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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Debris Of Progress: A Political Ethnography Of Critical Infrastructure, Ethan Tupelo Oct 2022

Debris Of Progress: A Political Ethnography Of Critical Infrastructure, Ethan Tupelo

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I advance a political ethnography of critical infrastructure to better understand terminal capitalism, in which the waste products of commodification and resource depletion are destroying the ecological systems that support life. My object of study is the massive disjuncture between individual knowledge and intention, and these catastrophic collective planetary outcomes. Theoretically, I develop critical infrastructure theory to diagnose these destructive structures. By “infrastructure,” I mean systems of material and discursive flows fundamental to sedentary human organization, connecting local actions with global systems. Such infrastructure is “critical” in three senses: A) denoting the most important forms of infrastructure …


Perceptions Of Historical Climate Change And Park Policy: The Impact On The Fremont Cottonwood In Zion National Park, Kathleen Kavarra Corr Mar 2022

Perceptions Of Historical Climate Change And Park Policy: The Impact On The Fremont Cottonwood In Zion National Park, Kathleen Kavarra Corr

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite its “natural” appearance and the Organic Act 1916 mandate for preservation of the natural environment in National Parks, the Virgin River as it flows through Zion National Park’s Zion Canyon was transformed through massive flood control re-engineering projects in the 1930s. The armoring of the river has had significant impacts on riparian vegetation, particularly on the stands of native Fremont Cottonwood trees that once filled the narrow valley. What was the motivation for this massive flood control project carried out in an arid region with less than 15 inches of rain per year? This dissertation explores the motivations which …


Fundamental Controls On The Water Cycle In Arid Environments: A Mechanistic Framework For Spatiotemporal Connectivity Between Hydroclimate And Groundwaters In The Dry Andes, Brendan J. Moran Feb 2022

Fundamental Controls On The Water Cycle In Arid Environments: A Mechanistic Framework For Spatiotemporal Connectivity Between Hydroclimate And Groundwaters In The Dry Andes, Brendan J. Moran

Doctoral Dissertations

There remain many persistent uncertainties regarding fundamental aspects of natural water cycles in arid mountainous regions, the Dry Andes of South America represents one of the most extreme examples of these environments on the Planet. Deep water tables (>100 meters), long groundwater transit times and distances (>100 years, 10-100 kilometers), limited and infrequent rainfall, remote and difficult to access terrain, and complex salar/evaporite hydrogeology common in these environments make reliable monitoring of these hydrological systems particularly difficult. As a result, major gaps remain in our understanding of critical aspects of the water cycle such as recharge and evaporation …


Pride In Our Prides: Mitigating Human-Lion Conflict In The Okavango Delta, Botswana, Eric G. Leflore Feb 2022

Pride In Our Prides: Mitigating Human-Lion Conflict In The Okavango Delta, Botswana, Eric G. Leflore

Doctoral Dissertations

Humans are having marked effects on the natural world, directly contributing to biodiversity declines around the globe. Large carnivores are disproportionately affected as they are wide-ranging, occur in low population densities, and are typically in conflict with humans. Large carnivores are now rare or absent from many ecosystems as their populations have plummeted and human-carnivore conflicts over livestock remain a main contributing factor. The situation is especially acute for the African lion (Panthera leo) as the species is in decline across Africa and has been extirpated from >80% of its historic range. Estimates show the population has decreased …