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Lessons From The Past: Unfolding The Dynamics Among Climate, Balkan Landscapes, And Humans Over The Past Millennium, Charuta J. Kulkarni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The primary objective of this doctoral dissertation is to reconstruct the environmental history of the Central Balkans (Serbia) over the past millennium utilizing biological proxies (pollen, spores, and charcoal), geochemical signals through X-ray fluorescence (XRF), statistical analyses, and atomic mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C chronology. This dissertation establishes the first chronological framework for vegetation-landscape changes in Serbia and discusses the role of humans and climate as underlying processes.

Chapter 1 discusses the background and the nature of the research problem followed by the extensive literature review on the topic of the Holocene climate and paleoecology. The state of Holocene paleoecology …

Exploring Sewage Sludge/Fish Waste-Based Materials As Adsorbents Of Pharmaceuticals From Water Phase, Lilja Nielsen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In an effort to enable wastewater treatment that is more economical and environmentally friendly, alternative adsorbents composed of sewage sludge and fish waste were tested for the removal of pharmaceuticals from aqueous phase. Sewage sludge, fish waste and their homogenized mixtures (90:10, 75:25, 50:50) were carbonized at two temperatures (650 and 950 °C). The obtained materials were extensively characterized in terms of their chemistry and porosity. Adsorption isotherms were used to determine adsorption capacity for 3 model pharmaceuticals: carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim. To simulate the complex environment in the wastewater treatment plant, the adsorption capacity for a multi-component solution, containing …

Ultrafast Spectroscopy And Energy Transfer In An Organic/Inorganic Composite Of Zinc Oxide And Graphite Oxide, Jeff A. Secor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The energy transfers and nature of defect levels of an organic/inorganic composite of Zinc Oxide and Graphite are studied with multidimensional spectroscopy. The edge and surface states of each composite are uncovered using excitation emission experiments showing which defect states are mediating the energy transfer from the metal oxide to the graphite oxide. Multidimensional time resolved spectroscopy further describes the effect of the carbon phase on the energy transfer pathways in the material.

Bad Apple: Complexities Of New York City Food Aid Programs, Rose Meagan Jimenez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The only universal thing about food is that everyone needs to eat. In the United States, there are more instances of food insecurity than impoverishment. Governmental and local food aid programs are complex but are essentially motivated by socioeconomic issues. Food aid programs, from community gardening to Food Stamps, initially stem from a depression-era need to stimulate the economy. However, as socioeconomic issues change, food aid programs also evolve to meet those needs. By excavating different pieces of literature that discuss issues in food aid, the forms of structural violence that cause hunger come to life. This piece discusses community …

Climate-Smart Agriculture: Farmer's Bane Or Boon?, Jeeva Mary Jacob

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is one of the solutions that simultaneously address the issues of food security, climate change and agricultural productivity. It has been gaining momentum in the last five years among policy circles and development organizations have prioritized CSA interventions in developing countries around the world. In this paper, CSA interventions are examined from the small farmer's perspective and the purpose of this paper is to find out whether Climate-Smart Agriculture truly empowers the farmer in the face of climate change. Such a study emerged from the fact that in the past, agricultural interventions like the Green Revolution promised …

Risk Factors And Costs Influencing Hospitalizations Due To Heat-Related Illnesses: Patterns Of Hospitalization, Michael T. Schmeltz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this dissertation was to identify individual and environmental risk factors, investigate outcomes and hospital resource use, including costs, and document the pattern of heat-related illness hospitalizations in the United States. The main data source for the study population was the 2001-2010 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). The study population for heat-related illnesses (HRIs) consists of patients in the NIS with at least one diagnosis of a heat-related illness (ICD-9 codes 992.0 - 992.9) from 2001 to 2010. Outcome analysis included a study population of patients who had primary or secondary diagnoses of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, nephritic …

Ecological Aspects Of The Music Of John Luther Adams, David Arie Shimoni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The composer John Luther Adams envisions his role as one who re-imagines and re-creates relationships with other human and non-human beings through music. This dissertation consists of an examination of songbirdsongs, Earth and the Great Weather, In the White Silence, Strange and Sacred Noise, The Place Where You Go to Listen, and Inuksuit to determine whether, and how, Adams succeeds in re-creating these relationships.

