Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Distribution And Trends Of Endemic Hawaiian Waterbirds, Eben H. Paxton, Kevin Brinck, Adonia Henry, Afsheen Siddiqi, Rachel Rounds, Jennifer Chutz

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Four endemic species of wetland-dependent waterbirds occur on the main Hawaiian Islands, all of which have experienced sharp population declines and are listed as endangered species. Twice per year, state-wide surveys are conducted to count waterbirds, but these surveys are evaluated only infrequently. We used a state-space approach to evaluate long-term (1986–2016) and short-term (2006–2016) trends and current distribution and abundance of endemic Hawaiian waterbirds. The most numerous species was the Ae‘o, or Hawaiian Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus knudseni), with a 5-year estimated average abundance of 1,932 individuals, followed by ‘Alae Ke‘oke‘o, or Hawaiian Coot (Fulica alai), …

Comprehensive Record Of Volcanic Eruptions In The Holocene (11,000 Years) From The Wais Divide, Antarctica Ice Core, Jihong Cole-Dai, David G. Harris, Joshua A. Kennedy, Michael Sigl, Joseph R. Mcconnell, T. J. Fudge, Lei Geng, Olivia J. Maselli, Kendrick C. Taylor, Joseph M. Souney

Ice Core and Environmental Chemistry Lab Datasets and Publications

A comprehensive record (WHV2020) of explosive volcanic eruptions in the last 11,000 years is reconstructed from the West Antarctica Ice Sheet Divide deep ice core (WDC). The chronological list of 426 large volcanic eruptions in the Southern Hemisphere and the low latitudes during the Holocene are of the highest quality of all volcanic records from ice cores, owing to the high-resolution chemical measurement of the ice core and the exceptionally accurate WDC timescale. No apparent trend is found in the frequency (number of eruptions per millennium) of volcanic eruptions, and the number of eruptions in the most recent millennium (1,000–2,000 …

The Drought Monitor Comes Of Age, Brad Rippey, Brian Fuchs, David Simeral, Deborah J. Bathke, Richard R. Heim Jr., Mark Svoboda

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The 20th century featured immense scientific discoveries and advances. Astrophysics gained Einstein’s life-altering theory of relativity, opening the door to nuclear weaponry and the mind-bending Big Bang theory. The medical field achieved stunning success in suppressing or vanquishing a host of deadly diseases, including polio and smallpox. And through advances in computing technology, meteorological forecasting moved from back-of-the-envelope calculations to supercomputers. However, drought monitoring fell behind the curve of scientific advancement. Not until 1965, when the United States Department of Commerce published Wayne C. Palmer’s “Research Paper No. 45: Meteorological Drought,” was there even a complex mathematical definition of drought. …

Altimetry For The Future: Building On 25 Years Of Progress, Saleh Abdalla, Abdolnabi Kolahchi, Micheal Ablain, Susheel Adusumilli, Suchandra Aich Bhowmick, Eva Alou-Font, Laiba Amarouche, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Edward Zaron, Multiple Additional Authors

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the …

From Hector Mine M7.1 To Ridgecrest M7.1 Earthquake. A Look From A 20-Year Perspective, Sergey Pulinets, Marina Tsidilina, Dimitar Ouzounov, Dmitry Davidenko

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The paper provides a comparative analysis of precursory phenomena in the ionosphere and atmosphere for two strong earthquakes of the same magnitude M7.1 that happened in the same region (North-East from Los Angeles) within a time span of 20 years, the Hector Mine and Ridgecrest earthquakes. Regardless of the similarity of their location (South-Eastern California, near 160 km one from another), there was one essential difference: the Hector Mine earthquake happened during geomagnetically disturbed conditions (essential in the sense of ionospheric precursors identification). In contrast, the quiet geomagnetic conditions characterized the period around the time of the Ridgecrest earthquake. The …

Estimated 2020 Co2 Emission Reductions In Virginia’S Transportation Sector From Covid-19, Eden E. Rakes, Pamela R. Grothe, Jeremy S. Hoffman

Virginia Journal of Science

The initial lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic presented an unfortunate opportunity to observe how abrupt, large-scale changes in traffic volume can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study explores how carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from Virginia’s transportation sector may have been affected by the changes in activity stemming from COVID-19 to inform more carbon-neutral policies as the state recovers from the economic downfall. Emission savings were calculated by multiplying the percent change from 2019 to 2020 in traffic volume from the Virginia Department of Transportation with the business-as-usual 2020 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimate of CO₂ emissions …

