Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Tourism-Related Climate Change Perspectives: Social Media Conversations About Canada’S Rocky Mountain National Parks, Farshid Mirzaalian, Elizabeth Halpenny

TTRA Canada 2021 Conference

This study employed quantitative social media big data analysis in conjunction with qualitative analysis of postings to better comprehend online lay discourse of climatic change issues in a nature-based tourism destination, Jasper National Park, Canada. Such mixed methodological approaches to big data enable tourism researchers to not only study unstructured social media big data for future-proofing purposes but to address some methodological concerns often raised about solely using corpus linguistic or thematic analyzes. This study unearthed divergent themes regarding tourists’ perceptions of climate change upon visiting JNP, with the most significant discourses on climate grief, education and interpretation, pro- environmental …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances And Calcifications Of The Coronary And Aortic Arteries In Adults With Prediabetes: Results From The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, Citlalli Osorio-Yáñez, Marco Sanchez-Guerra, Andres Cardenas, Pi-I D. Lin, Russ Hauser, Diane R. Gold, Ken P. Kleinman, Marie-France Hivert, Abby F. Fleisch, Antonia M. Calafat

Biostatistics and Epidemiology Faculty Publications Series

Background: Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are endocrine disrupting chemicals that have been associated with cardiovascular risk factors including elevated body weight and hypercholesterolemia. Therefore, PFAS may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, no previous study has evaluated associations between PFAS exposure and arterial calcification. Methods and results: This study used data from 666 prediabetic adults enrolled in the Diabetes Prevention Program trial who had six PFAS quantified in plasma at baseline and two years after randomization, as well as measurements of coronary artery calcium (CAC) and ascending (AsAC) and descending (DAC) thoracic aortic calcification 13-14 …

Towards Equity In Energy Efficiency Analyses, John Wamburu, Emma Grazier, David Irwin, Christine Crago, Prashant Shenoy

Publications

The electric grid has begun a profound transition from primarily using carbon-intensive energy to instead using carbon-free renewable energy. In parallel, smart meters and other sensors are now providing us unparalleled visibility into the energy-efficiency of building and grid operations. Researchers are actively using building and grid energy data from these sensors to develop analytics techniques, e.g., using machine learning, that can improve energy-efficiency and facilitate the energy transition. Unfortunately, much of this research ignores the impact of these analytics on equity. That is, while current data analytics techniques may accurately identify energy-inefficiencies, they generally do not contextualize the underlying …

The Earth, William Clement

Sustainability Education Resources

The Earth is a 4-credit introduction to the Geosciences. This course is required for several majors in the College of Natural Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. These majors include Earth Systems, Environmental Science, and Geology. The course also fulfills a 4-credit Physical Science (PS) General Education requirement and may be an elective science course in a number of other majors. Our goal in Geology 101 is to provide a basic knowledge of how the Earth works, the role of the geologist in contemporary society, and the application of geologic knowledge in solving real world problems. These are broad …

Diversity, Globalization, And Sustainability: Introduction To Human Geography, Toby Applegate

Sustainability Education Resources

Diversity, Globalization, and Sustainability is a wide-ranging introduction to the ways people shape the world they live in. We will study the themes and concepts of human geography through the current issues and large questions that guide them. Lectures and reading will focus on the geographic aspects of cultural diversity, population issues, states vs. nations, the global economy, development, urbanization and the human transformation of the earth. We will cover major subdivisions of human geography including cultural geography, population geography, economic geography, social geography, political geography and environmental geography.

Environmental Decision-Making, Ezra Markowitz

Sustainability Education Resources

Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing recognition amongst environmental advocates, resource managers, policymakers and researchers that the underlying cause of most environmental, conservation and sustainability issues is human behavior. As NRC and ENVIRSCI majors, you have received extensive technical training in how natural systems operate yet relatively little training when it comes to influencing or understanding how people make environmental decisions that affect those natural systems. Recognizing the fundamental role that human decision-making plays in shaping the environment reveals a new set of tools and approaches for both understanding the challenges we face and confronting those …

Beyond Green Cars And Goddesses: Gender, The Global Environment, And Sustainability, Kiran Asher

Sustainability Education Resources

Gender, the environment and sustainability are key terms in debates about economic globalization and social justice. While not new, they are reemerging as part of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. This course will introduce students to the perceived and existing links between women, gender, and the global environment as they appear in 21st century discussions about sustainable development. Through readings, lectures and discussions will explore the following questions:  When did the environment and sustainability emerge as key biological and social issues on global agendas?  What are their connections to economic globalization? To colonialism and capitalism?  How did …

Fy 2021 Umass Amherst Waste Management Report, Ezra Small

Campus Data

Each year the Office of Waste Management publishes this report which totals recycling and refuse data for the campus.

