Digital Commons Network^™

Using Machine Learning Classification And Esa Sentinel 2 Multispectral Imager Data To Delineate Marsh Vegetation And Measure Ecotone Movement In Coastal Georgia, Thomas A. Pudil

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Tidal marshes are unique communities that are subjected to environmental stressors including sea level rise, salinity change, and drought, resulting in constant change. It is important to monitor these changing areas because of the ecosystem services they provide to us, such as protection from storms and carbon sequestration. The proposed work for this thesis project is focused on the study of tidal marshes and the dynamics between the vegetation species within them. The aim of this project is to use geospatial technology and analyses, along with machine learning classification methods, to monitor change in these valuable ecosystems. The Georgia coast …

Remote Sensing Of Georgia Tidal Marsh Habitats Using Aerial Photography And Planetscope Satellite Imagery, Harrison M. Currin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Globally, tidal marshes cover about 90,800 km. Within the state of Georgia tidal marshes are primarily located behind the barrier islands and total 1,619 km². The combination of high salinity environments and daily inundation, and being dependent on river output, make these dynamic systems. Tidal marshes provide numerous ecosystem services such as carbon and nitrogen sequestration, flood control, coastal protection, and numerous biogeochemical processes. Due to their unique position, tidal marshes are under threat from sea level rise, drought, coastal development, and large-scale disturbance events. Tidal freshwater marshes are especially susceptible to these threats due to their geographic …

Middle Savannah River: An A/R/Tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting With Rhizomatic Perspectives, Lisa Augustine-Chizmar

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud …

Assessment Of Atmospheric Correction Algorithms For The Remote Sensing Of Water Quality In Southeastern U.S. Estuaries, Jerome Reimers

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Water quality is a key indicator in understanding and representing an environment's overall health. Through developments in remote sensing, we can utilize satellite imagery to measure water parameters in each aquatic system. When accurate atmospheric correction is performed, remote sensing can account for atmospheric attenuation and scattering effects to better measure the reflectance and estimate optically active constituents (OAC) present in upper water columns. Atmospheric Correction for OLI lite (ACOLITE) is an atmospheric correction algorithm designed specifically for robust atmospheric correction of water surfaces, in comparison to algorithms designed more for land surfaces such as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) …

The Problem Of Abandoned, Lost, And Otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear In Eastern Caribbean Small-Scale Fisheries : Understanding The Challenges, Defining Solutions, Tricia Lovell

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

/="/">Abandoned, lost, and otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG—also termed derelict fishing gear) is a complex and significant global challenge for which strong, robust, and holistic governance is required. ALDFG is considered the most dangerous form of marine debris, as it is designed to capture marine organisms and can do so long after it has become derelict. While there has been an increasing body of work in academic literature on the scale, impact, and management of ALDFG, significant knowledge gaps still exist about how this challenge is affecting the small-scale fisheries of the Eastern Caribbean. This research has been designed …

Macrolichen Inventory Of The Horse Mountain Botanical Area, Six Rivers National Forest, California, Usa, Sarah Norvell Conway

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Macrolichen diversity and community composition was determined for an area of high botanical interest in the Coast Ranges of Northern California – the Horse Mountain Botanical Area (HMBA) in Six Rivers National Forest. The Coast Ranges have been suggested to have high epiphytic macrolichen diversity, yet detailed site-specific macrolichen surveys are lacking for the area. Here we present comprehensive data on macrolichens of the HMBA integrated with environmental metadata at the landscape level. Twenty 0.4 ha sampling plots were positioned across the varying habitats of the HMBA and macrolichens were intensively sampled from all substrata. Out of 888 total collections, …

Quantity Of Questing Black-Legged Ticks And Associated Micro-Scale Environmental Data Collected From Four Suburban Parks Near New York City, Shipeng Sun, Chong Di, Li Li, Brian Sulkow, Weigang Qiu

Publications and Research

During 2017 and 2018, we collected the quantity of questing black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, in 124 sampling sites of 5m by 5m in four state parks—Caumsett State Historic Park, Connetquot River State Park, Rockefeller State Park, and Fire Island National Seashore—around New York City. The black-legged tick is the primary vector for the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen of Lyme disease, in Northeastern United States. Using the flagging method, we collected and counted the numbers of adult and nymphal black-legged ticks at each site. Along with these quantities, we also recorded the …

