Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Bias Reduction In Machine Learning Classifiers For Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Coral Reefs Using Remote Sensing Images, Justin J. Gapper

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

This dissertation is an evaluation of the generalization characteristics of machine learning classifiers as applied to the detection of coral reefs using remote sensing images. Three scientific studies have been conducted as part of this research: 1) Evaluation of Spatial Generalization Characteristics of a Robust Classifier as Applied to Coral Reef Habitats in Remote Islands of the Pacific Ocean 2) Coral Reef Change Detection in Remote Pacific Islands using Support Vector Machine Classifiers 3) A Generalized Machine Learning Classifier for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Coral Reefs in the Red Sea. The aim of this dissertation is to propose and evaluate a …

A Review Of The Global Commercial Cephalopod Fishery, With A Focus On Apparent Expansion, Changing Environments, And Management, Corey Clark

HCNSO Student Capstones

Cephalopods are both important predators and prey in many marine environments and important fishery resources in many countries. The global fishery has expanded almost continuously from landings of 580,000 metric tonnes in 1950 to over 4 m.t. in 2007. Cephalopods are ecological opportunists with highly plastic biological characteristics and varied population dynamics. Nearly all commercially harvested species are short-lived and can reproduce quickly, enabling them to evolve more rapidly under high selection pressure relative to many fish competitors and predators. As a result, they may have the biological means to be successful under conditions of long-term global climate change. This …

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: May 2019 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for May 2019. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Nutrient Concentrations And Effects On Mill Run From Residential, Urban, And Industrial Stormwater Contamination, Melissa Carver

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Nutrients are introduced into the waters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through various methods, mainly through point and non-point sources. Non-point sources would include agricultural means however, there are often other non-point sources that are often overlooked. Water runoff from stormwater is an important contributor to pollution entering various watersheds. Data was collected at 4 locations (the initial point of reference, residential, urban, and industrial) on Mill Run and 2 locations on Woodcock Creek, through surface water collection methods in dry and wet weather. Nitrate, Nitrite, Total Phosphorus, and Total Nitrogen were among the data collected. Total Phosphorus had an …

Analysis Of "Observer Effect" In Logbook Reporting Accuracy For U.S. Pelagic Longline Fishing Vessels In The Atlantic And Gulf Of Mexico, Thomas J. Morrell

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Commercial pelagic longline fishers within the U.S. Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean are required to report all fishing interactions per each gear deployment to NOAA’s Vessel Logbook Program of the Southeast Fisheries Science Center to quantify bycatch, increase conservation efforts, and avoid jeopardizing the existence of vulnerable species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). To provide additional accuracy, the Pelagic Observer Program (POP) of the SEFSC deploys professionally trained observers on longline vessels to produce a statistically reliable subset of longline fisheries data. A comparison of self-reported (“unobserved”) datasets versus observer-collected (“observed”) datasets showed a general consistency for …

Options For Improving Dfad Recovery And Accountability To Minimize Marine Coastal Habitat Damage And Marine Litter, Adam Baske, M. Shiham Adam, David W. Kerstetter

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

No abstract provided.

The Potential Acidification Of The Mulberry River, Arkansas, Jason Richard Burgess-Conforti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Mulberry River is a 110 km long tributary of the Arkansas River in northwest Arkansas and has been designated as a National Wild and Scenic River since 1992. In 2008, the Mulberry River was added to the 303(d) list of impaired water bodies due to the low pH of a 14.6 km segment of the river which has since increased to 68.7 km. To date, there has been little research performed on the Mulberry River and long-term routinely sampled water quality data is unavailable. The objectives of this dissertation were 1) to evaluate changes in water quality of the …

An Objective Procedure For Delineating The Circumpolar Vortex, Nazla Bushra, Robert V. Rohli

Faculty Publications

The broad-scale, steering atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere, represented by the tropospheric circumpolar vortex (CPV), is an important driver of environmental processes. The area and circularity of the CPV are analyzed hereby delineating the leading edge of the CPV at the steepest 500-hPa geopotential height gradient globally. The daily CPV area and circularity were aggregated to monthly averages for contrast with measurements identified in previous research for the overlapping period of record (1979-2001). Accuracy of representation of the CPV is assessed through correlations to air-sea teleconnections known to be associated with broad-scale, extratropical steering circulation. Correlation to monthly teleconnection …

Spatial Variations In Chlorophyll A, C, N, And P In A Louisiana Estuary From 1994 To 2016, R. Eugene Turner, Erick M. Swenson, Charles S. Milan, James M. Lee

