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Agenda: Climate Change And The Future Of The American West: Exploring The Legal And Policy Dimensions, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Climate Change and the Future of the American West: Exploring the Legal and Policy Dimensions (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

Sponsors: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; BP America; Holland & Hart; Patrick, Miller & Krope, P.C.; The Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center of the National Wildlife Federation, Western Water Assessment.

Exploring the legal and political dimensions that climate change will bring to the American West will be the focus of the CU-Boulder Natural Resources Law Center's 27th Annual Summer Conference.

Titled "Climate Change and the Future of the American West: Exploring the Legal and Policy Dimensions," the conference will be held June 7-9 at the Fleming Law Building on the University of Colorado at …

Tidal Bores, Catastrophic Flooding In Bangladesh, And The Potential Usefulness Of Causeways, Priyanka Joseph

Macro Center Working Papers

Through discussion of the worldwide devastation that tidal bores can cause, author Priyanka Joseph, examines the causes and the possible solutions to prevent these destructive waves. The pros and cons of each solution (such as causeways, viaducts, and regulators) are debated as well as their effect on the surrounding areas and environment.

The Southern Family Farm As Endangered Species: Possibilities For Survival In Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, Suzanne W. Jones

English Faculty Publications

At the same time some southern studies scholars are positioning the U.S. South in a larger cultural, historic, and economic region that encompasses the Caribbean and Latin America, some southern environmentalist writers, such as long-time essayist and novelist Wendell Berry and activist-turned-memoirist Janisse Ray, are finding a pressing need to focus on smaller bioregions and the locatedness of the human subject. These writers believe that agribusiness and consumer ignorance are driving small farmers out of business and that clear-cutting timber and farming practices dependent on chemicals are threatening local ecosystems. Best-selling novelist Barbara Kingsolver has joined their ranks. With her …

Assessing The Accuracy Of The Modis Lai 1-Km Product In Southeastern United States Loblolly Pine Plantations: Accounting For Measurement Variance From Ground To Satellite, John Shepherd Iiames Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Leaf area index (LAI), defined here as one-half of the total leaf area per unit ground surface area (Chen, 1996), has been estimated at a global scale from spectral data processed from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor aboard two NASA EOS-AM spacecraft, Terra (launched in 1999) and Aqua (launched in 2002). The MOD15A2 LAI product is a 1 km global data product composited over an 8-day period and is derived from a three-dimensional radiative transfer model driven by an atmosphere corrected surface reflectance product (MOD09), a land cover product (MOD12) and ancillary information on surface characteristics. The United …

Gonadal Histology And Reproductive Steroidogenesis Of Anurans Exposed To Potential Endocrine Disrupting Contaminants, Emily May La Fiandra

Doctoral Dissertations

The prevalence of malformed amphibians and the association of high incidences of malformation with the presence of environmental contaminants have raised questions about the effects of environmental contaminants on the development of larval amphibians. The potential endocrine disrupting effects of pesticides suggest that the reproductive and developmental abnormalities observed in larval anurans may be due at least in part to impacts on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. The present studies investigate the effects of exposure to environmental contaminants including DDT and atrazine on the development, gonadal histology and reproductive steroidogenesis of larval anurans.

As previous monitoring at Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge …

A Land Link For Western Montana: Keeping Land In Agriculture From One Generation To The Next, Paul Fuller Hubbard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Western Montana’s agricultural land is rapidly being developed in the wake of an increasing population and aging farmers and ranchers. The subsequent high land values make it difficult for producers to access agricultural land. The Community Food and Agriculture Coalition has prioritized the creation of a land link matching service to help connect farm and ranch owners with people looking for agricultural land to expand or start production operations. This professional paper aims to provide the first step towards this objective by exploring how a matching service might be designed, administered and implemented. The research has two components: 1) to …

Modular Neural Network To Predict The Distribution Of Nitrate In Ground Water Using On-Ground Nitrogen Loading And Recharge Data, M. Almasri, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Artificial neural networks have proven to be an attractive mathematical tool to represent complex relationships in many branches of hydrology. Due to this attractive feature, neural networks are increasingly being applied in subsurface modeling where intricate physical processes and lack of detailed field data prevail. In this paper, a methodology using modular neural networks (MNN) is proposed to simulate the nitrate concentrations in an agriculture-dominated aquifer. The methodology relies on geographic information system (GIS) tools in the preparation and processing of the MNN input–output data. The basic premise followed in developing the MNN input–output response patterns is to designate the …

Wood And Soil-Atmosphere Carbon Dioxide Fluxes From A Tropical Forest Ecosystem, Evilene C. Lopes

Doctoral Dissertations

Carbon cycling in tropical rainforests is an important component of the global carbon budget. A better understanding of controlling mechanisms and magnitude of CO2 sources from tropical forests will improve our ability to predict future impacts of climate changes. The research presented in this dissertation has focused on determining the magnitude and characteristics of the CO2 flux from tropical wood and soil surfaces.

