Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Fish Biomass And Community Structure Around Standing And Toppled Oil And Gas Platforms In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Using Hydroacoustic And Video Surveys, Emily Marissa Reynolds

LSU Master's Theses

There has been relatively little study of the efficacy of decommissioned oil and gas platforms as artificial reef habitats for fish assemblages in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM). A variety of fish species have been reported on these structures, but the species biomass distribution and community structure has not been studied thoroughly. Hydroacoustic and video surveys were conducted quarterly from June 2013 to June 2014 at three standing and two toppled oil and gas platforms located approximately 130 km off the coast of Louisiana at 90 m depth; to gain information about the spatial biomass distribution and community structure …

Oil And Gas Platforms On Ship Shoal, Northern Gulf Of Mexico As Habitat For Reef-Associated Organisms, David Bradley Reeves

LSU Master's Theses

Nearshore Louisiana has experienced substantial changes within the last half-century, including the annual formation of the world’s second largest hypoxic zone and the construction of thousands of oil and gas platforms (rigs). Ship Shoal and its rigs may provide important substrate in nearshore Louisiana because rigs act as de facto artificial reefs and the shoal’s bottom waters were well oxygenated on 43% of days when surrounding areas were hypoxic. From July to September of 2014, fish assemblages and hydrography were compared at shoal rigs, rigs inshore of the shoal, and rigs offshore of the shoal, and stone crab populations were …

Anthropogenic Impacts On Soil Microbial Processes In Coastal Wetlands: Nutrient Loading And Rising Co2 Levels, Havalend Ellen Steinmuller

LSU Master's Theses

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and global eutrophication are anthropogenic stressors impacting the environment of specific interest in wetland systems. Wetlands occupy a critical interface between terrestrial and aquatic environments. Fertilizer use for agriculture and treated wastewater disposal has increased nutrient loading to wetlands. Conflicting results on impacts of nitrogen loading to coastal wetland soils have been reported, though most studies have investigated short-term impacts of nutrient loading, not long-term integrated impacts. I investigated an 11-year period of nutrient loading on soils in an oligohaline coastal wetland. Nitrogen treatments of 0, 50, 200, and 1200 kg ha-1 yr-1 were paired …

Habitat Preferences Of Adult Spotted Seatrout, Cynoscion Nebulosus, In Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, Noelle Marie Bramer

LSU Master's Theses

Spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) are a highly sought after sportfish, making up over 90% of the recreational fishery in Louisiana. As a significant portion of every life history stage is spent within its natal estuary, it is an ideal bio-indicator of estuarine health. As one of the largest estuaries in Louisiana, Lake Pontchartrain represents one such supporting ecosystem. From November 2012 to April 2014 acoustic tagging of individual fish, a lake-wide receiver array, and ArcGIS mapping software were utilized to determine the spatial distribution of spotted seatrout within the lake. Receivers were placed in representative locations including man-made and natural …

Climate, Environmental And Socio-Economic Change: Weighing Up The Balance In Vector-Borne Disease Transmission, Paul E. Parham, Joanna Waldock, George K. Christophides, Deborah Hemming, Folashade Agusto, Katherine J. Evans, Nina Fefferman, Holly Gaff, Abba Gumel, Shannon Ladeau

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Arguably one of the most important effects of climate change is the potential impact on human health. While this is likely to take many forms, the implications for future transmission of vector-borne diseases (VBDs), given their ongoing contribution to global disease burden, are both extremely important and highly uncertain. In part, this is owing not only to data limitations and methodological challenges when integrating climate-driven VBD models and climate change projections, but also, perhaps most crucially, to the multitude of epidemiological, ecological and socio-economic factors that drive VBD transmission, and this complexity has generated considerable debate over the past 10-15 …

The Effect Of Parental Size On Spermatophore Production, Egg Quality, Fertilization Success, And Larval Characteristics In The Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Panulirus Argus, Mark J. Butler Iv, Alison Macdiarmid, Gaya Gnanalingam

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The average size of spiny lobsters (Decapoda; Palinuridae) has decreased worldwide over the past few decades. Market forces coupled with minimum size limits compel fishers to target the largest individuals. Males are targeted disproportionately as a consequence of sexual dimorphism in spiny lobster size (i.e. males grow larger than females) and because of protections for ovigerous females. Therefore, overexploitation of males has led to sperm limitation in several decapod populations with serious repercussions for reproductive success. In the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, little is known about the effect of reduced male size on fertilization success or the role …

Ridazz, Wrenches, And Wonks: A Revolution On Two Wheels Rolls Into Los Angeles, Donald Parker Strauss

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

How can we make cities more livable? Los Angeles, in particular, is a notably challenging place to live. For many, it is hard to see Los Angeles—city or county—as anything other than a huge, sprawling, and some would say placeless place. Los Angeles is known by many as the place that tore up more than 1,000 miles of streetcar lines to make way for millions of cars and hundreds of miles of freeways. Because of this, Los Angeles is also known for its poor air quality and jammed freeways. Those who live in Los Angeles know that it can be …

River Report. State Of The Lower St. Johns River Basin, Florida: Water Quality, Fisheries, Aquatic Life, Contaminants, 2015, Environmental Protection Board, City Of Jacksonville, University Of North Florida, Jacksonville University, Lucy Sonnenberg, Gerry Pinto, Nisse Goldberg, Anthony Ouellette, Gretchen Bielmyer-Fraser, Stuart J. Chalk, Peter Bacopoulos, Brian P. Zoellner

State of the River Report

No abstract provided.

