Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Effect Of Drought On Stomatal Conductance In The Biosphere 2 Rainforest, Justin Gay, Joost Van Haren

STAR Program Research Presentations

Drought is a major climate change concern for the Earth’s rainforests; however little is currently known about how these forests and individual plants will respond to water stress. At the individual level, the ability of plants to regulate their stomatal conductance is an important preservation mechanism that helps to cool leaves, regulate water loss, and uptake carbon dioxide. At the ecosystem level, transpiration in rain forests is a major contributor to the feedback loop that returns moisture to the atmosphere for continued rains. Nearly 60% of atmospheric moisture in the Amazon rain forests has been traced back to origins of …

Evaluation Of Anthropogenic Marine Debris And Sargassum Fluitans And Its Potential Impact On Sea Turtle Hatchlings At Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, Christina Macmillan

STAR Program Research Presentations

Anthropogenic debris, particularly plastic, has become a significant threat for marine species with the increased use of plastics over the years. Marine birds and sea turtles, mostly green, loggerhead and leatherback turtles, are especially vulnerable to mistaking plastic debris for food and ingesting it. There has been a rise in the incidence of turtles having plastic fragments in their GI tracts; even small amounts of plastic may have major long-term health and reproductive effects. On the nesting beaches, both adults and hatchlings may become entangled in debris or have trouble navigating around beach debris during their crawl to the sea. …

Using Bromide Tracer To Measure Uranium Diffusivity In Ground Water Sediments, Francis Michael Tee, Morris E. Jones, Megan K. Dustin, Sharon Bone, John Bargar

STAR Program Research Presentations

More than 129 million liters of groundwater are contaminated with uranium at Old Rifle, Colorado – a former uranium-processing site that operated until 1958. The original Department of Energy (DOE) strategy for remediation, involving natural flushing of U from the groundwater through mixing with surface water, has not proven successful. Thin pockets of silt-, clay-, and organic-rich sediments referred to as naturally reduced zones (NRZs) act both as sinks and sources of U to the aquifer, contribute to plume persistence, and appear to be diffusion limited controlled.

To better understand how the NRZs are diffusion limited controlled, a bromide tracer …

Radiocarbon Isotopic Classification Of Deep Tropical Forest Soils, Brooke Butler, Karis J. Mcfarlane, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Katherine A. Heckman

STAR Program Research Presentations

Tropical forest soils have an important role in global carbon (C) stocks. Small changes in the cycling of C could drastically affect atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and active cycling of carbon in a forest community. Currently, little is understood of how tropical forest soils will respond to the increasing global temperatures. To examine the effects of warming/ drought on losses of older versus younger soil C pools, we implemented radiocarbon (14C) isotopic characterization of various soil plot samples and depths from the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. 14C was measured using Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS) from catalytically condensed carbon …

Temporal Changes To Fire Risk In Disparate Wildland Urban Interface Communities, Nicola C. Leyshon

Master's Theses

Since 1990, thirteen fires over 100,000 acres in size have burned in California seven of which were recorded to be some of the most destructive wildfires of all time (California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection 2013). To aid the development of policy that reduces the destruction caused by wildfires, it is important to evaluate how risk changes through time in communities that are expanding into fire-prone areas. The objective of this study is to discover how the likelihood of structural loss is changing in WUI as newer; more fire resilient structures replace older structures on the edges of the …

Detecting Change In Central California Coast Coho Salmon Habitat In Scotts Creek, California, From 1997–2013, Ashley Brubaker Hillard

Master's Theses

Scotts Creek, in Santa Cruz County, Calif., supports the southernmost extant population of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in North America. In 1997, the California Department of Fish and Game (now Fish and Wildlife) conducted an extensive habitat typing survey of mainstem Scotts Creek, describing all habitat units from the top of the estuary to the limit of anadromy approximately 12 km upstream. I repeated this survey in 2013 to (1) assess changes in the quantity and quality of instream habitat, (2) compare the current condition to goals and standards established in the federal Central California Coast (CCC) Coho …

Using The Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment Model To Forcast Probable Impacts, And Planning Implications, Of A 500-Year Tsunami In Cayucos, California, Andrew Robert Marshall

Master's Theses

This report focuses on using the Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment Model (PTVA) to demonstrate the vulnerability of Cayucos to a 500-year tsunami, and using the results to inform specific planning recommendations. By modeling inundation with GIS and analyzing building attributes via the PTVA model, this study has gone beyond any previous vulnerability assessments of Cayucos. Findings include: delineation of the most vulnerable areas, estimates of numbers of lost civic buildings, commercial buildings and houses, as well as estimates of people displaced from tsunami damaged homes. The report goes on to discuss what mitigation measures are in place and what further …

Digitization Of Disturbance History For Swanton Pacific Ranch From 1989 To 2015, Daniel Mcquillan

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Moor Movement: Automated Docking On Drought-Stricken Reservoirs, Daniel Beck

Landscape Architecture

Moor Movement establishes a mechanized docking system for unpredictable shoreline fluctuations on inland lakes and reservoirs. Due to climate change and warmer global temperatures, the threat of ocean level rise has initiated massive proposals to address the interface between ocean and man-made infrastructure. While this is a monumental problem, ocean level rise is not the only immediate threat. The recently declared emergency drought conditions in California are finally bringing attention to inland lakes and reservoirs. While ocean levels might rise 2-7 feet in 100 years, a lake could drop 100 feet in 5 years. What happens to access roads, marinas, …