Earth Sciences Commons^™

Biogeochemical Stoichiometry Of Antarctic Dry Valley Ecosystems, John E. Barrett, Ross A. Virginia, W. Berry Lyons, Diane M. Mcknight, John Charles Priscu, Peter T. Doran, Andrew G. Fountain, Diana H. Wall, D. L. Moorhead

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Among aquatic and terrestrial landscapes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, ecosystem stoichiometry ranges from values near the Redfield ratios for C:N:P to nutrient concentrations in proportions far above or below ratios necessary to support balanced microbial growth. This polar desert provides an opportunity to evaluate stoichiometric approaches to understand nutrient cycling in an ecosystem where biological diversity and activity are low, and controls over the movement and mass balances of nutrients operate over 10–10⁶ years. The simple organisms (microbial and metazoan) comprising dry valley foodwebs adhere to strict biochemical requirements in the composition of their biomass, and when activated …

The Art And Science Of Weed Mapping, David T. Barnett, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Geneva W. Chong, Jenny A. Ericson, Tracy R. Davern, Sara E. Simonson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Land managers need cost-effective and informative tools for non-native plant species management. Many local, state, and federal agencies adopted mapping systems designed to collect comparable data for the early detection and monitoring of non-native species. We compared mapping information to statistically rigorous, plot-based methods to better understand the benefits and compatibility of the two techniques. Mapping non-native species locations provided a species list, associated species distributions, and infested area for subjectively selected survey sites. The value of this information may be compromised by crude estimates of cover and incomplete or biased estimations of species distributions. Incorporating plot-based assessments guided by …

Kerr-Mcgee's Bonanza Area Environmental Assessment And Biological Assessment, U.S. Department Of The Interior, Bureau Of Land Management

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Receiver Aperture Design And Telescope Properties On Lidar Signal-To-Noise Ratio Improvements, Yasser Hassebo, Khaled El Sayed

Publications and Research

Range and sensitivities of lidar measurements in daylight are limited by sky background noise power (BGP). This is particularly important for Raman lidar techniques where the Raman backscattered signal is relatively weak. This often restricts Raman lidar measurements to nighttime where BGP is absent. The background noise elimination is particularly important in daytime measurements in case where full overlap between laser beam and receiver telescope field-of-view (FOV) is necessary. Results of numerical simulations for a vertically pointing Lidar show that significant improvements in Lidar signal to noise ratio (SNR) can be obtained, by minimizing the detected sky BGP. This can …

Stratification Of Southern Georgia Streams For Rapid Bioassessment Focusing On Differences In Structure And Function Of Black Water And Clear Water Streams, Salini Pradeep Pillai

Theses and Dissertations

As part of a rapid bioassessment project for the state of Georgia, relatively unimpaired reference streams and impaired sites were sampled for biological, chemical and physical parameters, and macroinvertebrates were identified. The metrics, biological, physical and chemical metrics, were selected using Ecological Data Application System Version 3.3.2k (EDAS). Discrimination efficiency and correlations were performed to determine the best metrics that separated impaired streams from reference streams and later on to form the index of stream water quality. Principal components analysis of the selected metrics showed that some of the blackwater reference streams and clearwater reference streams are randomly placed over …

Basic Research Needs For Geosciences: Facilitating 21st Century Energy Systems, U.S. Department Of Energy, Office Of Basic Energy Sciences, Donald J. Depaolo, Franklin M. Orr Jr.

Publications (YM)

Executive Summary

Serious challenges must be faced in this century as the world seeks to meet global energy needs and at the same time reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Even with a growing energy supply from alternative sources, fossil carbon resources will remain in heavy use and will generate large volumes of carbon dioxide (CO₂). To reduce the atmospheric impact of this fossil energy use, it is necessary to capture and sequester a substantial fraction of the produced CO₂. Subsurface geologic formations offer a potential location for long-term storage of the requisite large …

Cosmogenic 10be And 36cl Ages From Late Pleistocene Terminal Moraine Complexes In The Taylor River Drainage Basin, Central Colorado, U.S.A., Keith A. Brugger

