Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Mapping With The Land: Co-Developing A Cumulative Impact Monitoring And Land Stewardship Framework With Sambaa K’E First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada, Michael S. Mcphee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Across the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, Indigenous populations are striving to achieve effective environmental protection, whilst navigating complex methods, policies, and research relationships within co-management contexts. This thesis seeks to identify how differing cultural systems, environmental change, and fractured partnerships may be unified to align with the needs of the Sambaa K’e First Nation (SKFN), a remote Dehcho Dene community. Indigenous methodologies guided co-development of research questions with SKFN leadership which yielded objectives a) develop a GIS-based method to manage, organize and mobilize cultural and environmental data; b) develop a new stewardship monitoring procedure so that users can apply the …

Spatial Modelling And Wildlife Health Surveillance: A Case Study Of White Nose Syndrome In Ontario, Lauren Yee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Wildlife data is often limited by survey effort, small sample sizes, and spatial biases associated with collection and missing data. These factors can create unique challenges from a surveillance perspective when trying to extract spatial patterns of habitat suitability and disease distributions for conservation and management purposes. This thesis examined data quality from a wildlife health database in the context of spatial analysis of wildlife disease. Spatial analysis of the data to predict habitat suitability of bats and white nose syndrome afflicted bats was examined by using the MaxEnt modelling method. Methods to reduce spatial bias were examined and specific …

Changes In The Forest Composition In The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest Region Of Ontario And The Resultant Outbreaks Of The Spruce Budworm Choristoneura Fumiferana (Clem.), John F. Bowen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The spruce budworm Choristoneura fumiferana Clem. is the foremost forest pest in Canada. The species is endemic to eastern North America. Since the turn of the century the insect has become a major problem in the “Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest Region” of Ontario, an area where prior to recent times the insect did not occur in damaging numbers.

Analysis of the life cycle of the insect reveals that the only limiting factor capable of controlling outbreaks is a lack of food. The required tree species is balsam fir Abies balsama (L.) Mill. The forests of Ontario have been altered …