Plant Sciences Commons^™

Multi-Tactic Ecological Weed Management In A Changing Climate, Sonja K. Birthisel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is expected to impact weed communities in Maine, and the efficacy of tools and tactics farmers use to manage them. Through seedbank sampling and surveys of Maine organic farms, we identified currently rare weeds that are known to be especially abundant or problematic in warmer areas of the USA and might therefore represent an emerging agronomic risk. Many ecological weed management strategies that focus on depleting the weed seedbank are expected to remain effective in a changing climate, and become increasingly important as efficacy of cultivation and some herbicide applications diminish or become more variable. Through field experiments, …

Genau, Charles (Fa1212), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1212. Student paper titled “Winemaking: The Old and New Way” in which Charles Genau details the process of wine production from harvest, to fermentation, bottling, and distribution. Genau compares and contrasts methods of traditional winemaking with contemporary approaches. He also gathered his information from two winemakers of different ages and ethnic backgrounds. The paper contains two illustrations of the winemaking process.

He Effects Of Climate Change On Native Icelandic Plants: A Morphometric Analysis, Maia Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study seeks to evaluate the morphology of three native Icelandic plant species, Alchemilla alpina, Arabidopsis petraea, and Silene uniflora, in order to determine if changing climatic conditions have had an effect on Icelandic vegetation during the twentieth century. I measured herbarium specimens collected during a time period before 1950, and during the period from the late 1960s to the present. Using traditional morphometrics methods, I searched for changes in morphological traits such as plant height, leaf length to width ratio, and leaf size, then performed two-tailed t-tests to analyze the results of the analyses. I found significant changes …

Pemban Farmer Agency In Adapting To Climate Change, Rachael Hood

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As a result of climate change, agricultural societies will be challenged by a variety of altered conditions, including increased severe weather events, saltwater intrusion, pest and disease outbreaks, and higher temperatures. The island of Pemba, in the Zanzibar archipelago, is home to many small-scale agriculturalists. During this study, I interviewed Pemban farmers in the districts of Wete and Micheweni about their awareness of the impacts of climate change and the mitigation strategies that they have implemented. The results from Pemba were compared to relevant academic literature regarding climate change to explore whether disparities exist between models of climate change in …

Justice Served Fresh: Associations Between Food Insecurity, Community Gardening, And Property Value, Micajah Daniels, Courtney Coughenour Ph.D

McNair Poster Presentations

Numerous stakeholders in Nevada have used a variety of efforts to combat the growth of food insecurity facing Nevadans. The purpose of this research project is to understand the association between food insecurity, community gardens, and property value. Following the wealth of scholarship on these topics and data collected from community garden agencies in Southern Nevada, the research questions for this project include: (1) Where are community gardens located in SNV? (2) What efforts community gardens agencies are doing to address food insecurity (most interested in their efforts using community gardens)? (3) What are the perceptions of supports and barriers …

Stevens, Donald (Fa 1205), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 1205. Student paper titled “Digging Ginseng” in which Donald Stevens describes the process of locating, cleaning, drying, and selling ginseng root. Stevens collected information from Charlie Dean Ashley, a Breckenridge County native, and Stevens’ neighbor in Dillsboro, Indiana. The paper also includes a photograph of Ashley along with his favorite hunting grounds.

Consumer Acceptance And Phytonutrient Assessment Of Cold Hardy, Locally Grown Plums, Amber L. Elwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prunus salicina, Japanese plums, and Prunus domestica, European plums, are naturally rich in fiber, minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. Consuming plums can increase overall fruit intake and can be incorporated into part of a healthy diet. Through local plum production, harvesting can be completed without the need for cross-country shipping, which can increase overall acceptability and nutritional quality of the fruit. Furthermore, the increase in local production can help to boost Maine’s economy and creates a market for new plum product production.

The first objective of this study was to determine consumer acceptance of locally grown plum cultivars at a …

Yardwork: A Biography Of An Urban Place By Daniel Coleman, Vivian M. Hansen

The Goose

Review of Daniel Coleman's Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place.

Anti-Inflammatory Effect Of Berry Essences, Inah Gu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Inflammation is one of defense reactions of our body tissues against harmful stimuli such as infection and tissue injury. However, it has been reported that chronic inflammation can lead to chronic inflammatory diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. This transition from acute to chronic inflammation state is usually induced by pro-inflammatory mediators and cytokines including nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), which accelerate the development of other chronic diseases. Accordingly, targeting these pro-inflammatory factors is one of the important roles for anti-inflammatory agents. For last two decades, researches about anti-inflammatory …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2017 Data Summary Report, Stephanie L. Rockwood

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2017 at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and the Northern Great Plains Fire Effects Program (NGPFire). This was the seventh year of field work conducted by NGPN at AGFO.

