Oceanography Commons^™

Could Satellite Altimetry Have Improved Early Detection And Warning Of The 2011 Tohoku Tsunami?, B. D. Hamlington, R. R. Leben, O. A. Godin, E. Gica, V. V. Titov, B. J. Haines, S. D. Desai

CCPO Publications

The 2011 Tohoku tsunami devastated Japan and affected coastal populations all around the Pacific Ocean. Accurate early warning of an impending tsunami requires the detection of the tsunami in the open ocean. While the lead-time was not sufficient for use in warning coastal populations in Japan, satellite altimetry observations of the tsunami could have been used to improve predictions and warnings for other affected areas. By comparing to both model results and historical satellite altimeter data, we use near-real-time satellite altimeter measurements to demonstrate the potential for detecting the 2011 Tohoku tsunami within a few hours of the tsunami being …

On The Spatial And Temporal Variability Of Upwelling In The Southern Caribbean Sea And Its Influence On The Ecology Of Phytoplankton And Of The Spanish Sardine (Sardinella Aurita), Digna Tibisay Rueda-Roa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Southern Caribbean Sea experiences a strong upwelling process along the coast from about 61°W to 75.5°W and 10-13°N. In this dissertation three aspects of this upwelling system are examined: (A) A mid-year secondary upwelling that was previously observed in the southeastern Caribbean Sea between June-July, when land based stations show a decrease in wind speed. The presence and effects of this upwelling along the whole southern Caribbean upwelling system were evaluated, as well as the relative forcing contribution of alongshore winds (Ekman Transport, ET) and wind-curl (Ekman Pumping, EP). (B) Stronger upwelling occurs in two particular regions, namely the …

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

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

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

Quantification Of Nitrate Sources And Sinks Using A Water Quality Network In Morro Bay Estuary, California, Johanna Nadia Jean Weston

Master's Theses

Using an instrumented water quality network in Morro Bay Estuary, California from 2007 to 2010 (15 min sampling frequency), this study addressed the two objectives of constructing a nitrate budget and assessing the influence of sampling frequency on water quality parameters. These two objectives led to the submission of an original report of research (Appendix A) and a note (Appendix B) to peer-reviewed journals.

The first objective was to characterize the high spatial and temporal variation in physical parameters and nitrate concentrations and to construct a nitrate budget quantifying sources and sinks of nitrate from the ocean, streams, and groundwater, …

Effect Of Reworking And Bioturbation On Sedimentary Reactive Iron Within A Microtidal Estuary, Amy Kathleen Pitts

OES Theses and Dissertations

Mixed redox conditions in sediments due to physical reworking may allow for enhanced remineralization of refractory organic matter due to Fe(III) redox cycling. In part this may occur because easily reducible iron oxides can be used by heterotrophic bacteria to remineralize the organic carbon. This phenomena has been observed in bioturbated sediments and in areas where physical factors (such as strong bottom currents) constantly rework the sediments. To specifically determine the effects of physical reworking and bioturbation on concentrations of easily reducible iron oxides, reactive iron concentrations were measured in surface sediments taken from two contrasting sites in the York …

Model-Based Analyses Of Nitrogen On The Mid-Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf, Tian Tian

OES Theses and Dissertations

The biogeochemistry of continental shelf systems is an important, but poorly quantified, component of the global cycling of nitrogen and carbon. In this study, simulations obtained from a one-dimensional (ID) biogeochemical model developed for the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB) portion of the U.S. eastern continental shelf were analyzed to investigate nitrogen cycling processes. The 1D model included lower trophic level interactions and was forced by advective fields obtained from a corresponding three-dimensional biogeochemical model. Taylor and target diagram analyses, which compared in situ measurements of sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity, and chlorophyll and particulate organic carbon (POC) derived from …

Exploration Of The Anaximander Mud Volcanoes, Timothy M. Shank, Santiago Herrera, Walter Cho, Christopher N. Roman, Katherine L. Croff Bell

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploration Of The Kolumbo Volcanic Rift Zone, Steven Carey, Katherine L. Croff Bell, Paraskevi Nomikou, Georges Vougioukalakis, Christopher N. Roman, Kathleen Cantner, Konstantina Bejelou, Maria Bourbouli, Julie Fero Martin

