Digital Commons Network^™

An Investigation Of The Green Grove Initiative, Haley Brooke Kesterson

Honors Theses

Game days, particularly football game days, at division one universities generate a great deal of waste. At the University of Mississippi, the amount of waste generated on home football game Saturdays has been increasing. Increasing recycling by spectators may decrease the amount of waste generated and reduce the negative environmental impact of game days. The purpose of this case study was to explore the development and evaluation of interventions that may be effective for increasing recycling behaviors. Various interventions were implemented at each game of the 2012 season. Recyclables were collected and waste was measured following each game. Games with …

Metagenome Sequence Analysis Of Filamentous Microbial Communities Obtained From Geochemically Distinct Geothermal Channels Reveals Specialization Of Three Aquificales Lineages, Cristina Takacs-Vesbach, William P. Inskeep, Zackary J. Jay, Markus J. Herrgard, Douglas B. Rusch, Susannah G. Tringe, Mark A. Kozubal, Natsuko Hamamura, Richard E. Macur, Bruce W. Fouke, Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Timothy R. Mcdermott, Ryan Dem. Jennings, Nicolas W. Hengartner, Gary Xie

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Aquificales are thermophilic microorganisms that inhabit hydrothermal systems world- wide and are considered one of the earliest lineages of the domain Bacteria. We analyzed metagenome sequence obtained from six thermal “filamentous streamer” communities (∼40 Mbp per site), which targeted three different groups of Aquificales found in Yellow- stone National Park (YNP). Unassembled metagenome sequence and PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene libraries revealed that acidic, sulfidic sites were dominated by Hydrogenobac- ulum (Aquificaceae) populations, whereas the circum-neutral pH (6.5–7.8) sites containing dissolved sulfide were dominated by Sulfurihydrogenibium spp. (Hydrogenothermaceae). Thermocrinis (Aquificaceae) populations were found primarily in the circum-neutral sites with undetectable …

Plants And Animals As Saviors And Invaders: Changing Perspectives On Invasive Species From The Colonial Era To The 21st Century, Meghan Leann Holmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human beings integrate their environment into their group identities. Familiar plants and animals become associated with cultural memories through food, music, and everyday interaction. When species enter a new environment and change the composition of species within a space these plants and animals challenge assumptions of cultural unity and national and regional identities. In the Colonial era European arrivals brought plants and animals for economic and aesthetic purposes to maintain cultural traditions and environmental familiarity. This practice changed following the rise of nationalism in the late 19 th century. Americans continued to grow crops and raise livestock from other countries …

Managing, Controlling And Improving The Treatment Of Produced Water Using The Six Sigma Methodology For The Iraqi Oil Fields, Maher T. Al-Shamkhani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Produced Water (PW) is the largest volume of waste that is normally generated during oil and gas production. It has large amounts of contaminants that can cause negative environmental and economic impacts. The management method for PW relies highly on types and concentrations of these contaminants, which are field dependent and can vary from one oil field to another. Produced water can be converted to fresh water if these contaminants are removed or reduced to the acceptable drinking water quality level. In addition, increasing oil production rate and reducing amounts of discharged harmful contaminants can be achieved by removing dissolved …

What Is Known About Species Richness And Distribution On The Outer-Shelf South Texas Banks?, Harriet L. Nash, Sharon J. Furiness, John W. Tunnell Jr.

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The outer-shelf South Texas Banks, also known as the snapper banks, are known by fishermen to be excellent fishing grounds. However, few scientific studies have been conducted to describe the ecology of these uncommon but distinctive habitats. This paper describes results of a literature review and an assessment to determine what is known about the biota of the South Texas Banks and to assist in developing renewed interest and focus on these topographic highs. The outer-shelf South Texas Banks include relict coralgal reefs and relict barrier islands, and we also include data for a nearshore site, which is geographically and …

Validation Of Stratospheric And Mesospheric Ozone Observed By Smiles From International Space Station, Y. Kasai, H. Sagawa, D. Kreyling, E. Dupuy, P. Baron, J. Mendrok, K Suzuki, T. O. Sato, T. Nishibori, S. Mizobuchi, P. F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We observed ozone O₃ in the vertical region between 250 and 0.0005 hPa (~ 12-96 km) using the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS) between 12 October 2009 and 21 April 2010. The new 4K superconducting heterodyne receiver technology of SMILES allowed us to obtain a one order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for the O₃ line observation compared to past spaceborne microwave instruments. The non-sun-synchronous orbit of the ISS allowed us to observe O₃ at various local times. We assessed the quality of the vertical …

Mother, Leela Manusukhani

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Here For Life: A Chapter & Stories, Gil Filar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Four short stories and a novel chapter.

