Digital Commons Network^™

What Makes Green Parties Successful: A Comparative Analysis Of Germany, Austria, And France, Macy Miller

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Starting in the 1980s, green parties began to make their debut. Their establishment was considered to be largely in response to environmental and anti-nuclear movements. Although their history has been quite brief, these parties have been making waves throughout the world. Throughout this research, a pattern arises between economic stability and quality of life, mainstream party competition, policy positions, and green voters themselves when examining the success of the green parties. In particular, they have demonstrated great success in the European Union. In an attempt to explain this success, this research explores three specific green parties: the German, the Austrian, …

Bridging The Information Gap Between Beginning And Experienced Farmers, Mckayla R. Robinette, Maureen K. Drinkard, Gina Raicovich

RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences

The demographic of the average farmer is shifting from experienced, generational farmers to beginning farmers with little experience or family background in farming. This has led to a knowledge gap in critical information for beginning farmers that could be contributing to the high fail rate of new farms. This research surveyed both experienced and beginning farmers and asked them to identify areas of educational importance. The aim of this study was to identify areas where beginning farmers may have a knowledge gap in an effort to identify areas where future educational resources should be focused. The results showed that in …

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Paleontological Resources Management Plan (Public Version), Scott Kottkamp, Vincent L. Santucci, Justin S. Tweet, Jessica De Smet, Ellen Stark

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Since Agate Springs Ranch was founded by James H. Cook in 1887, exquisite examples of transitional Miocene mammalian fauna have been found along this stretch of the Niobrara River valley. Collectively these paleontological discoveries, along with the existing archeological and historical Native American collection, were the basis for establishing Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) as a unit of the National Park System (NPS). The fossil remains from the Harrison and Anderson Ranch formations span a short, but important, time period within the Miocene Epoch. AGFO has provided science with an intimate look into North American mammalian evolution …

His And Hers: Gender-Specific Design In Mid-Twentieth Century North America Through Film And Television, Morgan O'Shaughnessy

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The built environment exists as a variety of ‘spaces’ which are constructed by, and for, the people who occupy them. What is the relationship between social constructs of gender and our built environment in the 20^th century? How does film and television representing the mid-20^th century exemplify this relationship? The overall theme of this topic will include a positive relationship between social gender constructs and our built environment. Through the exploration of select film and television, this study attempts to answer the question of how gender-focused design reinforces traditional gender roles in North American society in mid-20^{th …}

Statement Of World Aquatic Scientific Societies On The Need To Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based On Scientific Evidence [Dear Colleague Letter], Scott A. Bonar, Brian R. Murphy, Leanne H. Roulson, Jesse T. Trushenski, Douglas J. Austen, Michael Edward Douglas

United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Publications

Dear Colleague Letter from the American Fisheries Society to fellow scientific societies, July 25, 2020, about the urgent need for responsive collective action to mitigate impending radical climate change. Includes the Statement of World Aquatic Scientific Societies on the Need to Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based on Scientific Evidence, emphasizing the importance of aquatic ecosystems. Includes extensive citations and notes.

"Water is the most important natural resource on Earth as it is vital for life. Aquatic ecosystems, freshwater or marine, provide multiple benefits to human society, such as provisioning of oxygen, food, drinking water, genetic resources; regulation …

An Applied Ecology Of Fear Framework: Linking Theory To Conservation Practice, Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Michael J. Cherry, Sophie L. Gilbert, Michael T. Kohl, Courtney L. Larson, Thomas M. Newsome, Laura R. Prugh, Justin P. Suraci, Julie K. Young, Justine A. Smith

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Research on the ecology of fear has highlighted the importance of perceived risk from predators and humans in shaping animal behavior and physiology, with potential demographic and ecosystem-wide consequences. Despite recent conceptual advances and potential management implications of the ecology of fear, theory and conservation practices have rarely been linked. Many challenges in animal conservation may be alleviated by actively harnessing or compensating for risk perception and risk avoidance behavior in wild animal populations. Integration of the ecology of fear into conservation and management practice can contribute to the recovery of threatened populations, human–wildlife conflict mitigation, invasive species management, maintenance …

Vertebrates On The Brink As Indicators Of Biological Annihilation And The Sixth Mass Extinction, Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich, Peter H. Raven

