'sacrificial sediment traps': all sediment trapped inside the funnel was directed towards the centre, where it was concentrated. There, tissues underwent necroses, but all other tissues remained sediment free and healthy. In areas with high currents (in our …

Observation Of Spatial Variability Of Diurnal Thermocline And Rain-Formed Halocline In The Western Pacific Warm Pool, Alexander Soloviev, Roger Lukas

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

High-resolution measurements of temperature and salinity were made in the near-surface layer of the ocean during the Tropical Oceans-Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment, using probes mounted on the bow of the R/V Moana Wave. Because of surface waves and pitching of the vessel, the bow probes profiled the near-surface layer of the ocean within depths of 0–4.0 m. In the near-surface layer of the ocean in the western Pacific warm pool, strong variability of temperature and salinity produced by diurnal heating and/or rain was often observed. The contoured density field revealed cases of pronounced spatial variability. The shallow …

Species Composition, Abundance, And Vertical Distribution Of The Stomiid (Pisces: Stomiiformes) Fish Assemblage Of The Gulf Of Mexico, Tracey Sutton, T. L. Hopkins

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Species composition, abundance, and vertical distribution of the stomiid fish assemblage were investigated in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, a low-latitude, oligotrophic oceanic ecosystem. Seventy-two described species, representing 18 genera, and one undescribed species were identified from 1155 trawl samples. With an additional 10 species reported elsewhere, the stomiid species number now known equals 83, making the Stomiidae the most diverse fish family in the Gulf of Mexico. The assemblage was dominated by three species,Photostomias guernei, Chauliodus sloani and Stomias affinis. These species, as well as four other common species, exhibited an asynchronous diel vertical migration pattern (450–900 …

Public Beach Assessment Report Gloucester Point Public Beach, Gloucester County, Virginia, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., George R. Thomas

Reports

Gloucester Point Public Beach is located at the southern end of Gloucester County, Virginia on the York River. It is a southeastward facing shoreline about 960 ft long and it is part of a larger stretch of moderately low shore between Sarah Creek and the George P. Coleman Bridge. While no shoreline improvement projects have taken place at the public beach, shore protection projects updrift and including the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) affect it. In 1983, erosion along the shoreline at VIMS just updrift of the public beach led to the installation of a riprap revetment in front …

Directory Of Water Related Courses Offered At Colleges And Universites In Arkansas, Kenneth F. Steele

Technical Reports

This publication lists the water and water-related courses at several universities and colleges in Arkansas as reported during the Fall of 1996. It Is anticipated that users of this directory will extend beyond college students, and will include professionals seeking continuing education, and professors desiring to exchange information on courses. This directory is not an "absolute" source of water and water-related courses because all of the higher learning institutions in Arkansas are not listed, and, secondly, because the definition of "water and water-related" varies from institution to institution. None-the-less this directory provides a very valuable and impressive reference on water …

Historical Biomass Burning: Late 19th Century Pioneer Agriculture Revolution In Northern Hemisphere Ice Core Data And Its Atmospheric Interpretation, G. Holdsworth, K. Hiuchi, G. A. Zielinski, Paul Andrew Mayewski, M. Wahlen, B. Deck, P. Chylek, B. Johnson, P. Damiano

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Ice core data from Yukon and Greenland spanning from ∼1750 to 1950 indicate that between ∼1850 and ≤1910 a clear atmospheric signal exists of an episodic biomass burning event that is referred to as the Pioneer Agriculture Revolution. This is best seen in NH₄⁺ ion and particulate concentrations but also in some limited black carbon concentration data, where for all three quantities maximum levels reach about 3 times the prerevolution background concentrations. Tree cellulose δ¹³C data and some early, controversial, French, air CO₂ data, occurring within the same time interval, are interpreted as providing other …

Food Security In The Southern African Development Community States, Joshua Chigodora

Drought Network News (1994-2001)

