Life Sciences Commons^™

Urban Nature Indexes Tool Offers Comprehensive And Flexible Approach To Monitoring Urban Ecological Performance, Jennifer Rae Pierce, Laura Costadone, Lelani Mannetti, Joeri Morpurgo, Charlyn Elaine Green, Michael D. Halder, Pablo Arturo Lopez Guijosa, Abner L. Bogan, Russell Galt, Jonathan Hughes

ODU Articles

We present the Urban Nature Indexes (UNI), a comprehensive tool that measures urban ecological performance under one standard framework linked to global commitments. The UNI was developed by interdisciplinary experts and evaluated by practitioners from diverse cities to capture each city’s ecological footprint from local to global scale. The UNI comprises six themes (consumption drivers, human pressures, habitat status, species status, nature’s contributions to people, and governance responses) that encompass measurable impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem services, pollution, consumption, water management, and equity within one comprehensive system. Cities then adapt the UNI to their context and capacity by …

When And Where Can Coastal Wetland Restoration Increase Carbon Sequestration As A Natural Climate Solution, Scott F. Jones, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Dennis Baldocchi, Meagan Eagle, Daniel A. Friess, Catrina Gore, Greg Noe, Stefanie Nolte, Patty Oikawa, Adina Paytan, Jacqueline L. Raw, Brian J. Roberts, Kerrylee Rogers, Charles Schutte, Camille L. Stagg, Karen M. Thorne, Eric J. Ward, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Erik S. Yando

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Coastal wetlands are hotspots of carbon sequestration, and their conservation and restoration can help to mitigate climate change. However, there remains uncertainty on when and where coastal wetland restoration can most effectively act as natural climate solutions (NCS). Here, we synthesize current understanding to illustrate the requirements for coastal wetland restoration to benefit climate, and discuss potential paths forward that address key uncertainties impeding implementation. To be effective as NCS, coastal wetland restoration projects will accrue climate cooling benefits that would not occur without management action (additionality), will be implementable (feasibility) and will persist over management-relevant timeframes (permanence). Several issues …

Response Of Helenium Amarum To Environmental Stressors In The Presence Of Mycorrhizal Fungi And Its Role As A Pollinator Resource, Austin Jameson, Lisa Horth

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Globally, climate change is causing shifts in precipitation patterns. Shifting precipitation patterns can be a stressor for many species. One species that is experiencing such stress is Helenium amarum Raf (H. Rock). H. amarum, thrives in dry upland pastures and low-lying grassy and sandy habitat in the mid-Atlantic (USA), where it persists despite storm-driven standing water. Helenium amarum is a species that is toxic to livestock and has been found outside its native range. Temperature and light impacts on germination are already known, but the role of water availability and potential ameliorating effects of mycorrhizae during water stress have …

Environmental Implications Of Modern Food Production: An Analysis For The Conscious Consumer, Jessica T. Coming

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explores the pathways by which agriculture affects the environment and determines which foods have the greatest climate, water, and land impacts. Agricultural effects on the environment are extensive, from loss of habitat and declines in regional biodiversity to disruption of global nutrient cycles and climate change. Global food production accounts for 26-34% of annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, makes up 38-46% of habitable land, and is responsible for 70% of freshwater extraction. The effect of agriculture on the environment is most significantly dictated by what type of food is being produced. Animal-based food products consistently have the highest …

Carbon Allocation To Growth And Storage In Pinus Ponderosa During And Following Experimental Carbohydrate Limitation, Ella M. Keefer

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Understanding how plants allocate carbohydrates to growth and storage in the face of drought and other stresses that reduce carbohydrate availability is crucial to predict ecosystem responses to future stress events. Growth is critical for resource acquisition while storage of carbohydrates is critical as a safeguard during stress. Despite this, how plants allocate carbohydrates to growth and to non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) storage under drought and carbohydrate limitation is poorly understood. We examined how carbohydrate limitation, with and without drought, affects carbon allocation to growth versus stored NSCs. We found that under carbon limitation and depletion of stored NSC, NSC storage …

Effects Of Climate Change On Seed Germination May Contribute To Habitat Homogenization In Freshwater Forested Wetlands, Kori Carr, Xavier Ozowara, Taylor M. Sloey

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate changes in temperate regions are expected to result in warmer, shorter winters in temperate latitudes. These changes may have consequences for germination of plant species that require a period of physiological dormancy. The effect of cold duration on seed germination has been investigated in a number of plant taxa, but has not been well studied in wetland and bottomland forest tree species, an ecosystem that is threatened by habitat homogenization. Our work sought to test the role of changing winter temperatures on seed germination in specialist (Nyssa aquatica and Taxodium distichum) and generalist (Acer rubrum and Liquidambar styraciflua) tree …

