Digital Commons Network^™

Impact Of Upstream Chlorination On Filter Performance And Microbial Community Structure Of Gac And Anthracite Biofilters, Glen Andrew De Vera, Daniel Gerrity, Mitchell Stoker, Wilbur Frehner, Eric C. Wert

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Drinking water filters may be operated to promote or deter biological activity through upstream oxidant addition. While there are several water quality benefits from biofiltration, microbial growth in biofilters warrants further investigation. In this study, routine monitoring detected target DNA sequences for Naegleria fowleri in source water and Acanthamoeba spp. in source water and biofilter effluent, triggering further microbial community characterization. Full-scale anthracite and granular activated carbon (GAC) filters receiving chlorinated waters were compared in terms of effluent water quality (i.e., turbidity and particle counts), biological activity (i.e., adenosine triphosphate (ATP)), and the composition of the microbial community (i.e., 16S/18S …

Dynamic Modeling Of An Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, Komal Rathore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advanced wastewater treatment plants have complex biological kinetics, time variant influent rates and long processing times. The modeling and operation control of wastewater treatment plant gets complicated due to these characteristics. However, a robust operational system for a wastewater treatment plant is necessary to increase the efficiency of the plant, reduce energy cost and achieve environmental discharge limits. These discharge limits are set by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants to limit the amount of nutrients being discharged into the aquatic systems.

This document summarizes the research to develop a supervisory operational …

Understanding Agricultural-Land Conservation From The Perspective Of Landowners In Franklin County, Massachusetts, Rocio Lalanda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

What motivates agricultural-land owners to use conservation easements? As these legal tools have become a popular strategy for private land conservation in the U.S., a growing body of literature is examining how and why landowners conserve their properties through conservation easements. This research project expands upon environmental, geographical and rural land development literature through a qualitative fieldwork study of 34 private, conservation landowners associated with the Franklin Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization in western Massachusetts. The study identifies a broad range of environmental, social, spiritual and financial motivations for agricultural-land owners to conserve their properties, and indicates that for …

Composition And Dispersal Dynamics Of Vegetation Communities In Urban Riparian Forests, Christa Von Behren

Dissertations and Theses

In urban riparian areas, vegetation composition may be affected by urban land use changes at both the stream reach and the watershed scale. Moreover, the mechanisms by which seeds disperse may be affected both by reduction in seed sources due to vegetation removal and by the urban stream syndrome that produces flashier hydrographs and incised channels. I hypothesized that vegetation communities with high cover of native and hydrophilic species would be found in watersheds with high forest cover, while more limited cover of these species would be found in highly developed watersheds. Additionally, to examine the dispersal mechanisms contributing to …

First Record Of Black Corals (Antipatharia) In Shallow Coastal Waters Of Northern Chile By Means Of Underwater Video, Matthias Gorny, Erin E. Easton, Javier Sellanes

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

This record is the first report of black corals (Antipatharia) in shallow waters of the continental coast of Chile, and extends their geographical range in shallow waters of the upper continental shelf of South America by ~3000 km from Ecuador (~1°S) to Coquimbo, Chile (~29°S). Specimens were observed between 70 and 107 m on three underwater video transects executed in July 2016 on the rocky reef El Toro, which is located about 65 km northwest of Coquimbo. The images were taken with the cameras of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at a distance of about two meters from the rocks. …

Shifting Niche Space In Coastal Landscapes: Spatio-Temporal Patterns Driving Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Across The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Kristin Elise Demarco

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Identifying distributions of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) across the northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) coastal landscape necessitates describing ecological processes in estuarine gradients. SAV assemblages are ecological indicators of aquatic ecosystem health; spatial and temporal distributions are strongly correlated to environmental conditions. Many wildlife species, including waterfowl, are dependent on SAV and seeds in NGOM coastal marshes for food and habitat. To understand SAV distributions at multiple spatial and temporal scales a multi-tiered project was designed to collect SAV presence, species assemblage, and cover data, and cores to describe seed food. The first tier sampled inter-annually in the growing seasons …

Lekking Behavior Of A Sharp-Tailed Grouse In South-Central Nebraska, Kelsey C. King, Andrew J. Caven, Keith Geluso

