Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Long-Term Croplands Water Productivity In Response To Management And Climate In The Western Us Corn Belt, M. Khorchani, Tala Awada, M. Schmer, V. Jin, G. Birru, S.R.S. Dangal, Andrew E. Suyker, A. Freidenreich

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Multivariate Evaluation Of Flash Drought Across The United States, J. A. Otkin, Y. Zhong, T. W. Ford, M. C. Anderson, C. Hain, A. Hoell, Mark D. Svoboda, H. Wang

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

2023 San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative Annual Report, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative is a network for public agencies that serves the San Diego region to share expertise, leverage resources and advance comprehensive solutions to facilitate climate change planning. By partnering with academia, nonprofits, and businesses, the SDRCC also works to leverage the profile of regional leadership. This is the 2023 San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative Annual Report.

Borneo Stalagmite Evidence Of Significantly Reduced El Niño-Southern Oscillation Variability At 4.1 Kybp, C.M. Theaker, S.A. Carolin, C.C. Day, K.M. Cobb, S. Chen, Pamela R. Grothe, H.O. Couper

Earth and Environmental Sciences

The timing and geographic extent of a potential “4.2 ky event” remain highly contested. Here we present records of ENSO variability at 3.8 kyBP and 4.1 kyBP derived from a Borneo stalagmite, which suggest a significant change in ENSO properties between these time intervals. The Borneo records show evidence of significantly reduced ENSO activity at 4.1 kyBP, relative to other measured windows within the Holocene. This reduced ENSO activity coincides with a period of drier conditions and enhanced dust events in the Middle East that took place ∼4.0–4.3 kyBP. The Borneo records show evidence of enhanced ENSO activity at 3.8 …

Climate And Cognitive Performance: Examining The Relationship Between Extreme Temperatures And Students’ Academic Achievement In The United States, Sophia Kestell

CMC Senior Theses

This study explores how exposure to high temperatures throughout the school year affects students' academic performance in the United States, focusing on third- and eighth-graders and economically disadvantaged students. This paper uses math and reading assessment data for students from the Standard Education Data Archive (SEDA) and temperature data from the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State. Using a fixed-effects ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model specification, this analysis investigates the relationship between temperature threshold and academic achievement in 333 US counties from 2010 through 2019. Additionally, county air conditioning coverage data are used to explore the relationship between temperatures …

Fire-Vegetation-Climate Interactions: An 8,000- Year Long Paleoecological Reconstruction From Round Lake, Idaho (Usa), Audrey Scott

All Master's Theses

The Idaho Transportation Department recently contracted archeologists from Eastern Washington University (EWU) to assess potential impacts to cultural resources near McArthur Lake in Bonner County, Idaho, as the result of rerouting U.S. Route 95. The goal of this research is to aid EWU archeologists in their interpretation of the artifacts recovered from the McArthur Lake site by providing them with a local paleoecological reconstruction. Lake sediment-based paleoecological reconstructions provide detailed information on fire history and vegetation change through time and indicate how landscapes responded to past climate variability and human activities. In summer 2022, a sediment core was extracted from …

Rhetoric On Climate Change And The Effects On Public Perceptions, Hailey Mina Rose Dossey

Undergraduate Scholarship

One of the extraordinary challenges humans are facing today is climate change and over the past two decades, the majority of the world has moved from questioning its legitimacy to accepting it as fact. With most people having accepted climate change as a reality, the goal of climate communication has shifted from spreading awareness to motivating audiences to take action. Through this analytical discussion, we will look into effective and ineffective methods of rhetoric as it can help guide us to a better understanding of why certain rhetoric that has previously been successful in other fields may not be the …

Environment And Sustainability: October 2023, Environment And Sustainability, Office Of The President

Environment and Sustainability Archives

• Replacing diesel with biomass for boiler at AKUH Nairobi,

• Monthly Movie Hour starting from October

• Paper savings from ICT optimisations

• All-vegetarian catering menu

• Zero-waste beach cleanup drive

• Sustainable Events Training

• Launch of 2023 President’s Challenge for Climate Solutions

• And much more…

Leadership And Employee Motivation In Climate-Focused Organizations: A Pathway To Transformation, Andrew Mwape

