Earth Sciences Commons^™

Long-Term Analysis Of Pm2.5 Elemental Composition And Source Contributions In Coastal Urban Environments Of Corpus Christi And Houston In Texas, Sai Deepak Pinakana, Jeremy A. Sarnat, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Long-term assessments of fine particulate matter play a key role in identifying persistent and emerging emission contributors. Coastal urban areas are highly susceptible to transboundary dust and wildfire events in addition to local pollution sources. Multi-decadal assessments in these regions using chemical speciation data could offer insights into major pollutant sources and their trends. This study utilizes nearly two decades of PM2.5 elemental composition data at two major coastal cities in Texas: Houston and Corpus Christi. Fourteen trace elements were analyzed to characterize the seasonal variability and long-term source evolution using a combination of Spearman’s correlation analysis, principal component analysis, …

Evaluating The Transformation Of Land Cover, Land Surface Temperature, And Urban Heat Island In Sylhet Division Through Geospatial Analysis, Md Fazle Rabbi Joy, Md Abdur Rahim, Md Mahfuzar Rahman, Sumiaya Amin Preota, Mohammed Mahathee Hossain

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Rapid and unplanned urbanization has significantly transformed land use/land cover (LULC), contributing to increased land surface temperature (LST) and the emergence of urban heat islands (UHIs), especially in ecologically fragile regions. This study focuses on the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, assessing LULC changes, LST dynamics, and UHI expansion from 1994 to 2024 using Landsat satellite imagery, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference water index (NDWI) indices, and field-based LST validation. Unsupervised classification reveals a 191.75% increase in settlement areas and a 25.65% loss in forest cover. Correspondingly, the highest LST zones (> 30 °C) were absent in 1994 but …

Managing Collaboration Under Conservation Crisis: Trust, Risk, And Control In The Gulf Of Maine Fishery Management Network, Evelyn Roozee, Owen Temby, Dongkyu Kim, Antonia Sohns, Anthony Rocha Lima, Jasper R. De Vries, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Transboundary fishery management and the intertwined conservation of critically endangered species represent significant governance challenges that require ongoing inter-organizational communication, collaboration, and collective action to achieve shared objectives. Previous research suggests that inter-organizational collaborative performance depends heavily on different dimensions of trust and complementary control mechanisms to mitigate the perceived risks of collaborating and enable the reciprocal sharing of resources and the coordination of activities. However, it is unclear how proposed relationships between trust, risk, and control are shaped by disruptions to established transboundary management networks. This study presents the results of survey research conducted in the Gulf of Maine …

First Evaluation Of Contrast-Enhanced Micro-Xct As A Tool For Organismal And Reproductive Trait Observations In Corals Based On Scans Of Thesea Nivea Deichmann, 1936, Erin E. Easton

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Micro-X-ray computed tomography (micro-XCT) with contrast enhancement is considered a non-destructive tool that is increasingly being applied to explore the internal and external structures of vertebrates and invertebrates. Although micro-XCT has been applied to corals to study skeletal features, contrast enhancement has not been applied to evaluate the utility for visualization of soft tissue structures in corals. This study is the first to evaluate the utility of contrast enhancement to visualize internal and external features, including soft tissue features, of octocorals. Contrast staining of a Thesea nivea specimen with 2.5% Lugol's iodine permitted visualization of soft tissues with sufficient density …

Blue Carbon Ecosystems As Climate Solutions: Sequestration Across Coastal And Marine Environments, Allison K. White, Richard J. Kline, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses, sequester significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. These ecosystems capture and store carbon in biomass and sediments over long periods. Other marine ecosystems, including the open ocean, kelp forests, bivalve reefs, and coral reefs, have been excluded from the BCEs, but they have the potential to serve as crucial blue carbon sinks or to support adjacent BCEs. Climate change, however, poses severe threats to these ecosystems. Rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and ocean acidification can lead to habitat loss, reduced biodiversity, and impaired carbon sequestration capacity. Consequently, anthropogenic …

