Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

A 700 Year Record Of Southern Hemisphere Extratropical Climate Variability, Paul A. Mayewski, Kirk A. Maasch, James W.C. White, Eric J. Steig, E A. Meyerson, Ian D. Goodwin, Vin Morgan, Tas D. Van Ommen, Mark Aj Curran, Joseph M. Souney Jr, K Kreutz

All Materials

Annually dated ice cores from West and East Antarctica provide proxies for past changes in atmospheric circulation over Antarctica and portions of the Southern Ocean, temperature in coastal West and East Antarctica, and the frequency of South Polar penetration of El Niño events. During the period AD 1700–1850, atmospheric circulation over the Antarctic and at least portions of the Southern Hemisphere underwent a mode switch departing from the out-of-phase alternation of multi-decadal long phases of EOF1 and EOF2 modes of the 850 hPa field over the Southern Hemisphere (as defined in the recent record by Thompson and Wallace, 2000; Thompson …

Groundwater Trends In The North Stirling Pallinup Sub-Region, Ruhi Ferdowsian, Lisa Crossing

Natural resources published reports

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region of Western Australia into six sub-regions. This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management in the agricultural district of the North Stirling Pallinup sub-region.

This sub-region encompasses the Stirling Range National Park, the North Stirling Basin to the north-east of the Park, and the middle and upper catchments of the Pallinup River. Almost 90% (500,000 ha) of the sub-region's alienated land has been cleared for agriculture, and salinity has been identified as an important issue.

Soil-landscape zones are …

Groundwater Trends In The Fitzgerald Biosphere Sub-Region, Adam Lillicrap

Natural resources published reports

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region into six sub-regions. The Fitzgerald Biosphere sub-region is located in the centre of the South Coast region of Western Australia (Figure 1). It is bounded by the Pallinup River to the east, Jerdacuttup River to the west, and includes the catchments of the Gairdner, Fitzgerald and Phillips Rivers. The sub-region encompasses the Fitzgerald Biosphere Reserve and just over half (730,000 ha) has been cleared for agriculture.

This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management in the soil landscape …

Waldo Lake Research In 2003, Mark D. Sytsma, John Rueter, Richard Petersen, Roy Koch, Scott A. Wells, Rich Miller, Laura Johnson, Robert Leslie Annear

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes the first year of an effort to develop a more complete understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics that drive the ecological processes of Waldo Lake. Modern limnology recognizes the importance of watershed processes as well as in- lake processes in lake ecosystem functioning. Therefore, the approach included consideration of watershed hydrology and forcing functions that determine hydrodynamics of the system as well physical and chemical factors that may be important in regulating primary production in the lake. Data collected since 1998 was summarized and bathymetry of the basin was mapped using state-of-the-art digital depth sounding …

Relating Water And Otolith Chemistry In Chesapeake Bay, And Their Potential To Identify Essential Seagrass Habitats For Juveniles Of An Estuarine-Dependent Fish, Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion Nebulosus), Emmanis Dorval

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

A quantitative understanding of habitat use of estuarine-dependent fishes is critical to the conservation of their most essential habitats. Because recruitment and fitness may be influenced by the quality of juvenile habitats, developing methods to quantify habitat-specific survivorship is pivotal to such understanding. An initial step to quantify survivorship is to validate the habitat-specific natural tags contained in otoliths. To this aim I investigated the variability in the chemistry of surface waters and otoliths of juvenile spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, in five seagrass habitats of Chesapeake Bay, namely: Potomac, Rappahannock, York, Island, and Eastern Shore. I measured Mg, Ca, …

Yucca Mountain Climate Technical Support Representative, Saxon E. Sharpe, Dick Reinhardt, Eric Smistad, Don Baepler, Amy J. Smiecinski

Publications (YM)

The principal investigator (PI), Saxon Sharpe, for Task ORD-FY04-012, DOE Cooperative Agreement DE-FC28-04RW12232, will serve as Yucca Mountain Climate Technical Support Representative for the Department of Energy (DOE) in a series of activities related to past, present, and future climate for the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) climate program.

