Digital Commons Network^™

Draft Final Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Insufficiently Reclaimed (Ir) Sites Colorado Dump – West Lot Construction Completion Report (Ccr), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Change In Representation And Coordination In Collaborative Governance Over Time: A Study Of Environmental Justice Councils, Saba Siddiki, Graham Ambrose

Center for Policy Design and Governance

This brief summarizes "Evaluating Change in Representation and Coordination in Collaborative Governance Over Time: A Study of Environmental Justice Councils," co-authored by Saba Siddiki and Graham Ambrose and published in Environmental Management.

Residential Metals Abatement Program Investigation Summary Report (Non-Residential Parcels – Indoor Dust) Former Hawthorne School, Environmental Resource Management (Erm)

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

A Graphical User Interface Using Spatiotemporal Interpolation To Determine Fine Particulate Matter Values In The United States, Kelly M. Entrekin

Honors College Theses

Fine particulate matter or PM2.5 can be described as a pollution particle that has a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. These pollution particle values are measured by monitoring sites installed across the United States throughout the year. While these values are helpful, a lot of areas are not accounted for as scientists are not able to measure all of the United States. Some of these unmeasured regions could be reaching high PM2.5 values over time without being aware of it. These high values can be dangerous by causing or worsening health conditions, such as cardiovascular and lung diseases. Within …

What's In A Name? The Politics Of Commemoration From The Un-Naming Of The Alexander Graham Bell Dorm At Rit To The Samuel Schmucker Controversy At Wcu, Brent Ruswick

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

Professor Brent Ruswick, History - What's in a Name? The Politics of Commemoration from the un-naming of the Alexander Graham Bell dorm at RIT to the Samuel Schmucker controversy at WCU

Varying Genesis And Landfall Locations For North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones In A Warmer Climate, Mackenzie M. Weaver, Andra J. Garner

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are one of the most dangerous hazards that threaten U.S. coastlines. They can be particularly damaging when they occur in densely populated areas, such as the U.S. Northeast. Here, we investigate seasonal-scale variations in TC genesis and subsequent first landfall locations of > 37,000 synthetic TCs that impact the U.S. Northeast from the pre-industrial era (prior to 1800) through a very high emissions future (RCP8.5; 2080–2100). TC genesis in the Main Development Region decreases across all parts of the season from the pre-industrial to the future, with the greatest decreases in the proportion of genesis (up to 80.49%) …

Gulf Sturgeon Mesohabitat Use And Movement In The Lower Pearl River Louisiana-Mississippi, Amanda Popovich

LSU Master's Theses

After spring migrations to natal rivers Gulf Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi reside in freshwater holding areas prior to fall emigrations to nearby estuaries. Limited published information on the physical habitat characteristics of these holding areas is available, especially for juvenile fish in the western portion of the Gulf Sturgeon’s distribution. To further investigate freshwater occupancy and movement patterns, 32 acoustic receivers were deployed from late April to October of 2021 and 2022 in 1600-m reaches distributed throughout the lower Pearl River, Louisiana-Mississippi, the westernmost river within their distribution. Generalized linear mixed models and multi-state models were used to determine what …

Filter-Based Air Sampler Capable Of Integration Into Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Robert M. Eninger, Stepanie A. Ohms, Jeremy M. Slagley

AFIT Patents

A filter-based air sampler, more specifically a filter-based air sampler capable of integration into small unmanned aerial systems is disclosed. The filter-based air sampler may include a filter assembly which has as its component parts: an open faced air intake component, a filter, and a filter support that has a central supporting grid. The filter assembly may joined to the housing of a fan, such as a centrifugal fan, with the supporting grid of the filter support being disposed over the air inlet of the fan.

Biodiversity Of Forage Fishes In The Lower Laguna Madre, Southernmost Texas, David Camarillo Jr., Elizabeth Mogus Garcia, Carlos E. Cintra-Buenrostro

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Coastal estuarine ecosystems serve as nursery habitats for many commercially and recreationally important fishes. Biodiversity is a structural indicator and has been used as a metric for conservation and management. In the hypersaline Lower Laguna Madre of Texas, a variety of organisms makes their living in and around the dominant seagrass vegetation. This study provides a general assessment of forage fishes biodiversity collected seasonally with bag seines in two sites: Holly Beach (HB) and South Bay (SB) within the most southern Texas bay system as part of a broader study on fish biology. A total of 15,880 fishes representing 32 …

Air Quality Analysis With Sensors, Satellites, And Models, Carl Malings

Sustainability Seminar Series

Poor air quality is a major global public health concern, which is only projected to get worse in coming years. A comprehensive understanding of current and potential future air quality and its key drivers spanning from local to global scales is needed to tackle this important problem. This presentation will outline the sources of information that we use to understand air quality (e.g., ground-based measurements, satellites, and models), their strengths and limitations, and how they are being used together to give us a better picture of air quality locally and globally.

