Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Global climate models project a 21st century strengthening of the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). The consequent increase in topographic upwelling of cool waters onto equatorial coral reef islands would mitigate warming locally and modulate the intensity of coral bleaching. However, EUC water is potentially more acidic and richer in dissolved inorganic nutrients (DIN), both widely considered detrimental to coral reef health. My analysis of the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation product indicates that the EUC has indeed strengthened over the past 130 years. This result provides an historical baseline and dynamical reference for future intensification. Additionally, I reared corals in laboratory experiments, co-manipulating food, light and CO2 (acidity) to test the role of nutrition in coral response to elevate CO2 conditions. Heterotrophy yields larger corals but CO2 sensitivity is independent of feeding. Conversely, factors that enhance zooxanthellate photosynthesis (light and DIN) reduce CO2 sensitivity. Corals under higher light also store more lipid but these reserves are not utilized to maintain calcification under elevated CO2 My results suggest that while mitigation of CO2 effects on calcification is not linked to energetic reserve, EUC fueled increases in DIN and productivity could reduce effects of elevated CO2 on coral calcification. / by Elizabeth Joan Drenkard. / Ph. D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-167). / Seawater is estimated to contain 4.5 billion tonnes of uranium, approximately 1000 times that available in conventional terrestrial resources. Finding a sustainable way to harvest uranium from seawater will provide a source of nuclear fuel for generations to come, while also giving all countries with ocean access a stable supply. This will also eliminate the need to store spent fuel for potential future reprocessing, thereby addressing nuclear proliferation issues as well. While extraction of uranium from seawater has been researched for decades, no economical, robust, ocean-deployable method of uranium collection has been presented to date. This thesis presents a symbiotic approach to ocean harvesting of uranium where a common structure supports a wind turbine and a device to harvest uranium from seawater. The Symbiotic Machine for Ocean uRanium Extraction (SMORE) created and tested decouples the function of absorbing uranium from the function of deploying the absorbent which enables a more efficient absorbent to be developed by chemists. The initial SMORE concept involves an adsorbent device that is cycled through the seawater beneath the turbine and through an elution plant located on a platform above the sea surface. This design allows for more frequent harvesting, reduced down-time, and a reduction in the recovery costs of the adsorbent. Specifically, the design decouples the mechanical and chemical requirements of the device through a hard, permeable outer shell containing uranium adsorbing fibers. This system is designed to be used with the 5-MW NREL OC3-Hywind floating spar wind turbine. To optimize the decoupling of the chemical and mechanical requirements using the shell enclosures for the uranium adsorbing fibers, an initial design analysis of the enclosures is presented. Moreover, a flume experiment using filtered, temperature-controlled seawater was developed to determine the effect that the shells have on the uptake of the uranium by the fibers they enclose. For this experiment, the A18 amidoxime-based adsorbent fiber developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory was used, which is a hollow-gear-shaped, high surface area polyethylene fiber prepared by radiation-induced graft polymerization of the amidoxime ligand and a vinylphosphonic acid comonomer. The results of the flume experiment were then used to inform the design and fabrication of two 1/10th physical scale SMORE prototypes for ocean testing. The A18 adsorbent fibers were tested in two shell designs on both a stationary and a moving system during a nine-week ocean trial, with the latter allowing the effect of additional water flow on the adsorbents uranium uptake to be investigated. A novel method using the measurement of radium extracted onto MnO₂ impregnated acrylic fibers to quantify the volume of water passing through the shells of the two systems was utilized. The effect of a full-scale uranium harvesting system on the hydrodynamics of an offshore wind turbine were then investigated using a 1/150th Froude scale wave tank test. These experiments compared the measured excitation forces and responses of two versions of SMORE to those of an unmodified floating wind turbine. With insights from the experiments on what a final full-scale design might look like, a cost-analysis was performed to determine the overall uranium production cost from a SMORE device. In this analysis, the capital, operating, and decommissioning costs were calculated and summed using discounted cash flow techniques similar to those used in previous economic models of the uranium adsorbent. Major contributions of this thesis include fundamental design tools for the development and evaluation of symbiotic systems to harvest uranium or other minerals from seawater. These tools will allow others to design offshore uranium harvesting systems based on the adsorbent properties and the scale of the intended installation. These flexible tools can be tuned for a particular adsorbent, location, and installation size, thereby allowing this technology to spread broadly. / by Maha Niametullah Haji. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis presents the results of four discrete investigations into processes governing the organic and inorganic chemical composition of seafloor hydrothermal fluids in a variety of geologic settings. Though Chapters 2 through 5 of this thesis are disparate in focus, each represents a novel investigation aimed at furthering our understanding of subsurface geochemical processes affecting hydrothermal fluid compositions. Chapters 2 and 3 concern the abiotic (nonbiological) formation of organic compounds in high temperature vent fluids, a process which has direct implications for the emergence of life in early Earth settings and sustainment of present day microbial populations in hydrothermal environments. Chapter 2 represents an experimental investigation of methane (CH4) formation under hydrothermal conditions. The overall reduction of carbon dioxide (C02) to CH4, previously assumed to be kinetically inhibited in the absence of mineral catalysts, is shown to proceed on timescales pertinent to crustal residence times of hydrothermal fluids. In Chapter 3, the abundance of methanethiol (CH3SH), considered to be a crucial precursor for the emergence of primitive chemoautotrophic life, is characterized in vent fluids from ultramafic-, basalt- and sediment-hosted hydrothermal systems. Previous assumptions that CH3SH forms by reduction of CO2 are not supported by the observed distribution in natural systems. Chapter 4 investigates factors regulating the hydrogen isotope composition of hydrocarbons under hydrothermal conditions. Isotopic exchange between low molecular weight n-alkanes and water is shown to be facilitated by metastable equilibrium reactions between alkanes and their corresponding alkenes, which are feasible in natural systems. In Chapter 5, the controls on vent fluid composition in a backare hydrothermal system are investigated. A comprehensive survey of the inorganic geochemistry of fluids from sites of hydrothermal activity in the eastern Manus Basin indicates that fluids there are influenced by input of acidic magmatic solutions at depth, and subsequently modified by variable extents of seawater entrainment and mixing-related secondary acidity production. / by Eoghan Reeves. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Key players in the marine carbon cycle are the ocean-dwelling microbes that fix, remineralize, and transform organic matter. Many of the small organic molecules in the marine carbon pool have not been well characterized and their roles in microbial physiology, ecological interactions, and carbon cycling remain largely unknown. In this dissertation metabolomics techniques were developed and used to profile and quantify a suite of metabolites in the field and in laboratory experiments. Experiments were run to study the way a specific metabolite can influence microbial metabolite output and potentially processing of organic matter. Specifically, the metabolic response of the heterotrophic marine bacterium, Ruegeria pomeroyi, to the algal metabolite dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) was analyzed using targeted and untargeted metabolomics. The manner in which DMSP causes R. pomeroyi to modify its biochemical pathways suggests anticipation by R. pomeroyi of phytoplankton-derived nutrients and higher microbial density. Targeted metabolomics was used to characterize the latitudinal and vertical distributions of particulate and dissolved metabolites in samples gathered along a transect in the Western Atlantic Ocean. The assembled dataset indicates that, while many metabolite distributions co-vary with biomass abundance, other metabolites show distributions that suggest abiotic, species specific, or metabolic controls on their variability. On sinking particles in the South Atlantic portion of the transect, metabolites possibly derived from degradation of organic matter increase and phytoplankton-derived metabolites decrease. This work highlights the role DMSP plays in the metabolic response of a bacterium to the environment and reveals unexpected ways metabolite abundances vary between ocean regions and are transformed on sinking particles. Further metabolomics studies of the global distributions and interactions of marine biomolecules promise to provide new insights into microbial processes and metabolite cycling. / by Winifred M. Johnson. / Ph. D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Nutrients and trace metals are vital for supporting life in the ocean, but the boundary processes that control the distributions of these elements are poorly constrained. Radium isotopes are well suited to studying inputs of elements from ocean margins because they are produced in sediments and soluble in seawater. The half-lives of the four isotopes (223Ra, 224Ra, 228Ra, 226Ra) range from days to thousands of years, thus these isotopes can be used to study oceanographic processes occurring over a range of time scales. In this thesis I have applied the quartet of radium isotopes to investigate boundary inputs, including seafloor hydrothermal vents, continental shelves, and rivers. First, radium isotope ratios were used to constrain the age of hydrothermal plumes emanating from vents along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise. These radium-derived ages were applied to determine the iron residence time in the Pacific plume that emanates from near 15°S, providing an important constraint on the hydrothermal delivery of iron to the deep ocean. Next, 228Ra was used to show that shelf inputs to the Arctic Ocean have increased over the last decade, implying that the fluxes of other shelf-derived materials are also increasing and could impact primary production in this basin. The ratio of 228Ra and 226Ra was also applied to determine the ventilation time of Arctic intermediate waters with respect to shelf inputs, and the first measurements of 226Ra in the deep Canada Basin were used to estimate the residence time of deep waters with respect to benthic sediment inputs. Finally, a study of the Mackenzie River Estuary illustrated the importance of deltaic and estuarine processing on the ultimate delivery of nutrients, trace metals, dissolved organic matter, and radium to the Arctic Ocean. By applying radium isotopes as tracers of boundary inputs in these diverse environments, the work presented in this thesis improves our understanding of nutrient and trace metal inputs to the coastal and open ocean. / by Lauren Elizabeth Kipp. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis investigates three processes that control the evolution of oceanic margins. Chapter 2 presents seismic images of a ~2-km-thick evaporite body in Guaymas Basin, central Gulf of California. In rifts, evaporites form under conditions unique to the latest stages of continental rupture, and the presence, age, thickness, and shape place new constraints on the history of early rifting there. Chapter 3 presents numerical experiments that show that diapirs can form in sediments on the down-going plate in subduction zones and rise into the mantle wedge, delivering the sedimentary component widely observed in arc magmas. Chapter 4 presents measurements of seismic anisotropy from wide-angle, active-source data from the Middle America Trench that address the hypothesis that the upper mantle is hydrated by seawater flowing along outer-rise normal faults. These measurements indicate that the upper mantle is ~1.57 to 6.89% anisotropic, and this anisotropy can be attributed to bending-related faulting and an inherited mantle fabric. Accounting for anisotropy reduces previous estimates for the amount of water stored in the upper mantle of the down-going plate from ~2.5 to 1.5 wt%, a significant change in subduction zone water budgets. / by Nathaniel Clark Miller. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-187). / The marine geochemistry of the North Atlantic Ocean varies on decadal to centennial time scales, a consequence of natural and anthropogenic forcing. Surface corals provide a useful geochemical archive to quantify past mixed layer variability, and this study presents elemental and isotopic records from the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic. A consistent method for stable lead isotope analysis via multiple collector ICP-MS is first presented. This method is then applied to western North Atlantic surface corals and seawater, constraining historical elemental and isotopic lead variability. Six stable lead isotope profiles are developed from the western and eastern North Atlantic, demonstrating consistent mixed layer, thermocline, and deep water variability. Finally, coralline trace element records, including cadmium, barium, and lead, are presented from the Cariaco Basin. First, a reliable method is developed for stable lead isotope analysis by multiple collector ICP-MS. This study presents new observations of the large (0.7% amu-l), time-dependent mass fractionation determined by thallium normalization, including preferential light ion transmission induced by the acceleration potential and nebulizer conditions. These experiments show equivalent results for three empirical correction laws, and the previously proposed [beta]Pb/[beta]TI correction does not improve isotope ratio accuracy under these conditions. External secondary normalization to SRM-981 provides one simple alternative, and a rationale is provided for this correction. With current intensities less than 1.5x10-12 A, external isotope ratio precision less than 200 ppm is observed (2[sigma]). Matrix effects are significant with concomitant calcium in SRM-981 (-280 ppm at 257 [mu]M [Ca]). / (cont.) With the appropriate corrections and minimal concomitants, MC-ICP-MS can reliably determine 206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/207Pb ratios of marine carbonates and seawater. Anthropogenic lead represents a promising transient oceanographic tracer, and its historical isotopic and elemental North Atlantic variability have been documented by proxy reconstructions and seawater observations. Two high-resolution surface coral and seawater time series from the western North Atlantic are presented, demonstrating past variability consistent with upper ocean observations. The elemental reconstruction suggests the primary lead transient was advected to the western North Atlantic from 1955 to 1968, with an inferred maximum lead concentration of 205 pmol kg-1 in 1971. The mean 1999 North Atlantic seawater concentration (38 pmol kg-1) is equivalent to 1905, several decades prior to the initial consumption of leaded gasoline in the United States. A 206Pb/207Pb transient from 1968 to 1990 is also observed, lagging the elemental transient by ten years. The provenance of this isotopic record is distinct from Arctic and European ice core observations and supports a 40% ... / by Matthew K. Reuer. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), September 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-246). / The upper ocean crust contains a comprehensive record of the shallow geological processes active along the world's mid-ocean ridge system. This thesis examines the magnetic and seismic structure of the upper crust at two contrasting ridges-the fast spreading East Pacific Rise (EPR) and the slow spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR)-to build a more complete understanding about the roles of volcanic emplacement, tectonic disruption and hydrothermal alteration in the near-ridge environment. A technique that inverts potential field measurements directly from an uneven observation track is developed and applied to near-bottom magnetic data from the spreading segments north of the Kane transform on the MAR. It is concluded that the central anomaly magnetization high marks the locus of focused volcanic emplacement. A cyclic faulting model is proposed to explain the oscillatory magnetization pattern associated with discrete blocks of crust being transported out of the rift valley between intensely altered fault zones. Seismic waveform and amplitude analyses of the magma sill along the EPR reveal it to be a thin (<100 m) body of partial melt. These characteristics have important implications for melt availability and transport within the cycle of eruption and replenishment. A genetic algorithm-based seismic waveform inversion technique is developed and applied to on- and near-axis multichannel data from 17'20'S on the EPR and the spreading segment south of the Oceanographer transform (MAR) to map and compare for the first time the detailed