Nest Site Characteristics Of Lewis’S Woodpecker (Melanerpes Lewis) In Riparian Systems Of Western Montana, Megan Fylling

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) is known to breed in ponderosa pine, cottonwood riparian, aspen, and burned conifer forest types, but is declining in much of its range throughout the U.S. and is listed as a Level II Species of Concern in Montana. In western Montana, Lewis’s Woodpeckers commonly breed in riparian bottomlands, but information on characteristics of their preferred nesting habitat within these areas is lacking. I studied nesting habitat use by Lewis’s Woodpeckers in two important breeding areas in cottonwood-dominated riparian forest along the Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers in western Montana. I found 55 nests during the …

Paying To Play: Supply Management In Montana's Dairy Industry, Laura Ginsburg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana’s dairy industry is unique among US states because of its supply management program, which allocates quota to limit how much fluid milk can be produced and sold within the state. The amount of quota is set and price varies with market conditions; therefore, quota adds to a farm’s production costs. This paper presents findings from in-depth interviews with 17 dairy farmers to learn how quota has affected on-farm decision-making and how they perceive the impacts of quota on the statewide industry. Farmers tend to be spilt between those who think it affected their on-farm decisions and those who felt …

Prioritizing The Upper Clark Fork River Tributaries For Instream Flow Restoration, Catherine B. Berg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Off stream uses of water in the west have left many rivers and streams depleted, including the Upper Clark Fork River and its tributaries. As drought conditions persist or worsen, this issue will become more critical. Public-private partnerships, like the Upper Clark Fork Steering Committee, have formed to monitor the flow of our rivers. In order to assist the Steering Committee and river advocacy groups working within the Upper Clark Fork River Basin, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the studies on existing flows and target flows in the upper river, synthesizes past priorities for stream restoration, and provides …

Responses To Climate Change In National Park Service Wilderness: What Is Happening In The Field?, Katherine E. Nelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As scholars debate whether climate change warrants more or less active management in wilderness, this baseline study identifies what is happening on the ground. This study focuses attention on National Park Service units that administer designated wilderness. Representatives who had been identified by the superintendents from each of these units responded to an online survey (with a 94% response rate). Respondents reported on their concerns, monitoring, and management projects driven by climate change happening in their wilderness. Respondents also discussed whether and how these activities affected wilderness character. This is the first study to characterize the response to climate change …

Supporting Transitions To Resilient Irrigation Systems: Findings From Southern Kyrgyzstan, Peter Michael Igoe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents findings from research conducted in Southern Kyrgyzstan, which followed nongovernmental organization (NGO) efforts to support climate change adaptation, and to support more “resilient” community-managed irrigation systems. Findings suggest that current NGO partnerships with Water User Associations (WUAs) frequently amount to financial and technical transactions, to preserve inherited infrastructure and resist disturbance. “Enhancing resilience” is pursued in an effort to maintain existing technical configurations of canals and water resources, despite altered socio-political and environmental conditions. Findings suggest increasing disassociation between irrigation constituents and the institutions and managers that are supposed to direct their grievances through legitimate democratic channels. …

Creating A Framework For Systems-Based Graphic Analysis And The Assessment Of College-Level Introductory Biology Textbooks, Katherine Ellen Brooks

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ecological literacy in students has become an increasing concern for educators. Mounting environmental problems along with a growing amount of nature deficit disorder seen in children and adults alike provides the impetus for research in this area. Since many college biology classes are modeled around the same style and emphasis found in the textbooks used for those courses, this provided an avenue for an examination of these materials. This research involved the selection of five popular introductory, college-level biology textbooks for analysis. Three rubrics were created to assess the graphical components of the introductory and ecology chapters in each textbook. …

Estimating Willingness To Pay For River Amenities And Safety Measures Associated With Shale Gas Extraction, Thomas C. Kinnaman

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper utilizes a Contingent Valuation Method survey of a random sample of residents to estimate that households are willing to pay an average of $12.00 per month for public projects designed to improve river access and $10.46 per month for additional safety measures that would eliminate risks to local watersheds from drilling for natural gas from underground shale formations. These estimates can be compared to the costs of providing each of these two amenities to help foster the formation of efficient policy decisions.

