scholarly journals Multi-Attribute Ecological and Socioeconomic Geodatabase for the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Region of the United States

Data ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Andrew Shamaskin ◽  
Sathishkumar Samiappan ◽  
Jiangdong Liu ◽  
Jennifer Roberts ◽  
Anna Linhoss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
The United States ◽  
Geospatial Data ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Funding Agency ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The U.S

Strategic, data driven conservation approaches are increasing in popularity as conservation communities gain access to better science, more computing power, and more data. High resolution geospatial data, indicating ecosystem functions and economic activity, can be very useful for any conservation expert or funding agency. A framework was developed for a data driven conservation prioritization tool and a data visualization tool. The developed tools were then implemented and tested for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coastal region defined by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council. As a part of this tool development, priority attributes and data measures were developed for the region through 13 stakeholder charrettes with local, state, federal, and other non-profit organizations involved in land conservation. This paper presents the measures that were developed to reflect stakeholder priorities. These measures were derived from openly available geospatial and non-geospatial data sources. This database contained 19 measures, aggregated into a one km2 hexagonal grid and grouped by the overarching goals of habitat, water quality and quantity, living coastal and marine resources, community resilience, and economy. The developed measures provided useful data for a conservation planning framework in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coastal region.

scholarly journals THE FOUNDATION PROBLEMS ON THE GULF COAST

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Spencer J. Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
The United States ◽  
Shelf Area ◽  
Offshore Area

The foundation problems of the coastal region of the Gulf of Mexico are unique. Normally, a coastal region is thought of as the land area, such as a plain, adjacent to a body of water. Such a region usually is somewhat regular in its geology and because of the natural resources, terrain or climate may be given to a relatively common industry involving a somewhat similar development throughout. The coastal region of the Gulf of Mexico, as regards the United States, violates this criterion in a multitude of ways. The region is not limited to the coastal plain bordering the Gulf of Mexico, by any means, but, rather has been broadened by our commerce and the need for the development of natural resources to also embrace, the delta areas and offshore belt extending to the limit of the continental shelf, lying as far as 70 miles from the shore. The delta areas have long been avoided in the past by industry of all types that is, with the exception of the fishing industry, because of the unstable nature of the foundation media. Likewise the continental shelf area normally is not considered for industrial development because of the availability of the more desirable coastal plain. However, the quest for natural resources, like sulphur and petroleum, in spite of the efforts toward Federal Control, has made necessary the solution of very extraordinary foundation problems in this offshore area. In addition to the foregoing unusual aspects of the foundation problems of the Gulf Coast, the coastal plain is unusual in itself because this region at one time formed the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and, as the sea receded or the land was uplifted, the residual sedimentary soils have been drained and desiccated to result in unusual formations that serve as foundation media for the industrial and domestic developments of the region. The foregoing factors combine to make the foundation problems of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Region very interesting.

Shark Nursery Grounds of the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast Waters of the United States

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Shark Species ◽  
Carcharhinus Plumbeus ◽  
Nursery Areas ◽  
Pesticide Metabolites

<em>Abstract.</em>—Because of their tendency to accumulate in estuaries and coastal regions, organochlorine (OC) contaminants such as pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) represent potential threats to the quality of essential fish habitat for many shark species. These compounds pose special risks to immature sharks in particular because of their ability to impair growth and sexual maturation in juvenile fish at environmentally relevant levels of exposure. In order to assess the extent of these risks in shark populations on the East Coast of the United States, the present study examined concentrations of 30 OC pesticides/pesticide metabolites and total PCBs in juvenile sandbar <em>Carcharhinus plumbeus </em>and blacktip <em>C. limbatus </em>sharks from seven major nursery areas in the western Atlantic Ocean and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Quantifiable levels of PCBs and 13 OC pesticides/ pesticide metabolites were detected via gas chromatography and mass spectrometry in liver of 25 young-of-the-year blacktip sharks from the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast and three regions on Florida’s gulf coast: Cedar Key, Tampa Bay, and Charlotte Harbor. Similarly, quantifiable levels of PCBs and 14 OC pesticides/metabolites were detected in 23 juvenile <em>C. plumbeus </em>from three sites on the northeastern U.S. coast: middle Delaware Bay, lower Chesapeake Bay, and Virginia’s eastern shore. Liver OC concentrations in Atlantic sandbar and blacktip sharks were higher than expected and, in some cases, comparable with elevated levels observed in deep-sea and pelagic sharks. Although significantly lower than those observed in Atlantic sharks, pesticide and PCB levels in Florida blacktip sharks were similar to, if not greater than, OC concentrations reported in adults of other coastal shark species. Based on these data, OC contamination appears to pose significant threats to habitat quality in sandbar and blacktip shark nursery areas on the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Protocol for Building a Reference Standard Sequence Library for DNA-Based Seafood Identification

