Digital Commons Network^™

Investigation Of Sex Change, Sex Differentiation And Stress Responses In Black Seabass (Centropristis Striata), Danielle C. Duquette

Master's Theses and Capstones

Black sea bass (Centropristis striata) have been the focus of research as an aquaculture species for several years due to their high consumer demand and limited seasonable availability. As protogynous hermaphrodites, black sea bass initially develop as females in the wild, and undergo sex reversal between 2 and 6 years of age. Previous studies demonstrated that in captivity, however, a significant number of fish differentiate initially as males, and sex reversal is hastened in females. Full control of reproduction is required for successful commercial culture. Since captive environments pose several sources of stress upon the cultured species, this research investigates …

Small Scale Raft Aquaponics: Evaluation Of Hybrid Striped Bass Growth And Plant Uptake Potential, Calvin Grant Diessner

Master's Theses and Capstones

Hybrid striped bass ([male]Morone saxatilis [female] Morone chrysopos) were successfully cultivated in two separate 48 day trials (t1 and t2) with seedlings of lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv. Rex) and pac choi (Brassica rapa cv. Win-Win) within a shared recirculating aquaponic system. It was determined that fish stocking density had no significant effect on the mean yield of lettuce and pac choi biomass in t1. Stocking density did have a significant effect on the elemental nutrients generated within the aquaponic systems. A nutrient deficiency was exhibited by the leaf tissue of pac choi grown with fish stocked at low a density …

Predation As A Vehicle To Aid Tunicate Invasion In The Biofouling Community, Helen Day

Master's Theses and Capstones

Competition for space can influence community dynamics in the sessile biofouling community. Within recent decades, community dynamics have shifted towards a community dominated by tunicates. This research proposed predation as a mechanism driving this shift.

In the Gulf of Maine, the non-native species Botrylloides violaceous became abundant when predators (i.e. the benthic fish Tautogolabrus adspersus and the sea star Asterias rubens) removed the cryptogenic (i.e. native) tunicate Molgula citrina. Moreover, B. violaceus was present in higher amounts in habitats with low abundances of M. citrina than it was in areas in which the two tunicate species were both abundant. Furthermore, …

The Failed Introduction Of The Sea Anemone Sagartia Elegans In Salem Harbor, Massachusetts, Christopher David Wells

Master's Theses and Capstones

Many studies have reported the arrival and subsequent range expansion of foreign species within the marine ecosystems, but few studies have documented species that arrive and fail to establish. In 2000, the sea anemone Sagartia elegans (Dalyell, 1848) was first found in Salem, MA and persisted seasonally until the winter of 2010-2011 after which it has not been found. In both laboratory and field based temperature growth studies, S. elegans began regressing in size at 11 °C, stopped asexually reproducing at 9 °C, and died by 4 °C; these temperatures are far above the average winter sea surface temperature in …

Mine Action And Land Rights In South Sudan: Key Findings And Recommendations, Sharmala Naidoo, Francesca Marzatico, Lisa Monaghan

Global CWD Repository

In March 2013, GICHD and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) undertook a joint mission to South Sudan on land rights and mine action in order to provide mine action organisations with analysis on land related conflict and practical guidance on how they can ensure their mine action operations “do no harm” and take land issues into consideration. This report summarises the key findings and recommendations from that mission.

Population Ecology Of American Marten In New Hampshire: Impact Of Wind Farm Development In High Elevation Habitat, Alexej Peder Kelly Siren

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study examined marten ecology relative to wind farm development using radio-marked marten, camera trapping, and snow track surveys to meet study objectives. The local population was mostly breeding adults and was considered near carrying capacity. Mortality (predation) was biased towards females and young. Seasonal home ranges were small overall, and largest during summer and when marten used more regenerating and softwood forest. Selection at the landscape scale was more pronounced than at the stand scale; regenerating forest was selected against year-round. Stand selection for mature mixed-wood and softwood occurred in winter. Disturbance from wind farm construction resulted in less …