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Climate-focused organizations play a crucial role in addressing global environmental challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and sustainability. This article explores the dynamics of leadership and employee motivation in such organizations, emphasizing the importance of transformational leadership in fostering innovation, collaboration, and resilience. By aligning organizational missions with employee values, leaders can inspire commitment and enhance productivity. The paper examines the roles of civic capacity, organizational change, and cross-sector collaboration in driving climate action. Drawing on case studies and scholarly insights, it provides practical recommendations for leaders to navigate the complexities of managing climate-focused initiatives. The findings underscore the …

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

The Last Drought Frontier: Building A Drought Index For The State Of Alaska, Olivia Campbell

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

Drought is characterized by periods of below average precipitation. There are five major types of drought recognized in the literature: meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, socioeconomic, and ecological. A relatively new concept in the drought literature is “snow drought.” A key part of the definition of drought is that it is not always accompanied by extreme heat. This means drought can occur even in cold climates, cold seasons, and higher latitudes and altitudes, like Alaska. Drought is a natural part of climate variability, but Alaska’s climate is changing faster than any other state in the United States. Alaska is no stranger to …

Carbon Sequestration Capacities Of Different Land Cover Types And Climate Change, Nicole L. Melnick, Annabel Gorman, Adam F. Warren

Student Publications

Human-caused climate change creates a positive feedback loop that emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of being sequestered in the Earth or its oceans. A major contributor to this feedback loop is deforestation in order to use land for agriculture and livestock. This study aims to investigate differences in carbon sequestration capabilities of forests, pastures, and cropland through soil and tree sampling in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The main hypothesis of this study is that forested land will be the most effective at carbon sequestration. The loss on ignition method (LOI) was used to determine the percent organic material in …

Drought Affects Sex Ratio And Growth Of Painted Turtles In A Long-Term Study In Nebraska, Larkin A. Powell, Ellen P. Dolph, Charrissa R. Neil

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Climate forecasts suggest the Great Plains of North America have increased risk of droughts during global warming. Environmental factors have potential to influence turtle populations in aquatic habitats through temperature-dependent sex determination and influences on food availability. Long-term studies are critical to evaluate the influence of climatic variation on turtles. We used a 12-year set of mark-recapture data collected from painted turtles (Chrysemys picta, n = 162) in a pond in Keith County, Nebraska during 2005–2016 to assess variation in sex ratio and growth dynamics. Southwest Nebraska experienced two periods of drought during our study (Palmer Hydrologic Drought …

Environment And Sustainability: March 2023, Environment And Sustainability, Office Of The President

Environment and Sustainability Archives

• Green tips campaign

• Green Events Guide

• Supplier workshop for climate action

• New solar panels in Karachi and Kampala

• Organic vegetables supplied to NFSD, Stadium Road

• And much more…

The Evolution Of Life History Traits And Their Thermal Plasticity In Daphnia, Larry L. Bowman Jr., David M. Post

ETSU Faculty Works

Few studies have explored the relative strength of ecogeographic versus lineage-specific effects on a global scale, particularly for poikilotherms, those organisms whose internal temperature varies with their environment. Here, we compile a global dataset of life history traits in Daphnia, at the species-and population-level, and use those data to parse the relative influences of lineage-specific effects and climate. We also compare the thermal response (plasticity) of life history traits and their dependence on climate, temperature, precipitation, and latitude. We found that the mode of evolution for life history traits varies but that the thermal response of life history traits most …

Understanding Urban Heat Islands And Impacts, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, Nicole Fassina, A-Bel Gong, Darbi Berry

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

Urban heat islands play a large role in aggravating climate impacts on water, electricity, and air pollutants, and affect vulnerable communities disproportionately. This blog calls onto historical redlining and disinvestment and urban development as direct contributors of socioeconomic disparities and includes a case study of one of our region’s most vulnerable communities.

