Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Knowledge Exchange And Social Capital For Freshwater Ecosystem Assessments, Lauren M. Kuehne, Angela Strecker, Julian Olden

Publications

The 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) provided crucial environmental protections, spurring research and corresponding development of a network of expertise that represents critical human capital in freshwater conservation. We used social network analysis to evaluate collaboration across organizational types and ecosystem focus by examining connections between authors of freshwater assessments published since the CWA. We found that the freshwater assessment network is highly fragmented, with no trend toward centralization. Persistent cohesion around organizational subgroups and minimal bridging ties suggest the network is better positioned for diversification and innovation than for learning and building a strong history of linked expertise. Despite …

Cape Elizabeth Culvert And Habitat Assessment Study, Steve Harding, Jake Aman, Matthew Craig, Robert Malley, Maureen O'Meara

Publications

Executive Summary:

In early 2017, Jake Aman, representing the Wells National Estuary Research Reserve (WNERR), met with the Cape Elizabeth Public Works Director and Town Planner to talk about culverts. Jake shared aerial photos of culverts located in the Spurwink Marsh where scouring of adjacent habitat areas was evident. He inquired if the town was considering any culvert replacements, in which case WNERR and The Nature Conservancy might be able to partner with the town to promote a habitat sensitive replacement. The outcome of the meeting was a jointly sponsored assessment of major town culverts, including those located in the …

Annual Report 2018, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

Publications

CBEP has been collaborating for over 25 years with a multitude of partners working hard to protect Casco Bay. 2018 brought us new and exciting collaborations.

The Casco Bay Nutrient Council, convened by CBEP, met for almost two years and produced a report that laid a path forward for all partners to tackle nutrient pollution.

CBEP worked closely with the EPA to establish the Casco Bay Monitoring Network, made up of over 20 member organizations, aimed at coordinating and upgrading monitoring in the Bay. The Network is currently updating the Casco Bay Monitoring Plan.

CBEP is an active participant in …

Green Building Business Is Booming, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

Shelter is one of life’s basic necessities. However, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, residential and commercial buildings account for nearly 40% of the total carbon dioxide (CO2) released in the United States annually [1]. The percentage is even higher in China, which leads the world in CO2 emissions from buildings. Most of this CO2 comes from burning fossil fuels to provide the energy necessary to cool, heat, and light homes, office buildings, and retail space. CO2 emissions from residential and commercials buildings are forecast to increase more than emissions from any other sector over the next 25 years. …

The Wrecks Of Lake Champlain, Gary C. Kessler

Publications

Despite the dozens of historically significant wrecks in the lake, only nine are open for diving as part of the Lake Champlain Underwater Historic Preserve. For visitors to the area, five of the wrecks are easily accessible from Burlington, with four being in the immediate vicinity of Burlington Bay. This article will focus on these five wrecks.

Resilience As Discourse, Bridie Mcgreavy

Publications

Resilience as a frame is increasingly appearing in grant funding, news stories, academic journals, and organization missions. Across these sites, resilience is positioned as an ability to cope, characterized by bouncing back, regaining control, and reducing vulnerability to change. How did resilience come to be understood in these terms? What are the problems with resilience’s frames and the practices that produce them? How might we become resilient differently? Using a Foucaultian archaeology, I examine sites and practices that produce resilience as discourse. I analyze resilience’s origins in biophysical sciences, systems perspectives that define ways of knowing, visual models that constrain …

Until We Meet Again, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

As long ago as 1896, Svanti Arrenius conducted a scientific analysis of the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmospheric temperatures. Several decades later, GS Callender collected and compiled temperature data from around the world and found there had been an increase in global temperatures. He hypothesized that the rising temperatures were resulting from increasing levels of CO2. These early studies piqued the interest of Gilbert Plass in the mid-20th century who endeavored to determine how CO2 affects temperature. In his effort to determine the possible effects that higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were having on the energy …

Evaluation Of A Waistband For Attaching External Radiotransmitters To Anurans, Luke Alexander Groff, Amber Pitt, Robert Baldwin, Aram J K Calhoun, Cynthia Loftin

Publications

Radiotelemetry provides fine-scale temporal and spatial information about an individual's movements and habitat use; however, its use for monitoring amphibians has been restricted by transmitter mass and lack of suitable attachment techniques. We describe a novel waistband for attaching external radiotransmitters to anurans and evaluate the percentages of resulting abrasions, lacerations, and shed transmitters. We used radiotelemetry to monitor movements and habitat use of wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) in 2006 and 2011–2013 in Maine, USA; American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) in 2012 in North Carolina, USA; and, wood frogs, southern leopard frogs (L. sphenocephalus), and green frogs (L. clamitans) in 2012 …

Direct Atmospheric Evidence For The Irreversible Formation Of Aqueous Secondary Organic Aerosol, Marwa M. El-Sayed, Yingqing Wang, Christopher J. Hennigan

