Slip Estimation from Real-Time GPS in Cascadia

Current systems for rapidly characterizing earthquakes are based on seismic, teleseismic, and Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoy data. These systems have significant limitations that hinder them from making rapid and accurate assessments of large earthquakes used for local tsunami warnings where run-up can occur minutes after the earthquake. Seismic and teleseismic networks saturate around Mw 7.0. Tsunami waves take tens of minutes to reach the buoys, so rapid assessment is impossible. GPS overcomes these limitations for large earthquakes. GPS does not saturate, and the offsets being detected occur very quickly after an earthquake. This thesis develops the algorithms necessary for detecting and characterizing large earthquakes from GPS measurements. Point positioned GPS solutions are acquired from the CWU Geodesy Lab and filtered to detect offsets. Any detected offsets are then inverted to determine slip along the relevant faults. The moment and moment magnitude are calculated based on the estimated slip. The final solutions, detected offsets, calculated offsets and other relevant data are continuously pushed out to a database even when no earthquake is detected. The produced solutions can be used with existing methods to better inform tsunami estimates immediately following a large earthquake

Immature East Pacific Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) Use Multiple Foraging Areas off the Pacific Coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico: First Evidence from Mark-Recapture Data.

v. ill. 23 cm.QuarterlySince 2001, Grupo Tortuguero has been conducting monthly inwater monitoring of East Pacific green turtles (Chelonia mydas), also known as black turtles, at four neritic foraging areas (Bahı´a Magdalena, Laguna San Ignacio, Punta Abreojos, Laguna Ojo de Liebre) along the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Extensive tagging (883 turtles tagged of 1,183 turtles captured) and recaptures (154 tagged turtles recaptured at least once) at these four areas suggest that immature East Pacific green turtles show strong site fidelity to their neritic foraging grounds. However, in 2007, we recaptured two immature turtles, one in Laguna San Ignacio and the other in Bahı´a Magdalena, that were both originally captured in Punta Abreojos. To our knowledge, this represents the first direct evidence of immature East Pacific green turtles using multiple foraging areas along the Baja California Peninsula. This report highlights the importance of long-term monitoring efforts that encompass several habitats on a relatively large spatial scale (@80 km between Punta Abreojos and Laguna San Ignacio and @300 km between Punta Abreojos and Bahı´a Magdalena) to better understand the movements and habitat use of immature East Pacific green turtles on their neritic foraging areas

Non-invasive fecal analysis to evaluate stress in vulnerable marine mammals

A growing number of anthropogenic stressors have been found to impact marine mammals, leading to deleterious effects at both the individual and sometimes population-level. Hormones are an important facet of wildlife health, and can be used to quantify a range of anthropogenic stressors such as vessel noise, habitat disturbance, and pollution. Fecal analysis provides a non-invasive form of stress assessment that allows for evaluation of hormone levels, which can be utilized for marine mammal species whose feces float. Fecal analysis, mostly targeting the glucocorticoid hormone cortisol and its metabolites, has been widely employed in the terrestrial animal realm and is now being extended to marine systems. Here, we reviewed all known studies that have employed fecal analysis on threatened or endangered marine mammals. We found that large whales, both baleen and toothed, have been sampled comparatively more than other vulnerable marine mammal species, with no dolphin and few pinniped species being sampled. Non-invasive fecal analysis remains largely underutilized on vulnerable marine mammals due to logistical difficulties associated with obtaining marine fecal matter, coupled with logistical challenges associated with fecal processing. We opportunistically interviewed experts working with threatened or endangered marine mammal species that have not been targeted for fecal analysis to obtain information on whether or not those species would be potential candidates for fecal stress research. We then draw on various anthropogenic interactions that have been documented on vulnerable marine mammals that would warrant additional hormonal scat research to gain a better understanding of animal physiology and behavior. We chronicle the evolution of fecal analysis for cortisol as a viable technique for stress evaluation, and highlight future challenges and potential opportunities to expand this approach to studying other vulnerable marine mammals

Novel Parallelized Quadrupole/Linear Ion Trap/Orbitrap Tribrid Mass Spectrometer Improving Proteome Coverage and Peptide Identification Rates

Proteome coverage and peptide identification rates have historically advanced in line with improvements to the detection limits and acquisition rate of the mass spectrometer. For a linear ion trap/Orbitrap hybrid, the acquisition rate has been limited primarily by the duration of the ion accumulation and analysis steps. It is shown here that the spectral acquisition rate can be significantly improved through extensive parallelization of the acquisition process using a novel mass spectrometer incorporating quadrupole, Orbitrap, and linear trap analyzers. Further, these improvements to the acquisition rate continue to enhance proteome coverage and general experimental throughput