Environmental Sciences Commons^™

From Pixels To Plants: Remote Sensing Of California Invasive Plants, Kenneth Rangel

Master's Projects and Capstones

Invasive plants cause significant impacts to ecosystems, the economy, and human health. California has experienced significant plant invasions and is well suited to future invasion because of its Mediterranean climate and human disturbance. Eradication or control of invasive plant species requires a detailed understanding of their spatial distribution, which typically involves on the ground surveys that can be expensive or inconsistent. Remote sensing offers a potential alternative or supplement to in-person invasive plant mapping. This study performed a comparative analysis of 41 remote sensing studies that mapped the distribution of California invasive plants. I found that while high spectral resolution …

Thermal Physiology Of Sceloporus Olivaceus And Sceloporus Variabilis In South Texas, Ian Rockel

Masters Theses (Archived)

This study explores the thermal physiology of two sympatric lizard species, Sceloporus olivaceus (Texas spiny lizard) and Sceloporus variabilis (rose-bellied lizard), in South Texas. I document the metabolic rate and its temperature sensitivity, thermal limits, and performance at different temperatures to better understand the impact of rising temperatures and urbanization on these ectotherms, whose body temperature and, consequently, metabolic rate, activity level, and reproductive success depend on their thermal environment. We hypothesize that S. olivaceus will exhibit greater thermal resilience owing to its broader latitudinal range, variable habitat usage within Texas, and presumed more versatile thermoregulatory strategies. Scelorporus olivaceus's higher …

The Water That Will Be: A Qualitative Look Into The Effects Of Visual Imagery On Participation In Water Conservation Initiatives, Shane Martin White

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the role of visual imagery in water conservation initiatives, focusing on its impact on public understanding, emotional connection, and willingness to participate. Drawing from the Theory of Planned Behavior and Affective Disposition Theory, the study investigated how art interventions can enhance comprehension and engagement with water conservation easements. Utilizing qualitative methods, including interviews, focus groups and PhotoVoice, data was collected from stakeholders in the Illinois River Watershed region. The research examined current levels of understanding regarding conservation easements, evaluated the effectiveness of visual imagery interventions in enhancing public awareness, and identified the potential for collaborative approaches between …

Vascular Epiphyte Population Dynamics Within Human-Modified Landscapes Of Guadalupe, Cerro Punta, Chiriquí, Panamá, Lucine Tashjian

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants non-parasitically, and globally, epiphytes compose a very large and diverse group. They are especially abundant and species-rich in the tropics- particularly, in tropical montane forest ecosystems. Human population growth in the tropics, however, has resulted in significant declines in forest cover with land being converted largely for agricultural purposes. Studies on epiphytes have traditionally been undertaken in pristine, undisturbed forest ecosystems, yet terrestrial land conversion has increased the need to understand the value of human-modified ecosystems for epiphytic populations and biodiversity conservation. This study sought to understand the relationship between human modification …

My Legacy Document: A Story Told Through A Pedagogical Lens Of Three Landscapes. School, Work, And Faith, Debra Williams

Dissertations

Too often professionals, when answering the question “Who are you?”, resort to listing what they do. Although individuals are gifted, experienced, and qualified, as these persons influence and significantly impact others, one could get lost as a person and be unfulfilled. That’s a problem.

Positioning myself as the study of research, utilizing autoethnography as the chosen methodology, my doctoral journey is chronicled. Three landscapes, school, work, and faith, serve as the areas of emphasis.

Demographic Consequences Of Off-River Nesting For Piping Plover (Charadrius Melodus) And Interior Least Tern (Sternula Antillarum Athalassos) In The Lower Platte River System, Nebraska, Elsa M. Forsberg

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

Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus; hereafter, plovers) and interior least terns (Sternula antillarum athalassos; hereafter, terns) are two avian species that nest along the Lower Platte River system (LPRS) in Nebraska. In the LPRS, river sandbars provide natural nesting habitat, but off-river sites provide substantial nesting habitat especially when sandbar habitat is scarce. Although presumed to be important for the persistence of plovers and terns, off-river habitat is not self-sustaining and predicted to decline. Understanding the vital rates of plovers and terns in the LPRS will inform the role of off- river sites in the future conservation …

Field-Based Measurement Tools To Distinguish Clonal Typha Taxa And Estimate Biomass: A Resource For Conservation And Restoration, Brian M. Ohsowski, Cassidy Redding, Pamela Geddes, Shane Lishawa