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Modern Dirty Sea Ice Characteristics And Sources: The Role Of Anchor Ice, Dennis A. Darby, Wesley B. Myers, Martin Jakobsson, Ignatius Rigor

OES Faculty Publications

Extensive dirty ice patches with up to 7 kg m^-2 sediment concentrations in layers of up to 10 cm thickness were encountered in 2005 and 2007 in numerous areas across the central Arctic. The Fe grain fingerprint determination of sources for these sampled dirty ice floes indicated both Russian and Canadian sources, with the latter dominating. The presence of benthic shells and sea weeds along with thick layers (2-10 cm) of sediment covering 5-10 m² indicates an anchor ice entrainment origin as opposed to suspension freezing for some of these floes. The anchor ice origin might explain the …

Florida Straits Deglacial Temperature And Salinity Change: Implications For Tropical Hydrologic Cycle Variability During The Younger Dryas, Matthew W. Schmidt, Jean Lynch-Stieglitz

OES Faculty Publications

The prevailing paradigm of abrupt climate change holds that rapid shifts associated with the most extreme climate swings of the last glacial cycle were forced by changes in the strength and northward extension of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), resulting in an abrupt reorganization of atmospheric circulation patterns with global teleconnections. To determine the timing of tropical Atlantic atmospheric circulation changes over the past 21 ka BP, we reconstruct high resolution sea surface temperature and δ¹⁸O_SW (a proxy for surface salinity) records based on Mg/Ca ratios and oxygen isotope measurements in the planktonic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber from …

Meridional Shifts In The Marine Itcz And The Tropical Hydrologic Cycle Over The Last Three Glacial Cycles, Matthew W. Schmidt, Howard J. Spero

OES Faculty Publications

Paleoproxy studies show a strong correlation between tropical climate and high-latitude temperature variability recorded in the Greenland ice cores over the last glacial cycle. In particular, abrupt cooling events in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project II δ¹⁸O ice record appear synchronous with a southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the Atlantic, a weakening of the Indian and East Asian monsoon systems, and a strengthening of the South American monsoon system. Because this high-to-low-latitude climate teleconnection significantly alters the tropical hydrologic cycle around the globe, it plays a critical role in regulating global climate on glacial-interglacial …

Evidence From The Florida Straits For Younger Dryas Ocean Circulation Changes, Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, Matthew W. Schmidt, William B. Curry

OES Faculty Publications

The waters passing through the Florida Straits today reflect both the western portion of the wind-driven subtropical gyre and the northward flow of the upper waters which cross the equator, compensating North Atlantic Deep Water export as part of the large-scale Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. It has been postulated from various lines of evidence that the overturning circulation was weaker during the Younger Dryas cold event of the last deglaciation. We show here that the contrast in the oxygen isotopic composition of benthic foraminiferal tests across the Florida Current is reduced during the Younger Dryas. This most likely reflects a …

Early Season Depletion Of Dissolved Iron In The Ross Sea Polynya: Implications For Iron Dynamics On The Antarctic Continental Shelf, Peter N. Sedwick, C. M. Marsay, B. M. Sohst, A. M. Aguilar-Islas, M. C. Lohan, M. C. Long, K. R. Arrigo, R. B. Dunbar, M. A. Saito, W. O. Smith, G. R. Ditullio

OES Faculty Publications

The Ross Sea polynya is among the most productive regions in the Southern Ocean and may constitute a significant oceanic CO₂sink. Based on results from several field studies, this region has been considered seasonally iron limited, whereby a "winter reserve" of dissolved iron (dFe) is progressively depleted during the growing season to low concentrations (~ 0.1 nM) that limit phytoplankton growth in the austral summer (December-February). Here we report new iron data for the Ross Sea polynya during austral summer 2005-2006 (27 December-22 January) and the following austral spring 2006 (16 November-3 December). The summer 2005-2006 data show …

Detection Of The 2010 Chilean Tsunami Using Satellite Altimetry, B. D. Hamlington, R. R. Leben, O. A. Godin, J. F. Legeais, E. Gica, V. V. Titov

