Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Small Ruminants On Global Climate Change, Alda Lúcia Gomes Monteiro, Amanda Moser Coelho Da Fonseca Faro, Mylena Taborda Piquera Peres, Rafael Batista, Cesar Henrique Espirito Candal Poli, Juan J. Villalba

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Global warming, as a consequence of excessive CO2 production mainly due to anthropogenic actions, is one of the main concerns of society due to the effects it can cause in the survival of humans, plants and animals. Several climatic consequences have already been reported, such as warming the oceans and changing biodiversity in various regions of the planet. One of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, which causes a lot of concern, is methane gas from digestion of food by ruminants. Besides that, emissions of greenhouse gases are represented also by waste management, rice cultivation, burning of residues from …

Surface Water And Groundwater In A Changing Climate: Applications Of Hydrogeophysics And Trend Analysis To Understand Hydrologic Systems, Robin Glas

Dissertations - ALL

Water resources are being impacted by anthropogenic climate change worldwide, the nature and severity of that impact is determined by geographic position, local topography, underlying geology, and human influences such as land use, water availability, and water regulation. As global temperatures continue to rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, it is imperative that we better understand how water availability fluctuates with changes in air temperature, rainfall, snowpack, and glacial ice. This dissertation provides an analysis of the hydrologic response to both short-term and long-term climatic changes in both humid-temperate and semi-arid tropical regions. Within the tropical alpine zone, shifts in …

Practical Poststructuralism For Confronting Wicked Problems, Vanessa Schweizer, Ricarda Scheele, Hannah Kosow

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper discusses an innovative qualitative-quantitative modelling method relevant to two characteristics of wicked problems: they have no definitive formulation, and the choice of how they are defined or explained determines the nature of their resolution. Through projects conceptualizing the human dimensions of climate change, the socio-technical dynamics of the Energiewende (Germany’s low-carbon energy transition), and of water futures of a megacity (Lima), it has been found that the system-theoretic method of cross-impact balances (CIB) reveals fundamental assumptions in interdisciplinary modelling projects and opens them up for investigation. This can democratize modelling exercises while preserving scientific credibility. It can also …

Climate And Plant Controls On Soil Organic Matter In Coastal Wetlands, Michael J. Osland, Christopher A. Gabler, James B. Grace, Richard H. Day, Meagan L. Mccoy, Jennie L. Mcleod, Andrew S. From, Nicholas M. Enwright, Laura C. Feher, Camille L. Stagg

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Coastal wetlands are among the most productive and carbon‐rich ecosystems on Earth. Long‐term carbon storage in coastal wetlands occurs primarily belowground as soil organic matter (SOM). In addition to serving as a carbon sink, SOM influences wetland ecosystem structure, function, and stability. To anticipate and mitigate the effects of climate change, there is a need to advance understanding of environmental controls on wetland SOM. Here, we investigated the influence of four soil formation factors: climate, biota, parent materials, and topography. Along the northern Gulf of Mexico, we collected wetland plant and soil data across elevation and zonation gradients within 10 …

A Metric For Evaluating The Ability Of The Rzwqm Model To Project The Impact Of Climate Change, Robert Anex, Lei Gu, Matthew Helmers

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Making projections with models is always difficult and climate change poses a particularly challenging problem for biophysical models which tend to be over-parameterized and have poor predictive power when extrapolations are beyond the range of the calibration. It is common practice to assume that if a calibrated model replicates observations reasonably well, predictions under other conditions will also be reasonably good. Unfortunately, this assumption is not always correct, as we show for prediction of nitrate loss from a tile-drained, corn-soybean experiment in Northern Iowa.

