Digital Commons Network^™

A Fishy Problem: Effects Of Atlantic Salmon Farming In The Pacific Ocean, Madeleine A. Griffith

Student Theses 2015-Present

In this report, I explore the historical, climatological, economic, and ethical issues created by the contemporary industrial salmon farming practices off Pacific coast of the United States and Canada. Chapter 1 utilizes a variety of sources from Stephen Hume’s A Stain upon the Sea to Miller’s Living in the Environment, to examine the integral part salmon plays in both freshwater and marine ecosystems, the ecosystem services salmon contribute in wild and farmed settings, and the trends in salmon consumption around the world. Chapter 2 examines the historically relevant role salmon held among indigenous societies and how that role has changed …

Rising Rural Body-Mass Index Is The Main Driver Of The Global Obesity Epidemic In Adults, Con Burns, Tara Coppinger, Janette Walton, Et Al

Publications

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities1,2. This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity3,4,5,6. Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to …

Increasing Food Security: Developing And Testing A Nutrition Education Curriculum For A Mobile Food Pantry, Alexandra Lepecha, Kathleen M. Kraft

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Background: The Neighborhood Produce Market (NPM) is a food distribution model similar to a mobile food pantry. NPM stakeholders observed a lack of community engagement and familiarity with produce offered.

Project Description: The objective was to develop a nutrition education curriculum for NPM volunteers to better engage families and community members by providing food samples, recipes, and nutrition education. A stakeholder steering committee guided the needs assessment, curriculum development, volunteer training, and pilot test. The curriculum consisted of food safety, cultural considerations, and nutritional information for nine produce items and food tasting procedures and recipes. Seven student volunteers were trained …

Conservation Education: Using Birds To Connect Communities To Their Natural Environment, Kathryn A. Olson

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The theme of my portfolio is conservation education, using birds as an example of how to connect people of all ages to their natural environment. Birds were chosen as an example because of a personal curiosity for the animal, and because they are an accessible and tangible element of nature for all people, urban and rural. The first component is a Curriculum Development Guide created for the Wings Over Water program of the Montana Natural History Center. It synthesizes scientific research on Ospreys, relates central themes of the literature to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and provides inventive activity ideas …

Mapping Wilderness Character In Adams County, Pennsylvania, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

The spatial trends in wilderness character in Adams County, Pennsylvania were examined to evaluate how influenced specific areas are impacted by human activity and development. Indicators of wilderness character were selected as natural, untrammelled, undeveloped, along with solitude and unconfined recreation by the Death Valley National Park staff in which a 0-4 ranking system was based upon to portray a range of most degraded to optimal land. This was executed through examination of factors such as abundance of biodiversity and human development within the given area before a Monte Carlo simulation was run to show sensitivity of change. It was …

Forest Structure Of Long-Term Conserved Areas Utilizing Different Strategies On A Continental, Glacial Moraine Formed Island, Christopher Coggin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Understanding patterns of forest succession can help advise management plans within New England nature preserves. This study took place on Block Island, 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The island has greater than 200+ years of farming practices. After 1960, conservation groups began reforesting the island using different strategies, such as actively planting with native and exotic tree species, mowing, and preventing further development. In 2018, woody vegetation was inventoried along transects within four reforested sites. Sites were characterized as the following: actively planted with exotic and native tree species and mowed (AP-M), actively planted with exotic and …

Herpetological Assemblages In Tropical Dry Forests Of The Azuero Peninsula, Panama: An Evaluation Of Reforestation, Tyler Kovacs

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Tropical dry forests are considered one of the most endangered tropical ecosystems making reforestation increasingly necessary to restore Panama’s unique ecoregion. The isolated dry ecoregion surrounding the Bay of Parita in Panama has a long history of deforestation and cattle grazing. Successful reforestation of this land is important to restore ecosystem health and biodiversity. In Panama, reforestation ranges from monocultures of exotic teak (Tectona grandis) to passive regeneration. Faunal recovery within these reforestation systems may vary due to different habitat characteristics. In this study, amphibian and reptile communities were compared in two types of reforestation systems and protected riparian forests …

