Digital Commons Network^™

2015-June-07-Etsu Hosting Two Tennessee Governor’S Schools, University Marketing And Communications, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

No abstract provided.

Localized Ecological And Educational Effects Of Environmental Service-Learning In Portland, Oregon, Steven Matthew Braun

Dissertations and Theses

Environmental service-learning is an intentional educational experience(s) wherein learners engage in meaningful activities designed to serve the environment. Environmental service-learning activities vary according to their learning and service goals and include ecomanagement, persuasion, legal action, economic action and political action. The purpose of this mixed methods research was to explore the ecological and educational impacts of grades 6-12 environmental education, with special attention to environmental service-learning throughout Portland, Oregon.

Ecological impacts considered restoration and conservation outcomes of several environmental service-learning programs including plant communities, soils, litter removal and trail maintenance. Educational outcomes considered aspects of environmental literacy including locus of …

Wofford Today Summer 2015, Wofford College. Office Of Marketing And Communications

Wofford Today

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Paleoecological Consequences Of Supercontinent Breakup: Sponges Clean Up In The Early Jurassic, Frank Corsetti, Kathleen Ritterbush, David Bottjer, Sarah Greene, Yadira Ibarra, Joyce Yager, A. Joshua West, William Berelson, Silvia Rosas, Thorsten Becker, Naomi Levine, Sean Loyd, Rowan Martindale, Victoria Petryshyn, Nathan Carroll, Elizabeth Petsios, Olivia Piazza, Carlie Pietsch, Jessica Stellmann, Jeffrey Thompson, Kirstin Washington, Dylan Wilmeth

Faculty Publications

The continued release of fossil fuel carbon into the atmosphere today means it is imperative to understand Earth system response to CO2 rise, and the geologic record offers unique opportunities to investigate such behavior. Stomatal and paleosol proxies demonstrate a large change in atmospheric pCO2 across the Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) transition, concomitant with the eruption and emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and the splitting of Pangea. As one of the “big 5” mass extinctions—when the so-called modern fauna was particularly hard hit—we know the biosphere was severely affected during this time, but the details are relatively poorly understood, …

June 1st 2015, Csusb

Coyote Chronicle (1984-)

No abstract provided.

Natural Dams And Biogeochemistry At The River Network Scale: Implications For Water Quality, Denise Burchsted, Mark B. Green, Jennifer M. Jacobs, Wil Wollheim

NH Water Resources Research Center Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Écriture(S) De La Nature Au Québec : Un Champ À Défricher, Mariève Isabel

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Are there literary works oriented toward the questions of nature and environment in Quebec’s literature? If so, under which forms does this corpus present itself? This article will explore different types of nature writing in Quebec, including examples from travel literature, agrarian novel, natural history, regionalism, and environmental literature. After reflecting on the presence of ecocriticism in Quebec, various works will be presented in order to show that nature writing in Quebec is rich and varied, and that there is potential for a québécois ecocriticism.

The 24th Annual Research Conference Abstract Booklet, University Of Gondar, Ethiopia

University of Gondar Research Conferences

The 25th Annual Staff-Student Research Conference of the University of Gondar will be held on June 19 and 20, 2015 at the Science Amba Auditorium. This year's conference is special in that the year marks the Silver Jubilee of the Annual Staff and Student Research Conference. Drawing on the experiences we have accumulated for the past 25 years, we vow to strive to realize the development and transformation of the country through research and community services.

Staff, postgraduate and senior undergraduate students of the University, invited guests, and speakers will participate in the conference. The annual conference of the University …

June 2015 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Trace Metal Concentrations In Lythrum Salicaria At Three Rhode Island Sites Using Icp-Ms Analysis, Allison Rose Hubbard

Master of Science in Global Environmental Studies

Throughout human history terrestrial environments have been disturbed and contaminated through improper waste practices and disposal methods. New technology has emerged for cleanup and mitigation, but may cause additional ecosystem perturbance. One way of reducing ecological stress is to utilize bioremediation, mainly phytoremediation. Due to its persistence in polluted environments Lythrum salicaria (Purple Loosestrife), an invasive plant species, was thought to have the potential to uptake pollutants (such as heavy trace metals) from the environment and thus help to effectively clean up a polluted environment. Three Rhode Island sites with large stands of L. salicaria were studied by analyzing plant …

Challenges And Opportunities For Development Of Sustainable Tourism In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Clifford J. Shultz, Almir Peštek, Eve Geroulis

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

An examination of the challenges of sustainable tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Book Reviews, Bridger Bishop, Kelly Finnerty, Anthony Graham, John Grygo, Leslie Lewis, Hannah Robinson

Psi Sigma Siren

Paul Sabin, The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth's Future.

