Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Seasonal Occurrence, Relative Abundance, And Migratory Movements Of Juvenile Sandbar Sharks, Carcharhinus Plumbeus, In Winyah Bay, South Carolina, Caroline Collatos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Winyah Bay, located on the coast of South Carolina, is the fourth largest U.S. estuary by discharge rate (Voulgaris et al. 2002), and provides an annually used habitat for juvenile C. plumbeus (Abel et al. 2006, Gary 2009). From May to September 2016 and 2017, we set a total of 303 bottom longlines in middle and lower Winyah Bay to assess sex ratios, size distributions, and catch per unit effort (CPUE), as well as the potential influence of abiotic parameters on CPUE. A subset of eleven juvenile C. plumbeus was tagged with VEMCO (V16-4H) acoustic transmitters to analyze seasonal occurrence, …

Semi-Quantitative Assessment On Winyah Bay's Microplastic Contamination Levels, Samantha Ladewig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although there is much concern globally regarding microplastic contamination in aquatic environments, there is little documentation on microplastic contamination concentrations within South Carolina inland waters and coastal areas. Specifically, Winyah Bay, SC should be of high priority for microplastic contamination evaluations as it is the third largest drainage basin (47,060 km2) and the second largest (157 km2) estuarine system on the east coast of the United States. Today, the general influencing physical factors on microplastic transport are mostly known by the scientific community, however, transport and deposition patterns of microplastics heavily vary by location depending on various physical, chemical, and …

Impact Of Data Selection On The Accuracy Of Atmospheric Refractivity Inversions Performed Over Marine Surfaces, Ian Joseph Matsko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the Earth’s atmosphere there is a planetary boundary layer that extends from the surface to roughly 1 km above the surface. Within this planetary boundary layer exists the marine atmospheric boundary layer, which is a complex turbulent surface layer that extends from the sea surface to roughly 100 m in altitude. The turbulent nature of this layer combined with the interactions across the air-sea interface cause ever changing environmental conditions within it, including atmospheric properties that affect the index of refraction, or atmospheric refractivity. Variations in atmospheric refractivity lead to many types of anomalous propagation phenomena of electromagnetic (EM) …

Anatomy Of Mississippi Delta Growth And Its Implications For Coastal Restoration, Elizabeth L. Chamberlain, Torbjörn E. Törnqvist, Zhixiong Shen, Barbara Mauz, Jakob Wallinga

Marine Science

The decline of several of the world's largest deltas has spurred interest in expensive coastal restoration projects to make these economically and ecologically vital regions more sustainable. The success of these projects depends, in part, on our understanding of how delta plains evolve over time scales longer than the instrumental record. Building on a new set of optically stimulated luminescence ages, we demonstrate that a large portion (∼10,000 km²) of the late Holocene river-dominated Mississippi Delta grew in a radially symmetric fashion for almost a millennium before abandonment. Sediment was dispersed by deltaic distributaries that formed by means …

Evaluating The Water Quality Benefits Of A Bioswale In Brunswick County, North Carolina (Nc), Usa, Rebecca A. Purvis, Ryan J. Winston, William F. Hunt, Brian Lipscomb, Karthik Narayanaswamy, Andrew Mcdaniel, Matthew S. Lauffer, Susan Libes

Marine Science

Standard roadside vegetated swales often do not provide consistent pollutant removal. To increase infiltration and pollutant removal, bioswales are designed with an underlying soil media and an underdrain. However, there are little data on the ability of these stormwater control measures (SCMs) to reduce pollutant concentrations. A bioswale treating road runoff was monitored, with volume-proportional, composite stormwater runoff samples taken for the inlet, overflow, and underdrain outflow. Samples were tested for total suspended solids (TSS), total volatile suspended solids (VSS), enterococcus, E. coli, and turbidity. Underdrain flow was significantly cleaner than untreated road runoff for all monitored pollutants. As expected, …

Ensemble Projection Of The Sea Level Rise Impact On Storm Surge And Inundation At The Coast Of Bangladesh, Mansur Ali Jisan, Shaowu Bao, Leonard J. Pietrafesa

Marine Science

The hydrodynamic model Delft3D is used to study the impact of sea level rise (SLR) on storm surge and inundation in the coastal region of Bangladesh. To study the present-day inundation scenario, the tracks of two known tropical cyclones (TC) were used: Aila (Category 1; 2009) and Sidr (Category 5; 2007). Model results were validated with the available observations. Future inundation scenarios were generated by using the strength of TC Sidr, TC Aila and an ensemble of historical TC tracks but incorporating the effect of SLR. Since future change in storm surge inundation under SLR impact is a probabilistic incident, …

