Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Local Residents' Experience Of The Coal Ash Spill In Kingston, Tennessee: A Phenomenological Study, Amy Lynn Mathis

Doctoral Dissertations

On December 22, 2008, near Kingston, Tennessee, a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) retention pond holding approximately 1.7 million cubic yards of coal fly ash failed, spilling the ash into the nearby Emory River and inundating farms and homes in the Swan Pond community. As a result more than 100 people were permanently displaced from their homes and the clean-up effort is ongoing.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of living near Kingston, Tennessee, in the aftermath of the spill. Using existential phenomenology as the guiding research methodology, I interviewed 9 participants from the area and asked …

Effects Of Prescribed Fire And Habitat On Golden-Winged Warbler (Vermivora Chrysoptera) Abundance And Nest Survival In The Cumberland Mountains Of Tennessee, Katie Lee Percy

Masters Theses

Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) populations in Appalachia have declined precipitously over the past 45 years. The primary objective of my study was to monitor the response of Golden-winged Warblers to prescribed fire treatments on reclaimed coal mines in the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area, Tennessee. Presence-absence surveys were conducted on eight mountain-top study sites and nest searching/monitoring was conducted on two additional sites, 2009-2011. I expanded on previous research of Golden-winged Warbler territory and nest-site selection by determining differences within main effects between used and unused territory plots, as well as used and unused nest-sites. Of my two …

Optimizing Maize Planting Date, Plant Population, And Fertilizer Application Rates For Lesotho Subsistence Farmers, Matthew Ryan Bruns

Masters Theses

Due to perpetually low yields, smallholder farmers throughout Southern Africa plow increasingly large plots of land in an attempt to increase their household food security. However, extensive agriculture further depresses yields because expensive inputs are spread over a larger area, provides little soil cover, and results in high soil erosion rates. To address these challenges, farmers in the Kingdom of Lesotho are beginning to adopt conservation agriculture (CA) systems. Under CA and conventional tillage systems the optimum plant population, planting date, and fertilizer rates are unknown. The effects of field preparation, planting date, weed control strategies, plant populations, and nitrogen …

Public Land In A Changing Climate: Planning For An Uncertain Future, Kathleen Marie Hauser

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the ways in which institutions and actors consider climate change, and how the inclusion of diverse perspectives and challenges in the planning process shapes climate change governance. In particular, I asked how the participants, place-specific contexts, and decision-making processes affect environmental decision-making in Alaska’s National Parks. I discuss the literature on geographical perspectives on climate change, environmental and climate change governance, how uncertainty and risk affect decision-making in the context of climate change, and the history of land use management in the United States. This project incorporates qualitative methods to research the Climate Change Scenario Planning project …

Co2 Injection Into A Deep Saline Aquifer: Porosity Measurements, Numerical Modeling, And Costs Associated With Uncertainty Of Petrophysical Parameters, Michael John Gragg

Masters Theses

Anthropogenic levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂) have increased rapidly over the last several decades and coincide with rising temperatures globally. One possible solution is to capture CO₂ before it is released into the atmosphere by large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants. Once captured, the CO₂ can be condensed and transported to a storage facility. Of the available options for storage of condensed CO₂, geologic sequestration in deep saline aquifers is considered the most viable option.

Porosity measurements were obtained for nearly 100 core samples of the Knox …

Challenges To Sharing Data Among Environmental Scientists And Data Managers In The Southeastern United States, Mary Beth Ross West, Miriam L.E. Steiner Davis

Annual Research Symposium of the College of Communication and Information

Poster Submission

The Increasing Biological Information Sources: Technical Assistance and Support for Delivery and Technology Transfer (IBIS) project was funded by the United States Geological Survey’s National Biological Infrastructure (NBII) to identify relevant data sets in areas of research that served NBII’s stakeholders: environmental decision makers, researchers and scientists including citizen scientists, and teachers and students. The IBIS project also developed biodiversity information tools and services to address the accessibility of USGS provided biodiversity information.

For this report, forty data sets were identified and analyzed by the IBIS researchers; the results of the data set interviews are presented in this …

Sp741-A Wise Up And Power Down: Light Up Your Life - For Less, Martha Keel

Environment (Indoor & Outdoor)

No abstract provided.

