Sub-regional snow cover distribution across the southern Appalachian Mountains

Abstract

Snowfall in the Southern Appalachian Mountain region of the eastern US is characterized by much spatiotemporal variability. Annual snowfall totals vary by up to 75 cm, and variations in snowfall intensity can lead to large differences in the local snowfall distribution. Research has shown that the synoptic pattern associated with the snowfall strongly influences the regional-scale distribution of snow cover. However, topographic variability results in locally complex snow cover patterns that are not well understood or documented. In this study, we characterize the snow covered area (SCA) and fractional snow cover associated with different synoptic patterns in 14 individual sub-regions. We analyze 63 snow events using Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer standard snow cover products to ascertain both qualitative and quantitative differences in snow cover across sub-regions. Among sub-regions, there is significant variation in the snow cover pattern from individual synoptic classes. Furthermore, the percent SCA follows the regional snowfall climatology, and sub-regions with the highest elevations and northerly latitudes exhibit the greatest variability. Results of the sub-regional analysis provide valuable guidance to forecasters by contributing a deeper understanding of local snow cover patterns and their relationship to synoptic-scale circulation features.     

Sediment distribution and transport across the continental shelf and slope under idealized wind forcing

Resuspension, transport, and deposition of sediments over the continental shelf and slope are complex processes and there is still a need to understand the underlying spatial and temporal dynamical scales. As a step towards this goal, a two-dimensional slice model (zero gradients in the alongshore direction) based on the primitive flow equations and a range of sediment classes has been developed. The circulation is forced from rest by upwelling or downwelling winds, which are spatially uniform. Results are presented for a range of wind speeds and sediment settling speeds. Upwelling flows carry fine sediments (low settling speeds) far offshore within the surface Ekman layer, and significant deposition eventually occurs beyond the shelf break. However, coarser sediments quickly settle out of the deeper onshore component of the circulation, which can lead to accumulation of bottom sediments within the coastal zone. Downwelling flows are more effective at transporting coarse sediments off the shelf. However, strong vertical mixing at the shelf break ensures that some material is also carried into the surface Ekman layer and returned onshore. The concentrations and settling fluxes of coarse sediments decrease offshore and increase with depth under both upwelling and downwelling conditions, consistent with trends observed in sediment trap data. However, finer sediments decrease with depth (upwelling) or reach a maximum around the depth of the shelf break (downwelling). It is shown that under uniform wind conditions, suspended sediment concentrations and settling fluxes decay offshore over a length scale of order τ_s/ρf|w_s|, where τ_s is the wind stress, ρ the water density, f the Coriolis parameter, and w_s is the sediment settling velocity. This scaling applies to both upwelling and downwelling conditions, provided offshore transport is dominated by wind-driven advection, rather than horizontal diffusion.     

Integrated coastal resources management and community participation in a small island setting

The concept of integrated coastal zone management must be rethought to adapt it to the geography and social conditions of small islands. Because of their size, all small islands are in the coastal zone. Defining the whole of the island and its coastal waters as the management area may weaken a program's effectiveness. An alternative may be to adapt special area management planning to the socio-spatial organization found on small islands. Social conditions on islands, where people live in relatively small cohesive communities, makes resource user participation in planning and management particularly germane. This paper outlines an argument for small islands to use participation as a central strategy of coastal management based on experience with natural resource management efforts on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia.     

Carbonate cement fabrics displayed: A traverse across the margin of the Bahamas Platform near Lee Stocking Island in the Exuma Cays

Consolidated to friable carbonate rocks found in the Lee Stocking Island area in the Exuma Cays include: (1) reef rock, (2) channel stromatolites, (3) shallow-water hardgrounds, (4) beachrock rimming the islands and (5) Pleistocene bedrock.

The most common cement fabrics observed are: aragonitic fibers, which include acicular fan-druse and square-tipped coarse fibers cementing beachrock and stromatolites; and an isopachous needle-fiber rim cementing hardgrounds and stromatolites.

Less common are high-Mg calcite bladed textures of the reef rock and stromatolites. Two types of blades are present: the more common stubby variety of either high-Mg or low-Mg calcite, and an elongated variety of high-Mg calcite which was found in only three beachrock samples.