The 1995–96 cereal harvest in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is the best within the last ten years. Provisional assessments project a regional maize surplus of 2.08 million tons, a 72% increase in production over the previous year’s harvest. Overall cereal production substantially increased in all countries except Tanzania, where the current cereal forecast of 3.73 million tons is a 14% drop from last year’s output of 4.34 million tons. Of special note are the exceptionally large increases in the area planted in cereals in war-ravaged Angola and Mozambique, for the first time in many years. Production trebled in …

Moisture Deficit Index Evaluated For Dry Regions Of India, K. K. Nathan, S. K. Sinha

Drought Network News (1994-2001)

In India, about 70% of the cultivable land is rainfed. This includes areas where crops are rarely affected by drought and areas where crops experience moisture stress and often fail. The regions with the latter characteristics are often called dryland areas and the agriculture so practiced there is known as dryland agriculture. About 35% of the total cultivable land belongs in this category. To determine the magnitude of water deficiency in these regions, the moisture deficit index (MDI) has been evaluated for dryland stations in India. The MDI is usually determined on the basis of annual precipitation and annual potential …

Exploring The Potential For Using Enso Forecasts In The U.S. Corn Belt, Jennifer G. Phillips, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Mark Cane

Drought Network News (1994-2001)

Interannual climate variability poses the greatest risk that farmers face. Until recently, seasonal climate forecasts have been weak and therefore rarely observed by farmers in making management decisions. Farm management is generally based on long-term mean expectations of climate and crop responses to local edaphic conditions. Currently, significant progress is being made in the skill level of predictions of seasonal to interannual climate, primarily because of new understanding of the teleconnections between ocean circulation and atmospheric processes. The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) refers to fluctuations in both sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) in the eastern equatorial Pacific and in sea-level pressures in …

Meteorological Drought In Turkey: A Historical Perspective, 1930-–93, Murat Türkes

Drought Network News (1994-2001)

The climate of Turkey, which is mainly characterized by the Mediterranean macro climate, results from the seasonal alternation of frontal depressions with polar air masses and subtropical high pressures with subsiding maritime tropical and continental tropical air masses. Continental tropical airstreams from the northern African and Arabian deserts particularly dominate throughout the summer, by causing long-lasting warm (hot) and dry conditions over Turkey (except the Black Sea region and northeastern Anatolia). Turkey has an area of 779,452 km² and an average elevation of 1,132 m.

This study outlines some spatial and temporal characteristics of Turkey’s rainfall, particularly in terms …

Assessing The Impacts Of El Niño And Non-El Niño-Related Droughts Over India, R. H. Kripalani, Ashwini Kulkarni

Drought Network News (1994-2001)

It has now been recognized that the single most important key to the earth’s year-to-year climate variability is the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. El Niño episodes directly affect the climate of at least half the planet and in many instances result in heavy loss of life and resources. The global impacts of El Niño events have been summarized in a review article by Bigg (1990), while the role of ENSO in Indian monsoon rainfall variability is given in Krishna Kumar et al. (1995). During the ENSO warm/ cold extremes—i.e., El Niño/La Niña events—the majority of the episodes induce below/above-normal …

Modeling Nutrient And Plankton Processes In The California Coastal Transition Zone: 3. Lagrangian Drifters, J. R. Moisan, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

Two types of numerical Lagrangian drifter experiments were conducted, using a set of increasingly complex and sophisticated models, to investigate the processes associated with the plankton distributions in the California coastal transition zone (CTZ). The first experiment used a one-dimensional (1-D; vertical) time-dependent physical-bio-optical model, which contained a nine-component food web. Vertical velocities, along the track of simulated Lagrangian drifters, derived from a three-dimensional (3-D), primitive equation circulation model developed to simulate the flow observed within the CTZ; were used to parameterize the upwelling and downwelling processes. The second experiment used 880 simulated Lagrangian drifters from a 3-D primitive equation …

Modeling Nutrient And Plankton Processes In The California Coastal Transition Zone: 1. A Time- And Depth-Dependent Model, J. R. Moisan, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