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Two species of clonal Typha [T. latifolia (native) and T. angustifolia (exotic)] hybridize to form the highly invasive, heterotic (high vigor) T. × glauca in North American wetlands leading to increased primary production, litter accumulation, and biodiversity loss. Conservation of T. latifolia has become critical as invasive Typha has overwhelmed wetlands. In the field, Typha taxa identification is difficult due to subtle differences in morphology, and molecular identification is often unfeasible for managers. Furthermore, improved methods to non-destructively estimate Typha biomass is imperative to enhance ecological impact assessments. To address field-based Typha ID limitations, our study developed a predictive …

A Computational Profile Of Invasive Lionfish In Belize: A New Insight On A Destructive Species, Joshua E. Balan

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Since their discovery in the region in 2009, invasive Indonesian-native lionfish have been taking over the Belize Barrier Reef. As a result, populations of local species have dwindled as they are either eaten or outcompeted by the invaders. This has led to devastating losses ecologically and economically; massive industries in the local nations, such as fisheries and tourism, have suffered greatly. Attempting to combat this, local organizations, from nonprofits to ecotourism companies, have been manually spear-hunting them on scuba dives to cull the population. One such company, Reef Conservation Institute (ReefCI), operating out of Tom Owens Caye outside of Placencia, …

A Coupled Model Of Population, Poaching, And Economic Dynamics To Assess Rhino Conservation Through Legal Trade, Henry Doyle, Kylie Champagne, Ditto Rajpal, Grace Seebeck, David J. Gerberry

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Rhinoceros populations in Africa are in peril largely due to the high value of their horns and the poaching that ensues. The strategy of legalizing the international trade of rhino horn is receiving increased support among both the people and government officials in Africa. Many in the international conservation community remain opposed to the idea. The legalization strategy is straightforward in theory: legalizing the trade of rhino horn will introduce a large quantity of horn to the market, the increased supply will lead to lower prices for rhino horn, and lower prices will reduce the overall poaching pressure these animals …

Integrating Moral Norms And Stewardship Identity Into The Theory Of Planned Behavior To Understand Altruistic Conservation Behavior Among Hunters In Southwestern Utah (Usa), Jacob C. Richards, Zachary D. Miller, Russell Norvell, Jordan W. Smith

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

We integrate moral norms and stewardship identity into the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict the use of non-lead ammunition in the California condor recovery zone of southwestern Utah. Data were collected from licensed hunters via an online survey. Structural equation models of the TPB without and with the moral norms and stewardship identity constructs were compared to evaluate the utility of integrating these constructs into the TPB. Moral norms did have a significant direct influence on hunters’ behavioral intentions. Both moral norms and stewardship identity had significant indirect influences on behavioral intentions via the core constructs of the …

Factors Associated With Acoustic Bat Presence During Spring Emergence In The Appalachian Mountains Of Western Virginia, Emily Kirk Pody

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Studies of threats that bats face during hibernation have increased in response to white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has ravaged North American bat populations. However, impacts of WNS on bat ecology during spring emergence, when bats are potentially recovering from infection and allocating resources for reproduction, is relatively understudied. As more bat species become listed at the federal and state level, the need to understand the factors associated with spring emergence is critical for improving conservation guidelines and habitat management practices. Acoustic monitoring is an efficient method for monitoring bat presence for prolonged periods of time, giving biologists …

Limitations Of Invasive Snake Control Tools In The Context Of A New Invasion On An Island With Abundant Prey, Shane R. Siers, Melia G. Nafus, Jereid E. Calaor, Rachel M. Volsteadt, Matthew S. Grassi, Megan Volsteadt, Aaron F. Collins, Patrick D. Barnhart, Logan T. Huse, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Diane L. Vice

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In October 2020, a new population of invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) was discovered on the 33-ha Cocos Island, 2.5 km off the south coast of Guam, United States. Cocos Island is a unique conservation resource, providing refuge for many lizards and birds, including endangered species, which were extirpated from mainland Guam by invasive predators including brown treesnakes. We sought to evaluate the usefulness of toxic baiting with acetaminophen-treated carrion baits and cage trapping, common tools for the control of brown treesnakes on mainland Guam, as potential eradication tools on Cocos Island. We evaluated multiple bait types and …

Eradication Of Feral Swine From A Barrier Island In Florida, Usa: An Examination Of Effort And Multi-Method, Multi-Species Population Indexing, Richard M. Engeman, Eric A. Tillman, Betsy A. Evans, John C. Griffin, Garrison Grobaski, Bradley S. Smith, John Stark, Bryan M. Kluever