The Prairie Naturalist

Sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus; STGR) occur throughout much of the northern Great Plains, and historically were suspected to have ranged as far south as Kansas (Connelly et al. 1998). Sharp-tailed grouse were the dominant grouse in Nebraska 200 years ago, but early settlers and their associated agricultural practices extirpated STGR from much of their former range, including Kansas and southern Nebraska (Sisson 1976, Johnsgard 2016). During the period of initial land conversion, the greater prairie-chicken (T. cupido; GRPC) filled the void, benefiting from small plots of cropland providing winter forage, and outcompeting the STGR (Johnsgard and Wood 1968, Svedarsky et …

A Short Narrative For Writing For The Prairie Naturalist, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

The abstract should be written upon completion of the paper. A well-written abstract is a single short (≤1 line/page of text), concise, and includes 1) an introductory sentence justifying why the study was conducted, 2) a statement of the principal objectives or hypotheses tested during the study, 3) a brief description of pertinent methods, 4) a summary of significant results, 5) a punchy conclusion, and 6) management implications (i.e., utility of results explaining how, when, where, and by whom data or interpretations can be applied; Krausman and Cox 2017). Keep in mind that abstracts are read more than authors than …

The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society Volume 50 No. 1

The Prairie Naturalist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 EDITOR’S NOTE

RESEARCH ARTICLES

3 Spatiotemporal Distribution of Waterfowl Disease Outbreaks in Kansas, USA Thomas A. Becker, Adam A. Ahlers, Shane Hesting, and David A. Haukos

14 Wild Turkey Occupancy in a Prairie Landscape Joshua C. Courlas and R. Scott Lutz

24 Age and Growth of Cottonwood Trees along the Missouri River, North Dakota Jonathan M. Friedman, Fisher R. Ankeny, and Marshall Wolf

NOTES

34 Hoary Bat Impaled on Barbed Wire Fence

37 Lekking Behavior of a Sharp-Tailed Grouse in South-Central Nebraska

BOOK REVIEWS

40 Force of Nature: George Fell, Founder of The Natural Areas Movement. …

Age And Growth Of Cottonwood Trees Along The Missouri River, North Dakota, Jonathan M. Friedman, Fisher R. Ankney, J. Marshall Wolf

The Prairie Naturalist

The relict plains cottonwood (Populus deltoides subsp. monilifera) forest along the Missouri River between Lakes Sakakawea and Oahe includes trees as large as two meters in diameter. We cored 24 of these trees to determine their age and suitability for flow reconstruction. Because most of the trees were rotten in the center, we developed a method to estimate the date of the center ring that accounts for the increase in ring width toward the center. Estimated center ring dates were as early as 1806. Cottonwood growth at a dry site was correlated with April–August flow prior to construction of Lake …

Wild Turkey Occupancy In A Prairie Landscape, Joshua C. Courlas, R. Scott Lutz

The Prairie Naturalist

We investigated wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) distribution in prairie landscapes in North Dakota using occupancy modeling in two stages. In 2012, we extensively surveyed ecoregions across the state and in 2013, intensively surveyed the ecoregion with the highest probability of occupancy. Occupancy models from the statewide survey indicated wild turkeys were sparse in ecoregions with primarily agricultural landscapes, were found associated with wooded riparian cover, and found most frequently in the Missouri River Plateau ecoregion. In the Missouri River Plateau, our occupancy models identified that an additive model including mean patch area of cropland fields and spatial aggregation of forest …

Nonbreeding Duck Use At Central Flyway National Wildlife Refuges, Kent Andersson, Craig A. Davis, Grant Harris, David A. Haukos

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Within the U.S. portion of the Central Flyway, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages waterfowl on numerous individual units (i.e., Refuges) within the National Wildlife Refuge System. Presently, the extent of waterfowl use that Refuges receive and the contribution of Refuges to waterfowl populations (i.e., the proportion of the Central Flyway population registered at each Refuge) remain unassessed. Such an evaluation would help determine to what extent Refuges support waterfowl relative to stated targets, aid in identifying species requiring management attention, inform management targets, and improve fiscal efficiencies. Using historic monitoring data (1954–2008), we performed this assessment for 23 …