Geology Publications

Cosmogenic surface-exposure ages from boulders on a terminal moraine complex establish the timing of the local last glacial maximum (LGM) in the Taylor River drainage basin, central Colorado. Five zero-erosion ¹⁰Be ages have a mean of 19.5±1.8 ka while that for three ³⁶Cl ages is 20.7±2.3 ka. Corrections for modest rates (∼1 mm ka⁻¹) of boulder surface erosion result in individual and mean ages that are generally within 2% of their zero-erosion values. Both the means and the range in ages of individual boulders are consistent with those reported for late Pleistocene moraines elsewhere in the …

Extinction Pattern Of Reef Ecosystems In Latest Permian, Yasheng Wu, Jiasong Fan, Hongxia Jiang, Wan Yang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Studies of two Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) sections on top of a Changhsingian reef in Ziyun, Guizhou Province, southwestern China indicate that the end-Permian mass extinction of reef ecosystems occurred in two steps. The first step is the extinction of all stenotropic organisms such as calcisponges and fusulinids in the latest Permian (in the Clarkina yini conodont zone). The biota after the first extinction is simple, comprising eurytropic organisms including microgastropods, ostracods, and some small burrowing organisms, or only algal mats. At the beginning of the Early Triassic (i.e. the beginning of the Hindeodus parvus zone), the environments became anoxic, and …

Percussive Penetration Of Unconsolidated Granular Media In A Laboratory Setting, Leslie S. Gertsch

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This controlled study examined the feasibility of a simple percussive approach to drilling through unconsolidated regolith deposits on Mars. The experiments showed that the approach is feasible at the low power levels and low confining pressures used, and that the rate of impact is more important to the penetration rate than is the mass of the impactor (hammer). More massive impactors tend to lower energy efficiency, as they do in terrestrial pile-driving. Unexpectedly, penetration plotted against applied energy tends to cluster into parallel linear trends. Within a given cluster, penetration is very sensitive to applied energy, while between clusters, the …

Evaluating Climatic And Non-Climatic Influences On Ion Chemistry In Natural And Man-Made Lakes Of Nebraska, Usa, D. M. Bennett, Sherilyn C. Fritz, John C. Holz, Aris A. Holz, Vitaly A. Zlotnik

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Conductivity and major ion chemistry data were analyzed for a suite of Nebraska (USA) natural lakes, reservoirs, sand pits, and barrow pits to evaluate the magnitude of climatic versus non-climatic influence on ionic concentration and composition. In both natural lakes and sand and barrow pits, conductivity is positively related to longitude and reflects decreasing effective moisture from east to west. Reservoirs showed no relationship between lake conductivity and location, probably because the reservoirs are very strongly influenced by groundwater and surface water inflow and have shorter residence times relative to the other lake types. At smaller spatial scales, conductivity among …

Peptidomic Analysis Of Skin Secretions Supports Separate Species Status For The Tailed Frogs, Ascaphus Truei And Ascaphus Montanus, J. Michael Conlon, Catherine R. Bevier, Laurent Coquet, Jérôme Leprince, Thierry Jouenne, Hubert Vaudry, Blake R. Hossack

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The tailed frog Ascaphus truei Stejneger, 1899 is the most primitive extant anuran and the sister taxon to the clade of all other living frogs. The species occupies two disjunct ranges in the Northwest region of North America: the Cascade Mountains and coastal area from British Columbia to Northern California, and an inland range in the northern Rocky Mountains and the Blue andWallowa mountains. A previous study led to the isolation of eight peptides with antimicrobial activity (termed the ascaphins) from skin secretions of A. truei from the coastal range. The present study has used peptidomic analysis to identify the …

Banda Forearc Metamorphic Rocks Accreted To The Australian Continental Margin: Detailed Analysis Of The Lolotoi Complex Of East Timor, Carl Eldon Standley

Theses and Dissertations

Petrologic, structural and age investigations of the Lolotoi Complex of East Timor indicate that it is part of a group of thin metamorphic klippen found throughout the region that were detached from the Banda forearc and accreted to the NW Australian continental margin during Late Miocene to Present arc-continent collision. Metamorphic rock types are dominated by (in order of greatest to least abundance), greenschist, graphitic phyllite, quartz-mica schist, amphibolite and pelitic schist. Mineral, whole rock, and trace element geochemical analyses of metabasites indicate that protolith compositions are consistent with tholeiitic basalt and basaltic andesite with mixed MORB and oceanic arc …