The Clean Air Act And Its Impact On Ground Level Ozone Pollution Levels In Los Angeles, California, Rebecca Ford

Bridges: A Journal of Student Research

Ozone (O3) occurs as a photochemically produced pollutant in the troposphere and its emission and concentration is regulated by the Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970. The Los Angeles area is an example of how O3 can be a public health hazard and taint a city’s aesthetics and quality of life through photochemical smog. This study was conducted to observe the overall effectiveness of the CAA. I explored daily O3 concentrations from 1980 to the present at three air quality monitoring stations in LA from the AirData database of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. National O3 standards were only exceeded …

Geological Framework Of The Continental Shelf Of South Carolina Winyah Bay: Paleodrainage, Transgressions And Essential Fish Habitat, Amanda Roach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A regional geophysical survey of the inner continental shelf off central South Carolina was completed on a cooperative cruise between NOAA and Coastal Carolina University in July 2015. An integrated mapping suite comprised of subbottom echosounder, side scan, multibeam and split beam sonars was used to define the regional geologic framework, including paleodrainage patterns across the shelf and to identify potential fish habitat locations that will provide additional inputs to a thematic habitat mapping routine developed by NOAA. Results from the thematic mapper characterization suggest that large-scale framework elements such as paleochannel networks may play a role in determining benthic …

Late Holocene Evolution Of A Coupled, Mud-Dominated Delta Plain-Chenier Plain System, Coastal Louisiana, Usa, Marc P. Hijma, Zhixiong Shen, Torbjörn E. Törnqvist, Barbara Mauz

Marine Science

Major deltas and their adjacent coastal plains are commonly linked by means of coast-parallel fluxes of water, sediment, and nutrients. Observations of the evolution of these interlinked systems over centennial to millennial timescales are essential to understand the interaction between point sources of sediment discharge (i.e. deltaic distributaries) and adjacent coastal plains across large spatial (i.e. hundreds of kilometres) scales. This information is needed to constrain future generations of numerical models to predict coastal evolution in relation to climate change and other human activities. Here we examine the coastal plain (Chenier Plain, CP) adjacent to the Mississippi River delta, one …

The Clean Air Act And Its Impact On Ground Level Ozone Pollution Levels In Los Angeles, California, Rebecca G. Ford

Honors Theses

Ozone (O₃) occurs naturally as a protective, ultraviolet radiation-shielding “Ozone Layer” in the Stratosphere and as a photochemically produced pollutant in the Troposphere. The Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970 regulates the emission and concentration of O₃ and five other atmospheric pollutants. Since the signing of the CAA, the ongoing question has been whether or not the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and regulatory policies have had an effect on decreasing O₃ concentration. The Los Angeles metropolitan area is a prime example of how O₃ can be a public health hazard, and taint a …

Use Of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition For Extraction Of Ocean Surface Wave Fields From X-Band Radar Measurements Of The Sea Surface, Andrew J. Kammerer, Erin E. Hackett

Marine Science

Radar remote sensing of the sea surface for the extraction of ocean surface wave fields requires separating wave and non-wave contributions to the sea surface measurement. Conventional methods of extracting wave information from radar measurements of the sea surface rely on filtering the wavenumber-frequency spectrum using the linear dispersion relationship for ocean surface waves. However, this technique has limitations, e.g., it isn't suited for the inclusion of non-linear wave features. This study evaluates an alternative method called proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) for the extraction of ocean surface wave fields remotely sensed by marine radar. POD is an empirical and optimal …

Efficient Retention Of Mud Drives Land Building On The Mississippi Delta Plain, Christopher R. Esposito, Zhixiong Shen, Torbjörn E. Törnqvist, Jonathan Marshak, Christopher White

Marine Science

Many of the world's deltas - home to major population centers - are rapidly degrading due to reduced sediment supply, making these systems less resilient to increasing rates of relative sea-level rise. The Mississippi Delta faces some of the highest rates of wetland loss in the world. As a result, multibillion dollar plans for coastal restoration by means of river diversions are currently nearing implementation. River diversions aim to bring sediment back to the presently sediment-starved delta plain. Within this context, sediment retention efficiency (SRE) is a critical parameter because it dictates the effectiveness of river diversions. Several recent studies …

Use Of First Pelvic, Second Pelvic, And Fourth Anal Rays For Estimating Age Of Muskellunge (Esox Masquinongy), Marinda R. Cornett

