Digital Commons Network^™

Volume 17, Christian O’Neill, Kyara Greene, Savva Sidorov, Laura Bisaillon, Luke Clemmer, Hannah Gordon, Kitt Benson, Taylor Blount, Rachel Danzitz, Nicholas Duellman, Chase Gionis, Hima Fernando, Seth Franzyshen, Onyx Gonzalez, Bryan Lin, Samantha Start, Ysabel Wells, Maggie Duncan

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction Dr. Amorette Barber, Director, Office of Student Research

From the Editor Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell

Cover Artist’s Statement Maggie Duncan

On Mentoring Dr. Yulia Uryadova

Ukrainian Resistance in the Face of Russification: Nestor Makhno and Anarchism

by Christian O’Neill

Life Vest by Kyara Greene

Isolation and 16S rRNA Identification of Bacteria from Fire Department Connection Pipe by Savva Sidorov

The Effectiveness of Planned Exercise in Reducing ADHD Symptoms in Children by Laura Bisaillon & Luke Clemmer

Linguistic Analysis on Confidence and Communication Strategies with Disparities Between Sign Fluency and Hearing Impairment by Hannah Gordon

Freedmen in Indian Territory by Kitt …

The Impact Of Label Material On Perceived Value And Environmental-Friendliness Of Beverages In Returnable Glass Bottles Versus Actual Environmental Impact Via Life Cycle Assessment, Toni Sharp

All Dissertations

With guidance from the EPA to reduce virgin packaging use and alternatively increase reuse, the concept of reusable packaging has re-emerged as a potential sustainable alternative to single-use and recyclable packaging. For businesses, an understanding of the potential environmental benefits of switching from single-use packaging to reusable packaging, along with consumer willingness to pay for sustainable packaging are paramount. Existing literature on willingness to pay (WTP) for ethical or sustainable products typically relies on consumers’ stated preferences found through surveys using hypothetical products and prices. It has been revealed that sustainability claims printed on the label or products in glass …

Detecting Sophisticated Cyberattacks On Public Water Infrastructure, Ayrton Purdy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

In recent years there has been an increasing number of cyberattacks on public water generation and distribution systems. Advanced persistent attackers could usurp sensors and control systems to contaminate public drinking water. In order to conceal their malicious activity, they can manipulate sensor data flows to give the appearance of normal activity. The compromised sensors would report normal chemical levels even though unsafe water is entering the distribution system. In response, this research proposes a multi-sensor, cross-comparison approach to anomaly detection. The proposed approach is designed to detect sophisticated cyberattacks which are not easily detectable using traditional cyber tools. The …

Comparing Awssi And Traditional Winter Metrics For Predicting Overwinter Survival Of Juvenile Walleye (Sander Vitreus), Camille N. Shifrin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Winter conditions are an important driver of recruitment variability in freshwater fishes, yet winter severity is often characterized using single climate metrics. These simplified approaches may not capture the cumulative stress experienced by fishes during winter. The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI) integrates multiple components of winter climate and may therefore provide a more biologically relevant indicator of overwinter survival. In this study, we compared AWSSI with traditional winter severity metrics to explain interannual variation in overwinter survival of juvenile Walleye (Sander vitreus) in Harlan County Reservoir, Nebraska. Model comparisons using Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) indicated that …

Open Space Management Planning: A Framework And Case Study From Eagle Mountain City, Utah, Nathan K. Shumway

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Open Space Management Plans (OSMPs) are increasingly used by municipalities to guide the long-term stewardship of natural lands; however, little formal guidance exists regarding how these plans are structured, developed, or organized in practice. While numerous OSMPs are publicly available, their compositional logic, procedural workflows, and thematic priorities remain largely undocumented within academic literature. This study addresses that gap through a qualitative document analysis of fifteen publicly accessible OSMPs from the western United States, published between 2015 and 2024.

