Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Analyzing The Effects Of Climate Impacts In El Salvador And How They Influence Pollution, Ecosystems And Communities, Veronica Norio-Tomasino

Master's Projects and Capstones

Due to projections of rising temperatures and increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the rate at which climate change is impacting nations is devastating. However, developing countries and vulnerable communities are not the primary contributors to climate change, but they are at a greater risk for climate impacts by industrialized nations. As a result of increased human activity, developing nations such as El Salvador are particularly susceptible to climate-related events. Deforestation, water pollution, and human health risks are some activities that have contributed to El Salvador's vulnerability to climate change, drastically affecting rural communities suffering from multidimensional poverty. …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Climate Change Science Communication In An Online Carbon Footprint Assessment, Jack Dimmock

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Climate change literacy and knowledge are influential in enabling people to take climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. Education about climate change usually takes place through two avenues, formal education and informal institutions, such as museums, television shows, and websites. To help residents reduce their household greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the local impacts of climate change, the San Luis Obispo Climate Coalition is using the carbon footprint website Bright Action (https://resilientslo.org). Bright Action calculates household carbon footprints, suggests ways to reduce carbon footprints, and provides educational material about climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study seeks to assess …

Quantifying The Effect Of Disturbance On Native Mojave Desert Shrubs, Tamara J. Wynne

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Disturbance can come in many different forms. In our studies, we looked at the impact of a solar photovoltaic facility on native plants growing inside and outside of the facility, alteration in precipitation (simulated) on four native shrubs and the impact of applying supplemental water as a function of volume and frequency to establish native shrubs such as might occur at restoration sites. Disturbance is becoming a more common phenomenon in many ecosystems throughout the world, increasing the need for studies that quantify the impact at the plant and ecosystem level. Each research project revealed different plant responses, such as …

Identifying New Invasives In The Face Of Climate Change: A Focus On Sleeper Populations, Ayodelé C. O'Uhuru

Masters Theses

Sleeper populations are established populations of a non-native species whose population growth is limited by one or more abiotic or biotic conditions, such as climate change. While the northeastern US is predicted to be a hotspot for future invasions, identifying potential sleeper populations before they become invasive can inform proactive, climate-smart invasive species management. I focused on 169 introduced species that are established in one or more northeastern states. I used the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) framework to systematically identify and review the peer-reviewed literature for these candidate species to quantify their negative ecological and socioeconomic impacts. …

Quantifying Spatial Heterogeneity Of Wild Blueberries And Crop Water Stress Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Technologies, Kallol Barai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The wild blueberry is one of the major crops of Maine, with significant economic value and potential health benefits. Due to global climate change, drought impacts have been increasing significantly in recent years in the northeast region of the USA, causing significant economic losses in the agricultural sectors. It has been predicted to increase further in the future. Changing patterns of the elevated atmospheric temperatures, increased rainfall variabilities, and more frequent drought events have made the wild blueberry industry of Maine vulnerable, suggesting the adoption of novel approaches to mitigate the negative impacts of global climate changes. Also, wild blueberry …

Characterization Of Municipal Water Sources For The Mexico-Lerma-Cutzamala Basin Region, Ian F. Hirons

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The Mexico and Toluca Valleys in central Mexico are part of one of the most heavily populated megalopolises in the western hemisphere where consistent access to safe, affordable, and quality water sources figures to be a decisive challenge in the era of climate change. This professional project report compiles a range of statistics and information about the vital liquid for 29 municipalities located in and around the Mexico City and Toluca areas. This contribution is derived from a broader team research endeavor that seeks to gauge the impacts and adaptive processes to climate change within those regions. By doing so, …

Environmental Communication: Changing The Attitude-Behavioral Gap In Science Communication Utilizing Strategic Messaging, Carrie Helgeson Nelms

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

National Polls in the United States consistently find the public’s beliefs and attitudes about climate change and other environmental issues significantly diverge from those held by the science community. A communication gap between the findings on the causes and effects of environmental issues and the public’s inability to interpret or refuse to accept these findings are possible causes of this divergence. This communication gap constitutes a threat to society because of inaction to environmental problems and points to needed changes in scientific messaging that better informs and motivates behavioral change. The present research employed a strategic message design to affect …

The Effects And Costs Of Changes In River Flooding In New Jersey, Yousef Alagrabawi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this research is to quantify the flood risks of rivers in various locations in New Jersey and how they have changed over time. This is important because the change is likely to continue over time as climate change continues. ArcGIS, HEC-SSP, and online sources such as Trulia (www.trulia.com) were used to understand where flooding is most likely to occur, which streets, and how many homes will be affected and estimate the cost of damages from a potential 100-year flood. I compiled information such as annual peak river discharge from the USGS river gages on the Delaware River …

Connections Between Atmospheric Blocking, General Circulation, And Weather Extremes In A Hierarchy Of Models And Various Climates, Veeshan Narinesingh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The field of geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD) includes the study of both the motion and thermodynamic aspects of the atmosphere. These properties are of particular importance because they directly influence both local and large-scale weather and climate and are associated with various phenomena. One phenomena that is particularly influential is atmospheric blocking. Atmospheric blocks are persistent, quasi-stationary anticyclones (a.k.a. high-pressure systems) that occur in the atmosphere and disrupt the flow. Blocks are known to induce heat extremes and cold spells, as well as steer storms and cause numerous types of hazards. Yet despite the hazards associated with blocks, our current …

Water Woes Worsen: Middle Rio Grande Reservoir Modeling Projects Declining Water Availability Under Climate Change Simulations, Robyn Holmes

