Digital Commons Network^™

Macroinvertebrate Community Analysis On Lower Hood River Before And During The Removal Of Powerdale Dam: A Baseline Study, Howard Jay Patterson

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Powerdale Dam was an 87-year-old hydroelectric complex on lower Hood River in northern Oregon which was decommissioned in 2010. Macroinvertebrate samples were collected in 2009, before the removal process began, and in 2010, near the end of the demolition project, at one site upstream and three sites downstream of the dam. Macroinvertebrate communities were analyzed using both multi-metric (Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity [B-IBI]) and multivariate (Predictive Assessment Tool for Oregon [PREDATOR]) approaches, as well as EPT and Functional Feeding Group (FFG) analysis. All analytical approaches indicated declines in habitat quality in 2010 relative to 2009, and showed increasing impairment …

Biogas Technology On Uzi Island, Zanzibar: A Feasibility Study, Peter J. Mcinerney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With realization of the finite quantity of fossil fuels and improved study on the effects of global climate change there has been an increasing demand for energy production from renewable, sustainable sources in developed and developing nations alike. The population of Tanzania relies overwhelmingly on biomass as a source of primary energy, with such impacts as deforestation and negative health effects. Biogas generation is a renewable energy technology that utilizes organic waste sources to produce a methane-rich gas suitable for cooking and lighting with the potential to replace current unsustainable energy sources and provide several environmental and socioeconomic benefits. A …

Rural Futures: How Can Agricultural Development Lead To A High Quality Of Life?, Jessie Ebersole

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Study Objectives:

Uganda, with its wealth of arable land and water resources, has unrealized agricultural development potential. How food is produced and distributed will impact United Nations Millennium Development Goal targets, including the eradication of extreme hunger, reductions in child mortality, and improvements in maternal health and environmental sustainability, yet advances towards the MDG’s have been limited. This study explores how Uganda’s agricultural sector can be developed in a way that improves the quality of life of smallholder farmers in Katente and Namuyenje parishes in Mukono district, Uganda. Ugandan agricultural production is starved of new sources of knowledge and technology, …

Yongzhi Village: An Example For Sustainable Tourism And Development In Deqin County, Kiersten Brown

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Nestled beneath misty mountain peaks, among the Salween, Mekong, and Yangtze rivers, a beautiful Tibetan village lies. Alongside low-lying mountain creeks and waterfalls this village is in Deqin County of Yunnan’s Deqin Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Deqin TAP). The Deqin TAP is the most Northwest prefecture of Yunnan. Deqin boasts that 33% of its population is comprised of the dominant minority group, Tibetans. Deqin prefecture is comprised of three counties, Shangrila County, Deqin County, and Weixi County. Deqin County is mostly comprised of small Tibetan towns and villages like Yongzhi. About 100 families inhabit Yongzhi. The village is placed right along …

Examining Trends In Taste Preferences, Market Demand, And Annual Catch In An Indigenous Marine Turtle Fishery In Southwest Madagascar, Kristin Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The worldwide exploitation of marine turtles has been common throughout human history, turtle products including carapaces for decoration and use, skin for leather, and eggs and meat for consumption. The hunting of marine turtles has long established economic importance among Madagascar's coastal inhabitants and is an activity traditionally associated with integral cultural and spiritual values. Due to overexploitation and a combination of relatively newer threats such as pollution, habitat loss, and incidental fisheries take, however, all marine turtle species in the Indian Ocean are considered to be endangered or critically endangered. Although Madagascar's marine turtles have been legally protected from …

Activeion Ionator Exp, Linda Straker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The case study was conducted to determine the effects of the cleanliness of the guest rooms and the effects to the hotels bottom line in implementing Activeion’s Ionator EXP as a new cleaning method to be used in the hotel guest rooms by the room attendants as opposed to the traditional cleaning method using 5 different cleaning chemicals to clean the guest rooms. The Ionator EXP is a chemical-free cleaning system. It is a hand held cleaning spray bottle unit that holds, cleans, and sanitizes with water. The Ionator EXP uses ionization, electricity and oxygen to clean.

The study included …

Identification Of ‘Carbon Hot-Spots’ And Quantification 1 Of Ghg Intensities In The Biodiesel Supply Chain Using Hybrid Lca And Structural Path Analysis, Adolf Acquaye, Thomas Wiedmann, Kuishang Feng, Robert Crawford, John Barrett, Johan Kuylenstierna, Aidan Duffy, Lenny Koh, Simon Mcqueen-Mason

Articles

It is expected that biodiesel production in the EU will remain the dominant contributor as part of a 10% minimum binding target for biofuel in transportation fuel by 2020 within the 20% renewable energy target in the overall EU energy mix. Life cycle assessments (LCA) of biodiesel to evaluate its environmental impacts have, however, remained questionable, mainly because of the adoption of a traditional process analysis approach resulting in system boundary truncation and because of issues regarding the impacts of land use change and N2O emissions from fertiliser application. In this study, a hybrid LCA methodology is used to evaluate …

Review Of The Ecology And Management Of Prairies In The Central United States. By Chris Helzer., David J. Gibson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This relatively short book is an informative and easyto- read account of the author's philosophy and advice on how to manage prairies in the Central U.S., an area corresponding to the eastern portion of the Great Plains where tall- and mixed-grass prairie occurred. With fragmentation and huge losses of this region's natural prairie habitat, there is a growing appreciation for active management of remnants and prairie restoration. This book provides an excellent introduction to this topic.

