Digital Commons Network^™

North Country Career Expo Student Brochure, Cooperative Extension, Coos County, Ray Berthiaume

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Mapping The Human Dimension: Spatially Informed Soundscape Management In Saguaro National Park, Anna S. Frisbie

Master's Theses and Capstones

As outdoor recreation surges in popularity, human-made sound reaches even the most protected places. In the United States, the National Park Service is mandated to preserve natural soundscapes, which are a key ecosystem service. Yet many aspects of soundscape management remain underexplored, including the integration of visitor perspectives into strategies to minimize human-made sound in national parks. In 2025, the non-profit organization Leave No Trace and the National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division collaboratively outlined new Soundscape Guidelines, urging visitors to minimize their impact on natural soundscapes. Previous research suggests that educational signage can reduce human-made sound …

Economic Feasibility Of Aquaponics In The Cold-Climate Eastern United States: A Multi-Facility Monte Carlo Analysis, Ryan Nickerson

Master's Theses and Capstones

Most commercial aquaponics facilities fail to achieve profitability, and this challenge is exacerbated in cold climates, where heating, supplemental lighting, and insulated infrastructure inflate operating costs. Existing economic studies are dominated by warm-climate, single-facility cases, offering limited insight into whether cold-climate operators in the eastern United States can achieve profitability through design choices around scale, species selection, and labor optimization. This thesis evaluated the market feasibility of three research facilities (the University of New Hampshire, the University of Maryland, and Ohio State University) and one commercial facility in New Hampshire. The model used a discounted cash flow framework with parameters …

Ski Industry Professionals In New Hampshire Are Worried About Climate Change, Jacklyn Tracy, Elizabeth Burakowski

Carsey Publications

In this brief, authors Jacklyn Tracy and Elizabeth Burakowski report the results of an online survey conducted in June 2025 with New Hampshire ski industry professionals to gain insight into how they perceive climate change. Understanding the perspectives on climate change is an important first step in working to preserve a vital industry to the state as temperatures rise and winters shorten. The results of the survey revealed that the majority of New Hampshire ski industry professionals are concerned about the effects of global warming on the ski industry in the state and believe more should be done to address …

New Hampshire Ski Professionals Are Concerned About Climate Change, Robbin Ray

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Town Of Merrimack, Nh Annual Report 2025, Merrimack Town Representatives

Merrimack, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Forage Legume Community Dynamics In Response To Stand Management, Nicholas Warren

Doctoral Dissertations

A primary challenge for perennial forage production systems is maintaining crop productivity and forage quality over time. Including legume species in these systems is an opportunity to reduce external inputs, to extend the seasonal productivity of a pasture, and to balance the nutritional characteristics of grass species. However, legume persistence in mixed stands is frequently poor. Identifying harvest practices, legume species, or species mixtures that improve legume persistence would help to maximize the ecosystem services of forages. I conducted a four-year field experiment (2019 to 2022) in southeastern New Hampshire to evaluate the productivity and persistence of four perennial legumes …

Syrup Production And Tree Physiology, David Blakney Moore

Doctoral Dissertations

Maple (Acer spp.) syrup production is a culturally and economically important activity in North America, and other types of trees are economically important (or show potential to become more economically important) for their syrup as well. For both established and novel syrup-producing trees, questions remain about tapping sustainability and the physiological mechanisms that underpin winter-dormant-season stem-pressurization cycles, which create the pressures necessary for sap harvesting. I investigated aspects of tapping sustainability related to two important xylem functions, storage and transport. I measured nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations and radial growth of tapped and untapped sugar maples (Acer saccharum) and found a weak …

How Vermont’S Composting Laws Can Be Used To Inform Similar Policies In New Hampshire, Felix Prigge

UNH URC Open (2026 and after)

This presentation seeks to analyze how policy makers can use the success' and failures of another state's policies to inform their own measures in order to not repeat the same mistakes. It also discusses the importance of using public feedback as a baseline for improvement.