Using manual matrix-based coding in Microsoft Excel, each plan was analyzed through three lenses: structural composition, procedural development, and thematic content. …

Exploratory Proxy Occupational Health Risk Assessment On Pm2.5 Exposure Among Outdoor Personnel At International Ports Of Entry, Josdell Maria Guerra Ruiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite growing public health concerns on PM2.5 exposure and its respiratory health effects, no documented evidence has been found on the application of proxy methods to perform occupational health risk assessments for PM2.5 exposure among outdoor personnel. The purpose of this research study was to conduct a descriptive and predictive occupational health risk assessment for cancer and non-cancer respiratory health outcomes related to PM2.5 exposure among outdoor personnel at targeted international ports of entry (IPOE). A total of 61 samples were collected, for 24 hours, at two targeted IPOEs (every sixth day) over 12-month period. Samples included measurements on PM2.5 …

Beyond Morphology: Testing Molecular Assessment Of Macroinvertebrate Communities In Alpine Streams Of The Teton Range, Usa, Joshua Vollmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Alpine streams and the macroinvertebrate communities that reside within them are threatened by the rapidly changing climate. Long-term monitoring of these communities is required to understand how they are changing and to predict their future trajectories. Historically, stream monitoring and assessment has been performed by collecting and identifying individuals using their morphological traits. However, in alpine aquatic ecosystems, distinct macroinvertebrate species often lack the morphological differences that allow them to be distinguished. DNA metabarcoding, an alternative method for identification which uses genetics instead of morphological differences, is not impacted by this issue, and therefore, may be better suited for alpine …

Drought-Tolerant Plants Of Great Salt Lake: Determining Dormancy Break, Germination, And Seeding Timing Requirements To Improve Restoration Under Hydrologically Extreme Conditions, Montana Horchler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wetlands are declining worldwide, and those in arid regions are especially vulnerable to climate change, drought, water diversions, and other human pressures. As a result, land managers increasingly rely on active revegetation to re-establish native plant communities and their associated ecosystem functions. Restoration that utilizes seeds as the propagule source is often the most cost-effective way to revegetate large areas, but in highly variable environments such as exist at Great Salt Lake, Utah, drought and flooding regularly limit plant establishment. Restoration practitioners require science-informed strategies to reach their goal of establishing diverse native plant communities with high native species cover. …

Social And Institutional Factors Influencing Restoration Decisions In Sagebrush Plant Communities In The Great Basin, Carmen Calzado-Martínez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Sagebrush landscapes of the Great Basin in the western United States have changed dramatically over the past century. Invasive grasses, repeated wildfires, and past land-use practices have made it increasingly difficult for native plant communities to recover once they are damaged. Most restoration efforts occur after disturbances such as wildfire, when ecosystems may already be severely degraded. An alternative approach is proactive restoration, which aims to strengthen ecosystems before major damage occurs. 

This dissertation examines whether proactive restoration strategies could realistically be used in sagebrush rangelands and what factors influence their adoption. The research combines three complementary approaches. First, interviews …

Comparing Strategies For Wetland Revegetation In An Uncertain Water Future, Hailey M. Machnikowski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wetlands worldwide are expected to experience more frequent and intense droughts and floods due to climate change. These shifting water conditions introduce challenges to restoring wetland plants, especially using direct seeding. Seeding is cost and labor-efficient compared to planting, but seeds and seedlings are highly vulnerable to water stress, so restoration efforts often fail when conditions are too wet or dry. Understanding how to improve seed-based revegetation under these conditions is increasingly important. Therefore, we sought to understand the response, measured by percent canopy cover or dry biomass weights, of native plants to different durations of drought in greenhouse experiments, …

Post-Wildfire Erosion And Biogeochemistry: Integrating Aerial Imagery And Soil Testing To Assess Landscape Recovery, Justin A. Allred

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

After a wildfire, land managers are required to monitor large tracts of land with limited time and budgets. Traditionally, tracking landscape recovery is a time intensive process. This research explored the effectiveness of using drones (UAVs), strategic soil sampling, and computer modeling as additional tools for land managers in order to monitor the recovery more efficiently.

