Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

About: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a nonprofit organization based out in Falmouth, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Mantle (geology). The organization has 5685 authors who have published 18396 publications receiving 1202050 citations. The organization is also known as: WHOI.

Signals or Noise? Explaining the Variation in Recreation Benefit Estimates

Abstract: This paper uses meta analysis to summarize the benefit estimates derived from travel cost recreation demand models. After reviewing approximately 200 published and unpublished studies prepared from 1970 to 1986, 77 were found to report either consumer surplus estimates or sufficient information to derive them. Using these estimates of the consumer surplus per unit of use from each study, it was possible to evaluate the influence of variables describing the site characteristics, the activities undertaken at each site, the behavioral assumptions, and the specification decisions. The findings provide clear support for using econometric methods to summarize results from diverse empirical studies. They highlight the important research issues in model development and offer a consistency check to the procedures used in benefit transfer analyses for policy evaluations.

Origin and Development of the Philippine Sea

Abstract: The Central Basin Fault, an extinct mid-oceanic ridge, was probably connected by a long transform fault with the major ridge system (Kula-Pacific Ridge) which submerged under the Japanese and Kurile Arcs in late Cretaceous. When the direction of the motion of the Pacific plate changed from NNW to WNW during Eocene time, the Philippine ridge became extinct and WNW dipping subduction started at the transform fault which turned into an island arc. Then extensional openings of inter-arc basins followed to form basins to the east. The Kuyshu-Palau Ridge is probably the remnant of the old transform fault.

Testing the direct effect of CO2 concentration on a bloom of the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi in mesocosm experiments

Abstract: We studied the direct effects of CO2 and related changes in seawater carbonate chemistry on marine planktonic organisms in a mesocosm experiment. In nine outdoor enclosures (~11 m3 each), the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) in the seawater was modified by an aeration system. The triplicate mesocosm treatments represented low (~190 parts per million by volume (ppmV) CO2), present (~410 ppmV CO2), and high (~710 ppmV CO2) pCO2 conditions. After initial fertilization with nitrate and phosphate a bloom dominated by the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi occurred simultaneously in all of the nine mesocosms; it was monitored over a 19-day period. The three CO2 treatments assimilated nitrate and phosphate similarly. The concentration of particulate constituents was highly variable among the replicate mesocosms, disguising direct CO2-related effects. Normalization of production rates within each treatment, however, indicated that the net specific growth rate of E. huxleyi, the rate of calcification per cell, and the elemental stoichiometry of uptake and production processes were sensitive to changes in pCO2. This broad influence of CO2 on the E. huxleyi bloom suggests that changes in CO2 concentration directly affect cell physiology with likely effects on the marine biogeochemistry.

Sea cliffs: Their processes, profiles, and classification

Abstract: General concavity or convexity of sea-cliff profiles is controlled by relative rates of erosion by marine and subaerial processes, as well as by positions of more resistant strata in the cliffs. Profiles supplemented by on-site examination can establish the activity and dominance of erosional processes and indicate changes in regimen. A sharp angle at the sea-cliff base generally indicates active marine erosion, whereas a smooth curve at the base means that subaerial erosion may dominate. Talus shows absence of marine erosion. Studies of profiles can be useful for estimating stability for residences, railroads, and highways at the top, face, and base of sea cliffs. Generally increased erosion and retreat of sea cliffs are in prospect because of projected regionally wetter and stormier climate, rising sea level, and increased human activities.