Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Advancing The Understanding Of Environmental Transformations, Bioavailability And Effects Of Nanomaterials, An International Us Environmental Protection Agency—Uk Environmental Nanoscience Initiative Joint Program, Mitch M. Lasat, Kian Fan Chung, Jamie Lead, Steve Mcgrath, Richard J. Owen, Sophie Rocks, Jason M. Unrine, Junfeng Zhang

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Nanotechnology has significant economic, health, and environmental benefits, including renewable energy and innovative environmental solutions. Manufactured nanoparticles have been incorporated into new materials and products because of their novel or enhanced properties. These very same properties also have prompted concerns about the potential environmental and human health hazard and risk posed by the manufactured nanomaterials. Appropriate risk management responses require the development of models capable of predicting the environmental and human health effects of the nanomaterials. Development of predictive models has been hampered by a lack of information concerning the environmental fate, behavior and effects of manufactured nanoparticles. The United …

An Analysis Of Urban Heat Islands In Kentucky, Logan Mitchell

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The purpose of this research is to increase understanding of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in Kentucky by studying its three largest cities: Louisville, Lexington, and Bowling Green. By examining the UHIs of these three cities, two major attributes can be determined: if there is a relationship between the size of the city by population and the UHI magnitude, and if UHI magnitude follows any diurnal and/or seasonal cycles. Data was collected from weather stations within the three major cities, as well as from weather stations located in the rural areas surrounding them. The length of the time series …

Atmospheric Radiation And Tgfs: Unexplained Radiation In Our Skies, Adrian Gallegos

Honors College Research

There is a significant correlation between atmospheric electrification via thunderstorms and the occurrence of large emissions of x-ray and gamma ray radiation known as Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (TGFs). Some physical phenomenon may be explained by either the RREA or Thermal Runaway models, but the scientific community as a whole is still largely at work on the theoretical frameworks.

The Role Of Ontogenetic Habitat Shifts On The Parasite Communities Of Five South Florida Fishes, Brittany Nicole White

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Many reef fishes initially recruit into mangroves, and then migrate out to reef habitats as they grow and mature. Each ontogenetic habitat shift exposes migrants to previously unencountered parasite taxa, potentially increasing parasite species richness and driving changes in parasite community structure. However, studies on this topic rarely attempt to distinguish between the location effects of habitat shifts versus a simple increase in physical size. Therefore we contrasted parasite community richness and structure in Great Barracuda Sphyraena barracuda (N=84), Atlantic Needlefish Strongylura marina (N=49), Crevalle Jack Caranx hippos (N=59), White Mullet Mugil curema (N=90), and Yellow-fin Mojarra Gerres cinnerus (N=60) …

Pathogen Transmission Techniques And Genotypic Resistance To Disease In The Threatened Coral, Acropora Cervicornis, Megan Bock

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Unprecedented population losses of the staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, since the 1970s have been attributed primarily to disease. Although a positive linear relationship between disease prevalence and increased water temperature has been described, the pathogen(s) causing disease and whether they are spread through the water or vectors is still poorly understood. Additionally, an increase in disease outbreaks and severity has provided an urgent need to identify natural genotypic resistance to disease in Caribbean acroporids. Studies to date have explored a variety of pathogen transmission methods, but prior to this study, there has been no examination of differences among common techniques. …

Identifying Disease-Resistant And Thermal-Tolerant Genotypes In The Threatened Staghorn Coral, Acropora Cervicornis, Morgan V. Hightshoe

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1970s, loss of herbivores, coral bleaching, pollution, and disease epidemics have reshaped the ecological framework of coral reefs. Staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, was a major reef-building scleractinian coral found throughout Florida and the Caribbean that experienced unprecedented population declines primarily due to disease and coral bleaching. These two stressors are coupled; the highest coral disease prevalence occurs after periods of thermal stress caused by increased sea surface temperature. Previous research documented three disease-resistant A. cervicornis genotypes in Panama, but it is unknown if disease-resistant genotypes exist in the Florida Keys. Thermal tolerance has been found to be …

Toxicological Effects Of Commercial Sunscreens On Coral Reef Ecosystems: New Protocols For Coral Restoration, Emilie C. Johnsen