Sp741-B Wise Up And Power Down: Light Up Your Life - For Less (24" X 36" Poster), Martha Keel

Environment (Indoor & Outdoor)

No abstract provided.

Sp555 Indoor Air Hazards, Martha W. Keel, Bobbi Clarke

Environment (Indoor & Outdoor)

No abstract provided.

Mussel Survivorship, Growth Rate And Shell Decay Rate In The New River Basin Of Tennessee: An Experimental Approach Using Corbicula Fluminea, Grant Andrew Mincy

Masters Theses

The New River Basin (NRB) of Tennessee is home to a number of rare endemic aquatic communities. One such community of particular importance to the area, experiencing a precipitous population decline due to the fouling and pollution of their freshwater systems, is that of freshwater mussels (Bogan 2006). This study in the NRB involves measuring the mortality rates of live Asian clams (Corbicula fluminea) assemblages and the shell decay rates of their death assemblages. This study also examines the decay rates of the native Villosa iris to gather information on molluscan health and the ability of their shells …

Communicating Sustainable Design Through Visual Dynamics, Phillip Walter Zawarus

Masters Theses

My thesis is the exploration of dynamic methods to eff ectively visualize and communicate sustainable designpractices. Every site consists of temporal conditions (climate, vegetation growth, hydrology, comfort, aesthetics)that require dynamic representation of it’s progressive state. By understanding both the quantitative and qualitivemeasures of a site’s content, designers can begin to create guidelines and adaptive responses to the changingconditions. Th is can be achieved by fi rst understanding the intergrated relationship of those conditions, as oneelement has a direct or indirect impact on another. Th e design, in turn, cannot be a static implimentation butrather an evolutionary application.

Sp740-A Good Agricultural Practices Series: Testing Water For Fruit And Vegetable Production, Susannah Amundson, Grant Mccarty, Faith Critzer, Annette Wszelaki

Commercial Horticulture

No abstract provided.

Sp740-A Good Agricultural Practices Series: Testing Water For Fruit And Vegetable Production, Susannah Amundson, Grant Mccarty, Faith Critzer, Annette Wszelaki

Commercial Horticulture

No abstract provided.

A Novel Approach To Assess Environmental Changes In Marine Ecosystems Via Spectroscopic Analyses Of Microalgae, Rebecca Burke Horton

Doctoral Dissertations

Chemical analyses for environmental monitoring encounter many challenges which are imposed by a multitude of chemically complex and interrelated processes. For such investigations, innovative analytical methodologies must be developed which characterize chemical shifts of key environmental parameters in order to deduce insights into their ecological relevance. This dissertation is driven by an analytical chemistry perspective to develop chemical sensing techniques with the ultimate goal of gaining a deeper understanding of environmental changes and their chemical origins.

In order to overcome limitations inherent to any chemical sensor designed for a specific task, new paths are pursued which are based on the …

Towards Sustainable Development Of Nanomanufacturing, Sasikumar Ramdas Naidu

Doctoral Dissertations

"Sustainability" is a buzz word these days not just among regulatory agencies but even with corporations, as evident by the release of annual sustainability report by a large number of firms. Companies are starting to portray profit making along with corporate environmental responsibility.

Nanotechnology and nanomanufacturing which holds a lot of promise for development in a multitude of fields in science and engineering is the new kid on the block and carries a lot of apprehension due to public concern about their potential unwanted side effects that may result in the case of an untoward incident or lack of oversight. …

Spatial Discrepancies Between Nhdplus And Lidar-Derived Stream Networks, Nicole Marie Samu

Masters Theses

Many organizations demand that current water resource issues necessitate improved stream network mapping for more accurate and reliable watershed analysis and modeling results, which can ultimately enable better management and policy decisions. Stream network data from the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) and derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) are each widely accepted to be of superior quality compared to many other conventional datasets. Each dataset indicates potential to improve a wide range of water resource applications; NHDPlus for its high spatial accuracy and functionality, and LIDAR-derived networks for their high resolutions. NHDPlus is publicly available and widely used; …