Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating Exploitation Of White Crappie And Black Crappie In Three Southeast Kansas Reservoirs, Danci Lee Johnston

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Populations of white crappie Pomoxis annularis and black crappie P. nigromaculatus were studied in three southeast Kansas reservoirs to assess exploitation and determine if current regulations were conducive for sustainable populations. Trap nets were used to sample crappie in Elk City Reservoir, Big Hill Reservoir, and Parsons City Lake. Crappie with length 210 mm and greater were tagged with FloyFD-94 tags that served as entries into a drawing for a US$300-valued reward to encourage tag reporting. Harvest and angler demographic information were collected when tags were reported. Postcard surveys and motion-sensed cameras were used in conjunction to estimate angler effort …

The Effect Of Climate Change, Human Activity, And Water Management Interventions On Environmental And Socio-Economic Outcomes In The Mekong Delta Region, Huynh Truong Gia Nguyen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The Vietnam Mekong Delta (VMD) is the southernmost part of the Mekong River watershed basin and plays a critical role in Vietnam’s socio-economic and ecological wellbeing. Because of both climate change and anthropogenic activities, such as hydropower dam construction and overwhelming water extraction, the area has recently experienced severe droughts, changing rainfall patterns, and decreasing water resources, collectively heightening disaster risks. Understanding the interactions among these evolving factors is key to preserving resources in the VMD and similarly afflicted regions. Therefore, this dissertation included three objectives. The first objective was to estimate potential impacts of changes in the available water …

A Stillness In The Desert? Engaging The Public Through An Immersive Exploration Of Southwest Soundscapes, Julian Kilker, Thomas Bjelic

Creative Collaborations

The pandemic highlighted the anthropocentric nature of soundscapes, while the recent popularity of electric cars, quadcopters, and “noise cancellation” earbuds demonstrated how consumer products can rapidly change our awareness of sound. While light pollution is already extensively addressed in scholarly research, popular works such as The End of Night, and public engagement such as The International Dark Sky Association, the complex interplay of sound, natural resources, and public engagement is still emerging, particularly in creative fields.

Two UNLV scholars and artists are collaborating on this project: Julian Kilker, who specializes in visual and emerging technology research, and Tom Bjelic, who …

Assessment Of User Environmental Perceptions Associated With Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Marieke Johanna Lemmen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Resource management in marine protected areas is confronted with the challenging conflict of use and conservation of resources. Increased visitation in marine environments has led to the need of management due to negative ecological and social impacts. Understanding environmental values, attitudes, and perceptions is important to the success of environmental protection. Using online surveys sent via Qualtrics asking questions regarding the users’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of ocean resources, goods and services, this research is focusing on identifying user profiles and understanding their environmental perception associated with Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, an offshore marine protected area, and surrounding coastal …

Community Development Supporting Ecological Conversion, As Identified In Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home, Anne Jennings

Theses

In this extraordinary time of multiple, intersecting crises with compounded costs in social, economic, and environmental degradation, calls for transformative change are emerging from all levels of humanity – global to local. Within that setting, my study concentrated on investigating change at a local level to address the research question ’How can community development theory and practice contribute to ecological conversion, as identified in Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home?’

Since its release, Laudato Si’ has provoked considerable academic/theological and scientific/environmental debate that does not necessarily contain local people’s views and everyday lived experiences, given their often-limited access …

Re-Storying Grant Creek: A Case Study Of Relational Dynamics On A Degraded Montana Stream, Seamus Rucci Land

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration began in 2021, and after a history of contentious ethical debates, ecological restoration is increasingly portrayed as a viable framework for combating environmental degradation and supporting more healthy and stable social-ecological systems. The proposed ecological restoration of Grant Creek, a degraded stream near Missoula, Montana, offers an opportunity to connect a restoration site to the broader, rapidly growing field of restoration practice. It also allows the opportunity to forward the ‘relational turn’ proposed by many in the sustainability sciences as an ontological and methodological means to move beyond positivist portrayals of social-ecological systems, which …