Flash Drought Onset Over The Contiguous United States: Sensitivity Of Inventories And Trends To Quantitative Definitions, Mahmoud Osman, Bejamin F. Zaitchik, Hamada S. Badr, Jordan I. Christian, Tsegaye Tadesse, Jason A. Otkin, Martha C. Anderson

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The term “flash drought” is frequently invoked to describe droughts that develop rapidly over a relatively short timescale. Despite extensive and growing research on flash drought processes, predictability, and trends, there is still no standard quantitative definition that encompasses all flash drought characteristics and pathways. Instead, diverse definitions have been proposed, supporting wide-ranging studies of flash drought but creating the potential for confusion as to what the term means and how to characterize it. Use of different definitions might also lead to different conclusions regarding flash drought frequency, predictability, and trends under climate change. In this study, we compared five …

Multi-Source Eo For Dynamic Wetland Mapping And Monitoring In The Great Lakes Basin, Michael Battaglia, Sarah Banks, Amir Behnamian, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Wetland managers, citizens and government leaders are observing rapid changes in coastal wetlands and associated habitats around the Great Lakes Basin due to human activity and climate variability. SAR and optical satellite sensors offer cost effective management tools that can be used to monitor wetlands over time, covering large areas like the Great Lakes and providing information to those making management and policy decisions. In this paper we describe ongoing efforts to monitor dynamic changes in wetland vegetation, surface water extent, and water level change. Included are assessments of simulated Radarsat Constellation Mission data to determine feasibility of continued monitoring …

A Reimagining Of The Chacoan World, Larry Benson, Richard W. Loose

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A new paradigm of the Chacoan world is presented, wherein Chaco Canyon is considered to be a mostly unoccupied architectural complex that functioned primarily as a pilgrimage destination. Chaco was the political, religious, and social focal point of people living in outlying regions. The resident population of the Canyon consisted of a small number of caretakers, charged with maintaining great house structures, food supplies, and their ceremonial contents. Chacoan chiefdoms were mostly located in large, well-watered, agriculturally-based communities situated at the base of mountains that ring the San Juan Basin, e.g., the Chuskas. Chiefly elites lived year-round in those areas, …

Coastal Watershed Monitoring And Management: Geomorphology, Geochemistry, And Hydrologic Modeling Of Los Peñasquitos Creek, Ca, Ravleen Khalsa-Basra

Theses

Rivers in semi-arid climates are directly influenced by local geographic and hydrologic conditions and impacted by modifications to hydrology via urbanization. Changes can influence erosion, morphology, habitat sustainability, and watershed health. In highly urbanized southern California coastal regions, these rare open spaces provide vital ecosystem services. Los Peñasquitos Creek in San Diego County is one such watershed. Using stream surveying and laboratory methods we quantified channel characteristics, grain size distribution, total metal concentration [M], organic carbon (%OC), and phosphate to longitudinally characterize the creek for improved management. Results identified three distinct reaches in the watershed (upper, middle, lower). Downstream, depth …

Relationship Between Individual Chamber And Whole Shell Mg/Ca Ratios In Trilobatus Sacculifer And Implications For Individual Foraminifera Palaeoceanographic Reconstructions, Gerald T. Rustic, Pratigya J. Polissar, Ana Christina Ravelo, Peter Demenocal

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

Precisely targeted measurements of trace elements using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) reveal inter-chamber heterogeneities in specimens of the planktic foraminifer Trilobatus (Globigerinoides) sacculifer. We find that Mg/Ca ratios in the final growth chamber are generally lower compared to previous growth chambers, but final chamber Mg/Ca is elevated in one of thirteen sample intervals. Differences in distributions of Mg/Ca values from separate growth chambers are observed, occurring most often at lower Mg/Ca values, suggesting that single-chamber measurements may not be reflective of the specimen’s integrated Mg/Ca. We compared LA-ICPMS Mg/Ca values to paired, same-individual Mg/Ca measured via …

Valuation Of Drought Information: Understanding The Value Of The Us Drought Monitor In Land Management, Tingting Liu, Richard Krop, Tonya Haigh, Kelly Helm Smith, Mark D. Svoboda

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts affect recreation and tourism, grazing, forests, and timber, and can have important indirect effects for the ecosystems and species that rely on water. Despite its importance, the effect of drought in the land management sector is less understood than in other water-intensive sectors, such as agriculture and public water supplies. This study presents the first-ever estimates of the economic valuation of the information provided by the U.S. Drought Monitor using the avoided cost method. These estimates are based on the time and labor saved by using the U.S. Drought Monitor rather than compiling drought-related information from other sources, or …

