Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons^™

Influence Of Recreational Activity On Water Quality Perceptions And Concerns In Utah: A Replicated Analysis, Matthew J. Barnett, Douglas Jackson-Smith, Melissa Haeffner

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Both social structural factors and direct sensory experiences can contribute to the development of environmental perceptions and concerns. We use two separate surveys of Utah adults to explore the association between sociodemographic characteristics and participation in recreational activities on water quality perceptions and concerns. We find that engaging in outdoor recreation is systematically associated with more positive water quality perceptions and higher levels of concern about impaired water quality. However, water quality perceptions appear to be shaped more by social characteristics (age, education, gender, race, religion, and income) and by generic measures of overall recreation behavior than by indicators of …

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

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Intent of Study:

Determine if the mechanical and passive design strategies in the KMC are functioning properly to provide appropriate levels of thermal comfort to occupants.

Effects Of Land Development And Season On Heavy Metal Concentrations In Urban Streams, Helen Daigle

REU Final Reports

Although it is generally understood that urban development can impact the quality of urban streams, there are many factors that affect the concentrations of pollutants being transferred from the built environment to a given output. This study examines the impact of land use surrounding urban streams, specifically, the degree of development and presence or absence of green infrastructure (GI) in these areas on heavy metal (HM) concentrations in Portland, Oregon. After collecting 1021 water quality samples from 2010-2018, we examined the difference in concentrations of HM pollutants across different combinations of land use and season. Increased levels of calcium, magnesium, …

Campus Sustainability Office Annual Report, 2017-2018, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

The Campus Sustainability Office 2017-2018 annual report.

A Comparative Assessment Of Projected Meteorological And Hydrological Droughts: Elucidating The Role Of Temperature, Ali Ahmadalipour, Hamid Moradkhani, Mehmet C. Demirel

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The changing climate and the associated future increases in temperature are expected to have impacts on drought characteristics and hydrologic cycle. This paper investigates the projected changes in spatiotemporal characteristics of droughts and their future attributes over the Willamette River Basin (WRB) in the Pacific Northwest U.S. The analysis is performed using two subsets of downscaled CMIP5 global climate models (GCMs) each consisting of 10 models from two future scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) for 30 years of historical period (1970–1999) and 90 years of future projections (2010–2099). Hydrologic modeling is conducted using the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) as a …

Quantifying Resilience Of Multiple Ecosystem Services And Biodiversity In A Temperate Forest Landscape, Elena Cantarello, Adrian C. Newton, Phillip A. Martin, Paul M. Evans, Arjan Gosal, Melissa S. Lucash

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Resilience is increasingly being considered as a new paradigm of forest management among scientists, practitioners, and policymakers. However, metrics of resilience to environmental change are lacking. Faced with novel disturbances, forests may be able to sustain existing ecosystem services and biodiversity by exhibiting resilience, or alternatively these attributes may undergo either a linear or nonlinear decline. Here we provide a novel quantitative approach for assessing forest resilience that focuses on three components of resilience, namely resistance, recovery, and net change, using a spatially explicit model of forest dynamics. Under the pulse set scenarios, we explored the resilience of nine ecosystem …

The Influence Of Recurrent Modes Of Climate Variability On The Occurrence Of Monthly Temperature Extremes Over South America, Paul C. Loikith, Judah Detzer, Carlos R. Mechoso, Huikyo Lee, Armineh Barkhordarian

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The associations between extreme temperature months and four prominent modes of recurrent climate variability are examined over South America. Associations are computed as the percent of extreme temperature months concurrent with the upper and lower quartiles of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Atlantic Niño, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) index distributions, stratified by season. The relationship is strongest for ENSO, with nearly every extreme temperature month concurrent with the upper or lower quartiles of its distribution in portions of northwestern South America during some seasons. The likelihood of extreme warm temperatures is enhanced …

Green Leasing Internship: Final Presentation, 2017, Emily Quinton

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Presentation slides from summer 2017 Green Leasing Internship, Portland State University

Green Leasing Program Design For Psu, Emily Quinton

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Portland State University (PSU) serves as a Landlord to over 60 third-party tenants, including retail, food service, office, food cart, and other tenant types. To encourage and standardize the adoption and practice of sustainability behaviors among these tenants, PSU hired a Green Leasing Intern during the summer of 2017. The intern, graduate student Emily Quinton, managed by members of the PSU Planning, Construction & Real Estate (PCRE) team, was tasked with researching best practices, drafting green leasing language, and developing tenant engagement and incentive-based approaches to implementation. This report serves as the culminating deliverable for that internship. Additional internship documentation …

Psu Green Building Summer Internship Final Report, 2017: Interior Environmental And Indoor Air Quality Assessments Of Workspaces For Future Maintenance Of Parkmill’S Constant Air Volume (Cav) Hvac System, Bassam Alduhaim, Sofia Chavez Cruz

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Parkmill’s Design, Construction, and Mechanical Systems

The Parkmill building is located on the lower south section of Portland State University’s (PSU) urban campus between SW Park Avenue and SW Mill Street.The lot space, originally selected for the design proposal in 1956, was located between two buildings including the acquired Parkway Manor (currently designated as PSU housing) and former frame house-type buildings. The proposed building would supplement the evening and summer curriculum courses offered by the General Education Division (GED) in partnership with Portland State College and would become a vital resource for students in the Portland metropolitan area.

