Digital Commons Network^™

Air Quality: Assessment Of Pollutant Levels And Chemistry In Kitchener, On Using Multisensor Pods, Wisam Mohammed

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Air quality is a growing concern amongst governmental bodies worldwide. A large number of scientific studies accumulated over the past 25 years suggest that poor ambient air quality is attributed to adverse health effects, especially in vulnerable communities that exhibit pre-existing conditions. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported around 600 000 deaths globally in children under the age of 5 as a result of acute lower respiratory infections caused by poor air quality. With the current statistics on air quality impacts, it is clear that more needs to be done. This MSc work aims to put into perspective the …

Exploring Visitor Perceptions And Behaviours Related To Ticks And Lyme Disease Risk In An Ontario Protected Area, Ryan Brady

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne zoonosis in North America and over the past decade, reported cases of the disease have been rapidly increasing in many regions throughout Canada. The relative novelty of this public health threat presents nature-based tourism and recreation organizations with a range of policy and management challenges. Currently, there is a limited understanding of public perceptions and behaviours associated with tick and Lyme disease risk, especially within a Canadian parks and protected areas visitation and visitor experience context. To address this practical and scholarly knowledge gap, this study utilized in-situ surveys to explore visitor perceptions, …

Effects Of Indoor Air Pollutants On Childhood Asthma: African American Parents’ Perspective, Marcia Maureen Haughton Lewis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractIndoor air pollution has been implicated in many chronic health conditions, including childhood asthma, which is more prevalent among African American children. Children are more susceptible than adults to the effects of exposure to indoor air pollution; however, many parents may not be aware of the polluting impacts of products in their homes and are inadvertently placing their families at risk for adverse health outcomes. Understanding parents’ perceptions and experiences is essential for planning and developing educational programs and interventions for improving indoor environment management as part of asthma management in children. This descriptive phenomenological study aimed to explore parents’ …

The Burning Bush: Linking Lidar-Derived Shrub Architecture To Flammability, Michelle S. Bester

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) sensors are powerful tools for characterizing vegetation structure and for constructing three-dimensional (3D) models of trees, also known as quantitative structural models (QSM). 3D models and structural traits derived from them provide valuable information for biodiversity conservation, forest management, and fire behavior modeling. However, vegetation studies and 3D modeling methodologies often only focus on the forest canopy, with little attention given to understory vegetation. In particular, 3D structural information of shrubs is limited or not included in fire behavior models. Yet, understory vegetation is an important component of forested ecosystems, …

Frayed Connections: How Long-Term Nitrogen Additions Disrupt Plant-Soil Interactions And The Carbon Cycle Of A Temperate Forest, Brooke A. Eastman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Forests are expected to mitigate some of the negative effects of climate change by sequestering anthropogenic carbon (C) from the atmosphere, but the degree to which they drawn down C will depend on the availability of key nutrients, such as nitrogen (N). There is a fair amount of uncertainty in the future of the forest C sink, mostly owing to the fate of soil organic matter (SOM) and soil heterotrophic respiration to future conditions. In N limited systems, plants allocate a significant amount of their photosynthate belowground for the acquisition of nutrients, but under conditions of chronic N deposition, plants …

Using Landsat-Based Phenology Metrics, Terrain Variables, And Machine Learning For Mapping And Probabilistic Prediction Of Forest Community Types In West Virginia, Faith M. Hartley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study investigates the mapping of forest community types for the entire state of West Virginia, USA using Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) Phenology Metrics analysis ready data (ARD) derived from the Landsat time series and digital terrain variables derived from a digital terrain model (DTM). Both classifications and probabilistic predictions were made using random forest (RF) machine learning (ML) and training data derived from ground plots provided by the West Virginia Natural Heritage Program (WVNHP). The primary goal of this study is to explore the use of globally consistent ARD data for operational forest type mapping over a …

Analysis Of Bio-Alcohols With Mie-Scattering And Ltc For Lowered Emissions In Pcci, Cesar E. Carapia

