Digital Commons Network^™

Mineral Identification

Activities

For this activity, we are going to try to identify ten different minerals from their properties. There is an attached listing of the major properties of the most commonly found minerals. Use it and any other resources you might have to identify the ten minerals, and list your findings on the sheet below. In order to help you by giving you a little practice with mineral identification, we suggest the following virtual identifier: http://facweb.bhc.edu/academics/science/harwoodr/Geol101/Labs/Minerals/ Your instructor will provide you with up to 10 different mineral samples for identification. To test for hardness, you will also be provided with a copper …

Air Pollution

Activities

The following exercise is designed to acquaint you with point sources of pollution in your neighborhood. The exercise utilizes the EPA’s Envirofacts website. Envirofacts allows users to search and find out information about pollution sources anywhere in the United States. You can also identify point sources of pollution in your neighborhood, learn about specific facilities, and create maps. To begin with, go to http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/ef_home2.air and enter your zip code. What will be displayed is a list of facilities in your zip code that have been issued an environmental permit. Scroll over to the “Stacks” column and then down the page. …

Soil Composition

Activities

Soil, dirt, sediment, what’s the difference? Depending upon whom you ask, you might get a radically different answer. Some sources state that the only difference between them has to do with their location: soil is the unconsolidated material on the ground, dirt is that same matter on your hands or clothes, and sediment is the same material on the bottom of a river or lake. Others define the differences based upon the size and shape of the material grains. For the purposes of this activity, we are going to define things the following ways. Soil is a complex, unconsolidated mixture …

Trees And Carbon

Activities

To understand the environment, it is important to understand how organisms and their surroundings interact. Since all organisms use energy, we need to understand how energy can be used and transferred. Because all organisms are made of substances, it is equally important that we understand how chemicals are used and transported through an ecosystem. This exercise will help contribute to our understanding of the movements of compounds in ecosystems. The transport and transformation of substances in the environment are known collectively as biogeochemical cycles. These global cycles involve the circulation of elements and nutrients that sustain both the biological and …

Ecological Footprint

Activities

Estimating your overall impact on the environment is a daunting task when you consider all the variables involved. Environmental scientists have developed a tool that does just this however, and presents the information in a manner that is easily visualized despite the underlying complexities. It is known as an “ecological footprint”, and it describes the area of land needed to supply the resources used and wastes produced by each individual. Nature’s ability to provide resources and process wastes is known as “natural capital”, and the goal of sustainable living is to use resources wisely so as to avoid depleting natural …

Radiation Exposure

Activities

Nuclear energy was going to make the world a much better place during the 1950’s. The promise of an almost limitless supply of cheap energy that did not produce any soot or atmospheric pollutants almost seemed to good to be true. During the 1960's and 1970's, the United States nuclear industry expanded, as fears of a looming end to oil and gas reserves fueled construction. But by the late 1970’s, though, the wheels had come off of the nuclear wagon. The cheapness of the energy never did pan out, as prices of electricity from nuclear energy rivaled those of fossil …

Nuclear Decay

Activities

Almost any phrase that has the word “nuclear” in it has a bad reputation. The term conjures up images of mushroom clouds and radioactive mutants. It is interesting to note that in the 1940’s and 50’s, the term that applied to energy derived from the decay radioactive material was atomic energy. This term was somewhat correct, since the energy was coming from the breakdown of the atom. It was not until later that the more appropriate term nuclear energy was used as more people began to understand that the energy was coming from the breakdown of the nucleus of the …

N2o Emissions From California Farmlands: A Review, Elizabeth Verhoeven, Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira, Charlotte Decock, Gina Garland, Taryn Kennedy, Emma Suddick, William Horwath, Johan Six

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Of the greenhouse gases emitted from cropland, nitrous oxide (N2O) has the highest global warming potential. The state of California acknowledges that agriculture both contributes to and is affected by climate change, and in 2016 it adopted legislation to help growers reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, explicitly including N2O. Nitrous oxide emissions can vary widely due to environmental and agronomic factors with most emission estimates coming from temperate grain systems. There is, however, a dearth of emission estimates from perennial and vegetable cropping systems commonly found in California's Mediterranean climate. Therefore, emission factors (EFs) specific to California conditions are needed …

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Human Effects On The Environment, Jd Lewis