In 2017, crew members from NGPN visited six long-term plant community monitoring (PCM) plots and NGPFire visited eight additional PCM and fire plant community monitoring (FPCM) plots to collect data on the plant communities at AGFO. This collaborative effort is part of a long-term monitoring program established to better …

Sustainable Intensification Of Agriculture: Opportunities And Challenges For Food Security And Agrarian Adaptation To Environmental Change In Bangladesh, Aaron Michael Shew

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates three unique aspects of sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) in the context of Bangladeshi rice production. The first article presents a qualitative analysis of SAI and farmer surveys in the embanked polder region of coastal Bangladesh. The second article investigates the global food security and environmental impacts of already adopted High Yielding Variety (HYV) rice and double-cropped rice systems in Bangladesh using a spatial partial equilibrium trade model and a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The final article demonstrates a remote sensing methodology for monitoring dry season rice production at 30 m resolution in Bangladesh using a harmonic time …

The Heart Of The Madder: An Important Prehistoric Pigment And Its Botanical And Cultural Roots, Michelle Laberge

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, an interest in natural botanical dye sources has prompted new research into the cultivation and processing of prehistoric dye plants. Advances in chemical analyses of ancient European textiles have provided more information about dye plants such as woad (Isatis tinctoria) weld (Reseda luteola) and madder (Rubia tinctorum), which were important sources of color in early textile production. Evidence of madder dye has been reported in the archaeological record of the European Bronze and Iron Ages in textiles preserved in the Hallstatt salt mines, Scandinavian bog sites and other elite European burials but the picture of madder usage …

Irrigation Practice Adoption: Causes And Consequences In The Arkansas Delta, Kerr James Adams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Concerns about groundwater depletion from conventional irrigation agriculture in the Arkansas Delta region have led to the promotion of more efficient irrigation practices. With Arkansas being the largest producer of rice, the 10th largest producer of soybeans and the 16th largest producer of corn in the United States, the irrigation demand of these crops has put pressure on producers to find ways to irrigate more efficiently. Not only are the alternative technologies supposed to reduce water use, it is also believed that their adoption can also yield economic benefits for the producer. Despite these assumed benefits, adoption of alternative technologies …

Plant Propagation Practicum Pls 216x, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Correcting For The Inconveniences Of Cultivation: Foraging As A Food Source In Southwestern Burkina Faso, Julia Deryn Morgan

Geography Honors Projects

Malnutrition is an important public health issue in Burkina Faso where 30 % of children are underweight for their age and 92% suffer from iron deficiency. Such statistics indicate that there is a significant lack of adequate nutrition in the country. With approximately 80% of the population employed in the agricultural sector, development projects have focused on increasing agricultural production and commercializing output to ameliorate poor nutrition. However, this strategy ignores the importance of local knowledge and food traditions, most notably by neglecting to acknowledge foraging as a significant source of food. To address this concern, I seek to understand …

Spectral Discrimination Of Phragmites Australis At Different Phenological Stages In Saginaw Bay, Michigan, Trenton Benedict

Masters Theses

Michigan Great Lakes wetlands are among Michigan’s most significant bio-diversified ecosystems. One threat to this ecosystem is invasive species. Phragmites australis is one of these invasive species creating problems in the wetlands. Identifying Phragmites through satellite imagery creates difficulties in discriminating Phragmites from other vegetation accurately. This study used an ASD HandHeld 2 field spectroradiometer to identify the phenological spectral properties between Phragmites and cattails. The Euclidean distance was analyzed the spectral curves from the spectroradiometer to determine the separability between Phragmites and cattails. The largest Euclidean distance determined the best month to separate the spectral signatures of Phragmites and …

Water Capacity Of Paramo Soils, Rafael Robert

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The pȧramo ecosystems in the high Ecuadorian Andes are grasslands characterized by challenging abiotic factors such as low temperatures and high solar radiation. Another key feature of pȧramos is the humidity and water availability in the ecosystem. Pȧramos are very important to the hydrology of the inter-Andean valley because they are water reserves that distribute fresh water to lower elevations. These hydrologic properties are made possible by the porous volcanic ash soils formed by the volcanic arc along the mountain range. This study is focused in the region of Chimborazo approximately 20 km from Riobamba the capitol city of the …

Ethically Sourced Vanilla: Certifications In The Production Of Vanilla In The Sava Region Of Madagascar, Maisie Campbell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Vanilla is an orchid whose beans are harvested after ten months on the vine. About eighty percent of the world’s vanilla is produced in Madagascar and the SAVA region is the capital of vanilla production within the country. The changing demand of vanilla, damage from cyclones, and the three-year development of the vanilla plants before they begin producing beans causes a boom and bust cycle of prices of vanilla. Some organizations have tried to ameliorate the problems these cycles and low prices pose to vanilla farmers by creating certifications for companies that promise that they will not pay less than …