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

The ongoing sixth mass species extinction is the result of the destruction of component populations leading to eventual extirpation of entire species. Populations and species extinctions have severe implications for society through the degradation of ecosystem services. Here we assess the extinction crisis from a different perspective. We examine 29,400 species of terrestrial vertebrates, and determine which are on the brink of extinction because they have fewer than 1,000 individuals. There are 515 species on the brink (1.7% of the evaluated vertebrates). Around 94% of the populations of 77 mammal and bird species on the brink have been lost in …

Rfia: An R Package For Estimation Of Forest Attributes With The Us Forest Inventory And Analysis Database, Hunter Stanke, Andrew O. Finley, Aaron S. Weed, Brian F. Walters, Grant M. Domke

United States National Park Service: Publications

Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) is a US Department of Agriculture Forest Service program that aims to monitor changes in forests across the US. FIA hosts one of the largest ecological datasets in the world, though its complexity limits access for many potential users. rFIA is an R package designed to simplify the estimation of forest attributes using data collected by the FIA Program. Specifically, rFIA improves access to the spatiotemporal estimation capacity of the FIA Database via space–time indexed summaries of forest variables within user-defined population boundaries (e.g., geographic, temporal, biophysical). The package implements multiple design-based estimators, and has …

Combined Use Of Sentinel‐1 Sar And Landsat Sensors Products For Residual Soil Moisture Retrieval Over Agricultural Fields In The Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia, Getachew Ayehu, Tsegaye Tadesse, Berhan Gessesse, Yibeltal Yigrem, Assefa M. Melesse

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The objective of this paper is to investigate the potential of sentinel‐1 SAR sensor products and the contribution of soil roughness parameters to estimate volumetric residual soil moisture (RSM) in the Upper Blue Nile (UBN) basin, Ethiopia. The backscatter contribution of crop residue water content was estimated using Landsat sensor product and the water cloud model (WCM). The surface roughness parameters were estimated from the Oh and Baghdadi models. A feed‐forward artificial neural network (ANN) method was tested for its potential to translate SAR backscattering and surface roughness input variables to RSM values. The model was trained for three inversion …

The Trait Repertoire Enabling Cyanobacteria To Bloom Assessed Through Comparative Genomic Complexity And Metatranscriptomics, Huansheng Cao, Yohei Shimura, Morgan M. Steffen, Zhou Yang, Jingrang Lu, Allen Joel, Landon Jenkins, Masanobu Kawachi, Yanbin Yin, Ferran Garcia-Pichel

Food for Health: Publications

Water bloom development due to eutrophication constitutes a case of niche specialization among planktonic cyanobacteria, but the genomic repertoire allowing bloom formation in only some species has not been fully characterized. We posited that the habitat relevance of a trait begets its underlying genomic complexity, so that traits within the repertoire would be differentially more complex in species successfully thriving in that habitat than in close species that cannot. To test this for the case of bloom-forming cyanobacteria, we curated 17 potentially relevant query metabolic pathways and five core pathways selected according to existing ecophysiological literature. The available 113 genomes …

Development Of A Modified Floristic Quality Index As A Rapid Habitat Assessment Method In The Northern Everglades, Rebakah E. Gibble, Donatto D. Surratt

United States National Park Service: Publications

Floristic quality assessments (FQA) using floristic quality indices (FQIs) are useful tools for assessing and comparing vegetation communities and related habitat condition. However, intensive vegetation surveys requiring significant time and technical expertise are necessary, which limits the use of FQIs in environmental monitoring programs. This study modified standard FQI methods to develop a rapid assessment method for characterizing and modeling change in wetland habitat condition in the northern Everglades. Method modifications include limiting vegetation surveys to a subset of taxa selected as indicators of impact and eliminating richness and/or abundance factors from the equation. These modifications reduce the amount of …

The Role Of University Of Nebraska-Lincoln's Biodigester On Sustainable Food Waste Reduction Within Selleck Dining Center, Jennifer Gilbert

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln took a major step toward sustainability this past fall when Dining Services installed their first ever biodigester on November 8, 2019 within Selleck Dining Center. The impact this biodigester has had, thus far, is observable in the form of quantitative data collected in the amount of food waste digested by this technology. This study focuses on analyzing collected data from the LFC Cloud database, while also searching for trends and patterns that could further suggest substantial impact and efficiency of the biodigester on food waste reduction and sustainability initiatives within UNL Dining Services. Data Tables and …