The Influence Of Plants On Atmospheric Methane In An Agriculture-Dominated Landscape, Xin Zhang, Xuhui Lee, Timothy J. Griffis, John M. Baker, Matt D. Erickson, Ning Hu, Wei Xiao

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The primary objective of this study was to clarify the influence of crop plants on atmospheric methane (CH₄) in an agriculture-dominated landscape in the Upper Midwest of the United States. Measurements were carried out at two contrasting scales. At the plant scale, CH₄ fluxes from soybean and corn plants were measured with a laser-based plant chamber system. At the landscape scale, the land surface flux was estimated with a modified Bowen ratio technique using measurements made on a tall tower. The chamber data revealed a diurnal pattern for the plant CH₄ flux: it was positive (an …

Kosovo’S Comparative Advantages: The Agriculture Sector [Presentation Given August 15, 2013], Arzana Myderrizi

Theses

Not provided.

Analyzing Land-Cover Change Within North West Rural Landscapes, Chantal Cassar

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Landscape change is an issue of concern within the Maltese Islands; records of landscape change go back at least 450 years, and the rate of change has been particularly accelerated in recent decades. Notwithstanding the importance of this phenomenon, there have been few attempts to trace out patterns of landscape change over time. This study seeks to develop an understanding of landscape change within rural landscapes, over a period of 400 years. A qualitative analytical approach was used with a focus on five case study rural settlements in the North West of Malta. Land surveys and historic documentary sources together …

Product Pig Production Planner, Scott Williams, Darrell Rothlisberger

Archived Agriculture Publications

There are many factors to consider when selecting a market hog for your 4-H project animal. Seek out reputable hog producers who produce hogs with high quality genetics and growth potential. Discuss the health and feeding program the hogs have received and follow these recommendations to assure your project animal can reach its growth potential.

Tennessee Forestry Commission Fy 2012 Annual Report, Tennessee. Department Of Agriculture.

Forestry Commission Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Graduate Internship Report- Selma High School, Jalisca Jean Thomason

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship report addresses the quality criteria of an agricultural education program and includes the supporting documents to meet the requirements of the California Department of Education specific to Selma High School. This document and the supporting evidence is intended to meet the requirements to obtain maximum funding for the Ag Incentive Grant.

Strategies To Maximize Feed Quality And Poultry Performance, Kelley G. S. Wamsley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The majority of the research in this dissertation was conducted specifically to benefit a local turkey integrator, Virginia Poultry Grower's Cooperative, which has turkey growers in both West Virginia and Virginia. All of the research presented in this dissertation is applied in nature and may be directly implemented in the commercial poultry industry to improve production. Many commercial feed mills utilize low mixer-added fat (MAF) to increase ingredient binding opportunities and pellet quality, but this technique may decrease feed nutrient digestibility. In Chapter 2, two experiments were conducted in order to determine the best feed manufacture technique (MTECH) to maximize …

Agriculture, Influence, And Instability Under The Ancien Régime: 1708-1768, Adam J. Polk

Masters Theses

The French Revolution has been studied from myriad perspectives. The majority of scholarship focuses on the political and urban chaos of the times. Agricultural conditions and the influence of onerous taxation and stagnant agricultural options are given only a cursory examination in most research. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between agronomic and environmental conditions and the eruption of violence in urban centers during the French Revolution and the years leading up to it (1708-1768). This period prior to the French Revolution serves as a template to investigate the nature of the rural-agricultural influences, with a particular focus paid …

Aesthetic Qualities Of Websites And Their Effects On Public Perceptions Of Agricultural Issues And Organizations, Chase Tyler Hundley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to evaluate perceptions of agricultural issues and organizations based on how information is presented visually in websites. Researchers intended the results to be used to help the agricultural industry more effectively communicate information through better website design and increased persuasiveness. The study was conducted through the use of three focus group sessions as mapped out by Krueger (1998a, 1998b, 1998c) and Morgan (1998a, 1998b). The study used non-agriculture students purposively selected from a class in the University of Arkansas School of Human Environmental Sciences as participants in the study. The subject demographics closely resembled the primary demographics …