Research Initiative For Northeast Grazing Soils (Rings) Soil Carbon Data Report, Karla M. Jarecke, Joseph P. Amsili, Alexandra Contosta, Caitlin Hicks Pries, Kelsey H. Jensen, Morgan Mcclure, Alexander Steiner, Eric Von Wettberg, Mojtaba Zeraatpisheh

Faculty Publications

The Research Initiative for Northeast Grazing Soils (RINGS) is a multi-institutional collaboration with a mission to advance the understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in grazing systems across the northeastern United States. RINGS distributed a survey between October 2025 and June 2026 to researchers and practitioners across the Northeast to identify where SOC data has been collected and the basic field and lab methods used. The survey asked participants to describe existing soil datasets collected on land directly or indirectly impacted by grazing livestock. The survey was distributed to colleagues of RINGS researchers that work at university, corporate and …

A Framework For Fostering Flood Ready Neighborhoods, Kirsten Howard, Lucy Perkins, Alyson Eberhardt, Lisa Wise, Abigail Lyon, Lynn Vaccaro, Gracie Ballou, Annie Cox, Kate O'Brien

UNH Cooperative Extension

This resource summarizes lessons learned from the Flood Ready Neighborhoods Program and shares prompts and resources for readers related to community engagement and resilience building.

Evaluating The Effects Of Agricultural Management Practices On Beneficial Arthropod Communities, Isaac Newton Ativor

Doctoral Dissertations

Arthropods provide essential ecosystem services to our agricultural landscapes. These ecosystem services include biological control of pest organisms, including weed seeds, and plant pollination. Concerningly, however, there has been a global decline in insect populations over the last decade, a major cause of which is agricultural intensification. Previous research has demonstrated that agricultural management practices can strongly influence the species composition and abundance of arthropod communities, and therefore presumably the ecosystem services or disservices these organisms provide; however, our understanding of these interactions remains limited. I conducted three studies to investigate whether agricultural practices common in annual row crop (tillage …

Planning Responses To Drinking Water System Emergencies, Jingyan Huang

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite extensive efforts to ensure clean and safe drinking water, drinking water contamination emergencies remain a persistent challenge in the United States. These events can result in widespread public health impacts, economic losses, and long-term environmental damage, particularly when triggered by hazardous chemical releases. Effective management of such crises requires a dual focus on both technical preparedness and human decision-making. This dissertation addresses these challenges through a two-part investigation that bridges pre-incident planning and post-incident response. It is guided by two core research objectives: (1) to evaluate commonly applied emergency countermeasures from both resilience and sustainability perspectives; and (2) to …

Uncovering The Plant-Microbe-Permafrost Paradigm As It Relates To Soil Priming And Arctic Carbon Cycles, Sean Robert Schaefer

Doctoral Dissertations

Permafrost, or perennially frozen soil, covers approximately 25% of the northern hemisphere and contains over half of the world’s soil organic carbon stocks. Permafrost-affected regions are rapidly warming, resulting in ecosystem changes including permafrost thaw and a shift from sedge-dominated to shrub-dominated plant communities. As permafrost thaws, it releases previously unavailable compounds to plants and microorganisms. Plant root inputs can then stimulate the decomposition of thawed permafrost, increasing greenhouse gas emissions in a process called priming. Permafrost thaw increases the decomposition of previously frozen soil organic matter (SOM); however, the extent of decomposition is highly dependent on plants and their …

Modeling Ungulate Population Parameters Across Human-Modified Landscapes, Sarah Richard

Master's Theses and Capstones

As human activity and development continue to alter natural landscapes, large ungulates are increasingly exposed to changing habitat structures, altered mortality risks, and climate-related stressors. These ecological shifts can influence their survival, behavior, and population dynamics. Understanding how such complex and evolving conditions shape demographic trends in these species is critical for effective management. In this thesis, I examined two ecologically and culturally important ungulate species, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and moose (Alces alces), across human-modified environments. Specifically, I analyzed how intrinsic factors, behavioral development, and landscape composition influence stage-specific mortality in deer neonates and population parameters in moose in …