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) were targeted for and successfully eradicated from Saint Vincent Island (SVI), a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) along the coast of Florida’s panhandle to protect its habitats and uncharacteristically high diversity of wildlife species for barrier islands in the region, including federal and state-listed threatened and endangered species. The eradication effort was initiated in early 2015 and concluded in 2019. A total of 438 feral swine were removed from the Island, 417 by federal control experts and 21 by recreational hunters. In general, the amount of effort needed to eradicate each feral swine slowly increased …

Impacts Of Anthropogenic Sedimentation On Shell-Bed Habitats In Lake Tanganyika, Africa, Michael Soreghan, Andrew Cohen, Michael M. Mcglue, Kevin M. Yeager, Emily Ryan, Alison Johns, Ishmael Kimirei

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Lake Tanganyika, in central Africa, contains a diverse and endemic fauna under threat from global climate change, overfishing, and nearshore sediment pollution. Previous studies of sediment pollution focused justifiably on impacts along rocky shorelines where diversity is high, but Lake Tanganyika also contains widespread shelly accumulations (shell beds) unprecedented in the modern East African lakes, but where impacts are less con- strained. Here we integrate multiple datasets from three sites along the Tanzanian shoreline to explore how variation in sedimentation rates and sediment quality impacts shell-bed substrate and diversity and abundance of ostracodes and sponges across sites that exhibit varying …

Trends And Patterns Of Plant Conservation Research In Borneo: A Review, Rizmoon Nurul Zulkarnaen, Sabri Mohd. Ali, Daniele Cicuzza

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

Borneo hosts exceptional plant diversity, including numerous endemic species, but faces significant threats from rapid habitat loss driven by deforestation and land-use changes. This study aimed to analyze research trends and forecast future directions through a bibliometric analysis of Scopus data spanning from 1914 to 2023. The bibliometric analysis included publication outputs, citation patterns, thematic mapping, and keyword co-occurrence. We used VOSviewer to visualize bibliometric networks and the Bibliometrix package in R to perform advanced bibliometric analysis and interactive data exploration. The analysis revealed a continuous rise in publications (998 documents), with the Journal of Ecology identified as the most …

Building A Coordinated Framework For Research And Monitoring In Large-Scale International Marine Protected Areas: The Ross Sea Region As A Model System, Cassandra Brooks, Sharon Stammerjohn, Grant Ballard, Alice K. Duvivier, Eileen Hofmann, Michelle Larue, Cara Nissen, Alexander J. Orona, B. Jack Pan, Annie E. Schmidt, Nathan Walker, George M. Watters, John Weller

CCPO Publications

To fulfill their conservation potential and provide safeguards for biodiversity, marine protected areas (MPAs) need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management through effective evaluation of ecosystem dynamics. However, coordination is challenging, often due to knowledge gaps caused by inadequate access to data and resources, compounded by insufficient communication between scientists and managers. We propose to use the world's largest MPA in the Ross Sea, Antarctica as a model system to create a comprehensive framework for an interdisciplinary network supporting research and monitoring that could be implemented in other remote large-scale international MPAs. Our proposed framework has three key components: …

Half Of Atlantic Reef-Building Corals At Elevated Risk Of Extinction Due To Climate Change And Other Threats, Luis Gutierrez, Beth Polidoro, David Obura, Francoise Cabada-Blanco, Christi Linardich, Emma Pettersson, Paul Pearce-Kelly, Krista Kemppinen, Juan Jose Alvarado, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, Anastazia Banaszak, Pilar Casado De Amezua, James Crabbe, Aldo Croquer, Joshua Feingold, Elizabeth Goergen, Stefano Goffredo, Bert Hoeksema, Danwei Huang, Emma Kennedy, Diego Kersting, Marcelo Kitahara, Petar Kružić, Margaret Miller, Flavia Nunes, Juan Pablo Quimbayo, Andrea Rivera-Sosa, Rosa Rodríguez-Martínez, Nadia Santodomingo, Michael Sweet, Mark Vermeij, Estrella Villamizar, Greta Aeby, Khatija Alliji, Daniel Bayley, Elena Couce, Benjamin Cowburn, C. Isabel Nuñez Lendo, Sean Porter, Kaveh Samimi-Namin, Tom Shlesinger, Bryan Wilson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Atlantic reef-building corals and coral reefs continue to experience extensive decline due to increased stressors related to climate change, disease, pollution, and numerous anthropogenic threats. To understand the impact of ocean warming and reef loss on the estimated extinction risk of shallow water Atlantic reef-building scleractinians and milleporids, all 85 valid species were reassessed under the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, updating the previous Red List assessment of Atlantic corals published in 2008. For the present assessment, individual species declines were estimated based on the modeled coral cover loss (1989–2019) and projected onset of annual severe bleaching events (2020–2050) …

