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Assessing The Feasibility Of Freshwater Mussel Restoration In Urban Streams., John-Reid Ryan

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to determine whether introduced freshwater mussels (Alewife floater, Utterbackiana implicata) can survive and grow in urban streams in the James River watershed. A secondary objective was to assess differences in U. implicata survival and growth of in the context of differing water quality and food resource conditions among three urban sites and three rural sites. Results from this study show large differences in growth and survivorship of mussels across sites. Higher survivorship was observed among mussels stocked into rural streams (35% and 44%) in comparison to urban streams (3%, 6% and 14%). …

Regional Drivers Of Organic Carbon Age In Lotic Systems Of The Conterminous United States, Kaycee Faunce

Theses and Dissertations

Rivers play a critical role in global carbon (C) budgets despite their comparatively small surface area. A significant portion of the terrestrial C that they receive is transformed, re-mineralized, or stored during transit to the ocean. Radiocarbon (∆¹⁴C) data show that a fraction of riverine organic C (OC) has been pre-aged in the terrestrial environment. Lateral export of carbon from these aged pools may contribute to atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions through microbial and photochemical oxidation. However, little is known about the regional climatic, anthropogenic, and landscape factors that promote the mobilization of aged OC to rivers. This study …

Comparing Coastal Storm Impact To Decadal Change In Barrier Island Ecosystems, Philip A. Tuley

Theses and Dissertations

Highly dynamic coastal systems respond to disturbance events with a combination of topographic and vegetative changes. Sea level rise impacts on barrier islands have been quantified, but storm effects on vegetation are limited. Here we quantified barrier island vegetation change in response to an isolated storm event and compared to long-term periods. We hypothesized that disturbance-resisting areas with high woody vegetation cover and/or high foredune elevation would experience minimal transitions after a storm event, whereas disturbance-reinforcing areas with low vegetation cover and low foredune elevation would experience greater transitions between ecosystem states after a storm event. Patterns of dissonance were …

Full Issue

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Green Cities And Waste Management: The Restaurant Industry, Minoo Tehrani, Lawrence Fulton, Bryan Schmutz

Business Faculty Publications

“Green Cities” are cities with the ultimate goal of achieving a net zero-carbon footprint in energy, transportation, architecture, and the activity cost chain of businesses. These cities define the future of our planet by emphasizing the efficient use of resources and the well-being of communities. This study focuses on “Green Cities” and the restaurant industry. It examines the beliefs of restaurant owners/managers on the positive impact of sustainability practices on financial situation, reputation, and attraction of customers, and the relationship between such beliefs and the extent of engagement in sustainability practices. The research also explores whether declaring a city “Green” …

Dendroanthropological Applications In Adaptive Management: A Multi-Methodical Approach For Interpreting Cultural Landscape Change At Mvs-Yee-Se’-Ne, Brandy Alexandra Clark

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis combined GIS analysis, archival research, and dendrochronological methods to provide a means for interpreting how the Mvs-yee-se’-ne cultural landscape has changed since the period of European contact circa 1850. By employing dendrochronological methods, a unique stand of Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) was found to be present at Mvs-yee-se’-ne by at least 1809. Since 1850, factors such as American colonization, homesteading, mining, fire suppression, and logging have had an effect on cultural landscapes such as Mvs-yee-se’-ne regionally, but this research localized such effects in a site-specific context. Aerial imagery analysis conducted for this thesis documented extractive …

Sustainable Transportation For Hsu Stakeholders: Looking Into Access And Behavior, Aneika J. Perez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Aneika Jasmine Perez

Safe and affordable transportation to and from campus are not available to many members of the HSU community. This research seeks to understand how members of the campus community can access forms of transportation without relying on private automobiles. A critical component of this research is to understand specific ways in which members of the campus community can access sustainable forms of transportation without relying on private automobiles.