Honors Theses

While cleithra are the most popularly used calcified structure used to estimate age of Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy), the use of fin rays as an age estimation structure has been investigated as a nonlethal alternative. My objectives were to: (1) to compare the accuracy and precision of estimating age using first pelvic, second pelvic, and fourth anal rays from 46 known age Muskellunge and (2) to analyze a larger sample (n = 120) of fourth anal rays to estimate age. Ages were estimated blindly by three readers independently from all available structures. Different analyses of precision and accuracy had conflicting results, …

A Multibeam Bathymetric Investigation Of Changes In Bedform Morphology Of The Little River Inlet As A Result Of Hurricane Matthew, Malarie O'Brien

Honors Theses

A hybrid scholarly-research paper on the use of multibeam sonar data in seafloor mapping and seafloor analysis was written to satisfy Honors Program requirements. Literature review of multibeam sonar technology explored the improving concept of mapping the seafloor via acoustic methods. The review also investigated improvements and applications of multibeam data analysis techniques, which have the ability to map the seafloor as well as characterize the seafloor by morphology or sediment content. The review then explored previous studies conducted on the Little River Inlet, SC, finding the inlet to be particularly understudied in the field of sediment morphology. Three multibeam …

Inorganic And Organic Geochemical Fingerprinting Of Sediment Sources And Ocean Circulation On A Complex Continental Margin (São Paulo Bight, Brazil), Michel Michaelovitch De Mahiques, Till J.J. Hanebuth, Renata Hanae Nagai, Marcia Caruso Bícego, Rubens Cesar Lopes Figueira, Silvia Helena Mello Sousa, Leticia Burone, Paula Franco-Fraguas, Satie Taniguchi, Alexandre Barbosa Salaroli, Gilberto Pereira Dias, Denise Menezes Prates, Maria Eugenia Fernandes Freitas

Marine Science

In this study, we use inorganic (metal) and organic (bulk and molecular) markers in sediment samples of the south-eastern Brazilian margin to investigate the response of geochemical fingerprints to the complex hydrodynamic processes present in the area. Results indicate the potential of export of terrigenous siliciclastic and organic constituents to the upper slope, even in an area with limited fluvial supply.

Metal contents and especially the ln(Tiĝ€ĝ•ĝ€Al) and ln(Feĝ€ĝ•ĝ€K) ratios make it possible to recognise the extension of shelf sediments toward the upper slope. Potassium, here expressed as ln(Kĝ€ĝ•ĝ€Sc) and ln(Kĝ€ĝ•ĝ€Al) ratios used as proxies of illite-kaolinite variations, proved to …

An Ensemble Study Of The Sea Level Rise Impact On Storm Surge And Inundation In The Coastal Bangladesh, Mansur Ali Jisan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hydrodynamic model Delft3D is used to study the impact of Sea Level Rise (SLR) on storm surge and inundation in the coastal region of Bangladesh. To study the present-day inundation scenario, track of two known tropical cyclones (TC) were used: Aila (Category 1; 2009) and Sidr (Category 5; 2007). Model results were validated with the available observations. Future inundation scenarios were generated by using the strength of TC Sidr, TC Aila and an ensemble of historical TC tracks but incorporating the effect of SLR. Since future change in storm surge inundation under SLR impact is a probabilistic incident, that’s …

Effects Of Temperature On Activity Of Aquatic Hyphomycetes: A Microcosm Study, Kyra Harrington‌‌

Honors Theses

Predicted increases in temperature under climate change scenarios are expected to affect not only atmospheric and water temperatures, but also the rate of heterotrophic activity and carbon dynamics and retention in ecosystems. The magnitude of the increase in metabolic activity of living organisms with increased temperature can be predicted by the Metabolic Theory of Ecology, however, multiple factors can cause deviations from simple predictions. The goal of this study is to assess the temperature sensitivity of aquatic hyphomycetes and fungi-mediated leaf litter decomposition by following responses to temperature of fungal biomass accrual, respiration and decomposition rates in laboratory microcosms simulating …

Flow Scales Of Influence On The Settling Velocities Of Particles With Varying Characteristics, Corrine N. Jacobs, Wilmot Merchant, Marek Jendrassak, Varavut Limpasuvan, Roi Gurka, Erin E. Hackett

