Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons^™

Spatial Analyses On Pre-Earthquake Ionospheric Anomalies And Magnetic Storms Observed By China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite In August 2018, Jann-Yeng Tiger Liu, Xuhui Shen, Fu-Yuan Chang, Yuh-Ing Chen, Yang-Yi Sun, Chieh‑Hung Chen, Sergey Pulinets, Katsumi Hattori, Dimitar Ouzounov, Valerio Tramutoli, Michel Parrot, Wei-Sheng Chen, Cheng-Yan Liu, Fei Zhang, Dapeng Liu, Xue-Min Zhang, Rui Yan, Qiao Wang

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES), with a sun-synchronous orbit at 507 km altitude, was launched on 2 February 2018 to investigate pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies (PEIAs) and ionospheric space weather. The CSES probes manifest longitudinal features of four-peak plasma density and three plasma depletions in the equatorial/low-latitudes as well as mid-latitude troughs. CSES plasma and the total electron content (TEC) of the global ionosphere map (GIM) are used to study PEIAs associated with a destructive M7.0 earthquake and its followed M6.5 and M6.3/M6.9 earthquakes in Lombok, Indonesia, on 5, 17, and 19 August 2018, respectively, as well as to examine ionospheric …

Estimation Of Sugarcane Yield Using Multi-Temporal Sentinel 2 Satellite Imagery And Random Forest Regression, Alireza Taravat, Gebeyehu Abebe, Berhan Gessesse, Tsegaye Tadesse

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Advancements in remote sensing techniques have greatly enhanced crop monitoring and yield estimation, with spectral vegetation indices (VIs) serving as a key component. Our study investigates the use of Sentinel-2 data, notable for its red-edge bands, in estimating sugarcane yield in Ethiopia's Awash Basin. Utilizing 22 VIs from S2 imagery, our approach combines Random Forest (RF) regression with the Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) algorithm to improve the accuracy of sugarcane yield predictions. The results demonstrate the superior performance of the RF-RFE method over traditional RF with full datasets and Stepwise Multiple Regression (SMR). Particularly, VIs focusing on the red-edge spectral …

Fauna, Flora, And Land Cover Changes Over The Last Two Decades In The Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Gabriel De Oliveria, Steven R. Schultze, Guilherme Mataveli

Technical Reports

A technical report documenting ecosystem changes to the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta region due to urban expansion over approximately two decades (2001-2019).

Borneo Stalagmite Evidence Of Significantly Reduced El Niño-Southern Oscillation Variability At 4.1 Kybp, C.M. Theaker, S.A. Carolin, C.C. Day, K.M. Cobb, S. Chen, Pamela R. Grothe, H.O. Couper

Earth and Environmental Sciences

The timing and geographic extent of a potential “4.2 ky event” remain highly contested. Here we present records of ENSO variability at 3.8 kyBP and 4.1 kyBP derived from a Borneo stalagmite, which suggest a significant change in ENSO properties between these time intervals. The Borneo records show evidence of significantly reduced ENSO activity at 4.1 kyBP, relative to other measured windows within the Holocene. This reduced ENSO activity coincides with a period of drier conditions and enhanced dust events in the Middle East that took place ∼4.0–4.3 kyBP. The Borneo records show evidence of enhanced ENSO activity at 3.8 …

Improving Accessibility And Understanding: Studying The Impact Of Human Activities And Dam Removals On Anadromous Fish Species In The Pacific Northwest, Adia F. Bennett

Scripps Senior Theses

Human activities in North American watersheds have significantly impacted anadromous fish, causing some species of salmon and steelhead to become threatened and endangered. These fish hold ecological, cultural, and economic importance, yet factors such as habitat destruction, overfishing, pollution, climate change, and hydroelectric dams continue to degrade populations. Dams are particularly harmful to anadromous fish, sparking a recent movement advocating for dam removals. This study uses NOAA’s 2022 Biological Viability Assessment to examine the response of anadromous fish to recent dam removals in the Pacific Northwest. Four populations were selected to analyze due to their interaction with sites that had …

Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment And Dye Trace Of War Fork River In Daniel Boone National Forest, Will Hemenover

