Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Ecosystem Processes, Land Cover, Climate, And Human Settlement Shape Dynamic Distributions For Golden Eagle Across The Western Us, J.D. Tack, Barry R. Noon, Zachary Bowen, Brad C. Fedy

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Species–environment relationships for highly mobile species outside of the breeding season are often highly dynamic in response to the collective effects of everchanging climatic conditions, food resources, and anthropogenic disturbance. Capturing dynamic space-use patterns in a model-based framework is critical as model inference often drives place-based conservation planning. We applied dynamic occupancy models to broad-scale golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos survey data collected annually from 2006 to 2012 during the late summer post-fledging period in the western US. We defined survey sites as 10 km transect segments with a 1 km buffer on either transect side (n = 3540). Derived estimates …

Human-Associated Species Dominate Passerine Communities Across The United States, Helen R. Sofaer, Curtis H. Flather, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Kristin P. Davis

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Aim: Human development and agriculture can have transformative and homogenizing effects on natural systems, shifting the composition of ecological communities towards non-native and native species that tolerate or thrive under human-dominated conditions. These impacts cannot be fully captured by summarizing species presence, as they include dramatic changes to patterns of species abundance. However, how human land use patterns and species invasions intersect to shape patterns of abundance and dominance within ecological communities is poorly understood even in well-known taxa.

Location: Conterminous United States.

Time period: 2010–2012.

Major taxa studied: Passeriformes.

Methods: We analyse continental-scale monitoring data to study the proportional …

Acoustic Space Occupancy: Combining Ecoacoustics And Lidar To Model Biodiversity Variation And Detection Bias Across Heterogeneous Landscapes, Danielle I. Rappaport, J. Andrew Royle, Douglas C. Morton

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

There is global interest in quantifying changing biodiversity in human-modified landscapes. Ecoacoustics may offer a promising pathway for supporting multi-taxa monitoring, but its scalability has been hampered by the sonic complexity of biodiverse ecosystems and the imperfect detectability of animal-generated sounds. The acoustic signature of a habitat, or soundscape, contains information about multiple taxa and may circumvent species identification, but robust statistical technology for characterizing community-level attributes is lacking. Here, we present the Acoustic Space Occupancy Model, a flexible hierarchical framework designed to account for detection artifacts from acoustic surveys in order to model biologically relevant variation in acoustic space …

Characterization Of Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus Albus) Spawning Habitat In The Lower Missouri River, Caroline M. Elliott, Aaron J. Delonay, Kimberly Chojnacki, Robert B. Jacobson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Acipenseriformes (sturgeons and paddlefish) globally have declined throughout their range due to river fragmentation, habitat loss, overfishing, and degradation of water quality. In North America, pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) populations have experienced poor to no recruitment, or substantial levels of hybridization with the closely related shovelnose sturgeon (S. platorynchus). The Lower Missouri River is the only portion of the species’ range where successful reproduction and recruitment of genetically pure pallid sturgeon have been documented. This paper documents spawning habitat and behavior on the Lower Missouri River, which comprises over 1,300 km of unfragmented river habitat. The …

Late Quaternary Sea-Level History Of Saipan, Commonwealth Of The Northern Mariana Islands, Usa: A Test Of Tectonic Uplift And Glacial Isostatic Adjustment Models, Daniel R. Muhs, Eugene S. Schweig, Kathleen R. Simmons

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

In 1979, S. Uyeda and H. Kanamori proposed a tectonic model with two end members of a subduction-boundary continuum: the “Chilean” type (shallow dip of the subducting plate, great thrust events, compression, and uplift of the overriding plate) and a “Mariana” type (steep dip of the subducting plate, no great thrust events, tension, and no uplift). This concept has been used to explain variable rates of Quaternary uplift around the Pacific Rim, yet no uplift rates have been determined for the Mariana Islands themselves, one of the end members in this model. We studied the late Quaternary Tanapag Limestone, which …

Microbial Degradability Of Terrigenous, Marsh-Exported, And Estuarine Colored Dissolved Organic Matter In Long Island Sound, John R. Supino