CCPO Publications

Tsunamis are difficult to detect and measure in the open ocean because the wave amplitude is much smaller than it is closer to shore. An effective early warning system, however, must be able to observe an impending tsunami threat far away from the shore in order to provide the necessary lead-time for coastal inhabitants to find safety. Given the expansiveness of the ocean, sensors capable of detecting the tsunami must also have very broad areal coverage. The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami was definitively detected in the open ocean from both sea surface height and sea surface roughness measurements provided by satellite …

The Spatial Distribution Of Solar Radiation Under A Melting Arctic Sea Ice Cover, Karen E. Frey, Donald K. Perovich, Bonnie Light

Geography

The sea ice cover of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas is currently undergoing a fundamental shift from multiyear ice to first-year ice. Field observations of sea ice physical and optical properties were collected in this region during June-July 2010, revealing unexpectedly complex spatial distributions of solar radiation under the melt-season ice cover. Based on our optical measurements of first-year ice, we found the under-ice light field in the upper ocean to be spatially heterogeneous and dependent on wavelength, ice thickness, and the areal and geometric distribution of melt ponded and bare ice surfaces. Much of the observed complexity in radiation …

A Comprehensive Uncertainty Analysis And Method Of Geometric Calibration For A Circular Scanning Airborne Lidar, Michael Oliver Gonsalves

Dissertations

This dissertation describes an automated technique for ascertaining the values of the geometric calibration parameters of an airborne lidar. A least squares approach is employed that adjusts the point cloud to a single planar surface which could be either a narrow airport runway or a dynamic sea surface. Going beyond the customary three boresight angles, the proposed adjustment can determine up to eleven calibration parameters to a precision that renders a negligible contribution to the point cloud’s positional uncertainty.

Presently under development is the Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL), which, unlike most contemporary systems that use oscillating mirrors …

The Distribution And Comparative Biogeochemistry Of Silver With Other Selected Trace Metals In Coastal Waters Near Massachusetts, Usa, Christian F. Krahforst

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Water samples and hydrologic data were collected during 1994-1996 in New England coastal waters near Massachusetts, USA to examine the distribution of silver and other trace metals (Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Fe) in the coastal systems of Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays. These investigations were designed to test the hypothesis that silver could serve as a tracer of dispersion of municipal wastewater in Boston Harbor into Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays and estimate the relative contribution of wastewater discharge to the overall silver budget of the Massachusetts Bays system. Silver concentrations in both particulate and filtered (<0.4 µm) fractions averaged 103 and 117 pmol kg-1 for Boston Harbor, 34 and 10 pmol kg-1 in western Massachusetts Bay, and 11 and 7 pmol kg-1 in the central portion of Massachusetts Bay, respectively. Average Ag concentrations in southern Gulf of Maine coastal waters were 10 and 2 pmol kg-1 for filtered and particulate fractions, respectively. While nearly half of the silver existed in particulate form in Boston Harbor, nearly 80% of the silver in Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays occurred in the filterable fraction. Coastal water surveys revealed non-conservative Ag behavior and probably the result of incomplete mixing of three or more water masses with unique Ag signatures (e.g., Merrimack River, Boston Harbor, surface and intermediate Gulf of Maine waters). Quasi-steady state mass balance approaches estimate most of the silver entering into the Massachusetts Bays system during the study period was the result of municipal wastewater discharge to Boston Harbor (84-93%).

Multivariate analyses …

Phosphorus Uptake In Rhodomonas Salina (Wislouch) And Its Effect On Allocation And Elimination In Acartia Tonsa (Dana), Danna Palladino

OES Theses and Dissertations

Phosphorus is a key element in important biochemical compounds, such as RNA and phospholipids, and can become limiting in a variety of marine systems. The uptake of phosphorus into biochemical fractions (protein, low molecular weight (LMW) compounds, lipid, polysaccharide and nucleic acid) in Acartia tonsa fed ³³P -labeled Rhodomonas salina was examined. R. salina was cultured on two variations of one media that in one case contained phosphorus in balance and the other out of balance with relation to other standard f/2 components. The P-balanced (PB) media had a N:P ratio of 24.5, which is higher than that found …

