A Cohort-Based Program to Help Students Prepare a Conference Research Presentation

Students move through many first time experiences when navigating their undergraduate and graduate education. Such experiences include the first time students submit an article to a peer-reviewed scientific journal, attend a conference, and conduct fieldwork. The cohort model has been shown to be effective in increasing success in undergraduate education, and it can be adapted to helping students succeed in these novel experiences as well. This presentation will explore one program where the cohort model was implemented to aid undergraduate students preparing their first conference presentation on a scientific research project. Program structure and implementation will be described

Open-Source Code for Radium-Derived Ocean-Groundwater Modeling: Project Open RaDOM

Radium has been commonly used as a tracer of submarine groundwater discharge to the ocean and embankments, as radium activities are commonly input into box models to calculate a groundwater flux. Similarly, isotopes of radium (Ra224, Ra223, Ra226, Ra228) have been used to calculate water mass ages, which have been used as a proxy for residence times. Less commonly, radium and other tracers have been utilized in mixing models to determine the relative contribution of groundwater to a marine system. In the literature, all of these methods have almost exclusively been solved using analytical methods prone to large errors and other issues. Project Open RaDOM, introduced here, is a collection of open-source R scripts that numerically solve for groundwater flux, residence time, and relative contribution of groundwater to coastal systems. Solving these models numerically allows for over-constrained systems to increase their accuracy and force real solutions. The scripts are written in a way to make them user-friendly, even to scientists unfamiliar with R. This communication includes a description of the scripts in Project Open RaDOM, a discussion of examples in the literature, and case studies of the scripts using previously published data

Groundwater Discharge in the Arctic: A Review of Studies and Implications for Biogeochemistry

Groundwater discharge, including submarine groundwater discharge, discharge to lakes and rivers, and subglacial discharge, affects freshwater and marine ecosystems across the globe. The implications for biogeochemistry include the transport of nutrients, metals, and gases to these systems. The Arctic is one region of the globe that has been understudied with respect to groundwater discharge until recently, when a handful of studies sought to understand the nature of groundwater discharge and its impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Those studies are summarized here, and the implications for biogeochemistry are synthesized. Carbon and nitrogen are the most frequently studied solutes with respect to groundwater discharge in the Arctic. The transport of carbon and nitrogen through groundwater discharge are discussed across study sites, and scientists expect their transport through this mechanism to significantly change with the onset of climate change. The Arctic is of special interest in terms of groundwater discharge, as climate change data predicts that it will warm faster than other environments. Lastly, the effects of climate change on the physical and biogeochemical aspects of groundwater discharge in the Arctic are discussed, as are research priorities

A Brief History of Lake Okeechobee: A Narrative of Conflict

Lake Okeechobee is Florida’s largest lake, the largest lake in the Southeast United States, and the second largest lake contained entirely within the United States. The history of this inland sea is marked both by natural processes, and more recently human development and intervention. Adventurers can explore this behemoth of a waterway via the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail that enriches it, a part of the Florida National Scenic Trail. This paper synthesizes major natural and human-induced perturbations that shaped the lake and ultimately the trail that encircles it to create a narrative of Florida’s great lake. The story of Lake Okeechobee is a story of battles, first between the land and sea, then between the lake itself and humankind. For the past few centuries Lake Okeechobee’s natural perturbations in water flow and flooding resisted the control of man, until recently when man triumphed, managing to control the flow of water in and out of the lake. Unfortunately, with this new found control a new bioecological threat in the form of harmful algal blooms has emerged, which again threatens the health and livelihood of South Floridians. Currently there are new efforts that seek to restore Lake Okeechobee towards a more natural state in an effort to thwart the blooms

Gender Differences in AGU Journals

Gender differences in the geoscience field have kept women away from equal opportunities and success. The current study addresses gender differences within journals published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This organization is the largest geology society comprising 60,000 members, but only 20% are women. This study replicates another study performed in astronomy. The astronomy study measured the gender differences in the number of citations that each work from female and male authors have obtained. The findings showed that the gender differences decreased over time, but overall women receive 10% fewer citations than men. The current research seeks to discover the gender differences in geophysical journals, specifically journals published by AGU. It is expected that men will receive more citations in their academic work than women in these journals. This study expects to have a similar outcome as the astronomy study. The current study gathered citation data for AGU journals that have published at least ten years of volumes. Currently, the study is working on fixing the citations and finding the first names of the authors to determine whether they are female or male. Preliminary data of on publication statistics of the journals will be presented at the symposium

The Interplay Between Human Habitation Impacts Barrier Island Development

A school of thought exists that habitation on tree islands in the Everglades intensified development of those islands. Barrier islands too change in response to human influences, a modern-day analogy is infrastructure built on barrier islands to reduce erosion. So too may pre-Columbian Native American settlements around Florida have influenced the development of barrier islands around the state. This presentation will display preliminary data to show how sediment data from excavations can be used to elucidate the relationship between barrier island structures and human habitation and invite collaborators to join a project to better understand this relationship

Exploring How Temperatures Impact Crime Rates in Virginia

Since the 1800s researchers have been trying to connect possible relationships between temperature and crime rate. Multiple researchers have come up with different theories and explanations why crime increases in the summer versus the winter. This experiment is intended to see if local temperatures can impact crime rates. Crime rates in Virginia were used to test for a difference in crime rates in cold years and hot years. The coldest years (2015-2017) and the hottest years (2010-2012) were compared. In addition, another test was completed to test for a difference between summer and winter crime rates. The temperature data was collected from NOAA National Center for Environmental Information and the crime data was found from the Uniform Crime Reporting Section Department of State Police. The hypothesis for this experiment is that more crimes would be committed in higher temperatures. To test whether this hypothesis would be supported, a clustered column chart and a t-test were used to see if there was a difference between the crime rates at different temperatures. The hypothesis was not supported because there was no significant difference between crime rates in hotter years versus colder years. However, the difference in crime rates between summer and winter was significant, indicating temperature is what is causing a higher number of crime rates, the experiment did also show though that crime is higher in the summer than winter

Are Promotional Packages Sent to Influencers Contributing to Increasing Levels of Packaging Waste?

Companies use the marketing strategy of sending out Press Release packages to Influencers on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram. Within these packages exist a specific brand’s new line or collection of products. For example, makeup companies send PR packages of their new range of foundation to select groups of beauty influencers in the online community. Boxes are typically packaged to be very appealing to the eye and inside include every shade of foundation in that new range. With the high rate of consumption, the ever-growing issue of packaging waste in the United States is increasing. The number of recycled materials that end up in landfills and in the oceans increases year by year. Within this study, I will collect and examine a specific Instagram influencer’s PR packaging and the waste that is associated. I hypothesize that PR packaging sent to Influencers is packaged with a combination of recyclable and nonrecyclable materials, which leads to higher amounts of waste. Within my study, I will be collecting the data on PR packaging received by Instagram Influencer Amber Webb, as well as observing unboxing videos on the platforms. I will examine what types of materials are used in the packaging, such as paperboard, plastic wrapping, or paper stuffing, and if it is recyclable or not. Three weeks of data collection will be presented at the symposium, it is expected to find that a majority of the packaging will end up in the landfill due to the combination of recyclable and nonrecyclable materials