Earth Sciences Commons^™

Assessing Potential Winter Weather Response To Climate Change And Implications For Tourism In The U.S. Great Lakes And Midwest, Natalie Chin, Kyuhun Byun, Alan F. Hamlet, Keith A. Cherkauer

School of Agricultural & Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Study Region: Eight U.S. states bordering the North American Laurentian Great Lakes.

Study Focus: Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model simulations, based on data from an en- semble of atmospheric-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) used for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC's) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), were used to quantify potential climate change impacts on winter weather and hydrology in the study re- gion and understand implications for its tourism sector.

New Hydrologic Insights for the Region: By the 2080s, climate change could result in winters that are shorter by over a month, reductions of over a month in days …

Rock Glaciers Of The Contiguous United States: Spatial Distribution, Cryospheric Context, And Riparian Vegetation, Gunnar Forrest Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Continental-scale inventories of glaciers are available, but no analogous rock glacier inventories exist. We present the Portland State University Rock Glacier Inventory (n = 10,343) for the contiguous United States, then compare it to an existing inventory of contiguous United States glaciers (n = 853), identifying geographic and climatic factors affecting the spatial distributions observed. At least one rock glacier is identified in each of the 11 westernmost states, but nearly 90% are found in just five; Colorado (n = 3889), Idaho (n = 1723), Montana (n = 1780), Utah (n = 834), and Wyoming (n = 849). Glaciers are …

Visualization Of Geospatial Data As An Analytical And Educational Tool, Richard A. Vu

STAR Program Research Presentations

World Wind is an open-source API developed for Java, Android, and browsers that is designed to visualize and interact with geospatial data. The Web World Wind client is composed of four major components: the HTML template, the globe, geospatial features, and application features. The template was implemented using Bootstrap and hosts the globe provided by World Wind. This globe draws its data from multiple imagery sources, including the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service and Web Map Tile Service. This enables the application to perform and visualize complex calculations with multiple types of data such as weather and terrain. …

Breakpoint Analysis Of Modis Vegetarian Cover Change In Southern California Deserts, Rebecca Baiman

STAR Program Research Presentations

This study applies time series breakpoint analysis to look at Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data of southern California. Past studies have looked at this desert land using Landsat data in order to analyze any changes the environment has gone through due to renewable energy development or other factors. This study develops a method for utilizing structural change models to study the DRECP land area. Focusing on breakpoints, this study found that most positive breakpoints represented years with high rainfall. Additionally, sandy washes with little vegetation did not yield any breakpoint between 2000 and 2018. This study can be used …

Geophysical Assessment Of Subsurface Soil Conditions Using Capacitively Coupled Resistivity, Folaseye Coker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Capacitively-Coupled Resistivity (CCR) as an improvement on traditional drilling and sampling methods for subsurface soil investigations. The CCR method could be used to identify critical locations for drilling and sampling such as expansive clay layers and anomalies (sinkholes, unknown landfills, etc.) rather than uniformly sampling across a site. CCR surveys were performed at Alpena, Arkansas along a highway expansion project changing US 62 from a two lane to four lane highway, and at Alton, Illinois along the Mel Price Levee, a 5.2 mile levee along a portion of the …

Proposed Astm Standard For The Stokoe-Type Resonant Column Torsional Shear Device, Anh Tuan Tran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resonant Column Torsional Shear (RCTS) testing has become one of the most commonly used methods for determining laboratory soil stiffness and soil damping. The RCTS test has been accepted and is commonly utilized during the permitting of new nuclear facilities. However, there is still no available public standard for performing RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type device. Therefore, an ASTM standard for calibration and performance of RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type RCTS device is presented herein. Data collected using the Stokoe-type RCTS devices at the University of Arkansas (UofA) and at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) also aided in the development …

Linking Petrophysical And Geomechanical Characterization To Production Behavior In The Haynesville Shale, Silas O'Silas

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

In recent years, the Haynesville shale has become a target for natural gas exploitation, especially with the advent of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Located in East Texas and Northwest Louisiana, it is believed to be one of the largest producing natural gas plays in the U.S., with estimated recoverable reserves of around 75 TCF according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA, 2011). Current total daily production for the entire play is around 5.4 Bcf/d. The economic potential of the Haynesville shale gas play is propelled by recent gradual rebounds in natural gas prices, increased industrial utilization of gas, and …

