Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons^™

Microplastic Occurrence And Effects In Commercially Harvested North American Finfish And Shellfish: Current Knowledge And Future Directions, Britta Baechler, Cheyenne Stienbarger, Dorothy Horn, Jincy Joseph, Allison Taylor, Elise F. Granek, Susanne Brander

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Commercial fisheries yield essential foods, sustain cultural practices, and provide widespread employment around the globe. Commercially harvested species face a myriad of anthropogenic threats including degraded habitats, changing climate, overharvest, and pollution. Microplastics are pollutants of increasing concern, which are pervasive in the environment and can harbor or adsorb pollutants from surrounding waters. Aquatic organisms, including commercial species, encounter and ingest microplastics, but there is a paucity of data about those caught and cultured in North America. Additional research is needed to determine prevalence, physiological effects, and population-level implications of microplastics in commercial species from Canada, the United States, and …

Watershed Assessment Of Tryon Creek Of Oregon, Danielle Goodrich

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

As the Tryon Creek Watershed Council (TCWC) continues to grow its organization, it is important to focus their efforts on lasting changes that most positively affect the watershed. The TCWC plays a community-appointed role as the binding element of agency and stakeholder partnerships throughout the Tryon Creek watershed by providing communication and cooperation. The watershed assessment aims to provide a compilation of existing data as well as an identification of data gaps and recommendations for future cooperative management of the watershed. Developing an understanding of the processes that shape the watershed can shed light on the status of measurable ecosystem …

Traditional Knowledge Of Fire Use By The Confederated Tribes Of Warm Springs In The Eastside Cascades Of Oregon, Michelle M. Steen-Adams, Susan Charnley, Rebecca Mclain, Mark D. O. Adams, Kendra L. Wendel

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

We examined traditional knowledge of fire use by the Ichishikin (Sahaptin), Kitsht Wasco (Wasco), and Numu (Northern Paiute) peoples (now Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, CTWS) in the eastside Cascades of Oregon to generate insights for restoring conifer forest landscapes and enhancing culturally-valued resources. We examined qualitative and geospatial data derived from oral history interviews, participatory GIS focus groups, archival records, and historical forest surveys to characterize cultural fire regimes (CFRs) –an element of historical fire regimes– of moist mixed conifer (MMC), dry mixed conifer (DMC), and shrub-grassland (SG) zones. Our ethnohistorical evidence indicated a pronounced cultural fire regime in …

Psu Green Building Internship Final Report, 2019: Karl Miller Center Post-Occupancy Study, Everett Stilley, Junyoung Lee

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

This study examined the effectiveness of the passive cooling strategies in the Karl Miller Center (KMC) at Portland State University. Due to the warm temperatures reached in Portland during the summer months and the absence of a mechanical cooling system on the Pavilion side of the KMC, classrooms can exceed thermal comfort preferences on a number of occasions. Previous studies have recommended taking certain classrooms “offline” after 12pm in the summer, where they are only available for morning classes. This study aimed to update the classroom prioritization as well as analyze the employed cooling strategies and begin a long term …

Data From: Microplastic Concentrations In Two Oregon Bivalve Species: Spatial, Temporal, And Species Variability, Britta Baechler, Elise F. Granek, Matthew V. Hunter, Kathleen E. Conn

Environmental Science and Management Datasets

Microplastics are an ecological stressor with implications for ecosystem and human health when present in seafood. We quantified microplastic types, concentrations, anatomical burdens, geographic distribution, and temporal differences in Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) from 15 Oregon coast, U.S.A. sites. Organisms were chemically digested and visually analyzed for microplastics, and material type was determined using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Microplastics were present in organisms from all sites. On average, whole oysters and razor clams contained 10.95 ± 0.77 and 8.84 ± 0.45 microplastic pieces per individual, or 0.35 ± 0.04 and …

Nutrients Mediate The Effects Of Temperature On Methylmercury Concentrations In Freshwater Zooplankton, Meredith P. Jordan, A. Robin Stewart, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Angela L. Strecker

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulation in freshwater aquatic systems is impacted by anthropogenic stressors, including climate change and nutrient enrichment. The goal of this study was to determine how warmer water temperatures and excess nutrients would alter zooplankton communities and phytoplankton concentrations, and whether those changes would in turn increase or decrease MeHg concentrations in freshwater zooplankton. To test this, we employed a 2 × 2 factorialexperimental design with nutrient and temperature treatments. Mesocosms were filled with ambient water and plankton from Cottage Grove Reservoir, Oregon, U.S.A., a waterbody that has experienced decades of elevated MeHg concentrations and …

A Landscape Model Of Variable Social-Ecological Fire Regimes, Robert M. Scheller, Alec M. Kretchun, Todd J. Hawbaker, Paul D. Henne