Fire Monitoring Handbook

United States National Park Service: Publications

Fire is a powerful and enduring force that has had, and will continue to have, a profound influence on National Park Service (NPS) lands. Fire management decisions within the National Park Service require information on fire behavior and on the effects of fire on park resources. With good reason, the public is holding park management increasingly accountable, especially in the area of fire management. Federal and state agencies are instituting progressively more stringent guidelines for burning, monitoring, and evaluation. The impetus behind these guidelines and the purpose of this handbook are to ensure that management objectives are being met, to …

A Social–Ecological Odyssey In Fisheries And Wildlife Management, Andrew K. Carlson, William W. Taylor, Melissa R. Cronin, Mitchell J. Eaton, Mark A. Kaemingk, Andrea J. Reid, Ashley Trudeau

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Aldo Leopold, famous ecologist and “father” of North American wildlife management, once said, “These are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land” (Leopold 1947). Ever prescient, Leopold recognized that natural resource management is fundamentally about humans and their relationship with nature well before conservation became an established way of thinking, much less the bedrock of entire professions. Similarly, amid the Green Revolution to increase agricultural production, in part, through widespread use of pesticides, renowned environmentalist and journalist Rachel Carson noted that we are all “a part of nature, …

Diatom Morphology In Light Of A Changing Climate: A Focus On Aulacoseira Crenulata, Brighid Welchans

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Fossilized diatoms are arguably the most vital proxy record utilized in paleolimnology. Diatoms are unicellular microalgae that are the basis of countless food webs, are invaluable bioindicators, and generate nearly a quarter of global net primary productivity. Diatoms are affected by a variety of environmental factors but there is relatively little research on how environmental conditions impact diatom valve morphology, and in particular whether there is a correlation between incoming light and diatom pore morphology. This report focuses on the Amazon lowland lake Garzacocha, and analyzes the relationship between light levels and the corresponding size of Aulacoseira crenulata pores. We …

The Research And Analysis Of Potential Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) Habitats And Gray Wolf Management In The U.S., Youhan Mei

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

The Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) is a keystone species that have significant impacts on the ecosystem where they belong. They used to have a wide range of habitat across the whole of North America. In 1960, the wolves were treated as threats to the safety of humans and livestock. They were wiped out by the government of the day and only had few populations left in Minnesota and Michigan. Today, there are identified in the “Red List) of International Union for Conservation of Nature as endangered species all around the U.S. This shows the urgent need for conservation, …

Genetic Studies Of Wildlife, Brittaney L. Buchanan

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Genetic techniques are being more frequently used to understand the biology and management of wildlife species. The wild turkey is one species of genetic interest because the correct identification of individuals to the subspecies level is difficult using traditional methods. Currently phenotypic differences in plumage, especially the upper tail coverts, are used to assign individuals to subspecies. To hunters wanting to complete a “grand slam,” identification of birds’ subspecies is important. This study focuses on the five extant subspecies: Eastern (M. g. silvestris), Osceola (M. g. osceola), Rio Grande (M. g. intermedia), Merriam’s ( …

Center For Grassland Studies, Volume 26, Issue 1, Spring 2020

Center for Grassland Studies: Newsletters

GPS Tracking to Understand Cattle Grazing

Director's Column

Listening Sessions Encourage Stakeholder Input

Sustaining Nebraska’s Grasslands

Cedar Management Meeting: April 3

Alumni Update: Ethan Freese, Master of Applied Science Candidate

Nebraska Grazing Conference: August 10-12, 2020

Students Test Prairie Restoration Methods for Joint Prairie Corridor Project

Nebraska Range Short Course: Register by May 15

Martin and Ruth Massengale Honored with Tribute Wall

Kenyan’s Tour Rangelands of Western Nebraska

GRLS Club Continues Growth

Range Club Earns Awards

Nebraska Ranch Practicum: Register by May 1

Opportunities Abound at PGA Merchandise Show

2019 Jones Cup Recap

Alumni Update: Austin Holliday, Manager, UNL Cow/Calf …

Gamma Sigma Delta, Nebraska Chapter Newsletter, Issue #59 2020

Gamma Sigma Delta, Nebraska Chapter: Newsletters

In this issue:

Important dates

President's message, Paul Hay

2019 Nebraska Chapter awards: The Honor Society of Agriculture, Gamma Sigma Delta

Award of Merit recipients: Archie Clutter, Dave Vetter, Lena Luck, Suat Irmak, Angela Pannier, Sajjan Grover (Joe Louis), (Ethann Barnes, Jordan Reinders), Jayden Garrett (Daniel Gertner, Alexander Kemnitz, Trevin Ball, Kristi Patterson, Robert Gabel, Abigail Haworth), Abigail Haworth, Sydney Kimnach (Payton Flower, Kayla Johnson, Tori Pedersen).