Nutrient Concentrations And Effects On Mill Run From Residential, Urban, And Industrial Stormwater Contamination, Melissa Carver

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Nutrients are introduced into the waters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through various methods, mainly through point and non-point sources. Non-point sources would include agricultural means however, there are often other non-point sources that are often overlooked. Water runoff from stormwater is an important contributor to pollution entering various watersheds. Data was collected at 4 locations (the initial point of reference, residential, urban, and industrial) on Mill Run and 2 locations on Woodcock Creek, through surface water collection methods in dry and wet weather. Nitrate, Nitrite, Total Phosphorus, and Total Nitrogen were among the data collected. Total Phosphorus had an …

The Interface Between Invasive Species And The Increased Incidence Of Tick-Borne Diseases, And The Implications For Federal Land Managers, Ed Clark, Janis Mcfarland, Blaine Parker, Slade Franklin

National Invasive Species Council

Includes information on the dynamics of tick-borne disease, factors affecting the occurrence and density of ticks, matrices of ties between habitat, human activities, invasive plants, and ticks, federal resources and programs related to ticks and vector-borne disease in the United States, with references and an annotated bibliography of literature on ticks, vector-borne diseases, and invasive species.

Longitudinal Homogenization Of The Microbiome Between Both Occupants And The Built Environment In A Cohort Of United States Air Force Cadets, Anukriti Sharma, Miles Richardson, Lauren Cralle, Christopher E. Stamper, Juan P. Maestre, Kelly A. Stearns-Yoder, Teodor T. Postolache, Katherine L. Bates, Kerry A. Kinney, Lisa A. Brenner, Christopher A. Lowry, Jack A. Gilbert, Andrew J. Hoisington

Faculty Publications

The microbiome of the built environment has important implications for human health and wellbeing; however, bidirectional exchange of microbes between occupants and surfaces can be confounded by lifestyle, architecture, and external environmental exposures. Here, we present a longitudinal study of United States Air Force Academy cadets (n = 34), which have substantial homogeneity in lifestyle, diet, and age, all factors that influence the human microbiome. We characterized bacterial communities associated with (1) skin and gut samples from roommate pairs, (2) four built environment sample locations inside the pairs’ dormitory rooms, (3) four built environment sample locations within shared spaces …

A Genetic Counseling Needs Assessment Of Mexico., Daiana Bucio, Kelly E Ormond, Daisy Hernandez, Carlos D Bustamante, Arturo Lopez Pineda

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

BACKGROUND: While genetic counseling has expanded globally, Mexico has not adopted it as a separate profession. Given the rapid expansion of genetic and genomic services, understanding the current genetic counseling landscape in Mexico is crucial to improving healthcare outcomes.

METHODS: Our needs assessment strategy has two components. First, we gathered quantitative data about genetics education and medical geneticists' geographic distribution through an exhaustive compilation of available information across several medical schools and public databases. Second, we conducted semi-structured interviews of 19 key-informants from 10 Mexican states remotely with digital recording and transcription.

RESULTS: Across 32 states, ~54% of enrolled medical …

A Gradient Of Pollination Specialization In Three Species Of Bolivian Centropogon, Laura Lagomarsino, Nathan Muchhala

Biology Department Faculty Works

PremiseClosely related plant species with overlapping ranges often experience competition for pollination services. Such competition can select for divergence in floral traits that attract pollinators or determine pollen placement. While most species in Centropogon(Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae) have flowers that suggest adaptation to bat or hummingbird pollination, actual pollinators are rarely documented, and a few species have a mix of traits from both pollination syndromes. We studied the pollination biology of a “mixed‐syndrome” species and its co‐occurring congeners to examine the relationship between floral traits and visitation patterns for Centropogon.Methods Fieldwork at two sites in Bolivian cloud forests involved filming floral visitors, …

Graduate Internship Report- Dinuba High School, Nicole R. Borba

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This graduate internship report includes the documentation required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. The documents are concurrently used for the Agriculture Incentive Grant review process at Dinuba High School conducted by representatives of the California Department of Education. The supporting material includes information to receive state and local funding, outline the goals and objectives of the program, along with an overview of Dinuba High School, the agriculture program and the community.

