Digital Commons Network^™

Are Government Incentives Effective For Avoided Deforestation In The Tropical Andean Forest?, Pablo Cuenca, Juan Robalino, Rodrigo A. Arriagada, Cristian M. Echeverria

Forest Collaborative Research

In order to ensure the provision of goods and services from forests, many governments have promoted less-traditional conservation initiatives such as programs of payments for ecosystem services called, more broadly, direct payments for conservation. The Socio Bosque Program (SBP) is a governmental program in Ecuador that directly provides economic incentives to rural families and local and indigenous communities who have voluntarily agreed to comply with some conservation activities. An impact evaluation method (matching) was used to assess the impact of the SBP between 2008 and 2014. This study revealed that on average, the SBP reduced deforestation by 1.5% in those …

Global Governance In Addressing Marine Plastic Pollution, Lei Zhang

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Impacts Of Ghana’S Oil And Gas Industry On Ecosystem Services And Smallholder Livelihoods, Michael Acheampong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ghana discovered oil and gas within its shores in commercial quantities in the year, 2007. This discovery was hailed as a potential turn around for the country’s economic destiny. While this optimism may have been well-founded, there has been a relative lack of appreciation of the potential adverse implications of the industry on traditional smallholder livelihoods, and the critical ecosystems that form their basis. In many countries, discovery of natural resources results in negative environmental and social outcomes, due to the loss of local livelihoods and environmental degradation. Deterioration of local livelihoods occurs through several biophysical pathways, both simple and …

Assessing Spatiotemporal Stream Temperature Trends And Drivers Through Integrated Longitudinal Thermal Profiling And Stationary Data Logger Methodology On The Upper Chehalis River, Wa, Whitney Vonada

Dissertations and Theses

This study encompasses 25 kilometers of the Chehalis River in Washington, USA that currently has sections under a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan for stream temperature impairments that exceed 18°C, a regulatory standard set at the time of the listing to protect salmonid spawning, rearing, and migration. Using information integrated from stationary data loggers (n=22) that collected stream temperature information from August 4-September 10, 2017, and longitudinal thermal profiling performed on July 29-30, August 4-5, and September 9-10, 2017, this study aimed to quantify the spatial distribution of stream temperature, evaluate relative consistencies of the riverine thermal regime over …

Management Implications Of Sex-Specific Habitat Use By Nycticeius Humeralis In North-Central Arkansas, Megan Lynn Buckley

Student Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to evaluate evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis) habitat use and provide a proxy strategy to evaluate habitat use by other species. I used the software Maximum Entropy to evaluate habitat suitability models for evening bats using three different modeling strategies; percent variable contribution, the jackknife test, and variable response curves. The predictors included in the models were 10 land use land cover classes, four forest management strategies, slope, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The results of this research showed that distance to burned stands and proximity to edge habitat are the most important …

Translating Global Nature: Territoriality, Environmental Discourses, And Ecocultural Identities, José R. Castro-Sotomayor

Communication ETDs

In this study, I explore environmental discourses circulating among Indigenous transboundary organizations working on environmental initiatives at the border between Ecuador and Colombia. I focus on three global environmental discourses –sustainability, development, and climate change– as they are at the core of the global environmental governance vernacular. La Gran Familia Awá Binacional (GFAB), one of the few transboundary Indigenous organizations working along the binational border, utilizes these global concepts to frame their environmental initiatives and projects. I use a critical and interpretive qualitative approach to investigate, deconstruct, and rearticulate global environmental discourses circulating among and translated by two of the …

Removing Dams, Constructing Science: Watershed Restoration Through A Socio-Eco-Technical Systems Lens, Zbigniew Jakub Grabowski

Dissertations and Theses

Ecological conservation and restoration in the anthropocene must struggle with overlapping drivers of biodiversity and cultural loss; ruptures of the ecological environment mirror ruptures of human relationships with nature. And yet technology cannot remove humans from nature; technological and infrastructural reconfigurations of nature create new vulnerabilities and risks for humans and ecosystems alike. How can conservation and restoration science productively grapple with complex infrastructure systems and decision-making processes as biophysical and social drivers of ecosystem change?

Using dam removals in the USA and in the Mid Columbia River region of the Pacific Northwest, this dissertation develops a conceptual framework for …

Commuter Rail And The Landscape: Alternative Futures For Planning In Southeastern Box Elder County, C. Michael Gottfredson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis analyzes the impact the FrontRunner commuter-rail service would have on Southeastern Box Elder County, Utah, using both anticipated future and alternative future scenarios created in a geographic information system (GIS). These alternative future scenarios include having the FrontRunner developed at anticipated stops and a transit-oriented development (TOD) scenario. Using techniques and methods developed by scholars in the bioregional planning field, these alternative future scenarios were compared against impact-data models addressing residential land-use suitability and landscape risk.