Dissertations and Theses

The Long Island Sound is one of the world's most urbanized estuaries, polluted from excess nutrients which impact the quality of water through increased biological productivity. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a sensitive indicator of anthropogenic pollution and nutrient enrichment in coastal waters as well as an important part of the carbon cycle and serves as a primary food source for aquatic food webs. Additionally, the colored portion of DOM (CDOM) impacts coastal optical properties, ocean color, and light attenuation. High levels of CDOM have been shown to inhibit the growth of phytoplankton and limit photosynthesis, damaging the food chain …

Dissolved Organic Matter Movement Across Lake Superior’S Terrestrial-Stream-Coastal Interface, Karl M. Meingast

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) represents a carbon pool that can be easily translocated between ecosystems with the movement of water. This study examines the controls on DOM quantity and character delivered to Lake Superior primarily during the snowmelt period. We employed long-term stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) data to determine quantity as well as absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy to analyze DOM structure. Our results indicate that an increasing trend in DOC concentrations, likely driven by decreases in acidity of precipitation, combined with slightly less annual runoff have resulted in relatively constant fluxes of DOM to Lake Superior. Additionally, our study …

Estimating Paleotemperatures In The Amundsen Sea For The Last 620,000 Years Through Diatom Morphometrics (Iodp Expedition 379), Joseph Robert Mastro

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

As global climate continues to rapidly change over the coming decades, West Antarctica will continue to be a significant area of concern due to its susceptibility to marine ice sheet collapse. Past collapses during Pleistocene interglacials have been hypothesized but uncertainty exists with respect to the precise timing of specific collapse events. Drill core samples collected from the Amundsen Sea continental rise during IODP Expedition 379 allow for analysis of a more continuous record of Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles. Here we report paleotemperature estimates from the Amundsen Sea spanning the last 620 kyr with the objective of identifying likely late Pleistocene …

Larger-Scale Ocean-Atmospheric Patterns Drive Synergistic Variability And World-Wide Volatility Of Wheat Yields, Ehsan Najafi, Indrani Pal, Reza Khanbilvardi

Advanced Science Research Center

Diagnosing potential predictability of global crop yields in the near term is of utmost importance for ensuring food supply and preventing socio-economic consequences. Previous studies suggest that a substantial proportion of global wheat yield variability depends on local climate and larger-scale ocean-atmospheric patterns. The science is however at its infancy to address whether synergistic variability and volatility (major departure from the normal) of multi-national crop yields can be potentially predicted by larger-scale climate drivers. Here, using observed data on wheat yields for 85 producing countries and climate variability from 1961–2013, we diagnose that wheat yields vary synergistically across key producing …

Atmospheric And Ionospheric Responses To Acoustic And Gravity Waves Driven By Earthquakes And Tsunamis, Pavel A. Inchin

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Natural hazards (NHs) are causes for significant concern due to their potentially catastrophic impacts on society. The study of their effects on the upper atmosphere can provide significant insight into the coupled nature of geophysical processes, and drives important applications for radio communication and navigation, leading potentially to the development of NH early-warning systems. Although general concepts underlying their coupling mechanisms are well understood, recent computational capabilities, supported by high temporal and spatial density of observations, have reached the level where such processes can be modeled with unprecedented realism for detailed case studies. The studies provided in this thesis are …

Investigating Diel, Seasonal, And Interannual Variability Of Dissolved And Particulate Stable Carbon Isotope Values In A Eutrophic Boreal Lake, Rachel Henderson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Lakes are globally significant sources, sinks, and conduits of carbon. Cultural eutrophication of freshwater promotes the growth of phytoplankton blooms, which can transform, respire, and sequester large amounts of carbon. Analysis of stable carbon isotopes is a common tool to study the movement of carbon through the aquatic carbon cycle. The causes of temporal variability in δ¹³C values at different timescales are not well understood, and differ between lakes. In this study, I investigated diel, seasonal, and interannual variability in δ¹³C values of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) in Lake 227, an …

Assessing The Accuracy Of A Uav Snow Depth Survey: Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska Calm Grid, Ian Nichols

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Active layer depth and snow depth are annually collected across the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) Network to observe the response of the active layer and near-surface permafrost to climate change over decadal-time scales. Snow depth is typically measured using a graduated steel probe at each grid node but, in this paper, we explore the viability of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (drone) technology to collect snow depth measurements at the 1 km² Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska CALM grid. This is achieved by comparing estimated UAV snow depths to measured snow depths collected using a MagnaProbe (MP) at each of …