Uncovering Genomic Insights To The Dynamics And Mechanisms Of Speciation Using Lialis Burtonis And Heteronotia Binoei, James E. Titus-Mcquillan

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Species are fundamental entities in biology because their existence represents the cohesion that binds populations into a single unit. One facet of evolutionary biology is to identify the processes that cause the origin of species and maintain this cohesion apart from closely-related lineages. Two aims that speciation research attempts to answer are: (1) How do lineages diverge to form new species? and, (2) What prevents the merging of nascent species? One useful approach to address both questions is to study areas of contact where independent populations coexist and exchange genetic material. By investigating the size of contact zones, the extent …

Evaluating Michigan's Food, Agriculture, And Resources In Motion (Farm) Science Lab As A Modality For Agricultural Literacy, Amelia J. Miller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Michigan’s Food, Agriculture, and Resources in Motion (FARM) Science Lab is a 40-foot mobile classroom outfitted with 10 learning stations including scientific equipment and iPads. This quasi-experimental study analyzed preexisting data provided by Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom to evaluate the effectiveness of the FARM Science Lab mobile classroom as a method of teaching agriculture-themed, standards-based lessons to third- through fifth-grade students in order to increase their understanding of agriculture. From January through June 2018, more than 1,258 students participated in these lessons and completed the pretest and posttest and 72 teachers completed the post survey. Research questions not only …

Review Of Birds Of Prey Of The West: A Field Guide, By Brian K. Wheeler, Daniel Casey

The Prairie Naturalist

Birds of prey epitomize much of what attracts us to birding. Many are large and easy to observe, particularly in open landscapes. Their predatory nature and behavior give them an added aura of wildness; their migrations can be spectacular. And even veteran birders should enjoy the challenge of identifying the myriad of plumage variations shown by different ages, sexes, subspecies, and color morphs. With his newest effort, Birds of Prey of the West, Brian Wheeler has compiled a comprehensive and enhanced field guide with illustrations that stunningly capture that variation, combined with enough additional context to make it a valuable …

Reimagining The Potential Of Earth Observations For Ecosystem Service Assessments, Frank E. Muller-Karger

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The benefits nature provides to people, called ecosystem services, are increasingly recognized and accounted for in assessments of infrastructure development, agricultural management, conservation prioritization, and sustainable sourcing. These assessments are often limited by data, however, a gap with tremendous potential to be filled through Earth observations (EO), which produce a variety of data across spatial and temporal extents and resolutions. Despite widespread recognition of this potential, in practice few ecosystem service studies use EO. Here, we identify challenges and opportunities to using EO in ecosystem service modeling and assessment. Some challenges are technical, related to data awareness, processing, and access. …

Pine, Aphids, And Parasitoid Wasps: Patterns Of Cospeciation And Host Switches In A Tri-Trophic System, Amber Bass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological interactions may drive speciation events, and the processes that drive these speciation events can leave behind patterns in the phylogenies of interacting taxa. These patterns have been studied extensively in herbivores and host plants, as well as parasites and their hosts, but rarely in tri-trophic systems. Here, we examine three closely related groups of interacting taxa, including parasitoid wasps (Pauesia), aphid herbivores (Cinara), and pine trees (Pinus) to determine if the patterns between each interacting taxa indicate that cospeciation or host switches are more dominant. We create phylogenies of Cinara and Pauesia in the southeastern United States using ddRADseq …

Burn Severity And Fire History In The Northwestern Canadian Boreal Forest: Drivers And Ecological Outcomes, Ellen Whitman

Aspen Bibliography

Wildfire is the dominant stand-renewing disturbance in the northwestern Canadian boreal forest. Fires burn extensive areas in Canada, disturbing an average of 1.96 Mha yr−1, primarily in the boreal zone. Fires generally occur every ~30 – > 200 years in this region, due in part to a lack of fuel that allows young stands to resist reburning. Boreal understory plants and trees are adapted to stand-renewing wildfire through mechanisms such as serotiny, seed banking, and resprouting from roots and rhizomes of top-killed individuals. Such adaptations confer resilience to boreal forests, and post-fire vegetation communities generally resemble the pre-fire ones, following a …