Outcomes: from this analysis, the TOD alternative future scenario had the least impact on landscape risk impact-data model. The TOD model …

Humans As Sensors: The Influence Of Extreme Heat Vulnerability Factors On Risk Perceptions Across The Contiguous United States, Forrest Scott Schoessow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extreme heat events are the deadliest natural hazard in the United States and will continue to get worse in the coming years due to the effects of climate change. As a result, more people will experience deadly heat conditions. This highlights the need for decision-makers to develop better strategies for preventing future losses. How badly individuals are affected by extreme heat depends on many circumstances, such as how high temperatures actually are, weather conditions, and location. For example, a dry 90 °F day in Phoenix is probably more tolerable than a humid 90 °F day in New Orleans for most …

Why Do They Do That? Understanding Factors Influencing Visitor Spatial Behavior In Parks And Protected Areas, Abigail M. Sisneros-Kidd

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Visitors to parks and protected areas within the United States and worldwide often visit these areas with a particular destination in mind, such as seeing Old Faithful erupt in Yellowstone National Park or standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park. These visitor use destinations, and the pathways leading to them, such as trails and roadways, see high levels of use, and as a result, impacts to soil, vegetation, air, water, soundscapes, and night skies that result from this use. The field of recreation ecology studies these impacts to park and protected area resources resulting …

Engelmann Spruce Survival And Regeneration After An Epidemic Spruce Beetle Outbreak On The Markagunt Plateau In Southern Utah, Jessika M. Pettit

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bark beetle outbreaks are becoming more intense and severe when coupled with the effects of climate change. Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) is one such species facing large-scale, epidemic spruce beetle outbreaks. Large-scale disturbances, such as beetle outbreaks, have major consequences for the future success of the ecosystem, thus highlighting the importance of understanding what promotes amplified outbreaks as well as their effects on future seedling establishment. Our research focused on two parts of a large-scale beetle outbreak: the mortality of spruce trees and the subsequent regeneration of seedlings. Our first study examined the timing of spruce mortality during …

Molecular Ecology And Management Of Nuisance And Invasive Marine Species : Chrysaora Chesapeakei, Moerisia Sp., And Gonionemus Vertens, Dena J. Restaino

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Ecological communities are under constant pressure from anthropogenic disturbances. Marine and estuarine systems are affected by human use and development of both coastal land and the surrounding water. One consequence of this use is the deterioration of water quality, which can lead to changes in community structure and a loss of species richness. Another effect of increased usage of marine water ways in the introduction of invasive species. These non-natives also have the ability to change community structure and reduce ecosystem services. In particular cnidarians are able to thrive in degraded systems in part owing to their ability to tolerate …

Estimation Of The Relationship Between Satellite-Derived Vegetation Indices And Live Fuel Moisture Towards Wildfire Risk In Southern California, Kristen Whitney, Seung Hee Kim, Shenyue Jia, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Southern California possesses a Mediterranean climate having semi-arid to arid characteristics and contains shrubland areas at high risk to wildfire. To assess wildfire danger, fire agencies have been monitoring the moisture of vegetation, called live fuel moisture (LFM), using field-based sampling. Unfortunately, spatial and temporal resolution of live fuel moisture data are significantly limited because sampling is labor intensive. Remote sensing satellite data has been used to monitor vegetation moisture content and health of shrublands. Therefore, a potential approach to overcome the limitations of manual measurements of live fuel moisture is to use vegetation indices (VIs) derived from satellite data. …

Spatial And Temporal Trends Of Mining-Related Lead-Zinc Sediment Contamination, Galena River Watershed, Sw Wisconsin-Nw Illinois, Dylan Alexander King

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Alluvial sediments within the Galena River Watershed were severely contaminated with heavy metals by historical zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) mining operations during the early 1800s until 1979. Since the mines closed, there have been efforts to remediate on-site mine waste. However, the effectiveness of these efforts to reduce metal concentrations in stream sediments is unknown. This study compares present-day (2017) contamination trends in the Galena River Watershed to trends reported 25 years ago. A total of 415 sediment/soil samples were collected and analyzed using X-ray florescence spectrometry to determine sediment metal concentrations. The highest concentrations of zinc measured were …

Nutrient Transport And Storage In A Karst Spring-Reservoir System During Baseflow, Missouri Ozarks, Heather A. Moule

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Urban and agricultural land uses are important sources of nitrogen and phosphorus which, if in excess, can cause eutrophication in lakes and rivers. There have been few studies of nutrient transport and storage in karst spring and reservoir connected stream systems draining the Missouri Ozarks. This study aims to link the baseflow nutrient contributions of Sanders Spring to downstream reservoir outflow and the Headwaters South Dry Sac River Watershed in Springfield, Missouri. Water samples were collected seasonally and analyzed for total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and several other water quality parameters. Discharge was also monitored to calculate water and …

