Digital Commons Network^™

Mitigating The Effects Of Climate Change With Wind Energy And Gis, Rachael Isphording, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

The climate is changing, and humans are heavily exacerbating these changes. As the effects of climate change are being felt across the planet, scientists and policy makers are uniting to increase mitigation efforts and are researching renewable, clean energy sources to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere during energy production. Of the different renewable energy technologies, wind energy is one of the most researched and implemented. Over the past twenty years, researchers have been applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to their climate change studies. GIS allows the user to spatially view, manipulate, and analyze data …

Climate-Induced Changes In The Germination Phenology Of Boechera Stricta, Samuel Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is having demonstrable, worldwide impacts on ecological systems in ways that have modified aspects of organism behavior. Plant phenologies have responded to warmer temperatures in a variety of ways that may have implications for long-term species survival. How germination phenology changes in response to warmer climate is a largely unexplored question yet the ability of a plant to advance or delay germination in unfavorable conditions is critical for survival. Knowing the relative success and timing of germination under different climate regimes is important in understanding whether species can keep pace with the rate of climate change via migration …

Policy Context Of The Endemic Flora Of The Maltese Islands In A Changing Taxonomic Landscape, Clara Agius

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The degradation of the environment since the Industrial Revolution has been a turning point for legislation, leading to many countries, including EU states, to create legislations that conserve the environment. These legislations are based on scientific facts. This can create a divide between policy and science, as science and scientific methods are constantly changing, while policy has to keep up. Scientific facts of yesterday, may not necessarily be the same as today. This divide between science and policy may have implications on the designation of Protected Areas. One of the criteria of a Protected Area is the protection of an …

Controlling Pm2.5 In Chengdu: Analysis And Recommendations From The China, U.S. And California Experience, Weijia Li

Master's Projects and Capstones

Chengdu, China, is experiencing rapid economic growth and urbanization at a cost of serious air pollution problems. China has developed a series of policies to reduce PM2.5 emissions and to reform energy structure. However, problems exist which may prevent effectively implementation of the PM2.5 policies, include poor PM2.5 monitoring, isolated environmental management, lack of health improvement target, unclear consequence of non-compliance, and unequally distributed PM2.5 management.

This research reviews U.S. PM2.5 emission control technologies related to coal-fired boilers and iron and steel manufacturing industries, which represent major emission sources of Chengdu. Chengdu’s choice of PM2.5 control technology should always consider …

Clean Up Techniques Used For Coastal Oil Spills: An Analysis Of Spills Occurring In Santa Barbara, California, Prince William Sound, Alaska, The Sea Of Japan, And The Gulf Coast, Henry R. Walther Iii

Master's Projects and Capstones

An analysis of four spills occurring within the last 50 years to see the progression in clean up techniques used for coastal oil spills. The Santa Barbara, California Oil Spill of 1969, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill of 1989 occurring in Prince William Sound, Alaska, the Nakhodka Oil Spill of 1997 occurring in the Sea of Japan, and the Deep Water Horizon Oil spill of 2010 occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, are analyzed. The different types of oil, the composition of oil, and the variables that effect spilled oil’s movement, are provided. Oil spill response planning and preparation are …

How The Presence Of Plastic In The North Pacific Gyre Affects The Growth Of Thalassiosira Through Remote Sensing And Laboratory Replication, Jordynn Brennan, Hesham El-Askary

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Through the use of remote sensing, we are able to determine the approximate location of the garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre. Though remote sensing does not penetrate the surface of the ocean, monthly satellite images can be analyzed to determine the rate of growth or rate of decrease of certain parameters, such as atmospheric gases, phytoplankton, and dissolved organic matter. Over the past decade, data from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (Giovanni program) has shown a significant increase in dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll a content in the area of the North Pacific Garbage …