Assessing The Application Of Mobile Light Detection And Ranging In Complex Mixed Species Forest Inventory, Hunter Thomas Moore

Master's Theses and Capstones

Understanding forest dynamics relies on forest inventories that assess stand- and tree-level characteristics. Traditionally, this process involves field-based measurements of tree attributes such as diameter at breast height (DBH), height, form, and crown metrics. In recent years, the integration of remote sensing technologies, particularly Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), has expanded the spatial and temporal reach of forest inventories. LiDAR is an active remote sensing device that generates three-dimensional representations of forest environments and can be used to derive structural forest metrics. More recently, mobile LIDAR, also referred to as mobile laser scanning (MLS) has emerged as a flexible and …

Participatory Science Newsletter 2025_05_20, Mairi Poisson, Malin Clyde, Alyson L. Eberhardt

Participatory Science News

In this edition of the UNH Participatory Sciences Newsletter, we offer news and resources on The Power of Participatory Sciences. These include a story about UNH graduate student Lauren White's work using participatory science data about horseshoe crab spawning in the Great Bay. Another story highlights UNH's Coastal Research Volunteers Beach Profiling Project and another outlines how many UNH researchers at UNH are working with local communities to find solutions to environmental problems. A final article shares information about the 2025 conference for the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences and the poster presented by scholars and students from UNH.

Adapting To Climate Change: Outdoor Recreation Impacts In New Hampshire, Visitor Coping Behaviors, & Provider Management Strategies, Madeleine Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

As of 2023, outdoor recreation participation in the United States (U.S.) reached a 15-year high, generating $1.2 trillion in economic output and supporting 5 million jobs. Concurrently, the contiguous U.S. experienced earth surface temperatures averaging above the 20th-century norm for the 27th consecutive year. Climate change presents increasing challenges for outdoor recreation, particularly in the Northeast and North Central U.S., where seasonal shifts, extreme weather events, and resource degradation are projected to acutely impact recreation patterns and management needs. New Hampshire (NH), where nearly 30% of the state is safeguarded for public use, relies heavily on outdoor recreation. As of …

Private Conservation And Indigenous Groups With Contested Identities: How Are Land Trusts Navigating Recognition Politics And Controversy?, Geneva Nuttall Lish

Master's Theses and Capstones

New Hampshire has no state or federally recognized Indigenous tribes, and the identities of its self-recognized Abenaki tribes have been publicly contested by Canadian scholars and the Odanak and Wolinak First Nations. As a result, conservation practitioners within New Hampshire land trusts face challenges in making decisions about collaborations, cultural access, and land management involving tribal entities. Our research thus explores how land trusts currently incorporate Indigenous relationships in their operations, and how these practices may be affected by (a) an absence of tribal federal recognition and (b) the publicly contested nature of a tribe. We conducted six semi-structured interviews …

High Frequency Analysis Of The Carbon Dioxide Linkage Between Terrestrial And Aquatic Ecosystems, Amanda G. Theall

Master's Theses and Capstones

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a potent greenhouse gas, and surface water concentrations are often supersaturated relative to the atmosphere. To fully quantify CO2 dynamics in stream ecosystems, it is critical to understand sources of stream CO2, particularly the link between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. It is unclear how soil CO2 enters streams and to what magnitude. To address this knowledge gap, I analyzed high-frequency CO2 time-series of soil and stream water sensor data to understand source-sink dynamics and time lags between the two pools. I used seven years of hourly sensor data from three soil depths with upscaled 15-minute stream …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances In A Suburbanizing Watershed, Bailey Mullins

Master's Theses and Capstones

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent man-made chemicals that accumulate in aquatic environments due to their widespread industrial and commercial use and resistance to degradation. Understanding their spatial distribution and relative abundance in streams draining suburbanizing watersheds is crucial for effective watershed and water quality management. This study investigates how the concentrations and composition of PFAS in surface water and sediment are impacted by urbanization. PFAS were quantified in the Lamprey River watershed, a coastal watershed in southeastern New Hampshire that is experiencing ongoing suburbanization. Sampling sites include tributaries, mainstem, and estuarine areas. Surface water, sediment, and well water …

Teaching Archival Silences With The New Hampshire Maps Collection, Kai H. Uchida

Faculty Publications

This conference presentation was given at the Annual Spring 2025 Meeting for New England Archivists.