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fire regimes are now recognized as the product of social processes whereby fire on any landscape is the product of human-generated drivers: climate change, historical patterns of vegetation manipulation, invasive species, active fire suppression, ongoing fuel management efforts, prescribed burning, and accidental ignitions. We developed a new fire model (Social-Climate Related Pyrogenic Processes and their Landscape Effects: SCRPPLE) that emphasizes the social dimensions of fire and enables simulation of fuel-treatment effects, fire suppression, and prescribed fires. Fire behavior was parameterized with daily fire weather, ignition, and fire-boundary data. SCRPPLE was initially parameterized and developed for the Lake Tahoe Basin (LTB) …

Performance Of Genetic Distance Metrics In Gravity And General Mixed Effects Models, Nathan B. Alexander, Crysta Gantz, Jane L. Remfert, Melanie A. Murphy

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are many causes for the genetic patterns that arise among populations across a landscape. Effective population size, natal site preference, geographic distance, or barriers to gene flow associated with landscape composition may work in opposition or in concert resulting in varying degrees of population differentiation. Here, we simulate 40 populations under 3 different ecological hypotheses of individual dispersal with random mating for 1500 generations, with scenarios: 1) dispersal and mating is dependent on habitat between populations, 2) dispersal and mating is dependent on individuals finding habitat similar to their natal habitat, and 3) dispersal and mating is dependent on …

Farmer Attitudes Toward Cooperative Approaches To Herbicide Resistance Management: A Common Pool Ecosystem Service Challenge, David E. Ervin, Elise H. Breshears, George B. Frisvold, Terrance M. Hurley, Katherine E. Dentzman, Jeffrey L. Gunsolus, Raymond A. Jussaume, Micheal D. K. Owen, Jason Norsworthy, Mustofa Mahmud Al Mamun, Wesley Everman

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dramatic growth in herbicide-resistant (HR) weeds in the United States threatens farm profitability and may undercut environmentally beneficial farming practices. When HR weeds move across farm boundaries due to ecological processes or human action, a common pool resource challenge emerges, requiring farmer cooperation to manage such weeds effectively. We investigate the scope for cooperative management using responses to a national survey on HR weed issues to test a recursive model of three preconditions for collective action: (1) concern about HR weeds migrating from nearby lands; (2) communication with neighbors about HR weeds; and (3) belief that cooperation is necessary for …

Stars Annual Report, 2019, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

The Campus Sustainability Office (CSO) compiles information from departments across campus annually to complete the STARS Report. The score is based on the number of points received across five categories: Academics, Engagement, Operations, and Planning & Administration, and Innovation & Leadership. PSU has maintained a Gold rating since the institution began reporting in 2011 and is within the top 40 of over 400 reporting institutions. This summary includes improvement opportunities to assist our efforts to eventually become a STARS Platinum institution. For more information on improvement opportunities please contact Amanda Wolf at [email protected]

Psu Green Building Internship Final Presentation, 2019: Kmc Post-Occupancy Study, Junyoung Lee, Everett Stilley

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Survey students taking classes in Pavilion classrooms during summer 2019 term. Analyze data to update classroom scheduling recommendations.

Campus Sustainability Office Annual Report, 2018-2019, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

The Campus Sustainability Office 2018-2019 annual report.

Utility Summary Fiscal Year 2019, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Summary of energy usage listed by building.

Roots Mediate The Effects Of Snowpack Decline On Soil Bacteria, Fungi, And Nitrogen Cycling In A Northern Hardwood Forest, Patrick O. Sorensen, Jennifer M. Bhatnagar, Lynn M. Christenson, Jorge Duran, Timothy J. Fahey, Melany C. Fisk, Adrien C. Finzi, Peter M. Groffman, Jennifer L. Morse, Pamela H. Templer

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rising winter air temperature will reduce snow depth and duration over the next century in northern hardwood forests. Reductions in snow depth may affect soil bacteria and fungi directly, but also affect soil microbes indirectly through effects of snowpack loss on plant roots. We incubated root exclusion and root ingrowth cores across a winter climate-elevation gradient in a northern hardwood forest for 29 months to identify direct (i.e., winter snow-mediated) and indirect (i.e., root-mediated) effects of winter snowpack decline on soil bacterial and fungal communities, as well as on potential nitrification and net N mineralization rates. Both winter snowpack decline …

Four-Fold Increase In Solar Forcing On Snow In Western U.S. Burned Forests Since 1999, Kelly E. Gleason, Joseph R. Mcconnell, Monica M. Arienzo, Nathan Chellman, Wendy M. Calvin

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forest fires are increasing across the American West due to climate warming and fire suppression. Accelerated snow melt occurs in burned forests due to increased light transmission through the canopy and decreased snow albedo from deposition of light-absorbing impurities. Using satellite observations, we document up to an annual 9% growth in western forests burned since 1984, and 5 day earlier snow disappearance persisting for >10 years following fire. Here, we show that black carbon and burned woody debris darkens the snowpack and lowers snow albedo for 15 winters following fire, using measurements of snow collected from seven forested sites that …