Universities Shaken By Earthquakes A Comparison Of Faculty And Student Experiences In Nepal And New Zealand, Rajendra Joshi, Jooyoung Kong, Heidi Nykamp, Herb Fynewever

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

The authors compare the experiences of faculty and students at universities in Nepal and New Zealand following earthquakes in 2015 and 2011, respectively. Questionnaire data from students at Kathmandu University are analyzed and compared with previously published data from the University of Canterbury. Prominent themes are developed within the context of the cultural and socioeconomic differences between the two settings. Both similarities and contrasts are described, detailing scheduling changes, the role of students in their community’s response to natural disaster, flexibility of faculty, psychological trauma and treatment, and use of online-learning as a substitute for classroom learning. Lessons learned from …

Analysis Of The Parkway Drive Landslide, North Salt Lake, Ut, Brianna V. Hill

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

On August 5^th, 2014, a hillside failed behind a North Salt Lake City, UT neighborhood threatening several homes. Aerial Photography, Digital Elevation Models (DEM), geochemistry, rain gage and seismic data were used to test the influence of contributing factors in this landslide failure. Aerial photographs available from 1993 to present were examined for signs of tension cracks suggesting impending ground motion, as well as documentation of human modification along the hillslope. Repeat DEM analysis of elevation and slope of the hillside before and after the slide were examined to characterize the pre-failure hillslope and subsequent landslide. Geochemical analyses …

Geomorphology Of Icy Debris Fans: Delivery Of Ice And Sediment To Valley Glaciers Decoupled From Icecaps, R. Craig Kochel, Jeffrey M. Trop, Robert W. Jacob

Faculty Journal Articles

The pace and volume of mass flow processes contributing ice and sediment to icy debris fans (IDFs) were documented at sites in Alaska and New Zealand by integrating field observations, drone and time-lapse imagery, ground penetrating radar, and terrestrial laser scanning. Largely unstudied, IDFs are supraglacial landforms at the mouths of bedrock catchments between valley glaciers and icecaps. Time-lapse imagery recorded 300–2300 events reaching 15 fans during intervals from nine months to two years. Field observations noted hundreds of deposits trapped within catchments weekly that were later remobilized onto fans. Deposits were mapped on images taken three to four times …

Lake Regionalization And Diatom Metacommunity Structuring In Tropical South America, Xavier Benito, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Miriam Steinitz-Kannan, Maria I. Vélez, Michael M. Mcglue

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Lakes and their topological distribution across Earth's surface impose ecological and evolutionary constraints on aquatic metacommunities. In this study, we group similar lake ecosystems as metacommunity units influencing diatom community structure. We assembled a database of 195 lakes from the tropical Andes and adjacent lowlands (8°N–30°S and 58–79°W) with associated environmental predictors to examine diatom metacommunity patterns at two different levels: taxon and functional (deconstructed species matrix by ecological guilds). We also derived spatial variables that inherently assessed the relative role of dispersal. Using complementary multivariate statistical techniques (principal component analysis, cluster analysis, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, Procrustes, variance partitioning), we …

Seasonal Differences In Trace Element Concentrations And Distribution In Spartina Alterniflora Root Tissue, Huan Feng, Yu Qian, J. Kirk Cochran, Qingzhi Zhu, Christina Heilbrun, Li Li, Wen Hu, Hanfei Yan, Xiaojing Huang, Mingyuan Ge, Evgeny Nazareski, Yong S. Chu, Shinjae Yoo, Xuebin Zhang, Chang Jun Liu

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The present study uses nanometer-scale synchrotron X-ray nanofluorescence to investigate season differences in concentrations and distributions of major (Ca, K, S and P) and trace elements (As, Cr, Cu, Fe and Zn) in the root system of Spartina alterniflora collected from Jamaica Bay, New York, in April and September 2015. The root samples were cross-sectioned at a thickness of 10 μm. Selected areas in the root epidermis and endodermis were mapped with a sampling resolution of 100 and 200 nm, varying with the mapping areas. The results indicate that trace element concentrations in the epidermis and endodermis vary among the …

