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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Anthropogenic Impacts To Essential Habitats In The Gulf Of Maine: A Case Study Of The American Lobster, Homarus Americanus, And Its Fishery, Andrew Goode Dec 2021

Anthropogenic Impacts To Essential Habitats In The Gulf Of Maine: A Case Study Of The American Lobster, Homarus Americanus, And Its Fishery, Andrew Goode

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Gulf of Maine has been fundamentally altered by anthropogenic forcings for decades and offers an ideal study system to monitor response to change. Through complex interactions between ocean warming, altered demographic bottlenecks, and reduced top-down controls, the American lobster (Homarus americanus Milne Edwards) capitalized on favorable conditions and proliferated within the Gulf of Maine. These changes catalyzed the expansion of the lobster fishery, elevated its status as North America’s most valuable marine resource, and shifted coastal communities towards a virtual lobster monoculture. The same processes that facilitated lobster to capitalize on favorable conditions may come with unintended consequences …


Quantifying The Impacts Of Land Use, Management And Climate Change On Water Resources In Missouri River Basin, Arun Bawa Jan 2021

Quantifying The Impacts Of Land Use, Management And Climate Change On Water Resources In Missouri River Basin, Arun Bawa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A location-specific evaluation of hydrological landscape responses concerning past and projected climate and land use land cover (LULC) changes can provide a powerful intellectual basis for developing efficient and profitable agroecosystems, and overcoming uncertain and detrimental consequences of LULC and climate shifts. This dissertation assessed the impacts of land use, management, and climate change on water resources in the Missouri River Basin (MRB) through four specific studies that included: (i) to study the responses of leached nutrient concentrations and soil health to winter rye cover crop (CC) under no-till corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation, (ii) to …


The Ecological Resilience Of A Tropical Montane Pine Forest To Droughts, Fire, And Hurricane Disturbance, Daniel Erland Brugger Swann Jan 2021

The Ecological Resilience Of A Tropical Montane Pine Forest To Droughts, Fire, And Hurricane Disturbance, Daniel Erland Brugger Swann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Owing to the geographic isolation and unique climatic conditions which occur in tropical montane forests (TMFs), these systems are highly sensitive to changes in both climate and disturbance. Therefore, as ongoing climate change alters disturbance regimes – potentially facilitating multiple disturbance interactions much greater than that of isolated disturbances – TMFs may be shifted to alternate stable states. However, study of TMF resilience is essentially unknown given the lack of long-term studies in these systems. We address the resiliency of the tropical montane pine forests of the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic using long-term climate records, remeasured vegetation data, and reconstructed …


We All Want To Change The World: How Behavioral Insights Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions, Thomas C. Gifford Jan 2021

We All Want To Change The World: How Behavioral Insights Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions, Thomas C. Gifford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The world is in the midst of an unprecedented environmental crisis driven primarily by human behavior. As the world has globalized, countries have developed, and standards of living have improved, global pollution has skyrocketed and has resulted in a wide range of environmentally destructive outcomes. All paths to environmentally sustainable development involve a dramatic cut in carbon emissions from current day levels. In this thesis, I explore how the omission of behavioral factors from mainstream neoclassical models has contributed to, and can aid in reducing unsustainably high levels of carbon emissions. Throughout the history of economic thought, classical economists such …


The Role Of Symbiotic Algae In The Acclimatization Of Oculina Arbuscula To Ocean Acidification, Erin M. Arneson Jan 2021

The Role Of Symbiotic Algae In The Acclimatization Of Oculina Arbuscula To Ocean Acidification, Erin M. Arneson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ocean acidification (OA) caused by CO2 emissions is projected to decrease seawater pH to 7.6 by 2100. Scleractinian corals are at risk because excess H+ in seawater binds to carbonate (CO32-), reducing its availability for CaCO3 skeletons. The energy demand for skeletal growth increases as pH decreases because corals must actively purge excess H+ from their seawater sourced calcifying fluid to maintain high calcification rates. In scleractinian corals it is hypothesized that photosynthesis by symbiotic algae is critical to meet this increased energy demand. To test this hypothesis, I conducted laboratory and field …