A Freshwater Community On The Shawangunk Ridge In The Lower Mid-Hudson Valley, New York, Beryl Kahn, Howard R. Feldman, Leah Horowitz

Lander College for Women - The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School Publications and Research

The Shawangunk Ridge in the lower mid-Hudson Valley extends from the vicinity of Rosendale through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Within the first thirty miles can be found five “sky lakes”: Mohonk, Minnewaska, Awosting, Mud Pond and Maratanza. Since these lakes occur on the top of the ridge they have no drainage basin. Here we report on the pH and other abiotic factors that impact the aquatic fauna of Mohonk Lake. The pH of the lake is 7 near the surface. Lake Minnewaska’s pH increased from 4 to 6 in the last twenty years. The pH of the other …

Spectroscopic Characterization Of Oceanic Dissolved Organic Matter Isolated By Reverse Osmosis Coupled With Electrodialysis, John R. Helms, Jingdong Mao, Hongmei Chen, E. Michael Perdue, Nelson W. Green, Patrick G. Hatcher, Kenneth Mopper, Aron Stubbins

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Oceanic dissolved organic matter (DOM) is one of the largest pools of reduced carbon on Earth, yet DOM remains poorly chemically characterized. Studies to determine the chemical nature of oceanic DOM have been impeded by the lack of efficient and non-fractioning methods to recover oceanic DOM. Here, a DOM fraction (~40 to 86% recovery) was isolated using reverse osmosis/electrodialysis (RO/ED) and analyzed by solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Samples were obtained from biogeochemically distinct environments: photobleached surface gyre, productive coastal upwelling zone, oxygen minimum, North Atlantic Deep Water, and North Pacific Deep Water. A ubiquitous ‘background’ refractory …

Characterization And Photodegradation Of Dissolved Organic Matter (Dom) From A Tropical Lake And Its Dominant Primary Producer, The Cyanobacteria Microcystis Aeruginosa, Thais B. Bittar, Aron Stubbins, Armando A. H. Vieira, Kenneth Mopper

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

This study investigates optical and high-resolution molecular signatures and photochemical degradation of DOM from the Barra Bonita Reservoir (BB-DOM), a tropical eutrophic lake, as well as from its dominant phytoplankton species, the cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa (Microcystis-DOM). Consistent with a predominantly autotrophic source, BB-DOM and Microcystis-DOM exhibited high protein-like fluorescence and contained a large number of aliphatics. Microcystis-DOM was enriched in peptide-like formulae, while BB-DOM had higher chromophoric and fluorescent DOM(CDOM and FDOM) and was enriched in moderately unsaturated formulae, indicating additions of terrigenous DOM and/or in situ processing of autochthonous material in the lake. Consistent with …

Relative Drifts And Biases Between Six Ozone Limb Satellite Measurements From The Last Decade, N. Rahpoe, M. Weber, A. V. Rozanov, K. Weigel, H. Bovensmann, J. P. Burrows, A. Laeng, G. Stiller, T. Von Clarmann, E. Kyrölä, V. F. Sofieva, J. Tamminen, K. Walker, D. Degenstein, A. E. Bourassa, R. Hargreaves, P. Bernath, J. Urban, D. P. Murtagh

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

As part of European Space Agency's (ESA) climate change initiative, high vertical resolution ozone profiles from three instruments all aboard ESA's Envisat (GOMOS, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY) and ESA's third party missions (OSIRIS, SMR, ACE-FTS) are to be combined in order to create an essential climate variable data record for the last decade. A prerequisite before combining data is the examination of differences and drifts between the data sets. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of ozone profile differences based on pairwise collocated measurements, including the evolution of the differences with time. Such a diagnosis is helpful to identify strengths …

Retrieval And Validation Of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, And Water Vapor For The Canary Islands Ir-Laser Occultation Experiment, V. Proschek, G. Kirchengast, S. Schweitzer, J.S. A. Brooke, P. F. Bernath, C. B. Thomas, J. G. Wang, K. A. Tereszchuk, G. González Abad, R. J. Hargreaves, C. A. Beale, J. J. Harrison, P. A. Martin, V. L. Kasyutich, C. Gerbig, O. Kolle, A. Loescher

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The first ground-based experiment to prove the concept of a novel space-based observation technique for microwave and infrared-laser occultation between low-Earthorbit satellites was performed in the Canary Islands between La Palma and Tenerife. For two nights from 21 to 22 July 2011 the experiment delivered the infrared-laser differential transmission principle for the measurement of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the free atmosphere. Such global and long-term stable measurements of GHGs, accompanied also by measurements of thermodynamic parameters and line-of-sight wind in a self-calibrating way, have become very important for climate change monitoring. The experiment delivered promising initial data for demonstrating the …

Decrease Of Carbon Tetrachloride (Ccl⁴) Over 2004-2013 As Inferred From Global Occultation Measurements With Ace-Fts, E. Mahieu, Peter F. Bernath, Christopher D. Boone, Kaley A. Walker

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

In this contribution, we use infrared solar occultation measurements performed by the ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer) instrument onboard the SCISAT-1 Canadian satellite (Bernath et al., 2005). Since its launch in August 2003, this spectrometer has been in continuous operation with no significant degradation of its performance, and global measurements are available from late February 2004 onwards, spanning now more than a decade.

