Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Pymelt-Px: A Python Script For Modeling Melting Of A Pyroxenite-Peridotite Bilithological Mantle, Ana L. Jimenez Bustos

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The study of oceanic crust formation is a fundamental building block in our understanding of the processes of planetary formation, necessitating an understanding of the melt generation processes that help form oceanic crust. To aid in this purpose, we present pyMeltPX: a bilithological pyroxenite-peridotite mantle modeling script. Although the mantle is primarily comprised of peridotite, pyroxenite is a minor but ubiquitous feature of the mantle and can contribute a disproportionate amount of melt to crustal generation in mid-ocean ridge and ocean island basalt settings. Our model, pyMeltPX, is a python coded, extensible tool based on the Excel calculator by Lambart …

Flood Resilience Through Working-Land Conservation: Assessment Of Wetland Inundation Dynamics Across Wrp, Wma, Wpa, Padus And Crp Lands In Nebraska (2018–2024), Pranjay Joshi

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study first confirms whether Nebraska’s wetlands are still functioning hydrologically in ways that reduce flood impacts. Wetlands are known to lessen flood damage by storing water, slowing runoff, and moderating peak flows, but these benefits depend on the wetlands’ ability to maintain inundation and saturation through time. Many wetlands across the state have undergone drainage, hydrologic alteration, or isolation from surrounding watersheds, raising uncertainty about their present-day functioning. Using seven years of Sentinel-2 imagery processed in Google Earth Engine, this research establishes a clear, long-term record of inundation patterns across thousands of wetland parcels. This analysis verifies which wetlands …

2025 December - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

Hi All,

December was defined by quite a bit of temperature variability (though the temperature swings resulted in near-normal monthly averages) and an overall dry pattern.

The month started out cooler than normal, with a slight moderation in the second week of the month, before a strong cold front sent temperatures tumbling into the teens or single-digits and wind chills into the single digits or below zero on December 14 and 15 - with many locations stuck in the 20’s or even teens for high temperatures. Following this cold weather, temperatures quickly rebounded into the normal and then well above …

Floodplain Lake Hydrodynamic And Morphodynamic Connections Through Hydraulic Modeling Along The Pee Dee River, Sc, Charles Cj Mina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rivers have been essential in the success of humankind. This reliance has created a vested interest in studying the rivers' environmental history through using floodplain deposits, with the assumption that coarser sediments correlate to higher discharge floods. However, shifting hydrological connectivity and hydrodynamics can complicate this correlation in primary repositories of flood deposits, oxbow lakes, by altering the texture of sediments delivered to them. Studying these complications is essential for quantifying paleoflood magnitude using the sediment record, but has been difficult, as the currently used index of hydrological connectivity relies on water stage, which does not reflect the sediment flux …

Dolphins ‘Orient-Against-Current’: Foraging In Dredged Channels, Eliza M.M. Mills, Sarah Piwetz, Dara N. Orbach

Marine Science

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) are opportunistic foragers with global distributions that utilize diverse feeding tactics based on environmental factors, habitat features, prey behavior, group dynamics, and genetics. We describe a unique foraging tactic regularly observed in the confluence of dredged shipping channels with high anthropogenic disturbance, and explore potential abiotic (temporal, tidal, habitat) drivers of the behavior. A shore-based digital theodolite was used from 2021 to 2022 to observe common bottlenose dolphins (T. truncatus) foraging within a current in a technique we term Orient-Against-Current (OAC). During OAC, dolphins position themselves facing into the flow of a current, swimming at a …

An Integrated Modeling Framework To Evaluate Circularity Of The Corn–Water–Ethanol–Beef Nexus, Heydi Han

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation examines the transition from conventional linear agricultural and food bioenergy systems toward more circular, resilient, and resource-efficient configurations. Prior research indicates that spatial and temporal variability in soil, weather, animal biological responses, and management decisions strongly influences productivity, nutrient-use efficiency, and profitability. Studies have also shown that a diversified circular system can buffer these sources of variability, improving stability and adaptive capacity. Building on these insights, the central focus of this work is to develop an integrated modeling framework to evaluate circularity within the Corn-Water-Ethanol-Beef (CWEB) nexus and explore how climate variability and management choices shape system-wide performance. …

Rainfall-Runoff Modelling In An Indonesian Humid Tropical Area Using Satellite-Based Precipitation Products, Noordiah Helda

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation explores three rainfall-runoff models in the humid tropical regions of Indonesia using satellite-based precipitation products (SBPPs) and develops integrated machine-learning modeling frameworks. Several ground-based observations from BMKG (Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (also known as the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics)) stations across Indonesia (133−165 stations) are compared and evaluated against satellite products, indicating that GPM performs well, with R-squared values ranging from 0.54 to 0.76 and correlation coefficients ranging from 0.45 to 0.69, respectively.