HCNSO Student Capstones

The primary purpose of consumer-grade sunscreen is to protect skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays. This market has grown during the past 80 years, and environmental contamination from increasing amounts of sunscreen compounds have created concern. In particular, impacts on ocean ecosystems have inspired investigations and toxicological research on their effects on marine life. Unfortunately, such studies using marine flora and fauna are scarce, and the impact of chemical exposure to consumer sunscreens is neither adequately measured nor completely understood. In a pilot study by the Coral Restoration Foundation, in situ toxicity exposure to 10 different brands of sunscreens …

An Assessment Of Atmospheric And Meteorological Factors Regulating Red Sea Phytoplankton Growth, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Mohamed A. Qurban, Emmanouil Proestakis, Michael J. Garay, Olga V. Kalishnikova, Vassilis Amiridis, Antonis Gkikas, Eleni Marinou, Thomas Piechota, K. P. Manikandan

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

This study considers the various factors that regulate nutrients supply in the Red Sea. Multi-sensor observation and reanalysis datasets are used to examine the relationships among dust deposition, sea surface temperature (SST), and wind speed, as they may contribute to anomalous phytoplankton blooms, through time-series and correlation analyses. A positive correlation was found at 0–3 months lag between chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) anomalies and dust anomalies over the Red Sea regions. Dust deposition process was further examined with dust aerosols’ vertical distribution using satellite lidar data. Conversely, a negative correlation was found at 0–3 months lag between SST anomalies …

Regional Trends In Early-Monsoon Rainfall Over Vietnam And Ccsm4 Attribution, Rong Li, S.-Y. Simon Wang, Robert R. Gillies, Brendan Buckley, Jin-Ho Yoon, Changrae Cho

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The analysis of precipitation trends for Vietnam revealed that early-monsoon precipitation has increased over the past three decades but to varying degrees over the northern, central and southern portions of the country. Upon investigation, it was found that the change in early-monsoon precipitation is associated with changes in the low-level cyclonic airflow over the South China Sea and Indochina that is embedded in the large-scale atmospheric circulation associated with a “La Niña-like” anomalous sea surface temperature pattern with warming in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans and cooling in the eastern Pacific. The Community Climate System Model version 4 (CCSM4) …

The Impact Of Past Experience With Tornadoes On Future Decisions, Emily Paltz, Michael Hayes

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Tornadoes are a dangerous threat to public safety. The National Weather Service (NWS), therefore, advises the public to go to an interior room on the lowest level of their houses when a tornado warning is issued for their area. As the NWS Central Region Service Assessment of the Joplin, Missouri Tornado published in July 2011 reveals, however, this is often not the first action taken after learning that there is danger of being hit by a tornado. Rather, people need to seek confirmation from more than one source before following the recommended action. The goal of this research project is …

Multidecadal Variability In The Subseasonal Peak Of Low-Level Convergence Over The Pacific Warm Pool, Yen-Heng Lin, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

In the Western North Pacific (WNP), the atmospheric low-level convergence is one of the main factors that influences the genesis of tropical cyclones (TC). It has been observed that the timing of the seasonal maxima in the low-level convergence and TC genesis has shifted since the mid-1990s from mid-August to late-July, with this shift having also affected the number of TC. A multidecadal frequency of 20 years was revealed in the timing variation of the tropical intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) in the Western Pacific, in which a weak WNP low-level convergence in spring may trigger an advanced ISO phase in summer …

Importance Considered Organic Versus Inorganic Source Of Carbon To Lakes For Calculating Net Effect On Landscape C Budgets, Weiqi Lu, Shilu Wang, Kevin M. Yeager, Fang Liu, Qiangsheng Huang, Yuxue Yang, Peng Xiang, Yingchun Lü, Chong-Qiang Liu

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Lakes and reservoirs transform, emit, and bury carbon that is exported from land and are thus significant components of terrestrial carbon budgets. Their significance is often assessed by integrating these water bodies into terrestrial primary production. However, the transfer of inorganic carbon (IC) is likely a sticking point for these integrations because IC is not part of net ecosystem production. Here we integrated carbon evasion and organic carbon (OC) burial in a lake in the context of inorganic and OC cycling in a karst catchment from a system perspective. The lake emitted carbon dioxide (CO₂) and buried OC …