In the Introduction various means of connecting music and the natural world are reviewed, a semiotic and ecomusicological framework for analysis is established, and a listening typology is suggested. In the following chapters, analysis of …

The Theoretical And Psychological Foundations Of Care In Environmental Ethics, Rachel Fedock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I investigate the phenomenon of care, provide some of the theoretical and psychological framework for the ethics of care, and apply this framework to environmental issues. The neglected dimensions of care I explore are: the emotions of care, care as a virtue, and the caring person, respectively, while constructing possible conceptions of in what each dimension consists. I argue for the necessity of sympathy and concern within the ethics of care, while arguing against the necessity of empathy. Next, I explore the virtue of care as an ideal, where emotions, desires, reasoning, motive, duty and action all play an important …

Selva Simbólica Selva Simbiótica Apuntes Para Una Ecocritica Latinoamericana, Liza Pamela Rosas-Bustos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on Latin America's selvatic territories. It argues for prevailing ecological principles as revealed in the selected works of three twentieth-century Latin American story-writers and poets. They portray rainforests as multisensorial lands that encompass bewildering events from which a principle of local authority emerges. This analysis is based on Francisco Coloane's short stories "Tierra del Fuego" and "Cabo de Hornos," Rosario Castellanos'Balún Canán, and Luis Sepúlveda's Un viejo que leía novelas de amor. Such phenomenology is also present on the environmental poetics from Marosa di Giorgio, Cecilia Vicuña, and Leonel Lienlaf linked to emotions of fear, urgency, …

Science Identity Transformations Through Place-Based Teaching And Learning In The Natural World, Amy Defelice

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation includes three main components related through a sociocultural lens of identity transformation. The first component describes the Field Studies program for ninth grade students at Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE High School), and explores how outdoor settings and place-based pedagogies can be used to enhance urban students' science identities. Student researchers took digital photographs of their Field Studies experiences and met in cogenerative dialogues with me, their teacher, where we shared our reflections. The second component explains students' experiences and reactions to a week-long place-based geoscience program held over spring break at Prospect Park. This …

Carbon And Nitrogen Dynamics From Slow Pools Of Soil Organic Matter In A Temperate Forest: Pyrogenic Organic Matter And And Root Litter, Fernanda Dos Santos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Soil organic matter (SOM) is the dominant reservoir of organic carbon (OC) in terrestrial ecosystems, storing approximately three times the size of the C pool in the atmosphere. In temperate forests, a major fraction of the SOM consists of slowly decaying soil organic C (SOC) pools. While slowly cycling C pools constitute a large reservoir of stable C in soils, the dominant environmental factors controlling this C pool remain unresolved. This research investigates two significant, but poorly characterized slowly decaying C pools: fine root litter (< 2mm) and thermally altered plant biomass (pyrogenic organic matter, PyOM). Specifically, I used compound-specific stable isotope analysis (¹³C and ¹⁵N) as my main methodological approach to examine the (1) …

Planetary Improvement: Discourses And Practices Of Green Capitalism In The Cleantech Space, Jesse Adam Goldstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is money to be made in saving the planet. A whole host of actors, such as investors, entrepreneurs, engineers, and policy makers have mobilized around our ecological problems, seeking to innovate new `green' and `clean' technologies that can serve a rapidly changing environment. The presumption that such technologies are both necessary and necessarily profitable anchors visions of a `green' capitalism that can and must be brought into existence.

However, just as free markets have never been all that free, why should we presume that green capitalism would be all that green? Instead of attempting to arbit whether or not …

The Interaction Between Arsenic And Struvite During Coprecipitation And Adsorption Processes, Ning Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The formation of struvite, MgNH4PO4*6H2O (MAP), from wastes is one of the methods that can be used to recover P from wastes efficiently. However, since there are usually toxic components in the wastes, like arsenic (As), the possibility of having toxic contaminants in MAP is a big concern. So, the interaction between As and MAP during coprecipitation (CPT) and adsorption (ADS) processes were studied at pH 8-11. MAP precipitated without As at pH 8-11 was also characterized.

