Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands – Phase Ii: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering October 1, 2009 To December 31, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• The number of records in the volunteer database decreased by 14% over last quarter. The database now contains 5,996 records.
• Website activity increased, recording an average of 121,918 hits per month, an increase of 8% from last quarter, with an average of 9,686 pages viewed per month.
• Volunteer fall training has been completed.
• One hundred and twenty-seven people attended the Volunteer Recognition Event.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Monitoring And Evaluation Of Sensitive Wildlife: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Wildlife Monitoring

Project 1. Relict Leopard Frog Monitoring, Management, and Research

• All milestones and deliverables are on schedule
• Fall surveys at all sites have been completed
• Mark-recapture surveys scheduled for fall were completed
• Short-term habitat improvements at two sites were conducted
• RLFCT meeting was hosted
• Draft annual report was written and presented at the RLFCT meeting

Project 2. Bald Eagle Winter Monitoring and Evaluation

• All milestones and deliverables are on schedule
• An annual project review presentation was given to Clark County
• A draft final report was written and submitted to Clark County
• All data for this project was transferred to the County …

Joint Fire Science Program – Lake Mead National Recreation Area Revegetating Burned Arid Lands: Identifying Successful Native Species Using Trait And Competition Analysis: Quarterly Progress Report, Time Period: October 1 — December 31, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Fire Science

• Article accepted for publication in Journal of Arid Environments.

• Recharged irrigation gel packs for outplanting and watered seed plots at Goodsprings site.

• Completed full year of seed granivory trials at Goodsprings site.

• Presented information on this Task Agreement to 4th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress.

• Maintained nursery plots and added installment of nitrogen treatment.

Development Of The Mask Scentometer, A Comparison Of Ambient Odor Assessment Methods, And Their Application In Ground Truthing Atmospheric Dispersion Models, Christopher G. Henry

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is organized as four stand-alone papers. Paper No. 1 describes the development of the Mask Scentometer and reports dilution ratios measured during use by twelve different people. Dilution ratios at the Mask Scentometer’s five dilution-to-threshold (D/T) settings were found to be 0.35, 1, 2, 4.5 and 18. In Paper No.’s 2 and 4, ambient odor assessment methods were compared in both controlled laboratory conditions and in the field. Laboratory analysis of ambient air samples using dynamic triangular forced-choice olfactometry (DTFCO) did not correlate well with any of the ambient odor assessment methods. Average intensity-predicted D/T was roughly five …

Wku Campus Wide Holiday Energy Conservation Plan, Wku Sustainability Committee, Christian Ryan-Downing

Sustainability Publications and Resources

No abstract provided.

Mash-Ups In Abe Models, And The New Epa Waters Web Services, Larry Theller

GIS Day

Documents recent efforts to integrate Purdue's Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment (L-THIA) land use change model with data from Purdue, USEPA, and Michigan State’s Institute of Water Research within Google Maps

Nutrient Enrichment Studies Of Natural Phytoplankton Populations In Tampa Bay: A Summary Of Results June 1993 To August 2009, The City Of Tampa Wastewater Department

Reports

The Bay Study Group (BSG) has been conducting nutrient enrichment studies (bioassays) on natural phytoplankton populations at four locations in Tampa Bay since 1993 (Figure 1). This report will summarize findings for all tests that have been performed to date, from June 1993 through August 2009.

Status And Trends Report - November 2009, Erik Nordman, Betty Gajewski, Paul Isely, John Koches, Stuart Kramer, Kurt Thompson, Jon Vandermolen

Technical Reports

The deployment of thousands of wind energy facilities required to meet various renewable energy targets will bring changes to the nation’s landscapes, communities, and economies. Identifying and reconciling the trade-offs that inevitably arise from projects such as locating wind energy facilities is a major challenge to successfully meeting renewable energy targets. These complex challenges span scientific disciplines, involve multiple scales, lack well-defined solutions, and involve public values. Integrated assessment has been used effectively to address a number of complex challenges, ranging from climate change to “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico. The intent of this integrated assessment project, and …

Provenance Signatures Of The Antarctic Ice Sheets In The Ross Embayment During The Late Miocene To Early Pliocene: The Andrill And-1b Core Record, Franco M. Talarico, Sonia Sandroni

ANDRILL Research and Publications

Significant down-core modal and compositional variations are described for granule- to cobble-sized clasts in the Early Pliocene to Middle/Late Miocene sedimentary cycles of the AND-1B drill core at the NW edge of the Ross Ice Shelf (McMurdo Sound).