Aragonitic micrite envelopes usually surround grains in beachrock, hardgrounds and stromatolites, but only in association with fibrous cement. An aragonitic crust cements the surfaces of lime mud beds of the tidal channel, while a high-Mg calcite cryptocrystalline cement occurs in all the rock types. Calcified algal filaments of high-Mg calcite, from the abundant green and blue-green algae in the area, are a primary cement in stromatolites and a secondary cement in hardgrounds and beachrock. A low-Mg calcite equant spar cements the Pleistocene samples and is associated with meteoric diagenesis and cementation of the Pleistocene surface.

Cement precipitation coincides with the path of the cool oceanic water from Exuma Sound as it warms and loses CO₂ and moves up onto the bank near Lee Stocking with the incoming tide. Cryptocrystalline cement is the first and commonest cement forming to the seaward while platformward, fibrous cements become predominant. As suggested by their crystal size and location on the shelf margin, we think that the reef rock cryptocrystalline material are the fastest forming of the cements, where the incoming oceanic water is more saturated with respect to calcium carbonate and undergoes the most significant warming. The rate of the warming and degassing process is thought to increase in the tidal channel though the cementation rate is thought to fall slightly in response to a reduced availability of calcium carbonate. On the platform interior further warming and degassing are believed to cause cement precipitation and the development of hardgrounds, but these may form at a slower rate than that of the margin, though this rate is still quite high. Cementation gradients occur from the tidal channel to the intertidal zones of: (1) west Norman's Pond Cay, where cement fabric suggests a reduced calcium carbonate availability, and (2) west Lee Stocking Island, where a change in mineralogy suggests a change in water chemistry.

Thus, a sequence of cement fabrics and mineralogies can be traced. Micritic textures occur in a more seaward position; fine, fibrous aragonite fibers in a more lagoonal and levee position; and coarser aragonite fibers and Mg-calcite cements in the intertidal and supratidal position. This sequence is thought to track the evolution of the water mass.     

Utilizing in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study sublethal stress in aquatic organisms

In vivo nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) is a powerful technique for characterizing the sublethal actions of physical and chemical stressors in live, intact organisms. In particular, 31P NMR is ideal for observing perturbations to cellular energetics since critical metabolite concentrations, including phosphagens, ATP and inorganic phosphate (Pi), can be measured non-invasively and in real time. This technique's versatility is demonstrated not only in the diversity of organisms that can be studied, but also in its broad-ranging applicability to environmental research. Illustrative studies include the actions of copper in adult red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) and changes in energetically important metabolites in developing medaka embryos (Oryzias latipes). Advantages and disadvantages of in vivo NMR will be discussed.     

Magnitude and variability of Holocene sediment accumulation in Santa Monica Bay,California

The spatial variability of Holocene (past 10,000 years) sediment accumulation in Santa Monica Bay (California) was examined to identify controls sediment trapping in a bathymetrically complex coastal embayment and to provide geologic context for the post-industrial sedimentary record and associated pollution gradients. Sediment chronologies based on downcore AMS 14C dates were used to quantify long-term (millennia) accumulation rates in an effort to elucidate particle-transport pathways and sinks. Sediment accumulation rates for the full range of bayfloor environments (50-630 m water depths) range from 22 to 102 mg/cm(2)/year (15-88 mm/100 year), have an overall mean of 51+/-21 mg/cm(2)/year (1 sigma, n=11), and are comparable to rates reported for adjacent borderland basins. Maximal accumulation rates on the Malibu shelf and within a reentrant to Redondo canyon are interpreted to reflect (1) proximity to sediment sources and (2) localized oceanographic and topographic conditions conducive to sediment trapping and deposition. The 14C-derived accumulation rates are 2-10 times lower than rates determined through (210)Pb geochronology for the same sites in a related study, revealing that Holocene sediment accumulation has been non-steady-state. Santa Monica Bay is an important sink for suspended matter; averaged over the past several millennia a mass of sediment equivalent to 10-80% of the modern annual river supply is sequestered yearly. Net influx of suspended matter derived from the adjacent Palos Verdes shelf is evinced by a concentration gradient of p,p'-DDE in bayfloor sediments, whereas the distribution of anthropogenic silver suggests transport from Santa Monica shelf to the southeastern boundary of the bay. The results of this study provide new insight to the long-term fates of particulate matter in Los Angeles coastal waters.     

Mixed and Multi-Stock Fisheries

The September 2003 ICES Annual Science Conference was held inTalinn, Estonia, and Theme Session V was "Mixed and multi-stockfisheries – challenges and tools for assessments, prediction,and management." The theme session brought together researchersfrom the salmonid and marine fishery fields to address commonproblems faced when multiple fleets harvest a common stock,