Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Energy And Climate Change Issues Around Csudh, Alex E. Perez, Tara B. Jones, Raju Bista, Parveen K. Chhetri

CSU Journal of Sustainability and Climate Change

Climate change is posing significant challenges to California’s energy sector. Extreme weather events (heat and cold) may pressure existing infrastructure. Many studies have indicated that extreme climate events would impact the energy system by affecting peak electricity demand. However, very few studies have been conducted to understand how disadvantaged communities (DACs) will be impacted. Because of unequal access to energy infrastructure (electricity generation and battery storage), DACs are more vulnerable to power outages due to the rising number of significant weather events caused by climate change. To address the issue of how DACs are disproportionately affected by climate change-related energy …

Full Issue, Volume 2

CSU Journal of Sustainability and Climate Change

Full issue of volume 2.

Opportunities And Challenges For Cooperative Extension Becoming A Major Actor In Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation, Dakoeta R. Pinto

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Addressing climate change in the United States is an increasingly complex issue that requires social and technological changes throughout the country, which the Cooperative Extension System (Extension) can influence. Based at land-grant universities, their goals are to bring relevant science and innovation to the people of the United States. For a successful low-carbon transition, there are certain elements of society that must be influenced by innovators like Extension. Extension’s historical roots in agriculture prevail today with most of their programming focusing on this sector. However, there is a movement within Extension to expand their programmatic efforts to address more contemporary …

Hydrologic Implications Of Snow-Vegetation Interactions In A Semiarid Mountain Climate, Maggi Kraft

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge of the complex interaction between snow, vegetation, and streamflow in semiarid mountain climates is necessary for predicting water resources. The effects of warming temperatures on snow distribution will cascade into vegetation water use and streamflow. Due to our reliance on snow water resources, it is necessary to understand how vegetation affects snow distribution, how vegetation uses snow water inputs and the subsequent effects on streamflow in the current and warming climate. The overall objective of this research is to improve our understanding of snow-vegetation interactions in a semiarid climate. In this dissertation, I use field data to evaluate how …

A Programmatic Geographic Information Systems Analysis Of Plant Hardiness Zones, Andrew Bowen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Plant Hardiness Zone Map consists of thirteen geographical zones that describe whether a plant can survive based on average annual minimal temperatures. As climate change progresses, minimum temperatures in all regions are expected to change. This work programmatically evaluates predicted future climate projection data and converts it to United States Department of Agriculture-defined hardiness zones. Through the next 80 years, hardiness zones are projected to move poleward; in effect, colder zones will lose area and warmer zones will gain area globally. Some implications include changes in crop growing degree days, which could alter crop productivity, migration and settlement of …

Potential Of Increased Thermal Tolerance As A Response To Acute Heat Stress In A Disease-Transmitting Mosquito Species, Nicole Ashley Scanlon

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Each year hundreds of millions of people are infected with mosquito-borne illnesses. West Nile Virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne diseases in the United States (McDonald et al., 2021). The first case of West Nile Virus was detected in the United States in 1999 (Sejvar, 2003). Since that time the number of cases has dramatically risen. Mosquitoes are ectotherms which means their body temperature is dependent on the thermal conditions outside of their body. Because of this they are very sensitive to changes in their environment. The Earth’s average temperature has been slowly but steadily rising. This small but …

Getting The Dirt On Phosphorus Pollution In Mountain Lakes: Are Rising Soil Temperatures Contributing To Eutrophication In Mountain Watersheds?, Gordon O. Gianniny

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mountain watersheds provide a critical supply of clean water to millions of people around the world. In recent years, evidence of a concerning trend has emerged in these watersheds: rising phosphorus (P) concentrations. P often acts as the limiting nutrient in mountain lake ecosystems, so increasing P availability in mountain lakes and streams has the potential to drastically increase algal growth in these systems. In extreme cases, increasing mountain lake P concentrations may even cause harmful algal blooms that degrade downstream water quality. While the implications of rising P concentrations in mountain lakes are serious, the cause driving this widespread …