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix Movements In The Lower Cumberland And Lower Tennessee River, Miranda Belanger

Scholars Week

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix are an invasive species making up a large portion of the fish biomass in the lower portions of the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River. This species is expanding its range throughout the upper portions of these rivers, beginning with Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Silver Carp rarely spawn in Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, but they can enter these reservoirs through the lock chamber. Thus, the bottleneck created by lock chambers can be used to control expansion of invasive Silver Carp. Although Silver Carp movement patterns have been studied in other portions of the Tennessee …

Mapping Cover Crop Usage In Calloway County, Kentucky, Kyle Klass

Scholars Week

Mapping Cover Crop Usage in Calloway County, Kentucky

Ever since man made the change from hunters and gatherers to an agrarian lifestyle, erosion has slowly removed hectares of once fertile soils from crop land worldwide. As populations increase so does the demand for food, which ultimately increases the amount of erosion caused by agricultural activities. Previous farming practices once deemed revolutionary such as monocropping, synthetic fertilizers, and conventional tilling have only expedited the erosion process by destroying the soil’s microbiome. Eroded soil eventually can make its way into rivers and lakes, decreasing the water quality with abnormally high levels of …

Impacts Of Floodplain Restoration On Water Temperature And Macroinvertebrates In Whychus Creek, Oregon, Wesley Nathan Noone

Dissertations and Theses

Stream restoration is a proposed climate adaptation tool, however, outcomes of floodplain restoration on stream temperature have been debated. Despite a growing number of studies that investigated water temperature in restored streams, few have quantified thermal heterogeneity in new habitat types created by restored hydrogeomorphic processes and the impact of thermal diversity on the aquatic macroinvertebrate community. In this study, I evaluated three hypotheses: 1) restoration increases habitat diversity, 2) habitat diversity increases water temperature heterogeneity, and 3) restored reaches have more diverse macroinvertebrate communities. I collected a total of 40 macroinvertebrate samples and characterized environmental conditions in three reaches …

Police Department And Cities Economies, Clayton Davis

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Shredders On Leaf Decomposition In The Silver Creek Watershed, Charlie Zielinski

Environmental Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The carbon released from leaf decomposition plays a critical role in the riparian ecosystem and aquatic food web. By testing rates of leaf decomposition in urban streams we can survey the health of a watershed by sampling the carbon release amidst key locations in the area. In this study, we had two objectives: The assessment of the role of shredder macroinvertebrates in leaf decomposition, and the assessment of leaf decomposition rates across sites in Silver Creek. This project is part of the long term assessment of Davenport streams conducted by Augustana College's Upper Mississippi Center. We hypothesized that by excluding …

Final Report: Turtle Creek Park, Auden Block, Juliette Chandler, Bethany Fitch, Haley Dickinson, Will Earley

Final Reports in ENST 411: Environmental Community Projects

During the Spring 2023 semester, we worked as a group with East Buffalo Township supervisors to develop plans for newly-acquired Turtle Creek Park. Specifically, our project centered on facilitating community engagement with Phase One of the restoration plan and helping the Supervisors lay a foundation for future phases of the park's revitalization. Our report details our work on mapping the park's trail system, identifying and mapping areas of poor drainage, and creating a series of interpretive signs for public education about the park, its natural history, and its ecology.

Abcds Of Triggerfish In Pemba And Misali Island: Abundance, Biodiversity, Behaviour, Cultural Significance And Distribution, Hannah Ng Shueh Yi

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study takes a socioecological approach to understanding triggerfish (Balistidae) in Pemba Island, using Misali Island reefs as a sample ecological site. Two reef sites on Misali Island and three of four districts in Pemba were observed during the study. The abundance of Balistipus undulatus at one of two study sites is close to the maximum carrying capacity of the reef. Overall observed biodiversity was low. Behavioural trends point to distinct species specific defence strategies and species aggression taking different forms. Triggerfishes cultural significance was primarily as a food fish, though it is not highly sought after. With polarised responses …

Hydropower To The People: Implications Of A Comparative Macroinvertebrate Study On Either Side Of The Central Hidroeléctrica Topo In Tungurahua, Ecuador, Grace Mazur

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study uses macroinvertebrates as bioindicators to assess the water quality upstream and downstream of a hydroelectric project in Ecuador’s eastern cloud forest. Ecuador has increasingly turned to hydropower to supply its energy needs as pressure mounts to turn away from fossil fuels. This transition has been realized on the Río Topo, located in the province of Tungurahua. This study aims to determine how the Central Hidroeléctrica Topo (CHT), a diversion hydroelectric project (HEP) constructed on the Río Topo in the 2010s, has affected the water quality of the river. Samples were taken of benthic (bottom-dwelling) macroinvertebrates in the Río …

“Mira Cómo Tejemos”: La Construcción De Una Red Comunitaria Y La Educación Ambiental En La Organización Frente Insular De La Reserva Marina De Galápagos, Katie Draeger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Frente Insular de la Reserva Marina de Galápagos (FIRMAG o Frente Insular) es una organización para la conservación comunitaria, ubicada en la isla de Santa Cruz. Para explorar el significado del trabajo comunitario de esta organización, este estudio examina dos elementos de la estructura organizativa: los valores y las fortalezas. Al analizar tanto las perspectivas de los líderes y miembros de FIRMAG como las observaciones sobre el trabajo mismo, los valores que buscan construir y servir la comunidad se revelan como 1) un rechazo a la institucionalidad/burocracia y 2) a los fondos extranjeros, 3) la educación ambiental comunitaria sin …