A time- and depth-dependent, physical-bio-optical model was developed for the California coastal transition zone (CTZ) with the overall objective of understanding and quantifying the processes that contribute to the vertical and temporal development of nutrient and plankton distributions in the CTZ. The model food web components included silicate, nitrate, ammonium, two phytoplankton size fractions, copepods, doliolids, euphausiids, and a detritus pool. The wavelength-dependent subsurface irradiance field was attenuated by sea water and phytoplankton pigments. The one-dimensional (1-D) model adequately simulated the development and maintenance of a subsurface chlorophyll maximum in different regions within the CTZ. An analysis of the individual …

Modeling Nutrient And Plankton Processes In The California Coastal Transition Zone: 2. A Three-Dimensional Physical-Bio-Optical Model, J. R. Moisan, Eileen E. Hofmann, D. B. Haidvogel

CCPO Publications

A three-dimensional (3-D) primitive equation model, developed to simulate the circulation features (filaments) observed in the California coastal transition zone (CTZ), was coupled to a nine-component food web model and a bio-optical model. The simulated flow fields from a 3-D primitive equation model are used to advect the constituents of the food web model, which include silicate, nitrate, ammonium, two phytoplankton size fractions, copepods, doliolids, euphausiids, and a detritus pool. The bio-optical model simulates the wavelength-dependent attenuation of the subsurface irradiance field. The overall objective of this modeling study was to understand and quantify the processes that contribute to the …

Diversity Of Arkansas Water Resources Research, Kenneth F. Steele

Technical Reports

In order to understand, protect, and manage our water resources effectively knowledge is required from many diverse areas of science, engineering, economics, and sociology. These proceedings of the conference on the Diversity of Arkansas Water Resources Research reflect this need and demonstrate how researchers in the state are responding to water issues and problems in Arkansas. The papers in these proceedings are representative of the research in Arkansas, but are only a sample of the work being conducted by universities and government agencies in Arkansas. We are grateful that Arkansas has the expertise available to provide the information necessary to …

Corals Of The South-West Indian Ocean Iv. The Hard Coral Family Faviidae Gregory, 1900 (Scleractinia: Faviina), Bernhard Riegl

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

This annotated check-list deals with the scleractinian coral family Faviidae in subtropical south-east Africa (the African mainland coast south of the Tropic of Capricorn). Material from the atoll Bassas da India in the Mozambique channel was included. Most species are of wide Indo-Pacific distribution. The faviid fauna of Mozambique was richer (28 species) than the South African fauna (21 species). The fauna of Bassas da India was similar to that on the African mainland coast with four additional species. South-east Africa has a moderately rich faviid fauna compared with other areas in the Indo-Pacific region. Field and laboratory characteristics are …

Seasonal And Inter-Annual Patterns Of Sediment-Water Nutrient And Oxygen Fluxes In Mobile Bay, Alabama (Usa): Regulating Factors And Ecological Significance., Jean L. Cowan, Jonathan Pennock, Walter R. Boynton

School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering

Sediment oxygen and nutrient fluxes were measured monthly for 2 yr in Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA. Rates of sediment oxygen consumption (0.1 to 1.25 gO₂ m^-2 d^-1), ammonium flux (-22 to 181 µmol m^-2 h^-1), nitrate flux (-14 to 67 µmol m^-2 h^-1), phosphate flux (-2 to 20.4 µmol m^-2 h^-1), and dissolved silicate flux (-15 to 342 µmol m^-2 h^-1) were moderate to high compared to values for other estuaries. A step-wise regression analysis revealed that dissolved oxygen concentration and temperature in bottom-waters …

Hermatypic Coral Fauna Of Subtropical Southeast Africa: A Checklist, Bernhard Riegl