velocity structure of the upper crust at two different spreading rates. Combined with conventionally processed seismic profiles, our results show that, while final extrusive thickness is comparable at all spreading ridges (300-500 m), the style of thickening may vary. While a thin (<100 m) extrusive carapace quadruples in thickness within 1-4 km of the EPR crest, the extrusive section at the MAR achieves its final thickness within the inner valley. Both show evidence for a narrow zone of volcanic emplacement. Vigorous hydrothermalism at the EPR may produce a more rapid increase in basement velocities relative to the MAR. Rapid modification of the extrusive/dike transition at both ridges indicates that hydrothermalism is enhanced in this interval. Along-axis transport of lavas may thicken the extrusive pile at slow spreading segment ends, strengthening the magnetic highs generated by lava chemistry. / by Stefan Anthony Hussenoeder. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, 2017. / Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Blooms of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella cause paralytic shellfish poisoning syndrome and present an expanding public health threat. They are inoculated through the germination of benthic cysts, a process regulated by internal and environmental factors, most importantly temperature. Less understood is the effect of temperature conditioning on cyst dormancy cycling, which inhibits germination for long periods. This thesis characterizes the temperature-dependence of both dormancy and germination in natural A. catenella cyst populations from Nauset Marsh (Cape Cod, MA, USA), a small estuarine embayment, and relates these processes to the phenology of blooms there. Through laboratory germination assays, it is shown that dormant A. catenella cysts require a quantifiable amount of chilling to exit dormancy and attain quiescence (i.e. become germinable). A series of experiments compares germination rates of quiescent cysts across a range of temperatures through laboratory experiments and field incubations of raw sediment using plankton emergence traps (PETs). Emergence rates of A. catenella germlings measured by PETs increased linearly with temperature and were comparable to germination under constant laboratory conditions. Total emergence fluxes were much lower than expected, suggesting that germination occurs in a much shallower layer of sediments than typically assumed. The results are synthesized to develop a temperature-dependent model to examine the sensitivity of A. catenella bloom phenology to dormancy-breaking by winter chilling. Notably, the chilling-alleviated dormancy model accurately predicted the timing of quiescence (January) and the variable bloom phenology from multiple blooms in Nauset. Once cysts became quiescent and began to germinate, however, temperatures were typically too cold for growth to exceed losses so there was a several-week lag until bloom development. Years with warmer winters and springs had shorter lag periods and thus significantly earlier blooms. Ecologically, dormancy-breaking by a chilling threshold is advantageous because it prevents the mismatch between conditions that are favorable for germination but not for the formation of large blooms. Synchronized germination after winter chilling also promotes promotes efficient conversion from the cyst seedbed to the spring bloom inoculum. The dormancy mechanism characterized here may be present in other cyst-forming dinoflagellates, but there is likely plasticity that reflects the temperature regime of each habitat. / by Alexis Dal Fischer. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-204). / Geochemical signatures in the otoliths of diadromous fishes may allow for retrospective analyses of natal origins. In an assessment of river-specific signatures in American shad (Alosa sapidissima), an anadromous clupeid native to the Atlantic coast of North America, stable isotope and elemental ratios in otoliths of juvenile American shad produced accurate natal tags from 12 rivers. Significant inter-annual variability in geochemical signatures from several rivers was detected, due largely to differences in 8180 values among years. The database was further expanded to include 20 rivers from Florida to Quebec, encompassing all major spawning populations. This task was accomplished by collecting juvenile otoliths along with water samples from rivers where juveniles were not sampled. Regressions between otolith and water chemistry for those rivers where both were collected showed significant relationships for Sr:Ca, Ba:Ca, 86180, and 87Sr:86Sr ratios but not for Mg:Ca or Mn:Ca. Despite reducing the combined signature to only four chemical ratios, cross-validated classification accuracies of known-origin juveniles averaged 93%. Ground-truthed signatures were used to classify migrants of unknown origins. Adults returning to spawn in the York River were classified according to their otolith composition. / (cont.) Only 6% of spawners originated from rivers other than the York, supporting the hypothesis that most American shad spawn in their natal river. Of remaining spawners, 79% originated from the Mattaponi River and 21% from the Pamunkey River. The results suggested that while most American shad home to their natal river there is less fidelity to individual tributaries, allowing subsidies to subpopulations with persistent recruitment failure. Otolith signatures were also used in mixed-stock analyses of immature migrants along the coast of Maine in the spring and Minas Basin in the summer. Mixed-stock compositions showed remarkably low diversity and were dominated by fish from the Shubenacadie and Hudson rivers, with an increasing proportion of Potomac River fish over time. In contrast to results from adult tagging studies, southern stocks were virtually absent. These data suggest ontogenetic shifts in migratory behavior. The thesis concludes with a report that water contributed 83% of Sr and 98% of Ba in the otoliths of a marine fish. / by Benjamin Walther. / Ph.D.