Publications

The reversible nature of aqueous secondary organic aerosol (aqSOA) formation was characterized for the first time through direct atmospheric measurements. Water-soluble organic carbon in the gas and particle phases (WSOCg and WSOCp) was measured simultaneously to quantify aqSOA formation in Baltimore, Maryland. During the nighttime, aqSOA formation was evident as WSOCg increasingly partitioned to the particle phase with increasing relative humidity (RH). To characterize the reversible/irreversible nature of this aqSOA, the WSOCp measurement was alternated through an unperturbed ambient channel and through a “dried” channel maintained at ~40% RH (with 7 s residence time) to mimic the natural drying particles …

The Damaging Effects Of Climate Change Denial, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

It has been said that those who are denying climate change are like the ostrich that sticks her head in the sand, but is this analogy entirely accurate? By hiding from the threat, does the ostrich make the threat go away, mitigate it, or make it greater? Probably, she does not. However, denying the existence of climate change does exacerbate the problem and exponentially so. As the renowned British economist Nicholas Stern reports, the longer world leaders wait to take serious action to curtail climate change, the more it will cost. As the Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Human Health, Mary Snow, Richard Snow

Publications

Climate change is impacting human health. An obvious effect of a warmer environment is more frequent and severe heat waves. During the European heat wave of 2003, there were an estimated 35,000 more deaths than normal in the first two weeks of August. Many of the deaths resulted from cardiovascular complications among the elderly. As heat waves become more commonplace in the future, so will the number of heat strokes and the onset of other cardiovascular problems. Higher summertime temperatures also increase tropospheric ozone concentrations which in turn affects people with asthma and causes lung and heart damage. Increases in …

Mitigating The Effects Of Climate Change With Wind Energy And Gis, Rachael Isphording, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

The climate is changing, and humans are heavily exacerbating these changes. As the effects of climate change are being felt across the planet, scientists and policy makers are uniting to increase mitigation efforts and are researching renewable, clean energy sources to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere during energy production. Of the different renewable energy technologies, wind energy is one of the most researched and implemented. Over the past twenty years, researchers have been applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to their climate change studies. GIS allows the user to spatially view, manipulate, and analyze data …

Coastal And Ocean Economic Summaries Of The Coastal States 2014, Pat Johnston

Publications

The following summaries of the ocean and coastal economies were prepared by the National Ocean Economics Program as a companion the State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies 2014. The U.S. report, its appendices, and these state summary reports are available on the NOEP website at www.OceanEconomics.org/download.

The Grand Thaw: Our Vanishing Cryosphere, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

Records reveal that beginning in the 1950s there has been an accelerated reduction in ice and snow across most mountain glaciers and ice caps. The glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan Mountains are the main source of water for the Ganges and the Indus Rivers. During the summer higher temperatures are causing these glaciers to melt at an increasing rate while during the winter the warmer temperature are yielding a dearth of snowfall, which in turn leads to drought. Along the equator in Africa, glaciers are faced with a similar same situation. In Uganda, 80 percent of the …

Climate Change: The Proof And The Process, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

Since what we call civilization began some 12,000 years ago, the mean temperature of Earth has not varied more than 1°C from the average. The forecast change in temperature of from 1.5 to 4°C (2.7 to 7°F) by 2100 has no equal in the recent history of the planet. Changes in the energy output of the sun, changes in the relative position of the sun and Earth, shifting locations of the continents, mountain building, volcanic eruptions, and changes in atmospheric composition all combine to cause our climate to change. Most of the changes in climate of the past can be …

Biodegradation Of Textile Dye Anthraquinone Vat Blue 4 By Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Rajee Olaganathan, Jamila Patterson

Publications

Uncontaminated and Vat blue 4 contaminated soil were screened for heterotrophic bacterial population and the bacterial density were found to be 19.3 X 104 and 5.5 X 104 CFU/gm respectively. The bacterial genera of dye contaminated soil was dominated by Pseudomonas sp. (32.5 %) followed by Bacillus sp. (27.5 %), Aeromonas sp. (15.0 %), Micrococcus sp. (12.5 %) and Achromobacter sp. (12.5 %). The optimum inoculums load, pH and temperature were found to be 5%, 7 and 35oC respectively. The initial pH of the effluent prepared using Vat Blue 4 was 8.5. The free cells of P. aeruginosa reduced the …

The Savannah River Site: Site Description, Land Use And Management History, David L. White, Karen F. Gaines

Publications

The 78,000-ha Savannah River Site, which is located in the upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina along the Savannah River, was established as a nuclear production facility in 1951 by the Atomic Energy Commission. The site’s physical and vegetative characteristics, land use history, and the impacts of management and operations are described. Aboriginal and early European settlement was primarily along streams, where much of the farming and timber cutting have occurred. Woodland grazing occurred in the uplands and lowlands. Land use intensity increased after the Civil War and peaked in the 1920s. Impacts from production of cotton and corn, naval …