Digital Commons Network^™

A Landscape Index Of Ecological Integrity To Inform Landscape Conservation, Kevin Mcgarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill Deluca, Joanna Grand, Eduard Ene, Scott D. Jackson

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Context: Conservation planning is increasingly using "coarse filters" based on the idea of conserving "nature's stage". One such approach is based on ecosystems and the concept of ecological integrity, although myriad ways exist to measure ecological integrity.

Objectives: To describe our ecosystem-based index of ecological integrity (IEI) and its derivative index of ecological impact (ecoIpmact), and illustrate their applications for conservation assessment and planning in the northeastern United States.

Methods: We characterized the biophysical setting of the landscape at the 30 m cell resolution using a parsimonious suite of settings variables. Based on these settings …

Responses Of Non-Native Earthworms To Experimental Eradication Of Garlic Mustard And Implications For Native Vegetation, Kristina A. Stinson, S. D. Frey, M. R. Jackson, E. Coates-Connor, M. Anthony, K. Martinez

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Recent studies in invasion biology suggest that positive feedback among two or more introduced organisms facilitate establishment within a new range and drive changes in native plant communities. Here, we experimentally tested for relationships between native plants and two non‐native organisms invading forest habitats in North America: garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata, Brassicaceae) and earthworms. In two forested sites, we compared understory vegetation and earthworm biomass in plots where garlic mustard was removed for three years, plots without garlic mustard invasion, and plots invaded by garlic mustard that was not removed. Earthworm biomass was highest in the plots with …

Balancing Urban Biodiversity Needs And Resident Preferences For Vacant Lot Management, Christine C. Rega-Brodsky, Charles H. Nilon, Paige S. Warren

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Urban vacant lots are often a contentious feature in cities, seen as overgrown, messy eyesores that plague neighborhoods. We propose a shift in this perception to locations of urban potential, because vacant lots may serve as informal greenspaces that maximize urban biodiversity while satisfying residents’ preferences for their design and use. Our goal was to assess what kind of vacant lots are ecologically valuable by assessing their biotic contents and residents’ preferences within a variety of settings. We surveyed 150 vacant lots throughout Baltimore, Maryland for their plant and bird communities, classified the lot’s setting within the urban matrix, and …

Crop Domestication Alters Floral Reward Chemistry With Potential Consequences For Pollinator Health, Paul A. Egan, Lynn Sylvia Adler, Rebecca Irwin, Iain William Farrell, Philip Charles Stevenson

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

Crop domestication can lead to weakened expression of plant defences, with repercussions for herbivore and pathogen susceptibility. However, little is known about how domestication alters traits that mediate other important ecological interactions in crops, such as pollination. Secondary metabolites, which underpin many defence responses in plants, also occur widely in nectar and pollen and influence plantpollinator interactions. Thus, domestication may also affect secondary compounds in floral rewards, with potential consequences for pollinators. To test this hypothesis, we chemically analysed nectar and pollen from wild and cultivated plants of highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.), before conducting an artificial diet bioassay to …

Serial Dependence In Numerosity Perception, Michele Fornaciai, Joonkoo Park

Psychological and Brain Sciences Faculty Publication Series

Our conscious experience of the external world is remarkably stable and seamless, despite the intrinsically discontinuous and noisy nature of sensory information. Serial dependencies in visual perception—reflecting attractive biases making a current stimulus to appear more similar to previous ones—have been recently hypothesized to be involved in perceptual continuity. However, while these effects have been observed across a variety of visual features and at the neural level, several aspects of serial dependence and how it generalizes across visual dimensions is still unknown. Here we explore the behavioral signature of serial dependence in numerosity perception by assessing how the perceived numerosity …

Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Development Settings Variable, Hard Development Settings Variable, Kevin Mcgarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill Deluca, Joanna Grand

Data and Datasets

Development and hard development are two of several ecological settings variables that collectively characterize the biophysical setting of each 30 m cell at a given point in time (McGarigal et al 2017). Development represents all development, scaled from 0 to 10 by development intensity. Hard development is a subset of development, with a value of 1 for very high intensity development only. Both layers come from DSLland, the primary landcover map. These are dynamic settings variables, increasing with future urban growth.

Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Substrate Mobility Settings Variable, Kevin Mcgarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan B. Plunkett, Bill Deluca, Joanna Grand

Data and Datasets

Substrate mobility is one of several ecological settings variables that collectively characterize the biophysical setting of each 30 m cell at a given point in time (McGarigal et al 2017). Substrate mobility measures the realized mobility of the physical substrate, due to both substrate composition (e.g., sand) and exposure to forces (wind and water) that transport material. This is an important attribute of certain dynamic systems (e.g., coastal dune systems); given as a simple index of mobility (1 = stable, 10 = highly mobile). Substrate mobility is assigned by landcover class, derived from expert opinion. This settings variable is dynamic, …

Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Wind Exposure Settings Variable, Kevin Mcgarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill Deluca, Joanna Grand

Data and Datasets

Wind exposure is one of several ecological settings variables that collectively characterize the biophysical setting of each 30 m cell at a given point in time (McGarigal et al 2017). Wind exposure gives the mean sustained wind speed (m/s) at 50 m height. High wind speeds can shape natural communities, especially on exposed high peaks.

Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Water Salinity Settings Variable, Kevin Mcgarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill Deluca, Joanna Grand

Data and Datasets

Water salinity is one of several ecological settings variables that collectively characterize the biophysical setting of each 30 m cell at a given point in time (McGarigal et al 2017). Salinity, which varies from 0‰ in freshwater to 30‰ in seawater, is a major driver of aquatic systems, as very few organisms can survive across this full range.

Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Index Of Ecological Integrity, Kevin Mcgarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill Deluca, Joanna Grand

Data and Datasets

The index of ecological integrity (IEI) is a measure of relative intactness (i.e., freedom from adverse human modifications and disturbance) and resiliency to environmental change (i.e., capacity to recover from or adapt to changing environmental conditions driven by human land use and climate change). It is a composite index derived from up to 21 different landscape metrics, each measuring a different aspect of intactness (e.g., road traffic intensity, percent impervious) and/or resiliency (e.g., ecological similarity, connectedness) and applied to each 30 m cell (see technical document on integrity, McGarigal et al 2017). The index is scaled 0-1 by ecological system …

Ecological Integrity Metrics: All Integrity Data Products, Kevin Mcgarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan B. Plunkett, Bill Deluca, Joanna Grand

Data and Datasets

The ecological integrity products represent a set of metrics corresponding to our ecosystem-based ecological assessment in 2010 (see Integrity document for details). The ecological integrity metrics include a variety of measures of intactness and resiliency. The individual metrics are also combined into a composite local index of ecological integrity (IEI).

Ramsey-Musolf Faustian Data, Darrel Ramsey-Musolf

Data and Datasets

No abstract provided.

A Proposal To Umass Amherst For An Electronic Time Reporting System, Nicole Comeau

Student Showcase

This proposal to UMass Amherst is for all campus offices to switch their employee time reporting operations to a universal electronic system in the interest of reducing paper and saving time. Waste reduction, including paper consumption, is a top priority for the administration and the campus, as it is for college campuses across the nation. As a Green Office Fellow in the Green Office Program within Sustainable UMass at UMass Amherst I conducted an electronic survey for my fellowship project during the Fall 2018 semester. This survey asked campus offices for information about their time reporting operations.

Migration, Crises And Social Transformation In India Since The 1990s, Smriti Rao, Vamsi Vakulabharanam

PERI Working Papers

Since liberalization, urban migration in India has increased in quantity, but also changed in quality, with permanent marriage migration and temporary, circular employment migration rising, even as permanent economic migration remains stagnant. We understand internal migration in India to be a re-ordering of productive and reproductive labor that signifies a deep transformation of society. We argue that this transformation is a response to three overlapping crises: an agrarian crisis, an employment crisis, and a crisis of social reproduction. These are not crises for capitalist accumulation, which they enable. Rather, they make it impossible for a majority of Indians to achieve …

The Global Financial Governance Architecture, Developmental Finance, And The Hirschmanian Mindset, Ilene Grabel

PERI Working Papers

I advance three claims in the paper. The first claim is positive. The Asian and especially the global financial crisis occasioned meaningful though ad hoc, partial, and uneven discontinuities in developmental finance and financial governance architecture. The conjunction of discontinuities and continuities is imparting incoherence to the financial governance architecture and developmental finance. The second claim is normative. I hold, contrary to the common narrative, that the emergent incoherence is productive rather than debilitating. In the absence of an over-arching, coherent model of financial governance EMDEs today are experiencing a dramatic expansion in policy space and room for institutional experimentation. …

How Structural Adjustment Programs Impact Bureaucratic Quality In Developing Countries, Bernhard Reinsberg, Alexander Kentikelenis, Thomas Stubbs, Lawrence King

PERI Working Papers

The administrative ability of the state to design and implement effective policy is an essential condition for economic development. Social scientists have long devoted attention to domestic forces underpinning state capacity, but not to the impact of the world system. A key mechanism through which this operates is the activities of Western-dominated international organizations, exerting pressure on developing countries to unleash market forces. We take on this task by examining the impact of policy reforms mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the bureaucratic quality of its borrowing countries. To develop a nuanced account of this impact, we scrutinize …

Neoliberal Redistributive Policy: The U.S. Net Social Wage In The 21st Century, Katherine A. Moos

PERI Working Papers

In this paper, I examine the trends of fiscal transfers between the state and workers during 1959 - 2012 to understand the net impact of redistributive policy in the United States. This paper presents original net social wage data from and analysis based on the replication and extension of Shaikh and Tonak (2002). The paper investigates the appearance of a post-2001 variation in the net social wage data. The positive net social wage in the 21st century is the result of a combination of factors including the growth of income support, healthcare inflation, neoliberal tax reforms, and macroeconomic instability. Growing …

