Climate Commons^™

Radiocarbon Analyses Quantify Peat Carbon Losses With Increasing Temperature In A Whole Ecosystem Warming Experiment, Rachel M. Wilson, Natalie A. Griffiths, Ate Visser, Karis J. Mcfarlane, Stephen D. Sebestyen, Keith C. Oleheiser, Samantha Bosman, Anya M. Hopple, Malak M. Tfaily, Randall K. Kolka, Paul J. Hanson, Joel E. Kostka, Scott D. Bridgham, Jason K. Keller, Jeffrey P. Chanton

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Climate warming is expected to accelerate peatland degradation and release rates of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Spruce and Peatlands Responses Under Changing Environments is an ecosystem-scale climate manipulation experiment, designed to examine peatland ecosystem response to climate forcings. We examined whether heating up to +9 °C to 3 m-deep in a peat bog over a 7-year period led to higher C turnover and CO2 and CH4 emissions, by measuring 14C of solid peat, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), CH4, and dissolved CO2 (DIC). DOC, a major substrate for heterotrophic respiration, increased significantly with warming. There was no 7-year trend …

Assessing The Vegetation Condition Impacts Of The 2011 Drought Across The U.S. Southern Great Plains Using The Vegetation Drought Response Index (Vegdri), Tsegaye Tadesse, Brian D. Wardlow, Jesslyn F. Brown, Mark D. Svoboda, Michael J. Hayes, Brian Fuchs, Denise Gutzmer

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The vegetation drought response index (VegDRI), which combines traditional climate- and satellite-based approaches for assessing vegetation conditions, offers new insights into assessing the impacts of drought from local to regional scales. In 2011, the U.S. southern Great Plains, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, was plagued by moderate to extreme drought that was intensified by an extended period of recordbreaking heat. The 2011 drought presented an ideal case study to evaluate the performance of VegDRI in characterizing developing drought conditions. Assessment of the spatiotemporal drought patterns represented in the VegDRI maps showed that the severity and patterns of the …

Continuous Color Model As A Tool To Improve Speleothem Age Model Development, Celia Campa-Bousoño, Ángel García-Pérez, Ana Moreno, Miguel Iglesias, Hai Cheng, R Lawrence Edwards, Heather Stoll

International Journal of Speleology

Because they can archive a variety of geochemical proxies and be precisely and accurately dated with the U-Th decay series chronometer, stalagmites are widely used for paleoclimate reconstructions. However, limitations in the use of this chronometer arise because U-Th dating is analytically time consuming, expensive, and requires a relatively large sample size. These limitations restrict the number of absolute dates usually obtained, which can result in significant uncertainties in the age model and inhibit the ability to archive high resolution records of environmental variability, particularly in those stalagmites where there are variations in growth rate not constrained by U-Th dates. …

Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Drought Projections For Nebraska, Adam Liska

Adam Liska Papers

This lecture will focus on three issues. The first is a presentation of data from the first greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the State of Nebraska, which will be published in the coming weeks. In 2016, emissions from beef cattle made up 23% of net state emissions, and coal for electricity made up 23.7% of net state emissions. The second issue to be addressed are the impacts of the 2012 drought on agriculture in Nebraska and the region. The drought of 2012 indicates that future droughts in the 21^st century in the region can be a dominant influence on …

2022 Western Australian Crop Sowing Guide, B. Shackley, B. Paynter, J. Bucat, M. Seymour, S. Power

Bulletins 4000 -

Welcome to the 2022 edition of the Crop Sowing Guide for WA, which introduces 27 new variety releases: three wheat, nine barley (three recently accredited for malt and six currently under malt evaluation), twelve canola, two field pea and a lentil.

The Crop Sowing Guide for WA has been compiled by officers in the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. It provides information to support variety decisions for each of the major crops for the upcoming season.

In this edition, lupin agzones have been reduced from 8 agzones to 6 so that all varieties for each of the major …

Odu Scientist Tapped To Edit National Climate Assessment, Amber Kennedy

News Items

No abstract provided.

