Oceanography Commons^™

Reconstructing Sea Level Using Cyclostationary Empirical Orthogonal Functions, B. D. Hamlington, R. R. Leben, R. S. Nerem, W. Han, K.-Y. Kim

CCPO Publications

Cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions, derived from satellite altimetry, are combined with historical sea level measurements from tide gauges to reconstruct sea level fields from 1950 through 2009. Previous sea level reconstructions have utilized empirical orthogonal functions as basis functions, but by using cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions and by addressing other aspects of the reconstruction procedure, an alternative sea level reconstruction can be computed. The procedure introduced here is capable of capturing the annual cycle and El Nio-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) signals back to 1950, with correlations between the reconstructed ENSO signal and common ENSO indices found to be over 0.9. The …

Improving Simulations Of The Upper Ocean By Inclusion Of Surface Waves In The Mellor-Yamada Turbulence Scheme, Chuan Jiang Huang, Fangli Qiao, Zhenya Song, Tal Ezer

CCPO Publications

The Mellor-Yamada turbulence closure scheme, used in many ocean circulation models, is often blamed for overly high simulated surface temperature and overly low simulated subsurface temperature in summer due to insufficient vertical mixing. Surface waves can enhance turbulence kinetic energy and mixing of the upper ocean via wave breaking and nonbreaking-wave-turbulence interaction. The influences of wave breaking and wave-turbulence interaction on the Mellor-Yamada scheme and upper ocean thermal structure are examined and compared with each other using one-dimensional and three-dimensional ocean circulation models. Model results show that the wave-turbulence interaction can effectively amend the problem of insufficient mixing in the …

A Synthesis Of The Long-Term Paleoclimatic Evolution Of The Arctic, Matthew O'Regan, Christopher J. Williams, Karen E. Frey, Martin Jakobsson

Geography

Since the Arctic Ocean began forming in the Early Cretaceous 112-140 million years ago, the Arctic region has undergone profound oceanographic and paleoclimatic changes. It has evolved from a warm epicontinental sea to its modern state as a cold isolated ocean with extensive perennial sea ice cover. Our understanding of the long-term paleoclimate evolution of the Arctic remains fragmentary but has advanced dramatically in the past decade through analysis of new marine and terrestrial records, supplemented by important insights from paleoclimate models. Improved understanding of how these observations fit into the long-term evolution of the global climate system requires additional …

Marine Bioinvasions And Climate Change, James T. Carlton, Sandra C. Lindstrom, Celia M. Smith, Jennifer E. Smith

National Invasive Species Council

BACKGROUND

Invasive species are second only to habitat destruction as the greatest cause of species endangerment and global biodiversity loss. Invasive species can cause severe and permanent damage to the ecosystems they invade. Consequences of invasion include competition with or predation upon native species, hybridization, carrying or supporting harmful pathogens and parasites that may affect wildlife and human health, disturbing ecosystem function through alteration of food webs and nutrient recycling rates, acting as ecosystem engineers and altering habitat structure, and degradation of the aesthetic quality of our natural resources. In many cases we may not fully know the native animals …

Measurement And Interpolation Of Sea Surface Temperature And Salinity In The Tropical Pacific: A 9,000 Nautical Mile Research Odyssey, Amber Brooks

Earth and Soil Sciences

The purpose of this project was to compare spline and inverse distance weighting interpolation tools on data collected in the tropical Pacific Ocean by ship and data from a global network of CTD floats, known as Argo floats (fig.1), to provide evidence that technological advancement and integration is aiding our understanding of the ocean-atmosphere system of planet Earth. Thirty-one sea surface temperature and salinity samples were manually taken across a 9,000 nautical mile trek of the Pacific Ocean for the months of April, May and June 2008. Argo ASCII globally gridded monthly averaged sea surface temperature and salinity data, from …

Sustainable Portland: Implementation Series 3, New England Environmental Finance Center

Climate Change

This report is the third in a series of efforts by students at the Muskie School of Public Service, Community Planning and Development Master’s program, in a core class called “Sustainable Communities.” In this course students seek to understand principles of sustainability and how efforts to implement Sustainability programs can become more successful. The report assembles term papers students completed on particular efforts by municipalities, universities, and other groups to achieve sustainability goals. Students worked on each project in a service learning format with real world clients. They were asked to fashion their papers around lessons learned by other organizations …

The Role Of The Alaskan Stream In Modulating The Bering Sea Climate, Tal Ezer, Lie-Yauw Oey