Prediction Of Insect Pest Distribution As Influenced By Elevation: Combining Field Observations And Temperature-Dependent Development Models For The Coffee Stink Bug, Antestiopsis Thunbergii (Gmelin), Abdelmutalab G.A. Azrag, Christian W.W. Pirk, Abdullahi A. Yusuf, Fabrice Pinard, Saliou Niassy, Gladys Mosomtai, Régis Babin

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The antestia bug, Antestiopsis thunbergii (Gmelin 1790) is a major pest of Arabica coffee in Africa. The bug prefers coffee at the highest elevations, contrary to other major pests. The objectives of this study were to describe the relationship between A. thunbergii populations and elevation, to elucidate this relationship using our knowledge of the pest thermal biology and to predict the pest distribution under climate warming. Antestiopsis thunbergii population density was assessed in 24 coffee farms located along a transect delimited across an elevation gradient in the range 1000–1700 m asl, on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Density was assessed for three …

Guide To Usda Agroforestry Research Funding Opportunities

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

This guide is intended for researchers and academics pursuing funding opportunities for research in agroforestry - the intentonal integration of trees and agriculture. The guide provides an overview of external agroforestry research funding opportunities offered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies.

This publication was created for serveral reasons. Agroforestry is not always clearly identified in announcements about research funding opportunities. In addition, research on agroforestry can require a longer time horizon than research on annual systems, so awareness of multiple funding sources or multi-year funding opportunities can be useful. Last, though USDA offers grants that can support …

Absolute Configuration Of 2,2',3,3',6-Pentachlorinatedbiphenyl (Pcb 84) Atropisomers, Xueshu Li, Sean R. Parkin, Hans-Joachim Lehmler

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Nineteen polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, such as 2,2′,3,3′,6-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB 84), display axial chirality because they form stable rotational isomers, or atropisomers, that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other. Although chiral PCBs undergo atropselective biotransformation and atropselectively alter biological processes, the absolute structure of only a few PCB atropisomers has been determined experimentally. To help close this knowledge gap, pure PCB 84 atropisomers were obtained by semi-preparative liquid chromatography with two serially connected Nucleodex β-PM columns. The absolute configuration of both atropisomers was determined by X-ray single-crystal diffraction. The PCB 84 atropisomer eluting first and second on the Nucleodex β-PM …

Book Reviews: Force Of Nature: George Fell, Founder Of The Natural Areas Movement. Arthur Melville Pearson., James R. Herkert

The Prairie Naturalist

Arthur Melville Pearson’s Force of Nature is a book that tells two very interesting and intertwined stories. One is a story of how perseverance and determination can drive an individual to accomplish great things. And the other is a story of how the modern day natural areas movement came to be. Fortunately for those interested in conservation and natural areas protection, those two stories were combined in the life of George Fell (1916-1994). In Fell’s home state of Illinois, where his impact is widely known, his name is synonymous with conservation. In other places where his impact is less well …

Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Waterfowl Disease Outbreaks In Kansas, Usa, Thomas A. Becker, Adam A. Ahlers, Shane Hesting, David A. Haukos

The Prairie Naturalist

Causes and impacts of disease outbreaks in wild bird populations are rarely studied beyond documentation of large epizootic events. In Kansas, USA, a central disease surveillance and reporting protocol currently does not exist within the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, which has led to a lack of available knowledge of disease occurrences that could be used to predict and manage future outbreaks. We compiled historic records of documented waterbird disease outbreaks in Kansas from 1967–2014 and related the frequency of outbreaks with light geese (Ross’s goose [Anser rossii]; Snow goose [A. caerulescens]) populations from 1970–2014. We found 32 …

Source-Specific Pollution Exposure And Associations With Pulmonary Response In The Atlanta Commuters Exposure Studies, Jenna R. Krall, Chandresh N. Ladva, Armistead G. Russell, Rachel Golan, Xing Peng, Guoliang Shi, Roby Greenwald, Amit U. Raysoni, Lance A. Waller, Jeremy A. Sarnat

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Concentrations of traffic-related air pollutants are frequently higher within commuting vehicles than in ambient air. Pollutants found within vehicles may include those generated by tailpipe exhaust, brake wear, and road dust sources, as well as pollutants from in-cabin sources. Sourcespecific pollution, compared to total pollution, may represent regulation targets that can better protect human health. We estimated source-specific pollution exposures and corresponding pulmonary response in a panel study of commuters. We used constrained positive matrix factorization to estimate source-specific pollution factors and, subsequently, mixed effects models to estimate associations between source-specific pollution and pulmonary response. We identified four pollution factors …

