Digital Commons Network^™

Equilibrium Sampling Used To Monitor Malodors In A Swine Waste Lagoon, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of An Oral Vaccination Program To Control Raccoon Rabies In A Suburbanized Landscape, Jason R. Boulanger, Laura L. Bigler, Paul D. Curtis, Donald H. Lein, Arthur J. Lembo Jr.

Human–Wildlife Interactions

We evaluated the efficacy of an oral rabies vaccination (ORV) program conducted in Erie County, New York, from July through September, 2002–2005. Ingress of the raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies variant first occurred along the southern border of Erie County, New York, during 1992 and began to spread northward at a velocity of 31 km/year. Fixed-wing aircraft dropped ORV baits in rural landscapes; helicopters, hand baiting, and bait stations distributed baits in suburban landscapes (&#;x bait densities ranged 59–118 baits/km²). Our study objectives were to quantify rabies case densities, evaluate efficacy of intervention efforts, and determine biological, …

Landscape And Traffic Factors Influencing Deer–Vehicle Collisions In An Urban Enviroment, Janet W. Ng, Charlene Nielson, Colleen Cassady St. Clair

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Deer–vehicle collisions (DVCs) are steadily increasing across North America. The increase is particularly pronounced in urban green spaces where deer (Odocoileus spp.) populations and road densities are high. In the greater city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 333 DVCs occurred from 2002 to 2004. To identify landscape and traffic correlates of these collisions, we built 3 statistical models. The first model assessed the importance of local variables and was based on a spatial precision of the nearest intersection to which collisions were referenced. The second model was based on landscape characteristics and used the nearest township intersection to aggregate collisions. …

Power Laws, Discontinuities And Regional City Size Distributions, Ahjond S. Garmestan, Craig R. Allen, Colin M. Gallagher

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Urban systems are manifestations of human adaptation to the natural environment. City size distributions are the expression of hierarchical processes acting upon urban systems. In this paper, we test the entire city size distributions for the southeastern and southwestern United States (1990), as well as the size classes in these regions for power law behavior. We interpret the differences in the size of the regional city size distributions as the manifestation of variable growth dynamics dependent upon city size. Size classics in the city size distributions are snapshots of stable states within urban systems in flux.

Improving Community Water Conservation Behavior In Chachoengsao, Thailand, Kuakul Sathapornvajana

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The issue of water supply throughout the world is of concern for many reasons. It is projected that by the year 2025 two-thirds of the world's population will encounter moderate to severe water shortages. As a result of unsustainable development over the past decade, Thailand has faced pollution problems as well as the depletion of many natural resources. These problems have impacted on the country's main rivers (Chaopraya River, Thachine River, and the Bangpakong River), that are crucial to a sustainable economy, society, and culture. There needs to be a concentrated effort at all levels (individual to community) to address …

Unresolved Issues With The Assessment Of Multidecadal Global Land Surface Temperature Trends, Roger A. Pielke Sr., Christopher A. Davey, Dev Niyogi, Souleymane Fall, Jesse Steinweg-Woods, Ken Hubbard, Xiaomao Lin, Ming Cai, Young-Kwon Lim, Hong Li, John Nielsen-Gammon, Kevin Gallo, Robert Hale, Rezaul Mahmood, Stuart Foster, Richard T. Mcnider, Peter Blanken

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This paper documents various unresolved issues in using surface temperature trends as a metric for assessing global and regional climate change. A series of examples ranging from errors caused by temperature measurements at a monitoring station to the undocumented biases in the regionally and globally averaged time series are provided. The issues are poorly understood or documented and relate to micrometeorological impacts due to warm bias in nighttime minimum temperatures, poor siting of the instrumentation, effect of winds as well as surface atmospheric water vapor content on temperature trends, the quantification of uncertainties in the homogenization of surface temperature data, …

Biogeochemical Evolution Of Cryoconite Holes On Canada Glacier, Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Elizabeth A. Bagshaw, Martyn Tranter, Andrew G. Fountain, Kathleen A. Welch, Hassan J. Basagic, W. Berry Lyons

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The cryoconite holes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys are simple, closed biogeochemical systems involving water, ice, mineral and organic debris, which serve as ecosystems for consortia of microorganisms. This study is the first to document the seasonal and annual chemical evolution of solutes in cryoconite holes. Samples of glacier ice, frozen cryoconite holes and those containing water were collected during the austral summer of 2005–2006. The isolation age was calculated from the excess Cl‾ in the holes, and varied from 0 to 5 years (a), consistent with the last hot summer when the cryoconite holes were open to the atmosphere. …

Constructed Wetlands For The Landscape Nursery Industry: Nutrient Assimilation And Removal, Sarah White

