Digital Commons Network^™

An Ethical Analysis Of Lethal Control Practices For Invasive Species Management, Avery Messing

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Non-native species are invading foreign ecosystems at a rate that has never been seen before, and they cause significant damage to these ecosystems. In order to preserve species diversity, these invasive organisms are often eradicated. Typically, conservation biologists run a cost-benefit analysis to determine what action they should take. In this project, I identify the need to also conduct ethical analyses. I chose three scenarios in which invasive species are eradicated: yellow crazy ants on Christmas Island, barred owls in the Pacific Northwest, and leafy spurge in the central United States. Each of these scenarios was analyzed using two ethical …

Riparian Area Vegetation Response To High And Low Flows In The Platte River Through Digital Imagery, Joe Arneson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Images can be helpful in explaining different aspects about science that is unfamiliar to some. This study looked at two separate locations on the Platte River through images. High and low flow events were studied at each location. The riparian areas of these two locations were studied. The RGB values of each location and each flow event were used to rank the healthiness of the vegetation and to see how the vegetation responded to the different flows. The results were inconclusive, with no statistically significant answer. It did however look as if the healthiness of the vegetation, as determined by …

The Effects Of Urbanization On Fear In Wildlife, Sarah Spier, Joseph J. Fontaine

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Through this study we sought out to determine if Fox Squirrels in Lincoln, Nebraska exhibited a change in response to aerial versus terrestrial predators in urban areas. We addressed the possible consequences that human disturbance has on daily stimuli, predator behaviors, and, in turn, prey behaviors. Specifically, the experiment exposed Fox Squirrels to the vocalizations and visual models of an aerial predator, terrestrial predator, and a control species. Squirrels did not show a significant change in behavior between predator types. However, fox squirrels displayed correct anti-predator behaviors by only responding to the predators and not the control. The time it …

Assessing The Effects Of Juniperus Virginiana Removal On Cattle Forage, Elise Jarrett

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Over the past several decades, expanding eastern red cedar (Juniperus viginiana) populations have altered prairie and grassland ecosystems in the Great Plains, causing a reduction in livestock grazing capacity. This study examined the effects of eastern red cedar removal on cattle forage coverage located on private property in northeastern Nebraska. An analysis of collected field data obtained using a line intercept method in a control and an experimental plot was performed on Elymus canadensis (Canada wild rye), Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass), and Bromus inermis (smooth brome), three common grassland species that serve as forage for cattle.

Results show Canada …

Nemo News, Volume 11, Issue 3, Uno Library Science Education

NEMO Newsletter

This issue of NEMO News features: Karen Pietsch named ALA Emerging Leader; Did You Know?; Student Spotlight on Justine Carmer; Important Dates; Using Box for Cloud Storage and Backup: A Cheat Sheet; Upcoming Webinars; Presenting at ALA Midwinter by Angela Kroeger; Student Resources; Scholarships; Fall Courses; Employment Opportunities; and Contact Info.

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

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Hospital To Home: Interoperability In The Health Ecosystem, Francis Puno

Asian Management Insights

Mobile health solutions have created a revolution in the global healthcare ecosystem.

Montanan, Spring 2015, University Of Montana--Missoula

Montanan Magazine, 1969-2024

This is the magazine of the University of Montana with news about the University for UM alumni as well as current faculty, students, staff, and administrators. This is volume 32, number 2.

Kwakwaka’Wakw “Clam Gardens”: Motive And Agency In Traditional Northwest Coast Mariculture, Douglas Deur, Adam Dick, Kim Recalma-Clutesi, Nancy J. Turner

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America actively managed natural resources in diverse ways to enhance their productivity and proximity. Among those practices that have escaped the attention of anthropologists until recently is the traditional management of intertidal clam beds, which Northwest Coast peoples have enhanced through techniques such as selective harvests, the removal of shells and other debris, and the mechanical aeration of the soil matrix. In some cases, harvesters also removed stones or even created stone revetments that served to laterally expand sediments suitable for clam production into previously unusable portions of the tidal zone. …

Urban, State, And Federal Regimes In Local Politics: The Role Of The Judiciary, Christopher Shortell

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The study of urban politics often focuses on the ability of urban regimes to successfully pursue their interests and goals. However, scholars of urban politics only peripherally consider the role that courts play. And when courts are incorporated, they are treated as exogenous to the political system. This paper argues for the importance of treating the judiciary as endogenous to the local political system. Courts are themselves political institutions and should be understood as such in the study of politics at the local level. Doing so offers several benefits, including accounting for the ways in which state-level preferences operate as …

Waste Management And Environmental Initiatives In Accra, Ghana, Aoife Genevieve Duna

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Title: Waste Management and Environmental Initiatives in Accra, Ghana

Author: Aoife Genevieve Duna ([email protected]; Middlebury College, Anthropology and Dance major)

Objective: The objective of this project was fourfold: • To study the current waste management practices by government and private waste companies • To observe the perspectives of residents on waste disposal • To explore environmental initiatives by citizens, NGOs, and student groups • To investigate the potential projects that could reduce waste

Methodology: For my project, I conducted interviews, made observations, participated in daily personal waste management, visited a landfill, and visited a composting project.