Global Ozone Chemistry And Related Trace Gas Data Records For The Stratosphere (Gozcards): Methodology And Sample Results With A Focus On Hcl, H20, And 03, L. Froidevaux, J. Anderson, H. J. Wang, R. A. Fuller, M. J. Schwartz, M. L. Santee, N. J. Livesey, H. C. Pumphrey, P. F. Bernath, J. M. Russell Iii, M. P. Mccormick

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We describe the publicly available data from the Global OZone Chemistry And Related trace gas Data records for the Stratosphere (GOZCARDS) project and provide some results, with a focus on hydrogen chloride (HCl), water vapor (H₂O), and ozone (O₃). This data set is a global long-term stratospheric Earth system data record, consisting of monthly zonal mean time series starting as early as 1979. The data records are based on high-quality measurements from several NASA satellite instruments and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) on SCISAT. We examine consistency aspects between the various data sets. …

Recent Increase Of Ethane Detected In The Remote Atmosphere Of The Northern Hemisphere, Bruno Franco, Whitney Bader, Benoît Bovy, Emmanuel Mahieu, Emily V. Fischer, Kimberly Strong, Stephanie Conway, James W. Hannigan, Eric Nussbaumer, Peter F. Bernath, Chris D. Boone, Kaley A. Walker

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Ethane (C₂H₆) has a large impact on tropospheric composition and air quality because of its involvement in the global VOC (volatile organic compound) – HO_x – NO_x chemistry responsible for generating and destroying tropospheric ozone. By acting as a major sink for tropospheric OH radicals, the abundance of C₂H₆ influences the atmospheric content of carbon monoxide and impacts the lifetime of methane. Moreover, it is an important source of PAN, a thermally unstable reservoir for NOx radicals.

On a global scale, the main sources of C₂H₆ are leakage from the production, transport of natural gas loss, biofuel consumption …

Fish Assemblage Structure, Distribution, And Trophic Ecology At Northwestern Gulf Of Mexico Banks, Todd Langland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The northwest Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) shelf-edge banks both provide unique hard bottom habitat and support the northernmost coral reefs on the North American continental shelf in a region that is generally characterized by low relief, soft sediments. The habitat value of many of these banks has led to their designation as Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPC) and the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). However, little is known about the fisheries resources and dynamics of the banks outside the FGBNMS. This study had three main objectives: 1) define reef fish assemblages at northwestern Gulf shelf-edge banks and …

Holecene Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction From The Shark River Estuary, Everglades, Florida, Qiang Yao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the paleoecological records from the Shark River Estuary in the southwestern part of the Everglades National Park (ENP), Florida, with primary goal of reconstructing the Holocene history of the coastal mangrove ecosystem in the Florida Coastal Everglades. Roughly 15 meters of sediments were collected from 4 study sites and subjected to loss-on ignition, palynological, and X-ray fluorescence analyses. According to the literature, the earliest communities of Rhizophora mangle (red mangrove) occurred prior to 8,000 cal yr BP in the south-central area of the Belize Barrier Reef Platform. Between 7,000 and 5,000 cal yr BP, Rhizophora was established …

Assessment Of Water Vapor Isotopologue Measurements By Ace-Fts And Odin-Smr, Ralf Bauer, Patrick Sheese, Kaley Walker, Joachim Urban, Donal Murtagh, Chris Boone, Peter Bernath, Gloria Manney

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Knowing the isotopic composition of trace gases can improve our understanding of processes in the Earth's atmosphere causing isotopic fractionation. In many studies, isotopologue (molecules of identical chemical but different isotopic composition) amounts are primarily discussed as δ values, which are defined relative to a standard, e.g.:

Ace-Fts And Haloe Observations Of Hydrogen Fluoride (Hf) And Their Comparison With Slimcat Chemical Transport Model Calculations, Jeremy Harrison, Martyn Chipperfield, Chris Boone, Peter Bernath, Lucien Froidevaux, John Anderson, James Russell Iii

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The majority of fluorine in the atmosphere has resulted from the anthropogenic emission of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Most tropospheric fluorine is present in its emitted 'organic' form due to the molecules having long lifetimes (up to a decade or longer). Thus they are able to reach the stratosphere where they are broken down, liberating fluorine. The principal degradation products are carbonyl fluoride (COF2), carbonyl chloride fluoride (COClF), and hydrogen fluoride (HF); of these HF is the most abundant. In fact at the top of the stratosphere most of the fluorine is present as HF, which, due …