Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Limnological Assistance For Lake Mead National Recreation Area: Quarterly Report, Period Ending December 31, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Limnological Studies

Project 1

• Technical assistance with the implementation of the Interagency Monitoring Action Plan (IMAP) for Quagga Mussels is ongoing; remaining analyses are underway with report delivery rescheduled for 05/2012.
• Data have been delivered for Veliger abundance and settlement at different depths of Lake Mead with report delivery re-scheduled for 05/2012.
• Growth of adult quagga mussels within Las Vegas Wash/Las Vegas Bay
• The Interagency Quagga Mussel Meeting was held on 11/17/2011; the next meeting is scheduled for 02/16/2011.

Project 2

• Appendix 7, an addition to the Long-term Limnological and Aquatic Resource Monitoring and Research Plan for Lakes Mead and Mohave, has …

Topographic Control Of Asynchronous Glacial Advances: A Case Study From Annapurna, Nepal, Beth Pratt-Sitaula, Douglas W. Burbank, Arjun M. Heimsath, Neil F. Humphrey, Michael Oskin, Jaakko Putkonen

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Differences in the timing of glacial advances, which are commonly attributed to climatic changes, can be due to variations in valley topography. Cosmogenic 10Be dates from 24 glacial moraine boulders in 5 valleys define two age populations, late-glacial and early Holocene. Moraine ages correlate with paleoglacier valley hypsometries. Moraines in valleys with lower maximum altitudes date to the lateglacial, whereas those in valleys with higher maximum altitudes are early Holocene. Two valleys with similar equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs), but contrasting ages, are < 5 km apart and share the same aspect, such that spatial differences in climate can be excluded. A glacial mass-balance cellular automata model of these two neighboring valleys predicts that change from a cooler-drier to warmer-wetter climate (as at the Holocene onset) would lead to the glacier in the higher altitude catchment advancing, while the lower one retreats or disappears, even though the ELA only shifted by ~120 m.

Gravity Wave Heating And Cooling Of The Thermosphere: Sensible Heat Flux And Viscous Flux Of Kinetic Energy, Michael P. Hickey Ph.D., R. L. Walterscheid, G. Schubert

Publications

Total wave heating is the sum of the convergence of the sensible heat flux and the divergence of the viscous flux of wave kinetic energy. Numerical simulations, using a full-wave model of the viscous damping of atmospheric gravity waves propagating in a nonisothermal atmosphere, are carried out to explore the relative contributions of these sources of wave heating as a function of wave properties and altitude. It is shown that the sensible heat flux always dominates in the lower thermosphere, giving a lower region of heating and an upper stronger region of cooling. The heating due to the divergence of …

U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Cruise To Map Sections Of The Mariana Trench And The Eastern And Southern Insular Margins Of Guam And The Northern Mariana Islands, Andy Armstrong

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Cruise to Map Sections of the Mariana Trench and the Eastern and Southern Insular Margins of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands

CCOM-JHC CRUISE SU10-02

Leg 2: September 24 to October 21, 2010

Apra Harbor, Guam to Apra Harbor, Guam

Addressing Global Climate Change In An Age Of Political Climate Change, Brigham Daniels

BYU Law Review

For a number of years, many within the environmental legal community have advocated an all-out attack strategy of forcing the United States to address climate change by bringing novel lawsuits under existing environmental laws. In 2007, with the seminal case of Massachusetts v. EPA, it appeared that those advocating this strategy had a winning game plan. That sense grew and solidified when the Obama Administration came to power. However, over the past several years, we have seen a countervailing movement embodied in a growing resentment towards EPA and climate change policy in general. This movement has mobilized into a powerful …

Testing The Limits Of Hyperspectral Airborne Remote Sensing By Mapping Eelgrass In Elkhorn Slough, Kelley J. Bostrom

Master's Theses

Seagrass ecosystems are a valuable resource, but vulnerable to changing conditions in the coastal ocean. Quantification of seagrass density and distribution from aerial imagery can be applied as a tool in resource management and ecosystem health and stability monitoring. This study investigates analytical methods for mapping eelgrass beds in an optically complex shallow, turbid estuary. Hyperspectral imagery (HSI) of Elkhorn Slough, CA was collected by the Spectroscopic Aerial Mapper with Onboard Navigation (SAMSON) instrument. In-situ data of water column and benthic optical properties and Hydrolight Radiative Transfer model were used to create a spectral library describing the reflectance of Elkhorn …

A Learning Collaboratory: Improving Federal Climate Change Adaptation Planning, Alejandro E. Camacho

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adapting To Climate Change While Planning For Disaster: Footholds, Rope Lines, And The Iowa Floods, Robert R.M. Verchick, Abby Hall

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lesson Not Learned: Deepwater Horizon Research And Media Coverage Exposes Gaps In Knowledge And Risky Protocol Within The Oil Industry, Lauren Haller

Honors Theses

An insatiable thirst for oil has led poorly coordinated, risk-prone megasystems deeper into the ocean in search of new oil reserves. Profit-driven agendas at the corporate level have a top-down effect within these megasystems. Cost-cutting and risk-downplaying leaves the field employees unprepared to handle emergencies. A series of costly mistakes led to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which caused extensive damage to an already fragile ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. The wealth and political influence of the oil industry overpowers lax regulatory agencies and legislation-even though media and research has exposed frustrating parallels between the Deepwater Horizon …

Do You Believe The Climate Is Changing? Answers From New Survey Research, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Carsey Publications

This brief explores how political views influence Americans’ understanding and perception of science. The research is based on a national version of the Community and Environment in Rural America survey called NCERA, and on New Hampshire’s statewide Granite State Poll. Author Lawrence Hamilton reports that most people on both surveys feel that they understand either a great deal or a moderate amount about global warming or climate change. However, deep partisan divisions affect both personal beliefs about climate change and perceptions of agreement among scientists. Democrats are much more likely to state they believe that climate change is happening, caused …

Detection Of Diffuse Sea Floor Venting Using Structured Light Imaging, Gabrielle Inglis, Clara Smart, Christopher Roman, Steven Carey

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Efficiently identifying and localizing diffuse sea floor venting at hydrothermal and cold seep sites is often difficult. Actively venting fluids are usually identified by a temperature induced optical shimmering seen during direct visual inspections or in video data collected by vehicles working close to the sea floor. Relying on such direct methods complicates establishing spatial relations between areas within a survey covering a broad area. Our recent work with a structured light laser system has shown that venting can also be detected in the image data in an automated fashion. A structured light laser system consists of a camera and …

Remote Analysis Of Grain Size Characteristic In Submarine Pyroclastic Deposits From Kolumbo Volcano, Greece, Clara Smart, D. P. Whitesell, Christopher N. Roman, Steven Carey

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Grain size characteristics of pyroclastic deposits provide valuable information about source eruption energetics and depositional processes. Maximum size and sorting are often used to discriminate between fallout and sediment gravity flow processes during explosive eruptions. In the submarine environment the collection of such data in thick pyroclastic sequences is extremely challenging and potentially time consuming. A method has been developed to extract grain size information from stereo images collected by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). In the summer of 2010 the ROV Hercules collected a suite of stereo images from a thick pumice sequence in the caldera walls of Kolumbo …

Global Change, Global Trade, And The Next Wave Of Plant Invasions, Bethany A. Bradley, Dana M. Blumenthal, Regan Early, Edwin D. Grosholz, Joshua J. Lawler, Luke P. Miller, Cascade J.B. Sorte, Carla M. D'Antonio, Jeffrey M. Diez, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Ines Ibanez, Julian D. Olden

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Many non-native plants in the US have become problematic invaders of native and managed ecosystems, but a new generation of invasive species may be at our doorstep. Here, we review trends in the horticultural trade and invasion patterns of previously introduced species and show that novel species introductions from emerging horticultural trade partners are likely to rapidly increase invasion risk. At the same time, climate change and water restrictions are increasing demand for new types of species adapted to warm and dry environments. This confluence of forces could expose the US to a range of new invasive species, including many …

Climate Change And Climate Variability: El Salvador – Impacts On Productivity Of Grain Crops And Opportunities For Management And Improvement, P. V. Vara Prasad

INTSORMIL Presentations

1. Climate change and climate variability (past and future).

2. Climate change and variability in El Salvador (climate models).

3. Impact of temperature on grain yield of dry bean, maize and sorghum in El Salvador (crop simulation models).

4. Effects of temperature, drought and/or carbon dioxide: experimental evidence (response of grain sorghum, maize and dry bean).

5. Opportunities for crop management and genetic improvement.

Environmental Influences On Juvenile Fish Abundances In A River-Dominated Coastal System, Laure Carassou, Brian Dzwonkowski, Frank J. Hernandez, Jr., Sean P. Powers, William M. Graham, Kyeong Park, John Mareska

University Faculty and Staff Publications

We investigated the influence of climatic and environmental factors on variations in juvenile abundances of marine fishes in a river-dominated coastal system of the north-central Gulf of Mexico, where an elevated primary productivity sustains fisheries of high economic importance. Fish were collected monthly with an otter trawl at three stations near Mobile Bay from 1982 to 2007. Fish sizes were used to isolate juvenile stages within the data set, and monthly patterns in juvenile fish abundance and size were then used to identify seasonal peaks for each species. The average numbers of juvenile fish collected during these seasonal peaks in …

Surface Water Characteristics Of The Weaber Plain And Lower Keep River Catchments: Data Review And Preliminary Results, D L. Bennett, Richard J. George Dr

Resource management technical reports

In 2008, the Ord Irrigation Expansion Project was approved by the Western Australian Government to develop irrigated agriculture on the Weaber Plain.

