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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Health

Functions Of Ecosystems: Stream Metabolism As An Efficient And Effective Means To Gage The Health And Understand The Interworking Of Urban Streams In A Watershed Of Rock Island, Il, Ryan Johnson, Dr. Kevin Geedey May 2018

Functions Of Ecosystems: Stream Metabolism As An Efficient And Effective Means To Gage The Health And Understand The Interworking Of Urban Streams In A Watershed Of Rock Island, Il, Ryan Johnson, Dr. Kevin Geedey

Celebration of Learning

Stream metabolism is a critical functional measure of stream health that integrates physical parameters like slope and discharge, with ecosystem functions like photosynthesis and respiration. Stream metabolism is widely studied; however, urban stream metabolism remains poorly understood. Stream metabolism was measured for five streams ranging from 1st to 5th orders from October 11th to October 18th 2017 and four streams ranging from 1st to 4th order from October 22nd to 25th 2017 located within an approximately 9.3 square kilometer watershed of Rock Island, IL that has an urban to suburban type of …


A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum May 2018

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum

Celebration of Learning

Urban expansion has had devastating impacts on forest ecosystems, especially within the past century. Human attempts to dominate nature have diminished natural disturbance regimes, which have maintained the biodiversity and historic composition of these ecosystems. Fires have been a prominent force in maintaining the structure of oak, hickory and other heliophytic (sun loving and fire-adapted) forest systems. Human induced fire suppression has led to mesophication across North America. Mesophication is the transition from drier conditions with open canopies to wetter conditions with closed canopies. These new conditions decrease the survival rates of these important species and begin to favor mesophytic …


Outdoor Air Quality, Taylor Curley Jan 2018

Outdoor Air Quality, Taylor Curley

Global Issues in Public Health

Outdoor air quality is a significant issue for the entire world. It affects any and all people, but is more of an issue in low-income countries and among people that are more susceptible to respiratory issues such as young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people who already suffer from respiratory problems like asthma. Poor air quality is caused by the burning of fossil fuels which releases particles and chemicals into the air like carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen to name a few. It can cause multiple health issues such as respiratory problems to people who are exposed to …


Evaluating Trophic Rewilding As A Conservation Technique, Aaron Sieve Jan 2017

Evaluating Trophic Rewilding As A Conservation Technique, Aaron Sieve

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The focus for this paper is to define specifically trophic rewilding, determine its efficacy as a conservation technique, and explore ways to lessen one of its key limitations. Trophic rewilding is the conservation technique whereby an extirpated keystone species or ecosystem engineer is reintroduced into a degraded habitat to restore ecological function by triggering trophic cascades. The technique is evaluated through analysis of the concepts of trophic cascades and ecosystem engineers. Key limitations of trophic rewilding are that a lack of population control in reintroduced may cause issues, that many times not enough is known about trophic cascades to be …