The RZWQM is a biophysical process model that simulates plant growth and movement of water and …

Relationship Between Ocean-Atmospheric Climate Variables And Regional Streamflow Of The Conterminous United States, Swastik Bhandari, Ajay Kalra, Kazi Tamaddun, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Understanding the interconnections between oceanic-atmospheric climate variables and regional streamflow of the conterminous United States may aid in improving regional long lead-time streamflow forecasting. The current research evaluates the time-lagged relationship between streamflow of six geographical regions defined from National Climate Assessment and sea surface temperature (SST), 500-mbar geopotential height (Z500), 500-mbar specific humidity (SH500), and 500-mbar east-west wind (U500) of the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean using singular value decomposition (SVD). The spatio-temporal correlation between streamflow and SST was developed first from SVD and thus obtained correlation was later associated with Z500, SH500, and U500 separately to evaluate the …

A Sedimentological Record Of Early Miocene Ice Advance And Retreat, And-2a Drill Hole, Mcmurdo Sound, Antarctica, B. D. Field, G. H. Browne, Christopher R. Fielding, Fabio Florindo, David M. Harwood, Shelley Judge, Lawrence Krissek, Kurt S. Panter, Sandra Passchier, Stephen Pekar, Sonia Sandroni, Franco M. Talarico

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The lowest 501 m (∼1139–638 m) of the AND-2A core from southern McMurdo Sound is the most detailed and complete record of early Miocene sediments in Antarctica and indicates substantial variability in Antarctic ice sheet activity during early Miocene time. There are two main pulses of diamictite accumulation recorded in the core, and three significant intervals with almost no coarse clasts. Each diamictite package comprises several sequences consistent with ice advance-retreat episodes.

The oldest phase of diamictite deposition, Composite Sequence 1 (CS1), has evidence for grounded ice at the drill site and has been dated around 20.2–20.1 Ma. It likely …

Climate Change And Technology: Examining Opinion Formation Of Geoengineering, Christopher L. Cummings, Sonny Rosenthal

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The term “climate change” has evolved from what was originally a technical term employed by scientists into a symbolic referent involving complex social, political, and moral considerations that have spurred worldwide debate. As evidence of the anthropogenic influence on the Earth’s climate has grown over the past few decades, climate change has come to be viewed as a primary challenge to be confronted in the twenty-first century. Geoengineering, or climate engineering, is a set of large-scale technological interventions proposed to offset climatic changes. This study seeks to understand which factors contribute to, or alternatively, detract from public acceptance of geoengineering …

Third-Person Perception Of Science Narratives: The Case Of Climate Change Denial, Michael Field Dahlstrom, Sonny Rosenthal

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Science communicators are increasingly recognizing the potential of narratives to reach and influence audiences. However, do audiences recognize and consider this tactic when evaluating how such messages influence themselves and others? This study compares third-person perceptions of persuasive narrative and nonnarrative messages in a climate change context. Results suggest that individuals are aware of the influence of narratives and are able to resist this influence, but this is only when they perceive a message as having negative influence. Otherwise, individuals underestimate the influence of narratives on themselves. These findings add an audience-centered perspective to the current discussions on incorporating narratives …

Direct And Indirect Controls On Bee Community Composition, Caroline Marie Devan

Dissertations

Bees are important pollinators, critical for the continued survival of plants in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Diverse bee communities have been shown to increase richness in plant communities and plant reproduction depends upon bee community richness. Yet there is growing concern that pollinators, especially bees, are declining globally. This dissertation focuses on evaluating the mechanisms responsible for bee community composition in order to promote bee conservation in natural systems and their restoration in human-dominated urban and agricultural landscapes.

Bee populations are impacted directly by three things: floral resources, nesting resources and risk, primarily from natural enemies. Bees are indirectly …

Birds And Berries: Projecting The Responses Of Seed Dispersal Networks To Climate Change, Manette E. Sandor

Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change has caused species range shifts, with more predicted in coming decades. Range shifts could result in secondary threats such as spatial mismatch with mutualist partners and movement out of protected areas. We found that due to range shifts, shrub species richness will be lost at higher elevations, and species turnover will peak at middle elevations. Areas of bird species turnover will only partially overlap with areas of shrub species turnover, which could result in broken interactions between partners. Our projections suggest that climate change will result in clear winners and losers with some species gaining and others losing …