An important concern is the effect the Weaber Plain agricultural development may have on the water quality of the downstream Border Creek and Keep River

This report assembles and reviews all available physico-chemical water quality data for the lower Keep River and Border Creek systems and presents data from the initial year of a targeted baseline monitoring program (June 2010 – June 2013).

Groundwater Chemistry Of The Weaber Plain: Preliminary Results, Adam Lillicrap, Paul Raper, Richard J. George Dr, D L. Bennett

Resource management technical reports

In 2008, the Ord Irrigation Expansion Project was approved by the Western Australian Government to develop irrigated agriculture on the Weaber Plain. Construction of the M2 supply channel connecting the ORIA and the Weaber Plain, and the final period of irrigation design, environmental management and related approval processes, commenced later in 2009. This process followed a protracted period of public and private industry planning and environmental assessment (Kinhill 2000). This report summarises an analysis of groundwater salinity trends on the Ivanhoe and Weaber plains and the preliminary results of an intensive water-quality sampling program carried out in 2010 as part …

Benthic Habitat Characterization For The South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (Sfomf), David S. Gilliam, Brian K. Walker

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

This report summarizes the distribution and relative abundance of two stony coral species (Acropora cervicornis and Acropora palmata) currently listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) (Federal Register/Vol. 71, No. 129/Thursday, July 6, 2006 / Rules and Regulations, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2006-07-06/pdf/06-6017.pdf) and seven additional stony coral species which have been petitioned for listing as endangered or threatened under the ESA (Agaricia lamarcki, Dendrogyra cylindrus, Dichocoenia stokesii, Montastraea annularis, Montastraea faveolata, Montastraea franksi, and Mycetophyllia ferox) (Federal Register/Vol. 75, No. 27/Wednesday, February 10, 2010/Proposed Rules, http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/fr/fr75-6616.pdf). This report also summarizes the abundance and distribution …

Simulated Effects Of Varied Landscape-Scale Fuel Treatments On Carbon Dynamics And Fire Behavior In The Klamath Mountains Of California, Kevin J. Osborne

Master's Theses

I utilized forest growth model (FVS-FFE) and fire simulation software (FlamMap, Randig), integrated through GIS software (ArcMap9.3), to quantify the impacts varied landscape-scale fuel treatments have on short-term onsite carbon loss, long-term onsite carbon storage, burn probability, conditional flame length, and mean fire size. Thirteen fuel treatment scenarios were simulated on a 42,000 hectare landscape in northern California: one untreated, three proposed by the US Forest Service, and nine that were spatially-optimized and developed with the Treatment Optimization Model in FlamMap. The nine scenarios developed in FlamMap varied by treatment intensity (10%, 20%, and 30% of the landscape treated) and …

Production And Fate Of Transparent Exopolymer Particles In The Ocean, Oliver Wurl, Lisa Miller, Svein Vagle

OES Faculty Publications

The production and fate of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) have been investigated in various oceanic regions (tropical, temperate, and polar), from the sea surface microlayer (SML) to the deep ocean. Accumulation of TEP within the mixed layer was observed even in the absence of phytoplankton blooms, indicating abiotic processes are important in TEP production. The abiotic TEP aggregation rates measured in the tropical and temperate North Pacific and the Arctic Ocean averaged between 8 and 12 μmol C L^-1 d-¹. Depth profiles from under sea ice in the Arctic revealed the highest TEP concentrations, potentially released by …

Spring Migration Of Mallards From Arkansas As Determined By Satellite Telemetry, David George Krementz, Kwasi Asante, Luke W. Naylor

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We used satellite telemetry to document spring migration phenology, routes, stopover regions, and nesting sites of mallards Anas platyrhynchos marked in Arkansas during the winters of 2004–2007. Of the 143 marked mallards that migrated from Arkansas, they did so, on average, by mid-March. Mallards flew over the Missouri Ozarks and 42% made an initial stopover in Missouri, where they used areas that had larger rivers (Mississippi River, Missouri River) embedded in an agricultural landscape. From this stopover region they either migrated directly to the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) or they migrated north to Minnesota where they either moved next to …

Comparing Cropping System Productivity Between Fixed Rotations And A Flexible Fallow System Using Modeling And Historical Weather Data In The Semi-Arid Central Great Plains, Juan Jose Miceli-Garcia