Sediment Chemistry Of Urban Stormwater Ponds And Controls On Denitrification, Joanna R. Blaszczak, Meredith Steele, Brian D. Badgley, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Jennifer L. Morse, Erin N. Rivers, Sharon J. Hall, Christopher Neill, Diane E. Pataki, Peter M. Groffman, Emily S. Bernhardt

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Stormwater ponds and retention basins are ubiquitous features throughout urban landscapes. These ponds are potentially important control points for nitrogen (N) removal from surface water bodies via denitrification. However, there are possible trade-offs to this water quality benefit if high N and contaminant concentrations in stormwater pond sediments decrease the complete reduction of nitrous oxide (N₂O), a potent greenhouse gas, to dinitrogen (N₂) during denitrification. This may occur through decreasing the abundance or efficiency of denitrifiers capable of producing the N₂O reductase enzyme. We predicted that ponds draining increasingly urbanized landscapes would have higher …

Garden Pollinators And The Potential For Ecosystem Service Flow To Urban And Peri-Urban Agriculture, Gail A. Langellotto, Andony Melathopoulos, Isabella Messer, Aaron Anderson, Nathan Mcclintock, Lucas Costner

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hedgerows, flowering strips, and natural areas that are adjacent to agricultural land have been shown to benefit crop production, via the provision of insect pollinators that pollinate crops. However, we do not yet know the extent to which bee habitat in the form of urban gardens might contribute to pollination services in surrounding crops. We explored whether gardens might provision pollinators to adjacent agricultural areas by sampling bees from gardens in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, and estimating typical foraging distances in the context of commercialand residential-scale pollination-dependent crops up to 1000 m from garden study sites. We estimate that …

Making And Breaking Trust In Forest Collaborative Groups, Emily Jane Davis, Lee K. Cerveny, Donald R. Ulrich, Meagan L. Nuss

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

There has been a recent increase in use of an organized, forest ‘collaborative’ group approach for multi-stakeholder input on federal forestlands in the U.S. West. This approach relies on the creation of shared trust to achieve social agreement. Yet growing critiques suggest a lack of trust in the U.S. Forest Service [Forest Service], between stakeholders, and the collaborative process itself. We conducted three comparative case studies of established forest collaborative groups in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to ask how trust is created and damaged or broken in this context. We found multiple, interlinked dimensions to trust, including significant reliance on …

Who’S In Charge? The Role Of Power In Collaborative Governance And Forest Management., Patricia B. Orth, Antony S. Cheng

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Collaborative processes for working toward common management goals between individuals and organizations, despite their differences, emerged as one enduring legacy resulting from the Timber Wars in the American West during the late-1980s and the early 1990s. Power imbalances are often cited as a common problem in collaborative processes and can have a lasting, deleterious impact on the collaborative process and its outcomes. For all its importance, however, there is a yet unfulfilled need to understand the extent to which power and power imbalances affect collaborative relationships. Our research uses a case study approach to qualitatively analyze power dynamics within three …

The Role Of The Local Community On Federal Lands: The Weaverville Community Forest, Erin C. Kelly

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In the wake of the timber wars, communities across the American West have struggled to redefine their relationships to nearby federal forests. The timber-dependent model of the pre-Timber War era, with clear timber targets and economic outputs, has been replaced by more nuanced and less clearly-defined model: ecosystem management. This case study research uses interviews with participants in the Weaverville Community Forest (WCF) to explore the role of a community in managing its nearby federal lands. Momentum for the WCF flowed from a small group of citizens who were invested in the forest despite their cultural and ideological differences regarding …

Beyond 'Owls Versus Jobs': A Twenty-Year Retrospective Of The Headwaters Forest Controversy, Jennifer Bernstein

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In 1999, the Headwaters Forest Reserve was established in Humboldt County after more than 20 years of community activism, negotiations, and litigation. The ‘last stand’ of unprotected, privately-owned old growth redwood had finally been safeguarded, though many on the North Coast felt that the final deal fell far short of what was needed to protect the watershed’s ecological functioning. This article uses academic and journalistic research, supplemented by oral histories, to make three main points about the North Coast ‘post deal.’ One, forest management practices in the region have evolved to be more consistent with the practices of ecological forestry. …

