Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Quantifying The Carbon Stored And Sequestered By The Trees On Pomona College’S Campus, Paola A. Giron-Carson

Scripps Senior Theses

We are experiencing a climate crisis that must be confronted with strategic mitigation. Pomona College contributes to the climate crisis through its emissions for which there is a baseline record. However there is no baseline record of the climate mitigation currently performed by the trees on Pomona’s campus through carbon storage. This study seeks to determine a current baseline quantity of carbon stored and sequestrated by Pomona’s trees as well as possible courses of climate mitigation for Pomona College to take. Initial information gathering was conducted through interviews with several stakeholders. This study was conducted using data collected prior to …

Pasture Biomass Estimation Using Crop Surface Modeling And Vegetation Indices, Brendan Macinnis

All Theses

Biomass estimations are a critical function of any grazing or haylage system. Determination of ideal harvesting or grazing times help optimize the quality and quantity of above-ground biomass (AGB). The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for Alfalfa and Tall Fescue biomass estimations. Using a DJI Mavic Pro, RGB and NDVI images were taken and used to create orthomosaic images. Structure-from-motion (SfM) techniques were used to developed digital elevation models to evaluate the change in canopy height (∆H) between pre- and post-harvests. Change in canopy height (∆H) was shown to provide the …

Aboveground Carbon Responses To Experimental And Natural Hurricane Impacts In A Subtropical Wet Forest In Puerto Rico, Hervé Chevalier, Nicholas V.L. Brokaw, Sheila E. Ward, Jess K. Zimmerman, Aaron B. Shiels, John Bithorn, Samuel Matta Carmona

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Climate change and disturbance make it difficult to project long-term patterns of carbon sequestration in tropical forests, but large ecosystem experiments in these forests can inform predictions. The Canopy Trimming Experiment (CTE) manipulates two key components of hurricane disturbance, canopy openness and detritus deposition, in a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. We documented how the CTE and a real hurricane affected tree recruitment, biomass, and aboveground carbon storage over 15 years. In the CTE treatments, we trimmed branches, but we did not fell trees. We expected that during the 14-year period after initial canopy trimming, regrowth of branches and stems …

Ecophysio-Optical Traits Of Semiarid Nebraska Grasslands Under Different Juniperus Virginiana And Pinus Ponderosa Canopy Covers, Anastasios Mazis, Julie A. Fowler, Jeremy Hiller, Yuzhen Zhou, Brian Wardlow, David A. Wedin, Tala Awada

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Despite conservation efforts in the U.S. Great Plains, woody species have continued to expand at an unprecedented rate, threatening key ecosystem services and resilience. Cross-scale monitoring of these grasslands is key to successful integrative management strategies. In this study we measured plant optical traits derived from hyperspectral proximal sensing techniques with a field spectrometer, coupled with field-based measurements, including fluorescence and chlorophyll content, to determine the impacts of Juniperus virginiana and Pinus ponderosa expansion on grasslands health in Nebraska Sandhills, and investigated the use of optical-based approaches as indicators of successful monitoring of grasslands. Our results showed that higher woody …

Decay Of Woody Residues As The Counterfactual Treatment To Mobilization For Bioelectricity Generation, Max A. Blasdel

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Decay of woody debris is a major carbon flux for forests. Decay processes are not well documented in forest modeling frameworks but play an important role in forest carbon cycling and life cycle assessments of forest-derived products. The main drivers of decay are species, vertical location, and climate. A database of literature values for decay by tree species was created to parameterize a larger model of California forestland carbon cycling. A novel methodology was applied to vary these decay values for each species spatially based on climatic drivers of decay. This resulted in decay values for each species and size …

Effect Of Biomass Inlet Concentration On Mixing In A Double Screw Pyrolyzer, Breanna L. Marmur, Theodore J. Heindel

Breanna L. Marmur

The renewable energy industry relies on double screw pyrolyzers to convert cellulosic biomass into bio-oil. Bio-oil can then be converted into synthetic gasoline, diesel, and other transportation fuels, or can be converted into biobased chemicals for a wide range of applications. One of the processes by which bio-oil is produced in industry today is through fast pyrolysis, the fast thermal decomposition of organic material in the absence of oxygen. One type of pyrolyzer, a double screw pyrolyzer, features two intermeshing screws encased in a reactor which mechanically conveys and mixes the biomass and heat carrier media. The mixing effectiveness of …

Production And Economic Analyses Of Woody Biomass Utilization For Energy, John Edward Vance

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

A mechanized harvest system combined with whole-tree chipper producing mixed hardwood chips was investigated on two harvesting sites in the central Appalachian region, USA. Production and machine rate data of the operations were collected through time-motion study, with chipping time elements categorized into feeding, chipping, and loading. Chipping cycles averaged 21.5 minutes to produce 23.54 green tons per truckload, providing an hourly rate of 65.82 green tons/PMH (41.1 dry tons) by the whole-tree chipper. Total cycle time including truck delivery averaged 183 minutes, giving an hourly rate of 7.7 green tons/PMH (4.8 dry tons/PMH). The hourly cost of the harvesting …

Integrated Analysis Of Productivity And Biodiversity In A Southern Alberta Prairie, Ran Wang, John A. Gamon, Craig A. Emmerton, Haitao Li, Enrica Nestola, Gilberto Z. Pastorello, Olaf Menzer

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Grasslands play important roles in ecosystem production and support a large farming and grazing industry. An accurate and efficient way is needed to estimate grassland health and production for monitoring and adjusting management to get sustainable products and other ecosystem services. Previous studies of grasslands have shown varying relationships between productivity and biodiversity, with most showing either a positive or a hump-shaped relationship where productivity peaks at intermediate diversity. In this study, we used airborne imaging spectrometry combined with ground sampling and eddy covariance measurements to estimate the spatial pattern of production and biodiversity for two sites of contrasting productivity …

Interannual Variability In Dry Mixed-Grass Prairie Yield: A Comparison Of Modis, Spot, And Field Measurements, Donald C. Wehlage, John A. Gamon, Donnette Thayer, David V. Hildebrand

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Remote sensing is often used to assess rangeland condition and biophysical parameters across large areas. In particular, the relationship between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and above-ground biomass can be used to assess rangeland primary productivity (seasonal carbon gain or above-ground biomass “yield”). We evaluated the NDVI–yield relationship for a southern Alberta prairie rangeland, using seasonal trends in NDVI and biomass during the 2009 and 2010 growing seasons, two years with contrasting rainfall regimes. The study compared harvested biomass and NDVI from field spectrometry to NDVI from three satellite platforms: the Aqua and Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) …

Methods For The Spatial Modeling Of Forest Carbon In The Northern Forest, Alison Adams

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The ability to accurately assess forest carbon storage is critical to understanding global carbon cycles and the effects of changes in land cover on ecological processes. However, existing methods for calculating carbon storage do not explicitly account for differences in carbon stored by different species of trees. Those methods that do reflect some of this variability, such as remotely-sensing canopy structure to estimate biomass, can be resource-intensive and difficult to reproduce over past or future time steps in order to assess change. I examined the accuracy of several carbon mapping approaches to understand how specificity of forest type classification (for …

Application Of An Imputation Method For Geospatial Inventory Of Forest Structural Attributes Across Multiple Spatial Scales In The Lake States, U.S.A., Ram K. Deo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Credible spatial information characterizing the structure and site quality of forests is critical to sustainable forest management and planning, especially given the increasing demands and threats to forest products and services. Forest managers and planners are required to evaluate forest conditions over a broad range of scales, contingent on operational or reporting requirements. Traditionally, forest inventory estimates are generated via a design-based approach that involves generalizing sample plot measurements to characterize an unknown population across a larger area of interest. However, field plot measurements are costly and as a consequence spatial coverage is limited. Remote sensing technologies have shown remarkable …

Assessment Of A Rotenone Application Event At Mormon Island West Lake In Central Nebraska, Keith D. Koupal, Brian C. Peterson, Casey W. Schoenebeck