New members inducted into the Nebraska Chapter

Gamma Sigma Delta committees 2020 (Executive: President: Paul Hay, President-Elect: TBD, Secretary/Treasurer: Dennis Brink, Membership Coordinator: Bob Wright, Historian Dana W. R. Boden, Past-President: Gary Brewer) …

Environmental Activism, Ellen Dexter, Lydia Dexter

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

An after school book club that follows Greta Thunberg's book of speeches No One is Too Small to Make a Difference , as well as uses hands-on activities to teach the importance of environmental activism.

Understanding Sportsperson Retention And Reactivation Through License Purchasing Behavior, Matthew P. Hinrichs, Nathaniel B. Price, Matthew P. Gruntorad, Kevin L. Pope, Joseph J. Fontaine, Christopher J. Chizinski

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Most state and provincial fish and wildlife agencies have access to important information about patterns in sportsperson participation through their license databases. Using transaction data from Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s electronic hunting and fishing license system, we tracked license purchases of Nebraska, USA, resident license holders in 2010 through 2017. We categorized sportspersons by gender and yearly purchases as hunting only (Hunter), fishing only (Angler), a combination of hunting and fishing (Hunter–Angler), or no purchases (Inactive). The probability of movement among active sportsperson groups was limited and varied little based on initial group participation. The Angler group had the …

The Effects Of Phosphate On The Metamorphosis Of Larval Western Barred Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma Mavortium), Lexy Polivanov

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This investigation will collect data to assist in determining if elevated aquatic phosphate levels affects the metamorphosis rate of larval western barred tiger salamanders (Ambystoma mavortium). Monoammonium phosphate fertilizers are being used on crops in Nebraska (NDA, 2017). This area lines up with the area the western barred tiger salamanders are disappearing from (Damme, 2018). Monoammonium phosphate is made up of nitrogen and phosphate. There have been several studies showing how nitrogen is harmful to amphibians such as this salamander (Griffis-Kyle, 2007) (Griffis-Kyle & Richtie, 2007), but there have not been many showing how phosphate affects amphibian’s metamorphosis …

Acoustically Advertising Male Harbour Seals In Southeast Alaska Do Not Make Biologically Relevant Acoustic Adjustments In The Presence Of Vessel Noise, Leanna P. Matthews, Michelle E.H. Fournet, Christine Gabriele, Holger Klinck, Susan E. Parks

United States National Park Service: Publications

Aquatically breeding harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) males use underwater vocalizations during the breeding season to establish underwater territories, defend territories against intruder males, and possibly to attract females. Vessel noise overlaps in frequency with these vocalizations and could negatively impact breeding success by limiting communication space. In this study, we investigated whether harbour seals employed anti-masking strategies to maintain communication in the presence of vessel noise in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Harbour seals in this location did not sufficiently adjust source levels or acoustic parameters of vocalizations to compensate for acoustic masking. Instead, for every 1 dB …

Carnivore Population Structure Across An Urbanization Gradient: A Regional Genetic Analysis Of Bobcats In Southern California, Julia G. Smith, Megan K. Jennings, Erin E. Boydston, Kevin R. Crooks, Holly B. Ernest, Seth Riley, Laurel E. K. Serleys, Shaelynn Sleater-Squires, Rebecca L. Lewison

United States National Park Service: Publications

Context In human-dominated landscapes, habitat fragmentation and barriers to movement can interrupt gene flow. While often considered at a local extent, regional analyses are also needed to reveal broader landscape-mediated population processes.

Objectives To explore the relationship between patterns of gene flow and fragmentation resulting from urbanization across southern California, we used the bobcat as an indicator species. We assembled data for a landscape level genetic analysis across southern California from both archived and new samples, including two northern Californian populations for comparison, to identify local and regional areas affected by isolation.