There Is A Fish In My Forest And Other Post-Timber War Musings, Mike Miles

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

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Finding Solutions Through Politics: One View From Inside The Timber Wars, Erin C. Kelly, Andrea Tuttle

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

There are many perspectives of the timber wars, and one perspective that is not frequently documented is that of government bureaucrats – policy makers, regulators, and others who were often caught in the crossfire of opposing sides. This oral history with Dr. Andrea Tuttle is one attempt to describe the Timber Wars from this perspective. On February 25, 2017, I invited Dr. Tuttle to sit down and discuss her history with forest regulation. I asked very few questions and instead listened as she told the history; I ended up with two hours of audio, which I transcribed to over fifteen …

Evaluation Of Potential Translocation Sites For An Imperiled Cyprinid, The Hornyhead Chub, Brian T. Hickerson, Annika W. Walters

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Translocation of isolated species into suitable habitats may help to secure vulnerable, geographically limited species. Due to the decline of Wyoming Hornyhead Chub Nocomis biguttatus, conservation actions, such as the translocation of populations within the plausible historical range, are being considered to improve population redundancy and resiliency to disturbance events. Translocation of Wyoming Hornyhead Chub must be rigorously evaluated because a hatchery stock does not exist, so all fish used in translocations will come from the wild population. We present an approach to identify the best available translocation sites prior to translocation efforts taking place. We evaluated fish community composition …

Assessing The Role Of Climate Change And Land Cover Change In Eco-Hydrologic Modeling (Snowmelt Timing And Dissolved Organic Carbon Fluxes), Shabnam Rouhani

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores temporal trends in snowmelt timing, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, and DOC fluxes in the large forested Penobscot watershed of Maine. The spatially-distributed process-based Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys) model was used to simulate streamflows and DOC fluxes and concentrations from 2004-2013 with peak transport generally associated with snowmelt. Results were evaluated with field measurements (streamflow, DOC concentrations and fluxes) and remotely sensed products (Net Primary Production (NPP) and Leaf Area Index (LAI)). The annual and inter annual variability in the amount of fluvial DOC export was further explored under future climate change scenarios and predicted land …

Investigation On The Dissociative Photoionization Mechanism Of Furfural, Investigation Of The Absolute Photoionization Cross Sections Of Three Potential Propargylic Fuels, And Ab Initio Analysis On Potential Superbases Of Several Hyperlithiated Species: Li3f2o And Li3f2(Oh)N (N = 1, 2, 3), Matthew Winfough

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the study photoionization cross sections of three different propargylic biofuels; dipropargyl ether, propargyl alcohol, and propargylamine, in chlorine radical-initiated combustion experiments at the Chemical Dynamics Beamline (9.0.2) at the Advanced Light Source of the Ernest Orlando Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Additionally, the unimolecular dissociative photoionization mechanism of furfural was studied using photoelectron photoionization coincidence (PEPICO) spectroscopy at the vacuum ultraviolet beamline at the Swiss Light Source of the Paul Scherrer Institut in Villigen, Switzerland. Dissociation products and mechanisms for furfural were identified over a photon energy range of 10.9 to 14.5 eV. Lastly, a study …

The Effect Of Warmer Winters On The Demography Of An Outbreak Insect Is Hidden By Intraspecific Competition, Devin W. Goodsman, Guenchik Grosklos, Brian H. Aukema, Caroline Whitehouse, Katherine P. Bleiker, Nate G. Mcdowell, Richard S. Middleton, Chonggang Xu

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Warmer climates are predicted to increase bark beetle outbreak frequency, severity, and range. Even in favorable climates, however, outbreaks can decelerate due to resource limitation, which necessitates the inclusion of competition for limited resources in analyses of climatic effects on populations. We evaluated several hypotheses of how climate impacts mountain pine beetle reproduction using an extensive 9‐year dataset, in which nearly 10,000 trees were sampled across a region of approximately 90,000 km², that was recently invaded by the mountain pine beetle in Alberta, Canada. Our analysis supports the hypothesis of a positive effect of warmer winter temperatures on …