Vertical Structure Of Diurnal Englacial Hydrology Cycle At Helheim Glacier, East Greenland, Irena Vaňková, Denis Voytenko, Keith W. Nicholls, Surui Xie, Byron R. Parizek, David M. Holland

School of Geosciences Student Publications

The interior dynamics of Helheim Glacier were monitored using an autonomous phase‐sensitive radio‐echo sounder (ApRES) during two consecutive summers. The return signals from all observational sites exhibited strong non‐tidal, depth‐dependent diurnal variations. We show that these variations in the glacier interior can be explained by an englacial diurnal meltwater cycle: a data interpretation that assumes constant ice‐column composition through time leads to dynamical inconsistencies with concurrent observations from GPS and terrestrial radar. The observed diurnal meltwater cycle is spatially variable, both between different sites and in the vertical, consistent with the existence of a dense and complex englacial hydrologic network. …

Electron Backscatter Diffraction (Ebsd) Study Of Seven Heavily Metamorphosed Chondrites: Deformation Systematics And Variations In Pre-Shock Temperature And Post-Shock Annealing, Alexander M. Ruzicka, Richard C. Hugo

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We used electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) methods to study the crystallography of olivine and other minerals in seven heavily metamorphosed (petrographic type 6 or 6/7) but variably shocked ordinary chondrites from the H (Kernouvé, Portales Valley), L (Leedey, Bruderheim, Morrow County, Park) and LL (Miller Range (MIL) 99301) groups. MIL 99301 contains a large clast that was analyzed separately. Mesoscale (EBSD) data support and extend inferences based on microscale (TEM) observations and provide good evidence that chondrites were shock-deformed at different temperatures and were variably annealed (sintered) after deformation. Various EBSD deformation intensity metrics adequately and quantitatively represent olivine deformation …

Fracture Density And Brittleness Of The Mesozoic Formations Exposed On The Canadian Escarpment Of Eastern New Mexico, Scott Alexander Moore

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

Production of hydrocarbons from tight and unconventional reservoirs has become so prevalent, the need to understand rock fracture mechanics has become increasingly important. A specific research goal is the need to understand fracture density and brittleness and what can affect the two. Fracture density is defined as the fracture surface area per unit volume and is calculated from strain energies and material properties of the rocks. Brittleness has been defined as the fracture density at a particular strain state (Wickham et al., 2013).There are three goals for this study. One is to use the dimensionless geomechanical fracture density equation, (F_d …

Quantifying The Environmental Performance Of A Stream Habitat Improvement Project, Cody Morse

Master's Theses

River restoration projects are being installed worldwide to rehabilitate degraded river habitat. Many of these projects focus on stream habitat improvement (SHI), and an estimated 60%of the 37,000 projects listed in the National River Restoration Science Synthesis Program focus on SHI for salmon and trout species. These projects frequently lack a sufficient monitoring program or account for the environmental costs associated with SHI. The present study used life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques and topographic effectiveness monitoring to quantify environmental costs on the basis of geomorphic change. This methodology was a novel approach to assessing the cost-benefit relationship of SHI. To …

Middle Permian (Late Guadalupian) Back-Reef Carbonate Of Panther Canyon, Apache Mountains, Trans-Pecos Texas, Joshua Caleb Moore

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

In the Apache Mountains of West Texas, Middle Permian (Guadalupian) strata a portion of the Delaware Basin part of the Capitan Reef is well exposed in many canyons that cut through the northern escarpment in the eastern part of the mountains. In Panther Canyon, the massive part of the Capitan Reef is well exposed and overlain by a stratigraphic sequence of lagoonal carbonate deposits referred to the Yates and Tansill Formations. At the entrance to Panther Canyon, two sections of these stratified carbonate rocks have been measured and described: the PC7 section, 31.8 meters thick, with eight distinct packages and …

Convergent Evolution In The Euarchontoglires, Philip J.R. Morris, Samuel N.F. Cobb, Philip G. Cox