As stated in the Viability Assessment of a Repository at Yucca Mountain: “Climate and its changes over time directly affect system performance at Yucca Mountain.” Currently, information from climate studies is used in models that support the Total System Performance Assessment and Licensing Application. It is a model component of all key …

Ogallala Aquifer, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Ogallala Aquifer, or High Plains Aquifer, is a porous body of complex sediments and sedimentary rock formations that conducts groundwater and yields significant quantities of water to wells and springs. The principal sediments and rocks of the aquifer range in age from 33 million years old to sediments being deposited today, but the majority is less than 12 million-years old. Much of the aquifer is composed of the Ogallala Group or Formation. The dominant sediments in the Ogallala and the other hydrogeologic units in the aquifer are riverand wind-deposited sands. The aquifer underlies about 174,000 square miles of the …

Light & Dark: The Hidden Wonders Of Buck Creek, Lee J. Florea

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

As early morning mists rise from the banks of its supple waters, beams of light penetrate the Buck Creek valley illuminating its beauty. While light illuminates most of the land, there are secret places, nestled within the forest where darkness reigns supreme. Places beyond the touch of the sun, beyond the influence of seasons. Here time is measured not in cycles of light but by the flow of water and fall of rock. These are the caves, conduits for water past and present. Nestled in the hills of south-central Kentucky the caves along Buck Creek provide the lifeblood for a …

An Analysis Of Simulated Long-Term Soil Moisture Data For Three Land Uses Under Contrasting Hydroclimatic Conditions In The Northern Great Plains, Rezaul Mamood, Kenneth G. Hubbard

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Soil moisture (SM) plays an important role in land surface and atmosphere interactions. It modifies energy balance near the surface and the rate of water cycling between land and atmosphere. The lack of observed SM data prohibits understanding of SM variations at climate scales under varying land uses. However, with simulation models it is possible to develop a long-term SM dataset and study these issues. In this paper a water balance model is used to provide a quantitative assessment of SM climatologies for three land uses, namely, irrigated corn, rain-fed corn, and grass, grown under three hydroclimatic regimes in Nebraska. …

An Agricultural Drought Risk-Assessment Model For Corn And Soybeans, Hong Wu, Kenneth G. Hubbard, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society. Published by Wiley InterScience. Used by permis-sion.

Drought Monitoring Using Data Mining Techniques: A Case Study For Nebraska, Usa, Tsegaye Tadesse, Donald A. Wilhite, Sherri K. Harms, Michael J. Hayes, Steve Goddard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought has an impact on many aspects of society. To help decision makers reduce the impacts of drought, it is important to improve our understanding of the characteristics and relationships of atmospheric and oceanic parameters that cause drought. In this study, the use of data mining techniques is introduced to find associations between drought and several oceanic and climatic indices that could help users in making knowledgeable decisions about drought responses before the drought actually occurs. Data mining techniques enable users to search for hidden patterns and find association rules for target data sets such as drought episodes. These techniques …

An Association Of Benthic Foraminifera And Gypsum In Holocene Sediments Of Estuarine Chesapeake Bay, Usa, John Cann, Thomas Cronin

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Two cores of Holocene sediments recovered from the Cape Charles Channel of Chesapeake Bay yielded radiocarbon ages of about 6.8 to 5.8 ka for the lower intervals. Fossil foraminifera preserved in these lower sediments are dominated by species of Elphidium, which make up about 90% of the assemblage throughout, and probably signify deposition in hypersaline waters. Buccella frigida and Ammonia beccarii are the only other species commonly present. Hypersalinity of bottom waters seems to have been maintained by water-density stratification in a basin-like section of the channel. In core PTXT -4-P-I transition to modem Chesapeake conditions, in which numbers …

Grassland Vegetation And Bird Communities In The Southern Great Plains Of North America, Robert N. Chapman, David M. Engle, Ronald E. Masters, David M. Leslie Jr.

