Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Solar-Powered Microgrids In Northern California: An Opportunity For Resilience, Marina Riddle

Master's Projects and Capstones

Planned and unplanned power outages have been increasing in frequency and duration, negatively impacting all public sectors, and threatening public safety. These outages are deadly to those who rely on medical devices. As climate change-fueled extreme weather events (wildfires, earthquakes, storms, etc.) also increase in frequency, our electrical grid must be prepared to bounce back. Microgrids provide necessary redundancy and reliability. Through a novel GIS suitability analysis, based on solar radiation, land use type, local energy demand, distance to transmission lines, distance to roads, and slope, optimal locations for solar-powered microgrids throughout Northern California were determined. The counties of Fresno, …

The Perception Of Natural Resource Management In Nebraska: Efforts For Cross-Boundary Collaborative Management, Daniel Morales

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nebraska’s agricultural landscapes are rapidly changing, affecting natural resources and their successful management. I utilized two surveys and scenario planning (Chapters 1: statewide survey, 2: local survey, and 3: scenario-planning workshop) to investigate attitudes and perceptions of natural resource management and cross-boundary collaboration. My first objective focused on determining what prevents Nebraskans from addressing natural resources challenges, considering demographics amongst generations and the type of areas they live in (rural versus urban). The second objective focused on whether landowners engaged with their community in managing natural resources. The third objective was to develop alternative future scenarios for the Denton Hills …

Prioritizing The Protection And Creation Of Natural And Naturebased Features For Coastal Resilience Using A Gis-Based Ranking Framework – An Exportable Approach, Jessica Hendricks, Pamela Mason, Julie Herman, Carl Hershner

VIMS Articles

Increasing the preservation and creation of natural and nature-based features (NNBF), like wetlands, living shorelines, beaches, dunes and other natural features to improve community resilience in the face of increasing coastal flooding may be achieved by highlighting the locally relevant benefits that these features can provide. Here we present a novel application of the least-cost geospatial modeling approach to generate inundation pathways that highlight landscape connections between NNBF and vulnerable infrastructure. Inundation pathways are then used to inform a ranking framework that assesses NNBF based on their provision of benefits and services to vulnerable infrastructure and for the broader community …

Mobilizing Regional Action: Insights From The San Diego Region Coastal Resilience Roadmap, Darbi Berry, Civicwell, Sdrcc

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

This case study details the process of developing the San Diego Region Coastal Resilience Roadmap with particular attention to how this process can be replicated in other regions throughout California – for coastal resilience, as well as other climate impacts and community priorities.

Panarchy Theory For Convergence, Shana M. Sundstrom, David G. Angeler, Jesse Bell, Michael J. Hayes, Jennifer Hodbod, Babak Jalalzadeh‑Fard, Rezaul Mahmood, Elizabeth Vanwormer, Craig R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Coping with surprise and uncertainty resulting from the emergence of undesired and unexpected novelty or the sudden reorganization of systems at multiple spatiotemporal scales requires both a scientific process that can incorporate diverse expertise and viewpoints, and a scientific framework that can account for the structure and dynamics of interacting social-ecological systems (SES) and the inherent uncertainty of what might emerge in the future. We argue that combining a convergence scientific process with a panarchy framework provides a pathway for improving our understanding of, and response to, emergence. Emergent phenomena are often unexpected (e.g., pandemics, regime shifts) and can be …

Connecting Distinct Realms Along Multiple Dimensions: A Meta-Ecosystem Resilience Perspective, David G. Angeler, Jani Heino, Juan Rubio-Ríos, J. Jesús Casas

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Resilience research is central to confront the sustainability challenges to ecosystems and human societies in a rapidly changing world. Given that social-ecological problems span the entire Earth system, there is a critical need for resilience models that account for the connectivity across intricately linked ecosystems (i.e., freshwater, marine, terrestrial, atmosphere). We present a resilience perspective of meta-ecosystems that are connected through the flow of biota, matter and energy within and across aquatic and terrestrial realms, and the atmosphere. We demonstrate ecological resilience sensu Holling using aquatic-terrestrial linkages and riparian ecosystems more generally. A discussion of applications in riparian ecology and …

Resilience Theory And Coerced Resilience In Agriculture, S. M. Sundstrom, D. G. Angeler, C. R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Panarchy Suggests Why Management Mitigates Rather Than Restores Ecosystems From Anthropogenic Impact, David G. Angeler, Ran Hur

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Panarchy, a model of dynamic systems change at multiple, interconnected spatiotemporal scales, allows assessing whether management influences ecological processes and resilience. We assessed whether liming, a management action to counteract anthropogenic acidification, influenced scale-specific temporal fluctuation frequencies of benthic invertebrates and phytoplankton assemblages in lakes. We also tested whether these fluctuations correlated with proxies of liming (Ca:Mg ratios) to quantify scale-specific management effects. Using an ecosystem experiment and monitoring data, time series analyses (1998–2019) revealed significant multiscale temporal (and thus panarchy) structure for littoral invertebrates across limed and reference lakes. Such patterns were inconsistent for sublittoral invertebrates and phytoplankton. When …

Increasing Use Of Natural And Nature-Based Features To Build Resilience To Storm-Driven Flooding, Final Report, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science, Pamela Mason, Jessica Hendricks, Julie Herman, Karen Duhring, Carl Hershner

Reports

In coastal Virginia today, local governments are dealing with recurrent flooding driven by coastal storms, exacerbated by rising sea level and increased frequency of intense rain events. At the same time, they are confronted with increasing demands on limited resources to address issues coastal flooding in concert with water quality, wetlands management, shoreline erosion, habitat, and community needs such as infrastructure, flood insurance and open space. One solution is to maximize the protection of existing and implement new natural and nature-based features (NNBFs) to capitalize on the provision of multiple benefits to address many of these coastal issues.

There are …

The Emergence Of Convergence, Shana M. Sundstrom, David G. Angeler, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Jorge H. Garcıá, Joseph A. Hamm, Orville Huntington, Craig R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Science is increasingly a collaborative pursuit. Although the modern scientific enterprise owes much to individuals working at the core of their field, humanity is increasingly confronted by highly complex problems that require the integration of a variety of disciplinary and methodological expertise. In 2016, the U.S. National Science Foundation launched an initiative prioritizing support for convergence research as a means of “solving vexing research problems, in particular, complex problems focusing on societal needs.” We discuss our understanding of the objectives of convergence research and describe in detail the conditions and processes likely to generate successful convergence research. We use our …

Divergent Neural And Endocrine Responses In Wild-Caught And Laboratory-Bred Rattus Norvegicus, Joanna Jacob, Sally Watanabe, Jonathan Richardson, Nick Gonzales, Emily Ploppert, Garet Lahvis, Aaron Shiels, Sadie Wenger, Kelly Saverino, Janhavi Bhalerao, Brendan Crockett, Erin Burns, Olivia Harding, Krista Fischer-Stenger, Kelly Lambert

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Although rodents have represented the most intensely studied animals in neurobiological investigations for more than a century, few studies have systematically compared neural and endocrine differences between wild rodents in their natural habitats and laboratory strains raised in traditional laboratory environments. In the current study, male and female Rattus norvegicus rats were trapped in an urban setting and compared to weight-and sex-matched conspecifics living in standard laboratory housing conditions. Brains were extracted for neural assessments and fecal boli were collected for endocrine [corticosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)] assays. Additionally, given their role in immune and stress functions, spleen and adrenal weights …

Benthic Community Dynamics And Stony Coral Demographics In Florida In Relation To Acute Disturbances And Chronic Pressures, Nicholas P. Jones

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The persistence of coral reef communities is threatened by a suite of pressures operating at varying spatial and temporal scales. In general, acute disturbances (short term stochastic events such as marine heatwaves or hurricanes) and chronic pressures, such as ocean warming, have caused the most significant changes to stony coral assemblages (order Scleractinia) and continue to impair recovery potential. Additionally, many coral reefs are subject to local chronic anthropogenic pressures resulting in poor water quality or sedimentation, which further impact stony corals and shape benthic community structure, particularly near urbanized coastlines. For the viability of communities on coral reefs, a …

A Climate Resilience Research Renewal Agenda: Learning Lessons From The Covid-19 Pandemic For Urban Climate Resilience, Mark Pelling, Winston T. L. Chow, Eric Chu, Richard Dawson, David Dodman, Arabella Fraser, Bronwyn Hayward, Luna Khirfan, Timon Mcphearson, Anjal Prakash, Gina Ziervogel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Learning lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic opens an opportunity for enhanced research and action on inclusive urban resilience to climate change. Lessons and their implications are used to describe a climate resilience research renewal agenda. Three key lessons are identified. The first lesson is generic, that climate change risk coexists and interacts with other risks through overlapping social processes, conditions and decision-making contexts. Two further lessons are urban specific: that networks of connectivity bring risk as well as resilience and that overcrowding is a key indicator of the multiple determinants of vulnerability to both COVID-19 and climate change impacts. From …

Analysis Of Urbanization And Climate Change Effects On Community Resilience In The Rio Grande Valley, South Texas, George Atisa, Alexis Racelis

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Disruptive development events have tested and will continue to test community resilience as people work to balance healthy living, economic growth, and environmental quality. Aspects of urbanization, if not designed and guided by healthy living strategies, convert natural areas into built environments, thus reducing the diversity of plant and animal species that are the foundation of resilience in communities. In this study, we attempted to answer the following question: What are the most effective ways to ensure that ongoing urbanization and climate change do not negatively affect ecological services and community resilience in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV)? The region …

Assessing The Efficacy Of California’S Wildfire And Forest Resilience Action Plan, Chloe Nelson

Master's Projects and Capstones

California’s wildfire threat eclipses current forestry management and wildfire mitigation strategies in place to protect people, infrastructure, and the natural environment. Climate change escalates wildfire risks with declining water supply coupled with hotter, drier conditions. California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan attempts to integrate and build upon previously successful wildfire resilience plans to amplify the scale and pace of the state’s land management and community protections. This research assesses the plan’s efficacy to respond to the growing wildfire threat. This study investigates if there is equitable planning for the needs of high-wildfire risk groups living in the WUI and …

Adaptation, Transformation And Resilience In Healthcare Comment On “Government Actions And Their Relation To Resilience In Healthcare During The Covid-19 Pandemic In New South Wales, Australia And Ontario, Canada”, David G. Angeler, Harris A. Eyre, Michael Berk, Craig R. Allen, William Hynes, Igor Linkov

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Adaptive capacity is a critical component of building resilience in healthcare (RiH). Adaptive capacity comprises the ability of a system to cope with and adapt to disturbances. However, “shocks,” such as the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, can potentially exceed critical adaptation thresholds and lead to systemic collapse. To effectively manage healthcare systems during periods of crises, both adaptive and transformative changes are necessary. This commentary discusses adaptation and transformation as two complementary, integral components of resilience and applies them to healthcare. We treat resilience as an emergent property of complex systems that accounts for multiple, often disparately distinct …

Disturbance Reduces Fungal White-Rot Litter Mat Cover In A Wet Subtropical Forest, D. Jean Lodge, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Grizelle González, Mareli Sánchez-Julia, Sarah Stankavich

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Fungi that bind leaf litter into mats and produce white-rot via degradation of lignin and other aromatic compounds influence forest nutrient cycling and soil fertility. Extent of white-rot litter mats formed by basidiomycete fungi in Puerto Rico decreased in response to disturbances—a simulated hurricane treatment executed by canopy trimming and debris addition in 2014, a drought in 2015, a treefall, and two hurricanes 10 days apart in September 2017. Percent fungal litter mat cover ranged from 0.4% after Hurricanes Irma and Maria to a high of 53% in forest with undisturbed canopy prior to the 2017 hurricanes, with means mostly …

Marsh Vulnerability Index And Index Applied To Coastal Shorelines, Molly Mitchell, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Julie Herman, Jessica Hendricks, Evan Hill

Data

The Marsh Vulnerability Index (MVI) is a spatially-resolved assessment of Virginia tidal marsh vulnerabilities from important climate-change drivers – erosion vulnerability, inundation from sea level rise, and salinity intrusion from sea level rise – that can support management decisions. Effects were evaluated for two time-steps (near and longer-term planning horizons): 2050 and 2100.

The Marsh Vulnerability Index Applied to Coastal Shorelines layer extends the MVI evaluation for use in evaluating living shoreline (i.e., created or enhanced shoreline marshes) vulnerability and applies it to tidal shorelines in coastal Virginia. Outputs from this analysis were intended to evaluate the vulnerability of areas …

Tracking Spatial Regimes In Animal Communities: Implications For Resilience-Based Management, C. P. Roberts, D. Uden, C. Allen, D. G. Angler, L. A. Powell, B. Allred, J. D. Maestas, R. Twidwell Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fourteen Propositions For Resilience, Fourteen Years Later, Morgan Mathisonslee, Steven J. Lade, Conor Barnes, Karina Benessaiah, Erin T.H. Crockett, Andrea S. Downing, Julie A. Fowler, Rachel Belisle-Toler, Shubhechchha Sharma, Klara J. Winkler

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In 2006, Walker et al. published an article titled, “A Handful of Heuristics and Some Propositions for Understanding Resilience in Social-ecological Systems.” The article was incorporated into the Ecology and Society special feature, Exploring Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems. Walker et al. identified five heuristics and posed 14 propositions for understanding resilience in social-ecological systems. At the time, the authors hoped the paper would promote experimentation, critique, and application of these ideas in resilience and social-ecological systems research. To determine the extent to which these propositions have achieved the authors’ hopes, we reviewed the scientific literature on socialecological systems since the …

Social Vulnerability, Social-Ecological Resilience And Coastal Governance, J. Jozaei, W. Chuang, C. Allen, A. Garmestani

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Resilience Of Working Agricultural Landscapes, S. Sundstrom, C. Allen, J. Hodbod

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Scales Of Coercion: Resilience, Regimes, And Panarchy, D. Angeler, C. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Targeted Grazing And Mechanical Thinning Enhance Forest Stand Resilience Under A Narrow Range Of Wildfire Scenarios, V. M. Donovan, C. P. Roberts, D. T. Fogarty, David A. Wedin, D. Twidwell

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Recovery Time, Biomass Characteristics And Recovery Mechanisms Of Seagrass Following Simulated Grazing, Caitlyn O'Dea, Paul Lavery, Chanelle Webster, Kathryn Mcmahon

Research Datasets

The database compiles data published on seagrass recovery time, biomass characteristics, and recovery mechanisms following simulated grazing disturbance experiment in the Swan Canning Estuary, Western Australia. Observations of swans in the vicinity is also included.

Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …

Learning From The Seed: Illuminating Black Girlhood In Sustainable Living Paradigms, Toni Powell Powell Young

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The contemporary image of sustainable living presents a culturally narrow view of its participants and the manner of engaging in sustainable living paradigms. Through crystallization (Ellingson, 2009) I present a mixed methods approach that emphasizes participant observation, visual, mediated, and discursive analyses, as well as demonstrates the efficacy of Culture Centered Black Feminist Auto/Ethnography. This project seeks to highlight and place within historical context, the ways in which African American girls, who are largely left out of the prevailing image of sustainability, perform and articulate sustainability for themselves, in their homes, and throughout their home communities.

In their everyday lives, …

Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Benefit To Climate-Displaced And Host Communities, Gül Aktürk, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Climate change is borderless, and its impacts are not shared equally by all communities. It causes an imbalance between people by creating a more desirable living environment for some societies while erasing settlements and shelters of some others. Due to floods, sea level rise, destructive storms, drought, and slow-onset factors such as salinization of water and soil, people lose their lands, homes, and natural resources. Catastrophic events force people to move voluntarily or involuntarily. The relocation of communities is a debatable climate adaptation measure which requires utmost care with human rights, ethics, and psychological well-being of individuals upon the issues …

Coastal Natural And Nature-Based Features (Nnbfs) Ranked: Co-Benefits For Coastal Buildings And Target Areas For The Creation Of New Or Restoration Of Nnbfs In Coastal Virginia, Pamela Mason, Jessica Hendricks, Julie Herman

Data

Community resilience to storm-driven coastal flooding is improved with the presence of natural and nature-based features (NNBFs) such as wetlands, wooded areas, living shorelines, and beaches. These natural and created features can provide multiple benefits for a local community, including mitigating the impacts of storm surge and sea-level rise and allowing communities to take advantage of programmatic incentive programs like FEMA’s Community Rating System and nutrient reduction crediting.

As part of a NOAA-funded project NA17NOS4730142, an exportable geospatial protocol and NNBF ranking methodology was developed with the goal of incentivizing the protection and creation of NNBFs across Chesapeake Bay localities …

Areas Suitable For Living Shorelines: Ranked For Co-Benefits Provided, Pamela Mason, Tamia Rudnicky, Jessica Hendricks, Marcia Berman

Data

The Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has been developing tools to guide local governments in shoreline management. Using a number of criteria, the Shoreline Management Model (SMM) determines appropriate shoreline best management practices. This layer contains only those areas determined to be suitable for non-structural plant marsh or plant marsh with sill recommendations. These areas are prioritized using a scoring method that considers nutrient removal potential, benefits provided to coastal buildings, the potential for the project to provide habitat continuity and enhancement, and the potential the project to add resilience for …