Do Loading Path And Specimen Thickness Affect The Brittle Compressive Failure Of Ice?, A. L. Fortt, E. M. Schulson

Dartmouth Scholarship

Compressive experiments were performed on square (160 mm × 160 mm) prismatic specimens of columnar-grained, S2 freshwater ice, biaxially loaded across the columns at −10°C. The work focused on brittle behavior, achieved by deforming the specimens at an applied strain rate of 4.5 ± 1.2 × 10 3s 1 in the direction of shortening. The results show that the specimen thickness (25–150 mm) has no detectable effect on the terminal failure strength of the ice. Likewise, the strength of the ice when loaded under proportional loading, where the minor stress varies during the test, was similar to that when loaded …

Electrochemical Oxidation For Landfill Leachate Treatment, Yang Deng, James D. Englehardt

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper aims at providing an overview of electrochemical oxidation processes used for treatment of landfill leachate. The typical characteristics of landfill leachate are briefly reviewed, and the reactor designs used for electro-oxidation of leachate are summarized. Electrochemical oxidation can significantly reduce concentrations of organic contaminants, ammonia, and color in leachate. Pretreatment methods, anode materials, pH, current density, chloride concentration, and other additional electrolytes can considerably influence performance. Although high energy consumption and potential chlorinated organics formation may limit its application, electrochemical oxidation is a promising and powerful technology for treatment of landfill leachate.

Geodetic Monitoring Of The Yucca Mountain Region Using Continuous Gps Measurements, Geoff Blewitt, Jonathan Price, Nevada Geodetic Laboratory, Nevada Bureau Of Mines & Geology

Publications (YM)

What Task 3 is About:

Monitor current crustal deformation at YM
– In the broader tectonic context of the NA-Pacific plate boundary
– In the regional context of the East California Shear Zone (ECSZ)
– In the geological context of specific fault activity
– Vertical motion associated with geophysical fluids

Using geodetic methods
– GPS – mature, proven
track the 3-D point-positions of 47 stations with < 1 mm precision
– InSAR – new, experimental
regional map of displacement along the line-of-sight (accuracy??)
proven capability: (1) co-seismic deformation; (2) local instabilities

Longbase Laser Strainmeter Measurements At Yucca Mountain, James N. Brune

Publications (YM)

Why Operate a Strainmeter?

To monitor strain over a broader bandwidth and with much higher sensitivity than GPS (or other instruments):
– Measure strain from seismic, earth-tide, temperature and air pressure inputs--gives local rock properties, and changes in them.
– Independently constrains GPS results.

To directly measure in the Yucca Mountain Block:
– Sensitive to potential very local tectonic events, (including any triggered slip), or volcanic events.

To establish a baseline for future strain changes:
– E.g., events developing from loading and heating of the repository

Southern Great Basin Seismic Network Operations, John G. Anderson, Glenn Biasi, Ken Smith, Nevada Seismological Laboratory, University Of Nevada, Reno

Publications (YM)

Subtasks

1. Record and archive data from the permanent seismic network.
2. Process seismic data into a preliminary earthquake bulletin.
3. Maintain the seismic stations, the strong-motion stations, the telemetry network, and the computing lab.
4. Prepare and submit a seismicity report on a yearly basis
5. Maintain and collect data from 3 north-portal boreholes.
6. Report on borehole accelerometers.
7. Estimate Kappa at network stations.
8. Implement a recording system at borehole UZ16.
9. Prepare and submit high-quality papers to peer-reviewed journals on seismic data and interpretations in the YM region.
10. Perform a multi-year telemetry and station upgrade.

Extreme Ground Motion Studies, James N. Brune, John G. Anderson

Publications (YM)

Subtasks: 1. Constraints on Yucca Mountain extreme ground motion based on precariously balanced rocks, unstable precipitous cliffs, and un-fractured sandstone along the San Andreas fault. 2. Prepare summary report on large recorded ground motions.