Do Indirect Predator Cues Affect Behavior Of The Freshwater Clam Sphaerium Simile?, Jesse Bruce Eichler

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Freshwater bivalves provide important ecosystem services, like filtering water and cycling nutrients. Predators affecting the behavior of bivalve prey, therefore, could potentially impact the structure and function of ecological communities. Because little is known about the antipredator responses of sphaeriid clams, I examined the behavior of juvenile and adult freshwater clams, Sphaerium simile, when exposed to two types of indirect predator cues: effluent of a crayfish (Orconectes rusticus) and damaged conspecific clams. Adult clams responded to crayfish effluent by significantly reducing burrowing behavior. Juvenile clams, however, buried indiscriminately regardless of experimental treatment and significantly more often/more quickly than adults. These …

Ecometric Estimation Of Present And Past Climate Of North America Using Crown Heights Of Rodents And Lagomorphs: With Application To The Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, Julia Schap

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Continental scale studies on ungulate crown heights in relation to climate and habitat changes have revealed a correlation between increasing hypsodonty and a shift to more arid environments. Small mammals have been shown to adapt to changing habitats millions of years earlier than larger mammals. In this study I examined fossil localities throughout the last 37 Ma across North America. Diversity of rodents and lagomorphs were analyzed through this time period, with examination of community structure characterized by relative percentages of taxa with different crown heights. Overall, a decrease in precipitation and temperature was found across North America from 37 …

The Farmers’ Federation: Regional Racial Mythologies As Agricultural Capital, Jama Mcmurtery Grove

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1927, the Farmers’ Federation agricultural cooperative in Western North Carolina launched an organization to solicit funds from wealthy donors. The money raised through philanthropic campaigns enabled the cooperative to fund large-scale agricultural projects, which helped members navigate the dramatic agricultural transformations of the early twentieth century. Although the cooperative advocated a progressive program of business-minded, scientific farming, its leadership modified programs to reflect farmer members’ limited resources and the realities of mountain production. As a result, the co-op provided a crucial bridge between white farmers and new methods of agricultural production that reached deep into peoples’ familial and productive …

Redesign, Field-Testing, And Validation Of The Physical Activity Campus Environmental Supports (Paces) Audit., Tanya M. Horacek, Elif Dede Yildirim, Dean Seidman, Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, Sarah E. Colby, Adrienne A. White, Karla P. Shelnutt, Melissa D. Olfert, Anne E. Matthews, Kristin Riggsbee, Lisa Franzen-Castle, Jesse Stabile Morrell, Kendra Kattelmann

Health and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes the redesign, field-testing, and convergent validity of a practical tool-Physical Activity Campus Environmental Supports (PACES) audit. Methods. The audit includes two parts: (1) PACES-Programs, which is comprised of questions regarding populations served, fees, programs (recreation/fitness classes and intramurals), proximity, adequacy of facilities, and marketing, and (2) PACES-Facilities, which is comprised of questions regarding built environment (aesthetics, bike racks, stairs, and universal design), recreation equipment, staff, amenities, and access. Each item criterion is specifically scored using a five-point, semantic-differential scale ranging from limited to extensive environmental support. A few questions utilize select all that apply for a summed …

Surveying Apicomplexan Diversity And Dynamics In Narragansett Bay, Evelyn Spencer

Senior Honors Projects

Parasites play an important role in marine ecosystems and their diversity is generally understudied. Apicomplexans, a group of parasitic protists in the phylum Alveolata, infect a wide variety of animal hosts and are abundant in ecosystems spanning from Polar Regions to Neotropical rainforests. Previous data generated from marine sediments in Antarctica, Naples Bay, and off the coast of Oslo, exhibit high diversity and numbers of apicomplexans. Abundance and diversity of these protists are unknown for Narragansett Bay, despite the fact that they infect many commercially important species. The aim of my study was to obtain abundance data and understand genetic …

Producer Preferences For Alternative Irrigation Practices In The Arkansas Delta, Robert Edward Rosene