White Shark Occurrence In Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Revealed From Acoustic Telemetry In An Offshore Mpa, Michael A. Dance, Jay R. Rooker, R. J. David Wells, Megan V. Winton, Landes L. Randall, Marissa F. Nuttall, Brondum M. Krebs, Creed C. Branham, Brett B. Sweezey, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) is characterized by unique bathymetric features that provide critical habitat for marine fauna. Here, we demonstrate the utility of large-scale acoustic telemetry for monitoring an oceanic marine protected area (MPA) and document the first known occurrences of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) within Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). White sharks were tagged with acoustic transmitters in the western North Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States and Canada. Nine white sharks were detected along the outer shelf ecosystem associated with FGBNMS over a three-year …

Automated And Quantitative Characterization Of Benthic Habitat And Associated Biological Communities Of An Unknown Southeast Pacific Seamount, Yakufu Niyazi, Denise J. B. Swanborn, Jan M. Tapia-Guerra, Javier Sellanes, Erin E. Easton, Germán Zapata-Hernández, Heather A. Stewart, Alan J. Jamieson

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Seamounts are prominent seafloor features that strongly influence geological processes, ocean circulation, and benthic biodiversity. Despite their importance, most seamounts remain unmapped and poorly characterized, particularly in the southeast Pacific Ocean, a region recognized for high marine endemism and ecological isolation. In this study, we present a quantitative habitat characterization of a previously undocumented seamount, informally named Solito Seamount, located between the Nazca–Desventuradas Marine Park and the Juan Fernández Archipelago, within Chile’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The seamount is a conical volcanic edifice approximately 37 km wide, rising >3,500 m above the surrounding abyssal plain. High-resolution multibeam bathymetry and backscatter intensity …

A New Bubblegum Coral From The Nazca Ridge Reveals Chitin As The Structural Scaffold Of Skeleton-Less Paragorgia Colonies, Juan Armando Sánchez, Erin E. Easton, Nayeli Elizavet Garcia, Yony Román-Ochoa, Julia Kaled Cáceres, Javier Sellanes

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Bubblegum corals (Paragorgia; Corallidae) form among the largest branching colonies in deep-sea environments despite lacking an axial skeleton. How these octocorals maintain structural cohesion using only sub-millimeter sclerites has remained unexplained. Here we describe Paragorgia quitinosa Sánchez & Easton n. sp., collected at 670 m depth on the Nazca Ridge (southeastern Pacific) during the Schmidt Ocean Institute RV Falkor (too) expedition FKt240708, and report the first evidence of visible chitin in octocoral tissues. The new species is diagnosed by autozoids and siphonozoids retracted on prominent, rounded mounds, large 8-derived radiate capstan sclerites (mean 0.095 mm), and canal walls …

Sea-Level Rise And Regional Economic Adjustment On The U.S. Gulf Coast, Md A M Hasif, Juhee Lee, Robin A. Choudhury

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Sea-level rise (SLR) poses escalating risks to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where critical industries, infrastructure, and populations are concentrated in low-lying areas. This study estimates the short- and long-run economic effects of SLR using a panel autoregressive distributed lag-pooled mean group framework applied to county-level data from 26 coastal counties across five Gulf Coast states from 2005 to 2021. Over this period, mean sea level increased by approximately 11 cm on average across counties, with cumulative changes ranging from about 4 cm to over 24 cm and substantial cross-county variation, providing a meaningful empirical setting for identifying economic adjustment. We …

Land-Use Transitions And Carbon Emissions Of Aquaculture Expansion In The Brazilian Amazon, Felipe S. Pacheco, Sebastian A. Heilpern, Rafael M. Almeida, Suresh A. Sethi, Marcela Miranda, Nicholas Ray, Laura Greenstreet, Joshua Fan, Brendan H. Rappazzo, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Accounting for land-use change underlying food sector expansion is critical for conserving ecosystem integrity. This challenge is particularly acute in the Amazon, where the conversion of forests for food production is pronounced and has broad implications for global biodiversity and the cycling of water and carbon. Here, we analyze land-use transitions associated with aquaculture development in the Brazilian Amazon. We found that a 450-fold increase in aquaculture pond area from 1985 to 2022 occurred primarily on pasturelands (87%) but also included wetland conversion (4%) and deforestation (5%). Notably, continued growth can be sustained within already altered landscapes: In Rondônia, the …

