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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Macaw Cam: Exploratory Camera Trap Techniques For Monitoring And Conservation Of Scarlet Macaw (Ara Macao) Nests, Derek Schruhl, Tana Beus, Troy D. Abel, Michael J. Medler, Adrian Arce, Kathryn Mork
Macaw Cam: Exploratory Camera Trap Techniques For Monitoring And Conservation Of Scarlet Macaw (Ara Macao) Nests, Derek Schruhl, Tana Beus, Troy D. Abel, Michael J. Medler, Adrian Arce, Kathryn Mork
College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications
In this study, we explored new, low-cost camera trap techniques to monitor Scarlet Macaws in one of their last two self-sustaining habitats in Costa Rica. Camera trap monitors have begun to produce new insights in avian research and we use them not only because Macaws are threatened, but their imagery can be used to enhance the public’s understanding of the connections between science and conservation efforts. We mounted camera units on two trees with nesting Macaws in Costa Rica’s Carara National Park and monitored one nest remotely for seven consecutive months.
Ecotopia's Prism, Troy D. Abel
Ecotopia's Prism, Troy D. Abel
College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications
Since 2003, I’ve taken more than 150 students of environmental studies to explore the landscapes, culture and economy of Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s tourism bureau proudly proclaims “no artificial ingredients” to draw visitors from around the world. Situated at the confluence of two oceans and bridging two continents in the tropical latitudes, this small nation hosts some of the greatest concentration of biodiversity anywhere. Costa Rica is about the size of West Virginia, or 0.03% of the world’s surface, yet it holds an estimated 5 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Species from North and South America mixed on this continental …
Education: Participatory Ecological Monitoring And Environmental Education In 2011, Troy D. Abel
Education: Participatory Ecological Monitoring And Environmental Education In 2011, Troy D. Abel
College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications
In the summer of 2011, faculty from Western Washington University’s (WWU) Huxley College of the Environment implemented a five week field course in Costa Rica exploring Participatory Ecological Monitoring and the pedagogies of Environmental Education. Faculty and students completed observational studies of tree diversity, soil composition, avian bioacoustics, collaborative conservation management, and environmental education. Comparative observations were conducted at biological stations in Carara and Corcovado National Park in collaboration with Park staff. We hypothesized that significant contrasts will occur between Carara’s secondary and Corcovado’s primary forests and their neighboring communities. Our results inform Costa Rican conservation and management strategies as …
Coming Clean And Green: A Geospatial Mapping Tool For Visualizing Industrial Environmental Performance, Jacob Lesser, Troy D. Abel, Mark Stephan
Coming Clean And Green: A Geospatial Mapping Tool For Visualizing Industrial Environmental Performance, Jacob Lesser, Troy D. Abel, Mark Stephan
College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications
The mapping of environmental data is rapidly expanding as advocates and scholars offer various platforms to display and analyze geographic environmental information.This working paper describes an online web map that displays national data from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) ArcGIS Server platform, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI), and methodologies from Kraft, Stephan, and Abel (2011) to spatially display the environmental performance of more than 17,000 manufacturing facilities.
Large And Small: Conserving Single Large And Several Small, Troy D. Abel
Large And Small: Conserving Single Large And Several Small, Troy D. Abel
College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications
Huxley College of the Environment’s field course on rainforest conservation traces some of its roots to a seminal 1967 publication. MacArthur and Wilson’s The Theory of Island Biogeography presented two fundamental principles. Larger islands support more species than smaller ones and remote islands support fewer species than less remote ones. Moreover, they also established how habitat can be insulated by not only distance between islands, but anything that divides a landscape such as mountains and climate. But the conservation implications of biogeography became dichotomized during the seventies and eighties into a debate between preserving a Single Large section of habitat, …