Long-term shifts in compositional patterns outline an evolving provenance which is interpreted as reflecting the combined effects and complex interactions among variations in ice volume, ice flow patterns and paleogeographic changes linked to the local tectonic and volcanic activity. High-frequency variations and the petrological features of the basement clast fraction provide direct information about the potential source regions during both glacial maxima …

Strategies For The Fusion Of Satellite Fire Radiative Power With Burned Area Data For Fire Radiative Energy Derivation, Luigi Boschetti, David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

Instantaneous estimates of the power released by a fire (Fire Radiative Power, FRP) are available with satellite active fire detection products. Integrating FRP in time provides an estimate of the total energy released (Fire Radiative Energy, FRE), which can be converted into burned biomass estimates needed by the atmospheric emissions modeling community. While straightforward in theory, the integration of FRP in time and space is affected by temporal and spatial undersampling imposed by the satellite sensing and orbit geometry, clouds, and active fire product omission errors. Combination of active fire FRP estimates with independently derived burned area maps provides the …

Droughtscape- Fall 2009, Kelly Smith

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Drought Monitor Forum to be in Austin, Oct. 7-8

El Niño Likely to Bring More Needed Precipitation

NDMC Welcomes Visiting Chinese Scientist

TX, CA Feeling Worst of Impacts

Grant to Bring Climate Change Ed to Teachers

Speaking of Drought ...

NDMC Takes Message Across Nebraska and World

Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, Ilonka Zlatar, Cassidee Shinn

Reports (USI)

National and international organizations and programs like the United States Global Change Research Project and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree, and scientific evidence indicates, that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are resulting in global climate change. Unless actions are taken to reverse and reduce the effects of these emissions, future generations will need to either adapt to or bear the burden of the changed environment. Individuals, companies, institutions, municipalities and countries are being called upon during this urgent world crisis. Universities, which support research and education, have a unique opportunity to become leaders in sustainability.

In October 2007, the …

Heat And Smoke Effects On Red Brome Soil Seed Banks, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Management of exotic plants that are annuals entails understanding and managing their soil seed banks. We completed a study of the influences of heat and liquid smoke on red brome (Bromus rubens) soil seed banks collected from Red Rock Canyon in southern Nevada as part of a collaborative fire effects monitoring effort with Bureau of Land Management - Las Vegas. We collected the samples from the 2005 Loop Fire, where we observed in a monitoring field study that exotic grasses such as red brome were relatively sparse in the first 2-3 years (which were during a dry period) following the …

Effects Of Re-Grown Forest Habitat On Lemur Catta Behavior, Sophie Ackoff

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the effects of re-grown forest habitat on L. catta behavior at Berenty Private Reserve in Southern Madagascar during the early wet season. Evaluation of the reforested area versus natural forest revealed significant differences in species composition and food availability. Though the re-grown forest showed signs of forest regeneration and total greater food availability, the natural forest of Malaza proved to contain more preferred food sources for L. catta. Behavioral observations were collected over eight full-day troop follows and showed significant differences in feeding behavior, activity budget, and intra-troop and inter-troop aggressions. The WELL troop in Ankoba, the …

The Price Of Water: Assessment Of The Current Water Situation And Recommendation Of Technical Methodology For The Community Of Shirati, Tanzania, Max Perel-Slater

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study looked at the current water situation in the community of Shirati Tanzania. It took place from November 7th – 27th 2009. My sample frame was the villages in the Roche District of the Mara Region in northeastern Tanzania. My sample populations consisted of residents of three villages – Mukoma, Nyamagongo, and Shirati-Sota. I applied a four prong approach to my data collection: 1) Eight Key Informant Interviews with three local village leaders and two medical officers of the local hospital and dispensary, two water engineers and one long time resident; 2) Ninety randomly selected surveys, 30 in each …

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Monitoring And Evaluation Of Sensitive Wildlife: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending September 30, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Wildlife Monitoring