Phenotypic And Biochemical Responses Of High-Yield Tomato Varieties To Salinity And Drought Stress, Shahida Ferdousee, Myung Hwangbo, Md Sakil Arman, Muhammad Abul Kalam Azad, Ajit Ghosh, Jongsun Kim

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Abiotic stresses can influence plant growth and productivity by causing physiological, biochemical, molecular, and morphological changes. Salinity and drought are increasing in frequency and intensity because of climate change. Therefore, this study assessed four high-yield tomato cultivars under 150 mM NaCl and 260 mM mannitol treatments to characterize physiological (i.e., chlorophyll level, root/shoot length, and relative water content) and biochemical responses (i.e., GLY I/II and DLDH enzyme activities, proline, and hydrogen peroxide). Results indicated that the four BARI tomato varieties showed genotype- and treatment-specific physiological and biochemical responses rather than a single uniform tolerance pattern. BARI tomato 2 maintained relatively …

Dry After-Ripening Increases Germination Of Critically Imperilled Physaria Thamnophila (Zapata Bladderpod), Christopher A. Gabler, Jerald T. Garrett

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Effective endangered plant conservation and recovery require empirical knowledge of seed dormancy release and responses to post-collection handling, yet such information is lacking for many rare taxa. Physaria thamnophila (Zapata bladderpod; Brassicaceae), a critically imperilled (G1) species endemic to southern Texas, USA, is poorly studied, and basic questions regarding seed storage and germination remain unresolved. We evaluated the effects of short-term cool-storage duration (14–180 d), storage temperature (refrigeration vs. freezing), dry after-ripening and maternal plant identity on germination probability and timing in P. thamnophila. Dry after-ripening and increased cool-storage duration consistently increased germination and shortened germination time, whereas storage temperature …

Influence Of Transboundary Wildfire Smoke On Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations At South Texas Border Schools, Sai Deepak Pinakana, Kabir Bahadur Shah, Owen Temby, Dawid K. Wladyka, Juan L. Gonzalez, Md Saydur Rahman, Katarzyna Sepielak, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Exposure to air pollutants in indoor and outdoor school environments poses significant health risks to children due to their heightened vulnerability. Increasing wildfire frequency has intensified transboundary smoke transport, with border communities among the first to experience associated air quality impacts. While the impacts of wildfires on air quality are increasingly recognized through satellite observations and modeling, ground-based observations remain scarce in under-monitored regions. Low-cost air sensors were deployed across schools in the Roma and Rio Grande City areas of Starr County, along the U.S.–Mexico border, for 146-days from November 2023 to April 2024. The raw sensor measurements were corrected …

Why Technical Readiness Is Not Enough: Institutional Barriers To Full Harvest Strategy Adoption In The International Pacific Halibut Commission, Evelyn Roozee, Owen Temby, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Harvest strategies are increasingly promoted as a mechanism to reduce political discretion and align fisheries management with pre-agreed scientific objectives. While substantial progress has been made in tuna regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), non-tuna RFMOs have lagged behind. Existing research has focused primarily on technical modeling challenges, with comparatively limited attention to the governance dynamics shaping adoption. Using the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) as an instrumental case study, we examine the progress and delays in the development of a harvest strategy policy (HSP) through semi-structured interviews and participant observation. We find that the IPHC successfully addressed commonly cited barriers, …

Greenhouse Gas Flux Response In Biochar- And Compost-Amended Lawn Soils Under Simulated Water Saturation Conditions, Angel Salinas, Chu-Lin Cheng, Engil Pereira, Rafael M. Almeida, James Jihoon Kang

