Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Dash, Padmanava

Committee Member

Mercer, Andrew

Committee Member

Ambinakudige, Shrinidhi

Date of Degree

8-10-2018

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Geospatial Sciences

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

Mississippi River affects the carbon dynamics in the northern Gulf of Mexico (N-GoM) significantly. Hence, total alkalinity (TA) algorithms developed for major ocean basins produce inaccurate estimations for this region. A TA algorithm was developed, which addresses the local effects of coastal processes and complex spatial influences. In-situ data collected during numerous previous research cruises in the N-GoM were compiled and used to calculate the efficiency of an existing TA algorithm that uses Sea-Surface-Temperature (SST) and Sea-Surface-Salinity (SSS) as explanatory variables. To improve this algorithm, statistical analyses were performed to improve the coefficients and functional form of this algorithm. Then, chlorophyll-a (Chla) was included as an additional explanatory variable. Chla worked as a proxy for addressing the organic carbon pump’s pronounced effects on coastal waters. Finally, a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) algorithm was developed to address spatial non-stationarity, which apparently could not be addressed in the previously developed global algorithm.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20016

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