Other Orchards, Sam B. Robison

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Other Orchards is comprised of poems each suspect in their own way of those boundaries that might separate humans from nature, rural from urban, worker from scholar, or human from beast. Using the figure of the orchard, a kind of “false forest,” this collection studies the ways we map ourselves onto our work and the way work might inform an understanding of the self. Ultimately, these are poems that emerge from the seams of things—the shoulder of highway strewn with dead antelope, the feral apple tree lost to the woods, the farmer lost in their work, slowing becoming less and …

Conserving And Sharing Freshwater In The West, Kelsea Harris-Capuano

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There are infinite stories to be told about water in the West. As an essential and finite resource, countries, states, tribal nations and neighbors must figure out how to manage this shared resource, whether for ecosystem sustainability, agricultural, household, or recreational use.

The Flathead Lake Biological Station in Polson, MT is one of the oldest active biological research stations in the United States. One of its former faculty, Dr. Mark Lorang, has been working on Flathead Lake’s erosion problem for over 30 years. As a result of seasonal lake level fluctuations controlled by the dam, erosion over the years has …

Detecting Impacts Of Historic And Undocumented Landslide Tsunamis At High Latitude Sites Using Ndvi, Trent Adams

All Master's Theses

In the last century most of the largest landslide tsunamis on record have occurred in remote regions of the world, which has led to a limited understanding of their impacts on landscapes. The goal of this work is to present a methodology to identify impacts of landslide tsunamis with a technique that does not require field work in extremely remote locations. Although landslide tsunamis have occurred that were not directly witnessed by anyone, evidence of landslide tsunamis can still be observed via satellite. Using multispectral satellite images, we calculated normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to identify tsunami-impacted sites, estimate tsunami …

Contributors - Quaker Religious Thought, No. 138, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

'Indirect Pathways Into Practice': Philippine Internationally Educated Nurses And Their Entry Into Ontario's Nursing Profession, Lualhati Marcelino

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While there are several studies that highlight the quantitative and statistical profiles of internationally educated nurses (IENs) from the Philippines who migrate to countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Canada, there is little research that delves deeply into the qualitative review and analysis of their experiences in their own words. This study addresses that gap by applying the transnational feminist concept of “global care chains” in a single case study design that explores the experience of nurses who migrated to Ontario through permanent and temporary immigration streams and were interviewed in 2011 to 2012 to …

Exploring The Integration Of Corporate Sustainability Into Small-Scale Business Activities, Olushola O. Odutola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium-scale enterprises contribute 49% of the gross domestic product in Nigeria. The lack of research studies on how small and medium-scale enterprises integrate corporate sustainability into their business operations might present challenges for policymakers in achieving Nigeria’s sustainable development goals (SDG). The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore how managers of small and medium-scale enterprises integrate the corporate sustainability dimensions into their business operations based on the concepts of the corporate entity, corporate nature, and corporate obligations. The central research question of this study was how managers of small and medium-scale enterprises integrate the economic, …

Factors Influencing The Effectiveness Of Managing Human–Robot Teams, Theodore B. Terry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Certain factors can influence the capabilities of a robot–human team by affecting their social and behavioral dynamics in a work environment. But these factors were not known due to the progressive nature of human–robot partnerships and a lack of peer-reviewed literature on the topic. This e-Delphi study aimed to identify and understand these unknown influential factors based on the participants’ insights. The overarching research question asked about the need to determine factors that might influence the effectiveness of managing human-robot teams. The basis for the conceptual framework for this study was the theory of communication used in organizational management. Twelve …

The Lives Of Late Soviet Science, 1945-1991, Grégory Dufaud, Ksenia Tatarchenko

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This study explores the multifaceted landscape of Soviet science from the end of World War II to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It examines the interplay between scientific innovation and political ideology, highlighting how the state shaped research agendas and scientific practices during a period marked by both significant achievements and profound challenges. Through an analysis of key scientific institutions, prominent figures, and pivotal projects, the study illustrates the tensions between ideological constraints and the pursuit of knowledge. Additionally, it addresses the impacts of international collaboration and competition during the Cold War, revealing how these dynamics influenced scientific …

The Traveling Memories Project: A Digital Collection Of Lived Experiences Of Teachers Who Served In The 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign, Kimberly Waller

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The 1961 Campaña de la Alfabetización (CLC) [Cuban Literacy Campaign] looms large in the Cuban historical imagination as a moment of transformation, sacrifice, and triumph. Yet, until recently, the unique aspects of the CLC that made it a national success were in danger of being forgotten, thus losing its potential as a model for future ways to mobilize a nation toward an important social goal. The primary objectives of this project were to: (1) expand the scope of the discourse to include a much larger range of lived experiences; (2) collect and preserve lived experiences as shared by the teachers …

Optimization And Analytics Of Decarbonized Forest And Biomass Supply Chains, Xufeng Zhang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

First, a data-driven holistic analysis framework was developed to aid the industrial development of forest biomass for bioenergy to promote the regional bioeconomy. Leveraging the existing but fragmented multi-source data, four components of industrial bioenergy development were integrated into the framework including spatial statistical analysis of biomass feedstock and bioenergy production, machine learning-based suitability assessment, bioenergy plant sites identification and ranking, and socio-economic impacts assessment. A case study was conducted for forest biomass to pellet fuel in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region. Our results indicate that the great potential of forest biomass with high variation at the county level is primarily …

Impact Of Prairie Restoration On Geochemistry And Microbial Communities In Groundwater, Kayla Koenig

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Prairie restoration is important for reversing the loss of biodiversity and repairing ecosystem functions humanity is dependent on diverse ecosystems. This study looks at the impact of the beginning phases of prairie restoration on groundwater geochemistry and microbial communities the relationship between them. This research project studied the geochemistry and microbial communities in five wells before, during, and after the beginning phases of the first year of a prairie restoration on the Northern Illinois University campus. Water samples were collected bimonthly for a year and analyzed on an Ion Chromatograph. Microbial samples were collected monthly and underwent DNA extraction, amplification, …

Integrating Tropical Research Into Biology Education Is Urgently Needed, Ann E. Russell, T. Mitchell Aide, Elizabeth Braker, Carissa N. Ganong, Rebecca D. Hardin, Karen D. Holl, Sara C. Hotchkiss, Jeffrey A. Klemens, Erin K. Kuprewicz, Deedra Mcclearn, George Middendorf, Rebecca Ostertag, Jennifer S. Powers, Sabrina E. Russo, Jennifer L. Stynoski, Ursula Valdez, Charles G. Willis

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Understanding tropical biology is important for solving complex problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and zoonotic pandemics, but biology curricula view research mostly via a temperatezone lens. Integrating tropical research into biology education is urgently needed to tackle these issues.

The tropics are engines of Earth systems that regulate global cycles of carbon and water, and are thus critical for management of greenhouse gases. Compared with higher-latitude areas, tropical regions contain a greater diversity of biomes, organisms, and complexity of biological interactions. The tropics house the majority of the world’s human population and provide important global commodities from species …

An Empiricist’S Guide To Using Ecological Theory, Tess N. Grainger, Athmanathan Senthilnathan, Po-Ju Ke, Matthew A. Barbour, Natalie T. Jones, John Delong, Sarah P. Otto, Mary I. O'Connor, Kyle E. Coblentz, Nikunj Goel, Jawad Sakarchi, Megan C. Szojka, Jonathan M. Levine, Rachel M. Germain

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

A scientific understanding of the biological world arises when ideas about how nature works are formalized, tested, refined, and then tested again. Although the benefits of feedback between theoretical and empirical research are widely acknowledged by ecologists, this link is still not as strong as it could be in ecological research. This is in part because theory, particularly when expressed mathematically, can feel inaccessible to empiricists who may have little formal training in advanced math. To address this persistent barrier, we provide a general and accessible guide that covers the basic, step-by-step process of how to approach, understand, and use …

Distributed Energy Resources : An Assessment Of New Jersey’S Clean Energy Future, Mary Elizabeth Kenny

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The demand for renewable energy in New Jersey will continue to grow as economic opportunities and community support drive development. The effective integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) will transform energy production, storage, and use. To achieve sustainable energy production, the current reliance on fossil fuels must be reduced and replaced with less carbon-intensive energy sources that optimize the electric grid. DERs help pioneer the path to a clean energy transition where the implementation of new renewable energy projects will diversify New Jersey’s energy portfolio and provide a more resilient, equitable, and independent energy source. This thesis investigates different perspectives …

Aircraft Interior And Seat Design: Priorities Based On Passengers’ Opinions, Peter Vink, Gerbera Vledder, Yu Song, Britta Herbig, Anna Sophie Reichherzer, Neil Mansfield

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Comfort is an important factor for passengers in the selection of airlines, and electric propeller aircraft will be an important element of future sustainable aviation. In this paper, we studied the order of importance of different (dis)comfort factors regarding traveling with propeller aircraft. Two experiments were conducted, one was a simulation flight on the ground with 33 participants and the other were two real flights with 97 participants. All participants were asked to rank the importance of different (dis)comfort factors in different phases of flights. Results indicated that though there are differences between the simulation and the real flights, noise, …

Marx, Critical Theory, And The Treadmill Of Production Of Value: Why Environmental Sociology Needs A Critique Of Capital, Alex Stoner

Journal Articles

This chapter explores the domestication of Marx’s critique of political economy within Marxist-oriented environmental sociology, and treadmill of production (ToP) theory, in particular. The aim is to explicate the theoretical resources for a rigorous critique of capital-induced planetary degradation. Shortcomings of ToP theory pertaining to the conceptualization of capital and value are identified. The reasons for these shortcomings, including how they might be addressed, are elaborated by reconsidering key aspects of Marx’s critical theory of modern capitalist society. The chapter contributes to current discussions in both critical theory and environmental sociology by demonstrating the continued relevance of Marx’s critical theory …

Departments, Schools, Divisions, And Colleges: Organization Of Academic Units In Public Master’S Institutions In The United States, Brent Graves, Brian Cherry

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Microplastics As Carrier Of Pahs Released From Oil Spills: Measuring Ingestion And Bioaccumulation Rates In Copepods, Manasi Desai

Senior Independent Study Theses

Microplastics (MP; plastics < 5mm) are a growing problem in the marine environment due to a large influx of plastics entering the marine environment through rivers, wastewater and litter from land. MP are known to adsorb nonpolar compounds in the water including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) released from oil spills. In this study, I quantified the ingestion rates of a marine copepod (Calanus finmarchicus) on clean polystyrene MP beads (12 um) and phenanthrene loaded MP beads (0.8 pg PAH pellet -1). I measured the phenanthrene load in copepods ingesting phenanthrene sorbed MPs and copepods exposed to phenanthrene only to measure the role of MP as a vector for PAHs into marine food webs. Additionally, I examined the fecal pellets to check the presence of MPs and if phenanthrene was still adsorbed to them. The results showed that microplastics do not act as vectors as there was no significant difference between the body load of phenanthrene in copepods from ingestion of PAH sorbed MPs and the body load from passive uptake of phenanthrene in solution. Copepods ate significantly lower phenanthrene loaded MP (1.81 x 104 beads cop-1 day-1) than microplastics only (2.67 x 104 beads cop-1 day-1) suggesting that copepods can reject particles based on chemical content. Accumulation of phenanthrene within the copepods (GC-MS analysis) showed individual copepods can accumulate between 3.48 to 4.11 ng of PAH which potentially can biomagnify in the marine food web upon predation. Fecal pellet analysis showed that an average of 2013 MP beads are present with a mean phenanthrene load of 0.15 pg bead-1. For the social science research, I conducted a literature review examining the current Indian plastic waste management strategies, legislations and its implementation. My results find that the Indian government over the years has progressively enacted and amended its policies to try to keep pace with the issue of plastic pollution. However, key challenges in the implementation such as poor enforcement, inadequate training for recycling lack of plastic alternatives and proper waste disposal infrastructure all contribute to the unsuccessful management of waste. Usage of plastic in road construction has shown to be a viable option in reducing plastic waste in India and also improving road conditions.

Exploring The Relationship Between Drought And Population Change On The North American Great Plains, 1970-2010, George Heath

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Through the second half of the 20th century, the North American Great Plains saw widespread rural out-migration, a continuation of trends that began with the Dust Bowl crisis during the Great Depression of the 1930s. As part of a wider academic focus on the roles climate and environmental changes have on migration, this research project sought to understand the relationship between drought conditions and rural population decline on the Great Plains. In this explorative research, census population data for Canada and the US from 1970-2010 were analyzed along with temperature, precipitation, and Palmer Drought Severity Index data for the same …

Changing Snowmelt Conditions In The Western Canadian Arctic, Matthew Y. T. Tsui

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Multidecadal Changes in Spring Snowmelt in the Western Canadian Arctic

This study investigates the changes in key aspects of snowmelt in the western Canadian Arctic. Specifically, we will look at changes in the onset of snowmelt and the duration of snowmelt between 1999 and 2019, and extended air temperature between 1957 and 2019. In addition, we will look at changes in eight meteorological variables during the melt period. It was found that the onset of snowmelt occurred 14 days earlier, while the melt period ends 20 days earlier than 20 years ago. As a result, the duration of melt period …

Alpine Shrub Tundra Water Storage And Runoff Dynamics In The Mackenzie Mountains, Sahtú Territory, Nt, Geoffrey Kershaw

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Alpine regions receive large volumes of precipitation and are important to local and regional water balances, particularly during baseflow periods of winter cold and summer drought when the larger basin area is frozen and/or water limited. Alpine headwaters in western Canada are expected to warm and receive more precipitation during the coming decades, with implications for groundwater recharge and streamflow generation within these systems and the regional river networks to which they contribute. Throughout the North, thawing peat plateaus and other ice-rich permafrost features are resulting in an increased extent of thermokarst and wetland land cover. This transition places infrastructure …

Coastal Landform Change Influences On Endangered Five-Lined Skink Distribution At Northwest Beach, Point Pelee National Park, Canada, Evan Fortushniok

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As park visitation increased to Point Pelee National Park up until its peak in 1963, the installation of infrastructure for the purpose of supporting the recreational interest grew with it. At Northwest Beach, large parking lots were built into the coastal landscape and by the 1970s large areas of sand dunes continued to be heavily impacted by the installation of visitor associated infrastructure. The infrastructure resulted in the stabilization of sand on the beach side of the parking lot, resulting in an artificially stabilized and heavily vegetated dune. Over the last few decades, the park slowly reduced the size and …

Changes In Lake Drainage In The Western Canadian Arctic, Dilshan Kariyawasam, Philip Marsh Dr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Nearly half of all Pan-Arctic lakes are situated in the Canadian Arctic, with many of these lakes being of thermokarst origin. Thermokarst lakes are sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment, making them useful indicators to examine the condition of hydrological systems in response to rapid climate warming, a trend which has been well observed in the Canadian Western Arctic. In this study, we use aerial photography to quantify lake area and count changes for lakes in the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk region, between 1950 and 2004. A combination of aerial photography and Landsat imagery were used in identifying drained thermokarst lake basins …

Political Culture: An Unexplored Factor In Climate Change Diplomacy, Alexander Suen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As climate change continues to ravage the world, mitigation efforts continue to be insufficient to rise to the challenge. Inaction on climate change has been traditionally explained by economic incentives, but some of the variability in climate policies cannot be explained by economics alone. Some variations could be accounted for by the deeply rooted national political culture of Anglo-settler colonies. This political culture may inhibit the willingness of such states to cooperate on climate change. In this dissertation, I describe the political philosophy of the Anglo-settler colony, and the histories of domination of its white settlers over the indigenous peoples …