Marine Science

The settling velocities of natural, synthetic, and industrial particles were measured in a grid turbulence facility using optical measurement techniques. Particle image velocimetry and 2D particle tracking were used to measure the instantaneous velocities of the flow and the particles' trajectories simultaneously.We find that for particles examined in this study (Rep = 0.4-123), settling velocity is either enhanced or unchanged relative to stagnant flow for the range of investigated turbulence conditions. The smallest particles' normalized settling velocities exhibited the most consistent trends when plotted versus the Kolmogorov-based Stokes numbers suggesting that the dissipative scales influence their dynamics. In contrast, the …

Was 2015 The Summer Of The Shark? Evidence From The Coastal Carolina University Shark Project, Brooke Anderson

Honors Theses

Winyah Bay is a 65-km2 estuary in northeast South Carolina and is considered essential habitat and nursery ground for several shark species of the western North Atlantic. As a result of a number of shark bites/attacks during the summer of 2015, many concluded there was higher abundance of sharks than in previous years. The objective of this study was to test this hypothesis using surveys of shark populations from Winyah Bay in the summer of 2015, and comparing the diversity and abundance of sharks from this survey to those of previous years from the same survey. From July to August …

Abundance And Distribution Of Microplastic Particles In Winyah Bay, S.C. ‌, Dillon King

Honors Theses

Plastics are incredibly durable synthetic polymers used in a wide variety of consumer products. Microplastics are generally defined as plastic debris ranging from 0.33 to 5 millimeters in size. Microplastic pollution in the environment is a global concern because of their propensity to serve as a vector for bioaccumlation and the spread of harmful bacteria. This study characterized the concentrations of floating microplastics in Winyah Bay, South Carolina, the surrounding freshwater river systems, and 10 miles offshore of Winyah Bay. Samples were collected according to NOAA standard techniques for microplastic collection in water using a 335 µm and 153 µm …

Development Of A [2]-Catenane Synthetic Method And A Student Beliefs Survey For A Hybrid Organometallics Course, Jourdan E. Lakes

Honors Theses

In this study, the value-added of a new upper-level chemistry course, CHEM 372-Organometallics, was defined using a Student Beliefs Survey that was answered by students in CHEM 372 and by faculty who teach upper-level chemistry courses at Coastal Carolina University. The laboratory portion of CHEM 372 focused on the synthesis of a [2]-catenane, which is a molecularly interlocked molecule (MIM). The intention was to give the CHEM 372 students a goal to work toward over the course of the semester instead of different, unrelated, experiments each week. Using this style of lab teaching, the students were introduced to graduate school-level …

Variability In Terrigenous Sediment Supply Offshore Of The Río De La Plata (Uruguay) Recording The Continental Climatic History Over The Past 1200 Years, Laura Perez, Felipe García-Rodríguez, Till J.J. Hanebuth

Marine Science

The continental shelf adjacent to the Río de la Plata (RdlP) exhibits extremely complex hydrographic and ecological characteristics which are of great socioeconomic importance. Since the long-term environmental variations related to the atmospheric (wind fields), hydrologic (freshwater plume), and oceanographic (currents and fronts) regimes are little known, the aim of this study is to reconstruct the changes in the terrigenous input into the inner continental shelf during the late Holocene period (associated with the RdlP sediment discharge) and to unravel the climatic forcing mechanisms behind them. To achieve this, we retrieved a 10 m long sediment core from the RdlP …

High Arsenic (As) Concentrations In The Shallow Groundwaters Of Southern Louisiana: Evidence Of Microbial Controls On As Mobilization From Sediments, Ningfang Yang, Zhixiong Shen, Saugata Datta, Karen H. Johannesson

Marine Science

Study region: The Mississippi Delta in southern Louisiana, United States. Study focus: The probable role that microbial respiration plays in As release from the shallow aquifer sediments. New hydrological insights for the region: Shallow groundwaters in southern Louisiana have been reported to contain elevated As concentrations, whereas mechanisms responsible for As release from sediments have rarely been studied in this region. Microbial respiration is generally considered the main mechanism controlling As release in reducing anoxic aquifers such as the shallow aquifers in southern Louisiana and those of the Bengal basin. This study investigates the role microbial respiration plays in As …

Meridionally Tilted Ice Cloud Structures In The Tropical Upper Troposphere As Seen By Cloudsat, J. Gong, D. L. Wu, V. Limpasuvan

Marine Science

It remains challenging to quantify global cloud properties and uncertainties associated with their impacts on climate change because of our poor understanding of cloud three-dimensional (3-D) structures from observations and unrealistic characterization of 3-D cloud effects in global climate models (GCMs). In this study we find cloud 3-D effects can cause significant error in cloud ice and radiation measurements if it is not taken into account appropriately. One of the cloud 3-D complexities, the slantwise tilt structure, has not received much attention in research and even less has been reported considering a global perspective. A novel approach is presented here …