Speleoclimate Dynamics In Santana Cave (Petar, São Paulo State, Brazil): General Characterization And Implications For Tourist Management, Heros Augusto Santos Lobo, Paulo Cesar Boggiani, José Alexandre De Jesus Perinotto

International Journal of Speleology

Show caves provide tourists with the opportunity to have close contact with natural underground spaces. However, visitation to these places also creates a need for management measures, mainly the definition of tourist carrying capacity. The present work describes the results of climate monitoring and atmospheric profiling performed in Santana Cave (Alto Ribeira State and Tourist Park – PETAR, Brazil) between 2008 and 2011. Based on the results, distinct preliminary zones with different levels of thermal variation were identified, which classify Santana Cave as a warm trap. Two critical points along the tourist route (Cristo and Encontro Halls) were identified where …

Farmers Markets In Urban Us Counties: The Relationship Between Income, Obesity, And Access, Mia El-Hamaki

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

In the last decade there has been a convergence of factors that have contributed to an increase in food deserts, obesity, and income inequality in the US. Two-thirds of US adults are overweight or obese. This prevalence disproportionately affects low income areas with high minority populations (Ruelas et al., 2012). Simultaneously, research shows that grocery stores are tending to move away from low income, inner city communities and towards affluent urban and suburban areas. In order to combat the growing food deserts and obesity rates as a result of this shift, farmers markets have been proposed and utilized as a …

Evaluating The Progress Of A Mangrove Reforestation Project On Isla Galeta, Colon, Abigail Hope Outterson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Just off the Atlantic coast of Panama, a dynamic and self-renewing ecosystem takes advantage of the tropical climate and swampy conditions. Guarding Punta Galeta’s shores since before it was a U.S. navy base in the 1930’s, mangroves that have persisted here for centuries now draw scientists and tourists alike from all over the world to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center. Once viewed as unproductive, distasteful environments, mangroves are increasingly recognized worldwide as critical habitat for endangered and commercially significant species, as well as for their ecological and aesthetic value. Uniquely adapted to survive in saline environments, mangroves combine methods of …

Biomass Burning Fuel Consumption Rates: A Field Measurement Database, T. T. Van Leeuwen, G. R. Van Der Werf, A. A. Hoffmann, R. G. Detmers, G. Rücker, Nancy H. F. French, S. Archibald, J. A. Carvalho Jr, G. D. Cook, William J. De Groot, C. Hély, Eric S. Kasischke, S. Kloster, Jessica Mccarty, M. L. Pettinari, P. Savadogo, E. C. Alvarado, L. Boschetti, S. Manuri, C. P. Meyer, F. Siegert, L. A. Trollope, W. S. W. Trollope

Michigan Tech Research Institute Publications

Landscape fires show large variability in the amount of biomass or fuel consumed per unit area burned. Fuel consumption (FC) depends on the biomass available to burn and the fraction of the biomass that is actually combusted, and can be combined with estimates of area burned to assess emissions. While burned area can be detected from space and estimates are becoming more reliable due to improved algorithms and sensors, FC is usually modeled or taken selectively from the literature. We compiled the peer-reviewed literature on FC for various biomes and fuel categories to understand FC and its variability better, and …

Ua66 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter, Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

A Cross Comparison Of Spatiotemporally Enhanced Springtime Phenological Measurements From Satellites And Ground In A Northern U.S. Mixed Forest, Liang Liang, Mark D. Schwartz, Zhuosen Wang, Feng Gao, Crystal B. Schaaf, Bin Tan, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Xiaoyang Zhang

GSCE Faculty Publications

Cross comparison of satellite-derived land surface phenology (LSP) and ground measurements is useful to ensure the relevance of detected seasonal vegetation change to the underlying biophysical processes. While standard 16-day and 250-m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index (VI)-based springtime LSP has been evaluated in previous studies, it remains unclear whether LSP with enhanced temporal and spatial resolutions can capture additional details of ground phenology. In this paper, we compared LSP derived from 500-m daily MODIS and 30-m MODIS-Landsat fused VI data with landscape phenology (LP) in a northern U.S. mixed forest. LP was previously developed from intensively observed …