Plant Poetics And Politics Of The West Usambaras: Power And Memory Of Narrative Botanical Science In Kizanda, Sagara, And The Mazumbai Forest Reserve, Cameron Daddis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This is a story about people and plants. About the power of relationships between floral organisms and human lives. Using narrative botanical science as a methodological framework, this study highlights the power of local people’s ecological knowledge from the villages of Kizanda and Sagara in the West Usambara Mountains. Building from semi-structured interviews and personal conservations with thirty residents of these villages—voices of local healers, farmers, and forest guides—this work unfolds through a series of vignettes. Its aim is to identify both the precise yet diverse ways in which these people have developed botanical knowledge of their local environment. From …

Kentucky Women In Agriculture (Mss 611), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Project 611. Minutes, financial records, conference handouts, and newsletters related to Kentucky Women in Agriculture, an awareness and support group for women farmers in the Commonwealth. Also includes interviews with members and digital images of members.

Getting What You Want: A Compelling, Reusable, One-Page Message., Martin A. Draper, Betsy B. Draper

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Using examples from planning and evaluation, government and business models, presenters will share tactics and strategies for simple, concise communications on important issues. Participants will practice by developing a one-page position paper, briefing paper or decision memo.

Media Portrayal Of Gm Science And Citrus Greening In State And National Newspapers, Jeremy D'Angelo, Jason D. Ellis Ph.D., Katherine Burke Ph.D., Taylor Ruth

Journal of Applied Communications

Huanglongbing (HLB), commonly known as citrus greening, is a bacterial disease severely affecting the profitability and continuation of the citrus industry in Florida and is threatening the citrus industry in other states as well. Currently, the disease only can be managed, not cured. Gene-based therapies, such as GM science, have been identified as a viable long-term solution. However, consumer acceptance of genetically modified food is low and their understanding and acceptance of new technologies is largely dependent on what they receive through mass media. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand news coverage of both citrus greening and …

Sustainable Grain Production Pls 321, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2017 Data Report, Ryan Manuel

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2017 at Scotts Bluff National Monument (SCBL) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Northern Great Plains Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire).

During the seventh full year of field work, crew members from NGPN visited eight long-term monitoring plots on May 22-25, 2017 to collect data on the plant communities at SCBL. This is part of a long-term monitoring effort to better understand the condition of the vegetation at SCBL. NGPN staff captured data relating to species richness, herb-layer height, abundance of individual native and non-native …

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Science At Engineer Cantonment, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe, Carl R. Falk, Thomas E. Labedz, Paul R. Picha, John R. Bozell

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Conclusions

It is our contention that Thomas Say, Titian Peale, Edwin James, and their colleagues of the Stephen Long Expedition of 1819–1820 were heavily engaged in scientific research, which took the form of the first biodiversity inventory undertaken in the United States. This accomplishment has been overlooked both by biologists and historians, but it should rank among the most significant accomplishments of the expedition. The results of this inventory continue to inform us today about environmental, faunal, and floral changes along the Missouri River in an area that is known to be an ecotone between the deciduous forests of the …

Caterpillar/Basil-Plant Tandems, Paco Calvo

Animal Sentience

According to Reber (2016), subjectivity springs from primitive life itself. Granting his non-neurocentric stance, I shall try to show that his framework falls prey to zoocentric preconceptions that divest certain non-animal life-forms of mentality. There is no reason to exclude the possibility that plants have evolved different structures that underlie their own subjective experiences, all according to Reber’s model. It is the degree of phenotypic flexibility and integration that we observe in the behavioral repertoire of plants that may end up supporting their capacity for subjective experience. This remains an open empirical question.

Letter From The Dean, Deacue Fields

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Historical Observations And Identifications Of Plants And Animals In The Vicinity Of Engineer Cantonment In 1819-1820, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe, Carl R. Falk, John R. Bozell

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Historical observations and identifications of plants and animals in the vicinity of Engineer Cantonment in 1819–1820 (James 1822) are shown below in Roman and Roman italic print. Specimens identified through phytoarcheological and zooarcheological analysis of materials and believed to be reasonably associated or contemporaneous with the Long Expedition use of the site (AU4) are shown in boldface. Species present in both the historical and archeological data are marked by an asterisk (*). References used in this compilation include Benedict (1996), Brewer (1970 [1840]), Conant and Collins (1991), Ducey (2000), Evans (1997), Falk et al. (this volume), Genoways et al. (2008), …