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We use a bivariate sample selection model to address peer network effects on participation in and/or intensity of use of land being irrigated by alternative irrigation practices in the state of Arkansas. As groundwater in the state becomes more limited, the use of scientific scheduling, flowmeters, and more efficient row crop water application systems will allow producers to better manage water resources. We find relatively large, positive relationships between belonging to a peer network of the same irrigation practice and participation in that practice. Intensity of use of alternative irrigation techniques is mostly influenced by which crop type the practice …

Reassessment Of The Extinction Risk Of The Neotropical Freshwater Crabs Of The Family Pseudothelphusidae, Ada Acevedo Alonso

All NMU Master's Theses

The Neotropical region is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, and its freshwater crabs are notably diverse, and are represented by two families, Pseudothelphusidae and Trichodactylidae. This study focuses on this region’s highly diverse Pseudothelphusidae which includes 48 genera and 289 species. The 2008 IUCN global conservation assessment found 15.5% of the Pseudothelphusidae to be threatened with extinction and projected that in the worst-case scenario (if all of the Data Deficient species turned out to be threatened), the number of threatened species would be significantly higher. In the last decade several new species of pseudothelphusids have been described, and more …

Convergent Evolution And Species Boundaries In Lomatium Species (Apiaceae), Michael Ottenlips

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Speciation is a complex and ongoing process caused by a variety of forces; this has in part led to a proliferation of species concepts ranging from arbitrary similarity-based concepts such as the morphological species concept to ancestry-based concepts that incorporate the complex nature of gene inheritance. Ancestry-based concepts rely on homologous characters, either molecular or morphological, that share a common origin in order to draw inferences about evolutionary histories and help understand species boundaries. Convergence in morphology and paralogous loci in molecular datasets can cause confusion in understanding if characters are functionally homologous. Other challenges in inferring species boundaries and …

Chacra Farming, Peasant Livelihood Portfolios And Identities In The Peruvian Andes, Anna C. Bebbington

Geography Honors Projects

Nearly fifty years after land reform in Peru, and in the face of dramatic climatic and social change, small-scale, high-altitude agriculture and the livelihoods of peasant households have fundamentally changed.Nonetheless, low-input subsistence agriculture, known as chacra agriculture, remains a prominent feature in Andean landscapes and peasant livelihoods. Drawing on research conducted in two agro-pastoral communities in the Ancash region of Peru, this thesis seeks to show how and why households in these communities continue to rely on the chacra as part of their livelihood strategies. While seeking to understand the role of the chacra in peasant livelihood portfolios, I consider …

Reimagining The Potential Of Earth Observations For Ecosystem Service Assessments, Frank Muller-Karger

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The benefits nature provides to people, called ecosystem services, are increasingly recognized and accounted for in assessments of infrastructure development, agricultural management, conservation prioritization, and sustainable sourcing. These assessments are often limited by data, however, a gap with tremendous potential to be filled through Earth observations (EO), which produce a variety of data across spatial and temporal extents and resolutions. Despite widespread recognition of this potential, in practice few ecosystem service studies use EO. Here, we identify challenges and opportunities to using EO in ecosystem service modeling and assessment. Some challenges are technical, related to data awareness, processing, and access. …

Modelling Appropriate Use Of Trypanocides To Restrict Wide-Spread Multi-Drug Resistance During Chemotherapy Of Animal African Trypanosomiasis, Ibrahim I. Wangwe, Sarah A. Wamwenje, Caroline Mirieri, Nicodemus M. Masila, Lillian Wambua, Benard W. Kulohoma

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Trypanocide resistance remains a huge challenge in the management of animal African trypanosomiasis. Paucity of data on the prevalence of multi-drug resistant trypanosomes has greatly hindered optimal veterinary management practices. We use mathematical model predictions to highlight appropriate drug regimens that impede trypanocide resistance development in cattle. We demonstrate that using drugs in decreasing resistance order results in a negligible increase in number of cattle with resistant infection, in contrast to a more pronounced increase from trypanocide use in increasing resistance order. We demonstrate that the lowest levels of trypanocide resistance are achieved with combination therapy. We also show that …