By using drones to collect aerial imagery and using machine learning, plant regrowth was monitored in back-to-back years. The machine learning model performed well at telling broad groups apart (trees vs grass) but it struggled to identify differences between plant species. Because many plants …

Influence Of Coterie On Utah Prairie Dog Translocation Success, Bonnie Stokes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The Utah prairie dog (Cynomys parvidens) is a threatened species found in southwestern Utah. Utah prairie dogs are small, burrowing squirrels that live in family groups called coteries. Translocation, the intentional capture, movement, and release of animals from one location to another, has been widely used to aid in their recovery; however, post-translocation survival remains low. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of translocating Utah prairie dogs as intact coteries on post-translocation survival.

This study was conducted within the West Desert Recovery Unit in Iron and Beaver Counties, Utah, during July–October 2023 and …

Assessing Geomorphic Change From Large Wood Additions In An Intensively Monitored Watershed, Alexander Walt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Rivers across the American West are under stress. Over time, human activities have decreased riparian vegetation and removed naturally occurring large wood from fallen trees and beaver dams. Overgrazing, wetland drainage, and artificial barriers like levees and berms have further changed these ecosystems, leaving behind simple channels that lack varied habitat for aquatic species.

Efforts to restore rivers have made some progress, but many projects are small in scale and focus more on reshaping the river rather than restoring the natural processes that keep it healthy. This study evaluates a different approach—Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration (LTPBR)—which works with nature to rebuild …

Environmental Movements In El Paso And Ciudad Juarez: Possibilities And Limitations Of Cross-Border Organization At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Vanessa Maria Almada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

At the U.S.-Mexico border, the anthropogenic and nationalistic construction of the landscape has accelerated urbanization and unequal development without establishing effective binational institutions for governance over a shared commons. Borderlanders, then, contest unsustainable development with the added complexity of navigating a barrier which creates diverse socioeconomic and political realities that challenge cross-border cooperation. This qualitative research analyzes environmental organizations in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Through ethnographic study of mobilization in response to environmental legislation and administrative action in each city, the immediate barriers to cross-border cooperation and limitations of nationalistic institutions in the borderlands can be better understood.

2024 Annual Operations And Maintenance Report 2024 Bres Annual Summary Report For Work Completed In Quadrant 4, Butte-Silver Bow Department Of Reclamation And Environmental Services

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Walleye (Ogaa) Recruitment: Evaluating Assisted Reproduction As A Mitigation Strategy, Douglass Keiser

Biology Graduate Theses

Over the past several decades, cold- and cool-water fish populations across the Upper Midwest, including Minnesota and Wisconsin, have shown troubling signs of decline. Among the most affected is the walleye/Ogaa (Sander vitreus), a species deeply embedded in the ecological balance, cultural identity, and economic vitality of the region, and central to the lifeways, treaty-reserved rights, and resource stewardship of Tribal Nations, including Ojibwe communities across the Upper Midwest. Despite ongoing stocking efforts and harvest regulations, many lake systems have experienced persistent declines in natural recruitment, prompting resource agencies to investigate the underlying causes. One such system is …

High Throughput Phenomics Pipeline For Pulse Crop Nutritional Breeding, Amod Udayanga Madurapperumage

All Dissertations

Dry pea (Pisum sativum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) are major pulse crops valued for their high nutritional composition and importance to global food systems. Pulses are rich in carbohydrates, protein, and essential minerals, making them ideal whole foods and critical contributors to food and nutrition security. Due to these advantages, pulse breeding programs are increasingly focusing on enhancing nutritional traits, such as protein quality, amino acid balance, and micronutrient density, through the process of biofortification. However, improvement of agronomic traits remains equally essential. Characteristics such as plant height, standability, stress tolerance, …

Integrating Incentive Design And Spatial Prioritization For Climate-Smart Forestry Adoption In South Carolina, United States, Miah Maye Pormon

All Dissertations

Forests provide essential ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, water regulation, timber production, and habitat provision. However, increasing development pressures and land-use changes threaten forest persistence and long-run ecosystem service provision. Climate-smart forestry (CSF) practices, such as improved forest management and extended rotation, offer opportunities to enhance carbon storage, forest resilience, and economic livelihoods. The effectiveness of these practices depends on forest owners’ participation and the strategic allocation of financial resources or incentives. This dissertation develops an integrated framework that combines behavioral economic analysis and mapping to improve the design of current incentive programs. The first chapter employs the Contingent Valuation …

