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Private Lands Conservation In Palau, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

1, 37 leaves ; 28 cm

The Development Of An Environmental Ethics Undergraduate Curriculum For California, James Rowland Roberts

Theses Digitization Project

This study included an environmental ethics syllabi research project, an environmental ethics curriculum development survey of all colleges in California, and the subsequent development of tables to compare the results. The curriculum development survey of California colleges includes a listing of all course descriptions of environmental ethics and related courses.

Empirical Measurement Of Parasite Transmission Between Groups In A Colonial Bird, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

While epidemiological models have suggested that the spread of parasites
and infectious diseases often depends critically on the extent of movement by infected
individuals between populations, there is little empirical information for any organism on
the frequency of between-group parasite transmission or how it varies spatially. The transmission
of parasites between discrete social groups or populations may also help determine
a host’s total parasite or pathogen exposure. We measured the introduction of parasitic bugs
(Oeciacus vicarius) into colonies of Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) by transient
birds from outside each group. The transmission of bugs increased strongly …

Grass Or Trees? Performance Of Riparian Buffers Under Natural Rainfall Conditions, Australia, Lucy Mckergow, I Prosser, R Grayson, David Weaver, D Heiner

Journal articles

Riparian vegetation can trap sediment and nutrients derived from hillslopes. Most research into the effectiveness of riparian buffers has been experimental and little quantitative data exists on performance under natural field conditions. This study reports on grass and tree buffer performance under natural rainfall conditions in two contrasting Australian environments. Buffers receiving runoff from hillslopes cropped with bananas were monitored over a 4-year period in the wet topics of Far North Queensland (FNQ). Runoff, bedload and suspended loads were measured leaving the crop and leaving 15 m wide dense grass and remnant rainforest riparian buffers. The grass buffer was able …

An Unusual Lava Cave From Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg, Frederick Belton

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

A new type of lava cave is described from the summit crater of Ol Doinyo Lengai, a unique active carbonatite volcano in Tanzania. This and other similar caves on Ol Doinyo Lengai are formed by thermal erosion and aqueous dissolution of otherwise solid spatter cones. Meteoritic water and endogenous condensates act to form speleothems of complex mineralogy up to 3 m in length. We propose the new classification of “polygenetic spatter cone cave”.

An Analysis Of Simulated Long-Term Soil Moisture Data For Three Land Uses Under Contrasting Hydroclimatic Conditions In The Northern Great Plains, Rezaul Mamood, Kenneth G. Hubbard

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Soil moisture (SM) plays an important role in land surface and atmosphere interactions. It modifies energy balance near the surface and the rate of water cycling between land and atmosphere. The lack of observed SM data prohibits understanding of SM variations at climate scales under varying land uses. However, with simulation models it is possible to develop a long-term SM dataset and study these issues. In this paper a water balance model is used to provide a quantitative assessment of SM climatologies for three land uses, namely, irrigated corn, rain-fed corn, and grass, grown under three hydroclimatic regimes in Nebraska. …

An Inventory And Condition Survey Of The Pilbara Region, Western Australia, A M E Van Vreeswyk, K A. Leighton, A L. Payne, P Hennig

Technical Bulletins

The inventory and condition survey of the Pilbara region, undertaken by the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia between 1995 and 1999, describes and maps the natural resources of the region’s pastoral leasehold land. This survey report provides a baseline record of the existence and condition of the natural area’s resources, to assist with the planning and implementation of land management practices. The report identified and described the condition of soils, landforms, vegetation, habitat, ecosystems, and declared plants and animals. It also assessed the impact of pastoralism and made land management recommendations. The area surveyed covers about 181 723 km². Seven …

Agricultural Sub-Regions Of The Avon River Basin, Paul D. Galloway

Resource management technical reports

This report identifies, describes and locates nine sub-regions within the land cleared for agricultural uses in the Avon River Basin in Western Australia. The sub-regions are: Darling Range; Dale/Upper Avon; Avon Valley; Yealering Lakes; Mortlock; Northern Sandplain; south-east Lakes; Carrabin; Southern Cross. The sub-regions are described in terms of their distinguishing biophysical characteristics of: soils and related original vegetative cover; general topography; surface and sub-surface hyrdological stus; underlying geology; and rainfall and evapotranspiration range. Current dominant land use, economic drivers and land use pressures are identified for each sub-region.