Graduate, 3rd Place: A Comparative Analysis Of Sustainability Report Communication In The Consumer Goods Industry, Nancy Ladeinde

2023 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

Sustainability reports are communicated in areas visible to stakeholders. One of such areas is corporate social responsibility. Sustainability reports have the function of image enhancement and trust building for organizations, particularly for those in the consumer goods industry. Advancing the research on corporate social responsibility, this study examines how consumer goods organizations communicate their sustainability/impact activities by comparing three large global organizations. The paper is premised on legitimacy and stakeholder theories and reviews the six ESG reports through content analysis. The comparative analysis of a two-year report of these organizations shows differences in patterns and language used in the ESG …

Our Possibilities With Medicinal Plants, Brianne Mack-Bingham

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

No abstract provided.

The Value Of Community Gardens In Georgetown County, Aaron Osborn

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Aquifer Storage And Recovery (Asr) In Water Resource Management, Katelyn Zimmerman

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

No abstract provided.

The Coastal Monitor: Vol. 10 No. 1, John Tanacredi Ph.D.

The Coastal Monitor

New Year’s Day has always been, for me, a time to reflect and project into the near future. Nature’s influence on us all certainly tops my listing with several environmental concerns. For example, the frequency and intensity of hurricanes to Long Island. A decade has passed since Superstorm Sandy re-opened the “Old Inlet” on Long Island which now has mostly naturally closed. So, the new year immediately prompts me to assess the previous year’s Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 system, with winds exceeding 150 mph, which had considerable impact in Florida, and then proceeded north resulting in over 2 inches …

Fisheries Science Update - Gascoyne Demersal Scalefish Resource - April 2023, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries Science Updates

Key points: 2022 stock assessment outcomes:

• The Gascoyne Demersal Scalefish Resource (GDSR) comprises more than 60 species inhabiting Gascoyne oceanic waters (excluding inner Shark Bay), with pink snapper and goldband snapper recognised as the two indicator species.
• Oceanic pink snapper is five years into a 20-year recovery plan following a 2017 stock assessment that showed the stock was at severe risk.
• The GDSR oceanic pink snapper recovery plan is based on limiting the annual total fishing mortality of oceanic pink snapper to 100 tonnes (all sectors combined) and providing targeted protection for key spawning aggregations.
• The Department of Primary Industries …

The Effects Of Cloth & Surgical Masks On The Environment, Dana Jurgielewicz

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

The objective of this study is to assess the environmental effects of different types of face masks (surgical and cloth). A comparison between different mask components is analyzed and an environmental impact is produced through the OpenLCA Software. The research question for this study is: What are the effects of different types of face masks on the environment? The expected result was that surgical masks would be worse for the environment because of the high consumption usage. The results of this study suggest that cloth masks have a worse environmental impact because of their level of usage.

Effect Of Varied Macronutrient Ratios On Honey Bee Tolerance To Iapv Infection, Caitlin Lennon-Puthoff, Alex Payne, Adam Dolezal

PRECS student projects

Honey bees are killed by Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). Because this virus has no cure, it is important to lessen its impact on bees through proper nutrition. This project explores the effects of differing protein to lipid (P:L) ratios in pollen on honey bee susceptibility to this virus.

Over three trials, bees in cages were incubated for 3 days to resemble hive conditions. Two doses of IAPV (10^-3 & 10^-2) and a negative control were used, along with five P:L ratios (1.5, 2.5, 11.5, 16.5, & 21.5:1) and a sucrose-only diet. These treatment groups were combined …

Graduate, 2nd Place: Assessing The Knowledge, Attitude, And Everyday Life Practices Adopted Among Eastern Illinois University Students Towards Sustainability, Joel Holison

2023 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

The concept of sustainable development gained attention and came into focus with the publication of the Brundtland Report (Brundtland, 1987). later the Education for Sustainability (EfS) initiative was presented in 1997 through the “Thessaloniki Declaration” as a carrier of the common and single message (Knapp, 2000). Sustainable development is the way a country pursues its economic development that does not jeopardize the opportunity for future generations to achieve their development (Brundtland, 1987). Deforestation, land destruction, soil degradation, air and water pollution, and other types of environmental deterioration are paid in the name of economic progress. This detriment may outweigh the …

Sustainability Club, Brianna Bernhardt, Marissa Lindemann

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

An environmental and agricultural-based club focusing on sustainability. Results in a cleaner school environment, knowledge about various sustainable practices, art projects, and an appreciation of nature.

Solar Feasibility At The Northeast Wastewater Treatment Facility, Kate Allen, Liam Baker, Madilyn Jaskae

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, spring 2023

A poster titled Solar Feasibility at the Northeast Wastewater Treatment Facility for client City of Lincoln, Nebraska, Transportation and Utilities.