Understanding Binational Water Scarcity, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, Avery Aquino, Darbi Berry

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

Water scarcity has become a growing concern in many regions around the world, including the San Diego, CA and Tijuana, MX border region Water is a valuable resource that sustains all life on earth, and the San Diego/Tijuana border region is no exception. With increasing population growth, urbanization, and changing climate patterns on both sides of the border, the demand for water resources has significantly outstripped its availability in this region. As a result, it has become essential tounderstand the extent and impacts of water scarcity, and to develop innovative and sustainable solutions that can mitigate its effects.

Water And Agriculture In The San Diego Region, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, Olivia Frigyes, Darbi Berry, A-Bel Gong

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

The San Diego region is susceptible to drought with little annual precipitation. The rising temperature and changing precipitation is expected to affect the agriculture economy. Classified as having a mediterranean climate, San Diego has hot, dry summers and cooler, wet winters. In this blog, learn about how San Diego's climate shapes its agricultural communities' reliance on water supply.

2022 Annual Report, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative is a network for public agencies that serves the San Diego region to share expertise, leverage resources and advance comprehensive solutions to facilitate climate change planning. By partnering with academia, nonprofits, and businesses, the SDRCC also works to leverage the profile of regional leadership. This is the 2021 San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative Annual Report.

Cloud Seeding, Wildfire Smoke Emissions, And Solar Geoengineering: Why Is Climate Modification Unregulated?, Karen Bradshaw, Monika U. Ehrman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article is the first to identify that companies and agencies systemically modify climatic airspaces through wildfire smoke emissions, weather modification (cloud seeding to cause rain), and solar geoengineering. Climate modification is not a conspiracy theory or a hypothetical: it is happening, and it is changing weather patterns. Yet, climate modification is almost wholly unregulated. Further, it is also not recorded or tracked in systemic ways. That is to say, even government agencies do not have comprehensive records of whether; how often; or how much climate modification is occurring. The data is simply not gathered, aggregated, or stored. As a …

Food Waste Storage Gaseous Emissions Detection And Quantification Using Infrared Spectroscopy, Ryley A. Burton-Tauzer

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

A growing interest in sustainable waste management and the implementation of new policies have prompted a shift towards alternative resource recovery methods for organic waste, including food waste. To effectively assess alternative food waste treatment scenarios, it is important to evaluate the life cycle impacts associated with each scenario. The storage phase of food waste, encompassing its accumulation in kitchens, and storage in bins for collection and transportation, has been overlooked as a source of greenhouse gases in previous studies. This investigation aimed to identify the greenhouse gases emitted during the initial five-day period of low-oxygen storage. An open dynamic …

Perceptions Of Trail Safety In Humboldt County, California: An Analysis Of Safety Concerns, Factors That Impact Trail Use, And The Value People Place On Trails, Natalie C. Arroyo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Trails in Humboldt County, California that are used for both transportation and recreation have myriad community benefits. However, people’s concerns about feeling safe can affect trail use, design, and development, as well as how trails are valued and perceived by residents. There has been a lack of information in Humboldt County about trail safety perceptions despite it being a factor that repeatedly arises in infrastructure planning and funding conversations. My research was focused on answering the following questions: (1) How do Humboldt County trail users perceive their safety on and near trails? (2) What factors affect these perceptions about safety, …

An Integrative Salt Marsh Conceptual Framework For Global Comparisons, Erik S. Yando, Scott F. Jones, W. Ryan James, Denise D. Colombano, Diana I. Montemayor, Stefanie Nolte, Jacqueline L. Raw, Shelby L. Ziegler, Luzhen Chen, Daniele Daffonchio, Marco Fusi, Kerrylee Rogers, Liudmila Sergienko

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Salt marshes occur globally across climatic and coastal settings, providing key linkages between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, salt marsh science lacks a unifying conceptual framework; consequently, historically well-studied locations have been used as normative benchmarks. To allow for more effective comparisons across the diversity of salt marshes, we developed an integrative salt marsh conceptual framework. We review ecosystem-relevant drivers from global to local spatial scales, integrate these multi-scale settings into a framework, and provide guidance on applying the framework using specific variables on 11 global examples. Overall, this framework allows for appropriate comparison of study sites by accounting for …

Land Systems, Soils And Vegetation Of The Southern Goldfields And Great Western Woodlands Of Western Australia - Volume 1, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Paul Galloway