Public Perceptions Of Mountain Lake Fisheries Management In National Parks, Ariana M. Chiapella, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Angela L. Strecker

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The legacy of fish stocking in mountain lake ecosystems has left behind a challenge for land managers around the globe. In the US and Canada, historically fishless mountain lakes have been stocked with trout for over a century. These non-native trout have cascading ecosystem effects, and can accumulate atmospherically deposited contaminants. While the negative impacts of stocking in these ecosystems have become increasingly apparent, wilderness fishing has garnered cultural value in the angling community. As a result, public lands managers are left with conflicting priorities. National park managers across the western US are actively trying to reconcile the cultural and …

Psu University Services Building Leed Eb Materials Audit Report, Christa Mcdermott, Emily Murkland, Bryan Nguyen, Tay Stone, Rushada Wimer

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

This report provides Portland State University’s (PSU) Campus Sustainability Office (CSO), with an objective third party LEED O+M Materials Assessment of PSU’s University Services Building (USB). The data collected for this audit provides CSO with insight into the building’s current waste composition and diversion rate. Additionally, it identifies opportunities to reduce the amount of recoverable materials ending up in the landfill stream. Community Environmental Services (CES) conducted material audits for 100% of USB’s landfill-bound, commingled recycling, and compost streams during a 24-hour period. While, audited construction and demolition (C&D) materials were generated over the course of a week.

Investigating Environmental Migration And Other Rural Drought Adaptation Strategies In Baja California Sur, Mexico, Melissa Haeffner, Jacopo A. Baggio, Kathleen Galvin

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explores the relationship between specific household traits (region of residence, head of household occupation, financial diversity, female level of education, land and animal ownership, social capital, and climate perception) and choice of specific adaptation strategies used by households in two sites in Baja California Sur, Mexico, during a severe drought from 2006 to 2012 using survey data and key informant interviews. We analyzed the co-occurrence of household traits adopting different drought adaptation strategies, then applied Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to examine the relationship between traits and strategies and integrated interview data to understand how rancheros perceive associations. We …

Psu Market Center Building Leed Eb Materials Audit Report, Christa Mcdermott, Emily Murkland, Bryan Nguyen, Tay Stone, Rushada Wimer

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

This report provides Portland State University’s (PSU) Campus Sustainability Office (CSO), with an objective third party LEED O+M Materials Assessment of PSU’s Market Center Building (MCB). The data collected for this audit provides CSO with insight into the building’s current waste composition and diversion rate. Additionally, it identifies opportunities to reduce the amount of recoverable materials ending up in the landfill stream. Community Environmental Services (CES) conducted material audits for 100% of MCB’s landfill-bound, commingled recycling, glass bottles and jars recycling, and compost streams during a 24-hour period.

Africa's Urban Adaptation Transition Under A 1.5° Climate, Mark Pelling, Hayley Leck, Lorena Pasquini, Idowu Ajibade, Emanuel Osuteye, Susan Parnell, Shuaib Lwasa, Cassidy Johnson, Arabella Fraser, Alejandro Barcena, Soumana Boubacar

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

For cities in sub-Saharan Africa a 1.5 °C increase in global temperature will bring forward the urgency of meeting basic needs in sanitation, drinking water and land-tenure, and underlying governance weaknesses. The challenges of climate sensitive management are exacerbated by rapid population growth, deep and persistent poverty, a trend for resolving risk through relocation (often forced), and emerging new risks, often multi-hazard, for example heat stroke made worse by air pollution. Orienting risk management towards a developmental agenda can help. Transition is constrained by fragmented governance, donor priorities and inadequate monitoring of hazards, vulnerability and impacts. Opportunities arise where data …

Evidence-Based Causal Chains For Linking Health, Development, And Conservation Actions, Jiangxiao Qiu, Edward Game, Heather Tallis, Lydia Olander, Louise Glew, James S. Kagan, Multiple Additional Authors

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Sustainability challenges for nature and people are complex and interconnected, such that effective solutions require approaches and a common theory of change that bridge disparate disciplines and sectors. Causal chains offer promising approaches to achieving an integrated understanding of how actions affect ecosystems, the goods and services they provide, and ultimately, human well-being. Although causal chains and their variants are common tools across disciplines, their use remains highly inconsistent, limiting their ability to support and create a shared evidence base for joint actions. In this article, we present the foundational concepts and guidance of causal chains linking disciplines and sectors …