Reconstructing Hydrologic Conditions And Metals Supplied By The Peace River To The Peace-Athabasca Delta, Jelle André Faber

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD) in northern Alberta, Canada, is recognized internationally for its ecological, historical, and cultural significance. The delta is mostly within Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. The construction of the WAC Bennett Dam (1967) and the Site C Dam (ongoing, 2024) on the Peace River, and expansion of the Alberta Oil Sands industry along the Athabasca River have raised concerns over water quantity and quality in the delta. When industry operations began, effective monitoring had not been implemented. Consequently, pre-industrial reference conditions are unknown and can …

Land Cover Change Detection In The Urban Catchments Of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Using Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques, Philip Mzava, Joel Nobert, Patrick Valimba

Tanzania Journal of Science

In this study, the Maximum Likelihood (ML) classification, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) methods were applied to three (3) Landsat images collected over time (1979, 1998 and 2014), that contained historical land cover features for the urban catchments of Dar es Salaam. Five major land cover classes were identified, mapped, and the land cover changes investigated. The major land cover changes observed from post-classification comparisons of the classified images are: the forest land losing 17.09% of its area in the period 1979-1998 to other land covers, mainly turning to grassland, and from 1998 to 2014, …

Estimating Carbon Flux From Optically Recording Total Particle Volume At Depths Below The Primary Pycnocline, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Robert B. Dunbar, Dennis A. Hansell, Gerhard J. Herndl

OES Faculty Publications

Optical instruments can rapidly determine numbers and characteristics of water column particles with high sensitivity. Here we show the usefulness of optically assessed total particle volume below the main pycnocline to estimate carbon export in two systems: the open subarctic North Atlantic and the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Both regions exhibit seasonally high phytoplankton production and efficient export (i.e., a strong biological pump). Total particle volumes in the mesopelagic (200-300 m) were significantly correlated with those in the overlying surface mixed layer (50-60 m), indicating that most particles at depth reflect export from the surface. This connectivity, however, is modulated by …

A Climatology Of Snowpack In The Southern Rocky Mountains And Snow To Liquid Ratio Forecasting Techniques Using Model Generated Soundings From The Rapid Refresh Model, Carson Jones

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

Mountainous snowpack represents up to 70% of the total water resources for areas in the western United States. Temperature and precipitation control the accumulation and ablation of the snowpack throughout the cold season, both of which are subject to a changing climate. This study will use a network of snow telemetry (SNOTEL) stations to investigate changes in the snowpack season, snow water equivalent (SWE), and temperature in the southern Rocky Mountain region. Additionally, this study will use model generated soundings from the Rapid Refresh (RAP) model to establish relationships between the depth and cloud proportion of ice crystal growth layers, …

Temporally Consistent Urban-Rural Delineations For Global Urban Heat Island Monitoring, Tc Chakraborty

Yale Day of Data

Urbanization leads to local-scale modification of climate, particularly the urban heat island (UHI) effect - the high temperature in cities compared to their surroundings. The UHI effect is generally quantified by measuring the temperature differential between the city and its surrounding rural reference. Choices of both the city and the rural reference are prone to assumptions, which may affect, among other things, temporal variability in UHI intensity. To reduce these uncertainties, I create a global dataset of urban-rural delineations that can be used to better constrain the temporal trends in UHI intensity throughout the globe using the European Space Agency's …

Increased Fluvial Runoff Terminated Inorganic Aragonite Precipitation On The Northwest Shelf Of Australia During The Early Holocene, Maximilian Hallenberger, Lars Reuning, Stephen J. Gallagher, Stefan Back, Takeshige Ishiwa, Beth A. Christensen, Kara Bogus

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

Inorganic precipitation of aragonite is a common process within tropical carbonate environments. Across the Northwest Shelf of Australia (NWS) such precipitates were abundant in the late Pleistocene, whereas present-day sedimentation is dominated by calcitic bioclasts. This study presents sedimentological and geochemical analyses of core data retrieved from the upper 13 meters of IODP Site U1461 that provide a high-resolution sedimentary record of the last ~15 thousand years. Sediments that formed from 15 to 10.1 ka BP are aragonitic and characterised by small needles (<5 >µm) and ooids. XRF elemental proxy data indicate that these sediments developed under arid conditions in …

Umphlett Qci Dec 2019, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Soil Moisture Conditions

Agriculture

Energy

Infrastructure

Temperature

Precipitation

Vegetation Classification And Mapping, Missouri National Recreational River, Tom Baldvins, Matt Ley, David Jones, Joe Stevens, Hannah Pilkington

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The vegetation inventory project at Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR) classified and mapped vegetation within the park administrative boundary and estimated thematic map accuracy quantitatively. The project was conducted over a four year period from the summer of 2015 to the winter of 2019.