2014 ◽  
Vol 97 (6) ◽  
pp. 1626-1633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan R Deeds ◽  
Sara M Handy ◽  
Frederick Fry ◽  
Hudson Granade ◽  
Jeffrey T Williams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Dna Sequencing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reference Standard ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Standard Sequence ◽  
Seafood Products ◽  
Reference Specimens ◽  
The U.S

Abstract With the recent adoption of a DNA sequencing-based method for the species identification for seafood products by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a library of standard sequences derived from reference specimens with authoritative taxonomic authentication was required. Provided here are details of how the FDA and its collaborators are building this reference standard sequence library that will be used to confirm the accurate labeling of seafood products sold in interstate commerce in the United States. As an example data set from this library, information for 117 fish reference standards, representing 94 species from 43 families in 15 orders, collected over a 4-year period from the Gulf of Mexico, U.S., that are now stored at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center in Suitland, MD, are provided.

scholarly journals Gulf of Mexico Coastal County Resilience to Natural Hazards

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 67-78
Author(s):  
Kevin Summers ◽  
Linda Harwell ◽  
Andrea Lamper ◽  
Courtney McMillon ◽  
Kyle Buck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
The United States ◽  
County Level ◽  
Coastal County ◽  
County Scale ◽  
The U.S

Using a Cumulative Resilience Screening Index (CRSI) that was developed to represent resilience to natural hazards at multiple scales for the United States, the U.S. coastal counties of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) region of the United States are compared for resilience for these types of natural hazards. The assessment compares the domains, indicators and metrics of CRSI, addressing environmental, economic and societal aspects of resilience to natural hazards at county scales. The index was applied at the county scale and aggregated to represent states and two regions of the U.S. GOM coastline. Assessments showed county—level resilience in all GOM counties was low, generally below the U.S. average. Comparisons showed higher levels of resilience in the western GOM region while select counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama exhibited the lowest resilience (<2.0) to natural hazards. Some coastal counties in Florida and Texas represented the highest levels of resilience seen along the GOM coast. Much of this increased resilience appears to be due to higher levels of governance and broader levels of social, economic and ecological services.

scholarly journals Hurricane Katrina (2005). Part I: Complex Life Cycle of an Intense Tropical Cyclone

2007 ◽  
Vol 135 (12) ◽  
pp. 3905-3926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron McTaggart-Cowan ◽  
Lance F. Bosart ◽  
John R. Gyakum ◽  
Eyad H. Atallah
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Complex Life Cycle ◽  
Loop Current ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina (2005) on the Gulf Coast of the United States are without compare for natural disasters in recent times in North America. With over 1800 dead and insured losses near $40 billion (U.S. dollars), Katrina ranks as the costliest and one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes in history. This study documents the complex life cycle of Katrina, a storm that was initiated by a tropical transition event in the Bahamas. Katrina intensified to a category-1 hurricane shortly before striking Miami, Florida; however, little weakening was observed as the system crossed the Florida peninsula. An analog climatology is used to show that this behavior is consistent with the historical record for storms crossing the southern extremity of the peninsula. Over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters, Katrina underwent two periods of rapid intensification associated with a warm core ring shed by the Loop Current. Between these spinup stages, the storm doubled in size, leading to a monotonic increase in power dissipation until Katrina reached a superintense state on 28 September. A pair of extremely destructive landfalls in Louisiana followed the weakening of the system over shelf waters. Despite its strength as a hurricane, Katrina did not reintensify following extratropical transition. The evolution of the storm’s outflow anticyclone, however, led to a perturbation of the midlatitude flow that is shown in a companion study to influence the Northern Hemisphere over a period of 2 weeks. An understanding of the varied components of Katrina’s complex evolution is necessary for further developing analysis and forecasting techniques as they apply to storms that form near the North American continent and rapidly intensify over the Gulf of Mexico. Given the observed overall increase in Atlantic hurricane activity since the mid-1990s, an enhanced appreciation for the forcings involved in such events could help to mitigate the impact of similar severe hurricanes in the future.