Geography, Income, And The Incidence Of A Massachusetts Carbon Tax, Susan Stratton Sayre

Economics: Faculty Publications

I use spatial microsimulation to estimate the geographic incidence of the consumer-facing portion of various revenue-neutral carbon tax designs in Massachusetts. I identify a substantial urban-rural disparity in impacts that is reduced, but not eliminated, by proposed revenue-targeting mechanisms. I further demonstrate that seemingly small variations in the definition of rural households can have substantial impacts on urban-rural equity and the distribution of gains and losses. Proposed policies are highly progressive in the aggregate with most low-income households receiving more in rebates than they pay in taxes, but notable numbers of low-income households are likely to experience significant losses. Methodologically, …

Low Methane Emissions From Nutrient-Rich Former River Channels In A Hydrologically Managed Dryland Delta, Siena Stassi, Jude A. Benavides, Chu-Lin Cheng, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, Nicholas E. Ray, Nathan O. Barros, Rafael M. Almeida

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic stresses in dryland regions can alter hydrology, salinization, and biogeochemical processes. How these pressures influence methane (CH4) cycling and emissions from aquatic ecosystems remains poorly understood. Over the course of 1 year, we measured diffusive and ebullitive CH4 emissions from resacas—shallow, hydrologically managed distributary channels prevalent throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley along the US–Mexico border. Despite warm, nutrient-rich waters, CH4 emissions from resacas were low, and more comparable to rates observed in estuarine systems. CH4 fluxes were positively related to temperature but negatively related to salinity and rainfall. Elevated salinity, driven by evaporation and source water from the …

Ecological Insights And Management Implications Of The Global Migratory Connectivity Of Green Turtles, Jaime Restrepo, Dina Nisthar, Harris Wei-Khang Heng, Lily K. Bentley, Corrie Curtice, Sarah Deland, Ei Fujioka, Patrick N. Halpin, Sarah K. Poulin, Roldán A. Valverde

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Aim

Green turtles are a widely distributed and highly migratory species; despite extensive data on their movement, there is no species-specific global synthesis on the subject. Based on three decades of published literature and building on previous global analyses, we developed a global network model of migratory connectivity for green turtles to better understand their spatial biology.

Location

Global.

Time Period

1990–2022.

Major Taxa Studied

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas).

Methods

We conducted a structured literature review extracting georeferenced information on the movement of green turtles from 1990 to 2022, aggregating this information into a single connectivity model, …

Public Pool Usage As Adaptation Against Urban Heat, Stefan Borsky, Eric Fesselmeyer

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper examines the relationship between urban heat and outdoor public pool usage. Using attendance data from all 53 outdoor public pools in New York City, we analyze nonlinear effects of heat on pool usage across socioeconomic contexts. Pool attendance rises sharply with heat, especially in low-income neighborhoods where alternative coping options are likely limited. We also find that public pools reduce heat-related emergency medical service calls. Our findings highlight the need for equitable investment in blue infrastructure to enhance urban climate resilience and demonstrate how this type of adaptive infrastructure can play a critical role in managing urban heat.

Final Silver Bow Creek Conservation Area Materials Management Plan, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Regional Assessment Of South Texas Wells Produced Water, Hunter T. Barnett

Water Resources Science and Technology Theses and Graduate Research Reports (Archived)

This study presents a regional assessment of produced water (PW) quality from oil and gas wells in South Texas, with a focus on variability and its implications for treatment and reuse. As oil and gas production continues to expand, PW waste streams will continue to grow. With a focus on the Eagle Ford Shale, understanding the chemical composition is critical for effective PW management. A total of 28 PW samples were collected from wells located in Pleasanton, Jourdanton, and Tilden, Texas. Samples were analyzed for key parameters including total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, total hardness, and calcium. The results showed …