James Morton Turner, The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics Since 1964.

Adam Rome, The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation.

Cindy Ott, Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon

Mark Fiege, The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States.

Ted Steinberg, Gotham Unbound: The Ecological History of Greater New York

Sublime Absence: An Analysis Of The California Drought Discourse, Mitchell Cooledge

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Higher education research

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …

Promoting Sustainable Development Through Environmental Law: Prospects For Saudi Arabia, Faisal K. Alturki

Dissertations & Theses

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia enjoys a rich cultural and natural heritage and has an advanced state of socio- economic development. It also suffers from a wide range of growing environmental problems such as securing its potable water supply, coping with solid and liquid waste, ensuring clean air or protecting the marine environment. It is the objective of sustainable development to ensure that further development in the Kingdom does not damage the public health of the people or the natural environment. The policies underlying sustainable development have developed internationally over the past four decades and are well explained in Agenda …

Human Impacts On Rocky Intertidal Gastropods: Are Marine Protected Areas Effective?, Cassie Bednar

Master's Theses

As the human population has exponentially increased, so have anthropogenic effects on the ocean including pollution, eutrophication, acidification, changes in sea level, and overfishing. The California coast is visited by millions of people every year and is subject to a range of impacts. In the near-shore marine environment, people collect intertidal gastropods for food, bait or recreation. Collecting these animals has caused a decline in body size because humans preferentially take the largest individuals. Marine protected areas (MPAs), established to protect marine resources, may serve to reduce impacts to species, including gastropods. I collected 2510 individual samples to determine the …

Alfalfa Trap Cropping Increases Abundance Of Key Arachnids In An Organic Strawberry Agroecosystem, Sutapa Biswas

Master's Theses

Eighty three percent of the strawberries consumed in North America are grown in California, where the widespread use of insecticides has become hazardous to public health. The intensive use of pesticides for growing strawberries causes serious health risks to farm workers, in addition to contaminating the soil and groundwater. The cost to the environment and public health in the United States is estimated at $12 billion annually. Finding effective nontoxic management strategies for insect pests has become essential for long term sustainability. One strategy strawberry producers can use to promote sustainability is to increase the effectiveness of biological control techniques. …

In Search Of Ordenamiento Ambiental Territorial In The Peasant Reserve Zones Of Colombia, Manuela Ruiz Reyes

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis is an intersection between political ecology, rural development and agrarian studies. It examines the Peasant Reserve Zone (ZRC) as a land planning designation in Colombia created in the 1990s as part of the Colombian state’s effort at agrarian reform, and the expressions of Ordenamiento Ambiental Territorial (glossed as environmental land use planning), by the state and the peasants as ways of constructing territory. Beginning by situating the emergence of the ZRC as part of the classic agrarian question of the fate of the peasantry in capitalism, it then intersects that political-economy perspective with a geographic approach to the …

The Consequences Of Plan Colombia: Domestic Drug Policies In Colombia, Brittany T. Reid

Standard Theses

None

Surf-N-Turf, But The Sustainable Kind? The Limits And Potential Of Market-Driven Regulation In Food Production, Zdravka Tzankova, Lauren Gwin

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

This article examines the dynamics and likely effects of NGO efforts at private, market-driven regulation of antibiotics use in US agricul-ture. Such NGO efforts aim to eliminate the routine feeding of anti-biotics to healthy animals for the purposes of prophylaxis and growth promotion. To that end, NGOs are pressing large food retailers, who are some of the most powerful market actors, to demand antibiotic-free meat and to refuse selling meat produced with sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics. Curbing agricultural overuse of antibiotics is critically important for public health because overuse erodes the curative power of antibiot-ics by creating antibiotic resistant animal …

Volume Cxxxii, Number 25, May 29, 2015, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Assessment In Columbia River Basin (Crb) Using Copula Based On Coupling Of Temperature And Precipitation, Yueyue Qin

Dissertations and Theses

The multi downscaled-scenario products allow us to better assess the uncertainty of the variations of precipitation and temperature in the current and future periods. Joint Probability distribution functions (PDFs), of both the climatic variables, might help better understand the interdependence of the two, and thus in-turn help in accessing the future with confidence. In the present study, we have used multi-modelled statistically downscaled ensemble of precipitation and temperature variables. The dataset used is multi-model ensemble of 10 Global Climate Models (GCMs) downscaled product from CMIP5 daily dataset, using the Bias Correction and Spatial Downscaling (BCSD) technique, generated at Portland State …