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

The South African hermatypic coral fauna consists of 96 species in 42 scleractinian genera, one stoloniferous octocoral genus (Tubipora), and one hermatypic hydrocoral genus (Millepora). There are more species in southern Mozambique, with 151 species in 49 scleractinian genera, one stoloniferous octocoral (Tubipora musica L.), and one hydrocoral (Millepora exaesa [Forskal)). The eastern African coral faunas of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania,
Mozambique, and South Africa are compared and Southeast Africa distinguished
as a biogeographic subregion, with six endemic species. Patterns of attenuation and species composition are described and compared with those on the eastern boundaries …

Depletion Of Atmospheric Nitrate And Chloride As A Consequence Of The Toba Volcanic Eruption, Q. Yang, Paul Andrew Mayewski, G. A. Zielinski, M. Twickler, K. C. Taylor

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Continuous measurements of SO₄²⁻ and electrical conductivity (ECM) along the GISP2 ice core record the Toba mega‐eruption at a depth 2590.95 to 2091.25 m (71,000±5000 years ago). Major chemical species were analyzed at a resolution of 1 cm per sample for this section. An ∼6‐year long period with extremely high volcanic SO₄²⁻ coincident with a 94% depletion of nitrate and 63% depletion of chloride is observed at the depth of the Toba horizon. Such a reduction of chloride in a volcanic layer preserved in an ice core has not been observed in any previous studies. The …

Relationship Between Continuous Aerosol Measurements And Firn Core Chemistry Over A 10‐Year Period At The South Pole, M. H. Bergin, E. A. Meyerson, J. E. Dibb, Paul Andrew Mayewski

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Before ice core chemistry can be used to estimate past atmospheric chemistry it is necessary to establish an unambiguous link between concentrations of chemical species in the air and snow. For the first time a continuous long‐term record of aerosol properties (aerosol light scattering coefficient, σ_sp , and Ångström exponent, å) at the South Pole are compared with the chemical record from a high resolution firn core (∼10 samples per year) covering the period from 1981 to 1991. Seasonal signals in å, associated with winter minima due to coarse mode seasalt and summer maxima due to accumulation mode sulfate …

In-Situ Far-Field Calibration Of Multibeam Sonar Arrays For Precise Backscatter Imagery, Larry Fusillo, Christian De Moustier, John H. Satriano, Stanley Zietz

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Calibration of large hull-mounted sonar transducer arrays is usually done by measuring the performance of individual components in a test tank. Multiple transducer element beam patterns are superimposed and combined with window attenuation and other partial measurements to give an approximation of the total beam pattern. This process often ignores or fails to accurately model factors such as mounting hardware, array misalignment, reflections from the hull structure and other real world absorbers, reflectors and attenuators which can have significant effect on the actual beam pattern. This paper describes an application of a novel technique for in-situ measurement of the far-field …

Nutrients And Chlorophyll At The Shelf Break Off The Southeastern United States During The Genesis Of Atlantic Lows Experiment: Winter 1986, L. P. Atkinson, J. L. Miller, T. N. Lee, W. M. Dunstan

CCPO Publications

The outer shelf and upper slope off Charleston, South Carolina, were the site of oceanographic and meteorological measurements during the winter of 1986. The purpose of the study was to test ideas about front formation, heat transport, and stratification during cold air outbreaks. An ancillary part of the study was the observation of nutrients and chlorophyll concentrations. The observations extended across the shelf and sometimes crossed the Gulf Stream front. The results show slightly elevated nitrate concentrations in outer shelf waters (1 - 2 μM NO₃) with chlorophyll concentrations in the 1 - 1.8 μg L^-1 range. …

Chemical Species Spatial Distribution And Relationship To Elevation And Snow Accumulation Rate Over The Greenland Ice Sheet, Q. Yang, Paul Andrew Mayewski, E. Linder, S. Whitlow, M. Twickler

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Major chemical species (Cl⁻, NO⁻₃, SO²⁻₄, Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) from 24 snowpits (sampled at a resolution of 3 cm, total 2995 samples) collected from northern, central, and southern Greenland were used for this investigation. The annual and seasonal (winter and summer) concentration of each chemical species was calculated and used to study the spatial distribution of chemical species over the central portion of the Greenland Ice Sheet. A two-sided t-distribution test (α=0.05) suggests that concentrations of major chemical species in snow do …

