“Before its Smell Became Me:” Motel Residency and the Politics of Belonging

Millions of Americans currently face profound housing insecurity. As a result of America’s inadequate housing system, many of these individuals are confined to locations of invisibility, like couches, cars, tents, shelters, or the streets. This thesis analyzes the use of motels as an increasingly prevalent form of housing for low-income and marginalized communities. For the purpose of this study, motel residents are individuals who have resided in a motel for over thirty days, therefore meeting qualifications of homelessness. I thus ask two questions: does motel residency reinforce socioeconomic insecurity? How do motel residents navigate their housing circumstances? Through thirty-one qualitative interviews with motel residents and service providers, my data revealed two conclusions. Firstly, motel residency reinforces housing instability and social inequality by proliferating insecurity at physical, interpersonal, and institutional levels. Secondly, motel residents cultivate powerful internal community networks and deploy innovative housing strategies in order to survive their residential circumstances. Motels thus represent unique dualities of the housing crisis. To better assist this population, governments should expand public housing resources and transportation infrastructure to include motel residents. To reduce motel residents’ barriers to social services, governments should modify definitions of homelessness or tenancy

Carbon-Based Primary Productivity Modeling With Vertically Resolved Photoacclimation

Net primary production (NPP) is commonly modeled as a function of chlorophyll concentration (Chl), even though it has been long recognized that variability in intracellular chlorophyll content from light acclimation and nutrient stress confounds the relationship between Chl and phytoplankton biomass. It was suggested previously that satellite estimates of backscattering can be related to phytoplankton carbon biomass (C) under conditions of a conserved particle size distribution or a relatively stable relationship between C and total particulate organic carbon. Together, C and Chl can be used to describe physiological state (through variations in Chl:C ratios) and NPP. Here, we fully develop the carbon-based productivity model (CbPM) to include information on the subsurface light field and nitracline depths to parameterize photoacclimation and nutrient stress throughout the water column. This depth-resolved approach produces profiles of biological properties (Chl, C, NPP) that are broadly consistent with observations. The CbPM is validated using regional in situ data sets of irradiance-derived products, phytoplankton chlorophyll: carbon ratios, and measured NPP rates. CbPM-based distributions of global NPP are significantly different in both space and time from previous Chl-based estimates because of the distinction between biomass and physiological influences on global Chl fields. The new model yields annual, areally integrated water column production of similar to 52 Pg C a(-1) for the global oceans

Evaluating satellite estimates of particulate backscatter in the global open ocean using autonomous profiling floats

Satellite retrievals of particulate backscattering (bbp) are widely used in studies of ocean ecology and biogeochemistry, but have been historically difficult to validate due to the paucity of available ship-based comparative field measurements. Here we present a comparison of satellite and in situ bbp using observations from autonomous floats (n = 2,486 total matchups across three satellites), which provide bbp at 700 nm. With these data, we quantify how well the three inversion products currently distributed by NASA ocean color retrieve bbp. We find that the median ratio of satellite derived bbp to float bbp ranges from 0.77 to 1.60 and Spearman’s rank correlations vary from r = 0.06 to r = 0.79, depending on which algorithm and sensor is used. Model skill degrades with increased spatial variability in remote sensing reflectance, which suggests that more rigorous matchup criteria and factors contributing to sensor noisiness may be useful to address in future work, and/or that we have built in biases in the current widely distributed inversion algorithms

An algorithm for detecting <i>Trichodesmium</i> surface blooms in the South Western Tropical Pacific

<i>Trichodesmium</i>, a major colonial cyanobacterial nitrogen fixer, forms large blooms in NO₃-depleted tropical oceans and enhances CO₂ sequestration by the ocean due to its ability to fix dissolved dinitrogen. Thus, its importance in C and N cycles requires better estimates of its distribution at basin to global scales. However, existing algorithms to detect them from satellite have not yet been successful in the South Western Tropical Pacific (SP). Here, a novel algorithm (TRICHOdesmium SATellite) based on radiance anomaly spectra (RAS) observed in SeaWiFS imagery, is used to detect <i>Trichodesmium</i> during the austral summertime in the SP (5° S–25° S 160° E–170° W). Selected pixels are characterized by a restricted range of parameters quantifying RAS spectra (e.g. slope, intercept, curvature). The fraction of valid (non-cloudy) pixels identified as <i>Trichodesmium</i> surface blooms in the region is low (between 0.01 and 0.2 %), but is about 100 times higher than deduced from previous algorithms. At daily scales in the SP, this fraction represents a total ocean surface area varying from 16 to 48 km² in Winter and from 200 to 1000 km² in Summer (and at monthly scale, from 500 to 1000 km² in Winter and from 3100 to 10 890 km² in Summer with a maximum of 26 432 km² in January 1999). The daily distribution of <i>Trichodesmium</i> surface accumulations in the SP detected by TRICHOSAT is presented for the period 1998–2010 which demonstrates that the number of selected pixels peaks in November–February each year, consistent with field observations. This approach was validated with in situ observations of <i>Trichodesmium</i> surface accumulations in the Melanesian archipelago around New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji Islands for the same period

Significant Contribution of Large Particles to Optical Backscattering in the Open Ocean