Half Of Atlantic Reef-Building Corals At Elevated Risk Of Extinction Due To Climate Change And Other Threats, Luis Gutierrez, Beth Polidoro, David Obura, Francoise Cabada-Blanco, Christi Linardich, Emma Pettersson, Paul Pearce-Kelly, Krista Kemppinen, Juan Jose Alvarado, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, Anastazia Banaszak, Pilar Casado De Amezua, James Crabbe, Aldo Croquer, Joshua Feingold, Elizabeth Goergen, Stefano Goffredo, Bert Hoeksema, Danwei Huang, Emma Kennedy, Diego Kersting, Marcelo Kitahara, Petar Kružić, Margaret Miller, Flavia Nunes, Juan Pablo Quimbayo, Andrea Rivera-Sosa, Rosa Rodríguez-Martínez, Nadia Santodomingo, Michael Sweet, Mark Vermeij, Estrella Villamizar, Greta Aeby, Khatija Alliji, Daniel Bayley, Elena Couce, Benjamin Cowburn, C. Isabel Nuñez Lendo, Sean Porter, Kaveh Samimi-Namin, Tom Shlesinger, Bryan Wilson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Atlantic reef-building corals and coral reefs continue to experience extensive decline due to increased stressors related to climate change, disease, pollution, and numerous anthropogenic threats. To understand the impact of ocean warming and reef loss on the estimated extinction risk of shallow water Atlantic reef-building scleractinians and milleporids, all 85 valid species were reassessed under the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, updating the previous Red List assessment of Atlantic corals published in 2008. For the present assessment, individual species declines were estimated based on the modeled coral cover loss (1989–2019) and projected onset of annual severe bleaching events (2020–2050) …

The Impacts Of Anthropogenic Activity And Climate Change On The Formation Of Harmful Algal Blooms (Habs) And Its Ecological Consequence, Zhangxi Hu, Aifeng Li, Zhun Li, Margaret R. Mulholland

OES Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Open Top Chambers To Simulate Effects Of Climate Change On Soil Temperature And Cover Crop Response In Agricultural Systems, Gretchen Bahmueller

Honors Theses and Capstones

Climate change is expected to yield warmer winters that have the potential to place additional stress on our already stressed agricultural systems. Understanding how agricultural systems may respond to these changes is essential to creating crop and land management plans that ensure food security for future generations. To better understand how warming winters can/will affect air and soil temperatures and cover crop performance, open top chambers (OTCs) were deployed post cover crop seeding in a field experiment at the UNH Kingman Research Farm in Madbury, NH. The experiment consisted of four cover crop treatments sown into or after corn: an …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Ocean Acidification On Juvenile Homarus Americanus Feeding Behavior, Sophia Roy

Honors Theses and Capstones

Climate change has led to increased CO2 absorption by ocean surface waters, resulting in decreased pH levels, a phenomenon known as ocean acidification (OA). A primary class of marine organism behavior is impacted by OA, in particular, olfactory-mediated behaviors related to foraging and feeding success. However, the biological mechanisms responsible for the documented impairment of foraging and feeding-related behaviors remains in question. We find that juvenile American lobsters (H. americanus) exhibit significantly faster rates of total feeding times in response to short-term low pH exposure. However, total search time and total handling time were not affected by pH when examined …

Plasticity In Response To Temperature Magnitude And Variation---From Life History To Thermal Tolerance And Coloration, Austin Rex Hoffman

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Warming associated with climate change has many direct and downstream effects on animals. For example, warmer developmental temperatures can improve heat tolerance and reduce insect melanization, which is related to coloration, thermoregulation, immunity, desiccation resistance, and potentially life-history traits, such as investment into reproduction and dispersal. Increased temperature variation is also a feature of climate change, and it may have a larger impact on animals than warming. However, I lack insight into the combined effects of temperature magnitude and variability on important traits of life history, thermal tolerance, and coloration. Thus, I integrated temperature variation into thermal performance using a …

Deconstructing The Mangrove Carbon Cycle: Gains, Transformation, And Losses, M. F. Adame, N. Cormier, P. Taillardat, N. Iram, A. Rovai, T. M. Sloey, E. S. Yando, J. F. Blanco-Libreros, M. Arnaud, T. Jennerjahn, C. E. Lovelock, D. Friess, G. M. S. Reithmaier, C. A. Buelow, S. M. Muhammad-Nor, R. R. Twilley, R. A. Ribeiro