A Comparison Of Aviris And Landsat For Land Use Classification At The Urban Fringe, Rutherford V. Platt, Alexander F.H. Goetz

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In this study we tested whether AVIRIS data allowed for improved land use classification over synthetic Landsat ETM+ data for a location on the urban-rural fringe of Colorado. After processing the AVIRIS image and creating a synthetic Landsat image, we used standard classification and post-classification procedures to compare the data sources for land use mapping. We found that, for this location, AVIRIS holds modest, but real, advantages over Landsat for the classification of heterogeneous and vegetated land uses. Furthermore, this advantage comes almost entirely from the large number of sensor spectral bands rather than the high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR).

Human Rights, Health And The Environment, David Gillespie

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Environmental health and human rights are inextricably linked. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” Given that the earth is the source of the basic necessities of human life, any discussion about health and human rights must be attentive to its inherent environmental aspects. International conventions, documents and reports such as Agenda 21 (1992) and The Draft Declaration of Human Rights and the Environment (1994) have expressly argued for such an integrated approach. In response, a plethora of works over the past decade have expanded the …

An Analysis Of The Anerr Coastal Resources Management Training Market, Claudette Robey, Kevin O'Brien, Daniel Baracskay, Michael Mcgoun, Michael J. Tevesz

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The market analysis for the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve revealed that there is a diverse body of coastal resources management training providers who offer training in the Florida Panhandle. These organizations are primarily either governmental agencies, or institutions of higher education. Most of them offer this training to various audiences as part of their missions, although a select few offer it as the sole purpose of their organizations.

Advection, Krill, And Antarctic Marine Ecosystems, Eileen E. Hofmann, Eugene J. Murphy

CCPO Publications

Advective processes are recognized as being important in structuring and maintaining marine ecosystems. In the Southern Ocean advective effects are perhaps most clearly observed because the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) provides a connection between most parts of the system, including open ocean and continental shelf regions. The ACC also provides a mechanism for large-scale transport of plankton, such as Antarctic krill (Euphousia superba Dana), which is an important component of the Southern Ocean food web. This overview provides a summary of recent observational and modelling results that consider the importance of advection to the Southern Ocean ecosystem and, in particular, …

An Analysis Of Simulated Long-Term Soil Moisture Data For Three Land Uses Under Contrasting Hydroclimatic Conditions In The Northern Great Plains, Rezaul Mahmood, Kenneth Hubbard

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Soil moisture (SM) plays an important role in land surface and atmosphere interactions. It modifies energy balance near the surface and the rate of water cycling between land and atmosphere. The lack of observed SM data prohibits understanding of SM variations at climate scales under varying land uses. However, with simulation models it is possible to develop a long-term SM dataset and study these issues.

In this paper a water balance model is used to provide a quantitative assessment of SM climatologies for three land uses, namely, irrigated corn, rain-fed corn, and grass, grown under three hydroclimatic regimes in Nebraska. …

Consequences Of Reservoir Drainage On Downstream Water Chemistry, Suspended Sediment, And Nutrients, Southwest Missouri, Mark W. Bowen

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Construction and subsequent draining of reservoirs can have dramatic affects on the release of nutrients and sediments to waterways. This study describes how the temporary draining of a small reservoir for dam repair influences downstream water quality. The Valley Mill Reservoir has a surface area of 6.1 hectares and volume of 150,000 m3 when filled. Water chemistry monitoring and water sampling were performed at six sites during baseflow and ten sites during runoff events for one year. Water samples were analyzed for total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP), and total suspended sediment (TSS) concentrations. Results indicate that draining of Valley …

An Assessment Of The Coastal Training Program Needs Of The Anerr Region, Claudette Robey, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Michael Mcgoun, Michael J. Tevesz

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A series of focus groups were conducted throughout northwest Florida to obtain input from coastal decision-makers into the design and development of a coastal resources management training program for the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR). The focus groups were comprised of a cross section of coastal and environmental professionals who make decisions affecting coastal and watershed areas. The focus group decision-makers were primarily employed in the public sector (federal, state, local, governmental, nonprofit, or academic), with nearly half of the participants having between six and 15 years of professional experience.

Trends Analysis Of Coastal Training Programs In The National Estuarine Research Reserve System, Claudette Robey, Kevin O'Brien, Kirstin S. Toth, Daniel Baracksay, Michael Mcgoun, Wendy A. Kellogg, Michael J. Tevesz

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRS) Coastal Training Program (CTP) is a system-wide training program that aims to increase informed decision-making related to coastal resource management at local and regional levels. The CTP serves as the NERRS flagship program for knowledge and information transfer, and provides an effective vehicle to ensure that science-based knowledge and skills get into the hands and minds of those individuals making decisions about the coast on a regular basis in a professional or volunteer capacity. At the local level, Reserve staff conducts intensive planning to develop targeted training programs that complement other training efforts within …