Exploiting Common Senses: Sensory Ecology Meets Wildlife Conservation And Management, Laura K. Elmer, Christine L. Madliger, Daniel T. Blumstein, Chris K. Elvidge, Esteban Ernández-Juricic, Andrij Z. Horodysky, Nicholas S. Johnson, Liam P. Mcguire, Ronald R. Swaisgood, Steven J. Cooke

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Multidisciplinary approaches to conservation and wildlife management are often effective in addressing complex, multi-factor problems. Emerging fields such as conservation physiology and conservation behaviour can provide innovative solutions and management strategies for target species and systems. Sensory ecology combines the study of ‘how animals acquire’ and process sensory stimuli from their environments, and the ecological and evolutionary significance of ‘how animals respond’ to this information. We review the benefits that sensory ecology can bring to wildlife conservation and management by discussing case studies across major taxa and sensory modalities. Conservation practices informed by a sensory ecology approach include the amelioration …

Bioscatter Transport By Tropical Cyclones: Insights From 10 Years In The Atlantic Basin, Matthew S. Van Den Broeke

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Tropical cyclones (TCs) can transport birds and insects near their center of circulation. In this study, we examined the maximum altitude, area and density of the radar-derived bioscatter signature across a set of 42 TC centers of circulation sampled from 2011 to 2020. All TC events contained at least one time when a bioscatter signature was present. More intense hurricanes with closed eyes typically had taller and denser bioscatter signatures, and sometimes larger areas dominated by bioscatter. This indicated a larger number of organisms within the circulation of more intense hurricanes, supporting the speculation that those storms were most likely …

Long Island Horseshoe Crab Network Annual Inventory Report, Cercom, Molloy University, John Tanacredi Ph.D., Kyle F. Maurelli

CERCOM Reports

CERCOM monitors 115 beach locations from Brooklyn – Montauk during optimal Limulus Polyphemus breeding season. These beach surveys take place for approximately 15 weeks, ranging from May- August. These beach locations are marked specifically using GPS coordinates, to assure the same location is visited each year. Students and volunteers are required to attend a HSC Survey training orientation lead by CERCOM’s research assistant, Mr. Kyle Maurelli. Surveying is done around tide and moon cycles (New/Full Moon). Each site takes about 1-2 hours and data is recorded along an approximate 1 mile distance. Walking along the water’s edge the number of …

Ranchers’ Use Of Drought Contingency Plans In Protective Action Decision Making, Tonya Haigh, Michael Hayes, Jolene Smyth, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Charles A. Francis, Mark Burbach

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought contingency planning is an increasingly common tool in the ranchers’ climate adaptation toolboxes, but its effect on drought response has not yet been evaluated. We use cognitive models of protective action decision making and planning to explore the effects of having a drought plan on the use of drought early warning information and drought response (and timing). Results of a cross-sectional, probability-based survey of livestock producers affected by a 2016 flash-drought are used to describe the characteristics of operations with drought plans and provide evidence of whether having a plan predicts drought information use and response. While larger operations …

The Impact Of Initial Snow Conditions On The Numerical Weather Simulation Of A Northern Rockies Atmospheric River, William Rudisill, Alejandro Flores, James Mcnamara

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Snow’s thermal and radiative properties strongly impact the land surface energy balance and thus the atmosphere above it. Land surface snow information is poorly known in mountainous regions. Few studies have examined the impact of initial land surface snow conditions in high-resolution, convection-permitting numerical weather prediction models during the midlatitude cool season. The extent to which land surface snow influences atmospheric energy transport and subsequent surface meteorological states is tested using a high-resolution (1 km) configuration of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, for both calm conditions and weather characteristic of a warm late March atmospheric river. A set …

Whose Ground Truth Is It? Harvesting Lessons From Missouri’S 2018 Bumper Crop Of Drought Observations, Kelly Helm Smith, Mark E. Burbach, Michael Hayes, Patrick Guinan, Andrew Tyre, Brian Fuchs, Tonya Haigh, Mark Svoboda

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought-related decision-making and policy should go beyond numeric hydrometeorological data to incorporate information on how drought affects people, livelihoods, and ecosystems. The effects of drought are nested within environmental and human systems, and relevant data may not exist in readily accessible form. For example, drought may reduce forage growth, compounded by both late-season freezes and management decisions. An effort to gather crowdsourced drought observations in Missouri in 2018 yielded a much higher number of observations than did previous related efforts. Here we examine 1) the interests, circumstances, history, and recruitment messaging that coincided to produce a high number of reports …

Tweetdrought: A Deep-Learning Drought Impacts Recognizer Based On Twitter Data, Beichen Zhang, Frank Schilder, Kelly Helm Smith, Michael Hayes, Sherri Harms, Tsegaye Tadesse