Blooming Lotus, Brian Nguyen

Honors Theses

While reflecting on my poetry chapbook, Blooming Lotus, I ask myself what I was trying to accomplish by creating the chapbook. I have always been interested in my East Asian culture, but growing up as an Asian American has resulted in some ignorance in regards to the topic. I wanted to explore more of my own heritage through the creation of this chapbook by writing poems inspired by East Asian culture. Not only did I want to expose myself to East Asian culture but I also wanted to expose my readers to it as well. Most of my poems required …

Observations Of Planetary Waves In The Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere During Stratospheric Warming Events, N. H. Stray, Y. J. Orsolini, P. J. Espy, V. Limpasuvan, R. E. Hibbins

Marine Science

This study investigates the effect of stratospheric sudden warmings (SSWs) on planetary wave (PW) activity in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere (MLT). PW activity near 95 km is derived from meteor wind data using a chain of eight SuperDARN radars at high northern latitudes that span longitudes from 150° W to 25° E and latitudes from 51 to 66° N. Zonal wave number 1 and 2 components were extracted from the meridional wind for the years 2000-2008. The observed wintertime PW activity shows common features associated with the stratospheric wind reversals and the accompanying stratospheric warming events. Onset dates for seven SSW …

Cluster Of Human Infections With Avian Influenza A (H7n9) Cases: A Temporal And Spatial Analysis, Yi Zhang, Zhixiong Shen, Chunna Ma, Chengsheng Jiang, Cindy Feng, Nivedita Shankar, Peng Yang, Wenjie Sun, Quanyi Wang

Marine Science

Objectives: This study aims to describe the spatial and temporal characteristics of human infections with H7N9 virus in China using data from February 2013 to March 2014 from the websites of every province’s Population and Family Planning Commission. Methods: A human infection with H7N9 virus dataset was summarized by county to analyze its spatial clustering, and by date of illness onset to analyze its space-time clustering using the ESRI® Geographic Information System (GIS) software ArcMap™ 10.1 and SatScan. Results: Based on active surveillance data, the distribution map of H7N9 cases shows that compared to the rest of China, the areas …

A Survey Of Shark Population In Winyah Bay, Sc: A Comparison Of Data From 2002-2006 And From 2012-2014, Jessica Bruce

Honors Theses

As a result of a long-term longline study conducted by Coastal Carolina University, data on the population structure of sharks in Winyah Bay, SC have been recorded since 2002. The data are collected from late spring to fall each year. Two separate data sets, from 2002 to 2006 and from 2012 to 2014, were analyzed for catch per unit effort (CPUE), catch composition, sex ratios, and average precaudallengths (PCL) for males and females. The average CPUE for the 2002-2006 data set was 2.68 with a standard deviation of 0.73 while the average for the most recent data set was 3.20 …

The Relocation Of Laurel Hill Plantation Rice Barges In The Waccamaw River, Sc, Using Multibeam Echosounding, Nathalie Arnone

Honors Theses

A study done in the lower Waccamaw River neck, inland of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, is done to relocate and bathymetrically map antebellum rice barge wrecks, last seen near the old Laurel Hill Plantation area. Sites investigated are Laurel Hill, Collins Creek, Cow House Creek, and the Wachesaw portion of the Waccamaw River. Magnetometer data contained multiple anomalies along the locations, mostly due to modern wrecks. Successful multibeam echosounding performed at the Laurel Hill site reveals two identifiable barges. Following archeological scuba diving provided that one barge was partially buried and upside-down, containing civil war era metal fastenings. Barges found …

Feeding Ecology Of The Sandbar Shark In South Carolina Estuaries Revealed Through Δ13c And Δ15n Stable Isotope Analysis, David S. Shiffman, Bryan S. Frazier, John R. Kucklick, Daniel Abel, Jay Brandes, Gorka Sancho

Marine Science

Abstract: Stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) from muscle samples were used to examine the feeding ecology of a heavily exploited shark species, the Sandbar Shark Carcharhinus plumbeus. Two hundred and sixty two Sandbar Sharks were sampled in five South Carolina estuaries. There were no significant differences in average δ¹³C or δ¹⁵N signatures between estuaries, between sampling years, or between male and female Sandbar Sharks, suggesting that these variables do not affect diet. A potential ontogenetic diet shift between young-of-year and juvenile Sandbar Sharks in South Carolina, similar …