Droughtscape, Fall 2021, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Fall 2021

A Case Study Using 2019 Pre-Monsoon Snow And Stream Chemistry In The Khumbu Region, Nepal, Heather M. Clifford, Mariusz Potocki, Inka Koch, Tenzing Sherpa, Mike Handley, Elena Korotkikh, Douglas Introne, Susan Kaspari, Kimberley Miner, Tom Matthews, Baker Perry, Heather Guy, Ananta Gajurel, Praveen Kumar Singh, Sandra Elvin, Aurora C. Elmore, Alex Tait, Paul A. Mayewski

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

This case study provides a framework for future monitoring and evidence for human source pollution in the Khumbu region, Nepal. We analyzed the chemical composition (major ions, major/trace elements, black carbon, and stable water isotopes) of pre-monsoon stream water (4300–5250 m) and snow (5200–6665 m) samples collected from Mt. Everest, Mt. Lobuche, and the Imja Valley during the 2019 pre-monsoon season, in addition to a shallow ice core recovered from the Khumbu Glacier (5300 m). In agreement with previous work, pre-monsoon aerosol deposition is dominated by dust originating from western sources and less frequently by transport from southerly air mass …

2021 October - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

Public Perception Of Forest And Fire Management Policy In Portugal, Jensen Rocha

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The impacts of forest fires are growing as climate change creates more frequent ideal temperature conditions for extreme wildfires. With the devastating fires it experienced in 2017, Portugal stands as an example of the impacts of dangerous wildfires and is working on developing a plan to protect its country from this rising threat. Important in the plan development is the opinion of the many stakeholders involved and the public whom the fires impact. Using an interview and survey approach, this study gathers public and stakeholder opinion on the forest and fire management policy in Portugal to understand what issues in …

An Evaluation Of The Organic Carbon Content Found In Fucus Vesiculosus And Ascophyllum Nodosum From Skutulsfjörður And Eyjafjörður, Iceland, Sylvie Alexander

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In response to global warming and changing climate, carbon sequestration through macroalgal cultivation has emerged as a possible climate change mitigation technique. Macroalgal cultivation’s relationship to carbon sequestration however is still not well understood. It is imperative to understand macroalgae’s connection to carbon sequestration to evaluate if macroalgal cultivation can help combat climate change. There is a gap in literature regarding the carbon content of Icelandic macroalgae and therefore the contribution of Icelandic macroalgae to national and global carbon sequestration estimates. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap by evaluating organic carbon content of Fucus vesiculosus and Ascophyllum nodosum …

Impacts Of Climate Change In Vulnerable Communities In Sindh, Pakistan: Voices From The Community, Kiren Khan, Mumraiz Khan, Tahira Parveen, Sabahat Hussain

Climate and Environmental Changes

Pakistan ranks among the ten countries worst affected by climate change in the world, and within the country the province of Sindh is one of the hardest-hit regions. Changing trends in temperature and precipitation have increased the frequency and severity of hazards such as flooding, droughts, and heatwaves, among a host of other environmental stresses. The present qualitative study was conducted to scope out the specific ways in which the impacts of climate change are gendered among rural communities in Sindh that have the highest exposure to hazards arising from climate change. The study probed the perceptions and experiences of …

An Eventful Past Predicting A Bizarre Future: Assessing The Influence Of Ocean Circulation On Key Fish Species In Icelandic Waters. An Analysis Of Past Circulation Records In Order To Predict The State Of Demersal Fish Stocks In Future Climate Scenarios, Matthew Engfer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Feedback-driven changes in North Atlantic Ocean circulation are affecting marine ecosystems off the coast of Iceland and are predicted to have differing outcomes by 2100. In this study, data reflecting Icelandic fish stock distributions was compiled on a map with oceanographic temperature and depth in order to observe patterns of population changes with changes in ocean currents. After evaluating past temperature effects on demersal fish stocks, future habitat predictions were estimated in weaker ocean circulation scenarios. A number of assumptions were made in order to pinpoint a correlation between ocean temperature and fish habitat. Iceland’s unique location and climate offers …

Letters To A Glacier; An Experiment And Critique Of M. Jackson’S Glacier-Ruins Narrative, Lily Fife Schaeufele

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.” —Ursula K. Le Guin

Letters to a Glacier; The Buoy Project Isafjordur is an ongoing invitation to the people of Isafjordur to write a letter to a specific glacier in Iceland onto a collection of discarded buoys gathered from the Isafjorudur and Bolungarvik junk yards. Over a period of two days on November 9th and 10th, I actively invited customers in the local cafe Heimabyggð to …