Spatially-Resolved Integrated Precipitation-Surface-Groundwater Water Isotope Mapping From Crowd Sourcing: Toward Understanding Water Cycling Across A Post-Glacial Landscape, Allison Cole, David F. Boutt

Geosciences Department Faculty Publication Series

Isotopic analyses of delta O-18 and delta H-2 of water in the context of the hydrologic cycle have allowed hydrologists to better understand the portioning of water between the different water domains. Isoscapes on a large spatial scale have been created to show isotopic variation in waters as a function of elevation, temperature, distance to coast, and water vapor source. We present the spatial and temporal isotopic results of precipitation, surface water, and groundwater of an ongoing study across Massachusetts, USA in order to establish an isotopic baseline for the region. This represents one of the most comprehensive and detailed …

Spatial-Temporal Patterns Of Ambient Fine Particulate Matter (Pm 2.5) And Black Carbon (Bc) Pollution In Accra, Abosede S. Alli, Sierra N. Clark, Allison Hughes, James Nimo, Josephine Bedford-Moses, Solomon Baah, Jiayuan Wang, Jose Vallarino, Ernest Agyemang, Benjamin Barratt

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publication Series

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is rapidly urbanizing, and ambient air pollution has emerged as a major environmental health concern in growing cities. Yet, effective air quality management is hindered by limited data. We deployed robust, low-cost and low-power devices in a large-scale measurement campaign and characterized within-city variations in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC) pollution in Accra, Ghana. Between April 2019 and June 2020, we measured weekly gravimetric (filter-based) and minute-by-minute PM2.5 concentrations at 146 unique locations, comprising of 10 fixed (similar to 1 year) and 136 rotating (7 day) sites covering a range of land-use and source …

Three Years Of High Time-Resolution Air Pollution Monitoring In The Complex Multi-Source Harbor Of New York And New Jersey, Gayle Hagler, Dan Birkett, Ronald C. Henry, Richard E. Peltier

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publication Series

In densely developed port areas with numerous emissions sources, relating measured air quality changes to emissions is challenging given the geographic density of sources without unique pollutant composition signatures. To better understand air quality during increasing emission controls at the Port of New York and New Jersey (Port), an air monitoring station was sited to minimize collinearity of sources along ordinal directions. The study area includes an international airport, interstate highway, port terminals and shipping lanes, and industrial sources, as well as typical urban emissions of a megacity. Because air flow travel time from sources to the monitor were usually …

Addressing Data Integration Challenges To Link Ecological Processes Across Scales, Elise F. Zipkin, Erin R. Zylstra, Alexander D. Wright, Sarah P. Saunders, Andrew O. Finley, Michael C. Dietze, Malcom S. Itter, Morgan W. Tingley

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Data integration is a statistical modeling approach that incorporates multiple data sources within a unified analytical framework. Macrosystems ecology – the study of ecological phenomena at broad scales, including interactions across scales – increasingly employs data integration techniques to expand the spatiotemporal scope of research and inferences, increase the precision of parameter estimates, and account for multiple sources of uncertainty in estimates of multiscale processes. We highlight four common analytical challenges to data integration in macrosystems ecology research: data scale mismatches, unbalanced data, sampling biases, and model development and assessment. We explain each problem, discuss current approaches to address the …

Translational Invasion Ecology: Bridging Research And Practice To Address One Of The Greatest Threats To Biodiversity, Toni Lyn Morelli, Carrie J. Brown-Lima, Jenica M. Allen, Evelyn M. Beaury, Emily J. Fusco, Audrey Barker-Plotkin, Brittany B. Laginhas, Brendan R. Quirion, Bridget Griffin, Blair Mclaughlin, Lara Munro, Nancy Olmstead, Julie Richburg, Bethany A. Bradley

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Effective natural resource management and policy is contingent on information generated by research. Conversely, the applicability of research depends on whether it is responsive to the needs and constraints of resource managers and policy makers. However, many scientific fields including invasion ecology suffer from a disconnect between research and practice. Despite strong socio-political imperatives, evidenced by extensive funding dedicated to addressing invasive species, the pairing of invasion ecology with stakeholder needs to support effective management and policy is lacking. As a potential solution, we propose translational invasion ecology (TIE). As an extension of translational ecology, as a framework to increase …