A Prototype National Drought Alert Strategic Information System For Australia, Ken D. Brook, John O. Carter

Drought Network News (1994-2001)

Defining and categorizing drought in a quantitative and scientific manner are important national issues for Australian state and Commonwealth governments, landholders, and agribusiness. The challenge for modelers of Australia’s grasslands is to integrate biological models, geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imagery, economics, climatology, and visual high-performance computing into an Internet-deliverable application that can provide easily understood monitoring and prediction advice in near real-time— a national drought alert strategic information system.

Although NOAA satellite-derived imagery has been somewhat useful in the broad-scale spatial assessment of green cover, especially the spatial response of vegetation to rainfall events (Smith, 1994; Dudgeon et al., …

Drought Continues In Hungary In 1995, Attila Bussay, Csaba Szinell

Drought Network News (1994-2001)

In 1995, Hungary again suffered from serious drought. Fortunately, drought has not extended over the whole country. It is primarily centered in the southeast, a plain area with significant agricultural production.

Meteorological conditions have been the most important factors in the evolution of the drought. The start of 1995 was not ideal; dry conditions during 1994 resulted in poor soil moisture at the beginning of the season. In Figure 1, the water shortage is indicated using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), revealing the extraordinarily dry winter conditions in the east.

Measuring The Momentum Of Throughfall Drops And Raindrops, Paul Kimble

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The methods previously used to determine the momentum and kinetic energy of throughfall drops in the field do not account for the drop's shape at impact or for the variations of the drop's velocity caused by chaotic air currents. The drop's shape at impact is critical because it influences the drop's measurable momentum, kinetic energy, impact force, and the amount of soil that can be displaced by the falling water drop. Since the momentum and kinetic energy of raindrops and throughfall drops are used as indices of soil particle displacement the most accurate momentum and kinetic energydata would be required …

Effects Of Climate Change On Hypoxia In Coastal Waters: A Doubled Co2 Scenario For The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Dubravko Justic, Nancy N. Rabalais, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

Projections of general circulation models suggest that freshwater discharge from the Mississippi River to the coastal ocean will increase 20% if atmospheric CO2 concentration doubles. This result is likely to affect water column stability, surface productivity, and global oxygen cycling in the northern Gulf of Mexico, which is the site of the largest (up to 16,500 km2) and most severe hypoxic zone (liter‒1) in the western Atlantic Ocean. We use a coupled physical-biological two-box model to investigate potential effects of climate change on seasonal oxygen cycling and hypoxia in river-dominated coastal waters. The model was developed and calibrated using comprehensive …

Swath Mapping On The Continental Shelf And Slope: The Eel River Basin, Northern California, John A. Goff, Larry A. Mayer, John E. Hughes Clarke, Lincoln F. Pratson

Affiliate Scholarship

First Paragraph

The STRATAFORM program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (Nittrouer and Kravitz, 1996, this issue) seeks to understand how sedimentary processes lead to the formation of the stratigraphic sequences on continental margins. A central challenge facing this effort is to understand the transport of sediments in shore-parallel as well as shore-perpendicular directions• Multidimensionality is necessary to describe, for example, the accumulation of sediments from river inputs, the distribution of gullies and canyons on the slope, the meandering of channels, and the structure of slumps and slides.

Port Everglades Macroinvertebrate Monitoring: Monitoring Of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Assemblages At The Southport Turning Basin And Adjacent Areas Of John U. Lloyd State Recreation Area: January 1996, Charles G. Messing, Richard E. Dodge

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

This report documents the January 1996 monitoring of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in the Port Everglades Southport turning basin vicinity and adjacent areas of John U. Lloyd State Recreation Area. This is the eighth monitoring effort of the series carried out by Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center. Collections were made between 17 and 31 January 1996.