Stem CO2 fluxes were measured in a tropical moist forest at Tapajos National Forest (TNF) in Brazil and in a tropical wet forest at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica (LS) using infrared gas analysis methods. …

Fire Dynamics In Amazonia, Manoel Cardoso

Doctoral Dissertations

Fires are major disturbances for ecosystems in Amazonia. Because of their short time scale and strong links to biogeochemical cycles, fires significantly affect fluxes and stocks of carbon and nutrients, change air composition, and modify ecosystems structure and functioning. Fires are strongly related to land-use, land-cover and climate conditions. Because the increasing development of the region, these factors have been changing and leading to different patterns of fire activity. Thus it is very important to understand the dynamics of fires in the region and to develop models that can project their potential changes. To contribute in all these subjects, we …

An Integrated Modelling Approach For Assessing Water Policy Rules And Land Use Change Options, Juliet Gilmour, R. A. Letcher

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The primary aim of the study has been to develop a modelling framework to quantitatively assess the impact of water allocation rules upon economic and biophysical environments (primarily hydrological) at the catchment scale. This paper identifies development of the modelling approach to answer allocation questions by examining hydrological, land and agricultural production systems. The conceptual framework underpinning the modelling approach identifies the major aspects of integration between hydrological and production systems. The production model is integrated at various points within the hydrological cycle including rainfall, streamflow and runoff components. The outcome of the approach allows water to be moved around …

Assessing Vulnerability To Agricultural Drought: A Nebraska Case Study, Olga V. Wilhelmi, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Recent drought events in the United States and the magnitude of drought losses indicate the continuing vulnerability of the country to drought. Until recently, drought management in many states, including Nebraska, has been largely response oriented with little or no attention to mitigation and preparedness. In 1998, Nebraska began to revise its drought plan in order to place more emphasis on mitigation. One of the main aspects of drought mitigation and planning is the assessment of who and what is vulnerable and why. This paper presents a method for spatial, Geographic Information Systems-based assessment of agricultural drought vulnerability in Nebraska. …

Sense Of Place Among New England Organic Farmers And Commercial Fishermen: How Social Context Shapes Identity And Environmentally Responsible Behavior, Anneliese Marie Mueller

Doctoral Dissertations

Given the prominence of sense of place in new environmental education curricula, this study aims to strengthen the conceptual and empirical foundations of sense of place, and to determine how sense of place may be linked to environmentally responsible behavior. For this study, five commercial fishermen and five organic farmers from the New England Seacoast region participated in a series of in-depth phenomenological interviews and observations. The data was systematically coded in order to allow themes and categories to emerge. The results indicate that aspects of the existing conceptual framework of sense of place, such as place attachment, ecological knowledge, …

Detection Of Giardia Lamblia And Cryptosporidium Parvum In The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Harvested From The Great Bay Estuary, Kim Marie Stowell

Doctoral Dissertations

The Great Bay Estuarine system is being impacted by point source and nonpoint source pollution that affect shellfish quality. Many outbreaks of human gastroenteritis are potentially caused by the consumption of raw or undercooked oysters in which the protozoan pathogens, Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum are present. The development of a rapid and sensitive technique to detect infectious protozoa in oysters is a necessity.

Immunofluorescence has been employed as a technique for the detection of these organisms in drinking water. Cross reactivity with algae and the production of false positive results limits the usefulness of this technique in environmental studies. …

Environmental Vulnerability And Agriculture In The Karstic Domain: Landscape Indicators And Cases In The Atlas Highlands, Morocco, Brahim Akdim, Mohammed Amyay

International Journal of Speleology

After the brief presentation of the major karstic areas in Morocco, the article focused essentially on the Atlas mountains to investigate the impact of the agriculture on the natural systems equilibrium. Socio-economic changes (demographic pressure, escalation of the landscape use, utilisation of new techniques in water harvesting, etc...) have sometimes fathered mechanisms of degradation. Many indicators seem to reflect these mechanisms. The pedologic indicators, soil erosion, the hydrologic and geomorphic indicators, are apprehended to demonstrate existent correlation between different variables and the often negative impacts of land over-use in the karstic domain of the Middle Atlas.

Measuring And Modeling Northeastern Forest Ecosystem Response To Environmental Stresses, Jennifer Caroline Jenkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Because forest responses to CO$\sb2$ fertilization and associated climate change are likely to be extremely complex, numerical models representing forest response to an integrated set of future conditions can be useful predictive tools. I compared predictions of forest net primary productivity (NPP) made by two ecosystem process models (PnET-II and TEM 4.0) using different climate scenarios, spatial resolutions, and methods of representing land cover and soils. Decreasing spatial resolution did not appreciably change NPP estimates. Input datasets, particularly climate, land cover, and soil water holding capacity, were important sources of variability in NPP estimates. These datasets interacted with model structures …

G98-1376 Drinking Water: Fluoride (Revised February 2005), Sharon Skipton, Bruce I. Dvorak

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

This NebGuide discusses fluoride in domestic water supplies. Fluoride, a naturally occurring element, exists in combination with other elements as a fluoride compound and is found as a constituent of minerals in rocks and soil. When water passes through and over the soil and rock formations containing fluoride it dissolves these compounds, resulting in the small amounts of soluble fluoride present in virtually all water sources.

An Analytical Approach To A Tree-Farm Wetland Study., Robert Cunninghame Davidge

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Wetland delineation is important because federal and local government regulations limit permissible uses of wetlands. Federal delineation regulations are based upon the use of a manual jointly agreed upon by EPA, USACOE, and NRCS. The manual provides for classification of land as either wetland or non-wetland based upon the 3 criteria of soil, vegetation, and hydrology. No provision is made for gradation between categorical wetland and categorical non-wetland. Controversy has sometimes developed between landowners and environmentalists as to proper wetland classification; some delineations have been considered arbitrary. The analytical method of wetland appraisal provides a means of assigning continuous numerical …

Ecological Database Development And Analyses Of Soil Variability In Northern New England, Michael Anayo Okoye

Doctoral Dissertations

The 1983 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data of the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont (the study area) contain large amounts of field-measurements of many ecologically important variables. Despite the vast potential usefulness of the FIA data for scientific research, the data were until now, literally unused except for a few administrative purposes, because of problems in the way the data were organized, summarized, and coded for storage. The primary objective of this research was to solve the problems that had thus precluded these FIA data from use in scientific applications, and present the data in a form …

Reduction And Management Of Risks Associated With Aflatoxin And Fumonisin Contamination In Corn., Socrates Trujillo

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Aflatoxins and fumonisins, secondary mold metabolites, occur naturally as co-contaminants in corn. Health and economic risks associated with this contamination of food and feed have been the focus of much research worldwide. Research programs resulting from the discovery of aflatoxins in the 1960's has been used to guide study programs for fumonisins. The establishment of food safety programs, including mycotoxin decontamination procedures, must be evaluated for further application. The evaluation of selected procedures which reduce the risks associated with the contamination of these mycotoxins in food utilized for human and animal consumption was the focus of this study. This study …

The Recycling Potential Of Out-Of-Service Utility Poles For Engineered Wood Products., Han Roliadi

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study on the recycling potential of out-of-service poles for use in engineered wood products involved determination of basic properties of used southern pine (Pinus sp.) utility poles and also manufacture of glued-laminated beams from these poles. Most of the defect-free portions of 25-year treated poles still retained adequate strengths comparable to those of freshly treated poles and untreated southern pine. Creosote contents, however, diminished with pole ages. The reduction in creosote content was correlated with lower decay resistance, poorer dimensional stability, and lower lumber recovery, but better gluability. The spectrometry method for creosote content determination was explored as an …

Western Australian Primary Industry And Fisheries Portfolios - Major Achievements 1993 - 1996, Department Of Primary Industry And Fisheries, Western Australia

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

AGRICULTURE and fishing were WA's first industries. Farm production in particular, was the State's economic mainstay for many years. It re1mains crucial lo our prosperity, and its future holds enormous potential.

As well as employment and income, agriculture and fisheries provide important recreation and landscape opportunities for our highly urbanised population, rural communities and international visitors. Recreational fishing- which is extremely popular - and the emerging farm tourism industry arc direct beneficiaries of strategics developed for sustainable primary industries.

Agenda: Sustainable Use Of The West's Water, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

Conference organizers and/or faculty included University of Colorado School of Law professors David H. Getches, Lawrence J. MacDonnell, Teresa A. Rice, Elizabeth A. Rieke and Charles F. Wilkinson.

Sustainable development is on the policy agenda for the '90s. What does sustainability mean? Is it a realistic concept? Are water rights compatible with sustainable use? The Center's 16th annual summer conference will explore the meaning of sustainability in the context of the West's demands, development, and natural values. Presentations by leading experts will address the broad concept of sustainable development, with a particular look at Arizona's experience. The focus will be …

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 43, No. 3, Thomas E. Gallagher Jr., Elaine Mercer, Kenneth E. Kopecky, Eric O. Hoiberg, Gertrude E. Huntington, Marilyn E. Lehman, Samuel S. Stoltzfus, William B. Fetterman, Bernadette L. Hutchison, John W. Friesen

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• The Old Order Amish
• Amish Quilts: Creativity Supported by Rules and Traditions
• Conflict: A Mainspring of Amish Society
• Occupational Opportunities for Old Order Amish Women
• The Amish Taboo on Photography: Its Historical and Social Significance
• Our Changing Amish Church District
• Images of the Amish on Stage and Film
• Amish Gardens: A Symbol of Identity
• The Myth of the Ideal Folk Society Versus the Reality of Amish Life

The Ohlone And The Oak Woodlands: Cultural Adaptation In The Santa Clara Valley, Grant William Schick

Research Manuscript Series

Today, Santa Clara Valley consists of a modern industrialized environment distinguished by concrete, pavement and automobiles. These "innovations" made by modern technology began only recently. The environment and ecology of 200 years ago was extremely different from ours today. Filled with many native habitats, it thrived through the inter-dependance of all plant and animal species. In this study, I examine the characteristics of Santa Clara Valley in centuries past and today, in order to understand the vast number of resources which were available to the native inhabitants of the Santa Clara Basin. This paper has its base in cultural ecology, …

Gardening The Desert, Deserting The Garden: Culture, Agriculture And Ecology On The Northern Plains, 1830-1930, Ben Larson

Honors Papers

Between 1830 and 1930, the northern Plains underwent sweeping changes. Cataclysmic conflict between Indians and whites, imposition of the American settlement system, and integration into the national economy all altered the region and how people lived there. Revisions in agriculture were part of these changes but also played their own role. As the dominant form of land use, and the direct or indirect occupation of most residents, agriculture has an important part in shaping landscapes and lifeways in the, northern plains. Of course, changes in agriculture between 1830 and 1930 dramatically affected the people and the land; to suggest the …

Toxicity Of Permethrin To Procambarus Clarkii, And The Effects Of Permethrin-Induced Density Reduction And Supplemental Feeding On Stunted Crawfish Populations., Herman Henry Jarboe

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The acute toxicity of permethrin to red swamp crawfish (Procambarus clarkii) was evaluated in laboratory studies. The mean static acute 96-h LC50 of permethrin to red swamp crawfish 8-12 mm (0.017 g), 25-35 mm (0.64 g), 45-55 mm (2.45 g), and 65-75 mm total length (TL) (8.98 g) was 0.44, 0.85, 1.30, and 0.81 $\mu$g/L, respectively. Permethrin toxicity did not differ among immature male, mature male and female P. clarkii. Crawfish surviving permethrin exposure exhibited no differences in post-exposure growth, survival, maturity attainment, or the production of viable young when compared to non-exposed controls (P $>$ 0.2). At the …

Characterization Of The Pulpwood Procurement Environment Of Northwest Louisiana With A Geographic Information System., Richard William Brinker

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

An analysis of the pulpwood procurement environment was made to describe and model forest land area, ownership patterns, timber production, forest inventory, and the transportation network of 13 parishes in the northwest region of Louisiana. Pulpwood delivered to a pulpmill accounts for approximately 50 percent of pulp production costs. The cost of delivered pulpwood is a function of the mode of transportation, distance from the mill, competition for stumpage, and quality of the transportation network. A data base is developed from wood usage requirements, pulpmill and wood concentration yard locations, location of forested areas and their relative volumes. Areas of …

Dynamic Headspace Sampling And Chromatographic And Mass Spectrometric Investigations Of Volatile Flavor Components In Red Swamp Crayfish (Procambarus Clarkii) Hepatopancreatic Tissue., Stephen S. Williams

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This analytical food flavor study concentrated on the development and application of improved analytical techniques to investigate volatile flavor components in crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) hepatopancreatic tissue. This work consisted of four main parts. The first part dealt with the development of an improved dynamic headspace sampling procedure for the sampling and concentration of volatile flavor components in the headspace of high moisture foods. The second section described the successful application of this improved procedure for chromatographic and mass spectrometric investigation of dynamic headspace volatile flavor components of crayfish hepatopancreatic tissue. The third part discussed the quantitative determination of these volatile …

Children And The Environment: Work, Play And Learning In Rural Sudan, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

In agricultural economies, environmental learning and the use of environmental knowledge are central practices of social reproduction. The former is important because it encompasses the acquisition of important vocational skills and knowledge, and the latter because it is often integral to the work of providing or procuring basic needs goods and services. In these societies children learn about the environment--that is, about agriculture, animal husbandry and the use of local resources-- largely in the course of their work and play in a variety of settings. In rural areas of the Third World the transition to capitalist relations of production is …

Agriculture, Agribusiness, And Renewable And Natural Resource Program Review, B. Delworth Gardner

Faculty Publications

The State University System of Florida has es tab 1 i shed A "Quest for Excellence11 in its Master Plan. It is a bold plan of action that will "unleash the University System from those time-bound constraints which would allow only gradual change. 11 It is also clear that the State University System of Florida plans to compete successfully with the very best academic universities. In its mission statement the University of Florida, as a land-grant institution, administers the In"s·t itute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), a special unit providing statewide food and .agricultural teaching, res.earch, and extension services. …