Contrasting Fishing Effort Reduction And Habitat Connectivity As Management Strategies To Promote Alewife (Alosa Pseudoharengus) Recovery Using An Ecosystem Model, Beatriz Dos Santos Dias, Michael G. Frisk, Adrian Jordaan

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Small pelagics, or forage fish, link lower and higher trophic levels in marine food webs. Recently, attention has been given to the management of forage fish, including anadromous river herring (Alewife Alosa pseudoharengus, blueback herring A. aestivalis) and American shad (A. sapidissima) due to their current depleted status and historically important ecological and economic roles. Little is known about the impact of changes in their biomass on marine food webs and what management practices will promote their recovery. Estimated historical riverine productivity was utilized to evaluate potential ecosystem impacts of the increasing river to ocean connectivity …

Invaders For Sale: The Ongoing Spread Of Invasive Species By The Plant Trade Industry, Evelyn M. Beaury, Madeline Patrick, Bethany A. Bradley

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

The sale of ornamental nonnative plants is a primary pathway of invasive plant introduction into the US. As a result, many nonnative plants have been identified as noxious weeds by federal and state governments, or as problematic invasive plants by agencies and nonprofit organizations. However, it is unclear whether identifying a species as invasive has curtailed its sale as an ornamental. Using the Google search engine and a database of nursery catalogs, we found that 61% of 1285 plant species identified as invasive in the US remain available through the plant trade, including 50% of state-regulated species and 20% of …

Simulation Of Ecohydrological Processes Influencing Water Supplies In The Tuul River Watershed Of Mongolia, Javzansuren Norvanchig, Timothy O. Randhir

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Achieving sufficient water supplies for multiple uses in the watershed is a major public policy issue. Understanding the current ecohydrologic processes is essential to assess potential impacts on hydrologic regimes. The Tuul River (TR) watershed faces a cold, continental climate with water supply variability. This study aims to simulate watershed processes in the TR watershed and subbasins and analyze the influences of those processes on water resources. Watershed hydrologic processes and their impact on the water resources are modeled using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Calibration and validation were conducted using R², PBIAS, RSR, and NSE to …

Parasite Prevalence May Drive The Biotic Impoverishment Of New England (Usa) Bumble Bee Communities, Anne L. Averill, Andrea V. Couto, Jeremy C. Andersen, Joseph S. Elkinton

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Numerous studies have reported a diversity of stressors that may explain continental-scale declines in populations of native pollinators, particularly those in the genus Bombus. However, there has been little focus on the identification of the local-scale dynamics that may structure currently impoverished Bombus communities. For example, the historically diverse coastal-zone communities of New England (USA) now comprise only a few species and are primarily dominated by a single species, B. impatiens. To better understand the local-scale factors that might be influencing this change in community structure, we examined differences in the presence of parasites in different species of …

Diversity-Production Relationships Of Fish Communities In Freshwater Stream Ecosystems, Bonnie J. E. Myers, C. Andrew Dolloff, Jackson R. Webster, Keith H. Nislow, Andrew L. Rypel

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Aim Ecological relationships between species richness and biomass production are increasingly thought to be pervasive across the globe. Yet, diversity-production relationships have not been explored extensively for freshwater fish communities even though fisheries production provides key services to humans. Our aim was to evaluate the diversity-production relationship of fish communities inhabiting freshwater streams across the Appalachian Mountain range and examine how diversity-production relationships varied across streams possessing different thermal signatures. Location Our study area included 25 freshwater stream ecosystems spanning from Vermont to North Carolina in the United States. Twenty sites were located in Maryland south to Tennessee and North …

Small-Area Estimation For The Usda Forest Service, National Woodland Owner Survey: Creating A Fine-Scale Land Cover And Ownership Layer To Support County-Level Population Estimates, Vance Harris, Jesse Caputo, Andrew Finley, Brett J. Butler, Forrest Bowlick, Paul Catanzaro

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Small area estimation is a powerful modeling technique in which ancillary data can be utilized to “borrow” additional information, effectively increasing sample sizes in small spatial, temporal, or categorical domains. Though more commonly applied to biophysical variables within the study of forest inventory analyses, small area estimation can also be implemented in the context of understanding social values, behaviors, and trends among types of forest landowners within small domains. Here, we demonstrate a method for deriving a continuous fine-scale land cover and ownership layer for the state of Delaware, United States, and an application of that ancillary layer to facilitate …

Regulators And Utility Managers Agree About Barriers And Opportunities For Innovation In The Municipal Wastewater Sector, Alida Cantor, Luke Sherman, Anita Milman, Michael Kiparsky