CCPO Publications

A numerical ocean circulation model with realistic topography, but with an idealized forcing that includes only lateral transports is used to study the role of the Alaskan Stream (AS) in modulating the Bering Sea (BS) variability. Sensitivity experiments, each one with a different strength of the AS transport reveal a nonlinear BS response. An increase of AS transport from 10 to 25 Sv causes warming (similar to 0.25 degrees C mean, similar to 0.5 degrees C maximum) and sea level rise in the BS shelf due to increased transports of warmer Pacific waters through the eastern passages of the Aleutian …

Differential Damages Sustained From Hurricane Ike On Varying Growth Forms Of Coral At Distinct Locations Off The Coast Of South Caicos, Turks And Caicos Islands, Caitlyn A. Kenny

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In September 2008, Hurricane Ike hit South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category 4 hurricane. This study examines the differential damages caused to varying common growth forms, size, locations, and depths of coral by Hurricane Ike on South Caicos reefs. Belt transect techniques as well as line intercept techniques were conducted at nine sites, looking at 14 common species of coral, representing four different growth forms. A total of 9,011 coral colonies were surveyed. 2,832 colonies (31.4%) were found to have at least one type of damage. It was expected that branching and digitate growth forms as well …

Design Of A Software Framework Prototype For Scientific Model Interoperability, Eric Fritzinger, Sohei Okamoto

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

19 PowerPoint slides Session 2: Infrastructure Convener: Sergiu Dascalu, UNR Abstract: -What are models? -Mathematical models used to describe a system -E.g. Atmospheric, Oceanic, Ecological, etc… -Algorithmic calculations which take input and produce estimated results -Weather forecasting, global warming predictions, sea level estimations, etc… -Models are invaluable

A Transition-Phase Teleconnection Of The Pacific Quasi-Decadal Oscillation, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, R. R. Gillies, L. E. Hipps, J. Jin

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The atmospheric circulation patterns associated with the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation (QDO) are investigated using available observational data from 1948 to 2007. Previous studies indicate that the Pacific QDO is characterized by a distinct lifecycle in the form of sea surface temperature (SST) patterns. In the warm and cool phases of the Pacific QDO, the SST patterns resemble those associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). During the warm–cool and cool–warm transitions of the Pacific QDO, recurrent SST patterns are also clearly visible. The rotated empirical orthogonal function analysis on the 10–15 year filtered data shows that the evolutions of SST …

The 2009-2010 El Nino: Hydrologic Relief To U.S. Regions, Glenn A. Tootle, Thomas C. Piechota, Oubeidillah Aziz, William Paul Miller, Venkat Lakshmi, John A. Dracup, Carly Jerla

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Current forecasts by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are that the Pacific Ocean will experience El Niño conditions in late 2009 and into 2010. These forecasts are similar to past El Niño events in 1972–1973, 1982–1983, 1986–1987, and 2002–2003.

Evaluating the hydrologic conditions for these past El Niño events reveals that during these times, surface water supply conditions improved in many parts of the United States, including the Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest. At the same time, the Pacific Northwest and other specific regions of the United States experienced below-average water supply conditions. This is consistent with the …

Fisheries Research Report No. 197 - Coastal And Marine Resource Condition Monitoring - Scoping Project, Brett A. Human, Justin I. Mcdonald

Fisheries Research Reports

Final NRM Report – Project 073007

Part 1– Knowledge review and gap analysis: Resource condition monitoring in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia

This report details extensive literature searches for both research and monitoring programs that have been undertaken in the marine and coastal environments of the Pilbara and Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. The Pilbara and Kimberley region is remote and difficult to access, resulting in very little monitoring effort of the marine and coastal environments in that region.

We currently know very little of the condition of marine and coastal natural resources in the Pilbara …

Preserving Assets In At-Risk Municipalities: Financial Strategies For Climate Change Adaptation, New England Environmental Finance Center

Climate Change

A large share of America's population, businesses and economic activity now occurs in coastal areas. At the same time, during this century many coastal communities are likely to be severely impacted by sea level rise and increased storm surge and tidal flooding.

“What to do” about this vulnerability is the subject of this brief. It is intended to help municipalities identify courses of action and steps they might take toward increasing their resilience, especially regarding financial resources that will need to be allocated toward the various strategies identified.