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

An investigation was conducted on the optimal engine parameters for facilitating lower NOX and soot emissions of PCCI combustion with either ethanol or n-butanol. The PFI fuels selected were tested at loads of 3, 4, and 5 Bar IMEP for a total of 28 total combustion tests with variations made to the EGR% and boost pressure for each test in order to find the optimal emissions strategy. A Mie-scattering spray fuel analysis was also conducted on the three fuels to gain insight on their influence on combustion/emissions characteristics. It was found that ethanol had a greater average Sauter Mean Diameter …

Longitudinal Patterns Of Microplastic Abundance And Potential For Food Web Uptake In The Yakima River, Janell Shah

All Master's Theses

Microplastic (MP) pollutes environments worldwide, but the ecological consequences remain largely unknown. While MP research has historically focused on marine environments, recent work has increasingly investigated rivers as transporters of MP from terrestrial sources to the ocean. Some studies have documented instances of MP consumption in a river food web, but few have investigated multiple consumers at different points along a river continuum. This study enumerated the MP abundance in the water column, biofilm, and four macroinvertebrate families from different functional feeding groups across nine sites spanning 344 kilometers from the headwaters to the mouth of the Yakima River in …

Wilderness And The Geotag: Exploring The Claim That "Geotagging Ruins Nature" In The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Wa, Mara Gans

All Master's Theses

This research explores the claim that “geotagging ruins nature” by quantifying and qualifying patterns in geotag use and visitors’ experiences in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, in Washington, United States. Many have raised concerns that geotags increase recreational visitation to public lands, which subsequently contributes to negative resource impacts. Others, however, claim that geotagging has made the outdoors more accessible to less privileged communities and raise concerns that condemning geotags will perpetuate the exclusion of certain groups from outdoor recreation. This debate is studied within federally designated Wilderness, which is legally defined as “untrammeled by man,” a definition rooted in problematic …

Evaluation Of Tidal Fresh Forest Distributions And Tropical Storm Impacts Using Sentinel-2 Msi Imagery, Galen Costomiris

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Situated in the transitional zone between non-tidal forests upstream and tidal fresh marshes downstream, tidal fresh forests occupy a unique and increasingly precarious habitat. The threat of intensifying anthropogenic climate change, compounded by the effects of historical logging and drainage alterations, could reduce the extent of this valuable ecosystem. The overall goals of this project were to identify forest communities present in the Altamaha tidal fresh forest; develop satellite imagery-based classifications of tidal fresh forest and tidal marsh vegetation along the Altamaha River, Georgia; and to quantify changes in vegetation distribution in the aftermath of hurricanes Matthew and Irma. Based …

Angler Catch Rates, Opinions, And Abiotic Variable Relationships In The Lower Logan River, Utah, Tyler Coleman, Jim Derito, Chris Penne, Gary Thiede, Phaedra Budy

Watershed Sciences Student Research

Summer base flows for rivers are critical for maintaining water quality, healthy fish populations, and a functional aquatic ecosystem. Low summer base flows can increase water temperatures and lower dissolved oxygen levels. These conditions can cause Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) energetic stress and result in lower angler catch. The goal of this study was to determine if low river flows and higher water temperatures influence angler catch rates of Brown Trout on the lower Logan River, Utah and to better understand angler use of the lower river. We performed a creel survey on approximately 6.4 km of the …

Zebra Mussel Length-Weight Relationships Across Various Substrate Types In Lake Bemidji, Mitch Kehne

Journal of Earth and Life Science

As of November 2021, zebra mussels were confirmed in 270 Minnesotan lakes with another 232 lakes listed as infested due to their connection or proximity to where zebra mussels have been found. With lack of effective treatments to impede their spread, zebra mussels continue to colonize new areas causing ecological as well as economic harm. The goal of this study was to establish a length-weight relationship for the zebra mussel population in Lake Bemidji using shell length (SL) and wet weight (WW), as well as to assess substrate type and log transformed shell length as predictors of log transformed zebra …

Experimental Elucidation Of The Life Cycle Of Drepanocephalus Spathans (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) With Notes On The Morphological Plasticity Of D. Spathans In The United States, Neely R. Alberson, Thomas G. Rosser, Tommy King, Ethan T. Woodyard, Lester Khoo, Wes A. Baumgartner, Daviod J. Wise, Linda M. Pote, Fred L. Cunningham, Matt J. Griffin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The echinostomatid Drepanocephalus spathans (syn. Drepanocephalus auritus) parasitizes the doublecrested cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus. In North America, the marsh rams-horn snail Planorbella trivolvis and ghost rams-horn snail Biomphalaria havanensis serve as snail intermediate hosts, both of which inhabit catfish aquaculture ponds in the southeastern United States. Studies have demonstrated D. spathans exposure can be lethal to juvenile channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Two studies were undertaken to elucidate the life cycle of D. spathans to establish a developmental time line. In both studies, D. spathans cercariae collected from naturally infected P. trivolvis individuals were used to infect channel catfish …