The project follows guidance provided by the National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Mapping Inventory (VMI) Program. The overall process includes initial planning and scoping, imagery procurement, field data collection, data analysis, imagery interpretation and classification, and accuracy assessment. The initial planning and scoping meetings to support study plan development took place in December, 2009, …

Growth Phase Proteomics Of The Heterotrophic Marine Bacterium Ruegeria Pomeroyi, Dasha Krayushkina, Emma Timmins-Schiffman, Jessica Faux, Damon H. May, Michael Riffle, H. Rodger Harvey, Brook L. Nunn

OES Faculty Publications

The heterotrophic marine bacterium, Ruegeria pomeroyi, was experimentally cultured under environmentally realistic carbon conditions and with a tracer-level addition of ¹³C-labeled leucine to track bacterial protein biosynthesis through growth phases. A combination of methods allowed observation of real-time bacterial protein production to understand metabolic priorities through the different growth phases. Over 2000 proteins were identified in each experimental culture from exponential and stationary growth phases. Within two hours of the ¹³C-labeled leucine addition, R. pomeroyi significantly assimilated the newly encountered substrate into new proteins. This dataset provides a fundamental baseline for understanding growth phase differences in molecular …

Temporal And Spatial Scales Of Correlation In Marine Phytoplankton Communities, A. M. Kuhn, S. Dutkiewicz, O. Jahn, Sophie Clayton, T. A. Rynearson, M. R. Mazloff, A. D. Barton

OES Faculty Publications

Ocean circulation shapes marine phytoplankton communities by setting environmental conditions and dispersing organisms. In addition, processes acting on the water column (e.g., heat fluxes and mixing) affect the community structure by modulating environmental variables that determine in situ growth and loss rates. Understanding the scales over which phytoplankton communities vary in time and space is key to elucidate the relative contributions of local processes and ocean circulation on phytoplankton distributions. Using a global ocean ecosystem model, we quantify temporal and spatial correlation scales for phytoplankton phenotypes with diverse functional traits and cell sizes. Through this analysis, we address these questions: …

Evidence Of Limited Recruitment Of Pallid Sturgeon In The Lower Missouri River, Kirk D. Steffensen, Kimberly Chojnacki, Jeffrey A. Kalie, Meredith L. Bartron, Edward J. Heist, Kyle R. Winders, Nathan C. Loecker, Wyatt J. Doyle, Timothy L. Welker

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Pallid Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus are endemic to the Missouri and Mississippi river basins and are rare throughout their range. The species was listed as federally endangered with little to no evidence of natural recruitment. Since population augmentation was initiated as a recovery objective in the early 1990s, thousands of hatchery-origin Pallid Sturgeon have been stocked in the lower Missouri River (Gavins Point Dam [river kilometer 1,305.1] to the confluence of the Mississippi River [river kilometer 0.0]). Efforts to discriminate natural reproduction and recruitment of wild-origin Pallid Sturgeon from hatchery-origin fish has been hampered by tag loss in hatchery-origin sturgeon, inconsistent …

Histological Evidence Of Annual And Lunar Reproductive Rhythms Of Atlantic Sea Urchin, Arbacia Punctulata In The Gulf Of Mexico: Changes In Nutritive Phagocytes In Relation To Gametogenesis, Eleazar Hernandez Ii

Theses and Dissertations

Environmental phenomena such as temperature, photoperiod, tidal cycle, and lunar rhythm act as external cues that stimulate the reproductive activity of marine organisms. In this study, I report the annual and lunar reproductive cycles, and changes in nutritive phagocytes (NPs) in relation to gonadal maturation of Atlantic sea urchin (Arbacia punctulata, a primeval species). Monthly and weekly changes in gonadal development/maturation were observed histologically. In male, the testicular lobules were densely packed with sperm from June to August. In female, on the other hand, mature eggs first appeared in some ovaries in May, numerically increased from June to …