Lichens As A Biomonitoring Tool For Detecting Heavy Metal Air Pollution Associated With Industrial Activities In Collie, South-Western Australia, Meenu Chathurika Vitarana

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

During the last few decades, various techniques for using lichens as biomonitors have been developed for monitoring air pollution and forest ecosystem health. Lichens have been used effectively to determine the dispersion of heavy metals emitted by industrial point-sources; however the approach has not been commonly used in Australia. This thesis aimed to determine the effectiveness of using a lichen biomonitoring approach to measure the heavy metal pollutants emitted from coal-fired power stations and related industries in Collie, south-western Australia, an area with concern over poor air quality. Three different approaches to lichen biomonitoring were investigated. The first explored lichen …

Size-Fractionated Phytoplankton And Nutrient Dynamics In The Inner Part Of İzmir Bay, Eastern Aegean Sea, Serkan Kükrer, Hasan Baha Büyükişik

Turkish Journal of Botany

İzmir Bay has been one of most polluted bays of the Mediterranean for a long time. When the 'Big Channel Project' was completed in 2000, sewage flow into the bay ended. Hence, the influence of creeks, which are the only source of water transportation to the inner bay, was investigated in the current study. Monthly samples of creek water and seawater were taken. Basic water quality variables and nutrients were measured. In addition, the phytoplankton community was arrayed into size fractions to assess the contribution of each size fraction to biomass and pigment concentrations. Analyses showed that the creek waters …

Cadmium-Induced Structural Disturbances In Pisum Sativum Leaves Are Alleviated By Nitric Oxide, Tuan Anh Tran, Valya Vassileva, Petar Petrov, Losanka Petrova Popova

Turkish Journal of Botany

In the present study, the protective effect of nitric oxide (NO) against Cd-induced structural disturbances in pea (Pisum sativum) leaves was investigated. Cadmium treatment resulted in a decreased leaf size and thickness of the lamina, reduced intercellular spaces in the mesophyll, small pavement cells, and a high density of stomata. These abnormalities were partially or fully reversed by a simultaneous application of Cd and the NO donor, sodium nitroprusside (SNP). The concentration of 1000 µM SNP was very effective in counteracting the adverse effects of Cd and resulted in leaf structural parameters close to those of the control leaves. These …

Mapping, Modeling, And The Fragmentation Of Environmental Law, Dave Owen

Utah Law Review

In the past forty years, environmental researchers have achieved major advances in electronic mapping and spatially explicit, computerbased simulation modeling. Those advances have turned quantitative spatial analysis—that is, quantitative analysis of data coded to specific geographic locations—into one of the primary modes of environmental research. Researchers now routinely use spatial analysis to explore environmental trends, diagnose problems, discover causal relationships, predict possible futures, and test policy options. At a more fundamental level, these technologies and an associated field of theory are transforming how researchers conceptualize environmental systems.

Advances in spatial analysis have had modest impacts upon the practice of environmental …

The Spillikin (Vol. 30), Valparaiso University

The Spillikin - The Christ College Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Propagation Of Interval And Probabilistic Uncertainty In Cyberinfrastructure-Related Data Processing And Data Fusion, Christian Servin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Data uncertainty affects the results of data processing. So, it is necessary to find out how the data uncertainty propagates into the uncertainty of the results of data processing. This problem is especially important when cyberinfrastructure enables us to process large amounts of heterogeneous data. In the ideal world, we should have an accurate description of data uncertainty, and well-justified efficient algorithms to propagate this uncertainty. In practice, we are often not yet in this ideal situation: the description of uncertainty is often only approximate, and the algorithms for uncertainty propagation are often not well-justified and not very computationally efficient. …

Automated Sinkhole Extraction And Morphological Analysis In Northeast Iowa Using High-Resolution Lidar Data, Jonathon Launspach

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Accurate and detailed mapping of sinkholes is necessary to ensure sinkhole monitoring and management. Historically, sinkholes were found and digitized manually by a visual examination of aerial photos or through field surveying. This paper develops a new, multicriteria LiDAR-based sinkhole extraction method and automated processes to detect sinkholes and their boundaries. This technique of extraction is unique as it identifies sinkhole boundaries automatically using remotely sensed data, compared to traditional methods of manually tracing the perimeter. A sinkhole detection module was developed within a GIS environment to determine location and boundaries of the sinkholes. Several small study areas were selected …

An Avalanche Hazard Model For Bitlis Province, Turkey, Using Gis Based Multicriteria Decision Analysis, Levent Selçuk