A Robust, Multisite Holocene History Of Drift Ice Off Northern Iceland: Implications For North Atlantic Climate, John T. Andrews, Dennis A. Darby, Dennis Eberle, Anne E. Jennings, Matthias Moros, Astrid Ogilvie

OES Faculty Publications

An important indicator of Holocene climate change is provided by evidence for variations in the extent of drift ice. A proxy for drift ice in Iceland waters is provided by the presence of quartz. Quantitative xray diffraction analysis of the < 2 mm sediment fraction was undertaken on 16 cores from around Iceland. The quartz weight (wt.)% estimates from each core were integrated into 250-yr intervals between −0.05 and 11.7 cal. ka BP. Median quartz wt.% varied between 0.2 and 3.4 and maximum values ranged between 2.8 and 11.8 wt.%. High values were attained in the early Holocene and minimum values were reached 6–7 cal. ka BP. Quartz wt.% then rose steadily during the late Holocene. Our data exhibit no correlation with counts on haematite-stained quartz (HSQ) grains from VM129-191 west of Ireland casting doubt on the ice-transport origin. A pilot study on the provenance of Fe oxide grains in two cores that cover the last 1.3 and 6.1 cal. ka BP indicated a large fraction of the grains between 1 and 6 cal. ka BP were from either Icelandic or presently unsampled sources. However, there was a dramatic increase in Canadian and Russian sources from the Arctic Ocean ~1 cal. ka BP. These data may indicate the beginning of an Arctic Oscillation-like climate mode.

Understanding How Disease And Environment Combine To Structure Resistance In Estuarine Bivalve Populations, Eileen E. Hofmann, David Bushek, Susan E. Ford, Ximing Guo, Dale Haidvogel, Dennis Hedgecock, John M. Klinck, Coren Milbury, Diego Narvaez, Eric Powell, Yongping Wang, Zhiren Wang, Liusuo Zhang

CCPO Publications

Delaware Bay oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations are influenced by two lethal parasites that cause Dermo and MSX diseases. As part of the US National Science Foundation Ecology of Infectious Diseases initiative, a program developed for Delaware Bay focuses on understanding how oyster population genetics and population dynamics interact with the environment and these parasites to structure he host populations, and how these interactions might modified by climate change. Laboratory and field studies undertaken during this program include identifying genes related to MSX and Dermo disease resistance, potential regions for refugia and the mechanisms that allow them to exist, …

Enso And Variability Of The Antarctic Peninsula Pelagic Marine Ecosystem, Valerie J. Loeb, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck, Osmund Holm-Hansen, Warren B. White

CCPO Publications

The West Antarctic Peninsula region is an important source of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Southern Ocean. From 1980-2004 abundance and concentration of phytoplankton and zooplankton, krill reproductive and recruitment success and seasonal sea ice extent here were significantly correlated with the atmospheric Southern Oscillation Index and exhibited three- to five-year frequencies characteristic of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability. This linkage was associated with movements of the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front and Boundary, a changing influence of Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Weddell Sea waters, and eastward versus westward flow and mixing processes that are consistent with forcing by …

Combining Remote Sensing Data And An Inundation Model To Map Tidal Mudflat Regions And Improve Flood Predictions: A Proof Of Concept Demonstration In Cook Inlet, Alaska, Tal Ezer, Hua Liu

CCPO Publications

Accurate flood predictions require high resolution inundation numerical models and detailed coastal and land topography data. However, such data are not always available. A new method to obtain topographic information of flood zones from remote sensing data is demonstrated here for Cook Inlet, Alaska, where tidal range reaches 8-10 m. The moving shoreline is detected from analysis of water coverage in satellite images taken at different tidal stages, and then the shoreline data from different times are combined with water level data from observations and models to produce new topographic maps of previously unobserved mudflats. The remote sensing-based analysis provides …

Biogenic Tracers Through The Holocene On The Alaskan Shelf, Carie A. Curry

OES Theses and Dissertations

Dramatic environmental changes in the Arctic Ocean have been observed for the last two decades including changing the amount of sea ice thickness and extent, and increased river discharge. In order to put these and other current day observations into historical context and perhaps reveal mechanisms controlling them, a suite of paleo-proxies were used to analyze two high resolution cores collected on the 2005 HOTRAX expedition. The goals of this research were: (1) develop an analytical method for determining biogenic calcite, (2) identify the major sources of biogenic matter into the system over the Holocene, and (3) assemble the history …

Progress Toward Meeting The Challenges Of Our Coastal Urban Future, Juile Pullen, Jason Ching, David J. Sailor, William Thompson, Bob Bornstein, Darko Koracin

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article provides information on the Seventh Conference on Coastal Atmospheric and Oceanic Prediction and Processes, and the Seventh Symposium on the Urban Environment in San Diego, California on September 9-13, 2008. Topics include the heterogeneity of urban areas, coastal vulnerabilities, urban planning, and emergency response modeling. The conference featured several speakers including Walter Dabberdt and James Voogt.

