Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Migration Monitoring Data To Assess Bird Population Status And Behavior In A Changing Environment, Evan M. Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Across the world, researchers use migration banding stations to document bird migration and study the phenomenon. In this dissertation, I focus on ways of analyzing bird migration banding data and the utility migrating birds as indicators of ecosystem health that make these monitoring efforts more useful to answering ecological questions and managing migratory species. In Chapter 1, we provide background on hierarchical modeling and an overview of our findings. In Chapter 2, we developed and validated new methods to estimate daily changes in migratory population size while controlling for changes in detectability due to environmental conditions. In Chapter 3, this …

Phenology And Effects Of Dams On The Success Of Atlantic Salmon Smolt Migrations In The Penobscot River, Maine, Daniel S. Stich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atlantic salmon Salmo salar populations are diminished throughout their range and high marine mortality is among the drivers of the failure of many stocks to recover. A goal of salmon recovery is to maximize the number of juvenile ‘smolts’ entering the ocean to offset loss therein. Dam removals and changes to hydropower allocation in Maine’s largest river, the Penobscot River, have occurred as part of the Penobscot River Restoration Project (PRRP). These activities, in addition to stocking have the potential to influence the number of smolts reaching the ocean. Telemetry was used to investigate factors influencing initiation of migratory behavior, …

Survey Of Graph Embeddings Into Compact Surfaces, Sophia N. Potoczak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A prominent question of topological graph theory is "what type of surface can a nonplanar graph be embedded into?" This thesis has two main goals. First to provide a necessary background in topology and graph theory to understand the development of an embedding algorithm. The main purpose is developing and proving a direct constructive embedding algorithm that takes as input the graph with a particular order of edges about each vertex. The embedding algorithm will not only determine which compact surface the graph can be embedded into, but also determines the particular embedding of the graph on the surface. The …

Student Application Of The Fundamental Theorem Of Calculus With Graphical Representations In Mathematics And Physics, Rabindra R. Bajracharya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One mathematical concept frequently applied in physics is the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus (FTC). Mathematics education research on student understanding of the FTC indicates student difficulties with the FTC. Similarly, a few studies in physics education have implicitly indicated student difficulties with various facets of the FTC, such as with the definite integral and the area under the curve representation, in physics contexts. There has been no research on how students apply the FTC in graphically-based physics questions.

This study investigated student understanding of the FTC and its application to graphically-based problems. Our interest spans several aspects of the FTC: …

An Inventory Of Student Recollections Of Their Past Misconceptions As A Tool For Improved Classroom Astronomy Instruction, Andrej Favia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My Ph.D. research is about examining the persistence of 215 common misconceptions in astronomy. Each misconception is based on an often commonlyheld incorrect belief by college students taking introductory astronomy. At the University of Maine, the course is taught in alternating semesters by Prof. Neil F. Comins and Prof. David J. Batuski.

In this dissertation, I examine the persistence of common astronomy misconceptions by the administration of a retrospective survey. The survey is a new instrument in that it permits the student to indicate either endorsement or rejection of each misconception at various stages in the student’s life. I analyze …

Dynamics Of Polyelectrolyte Adsorption On Surfaces: Applications In The Detection Of Iron In Water, Madhira N. Gammana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Layer by layer (LbL) self assembly is a simple multilayer thin (nanometer scale) film fabricating technique. The mechanism of film growth remains a topic of much controversy. For example, several models have been proposed to explain the origin of linear and exponential film growth that are attributed to differences in the dynamic processes that occur at the molecular level during film formation. The problem is that there are no methods that directly measure the dynamics of polymer formation during LbL film formation. In this thesis, I describe the essential elements of an ATR-IR spectroscopic method that was developed to enable …

Crowdsourcing Water Quality Data Using The Iphone Camera, Thomas Leeuw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubiquity and advanced computing power of smartphones make them a potential tool for environmental monitoring on a global scale. In an attempt to tap this resource, a water quality application (HydroColor) was developed. Hydro- Color uses the iPhone’s digital color camera as a primitive three-band radiometer. Using three images taken by the user, HydroColor calculates the remote sensing reflectance in the red, green, and blue color channels of the camera. The absolute or relative reflectance between channels can be used to obtain estimates of chlorophyll, turbidity, suspended particle material, and the backscattering coefficient. In the future, HydroColor will be …

Complex-Systems Approach To Simulating The Sea Urchin Ecology, Graham Andrew Morehead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stocks of the native sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) dropped dramatically during the peak of the urchin fishery in the early 1990’s and have not recovered. The current regulatory regime is based on analytic population models and two monolithic zones. Analytic models are insufficiently complex to capture many features that cause demise or survival of an urchin population. Scale, or granularity size, is too coarse. In contrast, a complex-systems-based model is able to capture these features. Presented here is a fine-scale simulation of a sea urchin fishery in the Gulf of Maine which behaves like a complex system, i.e. exhibits patchiness …