Project 1. Relict Leopard Frog Monitoring, Management, and Research

• All milestones and deliverables associated with this MSHCP project are on schedule
• Mark-recapture surveys scheduled for fall have been initiated
• Two potential sites for translocations were visited to assess water availability
• Coordination continues on an upcoming translocation

Project 2. Bald Eagle Winter Monitoring and Evaluation

• All MSHCP milestones and deliverables are on schedule
• An annual project review presentation was given to Clark County

Project 3. Peregrine Falcon Monitoring and Evaluation

• This MSHCP project is on schedule for all milestones and deliverables
• Monitoring of Peregrine falcon 2009 breeding activities has been completed …

Factors Influencing Perennial Pasture Adoption In The Medium Rainfall Zone Of The South West Natural Resource Management Region Of Western Australia, Ned Crossley, Stephen Tunbridge, Kathi Mcdonald

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Esperance Area Acid Sulfate Soil Hazard Mapping, Paul Galloway, Simon Clarendon

Resource management technical reports

This project created a regional scale (1:100 000) acid sulfate soil (ASS) hazard map for the Lake Warden and Esperance town areas, using a combination of existing soil-landscape mapping information and elevation data, supported by field observations and laboratory data from 18 soil cores and 29 additional borelogs with descriptive information useful for identifying ASS and potential ASS materials. All data gathered during this project used common standards and protocols developed in Australia for identifying and mapping ASS materials. The project extends the mapping for acid sulfate soil in the region, complementing existing maps compiled for other parts of the …

The Study Of Variations In The Properties Of Biodiesel On Addition Of Antioxidants, Hiranmayee Kandala

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research studies variations in biodiesel upon addition of different concentrations of antioxidant and petrodiesel additives. Oxidation onset temperature, oxidation induction time, oxidative stability, thermal stability, crystallization onset temperature and moisture retention properties of the biodiesel, with and without antioxidants have been studied. Antioxidants like BHT, BHA, PrG, Vit E and Vit C were added to the biodiesel during the study. These samples were analyzed using the PDSC, TGA, DSC and TGA-SA instrumentation.

The results of this research show an improvement in the OOT, OIT and Oxidative stability of biodiesel with the addition of antioxidants and by blending the biodiesel …

A Survey Of Drought Impacts And Mitigation Planning In Kentucky, Crystal Jane Bergman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Drought is a well-known and costly climate-related natural hazard. Unlike other climate-related natural hazards, droughts are usually long in duration and may cover a large region, the physical boundaries of areas affected by drought are sometimes arbitrary, and the impacts are sometimes difficult to identify. Climate records since 1895 show that drought has occurred periodically in Kentucky. The drought of 2007 was the most recent drought to affect Kentucky and is the primary focus of this research. The purpose of this research is to identify impacts of drought and potential vulnerabilities to various drought impact sectors in Kentucky so that …

Near-Surface Atmospheric Response To Simulated Changes In Land-Cover Vegetation Fraction, And Soil Moisture Over Western Kentucky, Ronnie Leeper

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A series of land-use-land-cover-change (LULCC) based sensitivity experiments, including changes in vegetation type, fractional vegetation (FV), and soil moisture (SM), over Western Kentucky were conducted to investigate atmospheric response to land-use. The choice of land-use for this study was chosen in the context of Western Kentucky’s historical LULCC. For this study, vegetation types considered were grassland, forest, and bare soil with further variations in FV for grassland and forest at 25, 50, 75, and 100 % and systematic increases and decreases in volumetric SM of 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15 m3 m-3. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first assessment …

Assessment Of The Embodied Co2eq In Buildings Towards A Sustainable Building Design And Construction, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu

Conference Papers

Research studies have shown that the initial energy embodied in a building can be as much as 67% of the operational energy over a 25 year period. With growing global concerns over material and resource consumption and the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere, the energy embodied in buildings constructed in town and cities becomes important and one of the key issues that needs to be tackled in the design stages in order to strive towards sustainable buildings design. In this paper, a hybrid embodied carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) methodology used to assess the CO2eq embodied in buildings is presented. …

Wind Power West Michigan - Project Overview, Erik Edward Nordman

Technical Reports

Wind energy has the potential to be an environmentally sensitive alternative to fossil fuels because wind is renewable and can be used to generate electricity without emitting greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Michigan’s coastal zones possess abundant wind resources. However, wind energy development might present challenges for tourism-dependent lakeshore communities. Poorly sited wind farms may interfere with other uses of the coast, such as recreation, commercial fishing, and nature preservation, and not all communities are prepared to manage these conflicts.