Sustainability Seminar Series

Every habitat and ecosystem on Earth has been affected by human activities. The three primary mechanisms through which humans affect the environment are climate change, the spread of invasive species, and habitat fragmentation. The rapid environmental changes associated with these factors have few parallels in Earth’s history, leading paradoxically to an extinction crisis and to the spread of a few dominant species. Because these effects are not uniformly distributed among locations or ecosystems, they are creating ecologic and economic winners and losers. These discrepancies, in turn, are a key factor driving global patterns of urbanization, and is projected to be …

The World Is Facing A Global Sand Crisis, Aurora Torres, Jianguo "Jack" Liu, Jodi Brandt, Kristen Lear

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

When people picture sand spread across idyllic beaches and endless deserts, they understandably think of it as an infinite resource. But as we discuss in a just-published perspective in the journal Science, over-exploitation of global supplies of sand is damaging the environment, endangering communities, causing shortages and promoting violent conflict.

Southern Annular Mode Drives Multicentury Wildfire Activity In Southern South America, Andrés Holz, Juan Paritsis, Ignacio A. Mundo, Thomas T. Veblen, Thomas Kitzberger, Grant J. Williamson, Ezequiel Aráoz, Carlos Bustos-Schindler, Mauro E. González, H. Ricardo Grau, Juan M. Quezada

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is the main driver of climate variability at mid to high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, affecting wildfire activity, which in turn pollutes the air and contributes to human health problems and mortality, and potentially provides strong feedback to the climate system through emissions and land cover changes. Here we report the largest Southern Hemisphere network of annually resolved tree ring fire histories, consisting of 1,767 fire-scarred trees from 97 sites (from 22 °S to 54 °S) in southern South America (SAS), to quantify the coupling of SAM and regional wildfire variability using recently created …

Effects Of A Prescribed Burn On The Adult Butterfly Assemblage Of A Coastal Grassland, J. Nicole Desha, Joseph Colbert, Kimberly M. Andrews, Scott Coleman, C. Tate Holbrook

Georgia Journal of Science

Coastal grasslands are globally threatened by development and natural succession. In the southeastern United States, these increasingly rare ecosystems are being managed using prescribed fire, but ecological responses to fire management are largely unknown, particularly among nontargeted species. We tested for short-term effects of controlled burning on the abundance and species richness of adult butterflies, which utilize coastal grasslands for nectaring resources and as migratory stopover sites. In February 2015, four plots of coastal grassland on Little St. Simons Island, GA were burned and paired with unburned (control) plots of equal size. Throughout the following summer-fall flight season, we conducted …

Introductory Biology Students’ Use Of Enhanced Answer Keys And Reflection Questions To Engage In Metacognition And Enhance Understanding, Jaime L. Sabel, Joseph T. Dauer, Cory T. Forbes

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Providing feedback to students as they learn to integrate individual concepts into complex systems is an important way to help them to develop robust understanding, but it is challenging in large, undergraduate classes for instructors to provide feedback that is frequent and directed enough to help individual students. Various scaffolds can be used to help students engage in self-regulated learning and generate internal feedback to improve their learning. This study examined the use of enhanced answer keys with added reflection questions and instruction as scaffolds for engaging undergraduate students in self-regulated learning within an introductory biology course. Study findings show …

East African Weathering Dynamics Controlled By Vegetation-Climate Feedbacks, Sarah J. Ivory, Michael M. Mcglue, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Adam Boehlke, Anne-Marie Lézine, Annie Vincens, Andrew S. Cohen

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Tropical weathering has important linkages to global biogeochemistry and landscape evolution in the East African rift. We disentangle the influences of climate and terrestrial vegetation on chemical weathering intensity and erosion at Lake Malawi using a long sediment record. Fossil pollen, microcharcoal, particle size, and mineralogy data affirm that the detrital clays accumulating in deep water within the lake are controlled by feedbacks between climate and hinterland forest composition. Particle-size patterns are also best explained by vegetation, through feedbacks with lake levels, wildfires, and erosion. We develop a new source-to-sink framework that links lacustrine sedimentation to hinterland vegetation in tropical …

A Synergistic Approach For Evaluating Climate Model Output For Ecological Applications, Rachel D. Cavanagh, Eugene J. Murphy, Thomas J. Bracegirdle, John Turner, Cheryl A. Knowland, Stuart P. Corney, Walker O. Smith Jr., Claire M. Waluda, Nadine M. Johnston, Richard G. J. Bellerby, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