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Convergence—the independent evolution of similar phenotypes in distantly related clades—is a widespread and much-studied phenomenon. An often-cited, but hitherto untested, case of morphological convergence is that between the aye-aye and squirrels. The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a highly unusual lemuriform primate that has evolved a dentition similar to that of rodents: it possesses large, ever-growing incisors which it uses to strip the bark from trees in order to feed on wood-boring beetle larvae. Indeed, such is the similarity that some of the earliest classifications of the aye-aye placed it in the squirrel genus Sciurus. Here, we aimed …

The Geotraces Intermediate Data Product 2017, Conwaygeotraces, Tim M. Conway

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017 (IDP2017) is the second publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2016. The IDP2017 includes data from the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Southern and Indian oceans, with about twice the data volume of the previous IDP2014. For the first time, the IDP2017 contains data for a large suite of biogeochemical parameters as well as aerosol and rain data characterising atmospheric trace element and isotope (TEI) sources. The TEI data in the IDP2017 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results …

Cultural Conundrums In African Land Governance: Agribusiness In Sierra Leone, Fenda A. Akiwumi

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper deals with the disjuncture between recognition of the important role of culture in sustainable development discourse embedded in African regional and state policies and legal instruments and the reality of externally driven neoliberal land-based development agendas in African nations. Using postcolonial theoretical notions of identity, subalterns and representation, and the centuries-old African landlord-stranger institution as an important customary land management system operating at the local level, I explore some inherent conflicts between the landlord-stranger institution and state land governance. I interrogate this dilemma in the context of agribusiness development projects and land grabbing claims in Sierra Leone, West …

Boundary Spanners And Trust Development Between Stakeholders In Integrated Water Resource Management: A Mixed Methods Study, Jodi L. Delozier

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Natural resource issues are inherently complex, even more so are those that involve the management of water. Because watersheds tend to cross multiple jurisdictional and geographical boundaries, a diverse set of stakeholders are needed to develop appropriate and sustainable management policy. This research sheds light on the importance of boundary spanners assisting in the development of trust between stakeholders in integrated water resource management (IWRM). Previous literature has explored the advantages to boundary spanning leadership in business practice, emergency management, university and community management as well as fish and wildlife management, but has failed to address the area of integrated …

Distribution And Habitat Association Of The Northern Long-Eared Bat, Zachary A. Warren

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Because of white-nose syndrome, the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is experiencing rapid population declines across the majority of its range. This decline has prompted increased regulatory protection and thus an increased need for effective habitat management strategies. Insight into the species habitat associations, however, is a prior necessity to ensure management practices are biologically relevant. Understanding these relationships requires a holistic approach that addresses the multiple ways in which the species is interacting with its environment. The objective of my thesis was to address these relationships following a multi-scale approach that assessed the factors associated with roost …

A Comparison Of Vnir And Mir Spectroscopy For Predicting Various Soil Properties, Joshua R. Gates

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Soil plays an important role in our daily lives, namely producing food, cleaning water and storing carbon. The ability to rapidly and cost-effectively quantify the various components of soils can help us understand and better manage this important resource. This study aims to compare the ability of visible near-infrared (VNIR) spectroscopy and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy to quickly and accurately predict various important soil properties (electrical conductivity, soil pH, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable cations, phosphorus, carbon, beta-glucosidase enzyme activity and nitrogen). Prediction models were developed using partial least squares regression (PLSR) techniques. Three different calibration sampling methods were tested along with …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Calcareous Nannofossils Across A Late Oligocene Paleolatitude Transect Of The North Atlantic Ocean, William Barrett Clark

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Samples from ODP Sites 926, 628, 563, U1406, 647, and 918, were analyzed quantitatively across a paleolatitude transect of the North Atlantic Ocean to determine the paleolatitudinal distribution of calcareous nannofossils in the Late Oligocene and the effects of that distribution on biostratigraphic resolution. Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA), a Temperature index (TI), and the Shannon Diversity Index (H), were used to examine the paleoenvironmental gradients which exerted the most control over the distribution of species and their abundances. The temperature index correlates significantly to the first axis of the DCA, suggesting that thermal controls were the most important factor in …

