Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Conservation For Whom?: The Struggle For Indigenous Rights In Sagarmatha National Park, Jake Sivinski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since its creation in 1976 Sagarmatha National Park has been the subject of a great deal of internal scrutiny by the regions indigenous Sherpa Inhabitants. Since their arrival in the Khumbu valley some four centuries ago, the Sherpa people have held a deep respect for their land and have practiced a highly organized and effective form of environmental stewardship which they refer to as Yul-Tim. At its core Yul-Tim relies on the authority of certain village members to make and enforce rules within the community: a practice that has been greatly undermined by creation of SNP. While SNP has had …

Assessing The Sustainability Of Selective Logging In Ankarabolava-Agnakatrika New Protected Area, Eileen Nakahata

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the past 50 years, more than 90% of dense low-altitude humid forest in the District of Vangaindrano has been lost to deforestation and the remaining fragments continue to be threatened by slash and burn agriculture and selective cutting by local populations. These activities are driven by widespread poverty, population growth, and lack of development, which have made subsistence increasingly difficult. This study investigates logging rates and the stock of five commercially valuable trees in the Ankarabolava-Agnakatrika New Protected Area. Fifteen 1000m² transects were established systematically within the territory of the Matanga commune. Within each transect data was collected …

L.A. River Project, Erin Payne

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

A field note that reflected the artists' experience of the city and the making of art through an activity at the L.A. River.

Analyzing Major Challenges Of Wind And Solar Variability In Power Systems, Falko Ueckerdt, Robert Brecha, Gunnar Luderer

Physics Faculty Publications

Ambitious policy targets together with current and projected high growth rates indicate that future power systems will likely show substantially increased generation from renewable energy sources. A large share will come from the variable renewable energy (VRE) sources wind and solar photovoltaics (PV); however, integrating wind and solar causes challenges for existing power systems. In this paper we analyze three major integration challenges related to the structural matching of demand with the supply of wind and solar power: low capacity credit, reduced utilization of dispatchable plants, and over-produced generation. Based on residual load duration curves we define corresponding challenge variables …

Using Choice Experiment Valuation Methods To Measure Public Preference For A New National Park In Maine, Alexander G. Wilsterman

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

With global population increasing faster than ever, the need to protect land from development is at an all-time high. This paper seeks the measure the public preference for a new national park located in northern Maine. A national park will both protect the land and inject a much-needed economic stimulus to the surrounding communities. The study uses the choice experiment valuation method to quantify its results. Through this revealed preference we can quantify which characteristics are most important to the public so that these characteristics may be considered if the project is ever approved.

Golf Courses In Maine: Land Type Valuation Versus A Hedonic Pricing Analysis, Gregory Ladd, Jason Buco

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Many studies have been conducted analyzing the economic impact of golf courses on the local communities. These studies examine economic impacts of tournaments, endorsements, and vacation expenses of the major golf courses in the United States. However, there is little research conducted on the environmental impact of Golf courses, specifically in Maine. This paper performs a hedonic pricing analysis using housing prices in proximity to golf courses and compares it to the valuation of various land types in Maine. Housing prices were collected in the towns of Auburn, and North Yarmouth both near and distant from the local golf course. …

Converting Croplands To Grassland: A Spatial Analysis Of The Economic Feasibility Of Soil Greenhouse Gas Mitigation In Midwest, United States, Paco C. Defrancis

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

The global agriculture sector is responsible for close 20% of the aggregate anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emitted since the start of the industrial age. Much of these emissions are attributed to the degradation of soils due to land use change when native ecosystems were converted to agricultural fields. Soil organic carbon (SOC) has been found to decrease in temperate soils when the native (such as a forest or grassland) ecosystem is replace by croplands. The aggregate amount of organic carbon stored in soils globally is estimated be 3.3x the size of the atmospheric carbon pool. Further soil degradation and …

Cost Benefit Analysis Of Café Standards Compared To The Alternative Fuel/Carbon Tax, Brian Levinson