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Acquiring a better understanding of drought impacts becomes increasingly vital under a warming climate. Traditional drought indices describe mainly biophysical variables and not impacts on social, economic, and environmental systems. We utilized natural language processing and bidirectional encoder representation from Transformers (BERT) based transfer learning to fine-tune the model on the data from the news-based Drought Impact Report (DIR) and then apply it to recognize seven types of drought impacts based on the filtered Twitter data from the United States. Our model achieved a satisfying macro-F1 score of 0.89 on the DIR test set. The model was then applied to …

Developing A Strategy For The National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network, Michael H. Cosh, Todd G. Caldwell, C. Bruce Baker, John D. Bolten, Nathan Edwards, Peter Goble, Heather Hofman, Tyson E. Ochsner, Steven Quiring, Charles Schalk, Marina Skumanich, Mark D. Svoboda, Mary E. Woloszyn

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Soil moisture is a critical land surface variable, affecting a wide variety of climatological, agricultural, and hydrological processes. Determining the current soil moisture status is possible via a variety of methods, including in situ monitoring, remote sensing, and numerical modeling. Although all of these approaches are rapidly evolving, there is no cohesive strategy or framework to integrate these diverse information sources to develop and disseminate coordinated national soil moisture products that will improve our ability to understand climate variability. The National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network initiative has developed a national strategy for network coordination with NOAA’s National Integrated Drought …

Evaluation Of Remotely Sensed Precipitation Estimates From The Nasa Power Project For Drought Detection Over Jordan, Muhammad Rasool Al‑Kilani, Michel Rahbeh, Jawad Al‑Bakri, Tsegaye Tadesse, Cody Knutson

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts can cause devastating impacts on water and land resources and therefore monitoring these events forms an integral part of planning. The most common approach for detecting drought events and assessing their intensity is use of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which requires abundant precipitation records at good spatial distribution. This may restrict SPI usage in many regions around the world, particularly in areas with limited numbers of ground meteorological stations. Therefore, the use of remotely sensed derived data of precipitation can contribute to drought monitoring. In this study, remotely sensed precipitation estimates from the POWER/Agroclimatology archive of NASA and …

New Hampshire Continental Shelf Geophysical Database: 2002-2005 Jeffreys Ledge Field Campaign – Seafloor Photographs And Sediment Data, Larry G. Ward, Raymond E. Grizzle, Rachel C. Morrison

Data Catalog

Jeffreys Ledge is a major physiographic feature in the western Gulf of Maine (WGOM) located ~50 km off the coast of New Hampshire, although coming within ~10 km of shore by Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Jeffreys Ledge rises up as much as ~150 m from the seafloor of the adjacent basins (i.e., Scantum Basin or Wilkinson Basin) to depths less than 50 m on the ridge surface. The ridge extends over 100 km along its north-northeast to south-southwest axes while generally only being 5 to 10 km in width (~20 km maximum). Jeffreys Ledge and the surrounding region, like many features …

Managing For Radical Ecosystem Change: Applying The Resist-Accept- Direct (Rad) Framework, Abigail J. Lynch, Laura M. Thompson, Erik A. Beever, David N. Cole, Augustin C. Engman, Cat Hawkins Hoffman, Stephen T. Jackson, Trevor J. Krabbenhoft, David J. Lawrence, Douglas Limpinsel, Robert T. Magill, Tracy A. Melvin, John M. Morton, Robert A. Newman, Jay O. Peterson, Mark T. Porath, Frank J. Rahel, Gregor W. Schuurman, Suresh A. Sethi, Jennifer L. Wilkening

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Ecosystem transformation involves the emergence of persistent ecological or social–ecological systems that diverge, dramatically and irreversibly, from prior ecosystem structure and function. Such transformations are occurring at increasing rates across the planet in response to changes in climate, land use, and other factors. Consequently, a dynamic view of ecosystem processes that accommodates rapid, irreversible change will be critical for effectively conserving fish, wildlife, and other natural resources, and maintaining ecosystem services. However, managing ecosystems toward states with novel structure and function is an inherently unpredictable and difficult task. Managers navigating ecosystem transformation can benefit from considering broader objectives, beyond a …

Long-Term African Dust Delivery To The Eastern Atlantic Ocean From The Sahara And Sahel Regions: Evidence From Quaternary Paleosols On The Canary Islands, Spain, Daniel R. Muhs, Joaquín Meco, James R. Budahn, Gary L. Skipp, Kathleen R. Simmons, Matthew C. Baddock, Juan F. Betancourt, Alejandro Lomoschitz

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Africa is the most important source of dust in the world today and dust storms from that continent frequently deposit sediment on the nearby Canary Islands. Many investigators have inferred African dust inputs to Canary Islands paleosols based only on the presence of quartz. However, some local rocks do contain this mineral, so quartz alone is insufficient proof of dust deposition. Further, it is not known whether the Sahara Desert or the Sahel region is more important as a dust source. We address these issues by study of sequences of Pleistocene aeolian sands on the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. …

Eolian Sediments, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Eolian (windblown) sediments form some of the world’s most dramatic landscapes and comprise important parts of the geologic record. This article reviews the characteristics, origins, and significance of eolian deposits, including windblown sand, silt, and dust.

