Geology topics

Steven F. DiMarco

Publications and source records attributed to Steven F. DiMarco.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2016

Development of a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle stock assessment model

We developed a Kemp’s ridley ( Lepidochelys kempii ) stock assessment model to evaluate the relative contributions of conservation efforts and other factors toward this critically endangered species’ recovery. The Kemp’s ridley demographic model developed by the Turtle Expert Working Group (TEWG) in 1998 and 2000 and updated for the binational recovery plan in 2011 was modified for use as our base model. The TEWG model uses indices of the annual reproductive population (number of nests) and hatchling recruitment to predict future annual numbers of nests on the basis of a series of assumptions regarding age and maturity, remigration interval, sex ratios, nests per female, juvenile mortality, and a putative ‘‘turtle excluder device effect’’ multiplier starting in 1990. This multiplier was necessary to fit the number of nests observed in 1990 and later. We added the effects of shrimping effort directly, modified by habitat weightings, as a proxy for all sources of anthropogenic mortality. Additional data included in our model were incremental growth of Kemp’s ridleys marked and recaptured in the Gulf of Mexico, and the length frequency of stranded Kemp’s ridleys. We also added a 2010 mortality factor that was necessary to fit the number of nests for 2010 and later (2011 and 2012). Last, we used an empirical basis for estimating natural mortality, on the basis of a Lorenzen mortality curve and growth estimates. Although our model generated reasonable estimates of annual total turtle deaths attributable to shrimp trawling, as well as additional deaths due to undetermined anthropogenic causes in 2010, we were unable to provide a clear explanation for the observed increase in the number of stranded Kemp’s ridleys in recent years, and subsequent disruption of the species’ exponential growth since the 2009 nesting season. Our consensus is that expanded data collection at the nesting beaches is needed and of high priority, and that 2015 be targeted for the next stock assessment to evaluate the 2010 event using more recent nesting and in-water data.

Gulf of Mexico Science↗

USGS2013

Enhanced transfer of terrestrially derived carbon to the atmosphere in a flooding event

Rising CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere, global climate change, and the sustainability of the Earth's biosphere are great societal concerns for the 21st century. Global climate change has, in part, resulted in a higher frequency of flooding events, which allow for greater exchange between soil/plant litter and aquatic carbon pools. Here we demonstrate that the summer 2011 flood in the Mississippi River basin, caused by extreme precipitation events, resulted in a “flushing” of terrestrially derived dissolved organic carbon (TDOC) to the northern Gulf of Mexico. Data from the lower Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers showed that the DOC flux to the northern Gulf of Mexico during this flood was significantly higher than in previous years. We also show that consumption of radiocarbon-modern TDOC by bacteria in floodwaters in the lower Atchafalaya River and along the adjacent shelf contributed to northern Gulf shelf waters changing from a net sink to a net source of CO 2 to the atmosphere in June and August 2011. This work shows that enhanced flooding, which may or may not be caused by climate change, can result in rapid losses of stored carbon in soils to the atmosphere via processes in aquatic ecosystems.

Geophysical Research Letters↗

USGS2011

Historical trends of hypoxia in Changjiang River estuary: Applications of chemical biomarkers and microfossils

Over the past two decades China has become the largest global consumer of fertilizers, which has enhanced river nutrient fluxes and caused eutrophication and hypoxia in the Yangtze (Changjiang) large river delta-front estuary (LDE). In this study, we utilized plant pigments, lignin-phenols, stable isotopes (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) and foraminiferal microfossils in 210 Pb dated cores to examine the history of hypoxia in the Changjiang LDE. Two sediment cores were collected onboard R/V Dong Fang Hong 2 using a stainless-steel box-corer; one at a water depth of 24.7 m on Jun. 15, 2006 and the other at 52 m on Nov. 20, 2007, both in the hypoxic region off the Changjiang LDE. There has been a significant increase in the abundance of plant pigments after 1979 that are indicators of enhanced diatom and cyanobacterial abundance, which agrees with post-1980 record of increasing nutrient loads in the Changjiang River. The increased inputs of terrestrially derived materials to the LDE are largely woody plant sources and most likely due to deforestation that began in the early 1950s. However, post-1960 lignin data did not reflect enhanced loading of woody materials despite continued deforestation possibly due to increased trapping from greater dam construction, a reduction of deforestation in the drainage basin since the last 1990s, and soil conservation practices. The lack of linkages between bulk indices (stable isotopes, % OC, molar C/N ratios) and microfossil/chemical biomarkers may reflect relative differences in the amount of carbon tracked by these different proxies. Although NO3− is likely responsible for most of the changes in phytoplankton production (post 1970s), historical changes in N loading from the watershed and hypoxia on the LDE shelf may not be as well linked in East China Sea (ECS) sediments due to possible denitrification/ammonification processes; finally, increases in low-oxygen tolerant foraminiferal microfossils indicate there has been an increase in the number of hypoxic bottom water events on the Changjiang LDE over the past 60 years.

Changjiang River↗

USGS2009

The 20th-century development and expansion of Louisiana shelf hypoxia, Gulf of Mexico

Since systematic measurements of Louisiana continental-shelf waters were initiated in 1985, hypoxia (oxygen content <2 mg L -1 ) has increased considerably in an area termed the dead zone. Monitoring and modeling studies have concluded that the expansion of the Louisiana shelf dead zone is related to increased anthropogenically derived nutrient delivery from the Mississippi River drainage basin, physical and hydrographical changes of the Louisiana Shelf, and possibly coastal erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana. In order to track the development and expansion of seasonal low-oxygen conditions on the Louisiana shelf prior to 1985, we used a specific low-oxygen foraminiferal faunal proxy, the PEB index, which has been shown statistically to represent the modern Louisiana hypoxia zone. We constructed a network of 13 PEB records with excess 210 Pb-derived chronologies to establish the development of low-oxygen and hypoxic conditions over a large portion of the modern dead zone for the last 100 years. The PEB index record indicates that areas of low-oxygen bottom water began to appear in the early 1910s in isolated hotspots near the Mississippi Delta and rapidly expanded across the entire Louisiana shelf beginning in the 1950s. Since ???1950, the percentage of PEB species has steadily increased over a large portion of the modern dead zone. By 1960, subsurface low-oxygen conditions were occurring seasonally over a large part of the geographic area now known as the dead zone. The long-term trends in the PEB index are consistent with the 20th-century observational and proxy data for low oxygen and hypoxia. ?? 2009 US Government.

Louisiana↗