Station Exposure And Resulting Bias In Temperature Observations: A Comparison Of He Kentucky Mesonet And Asos Data, James Kyle Thompson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Station siting, exposure, instrumentation, and time of observations influence longterm climatic records. This thesis compared and analyzed temperature data from four Kentucky Mesonet stations located in Fayette (LXGN), Franklin (LSML), Clark (WNCH), and Bullitt (CRMT) counties to two nearby Automated Surface Observation Systems (ASOS) stations in Kentucky. The ASOS stations are located at Louisville International Airport (Standiford Field - KSDF) and at Lexington Airport (Blue Grass Field - KLEX). The null hypothesis states that there is no significant difference in temperature measurements between the two types of stations. To quantify the differences in temperature measurements, geoprofiles and the following statistical …

Review: The Wilderness Writings Of Howard Zahniser, Jillian M. Slater

Marian Library Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transformation Of Uranium In A Geological Environment, Derrell Hood

All Theses

Incorporation of uranium into iron oxide minerals is a promising mechanism for the environmental immobilization of U(VI). In this study, synthesized hematite was doped with uranium and analyzed with SEM-EDS, TEM, XRD, and ICP-MS. The results of this analysis strongly indicate uranium incorporation into the mineral, as well as the possible presence of a co-precipitated uranium mineral clarkeite. Preliminary results also shows an increase in the amount of uranium associated with the hematite particles as a function of mineral aging. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) was used to induce and characterize electrochemical changes of uranium in the doped hematite system; these changes …

Economic Equity In The Annapurna Conservation Area: Effects Of Government And Community-Based Organizations, Hanna Seltz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research addresses the impact of community-based and government organizations on rural livelihoods in protected areas (PAs) by investigating whether benefits of such organizations involved in conservation and community development reach more marginalized members of communities in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) of Nepal. I conduct a case study focusing on two villages within ACA, Kagbeni and Phalyek, examining how local groups interact with each other and with the government in trying to promote equity through the ACA Project primarily through indepth, unstructured interviews. Locally-created and locally-based groups in these communities appear to be successful in managing local resources and …

River Health In Puyo, Ecuador The Use Of Macroinvertebrates As Bioindicators Of Water Quality And Alternatives To Chlorine For Whitening Clothes In The Puyo River Watershed, Allison Rowe

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Fresh water is an important resource in Puyo, Ecuador, a city named after the Kichwa word for ‘cloudy’ in reference to its overcast weather. However, the Puyo River watershed is the most contaminated in all of Pastaza Province. The objective of this investigation was first to evaluate the health of the Puyo River using macroinvertebrate analyses and measurements of chlorine concentrations, temperature, pH, turbidity, velocity, and flow rate. The second objective was to learn about practices used to whiten clothes in Puyo and perceptions of water quality in order to understand the magnitude of bleach pollution and the population’s awareness …

Identification Of Long Term Changes And Evaluation Of The Relationships Among Streamflow Variability And Oceanic-Atmospheric Indices, Soumya Sagarika

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To examine the effects of climate variability on streamflow, this thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the streamflow variability of the continental United States and its association with oceanic-atmospheric indices. First, the presence of trends with consideration of short term and long term persistence followed by shifts over the past years in the continental U.S. streamflow were analyzed by using the non-parametric tests: Mann Kendall and Pettitt. Second, the spatio-temporal relationships between seasonal streamflow variability of continental U.S. and sea surface temperatures (SST) and 500 mbar geopotential height (Z500) of the Pacific and Atlantic were established using the singular valued …

Geographic Assessment Of The Perception Of Nature Reserves And National Parks In Kuwait, Meshari S. Alenezi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arabian Gulf countries have passed strict laws to preserve their environment. Kuwait has a strong history with preserving natural areas. The ecological value and richness of Kuwait's ecosystems have increased since the nature reserves were built. This research has evaluated the perceptions that Kuwaitis have of the design, creation, and development of nature reserves in Kuwait. It involved the use of survey instruments (questionnaires) and interviews with respondents of both urban and rural communities. Data from these surveys and interviews analyzed regarding perceptions of nature reserves' needs, sizes, functions, and future plans.

