Sustainability Commons^™

Enhanced Detection Of Groundwater Contamination From A Leaking Waste Disposal Site By Microbial Community Profiles, Paula J. Mouser, Donna M. Rizzo, Gregory K. Druschel, Sergio E. Morales, Nancy Hayden, Patrick O'Grady, Lori Stevens

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Groundwater biogeochemistry is adversely impacted when municipal solid waste leachate, rich in nutrients and anthropogenic compounds, percolates into the subsurface from leaking landfills. Detecting leachate contamination using statistical techniques is challenging because well strategies or analytical techniques may be insufficient for detecting low levels of groundwater contamination. We sampled profiles of the microbial community from monitoring wells surrounding a leaking landfill using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Results show in situ monitoring of bacteria, archaea, and the family Geobacteraceae improves characterization of groundwater quality. Bacterial T-RFLP profiles showed shifts correlated to known gradients of …

Conclusions About Niche Expansion In Introduced Impatiens Walleriana Populations Depend On Method Of Analysis, Lisa Mandle, Dan L. Warren, Matthias H. Hoffmann, A. Townsend Peterson, Johanna Schmitt, Eric J. Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Determining the degree to which climate niches are conserved across plant species' native and introduced ranges is valuable to developing successful strategies to limit the introduction and spread of invasive plants, and also has important ecological and evolutionary implications. Here, we test whether climate niches differ between native and introduced populations of Impatiens walleriana, globally one of the most popular horticultural species. We use approaches based on both raw climate data associated with occurrence points and ecological niche models (ENMs) developed with Maxent. We include comparisons of climate niche breadth in both geographic and environmental spaces, taking into account differences …

Interview With Dan Mcfarling, Aorta, 2010 (Audio), Dan Mcfarling

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Dan McFarling by Andrew Scanlan at Union Station, Portland, Oregon on December 1st, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2010, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Recent Legislation To Promote Wind Energy In Nebraska, Ryan Lemke

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Nebraska is currently ranked 4th in the nation for wind energy potential, but ranks low in actual wind power production. The lack of wind energy production could be the result of Nebraska’s unique public power districts that have eminent domain of distribution and retail sales of electricity in the State. Public Power districts are prohibited from receiving benefits of state and federal tax incentives for the development of wind farms, however some Nebraska power districts still pursue wind energy as a renewable source of energy.

Recent legislation changes, including the passing of laws LB629 and LB1048, have provided the State …

Slides: Development Of Shale: Water Resource Concerns And Policy Considerations, Katy Dunlap

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Katy Dunlap, Eastern Water Project Director, Trout Unlimited, Inc., Burdett, NY

24 slides

Slides: Water And Development Of Unconventional Oil And Gas Resources, Judy Jordan

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Judy Jordan, Oil & Gas Liaison, Garfield County, Rifle, CO

21 slides

Slides: Shale Drilling And Completions, William Fleckenstein

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: William Fleckenstein, BP Adjunct Professor in the Petroleum Department and Director of PERFORM Research, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, and Managing Partner of Fleckenstein, Eustes & Associates

20 slides

Slides: U.S. Shale Gas: Resources, Reserves And $$$, John B. Curtis

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: John B. Curtis, Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering and Director of the Potential Gas Agency, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO

17 slides

Slides: The Here And Now Of U.S. Nat Gas, Michelle Michot Foss

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Michelle Michot Foss, Chief Energy Economist, Center for Energy Economics, Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas, Austin, TX

12 slides

Pooling For Horizontal Wells: Can They Teach An Old Dog New Tricks?, Bruce M. Kramer

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

74 pages.

This paper was originally published as:

Bruce M. Kramer, “Pooling for Horizontal Wells: Can They Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?,” 55 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Inst. 8-1, § 8.05 (2009).

Slides: Shale And Air Quality: The View From The Other Side, Jeremy Nichols

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Jeremy Nichols, Climate & Energy Program Director, WildEarth Guardians, Denver, CO

18 slides

Slides: Transforming And Disrupting: Shale Gas And Oil In U.S. Energy Supply, Richard Nehring

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Richard Nehring, Nehring Associates, Colorado Springs, CO

15 slides

Slides: Evolving Policy On Shale Plays, John Martin

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: John Martin, Crowell & Moring, LLP, Washington, DC

17 slides

Agenda: Shale Plays In The Intermountain West: Legal And Policy Issues, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

This one-day symposium to be held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Denver will address the technology, economics, environmental impacts, and regulatory issues associated with shale gas development in the Rocky Mountain region. The purpose of this event is to facilitate productive dialogue among a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties to guide policy decisions.

Agenda: 2010 World Energy Justice Conference: Emerging Solutions For The Energy Poor: Technological, Entrepreneurial And Institutional Challenges, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center For Energy & Environmental Security, Colorado Journal Of International Environmental Law And Policy

2010 World Energy Justice Conference (November 5)

This conference is a sequel to the 2009 World Energy Justice Conference (WEJC 2009) which began examining ways of mainstreaming safe, clean, and efficient energy for the world's Energy Poor (EP). The EP number two and a half billion people living on less than $1-2 a day who have no access to modern energy services. WEJC 2010 more fully develops these themes. WEJC 2010 will explore how the next round of global warming meetings in Cancun could design new flexibility mechanisms that give credits, for example, for the reduction of black carbon by the adoption of cookstoves, and embrace small …

Nutrient Enrichment Enhances Hidden Differences In Phenotype To Drive A Cryptic Plant Invasion, Christine Holdredge, Mark D. Bertness, Eric Von Wettberg, Brian R. Silliman

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Many mechanisms of invasive species success have been elucidated, but those driving cryptic invasions of non-native genotypes remain least understood. In one of the most successful cryptic plant invasions in North America, we investigate the mechanisms underlying the displacement of native Phragmites australis by its Eurasian counterpart. Since invasive Phragmites' populations have been especially prolific along eutrophic shorelines, we conducted a two-year field experiment involving native and invasive genotypes that manipulated nutrient level and competitor identity (inter- and intra-genotypic competition) to assess their relative importance in driving the loss of native Phragmites. Inter-genotypic competition suppressed aboveground biomass of both native …

Culvert Material Cost Comparison, New England Environmental Finance Center

Water

The following tables provide a detailed look at the role that culvert material and culvert diameter play in the overall cost of a culvert replacement project.

A New Approach To Community Flood Education, Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Take Pride In America In Southern Nevada: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering October 5, 2010 – January 4, 2010, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

• The Hector’s Helpers program with the Clark County School District continued curriculum development.
• The team was selected to serve on the litter and recycling work group for Keep Las Vegas Beautiful.
• The team continued to develop the GIS database.
• A total of 12 clean-up events were conducted this quarter.

Take Pride In America In Southern Nevada: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering July 5, 2010 – October 4, 2010, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

• The street team portion of the media campaign was completed.
• The Hector’s Helpers program with the Clark County School District continued curriculum development.
• The team was selected to serve on the litter and recycling work group for Keep Las Vegas Beautiful.
• The team continued to develop the GIS database.
• A total of five clean-up events were conducted this quarter.

Gloucester Marine Station: Future Development Feasibility Study, Jack F. Ahern, Ben Eli Webb

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The study commenced in July 2009 with historical research about the site and its context, site analysis, including the existing conditions and development regulations. This analysis included: topography, soils, vegetation, structures, utilities, easements, property deed, and city, state, and federal regulations. From this analysis an assessment of future development potentials was made based on the existing data/documents from UMass files, public records, Mass GIS data, site visits, and interviews with Gloucester, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and other officials and stakeholders. From the assessment we identified potential future uses, building locations, and feasible alternative layouts of the site. These alternatives were summarily …

Renewable Energy In Rural Amazônia: A Case Study Of Its Advantages And Limitations In Santo Antônio, Amy Plovnick

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Isolated renewable energy projects are a promising alternative to diesel power for providing electricity in rural communities not connected to the conventional electricity transmission grid. However, there have been a limited number of such projects in rural Amazônia, and they often face obstacles that limit their sustainability. The objective of this study is to evaluate the environmental, social and economic impact of isolated renewable energy projects through a case study of a small-scale biomass and solar energy electrification project in the community of Santo Antônio, Pará. It will also evaluate the limitations to implementing and sustaining isolated renewable energy projects …

Unlv Magazine, Tony Allen, Shane Bevell, Donna Mcaleer, Ched Whitney, Cate Weeks

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Guano Exploitation In Madagascar, Christina Buliga

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Agriculture in Madagascar continues to remain largely undeveloped. Out of the eighty percent of Malagasy individuals that live in rural areas an overwhelming sixty five percent practice subsistence agriculture. With respect to the country as a whole this means that out of Madagascar's 58.2 million hectares of available land only 5.2 percent (3 million hectares) are farmed. And out of these 3 million hectares only 67% are cultivated permanently and only 11% are fertilized.

While there are several reasons for why Madagascar’s agriculture has remained largely undeveloped and for why Madagascar continues to rely on imported crops to meet its …

Protecting Degraded Rainforests: Enhancement Of Forest Carbon Stocks Under Redd+, David P. Edwards, Brendan Fisher, Emily Boyd

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

The likely Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) mechanism includes strategies for the enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Recent concerns have been expressed that such enhancement, or restoration, of forest carbon could be counterproductive to biodiversity conservation, because forests are managed as "carbon farms" with the application of intensive silvicultural management that could homogenize diverse degraded rainforests. Restoration increases regeneration rates in degraded forest compared to naturally regenerating forest, and thus could yield significant financial returns for carbon sequestered. Here, we argue that such forest restoration projects are, in fact, likely to provide a number of benefits to biodiversity …

Knowing Your Community: Fostering Biodiversity Awareness In Our Students’ Daily Existence, Tony Cummings Bs, Academic Director

Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium

There are strong arguments suggesting that developing students’ sensitivity to local biodiversity and conservation issues is as important as emphasizing an understanding of global conservation issues happening in faraway lands (Ehrenfeld, 2009). Many students arrive at a Study Abroad destination, with a good understanding of theory, but with little field experience at home. Environmental educators in Study Abroad are able to use the novelty and grandeur of our exotic destinations to systematically teach students the patterns and processes of ecological and human communities at our sites, while inspiring a sense of place in our students. By immersing students in the …

Climate Change And Globalization In The Americas: Case Studies Of Mitigation And Adaptation, Mary Finley-Brook, Melissa Haeffner, Charmaine Heslop-Thomas, Elma Montaña, Leah Sprain

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Robin Leichenko and Karen O‘Brien have proposed ―double exposure‖ as a conceptual framework to demonstrate how processes of globalization and global environmental change (GEC) redefine risk and encourage new, interrelated responses to social and ecological transitions (O‘Brien and Leichenko, 2000; Leichenko and O'Brien, 2008). In particular, the concept encourages researchers and policy makers to consider interplay between global climate change and globalization and how this is expressed unevenly across space. After reviewing the ways double exposure has been used in the literature, we consider four case studies to investigate the utility of the framework for analyzing and understanding climate change …

Take Pride In America In Southern Nevada: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering April 5, 2010 – July 4, 2010, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

• With Board approval, the next phase of the Don’t Trash Nevada marketing campaign began.
• The Hector’s Helpers program with the Clark County School District began curriculum development.
• The team participated in the strategic planning process for Keep Las Vegas Beautiful.
• The team met with the Education Director of Keep America Beautiful to begin the process of developing a statewide program.
• The team continued to develop the GIS database.
• A total of 15 clean-up events were conducted this quarter.

The Suzuki Diaries: Sustainability In Action, Thomas A. Ipri

Library Faculty Publications

Given the number of gloom and doom environmental films flooding the market, the more optimistic approach of The Suzuki Diaries: Sustainability in Action is refreshing. David Suzuki, geneticist, environmentalist, author and broadcaster, takes his daughter, Sarika, around Europe to investigate some of the more proactive approaches various countries have take that lessen their impact on the environment. Suzuki is quick to note that many of these projects were not done to help the environment, per se, but done for practical, economic and quality of life reasons.