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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Energy In The Corn Belt: Is Maize Production Sustainable?, Matthew Bernau
Energy In The Corn Belt: Is Maize Production Sustainable?, Matthew Bernau
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Technological and scientific innovation has transformed agricultural production. Corn production methods changed from a sustainable, nutrient recycling production system to one reliant on imported fossil energy inputs. Located in the Western Corn Belt, Union County, South Dakota was chosen as the study area. Changes in production methods are represented by four technological epochs: 1) The Draft Horse Epoch, 1890-1920; 2) The Tractor Epoch, 1920-1950; 3) The Fertilizer Epoch, 1950-1980; and 4) The Biotechnology and Precision Agriculture Epoch, 1980-2010. The energy budget method was used to measure the energy sustainability of corn production. The findings show that the volume of corn …
Connecting Pixels To People: Management Agents And Social-Ecological Determinants Of Changes To Street Tree Distributions, Shawn Landry
Connecting Pixels To People: Management Agents And Social-Ecological Determinants Of Changes To Street Tree Distributions, Shawn Landry
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Street trees are an important component of the urban forest that can provide direct and indirect benefits to social and ecological sustainability in cities. Temporal and spatial interactions between human and non-human management agents determine the distribution and health of street tree populations in urban areas. This dissertation seeks to enhance our understanding of the spatial patterns and processes affecting street trees by investigating the agents and social-ecological determinants of changes to street tree distributions in urban residential neighborhoods. The research was guided by three primary questions: (1) Are recent changes to the spatial distribution of street trees influenced by …