Unequal Trust: Bottled Water Consumption, Distrust In Tap Water, And Economic And Racial Inequality In The United States, Daniel Jaffee

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviewing public health, nutrition, and social science literature, this article examines how bottled water consumption and spending in the United States differ along lines of race, ethnicity, and income, how these consumption patterns have changed in recent years, and how those shifts map onto perceptions of the safety and trustworthiness of tap water supplies, both before and since the Flint water disaster. It also addresses the differential impact of bottled water spending on household income. The findings challenge the truism that bottled water consumption is positively correlated with income, instead showing a bimodal racial and class consumption pattern that reflects …

Investigation Of Small Mammal Species Richness, Abundance, And Genetic Population Structure On And Around The Eastern Washington University Prairie Restoration Site, Sarah Deshazer

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Small mammals are an ecologically important component of every landscape on Earth. They are a food source for higher trophic level animals, disperse plant seed and mycorrhizal fungi spore, engineer the landscape through burrowing and foraging activities, and alter plant community composition through selective predation of seed and grain. Studies have shown that small mammals may help facilitate the transition between successive stages in prairie restoration. Eastern Washington University has dedicated 120 acres of campus land to restoration of native prairie habitat. Small mammals can play both a positive and a negative role in restoration, therefore it is important to …

Use Of Carbonation For Treatment Of Coal Mine Drainage To Increase Limestone Dissolution And Generate Alkalinity, Dietrich Henry Kuhlmann Iv

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

Use of Carbonation for Treatment of Coal Mine Drainage to Increase Limestone Dissolution and Generate Alkalinity

Dietrich Kuhlmann IV

Anoxic limestone drains (ALDs) are a common component used within passive treatment systems for coal mine drainage (CMD). Contact between limestone aggregate and CMD results in limestone dissolution, producing carbonate alkalinity. Though ALDs are one of the least expensive CMD treatment technologies, alkalinity generation is limited by limestone solubility. This necessitates a long retention time (>12 hours) and sometimes results in net acidic effluent which requires additional alkalinity generation steps downstream. One way to increase calcite dissolution and alkalinity …

The Uncertain Future Of Landscapes Subjected To Mountaintop Removal Mining, Samuel James Bower

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Increased erosion following human land disturbance is a global issue for ecosystem health and land management. Mountaintop removal (MTR) mining – a type of surface mining predominately found in the Central Appalachian Coalfields region – is one of the most significant examples of human perturbation to a natural landscape. A post-MTR landscape, when compared to its natural state, has significantly different erosive potential due to the rearrangement of topography from mining and reclamation practices. Removal of vegetation and alterations to soil further influence erosion by raising the effective erodibility of substrate subjected to MTR. We quantify the changes in erosion …

Natural Fracture Evolution: Investigations Into The Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin, Usa, Natalie Abigail Mitchell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Optimizing recovery from unconventional shale reservoirs has generated considerable research into optimal recovery methods through hydraulic fracturing design and shale reservoir characterization in the development of long-term hydrocarbon producers. Permeability at multiple scales from nanometer-scale pore sizes and nano-darcy permeability to completion-induced fractures defining a 100’s of meter stimulated reservoir volume plays a significant role in hydrocarbon flow during production in shale reservoirs. Preexisting cemented fractures in unconventional shale reservoirs are abundant and preferentially reactivate during induced hydraulic fracturing treatment to create necessary large-scale permeability. While previous investigations have significantly improved our knowledge of shale reservoirs, it has also highlighted …

Development Of A Framework To Support Community-Scale Nutrient Recovery For Local Crop Fertilization And Production, Scott A. Lopez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nutrient and resource recovery (NRR) has become increasingly crucial as regions face deteriorating sanitation infrastructures, limited support, and growing environmental challenges. Implementing region-specific NRR technologies and systems could provide effective circular economy insights into addressing these challenges. Because of the multidisciplinary challenges associated with the design and implementation of NRR strategies, various government and local decision-makers need to collaborate effectively in the decision-making process. Structured decision-making (SDM) methodologies are practical when determining the most appropriate NRR strategy for nutrient-rich waste streams. However, applications of computational SDM limited because of the vast amounts of data that are needed to analyze the …

Further Investigation Of Lead Exposure As A Potential Threatening Process For A Scavenging Marsupial Species, D. J. Hutchinson, E. M. Jones, J. M. Pay, J. R. Clarke, Michael T. Lohr, J. O. Hampton