Agricultural Energy Information Needs Of Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agents And Their Clientele, Daniel Kluchinski

Journal of Extension

A nationwide survey of Extension agricultural agents was conducted to determine interests and educational needs related to energy and agriculture. Their highest ranked interests were renewable energy (wind, solar), farm system conservation and efficiency, and biodiesel. They perceived their clientele's greatest interests in biodiesel, wind energy, farm system conservation and efficiency, and solar energy. Regional differences were found, but similar interests included renewables, conservation and efficiency, and inputs (feedstocks) rather than outputs (end products) and processes. The results identify and prioritize informational needs and are useful for planning future educational training and developing educational materials on farm energy topics.

Eastern Shore Stories: Technology, Place, And Local Culture, Patricia Bloxom

Theses and Dissertations

The Eastern Shore of Virginia is a narrow peninsula separating the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Residents of the rural counties of Accomack and Northampton County share a strong sense of cultural identity based on geography, rooted in a distinct communal sense of place reinforced by an agricultural lifestyle. Storytelling around dinner tables and on front porches at dusk, speeches at high school graduations, family recipes talked through in a grandmother’s kitchen – it is through oral language that Eastern Shore people have primarily shared the knowledge that sustains their sense of communal identity. Oral knowledge of farming techniques …

Rising To The Challenge, Tennessee Agriculture 2012 Department Report & Statistical Summary, Tennessee. Department Of Agriculture.

Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Slides: Draft Power In Developing Country Agriculture--South Asia, Arjun Makhijani

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER)

13 slides

An Economic Analysis Of Wine Grape Production In The State Of Connecticut, Jeremy L. Jelliffe

Master's Theses

The Connecticut Wine and Vineyard industry has grown at a steady 3.9% per year over the past decade (ATTTB, 2009). Economic models estimate that the wineries sub-sector contributes $38 million dollars to the state economy and direct employment of 106 residents (Lopez et al., 2010). Programs to support and foster further growth of the industry and CT farm vineyard culture include the Department of Agriculture’s CT Wine Trail and the annual CT Wine festival (DOAG, 2010). Farmland preservation groups also support vineyard development since grape growing tends to secure tracts of farmland for long periods of time.

Investment analysis for …

Community Supported Agriculture Program Consumer Preferences For Local And Organic Foods, Kynda Curtis, Voravee Chakreeyarat, J. Dominique Gumirakiza

All Current Publications

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs started in the United States in the 1980s. The basic concept of the CSA program is to form partnerships between consumers and farmers where consumers pay for farm products (or shares) in advance and farmers commit to supplying a sufficient quantity, quality, and variety of products across the season.

Tourism, Agriculture, And Identity: Comparing Grenada And Dominica, Velvet Nelson

Journal of Tourism Insights

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between agriculture and tourism in the promotion of economic identity at the turn of the twentieth century and again at the turn of the twenty-first in the case of two Eastern Caribbean islands: Grenada and Dominica. From the beginnings of export-oriented agriculture in the Caribbean until recent decades, agriculture was the dominant economic activity in the islands. Consequently, the economic identity of these islands has also been tied to their agricultural produce. Initially the emphasis placed on sugarcane cultivation in the region gave rise to the idea of the “sugar …

Modelling Trade-Offs Between Ecosystem Services And Agricultural Production In Western Australia, Marit E. Kragt, Michael J. Robertson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The concept of ecosystem services (ES) is widely used to highlight theinterdependencies between agricultural and environmental systems. Many ESprovide direct production benefits to agriculture-even those that are not directlyproducing agricultural commodities, such as pollination, water regulation, and soilretention. Farm management practices may produce ES or ‘disservices’, such asnutrient pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. Few studies have attempted toquantify the potential of agriculture to produce multiple ES, and to estimate thepossibilities for joint production of marketed and non-marketed ES. A quantificationof the trade-offs between ES provision and production of farm commodities canhelp to better target agricultural policies.We use a well-established biophysical …

Water Quality Assessment In The Venice Lagoon Watershed With Multiple Modelling Approaches, Carlo Giupponi, Arianna Azzellino, Roberta Salvetti, Paolo Parati, Marta Carpani

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Over the last 20 years a series of research projects analysed water quality issuesof the Venice Lagoon and its watershed (VLW). The policy framework was relatedto the implementation of the Italian special law for the safeguarding of Venice anda series of European regulations, including the Nitrate and the Water Frameworkdirectives and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The main focus was ondiffuse pollution from agricultural sources - nitrogen and phosphorous in particular -with the aim of assessing the impacts of current and alternative cultivation andlivestock practices. Many different modelling approaches were adopted, rangingfrom cognitive mapping for expert knowledge elicitation, to deterministicmechanistic …

Modelling Water Use Intensity At Farm Scale – An Interdisciplinary Study Of Agriculture And Hydrology (Agrohyd), Simone Kraatz, Uwe Hunstock, Judy A. Libra, Katrin Drastig

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Efficient water management strategies based on knowledge about how agricultural and hydrological processes affect local and regional water flows are needed to deal with changes in water availability due to global change. Transparent and flexible tools that can predict the effect of farm systems on these water flows are required. Such a new modelling tool is being built based on the database platform MongoDB. It will be able to calculate the influence of natural processes and of management decisions on the water use intensity in a variety of farm systems for the production of food and biomass for energy. Instead …

Modelling Water Use Intensity At Farm Scale – An Interdisciplinary Study Of Agriculture And Hydrology (Agrohyd), Simone Kraatz, Uwe Hunstock, Judy A. Libra, Katrin Drastig

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Efficient water management strategies based on knowledge about how agricultural and hydrological processes affect local and regional water flows are needed to deal with changes in water availability due to global change. Transparent and flexible tools that can predict the effect of farm systems on these water flows are required. Such a new modelling tool is being built based on the database platform MongoDB. It will be able to calculate the influence of natural processes and of management decisions on the water use intensity in a variety of farm systems for the production of food and biomass for energy. Instead …

Capturing History From The Cal Poly College Of Agriculture, Food And Environmental Sciences Since 1950, Carrie Isaacson

Agricultural Education and Communication

No abstract provided.

Seasonal Food Habits Of Burrowing Owls (Athene Cunicularia) In Human-Altered Landscapes, Carie Marie Wingert

Master's Theses

In 2004, I initiated a year-long study to investigate the food habits of burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia). Burrowing owls have been found in a variety of human-altered landscapes; however, little is known about burrowing owl food habits in urban landscapes. Burrowing owl food habits during the non-breeding season are also largely undocumented, despite increasing concern over the survival of overwintering burrowing owls. Differences in prey consumption between reproductive and non-reproductive owls during the breeding season have not yet been examined. I collected pellets over a 12 month period at four study sites affected by different levels of human …

Agricultural Efficiency And The End Of The Oil Age; Building A Future Of Longevity, Keith Mchugh

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis uses an efficiency analysis of agricultural systems to assert that, in lieu of rising prices of fossil fuel, people need to come into more direct contact with their food systems. With a switch to smaller, more efficient farms that rely less on fossil fuel and are connected with the communities they supply for, we can avoid an energy crisis turning into a famine. These smaller-scale systems can help create self-contained, carbon-neutral communities.

Evaluating A Vegetated Filter Strip In An Agricultural Field, Alina Fay Young

Theses and Dissertations

The use of best management practices has become common in recent years, leading to the need for hydrologic models to predict their behavior and effectiveness. A vegetated filter strip at Mississippi State University was used to test two models: the Hydrologic Simulation Program-FORTRAN Best Management Practices Editor (HSPF BMPrac) and the System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis Integration (SUSTAIN). Water samples were taken during the Spring of 2011 and tested for sediments and nutrients; HSPF was used for computing flows, sediments, and nutrients. The filter strip was not effective at pollutant removal with removal efficiency rates of 68.1, 91.7, …