Progress And Typical Case Analysis Of Demonstration Projects Of The Geological Sequestration And Utilization Of Co2, Liu Shiqi, Huang Fansheng, Du Ruibin, Chen Shiheng, Guan Yiting, Liu Yinghai, Wang Tao

Coal Geology & Exploration

The implementation of the geological sequestration and utilization of CO₂ (CGSU) has considerable effects on CO₂ emission reduction and is of great significance for the mitigation of global warming and the execution of the sustainable development strategy in China. Therefore, this study sorted the major methods for CGSU, made statistics of the global demonstration projects of CGSU, and primarily introduced the typical demonstration projects of CGSU in China. Furthermore, this study proposed prospects for the development trend of the CGSU technologies, which primarily include CO₂ enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR), CO₂ enhanced coalbed methane recovery …

Estimating Supraglacial Melt Lake Volume Changes In West Central Greenland Using Multiple Remote Sensing Methods, Wesley Rancher

Student Symposium

The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is losing ice mass as the climate warms. Supraglacial melt lakes (SGLs), which are present in the ablation (melt) zone of the GrIS are found to be responsive - and reinforce - changes in glaciological and climatological dynamics. Developing a spatiotemporal model to monitor lake volume change throughout the melt season (late-April through September) can enhance our understanding of subsequent GrIS changes. Supraglacial melt lakes accumulate in volume and in some cases drain to the ice sheet base during the melting season. In this study we utilize Landsat satellite imagery paired with high resolution digital …

The Coastal Monitor: Vol. 10 No. 1, John Tanacredi Ph.D.

The Coastal Monitor

New Year’s Day has always been, for me, a time to reflect and project into the near future. Nature’s influence on us all certainly tops my listing with several environmental concerns. For example, the frequency and intensity of hurricanes to Long Island. A decade has passed since Superstorm Sandy re-opened the “Old Inlet” on Long Island which now has mostly naturally closed. So, the new year immediately prompts me to assess the previous year’s Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 system, with winds exceeding 150 mph, which had considerable impact in Florida, and then proceeded north resulting in over 2 inches …

Carbon Sequestration Capacities Of Different Land Cover Types And Climate Change, Nicole L. Melnick, Annabel Gorman, Adam F. Warren

Student Publications

Human-caused climate change creates a positive feedback loop that emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of being sequestered in the Earth or its oceans. A major contributor to this feedback loop is deforestation in order to use land for agriculture and livestock. This study aims to investigate differences in carbon sequestration capabilities of forests, pastures, and cropland through soil and tree sampling in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The main hypothesis of this study is that forested land will be the most effective at carbon sequestration. The loss on ignition method (LOI) was used to determine the percent organic material in …

Climate Services: The Business Of Physical Risk, Madison Condon

Faculty Scholarship

A growing number of investors, insurers, financial services providers, and nonprofits rely on information about localized physical climate risks, like floods, hurricanes, and wildfires. The outcomes of these risk projections have significant consequences in the economy, including allocating investment capital, impacting housing prices and demographic shifts, and prioritizing adaptation infrastructure projects. The climate risk information available to individual citizens and municipalities, however, is limited and expensive to access. Further, many providers of climate services use black box models that make overseeing the scientific rigor of their methodologies impossible— a concern given scientific critiques that many may be obfuscating the uncertainty …

Individual-Level Responses To Rapid Climate Change In Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo) And Arctic Terns (Sterna Paradisaea), Kaiulani A. Sund

Student Publications

This study examines fine-scale environmental changes and intraspecific variation in the diet and foraging behavior of two seabirds in the Gulf of Maine, one of the fastest-warming regions of the ocean. This variation on the individual level, or behavioral plasticity, may help long-lived species to persist in rapidly changing environments. As the water warms, seabirds’ preferred prey (hake and herring) follow cooler waters deeper and farther offshore. It is unlikely that all individuals respond to changing food availability in the same way. For common terns (Sterna hirundo) and Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) breeding on Petit Manan …