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

The Cafe Standards were introduced in 1975 following the Oil Embargo. The goals of this program were simple. To reduce co2 emissions in vehicles by increasing a mandatory average mpg level for car manufacturers in the United States. Recently, in 2012, the Obama Administration set new Cafe Standard requirements for car manufacturers. By 2025, all new cars on the road in the United States must average 54.5 miles per gallon, which would double the current 27 mpg average in place right now. While the intentions of this policy are to reduce co2 emissions while at the same time increasing savings …

The Economics Of The Audubon Society's Sanctuary Program For Golf Courses, Dan Hyszczak

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Millions of people play golf every year, and in 2011 Golf Courses gained $22 billion dollars in revenue. This statistic combined with golf’s inherent place in the natural environment lead to questions of value and development for golf course owners. In 1991, The Audubon Society created their Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (ACSP) to promote environmentally sustainable practices for golf courses and to recognize the courses that are the most environmentally in both the United States and around the world.

This paper builds off of prior research that connects golf course beauty with revenue by examining the effects of …

Preferences For Coral Reef And Fishery Management In Okinawa, Japan, Nils Carlson

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This study is an example of how a nonmarket valuation method – a choice experiment – can be used to influence and guide ecosystem conservation efforts. Using a choice experiment survey, this study estimates the willingness to pay (WTP) for certain hypothetical attributes of a restored and conserved coral reef in Okinawa, Japan. I find that an increase in the amount of fish available to catch in ten years as well as an increase in the extent and health of the coral reefs and the number of marine biodiversity found in the Okinawan waters after ten-years, both positively affect respondent’s …

An Exploratory Statistical Analysis Of The External And Internal Effects Of Art Museums In The United States, John Eder

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

An Exploratory Statistical Analysis of the External and Internal Effects of Art Museums in the United States

The Effects Of Land Conservation On Productivity, Robert Mccormick, Carolyn Fuwa

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

In this research the relationship between productivity of land conservation is analyzed using panel data of the GDP and acres conserved of all 50 U.S. states from 1998-2005. Two main theories of the conservation productivity relationship exist. The first maintains that conservation impedes productivity because it does not allow land cultivation. Conversely, the second theory maintains that land conservation has a positive effect on GDP due to the recreation and tourism it creates. Through the use of fixed effects and random effects regressions, the amount of land conserved per state is not a significant predictor of state GDP The GDP …

A Survey On Climate Change: How Beliefs Shape Responsibility, Connor P. Clancy, Sarah Beth Solomon

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines the lack of awareness and feelings of personal responsibility for climate change. Previous literature suggests that while part of the United States population may be aware of climate change, they do not feel personally responsible for causing it despite feeling climate change’s effects just like everyone else. Furthermore, studies suggest that individuals also do not believe climate change will affect them now, but rather it is an issue for future generations. Using a survey, we examine which demographics and personal factors are most important in eliciting awareness for climate change, and furthermore, personal responsibility for its effects. …

The Value Of Dune Width In Avalon, New Jersey: A Hedonic Pricing Analysis, Matt Mignon

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Previous research on the economics of coastal housing markets has proven that housing values along the east coast of the United States capitalize on the attributes of local beaches. These recent studies document two important findings: that beach width positively affects coastal property values and that there is a proximity effect, in which distance from the beach plays a significant role in the capitalization of local beach attributes. This paper builds upon these findings to explore the influence that dune width has on coastal property values in Avalon, New Jersey. I hypothesize that as dune width increases, local property values …

Invited Introduction To Jerec, Noelwah Netusil

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

Welcome By The Editor, Sahan T. M. Dissanayake

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

Transportation And Sanitation Drivers Of Land Use/Land Cover Change: Loss Of The Jamaica Bay Wetlands, Margaret Joy Cytryn

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an analysis (1830-2014) of the historical events of land use/land cover change in the Jamaica Bay estuary, identification of the agents of change, and a perspective on the potential drivers of transportation and sanitation in land use/land cover change.

