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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Biological, Physical And Chemical Response Of The Little Creek Watershed To The 2020 Czu Lighting Complex Fire, Natalie Fontana
The Biological, Physical And Chemical Response Of The Little Creek Watershed To The 2020 Czu Lighting Complex Fire, Natalie Fontana
Master's Theses
This post-fire study was conducted to characterize and observe fire induced changes in physical habitat parameters, water-quality conditions and macroinvertebrate assemblages in the Little Creek watershed, a tributary to Scotts Creek located in Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch in Davenport, California. Pre-fire data was collected by a Cal Poly student, John Hardy, for his 2017 thesis. Post-burn bioassessment surveys for this study were repeated at four of the same study sites used by Hardy to provide comparisons to the California Stream Condition Index via a modified version of the State of California’s Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program protocol. Macroinvertebrates were …
Soil Burn Severity And Environmental Covariate Effects On Soil Health Two Years Postfire In The Sierra Nevada, Julie A. Lewis
Soil Burn Severity And Environmental Covariate Effects On Soil Health Two Years Postfire In The Sierra Nevada, Julie A. Lewis
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
Wildfires have been steadily increasing in both size and severity in recent decades. This global trend is most evident in California, especially the North Coast and Sierra Nevada. Although these trends are rising, there is little known about the effects of these wildfires on forest soils. Soil is the 2nd largest C sink on the planet, and the largest terrestrial bank. Without understanding the implication of rising wildfire severities on these soils, we cannot understand how to help protect this resource in the future. Due to the rapid increase in wildfire size and intensity, there is little known about the …
Effects Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculation And Cover Crop On Soil Carbon Dynamics And Microbial Communities In A Mediterranean Lemon Orchard., Anna Rodriguez-Paiatsyka
Effects Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculation And Cover Crop On Soil Carbon Dynamics And Microbial Communities In A Mediterranean Lemon Orchard., Anna Rodriguez-Paiatsyka
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
Plant-associated fungi such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have the potential to sequester carbon (C), improve soil aggregation, and promote plant health. Due to multiple benefits of AMF to plant and soil health, AMF has gained much attention leading to a rapidly expanding market in mycorrhizal bio-stimulants intended to improve crop yield, root development, and soil health in horticultural crops, including citrus. However, there is limited information on how to inoculate a mature citrus orchard, and how inoculation of a mature orchard with AMF affects C sequestration. In this study, we planted a cover crop inoculated with AMF in a …
Using Remote Sensing To Determine Riparian Resilience In Beaver Dammed Versus Un-Dammed Corridors Following Whiplash Weather, Sophie Charlotte Valérie Aubry
Using Remote Sensing To Determine Riparian Resilience In Beaver Dammed Versus Un-Dammed Corridors Following Whiplash Weather, Sophie Charlotte Valérie Aubry
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
Beaver complexes slow and store water allowing for riparian growth which in turn fosters biodiversity, retains carbon, and enhances resistance to fires and drought. Given the benefits associated with beaver complexes and the potential they have for climate mitigation, California hopes to reintroduce beavers and restore their habitat throughout the state. However, the impact of high peak flow events on beaver complexes and their adjacent riparian corridors is less understood and requires more documentation at various spatial scales. To better understand the potential beavers may have as climate change mitigators it is important to understand beaver complex resiliency following a …
Assessing Environmental Impact Of The Built Environment By Adopting Life Cycle Design: Using Swanton Pacific Ranch As A Case Study, Hope E. Springer
Assessing Environmental Impact Of The Built Environment By Adopting Life Cycle Design: Using Swanton Pacific Ranch As A Case Study, Hope E. Springer
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
To combat the carbon emissions contributed to the atmosphere by the built environment, it is imperative that low-embodied-carbon materials choices be prioritized throughout the building design process. To achieve this, this professional project creates an Excel-based, open source, and user-friendly tool for the construction sector to make design decisions that prioritize the sustainability of structures, as one such tool does not currently exist. The use of OpenLCA software and the EcoInvent34 database are utilized to calculate the environmental impact of 25 different building materials, as well as energy and electricity consumption. Swanton Pacific Ranch (SPR) in Santa Cruz County is …
Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Fire Behavior Impacts Following California Fuel Treatments, Lindsay M. Senechal
Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Fire Behavior Impacts Following California Fuel Treatments, Lindsay M. Senechal
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
Fuel treatments are being increasingly applied across California landscapes as communities struggle to recover from wildfire disasters nationwide. Increased funding for treatments stems from grants under CARB’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and funding requires reports accounting the yielded benefits from these fuel treatments. Using data from real-world local scale fuel treatments, I used the forest simulation model FVSFEE and fire behavior software IFTDSS to quantify GHG emission benefits and fire behavior impacts 70 years after treatment. Results suggest that fuel treatments do not yield significant GHG benefits, and fire behavior impacts (conditional flame length) are minimal but overall show slight …
Environmental Controls On Soil Organic Matter Fractions In Post-Fire Landscapes, Alexis Heuer
Environmental Controls On Soil Organic Matter Fractions In Post-Fire Landscapes, Alexis Heuer
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
In the past few decades, the world’s climate is being altered by anthropogenic forces such as the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to fossil fuel combustion (Paraschiv and Paraschiv, 2020). In California, the impacts of increased CO2 concentrations have created longer fire seasons, warmer temperatures, and increased lightning strikes which allow for wildfires to become more frequent, severe, and larger in scale (Westerling et al., 2006). Wildfires of this magnitude result in acceleration of landscape scale processes such as erosion and aggregation which in turn affects soil organic matter (SOM), the basis of soil health (Gonz´alez-P´erez et al., …
Establishing A Monitoring Framework To Evaluate Impacts Of Grazing Exclusion And Inform Restoration At Santa Rita Ranch, Annie Booth, Annie Booth
Establishing A Monitoring Framework To Evaluate Impacts Of Grazing Exclusion And Inform Restoration At Santa Rita Ranch, Annie Booth, Annie Booth
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
Santa Rita Ranch is a 1,750-acre cattle ranch in Templeton, California, that was privately owned and continuously grazed for the past 70 years. In 2021, The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo (LCSLO) acquired the property, and in the winter of 2022, they built a fence that bisects the ranch, excluding the cattle from 800 acres to preserve the riparian habitat. The LCSLO is currently defining the ecological baseline for the ranch to inform future management decisions. Given that cattle grazing has many environmental tradeoffs, they wanted to establish a long-term monitoring study to understand how relieving the pressures of …
Fire Effects On Soil Organic Matter In The Creek Fire, Gracie E. Doolin
Fire Effects On Soil Organic Matter In The Creek Fire, Gracie E. Doolin
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
Wildfires have increased in frequency and severity over the past few decades due to the increased concertation of CO2 emissions from anthropogenic influence. Soil carbon (C) sequestration has been identified as a climate change mitigation strategy; however, the influx of large-scale wildfires has accelerated landscape processes such as erosion, reducing soil aggradation, and soil C and nitrogen (N) protection. This trend is highlighted by the Creek Fire that occurred in September 2020 and burned 379,895 acres in the Sierra National Forest. This research is designed to close the knowledge gap regarding the impact of burn severity on soil organic matter …
Pumping-Induced Drawdown Of Streams In Proximity To Agricultural Wells, Sara Alina Sternberg
Pumping-Induced Drawdown Of Streams In Proximity To Agricultural Wells, Sara Alina Sternberg
Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects
In the context of unprecedented drought and aquifer overdraft in California, understanding surface water and groundwater connectivity have become increasingly important. While there is a clear understanding of how wells induce drawdown in aquifers (Theis, 1935; Hantush, 1965), secondary effects on local streams have not fully been considered. Current mathematical models targeting aquifer drawdown do not address stream drawdown response in aquifer-stream systems with strong connectivity; instead, they assume the stream to be a constant head boundary. In the drought-stricken and summer-dry climate of California, streams often run dry for months out of the year, which is currently not reflected …