Bending The Carbon Curve: Fire Management For Carbon Resilience Under Climate Change, E. Louise Loudermilk, Robert M. Scheller, Peter J. Weisberg, Alec M. Kretchun

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Context: Forest landscapes are increasingly managed for fire resilience, particularly in the western US which has recently experienced drought and widespread, high-severity wildfires. Fuel reduction treatments have been effective where fires coincide with treated areas. Fuel treatments also have the potential to reduce drought-mortality if tree density is uncharacteristically high, and to increase long-term carbon storage by reducing high-severity fire probability.

Objective: Assess whether fuel treatments reduce fire intensity and spread and increase carbon storage under climate change.

Methods: We used a simulation modeling approach that couples a landscape model of forest disturbance and succession with an ecosystem model of …

The Effect Of Salinity Acclimation On The Upper Thermal Tolerance Threshold Of The European Green Crab, Lauren S. Muñoz-Tremblay, A. L. Kelley, Catherine De Rivera

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fluctuations in salinity and temperature, among other varying environmental conditions, are stressors in estuaries and may work together to alter the physiological response of organisms that inhabit such environments. Laboratory assessments that investigate how animals respond to multiple environmental stressors can provide an ecological framework for understanding physiological performance across varying conditions. In this study, European green crabs, Carcinus maenas, were collected from Seadrift Lagoon, California, USA (37°54′27.82″N, 122°40′19.56″W) and were lab-acclimated at three different salinity concentrations typical of many estuaries: 15, 25, and 35 PSU at 12 °C (± 1 °C). After acclimation, crabs from each salinity treatment experienced …

The Limitation Of Spread Of Non-Native Marine Invertebrates From Artificial Structures To Natural Habitats, Whitney Mcclees, Catherine E. De Rivera

ESM Colloquium

Artificial structures created for aquatic anthropogenic activities are often colonized and fouled by many non-native species, few of which have invaded natural areas. Some research has indicated predation is limiting the spread of non-native species, while other research has indicated that it is dispersal-driven. To determine the effects of dispersal limitation and predation on the risk to surrounding habitats of being invaded by non-native species established on marina docks, we used a three-factor design, deploying seven unglazed ceramic panels per each treatment combination of 1) inside versus outside a marina in Yaquina Bay, Oregon; 2) cage keeping out predators >mesh …

Leed O+M Materials Audit: Blumel Hall, Emily Murkland, Taylor Stone, John Dea, Kristen Purdy

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

• This report provides the Campus Sustainability Office with an objective, third party Materials Audit for Blumel Hall in Portland, Oregon. The data collected for this audit provides Campus Sustainability Office with insight into Blumel’s current waste composition and diversion rate as well as identifies opportunities to improve recycling, composting, and areas for reduction of materials consumption. Community Environmental Services (CES) conducted Materials Audits for 100% of Blumel Hall’s landfill-bound, commingled recycling, glass bottles and jars recycling, and compost streams during a 24-hour period.

Competition Amplifies Drought Stress In Forests Across Broad Climatic And Compositional Gradients, Kelly E. Gleason, John B. Bradford, Alessandra Bottero, Anthony W. D'Amato, Shawn Fraver, Brian J. Palik, Michael A. Battaglia, Louis Iverson, Laura Kenefic, Christel C. Kern

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forests around the world are experiencing increasingly severe droughts and elevated competitive intensity due to increased tree density. However, the influence of interactions between drought and competition on forest growth remains poorly understood. Using a unique dataset of stand-scale dendrochronology sampled from 6405 trees, we quantified how annual growth of entire tree populations responds to drought and competition in eight, long-term (multi-decadal), experiments with replicated levels of density (e.g., competitive intensity) arrayed across a broad climatic and compositional gradient. Forest growth (cumulative individual tree growth within a stand) declined during drought, especially during more severe drought in drier climates. Forest …

Psu Urban Center Building Leed Eb Materials Audit Report, Emily Murkland, Taylor Stone, John Dea, Kristen Purdy

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

This report provides the Campus Sustainability Office with an objective, third party Materials Audit for Portland State University’s Urban Center Building in Portland, Oregon. The data collected for this audit provides Campus Sustainability Office with insight into Urban Center’s current waste composition and diversion rate as well as identifies opportunities to improve recycling, composting, and areas for reduction of materials consumption. Community Environmental Services (CES) conducted materials audits for 100% of Urban Center’s landfill-bound, commingled recycling, glass bottles and jars recycling, and compost streams during a 24-hour period.