The results of examinations (surveys) demonstrate that …

Vegetation Controls On Weathering Intensity During The Last Deglacial Transition In Southeast Africa, Sarah J. Ivory, Michael M. Mcglue, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Anne-Marie Lézine, Andrew S. Cohen, Annie Vincens

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Tropical climate is rapidly changing, but the effects of these changes on the geosphere are unknown, despite a likelihood of climatically-induced changes on weathering and erosion. The lack of long, continuous paleo-records prevents an examination of terrestrial responses to climate change with sufficient detail to answer questions about how systems behaved in the past and may alter in the future. We use high-resolution records of pollen, clay mineralogy, and particle size from a drill core from Lake Malawi, southeast Africa, to examine atmosphere-biosphere-geosphere interactions during the last deglaciation (~ 18-9 ka), a period of dramatic temperature and hydrologic changes. The …

Vernal Pool: A Participatory Art Project About Place + Precipitation, Karen Miranda Abel, Jessica Marion Barr

The Goose

Produced by Karen Miranda Abel with Jessica Marion Barr, Vernal Pool is an immersive, elemental water installation created as a participatory, contemplative inquiry into our transitory interrelationships with water and landscape. From November 2013 to April 2014, 114 individuals across Canada and abroad gathered snow samples as a form of extrinsic artistic practice about place and precipitation. With the arrival of spring, the reservoir of melted snow was convened for four days at Toronto’s historic Gladstone Hotel to create Vernal Pool.

Low Cost Infrared And Near Infrared Sensors For Uavs, Samuel T. Aden, James P. Bialas, Zachary Champion, Eugene Levin, Jessica L. Mccarty

Michigan Tech Research Institute Publications

Thermal remote sensing has a wide range of applications, though the extent of its use is inhibited by cost. Robotic and computer components are now widely available to consumers on a scale that makes thermal data a readily accessible resource. In this project, thermal imagery collected via a lightweight remote sensing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used to create a surface temperature map for the purpose of providing wildland firefighting crews with a cost-effective and time-saving resource. The UAV system proved to be flexible, allowing for customized sensor packages to be designed that could include visible or infrared cameras, GPS, …

Restoration Of Bison (Bison Bison) To Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, A Feasibility Study, Daniel S. Licht

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is a 3,057-acre park located in western Nebraska. The unit is comprised of northern mixed-grass prairie vegetation, typical of the Northern Great Plains. Weather, fire, and grazing are generally considered to be the ecological drivers of prairie ecosystems and critical for prairie health. However, grazing has essentially been absent since the 1960s. In 2014, a Department of the Interior report explicitly listed the park as a high priority for bison restoration. This report evaluates the feasibility, management options, benefits, and challenges of restoring bison to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.

A potential bison …

2014 Future Earth Young Scientists Conference On Integrated Science And Knowledge Co-Production For Ecosystems And Human Well-Being, Ivy Shiue, Et. Al.

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Effective integration in science and knowledge co-production is a challenge that crosses research boundaries, climate regions, languages and cultures. Early career scientists are crucial in the identification of, and engagement with, obstacles and opportunities in the development of innovative solutions to complex and interconnected problems. On 25–31 May 2014, International Council for Science and International Social Science Council, in collaboration with the International Network of Next-Generation Ecologists and Institute for New Economic Thinking: Young Scholars Initiative, assembled a group of early career researchers with diverse backgrounds and research perspectives to reflect on and debate relevant issues around ecosystems and human …

Improving The Robustness Of Uncertainty Algorithms In Quantification Of Uncertainty In Water Balance Forecasting, S Samadi, D L. Tufford, G J. Carbone