Low Climate Benefit Of Nordic Coastal Marshes: Site Conditions Outweigh Grazing Effects And Shape Trade-Offs Between Carbon Storage And Its Stability, Carmen Leiva-Dueñas, T. Banta, Christoffer Boström, Franziska Eller, Johan Eklöf, Line Holm Andersen, Kai Jensen, Marianna Lanari, Ella Logemann, Pere Masque, Thomas Ostertag, Christoph Reisdorff, Anaïs Richard, Anu Vehmaa, Jukka Alm, Mikael Von Numers, Dorte Krause-Jensen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Coastal marshes, recognized as effective organic carbon (OC) sinks, have gained attention for their potential contribution to climate mitigation through protection and restoration. However, the climate mitigation potential of Nordic coastal marshes remains understudied, likely due to their heterogeneous and often non-tidal nature. To fill this gap, we examined soil OC storage and accumulation rates, and the effects of grazing, a common management practice, across eight Nordic coastal marsh areas spanning broad climate and environmental gradients. We also assessed soil methane emissions in selected areas. The Nordic marshes studied store a median of 7 kg OC m⁻² (interquartile range, …

Vulnerability Of Bass Populations To Our Changing Climate In The Mississippi River, Cameron Schreifels

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Climate change is altering habitats and damaging bass populations throughout the Mississippi. The main factors of climate change affecting bass are shifts in water quality and significant weather events, which have increased bass vulnerability. With rising temperatures and eutrophication changing the way these bass hunt for their prey, it has made it easier for other non-native species to encroach on their habitat, which has led to bass further encroaching on other species due to climate change.  Given their economic importance and cultural significance, better management practices are needed to find new ways to protect them and ensure they remain a …

Apparent Hack’S Law In River Deltas, Tian Y. Dong, Lawrence Vulis, Hongbo Ma, Alejandro Tejedor, Timothy A. Goudge

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

River deltas are densely populated, ecologically vital landscapes threatened by rising sea levels. Distributary channel networks disperse sediment to build deltaic land, yet the relationship between the network organization and land building remains elusive. Inspired by Hack’s law, which shows that watershed drainage area scales with channel length in tributary networks, we analyzed a global dataset of distributary networks and found a nearly identical scaling relationship between distributary channel length and nourishment area, the land-building counterpart to drainage area. Despite this apparent global scaling, we further identified two distinct local land-building patterns: uniform delta networks consistently follow Hack’s law, whereas …

Warming Climate Amplifies Vapor Pressure Deficit Limits On Gross Primary Productivity, Shiqin Xu, Nate G. Mcdowell, Tim R. Mcvicar, Diego G. Miralles, Stephen Sitch, Pablo Sanchez-Martinez, Joshua B. Fisher, Pierre Friedlingstein, Hylke E. Beck, Matthew F. Mccabe

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Ongoing climate warming may profoundly impact terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP), a key component of the global carbon cycle. However, uncertainty in the relative roles of atmospheric water demand (vapor pressure deficit, VPD) and root-zone soil moisture (SM) limits predictions of drought impacts on GPP. Here, we show that growing-season GPP was more strongly constrained by VPD than SM globally, based on observation-constrained model estimates, satellite retrievals and Dynamic Global Vegetation Model simulations. The importance of VPD increased with higher temperatures and more severe and prolonged droughts. This pattern reflects VPD’s critical role in regulating stomatal conductance and plant hydraulic …

Final Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Quality Assurance Project Plan (Qapp), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Sirna-Mediated Knockdown Of Heat Shock Protein 16.2 In Adult Acropora Cervicornis, Edward P. Gniffke, Benjamin D. Young, Keir J. Macartney, Michael S. Studivan, Ian C. Enochs, Erin E. Easton

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Acropora cervicornis is a critically endangered Caribbean coral species facing a precipitous decline due to disease and thermal bleaching. To combat the loss of ecologically important reef-building corals, novel molecular approaches can be used to understand mechanisms of resilience and ultimately provide a means to modulate coral performance. In this study, we tested a recently developed method for gene knockdown in adult corals that utilizes short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and the RNA interference pathway. The Heat Shock Protein 16.2 (HSP16.2) gene in fragments of adult A. cervicornis was targeted for knockdown using a single siRNA construct. RT-qPCR analysis of HSP16.2 …