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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Boundary, Costs And Trade-Offs In Reserve Design Systems, Justus Hurd
Boundary, Costs And Trade-Offs In Reserve Design Systems, Justus Hurd
Honors Theses
Due to limitations in funding and natural resources, it is infeasible to construct perfect reserve systems for large populations of critical species. For this project, our objective is to formulate a reserve design model that minimizes the distance between reserve sites meeting a threshold of biodiversity features subject to a species coverage constraints. Coupled with other spatial characteristics including reserve size and configuration, the boundary of a reserve system is of key importance. While positive area effects are gained when selecting additional sites, negative boundary length effects are also experienced. For example, it is costly to implement and maintain boundary …
Measuring Differential Forest Growth In The Sheepscot River Headwaters With Bitemporal Lidar, Soren Denlinger
Measuring Differential Forest Growth In The Sheepscot River Headwaters With Bitemporal Lidar, Soren Denlinger
Honors Theses
In recent years, lidar has proven itself as a forestry tool capable of accurate, large- scale inventories. Lidar has even shown utility in multitemporal analysis and growth assessment, given high-resolution or small-scale point clouds. However, lidar’s efficacy as a multitemporal tool with relatively low-resolution, large-scale datasets is comparatively unknown. In this study, I compared forest in Midcoast Maine bitemporally, with publicly available datasets from the years 2007 and 2012. Specifically, I compared differences in growth characteristics of riparian, wetland, and upland forests. Although the 2007 dataset (created for geomorphological research) and the 2012 dataset (statewide, general-purpose) possess varying point densities …
Projecting Regions Of North Atlantic Right Whale, Eubalaena Glacialis, Habitat Suitability In The Gulf Of Maine In 2050, Camille Ross
Projecting Regions Of North Atlantic Right Whale, Eubalaena Glacialis, Habitat Suitability In The Gulf Of Maine In 2050, Camille Ross
Honors Theses
North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are endangered. Understanding the role environmental conditions play in habitat suitability is key to determining the regions in need of protection for conservation of the species, particularly as climate change shifts suitable habitat. This thesis uses three species distribution modeling algorithms, together with historical data on whale abundance(1993 to 2009) and environmental covariates to build monthly ensemble models of past E. glacialis habitat suitability in the Gulf of Maine. Then, the models are projected onto the year 2050 for a range of climate scenarios. Specifically, the distribution of the species was modeled …