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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Modeling Lake Temperature Response To Climate Change In The Alaskan Arctic, Thomas Balkcom Dec 2019

Modeling Lake Temperature Response To Climate Change In The Alaskan Arctic, Thomas Balkcom

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis study focuses on simulating lake temperature and ice duration for four lakes at the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research site, near the Toolik Field Station in Alaska. Model projections were driven by the representative global climate model outputs under different carbon emission scenarios. Results show that my simple lake model can reproduce historical lake temperature and ice duration observations, indicating the reliability of the model for future projections. Model projections show that JuneSeptember lake temperatures would increase by 4.3-5.8 °C from the historical period with most progressive carbon emission scenarios, but by 0.7-2.2 °C in the conservative scenarios. Results …


Assessing & Protecting Dark Night Skies In El Morro National Monument, Leslie Kobinsky Dec 2019

Assessing & Protecting Dark Night Skies In El Morro National Monument, Leslie Kobinsky

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Light pollution is causing the disappearance of dark night skies around the world. In the United States alone, 1/3 of people are unable to see the Milky Way where they live (Ramlagan, 2016). National Park Service sites contain some of the darkest skies in the country. Here at El Morro National Monument, these dark skies are a beautiful and healthy benefit to people in the local community and visitors traveling from afar. El Morro’s current park legislation does not include specific measures of protection for the night sky. This capstone project will create a baseline data set of night sky …


Assessing Beaver Dam Dynamics In The Logan-Little Bear Watershed, Connor Penrod Dec 2019

Assessing Beaver Dam Dynamics In The Logan-Little Bear Watershed, Connor Penrod

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper seeks to address a knowledge gap concerning how flood events impact beaver dams over time. To address this gap, I took four time-snapshots of beaver dams, mapping them across the Utah portion of the Logan-Little Bear watershed, from 2009 to 2016 to bookend a large flood event in 2011. I assessed dam status (intact, breached, or blown out) for each dam mapped to assess the impact of the large spring runoff on the dam status. Assessing dam status over time allowed me to assess the change in condition over time, from before to several years after, while also …


Towards Conjunctive Management Of Surface Water And Groundwater In The Mediterranean, Matthew Lagod Aug 2019

Towards Conjunctive Management Of Surface Water And Groundwater In The Mediterranean, Matthew Lagod

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

One of the fundamental principles of integrated water resources management is the interconnected nature of water in the hydrological cycle, including the interactions between surface water and groundwater. Although scientists have long recognized these interactions, in many cases they are not reflected in natural resources policies and management practices. As a result, the allocation of water resources by public authorities may not be optimal, and may furthermore lead to long-term degradation of water resources and the ecosystems they sustain. In response to this and to growing pressure on water resources from increasing human populations, water experts have developed a body …