A Review Of The Colonization Dynamics Of The Northern Curly-Tailed Lizard (Leiocephalus Carinatus Armouri) In Florida, Henry T. Smith, Richard M. Engeman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Modeling And Measuring The Dispersion Of Odors From Hog Confinements, François Béra

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A comparison was made between predicted and measured odor concentration downwind of two hog finishing confinements. Two Gaussian dispersion models, STINKBAK and AERMOD, were used. The experimental cases examined odor emanating from a mechanically-ventilated facility and a curtain-sided facility during summer 2003. A field olfactometer was used to measure odor concentration. The odor concentrations served as input to STINKBAK, which then estimated the odor emission rate from the confinement. AERMOD used this emission rate and other meteorological data to predict the peak concentration of odor around the confinement over the sampling hour.

The calculated odor emission rates are slightly higher …

Functional Feeding Responses Of Coyotes, Canis Latrans, To Fl Uctuating Prey Abundance Inthe Curlew Valley, Utah, 1977–1993 , Rebecca A. Bartel, Frederick F. Knowlton

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We investigated interactions between coyotes (Canis latrans Say, 1823) and prey in the Curlew Valley, Utah, by comparing prey abundances with prey consumption rates. Previous studies reported a cyclic trend in black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus Gray, 1837) density with a period of 10 years and >150-fold amplitude, as well as short-term fl uctuations among some rodent species that exceeded an 8-fold difference in amplitude over 2 years. Our results suggest changes in coyote diets mainly refl ect the fl uctuations in jackrabbit abundance. Prey switching to rodents during periods of low jackrabbit abundance also was evident. We used the initial …

Subspecific Relationships And Genetic Structure In The Spotted Owl, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Hierarchical genetic structure was examined in the three geographically-defined subspecies of spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) to define relationships among subspecies and quantify variation within and among regional and local populations. Sequences (522 bp) from domains I and II of the mitochondrial control region were analyzed for 213 individuals from 30 local breeding areas. Results confirmed significant differences between northern spotted owls and the other traditional geographically defined subspecies but did not provide support for subspecific level differences between California and Mexican spotted owls. Divergence times among subspecies estimated with a 936 bp portion of the cytochrome b gene …

A Holocene Pollen Record Of Persistent Droughts From Pyramid Lake, Nevada, Usa, Scott A. Mensing, Larry Benson, Michaele Kashgarian, Steve Lund

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Pollen and algae microfossils preserved in sediments from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, provide evidence for periods of persistent drought during the Holocene age. We analyzed one hundred nineteen 1-cm-thick samples for pollen and algae from a set of cores that span the past 7630 years. The early middle Holocene, 7600 to 6300 cal yr B.P., was found to be the driest period, although it included one short but intense wet phase. We suggest that Lake Tahoe was below its rim for most of this period, greatly reducing the volume and depth of Pyramid Lake. Middle Holocene aridity eased between 5000 and …

Quaternary Sea-Level History Of The United States, Daniel R. Muhs, John F. Wehmiller, Kathleen R. Simmons, Linda L. York

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

In the past 30 years, there have been tremendous advances in our understanding of Quaternary sea-level history, due directly to developments in Quaternary dating methods, particularly uranium-series disequilibrium and amino acid racemization. Another reason for this progress is that coastline history can now be tied to the oxygen-isotope record of foraminifera in deep-sea cores. Furthermore, both records have been linked to climate change on the scale of glacial-interglacial cycles that are thought to be forced by changes in Earth-Sun geometry, or “orbital forcing” (Milankovitch, 1941).

The Contribution Of Stewardship To Park Planning And Management In Ontario: A Study Of Bruce Peninsula And Georgian Bay Islands National Parks, Felicitas Egunyu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Parks Canada has adopted ecosystem-based management as a means of maintaining ecological integrity. However, ecosystems often extend beyond park boundaries. Where parks share boundaries with other government-protected areas, arrangements have often been made for cooperation. These arrangements usually result in mutual benefits for the protected areas involved. Where parks share boundaries with privately owned land, stewardship is one of the methods being used to implement conservation-based practices. This study investigated the extent to which stewardship contributes to park planning and management in Ontario using the Georgian Bay Islands and Bruce Peninsula National Parks as case studies. Results show that stewardship …

Forest Fires, Woodland Caribou And Land Use Policies In Northwestern Ontario (Rangifer Tarandus), Brian Frederick Kutas