Spatially-Explicit Agent-Based Modeling Of Ecosystem Change And Epizootiological Impacts On Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Panulirus Argus, Thomas William Dolan Iii

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Agent-based models explicitly incorporate interactions and variation at the individual level, just as in the real world. As a result, agent-based models are realistic, intuitive, and generally less complex mathematically than their analytical counterparts. Their primary disadvantage is the large amount of detailed data required to construct and parameterize them. Although the use of agent-based simulation is increasing in ecology, they are highly specific, so are rarely used for development of theory. To demonstrate the flexibility and utility of this approach I developed a multi-species, agent-based, spatially-explicit model of the spiny lobster nursery of southern Florida that incorporates changing salinities, …

Research On Coupled Human And Natural Systems (Chans): Approach, Challenges, And Strategies, Marina Alberti, Heidi Asbjornsen, Lawrence A. Baker, Nicholas Brozović, Laurie E. Drinkwater, Scott A. Drzyzga, Claire A. Jantz, José Fragoso, Daniel S. Holland, Timothy A. Kohler, Jianguo Liu, William J. Mcconnell, Herbert D. G. Maschner, James D. A. Millington, Michael Monticino, Guillermo Podestá, Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr., Charles L. Redman, Nicholas J. Reo, David J. Sailor, Gerald Urquhart

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding the complexity of human–nature interactions is central to the quest for both human well-being and global sustainability. To build an understanding of these interactions, scientists, planners, resource managers, policy makers, and communities increasingly are collaborating across wide-ranging disciplines and knowledge domains. Scientists and others are generating new integrated knowledge on top of their requisite specialized knowledge to understand complex systems in order to solve pressing environmental and social problems (e.g., Carpenter et al. 2009). One approach to this sort of integration, bringing together detailed knowledge of various disciplines (e.g., social, economic, biological, and geophysical), has become known as the …

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Monitoring And Evaluation Of Sensitive Wildlife: Final Project Report, Margaret N. Rees, Jef R. Jaeger Ph.D.

Wildlife Monitoring

This task agreement was originally awarded by the National Park Service (NPS), Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LMNRA) to the Public Lands Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on September 30, 2006, and was amended to run through March 31, 2011. This agreement covered several project elements focused on:

• Monitoring and conservation actions for the relict leopard frog
• Coordinating and conducting annual bald eagle counts on Lakes Mead and Mohave
• Development and assessment of a habitat map for wintering bald eagles based on observations data collected during winter counts

• Monitoring of breeding peregrine falcons and assessment of reproductive …

Limnological Assistance For Lake Mead National Recreation Area: Quarterly Report, Period Ending March 30, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Limnological Studies

Project 1

• Technical assistance with the implementation of the Interagency Monitoring Action Plan (I-MAP) for Quagga Mussels is ongoing. During this quarter, analysis was completed for 13 juvenile/adult samples and analyses of the remaining samples are underway.
• Both research projects are well underway with 14 sample sets collected for Veliger abundance and settlement at different depths of Lake Mead and 12 samples collected for Growth of adult quagga mussels within Las Vegas Wash/Las Vegas Bay.

Project 2

• Annual summary sheets are under development for the topics listed within the Limnological and Aquatic Resource Monitoring and Research Plan for Lakes Mead …

The Fierce Green Fire: Vol. 1 Issue 13, Wofford College Environmental Studies Program

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Assessment Of Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products (Ppcps) In Natural Waters In The El Paso Del Norte Area And Their Impacts On Aquatic Invertebrates, Sarah T. Baca^, Wen-Yee Lee, Jennifer Martinez, Rodolfo Guerrero, Elizabeth J. Walsh*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

The Rio Grande is a major source of water for humans and wildlife. The types and concentrations
of PPCPs, and their impacts on aquatic life, in the river are virtually unknown. The purpose of this
research is to assess their impact on aquatic invertebrates and establish the concentrations of these contaminants in the river and an adjacent wetland. Water and sediment samples were collected from the river and the wetland. Water chemistry parameters were monitored and samples were retained for PPCP analyses. Invertebrates were exposed to PPCPs using modified life cycle tests. LC50 values for caffeine for chironomids ranged from …