Science Is For Everybody: A Resource For Understanding Glaciers, Climate, And Modeling, Emma Watson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Climate change threatens the existence of glaciers worldwide. In order to properly interact with these changing systems, we must first understand them. Glacial models provide an excellent way to do this; however, the language and mathematical concepts used in their creation is generally inaccessible to a common audience. This project presents an online resource for a general audience to interact with climate science, glaciology, and glacial modeling. Long term goals for the project include the incorporation of a glacial model of Drangajökull, Vestfirðir, NW Iceland. As such, focus for the project includes a literature review of glaciers, Drangajökull in particular, …

Virginia Beach Flood Protection Program Bond Referendum Analysis, Robert Mcnab, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Afi Anuar, Jessica Whitehead

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

[First paragraph of the Executive Summary]

On November 2, 2021, voters in the City of Virginia Beach will vote on a referendum that determines whether or not the City Council should increase real estate taxes to fund a Flood Protection Program. The proposal accelerates the construction of six flood mitigation projects already in the Virginia Beach Capital Improvement Plan by 3 years, and funds design and construction of 15 additional projects that would also be completed by 2031. This report, jointly produced by Old Dominion University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR) and the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis …

Wildflower Pollen Quality In Roadside Habitats, With Particular Emphasis On Hedera Helix, Aoife Mcmullin, Paul Hamilton

SURE Journal: Science Undergraduate Research Experience Journal

The quality of air is of more significance today than ever before. Human population growth and pollutants emitted through fossil fuel consumption put pressures on air quality. It is widely acknowledged that atmospheric pollutants negatively impact human health; the same is also true for the health of wildlife and plants exposed to these pollutants (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002; EEA, 2019; Schiavoni, et al., 2017). Pollen and seed formation of flowering plants have been affected when grown in areas of poor air quality (Azzazy, 2016; Sénéchal, et al., 2015). The purpose of this research was to assess pollen of …

Air Pressure Propagation Through Wind Cave And Jewel Cave: How Do Pressure Waves Travel Through Barometric Caves?, Annika K. Gomell, Daniel C. Austin, Marc J. Ohms, Andreas Pflitsch

International Journal of Speleology

In barometric caves, air pressure gradients between the outside atmosphere and the cave induce strong bidirectional compensating currents, which control almost all elements of speleoclimatology, including air temperature, humidity, and CO₂ dynamics. Therefore, this study set out to investigate air pressure propagation through Wind Cave and Jewel Cave – two major barometric cave systems in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA. Based on high-resolution air pressure data from both the surface and several measurement sites inside the caves, four systematic changes of pressure waves during their journey through the caves and their related speleoclimatological processes were identified and …

Carbon And Nitrogen Dynamics Of A Lagoon Salt Marsh In Davenport, California, Mark D. Gormley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Wetlands are complex environments that play a critical role in regulating the global biogeochemical cycle of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Wetlands are critical contributors to global climate change and atmospheric chemistry since they store as much as 33% of the world’s soil organic carbon (SOC), release more than 20% of the atmospheric methane (CH₄), and produce nitrous oxide (N₂O), an extremely potent greenhouse gas (GHG). Despite the enormous radiative forcing potential of carbon dioxide (CO₂), CH₄ and N₂O derived from wetlands, uncertainties over the rates of C sequestration and GHG …

Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …

2021 September - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

Recurrent Pattern Of Extreme Fire Weather In California, Rackhun Son, S-Y Simon Wang, Seung Hee Kim, Hyungjun Kim, Jee-Hoon Jeong, Jin-Ho Yoon

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Historical wildfire events in California have shown a tendency to occur every five to seven years with a rapidly increasing tendency in recent decades. This oscillation is evident in multiple historical climate records, some more than a century long, and appears to be continuing. Analysis shows that this 5–7 year oscillation is linked to a sequence of anomalous large-scale climate patterns with an eastward propagation in both the ocean and atmosphere. While warmer temperature emerges from the northern central Pacific to the west coast of California, La Niña pattern develops simultaneously, implying that the lifecycle of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation …

Climate On The Blanca Massif, Sangre De Cristo Mountains, Colorado, Usa, During The Last Glacial Maximum, Keith A. Brugger, Eric M. Leonard, Kurt A. Refsnider, Peter Dolan

Geology Publications

Temperature-index modeling is used to determine the magnitude of temperature depression on the Blanca Massif, Colorado, required to maintain steady-state mass balances of nine reconstructed glaciers at their extent during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The mean temperature depression thus determined is ~8.6 +0.7/−0.9 degrees C where the uncertainties account for those inherent in the glacier reconstructions, in model parameters (e.g., melt factors), and possible modest changes in LGM precipitation. Associated equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) exhibit a statistically significant directional dependency being lower toward the north and east. Under the assumption that regional temperature change was uniform, required changes in precipitation …

Odu Highlights Climate Resilience Leadership During Legislators’ Visit To Campus, Amber Kennedy

News Items

No abstract provided.