Methods Our regional analyses focused on a dataset …

Asynchronous Carbon Sink Saturation In African And Amazonian Tropical Forests, Wannes Hubau, Simon L. Lewis, Et. Al. Authors

United States National Park Service: Publications

Structurally intact tropical forests sequestered about half of the global terrestrial carbon uptake over the 1990s and early 2000s, removing about 15 percent of 1–3 anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Climate-driven vegetation models 4,5 typically predict that this tropical forest ‘carbon sink’ will continue for decades . Here we assess trends in the carbon sink using 244 structurally intact African tropical forests spanning 11 countries, compare them with 321 published plots from Amazonia and investigate the underlying drivers of the trends. The carbon sink in live aboveground biomass in intact African tropical forests has been stable for the three decades to …

Problematic Plant Monitoring In Homestead National Monument Of America, 2006–2017, Craig C. Young

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

Managers are challenged with the impact of problematic plants, including exotic, invasive, and pest plant species. Information on the abundance, distribution, and location of these plants is essential for developing risk-based approaches to managing these species. Based on surveys conducted in 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2017, Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network staff and contractors identified a cumulative total of 20 potentially problematic plant species in Homestead National Monument of America (NMA). Of the 13 species found in 2017, we characterized 4 as very low frequency, 4 as low frequency, 2 as medium frequency, and 3 as high frequency. Only …

Problematic Plant Monitoring In Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, 2006–2018, Craig C. Young

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

Managers are challenged with the impact of problematic plants, including exotic, invasive, and pest plant species. Information on the abundance, distribution, and location of these plants is essential for developing risk-based approaches to managing these species. Based on surveys conducted in 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018, Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network staff and contractors identified a cumulative total of 33 problematic plant species in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Of the 27 species found in 2018, we characterized 14 as very low frequency, 9 as low frequency, 4 as medium frequency, and 0 as high frequency. Only 4 (14.8%) of …

Recharge Seasonality Based On Stable Isotopes: Nongrowing Season Bias Altered By Irrigation In Nebraska, Mikaela Cherry, Troy E. Gilmore, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Didier Gastmans, Vinicius Santos, John Gates

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The sustainability of groundwater resources for agricultural and domestic use is dependent on both the groundwater recharge rate and groundwater quality. The main purpose of this study was to improve understanding of the timing, or seasonality, of groundwater recharge through the use of stable isotopes. Based on 659 groundwater samples collected from aquifers underlying Natural Resources Districts in Nebraska, the isotopic composition of groundwater (δ 2H, δ 18O) was compared to that of precipitation by (a) mapping the isotopic composition of groundwater samples and (b) mapping a seasonality index for groundwater. Results suggest that for the majority of the state, …

Estimation Of Available Epinephrine Dose In Expired And Discolored Autoinjectors Via Quantitative Smartphone Imaging, Amirus Saleheen, Bill M. Campbell, Rebecca A. Prosser, Christopher A. Baker

United States National Park Service: Publications

Epinephrine autoinjectors (EAIs) are important first aid medications for treating anaphylaxis. A 10-fold price increase over the past 12 years and evidence that expired EAIs may still contain significant doses of available epinephrine have motivated interest in the efficacy of expired EAIs as treatments of last resort. Degradation of expired EAIs, which can be caused by improper storage conditions, results in various degrees of discoloration of the epinephrine solution. Previous studies have determined that significant epinephrine remains available in expired EAIs, but these have only considered EAIs that show no discoloration. Here, we investigate the potential for colorimetric estimation of …

Effects Of Culling White-Tailed Deer On Tree Regeneration And Microstegium Vimineum, An Invasive Grass, John Paul Schmit, Elizabeth R. Matthews, Andrejs Brolis

United States National Park Service: Publications

Reduction of forest regeneration due to overbrowsing by white-tailed deer is a growing concern for land managers. Abundant deer can impede forest regeneration through direct predation on tree seedlings. Additionally high deer density can facilitate the establishment of a dense understory of browse tolerant plant species that shades seedlings and persists even in the absence of deer. In response to these challenges, land managers have sought to reduce deer herds to restore tree regeneration, but few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of this management. Our study took place in Catoctin Mountain Park, a US National Park Service unit with a …