All Dissertations

Runoff from nursery operations is considered a potential non-point source contamination. Water quality and quantity are quickly becoming important factors that drive management practices at these facilities. Constructed wetland systems (CWS) are a management tool that can be used by nursery operations to improve water quality both for recycling within nursery production areas and for eventual release from nursery production areas into surrounding surface waters. The overall goal of this research was to optimize nutrient removal efficiencies in CWS. To accomplish this goal, I characterized the following: (1) the P sorption and desorption capacity of several substrates; (2) the effect …

Geochemical Reconstruction Of Late Holocene Drainage And Mixing In Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory, Janice Brahney, John J. Clague, Brian Menounos, Thomas W. D. Edwards

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The level of Kluane Lake in southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, has fluctuated tens of metres during the late Holocene. Contributions of sediment from different watersheds in the basin over the past 5,000 years were inferred from the elemental geochemistry of Kluane Lake sediment cores. Elements associated with organic material and oxyhydroxides were used to reconstruct redox fluctuations in the hypolimnion of the lake. The data reveal complex relationships between climate and river discharge during the late Holocene. A period of influx of Duke River sediment coincides with a relatively warm climate around 1,300 years BP. Discharge of Slims River into …

Sustainability Of Western Kentucky University: An Examination Of Campus Environmental Policies, Performance And Potential For Change, Christian Ryan-Downing

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Institutions of higher learning are in a pivotal position to address the environmental problems that global society faces now, but response to this challenge requires transformation in priorities and practices. Recognizing the impacts that universities have on the environment and the social and economic costs associated with these impacts, institutions of higher learning are changing policies and management to become more sustainable. Sustainability is defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (1987). To evaluate the environmental impacts …

Western Gray Whales Off Sakhalin Island, Russia: A Joint Russia-U.S. Scientific Investigation July-September 2007, David W. Weller, Amanda L. Bradford, Aimée R. Lang, Hyun Woo Kim, Maxim Sidorenko, Grigory A. Tsidulko, Alexander M. Burdin, Robert L. Brownell Jr.

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

A collaborative Russia-U.S. research program on western gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) summering off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia, has been ongoing since 1995 and has produced important new information on the present day conservation status of this critically endangered population. This interim report reviews preliminary findings from 2007 research activities and combines such with data from previous years, in some cases ranging back to 1994. Photo-identification research conducted off Sakhalin Island in 2007 resulted in the identification of 83 whales, including nine calves and two previously unidentified non-calves. When combined with data from 1994-2006, a catalog of 169 photo-identified …

Fecal Microbe Distribution And Abundance Used As A Possible Proxy For Nutrient Source Identification In Eutrophic Wilgreen Lake, Madison County, Kentucky, Theresa A. Aguiar, Walter S. Borowski

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Wilgreen Lake is a eutrophic lake that has been listed on the EPA’s 303d list as nutrient impaired. Potential sources of this impairment are from humans, cattle manure and fertilizers. We suspect that the majority of nutrients originate from human sources. As a possible proxy for nutrient input, we test our hypothesis by examining fecal microbe distribution and abundance in the lake.

We took water samples at 19 sampling locations on 4 occasions. Sampling spanned 26 June to 15 August with the last 3 sampling events occurring at roughly two-week intervals. These samples were then processed using IDEXX methods, which …

Shaping The Future Of Southern Nevada Moderators & Panelists Biographies

Shaping the Future of Southern Nevada: Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability

Moderators & Panelists biographies

Why Logging? A Value Assessment Of Forestry Uses In The Huon Forest District, Ryan Bailey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Huon Forest District comprises 762,800 hectares of forests in southwest Tasmania, with 128,900 hectares of that total designated as state forest managed by Forestry Tasmania. These forests are used primarily for wood production, although tourism, carbon storage, leatherwood honey and the specialty timbers industry are competing for access to these forests. This study examines the socio-economic values of these uses and determines whether the Huon Forest District is being utilized efficiently.

To accomplish this, an extensive literature review of past research was conducted. This information supplemented 7 semi-structured interviews that were conducted with experts from the forestry industry, tourism …

Water Current, Volume 39, No. 4, Fall 2007

Water Current Newsletter

Spring Seminars Tap Range of State, National Issues In 13-Lecture UNL Public Series By Steve Ress
April Water Law, Policy and Science Conference To Focus on Great Plains Water Quality Challenges
China’s water quality issues resonate at home
Meet the Faculty
Map Shows Groundwater Decline Slowed By Kelly Helm Smith
USGS Study Identifies Major Source of Nitrate in Precipitation
New Ph.D. Specialization in Applied Ecology at UNL By Tala Awada, Ph.D.
Water Resources Advisory Panel Holds October Progress Meeting By Jessica Harder and Steve Ress
Nebraska’s Top-10 Water Challenges
2007 UNL Water Colloquium & Water Sciences Laboratory Open House(Friday, Oct. …