This research draws primarily on Icek Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior framework, to determine that choice of travel mode is based on decisions that are affected by …

University Of North Florida Environmental Center Annual Report 2020, James W. Taylor, Erin Largo-Wight, Kelly Rhoden

Annual Reports

2020 Annual Report of the Environmental Center at the University of North Florida

Executive Board Annual Summary, 2019-2020, Emeriti Society

Emeriti Society History and Reports

No abstract provided.

Physiology As A Mechanism Driving Early Fitness Responses In Cornus Florida, Brendan Finnie, Jane Remfert

Undergraduate Research Posters

Physiology as a Mechanism Driving Early Fitness Responses in Cornus Florida

Brendan Finnie, Depts. of Biology and Chemistry, and Jane L. Remfert, Graduate Student in Integrative Life Sciences, with Dr. Rodney Dyer, VCU Center for Environmental Studies

Urban encroachment into natural ecosystems can increase the chances cultivar gene escape from the urban environment into natural populations. Cultivar Cornus Florida, flowering dogwood, has been artificially selected for traits like larger floral displays, tolerance of high sunlight, and resistance to disease and occurs in close proximity to native populations. A common garden experiment was established to compare relative performance of cultivar and …

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, Yabin Yin, Ferran Garcia-Pichel

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty 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 …

Can Farmers And Bats Co-Exist? Farmer Attitudes, Knowledge, And Experiences With Bats In Belize, Hannah G. Shapiro, Adam S. Willcox, Mallory Tate, Emma V. Willcox

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Bats (Chiroptera) are often viewed negatively by the public. Negative public perceptions of bats may hinder efforts to conserve declining populations. In Belize, the presence of vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus and Diphylla ecaudata) exacerbates the potential for conflicts with humans because of the increased rabies transmission risks. To mitigate these risks, the Belize government provides farmers with assistance to trap and remove vampire bats. In June 2018, we surveyed farmers (n = 44) in and adjacent to the Vaca Forest Reserve in Belize to learn more about their attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with bats. This information may …

Domestic Violence In Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (Cald) Communities: Perceptions, Therapeutic Approaches And Responses Of Frontline Workers In New South Wales (Nsw), Oluwatoyin A. Dedeigbo

Theses

Domestic violence is a universal public health concern (VicHealth, 2011; World Health Organisation [WHO], 2013). Domestic violence cuts across all countries, regardless of economic, social, cultural or religious differences (Ali et al., 2020; VicHealth, 2011; WHO 2013). Men are often responsible for perpetrating domestic violence against women (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2019; Australia Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2018).

The effects of domestic violence on victims can be serious and long-term; affecting their physical and mental wellbeing, and lingering even after the exposure to violence has ended (Mitchell, 2011). That is, the effect on victims’ mental health is …

Toxic Floodwaters: Strengthening The Chemical Safety Regime In The Climate Change Era, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

Extreme flooding linked to climate change has caused toxic chemical spills across the United States, yet policymakers are not prioritizing industrial chemical safety in planning for climate change. Many scholars and industry executives have argued that existing private law mechanisms, such as insurance and tort-based deterrence, can adequately manage the risk of flood-induced chemical releases from industrial sites. But private law mechanisms have failed to prevent past incidents of mass contamination, and there is little evidence that tort law deters industrial firms from the practices that put communities at risk. In this Article, I engage in a comparative analysis of …

The Political Viability Of Carbon Pricing: Policy Design And Framing In British Columbia And California, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

The adoption of climate policies with visible, substantial costs for households is uncommon because of expected political backlash, but British Columbia's carbon tax and California's cap-and-trade program imposed such costs and still survived vigorous opposition. To explain these outcomes, this paper tests hypotheses concerning policy design, framing, energy prices, and elections. It conducts universalizing and variation-finding comparisons across three subcases in the two jurisdictions and uses primary sources to carry out process tracing involving mechanisms of public opinion and elite position taking. The paper finds strong support for the timing of independent energy price changes, exogenous causes of election results, …

How To Engage Public Support To Protect Overlooked Species, Scarlett R. Howard, Adrian G. Dyer

Animal Sentience

Treves et al. (2019) propose a non-anthropocentric approach to conservation biology for the ‘just preservation’ of non-humans. Some of our current ways of ranking conservation efforts based on benefits to humans are indeed critically flawed, but we doubt that a completely non-anthropocentric approach is possible at this time. We propose a way to generate public support for those non-human species that may otherwise be overlooked in policy-making and conservation efforts.