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Understanding greenhouse gas emission dynamics in lawn soils is important for improving climate change mitigation strategies in urban and suburban landscapes. In this greenhouse mesocosm study, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes were measured from 12 turfgrass soil columns arranged in an unreplicated, completely randomized 4 × 3 factorial design. Four amendment treatments (biochar, compost, bio-com [1:1 volume ratio of biochar and compost], and unamended control) were combined with three water-table conditions (full saturation, half saturation, and unsaturated), with a single column representing each treatment combination. Columns were irrigated at 1 cm day−1 for 24 days, …

Environmental Dna For Endangered Freshwater Mussel Monitoring: A Review On Global Synthesis Of Edna Methods, Challenges, And Innovative Strategies, Mizanur Rahman, Md. Saydur Rahman, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Freshwater mussels (family Unionidae) are among the most endangered aquatic species worldwide, making effective monitoring vital for their conservation. Traditional surveys are laborious, time-consuming, and often miss rare or low-density populations. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a highly sensitive, non-invasive approach for freshwater mussel detection and monitoring; however, uncertainties in ecological interpretation continue to limit its broader application in freshwater biodiversity monitoring. We conducted a systematic review of 49 peer-reviewed studies, identified through an extensive literature search, to assess temporal research trends, methodological advancements, ecological contexts, and regulatory readiness of freshwater mussel eDNA monitoring. Findings show that freshwater mussel eDNA research …

Using A Cell Flux Model To Investigate Phytoplankton Growth And Macromolecular Allocation Under Iron Limitation, Margaret Bernish, Meng Gao, Jongsun Kim, Benoit Pasquier

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Global biogeochemical models are powerful tools used to interpret observations and empirical data, create hypotheses, and make predictions. Many of these models, however, represent marine microbes as static stoichiometric reactions that convert nutrients into biomass. To better constrain the biological processes that control nutrient cycling in the global ocean, we extend the Cell Flux Model of Phytoplankton to explore the impact of dissolved iron concentration on the allocation of macromolecules and elemental ratios within phytoplankton cells. This model is supported by data obtained from a range of incubation experiments conducted with phytoplankton of varying species and size categories. Model output …

Synergistic Effects Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi And Foliar Nitrogen–Phosphorus Application On Maize Productivity Under Irrigated And Rainfed Conditions, Mst. Lailatul Ferdows, Saima Biswas, Mizanur Rahman, F. M.Jamil Uddin, Md. Nayan, Aporna Tabassum Api, Mohaiminul Islam, Nadia Islam, Swapan Kumar Paul, Md. Harun Rashid

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

A field experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory of Bangladesh Agricultural University to evaluate the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and foliar supplementation of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) on the performance of maize (Zea mays L.) under irrigated and rainfed conditions. The experiment followed a randomised complete block design with two levels of AMF (inoculated and non-inoculated) and four foliar treatments (no N and P, N only, P only, and combined N + P). The recommended dose of fertiliser (RDF) was applied as a soil application to all treatments. AMF inoculation significantly increased grain yield …

Farm Workers And The Structural Basis Of Climate Change Perceptions, Cody Mortell, Anna Erwin, Zhao Ma, Dongkyu Kim, Elizabeth Rodriquez, Marla Perez-Lugo

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Farm workers are particularly vulnerable to climate change, especially from extreme heat; however, little is known about how they perceive this risk. This study examines climate change perceptions (CCP) among 404 farm workers surveyed in person in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas from April to May 2024. Guided by Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, we conducted a latent class analysis of economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital indicators to identify distinct class profiles. We then assessed CCP by latent profile, using two primary outcome variables: (1) perceived temperature trends in the region (assessed alongside NOAA data) and (2) perceived …