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the Central Great Plains, the predominant crop rotation is winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow. Producers are looking to add diversity and intensity to their cropping systems by adding summer crops, however, the elimination of summer fallow may increase crop production risk. The objective of this study was to use crop simulation modeling to compare the productivity of two fixed rotations [winter wheat-corn (Zea mays L.)-fallow and winter wheat-corn-spring triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack)] with simulated flexible fallow rotations. The flexible fallow rotations made the decision to plant triticale or use summer fallow prior to winter wheat seeding based …

Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation-Forced Regional Summertime Precipitation Variations In The Central United States, Michael C. Veres

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

The purpose of this research is to identify the regional mechanisms by which the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) influences summer (June-August) precipitation in the central U.S. This was accomplished by running two different sets of simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model, one forced by observations and the other forced only by variations in the AMO as obtained via a global climate model (GCM). The results reveal a complex set of mechanisms active in the lower and middle troposphere by which the AMO influences summer circulation and precipitation in the central U.S. During the cold phase …

Lsuhsc Facilities Biweekly Update: December 2011, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates: 2011

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates from December 2 and 16, 2011.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Lsuhsc Facilities Daily Updates: December 2011, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates: 2011

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates from December 2011.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Ensemble Methods For Dynamic Data Assimilation Of Chemical Observations In Atmospheric Models, Adrian Sandu, Emil Constantinescu, Gregory R. Carmichael, Tianfeng Chai, Dacian Daescu, John H. Seinfeld

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The task of providing an optimal analysis of the state of the atmosphere requires the development of dynamic data-driven systems (DDDAS) that efficiently integrate the observational data and the models. Data assimilation, the dynamic incorporation of additional data into an executing application, is an essential DDDAS concept with wide applicability. In this paper we discuss practical aspects of nonlinear ensemble Kalman data assimilation applied to atmospheric chemical transport models. We highlight the challenges encountered in this approach such as filter divergence and spurious corrections, and propose solutions to overcome them, such as background covariance inflation and filter localization. The predictability …

Concept Tests For A New Wire Flying Vehicle Designed To Achieve High Horizontal Resolution Profiling In Deep Water, Chris Roman, Dave Hebert

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Efficiently profiling the water column to achieve both high vertical and horizontal resolution from a moving vessel in deep water is difficult. Current solutions, such as CTD tow-yos, moving vessel profilers, and undulating tow bodies, are limited by ship speed or water depth. As a consequence, it is difficult to obtain oceanographic sections with sufficient resolution to identify many relevant scales over the deeper sections of the water column. This paper presents a new concept for a profiling vehicle that slides up and down a towed wire in a controlled manner using the lift created by wing foils. The wings …

Estimating Oil Concentration And Flow Rate With Calibrated Vessel-Mounted Acoustic Echo Sounders, Thomas C. Weber, Alex De Robertis, Shep Smith, Samuel F. Greenaway, Larry A. Mayer, Glen Rice

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

As part of a larger program aimed at evaluating acoustic techniques for mapping the distribution of subsurface oil and gas associated with the Deepwater Horizon-Macondo oil spill, observations were made on June 24 and 25, 2010 using vessel-mounted calibrated single-beam echo sounders on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Thomas Jefferson. Coincident with visual observations of oil at the sea surface, the 200-kHz echo sounder showed anomalously high-volume scattering strength in the upper 200 m on the western side of the wellhead, more than 100 times higher than the surrounding waters at 1,800-m distance from the wellhead, …

A Landscape Approach To Late Prehistoric Settlement And Subsistence Patterns In The Mojave Sink, Tiffany Ann Thomas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The environment of the Late Prehistoric period (1200 A.D. to Historic Contact) Mojave Sink was wetter than modern conditions. The settlement and subsistence patterns of the occupants of the region during this period were driven by the availability of water, subsistence resources, raw material sources, and tradition. These people utilized the regional landscape based upon the seasonal availability of these resources. Supplemental agricultural production has been proposed for the Mojave River Delta due to the more favorable environmental conditions of this period. If agriculture was being practiced it would have affected the regional land-use patterns. For this thesis I propose …

Hydroclimatic Forecasting In The Western United States Using Paleoclimate Reconstructions And Data-Driven Models, Christopher Allen Carrier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis investigated climate variability and their associated hydrologic responses in the western United States. The western United States faces the problem of water scarcity, where the management and mitigation of available water supplies are further complicated by climate variability. Climate variability associated with the phases of oceanic-atmospheric oscillations has been shown to influence streamflow and precipitation, where predictive relationships have led to the possibility of producing long-range forecasts. Based on literature review, four oceanic-atmospheric oscillation indices were identified in having the most prominent influence over the western United States including the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal …