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Drugs, Thugs, And Mariachis: An Institutional Response To Mexico’S Drug Cartels, Marshall B. Lloyd Jan 2022

Drugs, Thugs, And Mariachis: An Institutional Response To Mexico’S Drug Cartels, Marshall B. Lloyd

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications (Archived)

Mexico represents a dichotomy of images: first, as a land of sun, surf, and a place of destiny for vacationers, and second, as providing a haven for violent drug cartels operating with virtual impunity from the power of the state that appears unable to provide a fundamental duty - public safety. In the current environment of cartel violence, festive similes of mariachis called narcocorridos are muffling traditional Mexican poems by singing ballads praising drug cartel leaders. Defying the government prohibition against radio stations playing this type of music, narcocorridos are often commissioned by drug cartels as a popular source of …


Spending All Your Money On Me: Influencer Marketing’S Impact On Engagement, Rebecca A. Vanmeter, Michael C. Peasley, Parker J. Woodroof Jan 2022

Spending All Your Money On Me: Influencer Marketing’S Impact On Engagement, Rebecca A. Vanmeter, Michael C. Peasley, Parker J. Woodroof

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Influencer marketing has been around for a few years and is rapidly approaching a $15 billion industry by 2022. In its nascency, the research is limited which investigates factors that substantiate the growth and popularity of advertising tools. In this study, we propose and explicate how two different types of influencers, namely mega- and macro-influencers, impact their audience's engagement with sponsored posts. Utilizing secondary data from more than 650 Instagram posts, our results suggest mega-influencers are able to mitigate the negative effect of utilizing various post attributes, including meta-tags and product prominence.


The Complexity Of Understanding Online Product Evaluation Expressions In The Chinese Cultural Context: How Ratings And Reviews Tell A Different Story, Mousumi Bose, Lei Ye Jan 2022

The Complexity Of Understanding Online Product Evaluation Expressions In The Chinese Cultural Context: How Ratings And Reviews Tell A Different Story, Mousumi Bose, Lei Ye

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Most online retail websites provide consumers the opportunity to elicit feedback about products and services through ratings and reviews. Extant research has suggested that product ratings and reviews may be reflective of consumers’ cultural views. Little research exists that discusses this lack of consistency between ratings and reviews beyond that suggested by Hofstede’s cultural typology. This research shows that although consumers may provide higher ratings, review texts provide a different perspective: consumers use reviews to provide negative feedback, however, with some tempering nuances.


Monetizing Student Projects: Advice For Marketing Educators, Zach Moore Jan 2022

Monetizing Student Projects: Advice For Marketing Educators, Zach Moore

AMTP Proceedings 2022

As resources become more scarce in colleges of business, it is increasingly important for faculty members to be creative to generate revenue for their programs. This paper provides several tips for using student projects to raise funds for student development.


Rainbow-Washing Away Customers: Does The Consumer’S Perception Of Rainbow-Washing Affect Purchasing Behavior?, Ashley N. Johns, Sindy Chapa, Nakima Brooks, Holly Coleman, Maya Dubois Jan 2022

Rainbow-Washing Away Customers: Does The Consumer’S Perception Of Rainbow-Washing Affect Purchasing Behavior?, Ashley N. Johns, Sindy Chapa, Nakima Brooks, Holly Coleman, Maya Dubois

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In this study, researchers will test to see the effects rainbow-washing has on consumers’ intent to purchase. Rainbow-washing is a new marketing technique in which companies implement different initiatives to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community while not genuinely investing in the community itself. To test if rainbow-washing is correlated to a consumer’s desire to purchase, a survey was distributed using nonprobability sampling to 38 participants. Of the sample, less than half identified as members of the target community (LGBTQ+). As a result, it was concluded there is no significance between consumer attitudes towards rainbow-washing and their intention to purchase. However, …


Love At First Touch: How Swiping Vs. Typing Changes Online Dating Decision-Making, Farhana Nusrat, Yaniu Huang, Cait Lamberton Jan 2022

Love At First Touch: How Swiping Vs. Typing Changes Online Dating Decision-Making, Farhana Nusrat, Yaniu Huang, Cait Lamberton

