Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons^™

An Integrated Wetland Condition Index And Environmental Metric Framework For The Prairie Pothole Region, Mercedes L. Batalla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The USDA-NRCS Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) assists landowners with protecting, restoring, and enhancing wetlands. Evaluating wetland conservation efforts is crucial for informing future management decisions. However, assessment frameworks vary across regions and among stakeholders. The Prairie Pothole Region is an ecologically unique landscape characterized by its abundance of wetlands that provide important ecosystem services. To evaluate wetlands enrolled in ACEP, I sampled forty-five semi-permanent wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region from July – August 2023 and 2024. I selected and sampled twenty-six wetlands enrolled in ACEP. Nineteen additional wetlands not enrolled in ACEP were also sampled; these included nine …

Growth, Survival, And Herbivore Browsing Preferences Of Seedlings Planted In Black Ash Stands Of Northern Michigan And Wisconsin, Seth W. Davenport

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

To mitigate the cascading ecosystem impacts of widespread black ash (Fraxinus nigra) mortality due to the invasive emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), forested wetlands can be underplanted with seedlings of alternative species that later repopulate the vacated canopy. This study examined the survival and growth, factors influencing performance, and herbivore browsing preferences of seven non-ash species planted in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. The best performing species were river birch (Betula nigra), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), and swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor). The worst performing species was black spruce (Picea …

Exploring Coupled Land Use -- Climate Change Impacts In The Northeast United States From 2020-2025 With Implications For Bombus Habitat Suitability, Archana Prasad

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The combined impacts of land use and climate change pose significant challenges to bumblebee populations in the Northeast United States (NEUS), a region characterized by dense urbanization, diverse landscapes, and exposure to climate extremes. As urban and suburban areas expand, the loss of agricultural lands and open spaces alters habitat availability for bumblebees, which rely on grasslands, meadows, and forest edges for nesting and foraging. Simultaneously, the NEUS is experiencing an increase in extreme climate events, including prolonged heatwaves, heavy precipitation, and shifts in temperature patterns. Using CMIP6 climate model projections, we analyzed trends in nine climate indices. Our results …

Modeling Neighborhoods As Fuel For Wildfire, Bryce Alan Young

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildfire models drive billions of dollars in risk mitigation efforts. However, the modeling community currently lacks a representative fuelscape on which to base simulations of fire spread in the built environment and the wildland-urban interface (WUI) where vegetation and structures act together as fuel for wildfire. This thesis advances wildfire risk modeling by addressing the underdeveloped representation of the built environment in existing frameworks. By identifying inconsistencies in how structure and defensible space features are defined and used across empirical studies, predictive indices, and fire spread models, this research lays the groundwork for standardized modeling approaches and feature selection (Chapter …

Linking Empirical Data And Numerical Simulation To Characterize Dynamic Fire Behavior Associated With Interacting Firelines, Marta Sergeevna Jerebets

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding fuel pattern-fire process relationships is key for predicting fire behavior and effects with follow-on benefits to proactive fire management and model validation. To characterize dynamic fire behavior, this thesis leverages empirical data and numerical simulation through two complementary studies.

In the first study, longwave thermal sensors aboard unmanned aerial systems (UAS) were used to capture fine-scale fire behavior in two experimental grass burns. A novel paired design was used to quantify the effects of fuel arrangement on fire behavior with 3.66 m diameter treatments cut to a height of 0.15 m. The treatments ephemerally reduced fire rate of spread …

Investigating The Impact Of Aerial Firefighting On Rate Of Wildfire Spread, Lindsay Ann Wiard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Aerial retardant drops are widely used in wildfire suppression, yet their effectiveness in slowing fire spread remains difficult to quantify at scale. This study evaluates the impact of aerial suppression on wildfire rate of spread (ROS) using a modeling framework that incorporates both observed (real) and counterfactual (synthetic) drop locations from a sample of 62 wildfires in Oregon. Synthetic drops were generated to simulate a no-suppression baseline, allowing us to compare changes in ROS in the presence and absence of suppression. We trained two random forest classifiers: one using both real and synthetic drops (the full model), and another using …

Investigating Non-Invasive Survey Methods And Building A Predictive Occupancy Model For Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus Histrionicus) In Western Montana And Northern Idaho, Holli Ann Holmes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus; HADU) are an imperiled sea duck that breeds along white-water mountain streams, but challenges in surveying them have made it difficult to understand population trends in their Northern Rocky Mountain breeding population. In this study we had two objectives: (1) evaluate non-invasive survey methods for detecting HADU on their breeding grounds in Western Montana and Northern Idaho, and (2) develop an occupancy model to predict potential breeding stream use for HADU across the region. First, we assessed the efficacy of ground-based foot surveys (GBS), environmental DNA (eDNA), and camera traps to detect breeding HADU during …

Exploring Coastal Spaces Of Tribal Sovereignty And Self-Determination In Ancestral Waters Proposed For Offshore Wind Development, Alyssa Suarez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Proposed offshore wind development off California’s North Coast raises novel questions about Tribal sovereignty offshore. This project specifically engages claims, assuming the Yurok Tribe’s framing that offshore wind development poses a coastal hazard. The research followed a co-production framework. The research questions were co-designed with the Yurok Tribe and the research itself governed by a Data Sharing Agreement. The work presents findings from 13 semi-structured interviews with individuals and experts navigating sovereignty in the offshore wind space, including government representatives; lawyers; legal researchers; academics; foundation staff; journalists; and Humboldt Bay community members. Participants identified several key tensions surrounding claims of …

North American River Otter (Lontra Canadensis) Prey Selection Of Wintering Waterbirds In A Wetland Complex, Gina Yael Culver

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Generalist predators are assumed to take a wide variety of prey throughout an annual cycle, often switching between food sources depending on availability. Prey selection is often studied by way of variables such as prey age class, body size, and various topics related to anti-predator behaviors, all variables used to measure how predators target prey. Following prior studies in coastal Northern California documenting that river otters (Lontra canadensis) had selected waterbirds as prey, we identified undigested prey items in scat to evaluate prey selection of waterbirds at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary (AMWS). We compared feathers found …

A Potentially Fruitful Path Toward A Cleaner And Safer Environment: Mxenes Uses In Environmental Remediation, Ali Mohammad Amani, Milad Abbasi, Atena Najdian, Farzaneh Mohamadpour, Seyed Reza Kasaee, Hesam Kamyab, Shreeshivadasan Chelliapan, Hanieh Ardeshiri, Lobat Tayebi, Ehsan Vafa, Sarah Mosleh-Shirazi, Alireza Jahanbin, Saravanan Rajendran, Daniel Simancas-Racines

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The rapid industrialization of the world has resulted in severe environmental pollution, necessitating the development of new materials such as pollution remediation. Two-dimensional (2D) MXenes have emerged as a promising family of materials due to their unique physicochemical properties, making them ideal for environmental remediation. The article sheds light on the new opportunities of MXenes in the removal of organic and inorganic contaminants, including organic dyes, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, radionuclides, and gas pollutants. MXenes also show excellent performance in photocatalytic degradation, adsorption, and microbial inactivation with environmental safety. Moreover, their application in recovering valuable elements from waste streams is also …