Increasing concern about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems is prompting ecologists and ecosystem managers to seek reliable projections of physical drivers of change. The use of global climate models in ecology is growing, although drawing ecologically meaningful conclusions can be problematic. The expertise required to access and interpret output from climate and earth system models is hampering progress in utilizing them most effectively to determine the wider implications of climate change. To address this issue, we present a joint approach between climate scientists and ecologists that explores key challenges and opportunities for progress. As an exemplar, our focus …

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

Bleached! The Catastrophe Management Of Corals, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

Corals have recently emerged as both a sign and a measure of the imminent catastrophic future of life on earth and, as such, have become the focus of intense conservation management. Bleached! draws on in-depth interviews and participatory observations with coral scientists and managers to explore the management of the corals’ ecological catastrophe to come. The article starts by describing the unique life of corals, the importance of calculability in catastrophe management, and the coral scientists’ preoccupation with classifying, counting, and seeing in their attempt to comprehensibly monitor corals and anticipate their decline. Algorithmic models and elaborate temporal analyses are …

Impact Of Habitat Degradation On Species Diversity And Nest Abundance Of Five African Stingless Bee Species In A Tropical Rainforest Of Kenya, Nkoba Kiatoko, Suresh Kumar Raina, Frank Van Langevelde

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Natural habitat degradation often involves the reduction or disappearance of bee species. In Africa, stingless bees are hunted for honey, which is used as food, for medicinal purposes, and for traditional rituals. Severe habitat degradation due to human settlement is hypothesized to have a negative impact on the species diversity of the African stingless bee species. In this paper, we assess the impact of habitat degradation on the diversity of five stingless bee species across different habitats in the tropical rainforest of Kenya (indigenous forest, mixed indigenous forest) and its neighbouring landscape (grassland, village) in western Kenya. The species fauna, …

Prozac In The Water: Chronic Fluoxetine Exposure And Predation Risk Interact To Shape Behaviors In An Estuarine Crab, Joseph R. Peters, Elise F. Granek, Catherine E. De Rivera, Matthew Rollins

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Predators exert considerable top-down pressure on ecosystems by directly consuming prey or indirectly influencing their foraging behaviors and habitat use. Prey is, therefore, forced to balance predation risk with resource reward. A growing list of anthropogenic stressors such as rising temperatures and ocean acidification has been shown to influence prey risk behaviors and subsequently alter important ecosystem processes. Yet, limited attention has been paid to the effects of chronic pharmaceutical exposure on risk behavior or as an ecological stressor, despite widespread detection and persistence of these contaminants in aquatic environments. In the laboratory, we simulated estuarine conditions of the shore …

Vertical And Cross-Shore Distributions Of Barnacle Larvae In La Jolla, Ca Nearshore Waters: Implications For Larval Transport Processes, Malloree Lynn Hagerty

Theses

Many marine organisms begin their lives as tiny larvae that are at the mercy of ocean currents. Understanding the transport and subsequent dispersal of larvae is crucial, as it drives population connectivity in the ocean. Larval transport is a complex process involving both physical motions of the water and larval behavior. Vertical positioning is especially important because currents vary throughout the water column, and larvae at different depths will be advected differently. With swimming speeds insufficient to swim against currents, marine larvae can mediate cross-shore transport by controlling their depth distributions. Thus, the overall objective of this study was to …

Impacts Of A Community Supported Agriculture (Csa) Voucher Program On Food Lifestyle Behaviors: Evidence From An Employer-Sponsored Pilot Program, Jairus J. Rossi, Timothy A. Woods, James E. Allen Iv

Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Community supported agriculture (CSA) programs have recently received attention for their potential to influence food lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes. We build on and expand inquiries into the relationship between CSA participation and behavior change by presenting the results from a controlled pilot study of first-time CSA shareholders. We offered 95 first-time shareholders a $200 voucher to participate in a CSA. Prior to and immediately following CSA participation, these shareholders completed a survey on food lifestyle behaviors. Using econometric analyses, we measured shareholder behavior changes against an 82 person control group. All participants were drawn from a pool of individuals …

Relational Values Resonate Broadly And Differently Than Intrinsic Or Instrumental Values, Or The New Ecological Paradigm, Sarah Klain, Paige Olmsted, Kai M. A. Chan, Terre Satterfield