Effects Of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles On Glycine Max Grown In Hydroponics, Alyssa De La Rosa^, Jose Peralta, Jeff Terry, Jorge Gardea-Torresdey*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (NPs) or nanoceria have a high level of UV absorption and antioxidant behavior, making them great candidates for sun screens, beauty products, and in treating cancer and glaucoma. The increased use of these NPs underscores the importance of understanding their environmental fate and toxicity. So far, information about nanoceria toxicity to plants is scarce. The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of CeO2 NPs on soybean (Glycine max) plant growth and monitor their uptake, deposition, and biotransformation. Soybean plants were treated for 14 days in a modified Hoagland solution containing varying concentrations …

Are Elevated Nutrient Levels In Arctic Tundra Ponds Due To Permafrost Thawing?, Francisco R. Reyes Jr.^, Vanessa Lougheed*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

Continued warming of the arctic tundra in northern Alaska can have important ecological implications for freshwater ecosystems. An increased active layer depth can lead to nutrient release from permafrost. Comparisons of water quality parameters from the 1970s and 2008-09 from tundra ponds in Barrow, Alaska indicated an increase in water column Total Phosphorus (TP), Soluble Reactive Phosphorus (SRP), Total Dissolved Phosphorus (TDP) and algal biomass (phytoplankton) over time. We designed an incubation experiment to look at nutrient release rates from permafrost and active layer cores under different warming scenarios. Although water column data have shown an increase in phosphorus species …

Collaborative Learning And Land Use Tools To Support Community Based Ecosystem Management: A Final Report Submitted To The Noaa/Unh Cooperative Institute For Coastal And Estuarine Environmental Technology (Ciceet), Christine Baumann Feurt

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

This project developed a model conservation plan for local land use decision making that engaged diverse stakeholders in discussions about conservation values, ecosystem services and strategies to balance conservation and economic development. This locally focused action research case study tested the application of ecosystem based management (EBM), Collaborative Learning and land use technology tools to land use planning. Lessons learned were scaled up to create capacity building training for land use decision makers and coastal managers to increase interdisciplinary skills for implementing ecosystem based management.

Collaborative Learning and EBM Tools were tested and evaluated for their contribution to implementing EBM …

Native Grassland Management Guidelines For Nebraska's Wildlife Management Areas, Gerry Steinauer, Kent Pfeiffer, Jarren Kuipers

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: White Papers, Conference Presentations, and Manuscripts

This document is one of a four part series produced by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to provide direction to managers of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in Nebraska. Other documents in the series cover management of woodlands, wetlands, and converted habitats.

Prior to EuroAmerican settlement grasslands covered 98% of the Nebraska landscape and supported the majority of the state’s biodiversity. Since settlement, Nebraska’s native grasslands have suffered serious decline. For example, approximately 98% of eastern Nebraska’s tallgrass prairie has been lost to development. In central and western Nebraska grassland losses have been less dramatic though still substantial. Remnant grasslands …

Isolation By Distance Explains Genetic Structure Of Buggy Creek Virus, A Bird-Associated Arbovirus, Abinash Padhi, Amy T. Moore, Mary Bomberger Brown, Jerome E. Foster, Martin Pfeffer, Charles R. Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Many of the arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) show extensive genetic variability and are widely distributed over large geographic areas. Understanding how virus genetic structure varies in space may yield insight into how these pathogens are adapted to and dispersed by different hosts or vectors, the relative importance of mutation, drift, or selection in generating genetic variability, and where and when epidemics or epizootics are most likely to occur. However, because most arboviruses tend to be sampled opportunistically and often cannot be isolated in large numbers at a given locale, surprisingly little is known about their spatial genetic structure on the local …

Regional Scale Monitoring Of Methane Production By Dairy Farm Ungulates; A Proposal To The National Science Foundation (Nsf) And The National Ecological Observatory Network (Neon, Inc.), Lindsey Anne Peterson

Biological Sciences

No abstract provided.

Avian Conservation In The Prairie Pothole Region, Northern Great Plains: Understanding The Links Between Climate, Ecosystem Processes, Wetland Management, And Bird Communities, Susan K. Skagen, Joseph J. Fontaine, Ryan Stutzman, Valerie Steen, Cynthia P. Melcher, John Stamm, Gary Clow, Mark Anderson, Parker Norton, Neal Niemuth, Jonathan M. Friedman, Robert Gleason, Brian Tangen, Diane Granfors, Lucy Burris

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Historically, the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America was characterized by myriad semi-permanent, seasonal, and temporary wetlands interspersed among rivers in a context of prairie uplands. These wetlands have supported millions of en route and breeding wetland-dependent birds. Today, expanses of the PPR landscape are dominated by intensive agriculture, and many of the remaining habitats have been impacted by altered water regimes, increasing sedimentation, and changes in plant communities. Climate change is likely to cause further alterations by shifting the seasonal availability and distribution of water and vegetation communities. Climate change will also affect the phenology (annual recurrence of …