Beef Cow Operations During Drought: Dealing With More Than Dry Conditions, Matthew Stockton

Cornhusker Economics

The most recent drought conditions have grown to cover a large portion of the west and the central United States, as shown in Figure 1. Those depending on rain continue to watch and hope that conditions will change, while implementing and considering various strategies to preserve their livelihoods. Those who have been in the business for years have seen other occasions when dry conditions limited forage production and created hardship. Each occurrence has varying outcomes, depending on the many factors faced by individuals. While drought may produce the same dry conditions for many, its effects are individualized. There are as …

Changes In The Flood Plains And Water Quality Along The Himalayan Rivers After The Chamoli Disaster Of 7 February 2021, Sansar Raj Meena, Kushanav Bhuyan, Akshansa Chauhan, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The Himalayan regions are vulnerable to all kinds of natural hazards. On 7 February 2021, a deadly disaster occurred near the Tapovan, in Uttarakhand, Himalayas. During the event, large volume of debris along with broken glacial fragments flooded the Rishi Ganga River and washed away the nearby hydropower plants (Rishi Ganga and Tapovan), which was revealed from detailed analysis of multi spectral and bi-temporal satellite data. We present the impact of the Chamoli disaster on the flood plains and water quality of Himalayan rivers, Rishi Ganga near Tapovan, Alaknanda near Srinagar and Ganga near Haridwar and Bijnor. We used four …

Paleomagnetism Of The Karoo Large Igneous Province In The Sani Pass Area, South Africa-Lesotho Border, Batobeleng Monareng

International Programs

Large Igneous Province have been linked to rapid climate change and mass extinction. In this study we report paleomagnetic results from 52 sites of the Karoo Large Igneous Province in the Sani Pass area. 29 sites shows reverse polarity, 12 sites with normal polarity and 11 sites with excursional polarity. A polarity sequence of R-N-R-N is observed from the bottom to the top of the Sani Pass section.

Growing Climate Solutions Act Of 2021, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

On June 24, 2021, the U.S. Senate adopted S. 1251, the  Growing Climate Solutions Act of 2021. Cosponsored by  54 senators, including Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer, S. 1251 seeks to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to participate in voluntary carbon credit markets and to get a fair share of the carbon credit revenue they generate. If  adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into law by the President, S. 1251 would go a long way in facilitating effective producer participation in U.S. carbon markets.

The Variability Of Seawater Carbonate Chemistry In Two Florida Urban Mangrove Ecosystems, Alexandrina R. Rangel

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions into the atmosphere are yielding serious impacts across the world’s ocean, including ocean acidification, sea level rise, and increasing seawater temperature. However, these changes are not occurring uniformly across all marine ecosystems. Coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, already experience extreme and variable environmental conditions due to natural biogeochemical and physical processes. The goal of this study was to document small-scale variability in two urban mangrove ecosystems to gain insight into how ocean acidification will manifest within these systems. Using a stand-up paddleboard, a suite of sensors, and traditional bottle sampling techniques, we measured …

Multi-Modal Data Fusion, Image Segmentation, And Object Identification Using Unsupervised Machine Learning: Conception, Validation, Applications, And A Basis For Multi-Modal Object Detection And Tracking, Nicholas Lahaye

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Remote sensing and instrumentation is constantly improving and increasing in capability. Included within this, is the increase in amount of different instrument types, with various combinations of spatial and spectral resolutions, pointing angles, and various other instrument-specific qualities. While the increase in instruments, and therefore datasets, is a boon for those aiming to study the complexities of the various Earth systems, it can also present a large number of new challenges. With this information in mind, our group has set our aims on combining datasets with different spatial and spectral resolutions in an effective and as-general-as-possible way, with as little …