Chevron's 78000-DWT Lightering Tankers

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
R. A. Ternus ◽  
M. R. Buetzow ◽  
E. D. Selle
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Dramatic Improvement ◽  
The Past ◽  
The U.S

Chevron operates two refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, both of which receive imported crude oil by tanker. Very large crude carriers (VLCC's) load this crude overseas and transport it to international waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Here it is transferred at sea to smaller lightering vessels by ship-to-ship transfer. The lightering vessels must be small enough to satisfy the channel and refinery dock dimensional constraints for draft, beam, and length. In 1988 Chevron took delivery of two new 78000-dwt tankers which replaced older conventional tankers that provided this lightering service in the past. These new ships incorporate many specialized features to increase capacity and reduce the turnaround time in this trade. Maneuverability is enhanced by use of a bow thruster, Schilling rudder, and controllable-pitch propeller. Cargo transfer operations are expedited with high-capacity submerged cargo pumps, a special lightering hose crane, and a highly automated cargo control system. These and other features will permit one of these vessels to deliver crude at a rate more than twice that which could be sustained by a conventional tanker. This paper describes these ships in detail and focuses on the special features that together permit this dramatic improvement in lightering performance.

scholarly journals Response of Storm-Related Extreme Sea Level along the U.S. Atlantic Coast to Combined Weather and Climate Forcing

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 3745-3769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Yin ◽  
Stephen M. Griffies ◽  
Michael Winton ◽  
Ming Zhao ◽  
Laure Zanna
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Storm Surge ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Climate Modeling ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
The U.S

AbstractStorm surge and coastal flooding caused by tropical cyclones (hurricanes) and extratropical cyclones (nor’easters) pose a threat to communities along the Atlantic coast of the United States. Climate change and sea level rise are altering the statistics of these extreme events in a rather complex fashion. Here we use a fully coupled global weather/climate modeling system (GFDL CM4) to study characteristics of extreme daily sea level (ESL) along the U.S. Atlantic coast and their response to global warming. We find that under natural weather processes, the Gulf of Mexico coast is most vulnerable to storm surge and related ESL. New Orleans is a striking hotspot with the highest surge efficiency in response to storm winds. Under a 1% per year atmospheric CO2 increase on centennial time scales, the anthropogenic signal in ESL is robust along the U.S. East Coast. It can emerge from the background variability as soon as in 20 years, or even before global sea level rise is taken into account. The regional dynamic sea level rise induced by the weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation facilitates this early emergence, especially during wintertime coastal flooding associated with nor’easters. Along the Gulf Coast, ESL is sensitive to the modification of hurricane characteristics under the CO2 forcing.

scholarly journals Historic and Contemporary Environmental Justice Issues among Native Americans in the Gulf Coast Region of the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Liddell ◽  
Catherine E. McKinley ◽  
Jennifer M. Lilly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gulf Coast Region ◽  
Coast Region

Settler-colonialism is founded in environmental racism, and environmental justice is foundational to all forms of decolonialization. Native American groups located in the Gulf Coast Region of the United States are particularly vulnerable to environmental justice issues such as climate change and oil spills due to their geographic location and reliance on the coastal region for economic and social resources. This study used the framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) to explore the historic and contemporary forms of environmental injustice experienced by a Native American tribe in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. This critical ethnography analyzeda series of individual, family, and focus group semi-structured qualitative interviews with a total of 208 participants. Following the critical ethnographic method, data were interpreted through reconstructive analysis using NVivo. Findings of this study reveal the continuing impact of the BP oil spill and difficulty accessing resources following the spill, complicated by the tribe’s lack of federal recognition. Additional themes include the continuing impact of coastal erosion, historical and contemporary land loss, geographic marginalization, and concerns about a loss of tribal identity when tribal members are forced to relocate. Lack of federal tribal recognition has exacerbated all of these issues for this tribe. This study supports national findings that Native American groups experience extensive historic and contemporary environmental injustices and contextualizes these findings for a Native American tribe in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Recognizing Native American sovereignty is key to addressing the environmental justice issues described.

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