Continental-Scale Homogenization Of Residential Lawn Plant Communities, Megan M. Wheeler, Christopher Neill, Peter M. Groffman, Meghan Avolio, Neil D. Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Lindsay Darling, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Jennifer L. Morse, Kristen C. Nelson, Laura A. Ogden, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Colin Polsky, Meredith Steele, Tara Trammell

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Residential lawns are highly managed ecosystems that occur in urbanized landscapes across the United States. Because they are ubiquitous, lawns are good systems in which to study the potential homogenizing effects of urban land use and management together with the continental-scale effects of climate on ecosystem structure and functioning. We hypothesized that similar homeowner preferences and management in residential areas across the United States would lead to low plant species diversity in lawns and relatively homogeneous vegetation across broad geographical regions. We also hypothesized that lawn plant species richness would increase with regional temperature and precipitation due to the presence …

Past, Present, And Future Of Ecological Integrity Assessment For Fresh Waters, Lauren M. Kuehne, Julian D. Olden, Angela L. Strecker, Joshua J. Lawler, David M. Theobald

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

One of the most influential environmental laws in the US – the 1972 Clean Water Act – included the visionary objective of maintaining and restoring aquatic ecological integrity. However, the efficacy of the Act depends on how integrity is assessed. Reviewing the assessment literature for fresh waters over the past 40 years, we found evidence of methodological trends toward increased repeatability, transferability, and robustness of assessments over time. However, implementation gaps were revealed, based on the relatively weak linkages to freshwater policies, stakeholder involvement, emerging threats, and conservation opportunities. A related survey of assessment practitioners underscored the disparity between need …

Advancing Collaborative Solutions: Lessons From The Oregon Sage-Grouse Conservation Partnership (Sagecon), Jennifer H. Allen, Turner Odell, Julia Babcock, Charis Henrie

National Policy Consensus Center Publications

The Sage-Grouse Conservation Partnership, also known as “SageCon,” was an unprecedented collaborative effort among federal, state, and private stakeholders to address landscape-scale threats to greater sage-grouse while also acknowledging rural economic and community interests across eastern Oregon’s sagebrush range. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) preliminary finding that the sage-grouse warranted listing under the endangered species act, and a subsequent court settlement setting a deadline for a final listing decision were key drivers for SageCon participants to seek proactive solutions to protect the bird. A cadre of diverse Eastern Oregon stakeholders with experience working collaboratively on related public lands …

Increased Habitat Connectivity Homogenizes Freshwater Communities: Historical And Landscape Perspectives, Angela L. Strecker, Jeffrey Thomas Brittain

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

1. Increases in habitat connectivity can have consequences for taxonomic, functional, and genetic diversity of communities. Previously isolated aquatic habitats were connected with canals and pipelines in the largest water development project in the US history, the Columbia Basin Project (CBP; eastern Washington, USA), which also altered environmental conditions; however, the ecological consequences are largely unknown.

2. Using a historical dataset, we examined long-term patterns in zooplankton communities, water chemistry and clarity, testing the hypothesis that increased connectivity will result in taxonomic homogenization. Further, we tested contemporary drivers of communities using a comprehensive set of environmental and landscape variables.

3. Waterbodies were sampled …

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Developing A Representative Snow-Monitoring Network In A Forested Mountain Watershed, Kelly E. Gleason, Anne Nolin, Travis R. Roth

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

A challenge in establishing new ground-based stations for monitoring snowpack accumulation and ablation is to locate the sites in areas that represent the key processes affecting snow accumulation and ablation. This is especially challenging in forested montane watersheds where the combined effects of terrain, climate, and land cover affect seasonal snowpack. We present a coupled modeling approach used to objectively identify representative snow-monitoring locations in a forested watershed in the western Oregon Cascades mountain range. We used a binary regression tree (BRT) non-parametric statistical model to classify peak snow water equivalent (SWE) based on physiographic landscape characteristics in an average …

Legacies Of Stream Channel Modification Revealed Using General Land Office Surveys, With Implications For Water Temperature And Aquatic Life, Seth M. White, Casey Justice, Denise A. Kelsey, Dale A. Mccullough, Tyanna Smith