An Emergent Seafood Nationalism Takes Hold In The United States, Owen Temby

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper introduces the concept of ‘seafood nationalism’ to describe how, since 2024–2025, the United States increasingly uses tariffs, trade remedies, food safety enforcement and origin-based rules to favour American seafood over foreign products. Federal actions include Executive Order 14276, Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness, which directs agencies to address unfair trade practices, unsafe imports and to develop a coordinated seafood trade strategy. Additional measures include a tariff package imposing a 10% duty on nearly all seafood imports and 30% on seafood from China, as well as new anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on warm-water shrimp. This paper presents Gulf …

Editorial: Plant Responses To Abiotic Stress: Unraveling Complex Mechanisms Through Genomics And Physiology, Mizanur Rahman, Takashi Asaeda, Md Harun Rashid

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Examining The Relationship Between Civic Agriculture Participation And Civic Engagement In South Texas, Allison Kaika, Dongkyu Kim, William Donner, Alexis Racelis, Owen Temby

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Civic agriculture is often credited with strengthening democratic life by encouraging civic and political engagement, yet this claim has scarcely been tested in socioeconomically marginalized regions. Using original survey data collected through a combination of random and purposive sampling, this study assesses that relationship in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, a majority-Hispanic agricultural region marked by high poverty and low civic participation. Phone and online surveys were administered in English and Spanish to reach both the general population and individuals involved in civic agriculture initiatives, yielding over 400 responses. We examine whether civic agriculture participation predicts greater community …

Agrivoltaic Shading Reduces Soil Greenhouse Gas Fluxes In A Semi-Arid Vineyard, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, Rafael M. Almeida, Carine Cocco, Engil Pereira

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Agrivoltaic systems are expanding in semi-arid regions, raising questions about how panel driven shading alters soil greenhouse gas exchange. We used automated chambers to measure high frequency soil CO2, N2O, and CH4 fluxes in a newly established vineyard agrivoltaic system in Texas across three shading intensities (0%, 35%, 88%) that represent the light environment beneath panels as shaped by panel tilt and solar trajectory. Shading primarily cooled the soil, reducing mean soil temperature from 35.9 °C (0%) to 32.5 °C (35%) and 30.5 °C (88%), while mean soil water content shifted modestly (0.125, 0.106, and 0.130 m3 m−3, respectively). Over …

Comparison Of Fish Biomass And Fish Carbon Content Associated With Reef Sites At The Rio Grande Valley Artificial Reef In The Gulf Of Mexico, Allison K. White, Md Saydur Rahman, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

As global fisheries stocks have decreased due to overfishing and climate change, artificial reefs have gained significant attention. In addition to providing or restoring habitat, artificial reefs may serve as carbon capture sinks and potential climate mitigation strategies. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Reef is an artificial reef located in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas. The RGV Reef area spans 1,650 acres and is comprised of hundreds of groupings of recycled and pre-formed materials ranging from low relief (1–2 ft) to high relief (8–30 ft) reef structures. This reef provides a variety of novel habitat …

Do Cover Crops Influence Beneficial And Herbivorous Arthropod Communities Across Growing Seasons?, Adegboyega Fajemisin, Satinderpal Kaur, Alejandro Vasquez, Alexis Racelis, Rupesh R. Kariyat

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Cover crops provide multiple ecosystem services in agriculture, yet their influence on arthropod communities remains poorly understood, especially in commercial farming. Despite their potential benefits, it remains unexplored how cover crops affect arthropod community dynamics across multiple growing seasons. We conducted a two-year study across three commercial farms in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, to examine how cover crops influence arthropod community composition and abundance, whether beneficial arthropods (natural enemies and pollinators) persist into cash-crop phases, and how cover crops affect natural enemy–herbivore relationships. We compared arthropod communities between cover-crop treatments and control plots and tracked responses through subsequent …

Landscape Connectivity And Wildlife Access To Water Across An International Border: Barriers And Opportunities For Facilitating Transboundary Movement, Bogdan Chivoiu, Erin L. Koen, Michael J. Osland, Christopher A. Gabler, Jerald T. Garrett, Ernesto Reyes, Stephanie A. Bilodeau, Mitch A. Sternberg, Jude A. Benavides, James Martinez