For the past two years, the University Archivist at Milne Special Collections and Archives at the University of New Hampshire has partnered with an instructor in the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Department to teach about its historic map collections. This presentation will discuss the planning, execution, and lessons learned from using a historic state maps collection to educate students on the concept of "archival silence," and to advocate for the use of historical map collections to develop critical archival and data literacies.

Meet The Spring '25 Climate Action Clinic Cohort, Sustainability Institute

Sustainability Institute Blog

No abstract provided.

Town Of Bath, New Hampshire Annual Report Of The Town Officers Year Ending December 31, 2024, Bath Town Representatives

Bath, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Annual Report Town Of Salisbury, New Hampshire 2024., Salisbury Town Representatives

Salisbury, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Denmark’S Depth Model Version 2.0 – Improved Compilation Of Bathymetric Data Within The Danish Waters, Giuseppe Masetti, Philip Sigaard Granding, Kasper Langdahl, Lasse M. Schwenger, Kristian V. Kristmar

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Denmark’s Depth Model version 2.0 (DDM v2.0) is the latest iteration of a Digital Bathymetric Model (DBM) for Danish waters, offering a grid resolution of 50 meters. The compilation integrates hundreds of survey datasets, including both modern and historical sources, as well as satellite-derived and crowdsourced bathymetric data. The model is referenced to Mean Sea Level (MSL) datum and – due to the adopted compilation process – is not designed for safety of navigation. DDM v2.0 is accessible through the Danish Geodata Agency's website and constitutes a significant contribution to the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) Bathymetry initiative.

Climate Change In New England: The Influence Of Soil Warming And Nitrogen Enrichment On Forest Carbon Cycling, Thomas Joseph Muratore

Doctoral Dissertations

Forests, the largest active cycling reservoir of carbon (C) in the terrestrial biosphere, mediate the exchange of CO2 between the atmosphere and the biosphere in large enough quantities to affect Earth’s climate. Presently, forests are significant C sinks and mitigate one-third of all anthropogenic C emissions by storing more C in biomass and soils than they exchange with the atmosphere. Anthropogenic activities and climate change disrupt the balance between forest C uptake and loss. This raises concerns about the sensitivity of the forest C sink. Traditionally, forest C exchange between trees and soils under climate change has been studied separately, …

Early Mesoamericans Trapped Fish Far Earlier Than Previously Thought, Robbin Ray

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Returning To The Globe Regional Student Symposia After A 4-Year Pandemic Pause: Evaluation Of The 2023 Globe Srs, Eleanor M. Jaffee, Globe U.S. Coordination Office

Publications and Media

No abstract provided.

Conducting Structure-From-Motion (Sfm) Modeling Of Freshwater Environments Using Unpiloted Aerial Systems (Uas): Challenges And Lessons Learned, Benjamin T. Fraser, Christine L. Bunyon, Russell G. Congalton

Faculty Publications

The pairing of Unpiloted Aerial Systems (UAS) and Structure from Motion (SfM) has provided new capabilities for modeling freshwater environments. Applications of UAS-SfM range from water quality monitoring to the mapping of aquatic vegetation. The models produced provide users with the ability to analyze features at ultra-high-resolutions and across scales not easily achieved through in situ sampling. Despite the demonstrated benefits of UAS-SfM in freshwater and other natural resource disciplines, there remain fundamental technical challenges in the modeling of environments with homogenous surfaces (e.g., water). In this research, the effectiveness of several image collection and processing approaches for the modelling …