A Simulation Of The Impacts Of Climate Change On Civil Aircraft Takeoff Performance, Thomas D. Pellegrin

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Climate change affects the near-surface environmental conditions that prevail at airports worldwide. Among these, air density and headwind speed are major determinants of takeoff performance, and their sensitivity to global warming carries potential operational and economic implications for the commercial air transport industry. Previous archival and prospective research observed a weakening in headwind strength and predicted an increase in near-surface temperatures, respectively, resulting in an increase in takeoff distances and weight restrictions. The main purpose of the present study was to update and generalize the extant prospective research using a more representative sample of worldwide airports, a wider range of …

Engaging Students Through Conversational Chatbots And Digital Content: A Climate Action Perspective., Thomas Menkhoff, Benjamin Gan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this case study, we report experiences deploying a conversational chatbot as a pre-class and post-class engagement tool for undergraduate students enrolled in sustainability-related courses aimed at educating them about the severity of climate change and the importance of climate action by offsetting one’s carbon footprint (e.g, by planting trees or mangroves in SEA). The intitiative supports the university’s sustainability efforts in general and our new sustainability major in particular aimed at helping students to achieve sustainability-related learning outcomes with reference to climate change and climate action (SDG 13), one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United …

Pan-Arctic Soil Moisture Control On Tundra Carbon Sequestration And Plant Productivity, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Koen Hufkens, Beniamino Gioli, Barbara Bailey, George Burba, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer D. Watts, Kyle A. Arndt, Mary Farina, John S. Kimball, Martin Heimann, Mathias Göckede, Martijn Pallandt, Torben R. Christensen, Mikhail Mastepanov, Efrén López-Blanco, Albertus J. Dolman, Roisin Commane, Charles E. Miller, Josh Hashemi, Lars Kutzbach, David Holl, Julia Boike, Christian Wille, Torsten Sachs, Aram Kalhori, Elyn R. Humphreys, Oliver Sonnentag, Gesa Meyer, Gabriel H. Gosselin, Philip Marsh, Walter C. Oechel

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Long-term atmospheric CO₂ concentration records have suggested a reduction in the positive effect of warming on high-latitude carbon uptake since the 1990s. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the reduced net carbon sink of northern ecosystems with increased air temperature, including water stress on vegetation and increased respiration over recent decades. However, the lack of consistent long-term carbon flux and in situ soil moisture data has severely limited our ability to identify the mechanisms responsible for the recent reduced carbon sink strength. In this study, we used a record of nearly 100 site-years of eddy covariance …

Increased Floodplain Inundation In The Amazon Since 1980, Ayan Fleischmann, Fabrice Papa, Stephen K. Hamilton, Alice Fassoni-Andrade, Sly Wongchuig, Jhan Carlo Espinoza, Rodrigo Paiva, John Melack, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Rafael M. Almeida

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extensive floodplains throughout the Amazon basin support important ecosystem services and influence global water and carbon cycles. A recent change in the hydroclimatic regime of the region, with increased rainfall in the northern portions of the basin, has produced record-breaking high water levels on the Amazon River mainstem. Yet, the implications for the magnitude and duration of floodplain inundation across the basin remain unknown. Here we leverage state-of-the-art hydrological models, supported by in situ and remote sensing observations, to show that the maximum annual inundation extent along the central Amazon increased by 26% since 1980. We further reveal increased flood …

Water Resources Planning Under Deep Uncertainty For Physically, Socially, And Politically Complex Systems, Sarah St. George Freeman

Doctoral Dissertations

Water supply systems, particularly those of large cities, are complex systems linking supply, regulatory and distribution infrastructure, and points of use. Despite their physical complexities, it is infrequent that full supply, distribution, end use, and feedbacks therein are considered in an integrated manner. These complex systems-of-systems face large uncertainties related to physical aspects such as degradation of infrastructure, changing demand, and climate variability and change. Though great, such physical uncertainties often pale in comparison to the those related to the human systems in place to manage them and yet uncertainty in the decision-making landscape is often grossly simplified in our …