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Mangroves are one of the most carbon-dense forests on the Earth and have been highlighted as key ecosystems for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Hundreds of studies have investigated how mangroves fix, transform, store, and export carbon. Here, we review and synthesize the previously known and emerging carbon pathways in mangroves, including gains (woody biomass accumulation, deadwood accumulation, soil carbon sequestration, root and litterfall production), transformations (food web transfer through herbivory, decomposition), and losses (respiration as CO₂ and CH₄, litterfall export, particulate and dissolved carbon export). We then review the technologies available to measure carbon fluxes in …

Abalones At Risk: A Global Red List Assessment Of Haliotis In A Changing Climate, Howard Peters, Gina M. Ralph, Laura Rogers-Bennett

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

There is increasing awareness that marine invertebrates such as abalones are at risk from the combined stressors of fishing and climate change. Abalones are an important marine fishery resource and of cultural importance to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. A highly priced marine delicacy, they are inherently vulnerable: individuals are slow-growing and long-lived and successful reproduction requires dense assemblages. However, their global conservation status is poorly understood. Using IUCN Red List methodology, we assessed the extinction risk to all 54 species of abalone (genus Haliotis). Of the 21 fished commercially for human consumption either now and/or in the past, 15 …

State Of Coastal And Marine Resources: Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, Ma Celina J. Añonuevo, Jemelyn Grace P. Baldisimo, Denmark B. Racamara, Mary Joyce P. Velos, Joseph Benedict T. Garcia, Frederico B. Sabban, Joey P. Cabasan, Rhea Mae Luciano, Darryl Anthony Valiño, Lovely Joy Heyres, Hazel O. Arceo

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Sablayan, situated on the western side of Mindoro Island facing the WPS (12.8564° N, 120.9101° E), is a first-class municipality in the province of Occidental Mindoro with a total land area of 2,188.8km² that is divided into 22 barangays, nine of which are along the coast. The coastline stretches for 115 km, with municipal waters covering approximately 750,000 km² (LGU-Sablayan 2008).

The Apo Reef Natural Park, one of its most prominent features, is located approximately 33 km off the coast (Figure 2.9-1) The Apo Reef Natural Park is a protected coral reef system under presidential proclamation 868 (1996) encompassing …

State Of Coastal And Marine Resources: Lian, Batangas, Joseph Benedict T. Garcia, Mary Joyce P. Velos, Jemelyn Grace P. Baldisimo, Joey P. Cabasan, Ma Celina J. Añonuevo, Denmark B. Recamara, Hazel O. Arceo

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Lian (13.9852° N, 120.6545° E) is a third-class municipality in the northwestern part of the province of Batangas. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Nasugbu, on the east by the municipalities of Tuy and Balayan, on the west by the WPS, and on the south by the municipality of Catatagan (Figure 2.7-1). It has a total land area of 76.80km² that is divided into 19 barangays, six of which are coastal and two are integrated coastal barangays (LGU-Lian 2013). Its total population is 56,280 individuals in 15,991 households as of 2020 (PSA 2020).

The main …

Youth Resilience Toward Climate Smart Agriculture Technology Adoption In Brunei Darussalam, Rosita Hassan, Wida S. Suhaili, Beston F. Nore, Mohamad A. Basuni

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

Climate change and food security are critical issues to be addressed, nationally and globally, to reach sustainable agricultural development goals to feed the growing human population. The great challenge is to adapt to the climate change and in the meantime increase food production with sustainable farming practices that require farmers to have a paradigm shift toward climate smart agricultural technology (CSAT). Encouraging farmers to adopt and implement CSAT have become a priority for governmental policy making programmes. The question is what are the measures that can be taken for Brunei to leapfrog into this technology bandwagon to revitalise farmers for …

Bayesian Integrated Species Distribution Models For Hierarchical Resource Selection By A Soaring Bird, Ryo Ogawa, Guiming Wang, L. Wes Burger, Bronson Strickland, J. Brian Davis, Fred L. Cunningham

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Migratory birds exhibit seasonal geographic range (hereafter, range) dynamics during the annual cycle. Few studies have examined how migratory birds select their habitats for range occupancy at the species level and space use at the individual level simultaneously. We hypothesized that environmental variables directly related to fitness components would affect the range occupancy probabilities of migrants, whereas environment variables related to movements and flights would affect the space use intensities of migrants. We built Bayesian integrated species distribution models (ISDMs) to evaluate the effects of climate conditions, wind conditions, and landcover compositions on the seasonal range dynamics of American white …

Carbon Neutral By 2030 - Katanning Research Station, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Climate Science Published Reports

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's (DPIRD) Katanning Research Station (KRS) is developing practical techniques and methods for mitigating carbon emissions from the livestock industry.