Climate-Informed Environmental Inflows To Revive A Drying Lake Facing Meteorological And Anthropogenic Droughts, Aneseh Alborzi, Ali Mirchi, Hamed Moftakhari, Iman Mallakpour, Sara Alian, Ali Nazemi, Elmira Hassanzadeh, Omid Mazdiyasni, Samaneh Ashraf, Kaveh Madani, Hamid Norouzi, Marzi Azarderakhsh, Ali Mehran, Mojtaba Sadegh, Andrea Castelletti, Amir Aghakouchak

Publications and Research

The rapid shrinkage of Lake Urmia, one of the world's largest saline lakes located in northwestern Iran, is a tragic wake-up call to revisit the principles of water resources management based on the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The overarching goal of this paper is to set a framework for deriving dynamic, climate-informed environmental inflows for drying lakes considering both meteorological/climatic and anthropogenic conditions. We report on the compounding effects of meteorological drought and unsustainable water resource management that contributed to Lake Urmia's contemporary environmental catastrophe. Using rich datasets of hydrologic attributes, water demands and withdrawals, as well …

Residential Zoning And Near-Roadway Air Pollution: An Analysis Of Los Angeles, C. J. Gabbe

Environmental Studies and Sciences

Air pollution from motor vehicles harms the health of those who live near freeways and other high-traffic roads. Land use regulations may permit, prohibit, or impose special conditions on housing near major roadways. This paper answers two questions: First, how is residential development near major roadways regulated? Second, how common are zoning changes near major roadways, and what factors explain these changes? This paper compares the zoning designations of near-roadway parcels with others in the city, and uses two sets of logistic regression models to analyze near-roadway zoning. The results show that residential development is permitted on most near-roadway parcels, …

The Global Food-Energy-Water Nexus, Paolo D’Odorico, Kyle Frankel Davis, Lorenzo Rosa, Joel A. Carr, Davide Chiarelli, Jampel Dell’Angelo, Jessica Gephart, Graham K. Macdonald, David A. Seekell, Samir Suweis, Maria Cristina Rulli

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Abstract Water availability is a major factor constraining humanity’s ability to meet the future food and energy needs of a growing and increasingly affluent human population. Water plays an important role in the production of energy, including renewable energy sources and the extraction of unconventional fossil fuels that are expected to become important players in future energy security. The emergent competition for water between the food and energy systems is increasingly recognized in the concept of the “food-energy-water nexus.” The nexus between food and water is made even more complex by the globalization of agriculture and rapid growth in food …

Future Melting Away: Water Stress As A Threat To Human Security In Bangladesh And The Role Of International Community, Farzana Afroz Chowdhury

Theses and Dissertations

Bangladesh is considered as one of the frontline states in the global climate change; its policy agendas attempt to respond to the perceived security threats emanating from such changes. Water stress is one of the key problems the country is facing. Yet, links between glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, Bangladesh’s climate, growing water stress, and its implications for human security have seldom been studied. Drawing on the concepts of climate change, human security and water stress, the thesis examines the causes of Bangladesh’s freshwater crisis and its contribution to the human insecurity. Here in this study, the influence of …

Evaluating The Utility Of Object-Based Image Analysis For Ecological Monitoring Of Pinon-Juniper Mortality, Zachary C. Taraschi

Geography ETDs

Forested ecosystems in the American Southwest are experiencing change at an unprecedented rate, largely due to mortality events triggered by increased temperatures, drought, and insect infestations. Large-scale changes in the distributions of these ecosystems can potentially alter regional-scale carbon, water and energy dynamics. One biome in particular that has experienced increased mortality and altered forest composition over the past 30 years are Piñon-Juniper woodlands (Pinus edulis, Juniperus spp.) in the American Southwest. New fields of study, in particular, Remote Sensing, are applying and adapting traditional methods for ecological monitoring of these woodlands. Remote sensing offers the potential to synoptically …

Validating The Accuracy Of Neatwork, A Rural Gravity Fed Water Distribution System Design Program, Using Field Data In The Comarca Ngöbe-Bugle, Panama, Maria Briones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the sustainable development goals to increase access to improved water there are still 884 million people in the world without access to an improved water source (WHO, 2017). One method to improve access to water in rural, mountainous areas, is through construction of gravity fed water distribution systems. These systems should be designed based upon fundamental principles of hydraulics. One method of doing so in a time efficient manner with minimal engineering knowledge is to utilize a downloadable computer program such as Neatwork, which aids in design of rural, gravity fed water distribution systems and has been used by …

Forewarned Is Forearmed: Review Of Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards And Risk Reduction In The Modern World By Timothy H. Dixon (2017), Jason Makansi

Numeracy

Timothy H. Dixon. 2017. Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction in the Modern World. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 300 pp. ISBN 978-1108113663.