During CPT process, the MAP was precipitated from a MgCl2-(NH4)2HPO4-NaCl-H2O system spiked with As at an initial pH (pHi) of 8-11. The batch …

Water Conservation To Reduce Wet Weather Pollution Loads To The Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, Ny, Suzanne Carol Stempel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public participation plays an important role in wet weather pollution management. However, the effects of participation programs on local water quality are often difficult to quantify. This project aims to quantify the potential effects of a community based, non-structural, BMP aimed at controlling inputs to combined sewage systems by encouraging residents to reduce their water use during rain events. A household could participate by reducing the amount of water they use for flushing toilets, washing dishes, taking showers, etc. during rain events; thereby reducing stress on the system during the time of highest demand. The Gowanus Canal sewershed in Brooklyn, …

The Effect Of Income On Health After Hurricane Katrina, Jang Wook Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a large literature that documents a positive correlation between income and a variety of measures of good health. This correlation may reflect causality in both directions and may also reflect omitted "third variables" that are positively related to income and health. In my dissertation, I employ an exogenous negative shock to income due to a natural disaster to estimate the true causal impact of income on health. The shock I will use is Hurricane Katrina, which severely damaged counties in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in August 2005. I use these treatment counties and a variety of alternative sets …

The Role Of Water In The Rise, Prominence, And Decline Of Nabataean Petra, Dennis Cummins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper evaluates the rise of Nabataean Petra, its prominence, and eventual decline. The predominant context is effective water management as a pivotal driving factor in the growth of the Nabataean kingdom, which fostered an environment in which its famous incense trade could develop. Rising incense demand was the catalyst for growth from the first century BC through the first century AD; in AD 106 when Rome annexed the Nabataean kingdom, Petra began its gradual decline. In AD 363 an earthquake destroyed much of the city, and Petra did not return to its earlier prominence. From the outset, water played …

Variation In Habitat Thresholds: An Analysis Of Minimum Habitat Requirements Of North American Breeding Birds, Yntze Van Der Hoek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many species show dramatic changes in population extinction or persistence probability at particular habitat amounts. These `extinction thresholds' could be translated to conservation targets, under the condition that we can derive generalities. I investigated the level of variation in landscape-level habitat thresholds for a suite of North American, forest-associated, breeding birds. Records from Breeding Bird Atlases and the availability of remotely-sensed land cover data allowed me to compare habitat thresholds for 25 species across the states of Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. I show that variation in thresholds is considerable (Chapter II, III), as thresholds range from …

In Harm's Way: How Philadelphia's Urban Renewal Practices Steered Marginal People To Marginal Land, Katera Ya'shea Moore

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dumping of locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) on marginal communities has been well documented, however environmental justice scholars have rarely written about how marginal groups have come to occupy their landscapes, particularly when natural hazards lie beneath.

This dissertation research focuses on a broad definition of the environment that includes the built, social, and physical. I am interested in extending Logan and Molotch's Growth Machine theory to consider how the political and economic elite guided the urban renewal process to place particular communities on particular landscapes, despite the presence of a flooding hazard. To understand this issue, I examined …

Roundup Ready Nation: The Political Ecology Of Genetically Modified Soy In Argentina, Amalia Leguizamon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a case study of agrarian transformation in an agro-export society, Argentina. I study the process of adoption of the technological package of genetically modified (GM) soy in the Argentine countryside, its socio-ecological consequences, and Argentines' responses to it. In particular, this research addresses Argentina's unique situation of being a developing country that has positively embraced the biotechnology of GM seeds as a key accumulation strategy without the emergence of major contestation against GM soy monocropping. In order to answer the puzzle of quiescence, I look at how power relations structure access to social and environmental goods and …

Long-Term Warming And The Size And Phenology Of Long Island Sound Plankton, Edward Rice

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In coastal ecosystems with decades of eutrophication and other anthropogenic stressors, the impact of climate change on planktonic communities can be difficult to detect. A time-series of monthly surface water temperatures in the Central Basin of Long Island Sound (LIS) from the late 1940s until 2012 indicates a warming rate of 0.03°C per year, with recent summer temperatures increasing most consistently. During this warming trend, the proportion of chlorophyll produced by smaller phytoplankton and flagellates appears to be higher during warmer summer and fall months, enabling an increase in annual chlorophyll despite static nutrient levels. The phenology of phytoplankton and …

Suburban Heat Islands: The Influence Of Residential Minimum Lot Size Zoning On Surface Heat Islands In Somerset County, New Jersey, Jennifer Renee Cox

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The process of suburbanization blurs regional bounds, forms mega-regions and fosters the expansion of multifaceted environmental problems, such as the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Defined by differences in air- and surface- temperature between rural and urban areas, UHI is the result of the characteristics of urbanization which modify the land surface condition, urban geometry, thermal properties of construction materials, anthropogenic heat and air pollution, which increase storage and re-radiation of heat to the atmosphere. Climate change is predicted to worsen the UHI effect. Hence, the objective of this research to characterize the UHI effect as it pertains to suburban …