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Most avalanche fatalities in Turkey have occurred in Bitlis Province. The scope of this research was to identify the avalanche hazard area of that province, using geographical information system (GIS) based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and to evaluate it by means of sensitivity and accuracy analysis. The model consists of 5 GIS layers: elevation, slope, aspect, vegetation density, and land use. The hazard model is obtained by using a comparison matrix where all identified criteria of GIS layers are compared against each other. The acceptability of the model was determined using historical events. All of these events plotted over the …

Ecophysiology Of The Holoparasitic Angiosperm Cistanche Phelypaea (Orobancaceae) In A Coastal Salt Marsh, Gamal Mohammad Fahmy

Turkish Journal of Botany

Cistanche phelypaea (L.) Cout. (Orobancaceae) was found parasitising the roots of the succulent shrublets Arthrocnemum macrostachyum (Moric.) K.Koch (Chenopodiaceae) in a coastal salt marsh in Qatar. Measurements were conducted to identify soil properties, host, and noninfected plants by soil excavations to expose the haustoria of the parasite attached to the host roots. The water potential, osmotic potential, pressure potential, and chemical analyses were determined in parasite, host, and noninfected plants. Crown diameter and dry mass of the host plants were smaller than in the noninfected plants. A gradient of water potential existed between the host root and the underground tuberous …

Towards Engaged Scholarship, John R. Nolon, Michelle Bryan Mudd, Michael Burger, Kim Diana Connolly, Nestor Davidson, Matthew Festa, Jill I. Gross, Lisa Heinzerling, Keith H. Hirokawa, Tim Iglesias, Patrick C. Mcginley, Sean Nolon, Uma Outka, Jessica Owley, Kalyani Robbins, Jonathan Rosenbloom, Christopher Serkin

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Spring Clipping, Fire, And Simulated Increased Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition Effects On Tallgrass Prairie Vegetation, Alexander J. Smart, Tabitha K. Scott, Sharon A. Clay, David E. Clay, Michelle K. Ohrtman, Eric M. Mousel

Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science Faculty Publications

Defoliation aimed at introduced cool-season grasses, which uses similar resources of native grasses, could substantially reduce their competitiveness and improve the quality of the northern tallgrass prairie. The objective was to evaluate the use of early season clipping and fire in conjunction with simulated increased levels of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on foliar canopy cover of tallgrass prairie vegetation. This study was conducted from 2009 to 2012 at two locations in eastern South Dakota. Small plots arranged in a split-plot treatment design were randomized in four complete blocks on a warm-season grass interseeded and a native prairie site in east-central South …

Liars Like Him, Samantha Lynne Duncan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a collection of short stories, which fall somewhere between the realist and absurdist genres of fiction. Most of them take place in or around Ohio. Birds and humans often appear side by side.

Inductivley Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy Analysis Of Heavy Metal Concentrations In Gulf Menhaden (Brevoortia Patronus) Populations In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico From 2011 To 2012, Hannah Paula Rockett

LSU Master's Theses

In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, creating the largest marine oil spill in the history of the U.S. petroleum industry. Trace metals, including those from crude oil, were dispersed in the water column and bound to suspended particulates. As obligate filter-feeding omnivores and a predominate fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) are susceptible to trace metal accumulation. Samples of menhaden were collected at two locations in coastal Louisiana, Grand Isle (GI) and Vermillion Bay (VB), with VB serving as the non-impacted DWH oil …

Soil Organic Carbon Determination For Louisiana Soils Via Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Sara Kathryn Nuss

LSU Master's Theses

As scientists work to investigate the mechanisms underlying the depletion of carbon from terrestrial ecosystems, there has been an urgent call for the development of test methods that offer reduced analysis times for soil organic carbon (SOC) determinations. Traditional laboratory techniques can be time-consuming and costly, making high-volume sample analyses problematic. Portable x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (PXRF) provides quantitative, multi-elemental data for soil samples in as little as 60 seconds; and, unlike other spectroscopic methods, differences in elemental concentrations between field-moist and oven-dry samples are considered to be negligible when soil moisture contents are less than 20%, by weight. This study …

Method Development Using Laser Ablation And Solution Icpms And Their Application In Environmental Science And Forensic Provenance Studies, Kaixuan Bu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) is an analytical technique that can be used to determine multiple elements and isotope ratios in a wide variety of samples. In this work, four projects are described that involve the method development using laser ablation (LA) and solution-based ICPMS and their application in environmental science and forensic (provenance) investigations. In the first project, plutonium (Pu) concentrations and 240Pu/ 239Pu atom ratios were measured in kelp, lichen, aquatic moss, and horse mussel collected on or near Amchitka Island, a former nuclear test in Alaska, and at a background site. The Pu in terrestrial and …