Arctic Report Card 2007: Tracking Recent Environmental Changes, J. Overland, L. Bengtsson, R. Przybylak, J. Walsh, J. Richter-Menge, S. Nghiem, D. Perovich, I. Rigor, A. Proshutinsky, J. Morison, V. Romanovsky, R. Armstrong, L.D. Hinzman, N. Oberman, A. Shiklomanov, E. Hanna, J. Box, P. Huybrechts, R. Van Bogaert, D. Walker, G.J. Jia, O. Grau, M. Hallinger, M. De Dapper, C. Jonasson, T.V. Callaghan, D. Russell, M.J.J.E. Loonen, C. Zöckler, B. Ebbinge

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Collectively, the observations indicate that the overall warming of the Arctic system continued in 2007. There are some elements that are stabilizing or returning to climatological norms. These mixed tendencies illustrate the sensitivity and complexity of the Arctic System.

Atmosphere: Hot spot shifts toward Europe

Ocean: North Pole Temperatures at depth returning to 1990s values

Sea Ice: Summer extent at record minimum

Greenland: Recent warm temperatures associated with net ice loss

Biology: increasing tundra shrub cover and variable treeline advance; up to 80% declines in some caribou herds while goose populations double

Land: Increase in permafrost temperatures

The Arctic Report …

Watered Down: The Intersection And Integration Of Tourism Development And Water Resource Management In Marrakech, Morocco, Alison Maassen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Implementing Uganda’S National Wetlands Policy: A Case Study Of Kabale District, Sophie Glass

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Uganda’s “National Policy for the Conservation and Management of Wetland Resources” was launched in 1995 to promote the protection of Uganda’s wetlands in order to sustain their ecological and socioeconomic functions. Despite the formal policy, wetlands continue to be drained and converted. This report examines factors that account for the divide between the National Wetlands Policy and reality. Six weeks were spent researching the challenges associated with implementing the National Wetlands Policy. Kabale District was used as a case-study to better understand the issues that institutions and stakeholders face when trying to abide by the precepts of the policy. Rapid …

Effects Of Human Choices On Characteristics Of Urban Ecosystems, Lawrence A. Baker, Anthony J. Brazel, Loren Bryne, Alex Felson, Morgan Grove, Kristina Hill, Kristen C. Nelson, Jason Walker, Vivek Shandas

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Most urban ecology in cities remains an "ecology in cities" rather than an "ecology of cities." Accomplishing the latter requires the inclusion of humans within the concept of "ecosystem," both how humans alter the properties of urban ecosystems and how these alterations in turn influence human well-being. These influences are both direct (e.g., physiological and psychological influences on the human organism) and indirect, by influencing ecosystem sustainability. For the 2007 ESA meeting, Larry Baker, Loren Byrne, Jason Walker, and Alex Felson organized a symposium to address the relationships among human choices and urban ecosystems. In the introductory talk of this …

Departures From Gibrat’S Law, Discontinuities And City Size Distributions, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Craig R. Allen, Colin M. Gallagher, John Mittelstaedt

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Cities are complex, self-organizing, evolving systems and the emergent patterns they manifest provide insight into the dynamic processes in urban systems. This article analyses city size distributions, by decade, from the south-eastern region of the US for the years 1860–1990. It determines if the distributions are clustered into size classes and documents changes in the pattern of size classes over time. A statistical hypothesis test was also performed to detect dependence between city size and growth using discrete probability calculations under the assumption of Gibrat’s law. The city size distributions for the south-eastern region of the US were discontinuous, with …

Increase In Near-Surface Atmospheric Moisture Content Due To Land Use Changes: Evidence From The Observed Dewpoint Temperature Data, Rezaul Mamood, Kenneth G. Hubbard, Ronnie D. Leeper, Stuart A. Foster

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Land use change can significantly affect root zone soil moisture, surface energy balance, and near-surface atmospheric temperature and moisture content. During the second half of the twentieth century, portions of the North American Great Plains have experienced extensive introduction of irrigated agriculture. It is expected that land use change from natural grass to irrigated land use would significantly increase nearsurface atmospheric moisture content. Modeling studies have already shown an enhanced rate of evapotranspiration from the irrigated areas. The present study analyzes observed dewpoint temperature (Td) to assess the affect of irrigated land use on near-surface atmospheric moisture content. This investigation …

Invasive Species Management And Research Using Gis, Tracy Holcombe, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Catherine Jarnevich

Managing Vertebrate Invasive Species

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools in the field of invasive species management. GIS can be used to create potential distribution maps for all manner of taxa, including plants, animals, and diseases. GIS also performs well in the early detection and rapid assessment of invasive species. Here, we used GIS applications to investigate species richness and invasion patterns in fish in the United States (US) at the 6-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) level. We also created maps of potential spread of the cane toad (Bufo marinus) in the southeastern US at the 8-digit HUC level using regression …