In the Martapura Watershed, South Kalimantan, due to a lack of observational discharge data, streamflow was generated using the FJ Mock …

Modeling The Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge Using Integrated Geophysical Analysis, Zachary Clowdus

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge (GIFR) is an area of significant geologic interest with anomalously thick crust related to enhanced melt generation from the interaction between the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Iceland hotspot. To the northeast of Iceland lies the Jan Mayen Microcontinent (JMMC), which is a continental fragment separated from Greenland during the opening of the Northern Atlantic. The overall extent of the JMMC, especially its southern boundary, remains poorly constrained. The crust beneath the GIFR is believed to be primarily of oceanic affinity. However, a recent discovery of felsic lavas in Iceland led to an alternative hypothesis that implies the …

The Urban Heat Island And Its Role In Shaping Convective Environments: An Observational Study, Benjamin W. Moll

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The continued spread of urbanization and its well-documented effects on regional weather and climate necessitate further research. Urban environments are often warmer and drier than their rural surroundings. This trade-off between a warmer but drier environment could have a complex impact on deep convection and its initiation. Previous studies have noted significant changes in precipitation patterns around cities as well as changes to ongoing deep convection. Given the well-documented theory and past research, it is hypothesized here that urban areas have a significant impact on the PBL thermodynamics of convective environments. The urban heat island (UHI) component of the Micro …

Coupled Machine Learning Models: Combining Observations And Numerical Analysis In A Physics-Regularized Approach, Austin B. Schmidt

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates surrogate modeling for fixed-location environmental forecasting using novel data-combination techniques. The work surveys the landscape of observational measurements and numerically generated data, identifying similar research and gaps in current methodologies. The ratio-coupled training framework is introduced to combine two data sources per predicted feature through a tunable parameter that weights training signal strength. An optimization scheme is developed to simultaneously tune surrogate weights and the coupled signal ratio, allowing relative influence between signals to act as an explicit regularizer. Three case studies demonstrate the methodology and approach in a variety of contexts. The first study is based …

A Generational Analysis Of Psychological Motivators Influencing Seafarer Retention, Perisah Tahanci

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Seafarer retention is a growing concern amid increasing global demand for skilled maritime officers. This study investigates the generational differences in psychological motivators influencing seafarer retention, where ‘psychological motivators’ encompass the cognitive factors, including mental and physical wellbeing, work-life balance, compensation, working conditions, and external factors, that shape retention intentions. A cross-sectional survey (n=214) combined quantitative and qualitative analyses to systematically assess how the perceived importance and experience of these factors vary across Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers.

The findings reveal that significant generational differences exist across most factors, particularly in work-life balance and mental wellbeing, in …

What Environmental Circumstances Generate Hazardous Wave Overtopping Conditions For Infrastructure Disruption: Dawlish (United Kingdom) Case Study, Zbigniew Tomasz Zielonka

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Coastal infrastructure faces increasing threats from wave overtopping due to climate change, rising sea levels, and intensifying storms. This research investigates the environmental conditions that drive hazardous wave overtopping using Dawlish, a vulnerable section of the UK’s railway, as a case study. Understanding these conditions is essential for improving knowledge, developing effective mitigation strategies, and enhancing the resilience of shoreline defences against future challenges. Using one-year observations from WireWall instruments, offshore wave buoy, and meteorological data, the research applies a Random Forest model to assess the influence of metocean conditions on overtopping. The results indicate that wave height, tidal level, …

Interpretable Alignment Of Textual Weather Reports With Local Sensor Time Series For Extreme Weather Event Visualization, Juan Luis Garza

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an automated and interpretable pipeline that links natural-language weather narratives with local meteorological sensor time series. Using large language models, NOAA-style event reports are transformed into structured records capturing event type, timing, descriptive context, and uncertainty. Each extracted event is aligned with harmonized temperature, precipitation, and wind measurements from nearby weather stations, enabling systematic comparisons between narrative evidence and observed atmospheric conditions.

Across roughly fifty stations and more than two thousand events, the analyses show that discrepancies between narrative descriptions and sensor behavior arise primarily from spatial separation rather than from temporal offsets, sensor preprocessing artifacts, or …

Investigating Mariculture-Associated Ecosystem Services Across The Northern Gulf Of Alaska, Josianne Haag

Oceanography

The rapid expansion of mariculture in Alaska can drive physical and chemical alterations to the marine environment by introducing non-native organisms or artificially increasing the biomass of a native species. Currently, the main mariculture products grown in Alaska include the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas), the Pacific blue mussel (Mytilus trosuslus), and three macroalgae species: ribbon kelp (Alaria marginata), sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima), and bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana). This dissertation examines how these species can impact their surrounding environment to better inform management practices for this growing industry. This research characterized the resource use of C. gigas and M. trossulus seasonally …

Streams Guidelines: Standards For Technical Reporting In Environmental And Host-Associated Microbiome Studies, Julia M. Kelliher, Chloe Mirzayi, Sarah R. Bordenstein, Aaron Oliver, Christina A. Kellogg, Eneida L. Hatcher, Maureen Berg, Petr Baldrian, Mashael Aljumaah, Cassandra Maria Luz Miller, Christopher Mungall, Vlastimil Novak, Alexis Palucki, Ethan Smith, Nazifa Tabassum, Gregory Bonito, J. Rodney Brister, Patrick S. Chain, Mingfei Chen, Samuel Degregori, Xuefeng Peng, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