This research will help the livestock industry in Western Australia (WA) access anticipated future markets for carbon neutral food and fibre products.

Role Of Urban Parks In Carbon Sequestration– A Case Study Of Safari Park, Karachi, Pakistan, Amna Bano, Minzah Shehzad, Hasnain Kazmi, Jamshaid Iqbal

Journal of Bioresource Management

Urban parks besides their recreational use can be the potential source of climate mitigation through carbon sequestration. Present study aims to identify the carbon sequestration potential of Safari Park which is by far the largest public park of Karachi established in 1970 covering an area of 0.72 km². A total of 153 individual trees belonging to 25 species and 14 families were included in the study. Five dominant species with highest Important Value Index (IVI) were Cocos nucifera (14.62 %), Azadirachta indica (14.21 %), Guaiacum officinale (9.93 %), Washington robusta (9.31 %) and Delonix regia (7.11 %). The …

Insights Into The Challenges Posed By Climate Change And Land Competition To Brazil’S Midwest Pulpwood Market, Roberto Hajime Sant Anna Kimura

Theses and Dissertations

I investigated the effect of climate change in one of the few expanding markets in the world in Brazil. In the last decades the demand for pulpwood increased from zero to 11 million tons, leading to an expansion of 700 thousand hectares of Eucalyptus plantation. In 2024, a new mill will start operating increasing the consumption of wood fiber by 8.2 million tons (+49%). I used mathematical programming to investigate how different scenarios of productivity and land will affect the market. My results showed that around 946,000 hectares (+124%) of additional timberland will be necessary in the upcoming decades. The …

Of Changing Climate And Habitat: Range-Wide Individual Growth And Local Patterns Of Phenology And Landscape Use In A Threatened Pit-Viper, James Helferich

Theses and Dissertations

Over the 21st century, climate change and wetland habitat loss will pose major threats to the Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus), a federally threatened and Great Lakes region endemic rattlesnake. I collected capture-recapture data from sites across the range and modeled the effect of climatic variables on growth rate and asymptotic size. I found that high snow residence time was associated with larger asymptotic sizes but slower growth, while high spring precipitation increased growth rate. I then projected future growth and size under different carbon emission scenarios. Given the threat posed by successional encroachment of woody vegetation, I used spatially explicit …

Cereal–Vegetable Intercropping: Hindrances And Strategies To Increase Intercropping, Iqra Zaki̇r, Ahmad Abdul Wahab, Tahira Abbas, Sakeena Tul-Ain Haider, Sobia Irum, Samreen Sabir, Sajjad Hussain, Shakeel Ahmad

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Climate change is the major factor that affects crop yield and productivity in the long term. The changing climate scenario is now impacting farmers’ lands and their outcomes in both developed and developing countries. The intercropping of crop species or varieties that have high arable capability is a promising technique for increasing crop production without increasing agricultural inputs. In intercropping, the selection of varieties, optimum sowing time, method of plant arrangement, and sowing proportion are required to make the design suitable for an intercropping system. Intercropping is one of the most highlighted agronomic practices helping to improve soil health (structure, …

Linking Microbial Community Assembly In Flowers With Function Under Diverse Environmental Conditions: A Case Study Involving Erwinia Amylovora, Christopher Skylar Mcdaniel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Fire blight, a devastating disease of pome fruit trees caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora, can cause millions of dollars in losses for producers each year around the globe. Management approaches that involve use of antibiotics, such as streptomycin, can be effective; although concerns exist over pollinator and crop health when using them regularly. Recently, there have been developments that allow for biological agents such as microbes to curtail fire blight infection. These agents work by competing with Erwinia for resources or space, producing antibacterial compounds, or even killing Erwinia cells on contact. Unfortunately, these agents do not yet …

Enabling Breeding For Fruitlet Freeze Tolerance In Peach, Ufuk Caglar

All Theses

Climate change is affecting the production of temperate fruit crops, with cold temperatures emerging as a critical abiotic stressor that limits plant growth and performance. Freeze damage, particularly in spring, has resulted in significant economic losses in peach production in the southeastern United States. Research efforts in peach and other Prunus species have primarily focused on studying dormancy-related traits associated with bloom time, such as chill and heat requirement, with fruitlet freeze tolerance not equally represented. Breeding for climate resilience in peach requires a combination of these traits to allow for late bloom via targeted chill requirement and high heat …