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are a threatened species in Ontario's boreal forest. Caribou require habitat that supports appropriate forage, including large areas of lichen rich forests. This research examines two dynamics that influence woodland caribou habitat in northwestern Ontario. These dynamics are forest fires and land use policies. The effects of forest fires are assessed quantitatively at both the ecosite and landscape scales within Woodland Caribou Provincial Park. Land use policy and management activities are evaluated using a case study and a policy analysis of protected area and forest management approaches to woodland caribou conservation in this region. Forest …

Impacts At The Coast: Climate Change Influences On Lake Huron's Water Levels At Oliphant (Ontario), Kevin Tupman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Since 1998, climate change induced low water levels in the Great Lakes have caused environmental and socioeconomic impacts along most of the Great Lakes' shorelines. According to recent climate change research involving different water level scenarios, climate change over the next century may continue to cause water levels in the Great Lakes to decline. Such impacts may include wider shorelines, drying of coastal wetlands, and navigation hazards that may result in increased dredging activities. These impacts will have a strong influence on new shoreline management policies and planning. To better understand potential future impacts, a specific methodology was developed to …

Quality Assurance Testing Of The Eclox-M In Detecting Terrorism Threats In Louisiana's Public Drinking Water Systems, Jessica Coleman

LSU Master's Theses

A quality assurance testing of the ECLOX-M™, a rapid water quality indicator used in potential terrorist attacks, was evaluated for its adequacy in nine regional Louisiana water systems. The ECLOX-M™ system uses enhanced chemiluminescence to measure toxicity in water by integration of a mixture of luminol (C₈H₇O₃N₃), and an oxidant in the presence of a catalyst enzyme - horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Water samples were tested for chemiluminescence, chlorine content, pH, and arsenic and/or nerve agent/pesticide contamination. In addition, three toxic industrial chemical standards were evaluated (mercury, a volatile liquid mixture, and a …

An Evaluative Framework For Assessing Information Management In Watershed Management: The Case Of The Grand River Conservation Authority (Ontario), Robert Scott Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Watershed management has been rapidly evolving over the last 50 years. The current focus has been adaptive and ecosystem-based approaches to watershed management, redefining roles, responsibilities, and relationships of watershed organizations. While entire management models need to be heavily scrutinized, the practices and policies surrounding information are fundamentally important. Information forms the understanding and knowledge for watershed decision-making. Watershed organizations need to be critical of the policies and practices affecting their collection, storage, processing, analysis, monitoring, and reporting of data and information. Among the Conservation Authorities, the GRCA has developed a proficiency at information management, doing it as well as …

Regional Planning And British Columbia's Agricultural Land Reserve: A Case Study Of Land Use, Development And Policy Impacts In The Central Okanagan Valley, Danielle H. Noble

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In North America, farmland is commonly targeted as the site of urbanization, because it is often the most easy to develop. British Columbia has been no exception. But British Columbia is unique in North American planning because it has imposed a comprehensive agricultural land reserve (ALR), now over thirty years old, to respond to agricultural land loss. Such an instrument can have important implications for land-use planning and for planning practice. This research documents some of the impacts of the ALR on planning while focusing on the Central Okanagan Valley as a case study region. The lessons of the Okanagan …

Geological Assessment Of The Intertidal Environment In Some Areas Along The Arabian Gulf And Gulf Of Oman Coastal Region, Uae: A Comparative Study., Mouza Rashid Mohamed Airashidi

Theses

The present study aims at assessing the geological environment of some selected areas along the coastal zones of the Arabian Gulf (northern coast) and the Gulf of Oman (eastern coast). Eight stations were selected for this study; these include three stations from the Gulf of Oman (Khor Fakkan, Kalba and Fujairah) and five stations from the Arabian Gulf (Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al-Quwen and Ras A1-Khaimah). 25 sediment samples were collected and subjected to grain-size analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis, microfacies and petrographic study and chemical analysis. Shell samples were collected from the same sites using 50x50x10 cm box. These shells …

Modification Of Growing-Season Surface Temperature Records In The Northern Great Plains Due To Land-Use Transformation: Verification Of Modelling Results And Implication For Global Climate Change, Rezaul Mamood, Kenneth G. Hubbard, Christy Carlson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Land-use and land-cover change can modify near-surface atmospheric condition. Mesoscale modelling studies have shown that modification in land use affects near-surface soil moisture storage and energy balance. Such a study in the Great Plains showed that changes in land use from natural grass to irrigated agriculture enhanced soil water storage in the root zone and increased latent energy flux. This increase in latent energy flux would correspond to a decrease in sensible heat flux and, therefore, modify near-surface temperature records. To verify this deduction, we have investigated the changes in the historical near-surface temperature records in Nebraska, USA. We have …