Technical Bulletins

This technical bulletin defines and maps the land resources of the southern Goldfields region of Western Australia (WA). The southern Goldfields region, as featured in this bulletin, covers 151,753 km². The western and eastern borders are variable because they align with various cadastral boundaries. The western survey border, which in part follows the WA State Barrier Fence, demarcates cleared agricultural land from the intact, western extent of the Great Western Woodlands. The eastern border abuts the westernmost Nullarbor pastoral lease boundaries, except for the north-easternmost and south-easternmost edges which continue into Crown land. Major towns are Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie …

Land Systems, Soils And Vegetation Of The Southern Goldfields And Great Western Woodlands Of Western Australia - Volume 2, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Paul Galloway

Technical Bulletins

This technical bulletin defines and maps the land resources of the southern Goldfields region of Western Australia (WA). The southern Goldfields region, as featured in this bulletin, covers 151,753 km². The western and eastern borders are variable because they align with various cadastral boundaries. The western survey border, which in part follows the WA State Barrier Fence, demarcates cleared agricultural land from the intact, western extent of the Great Western Woodlands. The eastern border abuts the westernmost Nullarbor pastoral lease boundaries, except for the north-easternmost and south-easternmost edges which continue into Crown land. Major towns are Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie …

Remote Ambient Aerosols Found In The Southern Great Plains And Eastern North Atlantic: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Optical Behavior And Aerosol-Cloud Interaction, Daniel J. Bonanno

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The data presented in this thesis showcases the investigation of various aerosol types and the role they play in the hydrological system and global climate models. Long-range transport aerosols, including atmospheric soot, mineral dust, and ammonium sulfate, in addition to near-site sources such as secondary organic aerosols (SOAs), sea spray, aliphatic hydrocarbons, and other organics, are prioritized in the analysis of two separate remote field studies. Each of these campaigns revealed the juxtaposition between dry summer months and wet winter months, and the connection between seasonal variability and sample collection. Two spectromicroscopic techniques were used to elucidate chemical composition, morphology …

Geology, Soils And Climate Of Western Australia's Wine Regions, Peter J. Tille, Angela Stuart-Street, Peter S. Gardiner

Bulletins 4000 -

This bulletin details what is special and unique about the geology, soil and climate of the south-west of Western Australia (WA), an area that encompasses the state’s 9 wine regions.

We have arranged the information into 2 parts:

• In Part 1, we broadly describe the special geological, soil and climate features of the south-west of WA to provide context for the wine regions.

• In Part 2, we describe the geology, soil and climate of the regions and subregions of the Geographical Indications (GI) scheme (administered by Wine Australia) for WA.

Through this work we have found that the wine regions …

Analysis Of Precipitation Reversals Over The State Of Arkansas, Mallory Hoff

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Recent studies have examined hydroclimate precipitation reversals, but because it is a newly defined concept, there is minimal research available on how reversals are changing, and it has not been widely investigated. Precipitation reversal is the rapid switch between wet and dry periods or “precipitation extremes and the opposite” (McKay, 2018), based on precipitation measurements in this case. A single reversal is the immediate transition from a wet to a dry period or from a dry to a wet period. Changes in reversals have not been thoroughly reported and this gap in research creates a risk of unpredictable conditions that …

Environment And Sustainability: October 2022, Environment And Sustainability, Office Of The President

Environment and Sustainability Archives

• Launch of the ‘Sustainability Leaders’ series

• University’s first decarbonization plan developed and approved

• AKUH wins environmental excellence award

• Our climate work gets featured on radio

• And much more..

Climate Impacts On North American Quail, Shelby M. Perry, Erin Moser, Jeffrey G. Whitt, Kelly S. Reyna

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

North America’s quail population trends are often linked to regional climate. Extreme climate events such as severe drought, hard freezes, or excessive winter precipitation can reduce quail populations by as much as 84%. Above-average spring and summer temperatures coincident with drought can reduce the laying season for quail by ≤60 days. Exposure of quail eggs to high temperatures during preincubation can initiate and alter embryonic development. Here, we review the impacts of extreme climate events and a changing climate on the survival, reproduction, and population trends of 6 North American quail species: California quail (Callipepla californica), Gambel’s quail …