Patterns In Winter Stonefly Distribution Along A River Continuum And Land-Use Gradient In Northwest Arkansas Streams, Zachary Tipton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Freshwater ecosystems are facing a crisis with extinction rates of aquatic species exceeding those of their terrestrial counterparts by up to fivefold. This decline is predominantly attributed to evolving land use patterns within watersheds, leading to chemical and physical transformations in freshwater habitats. Northwest Arkansas (NWA) represents one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, undergoing substantial shifts in land use. Consequently, the status of aquatic life in this region remains uncertain. Addressing this concern, the latest Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan emphasizes the necessity of distribution and population data to guide conservation efforts for Species of Greatest Conservation Need …

Vegetated Coastal Ecosystems In The Southwestern Atlantic Ocean Are An Unexploited Opportunity For Climate Change Mitigation, Vanessa Hatje, Margareth Copertino, Vinicius F. Patire, Ximena Ovando, Josiah Ogbuka, Beverly J. Johnson, Hilary Kennedy, Pere Masque, Joel C. Creed

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Vegetated coastal ecosystems (mangroves, seagrasses, and saltmarshes, often called Blue Carbon ecosystems) store large carbon stocks. However, their regional carbon inventories, sequestration rates, and potential as natural climate change mitigation strategies are poorly constrained. Here, we systematically review organic carbon storage and accumulation rates in vegetated coastal ecosystems across the Central and Southwestern Atlantic, extending from Guyana (08.28°N) to Argentina (55.14°S). We estimate that 0.4 Pg organic carbon is stored in the region, which is approximately 2-5% of global carbon stores in coastal vegetated systems, and that they accumulate 0.5 to 3.9 Tg carbon annually. By ecosystem type, mangroves have …

Water Efficiency & Sustainability In The Mountain West, 2022, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet analyzes the effectiveness of state-level policies related to water usage, conservation, and sustainability for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah in 2022. The original data are published in the “2022 State Policy Scorecard for Water Efficiency and Sustainability” report written by the Alliance for Water Efficiency.

Flujos De Servicios Ecosistémicos En Un Área Marina Protegida Del Atlántico Sur: Perspectivas Desde El Análisis De La Teoría De Redes, Mitch Porter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En cuestiones de gestión de áreas protegidas, los servicios ecosistémicos se tienen cada vez más en cuenta junto con la conservación de la biodiversidad. Sin embargo, las decisiones que se toman sobre la conservación de los servicios ecosistémicos no suelen incluir los posibles efectos en cascada de la pérdida de biodiversidad sobre la provisión de servicios. Los conocimientos de la teoría de redes y los estudios de robustez pueden proporcionar una metodología para evaluar la vulnerabilidad de estos servicios frente la estructura trófica de los ecosistemas que los proveen. A través de una serie de simulaciones de extinción para la …

Examination And Application Of Body Condition Methods In Cetaceans, Kira Anne Telford

Theses and Dissertations

Body condition assessments are a valuable tool for evaluating the relative health of a population through various metrics, indexes, or proxies. Long-term data collection can be used to examine the relationship between fluctuations in body condition and natural or anthropogenic drivers. Application of this information is vital for monitoring the success of the conservation management decisions for a species or population. Cetaceans have a variety of methods available to assess body condition, including invasive methods like biopsies and necropsies or observational methods such as photogrammetry. Exploration of the application of these methods in the literature revealed an emphasis on necropsies …

Potential Role Of Seaweeds In Climate Change Mitigation, Finnley W.R. Ross, Philip W. Boyd, Karen Filbee-Dexter, Kenta Watanabe, Alejandra Ortega, Dorte Krause-Jensen, Catherine Lovelock, Calvyn F.A. Sondak, Lennart T. Bach, Carlos M. Duarte, Oscar Serrano, John Beardall, Patrick Tarbuck, Peter I. Macreadie

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seaweed (macroalgae) has attracted attention globally given its potential for climate change mitigation. A topical and contentious question is: Can seaweeds' contribution to climate change mitigation be enhanced at globally meaningful scales? Here, we provide an overview of the pressing research needs surrounding the potential role of seaweed in climate change mitigation and current scientific consensus via eight key research challenges. There are four categories where seaweed has been suggested to be used for climate change mitigation: 1) protecting and restoring wild seaweed forests with potential climate change mitigation co-benefits; 2) expanding sustainable nearshore seaweed aquaculture with potential climate change …