Scavenging Vs Hunting Affects Behavioral Traits Of An Opportunistic Carnivore, Mitchell A. Parsons, Andrew Garcia, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background. Human-induced changes to ecosystems transform the availability of resources to predators, including altering prey populations and increasing access to anthropogenic foods. Opportunistic predators are likely to respond to altered food resources by changing the proportion of food they hunt versus scavenge. These shifts in foraging behavior will affect species interactions through multiple pathways, including by changing other aspects of predator behavior such as boldness, innovation, and social structure. Methods. To understand how foraging behavior impacts predator behavior, we conducted a controlled experiment to simulate hunting by introducing a prey model to captive coyotes (Canis latrans) and compared their behavior …

Influence Of Landscape Attributes On Virginia Opossum Density, David A. Bernasconi, Wesley C. Dixon, Matthew T. Hamilton, James L. Helton, Richard B. Chipman, Amy T. Gilbert, James C. Beasley, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Guha Dharmarajan

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

TheVirginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), North America's only marsupial, has a range extending from southern Ontario, Canada, to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific. Despite the Virginia opossum's taxonomic uniqueness in relation to other mammals in North America and rapidly expanding distribution, its ecology remains relatively understudied. Our poor understanding of the ecology of this important mesopredator is especially pronounced in the rural southeastern United States. Our goal was to estimate effects of habitat on opossum density within an extensive multiyear spatial capture‐recapture study. Additionally, we compared the results of this spatial capture‐recapture …

Multidisciplinary Engagement For Fencing Research Informs Efficacy And Rancher-To-Researcher Knowledge Exchange, Matthew Hyde, Stewart W. Breck, Alex Few, Jared Beaver, Joshua Schrecengost, Jim Stone, Cameron Krebs, Russell Talmo, Kari Eneas, Rae Nickerson, Kyran E. Kunkel, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Across much of the Western United States, recovery of large carnivore populations is creating new challenges for livestock producers. Reducing the risks of sharing the landscape with recovering wildlife populations is critical to private working lands, which play an vital role in securing future energy, water, food, and fiber for an ever-expanding human population. Fencing is an important mitigation practice that many ranchers, land managers, and conservationists implement to reduce carnivore-livestock conflict. While fencing strategies have been reviewed in the literature, research seldom incorporates knowledge from the people who utilize fencing the most (i.e., livestock producers). Incorporating producers and practitioners …

A Framework For Near-Real Time Monitoring Of Diversity Patterns Based On Indirect Remote Sensing, With An Application In The Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, Andrea Paz, Thiago S. Silva, Ana C. Carnaval

Publications and Research

Monitoring biodiversity change is key to effective conservation policy. While it is difficult to establish in situ biodiversity monitoring programs at broad geographical scales, remote sensing advances allow for near-real time Earth observations that may help with this goal. We combine periodical and freely available remote sensing information describing temperature and precipitation with curated biological information from several groups of animals and plants in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest to design an indirect remote sensing framework that monitors potential loss and gain of biodiversity in near-real time. Using data from biological collections and information from repeated field inventories, we demonstrate that …

Characterization Of Site-Specific Vegetation Activity In Alaskan Wet And Dry Tundra As Related To Climate And Soil State, Michael Gregory Brown, Kyle C. Mcdonald, Reiner Zimmermann, Nicholas Steiner, Stephanie Devries, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez

Advanced Science Research Center

We present discrete (2-h resolution) multi-year (2008–2017) in situ measurements of seasonal vegetation growth and soil biophysical properties from two sites on Alaska's North Slope, USA, representing dry and wet sedge tundra. We examine measurements of vertical active soil layer temperature and soil moisture profiles (freeze/thaw status), woody shrub vegetation physiological activity, and meteorological site data to assess interrelationships within (and between) these two study sites. Vegetation phenophases (cold de-hardening start, physiological function start, stem growth start, stem growth end, physiological function end, cold hardening completion) were found to have greater interannual day of year (DOY) occurrence variability at the …