Southeast Florida Reef-Wide Post-Irma Coral Disease Surveys, Brian K. Walker

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

Florida’s coral reefs are currently experiencing a multi-year outbreak of coral disease that have resulted in the mortality of millions of corals across southeast Florida, Biscayne National Park, and the Upper and Middle Florida Keys. In early September 2017, Hurricane Irma impacted the entire FRT. The purpose of this project was to conduct field surveys to identify the current state of the coral reefs in southeast Florida and coordinate with other concomitant reef tract efforts to improve the regional understanding of the extent of the disease outbreak and identify recent hurricane injury to direct future restoration. Through a broader partner …

Age And Growth Of Hogfish (Lachnolaimus Maximus) In Southeast Florida, Ian A. Towne

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus; Walbaum 1792) from Southeast Florida were aged using sectioned otoliths and growth rates were calculated using the von Bertalanffy growth equation. The samples were collected from Broward County (n=209); other regions of Southeast Florida (n=18), the Florida Keys (n=35) and Bahamas (n=43). Growth rates were determined for each of these areas and were then compared to previously reported growth rates from other regions including the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Keys. There was significant separation at the 95% confidence level between growth rates from each reagion. The average maximum fork length increased, from the Florida …

Scales Of Seafloor Sediment Resuspension In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Arne-R. Diercks, Clayton Dike, Vernon Asper, Steven F. Dimarco, Jeff Chanton, Uta Passow

Faculty Publications

Seafloor sediment resuspension events of different scales and magnitudes and the resulting deep (>1,000 m) benthic nepheloid layers were investigated in the northern Gulf of Mexico during Fall 2012 to Summer 2013. Time-series data of size-specific in-situ settling speeds of marine snow in the benthic nepheloid layer (moored flux cameras), particle size distributions (profiling camera), currents (various current meters) and stacked time-series flux data (sediment traps) were combined to recognize resuspension events ranging from small-scale local, to small-scale far-field to hurricane-scale. One smallscale local resuspension event caused by inertial currents was identified based on local high current speeds ( …

Who Will Stay, Who Will Leave: Decision-Making Of Residents Living In Potential Hurricane Impact Areas During A Hypothetical Hurricane Event In The Rio Grande Valley, Dean Kyne, Arlett Sophia Lomeli, William Donner, Erika Zuloaga

Sociology Faculty Publications

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) has been impacted by various hurricanes throughout history. While Hurricane evacuation has been studied extensively in other contexts, there is limited systematic research on the warning and response to a large-scale severe weather event in South Texas. This study attempts to understand the evacuation decision-making behavior of Southern residents in the event of a Hurricane making landfall over the Rio Grande Valley. The study uses an online survey questionnaire with 1060 participants: 275 students attending the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and the remaining 785 are members of the community. Throughout the course of the …

Effects Of Magnetic Fields On An Unsteady Mixed Convective Boundary Layer Flow Of An Electrically Conducting Fluid With Temperature Dependent Properties, Raymond Kitengeso, Eunice Mureithi, Makungu James, John Mango

Tanzania Journal of Science

A mixed convective boundary layer flow of an electrically conducting fluid with temperature dependent properties over an inclined plate is investigated. The magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer governing equations are derived by using Boussinesq and boundary layer approximations. The equations are transformed to similarity form using a similarity transformation variable and the resulting boundary value problem is solved numerically. The effects of magnetic fields, unsteadiness, mixed convection and variable fluid properties on velocity and temperature in the boundary layer are analysed. The effects of pertinent parameters on skin friction and heat transfer are also analysed

Spatial Dynamics And Productivity Of A Gulf Of Mexico Commercial Reef Fish Fishery Following Large Scale Disturbance And Management Change, Marcy Lynn Cockrell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Gulf of Mexico commercial reef fish fishery has experienced significant management changes and disturbance in recent years, including transitioning two major fisheries from a traditional open access system into a limited entry individual fishing quota (IFQ) system in 2007 and 2010. Also in 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWH) released an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf (~206 million U.S. gallons), and is still the largest U.S. environmental disaster to date. Emergency fishing closures initiated shortly after the oil spill began were successful in keeping tainted seafood from reaching markets. However, effects of DWH closures …

Mathematics Of The Significant Tornado Parameter, Aaron Baker

Undergraduate Research Conference

The idea of this project came from my curiosity of weather and especially how severe storms are predicted. There are many parameters used to predict severe weather that use mathematical formulas. After sorting through the parameters, the STP was the one selected due to its use of other parameters for prediction of tornadoes, as well as concepts used in Single and Multi-Variable Calculus, such as areas between curves and vector magnitude and direction, and learning how to use new graphs than what is normally used.

Functioning Of Coastal River-Dominated Ecosystems And Implications For Oil Spill Response: From Observations To Mechanisms And Models, Adam T. Greer, Alan M. Shiller, Eileen E. Hoffman, Jerry D. Wiggert, Sally J. Warner, Sabrina M. Parra, Chudong Pan, Jeffrey W. Book, Dongjoo Joung, Steven K. Dykstra, Jeffrey W. Krause, Brian Dzwonkowski, Inia M. Soto, M. Kemal Cambazoglu, Alison L. Deary, Christian Briseño-Avena, Adam D. Boyette, Jessica A. Kastler, Virginie Sanial, Laura Hode, Uchenna Nwankwo, Luciano M. Chiaverano, Stephan J. O'Brien, Patrick J. Fitzpatrick, Yee H. Lau, Michael S. Dinniman, Kevin M. Martin, Peng Ho, Allison K. Mojzis, Stephan D. Howden, Frank J. Hernandez, Ian Church, Travis N. Miles, Su Sponaugle, James N. Moum, Robert A. Arnone, Robert K. Cowen, Gregg A. Jacobs, Oscar Schofield, William M. Graham

Faculty Publications

Coastal river-dominated oceans are physically complex, biologically productive, and intimately connected to human socioeconomic activity. The Deepwater Horizon blowout and subsequent advection of oil into coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) highlighted the complex linkages among oceanographic processes within this river-dominated system and knowledge gaps about it that resulted in imprecise information on both oil transport and ecosystem consequences. The interdisciplinary research program implemented through the CONsortium for oil exposure pathways in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE) is designed to identify and quantitatively assess key physical, biological, and geochemical processes acting in the nGOM, in order to provide …

Downscaling Africa’S Drought Forecasts Through Integration Of Indigenous And Scientific Drought Forecasts Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, Muthoni Masinde, Mwanjele Mwagha, Tsegaye Tadesse

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

In the wake of increased drought occurrences being witnessed in Sub-Saharan Africa, more localized and contextualized drought mitigation strategies are on the agendas of many researchers and policy makers in the region. The integration of indigenous knowledge on droughts with seasonal climate forecasts is one such strategy. The main challenge facing this integration, however, is the formal representation of highly-structured and holistic indigenous knowledge. In this paper, we demonstrate how the use of fuzzy cognitive mapping can address this challenge. Indigenous knowledge on droughts from five communities was modeled and represented using fuzzy cognitive maps. Maps from one of these …

Lingering Radioactivity At The Bikini And Enewetak Atolls, Ken O. Buesseler, Matthew A. Charette, Steven M. Pike, Paul B. Henderson, Lauren Kipp

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

We made an assessment of the levels of radionuclides in the ocean waters, seafloor and groundwater at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls where the US conducted nuclear weapons tests in the 1940's and 50's. This included the first estimates of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) derived from radium isotopes that can be used here to calculate radionuclide fluxes in to the lagoon waters. While there is significant variability between sites and sample types, levels of plutonium (239,240Pu) remain several orders of magnitude higher in lagoon seawater and sediments than what is found in rest of the world's oceans. In contrast, levels of …

Hawai'i Wildlife Fund V. County Of Maui, Lowell J. Chandler

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, the Ninth Circuit held that the plain language of the Clean Water Act provides jurisdiction over indirect discharges of pollutants from a point source into groundwater that is shown to be connected to navigable waters. The court found that studies confirmed pollutants entering the Pacific Ocean were fairly traceable to the County of Maui’s sewage disposal wells. In affirming the district court’s ruling, the Ninth Circuit held that Maui County violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into a navigable water without the required permit. The court also concluded the …