The Importance Of Friends And Family To Recreational Gambling, At-Risk Gambling, And Problem Gambling, Alissa Mazar, Robert J. Williams, Edward J. Stanek Iii, Martha Zorn, Rachel A. Volberg

Biostatistics and Epidemiology Faculty Publications Series

Background

The variables correlated with problem gambling are routinely assessed and fairly well established. However, problem gamblers were all ‘at-risk’ and ‘recreational’ gamblers at some point. Thus, it is instructive from a prevention perspective to also understand the variables which discriminate between recreational gambling and at-risk gambling and whether they are similar or different to the ones correlated with problem gambling. This is the purpose of the present study.

Method

Between September 2013 to May 2014, a representative sample of 9,523 Massachusetts adults was administered a comprehensive survey of their past year gambling behavior and problem gambling symptomatology. Based on …

Marx’S Analysis Of Ground-Rent: Theory, Examples And Applications, Deepankar Basu

Economics Department Working Paper Series

This paper offers a unified analytical treatment of Marx’s theory of ground-rent, building on the analysis that is available in Volume Three of Capital. Since ground-rent is a transformation of surplus profit generated in agriculture, the main argument is developed in two steps. In the first step, I derive results on the existence of surplus profit in capitalist agriculture in the absence of landed property. In the second step, I used these results on surplus profit to arrive at the total ground-rent that is appropriated by the owners of land, and also decompose it into the three components that Marx …

When Can We Determine The Direction Of Omitted Variable Bias Of Ols Estimators?, Deepankar Basu

Economics Department Working Paper Series

Omitted variable bias (OVB) of OLS estimators is a serious and ubiquitous problem in social science research. Often researchers use the direction of the bias in substantive arguments or to motivate estimation methods to deal with the bias. This paper offers a geometric interpretation of OVB that highlights the difficulty in ascertaining its sign in any realistic setting and cautions against the use of direction-of-bias arguments. This analysis has implications for comparison of OLS and IV estimators too.

A Note On Krugman's Liquidity Trap, Stefano Di Bucchianico

Economics Department Working Paper Series

The 1998 stylized model of Krugman constituted a ground-breaking contribution explaining the long lasting Japanese stagnation as the consequence of a ‘liquidity trap’ situation featuring a negative natural interest rate. Our critique to such a proposal will focus on three aspects. First, we will question the logical structure of the model, providing an alternative interpretation of its closure. Second, we will argue that aggregate demand has no role in the explanation, as the cause for the persistent excess of savings over desired investment is the result of a supply side shock plus a financial rigidity on the nominal interest rate. …

Bias Of Ols Estimators Due To Exclusion Of Relevant Variables And Inclusion Of Irrelevant Variables, Deepankar Basu

Economics Department Working Paper Series

In this paper I discuss three issues related to bias of OLS estimators in a general multivariate setting. First, I discuss the bias that arises from omitting relevant variables. I offer a geometric interpretation of such bias and derive sufficient conditions in terms of sign restrictions that allows us to determine the direction of bias. Second, I show that inclusion of some omitted variables will not necessarily reduce the magnitude of OVB as long as some others remain omitted. Third, I show that inclusion of irrelevant variables in a model with omitted variables can also have an impact on the …

Open Partnerships: Identifying And Recruiting Allies For Open Educational Resources Initiatives, Rebel Cummings-Sauls, Matt Ruen, Sarah Beaubien, Jeremy Smith

University Libraries Publication Series

Cummings-Sauls, Ruen, Beaubien, and Smith extend conversations about OER-enabled partnerships by exhaustively describing the roles and responsibilities harbored by potential stakeholders in OER initiatives and highlighting the ways in which librarians might instigate partnerships between these groups. By clearly identifying the stakes of library, faculty, student, administrative, instructional design, information technology, and bookstore partnerships, the authors promote a sort of inventory for how and why we might meaningfully engage these local audiences in support of OER. Looking beyond our institutions to the broader external communities, legislation, and services related to OER, this chapter introduces the importance of considering how conversations …

A Dream Of Spring: Creation Of An Ir Managers Forum, Christy L. M. Shorey, Anna J. Dabrowski, Pamela Andrews, Erin Jerome

University Libraries Publication Series

Sometimes it’s hard to find answers for work‐related questions. This difficulty is compounded when one lacks the means to engage with a community of peers who face similar situations and problems. As institutional repository (IR) managers, we found ourselves with access to resources and listservs that didn’t quite fit our needs. Available discussion spaces were either too general in scope, drowning out repository‐specific concerns; or too narrowly focused on platform‐specific issues and technical details.

Lacking an appropriate forum, we decided to create a discussion space for IR managers. The IR Manager Forum (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/irmanagers) is designed to foster a community of …