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Daniel Boone National Forest plays a key role in preserving much of Kentucky’s karst regions, natural resources including timber, mineral deposits, and biodiversity, including over 300 species of concern. The health of these environments is determined by surface and groundwater streams in the forest, and karst systems are an integral environment where these systems are active. War Fork, a tributary to the Kentucky River in Jackson County, Kentucky, is a remote and understudied hydrologic system in the Daniel Boone National Forest that contains recreational and logging land uses. Due to karst areas being susceptible to contamination because of rapid water …

Assessing Stormwater Management Pond Water Quality, Function, And The Potential Biotic Effects To Receiving Waters, Mitchell Elstone

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The use of stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) has been increasing over the past five decades. However, an in-depth understanding of the daily performance of SWMPs and functionality during cold periods is limited. This is in part because mandated monitoring is relatively infrequent, and the assumption that SWMPs are inactive between storm events and during the winter. The goals of this research were to better understand daily stormwater (SW) characteristics, the performance of SWMPs based on current forms of evaluation and assess the potential for SWMP effluent to impact downstream biota. Influent and effluent samples from two SWMPs were collected daily …

Investigating The Relationship Between Inherited Geologic Framework And Saltwater Intrusion On St. Catherines Island, Georgia, Juliet Talaber, Jacque Kelly, Robert Vance

Honors College Theses

Since the late 1800s, the oldest cities on the Georgia coast have been withdrawing water from the confined Floridan Aquifer System. As the population has grown, a cone of depression has formed extending from Savannah, GA to St. Catherines Island, GA, a barrier island 50 km southeast of Savannah. On St. Catherines Island, the cone of depression has reversed the lateral and horizontal groundwater flow gradients causing saltwater intrusion into the Upper Floridan Aquifer from the Lower Floridan Aquifer through joints, faults, or solution collapse features. Previous studies from the southern and central areas of the island have found evidence …

Investigating Drought Response And Paleoclimate Potential Of A New Network Of White Oak Chronologies In Western Kentucky, Usa, Audrey J. Heichelbech, Maegen L. Rochner, Megan Gibson

Undergraduate Research Events

In Kentucky, historic and paleo-climate data are limited, and current understanding of long-term climate change in the state relies on instrumental data spanning only 1895-present. Proxy data are necessary to extend the temporal and spatial span of climate information. One potential proxy source for Kentucky is tree ring data, but currently, only four such datasets are publicly available on the International Tree Ring Data Bank (ITRDB). Archaeological and archival timber sources may help to fill in this gap. In the 1940s, Florence Hawley-Ellis, the first woman dendrochronologist, collected samples of white oak (Quercus alba L.) from four counties in western …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Investigating The Effects Of A Southward Flow In The Southeastern Florida Shelf Using Robotic Instruments, Alfredo Quezada

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

We deployed a Slocum G3 glider fitted with an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), a Conductivity-Temperature-Depth sensor (CTD), optics sensor channels, and a propeller on the Southeastern Florida shelf. The ADCP and CTD provide continuous measurements of Northern and Eastern current velocity components, salinity, temperature, and density, throughout the water column in a high-current environment. The optics sensor channels are able to provide measurements of chlorophyll concentrations, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and backscatter particle counts. Additionally, for one of the glider deployments, we deployed a Wirewalker wave-powered profiling platform system also fitted with an ADCP and a CTD in …

Using Remote Sensing To Determine Riparian Resilience In Beaver Dammed Versus Un-Dammed Corridors Following Whiplash Weather, Sophie Charlotte Valérie Aubry

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Beaver complexes slow and store water allowing for riparian growth which in turn fosters biodiversity, retains carbon, and enhances resistance to fires and drought. Given the benefits associated with beaver complexes and the potential they have for climate mitigation, California hopes to reintroduce beavers and restore their habitat throughout the state. However, the impact of high peak flow events on beaver complexes and their adjacent riparian corridors is less understood and requires more documentation at various spatial scales. To better understand the potential beavers may have as climate change mitigators it is important to understand beaver complex resiliency following a …

Environmental And Agronomic Evaluation Of Struvite In Rice Production Systems, Diego Della Lunga