Development And Field Validation Of An Environmental Dna (Edna) Assay For Invasive Clams Of The Genus Corbicula, Dominique A. Cowart, Mark A. Renshaw, Crysta Gantz, John Umek, Sudeep Chandra, Scott P. Egan, David M. Lodge, Eric R. Larson

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Early detection is imperative for successful control or eradication of invasive species, but many organisms are difficult to detect at the low abundances characteristic of recently introduced populations. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a promising invasive species surveillance tool for freshwaters, owing to its high sensitivity to detect aquatic species even when scarce. We report here a new eDNA assay for the globally invasive Asian clam Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774), with field validation in large lakes of western North America. We identified a candidate primer pair for the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene for C. fluminea. We …

Benefit Relevant Indicators: Ecosystem Services Measures That Link Ecological And Social Outcomes, Lydia Olander, Robert J. Johnston, Heather Tallis, James S. Kagan, Lynn A. Maguire, Stephen Polasky, Dean Urban, James Boyd, Lisa Wainger, Margaret A. Palmer

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

There is a growing movement in government, environmental non-governmental organizations and the private sector to include ecosystem services in decision making. Adding ecosystem services into assessments implies measuring how much a change in ecological conditions affects people, social benefit, or value to society. Despite consensus around the general merit of accounting for ecosystem services, systematic guidance on what to measure and how is lacking. Current ecosystem services assessments often resort to biophysical proxies (e.g., area of wetland in a floodplain) or even disregard services that seem difficult to measure. Valuation, an important tool for assessing trade-offs and comparing outcomes, is …

The Interactive Effect Of Multiple Stressors On Crustacean Zooplankton Communities In Montane Lakes, Jeffrey Thomas Brittain, Angela L. Strecker

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nonnative fish introductions have altered thousands of naturally fishless montane lakes, resulting in cascading food web repercussions. Nitrogen deposition has been recognized as an anthropogenic contributor to acidification and eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems, which may affect the abundance and composition of planktonic communities. This study identified responses of zooplankton communities from two lakes (fish present versus absent) in Mount Rainier National Park to manipulations simulating an episodic disturbance of acidification and eutrophication via nitrogen addition in mesocosms. Zooplankton communities from lakes with different food web structure (i.e., fish present or absent) responded differently to the singular effects of acid and …

The Wildland-Urban Interface Raster Dataset Of Catalonia, Fermín J. Alcasena, Cody Evers, Cristina Vega-Garcia

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

We provide the wildland urban interface (WUI) map of the autonomous community of Catalonia (Northeastern Spain). The map encompasses an area of some 3.21 million ha and is presented as a 150-m resolution raster dataset. Individual housing location, structure density and vegetation cover data were used to spatially assess in detail the interface, intermix and dispersed rural WUI communities with a geographical information system. Most WUI areas concentrate in the coastal belt where suburban sprawl has occurred nearby or within unmanaged forests. This geospatial information data provides an approximation of residential housing potential for loss given a wildfire, and represents …

Utility Data Comparison Of Fy16, Fy17, And Fy 18 Quarter One And Quarter Two Data, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

FY16, FY17, & FY18 Q1 and Q2 EUI Comparison

Psu Green Building Internship Final Report, 2018: Karl Miller Center Post-Occupancy Study, Omar Abu Sulaiman, Jocelyn Reynolds

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

In this report, both occupant comfort perception-based data, collected via surveys, and building performance-based data, collected via sensors, are utilized to conduct a post-occupancy evaluation of Portland State University’s (PSU) new Karl Miller Center (KMC), formerly known as the School of Business Administration. The KMC was completed in September 2017 and is on track to earn LEED Platinum certification, primarily for the passive ventilation strategies incorporated into its design. The environmental factors studied in this report are air and concrete slab temperatures, CO2 levels, and airflow. The personal factors studied in this report are clothing levels (clo), gender identity, thermal …

Does Collective Action Sequester Carbon? Evidence From The Nepal Community Forestry Program, Randall Bluffstone, Eswaran Somanathan, Prakash Jha, Harisharan Luintel, Rajesh Bista, Mike Toman, Naya Paudel, Bhim Adhikari

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Presumed open access forests have as little as 34% of those under collective action.

• No evidence that Community Forestry Programme forests store more carbon

.• Carbon from collective action not conditional on Community Forestry Programme.

Stars Annual Report, 2018, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

The Campus Sustainability Office (CSO) compiles information from departments across campus annually to complete the STARS Report. The score is based on the number of points received across five categories: Academics, Engagement, Operations, and Planning & Administration, and Innovation & Leadership. PSU has maintained a Gold rating since the institution began reporting in 2011 and is within the top 40 of over 400 reporting institutions. This summary includes improvement opportunities to assist our efforts to eventually become a STARS Platinum institution. For more information on improvement opportunities please contact Amanda Wolf at [email protected]

Utility Summary Fiscal Year 2018, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Summary of energy use listed by building