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

There is a growing recognition of the harmful effects of lead exposure on avian and mammalian scavengers. This can lead to both lethal and non-lethal effects which may negatively impact wildlife populations. Our objective was to assess medium-term lead exposure in wild Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). Frozen liver samples (n = 41), opportunistically collected in 2017–2022, were analysed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine liver lead concentrations. These results were then used to calculate the proportion of animals with elevated lead levels ( > 5 mg/kg dry weight) and examine the role of explanatory variables that may have …

How Do Cooperatives Enable Empowerment Among Rural Women? Evidence From The Municipality Of Cavinti, Laguna, Maria Theresa M. Castro-Bernardo, Liezel S. Cruz

Journal of Economics, Management and Agricultural Development

The persistent gender issues and their implications for sustainable development have led to several strategic yet collective schemes, such as the cooperatives, promising to contribute to (women) empowerment and social equality. Guided by Kabeer’s conceptual framework, this study analyzes the role of cooperative membership in promoting empowerment among its female coop-members in Cavinti, Laguna. Primary and secondary sources of data were used and analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The result indicates that cooperatives play a critical role in empowering women by providing new and/or improved knowledge and skills through capacity-building training necessary to make informed decisions, thus strengthening …

Economic Implications Of International Energy Trade : A Comparative Analysis Across Developed, Developing, And Least Developed Nations, Mmaduabuchi Chigozie Emeghebo, Bintou K.B. Janneh, Semeria Youlo Maurice

World Maritime University Dissertations

Energy trade and consumption constitute vital components of international trade, a significance that has been amplified by escalating global industrialization and globalization. Nonetheless, the patterns of demand, trade, and utilization of energy differ markedly across various categories of economies, as delineated by the United Nations into Developed, Developing, and Least Developed Nations.

This study endeavors to elucidate the influence of international energy trade and consumption on the economic development trajectories of these three distinct categories of nations. Employing linear panel regression methodologies on panel data sets spanning the period from 1995 to 2021 for each category, the analysis reveals that …

Effect Of Coal Mining Subsidence Fractures On Source Of Water Absorption Of Artemisia Desertorum, Shang Jingxuan, Chen Shi, Liu Qianwen, Guo Xufeng, Guo Junting, Li Mi

Coal Geology & Exploration

Ground fissures caused by coal mining subsidence are not only a serious geological hazard, but also affect the growth and development of vegetation in the mining area and damage the mining ecosystem. To investigate the quantitative influence of coal mining subsidence fractures on the source of water uptaken by Artemisia Desertorum, the simulated precipitation tests of isotopically-labeled water were conducted in three test areas influenced by coal mining subsidence fractures to different degrees on 22312-working face of Huojitu mine field in Shendong mining area. The three test areas were divided according to the distance between Artemisia Desertorum and the fractures, …

Relative Importance Of Radar Variables For Nowcasting Heavy Rainfall: A Machine Learning Approach, Yi Victor Wang, Seung Hee Kim, Geunsu Lyu, Choeng-Lyong Lee, Gyuwon Lee, Ki-Hong Min, Menas C. Kafatos

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

Highly short-term forecasting, or nowcasting, of heavy rainfall due to rapidly evolving mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) is particularly challenging for traditional numerical weather prediction models. To overcome such a challenge, a growing number of studies have shown significant advantages of using machine learning (ML) modeling techniques with remote sensing data, especially weather radar data, for high-resolution rainfall nowcasting. To improve ML model performance, it is essential first and foremost to quantify the importance of radar variables and identify pertinent predictors of rainfall that can also be associated with domain knowledge. In this study, a set of MCS types consisting of …

Analyzing The Effects Of Climate Impacts In El Salvador And How They Influence Pollution, Ecosystems And Communities, Veronica Norio-Tomasino

Master's Projects and Capstones

Due to projections of rising temperatures and increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the rate at which climate change is impacting nations is devastating. However, developing countries and vulnerable communities are not the primary contributors to climate change, but they are at a greater risk for climate impacts by industrialized nations. As a result of increased human activity, developing nations such as El Salvador are particularly susceptible to climate-related events. Deforestation, water pollution, and human health risks are some activities that have contributed to El Salvador's vulnerability to climate change, drastically affecting rural communities suffering from multidimensional poverty. …

Possible Overestimation Of Nitrogen Dioxide Outgassing During The Beirut 2020 Explosion, Ashraf Farahat, Nayla El-Kork, Ramesh P. Singh, Feng Jing