Faculty Publications

Intense sampling of an estuary can reveal relative spatial changes that are significant irrespective of whether or not the estuary is eutrophic, micro- or meso-tidal, disturbed, or restored. This waterscape' perspective is analogous to a landscape perspective. We collected monthly water samples in the Barataria Basin watershed from 1994 to 2016 at 37 stations along a 129km transect from 1km offshore to a freshwater stream. The average Chlorophyll a (Chl) concentration from 267 trips was supported from both nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in a freshwater lake and partially from nutrients in seaward sources. Estuarine salinity was correlated with the discharge of the …

2019 May - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

Exploring Perceived Usability And Interpretability Of Aviation Weather Products Among Ga Pilots, Jackie Mcsorley, Jayde King, Beth Blickensderfer

General Aviation Weather Display Interpretation

• Introduction
• Results
• Discussion
• Current Investigations

The Effect Of Environmental Muck Dredging On Abundance And Community Richness Of Benthic Amphipods In The Indian River Lagoon, Nayan Mallick

Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic eutrophication has polluted and degraded estuarine ecosystems throughout the world. The Indian River Lagoon (IRL), a diverse North American estuary, has accumulated an abundance of Fine-Grained Organic-Rich Sediments (FGORS or “muck”) due to eutrophication. Muck creates stressful, sometimes uninhabitable conditions for benthic flora and fauna, with far-reaching ancillary ecosystem impacts. In an attempt to ameliorate negative ecosystem impacts, muck deposits in Turkey Creek were dredged by Brevard County Natural Resources (Florida). One month after the dredging, mean abundance of amphipods rose to 110±90 individuals m-2 from 0±0 individuals m-2 in the dredged muck sites. Four amphipod species colonized muck …

Antecedent North Pacific Jet Regimes Conducive To The Development Of Cool Season Continental U.S. Tornado Outbreaks, Jessica Blair

Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences

The occurrence of tornado outbreaks are often associated with considerable societal and economic impacts. The U.S. averages nearly 1000 tornadoes per year that result in 1500 injuries and 80 fatalities, many of which are associated with outbreak days. Additionally, one outbreak alone can cause millions of dollars in property damage. The location of these outbreaks can vary temporally throughout the cool season (September–May) and can vary substantially in terms of their severity.

This study focuses on continental U.S. tornado outbreaks during the cool season and their relation to the state and evolution of the North Pacific jet (NPJ) stream 0–5 …

Landuse And Soil Property Effects On Infiltration And Soil Aggregate Stability In The Lower Mississippi River Valley, Rebecca Lynn Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following European settlement of the Lower Mississippi River Valley (LMRV), agricultural expansion and unsustainable, agriculturally related practices have caused groundwater depletion, soil erosion, and surface water contamination by eroded sediments and sediment-bound nutrients to become major environmental threats to the region. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of common landuses [i.e., native prairie, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grassland, and conventional-tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) agriculture] on surface water infiltration and aggregate-stability-related properties [i.e., water-stable macroaggregate (WSA) size distribution, total water-stable macroaggregate (TWSA) concentration, and mean weight diameter (MWD)]. The overall infiltration rate …

Daily To Seasonal Moisture Signals Present In Sub-Annual Tree-Ring Data, Ian Howard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent decades, there has been an increase in the development of sub-annual earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) width tree-ring chronologies that have been used to make long-term inferences about discrete seasonal moisture variability for different regions of North America. This doctoral research developed a new network of EW, LW, and adjusted latewood (LWa) tree-ring chronologies from the western Great Plains. These chronologies were used to reconstruct 300+ years of spring and summer moisture variability over the northern and southern Plains. The reconstructions document new information about the long-term seasonal climate history of the Great Plains, including the unusual nature …

Amphibian And Reptile Community Responses To Forest And Riparian Disturbance, Jacquelyn Christine Guzy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Riparian zones are transitional, semi-terrestrial areas regularly influenced by freshwater. These areas serve as dispersal corridors for many animal and plant species and ultimately function as important reservoirs of biodiversity in altered landscapes. While much of the riparian habitat in the United States has been affected by anthropogenic activities, management actions may mitigate potentially negative influences of these activities. For example, Streamside Management Zones (i.e., riparian buffers; SMZs) are commonly implemented within managed forests to protect water quality, but may also provide habitat for riparian-associated wildlife. Yet, little research has rigorously addressed the value of SMZs for wildlife, particularly cryptic …

Incorporating Recent Geochemical And Isotopic Constraints In Age Dating The Waters Of Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, Kristina Marie Raley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mean water age for spring discharge in Hot Springs National Park was calculated as approximately 4,400 years by Bedinger et al (1978) using carbon-14. Their analysis indicated that the water was a mixture of a small portion of cold water that was less than twenty years old with a preponderance of hot water. However, this result includes some error due to Bedinger et al. using general isotopic values for soil dissolved inorganic carbon and mineral carbon instead of obtaining actual values from the study area. A more accurate age calculation for the springs has been made possible by additional geological …

Suspended Sediment And Particulate Matter Transport In Mississippi Sound And Bight Assessed With Physical Modeling, Remote Sensing And In Situ Measurements, Stephan O'Brien

Dissertations

Tidal passes between Mississippi Sound (MS Sound) and Mississippi Bight (MS Bight) act as a transport pathway for the exchange of estuarine discharge and suspended particulate matter. A better understanding of sediment and particulate matter exchange can provide insights into turbidity, nutrient supply and aquatic ecosystem health for the region. This work examined the effects of different forcing factors (e.g. wind and tides) on the advection of suspended sediments and particulate matter in the study area. Fieldwork included particle size distribution, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and conductivity-temperature-depth measurements in the MS Sound and MS Bight from summer 2015 through …

The Dionysus Project: Classifying & Monitoring Vineyards With Satellite Remote Sensing & Image Analysis, Evelin Perez-Flores, Nicole Flores, Rachel Zinberg, Dionne Huston, Aaron Davitt, Kyle Mcdonald

Publications and Research

Climate change is expected to impact the wine industry by shifting suitable growing regions away from established regions and increasing the demand for freshwater supplies to maintain vineyard health. This creates challenges for maintaining vineyards since the grapevines need to be appropriately stressed to produce quality grapes for quality wine. This requires precision management of freshwater application and canopy management to produce a grape that has the appropriate concentration of flavors and sugars. Vineyards in the U.S. are typically monitored by vineyard managers at the large scale, lacking the resolution needed to identify grapevine growth at the subfield level. Vineyard …

A Probabilistic Approach To Generating Representative Wind Forcing And Wave Heights Within An Estuarine Environment, Vanessa Maria Haley

Theses and Dissertations

While wind driven waves affect erosion, sediment resuspension, and flow in shallow estuaries like the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), neither winds nor waves are well observed in this environment. In order to calculate accurate significant wave heights, the winds used for the calculation must be consistent with the observed winds over the lagoon. Given the complex land/water geometry and subsequent limited fetch, a probabilistic approach is used to produce a representative wind field over the IRL. Observed winds, near the IRL, are used to sample wind distributions obtained from 180 high resolution atmospheric model simulations in order to generate a …

Effects Of Global Warming On Gonadal Functions, Cellular Apoptosis, And Oxidative Stress In The American Oyster, Sarah B. Nash

Theses and Dissertations

Global warming due to climate change is predicted to intensify the heat stress in marine and coastal organisms, affecting their development, growth and reproductive functions. In this study. I analyzed gonadal development, heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), nitrotyrosine protein (NTP), dinitrophenyl (DNP) expressions, cellular apoptosis, and coelomic fluid (CF) conditions in American oyster. Oysters were placed in six aquariums and exposed to control (24°C), medium (28°C), and high (32°C) temperatures for one week. Higher temperature significantly decreased the number of eggs and sperm. CF protein concentrations also declined compared to control. In contrast, CF pH and HSP70 expression in gonad …

Ecological Responses To Eutrophication And Restoration In A Shallow Subtropical Estuary, Xiao Ma

Theses and Dissertations

Like many other estuaries in the world, the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) is experiencing serious environmental health challenges in recent years. Ecosystem challenges include the connected phenomena of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) due to eutrophication and accumulation of fine-grained organic-rich sediments on the benthos. Fine-grained organic-rich sediments, referred to as “muck”, is a source of nutrients and fuels algal blooms in the water column, and excess particles associated with algal blooms sink to bottom and contribute to muck. This dissertation aims to better understand these problems by addressing two main objectives: first, to determine whether key herbivorous mesozooplankton have the …

Reduced Disposal Area Performance Utilizing Secondary-Treated Effluent In Profile-Limiting Soils, David A. Meints

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Onsite wastewater systems dispose of primary treated effluent by utilizing the soil for final recycling and renovation of wastewater into the environment. Soil and site limitations have become a challenge to design a wastewater system and dispose of onsite wastewater using a conventional pipe and gravel design. Using secondary-treated effluent from an advanced treatment unit applied to a reduced disposal area offers an additional alternative when developing an onsite wastewater system. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of hydraulically loading limiting soils with secondary-treated effluent in a reduced disposal area. A reduced disposal area was constructed …

Cool And Warm Season Climate Signals In Tree Rings From North America, Max Carl Arne Torbenson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) ring-width chronologies have become an increasingly important proxy in paleoclimate reconstructions. These subannual variables can provide estimates of past hydroclimate variability for seasonal windows that total ring-widths cannot resolve. The strength of the relationship between EW and LW series may influence what type of paleoclimate information is embedded within the tree-ring series. High correlations (> 0.70) between EW and LW are recorded for much of the continent but the magnitude of correlation varies greatly across space and species boundaries. Using four LW chronologies from shortleaf pine, the North American conifer species displaying the lowest EW-LW …

Phosphorus Rate Effects With And Without Avail® On Dryland Winter Wheat In An Eroded Calcareous Soil, Ryan C. Hodges

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Soluble phosphorus fertilizer is bound in the soil rapidly after application in soils high in calcium. A fertilizer additive known as AVAIL® (J.R. Simplot Company) is purported to keep applied phosphorus fertilizer more available to plants by binding to soil minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron, thereby reducing phosphorus binding. This could prove useful due to the attraction of AVAIL® with cations such as Ca²⁺, but is fairly unstudied for dryland wheat production on alkaline, calcium-rich soils. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of low-rate fertilizer treatments with AVAIL® on dryland small grain …

The Sedimentology Of Cay Sal Bank - An Incipiently Drowned Carbonate Platform, Luis Ramirez

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Sediment on Cay Sal Bank (CSB) is characterized by its coarse-grain size, poor sorting, predominance of skeletal fragments, and relatively depleted d¹⁸O isotope values. CSB is an incipiently drowned platform in close proximity to the Great Bahama Bank (GBB), a carbonate platform which is not incipiently drowned and characterized by fine-grained, non-skeletal sediment. The GBB has locally well-developed oolitic grainstone facies and coral reef margins, which are both lacking on CSB. Platform-top water depths on the GBB are typically 10 m or less, but CSB depth ranges between 7 and 30 m. CSB is devoid of mud, whereas …

Determining How Risk Effects Predator-Prey Interactions Of Marine Communities In The Nearshore Environment Of South Bimini, The Bahamas, Kendall Brancart

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Predators often have strong top-down effects on ecosystems and are considered a priority for conservation and management. Predator activity can influence prey distribution, abundance, and foraging behaviors and are likely to influence habitat by impacting ecological and environmental characteristics as well as presence of competitor species. There are knowledge gaps of the functional diversity of fish assemblages, non-consumptive predator effects, and environmental effects on fish assemblages. With this study, effects of top marine predators, such as sharks and great barracuda, on diversity and abundance of prey communities were examined in putative low (north side of South Bimini = lagoon) and …

On The Long Lasting “C‐Type” Structures In The Sodium Lidargram: The Lifetime Of Kelvin‐Helmholtz Billows In The Mesosphere And Lower Thermosphere Region, S. Mondal, S. Sarkhel, Jay Agarwal, D. Chakrabarty, R. Sekar, Tao Yuan, Alan Z. Liu, Et Al.

Publications

In order to understand the characteristics of long‐lasting “C‐type” structure in the Sodium (Na) lidargram, six cases from different observational locations have been analyzed. The Na lidargram, collected from low‐, middle‐, and high‐latitude sites, show long lifetime of the C‐type structures which is believed to be the manifestation of Kelvin‐Helmholtz (KH) billows in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region. In order to explore the characteristics of the long‐lasting C‐type structures, the altitude profile of square of Brunt‐Väisälä frequency in the MLT region has been derived using the temperature profile collected from the Na lidar instruments and the SABER instrument …

Induced Magnetic Dipole On Jupiter’S Moon Europa, Luke Francis, Michele Zanolin

Student Works

Physics can have some of the most unique and extraordinary applications of basic principles applied on a larger scale. This paper will explore the properties of induced magnetic dipoles and will examine this phenomenon directly from Jupiter's moon, Europa. These properties will be used to determine if there is liquid water beneath its icy surface and how this conclusion was verified. This will be accomplished using the concepts of magnetic dipoles and induced currents. Recent missions have also revealed estimates of the depth of Europa's subsurface ocean. There have been many measurements taken of Europa's magnetic field, and they are …

Assessment Of Heavy Metals In Subsistence-Harvested Alaskan Marine Mammal Body Tissues And Vibrissae, Pilar M. Ferdinando

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The coastal, indigenous communities around Alaska have subsisted on marine animals for generations, often focusing on large apex predators such as seals, sea lions, and whales. Three species of pinnipeds (harbor seal, Steller sea lion, northern fur seal) and the northern sea otter have all undergone significant population declines since the 1970s, some regions more than others. Archived vibrissae (whiskers) and body tissues from these four species were available from the Bering Sea and throughout the Gulf of Alaska from the 1990s and early 2000s. Tissues from these species are exceedingly difficult to obtain; thus, the archived tissues provided a …