Influence Of Environmental Strategy And Management Control On Environmental And Economic Performance, Kanya Sannamwong

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study aims to explore the role of eco-controls in translating competitive environmental strategic intents into eco-practices, as well as the associations between eco-practices and environmental and economic performance. A web-based survey was used to collect data from 151 Thai manufacturing firms from September to November 2020. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The findings from the study suggest that firms pursuing predominantly eco-efficiency intent, firms pursuing predominantly eco-branding intent, and firms pursuing both eco-efficiency intent and eco-branding intent at the same degree, tend to adopt more bureaucratic forms of eco-control regardless of their environmental strategic intents. …

Carbon Tax As Discrimination: Revisiting The Legal Standard Of National Treatment In Wto Law, Zaker Ahmed

National Law School of India Review

This paper explores the possibility of an alternative take on the current understanding of the GATT national treatment obligation, especially in the assessment of the possible discriminatory impact of a carbon tax. The traditional legal standard, when applied to an import-adjusted carbon tax measure, may result in a finding of discrimination, despite there being sound economic rationale underlying such a measure. It is proposed that during the analysis of discrimination, comparison between products should also account for emission footprints. Furthermore, to assess the discriminatory impact of a carbon tax, one should not only take into account the tax burden imposed …

After-School Childcare Arrangements And Maternal Labor Supply In Low-Income American Households: Comparisons Between Race And Ethnicity, Hyejoon Park, Min Zhan Dr., Shinwoo Choi Dr.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Even though after-school childcare arrangements are a significant matter for working mothers in the United States, only formal childcare has been recognized as relevant by researchers. Therefore, this study aims to find the association between different types of after-school childcare arrangements (after-school programs, relative, parental, self-care, and combination of care) and low-income working mothers’ labor supply, including their working hours and months, with special attention to their race/ethnicity. The study employed the Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis and utilized the National Household Education Survey Programs: After-School Programs and Activities (2005). The results showed that White and Hispanic mothers using relative …

January 2020 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

At-Home Childcare Providers’ Perceptions Of Gardening With Children, Erin Lauckner

Theses and Dissertations

Children do not consume recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, which has been correlated with negative health consequences. Gardening with children has been shown to positively impact children’s consumption of these foods. While research investigating gardening with children exists, much of this has been conducted with teachers and children in schools, and limited research has been conducted with childcare providers and preschool-aged children. Little research has been conducted about this topic with in-home childcare providers and the children under their care. This pilot study utilized a cross-sectional mixed methods research design through an online survey instrument. A convenience sample of …

Engineering Ph-Dependent Antibody Interactions Through Linked Protonation Events In Interdomain Interfaces, Hyeyoung Eom

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Engineered antibodies are frequently used in life science applications, such as therapeutics and clinical diagnostics. These customized antibodies typically possess enhanced binding affinity and/or specificity, yet these interactions are only one-way binding events that cannot be easily controlled without extreme changes in conditions, such as pH, denaturant, and/or temperature that likely irreversible damage the antibody and antigen. Here, we explore the design of proton-linked binding events in the context of both antibody/hapten (i.e., a low molecular weight ligand target) and antibody/antigen complexes. Specifically, this work looks to overcome the challenges of engineering pH-dependent small ligand/protein interactions, as well as develop …

Reviewers And Referees, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Toward A Holistic Agricultural Student Recruitment Model: A National Analysis Of The Factors Affecting Students’ Decision To Pursue An Agricultural Related Degree, Antoine J. Alston, Richie Roberts, Chastity W. English