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Online dating is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Due to its increasing popularity, various dimensions of online dating have been studied in recent years. However, no research has explored how the type of digital platforms used impacts online dating. In this research, we investigate how the use of different platforms (computers vs. smartphones) can influence customers’ decision-making process in the context of online dating. Through multiple studies, we demonstrate that while using their computers (vs. smartphones) to evaluate dating profiles, customers will prioritize the inner attributes of the person (e.g., personality and compatibility). Moreover, the effect …


Examining The Relationships Between Branding Factors And Likelihood Of Recommending: Determinants Of Net Promoter Score, Musa Pinar, Tulay Girard Jan 2022

Examining The Relationships Between Branding Factors And Likelihood Of Recommending: Determinants Of Net Promoter Score, Musa Pinar, Tulay Girard

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The study identifies the branding factors related to Net Promoter Score (NPS) that would predict the likelihood of recommending the two strategic business units of the company--convenience store and fuel. It investigates customer perceptions of branding factors of a convenience store/fuel station corporate chain and the relationships among them. The data were collected from the members of the company’s loyalty program. The results reveal that the company has been performing well in branding factors, where the loyalty program is perceived the highest, followed by friendly employees, likelihood to recommend fuel, satisfaction with fuel, and helpful employees. The correlation and regression …


The Patient-Centric Blockchain, Sunil Erevelles, Maanasi Bulusu, Timea Honeycutt, Stephanie Seligman, Padma Bulusu Jan 2022

The Patient-Centric Blockchain, Sunil Erevelles, Maanasi Bulusu, Timea Honeycutt, Stephanie Seligman, Padma Bulusu

AMTP Proceedings 2022

A revolution is brewing in the healthcare marketplace. In the early nineties, the World Wide Web initiated a new era for the use of the Internet in the consumption of healthcare services. This eventually led to the Big Data movement (Erevelles et al. 2016), which initiated a non-linear transformation in healthcare analytics and developed into a dominant paradigm in the healthcare marketplace. However, the World Wide Web architecture was never designed to support a marketplace in healthcare or, for that matter, a marketplace of any other kind. It was primarily designed for the sharing of information and was even referred …


Facilitating The Choice Of College Major Using The Consumer Decision Process, Content Marketing, And Social Media, Julie M. Pharr Jan 2022

Facilitating The Choice Of College Major Using The Consumer Decision Process, Content Marketing, And Social Media, Julie M. Pharr

AMTP Proceedings 2022

This paper demonstrates how digital content and patterns of online engagement may be used at every stage of the consumer decision process to influence and inform the choice of college major. Implications and recommendations for college and departmental websites concerning how they can best assist prospective students in choosing a college major are highlighted throughout the paper. With its focus on process, this paper concretely shows how colleges and their academic departments can effectively leverage digital marketing and the consumer decision process to facilitate the college major choice process.


Is Sales Competition A Good Motivator Or A Bad Idea? The Underlying Mechanism Of Threat Appraisals, William J. Zahn Ph.D., Yi Peng, Willy Bolander, Bryan Hochstein, David Mathis Jan 2022

Is Sales Competition A Good Motivator Or A Bad Idea? The Underlying Mechanism Of Threat Appraisals, William J. Zahn Ph.D., Yi Peng, Willy Bolander, Bryan Hochstein, David Mathis

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The common logic for competition in sales organizations is simple: as salespeople compete with one another, the sales performance of the entire group should increase. Some prior research has supported this notion, while other studies suggested that competition may adversely affect employees. Our research finds both positions have merit, as a salesperson's perceptions of a competitive psychological climate (CPC) increase sales performance and turnover intentions. To explain this countervailing effect, we turn to cognitive appraisal theory to demonstrate that salesperson appraisal of the environment motivates their behavior. Specifically, salesperson threat appraisals act as a mediator between CPC to performance and …


The Effect Of Resource Scarcity On Consumer Ethical Behavior, Todd C. Haderlie Jr, Jaehoon Lee Jan 2022

The Effect Of Resource Scarcity On Consumer Ethical Behavior, Todd C. Haderlie Jr, Jaehoon Lee

AMTP Proceedings 2022

We identify a novel relationship between scarcity and ethical behavior. When resource scarcity is made salient, consumers engage in less ethical behavior. Furthermore, the effect of resource scarcity on ethical behavior is stronger for consumers with high (vs. low) levels of the inclusion of others in the self (IOS).