S.C. Water Resources Conference

2014 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Informing Strategic Water Planning to Address Natural Resource, Community and Economic Challenges

Drought And Coastal Ecosystems: Identifying Impacts And Opportunities To Inform Management, Kirsten Lackstrom, Benjamin Haywood, Amanda Brennan, Janae Davis, Kirstin Dow

S.C. Water Resources Conference

2014 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Informing Strategic Water Planning to Address Natural Resource, Community and Economic Challenges

Sustainability Planning, Environmental Justice And Climate Change: Applications Of The Long Island Markal Model, David S. Friedman, Yehuda Klein, Jose Pillich, Michael T. Sullivan

Suburban Sustainability

As pointed out by many authors, sustainability is often vague and amorphous (See, for example, Dovers, 1989; Faber, et al, 2005; Glavič, et al. 2007). There is a clear need to make analytical and data-driven analyses of established and or proposed plans. MARKAL (MARKet ALlocation model) is an analytical tool that can be used characterize the impacts of sustainability plans at multiple spatial scales: global, national, regional, and local. In this study we apply the Long Island MARKAL model to answer three interrelated issues: 1, the development and incremental improvement of local and regional sustainability plans; 2, the impact of …

Feasibility Of A Mangrove-Based Carbon Business In Makoba Bay, Unguja, Zanzibar, Janice Liang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mangrove ecosystems, along with other coastal vegetation, have tremendous potential to be abundant carbon sinks. With the prospect of carbon sequestered in coastal ecosystems starting to be explored in carbon credit markets, this study attempts to assess the feasibility of a mangrove-based carbon business in Makoba Bay, Unguja, Zanzibar. An aboveground carbon estimation demonstrates that the mangrove forest of Makoba Bay is a recovering ecosystem, but has the potential to be initiated into a program such as REDD+ in the future. Social surveys in both Makoba Bay and Chwaka Bay also indicate that a number of improvements would have to …

Data-Driven Diagnostics Of Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics Over North America, Jingfeng Xiao, Scott V. Ollinger, Steve Frolking, George C. Hurtt, David Y. Hollinger, Kenneth J. Davis, Yude Pan, Xiaoyang Zhang, Feng Deng, Jiquan Chen, Dennis D. Baldocchi, Bevery E. Law, M. Altaf Arain, Ankur R. Desai, Andrew D. Richardson, Ge Sun, Brian Amiro, Hank Margolis, Lianhong Gu, Russell L. Scott, Peter D. Blanken, Andrew E. Suyker

GSCE Faculty Publications

The exchange of carbon dioxide is a key measure of ecosystem metabolism and a critical intersection between the terrestrial biosphere and the Earth's climate. Despite the general agreement that the terrestrial ecosystems in North America provide a sizeable carbon sink, the size and distribution of the sink remain uncertain. We use a data-driven approach to upscale eddy covariance flux observations from towers to the continental scale by integrating flux observations, meteorology, stand age, aboveground biomass, and a proxy for canopy nitrogen concentrations from AmeriFlux and Fluxnet-Canada Research Network as well as a variety of satellite data streams from the MODIS …

Water Quality Monitoring Protocol For Wadeable Streams And Rivers In The Northern Great Plains Network, Narrative Version 1.0, Marcia H. Wilson, Barbara L. Rowe, Robert A. Gitzen, Stephen K. Wilson, Kara J. Paintner-Green

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Preserving the national parks unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations is a fundamental purpose of the National Park Service (NPS). To address growing concerns regarding the overall physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems, the NPS implemented science-based management through “Vital Signs” monitoring in 270 national parks (NPS 2007). The Northern Great Plains Network (NGPN) is among the 32 National Park Service Networks participating in this monitoring effort. The NGPN will develop protocols over the next several years to determine the overall health or condition of resources within 13 parks located in Nebraska, North …