Agriculture Commons^™

The Effects Of Radar On Avian Behavior: Implications For Wildlife Management At Airports, Eleanor R. Sheridan

Open Access Theses

Airports are areas with a high availability of resources for wildlife to forage, breed, and roost. Airports also have different types of radars to assist with air traffic control as well as tracking of wildlife that could become a risk for aircraft. The effect of radar electromagnetic radiation on wildlife behavior is not well understood. The goal of this study was to determine if bird behavior is affected by radar in two contexts: static radar (e.g., surveillance radar) and approaching radar (e.g., aircraft weather radar). We used brown-headed cowbirds as a model species. In the static radar context, we performed …

Field To Flight: A Techno-Economic Analysis Of Stover To Aviation Biofuels Supply Chain, Amanda C. Bittner

Open Access Theses

Greenhouse gas emissions have been a growing concern. The transportation sector contributes to one-third of GHG emissions in the United States from fossil fuel burning. The Renewable Fuel Standard set a requirement for 16 billion gallons (ethanol equivalent) of cellulosic biofuels to be used in the market. Aviation biofuels can help to meet both of these problems as well as improve U.S. energy security.

Investment in the biofuel industry carries a lot of risk. The biofuel industry is run by the private sector, but can be incentivized by government. Cellulosic biofuels carry even more risk than first generation biofuels, because …

Breakthrough Of Sub-Saharan Africa’S Agricultural Production In The 21st Century: The Role Of Foreign Aid, Jiangyi Qian

Open Access Theses

Sub-Saharan African countries' agricultural production has accelerated in the twenty-first century. This study shows that aggregate African agricultural production exhibits a breakthrough after 2000. More specifically, agricultural production breakthroughs occurred in 24 sub-Saharan African countries after 2000. 15 of them were caused by yield improvement and 8 of them were caused by area expansion. These breakthroughs helped these countries meet their increasing food consumption demands and lower their dependency on agricultural imports. However, we also found these breakthroughs were fragile. In addition to the influences of recent natural disasters and drought, these fertilizer-enabled production accelerations might also have been negatively …