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Middle Rio Grande is a vital source of water for over 2M people. Climate change is impacting regional hydrology and is likely to put additional stress on a water supply that is already stretched thin. To gain insight on future water availability, a simple water balance model was used to simulate the Elephant Butte-Caballo reservoir system (Southern New Mexico, USA). The water balance model was run under 97 climate simulations derived from Global Climate Models (GCMs) developed under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 5^th generation Coupled Modeling Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Results suggest that the percentage of …

Gene Silencing Provides Insights Into Bark Beetle Biology And Creates Potential For Broad Scale Forest Protection, Beth R. Kyre

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Dendroctonus bark beetles are among the most economically and ecologically significant forest pests in North America and play a critical role in the overall health of conifer forest ecosystems. Dendroctonus bark beetles influence ecosystem benefits and biodiversity and drive forest succession, and adversely affect timber production, forest management, and recreation. As temperatures surge and climatic fluctuations become more extreme, catastrophic bark beetle outbreaks are increasing in frequency, escalating pressures on highly vulnerable conifer forests already compromised by heat and drought. Eruptive outbreaks of Dendroctonus beetles are largely unhindered by traditional silvicultural management; these practices further disrupt forest ecosystem services, including …

"It's Not About The Polar Bears": Evangelical Christian Arguments For Environmentalism, Teresa D. White

Honors Theses

In recent history, white conservative evangelical Christians have formed an influential voting bloc of the Republican party in United States politics. Historically, conservatives have often denied the reality of human-induced climate change and have opposed climate change action and many environmental regulations. However, a number of conservative evangelical Christians have split from their traditionally conservative political views and have accepted the reality of climate change, becoming strong advocates for climate change action. This paper examines the arguments often presented by such advocates. I argue that evangelical environmental advocates craft specific arguments to convince fellow evangelicals to care for the environment …

Municipal Solutions To Climate Change ; A Case Study Of Stream Daylighting In Suffolk County, New York, Madison Hrysko

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

During the 1950’s and 1960’s Suffolk County, New York experienced rapid urbanization and development. To pave way for infrastructure, hydrological modifications were made to the land including the burial of naturally flowing streams. Daylighting streams is the nature-based process of bringing buried streams back to the surface. In turn, restoring ecosystem services, increasing local resilience to climate change impacts, and expanding biodiversity. Minimal research has been done using GIS technology alongside a set of criteria to select best fit streams for daylighting. This thesis aims to fill that gap by identifying best and second-best fit streams for daylighting in Suffolk …

Species Distribution And Abundance Of Bering Sea Tunicates With Implications For Coastal Food Security, Meghan Bugaj

WWU Graduate School Collection

The use of sessile macroinvertebrates as leading indicators of change in marine ecosystems makes them potentially valuable as a management tool for predicting habitat suitability for more mobile, commercially important fishes. In addition to potential use as an ecosystem indicator in fisheries management, tunicates are used as a food resource by some Alaska Native communities. Variability in abundance and distribution, driven by changing physical conditions in the Bering Sea, could impact food security for these communities. I used fishery-independent NOAA survey data from the Eastern Bering Sea summer surveys from 1987 to 2019 to examine abundance and distribution of several …

Modeling 21st Century Peak Streamflows In The Stillaguamish Watershed Using Dynamically Downscaled General Circulation Model Projections, James Marcell Robinson

WWU Graduate School Collection

Climate change is projected to increase river flooding in the Puget Sound region of Washington State by reducing snowpack and yielding more intense storm events. Pairing meteorological forcings from general circulation models (GCMs) with a physically based hydrologic model is a robust method of assessing watershed response to projected climate. Before GCM forcings can be applied to regional hydrologic models, some form of downscaling or regionalization is required. Dynamical downscaling is a means of incorporating mesoscale atmospheric processes within GCM-informed boundary conditions. Here I apply climate projections, dynamically downscaled using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), to the Stillaguamish …

Evolution Of Drought And Low Temperature Responses In Temperate Pooideae Grasses: Timings, Determinants, And Intersections, Aayudh Das

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Anthropogenically-mediated rises in atmospheric CO2 and global average temperatures is leading to increasingly severe drought and extreme weather events, the latter including unseasonal bouts of low and high temperatures. In order for plant breeders and conservation biologists to predict future responses to global warming, they must understand the ecological and evolutionary processes that shaped plant tolerance to stressful environments in the past. This is particularly true for grasses (Poaceae) that dominate approximately one-third of the Earth's vegetative cover, live in some of the world's harshest terrestrial environments, and are tremendously important, both ecologically and economically. One of the largest subfamily …

Integrating Carbon Pricing Approaches, Amay Shah

CMC Senior Theses

Concerns about global climate change and its effects have been steadily growing around the world in recent years. The Paris Agreement has laid out ambitious targets for countries to cut their emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Carbon pricing mechanisms are an inventive instrument that can help achieve these emissions reductions by placing a price on greenhouse gas emissions, creating incentives for organizations to reduce their emissions. These mechanisms can also help enable the transfers from wealthy nations to developing nations that will be essential for ensuring a …

Changing Snowmelt Conditions In The Western Canadian Arctic, Matthew Y. T. Tsui

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Multidecadal Changes in Spring Snowmelt in the Western Canadian Arctic

This study investigates the changes in key aspects of snowmelt in the western Canadian Arctic. Specifically, we will look at changes in the onset of snowmelt and the duration of snowmelt between 1999 and 2019, and extended air temperature between 1957 and 2019. In addition, we will look at changes in eight meteorological variables during the melt period. It was found that the onset of snowmelt occurred 14 days earlier, while the melt period ends 20 days earlier than 20 years ago. As a result, the duration of melt period …