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Furrow-irrigation constitutes an alternative water regime that has been increasingly adopted in Arkansas. Among the management of nutrients in furrow-irrigated systems, phosphorus (P) represents a substantial challenge. The environmental sustainability of rice (Oryza sativa) production systems needs to be evaluated across different water regimes and fertilizer-P sources. Therefore, the objectives of the following studies were to: i) evaluate season-long carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions and global warming potential (GWP) under different tillage treatments [i.e., conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT)] and at different site positions (i.e., up-, mid-, down-slope) along the predominant slope of a production-scale, furrow-irrigated rice …

Modeling The Peak Ground Acceleration And Assessing The Economic Loss And Casualty Due To Potential Earthquakes Of Various Magnitudes In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Mahmud Afroz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is one of the active tectonic zones capable of producing big earthquakes in the southcentral USA. The objective of this study was to assess the economic losses and casualties that might be caused by various magnitudes of seismic events in the NMSZ. The manifestation is the estimation for each magnitude which is using the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) that might occur during an earthquake. It is calculated using an attenuation function that correlates the intensity of local ground movement, the earthquake magnitude, and the distance from its epicenter. The assessment of casualties was conducted …

Connecting The Nebraska Water Quality Index To The Aquatic Microbial Community Of The North Platte River Basin, Nebraska, Paula R. Guastello

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

The Nebraska Water Quality Index, under development by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, summarizes in a single value eight environmental parameters that have been monitored in Nebraska for nearly 20 years. Water quality parameters including those used in the Nebraska Water Quality Index have been shown in previous studies to impact bacterial growth. As such, this index has the potential to correlate with the freshwater microbial community. Here, I relate the Nebraska Water Quality Index to microbial community composition and structure using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence data collected from the North Platte River Basin, Nebraska. This index …

Examining The Corn Seedling Emergence–Temperature Relationship For Recent Hybrids: Insights From Experimental Studies, Sahila Beegum, Charles Hunt Walne, Krishna N. Reddy, Vangimalla Reddy, Kambham Raja Reddy

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Corn seedling emergence is a critical factor affecting crop yields. Accurately predicting emergence is crucial for precise crop growth and development simulation in process-based crop models. While various experimental studies have investigated the relationship between corn seedling emergence and temperature, there remains a scarcity of studies focused on newer corn hybrids. In the present study, statistical models (linear and quadratic functional relationships) are developed based on the seedling emergence of ten current corn hybrids, considering soil and air temperatures as influencing factors. The data used for model development are obtained from controlled soil plant atmospheric research chamber experiments focused on …

Analysis Of Wastewater Samples To Explore Community Substance Use In The United States: Pilot Correlative And Machine Learning Study, Marie A. Severson, Sathaporn Onanong, Alexandra Dolezal, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Daniel D. Snow, Lisa M. Mcfadden

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Background: Substance use disorder and associated deaths have increased in the United States, but methods for detecting and monitoring substance use using rapid and unbiased techniques are lacking. Wastewater-based surveillance is a cost-effective method for monitoring community drug use. However, the examination of the results often focuses on descriptive analysis.

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore community substance use in the United States by analyzing wastewater samples. Geographic differences and commonalities of substance use were explored.

Methods: Wastewater was sampled across the United States (n=12). Selected drugs with misuse potential, prescriptions, and over-the-counter drugs …

Characterization Of Environmental Levels Of Pesticide Residues In Household Air And Dust Samples Near A Bioenergy Plant Using Treated Seed As Feedstock, Jabeen Taiba, Eleanor G. Rogan, Daniel D. Snow, Chandran Achutan, Muhammad Zahid

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides is associated with adverse human health outcomes. There is environmental contamination in Saunders County, Nebraska, due to the accumulation of fungicides and insecticides from a now-closed ethanol plant using seed corn as stock. A pilot study quantified environmental contamination in nearby houses from residual pesticides by measuring dust and air (indoor/outdoor) concentrations of neonicotinoids and fungicides at the study site (households within two miles of the plant) and control towns (20–30 miles away). Air (SASS^® 2300 Wetted-Wall Air Sampler) and surface dust (GHOST wipes with 4 × 4-inch template) samples were collected from eleven study …

Leaching Performance Of Nanotechnology-Induced High-Arsenic-Bearing Tooeleite-Like Mineral Nanowaste, Arindam Malakar, Sanjit Das, Samirul Islam, Rajneesh Singh, Sugata Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