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Structure and composition of vegetation and abundance of breeding birds in grasslands seeded to Old World bluestem (Bothriochloa ischmaeum) were compared to native mixed prairie in the southern Great Plains of North America. Abundance of birds was determined using fixed-radius point counts. Detrended correspondence analysis was used to compare plant community composition and canonical correspondence analysis was used to examine the relationships between plant species composition and vegetation structure with the bird community. Plant species composition differed distinctly between seeded grassland and native mixed prairie, but the differences were not reflected in habitat structure, bird community composition, or …

Mudfish On The Menu? Rise Of The Much-Maligned Bowfin, Ken Sulak

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Cajuns call it “choupique” (say “shoe-pick”), from its Choctaw name. Elsewhere, it’s the dogfish, blackfish, grindle, cottonfish, or cypress trout. Its official common name is “Bowfin” (Amia calva)1. But to most anglers, this is the “mudfish,” a strange, unusual, and much-maligned fish, most everywhere considered a useless trash fish. One look and the words relict, prehistoric, primitive, and living fossil come to mind. Indeed, the bowfin is the last of its line, the sole-surviving species of a very ancient group of fishes. Its predecessors flourished in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods during the Mesozoic (= Middle-Animal) Era, a …

Atmospheric Variability Of Methyl Chloride During The Last 300 Years From An Antarctic Ice Core And Firn Air, M. Aydin, Eric S. Saltzman, Warren J. De Bruyn, S. A. Montzka, J. H. Butler, M. Battle

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Measurements of methyl chloride (CH3Cl) in Antarctic polar ice and firn air are used to describe the variability of atmospheric CH3Cl during the past 300 years. Firn air results from South Pole and Siple Dome suggest that the atmospheric abundance of CH3Cl increased by about 10% in the 50 years prior to 1990. Ice core measurements from Siple Dome provide evidence for a cyclic natural variability on the order of 10%, with a period of about 110 years in phase with the 20th century rise inferred from firn air. Thus, the CH3Cl increase measured in firn air may largely be …

Estimation Of Primary Production And Carbon Flux In Antarctic Coastal Waters: A Modeling Study, Hae-Cheol Kim

OES Theses and Dissertations

This study presents results from models that are designed to simulate the underwater light field, to simulate phytoplankton primary production, and to estimate the fate of phytoplankton carbon in continental shelf waters of the west Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and Ross Sea. Simulation of the underwater light field required derivation of new coefficient sets for power function-type cloud cover correction algorithms, which were found to be influenced by multiple reflections between the bottom of clouds and the surface. The coefficient sets indicate that the spectral effect of clouds on the properties of the surface irradiance was spectrally-neutral for wavelengths greater than …

Sources And Cycling Of Carbonyl Sulfide In The Sargasso Sea, Gregory A. Cutter, Lynda S. Cutter, Katherine C. Filippino

OES Faculty Publications

The cycling of the radiatively important gas carbonyl sulfide (OCS) was studied in surface waters of the Sargasso Sea. In August 1999, surface OCS concentrations averaged 8.6 pmol L^-1, showed minor diel variations, and varied little with depth. An OCS precursor, total dissolved organic sulfur (DOS), was lowest at the surface (40 nmol L^-1) and increased with depth. The photoproduction rate of OCS from in situ incubations averaged 9.6 pmol L^-1 h^-1, whereas dark production was 7.0 pmol L^-1 h^-1. Apparent quantum yields were 10^-5-10^-7 from 313-436 …

Analytical Intercomparison Between Flow Injection-Chemiluminescence And Flow Injection-Spectrophotometry For The Determination Of Picomolar Concentrations Of Iron In Seawater, Andrew R. Bowie, Peter N. Sedwick, Paul J. Worsfold

OES Faculty Publications

A lab- and ship-based analytical intercomparison of two flow injection methods for the determination of iron in seawater was conducted, using three different sets of seawater samples collected from the Southern Ocean and South Atlantic. In one exercise, iron was determined in three different size-fractions (< 0.03 &μm, < 0.4 μm, and unfiltered) in an effort to better characterize the operational nature of each analytical technique with respect to filter size. Measured Fe concentrations were in the range 0.19 to 1.19 nM using flow injection with luminol chemiluminescence detection (FI-CL), and 0.07 to 1.54 nM using flow injection with catalytic spectrophotometric detection with N, N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride (FI-DPD). The arithmetic mean for the FI-CL method was higher (by 0.09 nM) than the FI-DPD method for dissolved (< 0.4 μm) Fe, a difference that is comparable to the analytical blanks, which were as high as 0.13 nM ( CL) and 0.09 nM (DPD). There was generally good agreement between the FI-CL determinations for the < 0.03 μm size fraction and the FI-DPD determinations for the < 0.4 μm size fraction in freshly collected samples. Differences in total-dissolvable ( unfiltered) Fe concentrations determined by the two FI methods were more variable, reflecting the added complexity associated with the analysis of partially digested particulate material in these samples. Overall, however, the FI-CL determinations were significantly (P = 0.05) lower than the FI-DPD determinations for the unfiltered samples. Our results suggest that the observed, systematic inter-method differences reflect measurement of different physicochemical fractions of Fe present in seawater, such that colloidal and/or organic iron species are better determined by the FI-CL method than the FI-DPD method. This idea is supported by our observation that inter-method differences were largest for freshly collected acidified seawater, which suggests extended storage (>6 months) of acidified samples as a possible protocol for the determination of dissolved iron in seawater.