Exploring The Effects Of Linguistic Elements Of Social Media Corporate Apologies On Consumer Responses, Laurel Johnston Jan 2022

Exploring The Effects Of Linguistic Elements Of Social Media Corporate Apologies On Consumer Responses, Laurel Johnston

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In the current landscape of social media, consumers bring product and service failure complaints directly to brands daily. Whether such complaints are routine or hold potential for great consequence, social media’s viral nature means any brand-to-consumer interaction could become a public crisis if handled incorrectly. Corporate apologies are an effective strategy to mitigate negative audience sentiment and reduce online interactions that damage brand reputation. This study will manipulate previously identified but largely untested linguistic components of corporate apologies on Twitter, including personal greetings and closures and directives, to test their effects on consumers’ perceived apology sincerity, forgiveness, purchase intentions, and …


Saving Face: Comparing The Effects Of Endorsement Marketing Strategies On Millennial Americans, Alessandra Noli, Sindy Chapa, Daniela Castillo, Tim O'Hara, Anna Dean, Tyler Trobert Jan 2022

Saving Face: Comparing The Effects Of Endorsement Marketing Strategies On Millennial Americans, Alessandra Noli, Sindy Chapa, Daniela Castillo, Tim O'Hara, Anna Dean, Tyler Trobert

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The rapid boom of social media in the 21st century has positioned it as a key instrument in the realm of marketing. Social media has also given rise to a new kind of endorser: the influencer. The present study tested the effects of expert influencers vs traditional celebrities on brand attitude and purchase intentions of makeup products, within a cohort of millennials. Results showed respondents tended to favor the expert influencer in terms of perceived expertise, brand attitude and purchase intention. This has important implications for marketers when it comes to deciding upon an endorser for their brand, with …


The Perils Of Using Self-Deprecating Humor: Customer Evaluations Of The Firm After A Service Failure, Hyunju Shin, Lindsay R. Levine Jan 2022

The Perils Of Using Self-Deprecating Humor: Customer Evaluations Of The Firm After A Service Failure, Hyunju Shin, Lindsay R. Levine

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The current study investigates the firm’s potential use of self-deprecating humor in response to a service failure and examines resulting consumer evaluations. This study utilizes two scenario-based experiments conducted in the contexts of online retailing and restaurant service. The findings indicate that self-deprecating humor leads to customers’ negative evaluations of the company by decreasing forgiveness intentions toward the company. The mechanism which explains low forgiveness intentions is found to involve heightened perception of dishonesty. Moreover, when perceived benignness of the failure is low (vs. high), self-deprecating humor has a stronger adverse effect on perceived dishonesty. This study suggests that firms …


Destruction And Reconstruction Of Corporate Reputation In The International Business Network Context, Nikolina Koporcic, Maria Ivanova-Gongne, Jan-Åke Törnroos, Olga Dziubaniuk Jan 2022

Destruction And Reconstruction Of Corporate Reputation In The International Business Network Context, Nikolina Koporcic, Maria Ivanova-Gongne, Jan-Åke Törnroos, Olga Dziubaniuk

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how a firm’s corporate reputation can be destroyed by the actions of business partners and other network actors, and what the company can do to reconstruct its reputation. The study case exemplifies the importance of reputation and close interactions with foreign business partners in developing countries. Secondary data of a Nordic-based MNC, Stora Enso, is collected, interpreted, and analyzed. We observed issues surrounding the reputation change of the MNC, while focusing on the actions of their business partners. The paper provides empirical insights into the process of reputation destruction and …


Communicating Temporary Brick-And-Mortar Store Closures During Covid-19 Lockdowns In The Uk, Zsofia Toth, Tristan Emerson, Nikolina Koporcic, Sally Mckechnie, Muzna Shehzad Jan 2022

Communicating Temporary Brick-And-Mortar Store Closures During Covid-19 Lockdowns In The Uk, Zsofia Toth, Tristan Emerson, Nikolina Koporcic, Sally Mckechnie, Muzna Shehzad