The Impacts Of Transfer Learning For Ungulate Recognition At Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Michael Gurule

Geography ETDs

As camera traps have grown in popularity, their utilization has expanded to numerous fields, including wildlife research, conservation, and ecological studies. The information gathered using this equipment gives researchers a precise and comprehensive understanding about the activities of animals in their natural environments. For this type of data to be useful, camera trap images must be labeled so that the species in the images can be classified and counted. This has typically been done by teams of researchers and volunteers, and it can be said that the process is at best time-consuming. With recent developments in deep learning, the process …

Big Fish And More Of Them: Salmonid Habitat Availability, Quality, And Use Across Multiple Scales Within A River-Reservoir System, John S. Mclaren V

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reservoirs and their associated rivers provide water for agricultural and municipal uses, ecological benefits for fish and wildlife, and associated recreational activity. However, in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem climate change and population growth are putting pressure on water quality and supply, potentially damaging the unique and economically important coldwater trout habitat that these systems support. In this study, the author investigates the impact of changing water quality and supply on trout habitat quality, quantity, and selection to assist conservation goals in the Henry’s Fork Watershed in eastern Idaho. The study found that higher availability of cold-water refuge habitat in Island …

Comparing Commonly Used Aquatic Habitat Modeling Methods For Native Fishes, Eryn K. Turney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water resources are managed for a variety of human needs, including agriculture, industrial and municipal consumption, hydropower generation, and recreation. There has been a recent push to incorporate habitat needs of aquatic wildlife into water management models alongside these other uses, particularly as competition for limited water resources in a changing climate has reduced instream flow and contributed to declining native fish populations. Habitat models are used to estimate species distributions and differentiate between suitable and unsuitable habitat based on variables important to a given species, but are not usually incorporated into water management models. Because there are many ways …

Irrigation And Innovation: Understanding Barriers To Innovative Actions To Manage Drought On Middle Rio Grande Farms, Eleanor C. Hasenbeck

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Rio Grande has irrigated agricultural land in central New Mexico since time immemorial. Today, agriculture in New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande valley is adapting to an increasingly scarce water supply due to long-term drought and climate change (Dunbar et al., 2022). As supply is decreasing, demands are increasing because of several factors: an increase in evapotranspiration (Dunbar et al., 2022); population growth in the Middle Rio Grande valley (NM LFC, 2021); and legal obligations to provide water for endangered species and to Texas and Mexico (NM ISC, 2017). Agriculture is largest water use by sector in the Rio Grande …

Applications Of Environmental Dna (Edna) To Detect Subterranean And Aquatic Invasive Species: A Critical Review On The Challenges And Limitations Of Edna Metabarcoding, Sakib Tahmid Rishan, Richard Kline, Md Saydur Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The world is struggling to solve a devastating biodiversity loss that not only affects the extinction of treasured species and irreplaceable genetic variation, but also jeopardizes the food production, health, and safety of people. All initiatives aimed to conserve biodiversity rely heavily on the monitoring of both species and populations to get accurate spatial patterns and overall population assessments. Conventional monitoring techniques, such as visual surveys and counting individuals, are problematic due to challenges in identifying cryptic species or immature life stages. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a relatively new technology that has the potential to be a faster, non-invasive, and …

Characterizing Effects Of Non-Point Runoff On Subwatersheds Of The Middle White River In Arkansas, Rainee Nicole Lynn Deroin

Student Theses and Dissertations

The Middle White River Watershed located in northeastern Arkansas is part of the larger White River drainage area that flows into the Mississippi River. The watershed has been on the 303(d) list for impairments such as pathogens, turbidity, total suspended solids, and dissolved oxygen. This study monitored water quality and potential toxicity in four subwatersheds of the Middle White River to inform management and regulation downstream conditions. During the three years of weekly sampling from 2019 to 2022, the subwatersheds violated state standards for pathogens, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. Aquatic and sediment toxicity testing conducted on the four subwatersheds using …

Ord River Irrigation Area Stage 2 M2 Supply Channel Compliance Assessment Report 2022 - Statement 938, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Irrigated Agricultural Development in the North

Ministerial implementation Statement 938 for the Ord River Irrigation Area Stage 2 (M2 Supply Channel) proposal (Proposal) was published on 12 June 2013 pursuant to section 45 of the Environment Protection Act 1986. DPIRD administers MS938 behalf of the Minister for Regional Development.