Native And Non-Native Plant Species Differentially Affect Arthropod Community Dynamics With Consequences For Crop Production In Lower Rio Grande Valley, Kaitlynn Lavallee, Pushpa G. Soti, Alexis Racelis, Rupesh R. Kariyat

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

In agricultural ecosystems, arthropods play critical roles- including biocontrol, pollination services, and as herbivores. While herbivory negatively affects crop production, the recent decline in beneficial insect numbers have created a global concern, and consequently have led into multiple lines of conservation strategies. Agroecological practices that can provide sustenance, nesting, and refuge for beneficial organisms are considered as some of them, except we lack a better understanding of how seasonal and crop specific variation can affect their community dynamics. In this study, we examined this by investigating how native and non-native plants, when incorporated into a vegetable agroecosystem in Lower Rio …

Saturating Relationship Between Phytoplankton Growth Rate And Nutrient Concentration Explained By Macromolecular Allocation, Jongsun Kim, Gabrielle Armin, Keisuke Inomura

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Phytoplankton account for about a half of photosynthesis in the world, making them a key player in the ecological and biogeochemical systems. One of the key traits of phytoplankton is their growth rate because it indicates their productivity and affects their competitive capability. The saturating relationship between phytoplankton growth rate and environmental nutrient concentration has been widely observed yet the mechanisms behind the relationship remain elusive. Here we use a mechanistic model and metadata of phytoplankton to show that the saturating relationship between growth rate and nitrate concentration can be interpreted by intracellular macromolecular allocation. At low nitrate levels, the …

Stakeholder Knowledge And Perceptions Of Free-Roaming Equids And Their Management At A Western U.S. Land-Grant University, Hollee S. Wood, S. Nicole Frey, Terry A. Messmer

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The horse (Equus ferus caballus), originally native to North America, became extinct on the continent approximately 10,000 years ago. Horses that migrated from North America to Eurasia across the Bering Strait continued to evolve and were domesticated along with burros (E. asinus). Both species were then transported to the Americas where they were intentionally released or escaped into the wild, forming feral herds. The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (WFRHBA) provided federal oversight and protection for feral horses and burros (hereafter, free-roaming equids) that inhabited designated areas on public lands in the western …

Applications Of Remote Sensing And Geographic Information System On Salinity Assessment: A Case Study On Bang Pakong River, Thailand, Min Thura Mon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The Bang Pakong River (BPK) has an annual salinity issue. The river is an important source of freshwater supply in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) of Thailand, which has major agricultural and industrial activities. This research aims to understand and assess the past and future salinity distribution in the BPK River by using remote sensing and time series forecasting through water quality and Landsat image time series data. Regarding to remote sensing, this research employs four machine learning algorithms—multilinear regression, decision trees, random forest, and artificial neural networks—by applying reflectance bands of satellite images and measured salinity values. Random forest …

Targeted Browsing With Goats For Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus Virginiana L.) Control, Alanna M. Hartsfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As eastern redcedar (ERC) (Juniperus virginiana L.) grassland encroachment progresses, all potential control methods should be explored in the interest of Great Plains grassland health and longevity. Targeted browsing with goats has been proven as an effective control method on some juniper species; however, little is known about its ability to control ERC. These studies intend to mend knowledge gaps of how targeted browsing with goats control ERC by causing tree death without chemicals or machinery. The first study is two 3x3 Latin squares comparing protein-supplemented diets. The second study is a randomized complete block design of five 0.224 ha …

The Potential Of Bison Restoration As An Ecological Approach To Future Tribal Food Sovereignty On The Northern Great Plains, Hila Shamon, Olivia G. Cosby, Chamois L. Andersen, Helen Augare, Jony Bearcub Stiffarm, Claire E. Bresnan, Jeff M. Martin, Et Al.