Ecosystem Services Of Prairie Wolf Slough: Quantifying Carbon Storage, Megan L. Hoff

DePaul Discoveries

This project is a case study of the benefits of a natural area in Highland Park, Illinois, Prairie Wolf Slough (PWS). A series of experiments were set up to quantify the carbon storage potential of PWS. The results presented here provide an estimate of the aboveground biomass in the forest of PWS with a preliminary estimate of the stored carbon’s value. This is done using the social cost of carbon. It was found that species carbon storage differed based on the number of individuals for each species and their physical size. In addition, using the 2015 discount rate of 3%, …

Spectator 2015-05-27, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Ecomusicology: Back To The Roots Of Sound/Music And Environmental Sustainability, Tiffany Challe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We are currently living in the midst of a global warming crisis, and running against the clock to counter the rapid depletion of natural resources in an increasingly technology-run world. The first step toward sustainability is to care for our world that is full of vibrant ecosystems and that we must work together to preserve. While the visual arts have served as a cogent platform for the environmental movement, this paper will argue that sound and music have been vastly overlooked in sustainability topics. Place-making music can capture a place's unique spirit and connect listeners with their local ecologies. Therein …

Threshold Behavior Of A Marine‐Based Sector Of The East Antarctic Ice Sheet In Response To Early Pliocene Ocean Warming, Melissa A. Hansen, Sandra Passchier, Boo‐Keun Khim, Buhan Song, Trevor Williams

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We investigate the stability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) on the Wilkes Land continental margin, Antarctica, utilizing a high‐resolution record of ice‐rafted debris (IRD) mass accumulation rates (MAR) from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1359. The relationship between orbital variations in the IRD record and climate drivers was evaluated to capture changes in the dynamics of a marine‐based ice sheet in response to early Pliocene warming. Three IRD MAR excursions were observed and confirmed via scanning electron microscope microtextural analysis of sand grains. Time series analysis of the IRD MAR reveals obliquity‐paced expansions of the ice sheet to …

Environmental Social Activism In The San Diego-Tijuana Transborder Region, Christina M. Hirt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the obstacles and opportunities social activists face when attempting to fight environmental injustices in the San Diego-Tijuana transborder region. The study undertakes a case study of the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) - the leading environmental justice organization in the region, which operates on both sides of the US-Mexico Border. The analyses conclude that despite a strong rhetoric of binationalism employed throughout border activists’ campaigns, the strategies that are utilized on the ground have been vastly local and short-term in focus. While activist organizations like the EHC demonstrate a keen awareness of the binational implications of environmental injustices …

The Impact Of Environment Concern And Attitude On Green Purchasing Behavior: Gender As The Moderator, Grace Dagher, Omar S. Itani, Abdul Nasser Kassar

Marketing Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between environmental concern and attitude towards green purchasing behavior from a Lebanese consumer perspective. This study is based on socialization theory, which suggests that individual behavior is shaped by gender expectation in relation to the cultural context. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from Lebanese consumers with independent purchasing power. A total of 326 complete questionnaires were analyzed in this study. The moderating effect of gender was found to be significant and affect both environmental concern and attitude towards green purchasing behavior. …

Assessment Of Risks And Benefits For Pennsylvania Water Sources When Utilizing Acid Mine Drainage For Hydraulic Fracturing, Frederick R. Davis

Master's Projects and Capstones

The use of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) in the hydraulic fracturing process increases the complexity of a polarizing topic. Many stakeholders see a potential to provide relief to multiple environmental problems while others see it as another threat to the Pennsylvania water supply so many parties depend on. This research will evaluate data from Pennsylvania state agencies and additional academic research regarding AMD and fracking to assess potential benefits, risks, and complications for Pennsylvania watersheds when using AMD in the fracking process.

Chapter 1 presents background information on energy demand and hydraulic fracturing, as well as energy sources and industrial …

An Analysis Of The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’S Ability To Achieve Sustainability As Defined By The Transportation Index For Sustainable Places, Vanessa Trafas

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper analysis the ability of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority to adhere to sustainability under the Transportation Index for Sustainable Places (TISP). Analysis focuses solely on the environmental domain of the TISP and the criteria included within that domain. Three pieces are analyzed: the Los Angeles Sustainable Implementation Plan, the Sustainable Rail Plan, and the Regional Connector Transit Project. These pieces are found to adhere to the sustainability criteria under the environmental domain of the TISP.