The interdisciplinary nature of microbiome research, coupled with the generation of complex multi-omics data, makes knowledge sharing challenging. The Strengthening the Organization and Reporting of Microbiome Studies (STORMS) guidelines provide a checklist for the reporting of study information, experimental design and analytical methods within a scientific manuscript on human microbiome research. Here, in this Consensus Statement, we present the standards for technical reporting in environmental and host-associated microbiome studies (STREAMS) guidelines. The guidelines expand on STORMS and include 67 items to support the reporting and review of environmental (for example, terrestrial, aquatic, atmospheric and engineered), synthetic and non-human host-associated microbiome …

Isolation Of The 2019 Bonnet Carré Spillway Effects On The Habitat Suitability Of Brown Shrimp (Farfantepenaeus Aztecus) And Blue Crab (Callinectes Sapidus) Using A Modeling Approach, Mallory Dyson

Master's Theses

In 2019, an unprecedented flood year, the Bonnet Carré Spillway (BCS) was opened on two separate occasions (February 27^th to April 11^th, and May 10^th through July 27^th) diverting a volume 6 times the volume of Lake Pontchartrain into the surrounding coastal waters of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The goal of this research was to determine the spatio-temporal influence of these freshwater releases on two economically and ecologically important species (Farfantepenaeus aztecus and Callinectes sapidus) with variable responses to salinity and temperature depending on the age class. The Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) …

Modeling Flood Risks For Small-Scale Coastal Watershed Across Shared Socioeconomic Pathway Scenarios, Sebastian Loschner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Coastal flooding, driven by the mixture of natural processes and human activities such as precipitation, waves, sea level rise, and urbanization, remains a growing concern. While recent flood-risk studies use IPCC's Shared Socioeconomic Pathways with climate projections to assess future flood exposure, smaller coastal watersheds, < 120,000 acres, remain insufficiently studied. Projected sea level rise is expected to intensify these impacts in smaller systems, potentially causing more severe flooding than reported for larger watersheds. To address this gap, this study used the SRH-2D model integrated with Aquaveo's Surface-water Modeling System to simulate flooding in the lower Fish River basin, Alabama. A coastal watershed sensitive to both riverine and tidal influences. Simulations tested different sea levels based on SSP scenarios corresponding to low, moderate, and high emissions for the years 2050 and 2100. Results indicate that the midcentury scenarios remained even in inundation extent and volume, between 9.9-10.4% compared to the 2020 baseline, the latter scenarios had a wider range in results of between 25.9-50.3% compared to the same baseline. Across scenarios, the most vulnerable and inundated areas of the smaller coastal watershed were the narrow points where upstream flow convene with downstream backwater. These findings highlight the need for futuristic location-specific flood mitigation strategies.

Modeling Aerosol Transport During High Particulate Matter Episodes In El Paso-Juarez Region And Mitigating Mining-Related Emissions Of Rare Earth Elements (Rees) To The Air, Suzan Aranda Luna

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the use of the HYSPLIT model to develop a methodology for the transport and dispersion of air masses affecting particulate matter (PM) concentrations in the El Paso Region, and bioleaching experiments as an alternative to mitigating rare-earth concentrations in the air. Chapter 2 describes the study methodology, 3 and 4 cover the modeling methodology using two-representative high PM2.5 episodes, occurring on February 28, 2024, and June 19, 2024, respectively. These sections encompass the analysis of backward trajectories using four different meteorological datasets to build trajectory frequency maps, the exploratory model analysis of modeled outputs from lower to …

A Half Century Of Biophysical Change In Polygonized Tundra On The Coastal Plain Of Northern Alaska, Mariana Mora

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Climate change is amplified in the Arctic. As a result, Arctic tundra landscapes are undergoing physical changes through accelerated thaw and ice-wedge degradation. Understanding the magnitude and direction of these changes in the Arctic is a necessary step toward understanding the response of the Arctic to climate change and feedbacks to the Climate System. Through repeat measurements collected from 1973 through 2018, we were able to assess decadal time scale changes in polygon geomorphology, thaw depth, land surface compression and expansion, and vertical elevation within a highly polygonized tundra system, and their implications when scaled to a regional level. This …

Occurrence Of Per And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances In Rural Wastewater Treatment Plants And Comparison To Large Treatments Plants, Madeleine Rauhauser

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of compounds defined by their carbon – fluorine bonds, which are incredibly strong. The strength of this bond makes these compounds very useful industrially, they are used as waterproof and grease proof coatings, and as fire retardants. The same thing that makes them useful industrially makes them incredibly recalcitrant in the environment, it is difficult to destroy these compounds. PFAS are also suspected to cause health impacts in people, such as kidney cancer and low birth weights. Wastewater has been commonly identified as a contributor to the amount of PFAS in the …