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Despite pressures to improve performance and reduce costs, innovation in the municipal wastewater sector in the United States has been notoriously slow. Previous research has suggested that wastewater utility managers may see regulation as a barrier to developing and deploying new technologies. To better understand how environmental regulation may fuel or hinder innovation in this sector, we conducted a nationwide survey of wastewater utility managers and wastewater regulators in the United States, asking both populations about their perceptions of specific aspects of regulation and innovation. Survey results revealed broad agreement between the two groups that funding and capacity, regulatory relationships, …

Understanding The Combined Impacts Of Weeds And Climate Change On Crops, Montserrat Vilà, Evelyn M. Beaury, Dana M. Blumenthal, Bethany A. Bradley, Regan Early, Brittany B. Laginhas, Alejandro Trillo, Jeffery S. Dukes, Cascade J. B. Sorte, Inés Ibáñez

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Crops worldwide are simultaneously affected by weeds, which reduce yield, and by climate change, which can negatively or positively affect both crop and weed species. While the individual effects of environmental change and of weeds on crop yield have been assessed, the combined effects have not been broadly characterized. To explore the simultaneous impacts of weeds with changes in climate-related environmental conditions on future food production, we conducted a meta-analysis of 171 observations measuring the individual and combined effects of weeds and elevated CO2, drought or warming on 23 crop species. The combined effect of weeds and environmental change tended …

Spatial Connectivity And Drivers Of Shark Habitat Use Within A Large Marine Protected Area In The Caribbean, The Bahamas Shark Sanctuary, Austin J. Gallagher, Oliver N. Shipley, Maurits P. M. Van Zinnicq Bergmann, Jacob W. Brownscombe, Craig P. Dahlgren, Michael G. Frisk, Lucas P. Griffin, Neil Hammerschlag, Sami Kattan, Yannis P. Papastamatiou

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have emerged as potentially important conservation tools for the conservation of biodiversity and mitigation of climate impacts. Among MPAs, a large percentage has been created with the implicit goal of protecting shark populations, including 17 shark sanctuaries which fully protect sharks throughout their jurisdiction. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas represents a long-term MPA for sharks, following the banning of commercial longlining in 1993 and subsequent designation as a shark sanctuary in 2011. Little is known, however, about the longterm behavior and space use of sharks within this protected area, particularly among reef-associated sharks for which the …

Environment And Phenology Shape Local Adaptation In Thermal Performance, Andrew R. Villeneuve, Lisa M. Komoroske, Brian S. Cheng

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Populations within species often exhibit variation in traits that reflect local adaptation and further shape existing adaptive potential for species to respond to climate change. However, our mechanistic understanding of how the environment shapes trait variation remains poor. Here, we used common garden experiments to quantify thermal performance in eight populations of the marine snail Urosalpinx cinerea across thermal gradients on the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts of North America. We then evaluated the relationship between thermal performance and environmental metrics derived from time-series data. Our results reveal a novel pattern of ‘mixed’ trait performance adaptation, where thermal optima were …

A Novel Framework To Predict Relative Habitat Selection In Aquatic Systems: Applying Machine Learning And Resource Selection Functions To Acoustic Telemetry Data From Multiple Shark Species, Lucas P. Griffin, Grace A. Casselberry, Kristen M. Hart, Adrian Jordaan, Sarah L. Becker, Ashleigh J. Novak, Bryan M. Deangelis, Clayton G. Pollock, Ian Lundgren, Zandy Hills-Star

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Resource selection functions (RSFs) have been widely applied to animal tracking data to examine relative habitat selection and to help guide management and conservation strategies. While readily used in terrestrial ecology, RSFs have yet to be extensively used within marine systems. As acoustic telemetry continues to be a pervasive approach within marine environments, incorporation of RSFs can provide new insights to help prioritize habitat protection and restoration to meet conservation goals. To overcome statistical hurdles and achieve high prediction accuracy, machine learning algorithms could be paired with RSFs to predict relative habitat selection for a species within and even outside …

Diminished Warming Tolerance And Plasticity In Low-Latitude Populations Of A Marine Gastropod, Andrew R. Villeneuve, Lisa M. Komoroske, Brian S. Cheng

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Models of species response to climate change often assume that physiological traits are invariant across populations. Neglecting potential intraspecific variation may overlook the possibility that some populations are more resilient or susceptible than others, creating inaccurate predictions of climate impacts. In addition, phenotypic plasticity can contribute to trait variation and may mediate sensitivity to climate. Quantifying such forms of intraspecific variation can improve our understanding of how climate can affect ecologically important species, such as invasive predators. Here, we quantified thermal performance (tolerance, acclimation capacity, developmental traits) across seven populations of the predatory marine snail (Urosalpinx cinerea) from …

Abiotic Stress And Biotic Factors Mediate Range Dynamics On Opposing Edges, Alexej P. K. Sirén, Christopher S. Sutherland, Christopher A. Bernier, Kimberly J. Royar, Jillian R. Kilborn, Catherine B. Callahan, Rachel M. Cliché, Leighlan S. Prout, Toni Lyn Morelli

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Aim

In the face of global change, understanding causes of range limits are one of the most pressing needs in biogeography and ecology. A prevailing hypothesis is that abiotic stress forms cold (upper latitude/altitude) limits, whereas biotic interactions create warm (lower) limits. A new framework – Interactive Range‐Limit Theory (iRLT) – asserts that positive biotic factors such as food availability can ameliorate abiotic stress along cold edges, whereas abiotic stress can have a positive effect and mediate biotic interactions (e.g., competition) along warm limits.

Location

Northeastern United States

Taxon

Carnivora

Methods

We evaluated two hypotheses of iRLT using occupancy and …

Daily Patterns Of River Herring (Alosa Spp.) Spawning Migrations: Environmental Drivers And Variation Among Coastal Streams In Massachusetts, Henry D. Legett, Adrian Jordaan, Allison H. Roy, John J. Sheppard, Marcelo Somos-Valenzuela, Michelle D. Staudinger

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

The timing of life history events in many plants and animals depends on the seasonal fluctuations of specific environmental conditions. Climate change is altering environmental regimes and disrupting natural cycles and patterns across communities. Anadromous fishes that migrate between marine and freshwater habitats to spawn are particularly sensitive to shifting environmental conditions and thus are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. However, for many anadromous fish species the specific environmental mechanisms driving migration and spawning patterns are not well understood. In this study, we investigated the upstream spawning migrations of river herring Alosa spp. in 12 coastal Massachusetts streams. …

Global Plastic Pollution Observation System To Aid Policy, Michael S. Bank, Peter W. Swarzenski, Carlos M. Duarte, Matthias C. Rillig, Albert A. Koelmans, Marc Metian, Stephanie Wright, Jennifer F. Provencher, Monica Sanden, Adrian Jordaan, Martin Wagner, Yong Sik Ok

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental challenges and has received commensurate widespread attention. Although it is a top priority for policymakers and scientists alike, the knowledge required to guide decisions, implement mitigation actions, and assess their outcomes remains inadequate. We argue that an integrated, global monitoring system for plastic pollution is needed to provide comprehensive, harmonized data for environmental, societal, and economic assessments. The initial focus on marine ecosystems has been expanded here to include atmospheric transport and terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. An earth-system-level plastic observation system is proposed as a hub for collecting and assessing …

Plasma Proteomics Of Green Turtles (Chelonia Mydas) Reveals Pathway Shifts And Potential Biomarker Candidates Associated With Health And Disease, David P. Marancik, Justin R. Perrault, Lisa M. Komoroske, Jamie A. Stoll, Kristina N. Kelley, Charles A. Manire

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Evaluating sea turtle health can be challenging due to an incomplete understanding of pathophysiologic responses in these species. Proteome characterization of clinical plasma samples can provide insights into disease progression and prospective biomarker targets. A TMT-10-plex-LC–MS/MS platform was used to characterize the plasma proteome of five, juvenile, green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and compare qualitative and quantitative protein changes during moribund and recovered states. The 10 plasma samples yielded a total of 670 unique proteins. Using ≥1.2-fold change in protein abundance as a benchmark for physiologic upregulation or downregulation, 233 (34.8%) were differentially regulated in at least one turtle …

First Records Of Perdita Bequaerti (Hymenopertera: Andrenidae) From New England, Justin C. Roch, Deicy Carolina Muñoz Agudelo, Lynn S. Adler, Joan Milam

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

We document the first New England records of the bee Perdita bequaerti Viereck. Perdita bequaerti is a specialist on Asteraceae flowers, especially Helianthus, and is native to much of eastern North America, where it is often associated with predominantly sandy habitats. Previous records indicated P. bequaerti reached the northeastern extent of its range in the state of New York, but in August 2019, during a survey of bees on Helianthus, we collected five specimens of P. bequaerti at two sites in western Massachusetts. Both sites were located on small-scale farms with abundant non-native Helianthus, on soils characteristic …