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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Tempers Rising: The Effect Of Heat On Spite, Jake C. Cosgrove
Tempers Rising: The Effect Of Heat On Spite, Jake C. Cosgrove
Master's Theses
The relationship between heat and harmful outcomes is well documented, with research connecting various adverse economic outcomes to the climate. In the presence of increasing global warming and climate change, understanding why the climate leads to negative economic outcomes is essential for forming peaceful institutions of the future. We study how behavioral economic outcomes change in the presence of heat through a lab experiment involving 1,110 observations conducted in five different countries. This paper specifically focuses on the social preference outcome of spite. We find that increased time exposure to the treatment effect of heat is required to elicit an …
Positive Out Of The Negative: Tracking Renewable Energy Projects In Central America, Jordan Ethan Castillo (Miner)
Positive Out Of The Negative: Tracking Renewable Energy Projects In Central America, Jordan Ethan Castillo (Miner)
Master's Theses
Central America is undertaking a vast Renewable Energy (RE) transition, due to widespread investments across the region in an array of technologies. These technologies include Community Solar, Wind, and Hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity has long been the backbone of many countries’ energy grids in the region due to the region’s long history with hydroelectricity. Ambitious climate goals coupled with diminishing hydroelectric power generation opportunities have led to an expansion of investment in Community Solar and Wind energy. The embrace of Solar and Wind has been accelerated due to declining costs for these technologies as they mature. Central America as a case study …
I’Ll Be Goldenrod And You’Ll Be Aster: The Case For Revolutionizing Western Methods Of Teaching Using Indigenous Ontologies, Joanna Logerfo
I’Ll Be Goldenrod And You’Ll Be Aster: The Case For Revolutionizing Western Methods Of Teaching Using Indigenous Ontologies, Joanna Logerfo
Master's Theses
An interesting facet of living as a human in the 21st century is contending with the end of the world. It’s been imagined in a thousand ways over the past twenty years. Will it be zombies? Aliens? An AI revolution? Or will it perhaps be something more mundane, more “down-to-Earth”? The floods, the droughts, the famines, and all the rest of the cataclysmic global events that occur every year have taken center stage in the world-ending debate, parading under a name as threatening and expansive as the Boogeyman: climate change. A recent article from NPR covered the United Nations’ 2022 …
Habitat Value Of Stormwater Retention Basins For Avian Species In The South San Francisco Bay, Maya D. Briones
Habitat Value Of Stormwater Retention Basins For Avian Species In The South San Francisco Bay, Maya D. Briones
Master's Theses
Shorebird populations are declining worldwide due to habitat fragmentation, degradation, and loss. A potential, understudied set of resources that might be used to benefit waterfowl, especially breeding shorebirds, are artificial wetlands such as stormwater retention basins. This study evaluated the habitat value of stormwater retention basins in the San Francisco Bay Area by measuring species abundance, richness, and behavior. Seston, or biota and other suspended material, was collected and tested for mercury contents. Additionally, the habitat features within each basin were recorded and tracked for changes over a year. The stormwater retention basins supported a higher diversity of bird species …
Distribution And Habitat Use By Western Burrowing Owls (Athene Cunicularia Hypugaea) In Alameda, Contra Costa And San Joaquin Counties, California, Jacqueline Taylor
Distribution And Habitat Use By Western Burrowing Owls (Athene Cunicularia Hypugaea) In Alameda, Contra Costa And San Joaquin Counties, California, Jacqueline Taylor
Master's Theses
Grasslands are regularly altered for development, agriculture, and animal farming which leads to habitat destruction and fragmentation and, ultimately, a loss of wildlife species. Though degraded, grassland ecosystems – including native and non-native species - dominate the landscape in the region of the San Francisco Bay Area east of the Bay. The western burrowing owl (Athene cuncularia hypugaea) is a native grassland species of California. The breeding burrowing owl population in the San Francisco Bay Area is resident, but burrowing owls from other parts of the range migrate into the region for the winter. The breeding owl populations in the …
Linking Social Dynamics To Private Land Management: A Study Of Prescribed Burn Associations In Northern California, Spencer R. Klinefelter
Linking Social Dynamics To Private Land Management: A Study Of Prescribed Burn Associations In Northern California, Spencer R. Klinefelter
Master's Theses
Prescribed fire is one way to improve the adaptive capacity of communities in the wildland urban interface in terms of managing wildfire risk and meeting socio-ecological goals. In California, Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) are a way of organizing private landowners with the goal of engaging in more widespread and frequent prescribed fires. This research uses semi-structured interviews with private landowners, along with key informants from public agencies such as CalFire and Regional Parks, to explore PBA development and functioning in northern coastal California. Sonoma and Marin counties were chosen as the primary study sites as they are represented by the …
Factors Impacting Indirect Potable Reuse Implementation In Orange County And Santa Clara County, Sarah E. Knott
Factors Impacting Indirect Potable Reuse Implementation In Orange County And Santa Clara County, Sarah E. Knott
Master's Theses
California is facing a water crisis that is impacting many of the state’s water sources such as groundwater basins, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the Colorado River Basin. Therefore, it is important to conserve water using water reuse technologies such as indirect potable reuse (IPR) that can reduce the severity of intense, long-term water scarcity and serve as a drought-proof water supply. Developing more IPR projects throughout California could mitigate the state’s water issues, however, implementing IPR has been a challenge for many California water agencies. Most of the research on challenges to IPR implementation discusses public opposition as the …
Tree Removal From An Encroached Coastal Grassland Restores Soil Bacterial Communities Before Fungal Communities, Ka Ki Law
Master's Theses
Woody species encroachment depletes historic grassland biodiversity and degrades ecosystem function around the world. In particular, the encroaching trees can shift soil properties and microbial communities, which play critical roles in plant health and global nutrient cycling. Little is known about how removing encroached trees affects soil ecosystems, however. Over the last century, Pinus radiata and Hesperocyparis macrocarpa (non-native to the area) both encroached into coastal prairies at Rancho Corral de Tierra in California, and selected trees were removed in 2017 and 2018 to restore grassland habitats. To examine the impacts of encroachment and removal on the soil ecosystem, I …
Where And Why Do Ecosystem-Based Adaption Projects Take Place In California?, Daniel K. Jacobson
Where And Why Do Ecosystem-Based Adaption Projects Take Place In California?, Daniel K. Jacobson
Master's Theses
California is experiencing the harmful impacts of climate change and will continue to do so for generations. As a result, municipalities have been forced to turn to adaptation solutions to help local residents adjust to inevitable impacts such as sea level rise, extreme heat, and extreme weather. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), the use of nature and ecosystem services to help human systems adapt to climate change impacts, is an increasingly popular, cost-effective, and multi-benefit adaptation strategy. While prior research has shown that other forms of adaptation, often referred to as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ strategies, disproportionately benefit whiter and wealthier populations, there …