Factors Affecting Space Use Overlap By White-Tailed Deer In An Urban Landscape, W. David Walter, Jeff Beringer, Lonnie P. Hansen, Justin W. Fischer, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Variation in the size and overlap of space use by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has broad implications for managing deer–human conflicts and disease spread and transmission in urban landscapes. Understanding which factors affect overlap of home range by various segments (i.e., age, sex) of an urban deer population has implications to direct contact between deer on disease epidemiology. We assessed size of home range and overlap of space use using the volume of intersection index (VI) for deer in an urban landscape by sex, age, season, and time of day. We found mean space use was larger for …

Natural And Drought Scenarios In An East Central Amazon Forest: Fidelity Of The Community Land Model 3.5 With Three Biogeochemical Models, Koichi Sakaguchi, Xubin Zeng, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Natalia Restrepo-Coupe, Scott R. Saleska, Paulo M. Brando

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Recent development of general circulation models involves biogeochemical cycles: flows of carbon and other chemical species that circulate through the Earth system. Such models are valuable tools for future projections of climate, but still bear large uncertainties in the model simulations. One of the regions with especially high uncertainty is the Amazon forest where large-scale dieback associated with the changing climate is predicted by several models. In order to better understand the capability and weakness of global-scale land-biogeochemical models in simulating a tropical ecosystem under the present day as well as significantly drier climates, we analyzed the off-line simulations for …

Interview With Robert Costanza, Institute For Sustainable Solutions, 2011 (Audio), Robert Costanza

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Dr. Robert Costanza by Noah Sharpsteen at Portland State University on February 22nd, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Final Report: Appendix A. Proposed Norton Wetland Protection Bylaw And Regulations, Horsley Witten Group, Inc.

Phase II Final Report

No abstract provided.

Final Report: Example Code Reform And Demonstration Projects. (All Appendices), Horsley Witten Group, Inc.

Phase II Final Report

No abstract provided.

Cellulose- And Xylan-Degrading Thermophilic Anaerobic Bacteria From Biocompost, M. V. Sizova, J. A. Izquierdo, N. S. Panikov, L. R. Lynd

Dartmouth Scholarship

Nine thermophilic cellulolytic clostridial isolates and four other noncellulolytic bacterial isolates were isolated from self-heated biocompost via preliminary enrichment culture on microcrystalline cellulose. All cellulolytic isolates grew vigorously on cellulose, with the formation of either ethanol and acetate or acetate and formate as principal fermentation products as well as lactate and glycerol as minor products. In addition, two out of nine cellulolytic strains were able to utilize xylan and pretreated wood with roughly the same efficiency as for cellulose. The major products of xylan fermentation were acetate and formate, with minor contributions of lactate and ethanol. Phylogenetic analyses of 16S …

River Geomorphology And Fish Barriers Affect On Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Fish Assemblages In The Niobrara River, Nebraska, Greg A. Wanner, Mark A. Pegg, Steven Schainost, Robert A. Klumb, Dane A. Shuman

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Niobrara River in northern Nebraska traverses the heart of the Great Plains with portions of the river protected under the National Wild and Scenic River system managed by the National Park Service. The Niobrara River changes from a narrow, entrenched stream to a wide, highly braided river with four fish barriers and 36 distinct geomorphic segments in the lower 531 river kilometers (rkm). Our objectives were to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of fish assemblages in the Niobrara River related to environmental variables, fish barriers, and river geomorphology. Tote-barge electrofishing occurred monthly from June to September in 2009 …

Utilization Of Geographic Information System For Research, Management, And Education In The Natural Resources Management Department At California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, David In Yun

Master's Theses

Geographic Information System (GIS) is “an organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data, and personnel designed to efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information” (ESRI, 1997a). The Natural Resources Management Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, hereafter NRM, was one of the early users of GIS technology. Although GIS was primarily used as an educational tool, it was also used for cataloging and displaying resource information for management planning and research projects. As the computing technology advanced, GIS became more powerful and easier to use. NRM faculty and …

Accelerated Stress Testing Of Hydrocarbon-Based Encapsulants For Medium-Concentration Cpv Applications, M. D. Kempe, T. J. Moricone, M. Kilkenny, J. Z. Zhang

Publications (E)

Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems have great potential to reduce photovoltaic (PV) electricity costs because of the relatively low cost of optical components as compared to PV cells. A transparent polymeric material is used to optically couple the PV cell to optical components and is thus exposed to the concentrated light source at elevated temperatures. In this work polymeric encapsulant materials are positioned close to a Xenon arc lamp to expose them to ultraviolet radiation (UV) that is about 42 times as intense as sunlight. Furthermore, different glass types are used as filters to modify the spectral distribution of light in …