Digital Commons Network^™

Microbial Degradation Of Kelp-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter In The Context Of Carbon Sequestration, Sophia N. Riazi-Sekowski

Honors Theses

Kelp, or brown algae, is an emerging form of ocean-based biological carbon dioxide removal, converting dissolved CO2 into organic molecules via photosynthesis. The export of detritus and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from coastal beds to beyond the continental shelf contributes to carbon sequestration, especially through the microbial production of refractory DOC (RDOC). The influence of microbial degradation on kelp-derived DOC is not yet well understood, contributing to inconsistency in carbon sequestration estimates. This study utilizes dark bottle incubations of both blades and holdfasts from two farmed kelp species in the Gulf of Maine — Saccharina latissima and Saccharina angustissima — …

Off The Grid: Rural Identity, Environmentalism, And Renewable Energy Policy In Rural New England, Joseph A. Grassi

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates how rural identity, environmental values, and place-based resentment interact to shape support for land use regulation in rural New England. Despite their vulnerability to climate change, rural communities often resist renewable energy development—a pattern commonly attributed to economic concerns or NIMBYism. Using an original survey of over 1,400 New England residents, this study tests six hypotheses through multivariate regression and subgroup analysis. Findings confirm that environmental identity is a strong predictor of support for land use regulation; however, this effect diminishes significantly among rural respondents. Place identity alone is associated with greater policy support, but when combined …

Mortal Rivers: A Case Study Analysis Of Indigenous Water Sovereignty Within The Penobscot And Lakota Nations, 19th Century To Present, Moya S. Stringer

Honors Theses

Indigenous water sovereignty has long been a contested problem within the continent of Turtle Island. In 2016, the Lakota Nation globalized the message Water is Life through their movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil infrastructure that would put one of the continent’s largest watersheds at risk. The revolutionary fervor of the Water is Life movement travelled all the way to the Penobscot Nation in the Dawnland, a place we now call Maine. In an adjacent vein to the Lakota, the Penobscot people have spent the 21st century addressing damming projects and rampant pollution from the 1900s in a …

Mucking Up Public Health: A Geospatial Analysis Of Agricultural Sludge Application And Cancer Prevalence In Maine, Sarah A. Bassett

Honors Theses

This study investigates the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on cancer prevalence throughout Maine. The main contribution of this project is the database constructed to examine cancer rates at a novel aggregation area: watersheds. By using a watershed as the aggregation area, this study gains insight into the threat that spreading sludge as fertilizer on agricultural fields poses to human health through groundwater pathways. Using geospatial analysis and an ordinary least squares regression model, this study estimates the effect of the presence of PFAS in a watershed from 2017 to 2021, in addition to estimating the impact of …

The Paradox Of Value, David Enrique Guarnizo

Theses and Dissertations

The present thesis project examines how, in the United States, and especially in the state of Virginia, archetypes of "wealth," "value," and "identity" have been constructed in relation to land and territory. This analysis explores the tension between the inherent value of life on the land and the economic value that can be derived from it. This tension is exemplified by a theory known as the "paradox of value", also referred to as the "paradox of water and diamonds", which was developed by the renowned Scottish economist and philosopher, Adam Smith. This theoretical framework serves as a fundamental axis for …

Resistance: The Mura Struggle Against Canadian Potash Mining In Brazil’S Amazon, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr), Federal University Of Rio Grande Do Sul, Graduate Program In Law (Ppgd/Ufrgs), International Human Rights Program (Ihrp), University Of Toronto Jackman Law, Observatory Of Socio-Environmental Law And Human Rights In The Amazon (Odsdh/Ufam)

CLIHHR Reports & Policy Submissions

A comprehensive human rights and environmental report documenting the Mura Indigenous people’s resistance to Brazil Potash’s Autazes Potash Project in the Brazilian Amazon. The report details environmental risks, human rights violations, failures in consultation processes, litigation history, corporate accountability, and the ongoing struggle for land demarcation.