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Fisheries managers applied rotenone to Mormon Island West in August of 2010 to renovate a fish community that was hypothesized to be unbalanced (i.e., dominated with gizzard shad and common carp) based on standardized survey results. We estimated species-specific biomass following the lake renovation to provide a baseline biomass estimate for a sand pit lake and to evaluate the effectiveness of standardized sampling gears. Gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) were abundant in all sampling gears, but mostly stock-size (>175 mm total length) and larger individuals were caught in gill and trap nets and sub-stock (≤175 mm total length) …

Determination Of Kinetic Parameters From The Thermogravimetric Data Set Of Biomass Samples, Karol Postawa, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

This article describes methods of the determination of kinetic parameters from the thermogravimetric data set of biomass samples. It presents the methodology of the research, description of the needed equipment, and the method of analysis of thermogravimetric data. It describes both methodology of obtaining quantitative data such as kinetic parameters as well as of obtaining qualitative data like the composition of biomass. The study is focused mainly on plant biomass because it is easy in harvesting and preparation. Methodology is shown on the sample containing corn stover which is subsequently pyrolysed. The investigated sample show the kinetic of first order …

Slides: Celebrating Flpma: Land Use Planning At The Blm, Marcilynn Burke

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Marcilynn Burke, BLM Deputy Director - Programs and Policy, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, (Washington, D.C.)

30 slides

Slides: Costs And Benefits Of Oil Shale Development, James T. Bartis

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

Presenter: James T. Bartis, Senior Policy Researcher, Rand Corporation

21 slides

Slides: Impacts Of Oil Shale On Carbon Emissions, Jeremy Boak

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

Presenter: Dr. Jeremy Boak, Center for Oil Shale Technology & Research, Colorado School of Mines

43 slides

Slides: The Peril Of Energy Usage, Mike Tupper

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

Presenter: Mike Tupper, Executive Vice President, Composite Technology Development, Inc.

9 slides

Slides: "Mitaku Oyasin" Means "We Are All Related", Bob Gough

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Bob Gough, NativeEnergy, Inc.

72 slides

Slides: Fuel Choice Determines Transmission, Doug Larson

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Doug Larson, Western Interstate Energy Board

26 slides

Slides: Tribal Perspectives On Natural Resource Policy, Donald Wharton

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

Presenter: Donald Wharton, Native American Rights Fund

16 slides

Action On Global Warming: Making Room For Tribal Governments In The New Kind Of Wedge Issue, Dean B. Suagee

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Dean B. Suagee, Of Counsel, Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP, Washington, D.C.

1 page.

Slides: Got Government? A Look At What’S Behind Solving Climate Change In The Private Sector, Tom Arnold

Climate Change and the Future of the American West: Exploring the Legal and Policy Dimensions (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

Presenter: Tom Arnold, Terrapass, Inc., Menlo Park, CA.

15 slides.

Slides: Getting Onto A Path For Stabilizing Atmospheric Co2 At 450 Ppmv With “Near-At-Hand” Energy Technologies, Robert H. Williams

Climate Change and the Future of the American West: Exploring the Legal and Policy Dimensions (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

Presenter: Robert H. Williams, Senior Research Scientist, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.

35 slides.

A Simple Solution For The Thorny Problem Of Park Protection: Focusing On Alternatives, David Mastbaum

External Development Affecting the National Parks: Preserving "The Best Idea We Ever Had" (September 14-16)

116 pages (includes illustrations).

Contains footnotes and references.

Contains 3 attachments:

1) Article titled, "No Park Is an Island: A Simple Solution for the Thorny Problem of Park Protection," by David Mastbaum, from Resource Law Notes, Natural Resources Law Center.

2) Paper titled, "National Park Service War Work: December 7, 1941 to June 30, 1944" prepared by National Park Service.

3) Paper titled, "An Alternative to the Allen-Warner Valley Energy System: A Technical and Economic Analysis," by The Environmental Defense Fund, July 1980.