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

On 4 August 2020, a strong explosion occurred near the Beirut seaport, Lebanon and killed more than 200 people and damaged numerous buildings in the vicinity. As Amonium Nitrate (AN) caused the explosion, many studies claimed the release of large amounts of NO₂ in the atmosphere may have resulted in a health hazard in Beirut and the vicinity. In order to reasonably evaluate the significance of NO₂ amounts released in the atmosphere, it is important to investigate the spatio-temporal distribution of NO₂ during and after the blast and compare it to the average day-to-day background emissions from …

Hydrologic Modeling With Remote Sensing For The Estimation Of Groundwater Resources Within The Sand River Catchment, South Africa, Sophia Bakar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Sand River Catchment is an important tributary of the transboundary Limpopo River in South Africa, which spans Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Mozambique. Groundwater is a critical resource in the region, especially in the context of population growth and climate change. Data are needed for proper management of these water resources. In regions where groundwater data are sparse in time, space, or both, the most promising solutions come from satellites and hydrologic models. Regional literature suggests that the Soutpansberg Mountains, located within the Sand Catchment, are high-elevation water towers with uncertain groundwater resources. Improved understanding of groundwater resources in …

Spatial Validation Of Agent-Based Models, Kristoffer Wikstrom, Hal T. Nelson

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper adapts an existing techno–social agent-based model (ABM) in order to develop a new framework for spatially validating ABMs. The ABM simulates citizen opposition to locally unwanted land uses, using historical data from an energy infrastructure siting process in Southern California. Spatial theory, as well as the model’s design, suggest that adequate validation requires multiple tests rather than relying solely on a single test-statistic. A pattern-oriented modeling approach was employed that first mapped real and simulated citizen comments across the US Census tract. The suite of spatial tests included Global Moran’s I, complemented with bivariate correlations, as well as …

Towards Structured Planning And Learning At The State Fisheries Agency Scale, Caleb A. Aldridge

Theses and Dissertations

Inland recreational fisheries has grown philosophically and scientifically to consider economic and sociopolitical aspects (non-biological) in addition to the biological. However, integrating biological and non-biological aspects of inland fisheries has been challenging. Thus, an opportunity exists to develop approaches and tools which operationalize planning and decision-making processes which include biological and non-biological aspects of a fishery. This dissertation expands the idea that a core set of goals and objectives is shared among and within inland fisheries agencies; that many routine operations of inland fisheries managers can be regimented or standardized; and the novel concept that current information and operations can …

Eat Your Invasives: A Practical And Historical Analysis Of Foraging For Invasive Foods, Grace Hartman

Honors Projects

This paper discusses both the historical and modern role of foraging and why people may decide to forage, as well as barriers new foragers may face and how they can be overcome. Furthermore, the paper discusses how foraging for invasive species can be used as a method of conservation and how simple foraging can be encouraged for this reason.

High Resolution Modeling Of Vegetation Reveals Large Summertime Biogenic Co2 Fluxes In New York City, Dandan Wei, Andrew Reinmann, Luke D. Schiferl, Roisin Commane

Advanced Science Research Center

Cities are beginning to monitor atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) to assess the efficacy of their climate policies. However, changes in anthropogenic CO₂ emissions must be separated from biospheric CO₂ fluxes which have a large seasonal cycle. Urban vegetation (e.g. lawns, trees along street and in parks, etc) in developed land covers is often omitted in regional biogenic CO₂ flux models. We set up a biosphere model to estimate the regional biogenic CO₂ fluxes in New York City (NYC) and assess the importance of vegetation within developed land covers. The model incorporates a high-resolution (30 …

Vegetation Type Is An Important Predictor Of The Arctic Summer Land Surface Energy Budget, Jacqueline Oehri, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Jin Soo Kim, Raleigh Grysko, Heather Kropp, Inge Grünberg, Vitalii Zemlianskii, Oliver Sonnentag, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Merin Reji Chacko, Giovanni Muscari, Peter D. Blanken, Joshua F. Dean, Alcide Di Sarra, Richard J. Harding, Ireneusz Sobota, Lars Kutzbach, Elena Plekhanova, Aku Riihelä, Julia Boike, Nathaniel B. Miller, Jason Beringer, Efrén López-Blanco, Paul C. Stoy, Ryan C. Sullivan, Marek Kejna, Frans Jan W. Parmentier, John A. Gamon, Mikhail Mastepanov, Christian Wille, Marcin Jackowicz-Korczynski, Dirk N. Karger, William L. Quinton, Jaakko Putkonen, Dirk Van As, Torben R. Christensen, Maria Z. Hakuba, Robert S. Stone, Stefan Metzger, Baptiste Vandecrux