Influence Of Lithophysae Geometry On Mechanical Properties Of Hydro-Stone®, Moses Karakouzian, Doug Rigby

Publications (YM)

85 percent of YM drift tunnels will be constructed in lithophysal volcanic tuff. Rock behavior depends on porosity. Limited experimental data exists to characterize rock porosity and dependencies on properties such as σc , E, and n.

Return To The Wild: Translocation As A Tool In Conservation Of The Desert Tortoise (Gopherus Agassizii), Kimberleigh J. Field, C. Richard Tracy, Philip A. Medica, Ronald W. Marlow, Paul Stephen Corn

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Translocation could be used as a tool in conservation of the threatened Mojave Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) by moving individuals from harm’s way and into areas where they could contribute to conservation of the species. Numerous factors may affect the success of translocations, including the conditions experienced by tortoises in holding facilities while awaiting translocation. The tortoises available for our translocation study had been provided supplemental water during their years spent in a captive holding facility, potentially inducing carelessness in water conservation. In addition to generally investigating the efficacy of translocation, we compared the effects of continuing with …

Co2-Forced Climate And Vegetation Instability During Late Paleozoic Deglaciation, Isabel P. Montañez, Neil J. Tabor, Deb Niemeier, William A. Dimichele, Tracy D. Frank, Christopher R. Fielding, John L. Isbell, Lauren P. Birgenheier, Michael C. Rygel

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The late Paleozoic deglaciation is the vegetated Earth’s only recorded icehouse-to-greenhouse transition, yet the climate dynamics remain enigmatic. By using the stable isotopic compositions of soil-formed minerals, fossil-plant matter, and shallow-water brachiopods, we estimated atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂) and tropical marine surface temperatures during this climate transition. Comparison to southern Gondwanan glacial records documents covariance between inferred shifts in pCO₂, temperature, and ice volume consistent with greenhouse gas forcing of climate. Major restructuring of paleotropical flora in western Euramerica occurred in step with climate and pCO₂ shifts, illustrating the biotic impact associated …

Evolution Of The Southern Kenya Rift From Miocene To Present With A Focus On The Magadi Area, Alexandria L. Guth

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The Kenya (a.k.a., Gregory) Rift is a geologically active area located within the eastern branch of the larger East African Rift System (EARS). The study area is located in the southern Kenya Rift between 1° South and the Kenya-Tanzania border (covering approximately 1.5 square degrees, semi-centered on Lake Magadi) and is predominantly filled with extrusive igneous rocks (mostly basalts, phonolites and trachytes) of Miocene age or younger. Sediments are thin, less than 1.5Ma, and are confined to small grabens. The EARS can serve both as an analogue for ancient continental rifting and as a modern laboratory to observe the geologic …

Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions From Cave Sediments Of The Moravian Karst, Czech Republic / By Pavel Sroubek., Pavel Sroubek

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This thesis presents a paleoclimatic/paleoenvironmental study conducted on clastic cave sediments of the Moravian Karst, Czech Republic. The study is based on environmental magnetic techniques, yet a wide range of other scientific methods was used to obtain a clearer picture of the Quaternary climate. My thesis also presents an overview of the significance of cave deposits for paleoclimatic reconstructions, explains basic environmental magnetic techniques and offers background information on the study area – a famous karst region in Central Europe with a rich history.

In Kulna Cave magnetic susceptibility variations and in particular variations in pedogenic susceptibility yield a detailed …

Effect Of Avail® Polymer Applied To Phosphorus Fertilizers On Dry Matter Production And P Uptake Of Fescue At Princeton, Ky, Lloyd W. Murdock, John James Olson, Gene Olson

Soil Science News and Views

A study was conducted near Princeton, KY to determine if a polymer (AVAIL^®) applied to diammonium phosphate (DAP, 18- 46-0) and mono ammonium phosphate (MAP, 11-52-0) would increase (P) phosphorus use efficiency in fescue production on a low P testing soil, when compared to an untreated phosphate fertilizer. AVAIL^® (Specialty Fertilizer Products, Belton, MO) is presently being sold in Kentucky as a product to improve phosphorus fertilizer efficiency.