The light scattering properties of oceanic particles have been suggested as an alternative index of phytoplankton biomass than chlorophyll-a concentration (chl-a), with the benefit of being less sensitive to physiological forcings (e.g., light and nutrients) that alter the intracellular pigment concentrations. The drawback of particulate scattering is that it is not unique to phytoplankton. Nevertheless, field studies have demonstrated that, to first order, the particulate beam-attenuation coefficient (c(p)) can track phytoplankton biomass. The relationship between c(p) and the particulate backscattering coefficient (b(bp)), a property retrievable from space, has not been fully evaluated, largely due to a lack of open-ocean field observations. Here, we present extensive data on inherent optical properties from the Equatorial Pacific surface waters and demonstrate a remarkable coherence in b(bp) and c(p). Coincident measurements of particle size distributions (PSDs) and optical properties of size-fractionated samples indicate that this covariance is due to both the conserved nature of the PSD and a greater contribution of phytoplankton-sized particles to b(bp) than theoretically predicted. These findings suggest that satellite-derived b(bp)could provide similar information on phytoplankton biomass in the open ocean as c(p)

An improved bio-optical model for the remote sensing of Trichodesmium spp. blooms

The cyanobacterium Trichodesmium spp. can be an important ecological and biogeochemical component for both the coastal and open ocean ecosystems by way of its nitrogen fixation ability. However, information regarding its spatial and temporal distribution remains sparse. Trichodesmium has unique optical properties that should allow for its spectral signature to be detectable in satellite ocean color data sets. Here, a global data set of concurrent measurements of Trichodesmium abundance and radiometric reflectance was compiled and used to develop bio-optical models for Trichodesmium. The most robust global model related the water-leaving radiance signal to the identification of an occurrence of a Trichodesmium bloom above a threshold value of 3200 trichomes L−1. Using the in situ data set, this model is trained to successfully predict Trichodesmium blooms (∼92%) while minimizing false positive retrievals (∼16% of nonbloom observations). A validation of the approach applied to Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) ocean color imagery shows that the model correctly predicts 76% of the bloom occurrences of an independent validation data set of in situ Trichodesmium observations. Ultimately, maps of Trichodesmium bloom occurrence will provide a means of addressing the ecology of Trichodesmium and its contribution to new production of the world oceans

Inferring phytoplankton carbon and eco-physiological rates from diel cycles of spectral particulate beam-attenuation coefficient

The diurnal fluctuations in solar irradiance impose a fundamental frequency on ocean biogeochemistry. Observations of the ocean carbon cycle at these frequencies are rare, but could be considerably expanded by measuring and interpreting the inherent optical properties. A method is presented to analyze diel cycles in particulate beam-attenuation coefficient (&lt;i&gt;c&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt;) measured at multiple wavelengths. The method is based on fitting observations with a size-structured population model coupled to an optical model to infer the particle size distribution and physiologically relevant parameters of the cells responsible for the measured diel cycle in &lt;i&gt;c&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt;. Results show that the information related to size and contained in the spectral data can be exploited to independently estimate growth and loss rates during the day and night. In addition, the model can characterize the population of particles affecting the diel variability in &lt;i&gt;c&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt;. Application of this method to spectral &lt;i&gt;c&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt; measured at a station in the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea suggests that most of the observed variations in &lt;i&gt;c&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt; can be ascribed to a synchronized population of cells with an equivalent spherical diameter around 4.6±1.5 μm. The inferred carbon biomass of these cells was about 5.2–6.0 mg m&lt;sup&gt;−3&lt;/sup&gt; and accounted for approximately 10% of the total particulate organic carbon. If successfully validated, this method may improve our in situ estimates of primary productivity

An algorithm for detecting Trichodesmium surface blooms in the South Western Tropical Pacific

Trichodesmium, a major colonial cyanobacterial nitrogen fixer, forms large blooms in NO₃-depleted tropical oceans and enhances CO₂ sequestration by the ocean due to its ability to fix dissolved dinitrogen. Thus, its importance in C and N cycles requires better estimates of its distribution at basin to global scales. However, existing algorithms to detect them from satellite have not yet been successful in the South Western Tropical Pacific (SP). Here, a novel algorithm (TRICHOdesmium SATellite) based on radiance anomaly spectra (RAS) observed in SeaWiFS imagery, is used to detect Trichodesmium during the austral summertime in the SP (5° S–25° S 160° E–170° W). Selected pixels are characterized by a restricted range of parameters quantifying RAS spectra (e.g. slope, intercept, curvature). The fraction of valid (non-cloudy) pixels identified as Trichodesmium surface blooms in the region is low (between 0.01 and 0.2 %), but is about 100 times higher than deduced from previous algorithms. At daily scales in the SP, this fraction represents a total ocean surface area varying from 16 to 48 km² in Winter and from 200 to 1000 km² in Summer (and at monthly scale, from 500 to 1000 km² in Winter and from 3100 to 10 890 km² in Summer with a maximum of 26 432 km² in January 1999). The daily distribution of Trichodesmium surface accumulations in the SP detected by TRICHOSAT is presented for the period 1998–2010 which demonstrates that the number of selected pixels peaks in November–February each year, consistent with field observations. This approach was validated with in situ observations of Trichodesmium surface accumulations in the Melanesian archipelago around New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji Islands for the same period

Comparison of primary productivity models in the Southern Ocean-preliminary results

Three models were used to estimate primary productivity (PP) in the Southern Ocean for the summer of 2003-2007. They are the widely accepted model VGPM, a carbon-based model CbPM and a new type of model which uses phytoplankton absorption coefficient as input variable in stead of chlorophyll concentration. It was found that the degree of agreement among the results from three models was low, but the difference appeared relatively small with regard to previous reports. Nevertheless, the results were comparable to that from a PP model parameterized specifically for use in Southern Ocean waters. Among the three models, the output from CbPM differed the most from that estimated by the other two models. The different PP estimates were primarily attributed to the different ways these models treat phytoplankton physiology, along with the difference in input variables