Landforms composed of eolian sand, either as dunes or sand sheets, occupy substantial areas over the surface of the Earth (perhaps as much as 6% globally, but over ~20% of the world’s arid zones, according to Pye and Tsoar, 2009). Low-latitude arid or semiarid regions, usually under the influence of subtropical high-pressure cells, are some of the largest areas of eolian sand accumulation (Lancaster, …

Ecology Of An Isolated Muskrat Population During Regional Population Declines, Laken S. Ganoe, Matthew J. Lovallo, Justin D. Brown, W. David Walter

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Evidence indicating a decline in Ondatra zibethicus (Muskrat) populations in the United States during the past 40 years has led to speculation regarding factors influencing Muskrat survival. In order to understand population dynamics and survival, it is important to first define the ecology of local populations. We investigated the dwelling structure use, movements, home range, and survival of radio-tagged Muskrats (n = 14) in an urban wetland complex in central Pennsylvania. We used locations collected from intensive radio-telemetry monitoring to determine number of lodging structures used, hourly movement, and size and percent area overlap of home ranges. Muskrats shared …

Quantifying Model Structural Uncertainty Using Airborne Electromagnetic Data, Burke J. Minsley, Nathan Leon Foks, Paul A. Bedrosian

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The ability to quantify structural uncertainty in geological models that incorporate geophysical data is affected by two primary sources of uncertainty: geophysical parameter uncertainty and uncertainty in the relationship between geophysical parameters and geological properties of interest. Here, we introduce an open-source, trans-dimensional Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (McMC) algorithm GeoBIPy—Geophysical Bayesian Inference in Python—for robust uncertainty analysis of time-domain or frequency-domain airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data. The McMC algorithm provides a robust assessment of geophysical parameter uncertainty using a trans-dimensional approach that lets the AEM data inform the level of model complexity necessary by allowing the number of model layers …

Elemental And Radionuclide Exposures And Uptakes By Small Rodents, Invertebrates, And Vegetation At Active And Post-Production Uranium Mines In The Grand Canyon Watershed, Danielle Cleveland, Jo Ellen Hinck, Julia S. Lankton

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The effects of breccia pipe uranium mining in the Grand Canyon watershed (Arizona) on ecological and cultural resources are largely unknown. We characterized the exposure of biota to uranium and cooccurring ore body elements during active ore production and at a site where ore production had recently concluded. Our results indicate that biota have taken up uranium and other elements (e.g., arsenic, cadmium, copper, molybdenum, uranium) from exposure to ore and surficial contamination, like blowing dust. Results indicate the potential for prolonged exposure to elements and radionuclides upon conclusion of active ore production. Mean radium-226 in deer mice was up …

Great South Bay, Long Island, New York Summer Phytoplankton Identification & Monitoring Program, Cercom, Molloy University, John Tanacredi Ph.D., Kyle F. Maurelli

CERCOM Reports

Phytoplankton Collection Methodologies: 80 micron Plankton Tow Net with sample bottle attachment

Phytoplankton Protocol: 1.Gather Samples 2.Make one slide per sample 3.View slides using microscope connected with computer 4. Record findings using “ Row # “ and “ Colum letter “ 5. Record using “ Tally’s “ per species found within sample 6. Capture anything interesting “ Take Picture “ 7.Duplicate pictures taken 8.Make sure measurement of species found is taken 9. Email Jennifer Maucher at [email protected] , include pictures, questions and names of the species you “guess” you found.

Lift In The Vertical Shear Of Southerly Jet Embedded In A Uniform Westerly Flow, Qi Hu, George Limpert

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

A new mechanism is proposed as a potential cause for the one-third of warm season severe nocturnal convection in the U.S. Great Plains that develops in environments without the presence of air mass boundaries of fronts or mesoscale systems. This mechanism is tested in two- and three dimensional models. Results show strong ascent (~1.0 m/s) sufficient for nocturnal convection initiation, arising from interactions of mean westerly zonal wind with the vertical shear of a northern vortex and also perturbation westerly winds that are created by the Coriolis torque on the Great Plains southerly low-level jet. The interaction involving the northern …