An Ecofeminist Approach To Climate Risks, Angela Hefti

Michigan Journal of International Law

Climate change poses significant risks to the human right to life. However, international adjudicators have either neglected to examine right to life claims in the context of climate risks or dismissed them as prospective and speculative. International human rights bodies have long applied the standard of imminence to determine whether a threat to the right to life exists and the extent to which it constitutes a violation. In climate change cases, this standard has hardened, requiring a tight temporal connection between climate risks and a violation of the right to life. This article argues that failing to recognize the impact …

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2025-2026, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Flood Mitigation Benefit-Cost Analyses’ Inclusiveness Of Environmental Watershed Effects And Environmental Vulnerability: Gaps In Progress Towards More Resilient Flood Hazard Decision-Making, Fahmida Akhter, Sapana Bastola, Jerrod Penn, Thomas Douthat

Faculty Publications

US and EU flood mitigation policy both incorporate considerations of costs and benefits, and in recent years have taken steps to encourage accounting for positive and negative effects on vulnerable populations, broader non-market environmental impacts, and downstream effects beyond the target area of projects of flood mitigation projects. This work highlights the extent to which previous academic flood mitigation Benefit-Cost Analyses (BCA) papers have comprehensively considered such project effects. We do so through a systematic, PRISMA-style, review of BCA literature in the broader field of flood hazard mitigation and resilience decision-making. Our results suggest 1) most projects focus on monetizing …

Bioagricorridors: Uban Ecosystem Networks To Enhance Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Services And Food Production In Barcelona, Spain, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro, Filippo Vegezzi

Faculty Publications

Urbanisation and environmental degradation pose significant challenges to biodiversity, ecosystem services, and food pro- duction. The Bioagricorridors strategy addresses this by inte- grating agroecology in the urban environment, emphasising the continuity principle to connect diverse ecosystems through green infrastructure. Employing a mapping strategy, bioagricorridors bridge theory and space, using maps as communication tools and deep mapping to explore multi-layered, digital cartographic representations. This approach aids in addressing pressing urban conditions, enhancing genetic diversity, and improving soil and water quality. The exploration uses Barcelona as a case study, a city marked by historical urban planning shifts and landscape fragmentation. Taking into …

Urgent Expertise, Explored Together: A Scholarly Communication Peer-Mentoring Group, Alex Crowley, Lily Susman, Rosemary Farrell, Michael Kahn, Carrie Jedlicka, Eric Silberberg, Michelle Ehrenpreis, Marta Bladek, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

In Spring 2025, the authors participated in a structured peer-mentoring program designed to deepen their knowledge of scholarly communication topics and issues. In this article, based on our panel at the 2025 LACUNY Institute, we share our perspectives on the program and discuss how current events are making scholarly communication expertise more essential than ever.

Lithium Mining And Resistance: Extractivism, Environmental Justice, And Indigenous Struggles, Alyssa Annonson

Research Days Posters 2025

The Lithium Triangle, encompassing parts of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, holds more than half the world’s lithium reserves, making it a focal point for global green energy transitions. However, lithium extraction in this region has sparked significant environmental, social, and political tensions. This paper examines the socio-ecological impacts of lithium mining, including water depletion, ecosystem disruption, and the effects on Indigenous communities. Additionally, it explores local resistance movements against extractivism such as the Rio Blanco movement involving demands for community participation in decision-making. By analyzing case studies of Indigenous resistance and policy frameworks, this research highlights the tensions between economic …

The Daughters Of Mother Nature, Grace Johnston

Research Days Posters 2025

Despite the apparent commitment in the discipline of climate justice to the inclusion of the perspectives of marginalized groups, such as frontline communities, the voices of women have been blatantly disregarded in both scholarship and society. This willful ignorance of the parallel exploitation of women and the natural world limits the efficacy by which the international community can understand—and, therefore, combat—the effects of climate change. Through a four-corner study analyzing the legislation of different nations with varying levels of protection for women and the environment, this paper will first establish women as a frontline community in the climate crisis. It …

Class Actions And Environmental Justice: Are Lawsuits Driving Real Change?, Sadie Berg

Research Days Posters 2025

How effective are class action lawsuits in implementing environmental change? In answering this question through meta-analysis, a focus will be placed on cancer clusters as a general theme. Every year there are several different cases by which plaintiffs attempt to obtain compensation for troubles caused by hazardous chemicals such as asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), to name a few. The formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the early 1970’s, along with the enforcement of protective litigation, were used to put an end to the use of these dangerous chemicals. All of the data collected …

Neighborliness Vs. Car Culture: Traffic Violence, Pedestrian Deaths In Philadelphia, And Vision Zero's Concept Of Equity, Regina Austin

Journal of Law and Mobility

Vision Zero (VZ) is a transportation policy adopted by major cities like Philadelphia that aims to reduce or eliminate traffic violence, primarily through improvements in the transportation infrastructure. VZ prioritizes engineering (over enforcement), community engagement, and perhaps most importantly, equity. In the battle for superiority among users of land-based travel modes in America, automobile drivers have benefited from arterial highways that speed traffic flows around and through urban enclaves to reach center city business districts and from a car culture that encourages dominant behavior behind the wheel. Pedestrians have been among the losers.

In Philadelphia, as elsewhere, pedestrians who are …

Improving Regulatory Notice, Joshua Ulan Galperin, E. Donald Elliott

SMU Law Review

Effective notice of law is the cornerstone of any legal system, and yet many federal administrative agencies do not give small businesses, NGOs, and interested citizens notice of the vast amount of new or modified law they produce. They merely publish the text in the Federal Register, which works tolerably well for larger enterprises but not their smaller competitors and citizens’ groups. Despite these facts, few scholars have explored how agencies provide notice of the law. Even fewer have proposed ways that agencies could improve the methods they use for giving more effective notice of significant regulatory changes and …

Coffee Shops And Community, Julia A. Franz

Emerging Writers

This paper focuses on the role of coffeehouses as community hubs through a comparative analysis of two locations of a locally owned coffee company in Georgia. It examines how the physical design and values of each shop offer unique forms of social interaction. The St. Simons location encourages spontaneous, intergenerational conversations; while, the Brunswick shop strengthens pre-existing community ties among working families and retirees. The profile explains how, by incorporating local history, sustainable sourcing, and communal spaces, the coffee company shows how design and principles shape social dynamics. This profile highlights how coffeehouses can serve as more than commercial spaces …

“Born This Way”: An Asexual Perspective On Biological Determinism, Julia Resciniti

Student Work

The inclusion of Asexual under the queer umbrella is contentious in of itself. As an asexual (or “ace”) myself, I do not intend to litigate whether asexual people belong under the queer umbrella. Instead, I am more interested in examining asexuality in parallel with the larger queer community. In the fight for social acceptance, the queer community has told several narratives about why and how people are queer. The queer community has embraced “born this way” to say queerness is biologically innate. Recently, there has been some backlash as people view their queer identity as more social than biological. This …

Lands Lost: Tracing Displacement And Ecological Degradation Amongst The Tataviam, Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, And Vanyume People Of Antelope Valley, Calif., Daisy Alvarez

Scripps Senior Theses

Exploring the historic and ongoing impact of settler colonialism in the Antelope Valley, this thesis argues the Tataviam, Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, and Vanyume, the aboriginal tribes of the valley, are effectively erased from the valley’s narrative and imagination. Through a series of genocidal and colonization efforts, first from Mission San Fernando and then from the California State Government and arrival of Anglo American settlers, the valley’s tribes can be subjugated to acculturation, displacement, massacres, and marginalization. Recognizing the valley's moral responsibility to platform their living descendants, the thesis proposes a path forward through decolonization, calling out local governments (Lancaster and Palmdale) …

Trees, Schools, & Stakeholders: Building Partnerships For Schoolyard Greening With Portland Urban Forestry Learning Landscapes, Claire Brase

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Portland Urban Forestry Learning Landscapes is a city program offering free tree planting and establishment services to schools, community groups, and multi-residential zones in the city of Portland, Oregon. This project report, completed on behalf of Learning Landscapes, uses qualitative evidence from interviews with school district administrators, teachers, volunteers, grounds staff, city employees, and outreach experts to gain a deeper understanding of the factors leading to successful collaboration between local school districts and their external community partners. These conversations with school and outreach personnel across the city suggest that district staff are interested in collaborative greening organizations like Learning Landscapes …

The Paradox Of Survival: Gendered Food Insecurity, Labor Inequalities, And Coping Strategies During The 2023/4 Drought In Eastern Ethiopia, Meron E. Lemma

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In drought-prone regions of Eastern Ethiopia, recurring droughts profoundly reshape everyday life in ways that deepen existing gendered inequalities. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Fedis district, including semi-structured interviews with women, project implementers, and government officials, as well as group discussions with community members, this study explores how women experience, navigate, and resist the gendered impacts of drought. By attending to the sociopolitical dynamics of drought and the development interventions that accompany it, I analyze how these forces restructure labor, land, food systems, and authority in ways that reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities. Women’s coping strategies, ranging from begging and …

Fine Particulate Air Pollution Exposure Burden And Sociodemographic Health Disparities In The United States: Impacts From Energy Transitions And Temporal Variation In Mortality Risk, Rory Stewart

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Climate change, the defining environmental crisis of our time, has been shown to impact concentration, distribution, and composition of tropospheric air pollutants, including particulate matter. Economic patterns greatly shape the generation of particulate matter as well as greenhouse gases that enhance climatic changes. Substantial evidence shows that exposure to fine particulates, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5 µm (PM2.5), contributes to premature mortality and morbidity. These detrimental health outcomes have been shown to be experienced unequally across population groups, with disparities in the level of exposure and in the magnitude of health response for marginalized populations that have higher vulnerability to air pollution exposure. It is also possible that these health responses are not static, but dynamic over time due to changes in population health and composition of air pollution exposures, warranting deeper investigation into the directionality and shape of these health responses. Modeling potential future energy scenarios by using existing knowledge on health responses to air pollutants allows researchers and policymakers to understand how changes to air pollution can impact population health before policies are implemented. Thus, inclusion of appropriate modelling techniques and analyses of energy policy impacts is essential to understanding health impacts from climate mitigation and adaptation across population groups within the United States. This dissertation contributes to the growing knowledge base on climate mitigation, health co-benefits from air pollution concentration changes and health response changes across time to air pollution exposures. Chapter two presents work investigating whether energy policies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have a secondary impact of reducing health burden in the United States (U.S.) and if any changes to mortality and hospitalizations differ across subpopulations. I explored four future sector-specific energy policy scenarios (electrification of ports and marine shipping, low long-term natural gas pricing, high electric vehicle uptake, and innovations in building energy efficiency) and a business-as-usual scenario to determine how changes to ambient PM2.5 levels impact health within the continental U.S. by region, race/ethnicity, urbanicity, and income. I also investigated how methodological assumptions impact findings. I found projected avoided premature mortalities from energy transition policies range from 67,011 (95% CI: 45,692, 82,397) to 81,003 (55,286, 99,532) individuals in 2050 and 11,577 (1,332, 19,918) to 13,552 (1,560, 23,303) avoided cardiorespiratory hospitalizations in 2050, showing substantial health co-benefits from greenhouse gas mitigation policy implementation. These benefits vary by region and subpopulation, with Black, suburban, and less wealthy Americans experiencing the highest percent reduction in mortalities across all energy policy scenarios. Analysis into how population assumption specificity (such as using race-specific incidence rates instead of total population rates) influences the results proved that more specific population assumptions can make substantial differences to overall health projections. This research demonstrates the vast health benefits of climate mitigation strategies and how they differ across subpopulations, with some environmental justice populations benefiting more relative to the overall population. In chapter three, I investigated how PM2.5-mortality associations vary over time (2001-2016) in North Carolina and Michigan, while considering how temporality of these associations varies by sociodemographic variables. Results indicate that the direction of PM2.5– mortality health effects varies by location. The odds ratio (OR) for mortality per 10?g/m3 PM2.5 differed across time from 2001-2008 to 2009-2016, increasing by 0.28% in Michigan and decreasing 0.78% in North Carolina. Non-linear models show steadily increasing PM2.5-mortality odds over time for Michigan but an “S” shape for North Carolina. I also found suggestive evidence of widening disparities in PM2.5-mortality odds over time by age, race/ethnicity, urbanicity, sex, and education, although the magnitude of those changes varies across subpopulations and state. This research shows that mortality impacts of PM2.5 are changing over time, with different trends by location and subpopulation, potentially exacerbating environmental justice. This dissertation research underscores the importance of analysis to determine sociodemographic population health disparities when modeling co-benefits of energy and air pollution policies as overall estimates may obscure important differences across subpopulations. Better projections on local health effects on vulnerable communities can enhance equity considerations for climate mitigation actions, as well as provide a more holistic analysis on benefits of cost to implement versus avoided exposure and health costs. Further, this research shows that concentration-response functions may vary temporally and that such trends vary across location. This suggests that applications of historical concentration-response estimates may be obscuring the actual health impact on populations through over- or underestimates of health responses to a certain level of exposure. Improvements in the methodological assumptions of exposure and health response by introducing temporal variation provide researchers with a more accurate representation of the association between air pollution and health, which should be more widely considered in epidemiologic research. These results can inform policymakers and public health professionals in evaluating which communities are at highest risk from particulate exposures in the present day and into the future, especially in relation to temporal trends and projected changes in emissions, particulate composition, and population vulnerability.

How Equitas Health Strives To Heal The Lgbtq+ And Hiv/Aids Community In 2024 And 2025, Virginia Lawrence

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From Wtp To Wtf: Valuation And Distributive Discourse, Lee Anne Fennell

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute Bi-Annual Report June 2023 - June 2025, Adam Canter, Laurie Richmond, Kristen Orth-Gordinier

Local Reports and Publications

Executive Summary: As a core vision, the Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute (SLRI) “envisions a diverse network of collaborators working together across disciplines, sectors, and ways of knowing to develop sea-level rise research and planning that informs equitable, sustainable, and community-centered local climate action.” The SLRI had two productive academic years from Fall 2023 - Spring 2025 in service of this vision. Key accomplishments included: ● Participation - Over the course of the past two years, participation in the SLRI more nearly doubled from 48 in August 2023 to 84 in July 2025. ○ Participation includes representatives from …

Divided By Design: Race, Roads, And Resistance In Nashville And Memphis, Mallorie G. Clabo

SPARK Symposium Presentations

The construction of Interstate 40 through Nashville and Memphis in the mid-20th century was framed as progress but instead became a tool of displacement, disproportionately harming Black communities. In Nashville, the highway cut through the thriving Jefferson Street corridor, disrupting Black-owned businesses, cultural institutions, and social networks. In Memphis, the proposed route through Overton Park sparked legal battles, culminating in the landmark Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe case, which set a precedent for environmental and community protections in infrastructure planning.

This research examines the racialized decision-making behind I-40’s placement, the legal and grassroots resistance, and the long-term consequences …

Water Justice, Emily Ann Senkosky

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

My portfolio will be centered around the theme of “Water justice,” which aims to unpack people’s manipulation of riverways and the environmental costs of this practice. Rivers, and their watersheds, have served as lifeblood for human and ecological populations the world over since the dawn of man. Derived from these watersheds is a multitude of ecosystem services and freshwater necessary for the sustainability of life. But freshwater makes up only 3% of the globe’s total water supply, making it a limited and dwindling resource. As the world’s population accelerates, climate change quickens, and societal needs for freshwater advance, the manipulation …

Zoning The Subsurface, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman, Anne Menefee, Seth Blumsack, Michael Helbing

Faculty Scholarship

The vast rock formations underlying the United States stand at an important Demsetzian turning point, at which the externalities of inadequately defined property rights justify the costs of solidifying formal property rights for this resource. This need arises from the growing scarcity of pore space (tiny openings) in subsurface rocks—property that is critical to address climate change. Efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts require large-scale underground storage of carbon dioxide, water, and energy within the pore space of subsurface reservoirs. The subsurface will also continue to house millions of miles of pipelines, hundreds of thousands of waste disposal …

Understanding The Ideological Transformation Of Farc In Colombia, Savannah Grier

CMC Senior Theses

In 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed to a peace deal that led to their disarmament. The former guerrilla group, FARC, integrated into Colombian politics by forming a new party called Comunes. FARC, thus, has taken a similar route to other former rebel groups in Latin America by pursuing its agenda as a political party after demobilizing. This thesis examines the ideological transformation and political evolution of FARC, analyzing its transition from a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group to a political party within Colombia’s democratic system. By exploring FARC’s historical role in the Colombian conflict …

From Fields To Fast Foods: Food Culture, Identity, And Health In Puerto Rico Under The U.S. Empire, Ivanna Morales Mercado

CMC Senior Theses

Operation Bootstrap, launched in 1947, fundamentally altered Puerto Rico’s economy, just as much as its food culture. Prioritizing manufacturing over agriculture led to the collapse of the island’s farming sector, increasing reliance on food imports and leading to a rise in diet-related diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular issues. This thesis examines the legacies of Operation Bootstrap on Puerto Rico’s food system, health outcomes, and cultural identity by emphasizing the need to value intergenerational knowledge. The oral history research in this study highlights the importance of intergenerational knowledge in reclaiming sustainable agricultural practices and healthy, culturally significant …