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 …

Error Analysis Of Multi-Needle Langmuir Probe Measurement Technique, Aroh Barjatya, William Merritt

Publications

Multi-needle Langmuir probe is a fairly new instrument technique that has been flown on several recent sounding rockets and is slated to fly on a subset of QB50 CubeSat constellation. This paper takes a fundamental look into the data analysis procedures used for this instrument to derive absolute electron density. Our calculations suggest that while the technique remains promising, the current data analysis procedures could easily result in errors of 50% or more. We present a simple data analysis adjustment that can reduce errors by at least a factor of five in typical operation.

Drought Drives Rapid Shifts In Tropical Rainforest Soil Biogeochemistry And Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Christine S. O'Connell, Leilei Ruan, Whendee L. Silver

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Climate change models predict more frequent and severe droughts in the humid tropics. How drought will impact tropical forest carbon and greenhouse gas dynamics is poorly understood. Here we report the effects of the severe 2015 Caribbean drought on soil moisture, oxygen, phosphorus (P), and greenhouse gas emissions in a humid tropical forest in Puerto Rico. Drought significantly decreases inorganic P concentrations, an element commonly limiting to net primary productivity in tropical forests, and significantly increases organic P. High-frequency greenhouse gas measurements show varied impacts across topography. Soil carbon dioxide emissions increase by 60% on slopes and 163% in valleys. …

Documentation Of Particle-Size Analyzer Time Series, And Discrete Suspended-Sediment And Bed-Sediment Sample Data Collection, Niobrara River Near Spencer, Nebraska, October 2014, Nathaniel J. Schaepe, Anthony M. Coleman, Ronald B. Zelt

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Document abstract

The Ubited States Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, monitored a sediment release by Nebraska Public Power District from Spencer Dam located on the Niobrara River near Spencer, Nebraska, during the fall of 2014. The accumulated sediment behind Spencer Dam ordinarily is released semiannually; however, the spring 2014 release was postponed until the fall. Because of the postponement, the scheduled fall sediment release would consist of a larger volume of sediment. The larger than normal sediment release expected in fall 2014 provided an opportunity for the USGS and US Army Corps …

Validation Of New Satellite Rainfall Products Over The Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia, Getachew Tesfaye Ayehu, Tsegaye Tadesse, Berhan Gessesse, Tufa Dinku

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Accurate measurement of rainfall is vital to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of precipitation at various scales. However, the conventional rain gauge observations in many parts of the world such as Ethiopia are sparse and unevenly distributed. An alternative to traditional rain gauge observations could be satellite-based rainfall estimates. Satellite rainfall estimates could be used as a sole product (e.g., in areas with no (or poor) ground observations) or through integrating with rain gauge measurements. In this study, the potential of a newly available Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) rainfall product has been evaluated in comparison …

T.D.A. Cockerell (1866–1948) Of The University Of Colorado: His Contributions To The Natural History Of The California Islands And The Establishment Of Channel Islands National Monument, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell was a naturalist at the University of Colorado from 1904 to 1947 and studied botany, zoology, and paleontology in North and South America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe. In the latter part of his career, he studied the California islands and published many papers on their natural history, 16 of them in four years (1937–1940). He made important contributions to the natural history of the islands in four distinct ways: entomology of the islands, including identification of a number of new species of bees; discovery of fossil marine invertebrate faunas and recognition that the zoogeography of …

Conductivity, Temperature, And Depth (Ctd) Data For Deepend Stations, Cruise Dp05, May 2017, David English, Chuanmin Hu, April Cook, Tracey Sutton

DEEPEND Datasets

Conductivity, temperature, and depth data from the ship's CTD, which was deployed at each of the DEEPEND stations. Depth of cast was variable, but extended from near-surface waters to below the euphotic zone. This data also includes measurements from a red light transmissometer, a chlorophyll fluorometer, and a dissolved oxygen sensor. The data is used in the assessment of the water column's vertical structure, and for comparison with physical models. Data were collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico from May 2-12, 2017.