Digital Commons Network^™

Development And Performance Assessment Of An Integrated Vermifiltration Based Treatment System For The Treatment Of Feedlot Runoff, Rajneesh Singh, Matteo D'Alessio, Yulie Meneses, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Brian Woodbury, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to treat feedlot runoff by developing an ecologically sustainable, affordable, and resilient treatment system having a relatively long life span. Three horizontal flow soil biofilters were utilized in this study: 1) without earthworms and plants (Biofilter (BF)), 2) with earthworms only (Vermifilter (VF)), and 3) with earthworms and plants (Macrophyte Assisted Vermifilter (MAVF)). The experiments were conducted with a hydraulic retention time of four days using Lumbricus terestrris earthworms and Carex frankii wetland plants. The average COD removal from the BF, VF, and MAVF were 23.2–30.4%, 61.4–69.1%, and 68.3–78.1%, respectively. Average TN removal efficiencies …

Potential Of Resampled Multispectral Data For Detecting Desmodium-Brachiaria Intercropped With Maize In A 'Push-Pull' System, B. T. Mudereri, E. M. Abdel-Rahman, T. Dube, T. Landmann, S. Niassy, H. E.Z. Tonnang, Z. R. Khan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Poor crop yields remain one of the main causes of chronic food insecurity in Africa. This is largely caused by insect pests, weeds, unfavourable climatic conditions and degraded soils. Weed and pest control, based on the climate-adapted g'push-pull' system, has become an important target for sustainable intensification of food production adopted by many small-holder farmers. However, essential baseline information using remotely sensed data is missing, specifically for the g'push-pull' companion crops. In this study, we investigated the spectral uniqueness of two of the most commonly used g'companion' crops (i.e. greenleaf Desmodium (i Desmodium intortum/i) and Brachiaria (i Brachiaria/i cv Mulato) …

Pilot Project For Future Fast And Accurate Detection Of The Human Fecal Marker Hf183 For Presence Of Human Pollution In The New River, Angie Louis

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

One type of pollution that has a negative impact on the environmental waters originates from fecal contamination. Identifying the source of pollution is an important step in effective resource management, mitigation, and reducing risk to human health. Microbial source tracking (MST) can be used to identify fecal pollution and to identify specific microbes in the environment and the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) can be utilized in this analysis. In this pilot study the New River waterway, running through the City of Fort Lauderdale, was tested for a human specific bacteria Bacteroids, using the TaqMan HF183 qPCR assay (HF183/BFDrev). …

Algal Coverage Detection And Classification Using Envi: Correlation With Dissolved Oxygen Levels In Elkhorn Slough, Ca, Jason Dawson

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Estuaries are exposed to varying stressors, whether they be physical, chemical, or environmental. The most notable of stressors is eutrophication of coastal and inland ecosystems. This is a result of increased supply of nutrients fueling production within the system. One outcome of this increased nutrient load to the system is that of algal blooms. These blooms can impact the aesthetic appearance and degrade the quality of health of the system. Many of these coastal zones and waterways are critical habitats for many biological (some endangered) species and serve as recreational areas for human populations. Elkhorn Slough, California is one of …

The Complicated History Of Environmental Racism, Victoria Peña-Parr

Black History at UNM

University of New Mexico Honors College Assistant Professor, Myrriah Gómez, defines and explores environmental racism, specifically its effects in New Mexico.

Using Climate To Explain And Predict West Nile Virus Risk In Nebraska, Kelly Helm Smith, Andrew J. Tyre, Jeff Hamik, Michael J. Hayes, Yuzhen Zhou, Li Dai

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

We used monthly precipitation and temperature data to give early warning of years with higher West Nile Virus (WNV) risk in Nebraska. We used generalized additive models with a negative binomial distribution and smoothing curves to identify combinations of extremes and timing that had the most influence, experimenting with all combinations of temperature and drought data, lagged by 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months. We fit models on data from 2002 through 2011, used Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) to select the best‐fitting model, and used 2012 as out‐of‐sample data for prediction, and repeated this process for each successive year, …

Imidacloprid Movement Into Fungal Conidia Is Lethal To Mycophagous Beetles, Robin A. Choudhury, Andrew M. Sutherland, Matt J. Hengel, Michael P. Parrella, W. Douglass Gubler

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Applications of systemic pesticides can have unexpected direct and indirect effects on nontarget organisms, producing ecosystem-level impacts. We investigated whether a systemic insecticide (imidacloprid) could be absorbed by a plant pathogenic fungus infecting treated plants and whether the absorbed levels were high enough to have detrimental effects on the survival of a mycophagous beetle. Beetle larvae fed on these fungi were used to assess the survival effects of powdery mildew and imidacloprid in a factorial design. Fungal conidia were collected from treated and untreated plants and were tested for the presence and concentration of imidacloprid. The survival of beetles fed …

Effects Of Management Efforts On Fledging Success Of Endangered Interior Least Terns (Sternula Antillarum Athalassos) On The Mcclellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System In Arkansas, Trevor N. Jensen

Theses and Dissertations from 2020

The Interior Least Tern (Sternula antillarum athalassos) is an endangered shorebird that primarily nests in colonies on barren riverine sandbars on many major river systems throughout the central United States. Water resource development projects such as damming and channelization have altered the natural flow regimes of these systems leading to a decrease in sandbar quality and quantity, and as a result this species is dependent on management to ensure their recovery. Managers within Arkansas have been applying a variety of management approaches to improve sandbar nesting habitat and success of this population intermittently since 2002, with increased intensity since 2015. …

Water Quality Study Of The Muchea Livestock Truck Wash, Simon Clarendon, David Weaver, Justin L.M Hardy, Claire Coffey, Robert Summers, David Rogers, Peta Richards

Resource management technical reports

Across Australia there is a lack of information on the quality of the water discharged from facilities that are used to wash livestock trucks. This water quality scoping study partially fills that information gap and provides a starting point for future planning, design and construction of livestock truck washes.

The study was undertaken in 2011–12 at the Western Australian Muchea Livestock Centre, and aimed to gain insights into water quality associated with the truck wash facility at that site. These insights can help to inform the planning for further construction of truck wash facilities throughout the state, and whether disposing …

Predicting And Mapping Plethodontid Salamander Abundance Using Lidar-Derived Terrain And Vegetation Characteristics, Marco Antonio Contreras, Wesley A. Staats, Steve J. Price

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Aim of the study: Use LiDAR-derived vegetation and terrain characteristics to develop abundance and occupancy predictions for two terrestrial salamander species, Plethodon glutinosus and P. kentucki, and map abundance to identify vegetation and terrain characteristics affecting their distribution.

Area of study: The 1,550-ha Clemons Fork watershed, part of the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest in southeastern Kentucky, USA.

Materials and methods: We quantified the abundance of salamanders using 45 field transects, which were visited three times, placed across varying soil moisture and canopy cover conditions. We created several LiDAR-derived vegetation and terrain layers and used these …

Paleoenvironment Reconstruction Of The Eocene Southeastern Tethys Using Geochemistry Of Sedimentary Rocks, Liliana CalderóN Convers

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The Early Eocene hyperthermals are a series of transient global warming events that occurred between 54.09 and 52.63 Ma, and are considered as ancient analogues for future climate change. These hyperthermal events are well studied in the deep sea sites, but have not been investigated in the eastern Tethys Ocean. Here, we report new major and trace element geochemistry and stable carbon isotope data of the Early Eocene strata deposited in a shallow marine foreland basin prior to the main stage of India-Asian continent collision at Qumiba section in the Tingri County, southern Tibet. These geochemical data are used to …

Water Quality And Management Challenges In Urban New Jersey, Alessandra Rossi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Exacerbation of extreme weather events and increasing urbanization are facilitating the pathway of pollutants towards the waterbodies with freshwater ecosystems being impacted more than terrestrial and marine ecosystems by anthropogenic stressors. We addressed here the three major threats to freshwater ecosystems, pathogens, litter, and eutrophication, integrating scientific findings with management inputs at the watershed level. We evaluated the relationship between environmental variables measurements and Escherichia coli counts with the intent to develop equations capable of predicting near-real-time E. coli concentrations in two riverine ecosystems to help decision makers in assessments of recreational safety. Results showed that the cumulative rainfall for …

Benthic Biological Monitoring Of The Elizabeth River Watershed (1999 And 2019), Daniel M. Dauer

Elizabeth River Reports

Executive Summary

A study of the macrobenthic communities of the Elizabeth River watershed was conducted in summer 1999 and again in summer 2019 – a 20-year span. The primary objective of the Benthic Biological Monitoring Program of the Elizabeth River watershed was to characterize the ecological condition of regional areas of the tidal waters of the Elizabeth River watershed as indicated by the structure of the benthic communities. These characterizations are based upon application of the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (BIBI) developed for the Chesapeake Bay to five primary strata - the Mainstem of the river, the Lafayette River, …

Nitrate Dynamics And Source Within Nested Watersheds Of An Agricultural Stream, Nebraska, Usa, Galen Richards

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nitrate concentrations have been increasing throughout the globe, primarily due to heightened agricultural activity. Nitrate concentrations in Bazile Creek, located in Northeastern Nebraska, have been steadily rising since the early 2000s. Groundwater nitrate concentrations within the Bazile Creek watershed are high (> 10 mg/L nitrate-N), and there is strong connectivity between groundwater and surface water systems. This study aimed to better understand temporal nitrate concentration variability within the watershed through sampling tributaries and the main channel during baseflow conditions. Nitrate source was also investigated though the use of dual δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O nitrate isotopes, with samples …

Evaluating Particulate Matter 2.5 In The Yangtze River Delta, Muhammad Abdullah

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM_2.5) is a growing concern in industrialized countries. In China, high concentrations of PM_2.5 are causing devastating health and environmental effects for the people living there. Coal-burning for domestic and industrial purposes is the main culprit for decreasing air quality in China. The focus of this paper is on the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) located on the eastern coast of China. Hourly PM_2.5 readings from March 2015 to June 2016 were obtained from 125 air quality monitoring stations (AQMS) in 23 cities in the YRD. In this study, PM_2.5 readings were examined …

Plant Science Decadal Vision 2020–2030: Reimagining The Potential Of Plants For A Healthy And Sustainable Future, Natalie Henkhaus, Madelaine Bartlett, David Gang, Rebecca Grumet, Ingrid Jordon‐Thaden, Argelia Lorence, Eric Lyons, Samantha Miller, Seth Murray, Andrew Nelson, Chelsea Specht, Brett Tyler, Thomas Wentworth, David Ackerly, David Baltensperger, Philip Benfey, James Birchler, Sreekala Chellamma, Roslyn Crowder, Michael Donoghue, Jose Pablo Dundore‐Arias, Jacqueline Fletcher, Valerie Fraser, Kelly Gillespie, Lonnie Guralnick, Elizabeth Haswell, Mitchell Hunter, Shawn Kaeppler, Stefan Kepinski, Fay‐Wei Li, Sally Mackenzie, Lucinda Mcdade, David Stern

Arkansas Biosciences Institute

Plants, and the biological systems around them, are key to the future health of the planet and its inhabitants. The Plant Science Decadal Vision 2020–2030 frames our ability to perform vital and far-reaching research in plant systems sciences, essential to how we value participants and apply emerging technologies. We outline a comprehensive vision for addressing some of our most pressing global problems through discovery, practical applications, and education. The Decadal Vision was developed by the participants at the Plant Summit 2019, a community event organized by the Plant Science Research Network. The Decadal Vision describes a holistic vision for the …

Testing Flowering Perennial Plants In A Bermudagrass (Cynodon Spp.) Lawn, Paige Elizabeth Boyle, Michelle Wisdom

Horticulture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Most pollinating insects require a season-long succession of floral resources to fulfill life-cycle requirements. Incorporating forbs into turfgrass sites may create a season-long sequence of flowers to support foraging pollinators. However, persistence of forbs in warm-season turfgrasses such as bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) may be affected by the competitive nature of the turfgrass and routine management practices such as mowing. A 2-year study was conducted to evaluate seven forbs (Bellis perennis L., Lotus corniculatus L., Prunella vulgaris L., Trifolium fragiferum L. ‘Fresa’, Trifolium repens L. ‘Durana’ and ‘Resolute’, Trifolium subterraneum L.) for persistence and ability to produce floral resources …

The Application Of Advanced Technologies For Agriculture And Rangeland Management, Matthew D. Kutugata

Theses and Dissertations

This project demonstrates two applications of remote sensing in agricultural and rangeland environments. In the first, an unmanned aerial system (UAS) equipped with a multi-spectral sensor was used to estimate canopy cover across four different cover crop trials at four time periods. In the second, a local database of stationary camera trap images of wildlife was used to train a convolutional neural network to automatically catalogue images by identifying the animal in those images. Both projects aimed to provide an example of how remote sensing platforms and machine learning techniques can facilitate the rapid collection and processing of large-scale field …

An Evaluation Of Bird And Bat Mortality At Wind Turbines In The Northeastern United States, Daniel Y. Choi, Thomas W. Wittig, Bryan M. Kluever

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wind energy offers substantial environmental benefits, but wind facilities can negatively impact wildlife, including birds and bats. Researchers and managers have made major efforts to chronicle bird and bat mortality associated with wind facilities, but few studies have examined the patterns and underlying mechanisms of spatial patterns of fatalities at wind facilities. Understanding the horizontal fall distance between a carcass and the nearest turbine pole is important in designing effective search protocols and estimating total mortality. We explored patterns in taxonomic composition and fall distance of bird and bat carcasses at wind facilities in the Northeastern United States using publicly …

Estimation Of Wildlife Damage From Federal Crop Insurance Data, Sophie Mckee, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Aaron M. Anderson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

BACKGROUND: Wildlife damage to crops is a persistent and costly problem for many farmers in the USA. Most existing estimates of crop damage have relied on direct assessment methods such as field studies conducted by trained biologists or surveys distributed to farmers. In this paper, we describe a new method of estimating wildlife damage that exploits federal crop insurance data. We focused our study on four crops: corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton, chosen because of their economic importance and their vulnerability to wildlife damage.

RESULTS: We determined crop-raiding hot spots across the USA over the 2015–2019 period and identified the …

Climate Change And Market-Based Insurance Feedbacks, Eric R. Holley, Adam Liska, Cory Walters, Geoffrey C. Friesen, Michael Hayes, Max J. Rudolph, Donald A. Wilhite

Adam Liska Papers

Climatic events have accounted for 91% of $1.05 trillion in insured costs for global catastrophic events from 1980 to 2016. Costs are driven by socio-economic development and increased frequency and severity of climatic disasters driven by climate change. Government policies to reduce systemic risk (e.g., cap-and-trade, carbon tax) have been a predominant approach for mitigation and adaptation. Alternatively, market-based incentives for climate change adaptation and mitigation already operate via the insurance industry to lessen impacts on society. Insurance feedbacks include changes in 1) premiums and insurance policies, 2) non-coverage, and 3) policy making and litigation. Alongside government policies, insurance feedbacks …

Analysis Of Interdunal Wetlands And Ecosystem Dynamics Using Uas And Obia In Ludington State Park, Michigan, Claire Gilbert

Masters Theses

The Great Lakes sand dunes are the world's largest freshwater dune complex. There is a functional relationship between coastal wetlands and freshwater sand dune, referred to as interdunal wetlands. Interdunal wetland systems are highly dynamic and change dramatically seasonally and annually. Using geographic information systems (GIS) and unoccupied aerial systems (UAS), this thesis project is focused on understanding the spatial distribution of sparse and dense vegetation, and abiotic influence such as distance to coast, slope, and aspect influence interdunal wetland stability within a Great Lakes shoreline dune system. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) classification results extracted meaningful vegetation densities of growth …

Impact Of Disturbance Regimes On Community And Landscape Biodiversity In Atlantic Coastal Pine Barren Ecoregion Streams, Sean T. Mccanty

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Streams are dynamic systems shaped by geographic location, hydrology, riparian vegetation, and in-stream habitat. Furthermore, ecosystem disturbance plays a major role in structuring stream communities and ecosystem processes. Disturbances include natural occurrences, such as flooding, drought, and fire events and anthropogenic disturbances such as land use changes, damming, and pollution. Agricultural use acts as a press disturbance regime, homogenizing the surrounding landscape and simplifying in-stream habitat, leaving legacy effects after farming ceases. Active restoration is intended to ameliorate these effects by reintroducing variation, with the goal of shifting the ecosystem into a more diverse and natural state. The act of …

Influence Of Landscape Factors On Wildlife Presence And Road Mitigation Structure Performance, Taylor M. Hopkins

Theses and Dissertations

There are roughly 80 ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) remaining in the United States, with the entire population constrained to south Texas, with roadkill being a predominant source of mortality. To prevent additional roadkill and maintain wildlife movement, Texas Department of Transportation constructed 11.9 kilometers of wildlife exclusion fencing, 5 wildlife crossing structures (WCS), and 18 wildlife guards on State Highway 100. This thesis focused on determining the effort required for a control-impact monitoring study, the influence of biotic and abiotic factors around the roadway on wildlife presence, and the performance of mitigation structures and the road mitigation corridor. This …

Pathogens, Endosymbionts, And Blood-Meal Sources Of Host-Seeking Ticks In The Fast-Changing Maasai Mara Wildlife Ecosystem, Joseph Wang’Ang’A Oundo, Jandouwe Villinger, Maamun Jeneby, George Ong’Amo, Moses Yongo Otiende, Edward Edmond Makhulu, Ali Abdulahi Musa, Daniel Obado Ouso, Lillian Wambua

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The role of questing ticks in the epidemiology of tick-borne diseases in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR), an ecosystem with intensified human-wildlife-livestock interactions, remains poorly understood. We surveyed the diversity of questing ticks, their blood-meal hosts, and tick-borne pathogens to understand potential effects on human and livestock health. By flagging and hand-picking from vegetation in 25 localities, we collected 1,465 host-seeking ticks, mostly Rhipicephalus and Amblyomma species identified by morphology and molecular analysis. We used PCR with high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis and sequencing to identify Anaplasma, Babesia, Coxiella, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, and Theileria pathogens and blood-meal remnants in 231 tick …

The Assessment Of Co2 Exposures, Workload Demands, And Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk On Heart Rate For Select Craft Brewery Job Tasks, David L. Huizen

Dissertations

Americans have embraced craft beer, and the ensuing demand has resulted in an ever-increasing number of craft breweries opening over the past 20 years. Craft brewers are generally small employers and, as such, lack the resources necessary to address the safety and health of their employees adequately. Brewers face many safety and health hazards in their work environment. These hazards include exposures to carbon dioxide (CO₂), workload demand, and MSD risk. It is essential to evaluate these hazards in craft breweries as they handle carbon dioxide (CO₂) differently than large breweries by having the CO_{2 …}

Fate And Transport Of Phosphorus-Containing Land-Applied Swine Slurry In A Karst Watershed, A. N. Sharpley, M. B. Daniels, K. R. Brye, K. Vandevender, J. Burke, L G. Berry, P. Webb

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Phosphorus distribution in pasture soils underlain with karst geology was determined on a 0.10-ha grid in 2014, 2016, and 2018. Two fields (Fields 1 and 12) received swine slurry from a concentrated animal feeding operation, whereas another (Field 5) received mineral fertilizer. All fields were grazed by cattle and periodically hayed. Mean Mehlich-3 extractable P in the top 10 cm increased (p ≤ .05 level) for Fields 1 (59–91 mg kg⁻¹) and 12 (63–122 mg kg⁻¹) between 2014 and 2018, with little change for Field 5 (45–47 mg kg⁻¹). Over the 5-yr monitoring …

Eagle Creek Post-Fire Monitoring For Water Temperature & Water Stage, Sylas Daughtrey

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

When investigating forested watersheds devastated by wildfire, the wide range of disturbance can lead to altering hydrological effects through the loss in ground cover vegetation, canopy cover, while also disrupting soil characteristics. Within the Pacific Northwest, forested drainages affected by post-fire disturbance are further altered in areas that experience seasonal rainfall and snow melt events. When looking at the post-fire sloped areas of Eagle Creek and Tanner Creek within the Columbia Gorge of Oregon, the loss of ground cover and organic matter throughout these two watersheds pose a legitimate concern for erosion events as well as hydrological changes due to …

Spatial Ecology And Resource Selection Of Bighorn Sheep (Ovis Canadensis) Ewes In A Prairie Badlands Population, Erin Wood

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The basic spatial ecology and habitat relationships of female bighorn sheep in Nebraska are poorly understood. Establishing seasonal patterns of space use and resource selection for this population at the margin of their historical and current range addresses a key knowledge gap and provides important baseline information for ongoing conservation efforts in Nebraska. We deployed GPS radio-collars on 56 adult ewes in western Nebraska to quantify seasonal space use, movements, and resource selection of ewes. To investigate spatial ecology, we quantified movements of ewes and the factors that influence home range size, seasonal use, and spatial stability across seasons. Home …

Evaluation Of Waste Management Facilities Through Land-Based Marine Litter Data: Case Study Of Kenjeran Beach, Surabaya, Rizal Bahri, Rachmaniyah Rachmaniyah, Darjati Darjati

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Marine litter surveys can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of policies to prevent litter pollution. This study aims to use land-based marine litter distribution data to evaluate the waste management facilities at Kenjeran Beach, Surabaya. The survey was carried out by systematically dividing 120 m length of the beach into five transects, with each transect having a length of 20 m. The litter was collected from the highest strandline, three times within three weeks. The collected litter was identified by count, weight, density, material, and object category. The waste management facilities at the beach, consisting of waste bins and …