Evaluation Of Regional Climate Models With Remotely Sensed Evapotranspiration Data, Doruk Ozturk

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Water is one of the most precious resources on Earth. Managing water resources is a complex discipline that requires accurate data, which in turn means that the management of water resources is limited by the availability and quality of these datasets. Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of these key datasets, but is also one that is lacking in large-scale spatial distribution with traditional methods such as weighing lysimeters or Bowen ratio. This is a quantity that needs to be evaluated in regional and global climate models since it is a substantial component of the land surface-atmosphere interaction. In order to overcome …

Shark Bay Prawn Managed Fishery, M. I. Kangas, E. C. Sporer, S. A. Hesp, K. L. Travaille, S. J. Brand-Gardner, P. Cavalli, A. V. Harry

WA Marine Stewardship Council report series

This report provides a comprehensive description of the Shark Bay Prawn Managed Fishery (SBPMF) and contains information relevant to assist the assessment of this fishery against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard (v1.3) for sustainable fishing. The SBPMF is located in Shark Bay, Western Australia and uses demersal otter trawl gear to predominantly target brown tiger prawns (Penaeus esculentus) and western king prawns (Penaeus latisulcatus).

Radiocarbon Isotopic Classification Of Deep Tropical Forest Soils, Brooke Butler, Karis J. Mcfarlane, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Katherine A. Heckman

STAR Program Research Presentations

Tropical forest soils have an important role in global carbon (C) stocks. Small changes in the cycling of C could drastically affect atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and active cycling of carbon in a forest community. Currently, little is understood of how tropical forest soils will respond to the increasing global temperatures. To examine the effects of warming/ drought on losses of older versus younger soil C pools, we implemented radiocarbon (14C) isotopic characterization of various soil plot samples and depths from the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. 14C was measured using Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS) from catalytically condensed carbon …

Exmouth Gulf Prawn Managed Fishery, M. I. Kangas, E. C. Sporer, S. A. Hesp, K. L. Travaille, N. Moore, P. Cavalli, E. A. Fisher

WA Marine Stewardship Council report series

This report provides a comprehensive description of the Exmouth Gulf Prawn Managed Fishery (EGPMF) in Western Australia and contains information relevant to assist the assessment of this fishery against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard (v1.3) for sustainable fishing. The EGPMF uses demersal otter trawl gear to target predominantly brown tiger prawns (Penaeus esculentus) and western king prawns (Penaeus latisulcatus).

Gender And Climate Change In The Indian Himalayas: Global Threats, Local Vulnerabilities, And Livelihood Diversification At The Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Monica V. Ogra, Ruchi Badola

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Global climate change has numerous implications for members of mountain communities who feel the impacts in both physical and social dimensions. In the western Himalayas of India, a majority of residents maintain a livelihood strategy that includes a combination of subsistence or small-scale agriculture, livestock rearing, seasonal or long-term migration, and localized natural resource extraction. While warming temperatures, irregular patterns of precipitation and snowmelt, and changing biological systems present challenges to the viability of these traditional livelihood portfolios in general, we find that climate change is also undermining local communities’ livelihood assets in gender-specific ways. In this paper, we present …

Habitat Selection Of Gulf-Strain Striped Bass, Morone Saxatilis: Relationships To Dynamic Abiotic Environmental Characteristics Within The Biloxi River, Mississippi, Jennifer Lynne Green

Master's Theses

The purpose of this project was to provide insights about the short- and long-term patterns of habitat selection of Gulf-strain Striped Bass, Morone saxatilis, based on spatially and seasonally variable abiotic environmental characteristics (water temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, specific conductivity, and pH) in the Biloxi River, MS system. Juvenile hatchery-reared and feral adult Gulf-strain Striped Bass were acoustically-tagged and continuously monitored via active and passive telemetry from November 2012 – June 2014. Each month the available abiotic environmental characteristics of 40 random locations within the Biloxi River, along with sub-habitat conditions occupied by acoustically-tagged Gulf-strain Striped Bass, were …

Selective Impact Of Disease On Coral Communities: Outbreak Of White Syndrome Causes Significant Total Mortality Of Acropora Plate Corals, Jean-Paul A. Hobbs, Ashley J. Frisch, Stephen J. Newman, Corey B. Wakefield