Black Carbon In Estuarine And Coastal Ocean Dissolved Organic Matter, Antonio Mannino, H. Rodger Harvey

OES Faculty Publications

We measured black carbon (BC) in ultrafiltered, high-molecular weight dissolved organic matter (UDOM) in surface waters of Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean (U.S.A.) to investigate the importance of riverine and estuarine dissolved organic matter (DOM) as a source of BC to the ocean. BC was 5-72% of UDOM-C (27 ± 17%), which corresponds to 8.9 ± 6.5% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), with higher values in the heavily urbanized midbay region of the Delaware Estuary and lower yields in the river and coastal ocean. The spatial and seasonal distributions of BC along the salinity gradient of …

A Holocene Record Of Changing Arctic Ocean Ice Drift Analogous To The Effects Of The Arctic Oscillation, Dennis A. Darby, Jens F. Bischof

OES Faculty Publications

The Arctic Oscillation (AO) controls the configuration of the Transpolar Drift (TPD). If thicker ice from the Beaufort Gyre were exported, the volume of fresh water/sea ice in the Nordic seas would significantly increase, decreasing the formation of North Atlantic deep water. This would cool large parts of the Northern Hemisphere and affect global climate. Therefore, in order to understand how the global climate system functions, it is imperative to know how the TPD changed over the last millennium or more. The provenance of grains in a sediment core located near the confluence of the TPD and the Beaufort Gyre …

Stable Isotopic And Trace Metal Analyses Of Two Porites Lobata Colonies - Oahu, Hawaii: Implications For Past Seasonal Variation And Sea Surface Temperatures And Anthropogenic Effects On The Reef Environment, Jonathan Macdonald

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Corals from the western and equatorial Pacific Ocean have been extensively studied for the purposes of generating paleoclimate reconstructions spanning the last several hundred years. However, in the central subtropical North Pacific, there are currently few published coral records extending beyond 10 to 20 years. The hermatypic coral species Porites lobata and Porites lutea have proven to be useful indicators of paleoclimate and past sea surface conditions at other locations. Here I have analyzed two Porites lobata coral cores collected from colonies from opposite sides of Oahu, Hawaii to assess their utility for developing multi-decadal length climatic reconstructions in this …

Sources Of Ancient Maize Found In Chacoan Great Houses, Larry Benson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Between the 9th and 12th centuries A.D., Chaco Canyon, located near the middle of the high-desert San Juan Basin of north-central New Mexico (fig. 1), was the focus of an unprecedented construction effort by pre-Columbian Native Americans. It has been estimated that from 2,000 to 6,000 people occupied Chaco Canyon during its heyday (Windes, 1984; Drager, 1976). One indication of Chaco’s regional importance is a network of roads that linked Chaco Canyon with other great houses and communities spread throughout a region covering at least 60,000 km2 (fig. 2). At the height of its cultural florescence in the 11th century, …

Assessment And Restoration Of A Neighborhood Wetland Invaded By Exotic Plant Species, Ryan Neal, Kimberly R. Payne, Lorena Moreno, Graham Duffy, Jonathan Peck, Mary C. Savin

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The University of Arkansas Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences (CSES) Club adopted a local wetland in the spring of 2002 through the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Department. This project has allowed students to interact with local community and governmental organizations as well as other academic departments within the university. Students have gained valuable laboratory and field experience through characterizing hydric soils, identifying bird and plant species, and analyzing water quality, soil nutrients, and microbial biomass. Under the main goal of restoring the wetland, the club has outlined both short and long-term objectives including soil and water assessments; removal of two …