Nutrient Transport And Storage In A Karst Spring-Reservoir System During Baseflow, Missouri Ozarks, Heather A. Moule

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Urban and agricultural land uses are important sources of nitrogen and phosphorus which, if in excess, can cause eutrophication in lakes and rivers. There have been few studies of nutrient transport and storage in karst spring and reservoir connected stream systems draining the Missouri Ozarks. This study aims to link the baseflow nutrient contributions of Sanders Spring to downstream reservoir outflow and the Headwaters South Dry Sac River Watershed in Springfield, Missouri. Water samples were collected seasonally and analyzed for total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and several other water quality parameters. Discharge was also monitored to calculate water and …

Evaporation Depth Controls The Relationship Between Soil Water Mobility And Soil Water Isotopic Composition, John Byars Shuler

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies of plant water uptake assume that soil water isotopic composition can be used to infer soil water mobility. However, the strength of the relationship between mobility and isotopic composition remains poorly constrained. In addition, many ecohydrologic investigations are restricted by low sampling frequencies and insufficient soil moisture and matric potential data to support assumptions of soil water mobility. We sampled bulk soil water every 14 to 21 days in hillslope and riparian profiles during the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons in a semi-arid watershed outside Boise, ID. We collected twig samples of four tree and shrub species concurrently. …

Exploring The Role Of Deforestation On Regional Hydroclimate In Southeast Africa: An Approach Fusing Models And Data, Megan Maksimowicz

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Land cover acts as the gatekeeper to incoming and outgoing energy and water fluxes at the land surface, partitioning energy and water in accordance with the vegetation type and in response to atmospheric forcings. As Land Surface Models become more complex and more capable of simulating the coupled dynamics of the land-atmosphere system in greater spatial detail, the need for accurate representation of spatial distribution of vegetation types and their dynamics through time grows.

As humans modify land cover, there are complex dynamics at play between the vegetation, the surface energy balance and the cycling of water. The resultant hydroclimatic …

Assessment Of Snow Atmosphere Forcing During Central Idaho Atmospheric Rivers, William Rudisill

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric Rivers (AR) are globally occuring weather features and the primary mechanism through which water vapor moves from the tropics and subtropics towards the mid-latitudes, doing so at rates comparable to the world’s largest terrestrial rivers. AR that encounter mountains often cause extreme precipitation in the form of rain and snow, high winds, and flooding in many watersheds. They account for as much as 20-30% of cool season precipitation in the central Idaho Mountains. In the Northern Hemisphere, seasonal snow cover during Winter and Spring months is the most variable land surface component in space and time, and acts on …

From Snow To Flow: Exploring Relationships Between Snotel Ablation Curves And Peak Streamflow Timing, Kara Jane Ferguson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Predictions of peak streamflow timing in snow-dominated river systems are essential for proper water management and recreational availability. This study evaluates historic snow and streamflow data from 14 river basins throughout Idaho to investigate the relationship between snowmelt timing at SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL) sites and peak streamflow within each basin. The goal is to provide a simple operational tool that estimates the probability of peak streamflow occurring within a certain number of days as ablation progresses from 0 to 100% melted. For individual basins we evaluate meltout levels in increments of 10% from each SNOTEL site and use a probabilistic …

The Transition From Sevier To Laramide Orogeny Captured In Upper-Plate Magmatic Structures, Eastern Transverse Ranges, Ca, Brody Friesenhahn

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The onset of the Laramide orogeny is of great tectonic significance to the geologic history of the US, but the timing and nature of the shift between Sevier and Laramide tectonics remains enigmatic. The eastern Transverse Ranges of southern California provide the opportunity to observe the effects of Laramide tectonics on the mid-crust. Wide Canyon is a north/south-trending canyon in the northern Little San Bernardino Mountains of the eastern Transverse Ranges. Al-in-hornblende thermobarometry of Needy et al. (2009) yields a projected paleodepth depth of ~20 km for Wide Canyon where Cretaceous granitoids intrude metamorphic country rock of Proterozoic age in …