Examining The Effects Of Greenland Ice Sheet Melting And Atlantic Meridional Shutdown On The Climate Of Scandinavia And The British Isles, Tyler Lemburg

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

Earth’s climate has been rapidly changing over the last hundred years, and its global average temperature is rising. However, climate change is far more complicated than a simple increase in temperature. For example, it is theorized that certain regions of Earth, including Scandinavia and the British Isles, could actually become cooler through ongoing climate change processes. Two of these processes are Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) melting, and slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This research examines if climate change, through GrIS melting and AMOC slowdown, could contribute to cooler, instead of warmer, temperatures in Scandinavia and the British …

The Role Of Sediment Resuspension In Estuarine Inorganic Nutrient Cycling, Kirsten Jo Ayres

Theses and Dissertations

Time-scaling of estuarine inorganic nitrogen cycling contains many assumptions due to biogeochemical interactions. Nitrogen, often a limiting factor for primary production, is transformed and utilized by many estuarine organisms. Inorganic nitrogen is especially high in porewater. High nutrient pore water, contained within the interstitial spaces of sediment, has been assumed to influx high concentrations of inorganic nutrients into surface waters during resuspension events. These short-term resuspension events rapidly introducing high concentration of nutrients into the water column. In order to determine the internal time scale of inorganic nitrogen cycling, a box-model nutrient budget, horizontal in situ transects, and vertical nutrient …

Enabling High Quality Oxygen Measurements During Robotic Based Studies Of Ocean Ecological And Biogeochemical Processes, Brianna A. Alanis

Theses and Dissertations

Dissolved oxygen is an essential parameter necessary for understanding marine ecological and biogeochemical processes. New robotic vehicles and autonomous platforms are being applied to an even wider range of ecological and biogeochemical studies. Thus, arises the opportunity for matching the best possible oxygen sensing techniques and methods to these new platforms. In so doing, we can enable both more targeted and higher resolution oxygen measurements than previously possible and potentially use oxygen measurements for a wider range of applications, including in situ incubation experiments and primary productivity measurements. This thesis tested three different oxygen sensors in a trade study for …

A Sinking Feeling: The Fate Of Concrete Pyramids Deployed In Artificial Reefs In The Texas Gulf Of Mexico, Cameron J. Moody

Theses and Dissertations

The deployment of 2,611 concrete pyramids in Texas gulf waters represents a significant undertaking. In collaboration with Texas Parks and Wildlife, bathymetric sidescan data was collected at three reefs hit by Hurricane Harvey from 2017 to 2019. All reefs lost significant pyramid height between 2017 and 2019. The pyramids demonstrated greater subsidence in the year when Harvey occurred and minimal subsidence the following year. Pyramids that moved outside the reefs were due to hurricane forces and shrimp trawl activity. Pyramids that remained inside the reef remained at their deployment location for two reefs. The pyramids remaining in the third reef …

Dna Barcoding Reveals Unexpected Diversity In Octocorallia In The Northwestern Gulf Of Mexico, Chelsea L. Pavliska

Theses and Dissertations

Coral reefs are an integral tier of marine ecosystems. They provide habitat and foraging opportunities for many ecologically and economically important fishes. Protection of coral reef biodiversity and connectivity is imperative to the continued health and sustainability of marine fisheries. Mesophotic reefs, such as those found in the northwest Gulf of Mexico, have unique coral communities because of the limited light penetration at mesophotic depths (30 – 150m). Because there is limited knowledge in regards to the biodiversity of coral reefs of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (GOM), particularly the South Texas Banks (STBs), thesis work presented here aims to …

The Effect Of The 21 August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse On The Phase Of Vlf/Lf Signals, A. Rozhnoi, M. Solovieva, S. Shalimov, Dimitar Ouzounov, P. Gallagher, G. Verth, J. Mccauley, S. Shelyag, V. Fedun

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

An experimental study of the phase and amplitude observations of sub‐ionospheric very low and low frequency (VLF/LF) signals is performed to analyze the response of the lower ionosphere during the 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse in the United States of America. Three different sub‐ionospheric wave paths are investigated. The length of the paths varies from 2,200 to 6,400 km, and the signal frequencies are 21.4, 25.2, and 40.75 kHz. The two paths cross the region of the total eclipse, and the third path is in the region of 40–60% of obscuration. None of the signals reveal any noticeable amplitude …