Fossil Fuel Divestment In U.S. Higher Education: Endowment Dependence And Temporal Dynamics, Alexander R. Barron, Rachel C. Venator, Ella V.H. Carlson, Jane K. Andrews, Junwen Ding, David Deswert

Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications

Since 2012, students and others have pushed U.S. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to divest their endowments from fossil fuel producing industries. In the past decade, fossil fuel divestment has become the fastest growing divestment movement in history, with over 140 U.S. HEIs announcing divestment commitments. We conduct a quantitative analysis of the three phases of U.S. 4-year HEI divestment announcements (as well as rejections of divestment) to better understand the dynamics. Announcements began (2012-2017) with a number of schools divesting, followed by a second phase where new divestment announcements slowed. The current phase, which began around 2019, shows a renewed …

Evaluating Knowledge Gaps In Sea-Level Rise Assessments From The United States, Andra J. Garner, Sarah E. Sosa, Fangyi Tan, Christabel Wan Jie Tan, Gregory G. Garner, Benjamin P. Horton

School of Earth & Environment Faculty Scholarship

There have been many scientific advances regarding future sea-level projections, however it is unclear if these have been transferred to assessment reports used by stakeholders. Here, we present a first-of-its-kind comprehensive analysis of regional sea-level rise (SLR) assessments for the United States (U.S.). We identify variations in time horizons over which regions plan for SLR, with 25 projections from the U.S. Northeast and West that extend to 2150 or beyond, but no projections from the U.S. South beyond 2100. The majority of 2100 projections from the U.S. Northeast (77%) and West (83%) include ranges of future SLR, while 88% of …

Identifying Factors To Develop And Validate A Heat Vulnerability Tool For Pakistan – A Review, Salman Muhammad Soomar, Sarmad Muhammad Soomar

Department of Emergency Medicine

Objective: This review will provide better insight into developing and validating a heat vulnerability assessment tool for Pakistan.
Methods: A literature search was done to identify studies onon heat vulnerability assessment published from January 2012 to January 2021 (10 years). Online databases PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of science were used for the literature search.
Results: Heat vulnerability can be evaluated by some specific determinants that have heat-related health events, including social, economic, environmental, housing, and geographical factors.
Conclusion: This tool will identify heat vulnerability risks and mitigate morbidity and mortality.

Appendix 1. Database Of Eicat Impact Assessment Summaries For 169 Potential Sleeper Invasive Plants In The Northeast United States, Ayodelé C. O'Uhuru, Bethany A. Bradley, Toni Lyn Morelli, Justin Salva

Data and Datasets

Environmental Impacts Classification of Alien Taxa (EICAT) assessments for 169 introduced, established plants in the Northeast (states of CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT) that could become invasive with climate change.

Climate Change And Modern Education: Preparing For A Sustainable Future, Poulomi Chakravarty, Sai Gattupalli, Stephen Mcginty

College of Education Student Publication Series

Climate change is a global phenomenon that has attracted widespread attention in recent decades due to its profound impact on the environment and society. Although climate change is a phenomenon occurring since the inception of Earth, anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel consumption due to industrialization, transportation and domestic usage, deforestation and land use changes due to urbanization have accelerated the process. Climate education has become an important part of modern education as it helps raise awareness of the issue and promote behavior of climate consciousness which leads to climate action in a positive direction. The authors highlight the values …

Understanding Urban Heat Islands And Impacts, Darbi Berry, Nicole Fassina, A-Bel Gong

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

Urban heat islands play a large role in aggravating climate impacts on water, electricity, and air pollutants, and affect vulnerable communities disproportionately. This blog calls onto historical redlining and disinvestment and urban development as direct contributors of socioeconomic disparities and includes a case study of one of our region’s most vulnerable communities.