Storage Of Captured Anthropogenic Co2 In Ocean Sediment, Kurt Zenz House

Link Foundation Energy Fellowship Reports

An essential problem of CO2 capture and storage technologies is finding sufficiently large geologic depositories to store the captured anthropogenic CO2. Additionally, due to the subsurface temperature profile of terrestrial storage sites, CO2 stored in these reservoirs is buoyant. As a result, a portion of the injected CO2 can escape if the reservoir is not appropriately sealed. In addition, CO2 capture with geologic storage can only serve to limit the rate of rise of CO2 concentrations. To decrease the concentration of atmospheric CO2, processes must be developed to remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere. The central objective of this Link …

Pollution Status Of Tinishu Akaki River And Its Tributaries (Ethiopia) Evaluated Using Physicochemical Parameters, Major Ions, And Nutrients, Samuel Abegaz

Faculty Bibliography

The present investigation provides data on physico-chemical parameters, some major ions and nutrients on water samples of Tinishu Akaki River (TAR), Ethiopia. The pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3- , SO42-, NO3- , NO2- , PO43-, Cland NH3 have been determined to asses the chemical status and pollution levels of the TAR and its tributaries. The values of certain parameters have been evaluated with respect to the acceptable standard limits for drinking and surface water to indicate the pollution level of the TAR. Increasing …

Volcanic Arc Emplacement Onto The Southernmost Appalachian Laurentian Shelf: Characteristics And Constraints., Clinton Barineau

Faculty Bibliography

In the southernmost Appalachians, the Hillabee Greenstone, an Ordovician volcanic arc fragment, lies directly atop the outermost Laurentian Devonian–earliest Mississippian(?) shelf sequence at the structural top of the greenschist facies Talladega belt, the frontal metamorphic allochthon along this orogenic segment. The Hillabee Greenstone was emplaced between latest Devonian and middle Mississippian time. It and the uppermost Laurentian section were later repeated together within a series of map-scale imbricate slices of a postmetamorphic, dextral, transpressional, Alleghanian thrust duplex system that placed the high-grade eastern Blue Ridge allochthon atop the Talladega belt. Geochemical and geochronologic (U-Pb zircon) studies indicate that the Hillabee …

Guide To Participation For The Andrill Southern Mcmurdo Sound Project, Andrill Science Management Office, Mcmurdo-Andrill Science Implementation Committee

ANDRILL Project Information

Purpose of This Document

This document is a guide to participation for Science Team members involved in the Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) Project of the ANDRILL Program. The document provides the following information: 1) Overview of the ANtarctic geologic DRILLing (ANDRILL) Program; 2) Overview of expected individual involvement in and commitment to the SMS Project; and 3) Logistical information most relevant to onice participants. Information provided in this document will be supplemented by the publication of the SMS Science and Logistics Implementation Plan (SLIP).The SLIP will be available to all SMS ANDRILL participants prior to commencement of drilling.

The reader …

Atmospheric Smog Modeling, Using Eos Satellite Aster Image Sensor, With Feature Extraction For Pattern Recognition Techniques And Its Correlation With In-Situ Ground Sensor Data, Parthasarathi Roy

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Atmospheric pollution was previously considered as a 'Brown Cloud’ phenomenon restricted to industrialized urban regions. Studies in field stations and satellite observations made since the last decade revealed that it now spans continents and ocean basins world wide. The objective of this research investigation is to assess atmospheric pollutants in the troposphere and their spectral characteristic signatures by using highspectral and spatial resolution Earth Observation System (EOS) satellite imaging sensor Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data and to find correlations with ground sensor observations. Ground sensor data are imported into a geodatabase for spatial reference. Raw ASTER …

Satellite Image Processing For Biodiversity Conservation And Environmental Modeling In Kyrgyz Republic National Park, Galina N. Fet

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

There is a need for extensive surveys of living organisms at a global scale; digital data exchange and storage is an essential part of such studies. Biodiversity inventory of fungi, which play an essential role in the health of the mountainous conifer forests of a developing country – Kyrgyz Republic, was linked to the vegetation classification produced from the high-resolution satellite imagery. Terra ASTER and SRTM90 imagery was used as a base map for the ecosystem modeling of the species and habitat distribution and for the three-dimensional representation, especially valuable for the mountainous landscapes of the Ala Archa National Park. …