Reducing Risk And Enhancing Efficiency In Non-Native Vertebrate Removal Efforts On Islands: A 25 Year Multi-Taxa Retrospective From Santa Cruz Island, California, Scott A. Morrison

Managing Vertebrate Invasive Species

Effective conservation of native biodiversity on islands often requires the eradication of destructive non-native vertebrates. There are risks in conducting an eradication project, however, including the risk that the effort will fail to remove all the individuals, and the risk that the removal of the species will trigger ecological cascades with unanticipated and undesired consequences. Managers must plan to reduce such risks, and also maximize the return on investment of the limited conservation resources available for restoration programs. I discuss four vertebrate removal projects implemented on Santa Cruz Island, CA, over the past 25 years: sheep, golden eagles, pigs, and …

The Cumberland Trail: An Assessment Of The Land Acquisitions And Potential Ecological Value Of Tennessee's New Linear Park, Ben Miles

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Tennessee's first linear state park, the Cumberland Trail State Scenic Trail, will stretch over three hundred miles from Signal Point in Hamilton County, to the Cumberland Gap on the Kentucky border. Although the trail uses land already in public ownership at different locations along its proposed route, land purchased to secure a state-managed corridor for the Cumberland Trail acquires properties along an expansive area of the Cumberland Plateau. Efforts to acquire land for the trail' s corridor utilize both federal and state funding, and constitute the largest land acquisition project in Tennessee. This large and unique State Park land acquisition …

Landscape Ecology Of Crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) In West-Central Indiana, Jacob L. Burskey

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I investigated the distribution, zoogeography, and habitat associations of crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) in an area of west central Indiana containing glaciated and unglaciated regions. I first sampled 180 streams within Vigo, Clay, Owen, Sullivan, Greene, and Knox counties to establish spatial distributions of crayfish species and gather information on natural history and site specific habitat conditions. Ten species were found; Cambarus (Tubericambarus) polychromatus, Cambarus (Lacunicambarus) sp.A, Cambarus (Erebicambarus) laevis, Fallicambarus (Creaserinus)fodiens, Procambarus (Girardiella) gracilis, Procambarus (Ortmannicus) acutus, Orconectes (Triscellescens) immunis, Orconectes ( Gremicambarus) virilis, Orconectes ( Crockerinus) propinquus, - Orconectes (Faxinous) indianensis. The two rarest species were 0. indianensis (collected …

Jeanne Gurnee Oral History Interview With Beth Fratesi And Todd Chavez, July 23, 2007, Jeanne Gurnee (Interviewee), Sarah Elizabeth (Beth) Fratesi (Interviewer), Todd Chavez (Interviewer)

Environmental Sustainability Oral Histories

Jeanne Gurnee, speleologist, explorer, writer, editor, conservationist, and land-use planner, discusses how she developed her lifelong interest in caving, how she met her husband Russell, and how they began their involvement with the National Speleological Society (NSS) as a professional pair. She gives an in-depth, chronological discussion of her professional involvement with caving groups and organizations, specifically the founding of fifty or more grottos, as well as her cave projects in Puerto Rico, Barbados, and Angola. Jeanne Gurnee speaks of her love of "show caves", their importance, her reception as an ecological lecturer, and her advice to young women beginning …

Evolution Of The American Ecological Paideia, Mary Snow, Richard K. Snow

Publications

No abstract provided.

Water Current, Volume 39, No. 3, Summer 2007

Water Current Newsletter

Latest Research on Water Science, Economics and Law To Be Featured in October
Fifth Annual Water Law, Policy and Science Conference Examines Water Quality by Lorrie Benson
SUMMERSTOCK ’07
Meet the Faculty
New Thermal Imaging Camera Advances UNL Research By Steve Ress
Coop Research Unit Tracks Invasive Species By Brent Atema
Water Resources Advisory Panel Update By Jessica Harder
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources Adds Groundwater Modelers, Geohydrologist By Steve Ress
Survey Offers Public Perceptions and Attitudes about Water by Sandi Alswager Karstens
Water Initiative Helps Add Nearly a Dozen New Faculty Members
Dahab Combines UNL Research and Administration with …

Oil. The Geopolitics Of Oil And Natural Gas, Alan Larson

New England Journal of Public Policy

Ensuring the reliability of global energy supplies will call for policies that both encourage the use of newer, cleaner energy technologies and address the political challenges posed by the world’s growing demand for oil and natural gas. U.S. policy seeks to encourage expansion and diversification of world energy supplies and to promote the transparency and democratic institutions that help energy-producing countries make the most productive use of their resources.

Oil. Geopolitics Reborn: Oil, Natural Gas, And Other Vital Resources, Michael T. Klare

New England Journal of Public Policy

Competition over vital resources is a potent source of international friction among nations and within states. The result is the increasing interplay of international and internal struggles and the growing militarization of the global energy resource quest.