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Physical and Environmental Geography Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Physical and Environmental Geography

Ground Warming Leads To Changes In Carbon Cycling In Northern Fen Peatlands: Implications For Carbon Storage, Ericka James Sep 2020

Ground Warming Leads To Changes In Carbon Cycling In Northern Fen Peatlands: Implications For Carbon Storage, Ericka James

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Northern peatlands store one third of the world’s soil carbon (C), as they remove more C from the atmosphere via photosynthesis than they release to the atmosphere through ecosystem respiration and methane (CH4) production. Climate change threatens this function by stimulating C release from peatland stores as peat temperatures warm and soil moisture is reduced. Ground heating of +4 °C above ambient peat temperatures was initiated in a Sphagnum moss-dominated, nutrient poor fen and a Carex sedge-dominated, intermediate nutrient fen. Over one growing season, Carex fen heated plots had increases in photosynthesis (+23%), ecosystem respiration (+22%), and CH …


Airborne Observations Of Thermal Anisotropy From Urban Residential Neighbourhoods In Salt Lake City, Utah, Samantha J. Claessens Jun 2020

Airborne Observations Of Thermal Anisotropy From Urban Residential Neighbourhoods In Salt Lake City, Utah, Samantha J. Claessens

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Urban surface temperatures are important variables in urban climatological processes. This thesis examines the directional variability of remotely sensed urban surface temperatures (thermal anisotropy or Λ) for three vegetated residential neighbourhoods in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Airborne thermal remote sensing using a thermal imager sampled the directional brightness temperature (DBT) at three times within a day for each site. Results indicate that temporal variability over a 20 – 30-minute flight was not negligible. Average DBT were then extracted from atmospherically corrected images and plotted on polar plots. For low density residential neighbourhoods Λ is increased with increasing tree-canopy coverage …