Droughtscape- Summer 2009, Kelly Smith

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

U.S. Drought Monitor Forum, 2009

El Niño Could Bring Wet Winter After Hot Summer

Around the World

Agriculture Hit Hard in California, Texas

Predictable Patterns in Missouri River Basin?

Seeking Low-Flow Effects in Colorado, Southeast

VegDRI Began Coast-to-Coast Coverage in May

Lead Detection In Water: Using Hydroxyapatite And Atomic Absorption, Nicolas Cantarero

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Hydroxyapatite is a mineral that is very inexpensive, easily made, and binds well to lead. In this procedure its application will be paired with Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Flame AA) to detect lead concentrations in water to ppb levels. While ppb concentrations of lead are too dilute to produce a response from the Flame AA by using Hydroxyapatite to concentrate lead molecules from a larger volume and dissolving the Hydroxyapatite into a smaller volume it may be able to produce a response. The method could provide an inexpensive, efficient, and accurate way to detect lead concentrations to the ppb level …

Options For Achieving And Maintaining Low Salinity In Agricultural Dams, Tilwin Westrup

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Synthesis Completed Of Post-Fire Recovery Of Native Perennials In The Mojave, Sonoran Deserts, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Literature syntheses to develop status of knowledge reports are important to integrate and summarize the scattered scientific literature on a particular topic. The isolation and fragmentation of scientific literature on a topic is not necessarily a shortcoming of science. Rather, it is simply a consequence of having (1) research published in a diverse array of journals, (2) articles build on each other and therefore articles relevant to a particular topic can be published decades apart, and (3) funding virtually impossible to secure to do these periodic assessments of what we know and don’t know (competitive science grants want researchers to …

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Monitoring And Evaluation Of Sensitive Wildlife: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending June 30, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Wildlife Monitoring

Project 1. Relict Leopard Frog Monitoring, Management, and Research

• All milestones and deliverables associated with the MSHCP project are on schedule
• Translocation field season has been completed
• Spring monitoring surveys have been completed
• Dana Drake, UNLV Research Assistant, has left the project

Project 2. Bald Eagle Winter Monitoring and Evaluation

• All MSHCP milestones and deliverables are on schedule

Project 3. Peregrine Falcon Monitoring and Evaluation

• The MSHCP projects are on schedule for all milestones and deliverables
• Peregrine falcon monitoring of breeding activities are ongoing and are nearing completion
• Method testing of active survey methodology has been completed
• Stacy Crowe was …

Land Conservation And Land Use In New England: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities, Amanda Loomis, Tom Devine, Andrea Small, Brittany Howard, Brett Richardson, Stephanie Dulac

Land Conservation

Sprawling development patterns accelerated across the New England landscape in the last three decades and consumed the region‘s forests, farms, and open spaces at an unprecedented rate. New England‘ers in all six states formed land trusts, supported statewide conservation organizations, and collaborated with state and federal partners to protect some of their most-prized recreation lands, wildlife habitats, and working lands. The current economic recession has slowed development pressures across the region and offers an opportunity to build on recent successes. The time is right to plan a coordinated New England conservation strategy that protects and links the region‘s natural assets. …

South Burlington, Vt: Mixed-Use Comes To O’Dell Parkway, Ryan Neale, Brett Richardson, Richard Barringer

Planning

The proposed redevelopment of an underutilized property along major travel routes in South Burlington presents possibilities for infill development. The City of South Burlington, the developer, neighbors, and a variety of public and nonprofit financial partners work together to create a mixed-use residential/commercial development to meet a variety of housing and community needs. The case study describes the obstacles overcome to make redevelopment possible through zoning and regulatory changes, negotiation with local residents over traffic and other concerns, support from state and local housing advocates, and political leadership; as well as the development’s application of smart growth principles.