For arsenic decontamination from groundwater, arsenic crystallization is becoming adopted due to its sustainability and economic benefits. However, arsenic crystallization technology is a two-step process, which makes it complex and generates hazardous waste. Successful efforts toward making it a single-step process are presented here. The addition of nanorods and ball-milled zinc sulfide nanoparticles to arsenic-contaminated water result in highly monodispersed and higharsenic- containing mineralized nanowaste with a crystalline structure similar to the mineral Tooeleite ((Fe³⁺₆(As³⁺O₃)₄SO₄(OH)₄•4H₂O)). This study reports the results of a short-term stability test …

Causes And Effects Of Shisper Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Event In Karakoram In 2022, Sandeep Kumar Mondal, Vatsal D. Patel, Rishikesh Bharti, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Karakoram Himalayas are vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which cause catastrophic floods in the surrounding areas. The increasing natural and anthropogenic activities, especially in the Indo-Gangetic Plains at the southern flank of the towering Himalayas, could be the cause of climate change affecting the frequency of the natural hazards in the Himalayas. In the present study, a detailed analysis of the Shisper Lake breach of 7 May 2022 is carried out using satellite remote sensing. A decreasing trend in the glacial mass balance is observed between 2017 and 2021; in this period, frequent GLOF episodes occurred. A pronounced …

Reaction Steps In Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Oxidation Of Toluene In Gas Phase—A Review, Yerzhigit Tulebekov, Zhandos Orazov, Bagdat Satybaldiyev, Daniel D. Snow, Raphaël Schneider, Bolat Uralbekov

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

A review of the current literature shows there is no clear consensus regarding the reaction mechanisms of air-borne aromatic compounds such as toluene by photocatalytic oxidation. Potential oxidation reactions over TiO₂ or TiO₂-based catalysts under ultraviolet and visible (UV/VIS) illumination are most commonly considered for removal of these pollutants. Along the pathways from a model pollutant, toluene, to final mineralization products (CO₂ and H₂O), the formation of several intermediates via specific reactions include parallel oxidation reactions and formation of less-reactive intermediates on the TiO₂ surface. The latter may occupy active adsorption sites and …

Fire Effects On Soil Organic Matter In The Creek Fire, Gracie E. Doolin

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Wildfires have increased in frequency and severity over the past few decades due to the increased concertation of CO2 emissions from anthropogenic influence. Soil carbon (C) sequestration has been identified as a climate change mitigation strategy; however, the influx of large-scale wildfires has accelerated landscape processes such as erosion, reducing soil aggradation, and soil C and nitrogen (N) protection. This trend is highlighted by the Creek Fire that occurred in September 2020 and burned 379,895 acres in the Sierra National Forest. This research is designed to close the knowledge gap regarding the impact of burn severity on soil organic matter …

How Is Flash Drought Understood?—Experts’ Definitions And Decision-Makers’ Perceptions, Caily Schwartz, Tonya Haigh, Mark D. Svoboda, Madeline Goebel

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Because flash drought is a relatively new phenomenon in drought research, defining the concept is critical for scientists and decision-makers. Having detrimental impacts on many sectors, it is important to have a consistent definition and understanding of flash drought, between experts and stakeholders, to provide early warning to the community. This study focuses on onset and progression of conditions and demonstrates the difference in flash drought identification for 15 events across six quantitative definitions of flash drought that use the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM). Five flash drought events have been studied in the literature while 10 additional events have been …

The Patchwork Governance Of Ecologically Available Water: A Case Study In The Upper Missouri Headwaters, Montana, United States, Amanda E. Cravens, Julia B. Goolsby, Theresa Jedd, Deborah J. Bathke, Shelley Crausbay, Ashley E. Cooper, Jason Dunham, Tonya Haigh, Kimberly R. Hall, Michael J. Hayes, Jamie Mcevoy, Rebecca L. Nelson, Markéta Poděbradská, Aaron Ramirez, Elliot Wickham, Dionne Zoanni

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Institutional authority and responsibility for allocating water to ecosystems (“ecologically available water” [EAW]) is spread across local, state, and federal agencies, which operate under a range of statutes, mandates, and planning processes. We use a case study of the Upper Missouri Headwaters Basin in southwestern Montana, United States, to illustrate this fragmented institutional landscape. Our goals are to (a) describe the patchwork of agencies and institutional actors whose intersecting authorities and actions influence the EAW in the study basin; (b) describe the range of governance mechanisms these agencies use, including laws, policies, administrative programs, and planning processes; and (c) assess …