Curbing Catastrophe for the most part lives up to what is claimed in the foreword: “…a compelling account of recent and historical disasters, both natural and human-caused, drawing on common themes and providing a holistic understanding of hazards, disasters, and mitigation for anyone interested in this important and topical subject.” This is a pretty thorough treatment of an extraordinarily complex subject, and the gaps identified in this review should be considered explications more than …

Recognition Of Regional Water Table Patterns For Estimating Recharge Rates In Shallow Aquifers, Troy E. Gilmore, Vitaly A. Zlotnik, Mason Johnson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We propose a new method for groundwater recharge rate estimation in regions with stream-aquifer interactions, at a linear scale on the order of 10 km and more. The method is based on visual identification and quantification of classically recognized water table contour patterns. Simple quantitative analysis of these patterns can be done manually from measurements on a map, or from more complex GIS data extraction and curve fitting. Recharge rate is then estimated from the groundwater table contour parameters, streambed gradients, and aquifer transmissivity using an analytical model for groundwater flow between parallel perennial streams. Recharge estimates were obtained in …

Using Mobile Eye-Tracking To Inform The Development Of Mass Tourism In Iceland Towards The Principles Of Ecotourism, James Tyler Graham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Since the late 20th century, nature-based tourism, an alternative to mass tourism with a focus on natural environments, has steadily grown in popularity. Nature-based tourism areas are considered a platform for informal education and exemplify principles of environmental stewardship and conservation. Iceland, an island nation in the North Atlantic, is one area of the world that has seen dramatic growth in its nature-based tourism industry in recent years; tourists are drawn to Iceland in numbers five times the total population of the Country. The pressures of economic development have resulted in the continued promotion of Icelandic tourism, and, subsequently, the …

Natural Resource Condition Assessment, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Reilly R. Dibner, Nicole Korfanta, Gary Beauvais, Jonathan Bowler, Kit Freedman, Kelli C. Trujillo, Victoria H. Zero

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

In collaboration with the National Park Service, the University of Wyoming Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources and the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database completed the Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) for Scotts Bluff National Monument (NM). The purpose of the NRCA is to provide park leaders and resource managers with information on resource conditions to support near-term planning and management, long-term strategic planning, and effective science communication to decision-makers and the public.

Scotts Bluff NM was established in 1919. The purposes of the park include protecting and preserving the Mitchell Pass portion of the Oregon Trail and …

Droughtscape, Summer 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

Contents

From the director

Drought expands and intensifies

Dry down fuels fires

Tweeting #drought18

MOISST and NSMN

Caribbean planning progress

Drought observer network study

MENA teams report progress

NDMC global outreach

Climate hub workshop

On the horizon

Using Transboundary Wildfire Exposure Assessments To Improve Fire Management Programs: A Case Study In Greece, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Alan A. Ager, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Cody Evers, Kostas Kalabokidis

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Numerous catastrophic wildfires in Greece have demonstrated that relying on fire suppression as the primary risk-management strategy is inadequate and that existing wildfire-risk governance needs to be re-examined. In this research, we used simulation modelling to assess the spatial scale of wildfire exposure to communities and cultural monuments in Chalkidiki, Greece. The study area typifies many areas in Greece in terms of fire regimes, ownership patterns and fire-risk mitigation. Fire-transmission networks were built to quantify connectivity among land tenures and populated places. We found that agricultural and unmanaged wildlands are key land categories that transmit fire exposure to other land …

Climatic Drivers Of Ponderosa Pine Growth In Central Idaho, Joseph L. Pettit, R. Justin Derose, James N. Long

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Despite the widespread use of ponderosa pine as an important hydroclimate proxy, we actually understand very little about its climate response in the Northern Rockies. Here, we analyze two new ponderosa pine chronologies to investigate how climate influences annual growth. Despite differences in precipitation amount and timing and large elevation differences (1820 m versus 1060 m), ring width at both sites was strongly driven by water availability. The mid-elevation, water-limited site responded well to previous fall precipitation whereas the wetter, high-elevation site responded to growing season precipitation and temperature. When precipitation and temperature were simultaneously accounted for using the standardized …

Book Review - Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies, Melissa E. Johnson

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Biotime: A Database Of Biodiversity Time Series For The Anthropocene, Maria Dornelas, Laura H. Antão, Faye Moyes, Amanda E. Bates, Anne E. Magurran, Dušan Adams, Asem A. Akhmetzhanova, Ward Appeltans, José Manuel Adam, Frank P. Day

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Motivation: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Main types of variables included: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains …