Evaluation Of Practical Methods To Determine If A Karst Creek Is Gaining Or Losing: Case Study Of Leith Creek,
2025
Missouri State University
Evaluation Of Practical Methods To Determine If A Karst Creek Is Gaining Or Losing: Case Study Of Leith Creek, Elizabeth Jones
Graduate Theses/Dissertations
Karst landscapes are abundant in Missouri, with features such as caves, springs, and sinkholes that form through the dissolution of limestone. Leith Creek is a small stream in Polk County, Missouri fed by two springs and the shallow unconfined Springfield Plateau aquifer, a highly karstified aquifer which is made up of limestone and minor interbedded shale-mudstone units. To determine if Leith Creek is gaining or losing, stream flow, water chemistry and temperature sensors were monitored. Stream flow results required multiple visits to take measurements while temperature sensors required two visits, one to install the dataloggers and another to remove the …
Investigating The Thermal Stratification Patterns Of A Shallow Polymictic Boreal Shield Lake And The Effectiveness Of Models In Predicting Shallow Lake Thermal Profiles,
2025
Wilfrid Laurier University
Investigating The Thermal Stratification Patterns Of A Shallow Polymictic Boreal Shield Lake And The Effectiveness Of Models In Predicting Shallow Lake Thermal Profiles, Matthew Roberts
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Thermal stratification is a core process of lakes which plays a critical role in shaping the ecological dynamics of lakes, influencing major processes like nutrient cycling and oxygen availability. For shallow polymictic lakes, thermal stratification patterns present some unique differences due to the complex and variable nature of these lakes. In this thesis, I examined thermal stratification in a shallow polymictic lake in northwestern Ontario during the ice-free season of 2019 to investigate the frequency, duration, and driving factors of thermal stratification. The lake underwent 146 separate stratification events, with a median duration of 2 hours per event, with a …
Advancing Root Trait Measurements For A Deeper Understanding Of Soil Biogeochemistry,
2025
University of Kentucky
Advancing Root Trait Measurements For A Deeper Understanding Of Soil Biogeochemistry, Brian Rinehart
Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences
Climate change is disrupting (agro)ecosystems, with the potential for significant losses in crop productivity and ecosystem resilience due to changes in water and biogeochemical cycling. These disruptions can also release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through the degradation of soil organic matter. Plant roots have emerged as a potential tool for mitigating these effects, given their roles in plant function and in driving soil biogeochemistry. While this interest is growing, our ability to implement root trait selection is limited due to constraints on characterizing roots and limited clarity on the effects of traits on plant and ecosystem function. My …
Elucidating Non-Canonical Interactions Of Mcl1 With The P53 Family Of Tumor Suppressors,
2025
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Elucidating Non-Canonical Interactions Of Mcl1 With The P53 Family Of Tumor Suppressors, Alexus Marie Acton
All ETDs from UAB
Various signaling mechanisms contribute to a cancers cell’s ability to survive through the stressors of tumorigenesis. Canonically, when a cell is exposed to irreversible stress, the induction to apoptosis is regulated by the Bcl-2 family of apoptotic regulators. However, to accommodate for the stressors of tumor progression, many solid tumors over express one of the pro-survival proteins (e.g., BCL2, BCLxL, MCL1) allowing for persistent growth without the induction to cell death. Over the past 10 years, researchers have investigated how over expression of these pro-survival proteins contribute to chemoresistance to standard of care therapies. To sensitize cells to these apoptotic …
A Biogeochemical Perspective On Acidification And Buffering Capacity In The Piscataqua Estuary,
2025
University of New Hampshire, Durham
A Biogeochemical Perspective On Acidification And Buffering Capacity In The Piscataqua Estuary, Sanjana Varanasi
Master's Theses and Capstones
Coastal acidification is influenced not only by rising atmospheric CO2 and river-ocean mixing, but also by metabolic processes that alter seawater carbonate chemistry and buffering capacity. This study examines how sedimentary biogeochemical processes contribute to carbonate system variability in the Piscataqua Estuary, a tidally dynamic channel connecting Great Bay to the Gulf of Maine. The biogeochemical processes considered include sedimentary aerobic respiration, denitrification, sulfate reduction, and carbonate dissolution or precipitation. Two incubation experiments were conducted in September and October of 2024 at the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Marine Laboratory (CML) to quantify changes in pH, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), …
Organic Carbon Decay Mediated By A Mesopelagic Microbial Community: The Relevance Of Carbon Pools And Broad Biochemical Composition,
2025
Old Dominion University
Organic Carbon Decay Mediated By A Mesopelagic Microbial Community: The Relevance Of Carbon Pools And Broad Biochemical Composition, Noah J. Craft, Alexander B. Bochdansky
OES Faculty Publications
The mesopelagic zone is a site of strong microbially driven particle attenuation with depth and thus plays a crucial role in controlling the transfer efficiency of the ocean's biological pump. However, little quantitative information exists on the dependency of decay processes on the source material. Here we followed the decay of ¹⁴C-labeled dead particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from three different phytoplankton species, and two incubations of live diatoms, in mesopelagic water over 3 months. Commonly used first-order kinetics failed to adequately describe the decay of organic material as rate constants varied from day to day. …
Dust Deposition To The Sargasso Sea: A Comparison Of Estimates Using Aluminum In The Surface Ocean Versus Aerosols And Rainwater,
2025
Old Dominion University
Dust Deposition To The Sargasso Sea: A Comparison Of Estimates Using Aluminum In The Surface Ocean Versus Aerosols And Rainwater, T. E. Williams, P. N. Sedwick, B. M. Sohst, K. N. Buck, S. Caprara, R. J. Johnson, D. C. Ohnemus, J. A. Resing, L. E. Sofen, A. Tagliabue, B. S. Twining
OES Faculty Publications
As a major component of mineral aerosol that partially dissolves in seawater, aluminum (Al) has been used to estimate time-averaged dust fluxes to the ocean, based on dissolved aluminum (DAl) concentrations and an assumed replacement time of DAl (tau DAl) in the surface mixed layer, along with the fractional solubility (Als) and mass abundance of Al in dust. We apply this method in the Bermuda region using seasonal water-column DAl concentrations, and compare our results with fluxes estimated from Al measured in Bermuda aerosols and rain. Inventories of DAl over the maximum mixed-layer depth of 200 m and empirically derived …
The Δ¹³C Signature Of Dissolved Organic And Inorganic Carbon Reveals Complex Carbon Transformations Within A Salt Marsh,
2025
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
The Δ¹³C Signature Of Dissolved Organic And Inorganic Carbon Reveals Complex Carbon Transformations Within A Salt Marsh, Meagan J. Eagle, Kevin D. Kroeger, John W. Pohlman, Joseph J. Tamborski, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, T. W. Brooks, Jennifer O. Keefe Suttles, Adrian Mann
OES Faculty Publications
Coastal wetlands have high rates of atmospheric CO₂ uptake, which is subsequently respired back to the atmosphere, stored as organic matter within flooded, anoxic soils, or exported to the coastal ocean. Transformation of fixed carbon occurs through a variety of subsurface aerobic and anaerobic microbial processes, and results in a large inventory of dissolved carbon. Carbon source and the roles of aerobic respiration, sulfate reduction, and methane cycling were evaluated within salt marsh peat and the underlying sandy subterranean estuary. There is a large increase in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC, 7,350 ± 3,900 μmol L-¹), dissolved organic carbon …
Evidence Of Mineral Alteration In A Salt Marsh Subterranean Estuary: Implications For Carbon And Trace Element Cycling,
2025
Old Dominion University
Evidence Of Mineral Alteration In A Salt Marsh Subterranean Estuary: Implications For Carbon And Trace Element Cycling, J. J. Tamborski, M. J. Eagle, M. T. Thorpe, M. A. Charette, B. L. Kurylyk, S. Rahman, K. D. Kroeger, J. O'Keefe Suttles, A. G. Mann, T. W. Brooks, Z. A. Wang
OES Faculty Publications
Subterranean estuaries (STE) in salt marshes are biogeochemically active zones where interactions between terrestrial groundwater and seawater drive complex cycling of carbon and trace elements, influenced by mineral dissolution. These systems, characterized by fine-grained organic-rich peat overlying permeable coastal aquifers, play a crucial role as a blue carbon sink, yet their geochemical dynamics remain poorly understood. We investigated dissolved trace elements, carbon, silica, and radium isotopes in a salt marsh STE (Sage Lot Pond, Waquoit Bay, MA) over seasonal and annual cycles. Our results reveal that groundwater and estuarine water circulation through marsh peat and aquifer sediments leads to enrichments …
Unveiling Hidden Mercury And Methylmercury Sources: The Role Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge In Coastal Lagoons,
2025
Universidad de Playa Ancha
Unveiling Hidden Mercury And Methylmercury Sources: The Role Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge In Coastal Lagoons, Céline Lavergne, Júlia Rodriguez-Puig, Clara Ruiz-González, Maria Montero-Curiel, Gemma Casas, Daniel Romano-Gude, Irene Alorda-Montiel, Júlia Dordal-Soriano, Aaron Alorda-Kleinglass, Marc Diego-Feliu, Javier Gilabert, Alex Campillo-De La Maza, Cristina Romera-Castillo, Natalia Torres-Rodriguez, Lars-Eric Heimbürger-Boavida, Jordi Garcia-Orellana, Valenti Rodellas, Andrea G. Bravo
OES Faculty Publications
Mercury loads from Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) may represent an overlooked source of methylmercury (MeHg) to the ocean, affecting human and ecosystem health. The SGD process involves the flow of fresh, saline, or mixed groundwater from coastal aquifers into the oceans classified in different components. Existing studies rarely report the fluxes supplied by the different SGD components; therefore, the relevance of SGD as a source of mercury remains unclear. We aimed to quantify SGD-driven mercury/methylmercury fluxes to the coast, focusing on the largest coastal lagoon in the western Mediterranean. We measured total dissolved mercury and MeHg in surficial and porewaters …
Microbial Diversity And Biogeochemical Interactions In The Seismically Active And Co2-Rich Eger Rift Ecosystem,
2024
Thomas Jefferson University
Microbial Diversity And Biogeochemical Interactions In The Seismically Active And Co2-Rich Eger Rift Ecosystem, Daniel Lipus, Zeyu Jia, Megan Sondermann, Robert Bussert, Alexander Bartholomäus, Sizhong Yang, Dirk Wagner, Jens Kallmeyer
College of Life Sciences Faculty Papers
The Eger Rift subsurface is characterized by frequent seismic activity and consistently high CO2 concentrations, making it a unique deep biosphere ecosystem and a suitable site to study the interactions between volcanism, tectonics, and microbiological activity. Pulses of geogenic H2 during earthquakes may provide substrates for methanogenic and chemolithoautotrophic processes, but very little is currently known about the role of subsurface microorganisms and their cellular processes in this type of environment. To assess the impact of geologic activity on microbial life, we analyzed the geological, geochemical, and microbiological composition of rock and sediment samples from a 238 m deep drill …
Organic Alkalinity Distributions, Characteristics, And Application To Carbonate System Calculations In Estuarine And Coastal Systems,
2024
University of New Hampshire
Organic Alkalinity Distributions, Characteristics, And Application To Carbonate System Calculations In Estuarine And Coastal Systems, Christopher W. Hunt, Joseph Salisbury, Xuewu Liu, Robert H. Byrne
Faculty Publications
The capacity of aquatic systems to buffer acidification depends on the sum contributions of various chemical species to total alkalinity (TA). Major TA contributors are inorganic, with carbonate and bicarbonate considered the most important. However, growing evidence shows that many rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters contain dissolved organic molecules with charge sites that create organic alkalinity (OrgAlk). This study describes the first comparison of (1) OrgAlk distributions and (2) acid–base properties in contrasting estuary-plume systems: the Pleasant (Maine, USA) and the St. John (New Brunswick, CA). The substantial concentrations of OrgAlk in each estuary were sometimes not conservative with salinity …
Algal Community Investigations: Present Day To Year-2100 For Mississippi Lakes And The Western Mississippi Sound,
2024
Mississippi State University
Algal Community Investigations: Present Day To Year-2100 For Mississippi Lakes And The Western Mississippi Sound, Emma Madison Tucker
Theses and Dissertations
Algae play a key role in the aquatic environment as primary producers; however, they can form harmful algal blooms that are detrimental to the aquatic environment, people, and even the economy. It is generally believed that climate change will influence future algal blooms. The first study estimated algae community in three freshwater locations in Mississippi, Desoto Lake, White’s Creek Lake, and Columbus Lake, and one saline location, Western Mississippi Sound, using modern and new tools of the autonomous surface vessel, FlowCam, and EcoTaxa. From those results and leading into the second study was the application of four climate scenarios on …
The Ecology Of Chemosynthesis In Submerged Coastal Caves,
2024
University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
The Ecology Of Chemosynthesis In Submerged Coastal Caves, Robert Scharping, Michael Casso, Isabel Schaal, Paul Henderson, James Garey, Matthew Charette, John Pohlman, Stefan Sievert
FRONTIERS UNBOUND: Exploring Extreme Environments
No abstract provided.
Time-Transgressive Microbial Diversity In A Tropical Bat Guano Accumulation, Deer Cave, Mulu, Borneo,
2024
Carleton University, Canada
Time-Transgressive Microbial Diversity In A Tropical Bat Guano Accumulation, Deer Cave, Mulu, Borneo, Joyce Lundberg, Donald A. Mcfarlane
International Journal of Speleology
Bat guano accumulations in caves can constitute large deposits of organic material, particularly chitin and its degradation products, that host a diverse microbiome. Previous microbiological studies have not addressed the stratified nature of these deposits in the context of the timeframe of the decomposition process. We present such data (temperature, pH, DNA sampling of eight carbon-dated strata) for a 75 cm-deep tropical guano accumulation that undergoes complete decomposition over a timescale of ~120 years. The aerobic, surface layer of freshly-fallen guano has the greatest diversity of taxa, with Bacteroidota co-dominant with Pseudomonadota, and includes many taxa unique to this …
Tales In The Teeth: Using Isotopic Analysis To Understand The Paleoecology And Social Behavior Of Brontotheres Of The Intermountain Basins During The Middle Eocene,
2024
Utah State University
Tales In The Teeth: Using Isotopic Analysis To Understand The Paleoecology And Social Behavior Of Brontotheres Of The Intermountain Basins During The Middle Eocene, John Michael Michalski
All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present
Isotopic analysis has been a common practice used in paleontology to study ancient ecosystems, and the lives of animals therein. Oxygen isotopic analysis is of particular importance not only because of its use in studying paleoecology, diet, and migration, but also its use in studying mountain elevation, and its impact on ancient ecosystems. I use stable oxygen isotopic analysis to study the habits and ecology of brontotheres from intermountain basins surrounding the Uinta Mountains of Utah and Wyoming, USA. I studied the oxygen isotopes from 16 fossil specimens of teeth, most of which belonged to brontotheres, including the genera Palaeosyops …
Remediating History: A Review Of Restoration For Creeks Polluted From Historical Mining Sites, With The Red Boy Mine As A Primary Case Study,
2024
Portland State University
Remediating History: A Review Of Restoration For Creeks Polluted From Historical Mining Sites, With The Red Boy Mine As A Primary Case Study, Kara Atiyeh
University Honors Theses
I conducted a literature review to examine the key aspects of restoring watersheds affected by pollution from historical mining. This review is then applied to a case study discussion of the Red Boy Mine and Clear Creek remediation project in Granite, Oregon. The goal of this discussion is to explore how an analysis of site conditions along with current literature on management practices can help guide these projects. Thousands of abandoned hard rock mines remain throughout the country, and many pose serious environmental health effects. Heavy metals like cadmium, nickel, and copper are brought to the surface from mining activity, …
Effects Of Urbanization On Eutrophication Parameters In Three Tidal Creeks,
2024
Coastal Carolina University
Effects Of Urbanization On Eutrophication Parameters In Three Tidal Creeks, Ella Swantek
Honors Theses
Marshes and swashes are vital environments as a controlling barrier between land affected by various pollutants and the ocean. Eutrophication and the effects of this process can be detrimental for the areas experiencing it. I am interested in ways areas that have little contact with human interactions compare to areas that are heavily urbanized, and whether either of these locations is at a higher risk for eutrophication. Using spectrophotometry and fluorometry, I analyzed samples collected from the relatively undeveloped and restricted-access locations of Waities Island Beach and Dunn Sound monthly for dissolved nutrients, and chlorophyll. At the time of sampling, …
Impacts Of Hurricane Idalia’S Surge On Coastal Sand Biogeochemistry,
2024
Coastal Carolina University
Impacts Of Hurricane Idalia’S Surge On Coastal Sand Biogeochemistry, Wendy "Cor" Mchone
Honors Theses
Beaches are heavily influenced by extreme events, such as hurricanes. Biological and chemical processes, such as primary production and diagenesis are often interrupted by these events. To examine the effects of hurricanes on coastal biogeochemistry, this study used sand and porewater samples from Waties Island, SC, which were collected before and after Hurricane Idalia. The samples were analyzed for macronutrient concentrations, organic content, and chlorophyll concentrations. Macronutrient pore water concentration changes were not uniform. The inventory of nitrite decreased significantly after the storm, which was reflected in slight increases in the inventories of nitrate and ammonium. Concentrations of nitrate, which …
Sedimentary Conditions At A Tidal Creek That Exhibits Seasonal Pelagic-Benthic Variations,
2024
Coastal Carolina University
Sedimentary Conditions At A Tidal Creek That Exhibits Seasonal Pelagic-Benthic Variations, Jack B. Corbin
Honors Theses
Tidal creeks in the Grand Strand of South Carolina are small but numerous connectors between land and ocean. One of these creeks, White Point Swash, exhibits a seasonal switch between planktonic and benthic photosynthesizers. As plankton become less abundant in fall, benthic macroalgae bloom, aided by lower water levels due to fall-winter dredging of the main channel, until late Spring. This study builds on previous findings and examines sedimentary conditions at this site further. Sedimentary chlorophyll a (in microphytobenthos) and pore water nutrient concentrations are confirmed to be higher than water-column concentrations. Sedimentary nutrient fluxes to the sediment-water interface, calculated …