Leading Climate & Environmental Action In The San Diego Region, Tessa Tinkler, Eo Hanabusa, Emily Young, Darbi Berry, Connelly Meschen

Environment

Leading Climate & Environmental Action in the San Diego Region presents the state of environment-focused nonprofits in the San Diego region and their legacies that position them to continue impactful climate action. Findings in this report are synthesized from quarterly public opinion pollings (San Diego Residents Survey), surveys of 30 local environmental nonprofit leaders (Nonprofit Leaders Survey), the latest nonprofit data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and data on foundation grants awarded to local nonprofits (Candid). The environmental nonprofit sector in the San Diego region is relatively small, but it has worked on the frontlines for many years to …

Characterizing The Vegetation And Effects Of Climate Change On Parris Island, A Sea Island Ecosystem, Cody Hart Goodson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Coastal habitats provide many ecosystem services, protecting coastlines from storm surges and erosion, diminishing the effects of eutrophication, sequestering large amounts of carbon, and acting as vital wildlife habitat. Sea-level rise and increased storm surge intensity associated with climate change are increasingly disrupting coastal habitats. These disturbances can shift environmental gradients that drive the zonation of coastal vegetation types, driving habitat conversion. Monitoring coastal habitat conversion can improve our understanding of the dynamic effects of climate change on these landscapes. Therefore, our objectives for chapter 1 were to identify and describe the distributions of vegetation types present on Marine Corps …

Climate Change And The Law Of National Security Adaptation, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

The Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest employer in the world, owns and operates an enormous global real estate portfolio, and emits more Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) than many nations. Entrusted with the national security, the DoD is now threatened by a new enemy—climate change. Climate change imperils national security infrastructure while undermining the military’s capacity to respond to climate-driven disasters at home and abroad. However, legal scholarship has yet to address what I call “the law of national security adaptation” and related questions. For example, how do environmental and climate change laws apply to the U.S. military? What laws …

Climate Security Insights From The Covid-19 Response, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

The climate change crisis and COVID-19 crisis are both complex collective action problems. Neither the coronavirus nor greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions respect political borders. Both impose an opportunity cost that penalizes inaction. They are also increasingly understood as nontraditional, novel security threats. Indeed, COVID-19’s human cost is staggering, with American lives lost vastly exceeding those lost in recent armed conflicts. And climate change is both a threat accelerant and a catalyst for conflict—a characterization reinforced in several climate-security reports. To counter COVID-19, the President embraced martial language, stating that he will employ a “wartime footing” to “defeat the virus.” Perhaps …

Anticipating And Adapting To The Impacts Of Climate Change On Low Elevation Coastal Zone (Lecz) Communities, Lynn Donelson Wright, Thomas Allen, Kiki Caruson, Alain Hénaff, Jaia Syvitski

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

[Scholarcy Abstract] The rates of sea level rise in coastal Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay significantly exceed the global rate and weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation adds to the annual rates.

The original vision was to enhance future resilience of Low-Elevation Coastal Zone communities by advancing understandings and approaches to better anticipate and mitigate hazards to human health, safety and welfare and reduce deleterious impacts to coastal residents and industries. The goal of the thematic Research Topic has been to assemble interdisciplinary papers that contribute to better understanding of the couplings among physical, ecological, socioeconomic, management and policy …

High Winds And Melting Sea Ice Trigger Landward Movement In A Polar Bear Population Of Concern, Annie Kellner, Todd C. Atwood, David C. Douglas, Stewart W. Breck, Colorado State University - Fort Collins

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Some animal species are responding to climate change by altering the timing of events like mating and migration. Such behavioral plasticity can be adaptive, but it is not always. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation have mostly remained on ice year-round, but as the climate warms and summer sea ice declines, a growing proportion of the subpopulation is summering ashore. The triggers of this novel behavior are not well understood. Our study uses a parametric time-to-event model to test whether biological and/or time-varying environmental variables thought to influence polar bear movement and habitat selection …