Insar Time Series Analysis To Evaluate Subsidence Risk Of Monumental Chandigarh City (India) And Surroundings, Jungrack Kim, Shih-Yuan Lin, Tejpal Singh, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Groundwater depletion is one of the serious geo-environmental issues causing ground subsidence, which damage buildings, infrastructures and causes loss of life. The quantitative and qualitative evaluation of groundwater variability requires multiple approaches to measure hydraulic head level and geodetic deformation. In this study, we have made efforts to integrate multiple hierarchical space-borne data, including Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), geological and hydrological data, to quantify subsidence in Chandigarh city and its surroundings. First, we conducted New-Small BAseline Subsets (NSBAS) and pointwise persistent scatterer (PS) InSAR techniques in parallel, using three-years Sentinel-1 data showing …

Detection And Identification Of Pre-Seismic Thermal Anomalies In Cloudy Conditions Associated With The 2022 Luding (China) Mw 6.6 Earthquake, Feng Jing, Meng Jiang, Lu Zhang, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Over the past three decades, thermal anomalies from satellite infrared data have been widely discussed and associated with earthquakes. Besides infrared satellite data, the recent use of passive microwave satellite data has emerged as an important dataset to detect the potential thermal anomalies prior to earthquakes in all weather conditions due to its capability to monitor the earth in cloudy and foggy conditions and has been applied to the numerous strong earthquake events around the world. On 5 September 2022, an Mw 6.6 earthquake occurred in Luding county, nearby Mt. Gongga, China, with heavy cloud coverage over the epicenter and …

Trace Metal Analysis Of Pond Sediments To Measure Deposition From A Coal-Fired Power Plant In Ackerman Mississippi, Charles Bills

Theses and Dissertations

Trace element sediment pollution due to coal power plants have been reported in many countries. In this study, pond sediment samples collected from locations around a coal fired power plant in Ackerman, MS, were evaluated for their trace element concentration and pollution status. The samples were collected at two depths to study changes in element accumulation over time. The samples were digested and the elements, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Hg, and Zn were analyzed using ICP-MS. Results were then compared to known background concentrations as well as sediment quality guidelines and pollution thresholds. The sample locations downwind of the …

High-Energy Storm Events And Their Impacts On Carbon Storage In Tidal Wetlands Of South Carolina, Gavin Gleasman

All Dissertations

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations have been increasing at an accelerating rate for the past two centuries, profoundly impacting global climate change. Atmospheric CO₂ concentrations are influenced by the global carbon cycle through physical and biogeochemical pathways. Tidal wetland environments play a vital role in the global carbon cycle by offsetting atmospheric CO₂ concentrations through their natural physiochemical processes of high autotrophic productivity, allochthonous organic matter deposition, anoxic soils, and continuous accretion which promotes carbon sequestration with long-term storage at the land-ocean margin. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and United States Global Change Research …

Adsorptive–Photocatalytic Performance For Antibiotic And Personal Care Product Using Cu0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4, Chanat Chokejaroenrat, Chainarong Sakulthaew, Athaphon Angkaew, Apiladda Pattanateeradetch, Wuttinun Raksajit, Kanokwan Teingtham, Piyaporn Phansak, Pawee Klongvessa, Daniel D. Snow, Clifford E. Harris, Steven Comfort

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The amount of antibiotics and personal care products entering local sewage systems and ultimately natural waters is increasing and raising concerns about long-term human health effects. We developed an adsorptive photocatalyst, Cu_0.5Mn_0.5Fe₂O₄ nanoparticles, utilizing co-precipitation and calcination with melamine, and quantified its efficacy in removing paraben and oxytetracycline (OTC). During melamine calcination, Cu_0.5Mn_0.5Fe₂O₄ recrystallized, improving material crystallinity and purity for the adsorptive–photocatalytic reaction. Kinetic experiments showed that all four parabens and OTC were removed within 120 and 45 min. We found that contaminant adsorption and reaction …

Droughtscape, Summer 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Summer 2023