Clay Mineral Cycles Identified By Diffuse Spectral Reflectance In Quaternary Sediments From The Northwind Ridge: Implications For Glacial-Interglacial Sedimentation Patterns In The Arctic Ocean, Lyanne N. Yurco, Joseph D. Ortiz, Leonid Polyak, Dennis A. Darby, Kevin A. Crawford

OES Faculty Publications

A Quaternary record of fine-grained sediment composition is used to investigate Arctic Ocean climate variability on glacial-interglacial time scales. Diffuse spectral reflectance data from sediment core P1-92AR-P25 from the Northwind Ridge, north of Alaska, demonstrates cyclic variations in mineralogy. Varimax-rotated R-mode factor analysis of down-core data revealed three major mineralogical assemblages, which were then compared with the content of manganese, a proxy for basin ventilation, and thus glacial-interglacial cycles. Results indicate that factor 1, a smectite + chlorite clay assemblage, was delivered to the core site during interglacials, either by fluvial discharge or sea-ice drift from Siberian rivers or inflow …

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 …

Trace Metal Biogeochemistry In The Western North Pacific, Peter Lynn Morton

OES Theses and Dissertations

Dissolved and suspended particulate samples collected during the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission 2002 Contaminant Baseline Survey were analyzed to determine the surface and vertical distributions of Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni Zn and Pb across the western and central North Pacific.

Dissolved trace metal concentrations were measured using a novel isotope dilution-ICP-MS method after extraction over an 8-hydroxyquinoline resin column and validated through the use of the SAFe consensus reference materials. Filtered suspended particulate matter was digested using an HCl/HNO3/HF mixture and analyzed by HR-ICP-MS to obtain total particulate concentrations for the trace metals and other tracer elements such as Al, …

Concentrations, Distributions And Chemical Speciation Of Zinc And Cadmium In The Equatorial And South Atlantic Ocean, Gonzalo G. Carrasco

OES Theses and Dissertations

Certain trace metals are important cofactors in enzymatic systems and are thus, essential for life in the world's oceans. Two of these metals, Zn and Cd, are required by phytoplankton for enzymes that facilitate carbon uptake (Morel and Price, 2003). In seawater the total dissolved concentration of a metal (MTD) is distributed among different chemical species and this chemical speciation dictates a metal's bioavailability. Strong organic metal-binding ligands greatly affect the metal's chemical speciation in the ocean, potentially limiting phytoplankton growth by reducing the concentrations of Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺, the bioavailable forms of these two metals to …

Development Of A Spectral 2-D Fast Fourier Transform Analysis For Sand Ripple Morphology Interpretation, Christopher M. Englert

Honors Theses

A MATLAB-based 2-Dimensional Fast Fourier Transform spectral analysis is developed and tested for its applicability to bedform morphology and hydrodynamic data from a hydrodynamically complex field site. The aspects of the procedure tested are (1) the use of an 8 sub-region arrangement for analysis versus five other arrangements, (2) the procedure for averaging the wavelength-and-orientation outputs from each sub-region to produce a single representative value for each image, (3) methods for eliminating and/or filtering poor quality data, and (4) the procedural steps in the spectral analysis that can appropriately incorporate automation versus manual involvement and interpretation. The automated technique is …

Benthic Ecology From Space: Optics And Net Primary Production In Seagrass And Benthic Algae Across The Great Bahama Bank, Heidi M. Dierssen, Richard C. Zimmerman, Lisa A. Drake, David J. Burdige

OES Faculty Publications

Development of repeatable and quantitative tools are necessary for determining the abundance and distribution of different types of benthic habitats, detecting changes to these ecosystems, and determining their role in the global carbon cycle. Here we used ocean color remote sensing techniques to map different major groups of primary producers and estimate net primary productivity (NPP) across Great Bahama Bank (GBB). Field investigations on the northern portion of the GBB in 2004 revealed 3 dominant types of benthic primary producers: seagrass, benthic macroalgae, and microalgae attached to sediment. Laboratory measurements of NPP ranged from barely net autotrophic for grapestone sediment …

On The Fractional Solubillity Of Copper In Marine Aerosols: Toxicity Of Aeolian Copper Revisited, Edward R. Sholkovitz, Peter N. Sedwick, Thomas M. Church

OES Faculty Publications

Paytan et al. (2009) argue that the atmospheric deposition of aerosols lead to copper concentrations that are potentially toxic to marine phytoplankton in a large area of tropical and subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. A key assumption in their model is that all marine aerosols (mineral dust and anthropogenic particles) have a high (40%) fractional solubility of copper. Our data show that the fractional solubility of copper for Saharan dust over the Sargasso Sea and Bermuda is significantly lower (1-7%). In contrast, anthropogenic aerosols with non-Saharan sources have significantly higher values (10-100%). Hence, the potential Cu toxicity in the tropical and …

The Widespread Occurrence Of Coupled Carbonate Dissolution/Reprecipitation In Surface Sediments On The Bahamas Bank, David J. Burdige, Xinping Hu, Richard C. Zimmerman

OES Faculty Publications

Using two complimentary approaches (pore water advection/diffusion/reaction modeling and stable isotope mass balance calculations) we show that carbonate dissolution/reprecipitation occurs on early diagenetic time scales across a broad range of sediments on the Great Bahamas Bank. The input of oxygen into the sediments, which strongly controls sediment carbonate dissolution, has two major sources belowground input by seagrasses (that is, seagrass O₂ pumping), and permeability-driven advective pore water exchange. The relative importance of these O₂ delivery mechanisms depends on both seagrass density, and on how bottom water flow interacts with the seagrass canopy and leads to this advective exchange. …

Causes Of Tropical Atlantic Paleo-Salinity Variation During Periods Of Reduced Amoc, Xiuquan Wan, Ping Chang, Matthew W. Schmidt

OES Faculty Publications

During periods of reduced Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) associated with a freshening of northern North Atlantic surface water, paleo proxy records indicate a corresponding surface salinity increase over the entire tropical Atlantic. Although latitudinal-shifts in the mean position of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) can explain certain features of the paleo salinity reconstructions, this mechanism does not offer an explanation for the reconstructed basin-wide paleo-salinity response to AMOC change. Here, we present new results from general circulation model simulations that suggest the sea surface salinity (SSS) increase in the tropical north Atlantic during periods of weakened AMOC is …

A Seasonal Study Of Dissolved Cobalt In The Ross Sea, Antarctica: Micronutrient Behavior, Absence Of Scavenging, And Relationships With Zd, Cd, And P., M. A. Saito, T. J. Goepfert, A. E. Noble, E. M. Bertrand, Peter N. Sedwick, Giacomo R. Ditullio

OES Faculty Publications

We report the distribution of cobalt (Co) in the Ross Sea polynya during austral summer 2005-2006 and the following austral spring 2006. The vertical distribution of total dissolved Co (dCo) was similar to soluble reactive phosphate (PO(4)(3-)), with dCo and PO(4)(3-) showing a significant correlation throughout the water column (r(2) = 0.87, 164 samples). A strong seasonal signal for dCo was observed, with most spring samples having concentrations ranging from similar to ~ 45-85 pM, whereas summer dCo values were depleted below these levels by biological activity. Surface transect data from the summer cruise revealed concentrations at the low range …

Variations In Synechococcus Cell Quotas Of Phosphorus, Sulfur, Manganese, Iron, Nickel, And Zinc Within Mesoscale Eddies In The Sargasso Sea, Benjamin S. Twining, Daliangelis Nunez-Milland, Stefan Vogt, Rodney S. Johnson, Peter N. Sedwick

OES Faculty Publications

The quotas of P, S, Mn, Fe, Ni, and Zn in individual Synechococcus cells collected from the surface and deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) layer of three mesoscale eddies in the Sargasso Sea were measured using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microscopy. Cells in a mode-water eddy had significantly higher P (57 +/- 10 amol) and Mn (28 +/- 7 zmol) cell quotas than cells collected from a cyclone (22 +/- 2 amol and 10 +/- 1 zmol, respectively) or anticyclone (25 +/- 3 amol and 18 +/- 3 zmol, respectively). Conversely, Ni and Zn quotas were significantly higher in the cells from …