Digital Commons Network^™

Non-Reactive Gas Dynamics In The Piscataqua Estuary Inlet, Takashi Kalani Brown

Master's Theses and Capstones

For 135 days, from late autumn 2005 to the mid---spring 2006, continuous measurements of dissolved nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide in near surface seawater were recorded at the interface between the Great Bay-Piscataqua Estuary and the western Gulf of Maine. These surface measurements were made to investigate air-sea gas fluxes and identify the primary controls over gas dynamics in a macrotidal estuary entryway, the estuary inlet. Wind-parameterized air-sea flux estimations were calculated using published flux models and were evaluated to determine their appropriateness in the estuary inlet. Also, using supporting sea-state measurements from buoys (wind speed and wave height), the …

Improving The Policy Making Process In Municipal Solid Waster Management: Learning From Minamata-City, Japan, Rika Ikemoto

Master's Theses and Capstones

Many countries, especially industrialized countries, are facing a crisis in municipal solid waste (MSW) problems due to its ever increasing amount and related problems such as limited dumping space, transboundary waste movement, financial pressures, and dioxin problems. In Japan, one of those industrialized countries, while national MSW policies have not appeared effective, some municipalities have established remarkable policies to reduce MSW Minamata-city, which has a unique experience of environmental pollution, known as Minamta-disease, has reduced waste with the two major MSW policies: a Recycling Program; and the Food-containers Abolition Project of the Women's Committee on Waste Reduction, based on the …

Cape Wind: Public Values And Perceptions Application Of Contingent Valuation Method, Eric Steltzer

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Cape Wind proposal to build 130 turbines in Nantucket sound has been a central figure in development of renewable energy in New England. The aim of this study was two fold. First, the contingent valuation method was used to estimate an economic value the public has on policy for the preservation of Nantucket sound, within the scopes of the project. The second goal was to identify lessons that could be learned from the Cape Wind proposal and applied to future renewable energy projects in New England.

Results revealed that the public has a positive economic value for a policy …

Understanding Changes In Aboveground Biomass And Height With Elevation At Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Mariya Schilz

Master's Theses and Capstones

A better understanding of carbon stocks and fluxes is a priority of many national and international agencies, including NASA, NACP, IPCC, and IGBP. (Asrar et al. 2001, IGBP Annual Report, 2003, IPCC Third Assessment Report: Climate Change 2001). Patterns of carbon stocks and fluxes on the land surface are important for studies of the carbon cycle, climate change, and terrestrial ecology. One source of heterogeneity is associated with elevation. In systems around the world, patterns in carbon stocks, fluxes, and the factors that underlie them have well documented relationships with elevation (Korner 1999, Schwarz et al. 2003, Waide et al. …

Effects Of Forest Clear Cutting On Spotted Salamander ( Ambystoma Maculatum) Migration, Jessica Susannah Veysey

Master's Theses and Capstones

Upland buffer zones are a proposed management tool for vernal-pool-breeding amphibians. Substantial validation of buffers, via experimental upland habitat disturbance, is lacking. Specifically, no studies have examined immediate effects of clear cutting on spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum ) migration. I used clear cutting to experimentally manipulate upland buffer widths at 11 vernal pools. I then radiotracked 40 adult spotted salamanders at these pools, and modeled their migration with mixed-effects regression. Mean maximum distance from the pool was 106.0 +/- 15.4 m (range = 1.6 to 427.6 m). At clear cut-treatment pools, mean percent of time in the cut was 27.2 …