Hydrodynamic Numerical Ocean Models Support Environmental Studies And Conservation Efforts: From An Arctic Estuary To A Caribbean Coral Reef, Tal Ezer

CCPO Publications

Potential future climate changes, as highlighted recently by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, are likely to have different local impacts in different regions of the globe. Oceanic ecosystems may be especially sensitive to large environmental variation, and they are closely connected to physical changes such as temperature, salinity, currents and sea level. Two examples, from very different environments – one in a cold climate and one in a tropical climate, will be discussed here to show how hydrodynamic numerical models are helping to understand physical-biological interactions and potentially help dealing with future climate changes.

Co2 Sensitivity Of Southern Ocean Phytoplankton, Philippe D. Tortell, Christopher D. Payne, Yingyu Li, Scarlett Trimborn, Bjorn Rost, Walker O. Smith, Christina Riesselman, Robert B. Dunbar, Peter Sedwick, Giacomo R. Ditullio

OES Faculty Publications

The Southern Ocean exerts a strong impact on marine biogeochemical cycles and global air-sea CO₂ fluxes. Over the coming century, large increases in surface ocean CO₂ levels, combined with increased upper water column temps. and stratification, are expected to diminish Southern Ocean CO₂ uptake. These effects could be significantly modulated by concomitant CO₂-dependent changes in the region's biol. carbon pump. Here we show that CO₂ concentrations affect the physiology, growth and species composition. of phytoplankton assemblages in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Field results from in situ sampling and ship-board incubation experiments demonstrate that inorganic …

Response Of Eelgrass Zostera Marina To Co2 Enrichment: Possible Impacts Of Climate Change And Potential For Remediation Of Coastal Habitats, Sherry L. Palacios, Richard C. Zimmerman

OES Faculty Publications

Projected increases in dissolved aqueous concentrations of carbon dioxide [CO_2(aq)] may have significant impacts on photosynthesis Of CO₂-limited organisms such as seagrasses. Short-term CO_2(aq) enrichment increases photosynthetic rates and reduces light requirements for growth and survival of individual eelgrass Zostera marina L. shoots growing in the laboratory under artificial light regimes for at least 45 d. This study examined the effects of long-term CO_2(aq) enrichment on the performance of eelgrass growing under natural light-replete (33% surface irradiance) and light-limited (5% surface irradiance) conditions for a period of 1 yr. Eelgrass shoots were grown at …

Bottom-Up Forcing And The Decline Of Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias Jubatus) In Alaska: Assessing The Ocean Climate Hypothesis, Andrew W. Trites, Arthur J. Miller, Michael A. Alexander, Steven J. Bograd, John A. Calder, Antonietta Capotondi, Kenneth O. Coyle, Emanuele Di Lorenzo, Bruce P. Finney, Edward J. Gregr, Chester E. Grosch, Thomas C. Royer

CCPO Publications

Declines of Steller sea lion ( Eumetopias jubatus) populations in the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska could be a consequence of physical oceanographic changes associated with the 1976–77 climate regime shift. Changes in ocean climate are hypothesized to have affected the quantity, quality, and accessibility of prey, which in turn may have affected the rates of birth and death of sea lions. Recent studies of the spatial and temporal variations in the ocean climate system of the North Pacific support this hypothesis. Ocean climate changes appear to have created adaptive opportunities for various species that are preyed upon …

Nearshore Surface Temperatures In Antofagasta Bay (Chile) And Adjacent Upwelling Centers, A. Piñones, J. C. Castilla, R. Guiñez, J. L. Largier

CCPO Publications

Several years of sea surface temperature data (1997-2003) for the coast of Antofagasta Bay-a semi-enclosed bay in northern Chile-were analyzed in order to further exploring the nature of a warm-water retention pattern inside the bay. Based on time series techniques, we were able to confirm the persistence of warm water in the bay. This warm feature was found immediately downwind of the upwelling center at Jorgillo Point, where temperatures averaged 2-3 degrees C more than at the exposed upwelling sites outside and the bay. Temporal and spatial patterns in sea surface temperature were determined and showed being well associated with …