AMTP Proceedings 2022

This research examines how retail businesses from central England’s Midlands region communicated temporary closure of their brick-and-mortar stores via shop window messages during the first two Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020. These closure notices represent important forms of crisis communication for businesses, which display various levels of information, emotional language, or functional intent, and offer signposts for business continuity. 417 shop window closure notices were photographed - 167 and 250 from the first and second periods of lockdown respectively. In order to analyse the data, a multimodal social semiotic framework was employed, allowing the study to examine the language, design and …


Transaction-Based Cause-Related Marketing: The Role Of Consumer Trust And Self-Congruity On Purchase Intention, Dawn D. Hart, Doug Johansen Jan 2022

Transaction-Based Cause-Related Marketing: The Role Of Consumer Trust And Self-Congruity On Purchase Intention, Dawn D. Hart, Doug Johansen

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The link between corporations, their socially responsible activities, and business performance has become irrefutable (Marconi, 2002). Companies grapple with how to successfully implement their socially responsible marketing activities (Marconi, 2002). Corporate social responsibility has various initiatives including corporate philanthropy, corporate statesmanship, through-the-firm giving, and profit motivated giving (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). Cause-related marketing includes a profit motive (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). Several studies find cause-related marketing efforts have the potential to affect consumers’ purchase intentions (Webb & Mohr, 1998).


Does The Sponsorship Of Sports Entities By Gambling Organizations Conform To The Set Of Benefits As Conceptualized In The Model Of Sports Sponsorship?, Sam Fullerton, Michael Mccall, Ronald Dick Jan 2022

Does The Sponsorship Of Sports Entities By Gambling Organizations Conform To The Set Of Benefits As Conceptualized In The Model Of Sports Sponsorship?, Sam Fullerton, Michael Mccall, Ronald Dick

AMTP Proceedings 2022

One recent study produced a model that was structured based upon the benefits derived by four parties that are impacted by a sponsor’s decision to engage in the sponsorship of a sports entity. These sports entities may be a team, a league, an organization, an athlete, an event, or a sports venue. The interactions among the four categories of beneficiaries resulted in 12 discrete linkages. A total of 159 potential benefits, some tangible and some intangible, were documented. A second study examined the impact of a recent SCOTUS ruling that declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) to …


Anti-Consumption: A Preliminary Examination Of A Set Of Social Considerations That Impact A Consumer’S Decision To ‘Punish’ Marketers Deemed To Be Engaging In Irresponsible Behavior, Tammy Mccullough, Ania Izabela Rynarzewska, Sam Fullerton Jan 2022

Anti-Consumption: A Preliminary Examination Of A Set Of Social Considerations That Impact A Consumer’S Decision To ‘Punish’ Marketers Deemed To Be Engaging In Irresponsible Behavior, Tammy Mccullough, Ania Izabela Rynarzewska, Sam Fullerton

AMTP Proceedings 2022

A sample of 175 students from two universities provided insight regarding the rationale for engaging in anti-consumption behavior. A review of the literature identified myriad reasons why consumers engage in personal boycotts. This study examines 12 of these reasons: environmental concerns, political stance, religious orientation/affiliation, country-of-origin (COO), attitudes towards the LGBTQ community, the size of the marketer, the use of disliked celebrity endorsers, the use of offensive marketing tactics (e.g. advertising), animal cruelty including the use of live animal testing, perceived violations of basic human rights, employing a nonunionized workforce, and employment-related discrimination based on the gender, age, race, religion, …


Awareness Marketing: Cause Marketing Without Contribution, Elizabeth A. Minton, Frank Cabano Jan 2022

Awareness Marketing: Cause Marketing Without Contribution, Elizabeth A. Minton, Frank Cabano

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Much research has examined the benefit of brands that participate in cause marketing initiatives and give a portion of proceeds or product to a charity. However, what has been lacking from this investigation is how consumers respond when brands raise awareness for a cause but do not take any further action to contribute resources to the cause – what we term awareness marketing. Through five studies, we examine awareness marketing specifically among the potentially divisive context of social justice causes. We show that consumers with higher levels of religiosity are more likely to support products marketed with awareness marketing, that …