Findings: Waste collection is …

Fighting For The Right To Breathe: Exploring Perspectives Of Environmenal Threats In The South Durban Basin, Kayleigh Bhangdia

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this project is to understand the way in which community members in South Durban perceive the environmental threats that they face. I have contextualized the current environmental injustices present in the wake of the Apartheid legacy. I worked closely with the South Durban Environmental Conservation Alliance in preparing my questions and conducting my interviews. I conducted 24 interviews in three different communities in the South Durban Basin including Wentworth, Merebank, and Clairwood. Following the interviews in Merebank and Clairwood, I engaged the participants in a short participatory mapping exercise in which they highlighted where the pollution was …

Fauna Census Of Intertidal Cliffs, Mangapwani, Zanzibar, Emily Jankowski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Due to their extreme variations in condition over the course of a day, intertidal zones are challenging environments. Organisms that live there must be prepared to cope with both exposure and submersion, not to mention the temperature variations that accompany these conditions. The differing tolerances and adaptations of various organisms to these conditions generally cause patterns of vertical zonation to occur in the intertidal zone, especially when the shore is steep and rocky. Understanding the ecology of shore environments is important to future conservation and management efforts. This study was conducted on a beach in Mangapwani, Zanzibar at at 6˚ …

An Assessment Of The Impact Of Sand Mining: Unguja, Zanzibar, Caroline Ladlow

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Resource consumption is one of the most crucial environmental problems facing the world today. Therefore nonrenewable resources need to be sustainably used to ensure the survival of both future generations and the resources at stake. The goal of this study was to investigate the impacts of sand mining on the environment, economy, and communities of Zanzibar. The environmental, economic, and social impacts of sand mining activities were studied at various sites on the island of Unguja. The effects on vegetation, coastal erosion, communities, and local economies were researched based on field observations and interviews with local people and officials at …

The Industrial Impact On Wetlands In Jinja And The Nexus Of Industry, Wetlands, And Community (A Rights-Based Sustainable Development Approach), Ranger Ruffins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Uganda is a beautiful country filled with an extensive amount of natural resources, one of the most profound being wetlands. It is said that these wetlands are a crucial source of food and water for almost 3 million people (NEMA, 2012 and Oguttu et.al, 2008). They also provide many more invaluable socioeconomic benefits for the country. As Uganda experiences increasing development as well as a rapidly increasing population, the wetlands become increasingly necessary, at the same time they become increasingly threatened. It is written in the 1995 Ugandan constitution that Ugandan policy is aimed at ensuring sustainable development for the …

Herbs, Home Medicine, And Self-Reliance: A Study On The Current Status Of Traditional Home Medicine In Idukki District, Kerala, Richard Gaunt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Home medical knowledge, or knowledge of how one’s surroundings can be used to maintain and restore health, can be an important tool for health self-sufficiency in rural places as well as for the ecological conservation of important plants and natural materials. The Indian state of Kerala has a rich heritage of traditional medicine, found in the historically inter-related forms of codified Ayurveda and folk knowledge. In Idukki district, a region of Kerala nestled in the hills of the Western Ghats, rural households engage in small-scale home-gardening and agroforestry, which in addition to providing nutritionally diverse food is a source of …

The Restoration Process: Lessons From A Community-Based Conservation Initiative In Tunkhel, Mongolia, John Wendt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As policy makers transition away from central planning, Mongolia’s natural resource professionals are challenged with cultivating community support for stewardship in a time of escalating ecological disturbance. Nutag Action Research Partners has partnered with community members and government officials in Tunkhel, a small village in north-central Mongolia, to develop local resource management capacity and jointly draft a Conservation Plan for a commonly grazed riparian pasture. This study is a preliminary assessment of the ecological and social factors influencing project implementation. Information was collected using a variety of qualitative methods including meeting observation, surveys, interviews, photographs, and a review of previous …

The Himalayan Gold Rush The Untold Consequences Of Yartsa Gunbu In The Tarap Valley, Noah Stone

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite the fact that it has been used in tradition medicine for centuries, the caterpillar fungus known as yartsa gunbu (Othiocordyceps sinensis), has only become a popular medical supplement in the last fifteen years. Demand in China has driven what has been dubbed ‘the Himalayan gold rush’, a scramble for the fungus that has utterly transformed the agro-pastoral economies of the remote Himalayan regions where cordyceps is found. In many cases, the locals have prospered economically from the commodification of yartsa gunbu. In one such region of Nepal, the Tarap valley of the Dolpa district, while the villagers have benefitted …

Existential Avalanche The Lived Experience Of Climate Change In Dolpo And Mustang, Nepal, Keegan Mcchesney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Himalayan communities stand precariously in an era of phenomenological uncertainty. Climate change is merely a lens through which we may observe and begin to understand such localized modern complexities. The people of the Tarap Valley in Dolpo, Nepal have experienced an increase in avalanches, snow leopard attacks and unpredictable precipitation patterns in recent years. In upper Mustang, Nepal, people have endured the harshest winter in generations and suffered from reduced water access. Environmental, climatic and weather related changes in both Himalayan districts have severely impacted traditional livelihoods and led some to adopt modern means of adaptation. Despite the scientific evidence …