Phylogeny And Population Genetics Of The Endangered Dwarf Bear-Poppy, Arctomecon Humilis Coville (Papaveraceae) Using Microsatellite Markers, Joshua Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The genus Arctomecon (Papaveraceae) is comprised of three narrowly endemic rare species that are largely restricted to gypsum soils of the eastern Mojave Desert. The small, remaining populations of these species have become increasingly isolated by urban development and habitat fragmentation. Arctomecon humilis is federally listed as endangered due to its limited distribution within a ~15 km radius of an actively expanding city. Organizations involved with land management and conservation have called for greater insight into the genetic variation and population structure of the remaining subpopulations as they make important decisions regarding where to focus their efforts and resources.

The …

Numerical Study Of Canopy Flows In Complex Terrain, Xiyan Xu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Canopy flow plays a substantial role in regulating atmosphere-biosphere exchanges of mass and energy. The worldwide FLUXNET has been developed to quantify the net ecosystem exchange of mass and energy through fluid dynamics in and above vegetation canopy using tower-based eddy covariance (EC) technique. However, EC measurements are subject to advection errors in complex terrain, particularly during nights when atmospheric stability is strong. Because EC measurements are one-dimensional (1D), three-dimensional (3D) air movement, CO2 transport, and temperature variation around the instrumented tower are unknown. We employ a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to investigate the impact on CO2 transport of …

Phosphorus Transport In The Bronx River: Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis, Jingyu Wang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Phosphorus (P) is the primary limiting nutrient for algal growth in freshwater systems. Excessive P from external inputs and release from sediments could accelerate primary productivity leading to eutrophication in the water column, and consequently degrading water quality. The objectives of this study were to predict P bioavailability and estimate spatial and temporal variations in P transport in the Bronx River, New York, USA. The Bronx River originates from the Westchester Davis Brook and Kensico Dam, flowing south through Westchester County (WC) and Bronx to the estuary area where it joins the East River. The total length is about 20 …

Biodegradation Of Fuel Oxygenates In Northeastern United States Aquifers With An Analysis Of Underground Storage Tank Leaks, Gordon Hinshalwood

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During the past decade the application of monitored natural attenuation has become one of the predominant technologies used in the remediation of gasoline spills impacting subsurface soils and groundwater. The success of this method has depended, for the most part, on the biodegradation of those gasoline constituents that dissolve into groundwater and transport with the groundwater most readily.

One of the most mobile components of gasoline formulations during the past 20 years has been methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which has traditionally been viewed in both the scientific and the regulatory communities as relatively recalcitrant to biodegradation. However, cases of …

Delineation Of The Fractured-Rock And Unconsolidated Overburden Ground-Water Flow Systems, On The Southern Part Of Manhattan, New York, Through Use Of Advanced Borehole-Geophysical Techniques, Frederick Stumm

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Advanced borehole-geophysical techniques were used to assess the geohydrology of crystalline bedrock in 31 of 64 boreholes on the southern part of Manhattan Island, N.Y. Ten wells were screened in the unconsolidated overburden (glacial aquifer) to determine water-table elevation, transmissivity, and chloride concentration. The borehole-logging techniques included natural gamma, single-point resistance, short-normal resistivity, mechanical and acoustic caliper, magnetic susceptibility, borehole-fluid temperature and resistivity, borehole-fluid specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, pH, redox, heat-pulse flowmeter (at selected boreholes), borehole deviation, acoustic and optical televiewer, and borehole radar (at selected boreholes). The boreholes penetrated gneiss, schist, and other crystalline bedrock that has an overall …

Thermal Development And Rejuvenation Of The Marginal Plateaus Along The Transtensional Volcanic Margins Of The Norwegian-Greenland Sea, Nilgun Okay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The predominance of large-scale paleo-shear zones in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea is thought to be the major cause of asymmetric seafloor spreading in this region. Plate reconstructions suggest that nascent mid-ocean ridges propagated into these obliquely oriented shear zones causing transtension to occur. The asymmetric evolution of the northern Norwegian-Greenland Sea is evident from both the morphology of the seafloor as well as its geophysical characteristics. The eastern passive margins of the northern Norwegian-Greenland Sea are punctuated by volcanic plateaus which have significantly higher heat flow than the western passive margins. It is hypothesized that marginal volcanic plateaus formed originally in …