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Future climate projections of warming, drying, and increased weather variability indicate that conventional agricultural and production practices within the Northern Great Plains (NGP) will become less sustainable, both ecologically and economically. As a result, the livelihoods of people that rely on these lands will be adversely impacted. This is especially true for Native American communities, who were relegated to reservations where the land is often vast but marginal and non-tribal operators have an outsized role in food production. In addition, NGP lands are expected to warm and dry disproportionately relative to the rest of the United States. It is therefore …

The Depauw Story - A Retrospective On The Beginnings Of Our Institutional Sustainability Initiative (2008 - 2021), Jeannette K. Pope

Interdisciplinary Faculty Scholarship

On September 15, 2008, DePauw University joined the community of the nearly 700 other institutions of Higher Education that had “pledged to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions of their institutions and make environmental awareness a key component of campus life” by signing the American College and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC, hereafter referred to as the PCC). This action established the Office of Sustainability at DePauw, which formally dedicated human resources to the emerging discipline of campus sustainability for the first time, but it did not begin the conversations about environmental best practices on our campus. To fully understand how …

Footprints On The Prairie: Examining The Interlocking Land Histories Of The Liberty Prairie Reserve, Illinois, Anna M. Burns

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis begins with the local history of the Liberty Prairie, the land where I conducted the ecological field-work that I later discuss in my second thesis on soil microbiome diversity (“Examining Soil Microbial Diversity in Transition Zones Between Corn Fields and Restored Prairie in the Upper Midwest"). I examine the Indigenous histories of the land, and the conflicts between the Bodwéwadmi and Euro-American settlers that resulted in the land being farmed for cattle, corn, and soy for over a hundred and fifty years. I then take a step back and analyze the broader historical contexts of Midwestern Corn Belt …

Examining Soil Microbial Diversity In Transition Zones Between Corn Fields And Restored Prairie In The Upper Midwest, Anna M. Burns

Scripps Senior Theses

Prairies were once the largest ecosystem in North America, but agriculture and settlement has destroyed up to 99% of their pre-colonization extent. Prairie restorations are a strategy to recover the biodiversity and carbon sequestration functions of these grasslands, but typically occur in isolated strips between agricultural fields. My thesis analyzes how effective prairie restorations in the Liberty Prairie (northeastern Illinois) are at recovering the diversity of the prairie soil microbiome, focusing on verrucomicrobia abundance, alpha diversity, and soil physical characteristics.

Fertilizer Use In Aquaculture, Bartholomew W. Green

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Aquaculture ponds traditionally are fertilized to stimulate primary productivity, which serves as the base of the pond natural food web and provides ancillary ecosystem services. Fertilizer can be made regularly or based on some water quality variable or measure of algal productivity. Nutrients from chemical fertilizers are available sooner for phytoplankton growth compared to organic fertilizers that first must undergo microbial decomposition before nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations increase. Primary production increases with increased fertilizer application if productivity is limited by primary nutrients rather than by light. In semi-intensive and intensive production systems, natural pond productivity enhanced by targeted fertilization protocols …

Escherichia Coli In Lake Erie: Impact On Lake Health, Mary Grmek

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Lake Erie is a vital resource for its surrounding area, and one of its most important purposes is as a recreational body of water. In determining whether Lake Erie’s water quality meets U.S. EPA standards, daily surveys and water samples were taken on behalf of the Lake County General Health District, as well as E. coli samples every other day. This paper quantified the E. coli count for both Mentor Headlands Beach and Fairport Harbor Beach in Lake County over the swimming seasons for 2020 and 2021, as well as evaluated which variables collected in daily surveys impact E. coli …

Longevity Of An Immunocontraceptive Vaccine Effect On Fecundity In Rats, Rebecca Pinkham, Douglas C. Eckery, Richard E. Mauldin, M. Gomm, F. Hill, F. Vial, G. Massei

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Increases in human-wildlife conflicts alongside cultural shifts against lethal control methods are driving the need for alternative wildlife management tools such as fertility control. Contraceptive formulations suitable for oral delivery would permit broader remote application in wildlife species.

This study evaluated the contraceptive effect and immune response to two novel injectable immunocontraceptive formulations targeting the Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH): MAF-IMX294 and MAF-IMX294P conjugates, both identified as having potential as oral contraceptives. The study also explored whether in multiparous species immunocontraceptives may either totally prevent reproduction or also affect litter size.

Female rats, chosen as a model species, were given three …