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Land use legacies can have a discernible influence in present-day watersheds and should be accounted for when designing conservation strategies for riverine aquatic life. We describe the environmental history of three watersheds within the Grande Ronde subbasin of the Columbia River using General Land Office survey field notes from the 19th century. In the two watersheds severely impacted by Euro-American land use, stream channel widths—a metric representing habitat simplification—increased from an average historical width of 16.8 m to an average present width of 20.8 m in large streams; 4.3 m to 5.5 m in small, confined or partly confined streams; …

Analysis Of Impacts To Ecosystem Services Of Tree Replacement - Recommendations For Broadway Arboretum Phase One, Kim Brown, Joaquin Moore, Jeffrey J. Gerwing

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

The Broadway Arboretum Project is a coordinated effort between the Campus Planning Office (CPO), Campus Sustainability Office (CSO), and the Facilities and Property Management team (FPM) that seeks to increase diversity and resilience of PSU’s urban forest by replacing the existing trees lining Broadway Ave. between I-405 and SW Market Street (currently consisting of almost entirely a single variety, Norway Maple) with a variety of trees that showcase those currently approved by the City for street tree planting while also providing a testing ground for additional varieties that might by resilient to the challenges of growing and surviving in Portland’s …

Psu Green Building Summer Internship Final Presentation, 2017, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

RESEARCH QUESTION: Is duct cleaning beneficial in terms of energy efficiency and overall occupant comfort?

Campus Sustainability Office Annual Report, 2016-2017, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

The Campus Sustainability Office 2016-2017 annual report.

Using Transects To Understand Cyanobacterial Blooms, John Rueter

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presentation focuses on Toxic algae (and cyanobacteria) and on short-term mitigation:

• Monitoring
• Possible approaches

Understanding The Links Between Cyanobacteria Physiology And Hydrodynamics May Help Find Adaption Strategies For Toxic Blooms, John Rueter

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Even though we are managing lakes to decrease algal blooms overall, harmful algal blooms seem to be showing up more and more frequently. Although the word “blooms” connotes dominance and rapid growth, dangerous accumulations of cyanobacteria can occur because of combinations of physiological advantages and particular weather and hydrodynamic conditions. I am particularly interested in specific conditions that might favor Aphanizomenon versus those that might favor Microcystis in Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes. Aphanizomenon is a nuisance and large blooms can lead to oxygen depletion and fish deaths. Microcystis can both be a nuisance and is toxic. The comparison of …

The Associations Between Environmental Quality And Mortality In The Contiguous United States, 2000-2005, Yun Jian, Lynne C. Messer, Jyotsna S. Jagai, Kristen M. Rappazzo, Christine L. Gray, Shannon C. Grabich, Danelle T. Lobdell

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Assessing cumulative effects of the multiple environmental factors influencing mortality remains a challenging task.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the associations between cumulative environmental quality and all-cause and leading cause-specific (heart disease, cancer, and stroke) mortality rates.

Methods: We used the overall Environmental Quality Index (EQI) and its five domain indices (air, water, land, built and sociodemographic) to represent environmental exposure. Associations between the EQI and mortality rates (CDC WONDER) for counties in the contiguous United States (n=3109) were investigated using multiple linear regression models, and random intercept, random slope hierarchical models. Urbanicity, climate and their combination were …

Factors Influencing The Survival Of Outmigrating Juvenile Salmonids Through Multiple Dam Passages: An Individual-Based Approach, Timothy Elder, Christa M. Woodley, Mark A. Weiland, Angela L. Strecker

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Substantial declines of Pacific salmon populations have occurred over the past several decades related to large-scale anthropogenic and climatic changes in freshwater and marine environments. In the Columbia River Basin, migrating juvenile salmonids may pass as many as eight large-scale hydropower projects before reaching the ocean; however, the cumulative effects of multiple dam passages are largely unknown. Using acoustic transmitters and an extensive system of hydrophone arrays in the Lower Columbia River, we calculated the survival of yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) passing one, two, or three dams. We applied a unique index of biological characteristics …

Clear Creek Estuary Restoration: Establishing An Ecological Monitoring Program And Baseline Conditions, Christine Butler-Minor

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Monitoring habitat conditions in the Clear Creek Estuary before the completion of the Bucklin Hill Bridge Project is a critical part of this ecosystem restoration planning and execution. The Clear Creek Trail Alliance (CCTA) is working with local partners to monitor the effects of the estuary restoration. In a wider effort to characterize salmonid habitat suitability of the estuary prior to the bridge replacement, CCTA would like to gather data related to water quality, beach/bank elevations, vegetation in the vicinity, and invertebrate diversity in the estuary. The development and implementation of this Clear Creek Estuary monitoring project provides an opportunity …