Solidarity Forever: A Call For Inclusive Holocaust Memory And Coalition Building Amid Forgetting & Denial, Elisabeth Fricker Jan 2022

Solidarity Forever: A Call For Inclusive Holocaust Memory And Coalition Building Amid Forgetting & Denial, Elisabeth Fricker

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

According to a recent survey, less than half of American Millennials can name a Holocaust concentration camp, and more than two-thirds of the respondents did not know the number of Jewish people the Nazis killed in the camps. This lack of knowledge is happening in a world where some people do not even admit the Holocaust event happened. This thesis will first lay out the current state of Holocaust remembrance in education, memorialization, and popular culture, particularly in America. Particular attention is given to how these remembrances overlook or silence certain victims of the Holocaust, such as LGBTQ+ victims. The …


“Only As Strong As We All Make It:” The Limitations Of Fargo’S Civil Defense During The Early Cold War (1950-1964), Aaron Rudebusch Jan 2022

“Only As Strong As We All Make It:” The Limitations Of Fargo’S Civil Defense During The Early Cold War (1950-1964), Aaron Rudebusch

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

In this thesis, I argue that civil defense failed to take hold in the United States because it required local communities to take responsibility for protective measures. Fargo, North Dakota provides a case study for this analysis. The first section examines how Fargo adopted many practices from federal, state, and municipal civil defense organizations in the early 1950s, but struggled to implement them due to volunteer shortages. The second section explains how the hydrogen bomb forced officials to revise civil defense policies. It also details efforts by congressional and private bodies to increase federal responsibility for civil defense. The third …


A History Of North Dakota's Petroleum Industry, 1917-2017, Clarence Anthony Herz Jan 2022

A History Of North Dakota's Petroleum Industry, 1917-2017, Clarence Anthony Herz

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

North Dakota’s petroleum industry can be traced back to 1917, when Arthur Blum found a small amount of oil in a well drilled to water his cattle. The unsuccessful exploration for oil continued from 1917 until 1951, when on April 4, oil was produced, in commercial quantities, from the Clarence Iverson #1 well. The discovery well initiated the state’s first boom, and after several other wells began production, the state began construction of industry infrastructure. This discovery boom lasted until 1966, when a global oil glut reduced exploration and production slowed. In the 1970s, as a result of OPEC’s manipulation …


Can Californian Households Save Money On Transportation Costs By Living In Transit-Oriented Developments (Tods)?, Hongwei Dong Jan 2022

Can Californian Households Save Money On Transportation Costs By Living In Transit-Oriented Developments (Tods)?, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

Many residents in large Californian metropolitan areas are heavily burdened by housing costs. Advocates, researchers, and elected officials in California are debating whether transit-oriented development (TOD) could be an effective tool to mitigate the housing affordability problem by increasing housing supply and reducing transportation costs in transit-rich neighborhoods. This study contributes to this debate by estimating how much Californian families can save on transportation costs by living in transit-oriented developments (TODs). By utilizing the confidential version of the 2010–2012 California Household Travel Survey, this study evaluates the impact of TOD on household transportation expenditures by comparing TOD households with two …


Patterns Of Interdisciplinary Collaboration Resemble Biogeochemical Relationships In The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: A Historical Social Network Analysis Of Science, 1907–2016, Stephen M. Chignell, Adrian Howkins, Poppie Gullett, Andrew G. Fountain Jan 2022

Patterns Of Interdisciplinary Collaboration Resemble Biogeochemical Relationships In The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: A Historical Social Network Analysis Of Science, 1907–2016, Stephen M. Chignell, Adrian Howkins, Poppie Gullett, Andrew G. Fountain

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Co-authorship networks can provide key insights into the production of scientific knowledge. This is particularly interesting in Antarctica, where most human activity relates to scientific research. Bibliometric studies of Antarctic science have provided a useful understanding of international and interdisciplinary collaboration, yet most research has focused on broad-scale analyses over recent time periods. Here, we take advantage of a ‘Goldilocks’ opportunity in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an internationally important region of Antarctica and the largest ice-free region on the continent. The McMurdo Dry Valleys have attracted continuous and diverse scientific activity since 1958. It is a geographically confined region with …


The Fluidity Of Gender Roles On The Northern Great Plains 1890-1950, Stefanie Michele Pililani Aulner Jan 2022

The Fluidity Of Gender Roles On The Northern Great Plains 1890-1950, Stefanie Michele Pililani Aulner

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

The relative infancy of the Northern Great Plains social environment compared to the well-established social systems of the United States east of the Mississippi fostered growth and allowed the redefinition of women’s gender roles. Without the strict social policing of women’s roles within the frontier society, women could redefine their gender roles. Women not only redefined their gender roles but made independent decisions based on their current situations and navigated within the already assigned societal gender roles. In this instance, women, often oppressed and constrained by societal expectations and obligations, simultaneously possessed the choice to navigate and make decisions within …


Settler Colonizers’ Sense Of History On The Northern Plains Before And After The Turn Of The Nineteenth Century, Aaron Loren Barth Jan 2022

Settler Colonizers’ Sense Of History On The Northern Plains Before And After The Turn Of The Nineteenth Century, Aaron Loren Barth

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

This dissertation argues that it is time to push the understanding of the US Oceti Sakowin wars in different directions, particularly in the direction that stops obsessing and constantly revisiting the officer and soldier accounts. More particularly, it is argued, it is time to push in the direction that looks at how and why settler colonizers – scholars, artists, historians, poets – before and after the turn of the nineteenth century contemplated and argued over various ways to interpret the 1854- 1891 US Oceti Sakowin wars. Through this, they infused a sense of history into the landscape of the northern …


In Situ Treatment Technologies For Pit Latrines To Mitigate Groundwater Contamination By Fecal Pathogens: A Review Of Recent Technical Advances, Shray Saxena, Walter Den Jan 2022

In Situ Treatment Technologies For Pit Latrines To Mitigate Groundwater Contamination By Fecal Pathogens: A Review Of Recent Technical Advances, Shray Saxena, Walter Den

Water Resources Science and Technology Faculty Publications (Archived)

On-site sanitation systems such as pit latrines are extensively used around the world, while there is a growing number of evidence documenting the impact of pit latrines on groundwater quality that may affect human health. Hence, this paper summarizes the various safe-sanitation technologies by broadly categorizing them into fecal pathogen disinfection methods (anaerobic digestion, chemical disinfection, biological additives, solar pasteurization and vermicomposting) and capturing methods (pit lining and permeable reactive barriers, the latter of which simultaneously capture and sanitize fecal sludge in pit latrines). While some of the reviewed technologies have been widely practiced for mitigating microbial contamination of the …


Expanding The Capabilities Of Firearm Investigations: Novel Sampling And Analytical Methods For Gunshot Residue Evidence, Courtney Helen Vander Pyl Jan 2022

Expanding The Capabilities Of Firearm Investigations: Novel Sampling And Analytical Methods For Gunshot Residue Evidence, Courtney Helen Vander Pyl

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

During firearm-related incidents, the accurate collection and detection of gunshot residues (GSR) are crucial for reconstructing events and providing investigative leads. Regardless of the strong scientific foundations in the discipline, the standard practice for GSR can benefit from increased confidence in the results and the adoption of reference standard materials and screening tools that can lead to faster turnaround times and improved efficiency. Moreover, the implementation of comprehensive interpretation approaches requires strengthening the current body of knowledge on the transfer and persistence of inorganic and organic GSR compounds (IGSR, OGSR). As a result, the overall objective of this project was …


The Impacts Of Maple Syrup Production On The Herbaceous Layer In Appalachian Hardwood Forests, Logan Scott Ferguson Jan 2022

The Impacts Of Maple Syrup Production On The Herbaceous Layer In Appalachian Hardwood Forests, Logan Scott Ferguson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Vegetation data were collected from eight maple syrup farms (sugarbushes) and eight undeveloped maple-dominated sites to examine potential differences in understory plant communities due to disturbance effects. Understory plants were identified to the species level and percent cover of aboveground leaf-area for each species was estimated within 600 total quadrats. Overstory data and environmental data were collected to help determine if they had any effect on herbaceous-layer plant communities. Species richness, Shannon diversity, and Pielou’s evenness were calculated, with the analysis showing no significant differences between the site types. The absolute cover of plant functional groups was also compared between …