Impact Of Black Shale Weathering On Sediment Quality, G. M. Ogendi, R. E. Hannigan, Jerry L. Farris, D. Smith

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Weathering of black shales leads to elevated metal concentrations in both surface water and stream sediments. In spite of the recent focus on black shales, few data exist on the ecological impacts of this process particularly on aquatic organisms. The key objective of this study was to determine the impact of trace metal concentrations in sediments upon aquatic organisms. To achieve the above objective, stream sediment samples were collected from streams draining black shale and limestone (used as a reference stream) lithologies located in central Arkansas between June 2003 and January 2004. Trace metal concentrations were measured by the dynamic …

Modeled And Observed Empirical Orthogonal Functions Of Currents In The Yucatan Channel, Gulf Of Mexico, Lie-Yauw Oey, Tal Ezer, Wilton Sturges

CCPO Publications

Candela et al. [2003] have reported empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses based on 23-month current-meter and acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements in the Yucatan Channel. Those authors noted the difference between EOFs obtained from observations and their z-level models and EOFs calculated by Ezer et al. [2003] from the results of a terrain-following model. Here a new analysis is reported that explains this difference, and that also suggests the importance of shelf-edge meander mode of the core Loop Current in the channel. We show that the terrain-following model gives EOFs with characteristics similar to those observed when data from the …

Groundwater Trends In The Kent-Frankland Sub-Region, Arjen Ryder

Natural resources published reports

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region of Western Australia into six sub-regions. Kent-Frankland covers the catchments of the Frankland, Gordon and Kent' Rivers. Approximately two-thirds (450,000 ha) has been cleared for agriculture. This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management on agricultural land.

Soil-landscape zones are spatial units based on geology and geomorphology. Since most groundwater processes in WA are controlled by the geologic and regolith properties, these zones can be used for allocating hydrological attributes, such as groundwater characteristics and trends. The hydrological …

Groundwater Trends In The Albany Hinterland Sub-Region, Arjen Ryder

Natural resources published reports

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region of Western Australia into six sub-regions The Albany Hinterland is in the western portion (see Figure 1). It is bounded by the Pallinup River in the east. Stirling Ranges to the north and the Kent River catchment boundary in the west. Two-thirds (580.000 ha) of the sub-region has been cleared for agriculture This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management within the agricultural land

Soil-landscape zones are spatial units based on geology and geomorphology. Since most groundwater processes …

Genetic Identification Of Spotted Owls, Barred Owls, And Their Hybrids: Legal Implications Of Hybrid Identity, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman, Pepper W. Trail, Liv Wennerberg

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Recent population expansion of Barred Owls (Strix varia) into western North America has led to concern that they may compete with and further harm the Northern Spotted Owl (S. occidentalis caurina), which is already listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Because they hybridize, there is a legal need under the ESA for forensic identification of both species and their hybrids. We used mitochondrial control-region DNA and amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses to assess maternal and biparental gene flow in this hybridization process. Mitochondrial DNA sequences (524 base pairs) indicated large divergence between …

Subspecific Relationships And Genetic Structure In The Spotted Owl, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Hierarchical genetic structure was examined in the three geographically-defined subspecies of spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) to define relationships among subspecies and quantify variation within and among regional and local populations. Sequences (522 bp) from domains I and II of the mitochondrial control region were analyzed for 213 individuals from 30 local breeding areas. Results confirmed significant differences between northern spotted owls and the other traditional geographically defined subspecies but did not provide support for subspecific level differences between California and Mexican spotted owls. Divergence times among subspecies estimated with a 936 bp portion of the cytochrome b gene …

A Holocene Pollen Record Of Persistent Droughts From Pyramid Lake, Nevada, Usa, Scott A. Mensing, Larry Benson, Michaele Kashgarian, Steve Lund

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Pollen and algae microfossils preserved in sediments from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, provide evidence for periods of persistent drought during the Holocene age. We analyzed one hundred nineteen 1-cm-thick samples for pollen and algae from a set of cores that span the past 7630 years. The early middle Holocene, 7600 to 6300 cal yr B.P., was found to be the driest period, although it included one short but intense wet phase. We suggest that Lake Tahoe was below its rim for most of this period, greatly reducing the volume and depth of Pyramid Lake. Middle Holocene aridity eased between 5000 and …