Climate Change And Legume Performance In Grassland Agroecosystems, Lynn E. Sollenberger, M. M. Kohmann

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

We reviewed the literature to assess the effect of climate change factors on forage legumes. Whether growing in monoculture or mixtures with grasses, exposing legumes to elevated CO₂ (eCO₂) generally leads to sustained increases in forage accumulation (FA) and N fixation, but elevated temperature (eT) in conjunction with eCO₂ usually reduces magnitude of these responses. In legumes, nodules represent large C sinks, precluding photosynthetic acclimation to eCO₂ observed in non-N fixing plants. Greater N fixation in legume-grass mixtures exposed to eCO₂ is due to greater percentage of legume N derived from symbiotic fixation and …

Cool-Season Perennials And Stability In Year-Round Forage Production Systems, C. D. Teutsch

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Changes in long-term climate normals have resulted in warmer and wetter summers and milder winters in the humid eastern United States. This will likely impact regional forage species adaptation in the long-term and varietal adaptation in the short term. Variety evaluation has been occurring at the University of Kentucky for almost 100 years. There are several considerations for selecting forage species and varieties including regional and local adaptation, productivity, distribution of growth, palatability, nutritive value, anti-quality factors, tolerance to stress, and persistence. Two of the most important criteria are long-term productivity and persistence under grazing, both of which are currently …

Discrepancies Between Observed And Predicted Climate-Driven Net Herbage Accumulation, Alec D. Mackay, Michael B. Dodd, K. J. Hutchinson, Ronaldo Vibart, F. Bilotto

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The decline in net herbage accumulation (NHA) on the high phosphorus (P) fertilizer farmlet (HF) of a long-term P fertilizer and associated sheep grazing experiment in the last 25 years, aligns with the necessity to reduce the on-site nominal sheep stocking rates over the same period on this farmlet. This finding appears at odds with projected climate change driven modelling that forecast a largely positive outcome on pasture growth in summer moist environments. In this paper we explore the apparent discrepancies between the observed and predicted climate-driven NHA by using a climate-driven pasture growth module within a larger process-based model …

Length Of Multi-Year Precipitation And Primary Production Relationships Vary Regionally Across Grasslands In The Central U.S., A. R. Hudson, D. P.C. Peters

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grasslands in the central United States span large temperature and aridity gradients and regionally differ in their drivers of water availability. These differences likely determine how drought event periodicity and duration can influence grassland growth, and are important to consider as global warming changes energy and water distribution across these systems. Here, we explored frequency patterns in annual grassland plant growth (aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP)) and precipitation (PPT) relationships for over 20 years at six long-term research sites spatially distributed across the central grassland region. We identified the periods (>1 year) these relationships are strongest- and when they …

A Neotropical Perspective On The Uniqueness Of The Holocene Among Interglacials, Mark Bush, Jacob Daniel Schiferl, M. Kingston, C. M. Akesson, B. G. Valencia, A. Rozas-Davila, D. Mcgee, A. Woods, C. Y. Chen, R. G. Hatfield, D. T. Rodbell, M. B. Abbott

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Understanding how tropical systems have responded to large-scale climate change, such as glacial-interglacial oscillations, and how human impacts have altered those responses is key to current and future ecology. A sedimentary record recovered from Lake Junín, in the Peruvian Andes (4085 m elevation) spans the last 670,000 years and represents the longest continuous and empirically-dated record of tropical vegetation change to date. Spanning seven glacial-interglacial oscillations, fossil pollen and charcoal recovered from the core showed the general dominance of grasslands, although during the warmest times some Andean forest trees grew above their modern limits near the lake. Fire was very …

Ecological Change And Livestock Governance In A Peruvian National Park, Kenneth R. Young, Eyner Alata, Rodney Chimner, Randall B. Boone, Gillian Bowser, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Beatriz Fuentealba, Jessica Gilbert, Javier A. Ñaupari, Molly H. Polk, Sigrid Resh, Cecilia Turin, Melody Zarria-Samanamud

Michigan Tech Publications

While the grazing of livestock has occurred for millennia in the Andes, current sustainability debates center on concerns with co-managing climate change and pastoralism. These discussions have special resonance in places protected by the state for biodiversity, scenery, and sustainable and traditional land uses, such as those found in protected areas and biosphere reserves. For this article, we integrate data from a social-ecological research project on the land use systems that affect high-elevation ecosystems in Peru’s Huascarán National Park, with special emphasis on the wetlands. We used land cover and land use data and insights from interactions with pastoralists to …