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Rapid global acceleration in the construction of physical barriers along international borders has greatly influenced biodiversity and animal movement. Physical barriers can fragment landscapes, hinder access to essential resources, impact long-distance migrations, and inhibit dispersal and gene flow. The effects of physical barriers on animal movement and landscape connectivity can be exacerbated in dryland environments where access to water is a limiting factor. In recent decades, the construction of border barrier infrastructure has accelerated along the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. Here, we used a landscape connectivity model to investigate the effects of barriers on wildlife access …

Low Methane Emissions From Nutrient-Rich Former River Channels In A Hydrologically Managed Dryland Delta, Siena Stassi, Jude A. Benavides, Chu-Lin Cheng, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, Nicholas E. Ray, Nathan O. Barros, Rafael M. Almeida

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic stresses in dryland regions can alter hydrology, salinization, and biogeochemical processes. How these pressures influence methane (CH4) cycling and emissions from aquatic ecosystems remains poorly understood. Over the course of 1 year, we measured diffusive and ebullitive CH4 emissions from resacas—shallow, hydrologically managed distributary channels prevalent throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley along the US–Mexico border. Despite warm, nutrient-rich waters, CH4 emissions from resacas were low, and more comparable to rates observed in estuarine systems. CH4 fluxes were positively related to temperature but negatively related to salinity and rainfall. Elevated salinity, driven by evaporation and source water from the …

Ecological Insights And Management Implications Of The Global Migratory Connectivity Of Green Turtles, Jaime Restrepo, Dina Nisthar, Harris Wei-Khang Heng, Lily K. Bentley, Corrie Curtice, Sarah Deland, Ei Fujioka, Patrick N. Halpin, Sarah K. Poulin, Roldán A. Valverde

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Aim

Green turtles are a widely distributed and highly migratory species; despite extensive data on their movement, there is no species-specific global synthesis on the subject. Based on three decades of published literature and building on previous global analyses, we developed a global network model of migratory connectivity for green turtles to better understand their spatial biology.

Location

Global.

Time Period

1990–2022.

Major Taxa Studied

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas).

Methods

We conducted a structured literature review extracting georeferenced information on the movement of green turtles from 1990 to 2022, aggregating this information into a single connectivity model, …

Apparent Hack’S Law In River Deltas, Tian Y. Dong, Lawrence Vulis, Hongbo Ma, Alejandro Tejedor, Timothy A. Goudge

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

River deltas are densely populated, ecologically vital landscapes threatened by rising sea levels. Distributary channel networks disperse sediment to build deltaic land, yet the relationship between the network organization and land building remains elusive. Inspired by Hack’s law, which shows that watershed drainage area scales with channel length in tributary networks, we analyzed a global dataset of distributary networks and found a nearly identical scaling relationship between distributary channel length and nourishment area, the land-building counterpart to drainage area. Despite this apparent global scaling, we further identified two distinct local land-building patterns: uniform delta networks consistently follow Hack’s law, whereas …

Geospatial Assessment Of Agrivoltaic Opportunities And Land Use Requirements In Nigeria, Ifeoluwa Ezekiel Babarinde, Bashir Salisu, Jude A. Benavides, Engil Pereira, Steven M. Grodsky, Rafael M. Almeida

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Agrivoltaics, the co-location of agriculture and solar photovoltaic (PV) infrastructure, can deliver co-benefits like reduced plant drought stress and improved yields of shade-tolerant crops, particularly in water-scarce regions. Despite growing global interest, the technical potential and opportunities for agrivoltaics remain poorly understood in many regions facing both food and energy insecurity, such as sub-Saharan Africa. Here we provide a spatial assessment of agrivoltaic opportunities in Nigeria by integrating cropland distribution, solar resources, and water stress. We find that northern states—where cropland is abundant and water-stressed, solar irradiance is high, and electricity access remains low—offer the greatest potential for agrivoltaic systems …