Taking Root: An Analysis Of The Best Method For Active Forest Regeneration In The Cloud Forest, Charlotte Startin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The cloud forest is a biodiversity hotspot and provides many vital ecological and economic services. Unfortunately, deforestation for pastures in the lower montane cloud forest is high. Many pastures become abandoned, leaving highly disturbed open areas of land where natural forest regeneration is poor. Human intervention to encourage ecological restoration is very important to re-establish the proper structure and functioning of the ecosystem. Forest regeneration projects are rare and often unsuccessful, which is why increased knowledge and skills of successful and practical methods for assisted regeneration are needed. The Inti Llacta Reserve in the Pichincha province in Ecuador protects a …

Human Impacts On Water Systems: Biological Assessment Of Water Quality In The Bosque Protector Río Guajalito (Bprg) Using Aquatic Macroinvertebrates, Harrison Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Benthic macroinvertebrates have been extensively used as bioindicators for water quality due to their varying sensitivity to a diverse range of impacts on hydrographic sources. In this study a sampling of macroinvertebrates was carried out in the Guajalito and Brincador rivers and a small creek that runs through the private reserve Bosque Protector Rio Guajalito in order to analyze if the health of the rivers has changed in relation to previous studies. The sampling stations were located upstream and downstream of potential sources of disturbance in each of the three streams sampled in order to determine what level of impact …

Water Law-Gged: The Muddy Relationship Between Water Law, The Environment, And Economic Development Introduction, Josh Eagle, Matthew W. Orville

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Library Perspectives, Issue 52, Spring 2015, Friends Of The Oberlin College Libraries

Library Perspectives Newsletter

This issue includes items about Director of Libraries Ray English, Stanley King's gift of jazz materials to the Conservatory Library, a rare Thomas Edison suitcase phonograph, and much more.

The Farm Bill: A Wicked Problem Seeking A Systematic Solution, Sarah J. Morath

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Ursinus Magazine, Spring 2015, Wendy Greenberg, Kathryn Campbell, Ellen Labrecque, Jennifer Meininger Wolfe, Terry Winegar, Rachel Jessica Daniel, Jacqueline Yost Limongelli

Ursinus Magazine, 1995–Present

Setting a high standard: Presidential search is underway • Pfahler rocks • New website launches • Lost & found • Professor of the year • 2015 externships • Office space: Jimena Talavera 2012 • 2014 Homecoming • Mullen named Maxwell Football Club's Collegiate Coach of the Year • Rebecca E. Kohn named Associate Dean • A boost for UC Bikeshare • Reaching out, warming up • Battling Ebola • Wordsmith • Berman Museum: Museum Studies • The ties that bind • Greek life remains strong on campus • Wings to go • One goal: That's all it takes • Class …

Reconceptualizing The Future Of Environmental Law: The Role Of Private Climate Governance, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The title of this Symposium, Re-conceptualizing the Future of Environmental Law, accurately captures the challenge facing environmental law scholars and policymakers in 2015. The success of environmental law in the future will not arise from doubling down on the approaches developed over the last 50 years. Instead, it will arise from our willingness to learn from the past without being bound by the conceptual frameworks that dominated the early development of the field.

In particular, a successful future for environmental law is more likely to emerge if we acknowledge that the environmental problems, policy plasticity, and regulatory institutions that shaped …

Spatial And Temporal Relationships Between Forest Bird Declines And Prevalence Of The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid In The Northeastern United States, Julie E. Blum, Andrew M. Wilson

Student Publications

The eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is a vital foundation tree species throughout the eastern United States, providing essential structural diversity and habitat for more than 120 different animal species. Within the past few decades, T. canadensis has undergone significant declines that are largely associated with the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA; Adelges tsugae), an exotic, aphid-like insect native to East Asia. From the 1970s to present day, the HWA has spread throughout southern New England, large portions of the Mid-Atlantic region, and parts of Tennessee and the Carolinas. Research has shown that loss of the eastern hemlock is …

A Feasibility Study Of Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles To Survey Avian Abundance By Using Audio Recording, Janine M. Barr, Andrew M. Wilson

Student Publications

Roadside counts are commonly used to assess songbird abundance, but they result in oversampling habitat edges and underrepresenting core habitats, areas of steep terrain, and wetlands. Accessing off-road habitats can be logistical challenging and time-consuming, resulting in low survey efficiency. Aerial ecological surveys, using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) have already proven to be valuable in wildlife monitoring. Previous studies have used photography or videography to provide permanent documentation of wildlife surveys through low altitude aerial imagery. A significant advantage of UAVs over manned aircraft is their greater safety and lower costs. We propose that UAVs can also be …

Graduating Seniors Ready To Take On The World, Danielle Kamp ’15

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

School Of Biological Sciences News, 2015, School Of Biological Sciences

School of Biological Sciences News

Alumni newsletter of Illinois State University's School of Biological Sciences.