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Value orientations used to explain or justify conservation have been rooted in arguments about how much and in what context to emphasize the intrinsic versus instrumental value of nature. Equally prominent are characterizations of beliefs known as the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), often used to help explain pro-environmental behaviour. A recent alternative to these positions has been identified as ‘relational value’—broadly, values linking people and ecosystems via tangible and intangible relationships to nature as well as the principles, virtues and notions of a good life that may accompany these. This paper examines whether relational values are distinct from other value …

Analysis And Research Of The System For The Prevention And Control Of Vessel-Induced Pollution In Shanghai Port, Longxue Wang

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Monitoring Responsibility And Measures Of The Recycling Company In Water Pollution Prevention During The Process Of Ship Recycling, Rui Tu

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Spilled Oil Pollution In Qingdao Port, Lu Zhao

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Model Application Niche Analysis: Assessing The Transferability And Generalizability Of Ecological Models, Jessica B. Moon, Theodore H. Dewitt, Melissa N. Errend, Randall J. F. Bruins, Mary E. Kentula, Sarah J. Chamberlain, M. Siobhan Fennessy, Kusum J. Naithani

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

The use of models by ecologists and environmental managers, to inform environmental management and decision-making, has grown exponentially in the past 50 yr. Due to logistical, economical, and theoretical benefits, model users frequently transfer preexisting models to new sites where data are scarce. Modelers have made significant progress in understanding how to improve model generalizability during model development. However, models are always imperfect representations of systems and are constrained by the contextual frameworks used during their development. Thus, model users need better ways to evaluate the possibility of unintentional misapplication when transferring models to new sites. We propose a method …

Rethinking Urban Green Infrastructure As A Means To Promote Avian Conservation, Allen Lau

Master's Projects and Capstones

There is an under-recognized potential for cities to use urban green infrastructure to contribute to avian biodiversity conservation. At the global scale, climate change and growing urbanization are primary global drivers leading to decline and homogenization in world bird populations. Birds are fundamental and intricate species in ecosystems, and even in urban areas, act as indicator and regulator species contributing to healthy ecosystem function. While many cities have recognized the economic and social benefits associated with green spaces, such as the vast benefits ecosystem services provide to the urban dweller, the use of green spaces to concurrently contribute to avian …

Effects Of Cultivar And Maternal Environment On Seed Quality In Vicia Sativa, Rong Li, Lijun Chen, Yanpei Wu, Rui Zhang, Carol C. Baskin, Jerry M. Baskin, Xiaowen Hu

Biology Faculty Publications

Production of high quality seeds is of fundamental importance for successful crop production. However, knowledge of the effects of increased temperature resulting from global warming on seed quality of alpine species is limited. We investigated the effect of maternal environment on seed quality of three cultivars of the leguminous forage species Vicia sativa, giving particular attention to temperature. Plants of each cultivar were grown at 1700 and 3000 m a.s.l., and mass, germination, electrical conductivity (EC) of leakage and longevity were determined for mature seeds. Seeds of all three cultivars produced at the low elevation had a significantly lower …

Nitrogen And Carbon Isotopic Dynamics Of Subarctic Soils And Plants In Southern Yukon Territory And Its Implications For Paleoecological And Paleodietary Studies, Farnoush Tahmesabi, Fred J. Longstaffe, Grant Zazula, Bruce Bennett

Earth Sciences Publications

We examine here the carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of bulk soils (8 topsoil and 7 subsoils, including two soil profiles) and five different plant parts of 79 C₃ plants from two main functional groups: herbs and shrubs/subshrubs, from 18 different locations in grasslands of southern Yukon Territory, Canada (eastern shoreline of Kluane Lake and Whitehorse area). The Kluane Lake region in particular has been identified previously as an analogue for Late Pleistocene eastern Beringia. All topsoils have higher average total nitrogen δ¹⁵N and organic carbon δ¹³C than plants from the same sites with a …

Biofuels From Crop Residue: Soil Organic Carbon And Climate Impacts In The Us And India, Adam Liska

Adam Liska Papers

The transformation of crop residue to soil organic carbon and CO₂ is a conserved process that occurs globally. Due to the mathematics of carbon intensity calculations found in government regulations, the amount of CO₂ emitted from crop residue per unit of energy in biofuel is largely independent of the amount of residue removed and the location of its removal, as shown by results from the US and India.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) levels are at equilibria determined by carbon inputs from plant material (+I_c) and loss from oxidation to CO₂

Are the US results relevant …