Digital Commons Network^™

Developing A Tourism Opportunity Index Regarding The Prospective Of Overtourism In Nepal, Susan Phuyal

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This research explores Nepal's overtourism scenario based on the capacity of a locality to manage sustainable tourism practices. Environmental degradation, local infrastructure degradation, negative tourist experience and local resident responses regarding visitors are the four main variables used in this study to analyze overtourism. In order to analyze the case study of overtourism, we select the three top touristic cities of Nepal, Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Chitwan based on the number of annual visitors. Nepal's case analysis of overtourism conditions reviews the overall threat of over-tourism and establishes a metric by which tourism can be viewed as potentially detrimental to sustainability. …

The Legacy Of Contamination By Lead Smelters In Missouri, Robert S. Armstrong

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Missouri has a rich history of lead mining. In the smelting process lead particles are emitted, which may be toxic to plants and animals. This study focuses on two primary lead smelters, Herculaneum and Glover, in Missouri. Smelting operations have ceased at these two sites, and unlike Herculaneum, Glover has no reported lead concentrations. Findings from air and sediments of these two sites were compared to background conditions and to each other. Thirty-three samples were collected from Herculaneum and Glover (thirty samples and three replicates) and eleven samples (ten samples and one replicate) for background. For Herculaneum sediment, lead levels …

The Fold Illusion: The Origins And Implications Of Ogives On Silicic Lavas, Graham Dm Andrews, Stuart Kenderes, Alan Whittington, Shelby L. Isom, Sarah Brown, Holly Danielle Pettus, Brenna Cole, Kailee Gokey

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Folds on the surfaces of mafic lavas are among the most readily recognized geological structures and are used as first-order criteria for identifying ancient lavas on Earth and other planetary bodies. However, the presence of surface-folds on the surface of silicic lavas is contested in this study and we challenge the widely accepted interpretation that silicic lava surfaces contain folds using examples from the western United States and Sardinia, Italy. We interpret the ridges and troughs on their upper surfaces, typically referred to as ‘ogives’ or ‘pressure ridges’, as fracture-bound structures rather than folds. We report on the absence of …

The Transition From Stochastic To Deterministic Bacterial Community Assembly During Permafrost Thaw Succession, Stacey J. Doherty, Robyn A. Barbato, A. Stuart Grandy, W. Kelley Thomas, Sylvain Monteux, Ellen Dorrepaal, Margareta Johansson, Jessica G. Ernakovich

Faculty Publications

The Northern high latitudes are warming twice as fast as the global average, and permafrost has become vulnerable to thaw. Changes to the environment during thaw leads to shifts in microbial communities and their associated functions, such as greenhouse gas emissions. Understanding the ecological processes that structure the identity and abundance (i.e., assembly) of pre- and post-thaw communities may improve predictions of the functional outcomes of permafrost thaw. We characterized microbial community assembly during permafrost thaw using in situ observations and a laboratory incubation of soils from the Storflaket Mire in Abisko, Sweden, where permafrost thaw has occurred over the …

Effects Of Fence On Daily Variation Of Co2 Flux From The Soil In Subalpine Meadow Of Xinjiang, Ping'an Jiang

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Under-Ice Phytoplankton Blooms: Shedding Light On The "Invisible" Part Of Arctic Primary Production, Mathieu Ardyna, C. J. Mundy, Nicolas Mayot, Lisa C. Matthes, Laurent Oziel, Christopher Horvat, Eva Leu, Philipp Assmy, Victoria Hill, Patricia A. Matrai, Matthew Gale, Igor A. Melnikov, Kevin R. Arrigo

OES Faculty Publications

The growth of phytoplankton at high latitudes was generally thought to begin in open waters of the marginal ice zone once the highly reflective sea ice retreats in spring, solar elevation increases, and surface waters become stratified by the addition of sea-ice melt water. In fact, virtually all recent large-scale estimates of primary production in the Arctic Ocean (AO) assume that phytoplankton production in the water column under sea ice is negligible. However, over the past two decades, an emerging literature showing significant under-ice phytoplankton production on a pan-Arctic scale has challenged our paradigms of Arctic phytoplankton ecology and phenology. …

Twitter Reveals Human Mobility Dynamics During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Xiao Huang, Zhenlong Li, Yuqin Jiang, Xiaoming Li, Dwayne Porter

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The current COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns worldwide, leading to serious health, economic, and social challenges. The rapid spread of the virus at a global scale highlights the need for a more harmonized, less privacy-concerning, easily accessible approach to monitoring the human mobility that has proven to be associated with viral transmission. In this study, we analyzed over 580 million tweets worldwide to see how global collaborative efforts in reducing human mobility are reflected from the user-generated information at the global, country, and U.S. state scale. Considering the multifaceted nature of mobility, we propose two types of distance: the single-day distance …

Correlation Analysis Of Precipitation And River Flow With The Injection And Discharge Of The Three Gorges Dam And Reservoir, Lirong Yin

LSU Master's Theses

The Yangtze River has been the primary support of the resources and transportation of China. Its basin covers an area of 1.8 million square kilometers. The Three Gorges Dam and Reservoir on the Yangtze River is one of the world's largest dams. After the dam construction in 1997, the reservoir started injecting the reservoir to a size of over 600 km². The influence caused by the dam and reservoir on the river system has been overwhelming and destructive. The possible influence of this vast water body and the operation to maintain this waterbody's size and water level on …

Grassland And Water Resources: Recent Trends And Future Challenges In Temperate Zones, Benoît Marc

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Land-Use Change On The Menominee River In Jo Daviess County, Illinois, Preston J. Konop

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses land-use changes in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, and their effects on the Menominee River. The Menominee River flows north to south through Jo Daviess County, and southern Grant County, Wisconsin. Many of the surrounding properties are agricultural and have undergone developmental and land-use changes that may affect the flood flashiness of the Menominee River. The concern with increasing flood flashiness of the Menominee River include more frequent flooding events, undercutting of riverbanks, and increased amounts of sediment transport from upstream locations into the Mississippi River. Increases in impermeable surfaces have led to greater amounts of runoff during …

Using Geospatial Data To Predict The Locations Of Groundwater Discharge To Salmon-Bearing Streams, Alaska, Mary Gerlach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Identification and protection of groundwater resources are considerations of increasing interest as climate shifts but can be challenging to accomplish in remote areas. To that end, a series of GIS techniques and weight of evidence approach were applied to determine the feasibility of remotely identifying likely areas of ground discharge. Through the confluence of topographic analyses and a novel geologic dataset, these techniques were found to consistently identify areas characterized by either shallow subsurface or aquifer-fed groundwater discharge or evidence of ephemeral surficial water features. Two distinct GIS techniques to build spatial proxies of the effects of topography and geology …

Spatial Fingerprint Of Younger Dryas Cooling And Warming In Eastern North America, David Fastovich, James M. Russell, Stephen T. Jackson, Teresa R. Krause, Shaun A. Marcott, John W. Williams

Faculty Authored Articles

The Younger Dryas (YD, 12.9–11.7 ka) is the most recent, near‐global interval of abrupt climate change with rates similar to modern global warming. Understanding the causes and biodiversity effects of YD climate changes requires determining the spatial fingerprints of past temperature changes. Here we build pollen‐based and branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether‐based temperature reconstructions in eastern North America (ENA) to better understand deglacial temperature evolution. YD cooling was pronounced in the northeastern United States and muted in the north central United States. Florida sites warmed during the YD, while other southeastern sites maintained a relatively stable climate. This fingerprint is …

The Use Of Green Pond Conglomerate As Building Stone In Morris County, New Jersey, Gregory A. Pope

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Green Pond Conglomerate (GPC) is a maroon colored quartzite with white quartz pebbles, a classic “puddingstone”. GPC derives from a NW-SW-trending sliver of Paleozoic sediments, the “Green Pond Outlier”, surrounded by older metamorphic and igneous rocks of Morris and Passaic Counties. Buildings, retaining walls, field fences, and monuments incorporate the durable and attractive stone, in a distinct geographic area of Morris County. Several instances of structures completely constructed or faced with GPC occur in and around Morristown, limited to affluent houses and one prominent church. In these cases, GPC stones were dressed and faced, a labor-intensive effort. Elsewhere in the …

Using Gis And Geostatistics To Study Spatial Variation Of Soil Test Phosphorus In Grassland, Weijun Fu, H. Tunney, C. Zhang

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Cosore: A Community Database For Continuous Soil Respiration And Other Soil-Atmosphere Greenhouse Gas Flux Data, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Danielle S. Christianson, Avni Malhotra, Stephanie C. Pennington, Debjani Sihi, Amir Aghakouchak, Hassan Anjileli, M. Altaf Arain, Juan J. Armesto, Samaneh Ashraf, Mioko Ataka, Dennis Baldocchi, Thomas Andrew Black, Nina Buchmann, Mariah S. Carbone, Shih-Chieh Chang, Patrick Crill, Peter S. Curtis, Eric A. Davidson, Ankur R. Desai, John E. Drake, Tarek S. El-Madany, Michael Gavazzi, Carolyn-Monika Görres, Christopher M. Gough, Michael Goulden, Jillian Gregg, Omar Gutiérrez Del Arroyo, Jin-Sheng He, Takashi Hirano, Anya Hopple, Holly Hughes, Järvi Järveoja, Rachhpal Jassal, Jinshi Jian, Haiming Kan, Jason Kaye, Yuji Kominami, Naishen Liang, David Lipson, Catriona A. Macdonald, Kadmiel Maseyk, Kayla Mathes, Marguerite Mauritz, Melanie A. Mayes, Steve Mcnulty, Guofang Miao, Mirco Migliavacca, Scott Miller, Chelcy F. Miniat, Jennifer G. Nietz, Mats B. Nilsson, Asko Noormets, Hamidreza Norouzi, Christine S. O'Connell, Bruce Osborne, Cecilio Oyonarte, Zhuo Pang, Matthias Peichl, Elise Pendall, Jorge F. Perez-Quezada, Claire L. Phillips, Richard P. Phillips, James W. Raich, Alexandre A. Renchon, Nadine K. Ruehr, Enrique P. Sánchez-Cañete, Matthew Saunders, Kathleen E. Savage, Marion Schrumpf, Russell L. Scott, Ulli Seibt, Whendee L. Silver, Wu Sun, Daphne Szutu, Kentaro Takagi, Masahiro Takagi, Munemasa Teramoto, Mark G. Tjoelker, Susan Trumbore, Masahito Ueyama, Rodrigo Vargas, Ruth K. Varner, Joseph Verfaillie, Christoph Vogel, Jinsong Wang, Greg Winston, Tana E. Wood, Juying Wu, Thomas Wutzler, Jiye Zeng, Tianshan Zha, Quan Zhang, Junliang Zou

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Globally, soils store two to three times as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere, and it is critical to understand how soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and uptake will respond to ongoing climate change. In particular, the soil-to-atmosphere CO₂ flux, commonly though imprecisely termed soil respiration (R_S), is one of the largest carbon fluxes in the Earth system. An increasing number of high-frequency R_S measurements (typically, from an automated system with hourly sampling) have been made over the last two decades; an increasing number of methane measurements are being made with such systems …

Tributes To Rick Edwards Upon His Retirement, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Michael Farrell, Michael David Forsberg, Maurice Godfrey, John J. Janovy Jr., Katie Nieland, Linda Pratt, Rebecca S Wingo, David J. Wishart, George E. Wolf, Peter Longo, John R. Wunder

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

I understand that you will be retiring from UNL in August. I wanted to express my sadness that you will be leaving the Center for Great Plains Studies, but am glad that you will now be able to perhaps enjoy life even more without having to do the administrative tasks that go with being the director of any organization. (RFD)

Application Of Excitation-Emission Matrices To Fluorescent Dye Tracing Of Groundwater Flow, Cayla M. Baughn

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Fluorescent dye tracing of groundwater is a technique employed particularly in carbonate rock karst regions to examine karst hydrology by mapping underground flow paths. It is important to understand the hydrology of karst environments because solutionally-enlarged conduits may allow the rapid influx of contaminants into the groundwater system. Fluorescent dye tracing involves the injection of a fluorescent dye into an appropriate injection site (sinking streams, sinkholes, or even through soil flushed with water) and is followed by sampling at sites where the dye may be recovered (typically springs). Various methods exist by which sampling may occur, but all methods ultimately …

Within‐Stand Boundary Effects On Snow Water Equivalent Distribution In Forested Areas, H.P. Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forested areas exhibit high spatial variability in the distribution of snow water equivalent (SWE). Previous work has focused on forested areas with respect to snow accumulation in adjacent clearings. There is generally less snow in forested areas with greater variability relative to open areas due to the influence of tree canopies. However, the length scale of the transition from open areas to forested conditions is uncertain. Hence, the goal of this paper is to determine the length scales associated with forest boundary effects on SWE accumulation distribution patterns within forest stands. To accomplish this, we utilize a unique ground‐penetrating radar …

Droughtscape, Fall 2020, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Fall 2020

A Preliminary Exploration Of The Cooling Effect Of Tree Shade In Urban Landscapes, Qiuyan Yu, Wenjie Ji, Ruiliang Pu, Shawn Landry, Michael Acheampong, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Zhibin Ren, Shakhawat H. Tanim

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Mitigating urban heat island (UHI) effects, especially under climate change, is necessary for the promotion of urban sustainability. Shade is one of the most important functions provided by urban trees for mitigating UHI. However, the cooling effect of tree shade has not been adequately investigated. In this study, we used a simple and straightforward method to quantify the spatial and temporal variation of tree shade and examined its effect on land surface temperature (LST). We used the hillshade function in a geographic information system to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of tree shade by integrating sun location and tree height. Relationships …

Teaching With Digital 3d Models Of Minerals And Rocks, Graham Dm Andrews, Gabrielle Labishak, Sarah Brown, Shelby L. Isom, Holly Danielle Pettus, Trevor Byers

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The disruption to geoscience curricula due to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the difficulty of making mineral and rock samples accessible to students online rather than through traditional lab classes. In spring 2020, our community had to adapt rapidly to remote instruction; this transition amplified existing disparities in access to geoscience education but can be a catalyst to increase accessibility and flexibility in instruction permanently. Fortunately, a rich collection of 3D mineral and rock samples is being generated by a community of digital modelers (e.g., Perkins et al., 2019).

Rainfall Interception And Redistribution By A Common North American Understory And Pasture Forb, Eupatorium Capillifolium (Lam. Dogfennel), D. Alex Gordon, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Brent A. Sellers, S. M. Moein Sadeghi, John T. Van Stan Ii

Earth, Environment & Sustainability: Faculty Publications

In vegetated landscapes, rain must pass through plant canopies and litter to enter soils. As a result, some rainwater is returned to the atmosphere (i.e., interception, I) and the remainder is partitioned into a canopy (and gap) drip flux (i.e., throughfall) or drained down the stem (i.e., stemflow). Current theoretical and numerical modeling frameworks for this process are almost exclusively based on data from woody overstory plants. However, herbaceous plants often populate the understory and are the primary cover for important ecosystems (e.g., grasslands and croplands). This study investigates how overstory throughfall (P_T,o) is partitioned into …

Faunal Remains From Archaeology Sites In Southwestern New Mexico, Karen Gust Schollmeyer, S. O. Macdonald

Occasional Papers

This study attempts to create a comprehensive catalog of all known records of faunal remains recovered from 105 archaeological sites located across southwestern New Mexico. These sites range in age from 2000BC to AD 1450. Approximately 250 taxa of mollusks, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are represented in this compilation. Primary reference materials from published and unpublished sources are included, along with the repositories where relevant collections may be found for potential reexamination by researchers from a variety of fields of interest.

Integrated Borehole, Radar, And Seismic Velocity Analysis Reveals Dynamic Spatial Variations Within A Firn Aquifer In Southeast Greenland, S. F. Killingbeck, N. C. Schmerr, L. N. Montgomery, A. D. Booth, P. W. Livermore, J. Guandique, O. L. Miller, S. Burdick, R. R. Forster, L. S. Koenig, A. Legchenko, S. R. M. Ligtenberg, C. Miège, D. K. Solomon, L. J. West

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Perennial water storage in firn aquifers has been observed within the lower percolation zone of the southeast Greenland ice sheet. Spatially distributed seismic and radar observations, made ~50 km upstream of the Helheim Glacier terminus, reveal spatial variations of seismic velocity within a firn aquifer. From 1.65 to 1.8 km elevation, shear-wave velocity (Vs) is 1,290 ± 180 m/s in the unsaturated firn, decreasing below the water table (~15 m depth) to 1,130 ± 250 m/s. Below 1.65 km elevation, Vs in the saturated firn is 1,270 ± 220 m/s. The compressional-to-shear velocity ratio decreases in the downstream saturated zone, …

Effects Of Haloxylon Plantation On Some Soil Characteristics And Vegetation Cover, Mohammad Jafary, H. Niknahad, R. Erfanzadeh, M. Tahmoures

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

'Alpine Meadows' Of The Tibet Plateau Are A Synanthropic Pseudoclimax, G. Miehe, S. Miehe, K. Kaiser, K. Wesche, Xinquan Zhao, Jianquan Liu

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Observing And Measuring Water Quality Of Central California Estuaries For Steelhead Trout (Onchorynchus Mykiss), Charles Alexander Taylor

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Estuaries support abundant biodiversity but are threatened by anthropogenic influences making it a priority to effectively monitor water quality to identify if and when it becomes detrimental to aquatic life. The purpose of the study was to analyze water quality in local San Luis Obispo estuaries to measure baseline conditions to inform future studies and management and to identify if key water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen or temperature result in stressful or lethal conditions for steelhead trout (Onchorynchus mykiss). An EXO1 multiparameter snode (probe) was used to measure dissolved oxygen (mg/l), temperature (in Celsius), conductivity (Us/cm), salinity (parts …

Patagonian Aridification At The Onset Of The Mid‐Miocene Climatic Optimum, Robin B. Trayler, Matthew J. Kohn, M. Susana Bargo, José I. Cuitiño, Richard F. Kay, Caroline A. E. Strömberg, Sergio F. Vizcaíno

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fossil‐rich sediments of the Santa Cruz Formation, Patagonia, Argentina, span the initiation of the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO), the most recent period of warm and wet conditions in the Cenozoic. These conditions drove the expansion of tropical and subtropical ecosystems to much higher latitudes, with the fossiliferous Santa Cruz Formation recording one of the southernmost examples. We collected new carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of herbivore tooth enamel from fossils ~17.4 to 16.4 Ma in age to investigate ecological and climatic changes across the initiation of the MCO. Enamel δ¹³C values are consistent with a C₃‐dominated …

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Paleontological Resources Management Plan (Public Version), Scott Kottkamp, Vincent L. Santucci, Justin S. Tweet, Jessica De Smet, Ellen Stark

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Since Agate Springs Ranch was founded by James H. Cook in 1887, exquisite examples of transitional Miocene mammalian fauna have been found along this stretch of the Niobrara River valley. Collectively these paleontological discoveries, along with the existing archeological and historical Native American collection, were the basis for establishing Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) as a unit of the National Park System (NPS). The fossil remains from the Harrison and Anderson Ranch formations span a short, but important, time period within the Miocene Epoch. AGFO has provided science with an intimate look into North American mammalian evolution …

“Enriching Lives Within Sedimentary Geology”: Actionable Recommendations For Making Sepm A Diverse, Equitable And Inclusive Society For All Sedimentary Geologists, R.C. Mahon, A.M. Fernandes, A. Abeyta, R. Martindale, K.D Bergman, C. Jackson, Et Al

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Innovative science benefits from diversity of thought and influence at all waypoints along the scientific journey, from early education to career-length contributions in research and mentorship. Scientific societies, like the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), steward their innovators and the direction of the science, thereby defining the societal impact and evolution of a discipline. They are uniquely positioned to promote the representation and success of all scientists, including those from minoritized populations, through proactive advocacy, and inclusive mentorship, awards, and leadership. We introspectively review available records of SEPM membership, leadership, awardees, and editorial boards to identify areas for growth and …