The Effect Of Warmer Winters On The Demography Of An Outbreak Insect Is Hidden By Intraspecific Competition, Devin W. Goodsman, Guenchik Grosklos, Brian H. Aukema, Caroline Whitehouse, Katherine P. Bleiker, Nate G. Mcdowell, Richard S. Middleton, Chonggang Xu

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Warmer climates are predicted to increase bark beetle outbreak frequency, severity, and range. Even in favorable climates, however, outbreaks can decelerate due to resource limitation, which necessitates the inclusion of competition for limited resources in analyses of climatic effects on populations. We evaluated several hypotheses of how climate impacts mountain pine beetle reproduction using an extensive 9‐year dataset, in which nearly 10,000 trees were sampled across a region of approximately 90,000 km², that was recently invaded by the mountain pine beetle in Alberta, Canada. Our analysis supports the hypothesis of a positive effect of warmer winter temperatures on …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum

Celebration of Learning

Urban expansion has had devastating impacts on forest ecosystems, especially within the past century. Human attempts to dominate nature have diminished natural disturbance regimes, which have maintained the biodiversity and historic composition of these ecosystems. Fires have been a prominent force in maintaining the structure of oak, hickory and other heliophytic (sun loving and fire-adapted) forest systems. Human induced fire suppression has led to mesophication across North America. Mesophication is the transition from drier conditions with open canopies to wetter conditions with closed canopies. These new conditions decrease the survival rates of these important species and begin to favor mesophytic …

Evaluating The Effects Of Hydrogeologic Processes On The Fate Of Salinity And Halogens In Headwater Catchments, Kristina M. Gutchess

Dissertations - ALL

The transport of solutes from their source to natural water systems is a critical control on the chemistry and potability of drinking water supplies. Therefore, developing a thorough understanding not only of contaminant sources, but also of the controls on the movement of solutes through catchments, is essential to providing accurate assessments of how future environmental stressors (e.g. land cover, population growth, and climate change) may affect water resources.

Halogens (specifically, chloride (Cl), bromide (Br), and iodine (I)) occur naturally at low levels in terrestrial aquatic ecosystems, and may also originate from a suite of anthropogenic sources. Due to their …

Science, Advocacy, Policy, Planning: Tools For Advancing Transportation Equity, Garrett S. Mcallister

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The theme of this portfolio is how different tools and approaches can be used for advancing transportation equity. Broadly defined, transportation equity is about fairness in transportation. There are a number of ways this fairness can be assessed. The most common way to assess transportation equity is by looking at the fairness of outcomes, distributed geographically, socially, or even by mode of transportation. Equity can also be defined by the fairness of processes. The first half of the portfolio illustrates some of the problems with the current transportation system and how it is unhealthy (Piece 1) and unjust (Piece 2). …

Is The Paris Agreement Already Poised For Failure? - Discerning How Impactful The Clean Power Plan's Fate Is On The Latest Global Climate Initiative, Shawn Eric Mckenzie

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Spatial Patterns Of Precipitation Trends In The Continental United States, 1950-2016, Shayne O'Brien

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Identifying trends in aspects of meteorology is becoming increasingly important to understanding how climate can be expected to change, and how those affected may plan contingencies. Analyzing spatial patterns of precipitation trends allows for associations to be discovered to better understand regional climatology. For this study, daily precipitation data were collected from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN) at stations across the continental United States, with selection based on distance from each other within a state, as well as percent completeness of observation data. Two stations per state were selected, with some exceptions for …

Feasibility Of Harbor-Wide Barrier Systems: Preliminary Analysis For Boston Harbor, Paul Kirshen, Mark Borrelli, Jarrett Byrnes, Robert F. Chen, Lucy Lockwood, Chris Watson, Kimberly Starbuck, Jack Wiggin, Allison Novelly, Kristin Uiterwyk, Kelli Thurson, Brett Mcmann, Carly Foster, Heather Sprague, Hugh Roberts, Di Jin, Kirk Bosma, Eric Holmes, Zach Stromer, Joe Famely, Alex Shaw, Brittany Hoffnagle, Rebecca Herst

School for the Environment General Publications

The aim of this study is to provide the City of Boston with a preliminary assessment of the feasibilities and potential benefits, costs, and environmental impacts of three harborwide barrier configurations.

While this study is not comprehensive, and there are many ways that further research could refine and extend its findings, those findings were clear enough to justify making recommendations for next steps. The authors recommend that the City continue to focus its climate resilience strategy for the next several decades on the shore-based multi-layered approach described in Climate Ready Boston. Shore-based solutions would provide flood management more quickly at …

Phenology Of A Southern Population Of Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Ponderosae), Anne Elise Mcmanis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae, Hopkins) is a major disturbance agent in pine ecosystems of western North America. Adaptation to local climates has resulted in primarily univoltine (one generation per year) generation timing across a thermally diverse latitudinal gradient. We hypothesized that this pattern in total development time is shaped by selection for slower developmental rates, altered developmental thresholds, or oviposition rates in southern populations inhabiting warmer climates. To investigate traits responsible for latitudinal differences we measured lifestage-specific development of southern mountain pine beetle eggs, larvae and pupae across a range of temperatures. We also describe and model …

Big Data For Climate Change Actions And The Paradox Of Citizen Informedness, Kustini Lim-Wavde, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Advanced sensor technology, social media, and other information technologies have provided us with “big data” on climate change. Due to the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Climate Observing System, climate observations and records, as well as discussions on climate-related concerns such as measurement of air temperature, are widely available now. The United Nations’ Global Pulse visualises public engagement on climate change globally, with data such as the volume of climate-related tweets. Big data, data analytics, and the sharing of scientific results in the popular press have created, as a result, an unprecedented level of citizen informedness—the degree to which citizens have …

Regional Trends In Early-Monsoon Rainfall Over Vietnam And Ccsm4 Attribution, Rong Li, S.-Y. Simon Wang, Robert R. Gillies, Brendan Buckley, Jin-Ho Yoon, Changrae Cho

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The analysis of precipitation trends for Vietnam revealed that early-monsoon precipitation has increased over the past three decades but to varying degrees over the northern, central and southern portions of the country. Upon investigation, it was found that the change in early-monsoon precipitation is associated with changes in the low-level cyclonic airflow over the South China Sea and Indochina that is embedded in the large-scale atmospheric circulation associated with a “La Niña-like” anomalous sea surface temperature pattern with warming in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans and cooling in the eastern Pacific. The Community Climate System Model version 4 (CCSM4) …

2018 3rd Place: The Growth And Characterization Of Psychromonas Aquimarina, A New Model Organism For Climate Change, Carrie Carpenter, Catherine Santai

Harrisburg University Research Symposium (2018 & 2019)

Climate change is currently affecting the Earth and will only increase with time1. A change to the environment means that wildlife will need to adapt. Adaptation occurs when an organism changes physiologically or otherwise to permit continued growth in the environment in which it resides. Scientists do not completely understand adaptation mechanisms. Psychromonas aquimarinais a novel bacterium, with little known. This bacteria will first be characterized and studied before conducting temperature studies. Psychromonas aquimarina is a psychrophile, a bacterium able to survive in colder regions where most bacteria would not. P. aquimarinais an ideal bacterium to study because climate change …

Ice Core Records Of West Greenland Melt And Climate Forcing, H.P. Marshall, T. Meehan

CGISS Publications and Presentations

Remote sensing observations and climate models indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass since the late 1990s, mostly due to enhanced surface melting from rising summer temperatures. However, in situ observational records of GrIS melt rates over recent decades are rare. Here we develop a record of frozen meltwater in the west GrIS percolation zone preserved in seven firn cores. Quantifying ice layer distribution as a melt feature percentage (MFP), we find significant increases in MFP in the southernmost five cores over the past 50 years to unprecedented modern levels (since 1550 CE). Annual to decadal …

Climate Change Litigation And Narrative: How To Use Litigation To Tell Compelling Climate Stories, Grace Nosek

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Incentive Compatible Climate Change Mitigation: Moving Beyond The Pledge And Review Model, Gabriel Weil

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Climate change represents a global commons problem, where individuals, businesses, and nation-states all lack sufficient incentives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to levels consistent with meeting their collectively agreed upon mitigation goals. The current “pledge and review” paradigm for global climate change mitigation, which many see as a major breakthrough, relies primarily on moral pressure, reputational incentives, and global public opinion to foster cooperation on mitigation efforts over and above those driven by maximization of narrow conceptions of national interests. Given the scale of the emissions reductions required to meet stated mitigation goals, the substantial economic costs of deep …

Phenological Mismatch In Coastal Western Alaska May Increase Summer Season Greenhouse Gas Uptake, Katharine C. Kelsey, A. Joshua Leffler, Karen H. Beard, Ryan T. Choi, Joel A. Schmutz, Jeffery M. Welker

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

High latitude ecosystems are prone to phenological mismatches due to climate change- driven advances in the growing season and changing arrival times of migratory herbivores. These changes have the potential to alter biogeochemical cycling and contribute to feedbacks on climate change by altering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) through large regions of the Arctic. Yet the effects of phenological mismatches on gas fluxes are currently unexplored. We used a three-year field experiment that altered the start of the growing season and timing of grazing to …

Management Of An Urban Stormwater System Using Projected Future Scenarios Of Climate Models: A Watershed-Based Modeling Approach, Ranjeet Thakali, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad, Kamal Qaiser

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Anticipating a proper management needs for urban stormwater due to climate change is becoming a critical concern to water resources managers. In an effort to identify best management practices and understand the probable future climate scenarios, this study used high-resolution climate model data in conjunction with advanced statistical methods and computer simulation. Climate model data from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) were used to calculate the design storm depths for the Gowan Watershed of Las Vegas Valley, Nevada. The Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was used for hydrological modeling. …

Carbon Flux And Weathering Processes In Icelandic Glacial-Fed Rivers, Allison Quiroga

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An investigation into the carbon dynamics and weathering processes occurring in Icelandic glacial-fed streams was conducted during the spring to summer seasonal transition in June of 2017. Four major outlet rives were sampled from the glaciers of Gígjökull, Steinsholtsjökull, Sólheimajökull, and Falljökull. Markarfljót, the major river that Gígjökull, Steinsholtsjökull, and many other glaciers drain into, was also sampled. Longitudinal sampling occurred at all sites to capture downstream trends in the hydrogeochemistry and carbon dynamics. Distinct differences in geochemistry between glacier surface meltwater, sub-glacial waters, pro-glacial lake water, and post-mixed downstream samples were evident in the data. Glacier surface streams were …

Global Melting? The Economics Of Disintegration Of The Greenland Ice Sheet, William D. Nordhaus

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Concerns about the impact on large-scale earth systems have taken center stage in the scientific and economic analysis of climate change. The present study analyzes the economic impact of a potential disintegration of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). The method is to combine a small geophysical model of the GIS with the DICE integrated assessment model. The result shows that the GIS is likely to disappear over the next millennium or so without climate policy, but an active climate policy may prevent the GIS from crossing the threshold of irreversibility. Additionally, the study estimates the impact of the GIS on …

Predicting Effects Of Climate Change And Sea Level Rise On Hydrologic Processes In A Mid-Atlantic Coastal Watershed, Rui Li

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation assessed impacts of Climate Change (CC) and Sea Level Rise (SLR) on coastal hydrologic processes using the Lynnhaven River watershed as a test bed. The watershed is part of Chesapeake Bay Watershed and hydraulically connected with mid-Atlantic Ocean. Six CC scenarios were considered in terms of eight Regional Climate Models’ predictions for three Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emission assumptions, namely, B1, A1B, and A2, for two future periods, namely 2046 to 2065 and 2081 to 2099. The ensemble means of downscaling results from four methods were used to represent the future climates. On the other hand, …