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Despite the importance of high-latitude surface energy budgets (SEBs) for land-climate interactions in the rapidly changing Arctic, uncertainties in their prediction persist. Here, we harmonize SEB observations across a network of vegetated and glaciated sites at circumpolar scale (1994–2021). Our variance-partitioning analysis identifies vegetation type as an important predictor for SEB-components during Arctic summer (June-August), compared to other SEB-drivers including climate, latitude and permafrost characteristics. Differences among vegetation types can be of similar magnitude as between vegetation and glacier surfaces and are especially high for summer sensible and latent heat fluxes. The timing of SEB-flux summer-regimes (when daily mean values …

Earlier Snowmelt May Lead To Late Season Declines In Plant Productivity And Carbon Sequestration In Arctic Tundra Ecosystems, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Koen Hufkens, Barbara Bailey, Beniamino Gioli, George Burba, Jordan P. Goodrich, Anna K. Liljedahl, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer D. Watts, Mary Farina, John S. Kimball, Martin Heimann, Mathias Göckede, Martijn Pallandt, Torben R. Christensen, Mikhail Mastepanov, Efrén López-Blanco, Marcin Jackowicz-Korczynski, Albertus J. Dolman, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Roisin Commane, Steven C. Wofsy, Charles E. Miller, David A. Lipson, Josh Hashemi, Kyle A. Arndt, Lars Kutzbach, David Holl, Julia Boike, Christian Wille, Torsten Sachs, Aram Kalhori, Xia Song

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Arctic warming is affecting snow cover and soil hydrology, with consequences for carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems. The scarcity of observations in the Arctic has limited our understanding of the impact of covarying environmental drivers on the carbon balance of tundra ecosystems. In this study, we address some of these uncertainties through a novel record of 119 site-years of summer data from eddy covariance towers representing dominant tundra vegetation types located on continuous permafrost in the Arctic. Here we found that earlier snowmelt was associated with more tundra net CO2 sequestration and higher gross primary productivity (GPP) only in June …

Systematic Review Of A Ramsar Wetland And Unesco Biosphere Reserve In A Climate Change Hotspot (Ichkeul Lake, Tunisia), Sabrine Sahbani, Béchir Béjaoui, Sihem Benabdalla, Rachid Toujani, Afef Fathalli, Noureddine Zaaboub, Jalel Aouissi, Zeineb Kassouk, Nabil Hamdi, Nabiha Ben Mbarek, Hechmi Missaoui, Leila Basti, Reginald Blake, Hamidreza Norouzi

Publications and Research

Tunisia's Ichkeul Lake is among the most productive ecosystems in the Mediterranean, with a great regional value thanks to its diversity of habitats. It is an important overwintering area for waterfowl species. It is a RAMSAR wetland, a National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage, and a Biosphere Reserve. This review paper provides a broad overview of the climatic, hydraulic, biogeochemical features, bio-resources, and bio-productivity of the Lake. The interconnectivity between the different environmental components of the lake is presented, highlighting the main characteristics of this vital ecosystem. Its ecosystem consists of a permanent lake bordered by temporary marshes. It is …

Environment And Sustainability: December 2022, Environment And Sustainability, Office Of The President

Environment and Sustainability Archives

• Recently installed solar panels in Nairobi;

• Upcoming “Meatless Mangal” campaign;

• Engagement of leaders and employees in sustainability workshops;

• Closing of President’s Challenge for Climate Solutions;

• Plastic bag phase-out at BASIC shop;

• And much more…

The Rise Of Terrorism In Africa And What It Means For U.S. Policymakers, Bridget Mary Hughes

Master's Theses

This thesis utilizes three case studies to measure the rise of terrorism in Africa. This qualitative data leads the reader to one ultimate question: what does the rise in terrorism in Africa mean for the United States (U.S.) and U.S. policymakers, National Security academia, students in National Security, if anything at all? The answer is: if civilian and military compounds are being targeted by these violent extremists, as these three case studies demonstrate, it is my recommendation that U.S. policymakers cease sending troops to the African theater and, instead, allocate funding to the citizens and nonprofits of the countries whom …