Fisheries Research Articles

Coral diseases represent a significant and increasing threat to coral reefs. Among the most destructive diseases is White Syndrome (WS), which is increasing in distribution and prevalence throughout the Indo-Pacific. The aim of this study was to determine taxonomic and spatial patterns in mortality rates of corals following the 2008 outbreak of WS at Christmas Island in the eastern Indian Ocean. WS mainly affected Acropora plate corals and caused total mortality of 36% of colonies across all surveyed sites and depths. Total mortality varied between sites but was generally much greater in the shallows (0–96% of colonies at 5 m …

Hyperlegality And Heightened Surveillance: The Case Of Threatened Species Lists, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

My contribution to the Debate "Thinking about Law and Surveillance" focuses on the project of governing nonhuman species through care, briefly pointing to how law and surveillance are interwoven in this context and to how conservation's biopolitical regimes are increasingly becoming more abstract, standardized, calculable, and algorithmic in scope. I argue that conservation’s focus on governing through care lends itself to heightened modes of surveillance and to hyperlegality - namely, to the intensified inspection and regulation of both governed and governing actors. I start with some preliminary explanations about my atypical use of the terms surveillance, law, and biopolitics.

Modeling Gross Primary Production Of Maize And Soybean Croplands Using Light Quality, Temperature, Water Stress, And Phenology, Anthony L. Nguy-Robertson, Andrew E. Suyker, Xiangming Xiao

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Vegetation productivity metrics, such as gross primary production (GPP) may be determined from the efficiency with which light is converted into photosynthates, or light use efficiency (ϵ). Therefore, accurate measurements and modeling of ϵ is important for estimating GPP in each ecosystem. Previous studies have quantified the impacts of biophysical parameters on light use efficiency based GPP models. Here we enhance previous models utilizing four scalars for light quality (i.e., cloudiness), temperature, water stress, and phenology for data collected from both maize and soybean crops at three Nebraska AmeriFlux sites between 2001 and 2012 (maize: 26 field-years; soybean: …

Parent-Offspring Resemblance In Colony-Specific Adult Survival Of Cliff Swallows, Charles R. Brown, Erin A. Roche, Mary Bomberger Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Survival is a key component of fitness. Species that occupy discrete breeding colonies with different characteristics are often exposed to varying costs and benefits associated with group size or environmental conditions, and survival is an integrative net measure of these effects. We investigated the extent to which survival probability of adult (≥ 1-year old) cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) occupying different colonies resembled that of their parental cohort and thus whether the natal colony had long-term effects on individuals. Individuals were cross-fostered between colonies soon after hatching and their presence as breeders monitored at colonies in the western Nebraska …

Going Green, Creating Value, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Green packaging is better for the environment but costs more. Will companies and consumers pay for the benefits?

Extinction In A Hyperdiverse Endemic Hawaiian Land Snail Family And Implications For The Underestimation Of Invertebrate Extinction, Claire Régnier, Philippe Bouchet, Kenneth Hayes, Norine Yeung, Carl Christensen, Daniel Chung, Benoit Fontaine, Robert Cowie

Department of Biology Faculty Publications

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List includes 832 species listed as extinct since 1600, a minuscule fraction of total biodiversity. This extinction rate is of the same order of magnitude as the background rate and has been used to downplay the biodiversity crisis. Invertebrates comprise 99% of biodiversity, yet the status of a negligible number has been assessed. We assessed extinction in the Hawaiian land snail family Amastridae (325 species, IUCN lists 33 as extinct). We did not use the stringent IUCN criteria, by which most invertebrates would be considered data deficient, but a more realistic …

Droughtscape, Summer 2015, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s column

New Drought Risk Management Research Center

Second quarter 2015 climate summary

Second quarter 2015 impacts summary

Caribbean region an innovator in drought early warning

Wind River Reservation tribes move toward drought planning

Ranchers, U.S. Forest Service, University of Arizona co-develop drought plans

Summer blockbuster from CoCoRaHS: Assessing Drought in the U.S

Western states drought coordinators meet