Environmental Sciences Commons^™

An Assessment Of Fecal Water Contamination In The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Daniel Paul Pendergraph 5024527

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wilderness water sources are often defined as pristine or high quality due to the lack of point source pollution. Non-point source pollution from recreation to water resources can be extensive and is well-studied in protected areas globally. Bacterial contamination, specifically fecal bacteria, poses a significant threat to human health because of the risk for outbreaks of illness and disease. Water sources in designated Wilderness areas are particularly vulnerable to fecal water contamination due to high volume of backpackers and lack of backcountry waste facilities. To estimate the occurrence of fecal water contamination in Wilderness water resources, an exploratory analysis was …

Community-Centered Sustainable Conservation And Ecotourism Planning In The Bossou Forest Reserve, Guinea, West Africa, Destina Samani

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ecotourism management has evolved over the years towards responsible conservation of the natural environment, sustaining the well-being of local people, enriching personal experiences and increasing environmental awareness. The development of a forest reserve is characteristic of the management–visitor–host community interface and the attendant competing interests in the face of new challenges, ideas and theories. In particular, host community participation in the conservation of the forest space tends to breakdown under weak ecotourism management, partly evident by the imbalanced exploitation of ecosystem services resulting in wildlife and society’s inability to cope effectively with the changes (Walker et al., 2016).

The Bossou …

A Multi-Scale Analysis Of Jaguar (Panthera Onca) And Puma (Puma Concolor) Habitat Selection And Conservation In The Narrowest Section Of Panama., Kimberly A. Craighead

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Over the past two centuries, large terrestrial carnivores have suffered extreme population declines and range contractions resulting from the synergistic anthropogenic threats of land-use change and indirect effects of climate change. In Panama, rapid land use conversion coupled with climate change is predicted to negatively impact jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor). This dissertation examined the environmental variables and scales influencing jaguar and puma habitat selection by season (annual, wet, and dry), using multi-scale optimized habitat suitability models and a machine-learning algorithm (Random Forests), in the narrowest section of Panama. The models derived from the data of an intensive …

Alpine Plant Communities Of The White Mountains Of New Hampshire: Aboveground Plant Diversity And Abundance Correlated To Belowground Factors, Timothy Maddalena-Lucey

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Alpine plant communities are fragile complex systems that may be threatened by climate change. Patterns of climate-driven soil warming are shown to have lasting effects on ecosystem nutrient cycles, alpine plant phenology, and belowground soil biotic activity. There are concerns in the alpine mycorrhizal research community as to how belowground fungal biomass will react to climate-driven soil warming. To address these concerns I asked in this study what are the correlations between belowground factors such as collective ectomycorrhizal (EcM) and ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) percent colonization, pH, and soil depth to bedrock and aboveground plant diversity and richness. In 2018, on …

Voices Of Bangladeshi Environmental Youth Leaders: A Narrative Study, Paige Pappianne

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Can environmental youth leaders affect meaningful positive change in the global fight to reign in climate change? While the academic literature contains a vast array of youth leadership materials, there is a gap in the research of the effect environmental youth leadership programs have at the community level, and specifically how these effects can contribute to environmental sustainability of that community, region, or country. This mixed methods qualitative study narrows this gap by employing grounded theory and narrative analysis to determine how five Bangladeshi environmental youth leaders understand their role in influencing their school and communities’ efforts to adapt to …

Call For Abstracts - Resrb 2019, July 8-9, Wrocław, Poland, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.

An Acoustic Monitoring Method For Assessing River Dolphin Presence And Changes In The Context Of Anthropogenic Development, Charles A. Muirhead

Graduate Masters Theses

Populations of river dolphins throughout Asia are in decline as a direct result of intensified anthropogenic activity along river systems. Water development projects, land use change, contamination, and intensified fishing practices are known factors contributing to the probable extinction of the Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) and declining populations of the South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica spp.), Irrawady dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), and finless porpoise (Neophocaena a. asiaeorientalis). Although not yet as extensive, river system development in South America is following a similar path as that of Asia, with impacts on dolphin species likely to follow. Currently, the Amazon river …

A View From Within: Notes And Insight From An Institutional Ethnography Of The National Commission For Natural Protected Areas In Tulum, Mexico, Maxwell J. Martin

Graduate Masters Theses

National parks and protected areas are an integral component of the Mexican government’s long-term natural resource conservation strategy. They comprise over 90 million hectares throughout the country. However, the establishment and upkeep of these protected areas often incites conflict both between and among local actors. From poachers taking protected resources to indigenous peoples exercising their rights, protected areas have become a source of political, economic, and moral contention across the globe. In addition, their effectiveness in either ecological or sustainable development terms has been ambiguous at best.

Tulum, Mexico exemplifies this dilemma. The site of pre-Columbian Mayan architecture, Tulum is …

Methods To Improve The Remediation Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs) In Aerobic And Anaerobic Environments, Brian Wartell

Dissertations

Oil spills occur regularly in terrestrial environments and crude oil can contain many compounds that are highly resistant to degradation. Among these compounds are high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are not only toxic but can also be carcinogenic and/or mutagenic. The first chapter of this dissertation includes an extensive review chapter on the variables affecting the anaerobic degradation of hydrocarbons, with a particular focus on PAHs. Electron acceptors, electron donors, temperature, salinity, pH all play key roles in determining the possibility effective of effective degradation occurring. Thus, by addressing solutions, such as biostimulation, improving environmental variables for …

Accounting For The Environmental Impacts Associated With Residual Products In A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Systems With Multiple Products, Yasuhiro Fukushima, Satoshi Ohara

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

In many production systems, multiple products are interactively produced. Therefore, an innovative technology that leads to changes in parts of such systems may influence both the unit environmental impacts associated with the products, and the productivity of multiple products. To compare alternative technologies on a common basis, we often account for the avoided or supplemented emissions associated with the residual (i.e. surplus and supplemented) products produced from within the considered system boundary. In this study, using an example of an innovative technology envisioned for use in sugar mills, we first demonstrate how comparisons can be made when the systems vary …

The Impact Of The Implementation Of Temporary Import Procedure On Electronic Products: Input--Output Analysis, Dedi Abdul Hadi, Toru Matsumoto

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Currently, imported electronic products enter the Indonesian market using general import procedures, where the importer has to pay the import duty and taxes in full rate. In the absence of proper recycling systems, the electronic products that have reached their end of life and those are no longer used, end up in the landfills. Some researchers found hazardous materials inside the electronic products that could contaminate water, soil and air. Therefore, another strategy is needed to avoid negative effects on the environment. The Temporary import policy is one of the import procedures under Customs administration control, which states that goods …

Waste Reduction Through Integrated Waste Management Modeling At Mustika Residence (Tangerang), Hendro Putra Johannes

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

In Indonesia, there are classic issues about waste that are highlighted due to the country’s critical conditions. Uncontrolled population growth and regional development have led to massive waste production. One popular practice in waste management is located at integrated waste management site (TPST). This practice has been implemented successfully by TPST Mustika Iklhas, a small community operation in Tangerang. Though different from previous operations, its success is achieved by active community participation, far away from government intervention. This study looks at management practices in TPST Mustika Ikhlas. The method used to address real and complex problems is called system dynamics. …

The Welfare Of Elderly People In Rural West Java: Economy, Health And Vernacular Care, Kosuke Mizuno, Ekawati Sri Wahyuni, Taizo Wada, Kozo Matsubayashi

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

The universal health social security program in Indonesia began in 2014, and as of the present day, many people are now covered by it. However, many weaknesses in the system have been pointed out. Significantly, many people do not possess the necessary health cards to take advantage of the program due to the complicated process one must go through in order to obtain them. Even now, 60 million people have not joined the program. Many people do not rely solely on the universal social security program but may be supported primarily or additionally by the vernacular care system, whereby support …

When Lca Applies To Health Service Industry, Rr. Anggun Paramita Djati, Sherafina Reni Cahayanti, Ellyna Chairani, Raldi H. Koestoer, Djoko M. Hartono

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

The health service industry involves activities that provide medical services (hospital), manufacture of medical equipment or drugs, and medical insurance services. Options of research methods to measure the impact of services on environmental aspects are available. One among which is life cycle analysis (LCA), the recently popular practice in Indonesia. This paper attempts to explore whether LCA could be fitted to the health service industry. A literature review would help in procuring related references from various publications accompanied by several research results and related studies. For describing the application of LCA in hospitals, several articles were collected, which were later …

Post-Wildfire Recovery Of An Upland Oak-Pine Forest On The Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky, Usa, Devin E. Black, Zachary W. Poynter, Claudia A. Cotton, Suraj Upadhaya, David D. Taylor, Wendy Leuenberger, Beth A. Blankenship, Mary A. Arthur

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Background: Many forests within the southern Appalachian region, USA, have experienced decades of fire exclusion, contributing to regeneration challenges for species such as oaks (Quercus spp. L.) and pines (Pinus spp. L.), and threatening the maintenance of oak-dominated forests in the future. While the use of prescribed fire as a forest management tool is increasing within this region, there remains a lack of information on the potential role of wildfire. A wildfire within the Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky, USA, provided an opportunity to investigate how wildfire affected forest vegetation response.

Results: We examined the effects of fire …

Effects Of Increasing Temperature And Acidification On The Growth And Competitive Success Of Alexandrium Catenella From The Gulf Of Maine, Drajad Seto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increases in ocean temperature and pCO2 due to climate change are projected to affect the growth and future prevalence of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in nearshore waters, but systematic studies on the effects these climate drivers have on harmful algal species are lacking. In particular, little is known about how future climate scenarios will affect the growth of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella, which produces the toxins responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) that threaten the health and economy of coastal communities in the Gulf of Maine. I examined growth responses of A. catenella and two other naturally co-occurring …

Quantifying Bee Assemblages And Attractiveness Of Flowering Woody Landscape Plants For Urban Pollinator Conservation, Bernadette M. Mach, Daniel A. Potter

Entomology Faculty Publications

Urban and suburban landscapes can be refuges for biodiversity of bees and other pollinators. Public awareness of declining pollinator populations has increased interest in growing plants that provide floral resources for bees. Various publications and websites list “bee-friendly” plants, but such lists are rarely based on empirical data, nor do they emphasize flowering trees and shrubs, which are a major component of urban landscapes. We quantified bee visitation to 72 species of flowering woody landscape plants across 373 urban and suburban sites in Kentucky and southern Ohio, USA, sampling and identifying the bee assemblages associated with 45 of the most …

Simulating Detection-Censored Movement Records For Home Range Analysis Planning, Lyndsie S. Wszola, Victoria L. Simonsen, Lucía Corral, Christopher J. Chizinski, Joseph J. Fontaine

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Home range estimation is an important analytical method in applied spatial ecology, yet best practices for addressing the effects of spatial variation in detection probability on home range estimates remain elusive. We introduce the R package “DiagnoseHR,” simulation tools for assessing how variation in detection probability arising from landscape, animal behavior, and methodological processes affects home range inference. We demonstrate the utility of simulation methods for home range analysis planning by comparing bias arising from three home range estimation methods under multiple detection scenarios. We simulated correlated random walks in three landscapes that varied in detection probability and constructed home …

Estimating The Sediment Flux And Budget For A Data Limited Rift Valley Lake In Ethiopia, Alemu O. Aga, Assefa M. Melesse

Department of Earth and Environment

Information on sediment concentration in rivers is important for the design and management of reservoirs. In this paper, river sediment flux and siltation rate of a rift valley lake basin (Lake Ziway, Ethiopia) was modeled using suspended sediment concentration (SSC) samples from four rivers and lake outlet stations. Both linear and non-linear least squares log–log regression methods were used to develop the model. The best-fit model was tested and evaluated qualitatively by time-series plots, quantitatively by using watershed model evaluation statistics, and validated by calculating the prediction error. Sediment yield (SY) of ungauged rivers were assessed by developing and using …

Stream Dynamics In The Headwaters Of Post-Glacial Watershed Systems, Brett Gerard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation summarizes research examining watershed processes across Northern New England, with an emphasis on the Central and Coastal regions of Maine. The research presented here focuses on the linkages between watershed geomorphic conditions, climate, and surface flow regimes driving stream channel hydraulic conditions and bed dynamics governing channel geometry. The geologic and human history of the landscape provides the context in which earth surface processes are examined within the dominant physiographic settings in Maine to describe vulnerabilities to climate change. Results are summarized to support the development of sustainability solutions for forecasted watershed management problems by natural resource management …