Cold Climate In The Eastern Australian Mid- To Late Permian May Reflect Cold Upwelling Waters, Andrew T. Jones, Tracy D. Frank, Christopher R. Fielding

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

A suite of ice-rafted dropstones and glendonites throughout the Permian succession of eastern Australia indicates the cold climate associated with the late Paleozoic ice age persisted longest in this part of Gondwana. Paradoxically, these cold climate indicators are preserved in transgressive and highstand facies and formed at mid to high latitudes at a time when paleofloral and sedimentological data suggest equable onshore environments during the intervening lowstands and temperate conditions at the pole. These apparent inconsistencies suggest that eastern Australia was anomalously cold in the context of post-Sakmarian Gondwanan climates, and the distribution of sedimentary indicators could indicate localized cooling …

Past Glacial And Interglacial Conditions In The Arctic Ocean And Marginal Seas - A Review, Dennis A. Darby, Leonid Polyak, Henning A. Bauch

OES Faculty Publications

Past changes in the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas have been profound, even during the last 10,000 years. Understanding these changes, such as those occurring during the transition from glacial to interglacial climates, are important for research on modern processes, because this knowledge provides a framework and unique perspective in which to view the modern physical and biological processes. This paper discusses our current understanding of past environmental change and processes relative to those currently in progress. Special emphasis is placed on the most recent transition from a glacial state to the modern interglacial conditions.

Loop Current Warming By Hurricane Wilma, Lie-Yauw Oey, Tal Ezer, Dong-Ping Wang, S. J. Fan, Xun-Qiang Yin

CCPO Publications

Hurricanes mix and cool the upper ocean, as shown here in observations and modeling of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico during the passage of hurricane Wilma. Curiously, the upper ocean around the Loop Current warmed prior to Wilma's entrance into the Gulf. The major cause was increased volume and heat transports through the Yucatan Channel produced by storm-induced convergences in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. Such oceanic variability may have important impacts on hurricane predictions.

Iron In The Sargasso Sea (Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study Region) During Summer: Eolian Imprint, Spatiotemporal Variability, And Ecological Implications, Peter N. Sedwick, T. M. Church, A. R. Bowie, C. M. Marsay, S. J. Ussher, K. M. Achilles, P. J. Lethaby, R. J. Johnson, M. M. Sarin, D. J. Mcgillicuddy

OES Faculty Publications

We report iron measurements for water column and aerosol samples collected in the Sargasso Sea during July-August 2003 (summer 2003) and April-May 2004 (spring 2004). Our data reveal a large seasonal change in the dissolved iron (dFe) concentration of surface waters in the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study region, from ∼1-2nM in summer 2003, when aerosol iron concentrations were high (mean 10 nmol/m^-3), to ∼0.1-0.2nM in spring 2004, when aerosol iron concentrations were low (mean 0.64 nmol/m^-3). During summer 2003, we observed an increase of ∼0.6nM in surface water dFe concentrations over 13 days, presumably due to …

Hydrographic And Biological Changes In The Taiwan Strait During The 1997-1998 El Niño Winter, S. Shang, C. Zhang, H. Hong, Q. Liu, G. T. F. Wong, C. Hu, B. Huang

OES Faculty Publications

During the 1997–1998 El Niño event, the average sea surface temperature (SST) in the Taiwan Strait (TWS) in the winter was ~1.4°C higher than that of the winter climatological mean. The areal ratio of the warm water (≥2°C above the regional mean) to the cold water (≥2°C below the regional mean) in the TWS increased by 25% while the area of the eutrophic water (chlorophyll a >1 mg m^-3) was halved. Field observations also indicate that the mixed layer in the TWS became more nutrient-poor during this winter. These observations are consistent with a diminished advection of the …

Monsoon-Driven Biogeochemical Processes In The Arabian Sea, Jerry D. Wiggert, Raleigh Hood, Karl Banse, John Kindle

Faculty Publications

Although it is nominally a tropical locale, the semiannual wind reversals associated with the Monsoon system of the Arabian Sea result annually in two distinct periods of elevated biological activity. While in both cases monsoonal forcing drives surface layer nutrient enrichment that supports increased rates of primary productivity, fundamentally different entrainment mechanisms are operating in summer (Southwest) and winter (Northeast) Monsoons. Moreover, the intervening intermonsoon periods, during which the region relaxes toward oligotrophic conditions more typical of tropical environments, provide a stark contrast to the dynamic biogeochemical activity of the monsoons. The resulting spatial and temporal variability is great and …