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

Currently, the agricultural industry struggles to fill positions with qualified agricultural workers. Therefore, it is critical to attract high caliber individuals to agricultural degree programs that are prepared to enter the workforce with the skills needed to navigate complex issues and problems. The purpose of this national study was to identify key factors that influence the recruitment of agriculture students at land-grant and non-land-grant universities. Using Chapman’s model of student success as our conceptual lens, we tested 66 factors identified in the literature as successful recruitment strategies for colleges of agriculture based on students’ personal characteristics as well as key …

Biophysical And Socioeconomic Impacts Of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration In Burkina Faso, Basnewende Brice Fulgence Zoungrana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human actions such as overgrazing, the development of cities at the expense of forests, high intensity and poor agricultural management, and so forth, reduce the resources available for future generations. Because Earth has limited resources, it is important to judiciously use and manage natural resources. Human actions towards nature are the focus of my research in Africa. Increased demands for grazing, agriculture, and ecosystem services led some farmers in developing countries to use unsustainable practices, which may lead to low incomes and poor food nutrition for households. Farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR) may be a solution to these issues. FMNR …

Family Forest Owners Satisfaction With Timber Transactions, Jeffrey M. Lee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Forest industries in the eastern U.S. rely heavily on family forest owners to supply fiber needs for their mills. As of 2017, 79 percent of West Virginia is classified as forestland and of this roughly 86.5 percent is privately owned. With such a heavy reliance on wood from private forest lands, family forest owner satisfaction is extremely important if companies want to continue harvesting or working with these landowners in the future.

Timber transactions are complex. No two timber transactions are exactly the same. They often involve many different parties apart from the landowner. Site conditions, land cover, and landowner …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of An Electronic Environmental Education Curriculum With Applied Use Of Trail Camera Photographs, Lucas Martin Coccoli

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Place-based conservation education programs are continuously adapting to ever evolving technological advancements to remain effective and connected to K-12 schools and students. One response to this challenge was an inquiry based, learner centered pedagogy which teaches science-based concepts via real life images captured on trail cameras.

This paper will describe the benefits of a distance learning program which teaches students about wildlife science using trail camera photos and associated lessons. In a time when students are more disconnected from the outdoors than ever. The use of trail cameras, based on these experiences, has the potential to reconnect students to the …

Developing A Decision-Making Framework For Assisted Migration: Applying This To The American Pika And Whitebark Pine, Mia Kimya Hedayat-Zedah

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT

Hedayat-Zadeh, Mai Kimya, Degree, May 2020 Environmental Studies

Developing a Decision-Making Framework for Assisted Migration: Applying this to the

American Pika and White Bark Pine

This paper analyzes a novel conservation strategy: assisted migration (AM). AM is the practice of moving a highly vulnerable (i.e., endangered) species impacted by climate change and other exacerbating factors (e.g., land use), out of its historic range to a recipient site. Ideally, this site would be one where the species would have migrated, were there no barriers to dispersal or anthropogenic stressors. The paper is concerned with the readiness of the conservation community—particularly …

Addressing Long-Standing Water Contamination Issues In Diné Communities Using Indigenous And Western Scientific Approaches, Ranalda Lynette Tsosie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The intent of this study was multifaceted and based on a research framework that incorporated the Diné worldview and Diné Science. Diné Science describes a holistic approach to conducting scientific research. It encompasses Diné foundational concepts and philosophies and applies them to the scientific method and western scientific approaches. The four major philosophies, Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat’á (Planning), Iiná (Implementing/Living) and Siih Hasin (Reflection/Assurance), were applied to this research process.

The main motivation is first and foremost to improve the quality of life of the Diné people especially those living in close proximity to abandoned mines and who are continuing to …

Comparing Fence Modeling And Mapping Approaches To Support Wildlife Management And Research In Southwest Montana, Simon Albert Buzzard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fences pose significant challenges to wildlife movement, but their effects are difficult to quantify because fence location and fence type data are lacking on a global scale. We developed a fence location and density model in southwest Montana, USA to provide data to researchers and managers, and test whether previous models could be applied to a new region and retain suitable levels of statistical accuracy. Our model used local expert opinion to inform how road, land cover, and ownership spatial layers interacted to predict fence locations. We validated the model against fence data collected on random 3.2 km road transects …